Characters / Markiplier Major Characters

Markiplier Main Character Index
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Darkiplier

Appears in: Don't blink, Don't move, relax, A Date With Markiplier, Don't Play This Game, Markiplier TV, DARKIPLIER vs ANTISEPTICEYE (non-canon), Who Killed Markiplier?, A Heist With Markiplier, In Space With Markiplier

"I've been waiting a long. Time. To get some... personal time... between us."

An evil counterpart of Markiplier. Often pops up in fan games as antagonist, whether he's the Big Bad or a distraction. There have been many different interpretations of Darkiplier, by the fandom, and Mark himself.

It was revealed in "Who Killed Markiplier?" that Darkiplier was created by the souls of two people (a seer named Celine and a mayor named Damien who resembled Mark) being merged by an evil force that resided in Markiplier Manor.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: What he's supposed to be in "A Date With Markiplier”, with him being creepily controlling towards the audience. However, due to Draco in Leather Pants...
• Ambiguous Gender: While he's referred to by male pronouns and has an unmistakably male body, his nature as a fusion of a male soul and a female soul puts his actual gender in a somewhat gray area.
• Ambiguously Bi: Although not confirmed if he actually has feelings for the viewer or not, it's strongly believed to be the case. (The viewer is gender-neutral.)
• The Bad Guy Wins: In the "Chocolate" ending of "A Date With Markiplier", which is achieved by the audience choosing to kill the real Mark, and thus Dark takes his place at the table.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: This Humanoid Abomination is consistently portrayed as wearing formal attire as of "A Date With Markiplier", and serves as a legitimate threat.
• Baddie Flattery: He's apparently a fan of Mark himself.
• Big Bad: Possibly of Mark's channel as a whole. His apparent goal is to conduct a Hostile Show Takeover along with a Big Bad Ensemble of Googleplier and Wilford Warfstache in “Markiplier TV”, having gathered the other egos together in a brainstorming session.
• Character Tic: Cracking his neck by tilting it sideways to the left. It gains greater meaning with the reveal that his host body died as a result of falling over a railing and breaking their neck.
• Came Back Wrong: Damien is a good-hearted man and while Celine is a bit more careless of others, she isn't a bad person. However, due to the corruption from the house entity, they came back to the world of the living as an evil amalgamation made up from the worst parts of themselves.
• Casts No Shadow: He doesn't have a shadow. It's not easy to notice if you don't know to look for it, but this is one of the ways to tell which Mark is real in Dark's "A Date With Markiplier" appearance. Maybe because he's supposed to be the shadow of Mark himself.
• Clap Your Hands If You Believe: If Mark's Tumblr post is to be believed. Just let that sink in.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Subjects Mark to this in "relax" where he shoves marshmallows, cinnamon and jalapenos into Mark's mouth.
• Cold Ham/Large Ham: He shifts between the two. Depending on which is more disturbing in the given situation.
• Control Freak: He shows hints of this in "A Date With Markiplier", where he gives the audience the illusion of choice: when picking the next part of the story, he proceeds to give them only one real path (all the other ones are links to videos he’s been featured in) despite telling them earlier that he could give them anything they wanted. He also traps the audience in a loop in the “EXIT” ending when they try to escape the chef’s dungeon with Mark.
• Costume Evolution: Throughout the course of time between his first and latest appearance, Darkiplier has gone through three looks; He started off looking more or less like Markiplier, just with a black and white filter placed on top of him and a staticy voice, then he went on to have his own suit and tie complete with Excessive Evil Eyeshadow, and in his latest appearance he took on a brighter suit and removed the eyeshadow entirely.
• Dark Is Evil: Pun aside, darkness tends to accompany Darkiplier whenever he shows up. This is especially evident in "A Date With Markiplier".
• Deal with the Devil: In “A Date With Markiplier”, he wants the audience to “let him in” so they can get whatever they want from him. It’s not particularly clear what “letting him in” entails- it could be in a romantic sense or a demonic possession sense or both- but either way he wants something from us in order for us to have whatever we want.
  • If he was telling the truth when he said that Mark promised to let him in again - which, considering his manipulative nature, is hard to tell whether he was being truthful or not, then it seems as though Mark has also made some sort of deal with Dark.
  • In "Who Killed Markiplier?", when Damien's soul asks permission from the District Attorney, his "let me in" turns out to be Demonic Possession due to the influence of evil force of Markiplier Manor.
• Depraved Bisexual: Implied in "A Date With Markiplier", considering the audience whom he romances could be of any gender.
