NSFW.
2016-08-19
Waluigi is a weird character in the Mario mythos (I can’t believe I just called it a mythos). First there was Wario, Mario’s opposite number, so obviously we would eventually get Luigi’s dark doppelganger as well. Waluigi though… He’s not quite what I expected.
First of all, there’s the whole “Wa” thing going on with his name. Why? Wario made a certain amount of sense, W being an M upside down, it’s essentially the reverse of Mario. Like Bizarro in the Superman comics. Wa doesn’t mean anything though, so why tack it on to the front of Luigi’s name? Feels super lazy to me.
If they wanted it to fit with both the W motif and the reverse motif, I’d have named him Wuligi. Phonetically a reversal of the first 2 syllables of Luigi’s name, it gives us both the W that links him to Wario, and a name that rhymes with, but isn’t Luigi, just like Wario/Mario.
Waluigi’s introduction is weird too. He didn’t show up as the villain in a Mario game, as Wario did. Nope, Waluigi made his debut in Mario Tennis of all games. And here’s the kicker: Waluigi is not Wario’s brother. Nope. He’s just some guy who showed up one day to play some tennis.
Yes, I know I’ve invested far too much time in learning about Waluigi.