History Headscratchers / SuperMarioGalaxy

** The sequel establishes that not all Lumas think of Rosalina as their mother, not even the ones who are acquainted with her, like Lubba.

** She has so many lumas to take care of. Given how some of lumas are basically begging for starbits and the others' quotes when you shoot a starbit at them anyway, it's clear that she can't feed all of them alone, let alone hunt for power stars simultaneously.

[[folder: Science behind the ending]]

** You should probably add 'Why are they on the bad guy's ship in the first place?' Or coincidentally a few feet away from a boss arena? Are they completely suicidal?
** Lumas seem to be effectively immortal thanks to reincarnation; they're probably deliberately helping out Mario.
** That, and their purpose is explicitly stated to be to eventually transform into something else, and if that helps save the universe, so much the better.

* Why does Super Mario Galaxy always get the shaft in terms of representation in spin-offs? Aside from the galaxy-themed Rainbow Road, and Rosalina in Mario Kart Wii and the dream events in the Mario & Sonic games, there hasn't really been anything, not even the slightest reference. I can understand Brawl for not having a Galaxy themed stage, but what stopped Mario Super Sluggers, Mario Sports Mix, or Mario Party (though 9 could have some Galaxy themed stages). Logic doesn't really cut it, especially since a Goomba can play baseball despite not having any arms. Furthermore, why isn't Rosalina in any more spin-offs; I figured she'd be the one character that would be shoved in all the spin-offs, but so far she's only been in Mario Kart Wii.
** SM Galaxy only came out, like, a couple years ago. Good game or not, it is simply not as recognizable as other games in the series.
** Rosalina ([[UnexpectedCharacter and Queen Bee?]]) are both in Mario Kart 7, and in one of the stages, the first planet in Gateway Galaxy and the Comet Observatory appear in the background, if that helps. And what do you mean you can understand its absence in Brawl? It came out a year before Brawl, and Brawl got delayed three/four times. The only reference to the game is in the Chronicle. Not even a trophy or sticker. That's appalling!
** (OP here). Well, I didn't expect much from Brawl, since like how SSB and SSBM focused most of its Mario representation on Mario 64, Brawl would focus most of its on Sunshine. Though now that you mention it, the fact that it had no trophy or stickers is a bit odd, especially since Luigi's Mansion and Pikmin had one in SSBM despite coming out rather recently. I also don't think it not being as well known shouldn't be an excuse. SMG is the only 3D Mario to get a sequel, so that surely must count for something. Even now, Sunshine still gets referenced a lot in most of the non-Mario Kart spin-offs, and I'm pretty sure most people would know more about the two Galaxy games than Sunshine.
** Actually, there are ''Galaxy'' references in ''9'': [[PlantAliens Whittles]] can actually be seen in the backgrounds of some of the minigames. And ''[[VideoGame/MarioTennis Mario Tennis Open]]''? Luma's now a playable character.
** About Rosalina not being in many of the spin-offs, maybe it has something to do with her status as TheHighQueen and one of the few non-wacky characters of the franchise? Seeing a character like her playable in a place like ''VideoGame/MarioParty'', ''VideoGame/MarioStrikers'', or ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' would feel quite bizarre, even for Mario standards. That's not to say it ''couldn't'' happen, but there's a chance that thought causes some hesitation on the dev teams.
*** Rosalina recently became an unlockable playable character in SuperMario3DWorld.
*** And she recently was revealed to be a new playable character in the next Super Smash Bros. (for Wii U/3DS)
*** Yeah, Rosalina’s in, like, all the spinoffs now. She’s completely overshadowed Daisy at this point.
* In the Battlerock level, you feed star bits to a hungry Luma, who then transforms into a planet. Okay, standard fare. However, the planet has an NPC on it. Where did this guy come from? Did he pop into existence when the Luma transformed, and when you find him, he's only a minute or two old? Is he the Luma, just in a different form? Did he manage to somehow fly over to this planet really quickly before you get there? Furthermore, it is implied that the NPC has been working really hard on that planet for a long time. How is that possible, if the planet just then popped into existence?
** The purpose Lumas are meant fulfill is to transform, into stars, planets, even entire galaxies...but Rosalina mentions that they are also continually reborn so that the cycle can go on for eternity. Perhaps the Hungry Luma had transformed into that planet once before, and then it was destroyed, whether by a black hole, being blown up, or some other third thing. After the Luma was reborn, he created the planet once again, this time as was seen in-game, and the NPC there simply 'woke up' and resumed his existence, possibly without even knowing he'd been destroyed in the first place.
*** [[SarcasmMode Thanks for the]] ParanoiaFuel!
* Furthermore, consider the blue Lumas that sell you mushrooms. You can feed them star bits, and they'll give you a 1-Up or a life meter boost. The thing is, they don't simply give you the mushroom. No. They ''transform'' into the mushroom. Assuming that Mario eats the mushroom to get its powers, did Mario just eat an innocent Luma?
** You should probably add 'Why are they on the bad guy's ship in the first place?' Or coincidentally a few feet away from a boss arena? Are they completely suicidal?
** Lumas seem to be effectively immortal thanks to reincarnation; they're probably deliberately helping out Mario.
** That, and their purpose is explicitly stated to be to eventually transform into something else, and if that helps save the universe, so much the better.
* When a Hungry Luma turns into a galaxy or a planet, it's new, and Mario should always be the first one on it, so how the hell do people like the Toads get the power star before Mario? And how have penguins supposedly been living there for years when you just caused the galaxy to be formed?

