* {{Applicability}}: Everything seems to map to class struggle and/or Mark's personal experiences.
** "Angel wanted to escape his horrific past, so why shouldn't he get to decide how to portray himself to others? It reminded me of my first year of college."
* BrokenBase: Some of Mark's discussions about social justice can cause heated debates in the comments of the posts. These tend to come down to violent differences of opinion between pro- and anti-social justice warriors, with the former defending Mark and latter attacking him.
** On the Spoils site, a discussion about [[spoiler:Beverly Katz being killed]] on ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' went south, creating a very ugly meltdown that resulted in several people getting banned, including moderators, and more deciding to leave on their own rather than risk it happening again. And now the show is more or less considered off limits for discussion. It's essentially [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 the Joel vs. Mike flamewar]] in miniature.
* DracoInLeatherPants: He gushes his adoration for Admiral Cain from ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' to a kind of disturbing degree.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: The commenter "enigmaticagentscully," actually a British woman named Alice, got a sizable fanbase of her own while writing her own thoughts on viewing ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' for the first time. Mark got several questions asked about her, and some even suspected they were the same person.
* FanNickname: Commenters use [[http://rot13.com rot13]] to discuss spoilers. Sometimes, a character's name in rot13 will be amusing enough to become one of these. For instance: Wbanguna for [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Jonathan]], Ybear for [[Series/{{Angel}} Lorne]] and Furybo for [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Shelob]].
** And while he stopped doing Mark Plays before it got to be used, many were anticipating the fun of calling [[Franchise/MassEffect Wrex]] "Jerk."
** "Byvivre" for Olivier in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist''. Given the character's badass nature, this led to "By Vivre!" taking on the meaning "that's awesome!"
** Literature/{{Discworld}} fans were rather pleased to discover that 'Nanny Ogg' in rot13 becomes "Anaal Btt". The HehHehYouSaidX is made all the sweeter by the knowledge that Nanny would have the ''exact'' [[DirtyOldWoman same reaction]].
*** Plus, Greebo is "Terrob." It's noted that it's a shame he wasn't named Greebe just to make it perfect.
** Before he read them, he could never quite remember the name of Literature/BekaCooper, so he started calling them the 'Doggy Books'- especially funny considering the series' [[DarkerAndEdgier darker tone]]. The name is now used throughout the Tamora Pierce fandom.
*** Ditto calling the four protagonists of ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'' "the goats".
** Benny from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', who happens to be half of a popular HoYay couple, translates to "Oraal."
** Lexa from ''Series/{{The 100}}'' is "Yrkn," with notes about how appropriate it is to pronounce it "your kin."
** "Funzfury" for the Angel Shamshel from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''.
* GrowingTheBeard:
** Noted about ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', where he says it feels like the show just needed to get "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E14JeremiahCrichton Jeremiah Crichton]]" (nigh-universally considered its worst episode) out of its system before it was able to leave its early issues behind and become a truly great show.
** ''Series/The100'' got off to a very rough start with him thanks to its absurdly straight-faced use of BlackDudeDiesFirst, enough that he stated he probably would have RageQuit the show right there if he'd been watching on his own. By halfway through the first season he'd completely turned around on it, declaring it one of the most relentlessly paced and constantly messed up shows he'd ever seen (and keep in mind that includes the likes of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', ''Series/{{Farscape}}'', and ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood'').
* HarsherInHindsight: While reviewing the ''Buffy'' episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E13BloodTies Blood Ties]]", he says that [[spoiler:even as depressing as the show is at that point, at least Joyce was still alive]]. He quickly posted in the comments that he'd already seen "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E16TheBody The Body]]", and rereading the review before posting it made him cry all over again.
** It quickly happened again as during his review of "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS5E20Spiral Spiral]]", he said [[spoiler:the only thing he was sure of about the season finale was that Buffy wouldn't die]].
** His guessing that Woody Goodman is gay while watching ''Series/VeronicaMars''.
*** Quickly followed by "Everything is tainted in this episode, except maybe Mac and Cassidy."
*** Early in season 3 he did a rant about people who make light of rape in any way, to which anyone who'd seen the show thought "This is going to be ugly."
** Praising Creator/JohnSpencer's performance in season 6 of ''Series/TheWestWing'' and saying he really looks like he had a heart attack, unaware that not only was this development inspired by Spencer's real heart problems forcing him to take a smaller role, but he would suffer a fatal heart attack a year later.
*** And then he says that he feels like he's going to have a heart attack after the "three years later" opening of the season 7 premiere, just seconds before Spencer's credit appears.
** After finishing season 1 of ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', he hopes Beverly Katz gets more development in season 2. This is doubly painful not just for what happened to her, but how it tore apart his own fanbase (see BrokenBase above).
** While watching episode 11 of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', he notes that he had to get the episode with a bunch of "caged bird" imagery on the day that Maya Angelou died.
** He says of Furlow in the ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode "[[Recap/FarscapeS03E14InfinitePossibilitiesDaedalusDemands Daedalus Demands]]" " My god, she’s so endlessly entertaining and hilarious, she’s proudly morally ambiguous, and I could watch her sass everyone until the end of time," "She’s managed to survive in such a fierce and brutal world without being all that brutal herself," ''and'' " Sure, her own survival is important, but at what cost? At what point does morally detached pragmatism become a horrible thing?" Then came the next episode...
