#billford symbolism

[yasssgiveusnothing]

Common Billford W (Wheat Field Symbolism and Billford)

@lobotomu5 and I were pondering what the wheat field symbolism meant in Ford's dream in The Last Mabelcorn, Season 2.

Wheat is traditionally recognized as representative for love and is often signified as such throughout the Bible.

In this scene, we see a lot of symbolism for love. We see a broken swing set, a ship, and a portal.

The broken swing set and ship represents Ford's once loving and healthy relationship with his brother, which is now strained.

The portal serves as a metaphor for Ford's yearning for recognition and success. Ford's journal reveals that he views the portal as his ticket to riches and fame, an achievement that would grant him the acknowledgement and success he craves. His desire for this acknowledgment stems from his strained relationship with his father and his quest to earn his approval. The portal's broken state symbolizes the collapse of Ford's dreams and his lost life as he spent 30 years trapped in the multiverse.

Additionally, the portal also symbolizes the relationship between Ford and Bill. The portal was the catalyst that brought Bill and Ford together, as the pursuit of opening the portal led to their fateful encounter. It also embodies Ford's trust in Bill, as he relinquished control of his mind and body to Bill to work on the portal while he slept. The broken portal also signifies the end of their relationship, marking the start of their animosity, rivalry, and broken trust.

Ford stands on wheat field that has an image of Bill cut under his feet. He stands in the center of Bill's eye. Then, the wheat field bursts into flames. In this symbolism, the wheat field represents both love and destruction. The wheat field can be seen as a representation of Ford's feelings for Bill Cipher, as he stands in the center of Bill's eye, signifying a deep connection. However, the field bursting into flames can symbolize the intense passion and turmoil that existed in their relationship. The burning wheat field may also symbolize the destruction that came as a result of their relationship, as Bill Cipher's manipulation and betrayal ultimately led to the destruction of their bond.

A field in a dream represents freedom, openness, and potential. It may symbolize a desire for a fresh start or a new beginning.

Freedom: Bill describes the destruction of dimensions are "liberating."

Potential: Bill Cipher wants Ford to join him in the destruction of the world. He says it in the show and he says it in the Book of Bill.

He sees the potential of him and Ford taking glee in liberating the dimension.

It is implied that he must have saw Ford joining him in the multiple futures he can see.

It's why he's so confident that Ford will come around. He says this in the Book of Bill.

Openness: Bill desires a closeness with Ford. Bill can relate to Ford.

Bill once trusted and was able to be vulnerable with Ford.

Fresh start: By having Weirdmegeddon going on and Ford by his side, Bill hopes the two of them can have a fresh start as they learn to rekindle the closeness that was lost.

[griffin-ktb]

Handyman Bill AU but make it yuri 🙌🌼✨

[akazoo06]

HI EVERYONE IM HERE TO DUMP MY GRAVITY FALLS ART! All Ford mostly Billford

I FUCKING LOVE THIS OLD MAN. Btw the piece just above me here is a warm up from today where I put him in my ootd <33 below is a translation of the cursive if you either can't read my shit ass handwriting or just can't read cursive! (Its a struggle for me personally qwq)

"Today I wore something different at the behest of F."

"He lent me a top and matching bottoms. After I had gotten dressed he proceeded to tell me I looked cute"

"He is such a great friend! :))"

FORD YOU IDIOT HE WANTS YOU !!!

[kingscythe-art]

Behind every tumblr sexyman is a bear who is just absolutely GOING THROUGH IT

ID and alternate versions (no glow + no string) under the cut :]

[start ID:

A drawing of Bill Cipher and Stanford Pines from Gravity Falls. It is mostly rendered in different shades of purplish gray, with sketchy ballpoint lineart. Bill is in a 3/4 view, floating on the left, with one knee drawn up and a hand held up to his eye coquettishly. His other hand is trailing behind him. He’s looking over his “shoulder” to the right. He is surrounded by a faint yellow glow.

