#skeeter

Do not worry, their uncle owns the theater!

Skeeter is going to college to get her degree in archeology.

Source:

Name: Skeeter (again) (and again as well)

Debut: Super Mario 64

I am surprised we only had one post about Skeeter, and it was one that didn't go into much depth! (EDIT: wait what the hell I was way wrong. We had another one after that which has now been linked above! I forgot. Sowwy *shrugs cutely so you forgive me*) It's always jarring how short our posts were seven years (!) ago. Nowadays we could not DREAM of posting about something as momentous as Skeeter without a veritable essay! And here it is! (essays are fun when they are about Skeeter!)

Skeeter- my dear friend Skeeter who was in my second grade class and who I even still talk with from time to time, thank goodness- is basically the mascot of Wet-Dry World! It adorns the entry painting, and also, there is NO creature that better represents the concept of Wet-Dry like the humble water strider. An insect that gracefully skates along the very barrier that prevents wet and dry from intermingling! Is it wet? Is it dry? Is it both? To be honest, it's dry. It has water-repellent hairs. But it lives such a wet life!

Do you know why a creature might want to live on, specifically, the surface of the water in the first place? It's because most insects, upon getting wet, will get stuck at the surface and struggle to escape. A nearby skeeter will sense these vibrations, find that poor insect, and slurp out its innards! Exactly like lifeguards are allowed to do on Opposite Day each year!

Silly little Skeeter is likely a fierce predator, even though it has no visible weaponry, not even a mouth to speak of. Maybe that's why it's sad. Or maybe it's the Negative Emotional Aura that it has known all its life. What Skeeter DOES have is a bobbly bop on its head! Real water striders do not have these, but maybe they should. Not enough real animals have a single bobbly. California Quail should not hold a monopoly on the fashion! Something especially interesting about Skeeter's body is that Surskit, the Pokemon, also has a single antenna atop its round body. Maybe it was actually somewhat based on Skeeter! Or maybe they're both based on existing depictions.

In Super Mario 64 DS, Skeeter has a new lease on life! There are many possible reasons for this. I will suggest only one: Skeeter HATES the idea of a 3D platformer being controlled with an analog stick, and is thrilled to see the option of touch-screen controls instead. It's very excited to see the future of 3D platforming with this innovative control method!

Well, speaking of the future of 3D platformers, Skeeter would appear a whole lot, and change a whole lot! In Super Mario Sunshine it is a real little freak, just like every other redesigned enemy. It already had an orb-shaped body with thin, gangly legs, but in this design, it more than ever resembles one of the Opiliones- the harvestmen or daddy longlegs, the arachnids that are like extra legtastic spiders with only a single body segment.

It also looks oddly robotic! Those markings are not like any I would expect on a natural creature. It seems like a metallic or plastic construct meant to clamber around and spy on heroes... but it's not! It's still just a funny bug on the surface of the water. I quite like that just the bottoms of its feet are yellow now, like it's representing hydrophobic coating!

Skeeters were sadly absent in Galaxy... but they then appeared in Galaxy 2, so it's ok, actually! It's not like we're missing out on seeing what a specifically "Galaxy 1-style" Skeeter would look like. It would look like this. It would purpel.

At first, Skeeter looked sad. It then looked alert and wide-eyed. Now, as of Galaxy 2, it looks tired, or disinterested. And that's always so charming. What's the matter? Did this insect have a long day at the office? Get real! I would say the wide-eyed look suits a PREDATORY skeeter the best, but the half-lidded look is splendid for a Mario version that lazily skims the surface! I quite like this design!

And wouldn't you know it! After fifteen years, Skeeter finally returned in Mario Kart World, and the Galaxy 2 design (with slight adjustments) remained! It is safe to say that Skeeter finally has a set design, which is such a nice thought.

I never mentioned the suction cup feet! What a weird thing. I don't think those will help on the surface of the water. It does share these funny feet in common with some incarnations of Scuttlebug, though, and in 64, the two were VERY similar in design! Some localized names even call Skeeter a spider. While Scuttlebug would go on to become a more standard cartoon spider, Skeeter stayed true to its roots of "orbs and sticks", and I think that is wonderful!

Skeepher

Walther, Piggi and kermenet