digging into the lore of benny
as the benny theories compile, i have had so many going through my head. there's lore tidbits we have already gotten, and people have their own theories about him, but i have been chewing on so many ideas about his placement in the story, the sin he will represent, and the core parts about him and inner conflict he deals with. he know he's a tortured soul incoming, but it's fun to review what we have already (and i'm a little impatient, i want him now).
blacklight poster analysis:
shared a while ago was a promotional blacklight poster that gave insights to the desires each idol wanted, along with some words that give us insight to the character and how theyβve become warped since charlieβs death/signing with harmony. sharing this image again below (it is posted twice beside one another for size reasons!)
we know benny's desire is love from this, but what this gives me is hints to his sin he represents and a little more insight to his personality (and possibly trauma). the hints to who he is are selfish, shame, and lost. we know there are three sins left to assign him, which is why i think this is trying to convey his sin is gluttony.
it is NOT about gluttony being "oh you eat a lot" which is boring as hell anyways. it is about wanting more and more and never feeling satisfied or "full". benny's hint that he's selfish (probably in a lot of things but when chasing his desire for love) could mean that he's always looking to take in order to feel satisfied (even though it's never enough)
i am also putting this out there. it's a possible set-up for borderline behavior. the idea of constantly craving affection and love? a feeling of emptiness and never feeling it's alive? classic borderline symptoms.
someone also mentioned to me how people theorized benny being gluttony because looking vampiric/his codename in the files is "blood" which. as it's own reasoning is kind of weak. however, when you consider what could be the meaning behind that blacklight poster, these could be deliberate art design choices when it comes to benny. it could strengthen the argument that he could be gluttony, but it can't be the only reason. i do think the devs have been very conscious in designing the art to be representative of the sin and desire for each idol without being too literal, so it'd be interesting to see how this design plays into gluttony if it's true.
there's also shame, which i think is more about a sense of shame he feels because of 1.) this obsession and 2.) this knowledge he more than likely holds about charlie's death and splintering of dead as disco. with the fact that he was seen having a panic attack (or just screaming hysterically) when charlie's dead body was found, i think it's not just he knows what happened to charlie but he knows about the events that caused it and even parts of harmony.
i DO believe that this mega-corporation harmony that's bought everyone out like this had a hand in splintering the band with charlie's death because they saw him as the pillar. i know there's hints/discussions on benny being the one that killed charlie, but i think there's also a major part that we haven't seen about harmony when it comes to benny, and i think that's going to be a massive part. but also i think a lot of this is the shame i think he feels.
lost i think gonna be self explanatory in just "he has lost his way". i am just throwing ideas at a wall but it does make me wonder if he chose the feeling of love that is parasocial from millions (along with a spot at the top of the charts) and feeling shame from the loss of love that came from having real friends. hemlock also implies he's pretty reclusive within harmony's walls so. :)
he also has that crazy HAHAHAHA! laugh under his desire in the poster. i do wonder about his core personality traits. if it's been 10 years of dealing with what happened to charlie (and he appears to be dealing with it horribly), then yeah, that laugh might be because he finds himself going crazy. the weight of everything is crushing.
is benny in the game yet? no. but he's talked about frequently. almost everyone has lines when talking to charlie about benny's whereabouts and personality. i want to go into the individual character dialogues that we have. i think the game is already setting up "benny has a side to him that charlie (and somewhat hemlock also) didn't know of or see coming" because of this (thanks prophet).
prophet has a LOT of interesting dialogue about benny in regards to his personality and intentions. he actually hints that the idea of being picked up by harmony was something that benny wanted and wasn't as opposed to selling out as charlie or hemlock. with prophet acting as their manager, he was able to deflect all inquiries from harmony, but he ALSO noticed that benny was going crazy over this. he and charlie were childhood friends who had always promised to never sell out; they were going to do this on their own on their pure talent. prophet noticed that benny changed. benny was eyeing the idea of wanting fame and what harmony could give him more than the friendship he held with his band, but specifically charlie.
i wish this dialogue had more. charlie doesn't mention being surprised by this when talking to prophet about how he shielded them from harmony's attempted buyouts, but also prophet mentioned he did so without asking out of care for the group to protect them. i wonder if charlie saw the writing on the walls with benny.
i want to take this moment to also bring back the previous points that benny's poster says shame and that i think his sin is gluttony. benny was not the first one to agree to harmony when they came knocking, we actually know he was the second to last. i think there is a level of shame he felt in his behavior leading up to charlie's death that (probably) resulted in the fallout that happened. it is another portion in which i believe his sin is gluttony because, if it is, we would see this deadly sin impact him as we would expect it to in the story: horrifically. he would have to deal with the consequences of his actions, which we already know is that his friend is dead, but also he has to deal with the shame he feels.
another part of benny's poster says "lost", and i said i think that part will be about how he's lost his way. it could be about the diverging path he started to long for: going for harmony's buyout and away from the promise he had made to charlie.
