| 1 | Headscratchers for ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros''. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | [[index]] |
| 4 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioBros3'' |
| 5 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioWorld'' |
| 6 | ** ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioWorld2YoshisIsland'' |
| 7 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'' |
| 8 | * ''Headscratchers/MarioKart'' |
| 9 | ** ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioKart'' |
| 10 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioKart64'' |
| 11 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioKartDoubleDash'' |
| 12 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioKartDS'' |
| 13 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioKartWii'' |
| 14 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioKart7'' |
| 15 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioKart8'' |
| 16 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioRPG'' |
| 17 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMario64'' |
| 18 | * ''Headscratchers/MarioParty'' |
| 19 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioParty2'' |
| 20 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioParty4'' |
| 21 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioParty5'' |
| 22 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioParty9'' |
| 23 | ** ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioParty'' |
| 24 | * ''Headscratchers/LuigisMansion'' |
| 25 | ** ''Headscratchers/LuigisMansionDarkMoon'' |
| 26 | ** ''Headscratchers/LuigisMansion3'' |
| 27 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioSunshine'' |
| 28 | * ''Headscratchers/MarioAndLuigi'' |
| 29 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'' |
| 30 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' |
| 31 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory'' |
| 32 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' |
| 33 | ** ''Headscratchers/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'' |
| 34 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperPrincessPeach'' |
| 35 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioGalaxy'' |
| 36 | ** ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' |
| 37 | * ''Headscratchers/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' |
| 38 | * ''Headscratchers/NewSuperMarioBros2'' |
| 39 | * ''Headscratchers/NewSuperLuigiU'' |
| 40 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMario3DWorld'' |
| 41 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioMaker'' |
| 42 | ** ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioMaker2'' |
| 43 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioOdyssey'' |
| 44 | * ''Headscratchers/DonkeyKong'' |
| 45 | * ''Headscratchers/DonkeyKongCountry'' |
| 46 | ** ''Headscratchers/DonkeyKongCountry1'' |
| 47 | ** ''Headscratchers/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest'' |
| 48 | ** ''Headscratchers/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' |
| 49 | ** ''Headscratchers/DonkeyKong64'' |
| 50 | ** ''Headscratchers/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' |
| 51 | * ''Headscratchers/DiddyKongRacing'' |
| 52 | * ''Headscratchers/YoshisIsland'' |
| 53 | ** ''Headscratchers/YoshisStory'' |
| 54 | ** ''Headscratchers/YoshisIslandDS'' |
| 55 | ** ''Headscratchers/YoshisNewIsland'' |
| 56 | ** ''Headscratchers/YoshisWoollyWorld'' |
| 57 | * ''Headscratchers/{{Wario}}'' |
| 58 | ** ''Headscratchers/WarioLandII'' |
| 59 | ** ''Headscratchers/WarioWare'' |
| 60 | *** ''Headscratchers/WarioWareIncMegaPartyGames'' |
| 61 | *** ''Headscratchers/WarioWareTwisted'' |
| 62 | * ''Headscratchers/MarioGolf'' |
| 63 | * ''Headscratchers/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' |
| 64 | * ''Headscratchers/HotelMario'' |
| 65 | * ''Headscratchers/SuperMarioBros1993'' |
| 66 | * ''Headscratchers/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' |
| 67 | * ''Headscratchers/TheSuperMarioBrosSuperShow'' |
| 68 | * ''Headscratchers/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' |
| 69 | [[/index]] |
| 70 | ---- |
| 71 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder: Mario breathing in space or water]] |
| 74 | * Okay, Mario can [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace breathe in the vacuum of space]], but he needs to surface for air under water? |
| 75 | ** He never needed to surface in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' or ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''. |
| 76 | ** He had the magic of the Lumas helping him in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy''. Presumably, it couldn't do so in water because there was too much pressure when compared to the vacuum? |
| 77 | ** He gets more air by collecting coins. Don't try to make sense of these games. You'll just get a headache. |
| 78 | ** There are [[VideoGame/SuperPaperMario other games]] (albeit spin-offs) where in the very same game Mario has SuperNotDrowningSkills in the water but has to use a fishbowl as a space helmet or you get a NonStandardGameOver for trying to breath in space. It just varies. |
| 79 | ** Mario is a Star Child, giving him special powers. He can breathe under water because his body naturally absorbs the oxygen around him, but it has to be contaminated with an abnormally large amount of oxygen. Whenever he holds his breath it is because the water is completely pure and therefore there isn't as much oxygen contaminate in it. He can't breathe in space because there is absolutely no oxygen there. |
| 80 | *** It's more likely that in the Mushroom World, water is BreathableLiquid and that [[BatmanCanBreatheInSpace space is breathable]] as well. Other characters have been shown to be able to breath in both environments besides the star children. |
| 81 | ** At least in ''Super Paper Mario'', I assumed that in the "official series canon", Mario just resurfaced to catch his breath every couple minutes, and justified it like that. There's no point in the game where you ''have'' to go without resurfacing for very long, so the game didn't bother making you. Obviously, this wouldn't work in space since there isn't any air anywhere there for Mario to catch his breath with. |
| 82 | *** This. Canonically, breathing in those big bubbles rejuvenates his air-supply... Somehow... |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder: Peach improving her security]] |
| 86 | * Why doesn't Peach use her money to buy a damn security system and better bodyguards instead of idiotic mushrooms? |
| 87 | ** Probably tradition more than anything else. Wants to keep up appearances that the old castle grounds won't be redone into an imposing, ultra-modern, sterile fortress just for her own protection. Also doesn't want to make it seem like she's scared of any threats by Bowser to her, her kingdom, or her subjects. Not training better guards, well... there probably aren't any decent Mushroom soldier-citizens besides Toad. And she already has Mario and Luigi on hand for any serious national security issues. I usually read Peach as a very straight-forward, old-fashioned thinking royal. There are things you just ''do'' and things you just ''don't''. Not very wise, but by her principles, she doesn't ever want to come off as over-bearing or demonstrative (outside of kicking butt in sporting competitions, that is). |
| 88 | ** Princess Peach has been known to be extremely adventurous. (Examples include joining Mario on his adventures in SMRPG and Super Paper Mario.) She also goes treasure hunting with an old map she found in Paper Mario TTYD. She'd probably hate to be stuck in a fortress-castle and would feel claustrophobic. Plus, half of her adventures are due to villain shenanigans. |
| 89 | ** Perhaps there is a super-badass force of bodyguards, but they are mostly concerned with protecting the king, who does all the real governing. When the king has to leave the castle -- say, to negotiate a trade agreement with Hyrule -- the bodyguard goes with him, leaving the castle poorly defended, and that's when Bowser strikes. |
| 90 | *** You'd think after the third time, though, that the King might start to notice things happening and change things. [[FridgeBrilliance Unless... he doesn't care about his daughter or is in on the plan with Bowser]] -- arranged marriages were common in the period of real princesses and kings, so maybe Bowser's just trying to cash in on something that's already been agreed to him. |
| 91 | ** The Mushroom people won't let their leaders form an army or better defend their castle. They have what is an oddity in the real world - a benevolent dictatorship - and want nothing that would tip the balance of power further in the Princess's direction. Sure, there's the problem with the occasional Koopa invasion, but you already have what amounts to two or more crack warriors who are all that's necessary for that problem. |
| 92 | ** Plus, Peach knows that the only person Bowser WOULDN'T hurt in an attack is her. A team of bodyguards would probably only end up getting wasted by the Koopa King (even Mario and Luigi don't stand off against Bowser face-to-face half the time, they use an advantageous environment to succeed), which she probably couldn't stand the thought of. Getting kidnapped for a bit is a small price to pay for not sacrificing a bunch of lives uselessly. |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | |
| 95 | [[folder: Mario and Luigi's hair coloring]] |
| 96 | * Why do Mario and Luigi have brown hair but black mustaches? |
| 97 | ** It's not unusual. I have blond hair and red facial hair. I've known people with blond hair to have black facial hair. It's one of those genetic quirks. |
| 98 | ** Official art for Mario & Luigi shows that it's a much darker shade of brown instead of black. Which, as has already been pointed out, is not uncommon in real life. |
| 99 | *** The official art from the older games showed them with black hair as well as black mustaches, but that's because of the color restrictions. |
| 100 | [[/folder]] |
| 101 | |
| 102 | [[folder: Humans in the Mushroom Kingdom]] |
| 103 | * Are King and Queen Toadstool human? I mean, look at Peach... |
| 104 | ** They wouldn't be the only ones; after all, the seven kings you rescue in ''Super Mario Bros 3'' are all human... |
| 105 | ** In the (probably non-canonical) ''Super Mario'' comics, Peach's dad is a human (he looks like the first king in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''). |
| 106 | [[/folder]] |
| 107 | |
| 108 | [[folder: Technology in the Mushroom Kingdom]] |
| 109 | * Just how advanced is the Mushroom World? In the first games, it seemed like the Mushroom world had a Renaissance-style culture with UsefulNotes/WorldWarI-level technology. And yet in [=RPG=]s, ''VideoGame/MarioParty'', and ''Super Mario Strikers'', it seems like their technology was equivalent to ours with a few more advancements. |
