Wheel of gaming
No time to lose
Tell me the game I should choose ( BATIM)
I'm just gonna remove this one myself
Don't worry, I'm just gonna spin it again.
*clears throat* Okay, one last time!
Wheel of Gaming, no joking around! Tell me the mind-blowing theory we found!
What?
*Game Theory intro but it's the 1930's (Not gonna lie, this is absolutely amazing and creative)
*Game Theory intro*
Hello Internet! Welcome to Game Theory!
Where, first: a special thank you to my friend, Ryder Bergen,
AKA, Footofaferret for composing that jazzy, lil' intro (YA LIKE JAZZ)
He's an up and coming creator that produces the series: A Brief History here on YouTube
And he does incredible work!
So, show him some love and check him out!
I would recommend the 2018 year and review episode! (OH DEAR)
And, while we're thanking people,
A very special shout-out to Reddit and Tumblr theorist, Dreamfisher,
for single-handedly putting Bendy and the Ink Machine back on my radar with some really fascinating observations!
Trust me! I thought I was done with this game, too!
But we're back! And I gotta be honest:
Now that I've started digging through the game again,
What I found completely up-ends a lot of what I thought I knew about Bendy's story (NANI! OWO)
So, let's not waste any more time because we got a LOT to cover!
It's time to dive back into the inky depths of Joey Drew Studios, one more time.
Before we get to things that got me to question some of my earlier conclusions about the game,
Let me first call out something that seemed to confirm
one of the Bendy community's biggest fan-theories,
including a theory of our own!
Hidden inside the game's files,
there does appear to be confirmation that,
At least at some point during the development process,
Bendy was planned to be revealed as Joey Drew ( HOW MAT HOW?)
Inspired by Dreamfisher's Reddit post, covering their theory on a one-eye Bendy,
I did something I hadn't really done for any of the previous episodes.
I dug specifically into the game's assets
Giving closer inspection to the 6,000 or so files used across the completed game's 5 chapters
Now, I have very, VERY limited experience with making games
Having only done a few rudimentary ones back in college
But one thing I DO know, is that it pays to be organized ( It does)
For instance,
In Bendy, you're dealing with 1440 separate audio assets
So, without any sort of clear labeling system, you're gonna be searching for a LONG time
Or else, you're suddenly gonna give Alice Angel some random ink splat sound effect (Splatoon?)
instead of a voice.
Luckily, Bendy's developers, TheMeatly and Mike Mood
have done an excellent job of keeping all their files clearly labeled👌
All character voices are marked with DIA for dialogue
followed by the chapter it's specifically being used in
But, that's not all.
Another titling convention they seem to use for Chapter 5,
was alternating titles in all caps based on the scene that it was in 😱
Lemme give you an example:
As you go into the Sammy Lawrence battle early on in Chapter 5
All of the audio clips from that section are in caps.
Like someone shouting for attention on Twitter.
"BETRAYED. ABANDONED!"
"I TRUSTED YOU!"
"I GAVE YOU EVERYTHING! AND YOU LEFT ME TO ROT!"
*Sammy fight along with fighting and grunting sounds*
At the end of that Sammy fight,
we enter a short cutscene with Alice and Boris.
At which point all the files names go to lowercase
(Alice) "Oh, that was close. You're lucky we were in the neighborhood."
Once the battle resumes with a new onslaught of Searchers,
we're back to uppercase.
(Alice) "Watch out! Here they come!"
(Alice) "Go back to your puddles!"
Each segment of the battle is grouped based on its casing
Here's why this matters:
In the files, the final boss fight against Bendy has Henry's one line:
(Joey probably) "But he's never seen, The End." Henry: "The End"
But there appears to be another unused line during that same segment
Also listed all in caps.
(Henry) "Joey?"
You notice the shock in Henry's voice?
As though he's surprised to see Joey
This then leads directly to a series of Beast Bendy
audio files all in lowercase before going into Joey's final speech
in the game's ending audio which ends in caps.
JOEY_END
"Henry!"
"So soon!"
"I didn't expect you for another hour, yet."
So the naming pattern still fits, but also
listen to the resonance.
In designing the game, the team did an amazing job reflecting audio reverb
to reflect the room scale that they're in.
Large, and full of echoes in the giant Ink Machine chamber,
"Set us free."
