Not to mention that the Mario Bros. themselves don’t have biological parents (then again, as great as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island is, Nintendo decided to ruin its own continuity with Yoshi’s New Island). They have one (adopted) parent and his name is Yoshi T. Yoshisaur - so that would make the true last names of the Mario Bros. not really “Mario”, but “Yoshisaur”.
Yoshi seems to pertain to the race of the dinosaurian shoe-born Yoshis, rather than pertains to one specific Yoshi. After all, in older games Yoshi could be used by Mario via finding and hatching a newborn Yoshi to ride, so the same Yoshi cannot be all of these instances unless for some reason he reverted himself into egg infantilism for...no logical reason (if he wants Mario to find him then he can just walk to Mario). The result of this is that it makes it infuriatingly annoying to figure out if any Yoshi is the same Yoshi in any previous events/games/stories, which of these that Yoshi is the one present in, or even if all instances of Yoshi are different Yoshi because Nintendo doesn't give the main, playable mascot Yoshi any discerning features to distinguish it apart from a generic Yoshi (seriously, wtf is Nintendo's Yoshi continuity?)
There is another piece of evidence he is a dragon in super Mario 64 DS.note:they made one for ds. When he gets a power flower is ability is to breath fire and the text says Yoshi got throat stroke from swallowing enemies now he can breathe fire. And yet he his fine.
Considering there’s a eastern creature literally called the DragonTurtle I’m pretty sure that’s what yoshi was originally meant to be,cause eastern dragons are snake like,with antlers,a mane,and four stubby arms and there’s also a black tortoise which is like a legendary creature there too
Fun fact: in Japanese, the word "dinosaur" (kyoryu) directly translates to "terrifying dragon". In Japanese, dinosaurs are basically called dragons, like how the English call the Komodo Dragon. So maybe it's both in their eyes.
In a alternate universe: MatPat: *starts video* “Welcome to GameTheory. Is Yoshi a dragon or a dinosaur? The answer is he is both, thanks for watching.” *ends videos*
even more terrifying possibility: dragons, dinosaurs, and koopas descended from Yoshi. Yoshi has the least amount of genetic variation (pretty much only color,) so maybe something happened that caused a lot of genetic deviation separating the dinosaurs and the dragons and the koopas having the most deviation are muts?
That would only happen if there were a lot of yoshis in the past but split and survived in different environments that would give them their unique main traits.
I'm fully convinced that yoshi reproduce by eating other creatures and combining the dna of the consumed creature with their own, and then they lay out the new creature.
That's what I was thinking, too!! Sense he resembles all of them so much, maybe it's the other way around? Some evolutionary thing, that spawned a bunch of deviations! I'm pretty sure that's happened a lot in nature, too
Both, considering folklore and dinosaur fossils. Alternatively, he's an animal that, in Mario lore, evolutionarily predates dinosaurs, koopas, and dragons, thus he'd have traits of all three.
this theory has been in the works even before this video came out, and i am so exited to finally share it with you. here is my proposal for you: some koopas got stranded on what will later be know as Yoshi's island. on that island, there wasn't enough meat (i assume that is what koopas eat, they seem very hostile) to go around, so some of the koopas began to stave. in desperation, they tried the fruit that is abundant around the island. it wasn't what their bodies where made for, so they couldn't break down the fruit, and so they had to eat way more fruit to stay alive. but then, a mutation occurred. a koopa whose body could break down plants, a koopa who was an omnivore, meaning they had to eat less to stay alive, meaning they got into less food shenanigans, meaning, they lived longer. and then its kids lived longer, and then their kids lived longer, and eventually that koopa, no, ancient Yoshi, was a common ancestor. other thing evolved too. they no longer needed their hard beaks, so it evolved into a bulbous nose also, their is fruit in tall trees. these trees are to high up to reach. so, some evolved to have longer and sturdier tongues, to reach and pluck the fruit out of the trees. overs evolved to "flutter" up and grab them. and a few grew bigger to just grab it (these would be the ancestors of Dorrie and plessie). however all of them had begun leaning to swim to catch fish. dorrie acquired a taste for fish, and so became all aquatic. plessie remained on land and in the water, while the yoshis remained on their island, eating fruit until a fateful baby falls into their home. but hey, that's just a theory, a fan theory, thanks for reading.
literally so many animals with beaks eat vegetation. Most turtles and tortoises use their beaks to eat plants, and many birds as well use their beaks to eat seeds and nuts.
@D YellowMadness then what were they supposed to say? They want to bring attention to this topic that no one's talking about and using that "pretentious phrase" seems like the best option.
He said it in the video. You're not original or interesting just because you start your comment with a generic pretentious phrase like "can we just take a moment to realize".
Well, seeing as Yoshi is a dinosaur/dragon-looking creature that has a unique ability to extend his tongue to eat just about anything and spit it back out (depending on what it is) AND he can pretty much only say his own name (besides grunting noises when he does that jump/fly thing) I’d say he’s a species of Pokémon that has yet been discovered.
Dude, nostalgia. When my brothers and I were little, Mario 64 was the bomb because of one thing: The overworld. There would ne whole sessions we'd spend without getting a single star because we were making up our own little storylines in the overworld. One of them was that Yoshi was the baby of the big grumpy dad Bowser and the nice mama Loch Ness Monster you ride on. He was grounded by Bowser, that's why he was hard to get to. I miss being a kid.
This theory was fun to watch. Personally I have always seen Yoshi as a drake rather then anything else. I always saw the dragon look but drakes are a kind of dragon that can be either wingless or are constantly flying without ever landing. Bring up the turtle reminded me about the Turtle Dragons. Creatures that reside within oceans and tend to hold huge territory if they are not constantly moving around. Not to mention, they are massive and in a lot of depictions, their backs are basically an island that is constantly moving. Yoshi could very easily be a variation of a dragon turtle by being a drake version of this creature. Plus we had a couple games (I believe) call Yoshi’s Island (I have never played). So by this conclusion, I can easily see Yoshi as a drake. But more specifically, a turtle drake. Then again this is just a thought.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but since dragons aren’t real and there isn’t an official classification for dragons and it varies from culture to culture, couldn’t dinosaurs be considered dragons?