| 110 | ** Two possible reasons I can think of. 1) The Mushroom Kingdom's peace technology is more advanced than their war technology, which is one reason why they keep having to send Mario in all the time; and 2) Mario used to be a plumber from Brooklyn, and now he's a hero. It's possible he knows how to get back and bring back technology from the real world. |
| 111 | *** In the games, Mario has never been from Brooklyn. |
| 112 | *** Depends on the game. See below. |
| 113 | ** I always got the impression that the Mushroom Kingdom's military capability declined after Mario and Luigi arrived, precisely because they're both a OneManArmy. That being said, they at least have access to anti-tank weaponry; one of the mushroom people in ''Super Mario RPG'' mentions he has a bazooka, but forgot to bring it. |
| 114 | *** I'm pretty sure that he was being sarcastic about having a bazooka. On the other hand, they at least know what a bazooka is. |
| 115 | ** My guess is the different games take place at different times, like Zelda. Not sure if Word Of God has corrected this, but I hold on to the idea that Luigi's Mansion is at the end of the timeline, since it implies that Bowser is permanently dead. |
| 116 | ** A fair idea might be that in the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', Bowser had already won before Mario and Luigi had arrived at the scene, so the place was suffering from the effects of that. Think ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime'' with Toad Town or Hollijolli Village. All things considered, it comes down to either time, the fact the invasion had hit before Mario raced to the rescue and destroyed most architecture, or Decade Dissonance. |
| 117 | ** Interestingly, it seems like the Mushroom Kingdom's main weaponry consists mostly of cannons, which ''far'' predate WWI. |
| 118 | ** It's pretty much as advanced as modern era judging by the [=RPGs=] - plenty of video game systems, for example, as referenced by {{Non Player Character}}s, and Mario has a handheld e-mail receiver in TTYD (which likely has other functions). Tech just doesn't come into play as often because of magic - the two coexist but some applications favor magic and some favor tech. |
| 119 | [[/folder]] |
| 120 | |
| 121 | [[folder: Why is Luigi a coward?]] |
| 122 | * Why is Luigi such a coward in the ''Mario & Luigi'' series and yet acts extremely brave in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario''? |
| 123 | ** He got sick of living in Mario's shadow, and decided the best way of getting out of it was by doing the heroics himself? |
| 124 | *** Luigi is only brave when someone close to him is in serious trouble. See ''Luigi's Mansion''. |
| 125 | *** Very likely -- though he was still (visibly) frightened in LM, he was working past that... It's unfair to say that he never has his moments in the M&L games, though -- it's a little random, but he actually seems ''more'' brave in those installments...at least to this troper. |
| 126 | *** Luigi is still something of a coward in SPM. He was cowering behind a bush when you met him in the Underwhere. |
| 127 | *** To be fair, the last thing he would have remembered was being cornered in Bleck's castle; after that, it would have seemed like he just "randomly" appeared in some completely different (though no less depressing) place. Look at his dialogue after he's told what the Underwhere is. "So my game is over... Great." Indeed... |
| 128 | *** He got brainwashed by Nastasia, I think, in ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', so he didn't exactly choose to be more brave. Kinda like hypnosis (at least the hollywood version). |
| 129 | *** He did stand up to Bowser and Count Bleck in the prologue, and then there's his little sub-plot from ''The Thousand-Year Door''. |
| 130 | ** In SPM, he seems to be trying to impress everyone by [[MilesGloriosus acting brave but then cowering away]] when a real threat actually shows up. |
| 131 | ** Flanderization to the max. |
| 132 | ** There's a lot of guessing that could go to WMG for this. It's easy to bring up that Luigi's first personality given was in an OVA that had him as greedy. In one of the M&L games, it is stated at one point that only the pure may pass and Luigi can't because he has a dark secret. It's my personal opinion that Waluigi is the negative aspects of Luigi's personality expelled through BlackMagic. |
| 133 | *** No, I'm pretty sure the "secret" was just an embarrassing one, and Luigi didn't want his brother (or his younger self) to hear. |
| 134 | ** Luigi simply isn't used to being brave or being in dangerous or tense situations. So when he is prompted to do something heroic, he's prone to being extremely rash and doing things we'd think of as incredibly brave. Note too that when he does attempt to be brave, things usually get out of hand quickly, which strongly indicates he's simply acting on the fly without a real plan. Contrast the way that Mario handles things. He's much more collected and measured whenever he goes up against a threat. |
| 135 | [[/folder]] |
| 136 | |
| 137 | [[folder: Why Bowser isn't more competent]] |
| 138 | * Why hasn't Bowser just bombarded the Mushroom Kingdom with his Doomships or any other form of aerial weaponry? |
| 139 | ** Because he is a villain, thus he is [[BondVillainStupidity forbidden by plot-wise cosmic laws]]. |
| 140 | ** He wants to take over the Mushroom Kingdom, so destroying it entirely would make little sense. You don't implement a scorched-earth policy when you're on the offensive. Besides, it looks like Mario's the only real threat to Bowser; the other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom mainly scream for help. |
| 141 | *** Who said he was destroying the whole thing? He would only target places like The Palace or Mario's house. |
| 142 | *** But then, of course, Mario would just do what he always does. |
| 143 | *** Well, to be fair, considering Bowser's... creepy motivations as revealed in recent games, I think he may not want to destroy the Kingdom for fear of making Peach mad. |
| 144 | *** Recent? Bowser's desire to marry Peach (coincidentally gaining power over the protective magic she carries and conquering the Mushroom Kingdom) has been [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]] since the original Super Mario Bros. |
| 145 | *** Bowser may have political motivations. Marrying a reigning monarch is usually a pretty good power play. |
| 146 | *** Continuing off of this, many medieval cultures gave higher status to a king over a queen. The queen herself was a very important figure, it should be noted, but the king outranks her. With Peach seemingly the reigning figure in the Mushroom Kingdom, as a Mushroom King and Queen are never alluded to in any way, if Bowser were to wed her, he would become King of both his own kingdom AND hers. Complete, LEGITIMATE conquest of the Mushroom Kingdom without having to fire a shot. |
| 147 | *** And yet, it's not ''just'' a power play. |
| 148 | ** He has. Go play Super Mario Galaxy. See? He's learning! |
| 149 | *** He also [[StatusQuoIsGod failed]] with that! |
| 150 | *** No, he did quite well. The Mushroom Kingdom would've been fucked if Mario hadn't happened to land on a nearby planet with Lumas on it. |
| 151 | ** The guy seems kind of apathetic. He go-karts with his archenemy, remember? |
| 152 | *** VillainDecay. Bowser's not a bad guy. He just tries to take over the Mushroom Kingdom because it's his job. What other positions are available for a giant firebreathing turtle-dragon? |
| 153 | *** Maybe he could [[YouTubePoop toast toast]]? |
| 154 | *** I really doubt Mario Kart is supposed to be canon in the slightest. That, or Bowser just got beaten and wants to beat Mario without falling into lava. |
| 155 | *** Well then, he'd better be careful on the tracks in his own castle. |
| 156 | *** Or that they invite him to avoid having him get angry; the intro to Mario Power Tennis implies that he wasn't invited to the Tennis Tournament, so he recruits Wario and Waluigi to blow up the stadium. |
| 157 | *** Perhaps the Mario Bros and Peach are trying to pacify him and maybe even win him round, and he just goes because he likes winning things. It would just make a lot more sense to assume it's non-canon, especially since we've missed even greater issues with the Mario Kart character lists like time paradoxes with the baby cast (especially since Mario Kart 8 now lets you play as a baby version of Rosalina - a character roughly estimated to 1000 years old). |
| 158 | ** MotiveDecay. In Super Mario Galaxy, Bowser states that he is glad to have Mario as his Arch-nemesis, which implies that part of the reason why he even bothers to kidnap Princess Peach anymore is to compete with Mario. |
| 159 | *** Coupled with the fact that they have no problem inviting him to go go-karting and various other stuff they do in the spinoffs, and it just doesn't seem like a conflict anymore. It's less of a war and more two guys competing over where Peach will stay the weekend, but with humongous body counts. Galaxy was one of the rare occasions in which there was actually more at stake if Bowser prevailed than him having Peach for a while, and the tone of his interactions with Mario was notably more serious as a result. |
| 160 | *** Nah. Bowser considers Mario a WorthyOpponent. He enjoys setting up these deathtraps for them and watching them having to fight to get past them just to get to his castle. Thank goodness it's someone who can actually interact with his evil plans and give him some fun instead a bunch of Toads who can't jump for crap. |
| 161 | ** Bowser may be a brute, but he's no dummy. Half the battle in the Mushroom Kingdom would be winning over the hearts of its residents, to make sure that the motivation to resist his rule is as small as possible. Sure, he could destroy their homes and livelihoods to quickly conquer the Kingdom, but then he'd be busy all the time combating his own bitter subjects. Therefore, only major targets are attacked with heavy weaponry. |
| 162 | ** Pride may be a factor too. Bowser wants to win, but he's also a schemer - he wants to win but on his own terms using his ideas, because he needs the ego validation. Maybe he could score a victory with a carpet bombing but he'd be completely unsatisfied with it. |
| 163 | [[/folder]] |
| 164 | |
| 165 | [[folder: Sizes in the Mushroom Kingdom]] |
| 166 | * Is Mario short or are Bowser and Peach just tall? |
| 167 | ** Both. As a matter of fact, Mario is even shorter without his Super Mushroom. And Bowser is really a giant turtle-dragon-thing. Peach, though... |
| 168 | *** ...also is shorter without a mushroom in ''Super Mario Bros 2''. |
