I doubt it, since the manual refers to Mario as being from Brooklyn, so I probably just answered myself, but still, it had Nintendo’s seal of approval on it so I just wanted to be sure.

Congratulations to all of the trans members of the Mario community who feel seem by this!

His eyes are more ovular, his head is a little smaller relative to the rest of his body and his brow is more neutral. It’d be weird if Illumination directly influenced this, but at the same time I actually like this new design, it feels a bit more retro.

Like, I know he is a kitsune to reference japanese folklore and stuff, but in-universe, is there any reason for him specifically to get an alterante Kitsune suit from this power-up speciffically, called "Tanooki Leaf"? Is he the very only character to have this oddity? Does this happen with other power-ups too, for other unique characters? I don't think you could even say it's like the Power Flower from 64 DS, since that one gives drastically different powers to everyone, but this is not like that, since the difference is only aesthetic, and the powers Luigi gets are identical to anyone else's.

I had some free time, but all I had on hand was some paper and a pen, so I ended up making the Viltrimite Empire meme with the Koopas!

On a serious note, even if they aren't the most evil, I imagine the troop is a terrifying thought to most peaceful species in Mario's universe. They are a group of nearly immortal turtles with the power to regularly trade blows with the strongest man in the realm- and they have easily conquered most of the universe on at least two occasions!

As we saw in Odyssey especially, if the Koopas show up on your doorstep, and Mario and Co aren't sound to stop them, there isn't much you can do to stop them from turning everything around you upside down as they see fit.

What is it about Luigi that connects with alternate realities? Twice was questionable, but three times is just crazy. Why is this green plumber the so in tune with all of these interdimensional powers?

This has been something this community has largely accepted since 2015, but it seems a lot of newer members aren’t quite so filled in. I’m writing this post to be a quick way to catch people up on the subject.

Part 1: For Context

The Paper Mario games tell stories of Mario’s adventures through an arts and crafts or pop-up book aesthetic. This is because from the very beginning, the Paper Mario games were meant to be set in a book that retold Mario’s adventures, but were accurate depictions of the mainline Mario universe.

Since our first priority was to protect the atmosphere and setting of the Mario universe, we decided to only use characters from the mainline Mario games. The side characters from Super Mario RPG therefore do not appear. I think that with Mario, sticking to the “main road” is the best. Plus, it would feel weird to have heavy themes like “betrayal” in the overall cozy, heartwarming atmosphere of the Mario world. (laughs)

- Ryota Kawade, Chief Director of Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

We spent close to a year and a half trying out different character ideas. We also tried using pre-renders like SMRPG, but we figured it would be more fun for us to attempt something completely different this time, and that paper-y Mario was the result.

- Hiroyasu Sasano, Support on Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

Herringway said he definitely wants to write your story. He even came up with a title... What was it again? Let's see... Well... "Paper Mario"!! What do you think!!??

- A Penguin, Non-player character in Paper Mario (Nintendo 64)

A real Mario Story told through the perspective of a storybook. Not at all dissimilar from what Dr. Mario 64, Mario Party 6, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker all do.

This carries through to later games such as Paper Mario: Color Splash as well:

...I think one thing is that because this is taking place within the greater Mario world, we wanted to focus as much as possible on the familiar Mario characters.

- Risa Tabata, Assistant Producer of Paper Mario: Color Splash

This establishes the Paper Mario games as canonical events which also happen in the world of mainline Mario games, but despite this the developers were not afraid to have some fun with the aesthetic they were working with.

Although not the main focus, many paper-based gags were present in the world from the start.

Actually, the very first challenge Mr. Kawade and others had to face was how to convince Mr. Miyamoto. For example, we had to explain how we'd utilise the idea of things being flimsy like paper to a large degree in the final game. The utilisation of paper-like elements was more of an 'improvemert' for him than an 'innovation' since the original idea was there with the N64 version.

- Kenshiro Ueda, Coordinator on Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario:

• Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

• In the intro sequence of the game, Kammy Koopa is taped into the story being told about the Star Spirits.

