Characterization
Bill and Ted both have very well-defined and established personalities and mannerisms that are unfortunately quite prone to distortion, because people tend to miss the mark on The Trait that defines Bill and Ted as characters - their complete unbridled Enthusiasm.
The original creators behind Bill and Ted described them as “these innocents who would wander wide-eyed into any situation and treat everyone exactly the same - completely open, completely friendly” and the Director also refers to the 'Puppy Factor’ wrt Bill and Ted, meaning they should both “Be like big Labrador Retrievers who just bounce along and love life”, and I think this is where some interpretations of their characters tends to go wrong. Some of the comics tend to fall into a trap of making Bill and Ted more crass and careless than they actually are, and also - I feel - misstep by characterizing them as slackers. Bill and Ted do not, in my opinion, ever "slack off" so much as they just genuinely struggle to Learn and, to a lesser extent, channel their focus. I don't believe at all that bill and Ted struggle with motivation - they bring their full energy into everything they do; you can see it in their delighted efforts to practice guitar and make a music video in Excellent Adventure, and their affable collection of the historical figures, their enthusiastic audition to the Battle of the Bands in Bogus Journey, their flexibility in their trek throughout the afterlife, all the way to their eager unveiling of their latest song at Deacon's wedding. Bill and Ted are always willing to put the work in, they just struggle with figuring out how they're supposed to get from one point to another.
For example, I think it'd be easy to interpret the lack of dramatic improvement in their playing from Excellent Adventure to Bogus Journey as a result of slacking over the years (the writer for the Bill and Ted Roll the Dice comic did, at least), but I would disagree with that interpretation. With how enthusiastically they 'play' in Excellent Adventure and how that enjoyment of the act hasn't faded at all in that time, I think that Bill and Ted continued to practice and play just as frequently and excitedly as they always have. But it's important to note that they are self-taught - the two of them work at a food stand in the mall and struggle to make ends meet, they have to borrow money from their dads to keep their apartment, who clearly treat this more as a "loan" than a gift, Ted even mention that he's been selling blood to try to keep up with their payments. The two of them can't afford to go out and get actual guitar lessons, they would be learning to play guitar almost entirely by ear and trial and error, with maybe some help from books, all while practicing only when they could scrape out the time between shifts at their job. Despite this, they have actually improved between the two movies - their playing at the end of Excellent Adventure is entirely discordant noise, and while it's still messy in their audition, you can trace out a defined melody behind the chaos. They aren't Good, but the improvement is still there. The difference is that their 16 month step out of time offered was access to a teacher of some sort - arguably multiple, given the trend most of their journeys tend to follow - as well as the freedom to practice as much as they wanted, whenever they wanted because they didn't have to worry about their jobs or their rent.
I think the song at the beginning of Face the Music is another example of this core conflict that the two struggle with - Bill and Ted love music in all its varieties of forms and flavors and they love making music with one another, but they struggle to figure out what makes popular music widely appealing to broad audiences. They brought all of their love and enthusiasm to the song, and all of their accumulated talent, but the song is still considered "a failure" because they couldn't figure out the specifics of giving the song broad appeal (frankly, though, everyone at the wedding who seems to struggle with the song are missing out - it's SO good).
Their speech mannerisms are easy to get wrong too, for a similar reason. Bill and Ted don't actually use slang nearly as much as a lot of people seem to assume, and their vocabulary actually includes a lot of overtures to more complex word choices. Bill and Ted don't use the word "gnarly" in a surfer-slang kind of way, they use it Literally - describing an old man with a gnarled, wrinkled appearance. They don't use words like "radical" or "bro" or "sick" - they try to use words like "triumphant" and "esteemed colleague" and "bodacious" that are more 'sophisticated', but they struggle on occasion with the application. They pronounce or use the words 'incorrectly', because they'd managed to grasp the definitions while missing the finer details of the grammar of it all.
