Topic: The Mario Theorists Forum

I have had some burning questions in my mind regarding Mario lore, so I made a forum to discuss them.
Before any deeper questions get asked, we need to know what counts as actual lore. For example, we have mainline games like Super Mario Galaxy that can definitely be lore food. On the other hand, we have things like the 1990's Mario Movie that definitely don't.
So, without further ado, what are your thoughts on this question?

@Mallow9623 Mario lore is very complex when it comes to what is canon and what is not. I'd argue that there's multiple canons, but not everything is canon.

Here are my take on some of the sub-Mario franchises

• Mainline (2D & 3D Mario) This includes all mainline 2D and 3D games. Mario Maker games are questionable if they are canon, same goes with Super Mario Run. Comments recently made about the time between Mario Wonder and the previous mainline 2D game indicate that the Mario Makers and Super Mario Run aren't mainline, but that doesn't mean they're not canon. My guess is yes to Mario Run but no to Mario Maker.
• Mario Parties, Mario Sports, and Mario Karts would be weird to consider fully canon since sometimes Baby Mario and the others are playable alongside their adult selves. There is proof that Baby Peach/Baby Rosalina aren't canonically the characters actual baby forms, so I honestly don't know if we should consider this canon or not.
• Super Mario RPG, Mario + Rabbids, and Mario & Luigi are interesting. I think Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi could definitely be canon since they mostly fit in with the Mario world. Mario + Rabbids on the other hand I don't consider directly canon, this specific series starts with a fan of the Mario franchise, meaning in this universe Mario isn't real.
• Paper Mario is tricky. People will probably disagree, but here's my theory. The first 3 Paper Mario titles happen right after each other and are canon, but are a story retold by someone, so we're not getting the exact stories (the story could be altered, especially if it's the same person who wrote Luigi's stories in TTYD). We can't consider every fact of these stories as canon, but the overall plot is probably canon. The original Paper Mario in Japan is called Mario Story, so it's essentially a story about a specific Mario adventure. As for Sticker Star, Color Splash, and Origami King, I don't think these are canon. These seem to take place in a world where the 'Paper' part is taken more literally.
• The 1990s Mario Movie is probably not canon since it had little Nintendo involvement, but the 2023 Mario Movie has a good shot at being canon. It possibly contradicts the Yoshi's Island series though. My guess is that Yoshi series isn't canon to the Mario franchise, especially Woolly/Crafted World. Yoshi might have it's own lore/canon, but I'd say it's separate from Mario.
• Luigi's Mansion is a fun one to think about. I think it is definitely canon, and probably takes place after most mainline Mario games. Bowser was supposedly dead until King Boo revived him. Many would think this happens after Mario 64, but I don't believe Bowser dies in that game. This sub-series fits really well in the Mario series, I think.

I tend to think of Mario like Looney Tunes: there is no canon, the characters are just a template for whatever story the creators want to tell. Expanding on that though, I think Mario and co are celebrities and their adventures are fiction in-universe - Super Mario Bros 3 is a stage play, Paper Mario is a papercraft animation, Galaxy is a blockbuster movie. That's why the 'bad guys' are happy to have a nice game of golf with the heroes in their downtime - Bowser's just an actor, he's probably a pretty chill guy in reality. (Wario is an exception to this. He's not acting, he's actually like that, and all his adventures really happened.)

Of course, that still leaves room for debates about the canon of the 'Mario universe' within the Mario universe. There are probably Shy Guys arguing on forums right now about whether the stop-motion preschool cartoon Yoshi's Woolly World depicts an alternate reality where everything is made of yarn or whether it's just a stylised depiction of the real fictional Yoshi.

(You know, now I think about it, the adventures of Yoshi would be quite horrifying to witness as a Shy Guy. Same goes for the innocent Goombas and Koopas who sit at home watching Mario pretend to murder dozens of their species on TV. But maybe death is just seen as a minor inconvenience in a world where 1-Up Mushrooms are plentiful. Would be interesting to further explore the cultural attitudes of the Mushroom Kingdom.)

@PikminMarioKirby Paper Mario is most definitely a legend of sorts, written by a fan of Mario's escapades. The big proof for this is Paper Jam, where we see Paper Mario coexist with Mario. In short, the Paper Mario universe and the Mario universe (or at least the Mario and Luigi universe) are two different realities.

Peach is a mushroom, toads are the result of hobbits cross-breeding with mushrooms, Bowser has a bunch of clones (Bowser Jr is one of them) and can switch bodies, Luigi loves lotsa spaghetti, Mario loves toast, there are multiple Marios throughout time, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong really want to change their names, Cranky lives in a fridge, Tiny is a murderer of bees, and Chunky’s dead.