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irregular

just read flatland and i am 10x less normal about bill cipher now. it's so interesting to think about passages of this book with him in mind

(and also as its own book it's very interesting to read as an examination of dimensions and as a satire of victorian society, i very much enjoyed it)

but one of the first things that i noticed when my friend was looking at website codes at the same time i was reading the first half of the book was:

the code for bill cipher's mugshots is irregular. having read flatland this being the code seems like a reference to how shapes with irregular sides are labelled as criminals and morality is very heavily judged on whether your angles are equal or not. the term REALLY sticks out to me having read the book, given it carries. a lot of weight there.

(trust me, there were many excerpts i could have chosen from. even the narrator is very biased against irregular shapes. like. from the way it's used it pretty much reads as a flatland slur)

yeah. i don't know if the unfair link between morality and irregularity existed in euclydia, but with this as a code? it's not impossible. euclydia is not identical to flatland from what we know, but there are still places where they match other than just the base concept.

bill being implied equilateral by the axolotl makes this interesting. while he could definitely be labelled irregular in other ways (his eye), being equilateral would mean he doesn't fit the main flatland definition. but that doesn't mean they wouldn't use it as an insult anyway.

his exact angles could have shifted, which is possible in flatland (and he shapeshifts to forms that look far less equilateral in the show, so i don't think he's really that confined in shape at least currently), but i think him being equilateral yet being the one to destroy euclydia could also be interesting as a subversion of the flatland bias. though him being irregular by a small amount would also align with themes he already has. i think both could work.

but, if irregularity IS as heavily punished in euclydia as it is in flatland, one of his parents being named scalene (a term that is notably quite absent from the book! instead they use phrases like "irregular isosceles", from what i could see. i love when things are made significant by omission), is very interesting as well, if it's more than just a name.

given scalene seems? to be able to lead what seems a fairly normal life from the bare snippets we have? i think if there is discrimination of this nature in euclydia, it could be less extreme, and may be one of the cases where the worlds are different.

but irregular being used in relation to bill as a criminal makes it seem like something in his universe, at least. or maybe it got picked up from a different 2d world and applied to bill later?

at the very least, it adds a layer to his aversion to answering this question in the ama:

TL;DR: the website code "irregular" leading to the color version of the mugshots is likely a reference to flatland connecting it with criminality. which is interesting if that means being irregular is a notable thing in euclydia as well, but even if it's not, it's an interesting reference!

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okay this is one of those things that i imagine people who read journal 3 a while ago already knew but i'm just reading it now so.

static when a dimension is destroyed that's fun huh :] when the cause is a dimensional rule being broken :] i wonder if the same kind of rule would apply to whatever bill did trying to show a 3d reality to a 2d world :]

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do you ever think about how in the same book we learn about bill's very implied medical trauma and his relationship around being seen as insane. we also learn he's been forcibly put in a therapy dimension.

because i've been thinking about it so much

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another venetian blinds connection

*clawing at my red string board* okay. so the book of bill i'm working with doesn't have a good screenshot of this page so i also included the transcribed version's text. but looking more at this already very fascinating passage in the book i went to go check out the song mentioned.

going to the song good vibrations on youtube, i found the music video actually has several scenes where venetian blinds are used.

for context, one of bill's listed phobias (at least out of the ones considered "odd") is venetian blinds. i've seen different theories on why which i won't be going into here, given this doesn't necessarily contradict or confirm any!

but this connection could mean a few things:

a: this song was chosen to reference that phobia in the music video on purpose as an easter egg in the book.

b: the actual phobia is connected to this somehow, perhaps to do with bringing whatever place these souls are trapped to the surface of bill's mind through association. whether or not he's actually playing the video part for his mind prisoners, i still feel like he'd know it, and a song on an endless loop could definitely cause an association.

given the comments of him being haunted and still hearing screams etc (which is something that could just be trauma induced, but could also be related to/exacerbated by whatever this soul situation is), i feel like these souls (whether they include euclydian ones or not) aren't something pleasant for him to think about.

