Characters / Super Mario Bros.: Mario Brothers

Super Mario Bros. Main Character Index
Main characters: The Mario Brothers | Allies (The Princesses) | The Koopa Kingdom (Bowser — Bowser Jr. — The Koopalings — Other High-Ranking Subordinates — Bosses) | Assorted Nasties
RPG characters: Super Mario RPG | Paper Mario (64 — The Thousand-Year Door — Super — Sticker Star — Color Splash — The Origami King) | Mario & Luigi (Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser)
Spinoff series: Yoshi's Island | Luigi's Mansion | Mario Golf | Mario Tennis | Super Mario Maker | Donkey Kong series (Kongs) | Wario series (Wario and Waluigi)
Crossovers: Punch-Out!! | Super Smash Bros. | Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games | Skylanders | Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle | Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
Other media: The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach! | Super Mario Bros. (DiC) | Super Mario Bros. (1993) | The Super Mario Bros. Movie

The Mario Bros.

"Let's-a go!" "Okie-dokie!"

"We're here for you, bro. Always."

— Luigi, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team

The Mario Bros. are the protagonists of the series, as the name implies. Mario is The Everyman and the all-around hero, while Luigi is the quirky, cowardly, and much more developed sidekick. Together, they fight Bowser and/or whatever threats that come their way, utilizing power-up items and their own natural abilities.

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General

Tropes that apply to both of the Mario Brothers:

