Alex Hirsch on the Origins of The Zodiac

My personal favourite episode of Gravity Falls, "The Time Traveler's Pig," turned 8 today. To mark the occasion, I went back through the commentaries on it from the Gravity Falls box set. In it, Alex Hirsch talked about how the infamous Bill Cipher wheel, aka the Zodiac, was created and how it never was meant to become as big as it did.

Gravity Falls The Complete Series Season 1 Episode 9 commentary.

Frequently asked Questions

Q: What is this?
A: Back in 2018, Gravity Falls finally got a box set release. Among many things, all 40 episodes got commentaries for them in which Alex Hirsch talks about the episode, discusses things he liked and disliked about it, reveals hidden moments, struggles and lost stories from the production of the series.

Q: Where can I watch the full thing?
A: You can buy the box set from Shout Factory or on Amazon. Sadly, due to region lock, the box set is only available in Canada…oh, and…you know…the United States too. Unless you have a region free DVD or Blu-ray player, you’re out of luck.

Q: Why are you uploading these?
A: Due to that region lock, many fans can’t watch these, and they contain many interesting stories that I feel more fans need to hear. Thus, I’m uploading them. Not everything of course, but lot of the more interesting stuff. Oh, and also because I’m out of ideas for new videos, lmao.

Q: Why can’t I hear the characters voices in the episodes?
A: These are the commentary versions of the episodes. You’re not supposed to clearly hear the in episode talk. The main focus is what the commentators have to say. Think of it as a podcast.

Q: Why am I reading this FAQ?
A: Either you’re really bored, or I referred you to it because you left a comment asking a question I answered above, and I'm not in the mood to answer it because I'm tired of answering the same questions over and over again. Hey, I'm a human too. And so was Mabel, so shut up, Mabel hater!

I do not own Gravity Falls. All rights go to Disney Television Animation and Shout Factory.

#GravityFalls
#TheTimeTravelersPig
#AlexHirsch

[ThatGFFAN]

Gravity Falls fandom: "Omg, this wheel has symbols related to the characters, and it could mean something big later on!!"

Alex Hirsch: "...I was just running late for a meeting!"

[AeonKnigh]

I love that this uber ancient mystical wheel just has a modern bag of ice on it.

[ktoon]

Oh, that explains why they didn’t actually use the zodiac in the finale

[wjjam]

Its hilarious how long fans of the show spent trying to decode a hastily thrown together image that Alex thought nobody would care about.

[TheSkyline]

“Lamas are natures greatest warriors”

Pacifica being the greatest warrior is just so funny to imagine 😭

[raine]

"because it only existed for a single frame we we figured "eh, a couple of people will notice this""
little did alex know that this is the cartoon community, they will thoroughly dissect and analyze EVERYTHING, especially if its a vague piece of information that appears to be hinting at something

[Renkencen]

Funny how they kinda just wing it at the end. I mean while Pacifica wearing the Llama jumper and Wendy being a metaphor as the ice bag!

[boinkinboinkinboinkinboinkin]

I love how much of the show's little details are last thought but then turned out to be super important as the series continued

[dome__l]

Alex Hirsch is very interesting and leave many loose ends in them series 🤔🤔🤨🧐🤔

[garrettcarter]

I always thought a better use of the Zodiac would have been to make it a red herring in the form of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Like, have Ford think it's the big "Care Bear Stare" finisher, only for Bill to come into the room and ask what the hell they're doing. "Oh, ha ha ha, that wasn't supposed to signify my greatest enemies. That's a list of my greatest VICTIMS!" Then he does the drape thing.

The only reason why those specific people are on the wheel is because they were the people there at the time. It certainly would have made it feel less like a waste of time.

[Randoman]

I do appreciate the way they managed to retroactively make the other characters fit their corresponding symbols on the Zodiac. Like how with Pacifica, initially it seemed to just be a coincidence - oh she happens to be wearing a llama jumper right now, I guess that's me - but then after the show's finished, and they go back to do Lost Legends, we get a flashback scene of little kiddy Pacifica and she has a llama toy, so it's like she's always been associated with that somehow. Nicely done, guys.

[alessandromazza]

Ah yes, that kinda makes sense, I always thought that both Wendy being the Ice and Pacifica the Llama were kinda forced.
Btw it's amazing how they decided to integrate the Cipher wheel in the show, it gives a little more of that paranormal spice on this show

[Cometstarlight]

It's a good idea to know where your show starts, middles, and ends. It's also good if you have a general theme/lore of the show set up before diving straight into it. All that said, it is pretty funny that something that became the centers of theories on the Internet was devised because, "Oh I'm running late, we'll think of something LOL" It also shows that you don't have to have EVERYTHING always figured out (it helps) and that you can add a few things along the way as long as you do it right, which I think Hirsch did.

[LuxsorFlare]

You know this makes a lot of sense considering how the wheel was used in the show. In the finale the wheel was totally pointless, since they weren't able to use it to defeat bill and they ended up using a different way. I do prefer the way they did it, erasing bill from stan's mind was far more clever and heroic than a deus ex machina (tho the sacrifice was voided by stan getting his memories immediately but thats a whole other can of worms). But it makes me wonder why they even put the wheel in the show at all and have everyone theorize about it when it did nothing. Now that I know that the wheel had no purpose from the start, im guessing they forgot about it until the finale and just threw something together.

Still kinda disappointed though. I would've preferred if they didn't want the wheel to be integral to the story, to maybe have it serve a more symbolic role instead. Like perhaps the wheel could've been all the people bill made deals/manipulated directly or indirectly in some in order to lead to his arrival. This actually applies to most of the people represented on the wheel. Ford, dipper and gideon made direct deals with bill. Mable and Blendin was manipulated by bill (if we went with the old idea that the ice bag represented Blendin). Mcgucket and Stan never interacted with Bill however they bothed worked on the portal which was important to Bill's arrival and their decision to do so was influenced by Ford who was influenced by Bill. Just an idea.

[andrewsutherland]

What's crazy was I was actually watching a video from I think 2015 and it literally discussed the theory that the zodiac signs are the characters and how it is commonly believed that Pacifica was the llama.
Like I replied to someone in the comments 5 years after he made it about how amazed I was that he was right and his response to me literally like, "damn, I guess I was right"

[connorjohnson]

Yeah, that kinda makes sense. I always thought wendy being the ice bag was a bit of a stretch.

That's not to say it's bad though. While it feels very 'chicken before the egg' - like, that's just how ideas happen sometimes. And it didn't take away from the finale, so it's all good.

[Introbulus]

I didn't even notice the Zodiac in the opening - I always just figured Bill saw people differently because he was a 2D figure and saw things in their most simple form.

[Felix_Larios]

I have a zodiac for zodiacs




And the zodiac of zodiacs that has zodiacs... This could go on forever

[ravenpie]

God I had a FEELING that the Llama was a reference to the Larry King head. I was so convinced for ages that the Llama represented the Larry King head and was so dumbfounded when theorists were attributing the Llama to Pacifica.

[rebeccahempleman]

The fact that I spent years watching fan theories and trying to figure out who was who, i-