#the canonization of Bill and Ford's relationship

[hispieceofcake]

⚠️BILL CIPHER AND STANFORD'S RELATIONSHIP CANONIZED. 👓 — (and my opinion about)

Well, I never thought I would write about Gravity Falls, I like the characters of the Stan twins, and I've watched the entire cartoon thousands of times and read the PDFs of all the books (Who am I kidding, I'm obsessed with Gravity Falls), and today while I was on TikTok I ended up seeing a video talking about Bill Cipher's book and about a supposed relationship between Ford and Bill, and that soon caught my interest (jealousy) and so I joined the maximum information and I came here to write this blog, some information here was taken from TikTok too.

To begin with, what I could understand from all of this is that Stanford and Bill Cipher had a "relationship" in Ford's mind, but from what I saw in the cartoon I think Bill was the only one who saw it that way. I remember Ford saying several times that he and Bill were "best friends" or just "friends", which leads us to understand that for Stanford it wasn't a romantic relationship but rather one of friends, but on the other hand, I don't think Bill thought that way, I think he saw Ford as "something more", an interest perhaps within the romantic spectrum. And here's why I think that:

In this text Bill talks about arresting and chaining your loved one as a form of affection, and well, he arrested Ford. And besides, he tried to give Ford a second chance to join him again, which I think he wouldn't do if his interest was so strong in Ford. He could have just tortured Ford to death to make him talk, but he didn't, he tortured Ford so that he would stay alive and he knew Ford could handle it.

I think Bill doesn't know how to show romantic feelings, you could see that clearly in that text about him saying he didn't know how to differentiate between fear and love. This could all just be in my head But I think about this theory. And as I said again, Ford saw their relationship as just friendly, as his interest was in unraveling the anomalies of Gravity Falls.

Now moving on to another point, I read some information in the book and got some on TikTok, as said before, and after Ford discovered Bill's true intentions, which was how we all know bring the Nightmare Realm to Gravity Falls and then dominate the world by doing the same with the rest of it, but then, Ford, upon learning of this fact, quickly disassociates himself from any relationship that he had with Bill Cipher and banishes him from his mind.

And then as written on the image page below it is written what Bill says "I wasn't upset at all! In fact, I decided to prove how not upset I was about our falling-out by knocking back a few cold glasses of "I'm Fine Juice" at O'Sadley's Multidimensional Pub in the Rock Bottom Asteroid Belt of the Vicious Spiral Nebula The rest of that night gets a little hazy, but according to the police transcripts apparently things took a turn...", in other words, Bill was in this bar to drown the sorrows of having been rejected by Ford after discovering his plan.

To the point that he drank so much and got drunk to the point of calling Ford by his "affectionate nickname", confusing the names due to the drink. Honestly, I don't know if people from other countries will understand the joke, but here in Brazil there is a type of music called "Sertanejo" and often these songs talk about being rejected or betrayed and suffer for it, I really imagine Bill crying and drinking alcohol listening to this type of music in the background in a bar.

And here as we can see, there is a message from Bill that was previously hidden in neon paint saying how much Ford would miss him and that he needed him to not feel alone, but I think it's quite the opposite, Bill who was obviously missing Ford and of course was trying to get Ford back on his side, the message is already clear.

Well, thanks for reading, bunny kisses 🐰

[ckret2]

I'd like to think Bill was projecting in the paragraph on hibernation.

(fun fact! every color in bill's clothes, breakup recovery objects, and furniture were color picked from ford's body! yes bill did get a leather couch the same color as ford's flesh!)

[delicioustarong]

Fanart for this ACHINGLY GUT WRENCHING FIC! 'my body is young (but my mind is very old)' by green_tea_and_honey!!

Chapter 20 made me ugly sob y'all, I m not kidding (My eyes were puffy for the whole day LMAO) I can't express in words how this fic touched my soul so I decided to make fanart. This illustration is based on this part of the fic 👇 (under the cut) It's not biblically accurate but I like it. (Spoilers ahead!)