• Achilles' Heel: Their only real weakness is losing their hats. In Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine, this means their speed, power and defense all decrease; they can't survive extreme temperatures; and can't get power-ups from Question Blocks (trying will simply release a Bob-omb instead). Taken to a logical conclusion in 3D Land and 3D World, where the Mario Bros' small forms lose their hats. Super Mario Odyssey subverts this, with the main mechanic being hat-throwing as a weapon and for Capturing other entities, with the added bonus of returning to the user automatically. However, there are several sections in the game where Cappy can get stolen or otherwise can't be used for certain challenges because he's holding a switch down, severely diminishing Mario's abilities and mobility.
• Action Heroes: Considering that the premise of the series is that they have to traverse dangerous terrain and defeat entire armies in order to save Peach, they qualify by default.
• Airplane Arms: They've dashed this way in the 2D games since Super Mario Bros. 3 in order to facilitate their flight power-ups.
• All-Loving Hero: Being very idealistic heroes, the Mario Bros. will never bear a grudge against anyone. In a promotional interview, Mario answered that he invites even the bad guys to his thanksgiving dinner because even though they are bad, he considers them friends.
• Almighty Janitor: Mario, in particular, has managed to, among other things, defeat an extradimensional mechanical overlord, slay a thousand-year old demon and her three pet dragons, survived the end of reality, and repel the forces of the Koopa Kingdom about a hundred times; Luigi's not much of a slouch either, tagging along for multiple of Mario's adventures. And they're both still plumbers, at the end of the day.
• Always Identical Twins: Averted. They're possibly one of the most well-known pairs of same-sex fraternal twins in fiction. Mario is short and chubby, while his younger twin is tall and slim. Though Luigi was originally a Palette Swap of Mario, they weren't established as twins until after Luigi's distinct design was more consistently used.
• Artistic Age: Officially, Mario and Luigi are 24-26 years old. Their bushy mustache gives the impression that they're much older than that, though men of that age with such magnificent mustaches in Real Life aren't unheard of.
• Badass Adorable: Downplayed. They're lovable goofballs with cartoony designs, but are still supposed to be cool first and foremost. Regardless of how silly they can be, they're still fully capable (if young) adults.
• Badass Cape: The Cape power-up in Super Mario World. With it, the Bros. can neutralize weak projectiles and defeat most enemies in the game by spinning to swipe with the cape, use it to slow their descent when in midair, and with a running start, they can take to the skies.
• Bag of Sharing: They share their inventory in every RPG they show up in.
• Balloon Belly: Literally with the Power Balloon and with Mario's flower ability in 64 DS, where the Bros. bellies expand enough to allow them temporary flight as sentient balloons.
• Bash Brothers: Particularly in the Mario & Luigi series, where they always fight in tandem, and pull off combination moves together, but even outside that series, the Bros. often team up to fight whatever may come their way.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: They are adorable in contrast to the morally darker Wario and Waluigi, who are hideous.
• Beware the Nice Ones: If you threaten anyone they care about, such as each other, you might as well put your affairs in order while you still can. And don't you dare hurt one of them or they'll make you regret that.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The Mario Brothers are not, generally speaking, the most serious or mature people. When they do get serious, there's almost nothing in the universe that can stop them.
• Big Eater: Both brothers are big fans of food, though it varies between media just which of them is the biggest eater. Mario loves to eat pasta, and, according to Super Mario Sunshine, tropical seafood. In the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Mario is obsessed to the point of being described by Luigi as "having a one track mind". In the Super Mario Adventures comic, Luigi is the one who constantly talks about food and was really eager to eat a giant slice of cheese in the middle of a ghost house.
• Blow You Away: As part of their standard spinning move, starting with Super Mario Galaxy.
• Blue Is Heroic: Although Mario and Luigi are mostly associated with red and green, respectively, both brothers wear blue overalls.
• Bouncing Battler: As the protagonists of a long-running series of Platform Games, jumping is at the forefront of the Mario Bros.' abilities. The Goomba Stomp is their main tool to defeat foes, enough to the point that it's one of the things they're known for In-Universe as well as out.
• Brains and Brawn:
  • Mario's the brawn, while Luigi's the brains... That is, when it isn't Mario doing both.
  • Inverted in the cartoon, where Mario does all the thinking and Luigi ends up doing more work. Luigi even Lampshades it.
  • Mario can also be the brains compared to other characters like Daisy, Donkey Kong, Wario, or even Bowser.
  • This trope is particularly evident in Luigi's Mansion 3, in which Mario rushes ahead with his impressive jumping ability, unhampered by the Poltergust, in a bid to rescue Peach, only for him to end up captured by the more cunning King Boo. This is also reflected in the brothers' archenemies, with Bowser's fights typically being a test of the player's skill while King Boo's fights typically require some problem solving. The Luigi's Mansion games also extensively focus on puzzle-solving outside of battle in order to navigate the area, as opposed to the standard platformers centering on Mario.
• Brought to You by the Letter "S": Their caps both have the first letter of their name.
• Characterisation Click Moment: Both of them slowly formed their personality as time passed:
  • Mario, had no defined personality in his initial appearances in the arcade, 8-bit and 16-bit eras. All that was known about him was that he was an "Italian Plumber from Brooklyn", which led to him having stereotypical Brooklyn personality traits in various adaptations. It was Super Mario 64, along with being Suddenly Voiced by Charles Martinet that established him as the squeaky-voiced Fun Personified character that we know and love today. Likewise, his accent became less Italian-American and more simply Italian, and the Brooklyn angle was gradually dropped.
  • Luigi originally had very little personality just like his brother and was often portrayed as simply an echo of whatever scraps Mario had. However several spin-offs, such as the DiC cartoons made Luigi a Cowardly Lion Comic Relief to distinguish him from Mario (who was often a Red Oni to his Blue Oni), with the games themselves finally becoming uniform to this approach by the time of his first spin-off game, Luigi's Mansion.
• The Chosen One: A lot. Most interestingly, in Super Paper Mario, Mario's the chosen hero of light, while Luigi is the chosen host of ultimate destruction, and the one who makes the choice determining the fate of all worlds. He is, however, also a hero of light. And, of course, there's the whole Star Children thing, even if it's not entirely clear what this entails beyond likely being the reason for their extraordinary powers and abilities.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Mario more than Luigi, who is a bit more reluctant, but they instantly go after Bowser when they see he has a fairy in a jar, for instance.
• Clothes Make the Superman: Several powerups either take the form of suits that the Bros. wear or grant them new clothes entirely, which grant them new abilities. Among others:
  • The Frog Suit lowers grounded mobility, but allows for vastly better control when swimming.
  • The Tanooki Suit, in Super Mario Bros. 3, allows for gliding, flight, and turning into an invincible (but immobile) statue. In 3D Land, the flight was removed, while the statue ability was transferred to a new powerup called the Statue Leaf (a stone leaf that also grants a Tanooki Suit, but with a scarf to distinguish it from the normal one).
  • The Hammer Bro Suit grants the ability to throw hammers, just like the enemy.
  • The Boomerang Flower is similar, granting the heroes a Battle Boomerang and the clothes of a Boomerang Bro.
  • The Super Bell puts the Mario Bros. in a cat suit, which lets them claw, pounce, and climb walls.
• Coordinated Clothes: It may have been born out of Luigi being a Palette Swap, but Mario and Luigi wear matching overalls and caps.
• Costume Evolution: In the early days, the colors of the Bros' overalls were in flux, with things like Mario wearing a blue hat, or Luigi wearing brown. They would eventually be standardized as wearing blue with red or green, but at first their shirts were blue, while their overalls were the colors that matched their caps. Later games swapped the colors, starting with the cover and instructions for Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World was able to render the changes in-game.
• Deadly Dodging:
  • Several bosses are based on this principle, such as Megaleg from Galaxy 1, where avoiding the Bullet Bills it shoots allows them to lead them back into the robot itself.
  • Mario & Luigi took the concept and ran with it for every battle in the game; when enemies attack, one of the possible things the Bros. can do is jump, and if the enemy is attacking up close and personal, this usually enables them to both avoid the attack and deal one of their own in turn.
• Determinator: Mario's primary personality traits are his kindness, heroism, and simply not stopping for anything to save the world. It's not quite as prominent with Luigi, but he does not give up on anything he sets his mind to, either.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: They have faced deity-like beings in battle and defeated them. Crowning examples are Shadow Queen, Super Dimentio, Dark Star, and Dreamy Bowser.
• Dishing Out Dirt:
  • With a Rock Mushroom, they can roll over enemies as a boulder.
  • To an extent, the Tanooki Suit/Statue Mario, which can be used as a stronger Goomba Stomp.
  • Galaxy 2's drill enables a Dig Attack that resembles something of this sort.
• Distressed Dude: On occasion, one of the Bros. will be incapacitated and will need to be rescued, usually by the other brother.
  • Mario saves Luigi from Boos in Super Mario 64 DS and Super Mario Galaxy, while Luigi saves Mario from Boos in the Luigi's Mansion games.
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, has both Bros. alternate saving the other in the same game; Mario gets Luigi down from being hoist by a crane while in a barrel, Luigi cures Mario of a fatal mushroom poisoning, and Mario frees Luigi from being tied up by Popple.
  • Both Bros. end up in distress simultaneously in Super Princess Peach, where Princess Peach ends up coming to save them in a reversal of their usual roles.
• Dork Knight:
  • Mario constantly risks his life to save Princess Peach and the Mushroom Kingdom, goes out of his way to help anyone he meets, and is unfailingly brave and noble. He's also a happy-go-lucky, excitable guy who possesses an extreme optimism and enjoys all sorts of activities, no matter how childish they might seem.
  • Luigi is shy and awkward, would rather stay out of trouble, and is constantly overlooked in favor of his more famous, older brother. However, that doesn't stop him from being the best person he can be, and his moral fiber is just as strong and optimistic as Mario's even if he doesn't seem so effortlessly courageous.
• Elemental Powers:
  • From powerups alone, the Bros. have used fire, ice, stone, metal, and gold, among others.
  • There's also Mario's Firebrand and Luigi's Thunderhand in Superstar Saga.
• Famed In-Story: Several games show that their various exploits have made them world-famous, though Mario more so than Luigi.
• Fat and Skinny: Downplayed. Mario's definitely pudgier than Luigi, but not by that much. Both look to be around the same weight, it's mostly Luigi's height and face shape that makes him appear skinnier.
• Fireballs: Provides the page image. When they get a Fire Flower, they gain the ability to throw these. Of course, in certain games, like the Paper Mario. series and Super Mario RPG, they can throw fireballs even without the Fire Flower.
• Flying Brick: Though they only really fly when powered-up, they've still got the speed, agility, and strength to qualify.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The Writer's Bible for The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 describes the Bros. as having this sort of dynamic, with Luigi wishing Mario would weigh risks more often, though in the games it doesn't quite apply. While Mario is often described as stubborn and impulsive, and Luigi is often characterized as the more anxious and silly of the two but also the more cautious, the contrast rarely comes into play due to rarely showing Mario's more stubborn side or is just as often reversed, with Mario being focused on the task at hand, while Luigi's cowardice often leads him to making foolish decisions or the fact that he's often involved in several antics.
• Force and Finesse: Relatively, Luigi is usually force and Mario is finesse when they have different stats. Luigi always has higher jumping power, at the cost of having less traction. This sometimes allows him to take shortcuts, or just be better at speedrunning by climbing up faster. While Mario's abilities aren't as extreme as Luigi, he has much tighter controls and can stop on a dime for precise landing and maneuvering. When applied to their actual fighting skills, however, it's reversed. Mario almost always attacks head-on with a lot of power, while Luigi often takes a different approach.
• Fragile Speedster: Their state by default in 2D games: they remain fast and agile enough to explore the levels and to dodge enemies' attacks, but a single hit makes them lose a life.
• Funny Foreigner: The Bros. are based on stereotypical Italian-American plumbers, and are known for their goofy Italian accents and catchphrases. The Mario & Luigi subseries even has them speak in Italian-sounding gibberish peppered with their usual English and Italian quotes.
• Golden Super Mode: Gold Mario/Silver Luigi, introduced in New Super Mario Bros. 2. Acting as a suped-up Fire Flower, they can turn anything from enemies to even blocks into coins.
• Good Is Not Soft: They're generally Nice Guys, but have taken on and defeated a lot of bad guys. The most blatant example of this is their first fight with Cackletta in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga; by the end, they've beaten Cackletta to a pulp and left her on the brink of death.
• Good Luck Charm: In Super Mario 64 DS, this is the in-game justification for them taking more damage without their hats. One of the Toads mentions to Mario that his hat is special, and bad luck will befall him should he lose it.
• Goomba Stomp: Their main method of defeating their enemies. It also helps in reaching higher places.
• Gratuitous Italian: "Ohh, mamma mia!" Also occasionally "Ciao!" and "Grazie!" It's kind of hard to tell that they're supposed to be Italian from looks alone.
• Ground Pound: From Super Mario 64 and onwards. When executed, they pause in midair, do a frontflip, and then plummet downwards butt-first.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded: While they usually use hammers or magic in the combat-heavier situations, most frequently RPG titles, the two are perfectly capable of fighting like this, and will do so. (OK, so they aren't bare-fisted with their gloves, but the fighting style is the same.)
• Heroes' Frontier Step: Theirs is saving Princess Peach from the clutches of the Koopa Troop. Before that, Mario had a single turn as an antagonist, but since the events of Super Mario Bros., his role in Donkey Kong Jr. has come to be seen as an outlier in his 40-year career.
• Heroic Mime: Both of them, though rather inconsistently. Even if they don't have dialogue, they tend to have more fully voiced lines than other characters. In the Mario & Luigi series, they speak Italian Simlish. Both have had written dialogue from time to time, but it's significantly more common for Luigi, though he's usually an NPC in those cases.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Well, they are twin brothers, but still. For one, even though they are in their twenties, they still share a bedroom, and spend a lot of time in each other's company.
• An Ice Person: The Ice Flower literally turns them into ice in Galaxy (allowing them to freeze water), and enables them to shoot ice balls in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Super Mario Bros. U, and New Super Luigi U alongside the Penguin Suit.
• Iconic Item: Their hats, of course, which they've had since even before they met their parents.
• Iconic Outfit: The brothers are rarely seen without their caps, shirts, denim overalls, and brown shoes. Although Mario does trade them in for a doctor's outfit when he's Dr. Mario.
• Icy Blue Eyes: They usually avoid this as seen under Innocent Blue Eyes, tending to be cartoonish looking even while staring down bad guys, but the official artwork for their appearance in Mario Strikers manages gives them some uncharacteristically cold and menacing glares, showing how seriously they're taking the game.
• Idiot Hair: Mario and Luigi have matching cowlicks under their caps, fitting their silly, cartoony natures.
• Improbable Weapon User: In the old cartoons, you'll see them using wrenches, plumber's snakes, plungers, and pieces of pipe as weapons.
• In a Single Bound: Mario's jumping abilities are legendary, and Luigi's are even better. Though, Mario seems to be somewhat more coordinated than Luigi, since in Super Mario Galaxy, he does a front flip in his triple jump, while Luigi just kicks his feet to go upwards.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: The brothers are endlessly altruistic and kind, with Mario's heroism being his main defining personality trait. Their distinctly bright blue eyes reflect their role as a force of good in the series.
• Instant Expert: The only things they need to engage in any new activity are player-directed instructions.
• Jack of All Stats: Mario was the former Trope Namer for a reason. In many of the spinoffs (most notably Mario Kart), his stats will be exactly balanced. Luigi's usually close, but never quite the same.
• Keet: Especially in newer games where they spout their catchphrases.
• Le Parkour: As gaming marches on, Mario and Luigi's jumping prowess have evolved from "jumping good" to wall-kicks, elaborate flipping maneuvers, performing Olympic-class long jumps, and the list goes on.
• Left-Handed Mirror: They're usually displayed as using opposite hands for the same actions to give them some contrast. For example, in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and onwards, Mario always has his left arm up when he jumps; for Luigi, it is his right. It's different which of the two favors his left for different games and even different actions within a single game.
