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  • Does the supposed existence of "spinoff hell" imply that appearing mainly in spinoffs is akin to them suffering because of their sins? Does this imply that there is a "mainline heaven" that every character is required to strive for? Are all characters who are born in spinoffs sinners from birth, including the RPG characters?

    Seriously, it's so strange that a character appearing mainly in spinoffs is criticised for it, especially Waluigi, yet some characters who are the same like the RPG characters are generally not.

    Thank you for reading.
    It's disappointing when a game that I recently finished didn't have any speedruns. As an example, I recently finished the game Lair of the Clockwork God (which is adult-oriented despite its cartoonish graphics), yet there are no speedruns.

    Velocity Ultra is another game that didn't have any speedruns and it's kind of sad because the game would look cool when it's speed-ran. (On the other hand, its sequel Velocity 2X has speedruns).

    I guess there's just a great feeling in seeing someone blaze through a game and enjoying how they demolishing it, isn't it?

    Thank you for reading.
    I always thought the phrase "shove down one's throat" to be a graphic and violent way to describe intrusive messages. Especially because of how forceful and painful it sounds. And maybe it's also because sometimes what seems to be such to one person might not be realised by another.

    Thank you for reading.
    Recently learned about this: https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwi...periments-one-about-sex-the-other-about-lunch

    4_slide-1c5d0627f0a6d33d60ce15298f11b5998b744667-s800-c85.webp


    Basically, one scientist conducted an experiment on frogs on the importance of the male in the mating process, by outfitting them in pants (to cover them, if you know what I mean). The experiment sounds funny in hindsight since he did this by putting an outfit on an animal and letting them roam wild in it (the opposite of going commando, I guess).

    Thank you for reading.

    (I don't know if it is appropriate to mention this)
    Based on my results for some variations for "Mario Mania", only the following has meaningful results:

    - Luigi Lania: Some professor's name
    - Daisy Dania: Some author's name
    - Toadette Tania: (to a lesser extent) Some user from Facebook

    The others lead to either incoherent results like "Peach Pania" or "Rosalina Rania", or they have no results like "Yoshi Yania" and surprisingly, "Wario Wania".

    And that's it for another one of my weird observations.

    Thank you for reading.
    Anybody has suggested something Mario-related, and was lashed out for it as a result?

    For me, I was lashed out for suggesting that I would love to see Mario joining Luigi for his ghost-busting endeavours (since Mario lets Luigi joins him in many of his endeavours). Not everybody lash out of course, as some politely disagreed with it, but I've seen some who were aggressive with that thought. That actually took me aback.

    Thank you for reading.
    Thinking about the Game & Watch games, a lot of them have silly premises. Many video games are built upon silly premises like driving a jumping car on platforms, but the most important thing to note about Game & Watch is that it was one of the older video games, so it not adhering to what made sense might have stand out in the midst of more serious and grounded ones, like ones about shooting aliens in space, or maybe a frog travelling across the street to the other side.

    Quite a few are more mundane and grounded, like how Ball is just some guy juggling multiple balls to keep them in the air, or how Boxing is merely two boxers punching each other until one is knocked past their side (now that I think about it, Boxing G&W and Urban Champion have a common DNA). And then you have things like Turtle Bridge, where someone must travel through a row of turtles to deliver packages from one end to the other, or how in Rain Shower, the person somehow thinks it's better to leave the clothes dry and then hop through the clotheslines to prevent raindrops from wetting the clothes. Even established characters aren't exempt, because there's Donkey Kong 3 where Stanley and classic Donkey Kong shoots bug spray to make an insect sting the other, or notably Mario's Bombs Away, where Mario must take a bomb to the other side to his comrade, who is inconvenienced by opposing soldiers and even a (presumably friendly and unaware) comrade callously throwing matches on gasoline.

    Even then, I think there is something to be said how all these silliness don't matter, because those games are fun. Like it would seem more inconvenient for the Mario Bros. to endlessly move boxes through conveyor belts, but there is a fun challenge to be had while doing it. In fact, I kind of wonder what sort of Game & Watch might have been made now, if one may come once in a while, maybe if Nintendo decides to make another Game & Watch and add a new sort of game instead of a re-skinned one (reskinned are like Mario characters in Ball, and Link in Vermin)?.

