#tiol spoilers

[angelofthepage]

Hey Bendy fans, so Joe from ChairThatSpins hosted a really fun AMA with Adrienne Kress this afternoon! Fans of the Bendy novels had a lot of great questions, and Adrienne had a lot of great answers! Joe has very kindly uploaded a vod of the event up on his YouTube channel. Wanna know if one of your burning Bendy questions was answered? Consider giving it a watch! (WARNING: This video does contain spoilers for all the Bendy books, most notably Fade to Black.)

It was so much fun to be there live for this, what a fun way to spend a Saturday. XD I will continue to not be normal about some of the things we discussed.

[reanimationstation]

more batim book characters! this time some of my favorite side characters, some important ones, and some that literally could not have a smaller role with still being in the book.

the first picture is my personal favorite strange side character from DCTL, the infamous Violinist. i support women's wrongs. the second is the Art Department whom i love <3

the third pic is mostly TLO side characters! Plus Miss Rodriguez from the other two books, and Toby from DCTL. as you can see i am normal about Miss R and Scott

[hascious]

Chapter 7 of Cycle 360 has been dropped on a whim

i only read over it a few times so lmk if you see typos or something idk

this was probably one of my favorite chapters to write tbh... as much fun as rise was i love the dynamic between these 3 bozos so much. the main part of this chapter comes from part 4 of The Illusion of Living by Adrienne Kress, so be warned, there's spoilers for that. if you for some reason havent read the books, i'd highly suggest it, they're amazing. TIOL specifically was one of my favorite (if you couldnt tell)

and heres some bonus art i've made since the last post, unrelated from cycle 360:

also!! i havent directly said this here but if there's any questions at all about cycle 360, and i mean any, send them my way!! im more than happy to answer, especially given how long its taking me to write these chapters. worst case scenario, the answer is a spoiler and i'll just give a vague hint. or even if youve just got something to say, feel free :)

[lian-does-star-trek-in-a-jar]

The Illogicality Of Love- Cover Post

Summary:

In which Spock lies, Kirk knows nothing about Vulcan biology and they're both complete idiots. or:

Spock and Kirk are soulmates, inscribed with each others names from birth. Spock has counted his whole life on never meeting the person named above his heart, and hated the human implications their existence has for him. when the impossible happens and their paths collide, he panics and does the illogical. Chaos ensues.

Rating: Teen and up

Pairing: TOS Spirk

Warnings: Minor spoilers for the series!

Can also be read on ao3 here

Tag: tiol

Status: Incomplete

chapters: 3/?

chapter one - chapter two - chapter three - chapter four - chapter five

[thelocalmoth]

The Illusion of Living spoilers ahead cause I wanna yap about Jack Fain.

I always found all of the stuff written about Jack in TIOL so interesting because it just seemed to contradict what I’d pictured him as when playing the game for the first time. I figured he’d be some quiet guy who didn’t like social interactions, and that’s why he hid in the sewers to get away from the noise. And then you read TIOL and. You’re hit with… Extroverted Jack? Who’s a performer?? And dresses in flamboyant clothing??? I feel like it just makes his character so much more interesting. It makes me want a deeper reason for him working in the sewers than just “wanting a quiet place to write his lyrics.” Surely someone who can perform so easily in a party like the one featured in TIOL can work with a bit of Ink Machine Ambience™️. I mean, unless he can’t, and he just has a better poker face than Joey lets on…

[doberart]

“And what’s a Joey Drew Studios?” My take on Sammy as he’s portrayed in The Illusion of Living. Commission piece for Dysphoricinkdemon on Instagram.

[inkabelledesigns]

Where does Bendy in Nightmare Run fit into the Bendy Universe?

