TEC-XX, Grodus's brainchild and greatest failure, is one of TTYD's most beloved characters, and almost certainly the most memorable. TEC is, arguably, one of the most important characters in shedding light on the X-Naut motivations, and paid a part in keeping Mario on his toes and accurately aware of the stakes of the situation he found himself in. All the while, TEC is engaged in a complex story of love with Peach, and this leaves TEC sitting at the crux of multiple different identities all at once: A many-layered contraption with multiple goals they aren't quite aware are at odds with each other until after the time comes for them to intersect.
And it all started when they got an electric short at the sight of Peach in distress. This never gets explained, it's incredibly difficult to come up with an explanation, and I kinda don't really want one. The best I have is that Peach's purity is so overwhelmingly powerful that she exudes an aura that causes people to lower their guard in her presence. It doesn't help that we don't know what TEC is like in normal operations.
Speaking of "TEC in normal operations", TEC only malfunctions in response to Peach. Their worldview has not changed immediately on contact, and with no reason to question otherwise, they continue to support Grodus's objectives and views. As we see later, they think Grodus has actual ideals behind their madness, and of course, TEC being openly programmed as "a perfect computer" means that they inherit Grodus's view on perfection. At the end of the day, TEC is an imperfect character whose strength is their ability to consider their mistakes and correct them after they occur. A perfect computer would already know how to court Peach, and especially not fall for traps as basic as TEC does.
TEC's impulse is to "observe" Peach. While, in some ways, creepy owing to the idea of voyeurism, TEC's practice is to see how Peach reacts to their actions and how that makes them feel. This, in itself, is the basics of education at work: TEC wants to learn why they look at Peach and want to change their behaviour. However, Peach can't just tell them what to do to make her happy- well, OK, she can, but if TEC wants to better themselves, TEC needs to decide what they want to do for themselves.
In essence, Peach's job is not to formally teach TEC anything. Peach simply needs to react to TEC's actions. TEC has placed her as important to their needs, and as a result, they need her to be helpful. It doesn't matter whether they understand love- in order to "learn" how to love, they must do the things that will bring them closer to actually caring about her.
Peach, for her part, barely understands why she should care. TEC's goals don't even make sense to themselves, how are they supposed to come off as the least bit trustworthy? Ironically, it is the X-Naut's brutal efficiency that works in TEC's- and later Peach's own- favour. The X-Nauts have engineered a pretty airtight prisoner-keeping mechanism for denying Peach basically every single weapon she could otherwise use to plan an escape or otherwise disrupt the X-Naut operations. Peach, on her own, is more helpless here than she's ever been in Bowser's clutches. TEC's fault is the one crack in that facade, and Peach knows that if she wants to do anything useful on this adventure, she has to strike at it. Had the X-Nauts held her in something more in line with what Bowser has, Peach might've denied TEC and looked for her own way out, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Considering her cell is furnished with pretty much any creature comfort she might need (except boredom), Peach reasons her best avenue is to send emails to Mario. It takes a few of these for her emails to actually contain anything worthwhile, but it takes Peach a few tries to find something worthwhile, so it evens out. It also helps that they start by testing the limits of this email venture- Mario can't send email back, which leaves Peach isolated to only the information she learns alongside TEC, without knowing where Mario is, what he knows, and what he doesn't know. All she can do is tell him to keep going and figure things out when he's operating from a position of power, knowledge and wisdom. If he can find such a position.
TEC's first lesson, and the only really explicit one, happens when they get the impulse to assuage Peach's concerns by doing something nice that directly addresses them. This is surprisingly relevant to how TEC's actions unfold as we progress later in the TEC arc- Peach's concerns that she is not being useful to Mario incentivise TEC to engineer ways in which she can be, and Peach's concerns that they are unconscionable for facilitating Grodus's power grab incentivises TEC to reconsider their position on supporting Grodus. For being a filler intermission with seemingly no connection to anything, its applicability did it a lot of favours.
In comparison, "fun" seems far less useful to TEC. Perhaps this influenced the idea for the disguise runs and the quiz. It certainly disarms Peach's impression of them.
