(A small MOTM analysis) For those hating on Cuphead for being a step ahead of Bendy, need I remind you of these panels
Bro is literally throwing them around like dolls, he has no respect for boundaries the moment he realizes he has the power/upper hand. Yes, they might have gotten along before they made the deal, but Bendy completely forgot about that, like Cuphead said, it got in his head. I’m not saying Cuphead is in the right, BUT, he knows how these deals work, this one was just lucky enough to have a loop hole on his side (and I would do the exact thing if I was in his situation). Cuphead is good at reading people, THAT has been confirmed, people need to actually understand the character to be able to get mad at him. Bendy is a demon, I’m not saying he’s evil(I don’t hate him, I hate the fact that the power got in his head, he should know better than anyone that it sucks to get tossed around like nothing) but like Cuphead mentioned, demons typically like to make deals. The devil for example (I’m using the game devil, not the religious one, though my point still stands with the Christian devil) game devil makes deals/contracts for a living. That why so many people go to his casino, he’s good at making loopholes that benefit him and him only. Now back to Bendy, he made a deal that benefits him and Boris, BUT, he’s sloppy. He doesn’t know how it works, Cuphead took that to his advantage, to make sure him and his brother never have to deal with the horrible abuse of a deal again
You can hate Cuphead or be mad at him for this, but I’ll defend him and Mugman with my life.
Edit:
Boris is right not to trust them, FUCK ASS BENDY on the other hand thinks “oh we bested them, they listen to us, we can use them”..I have many reasons to not like bendy in the sense where he thinks he is better than them because he “controls” them. Just look at this look Mugman gave him
He is saying this INFRONT of the people he is talking about thinking that they can’t hurt him. Which is partly true. I’m just hoping he doesn’t abuse them or else I’d really hate bendy.
Roughly broken down by element because I do want this to have some semblance of a structure.
!! This argument is based on the assumption that everything is intentional !!
1) The Title Itself,
Titles are the first piece of information one can get about a piece of media and arguably the most important. They serve to grab the reader’s attention, and, paired with their cover (or poster, for movies), can imply a lot about the content of what they represent. The plot and the tone, especially.
Now, “The View From Here” is a pretty flexible statement. It can carry several tones. It could be the title of anything from a romance novel to an angsty, multi-chapter fanfic. It’s reliant on its font and color, as well as the image’s other elements.
But let’s keep our focus on the text itself for now.
A) Color
Red is a very versatile, very energetic, color. It’s the color of passion and ambition, but also that of aggression and danger. This may imply that “The View From Here” is going to be a high energy chapter, full of new dangers and focused on certain goals.
Considering that 4/5 of the Quest Crew now have an uneasy alliance going on, and the Mysterious Caller being on their tails, it’s not a far cry to say that red fits the outline.
But there’s also the positive sides of red to consider. We’ve just been officially introduced to Shelly, the final Quester. She’s already proven to be ambitious, both in her reference card and in the comic. She’s pursuing knowledge that Dandy has apparently told her to keep away from, and has been caught doing so enough times for Astro to immediately know what she’s doing.
She feels like they aren’t doing enough for the people, and something—probably related to the Blot and what the Dept. of Health is (or isn’t) doing—is going to happen and lead her to the other four and away from her friends.
(Side note: The exact shade of red used here is E93628, referred to as Deep Madder Lake by color-name.com. If this was an intentional choice, it could imply some sort of fall into madness for a character. *glances at Dandy’s ominous red pupils.* But if it’s not, it’s not.)
B) Font
Shift your focus to Chapter 1’s title panel for a second—remember that simple, bubbly font? Compare it to ‘The View From Here’s sleeker, more detailed lettering, and consider how the tones of the chapters have differed thus far.
This font may be implying a return to society, or a shift in POV to characters or a character higher up on the social ladder.
Now, we can shift our focus to another question. Where is ‘here’ and what is it referring to?
Based purely on the other motifs present in the image, I think of two different statements: “The view from [down] here,” and “The view from [up] here.” Either way, it brings to mind distance, and the longing that comes with it.
It could be referring to Ortensia’s death, and the family she left behind. Oswald and how distant he is from his children. Bendy and Dandy’s past, and how the distance between them both emotionally and in social status has affected them. The Stars, and how high above and removed they are from the general public. The Dept. of Health and the people they have failed. And so on.
2) The Dagger
Daggers are very ambiguous as symbols. They are associated with courage and daring, but also treachery and deception because they are easy to hide. So perhaps we can expect to see those concepts at play during this chapter.
