There Will Be Brawl

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"None of us are the heroes we're supposed to be..."

In short: Super Smash Bros. meets Sin City as well as Watchmen and Silence of the Lambs (but, oddly enough, not There Will Be Blood).

There Will Be Brawl is a webseries that was eventually hosted by The Escapist and was directed by Matthew Mercer. Featuring live actors, it takes the most famous characters from Nintendo's library and puts them in a situation far removed from the bright and cheery childhood games we remember. The plot follows Luigi, who is now a jaded drug dealer trying to make ends meet in the seedy underworld of the Mushroom Kingdom for both himself and his brother. As the plot thickens and new dangers arise, Luigi searches for a reason to keep fighting for a city that seems beyond salvation.

Despite the overall dark tone of the series, it mostly averts Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy by having an engaging plot, good writing and acting, as well as some clever Mythology Gags from all over the Nintendo universe. In addition, the sheer effort put into the costumes, make-up and production design impresses to no end, even though some costumes that required a little extra creativity involved (Kirby, Fox, Dedede etc) can be a tad distracting at first, you can generally get too immersed in the story to notice after a while. The series seemingly aims to be a Deconstruction of Nintendo franchises in general, but often ends up as more of an Affectionate Parody of the plots and mechanics from the respective games.

After the series ended they announced plans of a DVD, but that seems to have gone into Development Hell.

The complete series can be found here.

