YouTube is a platform that has existed for many years at this point, and it arguably reached its peak in the late 2000s and early 2010s when several notable content creators and companies found success producing videos for the platform. One such creator is Mark Fischbach, better known by his channel name 'Markiplier', who helped to popularise Let's Plays and video game walkthroughs in his earlier days. Primarily a video game enthusiast, Mark has often branched out into sketch comedy and vlogs, amongst other things. In the last few years, Mark has started doing his own series' of ARGs where the viewer takes on the role of the protagonist and Mark himself will sometimes play multiple different characters. These are often done in the style of choose-your-own-adventure games. It's incredibly creative, and something I haven't seen done by anybody else before or since. I don't want to say for sure that Mark was the first YouTuber to do this. For all I know, he's far from it. But he is certainly doing it on a very large scale, and there is something of a creative vision he appears to be sprinkling throughout these videos. Let's take a look at what he's done so far, and what makes them so enjoyable.
A Date With Markiplier
As you might expect, A Date With Markiplier starts off with the protagonist(i.e., you) taking a seat across from Mark and listening to him ramble on nonsensically about his feelings as well as the salad he just sniffed being of a 'good year.' It's genuinely funny to watch as it goes on and the absurdity grows, but it really shines in its branching paths. There are several different endings to your derailed romantic fiasco, achieved through replaying the ARG and making different choices to see every different outcome. Several references to running jokes on Mark's channel are made, as well as certain characters and personas that he fully realises during A Date With Markiplier. There appears to be no real overarching narrative, it's just a bit of fun. Those characters I mentioned, though, prove to be the most interesting part of what Mark is doing outside of the multiple choices people can make to progress the adventure.
Who Killed Markiplier?
Just a short eight months after A Date With Markiplier, Markiplier released a new series that followed a similar style as before. This time, however, the story was totally linear, a four part series with no multiple choice. It seems this story was very deliberately being told. When the protagonist arrives at an extravagant manor to reunite with their old friends, the homeowner(Mark) winds up murdered and an Agatha Christie-style whodunit murder mystery ensues, where Abe the detective enlists the protagonist's help to find the killer. During the series, some interesting tidbits about the friend group come to the surface and there appears to be more going on than meets the eye.
At some point, the Colonel supposedly romanced Mark's old lover, sewing resentment between the two friends. Damien, the woman's brother and Mayor of the local city, wound up caught in the middle and the group grew apart as a result. When Celine(Mark's old lover) arrives for Part 3 of this four part series, she allegedly hasn't seen the Colonel in some time. What exactly happened is unclear. There is a surprising amount of backstory for such a short run of videos, which has spawned several fan theories, examinations, and character studies online dedicated to uncovering Who Killed Markiplier?'s secrets. This is where things really started to get interesting, and Who Killed Markiplier? spawned two spinoff videos.
-Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache
Some backstory here. Wilford Warfstache is a cartoonish character with a pink moustache created by Markiplier earlier in his career as an absurd interviewer who slurred his words and asked inappropriate questions. In Who Killed Markiplier?, the Colonel ends up going quite mad by the end after seeing the protagonist get back up after being shot, unaware they are presumably possessed by whatever dark force was orchestrating the horrible things that transpired in that manor. Abe tracks him to a dance club in Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache, where he has taken on the titular name for himself and now performs for the partiers. After taking him in, Warfstache reminisces about the old days and makes mention of several adventures the cast of Who Killed Markiplier? have yet to take part in, prompting Abe to exclaim that it isn't possible to know things that haven't happened yet. On the events of the stories so far, Markiplier has explained that the characters he has created are there simply to fill their roles, that they are who they are because of some predetermined requirement. That is to say, Abe fills the role of the detective because he is one, and he is one because the world and story need him to be one. It's all very meta, if a tad confusing at times, but the Agatha Christie influence shows itself again during Abe's interrogation of his old acquaintance when Warfstache mentions an incident on a train. A reference to Murder On The Orient Express, maybe?
-DAMIEN
At the end of Who Killed Markiplier?, Damien and Celine disappear into some kind of pocket realm that the protagonist ends up in themselves. They briefly talk about the events thus far before the protagonist awakens, clearly not themselves anymore and much more visually similar to another character created by Markiplier in the past; Darkiplier. During certain videos, clever edits and uncharacteristic behaviour depicted a dark and twisted alter ego for Mark that has since become a fully fledged character in his various series' on YouTube. Whether he existed before Who Killed Markiplier? and was manipulating what was happening, or if the series tells the story of how he came to be, is up to interpretation, but Markiplier has implied that Damien and Celine were perhaps not quite themselves when the protagonist finds them. DAMIEN seemingly confirms this, a short animated video that shows the two siblings stranded in some kind of limbo.
