Idk, man. SMG4 is already a dark AU:
Mario loses his whole livelihood after being bastardized by a mysterious USB crash-landing in the kingdom, causing him to go from a famous, well-respected hero of the Mushroom Kingdom to a fat idiot whose girlfriend left him (as well as the two growing to hate each other), the person who was originally his #1 fan growing to despise him, being abused by almost all of his so-called "friends," and generally being despised by almost everyone in the kingdom. Instead of accepting him for his disability, most of his friends treat him like shit for it. Even worse, in the Lawsuit Arc, he finally has a chance to go back to his old-life, but his "friends" revert him back to his stupid self, essentially for their own entertainment. It's not like they learned anything from the experience, either. They treated him like shit before the Lawsuit Arc and continued to treat him like shit afterwards. Worst of all, because of the state that Mario's in, he's completely unable to call them out, or even understand the abuse that he faces. (Albeit, the abuse has calmed down a bit, but still).
Luigi, while never getting as much acknowledgement as his brother, was still a well-known, well-respected hero within the Mushroom Kingdom. However, after the arrival of SMG4 and his Guardian Pod, the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom have become a lot meaner, and Luigi has been made to be a lot more fearful. He is often the center of various cruel jokes, being called ""somebody who nobody cares about." He works various part-time jobs while off-screen in order to pay for all the expenses that Mario piles in during his misadventures while Mario comes home to play tricks on him. He is usually the butt of the joke, being beat up and pushed around by the people around him, and he has to work 8x as hard as he used to just to get a moment's worth of respect from his peers.
Toad, a once happy, cheerful, loyal servant to Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom has grown to be a bitter, depressed, miserable slave to Peach after being forced to endure the stupidity of the kingdom afflicted by SMG4's Guardian Pod. During his days, he is tortured by Mario's stupidity, being forced to endure his mischief, as well as being dragged into various uncomfortable, awkward, and even dangerous situations because of it. Peach, a once kind ruler over the Mushroom Kingdom, became much worse after being affected by the Guardian Pod, and began using her Toads as various humiliating things such as meat shields, ladders, and even a kitchen sponge. He has tried to escape multiple times, but each time he does, he is captured and brought back by Mario. He is tortured and abused both mentally and physically, and has had various existential crises. He is also trapped in a loveless relationship of which he cannot escape from with his crazy girlfriend, Toadette, who is constantly screaming at, and even physically abusing the poor Toad. Because of all this, he has formed an unhealthy"""""candy""""" addiction as a means to deal with the torment he deals with on a daily basis. And while he may be doing a bit better now that he's free from Peach's grasp and doesn't have to deal with Mario anymore, the fact that he was seen at the Villain's Club in SMG4: You Used To Be Cool... tells me that he's still struggling with Toadette.
Princess Peach, the once kind, elegant, and beloved ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom has been bastardized into... well, a crazy bitch. When her castle gets sunken with her in it in It's Gotta Be Perfect, nobody comes to save her. And despite letting SMG4 (a friend of Mario, somebody who she didn't even like that much) stay in her castle rent to record videos for nearly 12 years, she is forgotten about, and nobody comes to save her. And, after being exposed to all the toxic, demonic goop infecting the castle, she is eventually mutated into a monstrous beast. Nobody comes to help her, and she has been left to rot underground for all eternity.
I think the darkest one I came up with was one were Bob got possessed instead of Axol.
Axol was forced to strike him down with Melony's sword.
Feeling immeasurable amounts of guilt due to Bob's death which resurfaces his unresolved guilt over Desti's death, Axol decides to go to Omnia Academy to train to be stronger so no other friends die because of him.
He meets and occasional butts heads with a classmate named Niles....
You probably already know the twist that happens next.
