I often see that people think that Joey Drew is a bad person, even some sort of villian in Bendy and the ink machine. I often think so, too. But wouldn’t it be a little TOO predictable, if this was really the truth? Maybe Joey Drew isn’t evil at all. Here are some possible explanations.

Let’s start with Henry. Henry was sad because Joey was taking from him, yet giving nothing back in return. Why didn’t Henry tell Joey that he wants him to give a little more? Some people are unable to see that someone is unhappy with something, so you have to TELL them >.< But Henry didn’t tell Joey, he just complained to his TAPE.





Now let’s move on to Bertrum. His biggest complain was:



“I built this park. It was to be a masterpiece! My masterpiece! And now you think you can just throw me out? Trample me to the dust and forget me?”



But don’t forget, what Berturm said in his previous tape:

“For forty years, I’ve built attractions that stagger the imagination! Colossal wonders such as the world has never seen! I have earned my legacy with sweat.”



What about Bertrums former employers? Since Bertrum build Bendy Land, doen’t this mean he didn’t work for his former employers anymore? So either Bertrum left his former employers himself, or they threw them out, too. Bertrum is an archicetc. Once an architect’s job is done, he moves on to another job, right?

Also, maybe Joey just threw him out because he heard, that Bertrum wants Bendy Land belong to him ALONE (“But before you go taking any bows, mister drew, know that this grand achievement will belong to me… and me alone)”. The park was Joey’s idea, also Joey gave Bertrum the money and therfore the opportunity to build this park. Maybe Joey was sad and dissappointed that Bertrum didn’t want to share.

Now Susie:

“They told me I was perfect for the role. Absolutely perfect. Now Joey’s going around saying things behind closed doors. I can always tell.”

Really? Can she? What if she is wrong and Joey didn’t say bad things behind closed doors about her? Although, I must admid that even if he didn’t, it was not nice of him replacing her with Allison. One way I can see him still not being a bad guy here, is that he was absolutely CERTAIN that the opportunity he wanted to give Susie would be something good, something she would love! (“Now he wants to meet again tomorrow, says he has an "opportunity” for me")





The offical batim twitter said:

“Waiting for the health and safety department to deal with the latest ink-related injury. Joey was told it would happen, best he could offer was a first aid kit on the wall.”

This is another thing Joey did that is hard to defend. While having a first aid kid is good, it’s very likely that you will need more than that! I think one way I can see Joey not being an ass here, is that he was very optimistic, he tought that a first aid kid would be enough. Joey seems to be quite the optimistic guy after all (It’s not very likely that a pessimist starts a cartoon studio and tries to built an amusement park).

Same goes for the elevators in the studio. Joey might have thought there wouldn’t be any elevator-related injuries. And as far as we know, there indeed weren’t any injuries. Just technical problems (“These blasted elevators… sometimes they open… sometimes they don’t… sometimes they come… sometimes they keep on going to Hell and back.” - Thomas Connor, Chapter 3). Same goes for the overall work safety.





In the audio tapes we often hear the wrokers being annoyed by the ink machine, by the ink, by other workers, by the noise etc.

Some of the employees may have a family they have to feed and cannot afford to lose their job. Maybe they know that they may not find another job. But sure not all of his employees were in such a situation! Why couldn’t the workers, who didn’t rely on their job that much, say or do something? Why didn’t they leave? They should have stood up to Joey if they were so unhappy with the working conditions or Joey’s behaviour. If they did, then maybe the studio would have still be running. Because Joey would have needed to change things, if he didn’t want to lose his workers, or hearing constant complains. Also, since the workers didn’t complain, maybe Joey didn’t even know that he was doing something wrong! But the workers only complained to their audio tapes…

I often see such behaviour in the real wolrd, too. People are unhappy with something, they complain about it, yet they do nothing to change it >.<

It seems, that some workers only really started to complain when it was already too late. I think that the “I don’t want to work here anymore” message, or the “the creator lied to us” or, Grant Cohen’s messages in his office (“wasters” “time is money” etc.) only appeared shortely before the studio’s breakdown. Would the employers have done something earlier, maybe the studio would still be intact.



What if Joey was lost to the ink himself? Maybe he is the first lost one! Maybe those sad lost ones we see in chapter 4 were lost, after Joey was lost. We still don’t have EVIDENCE that it was Joey, who turned the employees into searchers, ink creatures, lost ones.







Another way Joey could be seen as a nice guy is, that he didn’t only want to cheat death himself, but also wanted others to be able to cheat death! Maybe he tried to develope a method wich could save him AND people he cares about from death! This could also explain why the work conditions were so bad at his studio. If Joey was working on a method that can save many lifes, he might have thought that it’s to cut corners here and there. Maybe he thought that even if people would die in his studio, he would just bring them back to life!





One little thing, Joey called his recording about dreaming, being yourself “trash”. And honestly, I think it kinda was trash. This talk was SO cheesy >.< xD







Of course I may be wrong. This is just a theory. Maybe Joey is indeed the main villian of batim. I just thought that it would be a bit too predictable and tried to show how Joey may be not a bad guy.

