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“ |
YOU!!! You somehow continue to come up with UNIQUE and Creative Ways TO RUIN MY LIFE!!! I will GET YOU MARIO! I'LL GET ALL OF YOU!!! |
” | —Mr. Puzzles expressing his hatred to Mario and his friends in A Night At SMG4's… |
Mr. Puzzles is a major antagonist in the SMG4 series, acting as the overarching and true antagonist of Season 13 and the main antagonist of Season 14, being introduced in the PUZZLEVISION story and in the following sub-series. As of WOTFI 2024, Mr. Puzzles has been put into an insane asylum, but has been hinted at returning at some point in the future.
He is a supernatural humanoid television cybernetic being and content creator who was originally a human. His purpose is to entertain viewers with his own media company and streaming platform, which he created and owns, called Puzzlevision. He's egocentric, as he frequently praises himself and produces his work without help from anyone else. He is also known to be quite a perfectionist, wanting little interference from his performers, and wants everything to go as smoothly as possible.
Growing up, Mr. Puzzles dreamed of building his own creations, like an amusement park, and getting appreciation for it, but his father dismissed him for lacking "creative vision." Disheartened, he became obsessed with watching every piece of media, dedicating his life to television. Eventually, he beheaded himself and replaced his head with a cybernetic TV set, somehow surviving the transformation. Now a living embodiment of television, he created Puzzlevision and, after discovering SMG4—the "stupidest show [he's] ever seen"—he began curating its chaotic misadventures, determined to make them more substantial to his taste.
Before presenting himself to the SMG4 crew, he worked in secret, indirectly providing personalized yet questionable products and powers to both members and associates of the group. These individuals were often disadvantaged and desperate for success, and his actions set off a chain reaction of events that would eventually become one of his "shows", to test how well his experiments with the SMG4 series would do.
During this, Mr. Puzzles had a significant impact on the SMG4 Crew, giving a deranged SMG4 a suspicious keyboard to create the "Perfect Video," unleashing a demonic force that took over Peach's Castle. He listed the Showgrounds as a new home for the crew, help Oneshot Wren trap Meggy, Tari, and the rest of the Crew in a Wild West simulation, and directed Marty and Mario to steal SMG3's notebook. Puzzles eventually captured the crew to achieve a perfect 5-star rating and gain creative control over the SMG4 universe. However, the gang regained their conscience, launched their own variety show, and outshined Mr. Puzzles, reducing his influence and leading to his ousting from the Showgrounds by SMG4.
Mr. Puzzles returned with plans to take over SMG4's show to achieve a star rating. He attempted to steal SMG4’s Comedy Zone and briefly turned Meggy, in a Goomba-like form as Leggy, into his minion, though this effort failed. Frustrated with SMG4’s crew, particularly Mario, he sought revenge. Offered a role at Didney, he took over the company and replaced Didneyland with Puzzle Park to trap the SMG4 crew. He eventually fused with the park as its power source, brainwashing most of the SMG4 gang. Meggy connected with his inner child and used her Leggy form to break free from his influence, and then she separated her self with her Leggy form for good. Although somewhat changed by this, Mario still punched him, and SMG4 reported him to the authorities. Mr. Puzzles ended up in a maximum-security cell, now mentally unstable, Mr. Puzzles implies being still resentful towards the SMG4 Crew, though Meggy hopes he’ll one day improve.
Roles[]
He serves as the overarching and true antagonist of Season 13 and the main antagonist of Season 14 onwards, appearing as the overarching antagonist of the Puzzlevision story and the main antagonist of most of the arcs related to it.
Appearance[]
His small appearance was in IGBP during the Mysterious Keyboard advertisement, Mr. Puzzles takes the form of an adware, heavily inspired by BonziBuddy and other internet virtual assistants, for his debut, he was simply a dark gray analog television with googly eyes and a cartoon-ish grin on it.