• Lightning Bruiser: If their stats aren't average, they'll usually have all or most of them being above average. This is very noticeable in the platform games — there are very rarely times when the Mario Brothers will have any significant drawbacks to offset their strength, agility, and speed.
• Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition: In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario and Luigi get fire and lightning abilities respectively. This might be due to their personalities. Mario, a hero, is brave and consistent, though his fire powers existed before this game as the Fire Flower powerup. But Mario is also aggressive and impulsive, showing a little hotheadedness. Luigi is slightly cowardly (you could say that he's gone in a flash), but is also more expressive in his emotions and funny (he might have a spark of life in him). When Luigi does act, he can make all the difference, and he is as brave as his brother during events with strong enemies. Hence, the partnership between the two.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Despite being perceived as Italian stereotypes, actual Italian people who know the Bros. very rarely, if at all, take offense to their accents and occasional displays of pasta affinity.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Mario and Luigi's births are described in four different ways, and none of them is normal. In addition, where they grew up is either various actual locations on Earth (usually Brooklyn, New York City), or the Mushroom Kingdom, and there are multiple variations on how they got to the Mushroom Kingdom from the real world.
• Mundane Made Awesome: A major staple of the brothers' identity is their profession as plumbers— a rather ordinary job in the real world, but one that routinely sees Mario and Luigi warping through pipes, fighting monsters, and rescuing royalty in the Mushroom Kingdom.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Neither Mario nor Luigi have any defined muscles to speak of, but that doesn't stop them from pulling off ridiculous feats of strength, like Mario swinging Bowser by the tail in Super Mario 64 with Luigi being capable of doing so as well as shown in the DS version.
• National Stereotypes: Both Mario and Luigi (but mostly Mario) are believed to be walking pastiches of Italian stereotypes (largely due to American inventions that became part of the Japanese canon). For starters, their names are some of the most common names given in Italy. Both are pudgy characters adorned with big goofy noses and mustaches who speak with exaggerated Italian accents and stock Italian phrases (i.e. "Mama Mia!"), plus occasional faux-Italian gibberish. Mario is sometimes shown having an affinity for pasta in the games (though nowhere to the extent of the DiC cartoons), as pasta and ravioli are very commonly associated with Italians. Their non-canon DiC backstory placed their residence in Brooklyn, New York City, which has a large population of Italian descent; Odyssey implies that Mario started off in New Donk City instead, which is just the canonical Mario universe equivalent.
  • Then again, contrary to popular belief, their mustaches and noses are the result of 1981's immature graphics technology. Shigeru Miyamoto, the man Mario would call "Papa", gave him these features to make the nose of his vaguely detailed sprite in Donkey Kong more noticeable.
• Never Bareheaded: There are very few instances where one of the brothers will be seen not wearing his hat... the most common, by far, being if it's in his hand at the time and he's about to put it back on. Most games don't even model their hair under the hat. Exceptions to this being...
  • Small Mario and Luigi are seen without their hats in Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario 3D World.
  • In New Super Mario Bros. Wii (for Mario) and Super Mario 3D Land (both Bros.), getting max lives will remove the hat.
  • Dr. Mario and Dr. Luigi wear head mirrors instead of hats, but Dr. Luigi wore his cap in his first appearance.
  • The hats can be stolen in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine. The baby Luma also takes the hat at the end of Super Mario Galaxy 2, and the brother you're using remains bareheaded throughout the credits.
  • A brief Shirtless Scene at the beginning of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga in which Mario goes out of the bathroom.
  • All of Super Mario Odyssey's promotional art features a hatless Mario, because his hat is now inhabited by a spirit named Cappy, who grants Mario various abilities, and they want to emphasize him as a separate entity from Mario. Mario also spends long stretches of the game casually hatless as Cappy does his own thing.
  • In Mario Tennis Aces and Mario Golf Super Rush, the brothers wear visors instead of caps, leaving their hair visible.
• Nice Guy: Both of them are heroic and friendly individuals who go out of their way to help anyone they meet, even Bowser. Luigi, for example, is the only character in Mario Strikers Charged who actually thanks his teammates for their contributions and is one of the few who doesn't blow up at said teammates when losing.
• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Rare heroic example. Their standard response to facing Bowser is to throw him into a pool of lava. This outright kills Bowser. Luckily for the Koopa King, Death Is Cheap applies to both sides in the Mario 'verse. Luigi might actually be worse: technically, in Luigi's Mansion, his entire goal is to subject a mansion full of ghosts to a Fate Worse than Death. Do not kidnap Mario; it ends up much worse for you than kidnapping Peach.
• One-Man Army: They can effortlessly plow through Bowser's forces.
• Only One Name: For the longest time, officially, Mario's name was simply Mario, and Luigi's was just Luigi. But in occasional instances of American-made media such as the Super Show! and live-action film, his full name was Mario Mario, with Luigi as Luigi Mario. Earlier, Nintendo of America representatives have stated that they don't have last names and it was up in the air why they were even called the Mario Brothers in-universe, which was a sentiment later echoed by Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto in 2012 (although around the same time, Charles Martinet stated exactly the opposite as Mario at San Diego Comic-Con). However, during the 30th anniversary of the first Super Mario Bros. game, the latter finally confirmed it was their real last name, making it a Flip-Flop of God.
• Papa Wolf: Both brothers come to this in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, their baby counterparts, whom they teamed up with, defended and get to act as their father figures.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: While the original Mario Bros. was a plumbing job, these plumbers aren't usually seen plumbing all that much; Nintendo also occasionally refers to their plumbing job in the past tense, listing it as simply one of Mario's many jobs. Pipes continue to show up in many Mario games, but that's usually as far as the plumbing references go outside of some exceptions:
  • In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Lady Lima (actually a disguised Cackletta) tells the Bros. to fix Beanbean Castle's plumbing as a test to see if they really are the legendary plumbers.
  • In Super Mario 3D World, the Bros. fix the Clear Pipe that leads to the Sprixie Kingdom in the introduction cutscene.
  • In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, E. Gadd even lampshades it, saying "We'll make a plumber out of you yet!".
• Playing with Fire: With a Fire Flower, this is their most commonly used power. Sometimes even without a Fire Flower. Mario is consistently associated with it, while Luigi is just as likely to use another element to contrast with his brother as he is to use fire.
• Pluralses: Both Bros. do this sometimes (fitting, considering how they're bilingual), but it's kinda rare. Mario is a bit more prone to doing it, if only because he's more likely to show up in promotional things urging you to play his "gameses".
• Polar Opposite Twins: The brave, outgoing and hot-blooded Mario vs the cowardly, timid and silly Luigi.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: Like you wouldn't believe. They can be anywhere from normal guys who can jump really high to extremely overpowered Flying Bricks minus the actual flying, unless they get flight power-ups.
• Protagonist Title: Mario more so than Luigi, because his name features in almost every title in the series. If Luigi's name features in the title, then it's a game giving him A Day in the Limelight.
• Rambunctious Italian: As noted, they are excitable, expressive fellows and have thick Italian accents.
• Red Baron: They both get titles like this in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Mario Hoops 3-on-3.
  • Mario: The Merciless Executioner, The Superstar Sequel, and The Jumpman.
  • Luigi: The Mustachioed Green Baron, and Mushroom Dynamite.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Mario is the Red Oni: aggressive, competitive, and reckless; while Luigi is the Blue: calm, thoughtful, and cautious. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga even gives them a Lightning/Fire Juxtaposition (Playing with Fire for Mario; Shock and Awe for Luigi) to reflect this.
• Renaissance Man: Between the two brothers (Mario is the page image for a good reason), they have quite a long resume:
  • Carpenters (Mario)
  • Plumbers
  • Princess rescuers
  • Painters
  • Doctors
  • Race car drivers
  • Ghost hunters (Luigi)
  • Golfers
  • Tennis players
  • Soccer players
  • Olympic athletes
  • And much more!
• Rough Overalls: The Mario Brothers' iconic overalls reflect their early adventures and characterization as blue-collar workers across various professions, from carpentry to plumbing. Originally, the overalls were red and incorporated into Mario's design to help him stand out from Donkey Kong's black background.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: To an extent. Mario is always the aggressive go-getter, while Luigi is more prudent, often to the point of cowardice.
• Showy Invincible Hero: There's no question Mario and Luigi will win. The only questions are how they'll do it, how cool it looks when they do it, and how much fun the player will have when they win.
• Sibling Team: From Mario Bros. on, when Luigi was introduced.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Mario is outgoing and brave, Luigi is timid and cowardly.
• Signature Headgear: The Mario Bros.' caps are as iconic as the bros themselves, with Mario and Luigi respectively sporting a cap of their signature colors and letter.
  • Shigeru Miyamoto was unable to depict hair to his satisfaction on 8-bit sprites back then, so Mario was instead given a hat, and Luigi started out as a Palette Swap of him. His hat also plays a vital gameplay role in Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Odyssey. In 64, if Mario has his hat blown off or stolen, he takes more damage without the hat on. In Sunshine, Mario takes damage being exposed to the intense sunlight (unless he is in the shade) without his hat. In Odyssey, throwing the hat, which is inhabited by his adventuring partner Cappy, is his main attack method.
• Signature Move: Their jumping, of course. Fireballs as well. Lampshaded in Super Mario RPG and Mario & Luigi, where NPC characters recognize Mario on sight when he jumps. Also, the Spin Attack/Jump, which is even an ability unique to them in a number of spin-offs.
• Special Person, Normal Name: "Mario" and "Luigi" are pretty unremarkable Italian names.
• Spectacular Spinning: Several abilities throughout the games have had the Bros. engage in spinning.
  • The Raccoon Leaf, Tanooki Suit, and Cape Feather all enable an attack where the user spins; for the former two, to hit enemies with their tails, and for the latter, to do the same with the cape itself.
  • The Spin Jump in its various forms; in games like Super Mario World and the console New Super Mario Bros. games, it serves as a jump that gets less height but is strong enough to defeat some enemies, like Koopa Troopas, instantly. In games like Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Odyssey, it allows for a jump that gets more height and control than a normal leap.
  • The Star Spin from the Galaxy duology is a spinning punch attack that also serves as a minor double jump.
• Strong as They Need to Be: Their limits are usually pretty high, but not very well-defined. They can beat anyone, but lose when the plot demands it, as in Super Princess Peach.
• Super Mode: While most of their transformations are more on the line of Swiss-Army Hero, White Raccoon Mario/White Fox Luigi is a very good example of this. The basic abilities are the same as the normal Raccoon/Fox forms, but they accelerate faster (so it's easier to fly), can stand and walk on water, and have invincibility that never runs out. So far, it's only used if you die a lot, but it's still far more powerful than nearly all of their other forms.
• Super-Speed: They're shown to be incredibly swift frequently, though it's rarely drawn attention to directly. They're able to run up walls and regularly outpace Bullet Bills, airships, and cannonballs, and generally move much faster than everything else in the game, but there's never been a clear idea of how fast they're supposed to be.
• Super-Strength: Easily their most commonly displayed power besides their signature jumps. Usually it only amounts to being able to throw around baddies two or three times their size like Bowser and smashing though solid bricks with their fists, but there's also the notable time when Mario/Luigi lifted a castle and kicked it away and destroyed another one with just a few kicks in World or how their Ground Pound is powerful enough to knock meteorites onto Bowser in Galaxy 2.
• Super Swimming Skills: Rather literally in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, but, in general, they can swim incredibly fast both above and under water without tiring, and sometimes without even needing to breathe. Other characters can also be this from time to time, but not as consistently and not to the same extent as the Bros.
• Super-Toughness: Not so much in the 2D games, but the other games show them surviving fairly ridiculous things such as burning up on re-entry with no lasting injuries. The biggest example would definitely be at the end of Super Mario Galaxy, when the universe is sucked into a black hole, and the Lumas cause a second big bang. The Mario Bros. live through both without so much as a scratch.
• Superpower Lottery: The abilities they get from Power-ups would easily make them this, making them very effective and powerful swiss-army heroes. Even without them, though, the sheer number and magnitude of powers and abilities they display is far beyond most of the characters in the series.
• Thicker Than Water: The brotherly bond between Mario and Luigi is completely unbreakable, to the point that they'll drop whatever they're doing to save one another at the drop of a hat and are sometimes shown to still live together well into adulthood.
• Third-Person Person: When they're especially excited or happy, such as their victory quotes in sport, kart or party games, they'll dip into this. ("Mario/Luigi, number one!")
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: "The standard sense of Mario is that he won't murder someone but isn't good enough to not smash bugs. This is engraved into everyone’s mind."
• Token Human: In the main series — the only other human that makes repeated appearances is Peach. All of the other humans live outside the Mushroom Kingdom, except maybe Waluigi and E. Gadd.
• Twin Telepathy: Hinted at in Yoshi's Island and outright referred to in Yoshi's New Island.
• Two First Names: "Mario" isn't the most typical surname. It wasn't canon to the games till the 30th anniversary. Originally their surname was either unknown, but explicitly not "Mario", or explicitly non-existent; but alternate media nearly always used it long before Nintendo changed their tune.
• Underestimating Badassery: New villains don't usually take them seriously. Even the ones who do take them seriously usually underestimate just how much of a threat they pose.
• Undying Loyalty: To each other. A constant throughout the series, especially the Mario & Luigi games and in both feature films, is that Mario and Luigi will stand together no matter what and go to any lengths for one another.
• Unexplained Accent: They've got pretty noticeable Italian accents, and often speak in Italian-sounding gibberish. Despite this, they've never actually lived in Italy in any version of their Multiple-Choice Past. Then again, one of said Multiple Choice Pasts has them born in Brooklyn, New York (and New York has one of the larger Italian-American populations out there).
• Verbal Tic: Because of their Italian accents, they tend to add "-a" sounds at the end of certain words.
• Villain Killer: Mario has fought and killed Bowser and his various underlings many times, but they always find ways to come back to life. However, Mario and Luigi have both fought together just as many times, sometimes alongside Bowser, Peach, and other side characters at different times against greater evils that they destroy. Among them are an evil witch that wanted to steal the power of the Beanstar,an evil bean wielding the power of an eldritch monstrous black star, a millennia-old demonic shadow's soul, and an evil clown with dimensional powers that tried to destroy the multiverse.
• Wall Jump:
  • One of their abilities as of Super Mario 64. It originated out of a glitch in the original Super Mario Bros..
  • Sometimes, if there's an ensemble cast where everyone has a gimmick, this is cast as Mario's special ability instead of a platforming maneuver for everyone - Super Mario 64 DS and Mini Mario and Friends have the wall jump exclusive to Mario, while Mario Tennis Aces has him wall jumping into the air for his Zone Shot.
• Wall Run: If the terrain allows for it, Mario and Luigi are able to run straight up walls and even on ceilings. In most games this appears in, they have to hit a triangle block at the foot of the wall first, but this isn't necessary in Super Mario 64 or when it's an ability granted by power-ups such as the Mini Mushroom or Super Bell.
• Weak, but Skilled: In 2D games, the plumbers are this without their special transformations: for example, they can't stomp Koopas like they do with Goombas, but they can make them enter into their shells, then push, hold and throw at them while they are stuck in. They are also this compared to Bowser.
• Weaksauce Weakness: In a number of games, they're basically crippled without their hats.
• Would Hurt a Child: If they're evil, at least. They pull no punches against Bowser Jr. or the Koopalings.
• Younger Than They Look: When they were originally designed, the company's stance was that Mario was "middle-aged" - anywhere from 35-45- and that Luigi was a few years younger than Mario, though the age gap wasn't consistent. As 1995, Mario and Luigi are twins, and by 2005, an interview establishes them as being around 25 years old, so it's their moustaches that make them look older.

