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Mario, also known as Paper Mario in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, is the main protagonist in the Paper Mario series, as well as his other adventures. Being made of paper, both Mario and his surroundings have very unique effects and abilities, which can be seen in all six Paper Mario games. Mario is very similar to most of his appearances in the Mario franchise, in that he is a silent Italian plumber who must rescue Princess Peach and defeat Bowser in some way. Mario primarily uses the jump and hammer attacks in his paper form, and nearly always encounters allies who join him on his journey to rescue Princess Peach.

History[]

Paper Mario[]

Paper Mario starts out with Parakarry delivering a letter from Princess Peach to Mario’s House. Mario and Luigi learn

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Mario and Peach sharing a moment together just moments before Bowser's raid on Mushroom Castle.

that Peach is throwing a party and wants them to come. Mario goes to Princess Peach’s Castle, but Bowser and Kammy Koopa burst through the window when Mario and Peach are alone. Bowser planted his lair underneath Peach’s Castle, and so Bowser makes his lair float into space, making the castle go with it. Bowser has stolen the Star Rod, which contains the power of the Seven Star Spirits. With the Star Rod, Bowser can make any wish he wants come true, and so he wishes to become invincible. Bowser defeats Mario with the Star Rod, and sends him flying through the window. Peach is captured by Bowser, and is thrown into her room to be guarded by Bowser’s minions.

Mario lies down on the ground unconscious, and the Seven Star Spirits come to him in his dream. They tell him to go to Shooting Star Summit and find them there. A Goomba girl named Goombaria finds Mario, and brings him to the Toad House in Goomba Village. Eldstar, the leader of the Star Spirits, talks to Mario again. Mario wakes up, and meets the nice Goomba family. After Mario arrives at Shooting Star Summit and talks with the Star Spirits, Mario learns that Bowser trapped all of the Seven Star Spirits into cards and gave them to his seven strongest servants. Mario also learns that the only way to defeat Bowser is to rescue all of the Star Spirits so that they can give Mario the Star Beam ability. The Star Beam is the only attack that can get rid of the Star Rod’s powers momentarily.

In this game, Mario has three primary stats: health points (HP), flower points (FP), and badge points (BP). Health determines how much life Mario has, Flower Points determine what special abilities Mario can use and badge points lets Mario

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Mario fighting Bowser.

wear certain badges. Badges give Mario powers, spells, stat changes or other effects. Mario’s two major attacking strategies are variations of jumping and using a hammer.

Mario also has Star Points, which let him use different Star powers given to him by the Star Spirits. Mario gets a Lucky Star item that teaches him Action Commands, which help attack and defense by pressing the A button at a certain time. Mario uses his allies to solve several puzzles he cannot solve alone. Mario gets two upgrades of both his shoes and his hammers, letting him solve more puzzles he originally could not and lets him use more abilities. Mario shows his paper qualities during different parts of the game, as does his allies and the background, making for Paper Mario.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door[]

Mario is the main protagonist in The Thousand-Year Door. In this game, Princess Peach sends Mario a letter, this time containing a Magical Map. Peach says that this map could lead to treasure, and insists that Mario goes to a town named Rougeport. Mario does, and finds a female Goomba named Goombella. Goombella is being attacked by Lord Crump and a crew of X-Nauts, and Mario comes to her rescue. After escaping the X-Nauts, Mario explores Rougeport. Toadsworth is there, and tells Mario that Princess Peach is missing. After that, Goombella tells Mario to look for Professor Frankly. Frankly tells Mario about the Thousand-Year Door and how that can be opened with the Crystal Stars. Mario also learns that the Crystal Stars can be found by using the Magical Map. So, Mario takes on two tasks: Finding the Crystal Stars and finding the missing Princes Peach. Mario has HP, FP and BP like in the old game. The Crystal Stars gives Mario Star Powers (SP), replacing the Star Spirit’s powers. Mario also gains four paper abilities in the course of the game: Airplane Mode, Paper Mode, Tube Mode and Boat Mode. They cannot be used in battle, but Mario uses these four abilities to solve several puzzles in the game.

