MarioFan's What If? is a Series Fic based on the Super Mario Bros. franchise. As the name suggests takes the Mario franchise or a certain instalment of it and explores what would change if something major was different. Each instalment is in its own Alternate Universe, with them only loosely connected through a multiverse.
The entire series can be found here
on Archive of Our Own.
This series contains examples of:
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In General
- Adaptation Personality Change: Mario in each of the fics he appears in is much more talkative than he is in canon.
- Original Character: The series has one Toad, often called "Chief Toad", who is the head of the Mushroom Kingdom military and very serious about his job, and who shows up in a majority of the fics. Due to the nature of them as What If? stories, it is technically a different version of him each time.
- What If?: This is the series' entire premise, with each instalment delving into the idea of what would happen if something changed and progressing from there.
What If Bowser Never Existed?
- Adaptational Job Change:
- Downplayed in the case of the Mario brothers. They are still plumbers, like in canon, but as a result of Bowser not existing, the Mario brothers are only plumbers and not heroic adventurers or any of the other many jobs they have.
- The Koopalings, as a result of them never being adopted by Bowser, they have become mercenaries for hire.
- Adapted Out: The main premise of this is that Bowser has been removed from the story and the story explores how much of an impact this has on everything. Bowser Jr. also doesn't exist as a result of this.
- The Comically Serious: The Chief Toad never displays any emotion other than total seriousness. Until the very end, when he laughs at Mario and Peach's conversation.
- Hidden Villain: The Koopalings' mysterious employer is never revealed. The only thing that is known is that they want the Princess for some reason.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite being separated from Peach for most of his life due to circumstances, Mario still ends up falling in love with her when they do end up meeting.
What If Fawful Absorbed the Dark Star?
- Adaptational Badass: While Fawful was already very smart, competent, and powerful in canon, those traits increase even further after he fully absorbs the Dark Star. His powers have increased to the point where he can superpower anyone at will. He is able to pull off a clever series of tricks to get the Beanbean Kingdom on his side and play them against the Mushroom Kingdom, and his power is so immense that the Mario Brothers are unable to beat him.
- Antagonist in Mourning: Even Bowser mourns Starlow's death after her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Benevolent Boss: Fawful, for as much of a villain as he is, treats Midbus extremely well. As a reward for being such a loyal minion, he not only unthaws Midbus from his ice but also grants him new power and a place to rule by his side.
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end, the heroes are able to defeat Fawful and save the Mushroom Kingdom from his rule. However, this was at the cost of Starlow's life, and Midbus is still around and wants revenge for the death of Fawful.
- The Chessmaster: Fawful throughout the story, but plays everyone almost perfectly. He is able to set up events to get the Beanbean Kingdom to trust him so he can play them against the Mushroom Kingdom. He traps the Mario Brothers inside of the pipe system so they can't interfere with his plans. Even when the Mario Brothers escape, Fawful has a backup plan to immobilize the entire Beanbean Army, and in the end, nearly manages to win.
- Decomposite Character: Dark Bowser, instead of being an alternate form of The Dark Star, is the brainwashed version of regular Bowser when Fawful brainwashes him.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When the Mario Brothers can't defeat Fawful, Starlow sacrifices herself by blowing herself up to release a large amount of light energy, destroying Fawful's dark energy.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Fawful managing to absorb The Dark Star, they are still able to defeat him, but at the cost of Starlow's life.
- Mythology Gag: Starlow's sacrifice to save the Kingdom from Fawful is reminiscent of Tippi's sacrifice to save the universe in Super Paper Mario.
- Near-Villain Victory: Fawful nearly wins and takes over everything as he is simply too powerful for the Mario Brothers to stop. He only loses due to Starlow pulling a Heroic Sacrifice.
What If The Shadow Queen Tried to Possess Mario?
- Anyone Can Die: Princess Peach, Mario’s partners, Frankly, Lord Crump, and eventually Mario himself all end up dying during this fic.
- Bittersweet Ending: Luigi defeats the corrupted Shadow Mario but kills him in the process, and a slew of people die as a result of everything.
- Composite Character: After he is corrupted by the darkness of The Shadow Queen, Mario is called by the name of Shadow Mario. Shadow Mario is usually a separate character in the franchise.
