Game Theory - You Are Being LIED To! (Bendy and The Dark Revival)

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

Join Game Theory Host MatPat as he breaks down the LORE of Bendy and The Dark Revival! Credits: Writers: Matthew Patrick and Tom Robinson Editors: Dan "Cybert" Seibert, Jerika (NekoOnigiri), JayskiBean and Dom Sealion Assistant Editor: Caitie Turner (Caiterpillart) Sound Editor: Yosi Berman

Joey, what is this place? The studio. These monsters. Never mind. There's a little story you need to hear. You ready? Here we go. Hello, internet.

Welcome to Game Theory. This studio is a monument to choosing the wrong road. Now, whether it was built for revenge or regret. I don't know. That's my riddle to solve. No, Joey. Let's be honest, it's my riddle to solve. Always mine to solve.

Today, we're diving back into the inky depths with Joey Drew Studios and their newest game, Bendy and the Dark Revival. If you're unfamiliar with the franchise, honestly, I can't really blame you. It's been five long years since the world was last buzz about Bendy. Oh, sure, there was a mobile game, a short prequel title called Boris and the Dark Survival, and of course, the requisite handful of spinoff books released in the intervening years. But nothing really captured everyone's attention. It looked like the franchise was drowning in its own inky grave, which is why the trailer dropped for an official sequel releasing in just a few weeks caught everyone off guard.

And that wasn't enough. They then decided to catch everyone off guard again by releasing a game that was really long, really solid, and most importantly of all, really stable. Which, let's be honest, considering the quality of game releases these days, is already putting it in contention for Game of the Year. It is a low bar. But of course, you know why I'm interested in this thing? The theories.

Sure, I can go around all day. inhaling full cans of bacon soup like an overzealous Kirby, but if there's no meat on the bone for us to chew on like a cartoonish wolf, well, then this one's going to get relegated to my ever-growing list of Matt Pat Personal Time games. Lucky for us, though, Bendie be bringing the lore. A lot of lore. From what I gather, it exists in parallel with the outside world, but completely removed from the march of time.

A lot, lot. It just keeps coming. Lour! That I think is a complete lie, a lie that I plan on exposing today. And look around you. None of this makes sense. Let me quickly catch you up with what you need to know. The original game, Bendy and the Ink Machine, was all about a talented animator named Henry Stein,

former partner to the unscrupulous businessman Joey Drew. Over the course of that first game, we learned that Joey Drew has used human souls to fuel the titular ink machine, all in an attempt to create living ink creatures. But eventually, the animation studio goes bankrupt. Joey retires in disgrace, a bitter old man, and is ultimately forced to see a single man, sell off the rights to his most famous characters to a new company, Archgate Films,

run by Joey's old friend, Nathan Arch. And that's where this new game picks up. In Bendy and the Dark Revival, we play as Audrey, a young animator for Archgate who gets brought into the ink world by the clearly evil janitor, Wilson. You're working late tonight. A pretty girl like you shouldn't be wandering around all by yourself. Mind if I step in. Seriously, this man is a walking, talking, HR violation.

They couldn't have made him any more dastardly if they had given him a black cape and a curly mustache. Anyway, the rest of the game is then spent with Audrey trying to find her way back home, all while avoiding both Wilson's army and the demonic ink demon himself, a monstrous, bloodthirsty form of Bendy that kills on contact. Or, at least, that would have been what the game was all about, had it not been for the surprise cameo of a familiar face in Chapter 3. At a couple of points throughout the game, we encounter an inky version of Joey Drew himself,

or at least an embodiment of his memories, who sits us down to take us through a literal slideshow of the game's lore. Where are we? Very old place, full of memory. There's a little story you need to hear. Once upon a time, Audrey, there was a bitter old man. All right, well, it doesn't get much more straightforward than that. As part of the presentation, he tells us that the Henry we played as in the first game wasn't Henry at all.

But rather an inky recreation that Joey made after the real Henry left the studio. Why would he do such a weird thing? Well, he wanted to torture Henry. Get his stress out, kind of like a sepia-toned voodoo doll. In his anger, Joey used an evil machine to create another world. A world made of paper, date, where he'd torment his own version of Henry forevermore. He felt betrayed by Henry. So, as a totally healthy way of dealing with his anger and jealousy,

he created this inky prison in order to punish anyone who ever crossed him. The world that we've been playing through in both of these games, simply known as the cycle. Eventually, Allison Pendle, the second voice of Alice Angel from the first game, comes into Joey's life and makes him realize that he can be a good person. She didn't visit often, but when she did, she saw something good in Joey, no one else could, including himself. Through their friendship, he began to see the world with better eyes.

So, out of kindness, he creates a version of Alice Angel in the cycle to help Henry survive. Meanwhile, in the real world, Joey is also busy creating Audrey out of the ink to become his perfect daughter. That's right, the character that we've been playing as for the entire game is none other than Audrey Drew. A human made out of living ink. Joey finally did what he set out to do, creating the perfect life from just a pencil and a dream. Just a pencil and a dream! It's not!

