#mike mood

[archer-kacey]

Problems with erasing Bendy Book canon:

With the FNAF books, we were told they were canon-divergent fairly early on. For Bendy, this was never specified, leading many to believe this was all just straight-up canon information that they were running with for theorycrafting. For a long time.

Why the hell would you de-canonize the ENTIRE origin story of Boris? He's a central character to Bendy and the Ink Machine.

You're going to throw out THE ENTIRE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF YOUR MAIN VILLAIN? THAT'S.......NOT A GOOD IDEA!

(And before it's pointed out, no, we don't "need" Illusion of Living for "gay evidence." The point here is y'all released an autobiography for one of your two main characters and you're saying it's not canon. That's ludicrous.)

Things that were explained/brought up in the novels that apparently "aren't canon anymore": how Sammy got infected, Thomas's conflicting feelings about the machine he created, the origin of Boris the wolf, several instances of Joey's gaslighting and manipulative behavior and his slow descent into madness after Henry's departure, a look into Gent technology and the Gent experiments that took place after they switched over to "research", Abby Lambert (who SHOULD be in the mainline games all things considered), Joey Drew's ENTIRE AUTOBIOGRAPHY including his PHILOSOPHIES AND REAL ASS LIFE, ANDDD the themes of classism, racism, and sexism that were VERY present at that time in history. Among other things.

You're taking out several new characters for no reason. I'm not saying they all need to return, but it makes zero sense to introduce a bunch of new guys and then immediately abandon them...only to introduce a bunch of OTHER new guys.

I've seen a few comments in response to Mike that go along the lines of "oh thank goodness now I don't need to read the books to understand the lore!" No disrespect, but I think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of what the books do. They enhance your understanding of all the background plot. You don't need to read the books to understand the games. But that shouldn't mean erasing the existing information's canonicity because not everyone wants to read it.

Bendy isn't FNAF. Bendy has a much more streamlined plot. Not everything fits perfectly of course, but to take out such a large chunk of what we THOUGHT was the plot (or plot-adjacent) is headscratching to me. You claim to care about the plot, characters and worldbuilding and then you decide that some of the BEST written interpretations of these characters and their world just aren't "legitimate" now? .......All of a sudden?

I want to punch something

[vanossgaming3567]

Happy 9th Anniversary to Bendy and the Ink Machine!

Happy 9th Anniversary to this Game. Besides FNAF, Bendy was also another Mascot Horror Game I grew up with since elementary school. I remember drawing the characters, getting the Plushies, listening to the fan songs, watching animations both Official and Fan made. I can't wait for the Upcoming Movie and future projects the Meatly is making.

[salpho]

We need to talk about what happened with Mike D.

For those who don't know, Mike D, co-creator of Bendy, has stated that Thomas Connor is a white man. He's done this before with Norman Polk, too. Because of this, drama has arose which led him to make his account private, and shortly after, deleted.

This thread on Twitter gives details of what happened, screenshots provided for those who can't view it below-

I must state as a disclaimer that no matter what he's like, past or present, we should not seriously be wishing death on him. The person who said they wished death on him has since retracted their statement, as said and shown in the thread above.

The two characters, Thomas and Norman, were nearly universally agreed upon to be black men, and have been implied and coded to be black through their voices, their interactions with other characters (especially in the books) and likely many more things I've missed, only to then be revealed to be canonically white.

Mike D has also stated (correct me if wrong) that he believes minorities are forced, unless the character's identity helps the story. Think of Buddy from Dreams Come To Life being Jewish, and how his religion effected his story.

This is erasure. The fact they decanonised the books that show these important interactions, the fact they led us on, being told your identity or race must serve a purpose in fiction, is all erasure. If you are part of a minority and see a character like you have that part of them stripped away or forgotten, it sends the message that people like you must be censored and eradicated, especially knowing how many minorities were treated historically. Being told minorities are forced unless given a greater purpose in storytelling reinforces the idea that being part of any minority is abnormal and thus, wrong.

TheMeatly has recently addressed that the cutouts used in all games post-BATIM had (accidentally) stolen fanart and plans to use a new texture in future games. This is proof that he has improved as Bendy merchandise has used fanarts without permission years ago.

In contrast, I have yet to see Mike D improving on any of his past actions. I really do hope he does, but right now, things do not seem hopeful. He must understand the messages he's spreading, intentional or not, and improve.

EDIT - There are actually some signs regarding his improvement in other areas. When the KindlyBeast team was laid off, he did make an apology post for them, and his "We make stupid games for stupid kids" quote doesn't seem to apply seeing the M ratings newer games are getting. Courtesy to the other Bendy wiki staff to giving me these points.

However, I do think there's still an issue with how he views minorities. Here's to hoping for the best.

