Wardrobe of Moral Imagination: Bill Cipher Appreciation Addition

"Remember, reality is an illusion, the universe is a hologram, buy gold, bye!"

So I was going to write the next chapter of "Five Years", but the day got away from me.  So instead, please accept this appreciation post for Bill Cipher, the best tv villain in ages.

Firstly, look at how much emotion the animators are able to show in a character that is actually just a triangle with an eye, some legs, a top hat, and a bow tie:

Secondly, let's also appreciate the fact that they were able to make what is essentially an evil dorito so terrifying and a legitimate villain with his plans to take over this dimension with Weirdmageddon (complete with a Fear-amid and insanity bubbles that make anyone they touch go mad) - the voice acting of creator Alex Hirsch is incredible:

Finally, the nuanced character of Bill is incredible.  Usually when a blockbuster movie or some sort portrays a villain that's a psychopath, their character is rather 2-d (pun intended).  Their motives are simply written off as insanity and it's over and done with - every brutal action is written off and there's no depth of motive.  Bill's insanity, however, is a type that only well-developed, structured characters contain.  Although he is insane and loves chaos for the sake of chaos, his motives for taking over this dimension are compelling because he always seems to be one step ahead of every other character, possessing infinite knowledge and impressive manipulation skills.  The intricate plots and tantalisingly vague backstory merely embellish the weird charisma that he exudes.  (Bill alludes to the fact that he "liberated" his dimension a long time ago - most likely by burning the entire plane of existence to the ground - and that it was filled with "flat minds in a flat world").  This type of cold, calculated chaos makes his rage when his plans seem to fail all the more terrifying and meaningful.  Moreover, this type of characterisation is in line with other villains like him (Jim Moriarty from BBC's Sherlock and Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight).  And it's unsurprising that I love Bill, as the Joker and Moriarty are my other top two film/tv villains.

So all hail Bill Cipher! (After my Ziggy fanfic, maybe I'll even try to write one with Bill as the star! Or at the very least do a major appreciation post with more writing).