You know Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope?
(Bear in mind, I have never played this game.) When Rosalina turns bad, she takes control of Bowser’s minions and all of mushroom kingdom. So it’s at this point, Bowser finally realizes: “If I can’t beat Mario, join Mario!” Is that correct? He realizes now it’s best to just fight for Peach and Mario instead of force Peach to marry him like in Super Mario Odyssey.
From an in-universe perspective, it is believed by some that Bowser’s actions are not out of hatred, but that he just wants attention. So Bowser never actually hurts Peach and Mario never actually kills Bowser.
Which is why they’re willing to play sporting events together and why Bowser will begrudgingly work with Mario when his luck is down (Rabbids, Mario RPG).
Mario, Bowser, and Peach are playing pretend wars over nothing, whilst hanging out every other weekend.
Meanwhile thousands of Goomba, Koopas, Shyguys, et al. die in these senseless acts of violence to sate the twisted desires of the rulers.
I sense it’s time for revolution.
It gets better
In Sunshine, Peach was genuinely confused as to whether she was actually baby bowser’s mom. The only way that happens is if you fuck on the regular and do a LOT of drugs
So not only are they sacrificing more troops than a PS3-era musou on the reg, they are doing it to play act some REALLY kinky sex fantasies.
Or the bad guy assaulted and drugged a kidnap victim, wouldn’t be too far-fetched if we’re going down that horrible road.
Troopa Uprising would be a cool idea for a Mario game. Instead of fighting Bowser, Mario has to keep him safe from his lieutenants who represent and command each of the species in Bowser’s army.
The plot twist would be that Mario then has to protect Peach from a Toadstool uprising for the same reason.
Funny idea, but I feel like a game about the political elite crushing a revolution of the people isn’t something that would ring well with a lot of folks, haha.
They’ll release a paid dlc on launch where you get to play as toad, and a year and a half later they’ll release another dlc where you get to play as a goomba
Mario straight up kills bowser toward the end of New Super Mario Bros before being revived by a spell from Bowser Jr.
That’s where “Dry Bowser” comes from
Even in the main series he’s been switching between power hungry destroyer of worlds (Galaxy, Wonder) and goofy bully with a Peach obsession (Sunshine, Odyssey) for a long time.
Yeah, RPGs (Square, Paper or M&L) often have him team up with the good guys when he’s been out-villained. He’s particularly depicted as incompetent in those, and usually kicked out of his own castle, it and his minions being one of the rare other things he cares about.
Ever since Super Mario Bros. 3 it’s confirmed that it’s all a stage play and repeated over and over again, so it’s not been a one-off. They play the same or similar roles in otherwise disconnected plays / movies.
Super Mario Bros 3: Curtain raises and the levels are just stage sets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZM0HHPIdo
Super Mario All-Stars: The gang hangs around at a party https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tySdQ1l_hGM
Paper Mario: Same curtain thing going on as in SMB3 and at battles you can even see the audience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmUtCTtFA4U
Doesn’t that only confirm that it’s a play in the games where the visuals explicitly show that it’s a play? Beyond that Mario games don’t seem to clearly be in any sort of fictional medium context at all, just because SMB3 was a play doesn’t automatically mean Super Mario Sunshine is also a play or a movie, at that point that’s just the characters’ lives.
I actually find it funny trying to make any sense of Mario mythos at all. The characters are endearing placeholders for protagonists and enemies and create an easy design language to use for a game, but there’s not really a consistent lore, the closest we’ve come to this whole sort of idea being legitimatized is how Nintendo has handled Zelda.
They could eventually try to create a Mario canon, but I think it’s a bit too silly of a franchise to try to seriously do that with, the characters and world just bend to fit whatever works best on a per-game basis, for tone and mechanical reasons more than anything else, whether that’s a play or ostensibly real characters in their regular lives.
Even Miyamoto shares this perspective. It’s not that every game is a play, but rather the characters themselves are actors and the games are the medium they’re in.
I remember back in Mario rpg he joins up with Mario and his crew, because his castle was taken and he was left with nothing. So he’s been a reluctant ally at times, maybe even against wario.
I’m convinced Peach and Bowser are in a relationship and they support Mario by allowing him to step on monsters and collect free change in the air.
That or it doesn’t matter. Did Bluto ever grow up every time Popeye clobbered him?
Bowser is just trying to retire already…
