Thug Life

**Thug Life** is a crime drama series created by Richie Vecseii on the SMR Stories channel. The series has 12 episodes, with the first episode, Underdogs released on November 9, 2019. The series involves Jake and his friends, living in the ghettos trying to make a living by robbing stores and banks, while also having to deal with their rival gang, The Gators. Rich was heavily inspired by the Grand Theft Auto series and went through multiple changes before the final product came out. The final episode, Lone Wolf was released on April 18, 2020 with huge praise from audiences.

## Plot Summary

The series takes place in the ghettos, where crime always occurs and where a murderous gang, The Gators rule supreme. After graduating high school, Jake and his friends, Ned, Tony, and Travis spend the summer going on heists. Jake's adoptive mother, Susan is worried about Jake leaving the house and going on heists. Later, when Jake buys cocaine from Antonio, he gets beat up by The Gators, but saved by a girl named Carly. She wants to join the gang just to make money as she's poor. Jake and the gang is hesitant, but let her join. On one heist, Jake kills someone which permanently traumatizes him, to which Carly comforts him. The Gators's leader, Xavier, doesn't want Jake's gang, Dakota to rule the town, so he hires a ninja named Phoenix to spy on their plans. When Dakota steal equipment from a lab, The Gators subdue them and Xavier kills off Travis, after refusing to join the Gators.

After a month of dealing with Travis's death, crime lord and terrorist Agent Swanson, makes a deal with Jake to help out Dakota become more successful than The Gators. Meanwhile, Ned makes a prototype time machine to hopefully go back in time and rescue Travis before he's killed. Jake is not sure if he wants to do both of those offers yet, but Tony decides to call Agent Swanson, in hopes of killing off Xavier. Dakota also hires Antonio in hopes of helping out the gang. After a very suspicious mission, Ned reads the contract they signed with Agent Swanson and find out that they'll be paid a very small amount, if at all. After another mission offered by Agent Swanson, the gang decides to leave the deal and Jake rips the contract. After leaving, Agent Swanson hires Xavier to kill the rest of Dakota. Dakota are brought together except for Carly, and Jake is very insistent on killing Xavier, to which Tony disagrees with. However, The Gators bust into Jake's house and start a gang fight with everyone inside. Xavier shoots Jake's mom and Jake attempts to rescue her. While slowly dying, she tells Jake that she used to have a child with her ex-husband, but her child was murdered by a gangster. She tells him the world is cruel and wants Jake to be safe. When she dies, Jake grabs the time machine and tells it to bring him back before everyone dies. Jake is sent back in time and The Gators abduct Tony and Antonio, but Ned manages to escape to which he blames himself for everyone getting kidnapped.

Jake is teleported to the Super Mario Richie universe, where the Kooplings mistake him for Bowser Junior. Tony is also held captive in the garage of The Gators and is tortured to try to convince him to join the Gators. After four months, Jake comes to the realization that he'll never make it back to his world, but Iggy reveals that he knows he's not from here and has been making a dimension machine in the form of a star, which he wants Jake to be the test subject. Jake decides to use the machine to go back to his world. Meanwhile, Ned goes to Carly to help find The Gators base, but Carly doesn't want to be heavily involved. Ned and Carly find the Gator's base and rescue Tony. Tony decides to kidnap Agent Swanson and kill him since he started all of the events, much to the dismay of Ned and Carly. Tony kidnaps Agent Swanson leaving Swanson's child behind and kills him at Jake's house. Ned argues with Tony and compares him to The Gators. After hearing this, Tony decides to join the Gators and Carly also leaves, not wanting to be involved. All alone, Ned is hopeless before Jake comes in, successfully traveling back to his universe. After dealing with so much torture, Jake and Ned decide to kill Xavier and his gang. Meanwhile, Tony returns to The Gators's base and proves himself to Xavier by killing Phoenix, with only his hands, and Antonio, with a gun, who's also been tortured. Jake and Ned find the base and find both of their corpses on the ground. Xavier invites another minion into the room, who was Carly this whole time. Jake is felt betrayed by her and she is commanded to kill Jake. However, Carly points the gun at Xavier but killed by Tony. Jake says, "IM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU!" To Tony, but Bed holds him back. Xavier shoots Ned in the leg and takes him, leaving Jake and Tony all alone. Jake wants Tony to reunite with Dakota but Tony bashes Jake for not being brave to kill anyone. Jake and Tony fight with their fists but Tony is defeated. Jake takes the gun from Tony and gives him a last chance to be friends. After Tony refuses and wants Jake to kill him, he shoots Tony in the stomach. Leaving Jake alone, having a mental breakdown in the garage.

Later, Jake finds Ned and Xavier in a parking garage. Xavier wants Jake to join The Gators, but he refuses to do so. Xavier reveals that his biological father used to be in The Gators but his Dad refused to kill anyone just like Jake. Jake's father and mother leaves the group, but Xavier kills them off planning to kill a baby Jake, but is apprehended by Jake's step father, Wally, who is a police officer. Xavier shoots Jake, but Ned jumps in taking the bullet. Jake comforts Ned but Ned tells him to take a grenade out of his pocket. Jake takes the grenade and throws it at Xavier, burning him to death. Jake and Ned return to The Gators's base to take all of their money and equipment. However, they can't find Tony's body, implying he could be alive. Five months later, Jake has become a millionaire after stealing The Gators's equipment and Ned is recovering after being shot. While walking in the woods, Jake finds a lone wolf, which he can relate to. When he returns home, Ned calls Jake and talks about the events over the past ten months. Jake plans to travel the world with the money he's taken. He takes the airport to Las Vegas and Mexico, relaxing and leaving his thug life behind.

## Main Characters

* Jake
* Ned
* Tony
* Carly
* Antonio
* Travis
* Susan
* Xavier
* Phoenix
* Agent Swanson
* Iggy
* Roy

## Supporting Characters

* RichMan
* Officer Wally
* Daniel
* Judish
* Justin
* Lone Wolf

### Minor Characters

* Spike (Thug Life)
* Michael
* Trevor
* Unidentified Gator Member

## Trivia

* Jake was originally planning to have a dog named Apollo, who was supposed to be symbolic of a lone wolf. But Rich scrapped the idea after not knowing what to do with Apollo.
* Phoenix was originally planning to speak Japanese, but it would have been too difficult to have a character to speak another language.
* The Dakota's were originally to find the star, but The Gator's were going to go after the Dakota's wanting it themselves.
* There were multiple different scenarios where Carly reveals she was a part of The Gator's. Jake was originally going to bash her and point the gun at her, but forgive her in the end. Another scenario was where Jake was going to kill Carly after feeling so betrayed. But it was cut since it would be out of character for Jake.
* Travis was supposed to be replaced with Antonio, where Antonio would be killed early on and Travis was held captive and killed by Tony.
* Ned was planning to be killed off, leaving Jake as the lone wolf. But this idea was scrapped since the ending was too depressing.
* Xavier was originally going to shoot Jake in the eye, leaving Jake with an eyepatch. But Rich decided to scrap the idea since Jake was already tortured so much.
* Carly was originally implied to be reincarnated as the lone wolf since originally she was going to have an interest in wolves.
* In the ending, Jake was originally supposed to travel to Los Angeles, as an allusion to Los Santos in the Grand Theft Auto series. But Rich's family ended up traveling to Las Vegas and Mexico instead.