What does Mario wish for at the end of Paper Mario: Sticker Star [Spoilers]

At the end of Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Mario uses the collected Royal Stickers to make one wish. Mario is a silent character, so the player never learns what the wish is for precisely. We only know the following things from the remainder of the ending cutscene.

1. Kersti is brought back from the dead, this is specified to have been part of the wish
2. The Sticker Comet is fully formed, irrespective of the number of Comet Pieces the player has collected
3. The Sticker Fest grounds, including its stage, are restored. However, it is known that all the Toads were working on repairing everything across the game's duration and get pretty close to final completion by the time the final level can be accessed.
4. Mario, Peach, Bowser, Kersti, and many different Toads are all present at the Sticker Fest. Even Toads who live away from Decalburg are in attendance. Notably, Bowser's Minions are not present, though they do show up in the parade at the Sticker Fest.

Complicating matters is that the game does not indicate how much time passes between Mario making the wish and the Sticker Fest occurring.

Of course, I've overthought the scenario so you don't have to, and have come to the following possibilities.

• Mario wished for everything to go back to normal
  • A very vanilla wish...
    • but Mario is a very vanilla character.
  • Additionally, it leaves a lot of wiggle room as to what "normal" means.
    • Allows for reviving Kersti as an incidental part of the wish
    • Allows for bringing all the various Toads from across the kingdom to the Sticker Fest as an incidental part of the wish
  • May or may not negate the work that the Toads were doing repairing the Sticker Fest grounds.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life.
  • Plays up the relationship at the heart of the story.
  • Kersti has magical abilities, so its possible she could restore the Sticker Comet, possibly with the help of the Royal Stickers.
  • Does not negate the work that the Toads were doing repairing the Sticker Fest grounds.
  • Is harder to justify why Toads the world over are attending Sticker Fest when they didn't the first time around, but maybe they show up anyway just because they know Mario personally.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life and for all the Toads to attend the Sticker Fest
  • Same as above but accounts for the Toads.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life and to restore the Sticker Comet
  • Plays up the relationship at the heart of the story,
  • Resolves the oddity of the Sticker Comet being present even though the player may or may not have every Comet piece.
  • Does not negate the work that the Toads were doing repairing the Sticker Fest grounds.
  • Is harder to justify why Toads the world over are attending Sticker Fest when they didn't the first time around, but maybe they show up anyway just because they know Mario personally.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life and to restore the Sticker Comet and for all the Toads to attend the Sticker Fest
  • Same as above but accounts for the Toads.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life and to restore the Sticker Fest
  • Plays up the relationship at the heart of the story,
  • Kersti has magical abilities, so its possible she could restore the Sticker Comet, possibly with the help of the Royal Stickers.
  • Negates the work that the Toads were doing repairing the Sticker Fest grounds.
  • Is harder to justify why Toads the world over are attending Sticker Fest when they didn't the first time around, but maybe they show up anyway just because they know Mario personally.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life and to restore the Sticker Fest and for all the Toads to attend the Sticker Fest
  • Same as above but accounts for the Toads.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life and to restore the Sticker Comet and to restore Sticker Fest
  • Plays up the relationship at the heart of the story,
  • Resolves the oddity of the Sticker Comet being present even though the player may or may not have every Comet piece.
  • Negates the work that the Toads were doing repairing the Sticker Fest grounds.
  • Is harder to justify why Toads the world over are attending Sticker Fest when they didn't the first time around, but maybe they show up anyway just because they know Mario personally.
• Mario wished specifically for Kersti to come back to life and to restore the Sticker Comet and to restore Sticker Fest and for all the Toads to attend the Sticker Fest
  • Same as above but accounts for the Toads.

I personally feel that "Mario wished for everything to go back to normal" is the most likely wish because it matches Mario's character and it is very narratively convenient. What do other people think?

Wait, he was granted one wish, adding so much stuff to one sentence is cheating!

all i know is he wasted his wish, he could've manifested the game to be good

I always thought Mario just wished for Kersti to come back. That's all!

I don't think there's any reason or rhyme to any of this; Sticker Star is Sticker Star.

ThatOneUniqueToad said:

I don't think there's any reason or rhyme to any of this; Sticker Star is Sticker Star.

Click to expand...

Well, the game did run into time constraints that resulted in Bowser's Sky Castle being truncated. If you need to make an ending and are short on time, using a powerful wish to justify a cut from final area to ending with very little inbetween makes a lot of sense.

Salmancer said:

Well, the game did run into time constraints that resulted in Bowser's Sky Castle being truncated. If you need to make an ending and are short on time, using a powerful wish to justify a cut from final area to ending with very little inbetween makes a lot of sense.

Click to expand...

I guess since Luigi is just an easter egg character, his wish is probably to spend more time with his brother since they haven't seen each other throughout the adventure.

I am going to make a prediction here and say that Baby Bowser is also going to show up... as a Bowser Jr. alt. This stems from how unique characters are playable despite being alternate versions of existing ones, namely Lumalee being there. This is the kind of plot that can justify both Baby Bowser and Bowser Jr. to appear together, and I hope they do that for fun.

Thank you for reading.

winstein said:

I am going to make a prediction here and say that Baby Bowser is also going to show up... as a Bowser Jr. alt. This stems from how unique characters are playable despite being alternate versions of existing ones, namely Lumalee being there. This is the kind of plot that can justify both Baby Bowser and Bowser Jr. to appear together, and I hope they do that for fun.

Thank you for reading.

Click to expand...

I think you meant to post this in the Mario Tennis Fever thread.

Salmancer said:

I think you meant to post this in the Mario Tennis Fever thread.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's right. That was my mistake.

Thank you for reading.