Tropes used in There Will Be Brawl include:
  • A Day in the Limelight: Episode 8 focuses completely on, ironically, Mario. Luigi and his other allies don't even appear on screen, besides in flashbacks.
  • American Kirby Is Hardcore: Sweet Jesus.
  • And Your Little Dog, Too: Yoshi
  • Annoying Arrows: Link shoots Ganondorf twice in the shoulder, to no effect whatsoever.
  • Anti-Villain: King Dedede. He may be a corrupt, hedonistic mafia don with his flippers in all kinds of illegal doings, but he really wants to end the violence and, of the four mob bosses, stands the best chance of doing so. Until he gets killed.
    • Basically, he manages to be the closest to a Reasonable Authority Figure that Luigi and his friends have encountered during the series, as he genuinely wants to help find the Serial Killer and is the one person with powerful enough connections and resources to accomplish it.
    • Bowser -- it turns out that he no longer cares about kidnapping princesses or conquering the kingdom now that the Mario Brothers aren't around to fight him. Now he's a Buddhist.
      • A bit closer to Worthy Opponent than Anti-Villain, though -- whereas Dedede genuinely wants peace, Bowser still seems to hunger for the "good old days" of honorable brawling between clearly defined heroes and villains. Dedede was willing to cut a deal with Link, whereas Bowser responded to the chaos by sending his soldiers into the streets to take the kingdom by force, leading to tremendous bloodshed -- and, of course, his own death.
  • Anyone Can Die: In the end, there are more dead Brawl characters than there were characters in Super Smash Bros Melee. Let's run down the body count in roughly chronological order, shall we? Daisy, Roy, Pichu, Mewtwo, Peach, Wolf, Dedede, Donkey Kong, Isaac, Saki, MetaKnight, Yoshi, Falco, Bowser, Red, potentially Ike, Link, Zelda, Telma, Rosalina, Jill Dozer, Fox, End of Days (Olimar), Mr. Game & Watch, Wario, Ganondorf, Lucas and Ness, Masahiro Sakurai, and probably Shigeru Miyamoto and Kirby is is off doing God knows what... Phew!
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: "I may have held mercy for you, but there is only one fist that may bruise the face of my angel. FALCON PUNCH!!"
    • When Link says "Let's rebuild Hyrule... together!" and Zelda instantly forgets that she stabbed him an hour ago and turns on Ganondorf with tears in her eyes. Doesn't last long, though.
    • In a platonic, brotherly sense, Mario's talk with Luigi when they break into Lakitu's house. "There are two Super Mario Brothers."
    • Marth when he hears that Ike's condition is worsening. When his help is required, he just decides he's off duty and takes off, obviously to the hospital.
  • Ax Crazy: The Ice Climbers.
    • More like Hammer Crazy, amirite?
  • Back-to-Back Badasses:Marth and Fox in Episode 10. The former even being there counted as his Heel Face Turn, while the latter had one two episodes prior.
  • Badass: Mario. In Episode 6, he fights three rabid attack Yoshis with his bare hands then rides one of them around. A little on the Ax Crazy side, but Badass nonetheless. He also beats Donkey Kong so brutally in a fight that most assumed he was dead until it was confirmed that he was merely hospitalized.
    • Actually most characters are badass in the series, given it's a dark parody of a fighting game.
  • Badass Boast: "I'm at full health."
  • Badass Longcoat: Luigi is never seen without his unbuttoned Greatcoat, until Red dies.
  • Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop
  • Bar Brawl: Between Mario and Donkey Kong over Pauline.
  • Berserk Button: Never, ever, call Mario a plumber if you value your teeth at all.
    • Fox doesn't much appreciate being called "furry".
  • Better to Die Than Be Killed: Bowser would rather blow himself and the attacking Game & Watches with a Bob-Omb than be trophyfied..
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Wario is done in by Red's cute little girlfriend, Leaf. Because she sics a Jigglypuff on him.
  • Big Bad: Kirby, with Lucas and Ness as his Dragons and Ganondorf as the Big Bad Wannabe.
  • Big Damn Heroes: CAPTAIN FALCON
    • And how.
    • And then Link, Captain Falcon, Pit, and Samus in the final episode.
  • Big No: Mario, after discovering Yoshi's remains in his bed.
    • Also Leaf after Red dies.
    • And Zelda, right before Ganon kills Link
  • Bittersweet Ending: The Mushroom Kingdom is on the road to rebuilding, but so many have died, including Peach, the Kingdom's big source of hope, and Kirby is still out there doing...something with Miyamoto.
  • Breather Episode: Between Episode 4 and 5, and consists of gag reels from the Mushroom Kingdom news station.
    • Long time fans were actually disappointed by this, as the breather episode was assembled from clips of four gag reels that have been on the series' official site since before the show moved to The Escapist, meaning it was nothing new to them.
      • Another one's come out between 7 and 8. This one isn't Filler, though, as Episode 8 came out almost immediately after.
  • The Cameo: Out of the main brawlers, Pikachu, Lucario, ROB, and Young and Toon Link are relegated to walk-on roles. There are also the assist trophies, Issac and Cyborg Ninja.
    • Lots of minor or lesser-known Nintendo characters make cameo appearances throughout the series, they can be seen in the characters page.
      • There's even the Excite Bike pilot assisting in the prison break in Episode 8.
  • Canon Immigrant: Referenced in a running Mythology Gag: Snake, Cyborg Ninja and Sonic are cast as bums living in an immigrant slum.
  • Casting Gag: Matthew Mercer (AKA Ganondorf) and Joellen Elam (AKA Zelda) were dating while There Will Be Brawl was filmed. This was most likely the basis for the Ganondorf and Zelda romance subtext.
  • Cheerful Child: Red, the Pokémon trainer. He takes care of the Pokémon after Mewtwo is killed. Unique in that he's one of the only non-Gray characters, being simply Good. This makes his death all the more shocking, especially since Luigi was indirectly responsible.
    • Ness and Lucas too.
    • Link counted as one as a child. Then Hyrule got royally fucked.
  • Chekhov's Gun / Chekhov's Boomerang: The Pikmin bomb--twice! Also Jigglypuff.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Mr. Game & Watch, Ness and Lucas.
  • Children Are Innocent: forms the Arc Words in Episode 4, and appear throughout the story.

Waluigi: During a conversation between Mario and Wario about a recent murder - "Tennis?"

