Super Mario Bros. 2

25-year-old *SPOILER ALERT*: Super Mario Bros. 2 took place inside of Mario’s dream, making it the original Inception. You only discover this at the end after beating the game and seeing the credits roll, meaning that Mario also dreamt the credits.

It also opens up a strange theory that any number of Mario’s games takes place inside his mind. Specifically, any game featuring a bad guy that first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 2, like the Shy Guys, or Birdo. That’s a lot of games. Like, a lot. That means basically any game where he’s playing tennis, racing, or having a party means he’s dreaming, as well as a few of the main titles. That explains all the games where Mario is having friendly competitions with Bowser instead of dodging fireballs.

There’s even a stranger theory that emerges from this. In the game, Birdo is a pink, Yoshi-like dinosaur that wears a bow and shoots bird-eggs at Mario out it’s mouth. It’s also a boy. In an instruction manual from one of the original copies, it explains how Birdo is basically Wild Bill from Silence of the Lambs. Later, in one of the Mario Tennis games and a Mario Racing game, Birdo is paired with Yoshi as a couple, insinuating they have some sort of homosexual relationship. Birdo’s completely imaginary, though, which means that Mario is dreaming of fighting a sexually confused dinosaur. Also, in the same game, he’s dreaming about being Princess Peach. Remember: you can play as Mario, Toadstool, Luigi, or Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2, but you’re actually Mario dreaming about playing those characters. Mario’s dreaming up an entire scenario where he, as Princess Peach, can hover with her skirt and throw turnips at guys dressed in mask before sinking into quicksand and fighting a snake inside a giant clay pot. That’s fucked up. He even dreams about being his own brother, Luigi, who’s depicted for the first time as being taller and able to jump higher. His own insecurities about his brother are coming into play, where he feels like the inferior Mario Bros.

What if Mario hadn’t rescued the Sub-Cons in his dream, or died? Does he die in real life? What happens to all these people when he wakes up?