Dipper's Flaws

In "Northwest Mansion Mystery" Dipper saw Mabel turned into wood (and thus dead) and burst out into the room and challenged the lumberghost unprepared and was turned into wood (killed). Fortunately Pacifica pacified the lumberghost by letting the townspeople into the party and everybody was brought back to life.

So Dipper was one of the very, very, very few people who made such a dangerous mistake and lived to think about it and maybe learn a lesson from it.

But on August 24, 2012, in "Dipper and Mabel vs the Future" Dipper was unable to control his emotions and calm down when instructed to do so by Ford and as a result Ford was captured and Dipper had to rescue him. It would have been good for Dipper if Ford had not congratulated Dipper for impulsively acting like a movie action hero but instead had blamed him for not being able to calm himself and so avoid any trouble.

Then maybe Dipper would not have congratulated himself so much for his thoughtless springing into action but would have worried about his ability to control himself and maybe would have resolved to do better in the future.

Hours later that day in "Weirdmageddon Part 1" Dipper saw Grunkle Ford turned into a brass back scratcher (and thus killed) by Bill Cipher and immediately sprang out of hiding and denounced Bill. And then flipped desperately though the pages of the journals looking for some way to fight Bill before trying to punch Bill in the eye.

Dipper's survival after such recklessness seems to be more due to plot armor than any realistic probabilities.