Mario

**Debut**: Eggman's new scheme

## Tropes

* The Ace: Mario excels at just about everything he does. Especially when it comes to heroics and sports.
* Acrofatic: Shigeru Miyamoto explained that his chubbiness is the result of games back in the 80's only being able to register collisions with squares. Doesn't stop him from pulling off all sorts of acrobatic feats.
* Age Lift: An internal case, rather than an adaptation based one. Mario *was* originally envisioned as middle-aged in the early days, he was even called "Ossan", "Middle-aged man", in some documents. (So the cartoon and the movie weren't necessarily *wrong* in casting older men to play him) Currently, though, he's only in his mid-twenties. BOFTM does occasionally does this too. Also, in the episode based on the debates Mario vs Sonic, and Kirby vs Majin Buu, they mentioned the fact that Mario‘s age can vary as Mario does occasionally have birthday parties based on the age of Donkey Kong which implies he’s at least 30, the Super Mario Bros Movie depicts Mario being 40 years old (or at least being portrayed by a 40 year old man) and Mario’s Bombs Away was a thing which doing some math, makes Mario at least 50+ years old during Donkey Kong.
* And I Must Scream: In both of the *Luigi’s Mansion* games, Mario was turned into a painting by King Boo, desperately trying to escape. He also is this in the Battle of the Multiverse series but worst.
* Ambiguously Human: Mario has been heavily implied to not be human considering he's barley taller than a fire hydrant, is (likely) cousins with Wario and Waluigi who are way more bizarre in anatomy and powers and is far from an ordinary human. Mario was once even call a homo-nintendous.

* Butt Monkey: In the *Super Smash Bros.* series, Mario *himself* is this, though to a much more downplayed and lesser extent than his brother. In one cutscene (one that is actually important for unlocking Luigi) in Melee's Adventure Mode, Mario attempts to jump up onto the Mushroom Castle rooftop... only for Luigi to jump upon his brother's head and use it as a platform to jump higher, sending Mario falling down in one of the rare moments of the two brothers' roles being reversed. And it doesn't stop at Melee... the trailers and gameplay videos for Brawl, SSB4, and Ultimate have a habit of beating and humiliating Mario (getting cooked by Kirby, netted by the Villager, sent flying by the Wii Fit Trainer, got viciously *murdered* by Ridley, etc.), and in Brawl's Subspace Emissary, he gets turned into a trophy far more times than any other character. It's both surprising and funny when you consider that Nintendo rarely, if ever, puts Mario through the same kind of Humiliation Conga in his own series. There's also the fact that he has one of the lowest survival rate in the series. For instance, Sonic often outlives Mario and Mario seems to be there just to die. It doesn't help that Mario dies both in Smash Brothers and Battle of the Multiverse.
* Competition Freak: Mario gets very serious when in a competition. If official Mario art has Mario angry, there's a good chance that it is from a sports title. Overlaps with Unsportsmanlike Gloating in Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium, as seen here.◊ In Mario Power Tennis, he is transparently angry at Luigi's success during the latter's ending. Taken to the extreme in *Super Mario Strikers.*
* Composite Character: In an episode directly trying to solve the Mario vs Sonic debate, Mario used most of his powers, flaws and feats from all of the Mario games, the Mario cartoons, Super Mario Kun, Super Mario KC Deluxe, Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Adventures and Club Nintendo comics.

* Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Mario was able to defeat Archie Sonic in the video based on the debate between Mario and Sonic. Mario's haxs, stats and skills did give him the victor though.
* The Dreaded: To Bowser's minions. Mario might be a well-known nice guy with a sense of justice and drive to protect others, even to Bowser's minions, but his strength and skills are *legendary*. To most of them, the idea of facing Mario in a real fight is terrifying.
* The Everyman: The producers say that they have intentionally kept his characterization minimal to make him versatile and able to be put in many situations.
* Genius Bruiser: He's physically strong enough to smash stone bricks with ease, yet he's trained in plumbing, carpentry, and even medicine. He's also often shown to be a clever problem solver.
* Genius Ditz: A point made by jtmoneysmashbrosbob that Mario can be impulsive and naive. He also would be carless and can be kidnapped multiple times. Despite this, Mario has over 100 jobs which includes being a doctor.
* Good Is Not Soft: Mario is a genuinely nice and righteous person who will help anyone in danger, and someone has to be pretty evil to actually get on his bad side. Anything that does get on his bad side doesn't last long.
* The Hero: Mario is this trope.
* Humble Hero: He's the main hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, and he's fairly modest about it.
* Ideal Hero: In nearly every game he is in, he is always an ideal hero, which comes with being The Everyman. Therefore, Mario's heroism is his most notable trait.
* I Have Many Names: Some call him Jumpman, or the Great Gonzales, or Murphy, or butterball, or New Bee, or Hero of Legend.
* Improbable Age: Mario is said to have a long and storied career as a hero, reflecting his real world fame and history. In universe, though, Mario is either 24 or 25, a bit too young to have that long history as a hero. Doesn’t help that Mario’s age does vary.
* Informed Flaw: Mario is sometimes described as being impulsive, the sort of guy who dives into things without thinking. However, because he's usually a blank slate, silent protagonist-type, this almost never comes across, outside of the implication that he dives head first into saving people without much of a plan. However, in *Super Mario Odyssey*, his tendency to do things without thinking manages to get the better of him, for once, when he gets caught up in trying to one-up Bowser's affections for Peach, after Bowser butts in on his proposal to her. This, in turn, causes Peach to get annoyed with both of them, and she puts her foot down.
* Interpretative Character: Given the sheer longevity of the series and the amount of creative teams in charge of each game, Mario's personality and traits are subject to change depending on whatever circumstances he finds himself in. Luigi, on the other hand, developed a more solid, definite personality as the series went on.
* Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mario is not mean by any means but he can be hostile if he’s ever overshadowed which can make him step on Luigi’s foot out of jealousy or capture a father gorilla from his child. Despite that, he’s not mental as he’s overall a nice guy. He would save princesses and would congratulate Luigi at the end of Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.

