Bill Cipher: ONE Fatal Mistake

it's been over four years since mabel and dipper took that one-way bus trip out of gravity falls bringing an end to the most memorable summer of their childhood and two of the greatest seasons of animation ever seen on television from its storytelling to its visuals gravity falls set the benchmark for what followed and it did everything it did in just 40 episodes the first season of wander over yonder alone had 40 episodes and the first season of steven universe had 53 and both of these are multi-season shows gravity falls made less is more into a true art form and it's sadly one of the few parts of the show that hasn't been imitated since a particular point of praise is the finale the weirdmageddon trilogy it's not only rare that a show decides to go out on a high note and on its own terms like this especially in an era that feels pathologically afraid of endings it's even more impressive that this ending wraps up everything two generations of pine twins reconcile every major character gets a moment to shine and even though it's a difficult parting it feels like we got to say a proper goodbye to the world of gravity falls it's an ending that leaves nothing unsaid and the glue that holds it all together is the demonic triangle trying to tear everyone and everything apart bill cipher this fan favorite freak has become one of the biggest parts of gravity falls legacy and for good reason he's got an iconic design a fun personality and he manages to believably switch between hilarious and threatening on a dime but today i'm here to argue that this memebel monster is more than just fodder for a myriad of matpat imposters bill cipher is actually the perfect antagonist for gravity falls because every single one of his appearances and the choices that lead to them advances the themes and ideas of the show and in the end his one fatal mistake brings it all to a perfect conclusion structurally thematically and emotionally but hey people have always told me conclusions work best at the end of the video so why don't we start at the beginning bill cipher first appears in the season 1 episode dreamscaperers really when the main antagonist of that season gideon gleeful summons him to steal the code to grunkle stan safe from the inside of his mind aside from some of his sinister prophecies and the recurring triangle motifs in the intro and backgrounds of the show he seems like one of the many runoff villains of the show's more episodic entries but little by little as the central mystery of the author is unraveled and bill seems to turn up again and again in episodes like sock opera and the last mabelcorn he goes from gag villain to well-earned central threat of the show bill's backstory is as sparing as his appearance but you do get the gist in weirdmageddon itself we know bill being a nightmare out of your worst geometry homework is native to the second dimension but a flat life wasn't enough for bill so he destroyed his dimension and moved into the mindscape in the trillions of years since bill has been trying to break into the third dimension and wreak havoc on our reality with his chaotic tom seeing as bill's idea of fun is making nightmares real turning people to stone and endangering the fabric of all reality him getting to take his weirdmageddon global provides some dire stakes for our protagonists and i should know what's dire it's in my name but what makes bill a great antagonist is his close relationship with every member of the pine family it's often suggested in fan analysis that stan and ford are dark mirrors of mabel and dipper if the two continued to grow apart into adulthood dipper and ford are both intelligent but aloof and bill uses both of them to get what he wants by playing to their sense of self-importance on the other hand stan and mabel are more emotional and deeply value their connection to their sibling or did before ford's portal sort of put a multiverse of a wedge between him and stan but either way the desire to keep this connection and find this place of emotional safety is a vulnerability that bill leverages time and time again to further his plans he's keenly attuned to all the weaknesses and flaws of our main characters and he provides a unique challenge to each one of them on that basis in other words bill cipher forces character development because he uses the protagonist's greatest flaws against them they're forced to overcome these flaws in order to defeat him but what if these weren't flaws plural what if bill's greatest advantage all came down to the fact that he embodies a single flaw that affects all four of the main characters in gravity falls and what if that flaw was ego not ego in the psychoanalytical sense but ego in the sense of arrogance self-interest selfishness and pride not only could this accurately describe a mega-maniacal villain like bill it's this flaw that his presence in the narrative represents in others and most importantly it's this flaw that posed the greatest danger of tearing a rift between both sets of twins and if the twins get torn apart the universe will follow suit what's really at stake in the story of gravity falls is whether dipper mabel stan and ford can conquer their