I don't think bullying has as much to do with it. I think bullying was a result of being at the bottom of the "food chain" in the school but not the aspect they most resented. While they certainly cite revenge as a motive, Dylan's journal makes it pretty clear it's about not having "LIVES" or girlfriends. Incel rage explains why they shot girls as well as jocks, for instance. Also tends to happen from weak fathers and being raised by mothers, and to this day Sue is trying to protect him. He didn't want to die alone. He didn't want to graduate a virgin, etc etc.

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It also seems to me they targeted the school for the above reason and because it had several people and was a building with which they were familiar. If, say, they worked at a hotel with a lobby with several hundred people, they may well have attacked there. Also, the aspect more with Eric's journal, would be because it's part of the 'system', the center of indoctrination.

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I would say these two reasons cited from each journal are far and away the reason for most people identifying with the boys, and the reason most cited by copycats, and by mass shooters in general. Dylan's "Wrath" for never having a girlfriend like the jocks, and Eric's "natural selection and "Tier" and "Wilder Wein" wish to be in the wild as an animal and not a cog in the system.

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While I won't say it's entirely a result of this, there are some mentions in the journals and the Basement Tapes, I think for the most part the "bullying" narrative comes from what they said in the library. Kate Battan notes they just said whatever came to mind to taunt people, and that not much insight into their motives is gleaned from it. For instance, it was said they targeted Christians, but Battan notes people were saying things like "Oh my God", so they used that to taunt them.

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In fact, it seems to come down to a single quote. They seemed to talk about revenge more than once, but not what the revenge was about. There's only one quote that might be construed as bullying: "This is for all you put us through this last year." It's often rendered as "four years", but that's not what witnesses said, and given the massacre was planned for roughly a year, not four years, it makes more sense that way. Regardless, while it very well might, it's not clear that means bullying. It could just mean simply "we've planned this for a year". It could also mean "all the shit you've given us for being losers without girlfriends", which is bullying I suppose but hardly the core of the issue, or it could mean various other things.

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I'd have to give a similar interpretation for "you've been giving us shit for years" on the Basement Tapes. Not to mention, these are said by Dylan, not Eric, which makes me think it's about being lonely. The best evidence for bullying is probably "Not to mention our revenge in the commons." If the ketchup incident is true, then that could very well be what it means. Ralph Larkin and others contend the big bombs were placed under the Jocks tables. Then again, if the ketchup incident is false, or irrelevant, this still works quite well for revenge against the jocks for having lives and girlfriends. And indeed the bombs would've killed a lot more than the jocks, and it seems the commons was chosen because it would kill the most people, not for jock bulles in particular. As as been noted, if that's what this was about, you don't go to the cafeteria and the library, you go to the gym. Maybe that it was more indiscriminate revenge is why it's "not to mention", while killing cops would be specific revenge for the "January incident."

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I would definitely agree that video games, music, and film were all influences. You asked about Doom.

• 3 of the 4 guns, if not all 4, were "straight out of Doom". Eric had the shotgun, Dylan had the super shotgun. Both sawn off. Eric always wrote about an AB-10 machine pistol because of the Doom novels, and Dylan had a TEC-9 of which the AB-10 is just one version. The carbine rifle might be because of former human having a rifle, or Doom guy when viewed in third person.
• They carried a shotgun and another, faster gun each at the same time, just like a first person shooter to switch between them. I don't think shooters usually carry a shotgun and another gun in each hand.
• The attempt to make a napalm flamethrower thing was very likely the attempt to add the closest thing to the next weapon up, the rocket launcher. It's the quickest way to kill yourself in the game, and Eric said it was "the suicide plan" in the Basement Tapes.
• Eric shot at the bombs thinking they would explode like a barrel of nukage.
• Eric carried his wooden "berserk" in his pocket.
• The white shirt on Eric and black shirt on Dylan resemble the tan shirt on former human and the black shirt on shotgun guy.
• They kept telling people to stand up. Nobody hides under tables in Doom or any old FPS, they stand up.
• The white hats of the jocks may have been used like the green hair of former human, the "Zombies".
• Their ammo pouches and the bomb plan resembles the cut-away scene from Ultimate Doom
• They called them "clips" and not magazines as those who learn from video games do.

There's also the bandolier and pipe bombs from Duke Nukem 3D, the German and Nazi interest I imagine started with Wolfenstein 3D, and in Postal you exit by shooting yourself in the mouth rather like Eric did after saying "I regret nothing".

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