    Thank you for reading.
    If given something, when one thanks the giver, that indicates gratitude. However, when one would respond with "you're welcome" instead, that denotes entitlement. The latter feels similarly if one does something good but felt the need to say "you're welcome" without waiting for the other person to thank them.

    Thank you for reading.
    I don't know if this will ever happen, but if Splatoon would be inducted for the World Video Game Hall of Fame, that would be awesome for personal reasons.

    Thank you for reading.
    Why is Siy getting kicked in the face in Gusty Garden Galaxy?
    winstein
    winstein
    It's not being kicked. It's Mario stretching his legs (one towards the background). The placement of Mario in the original Super Mario Galaxy screenshot meant that I can't move the character too much. I apologise if it looked like physical assault was assumed.

    Thank you for reading.
    MightyMario
    MightyMario
    It's alright. I loved your drawings. It was just that it looked like Siy was getting kicked by Mario and it kinda made me a little sad to see that upon my first viewing. I know that wasn't what you were interpreting in the photo and I feel no ill will towards you.
    Looks you and me got our wish
    winstein
    winstein
    Yeah, that is really great! Not perfect, as I would've liked the other spinoffs to be included like the Gamecube game and the Wonderswan platformer. Still, those RPGs are already rather meaty so it's hard to complain.

    Thank you for reading.
    It's odd how Mario Party, despite being popular and one of the better selling Nintendo IPs, is very much isolated. Mario Kart is referenced in Super Mario (3D World has a level referencing Super Mario Kart) and Paper Mario (Luigi's modern portrayal is known to be driving a kart from Mario Kart 8). Paper Mario's characters are reused in Mario Kart DS and Mario Party 6. Even Donkey Kong's series of games get occasional references in the wider Mario series!

    Mario Party's original characters or settings are never referenced in the wider Mario series, and not even the Koopa Kids have that treatment. Even in Super Smash Bros., Mario Party's representation is extremely paltry (despite being popular that it outsold many majorly represented series like Kirby, Kid Icarus, and Star Fox), where it never got an item, a stage, or even a rearranged music track. While some say that Wario's series are hardly acknowledged in the wider Mario series, you must remember that Super Smash Bros. treats Wario's series as its own thing, so it has the perks of being a unique universe like having a playable character, at least one stage, and a host of music that includes a rearrangement.

    The only contribution Mario Party has to the wider Mario series is a little thing from Mario Party 8, and can you tell what is it? If you don't, it's this:
    FBZcrlEWYAM5Q5c.png

    Yes, Waluigi's rose is from a Mario Party game, and it's one of Waluigi's defining traits that newer games notably like to reference. Therefore, it should not be forgotten because Mario Party just can't catch a break when it comes to acknowledgement.

    It would make me happy if Mario Party gets the proper acknowledgement in the wider Mario series the same way Mario Kart does.

    Thank you for reading.
    Nvzq8pe.png


    I'm rather curious on which of these two sold the most...

    Thank you for reading.
    winstein
    winstein
    @Morpho Knight Both are basically unlicensed lookalikes to the real characters. The tiger is basically called "Regit the Plush Tiger Toy" by Attatoy, but people still called it Hobbes from the product reviews, so despite the name, people didn't really get fooled. As an addendum, the cat did not have an official name, though "Fat Orange Cat Plush" is common. Despite the lack of resemblance compared to the Hobbes-lookalike, people still namedrop Garfield on it like as if it's an official thing (or maybe it's simpler to just call it for what it's supposed to resemble).

    @Bob Craples I guess you might be right: the Garfield-lookalike is posted more on social media, and people also posted the product when it was shrink-wrapped (so it ended up looking contorted). Anything shoddy about Garfield inevitably would become popular, though the only thing I dislike about it is that it's popular for the mockery value (one of the reasons I detest Lasagna Cat).

