WOTFI 2024: analysis/review

WOTFI 2024: ANALYSIS/REVIEW

There is no event more important in SMG4 than the annual War Of The Fat Italians.

Happening every August/September/October since 2011, this event had a simple gimmick: SMG4 and Mario facing-off challenges sent by the audience, generally being meant to be funny and engaging for the viewers.

But since WOTFI 2018, the event became a bigger thing: the angle of interaction with the audience and challenges was kept, but now WOTFIs are a crucial moment in the current story of the show, and most of the times, the opponent is the main villain of the current story arc/saga.

Can you believe everything started here?

It was like this on WOTFI 2018, WOTFI 2020, WOTFI 2021, WOTFI 2022 and WOTFI 2023, and it is not different for WOTFI 2024.

Covering what I suppose to be the sixth chapter of the ongoing Puzzlevision Saga, a saga about the SMG4 Crew facing-off the new villain Mr. Puzzles (directly and indirectly), WOTFI 2024 has been teased to us since September, when the site to send challenges opened for submissions.

At first we did not knew what was going to happen, but soon became clear that it was going to be an arc WOTFI with Mr. Puzzles as the main villain, ruling out theories that it would be a stand alone WOTFI like in the old days (and 2019) or that Marty would be the main villain.

The hype was high, and I mean high!

The episodes before it were probably the best we had this year, focusing on Mr. Puzzles and how he acquired a theme park and became one with it, showing how he captured the Crew to be his staff (with Meggy being captured in a pretty gruesome way, for this show’s standards). The trailer was amazing, showing the Crew in life and death situations, the social media promo released during the week showed that Puzzles was probably exploiting the Crew, some of the staff from the show were really hyping people up with the possibility of some popular and beloved character dying.

But now, did all this hype really pay off in the end?

One of the promo images released on social media, showing Mr. Puzzles becoming one with the park. (from @/smg4official on Twitter)

Before I start to talk about it, I will say: Everything here is MY opinion, you are not obligated to agree with me. I will try to have a nuanced conversation and be respectful, I do not know if people on the Team will be reading this or not, but I do not want to offend them in the slightest.

Official poster for this year’s WOTFI. Currently on sale on the official site.

This WOTFI had a simple formula: Mr. Puzzles put Mario and SMG4 to compete against their brainwashed friends in different challenges, and in the end, we had the climax, happening while the traditional song at the end (we can’t really call it a rap battle anymore). Nothing different from prior WOTFIs, but this is a formula that works super well.

I think the most different thing about this WOTFI was the theme park/circus aesthetic with some Halloween motifs. It was an amazing choice, since it fits this show so well. It also gave amazing new outfits for the SMG4 Crew + Karen (spotlight for SMG3 as a clown, Tari as a witch and Bob as…idk, my favorite designs).

I am not saying what I thought about Clown 3. Not here at least. 

All the challenges had an entertainment angle and seemed made to be watched by an audience, which is a good touch, especially with a villain like Mr. Puzzles in charge, a textbook definition of a showman.

The comedy was on point, the jokes were quotable (I will be saying “Mario, you are such a phony” forever); I laughed a lot while watching the whole thing, which is rare for recent SMG4 content, since the humor is being really hit or miss this year.

This is hilarious, cmon

Also, the rap battle was amazing as always, it was catchy, Puzzles vocals were a delight to listen to, the animation going with it was on point…really good.

One thing this year is better than last one is the use of the main cast. WOTFI 2023 was Star Trio/Trash Friends centered (Mario, SMG4 and SMG3) and almost no characters had significant roles (hell, Meggy didn’t even have a cameo), while WOTFI 2024 had at least one scene for everyone in the challenge section, even if the central characters were Meggy, Mario and SMG4.

And with more characters, we have the opportunity to see more of the character writing, which was really good here…for almost everyone. I particularly enjoyed how even the evil circus/theme park versions of the main cast acted like themselves, things like Tari falling on being mean and only calling Mario “mid”, Boopkins being kinda annoying (I say it with love, I’m his strongest soldier), SMG3 being a prankster asshole, etc were nice touches that both fitted the challenges and kept the characters grounded.

People should listen him more </3

Look at him, planning to troll SMG4, like he always do ❤

SMG4 and Mario were also good, nothing stellar, since they were just being the poor morally gray heroes they always are (which is already good for this year’s standards). SMG4 had a lot of “he is a clown loser lmao” jokes, something that can get old, but I will take this loser punchbag Four over whatever the hell was going on with him during the Comedy Zone Arc any day.

   This clown girl is 4’s ex, I don’t know if you guys remember it

I am not the best person to judge Meggy’s writing, she is not one of my favorites and I feel like my interpretation of her can be a little misguided at times, but I can say I enjoyed the last scene where she meets Kid Mr. Puzzles and takes pity on him without forgiving or excusing his actions. It is definitely not her worst portrayal this year.

The face of someone who can’t really hurt a kid, even knowing that he is monster.

