He has been called many things: a trickster, a villain, a meme god.
But despite his many names, Waluigi, the final reflection in the funhouse mirror maze of
Mario doppelgangers, is a man with no known point of origin.
Like the rose in his teeth, he keeps others at a distance with sharp thorns of poor sportsmanship.
Only his closest confidant, Wario, has ever been able to get past the thorns.
But why?
Why was he allowed to take a peek behind the petals when no others have?
Is Wario simply a cherished friend to Waluigi, or is he something more?
A brother, perhaps?
Maybe a lover?
Despite all these questions, there is one thing we know for sure…Waluigi number 1.
Hello Internet!
Welcome to Game Theory, the show that’s always happy to stomp on Mario.
But not today.
Because today: Waluigi Time!
You know, It’s crazy but somehow I’ve never done a theory on everyone's favorite
lean, mean, meme machine, Waluigi.
For anyone not already intimately familiar with the Mario franchise’s Best Boy, Waluigi
was introduced in Mario Tennis 64, just so Wario could have a doubles partner.
They actually considered making a Wapeach for him, but Shigeru Miyamoto rejected the
idea because he was afraid of what kind of girl Wario would date, something we would
actually see a year later in Wario Land 4, ironically enough.
Gotta say, not bad, though I’m more of a Bowsette man myself.
Anyway, Waluigi was what they went with instead and the rest is history.
But we’re not here to talk about the creation of Waluigi, we’re here to talk about that
sweet, sweet lore.
Over the last 22 years, he’s been snubbed by Nintendo over and over again; they won’t
give him a game, they won’t make him playable in Smash, and as a result, his origins remain
this big mystery.
All we’re told about him prior to the events of Mario Tennis 64 is that he trained in secret
before challenging the Mario Bros to take the title of Superstar from them.
Other than that?
Nothing.
His origins are so ambiguous that his Mario Hoops Baller Name is literally “the Question.”
His whole thing is being an enigma wrapped in a majestic mustache.
But no longer I say!
It’s time Waluigi gets the attention he deserves, and not just for his sick dance
moves.
This is Game Theory, I live for solving these kinds of mysteries.
And today it’s time for us to look past the memes in order to figure out who Waluigi
actually is, and not only have we figured out his secret backstory, we even know who
his dad is.
Spoiler alert, it’s someone you’re likely to see in the upcoming Mario Movie.
Now, when he first appeared on the scene, most people assumed Waluigi was Wario’s
brother.
And that makes a lot of sense, right?
The evil counterparts to the Mario brothers would also be brothers themselves, especially
when you consider that they combined their names with the Japanese word “Warui,”
which essentially means “bad”.
BAD Mario, BAD Luigi.
Plus there were a lot of direct sources confirming this idea.
When Mario Tennis was being released, Nintendo’s website referred to Wario as Waluigi’s Big
Brother.
Nintendo of Europe said it too.
On the European website for the Mario Kart DS track Waluigi Pinball, it says this: “Wario's
weird sibling constructed this high-speed track inside a giant pinball table.”
There’s also a series of articles that appeared on Nintendo of Europe’s website between
2001 and 2003 called Wario’s Warehouse.
There, again, Waluigi is referred to as Wario’s brother.
“Naturally I let Waluigi go first with the shopping.
After my beanpole of a brother had slipped through, squealing with glee like an idiot,
I followed…and promptly got stuck.”
Now, these are things that Nintendo of Japan could have corrected, but never did over the
course of three years.
Of course, this is Nintendo we’re talking about, nothing is ever going to be that cut-and-dry.
There’s a news brief in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games that specifically
says Wario and Waluigi aren’t brothers.
That’s it, that is all it says, it is very direct.
In Mario Super Sluggers, Wario refers to Waluigi as his quote: “sneaky pal” and that terminology
also matches what Charles Martinet, the voice actor for Mario, Wario, and Waluigi, seems
to believe.
He said once in an interview, quote “I don't actually know if they're brothers or not.
I don't think so...
I think they're just two nice, evil guys who found each other.”
And then Nintendo just decided to own up to the confusion in Super Smash Bros Melee and
Brawl, where Waluigi’s trophies describe their relationship more ambiguously, saying
it's “unclear” or “a mystery.”
So if they’re not brothers, then who is Waluigi?
Is he actor-for-hire Jimmy Poppadopalous?
A rogue taco chef?
A manifestation of Luigi’s own insecurities?
No.
Hold on there, Brian David Gilbert.
Let’s not jump to conclusions.
Because while Nintendo’s words say many conflicting things about Waluigi, there’s
one part of him that’s undeniable and unchanging: his design.
That’s right theorists, it’s time for my favorite Mario Lore solving tool, Genetics
Let’s talk about some traits that we’ve talked about a lot on this channel before,
eye color.
If these two were intended to be brothers, well, you’d expect some key elements of
their design to be the same.
So let’s look at that.
Both Wario and Waluigi have blue-gray eyes.
