#dave dctl

[cochranella]

I know that dreams come to life and the books in general aren't that well known within the bendy fandom, but I still enjoy the books a lot and am really interested in developing all the characters further in my au. I just love playing around with them as they feel like a blank canvas that I can do basically whatever I want with them while they still classify as a 'canon' character.

I love Buddy, Dot, and Abby. But I still want to show some love towards the more obscurer characters like Jacob, Dave, Richie, and the rest. :'))

A while back, I wrote a fic on ao3 about Dave and even drew a piece of art to accompany it, which is what this is. I'm still incredibly proud of accomplishing both of these things, especially due to how big both of these projects were. (Well, at least in my eyes lol.)

In my AU, I want to give Dave and some other characters a bigger spotlight, which is why I dedicated so much time to developing him and creating a small story and some art for him :)))) (If anyone is interested in my fics, my username on AO3 is BeansAndGravy :DD)

[reanimationstation]

more batim book characters! this time some of my favorite side characters, some important ones, and some that literally could not have a smaller role with still being in the book.

the first picture is my personal favorite strange side character from DCTL, the infamous Violinist. i support women's wrongs. the second is the Art Department whom i love <3

the third pic is mostly TLO side characters! Plus Miss Rodriguez from the other two books, and Toby from DCTL. as you can see i am normal about Miss R and Scott

[eyeballsoup7310]

Hey what the hell happened to Dot. She’s like the only person on the outside of the studio other than Real Joey who really knows what was happening, and yet (as far as I know) we just. Never see her again. Huh

[clonedchaos]

I guess this drama is resurfacing again: :(

I honestly wanna know why he’s so against claiming the books as canon. What about it does he just… not like? They add so much more to the lore and are just fun overall. It gives different perspectives of the studio and story that the games would’ve never delved into.

I haven’t finished FTB yet, but I really did enjoy the first two books. I feel like they deserve to be canon, at least in a few ways. Makes certain things make sense anyhow.

I’ll take Buddy’s tragic beginning over a regular clone of Boris any day…

Of course he's already being passive aggressive and rude. Why wouldn't he be, there's nobody in this world Mike hates more than Bendy fans I suppose.

[inkdemonapologist]

nobody asked but since I've seen a lil chatter on the DCTL Graphic Novel on tumblr too, here's the thread I posted on twitter, speaking as someone who's done a little freelance work as a comic artist, under the jump:

Main thought about the DCTL graphic novel preview is: yeah, I've made designs like that when I was being paid by the page and expected to just throw in extra design work for free and I have a deadline and no time to scour the source material or really put my heart into the design No shade to the artist; every complaint I have about the pages we've seen is that this looks like someone who was just working (quickly) from a script. The artist is likely not a Big Fan, so they only know the info and descriptions they're given. And the artist's portfolio shows they're capable of the kind of designs and dynamics this comic needed. its possible they phoned it in for no reason, but feels more likely to be "not enough time/not paid enough/not given enough info to give it that level of care." Which, don't get me wrong; an important level of craftsmanship and care is missing and im not gonna blame the artist but i AM gonna be a hater abt it lmao It's not just about designs; the convo with Joey is another good example. It's a literal illustration of the things Joey said and did in that scene, but it's missing the point -- that scene is our introduction to the way Joey throws Buddy off-balance. That energy is missing. And that's the sort of thing that needs the script to convey this purpose well to the artist, that needs the artist to have time & freedom to invest in portraying it, that needs time & investment & knowledge to ask for adjustments at early stages and get the page right one more note: begging batim fans 2 think abt the plot of DCTL and realise why "maybe we will not make the creepy guy who dies at the end a black man in this" is perhaps a reasonable choice. like im a fan of poc norman headcanons too but pls recognise this would be a tough call!! anyway, genuinely cannot wait to see how off sammy is gonna be in this lmao. will he be a mid non-design like norman or will he be conventionally handsome or will he get graphic novel dave miller vibes b/c hes an antagonist? will we get the fabled black hair sammy??? i cant wait

TL;DR I strongly suspect this was an issue of not enough time/not enough money. That design looks nothing like the description of Norman, right? Like, there's hundreds of different AU designs of all shapes, colours and sizes that you could create that would still look like Norman Polk, but somehow they managed to make a character that isnt ANY of them, lmao??? So... how could that happen, unless nobody gave the artist a description of Norman? Or if they did, how did that design make it past anyone else, unless there wasn't time for revisions or a system worked out for revisions, unless whoever was managing the comic project thought it was fine if the designs didn't fit with the descriptions in the book? If everyone is doing their job, then the artist is given the information they need without having to go do unpaid YA novel research before they can start drawing. That's why you have a writer adapting it!!