• The Star Spirits get turned into cards by Bowser and Kammy Koopa.

• When the veranda in Goomba Village falls and Mario fallls after it, he floats down safely like a piece of paper.

• When Mario rests in a bed, he similarly floats into it like a piece of paper.

• A Goomba masquerades as a picture on a signpost on Goomba Road.

• The clouds in the background of Goomba Road battles are held up with sticks.

• Mario enters and exits a pipe by folding like paper and spinning around its edges, which a Toad in Toad Town even calls attention to.

• Some Goombas lie down flat on top of blocks to hide from passers-by.

• Merlee folds Mario into cards when she casts her spell.

• Stilt Guys fall down as pieces of paper when entering General Guy’s Battle.

• A Star Kid in Starborn Valley “hides” by turning sideways.

• The stairs in the Crystal Palace unfold from the wall.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door:

• Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

• The fallen heroes of 1000 years ago place Curses on Mario, allowing him to turn flat, fold himself and transform into origami, such as a Paper Plane or Paper Boat.

• Boats turn around by rising out of the water before flipping around like a piece of paper.

• Mario enters and exits a pipe by folding like paper and spinning around its edges.

• The transition screen for entering an exiting a pipe crumples the screen like a page.

• When people in Rogueport are knocked down, they fall completely flat, parallel to the floor.

• When Mario enters a building, its walls and door unfold to reveal the interior.

Super Paper Mario:

• Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

• The magical ability to “flip between dimensions”, going between 2-D and 3-D.

• Areas are “drawn” into existence when the characters first enter them.

• The Pixl Slim has the ability to turn the heroes “invisible”, represented by turning them sideways.

• Spiny Tromps are made out of cardboard.

• Sometimes a piece of paper will peel away to reveal a secret, such as a hidden chest.

• When turning into her spider-like form, Mini’s head unfolds like a piece of paper.

• At one point, Mimi says “I guess I'll congratulate you... by tearing you to little bits like stupid confetti!”

• Mario enters and exits a pipe by separating into and reforming from smaller pieces of paper, respectively.

• The transition screen for entering an exiting a pipe crumples the screen like a page.

• When Brobot enters battle, the screen is torn like a sheet of paper to transition from one scene to the next.

• One if the Sammer Guys, “Rolling Thwomp”, says “I ROLL OVER YOU AND MAKE YOU FLAT LIKE SHEET OF PAPER!”

• When Luigi performs his Super jump move, he folds himself like a piece of paper to charge before springing into the air.

• The audience that appears for Stylish Moves have jagged paper outlines surrounding their bodies.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star

• Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

• Kersti’s magical “Paperize” ability makes the world “become as flat as a piece of paper”.

• Certain enemies such as Goombas use magic, likely provided by Bowser, to fold themselves into dangerous shapes.

• A stack of Toads act like a flight of stairs for Mario Warm Fuzzy Plains.

• Decalburg gets partially folded by Bowser’s magic.

• The Soggy status effect appears to temporarily affect Mario as water would a piece of paper.

Paper Mario: Color Splash

• Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

• Huey’s magical Cutout ability “transcends dimensions” and cuts parts of the world like paper.

• Huey’s squeeze ability turns objects into paper.

• Magic Paint plays a major role, with it being sucked out of the denizens of Prism Island and used by Mario to restore the island to its former state.

• A Toad is turned into a letter by Bowser’s forces and mailed to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Paper Mario: the Origami King

• Characters are flat like paper and when they turn around their body turns like a sheet.

• The Origami Craftsman uses the magical Fold of Life technique to bring his Origami Creations to life.

• King Olly uses the magical Fold of Life technique to transform Bowser’s Army, Princess Peach and the Vellumentals into Folded Soldiers while turning the Toads into various Origami creatures.

• King Olly uses magic to bring the Origami Craftsman’s tools to life and make them giant, creating the Legion of Stationary.

• Mario and Olivia use Magic Circles to transform themselves using Origami Techniques, such as the 1,000-Fold Arms.

