WMG / Bendy and the Ink Machine

Joey and other Humans

Bendy wants revenge because he was mistreated by Joey.

Fleischer Studios, the company that created Betty Boop, had a series of shorts called "Out of the Inkwell" wherein a character named Koko the Clown interacts with the real world. He was mistreated a lot in these shorts by his creator, Max Fleischer. Things Max has done to Koko include shocking him with electricity, setting his paper world on fire as "thanks" for rolling Max a cigarette, drawing Koko onto a very steep mountain with a small area to stand on to "keep him quiet for the night," and cramming Koko back into the small cramped inkwell solely because Max had a nightmare about him. Koko may have had his moments of mischievousness, but treating a sentient being in such a way is cruel and unusual, so it isn't too far-fetched that Bendy was experiencing similar treatment and wanted to end it once and for all. Bonus points if Henry just stood by and let it happen, whether he felt bad or not.

• I have to second the above Troper's theory. I watched the animations just to see what they were talking about, and the connections between 'Bendy and the Ink Machine' and Max Fleischer's 'Out of the Inkwell' were pretty startling. Max Fleischer's early work, meant to show off his invention of the 'Rotoscope', an animation machine that would help give animation more fluid, life-like movement, consisted of him literally at one point emptying an entire inkwell trying to pull out his character, a clumsy but artistic clown, who had jumped into it in an attempt to escape him after spending a good portion of the episode being insulted, ignored, having things thrown at him, and then chased. If the beginning of Bendy's life (who seems to have also been created by a life-recreating animation machine for, as far as we can tell, just because Joey could) was anything like Koko's, things probably got real dark, real fast.
  • Coupling this with the WMG further down the page about needing a connection to someone raises another reason why Bendy is after Henry, as well. Koko was rotoscoped from footage of Max Fleischer's brother, Dave Fleischer, in a clown suit. If Bendy was created from footage of Henry — the names are even similar, after all — then he may be trying to merge with him in order to stabilize himself, similar to what Alice Angel is doing with the innards of a legion of Boris-es. No wonder he squashed Sammy — he thought Sammy had destroyed his other half!

Joey's "lie" was telling Bendy that he would be adored or become human.

• The cartoon studio went under before Bendy could make any lasting imprint on the cartoon world. Bendy, seeking the popularity he was told he was going to get, went mad from the revelation that he was wasting away without any acknowledgement and began to lash out in several ways, including disembowling Boris under the assumption he was part of what crippled his stardom.
• Bendy had wanted to be human when learning he was but a cartoon character. Joey kept up the act by mass-producing ink from the machine, presumably using it on other creations, but the lie came to fruition once the studio closed without any closure for Bendy. He is attempting to still make a humanoid form in the form of Inked Bendy, which is notably more humanoid than cartoon Bendy.
• I suppose Joey's lie was that Bendy and the other Toons would be famous and everlasting due to the Ink Machine's power, only for the Toons to realize that Joey only used it for himself to gain immortality and heal his broken leg.

Alternatively, the lie was that Joey would always treat them right and like people.

So when Joey began treating them as experiments and cut open Boris, he broke that promise.

• Partially Jossed. Alice actually was the one who cut Boris open. The part where he treated them as experiments is still open to debate.

"The Creator Lied to us" message wasn't written by the cartoons, but by the employees.

Joey, the "creator" of the cartoons, and their boss, promised all the employees that his Bendy cartoons would make them famous. But, judging by all the unsold merchandise laying around, his cartoons were a failure, and never made them any money. Many of the workers quit, but some, such as Susie, Sammy and Norman weren't so lucky, and were corrupted by the ink from Joey's occult dealings. They now seek revenge on Joey for "Lying" to them, by saying the cartoons would be a success, and for keeping his rituals a secret from them until it was too late.

• Supported further by the writing "I don't want to work here anymore" that is located on the walls on Level P in Chapter 3.

Joey is Bendy's voice actor.

This would add further support to the "Joey is Bendy" theory. If Henry chooses the Demon path over the Angel path, he will hear Joey's recording instead of Susie. He seems to speak in an extremely cheery and falsetto tone. This may be a Shout-Out to the fact that Walt himself was the original voice of Mickey. Plus, if Susie became Alice, why wouldn't Joey (being Bendy's probable actor) become Bendy himself?

Henry either created Bendy or he went on to create a character that doomed Joey Drew Studios

In a hidden room you can come across a recording left by Henry himself who ends it by saying that he "Has an idea of a character of his own." Now. The book with Bendy on it might imply it was Bendy that he came up with, however. given the state of the workshop along with the 30 year gap with Henry working with the studio, Perhaps it can be suggested Henry created a character who actaully suceeded more then Bendy ever did. This would align with how Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse and went on to defeat the Fleischure bros. With Joey being theorized to be Max Fleischure then perhaps Henry could be the Walt of this story.

• Henry creating Bendy is confirmed.

"Ink Demon" or "The Ink Demon" was a nickname Joey's employees gave him behind his back when he started to lose his sanity and displayed increasingly erratic behavior.

Susie Campbell was having an affair with Joey Drew.

"Alice" does say "I won't let the demon touch me again!" in her quiet, meek voice. If we assume Joey is the one used for Bendy...

• Or Joey was doing untoward things to an unwilling Susie.
  • Joey is confirmed to not be Bendy, and is also implied to be gay.

Alternatively, Susie Campbell is the primary, callous personality of Alice Angel

Alice Angel seems to be incredibly vain, and Susie Campbell, while seemingly nice, boasted about going on a date with a high-status person (Joey Drew), and while expressing resentment for Sammy Lawrence getting her hopes up, admits she found him handsome. This suggests her own beauty and dating were of foremost concern to her.This, along with the fact she mentions really feeling a connection with Alice Angel, suggests that she could have simply wanted to be Alice Angel much like what Joey is theorised to have wanted to do with Bendy.From this perspective, her screaming "I'm Alice Angel" is less her lamenting her state as Alice Angel, but expressing her resentment of Allison Pendle; in other words, not "I'm Alice Angel", but "I'm Alice Angel", her insistence that she's the 'real' Alice Angel (as opposed to Allison).In this case, Susie simply underwent the Sanity Slippage Sammy went through and coped with it in a different way. While Sammy made a Religion of Evil, Susie became a Vain Sorceress. And if the WMGs about Joey Drew being Bendy are true... well, it seems neither have lost their humanity quite so thoroughly as their boss.

• Then why is it not Susie's voice speaking the callous lines? And it's Susie's voice that angers Alice Angel to bang on the window and yell "I'm Alice Angel!". It could easily be the selfish Allison staking her claim on the role.
• Actually it is. The "nice" voice is implied to be Alice Angel herself.

Susie was already employed by Joey before voicing Alice.

In one of Susie's recordings, she says she'd already been working for Joey for two months, but notes that the only things she's voiced are "from talking chairs to dancing chickens", and speaks of Alice in the future tense. She was already a voice actor with Joey Drew studios. Allison was likely someone else who worked in the studio, or was Sammy's girlfriend, before she got hired on to be Alice.

• Later tapes imply Sammy was actually dating Susie, and the Employee handbook states that Allison was hired specifically for the role of Alice.
• However, Susie working for Joey before getting the role of Alice is also confirmed by her BATDR teaser.

Joey Drew is not the true villain of the game, nor did he write the letter to Henry.

Instead, the Big Bad is someone who knows the deepest and darkest fears and feelings of everyone in the studio, who knows the hearts desire of the staff and cast, who we have not heard nor seen, nor have we a name for them, but whom we have heard every character in the game speak to. That being the person whom everyone is speaking to in the audio logs, because they are all definitely speaking to someone. Wally Franks, Susie Campbell, Grant Cohen, and Sammy Lawrence directly address them with "you" and asking questions across different recordings. Wally, Shawn Flynn, Norman Polk, Thomas Connor, Henry, and Grant are all complaining directly to someone based on the manner of their speech. Joey Drew is likewise obviously speaking to someone- he actually almost sounds like he's giving a speech in his only known recording. The reason we haven't heard from them is because they do not record their own voices in the audio logs.

It was this mysterious person who sent the letter in an attempt to get rid of everyone who worked for the studio. They are likely still human, and are the actual reason behind all the occult stuff, though they dragged Joey and Sammy into it all.

• The audio logs are more like diaries of sorts, actually. The workers are referring to the audio logs as 'you', like how one would address a diary.
• Yep, thoroughly jossed.

Joey Drew is not the true villain of the game, but he did send the letter.

He sent the letter so Henry would come help, but knew he couldn't directly ask for help. He also wanted to show Henry what the studio had become, maybe thanks to the machinations of the mysterious tape recorder person mentioned above, if they even exist, and knew his time was up. Joey was also the one who dismantled the Ink Machine at the beginning of the game, right before becoming Inked Bendy.

• Joey being Inked Bendy is Jossed, and the ‘tape recorder person’ probably doesn’t exist.

Allison Pendle is the reason why Susie was replaced.

If Allison is the bitter, cruel, vain, and spiteful voice we primarily hear from "Alice", then it's entirely possible she was also jealous of the likable, talented, and charming Susie. Considering Susie knew who Allison was prior to the replacing thing (referring to her as "that... Allison!"), Allison was likely a fellow actress. It's also possible Allison was Sammy's lover at the time, and Susie knew her from her hanging around the music department. What made things different on the day she was replaced was that Allison was in the recording booth, recording Alice Angel's theme song (presumably- this is something she would notice immediately on entering). Either way, Allison got jealous of Susie and either used seniority (Susie had only been working with Joey for a little over two months, but Allison may have been there for longer) or some kind of power she has (if she is Henry's sister) to replace Susie. Allison may have also been intended to be the singing voice of Alice Angel, where Susie did all the speaking parts, and Allison used that to replace Susie. It is also possible Joey saw her as more ideal to become Alice Angel due to her appearance, or Allison being an occultist herself.

• Allison is not part of the "Alice" who attacks Henry so that part is jossed, but we still don't know what the situation between her and Susie was.
• The employee handbook shows she didn’t work for Joey Drew prior to being hired specially to voice Alice and most likely didn’t even know Susie.

Allison Pendle was into the occult

"Alice" does seem to know a lot about sacrificing and what she needs to become beautiful again, and if "Alice" is also Allison... Susie never displays any sings of interest in the occult across her three recordings.

• Allison being part of "Alice" has been jossed, but we don't know what the real one is like yet.
• Although Allison isn’t in Malice, in DCTL she mentions that she thinks the Ink Machine and the idea of what it could create to be “astonishing,” which could imply she has some idea of the occult mechanisms that allow it to create and warp life.

Not only did Wally Franks survive/leave the studio, he's also the one who shut down the Ink Machine in the first place

Wally didn't properly quit or get fired; he had to escape the studio after seeing everyone else turn into ink monsters. But before he got outta there, Wally shut off the Ink Machine to make sure that the ink monsters won't escape the building and that whatever went down in the studio will never happen again. And it makes sense for him to know how to shut it off, since Wally was the Ink Machine's attendant according to its blueprint. Unfortunately, Wally didn't take into account that a certain former animator and co-founder of the studio would return 30 years later and turn the Machine back on...

Joey's obsession over Bendy caused him to not care about, then dislike, then eventually hate the other mascots

That could be why Joey gave Boris a rude personality in all the episodes written by him, even though Boris in the game is much kinder (this could be Boris' true personality that Henry gave him), as well as not caring about Alice's toys not selling and apparently saying something negative about her character (based on "Alice"/Susie's dialogue).

Shawn Flynn was killed by "Alice"

Just a guess based on how he pretty much disrespected Alice Angel by calling her "angel whatchamacallit" and melting down her toys (or at least planning to do so).

Sammy is Boris' voice actor

There seems to be a lot of connection between Sammy and Boris:

• They wear similar overalls, first of all. They don't look exactly the same, but neither do Alice Angel and "Alice's" dresses (the latter has straps and a ribbon on the back, which the former lacks).
• And then there's Boris' Sheep Songs and Sammy's "sheep sheep sheep" chant. Maybe Sammy's chanting is actually the lyrics to Sheep Songs (which was written by Sammy himself◊).
• There is a banjo in Boris' safe house. The banjo is Sammy's favorite instrument.
• The official description for Boris' poster describes him as "a wolf in sheep's clothing" which is a reference to the Bible warning about false prophets appearing as wolves in sheep's clothing. And guess what Sammy calls himself? A prophet.
• This one's a stretch, but: Susie and Allison's last names, Campbell and Pendle, both sound vaguely similar to Angel (not to mention Allison and Alice sound similar as well). Likewise, Sammy's last name, Lawrence, sounds vaguely similar to Boris.

It's possible that Sammy was originally fused with a Boris clone because he was his voice actor, but something went wrong and he ended up becoming some kind of strange humanoid ink creature instead.

Joey and Johnny are related

Their names are pretty similar. Maybe it's intentional...?

Ideas for Henry's last name.

Can be original or one of another character called Henry from a different work, to reveal that he actually is said character. (preferably a Public Domain Character to avoid a lawsuit.)

• His last name is a reference to Frankenstein, so sorta confirmed?

Joey didn't just lie to the Toons and/or workers, he broke a significant promise that he made to them

Hence "Bendy's" exposed left pinky finger.

• As of the Chapter 4 update the left pinky has been removed, so the symbolism doesn't work anymore. That doesn't mean this theory is jossed, of course.

Henry has some kind of amnesia

That's why he fell unconscious when he experienced flashbacks upon approaching the pentagram.

• Confirmed in Dark Revival—Henry has apparently been so messed up by his time in the cycle he can barely remember his own name.

Thomas Connor was the attendant of Ink Machine CK1

He's the only other known repairman of the studio (besides Wally, who was CK2's attendant), after all. And based on the initials in this image◊ (from the Chapter 1 remaster trailer), it seems like Thomas was responsible for keeping track of the ink output from the first Ink Machine.

• Well, he did create it.

Henry either chose to or was otherwise compelled to turn on the Ink Machine

Think back to Chapter 1. Henry gets a letter from Joey saying he wants to show him something. After exploring the old, crumbling studio, Henry finally sees the titular Machine. Why then, did Henry choose to activate the Machine again? Even before seeing it, there are already signs that something has gone horribly wrong in this building, but Henry still presses on. It could be a case of good old Violation of Common Sense...or there's something else at play. And then there's Alice Angel's continued taunts to Henry in Chapters 3 and 4: Why are you here? After all, he didn't have to reactivate the Machine and unleash Inked Bendy...

• Most likely confirmed; the invisible ink message next to it in the New Game Plus reads ‘There Never Was A Choice’

Susie Campbell's plunge into insanity is partially to blame for Alice's deformity.

I'm very convinced by a theory that suggests that if Bendy is Joey, the "The Demon" touching his (imperfect) creations sucks them back into the puddles or at least makes them start to melt (what does an artist do if they mess up on a drawing? Scrap it, make a new one.) It's been implied Bendy has touched Susie!Alice at least once. However, when she was "reborn an angel", what if her insanity tainted the "hold" on the toon? What if "Alice" came out with one lump on her head, a molten halo, and a missing eye, but "close enough" for Susie, since she had the general shape, good enough for her, she's Alice now! Then Bendy comes along and touches her for being imperfect. Half of her mouth melts into the ugly torn strings, two more lumps form on her head, and her left eye melts and warps into an even more gigantic socket than before, only fueling Susie!Alice's rage.

Whoever was recording Joey Drew's tape in Chapter 4 (where he openly denounces his own "dream" speeches) left the recorder running on purpose.

They were hoping that someone would find it and realize what Joey Drew was really like.

Henry and Joey are the same person.

Or at least they were. Henry represents Joey's creativity and passion for animation, which was somehow separated when they began tampering with the ink machine. With only his ambition left, Joey attempted to take the studio to bigger and better heights, but without his creativity and passion it crashed and burned. This is also why Henry considers himself responsible for Joey's success but Joey believes he did it on his own; in a sense, they're both right.

• Jossed. Henry left long before the Ink Machine was built.

Joey was paralyzed by polio and was basically given a death sentence, and he's using the Ink Machine to drain life from his employees to prolong his own existence.

This kind of ties into the "Joey wants immortality" thing, but a few things make me think that Joey has some kind of debilitating and sooner or later fatal disease. The wheelchair that Henry sees in his vision makes me think polio, since one of the common side effect of polio was paraplegia. Bertrum being turned into a scrambler-esque ride, first created in 1938, means that, thirty years ago, a vaccine for polio was nonexistent. Paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair, Joey could do nothing but wait for death...until he discovered the means to prolong his own miserable existence. Although I'm still unclear about where the Ink Machine came from, I think Joey has been using it to drain life force from his employees. Every time they go through, they're fused with the ink in the machine to keep them alive and ready for another harvest by Joey.

It explains why there are so many Boris copies running around - whoever Boris is (my guess is Thomas Connor, because of the game files referring to Robo-Arm-Boris as Tom) was the first and easiest to create. Susie probably figured out what Joey wanted all of the Borises for at some point after she was sent through the machine, and that's why she harvests them to make herself whole and beautiful without having to go through the machine again. The process, if Susie is to be believed, is painful and traumatizing. Which is why the Lost Ones are hidden around the studio, terrified of "him" finding them again. Him, of course, being Inked Bendy, probably another poor employee inked by Joey as the muscle he needs to track down the ink people and toons and send them back through. Sammy, conversely, saw Inked Bendy as his savior - if Bendy sends him through the machine enough times, eventually, he's gotta come out perfect like Boris or Alice, and be free from the body he has now. Inked Bendy probably didn't kill him in chapter 2, just incapacitated him long enough to get him back to the Ink Machine and send him through again for Joey. It's also why Inked Bendy took the Projectionist. Inked Bendy just roams the studio, looking for ink monsters to send through for his master.

Sometime after the start of Chapter 1, Henry is no longer human.

Not only he doesn't leave any footprint when he got out of a pool of ink, he also doesn't have any reflection at the start of Chapter 3.

• Confirmed in Dark Revival. To be specific, he wasn't ever human to begin with.

Joey's limp (assuming he's "Bendy" and the wheelchair belonged to him) was a result of getting his leg broken

It could've been an accident, but it's possible that someone broke his leg on purpose (maybe he was pushed down the stairs?). Perhaps Susie was the one responsible (she did threaten to do something to Joey if she catches him double crossing her), though anyone could be the culprit.

• Joey was confirmed to not be Bendy, so no.

Susie became Bendy's voice actress after being replaced by Allison as Alice's VA

The "opportunity" that Susie mentioned in her Chapter 4 tape was Joey offering her Bendy's role. Unlike what Susie believed (she thought Joey was insulting her behind closed doors), Joey actually recognized her talent and thought she deserved the role of the studio's main star rather than a secondary character like Alice Angel. Susie was reluctant at first, but she chose to accept the role just because it's better than going back to voicing random background characters. However, even after Susie got used to voicing Bendy, a part of her still missed Alice and wanted her role back.

"Alice's" deformed left half of her face is the result of the Ink Machine recognizing Susie's small connection with Bendy and attempting to make her a little more Bendy-like: the torn-up mouth was supposed to be Bendy's big grin, the lumpy face was an attempt at making her face bigger like Bendy's, and part of her halo being sunken into her head was an attempt at getting rid of it since Bendy isn't supposed to have one. This ultimately failed as her emotional connection with Alice was much greater.

As some sort of side effect of transforming into "Alice", Susie's consciousness was split into two: the cruel, vain side that's obsessed with becoming Alice, still believes others were lying when they said she has talent, despises Bendy and hates the other side of herself for accepting his role; and the meek, frightened side that was content with voicing Bendy, and perhaps desired to move one from Alice (along with the actual Alice Angel's personality), now forced to become the angel again with no other choice but to watch her evil side kill other Toons for her own beauty.

• I mean it's kind of more likely the "opportunity" that Joey had for her was to literally become Alice Angel in the theme park. It seems that Joey wanted living cartoon characters instead of mascot costumes- it's most likely why he replaced her as the voice actress in the cartoons.

Wally is Henry's brother (or at least related to him in some way)

This could explain why Wally was never fired despite proving to be a rather incompetent janitor/mechanic. Not to mention the fact that he's the only character whose audio logs are featured in all the chapters so far may imply that he at least has some kind of major role in the story.

Yes, I know their accents don't match, but what if that's supposed to be a Red Herring? Maybe Wally was intentionally speaking in a different accent to be silly and/or to mimic the way his favorite character speaks (maybe Bendy himself?). After all, his "I'm outta here!" Catchphrase already shows that he wasn't the most serious person.

Allison may be good now, but she wasn't the greatest person in the past

If Susie is a metaphorical Fallen Angel (she went from friendly and cheerful to cold, jealous and vain), then Allison could be a metaphorical Ascended Demon. There could be audio logs in Chapter 5 that show her past self as a Jerkass of some sort, especially towards Susie. Allison could've even betrayed Susie at some point (if they used to be friends), hence the way Allison!Alice stabs Susie!Alice right in the back through her heart.

Allison regrets what kind of person she's been in the past. She either never got a chance to apologize to Susie (their encounter in Chapter 4 was definitely not the right time for an apology), or she did apologize but Susie rejected her apology. If the former is the case and Susie somehow returns in Chapter 5, Allison will finally try to apologize to her.

• Susie doesn’t return in chapter 5 and Allison has no audio logs.

Wally became a type of Bendy

Either a perfect/semi-perfect Bendy, or possibly the Ink Demon himself (though I doubt the latter is true since the Demon Path in Chapter 3 implies that Joey became Ink Bendy, not to mention Joey's aggressive personality matches the Ink Demon's behavior throughout the chapters). If Wally became a perfect/semi-perfect Bendy, then he could even be the one whistling Bendy's tune behind that one door in Chapter 2.

