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SMNTY Classics: SMNTY's Princess is in Another Castle · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to stuff.
0:07
Speaker 1: I've never told your production of iHeart Radio. So yesterday,
0:20
Speaker 1: as we record this was March two. Do you know
0:25
Speaker 1: what day that was? Holiday wise, Samantha, I don't, but
0:29
Speaker 1: a listener did correct us about my eyes of March,
0:33
Speaker 1: which is apparently middle of March. So smart, thanks listener.
0:37
Speaker 1: That's nothing to do with what yesterday was for us.
0:42
Speaker 1: We were way off. Okay, uh, yeah, we were. I
0:47
Speaker 1: was gonna say you were way off, but you're right.
0:49
Speaker 1: I agreed with you. Yesterday was Mario Day because March. Yeah, yeah,
1:03
Speaker 1: And because of that, I thought we could bring back
1:07
Speaker 1: this classic episode that as one of our most one
1:09
Speaker 1: of my favorite misunderstandings Samantha and I've ever had in
1:12
Speaker 1: it on Princess Peach slash Princess told Stool, but I
1:18
Speaker 1: have been playing a lot of Mario Party and Mario
1:20
Speaker 1: cart lately, and some of it I've played with you.
1:23
Speaker 1: Who's your favorite character? Oh, it's according to which one
1:27
Speaker 1: we're playing, because we kind of threw it back to
1:30
Speaker 1: the old school one um, which doesn't have all of
1:34
Speaker 1: the same characters, and honestly, I can't remember their names
1:39
Speaker 1: and obviously, as we found out, names have changed over
1:44
Speaker 1: the years, and so I was like, who the hell
1:46
Speaker 1: are you talking about? And then literally in the middle
1:50
Speaker 1: of the episode realizing who you were talking about. I
1:53
Speaker 1: can't even tell you other than describing, like I want
1:56
Speaker 1: to call her the mushroom head thing. No, no, no,
2:01
Speaker 1: it's all brown. It just has legs. It's pretty no arms,
2:05
Speaker 1: and it looks like this. Is that what it looks like?
2:10
Speaker 1: A mushroom has a body of mushroom. It does. You're right,
2:15
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna hold two mushroom head thing alright. Perfect.
2:20
Speaker 1: I feel like my Samantha translator is in full full speed.
2:27
Speaker 1: I really like Boo because I like ghosts, but I'm
2:31
Speaker 1: also it's hard for It's hard for me to be
2:34
Speaker 1: mean though, so a lot of his things are mean.
2:37
Speaker 1: Don't get me wrong, I can't be mean, but it's
2:38
Speaker 1: like not my go to awfu giggle. Yes, yes, I
2:45
Speaker 1: growing up. I really like Daisy and I know people
2:48
Speaker 1: hate her, but I guess because she was just a woman.
2:51
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, like, you know, we should come
2:57
Speaker 1: back and revisit their whole outfit thing. I know we
3:00
Speaker 1: talked about it a little bit in this episode. But
3:02
Speaker 1: like they all wear these dresses, wear some pants in
3:06
Speaker 1: there something I know they do in like the golf one,
3:09
Speaker 1: I think. But anyway, I feel like I Boo is
3:13
Speaker 1: my go to. But I'm pretty open. I'm pretty open
3:17
Speaker 1: to the characters. Again, I don't know any of their names. Bowser,
3:23
Speaker 1: I know Bowser Jr. I know Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong
3:27
Speaker 1: because you've seen the stupid song. You and my partner
3:30
Speaker 1: loved that song too much. Okay, Donkey and everyone who
3:36
Speaker 1: knows that song, it's stuck in your head right now.
3:38
Speaker 1: And I don't apologize she's been doing it to me
3:42
Speaker 1: I have. I'm cruel that way. But in the spirit
3:46
Speaker 1: of that, here's this classic episode on Princess Peach. Slash
3:49
Speaker 1: told Stool. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome
3:58
Speaker 1: to stephan Ever told you production I h radio. So
4:10
Speaker 1: here's my very important question to day for you, Samantha. Yeah,
4:14
Speaker 1: have you played Super Mario or any video game with
4:19
Speaker 1: Princess Peach? Do? Do? Do? Do? Do? Do? Let's do
4:24
Speaker 1: That's what I think of every time. But of course
4:26
Speaker 1: I have, uh surprisingly, maybe it's not enough, of course,
4:29
Speaker 1: because I don't play a lot of video games. But
4:32
Speaker 1: those who are some of the ones that I did play.
4:33
Speaker 1: I really love Super Mario three. That was my favorite. Um.
4:37
Speaker 1: The Giant Land was my favorite land. Oh yeah, everything
4:40
Speaker 1: the Giant was fun. Um. And then also, of course
4:43
Speaker 1: I played Super Mario Kart and I've had I've played
4:46
Speaker 1: that a few times, you and I've played. I'm very
4:49
Speaker 1: bad at it, but I love it darkness, and yet
4:54
Speaker 1: you comment on it and you move your body had
5:01
Speaker 1: this is I am absolutely that person that jumps with
5:05
Speaker 1: my controller at all times. My fingers heard because I'm
5:08
Speaker 1: pressing it so hard all the time, no matter like
5:11
Speaker 1: ridiculously over the top heart as well as the fact
5:14
Speaker 1: that I make sure you guys know every mistake I've
5:16
Speaker 1: made on the game, whether it's been falling off somewhere,
5:18
Speaker 1: whether I've been hit by something, whether I hit a wall.
5:21
Speaker 1: I definitely don't know. Oh yeah, it's better that way, right, Yeah,
5:27
Speaker 1: Oh I love it. Um. Did you have any thoughts
5:30
Speaker 1: about Princess Peach? Um? I like her fine. Typically, uh,
5:38
Speaker 1: I always see the toadstool guy because I've never actually
5:41
Speaker 1: saved the Princess Peach. I don't think on my own.
5:45
Speaker 1: My brother always did, or someone whoever I play with,
5:48
Speaker 1: but I always got to the guy and be like,
5:49
Speaker 1: oh no, she's not here. Yeah, it was really maybe mad. Yeah.
5:55
Speaker 1: Oh it's a great trope though you just fail over
5:58
Speaker 1: and over, I think, so. I mean it's very annoying. Yes,
6:05
Speaker 1: I do like it when the king doesn't he transform
6:09
Speaker 1: from something to himself, like because you get the wand
6:14
Speaker 1: and you touch him and he's no longer a fraud
6:16
Speaker 1: or something and he turns back into a king and
6:18
Speaker 1: then tells you where Princess Peach is. You know, I
6:21
Speaker 1: don't know. Yeah, I think that's from the original Super Mario.
6:26
Speaker 1: So okay, I played that along like when I was
6:31
Speaker 1: four or five. I think I was young. I was
6:33
Speaker 1: very young. Um, most of my Mario experience has been
6:39
Speaker 1: I did love the Super Mario RPG. I think that
6:42
Speaker 1: was the one with Mallow, that one. I loved, UM
6:47
Speaker 1: and Mario Kart, Mario Party, like all those sort of
6:51
Speaker 1: friend games that you played with a bunch of people.
6:53
Speaker 1: I love those, But I actually haven't played like, um,
6:57
Speaker 1: Super Mario two or three or Paper Mario anything like that. Um.
7:05
Speaker 1: One of my very first video game memories is playing
7:09
Speaker 1: that that first game. But like I all, I really
7:12
Speaker 1: remember was the controls were sort of difficult to manage.