this would also connect it to the tv static phobia, another phobia with many possible causes and connections, but at least one connected to hearing screams in relation to it:

(cipher decodes to: HE NEVER SLEEPS HE NEVER DREAMS BUT SOMEHOW STILL HE HEARS THEIR SCREAMS)

though that's all going into thoughts other posts have covered with the tv static lines. i just think with this video it's possible that the venetian blinds fear is connected in the same way.

and there could definitely still be another cause for the phobia alongside it. a multifaceted terror! something subconscious could be happening here for him to even choose a song that includes venetian blinds in the video at all.

c: it means nothing and i'm losing my mind. but i think this is a very fun connection even if it's not intended!

TL;DR: there's venetian blinds in the music video for the song that plays on repeat somewhere within bill and i think that's very interesting.

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someone might have presented this idea already, i'm definitely not early to the party, but hey given the language of euclydia would have to be readable in 2d, it couldn't be bill's normal cipher, at least, not unless it's some weird way of being 2d somehow.

so. one of the things we know euclydia has is colour, and for a thing that could be written to be readable as a line in only two dimensions.. the colour substitution cipher could be a possibility, right?

other than the fact that it's the only cipher that fits the bill so far (deliberate pun) (sorry) from what i've seen it was introduced in the book of bill, which is where we're learning a bunch of other stuff about bill's home dimension

though i will note, all pictures we've seen of euclydia so far don't seem to follow 2d rules with the way characters are posed. so it may mean it's not 2d in the sense we imagine. but also worth noting is that a lot of it might be through bill's eyes, who Could see in 3d, which may account for the discrepancy.

or it could be like. localised for us, in a weird sense. or i'm thinking about the implications too much, but hey, that's where the fun is, right?

there's also the note that it looks like a glitch effect, which with the tv static themes and everything might even be another connection between the colour code and euclydia.

TL;DR the color code was:

introduced in the book of bill

might fit the rules of a 2d writing system (if that applies here)

does encode things from bill's home dimension, but i don't believe that is unique to this code?

looks like a glitch effect

so my theory is that it's a candidate for the writing system of euclydia.

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normal addition to the mandibles theory and the idea that he somehow is still connected to the souls of euclydia: the specific wording here

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*staring at a board with like all of the connected strings and pictures and everything* how the fuck would shoelaces work in a 2 dimensional world

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keep seeing more and more of the colour ciphers be euclydia related. everyone look at my post i'm RIGHT,,,, it's their writing script,,,,,,,

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oh yeah and i forgot to mention the euclydian dept of vision supervision, as i believe it translates to (correct me if i'm wrong), being a euclydian department, and being written out in colour code on the sign. it definitely feels like a part of the sign rather than fully just a way of hiding the name.

someone might have presented this idea already, i'm definitely not early to the party, but hey given the language of euclydia would have to be readable in 2d, it couldn't be bill's normal cipher, at least, not unless it's some weird way of being 2d somehow.

so. one of the things we know euclydia has is colour, and for a thing that could be written to be readable as a line in only two dimensions.. the colour substitution cipher could be a possibility, right?

other than the fact that it's the only cipher that fits the bill so far (deliberate pun) (sorry) from what i've seen it was introduced in the book of bill, which is where we're learning a bunch of other stuff about bill's home dimension

though i will note, all pictures we've seen of euclydia so far don't seem to follow 2d rules with the way characters are posed. so it may mean it's not 2d in the sense we imagine. but also worth noting is that a lot of it might be through bill's eyes, who Could see in 3d, which may account for the discrepancy.

or it could be like. localised for us, in a weird sense. or i'm thinking about the implications too much, but hey, that's where the fun is, right?

there's also the note that it looks like a glitch effect, which with the tv static themes and everything might even be another connection between the colour code and euclydia.

TL;DR the color code was:

introduced in the book of bill

might fit the rules of a 2d writing system (if that applies here)

does encode things from bill's home dimension, but i don't believe that is unique to this code?

looks like a glitch effect

so my theory is that it's a candidate for the writing system of euclydia.