• The Toads and Mario in the Temple of Shrooms have holes punched in them by the Hole Punch and Bowser’s Minions are cut up by the Scissors guarding the castle. All of these magical effects are undone upon the bosses’ defeats.

With all that taken into account, it’s clear that this is genuinely a Paper World. However, since we also know that these events are supposed to take place in the real world, the only possibility is that the Paper Mario games depict events, locations and characters that exist in both the real world and the Paper World. We see these events from the perspective of the Paper World, but everything still happens in the real world without the paper aesthetics.

The opposite also applies, with all of the adventures the real Mario has been on occurring in the Paper World, with the paper aesthetics.

Part 2: How it Developed

In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, the lore of the Paper Mario world is greatly expanded upon. We learn that it’s a “parallel world” located within a legendary magical book. For the first (and as of writing this, only) time, we see the Mario cast interact with their Paper counterparts. This has lead some people to believe that the Paper Mario games didn’t occur in the real world, with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam retconning what had already been established, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In fact, in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam the opposite is implied. The game constantly calls attention to how the two worlds are exactly parallel through character dialogue. Some examples of this are Kamek and Paper Kamek coming up with the same plan to betray each other at the exact same moment and have the same proceeding conversation with their respective Bowsers, or when Peach and Paper Peach talk about themselves on Mount Brrr, realising how their lives and personalities are the same and even coming to the conclusion that they are the same person.

This was wholly intentional on the developers’ parts, with the core of the game being focused on showing inner depth to these personalities through interactions with their doubles:

Mario and Paper Mario, Princess Peach and Paper Princess Peach... It was fun to create interactions between different versions of the same character who come from different worlds like these examples. For this game, we created themes for each of the interactions between the main characters. We emphasized the characters' personalities for each of the character interactions, such as Mario being curious about Paper Mario's special abilities and trying to see if he can use them himself (even though both Mario and Paper Mario are the heroes of their respective worlds), the two Princess Peaches talking about girl stuff, the Bowser Jrs. getting along immediately like old friends, etc.

- Shunsuke Kobayashi, Director of Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

Plenty of other games set in the real world have also referenced the events of Paper Mario games, further proving they occurred in the real world:

• Goomboss, who was created by Bowser using the Star Rod in Paper Mario, goes on to appear in Super Mario 64 DS and Mario Kart DS.

• Dry Dry Desert from Paper Mario appears in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, with Dry Dry Ruins, which were discovered during Paper Mario, appearing in Mario Kart Wii.

• Bowser’s Castle from Paper Mario, which was created by Bowser using the Star Rod, reappears in Mario Kart: Super Circuit’s Rainbow Road.

• Goombette from Super Mario Odyssey is pink, just like the other female Goombas previously seen in Paper Mario and Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door.

• Snowmen from Paper Mario reappear in various games in the Mario Kart series with the same appearance.

• The Mystery Egg item, featured in Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, is a reference to Mini-Yoshi’s Egg from Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door.

• Sky Guys from Paper Mario reappear in Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Strikers: Battle League.

• Red Chomps from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario reappear in a movie projected by the WarioWare: Touched! souvenir “Reel-to-Reel”, as well as on the Pyramid Park board in Mario Party 7.

• Suits of Koopatrol armor from Paper Mario, Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario appear in Bowser’s Villa on Vibe Island in Super Princess Peach.

• Koopatrols themselves appear in Mario Pinball Land.

• Whackas from Paper Mario, Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario appear in Mario Party 6 on the Snowflake Lake board.

• The Snow Bunny item from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door appears in Mario Party 6 on the Snowflake Lake board.

• The Headbonk move that Goombas perform in the Paper Mario series returns as an attack in Minion Quest: the Search for Bowser and Bowser Jr.’s Journey.

• Star Hill from Paper Mario reappears in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

• The Star Spirits from Paper Mario reappear as hosts in Mario Party 5.

• Bowser Sphinx appears with Tutankoopa’s Headdress from Paper Mario on the Pyramid Park board in Mario Party 7.

• The names of Goombario, Kooper, Bombette, Moustafa and Tubba Blubba from Paper Mario appear on the scoreboards in Mario Golf: Advance Tour and Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.

