Bendy and the Ink Machine

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Video game fandom
NameBendy and the Ink Machine, Bendy and the Dark Revival
Abbreviation(s)BATIM, BATDR
Developer(s)theMeatly
Release dateFebruary 10, 2017 (BATIM), November 15, 2022 (BATDR)
Related articles on Fanlore.

Bendy and the Ink Machine (BATIM) is an episodic horror video game released for PC, before being ported to Xbox One, Android, and iOS. Its creator is theMeatly, who originally released the first chapter as a demo. The popularity of the demo encouraged him to expand on it, resulting in a 5 chapter series. A second game, Bendy and the Dark Revival (BATDR), was announced in 2019 and slated for episodic release soon after. But, due to COVID-19 and other development issues, did not receive it's release until November 2022.

History

Origins

theMeatly[1] conjured up the original demo alone. Quickly after release, he changed 'demo' to 'chapter one,' spawning a fan base eagerly awaiting updates. He then hired on a second staff member, Mike Mood, to fix the coding and help with modeling.[2] As BATIM began as a demo and changed over time, so would it's fan base as they played and re-played updated versions of what became a finished chapter 1.

Game Updates

During the two years in which chapters were released, BATIM took on a number of updates. These include visual updates, such as new models and animations, to improved optimization, as well as a new form of game play after chapter 5's release.

The most notable updates that took place were to the Bendy model itself. In the original demo, Bendy's model was nothing but a torso and head, described as being "bird poop" by its creators. Then, he was updated to be a walking humanoid with a limp. The final model update made him an inky skeletal figure with a constant animated drip. These changes to Bendy's model may be seen within fanart.

Sammy Lawrence's 3D model was also updated, changing his model's featureless body type to one that was muscled. Fans made memes about this change.[3]

Canon Universe

Plot

Bendy and the Ink Machine

Bendy and the Ink Machine takes place roughly in the 1960s America, 30 years after the events at Joey Drew Studios. Henry Stein, a former animator, was asked to return via letter by his ex-boss Joey Drew. Once he arrives, he quickly realizes that major changes took place after he'd quit. The building is falling apart, and Joey Drew had a giant "ink machine" installed. This machine has the ability to bring cartoons to life, but as Henry comes to find, with a price.

The game is split into 5 chapters, with each chapter having Henry move through a specific part of the studio and usually meeting a new character. In chapter 2 he meets Sammy Lawrence, who was the old music director, and in chapter 3 he meets the evil Alice Angel. After chapter 2 Henry becomes friends with Boris the wolf, however Alice corrupts him and Henry ultimately has to kill him. Evil Alice dies directly after at the hands of the good Alice and her own Boris. From there the trio makes their way through the bowels of the studio and puts an end to Bendy. However, after Bendy seems to die in a flash of light, Henry is suddenly thrown into what looks like the "real world" and meets up with Joey Drew. The ending has caused much confusion and theorizing among fans.

Bendy and the Dark Revival

Bendy and the Dark Revival takes place in 1970s America, after Joey Drew passed away and Joey Drew Studios was acquired by Archgate Films. The player plays as Audrey, an animator for the Bendy animation revival headed by Archgate Films. During a lonely night at the studio she is tricked into starting up the ink machine by the janitor, Wilson, and the two become trapped in the machine's parallel dimension of ink and paper. Audrey is horrified that she has been turned into a half-ink creature, and must find a way to escape. She receives help from Alice Angel and avoids the Ink Demon along the way. However, she soon discovers Bendy, a small and timid cartoon who resembles the Bendy from the animations.

While trudging through the studios she learns that the bloodthirsty and monstrous Ink Demon and the timid cartoon Bendy are one in the same, and that she is Joey Drew's daughter created out of ink. After learning this, she decides to hear out Wilson's plan to destroy the demon. But Wilson's plan is to kill Audrey and transfer her soul into a cartoon, where she would fight the Ink Demon and take his place. Disgusted, Audrey pushes Wilson into the machine and he is killed, transferring his soul into the mangled abomination of a character he designed. Audrey fights him until she no longer can, and then the Ink Demon finishes him off. Then, the Ink Demon offers to absorb her to "make her strong." She accepts, becoming a part of the Ink Demon. The apparition of Joey Drew appears and encourages her to not lose herself, so Audrey takes control of the Ink Demon to play "The End" in order to put the ink machine's cycle back into place and refresh the ink dimension.

Audrey returns to the real world, unharmed. Then she speaks and turns her head, revealing that she has brought the cartoon Bendy into the real world with her.

Fandom

Bendy and the Ink Machine is considered popular with children and teenagers, like games such as Hello Neighbor or Five Nights at Freddy's (see Reddit Demographics Survey).[4] A majority of fan art is created by minors, while fan music is usually composed and sung by adults. Numerous fan characters have been created. Frequently, fan characters take on the appearance of cartoon Bendy himself, with or without a few adjustments. It's not unheard of for fans to take Bendy's design and re-name him, which may be due to how- in canon- multiple versions of the cartoon characters (such as Alice and Boris) exist. Other fan character designs are wholly original, and may be human, animal, or supernatural.

