Mickey's Malarkey

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BATDR Analysis/Post-Playthrough Theory Revision Pt. 4/4: Guess what? I found some more highly suspicious songs…

So, let’s add some nice, juicy lyric/film analysis to our dish (sorry, Betty, I couldn’t resist the joke rofl… Speaking of Betty’s comment, “all those juicy, lovely books gone to waste. Only Keepers go in there these days, and they’ll tear you apart limb from limb if Wilson isn’t with you…” sure sounds like the fandom simultaneously lamenting that all the Bendy books are supposedly “no longer canon” after the Memory of Joey/Nathan Sr.’s so-called “retcons” and, in a few cases I’ve seen, getting downright vicious towards anyone who tries to dig back into them)!! I’m very excited about how perfectly these wound up matching my theories, I had all but the first one in a playlist to watch/listen to later, and when I did and re-watched/re-listened to the first after writing Parts Two and Three? Wowzah… 👀

Before we start, summaries in case you haven’t read/recaps because it’s been a while since I posted the other parts.

(Sorry again that this part took so much longer to repost than expected… I live in shame.)

Part One: Wilson and Audrey have been trapped in their time loop for at least a year of real-world time, the game is actually taking place sometime between 1974 and 1992, and the beginning of BATDR is just a replay of June 18, 1973 like how the ending of BATIM is just a replay of August 1963 (there’s also still all the evidence in my original analysis/theory that suggests BATIM and BATDR are both taking place sometime between 1978 and 1991, so do with that what you will). Also, there’s definitely only ever been one studio and timeline, it’s just that multiple entities have been editing everything beyond recognition (mostly Nathan Sr., whose alteration of the Ink Dimension is definitely symbolic of gaslighting, which I continue touching on throughout, but especially in the next part, which is my personal favorite).

Part Two: Wilson told us his entire life story and explained how his dad always was and still is the true villain to us in riddle format (which The Mug and the Maiden is the key to starting deciphering). Information he divulges includes but certainly is not limited to:

  • Arch Familial Dysfunction (Understatement of the Century): Wilson is the younger half-brother of Nathan Jr. from an affair that Nathan Sr. had with their housekeeper in 1926 (yes, the year before Joey reunited with him at the Sparkle Unicorn in 1927 and he was looking for girls to dance with there; dude’s a serial adulterer). It’s heavily implied that Nathan Sr. was not just emotionally but also physically abusive of him, that he was the cause of those big honking scars of his.
  • Power Dynamics: while Nathan Sr. was never officially involved in JDS, he was always pulling strings behind the curtain, to the point that it’s accurate to describe him as one of the Three Kings of JDS (the other two obviously being Henry and Joey); we’re given intimate details of how manipulative he is, including that it was under his influence that Joey claimed responsibility for horrible things that he didn’t actually do.
  • The Truth About TLO: Joey and Allison were in Atlantic City schmoozing Bill’s dad in order to get out from under Nathan Sr.’s thumb after the events of and since DCTL knocked sense into them, but Nathan Sr. retaliated by orchestrating all of the events that lead to Bill’s “death” so that Mr. Chambers would instead put a price on Joey’s head and they’d have no choice but to come crawling back to him for protection from he who they thought would be their way out.
  • Wilson’s Corruption Arc: Wilson spent his youth watching his dad’s machinations from the shadows and warning people through riddles so that Nathan Sr. wouldn’t realize what he was doing; when Joey created the hivemind, he connected to it in order to do this more easily. This is how he was actually involved in the events/writing of TLO and DCTL. Unfortunately, his dad caught him by the end of TLO because he’d done a little orchestration of his own to lure a wildcard – Brant Morris – into the mix in hopes of exposing Nathan Sr. to the world and he was punished, starting him on a decades-long journey to Murder Puppet/Decoy Villain status that eventually involved Nathan Sr. ordering his mom (again, the housekeeper, not Tessa Arch) to put him through some sort of obedience test and then drug him so that he would be there when the crate containing the Ink Machine “accidentally” broke. He wrote The Mug and the Maiden to Audrey (like Buddy wrote DCTL to Dot and, as I previously theorized, Joey wrote TIOL to Henry) under the unsubtle pen name of “Wilton,” taking inspiration from her childhood memories of a toy (the Cracked Mug) that reminded her of her dad (like how he took inspiration from Bill’s memories of Alice in Wonderland for the riddles he sent to him, Constance, and Brant) as a last, desperate cry for help before his own dad finally finished turning him into a Murder Puppet (like how TIOL was a cry for Henry to come save Joey from Nathan Sr. before he did the same to him and DCTL was a cry for Dot to stop Joey and save everyone else before his mind was overtaken by Boris’s).
  • True Identities: the Memory of Joey is actually either a puppet created and controlled by Nathan Sr. or just straight-up Nathan Sr. in disguise; he symbolizes the image of Joey that Nathan Sr. has carefully curated and ingrained into the public’s memory. Meanwhile, Bendy is actually the real Joey Drew, forced back into the Murder Puppet/Decoy Villain role by Nathan Sr. postmortem but most definitely not the real monster; Dapper Bendy symbolizes the side of him that did his best to heal from what Nathan Sr. did to him and be a good uncle/father and friend and that Nathan Sr. brainwashed him into hating and suppressing, Freaky Teeth Bendy symbolizes the habitual remnants of his maladaptive coping mechanisms formed by decades of being manipulated and abused by the man in question which he doesn’t want to be, anymore.
  • Signs To Watch Out For: does something about the story make no sense (e.g., facts like dates and how the heck the ink actually works aren’t matching up, an event gets called out as as weird/odd/strange only to have questions about it brushed aside, characters seem to have very different thoughts/feelings/motivations in one game/book than in another, an event gets written off as accident/coincidence/fate, etc.)? Great news /s! That’s a sign of Nathan Sr.’s interference. Also, if a character seemingly randomly says something weird/odd/strange, that’s a sign that Wilson’s sending us a warning riddle through them (especially if it gets directly called out as weird/odd/strange).