A lot less open in the lower ceilings
of Alice and Boris' hideout.
"Why are you here?"
And now compare the audio of The End, with Joey's opening line in the kitchen.
"The End."
"Henry!"
"So soon!"
The real world audio with Joey Drew is much deader, there's no echo. No reverb.
Just like me when I record in the closet
But Henry's line of shock
"Joey?"
"The End?"
has that echo in there.
An echo that appears for every single bit of dialogue
that said within the empty, sparse hallways of Joey Drew Studios.
In short: the titling conventions and resonance tell us that Henry
expresses his shock at seeing Joey sometime between
the start of the final Bendy fight and going to Joey's apartment
Thereby giving further evidence that Bendy is Joey! (😱)
Or, at least was almost revealed to be Joey in unused audio files. (OOF)
So, that was one of the first things to show up upon my closer inspection of the game,
But here's where things go from moderately interesting,
to completely up-ending everything we thought we knew.
Dreamfisher's post got me to specifically focused on the 2D textures used throughout the game,
stuff that wraps around 3D objects or environments to give them their detail,
and in those files you can find some pretty wacky stuff.
Like this, is Joey Drew as we knew him,
and THIS is Joey Drew's face, flattened by a steamroller. (Not Really) (GET THE HOLY WATER!)
LOOK AT TONGUE! Just down there in the corner! (He's a huge pancake if you think about it)
And where are his eyes you ask?
*JUMPSCARE* (Mr. Aizawa whenever he uses his quirk, kudos to you if you get the reference)
Most effective jumpscare this franchise has produced,
in the actual game, you can't even see these things!
Serious talk here though Joey,
you might wanna look into getting some Clear Eyes.
*TV CLEAR EYES COMMERCIAL*
*Distorted* Clear Eyes.
But its the very obviously titled texture pack named: Props04_SHD-mat-_MainTex-atlas0
That hides more secrets than I think any of us could have ever suspected.
On this sheet, we have all the things you would expect to see around Joey Drew's little apartment
Here's some paintings, a vase texture, the electrical outlets
Evidence that Henry may actually be dead (*Spit's out Tea* wait wHAT ⊙ｏ⊙)
A rug, you know, all the usual stuff
Now, I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING!
Those are truly enormous electrical plugs
I know! I was shocked too (pUN INTENDED?!!?!? NANI?!?)
But I really think that you're fixated on the wrong detail here
'Cuz like I said,
hidden amongst that texture file is a series of newspaper headlines.
One of which out right reads
"Local Artist Pushed Himself Too Hard, Found Dead At Desk"
That's, ummm, an oddly specific newspaper headline
to include in a game about a cartoon studio..Right?
What makes the headline even more suspicious though is when it's put in context with Joey's endgame speech...
Joey:"The truth is, you were always so good at pushing, good friend...
...pushing me to do the right thing.
You should have pushed a little harder."
Again, we see this recurring theme of Pushing
and Pushing harder
Coincidence?
I definitely don't think so.
I mean, if this newspaper headline were truly meant to be taken seriously,
and was referencing some event in the game's timeline,
it would be directly referencing Henry.
Our artist, who SPECIFICALLY references his desk TWICE in the game
Henry (In both Chapter 1 and 5):"Hey, here's my old desk, I've wasted so much time in that chair",
A character who, we also know based on his first and only audio log in the game,
complain's first hand about just how hard he works
Henry:"I haven't seen Linda for days now...
...When in doubt, just keep drawing Henry."
And here's the thing, we know this headline was specifically put in there by the Game Dev's ,
considering that we can see what some of the other newspaper textures, that they've been clearly doctored.
For instance, here: "[Blank]: A Year in Review",
It was doctored to remove the year.
These aren't just random assets that were thrown in for set dressing,
they were selected, they were curated, they were corrected.
It's also worth noting where in the game this headline exists.
Back near the Ink Machine, in Joey Drew's apartment,
You would never see this newspaper unless you hacked into the game in order to get over there
Which, lemme tell ya is no small feed, but it is definitely there,
on a shelf in that back room.
Joey collected the paper and keeps it next to his precious machine...
But how could Henry be dead?
We are obviously playing him, walking around the studio.
I hear you asking and trust me, it's something that I kept asking myself as I wrote this thing too.
