Talk:Fiery Dino Piranha (boss)
Merge to Dino Piranha or move to Dino Piranha (Black)[edit]
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Merge to Dino Piranha 17-3-14
So from what I can gather, the "Fiery Dino Piranha" in the mission title wasn't actually intended to be a proper name for this boss; think "fiery Dino Piranha" rather than "Fiery Dino Piranha," so more "Dino Piranha except this time it's fiery" - this is backed up by the stage title's name in other languages, not to mention the creature's own. The PRIMA guide calling it "the Fiery Dino Piranha" is simply yet another example of them taking in-game text to its literal extreme. Addendum: The same goes for the trading cards, which mirror PRIMA's mistake on calling Kingfin "the Bonefin."
So, about this black, fiery Dino Piranha: as can be seen on [noclip.website], it shares its model with its Good Egg counterpart. All visual differences, from its colors to its petals, are a simple texture swap. The same goes for the two versions of King Kaliente in the same game. In fact, the two versions of each boss are differentiated in modern sources such as Mario Portal (which, unlike the PRIMA guide [Addendum: and the cards], was written first-party by Nintendo themselves) in the exact same manner - with the stronger, later one simply having a (Black) identifier.
Another important thing to note is that the purple Dino Piranha was given the black one's fiery abilities in one of the Mario & Sonic games, and that in the near-comprehensive (and completely comprehensive as far as the SMG games are concerned) list of Piranha Plants in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lists Dino Piranha and Peewee Piranha but not a differentiated black/fiery version indicates that as far as the official word is concerned, these are interchangeable, with one just being harder.
Merging these will not only be consistent with the King Kalientes, but also the Hisstocrats, which were merged a while back as well for similar reasons. Regardless, I have included an option to move it to its Mario Portal name if people still want it split. If it is merged, the level name should be given the priority, so the history would probably be moved to a "boss" identifier redirect. Addendum: I wish to pursue the Gobblegut situation next.
Proposer: Doc von Schmeltwick (talk)
Deadline: November 29, 2023, 23:59 GMT Extended to December 6, 2023, 23:59 GMT Extended to December 13, 2023, 23:59 GMT
Merge to Dino Piranha[edit]
- Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) - Packun Flowering Inferno
- MarioComix (talk) - It seems crazy to make a change like this after 16 years, but it all makes sense. I suppose "Fiery Dino Piranha" would be mentioned as what it's been alternatively called (in the Trading Cards). Though I'm now curious where its French and Italian names come from, as they don't seem to come from the mission name.
- DesaMatt (talk) - Per proposal. I don't think information from unofficial game guides should ever take priority if there's any kind of official first-party information on the matter.
- LinkTheLefty (talk) - It's the consistency with similar bosses that gives this the edge to me.
- Blinker (talk) - Per all. Especially the comparison with King Kaliente. I'd like to add that the Fiery Dino Piranha and King Kaliente's Spicy Return missions have very similar Japanese (and French, I guess) titles.
- Hewer (talk) Per all, especially the point about consistency with other bosses. Mario Portal shows Nintendo treats the Dino Piranhas as being just as separate from each other as the King Kalientes and Hisstocrats.
- Somethingone (talk) Per proposal.
- Remembered Old Buddy (talk) Per comments section
- Arend (talk) This is consistent with how we treated King Kaliente and Motley Bossblob, who also have recolored, stronger versions in boss battles. Me voting for this option would also be consistent with my vote on Doc's proposal regarding Gobblegut. Heck, it would also be consistent with how we treated Hisstocrat, in which the pink female version is clearly a separate character from the original male one.
- PaperSplash (talk) Per all.
- Okapii (talk) Per all; I think there's a valid argument for both sides but I lean towards merging for consistency (especially considering Hisstocrat).
- Super Game Gear (talk) Per proposer and the others above.
- SmokedChili (talk) Per all.
- DrippingYellow (talk) The more I thought it over, the more I became convinced. This isn't a Kamek or Lava Piranha situation, where they share the original Japanese name of the enemy they're based on but still have an identity of their own. It seems more of a stretch to me to label this as a member of a species, too, considering the only known instances of this "species" are the original Dino Piranha fight, and this variation (oh, and Peewee Piranha too I guess), which judging by the Japanese name could very well be just a powered-up version of Dino Piranha.
- EleCyon (talk) Per all.
