I think it would be Nintendo's call with this one. It's their character. Rare kind of arbitrarily decided to make Cranky Kong the "original" DK in the DKC games. Since then it's been accepted that way, but Nintendo's stance has been pretty ambiguous.

I don't think it has ever been called into question. In fact, considering Nintendo's no story rule, it's unlikely it ever will. I don't see ANY evidence that Cranky isn't Donkey Kong, bob. The only question really is whether the current Donkey Kong is Jr. or not.

It wasn't arbitrary, either. Cranky is designed after the old DK model. The Current DK was so different looking, when Diddy was commanded to not be DK Jr., it made good sense that the Current DK had no need to be the original any more. Cranky was clearly stated to be the original DK in the DKC games, and it was implied later on. I'm just saying, there isn't any good evidence, bob.

I agree, perhaps arbitrary doesn't apply. What I meant to say was that Rare took it upon themselves to establish that Cranky is the original Donkey Kong. And that's fine, I like it that way too. Even though I feel like Nintendo has since distanced themselves from Rare's DK continuity. But I mean, they haven't acknowledged it as not being canon, so I don't think it's wrong to assume it is.

Anyway, moving on:

Fiction: Birdo is a man.

Fact: Who knows? For the longest time we were told that yes, Birdo is female, but this was only said retroactively. Looking back at the original SMB2 manual, It is clearly stated that "He thinks he's a girl and he spits eggs from his mouth. He'd rather be called Birdetta." Of course even this didn't make much sense because in a misprint/mix-up they refer to him as Ostro, not Birdo. That misprint even carries over to the games' end credits.

But then, more recently, a Birdo trophy in Brawl states that Birdo is a "A pink creature of indeterminate gender that some say would rather be called Birdetta." So from this, it's pretty obvious that Birdo IS a man and always has been, but Nintendo decided that having a transgendered character in a Mario game was a little much for impressionable young minds (well, at least outside of Japan).

I'm pretty sure they started referring to Birdo as male in the west again once Mario Strikers Charged was released. I distinctly remember the official site for it repeating the "he thinks he's a girl" line from SMB2.

Fiction: Mario is a silent protagonist.

Fact: No one at Nintendo will let him talk.

He talks. In some jumping levels you can't get him to shut up. It's pleasant, though. Like Italian Mickey Mouse.

Mario doesn't talk?

Well, you could have fooled me. He's quite the chatterbox.

He doesn't have scripted lines. Except one in Luigi's Mansion.

YEah, unless you think Link talks.

Yeah of course Mario talks-talks guys. Grunts and catchphrases isn't what Al meant. Talking as in actual dialogue and stuff. Out-of-game experiences don't really count. Ever play any of the handheld Golf and Tennis games? When you finally meet Mario, all he can say are stock phrases. Also if I remember right, the old website for Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour had interviews with some of the characters. It was all primarily Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi though.

If you read Iwata Asks at all you'd get it.

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/supermario ... _page3.jsp

For the lazy.

I've always been fond of the idea Mario never learned English. He speaks Italian only and only knows a few English catchphrases that he tries to communicate to people to. Otherwise he's forced to just speak in Italian gibberish with Luigi (who is fortunately bilingual). When Luigi isn't around, Mario just shuts up and acts like he's listening. Since most people are just telling him to destroy shit or collect stars, he tends to get the point.

Notice if you will in Super Mario Galaxy 2, the text always has visual icons of stuff they're talking about. This is not for the benefit of the player. This is for Mario.

Mario can see the speech bubbles?

Either that or those pictures are meant to be visual demonstrations. But given the nature of the games, seeing speech bubbles wouldn't surprise me.

Crazy guy's got a point.

Then again, regarding those pictographs that appear in people's speech... like Bowser's face. Tell me, does anybody know is Bowser's name is ever even explicitly stated in the game? I don't remember seeing it anywhere. It's like Bowser isn't named here, but simply referred to by pictograph.

I think the Toad Brigade does it.