Characters / Gravity Falls – Main Antagonists

Gravity Falls Main Character Index
The Mystery Shack (Dipper and Mabel Pines) | The Author | Main Antagonists | Adults of Gravity Falls | Youth of Gravity Falls | Creatures and other Oddities

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Bill Cipher (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Bill Cipher

"Oh, I know lots of things...
LOTS OF THINGS..."

Voiced By: Alex Hirsch

"A darkness approaches. A day will come in the future where everything you care about will change... until then, I'll be watching you! I'll be watching you..."

A dangerous interdimensional dream demon that was summoned by Gideon in his efforts to take over the Mystery Shack. Bill Cipher is the true main antagonist of the series who works behind the scenes in the first season, becomes prominent in the second season, and (potentially) exists at a meta-level than the rest of the show's cast. He is a jovial and sadistic trickster who makes devilish deals to get what he wants, and claims that something big will soon change the world...

You can find Bill's take on it here on his self-demonstrating page or his upcoming Villain Protagonist book The Book of Bill.

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• Above Good and Evil: Suggested heavily by Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun where he writes "Nostradamus was a hack! Morality is a mental cage designed by the weak! How's Annie?"
• Achilles' Heel: Despite claiming he has "no weaknesses," Bill has quite a few major drawbacks.
  • The one thing that keeps him from being more dangerous is that he's unable to leave the mindscape and doesn't possess a physical form. Among other things, this is keeping him from attacking the Time Baby.
  • Bill can possess people, and enter their minds to extract whatever knowledge he wants...but he can only do so if someone willingly shakes his hand and lets him do so. Sure, he can manipulate the rules of the deal, or torture them and the people they love to pressure them into agreeing, but ultimately, if they still refuse that handshake, there's not much he can do.
  • Possessing a human gives Bill a new form of power in being able to affect the physical realm, but, as Mabel demonstrates in Sock Opera... he is still possessing a human being. No longer harboring the abilities of a being of pure energy and having to follow the limitations of a human body is a major drawback.
  • "The Last Mabelcorn" reveals two more: Unicorn hair can act as a barrier to his magic, and in a quite ironic twist, the memory erasing gun McGucket created to get Bill's horrors out of his head turns out to also be a handy way to kick him out of a person he's possessing.
  • If Bill can't get out of the mind as it's being wiped, forced or not? He gets erased along with it or is weakened enough that the mind's subconscious can finish him off. This ends up being his final fate at the hands of Stanley.
  • Whatever force that's responsible for turning Gravity Falls into the haven for weirdness it is is apparently stronger than Bill. Despite all of his reality-shattering power, he cannot break out of the weirdness-attracting field.
  • For unknown reasons, his eye seems to be a weak point, and whenever it gets damaged, it apparently takes him a long time to regenerate it.
• Acid-Trip Dimension: His home realm of existence, the Nightmare Realm. It is populated by many other Eldritch Abominations, who have been trapped there for one trillion years or more. Not only this, but Bill describes his dimension as "decaying". Naturally, they want out, and in "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future", a gateway finally opens for them to the physical world, with the Nightmare Realm visible on the other side.
• Action Figure Speech: When speaking, his body flashes slightly due to having no visible mouth.
• The Ageless: He was trapped in his dimension for one trillion years, making him way older than our universe. And all murals and flashbacks make it clear that, over the course of human history, he hasn't aged a day.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Bill pleads for his life against Stanley in the latter’s mind, promising him riches, galaxies, the whole works just for his life to be spared, only to be obliterated right after.
• All There in the Manual: A lot of background information is dubiously revealed or implied by his Character Blog on Reddit.
• Always a Bigger Fish: He's apparently the bigger fish to the Time Baby, and presumably the smaller fish to the Axolotl.
• Ambiguous Gender: Everyone addresses him as male, but, according to him, he comes from a dimension with 14 billion different genders. So whatever that leaves him as is up for debate.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • To the Time Baby. It's more evident when he is confronted by, and then obliterates Time Baby. For the most part, he treats his torments on the people of Gravity Falls as a game. But in the case of the Time Baby, his murder was a lot more malicious and spiteful.
  • In Journal 3, one of Bill's cryptograms mentions the Axolotl^note Or possibly The Oracle and Time Baby in the same sentence, with Bill calling it the 'big frilly know it all,' implying Bill's relationship with it is similar to his and Time Baby's only the Axolotl gets the last laugh on Bill. The Axolotl's own words on Bill show if nothing else, it has a very low opinion of Bill in return.
  • On a lesser scale, The Pines family. He manipulates Stanford into building a portal machine so he could bring Weirdmageddon through it; he antagonizes the Pines Twins, Dipper in particular; and lastly, there's Stanley since he was the one who destroyed him.
• Arc Villain: For the second half of Season 2, the majority of it is about stopping Bill from succeeding in his plans. Also counts as one for the entire season, but his plans were unknown up until the second half.
• Asshole Victim: It's safe to say that Bill deserved his death for everything he had done.
• Ax-Crazy: A psychopathic, omnicidal creature who enjoys pain and destruction.
  Gideon: You're insane!
  Bill Cipher: Sure I am. What's your point?
• Back from the Dead: Bill invokes this trope in his backwards message just before he's destroyed by Stan: "A-X-O-L-O-T-L, my time has come to burn! I invoke the ancient power that I may return!" It's not clear whether this will hold true or not. Journal 3 references to The Axolotl as some sort of divine being and axolotls are named after an Aztec god of death (and twins) called Xolotl. However, other materials imply this isn't so clear cut: apparently, the Axolotl is Bill's enemy, and he was both acting out of complete desperation and will have a price to pay for doing so.
• Bad Boss: When things are going his way, he's the Life of the Party among his Henchmaniacs. When things turn sour, he starts randomly discharging his power in anger with no concern for their safety. He also insensitively tells his Henchmaniacs to "Walk it off!" when they were hurt by slamming into the Force Field.
• Badass Adorable: While his adorable personality is false, his appearance is still pretty cute, even when he does terrible things.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As "Bipper", he wears a snazzy reverend outfit. Even as a basic triangle, his black limbs, cane, and bow tie suggest a dapper outfit in a minimalistic sort of way.
• Bait the Dog: Because he's funny, goofy, and charismatic, the threat he presented wasn't immediately obvious to the characters or the fanbase until it was too late.
• Been There, Shaped History: We don't get to see the full extent of his impact on the world, but he's been around for a long time, and he has been busy. What we do know is that he contacted the ancient Egyptians, George Washington, and Stanley Kubrick to build a portal to the Nightmare Realm. When they failed, Bill cursed them with intense nightmares, which led to numerous historical events. The pyramids? Tributes to Bill by the Egyptians to appease him after their failure, with time eroding the arms, eyes, bowtie, and top hat off. Washington's wooden teeth? He ground up his teeth because of the nightmares. Some of Kubrick's movies were inspired by the nightmares he was plagued with. Wherever you see the Eye of Providence or a similar symbol, that's a sure sign that Bill has been involved. Also, given the heavy use of triangles in their architecture and the necessity of parts from their ship to build the dimensional portal, Bill is heavily implied to have influenced the aliens who crashed in Gravity Falls. In his Reddit AMA, he implies that Jack the Ripper was an associate of his, knowing about Jack's embarrassing love for clown masks which he reveals because "WHAT HAS HE DONE FOR ME LATELY?"
• Benevolent Boss: He's unfailingly nice to his Henchmaniacs at first...though then again, they're also every bit as insane and evil as he is. However, he's also been shown to summon a mini storm, not caring about their safety, and yell at them when things don't go his way.
• Beware the Silly Ones: He's a rather silly-looking pyramid thing that wouldn't look out of place on a neon sign, and has a laid-back, jokey personality. He's also every bit as dangerous as his reputation suggests, and can make your life hell in a variety of inventive ways.
• Big Bad: The main antagonist of season 2, and the entire series. Bill's goal is to unleash Weirdmageddon, a "party that never ends" which would ultimately collapse space-time in this dimension. He succeeds in "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future" when he possesses Blendin and tricks Mabel into giving him the dimensional rift, letting him enter this dimension in Gravity Falls. However, the "weirdness magnet" keeps him from leaving the valley Gravity Falls is located in. The rest of the series focuses on the denizens of Gravity Falls, lead by Dipper and Mabel, trying to stop Bill before he can escape the valley and take Weirdmageddon on a "world tour".
• Big Bad Ensemble: In his first episode, he teams up with Gideon to retrieve the Mystery Shack's deed vault code from Stan's head and is The Heavy for most of the episode. But his second appearance is entirely independent of Gideon and he soon enough takes up the spot of Big Bad once he puts his plans into motion.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He's fairly affable if everything's going his way. Unfortunately, if he's talking to a normal human, that just means he's luring them into a false sense of security so he can manipulate them to his own ends. If things aren't going well for him as he wreaks his brand of carefree mayhem and he becomes even slightly inconvenienced, he's pissed.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: His eye doubles as his mouth. Also, in his Reddit AMA, one user asked him about the length of the sides on his body, prompting him to respond with "THATS A SICK QUESTION YOU PERVERT". Also, according to him, the thing Fiddleford saw in the portal that led to his descent into madness was Bill removing his exoskeleton to feed.
• Bizarre Alien Sexes: His home dimension has 14 billion different gender identities and there was paperwork involved in determining sexual orientation. He's not exactly been keeping track of his.
• Breakout Villain: In season 1, he was originally a one-shot villain, but with so many cameo appearances and having some connections to the author, Ford Pines, he became the main and final villain of the entire series, also having a special intro of him succeeding.
• Bright Is Not Good: His default form is a bright yellow triangle, and he lights his hand with vibrant blue flames when he's about to make a deal. His One-Winged Angel form in Weirdmageddon Part 3 is a red pyramid with glowing yellow arms.
• Brown Note: "Bill Cipher" is a name he goes by to make his dealings with mortals easier — his real name would apparently turn a human to dust if said aloud.
• Call a Human a "Meatbag": As a "being of pure energy", he loves insulting humans by way of pointing out how, objectively, we're really just sacks of flesh and skin with an expiration date.
  Bill: All right, listen up, you one-lifespan, three-dimensional, five-sense skin puppets!
• The Cameo: Makes a lot in non-Gravity Falls media. Considering his interdimensional nature, this isn't too surprising, but it's best not to think about the implications of what this means for those verses.
  • He makes an appearance on the Simpsons episode “Bart’s In Jail”, introduced as an alternate form of the Norse god Loki giving financial advice.
  Bill: BUY CRYPTO, SUCKERS!
  • He can be seen on a computer monitor of the marriage counselor aliens in the Rick and Morty episode "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez".
  • He can be seen in a book of oddities that Marcy picks up in the Amphibia episode "True Colors".
  • It's difficult to see, but he can be seen as a drawing of a demon in the Demon Realm in King's presentation in the The Owl House episode "The Intruder"
  • His likeness is on a plush toy in a claw machine in the Big City Greens episode "Present Tense".
  • He can be seen on a sticky note in the DuckTales (2017) episode "Beware The B.U.D.D.Y. System!"
• Card-Carrying Villain: He's fully aware that he's a madman and proud of it. Whether he's being directly antagonistic (Sock Opera) or not (Dreamscaperers), everything he does is without remorse and with insane glee.
• Character Catchphrase: He's rather fond of saying 'Well, well, well' to start a conversation in a number of instances. Taken to a greater extent when he taunted Ford in his dream.
  Bill: Well, well, well, well, wellwellwellwellwellwellwell!
• Character Blog: Bill has a Reddit account run by the show's staff, and did an AMA session with it.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • While definitely sinister in "Dreamscaperers", he still maintains a fairly professional air, only attacking the Mystery Shack crew when their interference causes Gideon to call off their deal. It's not until season 2 that Bill's true character as a sadistic, petty, and bullying Psychopathic Manchild comes out in full force.
  • His memetic "Reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, bye!" quote stems from earlier plans for Bill to be a comic relief character that would spout off conspiracy theories to annoy Dipper. These plans were scrapped once Bill was elevated to Big Bad status. That said, he does it again as a Continuity Nod in his appearance on The Simpsons, encouraging the audience to invest in cryptocurrency.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Bill appears as a Freeze-Frame Bonus at the very end of the opening theme, and the Eye of Providence itself is an Arc Symbol that sometimes appears as a drawing of him.
• The Chessmaster: Bill has been engineering events for at least the last thirty years, all to complete his plan of merging his world with the real world, freeing him and his other nightmare demons. This was just the final and first successfully completed plan in a long line of plans executed since, presumably, the beginning of the universe. Previous plans included convincing a shaman to try and build a portal long before it was technologically feasible. When the shaman found Bill out, he set himself on fire ("DRAMA QUEEN"). Also, the original intention for Ford's portal was simply a gateway for Bill and Co. to pass through which Ford thought was for his own research purposes. After Ford spent thirty years in various dimensions, breaking the Rift the portal created upon his return became the new plan. As a Visual Pun, he's seen playing chess with Ford. Ford also writes in code in the journal after he discovers Bill's trickery, "INTERDIMENSIONAL CHESS ISN'T FUN WHEN YOU'RE A PAWN."
