If you kept an eye on the status updates earlier today, you have likely seen my dismay that someone had beaten me to writing the Super Mario Bros as a mafia story.  I was indeed rather disappointed, I was eager to portray the world of the Mushroom Kingdom in a much, much different light with different portrayals of characters (especially Mario, who is pretty much a blank slate to begin with outside of his canon heroism and bravery).

You might be asking, "But Grand Dad, if you wanted to write a Mafia Mario fanfiction, why don't you do it anyways?"

I have a particular need for some kind of spin in my stories.  Even in my planned Miitopia retelling that I mentioned last blog post, I plan to do things that doesn't exactly occur in the actual game, including world-building and lore, in addition to filling out those random levels that occur between major story events, mini-bosses, and bosses with some events, character development, and drama between party members and other characters.  Heck, there may even be a deviation or two.

But knowing there already exists a mafia take on the Super Mario Bros?  Who is to say it hasn't been done before that or again since?  And if I write my take on such a thing, will I be able to offer a fresh spin on it?  I believe it may be best to go back to the drawing board for a potential Mario fanfiction, shelving elements that I liked in the scrapped mafia story for later use.