Creator / CVGW James

James McCormack, also known as CVGWJames^note CVGW stands for Crazy Video Game Wizard, is a fanfiction writer active on FanFiction.Net and DeviantArt. His fanfics are mostly based on Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Splatoon, and Kirby, among others.

In addition to fanfics, he's also created artwork on DeviantArt, some of them being used as cover art for his stories.

Check out his FanFiction profile here, and his DeviantArt profile here.

Fanfics with their own pages:

• The Beanie Ghost (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• The Case of the Ghost Biker (Crossover between Sonic the Hedgehog and Scooby-Doo, with elements of the The DCU added in)
• Despicable Mayhem (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• The Eggman Alliance (Sonic the Hedgehog)
• The Greatest TV Show Ever (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Kirby: Planet of the Cats (Kirby)
• The Lawyers Are Coming! The Lawyers Are Coming! (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• The Lost Splatoon Idol (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Mario and The Wah-Pocalypse (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Mysteries of the Universe (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Paisano Royale (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Perfection (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Saiko Rocks: Inkopolis Tour (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Secrets of the Universe (Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers)
• Splatoon Fantasy Requiem: Vampire Squid Island (Splatoon, with elements of Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers, Alex Spider, and RusSniper45 added in)
• Sonic Adventure Omega (Sonic the Hedgehog)
• Sonic Boom Haunted Mansion Mystery (Sonic the Hedgehog)
• The Sus SMG4 Lawsuit (OnyxKing)

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Tropes used by this author:

• Abled in the Adaptation: Helen was wheelchair-bound in Sonic X, but in "Chris and Tifa: The Search For Helen", she can walk just fine.
• Adaptational Achilles Heel: Inverted. Inklings, who were known to disintegrate when they touch water, can swim in water no problem in James' stories. This is because those stories take place in a universe where water doesn't hurt Inklings. This gets lampshaded by the narrator in "Inktoling-Volleyball at Sea".
  "Oh, you thought Inklings couldn't swim? Don't worry about what you see in those video games and that manga or some of the videos you watched online, this is one of the many universes where Inklings, Octolings and Inktolings can swim in the water, regardless of the fact that ink doesn't agree with that substance."
• Adaptational Badass: Senbo had no fighting skills in Saiko Rocks, but could handle himself in a Turf War and even win for his team in "Senbo's Turf War". He claims that he got it from seeing Splatfests on TV—specifically, Meggy's final Splatfest in Meggy's Destiny. Playing Splatoon and watching Turf Wars outside of Splatfest helped as well.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • According to "SMG1's Squishing Incident", the reason SMG1 looks so different from SMG2 was because he got squished in an accident. To be fair, SMG4 himself once wondered aloud if this is really the case.
  • While Hal Monitor said his father died in "Mario Runs Out Of Toilet Paper", he never specifies how. "Rise of A Robo-Cop", an Origins Episode, says that his father was killed by criminals.
• Adaptational Karma: Depresso gets away with (unwittingly) infecting everyone in "Clown Fever", but in "Only a Nightmare", Mario does "something very illegal" to him in retribution, as depicted in this drawing.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Lawyer Kong, who was a no-nonsense attorney in SMG4's Lawsuit Arc, attends a party after some convincing in "Mario's Splatoon Day Party".
  • Senbo, the main villain of Saiko Rocks, was portrayed as a cunning and nasty kid. In James' fanfics and drawings of the character, however, he's commonly portrayed as... just a kid, not bothering anyone and minding his own business. He can even be quite sociable, as shown in one story where the ever-motherly Karen has a friendly conversation with him (albeit after a rocky start), and another where he has not only made some new friends, but has a good relationship with his parents. This is justified, as all those stories and drawings take place after the events of Saiko Rocks, where he's technically still serving his punishment.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • The Grinch in "Mario and The Mean One". Unlike the famous Dr. Seuss character, whose worst crime was stealing presents, this version of the Grinch, directly inspired by the then-upcoming horror movie The Mean One, turns the Grinch into a Serial Killer, even having an impressive body count.
  • King Dedede in "Dedede's Santa Stew", where he clearly takes a page from Oogie Boogie and kidnaps Santa Claus and cook him into stew, and succeeds.
  • Played with in regards to Vanny during the events of "The Melon and the Vanny". As a robot, she is programmed to kill, but Vanessa, who was brainwashed into Vanny in the source material, is not alluded to in any way.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • During the offscreen encounter with Dr. Sheridan in Saiko Rocks, it was discovered that ducks was the cure for Tari's mind control, after Saiko choked it out of him. In James' version of the encounter, "The Madness of Doctor Sheridan", the mind control is instead broken by having Tari see through the illusion while she's in a Lotus-Eater Machine. Saiko still strangles Sheridan in retribution, though.
  • SMG3 tying Tari to the railroad tracks in "SMG3 Kidnaps Tari (Because He Felt Like It)" is different from how it played out in Saiko Rocks. Tari has a band of tape over her mouth she didn't have in the original, more people come to her aid, Saiko pulls her out of the tracks with Meggy before the train runs over her instead of using her hammer to stop it, and the dialogue is different.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
  • Tom Nook is not a Mean Boss in his conversation with Boopkins in "Was Buying It A Good Idea?" like he was in "Our New Home". This could be justified by his fears of the "sinister forces" talked about in the story.
  • Whereas no one cared about Evelyn getting kidnapped by burglars in Saiko Rocks, "Operation: Rescue Evelyn" features the SMG4 crew saving her. What's more, her parents are relieved to see her safe, whereas in the original, they didn't care about her kidnapping.
• Adaptation Species Change: Vanny is not a brainwashed human during the events of "The Melon and the Vanny" like she was in Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach. Instead, she's 100% animatronic. Justified, as she hails from another universe.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The original story "The Day My Computer Took Over The World" features an advanced computer going rogue and... well, taking over the world.
• Alliterative Title: Stories with alliterative titles include "Wild West Wren" and "Tari's Troubling Terror".
• Alternate Universe Fic: James considers several of his stories to be in universes separate from the works they're based on, with The Multiverse itself sometimes even getting involved.
• Answer Cut: How "Moonlight Massage" gets started. Peter Parker wonders what Black Cat has been up to. Cut to her intimate moment with Sonic.