Some things that may point to Wally becoming a Bendy:

• Wally is shown to have a rather upbeat an silly personality, much like the little devil himself.
• Wally's audio logs are in every chapter so far and he was the attendant of the Ink Machine, which implies that he could be a major character: someone "worthy" of becoming Bendy, the main cartoon character.
• His catchphrase is "I'm outta here". In animated shorts such as Tombstone Picnic and Haunted Hijinx, Bendy is often shown running away whenever he's scared, aka getting outta there. Heck, even the entire Bendy in Nightmare Run game is about Bendy "getting outta there" (away from the giant enemies that want him dead).
• In one of his audio logs in Chapter 3, Wally says "If these people [other employees] don't start crackin' a smile every now and then, I'm outta here" implying that he himself is in a good enough mood to smile every so often. Bendy is the Toon with the biggest smile.
• Some of the merch feature Bendy with a wrench (examples: 1 2 3 4 5), and Wally used to be a mechanic.
• There's a bunch of Bendy posters near Wally's first audio log.
• This one's a stretch, but Sammy using Wally's dustpan to attack Henry while wearing a Bendy mask could potentially be foreshadowing that the original owner of the dustpan actually became Bendy himself.

Alternatively...

Wally became the perfect Boris in Chapters 2-3

...I don't actually believe in this theory, but it's so popular outside of TV Tropes that someone had to post this here.

Anyways, this one is based on the fact that Boris and Wally are both simple-minded and friendly, and the possibility that Boris owning a toolbox and being somewhat good at handiwork has to do with Wally being a mechanic (plus Thomas, another mechanic, is implied to be the new Boris/Tom at the end of Chapter 4, so there's that too). Also the Boris action figure comes with Wally's keys.

• Jossed

Not only is Henry no longer human, he's...

... the 'good' Bendy, along with Allison and the new Boris.

Both of Alice's voice actors were tied with her new forms. If Henry is Bendy's creator, as it's hinted at in the hidden room with the tape talking about Henry's new character, he might be the good parallel to the ink demon/Joey Drew, and has since gained a new form. Several bits of fanart have guessed this already, and whenever Henry dies, he emerges from an inky tunnel similar to what Susie!Alice described. This might be revealed with him seeing his reflection in the final chapter.

• Henry is not a Bendy.

Henry didn't leave willingly, he was drafted into World War 2. And all of those Horror Vision is PTSD reconnecting with him by replicating similar events he may have done or witnessed in the war.

I started thinking this as all of the posters of the toons had "Buy Bonds" scribbled upon them, but the offical founding of Joey Drew Studios, 1922, and assuming that he was there during the first days of the company, as he May have created the main mascot, Bendy. He probably was in the war from the start to the end and continued to serve in the U.S army. Joey's letter said "If you're back in town, come visit the old workshop." Most servicemen have to constantly move from place to place.

• Now about the other part of this WMG, that the Horror visions is PTSD from similar events. For example, there's a Horror vision after defeating the Giant searcher easter egg boss in Chapter 3, after a Horde fight against a wave of butcher gang members and normal searchers. When you look at the main area that's the arena for the battle, the banisters of heavenly toys somewhat resemble trenches. Maybe Henry had to fight off a small group of troops on his own. Then there's the easter egg in Chapter 2 when you drop the crate onto the miniboss searcher, a horror vision plays. Maybe Henry did that as a trap for incoming troops, but mistakenly killed a minor. The only place I can't think of this working is with The fight between Bendy and The Projectionist. But then again Bendy is an inky monster of nature.
  • While it's still possible Henry is a WW2 vet, the studio was founded in '29, and Henry left in '30, jossing this WMG

Jack Fain, the Miner Searcher, and the Searcher Boss are all the same character

Back when he was human, Jack kept a collection of hats including a bowler hat, a miner helmet, and a top hat/fedora. As a Searcher he always wears a different hat from his collection every time he respawns after death, but his size also keeps changing because his form is unstable. Jack only starts attacking Henry after first getting killed by the wooden crate because he's mad at him for, well, killing him.

Allison Pendle and Thomas Conner ARE the ‘perfect’ Allison Angel and Tom Boris, despite their letters appearing on Joey’s corkboard.

The names of the toons and the humans clearly match up, but some insist they can’t be the same due to the letter on the corkboard. Although they did leave the studio, Joey could have invited them back and transformed them into toons like everyone else. His calendar is set to an August 1963 date, and her letter reads ‘Happy New Year’ so it was clearly sent before the game takes place. Additionally, the last noted date when they were clearly alive was 1952, which leaves plenty of time in between the letter and the game for them to have been brought back in the same way Henry was.Their toon forms are so perfect and non-monstrous because of being created later after Joey had done more experiments with the Ink Machine.Tom could have been made into a Boris specifically because they’re unable to speak. He knows a lot about the Ink Machine and helped construct it, therefore meaning he knows too many of Joey’s secrets and Joey decided he had to be rather literally silenced.

• It’s possible they could have come back even sooner than that, since the preview for The Lost Ones book shows they were rehired by Joey after 1942.
• Jossed. They are explicitly stated to not be the orignal humans, rather they are toons created by Joey inspired by people he knew.

Henry is made of golden ink

The golden ink, used to write the hidden messages visible with the Seeing Tool, shares numerous similarities with Henry, such as being invisible. He’s also the only known person who uses it to write messages. It’s possible that before the events of the game, Henry was transformed into a himself-shaped toon made from golden ink using the missing animation from Tombstone Picnic (the shadow was confirmed to be Henry in a tweet). If Henry were made of golden ink, it would explain why he doesn’t dissolve into thick ink—he’s got a different base component than everything else. It would also explain why he doesn’t show in mirrors but everyone else can see him. The gold ink doesn’t reflect in mirrors, but Henry’s prison sketches have gold ink lines over the black, showing that gold ink is only invisible/golden after the black underneath is erased by the loop.

Toons

The Toons likely came alive some time during the show's heyday.

It might explain the writing "The Creator lied to us" on the wall, because they probably wouldn't be aware otherwise. Alternatively, they metaphorically came to life as they were drawn.

• Jossed

Bendy and Joey are left handed.

Look at "Bendy"'s left hand! It's huge!

Bendy is Able to create and command Hellfire.

He IS a demon after all, and Fire and Brimstone Hell is a trope. Considering 'The Bendy Show' is a 1930's era cartoon, chances are that that world's version of hell falls under the trope. All in all, it would make sense if he could do this. "Bendy", due to not being 'perfect', isn't able to. Hopefully.

• He never does this

The Boris that follows us around is indeed the real Boris.

Hence why he’s so 'perfect'. He’s not one of the clones, he's THE Boris, just humbled by the events going on in the studio, and taking “Alice”’s “The Demon might be listening” warning quite seriously.

• I second this. Boris is the only one that looks like the literal cartoon character and not some poor victim covered in possessed ink with a Boris mask slapped on his face.
• Jossed by Dreams Come to Life. He’s Buddy Lewek.

Bendy was already in the physical world; activating the Ink Machine just gave him a physical body

There was already a lot of blatantly paranormal things going on before the Ink Machine was activated, like the moving Bendy cutouts, the door that has its lights shut off if you come close to it, Boris being vivisected, strange messages that seem to be from Bendy himself, et cetera. Bendy was already haunting the place in spirit form, but activating the Ink Machine just gave him a physical vessel. It'd also explain why Sammy already seemed to have been worshiping Bendy, even though he likely would've only become physical a few hours earlier.

Bendy is an actual demon.

Joey's production company was failing. His latest cartoon character, "Bendy", was a flop, and it looked like he was going to lose everything. So, like many creators, he got into weird things, specifically the occult, as a way of trying to save his hopes and dreams. Shockingly, despite being a complete amateur at occult workings, he actually did manage to contact something: a being from beyond our world that claimed to be a muse willing to help him. In return for letting it take in the adoration and love of fans to sustain itself, it would help Joey's character become a success.

Joey agreed and the deal was made. The only condition was that every so often the "muse" would ask for an offering to help retain the magic and keep Joey's characters successful and popular. At first, it started fairly simple, with personal objects from the staff, some plants, etc. The problems began to crop up, though. People within the company, which was at that point thriving, began to suffer from some peculiarities and behavioral problems; especially the animators. The Muse's demands began to get stranger and stranger, progressing from objects to animals, until eventually, the idea of people came up.

Joey grew suspicious and began to do some research on the side to try and figure out what was going on, only to discover that, based on the symbols he used, he had not contacted a muse. More likely than not, he had contacted a demon, a creature of evil and maliciousness, that was likely using Bendy either as a way to collect souls or as a source of power. All that adoration and love from the fans could easily be used to enter our world with enough time to build it up. In a panic, Joey started quietly subverting its plans, starting with mountains of object sacrifices to keep it sated and tried to stave off a blood sacrifice until he could find a way out of this mess.

Finally, he came up with the idea of simply outdoing the demon at its own game; he set up a summoning circle using what he'd learned while trying to figure out what he'd done to summon the demon to our world and force it to assume Bendy's form and personality. The idea was if he could force it to become Bendy, he could bring it to the real world while keeping it relatively harmless and contained. His idea only half worked. The creature was bound to Bendy's form but not entirely. Joey wasn't able to build the circles properly to fully contain the demon and only managed to partially lock up its powers, which resulted in the messed up demonic form of Bendy we see. Boris was the second attempt, but as Boris was never under demonic influence, he is legitimately innocent in all of this as some form of golem made from Ink, just like Bendy, but not being piloted by a demon.

• This sounds so much like Bill and Ford from Gravity Falls, and I love it for that and also that it seems plausible.

It's possible that, when the Ink Machine brought Bendy and Boris to life, it exposed Bendy as the Big Bad who now has a greater, non-G-rated scope of evil to explore, with Boris being an unfortunate victim of it. Until the Ink Machine is turned back on and resurrects him.

• Possibly Jossed as of "Tombstone Picnic". Boris was a complete jerk and was actually the one subjecting Bendy to his cruelty.

The reason Bendy is the way he is is that he's using an improper host.

Building on the theories above about the cartoons need a host: they need a certain amount of compatibility or they end up like Bendy, half-formed and aggressive.

• Bendy actually has no host at all. Possibly making this worse.

The cardboard cutouts, collectively, are the REAL Bendy.

They regenerate, they follow you around, they aren't actively malicious even if they are creepy as heck, and they seem more curious than anything at your arrival. Heck, they even get together to either watch you perform music or mime playing it themselves. In any non-horror situation, their antics would be amusing most of the time. This troper is of the opinion that all the cutouts of Bendy hanging around are housing his actual personality and mind, the soul of the character if you would. Meanwhile, the ink version was an attempt to make him more realistic, made up of a mix of whatever was left over and something... darker... judging by all the coffins around.

• I second this, and add something more — the cutouts are actually windows for the real Bendy to watch you through. Meaning that the real Bendy is somewhere in the studio.

Based on the theory above: the real Alice Angel is also hiding somewhere in the studio, and watching through cardboard cutouts of herself

However, Alice isn't as active as Bendy because she's terrified of what Inked "Alice"/Susie/Allison(?) will do to her if she finds out that there's a more "perfect" version of herself. Most likely, "Alice" would try to kill the real Alice and take her ink heart or possibly even directly assimilate her. That's also why all the cutouts of her disappear after "Alice's" jumpscare. Plus Alice just isn't as mischievous and adventurous as Bendy.

The real Alice might've even been the one who turned on the tvs in her area, not just to calm Henry with a nice little song, but to let him know that she's there, she's Alice Angel. Too bad she had to be interrupted by an imposter.

Bendy isn't evil. He's scared, confused, and above all angry.

Bendy is a cartoon brought to life from his own whimsical cartoon world into the waking reality. The rules are different, his body is a molten mass of ink he doesn't know how to control, and the world he knew was nothing but some other person's fantasy for the enjoyment of others like him. It's no wonder that Bendy lashes out at his creators. If you figured out your existence was purposefully built to be entertainment for other beings, I would imagine that you'd pretty angry about it too.

• Well, the promo text does indeed say he's angry, but we still don't know exactly why. It could be that the creator lied to him and his gang, but as pointed out, that could be the workers saying that. And that's if this is the actual Bendy...

Bendy's motivation is jealousy and rage.

Bendy's cartoons either failed or his co-stars became famous while he was reduced to a minor character. The characters somehow came to life (likely due to the Ink Machine and whatever dark magic Joey Drew had been practicing) and when Bendy learned of this, he went on a rampage. How can we tell this happened?:

• Who's laughing now? Despite being the main character of the cartoons, Bendy's co-stars are more prominently featured on the posters for his cartoons and his face is always obscured. This suggests that Boris and Alice went on to become more popular characters, similar to how Donald Duck and Goofy ultimately outshone Mickey Mouse, earning their own series. Susie even said that Joey Drew believed Alice "would be as popular as Bendy someday". Bendy is still the face of Joey Drew Studios, but Boris and Alice are the real stars. When Bendy came to life, he grew jealous enough to attack and ritualistically murder Boris.
  • Part of the reason Bendy might have been phased out is because he's unambiguously a devil. The cartoons were clearly made in the 1920s-1930s, during the height of the black and white rubber hose animation era, but also a time of severe religious conservatism. Cartoons of the era quickly came under fire from Moral Guardians due to supposedly adult content, and a demon protagonist would've definitely earned the studio a lot of complaints. So Bendy was gradually phased out in favor of his co-stars. Boris may be a wolf, traditionally a villain character, but at least he isn't a spawn of Hades and looks cuddly enough to be marketable to children. As for Alice, she's an angel, 'nuff said.

• The Creator lied to us. Alternatively, the cartoons never achieved the popularity the animators had hoped or flopped entirely. Based on the copious amounts of Bendy memorabilia lying around the studio, Joey strongly believed the cartoons would go on to become beloved classics and the characters had massive marketing potential, setting up a huge merchandising deal. Unfortunately, the Bendy cartoons never caught on, culminating in the studio closing. When Bendy came to life and found out about this... well, look around.

Most of the early Bendy and Boris cartoons are a case of Evil Versus Evil

Bendy is a demon, so obviously no matter how cute and silly he might have been in the cartoons, the people of the 1930s would still likely view him as Always Chaotic Evil. That's OK in this case, because plenty of old cartoons star a The Prankster or a similar Villain Protagonist. But look at the title of the cartoon we know about starring Boris the Wolf: Sheepsongs. Is a wolf trying to steal livestock likely to be the good guy? The plot of Sheepsongs is most likely to be about Boris and Bendy both trying to get their jaws on a lost sheep, only to be foiled by one another's plans each time until the sheep escapes to rejoin its flock at the end, especially if it was made before Joey Drew started going nuts. Other cartoons, at least at first, would follow the same general idea of Bendy and Boris ruining each other's plans, usually ending with the goal becoming unreachable for both, more rarely with one or the other emerging victorious. They'd likely only start teaming up when Alice Angel emerged as a true good guy, or maybe not so good. Much later cartoons, say during and after the building of the Ink Machine, would probably have wound up significantly more disturbing due to Mr. Drew being fully immersed in his cultist activities, when they managed to come out at all.

The "inked Bendy" will continue to evolve as the game develops.

His model won't just update between chapters, but will entirely replace the older models in the earlier chapters as well, which may have disturbing implications in the grand scheme of things...

• Bendy's cartoons were the kind that had no continuity. The way things are now are the way they've always been. The Ink Machine has this effect on reality itself.

Bendy and Alice Angel are not boyfriend and girlfriend. They're related.

Explains why theMeatly goes disturbingly silent in the questions and answers video when asked if they were dating. Abandon Shipping!

• Alternatively, they have a lot of No Yay, so even if they aren't related, the idea of them dating would still be creepy.
  • Well, there's the fact that the cartoons show Bendy having childish tendencies (trick-or-treating and building a snowman, which were seen as more child's stuff back then than they are now) and along with his short stature. Assuming he's not a short Manchild and rather an actual kid, there's the fact that Alice looks like she's in her late teens at least and late 20's at most... see the problem yet?

Alice Angel's role in the show was as a Butt-Monkey.

As a fallen angel, Alice is trying to earn back her angel status by capturing a high ranking demon to bring before her former superiors. However, the demon she chose to chase after is, of course, Bendy, who would always outsmart her at every turn and subject her to heavy amounts of slapstick and humiliation. Essentially, her role was akin to the likes of Tom the Cat or Wile E. Coyote.

• As of "Tombstone Picnic", Bendy actually seems to have the role of the Butt-Monkey. But don't worry. Maybe Alice will be one too, so it's not jossed yet!

There are multiple Borises because he is The Voiceless.

So far, it seems like the ink will only transform voice actors into more or less perfect forms of their characters. (Sure, Alice's face is screwed up, but her appearance is leagues above, say, Sammy's) It currently appears that no more than one (voiced) cartoon character can be running around at the same time because they only have one voice actor. Since Boris doesn't have a voice, he doesn't need a proper host to be born from the ink. This could also explain why Sammy didn't transform into a Boris (given the overalls), having Sammy's voice would "ruin" Boris' character, so the ink rejected him.

"Perfect" toons are non-aggressive and act like their actual character would. It's the warped and still partially human ones that are causing all the trouble.

The fully-formed Boris you meet is the only "ink toon" who acts peaceful and helpful, while the still-part-Susie Alice and the other ink creatures tend to be wild and aggressive. This is because of the influence of their "human" minds still being part of them. A "perfect" or "complete" toon has completely been taken over by the character's personality.

'Alice' was actually going to let you go, she just changed her mind at the last second because she decided she couldn't let Boris leave

The part of Alice that is still Susie recognised Henry, and is distraught at what Alice/she have been doing to the other ink toons. She wanted to make it right, she wanted to let Henry and Boris go. Changing your mind is easy though when you've a hell of a split-personality. Or maybe Alice has convinced her that becoming 'perfect' will let her go free as a separate person again, or just end the pain of their combined existence together.Either way, Boris couldn't be let go.

Alice only thinks she knows what Henry's here to do, but he's really just trying to get out alive - nothing more.

If Alice was the one who wrote 'The Creator lied to us' (possible, given that she's one of many employees who have been trapped in this living nightmare and one of the many toons who have been similarly trapped) maybe she thinks Henry is here to finish a job Joey started. Maybe the dual-mind inside has made her paranoid.

"Alice" is not Alice Angel.

Yeah, She's actually Susie Campbell fused with the real Alice Angel. Maybe Susie was about to be attacked by "Bendy" and become corrupted by his ink, so Alice Angel saved her by using her ink instead and fusing with Susie. Susie probably needs the Toons' hearts to be freed of the ink and become human again.

• She’s definitely Susie, but a newer tape suggests she became this way after being Joey’s first experiment with the ink machine

Alice Angel would indeed have been popular as Sammy promised had they not changed her voice actress.

It seems very strange that they'd mention Susie was fired and replaced with Allison Pendle, and mention that Alice Angel didn't sell well, and have "Alice" mention that Alice had been a beloved character, all in one chapter. So it is entirely possible, considering the rest of the insanity, that the Susie we see, whose voice we hear say Alice Angel is beloved, is from a world where she was the voice of Alice and where Alice Angel succeeded. Allison Pendle ruined Alice Angel. This might also explain why we hear a recording of Susie singing for Alice Angel, but not Allison Pendle, even though Susie supposedly never recorded even a word of Alice Angel's dialogue. That recording we hear of "I'm Alice Angel" is one of Susie's from the world where she recorded for Alice Angel and where Alice Angel was actually successful.

Alice Angel was not a Fallen Angel, she was a Risen Devil

Simply put, Alice Angel was a devil who became an angel, not an angel who fell from grace. Hence why she has a halo and why all her posters are themed around being angelic.

The Ink Monsters are evil. But the toon forms of all the characters are always good. Or as good as the character.

So far, we’ve seen six characters; five ink monsters (Bendy, Alice, and the Butcher Gang) and one toon (Boris). The only one of those five ink monsters that doesn’t try to kill you on sight is Alice, and even she’s not a heroine by any means. On the other hand, Boris is the only character who seems to want to be an ally to Henry. And, he’s also the only toon we’ve seen so far. Not to mention, the employees become Ink Monsters too, and of the ones we’ve seen, none of them have retained their humanity. But maybe there’s a toon Bendy and Alice somewhere in there, scared, alone, waiting for Henry. And maybe an inky Boris is what’s scaring them. Alternatively...

• There doesn't seem to be a hard line between 'toon' and 'monster.'

All of the toons can transform in and out of their monster forms at will.

As stated above, all of the ink monsters are evil, and the only toon so far is good. But rather than corruption, it’s because they use that form when they’re trying to kill someone. Alice can’t turn back into a cute little angel, so she needs toons’ parts to become “perfect” again. This is also why she likes Boris so much. He’s almost never a monster, so for an ink monster trying to turn back into her toon form, that would make him perfect.

• Jossed. The only time a toon is ever seen transforming to and from their monstrous form, it's caused by an outside force and against their will.

Inked Bendy is searching for Joey, and attacked Henry because he can't tell the difference between humanoids.

"The Creator Lied To Us" clearly indicates that Bendy's mad at Joey, his artist, but why would he attack Henry? Notice how the entire top half of his face is covered by ink. His eyes didn't form correctly, so while he can sense you when you're nearby, he can't see you, and thus doesn't realize he's attacking the wrong person. It would explain why he also attacked Sammy: He only sensed a humanoid and thought Sammy was Joey.

Ideas for Bendy's meta voice actor/actress.

Can be either version.

• theMeatly himself?
• David Eddings (Joey's voice actor, to further imply that he and "Bendy" are one and the same.)
• Tara Strong.
• Squigglydiggs, the creator of the Toon!Henry AU. She has a metal cover of Gospel of Dismay on her YouTube channel, in which she voices/sings Bendy's parts. Even better is her newest song, Welcome Home. Look them up and say that isn't one of the most fitting voices for Bendy you've ever heard.
• Alanna Linayre, based on the theory in the above folder that Susie became Bendy's VA after being replaced as Alice's VA.

There will be a Toon sheep character

With all the mentions of sheep in this game, from Boris' "Sheep Songs" to Sammy calling Henry a sheep, I would be surprised if a sheep mascot is never introduced before the game ends.