- Biggestman (talk) Per all.
- SolemnStormcloud (talk) Per all.
Move to "Dino Piranha (Black)"[edit]
- Blinker (talk) - Second choice. If not the merge, than at least this.
- Metalex123 (talk) - The official Nintendo website calls it "Dino Piranha (black)", separate from the regular Dino Piranha, and since Nintendo themselves is a better source than Prima Guides, I think moving this page to "Dino Piranha (black)" is a good idea.
- Pseudo (talk) Secondary choice, as this is a newer but less descriptive name and I'm in support of keeping the pages split.
Keep it as-is[edit]
- Camwoodstock (talk) So, uh, about "Firey Dino Piranha is not its intended name, and it's just an adjective in every context"... While it's dubious as to how authentic it is since it comes from part of the game's marketing, in the Super Mario Galaxy Trading Cards, they have a card for Fiery Dino Piranha. And on their card, they very plainly list the name as being "Fiery Dino Piranha", capital letters for all 3 words and all. It'd be one thing for a few errant guidebooks to get a name wrong, but officially licensed merchandise making the exact same mistake is... Improbable, to say the least. From there, the most we can think you can argue is that Viridi didn't mention them in her infamous guidance conversation in Smash Ultimate where she lists (almost) every Piranha Plant, but also she does say she hasn't even mentioned minor variations--probably to cover in the case Nintendo forgot any of them in her infodump, like what seems to have happened here.
- MegaBowser64 (talk) Per.
- PrincessPeachFan (talk) Yeah, these things are two different things. Dino Piranha gaining the ability to spit fireballs is so that it can do SOMETHING against four characters spinning into it.
- Waluigi Time (talk) Per all.
- FanOfYoshi (talk) Per all.
- Alternis (talk) Per all.
- Tails777 (talk) Per all.
- Sdman213 (talk) Per all.
- Archivist Toadette (talk) Per all.
- Pseudo (talk) While I do see the arguments here, this version is an eminently different boss in terms of appearance and gameplay (even if the models are shared), and, for what it's worth, are ontologically different entities considering that they're both seen hatching from eggs. Per Camwoodstock.
- Mario (talk) The examples for King Kaliente, Hisstocrat, and Motely Bossblob are not ideal ones give they're strongly suggested to be rematches, supported by mission names (e.g. King Kaliente's spicy return, Hisstocrat returns, Motley Bossblob's encore) and trading card information ("you fight King Kaliente twice"). Fiery Dino Piranha doesn't have this same indication, and its only evidence for being the same character would be names in other languages... for the missions, but not the Fiery Dino Piranha itself who also has different names in other languages. Gobblegut's case is shaky imo and not ideal from an organizational standpoint (it's a different boss fight and not framed as a rematch like the other three), but its mission names not making a distinction of its name ("Gobblegut's Snacktime" or something) is probably the real difference here.
- Crazy Mr. L Fanguy (talk) In the Throwback Throwdown mission in Super Mario Galaxy 2 Dino Piranha and Firey Dino Piranha are fought separately and hatch from two different eggs. I think that is evidence enough these characters are not the same.
- YoYo (talk) per all.
- Ninja Squid (talk) Per all.
#Remembered Old Buddy (talk) I’d support if Gobblegut and Fiery Gobblegut are also separated, but the Gobbleguts are split because the fights are completely different.
#DrippingYellow (talk) Per Mario and Mr. L Fanguy. Even if I didn't think it that distinct, I'd still advocate for its own article since it reappears in Galaxy 2. Also, if we're going to stick closely to the rules, I'd like to go ahead and point out that Mario Portal is not really covered anywhere in the tiers of naming priority, and the Prima guide is at number 2 in priority, only behind manuals and the games themselves. Might be something to make a proposal for...
