Should Mario and Peach be a Couple?
To be honest, this question is really hard to answer, especially ever since Nintendo was officially acknowledged that Mario and Princess Peach are friends.
Though, some people like in Twitter and DevinArt stated them they are a couple in Japanese version, which says in Mario’s Japanese description from Nintendo JP says “He (Mario) loves Princess Peach”.
Alright, yes that is true Mario’s Japanese description stated this. However, it was stated as 大好き (daisuki), which is also true that it is commonly used for romantic partners to say 大好きよ (daisukiyo, English meaning “I love you”), but the thing is, 大好き (daisuki) is not limited to romance, it used many things like family members (mother, father, brother, sister, etc.), friends, hobbies, food, or object that one liked. To use love in a serious way, 愛してる (aishiteru) is the one used for heavily seriously deep romance like using for marriage proposals. Though unlike 大好き (daisuki), 愛してる (aishiteru) is not used very often on daily Japan lives, so it is rare to hear 愛してる (aishiteru) on mangas and animes.
(This is Mario’s Japanese description tranlated to English)
As for Mario’s English description, it can be said it was originated from Japanese to state them as “friends”, since Mario Series’ original country is from Japan, so perhaps Eng. Nintendo employees might have consulted to Jp. Nintendo employees or Jp. Nintendo employees might have warned Eng. Nintendo employees to make officially Mario and Peach as “friends”. Another thing is, why Mario’s Japanese and English descriptions are different is because English generally uses “love” word in every meaning like romantically, friendly or familial, but if Eng. Nintendo translated on the same way, all English fans would misunderstand and would think that he loves her as romantically on the first thing that comes to their minds, so this must be the reason why both Mario’s Japanese and English descriptions are written very differently.
Besides, if Nintendo JP would ever confirm Mario and Peach as officially couple, they would probably state on Mario’s Japanese description “愛してる” (aishiteru) instead, not as “大好き” (daisuki), or maybe suki desu but this would be mean lighter than daisuki since daisuki has stronger affection and used for close friends. Though, I think using aishiteru in Mario’s Japanese description would be much more suitable to acknowledged officially as couple, especially after Odyssey.
Now as for the games, there are some moments that Mario x Peach looked real but there are also some moments Mareach (the romantic paring of Mario and Peach) did not look real to me, though I did not play or watch all Mario games, so only some Mario games I can comment on them.
To illustrate, in Mario Series’ first game (Super Mario Bros 1985), he saved Princess Peach at the end of the game but I did not see any subtle hints between and just because Mario saved her, does not mean they will fall for each other right away, he was only helping Princess Peach and other toad armies (I forgot what to call them). I did not see any (light) romance moment between them either in SMB2 and SMB3.
(from Super Mario 64) In SM64, when Princess Peach kissed Mario’s nose, it did not look serious to me, because it is more like thanking him when she kissed his nose. This same goes with another film from diffenrent media Lilo and Stitch. To illustrate, in Lilo and Stitch film (2023) there was a scene where Lilo kissed Stitch’s nose but that does not mean Lilo is interested in Stitch romantically it could be mean kissing someone who is a family member or sibling-likes to him, so perhaps Peach must also did the same thing to Mario.
As the cake at the end scene from SM64 though, I personally do not assume there is serious about it because it is not a wedding cake or an engagement cake, besides Princess Peach only invited Mario to have a tea and cake with him not to marry him and I do not see any romance hint on this ending scene, so it is more like a close friendship is going between them in SM64.
However, in SMW(1990), Mario x Peach kinda a bit looked real to me, when Peach kissed Mario’s cheek after he blushed and one of the fireworks turned a heart shape.
And in SMAS (1993) when Princess Peach kissed his cheek again, Mario blushed and looked very affectionately.
Okay, I can definetely say they pushed Mario to like Princess Peach as more than friend or maybe game desingers only used as a tease in a not serious way. Though, it could only be a tease or a joke, so the players could have fun or if Peach only thanked Mario and he did not affect on her instead, would not be very boring?!
Even if this pairing looked real in both SMW and SMAS, then why Mario and Peach did not marry afterwards and the same cycle still keep repeating when Bowser still tries to kidnap Peach and wanting to marry her whenever Mario saves her all the time?
