some fandom disagreements are like "I see your point but I think this other aspect of the narrative is more significant," and some are like "I don't think you can read."
"You interpret yeerks differently than I do, which sure."
vs.
"I'm pretty sure you haven't read an Animorphs book since you were 10, and even then probably didn't get past the first few in the series."
Ace Attorney law school headcanons because I'm trying to wrap my head around how all these characters are lawyers so young
I need to see an office christmas party where all the prosecutors and defense attorneys are chatting about Themis and practicing law before they could even pay taxes and whatever and Apollo and Phoenix are standing off to the side like "YOUR EXPERIENCES ARE NOT UNIVERSAL"
Headcanon that when Makuta shapeshift, they split apart into a swirling swarm of various pieces, before reassembling themselves into their desired form; Basically Makuta’s vortex form from MNOG. Every Makuta is a walking Lego Creator 3-in-1 set, and while not every piece is used, you can spot some familiar ones every now and then among the parts. Absorbing things with the shadow hand adds to their selection. MNOG Makuta represents the destruction that all of creation comes from and returns to: The parts bin, with the shadow hand adding to their mass. So too does the species exemplify this idea in their creation of Rahi and constant rebuilding of themselves.
People are really out there having discourse over whether Samus Aran has an innie or an outie. Pal, after all the fucked up alien genetic engineering and hybridisation with eldritch abominations and what have you that she's been through, whatever she's got going on downstairs probably has teeth.
I've been meaning to ask you this, but I was too caught up in "The Lunar Chronicles" stuff. Moving on, I read that "who do you think is the most incompetent character in hp", and decided to ask which is the MOST competent. Now I know that somebody asked you this before (at least I'm pretty sure) but mine is more specific. I saw this same prompt on Reddit, and a lot of people answered Barty Crouch Jr cause he suceded in being Moody and getting Harry through the TT. What do you think?
I’m actually going to have to go with Lily Evans.
The trouble with Barty is that, yes, while I would say he is one of the more competent characters his scheme also works mostly thanks to a) his own ridiculously hard work and b) sheer dumb luck. Even with Barty helping Harry out for the second task, there was very little guarantee that Harry would be the one to touch the portkey. In fact, he very nearly wasn’t, as he and Cedric get there at the very time and Harry hypothetically could have gone “Nah, Cedric, you deserve it and you could use the money more than me.”
Imagine Tom just staring as this Cedric Diggory kid shows up in Potter’s place, after all that goddamn work. Frankly, there are far easier ways to kidnap Harry that could have been done immediately, rather than Barty having to maintain a cover for months. Harry could very easily be lured out of Hogwarts (hell, that’s what happens in fifth year and all the way through his third year). Honestly, tell Harry there’s a mysterious mystery involving the dark lord in Hogsmeade and Harry will run straight there under his invisibility cloak for extra sneaking. That or just nab Harry during a Hogsmeade weekend. No need for this convoluted scheme involving the goblet of fire and making sure Harry actually survives the tournament.
No need, in fact, to bother with the tournament at all. That always felt like a Barty scheme to me, something he came up with because he wanted to destroy his father so very badly and got a little too attached to the portkey idea.
Just because it happened to work out doesn’t make it exactly the most efficient way to do things.
For similar reasons, Dumbledore’s off the table. While he’s an excellent manipulator and things mostly worked out for him, his having Harry hunt down the horcrux plan and nobly commit suicide at the end was so prone to failure it required almost divine intervention to work. It required these three kids in the woods managing to retrieve all of Tom’s horcruxes, it required them having the means to dispose of them (which Snape had to risk his neck to get them), it required Snape not being murdered off before he could impart the terrible truth to Harry (which he very nearly was), it required Harry choosing to sacrifice himself, it required Dumbledore being right about where all of Tom’s horcruxes are located (he got very lucky that they were all in Britain and half in Hogwarts).
So, why Lily Evans?
There’s a few reasons. First, while we don’t see much of her, canonically she is a brilliant character both by the acknowledgement of other characters and by the after effects of the actions we do see her take in canon.
That’s not really competence though, so where the competence comes in is in two ways 1) she ensures her son’s survival in a means that far surpasses anything any other character has been capable of while also guaranteeing very strong protection of her sister’s family 2) she successfully improves her station tremendously in the wizarding world and she does all of this at a ridiculously young age.
