The Super Meme Guardians (commonly abbreviated as SMG) (originally were named Super Mario Glitchys) are a group of Six individuals known as Niles, SMG0, SMG1, SMG2, SMG3, and SMG4. The latter Five are all natural born Meme Guardians who were born from their USBs or, in SMG0's case, originally part of the Game they hailed from and have a Number to give them individuality. As for Niles, he is an artificially created Meme Guardian made by the God Box as a negative incarnation of SMG0 and thus doesn't resemble his Avatar. There is another one which is SMG4's Minion who is the Sister/Clone of SMG4 thus technically is related to The SuperMemeGuardians
They are each sent to inhabit a Universe in their own giant separate USBs, dubbed "Guardian Pods", and take on the form of their own Avatar (except Niles), though they are colored differently. Their objective is to protect their Avatar to prevent their Universe from collapsing on itself, and to protect the Meme Life Cycle as Memes are central to provide life to their Universes.
The SMGs seemed to be sent to a universe in pairs: SMG1 and SMG2 were sent to the Toytoy Kingdom to protect their Avatar, Spudnick, yet failed to save him from Niles; while SMG3 and SMG4 were sent to the Mushroom Kingdom to protect their Avatar Mario, but due to Niles' interference, instead became enemies and failed to carry out their purpose for many years. As for SMG0, he was sent alone to Mage to protect his Avatar, Fred, until the God Box created an Artificial Meme Guardian meant to serve as a negative incarnation of him named "Niles", to be his partner but this backfired when the box corrupted Niles and forced him to take over Zero's form like a parasite in order to become an Eldritch Virus obsessed with creating a Perfect Universe.
The Story of the Super Meme Guardians is central to the Genesis Arc, as it follows the origins of the SMGs and their purpose, the Avatars, and their long unseen conflict with the Interdimensional Virus known as "Eldritch SMG0". They're also an important part of the Revelations Arc, which serves as a direct sequel to the Genesis Arc as it seeks to tie up all the loose ends brought on by the previous arc and how it ties together with the mysterious entity existing out in the Great Beyond, the God Box.
Known Guardians[]
The Super Meme Guardians in order of their debut:
- SMG4 (Mario): A meme-loving machinimist who is obsessed with making videos and going on crazy adventures with his friends and has the power to tame memes by making videos of them. Once he realized that he never had a childhood and there were more SMGs besides himself and Three, he decided to go on a quest to find the Guardian Pods in order to discover the truth about his past.
- SMG3 (Mario): A self-imposed former evil doppelganger to SMG4 and the once-ruler of the Internet Graveyard. In the past, he constantly tried to become more popular than SMG4 and tried to kill him several times. Once he became the Internet Graveyard's ruler, he took it upon himself to take care of the dead memes. Following the events of the lore and WOTFI 2023, he has become an official part of SMG4's Gang.
- SMG4's Minion (Mario): a clone of SMG4 that was accidentally created by Mario who punched SMG4 into a Cloning Machine and created her, she is technically not a SuperMemeGuardian herself but she is related to them since she is SMG4’s Sister which means she counts too, she is female but with a fake mustache, loves Luigi Dolls, and has only a few appearances, we don’t know where she is now though.
- SMG2 (Spudnick): A yellow, round and energetic little fellow who loved going on adventures with his best friend and avatar, Spudnick, along with his partner, SMG1 until the day Niles appeared masquerading as SMG0 and ended up killing his avatar, causing great pain to the little meme guardian as he was advised by his partner to save the Newgrounds characters while he dealt with "Zero". Between him and his partner, SMG2 is the more talkative one and more likely to take physical action when in a situation, such as his dedication to missions he and his partner went on, and wanting to say cool phrases like "get to da choppa!".
- SMG1 (Spudnick): A blue, square and serious person who for reasons unknown, doesn't resemble his avatar unlike SMG2. Despite this, he would go on adventures with his avatar and partner until Niles appeared masquerading as SMG0 and used his virus power to accidentally kill Spudnick, ending their universe. Despite this, SMG1 was very level-headed and knew how to deal with the situation at hand, by informing SMG2 to go save the people of their universe while he trapped "Zero" inside of SMG0's Guardian Pod. Between him and his partner, he is more reclusive and calm as well as being intelligent and clever enough to see the bigger picture.
- Niles (Fred): An artificial meme guardian created by the God Box to assist SMG0 and his avatar Fred in maintaining their universe. However, influenced by visions planted in his mind by the God Box, he became obsessed on achieving perfection, leading him to killing Fred by accident and fusing with SMG0 to become a virus who seeks to create the "perfect universe": Eldritch SMG0. However, after Axol was killed by Melony, he was forced apart from SMG0 and used Melony to find him again and resume his plans, only for SMG0 to convince Niles to end his psychotic mission, freeing him of the box's corruption in their final moments.
- SMG0 (Fred): A one-eyed meme guardian who originally lived in his own small universe Mage until his negative counterpart, Niles, killed his avatar and forced him into merging with him to become a virus but with Niles being the one in control. For most of his appearances, he was stuck in his combined form with Niles and it was after Melony defeated Eldritch Ax0l that SMG0 finally split from Niles but the latter intended to merge with SMG0 again to finish what he started. He chose to sacrifice himself to stop Niles' rampage in order to prevent both him and the God Box from destroying Mario's universe.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Meme Manipulation: By holding hands with their Counterpart (for Example, SMG3 and SMG4) and concentrating hard, The Meme Guardians can convert Memes into Energy, which they can use for various purposes. However, Niles is able to do this by himself as Eldritch SMG0 due to him forcibly merging with SMG0 and combining Zero's power with his own. In SMG4 Doesn’t Meme For 1 Second, SMG4 is shown to be able to use this power without SMG3.
