The Forgotten Gravity Falls Theories 

Gravity Falls theorizing in the 2013 - 2015 era was insane, I still think it's hilarious to revisit those videos after knowing everything that happened in the show

To me the biggest twist in Gravity Falls is that Stan, the shady man who was constantly hinted to be untrustworthy, turned out to just be a good man who really loved his family, a better man than who this idealized author turned out to be. "Trust no one" was never one of the themes of Gravity Falls, but the main idea that the show would challenge.

the “Dipper wrote the journals from the future” theory is SO good, I wanna give it 10 flippydips even though it’s not true

My favorite theory that i never see anyone talking about is that Bill Cipher won. Totally and completely. Think about it, Mabels dream reality in her bubble is a perfectly fun and cool place full of her ideal versions of reality. Dippers ideal reality is if everyone survived, he got recognition from his family and friends, and he saved the day from a strange entity spoken about in the books. So Bill puts him in a bubble reality like Mabels, where he saves the world with the help of his friends and family.

When fans figure out a reveal, what most writers would do is desperately change their storylines last minute, which more often than not leads to awfully written twists. Alex Hirsch however? Decided to create a hoax, and it worked phenomenally. One of the many reasons I love this man

Anyone remember when there were theories about Wendy being a mermaid simply because her boots were always muddy and wet? I certainly remember.

One theory I heard a lot after the show ended, was that Dipper and Wendy were standing on the wrong parts of the circle. The theory states that Dipper should of been on the ice because part of his character is him always trying to act cool, and Wendy should of been on the pine tree because she’s the daughter of a lumberjack and very outdoorsy

the gideon being a vampire thing was one of my favorite theories because of his hands. in the show, adult characters like stan have 5 fingers, while child characters like dipper and mabel have 4. however, gideon had the full five fingers, which i guess supposedly symbolized a veiled age/maturity he secretly had. but it's worth noting that in the weirdmageddon trilogy, his character design switches and he has 4 four fingers ?!?!?!

The “Robbie is a Zombie” theory is pretty interesting in retrospect because of his parents’ occupations tying him to the dead. I think that theory’s worth more flipadips than Trinity gives it credit for.

Fun fact: there was a rough early concept for the season 2 premiere that involved Dipper and Mabel meeting a Dipper from the future who told them that Mabel died. The idea didn’t get much farther than a short blurb shared between Alex and a couple writers, but it’s funny how Dipper from the future almost did actually happen.

Mable could just be ambidextrous. Fun fact, people who are naturally left handed are more likely to become ambidextrous because most of the world is right handed and therefore favors those who are right handed.

You know I'm surprised that there's no "Dipper and/or Mabel are in a coma and everything that's happened in show is all in their head" Theory.

Bill's mind thing isn't a plot hole, the metal plate in Ford's head makes it so he's just straight up immune to posession unless he shakes on it. Everyone else can just get mind jacked

Honestly loving the theory that Soos knew about the portal, it freaked him out because it changed how he felt about Stan, and he got Blind Eye'd.

the birth mark actually did become important. the journal 3 book has a scene where ford is explaining gravity falls weirdness magnetism to dipper, saying that the two of them were both attracted to the valley themselves because of their 6 fingers and interstellar birthmark respectively.

In the first episode, Stan asks what Dipper is reading and Dipper throws the 3rd journal away and quickly grabs a magazine and says "oh just catching up on some...Gold chains for old men?"

The "Stan will die" foreshadowing is actually incredible because most of it, whether intended or not, tends to emphasize either stan's head, or him being on fire (or both). Which is incredible because he loses his mind in the finale, and defeats Bill with fire.

That "Turn Me Over - Now Buy Me" log souvenir is such an actual Mystery Shack joke I can't even. I need that.

7:55 Whoever made this theory apparently didn't know ambidextrous people exist. I'm choosing to believe that it isn't an animation error and Mabel is ambidextrous. Good for her!

So many theories sound ridiculous in hindsight, but when you heard them as the show came out, some of them felt so real

I´ll never forget the theory that said Gideon was hiding his defective clone in his wig/hair. That was a thing.

“Both Gideon and Bill are defeated by having weaknesses” ..yes.. that’s how weaknesses work..

As someone that lives in Romania, i can tell if someone is a vampire or not. Gideon is obviously a vampire

Robbie not remembering Dipper was foreshadowing for the Blind Eye Society, wasn't it?