    • Deconstructed when Waluigi is used to deliver a Pikmin bomb to Red, though Wa had no idea what the package actually was for.
    • Subverted in a way that could make Mohiro Kitoh proud in the endgame, where Ness and Lucas were behind the killings all along.
      • Considering how dark the series is, it would not be surprising if the creators were inspired by his works.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Young Link and Toon Link were reduced to just one character, Pre-police Link, who only showed up in a photo of Link in his earlier days ("played" by stock-pictures of the world's most famous Young Link cosplayer) and a doodle Zelda apparently drew some years ago. Otherwise they are completely absent from the plot and not even mentioned by name.
    • Pikachu and Lucario end up showing up in a single fight early in the series and don't show up for the rest of it, though it's implied Red still takes care of them.
  • Combat Tentacles: Game & Watch's Final Smash form.
  • Companion Cube: The Sandbag and ROB, to Captain Olimar at least.
  • Consulting a Convicted Killer: Kirby is re-imagined as an Expy of Hannibal Lecter, presenting him as an imprisoned cannibalistic serial killer that is consulted in the hope of solving other murders going on.
  • Cosmic Horror: Bowser makes the Game & Watches out as these. The demons that were forgotten by everyone.
  • Crapsack World: See the introduction at the top of this page.
  • Creepy Child: Ness and Lucas, to a ridiculous extreme given that they are the butchers.
  • Cryptic Conversation: When Luigi meets Olimar/End of Days, he seems to spout a bunch of nonsense and generic doomsday prophecies. When listened to again retrospectively, it turns out to be pretty clear cut Foreshadowing.
  • Cult: Olimar leads a cult centered around Master Hand.

Fox: More like...Crazy Hand!

    • If you want to get really technical, Fox is actually correct: the hand on Olimar's little shrine is a left hand. Master Hand is the right hand, Crazy Hand is the left.
  • Creator Cameo: Zach Grafton and Matthew Mercer make several small cameos as Toads, policemen, and cultists.
  • Da Chief: Link is in charge of the police force of the Mushroom Kingdom, and he's not afraid to remind you about it either. (This has been strained recently: either he's becoming an alcoholic or has always been one.)
    • At the end of the series, Marth has taken up this position.
  • Darker and Edgier: And How!
  • Dead All Along: Peach turns out to be exactly this at the end of the series.
  • Dead Little Sister: It's stated in Episode 7 that Daisy used to be Luigi's girlfriend, but was killed by Kirby.
  • Deconstruction Crossover: Using the pre-existing Super Smash Bros. Massive Multiplayer Crossover.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Ganondorf's motivation in Episode 10 appears to more or less boil down to "how can heroes possibly go on when evil like Ness and Lucas exists?" The same applies to villains. See Even Evil Has Standards below.
  • Despair Speech: Ganondorf gets a pretty epic one near the end.
  • Devour the Dragon: The final scene of the series strongly implies Kirby did this to Ness and Lucas.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Mario destroying the Game & Watches with a Final Smash.
  • Dies Wide Open: Red.
  • Disney Death: Kirby. Twice.
  • Damsel in Distress: Peach. Some things just never change.
    • Surprisingly subverted in that Peach doesn't live to get rescued by Luigi.
  • Dramatic Shattering: Luigi, despite being The Stoic for most of the series, vents his frustration by chucking a glass against a wall in Episode 3, cutting out the background music.
  • Dramatic Unmask: In Episode 10 what looks like Metaknight umasks himself to show he is Kirby, who killed Metaknight and stole his mask and sword. This is pure Nightmare Fuel.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Both Mario brothers have a tendency to do this at times, Mario more so than Luigi. So does Link, as we see when he interrogates Luigi.
  • Dual Wield: In the final episode, Marth wields Ike's old sword as well as his own, while Fox takes up Wolf's blaster. While facing both of the aforementioned, Nana beats down Popo and takes his hammer.
  • Eldritch Abomination: The Oldest Ones, the endless hordes of Game & Watch
  • Enfant Terrible: Ness and Lucas, who seem to be from the same mold as Warhammer 40k's Children of Sin, complete with background buzzing.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Kirby may be a murderer and cannibal, but he won't stand for another inmate attacking Peach when she visits the prison.
  • Ermine Cape Effect: Zelda appears in a business suit, but Hyrule's been absorbed by the Mushroom Kingdom so she's not really a princess anymore. Princess Peach on the other hand is always wearing her classic pink dress and crown, even when having sex.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: You'd think that Ganondorf would be above this sort of thing but his attempt to use Ness and Lucas was never going to end well for him.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Ganondorf.
  • Executive Meddling: The last episode was due to come out December 18. Allegedly, this was at the insistence of The Escapist. The people behind TWBB had intended to release it on Christmas Day.
    • And then that release date got delayed because Matthew Mercer, one of the show's creators/actors/editors, suffered literal Creator Breakdown scrambling to finish it by that date.
  • Eye Beams/Eye Scream: Falco, as part of his cult's ritual sacrifice, stares into ROB's eyes and gets lasered in his own.
  • Fallen Hero: Mario was on the border for awhile, but after hospitalizing Donkey Kong in a bar fight, he's crossed into outright Anti-Hero territory. That's not to say that most of the cast aren't Anti Heroes to begin with though.
    • As of Episode 6, he got EVEN WORSE.
    • Link also fits, he's enormously bitter and depressed, and has resorted to heavy alcoholism.
  • Faux Action Girl: Samus.
    • Lampshaded when Samus is suspected of being the murderer, she isn't, and this is interpreted as her trying to get the others killed.
    • Subverted; she shows up for the final confrontation in her power suit and proceeds to help Captain Falcon and Pit deal with everything that Luigi isn't occupied with. Admittedly, she doesn't get to do much, but at least she isn't hiding behind Falcon when she's called on to be heroic.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: HOLY SHIT. To give a few: Dedede, Red, Link, Ganondorf, and Peach
  • Film Noir
  • Flamboyant Gay: Captain Falcon and Pit