• Death Glare: Capable of imposing a very menacing one, most notably to the District Attorney at the end of ''Who Killed Markiplier''◊
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Claims this is one of his motives in "A Date With Markiplier".
• Eldritch Location: He can apparently drag people into a darker realm parallel to this one.
• Evil Counterpart:
  • To Mark. Word of God states that Darkiplier is the complete opposite of himself. Mark has a genuine desire to get to know his fans more, Darkiplier's that but twisted into something wrong.invoked
  • Downplayed example to Wilford Warfstache. Both of them are evil, but Wilford is more laughable whereas for Darkiplier, all comedic moments cease when he's on screen.
• Evil Plan: Apparently, he and Wilford Warfstache plan on doing a Hostile Show Takeover, if "Markiplier TV" is anything to go off of.
• Evil Sounds Deep: His voice is noticeably deeper than Mark's.
• Evil Versus Evil: He and AntiSepticEye have obvious beef with each other. Played for Laughs in “DARKIPLIER vs ANTISEPTICEYE” when the dark egos of other YouTubers butt into their fight.
• Expy: Word of God states that the character of Darkiplier is inspired by G-Man. They share certain traits such as being an creepy Manipulative Bastard Reality Warper who dresses in a nice suit.invoked
• Face–Monster Turn: It was revealed that Darkiplier is the amalgamation of a mayor named Damien and Markiplier's ex-wife, Celine. While neither of them were necessarily morally upstanding people, they were by no means bad until The Dark Entity merged with Damien and Celine.
• Fallen Hero: Damien was a kind and well-meaning mayor until the dark forces of Markiplier Manor merged him and Celine's souls together, corrupting the two and worsening Damien's newfound hatred for Markiplier due to the latter stealing his body and therefore betraying him and Celine - turning their merged soul into a bitter, vengeful and malevolent force.
• Faux Affably Evil: Right in his first appearance, he tells the viewers "Welcome to Raspy Hill". You know, the place with murderous mannequins.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Word of God states Darkiplier isn't a character that he plays...invoked
• "Groundhog Day" Loop:
  • He puts Mark and the audience through this in "A Date With Markiplier" if they decide to escape the prison, ensuring that he will never leave.
  • In "A Heist With Markiplier" he implies the audience is/has been going through one for a very long time, even referencing the fact that this isn't the first time they've met him and possibly not even the first time they've heard him say these exact words. He then gives the audience a cryptic hint about codes he claims to have hidden in the heist and proceeds to send the audience back to the museum's entrance, seemingly before the whole thing even started.
• Hugh Mann: Dark isn't human, but something that looks like a human. But his disguise isn't well put together, as seen by him randomly glitching in the videos.
• Humanoid Abomination: Word of God confirms in a livestream that he isn't human despite looking like one, comes from another dimension entirely, and doesn't obey the laws of physics. Explicitly this in "A Date With Markiplier", though he's had a few eldritch traits prior to the video.invoked
• Hostile Show Take Over: Sometimes he'll abruptly take over a video and have it go south. One could suspect they've been running the channel since Raspy Hill...
• Karma Houdini: Played for Drama, unlike Wilford Warfstache. He usually gets away with doing horrible things to Mark, such as attempting to drown or poison him. Averted in “A Date With Markiplier” in the "Vanilla" ending, where the audience manages to shoot him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Things go south whenever he's on screen.
• Laughably Evil: There was a time where Mark didn't take Darkiplier seriously, which led to some silly canon depictions of him like in “relax”, where he’s wearing heavy black eyeshadow and explicitly Ax-Crazy. As of "A Date With Markiplier", this has been averted, with Dark being shown as deadly serious and (mostly) calm even while interacting with sillier entities like Wilford Warfstache.
• Leitmotif: White noise plays anytime he's on screen.
  • This plays during the ending scene of “Who Killed Markiplier” during his creation.
• Love Makes You Evil: In "A Date With Markiplier" towards the audience. Inverted in that he's already evil, he just happened to have fallen in love.
• Made of Good: Played with, and ultimately subverted. The house entity from “Who Killed Markiplier?” operates by taking bad thoughts, actions, and/or feelings and manipulating whoever stays in the house into believing that those bad things are actually good. Celine and Damien were good people, but the entity’s influence corrupted and manipulated them. When they were in the other world with the District Attorney, they honestly thought they were doing the right thing by sending the District Attorney back and occupying their body. But once they were in the District Attorney’s body, all the goodness was stripped away and only the worst parts of Celine and Damien remained, which is why the District Attorney was pushed out of their body.