• Hammer Bros. appear with their uniforms from Paper Mario in Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

• In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga there’s a room in the Woohoo Hooniversity that contains blocks Mario has encountered in his past adventures. Amongst these are blocks from Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World and Super Mario 64, with a block from Paper Mario also appearing.

• Green Magikoopas, Red Magikoopas, Yellow Magikoopas and White Magikoopas from Paper Mario and Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door reappear in Minion Quest: the Search for Bowser, Bowser Jr.’s Journey, Mario Superstar Baseball and Mario Sports Superstars.

• Dark Boos from Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door reappear in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

• Recovery Blocks from Paper Mario, Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door and Paper Mario: Sticker Star reappear in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.

• Star Haven from Paper Mario, is mentioned in the intro of the Japanese version of Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.

The lore of the Paper Mario games in general is also clearly of great importance to the series as a whole, with Super Mario Galaxy’s Power Star lore being directly pulled from the original Paper Mario in large part.

With that, it’s clear that all of these stories, locations and characters indeed exist in Mario’s real world as well as the Paper World.

Part 3: Wrapping it Up

Finally, I’d like to address some common questions that people are left with.

Is it possible that only some Paper Mario games happened in the real world, while others happened in the Paper World?

No. The events of all of the Paper Mario games happened in both the real world and Paper World. It’s made clear that all of the Paper Mario games happen in the same universe as each other, and therefore all occur in both worlds:

• Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door has many callbacks to Paper Mario, through locations like Mario’s House or Dry Dry Desert and characters like Parakarry, Kammy Koopa, Lady Bow, Jr. Troopa and Moustafa.

• Super Paper Mario features portraits of Mario’s partners from Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in Mario’s House, as well as Catch Cards depicting them.

• Notes belonging to Goombella from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Parakarry from Paper Mario can be found in the trash scraps of Shy Guy Jungle in Paper Mario Sticker Star.

• In Paper Mario: The Origami King, photos of Princess Peach’s from all previous Paper Mario games can be seen.

How do certain paper-y mechanics work in the real world, such as the Curses in Paper Mario: the Thousand-Year Door or the Folded Soldiers in Paper Mario: the Origami King?

While many of the paper-y elements of the Paper Mario games can merely be acknowledged as gags and nothing more, story relevant ones like these still make sense within the real world.

Real World characters can be turned into paper, cut, folded or molded without major consequences. As seen in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, magical abilities like the Trio Attacks have the capability to turn real world enemies into paper, before cutting or folding them without any “real world” consequences outside of dealing normal damage. Keeping in mind that the Curses in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Origami Techniques in Paper Mario: The Origami King are too both magical in nature, it makes perfect sense.

Additionally, the real Mario games are no stranger to cartoonish gags as well. Looking to the Mario & Luigi series, for example, in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Luigi is able to be squashed into the shape of a surfboard, while in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Luigi swims through the air to reach the blimp. Additionally, in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario & Luigi: Bowser Inside Story and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Mario is able to be blown up like a balloon or filled to the brim with water.

In the Mario Kart series, characters can be flattened like paper by being crushed by a player with a Mega Mushroom or by obstacles such as Thwomps on the track, before the effect wears off soon afterwards.

In Mario Super Sluggers, a Koopa Troopa hides within a poster, identically to how a Goomba hid on a sign in Paper Mario.

Stickers from Paper Mario: Sticker Star are not natural to the Mushroom Kingdom. The Stickers come from the Sticker Star, and rain down over the Decalburg region once a year when the Sticker Comet arrives.

The magical Paint found in Paper Mario: Color Splash is consistently described as a life force throughout Paper Mario: Color Splash:

“You know... paint! That colourful stuff coursing through our bodies?”

“The paint you just absorbed is basically my blood, sweat and tears.”

“Paint adds beauty and life to the world.”

“Where exactly are we supposed to find this magical, life-giving paint you speak of?”

“I did basically sacrifice my lifeblood to get you out of that pickle back there...”

“They’re sucking the very life out of this beautiful island!”

