History Headscratchers / MarioAndLuigi

** [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny You're not the only one.]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: General]]

** They knew that Bowser's Inside Story was more popular and different enough from Superstar Saga to not be redundant, so they decided to take a crack at that one first. There are a lot more major assets that they can pull from the 3DS games, like Bowser Jr. and the giant battles, rather than having to make from scratch again, like the babies and Shroobs. It would also be more difficult to tack a side story onto that game like with Bowser's Minions and Bowser Jr.'s Journey due to the time-travel structuring of the plot, unless they can come up with a riveting story for E. Gadd or Kylie Koopa. It's not like they'll ignore Partners in Time forever; I'm willing to bet that it or a new game with the babies shows up on the Switch in 2021, redesigned from the ground up.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]
* Why did Luigi act so funny towards Prince Peasley throughout the game? For example, it looks like he's trying to hug/grab/grope/whatever Peasley at the end of the game, and then Peasley unexpectedly flies up on his flying bean, which makes Luigi fall flat on his face. And then Luigi ends up crying....
** I think it's [[HoYay rather obvious...]]
*** [[VideoGame/HotelMario Gay, Luigi?]]
** Nah, he's just a HUGE fan, I think.
** I think it's just sort of a mancrush. Prince Peasley is a cool celebrity, right?
** A cool green celebrity... hmmm...
** Luigi is one hell of a [[HeroWorshipper Hero Worshipper]] and Prince Peasley is as close to a [[KnightInShiningArmor Knight in Shining Armor]] he'll ever get.
* Bowser gets amnesia and is brought up as a partner to Popple. Bowser gets a blue mask to cover his face. For some reason, when wearing this mask, his eyes are green, whereas every other time, they are red. Why would a mask change eye colour?
** Contact lenses in the eye holes.
*** Really effective disguises?
* The whole Beanbean Sewers part in ''Superstar Saga'' annoys me. Why would fixing a sewer system disable the security on the Beanstar? It's just a little too ridiculous. Also, do Beanish people even excrete? Or are they photosynthetic?
** Three words: RuleOfFunny.
** Since when has plot ever mattered in a Mario game?
*** It never has. That's what makes them fun.
*** Until this game.
** This is a Mario game. Their technology usage is questionable at best (looks at Bowser's Airships and the inward facing flamethrowers). Considering their university has doors opened by reflecting sunlight through half the facility using mirrors, it's not really that odd any more.
*** Are you saying that [[VideoGame/GhostTrick their use of technology is just plain off]]?
** Actual serious response: Perhaps there's some device that regulates or tests the water further down the line, which uses up more power when the water flow is higher. Now, suppose that device is on the same circuit as the Beanstar's security system. Fixed plumbing = higher water flow = more power used up = less power to the security system = force field fails. Any questions?
** In addition, it also makes sense to have the key to taking out the security be the last thing one would suspect... and in the last place anyone would ''want'' to go.
** An ancient prophecy stated that two men worthy of possessing the Beanstar would one day arrive. It disclosed nothing about these men, except that they are capable plumbers.
* Yo Bros. Giant Koopa... things dressed like gangsters with fezzes and a couple of yo-yos with which they attack. Even by the standards of this series (for those who don't know, one boss is an animate barrel of ''soda''), why?
** It's a Mario game.
* In the first game, if [[spoiler:Toadsworth was in on the "swap Birdo with Peach" plan, why did he just give Mario & Luigi a suitcase and send them on their way as if he had no idea about it?]]
** Maybe he was playing dumb in case Cackletta had left a spy behind?
** He didn't want Bowser to get too involved?
*** Exactly. Bowser was there. Toadsworth was probably just going to let the Bros. in on it, but then Bowser stormed the castle and got involved. If the Bros. hadn't have gone, Bowser would have gotten suspicious. Plus, it's a game. If they hadn't have gotten involved, it wouldn't have been nearly as fun.
** Cackletta did steal [[spoiler:someone's voice, even if it wasn't the real princess's]]. It was still the right thing for the bros to go do what they could to help out.
* In Superstar Saga, it is revealed that [[spoiler:Birdo's voice was stolen instead of Peach's]]. While this was a great relief to the heroes, what about [[spoiler:Birdo]]? Shouldn't there still be great concern about [[spoiler:Birdo's explosive vocabulary]]?
** The proper solution is and has always been mushroom-shaped blocks.
** Although, [[spoiler:when she appeared later alongside Popple, she didn't have the lethal voice. Either the problem was fixed off-screen or there are two different Birdos (they are a species, after all).]]
* How did the Mushroom Kingdom economy crash so bad at the end of ''Superstar Saga''? And what does this mean for everything else in the series concerning the value of coins?
** Likely it was just Peasley messing with everyone and being stingy. RuleOfFunny, I guess.
** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'' came out.
* What was that thing in the sky with Cackletta's Mug at the start of ''Superstar Saga''? Did she have her own unexplored airship or something?
** I think that was just for dramatic effect.
* In ''Superstar Saga'' Bowletta refers to Joke's End as "that crypt for cruddy jokes." What exactly does that mean? In either a literal or metaphorical sense?
** Let's say you drop a joke that just ''bombs''. No one laughs and there's just an awkward silence. Joke's End is where those jokes go so no one will have to hear them again.
** Also, bad jokes get a "[[StealthPun cold]]" reaction, befitting of a SlippySlideyIceWorld.
* In ''Superstar Saga'', why does Luigi suck in Professor E. Gadd into the Poltergust 3000 at one point in the game?
** E. Gadd was facing a PottyEmergency and forgot to build a bathroom into the coffehouse he was in at the time. Luigi used the Poultergust to give the professor some privacy and to provide a sight gag.
* The beanstar has the power to grant any wish right? So when the beanstar was finally retrieved why didn't they just wish for Bowletta and Fawful to die?
** Maybe the Beanstar is like Shenron from Dragon Ball, where it isn't capable of killing anyone it doesn't have enough power to kill?
** Come on! That would be too fucking dark for a Mario game! They AREN'T murderers.
* The only reason why the Brothers set out to the Beanbean Kingdom in the first place is because Peach's voice has been stolen. [[spoiler:Actually, it never really was -- Peach later handwaves this as saying that she didn't have time to let Mario know before Bowser came.]] If Peach wasn't able to tell Mario this vital information, surely Toadsworth should have? After all, he's the one who gave the suitcase (i.e., the Pause Menu) to the brothers just before they left! Why? Did he just choose not to act without Peach's command? Did he want the Brothers to help defeat Cackletta just to protect the Mushroom Kingdom? Or, perhaps...it was a BatmanGambit to get better relations with the Beanbean Kingdom?!
