Not enough people talk about Audrey.. Yap about her down below 😈
Not a lot about this wonderful woman is known, she’s a very mysterious character in terms of who she is as a person. We all know she’s an adult, but we don’t know just how old she is- we don’t know just how much being an ink person affected her, and we don’t know anything about her childhood- we know nothing about her biology either. She eats, clearly- but how did she not find out she was made out of ink sooner?
As we know, BATDR was set in 1973. Audrey has been alive for a time long before then, as she’s a stable functioning adult with a job as an animator. But what I’ve never seen acknowledged or spoken about, is the implications of her being not only a woman with a job in the year 1973. While it was much more common for women to have jobs compared to before 1960, women were still fighting for their rights, and they still are even today.
You see as an ink person, Audrey clearly doesn’t have the same biology or bodily functions of human women. Externally, Audrey is identical to a human- however internally, things are different. Audrey does not bleed, we know this. But what else could that possibly entail for her? Imagine the turmoil and confusion Audrey went through, possibly being perceived as infertile by doctors she had to have visited. Why do I bring up infertility all of the sudden? Audrey does not bleed, and most likely does not have a uterus, as she again- doesn’t work like a regular human being.
The social impact that had on a woman in the 1970’s was HEAVY. Imagine the undeserved shame, embarrassment, and alienation Audrey felt growing up, and simply living her life. On top of that, did anybody raise her? She clearly did not recognize Joey, so I imagine Joey wasn’t there for her at least not after his creation of her.
Joey Drew died in 1971 I believe, but Audrey has no knowledge of him as a person or even a memory. So what kept him from being in her life?
I don’t hold it below Joey for him to leave Audrey, Joey wasn’t a good person, we all know this. On top of that, no mentions of Joey drew having a daughter were made in the previous game. We know Joey made her, but we don’t know if he actually did anything to raise her.
Yet despite all this, Audrey is a somewhat cheery and silly person when given the chance to be! For example the moment where she caught the fish x)
She’s also clearly a very hard worker- doing things herself without question, for example making that concoction that got her in trouble with Alice!!
Anyways, moving on to the fandoms opinion of Audrey.
A lot of people have told me that Audrey is badly written.
I however must disagree! It’s not that she’s necessarily badly written, we just aren’t given much about her. While this could possibly be called bad writing, I wouldn’t quite say the same.
There is a lot of room for character development with Audrey, and there is a lot already in BATDR. She’s a kind and compassionate person, who seems a little too gullible at times. No discredit to her, she can’t help that- it’s one thing I love about her. Though, her gullible nature and willingness to help is what got her into the ink dimension lol.
Another thing that could possibly point to her gullibility, is her willingness to trust Wilson- and also her reasonably heeding Allison’s warning about the ink demon.
While I’m a little sad Audrey didn’t take a moment to better acknowledge or get to know the ink demon better- (which I’ll explain why she could’ve in another post) I completely understand why she didn’t risk hearing him out or speaking to him, really speaking to him- until later at least.
Anyone would be scared of someone they were warned would pose a lethal danger to them, especially if that someone was seemingly a diety of the horrifying dimension you’re trapped in that is visually and audibly frightening to perceive.
She had made the mistake of trusting someone, and didn’t want to risk her well being again- she’s suddenly thrust into this eat or be eaten place where she is forced to battle inconceivable horrors, even herself.
If you look more into the story, over time as she hears more and more of the ink demon she becomes a little more comfortable responding to him especially after realizing little bendy and him kind of share a body.
You can see this when she, (while in annoyance) speaks back to the ink demon for the first time by telling him to shut up when he’s trying to warn her about Wilson, a small but important detail. She had not only gained more confidence, but was getting to know the ink demon better.
I love Audrey, and I love her character. Anything I forgot to talk about I’ll talk about in my next posts analyzing the ink demon and his character, as well as his relationship/dynamic with Audrey- and how I think he didnt want to hurt her and possibly wasn’t even trying to.
May make a TikTok verbalizing this rant, but if you made it this far- thank you!!
Don’t forget my requests r open ;)