Well this marriage between Mario and Peach kinda happened in Odyssey, I did not play Mario Odyssey, only watched it, but it is one of the biggest reasons that Mario x Peach looked real! I mean after seeing this game it made me believed entirely that their relationship is real and they are going to be a couple officially, especially when Mario was about to give her a white flower. But I also saw another walkthrough video on the recent day that Odyssey has also Luigi mod where player can play him instead of Mario, so this means nothing serious between them?
As for the first film version, I thought at first Mario and Peach were husband and wife in game version before Nintendo stated them officially friends and while I was watching the first Mario film, I cannot remember what Donkey Kong said but he teased Mario saying that he is interested in her and Bowser was very furious that Mario was into her. I think after Donkey Kong teased Mario in car scene, he was blushed when he was talking to Peach. Honestly, it really is confusing after stating them officially as friends, perhaps film writers might have teased or made a joke, so the film will not get boring or wanted them to push Mario with Peach until Nintendo stating them as “friends”.
I guess Nintendo does not really want Mario and Peach to be a couple or they want them to pair with someone elses or they wanted them to be a thing but maybe their characterization conflict. For example, Mario has an adventurous type, so tiying down or settling down in a palace would be more like very out of character for him and as for Peach, she did not look like a damsels in distress in film version and there are times she was a playable character on some Mario games and can do better on her own just like in film version, so she can handle herself without marrying to someone. Maybe they did not want them to pair because of their sexualities though after some SMW and SMAS, they might look like into opposite gender. Some people consider Mario could be straight even “shipping wiki” stated this with no exact proof of course. Though in my opinion, it is so wrong to question someone’s sexualities, especially when it is not officially confirmed by Nintendo, since Mario games are made for children which is more focused on adventure but what I do not get is how could Mario exactly be a het guy since he loves one of his female friends as a friend?!
Does Nintendo even want any Mario characters to be ship? Alright they stated Mario and Peach are friends but what about Luigi and Daisy? Honestly, I did not much see any subtle hints between them, some says they could be a couple but I did not play or watched their moments between them only in ice skating game, which I cannot remember much. They looked more like as good business partners to me and just because they had good interactions between them does not mean there is or will be something much more. I mean, can’t boys and girls just be friends?! Also, I did not see both Luigi’s Eng and Jp description stated any romance hints towards her on his description nor Daisy’s.
Daisy’s description did not mention Luigi either or showed any subtle hints between them.
Another weird thing is that nobody says Mario x Daisy could be real!
(Daisy’s first game appearance in Super MarioLand (1989))
Though, their interactions only happened once in the game as I remember, so no wonder why people are not interpreting between Daisy and Mario after Super MarioLand.
And lately, people starting to pair Luigi with Bowser. I honestly cannot remember their interactions in the games only in the first film where Bowser tried to kill him (something like that cannot remember much) though Luigi was kinda look nice to him in the second film trailer. As for Bowser though, he still obsessed to Princess Peach for almost 41 years and even in Mario first film and second film trailer showed his obssesion towards her, but I might have missed why Luigi x Bowser becoming popular today.
Well, these like yaoi and yuri ships have never been easy to get acknowledged, since most people believe male x female pairings more, even though creators already stated that the protogonist will never like her back and it was already officially confirmed he is into someone and had attachments moments with him too. But of course, most people always prefer to believe unreal things and make all delusional and manupilation lies, so the people would get exposed those awful lies, and those who are responsible to give all the manupilation lies can bully the other pairings instead of accepting to see the beauty depth intimacy between them and listening what the actual authorities want.
I cannot say what Nintendo wants when it comes to Mario ships, so I am unsure whether they want Mario x Peach, Luigi x Daisy and Bowser x Luigi or not at all. But it would be better not to make any Mario ships canonical yet instead of making disinformation lies like what shipping wiki did (though except Bowser x Peach since it is (still) one-sided on Bowser’s side).
Let’s see what future plans Nintendo has and what will/did happen in the second film. I have not watched Mario second film yet, so I could not make a comment the romance between Mario and Peach, which I am still unsure whether something happened or not. But, I would definitely be surprised if there would be a romance moment between Mario and Peach in the recent Mario second film.
