It's kind of weird to me that people care about Nintendo characters or have 'favorite ones' at all, honestly. At least with the ciphers like Mario and Yoshi. But, really, with all of them. Once they are removed from their context, my affection for them ceases.

'Mario', to me, is something of a symbol of quality in a respective genre. 'Kirby' has become a standard-bearer for experimentation (and, alternately, the lack thereof).

Come to think of it, Wario is kind of awesome. But, although his character has been fleshed out a bit recently, Luigi fans always have puzzled me. Did they just enjoy the color green?

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@Anand

I do see myself as him, yes. I guess I'm being restrained to doing good instead of tea bagging my last frag. That gives me a good amount of compassion toward Link. He represents my innocence as a sinful person. Yes, Link is a virgin.

Luigi is "the other brother." I'm sure anyone who has a big brother who gets more attention can identify with him. I like Luigi, even though I have a younger sister. As much as the odds are constantly stacked against Mario, he seems even less apt to achieve victory.

I also like the Bills and Orioles. Sense a theme? I didn't plan it that way. It just happened..

I wouldn't say I 'care about them', but I do like them, and many of them are endearing in a sense. Yes, they are appealing because of their context, but you can say that about anything.

Yoshi was always such a neat character to me as a child. And not just in the games--the manual art, etc, painted a neat picture about a dinosaur friend. That, and dinosaurs are AWESOME, leads me to continue my like for the character. He's gotten cutesier over time, to me, but with it comes an even cooler character design, so I'm all for it. Even being one of the least-developed characters, he's still quite endearing and interesting. I couldn't knock someone for liking another one, either.

Yeah I wouldn't say I "care about them" in the sense that like, I get sad when Mario dies in a game...but I "care about them" in the sense that they were important to my childhood and bring back fond memories and I would be sad if Nintendo ever stopped putting them in games.

I like them on the same level that I enjoy the characters in my favorite TV show or movie. Maybe for different reasons, but I still like them a good deal. I still have my Mario bobblehead sitting over in my DVD tower.

Luigi is the classic underdog. What's not to like?

Also Daisy is hot. I don't really like her for her personality.

@-JKR-
Aren't you married JKR? Does your wife know that you lust after Daisy?

Without a doubt, I do. Unlike most debates (although I guess this hasn't necessarily turned into a debate), I won't even bother to read the rest of this thread to discover other people's reasons for caring or not caring. This is one of those things that's not worth reasoning out. I probably couldn't put into words very succinctly or clearly why I care, but I do. A lot of Nintendo characters and environments are really fantastic and evoke all kinds of emotions from me.

As Charlie Chaplin would say, Anand, you think too much and feel too little...!