This article contains spoilers!
Gravity Falls is a science-fiction TV show that contains 2 seasons which makes 41 twenty-minute-long episodes in total. This show has a special place in my heart and it is definitely in my top 5 favorite TV shows/movies list. Honestly, watching Gravity Falls as a kid really improved my imagination. The details, the creativity of each episode, interesting and relatable characters, the charming sense of humor, the relationship between adults and teens/kids, and many more things are the reasons I like this show and because of these, the show became very popular. The series has 13 wins and 36 nominations in various categories such as two Emmy Awards, three Annie Awards, one BAFTA Children’s Award, etc.
I highly suggest you watch the show if you haven’t already, but I’ll shortly summarize it:
The twin siblings Dipper and Mabel Pines are sent to Gravity Falls, a small town in Oregon, to stay with their great-uncle for the summer vacation. Their uncle’s name is Stan and he runs a small gift shop named Mystery Shack. Dipper is a twelve-year-old boy who loves to solve mysteries, so when he finds a journal about paranormal creatures and unsolved mysteries in Gravity Falls, he gets super excited. On the other hand, Mabel is crazy about boys. She is also very extroverted, she can become pen pals with a pizza delivery man in less than one minute. Dipper and Mabel always support each other and you can feel their strong bond throughout the show. There is also Bill Cipher, the main villain. Bill is a triangle-shaped, one-eyed, yellow demon. Let’s just say he loves making deals and he is very good at manipulating people. He destroyed his home universe, therefore he tries to trick people and use them as puppets to conquer our universe.
Anyway, The first season is about Dipper and Mabel’s adventures. However, in the final episode of it, we see that Uncle Stan also hides things from us. Later in the second season, we learn that Uncle Stan has a twin brother named Stanford who accidentally got stuck in a portal for 30 years.
Of course, the story doesn’t end here, but I’ll stop here since this is the basic information you need for this blog. Also, I skipped many interesting and fun parts to make this summary as short as possible, therefore I am suggesting you again to watch the TV show, it is absolutely worth the watch.
In the series, they tell us almost nothing about what’s in that portal and how Stanford spent his 30 years there. But we know that Stanford got all his 3 journals back, and we also know that he started writing about all the time he spent in the portal. After sixth months after the final episode, Alex Hirsch, who is the scriptwriter, director, voice actor, and designer of many characters of the show, decided to publish the exact same journal that Dipper found, which is Journal 3. And guess what? Journal 3 contains the things Stanford wrote about the portal! So that’s how the fans learned more about the portal. If you are a huge fan of the show you should definitely consider buying it, because the book contains many things that we don’t see on the show.
Recently I got the book so today I will be telling you everything about the dimensions inside the portal.
The Nightmare Realm
First of all, the portal opens to the nightmare realm which is the realm between all the dimensions, it is also where Bill Cipher and his other friends, also known as “Henchmaniacs”, live. This realm connects to all realms. There is no gravity in this realm. There are also huge asteroids and surprisingly, other creatures from different realms got stuck in that realm
just like Stanford. Stanford preferred to call them “the Refugees”. They are all afraid of Bill and they communicate with a gadget called a “dimensional translator”.
Now it’s time for the dimensions, but unfortunately, Stanford only tells us about the most interesting ones. So we will never know all of them because that would take years for him to explain.
M Dimension
Well, everything in this realm is “M” shaped. When I say everything, I mean it. Even a vacuum cleaner is designed like an "M". Their alphabet only contains “M”. Humans, animals, structures, anything you can think of is shaped like “M”.
To Do-Over Dimension
To me, this dimension is the weirdest. Stanford also calls it “Go Insane Because Nothing Gets Done Dimension” which is so true. In this dimension, time might move backward at random times. There are “timelineologists” who try to guess when the time will move backwards but I don’t think they ever get the answer right. The problem in this dimension is that when time moves backward, your memories don’t. So you remember everything you do but you have to do it again. Imagine studying so hard and becoming a rich and successful person, and then BOOM! Time goes back and now you must study again. Honestly, I would be depressed and start believing life is meaningless.
Lottocron Nine (the Gambling Dimension)
In this dimension, gambling is not only legal but also mandatory. People here do everything with luck. They choose their partners by throwing the ring in the air and the babies there learn to roll dice before learning how to walk. Actually, Stanley would love this place.
The Two-Dimensional Dimension
I actually don’t know how to explain this dimension. Stanford thinks that this dimension is similar to Bill’s home dimension that he destroyed. They don’t have the term “above” here. A three-dimensional creature can’t tell the difference between the objects in this realm, 3D eyes are useless. Also, the creatures there decided that Stanford was an “irregular” shape, therefore they attacked him.
Parallel Earth Dimensions
According to Stanford, most of the dimensions are “Parallel Earths”, which are very similar to Earth but there are small differences. There are dimensions where dinosaurs are still alive or where dolphins took over as the dominant species. In some of them, tennis balls chase the dogs and in one of them, everyone is a baby.
The “Better” World
There is a parallel Earth dimension where Stanford doesn’t get pushed into the portal by Stanley. Stanley does what Ford wants and hides the first journal. Therefore Stanford is really famous and Gravity Falls has become the International Institute of Oddology. But unfortunately, if you see yourself in a parallel Earth dimension, both you and the dimension disappear. Stanford really wanted to stay there but if he saw himself there it would be the end of that “perfect” dimension, so he left. However, before leaving, he meets with the Fiddleford of that dimension and Fiddleford gives him the gun that we see in the 20th episode of the second season (the details are in the third journal).
These are all the dimensions we know about, if you want to learn more about Gravity Falls and its mysteries, you should definitely buy Journal 3.
Lastly, I want to thank my dear friend Eylül Gözsoy for gifting me this journal.
Sources:
Journal 3
Photo Links:
Other photos you see in this article are from “Journal 3”.