For Harry, canonically we’re told that Harry survives thanks to Lily’s sacrifice. Now, I’ve never really bought this, but if it’s remotely true it probably means Lily did some scary shit right before that went down. And, somehow, she does what no one has ever managed to do before. More though, Lily is responsible for the blood wards: protections so powerful that they prevent Harry’s residence from being found and attacked for seventeen years. Protections that neither Dumbledore, Voldemort, nor anyone else in the wizarding world seems capable of replicating. Harry’s own person, up until fourth year and Voldemort steals his blood, is protected from Voldemort’s touch and we see Quirell lit on fire for trying to harm him. From the grave, Lily Evans protects Harry more than any other character in the entire series. She pulled this off when she was only twenty-one.
As for her station, while I don’t want to give kudos to Lily marrying James I will say that she goes from a muggleborn with no prospects to marrying a pureblood lord of a very wealthy and prestigious house. Miserable future marriage or not, that’s pretty damn competent.
So, yeah, there’s my two cents.
because I love them and part of the shame is on Karen Miller, their friendship is the only reason worth reading her books
So, First.
I am a tea bitch. I love tea, i have at times worshiped a personification of tea.
So. Bias is there.
BUT.
Can I present a “Tea as Connection”
———
The first and most important moment when an initiate interacts with the Jedi Order for the first time, is the “Welcoming”.
While originally this was only practiced by a singular Crechemaster, it slowly became an integral part to the Jedi Tradition. Most Jedi remember this event fondly, as it is the day of their first successful meditation to interact with the Force. The Crechemaster gathers up all the successful initiates, and then uses the Force with precision and control to brew them each a cup of floral tea, traditionally created with flowers that have just begun to bloom- same as the young initiates. It is a masterful show to witness, and most Jedi who roam the galaxy are unable to replicate it. The exercises to prepare are specifically taught when training as a Crechemaster.
———
Tea is, of course, enjoyed at multiple festivals and celebrations throughout the temple. Many Creche Clans make up a silly little one for the younglings to be able to brew tea for sharing with each other. (Most well known, at the moment, is the Krayt Clan, who for almost 50 years, have managed to celebrate the exact day that Tatooine experiences a solar eclipse for the twin suns. No one knows how the initiates decide this exact day, but it is without fail, on that exact day and the exact time too.
———
The Bonding
The day a Padawan and Master agree to form a bond, there is a especially important ritual. Traditionally, Padawans are asked at Dawn, and the braid is made as the sun rises. Then, the pair divides and the Master goes to get to know their padawan through the eyes of their creche clan. They create a tea based on what they learn, combining master and padawan tastes. That evening, they serve the tea to each other, as well as a symbolic cup for the Force.
———
The Knighting is a surprise to most who get to experience it. The Grandmaster and the Master of the Order brew and serve the tea for the newly knighted Jedi. This is both to recognize the effort put towards this point on the Knight’s side of the journey, and to remind the two masters where their journey began.
———
Similar to the Knighting Ceremony, the Ceremony of Mastery is done in reverse. The day that a Knight becomes a Master, they are gifted a packet of tea, and then told to go and brew tea for their crechemaster. The crechemaster started their journey, they are encouraged to go and show where their journey has gone.
———
Honoring The Life
When a master dies, all padawans, fully knighted under them or not, gather together. The each brew a cup of tea that the master drank while training them. The padawans drink the cup, while meditating to release any anger or frustration over their master’s death, and then remember and honor the good memories they have of them. Then they take the tea wash out the cup, and work together to redistribute the Master’s belongings. *This has also been done by masters for lost padawans, in which case the master and crechemaster will preform the ceremony.
———
I hope that this made sense and that someone else loves the idea as much as I did! Enjoy, feel free to add your own tea ceremony!
If I had to kludge Temple Guards into making sense...
Hmm unpopular opinion maybe but just not agreeing with the Council 100% of the time doesn't make you a maverick. Jedi aren't a dictatorship and they aren't actually expected to blindly follow their leaders without question; in fact, they are taught from childhood that they should always think for themselves and not go with whatever someone else says. That was, like, half the point of the Ilum arc.
Yoda praises Petro for breaking the ice because yeah, it's just frozen water, anybody can break that and it'd be pretty stupid to just believe it's impossible. The younglings aren't afraid to cut a Council member off or disobey him and ultimately Obi-Wan praising him for blatantly disregarding his orders. Ahsoka calls Tera Sinube 'gramps' and there doesn't seem to be any problem. People regularly argue with the Council. Council members like Obi-Wan argue with the Council. Yoda argues with the Council.
