I've been doing a bit of research, and it turns out in New York City you are required to have at least seven years of experience to become certified as a "master plumber."
A minimum of two of these years need to be spent as a "journeyman plumber," where you're licensed to repair pipes so long as you're working under the supervision of a master plumber.
Mario and Luigi can't legally run their business if they're both journeyman plumbers, but that would mean (if they are really both 24-25 like Shigeru Miyamoto says) at least one of them began training to be a plumber the instant he got out of high school.
But if that's the case, how did they end up working in demolition?
My theory is that, since demolition companies sometimes locate and strip fixtures in commercial and residential properties for reuse or resale, plumbing fittings included, The Wrecking Crew hired the two plumbers-in-training to spot salvageable materials and take them apart.
But if Foreman Spike happens to have a bone to pick and/or is on a power trip, I can easily imagine him adding hard labor on top of whatever plumbing-related jobs they were assigned until their schedule was filled with far more wrecking than plumbing.
But eventually, Mario got all his hours logged, passed his master plumber exam, got his commercial activity license, and got him and his brother the heck out of there.
Which brings me to an additional theory that Luigi is still a journeyman plumber and not yet a master plumber.
There's a few bits of Nintendo lore that describe Luigi as something of an "understudy," or otherwise not quite as experienced as his brother in the realm of plumbing.
Which makes sense given the way Luigi seems to take on the apprentice role, closely watching the way Mario works and carrying around all the tools.
I think Luigi didn't immediately know what he wanted to do the moment he graduated high school the way Mario did.
Maybe he dabbled in mechanics for a little bit before he ultimately decided to join his bro in his plumbing venture, but as a result he's a few years behind.
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rewatching Hen Begins
sal is definitely the one who took the initiative on reporting gerrard, right?
at the infamous Team Jacob meal, gerrard says he’s worried about putting his life and the lives of “his men” in the “hands of someone who isn’t up to the job”
and sal gives him this long, evaluating, critical look
this is before hen thinks quickly to save the woman in the mudslide
this is before hen puts together the clues that there was another car in the accident and saves a drowned child
this look might be about female firefighters or about black firefighters but it is NOT about hen’s as-yet-untested abilities
i think sal sees gerrard as “someone who isn’t up to the job”
i think sal doesn’t trust gerrard with the lives of “his men”
we see later how gerrard dismisses hen’s ideas even when those ideas save lives. he chastises her for having them at all. does he listen to anyone else’s ideas? does he listen to sal?
how many people have died or been in unnecessary pain because gerrard has been too stubborn to listen to anyone but himself?
i think sal has wanted gerrard gone for a long time now
does he sense an opportunity in hen’s arrival? we know from Bobby Begins Again that sal wants to be captain. the easiest path to that for him is to take over from gerrard
gerrard has his say about women and leaves the table. sal kind of rolls his eyes but looks at tommy and nods for them to both leave with him
he looks almost regretful? like he doesn’t want to follow gerrard but knows he and tommy have to stay on his good side
maybe that’s the only way to get gerrard to listen—to make him see you as an extension of himself
so sal is still playing the game, still playing along as a card-carrying member of the Straight White Boys’ Club (and plays it so well that it wasn’t until my 5th rewatch with my saltommy goggles on that i even noticed this moment of evaluation at all)
throughout the episode, tommy follows closely at sal’s heels. sometimes tommy will look to gerrard for approval instead of sal (cutting out the middleman), but if sal goes somewhere, tommy is only a step behind him
sal knows how to play the game. tommy knows how to follow along. to hide in plain sight under the wing of someone who will guide him
i think sal said “let’s report this guy” and only had more and more justification as time went on—as hen proved herself more than capable and gerrard only got nastier in response
once their mission was set, tommy sent in his own reports. so did chimney, of course. who knows how many others sal recruited to report gerrard en masse
yes, hen is a great firefighter. but gerrard leaving the 118 was a coup, and it started before she set foot on her first call
this was a coup—and an unsuccessful one
gerrard was gone, yes. but sal did not replace him
i think this casts sal’s Bobby Begins Again insubordination/meltdown over being passed over for captain yet again into a more interesting light
after all sal has done for the 118? he got gerrard kicked out. he saved hen’s career—one of the smartest and most determined firefighters he’s ever worked with. he’s held the place together and run scenes as their string of retiring captains bumbled through calls
and then this random guy from minnesota is chastising sal for saving a kid trapped in a burning building? he thinks this is his house?
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Still takin a little break from Scott Pilgrim stuff so hey! Here’s some rough Travis doodles :)
For every horror game I’m into there’s a little part of my brain sectioned off specifically for thinking about my own little fix-it au & Sally Face is no exception. How much would it absolutely own to have a reality where Travis managed to befriend Sal’s group and have his own little support system,, I have a lot of thoughts about his internal growth and dynamic with everybody, they all deserve it honestly
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I disagree with Narrator in a very fundamental and philosophical level, but you know, even if I agreed 100% with his worldview and the reality he wants to bring about, I’d still think he’s wrong for taking matters into his own hands and changing THE VERY FABRIC OF REALITY affecting people in the entire universe, simply because HE thinks he knows what best for the world.
Like– that’s why I find him so fascinating, it’s not only the fear of death or disgust towards the very concept of change (tho that is very funny and interesting in its own right), but the utter arrogance to champion himself Savior of the World without EVER considering that maybe– just maybe, people might not agree with what he plans to do.
Like. Hubris indeed, and he even has the gall to say, “you can still do what you must and kill her” when we call him out on it. Like. Wow. I want to study this guy under a microscope.
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