An Overanalysis of Mario Timelines

By Kestron

An Overanalysis of Mario Timelines

Alright, let’s address the elephant Mario in the room. This is unnecessary and a waste of time.
At the end of the day, there is no timeline. Mario is just Nintendo’s mascot that they make games about. Characters are heroes or villains based on what they think the target audience - who are kids and will latch onto villains and think them heroes, especially when toys are involved - will enjoy. And that’s fine. I’ll be addressing probably more than a few of my own interpretations of things, or popular interpretations I disagree with, and at the end of the day there is no right answer. There are definitely wrong answers, but not right answers. Legend of Zelda is a series that should absolutely have a coherent timeline, and doesn’t. It changes based on the year or the most recent developer interview that came out constantly. This is Nintendo’s premier lore based series, and they cannot have a coherent timeline ever. Mario is not known for story content, it’s gonna be messier here. The only relevant Mario timeline to care about is and always will be the release order. I am not presenting the right answer here, like I highly highly doubt this is the right answer. But if you, like me, are frustrated by the amount of inconsistencies and unclear staging in this popular franchise, allow me to present my best attempt at making it coherent. I believe to have constructed something that works, fills the holes, explains inconsistencies and errors, and maybe makes for an entertaining read. Just don’t take this too seriously. Nintendo definitely didn’t. That’s why the chaos exists for reframings in the first place.

But… why?

Because geekery, and I’m the kind of guy to structure everything in my head no matter how whimsical the ordering is intended to be.
Also a video by popular creator Ceave came out and reignited this question. While his video is a fascinating watch that I will absolutely be referencing here for some interesting things he noticed I haven’t seen mentioned before, it still has some significant flaws.
There is also a video by Game Theory (under Matpat still) that is an interesting watch on the subject, and will contribute to Mario Land’s placement in particular, but to get it right out of the way Game Theory is not usually a credible source when it comes to Mario. The main problem with Game Theory’s video is that it came out pre-Odyssey and posits that Jumpman and potentially Pauline are the Mario bros parents. Now, after Odyssey, we know this cannot be the case. I’ll dive more into that later.
I will credit Ceave and Game Theory sporadically throughout here for inferences I drew from their videos, and anything I do not cite that is found in these videos is because I came to the same conclusion on my own, as I watched these videos after writing most of this. Yes including the elaborate DK math, I was quite shocked to find that there when I was stress testing my version against the popular version. Even the categorization names find similarity.
I will also be incorporating some other series or closely connected spin-offs as I see fit. Donkey Kong in particular is actually vital to this whole thing working. Other spin offs and games that just reference Mario will also be addressed at my own discretion. Yes, the third party Mario games will be considered here. Do you know how many third party Zeldas there are that are treated perfectly as canon and continue to be? Many of the key entries that are referenced today were made by third parties like Capcom or Grezzo. And these are perfectly treated as canon and weaved into current games. If it has Nintendo’s stamp of approval, then it is a Nintendo game, no matter which studio made it.

Spoiler Alert

For the entire Mario series and a ton of other related Nintendo franchises, both old and hot off the press games.

The OTHER Elephant Marios in the Room

Release Order? Naming Scheme?

Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story was the third installment in the series by release date. The addition of the Bowser Jr’s Journey side mode moved it to the second alongside the Bowser’s Minions mode with Superstar Saga. By release date, and reflected in the Super Mario Bros. Encyclopedia, two different games take place between Mario Land 1 and Mario Land 2, despite them being direct sequels with no time gap between them at all. New Super Mario Bros. 2 was released after New Super Mario Bros. Wii, yet was titled after New Super Mario Bros, not New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Mario Galaxy: A Reboot?

We’ll talk more about Mario Galaxy later, but first I want to get the big question about Galaxy out of the way. At the end of Mario Galaxy, it is revealed that a reboot of the universe occurs, and that this happens periodically. Mario Galaxy 2 then proceeds to feature the same characters who seemingly all have amnesia.
I will be ignoring this almost entirely. Multiple timelines is a cop out (staring directly at you, Marvel and Zelda). Additionally, Mario from the old universe carries over to the new one perfectly cognitive of the old one, and the other main characters who matter here are right alongside him, seemingly carried over from the old one as well. For our purposes, Mario Galaxy’s reboot reveal is meaningless, and probably just a better attempt at explaining the different maps than Zelda does (which for reference is none at all so there is not a bar to clear here at all and Mario Galaxy’s explanation is also terrible).
And yes, I do accept Game Theory’s presentation about Rosalina being the daughter of Peach and Mario (not necessarily the Luigi twist he implies) from a different instance of these reboots. It is not the present reboot, as Peach is canonically dead to Rosalina’s home universe in this case.

Immortality Is Real To This Universe

Mario games kill. Over.
And over.
And over.
And over.
And these are definitely deaths, we see Bowser fall into lava, we see the skull sign appear. But these canonically same people keep coming back time, after time, after time.
The exception is going to inevitably be Dry Bones, and Dry Bowser, who are the still living skeletons of Koopas and Bowser Koopa. But we see in several games that Bowser can be turned into a skeleton frequently, and then always appears with skin again later. There’s no way to read into this one.

“But One-Ups, those let you come back!”

Super Mario Odyssey establishes the idea that a life is now just ten coins. The coins are also still in the world when you come back, so this isn’t just an alternate universe galaxy where Mario made different choices. Donkey Kong - who is connected to these games I’ll touch on that, he does matter - uses a balloon. Or gold pieces. Lots of Mario universe games have a different life system. Most entries only have lives matter to keep the last checkpoint you were on. Run out of lives? Here’s Mario and the crew tired and sad for a moment. You can go pick right back up where you were! Just no checkpoints are still retained. This is most evident in certain spin-offs where you watch them directly say they’re dead, violently explode, and then come back fine later, and reference their previous death. Death is only a mere setback. This isn’t incredibly important to bring up, except for one thing - Ceave Gaming argues that for Bowser Jr to be the new heir, the other Koopalings must be dead. I argue otherwise, and the absense of death is going to be the biggest rebuttal to that more comfortable interpretation (yep, that one’s more comfortable, you’ll see).