Physically, Mr. Puzzles is a tall and thin humanoid, with a gray 50s/60s television box head that is identical to his adware form, minus the face. His real face is a light gray static background with differently shaped eyes with one big and one small, along with a large grin taking up most of his lower face. His teeth's colors, which are yellow, cyan, lime green, pink, red, and blue, are intended to resemble a TV ‘s color bars. Although his face is depicted as a screen, it is implied that his face is actually behind it as it remains intact even after the screen is shattered by Mario. The bottom edge of his head has the word "Puzzlevision" printed on it, which is an entertainment streaming service platform that he owns. He also seems to have a black cable-like neck that connects to the back of his TV head, which bares similarity to what actual cables do with TVs. He wears a black bowler hat with a gray band on his head, with two TV antennas sticking out, though one is bent. He wears a grey vest with a white undershirt and a black bow tie, as well as white elongated four fingered rubber hose gloves and black and white dress sneakers. His pants are dark grey, with silver puzzle patterns, his pants also come with suspenders with grey puzzle pieces as buttons. His pants are also a tad bit short and thin black cable-like legs are visible if one looks closer. One of his eyebrows also forms a lightning bolt. He cycles through different faces that appear on his screen, using the same colored smile and grey eyes. However, when he has an insanity rush, his face goes into a creepy face without the smile, nicknamed Photoshop Mr. Puzzles or just the Insane face. (See faces below)
As a child, his appearance was identical to Ninten and Ness (once for the latter). His body was shown as a silhouette with white glowing eyes (like how humans are seen in Murder Drones).
Personality[]
Mr. Puzzles maintains a complex personality rooted in a strong ego and an expectancy for control. He often craves attention, evident from the name of his entertainment company, "Puzzlevision," and his persistent desire to be in the spotlight. He manipulates those around him, including the SMG4 crew, making them obsess over their objectives, and turning them into adversaries for his twisted shows. Despite his friendly façade, Mr. Puzzles has unstable mental tendencies and sociopathic traits, demonstrating a troubling lack of empathy and a talent for exploiting others for his benefit. For instance, he showed enjoyment in seeing Meggy tortured and becoming completely traumatized by Oneshot Wren and took delight in SMG4's ability to "play an antagonist so well." His unstable mentality can make him have severe breakdowns when something keeps going wrong, and his temper reflects it as seen in Mr. Puzzles' Incredible Game Show Spectacular!
His dedication to entertainment is so compulsive, that he has transformed into a cyborg with a television set-like appearance, and once he took over Didneyland and replaced it with Puzzle Park, he fused with the engine room of his new amusement park, becoming its power source, all of this symbolizing his obsessive nature. Even though he possesses ruthless ambition and a craving for control over his entertainment platform, Mr. Puzzles is still able to be affable if he wants to, as evidenced by his temporary bond with Leggy. He experiences deep emotional distress when she is taken away, revealing his underlying vulnerability and bit of humanity.
Powers/Abilities[]
- Genius-Level Intelligence: Mr. Puzzles is a calculative, cunning, and intelligent entity who is capable of exploiting people who are their lowest by giving what they want, at the cost of them falling to villainy due to the power, and is a capable strategist, able to use the SMG4 Gang's tendencies to get him to 5 Stars due to how entertaining it is.
- Digital Omnipotence: Due to his nature of being one with television itself, Mr. Puzzles is practically a god within the digital world, able to shape the laws of reality and existence to his preferences.
- Creative Control: An ability he obtains by achieving a 5-star rating; Mr. Puzzles is able to harness all of his immense powers in the real world.
- Television Manipulation: He can cause TVs to turn on or off and play commercials.
- Omniscience: It has been shown that he watches and spies on the SMG4 Crew
- Reality Warping: His capability to manipulate reality, such as creating alternate dimensions or altering the internet, showcases his immense power and control over the environment.
- Complete control of Puzzle Park: Once he fused with Puzzle Park's engine room, he's able to controll all of the machines of the park with the strength of his will, as well as being able to change the reality around the park to his will, like summoning a door that leads to a strange, eerie setting with mirrors.
- Creation: The ability to create objects like the Mysterious Keyboard and the Wild-West simulation demonstrates his creativity and proficiency in crafting tools to achieve his goals.
- Technological Manipulation: His capacity to manipulate various forms of technology, from computers to printers, extends his control over the digital and physical realms.
- Charisma: Despite his malevolent nature, Mr. Puzzles' charismatic demeanor enables him to manipulate and persuade others effectively, making him a formidable adversary.
- Shapeshifting: The ability to take on different forms, such as an internet pop-up adware or a humanoid figure, this grants him versatility and stealth in his interactions with others.
- Mute: He muted Mario and SMG3 using his remote when they annoyed him.
- Self-Decapitation: While unconventional, the ability to detach and control his head suggests a unique aspect of his nature.
- Time Reversal: Mr. Puzzles can reverse time, as shown when SMG4 referenced Mario's Mysteries, and when Mario and Luigi discovered a room they weren't supposed to enter.
