Princess Daisy’s 25th anniversary

Today, I felt like doing something none of the bigger websites would ever consider writing about... or even know about. I am doing this because I felt like it would be interesting to delve into the history of one of Nintendo's more obscure characters. 2014 marks the 25^th anniversary of Princess Daisy, whom most know as the tomboy princess from Sarasaland. 

Those who know me are aware that I have been using Princess Daisy as my go-to character in Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, and other multiplayer Mario experiences that feature her. It started off as her being my “troll character” following her infamous “Hi! I’m Daisy!” quote from Mario Kart Double Dash. I would indeed pick her on the character select screen and proclaim “Hi! I’m Daisy!” very loudly in order to annoy my friends. At times, I would randomly shout it while I was racing past them in Mario Kart. Me picking her was initially a joke, but I eventually grew fond of her as a character, likely as a result of her becoming my go-to character.

Origins:

Princess Daisy was created by Shigueru Miyamoto’s mentor, Gunpei Yokoi, creator of such important pieces of history as the Game Boy and Game & Watch. He acted as the manager of Nintendo R&D until he departed from the company. He is also the creator of Metroid and all of its initial characters, Kid Icarus and all of tis initial characters, and Wario and the Wario land series. More closely related to the topic at hand, Princess Daisy was created in the context of the Game Boy title “Super Mario Land”.

In this 1989 title, the plot resolved around an alien invasion of her desert kingdom. The tyrannical alien Tatanga kidnapped her in order to go through his plan of forcefully marrying her and gain control over her land. The player controlled Mario and traversed a variety of levels in order to free her from the alien despot. Little is known about how she came to be as a character and why Daisy was specifically designed the way she was. Little is also publicly known about her kingdom, its denizens, and her history. With her creator dead, much of this information may well be beyond our reach.

Her first game has also spawned a comic book series, where she was featured prominently as an uncooperative damsel in distress. She tried to help Mario in her own restricted way and struck at Tatanga’s ego at times. The comic is a well-known “so bad it is good” sort of thing. It featured a real world human villain that was at times evil beyond redemption, and at other times, portrayed as a victim of circumstances. He set the enemies of Super Mario Land free from his Gameboy as they wreaked havoc on the real world of the early nineties and stylish mullet hairdos. A smurf-sized Mario set out to defeat Tatanga with the help of over-eager teenagers. The twist: In real life, you only die once.

In the 1993 live action film, she was portrayed by Samantha Mathis as an archeology student who captures the heart of Luigi. The movie again is a “so bad it’s good” and bears absolutely no weight on the canon of the Mario universe. However, it is interesting that a non-canonical piece of media has paired Luigi and Daisy together before Nintendo had even canonically hinted at the idea... or did they...?

Following appearances: 

Princess Daisy next appeared in NES Open Golf Tournament, where she has acted as Luigi’s caddy, as opposed to her cousin, Princess Peach who was Mario’s caddy. This may have been the earliest possible hint of a relationship blossoming between Luigi and the fiery-tempered princess. However, with this being released two years after Super Mario land (1989) in 1991 where she was rescued by Mario and not Luigi, no one had any reasons to suspect a future relationship with the awkward but beloved plumber. Her appearance alongside Mario in Super Mario land 2: 6 Golden Coins has also served as a counter-argument for that theory.

She was put aside for a long time until she was brought back in Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 in the year 2000 by Camelot Software Planning, the studio responsible for many Mario Sports games and the amazing Golden Sun series. This was also the first time that she was ever playable. Following this game, Daisy became a mainstay in more Mario-themed sports, racing, and party titles, with a few exceptions such as Mario Party Advance, or Mario Tennis on the Game Boy colour where while she is not playable, she appears and a non-playable character.

Redesigns:

The desert princess has had several redesigns, both in terms of appearance and personality:

Super Mario Land:

She has an appearance much more similar to Peach, but you can already see the floral patterns on her dress and ornaments. She served the role of the damsel in distress and much like her other princess counterpart, and was a bit of a blank slate. Little was known about her personality.

It is assumed that there are feelings between Daisy and Mario. However, future titles don't seem to refer to an actual romance between them and it seems that he is more of a good friend to her. Perhaps they have had a relationship that ended, or perhaps there was never anything more than friendship, Perhaps there was a relationship that was removed from canon in future games. It may be that there is no clear continuity in Mario games. Pauline is also often forgotten for example. Most likely, her potential relationship with Luigi was added in in order to give Luigi a potential female doubles partner in sports games to mirror the Mario and Peach team (male balanced, female technical). Again, this is merely conjecture.

The comic book series and the live action movie both has interpretations of her personality, but none of them were considered canon.

Mario Tennis:

She wears a shorter dress and lacks her gloves, which makes sense considering she is playing tennis. Most noticeable however is her skin tone. She has darker skin than Peach, showing her origins as someone who lives within a warmer climate; a desert nation. Of notice is that she also has minimal makeup compared to Peach. This was the game that began portraying her as a tomboy, which could very well explain that difference.

In this game, she was portrayed as being very close friends with Princess Peach, but her as for her potential relationship with Luigi, nothing had been really hinted at yet. She was a bit more demure as her current portrayal

Finally, she is a technical character in Mario Tennis, a trait that seems to follow her into most sports games. In Mario Tennis 64, she is the best net-player in the game.