Some possibilities on what kind of character they could be:

• A Distaff Counterpart of Boris, like how Bendy and Alice appear to be counterparts of each other
• An Expy of Donald Duck, who may be part of a Power Trio with Bendy and Boris similar to the Mickey/Goofy/Donald trio
• A major antagonist and Bendy's nemesis, similar to Pete; could serve as a parallel/constrast to Henry vs the Ink Demon
• A Sleepyhead (with or without a Punny Name such as "Sleepy" or "Dreamy"), based on the lyrics of Sammy's sheep chant
• A Black Sheep or White Sheep, both literally and metaphorically
• A character that was so unpopular (even more than Alice Angel) that they had to be removed from the show altogether
• A character that Joey was never able to use in his animations because Henry still owned the rights to them when he left the studio (basically the opposite of what happened to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit)
• A rejected prototype design of an existing character (likely either Bendy, Boris, or Alice)

Either way, this Toon sheep could play some kind of important role in the last chapter considering Henry himself is the one associated with sheep.

• A sheep character is never introduced.

In the show, the Butcher Gang is supposed to be the Evil Counterpart of Bendy, Boris, and Alice

Tombstone Picnic, Haunted Hijinx, and Snow Sillies take place at some point after Boris has been fed up with Bendy's pranks on him

At first Boris was nice and friendly to Bendy the same way he was to Henry. But after being subject to Bendy's mischief numerous times, Boris decided to retaliate by acting like a jerk towards him.

Alternatively...

Boris started out as a jerk character, but was later written to be nicer after more antagonists (such as the Butcher Gang) were introduced in the show

The friendly personality of Boris that we see in Chapter 3 is his "most up-to-date" personality.

Alternatively (...again)...

Boris' personality was portrayed differently depending on whether the episode was written by Henry or Joey

In episodes written by Henry, Boris was depicted as a big friendly wolf, which is what we see of him in Chapter 3; this is Boris' true personality. However, in episodes written by Joey (i.e. Tombstone Picnic, Haunted Hijinx and Snow Sillies), Boris was depicted as a total jerk who has no sympathy for Bendy. For whatever reason, Joey was so obsessed with Bendy that he couldn't stand seeing him characterized as a "bad guy" in any way (even if it's something like successfully pranking someone and getting away with it). So Joey made sure Bendy would always be as sympathetic and helpless as possible in all his episodes, and one of his methods was twisting Boris' personality to be meaner (to Bendy) than he's actually supposed to be.

This could've happened to other characters too. For example, Henry's version of Alice Angel could've been a sweetheart, while Joey's version of her could've been arrogant and bratty. Henry's version of the Butcher Gang could've been antagonistic but still goofy and sympathetic, while Joey's version of them could've been much more cruel and irredeemable. This might've even contributed to Alice turning out to be unpopular, especially once Henry was no longer around to write any episodes where she's portrayed as a likable character.

If any other "perfect" Toons (like Boris) show up in the game, they will have the personality that Henry gave them, leaning towards the nice/likable side.

Basically, In-Universe Depending on the Writer

Somewhat related to the theory above: Henry created all the mascots, and his drawings were used to create the perfect Toons

Henry's audio log in Chapter 3 already confirms that he did create at least one of the mascots; maybe he created Bendy first, then when he became popular Henry went on to create the other characters too.

The in-game Boris has the kind personality that Henry gave him because he was created specifically using Henry's drawing of him, not Joey's. The Toons created with Henry's drawings are perfect because, not only are they the original/"true" versions of the mascots, but also because Henry put so much of his heart into drawing his own creations. The clones on the other hand, created with drawings made by Joey (and maybe anyone else who knows how to draw), are imperfect because, since Joey and anyone else aren't the ones who created the mascots, they were unable to come as close to the true versions of the characters as Henry could (not to mention they likely didn't put as much love and effort into the drawings as Henry did), especially since Joey's version of the mascots' (except maybe Bendy's) personalities and such are warped/inaccurate.

• Confirmed by DCTL—Henry created the big three mascots.

Alice Angel is neither a fallen angel nor an ascended demon, she's an angel-demon hybrid

Specifically, her mother is a demon and her father is an angel, hence Alice's last name. She has also decided to follow her dad's (or mom's, if the dad is a fallen angel and the mom is an ascended demon) footsteps by living in heaven and acting kind like an angel would.

Boris can speak

Some ideas as to why Boris doesn't speak in Chapter 3:

• In-Universe: maybe only real Toons are able to speak, while all clones are mute (unless they're fused with a human). Boris could've been pretending to be a clone by not saying anything so that it would be more likely for "Alice" to dismiss him. His plan didn't work, unfortunately.
• In-Universe #2: To keep the Ink Demon from finding him. “Bendy” has been stated to operate on sound.
• In-Universe #3: he is a clone (who the real Boris might've controlled/possessed in order to help Henry), who is unable to speak as a result of being slightly imperfect (something that "Alice" was willing to ignore because he was still the most perfect Boris she's ever seen). Maybe he can't even open his mouth, which would also explain why he didn't eat the soup that Henry gave him.
• Meta: maybe the devs intentionally kept his voice hidden because revealing his meta voice actor could spoil who his in-universe voice actor is. For example, if Boris is voiced by Aaron Landon (Sammy's VA), then revealing Boris' voice in Chapter 3 and including Landon's name in the credits could spoil Sammy being Boris' in-universe VA.
  • DCTL suggests that Boris does not speak at all, due to the main character losing the ability to talk after being transformed into the Boris we meet in the game.

Related to the above, Boris’s In-Universe VA was…

Henry, but when he left the studio, Sammy took over. The Boris we find uses Henry’s “Boris voice”, indicating he’s the real Boris.

Alice Angel having both demonic and angelic traits is symbolizing how Inked "Alice" has two different sides to her

The demon horns represent "Alice's" vain, evil side (possibly Allison), and the angel halo represents her sweeter, frightened side (most likely Susie). Same goes for "Alice's" face: the messed up side on her left represents Allison(?) and the somewhat more normal-ish side on her right represents Susie.

Also, possible foreshadowing: even though Alice has both angelic and demonic traits, in the end she's still an angel. The "demonic" Allison(?) may be the one primarily in control now, but in the end the "angelic" Susie will be the one who ultimately takes control of "Alice".

• Sort of confirmed in chapter 4, except it's implied that the "good" side is Alice Angel and the "bad" side is Susie.

If Inked "Bendy" and a perfect/semi-perfect Bendy (assuming there is one) fuse together, they will resemble "Wandering Sin" Bendy

Maybe they won't look exactly the same (i.e. their body won't be as small and cartoony due to "Bendy" being so large and humanoid), but they'll at least still have those creepy eyes, which could actually be Joey's (or whoever is part of "Bendy") human eyes.

• Jossed.

The Butcher Gang members were all voiced by one person

...And he was killed, somehow split up and fused with clones of all three members of the Butcher Gang. That's why the Inked "Butcher Gang" members look more toony/less humanoid than "Bendy" or "Alice": they only contain parts of a human rather than whole humans.

• This is a stretch, but what if Johnny is their voice actor? First of all, Johnny and the "Butcher Gang" are both associated with hearts (Johnny's Broken Heart achievement in 2, the ink heart collecting task in 3; it's also worth noting that you have to play the organ five times for the former and collect five hearts for the latter). Maybe "Alice" taking their hearts is sort of symbolizing how Johnny's heart was stolen (then later broken) by Susie and/or Allison. Since Johnny is associated with the pipe organ, it's safe to assume he was part of the music department; if they dealt with all audio for the cartoons and not just music, including character voices, then it's possible that Johnny was both an organ player and a voice actor. Also, judging from the screams that follow every time you play the organ, Johnny's voice sounds just gruff enough to fit the Butcher Gang members if he were to voice them properly. Maybe one piece of his consciousness was put into the organ while the rest of him were fused with the clones.

The Toon-based ink monsters were created using imperfect Toon clones

If you compare a Boris clone to our "perfect" Boris, the clone has several messy sketch lines while our Boris' texture is much cleaner. These kinds of sketch lines can be seen on ALL the Toon-based monsters we've seen so far if you look at them closely, which may indicate that all of them were made with Toon clones, or more specifically, by fusing clones with humans. And if we assume that perfect Toon = real Toon, that would mean none of the monsters are the real Bendy, Alice, etc. or contain their consciousness in any way. As for the actual real versions of those Toons, either they've been killed already, or perhaps they're still hiding somewhere like what the real Boris had been doing.

• Possibly Jossed, since Tom is implied to be Thomas Connor yet he doesn't have any messy sketch lines on him.

The 'liar' sign on Fisher's belt isn't referring to the Creator

It's actually Barley himself that's been labeled as a liar. Either the real Barley or his voice actor lied about something to Joey at some point in the past; if it was the former, Joey made an example of Barley clones by mutilating them and putting the 'liar' signs on them, and if it was the latter, Joey killed the VA and fused him with mutilated Barley clones as a punishment.

The whistling in the Chapter 2 teaser trailer and the singing in the Chapter 3 reveal trailer are from the real Bendy and Alice, respectively

• Bendy's whistle: Bendy's voice consists of whistling sounds in cartoons such as Tombstone Picnic, so it's possible that he's the one whistling in the trailer. And it's unlikely that Inked "Bendy" is the one whistling since he only ever makes growling noises and such.
  • This whistle can also be heard from a locked door in the ink pool area in Chapter 2 if Henry walks towards it backwards (to prevent "Bendy" from spawning); Bendy himself could've been right behind the door. And the reason why "Bendy" appears between Henry and the door (rather than behind Henry and cornering him) could be because, for yet unknown reasons, "Bendy" wants to keep Henry and Bendy from meeting each other...
  • Sammy describes the whistle as having a "sinister purpose". This could mean that either there's something sinister about the real Bendy despite him not being a monster, or it's just a Red Herring and Bendy's just as much of a good guy as Boris.
• Alice's song: first of all the singing voice sounds nothing like Inked "Alice's" main, evil voice, so it's clear that she's not the one singing in the trailer (especially if you compare the song to her humming the exact same melody). While it could be "Alice's" secondary, softer voice, the singing voice also sounds very similar to Alice's voice in her "I'm Alice Angel" song, so it could be either of them. Though, if the whistle is really meant to be hinting at the real Bendy's existence, then it's likely that the song is supposed to hint at the real Alice existing as well.
  • It's also worth noting that Chapter 3 is where the cardboard cutouts of Alice are introduced. And if the "the real Toons are watching through/controlling cutouts of themselves" theory is true, then the song could be hinting at the introduction of the real Alice's presence through her own cutouts.

Maybe in an upcoming chapter, Henry will have to follow the whistle/song and find the real Bendy/Alice, waiting for him. And/or maybe Bendy and Alice will use their tunes to lure enemies away from Henry.

• The whistling is Joey, I think.

The "white"/light brown areas on the Toons are made out of paper pulp

Alternativly, their clothing is made of (highly durible and flexible) paper pulp, both mostly blank for white articles, and stained with ink of verying shades for black, grey, etc. It would explain why Boris’s overalls look so sketchy.

• Seemingly confirmed by BATDR—Joey describes them as being created from "paper and ink."

Inked "Bendy" has mismatched eyes under the ink on his face, and Inked "Boris" will have mismatched eyes as well

Since "Alice", Piper, Fisher, and Striker all have mismatched eyes, maybe "Bendy" and "Boris" will follow the same pattern too.

• Jossed for "Boris" whose eyes are both X-shaped. We have yet to find out how "Bendy's" eyes look like, though.

Bendy and Boris were originally mute/near-mute, but they were later given voices with proper dialogue at some point after Alice Angel's introduction

Considering how even background characters like talking chairs and dancing chickens had voices, it's unlikely that 2 of the main characters of the show remained voiceless. As for why we haven't heard Bendy and Boris' (full) voices yet: maybe the identities of their voice actors are spoilers (especially if they're someone important, like Joey Drew or Henry or even Sammy Lawrence; not to mention the identity of Bendy's VA can serve as a hint towards who "Bendy" is, like how Susie Campbell is "Alice"), so the voices of the characters themselves are kept hidden for now.

The first Alice's timid voice was the last dredges of the actress's sanity.

I'm not 100% certain where she was Allison or Susie. (Susie's tapes of her devolving into insanity suggest the latter.) "But I had to do it. She made me." Maybe the otherwordly beings from the ink machine can "get in humans' heads", so to speak. What if "Alice" got into her head, driving her to insanity to turn herself into an ink monster. What if the timid voice is the last bits of Susie/Allison before she went completely mad from jealousy

• The alternative interpretation is just as sad. What if the Ax-Crazy Manipulative Bitch voice is actually Susie, having fully embraced vanity, jealousy, and insanity and the meek voice is what Toon!Alice was supposed to be in personality, were she created perfect: a demure, kind-hearted angel?

Bendy Land was meant to be an amusement park similar to Jurassic Park, only with real life toons instead of dinosaurs.

• Not the OP, they just typed the WMG and didn't add to it, but I think this makes the most sense. It'd explain why Susie AND Allison were both hired to be Alice Angel- Susie was hired to BE Alice, Allison to VOICE Alice. Supposedly, Susie never actually recorded dialogue for Alice (I can't find where this is stated though? Susie herself implies she did voice Alice for a time), why Joey calls her "Alice" instead of "Susie", and also, simply why Joey would want the Ink Machine. It also explains why Joey originally tried to make Bendy with it. Initially it seems that he thought he could just use the Ink Machine to create living, sentient versions of his cartoons, but the Bendy he made had no soul and was deformed. So he turned to Hollywood Satanism, and decided to use the heartbroken but eager Susie as his first human test subject.
• Confirmed by DCTL.

"Boris" was brought to life using Johnny's ink/remains from the pipe organ

That's why there's a pipe organ in the area where Henry fights "Boris": it's supposed to be hinting at who "Boris" really is, or at least who his body is controlled by.

• Jossed.

There are 3 versions of each Toon

• Perfect: Bendy, Boris, Alice Angel, Charley, Barley, Edgar ("real" Toons brought to life, not created with any employees)
• Semi-perfect: [???] Bendy (Wally?), Tom (Thomas?) and other Boris clones (unknown employees), Allison, [???] Butcher Gang (Grant, Shawn, and Lacie?)
• Corrupted: "Bendy" (Joey?), "Boris" (Johnny? Or clone/unknown employee), "Alice" (Susie), Piper, Fisher, Striker (clones/unknown employees)

Alternatively, only Bendy, Boris, and Alice will have 3 versions of themselves, while the Butcher Gang will have just 2 (perfect and corrupted) due to being less important to the story. In this case, Grant, Shawn, and Lacie will appear as unique ink monsters similar to Sammy, Norman, and Bertrum.

And if the theory above about a Toon sheep existing turns out to be true, maybe Henry will turn into a semi-perfect version of them while Linda (assuming she got a job at the studio and got sacrificed) will appear as a corrupted version, or vice versa.

• Jossed.

Perfect Toons were created using parts of Henry's soul

Henry in the past has put so much of his heart and soul into drawing the cartoon characters that he somehow literally imparted parts of his soul into his creations, similar to how Guertena from Ib imparted his own soul into his artwork and made them come to life (implied in his diary):

Guertena: "It's said that spirits dwell in objects into which people put their feelings. I've always thought that, if that's true, then the same must be true of artwork. So today, I shall immerse myself in work, so as to impart my own spirit into my creations."

However, in Henry's case this was completely unintentional, and he himself has no idea that this happened. And it was not until some occult ritual stuff happened with the Ink Machine that these Toons actually came to life.

The parts of Henry's soul used to create the perfect Toons didn't contain any of his consciousness, which is why Boris acts just like his cartoon counterpart (friendly, likes food, etc.) and not like Henry himself.

• Jossed.

Boris was the first character created by Henry

Or at the very least he was created before all the other currently known Toons (Bendy, Alice, etc). That's why the bond between Boris and Henry was emphasized so much in Chapters 3 and 4.

Even though Boris was the first to be created, he ended up becoming a side (albeit still somewhat major) character after getting his spotlight stolen by Bendy, another one of Henry's creations.

• Jossed. In TIOL, Bendy was first. Then again, Joey is a less than reliable source.

"Bendy" was never trying to kill Henry

Based on the way he acts in Chapters 1-3, it's easy to assume that "Bendy" is chasing down Henry with the intent to kill him. However, his actions in Chapter 4 may suggest otherwise: after he jumpscares Henry in the vents, "Bendy" just leaves instead of trying to attack him. And when Henry gets into trouble with the Projectionist, "Bendy" breaks through the metal door and kills the Projectionist. Instead of waiting for Henry to come out of the Little Miracle Station, "Bendy" just gives him a look, takes the Projectionist's body and leaves.

If "Bendy" really wants to kill Henry, why didn't he break down the wooden door in Chapter 2 (he just bangs on it a few times then walks away) or the vent cover in Chapter 4 despite being strong enough to literally tear open a sealed metal door? This is either a pretty big Plot Hole, or it's evidence that "Bendy" doesn't actually want Henry dead. Maybe "Bendy" was only chasing Henry because he wants to get his attention, needs to tell him something, ask him for help, etc. (he could've been trying to simply grab Henry as opposed to straight-up murdering him) but his ink is dangerous enough to instantly kill Henry just by touching him (it can even kill weaker ink monsters like the "Butcher Gang" members, after all). And "Bendy" killing both Sammy and the Projectionist could actually be him trying to protect Henry from them. When "Alice" says "And this time, there's no Ink Demon, no escape" during Henry's fight with "Boris", maybe she means there's no Ink Demon around to save Henry from "Boris".

As for why "Bendy" does try to attack Henry in Chapter 1: he didn't know that was Henry, he thought that was someone else. Someone else who would have a reason to turn the Ink Machine back on, someone who may have caused all this mess in the first place. Maybe Joey Drew, though that's only if Joey himself isn't "Bendy". Or maybe Wally Franks, since he's the attendant of the Ink Machine, and "Bendy" could have some kind of grudge against him for whatever reason (regardless of whether Wally is good or secretly evil). Alternatively, "Bendy" did know that was Henry, he was just trying to scare Henry into leaving the studio and keep him from getting dragged into the whole mess (which could've worked, if it wasn't for the floor beneath him breaking before he could reach the exit).

Piper, Fisher, and Striker were mutilated by Bendy's cult

All 3 "Butcher Gang" members' defects look like they've been intentionally made (like "Boris") rather than naturally formed (like "Alice" and "Bendy"). Unlike "Boris" however, "Alice" likely isn't the culprit this time since she can't even stand letting any of them near her. Instead, Bendy's cult could've been the one who mutilated the "Butcher Gang" clones as punishment for antagonizing Bendy in the cartoons, even if the clones aren't actually the real Butcher Gang.

The black buttons and white circles on Bendy and Alice's gloves are supposed to match their demon horns and angel halo, respectively

All the other Toons either wear blank gloves or don't wear gloves at all because they're neither demons nor angels.

Alice Angel has some kind of angelic power that can keep evil beings from entering places; Susie and Allison also gained this ability after transforming into Alices

The Little Miracle Stations can keep out ink creatures such as "Bendy", the Projectionist, and "Butcher Gang" members because either Susie or Allison (or maybe even the real Alice, if she exists) used her power on them, the process of which apparently involves drawing a halo on the door. And Susie was so sure that "this time, there's no Ink Demon" during "Boris" and Henry's fight because she used her power to keep "Bendy" out of the Haunted House attraction.

Bendy is a Fallen Angel, not Alice

Alice is an angel/demon hybrid which is why both her halo and her horns are fully intact. She has chosen the path of the angel and has been sent from heaven by god(s?) or an archangel to earth, probably to complete some kind of task (this is what "Sent from Above" is referring to; if it was referring to her falling from grace then she wouldn't sound so happy about it in her song "I'm Alice Angel").

Bendy, on the other hand, was born as an angel but was kicked out of heaven for being too mischievous, losing his halo and growing a pair of horns as a result of becoming a demon/fallen angel. Even though Bendy has fallen from grace, he still kept some of his kindness that he was born with as an angel, which is why he's nicer than even "mortals" like the Butcher Gang despite being a literal demon. Bendy technically belongs in hell now, but he either left on his own accord or was kicked out because he couldn't fit in with the other demons there (most of which were born as demons and are therefore less accepting of fallen angels) who are much more evil than him.

• Jossed by Crack-Up Comics. Bendy has always been an impish devil.

There were more Alice Angel clones besides Susie and Allison, but most of them have been killed already

Possible culprits are Susie (she definitely wouldn't be so happy about other Alices besides herself existing), the Lost Ones (both this and the Chapter 5 trailer suggest that they're not so fond of Alices), "Bendy" himself, and ink monster!Shawn (possibly foreshadowed by how he said he'll have to get rid of all the Alice toys in his audio log).

The Ink Machine

The Ink Machine has unexpected reality-warping effects.

The building's stylized appearance is just as unrealistic in-universe — Henry probably hasn't noticed yet, just as the weirdness of dreams makes perfect sense until you wake up. Turning the Ink Machine back on makes things worse, such as introducing the rule that a character who dies can come back in the next episode. Oh. Wait. Oh god.

• The stylization existing in-universe is confirmed in Dark Revival.

Adding to the above...

The Ink Machine brought full-on Cartoon Physics into the real world, causing a 50/50 blend of our logic and the logic of the toon-world. This is why Henry is still alive: He's now half-toon. Cartoons NEED Rule of Funny to work at all. Someone dying from a heart attack while getting chased by a Humanoid Abomination wouldn't be very funny, but hiding in what looks like an outhouse to trick said abomination into thinking they disappeared would be amusing to the viewers. Hell, this kinda gag probably popped up in The Bendy Show. Only reason we aren't laughing is because we're playing as the (half-)toon who has to run and hide in case The Dancing Demon comes to play (that being Henry by the way). Once (or if) Henry figures this out, he will exploit this as much as possible. He used to work as an Animator at Joey Drew Studios after all, so chances are he knows a thing or two about the gags employed by the cartoons he animated. Evidence that supports this theory includes Henry's absurd durability (surviving a couple massive falls and being thrown across a large room, as well as taking the arm and/or car of an octopus ride to the face and live), his apparent usage of Hammerspace (being able to hold a large amount of empty Bacon Soup cans, have seemingly endless amounts of Thompson ammo), Et Cetera Et Cetera.

