Sometimes, the episode's writing is not that good for some viewers. Here are the following examples:
- While the idea of killing off characters for good is shocking due to the series' love of Negative Continuity, a common criticism is that in killing off a character, every ongoing or potential plotline that character was or could've been a part of is snuffed out with them, a complaint that has plagued every permadeath.
- Francis and Jeeves' gang rivalry in "Mario's Lemonade Stand" was a surprisingly interesting conflict, but it quickly ended thanks to Meggy, and while Francis plays a bigger role in the Anime Arc later on, Jeeves is never seen until Desti's funeral.
- Peach's role in The Anime Arc. Many fans were disappointed with how she was merely a Disc-One Final Boss. Ideas for how she should’ve had a better role ranged from a full-on Nazi allegory with Peach getting Killed Off for Real in an epic battle with Mario due to having been rendered Out of Focus by Meggy, Saiko, and Tari or a P.O.V. Sequel about what Peach was doing back in the Mushroom Kingdom while Mario & the others were headed for Anime Island.
- Several fans expected Waluigi to show up in "Sans's First Day In Smash Bros" and "Steve VS Smash Bros". Considering his motivation during the Waluigi Arc involved being rejected from Smash, you'd think he'd appear at some point to show how he feels about it. Yet Waluigi isn't even mentioned in either video, though he is shown lamenting his lack of Smash playability in "SMG4 Expands His Brain", the episode before "Steve VS Smash Bros".
- Meggy's police officer subplot. It seemed like her career on the force was going in a pretty sweet direction after the events of "Officer Meggy". Lizzie Freeman's "illegal" voice clips were undoubtedly borrowed from Hal Monitor, and Meggy's policeman outfit was widely accepted by the GMod and fanart community. Unfortunately, we barely see both Mr. Monitor and Meggy's police work, and when the former returned after his disappearance, his deputy partner was Melony instead. Then "Mario vs. YouTubers" revealed that Meggy gave up on police work entirely. While nothing has been said by the crew, the two underlying reasons for this plotline being dropped seem to be Meggy's other subplot leading up to her show working better with her jobless and the bad timing of "Officer Meggy" overshadowing its content for some.note Meggy's explanation in her QnA is that while she was good at it, she ultimately didn't feel completely passionate about it. While realistic, this explanation can still come off as contrived, especially as she starts with "It's complicated". Whatever the reason, it's disappointing to see the possibility of future adventures for Officer Meggy thrown to the wayside.
- "Deleted..." ending with most of the main cast being erased had much thinking that the series entire status quo would be shaken considering how seriously the situation had been portrayed up to that point and was left excited at the potential fallout the events of the episode, and by extension the YouTube arc, could have on SMG4 in general. That it was entirely undone by the end of the very next episode felt like a waste for some, believing many potential plotlines and changes were wasted in favor of keeping everyone in the main cast alive and preserving the status quo.
- "War of the Simps": While the fanbase doesn't mind Nathaniel Bandy himself (he's a good friend of SMG4 and they have collaborated in the past), several fans were a little confused at the decision to make him the guy who was behind the VTubers and not an already existing character... like Axol. You would expect an episode that involved a guy who was able to create numerous anime characters that were alive and sentient to revolve around the character who made a weapon that could do so. Yet Axol doesn't appear once. Fans who also followed Bandy's channel before this episode pointed out that an episode based on Scuttlebugs or Pink Gold Peach would have been more appropriate since he isn't known for waifu worship.
- "The Resurrection" ending with Mario's crew failing to bring back Greg had some interest considering the aliens had made it clear earlier that there would be consequences if the crew couldn't do it. Many were half-expecting this episode to be the start of another arc and were subsequently disappointed that this ended up going nowhere, as it isn't mentioned in any future episodes.
- "DO NOT ENTER" wasted two.
- The main plot brought up some interesting Hidden Depths for Saiko, implying she secretly had the desire to return to her original game despite her new life with the SMG4 Gang. This would ultimately go completely unmentioned in her very next focus episode, with her instead doing the reverse by bringing Kaizo to the real world and deciding that her friends had changed her for the better, seemingly no longer having any desire to return to her game.
- The episode's subplot has Melony interested in being a rapper with Bob coaching her, which is another interesting concept that gets completely forgotten about for the rest of the KS-2 "mini-arc". Some people wished said arc was expanded on more in general.
- One of the reasons "If Mario Was The Last Man On Earth" was so controversial was because it came right after an episode that seemed like it was going somewhere big. To elaborate, "Clown Fever" ended with the titular fever being unresolved and Depresso, the source of the problem, going insane. Many people thought this was the beginning of the 7th Story Arc, and were disappointed to find that it was completely dropped come the next episode. Some initially thought that the reason Mario was all alone was because his still-infected friends went to an isolated "clown paradise" of some sort. Instead, not only was everyone cured with no explanation and simply setting a world record for the world's largest pizza, but Depresso is among them, having seemingly been welcomed into the community with open arms despite what he did to them (unintentionally, but still). The fact that he looks happy to be there opens another can of worms, as fans would have been interested to see just what Depresso did to make up for what he caused, get into the SMG4 crew's good graces and finally be happy.
- While on the topic of "If Mario Was The Last Man On Earth," some fans have wished that SMG4 built on from the Downer Ending, possibly straining the friendship between Mario and his friends. The next episode, "SMG4 Gets Sued," has Mario back on everyone's good side, the pizza incident seemingly forgotten about.
- Many fans agree that there were missed opportunities regarding the Lawsuit Arc; Mario and Luigi are reverted to their canon personalities, but only for one episode. Similarly, SMG4 and Meggy get Nintendo IP designs (including Meggy turning back into an inkling and SMG4's new look being foreshadowed) that also only last for one episode.
- The "IT'S GOTTA BE PERFECT" movie does not use elements from the episodes building up to it; Mr. Yeast and the MAR10 Day Best Friend Award, for example, are never brought up again after their respective episodes.
- Some episodes like "Mario Is Fine" and "Mario Goes Coo-Coo Crazy" give the impression that Mario is going to experience some kind of growth, but instead focus on playing his issues for laughs. Mario taking SMG3's notebook before WOTFI 2023 also qualifies, once again giving Mario a humorous reason for his actions.
- Mario's minimal role in the Puzzlevision movie disappointed some fans, and reignited discussion on an already contentious point on how his character is handled post-2019, especially considering the fact that things were setting up for him to be otherwise since he was the one person that Mr. Puzzles couldn't control. While he still managed to have a major impact in the final act when he both accidentally and intentionally causes damage to Mr. Puzzles' set that drops the ratings below five stars and frees the others from his control, he has considerably less focus than the other characters and shockingly doesn't even show up for the final battle. It's arguable that he should have been the one to take down Mr. Puzzles since the arc is put into motion with him going crazy because he wanted to watch TV.