One thing that kinda sets up how the next segment ends here is the way Peach's disgruntlement with TEC shines before her appreciation for the fact visiting him is a break in the monotony she's frustrated with. Working with TEC should help her boredom, and is likely a reason they chose now to ask, but she focuses on their lack of tact. A lesson TEC needs to learn, though. Loving someone does not involve treating them as if their time can be shaped to your whims, even if in this case, Peach's time is literally under TEC's control. What's Peach going to do if she says no- nothing?
This information has to come from a non-Grodus source if TEC's reaction is "ask Grodus". Which likely means this is also coming from Peach's expression of boredom- TEC goes "hey, why is she even still here, you haven't been using her for anything", notices the answer isn't even in his data banks and decides to kill two birds with one stone by having Peach spend her time productively by trying to interrogate Grodus on this weird anomaly. You might notice a lack of actual "planning" in this plan.
Absolutely no part of this plan was thought through. TEC managed to fudge the plan enough to get Peach into a uniform, which allowed the plan to go as far as talking to Grodus. However, the fact they forgot (or perhaps overlooked) that Grodus is a misanthrope who doesn't trust his minions to walk in a straight line puts paid to the idea of any useful information coming out of this.
Peach doesn't really understand the X-Nauts enough to have seen the fact that TEC didn't think this through herself, but she does know she doesn't really think this plan was all that worth it to begin with regardless of how well it was constructed. Unlike TEC's slapdash ballroom dance, which was similarly impulsive and a means to entertain Peach before a means to be productive, the investment in this plan is that much greater on Peach's part. She didn't need to do anything but dance last time. Now? Now she has to break the one layer of security she has, sneak into the most crowded part of the facility, and under nothing but an X-Naut uniform (and she has no idea what proportions a naked X-Naut has, so who knows how that's going to be arranged), talk to Grodus directly.
All to answer a question that she never really has much cause to care about in the platformers. Peach has never really been imprisoned "until X date"- when Bowser captures her, her entire schedule is blanked until Mario helps her. As a matter of fact, even across all RPGs, I don't think Peach has ever been captured with intent to do something at a later date (other than marry her, which from her perspective, isn't exactly different from continued imprisonment)- any villain that needs her for an evil plot, like Fawful in BIS, puts her to use immediately. In the context of TTYD itself, "what is the end goal of capturing Peach" is a very important question and one TEC is justified seeking an answer to, but the answer is nested in the centre of several additional questions that we don't know the answers to and haven't cared to investigate yet. No wonder we fail.
TEC does far worse than fail, of course. They lose the one shred of goodwill Peach has been willing to give them when Grodus tells her what he stands for- and by extension, what TEC stands for.
And don't try and disagree. At this point, the scope of co-operating with TEC becomes clear to Peach, as well as the audience. They're not just a goofy minion of Grodus's that wants help with something inconsequential to his goals- they're an instrument of world domination, and a far more organised one than Bowser ever was. Even at his most threatening, Bowser's only weapon is "show of force and have the bigger numbers". Grodus is cunning, manipulative, resourceful and has an army that can play the "show of force" card. And TEC does not- and as a machine, possibly cannot- question that.
Honestly, the fact that TEC presents a philosophical argument is a more impressive step than one would expect. It might even be the one thread that helps Peach rebuild that trust later- the assumption that TEC actually logicked their way into supporting Grodus. "You can't logic someone out of a position they didn't logic themselves into" is an argument that describes foolish zealots, but in its most literal form, the words can also apply to arguing with machines. No philosophical argument would work on a machine with no concept of ethics. TEC, however, is a character with enough ideology to believe that their cause has arguments. Which means they can be persuaded otherwise with stronger arguments from opposing views.
All they have to do is beat this.
Peach ultimately doesn't argue TEC out of their position because she doesn't have enough facts, and TEC cannot supply the information she requires. The key point here, however, is "cannot". TEC is willing to assist Peach in any way she desires, but it is not TEC's whims Peach is at the mercy of- it is Grodus's.
Other than the harsh reality of this situation, TEC also learns another important lesson from this situation: They cannot directly go against Grodus's commands... but there are ways around that.
