#fightyourdemon

[strider-marie164]

Day 11.- Cruel

ENJOY~!

[justletmedoodle]

Here it is! Edited a bit to make the contrast bigger but hmmmm dunno I think I prefer the natural picture. There are some mistakes but I’m happy with it!

Anyways chapter 5 of BATIM is coming and I’m stoked! So much I derailed inktober to draw on an A3 paper. WIth what was supposed to be smaller doodles. With a small brush pen and two fineliners (0.5 and 0.3).

RIP brush pen you served me well.

[justletmedoodle]

So I'm doing something which will hopefully be finished by the 26th...

[roguemodelmanagementuk]

Posted @withregram • @shellollypop Fight your demons or become them 🖤 Represented by @rogue_model_management Photographer @mediaratz Neckless @alternative_finch80 #demonqueen #gothicqueen #fightyourdemon #warrior #warriorprincess👑 #battlethedarkness https://www.instagram.com/p/B_4uDZuAhNd/?igshid=1ti17oe8ugmri

[pumpkin-toast]

Chapter 5 Analysis+Thoughts (MAJOR SPOILERS//LONG POST)

First off, I feel kind of empty now? Right now we’d all be screaming about when the next chapter would be released, but now there’s nothing else. Now what?

Now we theorize, we analyze, we figure out what the ending meant for the story as a whole, and we keep creating fan content!

Incredibly, out of all my predictions, I actually got lots right. I was actually almost kidding when I said in my Chapter 5 predictions post that Sammy was coming back, but oh my gosh I was actually right! And I was also right about you getting separated from Allison and Tom before the final boss.

Okay okay okay, back to the beginning.

I like the Allison-Henry-Tom love-triangle dynamic. The elongated cutscenes at the start really illustrate Henry’s limited ability at this point in time, as we as the player can do nothing at this point but watch everything play out.

Tom’s personality is... excusable. I’d be a little wary of a stranger like that if I lived in the studio. He really just wants to protect Allison, his girlfriend.

I must know more about the hand in the river! It seems like a very interesting monster, maybe even one to threaten Bendy himself. Either way, I’d love to see a full scale version at some point! Cleaning the paddle-wheel was a really creative way to introduce more tension into this scene!

Sammy, my baby! He actually came back, I can’t believe it! After screaming myself hoarse, I composed myself and resumed my playthrough. His words about “You said I’d be free!” And “You lied!” Or something like that were... Kind of confusing? I’m not sure how to interpret them. Maybe we are a Bendy now and don’t know it? But then why wouldn’t Allison and Tom know what Henry was... They know what a Bendy would look like. If anyone has any thoughts leave a comment.

Now we know Sammy is forever dead, because his body melted afterwards.

The fight was sort of confusing... How was Sammy holding the ink people back? Why are they suddenly hostile when in Chapter 4 they didn’t attack you with Sammy nowhere in sight?

Then we fall down a loooooooong hole and break our legs. Just kidding, this is a video game! We don’t have bones. This is actually very reminiscent of Chapter 1’s fall into the madness!

The fact that Ink Bendy was the first ink creature, and the only ever Bendy was pretty interesting. And I love how Joey’s intentions were actually good all along, he just wanted people to get to know his creations.

As I predicted, we were separated from Allison and Tom. I really love the REAL ink machine. I was wondering how the machine was going to play into the overall story, and as it turns out it was the actual setting for the final battle.

Okay, so the elephant in the room...

I don’t actually believe that the creatures are the workers anymore. I‘m even talking about Sammy Lawrence at this point, I don’t think that Ink Sammy is the real Sammy Lawrence. They’re all just... Ink. I really don’t think they were anything before. Because Bendy was pretty much confirmed to be... Just Bendy. Nothing else, just a ‘figurine’ of Bendy. An unworldly one, according to Thomas Conner, but you get the point. It just doesn’t seem right anymore that the workers were transformed, because obviously some of them got out, as showed by the ending! I’m still working on it, I’ll be examining EVERYTHING to determine what happened and who turned and who didn’t.

