This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
NOTE: This PG proposal will only cover mainline Peach's deeds, including those from the Mario & Luigi series, as well as her two games Super Princess Peach and Princess Peach Showtime. No information from Paper Mario, the movie, the anime movie, and cartoons will be listed, as they are not canon, especially considering her paper and movie counterparts are approved PGs. Also, this proposal contains spoilers due to containing information from Princess Peach: Showtime. Reader discretion is advised. |

"I can slay my own dragon. I can dream my own dreams. My knight in shining armor is me. So I'm gonna set me free." (I know a Cheetah Girls song has nothing to do with Princess Peach, but this portion of the lyrics sums up my point)
In wake of the PG drought, where no recent PG proposals have been out, I give you Princess Peach. She is said to have failed the admirable standards to Mario and Luigi. Now, a new game Princess Peach Showtime launched two weeks ago, and the princess' heroism has been expanded on, and she has done more admirable deeds since.
As always, special thanks to Emeraldblade95 for giving me permission to do this PG Reproposal.
Shall we begin? Alright, let's go.
What is the Work?
Almost everyone, whether or not they are in the Super Mario fandom knows this, but Super Mario is a franchise of platforming video games developed by, you guessed it: Nintendo. Most of the time, the player takes control of Mario and/or his brother Luigi and they have rescue Princess Peach from the franchise's main antagonist Bowser. Since then, the franchise's popularity spawned spin-off titles like Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario & Luigi series, and what not.
Who is She?
Princess Peach is the tritagonist of the Super Mario franchise. As her title suggests, she is the princess and de-facto ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom and has over a dozen of Toads at her disposal. Her debut appearance reveals that she has hidden magic powers to undo Bowser's spell placed upon the Mushroom Kingdom, as such, she is often a prime target for kidnapping, usually by Bowser (to be rescued by Mario and/or Luigi, dependent on who the player plays as). Though she is usually the damsel in distress, she takes upon active roles when not kidnapped, most notably the Mario + Rabbids Games, Super Princess Peach, and Princess Peach Showtime.
What Makes Her Pure Good?
- As stated by the game's manual for Super Mario Bros., Peach considered undoing the spell Bowser placed upon the Mushroom Kingdom and restore it to its former state, although she fails as she got captured and spent the whole game imprisoned, only to be rescued in the end.
- In Super Mario Sunshine, she acted as Mario's lawyer and tried to defend Mario when the latter got put on trial after being framed for vandalizing Isle Delfino, but to no avail.
- She tries to warn Mario and Toadsworth about the Shadow Mario (later revealed to be Bowser Jr., being the first to observe him.
- She contributed to saving all the Sprixie Princesses from Bowser, and is the first of the group to pursue him without hesitation.
- She rescued Mario, Luigi, and 205 Toads that were imprisoned throughout the game from Bowser in her first solo game.
- She contributed to saving Star Road from the hands of Smithy.
- She uses Birdo as her decoy so Cackletta would get Birdo's voice instead of her own, knowing fully well Cackletta wants to use her voice to awaken the Beanstar.
- She temporarily seals Elder Princess Shroob in the Cobalt Star, before Elder Princess Shroob ends up shattering the star.
- She took part in Bowser's defeat, by shattering the Dream Stone he has absorbed.
- In Princess Peach Showtime, she has done several deeds depending on the stage play in Sparkle Theater
- Several of the stages has her using the Sparkle to motivate the Theets to clear certain obstacles to allow her to continue traversing the plays and rescues them from the Sour Bunch.
- She rids the Castle of Thron of all the thorns the Sour Bunch placed, thus restoring the castle to its state of glory and saved all the kidnapped Theets from the Ghostly Castle in the Swordfighter stages.
- She saves a few Theets from being trapped in barrels, retrieved all the stolen riches the Sour Bunch stole, and stops the Sour Bunch from crashing the train into the town nextdoor, saving all the Theets that were aboard the train.
- She retrieves the stolen scroll and reclaims the palace for all the residing Theets in the Ninjutsu stages.
- In the second Patisserie stage, she returns all the brainwashed Theets back to normal by feeding them her sweets, thus saving them from food poisoning.
- She retrieves the stolen gems and golden Theet statue the Sour Bunch stole in the Dashing Thief stages.
- In the stages, A Snow Flower On Ice and a Parade on Ice, she rescues all the Theets the Sour Bunch Figure Skater kidnapped and undoes all of their brainwashing, allowing the figure skater performances to continue.
- As a detective, she solves the mysteries of the stolen Mural and the Rainy Day, where she catches the real culprits in both cases, finds the stolen mural in the former and stopped the Sour Bunch from bombing Clock Tower in the latter by throwing the bomb into the lake, thus saving all the Theets that were living in the city.
- As Mighty Peach, protected Theets from alien abductions, led the remaining Theets to safety, even lifting a bus over the firey ground to allow the Theets to safely cross without getting burnt, and later on rescues all of the Theets the Sour Bunch UFO captured to study on.
- In the mermaid stages, she rescues the band members from being trapped in clam shells and saved all the Theets from eternal misery by singing to the fish. Even though the fish help free the Theets from the clamshells and bring them back to their happiness, Peach is the one doing the actual heroism.
- She rescues all the children of the Theacher whom the Grape Bunch's Kung Fu master has kidnapped in the stage, "A Kung Fu Legend".
- In all ten of the final stages themed around said ensemble, she rescues each respective Sparkla from being trapped in paintings by Grape.
- During her final confrontation with Madame Grape, she stops Grape from destroying Sparkle Theater; afterwards, she uses her power to restore the theater to normal.
- Several of the stages has her using the Sparkle to motivate the Theets to clear certain obstacles to allow her to continue traversing the plays and rescues them from the Sour Bunch.
Mitigating Factors?
A rather notorious case is the first two Mario Strikers games. Just like her best friend Princess Daisy, she acted bratty in the first two games, as she would throw temper tantrums and pitch fits to her teammates whenever the player doesn't help her team win. As of Mario Strikers: Battle League, she no longer has that bratty streak, as she chooses to calm herself down by taking deep breaths, thus fully subverting her bratty streak she once had.
Admirable Standard
She was said to have failed the in-story admirable standards to Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi. Only a portion of that is not true; it's Yoshi that fails the admirable standards to her. Even though Yoshi saved the Mario Bros. as babies and brought them to their parents, other colored Yoshis did the same act of heroism as him; so Yoshi's acts of heroism is dependent on what colored Yoshi the player plays as. Peach cannot be compared to Rosalina either as the latter has more resources due to being a celestial being and ruler of the whole galaxy. That leaves only two to compare her with…
- Mario: Who has rescued Princess Peach and the Mushroom World from Bowser and various threats in several games.
- Luigi: Who has rescued Mario and others from King Boo, even if he has spectrophobia.
In spite of the bros' heroic actions, Peach's acts of considering to undo Bowser's spell on the Mushroom Kingdom, saving hundreds of Toads, saved all the Theets and Sparklas in various stages, even from fates worse than death, and saving Sparkle Theater from mass destruction is enough to make her stand out, even considering she has done all of those acts on her own due to the Mario Bros. making no appearance in the latter games.
Final Verdict
In all honesty, her understandable removal happened two years before Princess Peach: Showtime came out, back when she still failed the in-story standards, but times have changed. Yes, I don't get how her saving the Sparkle Theater's residents and the theater itself from mass destruction fails the admirable standards of Super Mario.