("they should hire fans, a fan would've done a better job" OK BUT THATS B/C FANS ARE MORE LIKELY TO ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE EXPLOITED AND DO EXTRA UNPAID WORK B/C THEY CARE!! THATS NOT A SOLUTION!!!! THATS A JOEY DREW STRAT!!!!!!!)

Anyway I could yell about this for 15 years so I'm going to shush for now BUT I JUST FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT IT LMAO.

[devil-works-hard]

What's the point of the coffins?

Something I've been thinking about recently are the coffins. Susie, Norman, Bertrum, Grant, and Lacie all get coffins- but why?

Let's start with Susie. Out of all the human characters we meet, her story is one of the most developed. She grew attached to her role as Alice's voice actress, and, after being replaced, was devastated. Joey took advantage of this, and made a deal with her. We don't learn the details, but in Chapter 3 Alice sometimes refers to herself as Susie, and we get a coffin with her name on it. It's easy to assume that she was killed to bring Alice Angel to life, but considering what we know now about how ink creatures are formed, that seems odd. If the Ink Machine can create cartoons without the use of souls/bodies (like Allison Pendle becoming Alice, Thomas Connor becoming Tom Boris, etc) what's the point of Susie's death?

Norman is another odd one. We don't know much about his past, but he knows so much about the studio. He knows about the Ink Machine and almost everything else. He dies at the end of DCTL, but we don't know exactly how. Joey also says that the ritual didn't work because "the ink had infected them for days." I'm not sure if he's referring to Dave and Norman, or other people Sammy lured. Either way, we don't know how he gets turned into the Projectionist. There's a lot of missing pieces here. Plus, with the books no longer being canon, we don't know for sure if this is how he died.

Bertrum becomes even more strange with context. We learn that he's famous, so why would anybody (Joey, Gent, or otherwise) risk killing him? There was a dispute over the ownership and the formation of Bendyland, but I'm still not sure that would warrant murder. His audio log suggests that Bertrum willingly turned himself into an octopus ride to haunt Joey, but even ignoring how that was possible, it begs the question of what happened to his body.

Also, the Ink Machine's purpose was to make living cartoons. Even if Bertrum's transformation was deliberate, what about the Projectionist? Was his transformation deliberate-- if so, who the hell came up with that? You could make the case that he was supposed to become the Cameraman from the comics, but that feels unlikely. The whole transformation thing is very unclear.

Grant's case is especially frustrating. He's important, even for a side character. We get several mentions of him in the books. He gets two tapes (one in BATIM, talking about something big Joey's planning, and another in BATDR, talking about Gent and Mr. Grey). Joey's tape in the Administration Department denying financial difficulty feels extremely directed at Grant as well, even if it doesn't name him specifically. But that's not all; Kay Lee says he hid some of Joey's more priceless assets, so even if he didn't know exactly what was going on, he was close enough to Joey to be useful.

But the most frustrating part of all of this is that we don't know what happened to him; we only know that something happened. His secretary mentions how he's constantly getting sick. Thomas calls him mangy, so he wasn't looking good at the end. His office is a mess and his last audio log is of something happening to him. The two popular theories are he was attacked, or he violently transformed. Grant even gets a coffin in the Music Department. He's as close as we get to a confirmed death.

But that's... it. That's all we get.

If he was attacked, we never learn what attacked him; if he transformed, we never see what he transformed into. Considering how bad the financial situation at JDS was, you'd think we would hear more of him, but we don't. He just... disappears.

