#the thing that makes me most insane about billford is that if i were in ford's position

[cecilscribbles]

im fucking ILL. anyway take some guys i drew to cope

ford praise like to charge reblog to cast

[bamjammy]

My Billford friends. I present you: Will Wood. This is song is them. Not up for debate, thanks and I’m correct. Analysis below. Also TBOB spoilers probably

This is a lyric by lyric analysis about why this song is them. Most of (if not all of the song) is Bill’s perspective in my mind, Will Wood definitely captures his weird chaotic energy. Not every lyric matches. That’s ok, I’m just gonna skip those. The song is still them. Lyrics will be in quotes, analysis will be in parentheses and also a different color.

“Why do you wanna kill me?”

(I also hear this as “what are gonna do, kill me?” sometimes cause it’s a little hard to understand him. I feel like both fit a bitter/cocky Bill talking to Ford in the pyramid)

“Say you're still her, the woman you were, and you haven't turned into someone who never could love me again”

(Ok obviously Ford is not a woman, we can just ignore that part. The point of the lyric is the narrator, in this case Bill, wanting reassurance that he is still loved, I feel like this would be more subconscious on Bill’s part, but that denial is absolutely palpable during weirdmaggedon/TBOB)

“'Cause you never broke my heart, no, you fixed it, and now it works, but only enough just to suffer that hurt. Whoa-oh-oh-oh”

(Ok I fucking love this line especially in this context. This is literally their entire dynamic like, c’mon. Bill, up to the point of meeting Ford, had been manipulating people all throughout human history. It really feels like Ford is the first one he got so deeply attached too, so much so that he would want to convince him to join him in ruling over everything as an agent of chaos. Ford was captivated by Bill the moment he met him, believing him to be a higher power capable of provisioning him with what he needs. As their relationship progresses they sort of have a reversal of roles, Ford comes to despise Bill and fear him, Bill comes to be obsessed with Ford. He NEEDS him. God I love this line)

“What can I say to convince you to slip back into my arms again? I won't do you no harm again. Let me tell you that I'm sorry and that-”

(I don’t think Bill would ever say sorry out loud unless it was specifically to be manipulative, but after reading TBOB there is clear regret at losing Ford. Even if it’s not remorse you can tell he wishes he’d gone about things differently even though he refuses to admit it. Also the “slip back into my arms again” thing, again I associate with him trying to convince Ford to join him in weirdmaggedon.)

“I'm just a little bit crazy about you, Just a little bit out of my mind, Just a little insane without you”

(Bill’s always been a little insane by nature of who he is, but he goes to such extremes to get Ford to stay with him (see TBOB missing journal pages) and then STILL tries to convince him during weirdmaggedon after he’d already been rejected and despised. He makes him CRAZY. It’s kind of sad)

“Please come back and be just a little bit mine- Just a little bit mine”

(He wants him back soooooo bad it’s really just pathetic at this point)

“I never thought, and if I did, I forgot while blacked out in love”

(I don’t think Bill thinks through much of what he does to Ford in those desperate moments if at all. They’re just that- desperate. Can also be interrupted as Bill possessing Ford, when he “blacks out” and finds himself harmed or in danger, he obviously can’t remember those moments when Bill takes over. Bill interrupts this as “blacked out in love” either to justify it to himself or to convince himself Ford still loved him. I think that’s a fun interpretation)

“That what's only starting would've come to an end but now, I'm hungover and hung out to dry, and I'm giving it time”

(Time passes faster for Bill, it should feel like a blip in his life but it consumes him. The “hungover” part, see TBOB “Losing Sixer”. It’s the best page)

“Does not knowing the truth turn my words into lies? Whoa-oh-oh-oh”

(I could see him absolutely trying to play dumb in last ditch attempt to get Ford to trust him again. Fucking loser lmao)

“What can I say to convince you or do to make you agree with me?”

(Again, desperate. See all my previous allusions to the weirdmaggedon scene)

“I don't need you to be with me, Just try to remember what you'd see in me”

(I feel like this line could be a breaking point for Bill, where he’s desperately grasping at anything to make Ford continue his work, including harming, threatening him, etc. I know a lot of these lines have come back to the same thing but it’s just. The vibes, y’know? I feel like this is specifically the part where Bill tries to call Stan, which scares Ford into actually reaching out to him, Bill inadvertently causing his own demise. That’s from TBOB btw. I warned you about spoilers)

(Cut the chorus since I already analyzed it)

“I'll be here singing 'til our heartbeats might slip back into that rhythm again”

(Bill waiting for the right moment to strike. The moment Ford steps out of the portal Bill sees an opportunity, he’s done biding his time. You feel me?)

“Whether it is or isn't the end, Who cares? God knows that I could use a friend!”

