#Unhinged Koopa got me like

[cheesecake-beech]

Wake up babe, new fanart just dropped

@jell-o101's comic goes fucking hard, but you know what goes harder? Unhinged characters.

And their comic has just that

alts under the cut

[raygirlramblings]

I can't bear it any longer. I have to share my thoughts on the Mario Movie because I have next to no one in real life to gush over this with and the next best thing is to scream into the lonely Tumblr void.

SPOILERS BELOW

I gotta say like 90% of the criticism levelled against this movie by critics and fans and haters alike can be countered with 'it's made for a target market of 6 to 12 year olds, adjust your expectations.'

LUIGI IS BEST BOY

NO REALLY

I don't get people who are upset that he's not in the movie more because Mario's entire reason for existing is to save Luigi. Luigi is endgame.

Seriously Mario gets his ass handed to him so many times in this movie. Almost everyone in this film got to take a whack at him, even Peach XD The Bowser/Mario fight at the end, poor lad could barely stand and STILL faced off with Bowser. Tenacious little bugger.

Knowing that Mario would throw himself into such physical danger to save Luigi is both heart-warming and heart-breaking. You can imagine that Luigi is the only thing that can make him stop.

Princess Peach more like Princess PARKOUR.

No really I loved Peach though I found her animation a little uncanny? But her personality was just right. Classy, Sassy and a little bit unhinged :)

Music choices were bloody weird. One of the few cases where Bonnie Tyler felt wildly out of place. More orchestral Mario music and less Kill Bill plz.

Luigi is such a golden boy. The part where Bowser is interrogating him and threatening to rip off his moustache, he asks if Mario is the kind of guy a princess would fall in love with, and LUIGI, WITHOUT MISSING A BEAT, is like 'YES MY BRO IS A TOTAL CATCH'. GOD DAMN. Little guy is scared for his life and he is still Mario's biggest wingman. He doesn't even seem to ponder the question. Sure you can say he's just giving answers to stop the torture but something in the line just screams he believes it to his core. What an A+ little bro

I was a little confused by the Toad personality they picked. Is 'outdoorsman adventurer' Toad a game character? Not that I didn't like it, I'm just wondering what the basis of that personality choice was.

Jack Black as Bowser was just having too much fun.

BABY MARIO. BABY LUIGI. BABY PEACH

I loved the scene where Bowser is 'practicing' proposing to Peach with Kamek playing Peach, and they are both so into it that even when a guard interrupts them they seem more annoyed than embarrassed XD Like 'dude we're in the MIDDLE OF SOMETHING can't it WAIT?!'

Kamikaze blue shell Koopa was NOT what I was expecting to see in this movie. Damn

Yes the scene where Mario and Luigi finally reunite was so PERFECT ♥ I could watch their joyful hugs until the heat death of the universe. The bit just after Mario lands and he looks like he's about to cry before he hugs Luigi, I just see a 'oh shit i almost lost you in boiling lava I'M SO HAPPY YOU'RE ALIVE LET ME HUG YOU AND HOLD YOUR FACE JUST TO MAKE SURE YOU'RE REALLY HERE ;-; ' moment.

'Why are you dressed like a bear?!' Luigi I adore you. Charlie Day gets a gold star.

I don't get why everyone hated Donkey Kong's voice, I honestly didn't find it that bad. 'He's just Seth Rogan being Seth Rogan'...yeah and? The voice fit? It wasn't out of character? They got a guy who's voice fit the obnoxious, bombastic Donkey Kong personality, I'm not seeing an issue. Maybe I just don't watch enough Seth Rogan stuff to find his voice jarring.

So many Easter eggs from all sorts of Nintendo properties.

LUIGI FACING HIS FEARS TO PROTECT MARIO FROM A FIRE BLAST HE IS TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD I LOVE HIM.

I made a prediction a week ago with a workmate where I said 'Mario will get to use all the powers in the movie and show them off, but in the end Luigi will get to use the invincibility star to save the day'....and I was totally half right :)

'See I told you I'd get you a turtle', MARIO XD

Had a convo with a workmate about this. It's interesting that the main conflicts in the film for Mario and Luigi individually (as in their own flaws they want to overcome) is that Mario hates being seen as small and worthless, and Luigi struggles with being cowardly and less assertive than Mario. And yet neither of these issues are the main problem that needs resolving. It's ALL about the brothers working together. 'It's gonna be ok as long as we're together' is the mantra. Mario isn't fighting Bowser to prove his worth or be a hero or even to be Peach's knight. He's fighting to get his brother back. Luigi leaps in to save Mario when things get hairy but the manhole cover wouldn't have stood up for very long. Mario proving himself and Luigi overcoming his cowardlyness is not what ultimately saves the day. The two brothers being together, fighting side by side and using Bowser's power against him does. And it's lovely. Mario may always have issues with people looking down on him, and Luigi might always be the anxious one, but that doesn't matter, because they have eachother's backs and they KNOW together they can save the world.