• Apocalypse How: Given James' fascination for The Multiverse, most of the villains he imagines for his stories are totally willing to cause a Class X-5 at the worst of times. For context, Ahl'zu'ohra'g'augh destroyed the home planet of freaking Darkseid in his first story appearance.
• An Ass-Kicking Christmas: The premise of "Lara Croft and The Golden Elf of Christmas", where Lara Croft tries to survive traps in an ancient shrine and fight a monstrous guardian for treasure... not much different from what she usually faces, only now, it's all themed around Christmas.
  James: I know, violence and Christmas don't mix together, but it was still Christmas-themed.
• Ass Kicks You: A variant; Mary Jane and Black Cat bump each other's butts in "MJ and Cat's Pool Battle", making it more a case of "Two Asses Kick Each Other". An earlier story, "Pooltime Fun", features something similar between Lara Croft and Tifa Lockhart.
• Author Appeal:
  • A good majority of his stories and artworks involve characters performing handstands. The in-universe reason for this tends to vary, from competitions to relaxation exercises.
  • Characters giving massages to each other also shows up frequently in his more romantic stories.
• Author Avatar: James has made characters of himself themed after the franchises he writes for.
  • James the Hedgehog is himself as a Sonic-esque hedgehog character.
  • Jim Mic'Cormack is his Inksona.
  • Jimeho is an omnipresent version of himself that observes The Multiverse and occasionally acts as a Character Narrator in his stories. He's also called "the Multiversal Observer", or just "the Observer".
• Babies Ever After: After the events of "Salmonlings at Midnight", which depicts Makerboy 10 and Saiko Bichitaru in a relationship, are all wrapped up, The Stinger shows them with their children.
• Babysitting Episode: "Meggy, Desti and A Baby", where Meggy (in her Inkling form) looks after the baby of an Inkling couple, with Desti later arriving to help.
• The Bad Guy Wins: James generally averts this in his stories unless said bad guy is a lesser evil. However, there are a few exceptions:
  • "How The Daleks Ruined Christmas" ends with... well, the Daleks ruining Christmas.
    Daleks: VICTORY FOR THE DALEKS, VICTORY FOR THE DALEKS!
  • There are two stories he made where Eggman won, being "The Day Eggman Nuked Classic Sonic" and "The Eggs-termination of The Wisps".
  • "Dedede's Santa Stew" ends with King Dedede successful in cooking Santa into stew and eating it.
  • "Eggman's Shadow Nightmare Trial" ends with Sha'D'Oh Nightmare not only successfully breaking Dr. Eggman through torture, but convincing the latter to serve the former in his world conquest. "Octo-Trouble With Overlords" ends similarly for DJ Octavio, though he at least put up more of a fight.
  • "Apokalypse of Ahl'zu'ohra'g'augh" ends with the descruction of Apokalypse, courtesy of James' latest original villain.
  • "Godzilla: Unearthly Nuclear Horror" ends with Godzilla continuing his destruction of Japan unopposed. This includes blowing up the moon, by the way.
  • The original story "The Day My Computer Took Over The World" ends with... well, what do you think?
• Bait-and-Switch: At the end of "Happy Halloween Time", it seemed like Sonic.exe has come to terrorize the Lockhart-Thorndyke family... only for it to turn out to be Aerith Gainsborough in a costume.
• "Basic Instinct" Legs-Crossing Parody:
  • During Saiko's modeling in "Saiko Rocks: Seaside Saiko", she crosses her legs in a similar manner to Catherine Tramell.
  • Saiko does it again in "Alex's Sultry Santa Waifu", once again in a seductive manner.
  • Two of his drawings show this as well. The former is even an illustration of the above-mentioned "Seaside Saiko".
• Battle Harem: Andrew, a friend of James', is depicted with a harem helping him in the fight with Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon in "Andrew's Amazons: The Multiversal Threat".
• Beach Episode: Too many to count. "Beach Scenes" are even on his list of things he likes to write on his FanFiction profile. Sometimes, resorts and spas are thrown into the mix, making them double as Hot Springs Episodes.
• Birthday Episode: He's made a number of fanfics about characters celebrating their birthdays, the earliest being "Happy 12th Birthday, Tails". "Clauds' Inksgiving Birthday", however, is interesting in how it's combined with a Thanksgiving Episode as well.
• Bittersweet Ending: "The Demon Hunter and The Virus" ends on this note. Despite essentially being James' version of "War of the Fat Italians 2021", now with Anti-Shroomy joining them, it still ends with Melony being forced to kill Axol.
• Bowdlerize: Some stories that depicted female characters naked have been deleted and reuploaded to put them in bikinis instead. Examples: "The Soft Touch of Paradise", "Flower Ninja Date", and "In The Themysciran Hot Springs".
• Brainwashed and Crazy:
  • In "Pooh and Spaghetti", Slender Man was revealed to be controlled by Enzo, the true culprit behind the murders.
  • Sonic gets hypnotized by the Blood Red Queen of Hearts to be her minion in "Sonic and The Queen of Hearts". He snaps out of it in the following story "Hypnotized Hedgehogs and Evil Queens".
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • In Sonic Zombies: Chao Garden, when Tails complains that the heroes can’t go a month without a zombie attack, Amy says this in response.
    Amy: It's called "Sonic Zombies" for a reason, Tails. If we didn't meet any zombies in a Sonic Zombies episode, that would be pretty damn boring.
  • In "It's Gonna Be Okay, Meggy", SMG4 reassures Meggy by telling her the fans agree with him that everything will be okay in the end.
  • "Spider-Man and Spider-MJ: Goblin Trouble" provides some fourth wall humor from Peter when he gets to see an alternate version of MJ with Spider-Man's powers.
    Peter: I hope DC doesn't come for us, but that version of you is a wonder woman.
  • "Bean Vs. Deadpool" has two moments of this. The first time is when Bean brings out a bomb and says, "Forget the guns, its time to make this story fight EXPLOSIVE!" The second time is when Bean says to Wade, "It looks like plot armor can’t protect you!"
  • During the End-of-Episode Silliness at "Saiko Rocks: Seaside Saiko" (i.e. an Inkling boy perving at her Waterfall Shower and Meggy filming with her camera), Saiko says "Really?" while staring at what the narration itself describes as the Fourth Wall.
• Breather Episode: If you thought "Dedede's Santa Stew" was too dark and gory, even for James' standards and especially for Christmas, he followed it up with a much lighter story where King Dedede fulfills the role of Santa Claus benevolently and without a hitch, as opposed to cooking him into stew. James himself implied in the story's description on DeviantArt that he made "Santa Dedede Comes To Town" to leave a better taste in people's mouths.