And then there's Lacie. Out of all the Bendy cast, she was the last person I'd expect to get a named coffin. She has one tape in Chapter 4 talking about an animatronic, and that's it. Nothing really becomes of the animatronic, and (as far as I can tell) that's all we get of her. Once again, if she became an ink creature, we never see it. She's a one-off character, given importance for some reason we never hear about.

But it doesn't end there.

As we all know, there's the real world, and then there's the ink world. So are the coffins even real? Did these characters actually die? The books tell us they did, but now that the books are no longer canon, that doesn't mean much. Did they die outside of the ink world, and their coffins were added in retroactively? Circling back to Susie's case- could this mean she didn't die at all?

As much as I love the Bendy franchise, once I actually start thinking about its lore and story I get frustrated. It doesn't seem like the devs had a solid story at any point before they started writing. Characters and plot lines change, and there's not enough solid, consistent evidence to really support a lot of theories. If I had to guess, there was a significant lore rewrite between BATIM and BATDR, with the books trying to make sense of it. I would even wager that the lore got rewritten between BATIM Chapter 4 and 5- because, let's be honest, the whole "time loop pocket dimension" thing came totally out of left field.

I hope the next games (or books, or whatever installments we get next) actually take the time to address this.

[angelofthepage]

Ink Demon - Evolution shown in Reverse? (Bendy DCTL Speculation and Character Design Theory)

Today we got a surprise drop of the cover for the Dreams Come to Life Graphic Novel, and there’s one thing all of us are thinking about: why is the BATDR ink demon design on the cover? When Dreams Come to Life originally came out, this design either didn’t exist period or wasn’t public yet, and its inclusion here instead of the BATIM ink demon leaves me with a lot of questions about the timeline of this universe and how the ink demon functions. So today I’m gonna crack open DCTL and see if I can puzzle this one out. Join me, won’t you? 

First, let’s look at what the book actually says in describing the monster’s appearance. Let’s jump over to the part where Buddy digs through Sammy’s sheet music and finds his doodles. This is how Buddy describes a drawing that, we presume, is the ink demon. 

DCTL Page 162, Physical Copy

“The ink glistened like the ink on the cover, but it was similarly dry. That’s not what chilled me to the bone though. Taking up the full right-hand page was what I could only describe as a drawing of a deformed Bendy. But it had very little in common with the cute cartoon character. Its limbs were long, almost praying mantis-like, with hands that had claws on them, not cute white gloves. Worse still was his face, half obscured with-what was it? Was it blood? The drawing was in black and white; it was hard to tell what everything was. All I could see was how much longer his devil’s horns now were, how his smile was filled with sharp teeth. His eyes completely hidden behind a dripping black ooze.” 

On page 204, while Buddy and Dot are exploring in the dark with a flashlight, they turn the flashlight above them and see this. “Something wet. Black. Dripping. A figure. With something sharp that glinted in the light. Like teeth.

And then the flashlight died in the shadows.”

Pages 274 and 275, we get this description. 

“Standing there was the creature from Sammy’s notebook. It wasn’t just some made-up doodle, it was real. And it was…

Bendy.

At least, some strange version of the cartoon character. The head was the most like him. Shaped in the same way, round with two points for horns. He had that same smile too. Big and white, with lines separating each tooth, only these teeth were real. They glistened with saliva. The rest? Well, the rest of his face was covered in ink, ink dripping from his head over where his eyes should be. Did that mean he was blind? I didn’t think there needed to be logic with such a creature. 

His body was long and lean, and he too was dripping ink. No, not just lean, but almost like a dripping skeleton. I could see the indentation beneath his rib cage. But he was still partly cartoon character, which was probably the most terrifying part about him.He still had that white bow tie and one white glove like the ones all the characters had. 

He stood there. A growl deep inside him like a revving engine.” 

And then skipping ahead a bit, after ripping Dave’s arm off, he transforms-

“The beast now seemed to be growing in size. His arms and legs lengthening, his head spreading, his teeth getting sharper.” 