YOSHI.

[simiansmoke]

@geniusdonkey

Tadano got surprised to be picked like that. The donkey felt also surprised as the other examined him, though he didn't mind, in fact, right now he only wanted to feel safe considering all he had to go through.

"I met King K. Rool and he tried to kill me with his big gun thing... then this guy, a strange ape like called Dread took me away from the crazy croc but this guy was... ... eating pieces of Kongs... literally... it seemed like he killed other Kongs... I... felt he would kill me as well or something... It was so rare..." he explained nervously.

It wasn't like he wanted to find out Tadano had anything done to him...but he is definitely in the market for catching any minor scratch on the other's face, even if it was from grazing a prickle vine on his walk through the jungle. Because it would give DK the wherewithal to simply break the croc's jaw the next time their paths crossed - no formalities and name calling. Just straight up annhilAPEtion.

Puffing in both disappointment and relief when the donkey gets a clean bill of health, aside from being a little too sweaty, DK let's him slide off his palm until his feet are back safely on the ground. However, the other's next admission blindsides him, so much so that his fur all but flares up, and he leans in partially wrapping himself around the other like a shield as his gaze sits on a nervous swivel.

"That can't be right... Dread is-" A bit lip calms the quiver that threatens him as flashbacks to the night he and the Koopa king set upon the coconut crystal's host island. Bashed against a tree...hands laced with nostalgic menace moving from punched gut to an inquisitive spot on the prince's thigh-He shakes his head, meeting Tadano's gaze with something less furious than before in the wet browns of his eyes.

"He's supposed to be imprisoned on one of our islands. You're saying he's here?! How could that even-" Then he steels himself hearing about what the donkey saw. If it really was Dread and not some ...other kind of Kong eater, then he'd truly gone unhinged.

"Look... it's not safe here. I'll walk you to the nearest warp pipe." No doubt Dad had to know about this- ...since he'd been gone. There was no way DK was about to risk time to go relay possibly old news. He had to find the threat and deal with him - immediately.

[aikoiya]

Oh my God! I just got back from seeing the Super Mario Bros Movie & holy shit! It was amazing!

I loved it!

9.8 or 9.9 outta 10! Leaning more towards 9.9.

Now, spoilers ahead!

Do not read if you haven't seen the movie yet!

Now, literally, the only things that I'd change was that I would've gone with the Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi series' more varied & unique models for the toads. They could've at least had girl, kid, & elderly toads running around. It's just weird that they're all guys & all the same age with the only variations being color. The most unique toads were Toad & the one that I'm fairly sure should've been Toadsworth. You know, the one with the super deep voice? Him.

The only other thing I would've changed was the Kong Kingdom's vehicle designs. I would've preferred it if they were built more reminiscent of Diddy's inventions (not Cranky's though, Cranky's were perfect), but honestly? I'm willing to let this one slide because I get why they went this route.

It wouldn't make sense for the Kongs to have carts all ramshackle & patchwork without Mario, Peach, & Toad's also looking the same. And the entire point of having the carts in the first place was to be a reference to Mario Kart. So, that wouldn't have worked.

I mean, I also get why they did the colorswapping toads thing, at least, theoretically. It's probably easier to just use the same design & change the colors. Also, I remember something about Nintendo being weird about all the toads looking the same with Sticker Star, so that might've also contributed. Which I thought was disappointing even back then, personally. I really liked how different they all looked. So, I guess that it just feels lazy to me.

Otherwise? Perfect!

Like, omG!

Bowser stole the show!

His expressions! When he was angry, you could see it in his eyes as he got progressively more unhinged! Just so wide & "Imma fuckin' murder you, shortstack!"

And those little hints near the end from him that he might've not had the best life? "I was finally going to be happy!" & "Make you miserable like me!" 😧

INTERESTING!! I hope we get some stuff about that going forward!

Like, what if he grew up in an abusive household & that's why he's so good to his own kids?

