User:Walkazo/Essays

Here's where I shall rant about my views on the Mario series or the Super Mario Wiki itself and/or draft stuff to actually use on the wiki. Old stuff includes:


 * Courtesy
 * MarioWiki:Redirect (formerly)
 * Template:Wikipolicy
 * Categories
 * Proposal Archiving
 * Template:PArchive
 * Proposals/Archive
 * Proposals/Archive_Template
 * Version Differences

Navigation Templates

 * Templates to fix
 * white overall backgrounds; solid grey borders; footnotes darker than headers, lighter than banners
 * alternating bg stripes; darker bg stripes first; if only two lines, both bg stripes dark
 * headers centered and subheaders right, or both centered? simply right when no subheaders


 * ''( - unique colours: add to chart below G&W)
 * series items
 * (series)
 * - items
 * ''(, - unique colours: classify as species)
 * - golf series characters
 * DK templates - levels
 * ''{{{tem|NSMBW}} - "further info" is good way to include subpages/galleries/etc.)
 * - could be merged with YI and YIDS, but YTT has no template yet
 * - do something with it

BS Super Mario USA
From my forum post here, from Feb. 21, 2012. (For admin eyes only.)

A translation of the ending dialogue is here, but it's not overly useful for plot stuff. The first episode's opening is on Nico Nico Douga (but I viewed it through page), and the entire fourth episode is on youtube: it's got the ending with narration and also the same opening as the first episode except for different closing enemy banter and one missing line from the Commander.

When I transcribed the text, I had only been studying Japanese for six months and listening comprehension was my weak point. Still is, but when I get a chance I'll give the videos a re-listen to try and figure out the stuff I missed before. Even in this crappy, unfinished transcription (italics and question marks are stuff I'm not sure about at all) and translation, however, some key plot points are quite clear.

Crappy transcription:

Narration: Yume no kuni Subcon. Kono kuni wa sono munokashi yasai ga daiki na Mamu to sono uchi ni otte kurushii me wa rarette imashita. Soko ni owarette ano wa onajimi Mario, Luigi, Kinopio, soshite Peach-hime. Kono yo-nin no daikatsuyaku no sei, Mamu wa sono uchi ni yasai yo ippai nitsu me komare, Subcon kara oidasareta no desu. Tokoro ga kurushii me rarette de Subcon wa hitotsu dake de wa arimasen deshita. Hito-bito no miru yume to onaji kase dake Subcon wa attano desu. Nigesata Mamu to sono uchi ni wa soto betsu na yume no naka ni moguri komi. Nandomo nandomo akuji o kurikashite tanō deshita. Commander: Ōsama, hoshi no chikara o tsukatte, Subcon o mamorimasho. King: Yoshi, Mario-kun-tachi onegai sho. Narration: Kōshite mata-mata ano yo-nin ga katsuyakusuru koto temota no desu. Shikashi, hoshi no chikara o tsukau, dōshite ano e wa Ōsama-dachi dake dewa imasen deshita. Ano Mamu to sono uchi ni mo chika wa kui o shio to takuramu de imasu. Sono de hajime ni donchuru de ga me wa no akashii ano o gondo Mario. Sō doko ga me kakushite mata yo desu.

Crappy translation:

Narrator: Dream land Subcon. In the land, in a chest, are important vegetables - the painful sprouts that can drive away Wart and his group. There at the end are the familiar Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach. because of the foursome's great efforts, Wart and his group were packed full of vegetables and expelled from Subcon. Only one place of the painful, capable sprouts of Subcon was not there. The people [thought] Subcon had only been a dream. Wart and his group escaped outside and dived into a separate dream. Many times they repeatedly [did] various crimes. Commander: King, let's use the power of the star and protect Subcon. King: All right, [get] Mario and friends, please. Narration: Thus, those four [were] made active again (which they were not intending to be). But the star power is used, [only???] why is the King's group missing? Wart and his group were also underground ??? plotting. First [find the ???] sprouts Mario. So, where have the sprouts been hidden again?

