#all I can think of is watching play throughs of Batdr

[im-captain-basch]

Shit shit shit shit shit I had a thought regarding Bendy and the Dark Revival. It's kind of a stretch and I'm sure someone else has probably already thought of this, but just in case know there are major major spoilers ahead, especially pertaining to chapter 4, its character reveals, and the ending of the game.

I apologize in advanced if this seems a little disconnected.

OK, so I'm sitting here watching SuperHorrorBro play BatDR when he gets to the part where Audrey runs into Henry. He mentioned that playing the End reel would start the cycle over again, as we all know it does, but I felt his wording is peculiar:

"Everything begins again. Completely new."

Obviously we know from checking out Joey's house at the end of BatIM that Joey had drafted up several scenarios we don't necessarily ever actually see. It's possible that these scenarios are each seperate events within different loops, meaning we get such beautiful things as the Butcher Gang having fun at Bendyland and even Sammy and Bendy going fishing, most likely on the docks of the Lost Harbor. However, we don't actually get these different scenarios, either because of the limitations of the game or because Joey hasn't been able to fully implement it into the world of the Ink Machine.

Why is this important, well, there's a specific part of these drafts that fans have long speculated about, mostly in regards to whether or not it's an alternate ending that can be triggered.

This is one of the most interesting pieces from the draft, because it presents a scenario where Bendy is able to break free of the cycle ending, or at least ends it for Henry or manages to keep the cycle they're in from ending. It also makes sense if we consider what was said earlier about Joey's drafts being different loops too. I think this was something a lot of us wanted, but we haven't gotten it. At least, we didn't until Bendy and the Dark Revival.

I've seen full walkthroughs of the game. I know how the game ends, and as a result, it's very interesting to me that this is the one of those scenarios that makes a return.

The loop Audrey is caught in is certainly different, and that can be attributed to Wilson's interference to the world of the Ink Machine, but it does still run concurrent to Henry's story. For example, Wilson's Keepers are able to capture both Henry and Sammy during their chapter 5 altercation in the Lost Harbor, which is how we end up meeting Henry in BatDR to begin with.

Something I want to point out about Audrey real quick, if you're into spoilers or at least have knowledge of what happens in the game: she's a creation of Joey's through the Ink Machine, half flesh and half ink. When the ending comes and the final boss is defeated, the Ink Demon takes her and together they form a creature who looks very similar to Beast Bendy, but especially to the form we see in Joey's drafts:

My thought process here is that... in the end, we did get a "Bendy wins" scenario, just not quite in the way we expected back in 2018. It's been right under our noses since chapter 5 came out.

Audrey takes the reel, holds it in the monstrous hand of her and Bendy's combined ink form, and plays it on a projector.

Technically speaking, Bendy, though combined with Audrey, does indeed win.

They win against Wilson, and against the darker aspects of Bendy himself, who, if the last thing we see before the credits roll is any indication, may now be able to lead as normal a life as an ink creation can.

The cycle will start again, as it always does, and completely anew as Henry had said. This time, however, perhaps Bendy winning isn't the bad ending we thought it was four years ago.

(IDK man, perhaps I'm reading too far into it.)

tl;dr we probably got the Bendy wins scenario but not how we expected or wanted and it probably was never a bad ending to begin with

[trashboatprince]

A Bendy one-shot written here on tumblr by me? In the year 2022?

It’s more likely than you think!

So, now that BATDR is out and my friends have finally seen it/played it, I can finally sit down and write up this one-shot I’ve had in mind! I’ll probably even have more in the future, if I bother to sit down and think on things more.

Warning: contains spoilers for the actual story of BATDR, au post-ending, this is a comfort fic, no serious angst, headcanons

On with the fic!

--

The room with the piano and the fish tank was Henry’s favorite place to draw.

Often, he was left alone, but sometimes Audrey or Allison would come and spend time with him, and Bendy, when not around his friend, would sit himself down and play while Henry worked. More often than not, Boris would nap in this room too, but people usually left him alone when he wanted the privacy.

From what he was told, it was about three months since the new cycle started and things were, for the most part, better for the studio. Depending on who you asked.

Many of those who lived in the studio accepted that the Ink Demon was ‘gone’, none of them knowing where he had gone to except for those small few who knew the true nature of Bendy. With the Ink Demon out of sight, many of the Lost Ones decided to try and rebuild their little societies in the studio, though many branched off into little factions, like before.

Many still believed the demon to be lurking, and sided with him, not with Audrey, not with the new writer of the story. Sammy seemed to be in a sort of limbo, he was... better, but would often go back to the music department somewhere in the studio and spend his time there with Jack. Though sometimes he would show up unannounced to the manor and just go find Bendy.

From what Audrey said, Sammy would just sit there with a banjo and music sheets, working, while Bendy would watch him with curiosity. Then he’d just leave, never saying much except a thanks and a good bye.

Alice... well, Henry hadn’t seen much of her since the cycle restarted, but he thinks he hears her singing from somewhere much deeper in the manor. He avoids the original library at all costs, Audrey says it’s for the best. 

Allison and Tom come and go, they live in the manor with the cyclebreakers who decided to occupy it, but often they’re out helping where they can and taking down those who want to cause trouble. And to fight any of the Butcher Gang members and Searchers that are still out there, trying to kill anything that moves, be them Lost Ones or cyclebreakers.

