History Heartwarming / MarkDoesStuff

* The first few chapters of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' blogs. After being completely burned out from reading the entire ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series, they were very cynical going into this one, but were slowly won over until they're completely on board once Hagrid shows up. It's very sweet seeing them rediscover a love of reading like this.

* One of the recurring themes of the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' blogs was how much Azula reminded Mark of his own sadistic, manipulative sister who he's wanted nothing to do with for years, and how this really made him want her comeuppance to be as horrible as possible. But her VillainousBreakdown in the finale was so well done that he surprised himself with an AlasPoorVillain reaction, and even started pondering what his sister might have been going through recently until he considered trying to mend fences with her.
* The first few chapters of the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' blogs. After being completely burned out from reading the entire ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series, he was very cynical going into this one, but is slowly won over until he's completely on board once Hagrid shows up. It's very sweet seeing him rediscover a love of reading like this.
** Like many ''Harry Potter'' readers, Mark considered Dobby to be TheScrappy during his first read through of ''Chamber of Secrets''. During his re-read of the book after having finished the series, his re-review of Dobby's introductory chapter consists of one long letter of apology from Mark to Dobby for ever having thought badly of him.
* His conclusion from Chapter 32 of ''Literature/TheAmberSpyglass'': "'Tell them stories,' the ghost says. And I think back to how this chapter put thoughts in my mind, acts and behaviors and a history I didn’t get to talk about, and as soon as I read that final line, I knew that even on my part, I was supposed to tell stories, too. Maybe it’s all I’m good at, but you know what? I’m perfectly okay with that."
** And for the very next chapter, he was inspired to talk about the horrible circumstances behind how he lost his faith in God. This was followed by a huge outpouring of sympathy in the comments, with several people sharing their own stories and everyone making sure to tell him how much they loved him and how good a person he is.
* In his reading of Chapter 30 of ''[[Literature/HarryPotter Half Blood Prince]]'', we learn that Mark got a letter from his dying father, who wasn't at all nice to him when Mark was growing up. It says "Thanks for making up with Mom. It stopped the fighting for a long time. I'm proud of you living on your own. And I'm proud to have been your father."
* For two chapters of ''Literature/{{The Hobbit}}'', he tells the story through imagining Tolkien's original bedtime story to his son Christopher. It's funny and adorable in equal measure.
* Reading anything about his horribly depressing childhood makes it remarkable and quite uplifting that he's ended up as such a happy, well-adjusted adult, making money by doing something he loves.
* Any time he reads something good on Youtube. Naturally, people mostly make him read terrible stuff, so it's great to see him just loving what he's reading for once.

* Tamora Pierce's Facebook message about his reviews of the Literature/TortallUniverse:

* During a watching of Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica, Mark watches the scene where Madoka is given a MindRape from a Witch, which led to her saying to herself, "I'm a coward..." Mark's response is to say to her "You're not a coward!". Even though she's not real, his investment into her is so lovely.

* After making a game effort to run Mark Plays as a project just as big as Reads and Watches, after a few months his schedule was so demanding that his long-dormant depression came back with a vengeance. He then wrote a post explaining that it would have to be reduced to a side project that would only be updated when he could spare the time, being very apologetic about the whole thing. The comments to that announcement quickly filled up with people assuring him they accepted the situation, and the important thing was his health.
* His thanking the Literature/TortallUniverse fans for being the nicest fandom he's ever encountered in the site's history, with no one at all giving the moderators any trouble.

* His account of attending Lonestar Con 2013, after being nominated for a Hugo. He got to meet tons of fans and fellow nominees (including George RR Martin telling him afterwards that no one would ever be able to take his status as a Hugo Loser away), and was quickly accepted by everyone who'd never heard of him before.

** And saying that if he ever has a daughter, he wants their relationship to be like Veronica and Keith's.
* Finding out he was right about "America the Beautiful" in ''Literature/TheWestingGame''.
* His love for [[Literature/BekaCooper Achoo]] and dogs in general, best shown in Bloodhound Part 4 when he spends most of the review gushing about animals of every kind, but especially dogs.