Comments[edit]
@CamwoodStock Indeed, "minor variations" refers to things like non-speciated color variations, such as the green and red Piranhas in the Lost Levels and SMB3, or the Pale Piranhas, or these. Not to distinct species. Also, those cards also called Kingfin "the Bonefin," which is a known PRIMA mistake, so it's highly probable that the cards were made using the guide as a reference. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 00:43, November 15, 2023 (EST)
- I would like to point out that PRIMA taking in-game text to its literal extreme isn't the only example. For instance, every strategy guide (such as Nintendo's) for Donkey Kong 64 calls Gnawties "Beavers" simply because that's what they're called in the game. Likewise, the online guides for Super Mario 64 call Klepto "Big Bird" and the Whomp King "Giant Whomp", so it's not like PRIMA has been doing this and even Nintendo's own strategy guides and websites have different names. PrincessPeachFan (talk) 08:58, November 15, 2023 (EST)
- So because guides sometimes make mistakes, that means Prima's guide didn't make mistakes? I'm confused what point you're trying to make here. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 14:15, November 15, 2023 (EST)
- As far as I remember, nothing that debuted from the same game was technically skipped, so she'll mention all the Piranha Plants from Galaxy and all the ones from Galaxy 2, but neglect Tane Pakkun because her list doesn't include Mario vs. Donkey Kong and thus that's a minor variation. LinkTheLefty (talk) 09:25, November 15, 2023 (EST)
So, what about Gobblegut (Black)? Is that going to get one of these proposals as well? Blinker (talk) 09:39, November 15, 2023 (EST)
- It still has a merge template up, so I assume the Doc's eyeing it. LinkTheLefty (talk) 09:56, November 15, 2023 (EST)
- I was debating which to do first, I settled on this one. Note that noclip does display their models differently, unlike these and the Kalientes. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 10:23, November 15, 2023 (EST)
@Remembered Old Buddy I haven't decided which to vote (not sure if I will at all), but I don't agree that the fights are "completely different". The Gobbleguts, along with the Dino Piranhas, both fight the same way and must be defeated the same way whereas the latter variant of each includes fire-based gimmicks. Nightwicked Bowser 12:16, November 15, 2023 (EST)
Don’t you need to use different strategies and approach the fire bosses in the same way? Remembered Old Buddy 15:15, November 15, 2023 (EST)
- Strategy remains the same, the fire acts as simply an extra thing to watch out for, like the meteors and floor in Kaliente-2. Indeed, most of the difference in the fights for Dino, Kaliente, and Gobble involve the floor and things being less safe to touch compared to the first battle. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 15:49, November 15, 2023 (EST)
@Hewer: The point I was trying to make was that it seemed like PRIMA was the only one who made mistakes when it came to names. However, this has been happening with other strategy guides such as referring to enemies by generic names. PrincessPeachFan (talk) 14:26, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- All you've done is reword your previous comment. That still doesn't tell me what point you are trying to make, what conclusion you are trying to reach. What are you getting at with this? Are you saying that the guide isn't incorrect because other completely unrelated guides are incorrect? Because I completely fail to understand the logic there. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 19:01, November 16, 2023 (EST)
But, regardless, these shouldn't be merged simply because 1. The name came off as a descriptor and 2. The model. PrincessPeachFan (talk) 14:26, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- I don't understand what you mean? What name and what about the model? Blinker (talk) 15:00, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- We're a bit confused by the model thing, but we think they mean that Fiery Dino Piranha has a stated name (albeit a shaky one, it still did appear in official merchandise but in-game it seems ambiguous), whereas Gobblegut (Black), King Kaliente (Black), and Hisstocrat (The Other One) have... well, parenthetical black, parenthetical black, and adjective we've forgotten, all of which are basically just conjectural names. ~Camwoodstock (talk) 17:15, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- And so does Dino Piranha on Mario Portal. I don't think a shaky uncertain name that has more recently been ignored is a good reason to give Dino Piranha special treatment that Nintendo does not give it. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 19:01, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- According to our naming guidelines, a name from a guidebook (both before and after Galaxy) and names from licensed media (like, say, the merchandise) take priority as valid names--see spots 2-3 for guidebooks and 4 for licensed media respectively. In fact, if we're interpreting this right and Dino Piranha (Black) is a name that came from the Mario Portal website, Dino Piranha (Black) would be 7th on the priority list--dead last, and below the English encyclopedia. ~Camwoodstock (talk) 19:25, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- Incorrect. Level 7 is for image filenames on websites, which can only be seen by inspecting the HTML or saving an image from it. This is more akin to the guidebooks. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 19:32, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- ...Hmm. Now that you mention it, there is a very brief line on level 4, stating "This includes cartoons, movies, magazines, comics and web content."--which would technically tie it for the aforementioned card, as that's also licensed content. Of course, that doesn't really cover for the aforementioned guides that also apparently use the name, and are Levels 2 and 3 respectively, right above the mention of websites... Either way, there's no real way we can think of that the Mario Portal would change things unless the levels themselves were changed, which is kind of out of the scope for this proposal. ~Camwoodstock (talk)
- Several pages have been moved or merged because Mario Portal gave them new names (e.g. Snufit being merged with Snift, plus Superstars replacing Snufits with Snifits in Space Land and Silver Chomp being called Homing Chomp) PrincessPeachFan (talk) 09:02, November 17, 2023 (EST)
- Regarding Mario Portal's officialness, and sorry if this is kinda off-topic... There's a similar "portal" for the Pikmin series called Pikmin Garden, which featured "scientific names" for some creatures before the names were featured in game, which pretty much confirms that Nintendo was involved in making the Garden. And if that's true of Pikmin, it's probably also true of Mario. Not sure about the portal's English translation, but at least for the Japanese one, I think it makes sense to put it on a higher level than, you know, trading cards? Blinker (talk) 10:49, November 17, 2023 (EST)
- Actually, you're probably onto something. The main point of contention here seems to be if websites should be a higher or lower priority than guidebooks, which they currently are no matter what way you slice it (content on websites themselves are level 4, whereas content only embedded in the website's data are level 7). We feel like this depends heavily on when the website was made (similarly to how we split guides based on if they released pre- or post-Galaxy), but also, like you alluded to, this is definitely getting way off topic for this proposal specifically. If we're planning on changing the name priority system, we should probably do that at another time. For now, though, with the priorities as they are, guides do take priority over websites overall, so make of that what you will. ~Camwoodstock (talk) 12:27, November 17, 2023 (EST)
- Even if its name is Fiery Dino Piranha, why is that alone a reason not to merge it? It's still very inconsistent with Hisstocrat and King Kaliente (and soon likely Gobblegut as well), and even if the rules mean Mario Portal's name shouldn't be used here (which I'm a bit doubtful of given a bunch of pages were already moved because of it but I digress), it still shows that Nintendo treats Dino Piranha's variant the same as it treats those of the other bosses. Not to mention the point in the proposal that seems to have been ignored about how the regular Dino Piranha also used fireballs in Mario & Sonic. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 05:03, November 18, 2023 (EST)
- It took us a while to think of a message to say in regards to this
because life got way too hectic for us to care about piranha plant species, a tragic fate to befall one, but we think we have one now. In short, we think the characters that do not have an article on their own, despite having an explicitly defined name, can literally be counted on one hand, and it's... um... it's Pink Donkey Kong Jr., aka Junior (II). It's literally just him, unless there's some remote character that also holds that title. The main reason he lacks an article in spite of his name is that Pink Donkey Kong Jr. is just kind of a stock player 2 with literally zero divergent character to him whatsoever. His name is literally Junior (II) in the manual, for crying out loud--Pink Donkey Kong Jr. isn't asserting himself as a unique entity, he's just kind of labelled as another Donkey Kong Jr. that happens to be visually distinct, and the label thusly gives him a name to denote him as "the second Donkey Kong Jr.", which puts him more on the line with stuff like the Bossblobs or Hisstocrats or even the Kalientes.
Fiery Dino Piranha, in contrast, is asserted to be his own subspecies. While yes, the ordinary Dino Piranha has borrowed a few of its tricks in spinoffs, that's honestly not that much different from, say, the Smash Ultimate Piranha Plant borrowing every other Piranha Plant's tricks while still being united as just being A piranha plant, to represent the species. Likewise, we think the logic is that, when Ordinary Dino Piranha has a reference to Fiery Dino Piranha, it is similarly done less in the need for claiming that they're the same thing, but as just a way to consolidate roles, while still retaining the reference--in essence, the Dino Piranha in Mario & Sonic is just A Dino Piranha representing the rest of them and their subspecies, not the Dino Piranha. (We would generally hope the consensus is that merging all the Piranha Plants that the Ultimate fighter represents into the stock Piranha Plant article would be "a bad idea.")