The Ink Machine is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

A machine meant for producing, storing, and dispensing ink. Or at least, it used to be, before Joey did whatever the the hell it was he did. Abelbuild is innocent in all of this, unlike was suggested below.

The Ink Machine's reality-warping enables Negative Continuity, but there's a catch.

If the machine is destroyed, everything undone by its cartoon-esque effects on reality will be re-done, including all injuries and deaths.

That's not what the Ink Machine really looks like.

If Henry destroys it, it'll start to return to its horrifying original form — and we'll find out what the animators were actually putting up with.

The Ink Machine caused the studio's downfall, but not how you expected it.

With the advent of Technicolor, many studios changed their production method and character designs to accommodate the new technology. But Joey's insistence on using the ink machine meant the studio could not update with the rising trend of color, and the movie theaters stopped buying their cartoons.

The Ink Machine is an Eldritch Abomination, and its ink isn't ink at all, but some sort of Eldritch Location

"Alice" says something to the effect of "Do you know what it's like? Living in the dark puddles? It's a BUZZING, SCREAMING, WELL OF VOICES!" almost as if the puddles themselves contain hundreds of disembodied souls living in there who presumably need a physical host to stay on our plane of existence (like Abrahamic demons, almost?) and based on how she reacts to the idea of going back, it's not a pleasant place to be. Long story short, the ink is either a portal to the "toon dimension" or is the "toon dimension" (it also helps that a flat puddle of ink is 2D, just like cartoons). Unfortunately, the Eldritch Location of the "toon dimension" is anything but the happy cartoons Joey drew.

The Ink was meant to grant eternal life, and does... In a fashion.

It's been thirty years since Henry left Joey Drew Studios, and the studio has probably been closed for most of it, but a great number of former humans are still alive inside it, between the Searchers, Sammy, Susie, Norman, and maybe, just maybe, even Joey Drew himself. While they could have been eating bacon soup the whole time, and notably the living toons CAN eat it if at least one particular Boris is any indication, it seems unlikely that they would all be constantly eating that over the better part of three decades, just because at some point early on shipments would have had to stop, so that even if it was produced in-house (not impossible, since the toy factory was also inside the studio) they would have run out of any non-ink-based ingredients, and the whole building probably wasn't completely filled with enough cans of soup to last humans so long as well as any hungry toons who arose from the ink. Besides, at least one inked human, Norman aka The Projectionist, has a Non-Human Head that lacks any visible mouth. Sustenance must have come from some other source. And then there's Joey Drew talking up the power of belief perhaps even being enough to cheat death in his audio log. He wanted to live forever, and he built the machine to that end. But the Ink had its own nature beyond simply preserving life: corrupt, break, assimilate, covering and bonding with the bodies of its victims until the thoughts of everyone who entered the Ink swim through the darkness, as one described it, like fish in a bowl, leaving them "alive" for far longer than their bodies should be able to hold out, and maybe even capable of coming back from death under the right conditions from how Alice talks about having been alive through the Ink multiple times, but in such a painful and horrifying sense that, if their minds were still intact, they'd have long since come to wish they had left when they could so that they could have just died as humans instead of living as monsters. While Ink constructs don't have Complete Immortality in themselves except through the Ink, they are at the very least capable of being tougher than usual and immune to the ravages of time, which ranges from the Searchers "only" being able to take a hit from a lead pipe and needing a second to break them back down into Ink, to Boris being able to survive an elevator crash designed to murder Henry and get right back up, all the way to The Projectionist's Super-Toughness and even Inked Bendy's outright invincibility. Of course, Henry is himself Made of Iron: a man his age shouldn't have been able to so easily walk off the fall at the end of Chapter 1, and no human should have survived the aforementioned elevator crash, which was specifically designed by Alice to kill him off, though at least that one knocked him unconscious. But that could be one of a couple of things: either Henry is unusually strong because of "mundane" human reasons like diet, exercise, and good genetics, or maybe the elevator was faulty as alluded to in one audio log... Or he, too, could slowly be succumbing to the Ink, and not even know it...

• The Ink Machine was not made with immortality in mind, but Henry's longevity is because he, too, is an ink creature. It's suggested that ink beings, in fact, can't permanantly die.

The Ink the Machine pumps out and the Living Toons are made of isn't really Ink... But Concentrated Belief!

Once again, it bares repeating that Joey makes a big deal about the power of belief in his audio cassette and how it might even allow him to transcend death. Maybe he created the Ink Machine in order to harness that power but failed to realize just how contradictory, disjointed, and fluid belief truly was, resulting into the monstrosities his machine birthed. Those who were exposed to enough ink would find their bodies and minds collapse under such strain, with only those whose minds were strong enough (or mad enough) able to maintain even a barely functioning form.Alice mentions being surrounded by millions of voices when she was submerged in the Ink. And the reason she's able to use the parts of the more stable Toons to fix herself? This might work because she believes so strongly that it will... and that she will have a grim fate indeed should Ink Bendy gets his deformed hands on her...

The Ink Machine is actually a sentient Eldritch Abomination.

To be more specific, it's similar to Stephen King's From a Buick 8 where it's actually an inconceivable horror that only looks like an ink-producing machine to lesser minds. The Inked!Bendy monster you encounter in-game is just an avatar that the Ink Machine uses to project its consciousness. When Joey Drew performed the occult ritual to bring his cartoons to life, he allowed a demonic entity to enter our world, which took the form of the Ink Machine. However, he had no idea that "bring his cartoons to life" would require using his employees as vessels. When Chapter 5 comes along, it will have strong vibes of Cosmic Horror Story.

• It does have chapters all it's own in The Lost Ones book.

Bendy and the Ink, a Gestalt of evil!

So based upon the dialog of Alice angel, or what's left of her voice actress depending how you view it, the ink itself appears to be a sort of gestalt consciousness for everyone involved in the projects that the studio did. Pieces of minds float about and intermix at random leading to the buzzing screaming well of voices described. People with special connections to the show become characters, the more important the person the more stable and correctly the character forms. For example Susan became part of Alice angel but the trick is you need the entire person to be properly formed, both body and mind. The many Boris's are all fully formed but completely mute which would make sense if they only have part of the person they need each.

Building off this the ink monsters that are just blobs are random employees who didn't have much to do with any specific character or shards of the important ones that got separated off which is why Alice was killing off other ink monsters especially the perfect looking ones. She's searching for the remaining bits and pieces of Susan's mind that escaped and why Bendy is hunting Henry. Assuming it already has Joey, Bendy has half of what he needs to be perfect Joey after all was the idea guy while Henry was the head artist. This is also why everyone is hunting Henry down to kill him, if Bendy gets Henry... well in his half perfected state he's already immortal. God only knows what would happen if it got the rest.

• It doesn't have Joey. Also, toons do not need people to be perfectly formed.

The Ink itself is evil

It isn't the Ink Machine or the occult happenings, but the Ink itself that is evil and corruptive. Notice how the Machine was made and designed by a company called Abelbuild. Not Able, but Abel, as in the name. As in... Cain and Abel. Despite how much maintence the Machine undergoes, it still leaks. "Alice" remarks that the Ink has voices. The first time we see any ink in the game, it's marked with a skull-and-crossbones, meaning it's dangerous. Wally Franks also notes that the Machine uses a ridiculous amount of ink, as does Thomas Connor. So it's possible Joey Drew had to start ordering his ink from a different company than before, one that could sell him ink in that much bulk. Most companies likely wouldn't've been able to produce that much ink in a year, much less as often as Joey seemed to need it. We also know that the Ink Machine didn't start out doing evil things, because Sammy, Wally, and Thomas all complain a great deal about the Machine. Sammy's complaint of the Machine isn't the Machine itself, it's the ink. He complains about how the hallways are full of ink. We also know from that same recording that the Machine didn't leak at first. Sammy and Norman, the two people most heavily corrupted, worked in the same area that was constantly being flooded by the Ink. Considering how Norman was always skulking around, it's likely he was corrupted into what he was because he spent so much time wading around in the Ink. he does certainly sound like he's from the Bayou, so wading around in thick liquid might not be a bother for him. Joey's dream of using the Ink Machine, for whatever it was intended for, was perfectly innocent until the Ink itself began to twist him. It's likely the Ink Machine was originally like a printer that automatically animated things, but the only company that could sell him ink in bulk like that... Joey Drew perhaps unwittingly made a Deal with the Devil.

The Ink Machine turned the entire studio into a cartoon

(This theory is based on Markiplier's Chapter 4 video.)

It's been long established that the inside of Joey Drew studios looks like a black-and-white cartoon, just like the ones the staff were producing long ago. But suppose that it looks this way in-universe as well, given Henry's confusion at everything he sees along the way. Chapter 4 introduced machines that can craft items from ink - not just toons but even mundane items like mugs, gears and even radios; which is why everything you see appears drawn on paper. Joey Drew tried to have his staff use it to bring his ideas to reality, but it didn't go as planned because of the ink's strange nature. He didn't notice anything was wrong and forced his employees to keep using it, until the ink's power grew to the point that the lines between cartoon and reality began to blur, so the studio was eventually assimilated by it, and unless it and Bendy are stopped, it'll keep growing into the rest of the world.

• Seemingly partly confirmed.

The Ink Machine wasn't corrupted until Joey misused it

Originally, the Ink Machine was just a strange but relatively harmless tool (with some paranormal forces behind it) that could bring cartoons to life. You take a picture of a cute little character and lots of ink and put them into the Machine, and voila, the character is now alive!

However, when Joey put some... things... in the Machine that weren't supposed to be put in there, for whatever not-so-good intentions he had, somehow the entire Machine and its ink got corrupted and became a dangerous device that creates deformed ink monsters.

"Abelbuild" isn't the name of the company that created the Ink Machine

Instead, the company's name is something that starts with an R (in the bottom left corner of the blueprint). "Abelbuild" is just another indicator of what version of the Ink Machine it is, like "CK2".

• Partly confirmed; see below.

The Ink Machine was built by the company Gent

Well, at this point this seems pretty obvious (or at least highly likely), especially since Gent has created another machine that can make things out of ink.

• Confirmed.

The Ink Machine was rigged so that all the Toons it creates will always turn out defective

...Except Borises. After all, the only truly defective Boris is the one that "Alice" mutilated herself; all the other ones we've seen so far look pretty much exactly like their original cartoon counterpart.

Now, we've seen people that are obsessed with Bendy (Sammy and his cult) and Alice Angel (Susie), but there isn't anyone obsessed with Boris... or is there?

Whoever rigged the Machine could've loved Boris and hated the other Toons so much that they decided Boris must be the only Toon that should turn out perfect (though apparently they were a little more merciful with Alice considering Allison's appearance, and there's implications that "Alice's" face is only messed up because "Bendy" touched her). If the Wally = Boris theory is true then maybe he's the culprit, especially since he's the attendant of the Ink Machine.

• Jossed.

Alternatively...

The Ink Machine got messed up after Boris!Thomas/Tom (and maybe other employees-turned-Boris clones) tried to destroy it

At first the Ink Machine was able to turn people into relatively accurate-looking Toons. After being forcibly transformed into a Boris, Thomas decided the Machine should be destroyed so that other employees won't meet the same fate as him and other Boris clones. Thomas managed to break the Machine's Toon "templates" (something similar to the Ink Maker's dial), but he was stopped (probably by either Joey or Wally) before he could do further damage to it. As a result of the templates getting broken, the Ink Machine could no longer create perfect Toons. Instead it could only transform people into more defective Toon-like creatures, ranging from being a little too humanoid to outright monstrous, the latter of which is much worse than simply turning into a perfect-looking Bendy or Edgar. Nice job (literally) breaking it, Tom!

• Jossed.

"Bendy and the Ink Machine": The meaning behind the title, and why Henry is stuck in a time loop

In essence, Henry is indeed stuck in a time loop thanks to Joey - but not deliberately, rather because he's barking up the wrong tree.

As hinted at by audio logs in Chapter 5, Joey believed that Bendy coming out wrong was where things started going wrong, and that the errors leading to that simply needed to be corrected and the roadblock overcome. While he has (seemingly) come to realize that his overall goals - and possibly methods - were flawed, he may still believe that the creation of Bendy was where it all started really going wrong, and that Bendy is the main problem to be dealt with - nothing is shown to indicate that this part of his perspective has changed.

Since Henry is basically more or less following the path outlined for him by Joey - get the "The End" reel and use it to kill Bendy - he's falling into the same trap and making the same mistake(s) by proxy.

But here's the thing - early audio logs reveal (and later logs do nothing to contradict) that the point where it all started going wrong was when the Ink Machine was installed. ^note Even before the living cartoons started to emerge, things DID start to become CARTOONISH around that point, didn't they, what with the burst pipes and ink-draining pumps and all? And since the other employees are not consumed by the madness, passion and ambition of Joey Drew, they may well be more correct. Moreover, killing the Ink Demon with "The End" has clearly not broken the time loop, which suggests the Ink Machine could well be responsible for this problem, too.

If this is true, then surely the solution to breaking the time loop would be to destroy the Ink Machine, right?

But here's the other problem - what would happen if Henry tried?

Gameplay hints at an answer with what happens after you activate the Machine, then try to go back to it: Bendy attacks.

Bendy and the Ink Machine both protect each other. The Ink Machine protects Bendy from "The End" by looping time, while Bendy protects the Ink Machine from any interlopers and attempts to physically interfere with it with his own immense power.

As such, while Joey may be wrong about the root of the problem, he's onto something:The Ink Machine and Bendy are both part of the problem. The title really is an Antagonist Title - a dual Antagonist Title.^note even more so than its entry on that trope page suggests

So why? Why does the Ink Machine protect Bendy in this manner, and vice versa? It's certainly possible they both have their own twisted sentience and desire to survive - as hinted at by Bendy actively making a deliberate effort to safeguard "The End" - and, notably, placing it within the larger Ink Machine rather than making a lair anywhere else - suggesting some level of awareness of their symbiosis. But there's another explanation as well:

The Ink Machine was designed and built to create living cartoons. And note the specific phrasing - living cartoons, not living cartoon characters. As the scale of its power grew along with its ink output, it took this objective further^note much like an optimizer AI, "wanting" to create MORE of its core objective, even if other resources must be compromised in the process, going from "merely" creating (flawed) living cartoon characters to, as earlier WMGs surmise, attempting to turn Joey Drew Studios - and ultimately, possibly life/reality itself - into a cartoon^note see the previous note. (It's also possible this is why later cartoon characters come out more stable and "perfected" than the original flawed products - they become more stable as the world they're born into ^note inside the studio, one would hope, and not everywhere in the world as of yet... becomes more toony, more suitable for and able to accommodate them.)

So why the time looping, and protecting Bendy? Well, a cartoon can't exactly exist without its main star, right? So, in keeping with - and in order to protect - its prime objective, it falls back on an old law of cartoons: Negative Continuity.

So now, Henry must see past Joey Drew's mindset of "the flawed Bendy is the problem", and realize that the true problem is in Joey's dream - and the means he, and now his creation, have and are using to achieve it. He must finally shut down or destroy the Ink Machine - or be stuck in a loop of Negative Continuity forever. ^note Or worse, if he gives up on or abandons his goal, the Ink Machine may even turn the entire world into a nightmarish "living cartoon". This may even be why he persists.

Then how to stop it? ^note After all, it's not like Joey would be willing to leave or consider a shutdown command for his grand project...Well, the answer to that is less certain, but the final boss fight does offer a clue - its own guardian, and their immense power. We've seen that the Ink Demon is willing to accidentally damage the Machine to harm Henry. If this fact, and its power, can be exploited, that may be one way to damage or even destroy the Ink Machine for good.

Or there could be another twist and/or trick. Who knows?

• Going by this logic, one of the other ways one could end this loop is to cancel the cartoon. However within the context of the Ink Machine, I have almost no ideas...
• Jossed; Joey isn't trying to provide Henry an out, as revealed in Dark Revival. The time loop is there entirely on purpose, and he wanted Henry to be trapped in there forever.

Emotional state plays a hand in how well a cartoon copy turns out

This might explain why there are a few perfect (or perfect-ish) copies running around, but Twisted Alice is the only truly horrifying one we see. At the time of being taken over by the Ink, Susie was not in a good place. She was angry, bitter, heartbroken, and distraught at having (or seemingly having) Alice ripped from her. Joey gave her the chance to BE Alice, and she took it, but those feelings don't go away and she likely had mistrust in her heart, too. The Ink Machine seems receptive to feelings and itself seems sentient.

Plot/Future Chapters

Joey didn't bring Bendy to our world, he brought us to Bendy's world.

The main clues behind this? The letter you receive looks realistic, but once you get to the studio, it looks like it had come out of a cartoon. So maybe the Ink Machine was used for, in fact, bringing the cartoon world into ours, and Bendy and Boris came with it.

• Confirmed.

Joey wanted to make his characters real, but didn't realize what cartoons would do to the real world.

Joey used rituals to try and give life to his characters, but doing so came with a cost. A cost in blood that he had to pay using his other employees, the dead, personal objects, and eventually himself. It worked, but not the way he had expected, because the classic slapstick cartoons of the age, given the real world rules, did not act funny and laugh it off; they tormented him with their playful sadistic antics until he made an example of Boris. Bendy was not happy, and slowly the darkness that had spawned him started to consume him; he decided the creator had lied to him and returned the favor.

• Jossed.

Going off of the above three theories, this game doesn't take place in the "real" world at all.

The whole game takes place in an Inkblot Cartoon Style world, inhabited by Inkblot Cartoon Style characters. Joey somehow became self-aware and learned how humans created him and his world, and became determined to create his own cartoon characters.

• Jossed.

"Who's laughing now?" doesn't mean what we think it means.

It's not meant to say "I'm the one laughing now because I have the upper hand". It's a genuine question. Bendy and Boris are cartoon characters. They're meant to make people laugh. That's literally their reason for existing. But Boris is strapped to a table like that, with no organs, with his ribs split open. It's not funny. It's just horrifying. Bendy starts to question his purpose. If Joey is doing something with them, it's gotta be to make people laugh, right? But this isn't funny to him. Are people still laughing? Who would laugh at this? No one. No one is laughing. And if Bendy isn't making people laugh, what is he here for? What is Boris here for?

In fact, if the above is remotely true, it's probably also what "The creator lied" means. This isn't the way Bendy thought things would go.

Bendy and Boris love Henry in their own messed up way because they recognize him as one of their creators.

This is why Sammy got Splattered for trying to sacrifice Henry to Bendy. Alice Angel, on the other hand...

• So why does Bendy come after him, too? and we haven't met Alice yet.
  • Partially Jossed? Alice, as of Chapter Three, is definitely evil in her own petty way.
  • Perhaps Bendy wants to absorb Henry into himself, out of love not malice, where as he consumed/destroyed Sammy? That and given he left it seems likely that Alice came after Henry's time with the company?

Each chapter of the game relates to a part of the production process in animation (in the name also)

Being set in an animation studio, it's more than likely going to reference the production process, especially in the rooms you go into through the chapters.

Chapter 1 is called Moving Pictures, referencing the projectors dotted around the studio (such as the room you start in and the sweatbox* (the room where you turn the Flow button on to start the ink machine)) and likely the animation process, evidenced by the Bendy animation and the creation of Bendy from the Ink Machine. Also, there are reels also dotted about the chapter, making the reference stronger. It might be referencing character design in the sense of when you collect the pieces to start up the machine, two of the items are the ink and the doll.

Chapter 2, named The Old Song, obviously references sound and music, important ingredients to the animation process. Literally, half of the chapter is spent in the Music Department, including the orchestra room and the audio logs by the music director Sammy Lawrence, and Norman Polk, the conductor.

It may be, that future chapters will reference voice acting, (Chapter 3 might reference this through Alice, which was briefly mentioned through the voice acting booth in Chapter 2 and Susie's audiolog), storyboarding, editing, inking and cel painting, and writing.

The Sweatbox was a room where when a rough piece of animation was finished, the animator would showcase this to the director in this room. This was the time when the director would review the animation and say if the animation needed to be better, or if they were satisfied with it.

• Going strong so far. Chapter 3 seems to revolve around merchandising, since the rooms and hallways are littered with plushies/statues of Bendy, Boris, and Alice.
  • That said, the title is "Rise and Fall", generally used in reference to popularity, and Alice's fame seems to have been fleeting — the head of toy manufacture (voiced by none other than Jacksepticeye) would like to know just what he's supposed to do with all of the Alice Angel dolls, because nobody's buying them.

Bendy's chasing you because he's just hungry.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait: I'm not joking. This troper believes judging from what he possibly did to Sammy Lawrence, Bendy has consumed other ink creatures before (though unlike Alice, it was to thrive and not to be beautiful.) or at least normal ink, yet is unsatisfied. He must clearly wonder what a human tastes like, as he most likely believes Henry, a human, will satisfy his Horror Hunger. Bendy might actually be hunting you down like a ravenous animal and not a vengeful Eldritch Abomination like everyone thinks...

The devs are deliberately keeping Henry's full name from the players.

This could be just because he's a borderline Featureless Protagonist, but Henry is the only human character that hasn't been given a last name yet. His secret tape in Chapter 3 even gives his name as just simply "Henry". However, what if this is purposeful and learning of his full identity is supposed to be The Reveal? That would be interesting.

• Turns out Henry's last name is "Stein", though that doesn't exactly reveal anything really important about him.

