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shygirl4991 · 3 months

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Coffee Prince and The Frog Chapter 1 Dreams and Voodoo

A Collab with @lizaluvsthis and @alianarepasa Art used on this chapter by Alianarepasa

Last Chapter Next Chapter Summary: SMG3 is a busboy with a dream to run his own cafe, he slaves away at his friends restaurant in hopes to save enough to open his cafe. But when a talking frog named SMG4 asks for a kiss to break a curse placed on him, the two will end up going on a journey that will change their lives forever.

Tags: slow burn, inspired by Disney princess and the frog, love confessions, falling in love, animal transformation, adopted family relationship, fluff, angst, voodoo

SMG3 sneaks into the mansion drain from a long day of work, the fangirls didn't make his way home any easier with them waiting for the royals to come out. He slips into his room, locking the door and pulling out the floorboards where he had a safe hiding. He enters the password, opening it and tossing his tips in it. Standing up he stretches before fixing his messy ponytail, staring at his reflection he lets out a soft chuckle “Almost time Three,” he takes out his drawing of his dream cafe and places it next to a photo of him and his mother.

He lets out a sigh “Just you watch mom, i will find my path just like you wanted and i won't let nothing stop me.” he was exhausted, he knew working a job would be draining but with the place he works at he wasn't sure if the labor was draining him or the people that came in. He throws himself on the bed to drain to change his clothes, he slowly starts to drift to sleep. In his dream he saw a woman giggling as she hugged him “Hey there my lil Tadpole, ready for today's adventure?” he nods as the woman lets out a smirk and points at the door “Good! Remember no obstacle can stop you, if you have a goal in mind fight for it. Now let's go and save your brother from your father, the man just doesnt get poor Mario’s humor.”

Three wakes up letting out a groan, he looks at the time as he sits up “Another dream about mom…” it was morning already meaning he needed to get ready for another shift. He showers and gets dressed in a fresh pair of overalls, he then puts on his purple coat. He kisses Eggdog and leaves his hat behind after all he didn't want anything to happen to it when working, not to mention it would out him for being part of an important family given it has his logo on it. As he grew older he learned how to sew and using this knowledge he would fix and edit his hat with different logos till he found the one. It wouldn't be him without his iconic skull but in addition to the skull he decided to put the design his baby basket had, it was an up arrow. He wasn't sure what it meant to his biological parents,he just had something inside of him tell him it was important and fused the two together.

He hums as he sneaks out of the house with the pack lunch Luigi made him, it was a pain for Three to always sneak in and out of the house thanks to his father he had no other choice. The moment he hit twenty his father became obsessed with keeping Three more at the mansion, of course his father knew he could try his hardest but it wont stop him from finding a way out of the house. Now if his father found out he was working a normal job, he was pretty sure the man would drop dead and Mario would be in charge of the family. He sighs “Having that fatass brother of mine run the house would be the end for sure,” he mumbles to himself as he heads off to work.

He hums, taking out his journal and writing down his notes. He was lost in writing his thoughts; he didn't notice he was catching the attention of men and women around him. A girl slowly approaches him only to be pushed away by a tall male with a flower, before he can make his move Three slams his journal shut and speed walks to his workplace.

He speeds past a table catching the attention of the owner of the small stand, the man with a TV for a head turns staring at Three walking away. The screen flickers showing a huge smile “Red eyes…how familiar,” before the man could think more, his eyes catch Bootleg in his car driving by. The screen on the man's head flickers showing an angered face “HIM,” the whispers from the nearby televisions remind him all too well of what he has to do.

As Bootleg keeps driving he passes by a crowd of people screaming in excitement as Prince SMG4 gets off the boat. He removes his royal outfit to show off his casual wear, fixing his vest he walks past his fans giving out autographs. Depresso follows, struggling to carry the luggage that Four brought with him, he trips and falls causing Four to giggle as he helps him up. Depresso glares at the group of women trying to impress the young prince, if only they knew the truth about the prince after all his one true love is memes. The clown butler swears the only thing in the prince's mind is memes, he watches as the Prince winks at the women and shows them his videos on his phone.

