Waluigi

**Waluigi** (Japanese: ワルイージ, *Waruīji*) is Luigi's lanky rival, and Wario's partner. Waluigi made his debut in *Mario Tennis*, and since then, he has made playable appearances exclusively in the *Mario* franchise's spin-off titles. He has been voiced by Charles Martinet ever since his debut. His name is a portmanteau of the Japanese words, *Warui* and *Ruīji*, meaning "bad" and "Luigi". In addition, his name is an anagram to the Japanese word *Ijiwaru*(意地悪), which can mean "ill-tempered" or "cruel".

## General information

### Physical description and traits

Waluigi's outfit includes a purple undershirt under usually very dark indigo overalls (which are occasionally pure black), orange shoes, and a purple cap that covers his short, brown hair. He has a large, pink nose, a thin mustache which is straight (horizontal) and pointed up at the edge, and gray eyes, his eyes being surrounded by light blue rings. He also has long limbs and a skinny torso. The yellow symbol on his hat and gloves is a vertical mirror image of Luigi's "L" which forms a "Γ", just as Wario wears a "W" in contrast to Mario's "M". "Γ" is also the Greek letter Gamma, which is pronounced similarly to "G".

Just like his partner, Waluigi is the extreme form of his rival. While Luigi is tall and skinny, Waluigi is taller and skinnier, just as Wario is obese in contrast to Mario. According to the Wario's Warehouse site, Wario routinely puts Waluigi on a rack to make him even taller. Luigi´s facial elements are also exaggerated in Waluigi. Waluigi has a very sharp jaw and a pointy chin. Waluigi's sharp, handlebar mustache is an exaggeration of Luigi's soft and fluffy mustache. Many bios describing him in *Mario* sports games mention (and poke fun at) his facial elements, including his sharp jaw, lanky proportions, pointy nose, and flat feet.

Waluigi's clothing also is similar how Mario and Luigi's color scheme is somewhat the same. Mario and Luigi have the similar colored pants, with their signature colors being opposites (red and green). With Wario and Waluigi, the signature colors are still opposites (yellow and purple), and their pants are not exactly matching, but they are a different shade (most of the time) like Mario and Luigi's, as Luigi's pants are just slightly darker. On a side note, Waluigi has appeared wearing black pants at times, which was more common in his earlier appearances.

Waluigi's appearance gets altered in the *Super Smash Bros.* series. In *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*, Waluigi has a monotone, realistic appearance which is supported by his overalls featuring denim textures. Waluigi also wears brown shoes instead of his usual orange ones. In *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS* and*Super Smash Bros. for Wii U*, Waluigi's appearance is more vibrant and cartoonish, better resembling his main *Mario* depiction. Waluigi's shoes are also their typical orange color, instead of being brown in the previous game. Waluigi's appearance in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate* is essentially a combination of the two, due to wearing his current orange shoes, while retaining a subdued color scheme and detailed overalls from *Super Smash Bros. Brawl*, but not to the same extent as said game.

Waluigi's outfit is sometimes referenced without directly referencing the character himself. In *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door*, by wearing both the "L" Emblem (Luigi) and the "W" Emblem (Wario) together, Mario's outfit becomes a purple undershirt and black overalls. The same can be done in *Super Smash Bros. Brawl* by switching Luigi's costume color, and in *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS* / *Wii U* with both Mario and Luigi.

### Speech

Like fellow *Mario* characters Mario, Luigi, and Wario, Waluigi is portrayed by Charles Martinet. Waluigi speaks with a strong Italian accent, just like the aforementioned characters, though he speaks in a considerably menacing tone. Waluigi, like Wario, is more verbose in the *Mario*games than most other characters, due to consistently speaking in full sentences. Waluigi mostly drops the "-a"s during contractions, as evidenced by several cutscenes in the *Mario* sports titles. However, there are exceptions, such as in *Mario Kart Wii*, where Waluigi will say "Let's-a go!" or "I'm-a gonna win!" when selecting him. However, there are times where Waluigi's voice acting is limited, in which case, he has in-game text to show what he's saying. In this case, Waluigi speaks in clear English, but with slang. Waluigi drops the "g"'s in his sentences, or makes use of the word "ain't" on a frequent basis. Waluigi also has a habit of name-calling, since he consistently calls other characters "fools" or "idiots", as well as saying "Hey, dummy!" to his own teammates in *Mario Strikers Charged*. In many of his appearances, Waluigi makes a "WAA!" sound whenever he loses, or gets hurt from hazards and other characters' actions; this sound, as well as Waluigi frequently calling his opponents "cheaters", are recognizable aspects of his speech.

