Until recently, this was quite literally the case, as Peach - quite literally the object of Super Mario Bros. However, I can’t help but wonder if this trend casts female characters in a very specific light: that of them being less than their male counterparts. (Mallow in Super Mario RPG, Pine in Yoshi’s Safari, and Cricket in WarioWare, among a few others.) (There’s Lip in Panel de Pon, and Cream and Rouge in Sonic, just to name a few.) And it’s not like male characters completely escape this fate. (Shampoo and Kodachi, characters in the first anime I ever saw, Ranma 1/2, leap to mind.) And such names frequently pop up in games. I’ve been exposed to enough Japanese culture to know that female characters are frequently named after inanimate objects. Pauline works now, but don’t forget that her original name was simply “Lady.” And while we’re talking about diminutive status: Tiny Kong? Really?)
While Dixie Kong is all good, Toadette and Kammy are hurt by the fact that their names are feminine versions of more established characters, Toad and Kamek.
Koopa and WarioWare’s Mona - named after a punk rocker and a painting subject, presumably. When you think about it, comparatively few ladies in the Mario, Donkey Kong, Wario, or Yoshi games have names that don’t imply some sort of diminutive status. Valentina (whose name isn’t far removed from “valentine” and whose Japanese name was “Margarita.”) Even WarioWare’s cute-as-buttons ninja twins, Kat and Ana, form an inanimate object when their names are joined together as “katana.” Then there’s Ashley, Wanda, Birdo, Sushie and Cackletta, each of whose names are some sort of object with a few letters tacked onto the end. Tiaramisu (whose name combines something pretty with something sweet). In case you haven’t noticed, these names follow one of four rules: things that are pretty, things that smell pretty, edible things, or things that are just plain old brainless objects.Ī list: Peach. For this column, I’m choosing to focus specifically on names of female characters in these games. Issues of gender equality exist to such a great degree in the Marioverse that one game-loving women’s studies major could easily author a kickass thesis on the subject. But the result of this trend is interesting, when viewed from a distance: Considering how many children grew up or are growing up playing video games, what might the effect be of having a popular series’ best-known female character be so often helpless and so frequently kidnapped? Furthermore, what’s the implication of making Peach the physical model for so many other female characters? The “why” of it is easy: While not the first, Peach is easily the most famous female video game character. Well, in the first of my two-part look into female characters spinning around among the floating coins and grinning clouds of the Super Mario games and their extended network of spin-offs, I discussed the odd tendency for Nintendo to create many female characters in the image of Princess Peach, the dainty-to-the-max, pink-and-blonde embodiment of all things girly. So where the hell do I get off making such a stupid prediction?
To start this off, I’m going to offer my predictions for the next eight female Mario characters: Marble, Tea, Snowflake, Olive, Diamond, Soap Bubble, Cute Hat, and, oh, I don’t know… Walnut.