“Need i remind you that you're here to find a wife not to share your videos,” he said flatly at the man. SMG4 pouts giving his best puppy eyes at Depresso “Come on you know i don't care about marriage, i want to be free and make memes can't i share some for now?”

“No,” with that the clown picks up the luggage and starts walking. Four sighs walking alongside him occasionally waving and giving a charming smile at the women around them. He leans closer to Depresso “Come on Depresso, i know what my parents said in their will and testament but do i have to get married. All i need is my laptop and memes, adding another person just complicates things.”

Four frowns at the fact Depresso kept walking ignoring his complaints, they pass by a restaurant where his eyes get glued to a man standing outside of it. He freezes staring at the waiter. Three turns and his eyes meet with four, the prince walks up to him “Want to see my memes?” Three rolled his eyes and walked into his workplace making Four chuckle “What a strange person.”

“Four get a move on!” Depresso was getting sick of how the prince has been acting since he arrived.

As Four runs up to Depresso he misses someone watching them from around the corner, the TV man chuckles as he watches Four and Depresso walk away from the restaurant. He was thankful he followed the pair, that moment Mario and Luigi arrived at the restaurant in their overalls trying to hide their status. Seeing the hats on their heads was enough for the Man to know who those twins were supposed to be, an idea grew as he slipped away chasing the prince and his butler.

SMG3 was pouring coffee then serving a meal to different tables, Meggy smiles at Three “You're always working so hard, you should join us for a paintball fight come on it's been forever!” Three sighs as he picks up dirty plates from an empty table “Meggy you know I can't do that, I need to save for my cafe and it's hard enough working here thanks to my father being a pain in the ass.” She frowns after finishing her pancakes “A little bit of fun didn't hurt anyone Three!”

He ignores her as he walks to the back, Mario and Luigi walk in excited to see their brother. Mario dashes to the counter “GREG GET THREE!!”

Three freezes and turns hearing his brother screaming, he turns to Greg as the man giggles and points to the door. With a nod he leaves his tray and walks out to his brothers, he never did understand how his co worker Greg earned the title of most talkative he never heard the man speak once. He walks up to his brothers and gets pulled into a hug by Luigi “AHH Bro guess what's happening?” he blushes trying to wiggle out of the hug as he thinks over what could have his brother in such a mood. Mario chuckles seeing the interaction “Mario gave the crown to Luigi!” Three pauses and stands up straight in the hug looking at Luigi “Wait…Lui you're going to be the next Leader of the kingdom?!”

He nods excitedly, hearing the news SMG3 smiles brightly hugging his brother back “Holy shit that's amazing!”

Greg slides a box on the counter catching Marios attention, he opens it to see several plates of spaghetti. He takes out one of the plates and excitedly eats it. “Mario doesn't care about romance, never got those feelings.” The brothers pulled away from the hug then gave Mario a pat on his back supporting his choice. Luigi then started to get nervous, catching Three’s attention, he gave him a look making his brother say “Dad is going to host a grand ball…to announce me as next head of family, he even invited the Prince SMG4!”

Three didn't like where the talk was going, he took a step back waiting for the ball to fall. “Dad says you have to be a part of it and I want you with us bro its a big moment for me please?” He takes his hand and gives him puppy eyes. He could feel his power to fight leave him the longer he stared, with a sigh he nodded “Fiiiine, I will wear the stupid royal shit and be there. BUT! I'm not going to talk to that loser SMG4, you can have him.” Luigi smiles brightly “Whahoooo!”