- Brainwashing: His most common power is his brainwashing ability, he has the power to brainwash people when making shows for himself, he was even capable of brainwashing The SMG4 Crew (especially Melony) with his western simulation. He even managed to brainwash himself.
- Fourth Wall Awareness: Mr. Puzzles' awareness of the audience and occasional direct communication with them adds an meta-fictional layer to his character, putting a gradient between the lines of both fiction and reality, he also created the PuzzleVision Website which views the Verse as Fiction.
- Teleportation: Mr. Puzzles is shown to be able to teleport to other TV's within the real world and can grow his fully body out of a TV. (basically a new vessel to control) This is shown when he comes out of the TV back at the Castle to capture Mario. This requires the TV to have Puzzlevision branding, however it is revealed that he can teleport to other TV's without the Puzzlevision brand in Mr. Puzzles Clubhouse
- Volume Adjustment: Mr. Puzzles can adjust the volume of his voice, as shown in Despicable Mr. Puzzles.
- Screen Shifting: He has shown to be able to switch his screen
- Screen Fixture: He somehow manages to get his screen fixed after it's been shattered, although it's fixed off screen.
Weaknesses[]
- Vulnerable Screen: His weakest spot is notably his screen, as it is easily breakable and can weaken him.
- Electricity (to his head): If enough electricity is discharged straight at his head, it can cause a malfunction which results in him and anybody else around him to be sucked into a TV parody. This also results in him becoming brainwashed himself, not having any awareness that he is trapped in his own show.
- Fluids (ex. water, Monster Energy): Just like an actual TV, Mr. Puzzles is weak against liquid matter because they can cause his TV head to malfunction and break upon contact.
- Digital Environment Dependence: While in the digital world he can rival forces such as that of SMG0/Niles or the YouTube Remote, in the real world Mr. Puzzles powers are much more limited, along with having the vulnerability of an average person. This can be seen when he fled and barely escaped a fat Italian whose TV time was stolen by Mr. Puzzles. And despite having a brief size advantage against the other crew, he was weakened and eventually taken out.
- Show Upstaging and Interference: Though a 5-star rating allows Mr. Puzzles to retain his god-like status in the real world, this effect is nullified if any sort of media surpasses his ratings, even reducing him offline. His powers are also threatened if his own show is disrupted, such as Mario causing chaos.
Crimes[]
- Murder: In Mr. Puzzles Clubhouse, Mr. Puzzles usurps Mickey's role as owner of Didney by throwing him to his doom off of Didney Worl's Engine Room balcony. He also murders Donald by choking him to death, to prevent him from accusing him and calling 911.
- Stalking: Mr. Puzzles stalked SMG4 through his computer while he was making his "Perfect Video". He also continued to watch the SMG4 Gang ever since and possibly before.
- Public endangerment: Through the goop his keyboard created, he has endangered SMG4's Gang when they tried to stop it from escaping the castle. Later in Mr. Puzzles' Incredible Game Show Spectacular!, he endangers the lives of many by crushing them with all of his show props.
- Destruction of property: The Goop from the Mysterious Keyboard resulted in the destruction of Peach's Castle and what remained was left to rot inside the caverns, which he pronounces the event as "High Marks".
- False Imprisonment/Slavery: He imprisoned and SMG4 unlawfully in order to make him complete his "Perfect Video", even when SMG4 broke free of his influence and wanted to leave. He later has forced the entire gang to perform shows for him under his Puzzlevision banner.
- Bodily Mutilation: The Demonic Goop his keyboard created resulted in Peach being mutated into a monster. SMG3 also temporarily mutated as well.
- Mass kidnapping: He helped Oneshot Wren kidnap SMG4's Gang and trap them inside of Wren's Wild West Simulation.
- Psychological torture via proxy: Mr. Puzzles was the reason why Oneshot Wren was able to psychologically and mentally torture Meggy as it has "brought him into tears". Possibly one of the most despicable and most darkest things Mr. Puzzles has ever done, he's also indirectly responsible for the trauma she still has of him.
- Theft: In Mario Loses His Mustache, Mr. Puzzles steals Mario's mustache.
- Theft via proxy: By sending a fax to Marty, he convinced him and Mario to steal SMG3's Sussy Notebook for his own personal gain.
