The Incredibly Tragic Backstory of Bill Cipher 

Another thing to add is that in the scene where bill dies, if you reverse it, bill says, "A-X-O-L-O-T-L. My time has come to burn. I invoke the ancient power that I may return." Which adds to what the axolotl says, "If he wants to shirk the blame. He'll have to invoke my name."

Oh my god. After watching this video when I finished the Book Of Bill… this is SPOT ON. In the book Bill does say he IS gifted, when he was born he gained a rare mutation that allowed him to see the third dimension. And in other forms of ciphers in the book, it reveals that Bill’s dimension was called “Euclidea”, after the man who created the study of geometry.

"I tried forgetting. Maybe I should try forgiving." -Fiddleford Mcgucket Bill tried to forget what he did. Even if his memory is erased it truly doesn't make up for what he did. That's how he's destined to come back. Forgetting isn't a true solution.

Love the interpretation of his memory getting erased as a way to be free of guilt, it makes sense

i always think this exact same theory. what i love even more is how subtle it is. the show doesnt try to shove you this out of nowhere tragic backstory for an essentially comedic villain. it make you create theory on your own and have wild guesses over bill's true intention.

8 years since the show ended. That makes me feel old.

Sixty degrees that come in threes. Watches from within birch trees. 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. If he wants to shirk the blame. He’ll have to invoke my name. One way to absolve his crime. A different form, a different time. *Well now I feel like shi-*

Bill is such an incredible villain, he's really intimidating when he needs to be and he's also effortlessly hilarious when he needs to be. Usually the darkest stuff in Gravity Falls is revolving him. Like self-harm, and rifts between relationships. He's one of those rare cases in storytelling where an overpowered chsracter actually works.

i love how gravity falls content never dies, and that new theories still appear every now and then even after the show had ended over ten years ago

To me, Bill’s tragedy can be seen as one that is fundamentally rooted in his implicit nature as a nigh-omniscient God-like entity. We all know the saying - “With great power comes great responsibility” - Bill never had the opportunity to learn how to master the art of being responsible; he simply acted for the sake of hedonism. That is what differs between Bill and humanity; if we are to succeed in life, it is almost compulsory for us mortals to learn how to be responsible and wise. We have ample opportunity to mature and evolve; God-like entities like Bill are most likely unable to comprehend something like that. I say all this because I very much dislike the idea of a character being evil for the sake of being evil, unless explicitly written as such. Bill is a liar, and most lies are indeed tragic. *”LIE UNTIL WHAT YOU WANT TO BE TRUE BECOMES TRUE. LIE UNTIL YOU CANT REMEMBER WHATS A LIE AND WHAT ISNT. LIE UNTIL YOU ARENT LYING ANYMORE.”*

I think in journal three or somewhere else they elaborated that triangles were lesser than the others in Bill’s dimension. So, he got angry and burned it down. Including his family.

That one line is interesting, "Another form, another time." When Bill's being erased in Stan's memory, he calls upon that same being, spelling out their name, saying, "My time has come to burn! I invoke the ancient power that I may return." If what you say is true and all of Bill's memories are erased, then would he possibly take on a nicer form? Such as a little, cute dog-like demon from the Boiling Isles? I dunno. It's a thought but it's interesting to think of the possibilities to the form Bill might take next and what he might or might not remember. If he wouldn't remember anything from his previous life, then we might never know but only theorize and guess. I mean, for how much of a caricature of Bill King has been in the past as well as certain parallels between the two characters, I won't question it.

Oh boy did the book of bill change things

One more thing to add is that in an AMA with a Bill themed account made by Alex Hirsch, when asked about what his home dimension was like, Bill responds by saying that Edwin A. Abbott was actually pretty close. Edwin A. Abbott is famous for writing a novel on the society of a completely 2D world, and how a Square from that dimension had its mind opened to the idea of 3D, and begins philosophizing about things beyond his flat, two dimensional world. This, combined with what he says in the series finale about how he came from the second dimension, paints a picture that the reason he had destroyed his home is because he himself had become enlightened to the worlds beyond what he now saw as flat, two dimensional, and unchanging, as for wether or not he decided to destroy everything right then and there or only did so as a result after his home dimension had snubbed his beliefs, is impossible to tell

I'll just like to add one thing. After killing Time Baby Bill states that he now has control over time itself. Shouldn't he then be able to go back in time and save his dimension ?

