The Mark Side is an animated teen drama comedy web series created by the YouTube and Tumblr artist Saveraedae. The show features the voice talents of Collin Weiler as Mark Reed, Andre Grandpierre as Benjamin Washington, Kruyo as Jonathon Washington, and Xeph The Panda as Kenny Peterson.
The series follows the life of the unconventional protagonist Mark Reed— an annoying, childish, loser who annoys everyone around him, including his 3 only friends. (Who aren't actually his friends.) Throughout the series, Mark attempts to win back of the affection of his ex-friend and now love interest Benjamin, who keeps having Mark appear in his life despite his best efforts to cut him out of it. Benjamin tries his best to convince everyone that Mark will never change his ways, usually to no avail as the others keep giving him more second chances. The series portrays a lot of serious topics often shown in teen drama shows, though it is self aware about the absurdity of the actions the characters take, hence the comedic aspect.
The first episode
, titled Friend Fiction, was released on June 27, 2020. The episode, (which also serves as the pilot,) was presented in animatic format, having a rough production quality. It has been stated that the rest of the series going forward will have complete animation and an increased production quality. It has quite the production history, as its initial development began in 2016. In 2016, Saveraedae released a video titled "The Mark Side" Episode 1 - "Friends In-Deed!" This video served as episode one to 'generation one' of The Mark Side. While more episodes were planned and a few entered production, the series was soon cancelled due to lack of interest from the creator. It was in a strange limbo stage until late 2019; During that period of time, the story was developed and elaborated on, scripts were written for a new era, and the series' premise changed. The current series is more crude than the previous, and is aimed at more mature audiences.
Episodes are uploaded here and the official website can be found here.
This series contains examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: As shown often, Mark has a huge infatuation with Benjamin, who wants nothing to do with him.
- Abusive Parents: Mark's father, (who is technically his stepfather), downright tells him that he hates him and even pysically abuses him at times.
- Adults Are Useless: It is obvious that Mark is being abused, but no adults seem to notice or do anything about it.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: People are either literally white, or grey.
- Anime Hair: Mark's hair has a weird croissant shape sticking up in the back.
- Art-Style Dissonance: The series is drawn with a cartoonish and cute style, but it is intended for mature audiences.
- Black Comedy: The whole series is essentially a black comedy, often poking fun at Mark's misfortunes.
- Born Unlucky: Mark seems to have all the odds against him in life.
- Cast Full of Gay: The entire main cast, as well as a significant amount of side characters, are LGBT.
- Character Title: The series is a pun of "The Dark Side" using Mark's name as a replacement word.
- Cheated Angle: The weird shape in Mark's hair is drawn the same in every angle and does not move with the rest of his head.
- Child by Rape: Mark was conceived by a rape caused by his 'real' father, whom of which he does not know exists.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: Jonathon's Self-Harm scars are hidden by his long sleeves.
- Content Warnings: The beginning of every episode includes a content warning.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The long lasting arc between Mark and Ben simply could have been avoided if they communicated their issues when they were younger.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Mark has always been physically and mentally abused by his step-father, Samuel.
- Darcy and Samuel's past also fits into this trope, due to Darcy being raped by Alex Husher.
- Expressive Hair: The 'croissant' shape in Mark's hair sticks up when he is happy, and tilts down when he is sad or angry.
- Fat Bastard: Mark
- Four-Fingered Hands: The characters are all drawn with four fingers.
- Freudian Excuse: It gets revealed that the reason why Samuel abuses Mark stems from the fact that he a remarkable resemblance to his biological father, Alex Husher, who tormented Samuel in highschool and raped Darcy, ultimately resulting in Mark.
- Disappeared Dad: Mark's whole life had been a lie and his real father is currently somewhere in Dallas.
- Disaster Dominoes: Throughout the series, Mark's actions all eventually lead up to the death of Luke Tucker.
- Generic Cuteness: Every character has a round and generically 'cute' look to them.
- Grew a Spine: Ash had been attempting to put off Mark's blatant hatred towards him, but eventually had enough of him.
- Hope Spot: During the arc with Steven, it seems like things are finally starting to look up for Mark. ...That is until Steven is forced to leave him.
- Kiddie Kid: Mark definitely does not act his age.
- Love Triangle: Has happened twice, once with Benjamin, Mark and Ash, and once with Benjamin, Luke, and Mark.
- No Antagonist: According to the creator, the series doesn't have a central antagonist and the conflict comes from the way the characters treat the situations they're faced with.
- Only Six Faces: Every character is drawn with the same eye, face, and mouth shapes.
- Prone to Tears: Mark cries. A lot...
- The Mentally Disturbed: It has been confirmed that Mark has Histrionic Personality Disorder.
- Theme Tune: "Get It Right This Time! (The Mark Side Opening Theme)" is the opening theme song of the show.
- Rape as Backstory: It gets revealed that Darcy was raped by Samuel's highschool enemy Alex Husher, resulting in the birth of Mark.
- Reverse Psychology: In Friend Fiction, Ben told Mark not to sit by him. Mark then immediately sat right next to him.
- Second Year Protagonist: At the start of the series, the main characters are in tenth grade.
- Self-Harm: It gets revealed that Jonathon used to self harm. It's left ambiguous about whether or not he still does.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Benjamin and Jonathon are nothing alike despite being twins.
- Sir Swearsalot: Mark and Benjamin swear a significant amount more than any of the other characters.
- Spoiled Brat: Although Mark obviously doesn't deserve most of the things he's given, his mother decides to spoil him out of pity.
- Technicolor Eyes: Mark
- Thick-Line Animation: Each character has a thick, black outline around them, making them stand out against the background.
- This Loser Is You: Despite being the main character, Mark is portrayed as a very flawed and unlikable person.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Mark's favorite food is mustard.
- Tragic Mistake: The selfish choices that Ben and Mark made inadvertently resulted in Luke's suicide.
- Unrequited Love Switcheroo: When they're older, Mark and Ben's dynamic is essentially flipped, showing that Ben wants Mark's affection while Mark is uncomfortable with the attention.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Even though Mark is the main character, he's not a good person.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Funnily enough, Leon acts quite mature for his age, which counters Mark's behavior entirely.
- World of Jerkass: Even though the negative attention is arguably rightfully given to him, most people in the series - minus a few people - act like complete jerks to Mark.
