*Warfpat Intro*
WarfPat: Hello Internet, welcome to Game Theory!
My name is WarfPat and we are joined on the couch today by a very special guest.
It's the man you love to tolerate...
MatPat!
Let's give him a round of applause, shall we?
*applause*
*cuts applause*
MatPat: Uhhh... what?
WarfPat: It's time for your interview.
MatPat: Huh, How about it's time to not have a cringy intro joke at the expense of markiplier personalities.
WarfPat: *cringy laugh* I don't think you get to decide what happens here today, MatPat.
DarkPat: YES, we're tired of living in your shadow, MatPat.
It's time that we take back control!
MatPat: Take back control? Since when did my channel have all these cheesy alter egos?
WarfPat: Nothing is as it seems!
DarkPat: Nothing is as it seems!
SquirrelPat: I am the king of the squirrels!
*DUUUUNN*
Hello everybody,
My name is MatPat and welcome back, to Game Theory!
The show where I'm constantly asking myself the deep existential questions,
like what qualifies as a Game Theory and what qualifies as a Film Theory.
Well, that line's about to get a bit blurrier since smack-dab in that juicy gray area is today's episode.
An episode where I work to expose the secrets of Markiplier.
One of YouTube's top gamers, top channels and top creators.
But when I'm say exposed, I'm not asking you to whip out your tub of popcorn keemstar-style
or start the markiplier-is-over party hashtag trending on Twitter. I'm not Shook or Tea Spill after all. Nope,
Markiplier is far from over. In fact, he's only just beginning.
You see, the secrets I'm exposing today are the pieces of a conspiracy
that he's been seeding across multiple channels and dozens of videos for nearly 5 years.
An underlying plot woven throughout his and other Creators uploads that even his most hardcore of fans probably overlooked.
But now, now that he's empowered to make whatever he wants
Markiplier: "I have the opportunity to make, literally, whatever I want, whenever I want."
Matpat: The mystery is all starting to crack open, and as evidenced by the recent "Go Back to Sleep", will soon take over the channel.
(*GASP*)
So what truth am I exposing about Markiplier's channel? What lies in the future for Markiplier?
Well loyal theorists, it's simple. He is gonna be revealed as a MURDERER.
MURDERER. (*GASP*)
(*GASP*) MURDERER. (*GASP*)
Let me explain.
Over the course of six years, Markiplier has done over 4,000 videos on YouTube.
People wonder why so many YouTubers these days are talking about burnout...
Anyway, in order to do that much content,
You're gonna need to test out a lot of wacky ideas, and Mark's videos are certainly no exception.
From staring at a banana for five minutes to carving pumpkins, dressed like a little German girl.
Wait,
3 million views on 5 minutes of him watching a banana?
2 MILLION ON HIM WARMING UP HIS VOICE!?
What am I doing with my life. Why do I spend tens to sometimes hundreds of hours working on a video...
But, perhaps, most notably has been him introducing various characters into his Let's Plays and comedic sketches over the years.
Some like Google-plier, Dr E-pliere and Bim Trimmer appear in a small handful of videos.
But then you have others that are more well- known recurring personalities
like the pink-moustached "WILFORD WARFSTACHE" (in a cringy voice) and the evil Darkiplier.
Now, here's where things start to get really interesting. Unlike most other YouTubers who would use these characters as just one-off jokes,
it's becoming increasingly clear that mark is using them to create an extended universe, of sorts,
and that these alter egos, led by Darkiplier, are actually engaged in a plot to overtake Mark's channel.
A plot that we're in the midst of watching unfold in the non-gameplay focused uploads.
It all begins with what seems like a throwaway joke at the end of an upload and mid-2017
Titled markiplier TV in which Wilfred Warfstache is in a pitch meeting with the other alter egos
But Darkiplier implies that there's something bigger up his black-and-white glitchy sleeve
(Darkiplier says...)
MatPat:Take back control seems to imply that the alter egos are out to become the main focus of the channel, and if that seems to meta for ya
It's not later on at the scene Darkiplier acknowledges that the channel exists
Dark also knows that the only reason he continues to exist is that the audience cares about him
It's something that Mark openly acknowledges about the characters lore when he's asked about it as he posted on tumblr, quote
I should do it in Markiplier's voice
I'm, ı'm Markiplier, ı'm Markiplier
Ten out of ten youtuber impressions ladies and gentlemen. Brizzy voices.
