Waluigi, Unraveled

wah Luigi the tall bastard man that Nintendo loves to disrespect we know he's number one but who really is he and where did he come from and why hasn't Nintendo given him his own game the cult following of waluigi cannot be overstated he is an icon the patron saint of weird content creators but isn't it strange that this character so beloved by nintendo fans seems to be completely disregarded by the company i don't believe that's actually the truth nintendo cares almost too much about their characters they rarely put a character into a game unless they're 100% sure it's a good fit and i think this is the reason why waluigi has been sidelined nintendo doesn't know what waluigi is all about so dug Bowser I have collected every single piece of waluigi lore into this one simple video and i'll be presenting it to you so you can finally make that waluigi game haha this is my first attempt don't get better in order to understand waluigi perfectly we have to take a look at every appearance he's made in a nintendo game they're the only ones that count toward cannon if you'd like me to discuss waluigi x' non-canonical appearances i can definitely do that for you dug it'll just have to be in my off hours because it is definitely not safe for work here's every waluigi appearance sorted by release date these 63 games contain the entirety of waluigi's characterization he's playable in 50 of them and we can split those playable games into sports and party games I combed through each of these appearances grasping at any piece of waluigi characterization but the vast majority of them treat waluigi as a meat puppet a space filler an extra body on the character select screen and honestly that's one way to see waluigi i hear you dug bowser why should I care about a space filler character well you already care about a space filler character a little fella named Mario let's discuss while Luigi's counterparts to shed some light on his origin the original Donkey Kong was supposed to have Popeye characters but Nintendo couldn't get the license so Shigeru Miyamoto created an unnamed player character as a stand-in and that space filler was later named Mario people think that characters have to have some deep backstory in order for people to like them but that's not true people love Mario because of his humble origins the same cannot be said about the rightfully despised coward boy that is Luigi you see Luigi was made because they needed a player to in the game so they just palette swapped Mario that is a character filling a space by copying another filled space as much as I hate to admit it I will have to revisit Luigi later in this video because he is key to developing the personality of waluigi and that's partially because of Wario Mario wasn't made by Miyamoto supposedly the team behind Super Mario Land 2 6 golden coins didn't enjoy being forced to make a Mario game because they didn't create the character so hero Jackie O taka created a bad Mario someone that had all of Mario's evils exaggerated and finally we have waluigi who was created by the same character designer who worked on gold and sun the guy who made Satoru son Isaac and all of these intense powerful characters used his talents to make the most intense most powerful character and he made him for a very important reason because Wario didn't have a doubles partner in mario tennis if Wario is just the evil exaggerated form of Mario then waluigi is the same for Luigi and that's really all we get from waluigi x' first encounter that ends the fact that luigi is not afraid of him [Music] Luigi the milksop who is afraid of all is not afraid of his evil funhouse mirror twin there's something to that but I don't know if I can quite grasp it without discussing all of the lore first so let's switch back here as I mentioned before the tangent waluigi often plays the role of meat puppet so not all of these games have lore that is useful to us in developing a waluigi game so i'll take them off the board after cutting we're left with five references to waluigi 7 party games and 13 sports games from these 25 appearances we can take all the juicy morsels and put them into a list of waluigi truths let's start with the references those Super Smash has notoriously snubbed our large purple child the trophies do a pretty good job of fleshing out his character super smash brothers melee lays out eight waluigi truths in just three sentences this tall thin evil looking guy seems to be Luigi's rival for things right there tall thin evil looking seems to be Luigi's rival that one really isn't definitive so we'll keep it ambiguous he works hard at his mischief waluigi reportedly spent a lot of time training for his debut in mario tennis by honing his ability to antagonize the mario brothers while luigi is a mischief-maker and he takes it seriously while it's general knowledge that he's the same age as luigi his relationship to mario is unclear luigi is exactly the same age as waluigi and i do not know who that reflects worse on also I love that waluigi is connected to Wario but no one's ever cared to take a closer look are they friends accomplices lovers come on be it's unclear the next smash games really hammer home these truths only adding that he must also have a crooked mustache a large nose and a love of kicking hmm the final reference comes from Mario and Rabbids kingdom battle where a large rabid called waluigi appears this is the closest why Luigi has ever come to appearing in a plot based mario game a [ __ ] rabbit has had more screen time than the original waluigi what can we learn from this as we move on to the party games a lot of waluigi slores reiterated the main additions are that he is a misanthrope who loves to party there are two strange pieces of info in the party games in Mario Party 5 each pairing gets a different team name and Mario + waluigi are pseudo bros not enemies it seems like mario is okay working with waluigi instead of luigi ii weird piece of info is in mario party 4 where waluigi is described with the quote that waluigi is a serious sneak watch out for his sparky sticker this quote doesn't have any useful info for us but the phrase watch out for his Sparky sticker is the worst and I hate it and why'd you put it in a family-friendly video game Nintendo finally we have the sports games where waluigi started mario tennis set the tone for waluigi with two truths one that he's highly skilled as a technique player and two that luigi