Mario

Debut: Donkey Kong
Voiced in English by: Larry Moran (1982 Donkey Kong cereal commercials), Peter Cullen (Saturday Supercade), Lou Albano (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!), Walker Boone (The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World), Ronald B. Ruben (Mario Teaches Typing; Floppy version), Colin Case (Super Mario Compact Disco), David Platshon (Mario's Time Machine; PC version), Nick Glaeser (Mario is Missing; PC version), Marc Graue (Hotel Mario), Charles Martinet (video games, 1992-2023); Kevin Afghani (Super Mario Bros. Wonder), Chris Pratt (2023 animated movie)
Voiced in Japanese by: Tōru Furuya (The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach!, original video animations and Satellaview games), Mayumi Tanaka (Mario Kirby Masterpiece Video), Mamoru Miyano (2023 animated movie)
Portrayed by: Harris Shore (live-action Donkey Kong commercial), Lou Albano (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!), Bob Hoskins (1993 live action film)

"It's-a me, Mario!"

"Let's-a go!"

The Legendary Hero and The Everyman. The Superstar of the Mushroom Kingdom. The Stomper of Foes. Average, yet versatile in every sense of the word. Nintendo's biggest Mascot, Fun Personified, and at one point more iconic than goddamn Mickey Mouse.

Mr. Video Game Himself.

It's-a him! Mario!

A short, stocky Italian plumber and inhabitant of the Mushroom Kingdom, as well as its most famous hero. He is primarily charged with saving the perpetual Damsel in Distress, Princess Peach Toadstool, from the clutches of King Bowser Koopa and his minions. Since his debut in Donkey Kong in 1981, he's gone on to take many different professions, such as a golfer, tennis, doctor, and go-kart racer.

Mario has a rather simple personality, yet effective for his medium. Aside from his cheerful get-up-and-go attitude, bravery and occasionally being quick to anger; he's primarily a silent protagonist through which the player gets to experience the game.

