Mark the Tapir



"I am not a student actually. I just wanted to meet you. Mark the Tapir, hi. I'm your biggest fan.""

- Mark the Tapir, "The Biggest Fan"

Mark the Tapir is a character that appears in the Sonic Boom television series. He is an anthropomorphic tapir who resides on Seaside Island and the fanatical, self-proclaimed “number-one fan" of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Concept and creation
Mark the Tapir was based off the stereotypically obsessed fan-type character. No specific person served as a basis for Mark's creation.

Appearance
Mark is an anthropomorphic, brown-furred tapir with peach skin at about Sonic's height. He has a wide head with large, light brown eyes, round ears, a short, prehensile snout, and bangs of brown hair on top.

Noticeably, he has a small mole on the left side of his snout. He also has a round (if not chubby) torso, disproportionately long arms and short, stubby legs. For attire, he wears brown glasses with white bandages on the sides, a blue shirt with white rims, a white collar and a blue and white icon of Sonic's head on the left side, white gloves, and long red shoes with grey soles and white cuffs.

History
Living alone in a run-down cabin in the woods, plotting to keep Sonic to himself, Mark came to Career Day to meet Sonic. After introduced himself to him, Mark began following Sonic around, trying intensely to please him, and eventually got Sonic to let him become his assistant.

After serving Sonic well, Mark would crash him into a boulder while giving him a lift to a movie. He then bound Sonic in a body cast in his cabin so they could spent all their time together living out Mark's crazy dreams.

Though Mark trapped Sonic's team in body casts too when they came looking for him, the heroes broke free while escaping and beat Mark, who was happy to lose to Sonic.

Personality
Mark is a fanatical, disturbed and mentally unstable psychopath obsessed with Sonic. On the surface, he appears as an overly eager and friendly guy who tries his best to do good deeds, albeit with extreme intensity.

He is also a supreme fanboy, geeking out over doing the most mundane things with Sonic and seeking to spent as much time with him as possible. When Mark thinks he has failed to live up to his idol's expectations or chances to satisfy his fanboy dreams, he is prone to bouts of mood swings and/or minor self-punishment.

Mark is also not one to sit still (especially when Sonic is around), as he always has something going on, and is very observant about details. Outside Sonic and those he deems his friends, Mark behaves rather antisocially towards others.

Beneath his nice-guy facade, Mark is cunning and devious, as exemplified in how he lured Sonic into a false sense of security despite his intensity and getting Sonic to make him his assistant for his own agenda.

He also shows pronounced sinister tendencies, not only hurting his idol Sonic to keep him to himself, but also keeping people against their will so they can be his friends. Despite his inexcusable behavior, however, Mark always acts with innocence, showing a complete lack of conscience and empathy.

Sonic the Hedgehog
The self-proclaimed, “number-one fan" of Sonic the Hedgehog,[2] Mark has an unhealthily obsession with his idol. Noticeably, he has decorated his home with images of Sonic and written a number of mature and inaccurate fanfics about him.

Mark also thinks Sonic is much more important than regular people. Unlike Sonic's other fans, Mark does not criticize everything he does.

When first hanging out with Sonic, Mark was constantly geeking out over doing the most mundane things with him and tried to show they had a lot in common by mimicing Sonic's choices.

Similarly, Mark was quick to blame himself whenever he thought he had displeased Sonic. Upon becoming Sonic's assistant so he could focus on his heroics, Mark build a friendship with him by making works in his honor and pampering him.

Regardless, Mark was willing to injure Sonic and keep him trapped in his cabin, all because he wanted to spent all his time with him. Even then, he would relegate Sonic to side-roles when acting out his fanfics about him and punish Sonic for misbehaving.

When Sonic turned against him and foiled his plans though, Mark was only ecstatic about being defeated by him.

Tails, Amy and Knuckles
Because Sonic took more interest in hanging out with his gang than him, Mark did not take kindly to Tails, Knuckles and Amy at first. As such, he would try mooching in on the group when Sonic was with them or keep Sonic away from them entirely. After Mark caught the trio trying to free Sonic though, Mark decided to imprison them and make them his new friends, only for them to escape shortly afte

Trivia

 * Mark's role in "The Biggest Fan" mirrors that of Annie Wilkes in Steven King's novel, Misery.
 * Mark does not really care about "SonAmy" (a fanterm for Sonic and Amy being in a romantic relationship).
 * The icon of Sonic's head on Mark's shirt first appeared in Sonic Boom CG Style Guide.
 * Mark's attire mimics Sonic's appearance; his shirt is blue like Sonic's torso, his gloves are almost the same as Sonic's, and his shoes' parts have roughly the same colors as those Sonic wears.