Talk:Boo Guy

Bomb version
According to the Shogakukan (need to find a better way to remember how to spell that than "look at my short-term history") guide for Yoshi's New Island, the bomb-dropping version from the "normal" version. Also apparently the PiT one is Greaper, mayhaps it's a rename? Anyways, how about the two names here? Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 18:14, 19 December 2017 (EST)
 * It's Relay Heihō (リレーヘイホー). Like Bouncing Bullet Bill, they didn't originally have their own name in Japanese guides, but they got one in Yoshi's New Island, complete with a separate entry internally (G:/content0.game/romfs/stage/cmp_gmk_relayheyho.csv). Who knows why the mace-pulling versions remain unnamed. As for Reihō/Greaper, I'm not sure what happened there - my guess is that the RPG text had space constraints, resulting in the alternate name. However, the name Reihō is also mentioned in its profile in a Japanese Yoshi's Island DS guide. LinkTheLefty (talk) 18:45, 19 December 2017 (EST)
 * Which page? The enemy guide spells it as "Yurei Heiho" still. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 19:00, 19 December 2017 (EST)
 * Disregard, I must've misread it. In any case, though I'm not sure about Greaper, I think Relay Heihō should be considered a derived Boo Guy article. LinkTheLefty (talk) 19:20, 19 December 2017 (EST)
 * T'would make sense, as they now have a distinct name in some language. Remember, Bullet Bill and Bull's-eye Missile Bill were considered to be basically a Green-Red Troopa situation in Japan initially, ie variants of the same enemy (explaining SM64 and SMG), but were eventually given separate names over there as well. In this case, we only have the JP name to work with as of now, but it seems a tad more splittable than Short Fuse and Seedy Sally. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 19:30, 19 December 2017 (EST)
 * Short Fuse and Seedy Sally have every Japanese guide and Yoshi's Woolly World against them, so Relay Heihō certainly has it easier. LinkTheLefty (talk) 19:51, 19 December 2017 (EST)

Alledged relation to Boos
The supposed relation to Boos seems to be something completely made up by the Western localization, and as such all Boo Guys should be removed from the "Boo" category and template. In the Japanese version, they were simply "Yurei Heiho", with the American version making the obviously-untrue assertion that they are "Boo Babies." Anyways, since this has caused much confusion it seems, I think it needs to be said that these are not Boos. If they were, the Japanese name would have been the obvious "Tereiho" or something. Besides, "boo" is a generic exclamation relating to ghosts, for instance Mssr Boo isn't a Boo. And these were not designed to invoke Boos, they were designed simply to be ghostly Shy Guys. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 23:42, 13 April 2018 (EDT)


 * The same thing can be said with Anuboo and Fuzzipede, but if we remove their connection with Boos, then we should do the same thing with Snufits. 20:10, 20 June 2018 (CEST)
 * Snufits aren't Boos in any way, barring the original spherical shape, and there were plenty of spherical enemies in SM64. Boo was actually more oblong in that game anyways. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 18:43, 20 June 2018 (EDT)
 * The main issue is that this isn't just a one-time thing that simply went away like Mace Penguin - it's used rather consistently in almost every game the enemy appears in, and according to the names in other languages section, it's not only the English translation. That makes it pretty unmistakable what "Boo" refers to in this context, putting it in the same boat as Fishing Boo. I really doubt that the localizers are going to budge on this one anytime soon. That being said, I don't think I'd be opposed to removing mentions of Boo in Boo Guy's derived/related species. LinkTheLefty (talk) 22:24, 17 July 2018 (EDT)
 * See, in the name I don't see it as referring to the Boo species, but as the stereotypical ghostly interjection, akin to how Mssr Boo isn't named after the Boo species. So it's not too concrete there. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 22:34, 17 July 2018 (EDT)
 * That would make sense if it was just the English version, but it's also the case in several other languages. LinkTheLefty (talk) 22:40, 17 July 2018 (EDT)
 * I doubt "Boo" as an interjection is unique to English. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 23:05, 17 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Cursory searching for the spelling of Boo/Buu tells me that it pretty much is, but I don't know for sure; what I do know is that the original description for this enemy in  never actually stated the species, but it was added in  by the guides for the sequels, meaning that the  was technically first. It's also possible that this information wasn't totally "made up" - if the translators had developer knowledge that it is conceptually based on Boo and Shy Guy, it would stand to reason that they would adjust its name accordingly, hence why they ran with Boo Guy. We don't know the full story, but it still can't be dismissed. LinkTheLefty (talk) 03:00, 18 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Thinking about it some more, while the "boo!" explanation still doesn't hold much water for the reason I've outlined, perhaps a better way to justify Boo Guy would be to explain "Boo" as merely a name descriptor (ie. a Boo-like Shy Guy) and not necessarily any real indication of species; upon closer inspection, the keyword "basically" in the description from the Nintendo Power guide can support this interpretation. So how about this: instead of completely scrubbing references to Boo from the article, why not move it to a related species slot until further notice? LinkTheLefty (talk) 21:00, 18 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Maybe. What about templates and categories? (Probably a similar situation would be Octoombas and Octoboos; neither are a true Goomba or Boo, but are comparable to them...) Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 21:06, 18 July 2018 (EDT)
 * Related species typically aren't listed in templates and categories since the connection is indirect, so Boo would be removed from them in this scenario. LinkTheLefty (talk) 22:42, 18 July 2018 (EDT)