r/DeathBattleMatchups šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 25 '25

Original Matchup "Shifting Ciphers" | Bill Cipher vs The Princess (Gravity Falls vs Slay the Princess) [Connections and potential in comments]

77 Upvotes

41 comments sorted by

26

u/Parking-Stable-2970 My matchup isn't popular enough for its own flair Jun 25 '25

Eh, Idk, a lot of the connections just don’t apply to the Princess, or are at least misleading

14

u/Emotional_Panda1454 šŸŽ§šŸŒ™ Makoto vs NekušŸŒ™šŸŽ§ Fan Jun 25 '25

Strongly agree, as a big fan of StP, I’d really want an MU for it to cover the themes and love story of StP and give someone who could give Princess a solid debate on her mentality.

6

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 25 '25

Tried to find something that covered the love story side of StP but couldn't exactly do it. I guess the closest thing to that would be the first contrast but even then it doesn't really add much in that department.

4

u/Emotional_Panda1454 šŸŽ§šŸŒ™ Makoto vs NekušŸŒ™šŸŽ§ Fan Jun 25 '25

Yeah, I'd argue it's THE thing to get right about a Princess MU

22

u/Emotional_Panda1454 šŸŽ§šŸŒ™ Makoto vs NekušŸŒ™šŸŽ§ Fan Jun 25 '25

Sick MU, unfortunately it runs into the Murphy Law problem where it doesn’t cover the love story and themes of StP and just boils it down to a reality warp fest, still a sick idea in general though.

8

u/Mediocre-Cycle3325 Flowey vs The Princess Fan Jun 25 '25

Cool MU! I agree with everyone else in that the MU doesn't have a lot of connections and it's a reality warping fest, but it's still sick. I personally think Shifting Mound can win (just by scaling higher), but I don't think the Princess has a counter to narrative control or plot manipulation.

12

u/fly_past_ladder OMORI vs The Batter Fan Jun 25 '25

We got:

  • shit connections

  • shit debate

  • shit vibes

  • Decent fight potential (literally every Bill Cipher MU is good in that department by default though)

Another DBM banger šŸ”„šŸ”„šŸ”„

10

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25

Connections:

  • Reality warpers that appear that seem less threatening at first glance in order to hide their true nature as deadly entities capable of destroying their worlds
  • Both of them were born in universes that were centred around them which they have destroyed themselves (Euclydia and The Construct) and would soon be discovered and brought upon different dimensions courtesy of two people with a desire to solve a particular problem (Ford Pines wanted to solve the weird occurrences of Gravity Falls and The Narrator wanted to remove death and suffering from the world)
  • Their greatest enemy would be in the form of two noble protagonists whose goal throughout their journey was to solve the strange events that occur in their worlds and eventually put an end to it (The Pines Family and The Player)
  • They both rely on manipulating, instigating fear and bringing thoughts into reality in order to gain the upper-hand on their targets in questio
  • Both can go through different forms, starting off in their seemingly harmless form (Bill’s regular form and The Damsel/Prisoner) before changing their physical appearances into something far more intimidating such as spirits and deformed monsters or even just emerging as giants of sorts that tower above everything else; in addition, both have shown to be capable of possessing the bodies of others, through particular circumstances, with notable examples being when they took temporary control of their respective series’ protagonists (Bill taking over Dipper’s body after a deal and The Princess, as the Wraith, tries to take full control of the Player’s body after previously being slain)
  • As their stories reach their climax, both reach their full power and begin a world-ending endgame caused by their own means (Weirdmaggedon and The End of Everything)
  • In the end, their destruction and chaos would come to an end once the two faced their own demise (Bill would tricked into making a deal with Stan Pines instead of Ford as he initially thought before being evaporated within Stan’s mind and, depending on what choice is made, The Princess would be killed by The Long Quiet upon taking the Narrator’s last wish); said demise was a request from those who were partially responsible for the events that occurred

Contrasts:

  • The Princess, despite her role as an antagonist, genuinely cares for The Player and wants to watch the world experience death and rebirth while Bill is completely remorseless towards mankind and wants nothing but destruction and chaos
  • Bill is an embodiment of weirdness while the Princess is the idea of change

7

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25

Fight Potential:

The fight would start off with the Princess in her base form locked within the cabin’s basement (whether it takes place before or after killing her attacker is up to your interpretation) until Bill summons himself into the room as the two meet. Bill tells the Princess that he knows who she is and how he plans to erase her from every possible timeline within the Endless Cycle. Upon hearing this, the Princess decides to fight back against the Dream Demon.

