”I thought the ritual just gave me long hair…”
Warning: Do not attempt to perform this ritual with less than three people chanting, as that will change the sex of the person inside the circle. This damage is irreversible.
— Uncle Gary
All Because of Uncle Gary is an Alternate Universe Diary of a Wimpy Kid fanfic (or LLBnote ) set during the events of The Third Wheel, written by IcyOpportunity9
of Yogurt Extended Universe fame, and published throughout December 2021-January 2022. It is based on an unused idea for Irreversible Damage, another LLB made by the same user.
While preparing for family dinner with the Stringers, Uncle Gary and Rodrick do a satanic ritual on Greg that is supposed to make him irresistible to girls, but ends up reversing his gender. After Laurel is unimpressed with Greg's cover-up as a member of the Stealthinators, Greg passes herself at school as transfer student "Greta Hauser" ("Stephanie Cooper" in the Imgur version). After a food fight during the Valentine’s Day dance resulting in most of the couples breaking up, Greta starts dating Rowley, until Rowley starts dating Abigail. This results in various personal struggles surrounding further dates and fears of her identity exposed.
Read it here.
All Because of Uncle Gary includes examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: In the original version, Greg went by Greta Hauser after becoming female; in the Imgur version, she goes by Stephanie Cooper.
- Adaptational Badass: In the books, Uncle Gary is an unemployed slacker and moocher of little particular accomplishment. Here, he's a practicing black magician and a career criminal that repeatedly pulls off difficult crimes, evades police pursuit and breaks out of prison.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Rodrick is the DJ for the Valentine's Day Dance and plays his band's music there. Many of the girls at Greta’s school adore him for this reason alone.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Uncle Gary was originally a wannabe millionaire obsessed with scratch tickets in The Third Wheel, but here, he is hinted to be a local criminal. Known acts include shoplifting, credit card robbery and kidnapping. He also creates a “fake Greg” by using the ritual on a lookalike girl (hinted to be Julie Webber; confirmed in Irreversible Damage) to prevent Susan from discovering the truth. Although he is actually A Lighter Shade of Black compared to everyone else.
- Abigail Brown is significantly worse here than she was in the books. She ridicules Greta's popularity and makes a lot of transphobic comments towards her, including playing a clip of Susan telling Manny to call Greta "Sissy" instead of the usual "Bubby".
- Manny is a Bratty Half-Pint in the books, but here he's all but stated to have killed the Stringer family's son, and he repeatedly acts transphobic towards Greta.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: While Greta is grateful that her dad accepts her gender identity, Frank ends up putting his foot in his mouth by mentioning how much she looks like her mother on the day they met.
- Big Damn Heroes: Uncle Gary saves Greta by turning Abigail and her minions into boys.
- Book Ends: The fanfic opens with Uncle Gary using the recurring satanic ritual on Greg. It ends with Greta and Uncle Gary about to use it on another transgender girl.
- Canis Latinicus: The incantation for the Satanic ritual is a mix of pseudo-Latin fragments and names that aren't even in dog Latin.Santo rita mita meada ringo jonah tito marlon jack la toya janet micheal dumbledora the explora...
- Crossover: The last few pages introduce the titular protagonist of Rain (2010).
- Death by Adaptation:
- Wesley Stringer is found dead in the ballpit at Corny's, while he made it to the end of The Third Wheel alive.
- Manny ends up dying in the process of Abigail and her cronies getting turned into boys.
- First Law of Gender Bending: The incorrectly-performednote version of the ritual, which swaps the gender of those within the circle of effect, cannot be reversed. This leaves Greta, AKA Greg, stuck as a woman... although she quickly comes to enjoy the change.
- Gender Bender: Uncle Gary's ritual permanently swaps the sex of whoever it's performed on if fewer than three people chant the incantation. This happens multiple times across the comic: Greta is first, followed by Julie Webber, and finally Abigail's entourage.
- Gender-Bender Friendship: After becoming female, Greta is quick to befriend the other girls at her school, winning them over with juicy gossip about the boys. When she gets outed as a trans woman to everyone at school by Abigail, she's worried that they'll turn on her for it, but every girl not part of Abigail's friend circle remains accepting of her.
