#myth analysis

1) Prologue,

Not much to be said about it, honestly. I included it mainly because the two ‘O’s look like Toon eyes & the ‘U’ looks like it’s glaring at me—how rude. :’(

2) The Title,

The ambiguity of MOTM’s chapter titles has always been a really good writing choice to me. MOTM doesn’t follow a single storyline, after all; every single one serves to push the narrative and move the overarching plot forward, and they will probably end up crossing and/or coalescing with the others at some point. Some of them already have, like Dyle and the Myth Crew (-1; Shelly my beloved you WILL be there soon, sobs…) and Mickey’s inner circle and that bigass Searcher that the Myth Crew (-1) ran away from.

For ‘A Tale of Two Toons,’ the panel puts a literal spotlight on three of the pairs the title refers to: Cuphead and Mugman in the ‘T’ and ‘L’ of “Tale;” Mickey and Oswald in the ‘O’s of “Of” and “Two;” and Bendy and Boris in the ‘O’s of “Toon.” All of which are brothers! A nice, subtle establishment of the theme of family.

However, you may have noticed that, with the Cup Twins and B-Bros are on the same line, Mickey and Oswald are on different levels. This indicates a rift and/or difference in status between the two. (Based on the way we’ve seen them interact in the comic, I can safely say this claim is supported.)

As for the ‘A’ between the Cup Twins, we know from Nort that they had a falling-out of sorts in the past. That A could literally stand for anything, or any other A word—like animosity or annoyance or anger or abandonment or alone…the list goes on.

The B-Bros are just thick as thieves—for now, at least; it isn’t outside the realm of possibility for them to end up being separated in another title panel due to the actions they’ve taken & the differences in their morals and ideals. Mmm…drama. *grinch-esque grin.*

As for the font, it’s nothing too fancy. Just a simple little something to ease us into the story. It isn’t as bubbly ‘What’s In A Soul’ or fancy as ‘The View From Here,’ but honestly? Its charm lies in its simplicity. That, and it looks similar to the font used in some of the official BATIM posters.

3) The Spotlight

I was originally going to analyze the spotlight and the rose & ink separately, but ended up changing my mind because I felt like it would do the imagery an injustice.

As I’m sure you know, spotlights are used to draw the viewer’s attention, give them something or someone to focus on. And here, we’re being directed toward the rose and puddle of ink.

Red roses symbolize true love and passion; when tossed on stage after a show, they convey appreciation and admiration for the performers.

Ink symbolizes, among other things, creativity and permanence—but, given what we know about the world in MOTM, it conjures a darker image. That is to say, it brings to mind the Blot’s Curse.

And I think that’s the point. Without the blot, Bendy would still be on stage. Without the blot, Oswald and Ortensia would both still alive, well, and happily married and he and Mickey would probably have a better relationship.

Without the Blot, this could have been a picture of love and happiness for at least two of the pairs in the panel. And that’s where the tragedy of Myth of The Machine lies; in the ‘what if’s and ‘what could have been’s.

———

4) Personal Commentary

I think it’s really funny that the amount of time it took for me to write an analysis was cut in half (6 hours on Chp. 2 VS 3 hours on Prologue) by the fact I’m medicated now. Like, wow! I can actually focus on something a normal amount for what may be the first time in my life!!

(Also the question was: what would happen if you were to ask bendy if HE truly believes he's a good person?)

The very first thing that bro does is straight up change the goalpost. Dismiss the question because 'it's stupid' and then immediately go on some superficial rant to justify his opinion that I don't think he actually truly holds. Immediate red flag

Also just the fact he's turning away from us in this frame as if he's trying to distance himself enough from us so we can't tell how truly dishonest he's being

It can also be read as him turning away to be in a slightly more closed off position because he is about to defend himself(but make it seem like he's not)

The framing of this ALONE makes Bendy feel insincere. His face is not showing and thus we have no way of reading it for signs of dishonesty. But also he's undressing which is incredibly vulnerable. But really he's not doing this in front of us of his own volition. He's doing this in front of us because he has to.

And I feel like this exposes the biggest hole in this type of lying. If it goes well, everyone thinks that you're some master of logic and philosophy and if it goes badly, everyone can see how you are at your core, completely naked, all your cards showing. This is because you do this to yourself at the start by incorporating the truth INTO the lie.

