Cracked Ego Theories

My live reaction:

(his new fnaf video)

Oh, Candace, he--

Wow, wait, he pulls it out right at the beginning of the video, doesn't he? There's not even an editor listed, so there's no one else to blame for this except for Mr. Iplier himself.

If it's any consolation, based on his current livestream, it appears Mark has become trapped in a nightmare of someone else's creation, performing the same task over and over again in the hope of somehow escaping or fixing the mistakes of the past...

Also Dee Dee is already tormenting him for his sins, so that's nice.

Awesome! Between getting the new GoPro (and the sponsorship, assuming they don't panic and run) and having the time to play around with ideas now, I'm excited to see what he comes up with. And only mildly concerned!

Did think it was funny he remembered doing a 360 video, but clearly forgot Google was in there at first--not surprising considering how long ago it was and the sheer amount of stuff he's made over the years, but now I'd love to see Mark make more reaction videos of his older stuff that he's probably also forgotten the details of by now.

(srry if you already have like a whole anthology abt him smplace, you can just direct me there if ya do)

I...actually haven't talked about Maskiplier much at all on this blog, now that you mention it. Outside of my most recent post regarding that guy at the beginning of 3 Scary Games #111, the only other thing I can find is a couple of thoughts on the masks in WMLW. Which is odd, considering this whole blog is about coming up with silly theories on the egos based on the most seemingly inconsequential details I can drag up, and the whole mask thing is nothing but a bunch of inconsequential things seemingly adding up to...something. Maybe. Possibly.

Plus it started here on Tumblr, so that's a double my bad. To make up for that, uh...take this poorly constructed primer and some half-baked theories? Going for a read more link here because this is a long one:

Okay, for those who are unaware: Mark has a Tumblr. (@markiplier) Yes, I'm sorry to be the one to inform you of this state of affairs, but it exists. Generally he's a lot more active just after a big project of his drops, like ISWM, mostly reblogging art and memes. In fact, the most recent activity was back in January, and probably the only reason he held off on a flood of Iron Lung related reblogging back then was because the movie wasn't widely available yet and he didn't want to spoil those unable to see it in theaters. Once those DVDs/Blu-Rays start flowing, I wouldn't be surprised if he returns and sends the fans into (yet another) panic.

(I'd actually suggest using the archive view to scroll through his blog--it's a great way to find fanart and memes that people have posted over the years that might be difficult to impossible to find using Tumblr's regular search feature in the main tags.)

That there is! (There's also a livestream I'm listening to while writing this, where Mark is most definitely not just talking about his liver.)

"Hello, everybody. Think happy thoughts. My name is Markiplier and welcome back to 3 Scary Games. Don't be nervous. I'm only doing this for you. A better you. Close your eyes and remember."

Remember what? I don't know about you, but I'm not about to close my eyes around this guy who reminds me of...someone.

Just not entirely sure who.

Bad news is, I am extraordinarily bad at this sort of game. We...don't need to talk about how many runs it took, or that it was enough times to unlock the liminal door before unlocking the boss door. Also could have done without Wilford telling me after I unlocked the last of the upgrades that if I died now it would be a skill issue, considering I had just come back after falling in a hole.

Again.

Still, lots of fun, would definitely recommend playing if you can. And on the plus side of my many trips through the complex, it gave me plenty of time to look around and take screenshots for those who would like them.

Let's start with the posters:

And my personal favorites:

Also there's some lore stuff on the chalkboard or whatever:

M Labs has Lixian as "Kill on sight," which would probably be more of an issue if security was still around.

It's interesting that while the clone Lunky's legs are useless, each of their teeth has a compact source of energy at their core. Warfstache mentions that it takes a lot of energy to make those coins of his, so that's useful, downright plot convenient even.

And...yeah, that's all I've got at the moment. Plan on watching Mark and Lixian's videos on the game in the next few days, but it's good to know me and Lunky are on the same page: hole.

At least, I think that's a good thing...

it's probably just for the lulz, but also the entirety of markiplier extended universe is for the lolz so i thought it might be worth mentioning

My biggest takeaway?

Yet another hole for the whole Hole Theory! Which is definitely a real thing and not something I'm making up as we go along.

Importantly, this hole is different than the other hole Mark had Lixian throw us into in the No Skin video. That one was pink, and inside were gray clouds and flashes of blue lightning. The hole in the Bloodmoney 2 video is blue and full of galaxy colors/stars.

Specifically, pink hole takes us to the Lore, blue hole takes us through time.

Funnily enough, in In Space With Markiplier, every time we went through the wormhole it was blue on the inside, except for the time Wilford ordered us a ride after saying, "None of this 'Oh, is that in the past, is that in the future? Oh, I can't wrap my head around this whole timey-wimey thing--' Figure it out!" when it was pink.