    Thank you for reading.
    Mags
    Mags
    Interesting note: technically speaking, any Calvin and Hobbes merchandise you find is illegal. No one has the license for it, as far as I'm aware. (Thankfully, the Calvinball shirt I have is not illegal since Calvinball isn't what's copyrighted and the tiger on the front looks nothing like Hobbes.)
    Bob Craples
    Bob Craples
    Wouldn't that just mean that all of it is legal?
    The thread about expressing popular opinions is a rather interesting exercise. It's actually a lot more common to have threads on unpopular opinions that one holds, so to have a twist on the age-old concept would really be an exercise in second-guessing any popular opinion that one also holds. Like for example, the opinion that Charles Martinet is a perfect fit for Mario, that's something that I can get behind. Even if there are some opinions that I don't share within that thread, like the fact that I consider Paper Mario: Colour Splash to be the peak manual design, I can still acknowledge that Wario's manuals are fun.

    Strangely, it's rather difficult for me to mention any popular opinion, because I have a frequent belief that my opinions are generally unpopular. Like for example: preferring Daisy over Peach? Doubt that's popular. Considers Miis to be a great addition to the Mario games? I don't really see this opinion mentioned much (it still exists, I need to point out). Considers NDcube to be a worthy successor to the Mario Party series? The opposite is the more common opinion. Considers Daisy and Waluigi to be an important part of the Mario group? Given how the opinion for them to be shunned is more commonly expressed, I need to have empiric evidence in the form of a poll to be convinced otherwise. I guess it's easier when you check if an opinion is mentioned a lot, but since I have some that are not very common, it's assumed to be unpopular. That's why the only opinion that I could churn out so far is relatively benign.

    It would probably make sense to put this opinion in that thread, but I think that it's a better fit here because I don't want to ruin the general sense of fun that the thread is currently having, compared to my somewhat boring opinions.

    Thank you for reading.
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    Ray Trace
    Ray Trace
    My OP I actually did put some thought into, rather than merely list either very specific or obscure content that people won't generally have strong opinions of either way (like what I did when I talked about the likes of King Ka-Thunk). Like, I genuinely believe saying that Luigi's Mansion is a good series of games without a single bad entry is an uncontroversial opinion and I haven't seen much, if any, people on online corners express any strong dislike for those games. I also did thought about other well received Mario titles such as Super Mario Galaxy or Odyssey, but those do have their detractors online that I had seen. Even something like saying The Thousand Year Door is the best Mario title, or best Mario RPG, or even just best Paper Mario title I'm already aware that they have their set of detractors (Koops cough). I also try not to let my personal opinion of a game obscure my views...I know my favorite Mario game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, has its set of detractors, especially those who think Mario Kart Wii is superior.

    I did think, oh Mario is a good series of platformers but again, I've seen people online who detract that, even Mario fans say stuff like that, and maybe even list entries they think are bad or mediocre (like New Super Mario Bros. 2 or Super Mario Sunshine) to counteract that or even think Mario pales in comparison to other platformer series (such as Kirby, Donkey Kong, or Rayman).
    winstein
    winstein
    I understand that. A good first post greatly enhances a thread, and yours is serviceable for the thread's topic. It's just that in some ways, that thread is kind of treated like a joke between trying to say any objective opinions or "opinions" that has no reason to be objected (like the recent one).

    Also, even if other platformer series like Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Rayman have a better track record in good games, I still view Mario to be at another level compared to them because he's the one who not only set the standard, but also gets to take bigger risks and if that worked out, it pays off big time (Super Mario Galaxy and Odyssey are examples). It also helps that Mario is more prolific, while some are exceedingly sporadic and some of them are slow to evolve (mainly it's Kirby).