** Peach [[spoiler:got wind of Cackletta coming after her,]] and seeing as how Peasley knew she'd probably try to get the Beanstar after stealing Peach's voice, they decided to take her down, considering she was going to try taking over the world. Just eliminating a necessary threat... and possibly getting better relations as well.
** That part bothered me too! I get that Prince Peasley wouldn't tell the Mario Bros. because he wanted them to help the Beanbean Kingdom -- kind of deceptive, if you ask me -- but if Peach wanted to tell them, why wouldn't Toadsworth?
** Perhaps it was more a matter of improvisation. I mean, Bowser kind of threw things askew and was basically expecting Mario to join him in his rescue mission. Maybe Toadsworth felt it would be better to let Mario join Bowser to get Bowser out of their hair.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time]]
* Why does nobody seem to remember the Shroobs in the second game? Yeah, there was a lot of screwing around with the time stream, but that didn't cause the invasion. The people who weren't babies should have been at least mentioned something about the near-destruction of the Kingdom 20-30 years ago.
** How exactly is near-destruction of the kingdom anything ''new''? They don't remember it because its in no way unusual. They're used to it by now.
** If you speak to Madame Broque with Mario and Luigi, she sometimes mentions the Shroob invasion. Plus, [[spoiler:Mario and Luigi tell Starlow about it after the three Shroobs are defeated in Bowser's Castle. A ContinuityNod is even made to the fact that it was Luigi, with his baby tears of Shroob smelting, who really destroyed the Shroobs in the end.]] Otherwise, there's no real reason for anyone to mention the Shroobs: everyone's got enough on their plate worrying about Fawful.
*** And before Fawful, they never mentioned it because they were more worried about Bowser, the Shadow Queen/X-Nauts, Smithy, Kamek, Bleck...
** I think you're misinterpreting the question: In ''Partners in Time'', the Shroobs invade the past Mushroom Kingdom. During that game, the present-day characters treat this as a new development. Why? It's like if someone from the present-day U.S. went back to the 60's and brought back the exciting new information we were involved in the Vietnam War. The Shroob invasion happened independently of the time travel (Peach only arrived after they had already invaded), so the other TimeyWimeyBall explanations don't really seem to apply.
*** Mario, Luigi, and Peach were babies during the invasion so they were too young to remember. E. Gadd is old enough to remember but he was wrapped up in his own research and likely missed the whole thing. If you visit a room off to the right of the library late in the game a Toad mentions finding a book about the invasion written by Kylie Koopa. So SOME people do remember the invasion.
*** Does it really matter how young they are? They are clearly old enough to handle weapons, to talk, and perform other basics actions that babies in general aren't old enough to do. Is it really so much of a stretch to say that they should remember going on a huge adventure filled with peril, danger, and many near fatal incidents that finally ended with them ''saving the entire world from an insane alien species''. Even if they can't remember it exactly, they should atleast have some memory of it.
*** Who survived to remember it? Toad Town was completely taken out, save two very old women--assuming Toads have a terribly long lifespan to begin with. The Yoshis are distant and carefree, and didn't see the bulk of the invasion. Everyone else... not as many creatures seem to be sentient as in Paper Mario. Toadsworth has no excuse, though.
*** Actually, in ''Bowser's Inside Story'', after you take out the Shroobs and Starlow pokes fun of Luigi, Mario mentions [[spoiler:that [[CallBack Luigi saved the day in the end]],]] so maybe they do remember the invasion.
*** That's not the point - the point is why does nobody who was from that time period remember the invasion? It's not about them remembering traveling through time with their younger selves, it's about them not remembering anything about traveling through time and teaming up with their ''older'' selves.
*** I figured that the time machine actually screwed up the events of the Shroob Invasion. Think ''Back to the Future''. Originally, the Shroobs attacked the kingdom and they probably succeeded in capturing Baby Peach... who with her tears of doom probably wasted the Shroob Princesses. And thus Baby Peach saved the day. However later on Peach time travels back to a point in time where she then alters history and we get the events seen in the game.
*** Though personally I think there was a better story that could have been told. When I saw the drawing's big reveal I didn't interpret the second Princess Shroob as being a sister... but being Baby Princess Shroob. Following that logic I came to the conclusion that Princess Shroob was from the present and went back in time to help her people conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. I think that kind of twist might have been cooler and it would have explained why no one remembered it because the invasion was actively happening in the past and the Shroobs weren't successful enough to have altered history yet. (Sort of like how Marty's photo didn't change right away, but was slowly changed as the changes approached the point of no return.)
*** I also think that Planet Shroob is decaying in the "present" and that the Shroobs simply travelled back in time themselves in order to attack the Mushroom Kingdom when it was weak (the monarch being a baby, with no parents or people to protect the land in sight). This would also explain why Elder Princess Shroob has the ability open Time Holes during the final battle. What if we take this even further: If Elder Shroob was the only Shroob displaying time travelling abilities, there would be no way for the younger Princess Shroob to return back to the present on her own. What would be the only way to do so? Using a Time Hole. And as the Shroobs experienced with Junior Shrooboid, it's not safe to simply do so. So she needed a disguise in order to have four unassuming brothers escort her safely. (I went quite a bit overboard, but I think you get the point.)
** What I want to know is, what happened to the Beanbean Kingdom when this was happening? Apparently nothing too serious, if it turned out okay without needing to be saved...
*** It might also be worth mentioning that the Mushroom Kingdom constantly suffers from one problem or another. Back story for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' says most of the population into blocks. Bowser has been and will be a constant problem on many levels for the kingdom, not counting at least two alien invasions other than the Shroobs. ButForMeItWasTuesday may apply here. In addition, the people in the past might not have been able to understand why the Shroobs disappeared without a trace thanks to the [[DeusExMachina Baby Tears]]. Add all this together and it might just be a particularly odd [[NoodleIncident footnote]] in the history of a rather odd kingdom in constant war with other odd kingdoms.
* In the middle of ''Partners in Time'', after Mario and Luigi rescued Peach [[spoiler:(actually Princess Shroob in disguise)]], they all rejoice and such and even say they can relax and everything is back to normal ''even though the past kingdom is still infested with Shroobs''. That would make it even ''worse'', as the past would make the present also ruled by Shroobs. Is Princess Peach that much more important than an entire kingdom? It's like it's a GOOD thing that Bowser kidnapped the fake princess.