This dagger sits in between the two hearts, signifying some sort of event causing a split between the people they represent. And considering there is a demon’s tail and a flower wrapped around the hilt, it isn’t much of a stretch to say that they represent Bendy and Dandy, left and right respectively. But we’ll worry about the hearts later.
Both the tail and the flower are wrapped around the hilt, neither any tighter or looser than the other, implying that both Bendy and Dandy played an equal part in the pain that separates them now, or that they were both involved with The Blot and share the blame for whatever happened.
But the dagger is ultimately tipped with ink. This could mean that Bendy was ultimately the one hurt the most by what happened between them—as he is often associated with ink for, um, obvious reasons,—or that Bendy contracting the Blot is what ultimately caused the most hurt between them and/or drove them apart.
However, the dagger is partially colored in yellow, which is associated not only with Bendy, but also the Celestials. Maybe the Celestials are involved with the Blot, and Bendy and Dandy got tangled up in things they shouldn’t have.
(Side-note: The dagger is reminiscent of a a kris, or keris, a weapon created by the Javanese people. It symbolizes heroism, martial prowess, power, and authority. But, as a weapon, it represents violence, death, and bloodshed.)
(Side-note 2: the way the flower and the tail wrap around each other is reminiscent of the rod of asclepius (not the caduceus—thank you melodylyricx for the correction), a symbol of medicine, and Dandy is the Star of the Dept. of Health. So that’s fun.)
3) The Hearts
On the left — A black heart, broken down the middle and bleeding from the wound. The bottom is dripping, as well. It has a double border. (I know the double border was probably for the sake of having the shape make sense but shhhh, lemme over-analyze this in peace…)
On the right — a whole black heart, covered in blood. It has a single border.
In the middle (not pictured), The Dagger.
“Hearts represent the center of emotion, including affection and love.” & “It is sometimes accompanied or superseded by…a "broken" heart symbol in two or more pieces, indicating heartbreak.” & “Heart symbols are frequently used to symbolize “health” or “lives” in video game.” —Wikipedia’s article on the Heart symbol.
These two hearts represent Bendy and Dandy’s state of being.
On Bendy’s side — he was hurt by what happened between him and Dandy (broken heart) and is still hurt by it (heart still bleeding). The heart being broken and melting may also refer to his health, with him having the Blot and being permanently down a heart. This has led him to toughen up, though you can still get through to him if you aim at where he’s been hurt before (double barrier broken only where the heart is broken).
On Dandy’s side — Whatever hurt he may have experienced then has been either healed or internalized (unbroken barrier, blood in heart), and seems to be the same as he was before. Also, he is still in good health (unbroken heart).
The blood on Dandy’s heart may also refer to the blood he has on his hands; he is the Star of Health, but no one we’ve seen so far, besides probably Shelly and Astro, has been particularly fond of him. He has failed the people; Toons have died because of his apparent inaction. And that’s not even getting into that one ‘the searchers were experimented on’ theory I’ve seen floating around.
4) Final Commentary
can you tell that I was getting tired near the end of this? I’ve spent like 2, 3-ish hours on this, I think. (EDIT: six. It was six. I spent six hours on this.) And I regret nothing. Absolutely none of it.
If you have any thoughts, feel free to comment or ramble in the tags. Consider reblogging this, too? I put a lot of thought into it. :’}
bc like. we SEE him do magic. and aren't celestials defined as those with magic??
and for some reason gardenview is unaware of the outside, which means that they're ALL likely artificially biologically created
maybe even branching off from the mother experiments
is dandy already playing god??
is astro helping him???
are the toons more stable because they have the power of a celestial???
id ask if the mains are aware of the outside, but shelly doesn't seem to be
however, astro asks dandy about how he's letting rumors spread
are astro and dandy the two heading all of this???
also, look at shelly's injury
(side note she's so cutesy ily shelly)
it looks like a broken outer shell (pun not intended)
it even sorta reminds me of when dyle cut his finger
are all gardenview residents imitations of toons?? are they all shells filled with ichor??? this could fit with their twisted designs too - too many injuries and the ichor spills out and takes over
no coherent thoughts here i'm just babbling but am i cooking
Myth of the Machine Analysis/Theory: Demons, Celestials, and the Devil
As I read Myth of the Machine (all credit belongs to @/flygutzz and @/nortsauce for creating this comic!!), I noticed something about how many people treated Bendy, specifically how they talked about him and how Bendy talks about his past. And, the more I looked into it, the more I noticed implications about the world around him.