Part Three: Henry and Allison’s so-called “story retcons” are actually blatant lies made up by Nathan Sr. to keep Bendy/Real Joey trapped and at odds with his two real best friends postmortem (and put icing on the torment cake by allowing those friends to still be friends with each other but not him); the truth appears to be that Joey did call Henry for help but Nathan Sr. had him murdered, and then Allison tried to switch sides for good and help Joey through recovery as a fellow reformed abuse-victim-turned-abuser, so of course Nathan Sr. also had her and Tom murdered. Audrey is neither a soulless ink creature nor a sacrificed human but instead has her own, completely new soul created from pieces of Henry and Joey’s via the same ghostly soul-combination process that creates all “children of the darkness/Machine” (many of whom seem to be hiding messages in their audio logs/memos in order to rat Nathan Sr. out on their parents’ behalves), making her Henry and Joey’s daughter (Henry, Bendy/Real Joey, the Memory of Joey/Nathan Sr., Wilson, and Audrey also appear to be the most powerful beings in the Ink Dimension because all souls are combinations of pieces of one’s parents’ souls in the Bendyverse, so all five of them have Royal Souls). Porter and Heidi are not Audrey’s siblings, they were given their powers by the Memory of Joey in order to push us towards thinking that Joey was a cruel uncle/father who discarded the failed Audreys when he got sick of taking care of them (when, in reality, Joey was a very loving father who cherished every second with his baby girl and fought for her to have a better life than he did even though he made mistakes due to decades of being trapped in survival mode [e.g., having Audrey call him “uncle” in her previous reincarnations in order to cope with the grief of her dying over and over due to only having a partial soul] and it’s actually Nathan Sr. who was the irredeemably evil dad, straight-up celebrating when they found Wilson’s dead body on the floor of his JDS museum); Gent CEO Alan/Allen Gray/Grey appears to also be a child of the darkness/Machine, the son of Tom and possibly either Allison, Bertrum, or Nathan Sr. (who’s definitely rewriting history to include Mr. Gray/Grey as one of his many Decoy Villains, regardless of whether he’s his other parent or not), Grace the daughter of Norman and possibly Shawn, Heidi the daughter of Allison and Susie, and Steve the son of Wally and Tom. Bendy/Real Joey being the center of the hivemind and anyone infected with the right kind of ink becoming a personification of part of his psyche has confirmation out the wazoo, except it seems that Norman, specifically, may have become a personification of part of Wilson’s psyche just because he’s very powerful, himself, as another JDS Royal. “Cyclebreaker” doesn’t seem to truly mean “person who can reset the loop,” but instead “person capable of breaking the cycle of trauma/abuse,” and Wilson’s Keepers seem to be called that because Nathan Sr. gave them orders to ensure that his son continues obeying and remove anyone who might help him recover from what he did to him from the picture.

Both Parts Two & Three: many scenes appear to be heavily symbolic of or just straight-up Audrey leaning on/being tempted to lean on Joey’s maladaptive coping mechanisms generational trauma-style and having a choice between cruelty and compassion. There’s also quite a bit of evidence pointing towards Joey having intended the Ink Dimension to be a heavenly paradise for the salvation of suffering people (especially his fellow victims-of-Nathan-Sr. and people that Nathan Sr. used him and his studio to hurt/disappear), but Nathan Sr. having sadistically hijacked it and created the End Reel in the process of twisting it into a hellish prison to continue torturing his victims in postmortem (especially Joey).

