11-01-2013, 11:53 AM
You know, I've never really thought about it before, but has anybody ever reflected on how incredibly common transformation-magic is in the Mushroom Kingdom?
Think about it, in the first game you have the storyline with the koopa king turning people into various objects including blocks, plantlife, and such.
Then in SMB3 the Koopalings stole the magic rods to turn the kings into various things ... and if you complete an airship wearing certain costumes the king will even offer to transform you back to normal.
Then in SMW the first magician character you've ever come across in any game, the Magikoopa, uses a single spell whose primary purpose is to turn yellow blocks into koopas (although as a side benefit it can also harm Mario).
This pattern occurs again in Yoshi's Island as Kamek uses his magic most frequently to transform ordinary enemies into monsters.
Not to mention all the power-ups that Mario uses throughout his adventures that transform him into various things. I mean, I don't think they've ever been explicitly stated to be magical, but what other explanation is there?
(There's probably a lot of examples in the more recent games as well but I'm not recalling them at the moment).
Point is, it seems like transformation magic is not only somewhat common, but also the primary form which magic takes in their world. And it seems like it is the responsibility of the world's royalty to make sure that power is not abused (between the princess allegedly being able to undo transformations, and the various kings charged with protecting their wands).
So if you want an explanation of what royalty even does ... well there you go.
This is not really relevant to the overall topic at hand just something that popped into my head.
Think about it, in the first game you have the storyline with the koopa king turning people into various objects including blocks, plantlife, and such.
Then in SMB3 the Koopalings stole the magic rods to turn the kings into various things ... and if you complete an airship wearing certain costumes the king will even offer to transform you back to normal.
Then in SMW the first magician character you've ever come across in any game, the Magikoopa, uses a single spell whose primary purpose is to turn yellow blocks into koopas (although as a side benefit it can also harm Mario).
This pattern occurs again in Yoshi's Island as Kamek uses his magic most frequently to transform ordinary enemies into monsters.
Not to mention all the power-ups that Mario uses throughout his adventures that transform him into various things. I mean, I don't think they've ever been explicitly stated to be magical, but what other explanation is there?
(There's probably a lot of examples in the more recent games as well but I'm not recalling them at the moment).
Point is, it seems like transformation magic is not only somewhat common, but also the primary form which magic takes in their world. And it seems like it is the responsibility of the world's royalty to make sure that power is not abused (between the princess allegedly being able to undo transformations, and the various kings charged with protecting their wands).
So if you want an explanation of what royalty even does ... well there you go.
This is not really relevant to the overall topic at hand just something that popped into my head.