On top of that I really don’t think Susie Campbell is inside of Ink Alice. She’s probably just another figurine, with Susie’s voice and desires imprinted onto her. Joey Drew’s audio log with Susie makes me think he just wanted her help in creating an Alice figurine, and that’s what her opportunity was, because Susie’s Alice voice was more popular than Allison’s. And here’s where, when I was writing this, I had a minor brainwave.

What if NONE of these creatures were actually people before the ink? Like Bendy, they’re just figurines made from nothing. That’s why the perfect Bendy route all of us were assuming was the answer to everything will never happen, because there’s only one Bendy, and there will only ever be one Bendy, because Henry can never transform into an ink creature. There’s no physical way to transform into an ink creature in the game’s canon.

Instead, I propose that certain figurines were modelled after certain workers. Hell, what do I know, maybe Sammy is just a replica of human Sammy! Maybe the Projectionist isn’t really Norman Polk! We know for a fact more than one Projectionist exists, right? It can’t have been the same one in Chapter 3 as in Chapter 4, although if you kill him in 3 he doesn’t melt... I don’t know.

But basically, we know Allison Pendle, or should I say Allison Conner, and Thomas Conner ended up together, right? So, what if Thomas Conner helped create a Boris with Joey, while Allison helped create another Alice after Susie’s attempt was a fiasco? It’s not just mad speculation, either.

A theory I’ve seen going around is that Joey tried to have other past workers destroy Bendy, two of them being Allison and Thomas Conner, who became the Tom and Alice from chapter 4. And I do see where that’s coming from, but when you stop and think about the ending, that theory makes no sense (and don’t worry I’m sure my stuff is horrifically bad, too).

Remember, that tape in the ink machine is addressed to YOU. Henry Stein. Not Allison, not Tom, not Wally, but Henry. If Joey sent others, it’d mean he’d have to go and change that tape himself every time, and that’d just be a weird thing for Joey, as a character, to do. I think he put that tape there when the studio first closed, high-tailed it the hell outta there, then sent Henry a message, 30 years later. That would make more sense.

But okay- Let’s get real, Bendy was lit AF in this confrontation. I have no doubt whatsoever that Bendy himself is a metaphor for something.. I’m working on it now, perhaps Joey’s reluctancy to let the studio fall, or greed?

Hey, greed. That’s an au idea... Another 7 deadly sins universe, anyone?

Anyway, Bendy’s transformation caught me so off-guard... And I freakin love him! His official name is Beast Bendy, but I like to call him Bended. Just came to me. The music in this battle is so LIT. And it’s really creative, really invokes the feeling of just how powerless you are.

To be honest, after replaying it a few times I realized they tried to teach you the battle’s mechanics through the cutscene. When Bendy smacks you into the wall, you slump against it and he runs by. They’re informing you that if you hug the wall, he can’t get you.

And so the final battle was remembering to look both ways, kiddins. To be honest I wouldn’t even call it a battle, just a desperate sprint to the finish, to destroy the ink demon once and for all. You can’t fight or anything, you can just run. And that’s fantastic. A fight against an unfightable enemy would be really dull and disappointing, because being unfightable means you CAN’T fight them. It would take away the meaning and terror Bendy has always invoked, because he’s the unbeatable enemy. Whenever we saw him, we’d run, because we knew we just can’t fight him. It’s the same scenario here.

Basically, if we were able to defeat Bendy in his new, stronger form, but not be able to fight his weaker, cartoonish version, we’d just get mad. It wouldn’t feel immersive, because it wouldn’t follow the universe’s rules.

This was actually really smart on the dev’s parts. If you can’t fight them, you take the flight response and high tail it on outta there, which is what we do.

The way Bendy was defeated was super cool, too. The way The End just disintegrated him... Another metaphor, of course.

Anyway, we beat Bendy and

HOLY SHOOT THERE’S   C O L O R .