Brick Blocks in Mario 1

Additionally I’ll put a caveat about Super Mario Bros. the original in this section. In the game manual it is stated that Bowser Koopa turned a ton of Toad residents into brick blocks. Why do this, why not kill them? It’d be so much easier. Because death is not final. It is a setback. Bowser Koopa kidnaps Peach Toadstool in this game as a way to prevent the Toads from being reverted, which the manual also states she can do. So to address it, no, the Toads do not continue to be brick blocks in each subsequent game. Peach Toadstool is able to revert them and presumably does. Additionally, in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the Toads being turned into blocks is addressed again, and this time it’s a mechanic where Mario can break them free of their imprisonment and bring them to the end of the level. So no, Mario is not killing Toads.

Peach: The Eternal Princess

The Mario games have been running for decades. We see Peach time and time again have the final say, and the political power, as the sole monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom. Yet she is always the Princess. This means for whatever reason, the King and Queen are no longer present or ruling, yet the throne does not pass as Queen to Peach. Toadsworth is seen raising Peach from infanthood, so the circumstances by which this occurs is unclear. The easiest explanation (in universe, the easiest explanation is really just “don’t think about it” but that’s not what we’re here for) is that they both passed away shortly after her birth. With the absense of death in this universe, it’s not a great answer. The Shroobs of Partners in Time showing up right as the babies are born may be a workable answer. Additionally, Princess Shroob dresses… exactly like adult Peach? So how do you interpret that? Characters are worried about and already know of baby Peach, so no she did not originate from the Princess Shroob as a child or otherwise. The mom never comes back despite the Shroobs being defeated, so abducted is possible but more difficult to swing. So is she dead? Did the Shroob steal the clothes? But what about Mario universe immortality? Well, what do the Shroobs do with their captives? The adult Princess Peach? Feed her to our pet giant monster plant. Random nobody we found on the street? Feed her to our pet giant monster plant. Need to terrorize the Yoshi town? Giant Yoshi monster that’s gonna eat everyone.

The Shroobs seemingly acknowledge the immortality question, and actively fight it - by having monsters consume their enemies. The theory I propose, is that Peach’s parents aren’t around anymore… because the Shroobs ate them, or fed them to something. Also Princess Shroob wears the mom’s clothes. Dark? So is all of Partners in Time.

As crazy as this sounds to say, it really doesn’t impact the other games much, but it’s an interesting origin theory.

Isn’t Mario from Brooklyn?

No. That idea is from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, which is notably incompatible with everything here (mainly for Super Mario Bros 2 reasons). It is yes referenced heavily in the movie, but to anyone who’s actually thought about these games you’ll already know the Super Mario Movie is completely and totally terrible at representing this franchise. So bad in fact, not even Nintendo is acknowledging it. You would think with a movie making as many numbers as this, their video games would come to reflect it more. But no, it has had a net zero effect on anything except the movie. Consider (notably I did not say watch, that movie is terrible once the awe of the easter eggs wears off) Mario and Peach, the two frontrunners, and then consider any game in the franchise… at all. You can’t call them the same character… at all. Bowser is only even somewhat comparable in games like Mario Odyssey and Bowser’s Fury, which I do not think are enough to call Bowser the same character at all either. The Mario Movie is about as canon as the 1993 Mario Movie - which is to say, entirely incompatible. The picture in this article is of Goomba from the 1993 movie if you’re somehow unaware of the 1993 version. It is easier to make the Super Show work than the movie, and I am not throwing the Super Show in here. Cranky Kong is already old and frail, when he shouldn’t be until DK III is present, when we’re directly told the DK in the movie is Cranky’s son, therefore DK Jr. The Mario Galaxy movie is not out at the time of writing this, but the trailer alone already shows a total and 148% incompatibility with everything to do with Mario Sunshine and Galaxy - both 1 and 2. The Mario video media will be ignored here. There are entire games about Mario’s birth, and they are very distinctly not Brooklyn.

Game & Watch Games

We’ll throw these in there - mostly. There are a couple you’ll think are missing, I exclude these because they’re just reskins of pre-existing Game & Watch games.

Donkey Kong

If you’ve played with the Mario timeline before you know Donkey Kong needed to be mentioned, in detail. Especially with Donkey Kong Bananza’s introduction, it can’t be ignored as it is firmly tied to the Mario series now. So let’s overview it. Basically all coherent theories have to account for Cranky Kong being canonically the Kong in Donkey Kong for the arcade.
Donkey Kong is a gorilla. Gorillas live to be 45 years, 50 in captivity, with the record high being 70 at the moment. Males tend to breed at ages 15-20. So Cranky needs to stay in the ballpark of 50 years old, with going a bit older being tolerable, and we also need three generations. Yep, three. Donkey Kong Sr or Cranky Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, and what’s usually overlooked, our current Donkey Kong is actually Donkey Kong III, not Donkey Kong Jr. I will be referring to them by these names for clarity from here on out. This puts Cranky at the lowest at around 45, and we can slide that slider all the way up as high as we need to. This is a perfect framework, especially for how old he is depicted to be, with 50 being a gorilla’s 90.
This distinction between the three Kongs becomes really interesting when you introduce the banana obsession - consistently associated with DK III, and not the prior two.

The Pauline Problem

Now many, many theories have presumed Mario in the Donkey Kong arcade games to be a separate entity, perhaps a father, addressed as Jumpman. This is a nice way of avoiding the uncomfortable fact that Mario was the bad guy in the game Donkey Kong Jr, however with the release of Super Mario Odyssey, where Pauline explicitly references having experienced Donkey Kong arcade alongside our present day Mario, this is no longer passable. Mario is, unfortunately, accountable for the game Donkey Kong Jr. This is inescapable.

Additionally, we now have Donkey Kong Bananza, which features DK III, which we know for certain to be the III due to conversations with Diddy and Dixie Kong referencing the Country and Land games. Additionally, Cranky Kong, DK Sr, is present, and old. In Donkey Kong Jr, DK Jr is clearly a young child, not someone who’s already had a kid and had time for that kid to grow up. And in Donkey Kong, Cranky Kong is clearly not old.

