minor paper mario ttyd post-chapter 3 spoilers (and one major chapter 4 spoiler in the last two paragraphs), sexism, transphobia, mocking men in dresses and stuff
in the peach part of chapter 3, peach dresses up as an x-naut to infiltrate their base. the x-nauts seem to be all men because her voice makes them suspicious and one soldier extensively sniffs at her and then says “you smell…nice. that is just wrong, dude.” because apparently men smelling nice is wrong.
https://youtu.be/watch?v=WKrPMTixWm4&t=329
and in luigi’s parallel adventure during chapter 3, he arrived at a town where women are sacrificed to a monster that terrorises the area, but luigi took the place of a woman who was to be sacrificed to save her and everyone and to kill the monster. that meant that he had to dress up as a bride and he said he “was one hot sacrifice” and “i looked so good”, so he had no problems with wearing a dress and actually enjoyed it. but other characters view the situation very differently. his new party member jerry the bob-omb is described by goombella as “i think he’s seen some…horrible…things.” and jerry himself says “sorry i sound so down, but you would be too if you saw luigi dressed as a bride. i’m serious. it scarred me. it was honestly scarier than that giant snake-thing. i feel i now have a moral duty to stop luigi from ever dressing as a bride again. i have to protect the world from my fate. that’s why i’m sticking close to this guy”. so men in dresses is the most horrific thing to ever exist and he only became luigi’s party member to prevent him from ever putting on a dress again. as the mario wiki puts it: “They defeat the snake, and Jerry accompanies Luigi to make sure no one has to witness the sight of Luigi in a wedding dress again“. it’s unfortunate that this really pretty and creative cherry bob-omb design was used for a character like this. and this little “joke” by the game’s writers (that is actually horrible in what the characters say and made even more horrific by having the man who likes dresses be followed by another man for the rest of his life to physically prevent him from putting on a dress ever again) is just one of countless things i (and probably most people) have been exposed to from a young age that made me internalise that men (or people who might be perceived as men) doing or liking anything supposedly feminine is “just wrong” and disgusting. something that i still struggle with.
https://youtu.be/WKrPMTixWm4?t=1040
and of course the topic of a wedding dress also makes goombella wonder when she’ll be a bride because of course that’s all girls think about, and the whole peach story also has a lot of questionable things.
and as i’m discovering right now while writing this, apparently vivian is canonically trans which was removed in the english and german localisations? :O and of course the texts in and about the game mock her for it and say that she’s actually a boy (including goombella… i love goombella and she is my favourite and main partner but after both of these instances i might have to change how i view her). this sounds exactly like the birdetta situation. i already really liked vivian and found her relatable but now i really love her.
vivian, peach and luigi: it’s not okay to be treated like this, band together and fight back against those who mock, bully, punish, kidnap and objectify you!