• Chess Motifs: His first interaction with Ford included a chess game, where he played black and immediately cheated by going first.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: During his Shapeshifter Swan Song, Bill keeps spawning various forms of himself in a last-ditch effort to break out of Stanley's mind before it's erased, but the erasure screws all of them up so badly that he can't even maintain them for more than a second. When he finally gets a form that's stable, it's so weak and fragile that Stan destroys him in one hit.
• Clothing Appendage: That "hat" is part of his body. When Ford blasts it with a gun, you can see what appears to be bones and organs.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: He thinks deer teeth and a permanently screaming head are good rewards.
• Consummate Liar: He wrote the 'bible' for compulsive lying, in fact.
• Cool Car: He may be a sadistic, inscrutable, and unpredictable Eldritch Abomination, but damn that's a wicked hot rod he has, and it flies!
• Currency Conspiracy:
  • One of Bill Cipher's Early Bird Cameos is on the -12 dollar bill in "Irrational Treasure", where he replaces the Eye of Providence, complete with limbs and hat.
  • Bill Cipher was explicitly modeled after the Eye of Providence, and in a deleted musical number he points this out:
    Look at this money
    Who's that honey?
    Look throughout history
    How could you miss me?
• Cute and Psycho: His simplistically goofy design, generally small size, shrill voice, cartoony effects, and general cheerfulness can sometimes come across as cute. Like when he was messing with Gideon, or trying to convince Dipper to make a deal with him. When possessing the latter, most of his actions come across as both this and creepy.
• Cyclops: Most of his forms only have one eye. The only exceptions are his One-Winged Angel form and his Shapeshifter Swan Song.
• Dark Is Evil: In some episodes he takes on a pitch black appearance. Like at the beginning of "The Last Mabelcorn" or "Weirdmageddon, Part 1".
• Dark Messiah: He either sees himself as a messiah or is actively posing as one. Either way, his hench-maniacs certainly seem to place him on a high pedestal and at one point the farmer tries to hold him on messiah status to try to get on his good side. It didn't end well.
• Deal with the Devil:
  • He agrees to help Gideon take over the Mystery Shack in exchange for help with his secret plan. He acts as the devil in this scenario, and the way he phrases the deal implies that Gideon wouldn't agree to help if he knew what was in store for him. However, Mabel's interference keeps Cipher from upholding his end of the bargain, so Gideon gets off with no consequences. However, at the end of "The Stanchurian Candidate", Bill gets another chance when Gideon summons him to make another deal.
  • He tries it with Dipper in "Sock Opera". Dipper knows that it's a horrible idea, but he ends up agreeing to help Bill anyway in return for the password on the laptop after the laptop prepares to erase all of its data due to too many incorrect passwords. Naturally, it goes horribly, with Bill taking Dipper's body and destroying the laptop before trying to get his hands on the Journal. Bill could still give him the password meaning he hadn't actually broken their deal, he'd just rendered the password useless, so he didn't get kicked out of Dipper's body.
  • He makes one with Ford and Stan in the finale... but finds out too late he was the one on the losing end that time.
  • Expanded Universe stuff implies that his final invocation was one on his end, as the Axolotl gives a cryptic statement that he'll have to invoke its name (which he does) and there's 'one way to absolve his crime.' Add to this the implications in the same material that he and the Axolotl are enemies, and it becomes apparent it was out of pure desperation on Bill's part and there will be a price to pay on his end. Ironically, this one is more a Bargain with Heaven, just a very (deservedly) one-sided one.
• Death by Irony: Bill, the ultimate conman who had tricked majority of the Pines family by using a false promise, meets his final fate after being tricked by a Pines member using a false promise.
• Death Cry Echo: Lets out one when Stan finally destroys him completely.
• Demonic Possession: Bill Cipher can take control of a mortal body if he obtains the consent of his host (or tricks them into giving consent), thus allowing him to directly interact with the physical world. He has done this to Dipper (in "Sock Opera"), Stanford (as seen in a flashback to the past from "The Last Mabelcorn"), and Blendin Blandin (in "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future").
• Determinator: Bill tried to find a way into the physical realm for what could have been as long as one trillion years. He's attempted manipulating humans into building him a portal for as long as humanity has existed, but it was only with Ford that he finally succeeded.
• Discard and Draw: His entrance to the physical world. He gains near omnipotent power, but because his omniscience came from watching the physical world from the Nightmare Realm, he loses his ability to keep an eye on everything at once (since both worlds are now the same thing). Because he is now physical, he can (unlike before) be directly confronted and destroyed.
• Domain Holder: Inverted. He's a nigh-omnipotent Reality Warper in his natural state, but noticeably weaker in someone else's Mindscape, having to actually fight the heroes rather than just transform them away. When said Mindscape is being erased, his powers fail to work at all and he's in danger of being actually killed.
• Dragon Ascendant: Went from Gideon's "minion" to unleashing madness on Earth by merging it with the Nightmare Realm and effectively turning Gideon into his Dragon.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Somewhat to Gideon in Dreamscaperers. Bill is very much his own boss and the deal was only temporary. Upon his plan being thwarted, he compliments the heroes and leaves Gideon to eventually be defeated.
• Dragon with an Agenda: He only followed Gideon's orders in his debut because they match up with his goals (which have something to do with Stan Pines), and because Gideon agreed to aid him in return.
• The Dreaded: The journal describes him as the single most dangerous creature in Gravity Falls. Even Gideon is scared of him. Hell, he's even portrayed with very real dread, as evidenced by Dippers and Great Uncle Ford's interaction.
  Stanford Pines: Just hand me the gun^note The memory gun, p-
  Dipper: Pinetree? Is that what you were gonna call me?
  Stanford Pines: I was gonna say "please", kid!
  • The real-life version of Journal 3 goes a step further and describes him as the most dangerous being in the known multiverse.
• Dream Weaver: He's a Reality Warper on his own, but even restricted to interacting through our world mostly through dreams, he still retains near total control over that environment.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: He's been waiting one trillion years to unleash Weirdmageddon, and it shows.
  "AT LAST! AT LONG, LONG LAST! THE GATE BETWEEN WORLDS IS OPEN! THE EVENT ONE BILLION YEARS PROPHESIED HAS COME TO PASS! THE DAY HAS COME! THE WORLD IS FINALLY MINE!!!!"
  "OH, IT'S HAPPENING! IT'S FINALLY, FINALLY HAPPENING! GAHAHAHAHAHAHA! PHYSICAL FORM? DON'T MIND IF I DO!"
• Early-Bird Cameo: He appears briefly in the intro of episode 1 as well as many other off-hand cameos before making his debut in the season 1 finale, Dreamscaperers.
• Eldritch Abomination: Very quirky and seemingly affable, but is at least a trillion years old, and is still a very alien and incomprehensible being. Even his moniker as a "demon" is rather superficial. The 3D form he takes after breaking into the physical world in "Weirdmageddon Part 1" is an even better fit than his standard 2D form.
• The End of the World as We Know It: His plan is to merge the human world with the dream world, which will destroy the world according to Ford. He dubs the event "Weirdmageddon" and as of the end of "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future", it's begun.
• Energy Being: Describes himself as a being of pure energy.
• Establishing Character Moment: Upon first appearing, Bill psychically ripped out a deer's teeth and gave them to Gideon as a gift, showing both his powers and his psychotic nature.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Though ultimately a False Friend to Ford, the implication exists that Bill genuinely found something of an interesting kindred spirit. Or at least a favorite toy, which is about as close as Bill gets to care about anybody.
  • As long as he's in a good mood, he treats the Henchmaniacs like his legitimate friends and not just mindless subordinates.
  • Despite being a Self-Made Orphan, according to the Axolotl he misses his home and wishes to return.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Apparently hates (those he perceives to be) perverts. When asked by a fan on Reddit whether his triangle sides were equilateral or not, Bill retorted "THAT'S A SICK QUESTION YOU PERVERT".
  • In his first appearance, when he was disguised as Soos, he watched a very invoked Squicky memory of Stan's, which caused him to cringe in disgust.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Bill is incapable of understanding that someone would put the well-being of another ahead of their own. This is apparently why Bill's "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Mabel fails.
  Bill Cipher: I mean, who would sacrifice everything they've worked for just for their dumb sibling?
  Mabel: ... Dipper would.
  • Bill's reaction to Stan letting both their minds being erased is to call him an idiot. Bill tries to beg mercy by offering Stan personal gain, only for an angry Stan to refuse by stating that Bill (despite his high intelligence) was stupid himself for making a foolish mistake in messing with the Pines family in the first place. However, Bill refuses to accept this by claiming that Stan is making a bigger mistake, but Stan himself will have NONE of it for good.
  Bill Cipher: (being trapped in Stan's mind while Ford uses the Memory Gun) What the?! NO, NO, NO, NO!
  Grunkle Stan: (smiles) Oh, yeah, you're going down, Bill. You're getting erased. Memory gun. Pretty clever, huh?
  Bill Cipher: Y-Y-You idiot! Don't you realize you're destroying your own mind, too?!
  Grunkle Stan: Eh. It's not like I was using this space for much, anyway.
  Bill Cipher: (terrified) Let me outta here! LET ME OUT!! Gah! Why isn't this working?!
  Grunkle Stan: (angrily) Hey, look at me. Turn around and look at me, you one-eyed demon! You're a real wise guy, but you made ONE fatal mistake: you messed with my family.
  Bill Cipher: You're making a mistake! I'll give you anything: money, fame, riches, infinite power, your own galaxy, PLEASE!!
• Evil Counterpart:
  • Mabel has some anarchy in her, is a little bit selfish, and likes to have fun at all costs, and Bill is all those things times a billion. Alex Hirsch confirmed Bill has realized their similarities and was using it to his advantage when he tried to get her to abandon Dipper for the sake of her play.
  • To Stanley. They're both rather ruthless con men, they're man children and they have a knack for making deals with people.It's these similarities that allow Stan to trick and defeat Bill in the finale.
• Evil Former Friend: The journals have Ford speaking favorably and personally of Bill until a certain point where he suddenly starts calling him insanely dangerous and untrustworthy. Given his behavior, Bill was likely a False Friend even back then. Turns out Ford had made a deal with Bill in the past, helping him build the portal without telling him that it would lead to the merging of his world with ours. Ford, of course, didn't take this betrayal well and shut down the portal.
• Evil Genius: He's a clever demon and been manipulating everyone behind the scenes.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: The things Bill considers funny or 'rewards' tend to be bizarre and gruesome, like telekinetically yanking all of a deer's teeth out (Deer teeth! For you, kid! Ahahaha!) or gifting Dipper with "a head that's always screaming" Oh, and when he briefly possesses Dipper's body, he states that he finds pain 'hilarious' too.
• Evil Is Angular: Bill Cipher is the big bad: a mind-traveling, conniving demon with nigh Reality Warper powers originally from a 2D universe... and also best described as a yellow pyramid with an eye (yes, a single eye), a top hat consisting of two rectangles and a walking cane.
• Evil Is Hammy: Regardless of motives, he's definitely immoral and a hell of a ham.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Gideon was out of his depth the minute he summoned Bill.
• Evil Is Petty: A major part of Bill's driving motivation, according to Alex Hirsch, is pent-up anger over small frustrations he's experienced throughout his eons of existence. This results in his desire to MC to the biggest non-stop party ever, an act that proves to be extremely hazardous to human life.
  Alex Hirsch: I think Bill is angry at the world for the same reason anyone can get mad at the world. Everyone has days where they don't get their way, where you have to go to bed early or you have too much homework to do or you can't eat the candy you want, or your miss your favorite TV show, and in those moments you just want to tear the whole world down. Bill is a character who's been around for countless billions of eons, but he hasn't grown up in that time. He's a character who has accumulated many frustrations, many moments of destruction like that, and they've built up over time. Now he's decided he wants a world where there is no homework, where there is no bedtime — where you can eat any candy you want and do anything you want.
  • And in his Cut Song, he takes time out from causing Weirdmageddon to do this:
    Bill Cipher: Look at this loser,
    Drinking coffee.
    (Beat)
    Now it's decaf!
• Evil Laugh: Alex Hirsch actually strained his vocal cords.
• Evil Plan: He plans to open a doorway from the Nightmare Realm to the real world so he and his fellow dream demons can enter the real world and terrorize it, in effect, bringing about The End of the World as We Know It. An earlier hint to this was one of the ciphers in Sock Opera:
  "No Puppet Strings Can Hold Me Down, So Patiently I Watch This Town, Abnormal Soon Will Be The Norm, Enjoy The Calm Before The Storm."
• Evil Versus Evil: He hates the Time Baby's guts, and wants a physical form partly just to get at him. The Time Baby, in turn, is aware of and unnerved by, his existence.
• Evil Wears Black: His black top hat and bow tie evoke this. When he takes control of Dipper, he wears a black reverend's outfit to infiltrate Mabel's play.
• Eviler than Thou: To Gideon, whom he Demoted to Dragon. Also, Preston Northwest, whom he turned into a Butt-Monkey.