Also, I loved how much like a teenager with a, really pretty toxic, crush he acted like!

I hope that, if there's a sequel? The Koopa Kids show up & we get Bowser & their dynamics! Not just Junior, but also the Koopalings from the Super Mario Brothers Super Show & Superstar Saga!

Speaking of Superstar Saga! I hope that the Firebrand & Thunderhand come into play! That is literally the only game I see them in & I loved them so much! I especially loved how Luigi got an element of his own besides just getting fire like Mario.

Also, all those little combo moves that the 2 performed in the Mario & Luigi series! It'd really highlight their teamwork!

Something else, but not like a must for it to be good? I would be very delighted if Daisy showed up in a sequel (with accurate spunky, feisty characterization) & her & Luigi just hit it off like a house on fire! I low-key ship them more than MarioxPeach.

And I loved that, while Luigi has obvious anxiety issues, being afraid wasn't his entire character. That would've very quickly gotten very old!

I also loved the obvious love the Bros had for each other. Like, even though it was fairly obvious the information that Bowser was fishing for in his interrogation & his own prominent fear, Luigi still had the cohones to tell this literal fire-breathing monster that "Only the princesses with good taste" would find his brother attractive. He might've been scared shirtless, but his admiration for his brother is REAL, ya'll!

I also really liked how Mario & Luigi's accents were very obviously Brooklyn, but wasn't in your face. That was a nice touch.

Also, DK? He was great! He was an egotistical ass with daddy issues, but he was a funny & likeable egotistical ass with daddy issues.

I liked the sort of razzy, frenemy-type rivalry poking at each other thing that he & Mario has at the end. Like, they obviously got beef, but there's no real heat to it at the end.

Peach was super cool too. She wasn't a damsel & she did shit! Also, she had a lot of badass moments! Loved the ice dress!

I also liked that they didn't just jump into the whole MarioxPeach thing. Like, they had great chemistry, but the movie wasn't about them. It was about Mario's brotherly relationship with Luigi. It's obvious that Mario & Peach are just friends & I think that's pretty realistic, all things considered.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a little shipping whore too & I'd definitely like to see them together at some point, but this is not the time. It'd feel too rushed. I'm not saying that it won't happen. Just that it shouldn't happen yet.

Also, the Psycho Paratroopa who definitely has issues & merced the shit outta Rainbow Road with a blue shell!

And the dog who very obviously has some anger issues that slipped under the radar of his masters! He was a dog on a mission! He wanted to fuck Lu's day up! Then, at the end where he gives that sorta nod of begrudging respect? Hilarious!

Just AAAAGGGHHH!!!

I will say, the nihilist Luma? Yeah, either he wasn't like that before he was captured or he's bullshitting about wanting to die & is being a little shit. Otherwise, he'd have pulled the trigger himself a long time ago rather than waiting for Bowser to sacrifice him in a fiery display of his passion for Peach. Just saying.

[princess-of-anons]

you’ve got to talk more about the mario pmd eos retelling please please

HEY SO I WASNT EXPECTING ANYBODY TO ASK ME ABOUT THIS???? (Context in the tags here)

I don’t know who sent this but it’s been almost 12 hours since I got this when I’m writing a response I REALLY needed to sit on this to remember the details.

So when I said Mario characters I failed to elaborate on the fact that this was not just Mario characters. This is Mario characters, turned into Mario enemies, heavily redesigned to look like Pokemon. So you’ve got Koopas and paratroopas and other Koopa variants based off several starter lines, I think the torchic line was retrofitted over some goombas. And yes this all still (SOMEWHAT LOOSELY) plays out the plot of PMD: EOS.

All the in-between stuff was unplanned outside of the REALLY major plot points like the Beach, the Future and Temporal Tower, stuff like that. I must confess that EOS was my very first pokemon game, and all the other information I had on pokemon was based on a book I had on the Sinnoh Pokédex. so a lot of things like “does this enemy actually work as a good template for this pokemon” were completely thrown out the window because for some reason I couldn’t fathom just turning Mario characters into Pokemon.

I had a dedicated prologue that explains how the characters ended up in PokeMario Mystery Dungeon World, mostly derived from my headcanon that all the major Mario characters lived in Peach’s castle, yes even Bowser (who’s villainy is more of a day job because why else would he join them all in kart racing), yes even the other bad guys (including the dead ones), yes even Mario and Luigi (who I didn’t know had their own house). It was that two characters would leave the castle at night, go into the woods (like a moron) and they get Magic’d away. One of them would get sent to the beach, become the PokeMario hybrid I associated them with and meet the partner; the other would be sent to the Dark Future to play the role of Grovyle.

