Peachtelligence Quotient

[CrossEyed7]

Original post at Waluigious, a blog which you really ought to read if you don't already. Discuss or maybe don't.

[Mr. Wiggles]

Nothing with the name "Waluigi" in it is worth reading.

[Turtlekid1]

I bet you would read the blog if it posted a Peachawtness quotient.

Seriously, though, I seem to remember Peach throwing me a life-saving Super Mushroom the first time I ever fought Bowser in SMW, so I can't really agree with the "no help whatsoever" assessment for that game.

[Super Caterina!]

I have never had doubts of this! XD

[Mr. Wiggles]

I bet you would read the blog if it posted a Peachawtness quotient.

When did I become ShadowBrain?

[jdaster64]

I think Teehee Valley (MLSS) should be way farther down than it already is. Good for racking up the EXP, but not much else.

Also, on the note of playing MLSS with two controllers on the Gameboy Player, my sister and I thought of that a LONG time ago, fella.  It made that game ever so much more hectic, especially during Advanced Bros. Attacks.

[Weegee]

I think Teehee Valley (MLSS) should be way farther down than it already is.

Agreed. Imagine how much hassle she'd have saved everyone, herself included, simply by huddling behind the Bros. like the defenseless fluffball she's proven herself to be.

Conversely, SMB2 should've been included as a case for her elusive intelligence.

[CrossEyed7]

Super Mario Bros. 2 is "Sir Not Appearing In This Chart" since not only do none of the playables of this game show even the minutest amount of personality, but they also were just figments of Mario's subconscious. It's funny how you can strip a character of personification by making him/her playable.

[PghPens]

Time to enter psychologist mode here...

We've all heard cases on the news about people getting kidnapped. A lot of them have problems and almost appear to take a step or two back from the point they reached when they had developed. If you got kidnapped as often as Peach, I'm sure you'd exhibit signs of not appearing too bright sometimes because of the trauma it caused.

To further back up this point--sometimes, there are conditions that are the result of kidnapping (Stockholm Syndrome comes to mind in particular but I'm sure other conditions could develop--this would be an interesting study to conduct).

Let's add to this another variable--Peach's age. I'm going to assume she is 23 in the first game and because video games can distort things, this age remains constant over time (in other words, she is 23 in both 1985 and 2009 as well as every year in between). Folks going through this time in their lives are still developing in many ways. Mental capacity, physical strength, and brain development have yet to peak. It's also at the beginning of Erik Erikson's "Intimacy vs. Isolation" stage, and Peach may be regressing because she doesn't have a steady love partner in her life (Mario does not count since she is kidnapped and isolated from him a good bit of the time and also because I can't see them spending every waking minute of their lives together--after all Mario has to unclog toilets and fix shower heads). Failure to "pass" this stage in life may have led to a good deal of depression, which can cause mental performance to lag due to feeling down. Mental performance and capacity can also appear to be limited when trauma is part of one's life--ask a former POW about this one.

From my observations, Peach is probably a very intelligent young lady, but various psychological factors don't let her true mind shine through all the time. However, her personality appears to be unchanged by any of this, which is evident when she throws mushrooms to Mario in SMW even when she's being held hostage inside the clown copter.

[CrossEyed7]

There's probably something to be said about the way Mario fans treat Peach's kidnappings as though they are entirely her fault. Comparisons might be made between us and those who blame rape victims.

[Weegee]

She was asking to be kidnapped in a dress like that.

Tentative plot twist for Mr. Miyamoto, who is undoubtedly reading this: Have Peach undergo relentless psychological manipulation at the hands of Bowser until she gains a twisted sense of affection towards her captor. Mario must then, upon reaching Bowser's Castle, incapcitate and re-kidnap the noncompliant princess in hopes of weaning her warped psyche back into order.

[CrossEyed7]

The fact that she apparently had to think about whether she was Bowser Jr.'s mama might indicate that she already has a twisted sense of affection towards her captor. Or that she actually was raped.

Which reminds me, I hope Sapphira finishes the next chapter of The Prophecy soon.

[PghPens]

Perhaps it's time for "Dr. Mario: Psychiatrist Edition". They could use some sort of hypnotic device, perhaps.

I don't know if anyone remembers a series of children's books by Louis Sachar called "Wayside School", but if you do, there was a story that could be a great inspiration in there. It was in the third book of the series and was about a guy who hypnotized people so bad that things actually happened (I think a woman's cigarettes turned into bugs or something in the book). Imagine Bowser gets hypnotized like that and pictures Peach as, say, Wario. Now THAT would make for an interesting plotline.

[penguinwizard]

I don't know if anyone remembers a series of children's books by Louis Sachar called "Wayside School", but if you do, there was a story that could be a great inspiration in there. It was in the third book of the series and was about a guy who hypnotized people so bad that things actually happened (I think a woman's cigarettes turned into bugs or something in the book). Imagine Bowser gets hypnotized like that and pictures Peach as, say, Wario. Now THAT would make for an interesting plotline.

I remember Wayside School. From school. The kids wouldn't shut up about it. And yet I can't remember a thing about it now, except that (at least in the first book) each chapter was named after a different kid.

I think the image in Super Mario RPG of Bowser kissing Mario was more than enough. At least Peach was smart enough to duck out of the way. I presume that's what's going on in the Marrymore sequence. I never fully understood the how and why of it. She did say "Mario, let's start with you first". Maybe then Bowser assumed Peach would walk over to him, or maybe he'd just blindly walk forward and Mario just happened to be in the way. But Booster's eyes are open if he goes into the kiss, so out goes that theory. And if it's Peach who goes in for the kiss, then Bowser and Booster somehow kiss each other I think... even though they were standing near each other. I mean, how did that happen? I know they're dumb as bricks, but how? Did Peach move them together?
Oh, and if Bowser and Booster kiss Mario, Mario's just as oblivious (he's got that grin on his face afterward), so it's like she tricked everyone. How?

So other than that... if it's Bowser thinking Peach is Wario, he won't ever capture her again unless he and Wario are buddies. Probably expect Peach to do some gas action with which to defeat Mario. If he thinks Wario (or anyone else) is Peach... yeah, that'd be interesting. But it would not be fun if he thought one of his Koopaling kids was Peach. ......yeah it would be.

[N64 Chick]

I happen to have all three Wayside School books, so I can go into more detail on what PghPens was talking about.

Dr. Pickell was a hypnotist. A woman came to him because she wanted to quit smoking. He hypnotized her into thinking that cigarettes were worms. He also made it so that when her husband said "potato" she'll slap him across the face. Dr. Pickell had a habit of playing mean tricks like that.