  Mark: Whatever good intentions went into this amalgamation were washed away when only the worst sides of either coin would fit into the slot. The Damien and Celine you know are gone. And when all the light has gone away, all that’s left is Dark. You weren’t pushed out to be saved.

• Manipulative Bastard: Shown in “A Date With Markiplier”. He says that he can give the audience whatever we want, but then makes it very clear that he a) wants to control all the decisions we make, and b) intend to keep us around forever regardless of whether we want to or not. He tell the audience that he'll give us more choices than Mark ever could, but then proceeds to only give us one real choice. When both Mark and Dark try to convince us to shoot the other, Dark’s comments are much more persuasive than Mark’s (compare “they do bad things to good people” to “their eyes are weird”). And if you shoot Mark, Dark pretends to be concerned about your emotional welfare before revealing his true nature.
• Mask of Sanity: Word of God states every time he suddenly starts screaming and getting angry is a sign of his Dissonant Serenity shell cracking.invoked
• Master of Illusion: Implied several times that his Reality Warping powers are almost nothing but illusions, what with his being a living Ominous Visual Glitch, and how his "reality warping" skills have managed to dissolve via outside influence, such as how Markiplier tackled Darkiplier, turning the monochromatic-area around him back to normal.
• Merger of Souls: The final chapter of "Who Killed Markiplier" reveals that he's the result of Celine and Damien (who resembles Mark) merging their souls while being corrupted by the Manor when entering the District Attorney’s body. Darkiplier then stole the body of the District Attorney by pushing their soul out of their body. The District Attorney’s body was subsequently transformed altogether into the Humanoid Abomination Darkiplier, whose physical appearance therefore looks like Damien.

  Mark: The being inhabiting your body at that point is no longer purely Damien nor purely Celine . . . two fractured halves of a picture that was stuffed into a broken frame they were never meant for . . . only the worst sides of either coin would fit into the slot. The Damien and Celine you know are gone. And when all the light has gone away, all that’s left is Dark.

• Misplaced Retribution: Focuses all of his rage at Markiplier the youtuber when Actor!Mark, who is a completely different person, is the one who betrayed him. Although the situation is ambiguous - is youtuber!Mark related to Actor!Mark somehow? Is he a version of Actor!Mark from another dimension that Dark is targeting because he can't get to Actor!Mark right now? Is the Mark we interact with in in series like "A Date With Markiplier" and "A Heist With Markiplier" normal youtuber!Mark, or Actor!Mark taking on different "roles"?
• Motive Rant: Featured in "A Date With Markiplier".

  Did you miss me? I missed you...very much. I've been waiting a long time to see you again. I've been pushed aside...replaced...mocked...and then he had the gall to not invite me to his little adventure with you. No more. Never again. It's my turn now. I've been waiting patiently. HE PROMISED HE WOULD LET ME IN AGAIN! I'm tired of giving people a choice.

• Oh, Crap!: Has a minor one when Mark pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment in "A Date With Markiplier".

  Darkiplier: You're never going to escape me. Not now. Not- -Mark tackles him- What the hell?! Where did you come from?!