• Eye-Dentity Giveaway: When Bill possesses another person, their eyes change to yellow sclera with black slits for pupils. In "The Last Mabelcorn", Ford begs Dipper to look at his pupils as proof that he's not possessed by Bill, while in "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future", Bill is able to trick Mabel into making the deal that releases Weirdmageddon because he was hiding in Blendin Blandin, who wears opaque glasses.
• Eye Motifs: Heavy focus is placed on Bill's singular eye, with it being used as a symbol that he's always watching.
• Eye of Providence: His design is based on the Eye of Providence. Appropriate, considering it represents Divine Omniscience (Bill being all-seeing while in the Nightmare Realm) and conspiracies (being the one responsible for the Author's disappearance and all of the weirdness surrounding it). Though ironically, the Eye is supposed to represent the benevolent gaze of God, with the triangle shape symbolizing the Holy Trinity, and Bill is a demon.
• Eye Scream: Whenever Bill takes a beating, it always seems to hit him in the eye. The most severe case was in the finale where his eye was ripped out by a dinosaur.
• Exact Words: When he asks Dipper for a puppet, he never claims it has to be one of the ones that Mabel created, and when he gets consent, he makes Dipper into his own puppet (i.e. a mortal body for him to walk around in). Other than that, he actually averts this trope and lies constantly.
• False Friend: To Stanford, claiming to be a muse of geniuses while manipulating Stanford for his own ends.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride. Bill is very pretentious in his power and knowledge, and always thinks he is above his enemies. He enjoys toying with them rather than treating them like actual threats, which has occasionally given them time to gather themselves for a Heroic Second Wind. However, his pride always comes back to bite him in one critical way; he always underestimates the lengths people will go to for those they love.
  Grunkle Stan: You're a real wise guy, but you made one fatal mistake: you messed with my family.
• Faux Affably Evil: The author's entry on Bill goes from nothing but compliments to a caps lock warning that he's not to be trusted under any circumstances, which implies that this is Bill's MO. By playing nice and downplaying his sinister, ulterior motives, he's able to coerce people into going along with his plans without realizing just what they've signed onto.
• Fighting a Shadow: A recurring problem fighting him: he's still an incorporeal entity in another dimension, so no matter how badly damaged the body he's using is, Cipher himself isn't hurt. He loses this when he assumes physical form, but he also becomes nigh-omnipotent, so it doesn't help much.
• Final Boss: He's the final and one of the most dangerous demons the Pines ever face.
• Flaw Exploitation: As a being that can only influence the world through the deals he makes, Bill is an expert in using what he knows to push just the right buttons to get people to agree to his deals. He manipulates Dipper through his desperation and desire for knowledge, the Author through his intelligence, and Mabel through her fear of the future.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You:
  • The fourth wall doesn't even protect the show's creator. Showrunner Alex Hirsch has been "possessed" by Bill on at least three occasions.
  • Some of the end-page cryptograms are clearly written from Bill's perspective. Given he's constantly watching everyone, it's possible most of them are.
  • During the "Weirdmageddon" episodes, the theme song is taken over by Bill, with the "Created By Alex Hirsch" replaced with "Created By Bill Cipher". The reversed message at the end of the opening titles, up to this point a whispered hint to unscramble the end credits' cryptogram, becomes Bill saying "I'm watching you, nerds!"
  • In the finale, Bill's backwards message^note "My time has come to burn. I invoke the ancient power that I may return.", the cryptogram on the bus^note  "Hidden deep within the woods, a buried treasure waits. Secrets were lost and statues were found beyond the rusty gates., and the very last shot of the series^note A statue of Bill in live-action vaguely hint that Bill died in the world of Gravity Falls, but came back in ours.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: A lot about Bill can be viewed on the Journal's pages if checked close enough.
• Freudian Excuse: Felt trapped by his limited home dimension, so he "liberated" it the same way he's liberating ours. And, according to Alex Hirsch, his relationship with his family is even worse than Stan's.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Implied in this case. In the Gravity Falls: Lost Legends comic (specifically the third story, which is set after Weirdmageddon), 8-Ball and Keyhole, two of his former Henchmaniacs, can be seen in another dimension (presumably their home dimension) looking at a statue of Bill labeled "he was the worst".
• From Nobody to Nightmare: If we take his account of his origin as being trustworthy, he was originally a citizen of the flat, second dimension. He got bored with that, so he "liberated" his world, resulting in him becoming what he is now.
• The Gloves Come Off: Throughout the last episode, Bill's Henchmaniacs get curb stomped and Bill himself gets put through the wringer solely because of Dipper and Mabel's planning and quick thinking. By the end, he has had it with the younger Pines twins and decides they need to die now, taking his most monstrous form ever seen in the show and outright stating he will murder them horribly. He nearly follows through on it until "Ford" gives in.
• Gonk: While non-canon, Alex Hirsch said "canon" human Bill would look like this◊. Talk about a Take That, Audience!.
• Graceful Loser: Averted when his Faux Affably Evil goes straight out of the window when his plans are ruined, but then played straight when he decides to let the kids go for their effort.
  • Completely subverted in Weirdmageddon, where he loses with no grace or dignity, begging Stan for a chance to save himself.
• Grand Theft Me: Takes over Dipper's body after Dipper agrees to a deal with him.
  • He does the same thing to Blendin.
• Great Gazoo: So long as he's in the Dreamscape, he can bend it to suit his whims.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Bill was introduced as someone Gideon summoned for a job near the end of the first season, but with vague mentions of a wider plan. He quickly became the Big Bad proper in the second season, and turned out to have been a major figure in the Author's background as well.
• Handshake of Doom: Bill usually requires a handshake from his "partners" in order to put the finishing touches on their Deal with the Devil. Things never go well for anyone accepting a bargain with him.
• The Hedonist: Bill outright describes his conquest of the universe as "a party that never ends with a host that never dies". He really just wants to live it up and have endless fun with his buddies - too bad Bill's definition of "fun" includes turning the world into an incomprehensible hellscape For the Evulz.
• Hell on Earth: A bridge to the Nightmare Realm would allow him and his fellow nightmare creatures to cross over to Earth, where Bill's Dream Weaver powers would become straight up Reality Warping and they could do whatever they wanted forever. He's finally successful in "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future".
• Hidden Agenda Villain: It's clear that he's planning something, but it's not clear what it is. Finally revealed in "The Last Mabelcorn." He wants to bring the Nightmare Realm into our world, effectively bringing on The End of the World as We Know It. As of "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future", he's succeeded. Uh-oh.
• Hidden Depths: Who would have thought an ancient, extra-dimensional nightmare liked playing piano and singing?
  • At some point, he had a family, and the Nightmare Realm isn't his home dimension — the Second Dimension is. But, as Bill puts it "flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams"; it's expressed that the stiflingly static nature of the dimension drove him to madness, and he obliterated it in turn.
• High-Pressure Emotion: He turns bright red when he's angry enough.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Turns out that Dipper wasn't an ideal host because he'd been sleep-deprived from obsessing about the laptop (which Bill himself manipulated into his favor in the first place). Constantly and senselessly damaging the body he was in didn't help.
  • Even more fittingly, his ultimate fate came from being burned by one of his own deals.
• Humiliation Conga: "Take Back the Falls" is essentially this for him. In order, when the resistance arrives in a giant robot, he sends his henchmen, thinking that they'll be able to take care of the problem, only for them to fail horribly. When he decides to fight himself, he finds out that the shack is protected from him and gets his eye yanked out, the first part has him being thrown around like a rag doll before finding the robot's weakness. When it looks like he has the upper hand, he gets sprayed in the eye, allowing Dipper and Mabel to escape and outmaneuver him until he manages to catch them, forcing 'Ford' to make a deal with him. However, when it seems like he's finally won, it turns out that Stan conned him and traps him in his mind while they both get erased, reducing Bill to a screaming, begging wreck. Expanded Universe material shows it goes a step further: his last evocation was essentially begging the Axolotl, the one being in existence he hates as much or more than Time Baby, to save him...and the Axolotl fully intends to burn him on the deal by making his resurrection/reincarnation a means to make him atone for his crimes.
• Hypocrite:
  • He hates deals that ended up being broken, yet he almost never sticks up to his end of the bargain and always backstabs anyone whom he makes deals with.
  • It's small, but when he takes physical form, he insults humanity for our "ONE-LIFESPAN". If his absolute terror at being erased in Stanley's mind is any indication, he also only has a single lifespan, which he's just as, or in some cases, even more, terrified by the end of as the humans he thinks he's superior to.
• Ignored Epiphany: The Axolotl states that he misses his home dimension and is saddened by its destruction, but he also refuses to admit the fact that he destroyed it in the first place.
• I Just Want to Be Free: His core motivation. He grew sick of being stuck as a 2D being bound by restrictive physical laws and responsibilities, so he unleashes Weirdmageddon to permanently remove anything that might impede his freedom.
• I Let You Win: He claims to have stopped fighting in "Dreamscaperers" by his own choice and responds sarcastically when Dipper referred to that as defeating him. He's got a vested interest in seeming undefeatable, though, so he might not be the most unbiased authority on the subject. A Freudian Slip during his last episode Villainous Breakdown reveals that yes, the Pines twins' victories over him were legitimate, and it drives him up the wall.
• Immortal Immaturity: Despite being older than the universe itself, he has the mindset of a rebellious child.
• Immortals Fear Death: When he's about to be erased after living over a trillion years, Bill is terrified. It's the first, and naturally last time, he shows any fear. Expanded Universe materials imply his invoking Axolotl to save himself was an act of complete desperation to avoid his fate that will have a price to pay on his end.
• Insistent Terminology: No, Bill isn't destroying dimensions, he's liberating them. Glaringly, this is the only matter in which Bill refuses to own up to his madness, whereas everywhere else he's all too happy to revel in it because it's the one thing he might actually regret.
• Insult Backfire: We see that calling Bill insane is never an insult to him. Both Gideon and Ford called him this and he readily admits to being so.
• Ironic Echo: Bill seems to be a fan of this. Bill's "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, you" phrase has been said by Stan in the first episode, in the end of "Dipper and Mabel vs. The Future", the cryptogram asks "DID YOU MISS ME?", something he asked Dipper in Sock Opera and he says "Right? Isn't that what you're all thinking?", something Grenda asks in Sock Opera.^note "Right? Isn't that what we're all thinking?
• Irony: He's designed after and is heavily implied to be the source of Eye of Providence imagery. The Eye is meant to symbolize God watching over us in his omnibenevolence. Bill is a sadistic and hedonistic demon aiming to bring about the Apocalypse, having having far more in common with the other guy.
• Jerkass: A selfish and sadistic jerk through and through.
• Jackass Genie: Mostly averted. Bill doesn't necessarily have to complete his side of any bargain he makes. His usual level of trickery results in getting what he wants beforehand, such as gaining Dipper's permission to possess him with some clever wording, and once that happens he typically ignores his side of the agreement. That being said, if the person making the agreement can't be immediately tricked into giving Bill what he wants, Bill has been compliant in fulfilling his part of the bargain. Further, it appears that without finishing the contract, Bill's magic isn't permanent. For example, he asked for a puppet from Dipper, as a means to possess him, in return for access to the Author's laptop. Bill destroyed it instead to protect his plans, but the next time Dipper's body fell asleep, Bill got kicked out, giving Dipper control over his body again.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: He finally gets his comeuppance at the end of "Weirdmageddon". While his last backward message is invoking the Axolotl to revive him, the Axolotl has no intention of letting him shirk the consequences of his actions and intends that resurrection to force him to 'absolve his crimes.'
• Karmic Death: After making twisted deals the entire series to harm others, he's destroyed when Ford and Stan turn his final deal back against him.
• Killed Off for Real: Ford completely erased him in Stan's mind, with his brother punching him directly in the eye. However, Bill invokes what seems to be a regeneration spell in his final moments via translated backward audio, but it's unclear whether or how it worked. After everything returns to normal, a statue of Bill remains in the woods...
• Knight of Cerebus: Introduced in what's being considered the darkest and most terrifying episode of the series to date, despite his Laughably Evil personality and oddball design. Within his first few seconds onscreen, he telekinetically yanks out a deer's teeth and gives them to Gideon. At least he undoes it a moment later, though it's still rather horrifying. He only gets worse in his second episode, where he starts by giving Dipper a "present" of his own: a severed head that's constantly screaming. Even his entry in Journal #3 is horrifying. Not only are the pages covered in what is likely blood splatters, but a warning is also written in red never to summon him. Taking into account the Author wrote both Journal #2 (which summons him) and Journal #3 (which has an incantation to fight against him), it was an early hint about what happened between him and Ford. Even more so after he merged Earth with his Nightmare Realm, causing an Apocalypse How.
• Knight Templar: His would-be Villain Song definitely implies he sees himself as The Hero.
  Bill Cipher: Look, I'm just a triangle trying to save you
  From the delusions society gave you
  Look at these people, calling me evil
  Right back at you, now you're all statues!
  • He does try framing himself as a liberator when trying to convince Stanford to reveal how to get around the weirdness magnetism, though it's not clear if he's being genuine or not since all he shows is his personal indulgence.
• Knowledge Broker: Very knowledgeable, may potentially know all the answers to the greatest mysteries. Every deal he has made so far has been leveraged with information only he could provide or acquire. He often suggested that knowledge is the key to true power. Ironically, he is forced to go to Ford for help in the finale because Ford knows how to bypass the Weirdness Magnet effect of Gravity Falls and Bill does not. This likely means that Bill's vast knowledge is due to his Dream Walker abilities more than actual omniscience — since Ford safeguarded his mind against Bill's intrusions later on, the dream demon did not have access to some of his latest discoveries.
  "Oh, I know lots of things! LOTS OF THINGS..."
• Lack of Empathy: Not only does Bill not care who he hurts in the process of getting what he wants, he genuinely does not understand how anyone could.
• Laser-Guided Karma: When he starts Weirdmageddon, he taunts Dipper to actually punch him, knowing full well there's nothing he can do. When trapped in Stan's mind as it's getting erased, Stan takes him out with one punch since he's now vulnerable.
• Laughably Evil: All of his villainy is accompanied by a strange and twisted sense of humor. Taking over and/or destroying the world is no different; he's doing it because it's all just a funny, cosmic joke to him. Plus, he's a living Eye of Providence triangle with stick-figure arms, a top hat, and a bow tie. That design is inherently comical, which just makes his shocking levels of heinousness all the most glaring.