Thankfully there is a solution to this that is entirely necessary. The Pauline in Donkey Kong Bananza is also a legacy Pauline, a descendant. The game makes several references to following in the footsteps of her grandma, who is brought up a lot. You can see this described more thoroughly with this Youtube video by Goombanna. But this poses needing a 13 year old grandchild of a character we last assuredly knew to be in their 20s. So “Lady” Pauline as I’ll be referring to her as henceforth, from the original Donkey Kong is, in DK Bananza, around 53 at the youngest end assuming adulthood in DK arcade and each generation having a child at age 20. Not great for Cranky Kong, putting him in his 60s, but plausible and passable as record highs for gorillas do reach about 70 at the moment, and there is a killer beard on Cranky and a much more aged body than he had in the Donkey Kong arcade games so assuming older than average old is fine.

Where this Leaves the DKs

Donkey Kong in the arcade is DK Sr, Cranky. Mario, our Mario, does capture and partake in violence towards this ape’s child, DK Jr. DK Jr is the DK Mario interacts with in Mario & Minis (yep, they’re here), being a less violent and more friendly Kong that plays into Lady Pauline’s… “fun”. (I’ll touch on this in a second). DK III is the Donkey Kong we play as the protagonist of the Donkey Kong series games, and the DK who interacts with Pauline (III) in Donkey Kong Bananza.

This tangent, because of firm monkey math that ties into the mainstream Mario universe and is MUCH better defined than the Mario timeline, is going to end up becoming the foundation of how we place things, using Donkey Kong arcade & Jr, and Donkey Kong Bananza, as endpoints, with Mario & Minis as midpoints. Lady Pauline in Super Mario Odyssey reminisces with Mario, implying a long duration of time since she last saw Mario in Donkey Kong arcade. Meaning we need Mario & Minis after Odyssey, with Cranky, DK Sr, being about 40 so DK Jr can be 20. DK III’s games can start happening no sooner than 10 years after the last appearance of DK Jr, with Donkey Kong Bananza endcapping the run with Lady Pauline at ~55 years old and Pauline (III) firmly at 13. This should provide us some solid borders that we can expand and squish into.

Peach and Bowser

Yep, we need to address this. This is unfortunately becoming more and more hinted towards and pretty solidified in Odyssey.

Super Mario 64

Lakitu holds the camera in Mario 64. Canonically, the terrible camera angles are attributed to Lakitu. Mario is invited for cake, comes, is filmed, doesn’t think anything of Lakitu at all (notably one of if not the most annoying enemies to people who have played early Mario games), and just is filmed the entire time. Immediately, Peach is kidnapped. Bowser has a laugh track when Mario dies. This is televised. Canonically, this is televised. Why is this televised?
This pattern of “Invitation (usually specifically for cake), Mario, Conveniently Easy and Timely Kidnapping” is repeated again and again and again. Almost all of the New Super Mario Bros. games are like this, and a lot of others besides. Then there’s…

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Where we see Peach nearly kidnapped by Bowser yet again. Does she act? Nope. The Mario bros defeat Bowser as usual. Then as he lays unconscious, she, with one finger, magically levitates Bowser and throws him miles away. Yep. You read that right. She absolutely has the power to waste Bowser, but doesn’t. Ever. Not once. She lets herself be kidnapped and doesn’t display the immense power she has until someone has already gone out of their way and risked one of their lives to protect her. Why?

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

I don’t want to touch on a lot of the implications made in this game but I need to touch on a few. For one, Link is here. I’m not getting into Zelda timeline shenanigans right now, but canonically they’re the same universe. (Ocarina of Time explicitly has photos of Mario in the castle, so if you want to merge these universes because fun, probably just after Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask when Link leaves Hyrule <-> Mario RPG would be my guess).
More importantly, Bowser’s motivations are the noble and heroic “Someone else kidnapped Peach. That’s my job.” And becomes an ally. This pattern is also present in Paper Mario games. In Bowser’s Inside Story. In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. As soon as Peach is lost, he’s not the bad guy - he’s a rescuer. I won’t touch on what because I don’t want to, but for those of you who know I’ll remind you that there’s another tidbit in this game that proves Peach is actively hiding things about relationships.

Super Mario Bros.

The first truly Mario game. The infamous “Thank you Mario, but your princess is in another castle”.
Toad knows this? Toad is here? Weren’t the Toads turned into brick blocks and grass and stuff? Why is there conveniently a Toad here conveniently not a brick conveniently telling Mario to continue?

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

In this game Peach (winks at those who know the game) is attacked by the evil witch Cackletta and her right hand bean Fawful. They spray her with a gas and extract her voice and replace it with an explosive personality. I mean voice. An explosive voice. Peach becomes Black Bolt basically.

Bowser shows up during this time, and says he was going to kidnap her, but can’t because of the voice problem. “She’ll wreck my castle!”. No she won’t. It’s literally falling from her textbox. It’s the words she’s saying that are explosive. Bowser is already kidnapping her. He can just gag her. But he doesn’t. He heroically marches off and drags the Mario bros with him to an entirely different country just to save her voice. Bowser is worried about her wellbeing here. Now you might say, well the voice could still be explosive, or maybe he doesn’t think about a gag as a possibility. But this game takes it a step further.

And then when he’s trapped in a canon, about to be fired into the stratosphere, later revealed to have done enough damage to cause severe amnesia, Bowser’s last wish isn’t “Avenge me”. It’s not “You’ll pay for this!”. It’s not “I’ll be back to get you later!”.

M-MARIO!!! Green ‘Stache!!! You gotta get Princess Peach’s voice back! It’s all up to you!

The guy is terrified, he thinks he’s about to die. You can see it in his facial expression, the way he’s wording it, the real damage it physically does to him later. His last words are to help the Princess, and wishing luck upon the two people who constantly foil him. That’s not hatred, like you would expect. It is legitimate concern for her wellbeing.

Super Mario Odyssey

In Super Mario Odyssey only two songs have lyrics. One is Jump Up Superstar, and it is made abundantly clear that this song is being canonically sung in universe actively by Pauline for real. Pauline is flirting with Mario… a lot.
Then there’s Break Free: Lead the Way. Which due to the surrounding environment and the context of the lyrics, must be sung by Peach.
But the lyrics are more ambiguous than you might expect… here’s a couple of the most telling excerpts from the song.

Nobody believes in me and you, just look at the way they stare

Nobody believes in Peach and Mario? That doesn’t seem right. Mario is a celebrity and repeatedly a guest and rescuer of the Princess. Everyone believes Peach and Mario. But if I told you Peach and Bowser, you wouldn’t believe me. You’d stare at me like I’m crazy.

