Characters / Super Mario Sunshine: A Sprite of Light

Spoilers for the Shadow gang and Bowser's entrees are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Protagonists

In general

• Heroes With Bad Publicity: A majority of the Isle hated them because they were framed for a serious crime.

Aqua

• Badass Adorable: Able to kick butt easily despite her age.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The brunette to Peach’s blond and Daisy’s redhead.
• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist: Both Aqua and Yoshi from this story’s predecessor had to save the other three heroes from their prisons by finding keys, making them the main protagonist from their respective stories. Yoshi already had confidence from the start, having had experience before, and was a long time friend of Mario’s from the very beginning, feeling the need to return the favor after he saved him. Aqua had her self esteem diminished by the time the story began, is inexperienced and had only just met Mario. She needed to learn everything with the help of FLUDD and develop her confidence over the course of the story.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Downplayed. According to Word of God, her grandmother is a toad, and therefore has a few toad genes in her. However, said genes are recessive and never show.
• Kid Hero: She is the main hero, yet is only 6.
• Making a Splash: Her main power, which she recently discovered. She hasn't been able to hone the skill yet due to inexperience, and she will lose control of her powers when her emotions get too extreme.
• Practically Different Generations: She's six, yet her sisters are much older, being at least 20.
• Shipper on Deck: She heavily supports Mario and Peach together. She also shows this support for Luigi and Daisy.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Her favorite food is strawberries, and she likes it on everything.
• Water Is Womanly: A Nice Girl who is named after, is capable of manipulating to some degree, and is associated with water.

Mario

• Big Good: As to be expected from the hero who the Mushroom Kingdom looks up to, he is the titular “Sprite of Light” who Aqua looks up to for guidance and advice. She comes to admire him as a Parental Substitute.
• Heroic BSoD: Had this as he was crying off in a corner after Peach gets kidnapped in Chapter 23.
• Hidden Depths: After he finally reaches his Rage Breaking Point, it’s revealed that Mario internally struggles whenever he goes out to rescue the princess. But he does a good job at hiding it by keeping a warm smile, therefore making his fans believe that he’s perfect and is not afraid of anything. But all the stress he was dealing with on this adventure alone was enough to break him.
• Parental Substitute: Over the course of the story, Mario bonds with Aqua, giving her confidence and helping her through her depression after she lost her parents to Bowser two years ago. As time passes, he becomes like a second father to her.
• Rage Breaking Point: Right as Peach is taken by Shadow Mario to Pinna Park, Mario is overwhelmed with the responsibilities of watching over Peach and keeping Aqua happy and safe; on top of being framed for the graffiti incident. This causes him to lose it and run away to cry.
• Running Gag: He is the constant victim to the police's taser. It always has to be him, until the end when Bowser gets it instead.

Luigi

• Canon Foreigner: Downplayed. He does exist in the canon series, but did not appear, nor was even mentioned in the original game.
• Cowardly Lion: Luigi's overall personality. He may look scared on the outside, but he's a brave hero on the inside.
• The Gambling Addict: Fitting to his minigames in Super Mario 64 DS, he's really excited about the casino.
• Green-Eyed Monster: He's shown to be jealous of Aqua getting more attention from Mario than him and fears that she would replace him, and this becomes a plot point half-way through the story, as in Chapter 31, he tries to get them to separate by taking Mario to a place where kids aren’t allowed, the casino, where he finds out what happened to Aqua in the past. Luigi gets over it in the next chapter after revealing two Duplighosts imposters of Mario and Aqua during a black-out and forcing them to escape, defeating King Boo and saving his friends, with Mario reassuring him that none of his friends, not even Aqua, could replace him, because he's his only brother.

Daisy

• Adaptational Jerkass: In this story, while Daisy is still a good person, she has a Hair-Trigger Temper that will cause her to hurt others, whether on purpose or by accident. She had a bit of a temper in the Mario franchise, though it's mostly due to being competitive.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The redhead to Peach’s blond and Aqua’s brunette.
• Canon Foreigner: Downplayed. Much like Luigi, she is canon in the main series, but did not appear nor get mentioned in the original game.
• Good Is Not Nice: She's very boastful, arrogant, and is easy to anger. But you can still count on her to help out whenever she can.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Sometimes, Daisy can get angry at the small things such as the bros looking at the sun beam that leads to Noki Bay and Aqua not eating her broccoli when she was one year old.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Downplayed. According to Word of God, her grandmother is a toad, and therefore has a few toad genes in her. However, said genes are recessive and never show.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In the flashback five years ago in Chapter 30. After she went too far in trying to get Aqua to try broccoli, making her cry and causing her magical powers to destroy the castle, Daisy gets hit in the head by a brick that fell from the ceiling. Daisy doesn't remember this moment very well because she got a concussion and amnesia after said impact.
• Shadow Archetype: She’s what Luigi could be if he held onto his envy for others stealing attention from him, and resorted to anger to get what he wants. In Chapter 46, Luigi helps her in that by telling her to be herself and do the right thing, an advice he received from Mario.

