User blog:WikiSchm2000/The MarioMario54321 Review Marathon - Part 25

'''Mario Kart 64 Bloopers: Luigi's Revenge on Mario! (December 24, 2007) [Runtime: 5:23]'''

Prelude:

Believe it or not we’re still not at 2007’s Christmas Day yet. However, we are on that year’s Christmas Eve, so for all intents and purposes this may as well be the Christmas special for MM’s 2007 year. And what better video to celebrate the holiday than with...the sequel to Mario’s Revenge on Luigi. Hoo boy...if you can recall, Mario’s Revenge on Luigi was the second video MM made and one that I’ve already covered. It’s also the beginning of Mario’s descent into complete character assassination in this universe and as such is not a video that I remember all that fondly.

However, this video pretty much does the reverse opposite of what the previous one did. Well not in terms of characters, because it’s going to be a while before Mario becomes a sane and rational human being again. No, in this one we’re going to get to see Luigi in Mario’s role from the previous video. Granted after seeing Luigi so horribly dealt with in this series and in that last video I imagine the Luigi fans will feel some catharsis for this video. In fact, that was even the intent of MM as seen in the end credits of this video.

All I have to say to that was...yeah, it actually was cathartic. In fact it’s probably one of the best videos thus far if only because Mario gets what he deserved since his second video on this channel. That doesn’t mean that they still didn’t assassinate Luigi’s character at all during this video. Nor does it completely avoid the absolute stupidity that came with the limitations of its predecessor. We’ll get to that right now, though.

See this video first before reading on to get your own properly informed opinion:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AMIUQQeR38&list=PLNPi6H0sXYaCHQG4Br4q5yZJp8uxhid2B&index=25

The Main Video:

Before anything else, we get the same Windows Movie Maker blue screen intro the first video got.

We start with Mario rebuilding his sign, saying that Luigi won’t destroy it. Oh yeah that’s right, Mario always had those really horrible prophecy powers that allowed him to predict the plot of these videos. Fortunately for him he forgets the word ‘hope’ or any other ambiguous word this time, so his statement ends up becoming true. Luigi really doesn’t destroy it this time, instead opting to sit in front of it with his kart and just pollute the raceway with the exhaust of his fumes instead.

This time, Mario wised up and decided to watch the sign from only a few feet away, preventing Luigi from destroying it if he tried. Plus he actually speaks up before Luigi ever did the act, which means that at the very least Mario’s not wanting to go through the process of killing his brother again.

I actually like this because it’s showing that Mario’s getting smarter about things, he doesn’t just re-install the sign and make the same mistake again. I think it’s just about the most Mario has developed as a character, even if it is minor.

What Mario says next, however, is that the sign cost 10,000 coins. Which means that somehow Mario thought that Luigi’s life was the equivalent of 10,000 coins, which makes what happened in the last video ever more disturbing really. Do you think that MM values Mario and Luigi in terms of coins too? Anyways, Mario gets bored and destroys a bomb in his raceway (failing for about thirty seconds to do so by the way). He survives of course because we saw that not even a train explosion could dent that thing in the last video. Bored, he decides to go to Luigi’s Raceway instead. The same raceway that he left after feeling angered about people worshipping his brother. Wow, he got over that negative character tic in literally the span of one MM video. He’s certainly more tolerant this time, I’ll give him that.

So anyways, he gets there and actually compliments the music. Luigi is already there, however, with Mario questioning how his brother got there so fast. And I kid you not, Luigi states that he simply accessed the course through the game menu. Which means that Luigi definitely has access to the same kind of hacks that MM has. And I didn’t think that Luigi could have that seeing as Mario can’t do that himself, but I suppose it’s just Luigi getting whatever power he can to help his own situation right now. I think he’s just glad that he hasn’t been turned into a corpse yet.

Luigi lets his brother Mario drive around rather nicely, but warns him not to break anything. Actually, that’s rather sweet of Luigi to give Mario a warning beforehand not to break something. Obviously Luigi doesn’t want a repeat of what happened last time, so he’s warning Mario not to be absolutely evil for once. Mario agrees, and you can guess by the title of this video how well that went. As soon as he sees the television screen, Mario basically goes into a rage and flies into it with his moon jump.

Yep, he’s still as evil as ever. And, as expected, Luigi gets absolutely angry at Mario.

Oh no, what’s that I hear? It’s the Bad Revenge Music, making it’s glorious return!