Let me ask you this: does anyone else find it odd that we don’t see any of the content from Bendy in Nightmare Run within the Crack-Up Comics? Like the game has four great bosses, three standard enemies, and a bunch of costumes, and not ONCE do they make another appearance (save for one Easter egg of Chester in BATIM’s Chapter 5). We got parallels to our Chapters 3 and 4 enemies with Cameraman/Projectionist, Miss Twisted/Twisted Alice, and Brute/Brute Boris, but like, absolutely nothing from the game that arguably has more toons in it than the source material it’s based on. I know not a lot of people think about Nightmare Run anymore (hell, it’s only on my radar because I still log in everyday for the soup), but I feel like there should’ve at least been a nod to it there.

And that got me thinking: Souper Boris deals with radioactive bacon soup, right? And it’s teased at the end that Alice gets some too, right? Humor me here: is it possible that Canoodle is also a result of that radioactive soup? I mean this is a cartoon world, I don’t think it’d be much of a stretch to say that “radioactive” could serve as an explanation for a soup can becoming sentient, nor growing to a massive height. I can already picture the story, he was the can that wasn’t bought, got stuck in the back and never saw the light of day, so he had time to be brought to life, as opposed to other produce that was opened too quickly for that to happen. Maybe he passed his expiration date, got thrown away, ended up at the dump and made it his home. Who’s to say? 

Though then again, is Canoodle’s stage a junkyard, or a graveyard? And how does that change things?

https://twitter.com/BendyRun/status/1049237972288266241 

https://twitter.com/BendyRun/status/1038426739435655168 

I was looking around for Canoodle’s beef with Bendy (it’s that Bendy trespassed on his property and didn’t leave), and I stumbled upon this from the promotional material for the game. I thought Canoodle’s stage was a junkyard this whole time, you’re telling me it’s a graveyard? Well hang on a moment. The game was released in August of 2018, and both of these tweets are from September of 2018. All the other posts with the bosses for the initial marketing make sense within the context of their stage, but Canoodle’s is inconsistent. Everywhere else, he’s listed as living in a junkyard. So why then, is it called a graveyard here? 

So I loaded up the game real quick and played through the first act. Still looks like a junkyard to me. But then THIS happened.

My phone is a bit slow (as is my reaction time) so I couldn’t get a clear screenshot, but the other side of this barrel has a radioactive waste symbol on it. You see where I’m going with this? I predict Canoodle has some kind of link with the content we saw in the Souper Boris comic, it makes too much sense for it to be the same radioactive soup. The promotional material referring to this space as a graveyard could be insight into how Canoodle feels about it. I mean if you were a piece of trash that got thrown away, wouldn’t you feel like the scrapyard was your final resting place? Much like the studio is hell itself for its inhabitants, Canoodle’s “home” is here. 

But that leads to the question that I’ve had about Nightmare Run for a while: where in the timeline does it fall? And that’s a really difficult question to answer, because there’s two timelines we need to talk about: the real world of JDS, and the fictional world of the cartoons and comics. And in truth, I don’t have a good answer for it. I think the logical place for it to be is somewhere after the Souper Boris comic, meaning if it’s part of a story told in some kind of Bendy media, it’s gotta be after or alongside the period of 1936-1940. 

The thing is, we don’t really know what Nightmare Run IS within this universe, and that’s the bigger question to answer. Sure, here and now in our reality, it’s a mobile game, just as Bendy and the Ink Machine and Boris and the Dark Survival are games, but mobile games didn’t exist back then. There’s also that weird callback to Joey’s whole shtick about “there’s something I need to show you” when you first boot up the game. What is this trying to tell us? What IS Nightmare Run? For us it’s a game, but what is it to the studio employees? What is it to the cartoons? What is it to Joey? There are lots of things we could make of this, but my mind goes to a few places. We could say that it’s just a game that has no bearing on the story. We could say that Joey was ahead of his time, or that maybe Nathan did some development with the JDS property that permeated the modern era. We could say that this was a series of shorts or cartoons where Bendy and friends are having weird dreams.

