#jds employee handbook spoilers

[mickeys-malarkey]

Omigosh there are totally two different authors in the BATDR section of the updated Employee Handbook. I recognize those hint-dropping and description styles and that snarky cadence! That's my boy Wilson(/Wilton, rofl)~!

How'd you get your dad to let you touch his creepy scrapbook, bud?? What's the story, here?? 👀👀👀

[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!

[adobe-outdesign]

TIOL LIVEBLOG: PART 5–7

Note: I will do a final review tomorrow to summarize my thoughts.

Spoilers under the cut:

Part 5, Chapter 1

in true New Jersey fashion, Joey never wants to go back to it

mud is only a few steps removed from ink when you think about it

Nathan pointing out that Joey misjudged him really points even more towards him being the Unknown, as he says he hopes to prove it soon. If he isn’t the Unknown at this point I’ll be legit shocked

Joey legit just outright calling himself a God is really hammering in those Joey/Ink Demon parallels again

Part 5, Chapter 2

yes but did Joey see the baby incubators

Part 5, Chapter 3

I could never decide if I liked the idea of Disney existing in the BATIM universe or not but it does support my favorite crack headcanon, which is that Henry went to work there after leaving JDS

I’m not sure if it was the intended implication but I think Grant comes in late and leaves late for the sole purpose of avoiding Joey as much as possible

love that Joey respects Wally. good boy deserves that much

“again, it is why I avoid the past as much as possible” [makes Henry go through the studio on loop like 500 times]

I’ve mentioned before that the Whipper-Will-O is likely the ride Bertrum is fused to. It’s mentioned here but without enough context to confirm (it is mentioned later that it would be the biggest one which does match)

Part 5, Chapter 4

Joey’s secretary has a name now, don’t think she did previously

Makes sense that Bertrum was retired, he’s like canonically 60

Grant probably hates Bertrum for no reason other than the sheer expense of his restaurant bills

Joey: “ultimately Bert knows I’m the boss :)” Bertrum: I Am Going To Smite You Off The Face Of This Earth

I wonder if Bertrum hates being called Bert as much as he does Bertie. probably (side note: “Bertie” is misspelled with a y here; if I’m not mistaken it was “ie” in the game transcript)

I know some people have said the “I’m not that kind of date” line is homophobic (which was probably the intention), but all he says is that he’s not the kind of guy to play hard to get, not that he isn’t a date

In things that only interest me, Bertrum is confirmed to be a heavyweight (or at least more so than Joey)

I love these two trying to out-ego each other. I didn’t think it was possible but Joey’s winning

nice to finally have explanations for the different lands, was wondering what the hell that was about

also the battleship stuff was for the Butcher Gang’s area, that makes sense

if anyone walked up to me and told me they “had a Whipper” I’d slap them

man this is the best episode of Defunctland ever

Side note: Bertrum is much more in-character here than in DCTL. While he’s still friendly towards Joey, that’s because they just met, so it makes sense in this situation (unlike in DCTL). He also corrects Joey on his name, something he never did in DCTL

Actually this kind of botches the timeline as DCTL has Bendyland just being developed and announced in 1946, while here that happened in 1941-1942. 1940 was the date on Bertrum’s BATDR teaser tape, so the later is closer to being right (still off by a year though). I’ll chalk DCTL up to Buddy’s bad memory.

Part 5, Chapter 5

“I like me just fine” is really amusing and I’m not sure why

I LOVE how much Joey keeps hammering in how great Henry leaving is. cashing in my final “Joey is gay”

Part 6, Chapter 1

Neat to have an explanation for the Sillyvision thing. I didn’t get the impression from the Handbook that it was a process of sorts, but then again I might be misremembering

Part 7, Chapter 1

(Counting these as chapters even though they’re more of an afterwords thing)

figures Joey is a morning person

Nathan just wakes up and chugs a single cup of black coffee while not breaking eye contact

Joey enjoying Cheerios amuses me more than it should

Joey: “hey what’s today looking like Sammy” Sammy: I Am Going To Kill Something Jack: I am also here