Ford is on the right, also in a 3/4 angle, head tilted slightly downwards. He is shown from his shoulders up and looks to be in his mid-60s, with wrinkles and spiky hair that stands up at the front. He is wearing a dark turtleneck sweater and slightly cracked glasses, and scowling wearily off to the right.

A thin, swirling red line connects them; it loops around Bill’s left wrist and ankle and Ford’s head.

end ID.]

alt versions!

[littlecrow4]

Sometimes I’m convinced Alex has read BillFord fics cause there are certain things that ALOT of 2016 BillFord fics have that also appeared in The Book of Bill

He was waiting for the right moment

[specter-sketcher]

I caved in, made a human bill design. Definitely bound to change a bit but hey it's was pretty fun to practice older faces. Did add small billford related thing into the design

(really wish the colors where less brassy on mobile screen tho)

[atlas-the-idiot-2]

NO WHITE BOY THAT TRIANGLE IS NOT A GOD FIGURE FOR YOU TO DEVOTE YOURSELF TO!!!!!!!

[wolvmir]

I flew off the rails a bit and wow I guess this happens in an au where he winds up in the desert instead 🏜️

a quick note that my bill doesn’t dye his hair, if he’s blond and black haired he’s not actually human

[danelamak2]

toxic yaoi.png

[lilli-eyr]

details below 👇

[robotic-rin]

Fandom: Gravity Falls

Relationship: Bill Cipher/Ford Pines

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 14,000

Summary: Ford hated to say he was struggling to keep up the pace on the portal, but he was. Between working himself to exhaustion and reckoning with unresolved post-karaoke night feelings, how could anyone expect him to focus on writing equations? Noticing his distraction, his enigmatic muse offers to help him out, but Bill only does favors for humans if he knows he’s going to get something out of it as well.

Or: Ford wants to be studied like a scientific experiment, Bill wants to be worshipped like a god.

Main Tags: Triangle Bill Cipher, Pre-Portal Incident (Gravity Falls), Blow Jobs, Dream Sex, Praise Kink, Consensual Possession, Masturbation, Anal Fingering, Mirror Sex, Overstimulation, Forced Orgasm, Multiple Orgasms, Degradation, Possessive Behavior, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Psychological Smut, Manipulative Bill Cipher

[stump-not-found]

au fanfic art dump yaaaay

i'm almost at 30k words who knows when i'm gonna start posting it lol

[localcanadiancreature62]

Love is like an anchor,one that drags you down but keeps you going at the same time (Ford and Stan brotherly familial love). Love is like an addiction,something that kills you from the inside yet you keep aching for more of it despite knowing it's not good for you (Ford and Bill). Love is like candy, something you can't have because it will hurt you in the end but you keep asking for more and more despite it subtly destroying you (Fidds and Ford). Love is like a hug, something that you don't want to let go but you know you have to before it crushes you (Stan and Fidds). @feelingobtuse here lol. Here is your answer.

POP QUIZ!! WHAT IS LOVE? (YOU CAN BASED IT ON STAN AND FORD BROTHERLY LOVE, FORD AND BILL, FORD AND FIDDS, STAN AND FIDDS) I WANT TO KNOW YOUR OWN PERSPECTIVE TOWARDS THIS CHARACTERS DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOVE FOR EACH OTHER!! ❤🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🖤🤍

[slime-water-shrew]

Allonormativity and BillFord

(Links mentioned are at the bottom of the post)

I think aimasup puts it best in the caption above their comic linked below “They loved/love each other but not exactly romantically do you get me.” Bill and Stanford’s relationship was mutual and they definitely cared for each other in one way or another, however I don’t believe that love was romantic or even sexual in nature. Both Stanford and Bill show a lack of interest and/or understanding of romance in their respective books as countless people have pointed out, Ford even being referred to as “plansexual” (check out the Love page in The Book of Bill.)

