Talk:Cap

(First topic)

NOTE: All PAIRreviews have been Archived.

Who asked for this to be PAIRreveiwed? It's way too short for it to become a Featured Article anyway. EDIT: Reversinator, the only articles that need PAIRreviews are the ones that have Template:PAIRrequest on them. ^_^;; --Garlic Man (talk)

But the think is, nobody ever asks for PAIRreviews anymore, so I'm just making PAIRreviews for random articles just for fun. Besides, Knife and Cobold both gave me the A-OK for making PAIRreviews, and I'm sure they expected nobody using PAIRrequest. Hello, I'm Time Turner.

They gave you the A-OK for making PAIRreviews, or the A-OK for making PAIRreviews on random articles? --Garlic Man (talk)

Just to make PAIRreviews, but like I said, Garlicagus, I'm sure they expected nobody using PAIRrequest.

— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Reversinator (talk).

I just didn't see the use in making PAIRreviews for articles that are too short to ever become FAs in the first place, but do what you must I guess. Garlic Man (talk)

SM64DS

Maybe we should have a list of all the caps, with who wears them in each level? Like the Boo that wears Luigi's cap in Big Boo's Haunt? Jdrawer (talk) 16:44, 20 February 2013 (EST)

Split the colored caps 2: The Lost Levels

Late into last year, a proposal, was created to split the Colored caps in Super Mario 64 DS from their base counterparts, which ultimately did not end up succeeding.

I believe the main reasons behind its failure largely stem from the following issues:

• It appeared to be written in a way where each colored cap would receive its own individual article, or it would've rewritten the Luigi/Wario Cap pages to solely focus on the SM64DS powerups.

• General misunderstanding about what the intent of the proposal appeared to be. It appears that most of us thought the proposal aimed to split the entirety of the SM64DS info from their respective pages rather than specifically the transformation hats.

All that being said, however, I did have an idea regarding the matter which I wished I'd been able to bring up before the proposal ended: Supposing we created one article covering all three Copy Caps in the same place?

To clarify, I'm specifically referring to the "lookalike power-up caps" which transform the wearer into that character, rather than the "real" ones which have nearly identical functionality to Mario's Cap in the N64 original. I believe that information would remain largely untouched.

Regarding any counter-arguments about them not being distinct from the base counterparts, there are a few sources which indicate otherwise, such as the source provided by Sorbetti in the aforementioned proposal,, as well as a line of dialogue from a Toad near the entrance to Hazy Maze Cave who, to quote one of my own comments from that original discussion: "specifically says something along the lines of "Even if all the caps look the same, the one you've been wearing for years is special. Your luck will run out if you lose it." Which implies a distinction between "Mario's Cap" and "Red-cap-that-turns-you-into-Mario.""

And since the "Once and only once" guideline no longer appears to be as prevalent as it once was, I think this would probably be a better way to cover the "clone caps" than how our current organization handles them.

Any thoughts or objections? Wandering Poplin (talk) 00:43, March 8, 2026 (UTC)

Is there a shared article to describe the power-up caps in the original game, for which these are vaguely a replacement for? It seems it's just a section on this page. It does seem the NioL section describes them, though. If anything, it makes sense to me to have the SM64 and SM64DS "cap items" on the same page as iterations of the idea of "hats as a power-up-type item between a game and its remake." Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 17:14, March 8, 2026 (UTC)

I wouldn't be opposed to including them as well, although I think those caps already have three different articles, whereas the info for the SM64DS transformation caps is kind of scattered across various pages. Wandering Poplin (talk) 16:40, March 9, 2026 (UTC)

Come to think of it, were the "power-up caps" from the original Super Mario 64 ever given any sort of "group name?" or were they just treated as "three different powerups shaped like Mario's hat?" Wandering Poplin (talk) 17:43, April 17, 2026 (UTC)

Manual just says "caps" (in comparison to Mario's "regular cap"), the Player's Guide usually does the same, but says "special caps" at one point to specify. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 18:13, April 17, 2026 (UTC)

Considering both that, and discussion below, perhaps we should rework this page to exclusively cover the power-up caps, from Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS, rather than just "Caps in general", which is what this page is rather poorly currently trying to do. Does that sound like a good idea? Wandering Poplin (talk) 01:31, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