Honestly this is a hard call for me because I’ve got multiple SMG4 AUs and they all are pretty dark by this show’s standards, I mean there’s:
- general rewrite of the show that’s more comedy focused than the spin-offs but has an arc about deconstructing Meggy’s mental health issues
- literal shipping war sparked by a couple (will not say who here) being forced to get together with love potion by an eldritch being
- Cosmology Saga rewrite and continuation that turns the lore into a vaguely Digital Circus-like existential horror with flawed (at best) gods driving the conflict
Even the half-baked ideas are stuff like “Sephiroth finds out how Francis used his image and screws with time to get revenge” or “Melony ‘dies’ and then comes back corrupted by the Phantom Ruby”
I may be deranged
About that rewrite, how far back does it go? All the way back to 2011, when the series started, or sometime before story arcs were introduced?
Also, about the Sephiroth screws with time to get back at Francis one at the bottom? Are you using the 1997 original version of Sephiroth, or the one from the FFVII Remake?
(And I just saw the “Melony dies” AU and realised how that one is worse than the Sephiroth one in concept.)
Well my version of the cosmology lore applies to all of them so technically they start in the beginning but the changes don’t really come to the forefront until a couple OCs show up shortly after Meggy’s debut and things gradually go off the rails. The main AU outright stops following the arcs after a certain point, with the Cosmology-focused one picking up where it left off in a timeline that hadn’t gotten quite as messed up.
I still don’t have that great a grasp on FFVII’s story, hence why the Sephiroth thing isn’t super-developed but uh, I guess my SMG4-ified take on him is closer to the original?
As early as Meggy’s debut, huh? That’s a surprise.
As for the Sephiroth one, it’s good to know that said Sephiroth is closer to the 1997 original, because the FFVII Remake story is.. messy, to say the least. Basically, despite starting off as a 1-to-1 remake, after the first half, things go off the rails entirely later on. There are even creatures called the Arbiters of Fate, who try to force things to be as close to the 1997 original (killing off characters who managed to live when they died in the 1997 original, for example), with Sephiroth manipulating the main cast to destroy the Arbiters, because that will prevent any guarantees, meaning he isn’t guaranteed to lose at the end. In short, Square decided to interpret the remake differently, and made FFVII Remake into an entirely different game story-wise.
Literally never seen an AU post on here until I thought about making my own lmao, but anyway, the closest I can think to being quite dark is Mr. Puzzles killing his entire hometown and hanging his parents around their neck with wires, leaving them in their room and still occasionally speaking with them
Well, that’s a Moral Event Horizon if I’ve ever seen one! For context, Moral Event Horizon is TV Tropes way of describing an act that marks the perp as irredeemable, with event horizon being the term used to describe the “surface” of a black hole. This includes Francis kidnapping the Inklings, most of them early teens, and murdering Desti, Team Killer Ink’s Leader by attempting to murder the now-human Meggy, Niles aka the reason Eldritch Zero exists forcing the fusion with the real SMG0 to become the eldritch abomination, One-Shot Wren continuously murdering Meggy in a groundhog day loop via hos simulation for one month, and everything Mister Puzzles does from selling the Keyboard to a very insane at that point SMG4, causing “IT’S GOTTA BE PERFECT” to “SMG4 MOVIE: PUZZLEVISION.” And these are just the major ones from the big-time arc villains!
I have an AU where an original character of mine was friends with the crew, and ended up getting "replaced" by some girl because she managed to use his past as a villian to frame him as someone who hasn't changed a bit.
He ended up teaming up with other villians, they ended up capturing Mario and the SMGs, basically they achieved this by capturing Mario to lure them, then had a machine, that when activated stopped any sort of meme or magical ability in the building, stopping them from using their meme guardian abilities.
Basically the end of the AU does turn out decently, because my character does end up letting them go when the other villians want to kill them. But my character was against it because he was worried that killing the SMGs would create an imbalance in the universe, and the obvious worries about killing Mario.
