In September 3rd, 2021, Markiplier posted a video titled "Everything has to end.", which formally announced "In Space With Markiplier[1]", a third choose your own adventure game, following up "A Date With Markiplier" and "A Heist With Markiplier". Which, I should talk about those... FINE.
Okay, so now that we have the context, let's get back to the story. Announcement that the new choose your own adventure would be "In Space With Markiplier". So, big news. Mark has been very vocal about his love of space, so I can't wait to see what adventures are possible now that we're in space.
A little while later, another teaser was posted. "Everything has to begin.", and it hints at a darker story rather than the lighter tones of the last two. A departure for sure, but it'll be nice to see what they do with it.
And then, the official trailer for "In Space With Markiplier", this continues along that darker theme. There are still jokes, but really it's focusing on the idea that there is no right choice. A real trolley problem. The hype was real, and it was only a month away. But now, we're here.
EVERYTHING HAS TO BEGIN:
[In Space with Markiplier: Part 1]
Here we go, In Space With Markiplier! (wormhole sucks up YouTube Originals logo), do you think they knew?
So we start off with what I call "the carousel of set-up". This ship is unsafe, Here's the warp core, this ship is unsafe, here's the reactor, here's Burt, this ship is unsafe, here's cryo, here's Celci, this ship is unsafe. Now, I get why this is happening, and I get what the purpose was behind it. They needed to set up all of the locations of the ship so that you weren't seeing them for the first time later on. They needed you to know that this ship is unsafe so that it doesn't come out of left field when it is unsafe. They wanted you to have some faces and names for specific members of the crew, so that when they die you would feel bad. I get that. Hell, this is something that isn't even that big of a problem, it's just how the rest of the show uses what's set up. So I'll come back to this later, just remember this.
And I feel like I have to bring this up while I'm here, and I know that this is a nitpick, it really is and it doesn't matter. But in my video where I talk about all of my complaints with this thing, I have to mention this nitpick. I don't think the CGI looks quite right. Not in the sense of "you can tell it's CGI", but in the sense of "the CGI looks real enough that you can tell the rest of the room is a set on a sound stage. You can tell how fake all of the walls are when you're shown something that isn't faced with the same limitation in the same shot. And I know it doesn't matter, I just needed to bring it up. The space shots look fine though.
But anyways, back to the plot, you go to sleep, wake up, and wouldn't you believe it, this ship is unsafe and everything is broken! Who could've guessed. And Mark is dead, so he can't help. And now, we enter our first choice of the show. "Put Out the Fire" or "Fix Life Support"?
IT'S A CYOA, AND THE "C" STANDS FOR "CHOOSE":
Let's start out with the "Put Out the Fire" route. I'll go back to talk about the other choice later, I just feel like starting here makes sense since it's also what I did on my first try. If you put out the fire, you manage to do so, but you take so long in doing it that you can't get to life support in time to fix it, and all of the oxygen is depleted, and you die. But then TIME LOOP!
Okay, here's the actual lore of what happened, because the show itself doesn't do a good job of explaining it, I'll get to that later. The warp core, that random piece of mysterious machinery that Mark found and thought "yeah that should go in a spaceship", it was supposed to open up a wormhole to get you to the distant planet you're supposed to be travelling to, send the ship through, and then close the wormhole. But instead what happened is that the warp core opened up a wormhole, subsequently got sucked all the way into the bottom of said wormhole, and then can't shut down the wormhole because it's in an entirely different dimension. Nobody else can get to the warp core to manually shut it down because there's a wormhole in the way, so you're just stuck with a wormhole in the middle of your ship. And every time you die, your mind is sent through the wormhole into an alternate reality version of the ship where you didn't die yet. At least I'm pretty sure that's the plot, I don't fully know, but that's the basics.
But back to the story, it's a time loop, so you end up back at the bridge to put out the fire and fix life support again, but now you know how Mark died last time and are able to save him, so he can fix life support while you put out the fire. But when you do... This happens! (Daptain scene) Wow, this certainly is an intriguing piece of lore that will be elaborated on as the story goes:). Oh yeah, you successfully saved the ship. But then the asteroid defense system breaks and begins shooting at the crew instead of... well, y'know, asteroids. And now you and Mark have to try and fix it! So what do you do, do you "Send Mark In", "Wake the Crew", or "Fix it From the Outside!"?
I know there's still the first choice at the beginning I haven't talked about yet, I'm getting to it! But for now, let's just take a look here at how what all these choices do, and how they affect the story. "Send Mark In", you ask Mark to go in the room where all the shooty guns are and ask him to try and fix it. And he successfully manages to do so, saving the ship! But now the cryo chamber is leaking, how do you fix it? "Send Mark In Again" or "Fix It from the Outside!"?