Odyssey kinda throws a wrench in that, IMO, since there, caps are used as a trigger for several gameplay mechanics, costume-switching, and enemy/NPC vulnerability to one of the aforementioned mechanics, along with just being heavily part of the theme of that game. Not having any of that in the page called "cap" would strike me as odd. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 01:59, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

That's 90% Cappy, with the only exception being the Mario 64 Cap worn by one Toad to indicate he handles Courtyard (Peach's Castle) access. I say this, but I think the Cap article is super valid as a recurring design choice in the franchise, and we should keep it around. Salmancer (talk) 02:34, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

Again, enemy and NPC caps are a thing in the game that affects gameplay. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 02:45, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

None of those, with the exception of the Toad, have the specific design this article checks for. Visors, top hats, helmets, chef hats, hard hats, but not a cap to drink. (That's how the saying goes, right?) The enemies are handled as a paragraph in Super Mario Odyssey#Enemies and NPCs get a couple sentences in Super Mario Odyssey#Non-playable characters. Sure, extend the NPC bit, but this doesn't fit under "Cap" and we shouldn't make an even more generic "hat" article to fit this into a dedicated article. Salmancer (talk) 02:55, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

One could interpret the enemy hats as equivalent to Mario's "cap" slot. I think this falls apart because not every enemy hat corresponds to a Mario "cap". I'm thinking of Sherm here, because there isn't an equivalent tall hat on the Mario side. Not to mention how Mario doesn't react to damage in any way comparable to enemies with hats. Salmancer (talk) 03:02, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

Are the NPCs/enemy hats in Super Mario Odyssey always refered to as "Caps?" I recall the game using the term "hat" more frequently. (Granted, it's been awhile since I've touched the game, and the game's specific terminology for headwear is never something I had much reason to pay attention to until recently...) Wandering Poplin (talk) 05:02, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

Odyssey dialogue uses "hat" over "cap" in most but not all instances that aren't related to Mario's actions or the Cap Kingdom. Give List of Super Mario Odyssey quotes a look-see. Choice quotes:

And hey-hey, you've got the clothes and hat! Come right on in.

Hi there! Hats are all the rage in the Mushroom Kingdom!
Princess Peach brought them back from the moon as souvenirs!

I mean, there's still so much to do! So many hats you need to meet!

But think of all the HATS!

Most of these are Mario related, but quote two is specifically an NPC talking about other NPCs, so we have evidence for the "mechanic" of customizable headgear that Mario has being "hat" and the "less mechanic more indicator that mostly mirrors Mario's 'mechanic'" NPCs have being "hat". Salmancer (talk) 21:27, May 10, 2026 (UTC)

Well, with all that in mind, it does look like we could use an article for Odyssey's "hat" mechanic. (It looks like it'd make for a very interesting page too.)

But I think that info would be more suited for a Hat (Super Mario Odyssey) type of article than this page, although I could be wrong. Wandering Poplin (talk) 17:59, May 15, 2026 (UTC)

I still feel like a "hat" article encompassing NPCs would be equivalent to an article about "enemy with spikes on the top". Which is to say I don't think it's a great idea. Again, I think its less mechanic and more visual language. At least everyone's hats are consistent in ways that allow one to catalog "who wears what hats and where do they dp so" in a table, so there's that going for it. (Where Bonneters would go in such a table is another question.) Salmancer (talk) 14:03, May 18, 2026 (UTC)

Fair enough, although I do think it'd be nice to have all that info in one place rather than arbitrarily having to search across 5+ different articles, especially since the mechanic only appears in that game. Perhaps it's a matter worth pursuing later on.

But back on topic, what are your thoughts on a page for the "power-up" caps from SM64 and its DS counterpart? Wandering Poplin (talk) 17:29, May 21, 2026 (UTC)

Is this page nessasary?

This is a question I hadn't expected to ask, but whilst analyzing the state of our various cap articles during my attempt to begin planning out a proposal regarding the question listed above, I noticed that this entire article... is kind of redundant.

Most of the info is a duplicate of information otherwise covered on the Mario Cap page, but unlike the Wario Cap or Luigi Cap pages, (Which still have their own problems...) this page has done very little to justify its existence. Apart from the info on the Parachute Caps, there's virtually nothing on this page which couldn't just as easily be covered on one of the other cap pages. (Except for Waluigi, but his hat isn't even that important anyway...)

