#flower kingdom

[gears2gnomes]

AGDQ 2024 - Super Mario Bros. Wonder

"It's a him, Mario!"

[cali-kabi]

~💫🌱Toadette and Daisy exploring an area, Uncharted Area Wubba Ruins🌟

Was going through my art files and found this one and decided to finish them <3 I color these a few months ago but I haven’t finished the shading part xD I love the music in Mario Wonder so much it’s all so good :)🌱🌟

[jitsauce]

11.7. Neighboring Kingdoms

Note: Drawing a lot of tiny sketches here and there, there's a drawing im about to finish soon that'll hopefully come out like right around 2024 that im very happy about

[carldoonan]

This Friendly Li’l Florian says: “My kingdom is full of reality-warping flowers! My family’s reign is doomed to unavoidably collapse in a maelstrom of chaos!” 🌼🐛👑

[lore-of-the-mushroom-kingdom]

The Flower Kingdom's Location

So in Super Mario Bros Wonder there is a description saying the Flower Kingdom is "just a short hop away from the Mushroom Kingdom."

In the background we see the hills, grassy plains, and giant mushrooms of the Central Mushroom Kingdom aka the Grasslands.

We also see that lake or inland sea I have mentioned in before to the right of the Grasslands. Since there is not too much distance between the Flower Kingdom and the Grasslands they are probably bordering each other with both of them sharing a shoreline.

So where exactly is it? It could be to the SouthWest of the Mushroom Kingdom, it could run the risk of being too close to the Beanbean Kingdom. I believe it's to the SouthEast somewhere with Desert hills being to some of it's north. This could also make sense with the odd angle we see things at in the opening scene of SMBW. Edit, due to Dinosaur Land's positioning, the Flower Kingdom is probably to the SouthWest. Explanation

[danmat6288]

Prince Mallow, Representative of Nimbus Land, in the Flower Kingdom

Continuing his journey, which began in the Beanbean Kingdom, to explore the rest of the world and its variety of cultures, Prince Mallow traveled past the Rose Way region of the Mushroom Kingdom and crossed the border into the Flower Kingdom. There, he was greeted by the friendly local Poplins, the spiral-striped patterns of the petals in their flower caps reminding Mallow particularly of the more circular striped patterns he'd seen on the mushroom caps of Rose Way native Toads.

Mallow met the local prince, Florian, who was more than happy to meet another mutual friend of the Mushroom Kingdom's Super Mario and Princess Peach, who allegedly, among other friends, saved Florian's kingdom from a hostile takeover by Bowser and his troops. While Mallow had gotten to know Bowser on a more personal level when the two along with Mario, Peach, and the star-possessed doll Geno teamed up to defeat an even greater foe; he understood that the Koopa King was ordinarily a hostile conqueror who was frequently at odds with the likes of Mario and Peach. As such, he said not a word to counter any bad thoughts Florian had of Bowser, despite having seen some of his more redeeming qualities, as he understood fully that Florian wasn't really wrong.

Mallow enjoyed exploring the kingdom and its locals, as well as learning about its vast ecosystem of different forms of flowers and how they shaped the culture around them. He explored a diverse land of open planes and lush forests with refreshing waterscapes, fluffy cloud regions that reminded him of his homeland (albeit much pinker), hot desert dunes with reminders of an ancient civilization, and even a deep fungal forest full of old mining tunnels and a burning lava bog around a dormant volcano. All of these surrounded a beautiful archipelago that acted as the hub of Poplin community life.

The Nimbus prince partook in local entertainment and music activities, tried the local foods, and even did some adventuring alongside Florian with the Flower Kingdom's regional power-ups and badges. Mallow's favorite badges are the ones that improve jumping skills, as he loves the feeling of being able to jump as great as Mario. Mallow and Florian happily continue to keep in touch and maintain relations between their respective kingdoms.

[marioswap]

“I am withdrawing my proposal”, Prince Haru announced, the Kingdom falling apart all around them. Flowers were wilting, buildings turned to rubble and dust, people faded away and voices silenced.  “Why?” Mario shouted at him, unable to understand what was happening. He finally made it to the area surrounding Haru, the flowers still alive around them. 

~ MarioSwap: Kingdom Come ~

Here to share old art bc I don't have any new ones yet :D This time we have some Prince Haru / Flower Kingdom stuff!