Henry did not create Bendy, or Boris. He created someone we haven't seen yet...

...and they've been trying to help him!

• In the first chapter, Henry's character, having been brought to life somehow, boarded up the Ink Machine Room so as to stall (if not outright stop) "Bendy" from killing him, hoping Henry would leave after seeing the Ink Demon. Unfortunately, Henry's character did not count on the floorboards breaking, forcing them to follow him and make sure he's safe.

• In Chapter 2, Henry's character lures "Bendy" towards Sammy, allowing Henry the chance to escape.

• But in Chapter 3, Henry's character does not intervene. Not because of Boris already helping him, but because of all the Butcher Gang clones, Searchers and "Bendy" lurking about. They think it's too dangerous this time and instead are just keeping their fingers crossed that their creator makes it.

...But in Chapter 4, Henry's character will finally reveal themselves, and will team up with him to save Boris!

You might be wondering, "Why didn't Henry's character show up before?" and the answer is simple: While they could have just shown up to scare him into leaving, they did not want their own creator to be afraid of them, so they figured "Bendy" would have to do.

• We never actually see a character like that in the game, but the theory itself isn't completely Jossed.
• The theory is now completely jossed. Henry is confirmed to have created Bendy, Boris, and Alice, and no such character is ever even suggeted to exist.

The Henry you play as is not the real Henry

Henry has no in-game model — he casts no shadows, he has no reflection in mirrors... hell, we don't even see his hands! It's almost as if he isn't even there...

Of course, many First-Person game developers employ this tactic to streamline the process (and make their jobs a little easier in the bargain)... but then, what if that rationalisation is what theMeatly is counting on?

Let's suppose that Henry meets up with Joey before the game actually starts; bad things go down, and Henry is killed... or worse, he gets turned into Inked!Bendy...

Maybe, before, you were the last remaining goodness in the real Bendy. Or perhaps you were Joey Drew, who finally, far too late, realised you'd gone too far in your plans - Regardless, you wish to do something, anything to stop this madness (and somehow save Henry, if possible)... And suddenly, you find yourself outside the studio, clutching Joey's letter. From either Shock-induced Amnesia or Dream Logic, you mistakenly believe you're Henry — and from that belief, you do become Henry, in almost every sense.

What's left of the humans (like Sammy) only see Henry. The monsters (Inked!Bendy, Inked!Butcher Gang) and toons (Boris) see the real you. You can't perceive your own self, because it's not time for you to accept the truth yet.

• I was about to Joss this, but holy shit. Ya know what, partially, okay? I don't know. But take a close look at Inked!Bendy. His leg is twisted. Henry's leg isn't twisted. But like you said, that's probably what the creator wants us to think...
• Something to consider, the backgrounds are all cartoony in style, we haven't seen a single normal human, and the design of the entire studio is completely nonsensical. Honestly who would solve the problem of ink leaks that trap the staff with drainage pumps instead of just fixing the leaks? Nobody... outside of a cartoon operating on that low level of logic. What if the Henry we play as Either already got absorbed into the ink and now he's come back unaware of what he is, or he is literally a cartoon drawn by the REAL Henry outside?
• Henry is confirmed to not be the real Henry, but everything else in this theory is jossed. The Henry you play as is an inky doppleganger of him, created by the Ink Machine so Joey could torture the person he blamed for everything going wrong.

The game is a dark metaphor for raising a baby.

In Chapter 1, Inked Bendy's first appearance is after you activate the Ink Machine, which, if you think about it hard enough, seems rather reminiscent of childbirth. In Chapter 2, Sammy says he "hears Bendy crawling above." What do babies use as transportation because when they can't walk yet? Yep. Crawling. In the third Chapter, Bendy chases you if you seem to upset him, which is rather similar to upsetting a baby by waking it up. Not to mention Alice refers the Ink Machine as some "womb" at one point. Then there's the "Little Miracle station", what are babies often called? That's right, Little Miracles. Maybe this is all just Insane Troll Logic, but it really makes me wonder...

• Couldn't figure out the meaning of Chapter 4 in this WMG, but Chapter 5 (perhaps) could be a misbehavior that could lead to grounding.
• Jossed.

The number 6 is supposed to be an Arc Number

• 6 Toons (Bendy, Boris, Alice, Charley, Barley, Edgar)^note Excluding background characters such as the skeleton, the snowman, talking chairs, dancing chickens, etc.
• 6 items on the pedestals (inkwell, book, doll, gear, wrench, record)
• 6 outer points on the ritual symbol (which replaced the pentagram), with 6 candles surrounding it
• 6 playable instruments (banjo, violin, bass, drum, piano, pipe organ)
• 6 weapons (axe, Gent pipe, plunger, ink syringe, pipe wrench, Tommy gun)
  • Turns out there's a secret seventh weapon in Chapter 4: the empty bacon soup cans that can be found in the structure room when returning back to the Research and Design department after activating the second switch. There's still plenty of other things that come in 6's, though.
• 6 tasks that Henry must complete for "Alice" (collecting valve cores, collecting thick ink, finding gears, destroying Bendy cutouts, killing "Butcher Gang" enemies, collecting ink hearts)
• Possibly 6 major humans (Henry, Joey, Sammy, Susie, 2 more humans)
  • Alternatively, 6 major humans excluding Henry himself (so Joey, Sammy, Susie, and 3 more humans)
  • Or maybe 6 humans that have ties to the 6 Toons (so Henry, Joey, Sammy (not only does he worship Bendy, but he might be connected to Boris as well), Susie, Allison, and 1 person who has a connection with the Butcher Gang)
  • Maybe the 6 major humans are Henry, Joey, Wally (his tapes are in every chapter so far so he's implied to be a major character), Susie, Allison, and Thomas/Tom

At least 6 sets of 6... doesn't that sound familiar?

"Alice" won't be fooled by you hiding in a Little Miracle Station

If you're hiding in a Miracle Station while she's nearby, "Alice" will open the door herself and kill you.

• Seems likely. She seems to have made them after all.

Joey unintentionally angered the gods that he was trying to appease, causing them to curse the entire studio

Basically, these "gods" are the ones that bring the Toons to life through the Ink Machine, as long as you follow the instructions (given to you by Abelbuild, or Gent, or whatever company that built the Machine) correctly when appeasing them. Despite how the rituals performed to summon/appease them may seem rather demonic with all those pentagrams and whatnot, these gods/demons are mostly neutral and actually somewhat benevolent as long as they are pleased.

That is, until you piss them off. Which is exactly what Joey did.

Specifically, what angered the gods was Joey's plan to cheat death by fusing with a Toon. A mere mortal attempting to become immortal and disrespecting the gods' creations? These acts of (unintentional) insults were enough to bring out the wrath of these gods, who then put a curse that transforms anyone who gets fused with a Toon/Toon clone or even just the ink itself into disfigured, horrifying ink monsters.

And yes, this would mean that Human Sacrifice was never a requirement to please the gods, and that Joey only killed all those employees because he wanted to test his plan for achieving immortality before trying it on himself.

• The part about the curse's exact effect may be Jossed, since Allison Angel and Tom (implied to be Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor) look pretty far from "disfigured, horrifying ink monsters". But then again, it's possible that they (and maybe Henry too) were exempt from the gods' curse for some special reason.
• Jossed. Joey never attempted to fuse with a Toon, nor does he want to.

Henry being able to respawn at a Bendy statue isn't just a game mechanic; it's canon

And it's either the gods, the Ink Demon, or another version of Bendy (if he exists) that is responsible for resurrecting Henry whenever he dies.

• Confirmed, though none of those suggested to be bringing him back are correct. It's because he's already a creaton of the Ink Machine, so it brings him back when he dies, because Joey wanted to torture him forever.

A perfect (or at least less deformed) Bendy and Butcher Gang will appear in Chapter 5

With the implication that the perfect/non-deformed Alice at the end of Chapter 4 is Allison Pendle and Boris is Thomas Connor/"Tom", based on their file names, then perhaps the four remaining employees (excluding Joey, assuming he became Inked "Bendy")—Wally Franks, Shawn Flynn, Grant Cohen, and Lacie Benton—could've become the perfect/less deformed Bendy and Butcher Gang. Either Wally (whose tapes appeared in every chapter so far, unlike the other three) or Lacie (whose last name is somewhat similar to Bendy, like how Allison and Alice are similar) became Bendy, while the remaining three each became Charley, Barley, and Edgar. They could've even been working together with Alice/Allison and Boris/Thomas, or will do so in the future.

• Jossed, although a perfect Bendy does appear in Dark Revival.

The whole mess wasn't Joey's doing

...Or at least, not directly. But his employees' accounts of his questionable business practices, including the Ink Machine, are all true, and that alongside Joey's overall abrasiveness led to one Sammy Lawrence getting fed up enough to hold a demon-summoning ritual in the basement, purely as a way of venting his rage and not expecting it to actually work... but it does, and the demon ends up possessing the Ink Machine, turning Joey into "Bendy" and transforming the studio into the ink-infested hellhole it is today.

• Jossed.

"Good" Alice will supply Henry with a weapon in Chapter 5

She'll give him either her sword, or, just to complete the parallels to her "Evil" self, some kind of firearm, like a Revolver that could be like a Hand Cannon, or perhaps another, or the same, Tommy-Gun.

• Jossed. But her partner does give him an axe.

Henry will receive a double-barreled shotgun in Chapter 5

Possibly as an 11th-Hour Superpower, since he's received multiple different weapons at this point, and only got a gun once. Plus, this is one of the few guns the production team could animate a reload for without having to model Henry's arms (which seems to be standard at this point).

• Jossed.

We will finally see what Henry looks like in Chapter 5

• Jossed, but we see what he looks like in Dark Revival.

The settings of the first four chapters corresponded to the stages of Bendy's rise to fame. Chapter 5's setting will depict his fall into obscurity.

Chapter 1 depicted the animation department. Chapter 2 depicted the upping of production values via high-quality music. Chapter 3 depicted the merch. Chapter 4 depicted a theme park. Nowhere to go but down.

• Sort of Confirmed(?), if not done in a slightly more subtle way than the previous chapters.

Boris may be down, but he sure as hell ain't out for the count!

He'll come ROARING back into Henry's list of allies, perhaps by beaning the Ink Demon upside the head with a full can of Bacon Soup or something, and then giving a rage-filled rant directed at Bendy or Joey, depending on who the Ink Demon really is, or yelling at Bendy to break Joey's control, or whatever. Henry and anyone else that he has with him will react as needed.

• Jossed.

Alternatively...

The Boris that helped us at the end of The Old Song and throughout Rise And Fall and wound up getting Reforged into a Minion by Susie isn't the real Boris, but just another clone of his.

Henry and Co. will run into the REAL Boris during The Last Reel.

• A 'real' Boris never appears, but the Boris encountered during the game is confirmed to be just another clone.

Alternatively (again)...

The Boris in Chapters 2-3 is the real Boris, but the monster "Boris" in Chapter 4 is a clone

Two possible versions of this theory:

• At some point after getting captured by "Alice"/Susie, Boris managed to escape from her (with or without Allison and Tom's help) and is now hiding someplace safe. "Alice" had to create "Boris" using a clone, lying that she killed the original Boris to mentally torment Henry. As for the bone that appears in "Boris'" mouth if you give one to Boris in Ch3: either Boris dropped it while escaping and "Alice" decided to use it, or it's a fake one she made with the Ink Maker (to make it appear more convincing that "Boris" is the same as our Boris).
• The Boris in Ch2-3 is a clone controlled/possessed by the real Boris (similar to the theory where the real Bendy's the one controlling his cutouts). So technically Henry's been interacting with the real Boris, it's just that his body isn't really his. It's possible that Boris was able to control the clone because of how perfect it is, and lost control after "Alice" mutilated the clone and made it imperfect. Meanwhile Boris himself has been hiding somewhere else in the studio, possibly with other real Toons.
• Jossed. The Boris encountered in the game is not the 'real Boris' and no such thing exists. He is merely a clone.

Henry will be running on Heroic Safe Mode in Chapter 5.

Or at least most of it.

Henry has, at some point over the game, become an Ink being.

The new respawn mechanic features you going through an inky tunnel, while hearing voices, very suspiciously similar to what Susie!Alice described in regards to hear "rebirth"...

• Confirmed. In fact, he was one all along.

We will finally meet Joey Drew face-to-face in Chapter 5.

It seems obvious, but it's worth guessing about anyway. If he too has been transformed into a monster, he may even be the Final Boss.

• Jossed, but this happens in the sequel game.

Joey Drew will turn out to be The Atoner.

It seems like everyone is so quick to hate on him following the reveal in Chapter 4 that he doesn't really believe his "dream" speeches. What if he was a Bad Boss, but isn't anymore? Maybe, just maybe, he caused a big mess but wants to clean it up? Assuming that the letter seen at the beginning of the game really was sent by him, maybe he wanted to bring Henry back because Henry is the only one who can help him fix everything?

• Confirmed.

The final chapter will raise more questions than answers.

So many elements have been introduced in the story that it's hard to imagine how they could all be resolved in just one more chapter. But we can hope that this one is jossed.

• Confirmed.

The "bacon soup" that replenishes your health actually came from the Gent machines and is made of ink.

And if the "Henry is actually part ink monster" theory is correct, it explains how they can heal him and how he can eat so many cans of soup. Credit to Markiplier for coming up with the "soup = ink" theory.

You are not actually Henry, You are Bendy and the real fate of Henry and Joey Drew.

Take closer inspection to the dialogue Susie!Alice Angel said when she sabotages the elevator. After she says your name, she then says she knows who you are. It seems odd that she already knows that you are Henry and then later repeats saying who you are unless she's mocking you that you actually believe that you are Henry. What if you aren't Henry but his first creation, Bendy.

That would explain why Sammy questions Henry's appearance. Its not that he didn't recognize Henry due to old age, he may have been wondering why there was a second Henry having already been aware that Henry has been living in Joey Drew Studios for the past 30 Years.

If Henry didn't leave the Studios, what did he become? Well, he became his own creation, Bendy. Joey actually used Henry as his first test subject and he became the Ink Demon that we love and fear. Joey did want to gain power and he wanted Bendy to do it. The reel where Bendy was cornered by a shadowy figure may have been Joey trying to possess the poor cartoon demon. But Henry went in and fought off the crazed man to protect Bendy and may have been the one who sent Bendy away from Joey Drew Studios. Henry may have given Bendy a new disguise in the form of his creator and even implanted his own memories and fabricated the part of him actually leaving the Studios so that he could live a peaceful life.

After his plans failed, Joey instead possessed the Studio that he carried out his rituals. With Henry becoming the Ink Demon and Joey becoming Joey Drew Studios, a war waged between these two forces over the next 30 Years with Henry trying to stop this evil from escaping into the world. However, Joey was able to lure Bendy back and uses him to carry out his plans. Henry had no choice but to stop you, Bendy in order to prevent this threat. However as the chapters progresses, Henry didn't had the stomach to kill you and at times want to protect you.

• Jossed. You are not Bendy, but you aren't the real Henry either, since the real one did in fact leave the studio long ago.

The reason the Lost Ones attack you in Chapter 5

As seen in the Chapter 5 trailer, the Lost Ones will take on a more hostile role than before, actively attacking. One possible reason for this is because as shown by the "He Will Set us Free" markings, they clearly worship Bendy. Since in Chapter 5 you will very likely try to kill Bendy, they may want to stop you from killing their God

• This is not the reason. It is actually because you killed Sammy, their leader, so it's sort of similar.

Linda will make an appearance in Chapter 5

It will be revealed that Linda got a job at Joey Drew Studios so that she'd be able to see Henry more often. However, when Henry left the studio, Linda didn't follow him, eventually leading to her getting sacrificed along with other employees.

Alternatively, Linda either left the studio along with Henry or never got a job there in the first place. But when Henry hasn't returned from his visit at the studio for a long time, Linda went to the studio to look for him herself, got captured by someone else there and was forcibly transformed into an ink creature.

Linda will show up as either a stable ink being (Toon or otherwise) who could become one of Henry's allies, or a ferocious monster that Henry will be forced to fight.

• Jossed.

When Henry destroys the Ink Machine and/or leaves the studio, the world will change from sketch-like to "normal" with colors

Whether this is a literal change or a metaphorical one will be up to interpretation.

• Jossed.

Something bad will happen to Tom

He'll either betray Henry and Allison, or get killed. Or both. Or something else. Either way, this could be the reason why he never shows up in the Chapter 5 trailer.

• Jossed.

The Bendy animatronic will move around in Chapter 5

It could act as a threat to Henry and his allies (it might get angry at Tom for taking its arm), or maybe not. Lacie may be the one possessing it, since she's the one who talked about the animatronic in Chapter 4. Maybe it will only move whenever Henry isn't looking, since Lacie said "I swear, when my back's turned, that thing's movin'".

• Jossed.

"Alice" will return in Chapter 5

If the Projectionist can get killed in Chapter 3 and somehow return in Chapter 4, who says "Alice" won't be able to do the same?

This time "Alice" will actually be a threat (gameplay-wise) and chase Henry down in order to kill him. Though, there might be a very small chance of her eventually doing a Heel–Face Turn, or at least reluctantly becoming Henry's ally to help him defeat the Ink Demon (or whoever the true Big Bad of this game is).

• Jossed.

"Bendy" will finally speak in Chapter 5

He may struggle to get his words out right (since in previous chapters he can only make strange growling noises and such), but he'll manage to say something to Henry and reveal something important.

• Jossed, but he does speak in Dark Revival. He doesn't struggle or growl, either, he can just straight up speak normally.

The Lost Ones see all Alice Angels as a threat

That's why they're attacking Allison in the Chapter 5 trailer, because they think she's just as evil as "Alice"/Susie.

The final chapter will have Multiple Endings

And you'll only get the "To Hell and Back (Complete the Main Story)" achievement by getting the true, canon ending.

• Jossed.

Joey's letter wasn't actually written 30 years after Henry left

It was written before that, in the past, sometime after Henry's departure (around the time Bendy Land became a thing, or maybe when he first bought the Ink Machine). Joey wrote the letter with the intent to invite Henry to the studio 30 years later and surprise him with how much of a huge success the Bendy franchise has been ever since he left, complete with a bigger studio, toy factory, theme park, and even living cartoon characters. Joey wanted to proudly show off how much money and fame he's earned to Henry, make him feel jealous and regret ever leaving the studio. Or, to make Henry proud of how far the studio's come sense he left.

Too bad things didn't go exactly as Joey planned.

• Jossed.

If a perfect/semi-perfect Bendy exists, he'll be able to get the Lost Ones (and Sammy if he's still alive) to obey him

This Bendy will claim that he's the real lord that they've been worshipping, and that the Ink Demon is actually an imposter (he could use his own appearance as "evidence" for this, since he'd look closer to the Bendy statues and Sammy's mask than the Ink Demon does). If he's a good guy and becomes Henry's ally, this of course will be a huge advantage for Henry, Allison, and Tom. However, if he turns out to be evil... well, let's just say Henry and his pals are screwed.

• Jossed.

Speculation on Wally Franks' role in the story

• He's the one who recorded all the audio logs and/or placed them around the studio for Henry to listen to.
• He's the one who wrote "Joey's" letter and/or sent it to Henry.
• He's the one who boarded up the Ink Machine room's entrance.
• He's the one who's been lowering the Ink Machine down, for whatever reason.
• He's the one who came up with the whole Ink Machine plan, or helped Joey come up with said plan (this would mean he was lying in his first audio log).
  Grant: "But I'm the guy, see, who has to make sure our budgets don't go all out of whack just cause genius upstairs [referring to Joey] went out and got himself another idea."
  Wally: "I tell ya! If these guys don't start realizing who the REAL genius is [referring to himself], I'm outta here!"
• He'll turn out to be an antagonist, if not an outright Big Bad (somewhat related to the above bullet point).
• Alternatively he'll turn out to be a genuinely good guy and become one of Henry's allies.
• He'll escape the studio along with Henry and maybe some others (while saying "I'm outta here!" or some variant of that).
• All jossed. Wally Franks is suggested by chapter 5 to be completely alive and fine outside of the Ink world.

There will be a second Demon Path/Angel Path in Chapter 5

This time, the Angel Path will have Allison Pendle's audio log in it. The Demon Path will have the audio log of Wally Franks (or whoever became a second Bendy), or Joey Drew again (if there's really only one Bendy). There could even be a third path, the Wolf Path, containing Thomas Connor's audio log.

• Jossed.

Henry is already Bendy, or at least a version of him.

Thanks to Alice and Alison Angel we now know multiple independent versions of one main character can exist at the same time. Boris suggested this but we really had no way to know for sure how long the old ones had been dead. Henry also now has a canonical way to come back from the dead involving a tunnel of ink and orange light, does not provoke hostility but curiosity from the Lost Ones, and is actively hunted by a major portion of non-wanderer population of the studio.

Consider the following. Bendy and Henry are only two letters apart, even less then Alice and Alison or Boris and Tom, when we know that at least some similitude exists in the naming convention. Henry survives punishment no human could ever hope to and only seems to suffer damage when something infused with the ink assaults him. The Lost Ones watch him but do not interfere even when he takes their flashlight when they have shown a reverence for Bendy. Henry is beginning to see things, things that are probably real in some respect, coming from the ink even when it isn't in its active state.

This Troper believes Henry is an alternative form of Bendy. He's going through a fabricated memory plot where he nearly got absorbed by the other evil form of Bendy and managed to escape losing most of his memory in the process. Before he lost it he fabricated enough evidence to get himself to do what is needed before re-manifesting in a quiet part of the building far away from everyone else. His unknowing goal is to do exactly what the Lost Ones think, free them from this ink based purgatory, while the other Bendy is trying to keep them in.

That said with the new memories and strength he pulled from Henry previously Bendy is starting to develop higher thoughts. His apparent understanding of the Little Miracle stations, ever increasing power, violence toward the projector man in a way that specifically crippled him, and based on the chapter five trailer questioning of his own nature "What am I? Not monsters" scrawled along the walls he seems to be gaining his own intelligence in addition to the bestial rage.