The core of the story of TEC is here, and fittingly, it is displayed at its most pivotal moment. TEC feels uncomfortable with who they are because Peach finds that computer distasteful, and TEC must study why this is the case and what they can do to change themselves to their mutual liking. That's the core of a romance story, and even though this is the love between one of gaming's most iconic and beloved women of all time and a literal wall-mounted computer, the writers have found the part of that story that resonates, and has used it to make TEC likable without coming off as improper.
I've gone in detail about how the TEC quiz has been set up before, of course. This is the best part of the story, where TEC first uses his powers for explicit Good.
However, I would like to show all five questions, in sequence, to really hammer home the brilliance of the quiz. TEC has spent a lot of time thinking, between Chapters 3 and 4, and while some of it was about how they wanted to set things right with Peach, a lot of it was also about how to make this quiz just right to make sure that Peach understood exactly what they were trying to tell them with the minimal amount of fuss. They have pored through the rulebook and found this quiz method to be the ideal way to inform Peach of crucial information TEC is otherwise barred from sharing directly, constructed questions that carefully point Peach's train of thought at the correct answers, and made sure to remind Peach that she has options on how to use this information now that she has learned it.
It's a good thing TEC defected, or else who knows what that brainpower could be used for if they wanted to send misleading messages to Mario. Mario would trust anything in Peach's emails. Even if Peach herself was compromised. How would he know? She's on the moon!
Although TEC has earned a lot of goodwill, the shady nature of their interactions, as well as TEC's reluctance to be forthright with their plans for various reasons (most of them good, but do not absolve TEC of all guilt) has kept Peach firmly in a state of not liking them. Not to the point of refusing to help, because that's the kind of person she is, but enough that her frustration bubbles at the surface.
One of the most important things you can do if you are in hot water with somebody and want to prove you are better than they think you are is demonstrate that fact. If TEC is unable to do so directly- by not using Peach for their own benefit- they at least manage to do so by making it clear it's as a last resort, and it's too important to not do at all. Compare this to last time, where TEC did not take "no" for an answer.
And actually has a concrete plan in mind. A functional plan, albeit one with risk. Calculated risk, however, and risk they are sure to tell Peach about upfront- although their faith that Peach can overcome that risk gives them enough faith to try.
And that mixture of caution and trust shines in the way TEC presents the brewing. They know that if, at any point, Peach does not follow the instructions correctly (or worse, TEC's instructions are incorrect), this is going to end in disaster. But Peach is willing to put her trust in TEC, and TEC repays that trust by knowing what they are doing and correctly guiding her to the correct outcome.
Ultimately, this risk turns out to bite them in the end, and while the plan was a complete success, they made one mistake somewhere, and that mistake led to the catastrophic chain of events that was "TEC's deletion". I maintain that this is the loose thread the X-Nauts pick out to identify that TEC has gone out of line. The general way TEC goes about this process definitely requires that TEC work around the X-Naut PhDs (and likely means that the plan was still somewhat rushed to exploit the limited opportunity they had), but when you're working with science as volatile as this, you either have a head screwed on your shoulders or things end very badly for you. Crump and the X-Nauts that fight us are idiots. The X-Naut PhDs are not.
...With that said, this also seems like a candidate for the point where the plan falls apart. I doubt it, though- Grodus didn't suspect a thing, and if this room is so secure even TEC can't watch what Grodus is doing in here, I highly doubt an X-Naut is going to. Peach does seem suspiciously confident in herself here, but the fact TEC turns out to have the data they want does point to Peach having done nothing wrong at this stage of the operation.
Another thought I have about the fact it's an X-Naut and not Grodus is the timing. We know that this takes place five/eight days and change after the potion gambit, since timeline-wise, the Peach story is happening alongside Mario's (funny how Excess Express is one of, if not the only, chapter to have an explicit timeline). If Grodus saw anything fishy about his lair, he would investigate much sooner than that. The delay makes the discrepancy feel like something to be caught in a weekly stock-take, or perhaps they started an experiment only to find themselves out of green potion. Whatever it is, the PhDs did not immediately track down the discrepancy to TEC, because it wasn't a high-priority screwup. But they did, eventually, catch it. The slow and methodical approach always works: the question is whether it works in time.