So what if we live in a walled garden, as long as I’ve got you then I don’t care

Walled garden? A nice place they can’t leave?

*Bowser theme is directly inserted here*

The whole song has elements of Bowser’s theme interweaved, but here it’s straight up inserted. No part of this song features the same kind of solo track for any of Mario’s themes. You know which song does feature lots of inherently and directly Mario lyrics and sound effects? Jump Up Superstar, the song being sung by Lady Pauline directly flirting with Mario.

Shake off the chains, you’re running free

Chains aren’t Mario’s thing. But another character here actively wears chain bracelets…

You’ve got me over the moon, and that’s no jest
We’re miles above the rest

Who “got” her here? It wasn’t Mario.

So as you can see, an uncomfortable number of these lyrics are directed towards Bowser in this song. The song actively has Bowser’s theme in it. Yes there are lyrics that reference Mario - “Let’s grab the flag together, fireworks are gonna start” as an example, but that’s actually the most directly Mario line in the song. And it’s not that direct - like yes, this sounds like Mario, but it doesn’t have to be Mario. “Nobody believes in me and you, just look at the way they stare.” There’s no way that lyric is directed towards Mario, it has to be Bowser. Which interpretation requires fewer leaps? Bowser, or Mario? You might say Mario because no way Peach and Bowser are a thing. And to that I say, see the Mario Minis games! Mentioned shortly. This song is seemingly being sung not to Mario, but to Bowser. Does Peach know about the capture mechanic? It happened in front of her, yes, that doesn’t mean she understands what just happened. Particularly with these lyrics.
Then the final cutscene happens. Bowser butts in and is proposing to Peach. This is easy to miss through the quick action and cinematics, but Peach looks genuinely interested, intrigued, and happy here. Then Mario gets worried - why is he worried she’ll say yes to Bowser? - and offers her his own set of flowers. Only now does Peach look worried and upset, like she should have been the whole time. Also, Mario and Bowser are best friendzoned buddies instantly once she gets overwhelmed and walks away. Despite having been fighting to the death already. Why does Bowser just accept no? His whole thing was kidnapping her and forcing her into this… wasn’t it? Why is he depressed and listening when she says no? Mario is… comforting Bowser in this scene. What?

And even earlier when Mario barges into the wedding hall, Bowser is giving Peach the ring. There is no hard evidence that she had to have been resisting before Mario crashes the wedding. More interestingly, who do we see around… but everyone. Including Pauline.
Why did Mario have to work so hard to get to the moon wedding, when Pauline and others are just… here? Why are all of the good guys already here? At a wedding put on by Bowser, that to Mario’s face, nobody admits is legitimate or happening, yet they all show up anyway?

Small tangent that has no bearing on anything but is funny for Princess Bride enjoyers: The ring is already being exchanged. Which happens after the vows. So Peach and Bowser are canonically husband and wife unless they pulled a technicality that has yet to be remedied and skipped the “I do” part. Which we have no proof of what happened with that part to point to, just a funny thing to point out.

But back on track, notice something interesting - after Super Mario Odyssey, Peach is never seen as a damsel in distress again. Never. The game where her relationship stuff is aired out and explored most thoroughly is the one where they stop exploring it.

This is also the game in which Nintendo confirms Mario stopped being a plumber - why did he quit his job suddenly?

Bowser’s Fury

Bowser is mind controlled by Venom goop. When Mario saves him, Mario is indifferent and just grumpy. Bowser does not look like he is about to murder Mario, he just looks like he wants to air something out or rough him up. Bowser Jr trusts Mario in this game, stops Bowser from confronting Mario. This isn’t about the decades of kidnapping and foiling built on near and literal death experiences for both parties, this is bickering. This isn’t the body language of a hero who’s been fighting this guy for decades, the body language of a guy who just saved Bowser from evil Venom goop, this is the body language of “I’m not sorry.”

The Mario Minis Precedent

Ah yes, how do I put this. The Mario and the Minis spin-offs. Lady Pauline and DK Jr… Have a thing together. Like, a staged kidnapping that Mario saves Lady Pauline from… for nothing. It’s just for “fun”. Would Nintendo write a staged kidnapping where Mario just plays along where there was never any real danger, and imply the aggressor and the damsel actually have a thing together? They already did. Not only did they already do it, they already do it - with the Mario series, between a historically interpreted damsel, a giant non-human boss, and Mario directly. And not only did they do this once, they do this several times over in the Minis series. For various stated “purposes” - Mario’s surprise party, “testing toys”…!?, just… wanting a toy for a ferris wheel ride? Who are we fooling here?

Bowser Jr’s Parentage

Oh, you thought that was already bad? It’s gonna get worse.

Super Mario Sunshine

Throughout this game, Bowser Jr acts pretty autonomously, and Bowser is really only present for the final bossfight and the post credits scene. Bowser Jr acts out of a belief that Peach is his mom. Bowser reluctantly says in the post credits scene that he lied, and Peach isn’t his mom..
To address the fact Bowser admits to having lied, he also lied in the first place. So which was the lie? The first reveal, or the second one? Bowser Jr didn’t act like he was just now told. Bowser could’ve been lying about having lied to get Bowser Jr to not run off and try that again. This was Bowser Jr’s plot - none of Bowser’s Minions are around, they’re all Sunshine original enemies. Most of them paint related - it isn’t Bowser with the paintbrush. This is why Mario is actually imprisoned in this one, Bowser Jr is trying something different than usual. Bowser Jr doesn’t say Peach, he consistently says Mama Peach. This is what he’s been raised on. If Bowser was lying about Peach being his mom, he’s been doing it since Bowser Jr was born - was the real mom ever in the picture if it’s not Peach?

“Bowser Jr also says he knew that deep down!”

So? He’s a kid. Mario is marketed towards kids. How do you think parents playing or watching their kids play these games will feel if Peach is Bowser Jr’s mom? I’ll make some more comments about this in a minute. The important thing I’ll say here - the end of game “retcon” is for certain as much intended from the beginning of development as Antman Quantumania’s unclimactic scene where the portal reopens. In both instances they’re just things thrown in there when they later realize they don’t like the implications. In Nintendo’s case, an uncomfortably blatant recognition of Peach x Bowser. In Marvel’s, an uncomfortable realization that leaving a cliffhanger means they have to sit through more Quantumania garbage. Both get edited out. But what’s the canonicity of the vague retcon this one takes?