• Brick Joke: In "Golden Love", Lara Croft and James Bond talk about the possibility of the former wearing a golden bikini. Guess what she wears at the story's conclusion.
• The Bus Came Back: After months of absence, Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon appears in "Andrew's Amazons: The Multiversal Threat".
• The Cameo: Even after the passing of Stan Lee, James occasionally gives him cameos in his stories, such as "Sonic and the Chitauri invasion" and "In The Silver Moonlight". It's not just the short stories either—the cameos also happen in his bigger projects, like The Case of the Ghost Biker and Mysteries of the Universe. It should be noted, however, that none of these appearances refer to Stan Lee by name, due to a policy on FanFiction that doesn't take kindly to writers including real celebrities into their stories.
• Cat Fight: Fights between two female characters sometimes comes up in James' stories, such as "Tifa Lockhart vs Lara Croft". One of the earliest examples (if not the earliest) is even titled being "Lara Croft vs Montana Jane Catfight"... though, on FanFiction, it's just called "Lara Croft vs Montana Jane".
• Cerebus Syndrome: The older and more experienced James got, the more he leaned towards the territory of dark and sexual themes in his stories.
• Character Catchphrase: Stories told by the Observer tend to begin with him saying "time and space".
• Character Narrator: "In Memory of A Former Champion" is told from Meggy's perspective.
• Chekhov's Gift: The necklace Luigi gives Marie in "Luigi x Marie A Charming Hot Tub Romance"? Turns out it's a charm that protects her from melting in the hot tub.
• Christmas Episode: He's written quite a lot of Christmas stories for the holidays; ten stories for 2020, five for 2021, fourteen for 2022, and (so far) two for 2023. Some stories mix the holiday with action and even horror.
• Cowboy Episode: On the same day SMG4 uploaded "We Interrupt This Broadcast...", James made a story depicting One Shot Wren at Western Spaghetti, appropriately titled "Wild West Wren".
• Crossover: Simply put, James has quite a lot of crossover stories on his plate.
  • Inherently, his SMG4 fanfics are this to begin with, as they often combine its characters, most of them from the Super Mario Bros. or Splatoon series, with another franchise.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog also gets a fair share of crossovers, being paired with Scooby-Doo in "The Case of The Ghost Biker", Star Wars in "Hedgehogs, Mongooses and Hutts", and Super Mario Bros. (as in, the canon portrayal of the Mario series) in "When EggMario Came To Kidnap Peach". James has also made several stories involving "Spider-Hog"... as in, Sonic dressed as Spider-Man with his costume and abilities.
• Crossover Couple: Characters from differing franchises have gotten together for his romance stories, most notably Sonic the Hedgehog x Lara Croft.
• Cross-Referenced Titles: Not only are "SMG4's Hacking Crisis" and "SMG4's Twitter Crisis" named similarly, but both stories deal with SMG4 facing a problem based on what was going on in real life at the time the story was written, and the culprit behind both problems is either a villain from OnyxKing's videos or someone who makes a reference to them.
• Crying After Sex: Makerboy 10 does this in "Salmonlings at Midnight", of the Tears of Joy variety, the sex itself (with Saiko) being Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex. For context, he was crying with relief after he and Saiko survive a Salmoning attack.
• Curse Cut Short: In "Spider-Man and Spider-MJ: Goblin Trouble", the Goblin says "oh, sh..." before being blown up by a pair of pumpkin bombs.
• Darker and Edgier: His horror stories definitely fall under this category, and even his more action-packed stories could qualify.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • Lindsey and Nelson Thorndyke were killed by Sephiroth in "Tifa Lockhart & Chris Thorndyke short story", leading to Tifa Lockhart adopting their orphaned child.
  • Happens in "Mario and The Mean One". Whereas the Grinch learns the true meaning of Christmas and redeems himself in the famous tale, here Mario incinerates him in a junkyard. Justified, as this version of the character is based on The Mean One and went on a killing spree, and Mario acted in self-defense.
  • Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon kills Awful Alvin in "Underpants vs LarryBoy: Dawn of Silliness".
• Dirty Kid: Meggy briefly had to deal with one at the end of "Meggy's Metamorphosis Nightmare". After the threat has been dealt with, Meggy goes to take a shower in her hotel room... only to hear the Wolf Whistle of a teenage guest who's watching her shower. She scares him off by shooting at him with her Splattershot. According to the description of James' illustration of this scene, the kid's name is Dymplee 'Dymp' Purvingtom.
  Meggy: Don't you think you've seen enough?
• Downer Ending:
  • "Trapped in the Ruins" ends with Peach unable to find a way to escape her castle as it's being consumed by the monster.
  • "Bob Gets Scammed" ends with... well, you know.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • "Jokerverse War" is primarily the story of an intense battle between several alternate versions of The Joker.
  • In another example involving the Joker, he faces off with Carnage in "Joker's Carnage Trouble".
  • Dr. Eggman has to deal with the Salmonids infiltrating his base in "Eggman's Salmon Problem".
  • "Apokalypse of Ahl'zu'ohra'g'augh" features the titular original villain invading the home planet of Darkseid with intent to destroy.
  • "The Dalek-Godzilla Battle of 1954" is the story of the Daleks from Doctor Who taking on Godzilla. And losing.
• Dream Episode: Nightmare episodes, really. See Nightmare Sequence.
• End-of-Episode Silliness: On a few occassions, James will include silly moments to conclude certain action-packed or suspenseful stories. Look at "Meggy's Metamorphosis Nightmare" and "Saiko Rocks: Seaside Saiko", for example.
• Enemy Mine: "Senbo and Starved: Thanksgiving Comeback" has Senbo begging Saiko (i.e., his former idol who he not-so-long ago made think one of her best friends died just so he could break into her house and play her guitar) to protect him from Starved, who's been trying to make a meal out of his turkey and out of him. Thankfully, she does. The narration even recites the phrase "the enemy of the enemy is my friend" when describing these events.
• Expy Coexistence: Mario and Theo hanging out in "Farewell, Meta Runner (& Theo)" may not seem like much at first, but then you remember that Ultra Jump Mania was inspired by Super Mario 64.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Make no mistake, when someone is murdered in James' stories, he doesn't sugarcoat how ugly it is, regardless of the story's rating. For example, in "Spider-Hog: Spiderverse Nightmare", Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon (or at least one version of him) meets his end by falling into a spiky chasm, where he is promptly impaled.
