#{ Bendy In: } The Creator's Lie!

[mintythecup]

I am beyond fucking pissed.

Anyone who supports qftim:c or praises their acts. Get off of my account right now.

Their fan base is FUCKING TOXIC. not to mention Connie was a groomer. And LIED about everything in order to make other people look bad.

Those people they mentioned

Did not fucking manipulate, lie or guilt trip anyone. I knew those people for a while and I never saw anything wrong with it. I would see it right away but no, there was nothing involved in those situations of those happening

They fucking lied alot, made other people look bad. And who fucking knows, they could be talking shit about me and saying things IVE NEVER DONE. I'm being fr, and I got screen shots about my friend who is a victim.

They lied about them. About the Florida cupsy , about overlee, about the old bendy VA.

The bendy VA was in the hospital at the time so I guess they were feeling pike absolute shit the whole time. I AM NEVER GOING TO SUPPORT THEM AGAIN. and if anyone says otherwise.

I don't care. My mind isn't changing.

Not to mention, I've been ignored, avoided and guilt tripped in that server, i don't have screen shots unfortunately but I was

I vented there a couple times but it was interrupted, ignored or completely noticed by another vent that wasn't there. Qftim:c is a toxic as hell fan base and comic. Owned by problematic creators. Again.

[doodle17]

i need your opinion on this creature as a bendy fan (this is supposed to be bendy btw)

Ah yes, babtqftim bendy... I remember him well.

Listen, LISTEN though-

I know full well that this series was terrible at handling certain topics and the characters were characterized extremely poorly.

But I can't lie to you... The memories and nostalgia I feel when I watch the HaileySenpai comic dub for it makes me EMOTIONAL and I CANT HATE IT OKAY? GO AHEAD GET YOUR TORCHES AND PITCHFORKS I SAID IT. I DON'T HATE THE OG BABTQFTIM

Kind of like Shrek the third. Yeah it's bad. I know it's bad, and I will not hesitate to point out the flaws. But because I remember bonding over it with my sister and we had fun watching it, I won't ever say I hate it. It was literally one of the things that made me want to be an artist

The creator can go to hell though, I couldn't care less about the creator. Thats why I'm happy to see so many people rewriting it :)

[ianduncankinnie]

So the new stupendium song about the theorist channels has MV made by editor Ty of the theorists. And ho boy there's so many Easter eggs bro makes it look like it's April.

Here are the ones I could find purely by looking.

1) Count Bleck reference from the Luigi Brainwashed ep

I won't lie I didn't not expect to see him so when I saw this man in literally the first 30 seconds of this vid I knew I was gonna be busy going frame by frame on each part of the vid

2) Allay, Bees, Pigs, An Enderman and An Illager From the Minecraft Lore series

This one was kinda obvious but I liked it regardless but I can't remember the significance of bees here for some reason

3) The Bendy Posters + Stupendium reference

There's a bendy, Boris and Alice angel poster and I think they're signalling to the first ever bendy theory but I don't really know. Also in a blink and you'll miss it moment there's a frame before the jumpscare where the film playing changes into the words "stupendously stupid" which I really like ngl.

4) Garten Of BanBan Missing Chapter Theory + Editing Dungeon mention

In the lyrics stupendium mentions about missing pieces and in the visuals it refers to the fifth chapter of Garten Of BanBan in which the sixth chapter is advertised as the next part rather than the fifth. Also I love the little insult to BanBan as a series purely made to sell merch like girl- And I absolutely love this Easter Egg so much omg it's the editing dungeon!!!! The editors being called dungeon dwellers with Head D̶u̶n̶g̶e̶o̶n̶ ̶D̶w̶e̶l̶l̶e̶r̶ Editor Dan in red with 2 Asset Allies and THE ALL POWERFUL WAVEFORM WIZARD YOSI. Also the console is the ts4 which is peak .

5) Stupendium solving the Tom Nook Theory in the background

I don't have anything to say other than it's very cute.

6) THE MEMESSS

The creators of Hello Neighbor constantly tagging matpat, Matpat react, I KILLED THEM?ooc, THERE'S A PHONY BETWIXT YALL, pimp!pat, THEORY THEORY, #BLAMEJASON, every child is the crying child and whatever that pic is.

7) Stupendium as a GT Thumbnail

8) Sonic's Speed

The antithesis to Mario's height.

9) Frogger Dissection with cute mysteries in the bg

First off, The Super Mario Maker is infinite theory on the whiteboard. Mr. Tomato on the shelf alongside with a maxim tomato from the time they tried to theorize Kirby

And I'll have to end here rn cuz there's a ten images per post limit on Tumblr

[ink-bean]

Ok, guys. It's time for another Bendy theory.

In the beginning, I want to warn you about spoilers from the games BATDR, BATDS, and the books Dreams come to Life, The Illusion of Living, and The lost Ones.

And without further ado, let's dive in.

After playing BATDR several times and reading all available books from the Bendy universe, I still have so many questions.

Most of them are circling around Joey and his appearance in BATDR. It just doesn't fit. Nothing of it does.

Let's start with the things we know about Joey Drew from his memoirs, "The Illusion of Living,"

He was born as Joseph Drew, son of a shoe maker. With a loving mother, who encouraged him with everything and a father who was absent most of the time because of his job.

Nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary.

And that's almost all we know about his childhood and his teenage days.

He's also known as a visionary, founder of Joey Drew studios, creator of Bendy, a decent, humble and honest guy, who hates lies, who has a pretty unique view about the world he's living in since he was a kid, outstanding in almost everything he does, trusted and appreciated from everyone who has the pleasure to meet him, and successful in forming his life as he wants it to be, in one word 'perfect'.

The perfect boss, the perfect man, who has anything under control.

Sounds dreamlike, don't you think?