** Mario and Luigi don't seem like the type that would drop everything and walk away after rescuing their princess. They were probably just going to take a well-deserved break before continuing to save the kingdom. Bowser's intervention just cut the break short.
** No, I think Mario and Luigi FORGOT about it. Because Toadworth says, "Just relax, everything turned out just fine", even though Shroobs were still in the Kingdom.
** Even with the confusing time travel mechanics, it was still the past. They probably figured that since there aren't any Shroobs now, ''something'' had to take care of them in the past.
** You are worrying about Mario & Luigi taking their time in a game where they have the ability to travel through time?
** Yes, but... Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, and Young Toadsworth are STILL in the present which is not ok, and would mess up a paradox.
*** As I said earlier, they were probably just taking a much-needed break.
*** Well, it still bugs me a little bit. I mean, why would they take a break? They're Mario and Luigi! They're kickass! But I guess they do. What really bugs me is why Mario goes the entire way just to rescue a princess in the other games. They don't even marry, Princess Peach only gives him a smooch on the CHEEK, and in earlier games she didn't even do that. And you can see how much hell hes been through to her. He died like millions of times to get to her.
*** Um, because they're friends? If you were perfectly able to rescue them, would you just look the other way if your friend was kidnapped because all they'd reward you with is a high-five?
*** Actually, present Toadsworth is the one who suggests to them to take a break when they ask the two to teach them their latest move, but Young Toadsworth DOES point out that the Shroobs are still running amok, and there's no time for breaks. So, Headscratcher solved.
** This question reminds me of one of the least popular aspects of the NES game ''VideoGame/TheMagicOfScheherazade''. At one point, a character asks the player if he is afraid of monsters. If you answer "Yes", the game takes it to mean that you're giving up and you get a GameOver.
* [[FridgeLogic How the heck was the future not affected when the past was invaded by Shroobs?!]]
** Because presumably, Mario and Luigi had already gone back and fixed it. This isn't ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', okay?
** My theory is going to burn some brains, so sit down and relax: Theoretically, a possible future with a link to the past (no reference intended) is not affected by the past until all links are severed like at the end of the game. Also, the future/present may or may not snap into the future/present whereas the Shroobs had won, that is; if the Marios and Luigis had relaxed until after the holes had closed, the future would have perhaps snapped into the Shroob-conquered future. Whether anyone had Time Traveller's Immunity is another question.
*** Yeah, I'd say that this game works in a single time stream and that when the game began, all of the actions done in the past had already happened. In other words, the Mario Bros. were pretty much destined to defeat the Shroobs, acting out stuff exactly the way people who lived back then had remembered it.
** Or there could be something completely different going on. It really depends on your idea of how time propagates changes in the timeline. Anyone who played ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'' knows what I'm talking about and for those who don't, it's like this: Changes in the past don't propagate to the present instantly, but they take some time. And the farther back the change is, the longer it takes for that change to propagate to the present. That is basically the gist of it. Seeing as we're talking about chronal entities (so, beings that are affected by changes in the timeline) and seeing as the time of the Shroob invasion is 20-30 years in the past, it would probably take at least a few years for the existence of Shroobs on the planet to propagate to the present. However, this would mean that Shroobs can act in the past, meaning that they also have time-traveling abilities. But there's nothing that contradicts that.
** First, isn't there an event where the Bros. do something in the past that changes E. Gadd's memories, inspiring him to make that large-scale water pump? Second, the Shroobs invaded prior to any time travel takes place, so technically it just seems to be a historical event that everyone forgot about for some reason. ([[ButForMeItWasTuesday Maybe full-scale invasions of the Mushroom Kingdom happen so often that no one really keeps track of them?]])
* In the second game, our heroes get eaten by Yoob, a Shroobish Yoshi monster. Now you see, [[spoiler:baby tears are highly corrosive to the Shroobs and all of their biological creations. The very first thing Baby Mario and Baby Luigi do after landing in Yoob's small intestine is '''cry'''. Shouldn't that kinda dissolve Yoob's flesh?]]
** [[spoiler:Perhaps the dissolving only works from the outside in?]]
** [[spoiler:Not enough tears.]]
** [[spoiler:Maybe Yoob is immune to the tears. [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse The ending didn't show what (if anything) happened to him]]--see the next JBM.]]
** [[spoiler:The idea that Shroobs can be killed by tears was pure FanWank and EpilepticTrees to begin with. They never show any Shroobs being destroyed by tears, Nobody explicitly says they were (If you're going to bring up Starlow's "ferocious crying" quote, that was far too vague to be taken as concrete evidence) , and I highly doubt the Mario Bros would ever try to commit genocide. What likely happened was that the loss of the Shroob Mushrooms left the Shroobs weak and powerless enough for Bowser (or whoever happened to in charge of the Koopa Troop at the time) to lauch a counterattack.]]
* At the end of the second game, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what happened to Yoob?]] [[spoiler:Did he disintegrate, turn into a normal (possibly still giant) Yoshi, or was he unaffected?]] The third game's Fawful Guys and Dark Fawful Guys add even more confusion to this: one of their attacks has them get eaten and spit out as eggs by some offscreen, Yoob-like creature (and this can happen even after Bowser inhales them!).