Honestly, the whole Bill possessing Mabel's puppet thing would've been so cool since Bill ends up making "Mabel Land" in the season finale. Having him possess the puppet would show that he watches her dreams to know what she could possibly want in her dream land.

The reason soos said boring when stan was at the vending machine is because that is actually bill disguising himself as soos and since bill already knows about the portal he didn't care for it and he was looking for the code.

You missed the funniest piece of evidence for the Lebam theory - a random shot of Mabel turning around where she looks a little off for one frame. And apparently that's Lebam showing up for a second?? And then disappearing?? For some reason??

Ah yes, the “fanon” Tad Strange, also come to be known as Dot Matrix because of the theory being disproved, but the fans liked the character. Strange (no pun intended) how fandoms can create entirely new characters that aren’t even official, and people still love them.

For the Lebam thing, animation is a hectic process and honestly it's possible no one just noticed it. I mean, I certainly didn't notice it or think too hard about it.

I think the Robbie zombie theory would have been funny. Imagine the thematic tie into the first episode. Dippers so convinced his sisters boyfriend is a zombie and is disproven, so imagine if his crushes boyfriend WAS a zombie and he could never notice.

That edit of Mabel's mini-me puppet revealing itself to be Bill legitimately made me yell out in shock when I saw it because I have a VERY vivid false memory of that exact scenario happening. Logically I know it's not real, I have rewatched the show recently so I know for a fact that it is not real, but I can't shake this feeling that back when I was a kid watching this show for the first time I saw that clip. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has that false memory, to be honest, and now that I've seen the possibilities it makes me a bit sad that it wasn't real. Also, the fact that you just randomly had a spirit box with you to bust out and attempt to use to engage in a chat with Bill made me very happy for some reason lol 💗

The animation at 20:43 is so seamless and well done! I deeply wish this was apart of the episode now.

I can't get over how the lebam theory is actually kinda canon. In the comic book we get a story about Mabel falling into the multiverse and landing on a planet full of alternate mabels. She fights her evil self, it'd pretty cool.

On the lebam theory Mabel could literally just be ambidextrous 😭

My theorie is that Bill opened a portal just before his death. He teleported to another demension where he toke over a boy with a round head named Phineas. Now he has a triangle head.

1:02:22 I will say the circle being his weakness makes sense. The same power that can summon him can contain him with the right steps.

And now the new theory to continue the trend: King from the Owl House is the reincarnation of Bill Cipher after he'd been given one last chance to become a good person from the mythical Axolotyl

I remember seeing this theory that the amount of fingers a character had represented how innocent they were. Dipper and Mabel have four, because, well, they’re children, The author has six because he’s seen a lot of things, among other characters. Now, this seems plausible until you notice that bill cipher has three fingers, and I’m pretty sure he’s the least innocent character in the show.

I felt like the gold thing was twofold. First was obviously the AM radio joke. But with Stan both prepping for the apocalypse and telling Robbie to buy gold I felt like was a legitimate warning. Stan knew what he might unleash with the portal, so he started preparing for the worst and was warning people in the most believable way possible by telling them to buy gold. Then Bill saying buy gold to me was telling us that he knew Stan was close to opening the portal

Important detail about Tad Strange, Cecil voices a character by the same name in Welcome to Nightvale, a podcast with similar vibes. It was like finding out Robert Englund is in a new horror movie. So the theory had more credibility if you knew his other work.

The Lebam one is interesting because: 1) Cloning herself with the copy machine is totally something she would do to pull off hijinks 2) We actually get that "dimension Mabel" comic with Anti-Mabel. I swear he came up with that comic from this fan theory. (especially since it also has Mabel learn a lesson on being too self-absorbed, which some fans criticize her of)

I always thought that the shape-shifter's line about Ford not being himself for thirty years was him mistaking Stan for Ford. We never learned how long ago he escaped. He could have escaped and wandered the town and saw Stan from afar and thought he was Ford. Alternatively, Ford probably had security cameras rigged up so he could spy on the town from the bunker. Due to the older cameras and inability to zoom in on the details, the shape-shifter saw Stan, who was masquerading as Ford at the time, leading to him believe that Ford had changed demeanor entirely.

I remember a theory about Grunkle Stan being a werewolf (When Mabel breaks the window in one of the episodes, the moon is shown to be full, and shortly after this Stan is seen going into the basement, almost like he's hiding from his family presumably to protect them from his werewolf transformation), but then I realized something: Older kooky parental figure hiding the fact that they turn into a monster? That’s literally what Eda did in the Owl House! Did the Werewolf Stan theory inspire the idea of Eda?