Before you continue, I want to put a quick trigger warning for discussions of bigotry/prejudice, religion (specifically religious trauma), child abuse, and death.
When you look at the updated character card for Bendy, the second to last bullet point says that he's one of the only demons in Toon Town. When I first read through the comic (and saw the updated cards), that small piece of information immediately caught my eye: why was he one of the only demons left? More importantly, the cards only have the most important information about the characters (like their base personality), so why would the creators of the comic highlight this? So, I decided to stop, go back, and reread through chapter one just in case I missed anything. And I found quite a bit of interesting panels (featuring my messy annotations):
It's heavily implied from a lot of these panels demons face a lot of prejudice in Toon Town: when referring to Bendy, the words demon and devil are thrown around like they're being spit out, there seems to be a lot of stereotypes surrounding demons, and there are implications that there might be some form of Christianity in this world, or, at least, there's a religion that could be a "stand-in" for Christianity.
In the fifth and eighth panels, I put little annotations about Bendy's reactions to some of this - and, yes, I know Mugman wasn't trying to be rude/prejudice towards Bendy (I'll talk more about what he was implying later), but Bendy and Boris took it that way, and impact vs. intent are very different things. Anyways, Bendy reacts to these two instances by being sarcastic like it isn't affecting him that badly, but, looking at how he's drawn, he genuinely seems really upset with these instances. This implies that Bendy has been a victim of microaggressions so often that he's gotten "used to it" and his immediate coping mechanism is to play it off or act sarcastic, but deep down, these instances of prejudice hurt him.
(It's important to note that, in the fifth panel, Boris gets defensive on Bendy's on his behalf, implying that Boris has seen the bigotry directed at Bendy and how that affects his brother - considering that, it makes sense that Boris would immediately come to Bendy's aid when someone is awful to him)
I also want to focus more on the seventh picture in this batch: in the panel before this one, Cuphead explained how he never got to go to school because it was too expensive to send both him and Mugman. When asked why Mugman never taught him anything, Cuphead says that he was 1) too busy and 2) the teachers thought he was too stupid. Bendy then says that he understands how Cuphead feels, and proceeds to say that his teachers (the Nuns) weren't kind to 'kids who didn't talk'. Now, on the surface, this is all commentary on the education system within the world; it's a for profit system that throws kids who don't have enough money, or are 'too stupid to learn', out the window, and expects them to fend for themselves. And for the kids who don't do what the teachers say, or act the way the teachers want them to (like, for example, kids who don't talk or are 'too bad'), they're treated badly because a lot of school systems force kids to conform to specific standards.
But what if you look deeper into what Bendy says? He's a demon in a town with barely any others like him, being taught by Nuns, and he implies that they 'didn't go easy on him' - and, while Buddhism is known to have monastics who are women, they're usually referred to as Bhikkhunī or Bhikṣuṇī, leading me to believe that, in this specific panel, Bendy is talking about Christian Nuns. Which, if you know anything about Christianity, you know how they portray devils and demons and the implications of that are pretty disturbing. Even if the Nuns were 'hard' on him because he was 'quiet', how do we know that his teachers weren't awful to him because he's a demon?
The worst part about all this? I think there's more evidence that points to what exactly happened to Bendy in the flashback that occurred after Felix and Sheba kidnapped the B-Bros.
Okay, there's a lot to unpack with this one scene.
Let's start with how they're drawn: I noticed that both Bendy and Boris seem to have a lot of scuff marks on them, implying that they were in some sort of fight. There are two scars on Bendy's left forearm, and there are two on Boris' upper right arm. I can't recall if they have these scars in their older designs, so they might've faded away, or they were open wounds (but that seems a lot less likely because I can't see any blood). Bendy's also holding his tail, which is something he does when he's nervous/scared. However, the most interesting thing I noticed was in the fifth panel: Bendy looks like he's spilling ink. At first, I thought this was the Blot, and proceeded to freak out a little. But, when I thought more about it, I realized it could be him struggling to maintain his form. No matter if its the Blot or him keeping his form, him spilling ink shows that he's under a lot of stress.
Now, onto the dialogue: this scene obviously sets up a lot of interesting dilemmas for where the comic's timeline is currently, like Boris struggling a lot with his morals in a world that punishes him for it, and Bendy killing a man because he wanted to live. However, I want to focus on the implications for their past, not their present.