- Meme Transmutation: Super Meme Guardians can use the Energy by transmuting it into physical forms in order to create bridges, rocks, furniture, weapons, etc.
- Energy Blast: The Raw Energy can be used as a Projectile which can either explode on impact or be used to smash several targets at once.
- Avatar Channeling: Super Meme Guardians can make an Avatar absorb Meme Energy to make them grow larger or shape them into a different form. However, this method is risky as without proper training, the Guardians can end up passing out from the strain, causing the channeling to become unbalanced and resulting in an explosion. However, once mastered, the Avatar becomes extremely powerful, Stronger, and can be almost impossible to defeat, with the only drawback being that this transformation doesn't last long.
- Creating a new Universe: Under certain circumstances, Super Meme Guardians can even create a new Universe and override the current one by harnessing all of its Meme Energy and channeling them into its Avatar, at the cost of destroying the current Universe and all of its inhabitants in the process. However, its unknown if its normally possible for a Meme Guardian to accomplish even with their partner's help as the only one who was shown to be capable of doing this was Niles, who was empowered by the God Box's power to merge with SMG0 and become a Virus that is powerful enough to create the "perfect universe".
Weakness[]
- Avatar's Life: Due to getting their models from their Avatars, the true death of their Avatar will result in their forms being permanently scarred, causing most of their textures to disappear. Unlike the other four however, Zero isn't affected because he serves as the second player in his game, Mage, while One, Two, Three and Four are just recolored versions that have been modded into their games and Niles is an artificial Meme Guardian who doesn't fully resemble Fred and therefore is also unaffected by his demise.
- Meme Absorption: If a pair of SMGs end up absorbing a Meme while strengthening an Avatar, they'll lose control and convert all Memes in the radius into Meme Energy and absorb them into the Avatar against theirs and the Avatar’s will.
- Meme Dependency: Without Memes, Super Meme Guardians cannot access their super powers. This isn't usually a concern as the Worlds are made of Memes but is a detriment when exploring The Great Beyond, a place between Universes where memes don't normally exist.
- Anti-Meme Corruption: Super Meme Guardians can utilize and control the Energy of Anti-Memes but in doing so even good hearted ones like SMG4 will become corrupted and Power Drunk, relishing in the Power and Destruction while becoming deaf to reason unless Someone very close to them (ex. Mario for SMG4/SMG0 for Niles) is able to get through to them to break them free from the corruption.
History[]
Genesis Arc (Pre-Series)[]
The creation of Niles and the destruction of Mage[]
Long ago, the first meme guardian, SMG0 and his Avatar Fred were playing the game they lived in called Mage until out of nowhere, the memes started to become corrupt. Not knowing the reason, SMG0 used his Guardian Pod to travel to the Great Beyond and find the God Box and asked for its help. It responded by creating an Artificial Meme Guardian meant to be a negative counterpart to SMG0 called Niles, who helped him to create the Internet Graveyard and the Meme Life Cycle. However, the God Box began to influence its creation by planting ideas in his head, making him believe that he was imperfect and that he needed to perfect himself by recreating their universe to become perfect, with the God Box granting him Eldritch Powers to accomplish this, only furthering the corruption the God Box has over Niles.
Using this new power, Niles tore a hole between Dimensions that allowed the God Box's power to leak into SMG0's universe and mistakenly caused the demise of Fred and thus, caused their Universe to be irreversibly corrupted. SMG0 is left horrified as Niles appears before him until he himself notices that he hit their Avatar Fred by accident in the process, but reassures his positive counterpart that they can still fix this by joining together but SMG0 is reluctant as he notices Niles acting abnormal while he notices the God Box "looking" at them from the rift in the sky before Niles ambushes him and holds in place long enough for the box to strike them both with its corruptive power, allowing Niles to use this power to possess SMG0 and mutate his form into a Virus, granting him Deity-Like Powers as he becomes the Virus known as Eldritch SMG0.
Now empowered as a Virus life-form, Niles sought to find a new Avatar in which to create his "Perfect Universe" by using SMG0's Guardian Pod to escape the ruins of their Old Universe and invade a new one.
Niles' attack on the ToyToy Kindgom[]
SMG1 and SMG2 were playing with their Avatar Spudnick until they were attacked by Niles who killed Spudnick, permanently damaging SMG1 and SMG2's textures and causing their Universe to collapse. SMG1 and SMG2 were able to evacuate their Universe's inhabitants (Newgrounds characters) by getting them inside of their Guardian Pod. They managed to "defeat" Niles by sucking him back into SMG0's Guardian Pod, but Eldritch SMG0's arm managed to escape and it followed them into SMG1 and SMG2's USB, which transported them all to the new Mushroom Kingdom universe.
Arrival in Super Mario 64[]
SMG4 landed in the Mushroom Kingdom in his Guardian Pod, which for some reason corrupted the world with stupidity and all his Memes, with his Avatar Mario taking the worst hit. Having no past knowledge about himself, SMG4 decided to get rid of his Guardian Pod because of its corruptive effects, and came to assume that SMG was an acronym for "SuperMarioGlitchy". SMG3 would be initially sent to the same Universe before falling through a portal into the Internet Graveyard; however, Niles' corruptive power unexpectedly hit SMG3's Guardian Pod, making his USB land in the Mushroom Kingdom by accident and denied him his rightful place as Ruler of the Internet Graveyard. Due to this, SMG3 would come to hate SMG4 due to his popularity and sought to be better than him, not knowing that they were somehow related. Eventually, he would end up back in his original destination after being banished there by Susan, where he would eventually learn of his true purpose and become the Graveyard's rightful ruler.
SMG1's Guardian Pod from the Toytoy Kingdom ended up landing on a mountain in Brazil, and the rescued Newgrounds characters would inhabit the mountain. It is unknown what exactly happened to SMG1, SMG2 and Niles after this until their first appearances in the series.
