Heartwarming / Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope

A family born of love—not genetics.

Surprisingly enough, this game has quite a few moments that just give you the warm fuzzies.

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• The release of the demo led to fans immediately picking up on and fawning over the Family of Choice dynamic between Rabbid Rosalina and Captain Orion.
• Edge's introduction at Sunrise Temple counts as this as well as an awesome moment, and it shows that she managed to defeat the Stooges that were threatening a Spark named Twinkle. Upon looking at Twinkle, it squeaks in fear of her as if fearing what she will do next, but Edge instead smiles and stabs her blade into the ground and kneels down and puts her hand out. Twinkle steadily approaches her in curiosity as the heroes watch them, and once Twinkle is close enough to Edge, you can see her looking at it endearingly. Awwwwwww!
  • Whenever Edge smiles, it's often a cocky one, where most of the time she is quite the gruff and serious person, but this is one of the few occasions where Edge actually gives a real gentle smile, and it seems she has a soft spot for children, too. She even does this during the ending of The Last Spark Hunter when Melodic Gardens returns to its harmonious state after defeating Kanya and when she smiles at Rabbid Mario in the ending photo of Rayman in the Phantom Show.
• Once the heroes get rid of the Darkmess Tentacle and end the blizzard in Pristine Peaks; Peach, Luigi, and Rabbid Luigi are shown enjoying the snow by making a Snow-Rabbid.
• In the intro to an optional challenge in Pristine Peaks called "Brothers in Arms", Beep-O remarks that the battle requires a long-range specialist. Luigi immediately steps forward, and Beep-O praises him, saying "that's my boy!" Before he can say anything else, Mario steps out to Luigi's side with a determined look on his face that says, "wherever he goes, I go". Beep-O is overjoyed at how the brothers always have each other's backs. The whole scene is so understated and sweet that it could have come out of a Mario & Luigi RPG.
• In the same scene of the demo, Midnite is cornered by Edge, who has an opportunity to kill her former friend without anyone else in the player's team watching since they're too busy celebrating Orion's Big Damn Reunion with Rabbid Rosalina. She chooses not to despite spending the entire rest of the level admonishing Midnite, showing what little respect remains between them.
• In Palette Prime, it's shown that the local lumberjack Sweetlopek and the forest spirit Dryad are at odds with each other over Sweetlopek cutting down the forest trees. Over the course of the quest, Dryad shows Sweetlopek the love and care she puts in helping the forest and its trees grow strong. Sweetlopek finally sees the beauty and hard work she puts in and apologizes, promising never to cut down another tree again. But Dryad notes they can meet in the middle by letting him cut down the trees that have reached the end of their life cycle so that new trees can grow in their place. By the end of the quest, it's shown that not only have the two found new respect for one another, but have even found love with each other, which is commemorated with a poem from the warden Woodrow.
• Edge being born as a Spark Hunter created by Cursa hardly matters to the other heroes, since she proved herself to be a legitimate hero herself.
  • To put it into context, Edge had been holding onto a Dark Secret from the group ever since she first met them and she protects it with her life, due to the possibility that if anyone within the heroes' group ever found out about it, she believed that she would be cast out the team over it without giving her a chance, which is also sad since her friends turned their back on her like this as well. Just the fact that everyone is compassionate and understanding enough to trust her, has significantly helped relieve this burden off her shoulders that she had been carrying this whole time.
    Beep-0: No, we don't... We have a HUNDRED reasons.
    Rabbid Luigi: Like every time you helped us rescue a Spark!
    Rabbid Peach: Every time you like, totally kicked you-know-what with us on the battlefield.
    Rabbid Mario: Every time you nearly fainted at the sight of my enormous biceps while I fought impressively at your side.
    (Beat)
    Rabbid Mario: Er… Every time you showed you still care about the Spark Hunters.
    JEANIE: You're part of our family now, and that means you don't need to keep secrets - not from us.
    Edge: (happy and relieved) Thank you for that. All of you... Now let's get to Cursa.
  • After going through so much turmoil from her covering up her dark history, just the fact that her new friends were so compassionate and supportive of her has allowed Edge to be finally free from her inner demons and has fully embraced who she truly desired to be.
    • Even when Rabbid Mario is madly in love with Edge, it really goes to show that regardless of whether Edge returns her feelings or not, there is no doubt at this point that he unconditionally loves and accepts her, even after learning of her true origins. And speaking of...