* What was E. Gadd planning to do with Junior Shrooboid at the end of the game?
* Yoob has a factory inside it. How did this exist and function ''before'' the MakeMyMonsterGrow sequence?
** The Shroobs built a small version of the factory, made it resistant to whatever bodily fluids Yoob has, fed it to Yoob, let Yoob terrorise some Yoshis for absolutely no reason, use magic shroob lasers to make him bigger, fed the RC Shroobers to Yoob, and then let them star the factory process. [[BlatantLies Simple!]]
* In the second game, you can fight as both the adult Bros and the baby Bros at once. Shouldn't it therefore be impossible to lose when the baby Bros are in a fight?
** I'm not sure what you're asking. It's perfectly possible to lose if you're hit enough times.
*** I believe he was pointing out a time paradox. If the young Bros. were killed in battle, then the adult Bros. shouldn't have been able to team up with them. The best answers I can come up with are that either the game is very lax with its time paradoxes or it's a very good reason for a Game Over.
*** [[FridgeBrilliance The Time Paradox CAUSES the game over.]]
* Why don't Mario and Luigi gain a level every time their baby selves do? For that matter, how can they be weaker at the beginning than their baby selves by the end? ( Yeah, GameplayAndStorySegregation, but still. )
** Perhaps since their childhood was mostly uneventful, they forgot their abilities and went back to level 1 after the game was over?
*** [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Uneventful!?]]
*** Baby Mario and Luigi seem to be older in ''Partners in Time'' than they were in the ''Yoshi's Island'' games (They were being delivered by the stork in Yoshi's Island, and they didn't appear much older in ''Yoshi's Island DS'', wheras they appear to be young toddlers in ''Partners in Time'), so the Yoshi's Island games probably take place before ''Partners in Time''.
*** When you first meet Kamek in the past he mentions how he failed to kidnap them previously during Yoshi's Island
*** Exactly. I mean, for a start, ''Yoshi's Island's'' babies had no clothes, just diapers. In ''Partners in Time'', they ''did'' have clothes on. They're older, probably toddlers, but Baby Mario and Baby Luigi 1) sounds better, 2) that name was already established and 3) they still act like babies, besides the whole swinging hammers thing.
* In ''Partners in Time'', how can the babies have stache points?
** Maybe it measures their mustache potential?
* How did Bowser not recognize himself as a child or at least mistake his past self for Bowser Jr?
** Bowser's not very bright.
** He could probably recognize his own son by simply looking at him. As for the other option, see above.
** Bowser didn't even realise that he's in the past, so logically he wouldn't automatically assume that Baby Bowser is his past self.
* That female Thwomp accuses the Mario Quartet of extinguishing the volcano because they're plumbers. What does being plumbers have to do with stopping an volcano's eruption?
** It is because it would be hard not to notice a flood of water large enough to stop a volcano eruption, and she doesn't know about the time holes, so she probably figured that the water had to come from a huge pipe and therefore the four of them were a likely suspect because plumbers work with pipes quite a bit not only in real life, but in universe.
* This might be a dumb question, but in ''Partners in Time'', how come Mario and his brothers and himself [[TheUnfought didn't even attempt to fight Yoob when they first met]], instead cowering? I mean, sure, he's kinda weird-looking, and sure he ate some Yoshis, but he was only a little bigger than Swiggler and equal in size to Petey Piranha, so size at that point wasn't the problem.
** I think they were simply trying to avoid it for as long as possible, whilst trying to continue their adventure. [[spoiler:As you can see when playing the game, the four were pulled in by Yoob's tongue, so]] they didn't actively try to destroy it.
* In ''Partners in Time'', how come during the fight against Sunnycide you need 5 yoshis to drop the Chomp Rock. The first yoshi you free roll it right to the very edge and yet it can't push it the last little bit to knock Sunnycide over?
** The edge had a [[AWizardDidIt magical]] barrier that prevented specifically Chomp Rocks that weren't being pushed by five or more Yoshis! Duh.
* [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse What happened to Toadiko]] at the end of ''Partners in Time''? She was the only major character not shown in the end of the game where the toads are revived, and she did not return in the sequel. [[FridgeHorror Was her Vim completely drained?]]
** She did turn back to normal, she just didn't return to the present, at least not on-screen.
* This probably was answered or no one really cares, but why was it that Baby Luigi [[spoiler: could sense there was something wrong with the Cobalt Star "spirit" in Star Hill]], but NOT Baby Mario? Could Baby Luigi only notice because he was more cowardly or something?
** To put a more positive spin on it--Luigi's always been the Blue (well, Green) Oni to Mario's Red. Mario is more headstrong, confident, and tends to rush into things rather than question motives, so presumably his baby self had the same qualities. Luigi is definitely more cowardly, but he's also more sensitive, empathic, and cautious, and his baby-form shows the same traits. Presumably it's that natural caution/sensitivity that allows him to detect that something's off about the Cobalt Star.
[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]
* Just how did those three inept minions manage to get the massive Bullet Bill Cannon so far from Bowser's Castle during an attack? You could see how much of an effort it took them to move it a couple inches when you find them. It just bugs me that they weren't spotted or hindered by anything at all.
** It probably got blown out during the first attack. Those three happened to land near it and bragged to Bower that they managed to "sneak" it out.
** RuleOfFunny?
* Bowser referred to the Mushroom Kingdom as where he lived. Does this mean that Dark Land was annexed by the Mushroom Kingdom? Or maybe Bowser has a house in the Mushroom Kingdom? ... Okay, now I want to see how the people in charge of real estate in the Mushroom Kingdom reacted upon seeing Bowser and a couple of his Troops show up to buy an End-of-Stage Fortress or a nice mansion or something.