Or we could turn to what The Illusion of Living tells us about Bendyland and Sillyvision. I haven’t given you all my thoughts on the book yet (I really should, because damn did it rock), but one thing I found fascinating was the look into Bendyland and Joey’s conversations with Bertrum Piedmont. We learn what Joey’s plans were for the park, that each section was meant to represent aspects of each of his core characters. I can absolutely see Nightmare Run fitting in as an attraction for Dark World, Bendy’s area of the park. Think of it like Disney’s animatronic dark rides, like Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, or one of the things I miss, Disney Quest. If you’re not familiar with Disney Quest, it was a five floor arcade that lived within Disney Springs (then called Downtown Disney). It’s since been replaced by an ESPN attraction, but when it was still there, it had all kinds of stuff. Early forms of VR (that were nauseating to play with those heavy helmets), lots of old arcade machines, and newer technology that blended virtual and physical gameplay together, like the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction that had you shooting cannonballs at a virtual screen (or Toy Story Midway Mania, if you want a more common comparison). 

But this was the 40s, technology for this kind of thing wouldn’t exist, right? And that’s where I turn to Sillyvision, Joey’s special process of editing the inks on the animation cells. Combine that with the advanced technology of harnessing living ink’s properties that Gent had going on, and you have yourself some plausible ways to create an attraction where guests can help Bendy (or be in his shoes) to run from some not-so-friendly faces. It doesn’t sound too far fetched for this universe, and given this man was working on “living cartoons” for the purpose of folks being able to meet them in the park, I wouldn’t put it past him to try this too. It still leaves some questions as to what content Canoodle and friends came from within the universe (were they in a cartoon or comic, or were they made specifically for an attraction?), but one thing is for sure: there’s possibilities. Besides that, we still never got an explanation as to what that hand is in the game. 

If you tap the hand on the top of the screen there, it opens and closes, but we still have no idea what it does or who it belongs to. It’s 2021, and we still haven’t cracked it! It could be Bendy’s or Boris’ hand (not Alice though, doesn’t have a circle in the palm), or it could be someone else’s. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m probably thinking too hard about this. X’’’D And I’m okay with that. I’d like to revisit Nightmare Run again, I have some thoughts about our enemy characters (Krawl, Stickle, and Gwen), but that’ll be for later. X’’’D I was gonna post cute headcanons about Sammy today and somehow ended up here, what is my life?

[halfusek]

my god these bitches gay... good for them good for them

[inkdemonapologist]

When I first read The Illusion of Living I liveblogged it on a friend server, and it’s always fun to read other people’s reactions so I wanted to figure out how to share mine? I ENDED UP TAKING JUST.... A LOT OF SCREENSHOTS AND DUMPING THEM INTO AN IMGUR ALBUM

so this is, uh, long, but if you want to watch me and some friends yell about what a disaster Joey Drew is, HAVE I GOT A LINK FOR YOU! Tried to cut down the book excerpts (for the most part) to just be the relevant bits for purposes of not reposting too much, but hopefully u can still follow

(also feat. the wit and good thoughts of whatyouwantedmetosee, haunted-hijinxer, and inkyvendingmachine)

[magiefish]

U ever create a character to fuel the purpose of your life alongside a pretty guy haha, no homo dude

[mickeys-malarkey]

Summary of the book thoughts across my analyses because my gosh.

Begging the Bendy fandom to stop declaring that all of its juicy, lovely books have gone to waste. You know it's getting ridiculous when they give a character a line about it that's so weird it can't be ignored, rofl.

(Sidenote: I'm actually really proud of this summary cause I suck bilgewater at those and this is literally the most condensed and sensical one I've ever managed. 😝)

Dreams Come to Life parallels TIOL and TMATM as a cry for help written from: someone having his mind edited, to: his best friend.

The Illusion of Living showcases how abusive of Joey+ and manipulative of the public's perception Nathan Sr. is. Hints that sepia = Nathan Sr.'s lies while black-and-white = Joey's truth.

Bendy: The Lost Ones is an interpretation guide to TIOL, with Bill, Constance, and Brant becoming personifications of Joey's fear, anger and shame.

The Mug and the Maiden is a full-series interpretation guide explaining Wilson's entire life story, including how he and his dad were involved in DCTL and TLO.