• Psychotic Smirk/Kubrick Stare: Pulls one in his debut video, where he grins creepily at the camera without saying anything.
• Real After All: The idea of Darkiplier was made popular with the fans, and it was ambiguous for years if he actually existed in canon outside of vague references. 2017's "A Date With Markiplier" finally established that he was all too real.
• Reality Warper: Confirmed by Mark himself. Darkiplier is shown to teleport and drag others into his shadowy dimension (so far).
• Really 700 Years Old: Darkiplier was created sometime in the 1920s, when Who Killed Markiplier? takes place. That means that Dark is almost 100 years old, despite looking 29.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: The Dark Entity inhabiting Markiplier Manor was originally restricted to that location, until it possessed Celine's body and trapped both her and Damien’s souls in Markiplier's body in a dark dimension (nicknamed the "Upside Down" by Markiplier). Therefore, influenced by the evil of the Upside Down, the worst sides of her and Damien's souls were merged together when they entered the District Attorney's body, creating Darkiplier, who can teleport and drag others into the Upside Down. Darkiplier then stole the District Attorney's body by pushing their soul out and trapping them in the house. It is unclear if Darkiplier is made of Damien and Celine along with the original Entity or simply an extension of it, but he is now free to roam around as he pleases, eager to get revenge on Markiplier.invoked
• Split-Personality Merge: Darkiplier consists of the worst parts of Damien and Celine (alongside Markiplier Manor's evil presence), and it certainly shows. Namely, his cold Manipulative Bastard tendencies and calm demeanor come from Damien, while his spiteful rage and hatred for Mark are characteristic of Celine.
• Stepford Smiler: He puts on an air of calmness, but in fact has deep-seated rage stemming from Damien’s anger from Markiplier’s betrayal and Celine’s pre-existing temper within him. In "A Date With Markiplier" and "A Heist With Markiplier", this is shown through various glitches/cuts between him speaking normally and screaming.
• Villainous Breakdown: During his Motive Rant in "A Date With Markiplier”, it's evident that he's starting to lose it.

  I've been waiting patiently. HE PROMISED HE WOULD LET ME IN AGAIN!

  I. CAN GIVE YOU. ANYTHING!

  THERE IS NOTHING YOU OR HE CAN DO TO STOP ME!

  -Enraged screaming-

  • Played for Laughs in DARKIPLIER vs ANTISEPTICEYE, when he gets fed up with everyone butting into his and AntiSepticEye's argument.
  Darkiplier: Shut up! Just shut up! No one cares!
• Villainous Friendship: He possibly has one with Wilford Warfstache and Google. Especially the former, since the Colonel was friends with Damien and Celine, before their transformation into Darkiplier.
• Villain Respect: Word of God states the reason Darkiplier looks exactly like Markiplier is that he respects what Youtuber!Markiplier has accomplished and is seeking to emulate him so that he can manipulate people.invoked Who Killed Markiplier later reveals that his soul is partially made up from the remains of Damien, a man who happens to resemble Mark very much, further justifying his appearance looking like his Arch-Enemy.
• Villain Teleportation:
  • Utilized this twice in "A Date With Markiplier". Once to teleport inside Mark’s house and the other to transport the audience from his dark realm to the outside of the theater.
  • In Ending 31 in "A Heist With Markiplier" he uses it quite excessively, changing position multiple times while talking to the audience and to throw them out of his dark dimension and back to the beginning.
• Voice of the Legion: Starting from "A Date With Markiplier", his voice has a distinct reverb distortion to it.
• Was Once a Man: And a woman. "Who Killed Markiplier" reveals that Darkiplier is the result of two mortal people- a man named Damien and a woman named Celine -merging with a dark entity haunting Markiplier Manor, turning them into something far more monstrous.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Apparently, bullets can kill him. So much for being a reality warping Humanoid Abomination. Though considering that we can still see distortion when we choose Mark over him, it's very much possible that Darkiplier is still alive. This still counts as a Weaksauce Weakness however, due to the fact that an eldritch abomination was seemingly beaten into submission by a gun.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He as Damien went through a Trauma Conga Line after the death of his best friend, upon realizing his friends death was a Thanatos Gambit designed to put him and Celine through a Fate Worse than Death.
• Yandere: A possible romantic example towards the audience in "A Date With Markiplier".
• Your Heart's Desire: He invokes this in "A Date With Markiplier" to the audience, in an attempt to convince them that he's a better date than Mark.
  “I CAN GIVE YOU ANYTHING"