** He retweeted Creator/LeVarBurton's stunningly poignant quoting of ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'' in response to the horrific miscarriage of justice in Ferguson, just a few months before starting ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.
** Creator/LeonardNimoy passed away less than a month after he watched Spock's death in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.
*** And a couple weeks later Creator/TerryPratchett passed, while he was still doing both ''Star Trek'' and ''Discworld''.
*** A bit later still came Creator/ChristopherLee, the voice of Death in several ''Discworld'' adaptations. Even worse, the specific book Mark was reading at the time was ''Reaper Man'', in which Death becomes mortal and is terrified at the prospect of dying himself.
** While watching ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', he was disappointed that Metatron was played by a white actor after all the buildup about him being Native American. Given what kind of person he turns out to actually be, and his motivation of revenge on the Archangels for throwing him out of Heaven, casting him as Native American probably would have been far worse.
*** A month before "Dark Dynasty" aired, he said that [[spoiler:he may well have RageQuit the show if Charlie's death in "Slumber Party" hadn't been undone.]]
** While reviewing Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'': "I wonder what Ba Sing Se would be like if it wasn’t run by some corrupt force. I imagine that it could truly thrive!"
** He notes one himself when Kirk says he'll die alone in ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier'': "That's really sad now that both those actors are dead. Hope I didn't ruin the scene for anyone."
** One of his predictions for Season 2 of ''The 100'': "Some of the 100 will become part of the Mountain Men." Specifically, their bone marrow.
*** Also, Baize predicts/hopes that the Mountain Men will include some black people that make it through the season after the show's less than stellar record with that in its first season. There are a few, but ''none'' of the Mountain Men, even the little kids, survive the season.
*** After declaring the first two seasons the most fun he's ever had making videos for a show, he put Season 3 on his list of the next shows he'd do once it was over. Fans watching in real time proceeded to cringe as that season features several things he's harshly spoken out against before: awkward use of non-white characters as metaphors for racists, magical healing of physical disabilities, and even a near-exact repeat of how [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Willow and Tara]] ended up.
*** This gets worse when he actually starts watching, as he refers to Lexa's upcoming death as "the thing that broke the Internet," when the last time he used that phrase was in reference to Korrasami. Plus, Baize's joy to see another black character is quite bitter knowing the role Pike actually plays.
*** And just when it seemed this couldn't get any worse, the Orlando gay nightclub massacre happened just a few days before he saw Lexa's death.
** On Ellie and Joe from ''Series/{{Broadchurch}}'': "They have such a great relationship!"
** Creator/AntonYelchin died while Mark was still quite a bit away from seeing him as Chekov in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' reboot films, and also shortly after he'd given a rave review of Yelchin's film ''Film/GreenRoom''.
** One of his predictions for [[Literature/YoungWizards "The Wizard's Dilemma"]] comes devastatingly close to the actual plot and resolution. Usually this kind of thing would go under Hilarious In Hindsight, but this particular book is so legendarily heartbreaking that it has to be here instead.
** After he'd spoken against sexism in the sci-fi/fantasy realm so much, it was particularly devastating when Sunil Patel, a frequent and highly popular commentator and moderator since the site's beginning, was exposed as a serial sexual harasser in 2016 after several of his victims started talking to each other and realized they were all talking about the same person.
** After being introduced to fusions in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', he looked forward to the "super organization" of Pearl and Garnet's fusion, whose impact on the Crystal Gems is anything but organized.
** In his review of "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell]]" he added on a note nominating Janeway for President, a nod to Hillary Clinton who became the first female nominee for a major party that year. It was published on November 21st, almost two weeks after she lost.
** He watched a Patreon commissioned episode of ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' where Dr. Streiten appears in the PreviouslyOn ''very'' shortly after Creator/RonGlass' death. Naturally, this got a pretty big reaction.
** Nobby's crossdressing in ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'' naturally earned some stern discussion about how much he hates the whole concept of playing a guy in a dress for laughs. Meanwhile, anyone who'd seen ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' knew that he'd soon be getting to "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E23ProfitAndLace Profit and Lace]]", a notoriously offensive case of the trope.
*** When Bashir's attraction to Dax is brought up again in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E16ChangeOfHeart Change of Heart]]": "Where could this be going? Because she's super into Worf. I don't see that ending any time soon."
** After watching ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', he notes how huge Creator/TimAllen was in TheNineties and wonders what he's been doing lately. Allen had recently been in the news for an InsaneTrollLogic statement that being a conservative in Hollywood was like being a Jew in Nazi Germany, resulting in him being denounced by the Anne Frank Foundation.
** He read a chapter in ''Literature/YoungWizards'' mentioning a spell to protect against school shootings the very same week as the Parkland school massacre.
** Mark has commented numerous times during his reviews of ''Series/BabylonFive'' how disturbingly relevant the multi-season arc of Earth becoming controlled by a fascist, xenophobic, authoritarian government/dictatorship is, given the current political climate in 2018-2019.
** The latter half of ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'' features a ton of quite eerie parallels to the death of his former boyfriend Baize several months before he started the show.