The Employee Handbook is a scrapbook of Nathan Sr.'s favorite parts of orchestrating JDS's downfall.

Bendy Crack-Up Comics contains hints at Nathan Sr.'s erasure of anyone who might be a liability and the perceived vs. true natures of his and Joey's relationship.

All are pointed to by the official Bendy shorts, especially Tombstone Picnic and the context around it (sepia thumbnails vs. black-and-white animation? Hint at Nathan Sr.'s editing. Supposed to be musical but mostly lack music? Hint at Sammy's Nate-y fate in DCTL. Missing Henry ending? Hint at Henry's Nate-y fate plus it being good that Bendy's tryna stop the Nate-y time loop. All but Tombstone Picnic ending with Bendy scared, frustrated, or sad? Hint at Bill, Constance, and Brant in TLO. Audrey's colorizing Tombstone Picnic at the beginning of BATDR? Hint at TMATM).

It hurts my soul that most of the fandom is convinced that everything before BATDR is retconned and/or the writing is terrible when I'm seeing so much gorgeously mind-blowing interconnection. 🥲

(NEW!) Bendy: Fade to Black is an interpretation guide to BATDR, confirming that the Memory of Joey = Nate Sr., Ink Demon/Bendy = Real Joey, most new Gent people = Children of the Machine, etc. as Audrey explains both her own and other people's trauma/recovery-&-relapse/etc. cycles, and more through Rose and company.

(NEW 2!) The Employee Handbook: Updated Edition is what's left of Nate Sr.'s scrapbook after he chopped out anything that both contradicted the narrative he's been carefully curating since Joey's death (which includes the TIOL excerpt because he's realized what everyone was doing with their books and decided it's better if the public ignores them entirely) and didn't hold too much sentimental value for him to let go (it's the wedding invite. I'm talking about Allison & Tom's wedding invite)… with some chime-ins from Wilson, once we get into the new material that's been added.

(NEW 3!) The Dreams Come to Life graphic novel is Nate Sr.'s maliciously butchered retelling of Buddy's story, meant to either deceive its readers into misunderstanding what Buddy was saying happened or discredit his reliability as a source of information entirely.

[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?

[reanimationstation]

Saw your reblog about misogynism & people not liking female characters and I'm agreed w Adrienne saving the day with Bendy female characters

Rose and Constance are great protagonist

Dot is AWESOME deuteragonist and even with being created as Buddy's supporting character she's *equal*. She's not "plain girl for male protagonist" type of deal

Abby Lambert is so good. People barely talk about her bc she's more interesting in TIOL and it's Joey book but i ADORE her even with little time in books that she has

In vanilla Bendy games i really love Twisted Alice/Susie Campbell but i should note that she deserved more focus (only in my opinion)

+possibly less "woman hates another woman for being fired" (it looks to me like they lowkey dropped it but. It was kinda here in ch3)

I'm all for women who are far too gone but can still have sympathetic angle. I do feel like devs suffer with reflecting it in writing tho

Audrey is good enough (would appreciate better writing at places but yk). I'm biased because i have hyperfix on her lol. Idk i love her little character moments and Erin did great job at changing tones when it was needed. If Adrienne got her even as side character in some book, she'd greatly benefit from it.

Allison Angel is more enjoyable in DR (to me) but she's more developed in fanon

Allison Pendle on the other hand. . . Erm. I wish she was more than Alice's second VA if you get me

Anyway I love women in Bendy👍 Bendy's funny deal is that a lot of characters suffer from lack of development and they're not only female. *Stares at certain male characters*

YES YES YES TO ALL OF THIS.

all the girls in the books are fantastic and are genuinely such charming characters. they're well written CHARACTERS and i feel like sometimes people forget that writing a women is writing a PERSON but Kress never really does that and i appreciate her so much for it.

i need to appreciate Abby more i love her dearly i just don't think about her much. she's so good, i wish we got more of her but i get that it's Joey's book.