* Going through the ([[DarkAndTroubledPast quite disturbing]]) first chapter of ''[[Literature/CircleOfMagic Sandry's Book]]'', he's really happy (to the point of clapping excitedly) when he realizes Daja's black, since protagonists of color are pretty rare in fantasy.
** In Part 4 of Tris' Book, he spends the first paragraph gushing about how amazing the series is, how deeply he's connecting to it, and how he looks forward to every section.
* His reaction to [[spoiler:the return of Zhaan]] in [[Series/{{Farscape}} "John Quixote."]]
* Gertrude and Nathaniel the Tribbles. Any time he gets too upset, they're there to pull him out of it.
* His reaction to the first two ''Star Trek'' movies. Typically people have one of two responses: either ''The Motion Picture'' is a brilliant cerebral experience and ''The Wrath of Khan'' is a throwaway action movie, or ''The Wrath of Khan'' is the best of all the movies and ''The Motion Picture'' is an unbearable bore. And then Mark (who went into both with absolutely no preconceptions, not even knowing the "odds bad, evens good" rule) defied expectations by finding both of them equally fantastic.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': His being struck utterly speechless by [=McCoy's=] cameo in "Encounter at Farpoint."
** During "Hollow Pursuits," he's extremely skeptical of EnsembleDarkhorse Reginald Barclay at first, finding him to be a misfit being creepy on the Holodeck at the expense of his job. Slowly over the course of the episode, Barclay wins him over, but once Barclay gives his famous speech about [[ShrinkingViolet his social struggles,]] Mark ''immediately'' realizes that he's talking about social anxiety, and identifies completely with him. It's really sweet how much that scene, and that episode, struck a chord with him.
* After Creator/TerryPratchett's passing, his website's homepage now has a picture and a quote from him.
* In the final section of ''Moving Pictures'', Mark muses about how it seemed the big dream of his life was killed when he had to drop out of college, but now here he is with tons of fans all over the world reading his work, and about to enter the literary world himself. He concludes that despite a good deal of upheaval going on right now in his life, "I have never, ever been happier to be Mark Oshiro."

** His Twitter posts after finishing the show: "I have never been more destroyed in my entire life. And for once it's because I'm HAPPY. I'm still crying because this doesn't happen. This NEVER happens in shows I love. I'm sitting here in shock. That ''Korra'' finale is one of the best-and most important-things I have ever seen. Oh my god, NOW I KNOW WHY THE INTERNET BROKE LAST YEAR. And why people have been shooing me out of my own panels at conventions. I need to lay down and cry some more. My god, thank you to every one of you who pestered me to catch up on ''Korra'', you have my gratitude."
** The video reaction for "The Last Stand", specifically the moment when Mark realizes that the subtext he saw wasn't just wishful thinking. He keeps asking "Are you serious?" until the very end, while he's crying out of happiness.
* His discovery that Daja from ''Circle of Magic'' is a lesbian. His reaction is perhaps even more powerful than the ''Korra'' finale as he has to keep reading the chapter while completely overwhelmed by it, and his review notes that perhaps he was so quick to name her his favorite of the four main characters because he subconsciously sensed this connection.
** It gets even better when they actually hook up, where he says "This means so much to me" and subconsciously assigns them a PortmanteauCoupleName. And then there's the casual reveal of Rosethorn's bisexuality just a couple minutes later.
** His reaction to the reveals about Lark and Rosethorn are almost better than the reveal about Daja. The reveal about Daja was built up to but Lark and Rosethorn are just casually dropped in a couple of sentences. Needless to say he freaks out a bit.
** He completely ''melts'' during Briar and Evvy's reunion in "Battle Magic," and marvels in the written review that the book was able to create this kind of response out of something he knew full well was coming thanks to the book being a prequel.
* Mark revealed on Twitter that his boyfriend Baize was quite reluctant to be part of the ''Series/{{Sense8}}'' videos, worried that all the fans would hate him and say he was annoying. Instead, he was a gigantic hit and got quite a few requests to become a regular part of the videos for ''every'' show.

* His palpable awe and joy at discovering the lead character in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is a black man.

** His gratitude for the episode "Cardassians" finally giving him something to point to that fans of the same genres he loves would be familiar with, to demonstrate the issues he struggled with after being adopted by people of a different race.
** The moment in "The Way Of The Warrior, Part 1" when ''Worf'' steps onto the station for the first time. His BigYes is great, and he's just beaming for the rest of the episode. And then in part two when he finds out Worf is a ''permanent'' addition to the cast, he's over the moon.
** He's a complete wreck during the character montages at the end of the series finale, showing just how much he came to love all these people in what he'd long since declared his favorite ''Trek'' show.

* His commissioned video for an episode of the ''Soul Music'' animated series. He literally spends the entire thing with a giant smile on his face, getting to see this world that had just been in his head for over a year.
* While watching the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE7POV POV]], he takes a quick moment away from marveling at the asskicking to express his delight that the episode is centered around a woman of color.
** His absolute glee at seeing Batgirl's debut in the series.

