I love the fact that the axolotl is kind of a neutral entity.
Many headcanon it as a being that wants to do the righteous thing no matter what. But here it just seems to interfere when it's part of the deity job deal or out of curiosity.
And it's funny because bill thought as well that the Ax would be like a god of justice, and the way he reacted when he realized that was not the case it's so funny, but also made me wonder how they will interact with each other in the future!
Now bill knows the body isn't a punishment, is part of what he asked the ax for, to return, but he never said how he wanted to return, so I guess the ax it took the opportunity to temporarily? stop him. Maybe the ax isn't always trying to be righteous but i'm sure it does want to keep bill from destroying the universe.
I'm dying to know how this develops in the next chapters!
I saved this ask from last week's chapter since this week's goes even farther in making him a neutral entity, with Bill talking about stuff like how he handles "casual meet-and-greets."
I do think that the Axolotl very strongly believes in doing the righteous thing; but like... in the same way as a lawyer that takes pro bono cases for defendants who otherwise wouldn't stand a chance. (This is a No Lawyer Slander zone, this isn't a setup for "oh well if he's like an attorney then he's evil lol" joke.) A righteously-motivated lawyer can take cases all day that ensure a downtrodden defendant has his civil rights respected...
... but because of that, he's not taking the big flashy cases that go all the way to the Supreme Court and help nationally change civil rights. (But if he were taking the flashy cases, who would help THIS defendant?)
... and he might be the pro bono attorney of a mass murderer, in which case some people might think defending him AT ALL is contrary to their idea of justice. (But if he doesn't defend him, who will? Somebody's gotta defend that murderer.)
... and if he's in his office working and he sees a bird outside pecking at a bug, he might stop to watch.
... and when he commutes home after work, he might drive a car that burns gas and makes the environment just a little bit worse.
... and at home he'll probably watch TV rather than spend his precious downtime throwing himself into championing yet another social justice cause.
The Ax isn't a flawlessly Lawful Good Fantasy God, he's just some dude powerful enough you could call him a god if you believe in that kind of thing. And "some dude" can fight for justice without fighting for it EVERY SINGLE SECOND.
A pro bono attorney doesn't look like a figure of righteousness when he's commuting or watching TV or having lunch.
And it's probably hard to see what righteousness he's putting into the world at all if you're the bug getting pecked by the bird or splattering against his windshield. What does his "justice" mean to you? Today, Gravity Falls is the anthill.
And—in spite of the above metaphor—this isn't just some random shitty defendant. Bill Cipher is a big splashy Supreme Court change-the-divine-definition-of-justice court case.