“But developer interviews and press releases and…”

I’ll call on my old punching bag of examples the Zelda series again. What the developers say in those interviews are known to matter as much as what a random Youtuber says. That is to say, it may end up having an impact later, but it probably won’t. The devs say things in interviews that have long been known false or that will be immediately written off next week.
Peach, despite just being called Bowser Jr’s mom, doesn’t object at all. She doesn’t say something along the lines of “That’s impossible” or “I’m not your mom” or “Me? With Bowser? Ewwww…”. No. She says the following.

Mama? Mama Peach? I’m your… Mama? (…) So you’re Bowser’s son.

She doesn’t say “So Bowser has a kid?”. Or better, she doesn’t say “So Bowser had another kid?”. He’s already had 7. She says “So you’re Bowser’s son”. Like Bowser Jr is the only one to matter. Exactly how Bowser acts towards the subject.

“Game manuals aren’t canon!”

Yes they are. They have far more precedent of being true to the games than developer interviews. Bowser Jr’s Journey makes no move to claim the Koopalings aren’t his kids. But Bowser Jr’s the heir.

Super Mario Bros. 3

Bowser has sent his 7 children to make mischief as they please in the normally peaceful Mushroom World. […] Mario and Luigi must recover the royal magic wands from Bowser’s 7 kids to return the kings to their true forms.

- Super Mario Bros. 3 Game Manual, emphasis added.

We took 7 wands from the 7 kings. Each of us has one. Our father has instructed us to protect the wands.

- Larry Koopa, Super Mario Bros. 3 Game Manual, emphasis added.

Just as Super Mario Sunshine is the first real world appearance of Bowser Jr, Super Mario Bros. 3 is the first in universe and real world appearance of the Koopalings. It is also only the second real game to feature Mario, as Donkey Kong (arcade) will be brought up but is not really a Mario game, Mario Lost Levels was Mario 2 in Japan and moreso DLC than a second game, and Mario 2, also known as Mario USA, will also be brought up but was never intended to be a Mario game and is famously just “Doki Doki Panic” with Mario sprites added in later. The game also ends off revealing it was all a dream, and thus has no lore implications past Mario knowing Peach (hardly a lore implication). So Mario 3 is truly the second (by release) Mario game to matter and we already have the Koopalings well established as Bowser’s children. Not his adopted children, and nowhere will you ever find a reference to them being adopted. Including in…

Bowser Jr’s Journey

Bowser Jr is, in this game, firmly seen and explored right alongside the Koopalings.
And here’s the important part.
Bowser Jr is firmly solidified as the youngest, but also the heir. Nowhere in the game are the Koopalings said to not be Bowser’s children. Bowser Jr is simply the heir, and the other Koopalings are still Bowser’s kids. And the other Koopalings are salty about it.
Ceave’s take was to not include spin-offs, and presume the other Koopalings from the same mother but also dead. This is incompatible with the greater Mario universe and the immortality of non natural deaths. I present my analysis. Bowser Jr is from a preferred mother. Take the story of Jacob. He had nine older sons through Leah. He had two younger sons through Rachel. The heir was none of the nine from Leah, it was the eldest of Rachel. Because his preferred wife was Rachel. David passed his throne not to any of his much older sons, but to Solomon, the eldest son of his preferred wife. Do you see what I’m getting at here?
Now, why would there be a preferred mother? Who would this be, that would have Bowser’s preference as heir, that was already established to have a connection to Bowser and Jr. by this point?
Do you see what I’m getting at?

Wait, What Are You Saying!?

Allow me the courtesy of being blunt. Nobody will believe me, I can see the way you’re staring.
With all of this, I think the conclusion I’ve been pointing to should be pretty self evident. Taken as a whole, it’s pretty clear what the implied (I did not say intended, critics) history is here. Mario’s canonically extremely rich and famous, to the point of having or being capable of buying a private island and castle, yet remains in a plumber’s clothes. Coins are scattered literally everywhere. Taken as anything other than a gameplay mechanic - why would so much money be everywhere uncollected with so many other enemies who, are shown to also canonically have their own lives within and outside of Bowser’s army, also around? Is it payment for Mario? I’m not saying it is, but I’m not saying it isn’t. Bowser has genuine care for Peach’s wellbeing, to the point of making it what he believes to be his dying wish. Peach has an entire song filled with Bowser references and motifs, and only ambiguous Mario references. Bowser Jr is the heir to the throne, despite the other Koopalings being his older brothers, and the one who has an entire arc believing to be Peach’s daughter. This is not retconned in a firm way at all. Peach shows genuine interest in who Bowser Jr has grown to be, and her word choice proves she already knows about the secret child. Mario’s adventure in Mario 64 is televised. Toads drop hints they shouldn’t know, shouldn’t be… animate to give. Pauline and other “good guys” are all present at Bowser’s forced sham wedding. In fact, Bowser is the only “bad guy” in this entire room.

There is one answer that answers all of this: This is a show put on so Peach and Bowser can get together, be seen together, with less dangerous political connotations involved. Were Peach and Bowser to properly merge, so would the kingdoms, so would Peach’s rule. Remember, she’s a perpetual princess, she’d definitely be overruled by a King Bowser Koopa if she can’t even be Queen when she’s the only regent. The one right after the stage is set, the play is performed, is the one where Bowser exerts force on other rulers. The one where political holes will be questioned, brought up. He doesn’t kill them, or make them inanimate objects, he makes them animals who are conscious of what is occuring. These kings are supposed to see the pieces move. See Mario save them. See Bowser’s power. Then Bowser never threatens other rulers again. It’s just Bowser and Peach henceforth. Until the staged wedding, when Bowser only claims objects, not people. And Mario is once again assured to be solving problems Bowser is causing outside of the kingdom, right when the wedding tensions will be brought into question. Mario is happy go lucky the entire time throughout these games. He smiles, wa-hoos, “It’s a me, Mario” (“Super Mario” being the intended delivery or not) at random points, has fun with it - while out there an inch away from “death”. I would argue to a slightly lesser extent that Bowser Jr is the hidden secret child of Peach and Bowser. In universe Bowser tells Jr Peach isn’t his mom to prevent another uncontrolled rampage.

The Mario series would never? Mario and the Minis set this exact precedent with Lady Pauline and DK Jr.

