2016 was a year full of experiencing new things for me, both good and bad... mostly bad... horrible, terrible, scarring things... but hey, I ended up watching a lot of things I had put off till then, so that's good! Among Over the Garden Wall, Gravity Falls was a series that was long over due for me to actually sit through entirely. Yes, sadly it took until last year for me to actually watch Gravity Falls, despite my own interest in the series and knowing how up my alley the thing was; Simply put, I'm terrible about getting into anything. All that aside I finally watched Gravity Falls and was kicking myself for not having gotten into it sooner. I can only imagine how much better the series was being in it from the ground up and getting wrapped into all the mysteries and theories week to week and not having everything spoiled for me, but regardless I didn't let that spoil the show for me and I still think it's fantastic!
That all being said, much like the Beast, I knew Bill Cipher had to be added in this year. While in a lot of ways I probably would have placed the Beast above Bill as I found him over all more intimidating and while Bill's simply design is a way that he plays with your mind, I never found him physically scary aside from a few occasions. His main source of terror is from what he does and is capable of and in that sense I felt he trumped the Beast, as he's far more powerful and has much more screen time. In truth both he and the Beast were contenders for the Final Five and in someways it seems a shame not to have them in that home stretch, but this year was one of the hardest ever to rule out who would rank among the top, so just take solace in the fact that if guys like Bill Cipher didn't make it into the Final Five, then whoever did is well deserving of that!
In any case, despite being just a one-eyed triangle Bill Cipher is one of the beauty in simplicity type villains; his form is kept simple so that his very actions can speak louder. He is one of the best incarnations of chaos I've ever seen and while he doesn't look scary, any time he's on screen you immediately feel on edge just because you know what he's capable of. I will admit, despite this I do kind of wish he could have looks scarier more often but that's a gripe I have with the entire show. Unlike Over the Garden Wall which boasts a great ability in it's art style to look both cute and disturbing, I rarely felt that Gravity Falls (sorry to keep comparing the two, but I kinda see them too similar to not do so) Gravity Falls' art style is fine, but I rarely if never felt scared or disturbed by it, it was just too cute and simplistic looking for me to ever find it too unnerving which I felt hindered it in a lot of ways. Well, save for the episode about the lumberjack ghost. Christ that was messed up!
Of course, this is just my opinion. I still find the show to be a masterpiece and lightning that was bottled, never to be replicated again... despite many shameful attempts... you know what I'm talking about!