When Boris says, "They could've killed you," in the first panel, I think the "they" in question could be referring to the Nuns that taught them, or random people in Toon Town. When I first read the scene, I thought it was the later, but now that I've gone through an analyzed these scenes, it seems like the people that almost killed Bendy could've been the Nuns. We don't know exactly what happened before this scene, but if we go with the Nun interpretation, maybe Bendy was facing some kind of punishment (maybe the punishment was physical, but there is a chance the Nuns could've gotten a ordained minister to perform...something), and Boris realized that this could've killed Bendy, and they ran.
Bendy's dialogue implies that he's been taught to view himself as a bad person because he's a demon. He asks Boris why it was bad "they" were trying to kill him, and then if bad people deserve to live, and finally asking if he was bad. When you consider that organized religion, especially Christianity, has been used to attack a lot of marginalized communities in real life, it makes sense that an organized religion seemingly based on Christianity would attack minorities in this world. And, well, when you look at how Christianity depicts devils/demons...it starts painting a horrible picture. So, all of this together implies that the Nuns, who were Bendy's teachers and most likely some of the only adults in his life, taught him that being a demon was bad, that he was automatically a bad person for being something he had no control over. This most likely caused Bendy internalize a lot of this, and that's extremely tragic.
And let's circle back to my original point - the fact that Bendy is one of the only demons in Toon Town: this fact alone implies that other demons either moved out, were killed, or they outright avoid Toon Town (or most towns in this world) due to the bigotry they face there.
So, demons face a lot of bigotry in this world. But that leaves the question: why?
Well, a lot of prejudice and bigotry is based on untrue stereotypes that usually comes from bioessentialism. No types of bigotry are based in logic - at their cores, they're illogical and usually used by people in power to create division amongst people.
Myth starts off telling us that the Blot reemerged to due peoples' greed, which separated the toons, and, as it says this, it shows a picture of Mickey, implying that a lot of this was his and his goons' fault - however, Mickey's still mayor of Toon Town, and most people still think highly of him. If people were divided during the time of reanimation right before the Blot came back, then that allows the people in power to take control of the narrative once shit hits the fan. And, as we see in the comic, Mickey and Bugs (and the other stars) seem to have a death grip around Toon Town. In order to do this, it's likely that they needed someone to blame in order to keep their power.
There's a version of Christianity in this world. When people get desperate, they usually turn to religion. People in power need a scapegoat. We know that the Devil exists because Cuphead and Mugman seem to have already sold their souls.
So, even though no one knows for sure where the Blot comes from, it would be pretty easy to use religion and blame it on the Devil - maybe, they'd take an extra step and blame it on the Celestials, since they "left" the toons to deal with the Blot; it would make sense since the Stars don't seem very fond of the Celestials to the point where they don't mention them by name, and Mugman seems to dislike them too, implying that people other than the Stars hate them.
(Maybe the Devil is connected to the Celestials? Who knows...)
This would easily create someone people could get mad at, and this affected the demons because, well, people would probably connect them to the Devil. It's really interesting because a lot of the discrimination we see directed towards Bendy comes from the Stars or the Cupbros (the later obviously don't have a good relationship with the Devil).
Now, is it possible that all of this (the Blot, the searchers, ect) is the Devil's fault? Uhh... I don't know?
In Quest of the Ink Machine, the Devil was the one who started spreading the "ink illness" again, and the map to all of the parts belonged to him. However, I don't know if the same will be true for Myth, but I do think that the Devil has something to do with what's happening based off of some dialogue from Cuphead and Mugman.
Why that reaction? Why did Mugman specify that Bendy was a demon before asking if he could see the map?? Why, unless they know something about why Bendy could see the map??
They don't know that this map leads to the Ink Machine yet, but they know it's some kind of magic, which ties it to the Celestials. SO WHY THAT REACTION??
How did Mugman and Cuphead know that finding the Ink Machine is extremely dangerous? Why did it seem like the Searchers are specifically after Bendy, Boris, Cuphead and Mugman? Why did the Mother of Searchers show up soon after Bendy got the map?
Maybe, the Devil is trying to stop them by controlling the searchers, and the Cupbros know that he can control them? The Celestials made is so only certain people can see the map, and Felix found the map in an 'angelic temple'; if the Celestials are somehow connected to the Devil, maybe that's why only Bendy can see the map because he's a demon? We know he has some sort of connection with magic because he was able to "fuse" his hand with Cuphead's and use his finger guns. BUT WHY?