Yeah~ and that's all what I believe it is. A Dream. A version of him, he wants to be.. the version of how others should see him. We can almost call it an illusion, which I think doesn't complies with the truth.

Why do I think so? Well~ where should I start?

First of all, no human is perfect, and after all the information from BATIM, he's very far away from being the man he describes himself in his book.

He repeated several times that HE is the creator of Bendy, not Henry.

But all he had was 'just' a very vague idea, and Henry was the one who let them come to life.

His old "pal" Nathan Arch, who published 'The Illusion of Living' again after Joeys death, speaks very highly of him, although Nathan's memory's seem always to be different from the things Joey said. At least all the things that involved Nathan.

I know memories can become muddy over time, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, and we don't get any input from other people involved in Joeys stories.

So no one can say for sure if they are just 'polished' to be more interesting or entirely made up.

From his employees, we know for sure that the studio later on has a hard time staying over water. (or better 'over ink' *dadush* *caugh* Sorry...)

Joey denies this more than once, publicly and towards his staff.

That's pretty odd. He always says that he hates liar, so why is he lying?

Of course, I understand that you don't want the public to know about all the struggles, but why continue to lie towards your employees? Who KNOW about all of this?

Or does he really believe that everything's fine?

Definitely not, at least at some point. From BATDS, we know that Joey asked his good old pal Nathan for money, which Nathan simply ignored.

Intension unclear.

And then the biggest question mark of all, of course, the Ink Machine.

So, what do we know about the Ink Machine?

We know that Thomas Connor was the one who built the machine, we know that the machine has ink in it, that turns people into madman with the slightest contact, and turns them into Ink creatures, and we know that the ink corrupts the memorys of everyone who's 'infected' with it.

But, at least at my knowledge, no one knows where the Ink is coming from.

The original machine is described as massive in "The lost Ones", than here is the slightly smaller machine from the loop, and we know that Joey has a small version of it in his apartment.

Bendy was Joeys whole world, and after Bendy Land failed completely, it's not so hard to tell what he would do with magic ink and a massive printer. He wanted Bendy to live.

So he did and probably created the Ink Demon in the process.

We have several notes and audio logs, where people stated that they see 'something lurk in the shadows', they hear growling noises, and the whole studio was permanently flooded with ink.

So, the Ink Demon was, in fact, in the real world, and Joey gave a damn about that.

Everything's fine, he has everything under control... as usual.

Now comes the tricky part.

It seems that Joey came to the conclusion that "real toons" need a soul, as we know that the Ink Demon is soulless.

In 'Dreams Come to Live', the Ink Demon teared Buddy apart, which led to his dead.

It's not described how the process exactly worked, but he somehow managed to transfer buddy's soul into a perfect Boris.

And, oh boy, was he proud of archiving HIS dream. His dream came to life. An Illusion, his Illusion, came finally to life. No sign of remorse, so sign of reflecting how his actions put everyone in mortal danger and destroyed the lives of everyone he worked with.

So we can assume that all toons in the loop are possessing a soul that was printed in an artificial body and that their real bodies are dead. As a lost one (and Sammy), you seemingly don't have to be dead. The ink is turning and twisting their bodies into the ink world, making them a part of it.

But they are souls nonetheless who suffer from memory loss. Sammy is the best example for that.

I think we all can agree at this point that Joey Drew and Joseph Drew are two entirely different personas.

In my opinion, Joseph played a role in achieving his dreams. To be in a position where he can do whatever he wants to do.

The reason I believe that, is that one audio log from Joey we can find in BATIM, chapter 4, on the first floor of the maintenance area.

It says:

"I believe there's something special in all of us. With true inner strength, you can conquer even your biggest challenges. You just have to believe in yourself and remain honest, motivated, and above all, who you really are.

Ok, let's stop it right there. I can only do so many takes of this trash a day. And tell the guys in writing I want more use of the word dreaming in every message. Keep railing on that, get it? Dreaming! Dreaming! Dreaming! People just eat up that kind of slop. Hmm, what? It's still on? Well, turn it off, damn it!"

In the second part his voice changed completely, he's clearly annoyed by all the bullsh*t he's talking, to keep up the appearance of the honest, friendly and hopeful Joey Drew, who always wants the best for everyone and encouraged people to make there dreams come true.

The Joey Drew all people knew and love.

And said that, I want to talk about BATDR.

We surprisingly met Joey Drew as Audrey, and he was exactly like he described himself in 'The Illusion of Living'. He tried to help Audrey, and explained the situation as good as he could. The good old pal Joey.

According to how he puts his words, he seems to suffer from memory loss too.. like the rest of the souls in the loop.

Does this mean that, despite his claim to just be a memory, his soul is IN the Ink world?

This version of him seems very sincere to me.

Or is there another reason for his state of mind?

But how would this even work?

According to our knowledge, Joeys Book of the Illusion of Living is a key to change things in the Ink world, so... did he drew (haha, drew) himself into his world before he died?

Did Joseph drew his version of Joey into the world he created?

Did he alter the memories of his ink-self, so he can't remember that he's just a role Joseph played?

But why? To help Henry? Did he suddenly feel remorse about his decision to trap his former partner in an endless loop, filled with despair and hopelessness?

Out of spite because he felt betrayed by Henry?

Like he said to Audrey, all of this is just an illusion, and nothing of it is real.

Henry is perfectly fine and lives his life in peace.

I don't think so. The whole story he's telling Audrey is so strange to me.

Nothing of it makes really sense. But I think that Ink-Joey THINKS that he's telling the truth.

That he suddenly had a change of heart that he sent Allison in the form of Alice Angel to help Henry.

And we know that you need a soul and a dead person to create a toon. Allison may not be perfect like Buddy-Boris, but I think it's the same procedure.