7:18
Speaker 1: I just that's really what I remember about it. UM
7:21
Speaker 1: Mario Kart has been a constant throughout my life. Super
7:26
Speaker 1: Nintendo in sixty four we and now with this new
7:31
Speaker 1: fangled thing switch I thought of it. UM. Me and
7:35
Speaker 1: my brother we used to do um Battle and we
7:40
Speaker 1: would we were really really competitive with each other, and
7:42
Speaker 1: we would give each other five minutes to set up
7:45
Speaker 1: traps on like those big block forts. I would choose
7:48
Speaker 1: blue and he would choose Red, and we just have
7:51
Speaker 1: five minutes and you set up all these traps and
7:53
Speaker 1: then you had to venture over to the other person's
7:55
Speaker 1: block fort and see how long you could survive. Mean,
8:00
Speaker 1: it was just banana like lines of banana peels and
8:03
Speaker 1: cream shells suiting everywhere. And I had another one of
8:07
Speaker 1: my friends, um. She would play with us, and she
8:10
Speaker 1: was the opposite of competitive, so she would just let
8:13
Speaker 1: herself be killed and then go When you die in
8:16
Speaker 1: that game, you would turn into a bomb and you
8:19
Speaker 1: would she would go around and destroy our traps. Uh,
8:24
Speaker 1: good times, good times m hm. I actually gave his
8:28
Speaker 1: friend a a Princess Leiah Princess Peach mash up shirt
8:33
Speaker 1: where she has these like big blasters and it says
8:35
Speaker 1: something like, I don't need no rescuer, get out of
8:38
Speaker 1: my castle. I'll have to ask her if she still
8:41
Speaker 1: has that shirt. M good shirt. Yeah. And when it
8:45
Speaker 1: comes to Princess Peach, I actually really preferred Daisy, who
8:49
Speaker 1: is from what I understand, I'm not a relation. I
8:52
Speaker 1: always thought they were related. But she's got a yellow
8:56
Speaker 1: dress instead of a pink one brown hair, and I
8:58
Speaker 1: think I liked her because of the own hair and
9:01
Speaker 1: maybe some internalized misogyny around pink, because Peach is blonde
9:06
Speaker 1: and wears pink in case you don't know, by the way. Um.
9:11
Speaker 1: And then when I was in middle school, it was
9:14
Speaker 1: sort of a badge of honor to if you had
9:16
Speaker 1: the the in sixty four joystick blister on your palm
9:22
Speaker 1: from playing Mario Party so much. Yeah. Yeah, and I
9:27
Speaker 1: had the blister. Oh did I? I'm not gonna lie.
9:31
Speaker 1: I don't even know what you're talking about. Really, Oh wow, Well,
9:36
Speaker 1: it's just like the joystick on the N sixty four.
9:39
Speaker 1: They had this game where you had to like spin
9:42
Speaker 1: it in circles really quickly, and I think you were
9:44
Speaker 1: supposed to do it with your thumb, but it was
9:46
Speaker 1: much more effective to use your palm, which I'm sure
9:49
Speaker 1: they didn't intend for at all. But what's what everyone died?
9:52
Speaker 1: How old were you? You were in middle school? So
9:53
Speaker 1: I think I was in high school. Yeah. I definitely
9:55
Speaker 1: was not playing video games at that point, so that
9:58
Speaker 1: is why I'm like, what, what is this? What I
10:00
Speaker 1: kind of aged out before that point for me? Yeah. Um,
10:06
Speaker 1: right now, I'm in the midst of a lot of
10:09
Speaker 1: Mario Kart trash talking with fellow podcaster Noel, friend of ours.
10:14
Speaker 1: He's he's talking a big game. Uh, but so am I.
10:18
Speaker 1: But I don't know. I could. I would be interested
10:21
Speaker 1: to see you to play, just because I know how
10:23
Speaker 1: well you do. It's kind of funny because you don't
10:26
Speaker 1: know how well you do. You're like, oh, yeah, I
10:28
Speaker 1: did pretty well. At the end, I'm like, what does that?
10:32
Speaker 1: I think it's because I'm randomly really bad. I don't know.
10:35
Speaker 1: I have days where I'm just off and I get
10:37
Speaker 1: like between eight and twelve every time. Um, so I
10:41
Speaker 1: don't know. I think no one will beat me. But
10:44
Speaker 1: he's talking a big game. We'll see. It's getting built up.
10:46
Speaker 1: A lot of coworkers know about it. I'm starting to
10:48
Speaker 1: get up. I'm starting to feel the pressure, you know
10:49
Speaker 1: what I mean. Well, I would like to join, just
10:52
Speaker 1: because I know that I will be in the last,
10:54
Speaker 1: but being in Blast means I get the better prizes
10:58
Speaker 1: when you hit those. Oh that is so that way
11:01
Speaker 1: I can get y'all. That's my joy. That is so accurate.
11:07
Speaker 1: That is such a good like depiction of what you are.
11:10
Speaker 1: I love it. I know I'm gonna lose, but I'm
11:13
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and take everybody else outt that I can't,
11:15
Speaker 1: and I'm going to get so much joy out of it. Yea. Yeah,
11:22
Speaker 1: So this one has been on my mind for a
11:24
Speaker 1: while because yeah, we're today we're talking about Princess Peach,
11:26
Speaker 1: the history of Princess Peach and sort of what her
11:29
Speaker 1: character says about uh, some tropes, common tropes around women. UM.
11:36
Speaker 1: I actually pitched this when I first started this show. Uh,
11:41
Speaker 1: and it's only just now coming to fruition. Um. And
11:44
Speaker 1: the article I based it on is unfortunately behind a
11:48
Speaker 1: I basically original idea on. It's unfortunately behind paywall now
11:51
Speaker 1: so I couldn't even reread it. Um. But we will
11:54
Speaker 1: be talking about it and what I remember of it
11:57
Speaker 1: a little bit later on UM. And it's also been
12:02
Speaker 1: on my mind because we just did an episode on
12:04
Speaker 1: Peaches on Sabor, which, by the way, your dog is
12:06
Speaker 1: the first thing that comes to my mind now, as
12:08
Speaker 1: it should, as it should. Uh. And also a lot
12:14
Speaker 1: of Super not a lot Super Mario games have been
12:17
Speaker 1: coming out lately, so I mean Super Mario is kind
12:20
Speaker 1: of going back on top, especially not Quarantine A main
12:22
Speaker 1: things like the Mario Kart is fantastic to play with
12:26
Speaker 1: as many people as possible. Yeah, it's fun to watch.
12:30
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it's It's definitely been one of my big
12:33
Speaker 1: go twos for virtual hangouts and gaming. So let's talk
12:38
Speaker 1: about Princess peach Or is she's often called peach Or
12:43
Speaker 1: prior to the in sixty four release Princess toad Stool. Okay,
12:47
Speaker 1: now you say that, that's what I like, is familiar.
12:50
Speaker 1: I think this is why I was so confused when
12:53
Speaker 1: you were like, I want to do this, I'm like,
12:54
Speaker 1: who who are you talking about? But the minute you
12:56
Speaker 1: say Princess told Stool, I know exactly who you're talking about.
12:59
Speaker 1: That's fascinating. That old Wow, that's amazing. No, because I
13:05
Speaker 1: was saying saying to Samantha before we started. I was
13:07
Speaker 1: so surprised she didn't really know what I was talking about.
