Game Theory: The LORE of Dandy's World Explained (Yes, Finally!)

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Special Thanks To Displate For Sponsoring Todays Episode! Click Here To Get HUGE Discounts On Displates! ► https://displate.com/@thegametheorists OR Use Code THEORISTS At Checkout!  Dandy's World has taken Roblox by storm recently and you all have been requesting us to look at the lore for SO long! Today we're FINALLY looking into Dandy's World and there is TONS of lore to explore!   The game ► https://www.roblox.com/games/16116270224/Dandys-World-ALPHA ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ *Credits:* Writers: Trey “Kitten Arcader” Menconi Blakely, Mike Keenan (The Pokémon Biologist) and Tom Robinson Editors: JayskiBean, Warak, Koen Verhagen, and Brandon_n_motion Sound Designer: Yosi Berman ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Need Royalty Free Music for your Content? Try Epidemic Sound. Get Your 30 Day Free Trial Now ► http://share.epidemicsound.com/MatPat ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ #Theory #GameTheory #Roblox #dandysworld

Transcript

00:00Roblox is at it again. Move over doors. There's a new horror game in town

00:04that's taking the internet and our subreddit by storm and its name is Dandy's World.

00:09But don't trust that smile for a minute, friends, because behind it is a sad and broken

00:15character who ruined the lives of his friends, his creators, and the very studio we're exploring.

00:22Hello, Internet! Welcome to Game Theory, the show that just can't get enough black goo.

00:27Think about it. Bendy, Doors, Welcome Home, Bob Mod, FNAF, all of them have a black goopy thing that leads to one thing.

00:36We should probably just plug it into my veins at this point.

00:38But alas, HR won't let me do it. And given it's been a while since my last black goopy hit, when I saw our subreddit

00:45blowing up with a game called Dandy's World that also had its own black goo,

00:49I was very excited to gobble up whatever sticky dark lore this thing had to offer. On the surface,

00:55Dandy's World is a multiplayer survival horror game on Roblox. The game itself takes place in an abandoned

01:01educational center and museum called the Garden View Center.

01:04We play as these little creatures known as toons. Our job is to hop into the elevator with some friends and complete various tasks, while

01:11collecting items that can be traded into the lead character, Dandy, to unlock even more toons to play as.

01:17But, as you might expect, we're not the only things creeping around these empty halls. The deeper we go, the more we start to get

01:24a sense of what happened to this place once filled with the sounds of children's laughter and joy.

01:29What happened to this beloved place to shutter its doors, and why it has suddenly come back to life with evil versions of the toons

01:35known as Twisted, that are trying desperately to stop us, dripping with that delightful black goo. There it is.

01:42Om nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom.

01:44Oh, that's the good stuff.

01:44So, um, step into the elevator, loyal theorists, because we're gonna get to the bottom of what's really going on in

01:51Dandy's world, and its smiling rainbow flower mascots.

01:54The history of the Garden View Center actually starts with this note that you can find if you don't die to the various Twisteds

02:00chasing you around the various floors. It's an application for a business loan, dated

02:041984. From this, we can see that the Garden View Center is the brainchild of two young visionaries, Henry Stein and Joey Drew.

02:12Wait, no, um, I meant Delilah Keen and Arthur Walton.

02:15Although the connections between these two and Bendy definitely keep going.

02:19Thanks to a note sketched out by Arthur, we can tell that he was the one who

02:22originally designed the look of the toons. As for Delilah, she was a bit more...

02:26suss. After seeing the sketch of the lead character, Dandy, she writes back to Arthur, saying,

02:31What about the others? You said he had friends. Yes?

02:34I'll need them. Respond ASAP. By the way, out of coffee. Get more. Also ASAP.

02:39Uh-oh. If she's anything like me without my morning coffee, things are about to get real bad, even worse if she's like Santy.

02:45But despite the clearly ominous language, Arthur doesn't seem phased, saying,

02:49You've never failed me before, Delilah.

02:51Then, in a recent update, the developers added these portraits of Garden View's two founders. Arthur is dressed to the nines.

02:57I tip my hat to you, sir. And Delilah is covered in black goo. See, Arthur,

03:02this is how it starts. And then you decide to leave and your business partner creates an inky dimension inside their apartment,

03:08which is meant to house an inky version of you that they can torture for all eternity.

03:11It's a tale as old as time. Although, this black goo is a little different to the living ink from Bendy.

03:16It's called Ikor, and not only can we find this black goo all over the place during the game,

03:20but when you get caught by a Twisted, your toon explodes into the stuff.