Genesis Arc (Present Day)[]
Rediscovering the Meme Life Cycle and Origins[]
For the first nine and a half years of the series, SMG3 and SMG4 remained oblivious of their true purpose with SMG4 running his YouTube channel and using Memes to become popular and SMG3 becoming a jealous schemer seeking to take over SMG4's channel due to always falling short of his good counterpart when it comes to using memes in entertaining ways.
After his defeat and subsequent banishment to the Internet Graveyard at the end of the The YouTube Arc, SMG3 discovered that he and SMG4 were part of a very important natural process known as the Meme Life Cycle. When Memes become popular, they physically manifest in the living realm where relevant Memes exist. There, SMG4 will use them to make videos as putting Memes to work will make them happy but after a while, a Meme will eventually lose relevance online and is then considered a "Dead Meme".
Once this happens, the Meme will then transcend to a Dimension known as the Internet Graveyard that exists parallel to SMG4's realm. Here, SMG3 will look after the Dead Memes to ensure they remain happy and should they ever become relevant again, that Meme will return back to the living realm and begin the Cycle over again. However, a Meme will only transcend if they are happy and if they've been neglected, they will stay in that realm and refuse to cross over which causes them to run the risk of becoming corrupted and thus turns hostile to anything and everything.
SMG3 and SMG4's purpose is to prevent Memes from becoming corrupted by making sure they're properly looked after in both realms and to purify any Memes that do end up becoming corrupted and returning the Cycle back to normal. Realizing this, SMG3 is able to use the knowledge he gained from the de facto leaders of the Internet Graveyard, the Ancient Memes, and thus becomes its rightful ruler. Later, when SMG4 and Mario accidentally end up there and then journey to the Internet Graveyard and question if SMG3 is behind the corrupted Morshu, he explains to them the Meme Life Cycle and SMG4 is able to use this to purify Morshu and send him to where he belongs, thus restoring Peace to their Universe.
However, while the rest of the gang is recalling their childhoods, SMG4 immediately comes to the terrifying realisation that he only remembers as far back as his first video appearance. Reaching out to SMG3, who also can't remember anything up until that point in time, the two seek the council of Ancient Memes who tell them of their arrival in the Mushroom Kingdom almost ten years ago through mysterious USB spaceships of unknown origin...
SMG1 and SMG2's appearance and the 10 Year Anniversary Incident[]
At some point before the events of SMG4: The Pursuit of Happiness, SMG1 and SMG2 started looking for SMG4, believing that he is the only one who could help them stop Niles, whom they still mistook for SMG0. They constantly tried to warn the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom that the day of reckoning was coming, but they were constantly mistaken for being crazy hobos who were speaking nonsense. By the time they finally found SMG4, it was already too late as Niles had blocked the portal to the Internet Graveyard and the dead memes that SMG4 requested from SMG3 to attend his Anniversary became corrupted and started attacking everyone. The Dead Memes kidnapped Mario and his recolors while the rest of the gang escaped to the Castle. SMG1 and SMG2 were able to save the gang before the dead memes got them and set out to search for SMG4.
The Mario Recolors were taken to a cathedral that Niles inhabited, where he demonstrated his corrupted power by stealing the life force from FightingMario54321 and Nintendofan997, prompting Mario, SMG4, and SMG3 to run. However, Mario was caught while he, SMG4 and SMG3 stopped to catch their breath outside the cathedral, leaving the two SMGs to enter the Dark Web and attempt to make contact with the others as there was no network service near the cathedral. They managed to find Butter Birdo streaming herself stepping on butter, which by coincidence Bob was watching. Glad to find out that his friends were safe, SMG4 explained that he and SMG3 were in the Dark Web and that some weird thing had abducted Mario. SMG2 then suddenly asks SMG4 where his Guardian Pod was. SMG4 realized that he had messed up when he threw his Guardian Pod down a gorge (into the Dark Web), so he denied knowing what happened to it. The two explained that Eldritch Zero was a Virus from another Universe that destroys every Universe it visits, and can only be stopped by a Guardian Pod. SMG3 then suggested that they use his instead, causing SMG1 and SMG2 to be excited upon seeing "Three" as well. Unfortunately for Three and Four, they were immediately abducted by the same corrupted meme that got them the first time and were dragged back to the cathedral, prompting SMG2 to beg them to "keep their Avatar safe”, something that no one understood at all.
As Niles began corrupting Mario with his power, causing the now-chained SMG3 and SMG4 to slowly dissolve, the other SMGs and the gang broke into the cathedral with SMG3's Guardian Pod. Suddenly, Niles caused the lifeless Marios that were all over the floor to become reanimated, prompting the gang to mow them down while the SMGs rushed towards Niles with SMG3's USB. SMG4 thanked the two for saving them even though he didn't know their names. When they announced their names (SMG1 and SMG2), everyone became understandably shocked by this revelation. SMG2 told them that their own Guardian Pod would explain everything when found. SMG1 then dealt the final blow to Niles, causing a black hole to suck in Niles, along with SMG1 and SMG2. With Eldritch Zero gone (for now), Mario recovered, along with the rest of the recolored Marios. The gang, left with more questions than answers, declared that they would discover the mystery of the SMGs together, but made no progress towards this goal for a while. Meanwhile, SMG3's Guardian Pod's Anti-Virus subscription began to expire.
SMG4 tries to discover his past[]
Ever since the events of the 10 year anniversary, SMG4 was slowly going insane since he couldn't stop thinking about those two SMGs and the virus that came with them. Remembering SMG2's final words, he set off to find the Guardian Pod that SMG2 and SMG1 came to the Universe in, in order to learn about himself. He got Mario, Bob, Axol, and Melony to help him find his USB in the Dark Web. When they found it, they found an entire library inside of it with books representing files. They found a special control room that activated "Memory Playback" on SMG4, telling him about SMG1 and SMG2's Origins and where their USB landed: Brazil. Unbeknownst to them, Bob had gotten lost during their journey and accidentally found SMG3's USB with Niles inside. The Anti-Virus subscription had just expired, and Bob was unknowingly followed out by Niles, in the form of a floating eyeball.