** If you're interested to know, light from distant galaxies takes millions of years to reach us here on Earth - in fact, many of them could be dead and gone by the time we have a chance to glimpse them. Mario's flights to the galaxies might take longer than the game implies, time enough for penguins or robots or what-have-you to have colonized said galaxies - the Power Stars could call on some sort of magic to return him to the observatory when he collects one, and the Lumas hitting the ResetButton at the end of the game offsets all the time-travelling he's basically been doing. (This problem notably wouldn't be present in the sequel, where Starship Mario can go much closer to each galaxy before sending Mario off to fly there himself.)

** It's possible he got punched ''through'' it.
*** That may explain why he got there, but nothing else. And didn't he float there?
** The reactor the Grand Star was trapped inside was being used to power the star Bowser emerges from in the ending sequence - I'm guessing the 'hollow sun' was only there for cosmetic purposes. And after stars have burnt up all of their energy and no longer have a way to sustain themselves (losing the Grand Star), they do eventually implode and turn into black holes with time.
*** It still would make more sense for the centerpiece of the level (the boss arena in the hollow sun with the Grand Star powering the something) to be the focus of the ending.
** Maybe in some ways, but scientifically speaking, there's no such thing as a hollow sun, as far as I know. The thing surrounding the reactor is basically just a sphere made entire of lava, not an actual star. (Which is actually kind of smart, to put it there, since the only way to reach the reactor is by flying, and the lava-sphere makes it so that you can only fly up to it from certain angles.)
*** That does not invalidate anything I asked. He teleports to a lava planet for no reason, then ''that'' "sun" implodes the Galaxy Reactor.
*** I don't know how Bowser ended up emerging from that star after he'd been defeated in the final battle, especially since I haven't played through the ending myself as of yet. But the star was being powered by the reactor - the glass planet the final battle took place on - and when Bowser was defeated and the Grand Star was freed, it robbed the star Bowser had created of its power source, causing it to collapse in itself and become a black hole, like real stars do. (Although there is a lot more to it when it happens in real life, of course.)
*** So how did Bowser, end up on the smaller lava planet/sun, and why did that sun (of all things) implode?
*** No word on how he ended up there, but (as has already been explained several times now), the sun that imploded did so because it was being powered by the Grand Star that Mario just freed from inside the reactor. When the Grand Star was freed, the sun rapidly burned through its remaining energy, and the loss of energy meant that there was nothing to counteract the sun's gravity, thereby causing it ti collapse in on itself and form a black hole.
** It's for the same reason why he can survive falling into lava in all the other games[[note]]In one of the first games, it's revealed that most of the Bowsers you fight at the end of the level are actually goombas in disguise. Meaning that at the end of the level, you could've simply fought nothing but an extremely powerful goomba while Bowser was hiding on his ship[[/note]].
* How the hell did Guppy get from Sea Slide to the bottom of the underground lake in Deep Dark Galaxy?

