We take a dive down the SMG4 rabbithole of different timelines…
En route back from Brazil, Mario and SMG4 come across a Fan Fic Idea Plant, and upon Mario rummaging around their waste, they and the audience explore scenarios where certain events of the show happened differently, among other strange and ridiculous scenarios.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: "Marko" reacts with a Big "OMG!" when "Mango" gets kidnapped. If this were a real SMG4 video, Mario wouldn't care less if this happened to Peach.
- Affably Evil: True to the actual SMG4 version of Bowser, his replacement in the "cease and desist" timeline says hi to everyone and asks how they are before kidnapping Princess Pea...err, "Mango".
- And I Must Scream: It's implied that "Marko" is actually Mario being forced to change his identity (and is forced to hide the fact that SMG4's channel got screwed by lawyers from Tari) in order to avoid getting shot by Miyamoto.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: "What if Desti never died?" shows the many adventures that Desti would've gone on with the gang if she hadn't died. She's quick to avenge Meggy after the false Sephiroth from earlier returns to kill her.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the "What If the Arc Villains won?" segment, it showed what would've happened if they won. These are all Played for Laughs,
except Waluigi's.- Francis: All the Inklings (including Meggy) have been drained to death by the Ink Zuccer 2000, and injected in Axol's Inkweaver so Francis could use it to make his own island of waifus and presumably kill the main cast. He is seen throwing a birthday party for himself with the waifus he drew.
- SMG3: Since Mario has probably never gotten SMG3's phone to get his friends out of the Internet Graveyard, the latter has changed the channel's name to his own to ensure his takeover of the channel and his victory.
- Waluigi: Since he turned the SMG4 gang (and by extension, everyone) into T-Pose zombies, the world completely belongs to him and to ensure his victory, he had to kill Wario, his own brother. He afterwards says "at what cost?", implying that he regrets it.
- Bob: He continues his rapping career, with Toilet Humor lyrics, and it is presumed he forgot all about his friends.
- Blatant Lies: Tari asks if Saiko hid something (a KFC delivery truck) under her bed. Saiko denies it.
- Call-Back: Princess Mango is the alien dressed as Peach from "Stupid Mario Arcade".
- Captain Ersatz: In one scenario, Nintendo gives SMG4's channel a cease-and-desist, forcing him to replace the Mario cast with Suspiciously Similar Substitutes.
- Damned By a Fool's Praise: After going through all the fanfic ideas.Mario: Wow... don't your fans have all the greatest ideas?
- Deep-Fried Whatever: The alternate universe where Bob became the next Colonel Sanders has him proclaiming how frying anything, including actual people, is allowed now at Bob's Fried Crap.
- Despair Event Horizon: Melony bears witness to the alternate universe where she simps for VeggieTales and declares:God is dead, and we have killed him.
- Downer Ending:
- "What if: Mario never became stupid when SMG4 showed up." has Mario not understanding SMG4's request to do something stupid, leading to SMG4 being cancelled and fading from existence right then and there.
- "What if Francis, SMG3, Waluigi and Bob won in their arcs?" has the titular villains all besting the main cast. Walugi's scenario gets the most focus, showing he isn't truly happy with this outcome.
- "What if Desti never died?" initially plays out like a Golden Ending, with everyone surviving the events of the Anime Arc and Desti becoming a part of the main cast's adventures...up until the end of Meggy's Destiny, which sees the Sephiroth replica return and fatally stab Meggy instead, right after the duo had just won Splatfest together. AU Desti in the present day has since been hunting down said replica to avenge her.
- Failed a Spot Check: What ultimately prevents the "What If Desti Never Died" segment from being a Golden Ending. The false Sephiroth that Desti dodges is smashed through a wall by Saiko, but he isn't killed. This allows it to return to ambush Meggy when the girls weren't paying attention.
- Filler: The only connection this episode has with Super Meme Genesis is Mario and SMG4 leaving Brazil, having found the answers they were seeking for the past few episodes.
- Flat "What": Bob's reaction to being called a "sussy baka" by Melony.
- For Want Of A Nail: Three of the scenarios show what would happen if a.) Mario never turned stupid, b.) the villains of each arc won, and c.) Desti survived the Anime Arc. Each one has a Downer Ending in its own right: in the first, the show loses its purpose and SMG4 fades from existence; in the second, the Glitchy Gang is implied to have been killed in most of the arcs (or in Bob's case, permanently alienated from him), and Waluigi is especially depressed over killing Wario; and in the third, the Sephiroth clone who would've killed Desti survives to kill Meggy later on instead.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Downplayed in the "What if everyone had the wrong voice for their character" segment, where everyone's voice is swapped with another character, resulting in scenarios such as Bob singing "Bitch Lasagna" with Melony's voice and Melony saying how much of an "uwu girl" she is with Bob's voice.
- Golden Ending: Subverted with the "What If Desti Never Died" segment, which shows a timeline where Desti survived, went on adventures with the gang, and won the final Splatfest with Meggy. Unfortunately, said timeline also resulted in on of the false Sephiroths surviving the battle on Anime Island, allowing it to backstab Meggy when the girls weren't paying attention. Desti then chases down the false Sephiroth and fights it. We never find out if she won or lost.
- Her Code Name Was "Mary Sue": In "What if Melony ran the SMG4 channel?", the story she makes is pretty on point to the usual SMG4 shenanigans, albeit in "lil' chonk" form, until Melony brings herself in and solves everything with the Power of Friendship. SMG4 is unimpressed.
- In Spite of a Nail: In "What if Bob was polite to women?" he still gets no luck as while he's polite, he's still inappropriate.
- Lyrical Dissonance: Mario's depression over the world running out of spaghetti is accompanied by a very sad song... about eating ass.
- Mood Whiplash: Used in "What if Francis, SMG3, Waluigi and Bob won in their arcs?" After the humorous scenes of Francis' island of waifus and SMG3 taking over the channel, we cut to Waluigi in despair over killing Wario... and then Bob rapping with Toilet Humor lyrics.
- No Ending: The conflict between Desti and Sephiroth in "What if Desti never died?" is left unresolved.
- No Name Given: The Mario, Luigi, and Peach replacements are named Marko, Loui, and Princess Mango, respectively. However, the Bowser replacement isn't given a name.
- No-Sell: Bob is able to resist a Groin Attack form Saiko because he has ovaries.
- Pyrrhic Victory: What Waluigi's ending would have been for him if he had won, because it would have meant his brother's death.
- Self-Deprecation: "What if SMG4 was high on drugs?" has SMG4 himself say that's what normal SMG4 is already, before he awkwardly laughs and leaves to go cry.
- Suddenly Speaking: Downplayed with Melony, who's had original voice clips and full singing used before, but "What if Melony ran the SMG4 channel?" features Melony speaking in fully comprehensible sentences without interruption for almost a whole minute.
- Take That, Audience!: Of course SMG4 fanfic ideas would be depicted as toxic waste.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Bob's final words as Saiko force chokes him?Harder, daddy!
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: SMG4 makes it abundantly clear that he is not keen on exploring fanfic ideas any longer.
- What If?: The whole episode is a Vignette Episode featuring viewer-submitted "what if" situations, which Mario and SMG4 witness after coming into contact with fanfic ideas (represented as toxic waste) as a Framing Device. Scenarios range from For Want Of A Nail scenarios (what if the various Arc Villains won?), to absurd hypotheticals (what if everyone was Bob?), and ones that are hard to categorize (What if Melony called Bob a "Sussy baka"?).