Qui-Gon isn't nearly as rebellious as people think he is. He's definitely contentious but it's not quite the same.
Qui-Gon is also genuinely shocked when he doesn’t get his way in the movie, because up to that point, every other time, yeah, they argued a bit, but the Council did what he asked! If you fully expect the Council to agree with you, you’re not exactly a hardcore rebel. Qui-Gon loved the Jedi, he wanted Anakin to be a Jedi, and he seemed to really think he could convince them of this, too. He’s rebellious in that he’s stubborn and headstrong, not that he hated the other Jedi.
Hot take because I’m bored and think about this All The Time. I’m not a fan of the canon(?) of Matoran “eating” by absorbing energy via their hands, because the absolute cultural dietary potential could be PEAK.
Ko-Matoran are considered exceptionally sophisticated and “stuffy” in all things they do. Except when it comes to food.
Some HCs regarding the Ko-Matoran diet. (Under the cut, this bitch LOMNG)
What are your feelings on Luna Lovegood?
You know, I’m really torn on Luna.
I suppose I’ll get into Fandom Luna, a casual glance at Luna from canon, and why she sometimes really grinds my gears.
Luna is one of those characters who often appears in stories she has no business being in simply because the author and audience love her so damn much. I’m guilty of this a little as well, Luna’s a relatively minor character in “Lily” and yet given the expectation of her appearance I couldn’t justify a reason to not include her and make her artificially important. So, in nearly every story Luna will show up either on time or much earlier than expected, will remain friends with Harry or else become friends with him even when other canon friends become enemies and then...
Well, no one has any idea what to do with her.
So often Luna is reduced to a collection of weird quirks. Oh, Luna’s on screen? Um, have her ramble something about nargles, wrackspurts, or what have you. So Luna does as much and then every other character ignores it because the author has no idea how the hell anyone would react to “the nargles are bursting out of your eardrums, Harry.”
As a result, I think Luna is often very very very poorly written and not really an engaging character. Luna’s just there, sort of like the way Fred and George in many stories is just there, except even more so because she just spurts nonsense at periodic intervals.
She was a little better than this in canon but even there she was sort of the weird friend. She was a very interesting side character but she didn’t add much to the story. Harry’s sort of friends with her, but she doesn’t really teach him much, become important later on like Neville, or be anything besides just “Harry’s weird friend”. Granted, she didn’t need to be, JKR didn’t really have time to spare on Luna but like many of JKR’s side characters she was an oddly fleshed out NPC that probably shouldn’t have been as fleshed out as she was.
That said, I have seen Luna unbelievably well written and she does have a fascinating backstory. We know Luna witnessed her mother’s death, and that it was something mysterious and horrifying, but we never see it nor learn exactly what it was. Luna has a very fascinating way of seeing the world that is different from everyone else, is completely ostracized for it, but is never bitter because of it. So, at her heart, Luna’s a fascinating character, you just have to dig around a bit to find her.
I guess with all of that Luna’s one of the few characters I... Not unironically like (as I do like Dumbledore for being such a bastard) but like as one of the genuinely heroic/good characters in the series. She lives in a different world from the rest of us, seeing truths we cannot see, and even those she’s closest to never quite reach her. Luna’s on a quest for truth, in a time of war and violence, witnesses the desperate choices her father makes and more. While she edges what I call fanfiction quirky, where you’re just weird for no purpose, her differences help ostracize her and make it so that no one will ever get her and she knows it. I love her constant clashes with Hermione, who just cannot handle her, and the serenity with which Luna accepts the constant adversity against her. Luna knows who she is, accepts it, and never changes despite the constant adversity even among ‘friends’ all with such grace that you would never even guess her feelings are hurt. That is a very difficult and admirable thing to do.
I do with either JKR had made her a bigger deal and introduced her earlier or else not spent as much time on her (Luna’s in this weird limbo of being somewhat important but also not important at all) but I do like her quite a bit and wish that, when she does show up in fics, she’s given a bit more of a spotlight and depth.
Mundane things I like to think the Toa Nuva use their mask powers for:
Tahu: Uses his mask of shielding as a makeshift mosquito net when visiting Le-Wahi. He is incredibly smug about it to Kopaka, whose method of freezing the mosquitoes is not nearly as effective.
