warning: long post rambling about the MCU (Markiplier Connected Universe) lore, mainly in terms of storytelling techniques and dramaturgy. I had to write this down because my brain kept spiraling on informations and theories. It's gibberish and it's totally okay to disagree with anything, in fact, I'm curious to see other perspectives, just be kind, please. :"3
The key to the conclusion of Who Killed Markiplier? is character development. And I don't think we're done with that.
(screenshot from DAMIEN)
(and Dark uses they/them in this post)
(anyway)
I wondered why some people think that the end of ISWM - Part II would have brought the WKM? era to an end. Why do many feel that, yes, this is the final stage of that series?
I've come to the conclusion that it's because (Engineer/Actor) Mark's apology was a way of confronting a flaw the character had from the beginning, a flaw that had set the disasters in motion, that had harmed others, and by admitting that flaw, he was taking a step to evolve himself, to (maybe) become a better version of himself.
(I know, there's debate about how sincere that was, I have my doubts about it too.)
And that is wonderful. But.
It doesn't mean that this is the complete solution to the WKM? storyline. It's just a step towards it. (Not to mention that this admission and apology was made in an environment that was created because of those things he apologized for in the first place. It fits the theme.)
Actor also has a long way to go before that origin story can come to a satisfying end, and he is not the only character in this story, of course.
And then let me talk a little about Darkiplier, because it is mainly because of them that I feel there is still something to talk about and tell this story.
The only point of development for Dark's character was when Damien was given a bittersweet choice and he took it: he decided to play into Actor's little world and become his main villain.
Cool. And they've done nothing more since. After such a decision, the satisfying step might be for Dark/Damien to become an active doer in a story of which he has been a passive participant since the events of Who Killed Markiplier? (As he says in DAMIEN: he's tired of being a pawn in other people's games.)
In comparison... They haven't done much.
Of course, maintaining passivity could be an active choice, but it would take the character in strange circles... over and over again... That they're still here...
(I know, this could be explained by the rules of the frame story, that everything is a story, Actor's forte. The extent to which Dark is actively involved in Actor's stories and to what extent they are driving Actor's point home with that must also be taken into account, but for the sake of sanity, we'll ignore this metanarrative for now.)
And so, as Space loops back to Heist, Dark's character is stuck (for now), they continues to become nothing more than their backstory. (I have a teeny tiny suspicion that Mark as a writer might not have an idea what to do with them, and I can understand that, it's a very roundabout plot setup. The time loop and the rewriting of the lore in a retrospective way doesn't help much with that anyway.)
In order for the conclusion of the WKM? era to be sufficiently complete, Dark also needs to undergo some kind of character development to free them from their passivity, and that hasn't happened yet.
(I'm not talking about Wilford because I think he's doing just fine. Obviously, one could talk about how... khm... "healthy" ways he's processing his traumas, or even recovering from them, but Wilford himself - his conciousness anyway - has already done that in WAIA, we've heard his accelerated thought process on things, so... Yeah.)
The point is, there are still elements to process and work through to get to the end of this story.
For example, just an idea... Now that (Actor) Mark has apologized to us, admitting (some of) his mistakes, this action may be able to put Dark in a truly evil-ish "arch-villain" position. Imagine: there is Mark who has made mistakes in the past, and by admitting them, seems to want to learn from the past, want to become a better person. To this, Dark has their (justifiable) sense of justice, that a small apology is not enough. And that can very quickly turn into a very familiar situation: a blind, all-consuming desire for revenge. When they want their justice so badly that they don't even realise it, they're doing as much damage as Mark did to them, in the same way, out of the same emotional motivation. (It would take the character in strange circles... This situation over and over and over again...)
It's an interesting dynamic, who we can morally do right by, who we can help, and why we should do it at all.
TLDR; there's more to talk about on Who Killed Markiplier? and the main conflict of it. Whether we will talk about it again... we'll see.
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