The Projectionist, now in one piece, went off to wander the inky halls, sometimes Henry saw him walk through the city streets, his light illuminating the road, a bag in his hand, dragging on the ground. Henry had learned quickly to not question the contents, he had a pretty good idea. 

Then there was himself, Bendy, and Audrey. 

Henry had nowhere to go, he wasn’t really a set character in a location, he was a wanderer, he was a character but not one meant to only occupy select places in the story. With the expansion of the studio, the story, Henry was given freedom.

To a point. 

He wasn’t the real Henry Stein, but he was real enough to be his own person, and Audrey told him so, believing that he still served a purpose. He was, in a sense, a writer like her, someone to weave the story. He could help her protect their friends, the people of the studio, from the machine. From any other people who wanted to twist the world even more.

Henry found he could help with his art, he was helping with repairs, with providing things for those who wanted the help. And he did it from Wilson’s old home in the studio, which the cyclebreakers took over. Betty seemed to accept this, though they had to wonder if she knew the truth of her creator.

Henry hadn’t seen what became of Wilson, but from what Audrey said, it was better that he hadn’t. Especially since they weren’t sure if he was truly dead, did anything ever stay dead in the studio?

Audrey lived in the manor with the others, though she came and went from the studio to the real world. She had a life there, but she always returned here. Sometimes Bendy followed her to reality, but often he stayed behind, spending his days acting like the Li’l Devil Darlin’ that Henry designed so long ago.

He was curious and cute, much different from the demonic being that haunted Henry’s dreams even now. It was amazing they were the same being.

Pausing in his sketching, Henry looked over at Bendy, who was sitting on the floor of the piano room. He had toys from Heavenly Toys with him, a train and a few plush toys. He was making the train drive around the plush of himself before sending it sailing across the floor, where it hit the leg of the piano. Bendy clapped, happy with his little game, before he paused, going still.

Henry knew what this meant, it was Bendy listening to any little noise he could pick up. Like his other self, the demon had extremely excellent hearing, always seeming to be aware of someone’s arrival before anyone else. A wide, toothy grin came to Bendy’s face as he got to his feet, turning to Henry. He lifted his left hand and moved it in a spiral-like motion.

“Oh, is Audrey back?” Henry asked and Bendy nodded, holding out his hand for Henry to take.

Bendy didn’t seem to speak in this form, even though he could talk. Henry and Audrey wondered if it was because of his powers being restricted in this form, or if he just chose to be quiet due to what happened to him when he was in the hold of the Keepers (who seemed to be in hiding, somewhere, hopefully much deeper in the studio). 

Still, he had his ways of communicating. He whistled a lot, which helped, and made little noises like hums and squeaks. But now he was learning to do hand gestures and signs to speak. Audrey’s was meant to be like the spiral on her hand, Henry would be a drawing motion. Boris and Tom both shared Bendy pretending to make ears out of his index fingers, but he bent one for Tom.

Allison got Bendy making a halo over his head with his fingers, but Alice was Bendy covering half his face with his hand. Sammy was just covering his whole face and making a very sharp whistle. Betty was Bendy holding his hands in front of his chest, he was still learning to do others, but people got the gist of who he was speaking to, about.

They walked out of the room together, just as Betty was approaching. “Oh!” She stopped. “I guess Bendy heard Audrey’s arrival?”

“Seems so.” Henry smiled and was pulled along still, the now-trio making their way to the manor’s kitchen, where they found Audrey. She had shopping bags with her, from the real world, meaning that tonight’s meal wasn’t going to be made from whatever was found here in the city.

Which was great, because Henry really didn’t want to eat meat from the city, especially after learning of... well...

“Hey, you two!” Audrey smiled, golden eyes glowing brightly. “Guess what we’re having tonight.”

Bendy looked even more excited as he ran over to his friend. He cupped one hand and then used the other to pretend to mix something in an imaginary bowl. Henry wanted to roll his eyes, that was the first thing Bendy showed them that he was referring to something. 

Bacon soup, of course. 

Audrey smiled at Bendy before turning to Henry, her smile looking a little more apologetic. “Sorry, Henry, but he’s been asking. And besides, I brought fresh things with me, none of that canned sludge!”

“Well, anything is better than that.” Henry replied as he approached, lifting Bendy up to set him on the counter while Betty moved to get a pot and a frying pan out. “Do you want to help us, bud?” He turned to the demon, who happily nodded.

“Great, you can help me with cutting up the bacon then, Audrey can do the veggies.” Henry smiled and moved to get a cutting board.

It was different, finding himself in a new loop but without the horrors, without the threats on his life. No cultish musicians or deranged angels, no monster wolves and demonic beasts, no words from an old friend that forced him to go through Hell over and over.

It was surreal and hard to get used to after so long, but Henry could get used to this, if it meant he could rest, he could be happy. 

--

In case you’re wondering why I mentioned Boris, he can be found in the game, but he’s basically a blink-and-you-miss-’em Easter egg. I’d like to think he wants to just stay outta sight, outta mind, since Henry isn’t with him. 

But anyway, I mainly wrote this for my friends, because we just want good things for Henry, okay?

[angelofthepage]

Things you might want to know before BATDR releases (in terms of lore)

I've had a lot of conversations in different corners of the fandom about the Bendy books, Boris and the Dark Survival, and now the BATDR trailer, and I think I've got a pretty solid grip on what those pieces of media tried to do to set the stage for this next story. So today I'm gonna go through the pieces and put together a guide with all the details I think you'll want to know for BATDR. We'll see how this holds up on November 15th.