** They probably thought, "Hey, cool. I'm selling the future site of an embassy. Maybe this war is coming to an end."
*** And the guys selling the mansion/castle are thinking, "Hey look, Bowser is giving me money."
* If Luigi has things like jumping, a hammer, Bros. Attacks, items, and (maybe) electricity powers (although they aren't usable in this game, there's no telling whether or not he still has them from Superstar Saga), why does he just let that Toad at the beginning insult him for no reason and with no consequences?
* So, after Fawful's plans are stopped and all is said and done, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse has anything changed regarding Bowser]]? He still has that Vacuum Block, and we didn't see him regurgitate any pipes. Can the Mario Bros. still enter and exit his body at will? There could still be some very strange days and battles ahead...
** It's not like Bowser has ever really been consistent with his abilities. One day he's a fifty-foot incarnation of evil capable of incredible dark magic, the next he's an eight-foot doofus barely smart enough to breathe fire. If the game designers want him to, he'll have that power. If not, then he won't.
** Shouldn't you really be wondering how the pipes can connect from outside Bowser to inside, even when he moves around?
*** We're talking about pipes that just about teleport you, in a realm well versed in magic. Obviously, AWizardDidIt.
** BagOfSpilling applies to Bowser too.
*** Nope. He can use his vacuum powers in ''Dream Team''.
* Exactly why did Fawful bother with spreading the Blorbs? His (apparent) plan for Bowser could have been accomplished at any point, so they didn't help there. The disease only affects Toads, and they've proven to be only slightly tougher than old cheese, so it doesn't really help him get rid of guards. What was the point?
** Presumably to get everyone important in the Mushroom Kingdom into the same room at the same time. He would have been far more successful in his plan if Dr. Toadley had made the meeting.
*** [[FridgeBrilliance Ffffffffffffff-]]
** Actually, the remake shows that the disease can also effect some of Bowser's Minions.
* Why didn't the Toads in Bowser's gut simply take the pipes out? They all talk about how much they want to leave, but they've got a ticket straight to Toad Town in an easily accessible area of Bowser. Even worse, Starlow, whose been out of Bowser every time the Bros. left, started complaining about how to leave! Did they just forget?
** Maybe to move around anywhere in Bowser's body, you have to go through the areas. To get to the pipe areas alone, they would have to go through places where there were enemies. Toads can't fight all that well. It may be GameplayAndStorySegregation, but it's at least plausible...
** Even after the red one broke, the pipes they need to cross are very high up. And those Toads can't duck for several seconds to increase their jump height anymore.
** In one of the cutscenes, a Toad had no trouble jumping into one of those fleshy, pseudo pipes in Bowser's body. The real pipes were no higher. They've also had no problem traversing Bower's organs at will. It's not like they had much else to do, so why not leave?
** Because Mario and Luigi still had stuff to do in Bowser's body and they wanted to help out their heroes, maybe? Or maybe Toads can't take warp pipes...no, wait, that's not possible...Eh, first one is the best I've got.
** Because they're weak puny toads, unsure of where Blorbs come from, and know that Bowser's tummy is the safest place in the Kingdom until the whole Fawful/Dark Star threat boils over.
* I know it shouldn't, because of all the rest of Bowser's weird biology, but the Spike Ball move really bugs me. I thought turtle shells were hard and solid! And, more importantly, how does he grow double the spikes when he's curled up? And where do the white parts of his shell go?!
** Stupid answer: The sprite you see is actually Bowser rolling really, really fast, so fast you can't even see him moving. Actual answer: I got nothin'. See stupid answer.
*** But you see the same sprite even if he's ''not'' moving. That's not it. Instead, remember that Bowser is a ''Koopa'', and not technically a turtle - presumably Koopas have weird shells.
*** That was what I meant - that the sprite you see while he's sitting still is actually him rolling in place really, ''really'' fast. Yeah.
*** If he's rolling in place really really fast, why can you see individual spikes?
*** Because he's rolling at 60 Hz.
*** [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog SPIN DASHING]]
*** Perhaps he can bend his shell?
*** The games are very inconsistent about Bowser's shell. A good example would be how much of Bowser's body is shell, and how much is just his body. Half the time the green part with spikes on his back is his shell. The other half the back part and his front part are the entire shell. The Smash Bros. series is a great place to see this.
** Classic RuleOfFunny. The same reason that Bowser can slim down by doing crunches really fast.
** Better question. How does he roll ''up walls''? Even forgiving his ability to stay anchored on the wall, it would require him to place his own center of gravity not only outside his own body, but ''inside the wall!'' I'm all for the MST3KMantra, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.
** For that matter, if he can't use it on the field until Mario and Luigi fix his back, ''how can he use it every single time he does his Shy Guy Squad move?'' Seriously, what is up with that?
*** He could always roll up like that, he needed to fix his back to be able to roll around on his own. The Shy Guys help slingshot him at his opponent, something he couldn't do on his own.
** Bowser has been able to curl up in a ball in other games, like ''Galaxy'', and has even shown to be able to retract his spikes if needed. Maybe he just has impeccable control over his body? And the back thing - he gets locked in a tight safe, forced to hunch over around the middle of the game, so maybe that threw it out of whack?
* [[http://www.spriters-resource.com/ds/marioandluigi3/sheet/19563 Crawful]]. Seriously. WHAT. THE. HELL. It's a giant dinosaur with Fawful's face and huge teeth, who primarily attacks by tripping over rocks and banana peels. I'm thinking it's either a reference to a "Famous Japanese Comedian", or just absurdity for absurdity's sake.
** Its name in Japanese (and every European language bar English) is a pun based on Fawful's name and alligator, which it looks like. Note:
** Japanese ゲタゲター Getagetā From Gerakobittsu, Fawful's Japanese name, and English "alligator".
** To be more relevant: Crawful = '''Cr'''ocodile + F'''awful'''. Class dismissed!
*** Moreso: 'Craw' means mouth... so, it has a mouthful.
** Am I the only one that's freaked out by that enemy? That smile is freaky as hell... and the fact that you can suck its teeth out, leaving only a black hole of evil and despair.
*** [[NightmareRetardant And then they choke on their own food]].
*** On Crawful, does anyone else notice that if you're fighting more than one Crawful or a Crawful and something else, should you get hit by the other enemy... Crawful laughs at you? I'm still torn between being seriously annoyed at the chortling gits and being slightly freaked out by them.
** Was I the only one who took forever to realize that Bowser counters BOTH of their attacks by punching (rather than punching to counter one attack and crouching to counter the other attack)?
* What would happen if Bowser went through one of those pipes leading into his own body?