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• The Ace: Mario excels at just about everything he does. Especially when it comes to heroics and sports.
• Acrofatic: Downplayed. Mario is not fat, but he does have a bit of belly. Shigeru Miyamoto explained that his chubbiness is the result of games back in the '80s only being able to register collisions with squares. Doesn't stop him from pulling off all sorts of acrobatic feats. He was especially short and stocky in the older games, but starting with the Gamecube era, he was noticeably slimmed down and made taller, though he's still shorter and chubbier than Luigi. This trope is played straight with his elephant form in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, though.
• 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 movie adaptations weren't necessarily wrong in casting various older men to play him. Currently, though, he's only in his mid twenties.
• Amicable Exes: With Pauline, as shown in Odyssey. They're both shown to be on very good terms, and Pauline, as mayor of New Donk City, even has an entire festival dedicated to Mario.
• And I Must Scream: In three of the Luigi’s Mansion games, Mario was turned into a painting by King Boo, desperately trying to escape. in the first game in particular, he can move while in the painting, though not in the sequels.
• An Ice Person: Ice Mario, whether it be in the cosmos, or on his own world.
• Art Evolution: Mario's limbs were a lot stubbier in the early days, which gave him a much stockier look◊, modern art gives him longer limbs and makes him taller◊, going from two heads tall to roughly three heads tall, which has the side effect of making him seem much leaner and not nearly as chubby as he used to be. This seems to follow the idea that, earlier in the series, Small Mario was considered Mario's default size, while modern games consider Super Mario the default.
• Badass in Distress: In Mario Is Missing! (which is safely forgettable), Luigi's Mansion (and again in its sequels), Super Mario 64 DS, and Super Princess Peach. Not to mention several minor incidents in the Mario & Luigi series.
• Be the Ball: Literally in Pinball Land.
• Big Brother Instinct: He is very protective of Luigi.
• Big Good: He's become one of the most famous heroes in his franchise, as well in video game history. Within the games, he forms a Big Good Duumvirate with Peach. As The Hero, he is acknowledged as the key to victory against Bowser. In each of his adventures, especially the RPGs, he is always the most responsible for the good guys' victories.
• Big Eater:
  • He's something of an implied big eater and has a slight obsession for food. He has dreams of pasta, is more excited about seafood than anything else on a tropical vacation, and has been criticized about needing to watch his diet at least once.
  • In Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario's room is littered with pizza boxes, and the first thing he does when he arrives at the hotel is to eye up the cake in the lobby.
• Blood Knight: Sorta, of a fun kind. Just listening to him in the 3D games makes it obvious he's enjoying himself as he traverses dangerous terrain, dodges obstacles, and battles all sorts of monsters, in comparison to Luigi's more serious tone while doing so. He's also known to be rather competitive, which comes out particularly strong in the various sports games - when he activates the power of a Star in Mario Kart, it's not unusual to hear him playfully yell "I'm-a gonna get you!" in his usual cheerful tone.
• The Captain:
  • Of the Starship Mario in Super Mario Galaxy 2.
  • Cappy declares him Captain of the Odyssey ship by turning into the appropriate nice hat in Super Mario Odyssey. Pauline also refers to him as a captain during "Jump Up, Super Star!"
• The Champion: Peach’s champion. Kind of the point, really.
• Chick Magnet: Mario seems to be the most eligible man in the Mushroom Kingdom with how girls fancy him, especially in the Paper Mario series. Any female character who has something to say about him that isn't a villain is mostly likely to regard him as handsome, charming or both. In fact, every female playable character in The Thousand-Year Door kisses him at least once. Even outside Paper Mario, Peach is his Love Interest, Pauline was formerly his girlfriend, and Daisy took a shine to him post-rescue before she started being Luigi's answer to Peach. Toadette is sometimes shown to have a crush on him. Even Wendy O. Koopa thinks he's cute. Just about the only main female character who hasn't shown any real interest in him is Rosalina, who generally operates on another scope, being a guardian of the cosmos and all.
• Chrome Champion: Metal Mario.
• Color Motif: Red of course, also gold as of the 2010s with the Gold Mario powerup, his golden cat costume in 3D World and construction clothes in the art for Super Mario Maker.
• Competition Freak: Mario gets very serious when in a competition. If official Mario art has Mario frowning and with an angry look, there's a good chance that it is from a sports title.
  • Mario Party 2 starts off with Mario revealing the name the location all their games will be taking place in: Mario Land. When Wario butts in and changes the name to Wario Land, Mario's all too eager to start an argument with him about the name.
  • In Super Mario RPG, when returning to the Rose Town Inn with Geno in Mario's party, Gaz comments that "Mario needs all the help he can get" after Geno tells him that he'll be following Mario on his adventure. Mallow has to circle around and hold Mario back from punching a small child at the implication that he's weaker than Geno.
  • Overlaps with Unsportsmanlike Gloating in Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium, as seen here.◊
  • In Mario Power Tennis, he compliments Luigi for his success during the latter's ending, though he looks rather jealous.
• Dance Battler: One or two of his moves look surprisingly like breakdance moves.
• Dance Sensation: "Do the Mario!"
• Deadpan Snarker: In his few official fully-voiced appearances, Mario isn't above making wisecracks or poking fun at things — sometimes at others' expense (such as Sony's).
  Mario: Boy, that Sony. It's fantastic... [his nose stretches out like Pinocchio]
• 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, and very few of them believe they actually have a chance of doing anything more than slowing him down.
• 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.
• Expy: The original Donkey Kong arcade game was originally conceived as a Popeye game, only to be redressed when Nintendo failed to secure the rights. Accordingly, Mario is heavily based on Popeye, being a blue-collar strongman with a distinct dialect whose homely looks hide big brawn and an even bigger heart. Both even grow stronger from eating vegetables — Popeye with his spinach and Mario with his mushrooms. However, whereas Popeye was a sailor, Mario was first a carpenter, then a plumber. Later entries would additionally emphasize Mario's cheery disposition as opposed to Popeye's ruggedness.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Metal Mario in Super Mario 64, which is spectacularly combined with Playing with Fire for his Mega Strike, "Fiery Metal Mario".
• Famed In-Story: From Super Mario RPG onwards, the RPGs he stars in all give him this. In the DS remake of Super Mario 64, there is a sign in the courtyard describing him as a superhero. Less so in Lavalava Island and Rogueport, which are not in the Mushroom Kingdom.
• Fire Is Masculine: He is most commonly associated with the element of fire, in both mainline games and spin-offs like the sports games and the RPGs. He's also adventurous, courageous, competitive and impulsive, especially compared to his brother Luigi.
• Force and Finesse: While Bowser always unleashes all his powers against him, Mario often has to take a different approach to win.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Sanguine.
• Fun Personified: He always seems to be having a blast, even in the most dire of circumstances.
• 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.
• Glass Cannon: In the Mario & Luigi series, Mario is faster and hits harder than Luigi, but is frailer to compensate.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Sure, Mario and Bowser are mortal enemies, but that doesn't stop them from playing games together every once in a while.
• 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, however, doesn't last long.
• Hat of Power:
  • In Super Mario 64, all of Mario's powerups are hats, which can grant him flight, invisibility, and metallic skin. In the remake, the player can instead collect his hat (and Luigi's, and Wario's) to transform into him on the spot.
  • In Galaxy, Mario's hat contains the Luma that provides his Star Spin ability.
  • Odyssey's central gimmick is that Mario's hat has a little ghost named Cappy inside it. Cappy enables all sorts of new abilities, such as being thrown as a boomeranging projectile, providing a temporary platform for Mario to Goomba Springboard off of, and enabling Mario to possess and control world objects around him
• Has a Type: As of Odyssey, his two known romantic interests (Peach and Pauline) are both authority figures that dwarf him in height. Daisy, too, depending on how you view their interactions in Super Mario Land.
• Hat of Flight: The wing cap, a hat with wings attached that debuts in Super Mario 64 and enables Mario to fly after a triple jump.
• Having a Blast: The ability he gains as Bomb Mario. It's not as useful as it may sound, since he only uses it for deleting save files. Wario would later assume the form in his first starring role and Virtual Boy Wario Land for the same purpose.
• Hero Protagonist: The central character and protagonist of the series and the most blatant example of the ideal hero archetype.
• Hidden Depths: As revealed in Super Mario Odyssey, Mario doesn't just (really, really) enjoy eating pasta. Him falling asleep and dreaming when left alone shows that he's a real connoisseur for it and knows more-or-less every kind of pasta there is, including some incredibly obscure ones.
• Hope Bringer: He is considered to be a symbol of hope and liberty for the Mushroom Kingdom. Especially prevalent in the RPGs like Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi; talking to NPCs early-on will have them confident that Mario is going to save the world.
• Humble Hero: He's the main hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, and he's fairly modest about it.
• Humongous-Headed Hammer: Throughout the franchise, Mario frequently uses a large wooden mallet that is almost as big as he is.
• Ideal Hero: In nearly every game he is in, he is always this, 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.
• Implied Love Interest: Princess Peach. Mario is fully confirmed to have romantic feelings for her and sees her as his Love Interest. How "implied" it is between Peach and Mario varies, with some sources (particularly the later ones) outright confirming◊ them to be the Official Couple, while others don't address the relationship at all. Prior to Super Mario World, which is the first game to portray some sort of romantic interest between them during the ending, with Peach kissing Mario and him getting all red (though The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach! predates it if counting other media), the relationship was seemingly platonic. The two are shown to have been close friends since childhood in the Yoshi's Island series and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. During Super Princess Peach, where Peach and Mario swap roles, after Peach rescues Mario, she enthusiastically calls for him, dances and spins around with him for a bit (after slapping Luigi out of the way), finishing with a Bridal Carry complete with Mario taking out flowers for Peach out of his hat while Peach blows some kisses and hearts. In Mario Power Tennis, during Peach's victory scene, Mario outright tells Peach that "he loves her so much" to which she responds to with a smile and a blown kiss. In Super Mario Galaxy, Rosalina refers to Peach as Mario's "Special One" and the two are seen Holding Hands toward the ending of the game. And finally, in Super Mario Odyssey, Mario is fully confirmed to have romantic feelings for her and that he completely sees her as his Love Interest, as his main goal in the game is to stop Bowser from marrying her and stealing her away from him. Also, when his prior girlfriend/love interest Pauline appears, they are shown to remain good friends, she helps him a bit during his stay in New Donk City, and wishes and cheers for Mario to be successful in rescuing Peach from the Forced Wedding. During the ending, Mario seems to want a definite Relationship Upgrade with Peach, but because he gets caught up with one-upping Bowser while proposing and starts shoving flowers in her face, she puts her foot down and her feelings towards Mario aren't addressed, though the post-game shows that she forgave Mario for the earlier incident and they remain as close as ever. All in all, Mario is shown to be clearly in love with her and, while Peach's feelings aren't fully confirmed, she is seen to really enjoy Mario's company, appreciate all the times he's rescued/helped her (and viceversa), and (if told under the right circumstances) she's shown to not mind at all being told by Mario that he loves her, ultimately making this a case where Everyone Can See It.
• 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.
• Informed Flaw: Mario is sometimes described as being impulsive, the sort of guy who dives into things without thinking of them first. However, because his personality is usually minimal, this almost never comes across, outside of the implication that he dives head first into saving people without much of a plan. He is also described as being stubborn, hot-headed and short-tempered at times, which is mostly shown more outside of the main games, such as in Mario Strikers (where he gets angry but tries to hold it in, and his reaction is nowhere as extreme as almost everyone else in the cast), being a guy who doesn't take too kindly to losing very well (as seen in Power Tennis when Luigi wins the tournament, Mario can be seen praising his brother but is clearly jealous and shows it by patting him rather hard on the back to the point Luigi almost loses his balance and starts rubbing on his shoe) and can take something as simple as a game of golf seriously (just look at his losing animations; although the other characters takes the sport just as seriously, if not worse than him sometimes). He also seems to take a lot pride in himself and having a cocky side, especially in some of his winning animations in the spin-offs. "Mario is Number 1" indeed. As mentioned on this page already, Mario can come off as a Competition Freak. However, this impulsive side of Mario has shown itself in a main game in Super Mario Odyssey, and 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, though she does forgive him for it. Maybe there's a good reason Nintendo keeps Mario as showing nothing more than him having a joyful demeanor in the actual platformers.
• 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.
• It's the Journey That Counts: The Mario Sports Mix press conference has him try to say something to this effect when talking about his past experiences, but doesn't get very far before Miguel breaks down crying from it.
  "...after all of these adventures, it's not about the stars you collect, the trophies you collect, the amount of mushrooms you consume, or even the Yoshis you ride. It really, at the end of the day, is all about the friends you make, the lives you touch, and - " [Miguel starts sobbing]
• Keet: When he got an official voice actor, Charles Martinet, Mario has become this, happily screaming and getting enthusiastic with every step. Even if he's jumping across boiling lava pits, he still gets the time to do his signature "Wahoo!". Contrast with Luigi, who often does this too but has a more serious tone and is much shyier.
• Lady and Knight: The White Knight to Peach's Bright Lady. Mario is not a knight by job, but otherwise plays the trope straight.
• Leitmotif: World 1-1, of course.
• 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.
• Little Big Brother: He's older than Luigi, but he's shorter. Luigi even calls him "Little Big Brother" word-for-word at one point!
• Loved by All: Mario is loved and respected by just about everyone due to his kind nature, his bravery and heroism, and his willingness to always help those in need, even his enemies. Even his nemesis Bowser admits Mario is the perfect guy to be his Arch-Enemy.
• 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.
  • A negative example, however, comes from Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour. Should he get a double bogey, Mario of all people will make a scene, running around with his face in his hands and crying loudly. This is his worst reaction in the whole franchise when he loses.
• Mascot: To Nintendo, and possibly the entire video game industry.
• Mocky Mouse: Despite being originally based on Popeye, Mario somehow manages to qualify as a human Mocky Mouse as he has a lot in common with Mickey such as his name, falsetto voice, appearance (short stature, prominent gloves, shoes, buttoned overalls, and in a more meta example, facial features designed to make the most of his early medium's graphical limitations), personality (exuberant everyman deliberately kept simple so as to accommodate a wide variety of roles), and status as the undisputed mascot of his company and medium-defining pop-cultural icon. With the release of Super Nintendo World, he even has his own theme park!
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: With Bowser. Mario is the confident and heroic gentleman (noble) to the brutish and tough-as-claws Bowser (roguish).
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Paper Mario: The Origami King, Mario is his usual jovial self and takes things in stride. But he flips out in horror when he sees Bobby don the fuse of his departed friend and lighting it, meaning that he's sacrificing himself to detonate the boulder to save Olivia. Then, when Olivia asks what happened, he's too depressed to even look at her.
• Paper Master: Every power-up he gets in the Paper Mario games, barring The Origami King, includes origami-ing himself.
• Pinocchio Nose: One time, he lied about ”that Sony” (specifically, the PS3 console) being "fantastic". No points for guessing how his nose reacted to that one.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's actually pretty short, the second-shortest human member of the cast after E. Gadd. If the people of the Metro Kingdom in Odyssey are the size of an average human, he only comes up to their waists. Despite that, he's performed some incredible feats over his career and taken down foes who would dwarf any man in the real world. ^note A life-size statue of Mario puts his height at 5'1" (155cm), though that seems odd next to the New Donkers. The measurements in Luigi's Balloon World also put his height at about five feet, but in either case, he's well below the average height for a man his age.
• 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.
• Progressively Prettier: Early Donkey Kong era Mario◊ was a Gonk. (He also greatly resembled Popeye, as he used to be an Expy of him.) Even after he gained his more familiar design, he was still pretty goofy-looking◊, with stubby limbs and a squat body. Modern Mario is far cuter◊, and while he's still somewhat pudgy, his longer limbs make him seem slimmer compared to his design from the late '80s and early '90s.
• The Quiet One: Mario can quite clearly talk, but only sporadically does this extend beyond a few quips per game, otherwise letting supporting characters provide the actual exposition or conversations.
• Raised by Wolves: Spent a significant amount of time riding a Yoshi instead of a stroller, though downplayed in how it was only so that they could find his actual parents.
• Real Men Wear Pink: You gotta be as manly as Mario is if you want to get away with running around in a replica of Peach's wedding dress in public.
• 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.
• Required Spinoff Crossover: Has made cameo appearances in both Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man to Luigi's Sensitive Guy. He becomes a Sensitive Guy in comparison to Bowser too.
• Showy Invincible Hero: We all know he will win, but dear God, it's fun to watch him win.
• Stock Shōnen Hero: Acknowledged as the greatest hero of the Mushroom Kingdom, goes out of his way to help anyone he meets, is quick to forgive and forget, dresses in primary colors, and defeats entire armies through sheer determination and athleticism. He is associated with the element of fire and has the Hot-Blooded-ness that comes with it. The spin-offs, particularly Super Smash Bros. or Mario Strikers, put more focus in his competitive streak.
• 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. Maybe it's actual muscle?
• Suddenly Voiced: While Super Mario 64 was not the first time Mario had a voice, nor the first time Charles Martinet voiced him, it was many people's first time hearing the plumber talk.
• Sudden Name Change: He was originally nameless in Japanese-language materials for Donkey Kong, alternatively going by the development name "Jumpman" in English-language versions. He was renamed "Mario" late during the production of the arcade version after Nintendo's at-the-time landlord, Mario Segale.
• 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.
• Thanking the Viewer: Mario often breaks the fourth wall, and when he does, he has often talked at the end of the staff roll in games, saying to you "Thank you so much for playing my game!"
• 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.
• 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.
  • A subtle example occurs in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Mario has slightly more speed and traction than Luigi, but also slightly less handling and acceleration, as in this game, the light-weight, middle-weight and heavyweight classes are split into three sub-categories, and Mario ends up in the heavy category of the middle-weight class.
• Vocal Dissonance: Mario's voice seems to go perma-falsetto when he's happy or excited and/or when he screams, and otherwise regularly breaks between his falsetto register and his lower tenor register. This is especially noticeable when contrasted to Luigi's more consistently tenor voice that never goes falsetto. And then there's that faux-boyish voice that's something of a low tenor given to him in The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! movie courtesy of Tōru Furuya.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Mario has gone through this during Charles Martinet's voicework as him. His original voice was deeper and gruffer, with the occasional high-pitched squeal for when he's happy or a scream for when he's falling into a pit. Starting from Mario Kart 64, the high-pitched voice also became Charles Martinet's normal voice for him, so until Super Mario Galaxy when they were finally retired, whenever Nintendo decided to reuse the old Super Mario 64 clips it always sounded a bit... off. Just compare his Voice Grunting from Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy. By the time this game was released, his voice also took a new direction, becoming slightly deeper and using Martinet's tenor voice more, making it more expressive. Starting with the late 2010s, this also happened in the other way around: while his voice remained consistent, in newer games such as Super Mario Odyssey, Luigi's Mansion 3 and Mario Kart Tour for Mario's alts, Mario's voice in his newer, non-recycled voice clips is noticeably lower-pitched and has lost some of its energy, especially with how his excited screams weren't as loud or intense as a few years prior: Charles Martinet was in his mid thirties when he was chosen as the voice of Mario, and he was around 40 years old when his voice took off and became known all over the world with Super Mario 64's release, but since he's been voicing him for 30 years since he got the role in the early 90's, it's clear in the more recent games that he has aged considerably, and when he stopped voicing the character in the Mario franchise, he was almost 68 years old.
  • In Nintendo 64 era games, Mario's various Title Screams were fairly low-key, but as time went on, and his personality became more cheerful, they became more energetic and excited. Just compare his "Welcome to Mario Kart!" to "MARIO KART EIIIIIIGHT!"
  • Mario's accent used to be even more exaggerated than it is now, with an emphasis on somewhat odd turns of phrase and sticking the stereotypical "-a" onto as many words as possible. Take the Thanking the Viewer catchphrase, for example. In 64 it's rendered as "Thank you so much-a for-to playing my game", but later games like Galaxy and Odyssey it's delivered without the weird quirks. ("Thank you so much for playing my game")
  • With Martinet's retirement, Kevin Afghani has stepped into his boots. Since Afghani debuted as Mario at 26 years old (which is on par with Mario's age, as he is about 24-25 years old, while Martinet began voicing him in his mid-thirties), his Mario sounds younger and higher-pitched.
• Weak, but Skilled: While Mario is closer to the definition of a Lightning Bruiser in 3D games, he still faces bosses this way. A good example is Bowser's fights in Super Mario 64: while the Koopa King is powerful (all his attacks take three heart points out of eight), almost invincible and surprisingly fast and agile but needs time before running and is too brutish for his own good, Mario starts moving as soon as he decides to, can make more complex acrobatics, and while he needs to gain strength to Bowser by the tail by turning around on place, he can reach precisely the spike ball in front of him.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: The bonus for using the Wedding Peach amiibo in Super Mario Odyssey is a wedding dress that Mario can wear (the outfit can also be bought in the postgame). A later update also gives him Hariet's full outfit, complete with a blonde wig. Scrapped concept art for Odyssey even shows Sprixie and sailor fuku costumes that were considered for him at one point. Unlike with Link or even Luigi, no big deal is made out of this and it isn't Played for Laughs in any capacity, putting even more emphasis on the "wholesome" part. Luigi even comments that Mario will get married in a Wedding Dress if given the chance.
• Wolverine Publicity: As the most famous 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. This extends to his entire main supporting cast, who are used even in mundane Nintendo-related materials.
• Working-Class Hero: Mario remains highly original as a video-game hero. Despite being the first major video game star, and living in a fantastical 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, bounty hunters, and mystical 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.