    Thank you for reading.
    You know how the person who is in charge of Supper Mario Broth would remove or replace any content that is deemed to be easily misconstrued? One example is the observation on how Wario's nose is not pink in WarioWare Gold during the Wario Deluxe ending, but the original had Young Cricket grabbing Wario by the butt, and that could be interpreted wrongly. The replacement is basically the scene before Young Cricket came into the picture, removing the suggestion of suggestiveness entirely. (Source: https://twitter.com/mariobrothblog/status/1067115340470149120)

    I can relate to the embarrassment of this fellow and the feeling of personal failing, since I too would feel like I did something wrong if somebody took what I said with the unintended meaning. I do not know if people see this tendency to thank or apologise as a mere quirk, but this is the thing that I really loved, not only for the politeness but also because this type of behaviour speaks to me in an intimate way.

    Thank you for reading.
    Sometimes I would chance upon a post where someone would complain about the hate that their favourite character receives. Take this post for example, mentioning about how the hatred of Rosalina gets the goat of the topic creator. From my perspective, the reaction is overblown because well, is there really a campaign to encourage others to hate Rosalina? Besides, as far as Mario characters go, Rosalina is one of the more loved ones, which I attributed it to having more character than the average Mario character, her majestic and doll-like design, and having significant appearances in the Super Mario games. The same can really be said for several other characters like Peach, Luigi, Wario, or even Bowser, who generally have a great reputation among fans that I can't really see eye-to-eye when someone thinks their character is in danger merely because of a difference in opinion. I can understand why they felt that way though, since they are likely more sensitive towards the suggestion that their favourite characters are not perfectly loved. As a matter of fact, Mario is one such fellow: he is practically the prime target for being slandered as sin incarnate and it's not helped by how popular these theories are.

    Now this would be contradictory towards the opinion I mentioned earlier, but if someone says how Daisy and Waluigi are generally hated, I think that made more sense that saying that Luigi of all characters is disrespected (he's actually significantly more respected than Mario himself: the Mario Awards proved this), and I can more or less emphasised that opinion instead of something like "I am in shambles that someone dare to hate Peach!". It's mainly because I noticed how much condemnation ("they have no character!") and dismissal (e.g. "they are roster filler!") those two get, with the common excuse that they are prominently in spin-offs, which is an opinion that is unfortunately relatively prevalent (for the record, their continued presence is one reason I liked them, and in Waluigi's case, he's a much more genuine underdog compared to Luigi). I would love to be proven wrong, but it might have to take years or even decades for this stigma to wane off.

    Thank you for reading.
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    Ray Trace
    Ray Trace
    People who hate Rosalina should just race with like, 11 Rosalinas in Mario Kart Wii. People claim I hate Wario but like, I race against 11 of him regularly, I don't think a character's hatedom ever does something like that lmao.
    winstein
    winstein
    I used to think you hated Wario, but upon gaining an understanding of the situation, that cannot be it because you clearly have something to like in Wario among your dislike. I imagine that in this context, it would be like racing 11 Yoshis (instead of Warios).

    Thank you for reading.
    LeftyGreenMario
    LeftyGreenMario
    I think the phrase is commonly understood as "love to hate"
    Thinking about it after my latest thread about Rosalina, I must say that it's a blessing in disguise that Super Mario Land's characters retained their original names in Japanese. They do sound foreign, but that also means that Daisy's name did not change. I have to imagine that if the names were allowed to change, the English might have already attempted to change Daisy's name to Toadstool (similar to SEGA of America's half-hearted attempts to pretend that Sally Acorn is in Sonic CD, despite the sprite clearly showing Amy Rose).

    Thank you for reading.
    Grape
    Grape
    I always thought Super Mario Land was pretty cool for having unique enemies with cool names
    A random thought came to me: What would happen if Tingle wears the Majora's Mask? What kind of powers would manifest out of Tingle when he has it? It's an interesting idea but I can't find any discussion on it from Google.

    Thank you for reading.
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    Hooded Pitohui
    Hooded Pitohui
    I'm not sure what kind of powers would manifest, exactly, but I do think it's safe to say Majora would make him believe he's an extremely powerful fairy.

    Majora preyed upon Skull Kid's insecurities, and encouraged his tendency for pranks. At first, they were harmless, but Majora (it's implied) pushed him to more extremes, to more harmful pranks, eventually culminating in a world-ending one that he went along with because of his resentment towards a world he saw as having abandoned him (or old friends, specifically, that abandoned him).

