Game Theory: Mario is COMMUNIST?!?

Break out the borscht and the pierogies, comrades, because it's time to celebrate a true Soviet hero. (Intro music) Hello Internet, welcome to Game Theory. Slightly funnier than Carlos Mencia. Slightly. Who knew the Super Mario franchise was so complex? In Game Theory's most-watched episode, "The Trouble with Princess Peach," we dive into Toadstool's psychological problems, the kidnapping plot between her and Bowser, and the fact that Super Mario Brothers 3 may actually be a play theatrical. Then, in a few weeks, I plan to look at what the series can teach about quantum mechanics. because we didn't get enough of that during the Bioshock: Infinite episode, but while all of this may be shocking, it pales in comparison to today's topic: that Mario is a

communist

sympathizer.

Believe me, when loyal Deadly Sin theorists asked me to look into this at SGCGC, Matt was skeptical until I discovered that everything from Mario's design to the mushrooms he eats to the political history of Japan points in the direction of that our platform plumber is a comrade of the country. So, is Mario Jumpman Mario more Russian than Dolph Lundgren in Rocky Four? We're done with Stalin, it's time to find out. For those of you who didn't catch the season 2 finale of the epic rap battles, here's a quick two-minute refresher on Russian history. The period leading up to World War I was a difficult time for Mother Russia.

To finance the war, the government began printing millions and millions of rubles. Ruble notes and this caused massive inflation. Food prices skyrocketed, quadrupling in the space of four years, but workers saw no change in wages, meaning no one could afford to feed themselves. It literally took wheelbarrows full of money to pay for a loaf of bread. Poor sanitary conditions, dangerous working conditions, hours of slave labor that brought them nothing. You can see how the people were angry and they were angry at the king. Or in the case of Russia, the tsar, Tsar Nicholas II. On March 7, 1917, the February revolution.

Wait seriously, the February revolution happened in March? Failure, Russia, failure: saw the people overthrow Nicholas and his royal family. Enter communism, a movement to create a classless, moneyless society in which everyone from the working class proletariat to the wealthy bourgeoisie share the wealth. These were the teachings of Marx. The other. The other other. Is it really him? Oh, it looks like a cross between socialism and Santa Claus. For fed up Russians, a system where everyone shared the wealth seemed pretty good and on November 7, 1917, the October Revolution (you can probably see a pattern there), the

communist

s took power.

Now, for those of you who weren't forced to read Animal Farm four times during your high school career, there are three important communists you should know about; Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. *ding* He led the Bolshevik Party in the October Revolution and did much to transform Russia into a socialist state before being defeated by the Sith. After his death, he was ruined, exiled and murdered by this one who took power, ruined everything and was responsible for almost 20 million deaths through his famines and secret police purges. To put Stalin's actions in perspective, compare him to Hitler, whose Holocaust killed 12 million people.

Any way you slice it; not good guys. And that, dear theorists, is all you need to know to understand this episode and pass Russian unity in world history. So how is it possible that Mario is seen as communist propaganda? Hit my ass and call me Joseph McCarthy because we're going to expose this so-called Italian for what he really is. Let's start with his design, what color is Mario most associated with? Red. Have you ever wondered why red was chosen? The classic story is that it was to contrast with the blue background, which would make sense if red was actually the color opposite to blue, but it's not, on any color wheel orange is the color directly in front of blue. and orange has as many, if not more, shades of red in the NES color palette, how much orange is used in the

game

?

Almost none. How much red was used? A lot. In the real world, communism was also strongly associated with red, known as The Red Menace, The Red Scare, The Red Scare. Then there is Mario, flower of fire, dressed all in red and white, if he did not wear the communist colors before, certainly now he is the red and white of Lenin's Bolshevik Party, but they are not just his colors, look at the hat, is it a coincidence that Mario's hat? It turns out that he has a similar shape and, more strangely, a similar design to that of communism's most infamous leader? maybe.

I mean, it's a little strange that Mario's hat and Stalin's hat have a circle on the front with the company's logo, but we can pass it off as a coincidence. How's that facial hair? Is it also a coincidence that Mario's mustache appears to be ripped straight from the face of someone vying to be the most evil man alive? Four out of five communist leaders agree that a good mustache is equivalent to half the uniform. Mario approves of the mustache, and while we look at character design, let's not forget one of the recurring villains of the Mario franchise, Wario.