• Laughing Mad: He combines this with his Slasher Smile as he tricks Mabel into bringing about the apocalypse.
• Leitmotif: Two. Whenever he appears in a talkative mood, a soft, mischievous bass figure with cascading high notes plays; when he gets angry and begins to show the full extent of his powers, though, he's backed by a frenzied Shepard's Tone synth arpeggio.
• Light Is Not Good: Bill is always accompanied by a bright glow. It's also based on the Eye of Providence and The Illuminati's solar/eye symbolism.
• Literally Shattered Lives: When Stan punches him, he shatters into pieces.
• Logical Weakness: When he pulls a Grand Theft Me on Dipper, he is bound by the physical limitations of his body. As Mabel points out, she knows all her brother's physical weaknesses and Dipper is very sleep deprived.
• Lyrical Dissonance: His cut Villain Song "It's Gonna Get Weird" is an upbeat, cheerful number...about him raining down Weirdmageddon on Gravity Falls and all the horrible things that entail.
• The Mad Hatter:
  Gideon: You're Insane!
  Bill: Sure I am. What's your point?
• Malicious Misnaming: Bill referring to Dipper as "Pine Tree" is not exactly a term of endearment. Aside from Pine Tree being dipper's assigned symbol in much of the show's iconography and in some of the texts seen in the journals, it's mostly used to show that Bill doesn't take him, or anyone he deals with, seriously in the slightest.
• Manipulative Bastard: He takes advantage of people's desperation to keep them from examining his own motives too closely. He's also only been seen making deals when the other party is either overconfident or not in their right mind. He expertly manipulated Stanford Pines into creating the portal, through a combination of charm and appealing to Stanford's ego.
• Meaningful Name: It's no coincidence that the most mysterious entity of the show (and possibly the one with the answer to all the mysteries) has almost the same name as one of the most famous unsolved cipher codes in US history. ^note The Reddit AMA has him advising everyone not to do business with the guy who wrote it. "Bill" might also refer to a banknote, as Cipher's body shape closely resembles the Eye of Providence found on the US dollar bill (which was confirmed in the Between the Pines special). Last but not least, a possible reference to Louis Cypher.
• Mind Rape: His bubbles of pure madness drive anyone who makes contact with them insane.
• Mirror Character: Grunkle Stan. Both are theatrical conmen who enjoy pulling the wool over others' eyes. They also share similar speaking habits ("Eeny, Meeny, Miney, you!") and traits, to the point where Bill predominantly replaced Stan in his own opening credits. It is their similarities that eventually make Stan the best candidate to take Bill down.
• Monster Fangirl: Discussed by Bill on his Reddit AMA regarding his fangirls:
  Bill: WHAT CAN I SAY — CHICKS DIG PSYCHOPATHS! I STRONGLY ENCOURAGE ALL MY OF "FAN GIRLS" TO TAKE SOMETHING PSYCHEDELIC, WALK INTO THE NEVADA DESERT, AND FORM THEMSELVES INTO A LARGE HUMAN THRONE TO AWAIT MY COMING!
• More than Three Dimensions: Inverted; Bill is heavily implied to be a two dimensional being.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: His 3D form in "Weirdmageddon Part 1". He also uses this trope several times throughout the final episode
• Mysterious Past: Was in Gravity Falls a long time ago and he has some connection with Stan Pines and the author. He also possessed a body at some point. Considering the banner hanging in their mansion, he may have a connection to the Northwest family. His AMA states that he used to have family, is old enough to imply that the Egyptian pyramids were designed to look like him and that the tapestry in Northwest Manor depicts a prophecy that would have come true on time for Bill had a shaman accomplice of his been more cooperative. He also apparently made a banking deal with Thomas J. Beale and regrets it thoroughly. And, if his cameo in The Simpsons is to be believed, he's an incarnation of Loki.
• Near-Villain Victory: In the series finale, Bill has countered and played wise to all of his enemies' moves; even managing to have his minions recapture all of the freed citizens and trap the Pines family (including Dipper and Mabel), all just to coerce Ford into giving the equation into breaking down the barrier that would allow him to take Weirdmageddon globally by threatening to kill both Dipper and Mabel. However, this all went moot as he never anticipated the fact that the captured Ford and Stan would switch identities with each other at the last minute so that Stan could fool Bill into entering his mind and that Ford can use the memory-erasing weapon to erase Stan's mind and destroy Bill for good.
• Necessary Drawback: Bill Cipher's abilities allow him to invade another person's mind. Unfortunately for Bill Cipher, in the event that he's inside someone's mind and their memories end up being erased, he'll be erased along with them.
• Never My Fault: According to the Axolotl, he regrets the destruction of his home dimension, but refuses to admit that it was his fault.
• Never Say "Die": Zig-zagged, usually he'll have some colorful substitute for murdering something (i.e. "I've got some children I need to make into corpses"), though, at the same time, he explicitly states his intention to kill one of the twins in the series finale "just for the heck of it".
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • By unleashing Weirdmageddon, he inadvertently saved the crumbling relationship between the Pines family, allowing them to defeat Bill and earn their happy ending in the first place.
  • When Bill vaporized Time Baby after the latter tried to stop him, Bill essentially gave the people of the year 207̃012 their freedom.
• The Nicknamer: When speaking to someone, he'll often refer to them by a symbol associated with them (typically visible on an article of clothing; they've also appeared in a circle around him), e.g. calling Dipper "Pine Tree" and Soos "Question Mark." The only times he drops the habit is when he's addressing close friends or people he respects, or when things have gone to hell in a handbasket.
• No Indoor Voice: He seems to shout everything he says, not unlike the Williams Street interpretation of Brak. Somehow, he manages to shout even louder when he loses his cool. This is a holdover from the original intention of having David Lynch voice him, which fell through. Instead, Alex Hirsch does an impression of Lynch's character from Twin Peaks, Gordon Cole, who always shouted his lines because he was hard of hearing. In the AMA, every answer he writes is in ALLCAPS.
• No Mouth: Or nose. He's quite expressive with his single eyeball, though. His outline pulses in turn with his words. It turns out that his mouth IS his eye, by way of morphing the lids to act like lips to eat/drink as he does in Weirdmageddon.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: After Bill and his fellow abominations enter the physical world, Bill finds his lair assailed by Time Baby and the Time Police. Bill's response is frighteningly abrupt.
• Not Quite Dead: Hinted at in "Gravity Falls: Lost Legends", where two cryptograms say "CIPHER LIVES" and "BILL LIVES".
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims he wants to liberate the heroes' dimension and make it a fun world with no rules or restrictions. However, that would render it pure chaos inhospitable to non-demonic life, and it and his Weirdmageddon back in his own decaying world are heavily implied to be why it's decaying in the first place. Considering his sadism and how he admits he's insane either way, it's very likely his claim is just an excuse for his own enjoyment.
• Noodle Incident: The author wrote in the journals that he considered Bill his best friend. Then something happened that made him cross out that entry and write "Can't be trusted" and "DO NOT SUMMON AT ALL COSTS!" His entry in Journal #3 is covered in blood. Eventually revealed to be that Bill had told the author that he was a muse who came to visit and assist geniuses once a century, he helped the author with constructing the portal, but when the truth got out, the author changed his mind about everything. Also, it turns out that it's red pen ink, not blood. Then even more is revealed in the Journal 3 book release — some of it is blood; Ford's eye bled after Bill possessed him and dropped onto the page.
• Oh, Crap!: An epic one when Stan traps him in his mind, allowing Ford to use the memory gun to weaken Bill before Stan destroys him.
• Ominous Floating Castle: He creates a floating citadel in the shape of himself (i.e. a pyramid). Then he names it the "Fearamid".
• Omnicidal Maniac: The Time Baby tells Bill that if he doesn't stop, he could possibly destroy the fabric of the universe. Bill doesn't care.
• The Omniscient: Bill paints himself as something close to it, claiming to see a "kaleidoscope of temporal probability with fluctuating range" and infinite alternate universes as well as alternate versions of himself. However, while he does boast an incredible amount of knowledge and demonstrates some degree of clairvoyance, Bill is still able to be tricked and taken by surprise, indicating that he's talking up his knowledge to a degree. His lack of true omniscience ultimately becomes his undoing, as he's unaware of Gravity Falls' law of weirdness magnetism until he's already put Weirdmageddon into motion. This forces him to try and extract the equation that cancels out the effect from Ford so that he can take his plans global, giving the resistance an opportunity to fight back against him. Similarly, he doesn't pick up on Stan and Ford's Clothing Switch gambit until it's too late, leading to his ultimate defeat.
• One-Winged Angel: While just getting a physical body probably counts, one of his shapeshifted forms, in particular, stands out: the form he chases Dipper and Mabel through his castle with is by far Bill's most terrifying incarnation in the show. He goes 3D, his body turns red, he gains an eye (now with black sclera) on each side, his bottom segments become mouths with jagged yellow teeth (with the bottom-most having two tongues), and he has six arms (two of which come out of his bottom mouth).
• Only Known by Their Nickname: As revealed by his AMA on Reddit, "Bill Cipher" is just a pseudonym because if we'd hear his real name we'd evaporate to dust with an expression of horror and ecstasy on our faces.
• Opt Out: In his first appearance, he leaves of his own accord after deciding that killing Dipper, Mabel and Soos was more trouble than it was worth.
• Our Demons Are Different: He's referred to as a demon on two separate occasions, though he hasn't used this term himself. While looking and acting very atypical, he has almost all of the powers and methods that you'd expect a demon to have: shapeshifting, possession, using fire, temptation, and striking up deals in order to get what he wants. He's implied there is a hierarchy of sorts by his comments on dressing for the job he wants instead of the one he has and has claimed other demons would be lucky to be on good terms with him.
• Out-Gambitted: Twofold and both times by the elder Pines twins.
  • Firstly, while he does manage to get the rift and blend Gravity Falls with the Nightmare Realm, Ford took precautions to make sure both the Mystery Shack was protected and that he didn't disclose about the barrier over the town which keeps Bill from getting any further. Bill has to practically try to force Ford into removing it so he can take continue his world domination plan.
  • And secondly when trying to convince Ford to join him doesn't work, he holds Dipper and Mabel, hostage, to get Ford to cooperate. Not only did keeping the kids contained take a large amount of effort, but he made the mistake of leaving Stan and Ford together to hash out a quick plan "B" and forgetting to take into account that the two are twins, thus leading to him accidentally bargaining with Stan rather than Ford. By the time Bill realizes his mistake, it's far too late. He's back in the dream world where's he vulnerable, Ford erases Stan's mind with Bill trapped inside, and no amount of bargaining is going to keep Stan from taking him out.
• Out-of-Character Alert: When he poses as Soos, there are a few tells that can clue in an astute viewer just before the reveal. He expresses disgust at a flashback of Stan, in stark contrast to Soos' usual hero-worship of him; and makes casual reference to his 'big fat arms' when the real Soos is very sensitive about his weight, as shown in "The Land Before Swine".
• Paper People: He's quite specifically a triangle, not a geometric pyramid. He implies Edwin Abbott Abbott guessed the closest to what his origin may have looked like. His entrance into the physical realm involves him taking a 3D form, and though he takes on several different triangular and pyramid-like shapes, his Shapeshifter Default Form is still a thin triangular plate. Justified; if his account of his origin is truthful, he was originally from the second dimension; continuing the Flatland, he decided the Gospel of Three Dimensions was thinking too small.
• Perpetual Smiler: His affable tone in his pyramid form suggests this, but he has No Mouth to smile with. Once he possesses Dipper's body and actually has a mouth, it stays in a cheery grin for most of the time.
• Pet the Dog: Within seconds of being introduced, he rips the teeth out of a deer. He undoes it afterward and, considering who Bill is, this is actually rather kind of him.
• Physical God: During Weirdmageddon.
  Bill: I control space, matter, and now that that dumb baby's out of the way, time itself!
• Pintsize Powerhouse: Although he is a Sizeshifter, he tends to stay small most of the time.
• Playing with Fire: Although he uses blue fire, as seen in the picture.
• Practically Joker: Is a nigh-invincible Eldritch Abomination who planned to make the universe itself the ultimate rave party not caring that his reckless actions could result in the destruction of reality. Bill advocates chaos over order, has a disturbing sense of humor and loves messing with the minds of his pawns. He also has a Mysterious Past and occasionally espouses Straw Nihilist views.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He's impressed by the Pines and Soos' efforts to beat them, and remarks they might come in handy later, so he lets them be. The fact that they were visibly causing him pain obviously had no influence on his decision.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Ford said Bill's plan to merge the Earth with the dreamscape he's from is just a game to him. When Bill and his fellow demons were taunting Ford about it being inevitable, they sound like a bunch of guys excited for a night on the town. Once he and his gang are free to roam the physical realm, he acts like a bully who picks on people just to impress them, and their party at the Fearamid is a Teen Comedy Romp, complete with Bill telling everyone to play it cool once the Time Cops show up.
  Alex Hirsch: Bill is a character who's been around for countless billions of eons, but he hasn't grown up in that time.
• Pungeon Master: Bill really likes puns, from literally turning himself yellow when saying "ny'hello?" to his numerous eye/I jokes.
• Punny Name: Given his name, Sinister Surveillance, and the ubiquitous Eye of Providence on US dollars, having bills on you means literally having Bill on you.
  • It's also a pun off of the Baele Cypher, the most complex cipher in American history (and much like Bill, almost certainly all a lie/scam to boot)
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Bill is both terrifying and the leader of the Eldritch Abominations for good reason, in "Weirdmageddon Part 1" he conquers the entire town with his chaos magic and the help of his demonic friends, twists and mangles the face of Preston Northwest, immobilizes Stanford Pines and turns him into a golden statue/backscratcher, and completely obliterates the Time Baby.
• Reality Warper: Is pretty near omnipotent... when he's in the dream realm. Not so much in the waking world, until he makes the two one and the same.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: He has this color scheme in the final form he takes before Stan literally punches him out.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Times when he starts to get more dangerous, his eye can turn red.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: In a rare instance where the Red Oni and the Blue Oni oppose each other, Bill is the immature, vicious red to Time Baby's despotic, yet honorable blue.
• Sad Clown: The Axolotl flat out states that when he claims to be happy, he's a liar and deep down does feel sad he lost his home dimension and everyone in it... but will never admit he's responsible.
• Sadist: Bill likely has no physical needs and doesn't age. On a most basic level, his actions are purely motivated to control and torment people in creative ways for his own amusement.
  (After slapping himself in the face while controlling Dipper's body) "Haha! Pain is hilarious!"
• Satanic Archetype: A more subtle example, and despite also being rather Lovecraftian, Bill fits this trope quite well. For starters, there is the Cipher part of his name, while obviously connected to the algorithm of encryption, but also to Louis Cypher. He also uses a lot of common tropes associated with Satan and devils, including Deal with the Devil, Demonic Possession, Voice of the Legion, and is outright called a "demon". His association with light connects him directly to Lucifer, and the "Eye of Providence" symbol that he is based on is connected to God and His angels, who often are described manifesting as strange, geometric shapes (including a whole choir called Wheels). On top of all that, the actual Stanford Pines mentions in his backstory that a friend of his referred to a "beast with one eye" when he accidentally peeked into an Alternate Universe.