    So we know how Majora operates. It takes traits that are already there and uses those to push a person towards what it wants.

    Tingle is concistently described as a man-child who believes himself to be a fairy. Now, might he have some insecurities? Probably. But I think Majora has an easier route.

    Majora humors him. Majora tells him to do "fairy magic," suggests showcases of magic he can do that, like with Skull Kid, start relatively harmless but get worse and worse, and Majora makes these magical acts actually happen. Whatever it needs to do to make Tingle believe he is a real fairy (or, rather, make him believe he finally has a way to show everyone else that), it does, while nudging him towards more malicious acts over time.

    So perhaps the powers that would manifest are "whatever Tingle believes a fairy can do". After all, if Majora has the power to bring down the moon, there's probably much it can make happen.
    Flowey
    Flowey
    Sure but I doubt Tingle could get that mask onto his ugly face, the shape is all wrong not to mention his nose.
    "The game plays similarly to Tetris."

    If you read this sentence, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?

    If you want to understand why I bring this up, this is a description I see being used for some of the Dr. Mario games, and I even see it on Wario's Woods' article. As a puzzle aficionado, it's extremely inaccurate, so that's why I am looking at the layman and see if it's just as inaccurate for this type of assumption.

    Thank you for reading.
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    winstein
    winstein
    My opinion is that for a wiki to be helpful in describing what a game is about, it needs to actually describe the basic mechanics. If using a different game to illustrate an example, then the similarities need to be mentioned because when somebody simply describes a game that plays similarly to Tetris, there are a lot of conclusions drawn just from that sentence. For example, it could be about the tetrominoes themselves, it could also be about clearing lines by filling it, it could be about controlling dropping pieces, and from one account that someone brought up on Discord, it's about "putting s*** next to eachother (sic)". (I can't claim to agree with the last one, but I can see where that person's coming from)

    In this way, when you describe a platformer, one could very easily draw attention to Super Mario because that's the most well-known platformer. So for example, maybe Mega Man might be described as "Mario except you shoot bullets", which could do the job informally, but I am not certain that it's how a wiki should describe the Mega Man games. In Wario's Woods case, I cannot really draw much comparisons to Tetris mainly because there is very little in common with how Tetris plays. Another example: Even though Panel de Pon is called Tetris Attack, there's rather little in common with Tetris in terms of how it's played that even one of the founders regretted drawing attention to that name, because as its own thing, it's unique.

    When it comes to describing a game on a wiki as opposed to being used in a casual conversation, would this descriptor be helpful, or is it unhelpful?

    Thank you for reading.
    There may be a secret.
    There may be a secret.
    In this way, when you describe a platformer, one could very easily draw attention to Super Mario because that's the most well-known platformer.

    Yea but I feel like the difference is that Platformers are extremely big and have many more popular games in them than just the Mario series, and puzzle/stacker games are much more niche.

    but yea, I'd say if wario's woods and panel de pon function nothing like tetris except for sharing a genre, the comparison to tetris should be removed as it can give the wrong idea of the gameplay(match 3 of a kind vs. Fill a row).
    Hooded Pitohui
    Hooded Pitohui
    I would say that, whenever possible, a Wiki should prioritize description of a game over relying on analogy to another game in order to convey details about the game that is being presented. Analogy has its place, and can be useful, and, if a game builds upon another title or builds upon a genre or industry standard in some notable way, you of course want to mention that and discuss what game(s) that it builds off of, but you can't do that successfully until you've described the game in such a way that your description stands alone.

    If people can't read a description and get a sense of a game without having to compare it to another, the description probably needs further work.
    I remembered when there was a time when Mario was commonly depicted with a FLUDD, such as the reference in Asterix & Obelix XXL 2.

    Nowadays, I don't think I have seen a Mario art where his cap has eyes, so does that mean the Mario + Cappy team-up is beginning to be a trend in the past?