Coming back to watch this after listening to some WTNV and the implication that Cecil had no idea what fandoms could be like has me cracking up.

Wait I thought the whole "he hasn't been himself for 30 years" was a joke about Stan actually being Stanley for the past few decades.

The Future Dipper theory actually holds some ground because in the episode Dreamscapers we can see a person with the “Pines’ Cowlick” in the background reading a book during Stan’s boxing flashback. Obviously we know that was Ford but I could see people theorizing it was a time traveling Dipper

Bro they didn’t do the zombie Robbie theory justice bc there was no mention of his parents being funeral home owners

"I didnt wanna embarrass myself in front of this lady in never gonna see again" your anxiety in this story is so relatable it hurts

Just looking at the chapters I remember Tad Strange and that everyone thought he would be Bill’s brother and was actually the goat cause his eyes were weird (not knowing that the goat’s eyes were lines because that’s how goat’s eyes look) I even remember that it was common for tad to be depicted as a rectangle.

Funny thing about the whole Robbie's reflection thing, they actually remembered to mirror his acne but forgot to mirror his shirt, so there was some attempt made

The 'Stan & McGucket have a connection' theory sort of makes sense. They're connected with the author, Stanford, and McGucket was the first to use the memory eraser and Stan was the last to use it

I always saw it as Bill can enter anybody’s dreams but needs to make a deal to fully take over them.

I thought the bill cipher puppet possession clip was just the actual clip from the show and i shit my pants when the puppet revealed itself to be cipher because still thought it was the actual episode. I really did not expect it, I'm genuinely paranoid now

I had this personal theory that Soos was a holy figure. Mainly because in one of the Mable shorts he gets a 12/10, then proceeds to call animals to him just by raising his hands, and during Weirdmageddon Soos mentions how he's been helping people during Weirdmageddon to the point where he has folk songs about him. In hindsight it doesn't make sense but hey it was fun.

I think the ‘Mandela effect’ from the end of the Sock Opera episode is because we know Bill can posses the puppets. So now the viewer becomes unsure of ALL puppets, because we know he isn’t fully defeated and could potentially be in any puppet. I also felt like the version you animated felt super familiar and close to what I remember the end of the episode being, but I think it’s just that we can see Mabel’s uncertainty and ‘fear’ over the puppet and so associate that with the potential for Bill to possess it, rather than her just being spooked by the ‘realistic puppet’ dream which is separate to Bill.

You know when you've been following MatPat's infinite FNAF theories, your brain starts to see links EVERYWHERE and as a fellow Gravity Falls fan, hints can be ANYWHERE so I can see why some people were ready to accept almost anything as plausible. Some of those headcanons are amazing! The Mabel clone one has me wheezing. Funny how we got an evil Mabel clone in the graphic novel 👁👁 20:07 EYO dear theorists, UNITE

There was one other piece of evidence for Robbie's clone that you didn't mention. In "The Love God", we see a progression of Robbie where he used to be a sweet little kid before becoming the emo teenager we know now. But in "Blendin's Game", when Dipper and Mabel go back in time, we see a young Robbie and he's basically miniature present day Robbie.

so funny thing when I was a kid I thought Pacifica was going to be the llama symbol after her redemption because I thought that llama fur was worth a lot and are known for being nice at moments but still spitting at people so I just thought it reminded me of Pacifica

I literally loved this so much. The one thing that was as magical as Gravity Falls is the fanbase, 100%. I've seen so many unique cosplays, AUs, etc. And this series has inspired me to start writing my own paranormal investigating story. It's super in-progress, but I hope to make something as mysterious and inspiring as Alex. Him and the fanbase have truly lit a spark inside each and every one of us

This unlocked so many memories,,, I remember 100% believing in a bunch of these

the funniest thing about the lebem theroy is that she already has a twin, to it wouldn't be her secret twin, it would be her and dippers secret triplet

I'm kinda surprised you didn't include the "Grunkle Stan is Bill Cypher" theory. It's one of my favorites and honestly has some things going for it.

If u remember vailskibum’s old lore videos, the fake slenderman screen cap, and that bill cipher orders a pizza video u deserve a veteran’s discount

23:21 GO BILL, YOUR BEATBOXXING IS INSANE!