Gali: When she’s finally had enough of her brothers, she just… goes underwater. And stays there. It’s the only place that she can rely on to avoid Pohatu, Tahu and Lewa. She can even fall asleep sometimes - her mask takes care of all that not-dying stuff.
Lewa: Lewa doesn’t like dirt. He uses his mask when he has to walk to hover a few centimetres off the ground, Essek-from-Critical-Role-style. It also makes him ever so slightly taller than Kopaka, which he can never get enough of.
Onua: Onua is perfectly fine with doing hard labour if the matoran need help - he can often be found lifting and moving entire huts. Also, Lewa sometimes steals his mask and challenges Tahu to arm-wrestles. Tahu always accepts because he has his honour to defend.
Pohatu: You name it. A Matoran needs some glass for a window? He’ll just run around on some sand until it solidifies. Need a fire and Tahu’s not around? He’ll rub two sticks together fast enough to create nuclear fission. Just plain hot? He simply fans himself.
Kopaka: On the rare occasion when Kopaka is willing to be somewhat sociable, the matoran play a sort of “challenge mode” hide-and-seek, in which Kopaka is the seeker. They have to hide without relying on simply hiding behind or under stuff. Kopaka is okay with doing this. He almost always wins anyway.
Takanuva learned how to brighten and dim his mask, and subsequently invented morse code.
Takanuva’s mask also has the effect of “generating feelings of peace and trust” in others. It should have been called the Mask Of Being Perceived As A Responsible Adult. He kept subconsciously activating it around the Turaga for the first few months before Vakama realised what was happening.
It was the collective feeling of “wait, why did we agree to that?” that descended on the Turaga every time Takanuva left the room.
Takanuva: Hey can I do [extremely stupid and/or dangerous thing]?
Vakama, eyes slightly glazed over: Mhm, sure, sounds like a plan.
Takanuva: *leaves to go do thing*
Vakama:
Vakama: Whoa wAIT -
You can’t tell me the Makuta didn’t have pets. That they didn’t have little personal pets, most personally created by them, to keep as company. These horrible murderers but they truly love their pets as their moral compass and would go full John Wick if someone laid a hand on them, and the Toa can’t even blame these Makuta in such a scenario.
...Alas, imagine these pets then wondering where their owners have gone, why they’ve suddenly disappeared. And imagine Miserix gathering up the pets of his deceased comrades, feeling nostalgic and remembering his times with his fellow Makuta, before the betrayal. Unconditionally looking after these pets, wondering what happened to his own when he was imprisoned in Artidax.
Maybe a big reason as to why Teridax noticed Matoro is because Matoro had a pet shop. Matoro liked working with animals rejected from the Archives and giving them new homes, and that warmed even Teridax’s ice-cold heart enough to earn his respect. Imagine if Teridax was secretly fond of the Rahi Nui and Tarakava Nui as messed up pets. Like that dude from Return of the Jedi who loves the monstrous Rancor that eats people and is genuinely broken when it dies.
Like YEAH Teridax likes to feed people to these pets, a lot of Makuta do. But their love of these pets is so strong that you can’t help but think, “Well there are WORSE ways to go.” Imagine someone being like “I’d die for your pet” and a Makuta promises “Oh you WILL.” And you’re so fond of their precious pet-owner relationship that you can’t even be that upset.
Why do you think muggleborns "exit Hogwarts to find 0 opportunities"? I've read your thoughts on Tom (~ no way he actually wanted to work in customer service, etc) but Lily? Yes, in canon she and James used the Potters money to live off & help the Order, but. Or is it more your headcanon because it makes sense in a pureblood supremacy society? I think it's fitting but I'd like to know if there's smth I missed... (do you think the same happen to hermione after? or is she too famous?..)
Oh, oh ho, no pretty much nothing on this blog comes directly from canon.
It is, at best, things you can infer about canon if you tilt your head and look at it from all the right angles that JKR intended you to look at it.
So, as far as canon is concerned, this never came up. We know muggleborns are looked down upon by your general pureblood wizard, we know muggles are even more so, but Harry’s world is a very small one and it’s never implied that muggleborns have issues securing employment outside of Hogwarts.
Dumbledore tells Harry that Tom ends up a clerk because he wanted to, because he likes dark shiny things. This is despite this having at least been Tom’s second choice in career, something that doesn’t really grant him any power over anyone, and, well, something he doesn’t appear to enjoy in the memories shown to us. But Dumbledore has a boy to convince to kill himself for the greater good and explaining, “And then Tom Riddle, the top scoring student in decades, barely managed to secure employment because of his blood status” makes Tom look less evil. No, all the shitty things that happen to Tom are things he intends to happen! What an evil mastermind!