13:11
Speaker 1: I thought, like, really, she's ubiquitous, you know, as as
13:15
Speaker 1: you say, Princess total, That's what I know because all
13:18
Speaker 1: of the Mario games that I'm talking about outside of
13:20
Speaker 1: the Mario part is prior to and sixty four. Oh
13:24
Speaker 1: that makes so much sense. That's so interesting. Click click click,
13:28
Speaker 1: We got this, we do, we do alright? Okay, um,
13:32
Speaker 1: so Princess told school our prince's speech whichever you prefer,
13:35
Speaker 1: is it sometimes playable character in the Mario franchise. For
13:40
Speaker 1: some context, The Mario franchises, what they call mostly consists
13:46
Speaker 1: of video games published by Nintendo, and there are about
13:50
Speaker 1: three hundred gaming titles, and combined they have sold over
13:54
Speaker 1: five hundred million coffees. This is more than any other
14:00
Speaker 1: video game franchise, and the franchise outside of those games
14:03
Speaker 1: also includes books, comics, manga, anime, and animated series, and
14:07
Speaker 1: of course, of course, the highly ridiculed feature film, which
14:13
Speaker 1: I have never seen and now desperately want to. That's
14:18
Speaker 1: right up my alley, Like those kind of just really bad,
14:24
Speaker 1: is it? I mean, I didn't watch it. I think
14:27
Speaker 1: it was on or it wasn't on, but maybe all
14:29
Speaker 1: the previews and it was just so ridiculous, but I
14:32
Speaker 1: kind of just sat there and stared. I feel like
14:35
Speaker 1: the every screenshot I've seen from it gives me a
14:37
Speaker 1: pretty good sense about that. It looks bad, but I
14:43
Speaker 1: definitely want to see it. There's also going to be upcoming,
15:01
Speaker 1: but very much postponed, obviously a theme park section of
15:05
Speaker 1: a theme park based on Nintendo Mario. UM. Many critics
15:09
Speaker 1: and fans call it the best video game franchise of
15:13
Speaker 1: all time, and Mario is widely regarded as the most
15:16
Speaker 1: recognized gaming character ever. At one point, a survey found
15:21
Speaker 1: more American children recognized Mario than Mickey Mouse. Yeah, March
15:28
Speaker 1: tenth is National Mario Day because March one zero looks
15:33
Speaker 1: like Mario. Okay, you do not see even pressed, but
15:38
Speaker 1: I thought it was cool. Uh. And the character was
15:42
Speaker 1: featured at the Summer Olympics closing ceremony when Japanese Prime
15:47
Speaker 1: Minister Shinzo Abe rose up from a work pipe just
15:50
Speaker 1: as Mario. He was also featured in the postponed uh
15:55
Speaker 1: Tokyo Olympics. And they're advertising that's fantastic, that's gene this idea. Um. So,
16:01
Speaker 1: these games were hugely influential, and their influence and legacies
16:05
Speaker 1: can still be seen to this day in games, TV, books,
16:09
Speaker 1: and movies. Take this quote from Hideo Kajima quote, super
16:13
Speaker 1: Mario is equivalent to the big bank of our gaming universe.
16:16
Speaker 1: If it were not for this blindingly spectacular creation, digital
16:20
Speaker 1: entertainment as we know it today would not exist. Some
16:23
Speaker 1: big words. Um, Nintendo owns the right to to yes
16:28
Speaker 1: to a porno movies called a super Hornio Brothers one
16:32
Speaker 1: and two. So have you watched this one, Samantha. I
16:38
Speaker 1: don't know if you know this about me, but I
16:39
Speaker 1: have literally never watched porn. I feel like this is
16:42
Speaker 1: the one. Oh, you know, I agree with you there,
16:47
Speaker 1: And I just want to clarify by no means are
16:50
Speaker 1: those the only movies porno movies around this. They're the
16:53
Speaker 1: only two owns, which is hilarious. And the fact that
16:58
Speaker 1: they own two because they wanted it the sequel. Yeah,
17:00
Speaker 1: they wanted this equal. So the first one must have
17:03
Speaker 1: been pretty good. So good, it's just the title orno.
17:08
Speaker 1: I I gotta there's a part of me that's got
17:10
Speaker 1: to just be impressed with that. I'm still saying that
17:13
Speaker 1: this is the one, Colly, I don't know. I mean,
17:19
Speaker 1: I think you're correct that if I ever do you
17:22
Speaker 1: break the porno seal, I should do it with something
17:25
Speaker 1: like this, But I don't know. It could be really
17:30
Speaker 1: just saying, I mean owns that come back, that's true.
17:34
Speaker 1: If it's owned finantendo, it must be good. Okay, away
17:39
Speaker 1: from porn, Away from porn. The titular character, Mario, is
17:42
Speaker 1: a fictional Italian American plumber who also happens to be
17:46
Speaker 1: the Mushroom Kingdom's hero and yes, the Mushroom Kingdom is
17:52
Speaker 1: the world that these games take place in, and who
17:56
Speaker 1: rules the Mushroom Kingdom. Princess Peach are told Stool, her
18:01
Speaker 1: subjects are toads are are these humanoid mushrooms. Most of
18:06
Speaker 1: these games follow Mario with an assortment of companions like Luigi,
18:10
Speaker 1: Yoshi and Toad, going through pipes, eating mushrooms, and fighting
18:14
Speaker 1: goons like Bowser, who is the big bad usually to
18:19
Speaker 1: save the kingdom, and often Princess Peach, who frequently serves
18:23
Speaker 1: as the love interest and almost always almost always the
18:28
Speaker 1: damsel in distress. The plot is often pretty much that
18:34
Speaker 1: it's just Bowser kidnaps princess Peach and Mario has to
18:37
Speaker 1: save her and her kingdom. This has been used so much,
18:41
Speaker 1: this plot in these games that even Peach commented on
18:44
Speaker 1: it and paper Mario the thousand year Door. I can't
18:48
Speaker 1: believe I got kidnapped. And a lot of you have
18:53
Speaker 1: probably heard the phrase your princess is not in this castle, um,
18:58
Speaker 1: which we're gonna talk about more more later. It's also
19:00
Speaker 1: frequently compared to you because I looked up if what
19:03
Speaker 1: does this mean in sort of like urban dictionary terms,
19:08
Speaker 1: and it's uh, these aren't the George you're looking for.
19:10
Speaker 1: Often comes up with it too, so Star Wars reference. Yes, um,
19:16
Speaker 1: she's often held in the cage dangling over a lava
19:19
Speaker 1: during these times of capture. I don't remember this. I'm
19:23
Speaker 1: trying to think of this. In my old school. Old school, again,
19:27
Speaker 1: I didn't win often, so maybe that's why. Um So
19:31
Speaker 1: Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, another popular video game
19:35
Speaker 1: that I'm not aware of, references this, saying that Mario
19:39
Speaker 1: should be smart enough to tell Peach or Toadstool to
19:42
Speaker 1: stop getting herself kidnapped. Come on, after a female character
19:46
Speaker 1: said it was a romantic Peach always had someone to
19:49
Speaker 1: rescue her romantic Well we can say that for again
19:53
Speaker 1: most games, right, so easy, It's so easy. Yeah, just
19:58
Speaker 1: don't get kidnapped, come on, okay kidnapped. Um. Also, just
20:03
Speaker 1: a side note, I love the description of Bowser and
20:07
Speaker 1: the Kupas that I found on the Mario wiki. And
20:10
Speaker 1: the Kopas are the the race of turtles that bower.
