Super Mario (franchise)/WMG

There is a slightly substantial age difference between Mario and Peach
This seems much more apparent in the earlier Super Mario Bros. games (especially in certain official art pics of the original Super Mario Bros. depicts the Princess Peach that Mario is saving as a little girl). While in more recent games any potential age difference is downplayed but it seems like Mario is fairly older than Princess Peach.
 * Except we see Baby Mario and Baby Peach in one of the Yoshi's Island games, at the same time. If anything, they're the same age.

The pipes in the world of the Mushroom Kingdom can connect to the various other Nintendo worlds.
The Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros are the same as the ones in Mario Bros as they did come to the Mushroom Kingdom and the other pipes can connect to other various Nintendo worlds (such as the Link and Samus cameos in Super Mario RPG). But Nintendo wants to downplay this idea (aside from the Super Smash Bros series that is) and is trying to make the Super Mario Bros. series its own series. (And of course the pipes can be used for 3rd party characters as well as the Super Smash Bros series did demonstrate.

Mario, Peach and Bowser are gods of the day and night cycle.
Peach is the goddess of the day, Bowser is the god of dusk and night and Mario is the god of the dawn. Everyday Bowser kidnaps Peach (dusk) and imprisons her (night), Mario defeats Bowser (dawn) and frees Peach (day).

Bowser can never die.
If he is ever fatally wounded (and he is, often - thrown into lava, falls from a high height, thrown into land mines, kicked into the sun, etc.), Kamek will just use his magic to bring him back. We see one of the times this happens in New Super Mario Bros.
 * Word of God says Bowser is a wizard himself.
 * So in a way, it's sort of confirmed.
 * Specifically, he's a necromancer. Dry Bones, Dry Buzzy, and Boo say hi.

The Koopalings are dead.
New Super Mario Bros Wii is not canon. The game, and the appearance of the Koopalings therein, is just fun fanservice. So, before that game, where did we last see them? Super Mario World. The game where four of them are defeated by dropping them into lava, and where the other three are crushed underfoot. Mario/Luigi, in his rush to reach Bowser's Dinosaur Land hideout, attacked the Koopalings carelessly, and killed them all. Having not yet discovered the secret to infinite resurrection (see above), Kamek could only save one of them, and their physical appearance had to be reconstructed from memory. Kamek, being a forgetful old fool, just made him in the image of the only Koopaling he could remember, Baby Bowser. Bowser didn't care, he was just happy that he had at least one child. Hence, Bowser Jr. was born.
 * Except the Koopalings did come back in Superstar Saga.

The Koopalings are zombies.
First WMG + Second WMG = this. Bowser was just more careful (or competent) with them than the "dry" Mooks.

Bonechill is the Mario version of Lucifer
According to Tippi's tattle, it implies that Bonechill was once a Nimbi who rebelled against Grambi. Also one should note the way he talks, in Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe. Plus the fact that he is an ice monster is very much like how Lucifer is waste deep in ice.

Shy Guys are Toads who pulled a Face Heel Turn
The hoodie being round is from the Toad's mushroom cap. The Shy Guys also are very child-like and so are the Toads. Also, is it so hard to picture dressed like this?

Luigi did, in fact, make the Stone.
He turned into Weegee & stared at the Football till it became a Stone. Mario should have said, "It's a Football, Luigi. YOU DIDN'T CHISEL IT!"

Maybe Mario lives in a posthuman society.
That would explain all the extra lives, and why Bowser is invited to all the Mario xxxxx games, because there's not really a war, it's just a real life formerly fat, formerly Italian, formerly a plumber jacked into the Matrix, rescuing a woman that looks exactly like his fourth grade teacher, who still towers over him, even in the simulation.

Mario and Luigi are Kryptonian.
Enhanced strength, phenomenal jumping prowess, and an ability to absorb solar energy (the various stars Mario collects)? Sounds a lot like Superman to this troper! Mario and Luigi cannot fly and don't have heat vision and overall aren't nearly as powerful or invulnerable because their cells' absorption abilities were messed up after absorbing too much at once thanks to invincibility stars. (To make up for this, their messed up cells can now absorb the energy from magical items instead, allowing them to utilize Fire Flowers, Mushrooms, etc. more effectively than anyone else in the Mushroom Kingdom.)
 * Except that they can fly when they are wearing a cape.
 * Actually, their flight with Capes is more of a large leap, which makes them on level with first appearance Superman. Fridge Brilliance?

The guy in the Go Compare adverts is somehow related to Wario and the Mario Bros.
He appears from odd places and has the ability to levitate; he is rotund with a large zig-zag mustache, and causes people to discuss him without mentioning that he's odd as all get-out (Toad NPCs in Paper Mario often commented on what Mario did without realizing he was standing right behind them). His socks are also in Luigi colors.

The Luigi Clone in Super Mario Galaxy is Mr. L from Super Paper Mario
In Super Paper Mario it is never explicitly stated that Luigi is Mr. L, only implied. The closest anyone got to saying that they were the same person was when Dimention said that he returned a man to his brother, which refers to when he sent Mr. L away, shortly before Luigi was reunited with Mario. In Super Mario Galaxy, however, the clone Luigi is referred to as Luigi's twin - his brother. Since this clone Luigi appeared from nowhere, and Mr. L disappeared to be returned to his brother, they are the same person.


 * This screenshot says hi.
 * That's screenshot's obviously not true as Luigi was implanted with a Floro Sprout! He had no control over his own actions or even what he could say. After all, that 'dimented' harlequin probably made him say that just to get a laugh at the other people's reactions. Alternately, it was photoshoped. :P
 * It happened in the game, all right. And it's true.
 * Luigi is saying I am Mr. L and transforming into him along with Dimentio admitting to it at 2:22 to 3:21. Your WMG is now void. Take That

Mario's job was not carpenter, plumber, or construction worker; instead, he was a building superintendent
This is why he's called Super Mario - it describes his occupation. It also matches up to the naming scheme of the Alternate Universe Doctor Mario. Also consider the parallel to Real Life real estate maven Mario Segale.

Mario is Halo 3: ODST's Superintendent uploaded into a robot.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

Princess Peach, aka Princess Toadstool, is the willing lover of Bowser, King of the Koopas.
The whole "constant kidnapping" thing is a form of flirting and a way of hiding their illicit affair from everyone else. She's also the mother of his children. Note that "Bowser Jr." from Super Mario Sunshine explicitly thinks that Peach is his mother; his "real" mother is is never revealed or even alluded to.
 * Bowser confirms this.
 * No, Bowser Jr. interrupts Bowser before he finishes. Note also that Peach didn't deny Jr.'s claim when he first makes it. She had to think about it...
 * Hey, that little blabbermouth almost ruined it. Since the kid has the power to bring Bowser Back From the Dead, as evidenced in New Super Mario Bros, and thus was too useful, Bowser let him believe this instead of shipping him off to "military school" like the other Koopalings.
 * Almost everyone else. Mario is in on it, which is why he's happy to play sports with Bowser between times. They've got an open relationship; Bowser kidnaps Peach periodically and, after an appropriate time, Mario "wins her back".
 * How long has it been? 25 years? And yet Mario still lives in his own little house. Peach knows she has to marry royalty eventually, and there aren't a whole lot of other kings around; so she maintains the Kayfabe that Bowser is evil.
 * "The Princess is now a permanent guest at one of my seven Koopa hotels." And when Mario and Luigi finally saved Peach, they never got to enjoy the picnic they made the trip for.
 * I got the chills when I saw this entry. It reminded me of Braid, almost. It could mean, essentially, that every time I've played a Super Mario game, I've been killing countless innocent creatures to kidnap the princess from her loving, albeit disfigured, husband. Every time those toad advisors appear, I shall think, "You don't need to say sorry. Mario probably tortured you into giving him information as to the whereabouts of the Princess". The only evidence for this I can muster is that every world Mario plays in is generally bright (apart from the last world in New Super Mario Bros), all the enemies Mario faces are generally non-threatening in appearance, and that the Yoshis are incredibly scary; they look cute at first, but, literally speaking, they eat their enemies then throw the digested, excreted, corpses at other enemies. They really put Bowser and Kamek into perspective - was killing Mario and Luigi as babies a necessary evil? Also, if you think about Bowser's "evil" deeds, you can see that the worst he has ever done was trying to kidnap a princess (or possibly, get back his wife). Mario, however, kills countless beings while on hallucinogenic substances, and keeps a record of their deaths in a disgusting manner (e.g. if he drives his feet into a goombas face, squashing it and killing it, his "score" will go up). I can't go to sleep now, I feel so ashamed.
 * Grace approves of this theory.
 * And also, Mario is her psychotic ex.
 * Princess Peach is much kinkier than I thought. She's into being kidnapped, someone risking lives and limbs to "rescue her", and given that Bowser is a fire-breathing dragon-turtle, a Nightmare Fetishist. She must keep it secret because otherwise she'll become Skanky Mc Shroom.

Mario and Bowser are in a Betty and Veronica situation.
Mario DOES have Peach to himself (due to Luigi's cooking for them and giving her Piranha Plant bouquets), but Bowser is constantly trying to win her over. However, Bowser still hangs out with Mario occasionally; he beats him often in Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart, and thinks that maybe he can even win Peach over. The exception is that Bowser has no chance whatsoever.

Bowser Jr. is an elaborate biological Soul Jar for Bowser.
As previously mentioned, Bowser was killed at the end of the first world in New Super Mario Bros. His skin was burned off. But at the last stage, after some surprisingly easy mumbo jumbo, Bowser Jr. resurrects him. Thus, Bowser Jr. is Bowser. He even looks like "Baby Bowser" from the Yoshi's Story games.
 * ... Children often look like their parents.
 * The Koopalings don't.
 * Maybe they take after their mother...s.
 * This actually makes a certain amount of sense. Bowser Jr. is the only offspring of Bowser that breathes fire. The other Koopalings need wands.
 * Ludwig Breaths fire in Super Mario World...

Koopas are an asexual species.
Explains where Bowser gets his endless supply of troops and where all of Bowser's children came from.
 * M Preg Bowser?
 * Might I recommend...
 * What about this?
 * Alternately, Koopas DO have genders; but since no Non-Mammal Mammaries are seen on the females, it's impossible to tell the difference in the overwhelming majority. One of the Koopalings certainly seems female.
 * The playable character Koops in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is explicitly male and has an NPC girlfriend who appears onscreen.
 * And when  in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, he gets Non-Mammal Mammaries.
 * Bowser also has hair. Safe to say the rules of Koopadom don't apply to him.
 * Other than the possession deals, though, it seems the only way to tell a female Koopa is lipstick and clothing. Let's not get into Birdo or Vivian.
 * Personal refinement: Koopas are capable of both asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction. Bowser clearly is male through his constant desire to bone Peach; but there's the Koopa kids. It's possible they were born of concubines (Bowser is king, after all), there are a metric ton of nigh-identical Koopas, seemingly a lot more males than females; and baby Bowser apparently has no mother and is far too similar to his old man. The result is obvious: male Koopas can perform parthenogenesis, creating biological copies of themselves, but are also capable of sexual reproduction, granting Koopas the benefits of genetic diversity and making both sexes biologically useful for procreation.
 * Points for knowing the word "parthenogenesis" but it requires certain things that male creatures don't have.
 * You mean certain things male mammals don't have. We have never seen a complex diagram of the reproductive system of a koopa; if both genders have cloacae, it might be possible.
 * I can solve this entire debate like this: Koopas have their reproductive organs under their shells. It's been shown in many games that their shells are removable. That's why you don't see gender differences, the shells cover them up.
 * While this might be true (and in my opinion, is actually quite likely), it doesn't really relate. The debate is about whether or not Bowser could have produced his children without a mother, not why the differences between male and female Koopas aren't obvious.
 * I'm just gonna end this discussion as really disgusting.
 * Maybe Koopas are like bees or ants? Bowser is actually female(or at the very least hermaphroditic), and a transvestite.

Peach is a human.
Peach came to the mushroom world much in the same fashion as the Mario Bros. The childlike Toads saw her as a mother figure, and she accepted the role (like Wendy in Peter Pan). The Toads then built a castle for her and crowned her princess.

Peach is not a human but a mutant mushroom woman.
Why would a human rule over a race of mushroom people? Easy; she's not a human. Rather, she is a more humanoid version of the Toads that populate the Mario world.
 * Possibly, she's half-Toad, half-human, with the human side coming from the race Mario originates from.
 * Supporting evidence: on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, she had a human grandmother; in Super Mario RPG, she had a Toad grandmother (and there's some evidence suggesting that Toadsworth is her grandfather).
 * It's likely though that her "grandmother" in Super Mario RPG was her maid. The japanese equivalent of "Grandma" is commonly used as an honorific for an elderly womam even if she's not related to the person using it. As for the evidence of Toadsworth being her grandfather, that mostly came from a lakitu mistaking him for her grandfather as a joke about his age.
 * Alternately, she was genetically engineered as a way to convince Mario and Luigi to act as saviors of the mushroom race.
 * One internet comic depicted Peach as a common female Toad until a run-in with Darkstalkers' Demitri, who uses his Midnight Bliss attack on her, which turns its victim into a shapely woman. (The plot of this comic has him doing the same thing to Bowser.)
 * For no known reason, Grand Unifying Guesses linked to this comic.
 * "Whoa, look at those."
 * She's a regular toad wearing REALLY high heels and a wig.

Who's in charge of the government, anyway?!
No one. It's an anarchy. The "royalty" is just a form of social control that has no power (especially without a king or queen). How do you think such a diverse populace would live together peacefully, if they didn't think someone was watching? Princess Peach is simply there to keep up the illusion of a governing force. Except there isn't a law enforcement. There aren't even laws. Why else would a plumber go out of his way to help the citizens of the mushroom kingdom? Because no one else has the authority! Bowser's plight is to take advantage of this lack of rule and to establish his own power. His follwers are those who can't get ahead in the anarchy, to whom he has promised some form of aid or wealth (since the government doesn't do anything [because it doesn't actually exist as a legal power]).

Peach is an ordinary mushroom woman who uses magic illusions to look like an attractive woman to Mario and Luigi.
An alternative to the above. Add that she does have magical abilities (as evidenced by her floaty jumps in Super Mario Bros 2 and her attacks in Super Smash Bros Melee), and you get the idea that Mario and Luigi may never have seen the real Peach.

Mario is in love with Peach, but doesn't pressure her on it because of the Bowser situation.
He figures she's got one too many clingy guys to deal with as it is.

Koopas aren't asexual, but mushrooms are.
They picked up the concepts of gender and the two-parent family from the other sentient species around them (the former out of curiosity as much as anything else, the latter an adaptation to capitalism--one parent in these families is always a stay-at-home mother while the other works.) They are not aromantic--they just express it with cake. Mario is aware of this, fitting with the previous WMG. Bowser should be aware of this, but he's too dumb to get it through his head.

Peach is an alternate/anti-Giygas.
Another alternative to the above. I was clued in to this when I noticed some things: My theory is that either Peach is from an alternate continuity where Giygas does a Heel Face Turn but remains a mindless Eldritch Abomination, or (more likely) a sort of anti-Giygas formed when Giygas created his own mini-universe, much as how anti-matter or matter cannot be formed without the other also being created.
 * 1) Peach's appearance is an implausibly generic "princess" stereotype; long blonde hair, huge blue eyes, pink dress, etc.
 * 2) While Peach supposedly is a native of the Mushroom Kingdom, she looks nothing like her subjects, and is the only humanoid present.
 * 3) Bowser is clearly in love with her, despite the fact that they're clearly not the same species (Rule 34 notwithstanding), or even in the same genus.
 * 4) Peach's attacks in Super Mario RPG and some others are... inexplicable at best. Popping a balloon, complete with bizarre sound effects, to inflict silence? If that isn't the physical incarnation of a non-sequitur, I don't know what is.

The pretty blonde you see is actually your mind replacing the soul-shattering 8-dimensional nightmare with something more conventional, much like how Ness and co. simply substituted a swirly background in place of what Giygas actually looked like. It was to prevent their feeble minds from a-sploding. Since the general belief is that Princess Peach is an attractive female, the mind just substitutes what it percieves as attractive. Since the games are played from the perspective of Mario and Luigi, Peach appears as their idea of ultimate beauty. The Mario Bros. had already told everyone they know about Peach before they met her themselves, so they all see what the Mario Bros. saw, since that's what they were expecting. This excludes Bowser (Who sees her as a sexy turtle-dragon... thingie...) and the Toads (Who see a beatiful female Toad) since they already seen her before.

Peach's bizarre attacks in SMRPG are another clue. The effects of Mute and Sleepy Time have so little to do with what their animations depict that I can only assume that they're just the closest things the human mind can comprehend without melting. The enemies probably see something along the lines of "You cannot comprehend the true from of Peach's attack! Blooper became too traumatized to speak!"

Add that to her complete lack of self-control and situational incompetence, and what you basically have is a dimension-busting, mindless entity that only acts on instinct and whims. In other words, Giygas.


 * My only problem with this theory is that Toads tend to keep paintings of the obviously human Peach in their households. Unless they've mastered 8-dimensional painting, which would actually be pretty disturbing in and of itself.
 * Recognising the Toads see her as a Toad would cause Mario & Luigi to realise she's not human. The Toads might not be painting Peach's true form, but the brothers still see what they want to see because seeing the true painting would make them see the true Peach.
 * Maybe each species sees her as belonging to their own, as part of the charm spell? That would explain why Bowser loves her - he sees her as a female koopa. And since we play as Mario, a human, we see her in humanoid form!

The entire series is nothing more than a plumber's drug trip caused by hallucinogenic mushrooms.
This would explain... well, everything. It would especially explain why Mario uses mushrooms as a healing item; what better way could he stay "alive" in his dream world than by prolonging it with more magic 'shrooms?
 * Or it's an Acid Reflux Nightmare caused by a combination of inhaling too many cleaners (he's a plumber, after all) and spoiled pizza.
 * He's not a plumber! He's a zookeeper that's been getting high off of cat urine (in this case, tigers)!
 * Wait, does this mean he's on Tanetane Island?

The gravity in the Mushroom Kingdom is a fraction of what it is in the "real world".
In the Super Mario Bros Super Show continuity, Mario and Luigi were ordinary plumbers in stylish outfits before a time-space anomaly dropped them into the Mushroom Kingdom, where they became heroes renowned for their jumping abilities. Both plumbers can naturally leap far beyond the human norm, especially for pudgy Mario and willowy Luigi. If she were in our world, Princess Peach might weigh about 500 pounds. For further evidence, see Super Mario Bros 2, where Toad's jumps are far shorter than Mario or Luigi's, and, while Peach is able to use magic to float in the air, she can get no more height than Toad.
 * No, Mario and Luigi were good at jumping before coming to the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario Bros, the one where you beat the enemies from the pipes, takes place in the sewers of New York City, and the Mario Bros are still exceptional at jumping.

The Mario from Donkey Kong is actually Super Mario's father or grandfather.
We know that Cranky Kong from Donkey Kong Country is the original Donkey Kong, and he's grown old enough to grow a white beard. It also goes somewhat against character that the current Mario would lock Donkey Kong in a cage (he never did that to Bowser) and send an army of Snapjaws, Nitpickers, and Sparks to fend away Donkey Kong Jr.
 * Alternatively time passes much slower in the Mushroom Kingdom. How galling would it be for Cranky to learn that his nemesis is still young and healthy, while he is knocking on death's door?
 * In this scenario, the storyline between Donkey Kong Jr. goes as follows: Pauline died in a tragic barrel accident that Mario blamed on Donkey Kong. Turning to The Dark Side, Mario summmoned minions to capture Donkey Kong and terrorize DK's son. After DK Junior brought Mario back to his senses, our plumber became The Atoner and exiled himself back to his homeland; serving the Mushroom Princess as a kind of penance.
 * Mario Senior also had something to do with the death of Wrinkly Kong.
 * On the gripping hand, the passing of the torch from father to son might have happened during Yoshi's Island. This brings in both origins for Mario; the "original" came from Earth, and the "modern" version was born in the Mushroom Kingdom.
 * Furthermore, the game Mario Bros. and the various cartoons involve the original Mario and Luigi, Bowser is King Koopa's youngest son, and Peach is Princess Toadstool's daughter. The strong resemblance between King Koopa's kids and Bowser's is simply a case of identical nephews/niece.
 * This troper believes that the character in Donkey Kong and DK jr. is actually called "Jumpman Mario". Explaining why Mario and Luigi's last name is Mario.
 * It does fit the timeline.
 * Now that I think about it, if Cranky Kong and Mario were enemies at one point, why do Baby Mario and Baby Donkey Kong exist side-by-side in Yoshi's Island DS?
 * The simplest explanation is that Gorillas don't live nearly as long as humans. In the wild they only live to be around 30-40 years old, and when Donkey Kong Country came out 12 years had passed since we last saw him in Donkey Kong Junior, so it makes sense that Cranky's an old fart and Junior's all grown up now.

Mario nearly died in a freak portal accident sending him to Earth, where his body was found by Dr. Wily and Dr. Light.
They made him stronger, faster, better. They also named him "Jumpman." Thankfully, he eventually found a secret warp zone while working on the drain and got his true name back.