SMG4 and Mario "won" a golf competition to get tickets to Brazil, and they fell down a mountain full of Newgrounds characters. They found the USB inside, but upon entering, they saw that the interior was severely damaged. They found another memory playback in the control room, which revealed to them the purpose and significance of each Universe’s Avatars, Niles's attack and the fate of SMG1 and SMG2's universe. SMG4 and Mario left the USB, with the former then realizing that his Universe would end if Mario, his Avatar, was killed. Meanwhile, it was revealed that Niles had snuck into the Guardian Pod when SMG4 opened it, and he used the USB's controls to bring SMG0's Guardian Pod to Mario's universe.
Niles arrives in Mario's universe[]
After Mario helped Axol return Inkweaver to its former glory, SMG0's Guardian Pod arrived in Mario's universe and landed in a forest. However, Niles needed an SMG in order to unlock the Guardian Pod to regain his full eldritch form. Thus, he forced and threatened Professor E. Gadd to create hundreds of Shrek clones in order to lure both SMG4 and Mario to his Guardian Pod. He sent the clones to Peach's Castle which made SMG4 believe that Axol was behind the Shrek clones. However, while they were at Axol's house, one of the Shrek clones took this opportunity to grab Mario and take him back to SMG0's USB. SMG4 and Axol promptly followed after them. This allowed the Shrek clone to grab SMG4 and use him to open the Guardian Pod. The eye proxy then attempted to reunite with his body, only for Mario to squish it with ease.
SMG4 believed that Mario had solved their problems but failed to realize that Niles was able to reawaken his full Eldritch form and wasted no time by grabbing Mario and pulling him into the USB to convert him into his Avatar. However, SMG4 and Axol intervened and pulled Mario away, but Niles refused to give up and once again tried to blindside them and run towards Mario. SMG4 pushed him out of the way, causing Axol to be taken inside the USB instead. Mario and SMG4 attempted to break the USB open to save Axol, who, inside the USB, met with the true form of Eldritch Zero, with the latter realizing he got the wrong person. When Axol asked what the Virus wanted with him, Niles simply responded by tapping Axol's forehead, causing Axol's eyes to go white and blank out. Niles proceeded to dump him back outside.
He then sent SMG0's Guardian Pod to hover above Peach's Castle while Mario and SMG4 took Axol back there to recover. When Melony asked what happened him, Mario brought her outside where the SMG4 Gang looked in confusion as to why SMG0's Guardian Pod was simply hovering above the castle and doing nothing. Suddenly, Axol appeared and surprised everyone, as they believed him to be in critical condition. He simply shrugged it off, saying "he's fine" before telling the others that he had to get back to drawing his "Japanese comics". The others failed to notice Axol mindlessly walking away.
Not trusting SMG0's USB, which simply stayed afloat above the castle, SMG4 told everyone to gather in a secret underground bunker in order to keep Mario away from Niles and protect him at all costs, while Chris and Swag attempted to nuke the USB (along with the castle) to prevent any more damage. Unfortunately, Peach got in the way and wouldn't allow them to destroy her castle - causing Swag to launch her far away in a cannon. Meanwhile, tensions arose in the bunker when Axol went insane, Mario and Meggy got into a fight over Boopkins' candy, Bob tried his best to leave and SMG4 tried to prevent anyone from exiting the bunker until the USB was destroyed. Suddenly, Melony noticed the bathroom where Axol was sitting in was now empty, and Mario decided to use the toilet. However, he fell into Niles's trap as he was suddenly sucked down the toilet into the unknown.
Trapped in the Backrooms by Niles[]
Mario awoke to find himself falling out of the world and into the Backrooms, where he was stuck running around in paranoia. Eventually he found a black figure with red eyes, which freaked him out. He threw his shoe at it, revealing SMG4, who was also taken by Niles when he tried to use the toilet after searching for Mario. The two looked around and found a question mark block, which contained a strange Goomba. It was telling them to turn back before it disappeared. Then they came across a mysterious room filled with birthday decorations. When they opened the presents, they found a Mario hat, alongside the hats of SMG1, SMG2, SMG3 and SMG4. That was unsettling and began to creep SMG4 out.
Suddenly, the words "GO BACK" appeared all over the wall. The two freaked out and ran out into the halls, only to find SMG3 roaming around. Just like them, he also was pulled into the Backrooms by Niles after trying to use the bathroom in the Internet Graveyard's Starbucks. Unfortunately, they were ambushed by a beast (presumably sent by Niles to lure them into his trap)which chased them into an elevator, which somehow lead them back to the cathedral inside the Dark Web, where Niles first attacked them back during the 10 Year Anniversary. Inside, they saw a possessed Axol standing in front of SMG3's Guardian Pod where he welcomed them and explained that bringing them to the Backrooms was the quickest way to get them here in time for the "main event". Then, Axol momentarily regained control and warned them that he was trying to tell them to go back. Unfortunately, Niles was able to take full control over Axol, morphing him into a demented version of himself with a ring-shaped horn on his head and razor sharp fangs.
He then used SMG4 to open the Guardian Pod, which then sucked the three of them inside as Niles (in Axol's body) smiled maniacally.
Niles' mind torture simulation[]
SMG3, SMG4 and Mario woke up in a bizarre environment with a strange creature. SMG3 was quick to leave, and the others followed close behind. The trio then found themselves in a creepy town with a rainbow pathway and bits of eyeballs hanging around. SMG3 assumed that this was all just a hallucination, but he got attacked by Niles's eye form. He kicked it away, but it multiplied into many more eyes every time he hit it. Mario and SMG3 kept punching the Niles eye clones, and they kept multiplying until the three of them were buried in eyeballs.