But let's go back and see what would've happened if we instead chose "Wake the Crew", you summon Gunther, the weapons guy to come in and fix the weapons. But then he just spontaneously turns into an old lady. Why? ... That's not a rhetorical question I am asking why. The old lady dies in there because it's a room full of guns shooting wildly at anyone within line of sight. If only I could send someone in that could manage that. Like a... weapons guy... An asteroid hits the ship because you spent too long mourning the old lady and you all die. But it's a time loop, and reality's falling apart so it just teleports you through realities where you already fixed life support and sent Mark in. But now the cryo chamber is leaking, how do you fix it? "Fix It from the Outside!" or "Wake the Crew"?
Okay, but let's go back one last time and "Fix It from the Outside!". You just jump out the ship. Yeah no, this one's just a trick. You don't actually get to do anything that the title suggests, it just makes you die and reset the loop. This time you just speedrun fixing life support, while Mark puts out the fire, you just chuck Mark into the room filled with guns and make him fix it, which he does. But now the cryo chamber is leaking, how do you fix it? "Fix It from the Outside!" or "Send Mark in Again"
IT'S THE FUCKSHIT JUNCTION!!!:
The problem here is obvious, isn't it? This is one correct choice where you fix the problem and move on to the next problem, and then two wrong choices that loop you back and make you just watch the correct choice anyways. Like, the only difference between these three is that one of them replaces the option to "Send Mark In Again" with "Wake the Crew", but even then, you can still loop into the other path so it doesn't really matter, because it's not a choose your own adventure. It's just a list of plot points the game wants to get you through. Remember when I said the beginning was a "carousel of set-up"? We're still on the carousel. There's a fire and the oxygen's depleting! The asteroid defense system is malfunctioning! The cryo chamber is leaking! The reactor is overloading! And then the one plot relevant thing here that you only see sometimes in some routes, the warp core is in a wormhole. I want to get off this fucking carousel. It has to take you through these setpieces in a specific order, so any time your choices don't align with that, it has to kill you so it can start the carousel order and do it right this time.
Some say that the illusion of choice is part of the point, your choices don't actually effect anything but you think they do. But let me ask you, what part of "make a choice, here's another thing" is an illusion? Like yeah, I get a choice and it does a thing, but then it just gives me more choices without any thought of the previous. You know what would be an actual illusion of choice? What if at this point in Heist, if you picked Car, the Car broke down or something and you still wound up in jail. Yeah, they both lead to the same outcome but it's something where it feels like an outcome of your choice. This isn't that.
Some say that the looping through the same thing over and over again is part of the point, it is a time loop after all. Which, you know what else had me see the same things over and over? The past two choose your own adventures, I went through those over and over to try and find alternate endings and secrets I might have missed. If this was reworked to look more like that, it would work. But this is a multiple choice test. There's a right answer and if you don't get it the teacher kills you and makes you take the test again.
Okay, but there are a couple of endings you can get here, they're mostly determined by what the last choice you made was though. Because it can't tell what any of your other choices were because everything just loops back to everything else. Even then, the endings don't really have much relevance to the choices you made. Because your choices don't mean anything, it's a linear story with some slightly different cutscenes along the way. But hey, let's actually take a look at these endings instead of just talking.
AND THAT'S A WRAP!:
There are six endings, less than A Date With Markiplier, but hey, it's not about how many there are, it's about the quality. So let's see what we have here.
If your final choice is to "Send Mark In... Again", which again, is the right answer. No matter what you do: you send Mark in, but if you *choose* to send Mark in and don't just loop around to watch yourself do it, you get an ending for that. It's an ending where you successfully escape the wormhole and proceed to force Mark to do everything for you in the actual mission and take credit for everything he does, until one night Mark kills you. This ending is entirely built around the joke of "you wanted Mark to do everything for you", but you only need to pick the option to do that once, and you're forced into doing it the rest of the time. So, it loses the point of it's existence for most players.