* You're getting rid of the trash in the ammo depot by blowing it up. [[SarcasmMode Because it's not like there would be debris or anything.]]
** And if you don't destroy all the trash in 30 seconds, all of it magically re-appears!
** Actually, when you think about it, it wouldn't leave debris, or at least nearly as much. It's ammo, so it'd probably explode with the bomb. However, the debris from ammunition would likely be shrapnel, which is infamous for being deadly. So blowing up an ammo dump just to clean it up would still be a HUGE mistake.
** Another shining question: ''Why the hell is the mission timed in the first place?'' There's no real explanation for why there's a strict 30 second timer on the mission. In fact, all that's ever said about it is when you fail the mission, when the robot chastises you and says "No, no, no! You gotta do it faster!"
*** Not to mention that if you fail, it says "There's always more". If there's always more, then what does blowing it up in the first place do? And why on earth (or any other planet) does it think that a just reward for completing a ridiculous challenge in a ridiculous amount of time is ''some unidentifiable piece of junk it found lying around?''
*** The Power Stars seem to be artifacts containing enormous amounts of cosmic energy...It's possible they actually give off some sort of ''pull'', that serves to draw space junk to that tiny planet. The Gearmo just doesn't realize that by giving Mario the star, he's actually fixing the problem himself, rather than rewarding someone else for fixing it.
* As mentioned on the main page, if you talk to a Gearmo after failing to get all the purple coins in the Battlerock and Dreadnought Galaxies, you instantly die. ''Why does that happen?'' Did the Gearmo kill you? And if so, '''''why?'''''

** Suicide. Mario just can't stand having someone look manlier than him when he gets around to rescuing Peach.
*** [[JokingMode Dang, so Mario bit his own tongue or something?]]
* And they never do explain where Peach gets so damn many 1-Up Mushrooms and how Bowser is stupid enough to let her send them to Mario. Or even how she knows where to send them.

** The Luma liaison is rather plausible, in fact - throughout the game, Rosalina makes mention of how she's determined the location of Mario's special one, even though she personally has no way of knowing this as she never leaves the observatory. It's possible that she spends the game sending Lumas to gather intel on Peach and Bowser's whereabouts, and Peach uses this opportunity to give her letters to them. The Lumas might not know what letters are - I don't see any reason why they'd need to write them - so they just give them to the strange mushroom man who claims to be exchaning pieces of paper from one person to another.

* In [[TearJerker the storybook]], how exactly did a little girl and a Luma build [[spoiler:the Comet Observatory]] by themselves? It's mentioned that some furniture is buried within the comet of ice that they landed on, but how much, and how did they get it out?

** I think what they actually built was a house for them both to live in, though a very ''large'' house at that, and that Luma's transformation did something, I'm not quite sure what, that allowed it to become the observatory seen in-game. What I'm wondering about is how they managed to restore a rusted old spaceship back into working order by themselves.
** Goomba's and pirahnna plants have no problem building things themselves. If anything, the Luma's probably create things using the "star power" that Rosalina mentions.

* In Sea Slide Galaxy, everyone begs you to teach Guppy a lesson because he's hogging the sea all to himself. After you beat him, he suddenly has a change of heart, and helps you in future missions there, even being friendly towards the Toads and penguins. That's all fine and good, but when you go to Deep Dark Galaxy, suddenly the Toad Brigade is telling you to teach Guppy a lesson again! What happened between galaxies to make them hate Guppy?
** As mentioned above, there could be two twin Guppys, the latter being a JerkAss.
* What is that UFO that appears in the cutscenes at the beggining of the game? Does it have something to do with Bowser's discovery of space travel? Also, how did Bowser got acess to all the tecnology he has in the game? The koopalings might be good with machines, but they're no rocket scientists.
** I'm afraid I can't speak much for the Koopalings, but it seems like the technical knowledge and resources held by the Koopa Troop coupled with the omnipotent energy reserves obtained from the Power Stars they stole from the observatory would suffice as a reasonable explanation, along with any of the various technological benefits Bowser and his forces would've come across during their universal conquest.
*** Sorry, my mistake. I was really talking about the Koopa Troop. Maybe they could get this knowledge from the power stars... But how did they reach the observatory before knowing how to travel through space?
*** Mmm...My interpretation? Perhaps Bowser was flying around in the atmosphere the night of the Star Festival, brainstorming (or just wishing) for his next plan to squash Mario and kidnap Princess Peach, when he noticed the great comet spoken of in the Mushroom Kingdom appear to stop within the distance of a nearby planet. He used the technology his troops had already developed at that point to journey a short distance into space and investigate, where he attacked the observatory while Rosalina was busy in the Gateway Galaxy looking over her home world and stole the Power Stars before she could do anything to stop him. Then the Koopa Troop used their energy to upgrade their tools and weapons, to better suit them for interstellar travel, and they proceeded to travel across and begin dominating the cosmos while Bowser returned to the Mushroom Kingdom one more time in order to kidnap Peach.
** Well, considering that they have literal spaceships, and Bowser likes to rule other places, he probably took over some alien planet and stole one of their spaceships.
* Looking down from the observatory, you can see several orange outlines of stars displayed across the surface of the planet below...What exactly are those supposed to be? I'm no amatuer when it comes to astronomy and even I can't figure it out.
** I always thought they were huge light displays for the Star Festival.
** That's not a bad answer, but after Mario has spent so much time traveling through space, you'd think they would've at least taken the lights and decorations down, right? Or were all of the Toads just running in circles and panicking during the time that Mario and Peach were gone?
** [[BluntYes Yes.]]