Basically, the narration confirms that Mario & Co. initially bested Wart with veggies and kicked him out of Subcon, but they thought it was a dream, but then Wart & Co., who had been hiding in another dream, come back and run amok, so the King summons Mario & Co. and they spring back into action again, only to find the King and his people gone (I'm not sure if he's kidnapped, however).

Table coding
Nested table, gradients, borders.

And to make it float...

(Also, note that the width of the background columns has to be of the overall template width - i.e. 17% gives you (approx.) half of 35%, whereas 50% just makes the column in question grow huge and the other one turn as skinny as the longest word will allow it.)

Sorting Table
"Title" = abc order; "Date" = default = release date order (reverse puts series at top); "Series" = abc order; right "#" = date-by-series order

Kong family

 * Wiki stuff (all-in-one to avoid headches)
 * TMK's Kongtroversy and any official stats/bios on out wiki were used to make the chart.
 * Not showing non-game material that contradicts game stuff (see TMK)
 * The names in the cells show what articles are covering the games
 * The columns are trying to place the Kongs in relation to each other and to other games based on bios/in-game text, etc.; if a name spans multiple columns, it's been left ambiguous; if a column is split (i.e. DK III), it's because it could be either name representing that generation, usually due to ambiguity over which generation the older Kong was part of (which is also why there's a "DK IV/V" column - which it is depends on whether Cranky is generation II or III).
 * Green is using context to place Baby DK (non-canon, just for convenience).


 * Interpretation stuff (while I'm at it)
 * Line skips indicate years passing
 * Assume "cold-hearted northerners" of MK8 could mean something other than vikings and ignore it
 * All other DK Arcade appearances are DKJr-DK-I
 * The Konga placement is inspired by SiFi.
 * I forget where I first read the fan-theory about DK:JB being arcade-DK Jr. and DKC-DK being his kid
 * All other DK (i.e. Barrel Blast, etc.) and Mario (including MvDK) appearances are DKC-DK-III
 * SSB is non-headcanon

Image Check
Check to see if the transparency is good, or crappy:

Categories redux
There are a lot of pages on the Super Mario Wiki, and the most fundamental way of organizing them all is with categories. These appear as links in a box at the bottom of a page and can be created by typing, which should go at the bottom of a page, after all the text, tables and any navigation templates that are used on the article. Most pages have multiple categories, which are entered one after another, with line breaks between them to make it easy to tell them all apart.

Overview
While a game has one template that is put on every in-game subject's page, with the characters, items, places, enemies, etc. being separated into different sections within the template, different categories for each subject can be used for the different sets of pages. In other words, subject pages should get the most specific category possible, taking both the game and subject type into account. For example, a character in Super Paper Mario would get Category:Super Paper Mario Characters while a place would get Category:Super Paper Mario Places (and both pages would get the same navigation template).

All these game/subject-specific categories are grouped together in a category for the overall game (i.e. Cat:SPM Characters is part of Category:Super Paper Mario), which also houses any pages that don't fit into a more specific category, such as the game's gallery, staff, media, glitch, beta or quotes pages. Subjects with four or less entries should also go into the overall game category, rather than getting a specific subcategory, in order to streamline navigation. Which subjects do not qualify for categories differs from game to game - i.e. if one game only has four minigames, they would simply go in the game's category, whereas a different game with many minigames would have a minigames category. While most games should have subcategories for fundamental subjects like characters, enemies and items, obscure, data-deficient games (such as Japan-only releases like Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party 2), and games with very small scopes or niche spin-offs (like Mario's Cement Factory or Pinball) may not even have game categories, much less subcategories, although the goal is always to improve coverage of such titles.

Game-specific categories are grouped into series-wide categories. For example, Cat:SPM Characters is part of Category:Paper Mario Series Characters, and both that category and Cat:SPM are subcategories of Category:Paper Mario Series. The series-wide categories are then grouped into the "big 4" series categories (Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong and Wario), such as Cat:PM Series being part of Category:Mario Games. Finally, the root of every category tree is a non-series-specific category such as Category:Characters or Category:Games. These broad subject categories should not be used on actual articles, since we already have numerous pages dedicated to listing franchise-wide sets of articles (i.e. Characters, etc.), and get more use out of nested categories. The exception to this rule are the game articles themselves, which should get every level of category: for example, the Super Paper Mario article gets Cat:SPM, Cat:PM Series, Cat:Mario Games and Cat:Games. This is because of the centrality of the games to the franchise: while we do have various pages dedicated to listing them (i.e. List of games by date and List of games by console), it is still useful to have alphabetical lists at the overall, "big 4", and specific series levels via the categories. And, unlike subjects, game pages themselves do not accumulate large numbers of categories, so having the various levels does not create clutter as a similar setup would for the subject articles.

