the-host-is-here

[the-host-is-here]

howdy, host, im glad you're still here!! hope you're doing alright, not working too much or being too hard on yourself. its hard to be kind to yourself but you gotta do it. if you ever need someone, we're all here for you!! 🌻

"Thank you, anon. You are too sweet." The Host spoke sincerely. "And I am doing alright, I find myself to be s bit of a workaholic but what else am I to do, really." He answered. He extended the kind words of the anon out to you. Please be kind to yourselves.

[the-host-is-here]

"Its been a while..." The Host said somberly. "I hope you know that I haven't forgotten about you. I missed you, even." The Host let out a sigh, he wasn't going to make excuses for his silence this time. Instead, he wanted to alert you that he still lerks. "I also want you to know that I won't be going anywhere because of this 'purge'. Hope you're doing well." The Host left off, knowing it was late and that many would be asleep.

[the-host-is-here]

he held my hand when i died

[the-host-is-here]

The Host

@markiplier

[the-host-is-here]

Okay… OKAY… I JUST PICKED OUT SOMETHING I DID NOT FUCKUNG EXPECT.

Hold onto your chares cause this is gonna hit hard.

MARK IS STILL UNDER THE EFFECT OF THE MASKED EGO.

I was watching marks explanation of the ‘WILFORD “MOTHERLOVING” WARFSTASH’ video and he said a line that caught me completely off guard and I have to share it now.

Time stamp 2:12:55 threw 2:13:06

Mark: “What are the masks? I dunno what your talking about. What? No ones wearing a mask. I dunno what your talking about so anyway-”

He said this as he looked directly at this scene.

The mask egos, the ones appeared while mark was on his road trip has blinded Mark to there presence.

HOW IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS YET!?

[the-host-is-here]

I've been good, my dude. Just writing and drawing a lot and stuff like that. I'm ready for fall tho because it's been so hot and stormy where I am.

“That sounds lovely, I’m ready for it to be fall as well, it has a wonderful atmosphere for writing.” The Host replied, glad to hear that you were doing well.

[the-host-is-here]

“I’ve been away for quiet a while so I am curious as to how you are. Tell me about your summer, how you’ve been?” The Host asked genuinely, he missed you very much.

[the-host-is-here]

pleaѕe, reveal мy ѕecreтѕ! ι dιdn'т do anyтнιng! none oғ тнιѕ мadneѕѕ мaĸeѕ any sense anyway! тнaт'ѕ wнaт'ѕ ѕo вeaυтιғυl aвoυт ιт! ιтѕ wнaт мaĸeѕ ιтѕ υnιqυe!

“Oh, Wilford…” The Host sighed softly, unsure what to think about his fellow ego.

[the-host-is-here]

It’s my boys, the Host and Penpal.

The Host is your standard tired-of-life future seeing and altering boi who just wants to be left alone in his library.

Penpal is the result of a spell that was intended to bring the Host’s eyes back. It failed and Penpal was created with the ability to talk, see, and do that future seeing / altering thing. He’s thirsty for power and really likes making other people do stuff for him, hence the bandages on his mouth. The Host will also sometimes cut his hands off so he’ll stop writing stuff (whatever he writes / draws is spoken out loud or described).

In conclusion, the Host is tired AF and Penpal should never be trusted. :)

//this is so cool!! Penpal seems like a really interesting character, thank you for sharing!! And I love the art style!!!

[the-host-is-here]

Well, I'd like to think that Wilford has had a lot of different personalities and his last and / or final one is the Wilford Warfstache we know. That's just my theory, on the video though.

“I caught on to that as well. I’m not sure that Wilford is is final one, but it is the one we have all known for quite some time. Perhaps in the future we will see a different personality, but I think the masks at the end had more symbolism than just what happened a while back. We saw two different personalities in the video,  we saw the Colonial and we saw Wilford ‘Motherloving” Warfstache, I think the masks represented the different personalities Wilford can take on, whether realizing it or not.” The Host explained his thoughts after a night’s rest.

[the-host-is-here]

“It’s been a few hours since the look into Warfstache’s backstory was posted and I am still collecting my thoughts. It’s been a while, but I want you to know that my inbox is open for your theories and thoughts on this new look.” The Host said, hoping hearing what others thought would help him get to the bottom of all this.

[the-host-is-here]

Wilford ‘MOTHERLOVING’ Warfstache

Well, that was certainly…interesting. I think it’s safe to say that this video is another @markiplier masterpiece, both from a production standpoint and a story standpoint, and I love all the little moments throughout this video that simultaneously answered old questions and yet brought up new ones. 

