I make being a Mario fan sound like only the most difficult work. In reality, I am a drama queen. So today, I'm starting something new: Treacherous Tuesdays!
During each Treacherous Tuesday, we'll take a terrifyingly deep dive into something small and oddly specific aspects of Mario's world, exploring the corridors of lore, summoning speculation, creeping towards the controversial, and dwelling around darker aspects of Mario games that people might be afraid to talk about.
I'm not the only blog to talk about the lore of the Mario franchise, however. Much of my inspiration for this Blogger blog comes from Tumblr blogs such as the Pipe Plaza and Supper Mario Broth.
- The Pipe Plaza is known for compiling known information from all kinds of sources, including games, official websites, and even developer interviews!
- Meanwhile, Supper Mario Broth is simply known for finding the most random things about Mario, particularly in terms of how a game runs (i.e. unused animations) as well as obscure merchandise (even if unofficial or "bootleg").
This blog will operate a little differently from both of these blogs. Each Tuesday, I will pick a very specific topic in Mario's world to discuss. These posts will be extensive, but I will not exhaust all the talking points.
As a fan, there is a possibility for me to be narrow-minded in these topics. Therefore, each post will feature my own speculation before opening the floor in the comments to you, the reader, who may have alternate takes, other questions, and even requests for future topics! For now, I'll get the ball rolling with this week's topic:
Dream's Deep, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Dream's Deep is arguably one of the most mysterious and talked-about aspects in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. It is described as the deepest reaches of Luigi's dreams, only reachable through tunnels created in the literal floor of the Dream World (which seems to be Luigi's interpretation of the areas that he falls asleep in). This area is especially captivating to me, as I've written (but never finished) several fanfics trying to make up my own headcanons for the logic of Dream's Deep and the Dream World as a whole.
In Dream's Deep, we see the most strange and abstracted scenery in the entire game, a dark purple void full of simple renders of Luigi floating around, with Luigi's subconscious voice echoing throughout, stating things such as "I'm not clumsy!" "I fight ghosts!" and "Hey! Nobody mess with my bro!" as ethereal and melancholy music plays throughout.
According to Dreambert, "In a sense, Dream's Deep is Dreamy Luigi himself." (Dreamy Luigi being the manifestation of Luigi that accompanies Mario as he visits Luigi's dreams.) With the understanding that visiting Luigi's dreams causes Luigi to have a great influence over the Dream World, one begs to wonder if Dream's Deep is something rooted deep in Luigi's mind. Perhaps it would be more difficult to explore such a place when not on Pi'illo Island, as the dreams of others was not previously visitable by any mainline Mario character until the events of Dream Team.
It can be partially implied that there are a lot of specific requirements for someone to visit the dreams of others. The only way for Mario to visit the Dream World is for Luigi to sleep on the Pillow form of one of the Pi'illo Folk, thus opening a portal for Mario to jump into. Luigi is also the only human that is known to open portals to the Dream World.
Luigi's love and admiration for his brother is more than apparent here, but we also see Luigi's insecurities, especially as the words "I'm not clumsy!" float across the screen (Luigi is known for being clumsy, and in this series especially he trips and falls and bumps into things quite easily).
Noting Dreambert's comment on Dream's Deep being full of Luigi's emotions and feelings, one can only wonder if the Luiginoids (defined by MarioWiki as clones of Dreamy Luigi) are then representative of Luigi's emotions as well. In some cases, the Luiginoids are interpreted as Luigi's alters, if one wants to take the route of Luigi potentially having Dissociative Identity Disorder. However, this latter topic must be approached with severe delicacy due to the already present misunderstandings about Dissociative Identity Disorder.
In terms of Dream World logic, however, it isn't known whether Dream's Deep is exclusive to Luigi, or if we'd be able to see the Dream's Deep of other peoples' dreams if we were given the opportunity. For example, if we could visit Mario's Dreams, what would that look like? What about when the Pi'illo Folk visit each other's dreams? The restriction of only exploring the game's setting through the eyes of Mario and Luigi... only serves to create more questions than answering them.
What are your thoughts, however? What implications do you think Dream's Deep has for both Luigi and the Dream World? What do you think would change if we were visiting Mario's dreams instead?
Discussion is open in the comments below!
Wonderfully done. I did not expect to see Luigi's polygonal face at maximal nose depth of field, but I am not at all disappointed to see it.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see at least one of those fanfics you mention, finished. You seem pretty well-versed in the lore of Mario (the series, not the person). At the very least, you make me want to play the Mario & Luigi series... if my backlog weren't so large, I'd make it a priority. Some day, I'm sure.
Loving the Mario lore! I find this type of content very interesting and something that could be talked about for hours. I also find it so relatable to write fanfiction of a piece of media especially when you have head cannons you want to share. While I have not played any of the Mario games, your post defiantly makes me want to check them out or at least spend the afternoon watching a Mat pat lore explanation video!
ReplyDeleteI do in fact talk about Mario for hours. It's part of the gig (I am a hobbyist).
DeleteI am very heated about MatPat's videos. To avoid a whole 80-mile-long paragraph, I think his Mario videos have too many fallacies that overlook certain Mario games in order to fit a specific narrative. They're fun to watch, but I wouldn't take them too seriously. Truly the Onion of his field. Perchance.
This was fun to read! I still know, nothing really, about Mario lore but finding out that there is this entire thing about dream-hopping is fascinating. Dreamscapes are always an interesting thing to me, so having it in these games is fun. It is interesting that it's only Luigi's dreams though, and I really do wonder what would be different if you went into Mario's? Also, side note, as another fanfic writer I completely understand the struggle of differentiating canon from fanon when you're trying to explain something!
ReplyDeleteI can only wonder what Mario's dreams are like as well! Unfortunately I feel kind of deterred to hypothesize about it as, early on in Dream Team, it's revealed that Luigi's sleep is at a frequency very close to the Pi'illo folk, which is why he's the only hero in the story that can open dream portals (this is how characters in the Real World can visit the Dream World in less abstract forms). The cutscene shows Mario sleeping on a Pi'illo that is in their pillow form, a brief moment of waiting, and... nothing. It's stated that Luigi's "sleep frequency" (brain waves???) is very close to that of Pi'illos, which is why he's the only hero that can open portals to the Dream World.
DeleteThere's a lot that is explored in these games, especially when Nintendo and AlphaDream occasionally will casually drop a new kingdom in one of their games complete with some lore that leaves more questions than answers. Not to mention that the concept of entering another person's dreams was not really explored outside of this one game.
I accidentally did not proofread this and mentioned Luigi's sleep frequency twice somehow. This game came out during the Year of Luigi so I think I just unconsciously decided that Luigi is important here :'D
DeleteYes, be a drama queen! You know everyone has that one thing that they can yap about all day long and look at you go! Anyways, I don't know if this would step outside of the specific Mario lore, but you should look into the 2023 film adaptation of the Super Mario brothers. I feel like there's a trend beginning where video games are being turned into movies like whatever ends up happening with the Minecraft movie. But what are your thoughts on it like should we be scared or are they inaccurate? Either way it could be interesting or at least a lot could be said!
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