User:SmokedChili/Thoughts Page

This is my thoughts page, where I'll post cases which interest me about Super Mario series and see what kind of conclusions I'll arrive at.

Cases in work: 1

Cases finished: 0

Case 1: Captain Toad is not Toad Brigade Captain

Claim: Captain Toad from Super Mario 3D World can't be Toad Brigade Captain from Super Mario Galaxy games.

Why: According to the settled talk page proposal, official sources dictate the playable Blue Toad in Super Mario 3D World to be the singular character known as Toad. Likewise, there exist a source that claims The Toad to appear in Super Mario Galaxy as the Toad Brigade Captain. Because of this, assuming Captain Toad to be Toad Brigade Captain is impossible, because he is in turn officially called "Captain Toad" in official sources.

Counterclaim: Captain Toad is Toad Brigade Captain. If this is true, there are two alternatives:

a) Toad Brigade Captain can't be The Toad, because he is already labeled as the Super Mario 3D World Toad.

b) Captain Toad is The Toad, who in turn can't be the Super Mario 3D World Toad, because he would already be Captain Toad.

Current evidence supports the claim.

Current verdict: Captain Toad is not Toad Brigade Captain. Conclusion based on the info found on this wiki. Next step is to search official sources by own hand.

Evidence 1: Iwata Asks: Super Mario 3D World, section 4

This evidence was also used in the talk page proposal linked above by the proposer YoshiKong.

Evidence reads as:

:Koizumi: Talking about cuteness reminded me of how Toad used to look pretty plain, but because he gets cat ears this time his looks cuter overall. That and with how he can quickly dash around, I think he turned into an incredibly appealing character.

:Iwata: Yeah. It may be rude to his fans to say it like this, but Toad is a surprisingly popular character.

:Koizumi: Right. There's even gameplay this time that features Toad.

:Hayashida: Taking a cue from Mario Galaxy, there are games called "Captain Toad's Adventure," in which Captain Toad appears with his memorable little tune that goes "ta-dada-da-, ta-dada-da-".

Super Mario Wiki intepretation: YoshiKong pointed in his proposal that Captain Toad's character was based of Toad Brigade Captain, using part of Hayashida's line, "Taking a cue from Mario Galaxy", as the proof. This is currently reflected on many articles where Captain Toad is the subject.

Intepretation supports the claim.

Personal intepretation: The first two lines are practically meaningless. Hayashida says that when Captain Toad appears, he does so with his theme song.

Connecting the dots: The theme in question is played in Super Mario Galaxy games near Toad Brigade Captain's presence. The interview mentions the particular song as Captain Toad's song. Since Toad Brigade Captain's theme is now Captain Toad's theme, Toad Brigade Captain can be assumed to be Captain Toad.

Intepretation supports the counterclaim.

Conflict: The two intepretations claim the opposite. Next step is to analyze the context of Hayashida's line personally.

Personal analysis: It's clearly mentioned that the song talked about is Captain Toad's theme. However, according to YoshiKong, the first part of Hayashida's line means Captain Toad is essentially an expy of Toad Brigade Captain. This doesn't match with the rest of the sentence. Therefore, a plausible alternative is that being inspired by Super Mario Galaxy, there are now levels called "Captain Toad's Adventure", where Captain Toad's theme song will play.

Analysis supports the personal intepretation as well as the counterclaim.

Conclusion: Evidence 1 supports the counterclaim.

Observation: Koizumi's second line makes a reference to "gameplay that features Toad". This preceeds Hayashima's line about Captain Toad's own levels. However, the first two lines talk about the Super Mario 3D World Toad.

Conclusion: Both the Super Mario 3D World Toad and Captain Toad can be generally referred to as Toad.

Counterargument: The generic use of Toad may just refer to Captain Toad as part of his species, while Super Mario 3D World Toad is still The Toad.

Personal argument: There is no truly defined The Toad in the context of these lines. This might mean there are sources which this wiki uses to identify generic Toads as The Toad because they are simply called Toad in official profiles. Alternatively, there might also be sources where The Toad's name is applied to an entirely different Toad. Next step is to search for evidence to support this argument.

Evidence 2: The story of New Super Mario Bros. U on official American site

Evidence reads as: It was just another lovely dinner at the castle with Mario™, Luigi™, Toad™, and Princess Peach™...

Observation: Toad is referenced in the quote, with the notation of the trademark.

Questioning the evidence: In the intro of New Super Mario Bros. U, The Toad himself isn't seen. The quote likely refers to the two playable Toads, also known as Blue Toad and Yellow Toad. However, only one Toad is referenced. Therefore, these characters can be generally called Toad.

Connecting the dots: YoshiKong also linked to the [official American Super Mario 3D World site] in his proposal. This site too refers to the playable Toad just as Toad. However, this still doesn't mean this Toad in question is The Toad, because the use of the name Toad means that even with specific titles, these Toads can be completely interchangable with each other.

Evidence 2 supports the personal argument.

Current verdict 2: Captain Toad is Toad Brigade Captain. Conclusion based on official sources. Next step is to use above analysis to determine whether this means Captain Toad is also The Toad.