I was pointing out that it was weird that Abby was a temporary art director but is still at it in DCTL, but I think the implication is that Joey fired Morris and replaced him with her when he got back. He seems to much favor her work

the “that others were lying to him instead of him lying to himself” amuses me as Grant has a log in the Handbook that is literally just “Joey we’re fucking bankrupt holy fucking shit please respond to this for once”

are the people in the music department like. okay

I like how Joey speaks positively about his employees but every single one of them hate his guts and I’m pretty sure he hates most of theirs too

Joey’s famous 2 hour lunch break has been pared down to an hour and a half, which is slightly better but not by much

Joey: [holds still for five minutes] Joey: [starts vibrating] nevermind

Part 7, Chapter 2

hey they kept this consistent with the excerpt from the Handbook, that’s nice

well, kind of. They kept the same copy but added stuff to tie it back into the previous plot. kind of makes sense though, as they wouldn’t include that stuff without the context in a reprint

Part 7, Chapter 3

that was a bit of an oversimplification of plot structure but okay

Part 7, Chapter 4

Joey does outright say here that he doesn’t intend to die, could point to him being BATDR Bendy

[inkskxtch]

Hey :) I would like to exchange on BATIM ^^. To start, I have a small request. I haven't read any of the books released on the universe ( I'm French and I don't have the level to read a whole book in English ), so could you make me a small list of the most interesting info you found there ? 😊

(Dreams Come To Life, The Illusion Of Living & JDS Employee Handbook spoilers!)

Yeah of course!! I can’t remember a lot off the top of my head but I’ll come back and edit the post whenever I remember something new and interesting from the books! I can remember quite a bit right now though :P

- The two main protagonists of DCTL are a 17-year old kid named Buddy Lewek, who scores a job as a messenger around JDS, and an 18-year old named Dot who works as a Bendy story writer.

- Allison Pendle is described as looking “like she'd just stepped right out of the pictures," and just as pretty as Ginger Rogers

- Norman confirms that Bendy, Boris and Alice were all created by Henry (Linda is also confirmed to be Henry's wife's name)

- Sammy became an ink creature after developing an obsession with drinking corrupted ink

- Jack Fain is a singer too!!!!!!!

- According to Joey, Bendy's name came from a murdered young man who's case Joey helped to investigate - his middle name was Benjamin, and his family called him Bendy.

- Sammy apparently has sharp facial features, and looks like a bird AND an insect

- So far, Susie has been kept pretty secret. We know Allison being hired was known by everybody except Susie, and some of the lines Joey says in his letter introducing Allison, Alice actually says to us in ch3! Obviously she got her hands on the letter somehow.

- Thomas was actually the one behind most of the design & creation of the machine, but Joey takes full credit for that (as usual)

- Sure enough, human Thomas & Allison are together and were married in 1952. An invitation was sent to Joey, but he didn't attend.

- Norman was among a few other employees murdered by either Sammy or Bendy

- At the end of DCTL Buddy is ripped in half by Beast Bendy and becomes a Boris clone, and Joey approaches him and says he saved his life before the new Buddy!Boris runs away and goes into hiding. That’s what first brought up the theory that he could be ch3’s Boris (especially since the train ride from ch4 is called the Buddy Boris lol)

There's plenty more I could talk about from the books and I'm totally open to answer questions and give opinions! I'll add to this post as I remember more stuff, but feel free to send in more asks if you have anything/anyone specific you wanna know about!!

[lucky-dreamfisher]

“Joey Drew” might be a stage name?

Many people have pointed out that the name “Joey Drew” sounds unrealistic, more like a stage name than a typical person’s name.

There is a small hint in the Employee Handbook that might actually confirm this theory!

Spoilers under the cut!

One of the pages contains a note from Grant, urging Joey to find more investors.

In that note we can also see that the studio had only one investor at the time.

Notice something curious about his name? The initials are JD, same as Joey’s!

Now, what you need to know is that investors are basically co-owners - they offer money in exchange for equity, and that gives them a certain amount of power over the company.

It’s a little strange that the studio would be owned by two people with the exact same initials, isn’t it? But if “Joey Drew” is a stage name (not unusual among people in the entertainment industry), then J. Dempsey might very well be Joey’s real name.

This would also explain why Joey is living in a crappy apartment after the studio went bankrupt, even though he should be living in a mansion. By law, the company’s funds and the company owner’s savings are separate. The company going bankrupt doesn’t mean the owner goes broke and has to give up his house. But if Joey poured his personal finances into the studio, it explains why the studio’s downfall ruined him.