Note that standalone games skip the series step and can be grouped straight into the "big 4" categories (i.e. Category:Wario World Bosses is a subcategory of Category:Wario Bosses and Cat:SPP is a subcategory of Cat:Mario Games). Pairs of games don't get series templates either, and instead use to link directly to the each others' corresponding category; for example, Category:Mario is Missing! and Category:Mario's Time Machine link to each other (and are both in Cat:Mario Games), while Cat:MiM Images and Cat:MTM Images also link to each other, etc. Similarly, Super Smash Bros. game pages and categories can skip right to Category:Games without one of the "big 4" series as a stepping-stone. On the other hand, crossovers between "big 4" series should get both parent series categories (i.e. Mario vs. Donkey Kong pages and articles belong in both Category:Mario Games and Category:Donkey Kong Games), while crossovers between one Mario series and a third-party series (such as Mario & Sonic or Wario Blast: Featuring Bomberman!) just go in the corresponding "big 4" category.

All subjects can be organized in this hierarchical method. Many of them have roots that lead back to Category:Main, such as Category:Games, Category:Characters, Category:Jobs or Category:Diseases, although others may branch out of other tree roots, such as Category:Buildings leading back to Category:Places (which in turn is part of Cat:Main). Some subject-based trees, like Cat:Characters, are fundamental and applicable to every game, while others will only be applicable to certain games or series. Some, like Category:Minigames, occur enough in certain games and/or series to warrant some subcategories, while others, like Cat:Diseases, don't have more than four entries for any game and thus, have no subcategories. Certain games will also have subcategories based on increasingly specific subjects, such as Cat:Buildings including Category:Homes that itself includes Category:Mansions. Just like game/series-based categorization, the articles themselves should only contain the most specific category applicable for specialized subject trees (i.e. Merlee's Mansion would include Cat:Mansions, but not Cat:Homes or ). These concepts also apply to category trees that do not pertain to games, but to other media, such as Category:TV Shows or Category:Publications, or to subjects that pertain to the development of the Mario franchise - namely, Category:Real World.

At both the article and category levels, there is overlap between the various category trees, resulting in multiple categories being used for single subjects. This is a given when subjects appear in multiple games, but sometimes a subject will fall into multiple categories for a single game. For example, Goombas are part of both Category:Super Mario Bros. Enemies and Category:Super Mario Bros. Species (as well as Cat:SMB3 Enemies, Cat:SMB3 Species, Cat:NSMB Enemies, Cat:NSMB Species, etc.), which might seem redundant, however there are numerous cases where not all species in a game are also enemies (i.e. Toads), and sometimes enemies are individual characters rather than species, and so, the two must be categorized separately. Meanwhile, bosses and allies are usually characters, but occasionally species, and so must also be separate (and bosses must be separate from enemies, as the two perform different gameplay functions).


 * Also, Mario's House is in Category:Homes as well as Category:Super Paper Mario Places and Category:Paper Mario Places, etc.
 * Also, overlap like the species/character/enemy/boss complex happens at multiple levels.
 * items/objects/special items

Category Trees
Below is an example of some trees, followed by in-depth explanations about the three types, their levels and the examples. The Primary games tree is in blue, and is only a partial example. The secondary tree is red, and is represented by a single branch plus the other possible paths branching off at each level. Both use Super Paper Mario as their example. A tertiary game-based category using Minigames as its example is included, showing the variability about which levels are visited, even between different branches within one tree. This tree is complete except for some game-specific categories, which are merely alluded to using "..." and yellow, rather than green, connecting lines. Yellow is also used to connect all the trees to the one category they have in common (which will be explained in the following section), since the Lv. 2 Subjects are the true roots of the trees, rather than the Lv. 1 category. A non-game tertiary category is also included in purple, illustrating how the series and game-based levels are not applicable, and the steps that are used are solely based on how many levels of subcategories are needed for a given subject.