Considering Pink Donkey Kong Jr. is already such a baffling edge-case born of an era where Nintendo was nowhere near as protective of being 100% brand-consistent, and Fiery Dino Piranha was born just out of wanting to introduce a subspecies of a pre-existing boss, we feel like the name means a lot, actually. Pink Donkey Kong Jr. only kinda has a name, which only asserts him to be what he truly is--a (II)nd Junior. Fiery Dino Piranha has a name expressly stated in guides and in merch, and it denotes him as being a subspecies of the Dino Piranha encountered earlier in the game. We hope this makes sense, we realize it's 4PM but we are already in "What a day, huh?" mode, and oh Gods, this became way longer than it felt to type... ~Camwoodstock (talk) 15:56, November 26, 2023 (EST)- Not entirely sure why you brought up Pink Donkey Kong Jr., multiplayer recolours of player 1 with absolutely no distinction (being called "Junior (II)" in a manual that calls the main DKJ "Junior (I)" doesn't count as a distinction) are a different situation altogether from these boss variants. Names aren't the only thing that govern splits and merges (Purple Captain Toad exists, on the topic of recolours of player 1), they're just one of several factors. More on topic: "Fiery Dino Piranha, in contrast, is asserted to be his own subspecies" - uh, no? It was excluded from the list in Smash that every other Piranha Plant from the Galaxy games was included in, it's identified in the mission names in seemingly every other language as just Dino Piranha but now in a fire place, it had its supposed name (which is dubious for reasons already explained) completely ignored by Mario Portal, and, once again, it's treated exactly the same as the other boss variants on Mario Portal, clearly showing that Nintendo doesn't intend to give this one any special treatment. So why should we? Dino Piranha (Black) is no more "asserted to be his own subspecies" than Gobblegut (Black), King Kaliente (Black), and Hisstocrat (pink) all are (also keep in mind the Hisstocrats are merged despite both being fought at the same time). Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 08:43, November 27, 2023 (EST)
- ...We brought up Pink Donkey Kong Junior because we expressly stated he is the one, the only character we can think of that 1) has a stated name (Junior (II)) and 2) lacks an article or section of an article all to himself. This is something we want to make as unambiguous as possible.
As for the "They're not any more of a subspecies than the [INSERT OTHER GALAXY REFIGHTS AND 3D WORLD BOSSES HERE]" thing; we will once again be deferring to Viridi's speech about Piranha Plant subspecies, and how Nintendo generally seems to, by direct contrast, actually care distinguishing species of Piranha Plants in particular. This isn't like Black Motley Bossblob over Red Moltey Blossbob over Gold Tomjones Blaseball, which Nintendo flat-out neglects entirely; they take the time to distinguish between Fiery versions of other Piranha Plants (when they remember they exist), they don't exactly claim the ordinary Piranha Plant covers the existence of the Fiery Piranha Plant. Nintendo, also, probably would've had Viridi say she "wasn't even talking about all the minor subspecies" if they weren't 100% sure they probably missed some. Some like, say, one exclusive to what was effectively a boss rematch from a development standpoint and the only source for a name was a guidebook (that guidebook being the one that our naming policies explicitly denote as "this is the one we start actually caring what these say!", mind you) and an old obscure piece of merchandise that only grows more obscure the further we get from 2007, that could've easily flown under the radar unless Nintendo was deliberately using our own wiki to cross-reference things; and we know for a fact that they almost certainly weren't, seeing as they had split Petea Piranha before we ever did.
But when there's two distinct pieces of print media--including that guidebook--saying the contrary that "Fiery Dino Piranha is the name of this guy", and Nintendo doesn't seem keen to debunk it in any meaningful capacity despite having ample time to do exactly that with 3DAS, we find it hard to not take their word on it. Especially seeing as the only thing to say to the contrary is a website; web content, as mentioned quite awhile back now, has a lower priority on our naming guidelines than guidebooks do. We don't think that it makes sense to give some weird exception where only Fiery Dino Piranha's print name doesn't matter, and his web name matters more with the current state of the naming guidelines. And all of that is just kind of for the name itself, not about the Fiery Dino Piranha boss fight featuring unique elements to it, how he appears separate from Ordinary Dino Piranha in the same level at one point, how he appears in both games, or for how he gets referenced in the Olympic gameswhich why that's still shoved in a trivia section still is beyond us--y'know, stuff that was the other main thing this proposal was about.
We feel the need to be as clear as possible about something after everything else above: Should you, for whatever reason, still feel that website names should take precedent over the guidebook names, we're not saying that is an inherently "wrong" idea, per say, especially in a world where a lot of stuff is still slowly but surely migrating from physical print to digital data; we just want to make it clear that, as of this proposal, no web content is taking priority over guidebooks, and there is no proposal to change this going on either. So we are going to vote on this specific proposal--and base our arguments and rationality to our vote--as such. In addition, if you are to make a proposal to change this at some point, do realize that this will almost inevitably impact a lot of other articles, not just this one; it turns out there's a lot of things we only had names for because of guidebooks before stuff like the Mario Portal was made, so this is in fact a substantial policy change to make...