I went back to page 147, the first encounter Buddy has with the monster in the infirmary, but it doesn’t give us any physical description of the monster. It talks about shadows on the walls and the lights dimming that sound like the ink demon’s aura, and the handprint he gets on the back of his shirt doesn’t have a description other than being black. There is an interesting thing with there being a yellow coloring to the room/light for the infirmary on page 143 that I need to look back at later, but that’s not gonna help me with this matter (that’s for another theory another day). 

When looking at these descriptions of the monster, it sounds like most of them line up with what we knew about the BATIM ink demon in his regular and beast form, save for one. Sammy’s notebook sketch is described with limbs that are long and “praying mantis like”, and Buddy also takes note that the creature has claws. Now, the BATIM ink demon does not have claws, he has one human-ish hand and one gloved cartoon hand, and while he does have some length to him, I’d argue this description fits better with our BATDR ink demon. I mean if you look at the way his limbs bend, they are kind of mantis-like. Granted, I could say similar things about Beast Bendy in that regard, but he’s not quite so gangly. The sharp teeth throw me off, as again, that’s a Beast Bendy trait, BATDR ink demon has very flat teeth by comparison, deadly, but not sharp.

I think you could absolutely make the argument that Sammy’s drawing from when he was succumbing to the ink could be of the BATDR ink demon, though it feels a bit flimsy, I don’t have anything super concrete here. But then again, this is Buddy’s interpretation of Sammy’s art, which isn’t 100% reliable given, Buddy is not a reliable narrator for a lot of the book. You could easily brush off inconsistencies as Buddy having a warped memory from how long he’s been trapped as a Boris. I’m not sure how I feel about that, I suppose it’s a strength and a weakness of these books, depending on how you look at it.

Having the BATDR ink demon on the cover art could easily mean some retconning, but like, I don’t think that’s what’s happening here. I think the lore has changed as to how the ink demon works, and I don’t think they had everything mapped out from the beginning. But I also feel like you can work the BATDR ink demon design into an earlier point in the timeline given what one of our big twists is in BATDR.

We hear from Wilson and the Keepers that they’ve been running experiments to trap the ink demon in a smaller, more vulnerable form. And this plotpoint has always bothered me since, how the hell did Wilson figure it out before Joey did? We know that Wilson was digging through Joey’s old stuff thanks to the BATDS teaser of his voice and his other audiologs, but what did Joey have that could have clued him in that this was a possibility? Records of Gent experiments perhaps? How can a man who doesn’t truly understand how the ink works build off of Joey and Gent’s work to get their desired result? Before Wilson was in the picture, the story felt like Joey had a monster locked up and then on the loose after the ink demon didn’t turn out to be his perfect Bendy. Given the room Buddy finds the ink demon in is filled with medical tools, I’ve often thought maybe they were using him for experiments, and it begs the question, what were those experiments? Were they trying to make him into a perfect Bendy? Were they testing the limits of the ink? It feels like it could be those things.

Here’s what I suspect is going on: ink demon didn’t come out as a perfect Bendy, so they’re trying to make him fit that mold in post. Thing is, Joey and Gent? They’re not treating him very well, and he’s giving them trouble, so they’re running other experiments in the background and using data from what they learned from him before applying that knowledge to him. Hence why we get Buddy Boris, Susie as Twisted Alice, etc, but no perfect Bendy yet. My thought process is, if the ink demon came out of the machine looking like Beast Bendy or his BATDR incarnation, then the ink demon we see in BATIM could be what happens after some experimenting. The BATIM ink demon is closer to how Bendy looks than any other version of the monster, it makes sense for him to be an in-between form in the evolution of this monster, we could’ve just been wrong about the order it goes in. 

The thing is, this means Joey, Tom, and Gent made significant progress in a short amount of time, if we got from the big scary sharp toothed monster to the one with a skeleton shape and one good glove over the course of one book. Sammy drinking the ink and falling under its influence seems to be contained over the course of this book.

Page 259 

“”What happened to me? You know what happened to me! You were there! You saw it”...”That day the ink found me. It wanted me. He wanted me. At first I was scared. At first I could feel it inside, the drops I’d swallowed by accident. By luck. I could feel them moving around inside me. I shouldn’t have been scared. I was foolish.””