If this is true, he had to kill Allison and print her soul into the body of Alice.

And even IF he wanted to help Henry. Why did Joeys Ink-self never make himself known to Henry? So many questions.

Same with the part of 'I wanted to have a family'.

Neither Joey nor Joseph ever mentioned the need to have a family or to be a father.

I believe that Joseph printed Audrey, but not out of love. More likely is that he did it out of curiosity.. how far can he go to prove that all life can be an illusion?

And maybe Audrey was not the first 'experiment', I think Heidi and Porter are failed ones... not human enough to live in the real world, so he banished them into the ink world.

But I digress, back to the point.

So, how did Joey get into the loop, and what is his purpose?

Haha~ 'purpose' is the key word I waited for.

And now, buckle up. It's going to get a bit wild.

I think that Wilson is the one who put Joey in there.

Why do I think that? Well~

It's odd that Joey knows that he's dead in the real world, especially with an exact date.

And as far as we know.. time doesn't really exist down there.

Wilson is the only one who can transfer his mind into an inkbody he created of himself.

So he knows what's happening in the real world, and he can provide time within the circle.

We also know that Wilson is in possession of the Illusion of Living, so he can manipulate certain events down there, but unfortunately for him, he can't control everything.. the Ink Demon doesn't let him take control over his domain.

Plus, the ink-version of Joey matches exactly the Joey from the book.

Furthermore, Wilson is the son of Nathan Arch... Joeys good old friend, who let him sink further into his demise on purpose.

It's also odd that you can find a memory of Wilson inside Joeys memory of the studio.

And to round those 'coincidences' up.. did you realise that the drawing of Henry in Joeys' story wears exactly the same outfit he's wearing in the loop? Very strange indeed.

So why did Wilson create a version of Joey in the first place?

Simply to create a sort of trust towards Audrey. She's the ace in his sleeve to get rid of the Ink Demon for good, to control the whole world.

Joeys words were the reason why she gave Wilson a chance. To let her think that the Ink Demon is the only reason why everything down there is so miserable.

And still, there are so many questions remaining. I'm SO excited to get more information about the whole universe and can't wait for the new books.

I would also love to hear your opinion on the whole thing. Maybe I missed something?

Anyway, thanks for staying with me until the very end.

[cyber-streak-2]

Uncommon Questions for OCs and their creators: 7, 28, B for Bendy

7: What triggers nostalgia for them, most often? Do they enjoy that feeling?

While I don’t know exactly what triggers it for them, they usually won’t enjoy the feeling, though.

28: Would they prefer a lie over an unpleasant truth?

It depends on the situation, really. Does the unpleasant truth involve something about them being a clone? Yes, lie, please. They still wish they hadn’t figured it out.

There’s a few other little situations here and there where Bendy would prefer a lie—although it’s kind of 50/50 with the lie and truth.

B: What inspired you to create them?

I was just listening to music, and then I got the idea to make a clone character, and then quickly started adding everything else-

[emperoroftoffees]

I just... I dunno I need to say it. It's my personal went, so if you are not interested in reading a wall of angry text - just skip it.

Sometimes it desturbs me, how some people used to draw Toon/Perfect Bendy with more child proportions/features and then saying that they're shipping him with... Well, for example Sammy (or even worse with Henry or Joey) because... Wtf dude, he literally looks like a child in your artworks and even acts like one, how in your mind is it normal to ship this childish version of him with anyone for that matter???

Bendy's actual age is not revealed and even if he is not a minor - he does look and act like one in someone's headcanon, and it weirds me out.

I saw this happening just a few times, with one same artist, and I can't really say much because I don't even want to look it up, but there was an art where this childish cartoon Bendy gets fricked by, apparently, Henry or whoever, I don't care at the moment. It's just gross to me, I can't understand it.

I can be neutral with people shipping Bendy (Ink Demon) with Sammy, because it at least has it's ground (even if I don't share the same point of view), because Sammy is worshipping the Ink Demon like he is a God. And, surprise surprise - The Ink Demon does not look like a child.

But I just wanna hide under my table when I see people shipping Bendy with Henry or Joey.

Like: What the actual fuck? I know that they're not his actual parents, but the creators. They are someone who gave him life. Would you be able to fuck with someone who bring you to life, created you from scratch??

I'm fucking scared of this people, not gonna lie. They usually cover themselves with "Well Bendy is a toon, toons do not have a concept of age" or something like that. Don't they realise that they can't cover their weird shit with that?!

It reminds me of argument about "500 y.o. Loli is legal Loli"... JUST NO.

[whatisthisnonsense]

Did you hear? Bendy's coming back!

On the one hand I am highly skeptical just looking at the trailer that it's going to be anything more than the Bioshock 2 rip off to Bendy's Bioshock 1 rip off, I can already see how they're probably going to hurt us, and the buisness practices from the creators mean we have probably already reached There's No Ethical Consumption Under Capitalism (But There's Always Piracy) despite being an indie game technically still which is absolutely tragic, meaning it's probably only going to be good for watching SuperHorrorBro or Markiplier play On the other we have a female protagonist who's OP as fuck which is rare and from what we can tell so far she ISN'T a bitch which is even rarer, and just in the trailer we can see call backs to non-game canon lore which almost never happens in these sorts of things with any proper clarity meaning it's already passed the FNAF and Danganronpa bar (low as they are), and of course there's some tiny part of me that really does want to know what happened to Henry and has the tiniest bit of hope he might be okay On the third, mutated by the ink extraneous hand

HIM!!!!!!!!

[inkwise]

@mysteriouslyhopefulstranger:

Continued from here.

Wall. Cripes.

“Oohh, betcha think yer REAL clever, huh?” Claws come crashing against the spiked ink wall. Fighting ink with ink, eh? Not a bad strategy. But he doesn’t think this will last very long, especially when he’s the one with the real powers over the ink in this place. 