"Galaxy" is a translation error
Super Mario Galaxy features "galaxies" which are at most a few miles across. Given how each galaxy selection area looks like a star system (complete with Pluto's inclined orbit), it'd make more sense if the galaxies are actually planets/planetoids, and the six selection areas are solar systems. This confusion must have set in while translating between Mushroom Kingdom-language and English/Japanese.
 * Or maybe it was just named that way to give way to "UR MR GAY".
 * Yeah, except each level has multiple planets and sometimes a sun or moon. It makes more sense to me if the whole thing is technically one galaxy, but every level except is a solar system.
 * The Mushroom Kingdom language is particularly confusing for this sort of thing, hence different areas of the Mushroom Kingdom, Yoshi's Island etc. being known as "Worlds".
 * No, they are actual galaxies, Baby Planets aside, Mario only visits a small part of each galaxy, the part that has the power stars he needs.

All three of the Paper Mario games were stories Rosalina reads to entertain the Luma Children
Think about it. All three games begin with an omniscient narrator giving some background information on the main focus of the plot, such as a rod that channels the power of the stars, or a book that contains a prophecy that will destroy all dimensions if fulfilled. None of the characters in the actual game refer to themselves in the first person, which eliminates them as the potential storytellers. Given how some of the scenes in the games involve events occurring in empty rooms, with no eyewitness to relate the events, it would be impossible for any of the other characters to relate everything that occurred in the game. The only solution is that the same narrator who gave the prologue is recounting the events in the story, in such detail that the listeners (players) can actually see the story unfolding before their eyes (the game's events). Now, my guess is that Rosalina is the narrator of all three of the stories. This explanation fills in several plotholes.
 * First, the dual nature of Bowser. The goofy, blustering Bowser we see in the Paper Mario games is a fictional, Lighter and Softer version of the sinister overlord Bowser in the Super Mario Galaxy games. Rosalina probably made this version of Bowser up to reassure the young Lumas that Bowser isn't as scary as he's made out to be.
 * Second, the Void. If the events of Super Paper Mario really happened, then the Void would have been sighted in the main Super Mario universe. It seems uncharacteristic of someone like Rosalina, whose job is to watch over the Universe, to not notice (or simply not care) about something that could very well bring about the end of the universe as we know it. With the Rosalina-as-storyteller theory, this discrepancy become much more logical. Of course she won't be worried about the Void. Why would she be worried about something that a. never existed and b. she made up?

Rosalina is the Guardian of the Galaxy Cauldron from Sailor Moon. Better known in Gnosticism as Sophia.
She occasionally reincarnates to keep from being too depressed about about outlasting everyone else. Note how the Observatory's Warp Field makes it look like a giant egg. Thus, the original Star Mother that she and the Lumas were looking for in the backstory was also Rosalina.
 * The Galaxy Cauldron, btw, is the thing that everyone gets sucked into at the end. Also known as the Axis Mundi. It's the Source of the Star Road. It resurrected all of them and fused the "galaxies" into one world; note the butterfly on Mario's head when he wakes up, the Japanese symbol of death and rebirth.
 * Man, Mario is really lucky that all he got for mucking around with the Star Road and entering the end in Super Mario World as a bonus stage was covering the island in chocolate, and all turtle shells have turned into Mario Heads. Yes, the guide tries desperately to claim this is the seasons changing...that doesn't explain why it's only "fall" on Chocolate Island. And Chocolate Island turns green after the Star Road is entered.
 * This has happened before. Rosalina says that life is constantly being reborn, though it doesn't always happen the same way. This is why there's different Mario "universes" such as Paper Mario, 3-D Mario, etc.

Rosalina is the Mushroom Kingdom equivalent of God
Take into consideration the following, The Mushroom Kingdom has a centenary celebration of a passing comet that turns out to be a space observatory of the Enigmatic Rosalina who nurtures baby stars until they become Planets, Galaxies, etc, etc.

Invisible being seeing the process of the creation of planets and wishes?

Celebrated by those who believe in it?

2+ 2?

Rosalina is GOD.

I wish I was the one who came up with this, but This video more or less comes to pass with it (see about 7:12, but the whole deal is interesting all in all).
 * Maybe this is why Rosalina is in a Heavyweight class in Mario Kart Wii.
 * It also has an obvious insinuation in regards to Rosalina's identity. But I think it speaks for itself.
 * So God created the events of Super Mario Galaxy 2 just for the heck of it?
 * Holy CRAP! Bowser stole Grand Stars FROM GOD!!!
 * I thought the Star Spirits were gods.
 * They could be the equivalent of angels or even lesser gods under Her.

The Rosalina seen at the end of Super Mario Galaxy is really a combination of the previous Rosalina's of the previous iterations of the universe.
It is implied that Rosalina is in a semi-Stable Time Loop (the Luma that was looking for her mother in the storybook seems to be the same one that appears in the 120-star ending, meaning it was looking for Rosalina's future/alternate self). So when the current universe ends the current Rosalina merges with the previous ones and arranges things so that her next self can perform her job with the new universe.

In other words, Rosalina isn't a god, she's a witch.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an alternate universe from Super Mario Galaxy 1
The gaming styles are are different, different power-ups, and Yoshi is in the worlds. The fact that Mario does not recognize Rosalina in the slightest by the end of Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the kicker though.
 * Not to mention that the Toad Brigade are actually useful (in one level, but the point stands).
 * The Toad Brigade was only useful when the Captain was kidnapped. They need a change in leadership.
 * This was actually confirmed by Word of God before release.

Geno is a Luma.
Geno's true form is Luma-shaped, and he says he was sent to Mushroom World by "a higher authority." (Rosalina) Also, the Luma language (that Luma speaks at the end of Super Mario Galaxy 2) seems to be written in the same alphabet as Geno's real name, ??!?
 * Given that he refers to himself as a Star Spirit, it follows that all the Star Spirits of Star Road (Seen in Paper Mario) are Luma. Their special powers are due to extended exposure to the Star Rod.

The Mario-verse Pantheon

 * 1) Rosalina (Either a reincarnating Goddess or at least someone "appointed" as Caretaker. Does not directly interfere.
 * 2) Rosalina's Star Rod (When she isn't present, it by itself is a symbol of office; and governs the Star Road.)
 * 3) The Star Road (The system which maintains reality. All life and "wishes" goes through a network coming and going from the Center of The Universe to individual points throughout the universe. Grand Stars (Galaxy) are the major nodes which feed via the Star Road into the lesser Power Stars (Mario 64). Mess with any of these, and the system is subverted. Has a reboot function. Smithy's Attack in Super Mario RPG resulted in "Star Pieces"; shards of the Road (which has grown back) that magicians highly value.
 * 4) Agents. The Star Spirits from Paper Mario and Geno from Super Mario RPG; altruistic Luma who choose to temporarily suspend their cycle in order to help administrate.

Mushroom Kingdom coins are made of an alloy with that includes Star Bits.
Naturally, red and blue coins have a higher Star Bit concentration. This is why enough coins give extra lives (and 100 become Power Stars in Super Mario 64/DS); this property wasn't present in Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario 1 because the source of Star Power was being screwed around with. The other Paper Mario games don't apply because they're too far away from the Mushroom Kingdom.
 * The coins used by Isle Delfino, meanwhile, are crafted with sunshine; to a similar effect.
 * That would explain how Lumas in Galaxy 2 are able to derive nourishment from coins.

Rosalina is Princess Peach's daughter from an alternate timeline.
Look at the picture of Rosalina's mother in the storybook flashbacks. That looks exactly like Princess Peach. Bowser Jr. notwithstanding, in the current timeline this didn't occur or at least...not yet. This would also explain why she refers to Peach as Mario's "Special One."
 * The writers have commented on how they wanted to make Peach and Rosalina somehow related, but didn't have time to get into it.
 * Galaxy implies (as heavily as is allowed) that Rosalina's mother died while Rosalina was traveling with the Lumas. Of course, this could mean...
 * This troper is pretty sure it is either implied or outright stated that she was "gone" before Rosalina went off on her merry jaunt in space, and that her waiting around on that hill was just denial.

Rosalina is Peach's ancestor, kept young by faster than light travel.
It would explain why she looks similar, and why Peach has a certain amount of magic power, dilute by comparison. She's probably not Peach's mom, since Peach has never had any indications of a parental presence in her life, implying that they died or otherwise went away when she was young. Rosalina could be her grandmother or earlier, which would make the mother figure in the book Peach's >=great-grandmother.

Rosalina's brother is Peach's ancestor.
Yes, she has (or rather, had) a brother. It's mentioned in the storybook. Rosalina herself also mentions that the Comet Observatory passes the Mushroom Kingdom's planet every 100 years, and it it's probably passed by a few times, making Rosalina several hundred years old. See where I'm going with this? I'm saying Rosalina's brother is Peach's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, making Rosalina herself Peach's great-great-great-great-great-great-great-aunt. As for why Rosalina didn't age while her brother did? Power Stars. Either that, or because she willingly took on the task as guardian and caretaker of the Luma, gaining immortality/eternal youth and magical powers as a karmic reward.
 * Have you not heard of Time dilation? Come on, man!

Bowser never went through Villain Decay, and instead suffers from mental illness.
A lot of people say that Bowser has gone through Villain Decay but I think otherwise. The way I see it, Bowser suffers from a mental disorder that carries attributes of bipolar disorder and multiple personality disorder. My theory is thus: Bowser, originally had a personality that was about halfway between the 'comic buffoon' role from the RPGs and the 'dark lord' role he holds in games like Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Bros 3. His illness was minor at first, but the trauma of falling into the lava pit at the end of Super Mario Bros. caused his disorder to increase in potency. Don't ask me how. I'm no psychologist. I just know a lot of people with mental disorders (this list includes myself). So, Bowser fluctuates between a more laid-back, foolish personality and a more sinister one. Either that, or Bowser only acts like a buffoon in the {RPGs to hide his more evil nature (but this is less interesting. Besides, I love the Bowser jokes that pop up in the RPGs).
 * We see this happening at the end of Galaxy, actually. Right until the end, Dark Lord Bowser is about to destroy all life as we know it and create a Galactic Empire. He falls into a sun and then into the Source; and then the Big Crunch/Big Bang occurs, and everyone is reborn together. Nobody cares that Bowser is right there in the castle garden, and he's just grumbling like he has a headache, while his servants frolic with everyone else.
 * Perhaps it's due to Bowser being one of the Star Children as explained by Yoshi's Island DS. Sometimes he can suppress the Star, sometimes he can't.
 * This gives him a bit of woobie potential, don't ya think?
 * He's already being woobified like crazy.

Luigi is suffering from being a Butt Monkey because his wish to be like Mario was broken by the events of Super Mario RPG
You can see his wish lying on the ground at Star Hill, but the Star Road is broken. As a result, Luigi's self-worth has been going down and down ever since Luigi's Mansion.
 * This wish gets supercharged by Mario finding all 120 of the Power Stars in Mario Galaxy. However, since the wish had been damaged, it results in
 * Alternatively, Luigi has become the Butt Monkey because he kept that ghost treasure from Luigi's Mansion. Of course it's cursed; Professor E. Gadd got away from the curse by letting King Boo go and putting all the cursed paint into a magic paintbrush that he then gave away to Bowser Jr. in Super Mario Sunshine. Naturally the cursed gold does not contain Star Bits as mentioned above in normal currency, for this reason Luigi ironically cannot use any of this wealth as nobody in the Mushroom Kingdom will touch it.

Luigi is suffering from Divergent Character Evolution due to childhood trauma.
As we all know, Luigi was kidnapped at least twice as a child, and in both cases was rescued by his brother atop a heroic dinosaur. This could easily have led to his Aggravated Buttmonkitude by the following:
 * By Super Mario Bros. 3, Luigi could see fairly easily that practically nobody knew about him, even giving him Mario's mail. This served as his first blow to the ego.
 * In Super Mario World, Luigi was exposed to the horrors of ghosts at the same time as he and his brother found several Yoshis. This, combined with the above, triggered a subliminal reaction.
 * Due to the effects on his psyche, Luigi became dependent on his brother, choosing to live with him as Heterosexual Life Partners as shown in Paper Mario. When he finally got his own place in Luigi's Mansion, Mario checked it out first precisely because both of them knew that Luigi wouldn't be ready to move out all alone.
 * The pain of his brother then going missing was too much for Luigi, and with no other choice, he finally stood up for himself. Despite rescuing Mario (and, with enough cash, purchasing a brand-new solid freaking gold mansion), he was forever after afraid of open, isolated spaces, and the brothers chose to continue living in their old, smaller, familiar house (though they use the mansion for parties).

Luigi is suffering aforementioned Divergent Character Evolution due to his overprotective parents.
As a sort of extension of the childhood trauma mentioned above, Luigi's so timid and jumpy because after being kidnapped as a very small child, his parents became incredibly overprotective and their concerns for his wellbeing rubbed off on him. We don't know a lot about the space between them being small babies and them being plumbers, so it's possible that Luigi was always the one reminded to take his brother's hand when crossing the street, the one who had to wear the most protective padding when playing outside, the one who always had to wear a raincoat... in summer. As a result, Luigi himself became so paranoid that everything was out to get him and he has to rely on Mario (and Mario only, because strangers are murderers you haven't met) to support him through life. Likewise, Mario, having been the one to save his brother repeatedly, probably got told to protect Luigi, watch Luigi, make sure Luigi doesn't get into any trouble at school, you know Luigi's allergic to X, Mario...

Mario is Peach's father.
This would explain why she never puts out.
 * There's no telling how deep this rabbit hole goes.
 * Really, no. They make out all the time, the best is at the end of Super Mario World, complete with fireworks and Mario blushing.

Mario and Luigi are in fact members of the Plumbers organization from Ben 10.
They were retired by the time of Donkey Kong, Wrecking Crew and Mario Bros but took various jobs to keep fed. During one of these jobs, which was actual plumbing interestingly enough, they found the portal to the Mushroom Kingdom. They decided to come out of retirement to defend this world.

Wario is...
http://www.mariowiki.com/Super_Mario:_Die_Verwandlung
 * A long-lost third Mario Brother.
 * An imperfect, evil clone of Mario constructed by Bowser.
 * Not quite, but this comic shows him as an accidental evil clone:
 * A deranged fan of Mario's.
 * A disgruntled childhood friend of Mario's.
 * Take your pick.
 * That's what various spin offs and main storylines say he is. They show him playing cowboy games with Mario.
 * He is also the inspiration for Mulch Diggums in Artemis Fowl. Think about it - the mouth, the flatulence, the kleptomania...
 * If the Mushroom Kingdom is an alternate universe to the "real world" that Mario comes from, then Wario and Waluigi are simply the original Mushroom Kingdom Versions of Mario and Luigi.
 * This troper has always been of the opinion that the Wario Brothers were the cousins of the Mario Brothers.
 * Alright, let me tell you guys this: it may make your heads explode. The Mushroom Kingdom decided that since Mario was mortal, he would expire after a few years. So MK scientists worked on trying to make a vessel for Mario to inhabit, it was immortal, but imperfect technology made it exaggerate Mario's traits (shorter and fatter) and gave him the ability to weaponize his flatulence. However, Mario's soul being transmitted into the vessel wonked it up and gave him dementia, the scientists panicked and sent him to an alternate universe. So Wario's the AU Mario, but that's not all... In the same alternate dimension, Luigi realized that his brother will most likely cause damage in the alternate universe, so he demanded to actually undergo surgery to not risk gaining the same dementia. He was sent to the universe in his new form, and, to avoid confusion with this universe's Luigi, so he nicknamed himself Waluigi. Waluigi kept a low profile to not rise suspicion, and utilizes bombs because he knows that Wario would be insane enough to fart on the lit flame of a bomb.

Mario and Luigi are X-Men style mutants
Their only powers are super strength and super jumping. Their powers only manifested due to the inherent dangers of the Mushroom Kingdom, and the power items would work for any one.
 * They also have super speed, and it's been seen that the power items don't work for just anybody.

The Mushroom Kingdom is a region of Wonderland.
Strange flora and fauna, magical mushrooms, growing and shrinking...
 * Mr. Miyamoto has confirmed the inspiration by Wonderland.
 * The way this troper sees it: Wonderland is known to have various portals that lead to different regions. The rabbit hole from [[Alice in Wonderland the original book] was located on the shores of the Thames River and led to the Kingdom of Hearts while the looking-glass is ... somewhere else (I haven't read the book) and led to a different kingdom in a place called "Looking-Glass Land." Who's to say that there aren't other portals around the world ... including a certain sewer pipe in Brooklyn, like the 1983 game Mario Bros.? The two lands do share similarities, as noted above: mushrooms that change the size of one who ingests it, different physics/logic, anthropomorphic animals, rabbits concerned with lateness (the White Rabbit and Mips from Super Mario 64), bizarre landscapes, kingdoms, and the list goes on!

Mario and Luigi are part fungi, and thus don't need to breathe using lungs, but do if they're thinking about it.
Hence the strange random Super Drowning Skills moments. It should be noted in Super Paper Mario, Mario almost suffocates in Outer Space, but comes up with the solution of putting an empty fish bowl on his head, which solves that problem. Supposedly the Lumas "help" him do this in Galaxy, but it probably doesn't take that much effort.
 * Alternatively, that fishbowl was an underachieving Luma.

Princess Peach is a totalitarian dictator
Look at her world; the vast majority of the thinking creatures in it are actively opposing her rule. While Bowser heads a wide coalition of forces, Peach relies on a small force of foreign mercenaries (Mario, Luigi, Yoshi) in order to repress them.
 * Alternatively, she's not totalitarian as much as completely incompetent and a total Ditz. She spends more time going on picnics, driving go-karts, and baking cakes than actually running the country. And when she does, she's always favoring the mushroom people over the innumerable 'ugly' races. This facism isn't out of genuine dislike, but complete Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake" disconnection from reality. Only the mushroom people support her rule, because they get all the benefits. Everyone else sees what a twit she is, and supports Bowser's reforms.
 * Alternatively, she's a decent person who's running the kingdom as best she can, but her ancestors (or immediate predecessors) have oppressed the other populations for so long that it doesn't matter what diplomatic overtures she'd try to make, they'll still come after her.
 * I think this version, or at least an ancestral war between Toads and Koopas, is supported by Super Mario Bros Z - in epizode 7, there is mention that the war has started way before Peach and Bowser.
 * If Peach qualifies as a dictator, her rule is rather authoritarian than totalitarian. Totalitarian leaders are rarely opposed by greater parts of their own people. Hitler wasn't, Stalin also wasn't. Totalitarian power does not only rely on brute force, but also on devices like surveillance, propaganda, mass movement, centralization of information, spreading of fear, and so forth. Princess Peach does nothing like this. Or at least we have no evidence for that.
 * Incidentally, if the comic books are in continuity, Peach isn't the ruler proper. That role goes to her father, who's about three steps up from King Steve.

Super Mario Bros 2 was not All Just a Dream
Wart was a dream demon attempting to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom by trapping its citizens in a permanent nightmare. The world of Sub-con is an area of the Dreaming that he cordoned off for this purpose (as Brute and Gob once did to trap Hector Hall). The scene at the end with Mario waking up was merely showing him breaking free from the dream after he defeated Wart.
 * So, Wart is Dethl?

Mario wasn't dreaming in SMB 2...
He, and the other characters, were engaging in Astral Projection. It wouldn't be the weirdest power he's had. Subcon can't be reached by physical beings, so they could only go as souls or some such. Going with the "Peach is a Mage" Guess below, it could be her that's keeping them anchored in Subcon. The hit points, lives and continues represent her ability to keep them there. If her item-creation powers are much more powerful in this form, it would explain why Starmen are much more common and Super Mushrooms can stack for more HP.

Princess Peach engineered her own kidnapping in Super Mario Galaxy.
It's really too convenient for her. Bowser has an insidious master plan that doesn't really involve Peach at all, and captures Peach, her castle, and all her top retainers except Mario and Luigi, who Peach mysteriously fails to keep around, thus freeing him to go adventuring and set things right. If Mario wins, everything returns to the status quo ante. If Bowser wins, Peach, while had she not been kidnapped, she would instead. Not a bad Plan B.

This, of course, leads us directly to...

Princess Peach is a Chessmaster.
Let's face it. Peach just isn't an Action Girl. But Bowser hasn't suffered Villain Decay; Peach manages to deflect him half the time without Mario getting involved because she's his peer; she just prefers indirection and playing defense. In the Paper Mario games, she manages a fair bit of infiltration and behind-the-scenes support, she, and carries her weight just fine fighting alongside Mario and Bowser to Save All Worlds. In Subspace Emissary, she may not be punching out starfighters, but she's confident enough to Outstroll Fireballs, defuse in-fighting, and manages to recruit the source of the Primids to fight with the heroes by letting it play with her umbrella, If You Know What I Mean. On top of that, when she shows up in the sports games, she is invariably a Precision/Skill character.
 * The only thing is, she is not an evil chessmaster, she plays with the white pieces. So I don't say she, but tried to make it understand love. Why can't she be evil? Because she has a pure heart and voice, so she was gifted with pure genius too.
 * Now, her moves on the chess board are all made to protect the mushroom kingdom, or her friends. She becomes captured in SMB 1 in hopes of a hero coming to save her and proving himself worthy of being the kingdoms protector when she is out of commission.
 * Her weakness? Mind Control. In the comics, in the manual, in the games, usually the only time she can't act is when she is under the control of something. Even then she can sometimes break free and provide a power boost to the protector.
 * This Troper had a different way of reasoning this out. According to his backstory, Bowser is capable of using black magic (clearly not a Squishy Wizard). So he probably uses this to make Princess Peach incapable of physically resisting him, because, after all, what could be worse than getting your shelled butt kicked by the person you're trying to kidnap? This forces Peach to come up with different ways of fighting back. And she's generally successful - The toads guiding Mario towards the next castle in SMB 1 (if only in the vaguest sense), the items in SMB 3, throwing you Mushrooms in Super Mario World, getting information and getting it out to Mario in Paper Mario and Thousand-Year Door, just to name a few. And she gets away with it because Bowser's hopelessly in love with her and she knows it.
 * Her whole game for Melee was to get herself introduced, so she would be a shoe in for the main story in Brawl. When Brawl came, she quickly used the story and events to her advantage to learn some ninja skill and new magic from Zelda.
 * Peach only lets herself get kidnapped by Bowser so that Mario and Luigi stay in shape for when there's a more serious threat.
 * She has these Chessmaster abilities because she was the Lady President of the planet Gallifrey who disguised herself as a human to hide from an even worse enemy than Bowser, Ganon and Andross combined. FLYING PEPPER POTS WITH EGG WHISKS AND TOILET PLUNGERS!!!
 * You, sir, now have me imagining Mario Goomba Stomping a Dalek. Good show. You win the Internet.