• Seers: He was able to do a perfect impersonation of Dipper "in about three seconds," which means he has at least some form of clairvoyance.
• Self-Made Orphan: According to Bill's Reddit AMA, he used to have a family, and now doesn't. He hints in "Weirdmageddon: Take Back The Falls" that he didn't just kill his family, but everyone who lived in his entire dimension. The Axolotl implies Bill does feel bad for it, but will never admit it's his own fault.
• Sense Freak: Bill mentions that he hasn't been in physical form for a long time, so he enjoys the physical sensations he can experience while possessing Dipper's body, especially pain, which he inflicts on the body throughout the episode. This contributes to his defeat later.
• Sensory Overload: When he possesses Dipper, he regains his senses and instead of being horrified by the damage he inflicts on himself, he finds it hilarious. He deliberately falls down the stairs, repeatedly slams a drawer on his arm and messily drinks soda. When Alex Hirsch drew a canon human version of Bill in a charity live stream, he portrayed him as morbidly obese and highly deformed with crooked teeth. Hirsch drew him this way because he imagines Bill overindulging himself and neglecting his personal health.
• Shapeshifter Swan Song: Goes through one as he's being erased along with Stan's mind.
• Sigil Spam: Even before Bill's official debut, images of a triangle with an eye (and in some cases, even his limbs and clothing) are seen in otherwise random places. As noted in Sinister Surveillance below, it's actually weaponized: Bill is able to watch the world through images of himself, and as such he encourages askers in the AMA to draw images of him as a way of increasing his influence.
• Signature Headgear: A skinny top hat. In contrast to his body, it's three-dimensional. It's not really clothing, though, it's part of his body. It also resembles an upside-down cross.
• Sinister Geometry: He's a simple triangle with an eye in the middle, yet he can still draw plenty of terror out of people by simply manipulating his size.
• Sinister Surveillance: Yeah, those images of him mentioned earlier? Those are peepholes he can look through from the Dreamscape. A page about him in Journal #2 has a picture of him on the -$12 bill that says "Semper vigilantem", "Always watching". Becomes Ascended Fridge Horror at the end of "The Last Mabelcorn" where it shows him spying on the Pines family. He loses this when he merges the two worlds, resulting in him being easier to take off guard.
• Slasher Smile: He sports a rather unsettling smirk while possessing Dipper Pines, and later Blendin Blandin.
• Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Horror dominant, since he's The Dreaded. But he still has a very twisted sense of humor.
• Smug Snake: Bill has three layers to his personality. A goofy facade while buttering up to his potential partners, a smug mocking state when he's got the upper hand and all parties know it, and a petulant state when he knows he's been bested and needs to save face. No matter which mode he's in, he positively oozes condescension.
• Smug Super: Once Weirdmageddon begins and Bill gets a physical form, he brings his Reality Warper abilities with him and proceeds to flaunt his power at every opportunity, conquering the town within minutes. The number of scenes where he doesn't flaunt can be counted on one hand. He's gradually brought through a Villainous Breakdown in the finale as the heroes repeatedly prove that his vast power doesn't make him invincible.
• The Sociopath: Bill shows all the symptoms of sociopathy. Superficial charm without any empathy, manipulativeness and consumate lying; an ability to help others while only using them to serve his own whims (seeing them only as tools to use and discard thereafter), a grandiose sense of self-worth, and a pathological need for stimulation: in his case, Ax-Crazy Sadism; an unbridled taste to sow chaos and hurt others. What little empathy he does feel is toward those he sees as just like himself, namely, his group of close demon friends (who are more like himself according to Axolotl,) he also refuses to believe anything is his fault, including the destruction of his dimension and possibly his race.
• Spell My Name With An S: His name is often misspelled Bill Cypher, even though his name is spelled out on his page in Dipper's journal. Spell My Name With An Eye?
• Stepford Smiler: According to Axolotl, Bill's not as cheery as he always seems, implying that he might regret destroying his own dimension.
  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.
• Static Character: Stated by the show's creators to be the case: Bill has lived for billions of eons...but has never in his entire existence actually grown up or meaningfully changed as a person. The Axolotl implies a large part of this is because Bill will never admit to any of his mistakes, and thus can't change.
• Surreal Horror: All the time, thanks to his eldritch powers and warped sense of humor.
  "You deserve a prize! Here, have a head that's always screaming!"
• Take Over the World: Bill's ultimate goal is to merge the Nightmare Realm with the Physical Realm, and let loose his demon friends to rampage through our dimension and rule over what remains.
• Taken for Granite: : When he leaves his physical body to re-enter the dreamscape, his body turns to stone. And, after his mindscape form is erased, the statue remains all that is left of him.
• Technicolor Death: He starts thrashing around glitching out more horribly than the T-1000, as Stan's mind, memories, and him, are being slowly erased. When Stan finishes him off with a punch, Bill's body briefly emits rainbow colored lightning in all directions before he shatters to pieces.
• Time Abyss: He claims that he's been trapped in the Nightmare Realm for over a trillion years, making him at least some 70 to 80 times older than the projected age of the universe.
• To Create a Playground for Evil: Bill's ultimate goal is to plunge the entire universe into chaotic madness where anything horrible can happen because that's his idea of a party.
• Tom the Dark Lord: You wouldn't expect some guy called "Bill" to be a powerful dream demon who managed to cause an apocalypse on a city and coming close to unleashing it on the entire universe. Despite his name, he is the Big Bad of the show and the most dangerous creature the heroes have faced.
• Too Kinky to Torture: As shown in "Sock Opera", it has been so long since he possessed a physical body (Dipper's in this case) that he enjoys inflicting pain on himself. He slaps himself, tumbles down the stairs, smashes his arm in a drawer and stabs it with forks. When Dipper gets his body back towards the end of the episode, Dipper discovers that Bill caused so much damage to his body that he feels he need to go to a hospital.
  • However, he thoroughly deconstructs this trope in the climax. Between his constant self-harm and Dipper's own self-inflicted sleep deprivation, Bill ends up being too exhausted and crippled to get The Journal back from Mabel while confined to Dipper's body, and doesn't seem to be enjoying himself either.
• Uncertain Doom: Bill definitely did die, but cried out the name of "Axolotl" (backward) asking to return. It's unknown if it worked, and it may have just stabilized his Shapeshifter Swan Song long enough to make one last attempt on Stanley. Some of the comics released after the series have suggested Bill really did come back (Gravity Falls: Lost Legends has cryptograms baldly spell out "BILL LIVES" and "CIPHER LIVES"), but also that the Axolotl is a benevolent being with no plans to aid Bill's misdeeds. It states Bill can only "absolve his crime [in] a different form, a different time", implying he'd only be resurrected/reincarnated as someone much less powerful and dangerous and forced to atone for his crimes.
• Undignified Death: Grunkle Stan faces the prospect of his whole mind being erased with calm acceptance. Bill goes out panicking and begging.
• The Unfettered: Big time. In fact, he's so dedicated to his own freedom that he destroyed his home dimension to break down all physical laws and restrictions, which he now seeks to do again by bringing Weirdmageddon. Described by Alex Hirsch as a "trickster jerk."
• Ungrateful Bastard: His response to being summoned by Gideon is to terrify him by pulling a deer's teeth out in front of him. (Unless that was Bill's idea of gratitude.) Either way, he then promptly tries to sucker Gideon into a deal that would probably have blown up in his face if it hadn't fallen through for other reasons.
• Vagueness Is Coming:
  • His warning as he leaves: a mysterious darkness that will change everything they care about.
  • Comes up again in "Sock Opera", and we learn this time that Bill will somehow be responsible for the "big changes" ahead but nothing more.
  • Eventually, we learn that Bill's Evil Plan is to use the inter-dimensional portal to merge his home (the nightmare realm) with our dimension.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Had shades of this from the start, but officially crossed into it in the Weirdmageddon arc. Basically, in a show with a fair share of Slice of Life and daily moments, Bill manages to be the darkest villain who ever appeared in the series.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Bill isn't too proud to fold when his plans become unsalvageable. He also tries to spin it that he was in control the whole time. How true this is is up for debate.
• Villainous Crush:
  • He hits on Wendy a couple of times while in Dipper's body, though whether it's to troll Dipper or because he's actually attracted to her is uncertain.
  • On the topic of Wendy, on his reddit AMA, he states "WENDY'S MOM HAS GOT IT GOING ON. SHE'S ALL I WANT AND I'VE WAITED FOR SO LONG". Again, whether it's because he's attracted to her or if he just thought it would be funny if he referenced a Fountains of Wayne song is uncertain.
• Villainous Friendship: Has one with his Henchmaniacs, throwing parties with them and bringing them along on his Weirdmaggedon. Downplayed in that it seems to be out of a want for the company rather than care, as he wastes no time berating them after they've been severely injured in battle.
• Villain Has a Point: It was a strategy to manipulate Dipper, but Bill wasn't wrong when he pointed out that Dipper has made constant sacrifices and compromises for Mabel and that at best she has pretty much-done nothing to pay him back and at worst keeps putting herself before him.
  Bill: Besides, what's your sister done for you, lately? How many times have you sacrificed yourself for her, huh? And when has she ever returned the favor?
• Villain Teleportation: Part of his Dream Walker abilities is teleporting and going wherever he wants in the dreamscape.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • In "Dreamscaperers", losing the code to the vault and Gideon cutting off his deal does not make him happy. So he reaches a Unstoppable Rage level and Turns Red. This is then subverted when he calms down, concedes the fight, compliments the group for their ingenuity, gives some cryptic warning and vanishes.
  • When he realizes that he and his creatures are trapped in a bubble around Gravity Falls — and even worse, he doesn't know why — he snaps. His outburst even scares his Henchmaniacs, with whom he never raises his voice.
  Bill: Alright, can anyone explain to me why, even with our newfound infinite power, none of us can escape the borders of this STUPID HICK TOWN?!!
  • His ultimate breakdown in the finale is when he becomes increasingly enraged as he starts to lose the final battle; it finally comes to a head when he's about to be erased, the powerful dream demon gets reduced to begging for his life as his body rapidly changes into out of control forms before he's destroyed by Stan. Even his final backward message is ultimately this rather than a last trump card, as invoking the Axolotl to save him amounts to begging the one being in existence he hates as much or more than Time Baby to save him in a desperate attempt to shirk the consequences of his actions in the last moment.
• Villain Song: The Musical-style tune "It's Gonna Get Weird" written by Neil Cicierega, where he sings about how he's going to remake reality to suit his preferences. It didn't actually make it into the show, but it can be heard online.
• Villains Want Mercy: He pathetically begs Stan to spare him, offering Stan anything he could imagine. Stan has none of it and finishes him off. The Axolotl implies that his invoking it 'so he may return' was also this trope, as it likens it to trying to shirk the consequences of his actions in the last moment, and the two are implied to be enemies. The Axolotl implies he will have mercy on Bill...to the extent of reviving him so he may 'absolve his crime.'
• Vocal Evolution: In his first appearance Bill's voice was much calmer and less filtered in comparison to his second appearance only a few episodes later.
• Voice of the Legion: When he wants to emphasize something.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Takes the form of Soos to trick the twins into showing him the combination to the safe.
• Walking Spoiler: His relationship to Stanford as well as his plan to bring about the apocalypse by merging his nightmare realm with the world makes it hard to explain much beyond his surface motives.
• Weather Manipulation: With his rage, he summoned thunderclouds so fierce they damaged the pillars in the Fearamid.
• We Can Rule Together: Offers Stanford Pines an opportunity to join him twice during the Weirdmageddon. The second time he gives quite an awesome speech to make it sound good.
  "Listen, Ford, if you just tell me that equation, finally your dimension will be free. (Projects himself drawing a smiley face in the midwest United States, then takes a bite out of the Earth and flies past his friends, who are destroying other planets, then to Ford, who is standing in the middle of a galaxy) Anything will be possible. I'll remake a fun world— a better world! A party that never ends with a host that never dies! No more restrictions! No more laws! You'd be one of us. All-powerful. Greater than anything you've imagined! And all I need is your help."
• We Will Meet Again:
  • He says this to Dipper and the company at the end of their first meeting.
  • He sings Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again" from the film Dr. Strangelove to Ford in "Weirdmageddon, part 3".
• Weaksauce Weakness: He really hates synthesized music. No problem with dance music, though.
• Where I Was Born and Razed: He reveals to Ford that he was a denizen of a flat "Second Dimension", but that he "liberated" it by causing a Weirdmageddon there as well. The Axolotl says he feels guilty about it, but refuses to admit that it's his fault.
• Worthy Opponent: He compliments Dipper and company's wit, and as such, claims to have let them live. He seems to have kept this viewpoint in "Sock Opera" to the point that he sees them as a threat to whatever his plans are. Alex Hirsch says that he felt the need to destroy Journal 3 because with it, Dipper was capable of discovering and stopping the activation of the Portal and thus stopping Bill's Hell on Earth plan, which is what would have happened if not for Mabel. However, Bill maintains the ideology that because they're weaker than him, they're still not a critical threat, which comes back to bite him.
• Would Hurt a Child: As "Sock Opera" clearly demonstrates, Bill has no qualms about hurting children. In fact, while he is possessing Dipper's body he hits Dipper in the face, throws his body down a flight of stairs, pours soda in his eyes, and repeatedly slams his arm into a drawer — only to retract said arm with forks sticking out of it. By the end of the episode, Dipper outright says he thinks he needs to go to a hospital.
  • In "Weirdmageddon Part 1", he vaporizes the Time Baby.
  • The finale has him drop all pretensions of civility and flat out intending to kill Dipper and Mabel unless Ford gives him what he needs to break the barrier surrounding the town. "I've got some CHILDREN I need to make into CORPSES!" and "When I get my hands on you kids, I'M GONNA DISASSEMBLE YOUR MOLECULES!"
  • Included in Journal 3 is a note from Bill written while inside Dipper outright stating that he subjected Dipper's body to stabbing, burning, and drowning. He then goes on to mention that his ultimate goal, had Mabel not forced him out, was to throw Dipper from the water tower and make it look like the boy committed suicide! He then ominously asks Mabel if she would like to get in on the "fun".
• You Cannot Grasp the True Form: A variant; "Bill Cipher" isn't his real name. It's just a pseudonym he uses around the galaxy because any mortal who heard his true name would instantly disintegrate into dust.
• You Can't Make an Omelette...: An... interesting variation in his Reddit AMA.
  Bill: HEY IF YOU WANT TO MAKE AN OMELET YOU HAVE TO BREAK A FEW SKULLS! I'M TALKING ABOUT A BRAIN OMELET HERE, MOMMA.
• You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry!:
  Bill: Do you have any idea what I'm like when I'm MAD?