If one of them had brown eyes, which is the dominant gene, well then the chances of them
being related would go way down, so the fact they have themselves the recessive blue-gray
eye tends to strengthen the idea that they could be related.
They also have the same blue rim around their eye socket as though they haven’t gotten
sleep for the last week, which, hey, I feel that.
Admittedly, this is a weird connection, and it’s unclear whether it’s genetic or not.
But you know what?
I’m not going to turn down any evidence, no matter how random it might be.
That’s not the only thing either.
Their noses also scream “we’re related”.
Obviously, the shapes are very different, with Waluigi’s having a sharp point and
Wario’s being much wider and rounded.
Then again, both of them are hot pink, as though they got the worst case of rosacea
ever.
That cannot be a coincidence.
I mean, I challenge you to come up with someone else in this franchise with a pink nose.
Really?
Birdo is the long-lost relative of Wario and Waluigi?
You know what?
not a bad idea, I’m gonna write that one down for a future theory.
But in all seriousness, with almost no other characters in this series having the same
nose as them, it seems pretty obvious that there might be some kind of a connection there.
Also, while researching I stumbled across this cursed image where Wario and Waluigi
don’t have the pink noses.
Cannot…unsee.
That said, the cherry on top of our genetics sundae is, as it usually is with these sorts
of videos, the ears.
They both have themselves detached earlobes, which is noteworthy because most characters
in the Mario franchise have earlobes that are attached to their face.
That means that they’re more likely to be related to each other than anyone else, but
that wasn’t the most interesting part here.
What really caught my attention was the fact that both characters have pointed ears.
This appears to be an exaggerated form of a rare congenital deformity called Stahl’s
Ear which gives the ear a pointed, elf-like appearance.
That’s why the nicknames for this condition include Elf’s Ear and Spock’s Ear.
Rough estimates put it at occurring in less than 1 in 6,000 children.
Because of how rare it is, there’s actually very little research available on the condition,
but the general consensus is that it’s likely hereditary as evidenced by studies done on
identical twins.
Now, obviously this doesn’t prove that Wario and Waluigi are family, but the rarity of
pointed ears combined with the eyes and the hot pink nose heavily implies that they’re
closely related, like brothers.
Rather than just some distant cousin, or a pal that they met one day at villain school.
So, while not 100% confirmed, it does seem most likely that Wario and Waluigi are, in
fact, brothers.
Just like Waluigi’s initial announcement said on that Mario Tennis website.
But if you thought I was just going to leave this theory there, then you clearly haven’t
been watching this channel for very long, in which case, welcome.
Consider stomping on that Subscribe button -- it’s black now.
LIKE MY SOUL.
Now, While it’s certainly cool that we can show a lot of evidence suggesting that Wario
and Waluigi are brothers, it’s not exactly mind blowing.
So, I’m going to take it a step further.
What if I told you that I can not only prove that Wario and Waluigi are siblings, I can
also prove who the father is?
Here’s a hint: He’s done more than his fair share of smashing, and not just smashing
subscribe buttons like you just did.
Need another hint?
He’s going to appear in the Mario Movie.
Still no?
Alright, last one: He actually has his own demolition company; a “Wrecking Crew”
if you will.
And if you got that last reference, well done, you’re either a super Mario nerd or you’re
old.
I believe that Waluigi’s father is none other than the forgotten Mario rival, Foreman
Spike, from the classic NES game Wrecking Crew.
In the game, Mario worked as part of a demolition team and Spike is the boss, trying to knock
Mario off of platforms or trying to hoard all the money for himself.
Presumably so Mario couldn’t afford the lawyers in order to sue for the constant OSHA
violations.
Spike’s entry in the Great Mario Character Encyclopedia suggests that his greed may even
be worse than Wario’s.
So, he’s greedy and resorts to sabotage.
I mean what other character does that remind you of?
Now admittedly that is some pretty weak-sauce evidence.
Sure they share some personality traits, but that doesn’t really prove anything.
He doesn’t even look anything like Wario or Waluigi.
And you’d be right, provided you were just talking about his first appearance.
However, the original Wrecking Crew isn’t the only time that we see our buddy Foreman
Spike.
In 1998, Japan got the imaginatively titled Wrecking Crew ‘98 and of course, our boy
Foreman Spike makes his triumphant return, only this time he looks a little bit different.
Check out the nose.
Nintendo decided to make it bright pink, thereby making him the ONLY other character in the
franchise with that design style.
You may have also noticed that he’s lost that magnificent beard of his from the first
game, revealing instead a cleft chin just like Wario, making him the perfect candidate
for these guys's father.
Foreman Spike even has a hint of Stahl’s ear going on.
If you take a closer look at his sprite art from the game, you can see the top of his
ear has been made slightly pointier.
Heck, he even has their signature laugh.
This guy is basically what you get if Wario and Waluigi did a fusion dance, with the personality
to match.
And the connections here aren't just skin deep either.
In 2001, Spike appeared in the GameBoy Color game Mobile Golf.