ego before bill conquers them it's easy to chart bill's rise to power across the timeline of gravity falls and that's because at each stage of bill's plans a character is succumbing to ego let's start at the backstory with one of the key moments that drove stan and ford apart the science fair and the episode a tale of two stands we find out that the duo were about as close as dipper and mabel were in childhood with a very similar dynamic and much like dipper and mabel fear stan and ford were beginning to grow apart in their teenage years as ford's intellectual pursuits put him at risk of outgrowing stan and that is why when it seems that ford is going to leave him and pursue his academic dreams at west coast tech stan is devastated not only will this separate him from his best friend it highlights all of his own insecurities about being the family screw-up which is why in a state of frustration stan accidentally destroyed ford's science fair project and cost him the placement this selfish mistake tears a rift between stan and ford driving forward away from his family and into the pursuit of more esoteric studies this ultimately leads to his research into other dimensions where he comes face to face with bill ford worked with bill for some time unknowingly advancing his plans to enter our universe by constructing the portal machine and this was because by ford's own admission bill appealed to his ego he flattered ford describing himself as a muse only appeared to great geniuses once in a generation while ford was smart enough to eventually realize bill's true intent it was only after bringing the entire universe dangerously close to his clutches after ford was sucked into the portal and stan stole his identity bill remained dormant for a while until gravity falls most adorable criminal mastermind gideon gleeful decided to summon him using one of ford's journals again for purely selfish reasons gideon is spiteful driven by pride and greed and he wants to get one over on the mystery shack so naturally he contacts the patron saint of self-interest bill mother flipping cipher we don't see bill again until the episode's sock opera in season 2. after dipper weakens his mind through sleep deprivation trying to get into ford's laptop bill turns up and like he did to ford convinces dipper to make a deal by this point dipper is already well aware that bill is bad news but he forms a contract with him anyway bill puts his ego above his own safety and bodily autonomy and this puts everything the characters have been working towards at risk and seeing that bill was hell-bent on destroying dipper's possessed body after he was finished with it it almost cost him his life finally and this is the one that you've all been waiting for and the reason why every two-bit toontogger is a video that performably hates on mabel mabel's decision to give the dimensional rift over to blandon in dipper and mabel versus the future mabel is feeling a very similar anxiety to stand in his childhood the fear her sibling is outgrowing her mabel doesn't want things to change she wants to keep her childhood and retain all the fun and connections that come with it that's how bill disguised as blendin brandon manages to get mabel to hand over the interdimensional rift to him he offers to make a time bubble around gravity falls where time will start and stop at mabel's leisure even if that means that other people can't pursue lives and futures they want for themselves something that isn't brought up enough in discussion of this moment is that this mindset could actually reflect symbolically the views of an audience that may demand several more seasons without regards to the characters and their development regardless mabel takes the deal and weirdmageddon finally begins gravity falls like all well-written stories of its type marries the huge scale stakes to the more intimate emotional stakes like i said before if bill can succeed in tearing apart both sets of pime twins he can succeed in ripping our universe a new one and when you're close to a sibling drifting apart can feel like the universe is collapsing just ask stan and mabel at its heart gravity falls has always been a show about the relationships between siblings specifically twins people who should be the most capable of understanding each other on a fundamental level but sometimes don't and while characters are under the illusion that time is their enemy and that these bonds dissolving are inevitable they're wrong this is even illustrated when bill cipher vaporizes time baby in seconds taking the manifestation of time completely out of the narrative selfishness is why these bonds break the desire to put your needs before anyone else's to always choose indulgence over sacrifice and in the end the older pine twins reconcile and travel the world together and dipper and mabel know that their bonded siblings won't be diminished no matter what different directions they travel in life all of this is possible because they manage to beat ego and to beat ego you have to beat bill just as every time a character gives into ego marks another point and bill's rise to power every time a character manages to resist or pull themselves out of ego provides a