#marlstext

in the book of bill on the page where bill cipher describes how he figured out a way to manipulate her into giving him the rift, it says:

"Summers ending, my guy. Ending to death, bro. She'd do anything to make it last just a day longer. Probably something RASH and OUT OF CHARACTER, even!"

as we know, mabel cannot handle the fact that she will be growing up. that the relationship with her brother is going to change. she is scared of high school.

bill then says "That was it. She'd never make a deal with me. But she'd make a deal with someone she believed could give her more time. The dream was done. I had her."

bill then creates the dream bubble for mabel, he makes every one of her dreams come true, a place where time is still and she can be a kid forever. a lie so great that she wont have to face the truth.

in journal 3 on one of the pages bill is writing in code, we see this:

[ID: "I ask you, why must[should] time only move forward? Why must cause preceded effect. Who voted on the law of physics."]

my friend helped me break down what bill means by this:

why can we only move forward in the 4th dimension of time. why does something have to make another thing happen, why must cause come before the effect. why cant you move backwards, in the other direction, change the decisions youve made.

how interpret this is bill asking why he is not able to back and stop what he did to his family. he says to ford that he tried and failed to undo the past.** why did him wanting people to acknowledge his advantages instead of suppress him lead to the destruction of his whole dimension?

**(i just want to point out that this is probably the time where bill is the MOST open to anybody, or at least the first. to his henchmaniacs he had been telling them that he liberated his dimension until the oracle discovered the truth. here, to ford, he got so much closer to telling the truth. he SHOWS ford the last atoms of his world. he says that it was destroyed by a monster, not that it was liberated! destroyed)

back to when bill says "I had her" about mabel, he had her cause he knew exactly what needed to happen to trap mabel in a delusion because it is exactly what he is doing to himself. creating a fake narrative of what happened to him, that he was vindicated in killing his whole dimension. only ever doing exactly what he wants because confronting the truth is too scary for him(good fucking lord). the morality page offers good insight into this too.

i am actually just going to quote the whole page and highlight the important part. it speaks for itself really

"THE POINT IS it's[morality] is a very flexible concept! But parents and presidents don't want you to know that, because then you might start asking other questions, like who put them in charge, anyway? So they cram your brain full of guilt and regrets for transgressing the laws that they just made up(the laws that they made to prevent the destruction of their dimension, regardless of if the law + the wrongful medication of a fucking baby triangle did any good to actually prevent it). Wouldn't it be nice if you could put all that baggage down? Quell the shame that follows you everywhere for a lifetime of crimes? MAKE THE SCREAMS FINALLY STOP? The good news is you CAN silence that annoying voice, and here's how!

DENIAL

Works 100% of the time in every situation. What you you mean there are people who disagree? I can confidently say there aren't!

RATIONALIZATION

If you can do it, you can justify it! "Truth" is open-source code and anyone can edit it anytime! Want to be like me? List 3 "evil" things and then 3 "reasons why they're actually good." You'll be rationalizing like Bill in no time!

DETACHMENT

Did you know 100% of your human cells die and are replaced every 7 years? That means that anything you did 7 years ago wasn't even you-it was some dead loser! You can't be held accountable for what a dead person did! What? You think this is just another form of rationalization? I DENY THAT!

THE BILL CIPHER DECISION METHOD!

Working over the eons, the voices in my head teamed up and worked out a foolproof method for making any decision in any situation.

DO WHATEVER I WANT."

ooooooooooooooooooh boy.

he is fully admitting here that he is living in a completely different really in order to justify doing whatever he wants. he gives mabel the tools to deny, to rationalize, to detach herself from the reality of it all. that time has to move forward. and he thinks it will work because it worked on himself.

the most interesting thing that stuck out to me with thisisnotawebsitedotcom.com was this snippet on fords medical paper:

we hear about this kind of attitude towards disabilities often, maybe you have heard about autism being referred to as the "next evolutionary change in humans." we can especially see this when a person has a disability, but is also very capable in other fields. there are so many cases in the medical or educational field of a child having specific needs, yet they are ignored due to them being "gifted".

in a vacuum, ford's extra finger may not be considered a disability, the sixth finger allows him more movement and dexterity, and ontop of that, he's a genius. its just an extra finger right? its not like it hurts him. but it does hurt him. he is a child living with a limb difference, he is constantly ridiculed by his peers. they call him a freak and physically harass him.