“I also ask you to do something for me, if i have to deal with the royals you have to deal with the poor side of town. I just got the last tip I needed to place bets on my future cafe. You two are coming. I need the backup in case someone tries to start shit again!” Last time he attempted to bet on a location he was robbed of his money and was laughed at, he then ended up getting in a fight and got taken to jail to be held for twenty four hours. How awkward was it for Bootleg to walk to a police station and demand his son to be let out all because he got in a fight for a location, the plus side to that whole fight they didn't lay a hand on him best victory he had in years. With the group in agreement they said their goodbye to Bob and Greg as they head out to battle for the cafe location.

SMG3 bounces around excitedly. “This is happening, I can't wait to slam this money down and take home the prize,” he lets out a chuckle that Mario swears could be mistaken for a villain cackle. SMG3 charges at the door with his brothers running after him “Surprise bitch!” he slams the cash on the counter smirking at Chris. He picks up the cash only for it to be taken by his co-worker Swag who counts the money with hearts in his eyes, with a sigh Chris grabs papers from his desk “Well you made it in time, i will get the paperwork rea-” he gets stopped by his partner. Swag stares at them “CHRIS WAIT HOW DO WE KNOW THAT THIS BUILDING WON'T BE ANYTHING SUSPICIOUS?”

Three scoffs “Are you serious right now?” Luigi, seeing the man getting agitated, grabs his arm to make sure he wouldn't go flying for a fight. Chris nods, thinking over what his partner said. Normally his partner would say something idiotic that made him question their friendship for once Swag had a point “To be safe SMG3 we will look into your background.”

Three’s face goes pale “Ah wait! Can i just sign it and you keep an eye on me for a week see i'm just your normal guy?” Chris sighs, shaking his head making SMG3 heart sink, Mario seeing his brother upset walks up to the pair “Hey stinky’s my bro here worked his ass off to get this cafe, getting up everyday to work at a rat infested restaurant give him a break!”

“We have rules for a reason!” Chris was starting to be done with the crew, Swag hearing the story felt touched “LET THEM HAVE IT, I REMEMBER A TIME I WORKED AT A RAT INFESTED RESTAURANT.” his partner blinked “Are you serious?” Being done with the whole talk Chris lets out a long sigh “I will make sure everything is together and we will sign it later.”

SMG3 smiles as he watches the pair leave, he smacks Marios arm being overwhelmed with joy. This is it the cafe will be his and his mother will be proud of the hard work he did, they walk inside the building to see what work would need to be done. He looks around noting where he would place his bombs at, where he would put Eggdog plushies because who wouldn't want cute animal plushies. Mario sits at one of the abandoned tables and starts to smack it “Spaghetti!”

Three sighs walking up to Mario “We won't be making spaghetti Mario it's a cafe not a restaurant.” Before the pair could get into a pasta related fight Luigi squeaks out “Maybe now you can find romance!” SMG3 crosses his arms “Bro i dont have time for romance, i know mom said finding your other half is amazing but im busy for it!” He pulls out the dusty curtains making him cough “That's just gonna have to wait a while.”

Luigi Frowns “How long are we waiting?”

He shrugs “I don't have time for messing around, it's just not my style,” he takes out his drawing smiling as Luigi walks up to him worried “I just want to see you happy.” He sighs stepping away from Luigi as he starts picking up trash “Lui you know this kingdom likes to keep people down making them take the easy way but that's not me cause i know where i'm going and it's to the top baby! After all, I'm getting closer everyday, and I'm almost there.” He gently touches the drawing in his hand, he was determined to see this though he spent years working for this and nothing will get in his way. Luigi looks down worried that his brother was going to work himself to death.

SMG4 was dancing around getting himself ready for the party he had to go to, he wondered if the party was some sort of trap to get him to meet his future wife. He hums to himself trying to relax and not let the fear get to him, coming up with a fun idea he grabs Depresso surprising the clown. SMG4 giggles as he spins Depresso they both end up losing balance falling in a dark alleyway, the prince then hears footsteps causing him to look up. There a man in a fancy suit with a TV for a head stood there, the channels changed until a face appeared with a huge smile. “Gentlemen, do I have a deal for you!” He then politely offers a hand to help the prince up. Once up the man takes out a card and hands it to the prince “I go by many names TV man, Puzzlevision heck even Wiston! So please call me what you wish.”