setback for the devilish dorito let's take a look at a few examples in bill's first appearance dreamscapers again seriously he's taking on dipper mabel and soos in the battlefield of stan's mind however dipper is taken out of commission by hearing stan calling him a loser in his memories this is a direct hit to dipper's ego and he refuses to help mabel and seuss take down bill this not only puts stan's mind in danger but leaves mabel and soos at the mercy of bill's phantasmagoric powers or as some people would say nightmarish ones however when he realizes that he misheard what stan was saying in the past dipper changes his tune he pulls himself out of his state of ego fueled self-pity and rejoins mabel and seuss with the new knowledge that they too can manipulate the dreamscape the three work together and this marks the first point where the main characters manage to turn the tide against bill through selflessness and collaboration and it won't be the last in sock opera bill takes over dipper's body and wrecks havoc with it meanwhile mabel is putting on a sock puppet play to impress local weird puppeteer gabe benson given the fact that being boy crazy is one of mabel's defining traits it's clear that putting on this show and wooing her latest crush is super important to her but if her ego had gotten the better of her here dipper wouldn't have survived in order to save her brother mabel knowingly destroys the sock opera that meant so much to her and takes the fight to bill bill is shocked by the idea asking who would sacrifice everything they've worked for just for their dumb sibling maple knows dipper would do mabel knows dipper would do the same for her so she lets her own needs take a backseat and manages to save dipper from bill once again the rejection of ego leads to another defeat for bill but none of this stops bill from putting his master plan which culminates in weirdmageddon into practice however even when gravity falls is turned into a phantasmagoric yes i will keep using that word microcosm of bill's plans for the future characters making the decision to finally reject ego helps bring things just a little bit closer to the happy ending we all wanted first in weirdmagen part 1 we get the unexpected redemption of gideon gleeful little gideon not only served as the main antagonist of the first season of the show he's also been personally antagonistic towards the pine family throughout and as i mentioned earlier it was gideon's selfish decision that brought bill back into gravity falls in the first place which leads us back into weirdmageddon gideon has been given about as cushy a position as a human could expect in bill's new world of weird he's gained a level of control his own henchmen he gets to watch over mabel's prison bubble and he seems to have a level of autonomy that no other human in the town has unlike preston northwest gideon is the one person who seems to have actually struck a pretty great deal with bill when dipper seuss and wendy are on their way to mabel land gideon steps in to stop them but before he can capture our heroes and turn them into bill dipper changes his outlook and tells him that no one will ever love him until he becomes a better person and in that moment gideon decides to do the first unselfish thing he's ever done taking on bill's goons to buy dipper in the gang some time his only request being that he wants mabel to know what he did and on the surface this may seem like he's still selfishly motivated but the reality is that this is anything but selfishness gideon knows that he and his fellow ex-cons don't stand a chance against bill's henchmaniacs and the best thing he can hope to accomplish is to buy some time before they capture him or worse scatter every fiber of his being across many moons gideon has no way of knowing if he'll even exist after this but he gives up his position of power in bill's new world to increase the chances of mabel and the others being safe gideon rejects ego and in doing so the first crack in bill's armor is exposed but nobody is out of the woods just yet in weirdmageddon part 2 escape from reality mabel dipper and friends are trapped in what even bill describes as his most diabolical creation mabel land an artificial paradise meant to satisfy mabel's every fantasy it's a place so indulgent and perfect that she'll never need to return to reality again even if it means that reality falling to bill the end of this episode is a particularly important moment not only for the relationship between dipper and mabel finally being reconciled but because bill's plans finally begin to collapse both dipper and mabel reject ego at the end of this episode dipper who had previously planned on abandoning mabel to take an apprenticeship with ford decides to go back on his decision he instead decides that he'll continue to grow up with mabel after the summer and that he'll save his solo adventures for adulthood and mabel repays this kindness with her own sacrifice despite bill's attempts to emphasize how harsh reality is outside of the bubble mabel finds that harshness bearable if she can just take it on with her family she decides to leave maybelline a place so perfectly designed to suit her needs that it's