Fun fact: in Mario Kart Tour, all the drivers were split into Team Peach and Team Bowser for an event last week, and all the Yoshi variants are on Team Bowser.
playing along here, i think the shell could be a genetic trait that somehow expressed itself when the hybridization occured and koopas, dinosaurs and dragons all come from the same stock. maybe the ancestral koopa came first and the other two branches shed the shell for whatever reason. no i'm not reading too much into yoshi. no i'm NOT
In Denmark, our past civilisation actually referred to dinosaurs and dragons as the same thing. I think they might be just a little closer than one might think.
@Kahrum typically animals that can shoot fluid from their mouth have some kind of structure that we'd be able to see, like a pair of hollow teeth that liquid goes through. And we don't think that dinosaurs could've had the type of cheeks/muscular lips that would allow them to spit like mammals do. Let alone be able to light fire just from their own body.
@Jamie C .... i can shoot poison or acid from my gullet, just give me enough alcohol. common sense dictates that since there area reptiles TODAY that can produce harmful liquids and fire them at annoyances, there were probably some who had learned the trick back then too. and since the atmosphere had more readily availible oxygen..... i could see a fireball shot from the mmouth as a possiblity, the only real question is how they ignited the stream of fluid.
Just as an aside, if yoshi is a dinosaur I would propose that he might be some kind of ceratosaurian - maybe a noasaur if I had to get specific - based on not only the back plates (similar to ceratosaurus itself) but also having 4 fingers, which is very uncommon in theropods outside of early groups and ceratosaurians.
Dragon and Dinosaur are actually similarly writtenin Japanese, with the character for Dragon (Ryuu) being in the word used to say Dinosaur (Kyoryu). This added on to the fact that in Japanese media Dragon is commonly used as a substitute for Dinosaurs thanks to the similarity. Sometimes Dragon will be used to refer to both animals. There is also the fact that Dinosaur bones used to be called dragon bones in past china because of some stories they would make up about the mythical creature
This is the most outlandish theory he has about Yoshi, yet it somehow makes enough sense and seems plausible. Huge W for MatPat if this theory is proven canon in the future.
I think he’s called a dragon sometimes because dinosaur actually translates to “savage dragon” or “terrifying dragon” or something similar in Japanese.
Yoshi could’ve been a hybrid of the three. The T. In his name could’ve stand for Turtle, Yoshisaur has the same ending as Dinosaur, and Munchakoopas has “Koopa” in it while the Munch just means he eats Bowser’s minions and other small enemies.
@Yoseqlo Yoseloq would it be similar to the Comodo Dragon a type of large lizard? irl? And a type of turtle shell, would also be related to a Turtle Species🤔. I find this very interesting
I was thinking about this the whole video! Dragons don't really exist in the real world, so why couldn't they simply be a type of dinosaur in the Mario universe?
The word "dinosaur" was not coined until 1841. Prior to that, the creatures now classified as such (which were know, as recorded by Marco Polo circa 1271) would have been classified as dragons.
Being a Munchikoopa, at least to me, means he's still related to a Koopa. Since Bowser to everyone is a Dragon Turtle Hybrid called the King Koopa. It would make sense that Yoshi and to an extent every dinosaur character are a hybrid of some sort
I think there's a very obvious solution that hasn't been discussed yet: Yoshi doesn't fit neatly into the Plessie, Dorrie, Bahamut, or Koopa lineages because Yoshi is the common ancestor for them all. Or rather, a species very similar to Yoshis was the common ancestor for them all, and modern Yoshis evolved in a climate that favored remaining similar to their ancestor's form. Granted, this would require knowing when in the Mario timeline each species originated, or some sort of fossil record, but it makes more sense to me than Yoshi somehow being a hybrid of three or more species at once.
@Abderian Agelast we know that water exists in Yoshi's world, and that fire would be useful against any enemy that lives in Yoshi's world too. Same goes for the shells, which would also be useful against enemies there. We know he is afraid of these, as he runs away when he bumps into one of them. It also seems Yoshi can actually live pretty much anywhere, maybe even natively as we find can find his eggs in most types of worlds. I still don't see why you'd have to suppose all of those things. A hybrid is by far the most economic assumption.
@silas frisenette We definitely could call them all a single species, like we do with dog breeds. But then they'd still all originate from a common ancestor. Just a far more recent one.
@silas frisenette First, I didn't intend to insult your intelligence, I simply don't know you and don't know what you know. I just want to try and be as clear as I can in the hopes of minimizing misunderstandings. Second, well, we don't actually know of many world events in the Mario world, or what the continents look like, or anything like that. I can't honestly give a reason for why the species divulged because I don't know anything about the world itself. All I can do is make assumptions based on what we know about Earth and hope that they apply here. The best I can do is say that I don't know, we don't have enough information. But I still think it's far more likely than a four-way hybrid between Koopa, Bahamut, Plessie, and Dorrie.
@Abderian Agelast well surely they are related to the names we call them, otherwise we might as well call them all "bob" and say it's one species with different phenotypes 🤷
i think a game where yoshis are evil would be a nice change of pace and i think adding some new game mechanics to make up for the lack of yoshis would be cool
The 'munchikoopa' in his name doesn't mean that he is a koopa, but that he has the characteristic of eating koopas. Like when a plant has the byname grandiflora and it has big blossoms
Normally I skip ads but since I was drawing while it happened, I couldn’t. So I got to hear Steph’s Dad’s tragic story that got saved by a seatbelt. Please, wear your seatbelt, everyone.
Well, in China, dragon turtles are a thing. The Chinese dragon turtle may have possibly been what inspired the creation of Yoshi, the dragon turtle dinosaur. Now, if you look at Bowser, he's the closest thing to what a traditional dragon turtle would look like standing on hind legs.
