#shroob army

[faffreux]

Just letting you know when you talk about kissing Fawful my whole Shroob army is cheering you on :]

YES. YES, GOOD.

EXCELLENT.

[legobiwan]

I think what makes Super Paper Mario stand out from many of the other plot-based Mario games is the motivation of the villains. (And no, I have not played all of them, but I'm familiar enough with the major titles to take a leap with this idea here).

You can write a laundry list of bad guys who have wanted to take over the world: Smithy and his gang want to reforge it (literally) in their image. The Shadow Queen wants to rule over a dark, new reality. Cackletta wants the Beanstar to fulfill her crazed wishes of destruction and power. Antasma wants command through the Dream World. Princess Shroob wants, and maybe even needs, to a degree, to siphon off the life force of the Toads in an interesting twist on an alien species' resource issues. In fact, one of the few antagonists we encounter who is not 100% fueled by power-lust is King Boo, who walks a tighrope between a pedestrian desire to rule reality via ghost army and a need to exact revenge, a tightrope he eventually falls off of decidedly in the direction of bloodthirsty vengeance directed specifically at Luigi. (He built, bought, or at least took over a whole-ass, multi-level hotel for this express purpose, not only luring Luigi into this trap, but roping his brother, his friend, and some random Toad acquaintances into the whole ordeal, as well - which is categorically insane and the topic of another rant for another day).

But Count Bleck doesn't want power for power's sake. He merely wants to use the Chaos Heart to end reality. There's no throne he covets, no crown he searches for - he desires only utter annihilation of everything, including himself. It's such a nihilistic goal and is so striking in comparison to the other enemies we encounter in and around the Mushroom Kingdom. Even Dimentio, whose initial plan was to seize power and reshape the world in his own corrupted image - even Dimentio chooses this final destruction over the promise of false power in the end.

How do you fight against someone who seeks death as their ultimate goal? It's such a depressing and fascinating concept in a Mario game, of all things, and is one of the reasons I personally see SPM as a kind of climax to the events of many of the preceding games, including SM: RPG and Thousand Year Door, which you can see as the "prequels," as it were, to SPM, if you look at these games as existing along a timeline that began with the creation of the Pixls and the Tribe of Ancients and ends with Bleck and Dimentio's defeat at the threshold of apocalypse.

Anyway, I'm starting to come up with some lore ideas that would possibly tie these three games together in a slight AU where the Bleck gang would show up in 7 Stars and Geno's role is extended past the restoration of the Star Road.

[marbarmars-arts]

🍄Day 19: AU🍄

-love and tragedy, hand in claw-

I made a cool little AU! Fawful and the spilled Tea!

Thanks so so much to @aliencatwafers for inspiring me to make this AU...a few days ago she drew the concept of what Minty as a shroob would look like, and after thinking about it some more at 2am, BAM! Stayed up until morning coming up with a what if scenario if the story elements of Wafer's Second Shroob Invasion and Minty Frazzles was combined. It all starts with Minty getting shroobified, thus renamed to M1ทt33! Their earth nickname is Tea.

A uhhh short plot synopsis and details are in order!

It all starts off normally when Minty and Fawful are hanging out. They've been friends for quite some time now, he thought about finally confessing his feelings to her, but then the second shroob invasion starts. With the two having witnessed the first invasion years ago, panic ensues. The shroobs originally intended to capture Fawful to shroobify him due to his very high intellect but Minty ends up getting captured instead.

Now with no recollection of her past, M1ทt33 carries on as part of the shroob army until Fawful finds them. Wanting the love of his life back, to undo his guilt, he manages to drag her back to his base. But with Tea's lost memories, empathy to the shroobs, and false backstory that they've been feeding to her, it's difficult for Fawful to get her back to her normal self. Let alone having the information necessary to know if he can even undo this in the first place. Did I mention this is all happening in the middle of an invasion?

Despite this stranger dragging them to a place they've never seen before, M1ทt33 swears this all feels so familiar. More memories start to come back to her as the plot goes on, but things get complicated...even though Tea IS Minty, Tea has become her own being too. Born from horrible means...does she have a right to even exist?