We get confirmation that Wally, Allison, and Thomas Conner actually made it out, which is just awesome! And hey, Wally has grandkids and Allison and Tom hooked up... Makes me wonder who else, if anyone, got out.

And then HEY JOEY

HEY A WHEELCHAIR HOLY CRAP THAT THING FROM CHAPTER 1 AGAIN!

Joey seems... Out of style? He looks like he’s from another game.

Joey’s whole apartment was off-putting for me... It didn’t feel like Bendy and the Ink Machine to me during that sequence. But I guess that could also be a metaphor... It’s before everything started, so it’s technically NOT Bendy and the Ink Machine yet? The game starts when we enter the studio.

It could also be that everything in the studio is just... devoid of colors. It’s just all black and orange and yellow and brown. It’s definitely up in the air right now, isn’t it?

Next up— Credits! I ADORED these! They fit really nice with the game’s style, aesthetically. The music changed between Bendy’s theme and Alice’s theme and Brute Boris’ theme... Before ending on the game’s logo. I’ll truly never forget it, it’s the end of an era for us, huh?

After the credits, we see through Joey’s eyes, and zoom into a picture of Bendy, Alice, and Boris as cartoons, from Henry Stein, as we hear a little girl ask us to “Tell [her] another one, Uncle Joey.” Wether this is Henry’s daughter or not, is questionable.

At this point I’m ready to say Linda is either Henry’s daughter or wife, maybe this girl was Linda?

Fun side note— In a room off to the side we can see an ink machine, presumably the first prototype of it. It’s hard to say if it’s rusty, or if it’s just following my theory of everything at the studio being brown and black. Hard to say.

Funny thing is, Thomas Conner was mad about one of his inventions being stolen when Allison wrote to Joey. So did Joey... Steal the ink machine prototype? I think that’s what’s being implied.

~

Now— Can we say that this was all just a dream?

...I’ve given it much thought... And no, I think dream theory is a no go, although I believe it goes deeper than that. When you stop and think about it, the reason Joey has the Ink Bendy drawings is because Ink Bendy was created before everything went to hell— We got confirmation of that from Thomas Conner’s audio log, so presumably he and Joey would have come in contact at some point, it’s only natural.

~

I really want to know more about the Viewing Tool. It’s an interesting mechanic, and it just kind of came outta nowhere! The fact we get to take it back to previous chapters is so awesome! This could really be an important tool in our quest for answers. I’m currently working on finding all the messages, hopefully all of them will be found and posted online soon.

Speaking of past chapters and the Viewing Tool, I have a thought. So at the beginning of chapter 1, if you point the tool at the posters in the beginning hall you can see talley marks... And also there’s a message reading “I’m sorry buddy.” I propose to you that Henry is stuck in a timeloop. The tallies are the number of times he’s repeated the loop. Every time he beats Bendy, the loop restarts. That’s how he has the viewing tool in the previous chapters, now. And that’s why after we kill Bendy, the loop resets and we find ourselves in Joey’s home once more.

And just think— THAT IS WHY HENRY IS SO CALM AND MONOTONE! He’s experienced all of this before, so why act as though he’s surprised when he knows what’s going on?

And when Brute Boris is revealed— He’s emotional because he hates seeing his friend die again and again and again.

Do I actually believe it’s a time loop? Sort of. I’m not sure at this moment in time, it’s too early to tell. We need to check behind the scenes of all the chapters for new evidence first before drawing any definite conclusions.

~

In conclusion, I think after writing this and watching ten million chapter 5 playthroughs, then going back and playing the whole game myself (twice) I have a... very well-rounded vision of the entire story at this moment in time. I’m not going to post it with this analysis, I’ve said enough for today, but I’m constructing a timeline and explanation about everything that happened in this incredible story. Because I think I, at least, have been given enough information to figure it out. So I’ll see you in a few days, gotta run.

[pumpkin-toast]

A few predictions before Bendy Chapter 5 tomorrow.. (sort of long post??)