And, uh, we guess Fiery Dino Piranha is one such example of an article that'd change drastically under that policy, we guess. ;P ~Camwoodstock (talk) 11:20, November 27, 2023 (EST)- Pretty sure the point there is they don't care about distinguishing those ones... hence why they only mentioned them as a "oh there's others too BTW" kind of statement. Also, please recall the point about the purple Dino Piranha spitting fireballs as well in Mario & Sonic. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 12:06, November 27, 2023 (EST)
- "We brought up Pink Donkey Kong Junior because we expressly stated he is the one, the only character we can think of that 1) has a stated name (Junior (II)) and 2) lacks an article or section of an article all to himself." Well, there's also the weird Yoshi's Island guide's "Coin Bandit", "Seedy Sally" etc. And a lot of names from that guide have since been used in-game, so it's not like it's forgotten. Blinker (talk) 12:13, November 27, 2023 (EST)
- Also, Purple Captain Toad, and this ongoing proposal, and almost certainly more I'm not thinking of. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 13:12, November 27, 2023 (EST)
- The whole chunk of your comment about how much Nintendo cares about distinguishing Piranha Plants feels like an argument in the proposal's favour if anything, given they did not distinguish Fiery Dino Piranha in Viridi's list. Also, while it's true they did have things in that list that the wiki didn't at the time, I wouldn't be so sure that they didn't look at the wiki at all. I'm also unsure what you would've expected them to do differently in 3D All-Stars, a collection of ports with few changes - it's not like there were any "errors" in the original game, the other language names seem to suggest "Fiery Dino Piranha" wasn't meant to be taken as a literal name anyway. As for the Mario Portal thing, you're misunderstanding my argument here - I'm not saying the name from Mario Portal necessarily takes priority over the guide name (I'm not voting to move to Dino Piranha (Black), after all), but I am saying that Mario Portal shows an intention by Nintendo to consider Dino Piranha's variants the same as those of Gobblegut et al. The policy you keep citing is the naming policy - its only purpose is to list acceptable sources for naming, not to list acceptable sources for intent by Nintendo, and Mario Portal, on top of being much more recent than the Prima guide, was made directly by Nintendo. The "weird exception" here is not merging Fiery Dino Piranha like we are every other boss variant. And as for "the Fiery Dino Piranha boss fight featuring unique elements to it, how he appears separate from Ordinary Dino Piranha in the same level at one point", I remind you once again that Hisstocrat and Hisstocrat (pink) are merged despite clearly being two separate individuals that are fought simultaneously. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 13:12, November 27, 2023 (EST)
- ...We brought up Pink Donkey Kong Junior because we expressly stated he is the one, the only character we can think of that 1) has a stated name (Junior (II)) and 2) lacks an article or section of an article all to himself. This is something we want to make as unambiguous as possible.