(Bill is living in so much denial it’s suffocating. I mean, it’s not even just Ford, it’s his whole life. He’s in denial about how people in his home dimension treated him, he’s in denial about the fact that he’s not all powerful, he’s in denial about how similar he is to humans, and he’s in denial about Ford not loving him (and also in denial about Loving Ford). There is no end because he refuses to accept it, but then tries to brush it off like he doesn’t care, because he’s in denial about caring. My boy, YIKES!!!)

Cut the rest of the song cause it’s just the chorus again but longer. Anyway yeah the point of this is Bill is a desperate freaky ex with weirdo Will Wood energy, Will Wood’s music is good and I love it and you should listen to him if you haven’t, and I’m not normal about them and their weird fucking dynamic. Enjoy and eat well my strange creatures

[icanlife]

HOO BOYY I wanted to yap like crazy in response but I’ll try to be brief

But TLDR, the toxic, manipulative, codependent relationship IS their closeness. That’s about as “special” as closeness can get, in the emotional intensity and ramifications. We want to wind them up and watch them explode, be disturbed, mourn a tragedy, or even find a possible world where evil gay tragedy doesn’t have to win—all of the above. The Book of Bill told us they were toxic exes, and the world exploded, because it was perfect.

Billford exploded after TBOB because it genuinely canonize that Billford was a reciprocal relationship, an obsession with each other on both ends, and that they were exes.

It was already known the extent of Ford’s pre-portal-incident obsession with Bill, explained further in Journal 3 (and even MORE in TBOB), through making his whole house a shrine to him, trusting him with free control over his body (actually the craziest thing), the plot of Journal 3 showing that he trusted Bill over all other people. He also just sappily talked about him ALL THE TIME in Journal 3 before the incident, referring to him only as his “Muse”, drawing things like the sun shining through on pages speaking to him, naming a constellation after him, etc.

But The Book of Bill? Oh my god. While there were many interactions before that could be seen as an obsession or attachment on Bill’s part in the show, there was always the excuse of mockery or bribery or some other. But in the Book of Bill, Bill gets drunk and cries in a bar when he realizes he may have actually lost Ford. He orders “One Sixer, please.” He gets so wasted he starts talking to his dead mom. And as we see in TBOB, Bill actually expected Ford to come back to him after everything. He probably actually wanted Ford to join his evil gang, which he offered him twice in the show, offering to make him a god. He basically describes him trapping Ford in the Fearamid as a seduction attempt!

But the big emotional draw for Billford from TBOB is the TRAGIC CHARACTER PARALLELS. We get Bill’s tragic backstory that he was ostracized and medicated for his birth defect, being special and able to see more than the people in his dimension. He accidentally killed everyone, and reasoned to himself to cope that he intended it and it needed to happen because they were lesser and holding him back. It’s one-to-one. To Stanford Pines. Bill comes to Ford saying that Ford was born special, but that made him better, and the people who ostracized did so because they couldn’t see the big picture like he could, as a genius. And this isn’t something that Bill had to convince Ford of! Ford ALREADY felt almost the exact same way. Ford just felt like he was FOUND. Someone to validate how he had always felt. And with TBOB, this isn’t just fake manipulation on Bill’s part, this is TRUE.

It’s in Bill’s most vulnerable moment in the book that he shows Ford the last speck of his dissension, and in lies wrapped in lies, basically alludes to himself being a monster that’ll ruin Ford. Ford, obfuscated from the truth, offers to literally track down and destroy this monster that destroyed Bill’s home. But Bill is this monster. JUST TALKING ABOUT THIS PAGE MAKES ME FEEL INSANE. They’re kindred spirits and this page REEKS of tragedy. They can’t help each other because Bill is a monster, too far gone. (I feel insane.)

Post-breakup, TBOB gives us pages where Bill basically straight up tells Ford, “No one’s ever going to make you feel like I make you feel.” Only slightly modified quote. Ford calls himself a recovering “Cipherholic”.

And finally, dead serious, TBOB just calls them “exes”. Full stop. Courtesy of Mabel, twice basically. Aside from that, the narrative on Ford’s side is genuinely just about moving forward after an abusive relationship, while the narrative on Bill’s side is remaining trapped in his worst and only coping mechanism of denial, stating that he doesn’t care about or doesn’t need anybody.

So, idk, they’re everything any lover of toxic yaoi has ever dreamed of, basically.

Other highlights of TBOB include Bill giving Ford his name spelled in rats as a romantic gift, Ford and Bill getting drunk and doing karaoke, and Ford saying if he was Rudolph he’d kill all the other reindeer for mocking him.

Yap over.

can i just ask kindly and with genuine curiosity…… why do people ship bill and ford?

i understand they have a significant history and had been around each other a while/developed an initial codependent relationship, but it just came across as manipulative and toxic. i never saw anything of them having a like, special closeness…. it’s been years since i’ve watched so maybe i’m missing something or misremembering but i’m just so curious where this ship even comes from, and would love 2 be enlightened