"Twisted out of shape, after the kill, the ghosts of his family, are haunting him still"- THE BOOK OF BILL

I don't know if anyone's said this already, but in the episode where he enters Stan's mind and the code to the safe gets thrown down the bottomless pit, Bill turns red with pure anger and has regular colored FIRE in his hands and says, "Do you have any idea what I'm like when I'm mad?!" Because he was young and had those powers, someone must have easily pissed him off in his dimension back when he was less wise. That could've triggered him to destroy his own dimension. When someone gets you really mad you don't care what you say or do getting caught in a fit of rag. And sometimes(for me atleast) you regret it once you've calmed down.

I think he wanted to be defeated, just look at some of the times where he could of killed somebody but didn’t.

"One way to absolve his crime. A different form, a different time." Could be that the bird standing on Bills hand (in that one popular gravity falls picture where bills statue was left, rotting to time) is Bill himself, just simply in a.. "different form, a different time."

I have many questions about Bill's orginal dimension, how it worked, and how Bill Became what he is.

Brilliant analysis, keep them coming!

Holy shit, this is pretty spot on

“Blame the arson for the fire” No wonder why he always makes blue fire, wait, especially whenever he’s making a deal…

Also, if you've read the journals in number three, Stanford has some constellations, and one of them is named William, ironically, it was a triangle, which led me to believe that Bill either had a sibling and or siblings.

in conclusion, bill is a depressed teen lmao

so will this video get a sequel because of The Book of Bill?

I am still pretty much convinced that King is actually the reincarnation of Bill Cipher. It just fits so well, plus who better to get through to a cosmic being like the Collector than some who was once just as powerful, if not more so, and incredibly chaotic.

i so glad that even after all these years of gravity falls being over that videos about it are still being made

i think it's weird that bill apparently destroyed his own dimension, but how and why he did is a mystery. it would have taken a lot of effort to destroy an entire dimension, and yet he didn't think about the consequences of doing so during the process? my theory is that the "blame the arson for the fire" line that the axolotl says is signifying that bill isn't entirely to blame for what happened to his dimension. maybe someone who wouldn't have regretted destroying bill's dimension built a dimensional bomb or something like that, but was stopped. bill might've discovered the device and accidentally set it off.

i loved this video! when i saw it had 202 views i wanted to comment. i was kinda shocked, as i watched the whole video first then saw the views. you were in my recommended and i managed to get here. you have so much potential man, great video quality and you’ve put a ton of effort in. i’ll be subscribing and i hope to see you grow. i hope the best for you! now i’m gonna go watch more of your videos keep doing what you’re doing :]

With “The Book of Bill” coming out, this guy’s theory seems to be spot on! 👀😎

When I look at Bill, he kind of resembles SpongeBob. Their both yellow, they wear ties, has shapes as bodies and more.

Theres a really good fanfiction called "flat dreams" that is basically about Bill's life. After i read that everything Bill said made sense, they are "backflashes"/memories from his life in the 2nd dimension

I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that Bill didn’t destroy his universe on accident. The way for him to descend into demonhood was to burn down his universe and kill his family. But now he regrets for what he did to his family and as for rest it checks out

WE'LL MEET AGAIN,DON'T KNOW WHERE,DON'T KNOW WHEN,BUT I KNOW WE'LL MEET AGAIN SOME SUNNY DAY...

never would i have guessed that the sentence "in the book dipper and mabel and the curse of the pirate treasure we see the twins crossing paths with an interdimensional creature: the axolotl" would be followed by a hardass after events prophecy type poem that would reveal an entire backstory but then again this is gravity falls

“A different form, a different time,” Bill is King.

I love this theory... It sounds so wonderful to meet Bill Cipher again, but good this time. Yet we would miss one of the greatest villans of all time and of course it would be difficult the story good while having such a powerful being on the heros' side

i noticed that in the episode sock opera bipper or bill dipper says this "its been so long since i have been IN A BODY". this made me think that bill used to be a HUMAN but died and now he is a spirit or ghost

The Flat Dreams fanfic will forever be the one and only bill cipher backstory for me

I'm glad that after these years, Peoples are still doing theories about Gravity Falls, which i like it.