### Personality

   Waluigi is personified as a comic relief character and a boastful, ill-tempered foil to the more humble and gentle Luigi. He has bad chemistry with most other characters besides Wario, and is an openly rude and mean-spirited troublemaker. He has a perpetual scowl and is quick to anger, with earlier bios stating that he dislikes others being happy. In his one outing as a central antagonist in *Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix*, Waluigi claims that his reason for obtaining the Music Keys is to be the best dancer in the world, while bragging about using his power to spread chaos and control "the masses". In*Mario Tennis Aces*, Waluigi points out that his and Wario's reasons for attaining Lucien was so that they could become the best tennis players in the world. Waluigi's original bio in Mario Tennis also pointed out that he seeked to become as popular and as beloved as the Mario Brothers. His victory celebrations often highlight his self-aggrandizing nature and vanity, and occasionally contain vulgar elements as well.

In the *Mario Party* series except for *Mario Party 3*, Waluigi abandons his arrogance to play fairly against his opponents; this is also the case for Wario. However, his victory animations still depict him as somewhat of a boastful character, due to him ranting about "being a superstar."

However, despite his overconfidence, Waluigi is also characterized by the great amount of self-pity he displays at other times. According to his voice actor Charles Martinet, Waluigi feels that good things are always happening to others and not to him, causing him great frustration. Martinet considers his self-pity to be "the cornerstone of Waluigi's character", such as how he constantly points out his own disadvantages and is quick to attribute his losses to his opponents cheating, while hypocritically taking pride in his own cheating. While Waluigi has many unsavory characteristics and appears aggressive at times, Martinet has nevertheless stated that he prefers to play up Waluigi's more conceited and self-pitying traits, as he feels that direct hostility is unfitting for *Mario* villains. In *Mario Super Sluggers*, Waluigi shows a bit more sportsmanship; after his scout mission is cleared, he subtly states the gang cheated but commends them for their sneakiness, and congratulating them when they beat the Wario Muscles in a ball game along with accepting the player's decline for one.

As a comic relief character, he is often given comical and nonsensical animations, often displaying very poor sportsmanship, being quick to taunt his opponents and cheer for himself, while at the same time scowling in resentment for any progress made by his opponents. In Wario's Warehouse, Wario often portrays Waluigi as extremely stupid, often making idiotic and foolish decisions. However, this constrasts with most of his other descriptions which depict him as the more cunning of the two.

According to the trophy description in *Super Smash Bros Melee*, he also puts a lot of effort into his antagonistic schemes, although in the end, he never manages to succeed against his rivals. In *Super Mario Odyssey*, the Waluigi Suit's description claims "This outfit makes you want to lurk in the shadows, waiting for a turn in the spotlight.", either further defining Waluigi to be envious of the Mario Bros, or a likely reference to Waluigi never being a major, or important character. The Waluigi hats description also says "It's rarely worn", likely alluding to Waluigi's few and insignificant appearances.

Waluigi has been shown as quite secretive about his personal life and has demonstrated a more cynical and skeptical point of view compared to the other characters, as even his oldest descriptions mentioned his egotism and his outsider status in the Mushroom Kingdom. However, recent games have played up Waluigi's hardworking and less malicious personality traits, as shown in *Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games* when he sardonically warns the player that people will not cheer on them forever just because they win medals, and in *Mario Gold: World Tour* when he interacts with the player character to either tell them to not let their victory get to their heads, or that they should be honest with themselves and happy because they earned it. Additionally, he remarks that his favorite thing to do in between rounds is just to relax and have fun.