Warning, spoilers for BATIM, Boris and the Dark Survival (BATDS), The Employee Handbook, Dreams Come to Life (DCTL), The Illusion of Living (TIOL), The Lost Ones (TLO), and Crack Up Comics ahead.

Our story begins at the end of Bendy and the Ink Machine. Henry makes it to the machine, he plays a tape that says "The End" after a brutal fight with the inky beast and a monologue from Joey about how he can fix everything. When the boss fight ends and the screen erupts in light, we see Henry enter Joey Drew's apartment. A calendar on the kitchen wall indicates that the year is 1963, the month is August (the calendar date actually changes randomly per playthrough to show it's any day in August except the 31st, you cannot get the 31st to load).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgWN7R4-wPw&t=298s

The bulletin boards are where I want to draw your attention. I'm going to focus on Allison's letter, because it gives us this nugget: she's working for Arch Gate. This was the first time we'd ever heard of Arch Gate, and it didn't have much meaning then, but now it does.

We get a few more disconnected pieces in Boris and the Dark Survival. BATDS is a game where you play as Boris (or a Lost One or Sammy) walking through the studio to collect a set list of supplies for the safehouse. There are other collectibles hiding in lockers, Boris corpses' chests, etc, that give us a number of things to think on. The Milla Legna tapes give us an interesting story that I believe might be tied to Susie Campbell's backstory, but nothing is confirmed. What I'm going to focus on are Wally and Sammy's details. By collecting hidden pieces of pipes, we can assemble a mini game that has a high score set by Wally Franks. If we manage to beat his score, we can an audio log from Joey where he sounds extremely nervous. He begs his friend Nathan to help him out with financial trouble. This was the first time we heard of Nathan, but it won't be the last. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2savP-5Y4BY

Additionally, once we've unlocked Sammy (by finding his candles and mask to summon him), we can play as him, and he has two unique abilities. One is that he can teleport through cracks in the walls (which is necessary given he's the only character who can't run), the other is that he can play instruments in the hallway. There's a code for the instruments above where you place his mask (fun Easter egg, it's the same code that originally got us his secret lines in the pre-update version of Chapter 3), and if you play instruments throughout the level, you'll get an audio log from the Unknown Voice to tease Dark Revival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7UG4H4XVng

The Unknown Voice has also appeared on the JDS YouTube page with this mysterious audio log.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFpgqSnE7zQ&list=PL5adzFCvE4-8cJXkyv9eqp0pOLQPmEamN

If this voice sounds familiar, it's because we've heard him in both of the BATDR trailers, and now we have a face for him. Many suspected this was Sammy, the Ink Demon, or Nathan before this point, but it looks like this fellow might be named Wilson (assuming the guy on the posters and this dude are meant to be the same, I would not be surprised if there's something impostor-y happening). His voice actor is still being kept a secret at this time.

Turning to the books, there's not a lot for me to note from DCTL at this time. This book takes place in summer of 1946 and follows protagonist Buddy Lewek as he becomes a gofer for the studio and ultimately ends up falling into Joey's schemes. The big things we get in this one do more to further our understanding of BATIM, such as telling us why Henry left the studio ala Norman (to spend more time with his wife, Linda). We learn that Sammy got addicted to drinking ink and starting sacrificing people once enough of it was in his system, hearing voices, we get Norman's death off-screen along with most of the art department (save for Abby, we'll talk about Abby in a bit), we find out Joey purchased a theater to expand the JDS building, and we learn part of what the machine is for. Joey wants to bring his characters to life, in part to have meet-able mascots at Bendyland, the upcoming project he pitches to investors (and the scene where he refers to Bertrum as Bertie and pisses him off, we actually get to see it happening in real time!). We also get a cryptic mention from Allison at the party to not forget what happened to Susie when talking to Buddy, to which he responds "who's Susie?" This is important, we know Buddy has never met Susie within this year and that Allison is the voice of Alice Angel by this point.

We know thanks to the Crack Up Comics’ introduction that by 1972, Joey Drew is believed to be dead, and Nathan Arch, head of Arch Gate Studios (a location we see mentioned a few times in the background of the BATDR trailer) has purchased the rights and assets for Bendy. Nathan is a steel and oil tycoon, never having shown a real interest in cartoons before, so why would he do this? Thanks to the JDS website’s press archives, he tells us it’s to keep Joey’s legacy alive, but is that the full truth?

https://www.joeydrewstudios.com/archive

We assume he wants it for the ink machine, it’s an invaluable piece of technology. But we also see several things in the trailer and on the JDS website that point to media preservation. A museum dedicated to Bendy’s history, a banner advertising “Joey Drew The Man and The Demon,” which sounds like a documentary. Even the animation cell we see Audrey working on is taken from the cartoon Cheap Seats, the first time we as fans got to see Alice speak in a cartoon. TIOL and the Crack Up Comics are framed as being projects that archive Joey’s legacy with the way that they’re released, and while Nathan tells us that he hasn’t messed with The Illusion of Living (which was originally released as Joey’s memoir in 1942 in-universe, right as Bendyland was being conceptualized and Joey got into contact with Bertrum), we don’t know how truthful it is. His anecdotes and annotations within Joey’s memoir do leave you wondering just how good of friends they really were. It begs a lot of questions, what is Arch Gate up to? I get the sense the motivation is a little bit of wanting the machine for a greater purpose and another piece achieving Joey’s dream where he could not, bringing cartoons to life. But we can’t be sure. There’s a lot we have questions on for BATDR, but I suspect it’ll be an exciting ride going into it. The one question I have is will we see Abby Lambert.

