Emmafan

Finished up a bigger project for my Aspect of Reality concept a whike back.

I will draw him more often, I really do love him.

This was a lot of conceptual work. Getting a little something from both Shadow Milk and Pure Vanilla into the same space without any of them overwhelming the other.

There's A LOT of tiny little things in there.. have fun.

(The room without Shadow Milk and Pv is at the end of the slides~)

Why not make a cookie that is so healthy or sturdy or a cookie that regenerates fast so you don't have to treat him? Because then the cookie would still feel pain and First Milk Cookie wanted a world without pain.

In that case why not make a cookie that cannot feel pain? That can't be right because then the cookie can't feel happiness since you can't have one without the other.

The best solution is to fill the cookie with knowledge so that he would know better.

Know better to not get hurt

Know better to execute preventive measures

Earthbread has a lot of similarities to Hansel and Gretel especially in the first few crisps chapters. They wanted it to be a fairy tale world where no bad things happen (probably due to their own trauma) but life isn’t like that. It cannot be like that.

You see, within Mystic Flour's "enlightenment", it is clear what the change to the universe is- a chance encounter with a peach bao.

As the Virtue of Willpower, Flour lacked the ability to exercise her own will- in our universe, she falls to apathy because of it, but in Sage's universe, she becomes enlightened.

In my personal opinion, I think seeing the peach bao reminded her of the world she has not been allowed to experience, which allowed her to shed her earthly binds and emotions and become enlightened.

With Sage, however... I don't know. Follow the same path with me:

As the Virtue of Knowledge, Fount has no identity. He knows everything but himself; and because of what cookiekind has done to him, he crafts a new identity centered around revenge.

So, Sage must've also reached this point of needing to craft an identity to replace the dead Fount. But what changed? What forced him to peer inside his head? Did he decide instead of simply making a new identity, he would understand the old? Did he ask himself a different question? Did he cling to the same superiority complex but decide that, by being above cookies and releasing himself from their ideas, he could do whatever he wanted?

Was it a difference from the beginning? Did Sage have an inherent knowledge on himself that Shadow Milk doesn't? Did their deaths differ?

i .. i dob't know

I think change happened when Fount willingly allowed himself to be beheaded.

I think he let that happen as a test, to see if the witches were watching. The ultimate test to see if they care.

When they didn’t stop the beheading Fount had two options.

Option one the route of the Sage of Truth. If the witches don’t care for me then I won’t care for them. He gives up on the original purpose they gave him however he chooses to continue aspects of it. He loves knowledge and love sharing what he knows with others so he chooses to continue it. Except this time he will have none negotiable boundaries with consequences and people be damned if they don’t like it. He shares his knowledge the way he wants to. His truth.

Versus option two, the Shadow Milk Cookie route. This route the Fount chooses escalation. How far does he have to go to get the witches to care? He focuses on all the wrong doings and his desire for revenge. He decides his goals over his wants. If he kills cookies will the Witches show themselves then? If so does that mean they care for cookies more then him? If he turns Earthbread into a world of chaotic despair will that get their attention? What about the whole timeline, what will they do then? If the Witches didn’t show when he needed them most then what will it take to get them to show up? How insignificant was his life to them? How important are cookies to them really?

I guess that depends on what corruption really is. Like, is corruption really 'falling' into the opposite of the virtue, or is it something reaching your mental limit? Are they the same thing? Personally, I think not.

If it is the mental limit, then that would be what would force the decision. If you hit rock bottom, you've gotta do something about it. Some people choose to continue the circle of hatred. Misery loves company after all.

You see, within Mystic Flour's "enlightenment", it is clear what the change to the universe is- a chance encounter with a peach bao.

As the Virtue of Willpower, Flour lacked the ability to exercise her own will- in our universe, she falls to apathy because of it, but in Sage's universe, she becomes enlightened.

In my personal opinion, I think seeing the peach bao reminded her of the world she has not been allowed to experience, which allowed her to shed her earthly binds and emotions and become enlightened.

With Sage, however... I don't know. Follow the same path with me:

As the Virtue of Knowledge, Fount has no identity. He knows everything but himself; and because of what cookiekind has done to him, he crafts a new identity centered around revenge.