03:24It's almost like the Roblox PG-safe version of Blood, and the name certainly lends itself to that line of thinking.

03:30Ikor isn't just a made-up word.

03:32It comes from what is very quickly becoming my favorite thing to talk about on this channel. Say it with me now.

03:37GREEK MYTHOLOGY

03:39I wonder why there's so much of this in indie horror these days. Probably a theory for another day.

03:42So make sure you ink-splat that subscribe button like your life depends on it, because it just might.

03:48Anyway, the ancient Greeks believed that instead of having blood coursing through their veins,

03:51the gods had a mysterious substance known as Ikor.

03:54They also believed that if a normal human were to come into contact with Ikor, they would die instantly.

03:59So, that's it? Ikor is just the blood of the toons?

04:02Oh, no, my friends. There is a lot more going on here, because Ikor is also this game's form of currency.

04:08We collect more and more of this stuff as we descend further into the levels of the Garden View Center.

04:13But what do we use this precious Ikor to purchase?

04:15More toons to play as from Dandy's shop.

04:18Almost as if Ikor isn't just the blood that's coursing through them, but it's actually what is used to make the toons.

04:24And given the notes and photos we found from earlier, while Arthur was the one who originally designed the toons,

04:28it was Delilah who brought them to life using the Ikor.

04:31I guess it really is just the ink machine after all.

04:33And similarly, it has an unfortunate side effect.

04:36You see, as you play and encounter more of the Twisted toons, you unlock research that gives you more lore about each character.

04:42Several of the research entries mention that it's the Ikor, and more specifically, being overcome by Ikor,

04:47that turns these happy-go-lucky toons into the Twisted monsters they are now.

04:51That also explains why all of the Twisteds can be seen with Ikor pouring out of every orifice.

04:57They are literally so full of the stuff, it's leaking out of them.

05:01So then, if this stuff is so volatile, why make toons to begin with?

05:05As I mentioned, Arthur and Delilah get their loan in 1984,

05:09and from there, they set up the Garden View Center as a children's educational center and museum.

05:14What it was a museum of back in 1984 is unclear exactly, but based on two Polaroid photos dated 1988,

05:21what is clear is that these characters were originally designed as a selling point for the center.

05:26Unlike other attractions, the Garden View Center didn't have just people in mascot costumes or cuddly animatronics.

05:32They had living, breathing versions of the toons that kids could come and meet.

05:37We all know how well that goes.

05:38Although, it appears as time went on, these characters became popular beyond just the center.

05:43Despite this place looking abandoned for years,

05:45there are a bunch of posters still lining the walls that give us some interesting details.

05:50First off, they made me realize that my own office walls were somehow looking more barren than an abandoned facility,

05:55almost as if someone had come and stolen everything before I moved in.

05:59Thankfully, our good friends at Displate saw my plight and offered to sponsor this episode to help me out.

06:04Now, instead of just looking into the void of yellow, reminding me of the man who ransacked my office,

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06:16And unlike regular posters, they're not gonna fade or tear, ever,

06:19so I can continue to stare at my beautiful blue boy until the heat death of the universe.

06:24But even if I did decide it was time to look into another character's eyes longingly,

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06:50Which is great because I'm not much of a handyman,

06:52and I'm not sure Justin would be too thrilled if this place started looking like Swiss cheese.

06:56Although, it would make sense with the yellow.

06:58And the best part? Displate is currently offering you theorists an incredible discount.

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07:28Thanks again to Displate for sponsoring this video,

07:30but it's probably about time we get back to what's lining the walls of the Garden View Center.

07:34In every corner of the Garden View Center,

07:35there are CRTs playing a TV show full of lovable tunes who might look a little familiar.

07:40There are also posters of the different episodes of this show,

07:43along with the dates they originally aired, hung up on the many walls of the building.

07:46This show is Dandy's World,

07:48and the earliest date we see for the show is for the episode Snowy Adventure,

07:52which aired on Christmas 1990,

07:54two years after the earliest date we know these tunes to have existed.

07:58The Garden View characters became so popular that they eventually created a show.

08:02The show wasn't just about the many adventures of Garden View, though.

08:05If you take a look around the place, you can actually find storyboards for the show.

08:09If you don't know, storyboards are essentially what TV, movies,

08:12and even gaming studios will use to plan out a sequence of events

08:16and the shots that they will need to capture or draw for any given project.

08:19Meaning that this show was actively being worked on here, at the Garden View Center.