I really don't know - I'm mostly just spitting ideas out now. But I have a feeling that all of these things are somehow connected, I just don't know how or why...
I skimmed the BATIM comic book and found this strip that caught my eye,,
I think it might be the inspiration for Bendy's nun backstory OR the fattest coincidence ever (like, it mentions war, nuns, deathly ill orphans I guess, medicine)
we know there was a war in the AU that got referenced several times by characters (Bendy, Jessica, Elder Kettle in mugs flashback).
It wouldn't be a reach to say the war combined with the deathly ass plague (Blot's curse) would generate a influx in abandoned children as their caregivers/parents fall ill or in battle.
INFACT we have already seen a example as Elder Kettle went to fight into the war and likely died, leaving the cupbros behind without a caretaker. These two we're never institutionalized tough.
Plus Ortensia dying to the curse and leaving behind a battalion of kids I guess,, but for them they had who to rely on, especially since they are from the more upper end parts of this society and have direct connections to the stars.
And historically convents of nuns have been a safety net for orphans in times of crisis
If Bendy is indeed one it would be interesting to look over some case studies of developmental effects of institutional care and early intervention.
Especially given his unique position as a minority deemed 'sinful' by his own caretakers. My oomf actually made a great post analyzing this angle! Check it out :p
It would help in understanding his thought pattern, as your childhood shapes you a lot as an adult,, thinking thinking
I'm also inclined to believe the comic book as a whole was used as inspiration in some places since it depicts the b-bros often as mechanics and Bendy being prone to stealing.
But whateva, just wanted to point this crumb. I'm writing this quite late n I'm dozy,, I might delete or edit this laterrrrr
the theme of "what it takes to survive" isn't something new, we've seen it before mostly in boris and cuphead's fight and then again with boris on the train, plus, more subtly with mugman's hallucination scene and him trying to convince himself it wasn't his fault
it's a natural progression of the story that bendy starts showing this theme next, especially when he is the character who MOST wants to live. after a decade of suffering, he's finally found a way to cure himself and live, and nothing will stop him from achieving that
bendy wants to live simply so he can survive, but norts post makes it clear he wants to live partly for boris, too, because really, all they have is each other. bendy knows what boris could turn out like if he died, especially after they both got their hopes up over the map and the cure. he has a brother to care for, a goal, and for the first time in ten years bendy feels like he can have control of his own life again.
plus, there's the smaller added motivation that if they can get to the ink machine and have it running, maybe more toons with the blot can be saved too. bendy is desperate and running off adrenaline so I don't think he's thinking of this possibility right NOW, but I do think this could be a way he justifies leaving dyle in his mind.
dyle was barely even a stranger to bendy, a stranger who didn't listen to him and risked both their lives for some cargo. lot's of people say how self sacrificing they are, but when push comes to shove? it's an incredibly human thing to make a self centered decision in a life or death scenario. bendy didn't want to leave dyle to ortensia, but he didn't want to die in that train car with him either.
bendy didn't enjoy it, you can tell that for sure when he turns around and, despite just talking about how the hands were going to catch up to them, doesn't run. he stands in shock and listens to dyle's screams. a more cold hearted toon might've just booked it the moment the train car was taken, but not bendy. he stands there and he stays and he listens to his friend's screams. he counts the seconds down to a minute exactly before dyle stops.
it wasn't a split second decision either, bendy thought about saving dyle and chose himself, which I think is a better writing decision than just making it be a decision made of only panic! bendy isn't a fighter, he isn't even healthy. who knows if he could've pulled dyle out of there without being taken himself?
when dyle begs for help, you can see bendy's panicked expression; then this awful clarity as his pupils shrink and he realizes he can't save dyle. he has to do what it takes to survive. to be fair, bendy made himself clear. he wasn't risking his life for some cargo.
any apologies would ring hollow, so bendy makes sure dyle doesn't think it's personal. he just wants to live.
if you're getting angry at bendy, fine by me, I like having these discussions with people! but don't act like we're all perfect self sacrificial heroes who'd do anything to save a complete stranger who, might I add, didn't even LISTEN to us and put both our lives in danger for some train cargo.
bendy isn't proud or happy with the decision he made. but that doesn't matter. he doesn't need to be proud of it. all he needs is to survive.
anyway. sorry this is short and not that great, I just wanted to get my thoughts out!!