• Fanservice: Several of his art pieces show female characters in bikinis, sometimes even naked.
• Fan Sequel:
  • "Across the Mario-verse" is one to "Into the Marioverse". Both stories involve travelling The Multiverse and encountering many alternate Marios... after this Mario gets untied, of course.
  • "Despicable Retaliation" serves as a direct followup to "Mario Obliterates Minions", where Gru, finding a way to survive the laser that supposedly blew him up, tries to take revenge on Mario for obliterating his Minions.
  • "Mario and SMG3's Jailbreak Time" takes place after the events of the SMG4 Crew^note then known as "Mario Does Things" video, "Mario Plays Gmod ft. SMG3".
• Fix Fic: Sometimes, James will write his own ending or continuation to certain works.
  • "What If: Finishing Unfinished Buisness" properly concludes Desti's battle with Sephiroth that was left unresolved from "What if Desti never died?"
  • "Only a Nightmare" rectifies the Gainax Ending of the SMG4 video "Clown Fever" by having it be All Just a Dream, in addition to giving Depresso some Adaptational Karma.
  • "After Mario Was The Last Man On Earth" follows up with a proper reconciliation after Mario accidentally ruins his friends' record-breaking pizza in "If Mario Was The Last Man On Earth".
  • "Escape From Inkopolis" is a particularly interesting case. It started life as a Fan Sequel to the events of "If Mario Was In... Splatoon 3", which ended with the Car Chase taking place in the story basically still going, allowing room for the next canonical episode of the Lawsuit Arc to take place after. There was only one problem, though: Said next canonical episode ("Breaking Luigi") started with Luigi being cured of his brainwashing through the power of memes, meaning "Escape From Inkopolis", which began the same way^note after the Squid Sisters' news report, couldn't have happened. A conversation James had with a friend of his gave him ideas on how to fix this in order for the concept to still work, and soon enough (as in, on the same day "Breaking Luigi" was uploaded), certain parts of the story were rewritten to disallow Luigi's deprogramming until after the events of "Escape From Inkopolis".
  • "The Splatfest Rematch" is a proper Splatfest battle between Meggy and Desti during the events of the Anime Arc, with Francis' mass kidnapping of Inkopolis put on hold. It's worth noting that after Meggy wins, Desti takes her defeat in stride, and she and Meggy develop a mutual respect for each other, which retroactively would have made her death all the more impactful had these events happened in the actual arc.
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: A good majority of the time, characters in James' romance stories feature ass-smacking in a flirty manner. Stories that use this include "Sonic x Daphne: The Haunted Resort", "One Mylian Evening Swim", "Hot Piano Beauty in Seventh Heaven", and "Starro Seaside Terror".
• Frame-Up: The villains' plan in "Pooh and Spaghetti". Their murders in their Pooh and Piglet costumes leave the beloved childhood characters to take the heat from the police.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Originally, characters would ocassionally fight enemies while naked, until James deleted those stories. Downplayed in others, where female characters tend to fight the Monster of the Week while wearing bikinis, usually because said monster sought to ruin their fun during a Beach Episode or something similar.
• Future Me Scares Me: Anakin Skywalker encounters and battles his iconic future self in "Anakin Skywalker vs Darth Vader".
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Melony and Jaxl engage in this after killing Vanny before she kills them in "The Melon and the Vanny".
• The Glasses Gotta Go: James' drawings of Aibo tend to depict her without her glasses. This comes to a head in one drawing that shows her, without glasses, encountering an alternate universe version of her with glasses.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: What causes Tari to realize she's in a Lotus-Eater Machine during "The Madness of Doctor Sheridan"? She notes that Meggy is an Inkling when she should have been turned into a human, that Mario's eating pizza when he usually eats spaghetti, and SMG4 is wearing purple when he usually wears blue.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: DJ Octavio partakes in a Splatfest in "Our Splatfest Destiny". According to the author in the story's description on DeviantArt, he was bored as he was coming up with evil plans.
• Gone Horribly Wrong:
  • How the conflict in "Melony and the Melon Monster" gets started. A man in a robe recites a ritual in order to make one of the melons at a festival come alive as a waifu... much like Melony. Instead, it becomes a watermelon monster that terrorizes the festival.
  • Similarly, Failed Metamorphosis Zombie Meggy is the result of an alternate SMG4 trying to bring Meggy back to her Inkling form, only for him to put too much into her bloodstream, resulting in her death and turning her into a zombie.
• Great Escape: "Mario and SMG3's Jailbreak Time" features Mario and SMG3 escaping from prison after they were arrested in "Mario Plays Gmod ft. SMG3".
• Grew a Spine: In the Chicken Run fanfic "Not That Crazy", Mr. Tweedy, usually known for being a meek character who has to put up with his wife most of the time, stands up to his wife and lets her have it instead of letting her force him to say "it's all in your head" regarding Ginger assembling her group.
• Happily Adopted: James made three stories that center around Chris Thorndyke being adopted by Tifa Lockhart.
• Halloween Episode: He's made some Halloween-themed stories in time for the holiday, most notably Kirby & The Terrors of Halloween, released on October 2021, and "Saiko Rocks: Spooky Scary Halloween", released on 2022 (albeit a few days late). 2020 was a year where he wrote nine Halloween stories, though two of them came out in November.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": In "Bob Lives, Bois!", Chris mentions a past event at the Bikini Atoll, the name of which, of course, makes Swagmaster laugh.
• Hey, That's My Line!: Meggy screams "MAMA MIA" in "Graduation Road Trip" upon seeing CJ closing in on the SMG4 gang. Mario then points out that that's his line... before seeing CJ as well.
• Horror: Monsters and villains going after people with intent to torment or harm is a common plot in his stories.
• Homage: The SMG4 fanfic Saiko Rocks was a big inspiration for James, and he's made several stories paying tribute to it, including "Saiko Rocks: Spooky Scary Halloween", "Hardware Store Trouble", and "Thanksgiving Turkey Time".
• Hospital Hottie: Julie Su dresses up as a nurse in "Knuckles x Julie Su: The Red Guardian And The Pink Nurse". It even provides the illustration.