Gotta add: Bill tried to destroy all of humanity probably because he wants to forget what he's done is the past. This just made stuff worse. He also did say "AXOLOTL MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER I MAY RETURN" and the Axolotl said "If he wants to shrink the blame, He'll have to invoke my name" which is what Bill did. He thinks this could do the trick but it hasn't really happened, yet. Until now He'll be scarred for life.

No happy ending for bill haha, but this is pretty spot-on

Like the video. I will say that I kinda don’t feel like Bill needs a tragic backstory (in fact arguably he’s better without it) but it is still really interesting. Whether it’s canon or not is in question, but I think it’s a case of “if you want it to be canon than it is, if you don’t than it isn’t” which I like

Its amazing to see a gravity falls video even after so much time after it ended.

Wow such good theories are rare Hope your Channel grow a lot.

Makes sense why he'd want to take over another dimension entirely, he wants his own domain so that he could feel at home. At peace or that's what bill thinks taking over gravity falls and the rest of the planet means, he wants to make the dimension he took over somewhat like his home dimension, to ease the guilt and regret over what he did.

Great job! Im super interested in Gravity falls lore and bill cipher, thanks for this, keep the good work up! Happy researching.

EYE love this theory, kid! _👁️_ Also, EYE still believe that King from The Owl house is Bill's reincarnation, why? Because in season 1 he behaved very similarly to Bill, but in time he became completely good.

I like this theory and his backstory. Also the fact that they don't show it in the show; showing backstory and making us feel bad about the antagonist is way too overused in shows now. This shows us something: no matter how much bad has happened to you, you cannot use that as an excuse to harm the innocents. You cannot go and tell them it's your trauma that has lead to your doings. It was a reason why he did things, something that won't be important and won't matter even if we don't know, unlike a reason for us to feel bad able him and give him sympathy, feel relatable, etc., etc. He did what he did and there's no taking it back.

Yo, hold up. Bill is fundamentally good at tricking and lying to people. What if, since Bill and Stanley were both in the same mind when their memories were erased, they still *are* in the same mind? As in, being in semi-control of Stan with no memories gives Bill exactly what he wanted: an endless party, guilt-free.

I never really thought about it like that, but it does make sense now that you put it out like this

When Stan got his memories back, he remembered Bill, thus bringing him back to life.

There’s always two sides In a story between the hero and the villain, majority of the stories often hide the villain’s motives and reasons. Truly shows that bill was more than just a chaotic entity

I like this theory. Especially with the axolotl. It would make sense if the axolotl knew him because Bill knows Time Baby.

Lets see how correct you are when the book of bill releases (if it tells Bill’s origins and backstory)

i think another good thing to mention is him potentially lying to himself at a certain point to justify his past mistakes and the destruction of it, i remember in one episode him calling it "a flat world world flat minds and flat dreams"

I love the theory that Bill was reborn as Stanley, having to atone for his crimes by being the one to defeat himself

2:28 “within birch trees” literally EVERYTIME I see the word birch I think of camman18

He watch’s from birch trees is a reference to when Gideon first summons bill the birch trees around him have eyes on them.

STANLY KILLED ME

I found a certain decoded message in journal 3. The page "Throughout Bill's Ciphers" shows a code that translates into "CURSE THE AXOLOTL EVERY CONSPIRACY IS TRUE"

This would make sense because in the owl house it is heavily implied that bill cipher is king and king would forget who he really was a tiny bit, he remembers he was the king of demons but never remembered his true body More evidence to back this up a tiny bit in amphibia they introduced a axolotl with glowing eyes just like the one in the book And the axolotl basically quoted Stan’s ending words and bill cipher was shown in one of the book pages in amphibia This took waaaay to long

There are hints of bill having a secret twin brother

I love this it’s so much better then those he’s still out there and is planning ones

I loved gravity falls so much its such a comfort show

"Quote: "wooo pain is hilarious 😐" " LMAAOAOAOA

Sixty degrees that comes in threes Watches from within birch trees 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 If he wants to shirk the blame He'll have to invoke my name One way to absolve his crime A different form, a different time. *Why I can remember this but not school tests*

Just saying, the birch trees bit is a reference to eye shapes in the tree bark

This channel is underrated.