Should we delete this article? Or is there some purpose it still fulfills which I may not be aware of? Wandering Poplin (talk) 06:44, April 17, 2026 (UTC)

Split the colored caps from their respective articles 2: DS edition.

This talk page proposal has already been settled. Please do not edit this section or its subsections. If you wish to discuss the article, please do so in a new section below the proposal.

Refocus article to solely cover the "Colored Caps" 4-3-1-0-0
4 out of 4 voters (100%) approve the first place option.

This proposal is related to the above discussion(s), as well as a similar proposal created by Mr. Sorbetti last year. To ensure everyone is fully informed on the matter, I will summarize the situation here.

But first, I believe that it is important to clarify a few things regarding it:

• Any time I say "Colored caps" during this discussion, I am specifically referring to the "lookalike power-up caps" from Super Mario 64 DS which transform the wearer into that character. I am not referring to their "real" counterparts, which have virtually identical functionality to Mario's Cap in the N64 original.
• These two subjects are not the same thing, even within the game’s own logic. Although visually identical, they bear multiple differences in role, function, and the way the game treats them.
• This proposal only affects the “Colored caps”, and unless noted otherwise, the articles for their “real” counterparts are beyond the scope of this proposal.

Keep that in mind as you continue reading.

Currently, the information for the "Colored caps" from Super Mario 64 DS are rather arbitrarily scattered across various unrelated articles on this wiki, leaving their coverage somewhat poor. Pages such as this one do attempt to bring them up, but because they are intended to cover something else entirely, they do not detail these powerups with very much depth. Many pages, such as the Luigi Cap page, even seem to think that the two subjects are the same thing.

Last year, a proposal, was created to split these "Colored caps" into their own article(s), which ultimately appears to have failed due to misunderstood intent, and general confusion about its effects on the pages for the "real" caps, as you can see in that proposal's comments section. I myself am partly guilty of this as well, via an untimely comment which may have derailed the direction of the conversation somewhat.

Due to these issues, among other points I have listed in the comments section of this proposal, I’ve finally decided to try and do something about it. The goal of this proposal is to create a page specifically meant to cover these "Colored Caps", without having to share space on a page which was not designed to cover this subject specifically. Unlike the previous proposal, all three "Colored Caps" would share one page, instead of having three different pages for each "Colored Cap" separately.

Additionally, most of the information contained within this article is just a retread of the info already hosted on the Mario Cap page, and doesn’t hold much value on its own. The only somewhat noteworthy info contained on this page is simply the section about the Parachute Cap badge... which already has its own article. Meaning that this page already doesn’t have much going for it. This is not even the result of "generification" either. The article was unfocused from the very beginning, and has been so for most of its existence, as I detail in the comments below.

Therefore, I have added the options to either refocus this page to specifically cover the “Colored caps” from SM64DS, or to just delete the page outright.

Proposer: Wandering Poplin (talk)
Deadline: September 1, 2026, 23:59 (UTC)

Support 1 : Refocus article to solely cover the “Colored Caps”, remove excess info.

1. Wandering Mario (talk) Primary option. It gives the "Colored caps" a place to be covered, it erases the issues currently present on this page, and it means we don’t have to come up with a conjectural name like the “Colored Caps” moniker I’ve been using throughout this discussion. (It would probably still need an identifier added though, to prevent it from becoming "re-generified" later on.)
2. Iand255 (talk) Per proposal. "Cap" or "Caps" is about the closest we have, as far as I am aware, to an official name for this specific group of Power-Ups, so I see no problem in refocusing this page to them and letting the fairly irrelevant extra information go away, unless it's for some reason missing on the main page for that subject, somehow, in which case it can be easily moved.
3. Mr. Sorbetti (talk) Secondary option. Per proposal.
4. The Real Red Luigi Fan (talk) Primary option. Per all.

Support 2: Create new page for the "Colored Caps", Delete this page altogether.

1. Wandering Luigi (talk) Secondary option. Unless someone manages to convince me that there is anything of value which this page could do, which one of the other Cap pages could not.
2. Mr. Sorbetti (talk) Primary option. Per proposal.
3. The Real Luigi Fan (talk) Secondary option. Per proposal.

Half Support / Half Oppose : Create new page dedicated to the “Colored Caps”, leave this page as is.

1. Wandering Wario (talk) Very, very, tertiary option. As mentioned, this page is in a pretty sorry state, and I think it would take nothing less than a complete reimagining to save it. Simply adding more info is not the answer.