** [[Film/BeingJohnMalkovich Malkovich Malkovich!]]
** He spits the pipes (and everyone/thing he swallowed) in the ending of the game, so he wouldn't be able to go down them into himself. Also, he can't exactly jump.
** I believe he'd just get to walk around inside himself, and when he walked inside himself, the himself he is walking on would walk inside himself. Kind of like {{Rule 34}} of VideoGame/{{Portal}}.
** His body would shrink, as going through the pipes shrinks people.
* Why did Fawful decide to give Bowser a treadmill to unchub him? He just threw a wrench into his own plan.
** The primary purpose of that treadmill wasn't to slim Bowser down. It was to get him heated up so he'd blow himself out of the castle.
*** Which raises another question: how could they be so savvy about cartoon physics to know that doing exercises would cause him to light on fire, yet be so unsavvy to not realize that any resulting explosion would be comedic and nonfatal?
*** Who's to say they didn't realize the latter point? What mattered was that it got Bowser out of the way for a while.
** Bowser already beaten up Midbus, loads of Fawful's minions, and ''his own castle''. Leaving Bowser there, even morbidly obese, would mean leaving him in a castle full of his own former minions. Since Fawful didn't have anything that could get rid of him permanently, a series of temporary setbacks was the best that he could do.
** I think he put the threadmill as more of a joke and didn't think that Bowser could escape.
* In the third game, where were Bowser's kids when Fawful took over Bowser Castle?
** [[PutOnABus There's a trope for that.]]
** [[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii They were baking a cake!]]
** Vacations? Somewhere else? It is worth mentioning Bowser owns a LOT of castles, with that one being just his "main" one, they could be in any of those.
*** Remake answers this. [[HeroOfAnotherStory They were off beating up crazy exercise buffs and trying to cure the Blorbs.]]
* In ''Bowser's Inside Story'', Fawful takes 5 squads of Bowser's minions, locks them in a cage and just tosses them all over the Mushroom Kingdom. Why didn't Fawful brainwash them like the rest of Bowser's minions? Better yet, why not just brainwash Bowser, Mario, Green 'Stache, Peach and Starlow as well? And what was the point in "blorbing" the Toads? They're not really the biggest threat to any Mario villain.
** It's likely that the caged minions were too loyal to be brainwashed, and Fawful saw it as an opportunity to distract Bowser by scattering them. As for not brainwashing the others, Fawful must have realized that it would be to too risky to confront Mario, Luigi, or Bowser directly and that they would be too strong to brainwash. Fawful also needed the princess for his plan, and didn't need to brainwash her afterward because he was powerful enough that he didn't need more minions. Fawful also most likely didn't know Starlow existed. And "blorbing" the Toads distracted the Mushroom Kingdom while Fawful began his plan. It also got Mario, Luigi, Peach, and several other fairly important people in one place to be inhaled by Bowser, leaving Peach's Castle defenseless and allowing Fawful to take the princess so he could power the Dark Star and take over the world.
* What the heck happened to Midbus after the game? Did they throw him in prison? Did they let him go? Is he dead? Or was he just put in the freezer? And where did he even come from to begin with?
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mario & Luigi: Dream Team]]
* In ''Dream Team'', the two Block-people massaging Rose Broquet are revealed to be Peach and Toadsworth in elaborate costumes. Then, after the cutscene, ''they take the costumes off''. Why didn't they just leave them on? Bowser would never have found Peach in a million years!
** It's possible that by that point she had already been taken. It's not like he was just going to walk up and take her, she could have even been snagged while she was going to the bathroom. Plus, it's the Dream Stone. It would likely know who she is anyway, and bring her to Bowser still inside the suit. The only way she could possibly have been safe is if [[YouCantThwartStageOne Bowser never got the Dream Stone in the first place.]]
* Kylie Koopa hasn't aged a day between her appearances in Partners in Time and Dream Team, despite being from the past in the former. We know a significant amount of time has passed between the past and the present in [=PiT=] because the Mario Bros., Bowser, Peach, Toadsworth, and E. Gadd are all much older in the present. Either Koopas are exceptionally long-lived and age slowly, we have a case of [[IdenticalGrandson identical descendants]], or the writers forgot her backstory.
** Probably the exceptionally long lives thing; there are in reality species of turtle which are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negligible_senescence negligibly senescent]]; Koopas are evidently among them.
** Mario and Luigi are canonically in their mid-20s (see [[https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/donkey-kong-developer-interview here]], [[https://themushroomkingdom.net/ssbm_j2e.shtml#trophies here]], and at last [[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/mario-super-age-24-25-nintendo-shigeru-miyamoto-game-character-a7338911.html here]]). That means that the Shroob Invasion happens around two decades in the past. Kylie in ''PiT'' comes off as the Koopa version of the [[IntrepidReporter hot (in more ways than one if you're a koopa), young, spunky, reporter]], so she can be a teenager or just a bit into her in twenties. Come Dream Team, she'd be middle aged but hardly elderly. {{Older Than She Looks}} might apply here also.
* It has always bothered me how neither Popple nor Kylie recognize the Mario Bros. Popple even recalls the events of Superstar Saga and actually compares the Mario Bros. with themselves but he doesn't make a connection?! Kylie, however, does state, that she's had many jobs over the years and that she doesn't remember her time as a journalist that well. But that's no excuse to simply forget a freaking alien invasion, about which she had even written a book!
** Popple specifically remembers ''a'' pair of red and green that ruined everything for him, it was just meant to be ironic that he was talking to that exact pair and couldn't put two and two together. And considering all of the other things that have happened to the Mushroom Kingdom as the Mario Bros. grew up, it wouldn't be so far out there for Kylie to have simply forgotten at least one of those decade-old events, as well as the fact that she had written a novel about it, assuming she does the same for every other event that transpires in the kingdom.