Luigi

Debut: Mario Bros. (Game & Watch)
Voiced in English by: Danny Wells (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!), Tony Rosato (The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World), Bob Sorenson (Mario is Missing), Marc Graue (Hotel Mario), Julien Bardakoff (Mario Kart 64, Mario Party, Mario Party 2 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit), Charles Martinet (video games, 1992-2023); Kevin Afghani (Super Mario Bros. Wonder), Charlie Day (2023 animated movie)
Voiced in Japanese by: Yuu Mizushima (The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach!), Naoki Tatsuta (OVA trilogy), Ichirōta Miyagawa (BS Super Mario USA Power Challenge and Excitebike: Bun Bun Mario Battle Stadium), Julien Bardakoff (Mario Kart 64), Tasuku Hatanaka (2023 animated movie)
Portrayed by: Danny Wells (The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!), John Leguizamo (1993 live action film)

"I'm-a Luigi! Number one!"

"I wanna help out my older brother, Mario."

Mario's taller, marginally younger, and not-quite-as-famous (for a given value of "not-quite-as-famous") twin brother. Eventually got his own proper game in Luigi's Mansion. Unlike Mario, Luigi is more of a reluctant (read: cowardly) hero who would rather stay at home than save the world, but he always pulls through in the end. He has been shown to be quite brave on other occasions as well. Luigi is often paired off with Princess Daisy.