Neither Henry nor Bendy is complete so they can't either ascend to the godlike status his role as protagonist should be affording them leaving them locked in this struggle. Alice tried to kill Henry to prevent either him or Bendy from reaching that point as they would no doubt take issue with her. Alison saved Henry because if he falls to Bendy everyone doomed.

• Jossed. Henry is not Bendy.

There will be a joke ending where Henry turns into a 3D version of theMeatly

Because why not?

• Jossed.

Getting the "Goldbricking" achievement will prompt a "you're no different from Joey" dialogue from another character

Because "letting others do the work" was exactly what Joey had been doing throughout his whole career at his studio.

Joey wanted to sell living cartoon characters like they're some sort of merchandise

That's why there are multiple Borises, Alices, and Butcher Gangs (we haven't seen another Bendy yet but we might get one in Chapter 5). And if the theory about "real" Toons existing turns out to be true, maybe Joey wanted to keep the real ones around for Bendy Land while selling "fake" Toon clones (made with employees) to his customers, pretty much ripping them off.

Henry will have to go back up the studio by riding on top of the Ink Machine rising back upwards

In the studio, Henry's just been going down deeper and deeper, and at this point, The studio's layout doesn't point to another exit besides the elevator, which is broken beyond repair and there's no elevator shaft in chapter 1's layout, so the elevator would probably go back to Level 9. Yet the Ink Machine's Chasm spreads through all of the studio, it's basically the only way all of the maps are connected at this point.

• Jossed.

The reason everyone is stuck in an eternal loop is because of Allison and Tom leaving Henry to die.

There's a message on the wall, the very first one you see- SHE WILL LEAVE YOU FOR DEAD. This implies this has happened before, with Allison and Tom leaving Henry to die by Bendy's hands. Something has to break the loop. Maybe that thing is the three of them leaving together? Allison does call Henry "the hope we've been waiting for". Allison and Tom are near-perfect, stable copies of Boris and Alice Angel. Possibly, Bendy has to be shown compassion from his creator and his friends, before anything will change. But fear keeps the loop going time and again, for everyone, including Joey.

• Jossed. The loop is just kind of how this world works normally, and was put in place by Joey, on purpose.

Chapter 5/The End

Henry became a "perfect" Bendy after crossing the inkto face the demon.

His POV is lower to the ground afterwards, and stays like that for the rest of the game. Additionally, the stinger shows a picture of Boris, Bendy and Alice holding hands and strolling along happily - we have good!Alice and good!Boris, but there was only ever one ink version of Bendy created, and it was an evil, soulless demon. Henry becomes the good!Bendy to fight the ink demon and save everyone.

• Jossed. He is not a Bendy. Also, his POV isn't lower to the ground, that's just not true?

Most, if not all of, the ink creatures were never mutated humans - they are beings created by the machine who somehow had memories of the humans that worked at the studio "imprinted" on them.

Based on the fact that there's a letter from the real Allison and Tom in Joey's house at the end of the story. It's possible the tape recorders laying around the place somehow helped with the imprinting, and that's why Joey had them around in the first place. If Joey had trapped a bunch of actual people in his old studio, it's unlikely that he would be walking around freely. But even though the ink creatures aren't "real", he still felt guilt over just leaving them in there, which is why he sent Henry to "free" them.

• This sounds nice.
• Confirmed by Dark Revival—in fact, even the Henry you play as is one of these.

The creatures have the employee's "souls" in them in a sense, but not all of the soul.

Joey somehow just took bits and pieces of each of his employee's souls to create the creatures, leaving the people "alive" while still being able to fuel his creations.

Some of the ink creatures used to be people, but some are just influenced by the "memories" of people that used to work there.

The ending is really showing how this all started.

Joey invited Henry over to his apartment and asked him to go to the old studio to fix his mistakes for him, something he couldn't do himself, though he may not have realized just how bad things had gotten... That is... if we can actually trust him on this...

Henry is stuck in a loop

First, if you believe Chapter 5's ending takes place after the story and isn't a prequel, it basically just ends with Henry back in the start of the studio. On top of this, using the Seeing Glass in Chapters 1-4 reveals more hidden messages, such as "I Always Fall" in the room that you fall into at the end of Chapter 1, or "He (Boris) Can't Be Saved" at the start of Chapter 4, which seem like Henry's from previous loops writing down these messages, as these things supposedly only happened to Henry.

• Confirmed in Dark Revival.

Henry is stuck in a cartoon playing on loop.

Based on Joey's storyboards that echo stuff that happens in the game, and the studio looking weirdly cartoony compared to the scene in Joey's house, and the fact that you have to play a tape reel with the end card for the Bendy cartoons to end the game. The ink machine turned the entire old studio into a cartoon.

• This... Is actually extremely plausible. Henry is already running on cartoon physics, what with him being able to revive after death (cartoon characters are virtually invincible and can use Negative Continuity) amongst other stuff. It's quite logical to assume this when you think about it. If you continue the game after you finish it and use your flashlight to read hidden messages you'll see old notes that Henry has written before, as well as him keeping track of his loops in the form of checkmarks.
• As stated above, this is confirmed

• If he is on a reel, maybe it’s specifically the lost end reel of Tombstone Picnic. The scene just before the missing ending shows a shadow that was confirmed to be Henry entering the cartoon world.

The entire "studio" and its denizens are a construct of the Ink Machine that Joey has at the back of his apartment, practically like a pocket dimension.

Expanding on a couple of the ideas above, considering how you access the studio in the first place, and the fact that Joey has a smaller Ink Machine in his apartment, it's quite possible that it's a recreation of the old studio gone wrong, and its denizens who were implied to be the people who worked there aren't actually the real employees, but rather ink-based recreations based on their memories and regrets. Joey has safeguarded the place for a while, but he can't put it to rest himself - he needs the help of the man who kept him straight (Henry) in order to do it. It's quite possible the coffins marked with named characters are people Joey (or Henry, if he's writing the messages) tried to contact only to discover that they passed away already, rather than folks who died in the studio itself.

• Confirmed by Dark Revival.

If a new story were to begin, featuring Bendy, the Ink Demon will respawn.

It would seem that his existence is connected to the reels themselves, therefore, playing "The End" reel is what erased him. However, if there were to be a sequel, or any reason for another reel with a new "beginning" to exist... Gulp.

• The End reel doesn't actually kill Bendy, it just resets the loop.

Henry and the studio is a story Drew created to deal with his life's worth of losses and heartache.

Henry, the Ink Demon, the studio and everything is actually a story that Joey Drew has created as a means of coping with the loss of his friend, who didn't "leave", but actually died. The cause of his death isn't really known, but he was killed years after he left (maybe due to the possibility that he went to World War 2, as someone mentioned above). Joey Drew created a fake Henry in his head and created a story as a means of coping with his loss. This would explain the storyboard. There are no supernatural events, there is no ink machine, there are no trapped souls or even an Ink Demon. It is a story he's creating to cope with the loss of his best friend. All of the major "enemies" of the story are people who have drastically hurt Joey. Susie Campbell may have actually slept with him and then broke his heart by leaving for better gigs, so for the story, he makes her a cruel, bitter and ugly Alice Angel creature. Bertrum Piedmont, who designed Bendy Land, designed a scrambler ride that ended up failing due to the arms not being designed well and it ended up killing people and leading Drew down the path of bankruptcy, so Joey designs him as a killer amusement park ride (this also explains why the scrambler is actually marked off on the map just prior to Henry entering Bendy Land). Sammy Lawrence may have been someone that Drew thought he could trust and seem like someone who admired Joey, with Joey being strung along until Sammy did something that left him when he needed a friend the most, so Drew turned Sammy into the Ink Demon fanatic who gets attacked and abandoned by the very thing he worships. And Drew's biggest enemy? The one who hurt him the most? Bendy The Little Devil. A lot of the problems he had were all tied to that character, so he turned Bendy into a monstrous Ink Demon who is destroyed by the man who created him, Henry. The only good people in his current life were Allison and Tom, so he makes them both allies to Henry in the forms of Allison Angel and Tom the Wolf. And for Henry, Drew makes him a hero who struggles and also fearless against the horrors he faces. And in the end, when Drew has Henry successfully complete the story, he cannot bring himself to let his friend go, so he constantly sends him through a new iteration of the story in his own head, so that Henry could continue to live. As for why he depicts himself as such a terrible person? Pure, unbridled self-loathing. By how it looks at the end, Drew lost everything, his best friend and his studio, as well as his fortune, looking by how his living situation looks more like a middle-class bachelor than a successful studio exec. And the voice of the little girl at the end, it is Henry's daughter, who looks at Drew as an uncle, and Drew had told her the story he made about her father. The ending scene where Joey talks to Henry before he steps through the door into the studio once again was Joey talking to himself, imagining that Henry was there. The game is us playing a eulogy to a dear friend to Joey Drew, who passed away.

• Jossed by Dark Revial. Though the studio is in fact a creation of the ink machine, made by Joey to cope with the terrible way things went, it isn't a literal story, and none of it went like this. And it isn't one of grief, but of anger.

The whole game is just one big story that Joey is telling to his niece.

Hence the game's final words. "Tell me another one, Uncle Joey." Everyone is safe. No one died. Joey is just trying to amuse his niece.

• Jossed.

The whole game is an animated film (that might have made liberal use of the Roger Rabbit Effect) Joey Drew Studios released in 1963, and set in an Alternate History in which Henry left in 1930, when in reality, he still works there as Joey's Right-Hand Man.

The whole "Henry is Joey's Morality Chain" thing was Joey's Idea, because it's probably the truth.

While some parts match up with history (like plans on an amusement park that fell through, and Allison replacing Susie as Alice), other things don't, such as:

• Susie becoming a Vain Sorceress (in reality, she became Bendy's voice actress, and Allison took the role of Alice under Susie's guidance. Along with that, Alice was actually rather popular)

• Sammy becoming a Bendy-worshiping nutjob (while he has come to better appreciate the little devil, he didn't actually become a cultist. However, he thought the idea of Sammy "Can I Get An Amen" Lawrence was Actually Pretty Funny, and quickly agreed to voice himself)

• The studio uses a mundane Abelbuild CK1 ink machine, which resembles a more realistic version of the original design of the Ink Machine (Gent abandoned the Abelbuild line before the CK2 even made it off of the drawing board, but they happily sent some concept art to their best customer for use in their latest production)

• The cake referenced in Wally's last audio log is an in-joke that refers to an identical cake that was baked for Wally's retirement party.

• The Stinger was both a cameo from Henry's granddaughter, and meant to reassure the audience that Bendy would return, likely in a much Lighter and Softer story.

• And much, much more.

All in all, the story is, In-Universe, a work of fiction that came about because Joey and Henry got curious and started making theories that quickly snowballed into an intricate story one day. Dreams Come To Life is, In-Universe, a novel that's meant to give a bit more history to this alternate Joey Drew Studios, featuring actual employees that were up to being placed in the novel.

• Jossed by Dark Revival.

Dark Revival

Theories about Dark Revival can be found here.

Secrets of The Machine

The building will open again 3 more times, and have stories based around the other monsters from Nightmare Run

• Chester: Probably contains some old forgotten memories that the person would like to forget.
• Canoodle: Likely from the mind of a Bacon Soup factory worker, either having a horrific accident involving the canning process, or just disgruntled by Bacon Soup being owned by Joey Drew Studios.
• Dewey: Likely saved for last, coming from an overworked employee of Joey Drew Studios, who's tired of having to constantly animate with no hope for relaxation.

Guffie was the original mascot for Bacon Soup, before getting replaced by Bendy

Would explain why he's wearing a can on his head, why he's trapped in the ink world, and why you can find a normal can of beans similar to his "hat" near the teaser board.

Meta/Crossover

Bendy isn't an Expy of Mickey Mouse — he's one of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

In this world, Bendy came first and started things off for the studio... but it was Bendy's younger 'sibling' Alice Angel who eventually became the well-known cartoon star as things evolved past the initial black and white 30s style and Bendy became obscure, although maybe not to the extent Oswald did.

Henry might play the part of the person who owns Alice Angel and took her to greater success, which is why he and Joey haven't seen each other for thirty odd years. Henry and Joey had a falling out similar to Walt Disney's and Charles Mintz's back in the day and Bendy stayed with Joey, while Alice went with Henry — which is why there's so many Bendy posters and merch around but hardly any for Alice save the one poster and the one tape.

• Building off of this theory, Joey isn't an expy of Disney, he's one of Ub Iwerks. It's Henry who's an expy of Disney. Basically, Henry and Joey had a falling out, Henry left Joey, taking the rights to Alice Angel with with him. Alice Angel became a hit, leaving Bendy — and Joey's company — in the dust. The reason Joey has invited you back after all these years is for revenge.
  • It would seem that if this was the case, then we’d need to replace Alice with another character, maybe Boris or a new character, as it would seem that Alice wasn’t doing too well in terms of publicity.

  • Game Theory brought this idea up in this video, and also emphasized how Joey Drew is also more likely based on Max Fleischer (the creator of Bimbo and Betty Boop), since he was eventually run out of business like Joey, his very first cartoon had an animated character come to life in the real world, and also had a dark undercurrent of occultist imagery and themes in some of his cartoons.

Joey Drew Studios wasn't the only studio to bring its toons to life, just the first

After everything in the game went down, word got out to other animation companies. Each separately decided that if a company as destitute as Joey Drew Studios could animate living toons, then so could they (ethics aside), and better.

And they did. They tried to keep it under wraps, but eventually every studio found out that all its competitors were in on the whole "living toon" thing. They met up and agreed that, while the general public wasn't ready for real-life cartoons yet, they needn't necessarily be kept segregated from each other. Besides, it would be nice to have them out of the animators' hair once in a while. And so, Toon Town was founded.

Bendy's cartoons got screwed over by The Hays Code.

The protagonist is a demon. How well do you think that would go?

• Jossed, the studio made it all the way to the late '50s before it shut down due to it's No OSHA Compliance.

Alternatively, the Hays Code never happened in this universe at all

Pre-Code Hollywood was famous—or notorious, depending on your perspective— for its lurid depictions of violence and sexuality, and the prevalence of these themes were what eventually caused the Code to be adopted in the first place. But what if that never happened? A cartoon about a demon would be entirely permissible (if still somewhat "edgy" and controversial) in a world without the Hays Code, and moreover it would fit in very well with the experimental, boundary-pushing movies of pre-Code Hollywood.

The supernatural force behind the Ink Machine will be described, revealing who it's an Expy of.

“Sometimes I think of it as a little bee. It goes from one area of the studio to another and gathers pollens and sort of stimulates everybody. I guess that’s the job it does.”

• This would mean that Joey isn't Walt Disney — he's Mickey's true creator, Ub Iwerks.
  • Jossed.

This game takes place in the same universe as Cool World.

Henry is Henry Jekyll!

He made the potion out of the ink from the machine!

• Jossed.

The enemies in Nightmare Run represents certain characters in BATIM

• Chester: Bertrum. Chester gets mad at Bendy for "stealing his thunder" (which means "when someone uses your ideas or inventions to their own advantage"), and Joey did just that to Bertrum by kicking him out and trying to steal credit for Bendy Land. Chester is also a treasure chest with octopus legs, and Bertrum is an octopus ride.
• Gaskette: Grant. Death and Taxis is a pun based on "death and taxes", and Grant was an accountant who of course had to deal with taxes. Maybe Joey didn't pay Grant like how Bendy didn't pay Gaskette? Even theMeatly himself has acknowledged the possible connection between Gaskette and Grant.
• Canoodle: the Projectionist. Canoodle gets mad at Bendy for trespassing through his junkyard, and the Projectionist attacks you if he sees you wandering in his area. The junk sitting in Canoodle's junkyard might also represent the ink hearts that the Projectionist likes to collect, for some reason.
• Dewey: "Bendy"/Joey. Dewey gets mad at Bendy for making noise, and "Bendy" can easily detect sound; they're also both very inky. The names "Dewey" and "Drew" are similar; Joey was the author of the "The Illusion of Living" book, and Dewey is a librarian. Dewey's gun may also imply that Joey was the owner of the Tommy gun.
  • This one is Jossed, as Chapter 5 reveals that Joey is not Bendy.
• And of course, Krawls represent Searchers since they both move by crawling. Stickles could represent Strikers because they're both spiders and their names are slightly similar. As for Gwens... we haven't seen any flying enemies in BATIM so far, but perhaps Chapter 5 could introduce such a character?

Joey Drew Studios was rivals with another studio, similar to Walt Disney Studios vs Fleischer Studios

While Joey Drew Studios crashed and burned thanks to the whole Ink Machine fiasco, this rival studio became successful enough to start using colors in their animation, create a lot more new characters, and expand its cartoon universe. The studio in question is Studio MDHR (the fictional version that is, which apparently existed at least in between 1930 and 1938 according to several sources).

Each of the six items that you collect in Chapter 1 represents a chapter of the game

It doesn't take much of a leap of logic when you think about it. The Inkwell represents Chapter 1, which seems to focus on art and animation and also introduces us to the Ink Machine. The Record represents Chapter 2, which takes place in the sound department and mainly focuses on music. The Bendy Doll represents Chapter 3, which takes place in a toy factory and seems to allude to merchandising. The Cogwheel represents Chapter 4, which mostly takes place in an amusement park and features many complex machines. The Wrench represents Chapter 5, where we spend a lot of time fixing things and find ourselves faced with the machine itself, where we throw a figurative wrench into the works. The Book, titled "The Illusion of Living" represents the secret Archive chapter that is unlocked upon completing a full play through, where we learn about the steps that were taken in making the game what it is today, and could also represent the endless cycle of the game, and how it will never truly end regardless of how many times you play.

A future Bendy game will take place in the Toon World during The '80s.

It could take one or two (or several) cues from Stranger Things, such as a Deliberately Monochrome Expy of the Upside-Down, possibly named the Black-And-White or the Inkwell, and a synth-heavy soundtrack.

The voice from the Dark Recival trailer is Grima Wormtongue.

More like he will be voiced by Brad Dourif. I mean...they just sound so similar, albeit at a different pitch.

• Jossed, that's Wilson.

The Ink is identical to the Black Water from Alan Wake

it corrupts those who come into regular contact with it, brings creative works to life and appears to have temporal effects, as evidenced by the time loop. It's also quite possibly the cause of Henry's halinations, much like the flashbacks and missing time in Alan wake. this would make the Ink Machine a portal to Alan Wake's Dark Realm, which would somewhat fit with alice's description of living in the ink.

The Ink contains ADAM.

In chapter 5, a schedule in the administration lobby reveals Joey has met with Frank Fontaine on at least one occasion. ADAM can basically do anything, and The Thinker proves machines can be powered by ADAM. So it's possible that Joey could have bought some ADAM from Fontaine during one of these meetings and used it in the Ink Machine.

Bendy takes place in the same universe as The Amazing World of Gumball

Cuz funni, and (almost) any apparent contradtiction here can at least be handwaved by the reality warping effects of The Void and the Ink Machine.

Confirmed

We'll meet Susie Campbell in a later chapter.

And she'll be in as bad of a shape as Sammy, if not worse. Tying into the "Inked Bendy is using Joey or someone else's body as a host" theory, we'll meet Alice Angel only to learn that she's actually Susie after being "inkified" like Sammy Lawrence. Because those lines about how Susie has a "connection" with Alice and that "She's a part of [her]" are a bit too noteworthy to be mere coincidence.

• Confirmed! Alice Angel appears in the 3rd chapter, having attained a near-perfect "living toon" status by assimilating Susie as a host and using ink from the other toons spawned by the Machine to refine herself.

Just because Alice is an angel doesn't mean she's a good guy.

My reasoning is that this entire game is basically inspired by the conspiracy theories that Disney has some connection with the Occult, particularly Satanism. Believe it or not, Angels are part of it, with the best example being the Enochian magic system, which claims it's possible to summon them in a similiar nature to demons, mainly by using the titular language. Or at the very least, Alice will be a (metaphorical) Fallen Angel in one way or another thanks to our pal Bendy.

• Whether this is true of the character of Alice In-Universe hasn't been confirmed, but in a way, confirmed: Alice Angel is an inkling that's consumed her human voice actress to become a living toon, and she's out of her mind. She's murdering the other creatures emerging from the ink and consuming some indescribable essence of theirs to stabilize herself.

One of the upcoming chapters will feature a plot/character themed around Purgatory

Take a second to consider some things...

Sammy Lawrence seems to be associated with Bendy, a demon, and talks about how he's stuck in his body made of ink and how torturous it is for him. In a way, you could say he's in his own personal Hell, therefor making Hell his theme.

Then there's Susie Campbell, who is associated with Alice Angel and is fused with said character, and she also explicitly mentions Heaven, which seems to make her theme Heaven.

Seems well enough on it's own, right? Well, the afterlife isn't just Heaven and Hell, my friends: there's also Purgatory, where souls await judgement, sometimes being stuck there and forced to roam the Earth as spirits of the dead. One of the upcoming chapters could possibly deal with a plot based on the Purgatory concept, with an employee who bound themselves to the studio because they were unfulfilled in their career there (ghosts are sometimes thought to have been unfulfilled in life, hence why they are bound to Purgatory), or maybe a Toon who's a ghost. Possibly both, even.

• Confirmed in the Chapter 4 reveal trailer, which features a Toon ghost.

Chapter 4 will be themed after an amusement park.

As the second chapter was about the music, and the third about the merchandise with all the toys laying around, the fourth will be about the Theme Park tie in. All we’ve seen so far is a dark ride-like level, but it could involve more rides, costumed character enemies, Creepy theme park music, and more. Who knows, given the game’s inspiration, perhaps it could all be a Twisted Parody of Disneyland.

• Confirmed.