* HeartwarmingInHindsight:
** In the final episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', he sadly notes that this will be the last time he sees Nurse Chapel, which is technically correct. ''Doctor'' Chapel, on the other hand...
** In Season 8 of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' he began getting very critical about the show queerbaiting with Dean and Benny, and wished he could see a show whose writing crew didn't chicken out like this. Shortly before, he'd announced he would soon be watching a show where that's just what happened: [[spoiler:''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'']].
** The first piece of ''Discworld'' he read after Creator/TerryPratchett's death was the section of ''Eric'' about how the universe is cyclical and endings are just new beginnings.
** While reading ''Literature/CircleOfMagic'', he notes a lot of [[HomoeroticSubtext subtext]] between [[spoiler:Lark and Rosethorn]], but he doesn't want to get his hopes up and be disappointed. The fans who've read a bit farther ahead and know [[spoiler:they're actually together]] are waiting eagerly for his reaction.
** His occasional complaints about the difficulty of finding good homosexual characters in fictional works were already good enough knowing what was waiting for him at the end of [[spoiler: ''The Legend of Korra''. Then just days after he first started picking up on the vibe between Korra and Asami, the US Supreme Court declared gay marriage legal across the entire country.]]
*** By season 4 of the show, he's shipping Korra/Asami, but his various comments on it are all in the vein of 'this is absolutely adorable, but there's no way it's gonna be canon'. When he sees that it ''does'', he ends up in tears.
** He instantly loves the depiction of autism in [[Literature/YoungWizards "A Wizard Alone,"]] and wonders just how much was in the original version of the book. In fact, many people had complained about the book being offensive ([[spoiler:it ends with Darryl's autism being depicted as an evil influence on his mind that he ends up "cured" of]]) and Diane Duane responded by educating herself far more about the condition and taking care to provide a better depiction in the New Millennium Edition.
** After the sudden death of Baize, the devastated Mark talked about how thankful he was to have so many videos in which Baize appeared, which can stand forever online as a monument to him.
* HilariousInHindsight: Many of the comments Mark makes during his reviews will be quite amusing to him upon later viewing, due to it inadvertently predicting or being ironic about something which will happen in the future of said book/show. Of course, to readers who know the work, it's funny in the present.
** From his first reading of ''[[Blog/MarkReadsHarryPotter Harry Potter]]'', his early comments in Philosopher's Stone about spiders and his readers' amusement about them became clear with the reveal of Aragog in the next book.
** Also during ''[[Blog/MarkReadsHarryPotter Harry Potter]]'', Mark frequently requested that certain characters he disliked "DIE IN ALL THE FIRES". This was quite funny in light of Crabbe's eventual fate.
** In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' review, Mark wonders whether Suzanne Collins will be able to kill off a character, especially children; he then read her kill off about half of her cast of characters in a single chapter.
** Another common wish for particularly vile characters is that the earth would open up and swallow them. This paid off with the fates of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter in ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials''.
** From his review of the last chapter of ''Literature/TheHobbit'': "Would you let me walk into a volcano if you knew a certain path led straight into it?" Even better, the review is actually a RealPersonFic of Tolkien reading the book to his son Christopher, so you can easily read it as how he got a certain idea.
*** Plus, Tolkien insisting there are no ghosts in Middle Earth.
** From his review of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' Book II chapter 8 -- and note that Mark read the books before watching the [=LotR=] films --
---> Actually...okay, I'm trying to think of a good example and I'm coming up empty, but have you ever seen [[EndingFatigue a movie that "ended" like fifteen times]]?
** From ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', [[http://markwatches.net/reviews/2012/03/mark-watches-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-s04e09-something-blue/ the time ]]he wrote an entire paragraph all about how Willow was straight but he still wanted to be big gay friends with her. For bonus irony, this all happened ''one episode'' before [[ClosetKey Tara]] was introduced.
---> ...I refuse to be judged for projecting my big ol' gay life all over you Willow. I don't even care that you're straight, you are my big ol' gay best friend and this is all I want from you...
*** "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E10Hush Hush]]" was the one episode whose title had been spoiled for him as one of the most popular episodes, so he posted the notes he took while watching it, preceded by an introduction written before he saw it, where he worried that there wouldn't be any interesting dialogue to make the approach worthwhile. One of those notes is "WHY DID I SAY THAT? I REGRET EVERYTHING I'VE EVER DONE."
*** In his review of "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS7E7ConversationsWithDeadPeople Conversations with Dead People]]" he told Andrew to give up, as the Scoobies would never let him join them.
** The epic Wendy Davis filibuster took place shortly before he reached "The Stackhouse Filibuster" in ''Series/TheWestWing''.
*** And then the government shuts down shortly before he got to that happening in the show.
*** "SANTOS FOR PRESIDENT, PLEASE."
** One that skirts the border between this and Harsher: One of his first comments about Alex Armstrong from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' was to note how he seemed to be an exaggerated version of Mark himself. And from all we've heard, the relationship between Mark and his sister is rather similar to Alex and Olivier's.
*** Noted himself in his previous remarks about [[spoiler:Selim]] in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' that were ''wildly'' off course.
*** And then he hopes Kimblee is eaten and doesn't come back. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome Yeah, about that...]]
