Deserts

[shadowgoomba]

First of all, the quicksand. Quicksand, first of all, requires water--it's literately just sand mixed with water, usually appearing in rainforests. How can the quicksand possibly exist in a dry desert?
Another question is how the quicksand pulls Mario within them at all.
Most people float on water. Quicksand is much denser than water (makes sense, since sand weighs more than water), so Mario should easily walk across it without feeling any more tug than you would from stepping in some mud.
Secondly, there's a very large natural population in Mario's deserts. You would think starvation would cause most of the creatures to die out. Particularly interesting are the Pokeys, which are capable of free movement, combat, and even speech with very little water or food. Any carnivorous plant requires extremely delicate care to survive.
Speaking of Pokeys, how do the body segments move together if they're independent of one another?
Lots of anomalies here.

[PDoogan]

In NSMBWii, the spinys are show to pull Mario under in the mini-boss levels so it may just be that.
As for the pokeys, I think the head is the only independent section. The rest work kind of like the tail of a lizard: detachable, but unable to survive on it's own. Also, pokeys are cactus, so they don't require a lot of water to begin with.

I bet you thought I disappeared huh? No, it's just that I only post when I can think of a genuinely decent response.

[kingkoopa]

Wow I think I might be able to take back the accuzation of this place being dead!

Back on topic though, how do you know that there is no underground reserves of water that could create the quicksand. Of course it could also be as PDoogan says. As for Pokeys, I never remember all of the body segments being independent, I just remember that the segments can survive if there is a Pokey head somewhere above them.

[shadowgoomba]

When I said that the sections are independent, I meant that the Pokey is able to control the other sections of its body even when they are disconnected.
Large reserves of water would be unlikely in a desert and would be too deep to affect surface sand. PDoogan's theory makes sense...but it seems odd that the sand's flowing down like that.
The Pokeys are a cactus, yes, but cacti generally don't need to hunt, move around, etc. All of that would require significantly more water.

[Meta Black Yoshi]

Wait, which quicksand are you talking about? Because I think there are a lot of diferent things that could be considered 'like quicksand.'

Like the quicksand inside the pyramid of SM64. And there's the quick sand and the 'super quicksand' outside of the pyramid. Then there's stuff like the Piranah Plant in MK:DD that makes the Ant-lion-pit thing. I think stuff pulling Mario down like PDoogan said may be the only possible explanation for most of it, either that or Mario must live in some kind of movie universe.

An interesting thing is that in Mario Golf TT in one of the desert levels it shows what appears to be a 'sand fall,' continuously flowing just like a water fall, which I can only assume comes from some sort of sand river like thing, or that the whole plane above this cliff that the sand falls from is actually a big mass of slowly shifting sand that gets funneled to this one spot on the edge of the cliff. If sand can flow this way above ground, then maybe it's possible that all of this sand eventual finds its way to some hole. At this point the sand could simply cover the hole, slowly fall into the hole, or quickly fall into the hole. That might explain how someone could fall strait through. I guess for that to happen there would have to be either some kind of bottomless pit under there or some sort of river, maybe water or maybe more sand river, that transported the sand to somewhere else.

As for where that sand river comes from, I don't really have the slightest idea. Could be from wind, or perhaps some sort of magnetic attraction, MK minerals are known to have strange magnetic properties. Or maybe that sand is just somehow sliding down some sort of incomprehensible hill?


I think in real life, quicksand can happen in certain parts of the desert after a rain storm. Water from the storm mixes with some sand in such a way that the water cannot quickly drain deep into the ground. But the sun soon dries the sand back out and what was quicksand becomes just dried up mud. Anything that was stuck in the sand gets trapped and usually dies of heat exhaustion.


Do the pokeys actually hunt? Or is their movement just a defensive thing or a way to move to a better location. Also, its been shown that at least some pokeys are actually spirits, does that mean there are natural ones too, and the ones that are spirits seem pretty corporal so does that mean they are the remains of some creature possessed by the spirit of that creature or by some other type of ghost just like dry bones and the other assorted dray and bone things? And if so, do you think the original creature would have had all the same abilities and traits as the spirit version?

[shadowgoomba]

I'm referring to any sand that has enough strength to pull Mario or anything else under.
Wind would probably scatter the sand, making sandstorms, before it would make a river. Sand is made from silica, and the only two common magnetic elements are iron and nickel. So that doesn't seem likely. Going down a hill is probably most likely, but I don't see how it could keep going indefinitely.
If the quicksand was from a rainstorm, then all of the sand would become quicksand, not just a few patches. It also wouldn't last longer than a half hour and wouldn't have the strength to pull anything under.
I assume the Pokeys hunt, because there's no vegetation and they need to get the energy to move, think, and attack somehow.
I wouldn't think most Pokeys are undead, because it would contradict the concept of the Pokey Mummies and Skellokeys.

[Meta Black Yoshi]

Of course the ME probably has different mineral compositions than our world, so maybe their sand is composed of different compounds too. I agree that wind doesn't seem like something that could make a sand river. In order for the sand to continuously flow it would need some kind of source. Maybe there's some kind of sand geyser somewhere that shoots sand from out of the ground. Or maybe, the whole sand river is actually just a really big conveyor belt type thing with sand on it? That would explain how it flows but not really where it comes from or why there is this convey belt thing bringing in sand.

In a rainstorm, the only places that would become quicksand would be the places where water could not completely drain away into the ground. Most places in our world let all the water drain and soak deep into the ground for the most part, but there are a few isolated areas where there is a sort of water tight underground seal that traps the water and prevents it from draining completely. These places are where normal quicksand occurs.

The quicksand in Mario games doesn't act like normal quicksand though, since Mario can be completely consumed by it. For some quicksand, maybe this is because the sand water mixture is somehow less dense and lighter than Mario. That wouldn't be too surprising considering how certain minerals in ME seem to just float above the ground. The super quick sand of Mario 64 is very interesting, I don't think it can be explained by a hole or by creatures pulling Mario into it. Could this and or the sand river thing simply be explained by magic? Are there any other theories?


Couldn't Pokeyes just get their energy from the sun? Its a fact that plants get more energy from the sun than herbivores get from the plants they eat. Herbivores get more energy from those plants than carnivores get from herbivores, and the sun produces and transfers more energy to the planet than the plants absorb. Maybe the pokeys are just able to absorb more than other plants. The pokeys do seem to have a mouth, which might point to them hunting as well, but on the other hand, lots of things in ME appear to have a mouth, mountains trees, suns, etc. Also, I don't know why, but a plant eating another plant seems weird to me. Yea, and probably most pokeys aren't undead, after all, they are able to grow flowers on their head. It throws me off though whenever they are referred to as ghouls, but ghouls aren't always undead......

[kingkoopa]

Pokeys can't reall be un-dead as Pokey Mummies and other un-dead versions exist. I agree that they could get energy from the sun.((and if they do its not like they will ever run out, ME's deserts are in perpetual sunlight!)) But one thing confuses me, if pokey's can move, then what exactly do their roots do?((considering they have some.)) I don't think they have roots since they can take the bottom part off of their body, and no roots are shown. Nonetheless, Pokeys are very mysterious creatures. But then again we are talking about the creatures of a world where mushrooms talk and Flowers give you fire powers