** Hmmm, well considering that Power Stars can be used to fly, it's possible that Luigi just found one one day and used its power to cruise across space.

** Maybe the bullet bills fired by Megaleg are used to destroy nearby planets to harvest resources on them. This explains why the only planets in this galaxy are Megaleg's planet and another one with holes in.
* This is more of a meta-headscratcher than anything, I suppose, but why is Rosalina frequently accompanied by a single yellow Luma in spin-off materials? Given she's the mother of what must be several hundred of them...if they're going to feature one alongside her, why not at least make it the Luma who helped Mario in his quest, since he was the reason she became their mother to begin with? Not to mention how in ''Super Mario Galaxy 2'', she seems to have a stronger bond with him especially, sending him all the Star Bits in those letters and seeking to reunite with him at the end of the game...
** The majority of Lumas are that yellow color, so Rosalina's probably paired with one because it's the most recognizable type of Luma.
** The Luma who teams up with Mario is often referred to as a baby, and seems quite helpless when he's not riding around in Mario's hat. It's possible Rosalina leaves him on the sidelines in spinoffs because he's too young to safely participate in them.

* Okay, one more: In-universe, why are Polari's eyes blue? I understand that it provides contrast and makes them visible to players, but were Polari's eyes blue before he "dimmed" with age? Lubba had blue eyes, too, even though black would be just as visible. Do adult Lumas get blue eyes?
** It is likely only due to his age - if what's posted above is correct, Polari would have to be ''astronomically'' old, even moreso than Rosalina, whose own backstory details the years she has to have lived through. One may presume that he also never saw fit to transform during his lifetime, which would have reset his life cycle and, presumably, his color. The same would also apply to Lubba - at the ending to the second game, he mentions having crossed paths with Rosalina previously, and that it's been "forever" since he's seen her last which, given her lifespan, may not be that much of an exaggeration. In any case, chances are he spends too much time looking after his starship and crew to have time to worry about what he would be interested in transforming into.
* I ''am'' aware that this pertains more to the sequel, but I'm posting it here anyway because I think it's more likely to be answered: What's the point of Lubba's starship? Maybe he and his crew just like to explore around the cosmos for the fun of it, but that seems pretty weird considering Lumas help to ''create'' the cosmos. It also occurred to me that he may have been recruited as a sort of scout to help direct wayward Lumas to Rosalina, but this is sort of rebuked by the fact that he doesn't seem to hold any real connection to her aside from having met her before in the past, and also would bring up the question of where he and his 60+ Power Stars were in the first game, when Rosalina would've had a real need of emergency supplies to power the observatory.
** He didn't have any Power Stars by the time Mario meets up with him, and it seems like they've lost contact for a long time, anyway. As for his ship...who knows? He's treated as more of a light-hearted adventurer, but his only real purpose is to provide a new hub for Mario.
*** He didn't have any Power Stars when Mario meets him because Bowser already took them all. In the first ''Galaxy'' game, though, Bowser presumably didn't touch Lubba's starship - Rosalina states outright that he attacked the observatory and stole star power from her, meaning Lubba might've had some on board his ship that he could've lent to her.
** It's also possible that Rosalina couldn't send word to Lubba because the Comet Observatory was practically dead before Mario recovered the first Grand Star. It's almost completely dark at that point, and once the central core is restored, Polari remarks "at least the poor Lumas will survive now." Rosalina probably had to channel all of the minimal power available to keep the Lumas alive, like an emergency life support system. Using the Observatory's energy to reach out to Lubba would have been too big a drain on the extremely limited resources she had. Plus, since Lubba is a traveler who also needs Grand Stars to warp great distances, he might not have been able to reach her to transfer the Power Stars he ''did'' possess--or Rosalina may not have even known where he was at that point, as her attention was almost entirely focused on the crisis in the Observatory.

* What is the significance of the observatory passing by Rosalina's homeworld every 100 years, when she's able to visit it anytime she wants, no matter where she is in the universe, just by passing through the observatory's Gate?
** Maybe it's on a modifiable set course where it revolves around her homeworld. [[ButNowIMustGo She probably set it that way to keep her from wanting to stay on her homeworld for too long]].

* How sentient is the Cosmic Comet? It's clearly sentient to the point of being able to speak and even play "pranks". Is it some sort of corrupted Luma?