SMG4 eyes light up looking at the card with fascination “It says here you can make dreams come true!” as Four keeps reading the card the TV man wraps an arm around his shoulder to guide the prince and Depresso who was following to the TV lair.

Once they made it to his lair the TV man bowed. “I'm a man who loves to make sure all dreams come true and I feel I'm in the presence of royalty. What kind of man would I be if I didn't help your dreams come true!”

The TV man opens the door for them. Depresso rolls his eyes “This place looks cheap,” the TV man screen flickers showing an annoyed expression “Don’t you disrespect me, little man!” The screen flickers again, showing the man smiling as he gets close to Depresso “You’re in my world now, not your world and I got friends on the other side.”

They walk in the building to hear whispers in the shadows, SMG4 starts to shake, feeling nervous from the atmosphere of the room. Noticing this the TV man wraps his arms around the young prince “That’s an echo, gentlemen just a little something we have here in the Fiore di Fuoco kingdom, a little parlor trick don't worry!” Four nods doing his best to relax from the strange voices they heard walking in. Depresso just sighs as he takes the Prince's hand following the TV Man to the center of the room. “Sit down at my table and put your minds at ease, If you relax it will enable me to help you reach your dreams!” the screen flickers again showing a series of tarot cards.

SMG4 eyes go wide in amazement seeing the cards before the man went back to the smiling face, he claps turning the light on in the room capturing both of the men's attention “I can read your future,” he chuckles “i could change it round some to, I’ll look deep into your heart and soul!” Staring at the young prince he could see how gullible the man is, living the life of royalty made him sheltered the perfect soul for his friends. He turns to look at Depresso surprised to see his soul was more tightly locked, those were the fun ones to break “You do have a soul don't you Depresso?” The clown butler was surprised by the question and looked nervously side to side.

He takes out tarot cards “Take three boys, lets see what your past, present and future look like!”

SMG4 took three cards and placed them on the table, the picture on the card started to move, surprising the Prince “A sad story for you I see, your parents died in a car accident leaving you all alone. Now you have to get married to rule the kingdom they left behind but good news for you I see green freedom in your future!” he turns to Depresso handing him the cards. Nervous, he picks three cards and places them down. The TV man chuckles as the cards flicker changing the story, Depresso looks up surprised. “Wow you had such a normal life to then get a child thrown at you, don't worry about your future i see you finally reaching your goal!” Depresso’s eyes went wide, nodding at the words he was saying.

The TV man walks up to them and smiles “I can make your dream of freedom, and your dream of reaching your goal real. All you have to do is shake my hand!” the face on the screen smiles as both men take his hand and shake it. He starts to laugh as rope appears tying SMG4 “What?! What's going on?!” The TV man laughs as he opens the curtains showing a black red box, he opens it to take out a necklace “Transformation Central!” He steps away from the box as he gets close to Four who is trying to break free. The TV man grabs Four’s hand and pricks it, the necklace gets filled with his blood.

SMG4's eyes go wide as a green fog covers his body, suddenly the room starts to get bigger as the TV man and Depresso start laughing together. He landed on the floor looking around and noticing something off, his hands were blue and webbed. He screams seeing his body was blue he runs to a cup on the floor to see his reflection “I'm A FROG?!” TV Man walks up to the Prince picking him up and tossing him in a jar. Depresso smirks at him “I have waited years to get rid of you, now the best part is I can be you.” he puts the necklace on, a green fog starts to cover the man. Once it clears SMG4 was staring at himself, depresso laughs as he leaves the room with the TV man leaving him alone in an unknown place stuck in a jar.