One night, Damien ventures out into the cold wilderness and meets with Mark, the Mark who was murdered in the manor. Markiplier has dubbed this character 'the Actor'. From the conversation between the two men and Markiplier's own explanations uploaded to his channel, the story begins to make some more sense. The Actor attempted to take his own life while living alone in the manor in the wake of losing his lover to another man, only to find that something wouldn't allow him to die. Some force or entity kept resurrecting him over and over, which explains why his body has a staggering amount of different wounds when it is discovered in Who Killed Markiplier? The Actor formed a plot to take revenge on the Colonel and framed him for his death by orchestrating a situation where the two would be put at odds. When the body was found, the Actor hoped Abe would finger the Colonel for the crime, the one man most likely to have committed the murder. By the end of DAMIEN, the two siblings are left trapped in this realm and their ultimate fate is unknown at this point. It is worth noting that at the end of Who Killed Markiplier?, this entity that the Actor came into contact with has taken control of Damien's body and you, the protagonist, are left trapped in the mirror, forever.
A Heist With Markiplier
This interesting meta-story and cast of absurd but tragic characters got left behind momentarily in 2019, when A Heist With Markiplier premiered and Markiplier returned to the choose-your-own-adventure formula. The protagonist this time joins another in-universe Mark in an attempt to purloin a mysterious golden box from a museum. It follows a similar structure to A Date With Markiplier, only bigger, better, and with many more outcomes. Markiplier allows his love of video games to influence him, too, as there are several easter eggs in the form of both Wilford Warfstache and Darkiplier making surprise appearances, depending on the route chosen by the viewer. During the video where Darkiplier appears, the protagonist begins receiving ominous text messages from an unknown number as they walk through a hallway filled with paintings of the characters from Who Killed Markiplier? Several voice lines from the same series also play over this. Darkiplier, too, monologues about how Mark-possibly the Actor-is a manipulative monster that has been pulling your strings from the very beginning.
This whole scene is the confirmation many fans were waiting for that all of these series' take place in the same universe as opposed to being separate stories every time, or at the very least that they take place alongside one another in some kind of Marvel-esque multiverse. I want to reiterate that there doesn't appear to be any overarching story or particular narrative woven throughout, the characters and their relationships with one another are very much the focus of what Markiplier is creating. Many of them, like the stereotypical Colonel and Abe the detective, exist because they are literary tropes in fiction, tropes Agatha Christie either pioneered or popularised in her own works. It is what Markiplier is doing with these tropes and how he is merging them with his own style of metafiction that is so interesting.
In Space With Markiplier
In the latest of Markiplier's creations that went live just shy of a month ago, the viewer witnesses some disastrous events that transpire aboard the Invincible II, the new Mark's ship. The name should indicate that the previous ship met some kind of a tragic fate, something Mark frequently mutters about preventing from repeating itself. During the story, it is revealed that the ship has become stuck midway through a wormhole that the Invincible II was attempting to travel through. Unable to close it, Mark and the protagonist are taken into custody by the local law for the seriousness of maintaining an open wormhole in the middle of space. The ship's crew are unable to close it. What's more, every time the protagonist dies, the series does not end. Rather, they are resurrected with the memory of dying and the usual meta horror shenanigans proceed to make you question reality. As well as the spaceship(which appears to have been inspired by the movie Event Horizon) repeating the mysterious behaviour of the manor from Who Killed Markiplier?, the wormhole also transports characters to different locations and times when entered, which might shed some light on what has been happening in the previous series', somewhat.
There are technically multiple endings this time around as well, but they all present themselves in the middle of their respective videos, and they are always followed by just one single choice; go to the light. This eventually leads to the true ending, if you like, where the protagonist awakens on the ship years into the future, greeted by an incredibly aged Mark who has gone mad in his isolation. He uses the ship's computer system to do...something...with the hope of undoing the irreparable damage that has been done to the universe since opening that wormhole. He seems to claim that you are responsible. I can also only explain so much from my experience and interpretation of events, but I highly urge you to search these series' on YouTube for yourself. They are well worth the time it takes to see them out to the end. As the credits are rolling, Mark is revealed to have been the cause of what has been going on by doing whatever he did moments ago, an action that rippled out through time and space. A strange monolith discovered earlier in the series appears and mentions a 'paradox' that cannot be fixed. The universe is supposedly shut down and rebooted, judging by the computer screen that appears after the credits have rolled, and the video description teases another part to this adventure on May 2nd. Markiplier isn't done just yet. In fact, I believe he is just getting started.
Once More Into The Breach, My Friends
I can't understate how refreshing it is to see what Markiplier is doing with his YouTube channel, especially when compared to some of the other content out there. He is obviously an incredibly creative individual with a lot to say and even more to show. Having found success on YouTube with his previous content, it would have been easy to continue to churn out videos he knew would get decent views without worrying about whether or not the work he was doing was fulfilling, but he has shown that that isn't his style. He has a very clear vision that he wants to realise, a series of stories told through his more recent videos, and it is heartwarming to see his fans eat it up. It is particularly refreshing to see such creative content do so well on a platform that has been through such difficulty and controversy. YouTube might not be the best place for underdogs or up-and-coming creators, but Markiplier is clearly in a position to experiment with the videos he produces and it is paying off big time. Hopefully, more YouTubers can follow suit in future and lean into their more inventive sides to really make the most of their channels. For now, though, the next chapter of In Space With Markiplier awaits. Let's see what Markiplier has in store for us.
Comments