SO, what I’m going to do in this post is share some of my observations, thoughts, and theories about this video and how it fits into the timeline. I’m going to do what I used to do with my WKM posts and just go through the video chronologically, and point out things that I think are worth mentioning/considering. At then end, I’ll try to wrap up my thoughts into a blanket theory, but keep in mind that that may be hard to do, considering all the different places this video went. With all that said, let’s get into it.

Abe Survives 

Perhaps a bit irrelevant at this point since we’ve known from Mark’s past hints that Abe survived the gunshot in the manor for awhile now, but this is total confirmation that yes, he definitely survived that gunshot. During this intro segment, we learn a few interesting things. 

We learn William’s full name…William J. Barnum. 

We learn it’s been several years since the manor incident. 

“I can’t count how many countries I’ve cornered him in. Could’t tell you how many times I’ve had him in my big strong hands.” <–Put a pin in this line, we’ll come back to it. 

We also learn that as Abe has been chasing him, there have been a few things that always lead him to get close to Will. Drinking. Fighting. Flirting…and Dancing. All things that could be used as distractions…ways of forgetting the horrors of the past. 

Wilford ‘MOTHERLOVING’ Warfstache

In this scene, we get the first glimpses of Wilford. From Abe’s words, we learn that Will has been going through many personas, but that this one, Wilford ‘Motherloving’ Warfstache, is the most eccentric yet. 

We also get a glimpse of what time period this may be…I’m going to wager it’s meant to be a seventies disco club. So it’s not just been a few years since the manor…it’s been decades, as most of us pegged WKM for taking place in the late forties or early fifties. 

So, Abe comes in and tries to apprehend Will. I find it noteworthy that while firing a shot makes most of the club’s attendees scatter, it doesn’t stop Will’s dancing. In fact, nothing does–

–nothing fazes him at all until the music stops. Only once the party stops does he sort of ‘come to.’ And what’s the first thing he says when he does? 

“Do I know you, friend?” 

He doesn’t remember Abe on sight, which clearly startles Abe. He cycles through several names, none of which are correct, and when Abe tries to arrest him for the murder of “way too many people to count,” Will adamantly states that he “would never kill anybody.” This is strikingly similar to his line in WKM “I didn’t kill anybody.” 

This confirms our suspicions, that from ^^^THIS moment on, death lost all meaning for Will. <–Again, put a pin in that. I’ll come back to it. 

Get out of my head

One taser shot later, we’re in Abe’s car, and this is when the weirdness really sets in. First off, I don’t think that this was just a clever editing trick to note a scene transition (though it’s up there on the list of awesome scene transitions Mark and Co. have been putting in ADWM and WKM). I think this moment is part of Wilford’s physics defying nature. He has already shown this a bit in the video, when Abe was talking to him here:

–but interestingly, Abe doesn’t quite notice at first. He also doesn’t notice the physics defying scene transition, but he does notice when Wilford (quite hilariously) starts responding to Abe’s inner monologue. And it freaks him out so much that he tazed Will again, unintentionally triggering another physics breaking moment. (I’ll talk more about the physics in a bit)

Name after Name

“William J. Butterfeel” “Wilson Jackson Bartholomew III”  “Wingleheimer” 

Abe thinks these are aliases. But I don’t think they are. I think that Will has forgotten his real name, which again is William J. Barnum. The first two ‘aliases’ are strikingly similar, same initials, and I think that Will was trying to make sense of his memories and put things together in his head. As he says later: 

“Memories start to get jumbled after awhile. Sometimes I forget even the simplest of things.” He’s lost his grip on his mind, and he struggles to make sense of the pieces that are left. 

I Remember You

Will only remembers Abe after Abe calls him a murderer. That is what triggers him and allows him to remember that night, what makes him look at the photos on the wall and recognize them. He recognizes everyone from the manor, saying that they all “look so young.” (To me this also confirms that this is decades later, from the 40s/50s to the 70s, there’s a noticeable difference in their appearances) He recognizes Celine, admits that he still has feelings for her, though adds that she’d probably ‘carve his heart out’ if she saw him. During this scene and the moments that follow, we see Will more lucid than we’ve seen him in a long time. HOWEVER, he is still not all there. And even though he remembers Abe, he doesn’t remember everything, at least not properly. Remember the pin about how death lost meaning for him?

“I wonder what he’s up to…have you seen him? Maybe I should stop by…”

He still thinks Damien is alive. He still thinks Celine is alive. He still thinks that he “didn’t kill anybody,” that  he “would never kill anybody.”  For as sane as he seems when he’s talking to Abe, the part of him that properly understands loss is gone forever. 