20:16
Speaker 1: They're mean turtles. So the description was a race of
20:19
Speaker 1: evil driven anthropomorphic turtles. You want to watch out for
20:25
Speaker 1: those turtles, man every time. Um. Zelda is definitely similar
20:31
Speaker 1: to Peach and I believe from things I read, possibly
20:35
Speaker 1: even modeled after her. Um. She's often seen as Zelda
20:40
Speaker 1: the Zelda franchise as Princess Peach. Um. I would argue
20:44
Speaker 1: she's she's had more powerful showings, but uh, I definitely,
20:49
Speaker 1: especially in the early games, I can see I can
20:52
Speaker 1: see the comparison. Well me again a theme when I
20:55
Speaker 1: think of people being a princesses being kidnapped, Zelda is
20:59
Speaker 1: definitely one of them. Oh yeah, absolutely every time link
21:02
Speaker 1: oh link um. So the first appearance by Mario was
21:07
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one Donkey Kong had game which I
21:12
Speaker 1: was born then, but I do remember this game because
21:14
Speaker 1: it was still popular ten years later. So in nine five,
21:19
Speaker 1: Super Mario Brothers the side scrolling game debuted, in the
21:22
Speaker 1: first game in which Mario was the main character, and
21:25
Speaker 1: this was the first time we were introduced to Princess Peach, who,
21:30
Speaker 1: by the way, has also appeared in more video games
21:33
Speaker 1: than any other female characters. Yeah. Allegedly she was based
21:38
Speaker 1: on Olive Oil from Popeye, which she was. Yeah, and
21:42
Speaker 1: see how I mean once I read that, I could
21:44
Speaker 1: immediately see see it and and I mean, if you
21:48
Speaker 1: want to talk about a damsel in distress constantly, yes,
21:52
Speaker 1: olive oil for sure, but just like a parents wise,
21:55
Speaker 1: appearance wise, Yeah, I think I wouldn't put that together.
21:58
Speaker 1: I mean, if you think about it, you've out your
22:00
Speaker 1: hero Popeye, You've got your big bad Bluto Bruto. I
22:05
Speaker 1: don't remember Bruto Bruto, and then Olive Oil the Princess Peach.
22:10
Speaker 1: I can see it. Okay, But back to Princess Beach. Recently,
22:16
Speaker 1: in two thousand five, the roles of Mario and Peach
22:18
Speaker 1: were reversed in Nintendo DS is Super Princess Peach, which
22:22
Speaker 1: I've never played. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, this game. Okay,
22:26
Speaker 1: So she has this magic parasol that can talk, and
22:30
Speaker 1: the power of vibe, which is basically emotions or as
22:35
Speaker 1: feminist frequency called them, her mood sweet and she has
22:40
Speaker 1: like a mood meter for how elpset she is at
22:42
Speaker 1: the bottom. I think um so players controlled Peach as
22:47
Speaker 1: she rescued Mario and Luigi and some tones from Bowser
22:51
Speaker 1: with her emotions. This game was developed by the so
22:54
Speaker 1: called behind the scenes at Japanese studio Toasts or t
22:57
Speaker 1: O s e um and a lot. I read reviews
23:01
Speaker 1: of it, and most of the reviews we're giving it
23:04
Speaker 1: like like it wasn't that well reviewed, and most people
23:09
Speaker 1: complaining that it was notably easier. Mm hmmm, and I definitely.
23:15
Speaker 1: I mean, he can't not pick up on the fact
23:18
Speaker 1: that her weapons are like traditionally feminine things, right, She's
23:24
Speaker 1: got a parasol and an emotion meter, and I think
23:28
Speaker 1: her emotions are like gloom, rage, joy, and love. She
23:37
Speaker 1: only has four that's the alls you need, right, Oh,
23:40
Speaker 1: I'm always in gloom. I'm gonna say the first to
23:43
Speaker 1: have been my mode of emotions doing this whole quarantine,
23:47
Speaker 1: So maybe not giving this game enough credit. This was
23:54
Speaker 1: the second standalone game where Peach was the primary playable
23:57
Speaker 1: protagonist the first Princess Stold Saul's Castle Run, which was
24:01
Speaker 1: on this sort of gaming watch that I had never
24:04
Speaker 1: heard of her seen, but it was like a like
24:07
Speaker 1: if a what are those called tomagotchi? I don't know,
24:10
Speaker 1: but it was like a watch and you just played
24:12
Speaker 1: games on it. Yeah, the tommagotchi. That's how you keep
24:14
Speaker 1: them alive. And she's been fed, but you have to
24:18
Speaker 1: do like tappy tappy stuff that explains everything. You're welcome.
24:23
Speaker 1: She was supposed to be a playable character in the
24:25
Speaker 1: new Super Mario Brothers we but the idea was scrapped
24:28
Speaker 1: after technical difficulties with her dress. Yeah. We discussed in
24:33
Speaker 1: a previous episode on Women in Video Games about the
24:35
Speaker 1: big dust up when a male developer said women are
24:38
Speaker 1: harder to anime, So that's why they weren't so many
24:40
Speaker 1: of them, because dresses are so hard, y'all. Yeah, and
24:45
Speaker 1: we're going to come back to this later. But the
24:49
Speaker 1: way they handled it is almost comically bad. Uh, the
24:56
Speaker 1: way they handled this whole thing. Wow. So in two
24:59
Speaker 1: thousand seven, he made the list of Forbes Richest Fictional Characters,
25:03
Speaker 1: which is congratulations with an estimated worth of one point
25:08
Speaker 1: three billion dollars. All right, girl, go ahead, Well she's
25:13
Speaker 1: got that money. She's got that fictional money. At least
25:16
Speaker 1: that's why to keep kidnapping her. Yeah, I mean that's
25:18
Speaker 1: probably part of it. I mean she needs to fire
25:21
Speaker 1: her security staff and we do. Oh, you're right, that
25:25
Speaker 1: is a good point. I'm just saying she needs to
25:29
Speaker 1: learn from past mistake. Now we're sounding like solid snake.
25:32
Speaker 1: Just don't get kidnapped. What if we've become Hey, the
25:36
Speaker 1: billions of dollars should help her security. Right, that's true.
25:40
Speaker 1: That's true. She has options for sure. Um. But okay,
25:43
Speaker 1: before we get too judgmental here, let's look back at
25:46
Speaker 1: her history. But first let's pause for a quick break
25:49
Speaker 1: for word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you sponsored.
26:06
Speaker 1: So let's go all the way back to Peach's first
26:10
Speaker 1: appearance in So She If if you don't know which
26:15
Speaker 1: I would be very shocked if you didn't. But let's
26:17
Speaker 1: make sure we're all on the same page. Her characterization
26:20
Speaker 1: is super feminine. She's got long blonde hair, though due
26:23
Speaker 1: to limitations, it often displayed as brown or red. Um.
26:28
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, they made such a big deal when
26:30
Speaker 1: she put it up in a ponytail the first time. Um,
26:33
Speaker 1: she's got a pink dress. Her appearance has not really
26:36
Speaker 1: changed that much over the years. Her demeanor is often
26:39
Speaker 1: described as like very sweet, gentle, polite, graceful, basically princessy.
26:44
Speaker 1: Because she threw out much of her history in the games,
26:47
Speaker 1: has exemplified these traditional traits of princesses. She is sometimes
26:51
Speaker 1: referred to as the universal princess or perfect princess. And
26:57
Speaker 1: by the way, she does have a cat form cat
27:00
Speaker 1: princess peach uh, and a wedding form when she's in
27:04
Speaker 1: a wedding dress, which we're going to get into why
27:06
Speaker 1: that is in a minute, um. And just to say,
27:09
Speaker 1: there's so much emphasis on her clothes and hair and
27:12
Speaker 1: crown and jewelry and researching this at the time she
27:15
Speaker 1: put on this thing or this thing or this thing,
27:17
Speaker 1: and for I want to compare, I went and read
27:21
Speaker 1: because a lot of this like basic stuff to get
27:24
Speaker 1: in a good context. I got from like the Mario
27:26
Speaker 1: wiki fandom page, and I went and read Mario's after
27:30
Speaker 1: I read hers, hardly any description of like the time
27:34
Speaker 1: he may be wore his hat a little differently, or
27:37
Speaker 1: like nothing because I wanted to make sure I wasn't
27:39
Speaker 1: reading too much into it. But now they really did
27:42
Speaker 1: put a lot of focus onto what she was wearing.