For those who don’t know, Abby is a very important character to the books. She’s a friend of Joey’s in the late 20s, an artist who’s not super traditional (she wears a lot of men’s suits and I believe was described as having short hair?), and she’s responsible for connecting Joey and Henry. Upon going to an art show where Henry’s work was on display with Abby, Joey started getting ideas about producing cartoons. Then he tried to come up with main character’s concept, and Abby tried to draw it but missed the mark. So she invited Henry over to help, which Joey was a little miffed about since he didn’t want a lot of people to know yet, but with a little back and forth and critique, Bendy was born (and apparently he’s named after a dead photographer from the detective story in this memoir, but that’s a rabbit hole I’m not ready to go down). After that, Joey and Henry start JDS together, and after Henry’s left, Abby is finally available to come on and works as the head of the art department (according to Joey). He talks to highly of her in TIOL, but when we see her in DCTL, she’s exhausted, frustrated, and he’s kind of dismissive of her when Buddy’s caught stealing from the department. Abby is important to the history of some of our central characters, and while I don’t think we should need the books to understand BATDR, I do hope she makes an appearance with some context. Bendy exists because of three people, it feels like she should be there. That’s all I have for now for details you might have missed from the books and spinoffs that I suspect will be relevant to this game. Here’s wishing you all a fun time with BATDR tomorrow (2 AM EST on Steam to be exact), beware the ink demon!

[dreamfisher-here]

The Illusion of Living Notes and Spoilers

I feel like enough time has passed for everyone who wanted to get the audiobook to get it, so here are all the notes I made while reading the book.

Please do NOT show these spoilers to anyone who didn’t give their explicit permission to be spoiled! And do not try to sneaky-spoil while being vague and pretending you’re not spoiling either!

TIOL was written in 1941 and published in 1942

Joey’s biggest dream is to become a God

Joey is explicitly not straight (reaffirms his distaste for dating women multiple times in the book, purposely avoids intimate gestures when meeting female friends, and reacts negatively to a straight couple kissing in his presence) but can be interpreted as either gay or asexual, and there’s evidence supporting both of these interpretations

Joey doesn’t think of people as real. He thinks of them as fictional characters in a show (well, he isn’t wrong)

He witnessed a murder at 10, but isn’t bothered by it, because everyone’s fictional anyway (watsonian perspective: little sociopath, doylist perspective: smartest character in the franchise). It was on that day that he started thinking of people as characters in a play, including his own parents.

He likes to throw peanuts in the faces of vaudeville performers he doesn’t like. Very proud of his aim

Joey’s dad sends him a pair of boots every year as a gift. Joey throws them out and buys himself better ones

Though it’s implied that the stories he tells about his parents aren’t true

While in the army, he was bullied for liking girl stuff, like reading romance novels and genre fiction

Nathan and Joey are very close. Nathan often gives him business advice and knows some of his secrets. Nathan looks down on artistic-type people. Joey is the only artistic-type person he admires, mostly for being business-oriented. Nathan is all about money.

Nathan wears a suit, has perfectly slicked back hair, and an elegant mustache. Smokes Cigars. Calls himself Nate

Nathan says that Lottie (the girl from the preview) isn’t real. It’s implied that there are more made-up people in the book. The epilogue implies that Joey intends to bring the made-up people to life one day, just like the cartoons

After leaving the army, and before starting an animation studio, he worked at a bookstore together with Henry for a few years

He took late-night art classes together with Miss Lambert

Bendy was named after Joey’s friend, who murdered a man to take a photo of his dying face for an award show. Joey finds it inspiring. In his words: "Thank god for dark paths, they lead all great artists to their greatest creations". Joey also likes the name Bendy, because it means someone who bends the rules

Nathan says that Joey had a genuine change of heart in his old age, and had “too much guilt and worry”. Nathan is not pleased with that

Abby Lambert is one of Joey’s oldest friends, and the one who introduced him to Henry. She and Joey used to perform vaudeville acts together. Joey played a Devil and Abby played an Angel

It’s implied that Henry created the Butcher Gang, and they were some of his oldest characters, even older than Bendy, Boris, and Alice

Henry left a year after the studio’s creation because he wanted “something that isn’t Bendy” (it’s either that he felt like his creativity was being stifled by being forced to work on the same project all the time, or that he wanted a real family, as opposed to the “studio family” that Joey was satisfied with)

Joey disses Henry a lot in the book. He paints him as untalented, unimaginative, boring, and a poor dresser on top of that. Nathan thinks that pretending to not care about Henry is Joey’s “greatest illusion”

Nathan hates Henry and thinks that Joey’s going too easy on him (if BATDR is Nathan’s world, Henry’s gonna be screwed)

Sammy used to play music at a movie theatre when he was a teen and Joey came to watch his performance every day

They met again a few years later and Sammy recognized him. Joey hired him and Jack on the same day

Sammy smokes

Sammy and Jack performed jazz songs at vaudeville together for some time before working at JDS

Jack gets upset when people ignore him and only pay attention to Sammy. He loves being the center of attention, and has a knack for showmanship. Very optimistic and good natured

Sammy was hired a year after Henry’s departure and has never met him (curious, given that he recognizes Henry in the game) Not true - turns out Sammy was hired in October 1930, so he still could’ve met Henry

As part of his deal with Joey, Sammy has full creative control over his department and people he’s working with (did Sammy replace Susie?)