There is a common theme among BATIM fans where Bendy is written with a cocky personality and a Boston or New York accent. This contrasts Bendy's canonical personality, as in Bendy's shorts, he is seen to be rather timid and dense. In BATIM itself, the personality of Bendy's skeletal and beast forms are unknown. Though fans write Bendy as talking, he never actually speaks in any of the canon material. However, in the second game BATDR, the Ink Demon is given a voice and personality. While the Ink Demon is described as "totally evil" and tends to taunt Audrey, his small cartoon counterpart is silent and mirrors his more timid cartoon personality. In fanon, fans may exaggerate cartoon Bendy's personality by infantilizing him, which deeply contrasts the popular cocky fanon personality from before the second game's release. Cartoon Bendy's actual age may be a divisive topic among fans.

BATIM had a special Tumblr tag for NSFW content before the Tumblr Purge. This tag was called "Bendy and the Kink Machine," abbreviated as BATKM. The creators do not necessarily condone NSFW content, as stated in their Fan Content Policy.[5] Under their policy, "In no circumstances are you permitted to... Create Fan Content that violates the rights of others, or is obscene, sexually explicit, defamatory, offensive, objectionable, or otherwise harmful to others." This stanza would imply that any NSFW content is in violation of their fan content policy. Despite this, no issues have risen between the creators and fans in regards to NSFW fan content.

Surveys

Reddit Demographics Survey

A survey, Archived version was conducted in July 2018 by Youtuber colemancheu., Archived version The survey was promoted only within the Bendy and the Ink Machine Reddit. It's goal was to find out where it was fans first heard of the game, their age range, the type of let's players they watched, and if they've played the game themselves and enjoyed it. It procured 98 responses. One should note that the questions of this survey were not set to required, so not every participant replied to every question, which could lead to some slightly off results. The survey was taken before chapter 5 was released.

Of the 98 participants a large majority identified as minors: 3% were 10 or under, 43% were between 11-15, 33% were between 16-20, with the rest over 20. The majority (78%) discovered BATIM from Youtube, after which 12% discovered it from friends. 15% discovered it from Markiplier, while other creators named included: DAGames, Drako, Jacksepticeye, and The Living Tombstone. Both DAGames and The Living Tombstone are music Youtubers who have created numerous Bendy fan songs. While these are the creators that introduced Bendy to the participants, 63% also watch Markiplier, 67% watch Game Theory, and 47% watch Jacksepticeye. 76% have played the game and 92% believe it is a good game. Of those who played the game, retention drops roughly 20% between chapter 1 and 2, then drops about 10% with each chapter after that, save for chapter 5 which had not been released.

Reddit Age Survey

After Bendy and the Dark Revival's release some fans disagreed on the age of the small, cartoon version of Bendy featured in the game. On Dec 2nd, 2022, Professional_Value38 on r/BendyAndTheInkMachine posted a poll titled "Is Bendy a child or an adult?"[6] The poll was available for voting for 24 hours and ended with 353 responses. 235 (66%) respondents voted that cartoon Bendy was a child, while 118 (33%) voted that he was an adult.

Responses on the poll were just as varied, with some comments saying that cartoon Bendy was a "kidult" similar to Spongebob Squarepants. Conversely, at least one commenter simply commented "teen." Others cited the book The Illusion of Living, which stated that Bendy was canonically a young adult imp.

Fan Theories

  • In BATIM fans theorized about who each ink creation was, due to some creations being more obvious (the music director in chapter 2 being Sammy Lawrence, Alice Angel being her voice actor, etc). Some theorized that the original Boris was Wally Franks or Thomas Connor, and that Bendy was Joey Drew. One fan said: "Anyone remember when people thought wally franks was the ink demon or was I high on something." [7]
  • Fans theorized that Henry Stein himself may also be a cartoon character. This theory was proved correct, in the sense that Henry was shown to be "cartoonified" in BATDR.
  • After chapter 5, a common theory was that Henry Stein was living in a time loop. After the second game's release this theory was proved correct, as it was explained that Henry was living in a loop called "The Cycle."

Shipping

Shipping among BATIM fans is widely variable. For example, some fans ship Henry Stein and Bendy, while others headcanon their relationship as a father and son, since Henry was Bendy's character designer. Others believe Bendy is Joey Drew, in the same vein that the evil Alice Angel is canonically Susie Campbell. In that context, shipping Henry Stein and Bendy becomes the same as shipping Henry and Joey. However, after the second game's release it was made clear that Bendy was not Joey Drew. Because there was no certainty in who or what Bendy is, all the above relationships were equally plausible for fans, particularly early in the fandom before BATDR. The most common ship for BATIM on Archive of Our Own in February 2019 was Henry/Joey with 111 fanfics. By the end of 2022, Henry/Joey remained the top ship at 292 fanfics, more than doubling.

