Talk:Shell

Half-merging potential

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So, in many games, the color of the shell itself means jack diddly squat. Yet we still have those appearances split out. Even worse, some appearances for yellow and blue particularly amount to "there's a Koopa with this shell color." I think that in games where no functional difference is to be had, they should be merged simply to "shell" or "Koopa shell," with the color ones remaining for instances they are actually distinct. It might come off as a little confusing at first, but it's better than the weird padded redundancy we have now. For reference, the ones that would stay with splits are at least SMW, SMG, the MK games, the SSB games, PMSS, and some other "sports" games. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 00:47, February 22, 2020 (EST)

Could you provide a specific list of information that would be merged and information that would not be merged? Ex:

not merge

• game 1
• game 2

merge

• game 3
• game 4

I'm just having a difficult time understanding what's even left to settle out, so I think a visual might help more. Thanks! Trig - 08:40, February 22, 2020 (EST)

I'd love to, but it's such a cluster that it'd take all day, given there's at least four articles it'd affect (green, red, yellow, blue). Anyways, for ones where greens bop around while reds follow, they'd stay, for ones that any or all grant special powers, those'd stay (like in NSMB, the blue would remain split but red and green merged), ones with only one shell color (like SMB2 or Advanced Mario Bros) would be merged as there's nothing to differentiate with. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 13:45, February 22, 2020 (EST)

I support this. If there's nothing distinguishing shell colors from each other in a game, or no other colors to distinguish from in the first place, there's no reason to split them out, especially when it comes to "a Koopa wears this shell color", which Blue Shell in particular is a big offender of. -- Too Bad! Waluigi Time! 14:42, February 22, 2020 (EST)

I also agree with this. Dr. Mario World exists, where there are multiple shell colors. We really need a generic shell article on here, while Green and Red Shells should be strictly their sports appearances or appearances they're specifically named and has a specific function. Ray Trace^(T|C) 15:01, September 16, 2020 (EDT)

Agreed with Ray Trace completely. ^(T|C) 15:05, September 16, 2020 (EDT)

I actually agree with this as I thought it through and it at least makes it less flooded for the colored shell articles too. My only question is what about the shells from Super Mario World being part of the generic shell article though? Sure they act the same when Mario/Luigi carries and throws them but with the Yoshis carrying them in their mouth it gives them abilities from that colored Shell which would make sense to include those in the respective shell articles. --KingGeoshiKoopshi64 (talk) 16:20, September 16, 2020 (EDT)

We can leave it in their respective colored articles then. If shells do have an identical function, they should be trimmed from their color article and talked about in the generic article. Ray Trace^(T|C) 19:33, September 16, 2020 (EDT)

I'm wondering if we should make the Blue Shell item be split to being it's own article since it's a power-up and not an actual kickable and throwable shell, sorta like how the Mushroom and Super Mushroom article is split due to functioning different but identical in appearance. I've been thinking about that for a while. --KingGeoshiKoopshi64 (talk) 15:04, September 17, 2020 (EDT)

Personally, I think it introduces unnecessary piping over a difference that is purely technical. Like, look at the Lightning article, which documents all appearances of the item that looks like the Mario Kart item but has a pretty different function than in the game that it appears in. Ray Trace^(T|C) 15:11, September 17, 2020 (EDT)