27:45
Speaker 1: That's really weird, especially since they can't draw her dress,
27:47
Speaker 1: so I know alright the um and some of her
27:53
Speaker 1: key moments throughout the games include, uh, Super Mario Brothers Too,
27:57
Speaker 1: where she is the weakest and the slowest. Care her
28:00
Speaker 1: also probably the worst of the three that I know
28:03
Speaker 1: to me, and it's Super Mario Brothers three when Toad
28:06
Speaker 1: plays a joke at the end of the English vert
28:08
Speaker 1: game by say quote, thank you, but our princess is
28:11
Speaker 1: in another castle. Just kidding, That's exactly how I hurt this.
28:16
Speaker 1: This is in reference to the gameplay that had Mario
28:18
Speaker 1: fighting increasingly difficult bosses in a series of castles to
28:22
Speaker 1: rescue Peach, only to find she's in another castle. Yep,
28:26
Speaker 1: like we talked about in the beginning, and now it's
28:29
Speaker 1: commonly used as yeah, sort of saying you're barking up
28:32
Speaker 1: the wrong tree. But you hear somebody say that, it's
28:34
Speaker 1: usually what they mean. In Super Mario sixty four, Oh,
28:40
Speaker 1: Peach bakes Mario cake and kisses him on the cheek.
28:44
Speaker 1: Kate comes up a lot in these games. I learned
28:46
Speaker 1: mostly in Peaches storylines, which I guess makes sense. Bowser
28:53
Speaker 1: attempts to marry Peach and Super Mario Odyssey and Mario
28:57
Speaker 1: Bowser fight over her and she rejects them both um.
29:01
Speaker 1: In Super Mario Maker, she rewards Mario with a kiss
29:04
Speaker 1: once once she was turned into a bad girl, and
29:08
Speaker 1: another time hypnotize to fall in love with Mario's evil
29:12
Speaker 1: alter ego Warrio. This turns her into a zombie, which
29:17
Speaker 1: is corrected with a hug from Mario. There's a lot
29:21
Speaker 1: of holding the Kingdom ransom unless Peach agrees to marriage,
29:24
Speaker 1: or brainwashing her to agree to marriage some possession. In
29:28
Speaker 1: Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars, character named
29:32
Speaker 1: Booster Quote falls in love with her and decides to
29:36
Speaker 1: force her to marry him, even though she is shouting
29:39
Speaker 1: in all caps, Mario, help me, help me, Mario, Mario
29:43
Speaker 1: help me. So uh not creepy at all. Yeah, I see,
29:50
Speaker 1: you know, like I said, I loved this game. I
29:53
Speaker 1: don't remember this. I remember the like there was a
29:57
Speaker 1: marriage you had to stop, but I don't remember. That
30:02
Speaker 1: seems pretty disturbing to me now, But I guess as
30:05
Speaker 1: a kid, I didn't pick up on that you could
30:08
Speaker 1: play Peach and Super Mario Brothers too, like you said, uh,
30:11
Speaker 1: And the idea was so different from what people were
30:15
Speaker 1: used to that when Flow Chlorus Shannon are Stewart asked
30:19
Speaker 1: young boys about playing Peach, many expressed confusion, saying something
30:23
Speaker 1: like quote, she's the one you're trying to save. Like
30:26
Speaker 1: they didn't get the gameplay without the fact that you're
30:30
Speaker 1: trying to save, or they didn't get that you would
30:31
Speaker 1: play her at all. Yeah, that's confusing. That's that is
30:36
Speaker 1: so telling. Um the ending of the game. That game
30:40
Speaker 1: was redesigned so that it was just one big dream
30:44
Speaker 1: of Mario's. So that's how they tried to make it
30:47
Speaker 1: make sense, like, oh, yeah, she actually never did do
30:50
Speaker 1: those things. He was just dreaming. So she was unlovable
30:54
Speaker 1: for the first time in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, but
30:57
Speaker 1: in her special attack she holes an opponents still wild
31:02
Speaker 1: towed attacks instead for the Little Tots guy um and
31:05
Speaker 1: in some iterations, especially in the sports games, she does
31:09
Speaker 1: have some really powerful moves and techniques, but in general
31:11
Speaker 1: she exists to be yes the damsel in distress, and
31:15
Speaker 1: in some instances she works against her captors, and in
31:18
Speaker 1: later games she becomes more feisty and enthusiastic such great
31:23
Speaker 1: words and sometimes flirty running joke or not, she is
31:27
Speaker 1: pretty much there to be kidnapped and rescued over and
31:30
Speaker 1: over and over again, which comes to the point, how
31:34
Speaker 1: many times has this woman been kidnapped? Over fifty times
31:39
Speaker 1: at the very least, and kidnapped as a baby, even
31:43
Speaker 1: sometimes for her beauty, sometimes for her kingdom, and sometimes
31:46
Speaker 1: to keep her from preventing some evil plot. Yeah. I
31:51
Speaker 1: did a lot of digging to try to get like
31:53
Speaker 1: a number, definitive number how many times she's been kidnapped,
31:56
Speaker 1: and I couldn't do it. So I just like, did
31:59
Speaker 1: control will find for the word kidnap, and it was
32:02
Speaker 1: fifty seven I think on the page I was reading
32:05
Speaker 1: of just like her every appearance in game and what happened.
32:08
Speaker 1: But then I was reading too because I thought fifty
32:10
Speaker 1: seven sounds low, really low. Um, It's there are other
32:13
Speaker 1: words people use for essentially kidnapping, so it's a lot.
32:17
Speaker 1: It is a lot. Uh, some argue, Oh, and I
32:22
Speaker 1: love that I found this that she's actually the most
32:24
Speaker 1: powerful character in the game, and that's one of the
32:27
Speaker 1: reasons she's kidnapped so much. Certainly one of the reasons
32:30
Speaker 1: she is kidnapped is because she is more powerful than
32:32
Speaker 1: Mario will ever be. But then the question becomes, how
32:36
Speaker 1: does she get kidnapped so much if she's the most
32:39
Speaker 1: powerful person. The hobby just kind of bored. Yeah, maybe
32:46
Speaker 1: maybe she's trying to spice things up. Maybe that's a
32:48
Speaker 1: particular kink. Maybe she just kendnapping herself because she just
32:51
Speaker 1: wants to be away from the kingdom. Oh, she doesn't
32:54
Speaker 1: like the responsibility. This is how she escapes. I like
32:58
Speaker 1: that interpretation is saying, Okay, she's playing all of them
33:02
Speaker 1: all right, all right, So I found an essay about this,
33:07
Speaker 1: and I think it was mostly ingest, but it's hard
33:09
Speaker 1: to tell, and I wanted to read some quotes from it.