    • At the end credits of Rayman in the Phantom Show, a photo of the heroes depicts Rabbid Mario showing everyone the gift that Rayman gave him, Edge is standing behind Rabbid Mario and while he does not notice, she is smiling at him.◊ It is only an ambiguous case, so it either indicates that she is happy that Rabbid Mario did a good deed or she is starting to develop feelings for him. Either way, it is still a touching moment.
• The endgame reveals that Rosalina's strong will came in part from never doubting her friends would save her.
  • In the Cosmic and Gold Editions of the game, the Galactic Prestige Weapon Skins' descriptions each contain a message from Rosalina to the weapon wielder, each one further demonstrating her faith in them.
    Galactic Dual-Slinger: ‟Mario, I await our next meeting with HOPE - though I pray you will not judge me before you know the truth.”
    Galactic Blade: ‟Carry this Galactic Stormblade with confidence, Edge, and trust that your friends will see you for who you truly are.”
    Galactic Tripple-Troll: ‟To Rabbid Peach, who cares much more for her friends than she reveals. Keep them safe with this Galactic Triple-Troll.”
  • On another note, the fact that Rosalina accepted the Lumas' new forms as Sparks to the point where she doesn't express any desire to revert them back, keeping them as Sparks when reviving them.
• Overall, the fact that the Rabbids, who were considered dangerous pests in their previous homes, have managed to integrate and become part of the Mario world with seemingly no trouble. They've formed their own cultures and complex relationships (as is shown with Captain Orion and Rabbid Rosalina) and have overall become much kinder and more intelligent than before. It appears Mario's world has done some good for these nutty bunnies.
• Momma's backstory, as shown by the murals in the Barrendale Mesa. She originally stopped there just for a pit stop on a massive, ten planet road trip, only to see the native Rabbids getting attacked by a massive, mechanical T-Rex. She leaped to their rescue and with the help of the Rabbids, whom she felt a kinship with, she built a Humongous Mecha shaped after herself and destroyed the machine, using its power source to power a new power grid. It's also revealed that Momma is an Affectionate Nickname given to her by the Rabbids that she trained. Even Beep-0 can't hold back sniffling at this revelation.
• When Rosalina gives her Rabbid counterpart an offer to join her on the Comet Observatory, Rabbid Rosalina admits that it was what she wanted, but she found out that she found a family in her new friends and even says she loves them, even if she sometimes finds them weird and annoying.
  • When she asks the same question to Edge, she states that her old friends will be looking for a different profession, and preferred to stay with her new friends and it helps that they already accepted her as family despite her backstory.
• The Last Spark Hunter DLC has this as well; during a sad scene where Allegra is comforting her trapped Dorrie, the heroes are sympathetic to their plights and as Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Luigi were clinging to Bowser while crying, you can see Princess Peach smiling at him for being their comfort person, even though it was unwilling on Bowser's end; it really shows that Princess Peach, despite being kidnapped by him numerous times, still sees good in him.
• For Rayman fans, it's nice to see the limbless wonder back in a new console adventure in ten years, even if only as a DLC campaign for another franchise. The game developers themselves are very passionate of Rayman too, and their goal with developing the Rayman in the Phantom Show DLC campaign was to put the Rayman series back in the spotlight... not just because the fans want it, but because they want it, too.
• At first, Rayman doesn't trust the Rabbids that much (which is totally understandable, given his past experiences with the crazy bunnies), but as time passes, he seems to get along fine with Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Peach: when he has to say goodbye to them and Beep-0, he gives Rabbid Mario a hug with a genuine smile, and gives the two a present, with Rabbid Peach giving him a present of her own as well.
  • Heck, he's also gotten a soft spot for the Rabbids working at the Space Opera Network (sans Phantom), as he sees that, unlike Phantom, they genuinely want to make and film TV shows. The reason why he stays there after the whole adventure is because he believes they just need a little guidance.
  • As the credits end, two photos reveal what those presents are: Rayman is shown wearing a papier-maché replica of Mario's hat with Rabbid ears, while Rabbid Mario and Rabbid Peach show Mario and the rest of the team a replica of Rayman's hoodie shirt. While Mario and Rayman never got to meet each other in person in Rayman in the Phantom Show, it's nice to know that Mario at least gets to know Rayman thanks to his Rabbid compadres.