Waluigi, Another Character Analysis

Last week we discussed Ant-Man/Hank Pym and I think that I’m confident in saying we don’t have to worry about topping it. Good as it might have been, still not that hard an act to follow. Let’s leave comics books this week because I’m sure I’ll enrage someone with another attempt to discuss comics without having encyclopedic knowledge. But now that we’ve introduced men into the character discussion for the first time last week (unless you count my rant about Walking Dead’s The Governor) we’ve broken new barriers for mankind.

So this week I want to discuss the character of Waluigi… The GREATEST character… in the Mario franchise… and I say this without a single hint of irony. Why is Waluigi so damned great? And why are there so many haters of the character? Can I actually say Waluigi is the greatest character in the Mario-verse? Just who the fuck is Waluigi anyway? There are a lot of questions, many of which are good and we’re going to go into all kinds of insane detail to cobble up strange answers for your amusement.

Waluigi is very similar to Wario. Wario was created to be the anti-Mario. This is shown by him having a similar build (bulky and short), similar costuming (overalls with the same kind of hat as Mario), and both having a very similar logo (Mario is an M while Wario is a W). On top of that, look at the Japanese naming scheme. Warui (means “evil” or “bad”) and Wario is pretty much just Warui combined with the name Mario to get Wario, meaning evil Mario. Waluigi is very much the same except replace Mario with Luigi and there you go.

Waluigi was first introduced in one of the Mario sports games, I can’t be bothered to actually investigate which one because there’s at least a billion of them (Mario Tennis 64). BUT the other interesting note is we don’t have any main series games of the Mario series that Waluigi actually exists in. Thus, as far as we can tell, he is a total mystery. We have no games to explain his back story, his relation to Wario OR Luigi, or what his goals and motives are. This makes Waluigi interesting in the same way that the “Clone Wars” were interesting when they were mentioned in the original trilogy or how Bobba Fett was interesting in the original movie until he died like a complete bitch.

What we know so far is that Waluigi is the anti-Luigi and his existence to the Mario-verse is somewhat of a mystery. But we have to assume everything he is in is still considered canon to the Mario-verse, THUS anything we can gleam from his character in those games will give us enough of an idea of who he is. Let’s give it a shot…

What we have to work with most are his end-game animations. This shows us how he behaves both in loss and in victory as well as his intro animations which show us how he wants the world to view him. Many animations throughout the series have shown Waluigi thrusting or making vulgar gestures in reference to his junk, giving us the impressions that Waluigi is, in fact, a vulgar character. This could stem from the fact that he is confident with his sexual abilities or that he is merely boasting for the attention from potential mates.

Many animations also show his arrogance and desire for praise. Several animations have him cheering for himself and waving to the crowd in manners to suggest he wants more applause, giving us the impression that he is so in love with what he’s done that he expects us, the audience, to be just as ecstatic as he is. Taking this a step farther, we see a very fragile ego and a very volatile personality in defeat. When he loses he will throw tantrums, chew on his tennis racket, take his aggression out on partners or himself, and many of these will get him into trouble with other characters like the Mario Bros and even (at times) Bowser.

But there are games outside the Mario series that depict other aspects of Waluigi we have yet to see. One of which is Fortune Street, which shows Waluigi’s interactions with others of the Mushroom Kingdom… and it’s that no one likes him. Toads and other characters will openly ignore him or shun him as if they are repulsed by his existence. This likely forces Waluigi into a kind of isolation where his only companion is Wario, who has never seemed like one who is good for company.

Looking back at Mario Tennis, Waluigi’s bio indicates he wanted to be just as popular as the Mario Brothers and that’s why he joined into the Mario Tennis tour in the first place. So, in a way, while hating the Mario Bros, he actually respects them and idolizes them as something he wants to be, in a way. We’ve even seen moments where, unlike Wario, Waluigi will put his respect for others or himself over greed and money. So while he might be self-obsessed, he isn’t bad. Hell, Tony Stark is self-obsessed and he’s practically hero worshipped all over the world.

In short, Waluigi is a self-pitiable character. A character who desperately wants love and admiration from those around him but because of his appearance, his association to Wario, and his self-promoting attitude, he’s often disregarded as inferior and repulsive. It is shown in Mario Party 4’s guide book that Waluigi actually has a crush on Daisy and several games in the series give them “Team Names” like “Awkward Date” to suggest that connection all the more. But he often fails to make anything happen because of his supposedly superior rival, Luigi. We can even see he’s a bit of a romantic in that recent games show him pulling out a rose during his victory animations like he’s Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon.

Waluigi has even beaten Bowser before as well in Mario Party 3 in conflict over the “mischief star stamp”. Bowser continues to underestimate Waluigi in later games as well, often throwing insults and gloating arrogantly as Waluigi finds another way to outsmart the Koopa King. Yet, despite being CANONICALLY victorious over Bowser, he gets no accolades. He isn’t loved or treated with the respect he constantly chases, not by those of the Mushroom Kingdom or even friends like Wario. In Wario’s Warehouse, Wario makes note of how Waluigi is “stupid, often making idiotic and foolish decisions” despite the fact we have evidence showing Waluigi is actually rather intelligent and prefers to use brains over brawn.

Fine, so Waluigi is hated in the game’s universe like he is in the real world, what’s the point? The point is Waluigi is supposed to represent US, the player. None of us are special heroes who save the world like the brothers. None of us are evil villains like Wario or Bowser who try to take over the world on a regular basis. We’re all just people who are there trying to find our place in the world. None of us are perfect and are even ridiculed by people for attempting to reach greater heights. Some of us are even shunned or ignored for trying.

But we all, at least most of us, want more. We want to strive to be better. Many of us have idols we’d like to live up to at some point in our lives. So we find something that we’re good at and hope we can someday achieve that goal. Waluigi’s skills lie in sports and in games of chance (like Mario Party) and not in platforming like the brothers or beating up monsters like his friend Wario. It may not be as popular as what they do, but he sticks to it in the hopes of someday earning the respect of those around him. I say, to dismiss Waluigi as a non-entity is to dismiss humanity of its attempt to find happiness. So when you play Mario Party again and a friend picks Waluigi, don’t insult them because you don’t like the character. He is a deep and complex well of emotions that makes Mario’s Mickey Mouse persona look shallow by comparison. See ya next time.