Li'l Gideon Charles Gleeful

Li'l Gideon Charles Gleeful

''"This isn't over. This isn't the last you'll see of widdle ol' me."

Voiced By: Thurop Van Orman

The main antagonist of Season 1. Gideon Charles Gleeful, better known by his stage name, Li'l Gideon, is a self-proclaimed television psychic. He owns the Tent of Telepathy and is a competitor of the Mystery Shack. He had one of the journals, and spent the first season trying to destroy the Pines family and the shack, trying to get his hands on the rest of the journals. At the end of the season, he was thwarted, thrown in into prison, and his journal was seized by Stan, but he still plans on escaping. He represents the pentacle on the Zodiac.

---

• Abhorrent Admirer: To Mabel. Not that she hates him, she just likes him like a little sister she can do girly things with, until he tries to kill Dipper. Then she doesn't like him at all.
• Alliterative Name: Gideon Gleeful.
• Animal Motifs: He’s frequently associated with pigs, due to being porcine and greedy. He has a rather pig-like nose, and is known to let out a piggish shriek on occasions where he's in trouble or has been hurt.
• Arc Villain: The main antagonist of Season 1. He knows that the Mystery Shack is surrounded by secrets, which includes the journals that he's looking for, and he will do anything to get them. In "Dreamscaperers" however, he releases a powerful demon named Bill Cipher to do his bidding. Bill is very much his own boss, and his deal with Gideon was only temporary. When Bill and Gideon return in Season 2, Gideon is eventually Demoted to Dragon.
• Artifact of Doom: The mystical amulet he used to fake having psychic powers is said to corrupt one's soul (and whiten your hair) in Journal #3.
• Attention Whore: As his career path should be a hint to, he loves attention and showing off.
• Ax-Crazy: Considering he tried to kill Dipper for getting between him and Mabel (who very obviously can't stand him). And that was just in his first appearance.
• Beehive Hairdo: His tall, glossy hairstyle emphasizes his feminine personality and gives his tiny stature a few extra feet.
• Being Evil Sucks: Being punished by Bill Cipher for betraying him and forced to dance for all eternity made him realize he's had enough of doing evil and swears it off altogether.
• Benevolent Boss: Oddly enough, to his fellow inmates. Specially his Dragon Ghost Eyes.
• Berserk Button: Never tickle him. Ever.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Appears to be a lovable little scamp to the whole town, but is otherwise a very vile little fellow.
• Blatant Lies: In one of the "Creepy Letters From Little Gideon" segments, he apologizes to the people of Gravity Falls for going "too far" in his attempts to bring down Stan.
• Broken Pedestal: The town sees him as their darling, until it turns out he spied on them so that his psychic act would be more believable.
• Brought Down to Normal: After Mabel destroys his amulet. Not like this makes him any less dangerous.
• Bullying a Dragon: Where do we begin?
  • His antagonism of Dipper post-"Gideon Rises" definitely crosses into this territory. It's typically pure luck that has him get away (physically) unscathed- "The Stanchurian Candidate" has Dipper outright state that he knew Gideon was controlling his father all along, with Dipper not being able to break the screen (or just attack Gideon via attacking the puppeted Bud the same way he did in the former episode) due to a) Bud picking both of them up while their guards were down, and b) the screen ultimately breaking anyway due to being smashed by falling debris from Befufftlefumpter's memorial. Not to mention that in "Weirdmageddon Part 1" he's surrounded by his henchmen...with Wendy directly across from him in a clear path, and Dipper just getting angrier and angrier when he describes in very vivid detail how he plans to keep Mabel trapped forever.
  • Pushing Stan around just to piss him off in Season 1 backfires on him multiple times, since Stan's prone to using the nearest long object in sight to shoo him away ("Oh no, not the broom!") or just yanking him by the collar (which, nonetheless, he usually can't do without being stopped by some authority figure).
  • Mouthing off to Bill simply to show that no one can be wrapped around his finger, though it eventually becomes justified when he explicitly decides to outright become Bill's prisoner and his source of the most humiliating entertainment imaginable for Mabel's sake.
• The Bus Came Back: Reappears in "The Stanchurian Candidate" attempting to have Bud become mayor in order to be pardoned from jail. He then becomes a part of the Grand Finale.
• The Caligula: Definitely has hints of this. He has almost everyone in Gravity Falls catering to his every whim no matter how ridiculous, is very intolerant of being told that Mabel doesn't want to see him anymore (and blames Dipper for it), and he also has a bit of a god complex, even calling the people of Gravity Falls "sheep".
• Camp Straight: He is outrageously feminine, but he has a major crush on Mabel.
• Control Freak: He demands everything that he says be done accordingly.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: And when we say crazy, we mean it literally.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: Confirmed by Alex Hirsch on his Twitter.
• Creepy Child: And HOW! He tries to cut Dipper's tongue out and kill him when Dipper tells him that Mabel doesn't LIKE-like him and he summons a dreamwalking demon to try to get the code to the safe with the deed to the Mystery Shack in it. It's also implied that he has caused his mother to be so scared of him that she's gone crazy, chanting "Just keep vacuumin', just keep vacuumin'..."
  Gideon: (to his father) I can buy and SELL you, old man!
• The Dandy: He and Mabel share a mutual appreciation "for the sparkly things in life".
• Deal with the Devil: During "Dreamscaperers", in order to get the deed to the Mystery Shack, Gideon agrees to perform an undisclosed favor for Bill Cipher in exchange for the code to Stan's vault. However, he backs out of the deal after Bill loses the Safe Vault's combination and decides to just blow the safe door open instead. At the end of "The Stanchurian Canidate", after his latest scheme to free himself from prison is foiled, Gideon decides to retake the deal.
• Deliberately Cute Child: He plays up his cuteness in order to manipulate everyone in town.
• Demonic Possession: In "The Stanchurian Candidate," he uses a spell from a page of Journal #2 to possess his father's body and win the mayoral election for him.
• Demoted to Dragon: In "Weirdmageddon", he is Cipher's lackey.
• Dirty Coward: Beneath his high and mighty exterior, he's really just a scared little boy who knows he's in too deep with whatever evil phoniness he's up to, but can't escape without living vicarously through people (his parents, the former mayor) that he knows aren't actually going to put up a fight. "The Stanchurian Candidate" has him outright state that he was waiting for the mayor to die of natural causes so Bud (via being mind-controlled by Gideon) could thwart his way to victory and immediately pardon him from prison, which, while pragmatic in the long run, just makes him look incredibly desperate, essentially using the mayor as nothing more than a bargaining chip because he's so terrified by the idea of Bud actually challenging someone with the same amount of (former) power as his son, however small it may be, whether it's the 103-year-old Befufftlefumpter or Stan (tellingly, Gideon doesn't even bother digging up dirt on the latter, yet still makes a show about the Pines family not "getting in his way").
  • This seems to extend to all the Pines collectively as well (bar Ford, who he hasn't personally interacted with). Ignoring how having all his henchmen at his side is mostly just a power-hungry thing rather than trying to make himself look brave, he stays a good thirty feet away from Dipper in "Weirdmageddon Part 1" when announcing his plan to keep Mabel locked inside the prison bubble, clearly taking every precaution not to run into a fight with him again no matter how unnecessary said precautions are. Moreover, he's surprised to see Wendy there, indicating that he was just waiting around for Dipper to confront him until enough time had passed to safely say he hadn't survived, not considering the possibility that maybe one of the former's allies might have enough skills to survive and tag along with him. His lust for Mabel does seem to outweigh any fear he has of Dipper (for sporadic periods of time, at least), but he's still willing to selfishly throw her under the bus just for the sake of clearing any evidence (see the end of "Gideon Rises" right before he gets arrested and "The Stanchurian Candidate").
  • A more minor example, but he noticeably crumbles and starts to panic when Stan outs him as a fraud and the town turns to see the real him for the first time.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Was the primary antagonist for Season 1 before getting succeeded by Bill Cipher, the true villain of the show.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Gideon both invokes and subverts this trope. He is devoted to Mabel, but she just wants to be friends, and in-universe everyone seems to think that his attempts to win her over are charming...but the truth is, Gideon is an Ax-Crazy Entitled Bastard who uses emotional manipulation to trap Mabel into a relationship. He performs over-the-top acts of kindness, manipulates her into going into more dates with him by asking her very publicly in front of large crowds of Gravity Falls citizens who think it's just so adorable that Gideon might finally get a girlfriend, and completely ignores her wish to not be in a relationship with him. Eventually, Dipper tries to break the news that Mabel is not interested in Gideon to him, and Gideon responds to this by attempting to murder Dipper because he believes that Dipper got in between him and Mabel. Thankfully, Mabel sees this and intervenes, and she rejects him not only romantically, but as a friend, too.
  Mabel: (after rejecting Gideon again) But we can still be makeover buddies, right? Wouldn't you like that?
  Gideon: Really?
  Mabel: (rips amulet away from Gideon) No, not really! You are, like, attacking my brother! What the heck!?
• Domestic Abuse: Hinted at. His parents are severely intimidated by him, especially his mother. He regularly and loudly belittles his father, and in "The Stanchurian Candidate", Gideon uses magic to possess his father, something shown to be excruciatingly painful.
• The Dragon: To Bill in "Weirdmageddon Part 1" until he defects.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: During the season 1 finale, after Gideon steals the Mystery Shack, Dipper and Mabel invoke this to enlist the help of the gnomes, promising Jeff that he can marry Gideon by describing him as a "beautiful girl with white hair". When Gideon later gets the upper hand by using a dog whistle on the gnomes, they swear allegiance to "the most beautiful girl [they] have ever seen". Gideon angrily shrieks that he's not a girl, greatly confusing the gnomes.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Appears in one of the pictures in the opening. Also appears on the back of the magazine Dipper was reading in "Legend of the Gobblewonker".
• Easily Forgiven: Played with; while Mabel is still creeped out by him, she and the others don't have time to hold grudges due to Bill. Later on, he attends the twins' birthday party with no objection.
• Entitled to Have You: "Your sister will be MINE!"
• Enfant Terrible: One of the biggest and most credible threats to the Pines family, and at only 10 years old. Think Disney's version of Eric Cartman.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He seems to have come to care for his adult prison inmates as much is possible for him to care about anyone, particularly his "hench-angel" Ghost Eyes.
  • While his crush on Mabel is creepy and totally unreciprocated, at the end of "Weirdmageddon Part 1", he turns on Bill to buy Dipper some time to rescue Mabel. Say what you will about him, he's willing to sacrifice himself to save someone he knows will never love him back.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He is genuinely disturbed by Bill Cipher's "present" of teeth that he just saw him telekinetically yank out of a deer's mouth.
• Evil Counterpart: To all three of the core main characters, amazingly.
  • An evil counterpart to Dipper in several respects: they are both incredibly mature and intelligent despite their respective ages, they are both journal holders (though Gideon has since lost his), they both have crushes on girls three years older than they are (9-year-old Gideon on 12-year-old Mabel, and 12-year-old Dipper on 15-year-old Wendy), and they're both all too eager to enlist supernatural help to achieve their goals without thinking through the potential consequences. They also are both driven to discover the secrets of Gravity Falls, for differing reasons. The similarities end there, however, as beyond that their personalities clash heavily.
  • He is also an evil counterpart to Stan in several respects. They're both businessmen who make a living out of faking the supernatural (Stan with his fake exhibits, Gideon with his phony psychic act) while possessing links to and knowledge of the genuine paranormal, both are brilliant showmen and con artists able to easily entertain and trick the masses, and both are a lot more aware and intelligent than they first appear. Furthermore, their personalities are inversions of each other and contrast perfectly; Stan initially comes across as selfish, gruff and cold, but really is a warm hearted and compassionate individual (to his family and ones he cares about at least), while Gideon initially comes across as (and makes a big thing of having) a kind and loving image, but is really a cold blooded, cowardly, self-absorbed sociopath who only cares about himself. This is taken even further by the reveal that they both possessed journals and have both been searching to unlock the secrets of Gravity Falls; while Gideon longs to do so to use the power to rule like a king, Stan's entire motivation is to save his lost brother.
  • Even to Mabel; there's a reason they got along in the beginning. Both are highly creative, good at socializing, and have a love for the "sparkly things" in life. Both also have magnetic personalities that others love to be around and have problems recognizing faults in (well, until Gideon is arrested), and both have a problem with selfishness. But while Mabel usually bears no deliberate ill will and often will feel bad when she realizes her misdeeds, Gideon has a distinct Lack of Empathy and seems to revel in it.
• Evil Genius: Considering he's only nine and he's able to be a competent business rival for Stan, set up plans to conquer the world & manipulate everyone in the town.
• Evil Is Hammy: Has a very high strung and volatile personality.
• Evil Is Petty: Even when he's not trying to drive the Pines family out of their home, he's usually seen tormenting Stan.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Much notice is taken of his cherub-like appearance, especially his cute baby face. He exploits this to hide his sociopathic nature.
• Fat Bastard: He's overweight and evil as they come.
• Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: Well, a light blue suit (also he's actually from Oregon despite his accent), but the effect is much the same.
• Faux Affably Evil: Calling Dipper "friend" while trying to cut out his tongue and kill him definitely qualifies him for this. He is also remarkably bad at hiding his animosity towards the Pines, though nobody else seems to notice.
• Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: While he was already a psychopathic, fraudulent criminal mastermind on the outside, he becomes a full-fledged gang leader in jail.
  • As shown in a "Gravity Falls Public Access TV" short, he's since reinvented himself as an "inspirational" life coach after the loss of his amulet and appears to be gaining followers amongst the more mentally unstable inmates by feigning interest in their problems. Later episodes show that this isn't actually feigned, he seems to have genuinely bonded with them.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He requires very little provocation to fly off the handle.
• Hammerspace Hair: He hides pieces of the journal inside his over-sized pompadour.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: What his Heel Realization (see below) ultimately is, to the point that Alex Hirsch himself states that this isn't really redemption for Gideon, and that he may never actually redeem himself at all. His main motivations for his actions are mostly born of powerlust, and part of the reason why he turns on Bill to work with Dipper, who he still very much hates, is to prove that he's no one's lackey. However, this does graduate into a Heel–Face Turn in Part 3, where he decides to fully join the heroes against Bill and gives up evil altogether. Sure, he gets his henchmen to beat up a bully who made fun of him, but at least he's trying, and he's nice enough to attend the Twins' birthday party with no more visible animosity.
• Heartbroken Badass: As of "Weirdmageddon", he finally seems to accept that Mabel will never return his feelings for her (his previous plan being to wait for an eternity until her spirit was finally broken in captivity) and decides to redeem himself instead by charging into Bill's minions to aid Dipper and his friends in her rescue. Dipper even promises to honor Gideon's request to tell Mabel of his sacrifice.
• Heel Realization: Played with in that while his motives are still somewhat selfish, he decides to act for good instead. In Weirdmagedddon, Gideon helps capture Mabel and puts her in her crystal prison, with Bill promising him that she will love him. After he calls Bill's goons to capture Dipper, Wendy and Soos, Dipper convinces him that by doing an ostensibly heroic thing for Mabel rather than an outright villainous one to her, she might at least be able to see Gideon in a better light. After a reflection, he leads his prison gang in what's heavily implied to be a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His surveillance on the town to appear psychic, ultimately just a minor scheme compared to his other plots, is what finally gets him caught for his crimes.
• "I Am" Song: "Li'l Ol' Me". Not quite a Villain Song, but certainly egocentric.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: In the finale, Gideon decides after everything he went through, he swears off evil altogether and decides he just wants to be a regular kid...albeit retaining leadership over his prison gang.
• If I Can't Have You…: He won't hesitate to try to kill Mabel alongside her brother if she doesn't agree to be his queen.
• Ironic Name: His surname "Gleeful" is very contradictory to his default personality throughout the show.
• Jerkass: He's nothing but sociopathic towards others, including the Pines family (at least, up until the end).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Becomes this in the Weirdmageddon arc, giving up all animosity he once had for the Pines family and opening up his heart to kindness.
• Kick the Dog: He pulls this on Dipper hard in "Gideon Rises", taunting Dipper for having no muscles, no brains, and only winning victories because of the journal that Gideon just took.
  • He also kidnaps Mabel's pet pig Waddles when he steals the Mystery Shack and tries to turn him into "Li'l Gideon Jr.," his mascot. Waddles isn't happy about this, but when Gideon spots him looking longingly out the window, he shouts at Waddles and makes him go back into the corner.
• Laughing Mad: In "Little Dipper". Exploited, even. He is defeated when Dipper and Mabel tickle him enough to make him lose control.
• Leitmotif: A short, unsettling melody on music box and theremin that plays whenever he's particularly angry and brooding.
• Light Is Not Good: In contrast to the dark and mysterious air put forth by Stan and the Mystery Shack, the Tent of Telepathy contains a brightly lit stage, with Gideon frequently wearing bright, flashy outfits.
• Likes Older Women: He has a crush on Mabel, who's three years older than him.
• Locked into Strangeness: A side effect of using his amulet, besides corrupting his soul, was whitening his hair.
• Love Makes You Crazy: Though he was definitely messed up before he met Mabel, sudden Yandere tendencies aside.
• Love Redeems: It's his love for Mabel that ultimately causes him to betray Bill, and, thus, help Dipper save the world.
• Manipulative Bastard: Controls the town through a cute and childish facade and pressures Mabel to continue dating him by putting her in situations where she'd feel guilty turning him down.
• Mean Boss: He regularly belittles his parents.
• Meaningful Name: Gideon can mean "feller of trees" which is fitting as he has a rivalry with the Pines family, and tries to hack them to pieces (quite literally so in Dipper's case).
• Mood-Swinger: Good God, is he ever. In one moment, he'll talk like a friendly, cute child; the next he'll suddenly start screaming threats like a madman or running around and shrieking like a greased pig.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: He attempts to cut Dipper in half with a pair of sheep shears after Dipper tells him that Mabel doesn't want to see him anymore.
• The Napoleon: Not touched upon much, but his lack of height seems to affect him, such as him forcing others to lift him up so he can address people face to face.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had Gideon not put a pin on Stan during his opening speech in the Season 1 finale, Stan wouldn't have figured out the truth, the twins would be in prison, and Gideon would have been victorious.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Gideon's age and the Tent of Telepathy's Scam Religion overtones are evocative of Marjoe Gortner, famous for being a morally dubious evangelist at the age of four.
• No Indoor Voice: His parents don't even try to talk sense into him because they (especially his mom) are so afraid of his violently loud responses.
• Not Good with Rejection: He doesn't take it well when Dipper informs him that Mabel doesn't want to date him.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Dipper eventually finds out that Gideon actually has powers after all. What he hasn't found out at the time is that he also has a journal like his.
• Not-So-Phony Psychic: Played with in that he's wielded genuine occult powers, but they come from artifacts and rituals he uses, not inborn abilities. The psychic powers he uses for business are entirely fake and he's exposed for such in the first season finale.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: He's the younger villain when up against Stan.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Some of his interactions with Mabel, such as giving her gummy koalas.
  • His relationship with his prison inmates, in particular when he's genuinely concerned after Wendy beats up Ghost Eyes and he later attempts a Heroic Sacrifice following his Heel Realization.
  • After Bill Cipher has been defeated, he attends the Twins' birthday party, and he even signs Dipper's farewell card.
• Psycho Ex-Boyfriend: Does not react well after knowing that Mabel wanted to break ties with him.
• Psychic Powers: Claims to have them. He does, but only as long as he has his amulet/lucky bolo tie. His powers are mentioned again in the season finale with him knowing things that should be impossible only for Stan to reveal the Gideon pins that were handed to everyone are bugged with cameras so he can watch and hear everyone's secrets.
• Punny Name: "Giddy and Gleeful".
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: He uses this to great effect as part of his Deliberately Cute Child persona, and that's how he manages to get Mabel to agree to go out with him. It's even lampshaded during his show at the Tent.
  Gideon: I predict that you will soon all say, "aw."
  Crowd: Aww!
• Put on a Bus: For the entire first half of Season 2, save for a cameo of him in his cell in the premiere.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: In the finale. He has given up on doing evil schemes and tries to be a normal, nice kid, but he still has no problem sending thugs to beat up a bully who insults him.
• The Rival: To the Pines family in general; in some episodes he's the rival to Stan, others he's the rival to Dipper.
• Simpleton Voice: Gideon has the voice of a southern accented Flapjack and while he sounds a tad goofy, it also proves to be quite unsettling.
• Sitcom Archnemesis: To Stan, in episodes where he's not the main antagonist.
• Sissy Villain: Mabel even mentions that she initially liked him as a little sister figure.
• Small-Town Tyrant: Gideon is able to manipulate his popularity and money to effectively rule the town, having the police department and nearly everyone in his pocket.
• Smug Snake: While he has his moments of genuine cleverness, he ultimately gets in his own way by thinking that he's much, much smarter than he really is. He throws a childish tantrum when he finds out there's three journals instead of just two.
• The Sociopath: Probably one of the characters on the show that best fits the criteria for antisocial personality disorder: he is vain, self-centered, selfish, power-hungry but incredibly intelligent, manipulative, deceitful, and has a complete disregard for the rights or even lives of others. He doesn't even display any affection for his own parents and his fixation on Mabel is more obsession than anything, something quite common in some sociopaths. He only comes to develop some real affection for people after suffering in prison.
• Southern-Fried Genius: Well, evil genius anyway, but he's demonstrated well above average intelligence, especially for his age. It's another part of what makes him so terrifying.
• Spoiled Brat: You especially see it when his dad asks him to clean up the mess he made of his room. Gideon's response?
  "I CAN BUY AND SELL YOU, OLD MAN!"
  • Gideon's mother is actually terrified of him; his very presence mortifies the poor woman.
• Stalker with a Crush: Gideon still maintains an obsessive crush on Mabel, despite getting rejected by her many times.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Is revealed to have planted miniature cameras throughout the town by way of his pins in "Gideon Rises."
• Take Over the World: He plans to do this once he has all three books in his possession. When this fails, he settles for becoming Bill's right-hand man during the apocalypse.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Very downplayed in Season 2. During his time in prison, he's gained a touch of sincerity from bonding with his cellmates, and this is what earns their respect enough to become his henchmen. After his Heel–Face Turn, he became much nicer towards the younger Pines Twins, even thanking them for putting him on the right path.
• Troll: When he's not making moves against the Pines or terrorizing his parents, Gideon's preferred activity is giving Stan grief, such as by throwing tomatoes at him when he's locked in the stocks in "Irrational Treasure" or taunting him over having taken his favorite pool chair in "The Deep End".
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Summoning demons and plotting murder at the age of nine.
• Unexplained Accent: He speaks with a Southern accent, even though we know that he was born in Oregon.
• Ungrateful Bastard: His parents have spoiled him rotten giving him everything he wants and going along with all his schemes, and he repays them with relentless abuse and belittlement, to the point that his mother has become a shell of her former self and his father repeatedly has his memory wiped just to forget it.
• Villainous Breakdown: He has some minor ones across the show, but always recovers before the episode's through... with the exception of "Gideon Rises", in which he starts losing his shit entirely when he notices he still needs to find one book. His breakdown reaches its peak when he's defeated for good, and his last minutes onscreen are spent on desperate, furious and barely comprehensible ranting.
  • And by the time we see him in "The Stanchurian Candidate"...well, prison time did a number on him.
• Villainous Crush: On Mabel.
• Villainous Friendship: With Ghost Eyes and the other inmates.
• Villain Decay:
  • Zig-zagged. After outright trying to murder Dipper in his first appearance, his subsequent appearances consist mostly of petty jabs against Stan. He regains some of his menace in "Little Dipper", and by the end of "Dreamscaperers" he's officially in the Big Bad seat.
  • Essentially, when he's not the primary antagonist, all of his cameos count as Villains Out Shopping, or show the Poke the Poodle-type mischief that he keeps himself occupied with. His physical weaknesses also leave him vulnerable against Stan armed with a broom, so he's usually quite easy to keep out of the Shack.
  • While he averts it in his first re-appearance in Season 2, "The Stanchurian Candidate", it's played straight in "Weirdmageddon Part 1", where he is just a flunky to the true Big Bad Bill Cipher, and his usual creepiness is completely absent in favor of the pure comedy of him being a stereotypical corrupt hick sheriff (as Wendy puts it, "He's gotten folksier!"). Genuinely caring about his fellow prison inmate gang members also neuters his villainy. In the end, his Hazy-Feel Turn doesn't come off as too surprising as a result.
• Villains Out Shopping:
  • In "Irrational Treasure", he participates in Pioneer Day and throws tomatoes at Stan.
  • In "The Deep End", he takes a break from plotting against the Pines family to enjoy a day at the pool. However, he does end up in a squabble with Stan over a chair.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Everyone considers him to be a cute lovable child. They eventually find out the horrible truth.
• Vocal Dissonance: His voice isn't anything fit for a 9-year-old.
• White Hair, Black Heart: He's got snow white hair and is a power-hungry psycho who will do anything to get what he wants.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: An invisible passage in the defictionalized Journal #3 reveals that the mystic amulet he used in his first appearance "corrupts your soul and whitens your hair," implying that Gideon's vicious personality may be due to its influence.
• Yandere: He's got a crush on Mabel. Doesn't stop him from trying to murder her family.
• Younger Than They Look: Because of his white hair and voice, Gideon may look older to first time watchers. He's actually supposed to be 9 (later 10) years old.
• Youthful Freckles: Along with having cute chubby cheeks, he also has adorable freckles on top of them, which he uses to play up his Deliberately Cute Child facade.