THIS WILL COVER THE LATEST UPDATE FROM MOTM FOR CHAPTER 1! IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE UPDATE, PLEASE DO SO TO AVOID SPOILERS!
OH BOY! That ending, the revalations, the implications! aggghh there's so much to cover! So, let's take this step by step.
The update starts with Cuphead and Bendy backtracking to the former's body after escaping the searchers and butchers. Head still in pieces of course, which greatly unnerves Bendy. Even before we see his face we can tell the body is greatly affecting him. The way he grips his tail and how it turns all wiggly at the end displays how disturbing it is for him. While he claimed that he deserved it, actually seeing the body again may be chipping away that line of thinking. But he doesn't have to long to continue contemplating the body before him. Because two figures come crashing in.
Time for the brotherly reunion we've been waiting for. The Bendystraw duo have very different reactions to seeing in their brothers safe and sound. Cuphead is overjoyed to see both of them are A-OK. Well, as OK as you can be after running from Searchers all day. Bendy, however, looks tense at seeing them. I imagine it may be a result of seeing Mugman again. After all, the last time he saw him he... wasn't in sound mind.
Mugman is relieved to see his brother is, well not alive per say. But still around. Cuphead for his part continues to show he doesn't hold grudges against others easily. While he does say "no thanks to you", it's clearly in a playful manner from his expression along with praising his sharpshooting not even a second later. Just goes to show how deep their bond is.
We also get an explanation for why Cuphead's soul wasn't by his body after his head was blown off.
The magic of the Cupbros is no joke. The blast from Mugman's gun sent Cuphead soaring for miles! And that was his soul! The magic in the blast managed to hit his soul! The Bbros are lucky that they've only been grazed by or hit in minor places by these guys. A well placed shot would have definitely killed them. Speaking of the Bbros, how's their reunion going?
Well, brother like brother. Now there is some irony here with Bendy's reaction to Boris' panic. He had a similar reaction his first time seeing Cuphead. Back then, Cuphead was the one trying to get Bendy to be quiet. Now it's Bendy's turn.
The switch up from Bendy is very quick. From afraid and concerned to irritated in just two panels. It's clear the concern is strictly for his brother and their safety. He still hasn't developed the concern that Cuphead has for him. All he has for him is irritation. Boris for his part, goes from fearful and concerned to shocked. He had no idea Bendy was in as much danger as he was after they separated. I imagine he was horrified for a moment that his brother was in trouble and he wasn't there for him. Then his brother turns to their attackers for guidance. The ones who got them in this mess. He's quick to call him out on this. Which in turn sparks another revelation.
We are once again shown how one sided the deal Bendy and Cuphead made. Cuphead suggested it, but Bendy's the one with all the power. He's the one who calls the shots. And Bendy RELISHES it. He has the most sinister grin we've seen since he first made the contract and gained this advantage. It hasn't fully gone to his head, YET. But it could very well happen in the future where he pushes the limit of how much he can order Cuphead around. And he's the only one with positive feelings about this arrangement. Boris is shocked about what his brother has achieved. And Cuphead is both terrified and nervous. Not just from Bendy showing off how much sway he has over him now. But he did so in front of Mugman. Showing his brother he just sold their souls. AGAIN. And Mugs isn't too happy about it.
Now, Cuphead does have a point here. With the Searchers at large, there was a big chance Cuphead's soul would have been claimed by them. Not to mention the Butchers also searching for a soul of their own. If he didn't give Bendy the power to defend them by signing his soul, he was a goner.
Now something I noticed is Cuphead brings up the Ink Machine again. That it changes everything. Neither brother has the Blot, so it won't help them with that. But if it really has all of Yen Sid's magic like the Prologue states, then it could break their original contract with the Devil. Additionally, something Cuphead doesn't mention, but the contract should end when Bendy takes them to the Ink Machine. Keyword is should.
Now plenty of others have already pointed this out, but it's still a great callback. The language and tone has slightly changed due to how Mugman has matured. It's no longer "your fault" but instead "you got us into this mess". Not "fix it" but "get us out". It's no where near as harsh as it was in the past. The circumstances of who the contract is with is also very different. Instead of the all powerful Devil it's just a "normal" demon who has no real idea how soul contracts work. Presumedly. So they are nowhere near as screwed as they were the first time and Mugsy is more accepting of that. All that's left to do now is revive Cuphead. Simple.