[cwgames]

After many years I finally get to play a brand new Super Mario Bros. series. I think everyone is getting tired of New Super Mario Bros series. Glad we get introducing New Kingdom and new characters. I'm so happy that Daisy and Yoshi's gets to come.

[obligatebureaucrat]

Mario Wonder spoilers below the cutoff!!

An overly long overanalysis of Castle Bowser, the Wonder Flowers, and why Flower Castle may be one of the most magical places in the Mario world:

So the Flower Castle must hold immense magic/wonder power, right? Let’s compare a typical Wonder Flower effect to Bowser’s transformation into Castle Bowser:

Regular Wonder Effects

Leaves the user and surrounding world entirely at the mercy of its effects.

Can be stopped with a regular Wonder Seed.

Naturally ends if the user leaves the area (by finishing the stage, exiting the stage, or sometimes by leaving a certain part of the level)

Castle Bowser

Grants the user the ability to create custom wonders at will. These wonders range in scale from spawning a single enemy, to radically altering entire palaces, and possibly up to universal reality warping (if Bowser’s boasting is to be believed).

These user-created wonders can be as strong or stronger than those created by Wonder Flowers, as many require either a Wonder Seed or Royal Seed to undo (see the end-of-level Poplin houses and palaces, respectively).

Can only be stopped by a Royal Seed, but the user can shield it from multiple Royal Seeds (see the Cloud Piranhas).

Persists perpetually even after leaving the level and world the Wonder Flower was found in. Additionally, the user-created wonders persist simultaneously across the kingdom.

So yeah, what happened to Bowser is orders of magnitude more powerful than a typical Wonder Flower effect. Why do I blame the castle itself, then? First of all, Bowser seems to say it directly. When he transforms, he says:

“The Flower Castle is me, and I’m the Flower Castle! Soooo much Wonder power!”

Pretty cut and dry, right? Eh, maybe? He could just mean that the act of transforming him came with a lot of Wonder power. So, to be more sure, let’s run down some other possibilities:

The Wonder Flower at the start was special.

It’s possible, but there was absolutely nothing about that Wonder Flower that seemed different than the dozens of others.

Bowser is more powerful than the other users.

There is some precedent for Bowser getting stronger effects from powerups due to his raw strength. For example, in the final boss of 3D World, Meowser seems to be a much better climber than Cat Mario and his Double Cherry clones don’t die in one hit.

That said, there’s a big difference between “gets a bit better effects from powerups” and the vast gulf in power we see in Wonder. Sure, Bowser is stronger than Mario, but the difference isn’t orders of magnitude like “funny little transformation vs world-altering magic god.”

Bowser’s magical talent allows him to tap into all Wonder Power through one flower.

Various games have portrayed Bowser as a bit of an evil wizard (see him transforming Toads into blocks in SMB1). And this wouldn’t be the first time he’s gotten more mileage out of a magical artifact than Mario and friends, best exemplified by Power Stars. In 64, he seemingly uses them to transform Peach’s Castle and create warps and/or pocket dimensions in the paintings, whereas Mario can only use them for one-time warps back to the castle and as keys. And in Galaxy, Power/Grand Stars are basically just fuel for Rosalina and Mario, but are being used to create a whole Galaxy in the center of the universe by Bowser. This is the most plausible in-universe explanation imo, but there are a few holes.

Frequency

First, while Bowser has pulled off some astounding feats with Power/Grand Stars, he’s never exerted this level of power so easily. Both the transformation of Peach’s Castle in 64 and the Galaxy at the Center of the Universe in Galaxy 1 were planned operations that seem to have taken some coordination and time to execute (plus a lot of technology in Galaxy’s case). And importantly, these are actions Bowser takes, but not powers he can whip out willy-nilly.

But in Mario Wonder, Bowser does almost everything completely on the fly. From the moment he transforms into Castle Bowser, he’s flying, spawning massive Piranha Plants, trapping Poplins, transforming levels and palaces, etc. And this isn’t a one-time thing either. In palaces and the final world, Bowser is constantly creating small wonders by spawning enemies. The one exception is his hyped-up “big wonder” which takes time to charge up. But even ignoring that, he’s casually and constantly doing stuff his counterparts in other games could only dream of.