If your final choice is "Fix it from the Outside!", which once again, if you pick it at the last opportunity you can, Mark will make a comment joking about you having done this before. Even if you haven't. Some say that this is the point, and even if you didn't do it before, it has happened before because it's a time loop. I call it lazy writing. Anyways, you die and loop into a reality where the ship is normal. Then, you notice the wormhole and successfully escape from it's grasp! You're now able to do the mission you were supposed to do in the first place, which leads to an ending where you head to the planet and scower for "it", which is just blatantly about you: the viewer being paranoid about the happy ending and expecting a big horror twist. And then it does turn into a horror twist when you lock up the entire crew underground to keep them safe from "it". This ending has no relation to your choices. Everything that this ending is based on happens after you get to make your last choice. This kinda sucks, huh? Not even a joke ending about how you keep jumping out the airlock, but that can't work because you only need to do it once to get the ending. I feel like this is the point where you realize this is a problem and do some rewrites. Let your choices *actually* branch out so you can get a related ending for your choices. Make it less about "these plot points in this order" and more about actually choosing things. In the CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
But okay, there's still four more endings so we've got to keep going. Remember the "Wake the Crew" choice, where Gunther turns into an old lady for no reaseon? You can keep doing that, and this is the one path that can properly reference itself because GUESS WHAT? If you ever *don't* pick "Wake the Crew", you stop being given the choice to wake the crew, meaning you're locked out of this ending for good. That's how a story in this format should work I think. Especially something that teased so heavily in the teasers about the consequenes of your actions, actually allowing your choices to HAVE lasting consequences. But okay, what actually happens in this ending? The first time you wake the crew, reality glitches to get you to the next choice. If you wake the crew again, oh hey the old lady's back! She's named Ms. Whitacre, I just needed to bring that up. Ms. Whitacre just blows up the ship and then reality's really broken now. You're shown a bunch of clips of things that haven't happened yet, which. Okay yeah that's kinda cool, but why does Ms. Whitacre do this? Why does waking the crew summon Ms. Whitacre? These are questions. If you wake the crew again, Ms. Whitacre tells you about how she's been having dreams lately, and how you can't trust the dreams because second chances don't exist. And then she kills you and you wake up in a reality where you're the only person on the ship. That was pretty cool up until that ending, because once again. Zero relation to anything that came prior! This is not the consequences of my actions, this is just an ending being tossed at me because there should be one right about now.
So that's three endings for the three total choices you got in that whole route. So where's the other three? Well, remember the very first choice that I ignored for [LENGTH OF VIDEO]? All of this is if you put out the fire. If you fix life support instead, the temporary loss of oxygen kills the fire AND the life support's fixed. You've solved both problems and didn't die, that's the right answer at this point. But Mark did die in the first video, and he only came back because you looped back and were and able to save him. So if you never loop, Mark never comes back. This is actually a cool route you can get where all of the choices have to be rewritten to work with Mark being dead in mind. If you make all of the right choices (which just involves waking a crew a bunch, which doesn't summon Ms. Whitacre this time around for... some reason?) If you wake the crew for every problem, you get an ending where you successfully escape the wormhole and you're able to carry out the mission perfectly. With the downside that the mission only goes well because you're doing everything, and the moment you die everything goes to chaos.
The "good route" doesn't actually work how you'd think. It isn't just the "bad route" duplicated with different choices. If you make a wrong choice, you're able to save mark and you loop back into the other route. But if you make all of the right choices, and then just toss a bomb into the reactor instead of waking the crew, the ship explodes and you loop. One choice from the ending. Mark is able to save himself because he's looped more than you in this route. That whole time he's been dead he was looping through all the other realities, he knows everything that's going to happen before it happens. He's seen all of the universes where you treat him like shit, and is scared that you're going to do the same. He tries to convince you about the time loop, and you're given a choice. "I Believe You" or "This Must be a Dream!".
If you say that it's all a dream, you get an ending where he tries desperately to convince you that this is real while you dismiss everything as just being part of the dream. Then you get abducted by aliens and sent to the gladiator arena where you're promptly killed. All while dismissing this as a dream. It's the same deal as the Ms. Whitacre route, a cool idea with an ending that's just barely related to anything that came prior. You don't get to make any choices once the aliens abduct you, or once you're in the gladiator pit, everything's just done for you.
But hey, here's the last ending, and I saved the best for last. If you choose to believe Mark... The ship explodes. It just spontaneously combusts, zero relation to any of the choices you made that whole run. And WAIT A MINUTE THIS IS JUST THE MS. WHITACRE ENDING AGAIN! Hey, remember when I said we had 6 endings? We're down to 5, half as many as A Date With Markiplier which came out 5 years prior! And once again, the number doesn't matter. It's just that most of these endings aren't related to your choices, and the solution here I think is obvious.
Turn it into a normal choose your own adventure, where you're able to make choices and get endings that are actually related to those choices you made, and get choices that are related to the endings you get. The coolest moments here are moments where it broke the formula, so why is the formula there? Why can't I just choose whatever I want? Why does the ship even have to be malfunctioning THIS BAD if only one of the problems is related to the plot (sshhh I know there's a lore reason I'll get to it, just shhhh), why can't I just be given normal choices that lead to outcomes, like the last two choose your own adventures? This isn't even about that "there are no right choices, no matter what you do people will die" angle from the trailer. Because there are just blatant right and wrong choices. You either fix the problem and have to move on to the next plot point, or you fail, die, get it right this time, and then move on to the next plot point. And when something like this can be plotted out in so clear "right and wrong" choices, it loses the plot. Now you might say "hey, you only know this because you looked at the diagram of choices, because you watched the YouTube playlist and went through it a bunch to see everything". But, even going through it without that, no matter what, after every choice, you're given something unrelated. Even if you die, you're given something unrelated. It's not that hard to see through the fake choices being given to you.