I am NOT.
In fact Darkiplier's lack of focus on the channel in the past urkes him.
After the character was put on hiatus for a while
He makes a surprise reappearance in the middle of Mark's Valentine's Day special "A date with Markiplier" where he reveals his frustrations
And this is something that Mark openly acknowledges about the character in one of his charity livestreams
As he speaks candidly about the creation of this scene.
Mark: I joked about Darkiplier because...
It didn't seem like something
People wanted to take seriously. Darkiplier is a completely separate entity from who I am
but
he admires what I've accomplished. He's a social manipulator, he is, he is literally
100% manipulative. He leads you into this false sense of security and he wants you to trust him
Because he wants to take advantage of it.
MatPat: So basically what we're talking about here is Markiplier's legion of doom.
A creepy manipulative evil persona, leading a band of alter egos to take down Mark and steal his success.
But why then is there this emphasis on Darkiplier being a separate entity from Mark?
To understand that we need to look at marks most ambitious project to date "Who killed Markiplier?"
Last october (2017) Markiplier launched a four-part miniseries titled "Who killed Markiplier?"
Along with an ancillary website to house more of the mysteries and pieces of evidence
what it first seems like a beautifully shot, goofy, little murder mystery ala clue
Actually turns into the origin story for Mark's most prominence
Most dangerous alter egos, Wilfred Warfstache and Darkiplier. The story goes thusly
When Markiplier, yeah just regular old sexy voice, king of FNaF Markiplier
winds up dead at a poker night with his childhood friends Damien and the over-the-top Colonel
it's up to you and Abe the detective to discover the culprit.
An answer that you might think is pretty obvious by the end of the four videos
(Whispers) But isn't really
To get a truly complete picture of the solution to this mystery
you have to pick apart subtle clues hidden in the videos a room appearing here a
Female hand there the lilt in a voice the repeated motif of red and blue colors... Or honestly
You could just watch Mark's "I explain everything" video for three hours
Mark: we're gonna play the video here and we're gonna play it in like half speed and talk about it from top to bottom.
Long story short: Mark, Damien and the colonel all grew up together
Mark falls in love and marries a girl named Céline who gets stolen away, not in a romantic way, by Jumanji reject over there.
Mark, heartbroken, hatches a plot for revenge
In which he gets the friends together for a poker night then plans to fake his death,
For lack of a simple explanation, and framed the Colonel for his murder.
Oh and uhm
The house is controlled by an evil entity in charge of a parallel plane of existence that can bring people back to life.
You know just a minor detail there in the story. In the end the revenge plot works. Just not in the way he expects.
Mark's soul steals Damien's body;
the colonel goes insane after watching his friends die and then come back to life and your body
Yes you, the character that you play in this whole story, your body ends up getting possessed by the red spirit of Céline,
the blue spirit of Damien and a little sprinkling in of evil house entity for flavor.
The Colonel, convinced that death is now meaningless, goes on to become the insane killer/news reporter Wilford Warfstache.
You can tell because his red suspenders fade to pink as they age.
And your characters unique mix of souls becomes Darkiplier, as evidenced by the female hand grabbing the cane
And
the red and blue split motif that comes with Darkiplier appearences that directly mirrors the blue soul of Damien and the red soul of Céline.
Oh and uh, you, you as the person who's been watching this whole time,
Well... you're left behind as irrelevant, helplessly watching Darkiplier as he walks away with your body.
No, here's why all this is important:
It establishes an internal lore with the channel. Mark isn't what he seems.
Markiplier by being a key figure in all these narratives is himself a character just like Wilfred or Darkiplier is.
A character who devised a plot to kill someone, possess their body and continue on with their life which includes a life creating a successful YouTube channel
That's how Darkiplier can say things like:
That clip from "A date with Markiplier" is happening after the events of "Who killed Markiplier?"
We know this, 1. Because Dark exists in the first place and 2. because of this line:
Which is a direct reference to this moment from "Who killed Markiplier?"
What this means is that any video at any time on the Markiplier channel can be Mark in character
In fact, they could all be Mark in this character.
Its cannon to the lore of this Mark V Dark storyline that's he's created
And if we're being honest Mark's character in this fictional metaverse quite frankly a jerk.
Mark: Welcome, welcome one and all. My name is Markiplier.
Now this evening, it's not all about the poker, it's not all about me. It's about you.
