User:Stumpers

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=Massive Rant Posted on the Forums, now Posted Here for Accessability= This is long, but please be sure to read it all!

I’d like to start a discussion here regarding what we consider canon and what we consider alternate canon. Currently, the video games are our basis for an “ultimate canon,” while the other forms of media and games such as endutainment titles and Hotel Mario are considered “alternate canon.” I am aware that simplifies the task of determining the storyline, and something like this would obviously apply to many other series, in which the content of these alternate forms of media are retellings or directly conflict with another form on a significant level. But, not all of the “alternate canon” titles are retellings in the Mario series.

I can understand that our separation of mediums can prevent unnecessary speculation in certain cases. You look at this method, and it makes sense for the obviously alternate storylines such as the various anime and the live-action movie. However, like I mentioned, certain of these titles actually fit in to the timeline (we can discuss individual works later in the thread).

I believe that we’ve created a blanket statement based on the canonicity of other series and assumed it applies to the Mario universe as well. Son of Sons argues on the “MarioWiki:Canonicity” page that this separation does exist: based on the presence of the Official Nintendo Seal on the product (originally the Official Nintendo Seal of Quality). It makes sense, doesn’t it? The problem with this line of thought is that the seal is only used on video games that have been published by Nintendo. The seal is a signal that Nintendo was involved to a certain extent with the product, but it does not say whether the involvement is like that in “Yoshi Topsy-Turvy” (not much) or “Super Mario 64” (completely in-house). Is there really any difference from when Nintendo gives a 3rd party the right to create a Mario game and publishes the final result (“Mario Hoops,” anyone?) as opposed to when the 3rd party publishes it itself? (Hotel Mario, endutainment titles, Mario v. Sonic). The only difference is the localization team, if any is required. Also, Nintendo did not publish/distribute TV shows or movies during the ‘80s and 90’s, when most of the other forms of media were created, so it is logical that they would not have distributed them. Nintendo was tied up with video games when they gave permission to DiC to create the three American TV shows, for example, so little involvement was given. The same goes for video games created when Nintendo is occupied with in-house games: other projects are given to 2nd and 3rd parties and are considered part of the canon. By arguing that a series’ canon relies on whether or not the same company published the various works that encompass it, you are breaking up many canons that are meant to be together, for example Mario Kart (the arcade titles were published by Namco). If you want a non-Mario example, look at Banjo-Kazooie.

So, the Official Nintendo Seal really means nothing regarding canon, but simply means that this particular part of the overarching canon was published in-house by Nintendo and was a video game. In other words, by basing our canonicity assumptions on the Seal, we are making the assumption that no part of the main canon would ever be told through any method except through video games, and that Nintendo should be regarded as a supreme, sacred company that can publish everything it wishes to be in the canon regardless of its current physical ability to do so.

So where does this leave canon? Of course, you’re going to want to keep the video games because you’re writing about a storyline common throughout, but what about everything else? Here’s a list of everything I know about that is “alternate canon” currently: the American TV shows (four including King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons), the Japanese anime (four of them), the movie, the comic books, and everything else down to the movie’s children’s book.

It is my opinion that we should be evaluating each of these works individually rather than applying a blanket judgment. The movie obviously follows a different storyline from the video games (Luigi is younger than Mario, Daisy’s kingdom is in an alternate Earth unlike the Mushroom World), but “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show” features characters and storylines that don’t necessarily contradict the continuity of the games. So, I would consider the movie alternate canon and the TV show canon, placing its storyline between Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2 (Japanese version) due to clues given in show. We need to argue and debate all of these, though, so please do so below.

However, I’m sure there are those of you who are thinking right now about the significant differences in style between the different forms of media, and may have written them off as alternate canon as a result. But, Miyamoto himself in a recent interview (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8096&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0) stated that he felt the Super Mario Bros. movie did badly because it tried to stay to close to the format of a video game, when really it needed to follow the format of the movie. In other words, Miyamoto approves of the use of creative licenses in the Mario series for the purpose of improving the overall product and making the series work in the context of a movie, or a TV show, or a comic book. Please also note that Miyamoto does not shoot down the movie because it wasn’t distributed by Nintendo; he actually states that his problem with the movie was that it was too true to the video games. Seriously, read the article. It’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to Miyamoto flat out telling us what is part of the overarching storyline.