You have to have it. It's a nice story, and certainly a wholesome character arc for our dear old Joey Drew, but call me suspicious whenever a game literally sits me down and spells out the lore for me. I mean, the original game was practically built around theories. What we have done is left it up to the community. So if you play the game and your name is Matt, Pat and you like to figure itize, there's a chance you're going to figure things out and actually be able to understand what we were talking about. And also, let's just take a minute to look at who's info dumping this lore on us.

The living embodiment of Joey Drew's memories. Oh sure, he might seem all nice and folksy, but remember, this is a guy who has never been trustworthy. On company records, Bendy is listed as his creation despite the fact that Henry created him. He also lied to his employees when the company was about to go out of business. The idea that the company is in some form of financial difficulty is untrue and a slander's lie against him. Even his close friend Nathan Arch said in the book The Illusion of Living, quote, Joey is so good at storytelling that even when he tells you it's not real, you can forget a moment later. I mean, this is a guy who is so jealous and bitter that he literally creates an endless torture chamber for his former business partner.

And we're expected to trust his version of events, events that make him seem like some sort of benevolent family man? No, I don't think so. So, I started to dig around in Joey's story. Let me tell ya, there's evidence hidden all around the cycle proving that Joey's version of events is a lie. A lie that throws into question everything that we know about the main character, Audrey. The true story of Bendy in the Dark Revival is one that Joey doesn't want you to know about. So grab yourself a pencil, a dream, and probably something to write on, too. Just try not to get any corrupted ink on the carpets, all right?

Just got them all washed. Let's start by disproving what Joey Drew tells us, starting with the timeline of events. Joey claims that Allison Pendle walked into his life and changed everything, giving him a new lease on life and in turn prompting him to help Henry within the cycle. Except, we know that that can't be true. The dates don't line up. Allison joined Joey Drew Studios sometime in the 1930s. That means that the cycle would have been created prior to that date.

Why is that a problem? Well, it's because we have evidence that shows Henry begins his cycle in 1963. This is thanks to a letter that we get right at the start of Bendy and the Ink Machine, inviting Henry back to the studio 30 years after he lives. left the company, which thanks to the employee handbook, we know, was 1930. There's also a calendar in Joey's apartment at the end of Chapter 5 in bending the ink machine that shows the exact date to be August 31, 1963. Now, there's speculation out there about whether Joey's apartment and old Joey here in the ending of that game are meant to be part of

Henry Cycle, a part of the fake world that was made by Joey, but even if it is fake, why would you include a calendar from some random date in the future? Just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Speaking of things that don't add up, what about Allison Angel? Joey is pretty vague about her creation, but he leads us to believe that she was created purely from ink, inspired by Allison Pendle, but not made from Allison Pendle. Except here's the thing. Joey and Allison break off their relationship in 1946. He fires her after she sides with her future husband and gent engineer Thomas.

Joey does keep in touch with Allison, as we see from the letter in his apartment, but he burnt that bridge. She is no longer an angel to him, or even really a friend. So why would he then make an angel to help Henry in the 1960s that was just inspired, by her. It doesn't make sense based on the timeline. I suspect that Allison Angel's creation was meant to punish her as well. That instead of her being just an ink creation, he took the original Allison Pendle and used her soul to create Allison Angel. Now he's able to torture her for all eternity, just like he did with Henry. Joey is no hero. He never was a hero. He didn't have a change of heart. It's all about public image, just like we saw in one of the tapes from the first game. I believe there's something special in all of us. With true inner strength, you can conquer even

your biggest challenges. Okay, let's stop right there. I can only do so many takes in this trashy day. Of course, a living version of his memories is going to paint him as the good guy. He never sees himself as wrong. But in reality, Joey is just putting a new spin on the chain of events in order to come out looking like the good guy to his daughter. His daughter, the one part of Joey's story that I haven't addressed yet. Who or what is Audrey? According to Joey, she's also a child of the ink, perfect, practically human, made to fill the void in Joey's life. Now, I think part of what Joey's saying here is true. She is an ink person. It's hard to deny that based on her bendy finger at the end of the game, the fact that she respawns out of the ink. But what

I don't believe is that she's made purely out of ink. On the contrary, I think that she was made using human souls, just like every other ink character in the series. And better yet, I know exactly who was used to make her. It's all thanks to 10 secret memories hidden throughout the game. One of the main collectibles that you can find on your adventure are memories. 10 items that were told are special, but don't really seem to be. Baseball, hat, a duck, a hot dog, some crayons, stuff like that. Audrey never says anything about him, and their descriptions tend to be super generic. A rubber duck, it still has soap on it.