Here's the ultimate cop-out. Yoshi is actually an artificial lifeform with the DNA of dragons, dinosaurs and turtles mixed in. Probably chameleon given his tongue.
Few things that bug me: 1. In Japanese, the words Dragon and Dinosaur seem to overlap in places. It's not far a stretch to think that they may be seen as the same thing in the world of the Mushroom Kingdom. 2. Allot of the times Yoshi is referred to as a dragon seem to be either when he has been enhanced by some power-up or when he refers himself as the *"Yoshi the dragon!"* (or words to that effect). It could be him bigging himself to the level of an epic fire-breathing beast, to make him seem tougher. PS. It could also be him trying to distance himself from a Koopa lineage, considering the shell on his back. Thankyou for listening to my rant/Ted-Talk x
This video left me with more questions about Yoshi than answers, now instead of just thinking he’s either a dino or a dragon, I think he’s either a koopa or a hybrid of a lot of them combined, I don’t even know which ones for sure
To be completely honest, dinosaur and dragons are not really different creatures in Japan. The Japanese word for dinousaur is Kyōryū, with the latter half Ryū being the word meaning dragon.
@WKMT Steven true, but you are not going to tell me no one uses it for wordplay, I've seen plenty of games where dinosaurs are given dragon like features like fire breath or being able to swim in lava. Not saying I know more than a native speaker, but I've been studying Japanese for a few years, so I'm at least sure of how wordplay is used in media.
We japanese use the words Kyoryu and ryu very separately tho. When you say kyoryu it will only mean dinosaur but not dragon, and when you say ryu it will only mean dragon. We don’t call dragons kyoryu and definitely don’t call dinosaurs Ryu ❌. Same with Chinese
I mean, not that different in english honestly. 'deinos' meaning terrible, and 'sauros' for lizard. meanwhile, that first kanji is 'fear, *terror*, dread', yes?
I once saw an artwork that actually showed Yoshi with both the shell and the saddle, with the saddle just in front of his shell, which I think makes sense. And also, I don’t think there’s a distinction between Dinosaur, Dragon and Turtle in the Marioverse. Kind of different forms for the same creatures.
I love how this guys makes like at least 5 Mario theories a year but he’s only made like 7 sonic theories in his lifetime, and all of them where just proving him wrong. MatPat, if you see this, I’d like to know how Sonic’s homing attack works, if you will. Thanks.
This is the most bizarre theory he has about Yoshi, but somehow it makes sense and seems plausible. Huge W for MatPat if this theory is proven canon in the future.
Aside from the explanation of a shell, comparing Yoshi to a hybrid like a mule or liger is inaccurate because this would mean that Yoshi also has the same infertility. You can only get a mule by breeding a horse and a donkey together or by breeding a tiger and a lion together. This argument that Yoshi is a hybrid like them is disqualified by the simple fact that Yoshi can lay eggs that hatch other Yoshis.
My sister used to take dance classes. One of them was themed on mario related things, and on a Yoshi themed dance with with costumes and little kids, it had said “we are the dinosaurs”. I never questioned the dance.
Given the connection between turtles, dinosaurs, and dragons in the Mario series, it could be that the various species are all of the above. They're dragon-turtle-dinosaurs, with a dominance of 1/2 of these traits compared to the other 1/2 depending on the species.
@Tomes of Awesome Here's my simple theory, matpat was right about Yoshi being a monolophosaurus but the magic found throughout the Mushroom Kingdom is what gave the dinosaur radical adaptations. It really makes more sense for dinosaur to evolve into a dragon then anything else.
Plus we already covered/talked about how every color of toad is like it's own sub species. There are AT LEAST, four different colored Yoshie's. Two of which are the same color as Bahamut and Dorie. And then parakoops are yellow. And big koopas like ROY, have a stomping action, which is EXACTLY what yellow yoshie's do!
What a W sponsor cause that’s crazy how one seat belt is what gave us this content and this character know as mat pat really encourages me to drive safe becuase you never know what I might be apart of in the future that my safe driving allowed me to be in
I once saw a learning channel show that postulated that dragons are a type of dinosaur, so it makes sense that both ideas of Yoshi being a dinosaur and dragon being correct when thinking along that line.
MatPat talking about the safety of seatbelts brings me a strange kind of relief. I was in a crash last September and almost caused major brain damage, and only got out with whiplash and a concussion because my seatbelt kept me from hitting the dashboard full force. Thank you MatPat!
Speaking of contradictory information on a creature's classification from different canonical sources, I'm curious to see a theory from you about Phione and whether it's a Legendary or Mythical Pokémon.
Dinosaur is a pretty new word, to be fair. Dragon was a word used for what we understand to be dinosaurs for far longer than we've used the word dinosaur.
So glad 2022 decided to remind everyone about seatbelts. I haven't heard a psa about seatbelts in 20 years, so I totally forgot they existed. Thanks 2022. Maybe next year you can bring back "stop drop and roll" or air raid drills.
The member of the Yoshi species that I know of who has evil tendencies is *_Boshi_* from the _Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars_ video game. No other Yoshi is likely to *_EVER_* turn evil there!
Also, the fact that Yoshi doesn't enter the castle in Super Mario World proves that he won't be against Mario unless he jumps off him to get over a pit.
It could be possible that ancient Yoshis had wings but they became vestigial or even just evolved into a shell and when he absorbs the smash ball energy he grows the wings back
Fun trivia: In Japanese (and by extension, Chinese) the way you say “dinosaur” is 恐竜 (kyōryū). The second character, 竜, literally means “dragon”. Since the word for dragon entered the Chinese/Japanese lexicon first, dinosaurs are essentially “scary dragons”. Perhaps this is another reason why the translation is a bit more fuzzy.
@Wafflest Waffle In a majority of cases, yes! A huge chunk of Japanese vocabulary was borrowed from China. I only mentioned it in that order because the language talked about in the video is Japanese. You might also be surprised to find that China borrowed some vocabulary from Japan too in a fascinating reversed cultural exchange. While the characters themselves are still Chinese in origin, the unique ORDER was borrowed from Japan. Take these examples: 電話 (telephone) and 文化 (culture)
Don't know if this means anything but during the Peach vs. Bowser tour in Mario Kart Tour, Yoshi was on team Bowser. Every variation. Blue, Red, Original Green. Every Yoshi. Hope you see this!