Mario Party 3:

Mario Party 3 was her second appearance, and a particularly meaningful one. First, it had depicted her in her normal royal attire, being the first time she has worn her full dress in a game since the Game Boy days. Her crown was noticeably lighter, and the jewel on it was also a different shade. She was otherwise fairly unchanged from her her Mario Tennis depiction.

Furthermore, she was shown to have some charm and feminine traits, but also shown to be a very strong and temperamental person; even capable of just slapping Bowser away with relative ease. This has pushed her further into a more tomboyish as opposed to Princess Peach's more "proper" decorum. She also seems aware of her charms and is willing to use them to achieve her personal means.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (Trophy):

Super Smash Bros. Melee marked the earliest depiction of her on that generation of the system. She was very similar to her previous appearances down to the tiniest details. However, it would not be long until future Gamecube games would redesign her completely into the design that is currently used in 2014. We will cover these physical changes a bit later.

The Gamecube era has also solidified the possibility of a relationship between Daisy and Luigi. The picture above comes from Super Smash. Bros. Melee (2001), and the description clearly hints at a possible relationship. Mario Party 4's (2002) official manual also states that Luigi has a crush on Daisy, at the very least supporting that Luigi has an interest in her. Mario Power Tennis which came later in 2004 also has Luigi holding to her trophy for her in her ending, but then again, Both and Mario and Luigi are clearly seen to be attracted to Peach when she blows them a kiss in her ending. Some believe that Luigi and Daisy might be a complicated relationship. This is not helped by the idea that Luigi is often seen running to save Princess Peach, or even ask Mario to talk about his contributions to Rosalina in Super Mario Galaxy, also sharing an ending credits screen with her; albeit, it may also be that he simply wants some recognition. Then again, it may be that different companies working on Mario titles treat this relationship differently. 

Mario Party 8:

The Gamecube era had changed her drastically with games following Super Smash Bros. Melee. Her dress was more homogenized to look like Peach's. She lost the floral white rims at the bottom of her dress, and she instead had two sets of orange rims. However, the dress shape itself was much more similar to Peach's overall, including the shape of the orange portion at her hip level. The jewel on her chest was changed from a more blueish hue to an aqua green, making it the same colour as her earrings and the gem on her crown. He crown also became golden as opposed to red or pink. He face was slightly rounded more, and her hair was cut much shorter. Most importantly, she has lost her tan. While her complexion is slightly darker than Peach's, she has a very Caucasian skin tone. While the hair and colour of her clothes was a big differentiating factor from Peach, the rest of the changes made her look more similar to Peach in other respects. The skin tone, the changes to her dress and her crown undermine the efforts they have taken to make her look more different. The Wii games, and Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U have kept this design so far and it seems to have stuck.

Her tomboyish personality has also been greatly solidified in the Gamecube era past the Super Smash Bros. Melee breaking point and it has continued from the Wii onward, which shows in the way she demonstrates her frustration whenever she loses, and the development of an increasingly sassy personality. This has been reflected in her use of a Dixie accent, valley girl speech or even ebonics at times.

Her good rapport with Peach seems to have continued throughout the series. In Mario Kart 8 for instances, one can spot a "Peach and Daisy's" storefront in one of the many courses. Mario also seems to have a continued positive relationship with her throughout the series, albeit it may be worth mentioning that Mario and her share no chemistry in Mario Superstar Baseball and its sequel. Perhaps this means that they are good friends but don't share enough chemistry to be lovers? Her relationship with Luigi seems even more evident with Daisy's Circuit in Mario Kart Wii, which clearly had conspicuously large statues of Daisy and Luigi as well as Baby Daisy and Baby Luigi dancing together. Since this is Daisy's domain, this is good evidence to assume that Luigi's feelings might be returned.


Conclusion:

I'm happy I could give some attention to a more obscure Nintendo character. I am personally more inclined to like her earlier aesthetic designs, but I do appreciate that she has more spunk than Peach. They clearly have different temperaments, and I do like the idea of Luigi having a princess of his own. However, she has not mostly appeared in multiplayer games and she has not had a chance to grow much as a character. Some look at Daisy and consider her to be a blank slate, and while I disagree, I cannot fault anyone from thinking of her that way.

Much of her is a mystery. Sarasaland has not been explored again since Super Mario Land, and she has yet to appear in a game with even minimal amounts of canonical narrative since her Game Boy days. Her lack of relevance to the main series is only slightly overshadowed by Waluigi's. In all of the years she has existed as a character, even a newly-introduced Rosalina has received more narrative attention and been given a spot in the latest Super Smash Bros. roster.

I do not believe that the issue is with the character herself, but rather that she has never had a chance to grow into a full-fledged character yet. It could be interesting to see Daisy and her kingdom appear in games involving Luigi. Perhaps a future entry in the Luigi's Mansion series, or a new Luigi-based platformer. One could says that she is a young lady I'd like to get to know better.

I would be remiss to not mention my most influential sources of information:

http://www.mariowiki.com/Princess_Daisy
http://mario.wikia.com/wiki/Princess_Daisy