Be careful of the pipes along the wall, Alice. They might just start bursting.

[angelofthepage]

BATDR Speculation: Who is Bendy?

So the internet is currently freaking out over little Baby Benders (rightfully so, he’s ADORABLE), and we all have a lot of questions about him. Is he as cute and innocent as he seems? Is he going to betray us? Is he the lighter half of an ink demon split into pieces? Does he have a soul? If so, is it someone we know? I have a lot of thoughts on this, and none of them are concrete, but today I want to talk about one of my favorite musings so far: How Joey and Henry might be involved in this. I wanna talk about The Illusion of Living.

https://twitter.com/LaurenSynger/status/1587778374038069249?s=20&t=b-DLbISPVNI584xRm5ALAg

Warning: if you haven’t read the Illusion of Living by Adrienne Kress, HIGHLY recommend it, as there are spoilers ahead. This book is delightful, and it’s not what I expected. When I picked it up, I thought we were getting a narrative about Joey’s life, and we did to an extent. But the real treasure of this book is that it’s a character study of Joey Drew. It gives us so much to think about in terms of who he is as a person. Because he’s Joey, you’d expect him to bend the truth (pun absolutely intended), and there are moments where it feels like some details aren’t entirely true. But there are some scenes that are written in such a way that feel all too earnest, and one of them is the scene in Joey’s apartment: the birth of Bendy.

The way Joey tells it, he’s the one who had the concept for Bendy, then his friend Abby Lambert attempted to draw it, but nothing was looking right. Abby brought Henry on board to help without consulting Joey first. Then they all sat on the floor of Joey’s apartment while Henry sketched out what would become the signature Bendy design (with critiques from Joey along the way). It’s made out to be this magical moment, and it’s believable. What reason would Joey have to lie about this? He may have a lot of feelings about Henry, mostly negative from what we’ve seen in DCTL, but he gave Henry credit here. He didn’t downplay Henry’s importance in all of this, which surprised me, and I like that a lot.

Joey comes off as being so deeply in love with his creation that it doesn’t matter who did what, the fact remains that Bendy is still his in the ways that count the most. He was made with love, dreams, and wonder at his core, Joey’s ideas and writing, Henry’s artistic execution. He belongs to both of them. I get the sense that a lot of people are going to jump into debating whether this little Bendy is somehow made using Henry’s soul or Joey’s. But I’d like to propose this: what if he’s made with both? His creation isn’t credited to a single person, but two, and who better to give Bendy a soul than both of his creators, two halves of a whole?

It gives another layer to why Joey would send Henry into the studio in the first place. Like why Henry? Henry’s just a guy who supposedly worked with Joey as an animator and business partner for one year before vanishing forever, why send him in? Is he a last resort where others failed (maybe Tom was sent in first and couldn’t fix things), or is it because he’s so integral to Bendy’s creation? Surely he has something grand to offer in that regard, by Joey’s logic. Send Henry in, sure, if anyone can stop this twisted version of Bendy, it’s his creator, right? No, this story isn’t one that you can solve by making Henry the protagonist, it’s one that needs both of them. It’s a story that needs Joey to acknowledge a lot of things in order for it to change. That could be why it’s a loop, the story can’t end without Joey playing his part, but he’s too busy blaming everyone else for the trouble he’s caused, not taking responsibility for his actions.

One of the theories I’ve seen that I really love from the first game came from @dreamfisher-nux​ which I’ll link here: https://www.tumblr.com/dreamfisher-nux/184575733862/that-child-at-the-end-might-not-have-been-human?source=share The idea that the child we hear say “tell me another one Uncle Joey” might not be human based on the milk carton texture’s inky handprints gives me a lot to think on. I have to wonder if that child might have been his last attempt to make Bendy. Yes, I know, five fingers is too many, but that’s exactly why I say “attempt,” not success. I mean he has the studio full of his previous employees, souls he’s claimed he owns, and now Henry is in there too. Is it possible this was all a plan to get Henry’s soul to make into his creation? I’ll admit, while I was around for the emergence of the “Henry is a perfect Bendy” theory, I’m not 100% sold on it for canon (though I do love it in fandom works), but an imperfect Bendy, or something close to Allison or Twisted Alice in nature? That I would buy. Henry alone may not be enough to give Joey what he wants. So what if, before the end of his lifetime, Joey gave himself up? Bendy is in part his creation, a part of him, just as Alice is a part of Susie, there is something they give to that character that no one else has. And much like Susie, Joey would do anything for the character he loves. He went to great lengths to try and see it through, sacrificed so much (much of which was never his to sacrifice).

When I first heard Joey’s tape about cheating death itself, I assumed his goal was immortality for the longest time. But TIOL has me thinking that that’s only half the story. You’re never dead if your legacy is still alive, and Bendy is Joey’s legacy. Making Bendy real and innovating beyond what any artist or engineer has done before is at the core of what he wants, to make dreams into reality. And if he’s gone, but Bendy is here and real and perfect? I think, that’s a sacrifice Joey would be willing to make, his dream would be achieved and that’s what matters. Throw on the machine machine one more time, take the child, his child, that was so close and take one more chance, add his piece to the puzzle, his soul to the mix. Become part of your creation. It’s an act of love, “but love requires sacrifice.”

Joey is believed to be dead in 1972, and this is where Arch Gate comes in. They have control of the Bendy brand, they own the rights and assets to it. Nathan was someone that was believed to be Joey’s friend, even though he’s done things a friend wouldn’t do. What does Nathan Arch know of Joey’s marvelous machine, of his dreams? While I don’t know if I buy Nathan as a benevolent character given what he’s said in the books, I do believe he would carry out some of Joey’s final wishes, though maybe not exactly the way Joey would want him to. And handing Bendy over to him, his most precious creation, to be taken care of? Well, that would be an interesting thing, wouldn’t it? You don’t leave your child in the hands of just anyone. It’s as Tom says in TLO, you don’t give up on a miracle.