** While watching the ''Series/VeronicaMars'' episode "You Think You Know Somebody", he notes that he's regretting saying so much nice stuff about Troy
*** His very first comment about Aaron Echolls: "Much nicer than his son."
*** He wrote that nothing could possibly make him like Lamb, just one episode before the one good, decent thing that Lamb does in the whole show.
*** Upon Woody Goodman's first appearance in the season 2 finale, he shouts "Blow up!"
** The very first thing he wrote about ''Literature/TheWestingGame'': "I feel like this is an elaborate prank."
*** Shortly after he started the book, "America the Beautiful" came back into popular consciousness thanks to Coca-Cola's Super Bowl ad.
*** And he read this book about a bunch of people snowbound in a hotel in the middle of one of the snowiest winters in recorded history.
** While reading ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'' he comes quite close to calling the Librarian a monkey, then does a LastSecondWordSwap to "orangutan." Fans of the series know this is exactly what a typical in-universe character would do.
*** Every time he wishes for Death to show up again, not having caught on yet that he appears in almost ''every'' book in the series.
*** He says of dwarfs during ''Literature/WyrdSisters'' " it seems like Pratchett isn’t doing much at all to explain why it’s bullshit that these characters stick so rigidly to gender norms."
*** On Dios from ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'': "Is he 70, 80? He seems a little older."
*** He runs into a bit of trouble with the title of "Guards! Guards!" in the video, having to specify that the title isn't literally "Guards Guards with Exclamation Points." This is the book that introduces Carrot, who has the exact same problem.
*** Halfway through "Guards! Guards!" he wonders if the Watch is ever going to get more people.
*** Around the time he finished "Guards! Guards!", a chapter from ''Circle of Magic'' got him to talk about how he was only able to buy his first pair of boots that very year, instantly bringing to mind the Samuel Vimes Boots Theory of Societal Unfairness.
*** Upon meeting Astfgl in ''Literature/{{Eric}}'', he's immediately reminded of Crowley from ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. The end of the book reveals that he's made Hell ''boring'', just like Crowley's "standing in line" idea.
*** In ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'' he pauses to discuss his confusion on how to pronounce the word "Duc," just like the witches themselves have later in the book.
*** In ''Hogfather'' he's quite proud of his attempt at reading the noise one of the boars makes, quite similar to Vimes' pride at his hippo noise in ''Thud!''.
** Early in the first episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', he predicts there's a ton of slash fic about it. This from the show whose fans ''invented'' the term.
*** About Gary Mitchell in "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E3WhereNoManHasGoneBefore Where No Man Has Gone Before]]": "He looks kind of like Creator/KarlUrban, doesn't he?"
*** From the same episode: [[Series/StarTrekVoyager "Is there coffee on the Enterprise?"]]
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E21TheReturnOfTheArchons The Return of the Archons]]", he theorizes that the only way to actually insult Spock would be [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan to call him human]].
*** His incredulous reaction to Creator/HarlanEllison's writing credit on "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E28TheCityOnTheEdgeOfForever The City on the Edge of Forever]]". Ellison himself would agree.
*** During ''that'' scene from "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E15TheTroubleWithTribbles The Trouble with Tribbles]]", [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations "Is someone back there chucking them at him?"]]
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E24TheUltimateComputer The Ultimate Computer]]", he wants to see [[Series/StarTrekVoyager something with dinosaurs]].
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E25BreadAndCircuses Bread and Circuses]]", "You know what I'd like to see? [[Film/StarTrek2009 The Academy]]."
*** When a mysterious figure transports aboard in "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E26AssignmentEarth Assignment: Earth]]", [[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain "It's Abraham Lincoln!"]]
** He watched the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode "The End," set five years in the future at the time it was made, just one month before that setting.
*** Early in the video for "Sacrifice," he notes that it's raining and says "That's my sadness falling from the sky."
** The last ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode he watched before a five week break for a tour was "Look at the Princess Part 2," of which he says he's glad he won't be leaving it on a cliffhanger. This story is actually the first instance of the show's fondness for ''three'' parters.
*** During the "Liars, Guns, and Money" trilogy he said he loves heist series, and would adore a show that was nothing but heists. A couple days later, he announced he would soon be watching ''Series/{{Leverage}}''.
*** Though the post didn't go up until the following week, he watched "Kansas" just two days before Halloween.
** Given his famous hatred of spoilers, it's quite fun to see him watching one be used as a major plot point in ''Series/InTheFlesh''.
** In ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' he gushes a bit over how attractive Jose sounds, a couple chapters before realizing he was Jacob in the original ''Twilight'' fic the book is based on.
** He watched the ''Leverage'' episode "The Ho Ho Ho Job," in which Parker is depressed over having a snowless Christmas, during a particularly cold and snowy winter. The video has quite a few comments about how everyone in Boston was currently the exact opposite of her.
*** From early in "The DB Cooper Job," "Please tell me Eliot is DB Cooper."
** He started Season 2 of ''The Legend of Korra'' at the same time he was reading ''Moving Pictures'', and didn't take long to note the similarities between Varrick and Dibbler in that book.
*** His comment on Korra and Asami in the Season 3 premiere (ie when the writers first starting seriously laying the groundwork for their romance): "I want these two together forever. FOREVER."
