For almost 45 years, gaming has played a pivotal role in our lives, it helped people, it hurt people, it made people feel all kinds of things, This series will be talking about gaming history, gaming nostalgia, gaming series, gaming systems, Gaming Companies, games in general, and everything in between. I'l be talking about some of the systems of the late 90s/very early 2000s (Windows 9x and it's games, the Dreamcast, The N64 (REVISITED), Playstation 1, and maybe the handhelds of that era (Game Boy Color (REVISITED), Neo Geo Pocket Color, and the Japan only Wonderswan (Color))), I'll be talking some systems not many people know about (PC Engine/TurboGrafx, MSX/MSX2 Computer Systems, and the Japanese computers that birthed many franchises, ports, and little known companies like Nihon Falcom and Game Arts), I'll be talking about games from all eras and systems (like Pokemon for it's 20th anniversary in a year), I'll be talking about Companies that are interesting in one way or another, and most of all I'll be talking about anything and everything gaming.
BUT WHEN DOES IT COME OUT?
RIGHT NOW!!!!!
It's not really a secret that I love Princess Peach, but currently she's the most hated Mario Character that isn't a tall slender purple evil clone of Luigi. But why all the hate? Why is she more loved as Rule 34 art on DeviantArt? What are her origins? What makes her have a following of fans that defend her and draw her? Find out today...
First thing you need to know is the Damsel in Distress trope and it's role in video games. Up until relatively recently, video games didn't have epic interesting stories that rivaled Hollywood Movies. There was very little to no plot in early arcade games. You didn't need to know why Pac-Man (Mr. or Ms.) was collecting pellets while running away from ghosts in maze-like atmospheres, or why Frogger was crossing roads and rivers to get to his home 5 times, all that mattered that was the Game was fun. When they did start putting story into these games in the 90s, these weren't as interesting. 1981's Donkey Kong introduced a little something known as story... It wasn't that interesting of a Story, but it was there. Jumpman (later to become Mario) saves his Girlfriend Pauline (AKA Peach 1.0) from Donkey Kong. It's formulaic, but you've got to understand, when the source material for most early Disney films were new, That was revolutionary, heck the Damsel in Distress in both examples was a trope that existed for as long as storytelling itself. Over the next few decades, Video games got more detailed characters, both in models/sprites and in stories. It's kind of the reason I don't want to see Mario deviate away from the classic Mario saves Peach from Bowser Story, It'd probably lose the simplistic charm that the series had for over 3 decades.
In the 1980s Development began on Super Mario Bros., Pauline and Donkey Kong weren't going to fit in this fantasy universe, and DK was suffering from the flop of Donkey Kong 3. So Shigeru Miyamoto wanted new characters in their place (those being Peach and Bowser). Keep in mind this was before video games were being taken seriously as an storytelling art form, and before the internet, not to mention Peach was Mentioned but not seen until the end of the game, so people just accepted it. Peach got a bigger role in Super Mario 2 (US version (AND NO I'M NOT ENGAGING IN THE WHOLE "IS IT A MARIO GAME?" ARGUMENT!!!!! ONE THING AT A TIME)). Being the female she was in an average late 80s game, She wasn't he fastest, or the strongest, but she could glide for a short amount of time. Unfortunately This would lead to the bigger issue which I'll touch on soon, A few more Damsel roles later, They made up for her slow and weak nature by making her one of the fastest in Mario Kart. Yeah... I see people hating her because males don't like the whole Disney Princess angle Miyamoto went for, and Females don't like all the unfortunate implications she set throughout her 30 year life.
Let me explain, I can't say i speak for any Female in the world, for the longest time she was the only big female in the Mario canon, and at first she was depicted as a weak, defenseless princess, and when she was the only female in Mario 2, It made sense, Since not only was the Mario Mythos limited at the time, but so was the power of the NES. But what didn't make sense was her weak and slow nature, Since Metroid came out the very previous year. Sure her gender was hidden for most of the story, but it ties in with how Females were depicted in the Early NES era. She was the only female regular in the Mario Canon for pretty much the entire duration of the 90s, which probably made some Female gamers feel uneasy (since they felt like they were obligated to play as her rather than Toad or Yoshi or whoever), especially with the possibilities of the N64 era. She was definitely the fastest in the Mario Kart series for the first 3 games (especially 64), which caused more of an uproar because... Anita Sarkeesian/Angry Feminists, This is why I don't like you... You got what you want, now this is not it? MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!!!!! They tried to fix the too little females in Mario Golf with Maple and Plum, but those were Camelot's (the developers of the game) characters. The following year in 2000, We got Mario Tennis which introduced Daisy as a regular as well as Birdo (NO I'M NOT GOING TO ENGAGE IN THE WHOLE "IS BIRDO A TRANNY?" EITHER!!!!! THIS IS A PEACH BLOG, NOT A BIRDO BLOG), over the next few years, We've gotten more of them, like Rosalina and Toadette.
Still she has gained a following over her lifetime. She's had merchandise, art, and cosplayers. What is it about her? Well she's modest for one thing, she's almost never sexually exploited in the official universe. That's also why she's been exploited in DeviantArt and god knows what else, because if there's one thing Fan artists like more than furries, it's drawing characters who normally aren't Sexually Exploited as essentially Playboy/Maxim Models. The general public likes her for being cute but athletic. She can also defend herself pretty well as the Smash Bros games show, But It's anyone's call who would win in a fight Peach or Bowser using Current Info.
That's my views on Princess Peach, Hopefully you liked it as much as I liked writing it...
NEXT TIME...
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