Tree crap
Games - The game-specific categories, including the overall game categories like Category:Super Paper Mario and the subject categories like Category:Super Paper Mario Characters. As well as linking to the higher-level categories, some subjects have even more specific subcategories, such as Category:Super Paper Mario Special Items existing as a subcategory of Category:Super Paper Mario Items, and both of them being part of the more general Category:Super Paper Mario Objects. These subcategories link to the overall game category as well as any applicable intermediate subject-specific categories (i.e. the SPM Items, SM Special Items and SPM Objects categories all link to Cat:SPM). Articles should receive only the most specific (sub)category possible (i.e. a Special Item would only get Cat:SPM Special Items, and not SPM Items, SPM Objects, or Cat:SPM), although sometimes multiple subjects are applicable; for example, Category:Super Paper Mario Bosses and Category:Super Paper Mario Characters are both applicable to O'Chunks.

If users want to browse by date, they can use the Category:Games by date Tertiary tree branching off from the Primary games tree. In this example, SPM is part of Category:2007 games, as that is the year it was released. Other branched-off Tertiary trees providing alternate navigation criteria include Games by genre and Games by system.

The above Minigames tree has examples of both skipped steps and shortened branches, and it also shows how, unlike Secondary subjects, Tertiary subjects are often not applicable to all games (although some, like Levels or Items, are fairly universal, and are Tertiary because intermediate series steps would be of limited value). Like the Secondary subject categories, Tertiary trees skip right down to the Game level for subseries-less titles, like Category:Super Mario RPG Minigames, but they can also skip the subseries level if only one game of a series is applicable, which is why cat:Minigames leads directly to Category:Super Paper Mario Minigames - the other two Paper Mario titles don't have Minigames that need categorization. Similarly, if multiple games in a series have entries, but only one or two games have enough for unique game-specific categories, those games get their categories while the rest go straight into the series category. The above example of this is Category:Super Mario 64 DS Minigames vs. the general Category:Super Mario Series Minigames, which would be used for the Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. minigames. If no games in a subseries have enough entries for specific categories, the branch simply cuts off there and that category is used for all the games. While this isn't found in the above example, it is shown in the Category Webs charts in the next section, which also has examples of step-skipping.

Category Webs
While Category Trees branch out from the most basic categories to the most specific categories, Category Webs are formed when following every specific category applicable to a game back through every level to the basic categories. Webs are basically single branches of many different trees that connect to each other at various levels.

The purpose of extensive category webs is to give readers as much freedom as possible when looking up series, subjects or games. While trees just let them go up and down through the levels of a certain subject, webs let them cross between different branches and investigate different subjects. Below is an example of a complete category web for Super Paper Mario, as well as a partial web of the same game, to more clearly illustrate cross-categorization. Unlike the complete web and the Primary tree example in the above Category Trees section, the partial tree shows the overlap of the Primary and Secondary trees at Lv. 6. It also shows the same-level subcategorization at Lv. 4 more clearly than the complete tree, and shows that even subcategories can have subcategories, in the case of Category:Super Paper Mario Special Items and Category:Super Paper Mario Items. However, this is not a usual occurrence and having an eighth level would bury the categories too much, which is why the more specialized subcategory is part of Lv. 7 and linked to by the Lv. 6 parent subcategory as well as Category:Items, which is the root of a single tertiary tree containing both the Items and Special Items categories (their names can simply be used to tell the two groups of pages apart within the category). This is similar to why the subcategory Tertiary trees still link to Lv. 1 even though their roots are in Lv. 5: that way, users can easily find the trees without having to go through the related Secondary tree first, although that is also an option. Both the complete and partial webs show this aspect on Tertiary trees, but only the complete web shows their flexibility regarding skipping steps and stopping short, which was discussed in the previous section.