| 169 | *** About the Super Mushroom, in ''New Super Mario Bros.'', the "Super Mario" sprite appeared to be Mario's regular 3D sprite, and the "Not-so-super Mario" was a squashed version of him. So, what... does that mean he's "Super Mario" all the time in most 3D games? |
| 170 | *** Considering his ability to take more than one hit, likely. |
| 171 | *** The very titles of the games are a huge clue to this -- unless you count Mario Party. |
| 172 | *** Considering ''Super Mario Party'' is now an installment in the ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' series, we can now count that series with the rest. |
| 173 | [[/folder]] |
| 174 | |
| 175 | [[folder: Time it takes to complete the adventure in game time]] |
| 176 | * Exactly how long do the games take place? |
| 177 | ** The older games had a better understanding of this, since you encountered night-themed levels. It seems as if it takes a couple days to travel on foot from wherever you start to Bowser's castle. The newer games are a bit more ambiguous about the issue, even more so since Super Mario Galaxy has come out! |
| 178 | ** It's not easy to tell. The amount of time between the end of each level could be a matter of hours, days, or even weeks. The first game could have taken place over the course of a year or two. The second game is implied to have taken place all in one night. The third could just be a couple of months, as could World, but 64 might be anywhere within just a couple of hours to a week. Or maybe time just works differently in the Mushroom World. |
| 179 | *** Or, if you're REALLY good (like, tool-assisted good), 64 could have a span of 5 minutes! |
| 180 | [[/folder]] |
| 181 | |
| 182 | [[folder: Where did Bowser's children come from]] |
| 183 | * Where did the Koopalings + Bowser Jr. come from? |
| 184 | ** Sony's Film/{{Godzilla 1998}} movie proposes an interesting answer to this. |
| 185 | ** Yeah... Best not to think too hard about Jr.'s so called crazy delusions in Sunshine... So... yeah. |
| 186 | *** They were brought by the stork. Have you never seen a Yoshi's Island game? |
| 187 | *** Then again, the fact that Peach took a moment to think about Jr.'s comment brings up some horrifying implications... |
| 188 | *** Clawdia is Bowser's wife in fan fiction, but it hasn't appeared in any official material. |
| 189 | *** From Mario Wiki: ''The UK Nintendo Power once said that Bowser had a wife named Clawdia Koopa; however, as Clawdia is never referenced again, neither in any games or later issues of Nintendo Power UK, it is often believed that Clawdia was simply a joke.'' Basically, Nintendo Official Magazine UK (aka NOM, the one before the current magazine) said that some time in the past and it became known as one of the 'Bowser's Wife' names in fanon. |
| 190 | *** Why has no-one listened to the genius with the stork idea. |
| 191 | *** They could always be adopted. |
| 192 | *** ....MisterSeahorse? |
| 193 | *** A stork brought the babies! Bowser HIMSELF doesn't even HAVE any parents! |
| 194 | *** Not true. The reason Morton is called Morton Junior is because Bowser's father was named Morton Senior. |
| 195 | *** That's not how that works. In that case Morton Jr. would just be Morton. |
| 196 | *** Maybe Bowser's real name IS Morton, but he changed it? That would complete the Morton theory. |
| 197 | *** Well, [[WatsonianVsDoylist the real reason]] Bowser's son is named Morton Koopa, ''Jr'' is because of talk show host MortonDowneyJr, but ... |
| 198 | *** Speaking of the stork, the upcoming Yoshi's New Island reveals that babies Mario and Luigi were delivered to the wrong parents. Maybe we'll see their real ones at the end. |
| 199 | ** Since they have gradually gotten away from referring to the Kooplings as Bowser's children and Shigeru Miyamoto has come out and stated that Bowser Jr is the only legit child of Bowser it's probably worth separating them. Morton's name being Jr would suggest that there is a Morton Koopa out there so perhaps they are his nephews and nieces. Or possibly cousins, the age difference between my aunts and uncles is so radical (and my uncle got a woman pregnant rather young) that my mother has a nephew who is two years older than she is. So it's not impossible. Given that storks are legit in the confusing Marioverse it's possible that when a man or a woman wants a child very badly the universe delivers via stork. |
| 200 | *** Some material from Nintendo referrers to the Blue Bowser from the Japanese Super Mario Bros 2 as being a separate character from Bowser and actually his brother (although they seem to go back and forth on this). Maybe Bowser has just been watching over his nephews like an evil princess capturing Uncle Scrooge. |
| 201 | [[/folder]] |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[folder: Wario and Waluigi akin to the Mario Bros]] |
| 204 | * Are Wario and Waluigi related to the Mario Bros. in any way? |
| 205 | ** Aside from all being voiced by Charles Martinet, no. |
| 206 | *** Arguably, it's never been addressed. Wario/Mario were friends/rivals when young. It's possible that there were two pairs of twins, though. (Luigi is the "younger" twin). |
| 207 | *** Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins would show that Wario is some sort of elf-like creature. It could be taken that this was Mario's first encounter with him. |
| 208 | *** He ''does'' have pointy ears. |
| 209 | ** This troper likes to think that Wario and Waluigi are brothers (Wario Wario and Waluigi Wario, obviously), and are cousins to the Mario Bros. It just makes it easier that way. |
| 210 | *** Actually, I like the idea that Waluigi is an AscendedFanboy of Wario's. Or, simply a random lanky guy hired by Wario to be his Luigi equivalent. |
| 211 | ** To avoid the WMG above -- No-one knows. It's never explained. From our point of view, he just kind of showed up one day. |
| 212 | ** There are plenty of "Bros." in and around the Mushroom Kingdom, like the [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga Starshade Bros]], [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam Massif Bros]], and the good 'ol Mario Bros. Maybe Wario and Waluigi are just another (odd) Bros. team? |
| 213 | ** Nintendo Power magazine once said Wario is Mario's cousin. But I'd take that with a grain of salt, given how prone they are to CowboyBebopAtHisComputer. |
| 214 | [[/folder]] |
| 215 | |
| 216 | [[folder: What happens when you use a Warp Whistle]] |
| 217 | * What happens to the "thank you Mario, but our princess is in another castle" guys if you use the warp zone? Are they tortured to death by Bowser's underlings? Torture or not, isn't it horribly callous of Mario to leave them there just so he can skip a few levels? |
| 218 | ** ''New Super Mario Bros.'' adds an interesting wrinkle. Not only is the Princess in ''every'' castle (Main/CutsceneIncompetence is in full effect regarding Bowser Jr.), but when you bypass a castle (via alternate routes or warps) and enter another one... they're already there! (Note to self: Bowser Jr. is ''always'' a step ahead of Mario.) |
| 219 | *** And now that I think about it, does that mean that Bowser gets [[Main/NightmareFuel melted to the bone]] '''even if you never fight him'''? (Perhaps it was a tragic bathing accident...) |
| 220 | *** No, the Bowsers in Super Mario Bros 1 are all fakes except for the last one. In fact, when you [[KillItWithFire kill the first seven with fireballs]], they turn into a random mook before dying. |
| 221 | *** You misunderstood the argument. At the end of world 1, NSMB, you drop Bowser into lava and his flesh gets melted off. Halfway through world 8, you fight his skeleton. The thing is, you fight his skeleton even if you used a warp in world 1 and never fought him there. |
| 222 | *** I always assumed the warp zones aren't canon and are there for the player's convenience; it'd be still assumed Mario got through each stage (after all, Mario is reconquering castles and searching for Peach in each one; it wouldn't make sense to skip some unless he ''knew from the start'' that Peach was in the last castle, and was just checking the others for the lulz). |
| 223 | ** And how many castles does Bowser have? [[Main/CutLexLuthorACheck He could make a fortune in the construction industry...]] |
| 224 | *** Where do you think his money comes from? |
| 225 | *** I assumed that the castles in the original SMB were Mushroom Kingdom fortresses that Bowser conquered and fitted with traps. |
| 226 | *** They are. That's why at the end of each level in Super Mario Bros, you have to raise a mushroom flag, to symbolize Mario's reconquering of said fortress for the Mushroom Kingdom. |
| 227 | ** Back to the original question: It's a safe assumption that after rescuing Peach, Mario went back and freed the remaining Toads. |
| 228 | ** On a related note, the original plot of ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' is that the Koopalings stole these magic wands and used them to turn the rulers of the Mushroom world into random animals. Bowser kidnapping the Princess isn't an issue for most of the game; Peach sends you letters at the end of every world except 7, when Bowser sends you one saying he kidnapped her while you were running around. This implies that she's back at home and doing fine. How, then, is the Princess kidnapped if you use the warp whistle to go straight to World 8? It normally would take Bowser enough time for Mario to finish between six and seven worlds to grab Peach, so there isn't enough time if you go straight there. Plus, Mario doesn't even ''know'' the Princess has been kidnapped until he gets the letter at the end of World 7, so why would he even want to go to Dark Land anyway? |
| 229 | *** Useage of the warp zones likely leads to a non-canonical sequence of events for the game. The story of the game probably assumes Mario goes through every necessary level (but not necessarily the secret or bonus levels) without warping. These weren't meant to be sandbox games where your actions affect the story, so warping past events creates a non-canon scenario and thus your story-line experience becomes corrupted. |
| 230 | *** Actually, a recent version of [=SMB3=] (I believe it was ''Super Mario Advance 4'') corrected the issue by having Bowser's letter displayed the first time you enter World 8, whether you used a Warp Whistle or not. |
| 231 | ** My guess to the original question is that the Warp Pipe/Whistle teleports Mario inside the castle, where he frees the kidnapped Toads (who said there was only the "Thank You" toad?) and they clear out the castle for him while he moves on to the next castle. |
| 232 | [[/folder]] |
| 233 | |
| 234 | [[folder: Pipes with Piranha Plants in them]] |
| 235 | * How does Mario use the pipes for transportation if plumber-eating plants also live in them? |
| 236 | ** Maybe not every pipe is infested. If they were, the Mushroom Kingdom would be in deeper trouble than they already are with Bowser. |
