Talk:Paper Bowser

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Remove the Super Smash Bros section?Edit

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Paper Bowser, the character in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, is currently treated as being featured as a Spirit (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate). However, doing this is giving me a headache, especially since we don't consider Paper Mario (Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam) as being the character in the Paper Mario spirit. (I guess the artwork is a piece originally attributed to the character Paper Bowser...)

I think the better call is to say the Spirit is actually just a representation of Bowser as he appears in the Paper Mario (series), as per how the trophies on the List of trophies in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the List of trophies in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS use the phrase "Paper Bowser" to just mean "Bowser, but with the design from the Paper Mario series. This is consistent with Ultimate, given the Spirit Battle for Paper Bowser in Ultimate uses mechanics based on the plotline from the video game Paper Mario where non-Paper Bowser uses the Star Rod to become invincible. Salmancer (talk) 18:22, July 13, 2025 (EDT)

This also wouldn't be the first identity/artwork mismatch in Ultimate's spirits, given Toadies and Kamek's Toadies Salmancer (talk) 18:29, July 13, 2025 (EDT)

Only problem is, his initial Spirit is taken from Paper Jam. PrincessPeachFan (talk) 06:51, July 17, 2025 (EDT)
Yeah but Toad's intro states that the wiki takes a spirit of one character being enhancible into a spirit of another character as a suggestion of them being the same character. "Despite similarities with Captain Toad, sources conflict on if they are the same character or not. Super Mario Maker and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate seem to suggest they are..." Because Paper Bowser (Paper Jam)'s coverage is restricted in the way that it is, applying this logic and saying "Paper Bowser (Paper Jam) becomes Bowser (Sticker Star)" causes all kinds of wonky things happen to other articles. Like Royal Sticker, which should just say "Bowser's fire breathing artwork from Paper Mario: Sticker Star is used for the Paper Bowser (Paper Mario: Sticker Star) Spirit..." but instead has to say "the spirit Paper Bowser (Paper Mario: Sticker Star) uses Bowser's artwork from Paper Mario: Sticker Star, showing the latter character breathing fire."
And it's just like, why organize the wiki in a way that puts us into a knot like that, especially since our Paper Jam coverage already makes a few exceptions to standard rules of "name = character". Its easier to say Paper Bowser (Paper Jam)'s unique coverage on this wiki means Smash Bros. doesn't go on this page in any way other than saying the game used Paper Bowser's art. Alternatively, we could just not consider spirits being enhancible into spirits depicting a different character as meaning anything, which resolves the problem the other way. Salmancer (talk) 09:36, July 17, 2025 (EDT)