Wilford Warfstache

Appears in: The Fall of Slenderman, The Warfstache Affair, Warfstache Plays: Slender, The Ned Affair, Five Nights at Freddy’s: The Interview, Warfstache Interviews Markiplier, A Date With Markiplier, Markiplier TV, Who Killed Markiplier?, Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache, A Heist With Markiplier, In Space With Markiplier

WARFSTACHE DON'T TAKE NO SHIT FROM NOBODY

Click ^here  to see him as Colonel William J. Barnum.

Click ^here  to see him in "Wilford 'MOTHERLOVIN'' Warfstache".

He is currently a senior reporter for AFC News. He quickly became a rising star for his hard-hitting journalism after he interviewed Slender Man, and went on to interview Phone Guy, and Markiplier himself. While he was a senior reporter, he went on to host his own show Warfstache Tonight! which would later become a talk show. He also pitched an idea for "Markiplier TV" (in which he hosted the game show Disc of Riches in place of Bim Trimmer), but was turned down.

“Who Killed' Markiplier” reveals his backstory: he is a former Colonel whose real name was William J. Barnum, until he tragically suffered a complete mental breakdown that led to him eventually changing his identity. After this event, he traveled across the world using many pseudonyms while hunted by Abe the Detective, and encountered him during what seems to be the 70's while under the name "Wilford Motherloving Warfstache". It is unclear how much later Wilford became a journalist.