- Good Parents: They're still not 100% perfect, but Greta's parents end up fully accepting of her being trans, with Frank vowing to atone for his previous treatment of her.
- Hate Sink: Abigail Brown is worse here in the story. Her transphobic comments and teaming up with Laurel Springer near the end sells it. Her father is just as bad as she is and tells Susan to have Frank "beat some sense into [Greta]".
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Uncle Gary proves to be so skilled at evading the cops while driving a motorhome that he only gets arrested once his vehicle runs out of gas. When a newscaster jokingly wonders how long Gary's spent playing Grand Theft Auto, Greta's comment of "a lot" suggests that playing the game is how Uncle Gary picked up his driving skills.
- Incest-ant Admirer: Rodrick at one point asks to watch Greta change, with Greta pointing out how gross this is. (This is the only time he does this, implying he either got the message or was just messing with her.)
- Inciting Incident: The story begins just prior to the Heffleys' dinner with the Stringers, which happens in the middle of The Third Wheel. Greta being gender-bended knocks everything off the rails immediately.
- Karmic Transformation: Abigail’s transphobic Girl Posse are transformed into boys by Uncle Gary’s Imperfect Ritual.
- Lampshade Hanging: The canon novels having the cast perpetually remain the same age is indirectly referenced when Greta comments that it feels like it took years for her to graduate from middle school.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Abigail Brown gets suspended for humiliating Greta at school through the intercom. She and her cronies also get turned into boys by Uncle Gary at the end.
- Manny refuses to accept Greta's identity as a girl and his continuing to insist Greta is his brother gets recorded by Abigail and played over the middle school intercom. He gets blasted to smithereens by the shockwave from the ritual that turns Abigail and her friends into boys.
- Look Behind You: Greta gets out of having sex with Ed Norwell by claiming to see a flying train somewhere. It doesn't quite work out, as Ed spots her sneaking out of his room and ends up chasing her home in his underwear.Greta: Hang on a minute, is that a flying train over there?
Ed: A train? Where? Where? - Mundane Fantastic: The story has exactly the same mundane real-life setting as the books, except that there are also magic rituals capable of changing people's biological sexes and/or making them sexually irresistible. This is not common knowledge, but is treated as fairly mundane when it comes up.
- Mythology Gag:
- The name "Greta" was also used in another LLB, Greg Gets a Girlfriend.
- When describing the ritual's effects when it is miscast, the online description notes that "this damage is irreversible".
- Nice Guy: Rowley is consistently the kindest, most accepting and most forgiving character in the story. He holds no grudges, seemingly never gets angry, and accepts both Greg's sex and gender change and her relationship with Baylee without comment, noting only that he's happy if they're happy.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Baylee and Greta both originally were just pretending to be lesbians to get the guys in their school to back off just because of them being single. Eventually it becomes an actual relationship for good since in this fanfic, Baylee ends up coming out as bisexual during it.
- Running Gag: Ed Norwell mistaking Greta for Julie Webber, and vice versa.
- Second Law of Gender-Bending: Greta comes to like being a girl; she is explicitly described as a trans girl multiple times.
- Setting Update: The original book was set in the early 2010s, while this fanfic appears to be set in the early 2020s, as face masksnote are shown during one of Greg and Rowley's dates.
- Shout-Out:
- The Satanic ritual incantation includes the phrase "dumbledora the explora" and the names of several members of the Jackson family (including Michael, Janet, and members of The Jackson 5).
- Uncle Gary's driving skills are said to be the result of playing an excessive amount of Grand Theft Auto, with one illustration confirming that the specific game he played is San Andreas.
- During an early date with Rowley, Greta watches The Room (2003) at the cinema.
- Tempting Fate: Greta notes that Manny is still expressing transphobia towards her after she comes out to her parents, but decides to brush it off because he's only three and the rest of the family supports her, wondering "what can he do anyways?" Manny's insistence on continuing to call Greta "bubby" gets filmed by Abigail, kickstarting the climax of the story.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Julie Webber/Fake Greg's final fate is left unknown; all that's known is that they last escaped from Uncle Gary.