I don't know if they thought through Bill's rules too much, but the way I always interpreted it was that on normal circumstances, Bill can enter someone's dreams as he pleases to dig through their minds, but a deal is required for bigger actions (i.e. possession), but since Ford had his metal plate installed, it served as protection like a buff to his mind's strength, now all Bill could do without a deal was give him some nightmares, and the rules Ford mentions are specific to him

Keyan Carlie, seeing you wear Leo’s Lab Rats suit with a dipper hat has cured my cancer, stopped my depression and helped me pay rent. Thank you for making this video. Haven’t finished it yet tho.

One thing you missed about the gompers theory, in the bill q&a someone asked about gompers and he said "I LIKE HIM BETTER THIS WAY!" To this day I don't think we have any clarification on what this is referring to, in the finale bill turns gompers giant but that's about it

1:05:02 “I, Bill Cipher, regret to inform you that I have every intent to cause you copious amounts of bodily harm at my next available opportunity.” 😂

My favorite theory in retrospect was my personal "well, I guess all this stuff about Stan having a twin brother kind of lines up, that kid hiding his face, the broken swing, etc, but I just don't think it'll play a big part in the story going forward or have anything to do with this author mystery I'm still so invested in."

51:55 Bill is limited to interacting with people in the Mindscape. However, Bill can't enter Ford's mind because of a metal plate in his skull. Also, in S2E15, Ford uses a machine to scramble Dipper's thoughts to outside entities, so that Bill can't interact with him in the Mindscape. After that, Ford Bill-proofed the Shack with unicorn hair. +Bill can possess people only with bilateral agreement, which is different.

MABEL’S SOCK PUPPET MOVED! I REMEMBER IT! I HAD NIGHTMARES ABOUT IT!!!!!

51:54 that could be the fact that stan is sleeping, ford says "you can haunt my dreams but can't enter my mind unless i shake your hand", bill can enter other's dreams or memories but can't posess anyone without a hand shake

About the "Mind Plothole" thing... The reason Bill couldn't get into Stanford's mind without a deal is because Ford had a protection. It's mentioned in Journal 3 that during his trip across the multiverse, Ford met "The Oracle", which he described as "The opposite of Bill", and that the Oracle performed a sort of surgery, putting a metal plate in his skull that would prevent Bill from entering without permission. It's even mentioned twice in the show itself: Once in "The Last Mabelcorn", where Dipper attempts to erase Ford's memory, thinking Bill was possessing him (which was actually a foreshadow to Bill being erased within Stan's mind), but he fails and Ford explains he has a metal plate, and even knocks on his skull, making a loud metal sound. And the second time is in Weirdmageddon, when Stan and Ford are trapped, and Ford says "If only i didn't have this metal plate, we could erase Bill while he's in my mind", which is why Stan and Ford had to switch places to defeat Bill So no, there isn't actually a plothole Edit: I also think the reason Bill left after Ford got knocked into the portal is because he knew Stan wasn't a genius like his brother, so he never actually expected Stan to be able to rebuild the portal

Mabel getting erased actually was a cancelled ending for the show were future dipper goes back in time to warn them about Mabel’s death but Disney cancelled it because it was too dark for kids So even though the theory was weird it almost happened

I loved the Gravity Falls, Rick and Morty, and Better Call Saul theories/predictions that people were making as the shows were airing. The theorizing was like, half the fun

5:26 plot twist there summoning bill cipher

10:20 I think I can shed a little light on this, this episode was animated by rough draft studios. A South Korean company based in Seoul. They are good at animation but they give you exactly what your storyboards say, so it probably said Lebam on the story board and they just animated it unchanged.

Robbie being a zombie is plausible, his parents could be helping him replace body parts to keep their boy 'alive'

“Both Gideon and Bill are defeated by having weaknesses”

52:00 I think Bill went into his mind because he was asleep and its been shown that Bill can go in peoples minds in there sleep.

The Stan's death thing reminds me of how everyone expected Hop Pop to die in the Amphibia finale, because of a lot of foreshadowing for his death. I guess Disney really likes pulling our legs by foreshadowing the death of the old caretaker character and never actually delivering.

When I was watching this show as a kid, I thought that Bill Cipher was the author and had turned himself into that form using one of his inventions. I had no evidence for it, but I was 13 and had no idea what I was thinking.

52:10 ford has a metal plate in his head and that's why bill can't enter his head without a deal, he reveals it to dipper after scaring him in the lab

I think the reason Bill needed to do the whole handshake thing was because of the metal plate that Ford had in his head.