But yes, for Tom specifically, Dumbledore makes it seem as if Tom specifically worked at Borgin and Burkes because he somehow knew about the sale of the locket. I highly doubt this on every level. I think it made for a nice story that Dumbledore could tell Harry and may even believe himself. Dumbledore, after all, is the kind of guy who thought it made him look fantastic to pretend to light an impoverished muggleborn orphan’s wardrobe and all his worldly possessions on fire to teach him a lesson. HE SURE SHOWED HIM!
The fact that Tom Riddle, who was actively shmoozing Slughorn for years, who supposedly had all these pureblood friends, who had record breaking exam scores, was prefect then head boy, etc. cannot get his foot in the door of the ministry or seemingly anywhere... That’s very very very damning evidence to me.
It also is evidence that makes a lot of sense to me.
The Wizarding World has a hilariously small population. Take Harry’s Hogwarts class size. There are what? About seven kids in each house in his year? Let’s round that up to an even ten. That means at any given time in Hogwarts you have about 280 children. This, even, seems very generous as it seems the important wizarding families don’t have children all that often (once in a generation) and that there might be at most two or three muggleborns in a given year. Hogwarts seems to be Great Britain (as well as Ireland’s) not only premier magical institution but only magical institution.
This seems comparable given that the other major schools we know of cover multiple populous countries in Europe. Beaux Batons, from what we can tell, seems to be the major school for Western Europe. Ilvermory covers the entire United States. Durmstrang all of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
I cannot emphasize how small of a population size the wizarding world must be with these numbers. Forget the size of a small country, forget the size of a large city, the wizarding world is approximately the size of a very very very small town.
This is why everyone knows each other, their major shopping district is essentially a single street, their ‘bad side of town’ is a corner on a street, etc. There are maybe a couple thousand people in the wizarding world. This is nothing.
Now, given that, it becomes clear that there just aren’t that many businesses/ventures for gainful employment around. The Weasley twins make their own business, Charlie actually goes to Romania to become a lumberjack er dragon raiser, Bill goes to work for essentially a foreign nation with the goblins. There’s one newspaper and one tabloid that really feels like a newspaper made out of Luna Lovegood’s garage. There’s a series of quidditch teams that feel like it must consist of half the population. Everyone else, if they have jobs at all and aren’t simply rolling in money and being good old lords, works for the ministry.
Now, the ministry is huge, overbloated, and a mess. Arthur’s department, for example, should not exist. How is “Misuse of Muggle Artifacts” such an overwhelmingly large problem that it cannot possibly be absorbed by another department? What this means is I suspect the ministry a) is filled with joke departments nobody needs just to provide jobs b) is filled with coveted career positions c) even if you overbloat the ministry there’s only so many jobs.
Given the world they live in, given the prejudice against muggleborns, do you really think the ministry is going to waste a spot on someone with the last name of Riddle or Evans? Are they really not, instead, going to give that open position to family or friends? The wizarding world feels as if it is made of rank nepotism (Slughorn’s existence even kind of confirms that). Slughorn is so influential because he gets you these networking connections you desperately need. You think Tom enjoys shmoozy cocktail parties with these assholes? You think Lily does? Please, it’s because everyone needs this. The Wizarding World is built on top of who you know.
And, of course, your last name.
Although canon never implies that Lily was anything other than happy to be married to James immediately, have a child, and not work I feel that we’re never given a job for her is very damning evidence. Lily was the most brilliant witch (well probably magic user but I’ll play nice with canon here) of her entire generation, and she either chooses not to get a job or given the above seemingly cannot do so.
I imagine many muggleborns face this bitter reality when they exit Hogwarts. The world is tiny and all jobs go to friends and relatives. Hogwarts was this insular, isolated, dream that made them think they can make it out there.
They can’t.
Even Muggle Studies seems to go to purebloods and the man heading “Misuse of Muggle Artifacts” is a pureblood jackass.
As for Hermione, I think she got very lucky and never realized it. In part because the population is so small, and those who were in power got tied up on Voldemort and thus screwed over because of him, things got very shaken up. More, Hermione by being Harry’s best friend and aiding his quest is a national hero. She gets the leg up she never knew she needed to enter the ministry and earn a very high ranking position very quickly as nearly every occupied position is suddenly vacant from the cleaning house.