This seems to be in reference to the pipes bursting in the supply closet and dowsing Sammy with ink, which was the start of his cravings. Buddy was there as a direct witness to this event. If Sammy drew this monster while under the influence of the ink, he’s changed forms within this book. I know the paragraph describing the monster Buddy actually saw starts off with a note about being like the drawing, but when you compare the descriptions, the monsters are different, especially with the way they describe teeth. It could easily be that the reason Buddy calls this out as the monster from Sammy’s drawing is because he sees it transform a little while later, even though it’s not an exact match in the moment of this encounter. 

So the ink demon’s form changing is possibly a recent development for him and his abilities within this book, and the fact that he goes back to being a more threatening monster not too far into the scene where Buddy and Dot have a boss fight with him makes me think that maybe the BATIM ink demon form didn’t stick as well as it could have at first. Like they could achieve it, but it took a long time to make him stay that way. It would also add to why he’s so hostile and why our little Bendy is scared of the Gent buildings. It may not just be trauma over what Wilson and the Keepers did, it may be tied to what happened to him with Joey, Tom, and Gent too.

Whatever the case may be, I have a lot of questions and curiosities about the upcoming graphic novel, and I look forward to seeing what comes next. Remember, whatever they decide to do, whatever happens, you’re still allowed to have your headcanons and noncanon things you play with. The world of Bendy getting expanded does not mean you’re not allowed to have fun with old or new ideas, nor does it give you clearance to be nasty to other fans if they choose to incorporate or ignore this entry when building their fan works. Normally I don’t feel the need to say that, most of us are pretty chill here in the fandom, but some recent interactions have made me feel like this is worth reiterating. Be kind to each other, we’re all fandom nerds bonding over a love of a fictional realm of demons and monsters, that’s really what matters most here. 

Here’s sending you all the good vibes! Tell me what you’d think, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

[multi-level-shipper]

Here

[borkha]

I mean, I can draw in my sketchbook..

[omnipenneartblog]

Felt like drawing these guys from DCTL ^^

[borkha]

AJSJDJIA IT LRKXIRNR THESE ARE GREAT!¡!! AAHDJSJDJ MY BABIES I--

Wips of Jacob (left), Richie (middle), and Dave (right) from Dreams Come to Life.

[adobe-outdesign]

DCTL Liveblog: Chapters 4-8

The character interactions in this are really good for the most part.

Spoilers under the cut:

Chapter 4

why is Buddy describing Sammy as “pointy” so funny to me

also this further proves Susie has shit taste in men

I was worried Buddy and Dot might get together in this - while not inherently bad it’s super annoying that every single book that puts a man and woman together forces them to be in a relationship by the end because of the Heteros (TM). Here Buddy’s like “I thought she was into me at first because I didn’t know why else she would want to hang out but it turns out she just wanted to be friends and I am super grateful about that” and it’s really sweet

While I like it because it makes for a 3-dimensional character there’s also something amusing about Joey of all people being the one to be the least judgemental about race/gender and whatnot

“Of course everyone’s welcome here! All are equal in the eyes of Satan!” “what”

I was going to make a joke about Dot stealing Wally’s keys but it turns out she literally did that

I really like Dot’s character - she has a ton of personality and she has a lot of chemistry with Buddy. I was/am worried that the novel’s going to be too dark for it’s own good compared to the games, but Dot seems to be offering some much-needed relief in that regard.

Chapter 5

"you wanna be a cartoon character when you grow up” I love foreshadowing dialogue like that

Chapter 6

Mrs. Lambert has strong Lesbian vibes

Richie/Dave/Jacob might be another “set” of the Butcher Gang - three people, one old guy that doesn’t give a fuck and two more engaging younger guys.