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• Accidental Murder: When he was the Colonel, he shot the District Attorney while trying to grab his gun from them. He also supposedly shot Mark during a game of Russian Roulette, though that was purposely set up to kill.
• Alliterative Name: WilfordWarfstache. Subverted, since that’s not his real name.
• Ambiguously Human: From his pink mustache to his "humble abode" which consists of a bizarre, psychedelic-looking pink-and-white vortex of clocks - Warfstache is definitely no normal person.
  • Even back when he was Col. Barnum, he seemed to have otherworldly abilities, though they were apparently limited to just teleportation and quick-change acts. IRL Mark also explained that in "Who Killed Markiplier?", Markiplier's plan to hijack the Colonel's body was not going to work, so the Manor manipulated him to hijack Damien and Celine's bodies instead.
• Ambiguously Pan: He’s been in relationships with women before, but a lot of his interactions with Abe in "Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache" have some Ship Tease, including Wilford, confused by a metaphor, asking Abe if they dated at some point. He’s also often framed with colors of the pansexual flag behind him.
• Berserk Button: Wilford loses his temper twice in Five Nights At Freddy's: The Interview whenever "Phone Guy" dicks around and repeats the word "hello?".
  • The first time:
    Phone Guy: (after a long pause) Hellooo??
    Warfstache: MOTHERFU--!
    (cue a "please stand by" screen)
  • The second time:
    (after the studio lights are mysteriously cut out)
    Warfstache: Oh, what the bloody hell now?!
    (eerie creaking sounds are heard in the distance. Wilford sits there uneasily in silence)
    Phone Guy: Hello?
    Warfstache: SHUT THE FUCK UP, MOTHERFUCKER!!
• Backstory Horror: His murder sprees and serial adultery were Played for Laughs for a long time, until the events of "Who Killed Markiplier, where it's revealed that his zaniness is due to rather traumatic events in a haunted house that had to do with the loss of his friends and the Accidental Murder of the District Attorney (by his hands), though it isn't the fact that he killed the District Attorney that sends him off the deep end. It's the fact that they get back up. His serial adultery might stem from the fact that he, back when he was William, ran off with Mark's wife.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's clearly not right in the head and thinks murder is just a big joke.
• Color Motif: He's heavily associated with the color pink
• Composite Character: Word of God states that he takes inspiration from Hunter Van Pelt and Colonel Mustard when he was the Colonel.invoked
• Dastardly Whiplash: An odd variant of this, considering he wears pink and lively clothes and he has a pink mustache.
• Death Is Cheap: Believes this as a result of witnessing the District Attorney come back to life. It's why he has generally no problems randomly killing people, because he doesn't think it'll be permanent.
• Decoy Protagonist: In Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstace. Sure, he's the title character, but the video focuses on Abe and his realization of the world that's the main focus.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He scares Slender Man away when he tries to kill him, screaming at him "WARFSTACHE DON'T TAKE NO SHIT FROM NOBODY". Justified in that Wilford is an equally powerful (if not even more powerful) Reality Warper.
• Fallen Hero: As revealed in “Who Killed Markiplier?”, he used to be an eccentric but somewhat sane person until all of his friends were killed and their bodies went missing, before finally witnessing the dead body of one of his friends, the District Attorney whom he accidentally murdered, coming back to life. This resulted in the trauma shattering his mind and leading him to no longer taking death seriously.
  • While he was briefly a junior reporter, he took his job seriously by trying to find out the truth about Slenderman. However, he later got distracted from his job by killing people.
• Family of Choice: As a child, he was raised with Markiplier in the Manor and they were as close as brothers. Subverted when they had a falling out over William having an affair with Markiplier’s wife Celine, causing both of them to develop bitter feelings towards each other.
• Former Friends Photo: Shares one with Damien and Markiplier to further show their past relationship as childhood friends. A second photo showing the addition of Celine together with Markiplier notes her role in the timeline and progression of relationships
• Freak Out: He suffers through this in "Who Killed Markiplier", triggering his insanity that led him to take on the identity of Wilford Warfstache.
  William: I-I thought you were dead... I-I-I mean, of course you're not dead! You're not — How could you be dead? I mean, I-I wouldn't have killed you... I didn't kill you! I mean, of cour — I-I...Of course! I didn't kill anybody! (through laughing) I didn't- It was all a joke! Of course, it was all a joke! Were you in on this?!
• Go Mad from the Revelation: He goes insane after witnessing the resurrective powers of Markiplier Manor firsthand, interpreting it as all of his friends playing a cruel joke on him, causing him to believe that all deaths are jokes as well.
• Identity Amnesia: As "Who Killed Markiplier" reveals, Wilford used to be William Barnum before being driven insane by witnessing the DA resurrected in front of him, even though he'd kept careful watch over them for ten hours. His previous Trauma Conga Line, losing his former friend Mark, his best friend Damien, his past lover Celine, and accidentally murdering both the Detective and DA coupled with his mental break when they come back to life caused him to adopt the identity of "Wilford Warfstache". This is quite possibly Played for Drama when certain phrases or hints pop up related to his past, hinting there are some parts of William that carried over.
• I Didn't Mean to Kill Him: Wilford says this in “The Ned Affair” after instinctively shooting Ned. He first uses this phrase when he killed the District Attorney, which was indeed an Accidental Murder.

  It was an accident! I swear!