Real quick, some thoughts I had while working on fanarts:

  • The cheese store man (from The Mug and the Maiden) may symbolize Porter and Steve McGregor in addition to all observers of the Joey-and-Nathan Sr. situation (a giant man with bits of cheese stuck in his beard? Sounds like Big Steve with all those bits of metal and whatnot that he eats stuck in his body. An old man with a long beard and ropes around him? Sounds like Porter, who got stuck in a pipe just like how Brant/Mr. Darble Mouse got stuck under the secret door in the warehouse basement/Governor’s cellar… And the cheese store man knows the widow’s real name but she calls him by the wrong one? Porter’s definitely Brant Morris using a different name and he may have actually spied on the Memory of Joey in order to tattle on him, I love him even more now. Also… Brant/Porter is totally a personification of Wilson’s sense of humor in addition to Joey’s shame. Brant’s the funniest character in TLO, Porter’s downright mirthful about everything, Wilson/Wilton wrote the funniest fairytale I’ve ever read in my life… they also both apparently dealt with early hair thinning, interestingly), trying to push us towards investigating them in order to expose Nathan Sr.’s Fake Siblings plot.
  • The Decoy Villain and their Keeper dynamic is actually something we see repeatedly across Nathan Sr.’s victims, especially when the torch is about to be passed from one Decoy Villain to another… Arthur was Isabel’s Keeper when it was time for her to kill Walter, Allison was Joey’s Keeper when it was time for him to turn his employees into ink creatures (turning several into fellow Decoy Villains in the process), mayhaps we could even say that whoever figured out how to create the Slugs was Chef Buck’s Keeper when it was time for him to start his “recycling” spree… and Heidi is Mr. Gray/Grey’s Keeper now that it’s time for him to take over from Wilson? 👀👀

“We’re in the final days here. I can tell. People are packing things into boxes. Tools are going missing. You can smell the panic in the air around the studio.
But us Gent boys, we’re just watching from the shadows. We lock the doors, and keep our research going. Mister Gray already gave us a little wink. All is well. When one ship sinks, another one leaves the dock.
I just need to keep my Ink Machine safe in the chaos. It’s the key to so many discoveries.” ~ Thomas Connor, Bendy and the Dark Revival, “Business as Usual” memo (emphasis added)

“It’s a funny thing. How so much can fall apart so fast. We never really had control at the studio. Either you were in someone’s pocket, or you were putting someone else into yours. I just wanted what was promised to me. I just wanted to be beautiful! Surely you can understand that. Henry… Why are you here? We’re all dying to find out. Do you just enjoy the terror of the drop into hell? Because if that’s the case… Hang on tight. I’ve got a surprise…” ~ Twisted Alice, Bendy and the Ink Machine, ch. 4

  • Wilson’s BATDS audio log was 100% about him wanting to pass on his secrets before his dad could silence him completely and forever in death as he did to so many others, just like how Joey managed to leave clues about the reality of the whole situation behind despite everything.

“It’s important to seize an opportunity, before it slides through your wrenched fingers. The past so often dies without passing on its bountiful secrets. But oh… Mister Joey Drew. The secrets you’ve left behind. How very interesting, such… knowledge, such… opportunity. The time draws near… For a dark revival to come at last!” ~ Wilson Arch, Boris and the Dark Survival (emphasis added)

…Welp, now that that’s out of the way, on with the show!

I believe that this one, released back in July (close to when you would’ve expected the Bendy Twitter to release a third teaser image), is supposed to have been written by Wilson:

Keep reading

Pinned Post bendy and the dark revival batdr the mug and the maiden batdr theory batdr spoilers dreams come to life dctl the illusion of living tiol bendy: the lost ones bendy: tlo bendy spoilers lyric analysis film analysis game analysis book analysis cw: abuse nathan arch sr. nathan arch jr. wilson arch allison pendle joey drew henry stein audrey drew buddy lewek bill chambers constance gray brant morris sammy lawrence jack fain
inkdemonapologist
inkdemonapologist

