RE: SUPER MARIO TENSEI: Persona M
05-10-2018, 01:50 AM
Tenet the First: Persona M as Character Study of the Mario Cast
Any good critique comes from a place of love, and I love the Mario cast. Part of the goal here is to expand upon their characters and break the status quo that exists in the Mario universe, but in doing so, also showcase what a great cast Mario and crew are.
One of the major themes Persona M tries to explore is anxiety, and how to overcome it. The supernatural threat endangering the world is a force that amplifies, feeds upon, and takes form from the fear-and-desire melange of those it comes into contact with. Self-destructive behaviors magically magnified into corrupted facsimiles of the terrified and their terrors, or entire fantastical realms dedicated to a reciprocal cycle of terror and destruction.
Those with strong souls who can come to understand and control their fears can turn this corrupting force to their advantage. For those familiar with the Persona series, this is how personas, shadows and the demonic forces in between manifest. I'll go into all this more in-depth at a later time, though; this post is about people, not plot.
To the point: This character study is one of the fears that keep the characters locked in their stagnant roles. Peach's compliance and complacency with being kidnapped, Bowser's inability to give up on whatever he sees in Peach, Mario's overwhelming drive to right all wrongs-- all these things implied by everything that happens in Mario canon, but never addressed.
(Credit where it's due; Odyssey and even Kingdom Battle were big steps to rectify that, intentionally or not. But I digress.)
All that said, before we can really dive into this character study, we must first establish the anxieties, corruptions, coping mechanisms, and recoveries each character might have, and, of course, which characters to actually study. Each will have their own post in time, but for now: an incomplete selection of the most interesting entities Mario has on offer.
Any good critique comes from a place of love, and I love the Mario cast. Part of the goal here is to expand upon their characters and break the status quo that exists in the Mario universe, but in doing so, also showcase what a great cast Mario and crew are.
One of the major themes Persona M tries to explore is anxiety, and how to overcome it. The supernatural threat endangering the world is a force that amplifies, feeds upon, and takes form from the fear-and-desire melange of those it comes into contact with. Self-destructive behaviors magically magnified into corrupted facsimiles of the terrified and their terrors, or entire fantastical realms dedicated to a reciprocal cycle of terror and destruction.
Those with strong souls who can come to understand and control their fears can turn this corrupting force to their advantage. For those familiar with the Persona series, this is how personas, shadows and the demonic forces in between manifest. I'll go into all this more in-depth at a later time, though; this post is about people, not plot.
To the point: This character study is one of the fears that keep the characters locked in their stagnant roles. Peach's compliance and complacency with being kidnapped, Bowser's inability to give up on whatever he sees in Peach, Mario's overwhelming drive to right all wrongs-- all these things implied by everything that happens in Mario canon, but never addressed.
(Credit where it's due; Odyssey and even Kingdom Battle were big steps to rectify that, intentionally or not. But I digress.)
All that said, before we can really dive into this character study, we must first establish the anxieties, corruptions, coping mechanisms, and recoveries each character might have, and, of course, which characters to actually study. Each will have their own post in time, but for now: an incomplete selection of the most interesting entities Mario has on offer.
- Mario
- Luigi
- Wario
- Waluigi
- Peach
- Daisy
- Pauline
- Rosalina
- Bowser
- Junior
- Kam
- The Koopalings
- Toadsworth
- E. Gadd
- King Boo
- The Mushroom Kingdom
- The Koopa Kingdom
- The Metro Kingdom
- Sarasaland
- Isle Delfino