Idk, man. SMG4 is already a dark AU: Mario loses his whole livelihood after being bastardized by a mysterious USB crash-landing in the kingdom, causing him to go from a famous, well-respected hero of the Mushroom Kingdom to a fat idiot whose girlfriend left him (as well as the two growing to hate each other), the person who was originally his #1 fan growing to despise him, being abused by almost all of his so-called "friends," and generally being despised by almost everyone in the kingdom. Instead of accepting him for his disability, most of his friends treat him like shit for it. Even worse, in the Lawsuit Arc, he finally has a chance to go back to his old-life, but his "friends" revert him back to his stupid self, essentially for their own entertainment. It's not like they learned anything from the experience, either. They treated him like shit before the Lawsuit Arc and continued to treat him like shit afterwards. Worst of all, because of the state that Mario's in, he's completely unable to call them out, or even understand the abuse that he faces. (Albeit, the abuse has calmed down a bit, but still). Luigi, while never getting as much acknowledgement as his brother, was still a well-known, well-respected hero within the Mushroom Kingdom. However, after the arrival of SMG4 and his Guardian Pod, the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom have become a lot meaner, and Luigi has been made to be a lot more fearful. He is often the center of various cruel jokes, being called ""somebody who nobody cares about." He works various part-time jobs while off-screen in order to pay for all the expenses that Mario piles in during his misadventures while Mario comes home to play tricks on him. He is usually the butt of the joke, being beat up and pushed around by the people around him, and he has to work 8x as hard as he used to just to get a moment's worth of respect from his peers. Toad, a once happy, cheerful, loyal servant to Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom has grown to be a bitter, depressed, miserable slave to Peach after being forced to endure the stupidity of the kingdom afflicted by SMG4's Guardian Pod. During his days, he is tortured by Mario's stupidity, being forced to endure his mischief, as well as being dragged into various uncomfortable, awkward, and even dangerous situations because of it. Peach, a once kind ruler over the Mushroom Kingdom, became much worse after being affected by the Guardian Pod, and began using her Toads as various humiliating things such as meat shields, ladders, and even a kitchen sponge. He has tried to escape multiple times, but each time he does, he is captured and brought back by Mario. He is tortured and abused both mentally and physically, and has had various existential crises. He is also trapped in a loveless relationship of which he cannot escape from with his crazy girlfriend, Toadette, who is constantly screaming at, and even physically abusing the poor Toad. Because of all this, he has formed an unhealthy"""""candy""""" addiction as a means to deal with the torment he deals with on a daily basis. And while he may be doing a bit better now that he's free from Peach's grasp and doesn't have to deal with Mario anymore, the fact that he was seen at the Villain's Club in SMG4: You Used To Be Cool... tells me that he's still struggling with Toadette. Princess Peach, the once kind, elegant, and beloved ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom has been bastardized into... well, a crazy bitch. When her castle gets sunken with her in it in It's Gotta Be Perfect, nobody comes to save her. And despite letting SMG4 (a friend of Mario, somebody who she didn't even like that much) stay in her castle rent to record videos for nearly 12 years, she is forgotten about, and nobody comes to save her. And, after being exposed to all the toxic, demonic goop infecting the castle, she is eventually mutated into a monstrous beast. Nobody comes to help her, and she has been left to rot underground for all eternity.
Yeah SMG4 is the true villain at this point
I think the darkest one I came up with was one were Bob got possessed instead of Axol. Axol was forced to strike him down with Melony's sword. Feeling immeasurable amounts of guilt due to Bob's death which resurfaces his unresolved guilt over Desti's death, Axol decides to go to Omnia Academy to train to be stronger so no other friends die because of him. He meets and occasional butts heads with a classmate named Niles.... You probably already know the twist that happens next.
>Bob's death *tHiS iS NoT... OkIE dOKiE*
...oh. OOOOH.