08:24This wasn't just a place where kids could come to learn and play.

08:27It was also a TV studio.

08:29And as I realized that, I couldn't help but be reminded of a certain

08:33other TV studio slash theme park from the real world that was popular around the same time.

08:37A studio that, in itself, was also famous for its use of a slimy substance.

08:43Nickelodeon Studios.

08:44If you're not old enough to know what I'm talking about, I don't blame you.

08:48I'm barely old enough to remember.

08:49But when you work for TV studios like Fox and Disney,

08:52you get very familiar with the history of competing studios.

08:54Nickelodeon Studios was part of the wider Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

08:59Much like the Garden View Center, it was both a place for kids and a working studio.

09:03Classic Nick shows like Double Dare, Legends of the Hidden Temple,

09:06and the early seasons of all that were all filmed at Nickelodeon Studios.

09:10But the fun part was, people that were coming for the theme park side to keep their kids

09:14entertained could also sign up to come and see their favorite shows get made.

09:19If you were lucky enough,

09:20you had the chance of being in the audience to watch these shows being made live.

09:24Nick the Great was produced before a live audience in Nickelodeon Studios

09:28at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.

09:32And of course, we can't forget about the slime.

09:34Nickelodeon and their patented green slime go together like peanut butter and jam.

09:37Sorry, jelly.

09:39No, if Icore is supposed to be Garden View's version of slime,

09:42that would make Double Dare a whole lot more morbid.

09:45This idea of live studio filming is exactly what we're seeing

09:48happening in the Garden View Center.

09:50While the clips for the TV show are definitely cartoons,

09:52the characters themselves are tunes,

09:55and they talk as if these events were real events that really happened.

09:58For example, one of the episodes of the Dandy's World TV show was called Winning Big,

10:03and it features a tune named Scraps on a game show, well, Winning Big,

10:06with the show being hosted by another tune, V.

10:09But despite this presumably happening on a fictional TV show,

10:12the actual V and Scraps have memories of this event.

10:15In one of the dialogues that can happen among the characters between levels,

10:18V and Scraps say this.

10:20Hey V, you're not mad at me for winning all of your game show prizes, right, V?

10:26I'm gonna take that as a yes.

10:29In another set of dialogue,

10:30V claims Scraps' victory on the game show was down to pure luck.

10:34It doesn't really make much sense that V would be so salty about

10:37what happened on a TV show about her.

10:39Instead, it's more likely that she is mad because it really happened.

10:43These tunes are more than just live action characters for the kids to meet.

10:47They were the performers that starred in the show,

10:50and those kids who were touring the center would have the chance to watch the show being recorded

10:54live. And I use the word would have very specifically.

10:57The show was a massive success.

10:59We know that by 1990, Dandy's World was on the air and ran for over a decade.

11:04But as with all indie horror histories, the winning streak couldn't last forever.

11:08The final episode of the show was planned for July 21st, 2002.

11:12But from what we can tell, it never actually made it to air because according to the city

11:16newspaper, on June 24th, 2002, the Garden View Center closed its doors.

11:20The last aired episode we know about was from 2001,

11:24which again lines up with what we saw from the Nickelodeon studios.

11:27The studio began to lay off staff that same year,

11:292001, and the game shows being produced there had production halted,

11:33while Nickelodeon animation continued in other locations.

11:37Which is another reason why I feel like Dandy's World was being produced as a live action

11:41production. If there was just another animated cartoon, we'd likely see remnants of the show

11:46still going on. But as it stands, the show stopped at the same time the studio did.

11:51However, compared to Nick Studios closure being due to the heavy shift in animation

11:55and the increase in shows needing to be filmed in Los Angeles,

11:58Garden View's closure was a little more mysterious.

12:01According to that same newspaper, it was shut down due to a quote,

12:04malfunction incident. Which as we all know, is indie horror corporate speak for,

12:08our creation turned on us and tried to kill everyone.

12:11It's even more suspicious when the creator, Arthur, was asked to comment and chose to

12:15remain silent. Especially when behind the scenes he makes it abundantly clear that he

12:20knew exactly what was going on. He writes in a letter to his long time business partner Delilah,

12:24Delilah, we need to talk. I know you've kept reassuring me that what had happened

12:29wasn't due to anything you had done. You had to have known this could happen to him.

12:33If you did, why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me?

12:37Something like this doesn't just happen.

12:39That him that Arthur is referring to, the one that something happened to,

12:43the one that malfunctioned, I believe is none other than the star of the show,

12:47our titular flower, Dandy. Let me explain.

