Bill Cipher

"Remember! Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, BYE!"

- Bill Cipher's famous quote.Bill.oga "It's time we do a little redecorating! I could really use a CASTLE of some kind! And how about some bubbles of pure MADNESS? This party never stops! Time is dead and meaning has no meaning! Existence is upside down and I reign supreme! Welcome, one and all, to WEIRDMAGEDDON!!!"

- Bill Cipher brings forth Weirdmageddon.

Bill Cipher is the main antagonist of the Disney XD series Gravity Falls. He is an immensely powerful dream demon from the Second Dimension who means to bring about the end of the world by opening a rift between his Nightmare Realm and the real world. He also has mysterious motives and a vendetta against the Pines Family, specifically Stanford Pines.

He has been running amok in Gravity Falls, Oregon, since being summoned by Stanford over thirty years ago. Bill is also known for his mysterious demeanor, sadistic humor, and desire for total chaos.

He was voiced by the series' creator Alex Hirsch, who also voiced Grunkle Stan, Soos, Old Man McGucket, Jeff, and Dippy Fresh.

Appearance
Bill is a floating yellow triangle with a single cartoon eye in the center (though sometimes near the upper corner; also known as the Eye of Providence), a black bow tie and a top hat, and thin black limbs. He is sometimes seen holding a yellow or black cane as well. Bill's body also flashes when he speaks, as he has no mouth.

However, when angered, his color is inverted, with his eye turning black, outline turning white and yellow turning a glowing red, although his form can change to that which is desired at will. A tapestry hanging from the wall in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" depicts him as black or ash gray instead of yellow and with a red eye. In "The Last Mabelcorn", he appears for a few moments as black with a yellow eye.

In the three-part series finale "Weirdmageddon", Bill assumes multiple three-dimensional forms, including a black multi-tiered and multi-armed pyramid, a three-dimensional version of his default yellow form (including a giant version), and his most horrifying and terrible form of all, that of a colossal red multi-tiered pyramid with eight different glowing limbs resembling a spider, sharp teeth and tongues erupting from his body, and a black eye with a lizard-like yellow pupil, which he assumes during the final battle as he hunts down Dipper and Mabel Pines.

As he is being erased and speaking his hidden resurrection spell, he transforms into several different forms in an attempt to escape, including his angry red form, a stone-like form with two stone pyramids which could rotate with one eye on each side that also rotate and a stone block having his arms and bow tie, a distorted form with several green eyes and limbs, flashing between yellow, pink, blue, and orange, before finally assuming his black form with a red eye as seen on the tapestry. When Stanley punches him, he briefly flashes back to his default yellow form before being wiped out completely.

While possessing a person, that person's body will take on a pale tone to their skin, and their eyes will appear yellow with black slits, similar to his own.

If necessary, both Bill's yellow main portion and eye can portray images similarly to a television screen, all of which are seemingly what he is thinking about at the time.

Personality


"To Bill, it's just a game, but to us, it would mean the end of our world."

- Ford describing Bill's view on destroying the World.

At first, Bill seems to be a charming figure, but this easily changes within minutes of his debut, especially when he reveals his true nature: that of a highly intelligent and manipulative psychopath.

He usually speaks with a high-pitched voice with a synthesized effect, but when furious or expressive, it becomes deep and inarticulate similar to traditional demon depictions.

Bill seems to display symptoms of antisocial personality disorder. Symptoms include lying, feeling no remorse, and showing hostility and sadism. A bit of a running gag is whenever somebody calls him insane, Bill will proudly agree with them.

He is also very masochistic, as he enjoys hurting himself, as he tortures Dipper's body while possessing it, and has no problem killing or hurting children like Dipper and Mabel. An expert manipulator and a masterful liar, he is clearly capable of fooling others into trusting him long enough for him to betray them in a heartbeat, and is falsely affable enough to influence others into playing pawns or making deals with him (which he will almost always double-cross to his advantage).

However, while an easily angered madman, he is also highly authoritative, perspicacious, influential and decisive, knowing when to pull out of a fight. As of "The Last Mabelcorn", Bill is shown to be far more than simply a sadistic psychopath; he is an extremely calculating and diabolical mastermind.

Bill is also known for his complete disregard of rules and morals, as he considers laws and physics to be quite senseless and he doesn't even care about the consequences of his actions that can endanger the fabric of existence, as he considers the idea of destroying the Earth as a mere game to him. He dedicated his own existence of spreading complete chaos and his selfish philosophy of doing whatever he wants without care for consequences.

However, in his final moments, Bill is shown to be absolutely terrified of dying as seen when being exploited by his own weakness.

Powers and Abilities


"You're making a mistake!! I'll give you anything: money, fame, riches, infinite power, your own galaxy, PLEASE!"

- Bill Cipher describing his abilities while pleading for mercy to Stan.

While Bill is vastly powerful and competent, he cannot normally interact with the physical world while trapped inside the Nightmare Realm. He is able to observe the world, but not influence it, as he can only appear to people in dreams, being virtually omnipotent within the dreamscape. Bill can also act by making a pact with a willing vessel, but in doing this he is subject to all the constraints of the vessel body and cannot use his own power to reshape the world at will. He also has a great vast of knowledge available, claiming he knows "lots of things". However he doesn't know everything in the universe.

When Bill Cipher escapes the Nightmare Realm, he becomes able to use his full power within the real world, and his power seems to be almost limitless, possibly next to godlike. He is able to reshape reality and everything in it to his will and can even defeat similarly powerful entities such as Time Baby.