The Timeline

With all of that finally out of the way, many pages in, let’s actually start the timeline with these assumptions present.

Infants

Mario, Luigi, Peach, all enter the world as infants. Bowser is definitely pre established already, the fact he’s speaking and more mobile doesn’t need to mean much as Koopa lifespans are generally undefined - and given that he’s a child the same age as Mario and Co by this point, but has fully grown Koopaling kids by Mario 3 which is very early on into the timeline, we’re going to assume Koopas reproduce early on and have a faster growth compared to humans and even the apes.

Yoshi’s Island DS

Bowser from the future time travels back to try and intercept key players before or as they’re being born, so the Yoshis band together with new or yet to be borns to stop the monster turtle. Yep.
This game ends putting the babies right back where they were and letting the storks proceed with delivering with the babies.
The most notable thing here is that we find a baby DK. Which, if you’re following, is the measuring stick of time. So which DK is this? A DK that’s roughly 20 at the time of Donkey Kong arcade?
Yep, that’s right, this baby Donkey Kong… is Cranky Kong. Remember, gorillas only have a little better than half the lifespan of humans.

Yoshi Touch and Go

Help guide Baby Mario down to the Yoshi’s.

Yoshi’s Island

Mario and Luigi are flown in on storks and delivered to the wrong people. Kamek captures infant Luigi, Yoshi and infant Mario (I am not saying baby to distinguish from their spin-off entries where they are seen as separate entities, they are not separate) go on a quest to rescue Luigi, they do so, Mario and Luigi are delivered to their parents. But it’s not their parents, because psyche…

Yoshi’s New Island

Yoshi’s Island DS opens immediately with saying “Whoops, those weren’t his parents, let’s try this again”. So immediately after Yoshi’s Island, we have another entry, where Kamek captures the infant Luigi… again. Bowser here behaves young, but not nearly as young as the other two. Bowser is seen more prominently as an already speaking, walking, baby, while Mario and Luigi are newborns. Remember that Yoshi’s Island DS establishes Bowser to be the same age as the rest of the crew.

Yoshi’s Story

Generic Yoshi game where he works alongside the baby crew

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: Past

Next up we have the past portion of the Partners in Time spin-off. Mario and Luigi are still babies, as is Peach, but also definitely older than they were in Yoshi’s New Island. Not a whole lot of time has passed here though. Toadsworth is here, as Peach’s mentor and the one raising her already by this point. Toadsworth will continue to raise Peach into her adult years. Interestingly, we see Petey Piranha as one of the Shroob’s minions, suggesting Petey is alien to this planet. Reinforcing this idea, we later see Petey (or a version of him) in Mario Galaxy as the only returning non-Bowser related Mario Boss in that game.

The Blue Collar Era

During this time Mario lives in New Donk City, as a rather short New Donker but no other human not from Mario’s family is shown to be nearly as short compared to literally everyone else in literally all of the games. He works construction, meets Lady Pauline long before she’s elected mayor, and has a scuffle with DK Sr over it.

Game & Watch: Mario’s Bombs Away

Mario is a soldier in the army blowing people up. Yep.

Game & Watch: Mario’s Cement Factory

Mario works in a cement factory. Not much else going on here - or is there?

Wrecking Crew

Gaining more spotlight in recent years due to its references in the Mario Movie, Mario still works in the construction industry under foreman Spike.

Donkey Kong

Well folks we all know the story, a carpenter climbs girders to save his girlfriend from the big ape that grabbed her as barrels are chucked at his face. This Donkey Kong is Cranky Kong, Donkey Kong Sr, but Mario is notably still Mario. Lady Pauline here is 18 - early 20s, and is Pauline “Sr” by the DK naming model I’ve been referring to. Mario is notably still in the construction industry as well.

Donkey Kong Jr

Mario is so enraged at the gorilla that kidnapped Lady Pauline that he kidnaps the gorilla and does anything he can to stop the gorilla’s child from rescuing him. A blemish on Mario’s otherwise noteworthy name. DK Jr is notably a child, so for monkey lifespans 2-10 years old, more likely on the lower end of the range.

Donkey Kong 3

Cranky Kong is in a greenhouse and Stanley wants to shoot him with pesticides. Not much to say here.

Mario Bros.

In this one Mario is a generic plumber with generic Mushroom Kingdom staging as opposed the New Donk City staging of the previous entries

Working for Peach

Mario is hired by his childhood friend Peach to help her stage political theater. This is his status quo for a long time, and he becomes quite rich doing this.

Super Mario Bros

Under this current draft but may adjust later, I like this as the jumping off point and makes logical sense with the more serious take on Bowser’s intrusion compared to all later entries.

Super Mario Bros 3

Notably before Bowser Jr’s birth while the Koopalings are still the intended heirs. Other kingdoms doubt the seriousness of the Mario 1 kidnapping, and so Bowser exerts non-lethal force onto the other kingdoms while Mario makes sure to be on display rescuing them.

This is the first time I’ve met up with Mario.

- Wendy, Super Mario Bros. 3 Manual.
Firmly lodging this as the first of any Koopaling featured game.

Super Mario World

Immediately after Super Mario Bros 3 as established by the Super Mario World manual, just another Princess rescue routine. But it’s a dinosaur vacation.
Here’s an interesting thought: What does a Koopa look like to you - Yoshi, or Toad? Also, Bowser’s full name is Bowser Koopa. Yoshi’s full name is T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopa. Eh?

Paper Mario (All)

These are an “alternate universe” in a sense, moreso these are either Peach’s writings that at one point gain a life of their own, or the book is a portal to their AU. In either case, this is not the main universe. I say Peach’s writings because it’s in Peach’s personal library, if it’s not written by Peach then it would have to be written by someone else in Peach’s court during these events. These get written at some point before Paper Jam, so these can go at any point after Super Mario Bros 3, and by extension Super Mario World since it takes place immediately after Mario Bros 3. That’s why I’m placing it here, as the book is dusty by Paper Jam so I’m going to place it as far beforehand as I can. This can go anywhere up to and before Paper Jam technically.

• Paper Mario
• Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
• Super Paper Mario
• Paper Mario: Sticker Star
• Paper Mario: Color Splash
• Paper Mario: The Origami King

Yoshi Topsy-Turvy

This can really go anywhere in the adult Bowser era, Yoshi must stop Bowser from conquering egg land.