Honestly, I don't know if this is anything more than just a suspicious easter egg thrown in there for hackers.
But (SKJSKJ he said "but", im such a child) if it is real, I of course, have a theory!
As to what's going on!
And let me be completely honest with you, with a lot of the theories that I do on this channel,
there are all just for fun ("F is for friend's that do stuff together!" Finish the lyrics in the comments I guess? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you actually made it this far with captions ),
I don't necessarily believe every single one that we do, but in this case, I think I'm onto something.😏
First, let's look at Joey's audio logs.
In my final Bendy theory, I chose to focus on the thematic meaning of the ending.
While it was a story of regrets, apologies, and closure in the real world.
But in doing that, I largely wrote off events that were happening in the studio as just part of this story that Joey was telling
But what if there was a bit more truth to all this studio action than I originally expected?
Consider this, through out Chapter 5, Joey's audio logs give us a timeline of the development & usage of the Ink Machine
Joey Drew:"Whatever was that grinning thing was I saw wandering around your office,
you better keep it locked up tight!
I realize it was a first attempt but imagine if the press caught sight of it...
If you claim your failures are because these things are souless then, damn it, we'll get them a soul!"
So, the detail of the grin confirms for us that Bendy was ,indeed, the first created and he's with out a soul.
Joey then, in his quest for a soul, moves onto former voice actress of Alice Angel, Susie Campbell
Joey:"I know how much this part means to you, Susie....I too really believe my characters are more than just drawings.
They're alive....Susie, I'll be straight with you. I'm putting together a small project...
a little ceremony...I want you to bring Alice to live once again. What do ya say?"
She says yes so he uses the Ink Machine ritual to her into Alice Angel,
and again, and again for a lot of the other employees.
This is why the walls of the studio are covered with the phrase:"THE CREATOR LIED TO US."
It's not because of salvation or anything like that,
but it's because Joey lied. He lied like we see him do to Susie. To get their souls, sacrificed into his Ink Machine💀.
Now look at this, notice that there are two mutually exclusive sets of characters that we see over the course of game .
One set has coffins hidden inside the studio, and the other set have letters on Joey Drew's bulletin board.
With the coffins, we have: Susie Campbell, Bertrum Piedmont, Grant Cohen, Norman Polk, and Lacie Benton
With letters on the bulletin board, we have: Wally Franks, Allison Pendle, and Thomas Connor.
The one's with coffins are actually in those coffins....
.....
Those coffins are the victims in real life. They are souless, they are dead, empty husks' of bodies.
Sacrificed to the machine. All the others, in the words of Wally Franks, were outta there!
And are now living happy lives far away from Joey and his machine. (Lucky ducks)
Seems like alot to assume but, I have proof. Look at this, it's an incredibly small but super important detail.
In Chapter 4, we fight and defeat Bertrum Piedmont. Look what happen's at the end of his battle,
his head remains intact, but the doors shut on it.
Now look at what happen's when Susie's form of Alice Angel's dies. She just lay's there, dead. (Ms. Keisha? Ms. Keisha?, OMFG, SHE FLIPPING DEAD)
But what about Franken-Boris just moments before? The game makes sure that we see that he melts away into the ink.
That is the difference here.
One set of characters is made out of just ink and melt away as soon as they're defeated.
The other set have actual human souls in them and don't fade away.
You have 2 chances to see Norman the Projectionist die. Once in Chapter 3 and again in Chapter 4 to the hands of Bendy.
In both cases, Norman's body persists' and lies on the ground if you take him out.
Or, he's dragged away by Bendy if he's the one who does the deed.
Those creatures, the one with souls actually infused into them, are all the one's associated with coffins...
So what does any of this have to do with Henry and a newspaper headline about an artist dying?
It tell's us that Henry got tricked. That Joey successfully sacrificed him to the Ink Machine.
I mean, think about it. He got a letter from Joey Drew inviting him back to the studio,
In much the same way that Joey reached out to ALL of his former employees. Those letters on Joey's bulletin board, what I originally interpreted as Joey reaching out,
trying to make amends to his former employees is actually just evidence that he tried to lure EVERYONE back to the office to sacrifice them to the machine.
And that some people like Allison, Tom, and Wally just lucked out, they lived far enough away to take a meeting with their former boss said,
"Thanks, but no thanks."