On the brink of defeat, he offered Stanley Pines "his own galaxy", implying that his power could potentially be on a cosmic scale. However, he has some weaknesses. Namely, he cannot escape the weirdness-attracting bubble around Gravity Falls on his own and lack the knowledge how to undo the bubble, and he is unable to use his powers directly on objects that are protected by a barrier of unicorn hair.

Also, he cannot possess someone as long as the host refuses to shake his hand. In the mindscape, Bill is nothing less a thought which means if Bill was in someone's mind that is about to be erased, he will be erased along with it, presumably this will annihilate him from existence but there is evidence that he may survive even this, though greatly weakened and possibly unable to return to the physical world.

Trivia

 * Contrary to popular belief, Bill cannot be identified as male or female, as he is a being above the concept of gender or race. He also claims his home dimension has 14 billion different gender identities and there is paperwork involved in determining sexual orientation and he's not exactly been keeping track of his.
 * Bill Cipher's line, "A.X.O.L.O.T.L., MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN, I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER THAT I MAY RETURN!", is reversed. He may have said it that way because he does not want Stanley (or anyone, for that matter) to be aware that he could come back.
 * The AXOLOTL itself appears in a “hidden page” from the book Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates' Treasure!: Select Your Own Choose-Venture, which can be viewed by decoding a cipher that shows a link to Disney XD’s website, (the link being: www.disneyxd.com/awrongturn) the page is about Dipper and Mabel meeting the Axolotl.
 * His full name is likely a reference to the Beale ciphers; encrypted manusccripts which are said to lead to a great, hidden treasure and which only one of three have been decoded.
 * This is entirely possible as codes and ciphers are hidden all throughout the series.
 * Bill can be summoned if one were to recite an incantation found in Journal 2.
 * He is based on The Eye of Providence, a common symbol allegedly used by the Illuminati (which is theorized to follow the New World Order concept), as creator Alex Hirsch confirmed in the Special "Behind the Pines" stating: "What if I took the triangle off the back of the dollar bill, dress him up in a top hat, and stupid little arms and legs, and named him Bill after the dollar?".
 * However, it is currently unknown why he was based on the Eye of Providence, although it is likely because the Eye is meant to be representative of God watching over everyone, lending over to Bill being nigh omniscient and watching the series' events unfold.
 * This is also mentioned in one of the Journals, where someone (presumably Ford) has scribbled a note, saying, "He's in my wallet!", and sketched the seal from a dollar bill.
 * Various things were discovered about Bill Cipher during a Reddit AMA, including the fact of him once having a family, having something to do with Gompers in the past, and his favorite music being 10 hours of Rising Shepard Tone. The AMA also revealed that Bill Cipher thinks in capital letters.
 * His backstory parallels Flatland, a mathematical novella written by Edwin Abbott Abbott about a flat world where the shapes live, and the more sides they have, the higher position they got in their society (thus circles are the highest, and triangles are the lowest). Bill refers to this on his AMA when saying "Edwin Abbott Abbott has a decent idea". It is implied that a similar case happened in his home dimension which would explain his thirst for power, as since he is a triangle, Bill had no power in his world. An evidence of this is when Ford visits a similar dimension called Exwhylia during his interdimensional trip when he disappeared for 30 years, which also has a similar case.
 * It was never made clear what Bill truly is. While he is called a "demon" by other characters, creator Alex Hirsch has confirmed that this is just a name for lack of better description. Ford even states that no one knows really what he is. Because of his reality warping abilities and bizarre nature, it is likely that he is inspired by the Outer Gods of Lovecraftian lore.
 * A memorial statue of Bill can be seen at one point in the graphic novel Gravity Falls: Lost Legends with the caption "He was the WORST".
 * Bill's top hat is not an accessory or article of clothing; it is actually part of his body. This can be seen in the episode "Weirdmageddon Part 1" when Stanford shoots his quantum destabilizer gun at Bill and misses, hitting his hat and revealing flesh and bones within.
 * Bill originally had a villain song titled "It's Gonna Get Weird", but the song was cut due to time restraints. A demo version sung by Neil Cicierega still exists and was released on his Tumblr.
 * Bill had a cameo in Justin Roiland's animated series Rick and Morty. In the episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez", he is briefly seen on a computer monitor. Bill is also seen on a screen when Rick is captured by the Galactic Federation as if he is being studied by both Nuptia 4 and the Galactic Federation in "Rick and Morty."
 * In the Rick and Morty episode "Morty's Mind Blowers", where it's discovered that Rick Sanchez secretly stores Morty's memories, there are two memories labeled "Stanford" and "Bill C". It's very likely that they are memories of encounters with Ford and Bill Cipher, since the two series are considered to occur in the same multiverse, and both Ford and Bill, as well as Morty, have traveled between dimensions.
 * Despite Bill being portrayed as destroying his home dimension before entering the Nightmare Realm, even himself stating that he "liberated" his dimension, when Dipper asks the Axolotl what he knows about Bill, the Axolotl says that Bill "Saw his own dimension burn. Misses home and can't return. Says he's happy. He's a liar. Blame the arson for the fire.". This hints that Bill actually misses his home dimension and possibly even his family, the Axolotl also says that Bill is lying about being happy, meaning Bill is possibly depressed.

Navigation
Bill Cyferka