Boris will be killed in Chapter 4, but somehow he will come back... in a different way...

In other words, the Boris that helped us in Chapter 3 will somehow survive Alice killing him, but he will be turned into a twisted ink monster that (thankfully) might kill Alice but unfortunately might wanna kill you... Oh god... I'm so sorry...

• Confirmed... only he doesn't kill Alice. He obeys her.

Chapter 4 will introduce us to a Boris enemy-type.

It would only make sense, considering all those clones, for “Alice” to star using them. The introduction for them could leave Henry quite shaken. As for mechanics, Boris is a wolf. “Boris” could very easily act like Boris’s feral ancestors, running on all fours rather than on two legs, snarling, and attempting to scratch and bite him.

• Confirmed.

Possible patterns in the endings of each chapter

Chapters 1 and 3 have similar endings: they both end with Henry falling down somewhere, then fainting.

Perhaps Chapters 2 and 4 will end similarly too. Chapter 2 ends with Sammy meeting some sort of bad fate, then Henry meeting Boris. Maybe Chapter 4 could end with "Alice" dying (as it's been hinted by "End the Angel"), or at least meeting a bad fate, then Henry meeting a potential new ally (possibly another perfect Toon...?).

Chapter 5 will be the odd one out, as that's where the game ends. But then again, there could be a bad ending that involves Henry falling down once again...

• Confirmed. Chapter 4 ends with "Alice" getting killed by Allison Angel, with Tom alongside her as Henry's two potential allies.

There will be more unlockable player characters in Bendy in Nightmare Run such as Boris and Alice

You'll be able to unlock them by purchasing them with the cans of Bacon Soup you've collected.

Even if they're not included in the initial release of the game, they could still be added in an update.

• Confirmed! Boris and Alice will appear as playable characters in the game.

Wally Franks will end up being the Sole Survivor (aside from Henry) of whatever happened to the studio.

Sure; theMeatly has implied a couple times that Wally didn't “get outta there”, but what if that's what he wants us to believe?

During the wait for Chapter 3, theMeatly and the official Bendy twitter account posted a couple of tweets which made some fans believe that we would find out what happened to Wally in Chapter 3. But in the end, the chapter was mostly centered around Alice and Susie, and the only info we got regarding Wally was another audio log where he's just his usual self, complaining about how the employees have been noticeably angry. He's not in any real distress whatsoever and, in fact, sounds a bit more cheerful than his previous recordings. Even in Chapter 4, despite how dark most of the other audio logs are, from three employees losing their sanity to Joey showing his true colors, Wally still remains himself.

Plus, it is rather suspicious that theMeatly would already be telling us that Wally had an unfortunate fate when only the first two chapters were out at the time. He barely said anything about Norman or Susie being in any danger, and look what became of them.

Speaking of Chapter 4, there's a plunger which, like in the previous chapter, can be used as a weapon. If you complete the chapter with the plunger, you get the achievement "Unlikely Victory". Now, this could just be referring to the fact that, yes, winning a battle with a plunger is an odd thing to hear about, let alone do, but think for a second! Who would regularly be using a plunger at work? A janitor, like Wally! Perhaps the achievement is hinting at Wally somehow surviving the ordeal.

Now you may be wondering about the tweet asking why Wally would leave his keys in the trash for 30 years. Well, while most people would instantly guess he may have been killed (possibly by Joey and/or Sammy) there are other possibilities as to why the keys were left in the trash:

• Joey and/or Sammy found out he lost his keys, but for whatever reason, decided to simply fire him, ultimately sparing his life. It's also possible Sammy got Wally fired before he had his Sanity Slippage.
• He quit his job around the same time Henry left. Perhaps another mishap occurred in the studio (ie. another pipe burst) and he finally got fed up with all the cleaning. Maybe he and Henry quit their jobs on the same day.
• He was around when the studio went to hell (pun not intended), but somehow survived and escaped.
• Confirmed. In Joey's apartment, there's a letter written by Wally himself that shows he indeed left the studio.

Jossed

Chapter Three may begin...

...with a heartfelt reunion between Boris and Henry and some exchanging of words. Afterwards, Boris may lead Henry to the real Bendy, who has been speculated to exist in one or two of the Wild Mass Guessings below.

• Jossed. There is a reunion of sorts between the two, but there aren't really any heartfelt moments. Boris just tags along on your adventure as a sidekick.
  • Yeah. I found that kinda sad. Maybe with Chapter Four the moments will be included in an update. Like much more gestures and such, and maybe some lines or whimpers. Perhaps that's kinda on purpose though, considering he's just a clone...

Bendy is an imperfect creation a la Frankenstein, and his existence is very painful and/or confusing.

Surely ink can't be a very effective way to create and sustain life, occult or otherwise, and going from a world like a cartoon to the real world would be terrible in ways we can probably barely understand. The way I see it, "Inked" Bendy's behavior for the brief moment we see him suggests confusion and desperation — more than anything, it seems like he's trying to make sense of his surroundings.

• Jossed as of the update that came along with Chapter Two.

Regarding who vivisected Boris and who wrote "Who's laughing now?" on the wall:

• Joey did, for use in some ritual.
• Bendy did, out of revenge for Boris being a jerk to him in the cartoons.
• Joey was the one who vivisected Boris, but Bendy was the one who wrote the message on the wall after seeing what happened to Boris.
• Joey mutilated him and then also wrote the message, because the ink creations he made had been mocking him.
• Chapter 2 also introduces Sammy, who may have killed Boris and left the message as a way of winning Bendy's favor.
• All these theories are Jossed. It was really Alice Angel.

Joey's heart/blood was used with the machine to bring Bendy fully to life somehow, by choice or by force.

And Henry has been lured there because Bendy/Joey wants to use him to do the same to Boris. Boris hasn't had his heart cut out, his body is there waiting for a heart to be put in it so that the life-giving ritual can be completed.

• Does that mean that it was instead Sammy's heart that was used to bring Boris to life at the end of Chapter 2? Except Sammy doesn't seem to be fully human anymore, but Boris looks like a more normal toon (if "normal" is even a word that can be used for a cartoon brought to life) rather than the unholy creature that is Inked Bendy. Unless trying to do it with a still-biologically-normal human results in an Eldritch Abomination like Inked Bendy, while sacrificing a human who has succumbed to The Corruption is what's necessary to make a true living toon...
• Jossed. That's a dead Boris dismembered by Alice.

Bendy is a Metamorphosis Monster.

His "Inked" form in Chapter Two looks rather different than how he looked in Chapter One. And perhaps in Chapter Three, he will be even more horrifying...

• Jossed, Chapter 1 updated Inked!Bendy so now he looks the same as his Chapter 2 appearance.
  • Unrelated, but Boris has also been updated.

The dead Boris was a failed prototype of Bendy

Joey wanted to make sure he got it right when he brought his "star" to life, so he tested it on another character, one he didn't care about. Boris was imperfect for some reason, so he brutally tore him apart to see where he'd gone wrong, so he could make sure that Bendy was absolutely perfect.

• Most likely Jossed; Boris comes back, completely unharmed, at the end of Chapter 2.
  • Actually, there's no reason why this theory couldn't still work if there were two Borises made. The first being the failed prototype, which they dissected to see what went wrong, and the successful second one, which led to them trying it on Bendy.
    • And.. Jossed again, but also confirmed... there are indeed more than one Boris, but it wasn't Joey who did it. But Alice...

Activating the Ink Machine healed Boris

.Cartoons never really die, so at most, his dissection put him into what would be called an irreversible vegetative state were he human. Once the ink flow was restored, leaks around the place managed to get to him, and as a cartoon, his weird toon biology would allow him to absorb it into himself. As his mind was still active, he was able to use it to 'draw' himself new organs to replace the ones he lost and then enough skin, fur, and whatever else to close himself up.

• Chapter 3 reveals that Alice has been creating multiple clones of Boris in an attempt to steal their life force and make herself "perfect".

Boris is actually Joey, or has been given a task by Joey.

The reason he saved Henry is because Joey never meant to lose control of whatever forces are at work here in this studio. He wrote the letter to Henry before control was lost, and whatever amount of Sanity Slippage he'd undergone, he had enough sense to realise he was in over his head and that if Henry showed up, he would be in terrible danger from what Bendy had become.
He either used the Ink Machine to become a toon himself (using Boris as the template — because what better character than the Sitcom Arch-Nemesis of the terror roaming the studio?) — or he knew he might die before Henry arrived, so he made Boris as a backup 'protector' in case he did perish while hoping to high hell that he wouldn't also turn into something terrible.

Bendy caught and dissected him to either remove Joey as one of the lying "Creators" while waiting for the last one (Henry) to arrive; or he did it to make sure no one would be around to help Henry (assuming he caught and murdered Joey already).

• Jossed. Alice was the one who did it, to become more beautiful. And it's revealed they're all clones for her. In fact, who knows where the real Boris is?

Alice Angel and/or Susie Campbell is the true villain, not Bendy.

All we really know about Alice and Susie is what we've heard in chapter 2 — that Susie was excited to play her, and that Sammy told her she'd be even more popular than Bendy someday. Yet, all we ever see of Alice is one poster, whereas there's Bendy merchandise and posters all over the place. It's possible that Alice only ever ended up appearing in one cartoon, probably to poor reviews that would sour the studio on the idea of using her in more. Joey might have even told Susie to her face that Alice was a waste of time and she would have to go back to voicing extras. Susie, using black magic, caused the already unstable ink machine to go haywire, killing Joey, vivisecting Boris (another competitor to her spotlight), and turning the employees and Sammy into the monstrosities they are. As for Inked Bendy? Susie IS Inked Bendy, having allowed herself to become an ink monster similar to Sammy, trying to get the attention she craves by taking on the form of the thing she feels stole it from her.

It explains a lot of stuff we see in the studio. It's not "the creator lied to me", but "us". As in, more than one. Say, two people? An enraged living cartoon and a scorned woman, perhaps? Attacking Sammy also makes sense. He promised her fame and recognition she never got, and now he's worshiping Bendy like a god, which would tick her off enough to attack him.

• Jossed. Susie Campbell did become possessed by the Ink and turn into a living toon — but she did so as Alice Angel, and in fact she's been vivisecting multiple toons, including Boris, to somehow use their ink to process it. Also, she was going to be retired from Alice's role, but because Joey found a voice actress he liked better, not because Alice herself was unpopular.

Boris's return is Leaning on the Fourth Wall.

In a purely comedic cartoon, a dead character can easily come back in the next episode without explanation.

• Jossed. The Ink Machine is creating multiple Borises, though we don't know how or why.
  • Well, one why is because Alice Angel wants it to...

The Boris we see at the end of chapter 2 is really Sammy after Bendy got him.

Given that Sammy was wearing similar overalls to Boris and in the stinger of chapter 2 all we see is his Bendy mask and a blob of ink... This might imply that Bendy gave Sammy his idea of "Salvation" in becoming one of his universe's friends.

• Possibly Jossed. I took a closer look at Boris in the first chapter. He's wearing those overalls.
• Definitely Jossed. Alice Angel/Susie Campbell has been creating clone after clone of Boris so she can use their ink to make herself "perfect".

The final chapter (probably 6th) will be released on June 16th

For obvious reasons. Although I chose 16th as opposed to the obvious 6th because 2017 breaks the flow and 616 is an alternate version of the infamous number.

• Jossed from the get-go, as there are only five chapters.

Henry is not the Main Protagonist

His son is. This guy, who we'll call Henry Jr., found this letter in the possessions of his father. He probably knew Joey Drew due to his dad working for him, and this also would explain him knowing about the characters.

• It would also cleanly explain the game's most nagging and frequently brought-up problems: despite apparently being somewhere between fifty and seventy, "Henry" still has the agility, durability, and voice of a much younger man.
• Perhaps Henry Sr. did visit the studio when he got the letter... and never came back.
  • Perhaps jossed as of Chapter Two. Sammy seems to recognize Henry. Then again, sometimes genes make the offspring look similar to the parent. Also, Henry could have easily been active, healthy, and some people's voices don't really crack with age.
    • This could still fit in with the theory, because Henry could have possibly brought Henry Jr. with him to the studio before things went pear-shaped, as a sort of "bring your kid to work day" deal. Sammy seems to recognize Henry, but can't put his finger on it. It's not just because of the fact he's completely lost his humanity — he doesn't recognize Henry Jr. all grown up.
    • Hm.. possibly. Then again, he wouldn't have said "My old desk..." and just said, "Woah, this was dad's old desk..." I think we should wait till Chapter Three. It may really clear this all up, right or wrong.
    • This theory is Jossed as of Chapter 3. Alice Angel/Susie specifically refers to the player character as Henry.

We will be introduced to Bendy's and Boris' voice actors in Chapter 3.

We were introduced to Alice's voice actress in Chapter 2, so it's very likely we'll find out who the voices for Bendy and Boris are sooner or later.
Unfortunately, chances are they'll also be involved with the cult somehow. Hell; they could even be in the same state as Sammy...

• Jossed: the only voice actor's tapes that appear in Chapter 3 are Alice's. We might know in Chapter 4, though.

The characters will be introduced in the chapter prior to their living form.

This seems to be how Boris and Bendy were introduced, so this is what I'm thinking:Bendy was introduced before the Game's Release, and appears in Chapter 1.Boris was introduced as a corpse in Chapter 1, and Boris makes a living appearance in Chapter 2.Alice Angel is on several posters in Chapter 2, so going by the Halo over the 3 in the trailer, Alice may appear in Chapter 3. She does!

• Jossed. The Butcher Gang and their "living" forms (Piper, Fisher, Striker) are both introduced in Chapter 3.

Chapter 4 will release on April 14th.

Here is my reasoning behind this. April is the fourth month of the year. 414 = April 14th. Also, 414 is an angelic number. It all adds up!

• Jossed.

Bendy is not an Expy of Mickey Mouse. He's actually Bimbo.

Here's a bit of animation history for you: originally, Betty Boop was intended to be a relatively minor character in the shorts she first appeared in. However, she became so popular that she ultimately displaced the actual main character: Bimbo, a cartoon dog who she was intended to be a love interest for. Eventually, he was excised out of the series altogether, due to the implications of a human woman dating a dog. Other Wiki has more info.

Sammy's claim that Alice had potential to become more popular than Bendy could be Foreshadowing towards something similar happening: Alice becoming so hugely popular that Bendy becomes Out of Focus. "The creator lied to us" could be a reference to how Joey promised that Bendy (and possibly Boris) would always be universally loved, only to shift gears once Alice entered the picture. Adding credence to this is Alice's Betty Boop-inspired design, which could be a clue in this direction. Even her horns could be a reference: in her earliest appearances, Betty had dog-like ears.

• Jossed. Alice merch wasn’t selling too well, if Shawn Flynn is to be believed. This would mean that she wasn’t more popular than Bendy.

Alice Angel is the one who boarded up the Ink Machine in Chapter 1.

As soon as the Ink Machine turned on, Alice would have tried to appear first, or at least make a part of her body, say a hand, form from the ink before Bendy could, allowing her to quickly board up the room just enough to briefly hold Bendy back. As an angel, she's the one most likely to have an interest in protecting the human Henry from a demonic Eldritch Abomination like Inked Bendy, and the only other known candidates for being able to do so are Sammy Lawrence, who is an insane cultist who has no reason to want to stop Bendy when sacrificing Henry was his plan all along, and Boris, who at the time was strapped to a table seemingly dead.

• Jossed!

The final chapter will release some time in October.

Chapter 1 came out in February, and chapter 2 came out in April. If the release schedule continues in that fashion, this troper believes that chapter 3 will release in June, chapter 4 in August, and chapter 5, the final chapter, will release in October, in time for the Halloween season. That seems fitting, given this game's nature as a horror game.

• No Chapter Three yet, and it's July, but there's still a chance the last chapter will come around in Halloween time.
• Nope. Chapter 3 launches in September, and since video games take a while to make (trying to make & get Chapter 2 out in two months almost killed theMeatly's team), the final chapter will most likely release in 2018.
  • Un-Jossed. It actually comes out October 2018.

In the cartoons, Bendy is actually a Villain Protagonist, and that's why he's evil in the real world.

In old cartoons, many protagonist characters were mischievous and loved tormenting their antagonists. Bendy may have been the same way. Boris is often seen as a Harmless Villain, but he may, in fact, have been an innocent dog who was simply the target of Bendy's cruelty. The fact that Bendy is a demon may back this up as well.

The reveal trailer for Chapter 4 will come with a cartoon featuring Alice and/or the Butcher Gang

• Jossed, no cartoon this time.

Related to the above guess...

...in the next Chapter, either "Bendy", or the real one, if there is one, will inadvertantly, or perhaps purposefully, save Boris and Henry from Alice. How it will exactly go down is anyone else's guess.

• Jossed. Boris is killed, and Henry is saved by another Alice and Boris (or "Allison" and "Tom", respectively).

In the updates that come with Chapter Four, Bendy will actually grab you and you have to struggle to get free.

He's way too close not to be able to get you.

• Jossed.

Henry will try to save Boris in Chapter 4... but he won't do it alone

There will be at least one more character that will help Henry on his rescue mission.

Potential allies include:

• "Perfect/Real" Bendy: Based on the theory that Bendy has been watching and following Henry with cardboard cutouts of himself. After witnessing a fellow Toon get kidnapped, Bendy may feel guilty about not doing anything to stop it and try to directly help Henry this time. Additionally, Bendy's presence could affect how aggressive Inked "Bendy" gets towards Henry.
• "Perfect/Real" Alice Angel: Similar to Bendy (albeit she hasn't been as actively watching Henry as Bendy has been doing), except Alice may feel more guilty about what happened because it was her monster counterpart that kidnapped Boris. She might even try to sacrifice herself to Inked "Alice" and let her take HER ink heart in exchange for letting Boris go.
• "Perfect/Real" Butcher Gang: Unlike Bendy and Alice, they may be more reluctant to help Henry, since they seem to be more mean-spirited (based on their appearances in their poster). They might not even care about saving Boris (initially, at least). Maybe Henry will have to do something to earn their trust (i.e. saving one of the Gang's members when he's in trouble).
• Sammy (Assuming he survived): Unlikely since he did try to sacrifice you to "Bendy" in Chapter 2, but considering how this picture seems to imply that Sammy isn't exactly a fan of "Alice", he might try to help Henry if it means getting rid of her. However, Sammy will likely try to betray Henry once "Alice" is killed and Sammy no longer has a reason to continue helping Henry.
  • If the real Bendy is on Henry's side, he could trick Sammy into helping them by claiming that he's (Bendy's) the ink demon that Sammy's supposed to worship.
• Another Inked employee: Highly unlikely based on what we've seen of all the other Inked employees so far. However, there is a very slim chance that there's an Inked employee that hasn't completely lost their mind and may be willing to help Henry out. Could be either Wally Franks, Shawn Flynn, Thomas Connor, Grant Cohen, Allison Pendle (if she somehow isn't part of "Alice"), Murray Hill (whose name is mentioned in the Ink Machine's blueprints), Johnny (from the "Johnny's Broken Heart" achievement, assuming he's an employee), or even a new character.
• A new Toon: It might be a bit too late in the story for a new Toon to be introduced, but it's still possible.
• All Jossed.

Inked "Alice" will be a direct threat in Chapter 4

• Jossed (the cutscene near the end where "Alice" tries to attack Henry doesn't count, since she gets killed before she could even lay a finger on him).

There will be at least 2 endings in Chapter 4: one where Boris is saved and "Alice" is killed, and one where both Boris and Henry are killed

• Jossed. There is only 1 ending, where both Boris and "Alice" are killed.

Rescuing Boris will be a Timed Mission

If you don't reach Boris before the time runs out, "Alice" will kill him.

• Jossed. Boris is always killed no matter how long you take to reach him.

Chapter 4 will feature (or at least mention) Johnny

As in, Johnny from the "Johnny's Broken Heart" achievement in Chapter 2 that involves playing the organ. Just a guess based on the organ music at the end of the Chapter 4 reveal trailer.

• Jossed.

There will be more Alice Angel cutouts in Chapter 4, and this time they'll actually move around like the Bendy cutouts do

Kind of as a (warning) sign that Inked "Alice" will be a more active threat in this chapter.

Alternatively, if the real Alice (assuming "Alice" isn't the real one) is the one controlling and watching through the cutouts, she could be trying to observe Henry more closely and maybe even help him.

Either way, the Alice cutouts will also be destructible this time. And "Alice" will certainly not be happy to find out if you destroy one...

• Jossed, there isn't a single Alice cutout in Chapter 4.

We'll learn more about Allison Pendle in Chapter 4

Since "Alice" will once again be a major character in this chapter, it would make sense for said chapter to reveal more information about Alice Angel's other voice actress, who may possibly be the more aggressive half of "Alice" (with Susie being the more timid half). Allison might even be the one who broke Johnny's heart (if we assume he'll also be focused on in this chapter), in which case Johnny could be the "someone special" who used to own the Tommy gun (if it isn't Joey's or Sammy's).

• Jossed, though at least the chapter introduced another Alice who is implied to be Allison (based on her file name).

Possible Toon/Monster introduction pattern

Bolded ones are the characters that have been canonically introduced in the game so far.

• Monsters (Toon-based ones only): "Bendy" → "Alice" → "Butcher Gang" (Piper first) → "Boris"
• Toons (perfect ones only, no clones): Boris → Butcher Gang (Charley last) → Alice Angel → Bendy

Basically, the order of introduction of the Toons will be the reverse of the order of their monster counterparts' introduction.

Additionally, the combined order could be: "Bendy" → Boris → "Alice" → "Butcher Gang" (Piper first) → Butcher Gang (Charley last) → Alice Angel → "Boris" → Bendy.

• Jossed.

"Alice" won't get killed in Chapter 4, she'll meet a Fate Worse than Death

• Jossed, she gets stabbed to death by another Alice.

