The biggest confusion when it comes to the Mario timeline is the events of the original Donkey Kong Arcade game.

In the original Arcade game, Donkey Kong kiddnaps Pauline and Mario saves her. But is that really correct?

In Donkey Kong Country, Cranky Kong was introduces as a character and has been confirmed by both Rare and Nintendo that he is in fact the original Donkey Kong from the Arcade game.

This is all well and good - Donkey Kong grew old - but what about Pauline and Mario? They are both still relatively young and the ages just don't seem to match up.

Now we got Bananza and we are seeing Pauline as a child... hanging out with Donkey Kong... and forming a great friendship... Nothing that implies kidnapping at least.

Not to mention: Cranky Kong is here as well! And he's still old! What gives?!?

Well here's the theory: Pauline isn't the one from the original Arcade game. Her Grandmother is.

You see the only other person Pauline ever mentions throughout the game is her grandmother, she speaks very fondly of her and I believe it may even be implied that her singing power comes from her.

We also have this outfit: The Lady Dress and The Family Dress

The Lady dress is a direct homage to "The Lady" which is what Pauline was called and looked like in the arcade game, but it's very interesting that one of the recolours is called "Family Dress" implying that these outfits might actually not be directly Pauline's but maybe instead from a family member, namely: her Grandmother!

So yeah that's the big theory running through some Mario/DK communites right now, that the original "Lady" wasn't actually the Pauline we know now, but her blonde haired Grandmother! Which works perfectly to align with Cranky's age as he is the current DK's Granfather!

And that just leaves Mario, and his arcade counterpart: Jumpman.

As of right now, Nintendo seems to still imply that the current Mario was Jumpman from the arcade game, making him the one and only thing that puts a huge wrench in the timeline.

That's why I want them to adress this in the next movie, that's why I want this guy, Mario's GRANDFATHER to be confirmed to have been Jumpman.

With this one simple confirmation it would fix the timeline.