The complete web also contains three categories that do not have trees. Category:Quotes is used for all "List of quotes in..." pages and Category:Staff and Category:Glitches [also Category:Galleries] are both used for the pages of the same name, making them more like "topic" categories than regular subject categories, and as such, they are handled differently as well. Namely, no other levels need to be made to divide the categories into series-based chunks. As mentioned in the Overview, any pages attached to a game (i.e. "List of quotes...") are given the Lv. 5 Game categories as well as their topic categories.



Koopa Taxonomy
There are many kinds of Koopa: some are like Koopa Troopas, some are like Bowser, some are like Lakitu, some are like Hammer Bros., and if I had my way, Buzzy Beetles and Clubbas would be Koopas too. Are these different species? Are Red Magikoopas and Yellow Magikoopas different species, or do they just wear different clothes? And what are sub-species? Koopatrols? KP Koopas? What's the relationship between Dark Koopas in Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Dark Koopas in Super Paper Mario? What is Bowser? And what the heck is a Koopa anyway? Since Nintendo didn't give us any sort of Koopa taxonomy, evolutionary chart, fossil record or family tree, it's totally up to us to answer those questions.

This is not impossible: mother nature didn't share her blueprints either, and yet we still know that spiders and crabs are cousins, and that tapeworms and earthworms aren't. We can't tell if Koopas evolved from turtles or dinosaurs, but we can tell that Bowser is not a Koopa Troopa based on the fact that they look nothing alike, besides their shells and overall skin colour. It's just like how tapeworms and earthworms look nothing alike beyond the fact that they're long and limbless and don't make for pleasant dinner conversations. By analyzing the facts, we can make reasonable deductions, enabling us to organize these enemy pages logically with minimal speculation involved, if we do it right. For example, we can associate Fire Bros. and Boomerang Bros. in because they are nearly identical except for colouration and some physical capabilities (fire or boomerang), just as we can say Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Golden-crowned Kinglets are closely related based on the fact that their body makeup is virtually the same, but their facial feathers and songs are different. But unlike the cute little birdies, we can't speculate on how the Fire and Boomerang Bros. are related: we can't assign them genera or place them in phylogenetic trees, but I think we can say they're different species. True, Nintendo never said they are, but, I mean, one breathes fire and one doesn't: any biologist will tell you that's enough to separate them.

Unfortunately, the "species" vs. "sub-species" debate is where things get really sticky; if you bring race into it too, all the stickier. It's easier just to say they're different "types" of a larger "group" of Koopas which are "related" to one-another, but our nature is to stick "species" in there as well - since it sounds more professional, and more importantly, way more posh. We can justify "species" when there's no doubt to the biology (if it quacks like a duck, it's a duck; if it's pitch black and throws hammers, it's a Dark Hammer Bro.), but when you have really similar enemies, the arguments start to waver. For example, Dark Koopas in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Paper Mario just look like Koopa Troopas of a different colour, but they also have unique skills and live in a specific habitat, so are they a sub-species, or a race, or what? In cases like these, to label them is to make an assumption out of uncertainty, which we have to avoid as much we can: no more of this "sub-species" nonsense - therein lies the face of speculation.

Now, the reason for this spiel (aside from my love of taxonomy) is the confusion over "Koopa" vs. "Koopa Troopa", and what to do with their respective articles. As I said before, to the best of my understanding, the "Koopa Troopa" is a specific species (with many similar species and races attached to it, though the actual relationships between the organisms are ambiguous), and "Koopa" is a general term for all the vaguely turtle/dragonish creatures (I'd call it an Order, but that would be speculation to the max). Therefore, I believe it is a very good thing to have separate Koopa and Koopa Troopa pages: one for the species, one for all the shelled enemies. Currently, Koopa is just a partial list of all the major species and some of the minor species, and that should be changed: it should be an annotated list of all the species. Note the "annotated" part: that's what will set the page apart from a mere category or a list in Koopa (disambiguation): it will give context to the Koopas, allowing us to present them in an organized and logical manner, and as long as we watch ourselves, it can be one that is virtually free of speculation. An example of what the Lakitu section could look like is at the end of this essay.

