>>33447
>Did Mario franchise as a whole have any actual lore?
Bowser is a wizard king and Peach is a magic princess. Bowser invades Peach's kingdom and uses his magic to turn many of the inhabitants into things like bricks and horsehair plants. That's why inanimate objects have faces on them. Bricks that can't be broken but instead give coins and powerups are the ones that used to be people. Goombas are the subjects of the Mushroom Kingdom that sided with Bowser when he invaded. This is why Super Mario World doesn't have Goombas, because it doesn't take place in Mushroom Kingdom, but in Dinosaur Land. The ones that were localized as Goombas in that game have a different game in Japanese, and would later be localized as some other English name in 3D World. Bowser kidnapped Peach because she is the only one with the magic to undo his magic. World 8 has a brick wall background because you're actually just outside the castle now and just running around it to the door. Bowser uses his magic to turn some of his goons into decoys, as seen if you kill the boss of any world with a Fire Flower. They all turn into normal enemies before dropping off the screen, except for the last one. Bowser has a brother who acts as his top guy. He was in the game the whole time and you didn't notice. Look it up. In SMB2 (J) there is one Bowser who appears not in his usual spot, over a bridge, but in a regular spot shortly before the bridge. He has a slightly different color and if you kill him with a Fire Flower he doesn't turn into a normal enemy. Official materials from the era (though I forget if the original manual is included) called this Bower's Brother.
All of this is just from Super Mario Bros. 1 and the Japanese 2, the game everyone says is exactly the same and doesn't have a different story (and to be fair, it pretty much doesn't except for Bowser's Brother). This isn't even counting Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr (Mario is the antagonist), Cranky being the original DK. The Great Ape War, Mankey Kongs, The Kong Family Tree, or any other DK deep lore. It's not even counting Super Mario Bros. 3 just being a play recounting the events of SMB1 and 2 (J). It's not even counting how SMB3 isn't a play in the last world, where Peach is kidnapped for real and the elements that are just stage props stop appearing. It isn't even counting how one of the airships from SMB3 appears, complete with magic orb, outside Bowser's world in Mario World. It isn't even counting how The Lost Woods from Zelda appears in Mario World, or the magic flute from Zelda appears in SMB3. It isn't counting Mario's origin from Yoshi's Island, or the various time travel adventures that complicated that whole mess significantly. It isn't counting fucking anything.
And as mentioned, you can see a lot of personality from the earliest games, not only in the games themselves, but in the official art, particularly the official box and manual art for the Japanese versions. That's how the creators saw the characters and intended you to see them. But it's absurd to think you can't tell personality from the last 30 years of games especially when there have been RPGs, not to mention 3D games where characters actually talk and have cutscenes.
And guess what? I don't remember the one where Luigi is kidnapped and Peach has to be Mario's boss and train him to rescue Luigi. In fact, even if I did remember that one, I know it's not the main game in the series that everything else is based on and that set the standard. Peach is kidnapped in Super Mario Bros. Mario and Luigi, the Super Mario Bros., work together to save her. Want to have her do stuff? She can do fun magical girl shenanigans while comedically interacting with Bowser. In the sequel they can go fight Wart in Subcon, and she can fly and do other magic stuff, but she's not some bulldyke feminist cunt. It's not hard to understand she is a dainty but powerful magical girl. She had her own game, for fuck's sake. They couldn't figure out her personality from that? This is like making Sailor Moon into some sort of bulldyke feminist cunt, then saying "well she was always a superhero, so it makes sense." No. These characters had clearly defined personalities, not to mention stories. It's one thing to change some plot elements, but to completely fuck with it for what is clearly propaganda purposes is fucking bullshit.
Fuck this movie. This is even more annoying than Sonic the Hedgehog's interracial parents making half the movie take place at some fat black woman's wedding. At least everyone admitted that was fucking ridiculous. I'm not going to sit here and pretend Peach being Mario's boss that trains him to rescue Luigi is not propaganda, and I'm not going to pretend it's not stupid.
>>33457
>but all that is washed down the drain as Miyamoto declares that all the characters are effectively "actors" in a play.
The idea was always to let them do whatever and break continuity if needed, like the Looney Tunes would. But Super Mario Bros., the actual game, does have a story. It's just if they want to do another game that doesn't fully mesh with it, but still want to use Mario, then they can. Mario being the referee in Punch-Out!!! might not work perfectly with the story of Super Mario Bros., but we get it, it's fine. But there's a big difference between that and blatantly fucking with not just the story, but also the characters (which are always meant to be consistent) in order to push propaganda upon children. Not only is the pushing of propaganda on children itself abhorrent, but it doesn't make for good art. They put Mario in Punch-Out!!! because they thought it would be fun. They made this movie into feminist propaganda because they think the original is bad and anyone who likes it is a shitlord.