Canonically, there already IS an evil Yoshi; in the same game as Bahamutt, i.e. Super Mario RPG, there's a recurring side quest of Mario riding Yoshi as it races against a Yoshi-like creaturecalled Boshi. And much like Bahamutt? Boshi's never been in another game either! Boshi resembles a blue Yoshi but wears shades similar to Ash's Squirtle, a spiked collar, and his shoes are open-toed due to his claws. I think.hemight've had fangs as well. Also the crest on Boshi's neck is a single, red triangle instead of many, small red semi-circles.
Yoshi’s nor a dragon, dinosaur, or turtle. He’s unpaid labor.
So true
🗿
I disagree with you
He’s a tortoise! 😉
he also cant breath fire
Everyone asks "What is Yoshi?", but not "HOW is Yoshi?"
He's burning alive by the way, in eternal pain from Mario's betrayal, thanks for asking.
bro
Yoshi needs therapy.
@Tom Cowell I understood that reference 🤣
“WHERE IS YOSHI.” “ILL GIVE YOU ONE BETTER, WHO IS YOSHI?” “ILL GIVE YOU ONE BETTER, WHY IS YOSHI”
@Shrodu lol
Wait but since Yoshi was originally meant to "Eat Bowser's minions", if Yoshi is a Koopa, doesn't that mean he's a cannibal?
My God, where was this during cannibalism week?
True
I was the one thousandth person to like this comment.
Eh, kinda
Yoshi is literally older than bowser, and everyone else too. He was literally fully grown in the game Yoshi’s Island, where everyone ELSE was a baby.
Not to mention that the Mario Bros. themselves don’t have biological parents (then again, as great as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island is, Nintendo decided to ruin its own continuity with Yoshi’s New Island). They have one (adopted) parent and his name is Yoshi T. Yoshisaur - so that would make the true last names of the Mario Bros. not really “Mario”, but “Yoshisaur”.
Yoshi seems to pertain to the race of the dinosaurian shoe-born Yoshis, rather than pertains to one specific Yoshi. After all, in older games Yoshi could be used by Mario via finding and hatching a newborn Yoshi to ride, so the same Yoshi cannot be all of these instances unless for some reason he reverted himself into egg infantilism for...no logical reason (if he wants Mario to find him then he can just walk to Mario).
The result of this is that it makes it infuriatingly annoying to figure out if any Yoshi is the same Yoshi in any previous events/games/stories, which of these that Yoshi is the one present in, or even if all instances of Yoshi are different Yoshi because Nintendo doesn't give the main, playable mascot Yoshi any discerning features to distinguish it apart from a generic Yoshi (seriously, wtf is Nintendo's Yoshi continuity?)
There is another piece of evidence he is a dragon in super Mario 64 DS.note:they made one for ds. When he gets a power flower is ability is to breath fire and the text says Yoshi got throat stroke from swallowing enemies now he can breathe fire. And yet he his fine.
@Diego Roman wait the what dinosaur is he?
@SOCKS Hello there, Old Sport!
It’s amazing how this whole channel was saved by a seatbelt
@Abbey Yard Studios why
@Abbey Yard Studios why do you think that?
@Abbey Yard Studios why
@Abbey Yard Studios how come?
I think we'd have been better off without this channel.
Considering there’s a eastern creature literally called the DragonTurtle I’m pretty sure that’s what yoshi was originally meant to be,cause eastern dragons are snake like,with antlers,a mane,and four stubby arms and there’s also a black tortoise which is like a legendary creature there too
Fun fact: in Japanese, the word "dinosaur" (kyoryu) directly translates to "terrifying dragon". In Japanese, dinosaurs are basically called dragons, like how the English call the Komodo Dragon. So maybe it's both in their eyes.
Exactly
That is amazing and I agree
amazing!!
@DrunknHick
Aka matpat : YOU MEAN HE'S A SNAKE TOO?! OH GOSH NO!
NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Same in the bible, some translations say great behemoth, and other day dragon but it is believed that they are referring to dinosaur’s
In a alternate universe:
MatPat: *starts video* “Welcome to GameTheory. Is Yoshi a dragon or a dinosaur? The answer is he is both, thanks for watching.” *ends videos*
@Adam Denchfield well buddy, do i have news
@Master Spark 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
u mean ‘But that’s just a theory, a GAME THEORY thanks for watching’
I was thinking the same. Maybe in this universe, a dragon is a dinosaur and their similar traits to other reptiles are due to convergent evolution
Maybe for lesser common questions the viewers have to ask, it would definitely be something.
Now I kinda hope for it.
even more terrifying possibility: dragons, dinosaurs, and koopas descended from Yoshi. Yoshi has the least amount of genetic variation (pretty much only color,) so maybe something happened that caused a lot of genetic deviation separating the dinosaurs and the dragons and the koopas having the most deviation are muts?
That would only happen if there were a lot of yoshis in the past but split and survived in different environments that would give them their unique main traits.
I'm fully convinced that yoshi reproduce by eating other creatures and combining the dna of the consumed creature with their own, and then they lay out the new creature.
@Random Dragon yeah just look at dogs or cattle
That's what I was thinking, too!!
Sense he resembles all of them so much, maybe it's the other way around? Some evolutionary thing, that spawned a bunch of deviations!
I'm pretty sure that's happened a lot in nature, too
Evil Yoshi story line??? I love Yoshi and I love this idea even more!
That would be awesome
The seatbelt story really showed how one little thing can change someone’s entire future
Both, considering folklore and dinosaur fossils.
Alternatively, he's an animal that, in Mario lore, evolutionarily predates dinosaurs, koopas, and dragons, thus he'd have traits of all three.
“So are you a dinosaur or dragon or turtle?”