Super Mario 64

Peach made Mario a cake, so he’s here for some. Except she’s gone and he must rescue her, while Lakitu televises the whole thing.

Luigi’s Mansion

Mario is trapped in a painting by King Boo, and Luigi must save him with the power of vacuum.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Birdo’s birth is in this one, kicks off the RPG style games.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions

“Peach”’s voice is stolen by Cackletta and Fawful, Bowser drags the Mario bros with him as he gives chase.

Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time: Present

Professor Gadd invents a time machine and the crew go back in time to rescue the Mushroom Kingdom from the Shroob Invasion at the time of their birth, thus making a closed loop paradox.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr’s Journey

The Koopalings are still responsible for Bowser Jr and he does not have independence yet. Mario, Luigi, and Starlow are shocked to meet Bowser Jr for the first time. Bowser Jr proves he’s ready for independence in this game.

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

Luigi has magical dreams that cause problems

Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon

Luigi’s Mansion again, and the Poltergust gets an upgrade

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Luigi’s Mansion Hotel again, and the Poltergust gets an upgrade.

Super Mario Bros 2 (Super Mario USA)

Never intended to be a Mario game, but Doki Doki Panic rebranded, this game is revealed to all be a dream. It can happen at any point after all characters in it that are also in other games have been introduced, which I believe is true of this placement. I place it here because Luigi’s dreaming in Dream Team rolls pretty well into Mario having a similar expansive dream world.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

Luigi is fixing Peach’s library when he accidentally stumbled into the book of Paper Mario’s adventures, knocking the characters into the overworld and causing mayhem.

Bowser Jr Adds Pressure

Bowser Jr starts becoming a mainstay in helping with his father’s plans.

Super Mario Sunshine

Bowser Jr plots to follow in his father’s footsteps and so kidnaps his mom, Peach. This ends with Mario in prison due to Bowser Jr legitimately trying and not understanding the scope of what his father is doing. Bowser intervenes and helps tie the ends up, then explains to his son that Peach isn’t his mom to try and dissuade him from further mischief. As Game Theory points out, while FLUDD is scanning Mario, it shows details from Mario 1, Mario World, and Mario 64, meaning this happens after all of those.

Super Princess Peach

With growing pressure from surrounding kingdoms over the legitimacy of Bowser’s invasions, they stage an invasion in which everyone but Peach is taken and Peach must be the hero.
This interpretation is (narratively, almost surely not by intent) justified in how she insists on questing alone in a display of heroism - when she’s been taken countless times over and over by Bowser easily and the few people who usually do the rescuing have all been taken. Yet she’s confident she’ll be safe on her own.

New Super Mario Bros. 2

Yet Another Generic Kidnapping Rescue™️, Koopalings are the main driving force.

New Super Mario Bros

Yet Another Generic Kidnapping Rescue™️, Bowser Jr helps with this one.

New Super Mario Bros Wii

Yet Another Generic Kidnapping Rescue™️, Bowser Jr works alongside the Koopalings and Bowser

New Super Mario Bros U

Yet Another Generic Kidnapping Rescue™️, and basically just a rehash of New SMB Wii. This time though, Bowser stays in Peach’s castle…

Super Mario Galaxy

Bowser starts becoming more grandiose as he literally takes Peach and her castle into the far reaches of outer space.

Super Mario 3D Land

Yet Another Generic Kidnapping Rescue™️

Mario & Luigi: Brothership

Adventures in the land of Concordia, Bowser Jr is present and causing mischief.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Episode 1

In Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, the Wii U version leads into Mario 3D World, and the 3DS/Switch versions lead into Mario Odyssey. This is problematic.
Per this Reddit post by FireMarioProductions, it suggests that the credits of Episode 1 lead into 3D World, and the credits of Episodes 2 & 3 lead into Odyssey, thereby reconciling both as canon. I think this interpretation works the smoothest of the interpretations I’ve seen. I also like how this implies the Captain Toad levels in 3D World are part of his still ongoing quest, which I think fits and works really well.

Super Mario 3D World

Yet another show of force against another kingdom to prove power and impose fear. Peach uses none of her innate magic she has displayed having multiple times over.

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: Episodes 2 & 3

See the blurb under Treasure Tracker: Episode 1.

Super Mario Odyssey

Bowser and Peach plan a grand wedding together, but Mario feels he deserves a chance after all he’s done. Mario offers his counter proposal on the moon, a’la Tomodachi Life proposal scenes. Lady Pauline can be as necessary anywhere between 20 and 45 for this, more likely in the later numbers of that range. Mario quits his job as a plumber, buys a private island, builds his own castle. For those curious, the Donkey Kong in this game is DK Jr, and yes. Additionally, Mario has a couple of grey hairs in this one, solidifying it as one of his later appearances.

Bowser’s Fury

Bowser is infected with a Venom-like paint symbiote and goes on a rampage leading Bowser Jr to seek help from Mario.

The Rebound

Mario is quick to move on to Daisy after losing Peach, and rescues her from the alien that has followed Bowser and the crew back to Earth.

Mario vs Donkey Kong

Mario hires Lady Pauline who he recently reunited with as he sets up the toy company capitalizing on his celebrity status while the cashing is still good. A toy factory is also present on his private island in Super Mario Land 2.

• Mario vs. Donkey Kong
  DK Jr is desperate for a Mario toy.
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis
  DK Jr crushes on Lady Pauline and takes her. Mario gets there and finds her in a room filled with presents as Lady Pauline kisses a DK Jr toy.
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!
  Lady Pauline and DK Jr stage a kidnapping to “test a Mario toy’s capabilities”, because you definitely need a staged kidnapping to do that.
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!
  DK Jr holds Lady Pauline ransom in exchange for a mini Pauline toy. Because that plot makes sense.
• Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move
  DK Jr teams up with Pauline and they run a carnival featuring an arcade.
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars
  Lady Pauline and DK Jr stage a kidnapping to get Mario to his surprise party, because you definitely need a staged kidnapping to do that when Mario accepts invitations to random things every other game he’s featured in.

Super Mario Land

Mario moves on to Daisy after Peach, and aliens are invading again.

Super Mario Land 2

While in Sarasaland, his private island is sacked by Wario. This takes place immediately following Super Mario Land 1. Note that the Mario Encyclopedia places Mario 3 and Mario World in between these two, which is impossible via the games.

