Clash of the Elements

"Gods are powerful beings. They can have a multitude of strange and mystifying powers. They could use these powers as keepers of the peace, or become creatures of rampant destruction..."

—First line of Part 1

Clash of the Elements is an adventure/fantasy genre Super Mario Bros fanfic by mewmaster93. It was started on November 9th, 2011 with Part 1: A Flame Reborn, which was finished on April 2nd, 2012 with the uploading of the Extra Chapter (Though the author has stated that he will update the page again later with a What If story.). Movie 1 was started on April 6th of the same year and finished on the 24th of that very month. Part 2 was started on the 26th and is currently ongoing.

The story of Part 1 follows Mario as he hears from Professor E. Gadd about the legacy of the Elemental Overlord, a being who quite obviously was able to control all the elements. The legends spoke of how the Overlord had to seal his powers away, and that a new heir needed to be found in order to inherit his powers, since the time was approaching of the day prophecy. Using the Professor's new device to head to the planet Earth, Mario comes across the boy of prophecy, an 11-Year Old named Alex Whiter, who joins him on a journey across the Mushroom Kingdom to find the seven Elemental Stones needed to awaken the Elemental Overlord's powers.

Part 1 can be found here, Movie 1 can be found here and Part 2 here. It is highly suggested by the author that you start from Part 1 and don't jump in to the later parts, but the links are there just for the sake of this description.

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Tropes used in Clash of the Elements include:

• Action Girl: Rosalina turns out to be one, especially seeing as she is the first one to force Joe Dark to go all-out in his base form.
• The Ageless: The Genesis Samurais, who haven't aged for over two-thousand years.
• Arm Cannon: Alpha has the ability to create one of these from both of his robotic arms. The primary function of them seems to be to shoot ionic energy in the form of a concentrated laser beam, but only time will tell if they are capable of shooting more.
• Apocalypse How: After taking control of Joe Dark's body, the Dark King set in motion events that would bring about a Class 5 to Plit.
  • Later on, at the peak of his Villainous Breakdown Joe Dark starts charging up an attack that was stated by the Star Spirits to be capable of causing a Class X variation.
• Ax Crazy: Joe Dark. This trait is amplified immensely after he gains the Dark King's powers.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Driad and Luigi when fighting Dimentio and his 999 copies
• Badass: All the heroes get their moments throughout the story, though specific mention has to go to Gemini and Geno
  • Badass Beard: Ezekial Gaia
  • Badass Mustache: Mario and Luigi, as to be expected.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Driad. The outer guardian of the Frozen Palace learned this the hard way when Driad regained his memories of his life as an outer guardian and briefly returned to that form to combat him.
• Big Damn Heroes: Gemini, Geno, and Alpha pull off one of these moments in the very chapters that they end up joining the group in, saving the heroes from the outer guardian of the Lightning Palace, Joe Dark and The Dark Crystal King respectively.
  • Rosalina does this as well in Chapter 46, saving Mario from dying at the hands of Joe Dark
  • In return, Mario does this for Alex in Chapter 54 by stopping and destroying Joe Dark's sword from killing him in one-blow
• Bloodless Carnage: AVERTED beyond all belief. Joe Dark's slaughtering of the Genesis Samurai, especially his killing of Cecilia Frost, is bloody to such a point that it is almost nauseating to think about
• Boobs of Steel: Cecilia Frost is the strongest female member of the Genesis Samurais and is also the most-endowed.
• Book Ends: Alex Whiter's journey in Part 1 begins as it ends, traveling through the Stargadd portal to reach Plit.
• Breath Weapon: Bowser's Fire Breath
• Canon Foreigner: Driad, Gemini, and Alpha
• The Cameo: A TON of characters from the entire Mario universe make brief, one line cameos in Chapter 50, speaking of their desires so the Star Spirits will have enough energy in the Star Rod to heal Alex. Seriously, just try and identify everyone who speaks.
  • In Movie 1, Queen Bean and Lady Lima make brief appearances at the beginning, while R.O.B. appears in the ending.
• The Chosen One: Alex Whiter is the one foretold in the prophecy to become the next Elemental Overlord. However, Alex points out to Mario how improbable it is that he fits the role so perfectly.
• Crossover: As of Chapter 21 of Part 2, with the Kingdom Hearts universe.
• Deal with the Devil: Joe Dark forges a pact with the Dark King's spirit so he can have the capability to destroy Alex Whiter.
• Designated Hero: Brought up In-Universe by Joe Dark, who claims that Alex Whiter is getting undeserved treatment as a good guy after some sort of atrocities he committed in the past.
• Despair Event Horizon: According to Joe Dark's backstory, he went through this when everyone alive in his family tree was slaughtered by some unknown person/force
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Zeno Blaze does this quite literally to Joe Dark after he becomes a soul residing inside of Alex's body.
• Elemental Powers: The Elemental Overlord had control over a wide variety of these. Over the course of the story the heroes come across temples based on these such as Nature, Water, Wind, Lightning, Earth, Ice, and Fire. By the end of Part 1, Alex Whiter has gained the ability to use these powers as well.
• Eleventh-Hour Superpower: Phoenix Form
• Foreshadowing: Hints of future plot events are thrown out quite often in Part 1 alone. A few examples include:
  • Rosalina's Big Damn Heroes moment, were it not easy enough to figure out before, had the clearest hint given at the end of Chapter 35 with the words: "shadow of an observatory"
  • Likewise, Mario destroying Joe Dark's sword with his star energy is hinted at during previous battles against him, where star energy was proven to be capable of dealing critical damage to beings consumed by darkness.
  • This hint is a bit of a stretch towards the end result, but The Genesis Samurais' souls going into Alex's body was more than likely foreshadowed by this line:

"Though his body may be weak, his soul still lives. And as long as that's alive, then he shall live as well"

• Giant Mook: The outer guardian of the Lightning Palace is already bigger than the average Koopa, but he is able to take this trope Up to Eleven by using the metal straps on his body to turn his body into a lightning rod and increase his size even further via the electricity that is drawn to him.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: However, it is because of that very ability that Gemini is able to ultimately kill him, by overloading him with electricity to the point that his heart suffers from too much strain and shuts down.
• Good All Along: Gemini discusses this trope with Mallow in Part 2, more specifically referring to Domino when he does so.
• The Heartless: The trope namers themselves have appeared as of Chapter 22 of Part 2
• Heroic Sacrifice: Driad REALLY doesn't like the implementation of this trope, and the one deciding factor that made him dislike it is when The Genesis Samurais sacrificed their mortal bodies against Joe Dark
• Kid Hero: Alex Whiter, Mallow Acia Rose, Tina Aqua, and Pitori Sparks
• The Mole: Fawful
• Not Quite Dead: Cackletta TWICE!, Fawful, Smithy and Dimentio. The return of the third guy is brought up and Lampshaded by Mallow to Mario in Chapter 3 of Part 2:

"Do you go easy on them or something, or do you keep forgetting to check and make sure that you weren’t fighting copies of their true selves?"

• Obviously Evil: Joe Dark. If the red eyes and skull and crossbones shirt didn't make this blatant enough, just look at his last name for crying out loud!
• Older Than They Look: Driad, All The Genesis Samurais
• One-Winged Angel: Bowser becoming Giga Bowser An interesting variation of this trope because in this case It was not an intentional transformation
  • Joe Dark's Griffon Form
  • Averted in Smithy's case, for instead of going with the form he used in the original game he merely sheds his armor and reveals his human body. Though it still proves deadly enough once he starts fighting.
• Out of Focus: This happens a few times in Part 1 to some of the heroes once the group gets big enough, but the most obvious example of this trope is Mallow, who save for Mario really doesn't get a character arc devoted to him throughout the story. He is also the only one whose fight is not given any attention to in Movie 1.
  • However, this is subverted in Part 2, where not only does he share plenty of screentime with Gemini during the Smithy arc, but it is because of him that Gemini Doesn't eventually lose himself to his demonic heart
• Plot Coupons: The Elemental Stones
• Power Gives You Wings: Alpha and Gemini's Star Spirit forms grant them angelic wings, though they aren't actually used for flight and Alex Whiter's Phoenix Form, which gives him the creature's majestic wings
• The Professor: E. Gadd.
• The Psycho Rangers: The Axem Rangers X in Part 2
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Cackletta gives one of these to Alex. It backfires. Big Time.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Or more like...Sealed Soul of the Dark King in a Deep Chasm
• Sequel Hook: In the Epilogue of Part 1, where The two mysterious beings who were watching the battle between the heroes and Joe Dark are revealed to be Dimentio and Smithy, and Cackletta is revealed to be alive, showing that she acquired one of the feathers from Alex Whiter's Phoenix Form for some evil purpose...
  • This also happens in Movie 1, with Alex promising Tabuu that he will avenge his people by finding and killing The Master Hand
• Shout-Out: To Super Mario Bros Z in Chapter 45 More specifically, the act of having the Star Spirits appear and using their energy to power-up Mario and the other heroes, a concept which, while it didn't get to appear in the actual series, at least got shown in the intro. Thankfully, the author gives Alvin-Earthworm full credit for the idea instead of claiming it as his own.
  • Another example of this trope with the same series happens in Part 2, where The Axem Rangers X, with descriptions of their designs matching the sprites Alvin used appear in the early chapters.
• Slasher Smile: Joe Dark REALLY likes doing this.
• This Trope Is Bleep: At the end of chapter 40 of Part 1, as Cecilia Frost is beating up Ezekial Gaia, her swear words are censored out by his screams of pain. Though it is quite obvious from the first letter that she was going to use the word fuck.
• Time Travel: This happens involuntarily to Alex Whiter in Part 1's Extra Chapter, which sends him two-thousand years into the past. Though the cause is not stated at the moment The mysterious lady from the past mentions about something called the "Gaia Temporis"...
• Tomato in the Mirror: Driad is not a Good Guardian, but actually the former Outer Guardian of the Nature Castle
• The Unfought: The inner guardians of the Terra Cave, Frozen Palace, and Ignitor Cave. Though their powers are given to the people who merge the Elemental Stones with themselves. This also counts as an example of The Unseen.
• Unwitting Pawn: As revealed in the Epilogue for Part 1, Joe Dark, and by extension the spirit of the Dark King was this to Cackletta
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Joe Dark THINKS he is one of these, but as Alex points out to him after learning of his backstory, his ends don't really justify the means.
  • Tabuu, on the other hand, actually fits the definition of this trope.
• Wham! Episode: Chapter 22 of Part 2. To shortly sum things up... Alpha and Mario have gone to the Realm of Darkness, Alpha is implied to have gone there before in the past, Cackletta may be working with The Heartless (As in the literal trope namers), and the area the two heroes arrive at? The spaceship from Deep Space, where footage found there revealed that everyone aboard the ship were slaughtered by the Heartless a long time ago...
• Wham! Line: Two of these in Chapter 24, though only one will hit you if you are familiar with the work. The first is said by Alpha, the second by Fawful:

"I guess before the Heartless invaded, this castle used to exist in a world known only as Radiant Garden."
"So, I guess now would be a good time for me to drop the act, huh Commander?"