practically heaven to unite with dipper and the rest of her family and finally defeat bill once and for all and this brings us to weirdmageddon part 3 take back the falls with dipper and mabel's shared arc completed the final episode of gravity falls is an absolute masterclass and giving the fans exactly what they want while also staying true to the vision of the creative team from cameos of fan favorite one-off characters to a rock remix of the opening theme playing while the shackatron kicks demon tucus this episode is the right kind of fan service the right kind there is only one character who isn't in on the fun he resents the fact this situation has forced him to work with his brother before he felt comfortable doing so and as such every move he makes even if it's to save the town feels reluctant that's why when the shacktron is fighting bill and buying everyone else some time the petty fight between stan and ford ruins everything bill returns while they're still bickering destroys the zodiac symbol and everyone's fan theories and then traps all of the characters once again petty ego and pride hands bill a last minute advantage making for an incredibly intense climax stan and ford are trapped while dipper and mabel now have to assume the role of distracting bill as he takes his most menacing form yet and chases them down hell bent on turning them into corpses the selfless act of dipper and mabel putting themselves in danger to keep their grunkle safe makes stan and ford finally realize how bad things have gotten between them in this dark night of the soul stan berates himself for not taking ford's hand in the ritual and ford is equally ashamed of not seeing through bill's flattery the duo finally realized how giving into ego has not only destroyed their relationship but put the two other people they care most about in the world in mortal peril the two of them those stan in particular realize what they have to do they formulate a plan to destroy bill once and for all at the cost of stan's mind the pine brothers switch clothes trick bill into stan's head once more and used the memory eraser gun to finally take him out with a final knockout punch from stan to seal the deal he took lessons after all but before stan kills bill he says something to him you're a real wise guy but you made one fatal mistake you messed with my family bill is dealing with a fully developed stan here a man who's finally recognized and rejected the role ego was playing in hurting himself his loved ones and ultimately the world so messing with stan's family and threatening to kill the kids really was bill writing his own death warrant because the second the kids lives were in play the decision was obvious stan would sacrifice all of his memories for the kids lives it was inevitable bill was going down bill himself is a creature of pure ego he's a megalomaniacal villain who cares about nothing but his own enjoyment and he'd never sacrificed the enjoyment for anything or anyone but himself that's why he spends his last moments of existence pleading in terror for his life offering stan everything and realizing to his horror that nothing works his two-dimensional mind just can't comprehend why anyone would ever give up their own life for the sake of someone else he made the mistake of assuming that appealing to selfishness whether it's curiosity and easy life or material goods was a surefire way to get what he wanted and that was bill cipher's one fatal mistake gravity falls is a rare and beautiful thing a show brave enough and with enough creative integrity to end great and on its own terms if the abundance of spin-off material and huge outpouring of fan content has proven anything it's that we all wished we could have spent a little more time in gravity falls but as the show was fond of telling us summer has to end eventually and just because it's over doesn't mean the joy you get from it has to diminish even four years later we're still finding new ways to look at and enjoy this show and in the years to come i've got no doubt that gravity falls will endure and the pine twins brief time in that town will bring joy for generations to come and if this video has given you anything which i really hope it has it's that it's better to let your ego take a back seat and appreciate what you have rather than brooding or lusting on about what you don't after all that's why the pine family got to have a summer they'll never forget and why bill cipher is little more than a faded memory thank you all so much for watching folks this is actually my first video on gravity falls on this channel so far which is weird because i really do like the show some things just slip through the cracks in this crazy multiverse we live in but anyway if you like this video and you want more cartoon character content subscribe to the dyer gentleman channel ring that bell and leave a comment down below for another cartoon that you'd like me to cover until next time i'll be seeing you in the future

Channel: Diregentleman

Views: 2,255,238

Rating: 4.9633756 out of 5

Keywords: #Dire, #Gentleman, #Diregentleman, #Review

Id: -HGyIuumn5Q

Length: 19min 0sec (1140 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2021