Nathaniel Northwest

Nathaniel Northwest

The 19th century frontiersman who founded Gravity Falls. Except he didn't found it.

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• Alliterative Name: Nathaniel Northwest.
• Asshole Victim: A horrible monster of a human being who was ultimately killed after he went crazy, and in attempting to eat a tree to prove he was a wizard, choked to death on a piece of bark. Nobody shed a tear.
• Beard of Evil: An incredibly long brown one.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Turns out a lot of the events of the series were kickstarted by him. He was selected to be the "founder" of Gravity Falls to cover up President Trembley (which kickstarted the events of "Irrational Treasure"), then he ordered the construction of a massive mansion, which the Northwest family would live in until the series finale. The process of the mansion's creation led to a massive cemetery filled with lumberjack corpses, and one of the lumberjacks, Archibald Corduroy, became a ghost that cursed the Northwests (thus setting up the events of "Northwest Mansion Mystery"). Journal 3 reveals that the land that the lumberjack cemetery was on was eventually sold to Stanford Pines, resulting in the construction of the future Mystery Shack; the lumberjacks are eventually brought to un-life by Dipper in "Scary-oke," which is why there are so many zombies in that episode.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He died eating the bark of a tree to prove he was a wizard.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Goes from a local manure shoveling idiot to a greedy, heartless elitist.
• Hated by All: According to the government account, he was actually hated by everyone when he was alive, and nobody missed him after his death.
• Hate Sink: He ordered the commoners to build a huge mansion which cost the lives of many lumberjacks and innocent people in order to flaunt his fortune in front of others, promising them a big party in return. Except he didn't even do that; he laughed at them and kicked them out as soon as the mansion's construction was complete, directly causing one lumberjack to invoke a Dying Curse by manifesting himself as a ghost to terrorize the Northwests 150 years in the future, hoping that he could force them to uphold their end of the bargain. The sad part is that everyone who ever knew of his vile nature is long dead.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: He was actually a garbageman who was given the title of the founder to cover up the existence of Quentin Trembley. He was also a cheat who cruelly conned the townspeople out of a party.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Easily the cruelest human who ever appeared in the show.
• Hypocrite: Despite his humble beginnings, he became a classist snob the second he became wealthy.
• Jerkass: He is the reason why the Northwest family are uncaring and unloving, to both their daughter Pacifica and the people of Gravity Falls. His being the founder of Gravity Falls was a lie and he was given money for the coverup, and he abused his wealth by having the townsfolk build him his mansion in exchange for letting them be invited to his annual parties and then gleefully reneged on the promise. This act is also what caused the Monster of the Week, a Lumberjack ghost, to threaten the lives of his successors. His cruel and uncaring ways were passed down for generations, with Pacifica's parents emotionally abusing their daughter into following their legacy.
• Lack of Empathy: Had no qualms about cheating the lumberfolk out of their deserved reward, even though many of them actually died creating his mansion.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Not long after he cheated the lumberjacks, Nathaniel grew mentally unstable and eventually died eating the bark of a tree to prove he was a wizard.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: The modern government records believe that Nathaniel was really an idiot who killed himself trying to eat a tree to prove he was a wizard. However, as a flashback shows, he was a shrewd and ruthless man who tricked the lumber folk into building him his mansion and then cheated them out of their payment. He was also sharp enough to keep a record of the lumberjack's curse to warn his descendants, and those descendants would wait for a suitable chump to clean up his mess.
  • It is possible that he really did die in such a manner, but less due to idiocy and more due to mental degeneration in his old age, as he was very clearly not a mentally healthy person as it was.
• Our Founder: He's the founder of Gravity Falls. Or that's the official line anyway. Turns out it was a lie created by the government to hide the existence of Quentin Trembley.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Implied — one of the images in the Northwest's room of their crimes is him making a deal with a Native American while smirking and crossing his fingers.
• Posthumous Character: Long dead by the time the series occurs, but the effects and consequences of his actions are still felt to this day.
• Rags to Riches: He was a mere sanitation worker who was lucky enough to be randomly awarded with lots of wealth by the government.
• The Sociopath: We see where Preston gets it from.
• Undignified Death: Already mentally unbalanced, his issues eventually worsened into full-blown madness that consumed and transformed him into an addled husk of a man that ultimately perished eating tree bark out of a delusional belief that doing such would prove he was a wizard.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Promised the townspeople of Gravity Falls a party if they built him a mansion, only to lock them out and laugh in their faces after they gave sweat and blood (not to mention multiple lives, which were lost in the construction) to do so.
• Walking Spoiler: Knowing much about him will spoil much of the events of "Irrational Treasure" and "Northwest Mansion Mystery."
• Wicked Cultured: Began the trend of the Northwests being evil, but from what we've seen of his home and parties, he certainly adopted good taste very quickly.

Preston Northwest

Preston Northwest

"Look at who you're talking to, boy. I'm hosting a party for the most powerful people in the world. Do you think they'd come here if they had to rub elbows with your kind?"

Voiced By: Chris Parnell ("Irrational Treasure"), Nathan Fillion (season 2)

The main antagonist of "Northwest Mansion Mystery". He is Pacifica's father and patriarch of the Northwest family, the founder of Gravity Falls. A rich and publicly loved figure for the town, he shows immense disdain for the poor and everyone beneath him.