Wario was created as the anti Mario, right? And what are the two things wario is known for? *distant* is ten feet tall. Be quiet. Being fat and greedy, he is a walking American stereotype, an overweight capitalist pig who eats too much and loves money. Just look at his

game

s, they are all about collecting treasures, accumulating coins and gaining more wealth. Even going back to Wario's first Earth, the best endings give you bigger and bigger houses and the achievement tied to material wealth is as American as apple pie. Wario is the foil to our proletarian plumber and let's look at that for a second, shall we?

What is Mario exactly? A plumber, who started out as a carpenter, both physical working class jobs that define members of the Communist Party, remember this was a political movement responding to the mistreatment of the working class by the exclusionary upper classes, which It means that the blue-collar Mario would fit the bill perfectly and as we look at Mario's proletarian predilection, what is his signature weapon again? Oh, that's right, Hammers. Do I need to say more? If only magnus appeared in these games, then we would have the complete communist toolkit, but that's not all, dear theorists, what is the point of the Super Mario brothers?

Overthrow a king. The Koopa King and what was the role of the Russian Revolution? Overthrow a king, Tsar Nicholas II and what do you do at the end of each level in Mario? Shoot down a flag at the end of each level. Mario knocks down a flag to raise his own. A red star on a white background, no, that's not a hostile Macy taking over my friends. That is Mario raising the symbol of his Soviet brothers along with the hammer and sickle, the red star was the other emblem of the Communist Party specifically of the Red Army, with the five points of the star intended to represent the five fingers of the hand of the communist worker.

And what's on that flag that Mario knocks down? Is it a pixelated green peace sign? So, according to Mario, below is peace and above is the people, the Mario of the people. But let's take a break from communism for a second, shall we? And look at the rest of the game, there has always been speculation about the mushrooms that Mario uses, it's a strange power, right? Well, wonder no more, I present to you the Mario mushroom Amanita muscaria, the fly amanita, does it look familiar? Not only does it look like Mario's mushrooms, but it also acts like them.

Well, this poisonous mushroom has been used throughout history for its ability to cause hallucinations. And do you know where in the world it is? Siberia, also known as the eastern half of Mother Russia. But seriously, if you're still questioning Mario's loyalty, stop and consider the game's development. If Super Mario were developed in the United States, there would be no chance of any kind of communist leaning. But as we all know, Nintendo is located in Japan and while Japan may not be a communist state, the Japanese Communist Party has had a strong presence in its elections since the 1950s; in fact, it was strongest in the 1970s and 1980s, when the Mario games.

Of the nearly 50 million votes cast in any election during that time, more than five million or ten percent go to the Japanese Communist Party. Is it so difficult to believe that one or two of the people involved in the conduct of the elections? Could the game have subtly played into some of his political beliefs? All you need is one and you know what they say in Soviet Russia: they don't play Mario games. Mario games play you. But hey, it's just that, wait a second seriously, Mario is a communist, come on. The green peace sign that Mario knocks down is clearly a skull.

If it were a peace sign, there would be one more green pixel at the bottom on each side to complete the round block, and while yes, Mario may be overthrowing the Koopa King, he's also installing another aristocracy, this one overseen by a mentally minded princess. unstable. In pink, he's not a popular plumber, huh, jump man? Regardless, it makes you wonder, right? So Mario is a communist? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'll let you debate that, but from the mushrooms to his enemies to the character design to Japanese political history, it's definitely not as ridiculous as it might initially seem.

But in the end it's just a

theory

, a Nostrovian game

theory

. Welcome back to the incredible final card tournament of the last episode: the Man of Steel got crushed by an old webhead and everyone lost to the hero Gotham thinks he should deserve to have. This week it's a battle of the bad guys, who is the best Nintendo villain, Bowser, Gannon or Mother Brain, click on one of the images to choose, but first send a click to the old subscribe button. Let us theorists fill the void that Jontron Game Grumps left in his life, but seriously, we've grown rapidly thanks to his help and support.

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