33:12
Speaker 1: So it's an equal mix of obligation and satisfaction. Bowser
33:16
Speaker 1: may have aims of extending his rule, but Peaches there
33:19
Speaker 1: to launch an assault as needed and desired. Mario maybe
33:22
Speaker 1: fighting his way towards her, but he's just picking up
33:24
Speaker 1: the pieces left by Peaches Warfath. In fact, he's just
33:28
Speaker 1: a small part of the equation, the battle bread elation
33:31
Speaker 1: of it all. Peach loves the carnage with the fact
33:34
Speaker 1: that she's protecting the kingdom as an added bonus. Bowser,
33:38
Speaker 1: in spite of being thwarted time after time, is in
33:41
Speaker 1: love with Peach. Along with the destruction, The warrior princess
33:44
Speaker 1: constantly reeks and Mario willingly unaware of it all and
33:48
Speaker 1: blissfully unaware that his adventures are just a means for
33:51
Speaker 1: him to prove his worth to Peach. Between her natural
33:55
Speaker 1: abilities and her royal upbringing, Peach has been receiving conflicting
33:58
Speaker 1: instructions since her adoption. One voice tells her to become
34:01
Speaker 1: a dutiful, benevolent monarch, the other an unbeatable champion that
34:05
Speaker 1: shows no mercy to dissidence. As a result, there are
34:08
Speaker 1: two Peaches in one. One of them is the one
34:11
Speaker 1: we know and love, and the other is again the
34:14
Speaker 1: beast that hides within. There's a constant struggle within her
34:17
Speaker 1: to reconcile or two personas, and it's only because of
34:20
Speaker 1: her duty as a princess that the beast doesn't overtake
34:23
Speaker 1: the beauty. But every so often, every time Bowser steps
34:27
Speaker 1: into reek, havoc or there's a new sport to take part,
34:31
Speaker 1: the beast is unreleashed. Peach gets her chance to be
34:35
Speaker 1: the person she wants to be, even if it is
34:36
Speaker 1: in a limited capacity for moments at a time. She
34:40
Speaker 1: can escape the duldrums of monarchy and fulfill the potential,
34:43
Speaker 1: the primal force that's been a part of her since birth.
34:47
Speaker 1: So you might have been onto something. I feel like
34:49
Speaker 1: I'm right. That article seems to prove my point. I
34:52
Speaker 1: love it so much. Princess Peach is just so again.
34:58
Speaker 1: I haven't played a lot of these games, but in
34:59
Speaker 1: my kind of estimation of her, kind of cute, seeing girly,
35:05
Speaker 1: and I love reading about like her, loving carnage. Yeah,
35:14
Speaker 1: well the other side, the beauty side. So the game
35:18
Speaker 1: frequently alludes to the romantic relationship between Mario and Peach,
35:22
Speaker 1: and throughout the series they are called the cutest couple
35:26
Speaker 1: and described as having romantic entanglements. And by the way,
35:30
Speaker 1: did you already heard did you use this for a
35:32
Speaker 1: reason because of the recent events in the Smith household?
35:38
Speaker 1: What okay? You do? You don't know? I knew you
35:41
Speaker 1: didn't know. I was gonna ask because just to put
35:44
Speaker 1: some other perspective, was there there was a whole thing
35:47
Speaker 1: with data Smith having an extra relationship at one point,
35:51
Speaker 1: and she calls it an entanglement, and that's been kind
35:53
Speaker 1: of the twitter joke the past week. So when I
35:56
Speaker 1: saw romantic entanglements, I was like, oh my god, there
35:59
Speaker 1: it is. There's maybe that's the origination of this. That's
36:04
Speaker 1: where data got it from. Okay, oh it is Mario.
36:08
Speaker 1: I had heard something vaguely about that. I just didn't
36:10
Speaker 1: know that the finer details. I actually got it from
36:14
Speaker 1: Star Wars obviously, Imperial entanglements. I mean, it's it's legit.
36:20
Speaker 1: It's an entanglement, a romantic entanglements. I believe that was
36:25
Speaker 1: actually used in the game to describe them. I think, um,
36:32
Speaker 1: so it wasn't just me From James mcmannon at Games
36:37
Speaker 1: Rader when it comes to this relationship quote, should we
36:40
Speaker 1: really be encouraging the union of Mario and Peach? Anyway?
36:43
Speaker 1: Remember this is a man with side gigs as a doctor, carpenter, proke,
36:47
Speaker 1: art driver, and an archaeologist. Unless we forget he regularly
36:51
Speaker 1: competes at the Olympic Games. What chance of a healthy relationship.
36:56
Speaker 1: And for all the work Mario puts into saving Peach,
36:58
Speaker 1: he rarely sees anything of the word maybe Peach is
37:01
Speaker 1: just a bit mean. Yeah, she'll give Mario a kiss
37:03
Speaker 1: on the nose. Sometimes she'll bake him a cake. But
37:05
Speaker 1: let us not forget that Princess Peech is the dope
37:07
Speaker 1: teletarian ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. Can she not put
37:11
Speaker 1: a knighthood his way some other title? Can she not
37:15
Speaker 1: stretch to one evening on her at the Kingdom's nearest
37:18
Speaker 1: Pizza Express. I thought she did make him a night.
37:23
Speaker 1: Oh maybe she honors him at one of the games.
37:26
Speaker 1: So she also does that like classic princess thing. We're
37:30
Speaker 1: at the end. She gives a reward like she if
37:34
Speaker 1: you win for a long time, if you want Mario Kart,
37:37
Speaker 1: She's the one that would put the give you the trophy,
37:39
Speaker 1: put the like metal around your neck. Um. I don't know.
37:42
Speaker 1: I just appreciate these strong feelings about this fictional relationship.
37:46
Speaker 1: I totally understand. I know, I know, I've been there,
37:50
Speaker 1: I am there when it comes to Bowser. I did
37:55
Speaker 1: want to touch on that really quickly, her relationship with Bowser,
37:58
Speaker 1: because Bowser is not only determined to make her love him,
38:03
Speaker 1: and I don't want to even get into the interspecies.
38:07
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I don't want to get into it. Um.
38:10
Speaker 1: He is extremely possessive and sometimes UM he comes to
38:14
Speaker 1: her aid when another villain kidnaps are so he also
38:18
Speaker 1: sees her as kind of this object and prize to
38:21
Speaker 1: be had. Uh strange. So we did want to take
38:28
Speaker 1: a part some of these tropes that we've been talking
38:31
Speaker 1: about that come up a lot in these games. But
38:33
Speaker 1: first we're gonna pause for one more quick break for
38:35
Speaker 1: a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor.
38:52
Speaker 1: So we did want to talk about this whole idea
38:55
Speaker 1: of entitlement. The Princess is not in your castle. UM,
38:59
Speaker 1: that along with the Damsel and Distress troop pretty much
39:03
Speaker 1: runs these games. Um. I was thinking about it, and
39:08
Speaker 1: they started coming out in the eighties, the eighties, and
39:12
Speaker 1: I feel like during the eighties, we have a lot
39:14
Speaker 1: of pop culture examples of women being depicted as prizes
39:18
Speaker 1: to be won as objects from health characters. Often these
39:23
Speaker 1: male characters were stand ins for nerdy male writers to
39:26
Speaker 1: to win UM through actions. So a lot of movies,
39:31
Speaker 1: and I mean the eighties is by no means the
39:34
Speaker 1: only time this still happens. It's been happening for forever.
39:39
Speaker 1: But I just feel like the eighties has so many
39:41
Speaker 1: good popular examples of here's this nerdy, lonely guy who
39:46
Speaker 1: honestly probably isn't very attractive um conventionally, and he through
39:56
Speaker 1: like determination, persistence and actions, he eventually get the hot
40:01
Speaker 1: girl of the movie that was with like the popular dude.