*** It might also be worth mentioning that the Mushroom Kingdom constantly suffers from one problem or another. Back story for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' says most of the population into blocks. Bowser has been and will be a constant problem on many levels for the kingdom, not counting at least two alien invasions other than the Shroobs. ButForMeItWasTuesday may apply here. In addition, the people in the past might not have been able to understand why the Shroobs disappeared without a trace thanks to the [[DeusExMachina Baby Tears]]. Add all this together and it might just be a particularly odd [[NoodleIncident footnote]] in the history of a rather odd kingdom in constant war with other odd kingdoms.

** He's so insane he makes {{Deadpool}} look like a perfectly sane and reasonable individual.

** Mario and Luigi are canonically in their mid-20s (see [[https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/donkey-kong-developer-interview here]], [[https://themushroomkingdom.net/ssbm_j2e.shtml#trophies here]]), and at last [[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/mario-super-age-24-25-nintendo-shigeru-miyamoto-game-character-a7338911.html here]]). That means that the Shroob Invasion happens around two decades in the past. Kylie in ''PiT'' comes off as the Koopa version of the [[IntrepidReporter hot (in more ways than one if you're a koopa), young, spunky, reporter]], so she can be a teenager or just a bit into her in twenties. Come Dream Team, she'd be middle aged but hardly elderly. {{Older Than She Looks}} might apply here also.