Takes me back to my unhinged internet days cause I’ve seen all of these all the theories, the vailskibum channel, the Reddit posts from Alex, I remember distinctly there was a website about the hand witch or something and being very confused and scared by it. There was so many theories back then and it was such a time to be alive I miss this show and I miss all of the wacky shenanigans everyone got into trying to solve this show. Truly we will never have another show quite like this Edit: I ALSO REMEMBER there was a whole channel that was like a reference to stans fez or something lmk if you know what I’m talking about lmao

Being in a fandom at its peak is always an unforgettable experience, with constant speculation, excitement and creativity running rampant. This nonstop exchange of headcanons is arguably the best fandom experience.

Vailskibum GF Theories were awesome back in the day. Looking forward to when he uploaded a new vid and debunking/looking for evidence to support his theories are memories I will cherish forever.

35:46 I remember in that episode that this wasn’t soos tho because I remember it was bill shapeshifted to look like him like it showed later when Mabel leaded him to the code, which would explain why soos would say “boring” instead of wanting to know more about Stan the person he likes so much, he probably said “boring.” Because it was actually bill and bill knows LOTS OF THINGS so yea maybe that’s why he didn’t care much since he already knew because it was bill, this means that this was bill with Mabel after this too so after when Mabel leaded him to the code the real soos came in and said he saw a new Stan memory or something which means that soos was probably gone for a long time getting distracted by looking at Stan’s memories and it also means that this was bill and Mabel looking for the code the whole time 🫢

Alex Hirsch is such a genius that he built the DeLorean and traveled back in time to make Back to the Future just so he could foreshadow Mabel being erased from the timeline.

The thing about Mcgucket knowing about the shapeshifter & the bunker timeline can be explained. We can just assume Mcgucket and Ford made the bunker when they first started working together and abandoned it when they sealed the shapeshifter in, and Ford returned to it after Mcgucket left to gather his old research and stockpile. The shapeshifter would still see him paranoid, and Mcgucket would still know about it and the shapeshifter as stated in the Journals. It just means the bunker is older than we thought - Ford and Mcgucket could have made it as a back-up facility or a specialised facility for creatures like the shapeshifter, and it was only really used as a doomsday bunker after Mcgucket left.

20:47 Wait, what? I literally watched gravity falls 2 months ago again and I literally remember it happening. I watched the episode it just now and it did not happen wtf?! Am I going crazy?

15:35 "We got you, *GAY PEOPLE* "

So upset you left out all the WTNV bits of Tad Strange! Cecil Baldwin voiced the main character of the podcast "Welcome to Nightvale," a radio show narrating the bizarre but typical life of the town. I used to refer to it as a more intense version of Gravity Falls. The big joke was The Voice from the Seriously Weird podcast would be the only normal guy in Gravity Falls.

Another part of the Tad Strange thing was that Cecil Baldwin in the voice of Cecil Palmer in Welcome To Night Vale, a podcast in the form of a broadcast from a radio host who lives in and talks about the strange happenings in the fictional desert town of Night Vale. WTNV also heavily uses a purple color scene in its official art hence why the Tad Strange (as another demon) fan art gave him the purple color. Also, another WTNV reference in regards to the dialogue spoken by Tad Strange where he mentions liking bread could be a reference to the Night Vale episode called "Wheat and Wheat By-Products".

I’m glad someone made a video about all of these. I remember every single one of these… I had notebooks with all of the codes wrote down and had all of these theories wrote down and in middle school/ freshman year I would try and remember evidence for these theories and came up with my own. What a weird time

35:21 In that clip of the words being told there is some capital letters and when we put them all together it does say MY NAME IS BILL It is a good one lol

i miss this era even though i was like 9. hilarious how bill was just based on the Eye of Providence and yet the fandom repeatedly went “shapes. shapes with eyes” multiple times

I find it endlessly funny that people took "bury your gold for the apocalypse" to mean that the only thing that could defeat Bill was gold and not that gold will always be an acceptable currency no matter whether society functions or not.

I always thought the "You can't enter my mind unless I shake your hand and let you in" was a hold over from Ford's original deal with Bill. It's not a standard rule, just one for his contract with Ford before the metal plate was installed.

42:34 maybe it was a The Owl House easter egg? Since they were supposed to be in the same universe and Eda was an Owl Lady, flew on an owl “broom” and entered into a different world (her house also had an owl guardian) It does feel like a stretch tho, but maybe the concept of owls was already talked about back then in the studio