The Flaw of Bendy and the Ink Machine
BaTIM is finished. It’s now a franchise and we’ll see more Bendy soon, but the game is finished... and now people are confused. Particularly with the ending.
I hate that Groundhog Day Loop theory everyone has. It’s clear to me that BaTIM’s main theme is Immortality and the birth and death of art. The bad guys cling to their dreams and ideals of hate for obscurity and love of immortalization (Susie, Sammy, Bertrum, the Ink Demon, and for awhile, Joey and Wally) while the heroes are the ones who want the nightmare to end and leave. Henry, Allison, and Tom want to stop the Ink Demon and get out, Joey wised up and admitted his mistakes, and Wally finally said ‘I’m outta here!’
With that said, I can see how Henry reliving this hell is considered a bad ending. I disagree that it’s what happened, because the whole point of the story is bringing an end to the Ink Demon and grounding the theme that all things, good or bad, must come to an end. Dreams, careers, and stories.
I know what happened. I also know the real reason why people are confused. Here’s my theory:
Henry is not stuck in a loop. That cut scene with Joey Drew at the end was a memory before Henry went to the studio. Joey grew old and weak and finally admitted to himself of all the mistakes he did with the studio. He was able to keep in touch with some ex-employees that survived (Wally, Allison, and Thomas). Joey sent a letter to Henry asking him to come see the studio. Henry comes, but visits Joey first with questions. It seems that they lost contact after Henry left the studio; there was probably a falling out.
Henry visits Joey, who talks him into going to the old workshop and that he has something he wants Henry to see. It almost feels like a confessional. It’s been on his mind a lot, as shown by the numerous comics of the Ink Demon on his desk in the flashback.
Henry goes to the studio and that’s where our adventure begins and we see what Joey wanted to show us - the darkest reflection of his crooked empire. The epilogue after the artsy credits show us that Henry did get out and rekindled his friendship with Joey. He drew Bendy, Boris, and Alice holding hands with a kind note.
That’s not the flaw I’m talking about. I’ll get to that in a moment.
I can explain how Allison and Tom got out yet Allison Angel and Tom-Boris exist, or rather, they explained it to us. Susie Angel told us that she came about in a two-step process. First she was a Searcher or Lost One and then she was an Angel. This is most likely the norm. When Allison explained hers and Tom’s birth, they were ‘just thoughts... then existence’.
The process actually has three-steps, as confirmed by Joey is chapter 5. The real first step is an occultist ritual, where a person’s soul would be taken and added to some ink. Their body would be left to decompose.
This didn’t happen with some people - namely, Allison and Tom. A part of them was taken, but not their entire soul. I’m wondering if Joey and those two teamed up to escape the studio when it went under. There was that other ritual where Joey had some people give their personal items to ‘appease the gods’. Maybe there were attempts to make characters from a person’s items, rather than their soul. Less people mysteriously disappearing. Whether it was successful or not doesn’t matter. The Ink Demon was born and it only went downhill from there. The Projectionist is another example. He can walk into the ink, like Bendy, but it seems that other creatures, like Susie, Allison, and Tom, can’t. There were clearly experiments on people that lead to different results.
The magic circle that Henry stepped into was the ritual - the first step - that people go through. However, there was no one there to conduct it, thus Henry didn’t have his soul removed. This explains the flashbacks he begins to experience afterward. He may have acquired some kind of immunity, as well.
That leaves one thing left to explain, and one of the game’s flaws: the loose balance of Meta and the Fourth Wall.
This is best shown with the invisible ink messages. Those aren’t (just) for Henry, they’re for the player. There are multiple writers, but they’re mainly from The Meatly. Most of them are comments, jokes, insight to characters, or answers to little mysteries about the game. It was done in part to give more replay value. Henry and others may have wrote some of them, but some messages are either in places that he couldn’t get to, aren’t in character for him, or serve no purpose.
Another example that may get confused for foreshadowing is Sammy sort of recognizing Henry. However, Susie also knows him and seems to have deduced that Henry was sent by Joey to put a stop to everything. It’s a fact that Sammy and Susie worked at the studio at the same time, probably at the beginning when Henry worked there, before everything went to Hell. This explains why they recognized him. It’s not a time-travel effect, it’s because they already knew each other.
A third example is the broken Miracle Station that was added in chapter 3. The one with the message ‘feel familiar?’. People may assume that’s also foreshadowing, but I’d say it’s The Meatly talking to the player, because the station was used in the official chapter 3 trailer. Of course, new players won’t know that if they didn’t watch the trailer, which is likely.
To us, these make sense, because we, the players, are replaying the game, so we remember things. Henry isn’t. This is a one time journey for him.
Bendy and The Ink Machine is a great story, but I think the biggest flaw with it is that there’s too many Fourth Wall breaks. It’s a flaw because it muddles the mysteries, world logic, and the overall story and confuses everyone. There’s nothing wrong with a few wall breaks, especially in a fictional story about the nature of art and fiction, but too many just unbalanced things.
That’s all I have to say. I’m open to other theories - except the Groundhog Day Loop idea!