Sammy hates being at the center of attention and is always very serious. Making jokes comes hard for him, but he plays along sometimes. His expression is very hard to read and he always seems suspicious of people he’s talking with. He’s dressed very neatly and appropriately (unlike Jack, who wears bright and flashy clothes), his hair is long and not slicked back. He’s a few years younger than Joey, but acts much older

Joey thinks that Sammy is his best decision and the man who comes closest to fully understanding him. He takes pride in the fact that Sammy sticks by him for all these years out of his own will, and not because Joey makes him. He thinks Sammy is a genius and deserves to be worshipped like a god (he doesn’t hesitate to tell him that). Asked him once whether there’s anyone Sammy worships, and it’s painfully obvious that he wanted to hear that it’s him (Sammy replied that a god of this magnitude hasn’t been invented yet, which is a nice foreshadowing) 

Allison is already working at the studio at the time of TIOL. Before that, she was a Broadway actress. Joey likes to watch her recording sessions. It’s not confirmed which character she’s voicing, but Susie wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the book, so there’s a possibility that Allison was already voicing Alice Angel in 1941

Joey’s meetings with Jack Fain and Grant are just an excuse to have a coffee and chat with them

On his first meeting with Bertrum Joey got drunk and flirty with him. Bertrum told him he’s “not that kind of date” and Joey played dumb (the scene is played for laughs though, so idk if it’s supposed to be seriosuly indicative of Joey’s sexuality)

Bertrum returned from retirement to work on Bendyland

Disney exists in this universe, Joey wishes he could be able to achieve the same with Bendy

Nathan wants to prove “very soon” that he is limitless

The moving ink was developed as part of the Sillyvision film process at some point around 1941. The purpose of Sillyvision was to make corrections to images that have already been created, without having to redraw them from scratch. The ink is activated through contact with a special paper

Joey describes Bendyland’s conception, and the Dark Land sounds eerily similar to the studio world in BATIM & BATDR

Light Land is Alice’s Domain, and as the name suggests it will have many lights. It’s designed to create an illusion of being lifted up

Tiny Land is Boris’ Domain and it gives an illusion of getting shrunk

Big Land is Butcher Gang’s Domain and has giant airplanes and battleships

Joey hates the real world and wants to escape to a make-believe one. He was hoping Bendyland would be that for him. His greatest fear is being unable to create that perfect world, and creating only its dark reflection (ironic)

Joey feels like he won’t be able to truly die and rest his soul until his dream fully comes to life. He calls art his “doorway into immortality” (is Dapper Joey?)

Joey believes a soul is needed to make a lifeless artistic imitation of the world into a real breathing world. He says that he’s been looking for a soul for a long time (he means it metaphorically, but it feels like a foreshadowing)

[mwolf0epsilon]

I was asking what you think Henry's fate is. Is it a time loop? Is it just a reel playing? Is all of it just a dream on his or Joey Drew's death bed? But you pose an interesting question too, do all the games connect in some way even if BATDR is not gonna be a direct continuation?

I’ve pondered on the nature of the world of Bendy and the Ink Machine for a while now and, after a little bit of digging around, reading theories that people have had, watching theory videos and a few playthroughs, I’ve come to a few conclusions over Henry’s fate and the meaning behind the ambiguous ending we got.

This idea is, as such, a mixture of Game Theory’s Revised BATIM Ending Theory plus expectations for BATDR, SuperHorrorBro’s ideas for who BATDR’s Big Bad might actually be, as well as several other ideas that have consistently popped up through out the Fandom’s existence.

Buckle up, this might get long as heck.

---

     To start this off, I’m gonna need to clarify that the Cycle (which is the dimension the first game takes place in, although the origins of this particular world are still debatable as real or fiction within the canon itself) functions in a way that seems to rely heavily on ideas and impossible physics. Not only that, but those who exist within this plane will follow a mixture of Real World and Cartoon World laws, so while death exists in the Cycle it isn’t permanent and things that could usually obliterate you in one go (like massive falls, a hit with an axe, or getting bashed by an out of control fairground attraction) aren’t an instant threat to your overall health. It also appears that people within the Cycle aren’t immediatly aware that they’re following cartoon logic, as Henry (who is supposedly human) doesn’t seem to react all that much to some of the most life threatening moments he faces in the Studio. This in itself already shows something is off about the whole situation Bendy’s original creator has gotten himself mixed up with.

Another thing I need to point out is that the Toonification process doesn’t seem to be reliant of the Cycle itself, and instead happened in the Real World as the events in “Dreams Come True”, and Thomas Connor’s and Joey Drew’s Audio Log on the Ink Demon imply. This, to me, seems to point towards the Cycle having been made some point during Joey’s Toonification experiments as maybe somewhere to hide his twisted creations, so it might be the Ink Machine has the capacity to not only bring things to “life” but to also create other dimensions from templates. Where these dimensions are kept is up to debate, but I assume Joey keeps the Cycle withing the Ink Machine itself. Either way, what I mean to say with these two little notes is that, while Henry appears to be in a fake version of the Studio that doesn’t mean the story of the game is just that, a story. I think everything IS real. But more on that in a bit...

