So even Mario gets scared, sometimes...
Sep. 20th, 2023 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrsluigivargasDuring my flight last night I’d decided to spend the few hours handwriting some fic; I was going to flesh out an existing idea, but then I remembered a headcanon I’d seen what feels like years ago that claimed that Mario had a fear of falling. Or rather, it was more of a fear of…unplanned falling? Basically, with how often Mario gets flung away long distances and knocked out of the sky and stuff during his adventures, they’d thought it made sense for him to develop a Thing (negative) about it.
Like, off the top of my head there’s the intros to Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Odyssey, Paper Mario, and New Super Mario Bros U, where Peach is Very Much in trouble but Mario is forcibly torn away from helping her. And in the case of all but the last instance, it’s implied that he gets some amount of injured during the process. So now he’s hurt, probably miles and miles away from the loved ones that need his help the most, and has a veritable mountain to climb to go help them. And this happens so much, on even a smaller scale than the inciting incident of an adventure, too, I’m sure — like the Odyssey getting knocked out of the sky twice in SMO, the bridge collapsing in Dream Team, Mario falling from the sky at the end of SMS, even falling from the Rainbow Road in the movie if you wanna count that. I can see how that could start messing with his head a little, haha. Enough that I’ve now got half an outline of a fic exploring that ^_^; It’s interesting to take a guy who's always Gotta Be Doing Things and put him in a situation where he can't do anything but wait and hope he lands on something reasonable, oof. Especially if it’s a long flight, so to speak.
Got to chatting on Tumblr about all of this, and someone brought up the bit in Sparks of Hope when they all have to jump out of the spacecraft. And yeah, if Bowser hadn't shoved his way out I wonder how long Mario would have dithered there…but at least he's surrounded by friends in this instance, so it's probably not as bad as it could be otherwise! Or at least I'm assuming that; I went back and watched the whole cutscene and his frown flips into a bit of a grin soon after the descent starts, haha. I think earlier in that cutscene Mario and Luigi share a nod before running out to the door, too; a reassuring nod, perhaps? Maybe!
We also got to talking about other fears Mario may or may not canonically have. Which meant I got to bring out some nuggets of info I’ve been holding onto for years XD
The first thing is that I'm pretty sure Paper Mario in particular has a Thing about ghosts because there's a part of Paper Mario: Color Splash where you're exploring a haunted hotel and you reveal a ghost tugging on a book, and you get this dialogue:
Which is way cuter than I remembered, tbh (especially all in motion — the way Mario visibly collects himself after Huey points out he's scared is adorable, haha). And I'm pretty sure Luigi's Mansion is canon to this game, because when the Toad at the entrance to the hotel is telling Mario about the bizarre occurrences as of late, he says this —
— which only really makes sense if at least one Luigi's Mansion game happened.
The second thing is that a couple of Mario is Missing! related blurbs on the MarioWiki say the following:
Ludwig's joke in question is, "How many Bowsers does it take to unscrew a lightbulb? Ha ha, only one, and he's dying to plunge Mario into darkness!" And every time Luigi exits a portal door back to the main floor, Ludwig taunts him with "You think YOU'RE in the dark, friend? Just imagine poor Mario without any lightbulbs!"
Which, you know. That's fun. I'm sure that there aren't many people who include Mario is Missing! in their personal versions and interpretations of the Mario universe…but at least there's some sort of canonical precedent if you wanna give Mario a fear of the dark! And have Bowser be mean about it!
Like, off the top of my head there’s the intros to Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Odyssey, Paper Mario, and New Super Mario Bros U, where Peach is Very Much in trouble but Mario is forcibly torn away from helping her. And in the case of all but the last instance, it’s implied that he gets some amount of injured during the process. So now he’s hurt, probably miles and miles away from the loved ones that need his help the most, and has a veritable mountain to climb to go help them. And this happens so much, on even a smaller scale than the inciting incident of an adventure, too, I’m sure — like the Odyssey getting knocked out of the sky twice in SMO, the bridge collapsing in Dream Team, Mario falling from the sky at the end of SMS, even falling from the Rainbow Road in the movie if you wanna count that. I can see how that could start messing with his head a little, haha. Enough that I’ve now got half an outline of a fic exploring that ^_^; It’s interesting to take a guy who's always Gotta Be Doing Things and put him in a situation where he can't do anything but wait and hope he lands on something reasonable, oof. Especially if it’s a long flight, so to speak.