is not afraid of him this one's still weird these ones all have quotes that reiterate what we know about waluigi he's hardworking and he's skilled even if he cheats sometimes we have some metaphysical characterization in Super Mario Strikers where the legend states wall Luigi's ego tends to be his biggest enemy in Mario hoops three-on-three his baller name is the question which I think just solidifies him as an enigma Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games shows that waluigi is a great jumper and waluigi special move in mario super sluggers is the liar ball which is a ball that he splits into two copies one real and one false which emphasizes his mischievousness in Mario power tennis there is a blooper reel where waluigi is aware that this is all a show does this mean that waluigi is able to break the fourth wall or doesn't prove what I already knew that waluigi is great on camera it's hot under these lights anyone else I'm here I'm just gonna pop this bad boy off if that's okay and in Mario Tennis Power Tour waluigi appears without Wario their relationship was never clear but it is surprising that waluigi who was built to be Wario's tennis partner can appear in a tennis game without him Luigi's still there why can't waluigi exist without Luigi save us all a headache and that's basically all of the waluigi lore you can learn from the games the 23 waluigi truths and you can use them to create a waluigi video game and i can stop this video here Doug but I'll tell you what I'll do you a favor I'll tell you what I think the waluigi game should look like since i've done the research for you if you're gonna make a waluigi game you're gonna need to make it distinct nintendo does a great job of tying gameplay to what makes a character special Mario's got platformers locked Wario has eccentric greedy micro games Luigi you know what let's actually go through Luigi's Truths and see how it led to Luigi's Mansion Luigi is foolish he's a coward he's weak he's pitiful and you take these truths and you think hmm what kind of setting would allow this mistake of a human to really exhibit his uselessness a haunted house this man has been bamboozled into comedic haunted-house entrapment three times something most hollywood stooges have only been duped into once he's a big dumb idiot and I would hate to be associated with it but while Luigi is luigi's twisted reflection so his game will be far removed from this numpty let's make it first we're gonna move the truth that our physical traits to the side since they're baked into waluigi next we have to decide on a cast of characters honestly waluigi has been sidelined for so long that this needs to be a solo mission now let's talk about the rest of these truths if you were to separate them out you could probably make dozens of different games a mischievous prank game a game where waluigi gets Shiu ste every night then I'm not opposed to these games but waluigi contains multitudes why does he turn to mischief why does he work so hard only to be cast aside by society who is this enigma of a man whose true enemy is himself the waluigi game like the man should be a mystery nintendo already has wonderful mystery games but they're too cute waluigi is raw he's real to convey the complex emotions of a complex man we can't rely on traditional animation styles the waluigi video game should be full motion video Doug I know this is a wild concept a Nintendo is not known for live action video mysteries but waluigi is just the intellectual property to explore this new genre imagine waluigi has a hard-nosed investigator struggling to pick apart the pieces of who he is a man solving himself i mean there is the issue of casting you gotta find someone who is evil looking and has a crooked moustache and a big nose and is great at jumping and you know that's a it's a hard task to find one guy who's got all those features you know well now wait a second Doug if you take a look at my truths you'll find that they're nearly the same as waluigi so i'm hardworking i'm a bit of a scamp and though i might not be as tall and lean there's enough of me that wants to be waluigi that i devote everything to being i need this role doug i spent the past few months devising this pitch for you no one wants this more cares more about waluigi than i do i will fight charles martinet for this role is that what you want Doug you pick the weapons I will end his career that's why I hope you'll consider me for waluigi's currently untitled full motion video game but there's something that's still nagging at me I'm sure you noticed that I didn't address all of these waluigi truths why does every single quote state that waluigi thinks he's Luigi's rival you could read this as waluigi not being important enough for Luigi to consider him as a rival but why go through the trouble of putting that in every single description why not just make their rivalry canon and the fact that Luigi is not afraid of him he's mind-boggling Luigi's personality is 90% fear and 10% being green mario is shocked when waluigi appears and yet Luigi is calm like he somehow expected and if waluigi thinks his biggest enemy is Luigi then how can his actual biggest enemy be his eco does that make Luigi the ego to waluigi x' and Luigi and waluigi are the same person it's so simple luigi is just manifesting his own repressed desires as an alternate personality a shocking twist that no one's ever done in media before waluigi is just the exaggerated form of Luigi's deepest to design the wants to be skilled that wants to be respected want to party while Luigi is everything Luigi wishes he could be but could never be under the famous gaze of his famous brother and amazing what an amazing truth what an amazing room for me as well think of the Akal a game award the respect as someone who wish to be waluigi for so many years us someone who wished if there are two personalities and my number one or am I the one who is along Oh God inaudible Mooji [Music] [Music] [Music] and that's just one potential ending to waluigi's currently untitled full motion video game if you're interested in licensing the idea Doug feel free to reach out to my agent and we can get filming tomorrow or in like five months cuz I am gonna have to grow the mustache but I probably should have shaved it before we you know what I don't have an agent so just don't contact me I don't want to play Luigi so is so hard to sob while shaving because it gets on your mouth