#smg4 #shygirl4991 #smg34 #smg3 #smg4 smg3 #lizaluv #smg43 #alianarepasa #coffee prince and the frog #inspired by princess and the frog

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wfagamerants · 1 year

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I have made it very blatant that I am a fan of Toad.

If you followed me for a while, you also likely have heard me vent about the claim Toad and Captain Toad are different characters, citing multiple contradictions to this claim in the games themselves.

I’m not here to deny official word or push my preferences (though I do have them), rather I want to give my perspective on the whole thing in full and delve a little into how Nintendo handles main members of a Mario species in general.

First, it’s important to recognize that Nintendo is loose with a lot of stuff. Many different people work on these games and you can see different takes on how to present certain species quite frequently.

When we think of Toad, the main way we think of him distinguished from other members of his species is the red spots and blue vest combo. In a large number of games that is indeed the case.

Most spin-offs, Super Mario 3D Land and Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon, only to name some. Those make it simple, red spots and blue vest Toad is THE Toad. Other red Toads have a red vest.

However, not every game makes it so nice and simple. The pre-GameCube games had ALL the basic Toads rock the red spots and blue vest combo. THE Toad was distinguished more by role, being the only Toad in the game or as in Super Mario RPG, being the only Toad to have Toad: in his text box, even in the japanese version I might add, to indicate he is the main one you keep meeting.

The modern games aren’t without occasional screwyness themselves though. Odyssey reverts to the idea of all generic Toads using that look and then you have things like Sunshine or the Baseball games, where there is no red spots & blue vest Toad, but a red vest Toad is identified as THE Toad in things like the manual:

It’s weird, but it should be said the 2000s were still a bit of a transitional era for Mario. It took until 2004 for short sleeves Wario to be consistently used in spin-offs for instance and Peach still had her old dress in Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door. You saw oddities like that around a fair bit.

The only time the Toad thing ever came up again in later years is Puzzles & Dragons SMB Edition and even that one has THE Toad on the cover, despite him having a red vest in the game,

Something that is even stranger given that by then they had stock Red Toad renders around and Nintendo is so overprotective of Mario as an IP, that them letting this slide is notable.

While this kinda stuff muddles things, it doesn’t take away from the fact a THE Toad exists. It’s seemingly more about the iconic visuals, than the detail. That visual of a single red Toad being with the rest of the main cast.

Something that still persists to this very day and will, with the distinctions we prefer to go for (only one blue vest, red spots Toad) even be present in the movie, which Nintendo is directly involved with.

It’s a thing that extends beyond Toad and has been present with other characters representing their species as well. Kamek being the most blatant example of it.

Even prior to Yoshi’s Island, singular important Magikoopas such as a particular Yoshi’s Safari boss, a right-hand man Magikoopa in Super Mario kun’s Super Mario World story or the eeeeeevil Koopa wizard Wizenheimer in the Super Mario World cartoon, had already appeared as important parts of Bowser’s troops.

It’s with Yoshi’s Island that one particular Magikoopa, who was the one who raised Bowser no less, was introduced. While this had no distinct name in Japan, where all Magikoopas are known as Kamek, the localization either consciously or by lucky accident, kept his name as Kamek, giving him a big distinguishing element from his species.

The idea of Kamek the main Magikoopa is one that persists to this day and it makes a lot of sense why. Given his shown connection to Bowser in his debut game, there is no reason to assume the most prominent Magikoopas aren’t this particular one and localization was happy to keep the concept around.

In Japan meanwhile, Kamek the character is not a foreign concept, but many materials do not make a formal distinction between the character and the species. It’s there, just more vague. You can sense that in localizations too, with how there are a couple notable oddities.

Mario Party 9 has a playable Magikoopa who is referred to as such in american localization, is called Kamek in other versions, like the german translation. Whether this is meant to be the character or a generic member of the species is genuinely not clear. Not helping matters is how european translations sometimes call generic Magikoopas like in the first couple Paper Mario games and as recent as Bowser’s Fury, Kameks.