Or course, take this all with a grain of salt. I think this would be an intriguing story to follow, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I expect it to be canon. Canon or not though, it’s an interesting thought, isn’t it?

[lucky-dreamfisher]

All lore-relevant notes and spoilers from The Lost Ones book

Spoilers under the cut

Canon characters that appear in the book:

Joey

Thomas

Allison

Wally

Other important characters:

Scott (a GENT worker, Thomas' right hand man who was among the people helping him build the ink machine)

Bill (son of the studio's investor)

Constance (an actress working on a film sponsored by Bill's dad)

Brant (a journalist trying to expose Bill's father as a corrupted businessman)

Major lore reveals:

Thomas and Allison are confirmed to have shady morals. They're working for Joey and actively helping him cover up the murders.

Thomas justifies coming back to work on the ink machine, because he believes it's like his child.

But really, all three of them are most likely mind-controlled by the machine.

The ink is confirmed to have two mind-control abilities: firstly, it causes whoever touches it to become obsessed with the ink machine.

Secondly, it enhances some kind of deeply buried negative feeling or personality trait in the victim.

All ink creatures are confirmed to be connected with the Ink Machine and traveling together with it.

Bendy... can turn invisible?

Together with the ink machine, Thomas transported a giant box with chains on it. Something inside would bang on the walls of the box every time Brant touched the ink machine. When the teens opened the box to see inside it, it turned out to be completely empty and clean, with no ink inside. Bendy attacked them soon afterwards, so it was most likely him inside the box, but it's strange that there was not a drop of ink inside that he could be hiding in.

There exists a way to cure the ink creatures and turn them back into humans (!)

Constance develops an "antidote" which cures Brent after he turns into a Lost One. It's not stated what is inside the antidote, but she created it with the use of an amateur chemistry set, so the ingredients must be simple and easily accessible. It's described as having a deep red color.

The Ink machine isn't really broken and can't be fixed

That would imply that the Creator's Lie is actually that the ink machine isn't working as intended. Though I have no idea for what purpose would Joey intend to create a machine that enhances people's negative feelings.

Other notes:

Tom calls Allison "Ally"

Dot still works at the studio, Joey orders Thomas to hide the ink machine from her

More hints of Thomas being black: he spends his days drinking in bars in a racially-segregated African American neighborhood, and Scott aggressively questions Bill if he's "uncomfortable" meeting him there

Joey's sense of humor continues to be weird. At one point he "accidentally" on purpose shuts the door in Bill's face and laughs about it

The Ink Machine was created in the Atlantic City, which is also the place of the main GENT headquarters and the place where their greatest inventions are created.

Joey wears a pinstripe suit (Dapper Bendy reference?)

Joey's walk is described as resembling a dance (Dancing Demon lol)

[adobe-outdesign]

The Big Grand TIOL Review/Critique

I’ve been covering my thoughts on this a bit during my liveblog, but I figured I should punch out a proper review.

No spoilers review: This one’s a bit tricky in terms of reviewing it. The reason for this is that, in a way, I feel like some its weaknesses are part of its design, so it’s not fair to critique them.

Basically, DCTL is the essential BATIM novel, in that it does exactly what you’d expect a BATIM novel to do. Don’t get me wrong, it was by no means paint-by-the-numbers, but you had all the BATIM staples in there. Game-canon characters, the machine itself, people getting turned into cartoons, the Ink Demon killing shit, ect ect.

TIOL is different because it’s basically an in-universe memoir written by Joey about his life and philosophy. So the thing is, when you boil this book down, it’s kind of almost not a BATIM book in a way. It features a game-canon character and dives deep into his backstory, but most of the book has little to do with the studio until like the last 4/5s or so.

So on the one hand, I feel like that’s a problem, and we needed more game-canon characters, more about the cartoons, ect. But then again... it wouldn’t make sense for Joey to spend his entire life rambling about the studio instead of talking about his early years at all, would it? So in a way I can’t really fault the book for it.

In terms of flaws, it honestly has less than DCTL--while DCTL had some major glaring problems, TIOL is fairly solid all around, but is less of a satisfying read due to its premise, making it hard to compare the two.

In terms of whether or not you’d enjoy the book, I guess it’s most important to know what you’re going to get out of it. If you’re like me and like extreme character studies and backstories, de-fictionalized in-universe media, and long philosophical talks, you’ll probably really enjoy it. If you don’t and want something more standard for BATIM, stick with DCTL.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, though I do like DCTL more at the end of the day. I’ll give this one a solid 6/10.

Spoilers below the cut:

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Okay, I lied. I’m not gonna include an ugly section this time, mostly because, as I said before, this book has less glaring issues than DCTL did. With that said:

The Good

If you like Joey, you will love this book. I’ve said before that Joey is the best character (strictly speaking) in BATIM because he by far has the most depth, showing a layered and interesting character. This book takes that and runs with it, giving a deep look into his psychology, philosophy, and overall explaining a lot about why he does what he does and his way of viewing the world. It’s legitimately well done and makes you look at his character in a new way, and as someone who loves character studies this whole thing was a real treat for me.

They do a very good job making this feel like an actual memoir. Nathan is editing and leaves footnotes, he wrote a foreword explaining this is a reprint, Joey blatantly lies a few times because that’s what he’d do, ect. 

Also, if you enjoy foreshadowing dialogue--which I do, very much--there is more than enough of that here.