So, Sage must've also reached this point of needing to craft an identity to replace the dead Fount. But what changed? What forced him to peer inside his head? Did he decide instead of simply making a new identity, he would understand the old? Did he ask himself a different question? Did he cling to the same superiority complex but decide that, by being above cookies and releasing himself from their ideas, he could do whatever he wanted?

Was it a difference from the beginning? Did Sage have an inherent knowledge on himself that Shadow Milk doesn't? Did their deaths differ?

i .. i dob't know

I think change happened when Fount willingly allowed himself to be beheaded.

I think he let that happen as a test, to see if the witches were watching. The ultimate test to see if they care.

When they didn’t stop the beheading Fount had two options.

Option one the route of the Sage of Truth. If the witches don’t care for me then I won’t care for them. He gives up on the original purpose they gave him however he chooses to continue aspects of it. He loves knowledge and love sharing what he knows with others so he chooses to continue it. Except this time he will have none negotiable boundaries with consequences and people be damned if they don’t like it. He shares his knowledge the way he wants to. His truth.

Versus option two, the Shadow Milk Cookie route. This route the Fount chooses escalation. How far does he have to go to get the witches to care? He focuses on all the wrong doings and his desire for revenge. He decides his goals over his wants. If he kills cookies will the Witches show themselves then? If so does that mean they care for cookies more then him? If he turns Earthbread into a world of chaotic despair will that get their attention? What about the whole timeline, what will they do then? If the Witches didn’t show when he needed them most then what will it take to get them to show up? How insignificant was his life to them? How important are cookies to them really?

No need to worry, those who came specially to the festival will not participate in the trials)

i am insane over the fact that it was shadow milk who had to become the ultimate cookie

because. because.

if we look back at the beginning of everything white lily has going on

her perfect cookie. meant to surpass cookies' fragile condition. from the ultimate cookie recipe book-

needed his soul. it has needed his soul to happen this whole time.

TW: Yapfest, spoilers

I don't think there are/I didn't see enough people talking about this.

First, I want to address this theory (and therefore give credits to @thesillyphilly 'cause reading what he wrote plus the update (that particular panel) made my mind race all night about this). This because whatever meaning I scrutinized in the insomnia caused by all of that will be related to it.

In this vein, we have one single clear and fixed idea: Bendy is a sixth piece of the machine that is needed to turn it on, activate it, and thus give the sick toons a chance to live (including himself): being either the plushie that literally looks like him or the ink bottle (which kinda may have been foreshadowed in this panel).

Regardless of which one he is (or even if he's both and just embodying one of them will finish him off), this, in fact, may also be a good explanation for why Bendy is the only one who can see and read the map (which, if so, would seem to me to be one of the many, many smart decisions Nort and Fly made while writing this, because, if you remember, in Bl•gTh•Gr•atRo•ge's comic, Boris could also see the map).

According to that, we have two options, excluding in advance a zero option in wich Bendy, being one of the pieces, does not have to sacrifice himself for the machine to start working and can activate it without putting his integrity on the line.

So, first of all: we have the meaning of “WRONG ANSWER” as if they were telling Boris that he made a bad decision, that it is wrong because it will indeed be executed but will bring negative repercussions that he would not have wanted. There was no correct answer here, and Boris was responsible for what would be sacrificed: and he, despite everything and unconsciously, chose Bendy.

Here we could propose a scenario in which Bendy has to die in order to activate the machine and thus cure the Blot of the other toons; if he doesn't, the machine won't activate and he'll die from the disease anyway, so it wouldn't make much sense not to do so.

And, even though Bendy was going to die one way or another and it was almost fate or something like that, Boris was the one who insisted so much on following the map and on the general idea of finding the ink machine. One could very superficially attribute responsibility to him, right?

.... But what if they were given a choice at that moment?

And here comes the second meaning I could derive from “WRONG ANSWER,” which is as if they were telling Boris that his answer is wrong, not because it was something he really didn't want, but because tacitly it's not what's going to happen, as if they were breaking (even more, perhaps) the fourth wall. Here, in fact, there was a correct answer, and Boris (although he was still responsible for what he was going to sacrifice, which I'll explain in a moment) didn't determine anything with his answer. It's as if they were just giving him the opportunity to GET RIGHT what was actually the correct one.