This was a great theory and it makes a lot of sense, I’m happy that both the villain and the antagonist get a happy ending

Ok but let’s talk about how at 3:12 he used a scene from bill orders a pizza😂

One of the funnest videos to make !!

It's mentioned in one of the companion books (can't remember which one, but it's on the Axolotl's Gravity Falls wiki page) that Ford wonders if there's a polar-opposite being to Bill. It's been theorized, and not mentioned in your video, that the Axolotl is that polar-opposite of Bill. Everything Bill isn't, the Axolotl is and vice-versa. There's a section of the Axolotl's poem "Watches from Birch Trees" that also implies the Axolotl was watching during Gideon's summoning of Bill in Dreamscapers. The trees surrounding Gideon's summoning circle sudden form a bunch of knots that look like eyes. We could take this as Bill watching from the trees, but this doesn't make sense to me as he's just about to be summoned in this instance, so why would he need to watch himself be summoned? Plus he was always watching them from the dreamscape anyway, he has no need for the tree knot eyes.

Get your: "I was here before he was famous" ticket here

Subbed. You deserve a prize for this video. How about a head that's always screaming the word "SUBSCRIBE!!!"?

My friend mentioned that Bill died because Stan's memory was erased, but later in the episode, Stan regains his memory. If his memories are remade then Bill would be remade too.

I like the theory that Bill's dimension is flat land.

I like how Bill is referenced in inside job

I think that the axolotl got all the messages from the mailbox in that one short

I found a soon to be legend

BILL ALSO REPRESENTS THE ALL SEEING EYE

Bill is still alive. Hes always alive, hes just reborn every time someone reads out the incantations. He died in ancient history, and he came back to life when Giddion read the spell.

In journal 3, we see Ford go into a 2-d dimension. He then tells us that he imagined bill’s origin dimension to be something like that. We see that parallel earth dimensions exist, so it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to say that bill came from a parallel of the 2d dimension. Bill even says, “It was flat world with flat dreams” so that is what I think this is trying to say

My friend seeing this : don't worry I will pay for your. Therapy bill😁

8 years and the baddest triangle is still being talked about.

This is good but you missed one thing when explaining the maybe end for bill (because it's still possible that bill could be alive) bill is a dream because he liberated his own reality there for his soul would reside in the dream/mind dimension and that is the most likely reason his body was turned to stone and is dead but with what you put together if its true then that would mean that is why he never returned not because his memory was erased but because he wishes not to have to live with his guilt

Below: “It’s been 8 years since the release of Weirdmageddon 3-“ Me: “Shut up x7

One of his lines in the show when Bill is talking to Ford is really interesting to me. He describes his demsion as a flat place where people have flat minds. It really makes me wonder.What makes his demision so flat? Is it literally flat?It's most likely that's the reason he destroyed it.

I think “a different form, a different time,” means that he has returned in a new body, and referencing the pinned comment, may be reborn as some great entity, or maybe he already is reborn at the same time as being bill cipher, referring to the words “a different time.” Along with that, with MatPat’s idea that bill was hiding inside Stan’s mind, I believe that Stan is the reincarnation of bill cipher.

I didn't see it myself but my fiancee says there was some questionnaire thing Alex did where he implied Bill's previous home was like a book called Flatland.

Guys, Guys, the axolotl said for bill to burn out the blame he must call out his name. While bill is burning in Stan’s head he speaks backwards if you unreverse his speech he spells out axolotl.

:D This theory is mind-blowing but I don't think as a happy ending cuz he committed the suicide.

This theory is very nice and makes sense... WELP TIME TO RUIN IT WITH MY FANFIC!!!

Bill needs to use the memory gun on himself to forget his past😃.

Meaby bill will return as a good guy if he will ever return

1:00 .......masochist Bill??? 🤔

When you said bill does "self harm" i just morfolojicamente guten taged

He does feel remorse cause the a x o l o t l said he misses home but can’t return

I actually while looking and decoding codes in the real life version of journal 3, I found the name Jack.