Something had started bugging me about the Shy Guys in Mario. The first game they appeared in, the entire game was revealed to be Mario's dream. Dreams are based on past experiences and the subconscious, so how would Mario have a dream with all-new creatures if he had never encountered them at all before? Another thing is, the Shy Guys keep appearing in games like Mario Kart, but not any of the other enemies from Mario Bros. 2 make any appearances, (to my knowledge, I could be wrong) just the Shy Guys. Clearly the Shy Guys are not just some random dream creature Mario's mind conjured up, they exist in Mario's real world. We also never see a Shy Guy's real face, it's always covered by a mask, which is creepy enough. This analysis led me to create the concept of Dreamwalker and the Cult of the Dreaming. The Cult of the Dreaming is an organization of people, known to outsiders as "Shy Guys" since they never reveal their faces, who have devoted their lives to studying the magical realm of dreams and are able to invade other people's dreams through drinking a magic potion they made, though the potion leaves some unwanted side-effects on the mind, leaving the drinker's dream-form deformed, thus the Shy Guys' need to be constantly covered in robes and a mask, even in the dream world. Dreamwalker is Mario who, after learning about the Cult of the Dreaming through his own dreams, joins them in their studies of the dream world. His brother Luigi does not yet know of Mario's involvement in the cult, but is often terrorized in his own dreams by a Mario lookalike with a white mask because of his high "dream power" (as seen in Mario and Luigi: Dream Team).
Mario Brothers 2 and all related characters belong to Nintendo. Dreamwalker concept by me. Just in time for Spooky Season I have more concepts like these, let me know if you want to see more.