Yoshi: *yes.*
yosia is a fictional dinosaur ☝️clean and simple
Oh
So is Mario or Luigi better?
Yes
*Yesshi
this theory has been in the works even before this video came out, and i am so exited to finally share it with you.
here is my proposal for you: some koopas got stranded on what will later be know as Yoshi's island. on that island, there wasn't enough meat (i assume that is what koopas eat, they seem very hostile) to go around, so some of the koopas began to stave. in desperation, they tried the fruit that is abundant around the island. it wasn't what their bodies where made for, so they couldn't break down the fruit, and so they had to eat way more fruit to stay alive. but then, a mutation occurred. a koopa whose body could break down plants, a koopa who was an omnivore, meaning they had to eat less to stay alive, meaning they got into less food shenanigans, meaning, they lived longer. and then its kids lived longer, and then their kids lived longer, and eventually that koopa, no, ancient Yoshi, was a common ancestor. other thing evolved too. they no longer needed their hard beaks, so it evolved into a bulbous nose also, their is fruit in tall trees. these trees are to high up to reach. so, some evolved to have longer and sturdier tongues, to reach and pluck the fruit out of the trees. overs evolved to "flutter" up and grab them. and a few grew bigger to just grab it (these would be the ancestors of Dorrie and plessie). however all of them had begun leaning to swim to catch fish. dorrie acquired a taste for fish, and so became all aquatic. plessie remained on land and in the water, while the yoshis remained on their island, eating fruit until a fateful baby falls into their home.
but hey, that's just a theory, a fan theory, thanks for reading.
literally so many animals with beaks eat vegetation. Most turtles and tortoises use their beaks to eat plants, and many birds as well use their beaks to eat seeds and nuts.
Having a beak is not a sign of a carnivorous diet. Some turtles in real life have beaks and some are completely herbivorous.
This was a great theory! I hope MatPat sees this and contemplates it.
That’s an amazing theory!
The: "Yoshi is evil don't forget" quote makes more sense now
"Who do you think you are? The FNAF Series?" Best line ever.
I love these kinds of theories! Where it’s more about random game stuff, like pregnant Mario or whatever.
Pregnant mario what? 💀
Can we just take a moment to realize that MatPat's channel was one seatbelt away from being non-existent
And that not only did we get to see his wife Stephanie Patrick, but also his Brand-Safe Steph’s Dad in Law!
@D YellowMadness interesting enough to grab your attention lmaoo
@D YellowMadness then what were they supposed to say? They want to bring attention to this topic that no one's talking about and using that "pretentious phrase" seems like the best option.
@D YellowMadness you don’t need to be rude bruv
He said it in the video. You're not original or interesting just because you start your comment with a generic pretentious phrase like "can we just take a moment to realize".
Well, seeing as Yoshi is a dinosaur/dragon-looking creature that has a unique ability to extend his tongue to eat just about anything and spit it back out (depending on what it is) AND he can pretty much only say his own name (besides grunting noises when he does that jump/fly thing) I’d say he’s a species of Pokémon that has yet been discovered.
Imagine if all MatPat’s theories actually came true? Like, you’re playing a Mario game, and suddenly spot a toad getting possessed by a mushroom?
@psycless it's called "are theories KILLING video games?"
@zylax yeah the creators knew how they wanted to start and end but not the in-between story lead-up
Ouchy
Some stuff matpat says are ture and the developer does not want to know about it
@Sheikh Umar where?
MatPat is now sponsored by seatbelt safety.
So legit
Dude, nostalgia. When my brothers and I were little, Mario 64 was the bomb because of one thing: The overworld. There would ne whole sessions we'd spend without getting a single star because we were making up our own little storylines in the overworld. One of them was that Yoshi was the baby of the big grumpy dad Bowser and the nice mama Loch Ness Monster you ride on. He was grounded by Bowser, that's why he was hard to get to.
I miss being a kid.
Yoshi's ability to spit fire(with the right diet.) Might even point to the idea that he is more closely related to the Bowser line.
Just realized that Yoshi's final smashes are references to him being able to sprout wings and spit fire through eating different turtle shells.
This theory was fun to watch. Personally I have always seen Yoshi as a drake rather then anything else. I always saw the dragon look but drakes are a kind of dragon that can be either wingless or are constantly flying without ever landing. Bring up the turtle reminded me about the Turtle Dragons. Creatures that reside within oceans and tend to hold huge territory if they are not constantly moving around. Not to mention, they are massive and in a lot of depictions, their backs are basically an island that is constantly moving. Yoshi could very easily be a variation of a dragon turtle by being a drake version of this creature. Plus we had a couple games (I believe) call Yoshi’s Island (I have never played). So by this conclusion, I can easily see Yoshi as a drake. But more specifically, a turtle drake.
Then again this is just a thought.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but since dragons aren’t real and there isn’t an official classification for dragons and it varies from culture to culture, couldn’t dinosaurs be considered dragons?
He is a Dragon Dinosaur
Thats what i was thinking . It makes perfect sense .
Or Vice versa
Yep they were actually in dinosaur family
Fun fact: in Mario Kart Tour, all the drivers were split into Team Peach and Team Bowser for an event last week, and all the Yoshi variants are on Team Bowser.
I always thought Yosh was supposed to be a turtle dragon like the ones from Chinese mythology. A dragon with a turtle shell on it's back.
I love how yoshi is going actively out of his way to get recruited ruin our childhoods.
playing along here, i think the shell could be a genetic trait that somehow expressed itself when the hybridization occured and koopas, dinosaurs and dragons all come from the same stock. maybe the ancestral koopa came first and the other two branches shed the shell for whatever reason.
no i'm not reading too much into yoshi. no i'm NOT
Imagine buckling up a seatbelt to indirectly kickstart a series of 3-4 Theorization channels.
In Denmark, our past civilisation actually referred to dinosaurs and dragons as the same thing. I think they might be just a little closer than one might think.
@Kahrum typically animals that can shoot fluid from their mouth have some kind of structure that we'd be able to see, like a pair of hollow teeth that liquid goes through. And we don't think that dinosaurs could've had the type of cheeks/muscular lips that would allow them to spit like mammals do. Let alone be able to light fire just from their own body.
