Adrienne Kress - Tumblr Posts

Problems with erasing Bendy Book canon:

With the FNAF books, we were told they were canon-divergent fairly early on. For Bendy, this was never specified, leading many to believe this was all just straight-up canon information that they were running with for theorycrafting. For a long time.

Why the hell would you de-canonize the ENTIRE origin story of Boris? He's a central character to Bendy and the Ink Machine.

You're going to throw out THE ENTIRE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF YOUR MAIN VILLAIN? THAT'S.......NOT A GOOD IDEA!

(And before it's pointed out, no, we don't "need" Illusion of Living for "gay evidence." The point here is y'all released an autobiography for one of your two main characters and you're saying it's not canon. That's ludicrous.)

Things that were explained/brought up in the novels that apparently "aren't canon anymore": how Sammy got infected, Thomas's conflicting feelings about the machine he created, the origin of Boris the wolf, several instances of Joey's gaslighting and manipulative behavior and his slow descent into madness after Henry's departure, a look into Gent technology and the Gent experiments that took place after they switched over to "research", Abby Lambert (who SHOULD be in the mainline games all things considered), Joey Drew's ENTIRE AUTOBIOGRAPHY including his PHILOSOPHIES AND REAL ASS LIFE, ANDDD the themes of classism, racism, and sexism that were VERY present at that time in history. Among other things.

You're taking out several new characters for no reason. I'm not saying they all need to return, but it makes zero sense to introduce a bunch of new guys and then immediately abandon them...only to introduce a bunch of OTHER new guys.

I've seen a few comments in response to Mike that go along the lines of "oh thank goodness now I don't need to read the books to understand the lore!" No disrespect, but I think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of what the books do. They enhance your understanding of all the background plot. You don't need to read the books to understand the games. But that shouldn't mean erasing the existing information's canonicity because not everyone wants to read it.

Bendy isn't FNAF. Bendy has a much more streamlined plot. Not everything fits perfectly of course, but to take out such a large chunk of what we THOUGHT was the plot (or plot-adjacent) is headscratching to me. You claim to care about the plot, characters and worldbuilding and then you decide that some of the BEST written interpretations of these characters and their world just aren't "legitimate" now? .......All of a sudden?

I want to punch something

On the Bendy books not being canon: this might be a good thing??? Because at least Adrienne Kress can keep doing what she’s doing without having to work around BATDR. With the ink clone concept (is everybody an ink clone? What actually did happen?) and Joey’s intentions for the cycle (from making living cartoons to torturing ink Henry?), it feels…unclear what is canon anymore. I mean BATIM is stated to be cannon but in what regards? The cycle happens but what about the audio logs? Are we even sure of who died and how anymore? There’s just a lot of things left open enough for the meatley to softly retcon things while not technically contradicting BATIM. And while BATIM is vague enough to fit BATDR’s changes…what about the books? What are we supposed to make of Joey “murders teens” Drew from the books being the same Joey in BATDR who’s being painted in a goodish light at the end of BATDR and in the archives? Hell, Tom’s characterization in BATIM has already been pointed out as inconsistent with the books.

It just strikes me that the meatley always told stories installment to installment, throwing out a flashy twist and vague storytelling. And this is coming from someone who likes BATDR. While Adrienne Kress, as a novelist, has to tell a complete and satisfying story within each book. And like you mentioned, a lot of what she gave us in those books were what people loved about the characters. At least those versions of those characters get to be preserved in someway?

I'll try to address as much of this as possible lol!

I have a lot of thoughts about this ask, and there are some points where I flat out disagree, but I do see where you're coming from! I do agree that the books not being canon leaves things more open-ended, which is a strength in some aspects and a weakness in others.

"...at least Adrienne Kress can keep doing what she’s doing without having to work around BATDR."

I agree in the sense that BATDR is messy. I don't think she had much trouble working around it, though? I mean, we see Wilson in Fade to Black, so I don't think she's afraid of bringing up BATDR.

"(is everybody an ink clone? What actually did happen?)"

Henry at the very least is an ink clone, expressly made for the purpose of Joey having a Henry-shaped stress ball to kill at his convenience (as stated in BATDR.)

If we look at the novels and games, there are three main ways to end up in Cartoon Hell: First, just be created there, like Ink Henry. Second, you can basically be teleported in via the Gent glasses, as shown in Fade to Black. Thirdly, you can just Die In Ink, like Audrey in BATDR. These technically don't contradict each other, but holy hell that's a lot of ways to end up on the wrong side of a Gent Pipe.

"Are we even sure of who died and how anymore?"

Yes, for the most part. We have letters from Allison (who also mentions Thomas), and Wally Franks. We also have confirmation that Henry left to go live with his wife. And we see Joey himself at the end of BATIM.

As for the rest of the cast, we have to think of Henry's Cycle as an imperfect reflection of real events.

The audio logs in particular do line up with things that really happened, and usually we can rely on them. Take Shawn, for example. In BATDR he mentions that he's leaving the studio. Notice that there's no coffin in BATIM with his name on it. In BATIM, Susie mentions that Joey has a proposition for her. Notice that she does have a coffin, and the outcome of her inferred death is...well, Alice Angel. (The details of how she and Sammy ended up in Cartoon Hell are a little fuzzy, but that's a whole other discussion entirely.)

"What are we supposed to make of Joey “murders teens” Drew from the books being the same Joey in BATDR who’s being painted in a goodish light at the end of BATDR and in the archives?"

Oh boy. If you want my opinion, BATDR really shits all over Joey Drew's victims, regardless of his kill count in the books.

Let's pretend the books don't exist for a minute. Joey still manipulated a woman with the end goal of getting her killed for his own selfish gain. He almost worked his best friend and business partner to death and kept him from seeing his wife for days on end. His accountant died in a horrible and unspecified manner on studio premises. Norman, Bertrum, and Lacie all died as a result of working at JDS as well. Not only did Joey kill real people, but he made an artificial world in which basically all creatures suffer. Don't even get me started on the Lost Ones in Chapter 4 (which include children, by the way.)

It's also confirmed by Grant in BATDR that Gent was "pouring in some funds", and while you could argue it's just for research without killing anyone...they still made the Ink Demon. Nobody's gonna sit here and tell me that A. the Ink Demon never escaped, and B. His kill count was 0. No way.

I get really sussed out at BATDR saying "Well, Joey kind of raised a kid so he's paid his just desserts!" In short, that's not a Bendy book issue, it's a BATDR issue.

"...a lot of what she (Adrienne) gave us in those books were what people loved about the characters."

I'm not gonna lie...I really wish she was a writer for the actual games. Lol.

This is a tweet from the author of the Bendy novels (Dreams Come to Life, The Lost Ones, Fade to Black, Illusion of Living.) Note the year is 2019.

Halfusek also directly confirmed this via DM's.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Bendy books being de-canonized was a RECENT development. I think people have either forgotten this or chosen to ignore it altogether. The author confirmed Dreams Come to Life was canon at least twice, and going forward no other books were challenged on their canonicity by Mike and Meatly (at least not that I could find,) leading people to believe that they were canon, which was a reasonable assumption to make based on the content of each new installment.