When it comes to Leggy…I am NOT a fan of her. Leggy as a joke character was harmless and silly, nothing to write home about, some people loved it, others did not and that’s it. But now, she is an important piece of the plot, and I need to take her completely seriously… this just does not do it for me. I don’t find her as annoying as some people, but her inclusion adds nothing to me.

Mr. Puzzles crying because he misses Leggy in Mr. Puzzles Clubhouse, his connection with Leggy was central for this event.

While the whole main group was from good to acceptable…I really can not say the same for Mr. Puzzles.

Mr. Puzzles is a weird character. He started as a shadowy figure who was behind everything that happened with the Crew in 2023; He sold the cursed keyboard to SMG4, gave the simulation to Wren, told Marty about the recipe in SMG3’s notebook and apparently also had a hand in making SMG4 buy the Showgrounds and start to live there.

All teases we had of Mr. Puzzles before his first physical appearence

He was an evil and mysterious figure that we knew nothing about, not even his name, and there was this excitement to know who he was, what was his motivations, what else he knew about the Crew, etc.

It was satisfying when he revealed himself earlier this year, on the Puzzlevision Arc. He was intimidating and extremely fun to watch, his plans for the Crew were cruel enough for the show, and was cool to see him being defeated.

SMG4 defeating Puzzles using Luigi, the Meat Mallet. I will not say my real thoughts about this picture.

But…he was kept alive after that, which is rare for SMG4 villains: they generally either die or get redeemed, there’s no third option. It was nice that they were giving a second life to an interesting villain, but soon enough it became clear that Puzzles is not a fit for this show’s ecosystem, and to make him fit, a lot of things would have to change. (Just look at how SMG4, Mario and Meggy are characterized during the Comedy Zone Arc).

SMG4 become…uhh..evil, like, really evil. Of course, SMG4 is not strange to antagonistic roles, but here he had no reason to act this way and his actions did not aligned with his character at all. 

Meggy (transformed into Leggy) becames basically a friend/”daughter for Puzzles. It is established that Meggy and Leggy are not necessarily the same person, but at the end of the arc, Meggy still smiled fondly thinking about Puzzles. 

Mario became basically a problem solver, Puzzles biggest weakness. 

He got overused to the point that seeing him became just another Saturday, and each video looked like he had another goal that was more and more disconnected from his origins as this mysterious evil puppeteer. And it is not different now.

His motivations of wanting a theme park are not contradictory with his initial goal of creating movies to me, like I saw some of my fandom colleagues saying, but feels random and does not align with everything else we know about him as a character (except for his connections with the Showgrounds, but this was not acknowledged in the show yet). It is not bad, it just seems a bit out of place and can be confusing if you are following his story since 2023.

One thing I really loved about him during this WOTFI and the arc leading to it was how menacing he felt. He was terrifying for this show’s standards, the way he crushed Meggy to turn her into Leggy, he killing Mickey, kidnapping the whole Crew + Karen…it was AMAZING, this is what I was missing in his character. Even losing his special factor, his presence is still very good when the Team wants it to be.

This scene was SO GOOD, seriously.

His battle against Mario, SMG4 and Meggy was very fun to watch, the way he was talking during the song, and even if I am not the biggest fan of the whole Kid Puzzles angle they are going for, it was cute when he hugged Leggy. Meggy basically calmed him in order to defeat him, if you think about it, and his general end was basically that scene from Powerpuff Girls, where the girls punch a villain when he wants to make amends, which was completely fair on the part of the Crew.

Crew with Mr. Puzzles

But now, after six arcs, I think his charm has worn off, at least to me, and I think his plot can rest. He got put into a mental hospital, and should stay there for a while; let the series explore other villains, like Marty who is somewhere planning revenge on Mario.

I know I am alone in this, but I think we had enough of Mr. Puzzles for now.

Wow, I talked about Puzzles a lot, didn’t I?

Puzzles aside, the ending was not as effective and wholesome as previous years. You know, those quiet scenes at the end, where they reflect a little on what happened and what it meant for them. This year was just a small conversation between Mario and Meggy, talking about how Meggy was feeling after defeating Puzzles and how Leggy probably would not come back soon. They are quickly interrupted by SMG4 throwing a bumper car on them, breaking the entire mood of the scene. Not bad, but disappointing when compared with WOTFI 2021, 2022 and 2023.

My favorite shot from each WOTFI ending. 4 threw a bumper car on Meggy right after this.

Overall, it was a fun time, the characters were good or at least decent, and it was a huge improvement from last story event. Was weaker than most past WOTFIs, but this does not mean WOTFI 2024 is not special in its own regard.

Everything I said here was more about WOTFI was things on the text of the show, be it during the WOTFI or before, but there is another thing it is important to touch when talking about this specific event: Advertising and hype.

From Fire to Fun, from Danger to Silly: The misleading advertising for WOTFI 2024.