Form

If Bowser’s immense Wonder Power is just due to the flower and not the castle, then we’d have to assume that he could wreak all this havoc with any Wonder Flower in the game, which just doesn’t sit right with me. As hilarious as it would be, I doubt Wubba Bowser would be the kingdom-altering terror that Castle Bowser is.

And it can’t just be because he’s huge, because we’ve seen giant Bowser countless times and it’s never enhanced his magic like that.

Peach

The real elephant in the room (pun fully intended) is Peach. While not as gifted as Bowser, Peach is often portrayed as a counter to Bowser’s magic (recall that the reason she was kidnapped in SMB1 was that only she could undo the spell that turned Toads into bricks). Despite this, Peach gains no more power from the Wonder Flowers than any other character. You could chalk this up to Bowser being more powerful, but like in the section on his physical strength, the gap between Peach and Bowser’s magical abilities is nowhere near the scale of “funny little transformation” versus reality warping magic god.

Bowser gets different powers because he’s evil.

Plenty of stories have magical artifacts that react based on the heart of the user and it’s common for these artifacts to be much more devastating in the hands of someone evil. My problem with this theory is twofold: first, you’d think that, if that were the case, Prince Florian would’ve said something about keeping the Wonder Flowers out of the hands of evil, but the Wonder Flowers are portrayed exclusively as amoral wild magic. Second, there’s Nabbit.

Nabbit is not a good guy, nor one of Mario’s pals. The game specifically states that he just follows them around, meaning he presumably hasn’t abandoned his thieving ways from New Soup U. Despite this, the Wonder Flowers react the same to him as they do Mario, Peach, etc.

That said, maybe the Wonder Flowers just have an evil threshold. So like an evil conqueror like Bowser is bad enough to activate Evil God Mode, but a small-time thief like Nabbit isn’t. Interesting side note: if this is your headcanon then it means that the Wonder Flowers have a separate and almost opposite system of moral judgment to the Mario afterlife. In Super Paper Mario, the standards of goodness to make it to the heavenly Over There are so strict that even Mario and Luigi don’t make it, and the Wonder Flowers would seemingly have an equally strict badness criteria. So this explanation is possible, but between the Nabbit question and any sort of moral standard for the Wonder Flowers being totally absent from the text, I don’t quite buy it.

This Wonder Effect both merges you with the Flower Castle and gives you incredible power.

Wonder Effects can get somewhat complicated. I’d argue that “turns the level into a pyramid dungeon” is about as complex as “turns you into the main villain.” However, I’d actually argue that this explanation works in favor of the Magical Flower Castle Theory™.

Wonder Flowers are depicted as nearly identical - the only differences being that the color depends on the world. From this, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that Wonder Effects are context/location-dependent. You only get Hoppo effects in levels with Hoppos, only get attacked by an airship in airship levels, etc. If that’s the case, then there’s something about the area around Flower Castle that would make the local Wonder Effect turn you into a wonder-powered castle god.

With all other explanations (hopefully) ruled out, let’s take a look at some of the implications/why this makes sense in the Flower Kingdom.

Flower Castle as a seat of power

At least three different worlds in Mario Wonder are home to sprawling ruins of separate once-great civilizations (plus a lot of smaller castles, ruins, and structures possibly built by lost civilizations, such as the Search Party parks and underground areas in Pipe-Rock Plateau). You have the Wubba Ruins in Fungi Mines, the lost Goomba/Spike ruins in Deep Magma Bog, and, most prominently, the lost civilization of Sunbaked Desert. The Sunbaked Desert civilization was so powerful that it managed to create a massive structure that holds multiple levels, including the world’s palace (which is dwarfed in size by the structure as a whole).

So how did a land populated with so many great and powerful kingdoms get dominated and united into the Flower Kingdom - especially when the dominant Poplin society’s buildings are humble by comparison? Well perhaps the Flower Kingdom originally only controlled the Pipe-Rock Plateau (maybe even just the first part of it with the first three levels). Then, they either built their castle on an especially magical spot, or managed to infuse their castle with incredible amounts of magic, and used that power to expand and conquer the rest of the land. Some capitals exert control through military might, some through central location, and some through finances, but the Florian Dynasty does it through magic.

A Wiggler Prince?