Princess Peach's self-imposed restraining bolt is the danger level of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Face it, the only time it reaches max danger is usually when someone acquires power to the max, and the kingdom is under threat. During times like this, Peach usually acquires strong powers in order to protect the kingdom. (Peach-Beam, Ability to, Bombs and Frying-Pan of death, Null-Damage Umbrella, Etc) The power would get stronger each time it was used. The only reason it never worked in Super Mario Galaxy was that Bowser was not directly attacking the mushroom kingdom until his new Galaxy was completed, so she could not unlock her restraining bolt.
 * The first time it was to only undo Bowser's Spells
 * The second, gave her floating powers.
 * The third game let her create powerful magical items to give to Mario.
 * Etc

Peach is a mage.

 * Her abilities are a certain level of clairvoyance and mental suggestion (which is why her letters always find Mario), a limited version of Float (Super Mario Bros. 2), and the production of magic items (Mario 3, Mario World, any game where she sends 1-ups). Why, you're probably asking, don't the Toads arm up with the Fire/Ice Flowers that occur naturally throughout the worlds and kick Bowser's ass? That's her main power; the ability to endow individuals with the ability to use items. It's limited to four at a time. In the case of New Super Mario Bros Wii, it was the Marios, Yvan and Wolley.
 * That's why Bowser's kidnapped her all those times; he's after her power. He wants to endow his forces with abilities, but the ones that have them are imperfect (for one thing, they're still One Hit Wonders). She's more like a priest or shaman than actual royalty. Perhaps the Mushroom Kingdom is like Xanth, only Magician-class Power Levels can lead, which Peach and Bowser have.
 * To her credit, she's portrayed in Super Mario RPG as basically an extremely powerful White Mage (though she lacks the ability to use Holy) with a knowledge of explosives (Psych Bomb).

Yoshis are a species of tomboys
We know that they all lay eggs, and, given that all are referred to as male in Japan, they are all of the same gender. In real life there are actual lizards that are all female, and reproduce by a sort of cloning, laying eggs. The Yoshis are a similar species, who happen to all be a bit gender confused, and the Mario Brothers look up to them too much (having fond early childhood memories) to say anything about it, and play along as you or I would with an eccentric relative.
 * A corollary, then, is that Yoshi and Birdo are a heterosexual couple, just the reverse gender of what they appear to be.
 * Alternatively, the "eggs" they lay are feces containers. You'll note that they mostly lay them after they eat someone.
 * But they explode...Maybe they carry an ability similar to that of the bombardier beetle.

Yoshi Eggs are actually fecal waste containers.
Yes, this was suggested up above by Peteman in the "Yoshis are Tomboys" WMG, but the idea is so good it needs fleshing out. Yoshi Eggs are, as mentioned, not eggs, but solidified excrement. They look similar to actual Yoshi eggs to confuse predators. After ages of Mushroom World evolution, they learned to quickly generate these 'eggs' and utilize them as thrown weapons. There are male and female Yoshis, but due to no obvious characteristics, nobody can tell the difference.

Yoshies are separated into three species of the Yoshi genus.
Back in the pre-historic days of the Mushroom world, there was no such thing as an island. There was only a Pangaea-like supercontinent. This supercontinent was home to a dominant species of proto-Yoshi. Many of them lived along the Dinosaur and Yoshi peninsulae. Since continental drift is a thing, these two peninsulae were eventually severed from the mainland, taking amajority of Yoshies with them. Eventually, the three Yoshi groups evolved in different directions. The Dinoaur Island species gained immunity from heat, suffocation and force, which is why you can dump them all in pits of lava/mud/nothing and they'll still let you ride them. The Yoshi's Island Yoshies recieved increased hormonal output, so they can lay eggs on a dime. They also recieved added buoyancy: since the island is perfectly flat bar some pillar-like mountains, it was common for it to be flooded during high tide. Finally, the Mushroom Kingdom Yoshies developed their intellectual power, resulting in the bipedal race that knows how to participate in sports, kart racing and parties. Which makes me wonder what would happen if the three species ever met... Did somebody say "crack fic plot?"

Rainbow Road is the Mushroom Kingdom's afterlife
It's a road that you go... when you die. You will know when you get there.
 * No, no, it's just Hell.
 * Scrappy level, you say? Your mileage may vary. Rainbow Road may be tough, but the Double Dash!! version sure does have epic music.
 * I don't know about you but Rainbow Road has consistently been this troper's favorite track from 64 up until DS. (Never played MK Wii or MK Advance so my mileage may vary.)

The Mushroom people are a race of giants
You'll note that Mario starts off in his small Mario form in the 2-D games. That is his natural form. So when he eats a mushroom, he doubles in size. But without the sizing up, he is smaller than the average Mushroom Kingdom denizen. That means he is a normal-sized (probably a bit shorter) person who gets bigger. The games where he is naturally bigger (Mario 64, Galaxy, many of the RPGs) represents him acclimating to the environment.
 * In New Super Mario Bros., Mario starts out at a normal-looking size, then is hit by an offscreen enemy in the intro video and changes into his non-super form, which looks unnaturally small. Presumably he was also hit by something before the beginnings of the other platformers.
 * No, he was shrunk to his natural state having consumed a Super Mushroom at an unspecified point previously.
 * Which of course means that Peach is a 12-foot tall amazon of a woman.

Princess Peach is slowly growing to a colossal size.
Tangentally related to the above entry; in the original Super Mario Bros, Peach was actually smaller than Mario in Super state. Ever since then, she's been slightly bigger than he is even Super Mushroom-powered. In the latest games, she's actually One Head Taller. Perhaps it's stopped for now, but who knows...maybe is an indication of things to come for Peach as well?
 * OBJECTION! If Peach is slowly growing to a colossal height, then that means that Daisy is also growing at a similar, if unsimultaneous rate. If you compare their heights in all their appearances together, Daisy is always slightly shorter than Peach.

Mario and Luigi are Monks
They have a lot of ranks in Jump and the Spring Attack feat, resistance to many special effects but rely mostly on dodging to avoid direct damage, rarely if ever wear armour, and are probably both Lawful Good. Bowser is a Dragon Turtle Sorceror, and Peach is probably a lower-level Wizard or even a Cleric.
 * What subjob lets them wield hammers?
 * Exotic Weapon Profiency, duh.
 * Mario and Luigi also have the slow fall ability (being able to slow their falls using walls) branching into a custom "Wall Jump" feat.

The amulet on Peach's dress has mysterious powers
And is the reason, why Peach is human. This is why she NEVER EVER takes it off. She may acctually be a Toad/Mushroom-girl, but HAS TO WEAR this amulet, no matter what, because Toadsworth and hear pride as the sexiest woman in the mushroom-world may suffer from it. Her amulett also gives her the power to levitate, break Magikoopa spells (the very first game), and cast a bit of white magic herself (as seen in Super Mario RPG. It didn't work in Super Paper Mario, because she wasn't in her own universe, so the yewel didn't fully work.) If Peach took the amulet off, she may get rid of Bowser, since he may not show that much affection for a Toad-girl, but she's afraid that Mario ditches her, if he finds out, she's not human, so she keeps it on. It seems, like every Princess in the mushroom world has to wear such a amulet, Daisy does, and even Queen Bean, Shokora and Rosalina do. (Rosalina can be seen as queen of the Lumas). Aside from queen Bean, all of this girls are human, when the rest of their people are either fungus, animals or stars (although, in Rosalina's case, she came from mushroom kingdom in the first place, but her mother has been shown to wear the very same amulet...) It seems like being human is something special in the Mario-universe, so the royalty uses this amulets to attain human form, although their not supposed to. Except for Bowser, who loves himself being, big, green, and mean and Queen bean, as her people seem to love her just the way she is.

The Playable Luigi in Super Mario Galaxy is actually Mario, wearing an L-emblem from Paper Mario: TTYD
When Rosalina discovered how magnificent her ship worked once Mario started gathering this stars for her, she got an idea: Why not telling him, that he could go and see another univerese, if he collects EVERY SINGLE OF THEM for her? Of course, she didn't think further and thought, he would never completly succeed, because some of the stars were just to hard to get (kgh kgh, Luigi purple coins, kgh kgh...) But Mario actually did it. Well, now Rosalina had to come up with an excuse quick--- after all, Mari faced TONS AND TONS of additional terrors, just to see this alternate Univerese, Rosalina promised him... So, when he was standing befor her, waiting for her to cast her magic spell, that would send him into the other world, she quickly hit him with her staff, put an L-Emblem on his shirt, to make him look like Luigi, gave him bounce, but gripless shoes and brainwashed all his friends, including the REAL Luigi and Bowser, to make them think, Peach wasn't saved yet (she even put Peach back to Bowser and placed fake Power-stars everywhere) and to make them think, it was completly normal for Luigi to be there twice. (Notice, the NPC-Luigi is much bigger than the one, you play, so it's really more likely just a cosplaying Mario). This way, he(fakeLuigi/Mario) would think, he has been turned into Luigi, by entering the alternate dimension. After seeting up this big masquarde, Rosalina happily exclaimed: "This will teach him, that there IS NO PLACE better than home! Ha!" Unfortunaly, she forgot to brainwash Peach completly too, so she was still thinking, that Mario was going to come and adressed all her letters to him.

The two Luigis from SMG are BOTH Luigi.
The one that you play as is a manifestation of his bravery and spirit, while the one that has to be rescued is the manifestation of his cowardice and self-loathing. This isn't even my theory, I just think it's such a good one that I'm accepting it as canon (considering that Nintendo probably didn't even think of a reason for the two Luigis, the whole thing being done out of laziness...).

Super Mario Galaxy is the gateway between the main series games and the spin-offs.
At the end of Galaxy, the universe is recreated, slightly different than before. This new universe is essentially the Theme Park Version of the previous one. Most of the characters are there (the Koopalings haven't been seen yet), including baby versions of the main characters concurrent with their adult versions. The locations are similar, with some notable differences, such as both Luigi's new mansion and the original one coexisting. This universe's Bowser is just a good-natured rival to Mario and co.

Will probably be Jossed when the Galaxy sequel comes out.
 * Combined with the above theory on Rosalina's God-hood, this would guarantee that Rosalina is Haruhi. There wasn't anybody to fufill Kyon's role in this universe.

Rosalina is just as much a tyrannical dictator as Bowser is.
Despite her supposed "care" for the Lumas and stars, she has no problems starving them to death (how else can you explain all the hungry Lumas in the galaxies?), forcing them to transform into items for Mario to use, and tapping into their power to empower her giant spaceship. Nothing that she does to them is any different to what Bowser is doing, with the possible exception that - after he succeeds in creating his own galaxy - Bowser may be powerful enough to not need the Lumas anymore and release them as regular citizens in his galactic empire; under Rosalina, they'll be enslaved into forced labor for all of eternity.
 * Although turning into a planet is said to be part of the Luma's life cycle... and besides, what's so bad about being turned into a planet?
 * Global Warming.
 * According to Galaxy, Lumas can turn into other things, such as power stars (they probably prefer being sentient stars to being power stars) or even galaxies.

Mario is just insane
It is possible that Mario is just some ordinary guy who went insane after certain events in his life happened. Which led him down the dark road of Drugs and eventually led him to being committed to a mental institution.
 * Peach, Daisy, and Pauline may have been girls Mario knew in his past and the villains who captured them were the ones who were their boyfriends, so he demonized them in his fantasies.
 * Luigi is most likely his cowardice half or his own brother in real life who severed ties with Mario after seeing what he has become.
 * Visual aid.

Mario and Peach are government agents
Although the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom seem to obey Peach, she's just a figurehead, the Mushroom "Kingdom" is actually run by a council (The chancellor of Super Mario RPG was one of them) that spread fake propaganda saying that Peach is the ruler of the kingdom, this is done to bait Bowser, the dictator of the neighbouring country, into kidnapping Peach (Because Bowser thinks she's the real ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom) then the Mushroom Council can send Mario to sabotage and destroy Bowser's land without there being a public outcry in the Mushroom Kingdom (They are really peace-loving, as can be seen in their games) this way, the Council is effectively running a secret war against Bowser but still keeping an image of being "non-aggressive" and "just responding to Bowser's attack".

The RPG are set in their own continuity.
Since the rules, and Mario's (And even other characters') skills are different in the main series than in the RPG games, maybe all of the RPG games happen in a continuity different from the main series... that is, all of the RPG's, including Super Paper Mario.
 * At least partially auto-Jossed. The RPGs make frequent references to the platformers: E. Gadd with the new-and improved Poltergust/GBH in Superstar Saga;  in Paper Mario 64; a reference to E. Gadd's ghost lab in Partners in Time; etc.
 * These events are reflections of the other realties. Something similar with those characters happened, but not the same way.

The Mario universe (and possibly the Nintendo Multiverse) actually exists.
Since it is established that Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door was made into a book, which was then made into a play, why not a video game? However, since the Mushroom Kingdom is not in our world, this means that:

Shigeru Miyamoto has the power to contact other universes, dimensions, and planets, and bring them together/affect them with the help of thousands of people.
Miyamoto thus creates video games based on troubled dimensions/planets/universes/etc. so that people will put all their effort into "accomplishing" what is really being done by the real Mario et al., which he could not otherwise do. Miyamoto sends our combined power back through to the Nintendo universes, where it allows Mario, Link, et al. to defeat evil.

Alternatively, Wario sells ideas to Nintendo.
The Wii Remote seems to be a direct descendant of the Form Baton that Wario discovered in Smooth Moves, so it isn't much of a stretch to believe that Wario is behind much of Nintendo's supposed genius. Presumably he also sold them the rights to Mario's stories, and the Wario Ware games are actually made by him and his employees.
 * "Actually are" would be the proper phrasing, in the 'real' credits stage in Wario Ware Smooth Moves, the description has Wario noting that 'these people' are taking credit for his work.

Boos are dead Shy Guys.
It would explain their fear of showing their faces. Now, before you tell me this is Jossed by the presence of what are quite obviously Shy Guy ghosts in Yoshis Island, consider that they look very similar to Boos with cloaks and masks. I think that the Shy Guys go through one of these two paths:


 * Birth-Death-Ghost-Recruit/Birth-Death-Ghost-Death2
 * Birth-Death-"Shedinja stage"-Recruit
 * "Recruit" refers to the King Boo going through the process of removing their masks and revealing their true visage, thus allowing them to work in his ranks. The "Shedinja Stage" is a hypothetical stage in which the Shy Guy body becomes a Shy Guy ghost, and the Shy Guy spirit becomes a Boo.

Boos are the ghosts of...ghosts.
Luigi's mansion shows that all species have ghosts; with Boos co-mingling. Professor E. Gadd scoffs at using physical force against them...however, Mario does it all the time! So what happens to a ghost when their ectoplasm is "killed" via a Starman or an unexpected attack is that it comes back together; but what species they were originally is lost. Perhaps Boos are the default state, or King Boo provides the new template.

Waluigi is a Ascended Fanboy of Wario
He was the mailboy at Wario Ware, Inc. who decided to make his own anti-Luigi outfit to impress the boss at the Halloween party. Wario liked it enough that he introduced Waluigi to the rest of the crew at the next tennis tournament, and the rest is history.

The Mushroom Kingdom is a vassal state of Rosalina's galactic empire.
This would explain why Peach's title is still princess despite the fact that her parents are both apparently dead.

Mr. L is not actually Luigi
...but rather some random schmo. Luigi died back at the wedding incident, and all appearances that he was brainwashed was a bizarre coincidence.
 * This Troper is seriously expecting this to happen in the next Paper Mario game.

Super Paper Mario is not real
It's just doodles drawn by a Mario fanboy during math class. This explains the math in the sky thing.
 * The math in the sky.. which has Fire Flower and Mushroom symbols in it.
 * Mario's not very good at math. He can't keep track of more than 99 coins at a time.

Mimi from Super Paper Mario is the same species as "The Thing"
Mimi can change shape and imitate other people perfectly. So can The Thing. The Thing's other forms include a spider with an upside-down head. Mimi's true form is...a spider with an upside-down head.
 * This. So very much. Mimi frigging belongs in a horror movie anyways, just look at the way she snaps her head... and oh that chatter. "MIMIMIMIMIMIMIMI..." *shudders* If Super Paper Mario had more realistic graphics, it could have been a T-rated game, just because of Mimi.

Mario' real name is Super Mario
Well, since the movie, even though it's mostly Canon Dis Continuity, says that the Mario Bros' last names are Mario, Mario Mario is kinda stupid. There's also the Super in Super Mario Bros. I think that Mario is Super Mario, and Luigi is Luigi Mario. People go by their last names sometimes.
 * The movie may be Canon Dis Continuity, but they cannot be the Mario Brothers unless their last name is Mario.
 * And Luigi refers to his brother as Mario. Generally speaking people do not call their brothers by their last names. This, combined with the above point, means that Mario's name probably is actually Mario Mario.

Daisy was...
Bioengineered, replaced (with a similar alien or imperfect clone), or otherwise f** ked up by Tatanga while kidnapped. Evidence? Her Third Eye.

Culex is the leader, or at least the most powerful, of the Elemental Fiends.
Culex's true form is a demon whose lower body is trapped in ice, a description which fits Satan's appearance in Dante's Inferno, where the other Fiends got their names, perfectly. This would imply some sort of command over the others. Also, he has the four Overworld Crystals from FFIV when you battle him, and the music played during his fight is from the same game. The reason he doesn't appear in that game is because Golbez banished him for being too lenient towards his enemies (in SMRPG, he actually allows Mario to turn back if the party is unprepared).
 * Well, in the The After Years; we know that the Fiends were all sent by "the Creator" to ally with villains to affect the evolution of different Final Fantasy worlds with Crystals in them. "Vanda" was one of those worlds. Given how the success of the "Smithy Incident" lead to the creation of the Paper Mario universe, he had a profound effect.

The Mushroom Kingdom is actually a renegade province...
From an empire ruled by Bowser. Why does he keep kidnapping Princess Peach? He isn't. That's just what everybody in the Mushroom Kingdom says. Bowser is actually arresting her for treason. Mario is either gullible, a part of the rebellion, or being blackmailed somehow. This would also explain the relative scarcity of friendlies in the various games.

Sponsors force Mario to allow Bowser to enter in his competitions.
He helps brings in the 18-24 evil monster demographic.

Rosalina's body is composed of Dark Matter.
Explains why she's so damn heavy in Mario Kart Wii, anyway.

The X-Nauts are an alien race that mistook the planet Mario is on for Earth
They came in peace to share technology. When they found out it was the wrong planet, Grodus went insane and devised an invasion plan.

Luigi doesn't make many appearances because he's doing the Marios' finances
On the letters pages on an old Nintendo Power issue, readers were invited to send letters to their favourite Nintendo characters and "they" would respond. One reader asked Luigi why he didn't appear as often as Mario. "Luigi" replied that he was responsible for balancing the books for their plumbing business and their deal with Nintendo.

The Koopalings have no mother.
Magikoopas can create Koopa soldiers from blocks using magic spells. And Bowser, as stated in the original Super Mario Bros manual and demonstrated several times throughout the series, is extremely skilled at black magic. Therefore, I present the theory that Bowser used magic spells to create his children, heirs to the Koopa throne. It may in fact be possible that all Koopas reproduce magically, but this seems less likely (since the average Koopa doesn't seem to possess nearly the power that the Magikoopas or Bowser do).

More on the Koopalings' mother
This carries on from the "Koopas are asexual" idea near the top of the page.

Yoshi is referred to as male, but lays eggs. Birdo is supposed to be biologically male, but spits eggs out of her mouth. Is there something we don't know about reptiles in the Super Mario Universe?

I proffer that Koopas, and indeed all reptiles in the Super Mario Universe, are hermaphrodites. There are no "female" or "male" Koopas; the concept of gender was only recently introduced to them through cultural exchange with the Mushroom Kingdom. Koopas that have visible gender identifiers are just imitating humans.