** Mario and Luigi are canonically in their mid-20s (see [[https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/donkey-kong-developer-interview here]], [[https://themushroomkingdom.net/ssbm_j2e.shtml#trophies here]]), and [[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/mario-super-age-24-25-nintendo-shigeru-miyamoto-game-character-a7338911.html here]]. That means that the Shroob Invasion happens around two decades in the past. Kylie in ''PiT'' comes off as the Koopa version of the [[IntrepidReporter hot (in more ways than one if you're a koopa), young, spunky, reporter]], so she can be a teenager or just a bit into her in twenties. Come Dream Team, she'd be middle aged but hardly elderly. {{Older Than She Looks}} might apply here also.

** Mario and Luigi are canonically in their mid-20s (see [[https://www.nintendo.com/nes-classic/donkey-kong-developer-interview here]], [[https://themushroomkingdom.net/ssbm_j2e.shtml#trophies here]], and [[https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/gaming/mario-super-age-24-25-nintendo-shigeru-miyamoto-game-character-a7338911.html here]]. That means that the Shroob Invasion happens around two decades in the past. Kylie in ''PiT'' comes off as the Koopa version of the [[IntrepidReporter hot (in more ways than one if you're a koopa), young, reporter]], so she can be teenager or her in twenties. Come Dream Team she'd be middle aged but hardly elderly.

* In Superstar Saga, it is revealed that [[spoiler: Birdo's voice was stolen instead of Peach's]]. While this was a great relief to the heroes, what about [[spoiler: Birdo]]? Shouldn't there still be great concern about [[spoiler: Birdo's explosive vocabulary]]?

** Although, [[spoiler: when she appeared later alongside Popple, she didn't have the lethal voice. Either the problem was fixed off-screen or there are be two different Birdos (they are a species, after all).]]

** ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros2'' came out :)

* In ''Superstar Saga'' Bowletta refer's to Joke's End as "that crypt for cruddy jokes." What exactly does that mean? In either a literal or metaphorical sense?

** If you speak to Madame Broque with Mario and Luigi, she sometimes mentions the Shroob invasion. Plus, [[spoiler: Mario and Luigi tell Starlow about it after the three Shroobs are defeated in Bowser's Castle. A ContinuityNod is even made to the fact that it was Luigi, with his baby tears of Shroob smelting, who really destroyed the Shroobs in the end.]] Otherwise, there's no real reason for anyone to mention the Shroobs: everyone's got enough on their plate worrying about Fawful.

*** Actually, in ''Bowser's Inside Story'', after you take out the shroobs and Starlow pokes fun of Luigi, Mario mentions [[spoiler: that [[CallBack Luigi saved the day in the end]],]] so maybe they do remember the invasion.

** [[spoiler:The idea that Shroobs can be killed by tears was pure FanWank and EpilepticTrees to begin with. They never show any shroobs being destroyed by tears, Nobody explicitly says they were (If you're going to bring up Starlow's "ferocious crying" quote, that was far too vague to be taken as concrete evidence) , and I highly doubt the Mario Bros would ever try to commit genocide. What likely happened was that the loss of the Shroob Mushrooms left the Shroobs weak and powerless enough for Bowser (or whoever happened to in charge of the Koopa Troop at the time) to lauch a counterattack.]]

** The shroobs built a small version of the factory, made it resistant to whatever bodily fluids Yoob has, fed it to Yoob, let Yoob terrorise some Yoshis for absolutely no reason, use magic shroob lasers to make him bigger, fed the RC Shroobers to Yoob, and then let them star the factory process. [[BlatantLies Simple!]]

** I think they were simply trying to avoid it for as long as possible, whilst trying to continue their adventure. [[spoiler: As you can see when playing the game, the four were pulled in by Yoob's tongue, so]] they didn't actively try to destroy it.

** It's not like Bowser has ever really be consistent with his abilities. One day he's a fifty-foot incarnation of evil capable of incredible dark magic, the next he's an eight-foot doofus barely smart enough to breath fire. If the game designers want him to he'll have that power, if not, then he won't.
** Shouldn't you really be wondering how the pipes can connect from outside Bowser to inside, even when he moves around? ;)

** His body would shrink, as going through the pipes shirnks people.

** It's likely that the caged minions were too loyal to be brainwashed, and Fawful saw it as opportunity to distract Bowser by scattering them. As for not brainwashing the others, Fawful must have realized that it would be to too risky to confront Mario, Luigi, or Bowser directly and that they would be too strong to brainwash. Fawful also needed the princess for his plan, and didn't need to brainwash her afterward because he was powerful enough that he didn't need more minions. Fawful also most likely didn't know Starlow existed. And "blorbing" the Toads distracted the Mushroom Kingdom while Fawful began his plan. It also got Mario, Luigi, Peach, and several other fairly important people in one place to be inhaled by Bowser, leaving Peach's castle defenseless and allowing Fawful to take the princess so he could power the Dark Star and take over the world.

*** Which raises another question: how could they be so GenreSavvy about cartoon physics to know that doing exercises would cause him to light on fire, yet be so unsavvy to not realize that any resulting explosion would be comedic and nonfatal?