• Hypocritical Humor: Team Killer Ink does their Team Rocket motto in "Meggy's Big Splatfest", despite the fact that Inklings can't stand anime. Lampshaded by Meggy.
• Immediate Sequel:
  • "Moonlight Massage" takes place mere seconds after the events of the previous fic "In The Silver Moonlight".
  • "Trapped in the Ruins" directly follows the ending of SMG4 Movie: It's Gotta Be Perfect, with Peach waking up to find her castle within the jaws of the monster SMG4 unwittingly unleashed.
  • "Beachside Ice Cream Time" takes place an hour after "Starro Seaside Terror".
  • "Graduation Road Trip" takes place immediately after "Grand Theft Mario".
  • "Tari's Troubling Terror" takes place right after the events of "Ready to Ride?...".
  • "Dolphin Riding at The Seaside" happens shortly after Tifa adopts Chris in "Tifa Lockhart & Chris Thorndyke short story".
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Bob finishes off Failed Metamorphosis Zombie Meggy by stabbing her with—what else?—his blade-arms in "Meggy's Metamorphosis Nightmare". However, it's revealed in her next appearance that she survived this because he didn't aim for her throat.
• Informed Species: Yellow Guy is said in "Don't Hug Meggy and Desti, We're Scared" by the narration to resemble a bear. It's difficult to tell exactly what the character is, but a bear doesn't usually come to people's minds.
• Interquel:
  • "Tifa's Acrobatics Show For Chris" takes place during the events of "Tifa Lockhart & Chris Thorndyke short story", but was released after the fact.
  • "If DB Platypus Met Mech Suit Sonic" takes place during the events of the Sonic Boom episode "Mech Suits Me".
• Interrupted Bath:
  • Bonnie tries to kill Melony in "Melony: The Bonnie Terror" while she's in the shower, resulting in her fighting him in a bathrobe.
  • "The Rogue Axolotl Anime Artist" provides a similar-yet-different premise, this time with an evil alternate Axol breaking into Melony's house while she's taking a bath, leaving her to face him in a bikini this time. But rather than try to kill her (at least immediately), he offers her a chance to join him as one of his waifus.
• Interspecies Romance: Inklings getting with humans, Mobians getting with humans... let's just say James' many romance stories know no bounds when it comes to species.
• Ironic Hell: Norman Osborn has one in "Norman Osborn in Mephisto's Realm", where his eternal torture is being worshipped as the Green Goblin, his supervillain alias, for all eternity.
• "Jaws" Attack Parody: The cover art for "The Genie and The Shark" is drawn similarly to the iconic Jaws poster.
• Joker Immunity: No matter how many times Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon dies, there will always be another version of him out there set on taking over the multiverse.
• Kick the Dog: "The Trolling Adware" features the currently-unnamed Mysterious TV Guy from SMG4 mocking Werner from RusSniper45's videos for his brother's death.
• Kinky Role-Playing: There are some strong shades with this in "Spider-Man's Bathtime Lifeguard Love", where MJ is pretending to be Peter's lifeguard while he's taking a bath.
• Knight of Cerebus: Stories that have a world-threatening antagonist that James created (such as Sha'D'Oh Nightmare, Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon, or Ahl'zu'ohra'g'augh) tend to get very serious.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: How "Puss and The Sith" ends. Puss In Boots' fight with Darth Vader doesn't work quite in his favor, especially considering he, a cat with a metal sword, was going up against a much taller man with a lightsaber. Realizing this is a fight he can't win, Puss retreats.
  Puss: You are strong, Darth Vader... Perhaps, I was too arrogant. And it is all the easier for the wise one to walk away, to live to fight another day...
• Last Note Nightmare: "Planet of Teletubbies" is a heartwarming Crossover between Doctor Who and Teletubbies, with Susan and The Doctor spending time with the Teletubbies after ending up in their world via the TARDIS. The story then ends with a warning of invading enemy ships from an unknown party.
• Leeroy Jenkins:
  • This iconic Stock Phrase has been used by characters when rushing into battle, as seen in "SMG4 & Team B: Salmon-Apocalypse Run", "Saiko Rocks: Thanksgiving Turkey Time" (said by SMG4's version of Mario, appropriately enough), and "Inkantation and Destiny".
  • Senbo screams his name in the style of this while partaking in a Turf War during "Senbo's Turf War", which is lampshaded by the narration. It goes both ways, too, as the Green Pea Leader says it word-for-word later.
• Lighter and Softer: His Slice of Life and Romance stories fall under this category.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Tari is placed in one during "The Madness of Doctor Sheridan".
• Memorial for the Antagonist: The premise of "In Memory of A Former Champion" is Meggy paying her respects to her recently-deceased idol One-Shot Wren, in spite of the trauma he put her and her friends through.
• Mood Whiplash: "Underpants vs LarryBoy: Dawn of Silliness" starts off as a silly battle between Captain Underpants and LarryBoy, with the kind of goofy weapons from them that you would expect, even when Awful Alvin gets involved. But once he summons Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon, things get serious real fast.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: Kasumi says this to Spiderman in "Flower Ninja Date", when he gets sidetracked by her "hot cleavage". Interestingly, she playfully tells him this with a giggle, rather than being annoyed like normal for this trope.
• Mythology Gag:
  • A few of his stories and drawings involving Spider-Man feature the character (or someone dressed as him) kissing women while he's upside down in a recreation of the 2002 movie.
  • Jameson does his famous laugh in "Fun In Paradise". You know the one.
  • The battle with the Green Goblin in "Peter and Mary Jane's Motorbike Lake Date" is choreographed similarly to that of Spider-Man: No Way Home. To elaborate, Peter takes out his enemy’s glider, they crash to the ground, Peter does a superhero landing pose as the Goblin stands and taunts him, and Peter runs at him before they have their last fight with the Goblin even drawing a blade.
  • "Goblin Trouble" contains a twofer. His speech to Peter and Spider-MJ about the masses and people struggling to have everything they want is a nod both to Goblin's speech to Peter about New York's view of him in Spider-Man and his comment about "struggling to have everything you want as the world tries to make you choose" that he would later give in Spider-Man: No Way Home to MCU Peter.
• Naked People Are Funny: A downplayed example in "SplatSquad vs Team Blue: One Legendary Turf Match-Up". According to Specs, Goggles has a habit of showing up in an undignified manner. Sure enough, he shows up in a speedo.