* Lady and Knight: The White Knight to Peach's Bright Lady. Mario is not a knight by job, but otherwise plays the trope straight.
* Let's Get Dangerous!: Mario's a goofy, happy-go-lucky, friendly guy. He doesn't seem very threatening, but if you dare to hurt an innocent person, you'll see just what a force of nature a good and serious Mario can be.
* Manchild: A positive example. He's a boundless fount of happy-go-lucky energy, that takes on challenges with a whoop of excitement. He also engages in any fun activity, no matter how juvenile. He also went on a school bus in Flippy the Bus Driver.
* Mascot: To his own series, and to Nintendo as a whole. Arguably to the entire medium of Video Games, a title to which his only real rival is Pac-Man.

* Nice Guy: A heroic and friendly individual who goes out of his way to help anyone he meets, even Bowser.
* Playing with Fire: Perhaps because the Fire Flower was the first power-up with a unique ability, Mario is strongly associated with fire abilities. He gets Firebrand in *Superstar Saga*, the Fire Orb series of spells in *Super Mario RPG*, and many of his various special moves in sports spinoffs are fire themed.
* Primary-Color Champion: Mario dresses in blue overalls and a red shirt and hat, and is one of the most well-known heroes in fiction.
* Red Is Heroic: Wears a red shirt, and originally wore red overalls before they were changed to blue, but some of his power-up forms turn them red. And, of course, there's his iconic hat.
* Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Luigi's Sensitive Guy. He becomes a Sensitive Guy in comparison to Hot-Blooded Bowser too.
* Showy Invincible Hero: We all know he will win, but dear God, it's fun to watch him win.
* Static Character: Mario only has a handful of constants throughout the series in terms of character traits. He's optimistic, energetic, headstrong, kind, and competitive. That's dating back as far as the early N64 releases, and he has not budged an inch since; though this is intentional so as to let him fit into any role as needed.
* Stout Strength: Mario's pudgy physique belies the fact that he's capable of astounding feats of strength, such as spinning Bowser around by the tail.
* Super Doc: Despite how much the fandom likes to joke about it, Mario is actually an *incredibly* capable doctor. The Megavitamins, the impossible cure-all pills that just need the right combination to make a patient good as new? He personally *invented* them.
* Super Hero Origin: Officially, Mario's first outing saving the day was rescuing Pauline from Donkey Kong, and it has been said it was during this adventure that he truly developed his fantastic abilities. This was explored in a certain video about Mario vs Sonic, Kirby vs Majin Buu, Kirby vs Pac-Man, Kirby vs Jigglypuff and Kirby vs Ditto.
* Super Reflexes: Mario has impressive reaction speed, being able to react while being launched out of a launch star. This puts Mario's reaction speed on par with Sonic's, which proves to be a major factor in Mario's victory.
* Super Strength: He's able to pick Bowser up by his tail and spin him around as shown in Super Mario 64. He can even throw a baseball at speeds faster than 999 mph and throw a T-Rex sized dinosaur out of the planet's orbit. He's also able to casually pull around a solid gold Chain Chomp, which weighs 5,731 tons. He have also been able to accomplish swinging a golf club hard enough to create a tornado, use it to punt a boulder, Ground Pound a twomp so hard that he exploded, throw a large Bowser doll 82.71 yards away, and destroyed a airship with an ax in one swipe. His strongest feat shown was when he effortlessly kicked away a castle weighing in at *61,372,830 tons*. He is way stronger than Sonic.
* Super Speed: Mario may be faster than Sonic. Mario is very fast. He can scale to Bowser, who can tag the Starship Mario. The ship was able to cross universes in 10 seconds. It takes 91 billion lightyears to do that in reality. 27,613,380,812,510,300 c is the calculation. That's way faster than Sonic's speed which is 1472688015.386964798 c.
* Super Toughness: He can take a hit from Bowser who can take over worlds and Hell and either combine them or flat out destroy them.. This is far more impressive than anything Sonic has survived.
* Title Scream: He does it in many games.
* Trademark Favorite Food: Pasta. To be precise, Spaghetti Bolognese with alfredo sauce and meatballs. And also carbonara if the Star Gate in *Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time* is anything to go by.
* Toon Physics: Mario’s abilities are strange. Mario can be popped, flattened, and impaled. Sonic’s speed basically didn’t mater as Mario would simply heal his injuries.
* Unskilled, but Strong: He's usually portrayed in spin-offs as somewhat stronger physically than Luigi, but his overall skill level is somewhat less developed. The *Mario Golf* series however plays this straight since Mario has often one of the longest drives in exchange for poor control in that series. He is also as much as fragile as the other characters in the Battle of the Multiverse series.
* Wolverine Publicity: As the most popular video game character of all time, this is to be expected, as Mario shows up *everywhere* in Nintendo's marketing, even more proportionally than Mickey Mouse does for Disney.
* Working-Class Hero: Mario remains highly original as a video-game hero. Despite being the first major video game star, and living in a fantasy world, he stands out as a stocky, mustached plumber in working overalls whose real powers are his ability to move with his hands and legs, as opposed to video-game heroes who are elites — soldiers, warriors, super-soldiers. *Super Smash Bros.* demonstrates this best, in that Mario, despite his stature, is one of the very few Working Class Heroes in a roster full of warriors and creatures of various kinds.
* Wrestler in All of Us: One of the ways he destroys a castle in *Super Mario World* is by dropkicking it.