>>3211890For one thing, Dipper actually has a sort of multidimensional personality. He's highly intelligent, definitely a nerd, but it's not portrayed as overtly or obnoxiously as it usually is in cartoons. That bespectacled dweeb with the nasal "according to my calculations" nonsense - that's not Dipper. It's part of his character, yes, but not an all-consuming aspect of it.
His obsessive thirst for mystery isn't overwhelming as a character trait since it's balanced by his being a bit of a white bread traditionalist, contrasting with Mabel and her possible ADHD. For a protagonist of a hyperactive supernatural fantasy cartoon mystery, he has an oddly reserved personality. That internal contrast in him, the macabre and the mundane, is rounded out by the little hint of robust caramel darkness in his personality which added so much yet never really went anywhere.
Enter Reverse!Dipper - the non-canon fulfillment of that smoky hint of dark spice in Dipper's personality, gone amok.
I think that's the real appeal of Reverse!Dipper. There's something genuinely dark in Dipper's personality, but in the hands of Disney, it remained untapped, unused. Reverse!Dipper allows the fandom to project everything Dipper could've been, every jagged, twisted fantasy of the monster this sweet boy could've become had things gone in a different direction, into something tangible, something real.
