At the end of the first Mario Galaxy, Rosalina and her Lumas managed to save the universe, basically by creating a Big Crunch and rebuilding the entire thing from scratch. Mario and most of the characters he encountered in his quest are "reanimated" in a freshly-created Mushroom Kingdom, itself part of a grand, unified Galaxy. However, Super Mario Galaxy 2 can't be a direct sequel to this, since the Star Festival happens once in a hundred years, and Mario is still kicking around, not a day older. So, the game is set in an alternate universe concurrent with the events of the first game, to be "merged" into a single timeline following the events of the second game. In other words, yes, Super Mario freakin' Bros now has a split timeline theory.
- Maybe the "reanimation" reset the Mushroom Kingdom to a point in time before the Star Festival would normally occur... or the Star Festival is a multi-day event and Super Mario Galaxy 2 is set during the day after the first game.
- That means Bowser really managed to get his act together this time... two attempted galactic empires in one day? Dude doesn't mess around.
- The ending of Galaxy 1 shows the decorations from the festival as the camera pans around, so the festival is likely a multi-day event.
- Lubba wasn't in the first Galaxy, so how would he even know of the events in the first place? Also, how do ONLY those five characters remember the events of the first game? Any explanation?
- He's friends with Rosalina, so she probably told him.
To expand on the above theory, the two games are part of a Zelda-esque Split Timeline. The Gainax Ending of Timeline A (Galaxy) sent Mario back in time to just before the Star Festival, which is where the continuity branched off into Timeline B (Galaxy 2). However, doing so removed Mario from Timeline Anote , thus preventing him from defeating Bowser— to prevent a Temporal Paradox, someone was sent to do it for him: Luigi. He was also sent back in time, but instead to a point early on in Timeline A, taking Mario's place (while keeping the previous Luigi where he was, which accounts for the two of them). While Luigi was (re-)collecting the Timeline A Stars, Mario went on his merry way, collecting all of the Timeline B Stars (and encountering Luigi-B and Toad Brigade-B, among others). The first game's Grand Finale Galaxy is the result of the timeline being fused back together.
- To sum it up: Galaxy (Mario) = Ret Gone; Galaxy (Luigi) = Canon; Galaxy 2 = Alternate Timeline, also Canon
- So that's why Luigi can meet himself in the first game! Brilliant!
- If I understand correctly, The Luigi you play as in the first game is actually from the timeline after finishing the first game as Mario? This makes for some Fridge Brilliance. Plus explaining why you don't do the Star Festival part as Luigi. The developers of the game didn't want to spoil Mario suddenly "disappearing" as he goes over to the other timeline!
Think about it: the Luma glows bright orange, it can't be hurt, and it has an insatiable greed, allowing it to pick up any and every item and hold them indefinitely. Clearly the Luma is trying to fuel its greed and will eventually lead Mario to Larfleeze, where he will be turned into a corps member himself.
When the universe was rebuilt at the end of the first game, time was essentially reset, so this is one of the few in-universe justifications for Negative Continuity.
- Rosalina remembers, though.
- When you unlock Luigi in Super Mario Galaxy 2, he knows how to spin, and is much braver than the first game, suggesting the alternate continuity theory above.
As shown by the secret ending, Rosalina was the narrator all along. As it turns out, she was reading to her Lumas from another storybook. This theory posits that the universe was NOT reset in the ending of Super Mario Galaxy, nor was an Alternate Timeline created, but that it was simply Rosalina entertaining her "children" with a story. Supplements to this theory:Supplement 1) This allows for the possibility that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is set far in the future, with Rosalina telling the story of the now long-passed Mario & co. to a new generation of Lumas, including the reborn Luma he originally had the adventure with.Supplement 2) Another possibility is that Rosalina actually has Haruhi-level godlike powers, and in fact created another universe that follows her telling of the story.
- Well, Rosalina is Crystal Dragon Jesus. The games are pretty unsubtle about that...
- During the same ending, though, we see that Luma still has Mario's hat, which he didn't have at the end of the first game. So it's more than just a retelling.
Someone had gone to the TBG before Mario and painted a picture of it. By leaping through the canvas in Super Mario 64, he was literally transported there, one of the few stages in the game that conspiciously are just a landmass floating in the middle of nowhere; that's why the pink Bob-Omb recognized him. Alternately, he was just in some sort of "painting world" separate from reality, explaining why the Whomp King says the same thing, line-by-line, in both games; the real McCoy hadn't met Mario yet.
- If we continue this line of reasoning further, there's a galaxy for every level in 64. If there's ever a Galaxy 3, perhaps we could see Bob-omb Battlefield or the Lethal Lava Land.
- Why is it called Throwback Galaxy, then? The whole point of the name was to emphasize that it was a throwback to a past level.
- Alternatively, not every level has a galaxy, but every level is based off of some location in the universe. Bob-omb Battlefield could easily be an actual location in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Bowser just couldn't give a break for even 2 seconds.
- It wouldn't be the first time.
- Honestly, taking over the universe must take a lot of hard work and planning to pull off. Plus, Bowser had to find the Starship Mario (back when it didn't have Mario's face) in order to take it's Power Stars and become giant. So this couldn't possibly work as an Immediate Sequel unless Bowser were some kind of god.
Notice how Peach has never actually met Rosalina before.
- As well as announcing herself to the other NPCs on Starship Mario, who also probably haven't met her before.
- Unless you count Mario Kart Wii.