Of course, some level of speculation is unavoidable. Like tapeworms and earthworms, things like Sumo Bro. and Hammer 'Bro. may not be related at all, but if names are good enough reasons to cram everything else on the Wiki together (A Pirate Goomba is a Goomba? Who knew!), why not here too? No matter what we do, we will have to make some assumptions, but none wil be as large and misguided as saying "Koopa" = "Koopa Troopa" = all Koopas and merging the pages. Bowser is not a Koopa Troopa: any biologist could tell you that even if they never played a videogame in their life. Therefore, we can't write about Bowser's species in Koopa Troopa, and if we merge Koopa, we lose the only logical place to put it - we'd have to make a nameless stub about them, which would be against various Super Mario Wiki policies. For this specific reason, and for the organizational benefits I stated above, in the name of taxonomy and in the spirit of organization, I say we leave the pages separate.

Lakitu
Lakitus are bespectacled Koopas who ride clouds through the skies, and which can occasionally be found snorkeling in water and hiding in walls or pipes. Unlike most Koopa species, they do not have snouts or beaks, but flat faces; their shells are also unique in their circular patterning. To attack, Lakitus typically throw unlimited numbers of Spiny Eggs at their opponents, and some will also dangle 1-Up Mushrooms from fishing poles to lure their targets closer.


 * Lakitus
 * Aqua Lakitu - A race of Lakitu that lives underwater with the aid of scuba gear, coming to the surface to breathe and throw Spiny Eggs.
 * Calm Lakitu - Lakitus that inhabit Vibe Island, where they are associated with the Calm Vibe, incarnating the power by sleeping most of the time.
 * Dark Lakitu - Lakitus that are darker in colour with red shells and that throw Sky-Blue Spinies.
 * Fishin' Lakitu - Lakitus that use Fishing Rods baited with a 1-Up Mushroom to lure enemies near their clouds. Once the bait is taken the rod is withdrawn and Spinies are thrown. The Fishing Rod can also be used to hook enemies, support various objects, or to simply fish.
 * Lakipea - The Beanish Lakitus. Lakipea have a leaf-like appendage growing from their head, inhabit vine-covered clouds, and throw the Beanish variation of Spiny, Sharpea.
 * Lakitufo - Red-shelled Lakitus bioengineered by the Shroobs to possess strange extraterrestrial features, including antennae in place of hair. They ride UFOs instead of clouds and beam down Spiny Shroopas in lieu of Spinies. They can also jump off their UFOs and assault their enemies themselves with a screw attack.
 * Pipe Lakitu - Lakitus that hide in Warp Pipes to ambush enemies (still attacking with Spiny Eggs).
 * Roketon - A species of Lakitu that flies in airplanes through the skies of Sarasaland. Instead of throwing Spinies, Roketons fire large amounts of Giras from their aircraft to attack their enemies.
 * Thunder Lakitu - This species of Lakitu has a red shell (like Dark Lakitus) and tanned skin. Instead of throwing Spinies it shoots fire generated by a device in its cloud that harnesses the energy from the sun.
 * Wall Lakitu - Lakitus that hide behind hills and other objects in order to throw Spiny Eggs in surprise-attacks.

Timeline
Every Mario game, show, movie and publication in chronological order (right), and in chronological order sub-divided by series (left). Things without specific dates go before everything else released in that month/year. Non-game titles are bold. Issues in serialized publications and the set-of-three anime are marked with dashes on the right column; usually not included in left column. Remakes and notable ports are in brackets, although most ports/re-releases aren't listed. All that is to help with organization/comprehension. Non-English names often have translations (just for fun), and I also have the NA names in parentheses for the things we use the PAL titles for (because my memory is bad).

For the left column, games (or books, special comic issues (most not included), TV series, movies, etc.) in a series are numbered in most cases. Ports/remakes are in brackets and bulleted under the game they are a remake/port of; compilations are also bracketed, but are numbered like original game (All-Stars within the Super Mario series; Nintendo Puzzle Collection is on its own, as it includes games from multiple series). Similarly, the Super Mario Advance series of games is broken apart, with each game being filed under the original it is porting. In some cases, sequels are merely bulleted under the original (without brackets), rather than a new series being made for the two games. All other important notes are more case-specific, and are included as references (listed at the bottom); the entries with references are denoted with goldenrod text.