Lets get started with the actual questions you asked:

--Is it a time loop?-- 

Yes, positively. The Tool clarifies this as soon as we get it. In fact, the iteration of the loop we’re doing as Henry is the 415th, and the following we do with the Tool unlocked is the 416th, meaning Henry (and by extention the other Studio Prisoners) have been at this for quite some time even if we weren’t aware at first. To the point where Henry began trying to establish contact with himself.

--Is it just a reel playing?-- 

Also yes. The Cycle as I’ve pointed out before, operates on Cartoon Logic. As such it can be compared to an endlessly looping reel of unfinished film. This is made more apparent by the reel Henry uses to “beat” the Ink Demon. “The End” is something of a curiosity as it is a contradiction in of itself. Not so much a final dot to close off an act as an infinity mark. It’s existence within the Cyle is also curious, as it seems unlikely Joey would have physically made a reel to stop the Ink Demon, so it brings the question of whether or not Mr. Drew can alter the Cycle externally (something that’s already hinted at due to the storyboards you can find on his desk at Joey’s apartment).

This to me indicates the Cycle can be altered (which Henry does whenever he tries to communicate, and by Allison Angel discovering the messages), but that bigger changes need to be done from the Real World.

--Is all of it just a dream on Henry’s or Joey Drew's death bed?--

No, I don’t think it’s a dream or just a story Joey is telling a child. I think the happenings of the game are actually happening, but that perhaps “The End” is a series of blank reels Joey feeds into the Ink Machine and that get filled out by Henry’s actions, and that Joey then watches them and recounts the tales to who I can only assume might likely be Henry’s and Linda’s daughter (as Joey pointed out Henry settled down while he did not, and it’s never mentioned if he has siblings).

With these questions out of the way, here’s what I believe happened to Henry and the implications of the game’s ending where Joey’s “niece” requests another story... The fact of the matter is that Henry is dead.

Why do I believe this? It’s like Matpat pointed out in his Revised Theory video (I know, y’all gonna get on my case because “Game Theory is cringy ew”, but seriously have a look yourself instead of going off in my askbox). It all has to do with small details that seem insignificant or just asthetic choices, but that can actually have a lot more hold on the plot.

Two of these details are:

The 5 coffins at the Studio and letters in Joey’s appartment.

The newspaper clipping Joey keeps in the Ink Machine room at the appartment, which was specifically picked and curated to appear in the game despite the player never going into the room to see it up close.

There’s a number of characters you learn about in the game and (by extention) the novel, and quite a few are dead (Such as Buddy’s friends Jacob and Dot who were murdered by an insane Sammy), but surprisingly only 5 have physical coffins at the Studio ingame.

And what do I mean by physical coffins? Well, there’s a 6th unofficial one, that’s what... And where can we find it?

Henry’s cell in chapter 5. He drew it himself even.

This doesn’t confirm anything of course, it could just be that Henry is into dramatics, but then we get to the newspaper clipping that Joey picked out specifically and kept in a room only he likely enters:

“Local Artist Pushed Himself Too Hard, Found Dead at Desk”

And what did Joey say about Henry pushing him to do the right thing? That he should have pushed a little harder... Like somehow Henry is at fault for Joey’s bad choices. Like Henry deserves what comes next... It almost feels like someone dishing out a speech before an execution, justifying why they’re getting killed. It’s a scene that made me inexplicably nervous until I looked into things.

Why bring up the coffins and letters to prove this, you may ask? Well, another thing Matpat points out is that the people who have coffins are people who were put through the Ink Machine, dying in the process and returning as Ink Monstrosities/Imperfect Toons, while people who got a letter from Joey and that replied to him were never lured back to him.

Wally Franks, for example, is living in Florida so he couldn’t make it to New York to fall into Mr. Drew’s trap. Allison and Thomas Connors are also out of the way so they merely exchange formaleties through correspondance (which implies Joey “made up” with them at some point to try to lure them back and has kept the charade up for a while).

So anyway, people who have coffins in the Studio are not only confirmed dead but also became monsters.

Norman became the Projectionist

Grant likely became either the Piper, Fisher, or Striker

Bertrum became the monstrous Carnival Ride

Lacie likely became either the Piper, Fisher or Striker

Susie became the Imperfect Alice Angel

You’re likely asking about Allison Angel and Tom Boris now, to which I raise you another Matpat pointer from the video above: Allison Angel states that she and Tom would dissolve if they were in contact with pools of ink.

Why is this relevant? Well, it means their bodies are made entirely of ink unlike, for example, Norman who is the sculking Projectionist. Why Norman? Well, he wades through a pool of Ink in level 14 and doesn’t dissolve. Heck, he chases Henry through the pool of ink without any trouble whatsoever in catching up. Why is he different from Allison and Tom? Because he has a soul stabilizing his grotesquely altered body.

Creatures that were once human and were transformed don’t just dissolve into ink. Their bodies remain intact after death until they eventually return to the inky abyss (potentially from being ripped apart) or until they’re revived by a Bendy Statue (Like Sammy, as implied by a clever easter egg near the fountain with the respawning Swollen Searcher).