• Naughty Tentacles: Averted in "Octopus Beach", as the octopus turns out to be friendly, but also discussed.
  Tifa: Would you care to explain why you screamed about the tentacles?
  Nurdrew: Heh, sorry about that, ma'am. Heck, it's gonna be a little hard to explain, especially with your son around. To put it plainly, I've seen some anime where women... get taken by tentacles, and I've heard about a few... instances where some creature with tentacles takes someone.
  (Chris looks confused, and is about to ask some more questions, only for Tifa to say...)
  Tifa: I'll explain when you're older.
• New Year Has Come: James has made six stories in 2020 of characters celebrating New Year's^note though two of them came out in 2021, two stories in 2021, and one in 2022.
• Nightmare Sequence: Stories where characters suffer nightmares include "Ron's Spider Nightmare", "Kirby's Scary Nightmare", "Shadow's Nightmare", "Melony's Nightmarish Rematch", and "Midgar Nightmare".
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Some of the fight scenes in his stories escalate to full-on brutal beatdowns, as you can see in stories like "Pulverizing the Platypus" and "After Mario Was The Last Man On Earth". Curiously, two stories that show such brutal beatdowns are exclusive to DeviantArt.
• No Indoor Voice: Z'or'ogh-Ro'gon has a tendency to scream a lot of his dialogue, a fact that is emphasized by said dialogue being written in all caps. Ditto for Ahl'zu'ohra'g'augh.
• Not Quite Dead: We find out in "Dangerous Metamorphosis" that Metamorphosis Meggy survives Bob stabbing her in "Meggy's Metamorphosis Nightmare". It's explained in the former story's description on DeviantArt that this is because Bob didn't aim for her neck.
• One-Word Title: Stories with one word for their titles include "Eggsgiving" and "Uncertainty". "Inkantation and Destiny" is a peculiar case, as it's just called "Inkantation" only on DeviantArt.
• Original Character: There are a lot of characters in James' fanfics and drawings that are owned by him, some of them styled after a franchise (like Sonic OCs or custom Inkling characters), some of them human, and some of them with an entirely original design. Here is a folder James made on DeviantArt showcasing his original characters.
• Original Generation: It's not just fanfiction and fanart James makes; once in a blue moon, he'll write a story with only characters and settings that he created, such as "Strength vs. Speed: Beefy Ben and Speeder McQuicky", "Tropical Terror on Strahgner Island", and "Attack of The Cat Zombies". All of the original stories are available only on DeviantArt, since they don't qualify as fanfiction.
• Origins Episode: "Rise of A Robo-Cop" is a story that gives Hal Monitor a backstory.
• Overused Running Gag: Discussed in "Dedede's Possession Problem". In it, Dedede gets a call from a Waddle Dee telling him that he's going to be possessed by a Monster of the Week yet again in the next Kirby game, much to his frustration and terror.
• Post-Coital Collapse: After Makerboy 10 and Saiko have sex in "Salmonlings at Midnight", they fall asleep in a Go-to-Sleep Ending.
• P.O.V. Sequel: "Inkopolis Minionfestation" has Meggy fighting off the Minions during the events of "Mario Obliterates Minions", while Mario is simultaneously dealing with them.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: These are inevitable when a fight breaks out in his stories. Below is a list of notable ones.
  • In "Melony v Manhattan: Battle of Deities", Dr. Manhattan says this before engaging in a test of fighting skills with Melony.
    Dr. Manhattan: We shall match before we love and bathe...
  • When Santa Mario comes to take Mario's liver in "Santa Mario Wants Mario's Liver", he recites his own version of the very meme this encounter is based on.
    Santa Mario: Hey! Mamaf***er! Come here and give Santa Mario your liver!!!
  • "Senbo and Starved: Thanksgiving Comeback" gives Senbo several in his battle with Starved Eggman.
    "You picked the wrong town, pal!"
    "You need a diet, pal... starting now with music practice!"
    "Welcome to music class, fat man. Today's teacher, Senbo Mazushi!"
  • Whenever Lara Croft appears in James' stories, you can bet that there will be at least one of these. For example, she says this in a Christmas story, of all things, just before taking on a pack of wolves.
    Lara: Hate to say it, lads, but dinner's off the menu tonight.
• Precision F-Strike: James doesn't usually drop the F-bomb in his stories, especially when they're rated K or K+. Even the ones that are rated higher have F-bombs be covered with Symbol Swearing or something similar. But every once in a while, you will get to read the F-bomb in full, like in "Senbo and Starved: Thanksgiving Comeback" (see Pre-Mortem One-Liner).
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Before finishing off Starved Eggman in "Senbo and Starved: Thanksgiving Comeback", Senbo has this to say.
  Senbo: Happy Thanksgiving, fucker!
• Prequel: "Get That Human!: Octavio's Fury"! takes place before "In Hot Water with the Octarians", but was written after the fact.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone:
  • "Anakin Skywalker vs Darth Vader" has a prolonged example. While the titular encounter was All Just a Dream on Anakin's part, we all know his transformation into Vader will happen eventually.
  • The conflict in "Meggy's Metamorphosis Nightmare" starts when Meggy wakes up from her nightmarish vision about her zombified alternate self... to discover the real deal.
  • In "Spider-Man and Spider-MJ: Goblin Trouble", Peter says to MJ that he had a dream about fighting the Green Goblin. Guess who shows up to attack shortly after. For a more positive example, MJ had Spider-Man's powers while fighting the Goblin in the dream, and an alternate universe version of her with those very same powers shows up as well.
  • One particular instance of this gets discussed and lampshaded in "Doctor Strange and The Multiversal Conqueror", with Strange dreaming of Z'or'ogh, then meeting him face-to-face.
    Dr. Strange: Z'or'ogh... You were in my dream...
    Z'or'ogh: And so you had a vision of our meeting... Amusing.
• "Psycho" Shower Murder Parody: Alternate Axol sneaks up on Melony with a knife while she's taking a bath in "The Rogue Axolotl Anime Artist". Interestingly, instead of trying to kill her, he tries convince her to join his harem of anime waifus.
• Race Lift: His drawings of Dr. Sheridan depict him as white, whereas he was more Ambiguously Brown in the source material.
• Reaction Video:
  • "Meggy Watches The Mario Movie Trailer" is a novelized version of this, with Meggy reacting to the first trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
  • There's also "Meggy Reacts to Splatoon Memes", a novelized take on SMG4 characters reacting to Nintendo memes from the SMG4 Crew^note known as "Mario Does Things" then series. It's followed up by "Meggy Reacts to Mario Memes".
