Hey everyone, here's something I discovered.
You see, I was doing some research on other indie studios/creators, and I checked out one I hadn't looked at since last year. Have you heard of Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy? No? Well, this is supposed to be a spiritual successor to Wander Over Yonder, but you can tell Steven Universe is a big inspiration for it too.
Of course, it can't be a 2020s indie web show pilot if Michael Kovach isn't shoehorned in some way.
So why am I bringing this up? I just found out that the series creator, Evan B. "starteas", got a job at Glitch Productions:
He became a writer for Modern SMG4.
If you recall my previous posts, Modern SMG4 is a series that suffered a terrible decline in quality since Luke Lerdwichagul stopped writing for it and it was handed off to a bunch of other people. And I hate Modern SMG4 so much that I avoided the newer episodes like the plague, so I haven't kept up with most of what the series has done since 2024. So, to my surprise, when I checked the official social media accounts of Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy, I was literally shocked. What has this series become? How does Modern SMG4 manage to get worse every year? What's going on in these people's minds to think this is good storytelling? What's wrong with Luke Lerdwichagul that he keeps approving shitty stories for his longest running work? Is this the type of writing Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy will have if the series continues?
Rule of thumb: If a post-2018 SMG4 episode is titled "Mario (insert predicate)", it's very likely to be bad.
Ah... forced weeaboo stuff, one of Modern SMG4's favorite things. Just a reminder, Luke and Kevin are very proud otakus; the 2019 Anime Arc and the mere existence of Saiko and Melony should be proof of that.
Lot of heart?!?!? Excuse me, have you even seen the classic episodes? Does this person know about the rape jokes and homophobic jokes in Classic SMG4? SMG4 has about as much heart as Drawn Together. I still can't believe there are people who find the forced emotional moments in Modern SMG4 touching.
(ACTUAL CLASSIC SMG4 SCREENSHOT)
Imagine how sad and pathetic it must be that your first exposure to SMG4 was Puzzlevision; that overrated special that introduced Jingling Keys: The Character (a.k.a. Mr. Puzzles), and for some reason, some people thought the show was getting better again (?), but they were in for a big surprise when the next wave of episodes after the special were absolute shit.
And.... he gave us another useless OC with no personality. He'll join the list of Modern SMG4's useless OCs alongside Jeeves, Ramensay, Fuego the water bottle, JubJub, Rob the scarecrow, Depresso, etc.
In this screenshot, you can also see Viclis, a.k.a. "No Context SMG4", one of the most intelligent, yet controversial, figures in the SMG4 fandom (brief context: he's one of the few major public figures in the SMG4 fandom who admits that the newer episodes are bad, but since Modern SMG4 stans hate criticism, he became disliked by the community. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, SMG3's VA hates him. You have to do something really bad for someone who works at Glitch to hate you).
He is one of the few people on Earth who finds "Leggy" genuinely funny.
Anyway, Glitch Productions wants you to waste money on a plushie based on forced running gag that was never funny to begin with.
"starteas" is very OBSESSED with Mr. Puzzles, I'm not kidding.
This is what TV Tropes calls "Poe's Law": The more outrageous or extreme something or someone is, the harder it is to tell whether it's real or satirical.
Twink?! Is Mr. Puzzles supposed to be gay now? I want "starteas" to watch an SMG4 video from the early 2010s and see how he reacts to Mario gay bashing Luigi.
What the fuck is this? Why are they trying to make SMG4 Hazbin Hotel? I knew that Modern SMG4 had an identity crisis, but pretending to be a Vivziepop show (minus the swearing) is a new low. Is Hazbin Hotel so groundbreaking among these people that they now want to imitate its electroswing music numbers?, and yes, I know that Luke and Kevin had crossed into Vivziepop territory before; Meggy's current VA, Elsie Lovelock, was also Charlie's singing voice in the Hazbin pilot, Michael Kovach began working for them by voicing Niles, a villain in the 2021 SMG4 videos, and the rest is history. And don't forget they invited Vivziepop herself to GlitchX 2023.
My reaction:
God, I hate the forced emotional moments, they're easily one of the things I hate most about Modern SMG4. I'll give them credit for using characters appropriate for the scene and not fucking Mario. I detest it when they make forced emotional moments with Mario, they always come across as out of character.
Too much Modern SMG4 is damaging my brain, I need to post a Classic SMG4 clip right here to relieve the pain
This is the Savior of Western Animation, the New Cartoon Network and the Disney Killer, everyone.
Well, thank goodness SMG4 is officially over. People like you are seriously damaging this very mistreated franchise, I'm glad your time on Glitch was so short.
By the way, if you're wondering whether this guy is going to pull a Lackadaisy and have Glitch buy his show, it doesn't seem to be the case. He doesn't explain it very well, but it seems he left Glitch when he stopped writing for SMG4. He doesn't say it outright, but he seems to imply it, I'm not entirely sure.
As I mentioned before, he's OBSESSED with Mr. Puzzles, so much so that the Community tab of his YouTube channel is full of Mr. Puzzles fanart. It's almost as if this guy has a crush on Mr. Puzzles, something I wouldn't doubt considering he posted this.
Here's the full image:
Don't worry, this is not official, it's just a fanart. I don't know if Glitch will ever support Pride Month, but I think it's better if they stay neutral. Can you imagine if they start releasing official Pride Month merchandise like Vivziepop? Speaking of which:
Here's an extremely rare moment of Mario being homophobic in Modern SMG4. (The episode where this scene appears is so bad that I had to mute the video when I was looking for the scene for this screenshot)
As someone who lived through the rise and fall of SMG4, it saddens me greatly to see this series decline so much. It's very painful. It's like having a close childhood friend who got into drugs and you witnessed their downfall as it happened. If you showed these two images to someone who's never heard of SMG4, they wouldn't believe you said they were from the same series. And as I said in an older post, they really don't feel like the same series.

(Gotta give them credit they remembered Mr. Monitor's existence. It would have been a wasted opportunity if they didn't acknowledge Modern SMG4's other TV-headed guy who existed before Mr. Puzzles)
Before I finish, I want to post another Classic SMG4 clip from one of my favorite SMG4 episodes of all time.