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• Accidental Misnaming:
  • Mario and Peach are just about the only characters who can consistently remember Luigi's name in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. There, everyone else calls him some variation of "Green" most of the time. Also happens occasionally in other games, too, but nowhere near as frequently.
  • Inverted in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, where everyone knows Luigi's name, but no one knows/remembers Mario's.
  • In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, when Bowser vows to make Mario pay, he says, "And you too, Green 'Sta... Luigi!". It's the first time in Mario & Luigi he has ever remembered Luigi's name.
  • In Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, the game's resident Exposition Fairy, Beep-O, misnames Luigi. What makes this especially egregious is that there's already the Rabbid counterpart of Luigi on the team, named Rabbid Luigi.
• Affectionate Nickname: Meme aside, as seen in a few voice clips, Mario tends to call Luigi "Weegee".
• Always Second Best: His defining trait outside of his shy nature. Luigi struggles to stand out in the Mushroom Kingdom, as he doesn't get the same amount of credit as Mario does and people often don't even remember his name, even though he does the same heroic deeds as him. However, it doesn't strain his relationship with his brother, and he barely complains about it.
• Amazon Chaser: The manual for Mario Party 4 states that the reason Luigi is attracted to Princess Daisy is due to her feisty, hardcore nature.
• Ambiguously Bi: Daisy is his Implied Love Interest in spinoff games, but in Superstar Saga, he seems to be smitten with Prince Peasley.
• Apocalypse Maiden: In Super Paper Mario, he's the final piece needed for the Big Bad to complete their plan to destroy the world, including pulling a Grand Theft Me on Luigi to make him the Final Boss.
• Attractive Bent-Gender:
  • In the old Super Mario Adventures comic, he flawlessly impersonates Princess Peach.
  • Subverted in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Luigi can pull off a convincing Princess Peach... but only while his face is covered with his hands. When he's tricked into dropping his hands, his captors promptly open fire.
  • Inverted off-screen in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, where his Bob-omb partner Jerry only follows him to keep him from ever putting on a dress again.
• Badass Arm-Fold: As a victory pose in Super Mario All-Stars + Super Mario World.
• Balloon Belly: One of his special attacks in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story is called the Snack Basket, where he eats a lot of sweets and grows big while Mario throws him in the air.
• Big Brother Worship: Luigi will go to the ends of the earth for his bro. Revealed in Luigi's wish in Super Mario RPG: "I wanna be a great plumber like my brother Mario." And then in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team:
  Luigi: Big bro... it's your choice... Luigi... will follow you... We're all here for you, bro. Always.
• Big Eater: Especially in the Nintendo Adventure books and Super Mario Adventures, where he's always hungry and always wanting to eat. In one adventure book, he even states that eating always gives him an appetite.
• Big Little Brother: Luigi is taller in comparison to Mario. Though, since they're both adults, and twins, the expectation isn't for Luigi to be shorter than Mario, but for them to be much closer in height.
• Blow You Away: The Tornado Ball and Tornado Swing in Super Sluggers. Inverted In Name Only with the Poltergust 3000's vacuum mode. Along with Mario, appears in their Spin Attack in various games.
• Breakout Character: Nintendo eventually caught onto his popularity; every main series game since New Super Mario Bros. features him as a playable character in some capacity (often as a Secret Character of some sort) with the exception of Super Mario Odyssey (but Mario can wear his clothes), side series frequently feature him prominently (Super Paper Mario, the Mario & Luigi series, and Luigi's Mansion being notable examples), and he often gets major roles in cutscenes of the sports spinoffs. Despite being the poster boy of neglected sidekicks, he is still one of the most prominent characters in the series. He even had a whole year to himself.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Luigi's pretty laid-back most of the time, but proves to be incredibly intelligent when he actually applies himself, even showing shades of being a Gadgeteer Genius.
• Butt-Monkey: Luigi may be the taller brother, but he tends to get the short end of the stick, and he's almost always the butt of the joke in the franchise. Heck, even though they love him as a brother and a friend, even Mario and Princess Peach have been known to tease him to an extent, as seen in Super Princess Peach or some of the spin-offs. Throughout the franchise, Daisy is the only one to consistently treat him with respect and show concern and affection for him.
• Cain and Abel: Played for laughs in Sunday's start-up screen in Super Mario Maker, where an 8-bit Luigi walks up to Mario and, after a brief Beat, shoots a fireball at him before running off.
• Camp Straight: (Well, maybe, see Ambiguously Bi) His mannerisms are occasionally Camped-up, most egregiously in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, but outside some one-off gags in Superstar Saga he's only really shown to have interest in Princess Daisy.
• Characterization Marches On: Officially, Luigi's current personality as a Cowardly Lion didn't emerge till around 2001's Luigi's Mansion, however, this wasn't the first time Luigi was portrayed as a coward, as various Western sources, such as the cartoons, had a cowardly Luigi, too. However, there's a few major differences in how Nintendo plays it, namely, Nintendo's Luigi isn't just a coward, but quite timid and shy.
• Character Development:
  • In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, where finally, as of this game's end, it seems Luigi has finally — if only mostly — kicked his fear of ghosts. Luigi has not only proved himself a true hero from Luigi's Mansion until now, but overcame his own phobia by facing it head-on through sheer willpower and bravery to save his brother first, and the ghosts that King Boo drove amok this time.
  • Luigi's Mansion 3 sees him terrified of ghosts again although he has Polterpup, a ghost dog, as his pet, whom he clearly shows affection towards. And even though he's undeniably scared by the ghosts, there's no question about him saving Mario and his friends, saying to Professor E. Gadd that he can't leave anyone behind, and he's practically elated to have a new version of the Poltergust to help him out. Learning to confront his fear of ghosts did not cause the fear to evaporate overnight, but did let him know that it wasn't insurmountable.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: An unusual, temporary case. After 1991's Super Mario World and 1992's Mario Is Missing!, Luigi more or less dropped off the face of the planet aside from small cameos or supporting appearances in multiplayer games like Mario Kart or Mario Party till Luigi's Mansion in 2001, and didn't appear as a playable character in any main series games or RPGs until Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga in 2003 and New Super Mario Bros. in 2006 — basically, he was stuck in Comic-Book Limbo for nearly a decade.
• Classical Antihero: Compared to the more straightforward Mario, Luigi is quite flawed, being cowardly, silly, and clumsy, but when push comes to shove, he's just as brave as Mario and won't back down from a bully.
• Color Motif: Green, which is quite interesting. While Luigi is undoubtedly on the side of good, he's definitely more quirky compared to the squeaky-clean hero persona of his brother.
• Confusion Fu: His more powerful abilities, such as the Negative Zone, tend to be random.
• Cowardly Lion: Luigi is prone to fits of cowardice, especially if it involves ghosts. But he'll easily become the Determinator if you threaten his friends, Princess Peach, or his brother.
• Cowardly Sidekick: When Mario takes center stage, Luigi often fills this role. Most of the time.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: We won't call him a "moron" because of how much IQ he has. Most of the time, Luigi is pushed around by almost everyone throughout the franchise, but he won't refuse to kick anyone's ass if they ever mess with his brother or the princess. He has saved his big bro or the Princess a few times, has disguised as a spy, you name it.
• Dark Is Not Evil: In the mid-2000s, this started to creep into Luigi's characterization. Luigi has gotten a place as an evil entity in an ancient text, a dark secret from his past, and the power to create a void of nothingness said to come from the darkness in his heart. Once the 2010s rolled around, this was largely abandoned (possibly due to Character Development). The void of nothingness, for example, was replaced with his Poltergust as his Final Smash in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.
• Darker and Edgier: No, seriously. Luigi went through a period of this during the DS-Wii era, being implied to keep a dark secret, having sufficient "darkness in his heart" to create a veritable zone of Mind Screw, and that's not counting his role in Super Paper Mario. The 3DS-Wii U era deliberately reined this all back in.
• A Day in the Limelight:
  • Mario Is Missing and Luigi's Mansion put Luigi front-and-center as the protagonist.
  • Downplayed in the 1993 live-action film. Though Mario leads the rescue mission and is ultimately the one who takes on King Koopa, the plot puts a great deal of importance on Luigi, as opposed to Mario. His budding relationship with Princess Daisy makes him the romantic lead, and the most motivated to rescue her.
  • The Mario & Luigi series gives him equal billing and equal limelight.
  • 2013 was The Year of Luigi: during this time, Luigi was put front-and-center in marketing materials and a number of games released that gave him significant billing. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon released with him as the only playable character once more, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team had put even stronger emphasis on Luigi's side of the Mario & Luigi series by making him more plot-relevant and having a number of Luigi-centric game mechanics, New Super Luigi U was a New Super Mario Bros. title lacked Mario and gave every character Luigi's signature high jump and low traction, and Dr. Luigi featured Luigi as the main character with a new mode giving him L-shaped capsules as a game mechanic. Even Super Mario 3D World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which didn't give him as significant of a role, snuck in Luigi-themed Easter Eggs as another nod to the Year of Luigi.
• Deadpan Snarker: In Luigi's Mansion and the cartoons. Also a prominent trait while acting as Mr. L in Super Paper Mario.
• Desperately Craves Affection: A variation. He doesn't crave affection so much as for people he's known for years to remember his name. Or maybe even some respect.
• Deuteragonist: Luigi is always the go-to second player. No other character but Mario himself is ahead of him. Put short, when the Super Mario series isn't about Mario, it's about Luigi.
• Difficult, but Awesome: If Luigi is given a different play-style to compare to Mario, he will generally be this (in home-series Super Mario Bros. games, at least). Traditionally, Luigi has superior jumping ability that's balanced by inferior traction.
• Disguised in Drag: Has happened three times so far with Luigi. He can somehow mimic Peach perfectly, right down to the Noblewoman's Laugh, only needing to cover his moustache, and in describing his adventures to Mario in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, he says "I was one hot sacrifice, bro."
• Divergent Character Evolution: Heck, the trope was originally called "Luigification"!invoked
  • When he first started out, Luigi was nearly identical to his brother in every way, being his literal Palette Swap. This changed with The Lost Levels, where he gained his traditional "better jumps, worse traction" distinction; in America this was reflected with Super Mario Bros. 2, where he gained the floaty Scuttle jump. If he has a distinct playing style from Mario, it will usually involve these differences.
  • Luigi's understudy status became apparent during the N64 era (in which, you'll recall, he was only to be seen in spin-offs), and when he re-emerged in Luigi's Mansion, he was finally his own man, so to speak. The GameCube-Wii/GBA-DS eras went on to emphasize his status as a cowardly, even reluctant Foil to Mario's heroism (most notably in the Mario & Luigi series — however, in Paper Mario, its sister series, he's actually much more keen on adventure).
  • It's even become apparent with his power-up designs. While they used to be identical to Mario's, Luigi's designs for several forms have become unique. For example, when he dons a Tanooki Suit or becomes Raccoon Luigi, his design is actually based on a kitsune rather than a tanuki.
  • In keeping with his nature, it should be noted that the Mario & Luigi series inverts Luigi's standard gameplay mechanic distinctions. In most games, Luigi is generally a little bit faster or more maneuverable than Mario (the Mario Kart and Mario Tennis series, for example), but in this series, Mario favors offensive and speed stats (which naturally allows him to take point in battle), leaving Luigi to favor HP and defense (just as naturally in the rear of combat).
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Luigi gets next to no credit for his actions, no matter how brave or daring (or how much more impressive his feats are relative to his cowardice). This is especially galling in that most of his detractors are the Toads, the little mushroom-caps whose main claims to fame are being cowards and generally useless in the face of danger. Take Super Mario 64 DS, for example, where about half of the Toads rag on him even while he's trying to save them from being imprisoned in the walls, and in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, it's clear that the Toads show favouritism towards Mario. Even though he's used to it and doesn't really complain about it in public, he's... not exactly happy about this.
• Fighting Clown: In the Mario & Luigi games, where he is typically weaker than Mario and with goofier animations.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Phlegmatic.
• Friendly Enemy: Team names from Mario Party 6 indicate he gets on pretty well with the playable Koopa Kid. They're actually called "Friendly Enemies".
• Friendly Sniper: In Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, Luigi functions as this, having the lowest health and worst defense out of the team in both games but also having the greatest attack range and damage output on a single enemy. Also, in the sequel, his weapon of choice is a bow. And given Luigi's usual personality, it makes sense that that he would prefer staying out of way of enemies as much as possible.
• Friend to All Living Things: Implied. In the original Luigi's Mansion, if you scan the mounted deer heads and leopard skin rugs in the Safari Room with the Game Boy Horror, Luigi is disgusted and outraged at the idea of animals being treated in such ways, showing a deep dislike of animal cruelty and of hunting and skinning animals as trophies.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Luigi's had an understated tradition of tinkering at least as far back as the original Mario Party, where his personal board was "Luigi's Engine Room".
  • In Super Mario Galaxy, he does a lot of work in the garage after being rescued.
  • As Mr. L, he builds and upgrades a Humongous Mecha.
• The Gambler: In Super Mario 64 DS, Luigi's minigame gallery revolves around casino and card games, and in games that require cards to be dealt, he'll be the one dealing them. This also means that you'll play against him in one-player Picture Poker, as he represents the house.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-universe. Mario's the more popular of the two, but a remote location where his book has become a best seller in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door gives him his own fanclub.
• Ghosts Abhor a Vacuum: The Luigi's Mansion series establishes the anti-spectral Poltergust vacuums as one of Luigi's signature weapons, a distinction which has spread to several spin-off titles.
• Green Thumb: In Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition, this is Luigi's main attacking type, contrasting Mario's fire. Plus, the Negative Zone puts the Lip's Stick flowers on people's heads sometimes.
• Happy Dance: Happens frequently, especially in Mario & Luigi. In some games, it turns into happy breakdancing.
• Heroes Love Dogs: He adopts a Polterpup at the end of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. He still has him in the sequel, and the two are quite affectionate towards each other.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Luigi seems to be entirely willing to take action when he doesn't perceive too much threat. In the original Mario Party, he's the first to respond positively to Toad's suggestion that the characters compete to become the Super Star.
  • Hinted at during Partners in Time by way of an apparent Noodle Incident.
  • His Final Smash trophy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which clearly states that the Negative Zone is "a reflection of The Dark Side he embraced in his brother's shadow."