- Corruption: Through the Demonic Goop, he was able to temporarily corrupt both SMG4 and SMG3 during the events of SMG4 Movie: IT'S GOTTA BE PERFECT.
- Attempted Mass Enslavement: With a 5-star rating under his possession, Mr. Puzzles has sought to turn the entire world into a TV show (forcefully enslaving its inhabitants), with him as the main character, only to be neutralized by the antics of Mario (who Mr. Puzzles had come to view as the source of his shows' bad ratings).
- Negligent Homicide: Oneshot Wren's death was caused by the collapse of the simulation equipment Mr. Puzzles gave him, his death would not have occurred if the equipment was more robustly built and makes Mr. Puzzles indirectly responsible for his death.
- Trespassing: In Despicable Mr. Puzzles, he entered the Meme Factory without SMG4's permission.
- He breaks into Mario's House in Mario Loses His Mustache
- He enters Karen's house without her permission in Mr Puzzles' Lowest Point.
- In Mr. Puzzles Clubhouse, he breaks into Meggy's house by hijacking her TV
- Intimidation: In Mario Loses His Mustache, when SMG4 and SMG3 decide to rig the votes to get Mario's mustache back, Mr. Puzzles threatens them with violence if they don't stand down.
Trivia[]
- Mr. Puzzles was designed by Matt Gaglione, modeled by Guillaume Coquel-Danchin, and was rigged by Evan Huang.
- He is one of the darkest villain from SMG4, going as far as to kidnap, endanger, and even murder in order to get what he wants. Mr. Puzzles Clubhouse shows just how insane Mr. Puzzles is that he in order to take over the company, murdered Mickey Mouse and his friends in order to take over Didney. However, he's only second to Francis as Mr. Puzzles is shown to be less selfish than he lets on, being compassionate to Leggy. Whereas Francis only saw the many cephalopods of Inkopolis that he kidnapped as easily-disposable fuel for the Inkweaver (that he also stole).
- In SMG4: Our New Home, when SMG4 buys The Showgrounds, his theme plays when Boopkins is talking. In addition, the Showgrounds purchase has a Puzzlevision icon next to its name, showing he used to own it. His theme plays in several other important places in the series:
- When the Adware appears in It's Gotta Be Perfect.
- When Oneshot Wren gets the letter for the simulation.
- In the War Of The Fat Italians 2023 rap battle, from 31:51 to 31:57. It can also be heard at the end of the rap on the official song on Spotify. During when Marty received the fax, his theme is playing too. It is also heard when his physical form is finally revealed.
- In the intros for the first four Puzzlevision originals, albeit a slightly different version made to sound like an old TV program.
- As the background of TV Time
- In Scooby Mario, Where’d You Go!, his theme can be heard in the ad for his pizzeria.
- In Mr. Puzzles’ Incredible Game Show Spectacular!, his theme can be heard for most of the intro.
- In COMING UP NEXT, during the ad segment where he asks the viewer to rate them, his theme plays multiple times. After the 45-hour mark, it sounds almost like it’s playing at a distance. After the 21 hour mark, the song is corrupted heavily.
- In SMG4 Movie: PUZZLEVISION, the Puzzlevision Original remix of the song plays, but repeats a note at the end several times as the screen goes corrupt.
- During the events of SMG4: We Interrupt This Broadcast, several signs are pointing that Mr. Puzzles was the one behind the events of the episode and the gang heading for the "Wild West" to spend their vacation:
- Meggy and Tari come across a TV that plays a commercial about Oneshot Wren's whereabouts just as Meggy enters the room. This is so coincidental that Tari herself believes something to be wrong due to the TV somehow showing this commercial just as they appear and turns off on his own.
- The description of the thumbnail is just a TV emoji, identical to the one that appeared on the Showgrounds advertisement on the real estate website and Boopkins himself being suspicious of how he came upon their website in the first place, further hinting that he is manipulating these events behind the scenes and attempting to trick the SMG4 gang into doing what he wants for his own amusement.
- Meggy appears to have seen his symbol before, but it is currently unknown where she's seen it. In WESTERN SPAGHETTI, she sees the logo and thinks that she's seen it before. This may be an error due to only SMG4 seeing the logo in the previous movie, or he could have shown her the listing for the Showgrounds with the logo offscreen.
- He is the second character with a screen head as an original character.
- Hal Monitor is the first.
- In the credits of WOTFI 2023 he is listed as "Mysterious TV Guy", the first time he was given some sort of official yet unnamed alias.