This one might be cheating because it’s probably unintentional, but there is a ton of Joey being gay in this book, some of it really overt. I’m not going to go into it much here as Dreamfisher already summarized everything for me, but yeah, there is no way this man is straight.

Everyone who was OOC in DCTL seems to be better here. Sammy, while still an asshole, is neither as big of an asshole as he was in DCTL nor is he being racist. Bertrum is still affable towards Joey, but here it makes sense because they literally just met, and unlike in DCTL he even corrects him on his name.

Other characters get some screentime, and while brief, it’s nice to get some more characterization for them, especially because a few of them never showed up in DCTL. Jack Fain in particular gets some much-needed characterization and really shines here, as well as Nathan.

While it’s not overtly ha-ha funny, I did chuckle a few times. Most at Nathan’s notes, as half of them are just blatantly contradicting Joey’s lies.

We get a bit more info on Henry and Joey’s relationship, as well as how the cartoons were made.

The Bad

As mentioned above, there’s weirdly not a ton of BATIM content in this. Sure, it’s about Joey, but the bulk of the novel features book-canon characters only and is more focused on how he got where he ended up than stuff regarding the studio. It doesn’t really feel like a BATIM novel until about 4/5s of the way through. Like I said above though, I don’t know how much I can critique that, as it’s kind of inevitable with a memoir.

There is a lot of navel gazing in this. If you like philosophy you’ll enjoy it, but if you don’t it might get irritating, especially when it’s just Joey’s opinions over and over.

While we get more info about Joey and Henry and how they met, there’s not much info given on their relationship. Joey just talks about how much he totes didn’t need Henry while Nathan indicates that it was way more personal than that, but we never learn how personal. It makes sense as Joey’s the one writing this, but it still would’ve been nice to hear some more remarks from Nathan on the matter or something.

There’s like a 50 page or so detective mystery that I didn’t really care for. There was nothing really wrong with it, but it didn’t feel like it told us a ton about Joey, and there’s not a lot of emotional investment as we don’t know these people. Combine that with the mystery being unsolvable to the reader (because Joey leaves out crucial information until the reveal) and it just kind of felt like a pointless side detour, and like that time could’ve been spent on something more interesting. Most we get out of it is the origin of Bendy’s name.

There’s a weird inconsistency where Joey claims he made Bendy (not surprising), but he also goes over the moment when Bendy was made and it blatantly shows the two collabing, so at best he would’ve been Bendy’s co-creator. It’s just strange that he would describe the process like that instead of changing it to fit his lie. I think the implication is that the process itself is fake--that Henry had nailed Bendy’s design when he first showed it to Joey--but like I said, the scene contradicts Joey’s claims regardless.

There’s not really a... plot? Not surprising as it’s a memoir, but some memoirs do a good job of building a climax by showcasing an important moment in the person’s life. Here, because things are being told out of order, we never really get a climax, as there’s no action and Joey’s little emphianys are scattered throughout. There’s kind of just a lot of people standing around and talking and not much actual action going on.

I was kind of hoping this book would go into Joey’s black magic stuff. I need to make this clear: I don’t think BATIM should ever go into this too much, as it’s really just the macguffin that explains the plot, and it wouldn’t make sense for Joey to sit there talking about all the cool satanic bullshit he’s been doing lately anyway. However, Joey’s mentioned the “Gods” before, so I was kind of hoping for something about his thoughts about religion or something that would hint at the demonic stuff. He thinks about the afterlife a lot, but that’s about it.

Overall

Like I said, you have to know what you’re getting into when you pick up the book. If you read this and it sounds like something you’d enjoy, then grab it. If not, then don’t bother. For me, personally, I’m glad I read it, even if it wasn’t quite on the same level as something like DCTL.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Got any Bendy theories you're almost 100% sure might have solid evidence? I'm starving for some more theory material.

If you want more theory stuff I'd like to point you towards @dreamfisher-nux if you haven't already perused their blog. They've got some pretty neat theories!

In my mind there's more than enough new information to give some credence to a theory I've had since mine and @british-hero 's reading of TIoL. That being that: Henry never claimed Bendy as his own creation.

For those of you who haven't read TIoL or who don't completely trust anything Joey Drew says, I have to point out that it seems odd to me that Joey involves Abby Lambert in the portion of the novel pertaining Bendy's creation (it being her that invited Henry to provide assistance in designing the Little Devil Darling with Joey's instructions as a guide), and that lying about it would be a risk because she might discredit him. So to me, it feels like anything that involves Abby might be more fact than fiction.

That said, some people will likely point to Henry's desk and his singular in-game audio log as evidence that he created Bendy all on his own.

Henry's old desk with the denied sketch of a smiling Bendy.

Henry's audio log transcript.

It's been pretty accepted by now that Henry drew those sketches that Joey didn't approve of, and that he was talking about Bendy when he recorded the audio log. However, according to TIoL, Bendy was created before the studio was properly established, so I believe the character Henry was talking about was very likely either Boris or Alice (very likely Boris as he was actually a fan favourite unlike Alice). I'd also like to remind people that in DCTL, Buddy Lewek was given Henry's desk and had a bit of trouble drawing Bendy, so it's likely the sketches were made by him and not Henry.

Another piece of evidence denying this might be the final cell that Henry signed for Joey, pointing to Henry claiming Bendy as his own.

The signed cell Joey Drew keeps framed in his apartment.

However, I'd argue that signing something doesn't mean what you'd like it to mean. I think the only characters Henry likely had a claim to were Boris, Alice and the Butcher Gang, and that Bendy really was Joey's character.

Which means in a sense, the Ink people were right. The creator really did lie to them...

[nayialovecat]

Question for Bendy and Sammy too. So, have you had any conversations with your sons about "where babies come from," or have the boys asked you about it? And Bendy how long was your pregnancy, did you have any symptoms typical of such a condition?