| 237 | *** No, it's clear in the original game that plants come out of the same pipes Mario uses. |
| 238 | *** Well, a lot of the Mushroom Kingdom's stuff can be easily explained [[AWizardDidIt by magic]], so maybe some super transportation system takes over after Mario goes down the pipe. |
| 239 | *** I'd say probably, especially given that some pipes are pretty much in mid-air, with some sort of floating base of blocks holding it up. |
| 240 | ** Instead, ask why he never actually does any plumbing. And why the pipes are totally empty. |
| 241 | *** The pipes are totally empty because they're apparently transportation pipes, and obviously none of the large ones that Mario uses are for plumbing. (Definitely wouldn't want to go down a pipe you just got done using a plunger on...) In Super Paper Mario, there is a guy who builds pipes so you can get from Flipside to Flopside instantly, so that kind of further asserts the fact that the big ones are solely for Point A to Point B reasons. |
| 242 | *** Of course, in a pinch... [[spoiler:you do use a toilet's plumbing to get from one bathroom to another in Thousand-Year Door.]] It's not the usual, though. |
| 243 | *** The vast majority of pipes don't have piranha plants or enemies in. Seriously, just look at any Super Mario Bros game. The vast majority of pipes in them have no piranha plants or no secret rooms in them. Not sure how Mario manages to come through a pipe with a Piranha Plant actually in though, as happens in some games. |
| 244 | ** Fire flower. |
| 245 | ** When you stand next to a pipe -- directly touching it [[strike:but not]] or standing on it, the Pirahna won't come out. They curl up somewhere if they sense someone nearby. Not sure why, maybe the pipe-living species are shy or something. |
| 246 | *** Maybe they're ambush predators, and avoid going after something that looks big enough to fight back. |
| 247 | *** The "Boundary Break" video shows the plants are still in the pipe when Mario enters. |
| 248 | [[/folder]] |
| 249 | |
| 250 | [[folder: How rich is Mario?]] |
| 251 | * In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand2SixGoldenCoins'', it's revealed that Mario has his own castle. Then in ''VideoGame/MarioVSDonkeyKong, he has his own toy company. How in the world did he acquire them? |
| 252 | ** Did you think Wario is the only one who gets to keep the coins he finds lying around all the time? Mario is filthy stinking RICH after all the adventures he's taken, each of which lands him several thousand gold coins. |
| 253 | ** Could also be gifts of gratitude... seeing that Mario has rescued the Princess and saved the Mushroom Kingdom on numerous occasions.. the guy deserves his own castle... |
| 254 | ** He's also a doctor in Dr. Mario., and an archaeologist in Mario's Picross. He also plays many sports. |
| 255 | *** Plumbing is a lucrative business, especially when you can burn away clogs instead of buying equipment. |
| 256 | ** Don't forget the exchange rate between Beanbean and Mushroom coins; Peasley gives you over 9 million Mushroom coins, which are only 99 Beanbean coins. Not much when they're in one kingdom, but when they're home... Also, check how much cash you've got in your files, then chalk up the exchange rate. Then divide by two, because Luigi deserves some profit. |
| 257 | ** I'm pretty sure that the exchange rate was a lie by that one character who exchanges them for you (I forget the name now) because they're an asshole. (Different troper - it's Tolstar.) |
| 258 | *** It actually happened twice in the game by two different people. But it doesn't mean Mario is rich, but that the Mushroom Kingdom currency is horribly inflated. Think about it; Peach gave a pretty large sum at the beginning of the game for a decoy mission. Probably just enough to get Mario back home after he could ditch Bowser. [[ButtMonkey She doesn't care about Luigi.]] |
| 259 | ** Super Mario Land 2 establishes the fact that Mario is ''the king of his own nation''. Considering Yoshi's Island and the fact that he has his own home in the Mushroom Kingdom, just when or how this happens is never established nor is it ever explained why no other game takes place there, especially considering how much Bowser hates the guy. Now, if we consider the possibility of there being more than one Mario just as there is more than one Donkey Kong... Then again, this is the Mario series, and trying to make sense out of it would take far more effort than attempting to make sense out of the Zelda timelines. |
| 260 | *** [[WordOfGod According to Miyamoto]], the characters in the Mario series are actors playing roles, in the same way that characters like Popeye, Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny do in their series. So we can see different series within the franchise as different roles - sometimes Mario plays an adventurer, sometimes he plays a doctor, and sometimes he plays the CEO of a toy company. As to why he's always called Mario... it's presumably a similar case to old film stars like Creator/CharlieChaplin and Creator/BusterKeaton, who played the same character with different backgrounds in pretty much all their films. |
| 261 | *** GodNeverSaidThat. To fit the ever-changing nature of the Mario franchise, Miyamoto only ''thinks of the'' character as actors playing their roles, basically to fit the ever-changing nature of the Mario franchise. [[MST3KMantra People took that line too literally]]. |
| 262 | [[/folder]] |
| 263 | |
| 264 | [[folder: How gaining points works in the classic games]] |
| 265 | * What makes no sense is during the NES/SNES Mario games, why do you gain points if an enemy somehow kills another one (example: a Koopa kicking a shell which takes out 3 foes in the way and you gain 2000 points for it)? |
| 266 | ** They want to be really nice to the player. |
| 267 | *** (MP Announcer) Double Kill! Triple Kill! Overkill! Killing Spree! |
| 268 | ** Because the rule on points is that you get points when enemies die, not when you kill them. |
| 269 | ** The point counter finds it funny and decides to be nice to you. |
| 270 | ** Points don't have to make perfect sense; they're just little congratulations to the player anyway. We should wonder more about the fact that Super Mario Bros. 3 starts introducing situations where ''Koopa shells collect coins for Mario'' -- coins being an in-universe item. Coin blocks can be found on the ground, shells can be carried into the air, and so Mario can kick a shell into a block and receive its coin, even if he never goes near the block. The Game Boy Advance port extends this so that shells collect free-floating coins as well. How does that work? |
| 271 | *** The same way it normally does. Mario never actually needs to ''touch'' the coins in blocks -- even when he hits the block, the coins just pop out of the block and teleport into his wallet. A coin touched by a moving Koopa shell is also teleported into Mario's wallet. |
| 272 | *** This raises a question about the ten-coin blocks found in ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii''. The first ten coins come out and are collected in midair... and then five more pop out and fall to the ground, and Mario and friends have to collect them manually. Why the difference? |
| 273 | *** Maybe after a few coins, the coins malfunction and they are no longer able to teleport to their wallets or whatever. |
| 274 | [[/folder]] |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[folder: No good Piranha Plants?]] |
| 277 | * Why are Pirahna Plants portrayed as Always Chaotic Evil? Pretty much every other enemy gets to help you at some point in the [=RPG=]s, but the plants are always enemies as far as I can remember. |
| 278 | ** Because they are plants. |
| 279 | ** But they're also sentient, and Mario's closest allies are fungus. |
| 280 | *** Clearly, photosynthesis makes you evil! |
| 281 | *** When in the series do they show any sign of sentience? |
| 282 | *** Paper Mario. Lava Piranha, and a Frost Piranha who talks in ALL CAPS and screams about how Mario has arrived before you reach Crystal Palace. |
| 283 | *** But Flower Fields has a number of friendly plants, and Luigi has a Crazee Dayzee partner at one point on his adventure. Maybe corrupting pipes is considered crossing the MoralEventHorizon in Mario's world. |
| 284 | ** Actually, they were allies. Once. In ''Mario Party 3''. Had the best attack power of any partner and occasionally added 1-3 to your roll, too. |
| 285 | *** Not exactly canon. |
| 286 | *** There's NegativeContinuity in the Mario series, with the exception of a few shout outs, and there's nothing stopping ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' (or any other Mario spinoff) being 'canon' (at least, nothing that clashes with any possible timeline in another game, if there was a timeline in the first place)... Aw screw it, even trying to write about the concept of 'canon' and Mario is logically impossible. |
| 287 | ** Most of them are not mobile. And they don't have eyes. It's kinda creepy, and doesn't make for good protagonists. |
| 288 | *** Here's hoping to a Piranha Plant ally in the ''Paper Mario'' game for the 3DS then. We've seen a Chain Chomp as a partner, which hadn't been done before either (VideoGame/MarioKart notwithstanding, as it was still portrayed as quite feral). |
| 289 | *** Yeah, hate to crash this, but...there are no partners in ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar''. Also, the concept of continuity...Miyamoto hates having stories put into Mario games. |
| 290 | * Various games depict Piranha Plants as being much more prominent in jungle areas. In ''Yoshi's Island'', an island that seems heavily jungle-thematic, the things are absolutely ''everywhere''--they don't need to be in pipes. Perhaps, then, Piranha Plants originated from Yoshi's Island? --Not in terms of game release, in terms of the in-universe species. |
| 291 | ** Also, note that the MK mainland has various types. Venus Fire Traps, Putrid, and now even Dry Piranhas; seeming to replicate the notion of evolution/adaptation to surroundings to survive. |
| 292 | [[/folder]] |
| 293 | |
| 294 | [[folder: How the age of twins work]] |
| 295 | * Okay, Luigi is Mario's younger brother, everyone knows that... why did Nintendo start saying he's his younger ''twin'' brother? Wouldn't twins have different dynamics than an older brother/younger brother would? |
| 296 | ** Everythings Better With Twins? |
| 297 | ** Twins still come out one at a time, you know, so Mario might just be older by a few minutes. Not terribly important, but still accurate (and significant in cultures which give preference to the firstborn son). |
| 298 | *** Nailed it. The first born twin son thing happens in eastern cultures, and Mario games are made by a Japanese company... So yeah. |
| 299 | *** It's worth noting here that in the Japanese language, you ''cannot'' refer to a "brother" without specifying whether he is older or younger. The necessary word simply does not exist. |
