Your headcanons

Oh, Mario does have empathy. He sees the best in others. And Mario's always good natured about it in the end (Mario losing to Bowser Fortune Street: "Don't think I'm going to let you win that easily, Bowser!"; conceding with good-natured praise to Bowser Jr. and Bowser by proxy: "Bowser Jr.! You're just like your daddy. Always getting in my way!"), and even Bowser doesn't show *that* much hatred, just being mainly grumbling about conceding defeat, but confident he'll win next time.

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I like to think the Koopalings are adopted by Bowser back when Bowser wanted a heir to his throne but was angry the stork wouldn't bring him a child. So he went out and adopted the seven Koopalings (mainly because he didn't have a choice, it was all 7 or none at all) and raised them as his own. Then the stork finally DID give him a child of his own-- so Bowser Jr. by default became the heir. The Koopalings remained under his wing.

I ignore any reference to the Koopalings as minions and believe they only call Jr. "Lord" and "Master" because he is the heir to their father's throne. Not because they aren't part of the royal family. And whenever they're ordered around as minions I read it as them being ordered to obey their father or whoever their father left in charge (ie Kamek). Don't care what scenario Nintendo tries to give: even if they try to show the Koopalings getting paid I'll take that as their allowance rather than their wage. Something so deeply rooted in the early Mario games can't just be undone in my book.

They want "Mini-Bowsers" who are minions? Koopa Kid's been on the back burner for a while you know...
 
Some wonder why the fuck Mario would give up his castle (you know, the bitchin one that he had in Super Mario Land 2). I did too.

I had a "eureka!" moment, though, which became one of my favorite Mario fan theories ever. And it also explains why Wario got a castle all of a sudden.

Here's the general gist of it, though: It still exists, but it's not his anymore. Mario and Luigi decided they'd be more comfortable inside their normal house (it reminded them more of their modest home in Brooklyn), and they formally moved in a week or so after the adventure, abandoning their old castle completely. And it was forgotten and just collected dust... until Mr Wario Wario himself came back to the castle for old times sake. When he noticed it was empty and nobody lived in it (meaning it's not theft), he got his stuff, moved into the abandoned castle, and slowly remodeled it into the castle seen in games like Wario World.

Nobody else remembers the castle. It's Wario's little secret, and it's all his. The only other person who knows about this is Waluigi (who half-lives in the castle; Wario considers the castle Waluigi's as well, and he lets him hang in the castle when he needs a place to sleep or is simply lonely, but Waluigi usually prefers a more modest living space much like the Mario Bros.)

TLDR: Mario's old castle and Wario's Castle are one in the same. The latter is just the former several years in the future after Wario took the castle for good.
 
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My headcanon was that Mario simply gave the castle away and turned it into an affordable renting unit.