this is where we dip into the social model of disability here. i know sometimes that can cause a little bit of discourse, but i think its interesting to note here! please if you have a limb difference feel free to add your perspective or correct me where you see fit. if you don't know what the social model of disability is, its the perspective that disabled people would not be as limited in their abilities if it wasn't for the oppressive society that they lived in(think people in wheelchairs could do more things if infrastructure had disabled people in mind). ford wouldn't be experiencing abliesm in his life if limb differences were something people were educated about. then we get to bill cipher. in theory, his ability to see the 3rd dimension is almost a super power. but in the book of bill its literally stated that it is illegal for anyone to mention the possibility of "up". he is forced into abusive medical practices where he is being drugged to suppress his ability. no one in his dimension has the same perspective of him, he is completely alone, and even worse, the people who should be protecting him like his parents and doctors are abusing him(not that his parents are evil for this obviously. they don't have a choice and i assume they want what is best for him, what were they supposed to do? yet it still had this horrible impact on bill).

this social model can be applied to bill cipher. he has this ability that in a vacuum would be considered amazing, but he lives in a society(rip) that oppresses this. they have to, because bill trying to let his dimension see the stars killed every last person. which makes me think that whoever was in power here probably knew this would happen. its unsure if bill cipher knew the true extent of his damage would be, but i am of the belief that he didn't know how bad it would really be.

the outcome of this is the funniest screenshot i have

UGHHHHHHHHHH I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED!!! (secretly i was waiting for someone to get me started)

i will point out my biggest grievances with that whole season that will then inform the changes that i would make. ill also be real and say while i think these changes wouldve made the season better, im one of the few that really really likes the season and the series finale still! mostly because i have been able to use the ending to fuel my own evil post-canon story haha. 1. like i said, i wish we saw more conflict between carmen and player when carmen was told that shadowsan killed her father, and on top of that, wish we got to see more bonding between shadowsan and player. 2. i do not think chase and julia were used to their fullest that season after the The Egyptian Decryption Caper. i fucking love their interactions and dynamic with the red team and carmen leading up to this episode and i feel like they couldve been used much better in the final arc.

so those are my issues with the season at large, here is how i would fix the 6 month gap (and also what you should expect to have happened in my canon of the post-canon comic i got going on)

carmen did not get enough time to be evil. pretty much everyone points that out so its not really revolutionary. i fucking LOVE evil carmen. i feel they do an amazing job at portraying just how intimidating and cruel she is when her compassion and ability to relate/empathize with others is forcibly taken away. the aspect of this i love the most is how the other vile operatives respond to her new founded cold-blooded nature. they are visibly uncomfortable because they know it is not her, despite it being exactly what they wanted out of her. its also so unlike her to just not get along with anybody. i wish her abrasiveness was shown more via more interactions with the other vile operatives, as well as just showing the other capers that she was involved in. ALSO HELLO???? MISSING A WHOLE OPPORTUNITY TO MIRROR HER AND HER FATHER??? it does show a bit of her just going off on her own and stealing things that are not apart of the mission, but why just one example? also this wouldve been an amazing opportunity to have an alternative version of the introduction.... and EVIL version if you will

2. we did not get enough time for graham to make the decision to side with acme. this conflict is amazing, the show starts with him begging carmen to come back to vile, and then his mind is wiped. once he gains his memory back, he begs carmen to either stop trying to take down vile if she refuses to come back. now, he has what he wants, carmen is back with vile. except it isnt what he wants, he cares about her and knows whoever this is isnt her. also if we had more time to mirror when grahams mind was wiped and despite the current version carmen interactive with is her idealized version of him, its not him. oughhhhhh mental illness. they are the brother/sister duo ever

3. FUCKING CHASE AND JULIA!!!! oh my lord, there was so much good conflict with julia, chase and acme leading up to this point, and i feel all of it was thrown out the window. we seriously arent going to expand on the fact that chase is now ON the side of carmen? chases 4 fucking season arc is all about him finally waking the fuck up and listening to julia for once! they just dont question carmen's new behavior? if i were in the writers room, julia and chase wouldve come up with a plan to figure out what is actually going on without acme's knowledge. i have an image in my mind of them being in the car together and deciding to defect. specifically, i feel like they shouldve teamed up with red team. it wouldve been so cool to see them work together, and then would give more context as to why ivy and zack join acme at the end of the season.