@Kahrum how much research did u put into this
The difference between dinosaurs and dragons is that dinosaurs are too young to smoke
@Jamie C .... i can shoot poison or acid from my gullet, just give me enough alcohol.
common sense dictates that since there area reptiles TODAY that can produce harmful liquids and fire them at annoyances, there were probably some who had learned the trick back then too.
and since the atmosphere had more readily availible oxygen..... i could see a fireball shot from the mmouth as a possiblity, the only real question is how they ignited the stream of fluid.
Just as an aside, if yoshi is a dinosaur I would propose that he might be some kind of ceratosaurian - maybe a noasaur if I had to get specific - based on not only the back plates (similar to ceratosaurus itself) but also having 4 fingers, which is very uncommon in theropods outside of early groups and ceratosaurians.
Dragon and Dinosaur are actually similarly writtenin Japanese, with the character for Dragon (Ryuu) being in the word used to say Dinosaur (Kyoryu). This added on to the fact that in Japanese media Dragon is commonly used as a substitute for Dinosaurs thanks to the similarity. Sometimes Dragon will be used to refer to both animals. There is also the fact that Dinosaur bones used to be called dragon bones in past china because of some stories they would make up about the mythical creature
i cannot begin to tell you how much i love mario theories
I remember watching G4 as a kid and they talked about Yoshi winning an award for being a dragon.
So basically.
Yoshu is a hybrid of a turtle, dinosaur, dragon and a Koopa.
This is the most outlandish theory he has about Yoshi, yet it somehow makes enough sense and seems plausible. Huge W for MatPat if this theory is proven canon in the future.
@AlphaEchoOne I already made a reply saying that I was accusing the Finally it's here guys and I don't wanna write the same thing over and over.
@Ludexia Moustache is a real dude like Justin Y. He's one of the old commenters that have been around before the spambots
Repent to Jesus Christ
“Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.””
John 20:21 NIV
h
I was chilling until the part where Matpat said Yoshi might betray Mario 😃
Oh man Yoshi better never turn evil he’s definitely my favorite Mario character
I think he’s called a dragon sometimes because dinosaur actually translates to “savage dragon” or “terrifying dragon” or something similar in Japanese.
Yoshi could’ve been a hybrid of the three. The T. In his name could’ve stand for Turtle, Yoshisaur has the same ending as Dinosaur, and Munchakoopas has “Koopa” in it while the Munch just means he eats Bowser’s minions and other small enemies.
Your Super Mario theories are always intriguing!!
I get the feeling that in the Mushroom world, "dinosaur" and "dragon" are simply interchangeable.
@Asinee Watchmaker Exactly! Or the bearded dragon. Something that relates to the general feeling of big or dangerous reptile.
@Yoseqlo Yoseloq would it be similar to the Comodo Dragon a type of large lizard? irl? And a type of turtle shell, would also be related to a Turtle Species🤔. I find this very interesting
I was thinking about this the whole video! Dragons don't really exist in the real world, so why couldn't they simply be a type of dinosaur in the Mario universe?
@Alex Easton so true
@User Name Lol. I know. Was referencing Amber Turd.
It’s interesting to think that super Mario odyssey introduced realistic dinosaurs as well as a realistic dragon.
The word "dinosaur" was not coined until 1841. Prior to that, the creatures now classified as such (which were know, as recorded by Marco Polo circa 1271) would have been classified as dragons.
I like to think that Yoshi just likes to call himself a dragon and is really a dinosaur. I think it'd be cute :]
Being a Munchikoopa, at least to me, means he's still related to a Koopa. Since Bowser to everyone is a Dragon Turtle Hybrid called the King Koopa. It would make sense that Yoshi and to an extent every dinosaur character are a hybrid of some sort
Life would've never been the same without The Game Theorists. Thanks, Stephanie's dad, for wearing your seatbelt.
I think there's a very obvious solution that hasn't been discussed yet: Yoshi doesn't fit neatly into the Plessie, Dorrie, Bahamut, or Koopa lineages because Yoshi is the common ancestor for them all. Or rather, a species very similar to Yoshis was the common ancestor for them all, and modern Yoshis evolved in a climate that favored remaining similar to their ancestor's form. Granted, this would require knowing when in the Mario timeline each species originated, or some sort of fossil record, but it makes more sense to me than Yoshi somehow being a hybrid of three or more species at once.
Another simple one is that dragons in the mario world are a category of dinosaurs that can breath fire and have wings
@Abderian Agelast we know that water exists in Yoshi's world, and that fire would be useful against any enemy that lives in Yoshi's world too. Same goes for the shells, which would also be useful against enemies there. We know he is afraid of these, as he runs away when he bumps into one of them. It also seems Yoshi can actually live pretty much anywhere, maybe even natively as we find can find his eggs in most types of worlds. I still don't see why you'd have to suppose all of those things. A hybrid is by far the most economic assumption.
@silas frisenette We definitely could call them all a single species, like we do with dog breeds. But then they'd still all originate from a common ancestor. Just a far more recent one.
@silas frisenette First, I didn't intend to insult your intelligence, I simply don't know you and don't know what you know. I just want to try and be as clear as I can in the hopes of minimizing misunderstandings.
Second, well, we don't actually know of many world events in the Mario world, or what the continents look like, or anything like that. I can't honestly give a reason for why the species divulged because I don't know anything about the world itself. All I can do is make assumptions based on what we know about Earth and hope that they apply here. The best I can do is say that I don't know, we don't have enough information. But I still think it's far more likely than a four-way hybrid between Koopa, Bahamut, Plessie, and Dorrie.
@Abderian Agelast well surely they are related to the names we call them, otherwise we might as well call them all "bob" and say it's one species with different phenotypes 🤷
i think a game where yoshis are evil would be a nice change of pace and i think adding some new game mechanics to make up for the lack of yoshis would be cool
Seatbelt's can save lives!