    Thank you for reading.
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    Hooded Pitohui
    Hooded Pitohui
    So, I want to be careful how I say this, because I run the risk of not being clear and making this sound like I'm talking about the whole "Mario Mandate" myth and all of that, but, I think that, perhaps, some of this trend is related to Nintendo's tendency to view and treat Super Mario more like a marketable brand as of late. There's been a trend towards making sure that Mario and company can appear in almost everything, playing any role. There's always been an element of that, to some extent, but you see that more strongly now as Nintendo pushes to get Mario not just in games, but into movies, into merchandise, into theme parks, etc. etc.


    That's easier to do - and, as a result, it's easier to build a brand - if you strip a character down to their essentials, rather than tie them down to a set of specific things they're associated with. If I'm Nintendo, and I know I have, say, Super Mario Galaxy 3 coming out soon, but also plan to introduce this new attraction at Super Nintendo World that's going to be themed after the ice-and-snow worlds so common in Mario games, and also have the Super Mario Bros. movie sequel coming out and I plan to make it some story about the exploration of ancient ruins (the Bros. facing some ancient evil unleashed isn't exactly an uncommon plot, with the Shadow Queen, the Dark Star, that tennis racket in Aces), how am I going to reconcile all of that? If I market Mario as the guy who travels through space with this little Star creature and spins around and shoots Star Bits, it's going to create a disconnect with those other things I'm getting ready to push on people. People are going to look at that new ice world at the theme park and potentially not care, because they think of Mario as the space guy and they don't see the things they associate with Mario there.

    So I have an incentive to strip away specific associations from Mario, to boil him down to his bare essentials. I have an incentive to make sure Mario is just the red-capped, princess-saving, "bing bing wahoo" guy when I'm marketing him. I make those the traits that are immediately associated with Mario, and now, those slot in to everything I have in the works. Sure, I want people to be interested in the specifics, too, but I get the guarantee that, whether Mario is in space, or Mario is in the land of ice and snow, or Mario is in ancient ruins, people are going to see Mario leaping and doing a flip and are going to be interested simply because "hey! Look! It's that plumber! He's in good stuff! This might be a good thing!".

    And just as importantly, now I can put out a figurine of Mario, or a Lego playset, and it doesn't matter whether you think of Mario in the ruins or in space or somewhere else, because you know Mario. You saw something with Mario in it, and now you want to buy a Mario product.

    Consider the opposite case, where, say, my big marketing push is specifically Mario with FLUDD, Mario with Sunshine references. Well, that's all well and good if you like Sunshine, but, if I release a Sunshine-specific Lego playset, I'm missing a whole bunch of people who maybe think of Mario as the explorer of ruins and expect not Stus and weird Boos, but Thwomps and Buzzy Beetles, and are going to pass over this because it doesn't catch their attention.

    I'm not explaining this well, but, the main point I'm trying to make is that, since they're trying to build a brand around Mario, Nintendo has an incentive to focus on the bare minimum version of Mario they can create, so they can draw you to Mario himself regardless of what situation they put him in. I think that may be some of the reason why, as opposed to post-Sunshine when other games were constantly pulling from Sunshine and even popular culture appearances of Mario might have FLUDD too, you see Mario in more self-contained spheres and a push to market a version of Mario that is disconnected from specific games, specific mechanics, and specific situations. It's not that you never see it - I have seen figurines of Mario with Cappy and I have seen Odyssey-specific figurine sets - but I do think you see less of it.

    So, to get around to your question, I'm not sure whether this is beginning to be a trend of the past. I think it's already something Nintendo had reason to make less prominent, and the further we get away from Odyssey and diversify the reach of the Mario brance, the more incentive they will have to further move away from Odyssey-specific references.
    Recently, Koopa con Carne was asking me about my Popular Opinions thread, and that got me thinking of posting one of my existing polls on Reddit to see how it fared. Specifically, it's on the r/Mario subreddit because that's where the Mario fans generally are. I wanted to post about Mario vs. Luigi, but there was already a recent poll so it would not be useful to post that. Instead, I posted about "What is the opinion on the traditional plot of Bowser kidnapping Peach?"