It's all so tragic I know, but deep down I know there's a good ending somewhere...

I don't really plan to do anything HUGE with this btw, it was just a fun concept to make that i love talking to Wafers about!

[duckapus]

SMG4 AU Idea: Adventure Time With Meggy and Boopkins

Takes place in a post-Mario-series universe where the world was once again invaded by the Shroobs, and the resulting war led to an apocalypse that decimated both sides. Nearly every civilization fell to ruin, Shroob waste spread all over causing illness and rapid mutation, the heroes of the world all either died, went missing, or worse, a wide assortment of ancient evils were unleashed or reborn all across the globe, and the very rules of Magic were rewritten.

Fast forward a thousand or so years later and we're introduced to Meggy the Human and her younger brother Boopkins the Fish, who've just left their hometown of Port Aurora to become Adventurers on the mainland. They're a bit odd even by the standards of their bizarre world, since humans are believed to have been extinct for centuries, Boopkins has incredible shapeshifting powers, and their dad Joe and aunt Lily are 50-foot-tall ancient guardians of the sea.

One of the first places they end up on their journey is the Mushroom Kingdom, which is currently in a bit of a bind. The Mushroom people's ruler, Princess Apricot Toadstool, has been kidnapped by the evil Fire Lord and his army of monkeys. The Mushroom people would rescue her themselves, but they're not exactly...competent. Well, except for Guard Captain Shroomy, but if both he and Apricot are gone while the Mushrooms are already this wound up the whole kingdom will collapse in about three days. So, First Adventure Time!

After some traveling they get to the volcanic region where Fire Lord's home is and fight their way through the monkey army, and Fire Lord's demonic right-hand minion Saiko, to the Princess...es. Apparently Fire Lord has a whole Thing about princesses and there's a dozen or so in there. One of them is Bob the Thief Princess, who is a guy because there's no rule that says a princess can't be a dude. And if there is one he'll break it because he loves breaking rules.

Anyway, Apricot's with Fire Lord instead of with the other princesses, so Meggy, Boopkins and the princesses storm further into the fortress and find them.

And if you're even slightly familiar with Adventure Time you know just what kind of goofy pathetic nutcase they end up finding. Though Fire Lord is red instead of Ice King's blue, has a jeweled bracelet instead of a crown, and has the additions of incredible jumping abilities and an addiction to spaghetti.

Anyway, there's a big fight (where Apricot ends up with a massive axe somehow and decides she's never letting it go. Yes I'm repurposing Wapeach because It's My House), the good guys win, everyone goes home.

Afterwards, Apricot declares Meggy and Boopkins heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom, and offers to let them stay in her castle, but they decline since they saw a big hollow tree on the way back that they can turn into a Fresh home base.

Of course, when they move in they find out that the place is already occupied by a little camera robot named SuperMemeGenerator4, but he's excited to have some new roommates so it's not a big deal. Also Bob decides to live there too for some reason.

So there's the introduction, now some explanations:

Yes, Fire Lord is (or at least was) Mario. The bracelet he's wearing is basically a fire version of the Ice Crown. I went with him both so he could be a major character despite how long the timeskip is and as a nod to what becoming the Avatar did to him in SMG4 canon. His version of Gunther the Penguin is a monkey in a green vest named Terence. I haven't fully decided why Saiko works for him but I'm thinking it's some sort of Life Debt thing like Han and Chewey in Star Wars.

Since the Shroobs are mushroom aliens the war that ended the world is still called the Great Mushroom War.

Lily's entire backstory is still the same, except the apocalypse and the absence of the Crew means she got found and taken in by Diana, And has very clearly taken up her mantle.

Apart from Fire Lord, Lily, and a few other obvious cases, everybody has their canon ages and personalities. So Meggy and Boopkins ages are swapped from Finn and Jake's, and Apricot is a kid and a very different sort of person from Bubblegum.

Due to that and some other differences, (some obvious, others less so) this AU wouldn't really follow the same story beats as the show.

Melony ends up in Marceline's place in terms of her relationship with Mario/Fire Lord.