Please also remember that the video games themselves deviate tremendously from one another. You wouldn’t ban Luigi’s Mansion, Paper Mario, Mario Pinball Land, or Mario Party from the timeline because they aren’t platformers. In the same way, we shouldn’t be banning a TV show from the timeline for the sake of it being a TV show. Super Mario Galaxy director Yoshiaki Koizumi recently stated in an IGN.com interview (http://wii.ign.com/articles/838/838587p1.html) that, “One of the best things about being able to develop a Mario game, is that the very concept of a Mario game is free and open. There are not that many fixed ideas. So we're able to go with whatever gives us the best options in development and whatever we can use to make the most fun game for the player.” Again we have, straight from Nintendo, the concept that differences in the telling of a certain event do not render it from the main Mario continuity.

In short, other forms of media cannot be banned from the main continuity because of Nintendo’s lack of involvement: many games lack the involvement even though they are published by Nintendo. You also cannot say that other forms of media are inherently not part of the video game continuity: differences between individual games are too great.

What we have to do to determine canonicity is see if the storyline of the work itself makes sense with previously accepted works. Like I mentioned previously, some alternate forms of media are accurately separated from the main storyline because they tell an explicitly different storyline, but others have been banned solely because they do not fit our fan-based preconceptions of what the Mario timeline should be like. Banning one of the latter from the continuity is as conjectural as banning Super Mario RPG from the main continuity because Bowser worked with Mario, a story element which hadn’t appeared before.

So, I challenge all of us to now look at every “alternate canon” source and analyze why it isn’t canon based on its connection to the world of the video games or the world of another accepted source rather than its existence as a non-video game or as game published by another company than Nintendo.



Stumpers's Wiki News
Stumpers's Wiki News is a service provided for users who are interesting in what I'm up to. Yes, yes! You're welcome! I'll post any major changes I make and keep you posted on developements regarding my status on the Wiki. Old news posts can be found here.

7 January 2007
How goes it? I came back a while ago, and tried to work on the Super Mario Bros. (film) article, but, as some of you know, Knife (appropriate name in this case :3) cut out a good four hours worth of my work, and I just don't have time to do that sort of thing right now only to have it not matter, whether it was appropriate or not. So... I guess this should be an indefinate good bye? Good bye! See you this weekend maybe.

18 December 2007
I'm officially on hiatus again. I mean it. Indefinately. EDIT: I can stay one more day. Come Friday, who knows what will happen?

Oh, by the way, I figured out how to download those tunes from the official DDR: Mario Mix website without having to pay for QuickTime's stupid update. Right click, save as! Here We Go! Pipe Pop Jump, Jump, Jump

10 December 2007
Today, I partially Stumpified the Land of Ice article.

9 December 2007
"Yo, Super Cool Awesome Editor guy! (or, Stumpers, as most of the Wiki prefers to call you. :P) Would you like to be in My Comic? Just wondering, in case you were interested. =) There's only one way to find that out, so, here I am. :P "

I'll let DP speak for himself! Yahoo! Oh, and you guys will notice that Luigi's Mansion is not the featured article. While I'm a little weirded out by its exclusion, I am glad we'll have more time to fix it up. Of course, I might actually have to take my hiatus seriously coming soon...

7 December 2007
Yeah, the edits to Luigi's Mansion will definately not be done by December 9th, so you'll have a featured article that really isn't complete in my opinion. Maybe I should take out my story edits that only get into area 1 for now just so it looks complete?

3 December 2007
'I will now be attempting to have a limited hiatus, editing Luigi's Mansion'' and nothing else save to add location templates. Sorry, Smash fans!'''

Redonculous edits to the story section of Luigi's Mansion and more to come. I'm going to finish that up and make it a REAL featured article, gosh dang it!

2 December 2007
It's a small edit today: just updated the trival section on Luigi's Mansion as part of my plans to update it before its December 9th release. Wayoshi also offered to make me a location template, so I'll be peppering that around the major areas in the next few days. '''However, aside from that I will be on hiatus until further notice. Please expect my return around Christmas or after New Years.' There is still a possibility that I'll get to work on the tracks section of SSBB''. Any work I do on the site will be reserved for writing rather than proposals, talk, etc. I'll still be active on talk pages if you are holding a conversation with me or want to start one. Of course, you're always welcome to do that. ;)

1 December 2007
Check out the music section of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl page. You like the new chart?

27 November 2007
I'm really proud of today's Stumpification: Mario and Luigi's Parents. I combined information from the games and the TV show in order to show their whole story as far as we know it. Hmm... you think maybe I could get it featured? That would be catty of me, yes, but still. Oh... this last bit is old news, but I made superstar into an article rather than a redirect page.