Yep, Luigi decides to kill Evil Mario then and there because of Evil Mario breaking his television screen. For a 50,000 coin TV widescreen at that, meaning that Luigi values his brother’s life at approximately 50,000 coins. Now, as wrong as it is for Luigi to be doing this over something that costs only 50,000 coins, he is way, way more justified than Evil Mario is. Evil Mario ended up killing Luigi for something that even cost less beforehand, plus Luigi gave Evil Mario ample warning beforehand. Not only that, but Luigi should have a pretty good idea of how many horrible things his brother has done, and really this would be the perfect excuse to finally off him.

Also, off topic, unironically one of my new favorite scenes is in this video. It’s where Evil Mario ends up being hit by his own red shell, which missed Luigi earlier. It’s symbolic of how Evil Mario can’t stand Luigi and just loathes him for existing, wanting to be rid of him. And yet, it comes right back at Evil Mario instead, representing that his own worst enemy is himself. It’s absolutely poetic at this point, even if it probably was unintentional.

Anyways, back to the actual video.

We have a battle take place at the Big Donut arena, with Luigi getting the top half and Evil Mario getting the bottom. Luigi says he should be on the top despite literally being on the top, showing that he’s definitely still not the brightest person out there. Granted though he’s not being as dumb as Evil Mario right now, who is employing Luigi’s strategy of doing absolutely nothing and just letting your executioner carry out their work.

Luigi starts by firing red shells at Evil Mario, which is definitely what Evil Mario did to him last time. Granted, to Evil Mario’s credit, he does try to defend himself with some words. He says that Luigi doesn’t have the right to do this since he destroyed his sign. I’d say that doesn’t matter because murdering your brother was going too far, but Luigi instead counters back with the fact that the monitor cost more. And yeah, that’s actually the logic I used earlier to justify Luigi’s turn to murder so he’s already looking a lot better than Evil Mario did in his revenge scheme. In fact I dare say that’s the perfect comeback, to show that Evil Mario has zero excuse for what he did and that he deserves to pay the price for it.

And to make things even more fitting, the last item that Luigi gets is an invincibility star. The same one that he used to tear down Evil Mario’s sign in the first place, the one that started it all.

It was kind of neat to see it being used against Luigi in the prequel story, but I find it a lot more satisfying here since it means that Luigi is now willing to use it against the real deal this time. And right when Luigi comes right up to a still Evil Mario, what does he do? Well he doesn’t say anything about dealing with his brother just as he dealt with his sign.

No, he gives Evil Mario a chance to pay up. That’s right, Luigi is outright showing mercy to Evil Mario by demanding payment in order to restore his television monitor. Which means that all this time he wasn’t even trying to kill his brother, he was just trying to scare him into never doing something like this again. And right about now, Luigi has earned a massive amount of respect from me right now. It’s so satisfying seeing Luigi having some restraint, being more mature and finally taking charge of a situation like a real person would. In fact, I dare say it’s the best MM moment thus far for that reason.

But of course since Evil Mario isn’t sensible by any means, he backs away from Luigi. This leaves Luigi to have to actually go through with the act, but luckily Evil Mario makes the same fatal mistake that Luigi did so long ago and drives himself off the platform and into the lava.

It wasn’t what Luigi was planning, but hey, he at least got his revenge. Mario Death Count: 8. That closes out the video, with both having gotten even with each other.

Well, this was a satisfying episode after so many others beforehand. In fact I dare say it’s one of my new favorites looking at it from this new perspective. Given how horrible Evil Mario has been, it’s fitting seeing him put in his place so hardly. And for Luigi to not basically be a mindless monster in this is refreshing, and my faith in him as a protagonist is now founded in something.

The Extra Bonus Stuff:

Evil Mario - 21 lines [55%] (Yeah despite this being Luigi’s video, Evil Mario gets more lines. Go figure.)

Luigi - 17 lines [45%] (The real protagonist of this series, besides Oiram of course.)

Lakitu - 0 lines (Finally, he gets Mario’s corpse as a trophy.)

Total Lines: 38 (Less than the Mario's Revenge on Luigi video, despite this one being longer. Super odd actually)

Biggest Chad: Luigi - What more can I say? Sparing your enemy shows real maturity from Luigi. In fact, he’s getting the Medal of Honor from this.

Biggest Loser: Evil Mario - He’s the only other speaking character and he died, so of course he’d get this award. He really couldn’t go five seconds without doing something despicable.

Favorite Quote: “STOP YOUR KART OR I WILL TROUNCE YOU AGAIN!!!!” - Evil Mario (Because trouncing is what evil red italian plumbers do best)

The Luigi train doesn’t stop here, because we’re going to be getting a lot more of him in the next story!