  • Luigi acts somewhat refined, especially compared to Mario. For example, his team names include the "Luigi Gentlemen" in Mario Superstar Baseball and "Luigi Knights" in Mario Super Sluggers respectively. In Luigi's Mansion, he has an eye for art and is a bit of a Neat Freak in regards to the mansion's dusty state.
• An Ice Person: Galaxy's Ice Flower and the Poltergust 3000's — wait for it — ice power-up. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, he can also do it as an alternative to his fireball.
• Identical Stranger: Exaggerated in Galaxy, where the NPC Luigi and the playable Luigi are two separate characters with no apparent prior affiliation to one another, despite them both being called Luigi and the only visual difference between them being that the NPC Luigi is slightly taller.
• Implied Love Interest: Princess Daisy. Since his brother and Princess Peach are a near-item, fans and even some official material just pair him up with the other Princess. Though it's nowhere near as common as Mario/Peach. Luigi and Daisy are a pair to an extent, at least for the spinoff titles. Outside of them, Luigi's romantic relationships tend to vary, as he's crushed on Rosalina and even Prince Peasley.
• Informed Equipment: According to some Flavour Text from E. Gadd in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon Luigi has a watch, which has never been shown.
• Interpretative Character: Not to the same extent as his brother, though. His traditional, and more iconic, portrayal has him reluctant and fearful; but, in other games, like Paper Mario, he's portrayed as being pretty eager for adventure and doesn't like to stick at home.
• Ironic Name: 'Luigi' actually means "Famous Hero" (or "Famous Warrior") in Italian. He's certainly a hero, but as for the famous part...
• The Klutz: While it can come off as an Informed Flaw at times, especially when he's playable, Luigi is often said to be rather clumsy. Several games, such as the Mario & Luigi games and the second and third Luigi's Mansion do show Luigi having bouts of clumsiness, and he comes across as uncoordinated in the Super Smash Bros games. His clumsiness may be why Mario is considered the better jumper, despite not being able to jump as high. Luigi's klutziness is especially evident in Luigi's Mansion 3 where he often accidentally draws his attention to himself from ghosts by knocking things over or unintentionally making noise. He also temporarily loses several elevator buttons often by being scared out of his wits or just having them snatched out of his hands before he does anything else.
• The Lancer: He acts as the cowardly foil and trusted brother companion to Mario.
• Leitmotif: Usually an upbeat remix of the Luigi's Mansion theme when he isn't sharing World 1-1 with Mario.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Luigi is awkward, timid, and klutzy, but when push comes to shove, like threatening his brother or his friends, he'll be quick to remind you why the heroes are called the Super Mario Brothers, as he smashes your face in with impunity.
• Lightning Bruiser: Compared to the other playable characters in the platformers. He has speed and agility without sacrificing strength.
• Living Dream: Dreamy Luigi, whom Mario adventures along with during the Dream levels in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, is basically Luigi as he sees himself.
• Lovable Coward: As of Luigi's Mansion.
• Make My Monster Grow: As Dreamy Luigi, he can combine with an army's worth of Luiginoids to become giant-sized, but he can only do this when Dreamy Luigi and Mario are in danger.
• Manchild: Mario might be full of youthful exuberance, but Luigi often comes across as childish and immature and is more sensitive than his brother, bursting into tears if something upsets him. It's particularly evident in the Mario & Luigi series, where he's prone to crying like a child, though later games in the series tone it down somewhat; Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, and Bowser's Inside Story have loud, exaggerated sobbing and Ocular Gushers, Paper Jam has quiet crying into his hands. Even his voice comes across as more childish than Mario's, despite Mario having the more higher pitched voice of the two.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Whenever he's paired up with Princess Daisy.
• Meaningful Name: Luigi's name has interesting, non-Italian origins; the word "ruiji" in Japanese (which is actually his Japanese name, to boot) means "similar", which is a play on how he tends to play very similarly or identically to Mario in most games in the franchise. Add the fact that "L" isn't present in Japan's speech.
• Miles Gloriosus:
  • Portrayed this way in the Paper Mario series. In the second game, he tells Mario of his adventures in the Waffle Kingdom, but the accounts of his partners reveal him as cowardly and a bit clumsy. However, his stories are mostly true: He really did save the day, he just did it in a more clumsy way than he says.
  • Meanwhile, the novelization of his exploits go the whole nine yards and portrays him as ultra-competent, painting everything he does (even the most spectacular failures) in a positive light. Then again, those were written by somebody else.
• Neat Freak: Revealed as such in Luigi's Mansion, where scanning objects will occasionally have him complaining about the abundance of dust.
• Non-Standard Character Design: Several of his power-up forms have significantly different designs than everyone else's. The most notable is that he becomes Fox/Kitsune Luigi, as opposed to Raccoon/Tanooki, when touching a Super Leaf. Other examples include:
  • Fire: Lacks the color red.
  • Bee: Has a reversed color scheme.
  • Cat: Has leopard spots, round ears, and a darkened tail-tip.
  • Gold: Silver instead of gold.
• No-Respect Guy: This depends from game to game, but Luigi is prone to receive this treatment, especially in the RPG games. He's costantly compared to his brother, he's the butt of the joke a lot of the time, many people don't remember his name, Bowser often doesn't take him seriously and doesn't bother to call him by name, he gets criticized by many Toads or some of his friends for getting scared so easily, most characters in the franchise make fun of him and he tends to be accused of being a coward. The characters who consistently respect his abilities and don't treat him like a joke are few, like Mario, Daisy and Professor E. Gadd, though he too tends to make fun of him from time to time, and as his big brother, Mario does tease him at times, but of course, he loves Luigi, and he knows that he can be just as competent and heroic as he is.
• Out of Focus:
  • Following the release of Super Mario World,^note In which he was a Palette Swap Luigi was absent from all mainline platformer games, even the handheld ones, until the release of his own game, Luigi's Mansion. He would appear in a few remakes on GBA and early DS, but that was it. It wasn't until 2006's New Super Mario Bros. that Luigi was once more in a proper new Mario game.
  • It's implied in Paper Mario that Luigi's been stuck at home the whole time, watching the house. Being told to do so while Mario is clearly on another adventure (with party members, no less) obviously irks him.
• Pair the Spares: Occasionally teased with Princess Daisy in the spinoff titles.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: "Mr L." from Super Paper Mario is Luigi with a black cap and green highlights. Still, it's very obviously him.
• The Pollyanna: Luigi exhibits a rather unique variation of this trope. He's optimistic about everything... except his own abilities, where his insecurities lie.
• Primary-Color Champion: An interesting subversion. Luigi wears green (secondary) with blue (primary) overalls. While Luigi is clearly a good guy, he is definitely more quirky compared to the more straightforward heroism of his brother, Princess Peach and Toad, and in some instances, harbors a Dark Side.
• Prone to Tears: He's timid, shy, and cries somewhat easily.
• Punny Name: Luigi's name is a play on ruiji, which is the Japanese word for "similar", a reference to his origin as a palette swap of Mario. The original meaning got lost once he developed his distinct looks and playing style; however, around the same time, Luigi and Mario officially became twins, thus giving the name a new meaning.
• The Real Spoofbusters: In the Luigi's Mansion series, Luigi has taken up ghost-hunting as a matter of necessity, equipped with the ghost-hunting vacuum device the Poltergust 3000.
• Schrödinger's Player Character: In Mario Party 3, each character has a predetermined stamp aligned with them, except for Luigi, who will fill in the hole in the cast if you choose one of the other characters. Mario's proper stamp is Courage, of course, but if you're playing as Mario, Luigi fills in his spot in the lineup instead. If you'd like, you can interpret this as Luigi qualifying for each stamp (Wit, Strength, Courage, Kindness, and Love) while the rest of the cast only qualifies for one each.
• Secret Character: In some platform games most of the time, due to his Lightning Bruiser tendencies. He is also one of only two characters to attend all the games in the Super Smash Bros. series as a secret fighter until the fourth entry (where he's a starter character).
• Self-Duplication: Dreamy Luigi can create Luiginoids for offensive and exploration purposes.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Sensitive Guy to Mario's Manly Man.
• Shock and Awe: The Thunderhand in Superstar Saga, and his Mega Strike in Mario Strikers Charged. Even in appearances where he doesn't use it, Luigi is sometimes still associated with lightning or thunder, such as in his stint as Mr. L, where he assumed the nickname "The Green Thunder".
• Shrinking Violet: Luigi is shy, quiet and often overshadowed by his brother, but he's actually quite talented.
• Signature Move: The Scuttle, where Luigi wiggles his legs back and forth while jumping. While its abilities aren't always consistent, it generally either decreases Luigi's fall speed or increases his jump height, and can sometimes do both (like in the Super Mario Advance games and New Super Luigi U). While other characters have done this move, they can only do it in one game (Yellow Toad, Blue Toad, Toadette, and Nabbit, in NSLU), or need a powerup to do it (Mario, when using the Weird Mushroom in Super Mario Maker), while Luigi uses it whenever he's distinct from Mario.
• Sleepyhead: Luigi increasingly seems to be this. In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, he manages to sleep through Bowser invading the castle and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team sees his ability to instantly go to sleep anywhere (whether on stone floors, a desert construction site, the middle of a blizzard, etc.) as absolutely essential to saving the day, letting him open up dream portals to the Dream World that Mario can then access. At the beginning of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Luigi is sleeping and at the end of the game, he gets comfy and goes back to sleep. Finally, in Luigi's Mansion 3, the opening cutscene shows Luigi sleeping on the coach. Not so long after this, Luigi gets to his hotel room, opens a book and immediately falls asleep again.
• The So-Called Coward: The accusation of being a coward mainly comes from Toads who run about screaming and doing nothing whenever Bowser comes to kidnap the princess again. When the chips are down, Luigi frequently pulls through. The Luigi's Mansion series in particular puts the spotlight on him repeatedly, saving the day when Mario is otherwise unable to due to getting captured as well.
• Spring Jump: His Signature Move in a number of spin-offs and Super Paper Mario.
• Stone Wall: In the Mario & Luigi series, Luigi is sturdier than Mario, but is slower and deals less damage.
• Straw Nihilist: In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, one of his bits of dialogue (according to Toadette) is that "there's no such thing as a safe place in this terrifying world."
• Stuck in Their Shadow: In-Universe. His defining trait, above all, is that he does just as much work as Mario and is just as good at dealing with a threat, but never gets equal credit for what he does. Super Smash Bros. 64 gives him the title of the Eternal Understudy. He doesn't blame Mario for it though, and they have a strong bond in spite this.
• Successful Sibling Syndrome: With a brother like Mario, it's inevitable. Though, while most of Luigi's insecurities come from not being able to measure up to Mario, the brothers are very close in spite of whatever issues Luigi may have, and Mario's success motivates Luigi to try even harder.
• Suddenly Voiced: If Luigi isn't a playable character, he's far more likely to speak more than a few words or catchphrases at a time. In Mario & Luigi and Luigi's Mansion for example, despite his starring roles he rarely speaks other than saying a few words or Italian-like gibberish; contrast this to Super Mario Odyssey and Super Mario Galaxy, where he plays minor roles but also speaks for multiple dialog boxes at a time.
  • One exception to this general rule is Super Paper Mario, where he's playable and can speak, though this can be more attested to his previous Paper Mario appearances also had him speak.
  • Luigi's a Heroic Mime in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga up until he needs to disguise himself as Peach, at which point he's suddenly capable of normal speech.
• Trojan Prisoner: On three different occasions. And he ends up Disguised in Drag each time.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He's frequently shown to be an even stronger jumper than Mario, but he lacks his brother's control and coordination. However, this only applies to his coordination, see Weak, but Skilled.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Luigi's first ever vocal performance in a game was not given by Charles Martinet, but rather by Nintendo of France localizer Julien Bardakoff, who voiced Luigi in the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64. Bardakoff's clips were dubbed over with the now-familiar Martinet voice for the game's international release; however, they are heard in all regions' versions of the first two Mario Party games and Mario Kart: Super Circuit. Bardakoff's performance is notably different from the modern Luigi, opting for very high-pitched voice clips.
  • Conversely, Martinet initially opted for a low pitched voice for Luigi, a performance that was more down to earth, emphasizing his status as the Cowardly Sidekick. While still lower in tone than Mario's voice, Martinet's Luigi voice has gotten higher-pitched over the years. Originally, his voice was quiet, deep and confident in Mario Kart 64 and other N64 games, and in a way, rather similiar to Wario's voice at times, since he Charles started voicing both of them at the same time, but starting with Mario Party 3 onward, in keeping with Luigi's Divergent Character Evolution, when the character voices were finalized, this also happened with Luigi and Wario, and Martinet finalized his take on him with a higher-pitched voice. It's also seen in the Super Smash Bros. series, where Luigi goes from having sped-up versions of Mario's voice clips in the first game and Melee (seemingly in emulation of the high-pitched voice Julien Bardakoff gave Luigi in the aforementioned N64 games) to having his own voice starting with Brawl. This finalized version of Luigi's voice, while similiar to Mario's, is slightly deeper in comparison, is more nasal, more skittish and consistently in tenor, unlike Mario, who goes falsetto when happy or excited. Over 25 years later, as Charles' voice aged over time, Luigi's voice gradually became notably deeper again as well as more nasal-like in more recent games, not too dissimilar from Waluigi's nasal quality. This also affected the character's screams, as by 2019, when Luigi's Mansion 3 and Mario Kart Tour were released, Charles had turned 64, and his Luigi voice had become so aged that he couldn't scream at the top of his lungs anymore like in older games, especially Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, which was released six years earlier and had Luigi often let out very intense and high-pitched screams. As a result, in Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi sounds older and wearier and his screams became less intense and not as loud, especially after getting frightened.
  • Following Martinet's retirement, Kevin Afghani has stepped into his boots. Afghani's Luigi sounds very similar to Martinet's starting by the 2000's.
• Walk on Water: Running variant in Super Mario 64 DS. If he dashes onto a body of water, Luigi can stay on the surface for a couple of seconds before sinking in.
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • He's usually portrayed in spin-offs as somewhat weaker physically than Mario, but with better skill than Mario's. The Mario Golf series plays it straight since Luigi tends to have more control over his ball compared to many others.
  • A subtle example occurs in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Luigi has slightly less traction than Mario, but also slightly more handling.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: He's frequently ended up in dresses in many games, and he's never seen complaining about it. To wit, the website blurb adressing the Super Crown power-up (which is exclusive to Toadette) calls Luigi by name, stating that he can't use the crown.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Ghosts in this case. Unfortunately for him, the universe seems to want him to face them... a lot.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Has blue-colored electricity in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and its remake and uses green-colored electricity for his Mega Strike in the second Strikers game.

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