Got to chatting on Tumblr about all of this, and someone brought up the bit in Sparks of Hope when they all have to jump out of the spacecraft. And yeah, if Bowser hadn't shoved his way out I wonder how long Mario would have dithered there…but at least he's surrounded by friends in this instance, so it's probably not as bad as it could be otherwise! Or at least I'm assuming that; I went back and watched the whole cutscene and his frown flips into a bit of a grin soon after the descent starts, haha. I think earlier in that cutscene Mario and Luigi share a nod before running out to the door, too; a reassuring nod, perhaps? Maybe!
We also got to talking about other fears Mario may or may not canonically have. Which meant I got to bring out some nuggets of info I’ve been holding onto for years XD
The first thing is that I'm pretty sure Paper Mario in particular has a Thing about ghosts because there's a part of Paper Mario: Color Splash where you're exploring a haunted hotel and you reveal a ghost tugging on a book, and you get this dialogue:
Which is way cuter than I remembered, tbh (especially all in motion — the way Mario visibly collects himself after Huey points out he's scared is adorable, haha). And I'm pretty sure Luigi's Mansion is canon to this game, because when the Toad at the entrance to the hotel is telling Mario about the bizarre occurrences as of late, he says this —
— which only really makes sense if at least one Luigi's Mansion game happened.
The second thing is that a couple of Mario is Missing! related blurbs on the MarioWiki say the following:
According to the MS-DOS release, Mario has a fear of the dark, which he is increasingly worried that Bowser will exploit his fear and haunt him. This is not seen or referenced in other games, except potentially Hotel Mario when he stutters (presumably in fear) before entering the cave hotel without a flashlight. [X]
In the DOS version, Mario enters the castle alone, as Luigi is too scared to follow. Mario meets Bowser, who is in a butler disguise, and accepts candy from him, despite Luigi's warning not to take candy from strangers. Bowser uses this as a distraction to trap Mario in a net. Despite his captured status, however, Mario in this version nonetheless manages to give contact to Luigi to guide him to the continents to stop Bowser's plans, as well as update him on the situation. Over the course of the game, Mario tells Luigi that he admitted to Bowser that he has a fear of the dark, which strained communication since Bowser is threatening him with his fear. [X]
In the DOS version of Mario is Missing!, [Ludwig von Koopa] cracks a joke about light bulbs and darkness at Mario's expense after Bowser discovered the hero's fear of the dark. [X]
In the DOS version, Mario enters the castle alone, as Luigi is too scared to follow. Mario meets Bowser, who is in a butler disguise, and accepts candy from him, despite Luigi's warning not to take candy from strangers. Bowser uses this as a distraction to trap Mario in a net. Despite his captured status, however, Mario in this version nonetheless manages to give contact to Luigi to guide him to the continents to stop Bowser's plans, as well as update him on the situation. Over the course of the game, Mario tells Luigi that he admitted to Bowser that he has a fear of the dark, which strained communication since Bowser is threatening him with his fear. [X]
In the DOS version of Mario is Missing!, [Ludwig von Koopa] cracks a joke about light bulbs and darkness at Mario's expense after Bowser discovered the hero's fear of the dark. [X]
Ludwig's joke in question is, "How many Bowsers does it take to unscrew a lightbulb? Ha ha, only one, and he's dying to plunge Mario into darkness!" And every time Luigi exits a portal door back to the main floor, Ludwig taunts him with "You think YOU'RE in the dark, friend? Just imagine poor Mario without any lightbulbs!"
Which, you know. That's fun. I'm sure that there aren't many people who include Mario is Missing! in their personal versions and interpretations of the Mario universe…but at least there's some sort of canonical precedent if you wanna give Mario a fear of the dark! And have Bowser be mean about it!