In Chapter 4, there will be an ink monster version of Grant Cohen

From the footage of the Chapter 4 demo at PAX East, it appears that we'll be exploring Grant's office in this chapter. There are a lot of messy writings on its walls (presumably written by Grant himself), so perhaps he went mad from the pressure of having to deal with Joey's big project... or something much worse. Either way, with how much focus he's getting, it's possible that Grant will show up as a unique ink monster similar to Norman Polk/The Projectionist.

• Jossed, though there is an audio log in Grant's office that implies that he did indeed turn into an ink creature, who could appear in Chapter 5.

Allison Pendle was vain and driven mad along with Sammy and Joey

Susie we know a little about- she seems like a Nice Girl in most of her recordings, and is understandably upset at being unceremoniously fired without warning or explanation. Allison, on the other hand, we know nothing about. So, I propose she is part of Inked "Alice", and she is the one who is so obsessed with beauty she will gut other Toons. She also fused with Susie and does the majority of the talking through Susie, having granted Susie's wish to become Alice Angel, but in a Be Careful What You Wish For way. Sometimes, though, Allison's voice makes itself heard.

• Jossed; Alison is a separate "Alice" who saves you from Susie!Alice at the end of chapter 4.

The Bendy cutouts will be a Chekhov's Gun in Chapter 4

...Or more specifically, Inked Bendy's dislike of them being destroyed. After failing to dispatch Alice by normal means, Henry will stumble upon a room full of Bendy cutouts. The player will then have to trick Alice into destroying the cutouts until Bendy notices and attacks her.

• Jossed.

Chapter 4 will be a LOT more combat oriented.

Henry will find a shiny new axe after a bit of stealth. After that, the fun begins. Any allies Henry makes will fight enemies, too. Maybe including Boris, if there is a big enough space between finding him and the end of the chapter.

• Somewhat Jossed: we did get two boss fights (Bertrum and "Boris"), but otherwise there aren't a whole lot of fighting going on in that chapter.

Chapter Four will be a Stealth-Based Mission in it's entirety.

From what little we've seen fro PAX East 2018's demo, Henry will be using empty Bacon Soup cans as a thrown distraction. Plus, the Little Miracle Stations are making a return as seen in the reveal trailer. Maybe Henry will have nothing to properly defend himself with until the end of Chapter 4, when we might face off against "Alice".

• Jossed.

The last chapter will be called "Little Devil Darlin'."

It's one way to get the recurring phase into a new light.

• Jossed. Chapter 5's title is "The Last Reel".

Joey's body was used during the creation of Bendy

• "Inked" Bendy looks a liiiitle too anatomically proportionate to be a cartoon character....
• The wheelchair could be connected to Inked's broken ankle. Joey is the right age to suffer from a certain birth disorder that would arrange either of his ankles into the same way Bendy has his.
• Joey probably considered Bendy his greatest creation, and decided to fuse with the little devil darling to achieve his ultimate dream — becoming his ultimate creation.
• What if Joey is trying to kill you, not because he's insane — well, he is, but that's not the entire reason: He's truly pissed with you. Who left the studio 30 years ago and never came back? Who didn't recognize him as a co-worker? Who wasn't impressed with the Ink Machine? Joey probably believes that your friendship with him was a lie — and he's mad, to say the least.
• Jossed. Ink Bendy was created without a human soul, and Joey himself appears as a living human at the end of Chapter 5.

Joey has become "Inked Bendy" trying to become Bendy

Related to the guess above, Joey wanted to become Bendy, but the whole ritual went wrong and the creature we see isn't Bendy (who is actually the cardboard piece that follows you), but Joey. The writings make more sense if they were done by Joey, but with him believing he's Bendy.

• Piggybacking off that and providing an alternative, the real Bendy is actually using the cutouts to watch and help Henry while he waits for the man to discover him.
• As of Chapter 3, this is starting to sound like the more plausible theory, given we've seen no less than two former crew members having been transformed into grotesque half-ink abominations. Just as Susie Campbell became "Alice", maybe Joey Drew is the "Bendy" chasing you.
• Supporting evidence can be found when one checks both the "Path of the Demon" and "Path of the Angel". Going towards "Angel" shows you a tape recorded by Susie, and as we later see, the "Inked Alice" is some unholy fusion of Alice and Susie. Going towards "Demon" shows you a tape recorded by Joey himself, which seems to imply something...
• What if "Bendy" IS Joey Drew, but for a different reason? If you recall the wheelchair the Henry found, it would seem that it belongs to Joey. So, what if Joey used the Ink Machine on himself to become a Toon like Bendy and the others to gain immortality so he could get his strength back to heal his broken leg, but when Joey became a Toon, he grew insane from the ink exposure and attacked the others to get his humanity back? That would explain what happened to Susie, Sammy, Norman, and the other employees; they were all exposed to Joey's Ink Form and they all became corrupted as well. As for the Toons, they must've tried to stop Joey, but to no avail. Speaking of which, Alice Angel must've tried to stop Joey from harming Susie by fusing with her body so Joey's ink wouldn't. As for Bendy and Boris, the real Toons must be hiding somewhere deep in the studio waiting for Henry to try and stop Joey, which leads to believe that Joey didn't send Henry that letter, but Bendy did, asking for Henry's help, which would explain the stamp that was left in the letter's bottom right corner.
• Jossed.

Henry came back because Joey had recently died.

Maybe that note from the start of the game was the last bit of communication Henry ever got from Joey, and after a funeral for the man, who seemed to have died from natural causes, he decided to come see whatever it was that had been left. This would explain why when the game starts, he says, "Alright, Joey. I'm here. Let's see if we can find what you wanted me to see." This implies he knew Joey wouldn't be there to show him in person for some reason — and the most likely reason is that he's already dead. Of course, when he sees the dead Boris, that would horrify him, but also drive him to find out what exactly happened even more. But then Inked Bendy showed up, and now he just hopes to escape alive.

• Jossed. Chapter 5 reveals that Joey is still alive.

Henry's last name has yet to be revealed because he's related to one of the other employees, and thus shares their last name.

• In that case, we can rule out Joey since he calls Henry his "best pal" in his letter, and Wally, Susie, Norman, Shawn, Grant, Bertrum, and Lacie because of their accents that don't match Henry's. That leaves us with Thomas, Sammy, Jack, Allison, Johnny, and Murray (unless Murray Hill is actually a location or a phone number and not a person)...
• Jossed. Henry's last name is "Stein", which doesn't match any other employees' last names. It's still possible for him to be related to an employee, however.

Joey wanted to become immortal.

Related to the above "Joey is Bendy" theory, Joey, as implied by his cassette tape, wanted to transcend life and death itself. He decided the only way to live forever was to become his passion, a cartoon. Cartoons, not being "real" are not bound by the laws of physics, can survive anything, and as long as they're popular, live forever. To achieve his vision of immortality, he secretly tapped into occult rituals, dark magic and the like, so he could transform himself into one of his creations, specifically Bendy, and live forever as a cartoon character. Now, due to the infernal nature of his plan, and a possible want to share his "Gift" with his employees, he converted them one by one into ink creatures like himself, and now has lured Henry back to the studio so he can do the same to him.

• Supported by his tape in the Path of the Demon...
• I think his desire for immortality was so that his broken leg could heal when he became an Ink Toon.
• Maybe Joey's employees were converted into Ink Monsters in his attempts to regain his humanity, or at least his human form.
• Jossed. Joey never turned himself into Bendy, and his goal was to create living cartoons to use them as attractions rather than become immortal.

Henry will finally get an actual character model in Chapter 5

Even if it is just a pair of hands.

• Jossed.

Joey re-hired Susie to become Alice after he accidentally killed Alison.

It's pretty clear that Joey was cracked in the head long before the events of today - my theory is that he wanted everyone in the studio to become a beloved character to further fulfill his mysterious goals - possibly to have the entire world respect and worship them. Joey and Sammy ended up hiring Alison Pendle instead of Susie like originally intended, and Joey showed her the Ink Machine, convincing her (or possibly forcing her) to become Alice Angel. After becoming Alice, she soon dissolved into goop, so the experiment failed. Joey got desperate and brought Susie back to try again with her. He succeeded - kind of, as she was incomplete. As for Joey himself, he decided to turn himself into Bendy and gain power over all the Ink in the studio, possibly connecting himself to the Machine in a way that the others couldn't, hence why he is the most powerful character. Fitting as the creator of all characters should get to play the main star.

• Presumably Jossed as of Chapter 4. There are two Alice Angels, one horribly deformed and one not perfectly toon-like, but humanoid at least.
• Jossed. Allison actually left the studio (as proven by her letter in Joey's apartment). As for how she somehow ended up turning into an Alice Angel and getting trapped in the studio's time loop, it may have happened at some point after Allison sent her letter to Joey.

Alice Angel was born twice: once with Alison Pendle and once with Susie Campbell.

If Sammy's half transformation (presumably into Boris) is anything to go by, employees need a certain "connection" to a character to be "properly" taken by the ink machine. From the recordings, it sounds like Susie was swapped for Alison at the last second. When the ritual occurred and Joey tried to use Alison as a catalyst for Alice, whatever Alice Angel was in the ink puddle refused "her" host because they lacked the connection and made her a "wriggling, pussing, shapeless slug" like the Searchers. Once Susie was offered for "Alice", though, the ritual took hold, creating a more stable Alice because Alice was always a part of Susie.

• Alternatively, this may explain Alice's apparent split personality. When she finally formed, she partook of both Susie and Alice, with one side being Susie's "sweetness and light" Alice and one being Allison's Darker and Edgier version.
• Sort of confirmed and jossed there are two Alice Angels, but Alison!Alice is a lot more held together than Susie!Alice.
• Pretty much Jossed since the two Alice Angels are separate characters.

Boris’s model will be re-rigged again and tweaked in either the Chapter 4 or Chapter 5 update in a way that allows for Rubberhose Limbs to be in effect.

This sort of model rigging will be seen in other “perfect“ toons as well, and won't apply to clones. Also, we’ll start seeing Boris cutouts in Chapter 4.

• The part about Boris cutouts has been Jossed, but we could still get Toons with Rubberhose Limbs in Chapter 5.
• Ultimately Jossed.

The game will end with Henry destroying the Ink Machine.

Over the course of the game, Henry will come to learn the true extent of the damage the ink machine has done to the studio, its employees, and to the cartoon characters Henry helped make. From there, Henry will decide that the ink machine is dangerous, and must be destroyed. However, either Bendy, Boris, or even Joey, will try to stop Henry.^note Either Bendy or Boris because the ink machine is the source of their power, or Joey because he's too attached to it. So, Henry will be running around the studio trying to find, destroy, or do damage to the parts where the ink machine is most vulnerable and/or the most likely to do some severe damage, while occasionally fighting one of the above-mentioned three potential antagonists, and possibly more of those half-formed ink monsters that infest the studio.

• Jossed.

Alternatively, the studio will be purified and so will the Ink Machine.

It will be a relatively good ending, with the cartoons either returning where they belong or — a happy ending — being purged of evil, whether obvious or not. Henry may even fix the Ink Machine if it doesn't get purified along with the rest of the place and keep what happened locked in his mind to his grave, just so the events would never happen again should some unfortunate soul stumble upon the studio. Alternatively, if the toons are purged of the natural evil, Henry may bring them along or revive the workshop and bring them the proper fame and love they'd always wanted.

• Jossed.

One of the remaining chapters will include theMeatly as an enemy

Let's think about this. theMeatly has already stated that the theMeatly room will be in every chapter. He didn't state that it would be behind a wall every time, however...maybe in one of the upcoming chapters, Henry will find a totally-busted wall and later be challenged by Inked!theMeatly?

• Jossed.

In a future chapter, we will see technicolor cartoons.

Then we can see Bendy and Co. in color!

• Jossed, though we do see a colored world and a colored Joey Drew after leaving the studio.

The final chapter will begin with Bendy escaping the studio.

And he'll run rampant, probably in a nearby city, with Henry, the Boris at the end of Chapter 4, and Allison Angel trying to stop him. Bonus points if Bendy grows many times his size.

• Jossed.

The final chapter will reveal that the events are All Just a Dream

And the base will be absolutely shattered!

• Well, it would explain how the building keeps changing with Henry outright saying he doesn't recognize parts of it) and the somewhat limited number of posters.
  • Or maybe it's not and it really was what Joey had done after Henry left. Or during his time there, but I doubt you could hide all that behind his back.
• Jossed. While the ending itself is rather vague, there's nothing explicitly revealing that everything was just a dream.

Bendy will kill Alice/Susie.

Serves her right for using Henry like that.

• In Chapter 4 "Alice" is actually killed by another Alice. However, considering how the Projectionist was able to survive getting killed in Chapter 3, it's always possible for "Alice" to return in Chapter 5 only to get killed again by "Bendy".
• Ultimately Jossed.

The Skeleton from the trailer will be an enemy in a later chapter.

In fact, maybe more toons that have appeared or have been mentioned will appear in some form, like the dancing Chickens or talking chairs.

• Jossed.

Bendy will consume Alice and go One-Winged Angel for the Final Boss fight.

It would also serve as a Karmic Death for Alice - she absorbs Ink from countless copies of other characters to complete herself. What if the Bendy we see isn't complete either? Regardless, he will be once he pulls an Eviler than Thou on Alice and eats her (and probably poor Susie with her), gaining a final form and flooding the entire studio. All. Of. It.

• Jossed.

A "perfect" Alice Angel will show up in an upcoming chapter

"Perfect" as in a 100% toon-styled Alice with a kind, non-aggressive personality. The implication will be that either

1. Inked "Alice" from Chapter 3 has taken Boris' ink heart and was able to transform into a perfect Alice (and has either lost her memory or is just pretending to be nice), or
2. The perfect Alice is the real Alice, and a separate character from Inked "Alice"

Depending on what you believe in, you can choose to either kill or spare Alice. If you spare her, she will try to help you throughout the chapter like what Boris did in 3.

Regardless of what you've chosen to do, towards the end of the chapter it will be revealed that the perfect Alice is indeed the real Alice who is not the same as Inked "Alice". If you spared Alice, you'll have to defend her from "Alice" (who most likely won't be happy about a more perfect version of her walking around). If you killed Alice, well... Nice Job Breaking It, Hero

• Another thing that could happen: when Allison (or whoever the primary, evil side of "Alice" is) tries to kill the real Alice, Susie (the other half of "Alice") could try to stop her. While Allison(?) won't care about Alice herself and is willing to do anything to become beautiful, Susie, as much as she wants to be Alice, won't be able to bring herself to let the character that she loved and felt such a strong connection with get killed.
• Jossed, though at least we got a semi-perfect Alice (Allison Angel).

Sammy will return as an Inked "Boris" monster

Assuming "Bendy" killing Sammy in Chapter 2 was truly retconned, this will be the result of something else "Bendy" has done to Sammy. Alternatively, Sammy could've fused himself with a Boris clone to "heal" after getting badly hurt from "Bendy's" attack.

• Jossed, though he does return in Chapter 5 as, well, himself.

There will be a monster that's an amalgamation of Bendy, Boris, and Alice

Foreshadowed by this picture which appears to be some kind of mishmash of the trio.

• Jossed.

The studio was able to create perfect Toons with the Ink Machine, but everything went downhill when Joey wanted to transform into a Toon to become immortal

At some point after Henry left the studio, Joey and the rest of the team, for unknown reasons, attempted to bring their cartoon mascots to life using the Ink Machine. After several trials and errors they finally successfully created the Toons, complete with their original appearances and personalities (basically "perfect" versions of Bendy, Boris, Alice, and the Butcher Gang). And everything was fine and dandy...

...But then Joey Drew just had to ruin everything.

Joey believed that, by fusing with a Toon and actually becoming the character, he will be able to cheat death; he likely came up with this plan after getting some sort of illness/injury that bound him to a wheelchair◊ and will kill him sooner or later. To test this idea, Joey created many clones of the Toons and used them, his employees, and the Ink Machine for series of experiments. He fused Sammy and Thomas with Boris clones, Susie and Allison with Alice clones, and several employees with Butcher Gang clones. He even fused pure ink with numerous employees, creating the Searchers and the Lost Ones. As for Norman and Bertrum, Joey could've turned them into "special" monsters as some kind of punishment (the former for witnessing Joey's experiments, and the latter for "annoying" Joey by confronting him about kicking him (Bertrum) out). Despite a majority of the experiments' results being nothing but failures, Joey had grown desperate as his death was drawing near, and eventually he fused himself with a Bendy clone (or possibly multiple Bendy clones, which could explain why "Bendy" is so huge and pretty much invincible).

Alternatively, everyone was directly transformed into defective Toons rather than fusing with pre-made clones. This would mean all the dead Boris "clones" used to be employees as well.

The real Toons, terrified after witnessing what happened to everyone else, fled and hid in different areas of the studio. So far Boris is the only Toon who has gathered enough courage to get out of his safe house to approach and help Henry. Meanwhile, Bendy and Alice have been watching through cardboard cutouts of themselves to observe Henry, though they (and the Butcher Gang, who don't even have their own cutouts to watch Henry with) are still too scared to leave their hiding spots... for now.

"The Creator lied to us" could've been written by one of the real Toons, and the message itself could be referring to how Joey lied to the Toons that they'll be treated well and kept safe and sound.

• Jossed.

Snow Sillies is foreshadowing what will happen in the game's ending

When Henry destroys the Ink Machine, all the ink creatures in the studio will melt into nothing... including Boris (and possibly any other perfect Toons that could appear in upcoming chapters), the friend(s) that Henry made on his journey, his own creation(s) that was/were brought to life (if we assume Henry created all the mascots), much like how Bendy in the cartoon created the snowman and became friends with them. Maybe Henry won't cry like Bendy did when the snowman melted, but he'll certainly still be sad about the loss.

• Jossed.

The ink monsters will melt/disappear when the Ink Machine is destroyed, but the perfect Toons will survive

And Henry will be able to take the Toons home with him. Hooray!

If the game will have Multiple Endings, the ending in the above WMG (Toons melting) could be the "Neutral/Normal/Standard" Ending, and the ending in this WMG (Toons surviving) could be the Golden (and possibly even Canon) Ending. There could also be a Bad Ending where Henry dies/turns into a monster.

• Jossed.

The meaning of "he will set us free"

This line of "prophecy" is supposed to be foreshadowing how the Ink Monsters will be "set free" from their eternal torment (by perma-death/disappearance) and how Henry will be set free from the studio. However, "he" is neither Inked "Bendy" (despite what Sammy believes in), nor Henry; it's meant to be the perfect, real Bendy.

That's right, Bendy will be the one to destroy the Ink Machine at the end of the game and save everyone, one way or another, possibly sacrificing himself in the process (regardless of whether destroying the Ink Machine causes perfect Toons to die/disappear or not). He might even do this by fusing with Inked "Bendy" and using his increased power to destroy the Machine (as well as preventing "Bendy" from hurting Henry and the other Toons).

• Jossed. Turns out the Ink Demon was the only Bendy to ever be created.

Sammy will have to choose between siding with "Bendy" and with "Alice"

On one hand, Sammy clearly worships "Bendy" and is implied to be against "Alice" based on this image (which makes sense since "Alice" and "Bendy" are enemies). But on the other hand, Sammy was once infatuated with Susie (who is part of "Alice"), still finding her "charming", and seems to be fine with Alice Angel in general (enough to compliment her voice), and being attacked by "Bendy" in Chapter 2 could've made Sammy lose faith in him a little. Plus this official tweet implies that Sammy hates Joey for whatever reason and wants to sacrifice him to "Bendy", and there are some things in the game (i.e. Joey's audio log being in the Demon path room) that may hint that Joey is "Bendy"...

He may not be aware now, but if Sammy finds out that "Bendy" = Joey and "Alice" = Susie (or at least just the latter), he'll be conflicted on whether he should remain loyal to "Bendy" or switch to "Alice's" side. Or perhaps he'll end up not siding with either of them. Though, whichever choice he makes, he'll likely get killed (for real this time) by the character(s) he didn't choose to side with, or even the character he did choose to side with.

Bonus points if Sammy's choice will depend on whether you have chosen the Demon or Angel path in Chapter 3.

• Jossed.

Sammy isn't actually alive - it's just a Red Herring

• Jossed. Sammy turns out to be alive in Chapter 5, only to be killed again by Tom.

The amusement park (shown in the Chapter 4 trailer) was never meant to be a public attraction

Maybe Joey told his employees that the amusement park will be public in order to get them to work on its construction without... suspecting anything. This might've even been the "top secret, large project" that Grant Cohen mentioned. But even when we consider how strange Joey can be, the location is just too deep underground to be a proper attraction... like... way too deep (unless Henry actually went back upstairs to get there, but for the sake of this theory let's assume he didn't).

Now, based on the theory that the perfect/real versions of all the Toons were created at some point in the past, and the fact that Joey was rather obsessed with Bendy... what if Joey made the amusement park for (the perfect/real) Bendy? Whether it was because Bendy asked Joey to take him to an amusement park, or it was some kind of surprise gift for Bendy, Joey just straight-up built an entire amusement park just for Bendy. And the reason why it's so deep underground could be because Joey wanted to keep the Toons hidden from the other employees upstairs. Not that the other Toons would've been allowed to ride anything in the amusement park, since Joey only cared about Bendy, and therefore the amusement park was for Bendy only. It was obviously a reckless thing to do, but Joey, being so obsessed with Bendy, could've been willing to do anything to make him happy.

...That is, until Joey came up with the idea to fuse with a Toon to cheat death, threatening the lives of all the Toons, especially Bendy himself since Joey would've wanted to specifically fuse with him. "The Creator lied to us" might've even been written by Bendy, referring to how Joey lied (or, more accurately, broke his promise) to him that he'd do anything for him and keep him happy (as for why it says "us" instead of "me", maybe Bendy made Joey promise the other Toons that he'd keep them happy too, though Joey likely broke that promise before he even came up with the whole fusing plan).

• Jossed.

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