How the hell do you keep doing that???

SO. I’m going to talk about how Will defies physics for awhile now.

From this moment in Mark on Darkiplier, we know that neither Dark nor Warfstache obey the laws of physics. And this video demonstrates Will’s complete lack of physicality better than anything we’ve ever seen. Throughout the entire interrogation in Abe’s office he’s appearing and disappearing, Mark and Co. using camera tricks and editing brilliantly to show how he’s moving without really showing us, and Abe’s startled responses all giving us clues. 

Will is teleporting somehow, but when he does move, you don’t notice him move, you just realize that he’s gone, and then you see him where he is. That’s not just the camera, from how Abe reacts we know that that’s how it’s really happening. Especially from the scene in the club.

I’ve seen some people ask how Will could be in two places at once, but I maintain that he was not in two places at once, but that he was teleporting around, not obeying the laws of physics, but that Abe didn’t notice at first because he was so focused on catching him. Will is weird, and I get the feeling he’s like a mirage or illusion sometimes, you think you see him but if you properly focus you’ll see you were wrong.

Also, apparently Will’s breaking of the laws of physics isn’t just limited to the actual physical world, but involves the laws of time as well!

“Oh! The train! I remember the train…how long were we stuck in the snow for? … Oh, you don’t remember? Oh, it’s ok, it probably hasn’t happened yet.” 

SOMETHING is up with the timeline. And Will…he knows that. He gives Abe a ‘spoiler’ for the train (which is a Murder on the Orient Express reference, just like WKM referencing some relevant literature with Will’s character), and when Abe starts to spiral and not understand, Will knows exactly what to ask him that will him see just how out of it they both are.

“What would you say our closest encounter was? Before this very moment right here?” 

Pull out that very first pin from the beginning of this video y’all, cuz this is just some brilliant writing right here and I love it.

“I can’t count how many countries I’ve cornered him in. Could’t tell you how many times I’ve had him in my big strong hands.” 

Abe wasn’t just being metaphorical for the sake of his dramatic narration. He. LITERALLY. Can’t count. He LITERALLY can’t say how many times he’s come close to catching Will, because he doesn’t know. Again, like a mirage, or if Doctor Who is more your thing, like a perception filter, he doesn’t realize it until it’s pointed out to him, but Abe doesn’t know where or when he is. He’s been so obsessed with chasing Will that he doesn’t realize what Will already knows, that something is very broken about the way they both are experiencing the world. When Abe tries to pinpoint what happened on the chase, Will asks “Three years? What year was that exactly?” knowing that Abe won’t be able to answer.

Life Needs a Bit of Madness

Of course, Will can’t necessarily answer either. As he said a bit before this, when Abe asked What the hell is going on? : “I don’t…really know. Honestly I don’t understand anything anymore.” But despite this, Will doesn’t view himself or Abe as crazy. 

(screencap of gif by @spdys)

Abe knows that what’s happening is impossible, that it’s impossible to know things that haven’t happened yet. 

And so does Will. 

“Just like it’s impossible to survive a bullet through the heart.” 

When Abe realizes that he shouldn’t have survived, he starts to drift away again, but Will pulls him back, and says "It was a bit of a shock for me too. Life needed a bit of madness, but why should death be any different?” 

This is where things get confusing. I’ve seen some people suggest that what’s happening is actually all in some sort of hell or purgatory. The first person I saw mention it was @craayon-clouds, in their post here, and directly after that I saw one by @roserocks01 in their Purgatory Theory, where they propose that Abe’s spirit refused to move on after being shot in WKM and is still obsessed with the case and chasing Will. And while the Purgatory Theory is certainly a possibility…I think there’s something else going on here. 

I believe that both Abe and Will are alive…in some fashion. Maybe not fully, it’s really hard to say. We’re still so unclear on what the entity in the manor is capable of, but we’ve had so much evidence, from the end of WKM when Abe says “Colonel…you’d better run” to the hints in the DDLC play through that “Abe didn’t die” to the fact that Will himself never was dealt a fatal blow, all of this says to me that both Abe and Will are alive in this story. So if they’re alive…then why did Will say “why should death be any different?” 

I think that Will thinks that they’re dead. Maybe not all the time, and maybe not all of him, but part of him definitely thinks they’re dead. Because what’s happening is impossible, he knows that. It doesn’t make sense, and he knows that, he has these moments of lucidity that just…break through and shed so much light onto everything. But when he’s in those moments of lucidity, he realizes how ridiculous everything is, and assumes that they must be dead, because they can’t be alive, that makes no sense at all? 

But here’s the thing…he doesn’t really care. 