There are various ways the fight could go due to how the Princess possesses different forms in each dimension and how Bill travels through various dimensions himself; so many that they can’t be explained in its entirety here without feeling too long. Some variants of the Princess that could work well for this matchup would definitely be The Nightmare and The Wraith could work as phases that take place in the middle of the fight as one evaporates the other before being sent to another dimension where the next state of the fight begins.

Bill would then come face to face with either The Adversary/The Eye of the Needle or The Razor who destroy his eye, causing him to turn into his angry form. Once that timeline is destroyed, another begins with The Princess appearing as The Tower before emerging as The Apotheosis while Bill morphs into his monstrous form. No matter what timeline occurs throughout the fight, each of them would be warped and manipulated by both Bill and The Princess who cause tons of destruction and evaporate each dimension.

The climatic end would have Bill be summoned into the The Spaces Between before coming face to face with the Shifting Mound at long last after wiping out five of her vessels. With both of them breaking free from The Construct and are at their full power, the Shifting Mound could unleash multiple vessels while Bill uses his weirdness against them and fending off incoming vessels with his clones.

Endings:

If Bill wins, he could kill each vessel from within and travel back to the cabin where he meets the Damsel in the heart of The Shifting Mound and kills her, thus shattering the walls of The Construct.

If The Princess wins, she could force Bill to face numerous vessels in different timelines where he always loses. After being bested numerous times and growing weaker, he could start begging The Shifting Mound for anything she desires before finally succumbing to his demise.

6

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 25 '25

Debate Potential:

Not entirely sure who wins this one. Both are at extremely high levels of power and can warp reality at their own will. If I had to take a guess, maybe Bill? He should be more than capable of competing against The Shifting Mound and her vessels which he should have no trouble dealing with since he would already be familiar with them, including the non-corporeal variants since he’s able to interact with the undead.

11

u/Adventurous_Tie_530 Kyle vs Simon Fan Jun 25 '25

Yeah bill is cooked

The shifting mound is the literal concept of change and encompasses all dualities, including order

Shes essentially an outerversal entity

2

u/Watchdog_the_God Jun 25 '25

She’s essentially an outerversal entity

2

u/Adventurous_Tie_530 Kyle vs Simon Fan Jun 25 '25

Specifically the shifting mound is outer

Princess is the avatar

1

u/TheKillerYTz Jun 25 '25

Bill is able to affect concepts like they are physical and him and Time Baby completely shook Dennis' backpack which is an outerversal construct

2

u/Adventurous_Tie_530 Kyle vs Simon Fan Jun 25 '25

Yeah no

Its not outerversal

At best is low hyperversal cuz of the 11D stuff

And maybe low outer cuz of containing a type 3 multiverse but even then bill is not a good source for info as he lies and boosts his own ego

Besides, theres different types of concepts

The mound is a type 1 concept

Bill only affects type 3 which are not fundamental to the universe or multiverse

-1

u/TheKillerYTz Jun 25 '25

Concepts in GF transcend and create reality. They are type 1s

Cosmology has Ideas theory in it which scales to Outerversal.

If you highball Princess then I can highball Bill. Be fair.

2

u/Adventurous_Tie_530 Kyle vs Simon Fan Jun 25 '25

Concepts in GF transcend and create reality. They are type 1s

Are they platonic? Thats how you get type 1s

Hes at best got type 2 concept hax

Also only the long quiet could beat her by becoming one with them as he was their opposite as absolute nothingness

-1

u/TheKillerYTz Jun 25 '25

Definition of Type 1 Concepts is literally the concepts unbound by reality, create abd transcend it. Tf?