Koopas don't mate for life, which is why Bowser's never been seen with a mate. Instead, he's had several partners who sired his children like so:


 * 1st mate: Ludwig
 * 2nd mate: Roy and Morton
 * 3rd mate: Wendy
 * 4th mate: Iggy and Lemmy
 * 5th mate: Larry

As for his last child, Junior, Bowser decided he wants an heir to mold perfectly in his own image, so he somehow impregnated himself, possibly with the aid of his Magikoopas. This is why Junior looks almost exactly like Bowser did as a child: he's basically a clone.

Why does Bowser keep abducting Princess Peach? Not because he's physically attracted to her. It's purely symbolic in that he's holding the heir to the Mushroom Kingdom hostage. His occasional attempts to force her to marry him aren't for the sake of procreation but just to consolidate his power over both nations.

Why does Junior occasionally refer to Peach as his mommy? Because he's a dumb kid who doesn't know where hatchlings come from.

Princess Peach is the mother. She will never, ever admit this.

 * Throughout the Mario series, Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach and taken her to his lair multiple times. His motives for doing so have never been stated directly, and most likely never will be due to the games' target audience.
 * There is no "mother" Koopa present in the series, so Bowser either reproduces asexually, or he requires a mate.
 * The duration Princess Peach spends in captivity (or the amount of time needed for Mario to travel from any starting point to Bowser's Castle) is ample time for the two to mate.
 * In most cases after rescue, Princess Peach remains silent about the events that transpired while in captivity.
 * Bowser Junior has been raised with the perspective that Mario is a bad man and an unfair bully who frequently kidnaps the princess from her "home". He states: "Leave her alone! I won't let you take Mama Peach again. Dad told me all about it. He told me I had a mom that got kidnapped by a bad man named Mario. Bowser said Mario is a great big bully. He never fights fair. So I tried to get him in prison. But they didn't lock him up! And now he came back to steal Mama Peach again!"
 * And, most damningly, when told she was the mother, she had to think about it.
 * This Troper thinks that Toadstool's ??? is actually Bowser Jr's egg, and she and Bowser made a pact that if she lays the egg after she's saved, she has to send it back to Bowser.

Wart is the Koopa Kids' mother
Hey, dinosaur/frog hybrids worked out well in Jurassic Park, right?

Bowser Jr's identity

 * Bowser Jr is the "Koopa Kid" from Mario Party 3-6
 * Jossed, Koopa Kid is a Bowser mini-me.
 * Bowser Jr is Ludwig Von Koopa in a graphically ambigous form.
 * Jossed by the mere existance of New Super Mario Bros Wii, and by the FLUDD introductory scene in Super Mario Sunshine.
 * Bowser Jr is an illegitimate child born after the seven original children. Bowser would prefer not to admit his existence.

Mario is a Communist
First off, he's collecting coins. Why? So he can destroy them, as capitalist symbols. Alternatively, to distribute in a equal manner to the people of his glorious motherland. Secondly, he's fighting Bowser, who's a capitalist, setting up his own children as leaders over regions and smaller countries. Whenever Mario beats one of the castles, he destroys it as a symbol of capitalism! Finally, he's, well, wearing red. I rest my case.
 * And don't forget that he is a plumber, making him a proletarian.
 * Mario also does look exactly like Stalin.
 * Bowser is a capitalist? Then explain "Bowser Revolution" in Mario Party, in which he takes everyone's money and redistributes it evenly.
 * I think he meant "Bureaucrat." Also, castles are more symbols of the military-industrial complex, or feudalism.
 * Newgrounds has this.
 * The evidences are here.
 * To sum it all up, Mario wears red, is working-class and looks like Stalin, his nemesis is a King (King Koopa) whom he desires to be overthrown and give the power to the people (Toadstool), not to mention at every end of Super Mario Bros. game Mario tears down the peace flag which looks like a "green skull with ridiculously large eyes" and replaces it with the Red Star of Communism. He also wielded a hammer in Donkey Kong. Does that still sound non-communist to you?
 * And of course, Bowser is made out to be this power-hungry dictator, and yet he appears to have quite a few followers. Many, many more than Mario. But due to Mario's sheer radical nature being so strong, Bowser (official title: KING Koopa) and due to the creatures of the Mushroom Kingdom being rather dimwitted and gullible, Mario overthrows the monarchy and then uses Princess Peach as a puppet ruler so the denizens think that the government is the same, while Mario is busy making the real decisions.

Mario is a capitalist
Counter to the above argument: The defense rests, your honor.
 * Mario is so obsessed with money that amassing enough wealth is enough to get him an extra life.
 * When this does not hold true, he simply uses the coins to support capitalist enterprise.
 * Mario wears white and blue in addition to red.
 * Plumbers, despite being blue-collar workers, can make very large amounts of money.
 * The castles he tears down are bastions of the resistance, and he is almost always motivated by a quest to keep the current royalty in power.

Snifits are the homicidally depressed shades of creatures forcibly wrought into a hideous mechanical abomination.
In short, they're the new Cybermen. The Shy Guys may be their original form or the may be self-upgraded, but the Snifits are cyborgs who fight only to express their own wish for self-destruction upon the rest of the world. The "bullets" that the snifits spit are actual bullets, with different effects based on additional coatings, jackets, and fillings (for example, the nightmare bullets aren't made from the snifit itself,but rather coated with a psychotropic chemical that the snifit produces).

Bowser's body still contains remnants of Cackletta.
Thus the reason for Fawful's bizarre plan in Mario & Luigi 3 of having Mario and Luigi, among others, trapped inside a giant Bowser - he realizes that there is some bit of his former master still in there, and plans to manipulate Mario and Luigi into resurrecting her.

Bowser is not a Koopa.
He is a Koopa-dragon-oni hybrid made by Kamek. I mean, look at him! He's more mon than Koopa!

On the two Luigis of Super Mario Galaxy...
They are two distinct characters, and thus between the two of them they explain any blatant disparity between any given pair of contrasting depictions of Luigi. One of them (the one you play as) is the traditional support-role, alternate-playable-character Luigi who's kinda just there as an alternative to Mario who can jump higher and needs to wear shoes instead of banana peels, and is generally a normal, likable guy. The other one is the weird Luigi taken to the extreme in Super Smash Bros Brawl, or "Negative Zone Luigi" as I like to call him, who comes from an alternate universe where instead the Brothers' legendary jumping skill is replaced by interpretive dance skill that they use to open dimensional rifts.

Kamek is constantly manipulating Bowser
In reality, Bowser is just a dim-witted thug. His really villainous plots are due to Kamek's scheming and magic, making Bowser think he's actually in control. When, for some reason, Kamek is not there to control Bowser, the "Koopa King" goes go-karting with his "friends". Bowser Jr. is equally manipulated.

Tatanga grabbed the wrong girl
Seriously, if his goal was to get Mario out of his castle so Wario could take over the place, why would he capture a princess from a faraway land that Mario has never met in his life? Odds are Wario told him to kidnap the princess (a completely original plan), and the very alien alien settled for the first one he could find. Since this was supposed to bait Mario, he personally received word of the kidnapping. Whether or not he went to save Daisy out of guilt over the incident or to help Peach strengthen the Mushroom Kingdom's ties with Sarasaland, we may never know. This worked out well for Wario; he had even more time than expected to execute his hostile takeover.

Bowser is a hacked Blastoise.

 * Then how come his kids aren't Squirtle? Pokemon always take the species of the mother, after all.

A recolored one, of course (maybe borrowing one of Kirby's cans of spray paint?), but still. It's pretty visibly apparent, especially in Brawl, that Squirtle and Koopa bear a certain resemblance beyond just both being turtles. And Bowser and Blastoise look very similar too, when one looks past the color and horns - similar features, and other than Bowser's spikes replacing Blastoise's cannons a similar shell. Bowser's a recolored, touched up Blastoise hacked to have the moves Body Slam, Flamethrower, Roar, and Withdraw.

Nintendo has a crossover continuity similar to Captain N

 * Cameos such as warp whistles in Mario and Goombas in Zelda show the same concepts are shared in this multiverse. Using sufficiently advanced magic/technology, Mario and Zelda characters can meet each other.
 * Nintendo's Tetris has a party featuring Zelda, Mario, Samus, and Sesame Street. Smash Bros. has Master Hand create dolls inspired by multiple characters. These cameo based dimensions can still view multiple video game worlds to gain inspiration, as they exist in the same multiverse. Each "real" version of the characters could travel to another video game dimension if they discovered how to cross over.
 * Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Country are on the same Mushroom World as Mario. Donkey Kong Land suggests the older games took place on Donkey Kong Island, and these rivalries may still be taking place every time a portable Donkey Kong game is released.
 * Diddy Kong Racing had Banjo and Conker who are now in discontinuity from their removal in the DS version due to Rare being bought out. Banjo and Conker exist in some "Rareverse," no longer accessible to Nintendo characters, though it managed to cross over once.
 * Princess Peach had an Arwing in her castle in Super Mario 64. Dimensional rifts are not unheard of in Starfox.
 * The Subspace Emissary in Brawl takes place in a sort of "central hub" linking the various worlds, with the R.O.B.s serving to maintain it. Tabuu began his invasion here because it would allow him to easily access the various other game worlds.
 * Different parts of this "hub" lead to different worlds; the jungle leads to the Donkey Kong universe, the forest to the Zelda universe, specifically to the Lost Woods. The latter explains why people often get lost in the Lost Woods and why there is a portal to Termina there; the forest, as Saria says in Ocarina of Time, is connected to many places.

The Mushroom World is on the same planet as Hyrule

 * The Mario series takes place chronologically later than Zelda, in a contemporary time period. The warp whistles are uncovered artifacts from the first Zelda.
 * Nintendo consoles exist according to SMRPG and others. Nintendo thoroughly researches the history of Hyrule to create an electronic game based on it, parts of which are copied by Wario for Wario Ware.

All Mario games take place in the dream world.

 * Mario's older games include Mario Bros, Wrecking Crew, and Donkey Kong, all taking place over a black void - Subcon. Mario has vague recollections of his plumber past, so he thinks this is still his pre-Mushroom Kingdom career, but he's just beginning to dream. Donkey Kong is a native of this world, so it's not Earth, but Donkey Kong 3 has "Stanley," another human who thinks he's still doing his job.
 * The fly enemies in Mario Bros and Donkey Kong 3 are primitive versions of the winged subcon faeries, and the enemies in Super Mario Bros 2 wear masks so Mario doesn't make the connection between his older enemies, which will cause him to have a lucid dream and wake up.
 * Coins and mushrooms are hidden in subcon in Super Mario Bros 2 so Mario doesn't realize they've always been elements of the dream world. The darkness of subcon is a curtain meant to let Mario remember coins and mushrooms without being startled enough to realize the implication of their existence in subcon.
 * Yoshi eggs exist in Subcon in the Super Mario Bros 2 GBA remake.
 * In Super Mario Bros, Mario and Luigi don't find it odd that they can jump high, eat mushrooms and flowers to gain abilities, or disregard the laws of physics. They're used to the world and its strange properties, and lack any thought of going back to their original world if they did come from Brooklyn. People joke that the setting of Super Mario Bros is based on a drug trip. All of these qualities indicate dream logic.
 * Shy Guys only exist in the dream world according to SMB 2. Their appearance in Mario RPG and Yoshi's Island indicate all games are still within the dream world. The dream world enemies appearing in SMW show they aren't exclusive to Wart's army, but exist in any dream world location.
 * Link accesses the dream world in Link's Awakening. He finds Goombas originally thought to be exclusive to the Mushroom World, showing the Mushroom World is only part of the dream world. Either the Mushroom World continues to exist as a dream, or the Mushroom World ends when the Dream Whale wakes up.
 * The dark void of Subspace/Subcon is the same Subspace that Tabuu uses in Super Smash Bros Brawl. Since the characters in Smash Bros are only representations of the originals, Tabuu and the Master Hand see Mario in the dream world and make a doll based on him, and continue to recreate the settings and characters of all Mario games, without any distinction between Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 2- both are just as easy to view and recreate, so the Mushroom Kingdom isn't "more real" than the world seen in Super Mario Bros 2- they're the same world.

The Dream World is literally dreamt into existence by real-world Baby Mario, Luigi, Peach and Donkey Kong
They, along with Wario, Bowser and Yoshi are described as Star Children in YI:DS, seven babies that posess an extraordinary amount of power. Perhaps in the Real World, these four were born with the power to create realities from their mental powers. Mario, Luigi and Peach all being roughly the same age, grew up together. As they grew up, they collectively brought into existence The Mushroom Kingdom, from their imaginary games. Further away, a young DK was sold to the circus, seperating him from his family. In his despair he began to dream of a world where he was king, and his family lived plentifully, thus bringing into existence the DK Isles, where the worst thing that could possibly happen was a Banana shortage. DK was unaware of any other part of this Dream World until he encountered Mario, a human, which would naturally be seen as an immediate threat, something to be feared, hence their initial unfriendliness. Pauline was the only woman at the circus who treated baby DK nicely, and so dreamt her into his world. And she was naturally something to take away from the "Evil Human". To Mario, she was Pauline, but to DK she was his "Lady".

Wario was dreamt into existence by Luigi's view and resentment of Mario growing up. "always getting the better stuff, always stealing the limelight" was translated as "Greedy show-stealing pig", and being a caricature of Mario, then also became the first Star Child NATIVE to that dream world. But this world wouldn't remain real as long as they were at least partially anchored in the real world, unless.. they created two opposing Star Children to keep the world balanced and constant. The first was Peach's secret desire for a bad-boy to take her away: Prince Bowser, which is the natural Distaff Counterpart for "Princess Peach". The second was "Super Dragon Yoshi" to act as Mario's steed in his "Knight in Shining Armor" persona to win Peach over.

Interesting to note that both Yoshi and Bowser seem evenly matched in the field. Bowser is capable of trapping Super Dragon Yoshi (and other Yoshis) in an egg, but on the other hand Super Dragon Yoshi can gain powers from eating Koopa Shells, the things regular Yoshis can't actually swallow.

As the Dream World became stable and balanced from these elements, it was no longer reliant on the Real World. The dream personas of the Star Children became fully fledged beings in their own right, with the sum of the entire Dream World rebooted into a brand new consistent universe that somehow makes the bizarre dream elements work. The Real-world children were then basically memory-wiped of anything pertaining to a dream world and continued their lives as normal.

Super Mario Bros 2 was post-Star Child Real World Mario somehow subconciously remembering his experiences as a child in the Dream World as a baby. Remembering Bowser or Yoshi would've brought all the memories back and may have caused damage to the dream world's stability, and as such, the dream removes Yoshi, and substitutes Wart for Bowser.

Both Luigis in Galaxy are the same, as the result of a Stable Time Loop.
The NPC Luigi is the one in the past, who helps Mario and later his future self- after the events of the finale caused some Timey-Wimey Ball weirdness, he decided to step up and retrace his brother's steps, more confident because he knows exactly what to do and what will happen (though he's not telling anyone of course, to prevent things getting even more weird). The past Luigi takes it pretty well because he's quite frankly seen much weirder things during his career.

Birdos aren't gender-bending.
Male Birdos spit fire. Female Birdos spit eggs, though also fire as they grow older.

Color (or color paint) is magical in the Marioverse.
Think about it: There's a reason coins are different colors, and the standard karts in MK:DS are all different colors but all have different stats.

Princess Peach is comparable to modern Real Life royalty.
She doesn't really seem to have any actual duties, but she's beloved by the people (since she doesn't have anything to screw up), and a regular target of kidnappings due to her high profile and the effect it has on the people of the Mushroom Kingdom. Presumably the Mushroom Kingdom politics that matter are as boring, messy and morally questionable as Real Life politics so the Mario Bros don't bother with those.

Princess Peach remains a princess because she lacks true royal blood.
Outside of old, probably non-canon cash-in materials there's no sign of the rest of the royal family, and the fact that she's not a Toad might be significant. Perhaps she was the adopted child of the retainers of the old royalty (who aren't around for some reason or another, perhaps there was only one, old, childless monarch left), and due to technicalities can't properly ascend to the throne, so she remains crown princess (she's probably also aware that Everything's Better with Princesses). Note that this isn't mutually exclusive with the above by a long shot.

The Toads in Super Mario Wii are placeholders for Wario and Waluigi.
They're Yellow and Blue, which are their colours.
 * Waluigi's color is actualy purple. And Wario's is slightly orange.

The Mario Universe is a post-apocalyptic tale
That is to say, all the creatures are mutated people and animals. Mario seems to have no qualms about killing any of these creatures, suggesting that he is either: (a insane, (b feeling opressed as a minority in the mushroom kingdom or (c scared by what he sees, and afraid that he will become them. It's like how no one in a zombie movie ever cares about killing zombies - they're already dead. Going with option (c, more speculation:
 * 1. Bowser, then, wishes to create a cure for the mutations by studying one of the last remaining humans alive. Mario is almost insane, and thinks Bowser's kidnapping was to kill Peach or turn her into one of them, so he goes on a murderous rampage through abandoned castles, hoping to discover Bowser's laboratory. The fireballs that Bowser shoots are actually attempts by Bowser to inject Mario with the cure, lest he succomb to his insanity and turn into one of the creatures. Mario then runs past bowser, and murders him with a hammer for testing reflexes (which is part of Bowser's medical apparatus). Mario pretends the Princess thanks him, when in reality, she is cowering in a corner. This explains why we never see her hugging Mario for what he has done; Mario cannot bring himself to pretend that this happened.
 * 2. Luigi never existed. Mario created him as an alternate personality to help deal with the stress of seeing his friends and family mutated. He is an idealistic Mario: shirt no longer stained blood red, taller than Mario, and less overweight.
 * 3. Wario is Mario's mutated form. When Wario appears in a game of his own it could be said to be taking place after Mario kills Bowser, Mario having mutated and gained monstrous powers, although he can no longer jump like he used to due to his mutated legs and massive size. When Mario fights Wario, however, it could be a metaphor for how Mario is slowly losing his mind to whatever force that is turning everyone into monsters. The sadism of Wario is caused by how Mario was forced to kill so many mutated humans.
 * 4. Every Mario game with the same plot (ransack some castles, find the princess) is a flashback that Wario has. The reason they vary so much is due to Wario being traumatised and unsure of what he saw back when he was human. He relives what happened over and over again, due to the realisation that Bowser was trying to help him. In reality, the cute creatures were vile monsters. World 8 in New Super Mario Bros is closer to reality than most of Wario's hallucinations - as Wario gets closer to the climax of his grief he remembers things more clearly.
 * 5. Yoshis are mutated dogs, Toads are mutated children.

Yoshi and Birdo actually are in a heterosexual relationship, just the other way around.
Birdo is indeed a crossdressing guy who's still physically male, but Yoshi is actually female.

If the original Super Mario Brothers could support a four player mode, players three and four would not be Toads; not then, or for NSMBW.
Rather, there would be 4 Mario Bros. Now, picture Bros 3 and 4 each having evil counter parts (like Wario or Waluigi) then, imagine the how broken the fanbase would be. Thought that the Mario Vs. Luigi Vs. Wario Vs. Waluigi was bad?

Bleck's attempts to fulfill the Dark Prognosticus only failed because he used the wrong Man in Green.
The real Man in Green called for by the prophecies was Link.

Midbus's true goal is to force Bowser to improve himself.
There are many opportunities where he could have easily taken the castle and left, but he stuck around to harass and belittle Bowser, causing him to have multiple Crowning Moments Of Awesome. This was all part of his plan. By forcing Bowser to be stronger and more proactive, earning the loyalty of his minions and the respect of his enemies, he is ensuring that Bowser will truly live up to his reputation as an evil king.

Hey, someone had to make the Disgaea reference...

Extending from that idea, Midbus is Bowser's father.
This requires some behind-the-scenes knowledge. Apparently Bowser's original design was meant to be an ox, but Miyamoto discovered too late that his creation had far more resemblance to a turtle. Thus, it is entirely possible that Bowser is of ox/Koopa mixed heritage, implying that Midbus fell in love with a standard Koopa Troopa. This indiscretion also explains why Bowser seems to be the first one of his species, and was raised by Koopas and Magikoopas in his childhood rather than having any visible parentage.

Kamek foresaw the events of the Light Prognosticus
In Yoshi's Island, Kamek foresaw TWO things. One, that Mario/Luigi would be the death of Bowser (this actually does happen, in New Super Mario Bros). However, he also foresaw that Bowser, Mario, Luigi, and Peach would all need to live in order to stop the Void from destroying the universe. He intended to kidnap Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, and Baby Peach, not to kill them, but to ensure that they would befriend Bowser early on, and also to train all four to be prepared. Yoshi got the wrong idea when Kamek accidentally dropped Baby Mario. The "baddies" Kamek dispersed were intended to get Yoshi out of the way and reunite Baby Mario with the other three babies. Stealing the Super Happy Tree was Disproportionate Retribution, as well as a way to discourage Yoshis from further interference by taking away their enthusiasm. Kamek, in the future, took adult Bowser back in time (Yoshi's Island DS) in order to do what he couldn't do in the past; round up Babies Mario, Luigi, Peach and Baby Bowser to train them further (he had trained Babies Luigi, Peach and Bowser during the events of Yoshi's Island). This led to more interference by not only Yoshi, but also the Stork. This time, the baddies were dispersed to test the babies, while Yoshi transported them. Also, he showed Baby Bowser how evil Adult Bowser had become, attempting to induce a Heel Face Turn. It resulted in Bowser's Heel Face Revolving Door. Baby Luigi never falling onto Yoshi's back led Luigi to believe he was less important than Mario, and frequently let himself be left behind. This was completely unintentional. The Shroob incident gave Luigi the confidence to occasionally tag along.
 * I love this theory so much. You have breathed new life into the Mario canon for me.