Sammy confirmed to just be a weird bird that somehow made it’s way into the building

Susie did say he was handsome right what what the fuck is up with your tastes girl

Norman also confirmed to be the smartest person in the studio yet again

“Allison. Alice. It’s close see” huehuehue

Cowboy Bendy is a thing. Showdown Bandit crossover writes itself

Dot is confirmed to be 18 and Buddy a bit younger. I don’t remember if his age was given earlier but I was picturing them more in their early 20s? Them still being kiddens is cute but it also makes things so much more sad

Chapter 7

oh boy, the racist bullshit, I’m so excited to read this (y’all better realize the sarcasm here)

also the problem is Sammy here, even if you ignore the bigoted shit, is that he’s like a feral asshole. In the games and whatnot he could be an asshole when annoyed but he was fairly amicable otherwise - Susie liked him, he talked normally during the Q&A, even as a ink creature he’s crazy but not an asshole. so even if you take out the bigoted shit he still seems wildly OOC

For those wondering: It doesn’t outright state Tom is black, but he says “What’s the matter? Not used to giving someone like me respect?” (Sammy was yelling at him and calling him by his first name only when Tom told him to fuck off) and when Sammy asks what that means Tom replies “you know what it means”. So it’s pretty heavily implied, as I don’t know what else it could really be referring to.

Sammy: *takes a long swig from a flask* Buddy: I don’t think we’re allowed to have alcohol in here Sammy, hoarsely: this is ink

Chapter 8

Don’t have much to say about the scenes of Buddy and his Grandpa, but I like the interactions so far

“Buddy, our Head of Finances already wants to die, we don’t need you making his life harder”

also this is actually correct - the ink wouldn’t matter because it’s mass produced but heavy weight high-cotton drawing paper is hella expensive

“only one janitor for the entire studio” can we get an F in the chat for Wally

While I was saying that Sammy feels majorly OOC in this, Joey is majorly in character. I can usually tell by how easily I can read their dialogue in their voice - with Sammy I had to force it, but with Joey I’m reading it in his voice without even having to try to do it. It’s good shit

Pretty sure Susie’s already dead at this point. While it’s a bit disappointing to not hear from her here it sounds like the entire second book will be centered around her so that’s fair

Joey, breaking into the theatre next door to spy on everyone: “HEY WHEN ARE YOU GUYS GOING TO PUT ON JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR”

huehue tite drop

Joey, nearly killing Buddy: it was just a prank bro

I wonder if Joey was going to use the stage to put on performances with the perfect cartoons?

TL;DR: Still good so far save for the racist bullshit

[alchemyfeline]

I JUST FINISHED READING DCTL AND I AM NOT OK IN THE SLIGHTEST!!!!! I WANT TO CRY I FEEL SO BAD FOR BUDDY HE DIDNT DESERVE IT HFKSDHJSHSKSYDJSDHAHGEWJVRWKHENSHR

I JUST!!!! AM FEELING VERY EMOTIONAL!!!! JOEY DREW IS A BASTARD AND I HATE HIM AND I FEEL SO BAD FOR BUDDY AND DOT AND NORMAN AND DAVE AND IM NOT OK

[magiefish]

The Animator Trio

I’ve finally finished drawing them!

[angelofthepage]

You know who else I love in BATIM? Jacob from Dreams Come to Life. I know, odd choice to fixate on, but I can't help it, he's charming. So it should come as no surprise that I have a hand in bringing him and the rest of the DCTL art department to the Step Right Up AU.

This is one of my favorite drawings from 2021. He needs some design tweaks, but this is Jacob in monster form! So because the art department has three primary gents, I've sort of forged a connection between them and the butcher gang. Because they have no last names canonically, I've gone with Dave Charley, Richie Barley, and Jacob Edgars. Yes I put my two faves together, and I have no shame.

Jacob ends up as a spider creature for fairly functional purposes. Bertrum tends to to throw his circus staff to the machine to "improve" them. The costume and make-up department was struggling and falling behind thanks to his exceedingly difficult demands, meaning long nights with too much to do. Jacob is primarily a tailor within this setup, so his spider design complements it. Multiple arms to finish tasks quicker, ability to spin inky webbing should he run out of fabric or thread, it's quite thoughtful. He made the addition of pincushion pauldrons, and he's also discovered he can attach himself to walls and the ceiling in order to get away from people (and drop down to scare the daylights out of them). He's a lot more mischievous, vengeful, and protective compared to his human form, but when you put a guy and his found family through cursed magical ink, can you really blame him?