Wow, we are really lighten the lore on fire with that one, guys. Or so I thought. You see, these items are the key to solving the mystery of who Audrey really is. So hold on to your hats because the first memory I want to talk about is, well, the hat. One of the memories is listed as a min's fashionable hat. So that makes it clear that the hat didn't belong to Audrey, but rather someone she spent a lot of time with. Now, this type of hat is called a boater hat with a flat top, thin, circular rim, and ribbon around the middle. Boater hats were seen throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century,

even being part of the FBI's unofficial uniform back in the day. But we mostly see these hats being worn amongst the upper classes in the summers after World War I. There was also a bit of a revival for them back in the late 1930s. Notice a problem with that? Well, as we've established, Audrey was created sometime in the 1960s. Styles had changed, and the boater hat wasn't really fashionable anymore, especially not out and about for daily use like the memory's description states. It's more likely the memory of this hat belonged to someone who was around in the 1930s.

So, are there any other memories that could help us narrow down the search for who this hat could belong to? Yes. One memory that really caught my attention was this one, the cracked mug. Quote, a cracked mug lovingly repurposed into a plaything. It may be sad, but it still has life in it yet. This broken mug was turned into a toy, which feels like a weird gift to give your kid, but whatever. Here you go, Audrey. Love you so much.

Take this sharp piece of porcelain and have at it. But this isn't the only time in the game that we see a cracked mug. When we're shown to our room in Chapter 5, creepy janitor Wilson has left a very specific book on our pillow. It's a story called The Mug and the Maiden, and it stands out because it is long. I mean, like, long, long. Some of the lore drops in this game are long,

but here we're talking multi-page long. And if you manage to read the whole thing, do you want to guess who the hero of the story is? A cracked mug. This is a story not connected to us, but Wilson. This is his storybook. This is his childhood toy. And that's not the only connection.

to Wilson either. Another memory we get is a set of crayons, most notably colored crayons. Quote, arrays of colors can spark a world all your own. There are only a handful of times that we see color in this game, and all of them come from Wilson. Wilson is the one with a colored drawing of ship the Hoy Dudley and Assepia world during Wilson's boss fight. We see colored ink coming from him and the other enemies when we hit him. And finally, there's the towers that help to subdue Demon Bendie, towers covered with colorful rainbow sparkles, just like the crayons description. Right now, all signs seem to be pointing to these memories being connected to our antagonist Wilson in some way. Could he potentially be our soul donor? No, that would be impossible. When Audrey was created,

Wilson was still alive, so it physically can't be him. But then who? Well, for an answer, look no further than this memory. A carton of milk for growing up strong and healthy, had some chocolate for a snack enjoyed by both young and old. The use of the word old here suddenly opened my eyes to new possibilities. Just because Audrey was a child, it didn't mean that the soul that she was born from had to be. What if instead it was coming from a grown-up? A parent. Someone who would have shared memories with their child. They would have seen a man wearing a boater hat. They would have given their child a toy based on their favorite book,

crayons, for their child to play with. Audrey wasn't made with Wilson's soul, but rather the soul of one of Wilson's parents. And when you look into it, it becomes very clear which one it is. It's revealed in the game's final minutes that Nathan Arch, owner of Archgate Pictures and the Bendy IP, is Wilson's father. As of 9 o'clock this morning, Bendy and all his little cartoon friends now belong to me. This acquisition, according to an article on the Joey Drew Studio Archives, took place in 1972,

only a year before the events of the Dark Revival. So the timeline for Nathan being the sole donor doesn't add up. He was still alive at the time. But you know who wasn't? Wilson's mother. In the spinoff title, Boris and the Dark Survival, we get this clip from Joey Drew to Nathan Arch. Hope this reaches you in South America. You and Tessa enjoy your vacation.

Tessa Arch. Wife to Nathan and mother to Wilson. She looked after Wilson. She would have seen her husband, Nathan wearing that bode her hat out in about in the 1930s or earlier. She would have given her son a cracked mug and a set of crayons. These are her memories. And the one that puts it all together is this.

The final memory that you collect. A simple hot dog. Seems like nothing much, right? Wrong. In that same area of Wilson's lab, you can find an audio recording from Nathan that says this. I think I'll go home early today. Maybe I'll even pick up a hot dog for Tessa. He brought a hot dog home for Tessa.

That was a memory that they shared. A memory that Audrey. now shares. In short, when Wilson's trying to kill you at the end of the game, what he's really doing, unintentionally, is trying to kill his own mother. Talk about your awkward Oedipus complex, right? In the end, Joey Drew turned to Nathan, his close friend during the financial collapse of his company. It's been quite a struggle to put this into words, Nathan. Truth is, well, the studio is coming up a little short.

If you could lend us the amount I mentioned in my last letter, it wouldn't be a big help to me. But inevitably, this never came to pass. Nathan didn't help. Joey Drew Studios fell into bankruptcy and Nathan picked the company's bones dry. Betrayed once again by someone that he thought was his friend, Joey, in true Joey fashion, did like he did with Henry and Allison before. He threw Tessa Arch into the machine. He turned her into ink. He would tear the Arch family apart in order to create a family of his own.

He used Tessa's soul to create Audrey. And then he created a cover story to hide all of his misdeeds. A story that framed him as the good guy. Except now, we know the truth. Once a shyster, always a shyster. Whether you're made of ink or flesh. And see, guys, this is why you can't have friends in the entertainment business. But hey, that's just a theory.

A game theory. Thanks for watching.