This is part of the reason why I tend to lean towards the notion that Bill and Ted have intellectual disabilities. They are kind of "dumb", but it isn't because they don't care about school or learning or other people, it's just something they genuinely struggle with - especially in a "traditional" school environment. Bill and Ted are able to pick up a lot of Historical facts and details over the course of their journey throughout time - they're on their feet, getting to explore at their own pace, able to ask questions whenever they need to and actually get straightforward answers in return. One must imagine how much progress could have been made if they had been given an accommodated learning environment that accepted their differences and were willing to work with them rather than trying to force them into boxes where they don't fit. Just because it takes them a while to piece together how things Work doesn't mean that they just don't care enough to put the work in - the effort is always there, Bill and Ted are always trying, they just often don't have anyone in their lives willing to pay attention and guide them in the right direction (Compare: Bill's dad ignoring their plight entirely and kicking them out to a gas station parking lot VS Rufus giving them the phonebooth as a tangible resource and a path to follow).
sameteeth asked:
bill and ted and their efforts in education is something thats So Important to me - they really do want to learn and find new things soo interesting, its just that traditional teaching methods fail them. even stuff they love (music) took them so long to learn !!!! which is something i feel like ppl miss a lot. choosing to learn smthn that is difficult and has a steep learning curve is actually So Hard and frustrating and bill and ted actually put in so much effort to learn!! and ofc it works out (they win battle of the bands, become famous, save the world etc) but i feel like they wouldve worked at it even if they never met rufus and all that bc they approach life with such genuine earnestness. which is a trait i admire so much and they make me so happy :)
brittlebutch
yes dude you absolutely hit the nail on the head!!! i love love love that Bill and Ted don’t make it through any of the movies thanks to any kind of special skill or innate talent, they manage to make it through just because they’re so affable and enthusiastic that people around them (even some who would have reason to actually dislike them) just can’t seem to help but be taken with them and decide to help them out - no perpetuating the myth of independence anywhere!!
and you’re so right about the time travel probably not being strictly Necessary in their development like, their audition at the beginning of Bogus Journey isn’t very good but it’s still technically way more musical than their garage jam sessions were in Excellent Adventure! (You could argue that’s just the Princesses carrying the sound, which is probably true to an extent, BUT I don’t think that’s it entirely bc there’s not any discordant distortion-noise like there was in EA and parts of the melody do seem to cut out when Bill and Ted pause playing to speak) So they were learning and improving between movies, it’s just that they’re naturally kind of slow at it AND they’ve also probably not been able to focus on learning all that well bc they’re working full time and struggling financially - once they take like a year and a half outside of time to practice nothing but guitar they’re able to show off some serious musical acumen, and THEN i love how Face the Music shows how even though they’ve both gotten pretty Technically skilled at a huge variety of instruments, they’re still ‘bad at it’ bc they struggle to write music that other people enjoy/understand and they still aren’t overly bothered by that at all!
Also love that the same applies to Billie and Thea - they seem to have a much easier time of things than their dads do wrt learning/innate skills BUT they’re still 24 and haven’t moved out or gone to college or gotten jobs or anything and no one (other than Chief Logan ofc) puts them down or admonishes them for this! They’re both loved and supported wholeheartedly by their parents (who OFC understand it all completely) and they make it through the movie the same exact way Bill and Ted did! Even though Billie and Thea do rely on a more-than-solid grasp of musical history to navigate the circuits of time, their ability to sway the historical figures to their cause largely thanks to their enthusiasm for the topic and general affability and i love how that’s always upheld by the movies as a Valued Trait i love it SO much
#i also lovve how bill and ted were originally thought of as like Complete outcasts in high school who were like Actively disliked#by more popular kids and the writers and director saw the energy that the actors brought to the characters and were like 'oh no way'#and cut the notion entirely bc they're just SO affable that they were like 'well maybe no one especially Likes them but no one probably#Dislikes them that much' and so it was scrapped; but i love them so much like you even get the sense that Mr. Ryan is Aware that#bill and ted are Trying to put genuine effort into school bc he doesn't talk at them like 'if you just applied yourselves' or like they're#fucking around in class on purpose he just tries to level with them and seems at least a Little upset that he'd have to flunk them#bc he just doesn't have the time/resources as a teacher to help them out like they'd need ; and like it's not even like in EA#they're ONLY piggybacking off the historical figures to carry the report - their voice over throughout the montage is proof that they were#actively paying attention and learning stuff about the dudes as they were hanging around throughout the movie - like finally learning#how to pronounce 'socrates' and identifying joan of arc as a military leader and stuff - it's just that they have like#learning/intellectual disabilities and struggle like hell in traditional learning environments; i love them SO much they're SO important 2m#bnt