Now you may be asking, why are you being so vague about the characters here? Well to put it simply, I did this multiple times with multiple character pairings:

Mario and Luigi (Charmeleon? and Grotle)

Dimentio and Mimi (???? and Glameow. Sorry friends I have genuinely forgor what I turned Dimmy into for this crossover)

Blumiere and Timpani (Crobat and Beautifly)

There are others but I didn’t keep track of them because in my 9 year old mind I assumed this would be easy knowledge to recall 15 years down the line. Obviously this was not the case.

My memories are so faded that I honestly can’t recall what the point of the partner was. Or if I even included the partner at all. I just recall that that unlike canon EOS, your playable character did not lose their memories. In fact they are very aware of their past but just don’t know where their original travel partner went. The whole Planet Paralysis thing is just as much a surprise to Player 2 in the Dark Future as they are for Player 1. Also the fact that you don’t lose your memories and EVENTUALLY piece together that this other hybrid thing is your partner does make The Sacrifice sadder. I think the EOS postgame was not covered in this crossover because Player 1 and Player 2 would both wake up at home again after disappearing and saving time.

I can look through my old sketchbook in the morning to see if I can find drawings because I swear to god I have some. Thank you for listening to my unhinged ramblings.

I would ALSO like to note that within like, a few years of creating and discarding this crossover that I saw a video that combined PMD with Portal, subsequently introducing me to the Half Life/Portal universe and resulting in me replacing this crossover AU with a DIFFERENT crossover AU that was literally just the plot of the HL/Portal games with pokemon. I have lots of confidence in saying I could 100% bring back the Half-Life/PMD AU in the current day. Especially now that there is over 1000 of those little poké-fucks to attach identities to.

[1upmushrooms]

The First Rebel - Final Thoughts (1up Deadfic)

As I’ve said many times before, I am rather proud of this project. However, being proud of it doesn’t exactly mean I recommend you read it, especially if you haven’t read any of my more recent (and personally, better) material.

I’ll admit it. The grammar is downright atrocious in some areas, typos exist without fear, the prose spends too much time telling you stuff it should have shown you instead, it’s painfully clear at points that I had only started planning this thing out near the end, and that’s not even getting into how shoddy some of the characters are (*cough*Mona*cough*).

However I still think the story has positives. The narrative is paced rather well, there was never a moment where I felt the need to tell the fanfic to get on with it. All the characters (aside from Brittney and Mad Rat Mickey) were introduced naturally and were necessary to the plot. The characters themselves (aside from a certain one I’ve already gone over) had decent characterization and were unique from each other. The Rebel was the leader with a screw loose, Wario was the completely unhinged asshole, Jimmy was rather laid back, and Tyler was the troubled kid, forced by his parents to take part in this revenge plot.

And hey, while it wasn’t always planned out, the story was constantly introducing new developments and there was a moment where the plot was stalling. Now, onto some more trivia.

General Trivia: 

So, I mentioned an older version of the First Rebel before and trust me, if you thought this one was flawed.....ohh boy. For starters, the original was 14 chapters long. Oh, not because there was more content, but because they were so damn short! I ended merging some of the chapters because chapters should at least be more than a page long. 

The Rebel was also more of a reluctant bad guy in the older incarnation too. For example, Chapter One had The Rebel being upset at Wario for killing more people than necessary. However, in the original he was upset because he personally found the act abhorrent. Contrast with the more cold and calculated reason of “All these bodies will get us unwanted attention” that he had in this version. There were also additional bits of inner monologue that went along with the original interpretation.  I eventually decided that I instead wanted a darker and more vicious Rebel, hence why I made those alterations. I also added something else into the earlier chapters but we’ll get to that later.

There were also subtle bits of dialogue that I added in this version. This was because I had started doing things like “actually planning the story out” and so, to make sure the story didn’t fell too inconsistent, altered the earlier chapters to fit my plans for the plot as a whole. 

Speaking of these plans...

Where I planned to take the First Rebel:

-- For starters, I had already planned to make Koopa more complex than he initially seemed. Originally I just had the idea that he had already tested the evolution setting of the Devo Machine (the device that turned Toad into a Goomba in the movie) on himself which turned him into the eyebrowless, germaphobic, paranoid villain we know and love. I then decided I wanted him to be more sympathetic. 