Most of the iconic Mario Species are either extinct or mutated/evolved almost beyond recognition, with Boos and Piranha Plants as notable exceptions, and Goombas as a prime example due to now being big pack-hunting apex predators instead of sapient footstools.

Apricot is actually Mario and Peach's however-many-greats granddaughter, and neither her nor Fire Lord are consciously aware of that connection. Apricot because the Apocalypse making it hard to map out family lines that far and Fire Lord because he doesn't remember that he's Mario and wasn't aware before All That that Peach was pregnant. Also, Apricot isn't considered human due to a mix of mutations during the apocalypse, interspecies relationships, and the fact that I'm convinced that Peach is half-Toad already (both here and in actual Mario canon). It'll be more obvious that she's not human if I ever draw her.

When SMG3 and Tari get introduced it's going to be as the previous iteration of SMG4's design and as an Android created by the same scientist who built the two of them.

Also, Luigi will eventually get introduced by way of accidentally falling through a one-way time portal, getting sent from E. Gadd's Lab before the War to the story's present day somewhere in the wilderness. His absence was actually a major contributing factor to everything going so horribly wrong. Also since he's Luigi and not Betty, and since the dynamic between twin brothers and fiancés is obviously very different, he's going to have a different reaction to Fire Lord than Betty had to Ice King.

[supersmashbrandon97]

DEATH BATTLE!

[steven-scribbleverse]

Elder Princess Shroob is like blue and yellow and probably white too (she doesn't explicitly control Bowser but there is some element of possession going on there) and the younger Princess Shroob is like Pink, but she at least seems like she'd only fit if you were to take Garnet's story from Your Mother and Mine at face value. However, she probably fits better than I'm expecting her to. The Shroobs seem to be grown(?) for specific purposes (examples being the Yoob and the wiggler boss for PiT) and they're moving on from their old, broken home out into the universe to break more habitats and homes because they need resources to make more armies to get more resources and it's a loop.

YOU UNDERSTAND!!!!!

[darknoverse]

Hi! I love your content. I had a quick question about the Flowdin Shroob Princess. Does she know the Shroob language or is English her first language? Did she grow up with the Shroob language?

1-thanks glad u like it

2-ummm I suppose she doesn't know shroob language till like..post TOO story??

Cuz she was born by the time of PIT so the time when the shroob army went adioskie. Soooo she sorta wandered away from the ship,aaaall the way to Flowardin. so she doesn't know how to talk shroob 🤔 but probably would still understands the language itself because of the whole mind hive thingy.

[minnesotamedic186]

I had a sparks of hope dream where in the past the wardens worked together to fight the rabbid versions of the shroob princesses and their army

My goodness-

[fat-slobby-gamers]

Princess Shroob, spreading spores that cause cute girls, boys, and enbies to grow pregnant with her endless minions.

It was her latest evil scheme to grow her army of loyal followers. The princess of the shroobs cackled to herself as she sat on her throne surrounded by a harem of swollen inhabitants of the mushroom kingdom with their bellies packed the brim with soon to be soldiers. "FUFUFUFU! Bring them more food! The future generations will need the nutrition! I want every one of my new consort stuffed to the gills! 7... no 8 meals apiece! Noone gets any rest till they're all satisfied!" Princess shroob barked orders at her minions ordering them to keep the food coming to fuel the spores of conquest and her new empire.

[successfullyshroobifiedsmbau]

Heys!

It’s been quite a while since I, the admin, last posted on this blog... but ever since I heard Shroob laughter in one of my sound file folders while randomly listening to it recently, BOOM! I suddenly started hyperfixating on Shroobs again, which led to the following. ;)

Last week, I published a new fanfic that features Shroobs! One con about it is that it’s not at all related to Successfully Shroobified, but it does, however, feature some of its characters (such as the Sakamoto twins) as extras or small roles! You can click here to read the fanfic, but be wary as it contains spoilers for both Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. Said fic describes how the remaining Shroobs ended up in the cryogenic chamber in Bowser’s Castle in Bowser’s Inside Story.

And with that, I’d also like to introduce you to three new characters, who are also the protagonist and deuteragonists of said fanfic! :)

Trivia about... Chant, Nita and Todd.

