A Strong Independent Princess!
It is not an unknown to me, when following a certain set of events, that i sit down to relax with a movie, with the good intentions of broadening my horizon, expanding my horizon with a new blockbuster, just to walk down memory lane and rewatch movies i have seen 100 times before – and fate had nothing else in mind for me, when i ended up doing just that the other night. Leading to front row seats to “freaky friday”.
Here came a quote, which had never meant much to me as a young clueless teenager, but now it sprung to my attention – When Miss Curtis delivered the line “Remember, you are a smart, strong, beautiful, independent woman and you don’t need a man to complete you.”
Today this quote is rather well used, in many different shapes, by people seeking equality and better means around the world – as such, it is also no surprise that several controversial topics have sprung from this line, including, “How to love an independent woman? (Medium)”, “The Price of Being an Independent Woman (The citizen)“, “10 Things Only Independent Women Can Understand (Cosmo)”, together with millions of self help books, bloggers, influencers, self-proclaimed experts, and mothers giving their own take on what it means to be strong and independent.
Therefore, I see no particular reason to throw another drop into the ocean on this topic, actually I would rather prefer not to – especially since i am a man and therefore have lost a big part of the rights to speak hereoff – Yet, here I am. However, not to bring a lecture or to mansplain an already overly discussed topic, but because that quote brought my thoughts to a special woman, who was my first crush and who has developed so much throughout time that she deserves to be honored as a “strong independent woman”.
Since this is a gaming blog, most of you should now be aware that i am of course referring to the one and only Princess Peach Toadstool (Sorry Miss Curtis, but i swear you were in top 5) – and before you judge me, I just want to highlight that there are several threads on reddit exploring “Who was your first fictional Crush (Reddit)” with more than 1000+ comments – So neither I or you are that special (do not try and deny your crush on Princess Jasmine or Ariel).
There are of course many female characters who deserve the same praise – Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), Ellie Williams (Last of Us), Samus Aran (Metroid) – just to mention a few. However, Peach was part of my all time favorite games as a kid (“super Mario 64” and “Super Mario Bros”) – back then she was introduced as the damsel-in-distress, which might not exactly scream strong and independent, however, throughout time she has developed to a giant badass (pardon my french), who take the fight to Bowser himself in games such as “super smash bros”, not to mention her role in the new Super Mario Movie.
SO!! In here lies the point
With that in mind, I would love to dedicate this release, and hopefully a short amount of your time, to Peach’s development and how all of us can be both a person in need and still stomp some monster butt when we want to! Maybe we can even throw in a short gaming lesson on how we are all changing, if it does not get too cheesy.
Super Mario
The Super Mario series is, to me, one of the most recognizable video game series of all time and has introduced an incredible ensemble of wonderful characters that have only become more popular over time.
As per its name, Mario is often the man of the hour, with his coin collecting mania and occasional saves of the Mushroom Kingdom, but there are plenty of titles that allow his companions to also have their time on the dancefloor. Princess Peach is of course one of these!
The Highlights
Listing down all the highlights of the Princesses career, in one short paragraph, is nearly as impossible as choosing a starter pokemon in the original Pokemon Red & Blue (remember the hellish time where you could only have one save slot on your gameboy?).
Anyway, our blonde heroine was the original damsel in distress in Super Mario Bros for the NES, but would later become a playable character in its 1988 sequel Super Mario Bros. 2. Since then, it is easy to see how her role has taken off, appearing not only as a fan favorite in countless games – with achievements in sports, racing, and even saving Mario, together with representation in TV-shows and Movies.
Nonetheless, it cannot be denied that Princess Peach often needed rescuing, but the newer games prove that she is wildly independent and capable of being one of the toughest women in her kingdom!
How Is This Relevant?