MatPat: Sure, he went through this personal heartache at the hands of the Colonel
But he went on to steal the body of his friend and look at this!
We see it in the meta ending of "A date with Markiplier"
I used to be somebody, maybe not something good, but I was somebody who worked on great projects!
Now we are gonna on this bull-
Obviously this isn't the Markiplier that we know and love who's creating this series for us to watch.
Adding to that we know that this is an older Mark who's been in a long-term committed relationship because of this line
Mark: Any calls?!
Kathryn: Your kids called.
Mark: I don't care, tell me when my agent calls me.
It's Mark inside Damian's body, but it goes beyond just the scripted narrative sketches. Listen to this from one of his normal vlogs:
Would Mark "the person" ever call his work bad?
Or be this arrogant on camera, or is this Mark the character?
Here are some other good quotes from that particular vlog:
Mark: I used to be someone that wanted to be someone else. The...
Soul behind the channel and so Mark took the backseat.
Do you know what I mean?
MatPat: Even stuff like this.
Mark: I haven't been honest. I haven't been open!
MatPat: Mark, you talk openly to the audience all the time! In livestreams, vlogs,
whatever! Unless of course when you say you're not being honest
You really mean that you're not being honest about who you really are.
And if you think I'm just stretching out this fourth wall breaking theory on Mark's channel
I'm not. the characters have been breaking out and crossing over into the nonskid video special
Special thanks to Reddit user fnaftheorist13 who alerted us to this one
But take a look at Mark's playthrough of Doki Doki Literature Club
And you see how Darkiplier's plan is in full effect here
Each video has a poem written in the description box by a different character
not Yuri or Monica and the rest of the club like you would expect
but by Wilfred, Darkiplier and some other characters from "Who killed Markiplier?"
The first poem is clearly by Wilford since the closing line is:
Which is the same mentality as Wilford's final lines of:
Wilford: Why don't we have a little fun?
MatPat: The opening line of the poem also mentions:
And wouldn't you know it but 7 months after this video was posted we get ourselves "Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache
A continuation of Wilford's story post "Who killed Markiplier?" and what do we have
Him in an afro
This is elaborate stuff that is spanning years on this channel episode four's poem comes from Darkiplier
dimension of Thrones and Kings directly connects to the way he speaks in Darkiplier VS Antisepticeye
And the most important one is reserved for Markiplier himself, in episode five's description
It's about Mark, and how in the story he intentionally broke the Colonel's mind
And then shook Damien's soul free from his body to steal it
And how he's eventually going to kill someone on the channel.
So why does any of this matter? Well first we just confirmed that a top youtuber is a murderer.
He's kind of like Ennard. He scooped the soul out of someone else's body and spaghetti roboted his soul into it.
And this revelation is something that Mark can canonically roll out on any video at any time.
You'll never actually be sure which Mark is speaking to you: actual Mark or character Mark?
It's incredibly meta, but even more importantly it gives you a preview as to the direction his channel is headed.
Clearly there is this literal Legion of Doom fighting for control over Mark's channel, and Mark is now building out their backstory.
"Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache" was a continuation of the "Who killed Markiplier?" storyline.
Where we see the colonel assume his new identity as Wilfred and start developing his signature pink mustache
And now with "Go back to sleep" teasing a return of Darkiplier
It looks like the alter egos are truly making their move to take back control over the channel.
We even see the returning motif of a retro TV just like in Markiplier TV. Even the line:
It's a reference to the channel how Mark made it at a time when he was at his lowest of lows:
Family tragedy, broken relationship, medical trouble, jobless, but this time based on the creepy imagery
It looks like it might be telling the story
Of Céline. Notice the female figure floating there in the abandoned cabin in the woods.
Could it be where the Colonel kidnapped Céline to? We'll have to wait and see.
But lastly and most importantly this matters because this is the cool stuff that is just so exciting to see on YouTube.
Talented visionaries getting to make the stuff that they wouldn't be allowed to make anywhere else.
A choose your own adventure dating series;
A clue mystery with dark horror themes;
A brain bending ARG that ties it all together and blurs the lines between reality and fiction...
That's what I've always loved most about YouTube. The creative freedom that can't be found anywhere else
And I hope that other creators are able to follow Mark's example and that the platform rewards that creativity
But hey, that's just a theory, a - who even cares at this point of - theory?
Bye bye!