Warp Pipes are pieces of lost technology left behind by an ancient civilization
In Bowser's Inside Story, Warp Pipes are clearly revealed to be Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Specifically, regardless of the location of the other end of the warp pipe, the two ends are always linked, even if one end of the pipe has been swallowed by Bowser. This raises some interesting questions about warp pipes and opens their nature up for debate.

I propose that Warp Pipes were the primary transport system for a civilization that existed before the Mushroom Kingdom. The Mushroom Kingdom has shown no signs of actually creating these pipes, it only uses them, and the pipes that spring from the ground seem to be naturally occuring as well. They were never installed; they just always were, and the Mushroom Kingdom's society mostly built around them, mostly just accepting that they are useful and thusly take them for granted after many years of use. They also exist outside of the Mushroom Kingdom, and in places like Rogueport in Thousand Year's Door they are clearly linked to the ancient ruins under ground.

Bowser is actually Mario's father
Bowser is an overprotective father of Mario who still sees him as a small child and doesn't want him to have a girlfriend, which is why he keeps "kidnapping" Peach.
 * 1) That would certainly be interesting, as according to Yoshi's Island, Bowser and Mario are the same age...
 * And that's where Yoshi's Island DS comes in.

The Koopalings are bastards, and therefore ineligible to inherit the throne
Many fans been interested in who their mother is, but no canon source has ever revealed anything. Whoever their mother is, she doesn't have the kind of noble blood that would allow her kids to inherit the throne. That's why the Koopalings are universally portrayed as childish brats; princes are pushed much harder to act dignified, but the upbringing of royal bastards is the kind that produces a Spoiled Brat. That's also why Ludwig is the oldest son, but neither he nor any of his brothers is ever treated as anyone special. The heir is not any of the traditional Koopalings, but Bowser Jr. That's why there's a Broken Base that doesn't like Bowser Jr. And that is why Bowser constantly pursues the Princess: He needs a royal mother for his kids. One of the guesses above is quite correct to say that the Princess is Bowser Jr.'s mother. That also explains his name. Of course it would be better for the successor to be Bowser the Second than Ludwig the First (which would only happen as a last resort).
 * Why do I get the feeling the Koopalings like it that way? Being king is hard work, it's much more fun to be a prince.

The ending of Super Mario Galaxy was an attempt by Rosalina to protect the universe from the prophecy of the Dark Prognosticus.
The events of Super Paper Mario came about due to a wedding between a pure princess and an evil king without mutual consent. Unfortunately, even after the impending catastrophe was averted, said evil king refused to abandon his attempts to win the pure princess for his own. Rosalina saw this, and when Bowser's latest failed plan threatened to destroy the entire galaxy, she permitted it to happen in such a manner that she could rebuild the universe while correcting a significant flaw.

Note the look Bowser and Peach give each other after the universe restarts. It's rather... mutual.

Whether or not this will change the Mario/Peach/Bowser rivalry dynamic at all remains to be seen, but in the end, Rosalina is hopeful that if Bowser's plans ever come down to another attempt at winning her hand, at least it will not happen against her will.

There is no romantic relationship between Luigi and Daisy, though they pretend there is.
Daisy is just The Beard for Luigi. Luigi may also be The Beard for Daisy.
 * YOU FIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEENNNNNDDDD!
 * I am ready to believe that it started this way, and more because of a shared Second Banana complex.

The pipes seen in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story do not go through Bowser because of magic using pocket-dimensions.
While there are pipes that have a physical presence in the world, I have a theory that many, if not most or even all, of the warp pipes in fact are openings into a pocket-dimension of short (or, in some uncommon cases, same-length-as-above-ground distance) routes. So they might work like Magical Mystery Doors

This idea was born from the fact that when Bowser sucked up the pipes in the forest when he got the 'Lucky' Shroom, we saw no holes in the ground and there were clumps of grass sucked up as well. Of course, it all could just be the people in charge of making the game-sprites not wanting to go through the extra effort of making holes in the ground or damaging Bowser's Body with pipe-lines.

Hotel Mario does not star the real Mario and Luigi.
Remember how on the live-action half of The Super Mario Bros Super Show, Mario and Luigi sometimes got visits by relatives who bore an Uncanny Family Resemblance to them? It's probably the same case with Hotel Mario - you're not playing as Mario and Luigi themselves, you're playing as Fat Mario and Gay Luigi. This probably also explains why it is Canon Dis Continuity (besides the fact that it sucks and is on the CD-i, of course).
 * Can we say the same about the Zelda games too?
 * It's canon that there are multiple Links. Also, at least two timelines and dimensions. The CD-i Link and his world could easily fall outside of the others. It doesn't even need to be Canon Dis Continuity with the craziness of the Zelda timeline, just shove it off in it's own timeline and dimension. There you have it - gone from the story!

Kammy Koopa is the Koopa Kids' mother
Not only is she the brains behind all of Bowser's operations, as explained by Goombella in The Thousand-Year Door, but their relationship in the original Paper Mario was practically that of an old married couple tired of each other anyways.

Mario and Doctor Mario are two different people
Dr. Mario is NOT an alternate universe version of Mario, but rather a relative who went to medical school. Think about it: Mario is a surname. The known members of the family are: Luigi Mario, Mario Mario, and Dr. XXXX Mario. This explains why Mario and Dr. Mario are two different characters in SSB Melee.

Doctor Mario is Mario and Luigi's father.
See the above entry.
 * So who's their mother?
 * Pauline?
 * Undergrad Mario must have worked in construction to pay for school.

Princess Peach is behind everything
Her plan is similar to what Palpatine did in Star Wars to become Emperor. She is planning to take over the world and Bowser is her accomplice. In the first game, Peach staged her kidnapping so that she could become all-powerful, bribing Bowser to help her. She had him cast a spell over the kingdom, and kidnapped her own subjects while acting innocent. Her plan would have succeeded if it wasn't for two plumbers who came to "rescue" her, ruining her plan. Nevertheless, she acted nice for them. Every new game is actually Peach attempting her plan over and over again.

Mario Is Missing and Mario's Time Machine are actually the brothers' nightmares
No wonder these games are so abysmal! They don't make sense at all! Why are the brothers in modern-day New York? Why does Mario have to get a bunch of historical artifacts? He doesn't even live in our world! The troper couldn't understand. Pretty soon, it'll dawn on them how horrible and warped their dreams are, and they will soon morph into a sense of nightmarish surrealism at the climax of the dream.

Super Mario Bros 2 was not a dream at all!
Subcon is an alternate universe created by dreams, but Mario and his friends actually did visit the land physically. Wart is, in fact, the dream counterpart of Bowser. The ending of the game that showed Mario asleep did not indicate that his adventure was a dream. He is actually dreaming about the good times he had during one of his finest adventures.

The Mushroom King is dead...
...Because Princess Peach killed him. He never appears at all in any of the games. He is mentioned, but still never appears at all. The answer? Peach is actually the queen. She killed her father, the king, so that she could take over the throne and become a despot. She calls herself a "princess" to cover this act up, and she pretends that the king is still alive. Bowser is actually the leader of a rebel force whose goal is to overthrow Peach and end her corruption. Mario and Luigi have been brainwashed into thinking Peach is good.

Alternately, Bowser is the Mushroom King.
Bowser, the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom, is enraged because his wife, Peach, is cheating on him (Mario and Luigi). So he kidnaps his own wife to punish her and strengthen his power on the kingdom as well.

Birdo is post-op.
Nintendo used to be called male. However recently they've been referring to her as female. Maybe she got "the operation" within the last few games.
 * Real Life transwomen don't necessarily need the operation to start identifying as female. Some opt for the operation, and some remain anatomically male. Though that does not mean this theory is wrong -- it may actually be correct, but this troper is just saying that transgender people can be complex.

Peach is secretly in love with Bowser, but is being a Tsundere about it.
She can quite easily beat Bowser, as shown few times, but she chooses not to; She lets her second love, Mario, save her so she can spend as much time with Bowser as she can.
 * Maybe One True Threesome?

The Super Mario Bros. universe is locked in a cycle of rebirth and destruction.
We only get to see it at the end of Super Mario Galaxy, but Mario successfully rescuing Princess Peach causes the Endofthe World As We Know It, only for it to be remade by Rosalina, as best as possible, restoring the people of the world. She only recently remembered the Koopalings, and is quite terrible at recalling how big and/or intelligent Bowser is supposed to be. This is still preferable to a victory by the villains, though, which would cause permanent devastation.

The seemingly lack of geographical continuity is because Princess Peach and Bowser are both Continent Looters
We've seen what became of the World 1-1 of the first game. The reason each game takes place in a completely different geographical area is because by the time it's started, the lands of the previous game have already been completely stripped; the Mushroom Kingdom overfarms until the land becomes Mordor, after which they move on. Bowser takes over the castle left behind, redecorates it appropriately, and strips the land of everything that's left.

The trial at the beginning of Super Mario Sunshine was deliberately unfair
The inhabitants of Isle Delfino needed someone to get rid of the pollution and find the Shine Sprites for them, and when they heard that the legendary Super Mario was coming to the island for a holiday, they knew exactly what they needed to do...
 * When you take into account that The Thousand Year Door reveals that there exists a Pianta Mafia, this starts to make a whole lot of logical sense.

"Princess Peach" and "Princess Toadstool" are two entirely different people.
They're twin sisters - Peach prefers her own name while Toadstool much rather goes by her last name. Toadstool is far more proactive, quick to anger, and devious than her airheaded Friend to All Living Things sister. Both sisters have blonde hair, but Toadstool generally dyes her a reddish-brown both to avoid the Dumb Blonde stereotype and to differentiate herself from her twin sister, Peach, but for whatever reason, she goes with her natural hair colors in Super Mario World and Super Mario RPG. This means Peach first appears in Super Mario 64, inviting Mario to the castle for cake. Ever since then, for whatever reason, Toadstool has either relegated herself to the background or been forced there, it all depends. Just as well, she may be the one governing the Mushroom Kingdom from the background, while her sister deals with public relations and personal appearances, because Peach is just one of those people others feel comfortable opening up to while they feel "on edge" around Toadstool. Thus explains why Princess Peach can be a ruler despite clearly being a airheaded ditz - she's not, her sister is in charge of that kind of thing while Peach stands up on stage waving and smiling.

Rawk Hawk is a parody of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Look at him! He's got "spines" in the form of a mohawk hairdo, he's got the 'tude... heck, he even has a spindash!

Princess Toadstool's amulet means something.
It is quite likely that the amulet that Princess Peach (or Toadstool, if you want to call her that) constantly wears actually has some sort of power. Maybe it prevents her from being able to do anything when she gets attacked.
 * To be fair, often times Bowser sneaks up behind her, so that she doesn't know anyway...

Weegee is a manifestation of all of the darkness in Luigi's heart.
When all of the dark sides of Luigi's personality split from the rest Luigi's personality and manifested into it's own physical being, to plague the world with the Weegee virus, it left Luigi as the coward we know him as today.

== The Koopalings are Bowser's children, but Bowser created a clone of himself, Bowser Jr., because he was unhappy with the Koopalings. This backfires when Bowser Jr. becomes an unstoppable Kid With the Remote Control. == Bowser has been experimenting with cloning technology since the first game, where he created seven clones of himself to stop Mario; unfortunately, because cloning tech at the time was so primitive, they were weaker than the real Bowser and reverted back to their true Mook forms once killed. While Bowser sets up the seven-kingdom distraction in Super Mario Bros. 3, he sires the Koopalings with Peach, intending to train them as his lieutenants responsible for an impending Yoshi genocide in Super Mario World. However, he realized that, because they weren't as awesome as he was, they utterly failed at securing the Yoshi eggs, so when Bowser skulked away after losing to Mario yet again in Super Mario World, he left his children to die.

After his defeat in Super Mario 64, Bowser realized that he was getting too old for this crap, and made a clone of himself, Bowser Jr., so that his evil legacy may continue. Unfortunately Bowser gave his clone a little TOO much power and he quickly became the whiny, spoiled God Mode Sue we all love to hate. In all of his encounters with Mario, Bowser Jr. has shown significantly more competence than his father, including changing the fabric of reality with a paintbrush.

His most magical antics, though, are in the New Super Mario Bros games. In the DS game, he manipulates the weather itself to strike the Mushroom Kingdom with lightning, distracting Mario and letting him snatch Peach away. He later shows power over Death itself, reviving his father in Castle 8 of the DS game and reviving the Koopalings in New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Rosalina is just plain lazy.
She's got a super mega awesome load of powers, yet she makes some random powerless plumber do her work. Come on.
 * Remember what this random powerless plumber has done in the past. She has a good reason for getting him to get all the Stars. Besides, who knows if she can leave it (Kart the obvious exclusion)...

Rosalina allows Bowser's antics because in the end, the Universe is better off after he and Mario fight.
It states in Mario 64 if you find all of the Power Stars that Mario finds more Stars than Bowser had stolen. Mario actually finds and activates Stars that were lost, stolen by inconsequential beings (usually as prizes for Mini Games), or depowered and restores them. (By getting 100 coins in a level, by somehow time-traveling back through a level and doing the same thing again under the light of a special Comet; etc.)
 * Why waste energy to smite Bowser when the Cosmic Plumber will clean the Universal Pipes even better than they were before?

Bouldergeist and Bogmire are related species
Or even the same species. Just look at them, their ghost forms are basically the complete same, as are many of their abilities: Bouldergeist, Bogmire
 * Or maybe even the same PERSON. DUN DUN DUN.

Luigi's Mansion was Destroyed by a Bomb.
The family in the mansion was having a party (Explaining all of the ghosts who aren't part of the family) when a bomb came out of the sky and destroyed the mansion and the surrounding area. All the Boos did was bring it (and it's ghosts) back from the dead.

The cartoon shows are an unlicensed TV series airing in the Mushroom World.
The reason why Bowser looks different and is almost always referred to as King Koopa is because the artists drew him with a No Celebrities Were Harmed design to avoid chances of him taking offense at his portrayal. (The few times his first name does come up with the voice actors slipping up.) This same reason applies to why the Koopalings have different names.

Long
Let's start from the beginning- Now, some people suggest that she is being kidnapped because she's in love with Bowser or something and doesn't want anyone to know. Not quite. What she's actually doing is turning Bowser into his own worst enemy. Think about it- How good is the reputation of a ruler who routinely wastes resources trying to capture a princess and kill two plumbers and miserably failing every single time, no matter how many soldiers he has? His minions still support him, but the Paper Mario games clearly show some of the "evil" races turning on him. In other words- She's using the leader of the opposing country as negative propaganda for them. Now, you may ask, why is she doing this when she could easily just curb stomp the Koopas? Because she doesn't want to kill them, she wants the Koopas to side with her, which is why she never fights back. The Koopas see a big angry turtle abusing a helpless princess and then being easily defeated by two plumbers, and slowly Bowser's kingdom crumbles around him as everyone turns against him, and this would be doubled by the random Kart events that everyone seems to enjoy. Bowser doesn't join in because he's secretly friends with Mario, he joins in because he thinks this is a good chance to show how great he is without being beaten up by plumbers. And while he's doing that, he's making a mockery of himself while making Peach look nice for setting all of this up.
 * Peach looks and acts like a stereotypically feminine perfect pink princess, but she runs an entire kingdom and the Toads clearly respect her, so obviously she's just Obfuscating Stupidity. Similar to some celebrities who act stupider than they are to fill the stereotype, Peach is just acting like that so that people see her as a nice and happy person, hence why she keeps having all of these Kingdom-wide Kart events.
 * Peach can fight. She can fight damn good. She is as powerful, if not moreso, than the brothers themselves, so the only obvious answer is that she is allowing herself to be kidnapped (except in special cases like Paper Mario 1, because she can't fight a completely invulnerable Bowser) for her own personal gain.

Furthermore, In New Super Mario Bros Wii, we see two Toads who are clearly trained in proper combat compared to the regular ones who can't do anything useful at all. Basically- Peach is taking one small and tiny step towards ending the war once and for all- An army trained with the same jumping skills as Mario and Luigi would be absolutely devastating, but she starts with two personal bodyguards so nobody thinks anything of it. Then, when Bowser's kingdom is weak enough, she sends in her new army. Now she has a Kingdom, much larger than before, along with the old resources, civilians and soldiers of the Koopa Kingdom (they seem like the sort that would defect if the other side was larger). Nothing can stop anything that powerful.
 * And no you can't turn this into a fanfiction. I'm going to first xD

The Birdo from Super Mario Bros 2 and the current Birdo are two separate individuals
Recent sports games have made a point of showing that "Birdo" is one of a larger species. The pink one working for Wart is indeed a transwoman residing in Sub Con. The friendly Birdo that is hinted to be in a relationship with Yoshi is a separate ciswoman residing in the Mushroom Kingdom. Of course, this theory does raise some Unfortunate Implications with the trans Birdo being the evil one.
 * An interesting thing about the good Birdo is that she is wearing a ring.

Yoshis and Birdos are equal and opposite species.
Yoshis are male, Birdos are female. Or maybe it's the other way around. Whatever. Just throwing it out there.
 * You mean like the Pokémon Miltank and Tauros? Yeah, I figured.
 * Well pinkish-purple and green are about opposite. They both shoot eggs. One's mouth features a long tongue while the other's feature's a hole. That is just Squick but it would explain why we don't see them spit any eggs that actually hatch.

Long
Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story confirmed that Bowser kept a large number of the Shroobs in cold storage after the invasion; there's an optional boss battle with three of them in the basement of his castle, and one can even be seen roaming free in Fawful Theater. Just a nice little Continuity Nod Bonus Boss, right? If that was the case, then why would the game go through the trouble of explaining the Shroob invasion and how it was stopped (Mario and Luigi recap the Shroob invasion to Starlow after the battle with the Shroob trio)? Why show so clearly that Bowser's storing Shroobs in his castle? The final nail in the coffin can be seen in the background in the battle against the Shroobs. There are many many Shroobs being stored, include Junior Shrooboids, Commander Shroobs... and the Elder Princess Shroob. Notably, the EPS is never repeated in the background, even if you use attacks that scroll back.]]

In fact, she's placed directly in the center of the background, overlooking the battle. If this were a mere cameo, why would the Final Boss of the previous game be displayed at all, let alone putting such effort into her being placed properly?

It's reminiscent of when Fawful made a cameo in Mario and Luigi Partners In Time . He, too, was located in a hidden basement of a castle (Peach's, in his case), and he even gives a recap of the events of the previous game... and he ended up being the Big Bad of the next game. All signs point to the Shroobs returning as the antagonists of Mario and Luigi 4. Either the Elder Princess Shroob will be resurrected and lead the Shroobs, or a team of Shroobs will attempt to free her, possibly by cooperating with Bowser for a while.

Bowser is related to the Fey Clan.
This is why his physical appearance changes greatly upon him being possessed by Cackletta's ghost, and he turns back to normal once it leaves his body. Then again, maybe he just studied up on the Kurain technique.

Mario will star in a Bud Light commercial.
Hey, he says "Here we go!" alot, and it's a Phrase Catcher in recent Bud Light commercials. It's the only logical conclusion.

Peach is a hive queen to both the Toads and the various races that serve Bowser.
She has given birth to countless children, the race depending on whether Mario or Bowser fertilized a particular batch. The reason why Bowser kidnaps Peach so much (and why Mario gets her back) is because the Princess is able to supply a nearly endless amount of soldiers for whoever she is controlled by. This is why she can pull a Toad out of nowhere in the Super Smash Bros games.

Bowser has mild magical powers
He's always been shown as part of a 'wizard clan' or somesuch, and frequently uses magic to power himself and others up, but still prefers to use his natural abilities in battle. Most likely he feels his magical powers aren't worth the bother to train to use in battle when he can already breathe fire and has super-strength, and uses his magic for less flashy and personal stuff. After all, he's got Kamek, Kammy and the Magikoopas to do his magic work for him.
 * Confirmed. Original game mentions his use of black magic, and his actions in Super Mario Galaxy 2 show him teleporting and travelling through space with a purple aura.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is
Given that Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be half Mission Pack Sequel and half Updated Rerelease, featuring some new galaxies as well as returning ones with new objectives, it's possible that these galaxies are simply the result of


 * All but confirmed by Miyamoto himself, who had said that "[Super Mario Galaxy 2] has been developed and designed so that those who have conquered the prequel, Super Mario Galaxy 1, can feel as if it’s a continuation from the ending of that first game."

Birdos are a completely different species
They all live on Birdo Island, which is on the opposite side of the Mushroom Kingdom to Yoshi Island. No one knows that there are more than one Birdo because the Birdos only allow a few outside the island per year as secret ambassadors (more like spies, really). Going by the original Japanese manual for Super Mario Bros 2 and not the North American one (the first one to mention the transgender thing), the Birdo working for Wart was a (somewhat mannish) Birdo ambassador gone rouge named Catherine. After that fiasco, she was called back to Birdo Island. She refuses, and goes on the lam. So, Birdo Island sends another Birdo to the Mushroom Kingdom, the one that's friendly to the Mario Crew and dates Yoshi. After Super Smash Bros Melee, Birdo Island sends another pink Birdo (who is male) as a secretary to the first Birdo. In the confusion that results, the Birdos realize that the Mushroom Kingdom still doesn't really know Birdo Island exists. So, the secretary is called back, and the first Birdo makes up excuses for the confusion. They don't exactly stick, leading to the "indeterminate gender" comment on the Brawl trophy. Meanwhile, Catherine finds a way to Mimin Island...