* Reading the scene in ''[[Literature/YoungWizards Deep Wizardry]]'' where Nita takes her parents to the Moon. He spends the whole thing looking like he's about to cry, and after finishing the chapter declares it one of the best chapters of any book he's ever read.
** His joy at the sensitive, knowledgeable depiction of autism in ''A Wizard Alone'' [[note]]which actually owes a lot to Diane Duane educating herself a good deal more on the subject after numerous complaints that its depiction in the original edition of the book was offensive[[/note]], all while making sure to note that he's no kind of expert on the condition, and he should probably do more research on it if he's going to keep talking about it in his reviews.
* The addition of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' to the schedule was a big preemptive one, after all the complaints he's made about queerbaiting and the refusal of most stories he goes through to feature gay representation. And then comes this, trumpeted by its fans as the gayest show currently on TV, which happily picked up the baton the ending of ''The Legend of Korra'' held out and kept running with it, taking its representation to heights previously unheard of for an American kids' cartoon.
** He comments how kind, sweet and relatable Steven is in a lot of reviews. It's nice to see the little guy get so much love.
** His review of "The Answer" barely touches on the episode itself as it can fully stand on its own, and he just uses it as a launching point to discuss how there was so much standing in the way of him embracing his identity as a gay man, but now he's done it, and is so much happier as a result. The comments are also full of other non-heteronormative people talking about how great it is for a show aimed at kids to have a message like this, letting them absorb it before they can be exposed to much of the hatred that can make it difficult to get through.
** He has TearsOfJoy throughout Ruby and Sapphire's proposal and wedding, overjoyed at a show for kids having this kind of undeniable queer content being presented as a completely normal thing.
* His complete adoration of Porthos the beagle in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''.
* Similarly, his adoration of Bear from ''Series/PersonOfInterest''.

* He's overjoyed to see Walter Koenig again on ''Series/BabylonFive'', and especially gushes over how cool it is to see him in such a different role from Chekov so that's it's almost like watching a completely different actor, something Koenig himself loved about playing Bester.
** His JawDrop at Talia and Ivanova's scene at the end of "A Race Through Dark Places," clearly realizing for the first time the show might ''actually'' be taking steps toward making them a couple.
** Mark's utter joy at seeing [[spoiler:Susan Ivanova]] return for the series finale, "Sleeping In Light". In fact, almost the entire latter-half of the episode had him nearly in tears.

* After his ''Series/DoctorWho'' reviews had stalled for quite some time, he was finally driven to catch up thanks to the Thirteenth Doctor being a woman (plus his already having grown quite attached to Jodie Whittaker from her work on ''Series/{{Broadchurch}}''). He predictably has TearsOfJoy at the regeneration scene, while also making sure to note he really loved Peter Capaldi in the role and is going to miss him.
* His reaction to Rita Moreno's appearance in ''Series/JaneTheVirgin''. It's like he's seeing an actual living godess.

* His love for [[Literature/ProvostsDog Achoo]] and dogs in general, best shown in Bloodhound Part 4 when he spends most of the review gushing about animals of every kind, but especially dogs.

** Especially so given how much [[TheScrappy hatred and criticism]] Madoka gets from some parts of the fandom. ''[[AngstDissonance Just for crying and having some perfectly understandable insecurities]].'' [[DarkAndTroubledPast Naturally,]] [[HeartwarmingMoments Mark is able to love her for her flaws and positive points alike]].

* His being struck utterly speechless by [=McCoy's=] cameo in [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration "Encounter at Farpoint."]]

* Similarly, his adoration of Bear from "Series/PersonofInterest."

* While watching the BatmanTheAnimatedSeries episode [[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE7POV POV]], he takes a quick moment away from marveling at the asskicking to express his delight that the episode is centered around a woman of color.

** His joy at the sensitive, knowledgeable depiction of autism in ''A Wizard Alone'' [[note]]which actually owes a lot to Diane Duance educating herself a good deal more on the subject after numerous complaints that its depiction in the original edition of the book was offensive[[/note]], all while making sure to note that he's no kind of expert on the condition, and he should probably do more research on it if he's going to keep talking about it in his reviews.

* His conclusion from Chapter 32 of [[HisDarkMaterials "The Amber Spyglass"]]: "'Tell them stories,' the ghost says. And I think back to how this chapter put thoughts in my mind, acts and behaviors and a history I didn’t get to talk about, and as soon as I read that final line, I knew that even on my part, I was supposed to tell stories, too. Maybe it’s all I’m good at, but you know what? I’m perfectly okay with that."

* Finally getting Ice Giants after spending five ''{{Discworld}}'' books asking about them.

** The video reaction for "The Last Stand", specifically the moment when Mark realizes that the subtext he saw wasn't just wishful thinking. He keeps asking "Is this real?" until the very end, while he's crying out of happiness.