Chant

Full name: Chantelle Jay Briney

Age: 17

Gender: female (she/her)

Race: Support Shroob

Most notable details: modest layer of mascara on her eyelashes, freckles, feisty yet confident personality, her naïveté

Likes: her older sibling and their best friend, board games, card games, ballet, gymnastics, painting, chillwave music, the Shroob princesses, horror comedy shows

Dislikes: humans, anyone harming her older sibling and their best friend, being hazed, school, maths, not being taken seriously, anyone stressing over nothing, fellow Support Shroobs not listening to the(ir) commander

—

“I quit the boring excuse of high school early to focus on becoming a Support Shroob in the royal army of Shroob Castle, under the commanders’ wings. As I enrolled the amateurs, I was quickly proven to be a very skilled fighter and an avid listener to commands, and thus I rose up the ranks pretty quickly, of which many approved but were also remarkably surprised. Yes, I did help fight four specific humans when one of our commanders ambushed them, but I did have to be wary of their hammers and shoes, which I could fortunately easily evade, unlike most of my fellow Support Shroobs. The perks of paying very close attention during ballet and gymnastics at a very young age, am I right?

As a young child, my parents and some other family members used to call me Chuchu… ridiculous, ain’t it? Do I really look like those blobby, big-eyed monsters that hail from Hyrule? Not at all! I may be cute, but I look nothing like those Chuchus, no matter how cute you think they are! To be honest, I think my older sibling picked a significantly more fitting nickname for me when I was only just born. Chant, that’s me, alright?”

-----

Nita

Full name: Amanita Auburn Briney

Age: 20

Gender: non-binary/genderless (they/them)

Race: ‘regular’ Shroob

Most notable details: a very easy-going personality, green four-leaf clover bracelets on both of their wrists

Likes: their younger sister, their best friend, helping fellow Shroobs out, art, science, the Shroob princesses, the colour green, ballet, reading, four-leaf clovers

Dislikes: humans, anyone harming their younger sister and best friend, anyone criticising their best friend, not being taken seriously, not being listened to

—

“I’m not one to be stubborn and immediately disagree with others’ ideas, but I do have to know the full information behind someone’s idea before agreeing with it.

I’m a proponent of the Shroob princesses’ hierarchy and it to continue existing, even if we did have to flee to Earth upon discovering that our home planet was at the verge of extinction. I do anything to protect our two leaders, even if it means to sacrifice myself to evil factions who are only trying to get rid of us anyway… of which my younger sister and best friend probably don’t approve. Oh well.

My best friend and I have known one another since we were both still aged 2, and ever since, we never left one another’s side to protect each other from any type of harm. The world will always be full of any sorts of troubles that anyone has to face, after all.

Oh, and my younger sister and I are also the maternal second cousins of John and his siblings. They and their parents are very friendly!”

-----

Todd

Full name: Todney Harold Benningwater

Age: 20

Gender: male (he/him)

Race: ‘regular’ Shroob

Most notable details: bandages around his arms and wrists, band-aids on his cap and next to his left eye, autism and situational mutism

Likes: his best friend and their younger sister, drawing, writing, crackers, dark chocolate, cooking, artisan cooking, baking, building cakes, being praised for his dishes, the Shroob princesses, listening to ambient sounds, lo-fi music, playing the piano, his extended family, science, physics

Dislikes: humans, his school days, being hazed, being criticised, being mocked for using sign language when he’s mute, being considered childish, loud noises, anyone harming his best friend and their younger sister, loud children, thunderstorms, fireworks

—

“...”

(Todd has yet to know us better, but he doesn’t mind me interpreting his sign language now. Even if it’s Shroob sign language, I still understand it quite well.

Todd is Nita’s best friend, and he has known them ever since they were both aged 2. Back then at the playgroup, the majority of the other toddlers considered Todd an oddball, except for Nita, who felt bad for nobody choosing to play with him, gradually resulting in the two of them becoming (and still remaining) best friends to this day and protecting one another from even the worst of harm.

As soon as Todd graduated from high school, he did not bother to enroll college or the university and immediately joined the cooking team in Shroob Castle, where he was quickly proven to be a very skilled self-taught cook, judging from the fact that the other cooks and (pastry) chefs and even the two Shroob princesses immediately praised him for his artisan dishes, which they still continue to do nowadays. Todd is still in training, but he has a very good focus once he knows what to do in the kitchen.