12:50Ever since Garden View Center closed down, several of the other toons have talked about

12:55how uneasy they feel around him. And we don't have to take their word for it. We can see it

12:59for ourselves in-game. In between levels, Dandy pops up in the elevator to sell you power-ups to

13:04make your run easier. But if you instead choose to not buy from him, Dandy starts to get more

13:08and more frustrated. If you continue to ignore him, things become less fine and dandy, and he'll

13:14have a full-blown meltdown. He will turn into his twisted form, and you'd better watch out,

13:19because he'll soon spawn on an upcoming level to hunt you down. Dandy is a loose cannon,

13:24ready to snap at any moment if he doesn't get his way. Based on my years of indie horror

13:29experience, my hunch is that this is what happened on the day of the malfunction.

13:33Dandy was the first creation, Arthur's main guy. But unlike the others, we're being shown that he

13:38can transform into a Twisted, rather than just being a Twisted. Which lines up with the idea

13:43that this mascot malfunctioned, transforming into a Twisted, and created an incident that

13:47got the entire place shut down. And that hunch proved to be correct when I found his research

13:52data. It says quote, the star of the show, the one who runs the I-Core operation, it's all his

13:59fault. Everything we're experiencing, the abandoned studio taken over by monsters,

14:03the studio shutting down leading to this point, it's all Dandy's fault. However, the reason for

14:08Dandy's snap isn't quite as simple as you might think. With Dandy being the primary mascot in a

14:13mascot horror game, it would be easy to just assume he's purely evil. Maybe the fame got to

14:18him, maybe he crapped under the pressure, but eventually was overcome by the power of the I-Core

14:23and became pure evil. But that isn't the case. There's a little bit of audio storytelling that

14:29you might have missed while playing through the game yourself. When Twisted Dandy chases you in

14:33game, a song plays that you've no doubt heard before, but probably never knew the name of.

14:39This song is called Claire de Lune, and it's based off an 1869 poem by Paul Verlaine,

14:45a poem about someone who looks happy on the outside, but deep down is sad. Quote,

14:50playing the lute and dancing and all, but sad beneath their fantasy disguises.

14:54This song is telling us what Dandy, and also his friends, are. They are these picture-perfect,

15:00happy, smiling toons performing for the dreamers of the world. They're the ones who are

15:05happy, smiling toons performing for the joy of others, but deep down, they're sad. And they're

15:10sad because of what we saw during the Christmas update last year. According to another set of

15:15letters, after Christmas had passed, some of the Christmas-themed toons were doing the whole Blair

15:19Witch thing and hiding in the corner. Delilah's response was basically, eh, Christmas is over,

15:23just throw them into storage till next year. Even though the toons are alive, they were being

15:27abused by their handlers and treated like props. Only good for the thing they were made for,

15:33and nothing else. Behind their smiles were sad and lonely creatures. Dandy's dialogue when he

15:38thinks you're ignoring him at the shop matches this. He's confused. He's scared. He is terrified

15:46that he, too, has lived past his usefulness. That if he is no longer the star, that he and his

15:51friends face the same fate as those Christmas toons. And my guess is, that's exactly what

15:56happened on that fateful day in 2001. Dandy saw how his friends were being treated. He got scared.

16:02He didn't want to be ignored, to be forgotten, to no longer be the star. And as a result,

16:07he became overcome by the I-Core, and ultimately caused all the toons to be locked away forever.

16:13A self-fulfilling prophecy. That's why, as his research report says, he has restarted the I-Core

16:19project. It's not because he's trying to build an army of evil toons to take over the world,

16:23or to enact his revenge on those who wronged him. He's trying to atone for his sins. He and his

16:28friends lost everything. And it's all his fault. Now, he's trying to bring the show back to life.

16:34He specifically keeps asking you to find and collect and give him the VHS tapes of the show.

16:39And he's using the I-Core to create more toons. Maybe, just maybe, if all the toons come back,

16:44so too will the fans, the kids, the show. And Dandy can once again be the star he was literally

16:50born to be. But he is not the original creator. He's not Delilah. He doesn't know how to use the

16:56I-Core properly. He's using too much, and so all of his toon friends are ending up as twisted

17:02monsters. But hey, that's just a theory. A Game Theory! Thanks for watching.

17:07World Premiere on Game Theory

17:10Seek's rise from random entity to final boss battle isn't just for a change in mechanics.

17:15It's highlighting how important he is to the lore of this franchise,

17:18and that we have been wrong to not have theorized about him sooner.

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