The Mario Silhouette

The Mario Silhouette is a completely black figure, shaped like the player, that can be randomly found inside Princess Peach's Castle. The silhouette seems to always be moving, being able to jump into paintings and open star doors. Somehow, the Mario Silhouette and all objects it interacts with make no sounds. It is very rare to find the Mario Silhouette as it's always on the move, however it is possible that it has appeared, just unnoticed. It is unknown if the Mario Silhouette can appear in other levels, although it may be possible as it has been reported that the Mario Silhouette can jump into paintings.

Behavior
The Mario Silhouette will be on the move constantly, and has never been reported to stop, except for one specific reporting. It's been documented that the Mario Silhouette is able to go into paintings and open star doors, although how it gets the stars, or if it can even appear inside a level, is debatable. The Mario Silhouette's path can be broken, via a punch or dive into the figure, however it does lead to drastic changes in personalization, or glitches and game crashes to occur. The Mario Silhouette does not seem to collect anything or go anywhere in a specific order, but has been reported to mimic a player's earlier trip through the castle on occasion.

Reportings
Please feel free to add your own reports.

The first documented reporting comes from a post on Discord, with the user wishing to remain anonymous. He reported that while he was playing Super Mario 64, he saw a strange shadow version of Mario. He couldn't record any of it, but he described his experience as "I was walking into the 2nd floor and when I made it up the stairs, I saw shadow version of Mario. I ran towards it, but it went into the door to Tiny Huge Island. I went through the door to try to follow it, but it vanished without a trace." He thinks this might have something to do with Super Mario 64's personalized A.I., though he reports the rest of his play-through was normal.

The second sight of the Mario Silhouette was from a user known as LuigiNumberOne on Reddit. He describes his experience as follows: "Going through the doors leading to the basement steps, I found what looked like Mario down the stairs, but his model was all black. I took a picture just because I thought it was a weird occurrence. When I went right in front of where it was, it went through the door to the basement. I couldn't follow him, as I didn't do the first Bowser fight yet." His picture was the first recorded sighting of the Mario Silhouette, though he couldn't find it anywhere else.This sighting was recorded by a user known as Lisreallyreal2402 on Discord. He describes his experience as follows: "When I first went into the castle, I found that there was a shadowy Mario watching me. I didn't remember this from my first play-through, so I took a picture of it. When I approached it, it went into the secret star door, and I couldn't follow it as I had 0 stars." His picture is the only one of the Mario Silhouette not moving, which it is unknown why it stopped.

This reporting was made by an anonymous user on 4chan. Here's what he said: "I actually heard about the weird dark Mario thing from a friend. After hearing about it, I set out to try and find it myself. It took a long while to get it to appear, but it showed up when I least expected it. I used a bunch of dives and long-jumps before I could reach the figure, but when I did, I bumped into it, causing it to stop for a bit. I thought it was cool that I managed to find it, but the game feels... different? I just feel like something is off from before that event. The game also has constant crashes now, which is annoying."

Another encounter was documented by user Darkfall9 on a now deleted GeoCities page. "One time when I was playing the game, I found a pure black version of Mario, walking around the castle like I did 2 trips before. It was so cool!!! I tried to follow him but he vanished??? It was very weird. He also managed to jump into Lethal Lava Land's painting when he was in the basement. When I entered the level, he wasn't there??? I've been trying to find the weird Mario again, but he just doesn't appear anymore. Other than that, this game was great! I would recommend getting it at Blockbuster or some other video store."

One encounter was described by an anonymous user to an early Mario 64 forum under the title “Postgame event?”. “I just beat the game and was wondering what the deal was with the Dark Mario that appeared. For more context after I defeated the final Bowser fight I reentered the castle and saw a completely black version of Mario entering the door that leads to the second floor. I followed it but didn’t see it upon arriving at the second floor. Instead the painting for Wet Dry World had a ripple effect on it as if something had just jumped into it. I entered the level but couldn’t find anything (I even looked in the submerged village in case you’re wondering). I was wondering if anybody knew what I need to do at this point as it seams to me like this is some sort of postgame content, but I have no idea how to progress with it.”

Theorising
The main theory regarding the Mario Silhouette is that it's related to Super Mario 64's A.I., and that it's used as a way to test movement tracking. One of the ways the A.I. is theorized to learn from the player is by their movements, which is why the silhouette would make sense as a test for that, although the reason it is still in the game is unknown. The Mario Silhouette could also be tracking where the player has last been, as it has been reported to follow a path similar to one of the player's trips to the castle previously. The figure seems to also been meant to be unused, as there's barely anything in the game related to the Mario Silhouette, strangely.

Gallery
Feel free to add your own images, more documentation is helpful.