• Karma Houdini: He is wanted for murder after he was caught having an affair, and murdered an entire family, and murdered Markiplier with seemingly no repercussions. He still has his talk show and is able to become a game show host for “Disc of Riches”. Justified in that he's a Reality Warper, so who can really stop him?
• Ladies and Germs: “... and other configurations of being”. Justified since he’s an Ambiguously Human Reality Warper.
• Laughably Evil: Explicitly this when he kills Markiplier on his TV show.
• Laughing Mad: Breaks down and starts laughing when the District Attorney comes back to life in the final chapter of Who Killed Markiplier?. He thinks he's been duped, and thus laughs at the cruel prank he thinks his friends played.
• Lethal Joke Character: An absolute nut though he may be, it's implied that his Reality Warper abilities are actually stronger than Darkiplier's, as he can cause the rules of reality to just disappear outright without having to manifest a separate dimension like Darkiplier does. What seems to keep him from fully manifesting these abilities towards any actual purpose is his fractured psyche convincing him that life in general has no meaning and therefore no goal to even achieve.
• Loon with a Heart of Gold: When he was the Colonel, he was repeatedly stated and shown to be an eccentric, and he could be brash, but ultimately devoted to and loves his friends. Contrast him with the other characters in “Who Killed Markiplier” aside from Damien, and he's one of the genuinely kindest characters to the protagonist. And though he does shoot the District Attorney, it was an accident and he regrets it. The trope is lampshaded by both Celine and Damien.
  Damien: The Colonel is an eccentric, it's his best quality and his worst.
  Celine: (After the Colonel shoots the District Attorney): You can't blame him, honestly he's a good man.
• Lunatic Loophole: An essential part of his origin story, and arguably what made him who he is. As Col. William he got caught up in Markiplier's supposed murder and the chaos that followed. Other than Markiplier and possibly the Detective he is the only survivor, (and the only one that never died in the first place) however the events drove him insane. Though he didn't leave unharmed, he did get to live on and have his own adventures as the lunatic he now is. He also survived his own manhunt in "The Warfstache Affair" and "The Ned Affair" mostly by accident, and presumably escaped Freddy in "Five Nights At Freddy's: The Interview" simply by being crazy enough. Though slightly downplayed, because he's also a Reality Warper, but there's no doubting he's insane enough to find his way out of sticky situations anyway.
• Meaningful Name: His original name, 'William', means 'stalwart protector'. Deep, deep Irony.
• Murder Makes You Crazy: Interestingly subverted. Killing the District Attorney and Markiplier isn't what drove the Colonel insane, it was seeing the DA’s dead body come back to life, since it simply defies reality.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Markiplier's original plan was to hijack Colonel's body, but the Manor knew it was impossible, so it manipulated Mark to hijack Damien and Celine's bodies instead.
• No Name Given: In “Who Killed Markiplier?”, he is only referred to as "the Colonel." Word of God and bonus material reveals his name is William.invoked
  • Averted in Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache, his full name is revealed as William J. Barnum.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He might be silly and act stupid, but Wilford Warfstache has killed many people.
• Obliviously Evil: He doesn't seem to understand why people keep dying around him.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Heavily implied to have this ability, with his suddenly appearing in various rooms when the District Attorney is distracted or examining a picture. He's not the only one to do this, but is definitely the most prominent out of the cast, with Word of God supporting this idea. Furthermore the ability likely stems from the supernatural nature of Markiplier Manor.invoked
  • Played straight in Wilford 'MOTHERLOVIN'' Warfstache, where it's utilized to escape the chair Abe tied him to, even when Abe is staring directly at him.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Possibly intentional. To begin with, (most notably when he used to be Col. William Barnum), Wilford spoke with a distinct, upper-class English accent. Since then, his accent has changed to a slurred, yet aristocratic-sounding American accent. This is most likely due to his Sanity Slippage.
• Pre-Insanity Reveal: Who Killed Markiplier?, chapter 4 especially, serves as one for him.
• Reality Warper: As seen in "A Date With Markiplier", he can shift reality to his whim. He may be even more powerful than Darkiplier himself, considering Dark can only drag you into his world, and Wilford can make his world suddenly appear.
  • In In Space with Markiplier Part 2, he is able to control the portals to other realities and even dispels one of two choices in a portal he himself summons.
• Really 700 Years Old: Warfstache was created in 1928, when Who Killed Markiplier? takes place. If we take Mark's age into account, William Barnum was born sometime in the year 1900. That means that he is nearly 120 years old, despite looking 29.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He has pink hair and wears pink suspenders
• Reluctant Psycho: Downplayed, since it’s difficult to understand exactly what’s going on in Wilford’s head, but the narration in the Bubbles! section of "Markiplier TV" seems to imply that Wilford doesn’t kill people because he’s bloodthirsty. It would seem that he tends to believe the murders he commits are outside of his control/just a misunderstanding... until reality or his conscience periodically catches up with him. This theory is confirmed following the events of "Who Killed Markiplier?".
  Narrator: Are you constantly haunted by the ghosts of everyone you killed, and maybe you think it was you that was the problem, and maybe it wasn’t just a misunderstanding where you were trying to tickle them with a knife?
• Removed from the Picture: In "Who Killed Markiplier?", Markiplier breaks his framed photo of the Colonel after he runs away with his wife.
• Russian Roulette: He’s shown playing the game during the party with the Detective in '’Who Killed Markiplier?’’. He also played another game with Markiplier, causing the latter's (planned) death.
• Sanity Slippage: Suffers one at the end of “Who Killed Markiplier” after seeing the District Attorney’s dead body, which he's been mourning for ten hours suddenly stand up. He's so messed up over it that he thinks his friends' deaths are all a joke. Thus, all deaths are just jokes. Word of God confirmed this to be the origin story of Wilford Warfstache.invoked