Did you know that Pit, the youngest servant in Shroob Castle, is Todd’s youngest paternal cousin? On the contrary, he is also their oldest cousin. In fact, the entire Benningwater family (Todd’s father, Kevyn, has 9 younger siblings, of whom his youngest, Olimarina, is Pit’s mother) has been born and raised in Shroob Castle, where the vast majority of them now works under the Shroob princesses’ wings as several occupations. It surely does run in the family, huh?)

[paint-and-piranha-plants]

About page!

Name:Petey Piranha.

Age:Unknown.

Hight:Honestly seems to vary, he just big.

Pronouns:He/It.

Race:Mutant Piranha Plant.

Petey’s origins are mostly unknown, although Mario’s first encounter with him was on isle delfino. After a crash into a windmill, and a fight, it seems like it was gone. But that was soon proven wrong seemingly in minutes. After that adventure, Petey appeared whenever it pleased after.

Although, it may have not been their true first fight. During the Shroob invasion, both the brothers and their baby counterparts fought the plant. He seemingly was being used as a tool for a flashy game over, for those who apposed the Princess of the weird army. No matter the circumstances, he seems to always be up for taking a more fight than flight stance.

When around…well, pretty much anyone other than Mario, he acts a bit more relaxed and even somewhat playful. Though, the naturally aggressive demeanor can quickly come into play if need be. Despite all that, Petey really just wants to live his life without being bothered, at least in a way that doesn’t wind up with him getting a stomach ache, or beaten up.

[that-8-bit-guy]

With the announcement of a remake of Bowser's Inside Story and the successful remake for Superstar Saga, one must think how odd it was to skip Partner's in Time. Personally, it wasn't a very good game, but it was enjoyable. They made the Mushroom kingdom much more lively creative than just "Grassland, Desert, Iceland, Bowser". It had creative npcs, a good story, and the enemies were really good. SPEAKING off, you wanna talk of a very interesting line of similar foes? The Shroobs were it. Each one was particularly different and still had an overall similar design. This extends to some of the other bosses and Shroobified foes, but the branching designs of the Shroobs were pretty interesting. But yeah, the game doesn't hold up.

[retro-system]

honestly i like that mario isn't constantly chewing people out when they insult or belittle luigi, because there are times when he does, and those times are usually when luigi breaks down because of it.

to me that shows that luigi can handle the insults to a degree, and that if it's not to a point where it overwhelms him, he probably prefers to deal with it on his own, rather than lean on mario, who could probably get people off his case a lot more efficiently, as someone who most (especially toads) would actually listen to and respect. and mario respects this, so generally stays out of it.

but i think about a couple of times he did stand up for luigi, such as in partners in time...

the star door gives luigi three options when asking him who made it possible for him to obtain the aurora block that would allow him to pass through it with the others (mario, the babies, or himself), and after you choose each option the door snaps that it was gained through he teamwork of all four of them, and thus he had answered incorrectly. when luigi refutes that there had been no option to say that, the star door claims he's lying, and that he refuses to acknowledge the group's teamwork, and declares he'll be punished as stated in the screenshot, causing luigi to break down in tears. that's when mario starts shouting at the door, turning its own claim on its head and declaring that it's lying about giving luigi the fourth option and that luigi did nothing wrong, and baby mario -- a bit more physical than his adult self -- whacking the door repeatedly with his hammer. the star door acknowledges mario's faith and love for luigi and allows them all to pass.

another example is in bowser's inside story (in a scene which, funnily enough, directly references partners in time).

after defeating some shroobs that bowser had frozen, mario, luigi and starlow discuss the origins of the shroobs, mario telling starlow they had defeated an army of them as babies. starlow sings mario's praises, declaring that only he could accomplish such a feat at such a young age. mario tells her that luigi fought hard too, elevating luigi's ego until starlow responds with the above question of if he attacked them with "ferocious crying". then he turns away silently, crouching down and doodling on the ground dully. mario turns to look at him, before turning back to starlow to explain to her that luigi had defeated the shroobs in the end. starlow apologises to luigi, which brings his mood back up and they continue forward.

luigi is treated unfairly many times in the m&l series (and in the other mario games as a whole really), but he sucks it up and moves on. but sometimes someone will say something that'll hit him where it hurts, and i think mario knows that's when he needs to step in. he knows luigi's limits, and knows without luigi saying vocally when he needs help.