Paint also appears as a sort of “life force” in various games that take place in the real world, such as Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion and Bowser’s Fury. When Things, real world objects, are wrung out in Paper Mario: Color Splash, they too produce paint, proving that paint is not a substance exclusive to the Paper World.

Conclusion

The Paper Mario games occur in both the Paper World and the real world, but we see them from the perspective of the Paper World. All of the events, locations and characters from the Paper Mario series exist in the real world, with the events, locations and characters from the real Mario series existing in the Paper World.

Thank you for reading.

They originally wanted Mario to be the Sam color as the Jumpman sprite but it’s a similar maybe even the same color as the water background

In the NES port of Donkey Kong the life counter says M and in 2 player mode it has L as well which stands for Mario and Luigi so if that wasn’t Mario it wouldn’t make sense to have Luigi there

Finally the Phantom literally says that Mario’s dust appearance was in Donkey Kong

As we know, there are many kings, queens or other equivalent titles in Super Mario world. However, when it comes to each ruler's background, some of the villain kings seem to not actually rule a specific kingdom.

While Peach is best known as the ruler of Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser doesn't really claim to rule an equivalent territory such as Koopa Kingdom, where Koopa citizens enjoy their normal life, or is directly referred in any official occasion when Peach and other rulers acknowledge thier royal identity. Yes, most villain kings do have a castle or a fortification, but we usually don't have further info about them aside from being a battlefild in mainline, in order to tell whether villain kings aqcuired their territory legally or illegally.

A possible theory could be that King Bob-omb, King Boo or King Goomba mean to rule a species, since they're the most majestic being of their tribe, but such tribes just live in other kingdom or country, which are actually ruled by other people. Some of these kings invade other kingdoms because they want their own territory.

In some other examples, such as Shake King from Wario Land and Ollie from Origami King, specifically point out that they're self-claimed and want to be real kings via domination.

Do you think all the titled kings get to rule a kingdom? Or some kings use a different system of naming? Or you believe some of them are not real kings?

Waluigi appears in mainly just sports/karting/Mario Party games. While Mario and Luigi are off saving Peach every weekend. Wario has Warioware and his other plans to get rich. I believe waluigi spends most of the time playing in sports events beyond the ones that involve Mario and co. He is playing in the actual professional leagues/tournaments of the various sports.

Waluigi is likely an extremely successful sports star who is a major celebrity. We just only see him when he’s playing games with Mario since he’s the main character.

Mario isn’t playing in sports leagues all the time. He spends most of his time being a superhero plumber. He just plays sports when he wants to have fun. Waluigi is a professional and probably dominates in the sport when Mario and his friends are not around.

Basically imagine if one of the best players in every sport’s major league is the same person, and that person also occasionally plays sports with your universe’s equivalent of Superman, and he has actually beaten him sometimes in said games. I imagine his sports career outside of his times playing with Mario is a lot like this fan animation about the baseball career of Yamcha from Dragonball by Team Fourstar https://youtu.be/OGm-3LQEs4k?si=oqqZ6ZeJn0peK_4J

I’m not that knowledgeable about what the general consensus is on Waluigi’s relationship to Wario and the Mario bros (please let me know in the comments). From observations though he seems like a grumpy, kind of mean rival. Mario and Luigi are basically the reason why he’s not the undisputed greatest athlete alive due to them beating him sometimes. Maybe that’s why he’s such an envious rival.

Waluigi’s first appearance was in Mario Tennis as a way to give Wario a partner. As such I think it’s a fun idea to think of Waluigi to be more deeply connected to the activities in the games he appears in since while they’re spinoff stories for Mario, they’re basically all Waluigi has to flesh out his character. I’d love to hear people’s ideas on that in the comments.

So as i was reading about the Mushroom Kingdom from Mario Odyssey, i spotted something interesting when reading about Goomba Woods. It mentions that there are wild Goombas that moved in there. So how does that work? Why are they considered "Wild"? Does that mean there are some Goombas that act like animals, while others are more civilised that can speak, live in houses and wear clothes