Now, Hermione will tell you she earned this herself. That she simply worked harder than everyone else. But she’ll likely never realize that thanks mostly due to her friendship with Harry, as well as being in the right place at the right time, she has the opportunity to do what no one else in her situation could.
But that’s Hermione for you.
The Kanohi Volitakk isn’t considered inferior to the Huna in-universe because the sound dampening effect is actually quite a big deal. If the movies are anything to go by, most Matoran Universe beings make mechanical creaking sounds as they move. It’s probably damn near impossible for most of them to move silently, and those that can, such as Lariska, have probably spent years of training on it.
I imagine some De-Matoran villages have this practice culturally ingrained to the point where creaking is considered uncouth or even offensive. As well as learning to move with care, they probably consider rigorous maintenence of their joints an essential part of daily hygiene.
And even if the creaking/whirring isn't an issue (it does tend to be pretty inconsistent in the movies/animations, and is fairly quiet even when it is there), these characters are also, y'know, made of metal. Every step on a hard surface would produce an audible *klank* and even on soft surfaces, they're still very heavy and would make a fair amount of noise. Being able to negate that entirely is a huge advantage.
The Huna would not be considered inferior because of this, though. Complete invisibility is still a big deal. In truth, its usefulness and the Volitak's are more or less equal, they just use different strategies to accomplish a similar goal. A Huna-user can completely avoid visual detection, but they have to take care to stay quiet, while a Volitak-user is completely silent, but has to be careful they aren't seen, since they're not fully invisible. And both share the weakness of still casting a shadow (which, fun fact, means their powers are extremely accurate active camouflage, not true [semi-]transparency). So it really is a fairly equal trade-off.
This is a wonderfully fascinating discussion, and the question of how much sound biomechanical beings make while moving around has me laughing at the idea that maybe some mechanical sounds may be involuntary/unavoidable. Like how I've seen it posited that Cybertronians have stuff like internal cooling systems that kick in automatically when they reach a certain temperature.
Hypothesis: the six Metru serve different cognitive functions of the Great Spirit Robot
Consequentially, the failure of the Matoran to work results in a critical, direct attack on Mata Nui’s mind. It was crucial in keeping Mata Nui asleep following the initial strike with the virus.
These compliment the Barraki species which serve as (more) formal organ systems (see the forums for that headcanon)
– Submitted by ToaGonel
Random headcanon: the reason that Peach and Bowser don’t seem to get a lot of respect in some Super Mario games is because the Mushroom Kingdom is kind of a rural backwater and isn’t terribly important or influential politically, so people tend to regard Bowser as a C-list villain for being so hung up on such an insignificant conquest. Nobody really expects Bowser to be a serious threat – that would be like expecting a guy whose main claim to fame is repeatedly failing to conquer Wyoming to be a serious threat – so they get taken by surprise every single time.
So what you’re saying is that Bowser is more or less on the same level of villainy as Dr. Doofenshmirtz?
Oh, quite the opposite – point him at any target that isn’t the Mushroom Kindgom and he’s this massive outside context problem that rolls over entire armies and cracks planets in half. It’s just the Mushroom Kingdom in particular he can’t seem to figure out, and that bothers him terribly.
The obvious implication is that, like, Mario is an A-tier hero who happens to live in a C-tier nation.
Like, if Clark Kent hadn’t moved to the big city for a reporting job, he’d still be Superman. And there’s be some villain who tried to knock over a bank in Bumfuck Kansas and wound up having a very bad day.
(And eventually we have Lex Luthor spending a huge amount of time trying and failing to run some penny-ante scheme in rural Kansas and failing, and no one can take him seriously despite the fact that he’s just as competent as he would be in canon.)
In Oregon there lives a species of snake capable of surviving tetrodotoxin doses strong enough to kill animals thousands of times their size. This is because they evolved alongside a species of poisonous newt which they consume regularly, which produces ludicrous amounts of a poison thousands of times stronger than cyanide. They got to this point by fighting each other in the same bumfuck nowhere habitat for millions of years. The newts got more toxic to fight the snakes. The snakes got better immunity to keep eating newts. Now we’re left with snakes capable of eating some of the most poisonous creatures alive, and newts so deadly that they are inedible to anything other than these snakes.
What I’m trying to say is that Mario and Bowser are the result of two evenly-matched overpowered idiots fighting the same battle for decades. The consequences only become clear when you square them up to literally anything else.