Okay so like this last year and a half was the best year and a half ever! Because I had Bendy and the Ink Machine to look forward to, all year long 2017 AND 2018! I’m going to miss the hype and the theorizing and this community’s golden era... I really am. Bendy is one of my all-time favorite games to date, and I don’t suspect I’ll be leaving this fandom anytime soon, either.

And I know that it’s probably not going to answer every last question... That would be ludicrous, of course. We’re still hoping for another game, right? There has to be one last unanswered question after the fact, or else a sequel would feel completely forced. After all, if everything is wrapped up in a neat little bow, then why is there a reason for a second chap— Sorry, there’s already been a chapter two... A second book, shall we say??

I’m also getting a certain vibe from Joey Drew’s office... I feel like it will be where either we confront the Ink Demon for good or we encounter Joey Drew, in whatever form that may be, Ink Demon or otherwise. It’s definitely a final boss chamber, the likes of which we’ve never seen.

I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like a solo act. I predict we’ll get seperated from Allison and Tom, towards the end of the chapter. Perhaps the creature under the surface of the ink river will have something to do with that, if it even exists? Maybe Bendy will seperate you? I don’t know.

Another thought that just entered my mind is that MOST OF US think Joey is the Bendy monster (cough game theory cough wally franks cough). It would be amazing if we entered his office, and there’s Joey Drew behind the desk, and he’s... Another lost one. Not Bendy, not the Ink Demon, not a human, but an Inky Mass. A lost mind. It would destroy us, it would shock us, it would render us frozen and speechless and wondering where the hell this plotpoint came from, after months, after a YEAR of saying JOEY DREW IS THE BENDY MONSTER, it would play with our heads and make us reconsider everything. And it would be INCREDIBLE.

We all assume that as the big head of the office, Joey is ripe for Ink Bendy’s true identity. But that seems like a red herring to me. Joey is no more human than anyone else at the studio was. And yeah, you could argue that Susie became Alice and Allison also became Alice (even though there’s no proof that Allison became Allison Angel, but let’s give it the benefit of the doubt here for theory’s sake). But we don’t actually have a direct string from Joey to Bendy when you think about it. Susie and Allison were Alice Angel’s VOICE ACTORS. Joey just ran the studio. Henry is the closest character to Bendy there is, and that’s why I am a (albeit VERY skeptical) believer Henry will become perfect Bendy. I’m not 100% on board, as we know he at least makes it to the exit based on the achievements, but who knows what the hell is going to happen, right? He could be dragged back at the last second by some unseen creature.

But as a community, one who so strongly believed for so long that Joey Drew would be revealed as Ink Demon Bendy, it would be a gut-punch to us. We’re made to think J.D. will be revealed as Bendy, because it’s the most logical option, right? We search for answers about this game, using evidence meant to misdirect us, evidence that’s not even there yet, and even evidence that we’ve thought up ourselves.

Yet, we have never once considered that Joey Drew could be anyone but Bendy. Hell, when the game first came out we were left thinking that Bendy was his own individual entity, apart from Joey, Wally, and everyone else. It’s weird, isn’t it?

On that note— Expect Susie-Alice to make a comeback. There’s a reason that theMeatly and the team didn’t show her melting away like the butcher gang clones and Boris.

She was just kinda left lying there. If she was actually dead and gone from the story then we would have seen her melt. It just seems too good to be true. And the Lost Ones surrounding her at the end... Then the ones attacking Allison... Bah, whatever.

I... really don’t know, that’s all I really have.

Alice is coming back, Joey Drew will turn out to be a Lost One, Henry may or may not actually make it out at the end of the game and may or may not become perfect Bendy, and expect Sammy Lawrence.

Wait, what was that last one?

Oh yeah. He didn’t melt, either.

Either way, be prepared for ANYTHING when you enter the big man’s office. Because, quite literally, anything could theoretically happen.

[fangshaymin88]

In three days

[mordicoscomics]

Guy Page and the Ink Machine