| 300 | ** The twin part came from VideoGame/YoshisIsland I'd say, where the brothers were said to have been 'born' at the same time in the ending. Maybe there was a one or minute difference either then or before they were first taken by the stork in that game (and the games have to be canon, otherwise Yoshi's Island DS and Mario and Luigi Partners in Time are a tad screwed). |
| 301 | ** I maintain that they're fraternal twins because of the dramatic height difference. |
| 302 | ** Well, even in the west, it's a big deal. Maybe even more so than in a typical older/younger sibling dynamic. Being the oldest generally carries a bit of weight to it. The younger sibling is supposed to listen to you, you have more responsibility, etc. The youngest tends not to have as much responsibility. But in twins, the siblings might feel resentment that the dynamic was down to luck. An honest argument would be: |
| 303 | -->Twin One: Listen to me, I'm older than you! |
| 304 | -->Twin Two: By a minute! |
| 305 | ** Because it's not so much just I'm older than you by a year, it's I'm barely older than you. It gives a greater reason to want to get out of the older brother's shadow. He's can't be that much better than me, he's not that much older than me. |
| 306 | [[/folder]] |
| 307 | |
| 308 | [[folder: Why Luigi never toughens up]] |
| 309 | * Why doesn't Luigi ever toughen up? He went through an entire mansion full of ghosts, and has gone on his own adventures at least two or three times (one of which we never got to see first-hand). Yet he still freaks out and falls into a gibbering wreck at things that would only lightly startle or confuse most people. I'm not saying he should develop into a grisly, tougher-than-scrap-iron action hero, but why hasn't he developed any psychological armor whatsoever? |
| 310 | ** Practically speaking, probably Nintendo wanting to use him as the subject of a whole ton of jokes and in roles he really shouldn't be stuck in. Storyline wise, not sure, although he was still pretty damn scared at the end of Luigi's Mansion (hint, look at every boss battle intro and the scene before the final one, Luigi looks like he's about to die of shock ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn3qhVtaIk4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn3qhVtaIk4]]), which itself is a pretty silly thing, considering it's apparently BOWSER, of all characters, whom Luigi's defeated many, many times in the past. |
| 311 | *** Yes, a [=GIANT=] [=MECHA=] [=BOWSER=] piloted by a [[NightmareFuel scary ghost.]] More lethal than anything he's faced before. You'd crap your pants. |
| 312 | *** Funny, though, that he's seen nearly everything there before or after. Bowser, seen hundreds of times. Mecha Bowser, seen at least ten times. King Boo, now in the spinoffs like Bowser. I was going to mention ''Yoshi's Island/DS'', but then realised that in every single game in the series, Luigi got captured, and it was up to Mario and the other babies to 'defeat' the now three hundred foot tall castle sized Bowser/Baby Bowser. |
| 313 | ** He's actually gotten weaker, honestly. He used to be on the same level as Mario. And then they started to give him character. |
| 314 | *** I figure it's Nintendo retaliating against all the questions about Luigi's inactivity in certain games, such as Mario RPG or Mario 64. "Fine, you want to know why Luigi wasn't there? It's because he's a WUSS. Take that answer." |
| 315 | [[/folder]] |
| 316 | |
| 317 | [[folder: Bowser being a bad parent]] |
| 318 | * Isn't it kind of irresponsible that Bowser lets his kids pilot the airships, especially considering they'd be too young to get at least a learner's permit in real life? |
| 319 | ** He's an absolute monarch, and, moreover, when he's not sending them out as agents, he keeps them in the dungeons. He is law, so law can't stop him, and he doesn't give a damn about them, so that's no impediment. |
| 320 | ** Who said their laws were the same as ours? Apparently toddlers can drive go-karts. |
| 321 | ** On the contrary, if one of them is going to succeed him some day then he's getting them started early with minor roles in the running of his kingdom and a part to play in opposing the hated Mario. As for the 'being able to drive' thing, there's evidence (largely from ''Yoshi's Island/DS'' and ''Partners in Time'') to suggest Koopas age at a different rate to humans, especially mentally. |
| 322 | ** What's funny is that the Koopalings have been long dismissed as Bowser's children leaving his only son being Bowser Jr. And Bowser Jr. has shown to be ''very'' good at [[GadgeteerGenius constructing large robots and battleships]]. Especially since Bowser Jr. is more than willing to assist his dad and should anything happen to Bowser Jr., [[PapaWolf you'll be dealing with one pissed-off Koopa King]]. |
| 323 | [[/folder]] |
| 324 | |
| 325 | [[folder: How did Bowser get any children?]] |
| 326 | * How does Bowser even have a son of any kind? We've never seen his wife, or any female Koopa. |
| 327 | ** Yes we have. Kammy Koopa. |
| 328 | ** They could always be adopted. |
| 329 | ** A simple explanation is that Nintendo doesn't have any specific character in mind for the mother for [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Doylist]] reasons; main-series Mario games are pretty light on story so they only bother detailing what's necessary and relevant to the events of the game and leave the rest to speculation. The spinoffs usually expand on these things and fill in the gaps left by the main-series games, but they're often just written off as AlternateContinuity / DependingOnTheWriter. |
| 330 | ** The ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' games show that Mario, Luigi, Wario, Peach, DK and Bowser have all been delivered by stork, so I just assumed that's how it works for everyone in the Mario universe. In that sense, all parents are technically adoptive and wouldn't necessarily need a significant other in order to have children. Bowser Jr. could very well have no true "biological" mother, and his father only tricked him into thinking that Peach was his mother to turn him against Mario. |
| 331 | ** Bowser's a king. He can pretty much use royal dictate to have his pick of whoever he wants. It's worth considering that Bowser doesn't know who Junior's mother is because she was just some random conquest and he never bothered trying to find her again after she left him with the egg. |
| 332 | *** So Koopas reproduce like ostriches? |
| 333 | [[/folder]] |
| 334 | |
| 335 | [[folder: Yoshi's shoes]] |
| 336 | * Where do Yoshis get their shoes? They're never seen without them (that one episode of the cartoon doesn't count), and it seems to be implied that they're born with them; which makes no sense. |
| 337 | ** If they're never seen without them, then the answer is that they simply ''aren't wearing'' shoes. Just like they naturally have a suspiciously saddle-like bit of armor plating on their back, their feet are covered by natural shoe-like plating. How either of these could be evolutionarily advantageous is a pointless question, given that we are dealing with a world where moles naturally possess eye protection that happens to look like sunglasses. |
| 338 | *** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' shows a Yoshi (called Boshi) without the normal kind of shoes. They're open-toed to reveal his claws. |
| 339 | *** ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' has your hatchling Yoshi partner have shoes right off, but no saddle. So neither one is just part of their body judging by this evidence. Maybe it's just default equipment. |
| 340 | *** I always assumed that like in Super Smash Bros, Yoshis come out of and come in their eggs at will, so he isn't necassarily born everytime when he comes out of an egg. As for the shoes and saddle, Yoshi is the Mushroom Kingdom's equivalant to a horse, so they are naturally just wearing their standard gear incase a knight (or a plumber) comes to ride them. |
| 341 | [[/folder]] |
| 342 | |
| 343 | [[folder: How does Mario shoot fireballs underwater?]] |
| 344 | * How can Mario shoot fireballs underwater? And I'd have thought Luigi's Thunder Hand underwater would be far more useful than it is... electricity + water = great conductor. |
| 345 | ** The same way fire can be underwater in ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants''. |
| 346 | ** I'd think the conductivity of water would make Thunder extremely hazardous to use, if we're going to think of it that way. |
| 347 | ** If it's hot enough, with fuel, fire can burn underwater. Or maybe he's just using the fireball to boil the water in such a matter that it mimics his actual fireball. |
| 348 | ** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire He uses Greek fire.]] |
| 349 | ** Mario can shoot fire underwater by with the same magic he uses to [[SuperNotDrowningSkills breathe underwater]]. |
| 350 | * Magic. Duh. |
| 351 | [[/folder]] |
| 352 | |
| 353 | [[folder: American and Japanese names]] |
| 354 | * Is Peach's last name "Toadstool" and Bowser's "Koopa"? Sure, those were only used outside of Japan, but still. Maybe, since they're more familiar with each other they started referring to each other by their first names? |
| 355 | ** Yes. |
| 356 | ** It's the [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Eggman/Robotnik]] thing. In Japan, they were Peach and Koopa. In America, they were Toadstool and Bowser. Nintendo took them and put them together. Hence, Princess Peach Toadstool and King Bowser Koopa. |
| 357 | *** Though it's worth noting that Bowser's name, at least, was not wholly unused outside Japan -- the manual called him "Bowser, King of the Koopas" and the cartoons simply referred to him as King Koopa. |
| 358 | *** The ''Super Mario Bros 3'' cartoon used "Bowser" several times. In "Reign Storm", Mario asks (Robot) Toadstool "How can you be so nice to Bowser Koopa?!", and in "Sneaky Lying Cheating Giant Ninja Koopas", Mario declares to him "You're not taking over any land, you Bowser Koopa!". |
| 359 | *** Don't forget Luigi said "I can't wait to see the look on Bowser Koopa's face when he gets wind of this!", or something like that in "Princess Toadstool For President". |
| 360 | *** King Koopa ''himself'' introduces himself to a one-off character as "King Bowser Koopa" in "Crimes 'R' Us". |
| 361 | [[/folder]] |
| 362 | |
| 363 | [[folder: When did Mario and Luigi get to the Mushroom Kingdom?]] |
| 364 | * Okay, when Mario and Luigi got to the Mushroom Kingdom? Y'know, when Bowser had already conquered it? Exactly how long was the kingdom under Bowser's heel? A week? A few months? A year? Mario and Luigi have to liberate it from his clutches, so how long was this going on? Did Peach get Stockholm Syndome during her time being kidnapped, because I'm half-willing to bet she was held captive for a prolonged period of time and it had a weird effect on her mental state. |