Bendy: Come on! They are still small children!

Sammy: (explaining to the triplets around him who asked about it just now) ...And when mom and dad are as close as I said, then...

Bendy: SAMMY, WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING TO THEM?!

Sammy: (reprimanded) My Lord, you shouldn't swear in front of our kids.

Bendy: SAMMY!

.

Ok. Bendy is a parent who thinks children are too gentle and innocent to the brutal truth about the origins of children, but his logical nature doesn't allow him to lie 'bout stork or cabbage (anyway, where do storks or cabbage in the studio?). So he would rather avoid answering. Sammy is the kind of parent who (like me) believe that children have a right to know. Of course I wouldn't go into the details of the sex act* and Sammy probably won't either, but he'll tell them other things.

.

* I explained to my child that dad and mom have to cuddle very tightly. And now, every time I cuddle with my husband, she asks if I already have her brother in my belly. It was a mistake...

.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bendy: Well... the pregnancies of demons, as it turned out, are much shorter than that of humans. How long it all lasted, I'm not sure, but definitely less than nine months. AND GLORY TO THE CREATOR FOR THIS. I don't know if it all looked like with humans, but I had such mood swings and cravings that I was completely out of control over and probably only a fanatic like Sammy could stand me.

But I didn't have much physical ailments. I don't know if it's a matter of careful selection of my meals by Sammy or the fact that some of the food didn't go into my body, but I never vomited - and it usually happens to me every few meals.

[lennythereviewer]

Getting my Showdown Bandit theory out before MatPat beats me to the punch

Gonna put it under a cut to avoid spoilers

Also gonna tag my fellow theory fren @adobe-outdesign TL;DR: This is a story about coming to terms with your own existence

Long Version Based on everything in the first chapter (And a few people making connections between this and Bendy possibly being in the same universe) here is the conclusion I’ve reached Like a certain Joey Drew, the creator of the Showdown Bandit Show used black magic to bring the puppets to life; to make them truly animated and alive, to have a show like no other! But of course something went horribly wrong. As we’re told, the Showdown Bandit Show was cancelled abruptly and suddenly at the peak of it’s popularity, and no one is quite sure why...

There are three laws in this universe that are repeatedly hammered in, in both the game and in the trailers:

Play Your Part Guard Your Strings Don’t Look Up

Translation: Don’t ask questions, do what you’re meant to do

The something that went horribly wrong was that the puppets started to become self-aware. They began to realize that they are just what they are; puppets being strung around and forced to perform. Their lives are just a show for children. 

Everyone took this revelation differently.

Miss Undertaker is very OBVIOUSLY aware of her true nature; she’s the one enforcing the three laws after all. Notes from Lookout in the game inform us that something happened that deeply troubled her, but she brushed it off pretending to be okay. She knows she’s just a puppet, but she wants to continue living the lie and is making sure no one else questions their existence so they can all continue on with the show. She could even be directly working with the Puppeteer

The Banker is very timid and scared, and he is questioning his existence; but is too frightened to act upon it

The Doctor is in on it with Miss Undertaker, but I’ll get to him in a moment

Penny IS self-aware, but presumably she’s seen what happens to those who step out of line, those who look up, so she yanked out her own eyes and that combined with the revelation has driven her mad

Which brings us to Bandit himself:

Presumably the inciting incident is that one day in the middle of a show; Bandit  became self-aware and had some kind of meltdown that frightened the children and ruined the whole show. 

And now... the creator is holed up in the old studio, still clinging to his precious show, and going through a process of trying again, and again to have ONE Bandit puppet that won’t become self-aware; in some vain hope the show will continue again

It’s obvious that there has been more than one Bandit, and we’re NOT the first. You get your gun from the corpse of another Bandit, Faceless IS a Bandit, and Undertaker even remarks: “I haven’t unboxed a Bandit that wasn’t quick on the draw!” also there’s the ominous line at the end: “You Bandits come a dime a dozen and no one bats a wooden eye”

Now, the very start of the game: Undertaker is searching for someone, who I believe to be Lookout; another puppet who became self-aware but got away. Undertaker then spots Bandit’s box and is genuinely surprised to see him

“I didn’t drag you up here on purpose, but if you’re here, it must be what HE wants” She says, while subtly pointing up to the ceiling

He, the Puppeteer:

It’s time for another attempt at a perfect Bandit that will do as he’s told.

The Strings are all a lie; Bandit is perfectly capable of moving on his own while he’s in the box; it’s only after he stumbles out do the strings latch onto him and seem to cause him pain at first. The strings are only there to keep the puppets in line and in control. We KNOW this because the Stringless are enemy marionettes that are perfectly mobile without their strings!

The Doctor reinforces the idea that you even need strings; he’s in on it with Undertaker. He even remarks how it’s yet another Bandit he’s tending to: “Another day, another Bandit...”

Faceless I’ll bet isn’t even a villain; I wager that he’s the original Bandit, and him carrying a scythe to cut your strings is him trying to FREE Bandit!

So where does this even go? How does all this even turn out? And what did the ending of that chapter mean? I couldn’t tell you, this is just a baseline for what I believe to be going on.

Now watch MatPat do this exact theory

[brittle-bone-gabe]

Blurred Memories

Also on AO3! Read here

The small dancing demon wandered the halls of the dimly lit animation studio, he had no idea where he was or what he was doing here, the last thing he could remember was being spit out of that… machine, covered in ink and a mind full of confusion. This world was not meant for Bendy, the horrors that are currently going on in the studio were not meant for him, he wasn’t a bad character, his intentions were never bad or mean, he wouldn’t last a second down there in the lower levels. Not with the Ink Demon wandering around. No way, he’d be torn to shreds, unless Twisted Alice got ahold of him first. This was the second version of Bendy that’s ever been created by the ink machine, and unlike the first one, this Bendy was a perfect replica of the cartoon character. Small and imp-like. 