- Didn't Think This Through: The Shadow Queen attempted to possess Mario but didn’t think of the fact that Mario would be able to resist her corruption. The Shadow Queen failed at possessing Mario, but in the process, Mario was corrupted by the amount of darkness he was exposed to at once.
- Dying as Yourself: When Mario ends up accidentally killed by Luigi, Mario briefly breaks free of the darkness and thanks Luigi for freeing him, before he dies.
- Enemy Mine: Luigi and Lord Crump end up teaming up to take down Mario after Luigi points out that the Shadow Queen never cared about their plans to rule the world.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Lord Crump sacrifices himself by jumping in front of Mario’s blast, dying in the process, but handing Luigi a crystal star to power him up.
- Not Brainwashed: Downplayed, Mario was corrupted and had his mind destroyed by the sheer amount of darkness he was exposed to at once when the Shadow Queen tried to possess him. However, Luigi initially thinks that Mario is being possessed by the Shadow Queen, and Mario makes it clear to Luigi that this is not what is going on.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The Shadow Queen is killed off very early in the story, but her trying to possess Mario is what kicks off the events of the entire story.
What If Mario Had a Picnic?
- Breather Episode: After how crazy and death-heavy the previous two instalments were, this one is way more low-stakes and the twist at the end is pretty mundane and everything turns out well.
- Evil All Along: It turns out that the Mario who set up the picnic was Mimi disguised as Mario, who did it for some reason.
- For the Evulz: It's not revealed why Mimi tricked everyone into setting up a picnic; she apparently just wanted to have fun.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: When "Mario" suggests inviting Bowser over to the picnic, he mentions how they invite Bowser to go-karting and sports.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Both Luigi and Peach notice that there is something off about the way Mario is acting; they don't find out that it's actually due to him being Mimi in disguise until the real Mario comes.
What If The Mario Brothers Were Imprisoned in Paintings?
- Adaptational Badass: King Boo gets much further along in his plan than he ever did in canon. He could trap the Mario Brothers inside the painting and then destroy the Mushroom Kingdom before he was overthrown.
- Bad Boss: King Boo shows shades of this when the Boos start questioning his actions, and once they turn on him, King Boo tries to kill them all.
- The Bad Guy Wins: King Boo starts the story off winning in his plan. He defeated Luigi and trapped him along with Mario inside a painting. King Boo then took revenge against the entire Mushroom Kingdom, destroying it.
- Bittersweet Ending: King Boo destroyed the Mushroom Kingdom and killed a large number of people, including Princess Peach. However, he ends up being overthrown by the Boos when he plans to lead them on a suicide invasion and Mario and Luigi escape.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Princess Peach is killed by King Boo during his invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom when Princess Peach calls out King Boo that his revenge is only about himself.
- King Boo himself is killed when the Boos overthrow him when he plans to invade every single kingdom that is allied with the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Fate Worse than Death: King Boo states unequivocally that Mario and Luigi's stay inside the painting will result in a fate far worse than death. He is not lying.
- Hero Killer: King Boo kills Chief Toad and then Princess Peach during his invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: King Boo likes to act like he is doing what he is doing to get revenge for his people's mistreatment. However, it becomes increasingly clear that King Boo is doing it to get revenge only for himself, no matter how bad of an idea that revenge is or how little it makes sense. Eventually, the rest of the Boos realizes this and overthrow him, with King Boo declaring them all traitors and trying to kill them.
- Revenge Before Reason: King Boo is so obsessed with getting revenge, no matter what that might be, that he is willing to lead his people in an invasion that they will surely lose. It is what causes the rest of the Boos to overthrow him.
What If Lewis Hamilton Competed in Mario Kart?
- Breather Episode: In comparison to the previous episode, this one is much more relaxed and, as
Word of God admits, exists mostly for the joke. - Deconstruction: The installment is about how insane the way Mario Kart is run would appear to someone from Real Life. In this case, using professional racer Lewis Hamilton did so.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The instalment is based on famous racer Lewis Hamilton showing up in the Mario universe, and he finds the way Mario Kart is run to be quite insane.