Channel: Polygon

Views: 3,324,447

Keywords: waluigi, Nintendo, bowser, brian david gilbert, bdg, unraveled, videogames, video games, polygon, switch, mario, luigi, wario, mario tennis aces, mario tennis, mario party, number one, mario kart, wah, doug bowser, nintendo of america, waluigi game, game, hilarious, shaving, mustache, moustache, purple, villain, fmv, full motion video, nintendo switch, gamecube, n64, vesti la giubba, opera, sad clown, lore, discussion, theory, funny, ridiculous, melodramatic, absurd

Id: L3XnKr0lvDw

Length: 16min 10sec (970 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 23 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/woofle07]

I can’t believe he’s been growing that mustache for over 5 months, just so he could shave it off for a Waluigi joke. That’s next level dedication to the bit.

[u/AwesomeManatee]

"After all, if Waluigi fans got their way and Waluigi got his way, would he be Waluigi anymore? Would he be so frustratingly loved, so perfect for in-jokes and shenanigans if he wasn't the obscure, the forgotten, the terminal bastard understudy? If Waluigi gets what he wants the bitterness goes away, the self-pitty goes away, and - perhaps - the Waluigi goes away. He may indeed cease to be Waluigi."

- Jim Sterling, world's number one Waluigi fan.

[u/Cebtmuinzvrx]

obligatory

Waluigi is the ultimate example of the individual shaped by the signifier. Waluigi is a man seen only in mirror images; lost in a hall of mirrors he is a reflection of a reflection of a reflection. You start with Mario – the wholesome all Italian plumbing superman, you reflect him to create Luigi – the same thing but slightly less. You invert Mario to create Wario – Mario turned septic and libertarian – then you reflect the inversion in the reflection: you create a being who can only exist in reference to others. Waluigi is the true nowhere man, without the other characters he reflects, inverts and parodies he has no reason to exist. Waluigi’s identity only comes from what and who he isn’t – without a wider frame of reference he is nothing. He is not his own man. In a world where our identities are shaped by our warped relationships to brands and commerce we are all Waluigi.

Jesus Christ that is one good video.

[u/Seevian]

That was actually beautiful

[u/Fourseti]

This is the type of results passion produces, well fuckin done lol

[u/Darkblazefire]

Wah

[u/Tom_Videogre]

Damn, he's a performer.

Another classic vid.

[u/bauski]

Really cool to see this guy's videos on here. Polygon has done a great job to find a video content creator that brings some entertainment into their try and video game review culture. Good on whoever is the content director there at Polygon. Keep this man around! (Why am I typing here like Polygon is even going to read this?)

[u/Tribaldragon1]

Bryan David Gilbert is a treasure and too good for this world.