FLUDD

• An Aesop: Offers a few of these when certain missions are completed.
• Backpack Cannon: FLUDD is a multipurpose water pump created by Professor E. Gadd. He's worn like a backpack, and one of his functions is basically being a super-powerful water hose.
• Benevolent A.I.: E. Gadd invented FLUDD with the mindset of helping people, and being a kind advisor them them overall, and it shows.
• Exposition Fairy: Provides the heroes with explanations for what is going on.
• Fun with Acronyms: Flash Liquidizer Ultra Dousing Device.
• Nature-Loving Robot: He really cares about Isle Delfino, and keeping it a safe and clean environment.

Antagonists

Shadow Mario/Bowser Jr.

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Unlike his canon counterpart, Bowser Jr. was actually distraught when he found out the truth about Peach.
• Adaptational Dumbass: The game revealed that he knew Peach wasn't his mother all along. Here, he genuinely believed his father's lie until the Koopalings unwittingly revealed the truth to him.
• Adaptational Explanation: It’s not made clear how Bowser Jr. knew that Peach wasn’t truly his mother. In this story though, Junior overhears his henchmen talking about his father’s lies and wondering if they should tell him the truth. He doesn’t take it well.
• Big Bad: The leader of the Shadow gang and the one who frames Mario and Co. for vandalism, sending them to jail and then kicking off the plot.
• Clone Angst: When it turns out that you are merely the result of many generations of cloning via magic, and thus never had a mother at all, you'd be pretty upset too.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although Bowser's lie did put a strain into their relationship, he still loves his dad very much and would do anything for him.
• Evil Counterpart: To Aqua. Both are kids who have suffered tragedy involving their parents, Aqua having lost hers, and Junior having found out his dad lied to him and never had a mother in the first place. Both would also suffer a Bsod because of these occurances. But where they diverge is their goals. While Bowser Jr. aims to finally have a mother of his own in the form of Princess Peach by polluting the island and framing the heroes for it, Aqua moves on from her loss and aims to clean up Junior's mess and her name.
• Jerkass: He's not a very pleasant fellow to be around. Going around insulting everyone, burying them in goop, and is even a jerk to his own teammates.
• Villainous BSoD: When he finds out that Princess Peach is not his mother and that his father lied, Junior is heartbroken and remains bitter and angry throughout the rest of the story up until the two make amends.
• Walking Spoiler: You can’t talk much about him without spoiling his true identity.

Shadow Aqua/Wendy O. Koopa

• Canon Character All Along: At first appears to be a Canon Foreigner, but is actually Wendy O. Koopa.
• Karma Houdini: Due do Bowser Jr. leaving her behind in Corona Mountain, she is not seen in court getting punished with community service. This is likely just an oversight by the author.
• Walking Spoiler: You can’t talk much about her without spoiling her true identity.

Shadow Luigi/Ludwig Von Koopa

• Canon Character All Along: At first appears to be a Canon Foreigner, but is actually Ludwig Von Koopa.
• Expy: Of Mr. L. It isn't even subtle. He acts as Luigi's antithesis, throwing out insults at others, he uses Luigi's Super Jump move at one point, and the Super L Flyer is a Brobot clone. The Super L Stomper later on is based on Brobot L-Type.
• Karma Houdini: Due do Bowser Jr. leaving him behind in Corona Mountain, he is not seen in court getting punished with community service. This is likely just an oversight by the author.
• Walking Spoiler: You can’t talk much about him without spoiling his true identity.

Shadow Daisy/Iggy Koopa

• Canon Character All Along: At first appears to be a Canon Foreigner, but is actually Iggy Koopa.
• Creepy Crossdresser: She’s actually Iggy Koopa, a guy.
• Hannibal Lecture: Tries to call Aqua out for being defenseless and mainly relying on Mario, but she's quick to talk back at him.
• Karma Houdini: Due do Bowser Jr. leaving him behind in Corona Mountain, he is not seen in court getting punished with community service. This is likely just an oversight by the author.
• Walking Spoiler: You can’t talk much about her without spoiling his true identity.