Okay.

1

u/Adventurous_Tie_530 Kyle vs Simon Fan Jun 25 '25

Type 1 are platonic forms

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5

u/PixelTheGoober Hey, I can do that too! Jun 25 '25

Eh not really my favorite but this could kind of work as an idea

Funny how these 2 also have matchups with Flowey as well

1

u/Fun_EchoEcho4692 Luz Vs Anne Fan Jun 25 '25

And they both beat flowey too.

8

u/ColdShear My matchup isn't popular enough for its own flair Jun 25 '25

Constructive criticism: I don’t think the connections do much. They misrepresent The Princess/Shifting Mound, and even one of the contrasts is wrong (Bill does genuinely pine (no pun intended) for Stanford).

The fight could be really cool. Weirdmaggedon would serve as an interesting contrast to The Shifting Mound. The unwavering arrogance of both would lead to some great banter potential.

Unfortunately, it’s utterly lacking in debate potential due to how much Bill loses. He falls short in every meaningful category against The Shifting Mound (strength, speed, battle iq, etc), and his best ends (like conceptual manipulation) aren’t effective against Shifty (who transcends the concepts she contains within her multitudes). He pulls ahead in terms of quantity of hax, but falls short still since Shifty could no sell all of his hax, while he couldn’t do the same.

It’s a blatantly outerversal character who lacks any sort of anti-feats vs a high complex multiversal character with many anti-feats.

1

u/Mguy2544 Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25

How is she outerversal? Flowey vs The Princess seems to be a pretty debatable matchup, and Flowey is leagues below Bill in power

I mean plus he can always just kill her via cosmology nuke

2

u/ColdShear My matchup isn't popular enough for its own flair Jun 25 '25

Shifty is either low-complex multi or outerversal. Vs Battle Wiki (which is what most people use) puts her at low complex (though there is a movement to upgrade her to outerversal IIRC).

Things like transcending concepts like time/space or imposing ā€œAbsolute Realityā€ can make you outer, and Shifty does both of those things.

1

u/Mguy2544 Jun 25 '25 edited Jun 25 '25

I find the transcendent line to be hard to buy into when so many authors use it. And what does ā€œabsolute realityā€ entail?

Usually Outer is treated as being beyond the scope of dimensionality entirely into an entirely different plane of reality. If shes bound by the game resets (even though she retains memories), then that sort of debunks that level of power

3

u/ColdShear My matchup isn't popular enough for its own flair Jun 25 '25

Absolute Reality is defined as such:Ā "ultimate reality as it is in itself unaffected by the perception or knowledge of any finite being". That would be beyond dimensionality, and therefore outerversal.

Here is absolute reality being directly named in game. Since it's beyond description, it's lining up with what Absolute Reality actually is and isn't just a throw away line or the author not knowing what they are referencing, they actually know what it is. Beyond description=beyond dimensionality.

It's not inconsistent either: "To harm me is to harm yourself is to harm everything", with The Long Quiet being her equal and also a fundamental part of reality (unreality as it were).

Her and Quiet "transcend death". Death is something Shifty contains within herself (literally a core part of the game), and yet she transcends it.

She literally defines things at a conceptual level by what they aren't since she is contrast itself:

The "multitude" (her in her incomplete state unaware of her nature) is a shallow creek compared to the ocean of Shifty.

As for the game resets, she's not really affected by those normally. Either she's unaffected (the multitude being unaffected by the Construct's resets) or is only affected because she forces herself to be affected (one of the endings). The only way she is affected is if she does the reset and makes herself affected by it, especially since she is action itself.

1

u/Mguy2544 Jun 26 '25

I mean, this at the very least gives a very solid argument towards her scaling to whatever cosmology she’s in, but I find it hard to believe this gets her to Outer. I looked at the thread you’re talking about on Vsbw, so far it’s seems fine enough but I want to see what the opposition to this might be.