Bowser is the head of the Mushroom Kingdom Army, and Mario is the Royal Guard. The games are training missions
Why does Bowser always kidnap the same princess, and why is Mario so amiable to him the rest of the time? Simple: Peach is in on it. Mario's job is to protect Peach or, failing that, rescue her before she gets hurt. Bowser's job it to get past all of the defenses of any enemies' Royal Guards and attack their rulers. So to train, Bowser tries to capture Peach. When he fails, we don't see it. When he succeeds, then Mario goes to rescue her. It's just a job and their's no ill will between the two. Oh, and as for why Mario is willing to kill his allies with reckless abandon, they all got green mushrooms beforehand. They die, but come back to life in their homes safe and sound.
 * That makes considerable sense, with the exception of the fact that it makes one wonder how Bowser can successfully control an army...
 * He doesn't have to command it by himself, he has advisors such as Kamek to help him. He's the kind of soldier to lead from the front, and we've seen from Bowser's Inside Story that he is strong and charismatic enough to do that!

Mario and Luigi are insane, ADAM-crazed Splicers hallucinating the entire Mushroom Kingdom.
We've seen how different Rapture looks through the eyes of a Little Sister, and we know that heavy splicing causes mental damage. Who's to say that similar hallucinations can't happen to Splicers?

Mario and Luigi usually attack everything they see. Money is just lying around everywhere. And certain items have special effects on them. Growing larger after picking up a Mushroom could possibly mean they are acquiring more ADAM. Fire and Ice Flowers are Incinerate! and Winter Blast plasmids. The rest of the powerups are Gene Tonics. Bowser is a Big Daddy who you must kill in order to get at his Little Sister (Peach).

The games only ever show us when Bowser succeeds at kidnapping the Princess.
Just like how the Enterprise is always discovering strange aliens and phenomena, or Bond is the only secret agent who meets world conquering nut cases, The main Mario games tell the most interesting stories. Namely when Bowser kidnaps the Princess and Mario has to rescue her. That being said, for every successful attempt he makes, we miss out on the times when he is: 1) Held back until Mario arrives or 2) Curb-stomped by the guards (or Peach herself) and driven off. The Mushroom Kingdom guards have grown extremely competent at protecting Peach due to thwarting numerous kidnapping attempts, but we never see this since Nintendo thinks the most interesting stories are the ones where they fail.

New Super Mario Bros Wii is a retelling of the adventure by an Unreliable Narrator Toad who may or may not turn it into a Self-Insert Fic.
Mario is always present because he's Mario, and he always goes to save the princess. Luigi is optional because he doesn't always tag along with his brother; this is why he's selectable instead of automatically being player 2. Blue and Yellow Toad are also selectable because their presence is also... questionable. The one telling the story may add them into the tale to make it more interesting; after all, the Mushroom Kingdom is FULL of fans of the Brothers, and who wouldn't want to join in on their adventures at least once?

The story varies from there depending on the players' actual style; if a Toad or two accompanies Mario, they could be anything from a helpful asset, a bumbling source of comic relief, a well-developed Original Character or a blatant glory-hogging Mary Sue. Alternately, it could be just the brothers, but with Luigi outshining his brother. If the players harass each other, it gets shades of a Revenge Fic. And so on and so forth...

Luigi is NOT the fourth hero in Super Paper Mario.
The light pragnosticus comments that He, but that is because of his role as the key, not because of being a hero. Rather, Tippi is the fourth hero. After all, she's helping save the world just as much,, than the playable characters are.
 * But the Light Pragnosticus states that they would be led to the final hero after the first part in the Underwhere ordeal! Plus why didn't Tippi glow with the heros?

Luigi is more powerful than Mario, but is being held back.
We know from the platformers (SMW 2 and SMG, specifically) that Luigi is faster and can jump higher than Mario. We also know that Luigi is tougher and healthier from the RPGs. Put these together and he's practically a Flying Brick! There are two reason why he isn't the hero: his low self-esteem and bad footwear, which reduces his acceleration. Now, here's where the guessing comes in. I think that Mario, who is older, stopped Luigi from helping him on his adventures when they were little, because he didn't think Luigi was old enough to be of use. Mario became famous, everybody loved him and he got to guest star at events like boxing matches. He boasted to Luigi about how everyone loved him and Luigi was depressed that he wasn't as succesful. Now, heroes attract danger so Luigi blamed bad things on him and his brother, but when it was just Mario saving the world(s), Luigi felt weak and inadequate. Plus, his shoe fitter and martial arts instructor are both Toads, so they are jealous of Luigi's height and sexy mustache so they deliberately hinder him by giving his slippery shoes and weak, embarrasing fighting techniques respectively.
 * That makes so much sense! (and Luigi does have embarrassing fighting techniques.

The Koopalings's mother and Bowser's wife is dead.
They all have been around before Bowser started attacking the Mushroom Kingdom. Basically, Bowser didn't really take it well, eventually becoming full of hatred and wrath. So after some time he turned from a maybe acceptable king to a tyrannical one, engaging in wars with other kingdoms while vaguely able to raise his seven children. Also it explains why he kidnaps Peach, yet he does seem to be in love with her. He can't make up his mind about love anymore.

Bonechill is Jaydes' and Grambi's son.
He was their son some 1500 or so years before Super Paper Mario, but somehow turned evil and transformed into an ice dragon. Out of fear, Jaydes and Grambi locked him away deep in the Underwhere so he couldn't steal the Pure Heart, which would later be.

Bowser's next attempt to kidnap Peach in the Mario and Luigi Saga will probably be his second most embarrassing failure yet.
Unless Mario and Luigi forget that they can easily reach the location of several pipes that lead to Bowser's Insides, or don't think of using them get inside him, inform him that they are there, and hit his funny bone with a hammer till he surrenders. Though odds are, they probably will.
 * At the end of Bi S you see Bowser spit out all the pipes and people when he loses his vacum shroom ability. There are no longer any pipes inside bowser.

Birdo is capable of spontaneously changing genders
Birdo's gender identity is always female; we know that. But Nintendo Japan claims he/she is biologically male, while Nintendo of America claims he/she is biologically female. So which is the truth? Both. Like the African reed frog, Birdo is capable of changing between female and male depending on environmental factors.

Shy Guys are Waddle Dees and Dreamland is part of the Marioverse
Think about it. Their structure is similiar to the one of the Waddle Dees and even their location is similiar (Subcon is a land of dreams and therefore could be part of Dreamland or a neighboring country). Also, Wart (leader of the Shy Guys and other species) is a king. That would imply that Wart and Dedede are some kind of rivals (both are kings and have Waddle Dees as their tribe).

To the point why Waddle Dees disguise themselves as Shy Guys: Let's say Wart is an ally of Bowser's army (which would make sense because he's a frog king like Goomba King, Bob-omb King etc.), they do this so you can differ them from normal Waddle Dees (and to look more frightening). This would also mean that the doors in Super Mario Bros 2 (US) are an entry to Subcon AND Pop Star and that Dreamland is a neighboring country to Subcon just like Mushroom Kingdom is one to Sarasaland.

The fact, Bowser has troops all over the universe has been proven in Mario Galaxy.


 * Supporting this would be the Mario cameos in Kirby Super Star, Gordos from Kirby being in Super Mario Land 2 adn of course: Star Road.
 * Star Road was introduced in Super Mario World and has been a staple entry of the RPG series since. Of course Star Hill is the path that leads to Star Road and it appeared in a different name for one game: Paper Mario (Shooting Star Summit). What artifact does Paper Mario and Kirby have in common? The Star Rod. The Star Road (Named Star Haven in Paper Mario) is The Mushroom World's Fountain of Dreams.
 * This may also explain why Luigi was scared of the Waddle Dees in Brawl: Luigi is the only one who is known to have seen a Shy Guy's true face, he was scared of the Waddle Dees because Shy Guys are Waddle Dees.
 * Even more so because he sees them as naked Shy Guys.

The green Yoshi from Yoshis Island isn't the same one that Mario met in Super Mario World
Rather, it was the baby green Yoshi who hatched in Yoshi's Story that grew up to be Mario's sidekick. The green Yoshi who helped Baby Mario was his father.
 * Further, it's all but confirmed that the Village Leader in Paper Mario was the Green Yoshi in Yoshi's Island. Super Dragon Yoshi, the current one (that's what he calls himself in the Japanese version of SMB 4: SMW), seems to have hatched sometime after the events of Yoshi's Island 2.
 * I was under the impression this was confirmed? The Yoshi hatched at the end of Yoshis Island DS is the Yoshi Mario is friends with as an adult.

Koopas are like bees.
It would seem to explain the Koopalings, being regular Koopas fed the equivalent of royal jelly. This would explain why the are so many Koopas. Perhaps the queen is never shown because she's useless except for popping the Koopas out.

Luigi is the reincarnation of Jesus.
He can walk on water in Super Mario 64 DS.

Super Mario Bros uses a Sanity Meter; the Goombas don't hurt Mario at all when they bump into him anywhere but the soles of his shoes.
He has had it with these mushroom-fighting stains on his mushroom-fighting jeans. Very few enemies can actually cause him harm, and even then Mario's Sanity Meter generally runs out before his health does. That little twirling "death" animation is him going berserk, and the 1-Ups and extra lives are mushroom-shaped cases with a spare pair of overalls in (or a ticket for a free pair), and a pair of overalls costs 100 coins.

Mario's failed career in medicine is the beginning of all his problems.
Having lost his license to practice medicine after numerous malpractice suits involving overdosing his patients on various colorful pills, Mario developed a drug habit which he supports by working as a plumber, stealing money ("gold coins"), and pimping out his girlfriend the "princess" to Bowser, who due to Mario's constantly being on shrooms looks like a giant turtle-dragon. Mario isn't actually rescuing Peach, he's just picking her up after she and Bowser do their business. The "other castles" Mario visits are just random houses that Mario accidentally mistakes for Bowser's place. This is why the "fake Bowsers" turn into other monsters after you kill them: Mario hallucinates that he's seeing Bowser, but after beating up the house's real resident he realizes it's someone else.

The "Super Guide" Luigi from New Super Mario Bros. Wii is the clone Luigi from Super Mario Galaxy.
Because seriously, could you imagine the REAL Luigi casually running through all those dangerous levels?
 * And not only that, but ones that Mario couldn't do? This makes sense.

All the RPG games are one long, drawn out, shared Lucid Dream.
The characters have these dreams to let off steam, as well as get to know each other better. The entire kidnapping/rescuing thing only happens because Bowser is crazy, desperately trying to get the girl. Once his sanity returns, Mario and Peach forgive him and let him race karts and stuff. The reason Bowser is evil for the first few chapters/locations of the RPGs/is evil the entire time is because he doesn't know he's dreaming yet. It could also be the villains in the RPG are dream invaders, and Mario and Luigi try to stop them. Bowser is crazy in his dreams, but can gain control of himself if he realizes he is dreaming. This would also explain SMB 2.

Each "series" of Mario games (SMB, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, etc.) takes place in a separate continuity.
The ending of Super Mario Galaxy might as well have spelled this out, with Rosalina's spiel on the cycle never repeating itself the same way. This explains the wildly varying geography of the Mushroom Kingdom between games, the different visuals (flat paper characters versus fully-3D, etc.), somewhat alleviates the problem of trying to fit all of the games into anything resembling a coherent timeline...

The Mushroom Kingdom is actualy the distopian future of earth, after climate change causes the death of just about everything, and the Mario series was intended as a warning to us.
It sounds crazy, but stick with me.

(WARNING: This WILL be long. VERY long. I really gave some thought into this one, and I shorted it as much as possible.

This is long. Very long.
Scientists have theorised that, if Climate Change makes the earth heat up by 6 Degrees C, Everything except fungi will be killed by the heat and general Heat explosions. Let's go with that idea - The fungi, unabated by humans or animals, grows rampant, and mutates when it grows on our nuclear deposists. The fungi mutate into human-type creatures - In other words, Toads. These Toads find out about, or remember, the days of old, and want to help, but they don't know how. So, they invent Warp Pipes, which can connect to different time periods, as well as different places. They conect these Pipes to verious time periods, and eventualy collect Mario, Luigi and Peach. But, a Malfunction also causes them to send the pipes into a compleatly different time period, the Jurasic age, where Bowser comes across the pipe and is also trasported to the future. Luckily, the Climate Change effects have since worn down, so while it's still hot, it's isn't deadly to humans.

The radiation from the Toad people also mutate Mario, Luigi, Peach and Bowser into the characters we see today, And the toad people ask about what they can do. They think about sending them back with the message of "Stop Using Coal," But the radiation upon Mario and Co. is too great of a risk. So Peach, being from the newest time period, surgests sending their message as a video game. The idea is so good, that she is declared Queen, (Or princess - She likes that more.) And Mario and Luigi agree to become Royal Security Guards.

Then, the Toad Scientists drop a bombshell - They have theorised that a blatent message of "This Is Our Life" Could well throw the world into a panic, which would do nothing to help. What they need is a message so suttle, that it could easily be introduced as something else. Ideas are flung, when suddenly Bowser tries to take power. Mario and Luigi stomp him, and this helps Peach come up with a brainwave.

She comes from the time just after the Video Game Crash, and she realises that, if the scientists could created a game that brung gaming back, that game would be famous - And thereby, someone might well realise the hidden conatations. So, the Toad Technitians get to work. With Peach's help, they created a game - In highly controled contitions, of course, to make sure raditation doesn't get passed through. She knows, luckily, where the toads can find radiation proof suits and buildings - And as the Toads had not yet extavigated the ruins of every city, they mannage to find suits and a building that aren't destroyed. They created a game about Mario and Luigi's adventure, and keep it fully sterilised and send it to the past. They also created a new console, in 8-Bit, to help discuise the game even more. The game and console are transported into the office of Miamoto, and the tiny amount of radiation from the warp pipe makes him the somewhat wacky man we know today. He takes this game - Called "Super Mario Bros." - And releaces it as his own.

Some parts in Super Mario Bros. Support this idea. For a start, there are a lot of Pits and Water - Caused by the Explosions of the appocolypce and Rising Water Levels respectivley. New Creatures have evolved from the radiations, once the world stated to cool down again, and these are the eyes on the hills and clouds - After all, this was just ment to be a representations from Toad Techs, and this was the best they could do under the circumstances of keeping with the times. Why pick that time, you ask? Because any other time might well see the game not be noticed by the person who could work out the secret message! The Warp Pipes in the worlds were made by the toads as easy-to-use transport - And, being fungi, they like the dark and damp - Which explains why they pretty much all lead underground. Every character has gained jumping ability after either mutation or rigerous training, as they need it - because of the pits and water left by the Fiery Death that led to this future.

As for every game past SMB, They have also been made in the future. The new characters can be explained in three ways - They're either the result of Mutated Evolution, (The Above Eye-Clouds and Eye-mountain creatures) Wild fornication between the four starting humans, or a result of more malfuctions with the Time-Warp Pipes. These games are the constant cronicalisation of the Mario adventures - Because, as it turns out, the Toad Techs really like to program games about the humans they live with, and they hope to show just what their world is like to us.

And if you read all that, you deserve a cookie. You really do.


 * Wow. That's the single most idealistic post-apocalyptic theory/story of anything ever.

Bowser sent minions into his body after Bowser's Inside Story to figure out how his powerups worked
And he managed to get them to turn on his growth, though not before they were killed by his immune system. This is why he was kaiju-sized in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
 * Bowser spat out all the pipes leading into his body after he beats Dark Bowser and Fawful. Bowser loses the vacum shrooms ability because of fawful exploding.

Mario doesn't hate Bowser, or any of his enemies and, in fact, considers them friends
While not an official source, Charles Martinet as Mario at the Nintendo World Store in New York City says something that makes a lot of sense. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BTfCdst24M&feature=related (around 5:10) In it, Mario invites Bowser to his Thanksgiving dinner. When asked by a child why he invited the bad guys, Mario says, "Because even though they're the bad guys, they're still my friends. I love everybody. I'm-a Mario."
 * In retrospect, this should have been really obvious.

Every single life expended in a Super Mario Bros. game is actually a clone of Mario/Luigi.
The Mushroom Kingdom and Princess Peach have a highly advanced genetic engineering program that allows the creation of artificial bodies for the Mario Bros., who likely exist in a Soul Jar of some sort in some hidden military facility while controlling their clones with Psychic Powers. So every time one of the bros. dies, they do physically die, but are able to take over a new body momentarily, even if their old one gets incinerated or sucked into a black hole. The whole "100 coins gets you a new life" business? That's simply overhead costs for creating a new clone body from scratch. The 1-Up Mushrooms are likely laden with special nutrients and proteins that facilitate facilitate the creation of a new body.

Sexual reproduction does not exist in the Mario universe.
Consider the following: Bowser has children, the Koopalings and Bowser Jr. No one knows where they came from and there is no mother in sight. Furthermore, the plot of Yoshi's Island involves Kamek stealing Baby Luigi from the stork delivering the Mario twins to a waiting mother and father. Therefore, rather than giving birth to children, in the Mario universe, when prospective parents want to have children, what do they do? They wish for them. The wishes go to Star Hill, as all wishes do, where, if they wish hard enough and they're deemed to be good parents, the stork comes along with a bundle of baby joy for the delighted family. This means that, at some point, Bowser wished, from deep within his heart, for children, as many as he could bear to handle, and not only was his wish deemed sincere enough to answer, but Bowser was seen to be such good father material that he was blessed with eight children, or that he specifically wished for eight children and the powers-that-be agreed. It fits the light-hearted, kid-friendly feel the series holds, "wishes becoming real" has a precedent in previous games, and it even means no one has to worry about imagining Mushroom people having sex unless they really want to.

A Yoshi is a baby dragon.
They need the extra limbs to get by when they're younger, not unlike how tadpoles have tails. The "baby Yoshis" seen in Yoshi's Story were prematurely born. Plus, don't they just look alike? Also, what is Yoshi's Final Smash in SSBB called? "Super Dragon".

In New Super Mario Bros Wii, the "Secret World" is heaven.
Mario is mortally wounded during the final boss level. He frees Peach and dies in her arms. The "secret world" is Mario Heaven. It floats in the sky, it has gates, and it's generally shiny and sparkly and magical. Mario and pals can return to the other worlds as ghosts.

Shy Guys appear in Super Mario Bros 2 because they're part of Mario's dreams/nightmares.
Remember that SMB 2 is revealed to be All Just a Dream at the end. It's common for people to chronically dream about early childhood experiences, especially traumatic ones. Since Shy Guys figured strongly in the kidnapping attempt on Mario as a child, they still appear as bad guys in his dreams. Likewise, the Phanto scenes are a nightmarish, mixed-up reimagining of feeling helpless while Kamek's minions tried to abduct him and the feeling of only being secure when he was on Yoshi (symbolized in his dreams by the key). Also, Birdo is a bizarre representation of Yoshi, hence the different colours, egg attacks, and fireballs. In his baby mind he couldn't be sure if Yoshi was good or bad so he reinvents him as a key bad guy rather than a good guy. Birdo's gender confusion stems from Baby Mario having been aware that Yoshi was male, but also thinking that Yoshi must be a "mommy" since it took care of him.

Mushroom World is fricking huge.
Think about it, if it houses the Mushroom Kingdom, Beanbean Kingdom, Sarasaland, Yoshi's Island, DK Island,The Isle of Hags, Earth, and the Northern Kremisphere, then this is one big planet.
 * First, Earth is a different planet than the Mushroom World, that much is clear, and it can be accessed by Warp Pipes. However, there are even more video games that may take place there.
 * You can see Pikmin in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.
 * In Diddy Kong Racing, you see Banjo-Kazooie characters and Conker (This was while his game was still intended to be kid-friendly).
 * Link appears sleeping in an inn in Super Mario RPG. Enemies resembling Deku Scrubs appear in Super Mario Galaxy, and there is a club called "Link's Club" with the triforce as its logo in Mario Golf. He's also been mentioned in Donkey Kong Country, by Bazaar, who runs a general store.
 * Stafy has met Wario.
 * Sabre Wulf's head is mounted on Cranky Kong's wall, but is somehow still alive.

The Paintings in Super Mario 64 are actually portals to different Galaxies
It would explain the Throwback Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Mario is a Stepford Smiler
When he and Luigi arrived in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario was hoping for a great reward after all of the shit he had to go through to save Peach. When they arrive, she tells him to do that all over again. Wouldn't you be pissed? Especially since he had to listen to all the toads say that she's in another castle...

Now, the next part is after Mario 64...

One night, Mario dreams about his first adventure, only he's so raged and starts throwing people around. He only put Toad in the game because he wants him to die, and dreams about him wearing cement shoes (which is why he can't jump high in a platformer). Peach is able to fly because when Mario was in the real world, he shot ducks. Also, he wished that Peach would actually be able to kick ass because he thinks that's hot.

Mario Keeps steroids in his hat
Which would explain why he takes double damage in Super Mario 64 after losing it.

The Mesmerizing Music in Mario Is Missing is the voice of Weegee.
Being an Eldritch Abomination, he doesn't speak in our human way. Usually he just grumbles about how terrible the game is but he may compel an unlucky player to do bad things.