I planned to reveal that Koopa had been a rather reasonable, competent, and even caring advisor to the king, only to then be kicked from his position and demoted. And he wasn’t kicked for abusing his power. But what about the Rebel and his motivation?

-- Funny thing about the Rebel being wrongfully confined in a mental asylum.....it was completely justified. As chapter 7 showed, the Rebel had huge anger issues. Even worse, it was shown (at the very beginning no less) that he had a big sadistic streak to him and clearly enjoyed hurting those who he was certain had wronged him. Like I said before, I had already wanted to make him darker than he originally was. 

With this idea in mind, there was going to be a big reveal near the beginning of the third act. Specifically, I planned to reveal that the Rebel getting incarcerated was his own damn fault. Koopa was getting tried of the Rebel almost murdering his co-workers in a fit of rage and was also worried he’d eventually do it. So, one phone call later and the Rebel was sent to the insane asylum, where he would eventually invent this idea that Koopa had framed him with plans to bomb the city. All while never having to face the fact that, at the end of the day, Koopa was doing his job.

-- Let’s not forget the King though, shall we? For those who don’t know, in the novelization for the movie (Yes, such a thing exists) it’s revealed the previous ruler of the the dino land was in fact named Bowser. Well, I thought, why not run with that? It would turn out that the old king was not really as benevolent as he seemed. In fact, he would actually be as paranoid and tight fisted as Koopa himself. I already hinted at this with characters like Mad Rat Mickey bitterly lamenting that it wasn’t really an honor to be working for the king. Not to mention the Rebel’s anecdote of the King banning religion from the reaching the mass public of the Dino world.

-- There would be a developing romance between the Rebel and Brittney (this universe’s version of Birdo), to the point where they’re practically inseparable from each other. 

-- Tyler was planned to be much more significant near the end. For you see, Tyler was supposed to be the young version of Toad (aka: The guy who got turned into a Goomba). Tyler’s father/son relationship with the Rebel would later provoke him to keep rebelling against Koopa as he got older. In fact, I had the final time the Rebel and Tyler would interact be a scene where he (unknowingly) gives the kid a parting gift, the harmonica that he would always use up till the events of the movie.

-- There would be a big attack on Koopa in which Wario and Jimmy would get killed, Mona would try to escape only to be arrested by the cops, Tyler was successfully escape, and the King would get de-evolved into the fungus thing we see in the movie. 

-- But what of the Rebel, Mad Rat Mickey, and Brittney. Well, this is where it gets really interesting. You see, I originally planned on having the Rebel a purely original creation, someone with no ties to the games whatsoever. But then I had an idea, and then I altered the earlier chapters. For you see, the Rebel would be revealed to have a name, Wallace, but that’s not all. During the big attack on Koopa that failed miserably, the Rebel would get accidentally de-evolved by the devo machine. 

And then we would discover that Wallace, the man who had friends like Mad Rat Mickey (Mouser) and Brittney (Birdo), the man who casually mentioned his distaste for vegetables, would have been descended from amphibians. Yes, the Rebel would turn out to be none other than this universe’s version of Wart.

After being mutated by the machine, Mickey and Brittney would help assist the Rebel in escaping the building. It would then turn out that Wallace had luckily retained almost all of his intelligence, with most of the mutations being physical. Of course, his brain wouldn’t be completely untouched from the de-evolution. Now, Wallace would be even more cruel and brutal and his policy of “No unnecessary deaths” would be hastily abandoned.

-- Believe it or not, I even planned to have two sequels once I had finished this one. The first would focus on Wallace and his friends building an army to try and kill Koopa again. It would also feature a more villainous Koopa who would start out as a relatively good ruler and slowly turn into the iron fisted dictator. This sequel was also planned to have several sections of the city destroyed during acts of war in order to make it smaller like in the movie. 

The second sequel and final installment of this proposed series would be set after the movie. The king would be back on the throne and.....yeah it turns out he’s even worse. So Daisy would not only turn to the Mario Brothers for help but would also seek out a certain mutated rebel. I didn’t get very far into developing these two concepts further but I still feel that they are worth mentioning.

And those were my final thoughts on the First Rebel! Will I return to this project? Who knows? I certainly wouldn’t continue where I last left off if I did, that’s for sure. However, there are plenty of ideas here that I really like and frankly I hate to see them unused. So, even if I ultimately don’t bring the First Rebel back, I’ll certainly be using some of these concepts in later tales, that I can assure you.