Il Piantissimo

• Adaptational Villainy: See Evil All Along below.
• Evil All Along: Turns out he’s been working for Shadow Daisy, who paid him to tire out the heroes so she can catch them off guard.
• Hate Sink: His Jerkass moment in Noki Bay is enough to make audiences root for him to lose. It gets worse once he’s revealed to be working for Shadow Daisy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Although his ego is massive, he does keep to his word and give the heroes a Shine Sprite when they beat him, even giving them a compliment. But then it turns out he helped Shadow Daisy in the last mission.
• Jerkass: He’s nothing but unpleasant towards the heroes. Especially in the match in Noki Bay.
• Karma Houdini: He never gets accounted for his actions.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: He’s never seen again after The Reveal.

Bosses

Proto Piranhas

• Adaptation Name Change: They were originally known as Gatekeepers in their debut, but were renamed Proto Piranhas from Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour onwards. This adaptation gives them their current name.

Petey Piranha

• Adaptational Badass: His tornado attack in his second encounter destroyed the entire village.
• Starter Villain: He's the first major threat that Aqua takes down. It easily helps to train her for bigger, more dangerous foes.

Gooper Blooper

• Adaptational Intelligence: It’s smart enough to pick Aqua up and threaten to kill her.
• Sadistic Choice: Gives Mario the choice to either leave him to continue polluting Ricco Harbor, or he kills Aqua.

Plungelos

• Mook: Wiggler’s henchmen.

Wiggler

• Adaptational Villainy: The original Wiggler was still very dangerous, but it probably wasn’t self aware. This is evidenced by the fact that it never directly chased after Mario, but rather blindly raged all over the beach. Therefore, it likely didn’t know the harm it was causing the Sand Bird’s Egg. This version on the other hand has dialogue, making it very clear that he is self aware, doesn’t care about the harm he causes, and focuses his rage on Mario and Aqua.
• Hate Sink: One of the bosses to have dialogue showcasing clear sadism and has very little comedic undertone.
• The Sociopath: He doesn’t care about how he nearly killed the Sand Bird by sleeping over it’s heat source. He takes sadistic pleasure in almost killing Mario and Aqua just because they disturbed his nap.

Mecha-Bowser

Monty Mole

Momma Koopa

• Canon Foreigner: Did not exist in the original game.
• Expy: To Mom Piranha. Both bosses involved defeating all of their offspring, with each enemy defeated cracking their egg more. Defeating all of them make the bosses crack out of their egg and fight the heroes.

Phantamanta

• Living Shadow: A sentient manta shadow created by Ludwig to drench the hotel in electric goop.
• Shout-Out: To The Shining. Ludwig even throws out the book after seeing it defeated, revealing that's where he got the idea.

“Mario” and “Aqua”/ Duplighosts

• Ax-Crazy: They clearly want Luigi dead, and will do whatever it takes. This includes "Mario" grabbing him so tightly that he nearly breaks Luigi's arm, smashing furniture, torturing him both physically and psychologically, and Laughing Mad.
• Faux Affably Evil: They pretend to be the real Mario and Aqua in order to get the green plumber off guard at first. However, the part where "Mario" refuses to help with the blackout, and "Aqua" apparently knows higher level vocabulary is when he realizes that something is not right.
• Knight of Cerebus: In contrast to the other antagonists in the fic, these two have no lightheartedness, humor, or sympathy going for them. Making the chapter they appear in particularly dark.

King Boo

Eely-Mouth

• Ambiguous Gender: One half of their face is male, the other half is female, making their gender confusing.
• Token Good Teammate: The only antagonist of this story to not willingly work for Shadow Mario.
• Non-Malicious Monster: They don't have any ill will towards the heroes, nor are they really evil. They just need to have their teeth cleaned up after Shadow Aqua polluted their bay.
• Scary Teeth: Their teeth is black and covered in paint. It pollutes Noki Bay as a result.

Bowser

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He did lie to Junior, but it was because he found it hard to tell him that he actually never had a mother at all. He actually wants his son to have a motherly figure in his life.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He’s the one behind the brutal slaughtering of the princess' parents, resulting in Aqua’s mental trauma. He also lied to Bowser Jr. about Peach being his mother, making him terrorize Isle Delfino just to get Mario and friends sent to jail.
• Motivational Lie: A villainous example. He tells Bowser Jr. that Peach is his mother so that he can pollute the island and get Mario in jail.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His realization after seeing that Bowser Jr. knew the truth and pretty much disowned him.
• Truly Single Parent: He never had a wife. He and his son are merely products of a long line of a magical cloning tradition started by their ancestor, King Cosmo.
• Who Dares?: "MARIO! How dare you disturb my family vacation?! ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Supporting Characters

Peach

• Adaptational Intelligence: Peach's behavior in the original game was mostly hesitant (which gave off unfortunate implications in which the fans would Never Live It Down), and not doing much. Here, while still getting kidnapped, she told Luigi what she thought she saw, tried her hardest to defend Mario and Co. in court, denied Shadow Mario to be Mario, and denied to Bowser Jr. that she could possibly be his mother.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The blonde to Aqua’s brunette and Daisy’s redhead.
• Damsel in Distress: Big surprise, eh? Unusually though, this doesn't happen until halfway through the fic.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Downplayed. According to Word of God, her grandmother is a toad, and therefore has a few toad genes in her. However, said genes are recessive and never show.