Someone seemed to have the same idea as me where it seems like solid evidence for cosmology scaling, idk using philosophical stuff for scaling seems kinda sketchy since it’s been used to wank a lot of stuff recently like Adventure Time scalers unironically arguing for Boundless Finn and Jake

3

u/ColdShear My matchup isn't popular enough for its own flair Jun 26 '25

I’m normally against philosophical scaling, but at a certain point you have to ask when it is valid. I’d say beings as utterly incomprehensible as Shifty and Quiet should at least be considered, especially since they have literally no anti-feats.

Like, The Long Quiet’s body alone contains an entire infinite multiverse. Even then, his true size is so large it makes that multiverse look ā€œfiniteā€ by comparison.

They can destroy entire universes and move on unbothered, they are not on top of the pecking order, they are the pecking order, and their dual existence defines dichotomies such as ā€œeverythingā€ and ā€œnothingā€.

Bare minimum they scale to their cosmology, arguably above it. It’s a matter of where you put those cosmologies (and seeing as how these two transcend concepts like death, time, and space), it’s not hard to argue their existence is outerversal. It’s not basic ā€œbeyond time and spaceā€, it’s explicitly the concepts they contain in their endlessness.

1

u/Wide-Remove4293 šŸ”„Bowser vs Eggman Fan🄚 Jun 28 '25

Philospohy scaling huh? Thanks for the tip

I be getting Giygas to outerversal with this one!

1

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 26 '25

Appreciate the criticism and I do believe I could done even just a little bit better in terms of the connections and not unintentionally misrepresenting The Princess in any way now that I've reread them. Also kind of forgot about that kind of connection with Ford tbh. I just thought it would make for a fun battle where the two go through different realities before reaching their full potential in the finale at the very least.

2

u/Awesomecrafter64 Jun 25 '25

Ooh. This should be an interesting one. Never seen anyone talk about Bill as a MU for her.

2

u/Awesomecrafter64 Jun 26 '25

Bill Cipher: "WELL EXCUUUSE ME, PRINCESS."

2

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 26 '25

Lol

2

u/Usual_Database307 Flowey vs The Princess Fan Jul 04 '25

Reality warpers that appear that seem less threatening at first glance in order to hide their true nature as deadly entities capable of destroying their worlds.

While Bill may initially be introduced as a comparatively minor nuisance, he doesn’t hide his true nature at all.

Both of them were born in universes that were centred around them which they have destroyed themselves (Euclydia and The Construct) and would soon be discovered and brought upon different dimensions courtesy of two people with a desire to solve a particular problem (Ford Pines wanted to solve the weird occurrences of Gravity Falls and The Narrator wanted to remove death and suffering from the world)

This just isn’t accurate on the Princess’s end. She was created within the construct by the Narrator, but she was never brought into a different dimension by of him.

1

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jul 04 '25

I've realized the slight mistakes I've made in the connections. Thanks for telling me this.

2

u/Blair_Cypher_94 Donatello Versus vs SCP-105 Enjoyer Jun 25 '25

Bill is built way too different. PEAK! (You did said your gonna make the Darkiplier as well for her, Bill is super funny in terms of interaction and great debate).

2

u/SpeedyHedgehog_91 šŸ© Homer Simpson vs Peter GriffinšŸŗ Fan Jun 25 '25

Agreed and yeah I plan on trying to do the same thing with Darkiplier but I'll most likely do it at a much later time period since there are some original matchups I've been meaning to revamp for a while now and want to get those done before making another brand new idea. I'll most definitely still give it a try and see how it goes.

1

u/Blair_Cypher_94 Donatello Versus vs SCP-105 Enjoyer Jun 25 '25

Ohh that's great hope you do well with your other MU's. Also might double check the Darkiplier blog too in case your gonna write the debate for the MU too. Goodluck

1

u/Ancient-Pie-9426 3d ago

WHO WINĀ