"Come back sometime, and maybe you can... show me your moves."

  • Foreshadowing- In episode 8, Zelda appears to break up a fight between Mario and Link, and the 2 men start arguing about princesses, to which Mario responds: "That bitch will be the death of you!", and in episode 9...
    • Bowser gives one too.

Bowser: Let them know...No one made a trophy out of the king!

  • Gainax Ending: Wait, Kirby? Miyamoto? Kirby? What the... What!?
    • reads credits* Sakurai's LEGS?!
  • Glory Days: An underlying theme of the series.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: Compared to the present, the Glory Days were seen as an honorable competition, especially by Luigi, Ganondorf, and Bowser himself
  • The Good, the Bad, and The Evil: Red and Luigi are Good; Link and the remaining mob bosses are Bad; Kirby and Ness and Lucas, are completely batshit evil incarnate.
    • Link isn't really bad at all, in fact most of his goals have fairly good intentions and he wasn't willing to follow Zelda after how far she was going to accomplish her goals
  • Grey and Grey Morality: Very few characters are clear-cut good or evil in TWBB. Red is the only completely Good characters, while only Kirby, Olimar, and the Ice Climbers are clear-cut Evil. Kirby himself is explicitly stated to be the reason everything fell apart—he taught the people to fear and it broke Mushroom Kingdom culture in half. Peach is the exact opposite—she's been explicitly stated to be the one thing holding the whole place together.
    • The finale reveals that Ness and Lucas are also VERY clear-cut evil. Of course, they've been completely broken by Kirby, so there's the question of how responsible they are for their own actions that makes their morality far more ambiguous.
  • Deadly Change-of-Heart: Zelda. Link gets better long enough to properly complete his Heel Face Turn, but Zelda isn't so lucky.
  • Heroic Neutral: Captain Falcon.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Bowser.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Vork is Waluigi.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: It is mentioned that in the news extras hosted by Lakitu that Mario nearly beat Tom Nook to death. Now, PETA is complaining that Mario is skinning Tanukis and wearing their skin.
  • Hijacked by Ganon: Both in terms of Ensemble Darkhorse and its original intent.
    • Also, when Kirby shows up at the end of Episode 10 and tells Ganondorf he did a good job of watching the butchers in his absence before lopping his head off with Meta Knight's sword.
    • It's amusing how much more often that trope is used when the man himself is in the work in question. Ganondorf just can't seem to help himself from hijacking plots. It's what he does.
  • Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Samus, of all people, but she uses her position (not that kind of position...) to gather information, and is a very handy source of connections for Luigi.
  • Hope Spot: In the final episode, the previously impaled Link shoots Ganondorf with his light arrows, reveals he's at full health, shoots Ganondorf some more with the Master Sword...and then Ganondorf simply grabs him and explodes his head.
  • Hotter and Sexier: There are at least two sex scenes in the first episode alone.
  • Howl of Sorrow: Wolf does this as he lay dying.
  • Human Sacrifice: Olimar tries to sacrifice Mario for his cult. He ends up using himself when Mario shatters his helmet.
    • Olimar was about to take a knife to Falco for this purpose when Mario showed up.
    • Bowser also implies that the reason for the specific M.O. for the killings was so that the trophies made from the victims could be used to control and empower the Game & Watches.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Saki speculates about whether Sheik is a woman or "one of those androgynous girlie dudes."