Outside of shipping canon characters and cross shipping, it's common to ship Bendy with an OC or self-insert. This includes Bendy/Reader fanfics. In February 2019 Bendy/Reader fanfics were the forth most popular ship tag for BATIM on Archive of Our Own; there were 51 Bendy/Reader fanfics and 40 fanfics tagged as Bendy/OC. By the end of 2022, Bendy/Reader selfship fics increased to 149, while Bendy/OC increased to 92.

Shipping Discourse

Shipping discourse existed in BATIM before it's second game's release, however similar shipping discourse carried over into BATDR. Discourse is usually caused by disagreements between what fans consider to be fanon vs. canon. For example, players who headcanon Joey Drew or Henry as being Bendy's father may see Joey/Bendy as incestuous. After BATDR released new familial headcanons appeared, with the most prevalent one being a headcanon that the Ink Demon and Audrey are siblings.[8] This has lead to some fans calling Bendy/Audrey incestuous, however the two characters are not canonically siblings.[9]

In BATDR Bendy's age also quickly became a topic of contention, due to his canon childish behavior being interpreted by fans as him being a minor.[10] However, the Ink Demon is considered an adult, though the two are the same characters in different bodies. Some fans dismiss his age as being an issue, instead seeing Bendy's "lolita" chibi form as being the problem. However, canonically Bendy has been stated to be a young adult in The Illusion of Living.

[@croffeepot]
if u ship audrey and bendy dni with me they are like. siblings that is weird as hell. and if u are fine with ns//fw of toon bendy dni either that feels rlly fucking weird and gross
[@PotatoFan147]
Wha- no theyre not? Its not because they were created by the machine that they are "siblings" there's like nothing im the game that says it, i do not ship them but like, this looks more like a headcanon you have them a real thing
[@Author_Lacey]

Audrey deserves better than a inky little man baby. Not to mention he has a lolita on demand form so that's extra weird already lol.

Some fans also cross ship Bendy with one of the brothers from Cuphead. This ship is sometimes debated, as the age of the Cuphead brothers is not totally known. Some believe that the Cuphead brothers are children while Bendy is an adult. However, some also see Bendy as a child. In contrast, some believe the Cuphead brothers and Bendy are all adults. Depending on the shipper, this means the ship may or may not be an adult/child ship, which some fans believe is wrong.

Notable Fanworks

Fan Art

Fan Music

Bendy and the Ink Machine Fan Music

There are a very large number of BATIM fan songs on Youtube. Below is a list of all known songs from 2017, as the boom of fan music began during 2017. There about 39 original fan songs from 2017. These fan songs are prone to being remixed several times. The first fan song was uploaded on Feb 17 by Kyle Allen Music, exactly one week after the Feb 10th release of chapter 1. During 2017, only three chapters of BATIM were released, the rest coming in 2018. Fan songs were still regularly created even after the end of BATIM in 2019.

Bendy and the Dark Revival Fan Music

Following the tradition of making fan music, BATDR received it's first fan song by Kyle Allen Music on Nov 16, 2022, only 1 day after it's release. This beat the record for BATIM, which received it's first fansong a week after release.

Videos

Fanfiction

Communities

Archives

References

  1. ^ The Meatly, Themeatly.com. (Accessed 9/23/2020) (Archived May 17, 2020)
  2. ^ KindlyMood, Twitter. (Accessed 9/23/2020) (Archived Jul 17, 2019)
  3. ^ That one Bigger Better Stronger meme but its with Sammy Lawrence BatimMay 27, 2018 (Accessed 11/12/2022)]
  4. ^ Why do kids like "Bendy and the Ink Machine" so much?, Quora. (Accessed 12/9/2022) (Archived 12/9/2022)
  5. ^ Fan Content Policy, Joey Drew Studios. (Accessed 9/23/2020) (Archived Aug 20, 2020)
  6. ^ Is Bendy a child or an adult?, Reddit. Dec 2, 2022 (Accessed 12/8/2022) (Archived 12/8/2022)
  7. ^ Anyone remember when people thought wally franks was the ink demon, Tumblr. 12/9/2022 (Accessed 12/9/2022) (Archived 12/9/2022)
  8. ^ they are like. siblings that is weird as hell. Twitter. Nov 25, 2022 (Accessed 12/2022) (Archived 12/8/2022)
  9. ^ Bendy & Audrey Aren’t Related (plz don’t make this weird y’all), Tumblr. 11/25/2022 (Accessed 12/8/2022) (Archived 12/8/2022)
  10. ^ lol, bendy’s not entering a time machine and de-aging, Tumblr. 12/4/2022 (Accessed 12/8/2022) (Archived 12/8/2022(
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