prophet also says that "benny was always screaming back then" as an offhand comment when he thinks back to charlie's body being discovered. i think this was an insight to how tormented he felt during that time and that he was inadvertently showing everyone how he felt: high-strung.
arora also mentions that, while she viewed this as her family, it hurt her to watch everyone on the world tour always fighting. the tension was so high, everyone was arguing and fighting, and i think it really began showing in benny because he had other desires that no one else saw.
hemlock also has dialogue involving benny, even if it's not as much involving his attitude. he's the reason we know benny was one of the last ones to hold out when harmony came around buying everyone out.
hemlock (and prophet) mentions that it was just him and benny as he watched the band members get bought off by harmony. then, benny, in hemlock's words, "fucked off to his castle" and left hemlock behind. i think this is figurative for the fact that benny, dealing with the weight of what happened, what is happening now, and the shame he felt, became more reclusive and realized his position should also be with harmony.
this may be by the design of the game, but as the characters talk, they really only offer a lot of details about him then but not now. i wonder if he's still somewhat reclusive.
hemlock also mentions there was rumors swirling around charlie's death, especially that he might have done something to deserve it. charlie's taken aback by it, hemlock doesn't believe in them, and he also mentions that charlie would never do anything to hurt his friends, "at least not on purpose". in the eyes of harmony (and possibly benny), charlie was the pillar to keeping them independent and free from harmony. when he died, they all fell in place. what better rumor to spread that he could have deserved it while obscuring that the thing he did to "deserve" it was stand in harmony's way?
the renovation for the dressing room mentions that benny and arora were always fighting over the mirror for performances. design wise, i think it's apparent that he's going to be handsome, a pretty boy. while his promotional picture is there to look like the Big Boss Fight, you can still see he's a handsome man. i do think he is vain, he cares greatly about his appearance, and i think that he stems from his desire to feel loved. he thinks that if he's also pretty, he will gain more fans.
i know there's some debate about the remaining "roles" in the band of dead as disco, who does what, etc. i do think he will have a role as a vocalist, perhaps another instrument to accompany it. (yes i am aware that arora is already on board as a vocalist, we can have two, other artists do it all the time, it's fine.)
this is more of something i would like to see. i do think it's supported enough with hearing benny perform holding out for a hero and him being #1 on all the charts. benny has the vocal range, skill, and passion. i think there is such immense potential for this juxtaposition of how you view the singer as the center of the band but in the case of dead as disco, that's not true. when you think of a singer in a band, you think of them as the frontman, the core. you associate them as the voice of the band because their singing voice is ingrained in the music. in the band however, benny is not the center; charlie is. the band disintegrated without him. charlie was the force behind the music. he had such an energy to pull everyone together. he was seeing everyone's potential when they didn't see it in themselves. a big show of this is how dex remarks that charlie wrote the solos for dead as disco, but charlie states that he really didn't. he was just pulling together things that dex had scrapped to show that they weren't bad because they weren't perfect on first draft.
if the game does take this opportunity, it would give benny another layer of depth that would show that he really does feel tortured. put yourself in his shoes. he wants the adoration, the love, he's chased it in the form of parasocial fans and being #1 on the charts. if he really ends up having his sin be gluttony, he has a hunger for this desire that cannot be sated. what greater torture could he be under than unable to feel the love he wants while in a role he should get it as? instead, it goes to the drummer.
side note: the choice of using holding out for a hero as his theme is also. okay man, we get it, you're waiting for charlie to save you from your own sin.
i believe benny's sin will be gluttony. it is not about being a literal sense of gluttony relating to food like most interpretations has become. it is going back to take of hungering for something but never feeling satisfied, and what benny cannot get enough of is love. what we have seen of the idols so far is that their desires and sins are their downfall and keeps them with harmony. benny's downfall is due to him wanting this love at all costs. he is chasing a form of love that he would receive in a toxic, parasocial way as opposed to an organic feeling that he gets from his friends in the band (but most specifically charlie). this desire as he chases high numbers of fans disconnects him from charlie, and this is what leads into the events of the game.
i do see, in this angle, benny showing signs of borderline personality disorder. it explains why he would chases this idea of love to satisfy this feeling of emptiness. the dialogue we get from prophet give us insight to benny's inner conflict outside of his sin, which was that harmony actually sounded interesting to him because of the immediate payoff. hemlock gives us dialogue that somewhat shows how benny dealt with the weight and shame of what happened. even if benny had this disconnect with charlie over the idea of selling out, what happened to charlie crushed him. there is no doubt to me that benny has had a role in charlie's death, but i also believe that, in this game, the main antagonist is still harmony corp and that it has had a hand in the events that transpired.
this game has done such a good job in giving us characters with a lot of depth that's reflective of human desires and sins and blending them, but benny's ordeal is still the most fascinating to me. even though he has not been fully introduced yet, we already get this information that already shows reflections of his sin and desires. the few details we get of him are so intriguing, it makes me impatient for his release because i want to see the truth revealed and how he and charlie will interact with one another.
i like him. thanks for listening to my benny theories.
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