With all the writing on the wall written in ink that read: the creator lied to us, and we just want to go home scared Bendy to say the least. What was this place? Who was the creator and why did they lie? Why did they want to go home so badly? From above his head, there was loud thumping and screeches that were high pitched, sending a chill through Bendy’s spine. Terrified, Bendy ran to the nearest animation desk he could find sitting in the corner of a random hallway; he had no idea where he was and thus no sense of direction. Bendy sat under the desk, his knees pressed to his chest, his arms wrapped around them, pressing his back as far back against the wall as he could so whatever monster was hiding out there couldn’t find him. 

Why was this happening to him? It wasn’t as though Bendy asked for this to happen, if it were his choice he’d stay a massive blob of ink in the ink machine without a brain or any idea what was going on around him. This outer world was terrifying, it was either dead silent or there were spooky sounds all around him that he couldn’t see, that would only imply that there was more to this world than what he could see. Did Bendy have a purpose? Is that why he was here? What could he do about this scary world though? It was as though he was thrown into a game that he had no clue what the rules were or who the other players were, how was that fair? 

The noises from above Bendy’s head continued, louder this time it seemed like, perhaps it was getting closer to his location. Hopefully whatever it was looking for him wasn’t a huge threat, Bendy could outsmart smaller threats in his cartoons like the Butcher Gang, but anything else? No way. Bendy’s never dealt with anything that tried to cause him actual bodily harm. 

From across the hall, something caught Bendy’s eye. Would it be worth crawling out of his obvious hiding spot to check it out? Bendy thought so. Slowly, he got on his hands and knees, poking his head out to see if there were any monsters in the entrance room of the studio. Once he deemed it to be safe he slowly crawled out of his hiding spot, his legs trembling in fear and his shoulders hunched due to anxiety as he made it to the room across the hall. Inside were more desks similar to the one he was hiding under. The room was covered in old Bendy title card posters and the Bendy cutout that caught the demons eye. It was exactly his size, standing at his height with his usual advertisement pose.

Bendy scratched his head in confusion, why would anyone want a cutout version of him now that he existed in this world? He peeked behind it and found nothing. He touched it, the rough wooden texture scraped against his gloved hand, a bit of ink residue left behind on the white glove. Not like it mattered, due to the ink machine both his gloves and trademark white bowtie had ink stains on them. 

Something connected in Bendy’s brain, telling him that he needed to be brave and figure out what was going on in this big, bad, scary world. Nothing would be accomplished if he hid under these desks for the rest of his life, eventually he would need something to eat and something to do before he lost his mind. 

As he started leaving the animation room he saw a poster near the doorway that made him stop in his tracks. On the poster was Alice Angel herself, someone that Bendy could just barely remember. It felt as though the memory was there, but it didn’t want to fully present itself. 

Alice Angel. She sings! She dances! “Sent From Above”. The poster read. Why did Bendy feel like he knew her…? To try to get the memory out, he hit himself in the head a couple of times as if that would actually help. This was extremely frustrating. 

“Friend…?” Bendy thought, touching the poster. He had hoped that would’ve instantly sent the memory over to his brain. Did he even technically have a brain? He shook his head, backing away from the poster, he didn’t have time to think like that, he had to keep moving. 

“Hello?” Bendy thought he heard a woman’s voice say to him, he jumped, spinning around. There was nobody else in the room with him, but he could’ve sworn the voice was from right behind him. “Of course I’ll go!” The same angelic voice said. 

A strange feeling of happiness came over Bendy at that second sentence, that was unusual due to the situation he was currently in. Did he know this voice? On the surface he didn’t, but something locked in his mind must have. Was the voice real or something from his memories? 

“Keep moving, just keep moving”, Bendy told himself as he walked out of the room and down the hall of the studio. He had no idea where he was going, but he had to find a way out of here or at least find someone who would help him understand. To try to keep his spirits up, Bendy started whistling his easily recognizable tune, he found that whenever he was scared or in trouble he would whistle this tune to help keep his mind focused. 

Bendy wasn’t paying attention to which way he was going, but he ended up at a double sided hallway. One side led to another corner, while the other… Bendy covered his mouth with his hands upon seeing Boris strapped to the gurney with its chest ripped open. Behind his body was a busted pipe leaking ink onto the floor below.  

This wolf… Bendy knew who this was. He knew it was Boris, the memories of everything that happened in his life as a cartoon character flooded back to him as he got closer to the corpse. Tears welled up in his eyes as he fell to his knees, letting out a small sob at his deceased friend. Who would do this? Why would they do this to poor Boris?

All the good times they had together smacked Bendy in the face; most of the time they were great, although there were times Boris could be a jerk and steal Bendy’s food, but he didn’t mean any harm by it. Boris was Bendy’s best friend, no matter what anybody said. 

Bendy wiped the tears from his eyes as he stood up, touching Boris’ hand, silently saying his final goodbyes. In the corner of the room Bendy had spotted an axe, it was a bit big and when Bendy picked it up he almost fell backwards, but he was determined to find whoever did this to Boris and make sure they never hurt anyone else's best friends ever again.

[inkwise]

@intcashes​ hit the HEART. (Any muse)

How foolish one must be to even entertain the THOUGHT of entering an abandoned building that already has a reputation for being haunted. How foolish one must be to dare tread on the territory of the Ink Demon, the very monster that stalks these halls and calls the old studio his playground.

So the Ink Demon creeps up behind the intruder, and when they turn around they will be greeted by a wide GRIN and dripping ink, crooked horns that looks BROKEN, and a torn bow tie on a chest that reveals the lining of a rib cage.

“ BOO. ”