Even the "Odd 1s Out(James Rallison)" says so!
(by the way your show is GREAT!) keep it up!
The 'munchikoopa' in his name doesn't mean that he is a koopa, but that he has the characteristic of eating koopas. Like when a plant has the byname grandiflora and it has big blossoms
Normally I skip ads but since I was drawing while it happened, I couldn’t. So I got to hear Steph’s Dad’s tragic story that got saved by a seatbelt. Please, wear your seatbelt, everyone.
Well, in China, dragon turtles are a thing. The Chinese dragon turtle may have possibly been what inspired the creation of Yoshi, the dragon turtle dinosaur. Now, if you look at Bowser, he's the closest thing to what a traditional dragon turtle would look like standing on hind legs.
Here's the ultimate cop-out. Yoshi is actually an artificial lifeform with the DNA of dragons, dinosaurs and turtles mixed in. Probably chameleon given his tongue.
You’re valid!
So is Yoshi just the Mario version of Shadow? Ultimate Life Form and all.
@Miss Anxiety There. That's what Yoshi is: The Reptilian Singularity.
Basically, he's a reptillian amalgamation
Few things that bug me:
1. In Japanese, the words Dragon and Dinosaur seem to overlap in places. It's not far a stretch to think that they may be seen as the same thing in the world of the Mushroom Kingdom.
2. Allot of the times Yoshi is referred to as a dragon seem to be either when he has been enhanced by some power-up or when he refers himself as the *"Yoshi the dragon!"* (or words to that effect). It could be him bigging himself to the level of an epic fire-breathing beast, to make him seem tougher.
PS. It could also be him trying to distance himself from a Koopa lineage, considering the shell on his back.
Thankyou for listening to my rant/Ted-Talk x
7:46 what an amazing color palette. Seriously it should be a Grb.
This video left me with more questions about Yoshi than answers, now instead of just thinking he’s either a dino or a dragon, I think he’s either a koopa or a hybrid of a lot of them combined, I don’t even know which ones for sure
I applaud you for the seat belt safety sponsorship/psa.
Also, great theory as always ;)
Always wondered why Yoshi had a turtle shell on his back
To be completely honest, dinosaur and dragons are not really different creatures in Japan.
The Japanese word for dinousaur is Kyōryū, with the latter half Ryū being the word meaning dragon.
@QuizMaster Hanzo oh yup
I found this out through One Piece lol
@WKMT Steven true, but you are not going to tell me no one uses it for wordplay, I've seen plenty of games where dinosaurs are given dragon like features like fire breath or being able to swim in lava.
Not saying I know more than a native speaker, but I've been studying Japanese for a few years, so I'm at least sure of how wordplay is used in media.
We japanese use the words Kyoryu and ryu very separately tho. When you say kyoryu it will only mean dinosaur but not dragon, and when you say ryu it will only mean dragon. We don’t call dragons kyoryu and definitely don’t call dinosaurs Ryu ❌. Same with Chinese
I mean, not that different in english honestly. 'deinos' meaning terrible, and 'sauros' for lizard. meanwhile, that first kanji is 'fear, *terror*, dread', yes?
I once saw an artwork that actually showed Yoshi with both the shell and the saddle, with the saddle just in front of his shell, which I think makes sense.
And also, I don’t think there’s a distinction between Dinosaur, Dragon and Turtle in the Marioverse.
Kind of different forms for the same creatures.
If someone still didn't understand if Yoshi is dinosaur or dragon, he is a mix of dinosaur, dragon and turtle.
I've always thought yoshi was Bowser's child estranged and trying to stop his father's evilness
4:00 I was thinking to myself, "Nintendo stop trying to be as complicated as FNAF", but then he practically said it himself a few seconds after 😂😂😂
Not all the odd dinosaurs and dragons were looked into. Some of the others share a similar appearance to Yoshi too.
Yoshi being a Koopa even works with his final smash in Brawl as rather than gaining dragon like wings, he gets feathered ones like Para-Koopas
@Devon Smith Don't respond to bots, it gives them more visibility
@Jero Valentin Trueee, but yeah the point still stands :')
@Don't Read My Profile Photo Okay Bob
The feather wings also appear in the 1st games, where each of the 4 Yoshi colors had different powers (Blue being wings)
MatPat is a brain burner!(Правдивое видео):.
kzclip.org/video/eMvZPV5acww/бейне.html
Are we not gonna talk about one seatbelt saved this entire channel?
it's not a mistake it's a masterpiece
I love how this guys makes like at least 5 Mario theories a year but he’s only made like 7 sonic theories in his lifetime, and all of them where just proving him wrong. MatPat, if you see this, I’d like to know how Sonic’s homing attack works, if you will. Thanks.
This is the most bizarre theory he has about Yoshi, but somehow it makes sense and seems plausible. Huge W for MatPat if this theory is proven canon in the future.
@Alexander Leonardi Who knows.
No it doesnt. And no it cant. Yoshi is old enough to be bowsers father
Maybe Yoshi was just meant to be different. That's probably why he's always been my favorite.
When a department of the U.S. government sponsors a Game Theory video about Yoshi's relation to Bowser, you know this timeline is absolutely bonkers.
kzclip.org/video/s5g6tqzqiRE/бейне.html Finally It’s here🤠
Bonk
MatPat is a brain burner!(Правдивое видео):.
kzclip.org/video/eMvZPV5acww/бейне.html
kzclip.org/video/bev-dLoM4lc/бейне.html
держись солдаты
In Japanese, the word for “dinosaur” and the word for “dragon” are very similar. 🦖 🐉
I’d really love to see you guys dive into how dark of a game Moving Out is.
Now I am waiting until an evil Yoshi story.
Aside from the explanation of a shell, comparing Yoshi to a hybrid like a mule or liger is inaccurate because this would mean that Yoshi also has the same infertility. You can only get a mule by breeding a horse and a donkey together or by breeding a tiger and a lion together. This argument that Yoshi is a hybrid like them is disqualified by the simple fact that Yoshi can lay eggs that hatch other Yoshis.