MALICE/SUSIE HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL AND SHE DESERVES BETTER WRITING. i love her so much but gosh her writing could be better. especially in batdr like queen im so glad you're here but what ARE you doing here. can we get more of your character struggles, a little insight into how thats going maybe?? and yeah the hating another woman cause she was fired is a bit touch and go but i feel like with the right writers they could make it work. they unfortunately do not seem like theyre trying to do that

i do love Audrey i just have problems with some of the batdr writing. like how she kinda just goes along with whatever opinion she needs to have to move the plot along and at times i was like WHY ARE YOU SIDING WITH HIM/DOING THIS but thats not her fault. she has her good character moments and yeah Erin did a fantastic job voicing her. and she would REALLY benefit from being written by Kress, you're right. a lot of the characters would (cough susie cough)

ill be so real i barely remember any Allison Angel moments in either game IM SORRY THEY JUST DONT STAND OUT IN MY BRAIN </3 i do agree that shes better in batdr tho

ALLISON PENDLE THO. she needs more screentime in the books outside of being Very Pretty and Kind.

‼️SLIGHT FADE TO BLACK SPOILER‼️

in FTB though i really REALLY liked her characterization, with how she was tired of being expected to be the entertainment when she's a guest. it felt realistic, and makes sense with what little else we know about her. I need more private moments with her, ones where she isnt putting up a mask to perform, because only then we'll see what she's really like. and shes SO sweet with Rose, i really adore thar scene in general.

SPOILERS OVER

BUT YEAH WOMEN IN BENDY MY BELOVED. I think a lot of it is that most of them come from the books, and Adrienne is REALLY GOOD AT WRITING COMPELLING CHARACTERS. everyone she got to write for got an improvement in their characterization, not just the women. some of the male characters desperately needed it. anyways put more well written ladies in the games challenge

[mwolf0epsilon]

It was quite sad to admit, but Abby had gotten used to the grinning devil following her around like it was her very own shadow. Annoying of course. No doubting that. But in this warped version of the studio she could barely recognize? Well... It was normal. The ONLY normal she knew. And better stick with the devil you know than the one you don't, right?

Still... This rancid parasite that insisted on poking her? Teasing her with little pranks and disgusting little dances that left their path stained? Resting it's jaw on her head or shoulder? Holding her with those goopy arms and giggling at things only it knew? It was so very Joey Drew but also not quite, which only served to annoy her further.

"You're not him." She spat out once, when the damnable thing felt particularly playful. "You're not my friend."

"But I am." It giggled back, the voice was exactly Joey's, but she knew this thing wasn't him. It was an echo of him.

"No you're not. My friend died the moment he decided to play god." She looked away from the grinning devil, disgusted with it. "You're a revolting beast. No better than a lowly tapeworm trying to burrow into my gut."

"You're so very silly Miss Lambert. It's why you're still one of my favourites. The little angel on my shoulder~"

"Tsh... You never had one of those." He would have needed a moral compass to have one at all. No, Joey only had the devil on his shoulder, and she was looking at it. And god did she hate how much the company actually kept her going...

TioL has given Abby Lambert a spotlight I can't ignore, so I present you my design for her. A very unique looking Lost One. She's a favourite target of the Saboteur for... Sentimental reasons.

[inkskxtch]

Okay okay okay!! So I have a LOONG batim theory/idea I just wanna talk about for a bit since I’ve finally managed to organise my thoughts - I’ve seen it being discussed briefly by a few other people, but there’s one BIG detail people have been missing out that almost definitely connects and confirms the entire thing.

Spoilers for The Illusion Of Living!

-

So I’ll start from the start, where I first began thinking something was a little odd. In TIOL, Joey talks a bit about where he first met Sammy and Jack, when they were performing at an opening night party for a musical called Girl Crazy. Joey says he met them the night before his 30th birthday, which would mean the opening night was held in 1931 (since Joey was born in 1901).

WRONG! When I first read this part of the book I was curious to see if the musical was a real one, and it is! The thing that I didn’t understand though was that the musical was actually released in 1930, not 1931 like Joey says it was. I thought surely that was an error, right? NO IT WASNT!!! LET ME EXPLAIN!!!!!!!!!