Now if i should throw a small personal game recommendation in there, I would say to all fans of Super Mario Bros, that it is only fair to give Super Princess Peach a go! Despite the critics heavy hits on her use of “Vibes” to do some critical hits, I quite enjoyed seeing her in the opposite corner for a change – and let’s be fair, I cannot be the only one wishing they could fly upon feeling joy, instead of just grinning like an idiot.
At the same time, this game gives her all the credit due for being both a ruler, a heroine and a person in control of her emotions – which is awesome! To those questioning my argument, let me just mention, that I on a daily basis fail to get my dog to follow simple commands, which leads to a series of tantrums from both of us, and I therefore have a hard time imagining that I could run a kingdom, without having a serious alcohol problem and a dog that would be the spin doctor behind it all.
You see where i am going?
Gameplay
Despite her inspiring character development throughout the years, I do not think it can be denied that Peach started out with rather similar characteristics as another blonde character – recently portrayed by Margot Robbie – you got it, I of course refer to Barbie! Similar to our long legged girl who has a fondness for partying, Peach has always been represented as a blonde in video game artwork (due to the graphical limitations of the good old NES hardware, her on-screen appearance in Super Mario Bros. displayed her with reddish-brown hair) and on a similar note, her dress had always been depicted as pink.
As I am a blonde myself, I have no comments on her appearance, as I might come off rather biased – I mean, slap a short beard on her and we are basically the same person!
For some reason, to make my point – I have to comment a bit on her personality and will try doing so, without making it sound like an online dating profile. Peach is depicted as a gentle, kind, optimistic, and polite person, who with time is also being portrayed as clever and adventurous. She likes long walks on the beach and to stare at the sunset – fair i added the last part – However, do not let her soft demeanor trick you.
Peach has an abundance of powerful moves and is a rather well balanced DPS/healer. Like other Super Mario characters, she can Jump, Ground Pound, and slap opponents (which is her specialty). Physical strength might not be her thing, but she makes up for it in technique, which many games indicate with agile and fast movements. Peach is able to use power-ups, and has even been seen doing healing, explosive attacks, telekinesis, and to wrap it all up these powers in general involve hearts. Despite this, her victory quote in super smash bros is “Oh, did I win?” – which is either incredibly sassy or innocent.
Debate Of The Day
With that detail to think about – It brings us to today’s discussion! Where we will be using Princess Peach as a flourishing example for the concept of change and positive development!
First off, it might be needed to state that for most of us, we do not experience changes in life / personality that is as easily visible as what Peach experiences – we do not get taken prisoners by magical turtle lizards every sunday (if you do, please contact the local authorities or the Winchesters ASAP), and just one day wakes up with the ability to telekinetically throw it across the distance – but we do go through events with similar effects on a minor scale and effect, whether that being escaping from a prison of heavy chocolate consumption, or quitting an abusive job.
Secondly, it might be a bit wrong to state that Peach is a completely self made woman – let us not forget the many servants of her kingdom, including Toadsworth, the Toadbrigade and her close friends, Yoshi and Daisy, to mention just a few. So i guess the nice message is that often development comes with the support of friends – as when you are trying out a new shirt with a flower print, and your best mate mentions that he has “seen salat that dresses better than you”, gently hinting you should not wear it again and saving you the trouble of being told so in public. However not everyone is lucky enough to have that much support.
Finally, I would like to avoid this turning into a strong political debate, where someone ruins the fun by going straight for the gender specific stereotype arguments, throwing in the typical statements, such as; “Each princess is beautiful and unrealistically close to perfection”, “She is just waiting to be saved by a prince charming”, or “if you are beautiful enough, a wealthy man will save you” etc. I cannot deny that to some standards Princess Peach is beautiful, but it is very subjective to aim for perfection and lets be honest, her prince charming is a down to earth plumber with a dad-bod, and not the kind of plumber who “is best friends with the prime minister of hungary, so he can monopolize the plumbing industry and become rich” – just a plain old regular plumber, who is half the size of peach and with a fabulous mustache.
Bring me the stats!!