Saki: (To Marth, who would eventually lose his partner Ike) That might be something you want to look into! You're gonna be single soon, anyway, right...!?

  • I Need a Freaking Drink: Link in Episode 7. He doesn't bother with the line and has more than one source of ready alcohol on hand...
  • Karma Houdini: By the end of the series, Kirby is still on the loose.
    • Though admittedly, given the overall tone of the series, that's not terribly surprising. Karma seems to have long since decided to take its business elsewhere.
  • Kent Brockman News: Channel 8 Lakitu News. Not so much in the main storyline (where it provides mainly background exposition), but the Breather Episode(s) play it for laughs.
  • Kill the Cutie: Red
  • Large Ham: Wario all the way, but also Ganondorf has some hammy antics. No wonder both of them stole the episodes they first appeared in.
    • Captain Falcon cranks the hamminess Up to Eleven in his appearance in Episode 7.
      • He most certainly gets away with it. Watch this clip to find out why.
  • Leave Him to Me: Meta Knight to Kirby and Link to Mario.
  • Libation for the Dead: Fox pours a drink on the graves of Wolf and Falco before heading off the battle.
  • Licking the Blade: Nana does this with a bloodied hammer.
  • Light Flicker Teleportation
  • Love Triangle: Between Mario, Luigi, and Peach.
    • Zelda, Link and Ganondorf, duh.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Ganondorf was manipulating both Zelda, Olimar and the butcher(s) the whole time.
    • The butcher(s) were manipulating Ganondorf back, on the orders of Kirby.
      • And in the last shot of the last episode, a man in a suit with his back to the camera walks into Miyamoto's office. Was there someone out there even worse than Kirby?
      • Or is Kirby about to eat Miyamoto?
        • No one can eat Miyamoto.
  • Manly Gay/Seme: Captain Falcon
  • Meaningful Funeral/Lonely Funeral: Red's.
  • Mind Screw: The series leaves constant clues in reference to the identity of the butcher, to the point that in Episode 9 we're led to believe that Zelda is the butcher. So in Episode 10 when the butchers (yes, there are two of them) turn out to be Ness and Lucas (two characters that have gotten no direct clues associated with them and have only had four seconds of total screentime in the entire series up until Episode 10), you better believe this series qualifies for this.
    • Not even Wild Mass Guessing had the killer pegged, such was the insanity.
      • Depending on how strict or loose you are in deciding which ones count, there were somewhere around sixteen "___ is the killer" or "___ did it" Wild Mass Guessing threads, and not a single one of them got it.
      • Mind you, the hints were there."As long as there is a single child..." Probably not enough to guess ahead of time, but hindsight makes this Fridge Brilliance.
  • Mob War: Between Bowser, Ganondorf, King Dedede, and Mewtwo. By Episode 9, only Ganondorf is left standing, and then it comes full circle when he's killed by Kirby, the original cause of the chaos.
  • The Mole: Wario, who sells the main characters out to the corrupt police force.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Samus, as noted above.
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family: Kirby.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: After Zelda murders Link at the end of episode 9, episode 10 opens with her crying in the bathroom.
    • Ganondorf pulls this while watching the Butchers in action. Then they turn on him...
  • Mythology Gag: Too many to list here, but one of the most memorable ones involves the identities of the serial killer's first victims: Pichu, Roy, and Mewtwo . (They were playable in Melee, but weren't included in Brawl.)
    • Dr Mario is also brought up as Mario's failed medical practice.
      • In the final episode, when Mario is suiting up, his doctor outfit is hanging next to his cape
    • In episode 3, when Mario and Luigi are arguing, just after Luigi notices the pills Mario took, Mario pins Luigi against the wall, and you'll notice a poster for Super Mario Bros
      • The pills themselves are from Dr. Mario.
    • Captain Falcon and Ganondorf are more similar than you think...
