What Really Happened to Glitzville?

***"Also, I had a crazy theory about how Mario is in a coma..."***

**Parts of this article are based on speculation.**
They are not considered an official part of the *Book of Mario* lore. These story elements are theoretical.

It goes without saying that there's a lot of weird things surrounding Glitz City from whatever is going on with Grubba and his son to whatever was happening with Mario's Son. However, I've noticed something weirder than all of those things after playing through some post-game areas and looking at post-game content created by other community members. At the end of Section 3, the first thing mentioned during the End of Updates is something about Glitzville being underwater, dark, dangerous, and skeletal. While this would imply that somehow the floating city sunk underwater at some point during the Section, there is evidence that suggests something else. Keep in mind what was said about the city in End of Updates, as this will become relevant later.

Fast-forward a few Sections later to pre-Section 6. During Honesty Professor Caesar Reality's explanation of the upcoming location, he mentions a dangerous prison. While this line is actually referring to Hoko Saba Castle, as the original TTYD line is "dangerous dungeons", the continuity of TTYD has no impact on BoM, and whatever he was referring to here isn't necessarily the same as what he was referring to there. So as far as BoM is concerned, Caesar Reality isn't referring to Hoko Saba Castle. He is instead talking about Glitzville. This is not to be confused with Glitz City, the floating city where Section 3 took place. How do I know Prof. Reality is referring to Glitzville, and how do I know this Glitzville isn't just another name for Glitz City?

Well, there is another location in Book of Mario that matches the description given by Prof. Reality and the one mention in Section 3's End of Updates. There's a location in the game known as the 100 Pool Problems, aka the Pit of 100 Trials in TTYD. The place's name was revealed by Crrobatman on Discord in a video he made showcasing the Pit tattles, where the Pit exclusive enemies are labeled as being from the 100 Pool Problems. What is the 100 Pool Problems? Ask the guy who can transport you through the place. According to him, 100 Pool Problems is a prison, and according to the name, it's apparently underwater, addressing two of the main descriptions mentioned in the previous sources. It should go without saying that the place is dangerous what with the drastically enhanced variants of weaker enemies like the Gloombs, Dark Coops, Band Brands (who are slaves according to their Blah descriptions), and the two enhanced versions of Evil Darks among other creatures roaming around, but the presumed boss of the place and the strongest enemy in Book of Mario, the SKELETAL dragon Bone Waste, lies at the final floor. Everything matches up too well; the 100 Pool Problems seems to be what remains of Glitzville while Glitz City is a rebuilt version of Glitzville in the same way Bad Fortress is a rebuilt Petalburg save for the former is in a different location from its original city.

So assuming all of this is true and that 100 Pool Problems is former Glitzville, what exactly happened to the old city? That is unclear. The closest thing to a possible answer is Bowser's line about the city falling, possibly meaning that he somehow learned about the city's dark past and was trying to relay that info to Mario for some reason, but that's a bit of a stretch. 100 Pool Problem back when it was known as Glitzville may have been a casualty in the war, along with possibly Grubba's son, explaining why he's so determined to gain power with the 3rd Glass Star and constantly talks about his son and projects his feelings for him onto others. However, there is nothing confirming this or even strongly hinting at it. All we know is that lots of evidence points towards Glitz City being the 2nd coming of Glitzville, a city that was destroyed and converted into a prison.