“Okay,” he whispered to himself, clenching and unclenching his fists. “Okay. You’re okay. You’re okay.”

The wave of panic he expected never came, even as water sloshed in, soaking his waist and rising more rapidly than ever now that Bill had been swept away. He could smell it, as if he had never left; salt, sand, and a hint of oil from a nearby factory that he suspected had stained the beach with its constant dumping in the ocean.

“I’m okay,” Ford said, looking at his hands, and taking a long, slow breath. “I’m okay.”

You guys should go read the fic and give it lots of love. I guarantee you all it's worth it!

(also small note; I have a lot of fanart for fics otw, I'm just busy with college and deadlines so it might take a while lolz)

[dammjamboy]

working on a ford centric animatic! song is killer in the mirror by set it off

i want to do the whole song but it will likely be a while with my workload so enjoy what i've managed to do so far ^^

[blueblurbbaskets]

read the book of bill halfway expecting all the billford stuff to be things that were maybe hinted at and then got super hyped up by the fandom but no, that is about the most textual thing i've seen in my life. you can't really make toxic yaoi more canon than having the guy's 13 year old niece call the triangle a needy ex and tell him to go crush on someone else's uncle

[pigidin]

UMM?? GUYS??

Alt coz ik the quality is bad::

[The mind Bill knows best. Pure ego. Putty in Bill's hands. Bill will also reveal that, while he was possessing Ford in the 80's, he ripped out a number of pages from Ford's journal and erased his memory of them. Bill will show the LOST PAGES from JOURNAL 3 that have never before been seen]

DOES ANYONE WANNA TALK ABOUT THE MEMORY ERASE THINGY COZ IM GOING PRETTY MUCH INSANE OVER THIS INFO. WHAT.

[columboposting]

obviously billford is the correct reaction to the Book of Bill but ONLY as long as people dont start drawing art of ford with this fucking guy

[monstrousmuse]

Ford really just said ‘go choke on glass, I’m leaving you on read’

[nenoname]

the experience of reading stan twins fics and being constantly haunted by a name

[nellandvoid]

i was gonna make a less complicated intro to this oc but whoops my hand slipped!

anyway meet the wayfinder, aka diane orosco! she’s a bounty hunter who’s been traveling the multiverse for ten years by the time stanford first meets her (aka the oracle, for reasons beyond our comprehension (she loves drama) dropped him off at where she was staying when he was almost fully healed)

lucky for her, she’s been looking for him ever since she started her dimension hopping. unlucky for him, she knew a stanford in her dimension, and let’s just say things did not end very well between them!

i have so many thoughts about her which i’m uber excited to share soon

i was super proud of the coloring, so this time silhouette is under the cut, along with a shaded version

[astro-b-o-y-d]

Don't mistake my dislike of B/llford as being for any moral reason; I don't care what people ship and even have a few friends who enjoy it! I just think their dynamic is so much more interesting without any romantic interpretation attached, and I always get a little sad when I'm looking at something involving that and it veers into 'haha they're divorced/exes/whatever'. Like aww, aro-blocked :(

[sir-arlieosaurus-lung-struggler]

I am of the firm stance of Bill having an unrequited thing for Ford till proven otherwise-

But that being said MAN seeing the spike in billford content after Book of Bill I may be proven otherwise 💀

(No spoilers I haven't read Book of Bill ;> also plz read tags)

[procrastinatingattorney]

i'm surprised it took this long for people to be interested in s/tanbill (which is eh, but i at least find the jokes to be more funnier than the other ship) but once again im shaking shippers cos no one understands their dynamic

[oobbbear]

I neeeeeeed to know how Fidd loses his arm- it's killing me

(Also your art makes me wkndrurjrjfjrj)

Short answer, lack of medical supply lead to very bad infection to eventual amputation

Long answer, his arm was injured in the nightmare realm by one of bill’s henchmen, at the refugees place Ford borrowed some medical supplies to patch fidd up