Wario Adventures

Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land features Wario on a quest to gather wealth. This is the beginning of Wario as the “protagonist” of his own games, the rest follow this.

Princess Peach: Showtime

Peach displays her innate magical power as she stops a theater from being overrun. Peach ends with the Radiant dress, which is very Rosalina coded.
Now we come to an interesting timeline placement for this - Peach now has the Rosalina dress, which this Game Theory short points out is key to a Super Mario Galaxy storybook flashback reveal showing Peach to be wearing it while acting as Rosalina’s mother. Additionally, the original Game Theory video suggests that Luigi may be a better candidate for Rosalina’s father than Mario is. Before I structured it out to this placement, I wrote this off. However, with this timeline placement that is necessary completely devoid of the Radiant dress or Luigi as the father, Mario is out of the picture and doing his own thing while Luigi was never shown to be following his brother away from the Mushroom Kingdom by this point. Therefore, this seems to agree with that interpretation.

Dr. Mario Series

In retirement, Mario & Friends become doctors. I, I guess. This might be better in Uncategorized under a catch all “IDK AU IG LOL” spaz.

Super Mario Galaxy: Rosalina’s Storybook

And so with this timeline placement Rosalina’s Storybook actually gives us a pretty clear idea of how things played out. After Mario left, Peach and Luigi end up having a thing and birthing Rosalina. Bowser’s sped up aging (we see him acting as an already pretty independent child with the patterns of being at least over 7, likely older, while also being a baby birthed at the same time as the still stroller-bound pacifier-sucking sob-at-everything infant that Peach is. He acts older even than the babies Mario and Luigi do) may contribute to this coming to pass.
Peach, while Rosalina is still young, unfortunately passes away.
Rosalina for her part finds a crashed starship, fixes it up, and runs away into the stars, becoming their time traveling reboot-immune guardian over time.

Punch Out

We’ll call this one of Mario’s older appearances, as he does legitimately look older in this game, late 40s-50s. He referees a boxing ring.

DK Games

These games are supposedly chaotic to organize as well but my research doesn’t seem to be that conflicting with release order. The Donkey Kong Land games are ports of the Country games to Gameboy and severely paired down from their Country counterparts, but are otherwise rehashes of them (AUs if you like).

• Donkey Kong Country
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
• Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!
• Donkey Kong Jungle Beat
• DK: King of Swing
• DK: Jungle Climber
• Donkey Kong Country Returns
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Donkey Kong Bananza

In this game Donkey Kong III adventures with a 13 year old Pauline (III), placing Lady Pauline, DK Sr, and Mario into their late 50s-60s, a minimum of 33 years after Donkey Kong arcade, likely a bit higher, keeping Cranky’s age in mind.

And the Loose Ends

Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Mario Wonder evokes more of the color pallete and world physics of the dream world from Dream Team. Considering we have two different games that heavily deal with dreams, one entirely contained within one, it’s not a stretch to call this a dream world, and that seems to be what fits best for me in the trip that is Mario Wonder.

However if we were assuming it to be in the timeline, we would place this after Odyssey, and most likely after the Mario Lands.

Mario Run

Mario Run is a generic mobile platformer that conflicts with the rest of the games due to having more characters and statues and other references than works anywhere in the timeline. So an AU at best.

Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros 2)

This one’s placement here is more climactically explained in the following game’s mention.

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Ceave points out something key about this game: the star festival takes place only once every 100 years, and it is notably time to happen again. Ever wonder why everyone has amnesia directly after the first Galaxy game? Realistically yeah the intent is just another Galaxy game for kids for fun with no implications, but we’re not here for that kind of hand wavy nonsense.

So we’re left with four options.

1. Everyone is a legacy character. This is fine, especially with the Kong and Pauline precedence, but with Rosalina being Peach’s daughter and she still looks different than Peach, I’m slow to this one, as in theory the legacy characters would look different than their elder counterparts.
2. Everyone is immortal. Yes we’ve technically established this, but not the aging part of immortality - Cranky Kong is old and far removed from the body he once had. There are characters all over these games that are aged.
3. This is an alternate universe. Yes I said we’re not playing into that, but there’s actually official precedent saying The Lost Levels (In Japan, Super Mario Bros. 2) are an alternate universe happening parallel to Super Mario Bros. 1. So “shaky ‘sequel’ that reads more like a DLC levels pack and has significantly less if any story content” games (which is exactly what Galaxy 2 is) have been set as an AU before.
4. This is the rebooted universe post Galaxy 1. This doesn’t work well with the main characters seeming to have amnesia that we watch carry over.

So in my opinion the one that works best is option 3. Any of the four presented work.

Sports, Party, Racing Spin-Offs

These are still noncanon. Primarily the babies alongside the adults throw everything off, in addition to specifically baby DK Jr. However, if you want a place where they can fit, about after Wario Land after the rest of the fallout from the relationship stuff is over is where it would fit best. If you’re really really wanting to make it work, we can assume Professor E. Gadd’s time machine from Partners in Time was applied here, but going back in time just to race go karts in precariously dangerous situations where bombing your opponent is not just allowed but expected with a toddler version of yourself is a little ridiculous.

Yoshi’s Woolly, Crafted World

These are crafted worlds, following the Paper Mario ideas, maybe it’s one of Peach’s crafts 🤷‍♂️.

Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle/Sparks of Hope

No.

Final Conclusion

Let me just be clear here - this is probably not the intended lore here LOL. I sincerely doubt most if any of this was intentional. I do not believe this is the real lore of the franchise or some secret developer intent weaved and hidden in the subtext. But when inconsistencies and holes open up time and time again, sometimes the patch for that hole is consistent… So who knows? Maybe this one holds water. It probably doesn’t. But you got this far without clicking off - did you enjoy it? And let me ask this - were this to be assumed true, does it make more sense than the chaotic ink blot we had before?

And yes, I’m certain I made a couple mistakes or overlooked a couple of things. Yes Waluigi is still only in noncanon games.

Thanks for wasting time with me, if it’s any condolence I wasted far more time writing this than you did reading it I assure you 🙃. I am writing the conclusion before I’ve actually finished the middle and I’m still going and still writing fully knowing if I get even one person who actually reads the whole thing that is far more than I should ever expect. And yet I’m still typing. Welp.