You will find adobe in Nairobi.
Check the hardware store. Or, for that matter, the software store.

Mario and Luigi are high ranking knights of the mushroom kingdom.
They are one of the first people called upon when the kingdom is attacked, when the princess travels abroad, he is actually on official guard duty. Sometime around Paper Mario, the brothers officially retired, and are now only available via requests rather than orders, but still offer services in times of crisis. There was likely some sort of code preventing any military personnel being romantically involved with high nobility, prompting the brothers to step down into freelance work for the kingdom. This explains why the citizens, especially ones in the military and royal employment, treat them like a commander; because they were at one time.

Absolutely everything in the Mario series is completely realistic.
Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Peach, the Mushroom Kingdom, This Is Your Premise on Drugs. It's all the effect of everyone constantly ingesting hallucinogenic mushrooms, flowers and leaves.

This is all a kinky game between Mario, Peach and Bowser.
They're a polyamorous group that kidnaps and rescues each other on a regular basis purely for the fun of it. On other days they play more ordinary games like karting, golf, tennis, etc. And not only are Mario and Peach into each other and Peach and Bowser are into each other, but Mario and Bowser are into each other too. I mean honestly, Even The Guys Want Bowser. Ask them.
 * Where do Luigi and Daisy fit into this?
 * Well, they aren't really part of the three's kinky game, but they will play along if they want (they're not the ones with the fetish). It's all in good fun. Mario, Peach and Bowser are the weird ones, because that's funny.

The void areas in 'Super Mario Sunshine are actually different Galaxies
It would explain the Twisty Trials Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Bowser is Technically the Mushroom King.

 * In Super Paper Mario, when Bowser and Peach got married, they never got divorced, and Bowser is legally the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom.
 * In Bowser's Inside Story, Bowser went to the meeting because he has a say in what they ought to do, but got carried away with breathing fire.

Super Mario Galaxy is an Inception Mario performed on a girl named Rosalina to help her get over the death of her family.
The idea to be planted was that her family was still among the stars, that they were watching over her, and that from them she could gather the strength to do anything, such as helping the "hero" of Mushroom Kingdom defeat his archnemesis and save his beloved princess.
 * The whacked-out gravity could easily be a product of an Architect... the role of which has kindly been taken up by Bowser himself.
 * The various enemies are all Rosalina's subconscious projections. They're out to get you as expected in a Mario game, because they can tell Mario is an invader and doesn't belong there.
 * It should be noted, though, that the first Super Mario Galaxy is actually the second level (the dream within a dream), with the sequel being the first level of the dream.

Mario murdered Donkey Kong.
This explains why he never returned in any story-based Mario game to take revenge on Mario. All of his own games take place before he kidnapped Roxanne. His appearances in party, sport or SSB games are the elaborate illusion of a Boo trying to throw Mario offguard.
 * The Boo illusion probably doesn't apply to the SSB series, as the characters in those games are all trophies anyway. This still supports the theory.
 * The Donkey Kong that was Mario's rival for Pauline's love became too old for that crap (being a gorilla, he has a shorter life span), and now goes by the name of Cranky Kong. New!Donkey Kong doesn't really have any problems with Mario, which is why he gets invited to parties and kart races. Of course, Pauline's absence could mean she got accidently killed by the two rivals, falling from the building during a hectic battle, which would explain Cranky's bitterness and Mario being unable to communicate with actual words.

Bowser, Et Al, are Pokemon.
Peach used to be a Trainer, but after her Koopakid, Bowser, evolved into a Koopaking, she lost control, and he gathered the Pokemon of the region to be his soldiers. The Toads aren't actually another species, they just have sweet hats.

Bowser isn't the father of the Koopalings
He's their uncle. Hence why we never see their mother and why they seem to be around less often than Boswer Jr. Heck, we even know the father of at least one of them... If there's a Morton Koopa Jr., there should be a Morton Koopa Sr. somewhere.

Toad just suffers from self-esteem issues.
In games where Toad is playable (and I mean more than just walking him around Mario's house), he proves to be perfectly capable of handling himself in a fight. Other times, he's just pathetic. He's really only pathetic then because he severely underestimates himself due to his fear crippling any belief that he can be a hero.

Mario will get a Wood or Aether-based power in a future game.
Currently, he's had 4 of the 5 Wu Xing elements as abilities: Fire, Water (Ice Mario), Earth (Rock Mario), and Metal (Metal Mario). That just leaves Wood. Among the Western/Buddhist/Hindu elements, he's had all four, if you count Cloud Mario or his various Flight powers as Air, leaving Aether/Space in the center.

Time passes very slowly in The Mushroom Kingdom
Nobody in the Mario series has aged in the games chronologically taking place after Donkey Kong. But in the same space of time, Cranky Kong and Tiny Kong have both aged significantly. DK, Diddy and later Dixie didn't appear to age due to spending a lot of time in the Mushroom Kingdom in the sports and party titles, while Cranky grew old and grey and Tiny grew into adolescence/adulthood on Earth.

Morton is adopted
Every Koopaling has a yellow body except for Morton. Also, his name is Morton Koopa Jr. There should be a Morton Koopa Sr. somewhere.
 * Maybe it's a skin condition. Also, Bowser might just be a stage name, and his real name is Morton.

Bowser and Peach would make equally competent monarchs.
This is not to imply that Peach (or her unseen father) is unwise, but that Bowser, for all his Badassery and Card Carrying Villainy, would not necessarily make a worse sovereign than her, especially if his personality in Super Mario RPG or the Mario and Luigi series were to prevail. He is at times seen as Too Dumb to Live and suffering the Worf Effect, but he is also prone to moments of great accomplishment. And Peach...she keeps getting kidnapped (or lets herself get kidnapped). If Bowser were to rule, the decor might get darker, fierier and spikier, but when it comes to the really tough decisions he'd know better than to involve himself excessively in the day-to-day affairs of the kingdom -- life in Toad Town and everywhere else would likely be business as usual under largely unchanged government. Bowser is more greedy than he is cruel, and Peach's assets are at least as opulent. If Bowser sat at the throne over the entire land for long enough and doesn't mess up too much, he might actually be seen fondly. Besides, if Peach is the heir of the Mushroom Kingdom and she's already laid at least one of Bowser's eggs (whether or not it was Bowser Jr), that child could actually be her natural heir anyway, and it wouldn't exactly be the first time a kingdom of Toads had a figurehead who looks very decidedly un-Toad-like.

The Mushroom Kingdom exists at an extremely high altitude
Mario's jumping ability comes from the weakened gravitational pull. This also could explain all of the pits you see. The only "trees" that can survive this altitude in the original Super Mario Bros. are the magic horsehair plants that the toads were turned into. The background hills are really other mountaintops/neighboring kingdoms/worlds.

Most of the original Super Mario Bros. was destroyed after Mario rescued the princess.
The manual states that the blocks and plants you see in the levels are all mushroom people who were transformed by Bowser's magic. Since Peach was the only one who could change them back, rescuing her = breaking the spell, and thus... yeah.

Donkey Kong/Jr. is the Mushroom King/Prince
The Mushroom King and prince were captured by Bowser, who sentenced them to the De-vo chamber from the movie. Judging by the fact that Peach is apparently human, so were they; thus, they were turned into lesser primates. Decades later, the king ventured to Brooklyn to find the Mario Bros and lead them home. Unfortunately, since he could no longer communicate intelligibly, he resorted to kidnapping Pauline and baiting Mario. (Similar to video games where monkeys steal something to get you to follow them.) When that failed, the King was put in a zoo, and the Mushroom Prince had to save him. Mario was knocked out cold when Jr. saved his father, and when he came to, he was in the Mushroom Kingdom, with DK and JR nowhere to be found. Unable to tell anyone what really happened, the royal father and son now reside over an island in the tropics, where the King is spending his final days...

The time limit is real
In games where Mario has a time limit to complete a level, it's actually the time left before Bowser (or whoever the foe is in the game) nukes/gasses the whole level. Think about this. If Bowser was smart, he'd just make a giant brick wall that is totally impassible instead of making even his own casle just barely possible to pass, right? Well, in reality, Bowser just orders his army to rough up and guard the landscape, and alert when Mario enters the level. As soon as Mario is spotted, Bowser's forces prepare a nuke or something to obliterate everything inside the level, including the mustached plumber. The time limit is how much time it takes to fully prepare and detonate this weapon. This explains the levels - every individual level is the radius of one of these weapons. It also explains the mooks and the difficulty - it slows Mario up so the weapon can do its job, and the difficulty increases as Mario proceeds because they initially underestimated him and need to try harder slowing him up as he gets better at avoiding their obstacles. It even explains the small castle at the end of every level - either a safehouse where Mario will be protected, or where he deactivates the weapon.

Also, in Super Mario Galaxy, the speedy comets will unleash a toxic gas if you do not get to (or collect) the Power Star (which grants Mario imunity to the toxic gas)

Bowser is The Chosen One.
In a reverse-Anakin way. He starts out villainous from childhood, but he is destined to be the hero, and Mario is the one destined to save his soul. The true Big Bad is not Bowser, but Kamek, from whose subtle influence Bowser must eventually be freed. Bowser has been given multiple second chances, such as at the end of Super Mario Galaxy where Rosalina gave him a nudge at least as generous as when she saved Mario and Peach. But Bowser's true redemption has advanced with his Anti-Hero Character Development in Super Mario RPG and Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story. Bowser is not destined to be with Peach, but then, neither is Mario, sadly -- Peach is Better as Friends and a good influence to both of them, and it's even possible that Mario's true "special one" as hinted in Super Mario Galaxy is not actually Peach, but Bowser, like an antagonistic Gilgamesh to Mario's Enkidu. Bowser may still ultimately have some kind of rule over the Mushroom Kingdom, but as a spikily benevolent regent for one of his numerous children who will actually be Peach's real son or daughter and legitimate heir from their old failed relationship, whether it ends up actually being Bowser Jr. or one of the Koopalings.

Mario is really a plumber in the real world.
He's ashamed of his job, as it results in him working in the sewers. So, instead, he tells his kids that he's a hero in another world. The Koopas are the turtles that are flushed away, the Cheep-Cheeps are fish that have been flushed, Bowser is his boss, Peach is his wife (who he picks up after work each day) and Luigi is his much more successful brother. (He's jealous so he makes it seem like he's a coward.)

And Wario is his lazy, greedy cousin.

Every game after Donkey Kong Jr. is Mario's dying dream.
Notice how Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. are a bit more realistic than the others, where falling from too far up will kill you and the jumping physics are much more realistic. In Donkey Kong Jr, Mario fell to his death after Jr. destroyed the platform with Donkey Kong and Mario on it. After this game, things started to get a little unrealistic: uncanny jump heights, mushrooms that make you grow when you eat them, fire-breathing dragons, ect. It's just Mario's way of making things right in his mind before he dies.

Mario, Luigi, Wario, and, Waluigi are all brothers.
But the Mario bros. have a different father than the Wario Bros. The Wario bros'. father was abusive and perhaps even tortured them.(explaining Waluigi's slightly crazed eyes) He was also a jerk to their mother. She finally got tired of it and divorced him and married the Mario bros. father. He was much nicer and raised the 4 of them to be plumbers. But the damage had already been done to Waluigi and Wario's psyche.

Luigi created Weegee.
The story is that Luigi, jealous of Mario's fame, spent years in a secret lab below the Mushroom Kingdom working on a cloning machine to create a clone of himself to create fame. After 3 years, Luigi created the machine, and of course tried it out. This created Weegee, a copy of Luigi. But it didn't turn out as an exact copy, and Luigi determined it as a failure. Weegee was hidden away in a dark cupboard, but after years of anger festering inside him, he managed to escape. He devise a plot to send Luigi away on a vacation on Isle Delfino for a couple of weeks while he also devised a plot for mario to be kidnapped and for him to save mario and become famous. This worked, but because the game didn't sell well he did not become famous. So, he built a portal into the internet and stayed there, waiting in youtube and other places on the internet, waiting to scare people and eventually destroy the internet once and for all...

Mr. L, Weegee, and Waluigi are the same person, and they are Luigi's Enemy Within/Enemy Without.
King Boo cursed Luigi with his coward persona as a final parting shot after being beaten in Luigi's Mansion. That's why he never got over his fear of ghosts even though he already proved that he could take out even the strongest and scariest of them. In addition, however, the curse also amplified Luigi's inferiority complex, resulting in Luigi being tempted into learning dangerous forbidden techniques like the Weegee Stare and Negative Zone. All that culminated in Luigi's alter ego becoming a literal dark side, which we saw as Mr L.

After Super Paper Mario, Luigi realized that this alter-ego thing was getting out of hand, so he went on a journey to purge King Boo's curse (and the resulting darkness he picked up) out of his body. He succeeded, but the curse took physical form as Waluigi, the personification of everything the real Luigi isn't. This also explains why there are two Luigi's in Super Mario Galaxy by means of time warping. The Luigi you play as is uncursed, while the one you get stars from is still in the early stages of it. It also explains why Waluigi never shows up in the mainline games; they predate his creation.

All the identical Toads are simply the above-ground parts of the same vast underground organism.
This is why the confusion over whether Toad is an individual or a species. And it fits with what little this layman knows of real-world mycology.
 * It also releases all kinds of powerups only the Toads and their allies can use. Trust the fungus!

Mario was not at this press conference.
He's being an utter douche and near the end he's just trying too hard with all the catchphrases. Also, the mouth looked weird as it moved. That's not Mario. That's a Duplighost or Magikoopa disguised as him trying to sabotage his popularity and the trust everyone has in him. Alternately, Mario is under potent mind-control or hypnosis.

Twink is Geno.
Think about it. They're both star spirits, both serve a higher power, and, by the end of the game in Twink's case, are both adept in magic. Twink could have simply been his star apprentice name, and it was changed later into his unpronouncable name when he became a true star spirit. As to why he doesn't remember Mario, Bowser, or even Peach is anyone's guess.

Everybody uses extra lives.
The Mushroom Kingdom and the Koopa Troops are engaged in a war where both sides have large stocks of 1-Up Mushrooms. Every time you stomp a Goomba, or lose a Toad during an escort mission, the game is no more over for them than it would be for Mario. This is the reason why, once peace is restored, everything is easily forgiven and sporting events are organized for everyone.

Mario has an Embarrassing First Name.
The main problem with "Mario" being the last name of the Mario Bros. is that "Mario Mario" sounds silly, and their parents would have to be out of their minds to name one of them Mario. Most, would simply disregard the silliness or point out the fact that they don't have a last name in Japan. However, I propose this alternative: Mario has an Embarrassing First Name that has never appeared in any publication, everyone refers to him on a Last-Name Basis only.

Birdo is really a female who thinks she's male.
Think about it. Why/how would a male shoot eggs?

The real reason Bowser is in Mario Kart is...
Mario and Luigi introduced the internal combustion engine to the Mushroom World. However, due to the limited industrial capacity of the world, go-karts are ludicrously expensive in the beginning and go-karting essentially became THE SPORT OF KINGS.
 * This may also explain why the character roster is limited. Toads were originally called "Mushroom Retainers", and Magikoopa (possibly Kamek) was supposed to be in MK 64 before being replaced by Wario...
 * Likewise with other Earth activities like golf, though they are available to a wider audience.

Dr. Mario is actually a suicide clinic.
Those pills are really sleeping pills.

Birdo is a Hermaphrodite.
Or a female who thinks (s)he's a male pretending to be a female.

Peach is an attention whore, Mario is virtually being abused...
And lots of other stuff. I didn't so much come up with this myself as read this article from gamesradar.com and had to share it after finishing it.

Mario and Luigi's family name is Video.
Mr. Video was Mario's original name, so maybe it actually is.


 * NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE.

Weegee is not a failed clone, he really IS Luigi.
What's the Negative Zone but a souped-down Weegee Stare? Obviously the Smash Ball allows Luigi to channel his ultimate potential to a mild extent without being consumed by it.

We've already seen the setting for the 4th Mario and Luigi RPG
Remember our last RPG romp through time? What with all of the throwbacks to Partners in Time in Bowser's Inside Story, many have been predicting the return of the Shroobs in the next game-- going by this (and 's last line ) I'm going to to ahead and guess that, like our last Shroob encounter, this game will use a time-travel system and take place in the far-future of the Mushroom Kingdom.

== Peach and Bowser are Forsaken from the Wheel of Time books attempting to dominate a kingdom in another dimension unknown to the main characters of the series (possibly in Shara or on another planet altogether) to please their Dark Lord. ==
 * Peach is clearly magical and as WMG's above have suggested, it's possible her appearance is really a magical illusion.
 * Bowser and Peach clearly have a consensual love relationship, and she plays a helpless kidnapping victim to spice it up occasionally and to seduce commoners. The truth is, her and Boswer have ruled together for centuries and are quite happy.
 * Mario and Luigi might be able to channel the Power but Peach and Bowser constantly work together to make up distractions for them so they never realize it.
 * The teleportation between Worlds in the Mario Universe is all done with ter'angreal.
 * The monsters encountered in Mario games are shadowspawn.
 * Its also possible that Mario is trapped in a Ter'Angreal world the whole time he thinks he's going on endless missions to rescue an unobtainable princess, and it's all created by Forsaken or Black Ajah. It's possible that he's a black ajah prisoner who knows too much but has been ordered not to be killed because he's valuable somehow.

The Star Children are more than they seem.
Think on it awhile - There are so many impossible events in the series and its sub-series that could be explained by the Stars within Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Wario, Bowser, and Donkey Kong. How they survived the end of the world in Super Paper Mario. How they always seem to be a magnet for trouble (especially Luigi, who appears to be the most powerful). How the side with the most star children - And there's always at least one, most of the time two against one - always wins, without fail. The star children have NEVER all seven been united for the same goal, the most is six, before the seventh and final star child (Yoshi) was born, so there is no sure way to tell.

Luigi's cowardice is all an act.
It's stated that Luigi is the smarter of the two brothers. It's also apparent that he's more skilled. This alone isn't enough for this, though. He's also a master at card games, so he has to be a good actor. Originally, he was just as brave as his brother. This also ties in nicely with the Peach conspiracy WMG somewhere above.

Bowser likes to claim Diploatic Immunity to be invited for karting, tennis golf, etc.
Why else would none of the heroes try to eradicate him during these events?

The entire series is Bowser's dying dream
Bowser DID die at the end of the original 1985 Super Mario Bros, and the rest of the series is his dying dream as he sinks into the lava.
 * That is one long ass dying dream. Also, it's kinda messed up because even as he's dying, he dreams that he loses in different ways over and over.

Mario is actually a small child...
...and the games are his hallucinations of the "Boogeyman" (Bowser) stealing one of his toys (Peach). Luigi really is his brother, and Yoshi is either another toy or a dog. Or a pet lizard.

The Koopalings'and Bowser Jr's mother was an anthromorphic cat named Clawdina
Probably as a shout out to Rocko's Modern Life,Bowser was once married to a cat woman who gave birth to his eight children(most likely by laying them as eggs like what happened in Rocko).They are now divorced or dead.If she did divorce Browser then she is still around but is on the side of good which makes it hard to see her children that often.

As long as they stay in the Mushroom Kingdom, humans are immortal.
Confirmed, thanks to the Galaxy games. The Comet Observatory comes around every 100 or 1000 years. The humans there are the same ones. Solution? Something in the Mushroom Kingdom makes outsiders(such as humans)immortal, because they are extremely rare. You could count the number of humans in the games ON ONE FRICKIN' HAND. So, by this logic, this would mean that the minute they stepped out of the Mushroom Kingdom, they would continue to age normally. Like, if you ended up there whilst 15 years old, you'd stay that old 'till you leave, then you age normally until you return.
 * It appears that Mario and Luigi are much Younger Than They Look at the beginning of the series anyway, seventeen, to be exact.

Only humans can use powerups properly
Think a bit. It's even a plot point of one of the old TV Show episodes that Bowser can't use powerups.
 * Jossed in Super Mario 3D Land, where nearly everyone in the game was able to use the Tanooki power-up.

Luigi and Prince Peasley
Three words: Viewer Gender Confusion. Except this time, it's Luigi instead of the viewer who is confused.

The cake was a lie.
In Super Mario 64, at the beginning, Peach wrote in the letter "I've baked a cake for you." However, when you rescue her at the end, she says "Let's bake a delicious cake... for Mario", implying she never even made the cake she wrote about in the letter.

Mario and Luigi's last name is Jumpman, and Jumpman was Mario and Luigi's father.
Since Cranky Kong was the original Donkey Kong, it's possible that Jumpman was the original Mario (As he was named Mario in Donkey Kong Jr.), making the Mario we all know and love the second Mario. Pauline was some girl he dated for a while, and the Pauline in the Mario Vs. Donkey Kong sub-series is the first Pauline's daughter.

Luigi is the true hero, and Mario just happens to reach the princess first by using Luigi as a distraction
In addition Bowser and Peach are old friends, and the kidnappings have all been pre-planned visits with unfortunate timings, and the Koopa presence in the Mushroom Kingdom is permanent and due to a centuries old treaty.

The games are about fantasy gang warfare
Think about it, Fuzzies are the drugs, Mushrooms are the Steroids, Fire flowers are the guns, And there are two opposing gangs, The Koopa gang and the Toad gang, Mario and Luigi are hired assassins, Bowser kidnapps some Toad gang elites and Princess peach. And they are all trying to kill each other. Just think about it for a bit.