In it, he has himself two profiles, and they use almost the exact same wording as Waluigi’s
character profile.
Both stating that they “trained in secret” and that they’re “actually hard workers”.
Bear in mind, Mobile Golf was made by Camelot, the same company that made Waluigi himself.
So them sharing descriptions is hardly an accident.
They even give Spike the same color scheme that they gave Waluigi in Mario Tennis on
Gameboy Color: Beautiful beautiful purple.
Waluigi also seems to have carried on the family business of construction.
Mario Party-E was a board game for the Game Boy Advance that came out back in 2003.
What made it unique is the fact that it used the e-Reader accessory, which would scan in
real-world cards to affect what was happening on screen.
In this title, there’s a minigame called Waluigi’s Reign where our favorite meme
lord is operating something that resembles construction equipment.
All while surrounded by steel girders and beams.
His level is a construction site.
More importantly though, is Waluigi's Island in Mario Party 3, where his crew of Piranha
Plants is seen demolishing Luigi’s property in order to make room for Waluigi posters.
Notice that the Waluigi emblem is on the purple hammer in the upper-right corner of the board,
suggesting that Waluigi owns this equipment, construction and demolition equipment, just
like his dear old dad.
And that’s not all.
Nintendo of Europe’s website description for the Waluigi Pinball track in Mario Kart
DS states that Waluigi constructed it himself.
And to top it off, his signature kart in Mario Kart DS is the Gold Mantis.
It’s not even a go-cart, it’s an excavator.
And not just any excavator either.
One that is almost identical to Spike’s in his Mobile Golf concept art.
That’s right my friends, Waluigi is canonically forklift certified.
Even his dance moves are secretly telling us that Waluigi comes from a construction
family.
In DDR: Mario Mix, do you want to guess what his theme song is?
It’s a track called Destruction Dance, a remix of the Wrecking Crew bonus stage theme.
Take a listen
Coincidence?
I think not!
Honestly, this is just scratching the surface of Waluigi’s connections to Spike.
I have myself a dump truck full of other smaller details, but then I realized that all of this
evidence is actually highlighting a bigger issue.
While Waluigi clearly shares strong connections with Foreman Spike, outside of his Nose, Cleft
Chin, and large frame, Wario seems to share very little.
Waluigi and Spike are in construction, Wario is into farming.
His unlockable signature kart in Mario Kart DS was the Dragonfly tractor, the Fire Attack
cutscene in Game & Watch Gallery 4 shows Wario farming tomatoes, and in that cutscene he’s
accompanied by his pet chicken, who he loves so much that one time he prioritized her over
retrieving his stolen treasure.
Wario also seems to have himself some kind of German origin, speaking German on multiple
occasions
Even his Super Mario Strikers Theme is Germanic in nature.
Plus the big question still remains; if they’re in fact brothers, why would Wario not realize
this?
Well, for that we turn to one particular game, Yoshi’s Island DS.
In it, Bowser goes back in time to kidnap babies from all over the world in search of
the Seven Star Children, even going so far as to kidnap a baby version of himself.
Among those kidnapped children is none other than Wario.
By the end of the game, all of the babies are returned by Storks to their families with
one exception: Wario.
Wario overpowers his Stork and instead sits on a raft full of treasure that was stolen
from Bowser’s castle.
Gotta give it to Nintendo on that one, way to keep it consistent there guys.
But all of this means that Wario never returned home.
His greed drove him to find treasure elsewhere and he never found his way back.
This is why Wario’s Great Encyclopedia entry lists his place of origin as unknown despite
the fact that he has a “Ma” that we hear him talk to as part of the blooper cutscenes
from Mario Power Tennis.
And above everything else, this would explain why Wario doesn’t call Waluigi his brother.
He doesn’t know.
Neither of them do because they were separated at birth.
That night when Kamick came to find the star children, he took Wario and left Waluigi behind.
No wonder Waluigi has issues, could you imagine Kamek trying to collect every baby in the
world in order to find the Star Children, but he takes one look at you and just says
“nah, not that one”.
Waluigi, once again getting passed over.
A trend that would then continue for the rest of his life.
Anyway, Wario’s obsession with greed means he never returns home, thereby growing up
on a farm with some German lady while Waluigi remained home with his father Foreman Spike,
eventually growing up to take over the family business.
But just like Mario was drawn to Luigi by their brotherly bond, so too were Waluigi
and Wario drawn together, without ever truly understanding why.
But hey, that’s just a theory!
A GAME THEORY!
Thanks for watching!
And if you liked this episode, why not check out the one where I answer another age old
Mario question, is Yoshi a Dinosaur or a Dragon?
That video is over there on the left.
Or if you want something that’s a bit more meta, how about trying this video where we
talk about Nintendo buying a movie studio and what that means for the industry.
That one is over there on the right.
And hey, if that subscribe button is still black, consider clicking it and turning it
gray.
Please.
Please do that.
As always my friends, I’ll see you next week!