** From what we see, it allows for force field projection (try jumping on Rosalina and watch what happens), telekinesis, and mild gravity manipulation (I've always assumed that it's Rosalina using her powers keeping Mario from falling to his doom in the Comet Observatory). Rosalina also has the power to [[PowerFloats float]], change size (as seen in the ending cutscene), and generate light around her body, but it's not clear if those are innate abilities she naturally possesses (which isn't that far-fetched, given that Princess Peach has been shown in several games to have inherent special powers of her own) or skills granted by the wand. As for its power source, I'd wager that it's fueled by either Power Star magic or cosmic energy; Kamella the boss Magikoopa proves that the Stars can fuel wands, as she keeps a few trapped inside her own to conjure her spells.
*** Thank you!

** Thanks to the Luma he has beneath his hat. When Rosalina says that Luma allows him to fly through the cosmos, presumably she means that to include the RequiredSecondaryPowers that would be necessary for such an ability, like protection against extreme temperatures, the effects of being in a vacuum, and of course, the lack of oxygen. It must be assumed, though, that these powers are strict enough to only protect Mario while he's in space, and don't kick in when he's just swimming around in water.

* How the hell did the Toad brigade get to the hungry Luma galaxies first when the Luma just transformed? And how were penguins supposdedly living in that galaxy for years when it was just created?

* How is it Mario can breath in outer space, but not underwater?

*** Thank you!

** This troper always saw them as advertising signs, not functional items. She's just showing her wares, but the sticks don't have "real" items on them.
* People who play this game, and the sequel, making Luma suicide jokes...Why do they do that? Beyond the blatant fact that suicides aren't funny, which is something people shouldn't have to be told, it's not a death so much as it is a ''transformation of life''. On top of that, the sequel reveals that Lumas still remain sentient and able to speak after transforming into Launch, Sling, and Pull Stars, and the Hungry Lumas in the original game would reappear in the observatory even after you fed them enough for them to transform.
** Agreed. The underlying theme of the game is one of rebirth and the life cycle, so to claim that the Lumas are dying makes little sense. Rosalina herself explains that the Lumas just take a new form. But also, humour is subjective.
** Because the people who make those jokes are the ones that don't/didn't pay close attention to the story, which is justified since it's a Mario game. Without the context, it really ''does'' look like they're killing themselves for seemingly no reason.

** Speaking of Polari, however...Exactly how does the relationship between him and Rosalina work? All Lumas apparently start out thinking of her as their mother...Did this also apply to him? If so, it seems kind of...weird to think that he grew up looking to her as a mother, only for her to start looking to ''him'' as a father-figure as he grew older, right?
** It's possible that Polari was an old Luma even when he met Rosalina, so their relationship didn't come into conflict.

* Why has Bowser never thought of using ''Lumas'' in some grand scheme of world conquest? They're basically floating little sacks of stardust that can form new planets and galaxies by ''exploding'', so I'm willing to bet he could find some way they could be used. Not to mention, they're pretty easy to come across; both games imply that Lumas are regularly found across many different galaxies in the universe and are continually reborn, unlike Power Stars, which are only easy for Bowser to obtain if he tries stealing them from Rosalina or Lubba - he could easily travel the universe starnapping Lumas from different planets and even Rosalina would probably be none the wiser. Why has this never occurred to him yet?
** ''Videogame/SuperMario3DWorld'' seems to show that if it's not a princess, Bowser doesn't want to capture it. Although, there are imprisoned Lumas throughout the galaxies, but they're not being exploited, only used to prevent Mario from using their Launch Stars.

* Why can Mario fly literally ''anywhere'' else he likes using only the views from the observation domes, but the only way for him to reach Bowser's galaxy reactor is by having Rosalina fly him there in the observatory? The only way this would make sense is if the observatory was positioned at the very center of the universe during the events of the game, and the reactor was built at one of it's farthest edges, beyond all other galaxies in the game...and that's clearly not the case since Rosalina says multiple times that Peach is being held at the center of the universe.
** It's made clear by the cutscene that takes you to the level that the Galaxy Reactor is heavily guarded by fleets of airships. Rosalina's magic is enough to effortlessly break through Bowser's defenses and prevent any possible harm to Mario or Luigi.
** But how would even a fleet of airships be able to stop a single, comparatively small human being who's flying through space at the speed of Luma?
*** [[TemptingFate Would Rosalina really risk even one attack from those airships hitting Mario on his way to the castle and either killing him on contact or sending him flying off into the depths of space?]]

** Because the people that make those jokes are the ones that don't/didn't pay close attention to the story, which is justified since it's a Mario game. Without the context, it really ''does'' look like they're killing themselves for seemingly no reason.