In fact, now that I think about it, out of all the hostile creatures you encounter, Sammy, Susie, Norman, Bertrum and the Butcher Gang are some of the more stable bodied creatures within the Cycle, requiring a lot more hits to die than Searchers and Lost Ones, although Susie does die from a single stab (though the blow itself WAS pretty devastating in itself).

After pondering on this little idea I realized that the presence of Allison Angel and Tom Boris were entirely fabricated at that point. One of many alterations created by Joey to guide Henry through the last leg of his journey towards “The End”, very likely modelled after the real Allison and Thomas who he viewed as hostile, thus portrayed them as initially aggressive towards Henry. I mean, after so many unsuccefful attempts to make creatures entirely of ink (like the Ink Demon), it’s not too farfetched to say Joey eventually got the hang of it. The Mini Ink machines do it flawlessly and even help Henry, so who’s to say Joey didn’t perfect it within the Cycle to create beings not quite as strong as the Ink Demon, but strong enough to kill corrupt humans?

Again why is any of this relevant to how I think Henry’s dead? Simple. People who replied to Joey lived. Henry didn’t reply, instead he was lured in.

      I believe that the Ink Machine’s disastrous results in the Real World made Joey realize that making a person into a Toon through passing them through the machine with a template wasn’t gonna cut it to fix the grand mess he’d made out of the Ink Demon. But, I also think he realized passing them through the Ink Machine while living was also the issue. The ink corrupted their souls, left them vulnerable to becoming Imperfect beings like Susie. Having them ingest the ink prior to going through was also not gonna cut it, as it’s connection to the Ink Demon gradually destroyed Sammy’s already frail sanity and changed him into an abomination (that had a pretty strong will for possibly three deaths before he finally lost himself completely and became a soulless Searcher). This left one final method to experiment with on the one person he thought responsible to clean his fuck-ups: Joey had to kill Henry prior to putting him through the machine.

     In “Dreams Come True”, Buddy reveals that upon becoming Boris, his body was discarded. A byproduct of his soul enfusing with the ink and rejecting his human flesh. It might be possible that Joey was quick enough in killing Henry in an inconspicuous manner and then putting his body through the machine that Henry’s soul was pulled into the Cycle flawlessly while his body was spat back out for Joey to later deal with (Putting him behind his work desk as if he’d simply died of exhaustion, neatly hiding his crime behind the “suffering of a tortured artist”). This would explain why Henry lacks a shadow or reflection. He’s a ghost. A ghost that’s slowly realizing how hopeless his situation is. What a great pal Joey Drew turned out to be...

     Moving on to the ending of the game itself, there’s some very dark implications that come with Henry being dead. For one, Joey Drew doesn’t have a family, yet he’s recounting Henry’s plight to a little girl who affectionately calls him “Uncle Joey”. We know Henry pursued a family over a busy career, so it’s heavily implied that during the 414 attempts of trying to find a way out of the Studio, Henry’s wife has been grieving him, going so far as to leave their daughter with Joey as she tries to provide for the both of them.

Joey being the pathological liar that he is, would likely graciously look afer his old friend’s daughter and maybe offer “emotional support” to a distraught Linda, cementing his innocense, all the while bragging to the child about what really happened to her father without her knowing. That is a pretty twisted theory and I honestly like the idea due to how horrific it is.

But where does BATDR come into play here?

Well, it’s been confirmed to not be a prequel nor a sequel. Matpat suggested it might either be an Alternate Universe or a Side Story. I believe the latter is more likely, thanks to SuperHorrorBro theorizing that the people behind Gent might be the Big Bad/cause of that particular game’s misfortunes. A Side Story about the Ink Machine being recreated and templates re-used to create a familiar yet brand new nightmare.

I believe BATIM and BATDR are a vicious cycle of madness happening at the same time. The same task repeated by people who expect different results. Only with Joey Drew it was an animation studio, with GENT it might be on a larger scale...But who knows?

There will be returning characters, so maybe BATDR will shed new light upon the Ink Machine and the Cycle’s true nature.

[spry-the-artist]

Goodness, yeah. I’ve never played the original BATIM, so I can’t comment on its gameplay, but I’ve watched enough play through and read enough fanfics adapting the story to know that the story is very good. Meanwhile, while BATDR is a very fun game, I couldn’t tell you any of the new characters names (unless they’re very major) or what the hell happened. I didn’t play the game in one shot, mind you, but it’s worrying if you can’t remember any part of a game’s story after a maximum of 5 days afterwards.

Not only is Batdr’s story forgettable, it’s also a little bad. In-game characters are introduced out of nowhere, the tapes and memos lead nowhere, and the story shoves random stuff into your face out of nowhere. Wilson was the only character I truly think was well written, and even then he still not up to par with characters like Sammy Lawrence who had 4 times less the focus. Like you said, it feels like a collage of cool scenes and that’s it. Meanwhile, every chapter BATIM lead somewhere. It’s one cohesive story, an interesting one. I also didn’t care about Bendy at all, yeah sure he’s cute and I feel bad for what happened to him, but we don’t develop enough of a connection to care. When he joined us in the village, I thought that he would follow us throughout most or the rest of the game, but he just transforms back into the ink demon at the end. It’s hard to feel bad for the ink demon when he’s being a pain in the ass the entire game.