    • 2 subtle ones, but pretty awesome. Luigi drinks from one of those Potion Flasks you got in Super Mario Bros. 2, and Snake's ongoing love affair with his cardboard box.
    • When Luigi unlocks his apartment door in episode 1, he uses a key from Super Mario Bros. 2, then one of those floating mask enemies appears behind him.
    • Blink-and-you'll-miss-it, there are two Zelda ones in a row. Link hurls his flask at Navi after one too many Hey Listens, and then in the next shot pulls another from his pocket. Multiple bottles, indeed
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Mario goes to root out the corruption in the police department and save his brother. He even uses the Master Key to open up and rescue everyone unfairly imprisoned... but he also ends up freeing Kirby. Oops.
    • Not only that, but remember how Meta Knight was killed by being burned so badly that they mistook his corpse for Kirby's? Kirby probably did that with the fire flower that Mario was carrying around and dropped in the confusion. If not for Kirby getting hold of the fire flower there's at least a decent chance Meta Knight would have beaten him again.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent
  • Not Me This Time: Who's the butcher and/or kidnapper? Bowser? Ganondorf? Everyone takes turns applying this, so we have no idea.
  • Not Quite Dead: Link. Doesn't last long, though.
  • Not So Harmless: Mr. Game & Watch. Also, Ness and Lucas.
  • Old Shame: Mario very nearly goes berserk when the addled Waluigi says at his arrival, "It's Mario... It's a Mario party!"
    • Also, any mention of plumbers, for both Mario Brothers. Luigi is rather annoyed, but it's Mario's Berserk Button.
  • One Last Smoke: In a form; the last thing Red does is give Luigi a Jigglypuff so he could listen to her singing. One last random act of kindness. What's even worse is that Jigglypuff was also already killed in the blast and Red doesn't realize it.
    • Jigglypuff actually managed to survive. Leaf attacked Wario with her and then gave her to Paula at the end of Episode 10.
      • Maybe Jigglypuff had merely fainted?
  • The Oner: In the finale, the scene where Mario uses an Invincibility Star to pound his way through about twenty of Wario's goons for nearly a minute is shot without any breaks. A particularly impressive bit of work, considering the both the low-budget style of the series and the relatively complex fighting that ensues.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Bowser.
  • One-Woman Wail: Or in this case, One-Pokémon Trainer Wail. It provides the background for Peach's kidnapping.
    • Red does it again over his own funeral and Yoshi's murder.
  • Pet the Dog: Wario looks after his mentally handicapped brother, Waluigi. Of course, he later had Waluigi assist in the murder of Red.
  • Police Brutality: Ike and Marth go from a recurring Those Two Guys duo to outright Jerkasses when they pick on a couple of homeless characters in Episode 4. The brutality gets worse from there.
  • Posthumous Character: Mewtwo, Pichu, Roy, and Princess Daisy.
    • Especially Mewtwo.
  • Private Eye Monologue: Luigi's not a private eye, but his speeches narrate a good deal of the story in a similar fashion. Lampshaded by Bowser. "So you're a private dick now?"
  • Reality Subtext: The kiss between Zelda and Ganondorf is a bit funny when you know that the actors who play them are dating in real life.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Both Link and Zelda.
  • Red Herring: The characters don't notice or mention it at all, but there's a brilliant one directed toward the viewers in the form of Jigglypuff. Red was seen conspicuously hiding her from the others a few times early on, which directly led to a few Wild Mass Guessing theories involving either Red or Jigglypuff being the murderer. Episode 9 reveals that both were innocent in every sense of the word, and Red was merely trying to keep Jigglypuff a surprise for Luigi until he finished training her to sing. This makes Red's funeral a gigantic Tear Jerker for the viewers who believed in him the whole time and an even more gigantic one for the viewers who didn't.
    • Another one: Bowser was innocent all along.
