User blog:WikiSchm2000/The MarioMario54321 Review Marathon - Part 49

'''IGIUL! (Part 1) (March 13th, 2008) [Runtime: 7:30]'''

Prelude:

I must be honest, the amount of videos so far that I would consider having any intentional quality can be counted on one or two hands. So far I’ve encountered videos that have had either Mario being a psychopath, laughably ineffective villains, bearing nonsensical or non-eventful plots or having memeable moments that weren’t meant to be memeable in the first place. That’s not to say these videos haven’t been enjoyable, it’s just that I think it’s for the reasons that MM didn’t fully intend.

This time, however, I’m reviewing a video series from MM that I can actually call quality. IGIUL is what I consider to be, quite possibly, the greatest canon video series from MM. Yes, I’m serious, I think this is better than just about everything else that came afterwards, although I could change my mind later. That’s mainly because this series has a decent antagonist, as well as not leaning into the collectathon nature of the later series. It’s also shorter than all the other series, which may not be a good sign for things to come.

This part I think is the best of the five parts, for one sole reason that I’ll get into with the review.

See this video first before reading on to get your own properly informed opinion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_Z1oF3D5p4&list=PLNPi6H0sXYaCHQG4Br4q5yZJp8uxhid2B&index=49

The Main Video:

The first thing of note in this series is the song “Through the Fire and the Flames” from Dragon Force, aka one of the most epic songs ever produced. For the longest time I’ve wondered why such a great song was used for someone as unimportant in the MM lore as Igiul, but after rewatching the other series and how lame a majority of the other villains were, he’s probably the best fit for this theme after all. We also get a unique font screen for IGIUL, although I can’t actually discern what type of font it is.

Right at the beginning, Mario notes that it’s a beautiful day, with the best part being that a treasure has failed to be claimed and that he can claim it for himself. I’m assuming they just found a sort of message to its existence and failed to find it in general, although now I want to know just how Mario found out about this. We don’t get an answer, however, and we’re introduced to our main villain relatively quickly after this.

Igiul introduces himself by giving us a recap of Mario and Oiram’s history together, of which he notes that Oiram was freed 3 days after Mario trapped him. This completely retcons Oiram’s statement of being in there for years, but I think this makes way more sense honestly. There’s no way Oiram would have survived being in there that long without any food or drink, and I can buy Mario accidentally setting him free after just three days a little bit more. Also, Oiram’s line could be interpretted as him feeling that tortured by his captivity, which actually makes him more pathetic. That’s not to say everything Igiul says is right, though.

Igiul states that his goal is to avenge Oiram by murdering Mario since his heart broke in two the day that Oiram died. You know what, I’m on board with this guy. Wanting revenge for the cold-blooded murder of your brother is a fantastic motivation for a hero to have…wait this guy is supposed to be the main antagonist? We’re supposed to be rooting against him? Nah, screw that, this guy has shown more protagonism in twenty seconds than Mario ever has in nearly fifty videos. Granted, since he’s Oiram’s brother, he could be as weak and pathetic as Oiram initially was so I’ll have to see if he has what it takes.

Once Igiul starts hunting for Mario, he calls Mario a “Fat Noob”. Ah yes, that word, noob. This was the word that MM often used as the greatest insult that could be given to his characters in a video. And yes, that word is extremely pathetic and there are way better insults he could have used. But to be fair to Igiul, I’m pretty sure most other antagonists in this era use that word so he’s not completely ruined yet. He’s also not helping his case by not knowing where Jolly Roger Bay is, but I guess I can forgive this since this is his first video appearance and I assume he doesn’t know anything about the Mushroom Kingdom’s layout.

We then catch Mario clearly setting his mind straight about gathering the treasure.

After that little skirmish, Mario spots the treasure and immediately goes to grab it. Wait a minute, he instantly knew where this treasure was after like 10 seconds of searching? I thought that nobody could find it, wouldn’t someone else have found it given the lack of information that Mario had? This has to be a set-up of some kind, there’s no way Mario finds that treasure this quickly. Right before he grabs it, Igiul comes up to bum-rush Mario and ''kills him in ONE HIT? HOLY CRAP!''

Mario Kill Count: 12. I mean, I know Mario’s been killed just as easily before by the bomb-using Lakitus and the Megation Laser using Penguin Village, but never by a main antagonist before! Already I can take Igiul much more seriously than Oiram, which I can appreciate. There’s finally some escalating tension!

Mario, confused at what just happened, decides to go back and check for himself. He encounters Igiul again, and Igiul is finally introduced to Mario. After realizing that Igiul was Oiram’s brother, Mario naturally makes himself unsympathetic by mocking about how easy Oiram was to beat, which no doubt makes our supposed antagonist even more enraged.