- In Mario's Mysteries, his real name is revealed to be Mr. Puzzles.
- He is the second villain to possess supernatural god-like powers, the first being Niles.
- He is the second character to become a marketable plushie but later be defeated on the same episode he was promoted. The first being Axol.
- He is the first SMG4 villain to be voiced by Brendan Blaber, who is also known for creating Epithet Erased. He is also Blaber's first villainous role in general.
- A fan-animatic created by former MOB Entertainment artist Opossol, entitled "Creative Control", features Mr. Puzzles (voiced by official SMG4 writer, Zachary Preciado) battling against Eliza, one of Opposol's OCs, and was uploaded on April 8, 2024. It was recognized and respected officially by SMG4 himself, in a X/Twitter post on April 9. What’s ironic is the fact that Mr. Puzzles' song is also called “Creative Control”.
- Some people have stated he is quite similar to Vox from Hazbin Hotel. For example they both look very similar and they both are psychotic maniacs. However one controls the media, the other wants to make good media for his own selfish desire of achieving recognition for his work.
- Vox would later make a cameo in SMG4 Movie: PUZZLEVISION in which he is mistaken for Mr. Puzzles by Mario.
- He is considerably powerful amongst characters in the entire SMG4 series due to his fourth wall awareness and brainwashing abilities.
- While the silhouette and white glowing eyes makes him look like the humans from Murder Drones, his young form model looks like Ninten as well.
- Although, Ness's model was used once in Mr. Puzzles Clubhouse before the custom Ninten model was repurposed. It can be easily confusing due for both sharing the same body shape.
- As revealed in the PUZZLEVISION movie, he is shown to smoke cigarettes, despite his face being behind a screen.
- As said in the movie, Mr. Puzzles is not an AI, but an actual human being who was insane enough to replace his own head with a TV, which would make him biologically a cyborg.
- Mr. Puzzles has been confirmed to be returning due to a tweet by SMG4 which was then proven true in the episode Mario The Exploro.
- The new faces that first appear in the episode "The Despicable Mr Puzzles" are the fan made works of Richard Animations ™ as well as a Twitter/X user by the name of Sapphzeal, ported to GMOD by JustSomeDrone.
- In YOU WILL SEE, he says "Thank you!" in 3 Languages: Italian, French and German[1]
- As shown in A Night at SMG4’s…, Mr. Puzzles has an Android phone.
- This is a reference to Apple's 'no villain' clause, where Apple does not allow villains or bad guys to use their products on-screen in movies or other forms of media.
- In Mr Puzzles' Lowest Point, when he's near reaching his breaking point, the background of the Deranged face shows with a warning sign on top of it, both to show him getting mad and as a hint that he has yet another terrifying face.
- Mr. Puzzles' core form may have came from a piece of fanart from the discord user Sunhex, in particular as we can see the clothes are based off this fanart and there's an indication he has a directors gun. [2]
- In SMG4 INSIDE OUT, on the milk cartridge, Mr. Puzzles appears to resemble a similar appearance to Leggy.
- Apparently, this version of Mr. Puzzles is called "Goomba Puzzles," and was made by a Discord user by the name Blue Doofus on May 17th. She has a DeviantArt profile of the same name where she posted him the day after.
- This is an indirect reference to how Leggy resembles a Goomba, as Mr. Puzzles had a Leggy for a temporary sidekick.
- Ironically, he resembles Mario in terms of history, because just like Mario, they both had a father who scorned them. In Mario's case, a father who hated his son to death. And Mr. Puzzles, his father told him that he would never be anything in this life.
- He serves as a dark reflection of SMG4, specifically, him in SMG4 Movie: IT'S GOTTA BE PERFECT. While SMG4 went insane working on his perfect video, he later understood what he did was wrong and that friendship comes first. Had he not realized this and continued being obsessed with working on his perfect video, he might’ve turned out like Mr. Puzzles.
- His appearance in Welcome To Puzzle Park seems to be similar to Omega Flowey from Undertale.
- Mr. Puzzles has sung in four whole songs; TV Time, Creative Control, Tunnel of Puzzles and Puzzle Park (Rap Battle).
- Unlike most villains who are killed (Francis and Niles) or reformed (SMG3 and Lawyer Kong), Mr Puzzles is the only villain currently imprisoned for his actions.
- While Marty was arrested in the preceding WOTFI, he was apparently released from custody.