They then woke up on top of a giant eye where Niles's eye Apparition trapped them onto chairs and sent the eye spinning. It eventually collided with a giant Minecraft diamond block, sending the three on a very confusing fall into a white void. SMG4 complained about his ass, and his words echoed back at him in different voices. SMG3 stated that if "SMG0" wanted to drive them insane, it was working. Mario tried to run off, but he kept ending up in the same place, until he ran into the same diamond block and a yellow sphere. They suddenly started floating towards an exit. SMG4 pointed out that it might be a trap set up by Zero, but the other two had already left, so he followed anyway.
After traversing a lot of confusing areas, the three encountered Morshu, who made SMG3 and SMG4 hold hands, which caused Morshu to be converted into meme energy that transformed the block and sphere into SMG1 and SMG2's heads. After a brief reunion, One & Two explain to Three & Four that memes are the life energy of all universes, and that they, as meme guardians, can redirect this energy to wherever it's needed the most. To demonstrate, 1&2 transformed another Morshu into energy and channelled it into Mario, who grew slightly. Learning of their hidden powers, 3&4 began using this meme energy to build a bridge to the exit and use it to escape.
Escaping the Guardian Pod[]
Upon exiting the mind torture simulation, SMG2 explained that they need to unleash the reactor core of the USB to generate enough meme energy and that SMG3 and SMG4 have to hold hands and concentrate to make Mario more powerful, so that they could escape. After a moment of hesitation, they reluctantly agreed. SMG1 pushed a button and memes started pouring out of the reactor core. The four SMGs linked hands and started channeling the memes into Mario, who started growing rapidly. However, SMG3 and SMG4 weren't used to their newfound powers, causing them to suffer from extreme exhaustion quickly and passed out. This caused the channeling of meme energy to be unbalanced, resulting in Mario exploding.
The SMGs were violently thrown out of the USB, landing in front of Peach's Castle. They looked up and saw all four Guardian Pods floating around the front of the castle, along with Mario hovering in the center unconscious. Standing on the roof was Niles, possessing Axol, finally causing all of the SMGs to finally cross paths with each other.
The Battle To Protect Mario and Niles' Endgame[]
Knowing very well that Niles was inside of Axol, SMG1 demanded him to let Axol go. Niles simply ignored him and instead used the Guardian Pods to focus in on Mario, causing his eyes to glow white. SMG1 and SMG2 try to save Mario, but a red crystal around him prevented them from doing so. Just when it seemed that all hope was lost, the rest of the gang arrives in a helicopter and Swag shoots the possessed Axol down. With Mario freed, SMG2 warned SMG3 and SMG4 to hide Mario in the castle while he, SMG1, and the rest fight Niles; however, after the smoke cleared it was revealed that Niles' possession had evolved and mutated Axol to more closely resemble his true form as Eldritch SMG0, instead becoming Eldritch Ax0l. The now virus-empowered Ax0l (Niles) effortlessly repels Swag's attacks and goes inside the castle to find Mario.
Meanwhile, SMG4 is trying to find a place for Mario to hide when he hears Niles breaking down the doors. He quickly formulates a plan and is seen trying to shove Mario into a chest. When Ax0l breaks down SMG4's door, he walks in, only to find a vine of an axolotl playing on SMG4's computer. SMG4 uses this opportunity to sneak out, causing Niles to get outraged from being fooled. He catches up to SMG4 and uses his telekinesis to attack. SMG4 "gives up" and throws Eldritch Ax0l the chest. He opens it only to find SMG3 inside who stuns him and the two reveal that they hid Mario elsewhere, but are instantly choked by Eldritch Ax0l out of anger. Fortunately, the rest of the gang arrive to save the two, and Melony tries to reach Axol. This causes Axol to hesitate for a moment, before Niles manages to take over again and kick Melony away. Meanwhile, the four SMGs sneak away to carry out a plan.
The gang manages to get Eldritch Ax0l outside of the castle and Melony threatens him with a sword, but she couldn't bring herself to hurt him. Ax0l calls her out for being pathetic and pushes her back but suddenly, the SMGs use the Guardian Pods in an attempt to extract Eldritch Zero from Axol. It seems to work at first, but then Axol suddenly grabs Melony's leg to bring her into his mind. Inside, Melony finds Axol in chains. He gives her the fanfic manga he made of himself and Melony, with Axol asking Melony if she wants to be his girlfriend. The last panel is smeared out, symbolizing how it's Melony's choice to make. Axol then disappears into the void, with Melony pleading him to come back.
When Melony wakes up, she's back outside with the manga in her hands, and Niles fully takes control of Axol and cancels the extraction. He chains everyone up and finds Mario. He once again starts draining energy from Mario and opens up a portal in the sky. He steals the meme energy of all of the memes in Mario's universe, making them disappear into the portal. SMG1 and SMG2 realize that Niles was planning to create a new universe, shocking them both that this was his plan the whole time. Niles (as Ax0l) reveals this to be true as he intends for Mario to become his and SMG0's new avatar so they can live together in their universe, where he and SMG0 can finally become perfect. Despite the other's protest since the new universe would override the current one, Niles states they can have Axol back when he's done as he touches Mario's crystal and uses it to unleash more of his power, causing him to mutate into the third phase of Axol's mutation, allowing Eldritch Zero to access his full power.