Ok, not so simple. It appears in all their previous fights against the contractors the brothers never had their heads broken. They've probably broken their bones, burned to a crisp, drowned perhaps, and no doubt shot in the heart. But their heads have never shattered. And their heads are key to the Calix Animi (the ability to revive among other gifts) working properly. Nort has stated that Cuphead can still move the body (it got cut for time), so he's not completely helpless. He just can't see or hear to walk or aim properly. Which is a problem, since there are still Searchers roaming around.
At this point, everyone is at the limit. Mugman is still exhausted from using up all of his soul. Cuphead has his body but as stated prior, it isn't in any shape for fighting. Boris tossed his only weapon at the Searcher attacking Mugman. Bendy's the only one who has a chance by using Cuphead's magic and that was with only protecting him and Cuphead's soul. Here, he would have to defend everyone present. Not exactly an easy task. Something Bendy is clearly aware of.
Something I noticed in these panels. Bendy almost has another attack. In the first panel we can see the ink starting to drip down his face. There's also some outlines of drops on his arm. Any more pressure and he might've destabilized right then and there. However a certain map activates and intervenes before it goes too far. In the second panel, where the map flies out to his face, we can see the ink has slowed down to a single drip. By the third panel, he's fully stable as the magic flows around him.
Speaking of the map, it's now fully confirmed to everyone present it's magic. Boris, the most skeptical out of everyone, notices the map glowing. Then they all see it fly out in front of Bendy. Not only that, it causes Bendy's eyes to glow the same golden color. If they weren't convinced before, they sure are now.
We get a brief look at the map's proper form. Most of the locations seem burned out except for two. Toon Town and Sunshine Forest (thanks Nort for the titles and Fly for drawing such as amazing map). These locations will be revealed as we go along the journey. But something impressive is shown with the magic.
The magic doesn't simply point to where they need to go on the map. It makes Bendy see the way forward. As the words are written across the woods "FOLLOW THE PATH". There's even a golden trail of mist winding through the trees for him to follow. This is such an interesting take on a magic map. One that doesn't necessarily show you on paper where you need to go. Instead affecting your vision to see the path in the world itself. You literally can't miss it this way.
There's also something interesting with this. We saw these words before. When Cuphead was leading Bendy away from Charlie. Those same words cropped up back there. When I first read it, I thought it was Bendy thinking that to himself. Looking back now, I think it was the map. The words aren't the monochrome colors typically done for the thoughts of the characters in a scene. They're GOLDEN. The same color of the map and it's magic. I think it TOLD Bendy to follow Cuphead. To save himself by going with him. It was silently communicating with him. Not all the time it seems like, but just enough to try and guide him when he really needs it.
Our protagonists follow the path before them to escape the Searcher. The Demon searcher lurking nearby, watching them flee. Along with another mysterious figure. Who quickly makes their goal clear.
To kill the bbros. And unlike the cupbros, they will not hesitate to complete the mission. The poor Searcher never had a chance. There is so much to the mysterious figure and who they could potentially be. I've been seeing a bunch of theories from everyone in the community as to who this is and their role. One of the most common ideas is that they will eventually join the questers as a sixth member. This is due to a later panel where they contact Mickey about the bounty on the bbros.
The color for the text is purple. A similar purple to the gloves on the toon just out of frame in the Thanksgiving and Christmas updates. Adding to this is the character would balance out the color dynamic the questers have going for them as seen in the character cards. We have the primary colors for Cuphead (red), Mugman (blue), and Bendy (yellow). While Boris and Shelly have secondary colors associated with them (green and orange respectively). And then Pebble has his own thing going for him (blue-gray). This mysterious stranger would add the last secondary color to the team. This is pure speculation of course, and I plan to dive deeper into them in a later post. (The only reason I'm not is because there's ALOT of images I want to use for visual aids and I'm near the limit already. Curse you Tumblr for image limit!)
They contact Mickey while he, Felix, Oswald, and Sheba are trying to figure out where the Cupbros and Bbros could be going. It also gives us some insight as to how long the Cupbros have been hiding since their Collector days. According to Felix, their last known physical location was around 2 decades ago. When they were still acting as bounty hunters. This means they've been in hiding this entire time. On the outskirts of the city, another part of Inkwell Isles, or somewhere else entirely. Fortunate for them, as it means our friends at Wish Upon can't find a good place to start looking for them. But the Cupbros aren't the only ones they can use to try and find our protagonists.
This is something Mickey mentioned when Bendy first introduced himself to him. The name rings a bell. But he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Until now. Because Bendy was associated with someone Mickey knows. Someone who rose up the ranks of entertainment until the people decided to have him lead them. Someone who is possibly connected to the Butchers roaming and hunting the Bbros.