    • And yet another one, one that was believed far more frequently: Meta Knight wasn't the butcher; he was killed by Kirby, who turned out to be the Big Bad, but not the butcher. It doesn't help that people believe that Meta Knight breaks the actual game when there's the definite possibility that his being scarily close to being Jack of All Stats may simply make him daunting.
    • Luigi's entire profile of the butcher as being "fast, and good with a blade" was wrong! The actual butchers didn't have any particularly notable speed (but did have PK Teleport in the games, though it was never referenced in any of the ten episodes) or proficiency with a blade, like many of the other characters do. They had a snake and a baseball bat and they disembowel their victims using psychic powers. The baseball bat was used to cause blunt force trauma and the snake was used to poison victims. Brilliantly, Kirby actually chastises Luigi for this and hints that he’s on the wrong track. Near everyone ignored this as Kirby just playing mind games.
  • Rousing Speech: Mario's "take back the kingdom" speech in Episode
  • Schedule Slip: Arguably justified due to financial troubles.
    • And the fact that Matt Mercer almost killed himself working on the finale.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Both Saki and Isaac. A Crowning Moment of Funny to go with an aforementioned Crowning Moment of Awesome.
  • Seeker Archetype: Luigi.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Mario is the manly man, Luigi is more sensitive.
  • Shout-Out: "Clever bitches..."
  • Show Within a Show: Mushroom Kingdom News
  • Shut UP, Hannibal: By the time they meet in Episode 10, Luigi is in no mood whatsoever to put up with another one of Ganondorf's Hannibal Lectures.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Luigi is the smart one, and generally keeps a cool head. Mario is much more comfortable with a "hands-on approach", and has a pretty violent temper when pushed.
  • Sinister Scraping Sound
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: Leaf plays a tape of Red singing a slower, almost melancholy rendition of the main Pokémon theme (Gotta Catch 'Em All) at Red's funeral. Considering the circumstances, it was almost an unintentional Video Will.
  • Stealth Pun: The music playing in Captain Falcon's gay bar? It's a remix of Rainbow Road.
  • Invisible to Gaydar: Fire Emblem Tellius Ike and Marth. Unlike Captain Falcon and Pit, they could easily pass for Heterosexual Life Partners, if it wasn't for a few lines. The dancing together in a gay bar was sort of a hint too.
  • Take That: Sonic and Snake, the two non-Nintendo characters in the SSB series, are depicted as homeless and crippled, living in boxes in a back alley. The living arrangements, as noted above, are a reference to their Canon Immigrant status. The handicaps, on the other hand, are pure Take That.
    • There's another Take That in the first episode to nothing else but the Wii itself, with Luigi passing by a poster promoting Wii Fit while narrating: "Things aren't the same anymore."
      • Arguably the entire story could be considered to contain an underlying Take That against Nintendo's recent policies in marketing and game development. The Neglectful Precursors themes, the abandonment of the old "heroes and villains" dichotomy... perhaps a statement about Nintendo's apparent abandonment of old fan-favorite game styles to push for the non-gamer market?
      • This is heavily implied by End of Days in the final episode when he mentions how the Nintendo Building is a monument to those who had long abandoned them. Makes you wonder why Kirby killed Sakurai at the end of the series when it was Nintendo's abandonement that caused his rise to power in the first place.
    • This one is kind of a stealth Take That: Meta-Knight, who in Brawl is widely considered to be the best character in the game to the point of being a game-breaker, gets his long-awaited fight with Kirby, who was ranked as one of, if not the worst character in Melee. And then loses. His body is so badly burned that he's mistaken for Kirby - Mario dropped a Fire Flower a few minutes earlier, presumably Kirby got hold of it and used it to win the fight. This could possibly be a Take That to people who prefer to use Meta-Knight in tournament play.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: Zelda kissing Ganondorf grossed out some people. Most people agree that the second kiss, after he stabbed her is squick, though.