The Final Battle and Niles' Defeat[]
Realizing that "SMG0" is stronger than ever, SMG1 wonders if they can even do anything to oppose him but Swag decides to "ban him from Xbox live", only to get flung away into Chris who calls Swag out for his idiocy. As SMG2 declares he has a new plan, Eldritch Ax0l threatens to crush SMG1 and SMG2 due to Niles' inheret hatred of the other SMGs due to him believing that only SMG0 and himself are the true meme guardians and for their constant interference in the past, but he is prevented from doing so due to SMG3 and SMG4 in turn using their Guardian powers to stun Eldritch Ax0l with heavy objects. After freeing the gang, SMG1 and SMG2 proceeded to fight Niles while everyone else flew into the new universe to chase after Mario's crystal prison. While flying up there, the gang was intercepted by several portals created by Mario's crystal to challenge them in a War Of The Fat Italians, where they fought clones of Mario.
After they passed the challenges, they managed to catch up with the real Mario, only to find that Niles had caught up with them as he momentarily reveals his previous form as Eldritch SMG0 to SMG4 and the others before he returns to his Eldritch Ax0l form and used Mario's crystal to generate a shadow-like projection of Mario to fight them. Melony encouraged everyone not to give up, starting the WOTFI's Rap Battle. During the rap battle, the gang managed to free Mario, strengthen him with memes, and SMG1 and SMG2 return once again to prevent Niles from intercepting the transformation. After a long fight, Mario managed to hold Eldritch Ax0l in place while Melony warps into his mind.
Inside, Melony finds Axol in stronger confinements which were impossible to shred through. On the outside, Niles began to regain control of Axol's body and tried to escape from Mario's grasp in a fit of rage and Mario cries out that he is losing his grip. SMG4 yells out for Melony to hurry and free Axol before they lose control. Realizing that Melony couldn't free him before Niles could regaint the advantage, he advised Melony to kill him as that would bring "SMG0" down with him and his threat to their universe. Heartbroken, Melony protested but Axol reassured her that she could do it and in return, Melony presented Axol with his book that held his manga confession of love to Melony with her filling in the final frame with her answer: yes.
Revealing her love for Axol, she gave him their first and final kiss. Happy that he managed to get the girl of his dreams, Axol tearfully thanked Melony for the adventure as she cried out his name and used her sword to slay him which in turn caused Eldritch Ax0l to wail out in agony as he disintergrated into nothing, leaving behind no trace of either Axol or Zero. Everyone celebrates over having finally killed Zero but when congratulating Melony, Meggy asks where Axol is only for Melony to break down in grief and the others all realize that Axol gave himself up to bring Zero down with him.
However, what nobody notices is that when Axol was killed, two masses appeared out of what was left of the possessed axolotl, one being a mass of light and the other being a mass of darkness. Due to his host having been destroyed, Niles was not only forced out of his now deceased host, but the aftershock was so powerful that it also separated him from his original host (SMG0). With the incomplete universe being sent away into the depths of the God Box, SMG0 is unknowingly brought with it as he wakes up inside of a remnant of his old universe with no memory of what happened after Fred's death. As for Niles, who is angered over losing not only his new avatar but also his partner, decides to hide inside of Melony as he begins to plot his eventual return and finish what he started...
Several days later, while Melony and the others are mourning Axol's death, SMG1 and SMG2 announce that their mission in Mario's universe was now done, and now they were going to leave to hide the USBs to prevent evil from abusing them. They thanked SMG4 and SMG3 for their help in stopping "Zero" as it was their duty as "SMGs", confusing Three and Four as they, like everyone else, thought that SMG was an acronym for "SuperMarioGlitchy", causing One and Two to chuckle as they reveal the name's true meaning: Super Meme Guardian. With their departure, SMG3 and SMG4 also share a proper goodbye as the former was preparing to return to the Internet Graveyard; having finally buried the hatchet as they have finally discovered what their true purpose is.
A final scene shows the Guardian Pods in real life being unplugged from the computer, putting an end to the Genesis Arc.
Revelations Arc[]
Welcome to Omnia Academy[]
After three months of silence, SMG1 and SMG2 return as part-time teachers at Omnia Academy, where they teach the people of the Mushroom Kingdom about the Meme Life Cycle and the importance of Avatars, with help from SMG4 and (on rare ocassion) SMG3. However, after noticing Mario helping a strange club called the Box Club, SMG1 and SMG2 become very wary of them upon realizing they wish to summon something called the "God Box", which is said to lie out in the "Great Beyond".
The Return of Niles[]
After training with her new "friend", Niles, Melony is suddenly captured by the Box Club as their "messiah", which causes the four SMGs, as well as Mario and the gang, to investigate - only for them to fall into a trap and knocked out with tear gas. Upon awakening, Mario and the others are locked in a cage while SMG1 and SMG2 are chained together on one table with SMG3 and SMG4 chained on the opposite table, with Melony still sound asleep in the middle of the room.
Despite SMG4's Gang and the other SMGs demanding to be let go, the Box Club Leader assures everyone that it will be over soon as he orders that the "offerings", which are memes wearing boxes on their heads, to get into place as he forces the SMGs to begin transmuting the memes into a spaceship, which he intends to use to fly up to the God Box. SMG1 claims that one doesn't simply fly to the God Box, to which the Box Club Leader explains that is why he needs Melony. As she awakens, Melony notices that Niles is inside the cage with her other friends and asks what's going on.
However, Mario and Luigi ask who Niles is, confusing Melony as she tells them that he's standing next to them but to the others, there is nobody else in the cage with them, confusing her even more. Niles begins to smile slightly as he walks towards Melony and phases through the cage as she remembers all the times she talked with Niles, only to realize that she was talking to nothing the entire time and whatever Niles did was, in reality, Melony's doing without her realizing. She then asks who Niles is, he shows her by brushing the bangs on the left side of his face away...
...only to reveal that he doesn't have an eye on the left side of his face while his only eye begins to grow and shift towards the center of his face before it turns red with a slashed "0", as he tells Melony that its been awhile. Melony instantly realizes that Niles is in fact her worst enemy: "SMG0".