The words being level with his body and on the right side so we read it first and focus on it first, like how he is trying to get us to focus on his philosophy rather than how he is exposing himself here.

His body melting here also partially reveals what he's trying to hide which is:

His logic doesn't really hold up and can be considered to be as fragile as his own body, melting under the strain of carrying his own peace of mind for what is likely years, like how his body is melting under the strain of physical exertion it is far too weak for

He's 'cooked as shit' as the kids say. Everything is under imminent collapse like how he is in for an imminent attack of illness. He has 'killed' Dyle, with a witness who has proved not to want anything good for him currently, the witness' brother who is much more volatile and may do something rash if he finds out how willingly Bendy betrays people, a brother who may stop loving him if he finds out, an ex who currently hates him and he is on thin ice with already on top of actively investigating the plight upon Dyle, to mention NOTHING of the fact he is surrounded by people who knew and had some possible emotional connection to Dyle and can all turn into Twisteds. All of it is going to come crashing down on him and there is nothing he can do to stop it. So he does the next best thing, he is already beginning to justify why this grave he dug himself is not actually his fault.

Also the fact that's he's doing something practiced, something so many people do so much that it becomes almost subconscious. To pull off this type of lie, you can't just pull something out of thin air. It has to be something practiced, something you tell yourself routinely, something with logic that is so utterly well polished over years of ruminating on it that it's ingrained into your brain.

Okay now let's go to what he's actually saying:

"A good person isn't something you actually are, it's a title given to you by other people who know they can benefit off your 'goodness'"

First of all, this sentence as a whole is so deeply pessimistic that part of me wants to dismiss it based off of that. Deeply pessimistic views about human or rather toon behaviour are often just wrong simply based on the fact that humans are mostly good most of the time because we need to in order to survive this long. We cannot be a race of evil manipulative beings and still get this far along. All of toonkind cannot be majority manipulative asshole like Bendy is implying with 'other people who know they can benefit off your 'goodness''.

But also there's a lot of other interesting stuff about how he's saying what he's saying. The quotes around goodness help him further along this lie he is disguising as good sound logic by immediately taking down the idea that goodness is a quality that is attainable or real, therefore he doesn't have to work to attain it, right? You can't go towards an unattainable goal. So he's already excused himself of having to change. But he's also very sneakily introduced the idea that bad people don't exist. If he's dismissing the idea that good people exist then he's also dismissing the idea that bad people exist and thus he can't be a bad person because those don't exist and truthfully they are only people that didn't buy into this silly 'goodness'.

Also this is the first instance I can prove that Bendy is contradicting himself

Now, look. If you think that someone 'deserves to die' you ,to a certain extent, believe in morality. You believe there is a section of people who deserve to die and people who deserve to live and that is the definition of thinking there are good and bad people and that goodness and badness are things that can be attained and are very real. If you thought goodness and badness were unattainable or intangible or 'silly' you wouldn't want anyone to be punished for having or not having those traits and certainly not by death.

You can see this in how Boris is much more forgiving towards the Cupbros because he believes goodness is inherent and only badness is actually attainable(pretend I had the patience to go back to that flashback of kid Bendy and kid Boris where Boris basically lays out his entire philosophy and put that panel here)

If you believe that then there is a little less responsibility on the shoulders of the bad person. Suddenly they are just a former good person, they got bad like a rotten vegetable and perhaps there is hope to revert them back to their original 'true' state(I could go into how this is basically the philosophy of all Abrahamic religions, specifically Christianity but this isn't a Boris rant)

Again, the FRAMING, he is turning his back to us and arguably showing us a much more 'spiky' side of himself, not inviting discussion or arguments to his position. Trying to seem cruel and calculating so he doesn't fall under scrutiny and have everything come apart.

Then there's the line

'What about themselves?'

Which firstly is trying to justify his selfish actions back on the train as 'people have to think about themselves sometimes'

But secondly it's doing that thing I said earlier about laying out all your cards for everyone to see. Because the moment he phrased the silliness of goodness being that it didn't allow for self preservation, it allows us to see that every morally questionable action he has ever made has been for self preservation and he's trying to justify those actions by justifying their main reason. He is trying to position self preservation above morality so everything he's done is excusable.