And he doesn’t think we should either. 

Right here, he’s talking to Abe. 

“But I think the stress is getting to you a little bit. You need to unwind, you’re, you’re a freshly born fawn-” 

THEN

in the middle of this line, the camera shifts. The whole video has been shot in a traditional style with back and forth shots, cuts, edits, etc. But as Will is finishing this line, it cuts back to the ADWM and WKM camera style of being in perfect first person; Mark is looking directly into the camera. Directly at us. 

“-trying to find its legs in a world that doesn’t make sense. So just for tonight, let’s forget about all the chasing and the killing and the shooty-shooty bang bang GAH! you’re a murderer! Just for tonight…”

“…why don’t we have a little fun?”

Will knows his life is ruined, he even thinks he might be dead, he knows that nothing makes sense anymore. But instead of facing that, he choses to forget. He ignores his warped reality and forgets it by 

Drinking…

Fighting…

Flirting… 

and Dancing. 

Wilford knows the details don’t make sense, but he’s oddly at peace with that. He can see bits of the bigger picture, and unlike us Abe, who is obsessed with the little details, he is content to let the ‘beauty’ of the uncertainty wash over him. And the video (and in my mind, Abe’s character arc) ends when Abe finally accepts the same mindset, and chooses to forget, rather than pursue the ‘truth.’

Mark told us this video would be about friendship

And it sort of was. Will clearly views Abe as a friend, even apologizes to him for what happened. And, the way I interpret it anyway, it is that ‘friendship’ that fully solidified Will’s identity as Wilford Warfstache. 

This video is really the birth of Wilford Warfstache. For years, Will had been going through identity after identity, all variations of his real name. But after Abe accepted his offer to just forget their troubles, to have fun, to put on a mask…

…only then does Will stop changing names every few years. Only then does he truly take the name 

There’s so much still that we don’t know, and I’m probably not done posting about this, so stay tuned for more thoughts, but that’s my TL;DR statement, I suppose. “This video shows us the moment that Will truly became Wilford Warfstache” 

[the-host-is-here]

So.

William J. Barnum.

Able to teleport at will, and to take memories away from people.

Still believes his friends are still alive.

Has been led to believe that, regardless if dying isn’t the end, it’s alright to move on and have fun with your life.

Accepts that nothing makes sense.

Takes the senselessness at face value.

Wears the Maskiplier.

Invites you to wear one, too, to forget the pain.

Has no ill will towards Abe.

Wilford Warfstache.

[the-host-is-here]

The masks…

Why did this feel familiar somehow?…

[the-host-is-here]

Happy friendship day, dear friend! -hug the host-

“Happy friendship day, dear anon.” The Host replied sincerely.

[the-host-is-here]

Theories, thoughts, rambles, spoilers

So the mansion or this… dimension this world that their in caused by wkm. There’s just… no time. No space? no… nothing. Everything happening at once and yet not at the same time almost.  And Wilford has learned to live with it. He manipulates time and space, mental walls aren’t a challenge to him, he’s given in to this sort of… ‘madness’  he has comprehension of something that shouldn’t have comprehension.  but with it memories become muddled. What’s a memory and what’s a future event? Will even mentioned that Abe and him on a train ride that hadn’t happened yet.  This sort of timelessness and spacelessness of course death means nothing because it still doesn’t for some reason but what is the reason that it’s happening. How did… we get to Wilford today what’s up with all of this, with Dark with our Mark. Is it still happening? Did Wilford get out of this dimension or place along with Dark and maybe Abe? This just… frozen in time but yet fluid.  I don’t understand it all, I don’t expect to but it’s very interesting to say the least and i’m not sure where it’ll go.  Mark did say Dark and Wilford didn’t follow the lays of physics, he said it’s like their bleeding through… like some sort of singularity? Like a universe singularity, like parallel dimensions where every single little thing is different just a bit. Could that be something for Will where he has been through almost every little possiblity and yet he’s just… idk man  and why even try to hide then what’s the point of him trying to hide was it him slowly trying to hide but then realizing that there’s just… no point to any of this and just settling on a name and a disguise to have fun. Why not go back to who he was WHY WAS THE MUSTACHE TURNING PINK AT THE ENDS  what causes that  why was his speech not as bad as it is currently,  is this all a commentary about how we look too deep into the lore and perhaps should just enjoy the ride like Wilford said to Abe us being Abe searching for clues and connections when there is none it’s just a bunch of floating random events set by characters??

This makes even less sense then anything else you could have fucking said Mark the fuck

[the-host-is-here]

“After translation, it says death.”

spectrogram of the reversed audio at the end of Jack’s video