Tips for writing Bill Cipher

shewhorantstoomuch:

Since people seemed to like my last post, I’ve decided to make one that goes into greater detail on this. I hope you find this guide to be helpful.

If you’re having trouble thinking up of a human form for Bill, just don’t do it at all. There are other ways for him to interact with characters in the waking world. For example, he could trick an animal (such as Gompers or Waddles) into letting him inhabit their body. If Bill was able to produce fire while in Dipper’s body, it’s not a far streach to assume that he would be capable of human speech in an animal’s body.

Ease up on the Pinetree! In the show, Bill rarely refers to Dipper as that. He’s much more likely to call him by “kid.”

In his Reddit AMA, Bill had no issue with being called William or Billy. He also said that he “liked wearing human flesh the way Jack the Ripper liked wearing clown masks.” Assuming that this means Bill only does it for his own enjoyment, possessing a human form wouldn’t be his main ambition unless he was just in the mood to do so.

Don’t go overboard on the blood (it’s the easiest way to seem like you’re trying too hard to be dark and angsty) but be sure to stray outside of Disney censors.

Alex Hirsch grew up in the 80s and 90s, so try and have Bill occasionally refrence pop culture from that time period. You know, the kind that was so replayed that it was permanently fried into your brain. Bill is a dream demon, so he’s bound to encounter things like this in the human subconscious. (Like that Sears air conditioning commercial.)

In Dipper & Mabel’s Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun, Bill said that he liked to eat childhood memories, so don’t assume that he has any code of honor about going for children.

With a character like Bill, you can never have enough conspiracy theories, urban lore, and historical events to refrence. Break out Wikipedia and start bookmarking.

Please don’t write Bill as not knowing anything about human tools or basic mechanics. He’s watched humanity since the dawn of time; it wouldn’t make sense for him to not know about these things. He probably thinks that humans are pathetic and weak for needing such things to function in the first place, but he’s not going to be asking what people do to make babies anytime soon. (Seriously, he probably knows how people and animals breed.) It had been a long time since he’d inhabited a body in Sock Opera, so it’s safe to assume that he had simply forgotten what exhaustion felt like. Everything else he does in that episode can be attributed to him readjusting to the limits and controls of a human body or just hurting Dipper’s body for laughs/trying to keep the sleep deprived body he inhabited awake.

Try having him copy what other characters (like Grunkle Stan) say. It’s been done in the show.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this guide was helpful to you! If you have any additional advice, feel free to add on.