Fanfic / Mysteries of the Universe

Mysteries of the Universe is an SMG4 fanfiction written by CVGW James, retelling the events of the Genesis Arc up to The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special in his own unique way. It's also the first of the author's series of SMG4 arc retellings, though not the first to be completed (that honor falls to The Lawyers Are Coming! The Lawyers Are Coming!).

Like the original, the story is kicked off when SMG4 realizes he can’t remember where he came from, so he sets off on a quest to discover who he really is... unaware that the apocalypse brought upon by an eldritch virus is nigh, as foretold by two strange hobos.

James began production on the story October 22nd, 2022, finishing it on June 27th, 2023 with a total of 52 chapters. The story as a whole is far from over, though, as Secrets of the Universe dives into the second half of the Genesis Arc.

You can read the story on FanFiction.Net here, or on DeviantArt here. Note that the latter link leads to a folder that shares the story and its illustrations with those of Secrets of the Universe.

It should be noted that on December 6th 2023, James reorganized Chapters 3-14 to have the events of "Mario VS Youtubers" come first, when it was originally "Perfectly Balanced".

Mysteries of the Universe contains examples of:

• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Whereas Zero didn’t make his debut until the Genesis Arc’s third episode^note or seventh, depending on whether or not you count "Mario VS Youtubers", "The Pursuit of Happiness", "Mario's Bed and Breakfast", and "Mario Babies", all of which had some connection to the arc, but were excluded from the playlist on YouTube, here, the story begins with him capturing a Mario recolor in a Villain Opening Scene.
  • The two hobos made their first appearance in an SMG4 video that was loosely connected to the Genesis Arc at best, and while said video is adapted into the story, they made their first appearance in Chapter 2, where the events of "The Pursuit of Happiness" haven't happened yet.
  • In the original, Axol made his first arc appearance in The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special. Here, he makes his first physical^note He was mentioned a few times in previous chapters beforehand appearance in Chapter 21. By this point in the arc, the events of the anniversary special haven't happened yet.
  • In The Stinger of the final chapter, SMG1 and 2, very much alive, use their meme-controlling powers that we wouldn't know about until the second half of the Genesis Arc.
• Adaptational Explanation:
  • The reason Meggy quit working as a police officer? She got near-fatally injured fighting a criminal sometime after the events of the YouTube Arc.
  • Morshu wasn’t shown breaking out of the Boo that was encasing him in "Perfectly Balanced", but Chapter 16 describes how he did so.
  • It was left ambiguous in the original series how SMG3 met Terrance, but Chapter 20 provides an explanation.
  • Chapter 21 explains how Axol earned the trophy that we’ve seen him with in "If Mario Was In... Anime".
  • Chapter 37 clarifies how Waluigi got into the van Mario and SMG4 use for their road trip when it was flying away, something The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special glosses over.
• Adaptational Name Change: Because of FanFiction's policy regarding using real people in stories—or in this case, cartoon characters with real people's names—Susan Wojcicki is referred to as just "the YouTube CEO".
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Keeping with the author's consistent portrayal of the character in his other works, Senbo has been shown as just someone minding his own business in his cameo, not antagonizing the SMG4 gang like he did in Saiko Rocks.
  • SMG3 congratulates SMG4 for reaching his milestone in Chapter 42. It should be noted that while SMG3 getting along better with SMG4 is commonplace nowadays (and started with the very arc the author is basing this story on), they haven't really gotten there at this point in the story yet. This was later rewritten to a more sarcastic congratulations.
• Adaptational Sympathy:
  • Before banishing PewDiePie to the Internet Graveyard in "Mario VS Youtubers", Susan simply said "out of this house". Here, the YouTube CEO sounds genuinely betrayed and hurt that the top-tier YouTuber would not only press her Berserk Button, but say a lot more nasty things to go along with it, which arguably makes you feel more sorry for her.