[Photo of a pink page from The Book of Bill. The page says the following: "Bill, have you ever been in love?" "Sure -- tell your mom hi for me! By the way, have you taken a DNA test recently? Not asking for any particular reason." "Seriously, though, have you?" "Asking me if I've been in love is like asking a black hole if it liked your mixtape or asking a subterranean fungal spore network who its favorite animated princess is. I'm a multidimensional specter of chaos that transcends reality, I couldn't possibly care less about which bag of plasma blushes at who or why!" "Okay, but like... You gotta be crushing on someone." "I will light this book on fire." "Methinks you doth protest too much." " "Methinks"? Kill me before you start telling me about your polycule."]

[Photo of a grey page from The Book of Bill. The six fingered hand symbol representing Stanford Pines rests above a block of text that reads "Sixer dreams about a pop quiz that asks him, "What are you attracted to?" Usually writes, "I'm attracted to logic and preparation." Not sure what to call that! Plansexual?"]

And yet it seems that Bill and Stanford had a romantic/sexual relationship in the past. Bill gives you flirting tips and has done several of them on Ford. He gave him rats in the book and the “The “LOVE CAGE”” in the show itself.

[Photo of a damaged and yellow page from The Book of Bill. The page has a drawing by Ford of a pile of dead rats arranged to spell out his name, "Ford". Above the rat drawing is the text "Why?" with an arrow pointing at the rats.]

The karaoke page heavily implies that they went on a date and slept together too.

[A Photo of the aformentioned karaoke page in The Book of Bill. The page is yellowed and the text written on it is messy and completely unlike Ford's normal handwritting. It is also filled with spelling errors. It is hard to read so my best attempt to write out what it says are as follows: "I probabbly shouldn't be writin this down but I had such a crazy??? WOW what a. It was a night! And now it's mornign? Cill Bipher.... He did a dream? Karaoke? And then one thing led to another thing and normally I try to be sober but... He mixed a dream drink and??? I gotta say. I just gotta say. Look it's just me and my journal here, I gotta say: This Bill guy he's really got it all figured out. Also the rats were his idea? I get it now. I'm gonna, we're gonna what a time. What a hangover. Gonna sleep. Whole day. Ad aspera asperin -Stranford Pi" The pen then trials off the page and below the wall of mangled words is a drawing of Ford and Bill infront of the stars with mics in their hands singing. Ford is holding a drink in one hand with his eyes closed in a smile and Bill has an arm around him and is looking at him sweetly. The song they are singing is Disco Girl.]

So does this mean they aren’t aroace? Not at all. I believe that the two of them confused obsession for love. As wishwizardliv states in their post linked below “NOBODY CAN TELL ME IT WAS ROMANTIC[.] THAT SHIT WAS JUST OBSESSION ON BOTH ENDS”. Ford was practically consumed by obsession. His carpets, walls, everything down to the windows were made in Bill’s image. He prayed to him and his favorite constellation is Bill. He was a god to him.

[Photo of a page from Journal 3. The page is yellowed and there is a drawing of a few constalations. One being Ursa Major and the other being William. William is a triangle with a bowtie and one eye. The drawings are labled with a note underneath with a arrow "Favorite constellations".]

And Bill was no better. From the stories we have of his past his involvement in any one person’s life is a rarity and the fact that he visited Ford often says a lot. Not to mention I do believe Bill when he offered Ford to rule the universe with him. I think he honestly wanted to have Ford by his side for all of weirdmageddon. Not to mention he carried him around everywhere like a doll and made him out of gold unlike all the other people he petrified. They were clearly obsessed with each other and in our allonormative world that is hard to rationalize unless you assume it is romantic or sexual in nature.