Enraged to see that her "friend" was in fact Eldritch Zero in disguise, Melony transforms into her deity mode out of anger while Niles laughs before he charges into Melony and takes control of her body and her powers by opening a portal to the Great Beyond, where the God Box is said to reside. The mind-controlled Melony jumps onto the spaceship despite SMG1 and SMG2's pleas for her not to go, but she ignores them and takes off with the Box Club Leader jumping on board at the last second, refusing to be left out of seeing the God Box.
With that, the spaceship flies through the portal, leaving the four SMGs and SMG4's Gang all stuck looking on in shock.
Entering the God Box[]
Following the departure of Niles, Melony, and the Box Club Leader, the four SMGs and their friends free themselves from the restraints of the club's ritual chamber and exit to find nothing but chaos. After surviving a meteor shower that crashed into Omnia Academy, SMG1 and SMG2 create a spaceship using their USBs, while their pals help other inhabitants of their world by evacuating them to a bunker. SMG3 and SMG4 also used their Guardian Pods, previously hidden under SMG1's mattress, to make a spaceship of their own. Joined by Mario and Terrance, the Super Meme Guardians proceed to follow Niles' ship and enter the Great Beyond.
At first, the heroes are unable to find the God Box until Luke Lerdwichagul, the creator of the multiverse, enters the room to find the God Box. This allows them to reach the box's location, where SMG3, SMG4, Terrance, and Mario would enter the object to find Melony while SMG1 and SMG2 stay behind to try closing it.
Inside the box, SMG3 and SMG4 discover a hostile anti-meme that had been lurking since the demise of its respective universe. The two realize that they could harness the energy of an anti-meme in a similar way to a normal meme, using such energy to destroy other anti-memes. However, due to the instability of anti-meme energy, SMG1 warns the two meme guardians against using such energy. Nevertheless, SMG3 and SMG4 become very power-hungry and continue using the anti-meme energy to fend off any anti-memes that threaten to attack them.
Meeting SMG0[]
Eventually, the heroes find Melony's spaceship as it's heading towards a nearby universe, which Niles wanted to fix and make perfect. In a space battle, the SMGs attempt to shoot down their enemy, but to no avail. This causes them to consider harnessing their anti-meme energy (despite Mario's protests) to devise a bomb, which blows up both crafts and sends their occupants crashing into the universe.
SMG3, SMG4, and Mario later wake up to find themselves in front of SMG0, who found their wrecked ship and took them inside his treehouse to heal them. Being fully aware of the prior actions of Eldritch SMG0, the three heroes are initially scared and SMG4 asks him if he's the same "SMG0" that they fought back in their universe. Initially confused, SMG0 realizes that Niles must've attacked them while possessing him, causing him to break down and apologize which confuses the trio further as SMG0 explains his past to them.
Meanwhile, in a nightmare that was engineered by Niles, Melony finds a computer from the 1980s that loads the game Mage, revealing SMG0's mysterious backstory...
A very, very long time ago, SMG0 lived his universe peacefully with the memes and his best friend/avatar, Fred. After the memes became corrupted due to their extended stay in the universe, SMG0 uses his Guardian Pod to travel to the God Box, begging it to help him fix his world's corruption. The box responded by giving him Niles, who helped him cleanse the corrupt memes by making the Internet Graveyard to fulfill the meme life cycle.
Unfortunately, due to the God Box asserting its influence over Niles, it tricks him into traveling to it where it plants ideas in his head that the Mage universe is "imperfect" and grants him the power to correct it, ultimately driving Niles mad with power and results in him accidentally killing Fred which spells the end of their universe. SMG0 is horrified by Fred's demise as Niles appears and is shocked to realize he hit Fred in the blast but tries to assure SMG0 that they can still fix this, where he holds his partner in place long enough for the God Box to strike them both, despite the latter's pleas for Niles to stop what he was doing, which allowed Niles to possess SMG0 and mutate his form into a virus: Eldritch SMG0.
Within the mindscape, Melony is enraged as she realizes that SMG0 was innocent the whole time and that Niles was the cause of all the tragedies that plagued Fred, Spudnick, and Mario's universes and also, the reason Axol had to be sacrificed. Back outside, SMG0 tells the others that the next thing he remembered after Niles possessed him was waking up inside of a remnant of his old universe, unaware of what happened or how he got there. This causes SMG4 to deduce that by destroying Eldritch Ax0l, Niles wasn't killed but instead lost his control of SMG0 who was sent away with the incomplete universe into the God Box while Niles latched onto Melony immediately following Axol's death.
However, SMG4 became horrified as he realized why Niles wanted to get inside of the God Box so badly instead of going after Mario: he wanted to find SMG0 and reassimilate him to become Eldritch SMG0 again and resume his plans. Despite their best attempts, they were too late to stop Niles from finding them and ultimately being rejected from Melony's body before he grabbed ahold of SMG0 and used the God Box to merge with his positive counterpart once more and resume his form as a virus.
Fighting Niles[]
While Melony uses her Fierce Deity powers to distract Niles in his Eldritch SMG0 form, Mario and his SMGs run back towards their wrecked ship and try to get it working again. Although they are unable to fix the ship themselves, the Mario recolors are able to get help from Terrance, who quickly patches up the craft.
However, as they are about to leave SMG0's universe remnant, Melony gets eaten by Niles as he notices the trio escaping and pursues them as they reestablish connections with SMG1 and SMG2, only to find out that the God Box cannot be closed and the only way to stop it is to destroy it. Taking these warnings seriously, they fly the ship out of the universe, only to be pursued by Eldritch Zero, who destroys the vehicle with a floating universe island before it can exit the box.
It seems as if the Mario recolors would meet their demise at the hands of Niles, until it's revealed that Melony had survived being eaten by Eldritch Zero. Activating her Fierce Deity powers once again, she escapes from Eldritch Zero's mouth, ready to confront him once again.