• Real After All: "The Phantom Platypus of Doom" starts with DB Platypus telling a ghost story of the Phantom Platypus. Later in the story, it's discovered that he's real.
• Recursive Fanfiction: His fanfics based on Saiko Rocks, already a Recursive Fanfiction, fall under this. They're fanfics based on a fanfic... based on a fan animation... based on a popular video game franchise.
• Red Herring: In "SMG4's Hacking Crisis", SMG3 is suspected to be the hacker, due to SMG4's username being replaced with "Bailey", a reference to James Bailey, SMG3's voice actor. The actual culprit is KongScumZelus18950.
• Related in the Adaptation: Based on a popular SMG4 theory, "Our Splatfest Destiny" states that Desti is the daughter of DJ Octavio.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge:
  • "Swagmaster and The Wrath of Saiko" has Saiko chasing after Swagmaster for revenge on him for stealing the name of Meggy's fire brigade, referencing a gag in "Mario VS Siren Head".
  • DJ Octavio goes after Mario for apparently stealing his Octobot to use for The Meme Games in "In Hot Water with the Octarians", as well as its prequel, "Get That Human!: Octavio's Fury"!. He goes after Mario for it again in "Return Of The Inkling".
  • After the events of "Mario Obliterates Minions", Gru hunts Mario down in "Despicable Retaliation".
• Role Swap AU: "Eggman's Chao Defense" features a friendly version of Dr. Eggman protecting a Chao from an evil version of Sonic the Hedgehog... or rather, Sonic.EXE (and Starved Eggman).
• Romance: He's made a large amount of stories that involve two characters on a date or otherwise in a romantic setting. Even stories that don't focus largely on romance still make room for it sometimes.
• Running Gag: Burgdorf singing "poor old man" is a recurring joke in "If Mario Was In Hitler Rants Parodies".
• Say My Name: The last line of dialogue in "Trapped in the Ruins" is Peach screaming Mario's name as she realizes there is no escape from the castle as it's being consumed.
• Science Fiction: Sci-Fi is a genre he writes for a lot, particularly with his stories based on sci-fi shows like Doctor Who.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: How the conflict in "Pooh and Spaghetti" is resolved. James even says in the fic's description on DeviantArt that a Scooby-Doo style is exactly what he was going for when unmasking the villains. Same goes for "Santa Mario Wants Mario's Liver".
• Self-Harm: Swagmaster, of all characters, does this in "Desperate for A Redesign" when he's that upset he doesn't have a redesign like the other SMG4 characters.
• Sequel Episode: Several of James' stories are direct followups to previous ones.
  • "Spider-MJ 2 Goblin Night" is this to "Spider-MJ" as indicated by the number.
  • "An Evening Swim" is this to "Sticks' Leaf-Made BFF Swimsuit for Amy".
  • "Sonic Learns That Roger Craig Smith Is Back" is this to "Sonic Learns The News About Roger Craig Smith".
  • "Senbo and Starved: Thanksgiving Comeback" is this to "Senbo and the Starved".
  • "Knuckles & Spider-Man: Fun In Paradise" is this to "Knuckles & Spider-Man: Hunter Trouble"
  • "Senbo's Turf War" is this to "If Senbo Was In Splatoon".
  • "The Return of Solvetsky Romanov" is this to "The Tomb Raider And The Russian Terrorist".
  • "Godzilla: Nuclear Apocalypse" is this to "Godzilla: Unearthly Nuclear Horror".
  • "Busting a Bob" is this to "Melony's Laundry". Notably, this is the first sequel fic to follow up its predecessor on the same day.
  • "Hypnotized Hedgehogs and Evil Queens" directly follows up on "Sonic and The Queen of Hearts". Notably, the latter story ends on a To Be Continued note specifically setting up for a sequel fic.
• Sex Slave: While it isn't outright stated, Alt. Axol's harem of anime waifus in "The Rogue Axolotl Anime Artist" are shown to be suffering under him, and clearly don't show him affection of their own volition.
• Sexual Euphemism: James is not above sexual innuendos in his stories that contain Fanservice. For example, in "Saiko Rocks: Seaside Saiko", the narration says this while describing Saiko's thoughts during her modeling.
  And things were probably gonna get a little messy whenever men looked at her and thought about being with the gorgeous pink-haired anime rock star, weren't they?
• Sexy Discretion Shot:
  • Some of James' more romantic stories have the two leads preparing to make love, only for the stories to end before they reach the point of sex. Take "Team B: War Splats Attack" and "The Soft Touch of Paradise", for example.
  • For stories that don't end with a Sexy Discretion Shot, just transition to the next scene, there's "Chris and Tifa: The Search For Helen".
• Sexy Surfacing Shot: Once again, this often happens in James' romance stories as characters rise from swimming pools in a sexual manner. Just look at "Sky's Relaxing Beach Massage" and "The Melon and the Vanny", for example.
• Short Story: Most of his stories are oneshots.
• Shower of Love: Macho Spandex makes out with Qelecha in the shower in the original story "The Charismatic Macho Mexican Speedo Superhero". Fanfics that use this include "The Melon and the Vanny" between Melony and Jaxl, "The Haunted Resort" between Sonic and Daphne, "Midsummer Intimacy At Mahi-Mahi Resort" between Mario and Meggy, "A Pool Time Kiss In The Shower" between Locke and Lara-Le, and "Summer Love In The Shower" between Tails and Sticks.
• Shower Scene: Characters taking a shower is a common premise in his stories, the earliest example of this being "Princess Amy Rose's Poolside Shower".
• Shown Their Work: When Hal Monitor is executing Murd via the electric chair in "Rise of A Robo-Cop", it's said that 25,000 volts of electricity were used; the exact number of volts used to kill victims of electric chairs in real life.
• Slice of Life: His more relaxed stories tend to feature characters simply living their lives with little conflict.
• Something Else Also Rises: Mario's nose enlarging during... suggestive moments is something that carries over from SMG4. Case in point, after Meggy kisses him on the cheek in "Midsummer Intimacy At Mahi-Mahi Resort".
  Meggy: C'mon, Red. Just because we live in a wacky surreal world doesn't mean you can let your nose do wacky things all the time. Are you really going to do that every time you see something hot or get a kiss from me?
