11-04-2013, 11:50 PM
Here is my opinion on the morality of Mario:
The games always start with the princess (or another important political figure, in the case of the sprixie princess or the subcon fairies) being captured by another superpower, usually Bowser and his army. This is effectively an ACT OF WAR. It is therefore no fairer to accuse Mario of crimes of terrorism than it is to blame our own troops fighting and killing opposing soldiers, who are also trying to kill them.
And yes, the Mario enemies are in fact trying to kill him. Even though many of them may seem completely ineffective, the fact is even the most worthless of them would take the chance to gut him if Mario stood around doing nothing.
And it's not like Mario kills indiscriminately either. We have seen in just about all the RPGs that there are plenty of good or neutral "enemy-type" characters around that he does not attempt to harm. He clearly knows how to distinct between good and evil and not just kill everyone just because they are of a particular species. Sure, you don't see such scenes in most of the platformer games but that is mostly just because such scenes just don't suit the genre; rather in these cases such scenes are just assumed to be happening between the scenes.
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However, if you really want to point fingers at someone with ambiguous ethics in the Mario universe, I'd suggest taking a good look at E. Gadd. In the latest Luigi's Mansion game, the plot revolves around Gadd sending Luigi to find the pieces of a moon-shaped gem which is used to make the ghosts that reside in Evershade Valley to act "good". Sure, it sounds nice to have nice ghosts instead of jerks and pranksters, however don't overlook the fact that this is effectively BRAINWASHING. This is a straight up Clockwork Orange scenario we're talking about here. Are the ghosts really bad guys in this game? With the exception of the boos, it seems to me like they're just rebelling against an amoral practice.
And that's not even Gadd's first offense. Remember in Mario Sunshine, Baby Bowser is terrorizing Delfino Island with a "magic" paintbrush that the mad scientist reportedly GAVE to him. And while he may have technically created the device that saves the day, keep in mind that Gadd was not present to actually give FLUDD to Mario, nor is there any indication that it was even meant for him, or what purpose it was meant to serve on the island in the first place.
You could say he's a neutral party if you really want, but it seems more to me that he just has really lax morals; caring too much about his work and too little about who gets hurt in the process. Whatta jerk!
The games always start with the princess (or another important political figure, in the case of the sprixie princess or the subcon fairies) being captured by another superpower, usually Bowser and his army. This is effectively an ACT OF WAR. It is therefore no fairer to accuse Mario of crimes of terrorism than it is to blame our own troops fighting and killing opposing soldiers, who are also trying to kill them.
And yes, the Mario enemies are in fact trying to kill him. Even though many of them may seem completely ineffective, the fact is even the most worthless of them would take the chance to gut him if Mario stood around doing nothing.
And it's not like Mario kills indiscriminately either. We have seen in just about all the RPGs that there are plenty of good or neutral "enemy-type" characters around that he does not attempt to harm. He clearly knows how to distinct between good and evil and not just kill everyone just because they are of a particular species. Sure, you don't see such scenes in most of the platformer games but that is mostly just because such scenes just don't suit the genre; rather in these cases such scenes are just assumed to be happening between the scenes.
------------------------------------------------------
However, if you really want to point fingers at someone with ambiguous ethics in the Mario universe, I'd suggest taking a good look at E. Gadd. In the latest Luigi's Mansion game, the plot revolves around Gadd sending Luigi to find the pieces of a moon-shaped gem which is used to make the ghosts that reside in Evershade Valley to act "good". Sure, it sounds nice to have nice ghosts instead of jerks and pranksters, however don't overlook the fact that this is effectively BRAINWASHING. This is a straight up Clockwork Orange scenario we're talking about here. Are the ghosts really bad guys in this game? With the exception of the boos, it seems to me like they're just rebelling against an amoral practice.
And that's not even Gadd's first offense. Remember in Mario Sunshine, Baby Bowser is terrorizing Delfino Island with a "magic" paintbrush that the mad scientist reportedly GAVE to him. And while he may have technically created the device that saves the day, keep in mind that Gadd was not present to actually give FLUDD to Mario, nor is there any indication that it was even meant for him, or what purpose it was meant to serve on the island in the first place.
You could say he's a neutral party if you really want, but it seems more to me that he just has really lax morals; caring too much about his work and too little about who gets hurt in the process. Whatta jerk!