Seriously? You guys honest to god seriously think Bill’s dead? How boring is that? I’m gonna be honest, I expected more from this fandom.
Now, I know everybody has their opinion on Bill, but I have a few points I would like to make.
There are so many people who are like ‘oh yeah, Bill’s dead, lol’ and then go about the rest of their lives like that was it. I can’t quite seem to understand it, and this isn’t just me grasping at straws because I don’t want to accept that Bill could be dead. It’s simply, well, the GF fandom is known for going overboard with looking into things, and Bill (who is literally the biggest mystery of all) is being completely brushed off. I didn’t even consider the idea that Bill could be gone permanently and I came on tumblr after watching the episode a second time all ready for the headcanons only to be disappointed. Yes, there are people looking into it and I have read some awesome headcanons and such, but I’m just really surprised that so many people aren’t. I’d still have a hard time believing Bill was gone for good even if Alex Hirsch himself came out and told me.
1. The piano scene, for starters. I know it seemed more along the lines of a fun joke, but then I read the comment on this post and it got me thinking. Why would Bill choose that song in particular, or rather, why was this song chosen for him? It was too early in the episode for us to really call anything right then, but doesn’t anybody else think that it was a bit peculiar? Now, I could be reading into it too much, but after watching Between the Pines where Alex explained about the really really subtle hint with the prism in the author’s room, I’m not about to count it out.
2. Bill’s backwards message, which in my opinion, was the biggest giveaway. During the scene when Bill’s trying to escape Stan’s mind, he says ‘A-X-O-L-O-T-L, MY TIME HAS COME TO BURN. I INVOKE THE ANCIENT POWER THAT I MAY RETURN!’ Considering that axolotl ended up being the code word to decipher the final cipher in the credits, Alex expected most of us to come across this. Now, an axolotl is a Mexican salamander (which Stan supposedly has/had as a pet in the Mystery Shack? I’m still looking into it). If you remove the ‘a’ then you get Xolotl, which I learned (with help from trusty ol’ google) is a god from Aztec mythology that would protect the sun as it passed through the underworld at night. He was also the god of death, monsters/monstrosities (anomalies), and twins. Hmmmmmm, I dunno man, that would have to be a pretty big coincidence, don’t you think? Besides, this is Gravity Falls. When has anything really ever been a coincidence? Just some food for thought.
3. The stone statue in the woods. Now, this could easily be just the empty shell of Bill’s physical form, but what caught my attention was how, at the end of the finale, it flashed again. This could mean a couple things honestly. For one, it could just be a reminder to never forget about Bill and Weirdmageddon blah blah blah all that, but this seems a bit dull for GF standards. It could also be Alex teasing us to go out into the goddamn Oregon wilderness and find a Bill statue that he half buried. I don’t doubt for one second that this is the case and I would honestly love to go search for myself if I could. I do think that this flash of Bill’s statue at the end is perhaps a warning? The music sure made it seem that way. Not to mention that Bill seemed to know of his fate before it happened (which I discovered after stumbling on this nifty post).
4. The fact that Stan’s memories are back. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled and relieved that Stan got his memories back, but wouldn’t that mean that Bill’s still around? Is there some rule like as long as Stan doesn’t remember Bill than he will ‘cease’ to exist? If that’s the case (which I don’t think it is), isn’t that a bit of a huge risk to take in the event that if someone accidentally talked about Bill in front of Stan that he could virtually break free? This whole thing with Stan getting his memories back, while adorable and touching, made me a bit uneasy. It just seemed way too easy.
5. ‘Energy can’t be destroyed’ argument. There have been multiple occasions where Bill has been referred to as a being of ‘pure energy’ both within the show as well as the codes. If energy can’t be destroyed, then doesn’t that mean Bill’s gotta be out there somewhere? This raises more questions about whether Bill is locked up in Stan’s mind, stuck inside that statue, or maybe even banished back to his original dimension.
I think we can all agree that the finale was left a bit open-ended, which I loved. That’s what made it so satisfying for me; it solved the Bill problem without coming right out and declaring ‘Bill Cipher is dead!’ They don’t even really mention him after he’s defeated, and while I think that he’s handled for at least a good length of time, I seriously doubt Bill is just gone forever.
The show might be over, but life still goes on. Just like Mabel and Dipper will come back to Gravity Falls next summer, I think the mystery of Bill Cipher will keep popping up. Maybe not for any of the Pines family, or maybe, never in the realm of GF canon, but I like to think that Alex left us with this uncertainty intentionally. We have been given such a great opportunity to continue being curious, continue being the mystery solvers that we’ve become thanks to the the amazing show that is Gravity Falls.
Besides, if Bill’s dead how boring would that be? I’ve seen this fandom do some incredible things and I’m really intrigued by what we can come up with. Seriously, get those fanfics and comics and stories rolling!
TL;DR: Bill is totally still out there. From the backwards message to the fact that Stan got his memories back, I think it’s pretty obvious that Cipher isn’t gone for good. The details behind it? No clue, but that’s what fandoms are for.
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