| 365 | ** Weren't they already there when Bowser invaded the first time? |
| 366 | ** If VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey is anything to go by, then they come from New Donk City. You can assume for yourself how that fits into the timeline. |
| 367 | [[/folder]] |
| 368 | |
| 369 | [[folder: Is Wario an elf?]] |
| 370 | * Is Wario supposed to be an elf of some kind? His ears are pointed, and so are his shoes, two typical aspects of elves and/or genies. |
| 371 | ** I don't think so, although Wario and Waluigi look almost exactly like elves, down to the pointed shoes and ears. |
| 372 | ** They were most likely designed this way to show that they're the obvious {{Evil Counterpart}}s to Mario and Luigi. Though elves aren't evil for the most part, they are definitely mischievous which perfectly describes the sneaky duo of Wario and Waluigi. Mario and Luigi are more "cartoonish" resembling stand-out cartoon heroes usually with bigger noses and brighter clothing. Wario and Waluigi being designed as Gonky elves makes sense. |
| 373 | [[/folder]] |
| 374 | |
| 375 | [[folder: How does the Mushroom World survive for so long?]] |
| 376 | * Exactly how does Mario's world still exist when there are so many ancient SealedEvilInACan artifacts/monsters who were active in the past? Mario and Luigi weren't always around and the Toads are about as tough pillow stuffing, so how did they ever survive long enough to seal creatures capable of warping reality? |
| 377 | ** With careful use of powerups (hello, super star!), and the defense of the realm by more combat-capable species (Koopas, etc.) |
| 378 | *** It's never really implied that the [[InsistentTerminology Shroomers]] are helpless. Toad is implied to have originally been Peach's bodyguard, and only really helpless when facing Bowser. Because he terrifies him. And who wouldn't be terrified when facing a 5-7 foot turtle with spikes that breathes fire? |
| 379 | ** To be honest, that question can be levelled with a lot of video game worlds. |
| 380 | ** People are probably less tough now ''because'' all those evils have been sealed away for so long. If you don't have to face world-destroying dangers that often there's not much need to be a warrior of that caliber. |
| 381 | ** It's very likely there were other Heros in the past similar to The Mario Bros like the [[VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor 4 Legendary Heros]] who sealed the Shadow Queen |
| 382 | [[/folder]] |
| 383 | |
| 384 | [[folder: Where in the real world are Mario and Luigi from?]] |
| 385 | * Are Mario and Luigi Italian, American (most adaptations give 'em Brooklyn accents), Italian-American, or Mushroom Kingdom...ese? |
| 386 | ** The cartoons had them originally from Brooklyn sans the accents. Now it's just assumed that they at least ''grew up'' in Brooklyn. |
| 387 | *** Aren't they from the Mushroom Kingdom? Or did they transfer there as adults? Are their parents from there? |
| 388 | ** They're from the Mushroom Kingdom in the game series. But I never knew they had no accents in the cartoon series, but happened to be from Brooklyn. Strange. |
| 389 | ** Maybe their Mushroom parents dropped them off in Little Italy, NY after the events of Yoshi's Island to protect them? Not the greatest choice, considering TheMafia and all that, but it makes sense. And then there's Super Mario Bros., which represents their rediscovery of the Mushroom Kingdom. |
| 390 | *** This seems right. The games actually state a few times that Mario and Luigi grew up in Brooklyn, and there's no reason this doesn't make sense. And Mario and Luigi still had their running and jumping talents outside the Mushroom Kingdom, so that explains why they aren't surprised by jumping high. |
| 391 | ** I was under the impression that they were born and raised in Italy, then moved to New York and became plumbers (Original Mario Bros took place around that time). Then they got warped to the Mushroom Kingdom by freak accident. I don't remember anything about them being from Brooklyn. |
| 392 | ** I always thought they were from the Mushroom Kingdom, at least post Super Mario Bros. It's the only way the Yoshi's Island games make any sense. |
| 393 | ** Thanks to VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey, now we can safely assume that Mario is from New Donk City. There probably is a fantasy equivalent to Brooklyn inside of New Donk City as well. |
| 394 | [[/folder]] |
| 395 | |
| 396 | [[folder: Bowser stepping on his own axe/switch]] |
| 397 | * Why doesn't Bowser step on his own axe/switch? He's not THAT dumb. Also in NSMB, why doesn't he just keep on walking forward, seeing that he's too large to jump over? Especially the final boss, because he hits you back when you bump into him. |
| 398 | ** He doesn't ''just'' want to beat Mario. He wants to beat him in a fair fight. |
| 399 | [[/folder]] |
| 400 | |
| 401 | [[folder: Why the side characters never seem to be helping]] |
| 402 | * Imagine you're a Toad living in the Mushroom Kingdom. On the day of a great festival, a particularly large Bowser stomps his way through your town, grabs your princess, and... announces that your kingdom no longer interests him and leaves. There's ProtagonistCenteredMorality and AlwaysSaveTheGirl and such for Mario, but...isn't it possible that the sacrifice of one oft-kidnapped princess is worth knowing that your world will never be attacked again? Shouldn't ''someone'' at least raise the idea that chasing him down may not be the most rewarding plan of action? Instead, every one of them is panicking and begging for Mario's help. |
| 403 | ** A seditious rebel idea that could lead to the overthrowing of monarchy -- and every good Toad knows that monarchy is an absolute necessity for social stability! Why, without royalty, there would be total anarchy! |
| 404 | ** In SMB 1 and 2, Bowser is attacking and taking over parts of the Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi are taking them back from Bowser. In [=SMB3=], the Mushroom Kingdom is spared, seemingly, but seven other kingdoms are being ravaged by invading Koopalings. In some versions, he magically changed the Toad race into smiling clouds, bushes, and bricks according to the manuals. Let that last one sink in. In SMW, Bowser and his kids have taken over a completely new land. It isn't until after SMW that Bowser goes from an invading force and serious threat to more of a dictator who just wants to seem important. Note that in Mario Kart and the [=RPG=]s, for the most part, most of the Toad race really doesn't see him as a threat per se, but a nuisance. Most of the games where he is a "threat" post-Mario Kart/SMW are either his kid(s), when he was a child, or some third-party interference. |
| 405 | *** He felt like a threat in Super Mario 64. When I was a little kid, I thought he literally ''sealed the Toads into the walls of Peach's Castle''. As in, they were stuck inside the bricks and mortar. Looking on the plot now... he still magically locked the Toads inside the castle, made several paintings into deathtraps, and stole a precious power source. Oh, yeah, and he is a ''menace'' in the final battle. Not exactly a minor threat. |
| 406 | *** And by [=SMB2=], you mean what is often called The Lost Levels, right? I mean, since Bowser isn't in [=SMB2=] / SMBUSA at all; the BigBad there is Wart. |
| 407 | ** Did you not pay attention to what little there is to the rest of the the plot? Bowser wants to ''destroy the universe to create his own''. He didn't conquer the Mushroom Kingdom because there would be no point in wasting resources on something you're just going to erase from existence. This is more emphasized in the first game, but it's still there. |
| 408 | *** I blame this on very ambiguous terminology. Bowser says that he's going to create his own galaxy. At the end of the first game, Mario happily declares the existence of the new galaxy. But at the same time, every stage in the game is ''also'' referred to as a galaxy. It's not impossible to think that Bowser's just making a very large new area for himself. One with cake. |
| 409 | ** But there's nothing to support the idea that Bowser would then leave the Mushroom Kingdom alone. After all, it's got great resources, plenty of financial security (enough to throw huge minigame festivals and the like) and there's stuff like the Star Spirits he can then leech further power from. Why does he then back away? [[FridgeBrilliance He knows Mario and Luigi will go after him, so he forces them through another series of deathtraps to kill the only people who can stop him.]] |
| 410 | [[/folder]] |
| 411 | |
| 412 | [[folder: Bowser's minions are incompetent]] |
| 413 | * Why doesn't Bowser use his minions from the platform games to attack the villains trying to steal his castle in the [=RPG=]s? Cackletta/Shroobs/Fawful/Count Bleck/Shadow Queen would be extremely useless if he just got all the bosses and villains from Super Mario 64/Sunshine/Galaxy/Galaxy 2/New Super Mario Bros/Yoshi's Island and basically steam rolled through their base. In Bowser's Inside Story, would it have been so hard to rebuild Megaleg and just crush Fawful and co flat in one hit, saving everyone the trouble? And why not send his airships to fight back the Shroob attack? He's got armadas of them, and he'd be able to likely shoot tons out the sky. I honestly hope the next game around, Bowser gets wise and finally stands up for himself. You know, you'd then get to play as him and use his various Galaxy 2 minions to tear down the base and army of the new villain. Gobblegut, for example is probably bigger than anything even the Shadow Queen could summon to fight back. Megaleg even more so. |
| 414 | ** The Shroob invasion, at least, happened back when he was only a baby, and as such hadn't really built up very much of an army beyond Kamek -- adult Bowser may have gone back, but the portals aren't big, and he didn't know enough about them to bring much of his army. As for the rest.. most of his really ''big'' stuff requires stolen power stars as a power source or powerup. It may ''seem'' easy conquering, but it probably takes months of effort to steal those things beforehand, and without a Grand Star, Megaleg is just an incredibly large hunk of metal. Why he doesn't use the armada, though... maybe Mario had blown it up recently, and he hadn't gotten around to rebuilding yet? |