  • Taking the Bullet: Fox pushed Marth out of the way of one of G&W's tentacles.
    • Zelda also tries to do this. It does not go well...
  • Taking You with Me: Bowser, who's already been poisoned and is dying, uses a Bob-omb against a horde of Game & Watches to let Luigi escape.
  • Talking to Himself: Matthew Mercer does the voices of both Kirby and Meta Knight. He also plays Ganondorf.
    • Kinda lampshaded in the final episode, where Kirby briefly disguises himself as Meta Knight.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Meta Knight seems to be this way with Kirby, seemingly dedicating his life to keeping guard over him. And then when Kirby escapes, Meta Knight responds to it by saying to Luigi; "He's mine... At last." before proceeding to fight him.
    • Mario seemed pretty angry after learning that Bowser was already dead before he had a chance to fight him personally.
  • The Twink/Uke: Pit.
  • The Voiceless: The Ice Climbers (well, Popo technically has one speaking line in Episode 7), Ness and Lucas.
  • Those Two Guys: Marth and Ike, and after they get promoted to main characters, Isaac and Saki, who get vaporized by a Falcon Punch.
  • Third Line, Some Waiting: How the plot eventually ties together.
    • Plot A: Luigi attempts to rescue Peach and salvage what's left of the kingdom, by finding and defeating the butcher.
    • Plot B: Mario is tired of how things have fallen after the glory days, and raises an army of allies to lash out at those he deems responsible.
    • Plot C: The chaos of the power void caused by the disintegrating mob balance, disappearance of the ruling princess, and power grabbing of the police force (Zelda, Link)
    • Plot D: the ever-present, yet seldom active, threat of the Butcher.
  • Throwing the Fight: Dedede tells Mac that he's going down in the third round.
  • Title Drop: In Episode 4 by Luigi, Episode 5 by King Dedede, Episode 8 by Olimar, and Episode 9 by Bowser.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: In Episode 4, Ike swats one of Sonic's trademark chili dogs out of his hands.
  • Trophy Room: A nightmare-inducing example in Episode 10.
  • Tyke Bomb: Lucas and Ness
  • Verbal Tic: Samus uses her preferred term of endearment, "sugar," at such a preposterous frequency that it qualifies.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Ganondorf, once he realizes how much he's being used by Ness and Lucas.
  • Well, Excuse Me, Princess!: The phrase is used explicitly by Link to Zelda. The trope also applies, although to a much more extreme extent.
  • Wham! Episode: Most episodes have their own varying degrees of whamness, but Episode 9 takes the cake.
    • Took the cake. Then the final episode came along... in which more than half of the remaining cast dies.
  • Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: Tingle owns a place like this. Don't even bother acting surprised.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Red is either blissfully ignorant or in deep denial of the fact that Mushroom Kingdom has degenerated into a Wretched Hive.
  • Wild Mass Guessing: Fan speculation as to who the killer is.
  • Wretched Hive: The Mushroom Kingdom. If you're not an Obstructive Bureaucrat, then you're a petty criminal or in the pockets of The Mafia. Or sometimes all three.
    • Unless you're Red. Or maybe Leaf, but she's such a minor character it's kind of irrelevant.
      • Even Red worked for the Mafia, he was just unaware that he did.
      • He was probably aware but didn't care, he mostly did deliveries and took care of the pokemon. Considering they were used in cockfight-like fights it was probably desperately needed.
      • Fighting rings? No, the pocket monsters just play rough sometimes.
  • X Meets Y: Sin City meets Super Smash Bros. (with a bit of Silence of the Lambs thrown in for good measure via Kirby).
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: In Episode 9, Bowser verbatim states this after Luigi comes looking for Peach.