Hello and welcome to the biggest analysis you'll ever read on a triangle.
This is the published version of my analysis on Bill Cipher's past from Gravity Falls. It is over 90 pages long in Google docs and took two years to complete.
In this post, I...
It's best to start by explaining what Flatland is. Expand your minds for a moment and allow yourself to think beyond. Understanding the concept of where Bill originates from takes some creativity to imagine. I'll try my very best to explain though.
It's good to note that Flatland is not actually what the 2nd dimension is called. It's simply just known as the 2nd Dimension to those who live there. As mentioned in the first chapter by A Square, the book's protagonist, he references it as Flatland to make clear to us the nature of the 2nd dimension. I don't believe there's a better way to describe the nature of Flatland than how A Square says it;
"Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows - only hard and with luminous edges - and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen" (A square).
Starting to get an idea of why it's referred to as Flatland? If you need a more direct example of something common in our world, I have one. Imagine the blueprints of a house. Above you can see everything is all shapes or lines. It's 2D. Now imagine if we draw shapes in those blueprints and they can move freely about. They can only go backward, forwards, upward, and downwards, but not rising upward or downward. It would be like dragging a shape with a stylus on a computer or tablet. That's how they'd move.
It's difficult for us three-dimensional humans to imagine what it's like to live in a world that's 2D. As well as truly understanding how dull this world would be. Citizens of Flatland don't see anything but straight lines. And I know what you're thinking, now I'm just talking nonsense. But let's do an experiment you can do at home or wherever you are right now.
Find any kind of coin. Place that coin on top of a table and look down on it. From above you see it's a circle. Now try changing your perspective. Go to the coins level and look at it eye to eye. The coin doesn't look like a circle now, does it? It just looks completely like a straight line. This is how inhabitants of Flatland see each other. The farther away the shape is, the smaller the line gets. The closer it is to you the bigger the line gets. This is how they see distance. It's how they see everything.
One would think since you can't see the shape, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between shapes side by side. Feel the coins side from that same level you looked at it from. You can still tell it's a circle, right? This is how they recognize each other. By the special ability to feel.
And don't worry, for those who can't find a coin, I have a wonderful illustration from the book to help you.
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- Bill is from the 2nd dimension, which is also known as Flatland.