    Here's the poll distribution on Super Mario Boards:
    3822


    But this is what it looks like on Reddit (link). Note the reduced amount of options: Reddit only allows for a maximum of six options, but for this poll in particular, it worked out in its favour because the previous iteration clearly had one too many options.
    unknown.png


    With more votes, the popular opinion clearly has a different distribution, although some things remain the same, like how a minority is OK with the idea of Peach being kidnapped but not by Bowser. In any case, despite the poll lasting for fewer days (2 days only), it accrued a lot of votes, and the majority of them are on the first day, meaning that 2 days is a good benchmark for each of these polls.

    It certainly sounds like an interesting topic to analyse for the 'Shroom if there are enough polls created, although maybe not because it would step on the toes of the actual Poll Committee's analyses.

    Thank you for reading.
    Hooded Pitohui
    Hooded Pitohui
    I don't think it would step on the toes of Poll Committee Discussion at all. There might be some overlap, yes, but we've had sections with some overlap in the past, and these polls are distinct from the PC's polls and getting a different set of respondents (there's probably overlap, too, but clearly it's not one-to-one.) Seeing these polls analyzed in The 'Shroom would be very welcomed!

    (I'm glad to see you finding some success in getting your polls answered. You come up with interesting polls. There's a reason I asked you to join the PC last time around!)
    Hey there, I was wondering if you have any interest in reviving the Gauging Popular Opinions thread. It had quite the user engagement and it was plenty fun to hold discussions in!
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    winstein
    winstein
    The last time I posted, I was part of the Poll Committee, so I didn't think it was right to continue it, despite still having several ideas on what's to come. Perhaps stopping this basically dissipated the passion for continuing with it. There is also an inconvenience with doing the popular opinion thread, and that is the poll. In the previous forum structure, the original poster can change and reset the poll, but not so here: you need a moderator to do this, and this resulted in a hassle to do so.

    Even more so, I have already found a place on the wiki so in that aspect, I was already starting to get busy. For one, around that time I was already busy getting Dr. Mario World's coverage on the wiki, and due to how it was basically me covering some stuff that not many users would cover, the poll thread is inevitably going to get left behind.

    An unfortunate grievance I have had, which is of course not the fault of the folks here, is how little responses it generally garnered and how it does not reflect the actual popular opinion. For example, the Mario vs Sonic rivalry opinion: the popular opinion here is how OK everyone generally is that they are buddies now, but the same poll I used for the Wiki polled differently, where the popular opinion is the preference for competitiveness between the two.

    I am not sure I would return, but perhaps if the ability to change polls is more streamlined (as opposed to requiring instructing a moderator), it's worth a shot.

    Thank you for reading.
    One of the things I find fascinating about character designs is if a female character is not very immediately identified as a female character. To explain a bit on what I am talking about, take Minnie Mouse for example: you can tell that she is a female mouse because she has eyelashes, wears high heels and always wear dresses. A similar reason cove be given to Princess Peach, except she has long hair and her default colour is pink (a stereotypically female colour).

    Forgive me for delving into the territory of comic strips for a moment, but it is essential for me to do so because this is where my first observation is made.

    Take the character of Broom-Hilda. This is what she looks like:
    5e98a6b699c80.image.jpg

    For a long time, I have never assumed that Broom-Hilda would be a lady (she is after all, a witch), and despite the fact that she has a flower on her hat, she never exhibited too much girly stereotypes until I heard how she is voiced in the cartoons, where it was only then I know that Broom-Hilda is supposed to be a woman. Because of how unlikely Hilda is portrayed as saintly (again, she is a witch), it is honestly a bit refreshing that this is truly a female cartoon character without being overly overt in character design.