** One of his predictions for [[Literature/CircleOfMagic Cold Fire]] is Daja falling in love with a boy. Just wait til he gets to ''Will of the Empress''.
*** Early in the series he mispronounced Frostpine's name as "Frostporn." Then comes his nude meditation scene in "Cold Fire."
** Just a couple weeks before starting ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', he watched the ''Leverage'' episode "The Juror #6 Job" and noted that Brent Spiner looked strangely familiar.
*** The speculation posts usually have some of it, but the one for Season 3 of TNG deserves special mention for ''three'' separate items that together form a quite accurate description of "[[{{Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds}} The Best of Both Worlds]]"
*** He asks for an episode centered around O'Brien in one video, which naturally to fans brings up the annual "O'Brien must suffer" episodes from ''Deep Space Nine''.
*** The various delays in the double features resulted in him watching the Robin Hood episodes of TNG and ''Doctor Who'' only a week apart.
*** In the review of "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E6TheGame The Game]]", he says he's finally narrowed down what's really been bugging him about Wesley: that he never once faces consequences for his actions, even when they put the whole ship in danger. Wesley's very next appearance is devoted entirely to deconstructing this problem, which the writers had noted themselves.
*** Early in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E16StarshipMine Starship Mine]]", he wonders how ''Voyager'' will distinguish itself from the three previous shows. Then Tim Russ shows up, and he notes he looks very familiar in something of a follow-up to the bit with Brent Spiner above.
** He scheduled ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' to be watched in 2015, the then-twenty years in the future year the show is set.
** The double features contain [[Series/{{Kings}} two]] [[Series/Sense8 shows]] in a row that feature a character named Silas who's a brutal authority figure humanized by his love for his daughter.
** During the early episodes of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', he makes a few comments that Kira seems a bit too similar to Ro Laren, with no idea that she was intended to be Ro until Michelle Forbes refused to become a series regular.
*** Upon seeing Q appear, he immediately predicts Sisko's going to punch him in the face.
*** He mistakes the Odyssey for the Enterprise in its first appearance in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E26TheJemHadar The Jem'Hadar]]". Promos for the episode prominently displayed the ship's destruction, specifically to give the impression that the Enterprise had been destroyed.
*** He calls Bashir and Kira's kiss in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E10Fascination Fascination]]" "really sloppy," when Creator/AlexanderSiddig and Creator/NanaVisitor were a real couple.
*** He makes a RunningGag of demanding Morn get his own episode, little suspecting that actually did happen in Season 6.
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E06Rejoined Rejoined]]" he asks if Susanna Thompson could just become a new cast member. A bit later she got a recurring role as the Borg Queen on ''Voyager''.
*** After "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E23ToTheDeath To the Death]]", he regrets not being able to see more of Creator/JeffreyCombs as Weyoun after he's killed. Not only is it revealed after this that the Vorta are a clone race with plenty more Weyouns, but this development occured entirely because the crew loved what Combs did with the role so much that they wanted to see more of it.
*** During "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E08ThingsPast Things Past]]", just before ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'': "''Star Trek'' has been doing a lot of time travel lately. I don't think I can deal with another time travel episode." He'd go on to call ''First Contact'' his choice for the best film in the franchise.
*** Due to going far ahead of his schedule to make up for the time he'd be traveling in Europe, he went through the first half of Season 5 without any input from the fans, and took until "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E11TheDarknessAndTheLight The Darkness and the Light]]" to consider that the storyline of Kira carrying the O'Briens' baby was created because Nana Visitor was actually pregnant. The hindsight part comes from how this was actually her first episode back ''after'' the birth of her son, and she's wearing a fake belly in it.
*** He says while going into the second part of "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E14InPurgatorysShadow In Purgatory's Shadow]]"[=/=]"[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E15ByInfernosLight By Inferno's Light]]" "I hope this is not a ten parter." No, that's the last ten episodes of the show.
*** His constant seething hatred of Damar, prior to his development into a heroic resistance leader.
** In ''Series/AgentCarter'' he suddenly gets the desire to see Peggy and Angie make out. Just a few scenes later, Dottie kisses Peggy.
** He watched an episode of ''Series/{{The 100}}'' with a horror movie sequence scored with "Carol of the Bells" just a few days before Christmas.
** This gem of a line from early in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': "I’m wondering if the show will address the possible PTSD or trauma that Shinji or other pilots experience."
** His Twitter post just before watching the pilot of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': "GOODBYE I SHALL SEE YOU SOON."
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS2E7Partuition Partuition]]", he notes that he's now seeing a lot of what inspired Creator/RonaldDMoore's ''Battlestar Galactica'' reboot as he worked on both shows. This is doubly funny, as A. Moore's time on ''Voyager'' was very brief due to his getting fed up with how little any of the other writers seemed to care about making a quality show, and B. the most famous inspiration to ''BSG'' from ''Trek'' was Moore making sure nothing like the BadassDecay the Borg suffered on ''Voyager'' ever happened to the Cylons.
*** On B'Elanna and Vorik's pon farr fight in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E15BloodFever Blood Fever]]": "I feel a lot better about this than Tom and B'Elanna having sex. That seems terrible." Towards the end of the show, they get married and even have a kid.