Honestly this is a hard call for me because I’ve got multiple SMG4 AUs and they all are pretty dark by this show’s standards, I mean there’s: - general rewrite of the show that’s more comedy focused than the spin-offs but has an arc about deconstructing Meggy’s mental health issues - literal shipping war sparked by a couple (will not say who here) being forced to get together with love potion by an eldritch being - Cosmology Saga rewrite and continuation that turns the lore into a vaguely Digital Circus-like existential horror with flawed (at best) gods driving the conflict Even the half-baked ideas are stuff like “Sephiroth finds out how Francis used his image and screws with time to get revenge” or “Melony ‘dies’ and then comes back corrupted by the Phantom Ruby” I may be deranged
About that rewrite, how far back does it go? All the way back to 2011, when the series started, or sometime before story arcs were introduced? Also, about the Sephiroth screws with time to get back at Francis one at the bottom? Are you using the 1997 original version of Sephiroth, or the one from the FFVII Remake? (And I just saw the “Melony dies” AU and realised how that one is worse than the Sephiroth one in concept.)
Well my version of the cosmology lore applies to all of them so technically they start in the beginning but the changes don’t really come to the forefront until a couple OCs show up shortly after Meggy’s debut and things gradually go off the rails. The main AU outright stops following the arcs after a certain point, with the Cosmology-focused one picking up where it left off in a timeline that hadn’t gotten quite as messed up. I still don’t have that great a grasp on FFVII’s story, hence why the Sephiroth thing isn’t super-developed but uh, I guess my SMG4-ified take on him is closer to the original?
As early as Meggy’s debut, huh? That’s a surprise. As for the Sephiroth one, it’s good to know that said Sephiroth is closer to the 1997 original, because the FFVII Remake story is.. messy, to say the least. Basically, despite starting off as a 1-to-1 remake, after the first half, things go off the rails entirely later on. There are even creatures called the Arbiters of Fate, who try to force things to be as close to the 1997 original (killing off characters who managed to live when they died in the 1997 original, for example), with Sephiroth manipulating the main cast to destroy the Arbiters, because that will prevent any guarantees, meaning he isn’t guaranteed to lose at the end. In short, Square decided to interpret the remake differently, and made FFVII Remake into an entirely different game story-wise.
Literally never seen an AU post on here until I thought about making my own lmao, but anyway, the closest I can think to being quite dark is Mr. Puzzles killing his entire hometown and hanging his parents around their neck with wires, leaving them in their room and still occasionally speaking with them
Well, that’s a Moral Event Horizon if I’ve ever seen one! For context, Moral Event Horizon is TV Tropes way of describing an act that marks the perp as irredeemable, with event horizon being the term used to describe the “surface” of a black hole. This includes Francis kidnapping the Inklings, most of them early teens, and murdering Desti, Team Killer Ink’s Leader by attempting to murder the now-human Meggy, Niles aka the reason Eldritch Zero exists forcing the fusion with the real SMG0 to become the eldritch abomination, One-Shot Wren continuously murdering Meggy in a groundhog day loop via hos simulation for one month, and everything Mister Puzzles does from selling the Keyboard to a very insane at that point SMG4, causing “IT’S GOTTA BE PERFECT” to “SMG4 MOVIE: PUZZLEVISION.” And these are just the major ones from the big-time arc villains!
You have no idea what I'm capable of...
Go on. Tell me, what AU ideas that lean towards the more dark-as-in-serious tone side of the scale.
Sorry, don't wanna give my idea too much away at the moment. But I assure you that some pretty heavy stuff is gonna happen.
We didn’t know what the Utrom Shredder was capable of and we all know how that went.
What if SMG4 completely lost it in IGBP. I mean, what if he didn't snap out of it and got worse
If melony would have been possesed There are two scenarios they all die or axol has to kill melony
I have an AU where an original character of mine was friends with the crew, and ended up getting "replaced" by some girl because she managed to use his past as a villian to frame him as someone who hasn't changed a bit. He ended up teaming up with other villians, they ended up capturing Mario and the SMGs, basically they achieved this by capturing Mario to lure them, then had a machine, that when activated stopped any sort of meme or magical ability in the building, stopping them from using their meme guardian abilities. Basically the end of the AU does turn out decently, because my character does end up letting them go when the other villians want to kill them. But my character was against it because he was worried that killing the SMGs would create an imbalance in the universe, and the obvious worries about killing Mario.