Comments 64 DS

For brevity purposes, I did not include every relevant detail in the header of the proposal, so here are some extra details regarding the proposal to make things as clear and unambiguous as possible:

• This proposal would not affect any info regarding the caps from the original Super Mario 64. I think that they could be mentioned in this page, perhaps the Wing Cap, Vanish Cap and Metal Caps respectively could be linked to, but the pages themselves would largely remain the same. Any ideas about merging them into this page is a separate issue for another time.
  • Personally, I do not think it would be a good idea. There’s plenty to say about each “Switch-Block Cap” individually, whereas the "Colored Caps" would likely struggle to maintain three separate pages covering themselves.
• Where we would cover Super Mario Odyssey’s hats if the page gets deleted/refocused is an issue which will be addressed at another time. The game itself isn’t covered in great detail on this page as it is, and most of their functionality is usually “prevent Cappy from capturing a subject.” It is something worth covering somewhere, I do not disagree with that, especially since the gimmick mostly only appears in that game. But that issue is beyond the scope of this proposal for the moment, and the minimal info currently on the page isn’t anything I think is worth preserving the article for. If you disagree with this opinion, you are free to express so here in the comments, or directly oppose it via "Support 2" or "Oppose 1".
  • The game itself also tends to alternate between “Cap” and “Hat” in its terminology, so I don’t think "Cap" is the best title for an article dedicated to that concept either.
• Regarding the planned content of the article, regardless of whether it is a reworked version of this page or a different article altogether, it will likely be a fairly small-ish article, but will also contain new sections such as a table on the locations where “Colored caps” can be found in the various courses, a small gallery of enemies characters wearing the caps, and other details like that.
• To further elaborate on my claim of "This is not even the result of "generification" either, the article was unfocused from the very beginning", I had scrolled through pretty much every revision of this page during my preparations for this proposal, and I can assure you that the page has never been very focused in its scope. The earliest revision simply lists all the characters in the series who wear caps, (And somehow managed to miss several of them.) then it eventually became a disambiguation page, then it slowly began turning back into a normal (albeit overly broad and unhelpful) article regarding “Caps in general”, even once including generic hats which aren’t even "Caps"! (Goombario’s "Cap" being a good example.) Several of the issues with the page went unresolved for years, and it shows, even now.
• As far as I know, the "Colored Caps" moniker is complete conjecture. I do not recall the game using a unique name to refer to all three "Colored caps" collectively. However, the game does individually refer to these lookalike hats as "Red caps", "Green caps" and "Yellow caps" respectively. If an official "group name" is found, then I will try to update the proposal accordingly.

Wandering Poplin (talk) 00:46, August 18, 2026 (UTC)

Am I missing something or is there no "do nothing" option? The closest we have is Oppose 1, but that still requires us to "clean up article" (not entirely sure what that means). Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 11:18, August 18, 2026 (UTC)

Yes, "Oppose 1" was meant to be the equivalent of a "Do Nothing" option. I didn't include a "Oppose 3: Do not fix article, do not split page, keep caps merged" option due your commentary on the Sunset Express proposal. That being said, I can add a proper "Do Nothing" option to the proposal if it's an issue, though. Wandering Poplin (talk) 13:12, August 18, 2026 (UTC)

I think I need a clearer explanation of exactly what "fixing up the article" entails in this case. If it's a major change and/or has the potential to invite disagreements then I would say this proposal is missing a "do nothing" option. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 15:19, August 18, 2026 (UTC)

The basic idea regarding the "Fix up the article" options is fixing up the writing, formatting and whatever-else to give the page more value than being "worse version of the Mario Cap article", rather than overwriting it with "Colored Cap" information or deleting the page outright. One of Salmancer's comments in the previous discussion says "I think the Cap article is super valid as a recurring design choice in the franchise, and we should keep it around", which is why the option is present at all. That being said, as noted in the proposal itself, I'm not really sure what could be done for this page as is. It's kind of a mess, with little clear direction and I'm not really sure what can be done to "save" it at this point, other than a total overhaul. I (currently) do not have any ideas regarding that.

Regardless of all that, I have updated the proposal with replace instances of "Fix up page" with less ambiguous "Leave page as is" phrasing. Wandering Poplin (talk) 16:03, August 18, 2026 (UTC)

That works. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 16:16, August 18, 2026 (UTC)