Drawings of an alternate universe Sammy, labelled "Subject 418," with wild hair, a third eye in the middle of his forehead, and four arms. In one sketch he's sitting down and glancing up warily; in another he's grinning, with black eyes and hands outstretched like a supervillian.ALT
Drawings of an alternate universe Sammy and Masked Messenger. The Messenger is a tall man in a top hat, lab coat, and small skull mask, with a sly smile and holding a needle in one hand. Sammy has 3 eyes and four arms, two of which are folded sullenly. The Messenger says "I need my Prophet, 418," Sammy replies "I can't do it on command..." and the Messenger responds, "Pity."ALT
Drawing of an alternate universe Jack, a cat-like creature with ears and tail and paw-like hands, and tubes hooked into various parts of his body. He's labelled "Subject 430"ALT
Drawing of Sammy and Jack as they appear in the Experiment AU, cuddling. Jack looks off into the distance with a little smile, and Sammy has all four arms wrapped around him, face calm and eyes almost closed.ALT
Drawing of Sammy as he appears in the Experiment AU, suspended in the air and yelling, arms stretched around him, as office supplies and furniture goes flying, torn apart by his powers.ALT
Drawings of an alternate universe Henry, who is mostly a normal man with short hair but his eyes have clock hands in them. He's labelled "Subject 414" and is frowning, saying "Linda must be worried sick." Another sketch shows him being touched lightly by this AU's Masked Messenger with an ungloved hand. The Messenger has a little smile and Henry looks horrified, with hash marks behind him indicating all the passed time he's suddenly aware of.ALT
Drawings of an alternate universe Henry and Joey, where Joey is an imp-like creature with horns and a pointed tail and swirls all over his skin. In the first image, Joey's a child, and Henry's leaned over with a smile to show him his sketchbook. In the second image, Joey's grown up, looking distraught as Henry squints at him suspiciously.ALT

CTHULHU AU BUT THEY'RE GENETIC EXPERIMENTS IN AN UNETHICAL SCIENCE FACILITY OVERSEEN BY THE MASKED MESSENGER: GO

sometimes an AU just explodes into being so here's a bunch of scribbles of this Experiment AU that have suddenly happened over the last couple days…. also more AU deets under the cut:

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bendy and the ink machine batim batim fanart batim fanfic batim au fanarts fanfiction call of cthulhu: haunted hijinx cthulhu experiment au sammy lawrence prophet sammy the masked messenger jack fain henry stein joey drew
stabyomates
creekschaoscorner

I’ve been thinking about it, and something that bugs me is how it almost feels like there are several different characterizations of Thomas Connor in the franchise

There’s the batim audio logs, the characterization from the books, the youtube tape which could really fit into either but leans to his book characterization, and then… whatever is going on with him in batdr and batds. It feels like three different characters all labeled under the same name.

In batim he starts out as this disgruntled repair man who is weirded out by all the ink in the studio and the machine, but then later on is talking about the progress developing the machine and seems still a little weirded out, but generally not that upset. And then in the books you have him as this really interesting, guilt ridden character, the creator of the machine and definitely a little infected by the ink, making questionable moral judgements and having to justify them to himself, going along with Joey’s schemes because he feels it’s his responsibility for creating the thing. It’s a really interesting characterization! But then there’s batdr(and sort of batds) where now he’s like.. part of gent’s shadiness and like, not worried about the studio closing up? Just attached to the machine? And completely guilt free, apparently. Not to mention the whole coat closet laboratory thing. He feels much more mad scientist-y

And like, yeah, you could find a way to connect all of these if you really extrapolate, but it just feels like continuity issues, honestly. Not to mention it’s not even limited to tom. It’s an issue with a lot of the characters. It feels like rather than the narrative being written around its characters, the characters are rather shoved into roles that only vaguely suit them with no thought on whether or not their actions actually make sense.

It just bothers me

mickeys-malarkey

I am going to pause now in the story to ask myself why Mr. Darble Mouse went to the cellar in the governor’s house for cheese if there was a cheese shop nearby. I think it’s best that we overlook this glaring problem in the plot, don’t you? Now, back to the story at hand.” ~ Sir Wilton (*CoughWilsonCough*) Moore, The Mug and the Maiden: Vol. 1, pg 3, Bendy and the Dark Revival

Audrey: You did this to me. You brought me here. Turned me into this… this thing! This doesn’t make sense! I’ve never done done anything to you!

Wilson: Open your eyes and look around you! None of this “makes sense.”Reality guided by its master’s penThese… things. These angels and demons. Are they really life? Or are they just… stains? Old mistakes ready to be cleansed away for newer, greater things?

…Mm-hm, it most certainly is like the characters are being shoved into roles that only vaguely suit them with no thought on whether or not their actions actually make sense… 👀 “His words are a twisted riddle that may reveal more than first meets the eye.” ~ Wilson’s bio

bendy and the ink machine boris and the dark survival bendy and the dark revivial dreams come to life the illusion of living bendy: the lost ones the mug and the maiden thomas connor wilson arch