YMMV / Mario & Luigi: Darkest Timeline

• Anti-Climax Boss: As a result of the Beige Prose approach to writing fighting scenes, both Emperor Bowser and Mephistopheles end up feeling like they went down very easily.
• Complete Monster: Mephistopheles is a monster, both figuratively and literally, and the one responsible for the creation of the titular "Darkest Timeline". Mephistopheles would murder Princess Peach and use that death to manipulate Bowser into leading a massive war on the Mushroom Kingdom that ended with a large majority of it completely wiped out. When Bowser is getting overwhelmed by the rebels, Mephistopheles murders him simply for failing, and plans to show his son no mercy. Mephistopheles then plans to use the time machine brought from the past to travel across time and reshape reality as he sees fit showing no concern about the possibility of this causing a Time Crash and wiping out billions of universes. During the final battle with the heroes, Mephistopheles ends up killing one of the Toads.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Bowser is once again the King of Koopas and the ruler of his kingdom. In the opening parts of the fic, Bowser found out about a spy in his ranks and fed the spy false info in order to distract the Mario Brothers so he could steal Professor E. Gadd's time machine and get rid of the Mario Brothers for good. When Bowser ends up in the future, he heads toward his future counterpart and through a series of deductions is able to figure out that the demon helping Emperor Bowser is the one who has manipulated everything. When Mephistopheles offers Bowser a similar deal as he offered Bowser's future counterpart in the past, this Bowser, having learned how pointless trying to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom is, refuses his offer. After returning to the present, Bowser acknowledges Mario and Luigi as Worthy Opponents and walks away to do something different with his life.
  • The Bad Future version of Mario himself proves to be much more manipulative and ruthless than his past counterpart. In this reality, Mario formed a resistance after Emperor Bowser conquered the Mushroom Kingdom and was able to keep going for many years. When Mario and Luigi from the past arrive, Future Mario enacts his plan to finally take down Emperor Bowser. A few days ago he had Luigi Captured on Purpose so that he can have his rebels attack Bowser's castle, sacrificing a majority of them to use as a distraction so Luigi can sneak out of jail and wipe out the rest of Emperor Bowser's army with a bomb leaving Emperor Bowser with nothing left.