Controversial take: Henry was a better video game protagonist than Audrey is. Sure, he doesn’t have as much of a personality but he’s more open for interpretation. More can be done with his character. He also has actual connection to the studio, unlike Audrey (yeah sure she’s a Drew but as much as that’s interesting, that plot twist basically popped out of nowhere. It wasn’t even mentioned before that she had memory problems). Meanwhile, while Audrey has more personality, it’s quite a generic one. And it doesn’t leave much room to interpret anything more interesting. In my opinion, it’s better to have an interpretable character than one who’s generic. Final point for these two, Audrey’s just too OP. It’s fun in terms of gameplay, which is what’s important, but it also means that Audrey isn’t as (figuratively) human. She’s just too hard to relate to.

Finally, BATDR barely feels like a studio anymore. It’s just an abandoned place filled with monsters. The original had so much of the story and setting connected with the idea of animation. A good example of this would be the Projectionist vs the Keepers. They both fill the same type of enemy role, but the Projectionist has something to do with animation (and is also a pre-established character). The Keepers are just big ink monsters. The only parts of the original game that didn’t feel like it related to animation were parts in Chapter 4 and 5, and even then they were much more minor.

There’s a couple more complaints I have, but I think that’s all for now. This is just my opinion, you can like the story of you want!

Controversial opinion: the weakest part of BATDR is the story

There’s no denying that BATDR is a better game in terms of graphics and gameplay. I’ve seen AAA titles with worse looks and design.

But I feel like BATIM was a superior game when it comes to the story.

Characters had no buildup. In BATIM almost every major character got some kind of backstory and buildup before we met them. Sammy had multiple tapes in Chapter 2, Susie had multiple tapes, Bertrum did, even Tom. The only character with seemingly no past was Allison, everyone else was a fully fleshed-out individual. People also sort of assumed that Boris was Wally because of how much character development and backstory Wally got through the tapes. This was retconned later in the books, but at the time of the game we all thought we had a significant amount of knowledge about the characters we meet in it.

When Porter got a character sheet posted on twitter, we all thought he’d be an important character. Instead he’s just… there. Show’s up for 5 minutes, passes on his power and disappears. Blink and you’ll miss him, he had no more screen time than Heidi. The two of them could easily have been replaced by buttons with the sign “press here for new power” and nothing of value would be lost. They have no past, and no role in the story. Compare them to Boris, where the entire plot of chapter 4 is about saving him. He mattered. The fact that he was there mattered.

And it’s not like there was no time to develop the characters. The game has dozens of notes and audio logs, but they all come from random people, who we never hear from again. You could easily replace some of them with memos about Porter’s backstory, or Heidi’s, or Betty’s. A lot of those audio logs are voiced by youtubers and I feel like JDS prioritized giving youtubers guest cameos over making the character they voice actually have a place in the story.

In BATIM the enemies were also thematically linked with the place we met them in. Chapter 2 takes place in the Music Department, so it makes sense that the main character appearing in the tapes would be the Music Director, and he would be the one we’re fighting at the end. Chapter 4 takes place in Bendyland, so the tapes are about a theme park designer and the enemy is that designer in the form of an attraction. In BATDR we have that one spider boss fight, but what is this, why is it there, how is it linked thematically with the rest of the chapter? I guess Shipley got slightly more reason to exist, but the idea of him was introduced in the last 5 minutes. There was no buildup.

Why even divide the story into chapters if these chapters have no underlying theme? Can you guys even remember what each chapter’s plot is about? I’ve watched the playthroughs 3 times and I still can’t, because it all just seems so… random. A collection of random scenes, random enemies, random tapes. This may have been intentional, because the current “master” of the story is Wilson, who has no relation to JDS the way Joey did, but story being bad on purpose, wrapped in 3 layers of irony, is still a bad story.

Finally: the ending felt underwhelming. it’s completely incomprehensible to someone who hasn’t played the previous game. In BATIM, Henry killing the Ink Demon with the End Reel made sense, because we had it explained to us what the ink demon is and how the End Reel works: Bendy was created as a living cartoon, and he has never seen “the end” of the cartoon. Henry also had a personal connection to both Bendy and the end reel, as Bendy was his creation, and the end reel came from the cartoon he personally animated, which was stolen to rob him of his achievements. In BATDR Henry just says “oh yeah get that one random gizmo and it will kill this random demon walking around that we know nothing about” but it didn’t have to be the end reel, it could’ve been anything. Could’ve been a gent pipe, could’ve been a bullet from the tommy gun, and it would’ve worked just as well. There was no thematic setup, and very little personal connection to Audrey.

It’s ok to omit some information that’s available in the earlier installments of the franchise, but that should only go for secondary objects and characters. The ending especially should feel like a natural conclusion of the journey you went through in the game you’re playing right now, not the one before it. It would have made much more sense for Audrey to defeat the ink demon by using her special powers, as those powers were built up throughout the narrative. Instead, it’s like she completely forgets she ever had them, and she’s handed the ultimate weapon that’s irrelevant to her character. Audrey has no connection to the reel, and very little connection to Bendy, as the game doesn’t ever explain to us Joey’s role in creating him, instead choosing to highlight Gent’s role in the experiments and Wilson’s role in separating the two versions of Bendy. It essentially feels like winning the final fight by using a last minute cheat, instead of something you’ve been actively working on and developing throughout your journey.

tl;dr BATDR is less of a story and more like a collection of random “wouldn’t it be cool if..?” moments, with no glue tying it together. BATIM was just better and I hope that the next game will follow the lead of BATIM storytelling more than BATDR storytelling.