---

• Abusive Parents: Is all-but-stated in "The Golf War" to emotionally abuse Pacifica. "Northwest Mansion Mystery" reveals that he has used Pavlovian conditioning on her, training her to meekly back down from opposing him at the sound of a bell.
• Apocalypse Cult: If that picture of Bill Cipher being worshipped in the Northwest house is any indication, not to mention his immediate response to Bill's arrival being offering to join him.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: And proud of it, even though the "Aristocrat" part is inaccurate.
• Asshole Victim:
  • In "Weirdmageddon Part 1", Preston becomes the first person to fall victim to Bill's magical antics, by receiving a very painful transformation. But he is probably the most deserving victim of Bill Cipher.
  • By the series finale, he is forced to sell his mansion after investing all of his fortune in Weirdmageddon. While the Northwests still have liquid assets, especially from the sale of the house, the drop from "fabulously wealthy" to "relatively well-off" and the considerable loss of prestige in the town for being known as The Quisling is a nice karmic smackdown for someone who snootily prided themselves on being the crème de la crème.
• Bad Boss: Planned to murder and eat their butler when the food in the panic room ran out.
• Big Bad Wannabe: On a grander scale of things. While there were hints of him having larger ambitions, he's a blowhard without forward thinking, and is unlucky enough to be overshadowed by more dangerous or competent villains like Gideon, the Lumberjack ghost, and Bill Cipher. In the end, it's clear he's nothing more than an Opportunistic Bastard; when he tries to negotiate with Bill, he learns the hard way that Bill's not interested in his help.
• Blue Blood: Claims to have this, being descended from legendary explorer Nathaniel Northwest. Nathaniel was actually a waste-shoveling village idiot who lucked out when the government declared him the founder of Gravity Falls as part of the conspiracy to unperson Quentin Trembley.
• Body Horror: His face is horrifyingly disfigured by Bill, after attempting to save himself by offering to join Bill's side.
• Butt-Monkey: He is reduced to this in "Weirdmageddon".
• Card-Carrying Villain: "Northwest Mansion Mystery" reveals that the Northwest family empire was built on a foundation of lies, backstabbing, and treachery. Not only that, a series of portraits in the mansion attic reveal that the Northwest family is very proud of their heritage, immortalizing some more horrible deeds committed by their family in paintings. Even Pacifica wasn't in on this.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Though it is horrifying how he treats his daughter, his Large Ham attitude and complete disregard for human life is kinda hilarious.
• Control Freak: "That's not how the forks should be placed!"
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He actually encourages this behavior towards the common folk, and his family has been doing it for over a century. Dipper ends up making the move first because he discovered the Northwests' lies before Preston could even try. Bites him hard in ''Weirdmageddon Part 1", where his willingness to turn on the town in order to save his own skin gets him agonizingly punished by Bill.
• Demoted to Dragon: Played with. When Bill Cipher shows up, Preston wants this to happen, but Bill views Preston as beneath him, finding this attempt to be rather pathetic. Given how Preston has treated commonfolk like dirt and refused to invite them to his parties, for once he's the one on the receiving end of this kind of treatment, adding irony to the situation.
• Didn't Think This Through: He honestly thought that investing in "weirdness bonds" was going to do him wonders. That cost him heavily.
• Dirty Coward:
  • He's willing to let some of the world's most rich and famous die an agonizing death while he hides with his family in their panic room.
  • He attempts to betray humanity and save himself from (or rather cash in on) Bill Cipher by offering himself as a "horseman of the apocalypse", so that Bill can terrorize the other townsfolk. As Preston finds out, Cipher thinks it's much funnier to just humiliate and torment him (and other mortals) instead.
• Double Speak: Preston tells Dipper if he crosses him again, it will be the last party Dipper and "[his] kind" will ever attend. Judging by his tone and demeanor, he's bound to do much more than merely not invite Dipper when the next party comes along.
• Establishing Character Moment: In his first spoken appearance, he barely looks up from his magazine when telling Pacifica that he can't attend her golf match in an affable voice. He stops her just before she leaves to give her a stern "You're a Northwest. Don't lose.", quickly cementing that he only focuses on Pacifica as a tool of the family.
• Enemy Mine: In the finale; he helps to the extent that he encourages Pacifica to join hands with other commonfolk, of whom he doesn't care at all, mostly because he had to in order to survive.
  Preston: Do what no one in our family has ever done. Touch the hillbilly.
• Evil All Along: "The Golf War" shows he's no saint and there are subtle hints along the series, but "Northwest Mansion Mystery" cements his status as a full-on classist monster.
• Evil Counterpart: Is an unexpectedly thorough one to Grunkle Stan. Both of them are the eldest male authority figures of their family in the town of Gravity Falls, both inhabit old homes passed between family members that have dark secrets, both have a vested interest in protecting their family, and both are driven by Greed that they use immoral means to sate. However, Preston's definition of protecting his family is to maintain their upper-class appearance and prestige, which he does by abusing his daughter into a fitting a perfect mold and attempting to cut a Deal with the Devil, while Stan risks his life to protect his relatives. In addition, Stan is a Justified Criminal who learned his bad habits trying to scrape by as a homeless teenager, while Preston was born in the lap of luxury and hardly needs to do any of the vile things he does to survive.
• Evil Is Hammy: "There's enough mini-sandwiches and oxygen to last you, me, and a butler a full week." (Stage Whisper) "WE'LL EAT THE BUTLER."
• Evil Is Petty: He may be openly sinister behind closed doors, but in public, he'll find some excuse to be a snide jerk.
• Eviler than Thou: To his daughter Pacifica, who prior to "Northwest Mansion Mystery" came off as an Alpha Bitch who was unpleasant to everyone yet had redeeming qualities. Preston, on the other hand, is an elitist, classist asshole who is horrible to his own daughter and is willing to abandon the guests at his party to be burned.
  • Preston later finds himself on the other end of this with Bill Cipher; just read the other spoilers to know why.
• Evil Versus Oblivion: Helps the heroes by encouraging Pacifica to join the circle to destroy Bill because Bill's existence will destroy all things mortal, and Bill wants no allies but his nightmare creatures.
• Facial Horror: After trying to play The Quisling to Bill, Preston gets rewarded with Bill "shuffling the functions of every hole in [his] face", which neither looks nor sounds fun to experience. It reverts at some point off-screen but seems to have left a psychological mark.
• Faux Affably Evil: When he needs Dipper's help, he acts polite while maintaining snootiness to make him feel welcome. This works as far as being able to maintain his reputation, but when Dipper or anyone else speaks ill of his family name, he makes threats.
• Flanderization: In Season 1, he came off as a smug jerk, but by Season 2, the writers dialed up those traits to make him a full-blown classist villain.
• For the Evulz: This is his only motivation to treat the non-rich like they're tools to be manipulated or stepped on.
• Freudian Excuse: Considering how messed up his family is, it's implied that his own upbringing turned him into the man he is. However, he subverts this by not only accepting and admiring his family's mistreatment of others but also abusing his own daughter presumably the exact same way.
• Godzilla Threshold: Having to hold hands with poorer folk is considered the greatest sacrifice any Northwest can make.
• Hate Sink: Not only is he a terrible father, but he would also rather let everyone die in his own burning house than invite common people in his party. He isn't a Big Bad like Gideon or Bill Cipher, yet somehow is more detestable than either of them.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: At no point does he ever really repent his past behavior, but after experiencing the horrors of Bill Cipher and Weirdmageddon, he is willing to side with the "commonfolk" he previously despised; he's humbled enough to encourage Pacifica to do "the one thing no-one in our family has ever done" and touch a poor person, and his relationship with his family seems to have improved somewhat as a result of everything they've been through together.
• Honor Before Reason: Or rather, snootiness before reason; Preston is willing to let all the partygoers (including children) turn into wood and burn rather than fulfill the promise his ancestor made in the past.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Seriously, not only does he uphold Nathaniel Northwest's broken promise to let townspeople into his annual party, but he's also willing to let all of the guests (including at least five kids) die just so he can keep the townspeople out and keep the mansion in order. All he has to do is open the gates to the mansion and let the townspeople in—that's it. And the family had over a century to have done it.
• Idle Rich: Doesn't seem to do any actual work, having inherited the family fortune from his ancestors (which was, more likely than not, extorted from common folk). In Mabel's Scrapbook: Petting Zoo and A Tale of Two Stans, it's shown he does own a few businesses, such as Northwest Mud Flaps and Northwest Realty, but that's all there is to it.
• I'm a Humanitarian: He openly plans to use the butler as a food source while hiding from the Lumberjack Ghost in their underground bunker.
• Inelegant Blubbering: He drops to his knees and cries like a baby after losing both his fortune and the family manor.
• Irony: For all his insistence on upholding the Northwest family name and that none of his family should lose at anything, he winds up ruining the family name by siding with Bill and putting all his money into "weirdness bonds". Not only is he publicly shown to have lost his ancestral mansion, eroding his reputation further, he will no doubt go down in history as the biggest loser in the Northwest dynasty.
• Jerkass: Par for the course for Northwests.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Think his respect for at least other wealthy people is genuine? Nope, he's willing to let a vengeful ghost rampage through his house while he and his family hide in their panic room as the ghost kills everyone else. Think his love for his own family is genuine? Nope, he's willing to assist Bill Cipher by selling out all of humanity just to save his own skin. It has to be impossible to find something recognizably redeemable about this man.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After spending years of using his wealth and good reputation to bully and manipulate the townsfolk, he finally gets some karmic punishments in the finale. After Bill is defeated, Preston loses his fortune and mansion, and everyone hates him for trying to side with Bill. While he is still a free man and has enough money to live a moderately wealthy lifestyle, he considers the outcome to be A Fate Worse Than Death.
• Kick the Dog: Holds high-class parties just to spite the lower and middle-class populace with the fact that they're not worthy of their parties. When Dipper calls him out for his treachery, he orders the servant-monkey to deny Dipper any food.
• Knight of Cerebus: Played straight and then subverted. While seemingly a minor player compared to many of the much more potentially dangerous and destructive villains, Preston counts due to just how unpleasant and callous a man he really is. He treats the non-rich like tools to be manipulated and doesn't truly care for the other rich either, being perfectly happy to sell anyone else out rather than damage his own pride. Likewise, his abuse of his own daughter is played disturbingly straight. The subversion comes in when we learn that deep down, he is nothing more than a cowardly Opportunistic Bastard who is easily disposed of by Bill.
• Lack of Empathy: Apparently It Runs in the Family.
• Large Ham: Well, it is Nathan Fillion.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: A Freeze-Frame Bonus shows that he's one of the people whose memories got wiped by the Society of the Blind Eye.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • After Bill distorts Preston's face, it's hard to feel bad for him given that he's an abusive and egotistical coward; it's fitting that someone so self-centered winds up so disfigured.
  • After Weirdmageddon, he goes bankrupt after announcing his allegiance to Bill and investing all his stocks in "weirdness bonds" and is forced to sell his mansion to preserve his family fortune. Said mansion is then bought up by McGucket, the "hillbilly" he showed disgust for earlier. Simply getting rid of him was either not enough or too harsh. He still has enough money for a lifestyle most would envy, but no longer being at the absolute top of the social ladder is unbearable for him.
• Laughably Evil: True, he's one of the worst people in the show, but it's hard not to laugh at a man who stage-whispers that he'll eat his butler right in front of said butler and spouts lines such as "You are my possessions! Obey me!" when his silverware starts flying. Plus, he's voiced by Nathan Fillion!
• Manipulative Bastard: Plays Dipper like a fiddle for the majority of "Northwest Mansion Mystery".
• Mind Rape: He's been using Pavlovian conditioning on Pacifica all her life, making her meekly follow his every whim with the sound of a bell, and while we don't know exactly what he did to her, it's gotten to the point where she's downright terrified of him. She finally manages to break free of his control just in time to save everyone from a gruesome death.
• No Party Like a Donner Party: Plans to eat the butler once the panic room ran out of tiny sandwiches.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Dipper learns the hard way that he's not just some rude rich snob—he's a maliciously cruel asshole who's been cheating townsfolk and manipulating them like pawns.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Like his ancestor Nathaniel, Preston is a lot cleverer than he lets on. While he acts like your typical vapid Upper-Class Twit, he is in fact one of the most cunning, manipulative, and cruel characters in the series. It's foreshadowed by his insistence that Northwests should always win; you can't do that if you're stupid...or play fair. By "Weirdmageddon" though, he's clearly not smart when it comes to dealing with Bill Cipher.
• Parental Neglect: He and his wife only care about their reputation and only pay attention to Pacifica if it damages or helps it in some manner.
• Pet the Dog: It's more out of self-preservation, but encouraging Pacifica to hold McGucket's hand to create the circle is the only heroic thing he's ever done in the entire show. He's also genuinely happy to see Pacifica after he's freed from Bill's stone throne and reaches out his arms to hug her before being pushed out the way by Sheriff Blubs.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Classist and elitist as anything, as well as abusive toward his daughter.
• Pride: So much so that he would rather leave children, the elderly, the disabled, and indeed anyone else to die in the name of preserving his ego.
• The Quisling: Attempts this with Bill. Since this is Bill Cipher we're talking about, the result is Preston suffering some Grade-A Body Horror for his troubles.
• Rich Jerk: Lords himself over the common man and seems to hold his annual party just for the satisfaction of excluding the rabble from it.
• Riches to Rags: Played with. Having assumed that Weirdmageddon would continue for all time, Preston invested all his money in "weirdness bonds" (offscreen) in an attempt to get even wealthier; after Bill's defeat, Preston—now penniless and a social pariah for his attempted allegiance—is forced to sell the ancestral Northwest home, leaving him merely well-off rather than mind-bogglingly rich. He treats it as a Fate Worse than Death.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: He is not easy to break, leading to this response when Dipper tells him off:
  Enjoy the party! It's the last time you and your kind will ever come.
• Smug Snake: Despite his snooty, arrogant attitude, he's basically helpless against the supernatural elements of the town.
• The Sociopath: Preston manipulates others, treats those who aren't rich like objects, and cares for no one but himself. He certainly has no problem letting everyone die during the Lumberjack Ghost's attack, and he even treats his own daughter less like a person and more like a tool for maintaining the family image and dynasty. It turns out all his forefathers were sociopaths making working-class folk suffer, not to mention other horrible crimes they've committed.
• Stupid Evil: Despite being perfectly capable of averting the lumberjack's curse by letting the townsfolk into the mansion for the yearly Northwest party, he refuses to associate with "the riffraff", fully knowing he is endangering his family's lives—and his own—by doing so.
• Token Evil Teammate: In "Weirdmageddon Part 3", he works with the protagonists by encouraging Pacifica to take part in the ritual (possibly to get revenge on Bill, but mostly to save his own skin).
• Treacherous Quest Giver: He gives Dipper the task of taking care of his ghost problem, but it's later revealed that said ghost was a victim of the Northwests' cruel, heartless, lying ways.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Just check his above quote; he says this to Dipper after the boy risked his life to catch the ghost that was terrorizing the Northwests and almost killed Pacifica. Preston sees Dipper as nothing but a pawn that happens to be useful at the moment. Granted, he did initially congratulate Dipper for getting the job done (albeit to maintain the facade), but he drops his gratitude after Dipper discovers his dirty little secret.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: He was certainly the darkest antagonist the show had until Bill Cipher upped his game at the end.
• Villain Decay: In-universe; by his appearance in "Weirdmageddon Part 1", both his influence among the townspeople and his abusive control of Pacifica have begun to diminish, making him less of a threat than he once was. He's also clearly shown to be out of his depth when trying to deal with Bill—having already accomplished his goal and seeing that Preston has nothing to offer, Bill just laughs him off and mutilates the pompous jerk for his own amusement.
• Villain with Good Publicity: His well-respected family have been covering up not just their origins, but a dynasty of misdeeds that they've built their fortune on. Since his declaration of loyalty to Cipher went public, his family's reputation is down the toilet.
• Wicked Cultured: For an evil guy, he certainly is a man with great taste.

Priscilla Northwest

Priscilla Northwest

"We can't thank you enough... (Beat) That's enough."

Voiced By: Kari Wahlgren

Preston's wife and Pacifica's mother.

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• Abusive Parents: She's just as psychologically and emotionally abusive towards her daughter as her husband, having hammered the idea that appearances are everything into her head from a very young age.
• Control Freak: She's overly fussy and demanding with Pacifica's attire and mannerisms.
  What did I tell you about that dress? The theme is sea foam green, not lake foam green! Go change!
• Jerkass: Again, like most of the Northwests.
• Lost Him in a Card Game: Gravity Falls: Lost Legends reveals that Preston won her in a yachting competition, and it's heavily implied that she willingly went through with it.
• Pet the Dog: When Preston gets his face mutilated by Bill, her first reaction is to hold her horrified daughter close to her.
• Plastic Bitch: Her unnaturally large, stretched lips and bony facial structure suggests that she's had at least some minor work done on her face.
• Rich Bitch: Just as rich and as haughty as her husband.
• Satellite Character: She mostly exists to be Preston's wife and Pacifica's mother.
• Stepford Smiler: She often has a big unnatural smile plastered on her face.
• Trophy Wife: As confirmed by Gravity Falls: Lost Legends, literally. Preston won her hand in marriage in a yachting competition.

Gremularth

Gremularth

The Final Boss of Gravity Falls: Legend of the Gnome Gemulets, Gremularth is a supremely powerful being said to have wreaked havoc on Gravity Falls during a time when dark forces (including none other than Bill Cipher himself) ran amok throughout the town. The locals were able to defeat him and store him inside a magical gemulet that was then broken into several fragments located throughout the town. Unfortunately, Jeff the Gnome's scheming and manipulations lead to his reemergence in the back half of the game.

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• Generic Doomsday Villain: Is given very little characterization and virtually nothing is known of his motivations. The fact that he isn't mentioned until late in the game and doesn't show up in person until even later doesn't help.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Jeff is the game's main antagonist, having spent the first half of the story playing Dipper and Mabel for fools while the second half mostly revolves around trying to put a stop to his reign. Gremularth is, however, very important to the backstory of the game, as the Gemulets were created to try and contain him, and it is his power that Jeff winds up harnessing. Once Jeff is defeated, Gremularth reemerges and winds up being the actual Final Boss of the game.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Is much less comedic than the other villains on this page.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Has spent ages trapped inside the separated fragments of a magic gemulet. The events of the game result in his resurgence.

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