*** After recognizing Creator/JeriRyan in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E25S4E1Scorpion Scorpion]]": "I didn't know she was a guest on this show!"
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E19FriendshipOne Friendship One]]", just one week before he started ''Enterprise'', he notes how little the franchise has explored the early years of Starfleet.
** While Felicity from ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' is still just Oliver's occasional LockedOutOfTheLoop tech support: "I want her to become a bigger character. She seems so interesting."
*** His first impression of Roy Harper: "A giant asshole."
*** As Oliver discusses not wanting to start a movement, with Mark still apparently unaware of the larger Series/{{Arrowverse}}: "Could you start a movement, so we could get multiple superheroes? Wouldn't that be cool?"
** In the first episode of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' he gives an awestruck "This show understands me!" to Steven's obsession with Cookie Cats, sounding very much like Peridot over her toy alien.
*** His initial idea on what the deal is with the Gems: "Whatever the gems are, they are clearly meant for saving the world."
*** Upon meeting Uncle Grandpa, "Is he everyone's gay uncle?" This is before Mark had any idea that his show existed, let alone its concept that he's the uncle and grandpa of everyone in the world.
*** Very shortly after he met Ruby and Sapphire, the latter's actress guest starred on ''Arrow'' (another show he's watching for Patreon requests) where she was on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle quite visually similar to to one Garnet gives Jasper in the same episode.
*** His first reaction to what's later revealed to be a corrupted Jasper is that it's cute and he wants one.
** Early in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' he says he'll be furious if Porthos dies. He survives the episode where he gets sick, but then in the 2009 film...
*** He reached Creator/SethMacFarlane's cameo shortly after the premiere of his ''Trek''-inspired series ''Series/TheOrville''.
** Back when he read through ''Literature/AmericanGods'', Mark commented that he now pictured Shadow as attractive since Creator/NeilGaiman said he imagined him as looking like Dwayne Johnson. Now there's a live action version of ''American Gods'', Shadow's played by Ricky Whittle, who Mark also raved about the attractiveness of throughout ''Series/{{The 100}}''.
** In the first episode of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', he immediately declares it's actually the Bad Place at seeing the clown paintings.
** After the pilot movie of ''Series/BabylonFive'', he says he figures Sinclair is staying around for a while. Crosses into Harsher when you consider ''why'' Michael O'Hare left the show.
*** With just one episode of Ivanova and Talia, he announces he's already shipping them. And then just casually says he wants to write some "AU" fics about them, clearly having no expectation at all that a show from the '90s could possibly make a lesbian relationship canon.
*** Early in Season 1 he wonders if the opening credits might change later, when the show is one of the first to completely overhaul its opening sequence in every season, or indeed change enough from season to season to warrant it.
*** He reached Bruce Boxleitner's entrance into the show in the very same week that he started appearing on ''Series/{{Supergirl|2015}}'' in a role bearing a striking resemblance to ''President Clark''.
** In ''Series/JaneTheVirgin'' he quickly starts shipping Jane and Petra, while saying he's absolutely certain it'll never happen. Well, not with ''that'' Jane, at least...
*** He reached the episode where Alba imagines a picture of Donald Trump changing to Barack Obama in the ''very same week'' that Trump was defeated by Obama's former Vice President Joe Biden.
* HoYay: It naturally comes up a lot, but reached particularly epic levels in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistBrotherhood'' with the meeting of the Armstrongs and Curtises. He declared Alex and Sig's flex-off "the gayest thing I've ever seen."
** Supplanted by the new "gayest thing ever" in the first episode of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'': the ''opening credits''.
** It naturally didn't take him long to pick up on the legendary epic levels of it in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.
** ''Steven Universe'' predictably provided a new gayest thing ever with the "Stronger Than You" sequence.
* MemeticMutation:
** ROSE LOVED DRUGS.
** I THINK HE'S FEELING JUST A LITTLE BIT DOWN.
** Did you know [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Zhao]] was voiced by Jason Issacs? Because he also played [[Film/HarryPotter Lucius Malfoy]]!
** He decided to write about ''Literature/ThePrincessBride'' as if the metafictional S. Morgenstern story was actually true. Inevitably, some people didn't get the joke, resulting in every single chapter getting comments telling him that it wasn't real.
** During ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', his inexplicable (even to himself) habit of calling the Endless "the Eternals."
** After branching into video games, he quickly picked up a new one with his references to [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} GLaDOS]] as "they."
** Did you know ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' feels so rushed because Tamora Pierce had to conform to maximum page limits of the time?
** Calling rear attacks in ''Franchise/DragonAge'' "butt stabbing."
** "I am not a villain created by Creator/{{Disney}}." Originally said by someone who got into an argument with Mark before being banned, and constantly parodied thereafter. From October 24 to Halloween, Mark and several long-term commenters changed their icons and usernames to those of Disney villains. Mark's was "Killer of WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'s Mom" and [[TheFaceless had no picture]].
** "Jet is a cop?" Referring to how he managed to miss and/or forget the several references to this in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' until Jet's past was explicitly part of the story.
