Before we continue, let’s all get on the same page: this is not canon. This isn’t a hidden lore endorsed by Nintendo that you should arm yourself with and officially take with you every time you play a Mario game from now on. OK?
OK Good. So, here is a panel from a 1996 manga (Super Mario 64 4Koma Gag Battle)suggesting that m aybe 1-UP mushrooms grow from the bodies of the Marios who died before you
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Crap.
Like the eternally wonderful Super Mario broth Clues, this is from a manga that is “full of jokes and eccentric theories” and that it “should be considered an interesting thought experiment rather than anything actually endorsed by Nintendo!”
Then let’s do it. Let’s take this as a thought experiment. Imagine if it really works like that. What it suggests for how the Mushroom Kingdom works and Mario’s relationship with it is intriguing. That fits to me return, Groundhog Day guy shit. Mario isn’t just here to save the princess. He is trapped herein a place outside of Brooklyn but of space and time.
Every 1-UP mushroom you see is a previous, failed attempt where a Mario – you, just like you, but not either You– died, his heroic spirit was extracted and preserved for you next Mario. Who are you too, until its demise when the mushroom is collected by you.
As replies to Supper Mario Broth’s tweet have pointed out, it’s an idea that has only recently been explored this classic Extra fabulous Comics from 2019:
I love the idea that in 2023 a lot of people – mine included – first started thinking about timelines, but instead drew mushroom analogies with it The last of us. And that this would be a Nintendo version. In the Naughty Dog universe, the mushrooms that grow from dead humans pose a threat to all of humanity, creating starving zombies. At Nintendo, they’re just a cute little thing that helps the player by giving them special powers. Well, “cute” if you don’t think about where they’re from…