(It also means that supposedly, Joey’s canon birthday is October 15th, because opening night for Girl Crazy was October 14th! But that’s not too important, and not a big part of the theory.)

The same night Joey meets Sammy & Jack, Sammy insists Joey takes them to see the studio and show them one of JDS’s short films. When he does, Sammy tells Joey he needs more female characters since at this point it’s only really Bendy, Boris, perhaps the Butcher Gang (though it might’ve been a bit early for them still), and random male one-time side characters.

Later in the autobiography, Joey talks more about how what Sammy said inspired him to create Alice Angel, after Henry had left so he had no input on the character and we can only really credit him for the creation of Bendy & Boris, despite what Joey says.

Now here’s where it gets fun!!! Sammy and Jack being hired in 1931 means they likely never met Henry, so Sammy’s whole “you look familiar to me!” line from Chapter 2’s ritual can only really be chalked up to Sammy being the one moving the cutouts and disappearing through the walls as usual throughout Chapter 1.

BUT!!!!!! BUT BUT BUT!!!!!!!!

A common theme throughout TIOL is that Joey is both an unreliable narrator AND a huge liar, so there’s a lot of information throughout the story that can be proven false pretty easily, like Henry not being the one behind Bendy etc. Since we know for sure that Sammy and Jack were hired in 1930 and not a year later, there’s a much higher chance they did have an opportunity to meet with Henry, and while I doubt Henry attended the opening night party, being the co-founder of the studio he definitely would’ve met them if they were employed while he was still working.

No doubt that upon meeting Henry, Sammy would’ve relayed his whole “not enough women” piece to him as the lead cartoonist. Henry definitely would’ve taken that criticism, and the two probably shared ideas around since she was going to be a very musical character, singing and whatnot.

BUT...there’s still more! What about Susie, you ask? I WILL EXPLAIN!!

When I tell y’all this franchise is ALL I think about im not kidding 😭

If we listen to Susie’s BATDR reveal tape, she says her and Sammy had been talking about a new character they were working on upstairs that she was most likely going to be given the role of. It’s pretty clear she’s talking about Alice Angel, since we know Susie was working as a voice actress for all kinds of random background characters before she got lucky with the role of Alice.

But wasn’t that audio log from Susie dated 1932, though? Wasn’t the original concept for Alice created around 1930? Yes and yes, sort of. Now this part is partially just a headcanon, but I do have something pretty definite to back me up here that I’ll get to soon. I reckon Henry designed Alice pretty early on in 1930 and Joey didn’t actually put the character to use until Henry was long gone, and Joey could take the character and make her more into what he would’ve wanted (and when he would’ve had a voice actress readily available).

Now here’s what I’m using to back myself up on that! In Dreams Come To Life, Norman says this and I’ll quote from the book:

Buddy: “He [Henry] created the big three, didn’t he?”

Norman: “Bendy and Boris. Even Alice, though they didn’t start featuring her until after Henry left.”

So my idea is pretty much correct, that while Alice was designed and given a basic character concept pretty early on while Henry still worked at the studio, she wasn’t shown in comics or cartoons until after Henry had left. I also hold the firm belief that in Henry’s hidden tape in Chapter 3, where he talks about how he’s working on a new character he thinks people are going to love, I definitely think he’s talking about Alice. Otherwise, why would it be found in the chapter focused around introducing her as a villain?

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There’s not really a big end to this theory, but I just thought it’d be worth bringing it up to tie up any loose ends and conclude that Henry is almost definitely responsible for all 3 of the original characters, including Alice.

Joey is a big liar and so so dumb but by god did I enjoy how he was written, and TIOL as a whole

[doberart]

Joey is ugly. I wonder if he envies Henry’s good looks?

Maybe Joey had some charm back in the day, but now he’s just a raisin. Lol. If Joey calling himself handsome and Henry forgettable and plain in TIOL doesn’t say something about that, then idk what else to say. XD