Another thought to have at this point is that this may be the point where Peach fully realises just how much TEC is putting on the line for her. Since Bowser and Mario's battles are far simpler, Peach doesn't usually have to ask the complicated questions about morality that TEC demands. Peach has been judging them because from her perspective, their behaviour does not reflect well on them. We, external viewers with more experience with villains with access to Grodus's vast resources, understand this is legitimately TEC's best strategy, because they must work around the X-Nauts to keep their position, but TEC has trusted Peach to understand why they have chosen to help in the way they have. Peach is forgiving, but she does have to trust TEC is no longer non-hostile now.
We finally get the data, and TEC decides not to share, continuing their tradition of keeping their cards close to their chest. In this case, however, rather than being a strategy to maintain operational security or a reluctance to abandon the X-Naut cause, this is a decision made to spare Peach's feelings. If Peach has an incomplete understanding of this data, she'll spent the time until it is decrypted on edge and terrified. TEC decides it is better for her mental health (and outward happiness) if she learns this information and then immediately knows what TEC's exit strategy is- TEC is probably pausing his decryption to work on her escape plan.
And Peach makes it clear that she trusts TEC enough to accept their reticence without explanation- which is good, because any request for explanation would give TEC no real option but to share their suspicions and give Peach the bad mood they were trying to avoid in the first place. A nice, strong reason to build and establish trust- the sort of thing TEC was meant to be learning about love this whole time. Told you Peach taught better by example.
This is also the first time where Peach thinks highly enough of TEC to tell Mario about them. For a few seconds, I thought that the X-Nauts were screening her mail and this is how they found out TEC was the traitor (it is more decisive evidence pointing at TEC than just the potion disparity), but they'd probably be worried about the information leak and interrogate Peach sooner from just the aftermath of the quiz if they were actually reading those.
They may have spared Peach's feelings about the initial impressions, but TEC themselves isn't exactly doing much better. By this point, TEC knows enough that they can see exactly where the X-Nauts are going with this, and has to grapple with that knowledge while being the sole thing that can change Peach's fate.
This moment, where an X-Naut leans in to whisper to Grodus about TEC's defection, is another rather silent moment that impacts TEC's story massively, and it would be easy to overlook its importance if you consider only the most immediate, Doylist interpretation (that they want the reveal Grodus found TEC out to be a surprise). What the X-Naut is doing whispering this in-universe is hiding this report from TEC. TEC can eavesdrop on this conversation (and apparently is), and honestly, I don't think it's a coincidence it ends the instant Grodus drops a hint as to what kind of information the X-Naut had shared. After all, "treason" doesn't refer only to TEC, but even if this were some unlucky other X-Naut, TEC has a guilty conscience now. They have a time limit, and while they don't know how long, they can be fairly sure it'll be far too short.
They call Peach to their quarters immediately, and in a rather uncharacteristic way, tell her that the status quo is over and it is time for her to run the hell away.
They also spill everything they can. Has Grodus ordered them to keep silent on some of these subjects? Possibly. Possibly not, considering they're not even on the TEC network and TEC, as a machine, is allowed to do things like "I can tell Peach this information because you haven't specifically ordered me not to." But they know, full well, that Grodus is going to come down on them as hard as possible if anything untoward is detected. TEC no longer has the veneer of protection that "technically" obeying the rules provides, so they threw the book out. Peach is getting every advantage TEC can give her.
And once Peach is out, there's no real hiding the fact it's TEC's fault. Arguably, if they know Grodus is already onto them from the earlier shot, then they truly have absolutely nothing to lose. Whatever happens to Peach, TEC is in the same deep trouble. TEC is a doomed computer, and they are doing everything they can to make sure Peach doesn't suffer for their mistakes.
...They say this to reassure Peach, but also it's rather possible that there is, in fact, a nugget of truth to it. Grodus figured them out through one discrepancy, but that doesn't mean Grodus knows the details of everything they've done to and with Peach. They might be able to claim they glitched specifically in the situations Grodus knows about, hiding their involvement in the others, but if Grodus comes into the room while Peach is still inside talking to them here, the game is up.