| 415 | *** And he coudn't deal with Count Bleck because Bleck had Nastasia working for him. She could hypnotize anything Bowser throws at Bleck, and all of a sudden, Bowser has to fight them. After seeing so many of his minions fall victim to her with literally no effort at all, Bowser played it smart and stayed the heck away from Bleck and Nastasia until he [[EnemyMine joined up with Mario and Peach]]. Nastasia even got ''Luigi''. The Shroobs and Fawful seem to have mutating powers or something, since there are a lot of common enemies modeled after themselves, and Bowser would not like to deal with a powered-up Shrooblegut or Fawfulmanta. The X-Nauts worked largely behind the scenes, with Bowser largely oblivious to what they're doing or where they're located besides kidnapping Peach. In other words, these guys can either steal Bowser's troops for themselves or can work around Bowser's loud and boisterous self. |
| 416 | ** Not to mention, In Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser's castle had been recently turned partially into a theater, and it takes Bowser roughly a quarter the the game just to get there. Plus most of the troops had been hypnotized at that point. |
| 417 | [[/folder]] |
| 418 | |
| 419 | [[folder: Where are the human characters?]] |
| 420 | * Why are there so many human characters? The Mario Brothers, the Princesses, Wario and Waluigi, those people in VideoGame/WarioWare... where are these humans coming from? |
| 421 | ** They evolved from dinosaurs, a.k.a. Koopas. No, really. At least, according to the movie, anyway. Mushroom Kingdom dinosaur-evolved people even ''lay eggs.'' |
| 422 | ** When a mommy and a daddy love each other, and decide they want to start a family, they settle down and... *shot* Actually, I think since the Mario series doesn't really have a continuity, there's no real way to explain it, but to be fair, VideoGame/WarioWare seems to take place in a different continuity than the rest of the Mario series. There have also been theories that Peach is a rare, mutated form of the regular Mushroom people, or that said people are all just wearing hats and are normal humans themselves. Finally, Mario and Luigi are from Brooklyn, not the Mushroom Kingdom, and Mario apparently was boyhood friends with Wario. |
| 423 | *** Mario and Luigi are not from Brooklyn. That was made up in the movie and the TV show, but isn't canon to the games. In the games he's apparently from some part of the world the Mushroom Kingdom is in. Peach is part of the human family that rules the Mushroom Kingdom, and Wario was never given a backstory. Apparently, there are human communities/families all over the place, it's just that they are the minority. |
| 424 | *** Actually, a few games make passing mention of the Mario Bros. being from Brooklyn (documented on [=MarioWiki=]), and WordOfGod says that the Mario Bros. arcade game takes place in the New York sewer system. It can work with the timeline; maybe their parents moved out of the Mushroom Kingdom with them for safety reasons or something, and they rediscovered the kingdom later as adults while in the plumbing business? |
| 425 | *** Wario lives in Diamond City, right? Maybe that's where the humans come from, and they're just one of the many, many, many, many races in the Mushroom World. It would explain the first game taking place on a construction site, too. |
| 426 | *** Wario does have a bit of backstory to him. It was said that he was the one that hired Tatanga in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioLand'' to kidnap Princess Daisy so Mario would be distracted while Wario took over Mario's castle in the sequel. |
| 427 | *** Yoshi's Island says otherwise in regards to Mario's origin. |
| 428 | *** What does it say? I know it doesn't say they're from Brooklyn, that has been explicitly stated as being only part of the movie and show, there's no indication of it in the games. |
| 429 | *** It says that Mario and Luigi were born in the Mushroom World. Hell, judging by Partners in Time, it appears they were raised in the Mushroom World as well. |
| 430 | ** Although no game explicitly says that Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. take place in Brooklyn, they certainly are meant to take place in the "real world", contrasting with the Mushroom Kingdom, which Mario wasn't transported to until Super Mario Bros., which takes place after the other two games. Yoshi's Island confuses things by having the brothers born in the Mushroom Kingdom, but clearly their parents had packed their bags and gone to the real world in the meantime, since they don't rearrive in the Kingdom until SMB. Also, Mario was not evil in Donkey Kong Jr.; it only appears that way because you're playing a character that opposes him. In fact, the plumber was merely trying to release the ape into the wild. |
| 431 | *** The old Donkey Kong games didn't take place in Brooklyn, as said by the Donkey Kong Country series, or at least Donkey Kong Land ([http://www.mariowiki.com/Big_Ape_City see this link]). The referenced place, which might well be in the Mushroom Kingdom or where Rare's multiverse crossover thing takes place, is not Brooklyn, but a separate area visited in one of the Donkey Kong games. There's no evidence whatsoever that the Earth is visited or lived in by any Mario characters, or even that there's a real world altogether in the series other than spinoff media (movie, some TV shows, and some comics). Oh, and the whole part about getting there through pipes? American manual fanon, if I can recall correctly. It didn't anywhere say Mario is from anywhere else, the newest manuals for it, at least if the classic NES re-release is a bit more reliable; it said word went through the land to a humble plumber, as in potentially Mario was living in the Mushroom Kingdom/World somewhere at the time. |
| 432 | *** In Mario's Time Machine, Mario specifically states that he's from Brooklyn New York and that game as well as Mario is Missing, specifically takes place in the real world. |
| 433 | ** Well, we know that there are several other sentient species in the Mushroom Kingdom world, including the Piantas, the Lumas, the Franchise/DonkeyKong primates, and several of the enemy races (Bowser and his major Koopa minions are obviously intelligent in the main games, with the rest showing up in the [=RPG=]s). Who's to say that humans aren't just another species, co-existing with all the other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom? |
| 434 | *** Arguably, "humans" could just be weird-looking Toads. With hair. |
| 435 | *** That would make sense, since the Twilighters in ''Paper Mario 2'', which basically look like taller, chubbier, gothic Toads, refer to themselves as humans. |
| 436 | *** Don't forget the Shy Guys! |
| 437 | *** I like to think that they're freakishly mutated Toads. But that would make the Boo Guys [[NightmareFuel mutated zombies who do not want to show their faces...]] |
| 438 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' makes this pretty clear: the Metro Kingdom (which is also where ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'' takes place). Every kingdom has its own dominant species, and humans are one among many. Mario and Luigi's parents probably immigrated to the Mushroom Kingdom from the Metro Kingdom. This also explains Princess Peach; she probably has both Toad and Metro Human ancestors, and favors her human side. At this point any trace of Brooklyn origin has been definitively [[RetCon retconned]] away. |
| 439 | [[/folder]] |
| 440 | |
| 441 | [[folder: How the cape feather works]] |
| 442 | * When Mario or Luigi fly with the feather cape, how do the corners of the cape stick to their shoes? |
| 443 | ** The same way the cape enables flight in the first place. [[AWizardDidIt Magic]]. |
| 444 | ** Maybe the corners of the cape are tied to Mario's ankles, and there probably wasn't enough detail to show that in the game's sprites. |
| 445 | [[/folder]] |
| 446 | |
| 447 | [[folder: The obstacles in levels]] |
| 448 | * So...does Bowser build the obstacle courses Mario has to go through, or are all these Donut Lifts, see-saws, and Trampolines just naturally occurring? Or is it some kind of thing where [[GameplayandStorySegregation that shit's just to make gameplay more interesting]]? |
| 449 | ** Well either those traps were pre-built by ancient civilizations or Bowser placed them their himself. Most likely the latter. Oh, and also for gameplay reasons. Obviously. |
| 450 | [[/folder]] |
| 451 | |
| 452 | [[folder: The age of Mario characters]] |
| 453 | * ''Yoshi's Island DS'' and ''Mario And Luigi Partners In Time'' raise an interesting question. They are both set in the past, and it's not hard to tell that Bowser is just a few years older than the Mario Bros. That is somewhat acceptable, as his age in the other games does not seem to be set, but Peach would appear to be just a few years younger than them, whereas in the main games, she looks at least ten years younger than them. How does that work? |
| 454 | ** She ages gracefully. |
| 455 | ** They're YoungerThanTheyLook and/or she is [[OlderThanTheyLook Older Than She Looks]]? |
| 456 | ** Mario and Luigi don't look very old at all. If they didn't have mustaches, they could pass for children. |
| 457 | ** Supported. Aside from characters in-game (most commonly [=RPG=]s) referring to Mario as young, as well as Peach clearly being very youthful and being roundabout the same age as the Bros., the Melee trophy for Mario in the Japanese version states him to be 26. Given Peach is at best maybe a year younger, this sounds about right. |
| 458 | [[/folder]] |
| 459 | |
| 460 | [[folder: Where do the Brick Blocks come from?]] |
| 461 | * According to the instruction manual for the original Super Mario Bros., Bowser and his troops used [[AWizardDidIt black magic]] to turn the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom into brick-blocks. Princess Peach, who Bowser kidnapped, is the only one who can undo the curse. This brings up two questions. One, if the brick-blocks are actually Toads, why is Mario breaking them? Two, if the curse was lifted after Mario rescued Peach, why are there still brick-blocks everywhere in later games? |
| 462 | ** Ah, the most common one. Perhaps one should take a cue and just ignore that part, as it's never mentioned about the Toads being brick blocks in later games. |
| 463 | ** My interpretation was that only the item blocks (which are indestructible and give you helpful stuff) are former Toads. |
| 464 | ** If I'm remembering the manual correctly, the Toads were turned into ''bricks''. There are multiple bricks in a brick block. If anything, Mario's helping them more. |
| 465 | [[/folder]] |
| 466 | |
| 467 | [[folder: Petey Piranha's loyalty]] |
| 468 | * Who does Petey Piranha work for? In ''Sunshine'', he attacks Mario, but there's no evidence that he's working for Bowser Jr. In ''New Super Mario Bros.'', he is working for Bowser Jr. In ''Mario Superstar Baseball'', he's on Wario's team and in the sequel, he's on Peach's team. In ''Partners in Time'', he's working with the Shroobs (who are most likely the ones who made him what he is today) and in ''Super Smash Bros.'' he and Bowser work for the Subspace Army, but Bowser leaves to join the heroes while Petey stays. |
| 469 | ** He's freelance. |