But that other people, like Susie, Bertrum, and now Henry said "Yes" to the invite and became victims
("It was this moment Henry knew, he screwed up")
What about that final scene between Henry and Joey?
It's actually pulled out of sequence. That's actually the first scene of our little timeline.
It shows that Henry went to meet Joey, and now listen to what Joey says:
"The truth is, you were always so good at pushing, old friend....
....pushing me to do the right thing.
You should have pushed a little harder.."
That's him admitting that he's still bad. I mean, translating that line, it's basically:
"You pushed me to be better but you didn't push enough"
Need more proof? Remember at the end of the Tombstone Picnic cartoon where Bendy sees a human shadow?
Well, look a bit closer at that scene and you'll notice that in the final frames, we see Bendy smile.
It's not a reaction of fear or mischief, it's him smiling at his creator, Henry.
And that's not all, on a second play through, we have the ability to use the Lens of Truth.
Which reveals hidden messages written on the walls throughout the studio.
We establish during the last Bendy Theory that those messages were left by Henry
as evidence by lines like:"THAT'S THE JOEY I KNEW" and "HIS DREAM. MY EFFORT"
But it's the invisible line of "JOEY LIED TO US." that shows that even Henry at this point in the game
recognizes that he was betrayed by his former business partner.
Remember those weird flashbacks at the end of Chapter 1?
Well, they happen when Henry steps into the sacrifice circle
And what do we see? Joey's Wheelchair from a ground up perspective
That is us! *Arrow pointing to bottom left corner* On the ground, looking up at Joey's Wheelchair
We also see the Ink Machine, and Bendy (When you skip leg day, lol)
We are flashing back to the moment when Henry first got sacrificed. Knocked onto the ground, looking up at Joey's wheelchair
But the clencher here is in the lead up to the final battle against Bendy.
We see Boris, Allison, and Henry come to the Ink Machine one final time.
But before they can enter it, they have to cross an inky river and it's here that Allison and Boris have to get left behind
Saying this:"I don't see any way around...".."we're not like you. Henry.
If we go in there, well....a drop of water in the ocean is rarely seen again."
Again, Allison and Boris here are supposed to be Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor,
but Joey hasn't been able to get a hold of their souls. We see as much because they wrote a note to him on the bulletin board
As such, they're only ink creatures. Good ones, to be sure, but still, they're just ink.
That's why they can't cross the river while Henry can.
In the end, Henry accepts Joey's invite. 30 years after he left the studio, Joey leaves Henry to the machine, does
the ritual and sends Henry's soul into a character, leaving behind an empty husk of Henry's body to be disposed of.
Not in a coffin like the others, but left at a desk.
An artist slumped over his work, reported dead from pushing too hard
And why would Joey do this? Well, maybe, unlike his other victims, Henry has a family.
A family who would be curious if he one day went missing.
Meanwhile, Henry's soul is left wandering the film reels. An animated purgatory, over and over again.
Alongside the characters that he helped create. That were turned into monsters by the man who betrayed them all
It couldn't be further intone from the initial ending that I proposed for this game
But I gotta say, in my mind, it ties up a whole lot more loose ends
Like I said, it has a pretty good shot at being true. Maybe not this end bit about disposing the body 'n things like that.
But I think a lot of stuff leading up to it makes sense.
theMeatly, Mike Mood, if you're watching this,(hi if you have captions lol (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞)
or if the theorists watch this send this to you, are we closer this time? I'm curious
I know news is coming out about a new project for you guys. Can't wait to see it, you know I'll be here waiting to theorize.
iN THE MEANTIME, REMEMBER! That's just a theory...
a gAME THEORY! Thanks for watching!
As I was researching for this episode, I came across a lot more theory for Bendy
Surprisingly actually, a lot of stuff that I haven't seen covered anywhere else.
So make sure you hit that Subscribe button to be informed of when those theories happen.
There is shockingly more Bendy in the works. And with a new project from theMeatly and Mike Mood coming down the pipeline,
you know that we are gonna be there to theorize. Make sure you subscribe to be there for it.
And heck! If you wanna see my completely opposite Bendy ending theory, click the box you see on screen riiigght...
NOW!
So now if you excuse me, I'll see you guys next week.