    YouTube CEO: Why, PewDiePie... I thought you were my favorite and we were friends, but you say you have no regard for me and my rules, that is just sad since we know what I’m going to be doing to you know. It's so shameful to see a once-great YouTuber fall from grace. Oh, PewDiePie, if only you were a sensible enough YouTuber...
  • After Meggy covers the house in ink in Chapter 27, her parents are more understanding than "Mario Babies" implies.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • The YouTubers that fought Mario in "Mario VS Youtubers" tend to both fight differently and get defeated differently here than in the original. For example, Mario's hand doesn't grow big from a Super Mushroom during his fight with Jacksepticeye, and Susan banishes PewDiePie for other reasons besides saying the N word.
  • In "Mario VS Youtubers", Dream makes his entrance by sitting on a couch playing Minecraft as a silhouette. Here, he makes his entrance by teleporting into the arena.
  • In "Mario's Bed and Breakfast", Mario and Bob turn Meggy's house into a hotel from the ground up. Chapter 23, however, reveals that they did so by using Kamek's magic.
  • There are at least two changes to the fight with the memes in "SMG4's Origins" to make the encounters with Denoman and Po... less raunchy.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The fic provides scenes of the two hobos' apocalyptic warnings that weren't adapted from the Genesis Arc, most notably at the beginning of Chapter 21, when Meggy is getting ready to leave for her vacation.
  • Three examples regarding "Mario VS Youtubers":
    • Mario fights more opponents at the YouTube Royale than he did in the original.
    • It wasn't just saying the N word that gets PewDiePie banished to the Internet Graveyard; he also says some rather... not very nice things about the YouTube CEO. Additionally, he begs for forgiveness before his banishment, which he didn't get to do in the original.
    • Not only do we see PewDiePie meeting SMG3 after the aforementioned banishment, but—true to his duties as Lord of the Internet Graveyard—he vows to take care of the top YouTuber until he is relevant once again.
  • SMG4 points out in Chapter 16 that SMG3 hasn’t gone insane like Axol did when he was trapped in the Internet Graveyard, something no one addressed in the original.
  • More focus is put into the bond that SMG3 and Terrance share here than in the SMG4 series. Chapter 20 in particular puts heavy focus on this bond in a scene that doesn’t adapt any particular episode of the Genesis Arc.
  • Chapter 21 shows Axol moving into his home in New Donk City. The first time we’ve seen him there in the original series, he was already settled in.
  • Loaf, Meggy's cat, is more prominently shown (and rescued from inside the walls) during Chapter 25's depiction of "Mario's Bed and Breakfast".
  • Meggy's childhood flashback (and first meeting of Oneshot Wren) in "Mario Babies" is expanded upon in Chapter 26, with a closer look at her parents and her school, as well as some additional moments between her and her idol.
  • Two examples regarding "SMG4's Origins":
    • Mario and Peach's moment after the events of Super Mario 64 is mostly the same, but one new detail added is several Toads playing and admiring Mario for his recent act of heroism.
    • During the aftermath of Mario and SMG4 getting rid of the Guardian Pod, there's a new scene of the two talking about the possibility of SMG4 living in Peach's castle, which of course became the basic premise of the series... for a while.
  • More people get invited to SMG4's 10th anniversary than what was shown in The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special, notably Captain Cuttlefish, the Octoposse, and even Team Killer Ink. Also invited are Inkopolis' idol singers, the Squid Sister and Off the Hook, both groups of whom sing at the party.
  • The 10th anniversary song has been extended with additional lyrics. On the subject, Bob and Boopkins' rap from the same special during the battle with the multicolored Marios now has actual lyrics.
  • The fight with the corrupted memes from The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special now includes Heavy Squid (still substituting for Meggy) fighting Handsome Squidward and Scary Squidward^note Meant to be Suicide Squidward, but the author changed the name, both to be more appropriate, and because he thought Suicide Squidward is scary-looking anyway. Heavy Squid also helps out during the battle with the multicolored Marios in the same special.