A particularly noteworthy example is Giant Kamek in Super Princess Peach. His status as a boss, the one to guard Luigi no less, makes it easy to take him as Kamek transformed, but then you look at the Glossary:

A Kamek. It’s meant to be a generic member of the species, in a new form.

The truth is that Mario is a very, as I like to call it ‘’function over flavor’’ series. It’s more about the function, such as a main red Toad or a main Magikoopa and not so much the finer details like whether the vest color is correct, even if many games DO take that into account.

Because of this, I think the thing to look for is consistency, whatever fits the consistent image is the most likely answer. We will never know in some cases if the character in question is a generic member of the species or the main one, but that is because Nintendo themselves often don’t put that much stock into it.

On that note, while localizations, despite greater efforts to define things can fumble too, I don’t think that means they don’t ‘’count’’. I generally don’t agree with the idea that only japanese sources have any say with how to interpret Mario stuff, because the series does not have the lore consistency to give that idea weight.

On top of that, we have seen that western influences have affected the franchise at large more than once. The western Super Mario Bros 2 is the most obvious example of this, with how many elements of it have made it far into the franchise. Most notable though are the Koopalings, who didn’t even have names in the japanese version of SMB3 and adapted their localization given names.

This kind of stuff isn’t like say, Monsteropolis in the US Mega Man manual or the US Sonic CD manual clumsily trying to treat Amy as Sally. This stuff is still with the franchise today and as the movie shows, still matters.

THE Toad is a thing in the movie and as is Kamek. Both clearly defined as such and while the New York backstory is not a western invention, it was more emphasized in the west and that’s back too. It’s even Brooklyn again and I’m not even sure if that was ever specified in japanese material or direct confirmation from Miyamoto.

Mario is not a story centric series where only the original text matters. It’s a extremely loose canon, where what the west did, still matters to this very day and is of equal importance.

With all this in mind, let’s talk Captain Toad.

To understand my point on what I mean with contradictions regarding him and Toad being separate characters, we need to look at what Captain was like in the Galaxy games.

In these games, Captain Toad as a name did not exist, with him being only referred to as ‘’the captain of the Toad Brigade’’ and being specifically shown to be a self proclaimed captain at that. Even his inability to jump was invented later on and is contradicted by many level set pieces he shows up in, as well as this:

Even the headlamp, one of his defining visual features, wasn’t treated as anything that special, with BankToad being able to get it at a certain level of deposited Star Bits in Galaxy 2.

He wasn’t really talked about in any official materials and didn’t even get an official render of any sort, but you know who did and is on the cover of Galaxy 2 no less?

Toad. I have seen the argument that this could be an error, but for that to make it all the way to the cover, the first thing someone would see of the game when buying it, would make that a very massive one. Additionally, Toad also has a render for Galaxy 1, even though he wouldn’t have any presence in either game aside from a Save File icon and a cameo in the story book opening of Galaxy 1, if he’s not Captain. The only existing bios for Toad or Captain in these games, even identify them as the same character.

It does line up with what I said about consistency. Sunshine gave us a group of 5 Toads in different colors, with the red vest and red spots one being singled out to be the main Toad. Galaxy introducing a similar group and making the red Toad, in a franchise where a red Toad is one of the main characters, THE Toad, like in Sunshine or the Baseball games, makes sense because there is precedent.

Then many years later came 3D World, the game where Toad and Captain were supposedly clarified to be different characters, co-existing at the same time.

This is also the game where the main playable Toad is a Blue Toad. THE Toad, has never been portrayed that way before or since, to the point where every time Nintendo reuses one of the Blue Toad renders in this game

They are recolored to fit his proper appearance, because this has NEVER been how he has been portrayed. The game really emphasizes the playable Toad being a blue one too, with how the credits scene even shows Captain with a group of Toads, missing a blue one.