Seeing a bunch of Teletubby-like anti-memes approaching them, SMG3 suggests using their corrupted energy to take them out, only that this time, SMG4 turns him down and considers an alternative plan. Finding out that Terrance is the only "Meme" with them at the moment, and that they must use meme energy for the plan to work, SMG3 is forced to sacrifice Terrance as its energy is used to turn Mario into a Mario Head that single-handedly takes out the corrupted Teletubbies.
During her fight with Eldritch SMG0, Melony is able to inflict some blows on Niles' eldritch form that frees SMG0 from his restraints inside of his shared mindscape with his corrupted partner. No longer confined, SMG0 runs away until he finds Niles controlling his virus form as he attempts to stop the others from escaping to obtain his "perfect universe".
SMG0's ultimate sacrifice to stop Niles[]
At this point, the energy that SMG1 and SMG2 harnessed to create their bomb has become too great for them to control, forcing them to throw the weapon inside the box to commence its destruction. While SMG4 warns Melony about needing to leave the box immediately, she deals a final blow to Eldritch Zero by stabbing him in the eye before being picked up by Mario, the four now making their way to the exit as the God Box begins to collapse in on itself.
While Niles desperately tries to chase the heroes and drag them back into the imploding box, SMG0 confronts him and pleads to Niles not to drag the others down with their failures, only for Niles to refute him by stating that they are real Super Meme Guardians who deserve a perfect universe regardless of the measures taken to get there but before he is about to kill Melony and the others, SMG0 gets in the way, stopping him.
Niles falls into despair upon realizing that all of his work towards his new universe for the two of them was for nothing, but SMG0 helps him by claiming that they will be together no matter what and that's all that matters in the end. Finally freed from the God Box's corruptive influence, Niles chooses to depart into the next life alongside his partner so that they can finally reunite with their long lost avatar. This causes Eldritch SMG0 to let the others go as he allows himself to fall back into the exploding God Box, having found peace after so long and no longer consumed by pain.
Mario is able to escape with Melony and the four SMGs as the God Box finally explodes and ends its cursed existence and the threat it poses to their universe once and for all, finally ending the cycle of agony and destruction that it wrought upon the Super Meme Guardians and their worlds for so many years.
Aftermath of the God Box's destruction[]
Following Melony's graduation from Omnia Academy, which was still being rebuilt following the destruction brought on by the God Box, SMG4 suggests that he and his friends would go rest and nap after the events of the arc and movie, with SMG3 calling a bus to take them home.
Trivia[]
- SMG4 and SMG3 initially thought their names were SuperMarioGlitchy4 and SuperMarioGlitchy3 because they didn’t understand what "SMG" really stood for or why they appeared as recolored versions of Mario. It wasn’t until after Axol's death that SMG1 and SMG2 revealed their true names and purpose as "Meme Guardians." The real meaning of "SMG" was unveiled to be "Super Meme Guardian," as the SMGs are responsible for protecting the life cycle of memes and their respective avatars.
- Unlike SMG0, Niles, SMG1, and SMG2 who always knew of their purpose as "Super Meme Guardians", SMG3 and SMG4 knew nothing of their history and forgot about their arrival at the Mushroom Kingdom soon after landing. It took a flashback triggered by the Ancient Memes for them to remember, but they still knew next to nothing about themselves other than their arrival. The reason for their amnesia is never explained.
- Before the SMGs were introduced, four characters with a SMG in their name were introduced in old videos, SMG1, SMG5, SMG8 and SMG69, though they don't have anything to do with the Super Meme Guardians because they are just Mario recolors (besides SMG69, which is a Toad) that made cameos in classic episodes.
- As shown in SMG4: Mario Suffers Infinite Detention, SMGs can only explicitly convert memes into energy, as characters from the Mario and Kirby series seen in the same room as the meme characters remain untouched.
- It's entirely possible that the SMGs in each universe house memes and communities of a specific decade of an era. For example, in Spudnick's Great Adventure, the Newgrounds characters are the memes which make sense for them since Newgrounds was very popular in the 2000s. SMG4 and SMG3 housing the 2010s memes also makes sense since the classic memes there have become the Ancient Memes before SMG3 took their place. SMG0 and Niles has a role in this as the first-ever meme was made in the late 1990s which would likely be where he was from.
- It was later revealed that SMG0 and Niles would be in the 1980s instead of the 1990s, but did create the Internet Graveyard.
- Despite an SMG losing part of their textures if their avatar dies, SMG0 and Niles didn't lose any of their textures after Fred was killed. This is due to SMG0 not being a modded recolor of Fred that was inserted into the game by a Guardian Pod, but is instead the opposing player who would play against the person controlling Fred while Niles was artificially created and not connected to Fred either, thus meaning their textures aren't compromised.
- Niles is the only SMG with an original name that doesn’t include a number. This is because he serves as a "negative counterpart" to SMG0, and there is no concept of negative zero (or, more specifically, the number 0 is both positive and negative at the same time).
- There are technically 7 Meme Guardians since SMG4’s Minion is SMG4’s Clone/Sister and she is related to the Meme Guardians
- While normally, Super Meme Guardians are identical to their avatar, it's possible for them to look different with seemingly no repercussion, as shown with SMG1, Niles, SMG4 and SMG3. For Niles, it's due to being an artificial SMG created by the God Box and for SMG4 and SMG3 by being originally mario recolors that later had their appearance modified by Shigeru Miyamoto at the end of The Lawsuit Arc, due to his status as the creator of an avatar, but no reasons were ever given as for why SMG1 looks different from Spudnick, with the only clue being that SMG4 thinks he "squished in an accident" to make him blocky instead of round.
- However, they still roughly have the same body proportions as their avatar.