Mario is in purgatory for substance abuse
Mario druged himself into a coma, where he is forced to live out the rest of his life being controlled by someone else, and being wildly affected by the numerous drugs he takes. It's been fabled, in his slumber, that if he acheives the high of 100 "life giving" mushrooms he will be returned to his normal life with a second chance. When you get 99 mushrooms it will be on the 100th, that doesn't even show up, that Mario will appear in the game with his hat off and his hair tousled, like someone who just realized they had been living a lie. NOT KIDDING, AT 100 'SHROOMS HE IS HATLESS, WITH MESSY HAIR In WII Super Mario Bros. .he looks funny hatless.

Bowser's minions were enchanted by Kamek.
In Paper Mario, we see that there are peaceful Goombas, Koopas, etc. living together, and they become allies of Mario. Thus, it's not that their entire races are evil; the ones Mario fights are simply under Bowser's/Kamek's control.

Mario Kart and the sports games are canon, and explain Bowser's apparent Villain Decay.
In Super Mario Kart, he and a Koopa Troopa are in. This is likely as a show of power; there's also more Bowser Castle courses than any other type save Mario Circuit, so he's probably using it as a way to show the might of the Koopa Troop without getting mechakoopas thrown at him. Mario Kart 64 came shortly after Bowser was ousted from Peach's castle, and therefore he has considerably less influence - only one course, and he's the only Koopa Troop representative. But as he continues competing with Mario peacefully, he (like many people in the real world) sees him as less and less of an enemy.

Mario will eventually encounter a Mirror Universe...
Where everyone is not only fliped in alignment, but Marc Graue voices everyone.

The Koopalings were Put on a Bus between Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga and New Super Mario Bros Wii...
Bowser grounded them (like any good parent should) for their incompetence in the past and ordered Kamek to teach his kids how to be better villains behind the scenes, which explains their longtime absence. This gave Bowser more time to take care of his rightful heir to the Koopa Throne, Bowser Jr. The other seven kids had finished their training session with Kamek by the time New Super Mario Bros. Wii came out, and got the chance to aid their dad with his latest scheme.

Luigi is a hippie.
There is an unbelievable amount of evidence backing this up. A short excerpt:


 * He grows out his hair.
 * He typically wears green, an obvious reference to his love of the planet.
 * His overalls change color more frequently than anything else in the series, because, you know, he doesn't have to abide by your structures, man.
 * He is far less militant than Mario - this is not due to cowardice, obviously, but to his pacifism. The exception here is his reluctance to face ghosts, which will be explained later.
 * He dates Daisy, who has an obsession with Flower Power, is very in touch with her inner self ("Hi, I'm Daisy"), and feels more comfortable with her natural self than Peach (who is a redhead, as shown in early, post-Pauline works, and chooses to dye her hair).
 * He bears quite a bit of resemblance to archetypal hippie Orville "Shaggy" Rogers. This goes beyond the green; his desire for "lotsa spaghetti" reflect's Shaggy's Big Eater traits, while his fear of the undead, despite constantly encountering it, reflects Shaggy's cowardice. Clearly, Japan interpreted these as typical hippie traits.
 * He has a far deeper connection with other creatures: Yoshi is far more kind to him than Mario in the Advance port of Super Mario World, and refers to him as his mother in an animated series. I'm pretty sure there are other examples.
 * He has distinct motifs of dance and music. The most notable example, the negative zone, creates a psychedelic effect, distorted... I think sitar music, involves chanting, and causes flowers to grow on people's heads.
 * He's rather fond of psychedelic mushrooms. Sure, Mario's into them too, but he's not really getting the full effect.
 * He can shoot green fire and levitate slightly. This is the result of some New Age crap.
 * He is highly brainwashable.
 * He clearly has come into money- he has his own goddamn MANSION - yet chooses to pursue a more modest life, living in a crappy Brooklyn apartment as an assistant plumber.

I think that's enough evidence for now. But it's clear, isn't it?

Luigi is a hippie.

The Shroobs tried to invade because their own planet was dying.
In the intro it was stated that they were looking for a new home. They were probably doing this because they were probably running out of resources and/or had caused major non-reversible ecological damage to it and it was becoming uninhabitable. They saw the Mushroom Planet had a good source of renewable energy (Vim) and for the most part was unpolluted, so they decided to go there.

If there is a fourth installment in the Mario & Luigi series, it will be on the Wii or Wii U.
For their first three games, the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series have been exclusive to home consoles and handheld systems, respectively. Since Paper Mario 3DS, the upcoming fourth Paper Mario game, is going to be on a handheld system instead of a home console, perhaps the reverse will be true for an upcoming fourth Mario & Luigi game.

Mario and Luigi's last name is "Jumpman"
See tin.


 * you got me to it!

Bogmire and Phantamanta are sub-species of Vashta Nerada from Doctor Who.
I always call Bogmire "Vashta Nerada" when fighting him, and Phantamanta is a shadow too, so...

The Mario timeline operates in a fashion EXACTLY like the Zelda timeline.
i.e. In every Mario game, Mario, Peach, Luigi, Bowser, etc are descendants or ancestors of Mario characters from other Mario games. I come to this conclusion because of Super Mario Galaxy 2's intro. It states that the game occurs during the Star Festival after the one from Super Mario Galaxy 1. But Star Festivals are always 100 years apart. Yet Mario, Peach, Bowser, etc are all the same age. Why? Simple: They're not the same people.

This WMG would probably explain the chaotic characterization throughout the series.

Why is Bowser sometimes an evil overlord, but sometimes else a bumbling fool? Simple: They're not the same Bowsers.

Why is Peach able to lay the smack down in Super Princess Peach and Super Mario Bros 2 if she's the damsel in distress in other games? Simple: They're not the same Peach.

Why did Luigi's voice suddenly drop in pitch around Luigis Mansion? Simple: They're not the same- You get the idea.

And I just ruined all the Mario canon arguments ever. Go me?

The reason Peach was so naive in Super Mario Sunshine
She was affected by the heat. Early on in the game, Toadsworth says that it isn't good for Peach to be out in the sun too long. Well, clearly the heat must have given her mild sunstroke, to the point that being Bowser Jr's mother almost makes some kind of sense to her.

The Mushroom Kingdom is Wonderland thousands of years in the future.
As you can see, the Mushroom Kingdom has various similarities with Wonderland. Strange creatures, mushrooms that can change sizes, and other mind-boggling aspects that lack reasoning. The mushrooms over the course of hundreds of years began to evolve into living beings while the mockturtles devolved from their cow/turtle statues and became koopas, and the fact that Bowser's head resembles a demon ox (in development Bowser was originally planned to be an ox rather than a large turtle). The Crazee Dayzee's are evolved forms of the talking flowers along with Piranha Plants. There's also the fact that the characters are quite childish, silly and quite queer but seemed to have become a bit saner compared to their ancestors.

Taking this further, if you choose to follow the Sonic Archie canon,  Mario and Luigi were plumbers who lived on Earth before this happened and by accident they fell into the Mushroom Kingdom/Wonderland and at some point time died on them, along with several other characters like Bowser and Peach, so they stopped aging physically and mentally, like what happened to the Hatter when he killed time. Thus they have lived for thousands of years while the Mushroom Kingdom/Wonderland and Mobius changed around them, which explains the constant geographical change throughout the games.

Bowser and Peach are deities.
Bowser and Peach are gods, they are immortal. Bowser fell in love for Peach, and wanted to marry her. But Peach didn't want to marry him, so she decided to make a bet with Bowser, saying that Bowser must first kill a human (Mario) from the Mushroom Kingdom, only then she would accept. Bowser agreed, but he didn't know that human was actually Peach's doing, a human she could easily resurrect each time he dies, this way, she found a way to always avoid the breeding. Each time Peach is rescued, she erases Mario's memory and the same story reiterates over and over again (The "Press B to start a new quest" at the end of Super Mario Bros is an exception: when you press B, you don't only erase Mario's memory, but you also time-travel until you reach the beginning of your quest, this way, you could say Peach is a deity of time).

There is a factory of Mario.
Peach controls a Mario factory. In fact, she knows a simple plumber will never be able to rescue her from a terrible king Koopa, after all, Mario is all alone (in main stories) against a huge amount and variety of ennemies, and eventually, Mario will die during his journey to rescue her. Each time a mario dies, the factory (located in a secret place beyond the star road) creates another Mario, adds a skull, colors, etc...and places it (using space-time manipulation) at the last place Mario went on his journey. If the factory places Mario at the last place he has visited, why not simply put him inside Bowser's castle above the axe that will cut the bridge Bowser stands on? Because peach wants a true hero capable of rescuing her from many dangers, after all, she is a princess, she wants what's best, but she realised there is no way someone could ever do it without dying (it may happen though), so she builded a factory in order to prevent that, as a security. To summarise, Mario is a robot, only created to rescue the one who created her, Peach, and Peach has a crush for fat and small guys with a moustache, this is why Mario looks like this.

The Mario Timeline goes
Super Mario World 2 (Mario and Luigi are babies), Yoshi's Story, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros (Mario and Luigi find a Toad in a Pipe in Mario Bros who tells them about Peach), Lost Levels (Mario 2 was just a dream), Super Mario Land (Mario hears about Daisy from Peach), Super Mario Land 2 (Takes place right after the first), Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World (After rescuing Peach in 3, Mario and Luigi go on Vacation, where Peach is captured by Bowser and Family), Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine (Mario and Peach go on vacation after 64 but it's ruined by Bowser Jr), New Super Mario Bros, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Mario Galaxy 1 erased itself from continuity due to it's ending) and Luigi's Mansion (Bowser is killed from wounds after Galaxy 2 and King Boo is Bowser's Boo and all the Boo's are Bowser's dead army).

Waluigi is an Idiot Savant for competetive sports
Notice that his technique/skill is always near if not max. This is why he never appears outside of them. Wario is friends with him because he knows he is a great doubles partner because of this.

Ella and Ace/Tina are sisters.
Why else would they look so similar? They also sound exactly alike.

Mario is the son of the king of the water world in Super Mario Bros 3.
That is why he can hold his breath for a long time (very long in the 2D games, can replenish his air meter with coins in the 3D ones), and most of all, can shoot fireballs UNDERWATER.

Dweezil doesn't not talk to people because he's an arrogant jerk who let his success get to his head, but because Mario handed his ass to him
His spirit was utterly crushed by how, despite all his work, he is still nothing. His loss to Willy may have been completely intentional.

1-Ups are cosmic coupons
If Rosalina truly is the Mario Universe's equivalent to God, than she should have sufficient ability to bring Mario back to life when he dies. Before the events of Super Mario Galaxy, Rosalina knew Mario was going to save the comet observatory, so she made sure to keep him alive as long as she could. The only problem is that she couldn't be available to revive him whenever he died (being the overseer of the entire universe can keep a person busy after all) so she left 1-up mushrooms around the world which would allow Mario to be instantly revived whenever he dies. When he runs out of 1-ups and gets a Game Over Rosalina has to revive him herself, but at the cost of having to bring him back to the last safe place he was (last spot he saved, the beginning of the game, etc.).

Bowser is actually in love with Mario...
...and kidnaps Princess Peach out of jealousy (and also to get Mario's attention). Foe Yay ahoy!

Why Bowser kidnaps Peach
Bowser doesn't rape her. She still won't let Mario have any, so the turtlesaur pities the dude and kidnaps her as part of an elaborate scheme to get﻿ her to do the horizontal mambo with her rescuer. ...It never works, so they have to keep trying.

The invincibility granted by a Starman causes the user's body to loudly emit the Starman music.
It can't just be situation-appropriate background music. Not only is there precedent for odd physical effects due to the user's body flashing odd colors, but look at recent installments of the Mario Kart series. The Starman theme not only gets louder and softer based on your proximity to the user, but also has the Doppler effect. This simply can't happen unless the music is localized to the user.

9-volt will meet Mario and Luigi in an new RPG game.
...WHAT!?! This would be a great Hilarity Ensures plot with 9-volt's vast knowledge of the Mushroom Kingdom. There are many possible ideas for this if it happens. Maybe 9-volt could sell Mario and Luigi various items for coins, like their traveling shop/healing place.

Yoshis are direct descendants of, or at least based on, the Maiasaura species of dinosaur.
The Maiasaura was best known for how well it cared for its young. Given how much the Yoshis love babies and will go to great lengths to protect them, this doesn't seem very far off.

Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Wario, and Yoshi are all immortal, and are around 175 years-old.
Okay, follow me here for a second, this makes perfect sense.

So, in Donkey Kong Mario looks around 30 years old. But, in Mario spin-off games and Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Mario meets Donkey Kong's grandson, the current Donkey Kong. At this point the original Donkey Kong is Cranky Kong from DKC, who looks around 75. Since he looked about the same age as Mario in Donkey Kong, Mario would also be 75 at this point. Then, 100 years pass between Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, at which point Mario must be around 175. So HOW does Mario not age?

Well, it's simple: Yoshi's Island DS. It shows that Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Wario, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong are all "Star Children" meaning they have powerful stars inside of them. The stars make humans immortal, but don't work on Prime Apes like Baby Donkey Kong, hence how he ages into Cranky Kong.

As for why it works on Bowser, well, maybe it doesn't. Maybe that is some other form of wizardry. Same with Peach if she really is part toad, she's shown to have a lot of magic the other mushroom kingdom citizens don't have. Yoshis, being different species probably don't age anyway. Even the Yoshi elder in Paper Mario looks about the same age as the rest of them, besides the children.

And as for how Mario meets Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong after Super Mario Galaxy 2, well, that's the Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong from Donkey Kong Country Returns, and it's hinted that the Cranky Kong in that game is the Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong Country. So the Donkey Kong and Diddy Kongs with Mario after Super Mario Galaxy 2 are the ones in DKCR.

When Rosalina remade the universe in Super Mario Galaxy, previous events were also changed.
Hence why there's often many different versions of the same games. For instance, the original universe had Super Mario 64, but the new universe has Super Mario 64 DS. Same with Donkey Kong 94, the Mario Advance remakes, the Donkey Kong Country Adavnce remakes and Diddy Kong Racing DS.

Waluigi is Greek.
Mario's hat says M, Luigi's hat says L, Wario's hat says W, and Waluigi's hat says...Γ? But maybe that's not an upside down L -- maybe that's the Gratuitous Greek letter gamma. And Waluigi's name in Greek? Γουαλουίτζι (Goualouítzi), of course. He's Greek!

Mario rescuing Peach is a form of foreplay for them
Bowser is just really, really accomodating, and is in fact probably being paid for it.

The entire Mario series is told by a father who told his daughter a bedtime story before his death
Mario Jumpman was a tired, divorced plumber who's wife died in a car accident long ago. he lived with his brother, Luigi, and two daughters, Adrienne and Lucia.

One day, he was diagnosed with a form of cancer, before his death, he told an amazing bedtime story to Adrienne, his little "Peach".

It was about the Mushroom Kingdom, named for one of Adrienne's dreams, and for her love of mushrooms, there were little citizens he called "Toads" for Adrienne also loved frogs and toads, in addition, there were special life-giving mushrooms.

The enemies were based on true events, one being Bowser, who's appearance was based on the description of a monster in her dreams, and name was based on their deceased dog. the Koopas were based on Adrienne's fear of turtles, since one bit her when she was young, and the name was based on a korean dish she tried out. the Boos were based on her thoughts about ghosts, wether they were real or not, Mario said they were, but they are very shy, and hide when you see them, the Chain Chomps were based on an aggressive dog, and the Goombas were also based on an aggressive dog the family once met, and Mario wanted a silly name for it. Piranha Plants were based on a pet Venus Flytrap Lucia once kept, and Cheep Cheeps were based on Lucia's pet goldfish that Adrienne disliked, Yoshi and Birdo were based on pet lizards Luigi once kept, and the Shy Guys were based on a group of little kids Mario met at a halloween party.

Donkey Kong and Pauline were based on a bully, and her best friend, with the same name. the story revolves around Mario himself, who saves his little "Princess Peach" from evil King Bowser. Lucia was named "Princess Daisy" for the nickname given by Luigi, Daisy is also a tomboy, much like Lucia. The idea of extra lives was the fact that Mario would stay alive, no matter what.

Mario later died of the cancer, but Adrienne kept the story in her memory, and later on in life, met Shigeru Miyamoto (fictionally, of course), told him the story, and a legend was born...
 * *sob*

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels's worlds are a reset version of Super Mario Bros.'s Worlds
After SMB came SMG. When Rosalina reset the universe, Super Mario Bros.'s worlds became harder along with new worlds - Worlds 9, A, B, C, and D. Then Bowser stole Peach again - and Mario went through the same levels - only harder because of Rosalina.

Birdo's species is culturally unisex
Birdos don't make any differentiation between males and females in how they act, but it just so happens that their actions and way of referring to themselves and other Birdos matches human stereotypes of femininity. So male Birdos seem to be transgender to human observers. "Birdetta" is probably just a nickname that SMB 2's Birdo likes to be referred to by... a culturally unisex species obviously wouldn't have different names for the genders either.

Mario's dreams from Super Mario Bros/2 is an earlier event he remembers.
It's all true. When Mario and Peach were 2, they were reading a book and started to fidget over it. They tore out the last page, and the evil frog king Mamu caught them. Luigi, in a monkey suit, got shocked and told their babysitters, Imajin, Lina, Mama, and Papa (from Doki Doki Panic) goes into the book. Mario and Peach saw all of the chapters inside (Chapters 1 through 7) and Mario remembered them. After they were rescued, Mario kept the memory but forgot some stuff (example: he remembered the subspace stuff but not that lamps were used). He later dreamed the events of Super Mario Bros. 2 and thus came that game.

Bowser has dentures.
Yes, this is a silly thing to have a WMG about, but bear with me. In Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story, Bowser is able to equip shells, armbands, rings, and.. fangs. The armbands and rings are obviously removable, and it's been shown that Koopas' shells aren't actually attached to their skeletons, but are in fact also removable. However, the only thing that you can equip which is not removable is fangs. Perhaps the truth of the matter is that during his fights with Mario & Luigi, Bowser's teeth were knocked out of his skull at some point. He has been forced to wear dentures ever since to hide this.

Mario and Co. didn't win against Smithy in Super Mario RPG. Culex, knowing this would cause a Time Paradox, decided to rewind the events and change some of the characters.
Unfortunately, Mario and Co. were not strong enough to win against Smithy. Culex, being the God of the Mushroom Kingdom, knew if Smithy won, the End Of Days would come about, so he temporarily froze time and space in order to fix up things. Changing the past, he earsed the events of Super Mario RPG from ever happening, he turned Smithy and all his subordinates and affiliates into Luma's, he turned Mallow into Toad (At first he erased the original Toad's existence; however, he knew that Mallow, now Toad, would have no partner to breed with, so he created Toad again in the form of Toadette), Geno into Polari (the dusk-black, older Luma from Galaxy 1) and eventually undid a branch in time and space, so in case the Apocalypse may happen in one world, the alternate future in another universe would prevent the heroes from being destroyed. Finally, he erased his memories and replaced them with new ones, turned himself into Rosalina. This is why Super Mario RPG is no longer acknowledged in canon; it never happened now.

Mario and Luigi's attempt to fix the plumbing in the Mushroom Kingdom directly led to the creation of Wario and Waluigi.
In the Mushroom Kingdom, shrooms have magical transforming powers. And it is difficult to be plumbers without coming into contact with the dreaded Wa-shroom.

Mario thinks everyone is his friend
Which is why he invites people who hate him, namely Bowser, to race Go Karts and play Tennis. Bowser isn't his archenemy, he's just his worst friend, as far as Mario is concerned.

The Koopalings aren't Bowser's real children.
They're all Ax Crazy Psycho for Hire delinquents who just want to cause mischief. But what they want the most is a father. Even in their insane state, they know what family is, and stick together even when they're crazy. They wouldn't work for Bowser unless he called them "children". That's why they're referred to as Bowser's children, even though not a single one looks like him. If he didn't call him children, they'd turn against him.

Bowser lost custody of the Koopalings after Super Mario World.
The Koopalings' mother and ex-wife of Bowser is not dead. She's very much alive, but just never seen.

She filed for divorce from her husband after Super Mario World, due to how outraged she was at her husband being enamored with and constantly kidnapping another woman, and also because he would bring their seven children along during his battles with Mario, putting their lives at risk. She soon won full custody of the Koopalings, which is why they disappeared for so long. By the time of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, however, Bowser won some of that custody back. But now he only gets the kids during weekends.

Bowser Jr. is the only one of his kids that he has full custody of because his mother is someone else.

Super Mario Sunshine is Bowser Jr.'s attempt to emulate Bowser's childhood battles with Mario.
Yoshi, in Super Mario Sunshine, dissolves when submerged in water, just like paint creatures, because the Yoshis on Isle Delfino are just paint creations (remember that they are first seen in Shadow Mario's possession). Piranha Plants and Shy Guys, two of the main enemies from Yoshis Island, are recreated as the goopy piranha creatures and Swooping Stus. ShadowMario is reminiscent of Kamek, as a recurring enemy who appears at the end of each level and is Bowser's right hand man. Petey Piranha, meanwhile, is from the OTHER major battle from Bowser's childhood - Partners in Time - where it is revealed he was brought to earth by the Shroobs. Given that he dissolves into paint in Super Mario Sunshine, he is most likely a paint replica of the real Petey (who subsequently appears in spinoffs).