Hana Hyperfixates in their video Gravity Falls and LGBTQ+ subtext: Decoding the Queercoding | A Video Essay, around the 1 hour and 33 minute mark they say “... there’s a lot here about Ford wanting women to notice him, and not a lot about him noticing women. He was a guy in the 80s who wanted stardom and acclaim. Women wanting men in power was imagery he likely was surrounded with growing up.”. You might be thinking “Okay but what about Bill? We know allonormativity exists in our world but how can we say the same for his actions?” Well I have news for you: we can also see Bill Cipher literally being pressured about how “you gotta be crushing on someone” (Book of Bill Love page); it’s clear that even though Bill is not even from our dimension even he can’t escape allonormativity. All of this in mind with how deeply obsessed with each other the two of them were it makes sense they would confuse it for the traditional kind of love and try their hands at dating. Which explains why a triangle that is above love (as he kinda states in the Love page), and a “plansexual” man would go on a date and sleep together. They may not ever actually have been in love but them attempting to flirt and date makes sense when you consider they just confused their obsessions with romantic love. In this context it recontextualizes Bill’s statement in the Love page shown below.

[Photo of a pink page from The Book of Bill. The words are written in white blocky but setchy leaters with a black box around them. The text reads: "Love is a trick. And worst of all. It's a trick you play on yourself!"]

What at first seems like the bitter words of someone who feels like love is pointless could be taken more literally. It was in a sense a trick he played on himself.

As an aroace person myself who has often confused obsessing over fictional characters or gender envy, or just really caring about a friend deeply with a crush, I have to say there is nothing more relatable than that.

Sources & Links

wishwizardliv : https://www.tumblr.com/wishwizardliv

wishwizardliv’s post : https://www.tumblr.com/wishwizardliv/758841130677862400/nobody-can-tell-me-it-was-romantic-that-shit-was?source=share

aimasup : https://www.tumblr.com/aimasup

aimasup’s comic : https://www.tumblr.com/aimasup/758803563813224448/they-lovedlove-each-other-but-not-exactly?source=share

Hana Hyperfixates : https://www.youtube.com/@hanahyperfixates

Hana Hyperfixates’s queer reading video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFRx3ibU3yU&t=146s

[kyuuumie]

this is just a ramble about billdip/billford since i’ve seen a bunch of posts and want to share my thoughts on it!

i find a lot of the comparisons between billdip and billford to be a bit off the mark. while it’s true they share some surface-level similarities—mainly because they both involve bill cipher and a “smart guy”—their dynamics are vastly different. in billford, ford initially placed an enormous amount of trust in bill. he practically revered him, as seen in the tapestries in his lab and all the one-eyed triangle symbols throughout the mystery shack. ford’s trust was so deep that he allowed bill to lead him down a dark path, ultimately resulting in betrayal. bill has since been shown relishing in taunting ford, making their relationship one of broken trust and regret.

on the other hand, billdip presents a way different dynamic. dipper never trusted bill in the first place. from the very beginning, their relationship was antagonistic. unlike ford, dipper wasn’t lured in by the promise of knowledge or power; he had to be manipulated, and even then, he was extremely hesitant to allow bill to possess him. bill never had dipper’s trust to betray, which sets the stage for a completely different kind of tension. in billford, the conflict stems from a deep betrayal of trust, whereas in billdip, it’s more about the struggle between manipulation and resistance, with dipper trying to outsmart someone he knows he can’t trust.

i want to clarify that i don’t hate or even dislike billford. they have an undeniably interesting dynamic, and under different circumstances, i’d probably be more invested in it. however, my enthusiasm for the ship is dampened by the behavior of some of its shippers. it often feels like many people ship billford not because they genuinely enjoy the dynamic, but rather out of a desire to distance themselves from billdip. it’s as if shipping billford has become a way to proclaim, “at least i don’t ship billdip.” but spite shouldn’t be the driving force behind creating content for a ship. shipping should be about passion, about enjoying the dynamic and wanting to explore it through art, writing, and discussion because it genuinely interests you.