40:04
Speaker 1: And so just seeing that um progression over and over
40:11
Speaker 1: and over again, and that the message that that sends,
40:15
Speaker 1: it's that same thing of like don't take no for
40:18
Speaker 1: an answer. Like as women, we owe men who have
40:23
Speaker 1: like done all these things that probably at least in
40:27
Speaker 1: a lot of these movies, we didn't ask them to
40:29
Speaker 1: do um, But because they did, they are owed, they
40:35
Speaker 1: are entitled. Yeah, And I think if you look at
40:40
Speaker 1: these games, there is definitely an air of that. And
40:44
Speaker 1: I mean even through some of the quotes we've read
40:47
Speaker 1: where it's talking about like doesn't peach oh Mario something, um,
40:54
Speaker 1: And it's different, it's complicated because she is the princess
40:56
Speaker 1: and he's like saving the kingdom as well as her.
41:00
Speaker 1: But there's definitely that like romantic layer. UM. Well, like
41:04
Speaker 1: we talked about in relationships in general, how they can't
41:07
Speaker 1: be just friendship. It obviously has to be romantic, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
41:13
Speaker 1: and then and then if you look at why Bowser
41:19
Speaker 1: is kidnapping her, it feels very much kind of like
41:22
Speaker 1: the whole idea of the trophy wife of I want,
41:26
Speaker 1: like if she's not a woman, she's just something to
41:30
Speaker 1: be had and like a pond to make Mario feel jealous. Uh.
41:36
Speaker 1: I guess you could say that about um when we
41:38
Speaker 1: talk about monarchies in general, that people would have marriages
41:41
Speaker 1: because of titles, because of unions, And it's kind of
41:44
Speaker 1: that same level in this moment of like, this is
41:47
Speaker 1: not about love, this is not about whatever. It's just
41:50
Speaker 1: if you take it, it's yours. And then not only
41:53
Speaker 1: is this person yours, but whatever is underneath her or
41:56
Speaker 1: comes with her is also yours. So it's kind of
41:58
Speaker 1: that whole level as well in such a weird concept.
42:02
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean, it's just the and that's that
42:06
Speaker 1: is another complicated layer. And I do love that we're
42:09
Speaker 1: having such a serious conversation about a very cartoony video game.
42:13
Speaker 1: But as we talked about it, it has had a
42:15
Speaker 1: huge impact and it like kids start playing it and
42:17
Speaker 1: seeing these messages at a young age, um, and it
42:22
Speaker 1: is hard to separate out because she is a princess,
42:24
Speaker 1: and there is that whole aspect of like marriaging, marrying
42:28
Speaker 1: off and getting stuff with it. But that's still like
42:31
Speaker 1: implies that I guess we don't have it really any
42:34
Speaker 1: examples of male princes, Like I don't know if a
42:38
Speaker 1: male prince in this gate would also be kidnapped all
42:40
Speaker 1: the time. Um. And that's that's part of the problem.
42:44
Speaker 1: We're gonna talk about that more in a minute, is
42:46
Speaker 1: that we don't see that version of it very much.
42:49
Speaker 1: We only see the princess getting kidnapped and the marriage
42:53
Speaker 1: proposal being forced along with that. And then it's confused
42:57
Speaker 1: even more by like this idea of love which they use,
43:01
Speaker 1: but it just doesn't. It's not it's not. And yeah,
43:07
Speaker 1: the challenging of like another man's masculinity where she's just
43:11
Speaker 1: sort of a pawn in this battle between Mario and
43:15
Speaker 1: Bowser and both want to be with her and it
43:17
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what she wants, um. And then along with
43:22
Speaker 1: that controlling this mushroom kingdom that everyone wants to control.
43:27
Speaker 1: Right It just you know, I like the better when
43:31
Speaker 1: she was Princess hill Stool and just kind of sat there.
43:35
Speaker 1: J K. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. That's all
43:37
Speaker 1: I know. That's all I know. So all of this
43:40
Speaker 1: that we're talking about was really picked apart. And the
43:42
Speaker 1: article that I mentioned that sort of was the inspiration
43:45
Speaker 1: for this idea that I can no longer get to.
43:47
Speaker 1: And I'm so cheap I'm unwilling to pay one single
43:50
Speaker 1: dollar to read it. Um it's called Your Princess Is
43:54
Speaker 1: in Another Castle and it's by Arthur two over at
43:56
Speaker 1: the Daily Beast. If you want to check it out,
43:58
Speaker 1: some of you might remember it. It It made it
44:00
Speaker 1: pretty big. It made the internet rounds when it came
44:03
Speaker 1: out because it came out right after that sorority shooting
44:06
Speaker 1: in California, and he was talking about like misogyny and
44:10
Speaker 1: nerd culture and look at the damage it's done. Um.
44:16
Speaker 1: So I did want to include this quote. Nerdy guys
44:19
Speaker 1: aren't guaranteed to get laid by the hot chicks as
44:22
Speaker 1: long as we work hard. There isn't a team of
44:23
Speaker 1: writers pulling for us to triumph by getting the girl.
44:28
Speaker 1: Um yeah, and you can see that and so many things.
44:33
Speaker 1: So much of our media is that exactly thing, right,
44:37
Speaker 1: um oh, And another thing, so much of our media
44:41
Speaker 1: is the damsel in distress. Okay, all right. This trope
44:45
Speaker 1: goes back at least two thousand years UM, and it
44:50
Speaker 1: was a particularly popular story during the Romantic and Gothic
44:54
Speaker 1: periods much much later, so it's been around for a while,
44:57
Speaker 1: and it's been popular for a while. The damsel was
45:00
Speaker 1: often tied up provocatively, sometimes naked um and the damsels
45:06
Speaker 1: the entire reason for the rescuer to prove their bravery
45:09
Speaker 1: and chivalry. Just it's all she exists for if you
45:14
Speaker 1: look at what many people mistake is the first appearance
45:16
Speaker 1: of Princess Peach Pauline from nine Donkey Kong that we
45:21
Speaker 1: talked about. She was also called Girl for a while,
45:23
Speaker 1: but later Pauline. She was portrayed as the beautiful girl
45:27
Speaker 1: in ads. She had like her cheeks were flushed, she
45:29
Speaker 1: was crying, one of her bikini straps was slipping off
45:32
Speaker 1: her shoulder. Her speech bubble read hell. She gets carried
45:37
Speaker 1: around by Donkey Kong like a piece of property as Mario,
45:39
Speaker 1: who was then called jump Man, chases after them, so
45:43
Speaker 1: she was right out the gate. Even the things some
45:45
Speaker 1: people mistake is her first appearance classic damsel in distress.
45:50
Speaker 1: When asked why Peach wasn't a playable character in the
45:53
Speaker 1: what it was at that time, New Super Mario Brothers,
45:55
Speaker 1: a wee game. The designers said they went with Toad
45:58
Speaker 1: instead because he looked were like Mario and Luigi. Great,
46:02
Speaker 1: so they went with a male character because he looked
46:05
Speaker 1: like all the other male characters. Okay, and the interviewer
46:11
Speaker 1: Chacey Johns then asked if the actual reason is if
46:14
Speaker 1: there would be no plot otherwise, you know, having no
46:18
Speaker 1: one kidnapped, and does Mario get a pass because it's Mario, right?
46:24
Speaker 1: I was thinking about that too, because it is like
46:28
Speaker 1: it is this huge thing and it has become a
46:30
Speaker 1: running joke that she always gets kidnapped, and it's almost
46:34
Speaker 1: like a self fulfilling prophecy, like people expect her to
46:38
Speaker 1: get kidnapped, so she's gonna get kidnapped. Some games are
46:42
Speaker 1: definitely playing with this trope, re gendering the roles. Some
46:47
Speaker 1: are more successful than others. A developer recoded the original
46:52
Speaker 1: Donkey Kong so that Pauline was rescuing Mario as a
46:55
Speaker 1: gift for his daughter. He and his daughter received death
47:01
Speaker 1: threats from strangers for this, and it's not like he
47:03
Speaker 1: was selling it. He just made it for his daughter,
47:06
Speaker 1: and he was interviewed about it and people sent them
47:09
Speaker 1: death threats out how protective some of these gamers are. Um. Oh,
47:15
Speaker 1: and I know I've recommended this game before, but Braid
47:18
Speaker 1: the game Braid plays with the damsel trope in a really,
47:21
Speaker 1: really unique and beautiful way. I want to talk about
47:23
Speaker 1: it so much, but I don't want to spoil it.
