Alright kids tape your eyeballs open and light something on fire because we're about to get to the bottom of where the Author went and just who exactly Bill Cipher is, with a theory that’s bound you make your socks instantly combust!
This is a theory and is meant to be taken with a grain of salt over both shoulders. I need to get it out before the hiatus ended.
So lets get started!
Let’s just pause for a moment to process just how intriguing this concept is. The Author actively communicated through Search For The Blind Eye over more than 2 years ago. As other posts have pointed out, he appears to have had arguments with Bill Cipher. Before we can continue here is an explanation of the ten dimensions, even though we will only be using it to emphasize the first four.
Let’s establish that Bill Cipher may exist in the fourth dimension. For all intent and purposes of this point in time he will.
If we were to step foot into Gravity Falls, Oregon, we could say that the reality of the mindscape could be one dimension slightly higher than ours. Or perhaps it could be an ever-changing mash up of multiple dimensions. It’s interesting to note that whenever this space appears it is perceived because the viewers have actually fallen asleep. It seems that a fourth dimensional being like Bill Cipher or his space cannot be perceived any other way, explaining his dream demon title. The mindscape may be the a dimension higher than the third dimension, or rather make up a section of it as part of the one big whole (out of all 10 theoretical dimensions, supported by the superstring theory).
We've noticed it can give certain powers depending on the situation. In Sock Opera Dipper (season 2) seemed to only be able to possess sock puppets and it was based in Gravity Falls. In Dreamscapers (season 1 part 1) he was able to conjure anything in Stan’s mind from will, as it was based in the mind and thus imagination.
Now the author one way or another got sucked into the portal, possibly into another dimension, universe or perhaps a mashed up place in-between. The author has been communicating through Search For The Blind Eye, which is an internet website and is technically a 2D interactive projected document programmed by 3D being(s) and is available on the world wide web. Your computer (phone/tablet/etc) would the third dimensional medium that allows this interaction.
The Author may exist in the mindscape, as evidence suggests. The rubix cube, hand print and possibly other instances serve as evidence.
Thus internet acts like a bridge for the 2D and 3D dimensions. Various devices around the world can play cartoons like Gravity Falls, but the internet can host and access them again and again without a set airing date. Knowing this, can’t one hypothesize that the author possibly got trapped within a place on the same wavelengths as the internet?
We're keeping in mind here that separate from body-stolen Dipper and Bill Cipher, the author in the mindscape has a fully functional flesh and blood body to haul around, while Bill Cipher classifies himself as a being of pure energy and exists in a state of quantum uncertainty, “everything [he is he is] also not”. Energy. We’re keeping in mind electricity is one of the many forms of energy.
Now this might seem crazy. “But you said Bill exists in the fourth dimension. Where did that come from and why did you pull this out of no where?” There’s the key, my friend. Bill Cipher does exist in the fourth dimension. But we exist in the third dimension and the reality of Gravity Falls is actually in the second dimension. That’s right folks, their fourth dimension is our third. This is a pretty important point that we’ll come back to later.
The rules of existence on the internet are so much different from the sustaining requirements of both the 3D and 2D dimensions. Half of the second dimension is loosely modeled after own third dimension, if you consider it is heavily dominated by cartoons, art and patterns that may not obey laws of gravity/physics and may follow something totally different all together. You can argue time runs differently between the three, as it runs based on your third dimensional time of viewing it. (And it would be plotted in the forth). You don't need to eat or sleep, only requiring electricity, people to manage it and view it. Following a certain time relativity theory you could even argue that time for an existence on the internet would run slower with the right conditions. The author could be able to watch the entire series go down and theoretically skip points in time itself. On that wavelength it doesn't even have to be the internet itself but also it's interactive mediums, such as a computer.
You could also argue the author even popped directly into our third dimension and that returning would be normal since the third dimension cannot be perceived by the second, like we cannot perceive the fourth (4D). The author would not have any reason to be arguing with Bill unless the internet was his only bridge back to his 2D world. But how would he have gotten back and how would he have known where to be? He slipped out of a portal and appeared to have walked back directly through one as well. The town of Gravity Falls is fictional, so the location site would have to be completely different in our 3D world. Being sent directly into our 3D dimension is an option all the same but this and rushed the six fingered hand print to the portal is my evidence that this option is highly unlikely.
But there is someone who exists in the third dimension we would like to talk about. Bill Cipher. Now how exactly does this work for Bill and not for the Author? He is a “being a pure energy with no weakness” and exists in a state of quantum uncertainty as stated above, and is ultimately free of a second dimensional body. In the 2D reality of Gravity Falls Bill is a being that transcends a dimension. Just how crazy is the power that comes with that! Let’s compare our prime two examples.
Dipper Pines. Our Sock Opera instance is in season 2, while Dreamscapers is in season 1. It’s important to notice the powers that Dipper and crew actualize in Stan’s mindscape does not in fact transfer over to the general mindscape. This is due to the mind being abstract and flooded with imagination. The most he can actually do is “possess” vessels and speak through them in the general mindscape, which is interesting enough alone. We’re not actually sure if Bill can or would think to do the same, but he has shown to materialize with the same ability and potential as the crew in the general mindscape. Provided with limitations, such as having to put witnesses to sleep to even be visible and make deals with loopholes. Perhaps this was because Dipper wasn’t rooted into anyones mind or dreams while Bill can do this in many ways.
Alex Hirsch. What does he have to do with this? Being the founder of Gravity Falls concept and being in the position of power that he’s in now, he basically controls the GF universe with limitations. He works with various coworkers and makes deals with disney when it comes to various matters. He even makes awesome jokes and is a pretty cool guy that supports fan interpretation. Now, this wouldn’t strange at all if it weren’t for instances like this. There are multiple instances on twitter when his account has gotten rather weird. Isn’t it funny how Bill appears to have possessed Alex multiple times? (I unfortunately cannot locate the twitter proof).
Now how on earth does Bill Cipher manage to do that? “I thought Bill Cipher was a third dimensional being made of pure energy with no weakness and that was a basis for his powers in GF?” This is true and although Alex Hirsch is a third dimensional being, we also come with flaws as we are human. But what if Bill was an age old concept embraced and worshipped by various people around the world? Meaning that he would possibly have to be higher than the third dimension and uses Alex Hirsch as a 3D vessel.
“We didn’t know for sure if we were going to put Bill in the show originally. He was always this character that I had in my mind, and I originally envisioned him as less inherently integral to the story... When we finally figured out the real, full scope of the mythology, we realized that this character gave us everything we wanted in terms of making the story grander and crazier and scarier.” (x)
So now that we know that Bill Cipher possesses Alex Hirsch and that the Author was trapped in the internet, we can review the fact that they were having an argument. Plenty of other theories pick up from there. What is Bill Cipher exactly? That’s a question for another day, as we’ve just solved our original two.
Think this theory is a pitch and reach? Outrageously over the top? Think you can explain it better? Hash it out in the tags and reblogs. This is just one of many possibilities and probably isn’t canon. Who knows. But hey, writing it was fun (and exhausting).