- Not entirely sure why you brought up Pink Donkey Kong Jr., multiplayer recolours of player 1 with absolutely no distinction (being called "Junior (II)" in a manual that calls the main DKJ "Junior (I)" doesn't count as a distinction) are a different situation altogether from these boss variants. Names aren't the only thing that govern splits and merges (Purple Captain Toad exists, on the topic of recolours of player 1), they're just one of several factors. More on topic: "Fiery Dino Piranha, in contrast, is asserted to be his own subspecies" - uh, no? It was excluded from the list in Smash that every other Piranha Plant from the Galaxy games was included in, it's identified in the mission names in seemingly every other language as just Dino Piranha but now in a fire place, it had its supposed name (which is dubious for reasons already explained) completely ignored by Mario Portal, and, once again, it's treated exactly the same as the other boss variants on Mario Portal, clearly showing that Nintendo doesn't intend to give this one any special treatment. So why should we? Dino Piranha (Black) is no more "asserted to be his own subspecies" than Gobblegut (Black), King Kaliente (Black), and Hisstocrat (pink) all are (also keep in mind the Hisstocrats are merged despite both being fought at the same time). Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 08:43, November 27, 2023 (EST)
- It took us a while to think of a message to say in regards to this
- Even if its name is Fiery Dino Piranha, why is that alone a reason not to merge it? It's still very inconsistent with Hisstocrat and King Kaliente (and soon likely Gobblegut as well), and even if the rules mean Mario Portal's name shouldn't be used here (which I'm a bit doubtful of given a bunch of pages were already moved because of it but I digress), it still shows that Nintendo treats Dino Piranha's variant the same as it treats those of the other bosses. Not to mention the point in the proposal that seems to have been ignored about how the regular Dino Piranha also used fireballs in Mario & Sonic. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 05:03, November 18, 2023 (EST)
- Actually, you're probably onto something. The main point of contention here seems to be if websites should be a higher or lower priority than guidebooks, which they currently are no matter what way you slice it (content on websites themselves are level 4, whereas content only embedded in the website's data are level 7). We feel like this depends heavily on when the website was made (similarly to how we split guides based on if they released pre- or post-Galaxy), but also, like you alluded to, this is definitely getting way off topic for this proposal specifically. If we're planning on changing the name priority system, we should probably do that at another time. For now, though, with the priorities as they are, guides do take priority over websites overall, so make of that what you will. ~Camwoodstock (talk) 12:27, November 17, 2023 (EST)
- Regarding Mario Portal's officialness, and sorry if this is kinda off-topic... There's a similar "portal" for the Pikmin series called Pikmin Garden, which featured "scientific names" for some creatures before the names were featured in game, which pretty much confirms that Nintendo was involved in making the Garden. And if that's true of Pikmin, it's probably also true of Mario. Not sure about the portal's English translation, but at least for the Japanese one, I think it makes sense to put it on a higher level than, you know, trading cards? Blinker (talk) 10:49, November 17, 2023 (EST)
- Several pages have been moved or merged because Mario Portal gave them new names (e.g. Snufit being merged with Snift, plus Superstars replacing Snufits with Snifits in Space Land and Silver Chomp being called Homing Chomp) PrincessPeachFan (talk) 09:02, November 17, 2023 (EST)
- ...Hmm. Now that you mention it, there is a very brief line on level 4, stating "This includes cartoons, movies, magazines, comics and web content."--which would technically tie it for the aforementioned card, as that's also licensed content. Of course, that doesn't really cover for the aforementioned guides that also apparently use the name, and are Levels 2 and 3 respectively, right above the mention of websites... Either way, there's no real way we can think of that the Mario Portal would change things unless the levels themselves were changed, which is kind of out of the scope for this proposal. ~Camwoodstock (talk)
- Incorrect. Level 7 is for image filenames on websites, which can only be seen by inspecting the HTML or saving an image from it. This is more akin to the guidebooks. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 19:32, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- According to our naming guidelines, a name from a guidebook (both before and after Galaxy) and names from licensed media (like, say, the merchandise) take priority as valid names--see spots 2-3 for guidebooks and 4 for licensed media respectively. In fact, if we're interpreting this right and Dino Piranha (Black) is a name that came from the Mario Portal website, Dino Piranha (Black) would be 7th on the priority list--dead last, and below the English encyclopedia. ~Camwoodstock (talk) 19:25, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- And so does Dino Piranha on Mario Portal. I don't think a shaky uncertain name that has more recently been ignored is a good reason to give Dino Piranha special treatment that Nintendo does not give it. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 19:01, November 16, 2023 (EST)
- We're a bit confused by the model thing, but we think they mean that Fiery Dino Piranha has a stated name (albeit a shaky one, it still did appear in official merchandise but in-game it seems ambiguous), whereas Gobblegut (Black), King Kaliente (Black), and Hisstocrat (The Other One) have... well, parenthetical black, parenthetical black, and adjective we've forgotten, all of which are basically just conjectural names. ~Camwoodstock (talk) 17:15, November 16, 2023 (EST)
