It's no doubt that when it comes to the Mario series and the Mario games, Mario is considered reputable for the quality of the games, not to mention how trustworthy the series generally is. However, this topic is more talking about Mario as a character. In general, Mario doesn't display too much about his character in the games that are present, where he's normally silent, or if something had to be said, another character will do the talking. In fact, Mario talking is rare, where there are games like Mario vs. Donkey Kong (GBA) or Fortune Street where he actually said more frequently than the average speech time. Because of how Mario doesn't really display his character a lot, his personality might seem like it's more open-ended, even though Mario's character in the Nintendo guidelines portray him as heroic and virtuous.
That doesn't really stop fans from portraying Mario as character in their own ways. In fact, quite a lot are more inclined to portray him as disreputable, in which Mario is portray to partake in many vices, do things that paint a bad light to the character, or interpret the character under a negative light. As an example, we have the SuperMarioGlitchy4 series that portray Mario with a callous attitude and a general affinity for spaghetti in a gross manner, because apparently portraying Mario as he is made is "boring". There's also how he's portrayed as partaking in substance abuse, merely because mushrooms are a source of power-up in the games. And that's not to mention how one of Game Theory's more infamous and well-known theories concern Mario being in the morally wrong that essentially painted him as a villain. Mario is very commonly depicted as a wrongdoer that sometimes it's easy to forget how Mario is intended to behave, similar to how Mickey Mouse is assumed to be a villain even though the character himself is one of heroism and adventure-seeking (the comics portrayed him as such). Also, unlike every Mario movie voice actor, he is strongly associated with the person who voiced him that makes one wonders if every voice actor is invalidated (including Charles Martinet), unlike every other character (so for example, nobody called Peach "Anya Taylor-Joy" as a joke, at least not in the long term).
And thus we have a sort of dichotomy here: the original creators intend for Mario to be typically heroic, but the idea that Mario is anything but heroic is more tempting to portray by fans. Because of how wildly different the portrayals are, there might be some fans who would be affected by irony poisoning that they might believe that Mario is not at all a good guy. This is not to say that portraying Mario's heroism is completely absent from fan works, but it's more that Mario is a very easy character to mock. In fact, it even seems like Luigi and Wario have a better reputation than Mario because the former is portrayed by fans as someone who could never do wrong, while the latter is basically immune to disrespect.
And so, we get right down to the topic on hand: is it more common for Mario to be portrayed as someone who is straight-up good, or someone who has sinister intentions? In a Mario forum, I can totally understand if the former is perceived to be the more common interpretation because well, we are more invested in the series than others so we understand Mario better, but perhaps it could also encompass the external environment as well. So, what say you?
Thank you for reading.
That doesn't really stop fans from portraying Mario as character in their own ways. In fact, quite a lot are more inclined to portray him as disreputable, in which Mario is portray to partake in many vices, do things that paint a bad light to the character, or interpret the character under a negative light. As an example, we have the SuperMarioGlitchy4 series that portray Mario with a callous attitude and a general affinity for spaghetti in a gross manner, because apparently portraying Mario as he is made is "boring". There's also how he's portrayed as partaking in substance abuse, merely because mushrooms are a source of power-up in the games. And that's not to mention how one of Game Theory's more infamous and well-known theories concern Mario being in the morally wrong that essentially painted him as a villain. Mario is very commonly depicted as a wrongdoer that sometimes it's easy to forget how Mario is intended to behave, similar to how Mickey Mouse is assumed to be a villain even though the character himself is one of heroism and adventure-seeking (the comics portrayed him as such). Also, unlike every Mario movie voice actor, he is strongly associated with the person who voiced him that makes one wonders if every voice actor is invalidated (including Charles Martinet), unlike every other character (so for example, nobody called Peach "Anya Taylor-Joy" as a joke, at least not in the long term).
And thus we have a sort of dichotomy here: the original creators intend for Mario to be typically heroic, but the idea that Mario is anything but heroic is more tempting to portray by fans. Because of how wildly different the portrayals are, there might be some fans who would be affected by irony poisoning that they might believe that Mario is not at all a good guy. This is not to say that portraying Mario's heroism is completely absent from fan works, but it's more that Mario is a very easy character to mock. In fact, it even seems like Luigi and Wario have a better reputation than Mario because the former is portrayed by fans as someone who could never do wrong, while the latter is basically immune to disrespect.
And so, we get right down to the topic on hand: is it more common for Mario to be portrayed as someone who is straight-up good, or someone who has sinister intentions? In a Mario forum, I can totally understand if the former is perceived to be the more common interpretation because well, we are more invested in the series than others so we understand Mario better, but perhaps it could also encompass the external environment as well. So, what say you?
Thank you for reading.
