The Cycle

***"On the plus side, I got a new character I think people are going to love."***
- Henry Stein
This article may contain unmarked details of **spoilers**. If you wish not to read without spoiling yourself, play the game, watch the cartoon, or read the book first, depending on the article's topic.

## The Cycle

The foyer, the entrance to the Cycle, as seen in Bendy and the Ink Machine.

## Information

### Also known as

Joey Drew Studios
The Studio

### Founder

Joey Drew
Gent

**"***It's a cycle, Audrey. An ink-stained nightmare forever stuck on repeat. With just a pencil and a dream...and with a little help from the Gent Corporation, it came into being. From what I gather, it exists in parallel to the outside world, but completely removed from the march of time. And like a record, played over and over again, it's begun to crumble, wear down. This studio is a monument to choosing the wrong road. Now whether it was built for revenge or regret, I don't know. That's my riddle to solve.***"**
— **Joey Drew explaining to Audrey what the Cycle is, in *Bendy and the Dark Revival: Chapter 3*.**

**The Cycle** is a nightmarish alternate reality styled after the world of early 1900s animation and the primary setting of every game within the *Bendy* series. Described as a realm that acts as a "story", the Cycle operates as a series of forever repeating events that was originally created by Joey Drew using the Ink Machine.

## History

During the waning years of Joey Drew Studios, Joey began to blame everyone around him for the mistakes that had led to his company's downfall, including the failure of the Ink Machine to literally bring his characters to life. Still resentful over the resignation of his friend and business partner Henry Stein in the early years of the company, Joey's anger led him to use the Ink Machine to create the Cycle - a world that would torment a version of Henry in a never-ending loop as revenge for his perceived abandonment. Though his later meetings in life with Allison Pendle would cause Joey to grant this version of Henry help in the form of an angel, the Cycle would continue for decades after its creation and even after Joey's own death. As it goes on the world after many resets it would begin falling apart and then Wilson had shown up altered the cycle using the keepers.

Though his later meetings in life with Allison Pendle would cause Joey to have a change of heart and grant this version of Henry help in the form of an angel, the Cycle would continue for decades after its creation, persisting even after Joey's own death. Shortly after his passing, Nathan Arch purchased the rights to the Bendy franchise and moved many of Joey's possessions including the Ink Machine to an exhibit at the newly formed Archgate Films.

There the machine was discovered by Wilson, who found a way to enter the Cycle and began efforts to seize control of its world for his own gain. By imprisoning certain individuals that he deemed "Cyclebreakers" - Henry among them - Wilson brought the repeating loops to a standstill, allowing him to continue making changes even as the studio began to decay. His plans eventually led to him tricking Audrey into activating the Ink Machine and dragging her with him into the Ink and the Cycle.

## Appearance

The Cycle appears as a massive complex of rooms, corridors, and areas from multiple facilities and companies related to the life of Joey Drew: Joey Drew Studios, Gent, Heavenly Toys, Bendy Land, and others. All of the environments within appear to be sketched, giving the entire realm a cartoon-like appearance. To that end, the world's color is entirely sepia, shaded with lighter or darker tints of yellow, tan, orange, and brown.

Within the Cycle are corrupted monsters born from the ink that stains the world, including versions of Joey Drew Studios characters like Boris, Alice Angel and Bendy. The creatures are also trapped in never-ending loops of their own, always returning to the ink to be reborn if they are destroyed, something that many appear aware of.

The Cycle exists in parallel with the outside world but is not subjected to the same flow of time as normal reality. Though time in the Cycle is measured in days, those trapped within it are not truly aware of how much time passes in the real world.

## *Bendy and the Ink Machine*

The first game in the series has players exploring the Cycle as the ink-incarnated version of Henry for one such loop of events, acting under the impression he is the real Henry who has been called to the old studio by Joey himself. After surviving the terrors of the Cycle and successfully vanquishing Beast Bendy using the End reel, Henry finds himself stepping back to the very beginning of the game with seemingly no memory of the previous loop, setting the Cycle off again.

By using the Seeing Tool to find Secret Messages on a second playthrough, it is revealed that this Henry has already repeated these events at least 102 times before the events of the game. He also appears to be at least subconsciously aware of this as the messages detail things like the fate of Boris, warnings to not turn on the Machine, and that Henry is powerless to stop events playing out.

## *Boris and the Dark Survival*

The Cycle's appearance within *Dark Survival* is much less fixed, being randomly generated in its layout and details whenever Boris exits his safehouse to find new materials. However, the game's endless nature reinforces the same about the Cycle itself, being a place that Boris can only ever survive within rather than completely escape.

## *Bendy and the Dark Revival*

Wilson asserts that it has been 211 days since he "destroyed" the Ink Demon with the help of the Keepers. The death of the Ink Demon proves to be a lie, however Wilson had discovered another method to subdue and control them using leftover Gent technology. Audrey is pulled into the Cycle as part of Wilson's plans to seize ultimate control so he could begin manifesting his own creations, eventually hoping to bring those creations into the real world to assert his own power and control. While exploring, Audrey is told by an ink-created incarnation of Joey Drew himself that Wilson is trying to stop the Cycle entirely and change it to be of his own design, imprisoning people who would try to see events through to their completion and reset everything as intended. The appearance of Twisted Alice, Sammy Lawrence, Buddy Boris, the Projectionist's decapitated, but still living head, and the decaying head of Bertrum imply that Wilson interfered and changed the Cycle in the middle of Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 3.

While exploring, Audrey is told by an ink-incarnation of Joey Drew himself that Wilson is trying to stop the Cycle entirely and change it to be of his own design, imprisoning people who would try to see events through to their intended completion and reset. The appearance of Twisted Alice, Sammy Lawrence, Buddy Boris, the Projectionist's decapitated but still living head, and the decaying head of Bertrum imply that Wilson interfered and managed to halt the Cycle in the middle of Bendy and the Ink Machine: Chapter 3.

Though the inhabitants of the world and The Ink Demon himself try to stop her, Audrey with the help of friends she met along the way manages to successfully use the End reel to reset the Cycle and repair the damage Wilson had done. After seemingly returning to the real world, Audrey remarks that while she knows she may not be able to end the Cycle, she can make things easier for everyone inside now that it is within her control. She also proves that Wilson's ultimate plan could have succeeded as she turns to reveal Bendy standing by her side.

Although the fate of Wilson and the Keepers remains a mystery after the reset, the end credits show a brief scene of the Ink Machine loaded into the back of a Gent truck which quickly drives off, implying it was stolen from Archgate in order to continue the experiments on the ink world of the cycle.

## Gallery

The logo for Music Department by Sammy Lawrence.The logo for Heavenly Toys by Shawn Flynn.The logo for Accounting & Finance by Grant Cohen.One of the walls of the studio.A metal wall.Checkered floors.The cracked texture of the studio wall.The main floor.The ceiling.The piece of a gate.The splatter of ink located almost everywhere.Exit texture.Beta main power textA door.Texture of the door.Beta Ink Machine.