I believe Statistics is a good starter to indicate Peaches development and because i fucking love numbers! There are some discrepancies in the data, but here we go! SO, Peach has on average been kidnapped 22 times in the super mario series (up to 4 times in one game and once by stealing her entire castle with er in it – pretty fucking hard to avoid) and 14 times in a various amount of other game titles!
She has rescued our Italian plumber at least once and has a strong counter Matchups against Bowser in Smash Bros! Now, I know the Odds do not exactly tilt in her favor, however, the development from the first game to the movie of 2023 is quite clear. Bowser could in the beginning literally kidnap Peach by throwing her on his shoulder and run away, whereas today he must use 1000 x more complicated shenanigans to come up with the same result.
And i am sorry to say this, but if a giant turtle with spikes on it shell, came running towards you, with flames out of its mouth, how much resistance could you do? I personally got tackled by a rooster once (and not a very big one), so I doubt Bowser would need that much creativity to haul me away.
To me that is a clear indication of her not only fighting back, but also becoming stronger and more composed – who knows, maybe Mario won’t even be needed in the future (I love the little guy, so i hope not, but still). If my argument does not do squad for you, let us point out that Peaches creator (Miyamoto) had originally wanted Peach to be a strong, powerful princess – but in the early Nintendo games, they were forced to keep things simple considering the limitations at that time, and therefore had to keep the focus on Mario.
This quote makes it even better – they literally had to NERF Peach, to make room for the character development of Mario. Most of us can relate to that feeling, where we throughout life have to or are forced to give space for other people’s needs, with the downside of holding ourselves back. It can be at work, where you assist Jason, the office manager, move around the furniture at the cost of your back and 1 week sick leave.
Or it can be during university, when writing a paper with your best friend, who promises he will hand it in on time, but forgets and you have to retake the exam 3 months later (not pointing any fingers, but thanks Mike). However, these scenarios can bring further learnings for development, such as lifting with your knees or that shit simply happens.
From Damsel To Legend
Speaking of learnings – in the process of writing this, I had to investigate what is classified as a “strong independent woman”, before granting that title to Peach. Therefore, with a lot of googling and critical analysis of the various sources, I can for certain say that there are way too many definitions of this particular statement – some more used than others. As such, “my definition” is based on the statements, which I found to be the healthiest:
“Being a strong independent woman means that you are able to find happiness on your own without having to rely on another person or society for validation. Strong independent women have self-confidence and emotional independence and are able to have healthy relationships with others.”
Honestly, I would copy this for my definition of a “strong independent Man” as well, so it is still a mystery to me why this is assumed to be gender specific in the first place – Moving on! Checking the boxes one by one, the final conclusion could be pretty interpretive, since she is literally referred to as “Princess Peach”, giving the association that being a princess an identity validated through society… bla bla bla – I had “one” course in Cultural Sociology during my studies and can share that my biggest learning from the course is that you can argue for a pineapple being a Northrop YF-17 Fighter Jet, if you are stubborn enough and enjoy abusing quotes of Immanuel Kant.
So I honestly would rather put my energy into the visible achievements of Peach and argue her independence and self-confidence is apparent in her persona. Whereas, her relying on man is more of a discussion, if you go back to the early games versus those of today. Even here I question the “actual need of a man”, compared to the need for help in situations, where it is obviously the right choice to expect some.
It is basically comparing it to yourself benign held at knifepoint, screaming to the people passing by that “I would rather get stabbed than being helped, unless you identify as a woman” – here i reckon most people, would praise the shit out of whoever comes to your rescue, hell, i would even thank the man with the knife, if he just decides to leave on his own.
As such, i would dare say, Peach has a healthy understanding of her own capabilities and relies on help, when she finds it necessary – something, that most of us could probably learn from – I mean, you cannot even start to fathom the amount of times that i have refused help in fixing stuff around the house, hiding it behind an excuse of it being a DIY-project, just for my own effort to fail and it costing twice as much to repair, compared to if i had never touched it to begin with.