And none of this matters anyways because that's not even the ending.
GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT...:
No matter what ending you got, you're given this one choice. "Go Towards the Light...", this isn't a "try again" option, it's not optional. This is a required piece of the story. So those weren't endings, they were fake-outs. The story is still going. Okay, I get why they did this. It's a time loop story, this half of the story was written with the idea in mind that you had already been introduced to the idea of the time loop. This couldn't just be the first thing that happens, but it needs to be something that does happen. So yeah, naturally they made a little prelude segment for you to loop back to. And then when that's already the idea, why not make that feel like the entire thing with a fake-out ending so that it's a twist when the story keeps going? Imagine going through A Date With Markiplier, but randomly on one playthrough, Mark references the fact that this has happened before. That would be awesome, and I have to respect the idea.
There is still one fake-out ending where you never properly looped. The perfect ending doesn't really match up because you never looped before. But the main thing I want to talk about, is that if everything merges back together, why did everything prior have to be formatted like that? There's no reason for choices to loop back to each other like this, there's no reason why it has to force you through every single plot point in this specific order, there's no reason why it should just be the same couple of choices over and over again, there's no reason why the endings can't reflect your choices, there's no reason why we had to do the set-up so weirdly in the beginning if there was a mandatory prelude section anyways! So many choices from the previous section make zero sense because the previous section gets undone anyways, so why does it work like that?
It really could've just been a normal CYOA in the vein of something like Date that naturally loops into this main story on your third run. Hell, maybe you could implement some idea where characters and plot points are only introduced when relevant to your run, and so you're naturally introduced to the plot as you run through a "fake CYOA" and find all the endings. Then everything after could play on your knowledge of what came previous because you looped through over and over again to find everything.
Okay, I know I'm talking a lot about what could've been, let's just talk about what is. You're given a series of choices that don't really affect anything, even if you aren't looking at a map or a playlist. Then, you get an ending completely unrelated to the choices you made, and then none of that mattered anyways.
Okay, I'm quite mad about this, as you can tell. But hey, let's see what they do with the idea of "you thought it ended, but it didn't". So first thing you do? Uhhh die. You just die. Why? That's still not a rhetorical question, I don't know why. I guess in some endings it would've made sense, like in the perfect route where you lived a full life and then just came back to the worst part of what happened, yeah, I guess. But other endings, like the one where you think it's all a dream, why is your first instinct upon waking up from a dream to die in the depths of space? That doesn't seem good. I'm just baffled by this conclusion, it makes no sense in most routes. They could've had a seperate "Go Towards the Light" sequence for every fake-out ending, so that the reaction makes sense. Or you know, don't do this.
Okay, but then Mark just asks if this seems familiar, which. That would've been a cooler opener, you think it's just a restart but whoops! Time loop, it's still a time loop. This really is just a continuation of what you were forced into previously, Mark is forced to fix everything until you make it to the wormhole. "Jump In" or "CANNON BALL", jokes on you it's not even a real choice. Not that it would even matter if it was, it still would've turned out the same.
Then, Mark meets back up with you and UNNAMED FEMALE CHARACTER #1 yells at you for everything you've done. She genuinely does not have a name despite being a main character, but Lady is what she's referred to throughout the show, so I guess I'm just going to call her that. Lady warns you about all the damage you did, everyone you killed, and tells you that you need to undo it. This could be kind of cool I guess, but yelling at me for everything I did after a choice that kind of matters but not really, a choice that only kind of matters, a choice that doesn't matter, a choice that doesn't matter, a choice you are forced into, and a choice that doesn't exist. Yeah, what did I do in there? I get it, it's the point. But I'm not a subscriber to "PEOPLE YELLING AT ME FOR THINGS I DIDN'T DO MAGAZINE", I am not having fun and I want off Mr. In Space's Wild Ride.
Then the ship blows up for no reason again, it just does this. It's a hobby I guess. And I guess now that the people that die officially are a thing to yell at me about, that's another entire ship's worth of people dead and it wasn't even remotely my fault because once again, my choices don't matter and this happens no matter what. Then you just end up in the wormhole again, but Mark's here now. You find the warp core in the wormhole, yay, mission complete! But it's in a wormhole so there's infinite warp cores from infinite universes, most of the warp cores don't exist in any universe anymore because of plot reasons that haven't been explained yet, and that's the one you wind up in, so naturally the warp core stabs a crystal through your hand and sends you back. Okay, I should actually explain the plot.
OH YEAH, THERE'S A PLOT!:
So, there's some paradox you need to prevent, it's presumably related to all of the people dying that Lady talked about, the warp core, the crystal, the wormhole, the time loop, all of that. There's some paradox at the core of it, and you need to stop it from happening. Glad we have our quest now, so surely we will enter a choose your own adventure where the choices we make impact whether we end up stopping the paradox or not! Surely:)
So you're back at the beginning and you still have the warp core crystal in your hand. Mark is ecstatic that we're immortal now, which. There were fake-out endings before where Mark knew we were in a time loop, why would this be his first time knowing this? Some say that this is the point, that the Mark you see here is a different Mark than the one you saw previously. I call it lazy writing.
And there's just a repair protocol now? You can just fix the ship by saying the magic words? So WHY DID WE DO ALL OF THIS? WHY DID WE NEED TO SPEND OUR TIME REPAIRING EVERY LITTLE BIT OF THE SHIP IF THE MAGIC WORDS DID THE THING? WHY WAS PUTTING OUT THE FIRE WRONG IF THERE'S A PROTOCOL TO JUST FIX EVERYTHING ANWYAYS? Maybe we're on a version of the ship where it has the repair protocol, and with a Mark that came from a ship with a repair protocol. While we're at it, maybe we'll find the Mark that can just fix everything for me and I can go back to sleep. Maybe there's the Mark that can write a better story so I can stop writing this video. (deep breath)
You can either "Jump In Again!" and hope that you end up at the right warp core, or you can "Call an Emergency Meeting" and get the crew's help. "Jump In Again!" just kills you and asks you if ou want to jump again or do the meeting. You can keep jumping in but nothing happens. Glad that the Lady's warning about the effects of your choices is sandwiched between twenty pieces of bread, all topped with "I Can't Believe It's Not Choice!" choice-substitute.
So you "Call an Emergency Meeting" because the only other option is watch the same three vidoes for all eternity. Among us. The crew thanks you for being honest with them, but it means nothing because you end up here no matter what. (Clip of the crew thanking me). These are empty gratitudes, they mean nothing.
Okay, so now you're given the first choice that means anything. "Send a Distress Signal", or "Pop 'er in Reverse!" Glad the first choice that matters is happening 5+ choices in, it depends on the route you took pre-"Go Towards the Light..." and how many times you went into the wormhole before stopping, but it's at least 5. But, remember the whole "good choice/bad choice" thing I was talking about? Yeah it's still here, every choice either kills you and loops you back, or doesn't do that and progresses the story. There are some different mechanics, but I'll cover that when we get there, because for the first run, I'll be doing a perfect run. I'll only making incorrect choices when it doesn't matter. Wait didn't they literally say in the trailer that there is no right answer, what?
THE RIGHT ANSWER:
Okay, so you start out by sending a distress signal, which ends with being abducted by Wug! The alien who brings us to the Universal Stability Agency. And that's Wug, everybody say goodbye to Wug, because that's the most plot relevance Wug will ever have! Wug gives us the ability to call him for backup. This will not happen in this route. Wug appears in other routes, where it's very superficial and just for the sake of having a character you may or may not know. Once you're there you just teleport into the Universal Stability Agency, and there's no reason given to you for why they just can't teleport you there themselves. It feels like they wrote Wug in an earlier draft of the script where he solved a lot of plotholes and did a lot for the story. Then the plot changed and he doesn't do anything anymore, but Wug stuck around. It's just weird.
Anyways, you're at the Universal Stability Agency and UNNAMED FEMALE CHARACTER #2 is being dragged away. Hi. And then you meet up with Lady again, but this isn't Lady from the future, this Lady hasn't met you yet. You know, I'm getting sick of calling her Lady. Even though that's what the show does. Director, I'm calling her Director now. I don't care if that's not what she's called, she's the Director now. She teleports you to her office because walking would be too much. She then explains the plot, all of the wormhole stuff I already went over. You probably could've figured it out already, but it's nice to have it reiterated. In a story about the consequences of your actions, it's nice to be sure you understand the situation:)
So now, let's actually talk about this situation here. She is way more knowledgeable than us. Mark doesn't know how the warp core works, I don't know how the warp core works. Really, it would be invaluable to be able to ally with her, and try to stop the wormhole together. Even if she doesn't know the specifics, she'd definitely be able to offer some advice. So naturally, you make her very angry because Mark keeps making jokes and goofing off and I just idly support it, even though. Not what I would do. And when we would get the choice to try and convince her of our innocence or run... A vent falls from the sky. You don't get a choice, you can't ally with her, and now she hates you. In Space With Markiplier!
Here's UNNAMED FEMALE CHARACTER #2 again, let's call her Bandit because that's what she's called in the credits. Bandit falls from the vents, incapacitates the Director, and says that *she* can help you stop the wormhole, as long as you let her poke around in the warp core. Now, let's talk about this, we were introduced to her by seeing her getting dragged off my Space Cops, she just presumably killed the Director, and now the criminal that knows a lot about wormholes wants to look at our wormhole generator. All of this is said to you by Mark IN THE SHOW, and the only counterargument that's provided to you is "I got dragged here by cops too" which. Is Wug the cops? This is never explained. And "you're just stuck here until someone who knows about wormholes helps you out", which. You know we did literally just meet someone who knows about wormholes. The Director could help, we could try to help her and prove we're trustworthy. She says "the choice is literally you get the help you need or you die", but. In what scenario is that true? Why would getting the aid of the Director kill us? Is the idea that if we abandon the Bandit, she'll kill us? That would actually be more interesting than what they did.
I'm picking "We Don't Need Your Help", because I still don't trust her and we're doing a perfect route, so this has to be the right answer. (PLAY WHAT HAPPENS)....... OKAY. I have thoughts on this, all of which can be accurately be described by "what the fuck?" Why is not trusting the criminal who wants to look at your wormhole generator not just a wrong choice, but a choice so wrong that it's worth breaking the fourth wall and mocking you: the viewer! We don't even get to see why it's wrong. Every other wrong choice kills you, there's a reason why it's bad. But this just doesn't! Why is this wrong? Then it just takes you to the same path as if you did trust her, but it skips a plot relevant scene. Some may call this purposeful, you picked the right answer so even if it leads to the same place, you're rewarded with more lore. I call it lazy writing because WHY IS THIS CHOICE LIKE THIS? It skips a scene where the Bandit gives you a portable wormhole generator around the warp core crystal on your wrist. This is the plot device that can be used to teleport you around and eventually get to the warp core, specifically, the one that's powering this wormhole. It had to be me that uses it because it only works if you have a warp core crystal on your wrist, so I'm still special. Good to know. So, where has the wormhole taken us?
Oh, we're in the horror universe. Why? Once again, not a rhetorical question, I genuinely don't know. We're seemingly only here because Mark wanted a horror route and so that's where we are right now. "That's not me captain", I mean yeah. It isn't. That's a different Mark. Then another Mark dies and then this door promises that the "dark" path's behind it. No thanks, I'm afraid of the dark. Now you might've noticed I've had zero lore complaints about the horror universe. That's because there isn't any lore to be had, for all intents and purposes you've just been thrown into a fully different series. This has zero basis on what you chose prior. It's just the horror route now.
But not anymore because not opening the door just cancels the horror route, and now the crew is blaming all of the problems on you, and wants you dead. I can't even bother to ask why at this point. They most likely aren't even from my run, they're the version of the crew from a run where I just blew up the ship for no reason or something. This is the problem when the story has to loop back to itself like this, when you're teleporting between universes all willy nilly. This doesn't matter, if I pick wrong I'll end up at the right place anyways. "Gunther! Think of the Colonists!", and it doesn't even work and you just teleport away. This is the best option. The plot doesn't matter anymore because you just teleport from setpiece to setpiece. Hey wait a minute... Are we back at the carousel again? I mean, some of these choices lead to slightly different places, I guess. Gotta hand it that. "Burt! Think of the Colonists!", and then it also doesn't work and you teleport away. I guess we're at that "there are no right answers" thing, but not really in an interesting way. This isn't interesting moral dilemnas for me to try and solve, I just run away from the consequences of my actions, and now Celci wants to freeze the ship over because she's sick of the loop. Me too, Celci. Me too.
"Fix it from the Outside!", you die and just... you're at the warp core bridge now! Good job, you beat the video game, there is zero reason why that choice should've gotten you here, and yet you're here because you're supposed to be. "I'm Ready" or "Hold on a second...". Let's go back, maybe get some weapons or something to keep me safe wherever I end up next and... This makes two times where I pick an option and get yelled at for looking for easter eggs, even though it is something I might want to do. Gotta hand it to this one though, at least it's a more obviously "easter egg...y" choice. So now Wharfstache sent us back to the ending. But, he told us the Wharfstache meeting was in part 2... which...
TO BE CONTINUED:
Okay, quick aside to talk about this, then we get back to the plot. As you can guess by the title as it stands today, there are two In Space With Markipliers. But, when it initially launched, it was just titled "In Space with Markiplier", without any indication that this was part one of two. The only hints that we got that were was a part two is that two different routes mention the existence of a second part, and some of the glitches show us scenes of things that don't happen in this part. Back at the beginning, during the "Wake the Crew", Ms. Whitacre route. Remember that? It's been days for me, but it's probably been less than an hour for you. Okay, but during the glitches, you're shown scenes that don't exist in Part 1. They show up in part 2.
Now, this does put some unnessecary pressure on Part 1. It can be very good if it's a fun adventure and then 'whoops, there's more!', but it can also feel very unsatisfying and annoying. Like it's just half of a story, and THEN it's Part 1 of 2. So, Part 1 does have to stick the landing here, even though it's not the end. It is AN ending. This needs to make the whole thing feel worth it. So, let's see what they do.