** Mixing up "buffet" (a self-served meal, where the "t" is silent) and "buffet" (to hit something, where it's not).
** His complete inability to remember if the word "fief" is pronounced "feef" or "fife" (it's the first one).
** The proposed alternate title for ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': "Misty-Eyed Boy Talk."
** Commenter [=Psyched180=] popularized the nickname "Toast" for [[Series/VeronicaMars Duncan Kane]], referring to how bland he is.
** His incredulous reaction to a major character death in the season 2 finale of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': "He's on other boxes!" (referring to the DVD covers)
** Calling the four main characters of ''Circle of Magic'' "the Goats," which is now even noted as a FanNickname on its page here.
** His pronunciation of Captain Janeway's name as "Jane-a-way." Especially whenever he says "Janeway for president."
* NarmCharm: He naturally finds a ton of it in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. Perhaps best exemplified by his reaction to the hand puppet plant in the very first episode: "That's so obviously a hand, I love it!"
** It's out in full force during ''Film/TheTerminator'', where he revels in the film's various bits of '80s cheese.
* NauseaFuel: Before watching the ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'' episode "Tome-wan," he notes that he was warned not to eat anything before watching it. And he does indeed gag a bit during the scene in question.
* NeverLiveItDown: He managed to completely avoid meeting Leliana in his first time playing ''VideoGame/{{Dragon Age Origins}}''. Many commenters now love to bring up how awesome she is just to taunt him.
** Mentioned himself while reading ''Deep Secret'', where he mispronounces "rags" as...a certain word that rhymes with it.
** Also noted while asking about [[Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey Christian Grey]] "Does he collect sex people?"
** Taking the {{Big Bad}}'s attempt to foist suspicion onto Vetinari completely at face value in "Guards! Guards!", ''after'' passing the big clue that he was lying. This resulted in a quite serious discussion about how the fans could let him know if he still hadn't caught on by the end of the book so he wouldn't spend the rest of the series viewing Vetinari as a KarmaHoudini. Luckily, he did.
** During the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E5IsThereInTruthNoBeauty Is There in Truth No Beauty?]]" he's convinced through the first few minutes of the episode that the ambassador is the box shown. After they make it clear that he's IN the box, even Mark is able to laugh at his mistake.
** Filtering all the Welsh language jokes in "Soul Music" through his own background, so that he spent the first few sections convinced they were actually about Spanish.
** His persistent and entirely unintentional misgendering of Rem from ''Death Note'' thanks to some improperly done subtitles. After making a big deal about other people doing this for years, it's quite jarring to see him fall right into it himself.
** In an especially bizarre case given how he usually jumps on anything that can remotely be taken as HoYay, he saw Pearl's love for Rose in ''Steven Universe'' as nothing more than hero worship when it was introduced in "Rose's Scabbard." This naturally led to some jokes about just how much longer this famously homoerotic show would take to break through to him, including wondering if he'd misgender the tomboyish Ruby in her romance with Sapphire. Luckily, that reveal was where he caught on. From the same series, his tendency to use the pronoun "they" on the slightest case of AmbiguousGender really bites him in the ass, as it makes him come perilously close to the FandomEnragingMisconception of insisting that the Gems being an agendered race means there's no gay subtext between them.
** Similarly to the Pearl and Rose one, with his adoration of FeministFantasy the fans had a lot of fun, and hair-pulling frustration, with his apparent inability to comprehend that the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Time in ''Discworld'' is a woman.
* NightmareFuel:
** In his review of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E4Listen Listen]]", he tells an incredibly creepy story about how he was haunted by nighttime visions of a floating woman in a white dress in his childhood, and years later discovered his brother saw the woman too. They both still have no idea what it was.
** When reviewing the ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E5CriticalCare Critical Care]]", he shares a few stories of what it's like to live with minimal insurance. For one, he had to have his wisdom teeth removed with only a local anesthetic, and while it was numbed he could still feel it.
* PortmanteauCoupleName: Mark uses Katpee for Katniss/Peeta. The alternative was Peeniss.
** The ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' reviews brought out the Ahiru/Fakir shippers in force. You'd expect that they'd call themselves Team Fakiru, but thanks to the fact that Ahiru is called "Duck" (a literal translation of her name) in the dub, they called themselves Team Fuck instead.
* RonTheDeathEater: Some ''{{Series/Supernatural}}'' fans have taken serious issue with his regularly siding with Sam over Dean whenever they're at odds, including saying Dean was wrong to beat Sam up after Sam ''let him get turned into a vampire''. And then there's the time he called Dean the most likely to shoot someone, in a group that includes a guy who willingly fed his grandchildren to ghouls. And his completely letting Sam off the hook for not trying at all to save Dean and Kevin between seasons 7 and 8, and calling Dean a hypocrite for also leaving the life between seasons 5 and 6 in a ''completely'' different situation. For that last one he even argued in the comments with a few people over their interpretation, something that usually only happens when someone is being racist, sexist, or such. Then it gets just plain weird in "#Thinman" when he' unfazed by one of the Ghostfacers using the word "bitch," but when Dean shoots it back, ''that's'' when he scowls.
* SoBadItsGood: His opinion of the ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode, "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E8IRobotYouJane I Robot, You Jane]]": ''This is not the worst episode of Buffy. It's so awful that it loops around to becoming an abstract art piece about the archaic nature of human interaction. It's so awful that it's as if the people made it specifically to appear on Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000. It's so awful that...well, it's a waste of time and energy to spend one second hating it.''