@Metalex123: King Kaliente, Hisstocrat, and Gobblegut all have their alternate versions separate on Mario Portal as well, as King Kaliente (Black), Hisstocrat (pink), and Gobblegut (Black), respectively, but King Kaliente and Hisstocrat are merged with their variants anyway. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 10:38, November 17, 2023 (EST)
@Mario & @Crazy-Mr-L-Fanguy There are two Hisstocrats which are not only different genders with the second one using fire, they are later fought at the same time while using fire, yet they share a page due to a unanimous decision to merge. Merging these is analogous to that. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 01:10, November 20, 2023 (EST)
- The drag queen Hisstocrat never got its own name to distinguish itself from drag king Hisstocrat, and it was part of a mission title "Hisstocrat Returns", which Fiery Dino Piranha Plant doesn't have this information. I don't think the analogous part fits personally. Mario-HOHO! (Talk / Stalk) 01:17, November 20, 2023 (EST)
- I'm not really sure of the sources for the "other languages" names on the black Dino Piranha, though. Given the mission titles in those languages do just call it a Dino Piranha, I'm not sure where the "pyro" and such names come from since they're unsourced and there's nowhere else in the game they could be mentioned. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 17:04, November 21, 2023 (EST)
- Also, the point about both versions of Dino Piranha coexisting in one mission... that doesn't mean much? Dino Piranha is already treated as a species on the wiki (character vs species isn't a very helpful distinction when it comes to most Mario games, but anyway...), so there being more than one isn't a big deal. Blinker (talk) 12:53, November 25, 2023 (EST)
- If Dino Piranha is a species then why wouldn't we treat the fiery version as a variant? -- Too Bad! Waluigi Time! 11:47, December 7, 2023 (EST)
- Because the official word treats it as a color variation. See the Bowser Statues in Super Mario World. Doc von Schmeltwick (talk) 11:49, December 7, 2023 (EST)
- I'm starting to feel like a broken record bringing up the two Hisstocrats that are merged. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 12:04, December 7, 2023 (EST)
- This feels like another Bubble Dayzee situation where this is only a color variant depending on which source you're looking at, so I'm not convinced (in general, I really don't agree that being a color variant is reason enough to merge as a lot of users think it is, especially with that definition being stretched further and further). Hisstocrat isn't a perfect comparison in my opinion since there's never been an effort to distinguish them besides the French NOE localization. We can talk about Prima being dubious all we want but this case is ambiguous enough that it's just as speculative to say they made a "mistake" (though I would say it was a perfectly reasonable interpretation on their part and is only a potential mistake in the sense that they didn't have mind reading powers) and took the mission name literally. Maybe the English localizers saw Fiery Dino Piranha and wanted to give it a unique name, or maybe they didn't and just meant a fiery Dino Piranha. Unfortunately we just don't know. For a word on Mario Portal, it makes sense that it didn't use the Fiery Dino Piranha name because that was never used in Japan, and as far as I'm aware it's a more straight translation of the Japanese material. Not comfortable using it by itself as an override for an in-game name. -- Too Bad! Waluigi Time! 13:35, December 7, 2023 (EST)
- We wouldn't know whether Fiery Dino Piranha was an intentional name or not, which is where Mario Portal comes in as evidence that either it wasn't or it was but they changed their minds (the English Mario Portal does use localised English names). But regardless, I don't think a supposed individual name (much less such an uncertain one) is enough justification for the glaring inconsistency with Hisstocrat, King Kaliente, and now Gobblegut. Hewer (talk · contributions · edit count) 15:51, December 7, 2023 (EST)
- This feels like another Bubble Dayzee situation where this is only a color variant depending on which source you're looking at, so I'm not convinced (in general, I really don't agree that being a color variant is reason enough to merge as a lot of users think it is, especially with that definition being stretched further and further). Hisstocrat isn't a perfect comparison in my opinion since there's never been an effort to distinguish them besides the French NOE localization. We can talk about Prima being dubious all we want but this case is ambiguous enough that it's just as speculative to say they made a "mistake" (though I would say it was a perfectly reasonable interpretation on their part and is only a potential mistake in the sense that they didn't have mind reading powers) and took the mission name literally. Maybe the English localizers saw Fiery Dino Piranha and wanted to give it a unique name, or maybe they didn't and just meant a fiery Dino Piranha. Unfortunately we just don't know. For a word on Mario Portal, it makes sense that it didn't use the Fiery Dino Piranha name because that was never used in Japan, and as far as I'm aware it's a more straight translation of the Japanese material. Not comfortable using it by itself as an override for an in-game name. -- Too Bad! Waluigi Time! 13:35, December 7, 2023 (EST)
- If Dino Piranha is a species then why wouldn't we treat the fiery version as a variant? -- Too Bad! Waluigi Time! 11:47, December 7, 2023 (EST)