THE ENDING (FOR REALSIES THIS TIME) (PART 1):
Right before we're about to enter the wormhole, the Director just shoots Mark and accuses us of intentionally trying to destroy the universe. This is why I should've been able to ally with her! I want to prove that I'm not out to destroy the universe, I WANT TO HELP! PLEASE! Oh hey and the Director has the same device I have on my wrist. So she can just go in and try to stop the wormhole herself. I can step to the side and let her handle it. So naturally, I don't get any more choices from here on out regardless of how useful they may be. But with where we are in the story, now it makes sense why she's blaming all of these deaths on me. We're teleporting between all the universes willy nilly, a lot of alternate captains made bad choices to blow up the ship or something, so I'm just being blamed. For all of that. Every death in the multiverse is because I... intentionally got stuck in a wormhole apparently, even though I didn't! I can't even explain that I'm trying to fix it, that's not an option that I ever get. Ever.
Okay, and here's the big twist! Up until now the show's lead you to presume that every time you loop, that's just a time loop. But no, you're going to an alternate universe, and all of the people from before are still dead. The Director wants to stop you before you go through all of them trying to stop the wormhole and end up killing everybody. Once again, you don't get the opportunity to tell her you're trying to fix everything. Mark tells her, but she doesn't listen to Mark, she wants to hear it from you, and you don't get the option to say shit. She asks for the warp core crystal so she can go in and fix the warp core. You don't get this choice, and in fact because she also has one of the devices, it causes a paradox and sends you through the wormhole again and now. You're in the warp core! You beat the video game!
Then an old man begins fighting you in the warp core. Naturally. Then he blows you up, and teleports the warp core to a universe that doesn't exist, claiming that this is the "only solution left", and that he's sorry. Once you don't exist anymore, he starts talking about he beat you, and forgives you for all of the torment you've caused. Then, the warp core comes with you and realizes that the paradox has happened now, so it teleports the Director and a bunch of other random people to try and fix it. The Director realizes that this whole time the paradox has been caused by this old man, and not you. Then the crystal on your hand creates some beam and blows up the warp core, then you teleport between a bunch of corrupted alternate realities and the universe resets. So, there's been a lot of lore happening this whole time. Would you believe there's more lore that has only come up NOW?
WHO IN THE WORLD IS THIS RANDOM OLD MAN?:
So, there's a lot of lore. Some of it hasn't even happened yet, but I'm explaining all of it now because I've already hidden all of this from you this long, I'm not going to do it again. And for the sake of making this video slightly more manageable, I'm going to try and explain it before this song ends. Ready... and... go!
So, Mark was outside of the wormhole when you went into the warp core to try and stop the wormhole, then the wormhole didn't close because of the old man that teleported you out of existence and caused the universe to reset. So Mark knows that the wormhole didn't close, even after you went in to close the wormhole, and he has no idea what actually happened in there, so he assumes that you did it and has lost some of his trust in you. Eventually, Mark ends up teleporting/timewarping, whatever back into the warp core room and noticing that the warp core just isn't there anymore. It doesn't exist, because it was teleported out of existence and didn't come back when the universe reset. Mark here jumps to the conclusion that you've intentionally destroyed the warp core to end the universe. Though what really happened is that the old man teleported the warp core out of existence, and you were not involved in that in any way. But this doesn't matter, because Mark then spends his eternity trying to rebuild the warp core so that he can go back in time and stop you from destroying the warp core. The old man that stopped you is Mark from the future-past that didn't happen but will and never did. It's not a different character that just happens to also be played by Mark, which also happens. But don't get those two confused. This is a Mark. He runs around the past version of the ship destroying the whole thing, even though once again: THERE IS A REPAIR PROTOCOL. HE SHOULD KNOW THIS, AND PAST MARK SHOULD ALSO KNOW THIS. THERE IS NO DIALOGUE TO EXPLAIN THIS. Regardless, Old Mark hopes that this is enough to stop you from ever getting to the warp core so that he can stay in there and fix everything. But then, when you end up actually getting to the warp core still, Old Mark tries to stop you from doing anything with the warp core because he still thinks that you're going to destroy it, even though you want to fix it and stop the wormhole. He teleports you out of existence, thinking that this will fix the problem. It doesn't, and he ends up causing this whole thing to happen in the first place, because this is when the Past Mark sees the wormhole actively NOT CLOSE when you're supposed to be CLOSING IT. Then the warp core tries to bring anyone even tangentially related with the paradox to it in the hopes that this will help stop the paradox. It doesn't do anything, and the universe ends up needing to reset because everyone's teleporting out of existence, and the cycle happens again. The paradox that the warp core is talking about is the fact that Mark rebuilt the warp core so that he could go back, and then brought it back in time with him. Past Mark saw this warp core just floating in space and decided to plug it into the ship. The warp core was built by Old Mark, and is itself, the paradox. I think. I have a headache.