[merchantziro]

Old idea I found on my Reddit from like 6 months ago that I thought was worth posting here.

Mario & Sonic but instead of going to the Olympics again, it's Mario Party.

So with the Mario & Sonic games always being about the Olympics, I thought that perhaps we could use an idea to spice it up. So I had an idea of Mario inviting Sonic & Pals to a game of Mario Party.

As for boards and minigames, perhaps we can have some fun and borrow an idea I had from a different Mario Party game concept, only instead of time travel combining two boards from prior games, it could be more crossover based with areas being invaded or merged with elements of the other series. It would be just pure fanservice for Mario and Sonic fans with different characters in the background or on the board.

The goal would be to collect Stars by buying them from Toad or a Chao however certain stages could have an alternative method of collecting them.

If you need a reference point, think the stages from Playstation All-Star Battle Royale had characters from a different series in the background invading that world like how the Paris from Sly Cooper's world gets attacked by the Negativitron from Little Big Planet 2.

One idea I had for a stage would be the Comet Observatory from Mario Galaxy, except it's under attack from the Black Arms from Shadow the Hedgehog so you have to save Lumas and they'll turn into a Star you'll collect, meanwhile you can just see Black Doom and Rosalina fighting in the background.

Another was Pyramid Cave from Sonic Adventure 2 except King Boo and King Boom Boo have teamed up and pooled their ghostly armies together and E.Gadd outfits all 4 players with Poltergusts designed to capture the ghosts, so you have to capture both Mario Boos and Sonic Boos to get one Star upon beating them into a short minigame and you get 3 for capturing one of the Kings after beating them in a much harder minigame. Eventually the king will escape and come back with more stars, maybe alternating between the two every time one is captured.

Another fun one was Peach's Castle, but It's actually the Shroob Castle from Partners in Time except everything is on fire and ruined by Iblis's flames of diaster with Mephiles the Dark walking around, trying to collect Stars for they're own reasons (Mephiles so he can use them to merge with Iblis and the Shroob Princess Sisters are collecting them for power).

Next to last we have Southern Island from Sonic Rush Adventure as it's under attack from Captain Syrup who has teamed up with Captain Whisker. Johnny meanwhile is racing around and you must fight him 1 on 1 in a race minigame based on the Sonic Rush Adventure Wave Rider segments, beating him will cause him to run off and drop a star. Meanwhile you can just get a star from Big as well if you play a fishing minigame.

And Lastly we have Bowser's Castle and the Death Egg (with teleporters between the two) except Bowser and Eggman are having a war in background with their troops going at it. Goombas and Koopas fighting Motobugs and Buzz Bombers. And in the background we have Bowser in his Fury Bowser form is going at it with the Great Eggman Robo from Sonic & Knuckles, only instead of the Master Emerald, it's powered by a Giga Bell. The goal would be to help Bowser Jr deal with an out of control Metal Sonic before trying to find a way to take down both the Giga Bell powered Eggman robo and out of control Koopas King.

As for some mini game ideas, maybe some based on one of the two series as well as some more crossover shenanigans. While I can't really think of anything too specific like above, just take the concept of stages or even minigames from the past games of their respective series and make it a short but fun multiplayer experience. I mean Sonic & the Secret Rings has a few ones that would be perfect for this.

Maybe a few minigames based on the Olympic Dream Events from past Mario & Sonic games like Dream Long Jump or Dream Snowboard Cross.

This is honestly something I would love to see them do if they decide to break away from the Olympics formula and would definitely show that the Mario & Sonic series could definitely work with other Mario spinoff titles, especially with how much chaos there could be ok top of being able to appeal to Sonic and Mario fans with cameos of fan favorites from past titles.

What would your ideas for stages and minigames be?