| 470 | [[/folder]] |
| 471 | |
| 472 | [[folder: Luigi's slipperiness]] |
| 473 | * In most 3D games, why does Luigi have REALLY bad traction on the ground, if he's wearing shoes? |
| 474 | ** It's probably so the two brothers are not {{Moveset Clone}}s. Remember that in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', there was both a Mario and a Luigi mode. The low traction is probably for CompetitiveBalance, as just being able to jump higher than Mario would've made him a GameBreaker. It's almost been a tradition ever since. |
| 475 | *** Maybe his soles are softer than Mario's? |
| 476 | *** Because he's always flailing his legs around while falling so he can't stop his momentum. |
| 477 | *** Also because he's really light in general, and is also pretty weak. Well, compared to his tougher brother anyways. |
| 478 | [[/folder]] |
| 479 | |
| 480 | [[folder: Bowser surviving lava]] |
| 481 | * How does Bowser survive falling in lava in many games, excluding New Super Mario Bros.? |
| 482 | ** [[AWizardDidIt Bowser is a fairly powerful wizard.]] It's something people forget because it's rarely referenced but all the blocks in the games? Former citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. The bosses of worlds 1 through 7 in the original game? Transformed mooks. Mario 3 he and his kids defeated seven magic wand wielding kings and turned them into Darwin's Grab Bag. Mario World, he sealed a fully grown dinosaur in an egg! It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that Bowser (except in New Super Mario Bros for some reason) some kind of contingency spell that roughly reads "if the shit hits the fan put me in protective stasis until someone gets me!" |
| 483 | *** Protective stasis...kind of like the bubbles in co-op multiplayer? |
| 484 | ** Since Bowser can breathe fire, he has the RequiredSecondaryPowers. |
| 485 | [[/folder]] |
| 486 | |
| 487 | [[folder: Why Boos are cowards]] |
| 488 | * In several games Boos stop, cover their eyes, and sometimes become intangible if Mario or whoever faces them, but why do they do this? In most games they are invincible to anything but a Super Star, and the ones where they aren't also tend to be the ones where they don't do that, so it's not like they're doing that because they're scared of Mario or anything. |
| 489 | ** Boos are actually based on Takashi Tezuka's wife. She was known for being a timid and gentle person, but one night, her husband returned late from work to find her furious, thus inspiring the shy/aggressive nature of the Boos. |
| 490 | ** In Super Mario Galaxy, the Boos are both physically attracted to Boo Mario and Boo Luigi. When you look at them, the reason why they cover their faces and blush is because they're shy and don't know how to approach their crush. Basically, imagine a singular version of the TwiceShy trope, and there's your explanation. |
| 491 | [[/folder]] |
| 492 | |
| 493 | [[folder: What happens when you catch Nabbit?]] |
| 494 | * What happens to Nabbit between when Mario catches him and when he gets the reward? Does Mario let him go to return the loot? Is Nabbit detained or punished? Or does he escape? |
| 495 | ** Given Mario's personality, they probably just give him a good finger wagging and a "Don't-a do that again, okey-dokey?" And then he goes right back to it. |
| 496 | [[/folder]] |
| 497 | |
| 498 | [[folder: How gaining a life through points works]] |
| 499 | * 1-ups from green mushrooms I can get. 1-ups from coins, sure. But how the heck does Mario get extra lives from bouncing repeatedly on enemies or getting an 8-hit combo with a shell? |
| 500 | ** He drains one eighth of an enemy's life energy each time he [[GoombaStomp squishes it]], but this life energy is released whenever he touches the ground. |
| 501 | [[/folder]] |
| 502 | |
| 503 | [[folder: Why doesn't Bowser use power ups?]] |
| 504 | * Why doesn't Bowser, for the most part [[ForgottenPhlebotinum ever seem to use power-ups?]] Is he a total badass and wants to beat Mario ''his way'' with his bare fists? Does he consider them to suck all the [[DramaPreservingHandicap fun or challenge]] out of his fights? Could it be that [[FailedASpotCheck he hasn't looked beyond the Fire Flower?]] As a fire-breathing Koopa... Fire Flowers are a pretty [[UselessAccessory redundant thing to have around]]. Or is this a design choice? Are the designers [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim intentionally trying to avoid a slippery slope]] where Bowser simply uses an [[HopelessBossFight Invincibility Leaf]]? |
| 505 | ** He has used power ups in several appearances- off the top of my head, I can name the first Galaxy (Rock Mushroom) and 3D World (Super Bell). Because Mario = Invincible, it's entirely possible that the Invincibility Leaf doesn't even exist in-universe. Bowser's problem is that he ''doesn't need'' powerups, because everything he can do naturally makes them obsolete. Fire Flower? Fire breath. Super Leaf/Cape Feather/Tanooki Suit/Propeller Cap/Super Acorn? Koopa Clown Car/Airship. Starman? Rump Command. Extra hits? Bowser tends to take three without powerups- adding them would either be {{Padding}} or non-functional. Especially since there are many more fights where Bowser is killed by being dropped in the lava (one-hit-kills even Invincible Mario). |
| 506 | ** He probably considers turning 50 feet tall to be the best powerbup of all. |
| 507 | ** He can use the Pal Pills and Starman in ''Super Paper Mario''. |
| 508 | [[/folder]] |
| 509 | |
| 510 | [[folder: Where are the borders of the Mushroom Kingdom?]] |
| 511 | * I know this varies depending on the game, but in most games, we can assume that Mario starts out in the Mushroom Kingdom and ends up in the Koopa Kingdom, right? At what point does he leave the Mushroom Kingdom and enter the Koopa Kingdom? Is World 1 in most games the MK, and the final world the KK, and everything in between unclaimed land? Is every world besides the last world part of the MK? |
| 512 | ** Well, in Super Mario bros 3 every world except the 8th were different kingdoms. Presumably the borders are in constant flux but usually owned by the princess/king that is supposed to own them, except for every time we see them, when they are in the middle of being conquered again. |
| 513 | ** The entire kingdom is an a state of ownership flux. As long as Bowser's minions are hopping along there, its Bowser's territory. |
| 514 | ** You can see the full map of Mario's world in Super Mario Odyssey, assuming it's completely canon. The Mushroom Kingdom is separated from the other Kingdoms, especially Isle Delfino (which isn't coloured). |
| 515 | [[/folder]] |
| 516 | |
| 517 | [[folder: What happens when Boos die?]] |
| 518 | * When Boos touch light, or Mario using an invincibility item, they disappear. What exactly happens to them? Do they actually ''die''? Or do they just teleport away? |
| 519 | ** Don't ALL the enemies "Poof" like that? I wouldn't really call that a death, given several bosses actually "Die" that way and appear just fine later on. Now, if you asked what would happen when a Boo honest-to-goodness reaches the end of their life-cycle... |
| 520 | ** If the Boo's line in Super Mario 64 are any indication, then they never truly die. |
| 521 | [[/folder]] |
| 522 | |
| 523 | [[folder: Paintbrush]] |
| 524 | * What happened to Junior's magic paintbrush? If he still has, why is he [[VillainDecay so much less threatening after Sunshine?]] |
| 525 | ** It clearly makes him a RealityWarper, so the only explanation I can think of is he took about 128 levels in dumbass. |
| 526 | ** The ending of ''Super Mario Sunshine'' shows that Il Piantassimo came across it. Whatever became of it afterward was out of Bowser Jr's hands. |
| 527 | ** Yet, he still has it in some later games, weird. |
| 528 | *** He probably just beat the crud out of Piantassimo and took it back. |
| 529 | ** Anyway, was Jr. really so threatening to begin with? Every confrontation with him in ''Sunshine'' only resulted in a GetBackHereBoss, unless he was using something like Mecha-Bowser or whatever he uses during the finale, neither of which have anything to do with the paintbrush. I think it's fair to say that he became ''more'' threatening as the series went on. |
| 530 | ** Alternatively, it may simply be an issue of recognition. The only reason the paintbrush made him a threat in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' is that the Piantas... honestly, either [[FridgeBrilliance they're colourblind & have extremely poor vision]] or [[TooDumbToLive they're not that bright]]. If they had been able to recognise that the [[PaperThinDisguise weird, Mario-shaped technicolour paint monster]] was in fact ''not'' the guy that just arrived on the plane with a foreign dignitary and is noticeably ''not'' technicolour and ''not'' made of paint, then Mario would likely have had the full support of the Piantas in figuring out what was going, rather than being hindered by a KangarooCourt. Or at the very least, he would've been allowed to stay with Peach, significantly lessening the number of openings available for Bowser Jr. to kidnap her. ...Conversely, people almost everywhere else seem to be able to recognise Mario, and thus wouldn't be likely to leave Peach vulnerable and undefended by arresting him for something that they know he didn't do. |
| 531 | ** Well, it's back again in Bowser's Fury. |
| 532 | [[/folder]] |
| 533 | |
| 534 | [[folder: Where does Bowser find all of the mini bosses?]] |
| 535 | * They don't seem to be part of the Koopa Kingdom, so where did they come from? |
| 536 | ** My guess? He bribes willing subject with castles (and such) of their own. Probably pays them too. |
| 537 | [[/folder]] |
| 538 | |
| 539 | [[folder: Who was Boo in life?]] |
| 540 | * I'm not familiar with any lore that discusses this. I thought all the Boos were meant to be traditional ghosts- that is, spirits of the dead- but is there any indication as to whom they were supposed to be before death? |
| 541 | ** Considering the franchise's family-friendly nature, they probably follow the same, skip-the-traumatizing-implications rules as Casper the Friendly Ghost: they were just born as ghosts. |
| 542 | ** In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'', King Boo states he's "sick to double death of [Luigi], meaning he was alive at some point. |
| 543 | [[/folder]] |
| 544 | |
| 545 | [[folder: Rabbits exploding/teleporting]] |
| 546 | * How do bad guys and non-baddies survive getting blown up? In both Odyssey and 3D world, rabbits can poof into dust and stars. The rabbits you chase for green starrs poof into nothing after they give away their green star, and the Broodals from Odyssey do the same after they've been defeated? Is it some sort of rabbits thing? |
| 547 | ** Rabbits ''are'' sometimes associated with magic... |
| 548 | [[/folder]] |
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