I can't speak for about the rest of you, but this is an issue that just sickens me as a fan of the original seven characters. Are they ashamed that they came first or something? Seeing them refer to Junior as "Boss" in Bowser Jr.'s Journey just feels wrong. It seems to me the least they could have done was go with them being disowned when Junior came along and was declared the "Favorite". There's so much potential there. Ludwig should be mentoring him not out of servitude, but because he's the eldest brother. It makes too much sense. It's practically begging to be canon as it is the way the story is written....I dunno. Is there anyone as miffed about this as i? I want to voice my displeasure but I doubt it would matter.
I agree it's a shame they retconned it. I've heard one theory that the Koopalings are Bowser's adopted children, so when Miyamoto said they're not Bowser's children, he meant they're not his biological children. I doubt that's actually what Nintendo (n)intended but it's a nice headcanon.
@MattOnWheels It's not a retcon. It's just they stopped changing the story for us in the west. That was one of many things they dropped when they unified a lot of the series worldwide (Princess Peach instead of Princess Toadstool, Jugem's Cloud to Lakitu's Cloud, Kuribo's Shoe to Goomba's shoe, etc etc.) And part of this meant ditching most of the divergent stuff from the series, like anything from the TV shows and certain things from the dialogue that were only in the English translation (and those derived from it).
I really don't think it's anything to get sickened on. Just a change in how localization has been done over the years.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's one of the many things that they keep flipflopping on, much like Mario's occupation and last name. And don't even get us started on the Zelda timeline.
Example: Miyamoto said in 2012 that the Koopalings aren't currently considered Bowser's children. But they backtracked on this as soon as Super Smash Bros. 4, stating only that their relationship to Bowser is a "mystery" (leaving it open to the player's interpretation). The reveal trailer for Bowser Jr. also suggests that they're related.
"Fancy Boom-booms"? Hmmph! I'll have you know that even in the 90's they had more character than most Mario side characters today, and CERTAINLY far more than Boom-boom..."Fancy" indeed! Pah.
Also, as far as there being a change in localization, I'm not sure that it is. Even if it was, changing it back retroactively is never good. We don't call Mega-man "Rockman" over here and for good reason.
The Kooplings were never meant to be Bowser's children the were created as a thank you to various devs who worked on SMB3 with Miyamoto.
It wasn't till the SMB3 cartoon came out in NA if my memory serves me correctly that they became his children and that was because when they made the cartoon DIC didn't know the relation of the Kooplings to Bowser, heck they didn't even know their names which is why they had different names in the cartoon series like Big Mouth, Bully, and Sweetie Pie instead of Morton, Roy or Wendy. So they just assumed they were his kids.
So in a sense it wasn't rectonned it was corrected.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
The playerbase cares a whole lot more about this than Nintendo themselves do. Miyamoto is known for (among other things) not really caring about story or things like this as he's all about the gameplay. I imagine there's more thought put into it in this thread than he's ever given it.
That being said, the Japanese instruction book is open to interpretation anyway. That translates as him referring to them as his children....other leaders refer to their followers the same way, even though not biologically related whatsoever. "Father" can be used the same way when they refer to him (like a priest, for example). Who knows what was said and what was interpreted or what blanks were just filled in by the guy writing the book, especially given the lack of caring about this sort of thing by Miyamoto.
Then there's Morton Koopa Jr.
Which in the case of them being his actual children means that Bowsers actual name is Morton
Morton Koopa Jr. is actually a reference to Morton Downey Jr., a talk show host from the 80s that NOA staff would have been familiar with (this is an "ask your parents" situation if you're under 30 or 40, lol). He was kind of like Jerry Springer, and known for very confrontational episodes with arguments, thrown furniture, etc. Wild stuff. Check out some videos if you've got some free time.
And yeah as many have said their pedigree is a mystery due to conflicting information, but maybe they're related to Bowser somehow? Seems likely given that they seem to be of the same race (unlike the Koopa Troopas who aren't even called Koopas in Japanese), and their position of importance in clan.
Source: For podcast-related reasons, I've done more research on this topic than I care to admit, lol
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Topic: Why did Nintendo retcon the Koopalings' relation to Bowser?
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