The combat system is very similar to Paper Mario, adding the abilities to defend or appeal to the audience. Appealing can make the audience cheer and replenishes the Star Power meter much faster. Mario also uses jumping and hammering to attack, just like in the first Paper Mario. Also like in the original game, Mario uses his allies to solve other puzzles that his paper abilities, jumping and hammer cannot. Mario also gets two upgrades of his hammer and shoes to solve new puzzles and gain more abilities, like in Paper Mario. The allies in this game have their own HP, unlike Paper Mario where they had no HP.

Super Paper Mario[]

In Super Paper Mario, Mario is still the main protagonist and still paper. Toad comes into Mario’s Pad and tells Mario that Princess Peach is missing. Mario and Luigi assume it is Bowser who kidnapped her, so they go to Bowser’s Castle. But, they find out that it was not Bowser who kidnapped her. Count Bleck appears, and they learn that he kidnapped Peach. Count Bleck takes everyone at Bowser’s Castle and teleports them to his lair. Mario is lost in Bowser’s Castle, however, knocked out. Count Bleck kidnapped them to try to make the Chaos Heart, which is told by the Dark Prognosticus to create The Void. The Void would eventually devour all worlds, and so Count Bleck could make the universe in accordance to his own will. The Chaos Heart is made by wedding a fair maiden and an evil king, which fits the description of Peach and Bowser perfectly. Count Bleck’s brainwashing assistant Nastasia forces the two to wed, and the Chaos Heart appears. Count Bleck creates The Void, which will slowly grow and destroy all worlds. Mario is awakened by a mysterious pixl named Tippi. Tippi takes Mario to a wizard named Merlon in a town between dimensions called Flipside. Mario learns about Count Bleck and the Chaos Heart. Mario is told that the only way to counter-act the Chaos Heart is to find all eight Pure Hearts. Merlon gives Mario the first Pure Heart right away, and Mario sets out to find the other seven to rescue Peach and stop The Void. The original combat system is abandoned in this game and is completely replaced by normal platformer-style fighting. The hammer is not obtained right away like in the other games; a Pixl giving Mario the hammer power is found in the fifth level. There is also no FP or BP in Super Paper Mario, except for two Power Plus badges that attach for no cost at all. A unique power given to Mario early on in this game is the power to flip to the third dimension, called Flipping. For a short amount of time, Mario can walk in the third dimension, which is needed to solve certain puzzles and defeat certain enemies. Mario eventually gets three more allies which switch with Mario even during non-combat. Mario also gets many pixls through-out this game that acts as the allies. Although they cannot fight, they each give Mario certain abilities, such as the ability to ground pound or the ability to use a bomb. Mario does not get any abilities from the Pure Hearts, unlike the previous Paper Mario games.

Paper Mario: Sticker Star[]

Mario makes his fourth adventure in the Paper Mario universe in Sticker Star. During the Mushroom Kingdom's Sticker Fest, Mario finds himself once again on a quest to rescue the princess when Bowser shatters the Sticker Comet, abducting the princess and causing all manner of chaos. Mario then sets out to find the Royal Stickers along with his new found friend Kersti, a sassy new ally who provides assistance throughout Mario's adventure.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam[]

Paper Mario: Color Splash[]

Mario starts his fifth adventure in Color Splash. He is brought to a place called Prism Island by a letter shaped like a Toad. Once he gets there, he finds out the whole island has had its color sucked dry. He also learns that the source of the islands color, the Big Paint Stars, missing. Mario, along with the help of a paint can named Huey must go on an adventure to stop the culprit and retrieve the Big Paint Stars in order to bring back peace to Prism Island.

Paper Mario: The Origami King[]

Personality []

"Ohh, I'm Mario, I'm big and strong and good helpful." I HATE HIM! But I'm not worried."
— Bowser, through his diary, mocks Mario for his heroism.
"Once again, my brother went on an exciting journey... Once again, he went alone, it's so unfair! I remember the carefree days when we played golf and tennis and had parties."
— Luigi, through his diary, criticizes Mario for going on a journey alone.
"Oh, Mario! You came to the party to see me! You're so sweet! Thank you!"
— Princess Peach to Mario after the latter comes to her party.
"He fights to the bitter end, no matter what enemies attack"
— A duplighost disguised as Goombario, tattling Mario.

