post any random Mario thought on your mind

In some of Rare's Nintendo 64 games such as Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64 and Conker's Bad Fur Day, there is a tendency to include a cutscene on a bad ending as a Game Over. I am now wondering what would a Mario game with such a cutscene be like, since they do not tend to have them. Like for example, I can imagine the Luigi's Mansion games having a dreary ending but based on recent events on celebrating Mario's death I can't help but think that Luigi's Mansion 3 would be a "happy" ending (meaning, in an esoteric sense) for Luigi if he chose the path to escape while his friends suffer in pictorial prisons, kind of like Rolo to the Rescue's bad ending.

Thank you for reading.
 
i was writing up the giantest ramble in response to a post about sunshine on the unpopular opinions thread and its gotten so off topic i should just move it here LMAO but this here is talking about worldbuilding with npcs in sunshine and odyssey
none of the other mainline marios have anything like sunshine having a bunch of characters in each level that reappear in different situations every mission, and you can tell they have different personalities, looks, and they may even develop over time like with the lil pianta in ricco harbor that, over time, tosses mario higher and higher. its so wonderful

odyssey comes the closest in terms of worldbuilding as a whole, but it doesnt have anything remotely like this for the people thesmelves. theres a few recurring characters like the desert wanderer, but those reocurring characters hardly have distinct appearances from any other npc of their species. you can only tell this fool is desert wanderer because hes found next to a taxi and a new donker
SMO_Wanderer_in_New_Donk.jpg

and thats a problem with how the npcs are designed. teal tostarenans will always be short and will waer the same clothing (with the exceptions of a different hat sometimes), green tostarenans will always be tall and wear the same clothing, and you will not get any other type of tostarenan ever. if you had the desert wanderer in a random group of tostarenans you wouldnt be able to find him because he just looks like every other tostarenan out there...

meanwhile sunshine npcs get a lot of variety even when its so simple. piantas jsut have different genders, skin colors, and then hats, shirts/dresses, and other accessories. that feels so simple but is enough for you to be able to distinguish them!
some odyssey npcs do have distinct appearnces but it seems to be pretty rare? the style sisters look like every other lochlady, the bonneter biologist(s?) look like every other bonneter. the voleyball coach might even be the only such unique looking npc but i cant check bc mario wiki isnt cooperative today and i cant open the smo navigation template at all for some reason
Bubblainian_Volleyball.jpg


and actually.. i just remembered a certain npc in luncheon kingdom. theres a short purple volbonan thats just chilling on a roof who keeps saying theyre not procrastinating (huge mood though) before mysteriously vanishing in the postgame state of the kingdom...
what-happened-to-them.png

so this one is a reoccuring character that isnt tied to any of the moons and just exists for a funny and adds something to the world. so odyssey CAN do that. it may prove that you dont even necessarily require sunshines structure of having tons of mission per level to have reoccuring minor npcs (though it definitely helps). so why doesnt odyssey have more of that?? why doesnt odyssey give them more distinct appearances??? why cant we have anything like the angry pianta wife in bianco hills that consistently launches mario into the sky for the heck of it

tldr; sunshine has tons of distinct characters in its locations and odyssey, otherwise coming the closest in terms of wordlbuilding, mostly just has npcs. thats all they are

edit: you can also point at just about any sunshine npc and say this is a character with a distinct personality and youd be right! not in odyssey. not in odyssey
 
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It's true that there isn't much intraspecies differentiation in Odyssey, a fact I suspect is partially rooted in Nintendo's recent mandates to homogenise Mario universe species so they can each be more easily represented by one marketable, relatively plain character--Toad, Yoshi etc.

However, it's also worth taking into consideration that Nokis and Piantas might be as individualistic as they are because they are also far more populous than any one species in Odyssey, collectively occupying a span of six areas in Sunshine's overarching setting. Despite this, you will still notice a significant degree of homogenisation in each particular area in the game: you have default Piantas in Delfino Plaza, fishermen Piantas in Blooper Harbour, villager Piantas in Bianco Hills and so on. More individual characters like the Pianta on fire or the sunglass vendor are not specific to one area and mostly serve gameplay purposes beyond anything else.

Odyssey simply relies on entirely different species to relay particular moods between areas rather than have an encompassing people change demeanour whenever Mario visits a new place. It's true that this results in fewer particularities within each species, but if you think about it, it's essentially the same worldbuilding principle as Sunshine's, only with a different coat of paint.

BOTH are equally preferrable to the creative genocide that happened in the Paper Mario series though.
 
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I agree the effect on the outfit is vastly different. Please fix Mario's egregious Halloween suit too.

You comment in another thread reminded me of Wrinkly Kong and it made me wonder what her opinion on Pauline is, seeing as how Cranky had some history with her in the arcade games before marrying the former. Also, does Cranky still have feelings for Pauline?
 
surprisingly banana day 24 offers a sort of explanation
image.png

after cranky tried to give a kissa to a random (human) woman who wanted nothing to do with him
wait ok i just realised thatd be rather out of character for wrinkly bc shes far too nice for anything like thhis
 
well, you don't really see Wrinkly interacting with Cranky in the games, do you?

She could be this sweet lady who gives Cranky special treatment purely out of love (or, in this case, jealousy).

Also, it's hilarious how this comic makes a continuity out of Cranky's lust for female humans. If this was not intended (and I'm like 99% sure the writer didn't take into account the whole thing with OG Donkey Kong and Pauline), then it's my headcanon that Cranky is a pervert.
 
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If they're going to have Cranky be that, it'll have to be played with a lot of tact. Humor like that, forcing a kiss, otherwise is not acceptable?
 
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a referee said:
If they're going to have Cranky be that, it'll have to be played with a lot of tact. Humor like that, forcing a kiss, otherwise is not acceptable?
Click to expand...

He's an ape. Not to be discriminatory against fellow non-human great apes, but I don't think they're known for their tact. Having Cranky go primordial over someone and the irony of another gorilla, Wrinkly, bringing him down to earth for it is definitely something I'd explore in a Donkey Kong-related story for the giggles.

If you mean the way this is portrayed should be more tactful, aka not showing borderline violation in kids' media, then I agree. It's not a comfortable subject.
 
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im sure his misogyny ties into something somewhere
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(/j)

edit: my headcanon is that they got him to stop being a misogynist and possibly other bad things. idk how. but do remember how dkc3 ended
 
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Anyone remember the digital trading cards stuff for Mario Super Sluggers? That was fun, too bad ads like that pretty much don't exist anymore, imagine if members of the site who joined after it ended reporting their findings for a successor for it
 
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