Beware Unmarked Spoilers
Fridge Brilliance
- There was quite an outcry about Paper Luigi not having a role in this game — save for the post-game reveal that he was chilling at the beach the whole time — but think about it: with the exception of the last fifth of Super Paper Mario, when has Paper Luigi ever helped his brother in their home series? This isn't unfair, this is just being true to the source material.
- The developers also said it would have been way too hard to control four brothers at once, evidentially having learned from Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time.
- There's actually some Fridge Brilliance to Paper Mario being the more prone to coming up with ideas when one remembers that the Paper series often deals with unraveling ancient mysteries and epic legends — giving Paper Mario more experience in puzzles and such — whereas the Mario and Luigi series makes a point of it to take the piss out of anything trying to be edgy.
- Back in Sticker Star, the Things were a point of contention. After all, items like ovens and faucets and such have been commonplace in the Paper Mario series until now; why does everyone suddenly not know what these things are? This game provides the answer in the introductory Paper Toad gathering: things that aren't paper or papercraft are apparently unrecognizable at first to inhabitants of the Paper Mario world. Heck, the Paper Toads didn't even recognize Mario and Luigi.
- Thing descriptions in Color Splash, conversely, show a much better understanding of what they actually are, which may stem from the Paper Toads having spent time in the 3D world and learning to recognize its objects.
- After the two Bowser Jr.s are defeated, you may notice that the Bowsers become much darker afterwards, even crossing the Moral Event Horizon. You may quickly realize, that... the Bowsers wouldn't be doing such terrible acts out of ordinary spite for the Mario trio. They're doing all that they can to make the trio suffer greatly, just to avenge their children's injuries.
- Wiggler keeps asking for more food to help you. He's preparing to metamorphosis into a Flutter, so like any Caterpillar he's super hungry.
- The fact that the Mario Bros. start off with their hammers at the beginning of the game for the first time in the series makes sense because they were there to look for and fix up a hole in the attic causing a draft. In Superstar Saga, the Bros. rushed to the castle because Bowser was attacking, leaving them no time to prepare. In Partners in Time and Bowser's Inside Story, the Bros. were at Peach's Castle for the Time Machine's showcasing and for a conference respectively, both of which would not require them to bring anything. And in Dream Team, everyone was invited to Pi'illo Island for a vacation and sightseeing.
- Paper Mario's Death of a Thousand Cuts design makes more sense when you take their home games into account. In the Paper Mario series, Mario's attack power seldom scales up that much, and enemies typically don't have more than two digits of health unless they're the Final Boss or a Superboss; in contrast, the Super Star bros scale up their attack every level, to absolutely ridiculous degrees in the late game. The two universes have vastly different mechanics, and this comes out in their gameplay styles.
- Also, Paper Mario is... well, made of paper. He inflicts Scratch Damage in comparison to his "real" counterparts because each individual copy is doing the equivalent of paper cuts and not much else.
- Paper Sombrero Guy's attacks can be easily avoided once you get into the rhythm of their throws, which, considering they're musicians, makes perfect sense.
Fridge Sadness
- The ending will very likely have the paper counterparts return home... and then you realize that both Jr.s are close friends and are very lonely. They're doomed to be separated. God knows how they'd react. When all is said and done with the game's events, Jr. is likely suffering very badly from losing his friend. It's possible that if he returns in the next game, it could show that he hasn't even recovered.
Fridge Horror
- Here's a worse example: The Bowsers' ultimate plan is to trap the trio into the book, throw it into the trash and then burn it. But here's when the Fridge comes in: The game doesn't tell you if Paper Bowser Jr. was already in the book or not after his defeat.
- Both Bowsers love their children more than anything, we can assume that Paper Bowser found a way to get his son out.
- So if the plan to burn the Paper World book came off, what do you think would happen to everyone still inside the book? Just think about your previous partners burning alive in that book and not being able to do anything about it!. Yeah, the Bowsers aren't playing any games.
- Never mind the partners, what about Paper Bowser's minions from the first game, like the Koopa Bros., General Guy, and Kammy Koopa? Paper Bowser was going to off his Paper Mario exclusive minions.
- Also, wasn't destroying the Paper World Dimentio's plan? The same Dimentio that Paper Bowser fought?
- Maybe learning he was in a book made Paper Bowser Go Mad from the Revelation?
- For Paper Mario's partners and Paper Bowser's minions, there doesn't seem to be an indication that the pre-Sticker Star games exist (Kammy is absent, Bowser Jr. and Kamek exist, etc) in the book. On the other hand, it is heavily implied in Sticker Star, Paper Jam, and Color Splash that the Paper Mushroom Kingdom contains Paper versions of all the Mario cast. So the possibility of counterparts such as Donkey Kong, Wario, the Koopalings, and more... yeah.
- Sticker Star mentions Partners from both the first and second Paper Mario games (a letter from Parakarry and a memo from Goombella, with the memo confirming she's still attending University of Goom and doing research on the Chomp Ruins).
- The game reveals a very disturbing fact about Bowser: It is shown throughout the game that the characters act the almost exact same way as their counterparts do. If Paper Bowser was willing to destroy the book containing his world (which, as Paper Mario: Color Splash shows us, contains his versions of The Koopalings) because he had a better one to rule, what exactly does that say about normal Bowser?
- Roy Lampshades this when he mentions how none of their alternative versions showed up, because the Koopalings don't actually exist in the Paper Mario series. At least until Color Splash.