And unfortunately, Peach taking the safe route led to exactly that. Considering Grodus was already onto TEC and already coming this way, TEC was pretty screwed either way. Even if they didn't summon Peach, she would be the first place the X-Nauts go after dealing with them. This kinda makes Peach writing and TEC sending one last email, similarly to that very first letter Peach sent before her kidnapping, the only winning move- albeit since it is not finished and missing some crucial details, the email Mario receives does not actually contain any information he can act on. Even if the pair had committed to this strategy, sacrificing the possibility of Peach making her escape (the best they've got is Peach somehow hiding in TEC's computer room and making a dash for the teleporter room, but there is no way Grodus is doing anything but a thorough sweep for Peach until they find her and it's not like the computer lab has a ton of hiding places), I'm not altogether convinced that Mario knowing that Peach would get possessed by the demon ahead of time would actually give him a better plan. The X-Naut's efficiency, while it brought the two together, was thorough enough to catch on before it ruined their plans.
...Hm. There's a part of me that wonders if TEC being found out also caused Grodus to take this backup plan that involved him abandoning the X-Naut Fortress. He no longer desires it, since, you know, the computer system that sustains it is literally working against him. Had TEC remained undetected, would Grodus and Peach still be on the Moon when Mario arrives? Or would Grodus still bail on the base since he knows the Magical Map will still guide us right to him? If the latter... then that's another reason to grumble at the General White chase. That would give Grodus plenty of time to give Mario the slip even if TEC throws everything they have at denying Grodus escape. They're defenceless against Grodus if he ever had reason to come directly at them.
At any rate, this confrontation leads to TEC's "death", another step on Grodus's path to his meticulously planned victory. Even after being shut down, however, TEC has more to do to be a thorn in Grodus's side and press their newfound allegiance, even as Grodus makes plans that take Peach out of their sphere of influence.
For one thing, TEC, inherently, has a sphere of influence comprising the whole X-Naut Fortress, and access to all but Grodus's most secret plans- and even Peach helped them secure one of those. Grodus can, thanks to Doopliss's trickery, salvage Plan A, but TEC controls all of Grodus's assets. Grodus does not have a Plan B. In order for Grodus's shutdown on TEC to stick, Grodus must abandon the X-Naut Fortress, and TEC uses the last of their power to deny him the ability to wait it out and try again. Grodus has expertly weaved a winning position out of what this left him (that being to give Crump the Crystal Star, let us open the door, and slip past us while we were diverted with the Riddle Tower), but if Grodus fails to control the Shadow Queen or loses too early a confrontation with us, he can't retreat and lick his wounds in safety. He must amass his wealth, resources and network from scratch. And who's to say he even can? TEC really did wind up saving the day, in the end- not by defeating Grodus, but by denying him the ability to use his greatest asset to his advantage and forcing him into a disadvantageous position. Even without knowing the Shadow Queen can and would kill him on sight, TEC made sure that Mario had everything he needed to stop Grodus that they could provide.
From here, it is time to look at the sacrifice a little bit more, to understand what comes next in TEC's story and try to understand it. And here, we can also see TEC's relationship with Mario. TEC never asks Peach herself who Mario is and why she cares so deeply about him- only facilitates her ability to contribute to his quest because she finds meaning in that. In some ways, TEC meeting Mario here truly does allow them to see two major things: A) that Mario lives up to the hype (having thrashed Crump and all) and B) can totally pull this off where Peach and themselves couldn't (having found their own way to the Moon independent of the X-Nauts' methods). TEC is counting the seconds they have left- they don't need to know anything else about Mario. They don't have the space in memory to store it.
So what does this mean? Grodus has a backup power station- no one who depends on technology and is sane would be caught dead without one. Grodus probably didn't want to shut this off because this is what is keeping him alive and able to leave the Moon, and it also allowed the station to look like Crump was a reasonable threat. After Mario beat Crump, it probably outlived its purpose and the only reason it still needs to run is to allow Mario to leave the Moon- something only necessary because Mario's arrival was a one-way trip and not him finding his own spaceship. The cached memory means that TEC is only thinking about the things that were immediately relevant to the last conversation they were in: Everything else has been deleted, and this will be deleted too as soon as they stop clinging to it. In both regards, TEC really is going to die as soon as we move on. Neither of these things are designed to last- they're both stopgaps for the more permanent storage Grodus has removed from TEC's grasp.
