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I think Yoshi is too prominent overall to be considered the Supporting Protagonist or the Decoy Protagonist, as he is the starting character and you have the option to play as him for nearly the entire game.
Those are both valid arguments for either Mario or Yoshi being The Hero. However, within the game, neither one really stands out from the other. You're forced to play Yoshi at the beginning and you're forced to play Mario at the end, but otherwise you can play as whomever you want. You could even play as Luigi or Wario for most of the game.
With that said, I don't think Super Mario 64 DS has a distinct Hero archetype either way, as it's largely up to the player. I'd be in favour of simply cutting The Hero entry altogether. The only other option I can think of is to list both of them as The Hero, with each entry explaining why Mario or Yoshi fits the bill, but then that seems to defeat the purpose of a single defined hero if it's a debatable issue. By and large, I don't think this is a trope that can apply in a video game if there's multiple playable characters that you can freely choose between.
Edited by StardustSoldier
I won't say they're both The Hero, but I will suggest reading Deuteragonist.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
Look, I just want to end this debate and make sure the tropes are getting used properly.
What Stardust said seems to be accurate, although I'm not aware of any rule saying The Hero has to be limited to a single character in a work. That really is a universal trope, though, and as such it's usually not worth listing in example lists unless there's something unique and interesting to say about it.
For video games with a strong narrative structure, the role of the hero may be distinct and interesting. For games that have little narrative structure, it doesn't seem particularly worth stating.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Well, Stardust did deliver a solid argument and if the game doesn't have a single defined hero, then I honestly don't see the point in saying if a character is The Hero when the game itself just leaves it to the player to decide.
@Fighteer: Actually, you're right in that there doesn't seem a rule saying there can't be multiple The Hero characters. Although the Laconic page states that it's "The central character who performs heroic deeds with a heroic motivation", which to me seems to state that most works would only have one such character.
Either way, though, Super Mario 64 DS does indeed have little narrative structure, and thus I don't feel The Hero is a noteworthy example for that game. Mario getting captured early on and needing to be rescued by another character is an unusual subversion for a Mario game and may be worth noting, but we could probably find a different, better trope for it.
If no-one else has any objections, I say we remove The Hero entry.
On it.
Oh hey, lcrossmk8 here. Sure, why not?
Locking since we're done here. I do want to point out, for the record, that the laconic descriptions of tropes are often inaccurate, or at least incomplete, and should never be relied on.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
I'm discussing with lcrossmk 8 about who can be considered The Hero of Super Mario 64 DS. I think Mario is The Hero because he fits many attributes associated with the heroic archetype (Jack of All Stats, Primary-Color Champion, The Leader, Protagonist Title) and defeats Bowser in the end. lcrossmk 8 thinks Yoshi is The Hero for avoiding capture and saving the rest of the heroes, including Mario. In my opinion Yoshi could be the Supporting Protagonist (the game begins from his perspective, but Mario wins the final battle) or Decoy Protagonist (the game begins from his perspective but Mario is needed to win the final battle). What do you say?