[thecreaturecodex]

Shroob

Image © Nintendo of America, accessed at the Super Mario Wiki here

[Commissioned by @arachcobra​, from the game Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. This is not a game I’d even heard of before this commission, and it sounds wild. The plot involves Mario and Luigi teaming up with their baby selves using time travel to stop an invasion of mushroom men from outer space. Searching for images for this entry led me to a lot of blatant fetish art of their leader, Princess Shroob, and not much else. So I went with the official art, and then tried to forget what I saw.]

Shroob CR 1 LE Plant This squat humanoid looks like an oversized purple and white mushroom with hands and feet. Its eyes glow red and its mouth features two prominent fangs.

Shroobs are a species of imperialist fungi. They are obsessed with magic, technology, and the fusion between the two. Much of their magic is powered by draining the life force of other creatures—they are fond of necromancy, and often ally with or enslave undead creatures. Their society is structured as a militarized monarchy.

Shroobs are native to overgrown and dark forests. Although light does not harm them directly, they dislike bright lights and prefer things cool, damp and dim. Every shroob serves the military machine—even juveniles are conscripted to serve as technicians and for repairs. Those that do not serve are slain and drained of life to fuel shroob magitech. Shroobs advance by class level—alchemist, gunslinger and wizard are common choices. Divine spellcasters are all but unheard of in shroob society.

Shroobs as Characters A shroob does not have racial Hit Dice. Instead, it advances by character class. A shroob NPC has a challenge rating of its level -1 for NPC classes, and equal to its level for PC classes. A shroob’s traits are as follows.

+2 Str, +4 Con, +2 Int Shroobs are durable and cunning. Small size A shroob gains a +1 size bonus to Armor Class and attack rolls, a +4 racial bonus to Stealth checks and a -1 penalty to CMB Plant type A shroob gains all of the immunities of the plant type. It is immune to mind-influencing effects, paralysis, poison, polymorph, sleep effects and stunning Slow A shroob has a movement speed of 20 ft. Darkvision 60 ft. and low-light vision +2 natural armor Bite A shroob gains a bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage as a primary natural weapon Leech Life (Su) A shroob that makes a successful bite attack gains temporary hit points equal to ½ the damage it deals. These temporary hit points are lost in 1 hour if not expended. Languages A shroob begins play speaking Shroob. Shroobs with an Intelligence bonus may choose between the following as bonus languages: Aklo, Common, Infernal, Mi-go, Terran, Undercommon

Shroob alchemist 1             CR 1 XP 400 LE Small plant Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision, Perception +4 Defense AC 17, touch 13, flat-footed 15 (+1 size, +2 Dex, +2 natural, +2 armor) hp 14 (1d8+6) Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +0 Immune plant traits Offense Speed 20 ft. Melee bite +3 (1d4+3 plus leech life) or heavy mace +3 (1d6+2), bite -2 (1d4+1 plus leech life) Ranged bomb +3 (1d6+2 fire) Special Attacks bomb (3/day, DC 12), mutagen Infusions Prepared CL 1st 1st—cure light wounds, expeditious retreat Statistics Str 15, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 8 Base Atk +0; CMB +1; CMD 13 Feats Brew Potion (B), Throw Anything (B), Toughness Skills Craft (alchemy) +6, Disable Device +6, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (nature) +6, Perception +4, Spellcraft +4 Languages Common, Shroob, Undercommon SQ alchemy Ecology Environment any forests or underground Organization solitary, pair, patrol (3-6), squad (7-12 plus1 3rd level captain) or army (40-400 plus 1 3rd level captain per 10 individuals, 1 5th level war mage per 50 individuals and 1 7th level general) Treasure NPC gear (alchemist’s kit, leather armor, heavy mace, formula book, thieves tools, other treasure) Special Abilities Leech Life (Su) A shroob that makes a successful bite attack gains temporary hit points equal to ½ the damage it deals. These temporary hit points are lost in 1 hour if not expended.

[maggotsandcream]

Finally got around to watching a playthrough of Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time

I have thoughts as always, a lot of them. Spoilers ahoy!