If Bendy is the wrong answer and is not what Boris is going to sacrifice, what is the right answer?

The map is something they will need, in theory, throughout the entire quest; they cannot do without it because it is the only way to reach the macro goal. So, like Bendy, it could not be “sacrificed” until the end of the story (again, in theory, because we are making these assumptions based on the information we have so far), but, unlike Bendy, the map is also not one of the pieces of the machine and would not need to be destroyed to activate it. By the time they have to turn on the machine, they will no longer need it (they will already be there) and if it was needed for some reason to do it, it wouldn't be a sacrifice per se.

And, on the other hand, Boris has already made it clear that he's not going to sacrifice his morals for...

Oh.

But he already has.

Of the two times so far that Boris has refused to compromise his morals over the whole machine thing, he has already broken that “promise” once.

Yes, Cuphead's soul is safe (for now XD) and he will obviously return to the earthly plane somehow and be part of the quest as one of the protagonists, but, for Boris, he is dead, and he is dead by his hand.

He “killed” Cuphead because it was either his life or Bendy's.

He sacrificed his morals because it was either that or Bendy's life.

So what assures us that, under very similar circumstances, it wouldn't happen again?

Maybe this is a bit far-fetched, but imagine a scenario in which, yes, Bendy can sacrifice himself and save the rest of the toons who have the Blot, but he can also (due to mystical aspects of the script and his relationship with the machine as one of its parts, which I am unable to elaborate on because I have already burned all my remaining brain cells writing this) activate the machine without dying in the process, but healing only himself.

That has many, many gaps, I know, but just imagine it.

Imagine Boris with the final decision, deciding to heal Bendy at the expense of many other toons.

Because it would be their lives or Bendy's.

It would be his morals, not killing anyone (because that's what would be happening if they Blot keeps spreading) or Bendy's life.

And we already know which path Boris takes in the face of that dichotomy.

And maybe I'm exaggerating a little, maybe I'm doubting Boris' determination and values too much. Cuphead was just one person and he was attacking them; the rest of the toons are millions of innocent people who have done nothing to them and who, in fact, are in almost the same situation as Bendy.

But imagine finally reaching the machine, after so many obstacles, so much risk, so much effort, so much hope and despair of being able to arrive in time, so much evasion of what was a fatal destiny, so many sacrifices, only to be told that you have to let the person who drove all of that die for the sake of a bunch of strangers, and, above all, to be told that, in fact, you have the option NOT TO DO THAT: it's either kill your brother who has struggled to get there and let the other sick people, who may have already accepted death (just like Bendy before finding the map), live; or cure your brother who finally had hope to live and let the rest of the world follow its tragic course.

Besides, after all (in the case of the bbros), it all started to save Bendy, not to become heroes.

Bendy and Boris are the only two ‘helpers’ who become antagonists. Boris helps us throughout chapter 3 of BATIM and in chapter 4 he is turned into brute Boris and attacks the main character, Henry.

Bendy in BATDR helps the main character Audrey in chapter 4/5 before is revealed to have also have been the ink demon we run from.

It makes me wonder if Bendy and Boris are actually our protagonists or if just like the game they are simply there to help the main characters until they eventually ‘become evil’ (I say in quotations because really I mean do something the protagonists disagree with leading them to no longer hole the same values etc.)

ECLIPSE ROASTING MOON??

MOON APOLOGISING TO ECLIPSE AND VALIDATING HIM???

THEM TALKING ABOUT ECLIPSE KNOWING A LOT ABOUT MOON IN PAST ON VERY PERSONAL LEVEL????

I LOVE WINNING

I mean, I did used to ship it back then (it was more of a crackship back then) and while I don’t anymore, seeing this happen feels so bizarre to me

So I guess the official team/workers are a bit petty. Dang

I’m pretty sure Davis and reed have talked at least once about how they aren’t keen on shipping drama and just don’t care what people like and stuff (I remember something about that but idk)

Sure, they make plenty of jokes about the shipping going on but it never read as if they were mocking those people.