Toadsworth

• Badly Battered Babysitter: He's terrible at watching over Toad and Toadette. The former actually puts him to sleep with hypnosis in order for them to freely roam around the hotel.
• Old Retainer: To Peach.

Toad

• Composite Character: He and Toadette take the place of all five Toads from the original game and take some traits from each of them.
• Hidden Depths: Turns out, he's really good with hypnosis.

Toadette

• Adaptational Early Appearance: She wasn't created until Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, a year after Super Mario Sunshine came out. But that didn't stop the creator from adding her in here.
• Composite Character: Her and Toad take the place of all five Toads from the original game and take some traits from each of them.
• Women Are Wiser: Zig Zagged. Toadette is usually more uptight and braver than her brother, who is often loud, immature, and cowardly. However, this doesn’t mean she isn’t prone to morally questionable actions that Toad raises an eyebrow at. This includes using his head to crash through a doorway to get a Shine, which is property damage, and breaking into people’s hotel rooms just to find a pineapple. While both of these actions were done with the intention of getting a Shine Sprite, there were probably better ways to do this than to risk getting arrested.

Melon

• Expy: Of her own cousin, Yoshi. Also of the Yoshis that Mario rode in the original game.
• Foil: To Aqua. Aqua absolutely loves the water, having learned to swim before learning how to walk, and is naturally an expert swimmer, being able to swim faster than most people. Melon fears water as she can’t enter deep water without disintegrating.
• Irony: She lives on a tropical isle surrounded by water, yet water and Isle Delfino Yoshis don’t go together.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Yoshi, as both are ridden on by the protagonists.

Piantas

In general

• Berserk Button: They really don't take kindly to vandalism.
• Would Hurt a Child: One rude woman picked up and threw Aqua like a rag doll when she was just cleaning up a graffiti mark.

Police

• Inspector Javert: Needless to say, they really aren't all that kind to the four accused, especially Mario.

Judge and Prosecutor

• Adaptational Nice Guy: While they still operate a Kangaroo Court, they at least give Peach a chance to offer evidence as to why Mario and Co. are innocent.

Big Daddy

Captain

• Took a Level in Jerkass: At first, he kindly takes Mario and Aqua back to Delfino Plaza after they finished Ricco Harbor. But the next time they meet him in Gelato Beach, he conned another contestant into trading watermelons with him in order to cheat himself to victory in the Watermelon Festival.

Hotel Owner

• Only Sane Man: One of the few Piantas who doesn’t show any grudge towards Mario and Co. BEFORE they do anything for him.

Mayor of Pianta Village

• Distressed Dude: Gets himself stuck within the middle of a village sunken in lava goop.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He actually was placing priority on his peoples' safety over his own, which is how he got stuck in the first place.

Nokis

In general

• Nice Guy: Unlike Piantas, they are generally more trusting of Mario and Co. and seem more aware that they're not the real criminals.

Pinna Park Owner

• Cloudcuckoolander: He clearly isn't right in the head if he doesn't take the whole Mecha-Bowser situation seriously.

Noki Elder

• Ambiguously Related: Whether he and the other Noki seen are related or not isn't made clear.

Noki Elder’s grandson/student

• Vague Age: He's seemingly old enough to have a son, yet his "grandfather" is still alive.

The Mysterious Helper/ Professor E. Gadd

• Adaptational Heroism: Due to not appearing at all in the original game, his reasons for giving the brush to Junior were up to interpretation. This story makes it clear he is on the side of good and did not intend for all this to happen.
• Easily Forgiven: Even though the whole thing was his fault, he was forgiven for helping the heroes behind the scenes.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: The creator of both FLUDD and the Magic Paintbrush. He's secretly been helping the heroes behind the scenes to make up for the mistake he made.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He sold his Magic Paintbrush to who he thought was Mario, not knowing that he was actually an evil imposter who wanted to vandalize Isle Delfino and frame the real Mario. He did owe up to his mistakes and even admitted that it should've been him who went to jail.