Also exhibitions of this fact here:

First of all, there was leaving Boris behind which isn't the worst thing but Boris(or even Cuphead or Mugman had it been their own brother) wouldn't have done the same. Yes, there is the panel where Boris specifically tells Bendy to run, but again, in terms of morals it isn't the best action. It's done out of self preservation and that is the whole justification for it

Then there's this deal where Bendy takes advantage of the fact Cuphead is in a desperate situation. On some level, you can argue that Bendy making Cuphead promise to not harm him or his brother is justifiable in the fact that Boris now has two very prominent scars because of Cuphead and his twin, one on his snout and one on his back.

But also this is a betrayal towards Cuphead after bonding with him in the forest. He didn't need to make this deal and have Cuphead trade his soul and triple pinky promise to never harm him and his brother. He could've just lead Cuphead to his body. He had already been assured by multiple people that the Cupbros had no intentions of killing them. Not just by the fact Mugman saved him. Not just by the fact Cuphead says they never wanted to do such a thing. But by Boris himself, who arguably suffered the most at the hands of either

For context, this panel is from an argument where Bendy and Boris are discussing how bad the twins are(in a way) and Bendy says 'They're nothing but Killers!'

There's the argument to be made that Bendy still had reason to believe the Cupbros would harm them because of Mugman with his big ass gun but then again, he had Cuphead, the whole reason Mugman went berserk, with him. He could've just brought Cuphead to his brother. He had no real reason to believe Mugman would still be violent without reason

This doesn't mean the deal was entirely morally reprehensible or unneeded and illogical because it's still somewhat under the umbrella of self preservation. Bendy put Cuphead into this unfair position partially because he was scared for his life and what could happen down the road with the Cupbros

(Funnily enough he has only made sure that future Cupbro interactions will be more hostile than they would be in a timeline where he didn't make the deal but you can see where he's coming from, even if it isn't completely grounded in the best evidence)

I feel like I don't have to explain how this is rooted in self preservation and this is the MAIN thing Bendy is trying to justify in his whole philosophical monologue while he's changing. The action he is trying to make us believe was justified, didn't dig him into a hole and was his only option. The action that is leading him to his own inevitable reckoning. The action that even he on some level thinks was morally reprehensible and has guilt for.

Why do I think he's guilty? Non-guilty people don't lie

If he TRULY deep down in his heart feels this action was completely justified, he wouldn't have lied.

and even if he didn't feel guilty and he lied purely to make sure there was no conflict(which bad idea considering Cuphead is already a witness) he certainly wouldn't have lied with this face, looking as if he's seen something horrifying. He wouldn't be stumbling over his words. He would've lied confidently if he truly believed what he did was completely fine.

This all means he knows he did something bad. He knows he can be defined as a bad person. He knows he isn't good. He knows when he is dismissing the existence of goodness and good people he is lying both to himself and the audience. He knows he is simply trying to tell us and himself he is not a bad person as that would be too much for him mentally. That pain would be too great and to skirt it he lies.

But straight up denying he is a bad person would be too many mental gymnastics even for him and wouldn't really feel compelling so he starts philosophising and saying 'They are no good or bad people actually and your question is dumb' even though he definitely believes in the existence of good and bad people. He can seem like some tragic intellectual, doomed by forces beyond his power instead of a man who can't accept he has done bad things and nobody wants to argue against a tragic doomed intellectual. You seem dumb and like you're just not getting his philosophy

Again, justifying his actions on the train, yada yada yada. But notice right here, he's leaving. He's going to the changing room where we presumably can't follow and keep questioning him. He's running away after making his argument so we don't have time to combat him and raising an entirely different question that you can think about instead of how he just lied to you and himself.

Also how he throws up here can be showing how even he is disgusted by his own words but that MIGHT be a bit of a stretch even I admit

Overall Bendy has likely always been highly self preservation focused, at least in his adult years and I think I could go on about how this is connected to possible relgious trauma and a death of faith and how this is why I think this man is NPD coded and how this instinct for self preservation and his tendency to justify himself like this is why Bendy and Dandy broke up and more that even I don't have time to type out in one post.