What I'm saying is, time, lore, it's all holes all the way down, holes inside of holes even.

Calling it now, if/when Mark gets around to playing Berry Bury Berry, things are going to get weird (mostly because he has no chill when it comes to incremental games and the inevitable hurricane of euphemisms, but also: hole).

As far as Lixian...

"They killed everyone and it escaped. Find the axe and end it. I'm counting on you."

Wow, good thing that message is clearly intended for someone else who isn't distracted looking at this thing and trying to figure out which Unown that is in the middle:

I dont think we ever got an answer about what the train meant, but it's a small animated scene, walking through a train carriage. I believe it was in his minecraft series

@dying-ship-and-sea-of-dead-stars

Had to go back and check, but it is in the Minecraft series, specifically Part 16: LAVA IS HOT HAHAHaha..., starting at about 15 seconds in (right after the Iron Golem gives Mark a "'sup") and going until about 0:39.

It's more auditory, the sound of a train picking up speed and a train whistle along with a distorted/sped-up song of some kind. For a brief moment there is an (extremely dark) image of a door that gets farther away, presumably at the end of a train corridor considering the sounds.

My attempt at upping the brightness/contrast of the door:

(There's a reason I don't usually bother trying to do this sort of thing: I'm not very good at it! But the door in the second image does seem to be distorted/glitching, going by the broken lines of the door's paneling at the top and bottom.)

Here's a not edited screenshot for comparison:

Listening to the audio, the music playing does sound like a jazzy version of "Skip to My Lou," which while doing a Google search to see if I could find the original version Mark might have used and doing a quick scan of the Wikipedia page on the song, uh...

"Skip to My (The) Lou" (Roud 3433 and 3593) is a popular American folk song and partner-stealing dance from the 1840s. Carl Sandburg, poet and biographer of President Abraham Lincoln, writes that "Skip-to-my-Lou" was a popular party game in Lincoln's youth in southern Indiana, with verses such as "Hurry up slow poke, do oh do", "I'll get her back in spite of you", "Gone again, what shall I do", and "I'll get another girl sweeter than you".[1] John A. and Alan Lomax wrote that "Skip to My Lou" was a simple game of stealing partners (or swapping partners as in square dancing). It begins with any number of couples skipping hand in hand around in a ring. A lone boy in the center of the moving circle of couples sings, "Lost my partner, what'll I do?" as the girls whirl past him. The young man in the center hesitates while he decides which girl to choose, singing, "I'll get another one just like you." When he grasps the hand of his chosen one, the latter's partner moves to the center of the ring. It is an ice-breaker, providing an opportunity for the participants to get acquainted with one another and to get into a good mood.[2] "Skip to My Lou" is number 3433 and 3593 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Lyrics that include "I'll get her back in spite of you" and "a simple game of stealing partners" you say?

Y'know, this guy made famous by the movie Big with Tom Hanks:

You can see a clip of Zoltar in action here, but in the movie Zoltar is a run-down automaton able to grant wishes for the low, low price of a quarter. (Just, uh, be careful what you ask for.)

When he activates, the automaton's eyes light up, and his movements are very jerky/unsettling. So not hard to see why one might make the connection, but there's something else.

Look at the frame Mark gave us:

The WAIA appears to be inside of some enclosed space, but there's also that curved opening behind him. It could be the viewer is sitting inside of this room and the WAIA is leaping through the opening, but the shape of it reminds me of Zoltar's box.

Specifically, the real world Zoltar:

That's right, this guy exists in the real world, just in a significantly less creepy form. The one in the movie was based off of this fortune-telling machine (here's a short video about the guy who runs the shop that makes these and similar machines--interesting short watch, as long as you don't have automatonophobia). This one actually talks and moves, and gives out advice.

Behind this Zoltar, there's a curtain in the back of his case forming a rounded arch/opening. While the structure the WAIA is in isn't as fancy, the shape of it is very similar, right?

Really, the main point against it is that whatever place the WAIA is in looks too barebones to really resemble a fortunetelling automaton, because the idea of getting advice and/or wishes from this guy sounds like it would be awesome and totally not likely to backfire at all like that other guy's did.

Instead the little bit we see of the structure looks to be made of plain wood, like a cabin or something. But that's just silly, it's not like we're dealing with the Damien Automated Revenge Killbot or something.

Going to be honest, didn't have "Lunky and Actor Mark are actually one and the same" on my theory bingo card (no, not even on that one), and yet here we are.

No wonder that axe worked so well, Lixian was just continuing the job Celine started.

That...or that ritual Lunky performed with the "help" of the viewer back in 3 Scary Games #103 was actually to get a human body for his return/revenge. It would explain why his voice is notably deeper in the end of the video compared to the beginning--he's already started changing into his new human form.

Mark, trying to advertise TEOS being on Tubi now: I know what this needs--a bear!