I think. This plot is hard to follow and confusing, maybe this guy, the crazy Mark is involved. Maybe this guy is. The plot's hard to follow. But hey, this is only one posisble route, maybe if went and picked some other options back there, we'll end up at some entirely different story where we get some elaboration for some of these plot points, and the ones we've been through aren't elaborated on. That would be a cool use a choose your own adventure! So, let's go again!
THE "WRONGEST ROUTE":
We're going back to the "beginning" and picking the worst option every time! Why? Because I feel like that would be a good scale of measurement for how different these routes can be. Looking at the two most different possible routes and seeing how they go. Also, when I said I'm going back to the beginning, I'm not. I'm going back to "Call an Emergency Meeting" because that's the point where your choices begin to split off at all. But this time around, we're going to "Pop 'er in Reverse!" The ship blows up. You know, this time it makes sense, that was a really bad plan.
But it's a time loop! So we loop back to try again... But this time it's detective noir? Yep, this is the gimmick here. Every time you make a wrong choice it puts the same scenes in a different genre. Now, I get the need to want to branch out the story, just a sci-fi story for every route would get kind of boring. But this isn't doing much, because the same story is happening. It's still sci-fi, but it looks like a detective noir. "Fire All Weapons At The Wormhole", we will NOT send this distress signal. The wormhole shoots back and the ship exlodes.
But it's a time loop! Now, you ever play the Stanley Parable?
THIS IS THE STORY OF A CAPTAIN NAMED Y/N:
The Stanley Parable is a game about choice in video games, as you play, you have a narrator describing what you're doing and what you should do next. Of course, if you end up following everything the narrator tells you to do, you end up with a pretty lackluster ending. It's an ending about choice, but in order to get to it, you need to let someone else make all of the choices for you, just follow the plot written out for you. But, you can actively choose not to follow what the narrator wants you to do, and the narrator will get progressively more and more mad at you. There's one story, one sequence of events that the narrator wants you to experience, and everything else will show the narrator trying to force you back on track before eventually just getting mad at you for how you've ruined the story and you end up somewhere else entirely. In Space with Markiplier
When you loop back to the beginning this time around after dying in the noir route, you have a narrator describing what you're doing and trying to force you through all of the plotpoints that you missed. There is one story that the game wants you to get through, and everything else is varying degrees of the game trying to force you back on track. Then, the narrator tells you to use the device on your wrist to get to the warp core and shut it down. Mark literally says that he doesn't want to trust the narrator, the parody declares that I shouldn't follow the narrator, my own resistence to being told what to do tells me. DON'T. TRUST. THE. NARRATOR. So, naturally, I pick "Plan K". The ship explodes. Why is that Plan K? There are so many other things that could've been Plan K, why did it have to be violence? Some things Plan K could've been but wasn't include [LIST THINGS], and NOT BLOWING UP THE SHIP AGAIN WHAT HTE FUCK.
THE WORST ENDING:
I loop back, and I'm outside of the universe again, like from the other ending. Ms. Whitacre is here now, and she's mocking me for going down the bad route. She opens up a wormhole and tells me that it will take me to the ending. I pick "Well Now I'm Not Doing It", because I just want to have some level of choice at this point. It's not about making bad choices anymore, it's wanting choice at all. Ms. Whitacre took the device from me, credits roll, and then the other ending happens in the background, and the corrupted thing happens again.
I skipped over a lot of the specifics of what she said, because before I talk about that, I feel like it's important to have some context as to how my first playthrough of In Space went. In the beginning section I immediately felt this weird disconnect between my choices and what was happening. I jump out the ship's airlock, loop back and throw Mark into everything. Then I go towards the light, and after a jumping into the wormhole loop I get the idea that my choices just don't matter. There's one specific thing I'm supposed to be doing, and the game is going to try and force me into that no matter what. Quite a disconnect from "the consequences of your action". So I don't realize that this is going to be the point where my choices suddenly do anything, and I decide to just pick the funny answer. "Pop 'er in Reverse!" Now I'm noir. It's the same disconnect between choice and outcome from before, I don't even realize that my choices did that, I just assume that I was going to be noir no matter what. So I continue to pick the wrongest choice every time, not out of a need for chaos and destruction, but because I don't realize that I even have choices. I end up distrusting Ms. Whitacre, who I don't even know in this route, purely because I want to make a choice that might matter.
But now, with the knowledge of how the game goes and the knowledge of where I was on my first playthrough where I wound up here. I feel like now I can properly dissect Ms. Whitacre's speech.