Ah, Toad. The little mushroom-headed guy with a high-pitched, loud voice- but full of mysteries, oddities and basically things that make you go "WTF?!".
If I may begin at the beginning. First of all, Toads are a species, and a lot of them have a tendency to have the word "Toad" or a mushroom reference in their name (e.g. Toadsworth or Toadette for the former, Chantarelle for the latter). But why, of all people, is Toad simply called "Toad"?
Wouldn't that be a bit like a couple naming their kid "person"?
Or maybe it's supposed to be a common name (i.e. John) of some kind.
Something I've really been thinking about for a while is- if Toads are mushrooms and they eat mushrooms (the Paper Mario series in particular seems to see them as the basis of a Toad's diet), doesn't that make them cannibals (although, the Toads would be more evolved (e.g. Fungi Sapiens) and the mushrooms are just mushrooms (technically animals, since they have eyes and move around) so it'd be like a human eating monkey meat (eww).)? If they are mushrooms anyway...
Which brings us to the not-so-age-old-but-hey-it's-been-around-for-a-while-and-that's-a-pretty-long-time-on-the-internet question that goes something like this...
Wait for it...
IS TOAD'S MUSHROOM HAT A HAT OR IS IT PART OF HIS HEAD?!
Okay, maybe I made too mush of a big deal out of that ("mush" was a typo but I'm going to leave it in because... well, you should know if you've read the rest of this post), but it's a valid question.
Just think about it though- if you look closely at some of the new 3D artwork (example below in case you're too lazy, there was glitch so don't worry if multiple or no pictures appear, I'll sort it out soon)
As you can see, the mushroom cap doesn't seem to blend with the head- hard to actually explain how it looks. The image speaks for itself (very nasally and high-pitched, in fact).
Also, female Toads like Toadette have pigtails/ponytails that come out seemingly from under their mushroom hats.
Well? What do you think?
And no, I'm not going to bring up how his sprite looks like he's flipping you off. There are more important things than that.
Until next time...
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They're not the only 'cannibals' in the series, there's a pig in Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door who works selling hot dogs at a food stall. And hey, I've seen the 'calling character person' equivalent thing before, remember Tom Cat of Tom and Jerry? Hell, I saw a game where the hero was literally called... Hero.
ReplyDeleteNo idea whether the Mushroom part is a cap or part of the head though. And your artwork example doesn't seem to show up for me.
Doesn't show up at all, sorry. It's a glitch I haven't been able to fix yet.
ReplyDeleteA pig selling hot dogs? Well, there's a block selling blocks in Bowser's Inside Story... not quite the same thing, but still, y'know...
I'll try to get the artwork showing as soon as I can, then you can make up your mind.