    And then, there's Preteena, who once again, despite the main character's name Teena, never struck me as a girl until she started wearing certain clothes or swimsuits. The same goes with her friend Stick, whose real name I didn't know until later (it's Sabra Naomi Klein).
    lf

    For reference, Teena is the leftmost one, and Stick is the second-from-left. (The rest of the characters are Gordo, Teena's childhood friend; Augustus, known as Goose, is Gordo's friend; Jeri, Teena's sister who is most definitely easily identified as a lady)

    My final example is the character from Brenda Starr:
    Brenda-Starr.jpg

    Unfortunately I cannot find the character as portrayed by June Brigman (the first time I noticed this character's design), so here's one that's portrayed in a Dick Tracy comic strip. Anyway, with a name like Hank O'Hair and the way this character dresses, one would easily mistake her as a male character. But nope, this is actually a lady, and was like this all the way from the beginning of the character's introduction. Similar to the previous example, it's only when I noticed the character in a swimsuit and the fact that she wears a skirt (comic strips don't tend to show a character's full body when unnecessary), it was like a revelation.

    To cap all of this off, this one will be from an animated series instead of yet another comic strip. Here is a recent example (to my knowledge) on a character design that I didn't know is supposed to be female, but I liked that it's not so overtly female:
    MV5BMDBiNDI3YjQtNDdkNS00ZDliLTlmMmQtMDE4ZWM1ZGIyNjljXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTE1NjY5Mg@@._V1_.jpg

    It's not immediately apparent, but the only one in this family of dogs that is a male is the father, which is naturally the largest one (the blue one with black on his head). The others are actually female dogs. Note that I have not heard what they sound like, but I heard of this as an example of a refreshing female character design and I agree that it is.

    ---

    To make this short, while it's still practical to have female character designs that can be easily be identifiable, it's also great to have female character designs that are not easily "womanly" at first glance because I doubt that every women (or animal for that matter) looks so sexual, and in fact constantly stereotyping them is perhaps not a good thing.

    What are some other examples of female characters that are not immediately apparent that they are female?

    Thank you for reading.
    zel
    zel
    matilda angry birds is an interesting subject to discuss with this topic because she wasnt.. actually designed with any gender in mind, and her retroatively being made female left her with certain design decisions you wouldnt really see on female characters
    not the best image example but this is hte most evident in her classic design. and the whole thing about just overall not looking like A female character
    unknown.png

    the toons design (which is my favorite design of hers) kept p much hte same beak shape so the underbite is just. a normal thing that she has and not what yuod expect in traditional female character design and i love that
    unknown.png
    im very good at picking examples apparenntly
    shes also taller than the rest of the flock (terence/mighty eagle aside) most of the time!
    (of course the movie design had to throw both hte beak shape part and the height part out the window but\\\\\\\ )
    angry birds evolution actually has the most examples of unconventional female character design in the series within one.. Thing i guess even if pretty much none of those characters that debuted in this game appeared outside of it. it has BUFF WOMEN
    Cell
    Cell
    Sorta related but in Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Stands Behind, you are informed of a character named Hitmoi, people familiar with that name in case of other characters in Japanese media would assume that character would be a girl only to be a Japanese punk with a heart of gold who is a dude.
    Bonus points, his last name is one letter from Kawaii
    LeftyGreenMario
    LeftyGreenMario
    I suppose from the Mario series, you got Hulu, a character that looks just like a Spear Guy, but is a female character. Otherwise the Mario series is not very good with making ambiguous characters be female.

    Liz from the Magic School Bus would also be a character that presents as ambiguous but, if you don't know her name (Liz is a female name), you would probably guess first that she's male.
    BTzuWL4.png


    There's also several owls in Guardians of the Gahoole which look like regular owls, but a notable one is Gylfie who is female, but her pronouns got mixed up in other languages. Spoorn is a character who got pronouns mixed up even across the same language but in different volumes.

    Several characters in Rivals of Aether are also like this. Maypul does have some more effeminate looking art but her sprites and stuff don't as obviously suggest so. Clarien is another case here, though you can tell by name, but not by appearance immediately. Finally Elliana, though having an effeminate name, looks like just a purple snake.

    Also, Blue's Clues. I'm sure people for the longest amount of time thought that the blue dog was a boy. I know I thought Blue was male the entire time until, yeah...
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