My sister used to take dance classes. One of them was themed on mario related things, and on a Yoshi themed dance with with costumes and little kids, it had said “we are the dinosaurs”. I never questioned the dance.
Given the connection between turtles, dinosaurs, and dragons in the Mario series, it could be that the various species are all of the above. They're dragon-turtle-dinosaurs, with a dominance of 1/2 of these traits compared to the other 1/2 depending on the species.
@Tomes of Awesome Here's my simple theory, matpat was right about Yoshi being a monolophosaurus but the magic found throughout the Mushroom Kingdom is what gave the dinosaur radical adaptations.
It really makes more sense for dinosaur to evolve into a dragon then anything else.
Wouldn't that make him a Tarasque?
MatPat is a brain burner!(Правдивое видео):.
kzclip.org/video/eMvZPV5acww/бейне.html
kzclip.org/video/s5g6tqzqiRE/бейне.html Finally It’s here
Plus we already covered/talked about how every color of toad is like it's own sub species. There are AT LEAST, four different colored Yoshie's. Two of which are the same color as Bahamut and Dorie. And then parakoops are yellow. And big koopas like ROY, have a stomping action, which is EXACTLY what yellow yoshie's do!
What a W sponsor cause that’s crazy how one seat belt is what gave us this content and this character know as mat pat really encourages me to drive safe becuase you never know what I might be apart of in the future that my safe driving allowed me to be in
I just kinda figured dragon and dinosaur were interchangeable in this context... Giant, ancient, extinct reptiles with massive jaws and all that.
I once saw a learning channel show that postulated that dragons are a type of dinosaur, so it makes sense that both ideas of Yoshi being a dinosaur and dragon being correct when thinking along that line.
a rebel villian yoshi would make for interesting mechanics as a boss fight, lots to work with
9:05 Just changing the G to a P would drastically damage this video
MatPat talking about the safety of seatbelts brings me a strange kind of relief. I was in a crash last September and almost caused major brain damage, and only got out with whiplash and a concussion because my seatbelt kept me from hitting the dashboard full force. Thank you MatPat!
lovely youtube comment weather today
kzclip.org/video/s5g6tqzqiRE/бейне.html Finally It’s here⭐️
MatPat is a brain burner!(Правдивое видео):.
kzclip.org/video/eMvZPV5acww/бейне.html
Speaking of contradictory information on a creature's classification from different canonical sources, I'm curious to see a theory from you about Phione and whether it's a Legendary or Mythical Pokémon.
Dinosaur is a pretty new word, to be fair. Dragon was a word used for what we understand to be dinosaurs for far longer than we've used the word dinosaur.
So glad 2022 decided to remind everyone about seatbelts. I haven't heard a psa about seatbelts in 20 years, so I totally forgot they existed. Thanks 2022. Maybe next year you can bring back "stop drop and roll" or air raid drills.
The member of the Yoshi species that I know of who has evil tendencies is *_Boshi_* from the _Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars_ video game. No other Yoshi is likely to *_EVER_* turn evil there!
Are koopas actually evil? I only ever got the impression from the games I've played that they are simply obeying their king.
Also, the fact that Yoshi doesn't enter the castle in Super Mario World proves that he won't be against Mario unless he jumps off him to get over a pit.
Theory:
Yoshi's father is a dragon and dinossaur hybrid while his mom is a turtle.
@Azure Dragoon And Bowser Jr's mother?!?! 😱
@Mr.Random oh god please not bowser rule 34 again
Is bowser a dragon koopa hybrid? If yes... Hear me out, maybe JUST maybe, bowser got a little lonely and....
@Alphaundpinsel its a video game... lets not talk about that...
@Change Name Edits then how do you get baby yoshi?
It could be possible that ancient Yoshis had wings but they became vestigial or even just evolved into a shell and when he absorbs the smash ball energy he grows the wings back
What if Yoshi just calls himself a dragon? To make himself look cool, I guess
It's not a seat belt, but in SM2 and 3 I believe Yoshi has a saddle.
can we talk about how Mat's career is literally a butterfly effect
Fun trivia: In Japanese (and by extension, Chinese) the way you say “dinosaur” is 恐竜 (kyōryū). The second character, 竜, literally means “dragon”. Since the word for dragon entered the Chinese/Japanese lexicon first, dinosaurs are essentially “scary dragons”. Perhaps this is another reason why the translation is a bit more fuzzy.
@Frank Kawai Tran Yup and the word 恐竜 is made up by a paleontologist named Matajiro Yokoyama
@Wafflest Waffle In a majority of cases, yes! A huge chunk of Japanese vocabulary was borrowed from China. I only mentioned it in that order because the language talked about in the video is Japanese. You might also be surprised to find that China borrowed some vocabulary from Japan too in a fascinating reversed cultural exchange. While the characters themselves are still Chinese in origin, the unique ORDER was borrowed from Japan. Take these examples: 電話 (telephone) and 文化 (culture)
@Wafflest Waffle No?
I think you mean "In Chinese (and by extension, Japanese)," right?
@リヴィングトンカナタ Both can be used
This kinda makes sense. If he was a dinosaur, why does he have a shell like Bowser?
Don't know if this means anything but during the Peach vs. Bowser tour in Mario Kart Tour, Yoshi was on team Bowser. Every variation. Blue, Red, Original Green. Every Yoshi. Hope you see this!
Canonically, there already IS an evil Yoshi; in the same game as Bahamutt, i.e. Super Mario RPG, there's a recurring side quest of Mario riding Yoshi as it races against a Yoshi-like creaturecalled Boshi. And much like Bahamutt? Boshi's never been in another game either! Boshi resembles a blue Yoshi but wears shades similar to Ash's Squirtle, a spiked collar, and his shoes are open-toed due to his claws. I think.hemight've had fangs as well. Also the crest on Boshi's neck is a single, red triangle instead of many, small red semi-circles.
Ah yes, all the Yoshi eggs in the Mario series hatches into a single entity which is the lost son of bowser.