First off, it is 100% on brand for E. Gadd to build a time machine and decide that the most ethical way to test it would be to send his head of state and her entourage into the past while taking exactly zero safety precautions. What's far more eyebrow raising is that clearly multiple other people starting with Peach herself had to sign off on this.

Maybe if past!Mushroom Kingdom employed an army that was composed of more than literally 2 toddlers they wouldn't have gotten so trounced by the aliens that it resembled the first part of a Doctor Who Christmas special.

I should note that none of these things are criticisms. I find the lack of two brain cells to rub together throughout the Mushroom Kingdom both past and present delightful.

I read a fan theory that the reason no one knew about the Shroobs in the present was because they hadn't actually attacked in the past at first and it was the whacky time machine antics that sucked them into the past from the present when they were originally going to attack the Mushroom Kingdom and oddly that tracks pretty well and I think I will adopt that as my own headcanon.

Of course, considering it's also Mario canon that multiple universes exist and the universe they live in periodically collapses and gets shuffled around could easily account for this too.

Baby Mario whacking everything in reach with his hammer is probably one of the more accurate portrayals of toddlers in video games. The rest of it obviously isn't, but that particular aspect jibes pretty well with my admittedly limited experience of 2-year-olds.

The enemies in general have pretty neat designs.

I liked that those elderly toad women being red/green twins called back to Superstar Saga where there were just so many red/green twins hanging around. Oddly, between the hammer bros and the Shroob princesses notably not following that pattern it seems like only twins with a good alignment get the red/green color scheme.

"Honey, the stork has arrived with our new babies! Isn't that wonderful?" "Oh yes but what color are their *whispers* hats?" "Fear not, they have a red and a green hat. They aren't predestined to become at best morally ambiguous." *sighs with relief*

"Toad and Toad, why have you taken to a life of crime? It pains me and your father so much." "You see mother, our favorite colors are...orange and blue." *sorrowful wailing*

"Mama, how come all the other twins in the village are red and green, but Toad and I are brown and green?" "You see Toad, there is this tragic medical condition known as evil twin syndrome..."

Doctors write up case study on a pair of identical twins who were both delivered with red hats. They get put through a whole battery of psych evals many times over to try to determine whether they are good, bad, or in between. Turns out they're literally just normal kids.

Wario and Waluigi would fit this pattern.

You can apparently have a good alignment with any color scheme as long as you don't have a twin, though.

Wait, so Luigi's Mansion implies that E. Gadd is 80 and that he'd been researching ghosts for about 60 years, but Partners in Time implies that he's 40 and has only been researching them for 20 years? I suppose it's possible that the age difference came about through irresponsible time machine use considering that it's canon that he kept the time machine and used it again having learned nothing but who knows.

Actually, how many of these games' plots are the result of E. Gadd throwing caution to the wind, lmao.

Between fat shaming Mario and just plain bullying Luigi, the Star Gate is a bit of a prick. That said, I'm really curious what he told Luigi is horrible sins were that were preventing him from going through the gate. Sure, he was bluffing in order to test Mario, but whatever he said was something that Luigi at least thought was horrible enough to disqualify himself and did not want revealed out loud to the group. I actually went looking for speculation on this because I think it would be really interesting but I haven't been able to find any. So I'll start with a bit of my own speculation:

"I couldn't help but notice you have a little bit of a cowardice and jealousy problem." "I know, and I know that if my brother and our past selves noticed this, the most obvious pair of flaws I have which everyone keeps commenting on, they surely will abandon me and no longer love me.😔" "...You've also got massive problems with understanding how other people perceive you."

"Look, I don't care if he started it, but it was not very heroic of you to threaten to beat Purple Mustache to death with his own tennis racket. Seriously, what's wrong with you? You've got to be the bigger person here." "But he's literally bigger than me." "The fate of the world rests upon my judgment of your soul and you think this is the time for sarcasm and backchat?!" "Oh no, you're right. I am such a selfish person.😔"

"Actually, you're basically fine Green Mustache, but I'm legally required to put the hero through a moral test before letting the party through, the hero in this case being your brother. Can I have your cooperation for the next few minutes? It needs to look like I just scolded you for something." "Yes of course. 😔"