  Mark: (The Colonel) was standing over your body the entire night mourning his actions. That doesn't mean madness. Madness comes from seeing this body you've been staring at for ten hours suddenly just... get back up.

• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Defied in Who Killed Markiplier?. He adamantly refuses to leave the manor even when it becomes obvious something supernatural is going on, and is furious when Chef, George, and Benjamin depart the scene.
  Colonel: I won't let my friends die in this godforsaken house!
• Serial Killer: From what we've seen so far, Wilford has murdered more than a few people. Detective Abe, the District Attorney, a husband and wife, their neighbour, a police officer, Markiplier himself, a contestant on Disc of Riches (and reportedly other contestants of the show in the past) and Septiplier.^note Detective Abe and the District Attorney were by accident and both later came back to life courtesy of the dark entity. Wilford has also killed a dog.
• Smarmy Host: Of his own talk show. Even before that, Warfstache's speaking style, according to Word of God, was half based on this trope. The other half was his stiffing his upper lip to keep the pink mustache from falling off.invoked
• Start of Darkness: His start of villainy (As Wilford Warfstache) came from accidentally shooting the DA. Though it isn't the DA's death that starts his villainy, but the fact the DA simply gets back up.
• Too Dumb to Live: He is seen during the party sequence in "Who Killed Markiplier?" aiming his gun at the Detective and at his own head. And yet, subverted as he is the last major character left alive at the end. He also willingly (though he was drunk and emotional) participated in a game of Russian Roulette, though he didn't get the short end of the stick in that situation.
• Took a Level in Kindness: In Wilford 'MOTHERLOVING' Warfstache. He genuinely sorry for what he's done and wants to help Abe when he's nit able to make sense of the world around him.

  Abe: Am I crazy?

  Wilford: No! No-no. No, no, no, no! My friend, you are NOT crazy. Don't let anyone ever tell you that you are crazy.

• Trauma Button: Largely downplayed, but the word "murderer", especially in reference to himself returns memories he lost and/or causes him to hesitate, cringe and nervously laugh. He reacts two times in "Wilford MOTHERLOVING Warfstache"
  • Once when Abe says it:
    Abe the Detective: "Name after name after name just to distance yourself from the real name you should be called: Murderer!"
    Wilford Warfstache: (After pausing confusedly, suddenly remembering) "Abe... Abe! Abe, it's been years!"
  • Once when he himself says it:
    Wilford Warfstache: "Just for tonight, let's forget about all the, th-the chasing and the killing, and the shooty-shooty bang bang, god you're a murderer! Ahuhuh…" (nervously chuckling and visibly disturbed, hesitating to continue)
    • This may have originated in "Who Killed Markiplier? - The Final Chapter". Abe accuses Colonel William of being a murderer before the Colonel denies it, murdering Abe. We see by Wilford's mental breakdown at the end of the video that he cannot understand or handle being responsible for death, so the word is likely attributed to the Detective and feelings of shame/madness.
      Abe the Detective: "Well, you're one to talk about friends, you MURDERER!"
      Colonel William: "I didn't kill anybody! This is MADNESS!"
• Twisting the Words: When Slenderman confesses to him about wanting to teach children and visiting Jamaica, Wilford misconstrues it as Slenderman being a pedophile that is addicted to heroin.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Shares this with Celine. Everything that happened in Who Killed Markiplier? was a result of Celine cheating on Mark with him.
• Up Through the Ranks: William was a private when he still lived in Markiplier Manor and the Chef worked for him, earning the rank of Colonel after he left during an undetermined amount of time later.

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