** His opinion about ''Film/TheRoom2003''. Its especially good if you're surrounded by thirty drunk friends while watching it.
* SpoilAtYourOwnRisk: Mark's spoiler rules are very simple; if he's going to review it, and hasn't seen it yet, ''do not mention it''. His fury shall be hard and swift.
** Look at the number of comments on the Mockingjay chapters: They go down and down and down (or just say 'Can't talk or spoilers will fall out')... until the last two chapters, when people can finally talk [[KilledOffForReal about what happened]].
** This led to a new meme around the Mark Watches [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender Avatar]] posts: [[BigBrotherIsWatching THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN MARK SING SE]]
** Mark calls [[Series/DoctorWho River Song]] his soulmate because of their similar attitudes toward spoilers.
** It's now become general practice to write spoilery comments in rot13, as it's easy to just paste them into rot13.com and do it again if you want to read them.
** There's also a [[http://markspoils.blogspot.com/ Spoil Blog]] which acts as a "Place To Contain Yourself" if you want to discuss stuff. Also filled with lots of fan art and discussion related to the stuff Mark's reviewing.
** This came back to bite him big time when he was commissioned for a video on the ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' episode "Why We Fight," featuring a horrifically realistic look at a concentration camp, with the person making the request afraid to give him any kind of warning thanks to how strict his spoiler policy is.
** Particularly weird was when an episode of ''{{Series/Supernatural}}'' spoiled him for the plot of ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''. He took it pretty calmly, actually, and was mostly just amused at how he had no idea how time travel and whales go together.
** Apparently, at a con somebody maliciously tried to spoil him for the fact that ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' ends with Korra and Asami as the OfficialCouple. The entire room started throwing objects at the person in question, forcing them to shut up.
** During a ''Discworld'' convention, he met a fan cosplaying as a clacks tower, when he hadn't yet reached their creation in the series. After talking a while, he described her as suddenly getting a horrified expression, shouting "I'm wearing a spoiler!" and running away. Of course, he couldn't really understand the specifics himself and it was left to another commenter who was there to explain it to everyone else.
* TearJerker: During one of his ''Series/VeronicaMars'' recaps, Mark told the readers about the times when he was raped. It's sickening, horrifying and incredibly sad.
** In the same combination, any time he brings up being abused as a child.
** As a straight-up TearJerker, the impromptu memorials for Creator/LeonardNimoy and Creator/TerryPratchett in the comments sections of "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E5WhereNoOneHasGoneBefore Where No One Has Gone Before]]" and "Eric Part 3". Terry Pratchett even got a new site banner.
** His written review of "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E23Sarek Sarek]]", where he compares Sarek's aging to his own experience with his father's death. It's pure heartbreak.
** The reveal in 2016 that Sunil Patel, a moderator on the sites and frequent commentator known as "Spectralbovine," had a long history of harassing and gaslighting women. Mark and many fans were suddenly hit with some major FridgeHorror as at the same time that he'd frequently viciously spoken out against this kind of stuff, they were all friendly with this guy for ''years'' without having any idea of his darker side.
** The absolutely shocking passing of Mark's former boyfriend Baize at age 28. He was actually driven to go on an indefinite hiatus from all his online work, when he'd been able to push through several bouts of depression before.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** Largely his view of ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'', that a promising story is shackled by world-building that makes no sense and a generic evil villain who it's impossible to care about. He does find that book 2 improved on this, though at the same time very much turned him off with the world record of BuryYourGays.
** Rather surprisingly, he also kind of feels this way about ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'', finding that he identifies quite well with Anastasia's insecurity about her appearance and her comparatively late in life first romance, and wishes that got more focus than the creepy S&M stuff. Plus, with just a few minor changes it could be a quite effective horror story.
* ValuesDissonance:
** He first ran into it with ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' and its central romantic plot which is quite cringe-worthy today. His reaction actually got the author to seriously reevaluate the story, and admit that she now very much would like to go back and change it. ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' is also naturally a target with its infamous '60s view of women, with his coming down especially hard on "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E5TheEnemyWithin The Enemy Within]]", "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E2WhoMournsForAdonais Who Mourns for Adonais?]]", "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E9Metamorphosis Metamorphosis]]" and "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E13ElaanOfTroyius Elaan of Troyius]]".
** One that he was especially fascinated by (not least because of his own childhood experience) was coming across the word "sissy" in ''Discworld'', and discovering that while the word still has the same meaning in England, it's considered on the level of a harmless playground insult rather than the offensive slur it is in America.
** ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' lets everyone dig a lot into the differing views of transgender issues in Japan and some other countries, including that the Japanese language lacks gender-specific pronouns, meaning that it's completely up to other countries' translation teams how to handle that in the script.
* ValuesResonance: He finds the episode "M.I.A." from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' surprisingly relevant even though it was aired twenty years ago and set in Britain rather than America, explicitly showing skinheads racially abusing a non-white person in the name of "purity" and showing the use of force to defend yourself or another person as heroic.
* TheWoobie: He'll occasionally go off on a tangent about his early life if a scene in something he's reviewing hits close to home. From all evidence, his first 20 years or so were ridiculously depressing.
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