This flies heavily in the face of past established consistency, where between Sunshine, the many spin-offs or Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon, THE Toad has always been distinguished as the red one, because that’s the first one, who established himself as THE Toad.

One could point to his blue color palette in NES SMB2 and I have seen arguments that it’s an homage to that. We don’t have official word on this, but I find that very hard to buy, because he was never supposed to look like this. When he WAS depicted that way in art, everyone was portrayed with their in-game colors:

And in every other case, everyone had their proper colors:

3D World doesn’t do either. The idea of a homage rings hollow when Mario, Luigi and Peach are the same as usual and those couple spots needing to be recolored to not confuse him with Mario, also doesn’t really make sense, given how drastically different their body types are.

It goes so far the official Super Mario website even lists red spots specifically as one of Toad’s defining features, which would make him being Blue Toad in 3D World even stranger:

The game also lacks any kind of red spots and blue vest Toad, which 3D Land ensured there was only one of, to identify him as THE Toad. You know who had an icon like that in the reveal trailer though?

Captain Toad. Completely new art no less, that stuck around in the game to be in the reveal trailer, less than half a year away from release.

Also, yah know how you can find Captain Toad in levels and sometimes get a collectible out of it?

Toad did the same thing in 3D Land. Even in terms of gameplay function, the two are extremely similar. Similarities between the two are a running theme from here on out.

Prominent red Toads who throw turnips, give out stars, have Toadette as a partner, act as leaders to other Toads and have been depicted with fairy partners (though in Captain’s case only in concept art).

It is baffling how much they have in common and you can tell that even more by how much the two are linked.

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker has an amiibo bundle, amiibo functionality and a pre-order bonus, centered around a character that, according to some sources, you don’t even play as.

All by Nintendo themselves btw. Same with say, this video title or german eShop description for the game, which refer to the main character as Captain and Toad interchangeably.

This even extends to in-game content:

And an Odyssey developer interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVNYfoFcrZY

Then you got Mario Maker call Toad Captain:

Smash let's Toad’s spirit evolve into Captain, which is tied to gameplay AND in-line with stuff like Shadow becoming Super Shadow or Alm and Celica becoming their adult selves. The game even makes the distinction that THE Toad exists in the tips, where Peach’s Toad is THE Toad and Daisy’s (who is blue ala’ 3D World btw) is a Toad.

And then you get Mario Kart Tour, the only spin-off Captain Toad is in and the same one where someone like Peachette can be an independent playable character distant from Toadette OR Peach, so yeah. He even shares most of his animations with Toad:

A trait mainly seen with the simpler alts. Pit Stop Toad has more unique animations than Captain has.

VS Tour promos even group him with Toad, right next to him. Same happens with Peachette, who is correctly placed between Toadette and her alts.

Hillariously enough, even LEGO gets in on this, by giving Toad a treasure hunting themed expansion:

As I said, it’s not my intent to ignore official word. Officially, Captain is regarded as a different character, I’m just pointing out how much the games themselves don’t support that and how it requires a lot of justification and ignoring of past patterns to get there and explain away the mountains of counter evidence.

I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss every source that speaks against those claims either, these are just people trying to make sense of the mess Nintendo has left behind and I could just as easily point out that the original confirmation Captain is a separate character, also came with Toads not truly being mushrooms. A claim that contradicts a lot of past descriptions of the species, dialogue mentioning things like spores and Toad showing spore abilities at multiple points.

Not saying this invalidates the entire thing, just pointing out this is a nightmarish mess if you want to maintain consistency.

It’s why Movie Toad is exciting to me.

Giving him the backpack, Captain’s most defining feature these days and thus possibly silently merging them, is to me, the best and least complicated thing they could do.

Time will tell if this will affect anything, but Nintendo allowing for this at all does tell me they are fine with the characters being linked, which I hope translates to good things for him. Toad has a lot to gain from being Captain, while Captain really struggles to be his own thing, because he IS Toad in all but official word.

#super mario

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