So your tags with Bill seeing Ford as Stan’s champion makes me think Bill used to be wary of Stan, but Stan constantly ends up playing a damsel in distress role (cause I can’t imagine Stan NOT being part of the action, but couldn’t figure out what else he would do if he wasn’t the one fighting Bill) so Bill got cocky, which became his downfall. Also I think there is something to be said about how, technically, all of Ford’s plans were actually Stan’s which Bill turns a blind eye to lol
(I love doodle ford so much, sorry I am sending so many asks lol)
I'm thinking in the og tales of Lil'Stans Bill was a full on joke villain that was determined to take over the world and reign Supreme in crunchy deliciousness as the king of junkfood. He'd trick Ford with snacks into helping/distracting him so he could steal his inventions, then the Stan bros would go off on an adventure to stop him. Ford would always get into a showdown with Bill and send him flying, while Stanley foiled the invention or ate through his minions.
The idea here is that Stan made several bad guys, some were Ford focused, some Stanley focused, and some were both. So Bill was a Ford focused villain and didn't care to pay attention to any non Bill related adventures. (Stan's bad guys I'm thinking are Darlene, the Tax Man, caricatures of his teachers, probabilitor, while Ford had Bill, Dr. McGucket the memory man (who always reintroduced himself every fight), the gnome queen, and various hay wire inventions (like the kiss bot), they both fought off Stan's bully caricatures(like cramp man), various sea monsters, and The Fuzz, plus a various amount of creatures and other not as notable villains).
When Stan erased himself and started working on more adult themed comics, he reused Bills name and design, going from snacks to the all seeing eye and keeping his jokey personality to make him more threatening. Bill went from junkfood to demonic takeover, but since he's the same character reworked he still has those memories and history. Since he's a Ford villain, he sees Ford as the threat, even though Stan's God and actually wrote everything. It makes him underestimate Stan, which leads to his downfall here.
(And no worries! I love yapping away!)