  • Also related to the fight with the corrupted memes is SMG3 expressing relief that Terrance isn't among the dead memes he brought to the living world before they got corrupted. Come to think of it, Terrance wasn't there in the original either.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: The SMG4 series makes it clear that Toad is not happy in his relationship with Toadette, but in Chapter 19, when he thinks he’s going to die, he thinks about how distraught she’ll be.
• Adapted Out:
  • The road trip from The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special excludes SMG4 and Mario going to outer space, with the author deciding it was too unrealistic.
  • The hobos no longer appear at Inkopolis during The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special.
  • SMG4 and 3's Wimp Fight from The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special has been cut.
  • Barack Obama doesn't make a physical appearance in this fic's version of The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special, due to FanFiction not allowing authors to include real people into their fics.
  • Meggy's cameo of her time at Port Aurora from The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special has been taken out in the penultimate chapter.
• Anachronic Order: "Perfectly Balanced" is the first SMG4 episode to be adapted in this Genesis Arc retelling, despite the events happening much later in the original. The author later reorganized the chapters so that the ones depicting "Perfectly Balanced" showed up in the correct order.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: One new addition to the Ugandan Knuckles capturing Mario in "Perfectly Balanced" is Toad, ever the Sadist, watching with delight. In the original, he wasn’t there to witness these events.
• All There in the Manual:
  • While the story itself glosses over this detail, it's said in one of the chapter's descriptions on DeviantArt^note before it went missing upon the author reorganizing that the two hobos and ShadowSquid9 are watching the YouTube Royale from where they currently are. Same goes for Steve, who's watching on TV from his farm.
  • The author clarifies in one chapter's description ^note again, before it was lost upon reorganizing that Dream will be reactivated after the final match, and he will return to the Minecraft world no worse for wear.
• Arc Words: As you would expect, "witness". Notably, Zero says it much more frequently here than in the original arc, now that he's Suddenly Speaking.
• Boss Subtitles: One new detail to the YouTube Royale from "Mario VS Youtubers" is the YouTubers themselves being introduced with their profession in this manner (e.g. Video Game Critic: JonTron) when it's their turn to fight.
• Bowdlerise: The famous EDP445 meme "would you guys consider jacking off to be a sport?" has "jacking off" replaced with "goofing off" in Chapter 40.
• Call-Back: There’s plenty of room for references to past SMG4 videos and arcs that the original didn’t have.
  • Mario's flashback in "Mario VS Youtubers" not only contains the events of "Mario's Lemonade Stand" and "Meggy's Bootcamp", but also adds in "If Mario was in... Splatoon 2", since Meggy's overtraining was a problem in that episode as well.
  • At the start of the YouTube Royale in Chapter 5, Saiko encourages Mario to "KICK ASS", followed by Bob's "Do it for Bob!", just like they do in "Meggy's Destiny".
  • Mario remembers fighting the Game Grumps in "The Day SMG4 Posted Cringe".
  • "Meggy's Destiny" gets referenced once again during Mario's victory at the YouTube Royale, as Saiko says "I knew you'd do it", Bob says "Where are the chicks at?", and Shroomy says "Oh, golly gee, let's go".
  • Chapter 15 opens with SMG4 remembering how SMG3 tried to take over his YouTube channel.
  • As SMG4 and SMG3 discuss what they just learned about their past in Chapter 34, they bring up their time in the igloo.
• The Cameo: Senbo Mazushi, the main antagonist of the SMG4 fanfic Saiko Rocks, makes a brief appearance in Chapter 37. Funnily enough, the first chapter of Saiko Rocks was released on SMG4's 10th anniversary, and Senbo's cameo here takes place during the events of The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special.