### Etymology

Since Waluigi has the same first two letters of Wario, Waluigi's name may be considered a clunky offshot of Wario's name. Waluigi actually has a complex Japanese etymology with many meanings that refer to Waluigi's personality. In Japanese, the "r" and "l" make the same sound, so Luigi can be pronounced in Japanese as "Ruīji", and Waluigi can be pronounced as as "Waruīji". "Waruīji" is a portmanteau of "warui", the Japanese word for "bad" or "evil", and "Ruīji", making his name literally *Eviluigi* or *Badluigi*. However, "warui" can also mean "poor", "hateful", "abominable" and "inferior", representing Waluigi´s reputation in the Mushroom Kingdom and his place compared to Mario and Luigi. Additionally, *warui*, also means to make a condescending apology, instead of a polite apology, referring to Waluigi's arrogance. "Waruiji" (with short "i") is also an anagram of the Japanese word "ijiwaru", which translates to "someone who is bad" or "mean-spirited". "Ijiwaru" also translates into other harsh words such as "sadistic", "malicious", and "unkind".

### Powers and abilities

Waluigi is talented at a variety of sports, including baseball and soccer. Because of this sports talent, Waluigi has many abilities displayed throughout his appearances. However, he is usually a technical character in most of the *Mario* spin-offs. These range from simple actions, such as jumps, punches, and kicks, to unusual actions, such as spinning to make a small tornado, creating thorny vines, and swimming in midair.

In most of his appearances, Waluigi is consistently a Technique character, possessing neither too much strength or speed, and relying on a special trait that would give him the edge. In *Mario Kart: Double Dash!!*, *Mario Kart DS*, and *Mario Kart Arcade GP 2*, Waluigi is a medium weight, balanced character, but in *Mario Kart Wii* onward Waluigi is among the heavier characters. In the *Mario Strikers*series, he is an offensive character in the first game, and an defensive character in the second game. Due to his long limbs, he is classified as a Defensive character in *Mario Power Tennis*.

Waluigi's standard abilities include jumping, punching, and kicking. His legs are shown to be particularly powerful, as he easily defeats Bowser with a kick in *Mario Party 3*, and he is able to stomp characters into the ground in the *Super Smash Bros.* games. He shows his leg strength in *Super Mario Strikers*, with his Drop Rockettechnique. In addition, Waluigi is demonstrated to be an great jumper. His stats are seen to come close to Luigi´s jumping skills, if not surpassing it. In *Mario Strikers Charged*, Waluigi demonstrates excellent speed, being the fastest character alongside Daisy. His speed is doubled when he uses the Wall-Luigi! skill, enabling him to cross the field in a very short time. However, some games portray Waluigi as slow and weak, for balance purposes.

Waluigi also has a variety of abilities. In *Mario Power Tennis*, Waluigi can distort his body into the shape of his emblem and create a tornado, which can drive his opponent away. In *Mario Hoops 3-on-3*, he also creates tornados simply by dribbling the ball around himself. In *Mario Strikers Charged*, Waluigi shows the ability to summon and control thorny, purple vines, which he uses for his Wall-Luigi! Super Ability. He also uses them as a whip in his Mega Strike. In the same game, in his Deke, he also demonstrates to be capable of teleporting in purple puffs of smoke. In *Mario And Sonic At The London 2012 Olympic Games*, Waluigi displays the ability to use his "Γ" symbol as an energy projectile.

Alongside the power to mask the Whiskered Eggplant as a baseball, Waluigi, in *Mario Super Sluggers*displays powers with magical and tricky natures. His special pitch in *Mario Super Sluggers* is the Liar Ball. His Star Swing, the Liar Swing, consists of him hitting the ball and making it zig-zag during its path. In *Super Mario Strikers*, Waluigi's Super Strike, the Drop Rocket, consists of him surrounding himself with purple smoke and kicking the ball, covering it with a smoke trail

In the way of weaponry, Waluigi prefers the Bob-omb. In *Mario Party 3*, Waluigi uses a Piranha Plant in battle, and his board, Waluigi's Island, is seen filled with Piranha Plants. In *Mario Party 7*, Waluigi uses Professor E. Gadd's Coin Vacuum Orb to steal a random amount of Coins from his opponents. Waluigi's special pitch in *Mario Superstar Baseball* is the Liar Ball, which allows him to throw two balls, one of them being a Whiskered Eggplant.