Most WOTFIs are announced and start to take challenge submissions generally two weeks before their air date, sometimes a little more, so it was very weird when the announcement came on a random Saturday, after an unrelated and arguably non-canon episode.

The announcement, released right after the video “SMG4 and SMG3 come up with an episode”

In the next week, after a canon and apparently important episode, it was announced the site to submit challenges. 

The announcement and the link for challenge submissions

 So, people started to send challenges, we had a controversy with people sending non appropriate stuff, and…probably other things happened, but I did not see it. Wanna now why? Twitter was blocked in my country.

Every week, I thought the WOTFI would be in the next episode. I was already thinking that I would not be able to interact with other fans after the biggest event of the year, basically Christmas to SMG4 fans, since most of the fandom is concentrated on Twitter and Reddit

But in the end, WOTFI released more than a month after the announcement (the Twitter ban was lifted at this point, if you are wondering), the site for submissions even had two iterations, one with SMG4 as the mascot and other with Puzzles.

Probably this didn’t annoy other people like annoyed me, since I was obviously experiencing FOMO, but still it is abrupt how they just announced the site out of nowhere. Challenge submissions were always made either on a social media post after the trailer was up or in the comments of the trailer on Youtube.

First iteration of the site, with ringmaster SMG4 (courtesy of the Wayback Machine)

Second iteration with Mr. Puzzles as its mascot. This version is still up.

And talking about the trailer…

The trailer for this WOTFI was fantastic. No joke.

It followed right after the episode where Puzzles kidnapped the whole Crew and lure Mario and SMG4 to the Engine Room of the Park. It showed the Crew struggling in life and death situations, avoiding knives, walking through fire pits, and everything with a tense soundtrack and dark atmosphere.

                      Really, if you did not watch it yet, do it now.

It was setting this WOTFI to be the darkest one yet, maybe just losing for WOTFI 2021 (the only where we had an actual death of a Crew member). And if it wasn’t enough, in the week leading to WOTFI, the official account published a poster for a freak show Puzzles was organizing, that placed some Crew members as his freaks.

Promo released on social media, as a way to build hype. 

All this advertising painted a picture of Puzzles threatening the whole Crew and exploiting them for his park…it was dark for this show.

On top of that, some Team members started to imply that we would have at least one death. It is not what they said, but this is what everyone understood at least, since people in our community are a little paranoid, not that this is bad, this just shows how much we care about those characters.

And then, Saturday arrives and…it is nothing of what was being promised in the trailer and in the social media poster. It’s like the trailer was announcing a whole other movie with a similar premise.

What seemed to be everyone vs Mr. Puzzles, with dangerous challenges in a serious atmosphere ended up being Mario and SMG4 vs their brainwashed friends, in a more comical and lighthearted atmosphere, even knowing that they were in danger. Not even the end reached the high stakes the trailer was setting up.

For comparison, look at the tightrope challenge on the trailer and the one on the actual WOTFI

This left a lot of us disappointed and rightfully so: We were promised one thing, and received a completely different one.

It is especially disappointing when we compare with other WOTFIs: WOTFI 2018 showed Mario and SMG4 fighting each other, against their will, something that actually happened in the video, WOTFI 2022 trailer showed them in a court and this WOTFI takes place in a court, WOTFI 2023 trailer show SMG3 and SMG4 preparing the heist, etc.

Those expectations were not created by us, Glitch wanted us to expect this WOTFI to be darker: They made the previous episodes with serious and dangerous scenes, made a trailer with life threatening scenes and a surprisingly sinister atmosphere and made the Freak Show poster; we can’t say the advertisement around this event was sincere.

And it is not the first time something like this happens. During the promo for Puzzlevision, we were led to believe that this movie would have Mario as the main hero, and it would be the end for the ongoing PV Saga…none of those things ended up being true. At least the trailer had something to do with the movie we ended up getting, so it was not as bad as now.

I don’t think this is good, objectively speaking.

Misleading advertisement is not a good practice, and can make fans trust less and less on the show. If you ask me, I think they should be more sincere in what they are delivering. Fans will watch anyway, even the most casuals, I don’t think there is a need to over hype the event.

We can create our theories on what the trailer and poster actually meant, but objectively speaking…it just feels misleading.

I don’t think fans would get disappointed with a more goofy WOTFI if it was advertised this way, most of us really love those characters and want to see them doing...anything, be it in serious or comedic situations.

This series is basically Luke and James improving as 4 and 3 doing whatever. And we ate it up.

Well, that was my analysis/review/whatever of WOTFI 2024. I had a good time watching it, it was fun and had a lot of things I really liked…but still didn't felt as special as previous years.

If you don’t agree with what I said, that is okay, we are all entitled to our own opinions, and it is fun to have friendly discussions. As long as we respect both our fandom colleagues and the Team.

And outside that, I hope you had fun reading it, I generally try to make my “serious” texts be at least a little bit fun to read and all, since they are always two hours long.

That’s it, follow me on Twitter and Tumblr if you want to and see you soon! ❤