Unlike his brother Luigi, his lover Princess Peach, or even his nemesis Bowser, Mario is completely flat in personality, not undergoing character development in any of the games he appears in. He is typically shown as courageous (unlike Luigi, who is cowardly), reckless, headstrong, willing to make friends and always desperately trying to do the right thing. He is very idealistic and never bears a grudge against any of the villains he faces, even if said villain's actions are equal to that of atrocities. He always invites Bowser to go-kart races despite the Koopa King's hatred of him and general liking of making life miserable for him and the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom. Some of the instances where he shows personality include the endings of Super Paper Mario, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, Paper Mario: Color Splash, and Paper Mario: The Origami King, where he mourns his respective partners in these games after their presumed deaths. In The Origami King, he is horrified to learn his friend Bobby the Bob-Omb plans on blowing himself up to destroy the boulder blocking their path to the cave in Sweetpaper Valley, trying in vain to stop him and mourning him after he explodes. He is even told by the Bob-Omb's ghost to cheer up Olivia, who was especially traumatized after his demise.

In Color Splash, he does not appear as brave as before, as he is now shown to have an intense fear of lightning (resulting in him wrapping himself up into a crumpled ball), and in the Dark Bloo Inn, after discovering one of the Tea Party Toad Ghosts, he briefly freaks out and cowers.

He is often sometimes shown to be lazy and easy to fall asleep. For example, when Luigi is telling Mario about his adventures, Mario is visibly uninterested in the story and even falls asleep. He is even shown in the intro of Super Paper Mario to be relaxing with Luigi at their house and only decided to visit the Princess out of boredom. His recklessness often gets the best of him and leads to him getting pummeled, which is best shown in the intros of Paper Mario and Super Paper Mario. In the former, when Bowser uses the Star Rod to become invincible, Mario still tried to fight him despite being told moments earlier that his attacks couldn't lay a scratch on the Koopa King, leading to him getting pummeled to near-death and kicked out of Peach's Castle. In the latter, he tries stomping on Count Bleck after learning he kidnapped Princess Peach to forcefully marry her with Bowser, but failed due to Bleck's power, resulting in the latter knocking Mario out with a bolt of lightning. Sticker Star's intro again shows Mario's reckless side by showing him trying to stomp on Bowser after the latter went insane after grabbing a Royal Sticker, resulting in him getting brutally beaten up and folded.

In all of Paper Mario games, he is portrayed as a silent protagonist, never uttering a single word, causing several people, even his partners to take potshots at him. The only way he communicates is through nodding and hand signs. Although he gets grunts and yells in The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario, these voice clips are gone in the following games, unlike his 3D counterpart from the Mario & Luigi series.

Gallery[]

For Mario's gallery, see here.

Trivia[]

  • In Super Mario RPG and the first 3 Paper Mario games, Mario can somehow turn into an 8-bit version of himself. In Super Mario RPG, it is accessible in a curtain in Booster's Tower. In Paper Mario it is located in a vase in Boo's Mansion. In The Thousand-Year Door it is found in a changing room in the X-Naut Fortress. In Super Paper Mario, several items transform him, including Starmen.
  • Paper Mario is the only game to depict Mario having legs in the series.
  • The first 3 Paper Mario games have a running gag in which a character will tell a very long story that puts Mario to sleep. When the character is done talking, they'll ask if Mario is listening, and he'll wake up and lie by nodding his head.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, he can be seen yawning if the player stands idle for too long, referencing his tendency to sleep while standing idle.
  • His appearance, walk cycle, and idle pose appears to be based off his "Small Mario" form from Super Mario World. His jump noises in Sticker Star and Color Splash also appear to be the exact same as in that game.

See also[]

Jolene head‎ Glitz Pit Fighters Jolene head reverse
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