• Sore Loser: It's common for Inklings to not take losing Splatfest matches particularly well. However, Callum takes it a step further in "Inkantation and Destiny" by shooting Desti. Thankfully, this doesn't kill her.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Characters dying in a series James writes for does not stop him from using them in his stories, as seen with SMG4 characters Desti and Axol. Justified, as the stories featuring them either take place before their deaths or in an another universe altogether.
  • At the end of "Mario Obliterates Minions", the laser Mario shot at Gru blew him to smithereens. In "Despicable Retaliation", however, Gru has an ace up his sleeve that allows him to survive... and swear revenge on Mario for obliterating his Minions.
• Spoiler Title:
  • "Alternate Destinies -Mario and Meggy's Victory" gives away the outcome from its title alone.
  • There's also "How The Daleks Ruined Christmas". Unlike How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, the title indicates that the Daleks will win this one.
• Spot the Imposter: "Manta Trouble" focuses on a fake manta impersonating Big Man. This was inspired by the SMG4 video "If Mario Was In... Splatoon 3" featuring an improvised model of the character due to an official model of him not having been released yet.
• The Stinger: Starting sometime in 2022, James has gotten into writing scenes after the "The End" tag.
• Superhero Stories: Some of his stories are based on DC and Marvel superheroes.
• Surpassed the Teacher: "The Champion's Challenge" ends with Meggy beating her idol Oneshot Wren.
• Take That!: There's a piece of dialogue in "Inkling Rizz Time" between Makerboy 10 and SGA that sheds some light on a certain controversial scene from the latter's then-latest video, "Sonic Works At Sonic". To those confused, it regards literal poop being shown onscreen, which the author felt was unnecessary.
  Makerboy: And look at you, sitting alone. Looks like people aren't too fond of your video style, regardless if you're different from SMG4, especially after what you pulled in your recent video.
  SGA: You think so?
  Makerboy: I'm just sayin', its easier to have class in those videos of yours. And SMG4 had way more delicacy when Mario worked at McDonald's and KFC than you did when Sonic worked at Sonic. Not everyone liked what you did, my bro Jim was disgusted.
  SGA: And what are you trying to get at?
  Makerboy: Being gross isn't cool. And guess what? You get no girls, yeah, you get absolutely no girls. You got no rizz!
• Tears of Joy: Characters have cried these many times in James' stories, such as in "Nothing To Fear, Meggy", "SplatSquad vs Team Blue: One Legendary Turf Match-Up", "An Invitation To Splatville", "When Axol Proposed to Melony", and "A Charming Hot Tub Romance". This also shows up in his drawings, such as this one depicting Meggy's birthday.
• The Teaser: True to SMG4's "If Mario Was In..." videos, "If Mario Was In Lara Croft" has a brief scene of Mario meeting Lara for the first time prior to the story's title.
• Thanksgiving Episode: He's made "Sonic Thanksgiving" on 2020 and "Eggsgiving" on 2021. 2022 was a year where he made a total of five stories related to Thanksgiving, including one combined with a birthday.
• Threatening Shark: A shark tries to eat Shantae in "The Genie and The Shark".
• Title Drop:
  • The SMG4 fanfic "A Brand-New Day" concludes with the characters proclaiming that it's just that.
  • Obviously, a story with a One-Word Title about a made-up holiday is going to say the name of that holiday at a few points.
  • Tari's speech (in her thoughts) at the end of "Uncertainty"—which is a Shout-Out to Terminator 2: Judgment Day—contains the word "uncertainty" in it.
  • At one point in "Was Buying It A Good Idea?", Tom Nook asks Boopkins "D-D-Do you think buying this park m-m-may be a good idea?" Downplayed in that the wording isn't exact.
• Treasure Hunt Episode: "Ink-Pirate Treasure Hunt", based on Splatoon, has the Inksonas of James' friends, as well as the Squid Sisters, looking for hidden pirate treasure.
• Twisted Christmas:
  • "How The Daleks Ruined Christmas" is the story of the Daleks taking over the Earth during Christmas.
  • "Mario and The Mean One" is this in spades. Directly inspired by the then-upcoming horror movie The Mean One, The Grinch goes on a killing spree, and intends to make Mario his next victim.
  • There's also "Santa Mario Wants Mario's Liver", which is pretty self-explanatory.
  • "Dedede's Santa Stew" shows King Dedede kidnapping Santa Claus and cooking him into stew.
• Under the Mistletoe: If a romance story from him is themed around Christmas, expect some mistletoe-kissing. One story is even titled after this very trope.
• Unusual Euphemism: While James isn't afraid to have characters swear or use Symbol Swearing, sometimes he'll use some... interesting subsitutes. Examples include "oval eggs" in place of "ovaries", and "carp" for "crap".
• Villains Out Shopping:
  • The premise of "Eggman's Relaxing Retirement", which is pretty self-explanatory.
  • Also the premise of "The Villain Christmas Gathering", where Bowser invites many famous video game villains for Christmas.
• Villain Team-Up: Boom Shadow and Infinite join forces to get revenge on Shadow in "Boom Shadow and Infinite's Revenge".
• Visions of Another Self: When characters aren't meeting alternate versions of themselves in the living flesh, they get glimpses of them through other means, such as dreams (as we've seen in "Meggy's Metamorphosis Nightmare" and "Fireworks of Love", for example).
• Waterfall Shower:
  • "Tropical Terror on Strahgner Island" ends with Jon and Tess having one together after dealing with the monsters that attacked them.
  • Saiko has one at the end of "Saiko Rocks: Seaside Saiko", which is interrupted by a perverted Inkling boy. And Meggy filming it on her camera. The scene is illustrated in this drawing.
• We Can Rule Together: Sha'D'Oh Nightmare makes this proposal to Dr. Eggman and DJ Octavio... though not without giving them both a taste of his power first.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Most of "Lara Croft and The Sacred Ark" is told in flashback as Lara explains to Oskar about her Lost Ark adventure.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: "Mario and SMG3's Jailbreak Time" seems to end with Mario and SMG3's prison break going off without a hitch, only for them to be apprehended by the law all over again in The Stinger.
• Your Mom: Bob uses this diss towards Garrow in "Hardware Store Trouble".
• Zombie Apocalypse: These have shown up in some of his stories, most notably "Night of the Redead" and "Attack of The Cat Zombies".

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