Speaking off, the level of her capabilities, have been much further developed in recent games and movies – where Peach used to be just sweet kind and innocent, the 2023 movie focuses much more on assertiveness and ability as a born leader for her kingdom, keeping her role as a caring figure towards the Toads – a side of her, which was only briefly explored in some of the former titles – a side, which intensifies the relation between her and “society” as it relying more on her, than the other way around.
Angry Mushrooms & Kidnapnings
Again, these points should be taken with a grain of salt, since it is quite rare that real life relations are built on the same situations as to what Peach is experiencing – which is a mix of heroism and shared trauma. It is very likely, that if i had been saved from death, forced marriage, starvation, lava, angry mushrooms etc. on a yearly basis, then I would also feel some sort of obligation to, as a minimum, be friends with my savior – and at the same time, the people of my kingdom (2 room apartment) would feel more inclined to supporting me, if i constantly sacrifice my own freedom for their sake (unless they are really ungrateful – talking about you Karen).
Nonetheless, it is vividly described how the people of her kingdom and those around her, adores Peach. She is a popular front figure and even has her own line of merchandise – which is something only very few out there can brag about. Enforcing that point, it goes without saying that the Fans are many and the Foes are few – her “real” enemies can be counted on one hand and the most recurring is Bowser – and even they, have had several cameos working together, despite all odds.
I should however add, that most would not see the relationship to bowser as healthy – 1. he kidnaps her, but she still has the “energy” to occasionally show him good will, 2. he kidnaps her, and she still went out of her way to bake him a cake once… to me it resembles a relationship between a guy and his crush, who is really not that into him, but he has a cool car and are okay with driving her home from events. In other words, Bowser is being treated as Peaches backup, without ever really having a chance – which is probably why he resorts to all this kidnapping business – However, the relationship is most likely also maintained for political reasons, as in “if i treat him nice sometimes, he wont carpet bomb my country” – a very well used strategy in the middle ages.
For Peach to maintain this friendly facade, despite the pain caused by Bowser, indicates the amount of emotional independence she has. To be able to still maintain relations for the greater good, despite the ongoing trouble she is put through, shows determination that I do not possess – for crying out loud, If my colleagues do not use proper email etiquette, they are basically dead to me. Of course, Peach also has the ability to change the weather with her emotions, so the incentive to control them and be the bigger person is quite significant – when I get mad, I can at maximum change the tension in a room to slightly uncomfortable.
A Respected Ruler & A Lovely Plumber
So where was I? Oh yes, so is Peach a strong independent woman, despite being the symbol of a damsel in distress for so many years? and here I apologize for the long detour to answer a yes or no question – and of course i cannot speak for the rest of the world – but yes, I find that she is! She has moved away from being a princess you could throw over the shoulder and boss around, to a respected ruler, with emotional control and fighting power!
To parents reading this, please let your kids play Mario and let them save Peach once in a while, because the games today signifies the importance of accepting help and highlights the potential of personal development through that help – Peach is a front figure who can do both and to put her in the box of a damsel, is quite demeaning.
The Mario games have taught me so much, including the benefits of a double jump, but also the power of progress! I mean if Peach can manage to rule a kingdom, change the weather, save her loved one and be kind at the same time, I believe there is so much more to take from this character, than what she is credited with.
More Game Heroines!
All right, I reckon i did a decent sale, but that does not mean Peach is the only one who deserves this Credit! Share your favorite female video game character and what games she rocks the most!
All right, I guess that is all I got in me for today – Thank you for reading this far and feel free to provide any feedback you may have – We would like for you to keep leveling up with us! Feel free to contribute your own content, such as fan art, game reviews, or personal gaming stories, to be featured as Pixelated Wisdom..
On that note I can only say – Watch out for fire breathing turtles!
Sources
Thank you to the sources providing me with cool inspiration: