(I love how hard mode is just to exclude series I've never seen a movie from 6 times anyway)

I'll be honest Fawful is not nearly as dominant in my palette now as he was when i first made my youtube. The name Fawfulthegreat64 was coined at the height of my Fawful craze, and he remains my mascot because of it. (He's still one of my favorite characters and should be in Mario Kart imo)

Color Splash was the height of it because there the blandness was enforced even outside the Mushroom Kingdom. Prism Island is supposed to be a brand new setting yet it feels like yet another adventure in the modern Mushroom Kingdom in terms of what kinds of NPCs and enemies appear.

I mean in general we still get interesting settings, stories & characters, especially recently like with Brothership. It's just always explicitly outside the Mushroom Kingdom, and they show that the Mushroom Kingdom is still Basic Status Quo Central with only the standard toads and Bowser's troops.

Even to the point of establishing some of them as having major roles in the kingdom's society, like Merlon & co. We don't get stuff like that anymore and i want to make a video talking about it, but the last time i did such a video the backlash and ensuing drama traumatized me.

Notice that every Mario RPG after BIS (excluding remakes) either has almost no original characters, or takes place outside the Mushroom Kingdom. Or is a noncanon crossover. You don't see stuff like PM64 anymore where it both takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom AND is full of naturally occurring OCs.

Look at Broque Monsieur. He could have easily been a Toad or one of Bowser's minions and his role in BIS could have still worked. But he is a unique block-based species, entirely allowed to exist as a resident of the Mushroom Kingdom because it doesn't have a tight aesthetic to uphold. Now it does.

the only time new and unique species are introduced as being natural parts of the Mushroom Kingdom nowadays is in mainline & Mario Kart games when they need a design for a new enemy/obstacle idea. If there isn't a gameplay mechanic to justify it, Toad or Koopa Troop minion it is.

But of course I'm afraid of backlash to such a video. "ugh you're still complaining get over yourself literally all these brand criticisms don't apply anymore" when yes they literally do. remakes don't count. and even if it's not a hard rule, it's at the very least a STRONG trend and I don't like it