The injury did not heal in fact it got worse and worse, when they got transferred to dimension 52, the lady who implanted the metal plate in ford’s head saw fidd’s injury and went “oh shit this one’s gonna die if I don’t do anything about it” the infection was bad enough that it almost rotted a hole in the arm

She surgically amputated fidd’s arm (above elbow) let him and ford stay through their recovery and send them away

(I dont know if it works timeline wise with canon but hey we’re not canon so I don’t care)

Ford and fidd’s relationship started to heal due to this incident actually, fidd losing an arm in front of him slapped ford back to reality and start reflecting all his wrong doings. There’s a lot more I want to say but I’ll save it for some future comics I’ve yapped too much already. This arm (or lack there of) is very important to their relationship and personal growth in the story.

I have some comics planned for Fidd’s recovery journey, him learning to gain more confidence and independence after this incident I think it would be very cool, I’ll see if I have time I would love to draw them

[fordtato]

Alex Hirsch will imply or say through text and subtext of books about FiddAuthor and BillFord, while Dan Povenmire and Swampy Marsh will just have Perryshmirtz moments on Chibi shorts and tiktoks... and you know, sometimes I'm glad I get to live in this world. (I made this weird train of thought connection through the ending joke in Bill's interview in the book.)

SPOILERS: Look, no matter how one feels about it, Hirsch used terminology associated with romance and breakups throughout nearly every interaction between Ford and Bill. "Attracted-to," "will-they-won't-they," "were we even partners?," starting a conversation after a fight with "Can we talk?", calling Fiddleford a "third wheel," etc. - THESE ARE QUOTES.

Also, Bill uses language that is INCREDIBLY tied to abusive relationships when talking to Ford: "who else will make you feel like this?" etc.

Hell, Bill goes on a drunken bender after the breakup. Mabel calls Ford Bill's ex, and tells him to "get over" her Grunkle.

I've seen some discussion on the timeline on whether or not it's problematic to make BillFord canon and my thoughts are: this book DEPICTING an abusive pairing (or at least using language that echoes an abusive relationship), and then framing it through the lens of an unreliable abusive narrator is not the same thing as glorifying, romanticizing, or supporting the pairing. The people reading this recognize that Bill is a villain and not to be trusted, you know? It isn't even shades of grey, it's 100% depicted as the most ruinous thing in Ford's life. Hell, I think it's just very compelling writing. I love this. I think it's so interesting. Books should be able to tackle this.

And then the Fiddauthor fodder. The FIDDFODDER. He handmakes Ford two xmas presents, and makes nothing for Emma-May??? HE COMES BACK FOR FORD AFTER HIS FIGHT WITH HIS WIFE? AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES IN COLLEGE? AND FIDDS MADE 5 PROTOTYPES TO HANDKNIT FORD GLOVES??

The book also has a reference to Ford possibly being ace. Ford has nightmares about a pop quiz asking him what he's attracted to. He answers "planning and preparation." So, I have layered feelings about these tongue-in-cheek references to asexuality without just SAYING asexuality, you know? Like when it's wrapped in a joke, I think it affects how meaningful it is, but I'm not ace, so it's up to ace people to decide how they feel about this. But I do think it's interesting.

At the very least, this book adds queer undertones to the way Ford and Bill interact. Book of Bill gave more queer undertones in the TEXT, not just subtext, to how Ford interacts with others, and while that experience is translated through an abusive relationship, it's still there.

Y'all, this man is queer. I can't believe I'm not seeing everyone talking about this. Ford is queer. I don't know how to define his relationship with Bill Cipher, but it isn't straight.

[jellyskink]

So... what if I took those AUs where Bill and Ford get married, only I kept the dynamic just as toxic as their canon relationship? Introducing: Domesticated Ford! A terrible universe where Ford knows he's been manipulated and doesn't care, and Bill could never love a creature so beneath him as anything more than a cute little pet. Other Fords hate this one