For decades, it’s been a fun question in the Mario fandom to wonder how a human (a species virtually non-existent in the region) came to control the primarily Toad-inhabited Mushroom Kingdom. Wonder’s Flower Kingdom presents us with a similar conundrum. The Flower Kingdom is primarily inhabited by Poplins, and we only see three Wigglers besides Florian himself, yet the reigning Prince is a Wiggler. We don’t need an explanation for this, but I like to imagine that the first ruler of Florian’s dynasty came to power by using the magic of Flower Castle.

Cross-Kingdom Chaos

This last bit is less of a proper implication and more of a funny observation. Out of all the places in the Flower Kingdom where the ultra-magical seat of power could be, it just so happens to be in a small valley a couple of miles from the border of the Mushroom Kingdom. It almost feels like the Mushroom Kingdom’s craziness is leaking out into its neighbors.

So yeah, that’s a lot of words to make sense of a game whose entire mission statement is to have fun not making sense lol. I don’t actually think we need an explanation for Castle Bowser, but I adore this game and the fact that we have a 2D Mario that actually has a little bit of lore and worldbuilding, so I’m gonna dig into it as much as I can :)

[gabibunbuns]

did this drawing cuz mario wonder direct.

Oh and as a bonus:

[alelathedragon]

Silly KB ask thing

NOW THE FLOWER FOLK FAAALL

Hear our wonderous voices sing!!!/ref

I should make a big ol Ask Blog picture and officially open it up here too- but yeh i do silly KingBoo ask pictures and he might have gotten Bowser's Rage Stage stuck in his head but wont admit it

[cherrish1225]

🎆HAPPY NEW YEAR🎆

This has been anamazing year!

I've accomplished so much. I've graduated from high school, started college, improved my art, and met so many amazing people.

I want to continue to be great and try my hardest in anything I do in 2024.

[flowerkingdomer]

"𝗢𝗻𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗽𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝘁𝗼 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝗱𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀!"

Ask box is now open!

[lore-of-the-mushroom-kingdom]

Not All Turtles Are Koopas

So in previous posts have talked about the idea of a Boss Creeper or Boss Koopa Species, and even came up with the term Common Koopa to make a differentiation between Koopa Troopas and other "Koopas." And have even used the word Koopa to refer to everything from Bowser's Species to Lakitus. That last part is something I and I've seen many other people have done in reference to the idea of Koopa Species. However, this is wrong. Not every turtle in the Mario World is a Koopa or in Japanese NokoNoko.

So what do I mean? Koopa Troopas aka NokoNoko in the Super Mario Bros. manual are stated to be "Soldier(s) of the Turtle Empire." Spikes in Super Mario Run description says the following about Spikes. "This hardworking turtle has a very small shell." And the Bad Ball Boy Constellation from Mario Party 9 says the following about Spikes. "A constellation that calls to mind a fiendish turtle who can spit spiked balls at his foes." Spiny's Egg Description from the SMB Manuals says the following. "Eggs of the turtle Spiny, pet of Lakitu." And the Sharp Shell Constellation says it's "a constellation named after a turtle who hides beneath a spiky shell." Buzzy Beetle's Super Mario Run's description says the following about them. "This black turtle is protected by a tough shell."

Notice how none of these descriptions said they are a Koopa or NokoNoko. But rather just said they are turtles. This is because to my knowledge all turtles in Mario's world are not intended to be various species of Koopas. But rather Koopas are various species of turtles.

However, there are some actual Koopa species/ relatives. I believe with part of the Koopa's Japanese name NokoNoko is used in a name, makes connect amongst these species. There is the Bombshell Koopa whose name is Nokobon in Japanese meaning Koopa Explosion. There is the Snooza Koopa whose name in Japanese is Tamago Nokonoko, meaning Eggshell Koopa. This would make them an ocean based species of Koopas that converged with Sea Turtles. This is because we see Sea Turtles in the Kong Archipelago which don't look similar to Snooza Koopas. Then you have the Snortoise from the Flower Kingdom, whose name is Suppoko meaning Softshell Koopa. This would make them the Softshell Turtle equivalent of the Koopas Species.

[florealegiardini]

This wisteria drenched Manor House, outside Broadway, is the dream romantic Cotswolds getaway. ~ James Lloyd Cole

Broadway, Cotswolds, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom

[petitworld]

Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, England by Stacy Cartledge