21 November 2007
Oh... I'm back, by the way. Check out the Stumpified Super Star article.

4 November 2007
Hey, y'all. I'm going to try this out: I'll only come to the Wiki on weekends, okay? That will leave more time for my life... see you around!

UPDATE: I've decided to leave until my Thanksgiving Break starts. Everything begins to wrap up around now, which means a lot of work for me. I hope to see you all the weekend after next. Have a great time, you guys!

THE PIT
As new news posts come, each news article is bumped down one slot. There are ten slots... and then THE PIT! The tidbit in slot ten above is spazzing out about it right now, actually. Poor thing. That's why we have this page. It's the retirement village for my news posts, like those crazy places out in the western USA where little kids aren't allowed to live.

Stumpers' Services
GRAND REOPENING... if you didn't figure it out from the Final Smash edits...

Stumpification
This is one of my favorite things to do. I take an article, gut out its information and completely rewrite if from ground up… in one-to-three edits. If you feel there is an article in dire need of this, such as one that has the “rewrite and expand” banner at the top, please let me know on my talk page and we can see if I like it.

Peer Edit
Much different from the Peer Reviews that used to be on the Super Mario Wiki, my peer edit system is my assessment of an article and rewriting where needed. It’s pretty in-depth. The difference between Stumpification is that I keep the overall structure of the article unless I feel it really needs to be changed. I will send you back any recommendations I have for added information. If there is a peer review page, I will also do one of those if all of the problems I have with the article aren’t already solved.

Random Services
Feel free to make any strange Wiki-related request you have on my talk page. I may be able to help. Also, if you have a need of a writer or a peer editor off-site for one specific task, let me know. No guarantees, though.

Stumpers’ Featured Articles
This is a list of my ten favorite articles that I've played a major role in.
 * 1) Mario and Luigi's Parents
 * 2) Tetris DS
 * 3) Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
 * 4) Mario Strikers Charged
 * 5) Mushroom Kingdom
 * 6) Super Mario Bros. Stamps
 * 7) MC Ballyhoo
 * 8) Ninja (Final Fantasy)
 * 9) Vim Factory
 * 10) Peach Blossom

Interns:
 * 1) Mario Kart Wii
 * 2) Peach (item)
 * 3) Peachy Peach
 * 4) Super Dragon

Do You Know Me on the Internet?
Here are a few of my current aliases. If you see me, drop me a line!
 * AIM: spazafrazz
 * Nintendo Forums (whenever they come back...): Stumper
 * Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
 * Animal Crossing: Wild World: Matt
 * Mario Kart DS: Whettam

Brief History of Naming

 * "Stumper" era: I named myself after a character I invented for a point-and-click adventure game made with PowerPoint. The reason I chose this was because I couldn't think of a better name.
 * "Stumpers" era: The addition of the "s" to my name was a mistake on my part. The reason behind it is that "Stumpers" refers to the game that the character "Stumper" stars in.  Actually, the reason the game wasn't called "Stumper" was a mistake on my part... so it's a mistake based on a mistake.
 * "spazafrazz" era: This was first used for my AIM screenname. I actually thought of a better name this time, because it was after I had been nicknamed "Spaz"... by two separate people independently.
 * "Matt" era: Only used for Animal Crossing: Wild World, I called myself this because the in this game your in-game name doubles as your screenname. So, I could either have the villagers calling me "spazafrazz" or have everyone online know my real first name.  I chose the latter because, seriously, there are about eight million "Matt"s in this world, so why does it matter?  Yes, you can call me Matt now if you want because you were nice enough to read my page this far down.
 * "Whettam" era: Whettam, pronounced "wet ham" is my full first name, Matthew, spelled backwards. I didn't want to let my Nintendo identity be effected by a name that had, over time, come to bother me.  Whettam is also a character in the fictitious adventures of my family.  The story goes that when I'm in the rain, I automatically assume my secret identity, "Wild pig in the Rain", or "Whettam."  Yeah, pretty mean, if you ask me.  But I'm a good sport, so I let myself be called this and let someone else be named Retep the Remarkable, a muscular, perfect youth who rides a winged horse.  Just wait until the other gods find out his mother is queen of the underworld.  At least as Whettam, my only responsibility is to be back in my clothes when I dry off.

What? You want a reward for reading all of that slop? Whiner. Okay... you can see my favorite Mario Wiki Forum avatar... which Wayoshi banned for being "too creepy".

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p38/StumpersII/untitled.jpg