Okay, even though I said that Igiul was threatening, I didn't say his dialogue was good at all. After hearing that, Mario decides to flee to the Tower in the Sky, his tried-and-true method of beating Oiram in the past. Igiul also goes, but agrees with Mario that Oiram is a push-over. I kind of like how in-universe Oiram is known as a wimp, mainly because it’s accurate (or it is thanks to MarySue54321’s bullcrap tampering but we don’t talk about that). Anyways, they fight to “Invisible Man” by Scatman John, and finally we have another Scatman John that isn’t the same two songs! Rejoice! Scatman Counter: 21.

What follows is Igiul absolutely dominating Mario, making Mario swear the f-bomb in all caps and fall onto the castle’s flagpole.



It’s official, Igiul is the new main protagonist of the MM universe. I don’t care what anyone else says, he’s killed Mario twice over already and beat him on his own home turf. He’s done more good to the Mushroom Kingdom than anyone else besides Oiram at this point. And even villain-wise, he’s far and away still the best character because him killing Mario here means he’s way more of a menace than any other antagonist. For the first time, it seems like there’s an antagonist that can’t be stopped. That’s what I call raising the stakes, so good job, Igiul. You finally did what no other MM antagonist thus far has done: be competent and a threat. Hopefully this lasts for a while. Mario Death Count: 13.

With Igiul absolutely asserting his dominance over Not Mario, Mario didn’t end up willingly come back to life. MarySue54321 had to force him back because that was how dominated Mario was by Igiul, though it came at the cost of his clothing. AUUUGGHHHHH no goddammit go away MarySue54321, nobody wants you here ruining this episode. Also, Mario becomes naked since his clothes supposedly got stuck to the flagpole, despite that not being the case last time. So I think MM just stripped him down to humiliate him.

Anyways, Mario despairs over how strong Igiul is. MM concurs, and makes a plan for Mario to spy on Igiul at midnight to hear his plans. Mario agrees to this, because MM is a Mary Sue so of course he’d be able to guess Igiul always talks about his plan on the roof of his enemy’s castle at night despite this being the first day his plan was enacted. And I assume it’s the first day because otherwise he definitely would have been caught by now. Why does time travel have to exist in this universe, that’s the one issue I have with it in general. There’s almost no tension when MM can just do everything. Also I’m now heavily suspicious that MM was the one that told Mario about this “treasure” to set this whole thing up.

Anyways, Mario spys on Igiul at midnight, with a sky texture that’s all black and actually has a moon? Okay, points for aesthetics at least, that’s pretty cool.

MM then instructs Mario to get onto the castle as quietly as possible, so of course Mario takes the loud cannon to get up there. You. Idiot. Anyways, Igiul somehow doesn’t hear this as he speaks to his boss on the rooftop. Oh, Igiul’s working for someone? This boss must be a super-chad then if Igiul’s taking orders from him. Igiul is then instructed to steal the one trillion coin treasure that Mario didn’t get, which makes Mario yell the amount out loud out of shock. Yep, Mario definitely lost some brain cells because of MM’s vids. Thus, Igiul easily finds Mario again and this time uses explosives to annihilate him a third time. Mario Death Count: 14.

And that was Igiul. There were some issues with it, but it was great at setting up Igiul as a threat. I don’t think it’s been done better before or since honestly, so that was nice. I do think the story goes downhill from here though, unfortunately.

The Extra Bonus Stuff:

Evil Mario - 37 lines [37] (Expected, honestly)

Igiul - 22 lines [22] (From now on he shall hence be known as Gigachad Igiul, because that is a title he deserves)

MarySue54321 - 7 lines [7] (Noooo why did you have to be here)

??? - 5 lines [5] (Hm I wonder who this could be)

Biggest Chad: Igiul - Medal of Honor easily. This is perhaps one of the most chad moments in the entire MM universe, having Through the Fire and the Flames as his theme song and easily murdering Mario three separate times over is legendary. Add to that his sympathetic motives and he’s the best character so far.

Biggest Loser: Mario - I wished I could have given this to Mary Sue instead, but I can’t. I just can’t. Mario got owned three separate times by Igiul, I can’t ignore that even in the face of Mary Sue’s unbearableness.

Favorite Quote: “YOU’RE GONNA DIE, MARIO!! TASTE IGIUL POWER!” - Igiul Power using Igiul (The tempting fate line with Mario on the flagpole was a close second, but this reminds me too much of “Oiram…away!” to ignore)

Next time, we’ll see Igiul not pulling off this chad feat again.