Random thought, but who would win...

[cheat-master30]

In a conflict between 'real life' like villains (current level of war technology, alternate universe) and a villain group in the Mario series? Do you think say, Bowser would win against a modern world army with the forces from the platformers and Mario Galaxy games?

Or hell, the X Nauts? Smithy?

[Artemendo]

Bowser couldn't win against a plumber, and Mario didn't even have guns. Seriously, the Mario villains are so harmless they are only dangerous in the context of Mario games. Not only do the almost never kill anyone, heck, they can't even eat people right, Tubba Blubba and Hooktail release people they ate long ago.

[cheat-master30]

True, but this is Mario we're talking about, who could tear down a castle with his bare fists and fight perfectly fine in a black hole. And remember, Dimentio and co had the power to theoretically destroy reality, or everything that ever existed.

They don't kill anyone (although killing people in the Mushroom Kingdom is hard work, many dangerous elements of the real world like infection are non existant to much of a case, and things to revive and heal back from the brink basically exist naturally), and some don't eat enemies correctly (although Boss Bass and Bubba do), but hey, that's to stop a high age rating.

[PDoogan]

The shadow queen vaporized Grodus's body. She also dragged a bunch of audience members to their death to refill her HP. I think that counts as pretty dangerous.

[Artemendo]

Dimentio had the power to theoretically destroy reality, but all it took is a few bonks to the head to stop his "ultimate form". A real-life missile would have taken him out in one shot. Well, if that missile had the power of the Pure Hearts and so on... though I bet even without it, a barrage of ammo would bring down most any Mario villain regardless of invincibility - after all, it's invincibility to attacks possible for Mario, who uses a freaking hammer as a weapon.

[Sarisa]

I think what would win the war for RL armies is their superior tactical and strategic skills. Bowser, for all his power, has no strategic skills and only rudimentary tactical skills. The MK wouldn't be able to repel an invasion from three directions at once.

[Vent]

I don't really know where one gets off comparing a fictional video game franchise with the real world, especially one so withdrawn from reality as Mario. There's practically nothing to base any speculation on.

[Artemendo]

Stop being so negative. If you always say we "must be joking" and "how could we believe that", why are you visiting a forum based around taking Mario seriously in the first place? Taking Mario seriously means we consider things the games would never touch, like what a confrontation between the Mario universe and the real world would be like.

[cheat-master30]

Good point, although fictional characters have never been good at any kind of tactics, video games, movies, TV shows... you name it. The sad thing is, the entertainment industry thinks warfare and invasions resemble world war 1 rather than anything in the last fifty years.

On the flip side, I am talking about a planetary level conflict, not a kingdom specific one, which could make it more interesting, as the Mushroom World has many more different species/races/organisations than arguably the real world, often with a different agenda.

Also, keep in mind I don't just mean 'Bowser vs everyone else', I mean 'any/all villain group' against 'any real world army'. Bowser is an obvious bet to lose as far as strategy goes, but what of Smithy and the Factory making infinite weapon supplies, or the Shroobs? Or the X Nauts? Or the Kremlings? Or the Wario Land series villains? Some seem smarter tactically than the Koopa troop (where did that name come from anyway?)

[Vent]

Like I said though, serious discussion on such an inane subject is next to impossible. You could easily say Bowser would lose to the US Army, I could easily say he wouldn't, with no actual way to prove otherwise.

I'm not trying to be negative, but there's definitely a limit to just HOW seriously one can take Mario even when trying to initiate serious discussion.

[Artemendo]

There is no way to prove 90% of this forum's theories simply because the games and manuals only go so far. We make up stuff and trying to make it sound plausible and fit the official things, or just think about other aspects of it.

And you ARE trying to be negative. Your recent comments include:
What else is there to add?
Why would anybody WANT to imagine that?
Tell me you're not serious about that last part.
Who cares?

That doesn't really encourage creativity or discussion. Please, we're trying to be open to everything here, and saying "OMG your ideas are stupid" is just killing everyone's mood.

[EpicGyllynn]

Okay, Koopa Army vs. Real World Army? My bets on the Koopa Army, they definately have the advantage in numbers, as well as Magic, and the Koopa Cruiser and robots from Galaxy are pretty High Tech, man, I doubt a real world army could take on Gobblegut, or Fiery Pirhana, let alone a man-sized, fire breathing Turtle, with a seemingly indestructable Shell, and the strength to move Islands. Yeah, Bowser wins.

[Artemendo]

Well, Bowser never had more than 100 Paper Mario HP. That's about the endurance of fifty Goombas. That translates to a real-world endurance of fifty first-graders. It's really not that strong.
The villains in Mario's world are only menacing in context of their foes being mushrooms and plumbers. The Shadow Queen is dangerous, I admit that, but a nuclear bomb or even something smaller would take care of her regardless of magic power.

[Sarisa]

If it's every force seen on the Mushroom Planet defending against an Earth invasion, I think the Mushroom World wins. RL armies still have more skills, but the defenders now have some militarily competent RPG villains on their side and the capacity to negate Earth's advantage in armaments. The strange physics will also greatly aid the defenders.

[Artemendo]

OK, let's see... even with SMRPG, the strongest mass-produced weapon the Mushroom World would have would be the Gunyolk and its Breaker Beam. There's also the Banzai Bills and maybe even bigger ones... pretty powerful.
But nuclear weapons, they're just so destructive. Drop one on Toad Town and Peach's Castle, drop a second one on Bowser's Castle, that's the main points of power completely obliterated.
However, there's still the very simple possibility why they could win very easily, and that would be if 1-Up Shrooms are real and not just gameplay. Then even the worst human weapons would only wreck the buildings, but the people will simply get back up. And yes, the Mushroom World seems extremely big compared to the real one, so there'd be many, many times more combatants on their side.

[Koopalmier]

It's easy: platformer villains would lose. RPG villains would win. The weakest RPG villain was Bowser and he was invincible. The strongest was Dimentio and, although being quite weak physically, he could manipulate space itself with his magic. In between, you have Smithy who have fire power, the Shadow Queen who could possibly destroy anything in her way, and Fawful who is a pure genius.

Although something like a nuclear weapon would definitely beat the Shadow Queen. It'd also beat Smithy too. Fawful's too much of a tactical genius, he could preval this and prepare an escape way at the right moment, while Dimentio could simply trap the bomb in a magic field and let it explode inside.

[cheat-master30]

How about Megaleg, Exor, Megahammer, Gobblegut, the Boomsday Machine or maybe various others? Just drop the former (it's freaking moon sized) on something, and it's gone. It wouldn't even need a Grand Star, although that'd be a bonus if it fired Bullet Bills.

One of the others could probably wreck a lot of things as well.

[Artemendo]

Megaleg would take one missile from above to his control dome and explode.
Exor is kind of fixed in place, also would die from a few missiles.
Megahammer has the same issue as Megaleg.
Gobblegut needs six pistol shots to his weak points to die.
The Boomsday Machine could be a bit dangerous if it was more protected, otherwise also missiles from above.

The problem is, all Mario villains either die from jumps or have ridiculous weak points. The only ones really only killable with a trick and not by brute force are the Iron Clefts, but I guess luring them into a room and filling it up with concrete would shut them up as well.

[Koopalmier]

Megaleg uses a Grand Star to work. Which gives it its own gravity, making it extremely easy to defeat as long as you have what to break it. As for Exor, Megahammer and the Boomsday Machine, they are quite big and destructive but I doubt they can be used at tactical ends. As for Gooblegut, just fire stuff at it and it's gone.

[Artemendo]

Oh, here's another way they could win! Let everyone wear Gumption Socks, then as long as someone of the same affiliation still stands, they will always be revived.