The incoming total-control regime in Washington, D.C., and its egomaniacal central figure, are total, are existentially frightening in their threat to every aspect of the American Republic and its people (and, by extension, all the peoples of the globe).
I’ve been thinking of how to portray this character, and the movements he represents, in the context of the great villains of fiction and lore. I’ve compared certain past politicians to everyone from Lord Farquaad in the original “Shrek” to a one-shot “Get Smart!” villain, Simon the Likeable.
This past summer, I began to call the then GOP presidential nominee “He Who Cannot Be Named” (from “Harry Potter”). But that became cumbersome.
So I went in search of the perfect pre-existing fictionalization for this man-child, a figure with an insatiable lust for attention and a craving to cause suffering just to maniacally laugh at his victims.
A villain this insanely sure of his own omnipotence would never show panic, so that leaves out the Master from “Doctor Who.”
The pantheon of Disney villains (even if you only count the studio’s “core universe” of animated features and shorts) is vast. But even these characters usually have a relatable core motivation for their various crimes (greed, power, vanity, revenge, even fashion). They largely don’t encompass the pure “evil just for the sake of ego” that I’m talking about here.
With one recent exception.
It’s a character described in a fan-written “wiki” as: “Insane, twisted, crass, mischievous, deceptive, manipulative, sly, vague, witty, lively, whimsical, hammy, confident, spiteful, temperamental, choleric, evil, chaotic, greedy, sadomasochistic.”
The character’s “likes,” as described on the same web page, include: “Chaos, the suffering of others, destroying things, partying, manipulation.”
I’m talking about Bill Cipher. He’s the main antagonist on “Gravity Falls,” a Disney Channel cartoon show that ended last February, after airing 41 half-hours over three and a half years. It’s set in Central Oregon, in one of those fictional towns where assorted weird things show up every day. In various episodes, the show’s brother and sister heroes encounter such anomalies as gnomes, unicorns, ghosts, zombies, dinosaurs, a crashed UFO, and video-game characters come to life.
And, like several other sagas of its type (Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Lost, et al.), there’s a “meta-mystery” on “Gravity Falls.” It involves Bill, who’s initially introduced as a “dream demon” from another dimension. He sees all, knows all, and can invade people’s minds, especially as they sleep.
Bill can take any visual form, but his “default” appearance is as a triangle with a single eye near its center. But even though he resembles the “eye in the pyramid” on the $1 bill, Bill’s motive is not material wealth.
Rather, he wants to “cross over” from the “nightmare realm” and become a physical presence in our world — not to merely rule it but to destroy it, just for kicks.
Bill Cipher’s depicted as both a homicidal maniac and as a brilliant schemer; a good of chaos and and a master manipulator.
In the series’ climactic story arc, Bill successfully cons two characters and gets the materials to make a “dimensional rift” between his world and ours. He summons a hooligan gang of monsters to ransack the town, turn people into statues, and otherwise spread “weirdness” (pure destructive chaos). From there, he aims to expand the “weirdness” across the Earth: “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!”
I believe this sadistic madness, not any mere material avarice, is the type of villainy that fits our age.
You can hear Bill Cipher’s sneering laugh among goons who laugh too hard at their own racist/sexist “jokes.”
You can see his smug taunting among the online “trolls” who belittle and insult everyone deemed different from them.
You can sense Bill’s lust for destruction among certain “religious right” figures who not only oppose all efforts to save the environment, but who sometimes vocally wish for the “End Times” of Fundamentalist prophecy to come soon.
To prevent Bill from spreading his “weirdness” to the rest of the Earth, the surviving townspeople have to hold hands in a rite that will send Bill away. They include characters that had been mortal enemies in previous episodes, but who now must work together against a common foe.
It doesn’t work, because two of them refuse to cooperate with one another. In the final episode (titled “Take Back the Falls”), those two have to finally cooperate (and one of them risks having his mind “erased”) to trap and remove Bill and bring order back to the town. Similarly, to stop the threats to America’s civil society, we’ve got to forge alliances across lines of race, gender, region, religion, and social class.
(As an aside, someone put up a “Bill Cipher for President” Facebook page late last summer. One snarky commenter wrote: “You’re seriously making me choose between a horrible demon bent on destroying everything he touches, and Bill Cipher?”)