47:25
Speaker 1: Um And it's pretty short, so if you're just looking
47:28
Speaker 1: for a quick, quick play bread all right, So the
47:32
Speaker 1: damsel in distress is not always bad. Here's a quote
47:36
Speaker 1: from at Least nor over at Katako. In the end,
47:39
Speaker 1: I don't think there's anything wrong with having damsels in
47:42
Speaker 1: distress as long as we also have dudes in distress
47:45
Speaker 1: saving a person from harm. It's not a bad trope
47:47
Speaker 1: in itself. It only becomes problematic and boring, honestly, when
47:51
Speaker 1: the damsel is always a woman and the hero is
47:54
Speaker 1: always a man. Rescue narrators are innately compelling, but they
47:57
Speaker 1: need to be gender equitable and exists in as many
48:00
Speaker 1: combinations as possible. Men rescuing men, women rescuing women, women
48:04
Speaker 1: rescuing men, and yes, men rescuing women. Yeah, yeah, I agree,
48:10
Speaker 1: and I would also add, I think this problem is
48:15
Speaker 1: compounded by it's clear that usually the damsel only exist
48:22
Speaker 1: two be the damsel, like, there's no character development, they
48:27
Speaker 1: only exist to power the male plotline. And it's really
48:32
Speaker 1: clear like they're just kind of empty vessels. I mean,
48:36
Speaker 1: that's exactly how I thought of them, saying that I've
48:38
Speaker 1: only played the first and second and third Mario Brothers
48:41
Speaker 1: and then the Super Mario Kart. There was no story
48:44
Speaker 1: to it. It was just continuing to an endpoint. And
48:48
Speaker 1: so that's why I couldn't even remember her name other
48:50
Speaker 1: than that doesn't sound right, Oh, this is what I
48:53
Speaker 1: know her name as like, that's exactly how I knew it, right,
48:56
Speaker 1: It's the only reason she exists. Right. And to be fair, though,
48:59
Speaker 1: I do forget a lot of names, so I make
49:02
Speaker 1: up my own names. There's that I think, you know,
49:05
Speaker 1: he's the only one that I like and know really
49:07
Speaker 1: well because I always thought it was super cute and
49:10
Speaker 1: I love that he can eat the fruit with his tongue.
49:12
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know. I I feel that one
49:17
Speaker 1: of my skill sets is being your nerd translator. So
49:20
Speaker 1: you thank you, thank you. Speaking of as you know,
49:25
Speaker 1: I've been watching a lot of Star Wars lately. I've
49:27
Speaker 1: made a new observation, and it is that Luke Skywalker
49:31
Speaker 1: is the damsel and just dressing those about some hate mail.
49:34
Speaker 1: It's true he needs more at rescuing than Land does.
49:37
Speaker 1: I counted by, not like a little number, by a
49:40
Speaker 1: big number. I just want to put that in there.
49:45
Speaker 1: I think it is different because that's not the only
49:48
Speaker 1: reason he exists as a character, and there's no like
49:51
Speaker 1: prize necessarily aspect in saving dam It's just like friendship
49:57
Speaker 1: or love. Oh but I just want to point that out.
50:01
Speaker 1: I found it interesting that I've watched those movies probably
50:03
Speaker 1: hundreds of times, and I've never really been like, huh, wow,
50:07
Speaker 1: he needs rescuing a lot in this like a short
50:10
Speaker 1: span of time, So maybe we perceive it differently. That's
50:15
Speaker 1: what I was thinking, is what I'm pondering in my brain,
50:18
Speaker 1: because in our Princess Lea episode, we talked about how
50:22
Speaker 1: Princess Leah sort of is the damsel in distress but
50:25
Speaker 1: isn't um. But then I was like, well, Luke is
50:30
Speaker 1: in that same situation right anyway. And now here's my
50:35
Speaker 1: final final note. I just wanted to add a little
50:39
Speaker 1: thing I found from dictionary dot com about the peach
50:42
Speaker 1: emoji of the actual peach. Because we have, for some
50:45
Speaker 1: reason talked about emoji's a lot here they are important.
50:49
Speaker 1: Um So here's a quote officially called the peach emoji.
50:55
Speaker 1: The butt emoji was first introduced in under Unicode six
50:58
Speaker 1: point oh as. It's fuzzy, cleft appearance looks like a plumper,
51:01
Speaker 1: and the peach emoji quickly game to stand for buttocks
51:05
Speaker 1: on social media and in text messages, especially especially a
51:09
Speaker 1: woman's in sexual context. And Apple released an updated version
51:14
Speaker 1: of the peach emoji that resembled the fruit more than
51:16
Speaker 1: the anatomy, but the change was met with such popular
51:18
Speaker 1: uproar that the company reverted to its original design. I
51:22
Speaker 1: love that, and also it became kind of a sign
51:25
Speaker 1: for resistance the impeachment uh emoji. There it is, there
51:29
Speaker 1: we go. I just wanted to include that. I used
51:31
Speaker 1: it in Savor too, and I love it so much.
51:34
Speaker 1: It's good my dog, yes, who I am introducing in
51:38
Speaker 1: D and D tonight. By the yes, I based a
51:42
Speaker 1: character off of Samantha's dog Peaches uh and for our
51:48
Speaker 1: Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and I I love it. What
51:52
Speaker 1: what this. What she's gonna do is show up in
51:55
Speaker 1: every place they are and ruined things for them. But
51:59
Speaker 1: this nicest way, That's what I was saying. Please just
52:01
Speaker 1: set it up where she just comes around and you
52:03
Speaker 1: think she's just adorable, this little dog, but all the
52:05
Speaker 1: time she just gets hum in trouble always, but she
52:09
Speaker 1: doesn't know it, and she tries to be cute and
52:11
Speaker 1: she tries to be helpful, but she's gonna get you killed.
52:14
Speaker 1: I love it. I'm so excited to hear about this
52:16
Speaker 1: because it's gonna be great because they're not gonna they've
52:19
Speaker 1: just started, so they're not going to really know how
52:20
Speaker 1: much of a problem she is. I think like the
52:23
Speaker 1: third time she pops off is when they're going to
52:24
Speaker 1: be like, no, they're gonna hate my dog before they
52:28
Speaker 1: meet my dog. It's gonna be great inspiration. Um, if
52:34
Speaker 1: your listeners have any any ideas you want to share
52:38
Speaker 1: some possible inspiration about topics, we can talk about her.
52:41
Speaker 1: If you have any thoughts about Peach or my Luke's
52:44
Speaker 1: got Walker or D and D. I will happily base
52:47
Speaker 1: a character, taking character ideas and blot ideas all the time.
52:52
Speaker 1: You can email us our email is Stuff Media mom
52:54
Speaker 1: Stuff at i heeart media dot com. You can find
52:57
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at stuff I Ever Told You, are
52:59
Speaker 1: on Twitter or app Mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks as always
53:03
Speaker 1: to our super producer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you
53:07
Speaker 1: for listening Stuff I Ever Told You the production of
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53:14
Speaker 1: your favorite shows,