The first notes in the final boss music of Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time shares the melody of the first few notes in the Storybook song (from the 1st game, but also appears in this game). So perhaps Rosalina is really another shroob princess?
- The two games had different composers and were in development around the same time. It's merely a coincidence. Also, the storybook shows that she, as well as the rest of her family, are clearly human.
- Or the Mushroom Planet just has really short years. You know, that would explain a lot of the geography to an extent.
- That doesn't make much sense if you consider the events of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year door. Where the titular door was sealed for the titular amount of years.
- Well, most of the main characters are "Star Children", and how many crazy prophecies have Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Bowser gotten themselves into that involved ultimate power, that they've each touched at least one of the artifacts, Bowser and Luigi even using them on themselves? Actually, come to think of it, it seems that Rosalina is immortal, or at last VERY slow aging, from simply being near power stars... Mario and co. have power stars permanently inside themselves.
- Supporting this are the Mario Tennis and Mario Golf portable titles: There is a timeskip between the GBC and GBA games where most characters have noticeably aged, but Mario's group hasn't changed a day.
- But when you actually play as him, he jumps only a little higher than Mario. How would he even know where Mario is? I'd imagine he got lost somewhere trying to find his bro, then the Toad Brigade found him and brought him back.
and The Anti-Spiral.
◊ Extrapolating from this:Rosalina is really, really, really old, but kept looking youthful by her vast reserves of...Spiral Energy; she only appears to lack hot-bloodedness because she's overpowered and slightly lazy (compare: Lordgenome On His Throne) and she'd rather let Mario do the work. The Lumas are living beings that regularly explode into galaxies, which is exactly what the Anti-Spiral stated would occur during the Spiral Nemesis, and Mario's Luma gives him the ability to attack by spinning. Finally, the top of Rosalina's Observatory spins like a drill when it flies, and THEIRS IS THE DRILL THAT CREATES THE HEAVENS!!
- Tengen Toppa Comet Observatory? FUCK. YES.
They're black, humanoid creatures with blank eyes. Look similar?
◊
- Either that or she's outright immortal. That would also explain how she still looks like a young woman despite living through hundred year gaps like that.
- It's implied that travelling at lightspeed or faster is what keeps her so young.
- Why do people keep making this comparison? The only similarities between the two of them are that they're chubby stars with deep voices who wear pants. Lubba may be a wisecracker, but he's still much more humble and down-to-Earth (ironically) than Patrick.
For example, it lets you see inside the wrappers of candy bars in the Sweet Mystery Galaxy. This can be explained as looking as the chocolate at a time before it had been packaged. And the other candy platforms that reveal themselves when you use the Bulb Berry had simply been eaten, or otherwise destroyed, before Mario got to the galaxy.
This also explains the "light" motif; because things become dusty when they get old.
- The Lumas recreate the universe after Bowser's black hole threatened to destroy it, sending everyone back to the day of the Star Festival at the start of the game. (Which becomes the festival seen at the start of the second game.) Rosalina departs in the observatory, unknowingly leaving the white Luma behind in the rusted starshroom.
- The white Luma eventually meets up with Lubba, but his starship is attacked by Bowser instead, causing Luma to fall down to the Mushroom World and reunite with Mario, who's on his way to the second game's Star Festival.
- Mario proceeds to go on the second game's adventure, and eventually rescues Peach and allows Luma to reunite with Rosalina. (Rosalina introduces herself at the end of the second game because Peach hasn't met her yet, but Mario, Luigi, Lubba, and the Toads all remember her from the first game.)
- (This is where the midquel part comes in.) Now that everyone is back together again, Mario and co. return to the Mushroom World for the third Star Festival, which is the one with the Purple Coins that gave you the original game's 121st star, thereby explaining how Mario could have Luma with him again despite the fact that he'd "just" sacrificed himself to destroy Bowser's black hole — because there was a whole other game since then that we hadn't seen.
- Not to mention that the Toad Brigade are actually useful (in one level, but the point stands).
- The Toad Brigade was only useful when the Captain was kidnapped. They need a change in leadership.
- This was actually confirmed by Word of God before release.
- All but confirmed by Miyamoto himself, who had said
that "[Super Mario Galaxy 2] has been developed and designed so that those who have conquered the first game, Super Mario Galaxy 1, can feel as if it’s a continuation from the ending of that first game."
- The Shiverburn Figures: A group of three young men were mucking around in the Shiverburn Galaxy peaks, watching the sights and sounds of the galaxy. One day, they spyed on the boss of this galaxy and mocked it behind its back, but they didn't realise that the boss was behind them and ran them over like a pancake, thus killing them and turning them into the Shiverburn figures we dreaded.
- The Goal Pole Ghost: A young man is a huge fan of haunted places and loves to look at the ghost houses to prove everyone that ghosts are real, but then as he reaches the goal pole and waits for 30 seconds, a large Boo comes out of nowhere and scares him. The man was so scared that not only he releived himself in his pants, but he got a heart attack and died, before he turned into a humanoid ghost. The ghost was screaming at Mario when he appeared because he was trying to communicate with him, but no one cared. Poor thing
- If it wasn't for those tragic events, they would've still been human beings instead of creepy ghostly figures
- He's too lazy after setting the challenges up and just wants to see others tackle them.
- He has an ego and wishes to bolster it without actually earning it.
- He's just bored and wants to be entertained.
- He's lonely and does this as a way to get attention.