• Canon Foreigner:
  • After the two hobos get through to ShadowSquid9 in Chapter 2, future appearances of the three characters have them hanging out in scenes that otherwise would have depicted SMG1 and 2 alone, up to and including their series debut in "The Pursuit of Happiness".
  • In "SMG4's Origins", it was mostly Mushroom Kingdom residents that got to see SMG4 for the first time. Chapter 30, however, shows that an Inkling is present for this moment as well.
• Compressed Adaptation: After a few chapters covering Meggy's childhood, all of the SMG4 gang's childhood memories from "Mario Babies" are quickly covered in Chapter 28.
• Continuity Cavalcade:
  • Meggy's chalkboard that contained the list of failed jobs from "Mario VS Youtubers", which are all from past SMG4 videos, are here given more elaboration as the narration goes into detail describing those past events, from cooking with Mario on New Years to helping Mr. Monitor on the police force.
  • As the corrupted Morshu is slowly killing Toad, the latter thinks about his past adventures with Mario, including the wild west adventure, the first time he met Saiko, the T-Pose apocalypse, Bob’s rap career and diss track, the anime crisis, watching Meggy’s Splatfest, and SMG3 taking over SMG4’s YouTube channel.
  • Predictably, scenes that involve SMG4's 10th anniversary contain flashbacks and brief recaps of past SMG4 videos that the original anniversary special didn't have time for; and given what it did have time for, that's saying a lot.
• Dramatic Drop: Toazu-Mashaka’s reaction to seeing Axol bring to life his creation at the competition in Chapter 21 is to drop his pencil in shock.
• Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: After the defeat of the Game Grumps at the YouTube Royale, Mario hears bagpipes. He immedietely realizes that the sounds belong to Irish YouTuber Jacksepticeye, the next opponent in the ring.
• Foreshadowing:
  • During Zero's Motive Rant in Chapter 10, he not only refers to himself in the plural sense more than once, but at one point says that the world is "imperfect". These retroactively serve as reminders to those who watched the Revelations Arc that he's two beings merged into one, and that Niles, who's obsessed with being perfect, is his dominant consiousness.
  • While Zero is trying to make Mario his avatar in their first encounter, a mysterious voice is demanding him to stop. Readers who watched SMG4 Movie: Revelations will know that this is the real SMG0 trying in vain to stop Niles while they're merged.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Team Killer Ink, of all characters, get invited to SMG4's 10th anniversary special.
• Like a Son to Me: While SMG3’s voice actor James Bailey once said in a livestream that SMG3 sees Terrance as a son, here he explicitly says so in Chapter 20.
• Man in a Kilt: Jacksepticeye, an Irish YouTuber, wears a kilt during his fight with Mario at the YouTube Royale.
• Named by the Adaptation:
  • Meggy's mother and father are here given the names Eva and Ray, respectively. This was borrowed from RusSniper45, as the author is a fan of his videos and stories.
  • The Inkling team that competed against Oneshot Wren in "Mario Babies" are here called the Lean Greans. Their members are named Lime Lane, Green Grup, and Gretta Greenie.
  • The members of the Octoposse are here named Octilla, Octara, and Octria.
  • In a carryover from the author's previous SMG4 fanfic The Beanie Ghost (as well as, again, RusSniper45's videos), the members of Team Killer Ink have been given the names Vin Valentine (leader), Gahsk, (commando), Rays (thug), and Mosque (sniper).
• One-Word Title: "Pranked" was the title of one of the chapters. After the chapters were reorganized, the title changed to "Sarlacc Pranked".
• Original Character:
  • Downplayed with GreenStacheBoi859. There’s no Mario recolor in SMG4 with that name, but as a Mario recolor, he’s not 100% original. Plus, we’ve seen at least one Mario recolor in The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special with the same green-and-lime palette, arguably making GreenStacheBoi an O.C. Stand-in.
  • Played straighter with ShadowSquid9, a friendly Octoling with unique apparel unlike anything notable from the Splatoon series.