that said, i do wish people would keep the discourse civil and avoid leaving hateful comments about either ship. unfortunately, that might be asking for too much in fandom spaces. but it would be nice to see more respect and understanding for different preferences, even if we don’t all share the same ships ૮꒰ ˶> ༝ <˶꒱ა

[nias-nook]

Bill Cipher and The Unicorn in Captivity

Soooo, I haven't been looking at Bill related posts much since the book dropped as I have mixed feelings on what TBOB and the subsequent site have revealed about him, his motives, his backstory etc., but (and maybe someone beat me to this) one thing I haven't seen anyone talk about yet is this,

So maybe I'm stating the obvious here, but this is The Unicorn Rests in a Garden, also known as The Unicorn in Captivity. This piece was a part of The Unicorn Tapestries. Its origins are shrouded in mystery and super interesting but I'm not really gonna touch on that here.

Now there is something to be said about how this one piece, and the rest of the tapestries tie to Bill. I'll briefly go over what the tapestry meant when it was made then dive into what contemporary interpretations of the piece say about Bill and his fundamental inability to redeem himself.

Also just want to establish before we get into this that I am...Not a scholar when it comes to this stuff. I just happened to recognise this tapestry and its symbolism when it dropped on the website and had to put my thoughts somewhere. I might add more later if I've forgotten anything, which I probably have.

Given this was a piece made in Europe in the Middle Ages, it's perhaps unsurprising that a lot of interpretations of it are biblical, but we can (mostly) safely assume Hirsch isn't going for a Christ allegory here. Then again, maybe he's going for nothing and all of this is pointless.

What is a little interesting in the wake of TBOB is its ties to marriage.

These tapestries are heavily theorised to have been made to celebrate a wedding, and their comparisons of love and marriage to a hunt that inevitably leads to the imprisonment and taming of your lover. Of course, Bill quite literally suggests this method in the book with The Love Cage that he uses in Weirdmageddon, but there's a million 'Billford is canon' posts out there so let's table that as it's pretty self-explanatory. Bill and Ford have been hunting each other for decades and Bill imprisons him in a so-called 'Love Cage' to try and convince Ford to be his 'partner' (be it platonic or romantic). This is what a victory in a relationship is to him.

What I'd like to focus on is the modern interpretation of The Unicorn in Captivity as a self-imposed prison.

"Look at that little unicorn! The beatific smile. He's happy now. He gets to live in a beautiful garden."

"Yeah, in a cage."

"A protective barrier. No one's hunting him anymore. Nor can he hurt anyone with that horn of his."

This summary of the piece is taken from the aptly titled Unicorn in Captivity from another animated series, The Venture Bros. (which, by the way, if you're looking for another show that's a whimsical and fun riff on 80s pop culture with a big mystery element, highly recommend), but this of course isn't the first piece of media to portray it this way. the most notable being The Unicorn in Captivity poem by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

The unicorn is, on the surface, a prisoner. The Theraprism that Bill is now trapped in is a place he longs to escape, but that's the thing, isn't it?

He could escape any time he wanted to.

He could slip his head From the jewelled noose So lightly tied - If he tried, As a maid could loose The belt from her side; He could slip the bond So lightly tied - If he tried.

Bill, like the unicorn, is trapping himself more than the Theraprism is trapping him, but his situation isn't to be pitied, it's karmic justice. What's so satisfying about Bill's eventual comeuppance is that he's the one making himself suffer. The only thing Bill needs to do to escape is to admit he was wrong, to stop revelling in the suffering of others, but...Well, he chooses not to.

For all of his guilt about his parents and his so-called 'dark and troubled past', Bill has never regretted a single person he's hurt since. He didn't regret taking over the world, he regretted being caught. He didn't regret hurting Ford, he regretted losing him. Bill will probably be doomed to wallow in the Theraprism for all eternity, cursing his situation and blaming everyone else for his inevitable downfall. An overgrown child who once had too much power and lost it all throwing a tantrum for the ages.

But now he can't hurt anyone with that horn of his.