DANDY. Star of Medicine. The head of Gardenview himself. Bendy's former costar in entertainment. As of right now, we have no idea who Dandy is, how he's leading Gardenview, or what his history with Bendy was like. But we can get some inferences from some of the final panels of Chapter 1.
The crew sees Dandy's face on the side of the cargo car at the train station they were lead to. And Bendy is none too pleased to see it. He looks exasperated, annoyed, maybe even a little angry. Whatever happened between them, it's clear it ended on a sour note. For Bendy at least. These two headed in very opposite directions after their days in the limelight together after all. One ascended up to the top of the world and put in charge. The other fading to near obscurity with a deadly illness and on the run with a magical map to guide him. Their reunion in chapter 2 will be a very interesting on.
Something else of note is the reactions of everyone else to Dandy. Both those present and those not. Bothe of the Cupbros just look befuddled by the graffiti on the car. Boris however? He looks shocked. This is something I'm very curious about. See, we know for a fact Bendy knows Dandy. But it's entirely possible Boris knows him too. Not as well, but well enough. As Bendy's brother, he would no doubt want to keep up with his exploits from time to time. That would also include anyone Bendy performed with. So he may have met Dandy at least once in the past. As to his opinion on him, we'll likely find out when he and Bendy see him again.
Now concerning the graffiti. It's clear they don't particularly like Dandy and whatever he "promised" them. One even goes so far as to call him a "monster". Whatever happened must have been bad. Now, I want to shoutout @yockytherocky for pointing this out in their post. They pointed out that the Barley Butcher has a plate with the word "liar" painted on it. Much like the graffiti we see on the car here. This could lend further evidence to the idea that Dandy is associated with the Butchers and Searchers we've seen in the forest. After all, what's more monstrous than messing with the dead? Additionally, Bendy has been shown to have a history with the Butchers in some way. Whether it's a positive or a negative one is also up in the air at this junction. But with the idea that Dandy is responsible for the Butchers' current conditions, I wouldn't be surprised if he picked them to either mess with or as a "favor" to Bendy. Either way, it's still a grim fate for them. Along with whoever left these messages behind.
There were a number of questions that were answered in this update. And plenty more were raised. Regardless, we'll have to see what happens when our ragtag group of misfits make it to Gardenview in Chapter 2.
And that's it for the update analysis! I shouldn't have waited so long to do this, but AHHHHH, there was so much to go over and I loved every second of it! @nortsauce, @flygutzz, AMAZING END TO THE CHAPTER! It was so well done! And to anyone who stuck around this long, thank you for entertaining my ramblings!
Just an observation that might or might not be important:
Bendy’s “hypno” eyes are a physical emote that can be observed by other characters, not just an artistic choice. On how obvious this emote is, is unclear. Evidince: Cupheads portrait of Bendy from Nort’s blog drawn by Fly:
Even if the portrait was just foreshadowing and it is just an artistic choice, it’s an interesting one. These kind of circles aren’t usually used to show nervousness or someone just lying, more so hypnotizing.
This means a few things:
Bendy being hypnotized himself, by what just happened, by what he’d just done. The emotions being too much. These also could be just stylized spirals, in which would very much mean dizzyness (from being overwhelmed).
Bendy’s convincing demeanor, his preformance so believable that he "hypnotized" Boris, Mugman and almost Cuphead too.
This could mean the circles aren’t very, if at all, noticeable. Which would mean it’s just another ‘pointer’ in Cupheads vision, his brain’s way of visually showing that Bendy’s convincingly lying.
More foreshadowing. For what? One of the mind Bendy’s apphearance. I mentioned this in one of my other posts. (speculation)
While it could (and usually would) mean that he literally hypnotized them, I doubt that is the case here. There is no dazed expression on Boris nor Mugmans face when the shot shows them, they are just- understandably- shoked. Nothing more, nothing less.
But my point is if it’s a noticible emote of Bendy, I wonder how it will be brought up again and by who. If not, it’s just more stuff from Cup’s pov
OR
Foreshadowing (originally called mind Bendy #1?) Preservance!Bendy :} ..ofc implying that Cuphead could see the this specific side of Bendy and potraying it as the ‘hypno’ eyes in his brain (and on paper non-canonly)
((The mind Bendys from the og ask-blog, whom I both hate /j..but not rlly v))