  • Chapter 21 introduces three: an old rival of Axol’s named Toazu-Mashaka, their teacher at the anime competition they were competing at named Sensei Klifṻsá, and Axol’s creation that won him said competition, Draguun’Scal.
  • Meggy's school seen in Chapter 26 consists of Inkling characters the author made up, including their teacher Mrs. Swish, and students Mikle, Gily, Denia, Liki, and Natie.
• Original Generation: In addition to original characters, the fic also has original locations and traditions. To wit, Chapter 21 flashes back to Axol competing at the Fuji-Gata Origami Anime Contest at a place called Shonen-San Academy.
• Shout-Out:
  • Chapter 5 contains several:
    • Mario walking into YouTube HQ and shooting the guards in is a reference to The Matrix, minus the guards dying.
    • The YouTube CEO says this reference to Star Wars: The Clone Wars when Mario makes his entrance to the tournament:
      "I was hoping for SMG4... Why are you here?"
    • For more references to Star Wars, she says this after the defeat of The Nostalgia Critic:
      "Impressive, most impressive."
    • The banter between her and Mario is similar to that of Indiana Jones and René Beloq.
  • In yet another Star Wars reference, PewDiePie calling Mario a "magnificent fighter" in Chapter 8 is one to a fan film where Darth Wroth says this to Darth Maul.
  • Near the beginning of Chapter 21 is a reference to Spider-Man: Homecoming—specifically, the old man^note meant to be a parody of Stan Lee shouting at the two hobos not to "make [him] come down there".
  • Lime Lane says "BLAST AWAY!" in Chapter 26, mimicking Sonic the Hedgehog doing the same when unleashing Sonic Overdrive in Sonic Heroes.
  • Also from Chapter 26, Meggy fighting alongside her idol Oneshot Wren is written similarly to a certain scene in one of Angel Toon's videos, where Angela does something similar (in a dream).
• So Proud of You: Sensei Klifṻsá says this to Axol when he wins the Fuji-Gata Origami Anime Contest.
• The Speechless: Toazu-Mashaka is not given any lines of dialogue.
• Spell My Name with a "The": Kamek is referred to as "the Kamek".
• Suddenly Speaking:
  • Initially downplayed with Zero, with his Signature Line in Chapter 1 containing more than one word while still keeping him a Terse Talker. Then it gets played straight in Chapter 10, where he gives an entire Motive Rant in his search for the avatar.
  • The Dead Memes are far more talkative here than they were in the SMG4 series. This is particularly noticeable with Terrance in Chapter 20, during a scene that is not adapted from the Genesis Arc.
  • SMG1 is capable of talking in scenes adapted from the Genesis Arc that depicted him as The Quiet One.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • The two hobos’ efforts in warning people of Zero's attack were completely fruitless in the original, as everyone saw them as crazy and only when said attack finally happened were they taken seriously. In Chapter 2, however, they were at the very least starting to get through to ShadowSquid9. It helps that he just encountered the very creature the hobos were trying to warn everyone about, giving him a good idea of what they were talking about.
  • Peach isn’t shown being grabbed by the corrupted Morshu like she was in the original when SMG4 and Mario return to the courtyard, instead being shown inside the castle. Morshu does throw a bomb at her, but she ducks.
• Tournament Arc: Chapters 5 to 8 focus on the YouTube Royale from "Mario VS Youtubers".
• Villain Opening Scene: The first chapter begins with the audience getting a glimpse of Zero making quick work of an unfortunate Mario recolor in search of the avatar, something that didn’t happen this early in the original arc.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Half of Chapter 21 is a flashback to Axol winning the trophy that we’ve seen him with in "If Mario Was In... Anime".
• Worthy Opponent:
  • PewDiePie refers to Mario as a "magnificent fighter" during their battle in Chapter 8.
  • Axol sees his rival Toazu-Mashaka as this, with the narration even outright calling him such.

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