There are two outcomes for TEC: Help Mario, or escape on a flash-drive. Now, Mario not doing it makes sense, because he doesn't deal with computers. But TEC? Surely they can scrounge up a thumbdrive somewhere. I mean, Grodus has floppies in his room! But they take the route of sacrifice- they know that Grodus can and will do everything in his power to assure his own victory. To let Mario have the best chance he can have, TEC knows that the path forward is to deny Grodus options rather than expand Mario's own: Grodus is just too slippery to be defeated if escape is available. This is not to deny Mario's considerable skill, but to praise Grodus's intelligence. TEC may no longer respect Grodus in the sense of "liking the guy", but they still know full well the extent of his cranial capacity. Look what happened when they tried acting "outside his knowledge".
As TEC shuts down, however, we can see that they have... somewhat internalised the whole affair about Grodus dismissing them as "just a machine". Something to be deleted at a moment's notice if it's going haywire- by which I mean "not doing what it was ordered". Peach has taught them about love, and TEC appreciates that, but they still know that machines are not designed to love. Rebooting them might cause them to not have that same spark that loved to begin with. In the end, Peach has done the impossible in teaching TEC to be more than a machine, but TEC is still beholden to the limitations of machines- they cannot continue to be the impossible. This is a bit of a depressing ending for the character, and perhaps for Peach as well. TEC's death was done with them knowing of a superior self they could never have been- a self that had things that machines could never keep.
And Peach seemed to take personal issue with that from beyond the narrative oversight. TEC's miracle survival has no foundation in the narrative as written, and the how and when are not explained, but the why can be ferreted out: Peach never abandons her friends. And TEC has done too much for her to be anything but. Although the game cannot do anything to allow Peach to partake in any narrative relief this scene allows, the existence of this ending seems to want Peach to have her cake and eat it, too. Without actually exploring what it means that TEC's still alive and how Peach can be rewarded for her faith in them- especially if Grodus survived too- I would still prefer it not have happened, but I think Peach giving back to TEC and beginning the process of transferring their consciousness to a computer installed in Peach's Castle would be the optimal outcome of the story. Of course, assuming future games would ever write their stories keeping in mind TEC's presence.
TEC, as a character, is one of the best things to come out of Paper Mario. They are a well-rounded character with a firm change-of-sides arc, tying in to who Princess Peach is and giving her as much agency as she can have while being kidnapped by her most competent captors to date, and pushing the envelope on what Mario can depict while not going all the way overboard and finding themselves in the wrong franchise. Moreover, they are a Mario character who is defined by their failures: They found themselves displeasing Peach, they couldn't escape Grodus's watchful eye, and they died for good- this is a franchise where death is cheap, lives cost 100 coins and those coins grow on trees, and even Bowser can come back from being turned into a skeleton, and yet TEC dies on-screen. At the same time, however, their biggest narrative flaw- that whole "coming back from nowhere" thing- is an issue of conforming to Mario's tradition. Super Mario has no need of TEC- it likes to eschew technological advancements and stick to basics, and TEC would probably break the formula too much- and thus TEC needs to stay where they are.
And all the while, the problem still remains: Wasn't this supposed to be a Peach arc? Peach is a deuteragonist in TEC's story; she has been treated well, and her character traits have done their job where TEC is concerned, but this is still TEC's story. TEC's final sacrifice shows they are fully prepared to give themselves for Peach, but Peach is unable to offer the chance to show the same for TEC. Like Vivian and Goombella, who also pine for that which they can't have, Peach is not TEC's to claim- Peach will always give her all for Mario, and the climactic moment must be focused on their bond. Because of the distance- both physical and social- to TEC, Peach cannot be shown restoring them and paying back their faith in her, and because the Super Mario IP would bend under TEC's abilities and aesthetics, they have no incentive to salvage it with the time they have. TEC's is a good story, and it ends with them bowing away to let Peach have her happy ending, and as depressing as it is, this is the only natural ending it could have. It's an occupational hazard of a long-running narrative that wants to keep its cast sensibly sized- if you want to have a good story with a new character, you either have to be self-contained or you have to justify that new character's continued existence in the narrative. TEC's ending builds to the latter, but since this was not a realistic option, their ending suffered as a result. This has some ramifications when considering whether to continue finding a home for original characters in the Mario RPGs.
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