[eviethenut]

Reblog if you don’t care what Mike said, and still consider the books canon :>

I wanna see just how many people agree with me

[halfusek]

The Beast Not So Kindly

we trusted you. we admired you. we loved you. it never was perfect, that's hard to do but we had fun and it was pure and true or so it seemed until that bandit came through

i remember it well, oh, my memory is clear when that game's release was drawing near while i celebrated the contest to me so dear first signs came of what we were to fear

victory celebrated, reward awaited but what's this? radio silence? less elated. though in fairness, soon we were updated that something in management has been complicated

that was fine, not really a reason to worry but soon we were to witness something more gorey one by one they left, as in a sudden hurry awakening in us an unspeakable fury

first there was confusion, maybe denial as we begun to walk the controversy aisle it was them - not you - to be the first one to dial us to clear up for what we put you on trial

you say we wanted silence - that is a lie! there was nothing else that we desired more than to get some closure, some alibi and all of that you only denied

you say it's all fiction - alright, i'll entertain that let's pretend that it was all lies spat let's pretend that you weren't just sat on that bed you made and then shat

nevermind the politcs, that one's tricky but isn't being anti-union a bit dicky? and that unfortunate picture stolen from the wiki isn't going after someone you wronged a bit icky?

i'll give you that one - being a scapegoat's not fair but we were never given a reason to care yet trust me - we still would like to hear your share what exactly it is that you bear

but as of now it is how it is he chose silence - you chose to hiss and nothing about that brings bliss but that summer 2019 i still do miss

and i bet you do too, it was all joy that for some reason you chose to destroy and then throw an edgy poem at us like a small boy so, be honest, mike - are you a small boy?

[multi-level-shipper]

So, I watched that new Chris Portal video (yes, the new one talking about the entire Bendy controversy) and deliberately skipped out on the Bioshock part with the intention of watching Bio for myself, seeing if I noticed any similarities to Bendy. (I’m about an hour in, just past the Dr. Steinman cutscene.) There uh...were a fair amount of things in common. From audio logs to an ominous violin-y soundtrack to a woman hellbent on being beautiful and trusting/simping for a sketchy man to help her achieve that goal, as well as other elements I won't list out (to save your eyeballs.)

Taking inspiration isn’t inherently bad, it’s how most things get made. There are no original ideas, just different ways of mixing them around. BUT, couple that with the devs behind Bendy and their “get it done, good enough” mantra, and things start to get more dicey. And I noticed that, as much as I love Bendy, looking at it from a strict gameplay and mechanic perspective, it seems like a very surface level Bioshock. Also, the eerily similar elements that Bendy lifted from Bioshock operate better in Bioshock’s world and themes, but when applied to Bendy... things get a little jankier.

While I know my lens is colored by nostalgia, I don’t think Bendy is a bad game overall. I could go on and on about the tug-of-war that is my stance on the whole thing, but really I bring Bioshock up to highlight the issues with the rocky start (and premature finish?) of, say it with me kids....Dark Revival.

Remember how I said Bendy seems like a surface level Bioshock? Well...that’s a problem when paired with devs who write things quickly and don’t know how to properly flesh out a story. For example, we have twelve main cast members with tapes in BATIM (not including books/BATDS), and SINCE we only have twelve in the source material, there definitely should’ve been more time spent on them for lore-building's sake. These are the people we could’ve gotten more story substance from VERY easily. There were even further opportunities to explore other backstories and historical details of the studio, but they were never used. Certain areas and assets looked pretty, but weren't really ever functional to their full potential. Oh, and we still no next to nothing about the literal studio-wide cult, except that it existed.

I know BATIM was essentially created by a few indie devs, while Bioshock had a fair bit more gumption behind it, But here’s the thing: Dark Revival had every opportunity to start afresh with a creative team backing it. It had the opportunity to dig deeper and finally flesh out the story. Hell, Showdown Bandit HAD fully animated cutscenes, a bunch of dialogue, and other animations, according to an unnamed Ex-KindlyBeast employee that Chris Portal interviewed. Those never saw the light of day.

So Meatly and Mike didn’t just “take inspiration”, they deliberately made their content surface-level even after BATIM. And when they had the means of improving their work, they pushed progress so far back that we’ve gotten to the point where the games are likely not coming out. Bioshock just helps make this an even stronger case.

[02h00mn]

𝖢𝗈𝗆𝗈 𝗊𝗎ᧉ ᧉ𝗎 𝗏𝗈𝗎 𝖽𝒊𝗓ᧉ𝗋 𝗉𝗋⍺ ᧉ꯭𝗅꯭⍺? 𝖰𝗎ᧉ ᧉ꯭𝗎 𝗀𝗈𝗌𝗍𝗈 𝖽𝗈 𝗌꯭ᧉ꯭𝗎 𝖼𝗁ᧉ𝒊𝗋𝗈, 𝖽⍺ 𝖼𝗈𝗋 𝖽𝗈 𝗌꯭ᧉ꯭𝗎 𝖼⍺𝖻ᧉ𝗅𝗈. 𝖰𝗎ᧉ ᧉ꯭l꯭⍺ 𝖿⍺𝗓 𝗆꯭𝒊𝗇꯭𝗁꯭⍺ ꯭𝗉꯭𝗎𝗉꯭𝒊𝗅꯭⍺ ꯭𝖽𝒊꯭𝗅꯭⍺𝗍꯭⍺𝗋.

[abib918]

I don’t post a lot but I feel like this video is one worth sharing. 

Chris talks about the Kindly Beast controversies in incredibly researched detail, and while the video is long ( just over three hours ), it’s absolutely worth your time. I figured it was worth a shot to try and get the new one circulated around here, since I know there was ( and still is ) a large Bendy fandom here, and the old video was made just under two years ago. 

If you’re involved with Bendy or Showdown Bandit, this is 100% worth a watch.