SPM Post Chapter 6 Part 616: Mario Dies and Goes to Hell

So, Dimentio just blew us up.

And Mario wakes up to find himself alone. What corner of hell have we found ourselves in?

Fortunately, we're not alone alone. Just without Peach, Bowser, Tippi, or any of the Pixls.

So yeah. The taverns of Flipside and Flopside were named "The Underwhere" and "The Overthere", and it turns out they were named after things. It's time for us to learn what those things are.

Oh great, we're in New Jersey.

Apparently, the nature of the Underwhere is common knowledge... outside the Mushroom Kingdom. You know, I wonder if there's a reason for this.

You ever wondered where people went when they Game Overed? This is it.

Ladies and gentlemen? Mario has an afterlife.

(With that said, I wonder if the Mushroom Kingdomers' unfamiliarity with the Underwhere implies they don't use it like the Flipside Folk do.)

Also, "World -1" refers to the glitched world you can access in Super Mario Bros. 1 by jumping into a pipe in World 1-2 weirdly. The world is actually a high numbered world, but the game can't display the World number correctly, leaving you with "World |_|-1". The level cannot be beaten in the NES version, although there are multiple levels to play in the Famicom.

Most of the people who talk about how they died talk about ways one might die in a Mario platformer, rather than say, natural causes. Or, er... "natural" causes.

We got exploded by Dimentio. I don't think we can exactly deny the possibility we're dead now.

We're telling Mario to get grief counseling about his own death from the Queen of the Underworld.

You know, I just thought you should understand just what this game is doing.

And again, Lord of the Afterlife. Or, well, Lady. We're talking to the equivalent of Hades herself.

Can we not? Please?

"Forever". Considering they're bottomless, I'm sure that's the same pit you're cleaning the whole time, too.

The black and the white Shaydes are the same species, but I'm not sure if the dimorphism means anything.

This fountain is a full heal. Although you can't exactly avoid it if you don't need it, there's no punishment for it.

That's some real Mario Maker design there.

...Guess we know where all the Shaydes come from.

Just what we needed. Mortal peril to fear in the afterlife.

Although what exactly happens after you die a second time is anyone's guess.

Can't jump up here. Not that we could with our former arsenal.

This is not a Shayde. She's just a weirdo.

Very romantically inclined and with a very tenuous grip on reality. It's a heterosexual L'Arachel, only without any of the things that made L'Arachel work.

If you didn't want to be stared at, don't opine at length on a public road. You're literally right next to where new dead people come in.

At least L'Arachel is rude because she's ignorant of social norms. This is openly and unapologetically dismissing people without recognising or caring who they are and why they're approaching you.

...So how do we move past her?

Right, we still have 3D.

By the way, we have no way of killing Dry Bones. Those guys will just be an issue we have to deal with.

Anyway, in 3D, these platforms are surprisingly precarious to navigate, despite having walls to press yourself against. Yes, that jump on the left-hand side is just slightly too far to make.

It's a Lava Bubble. This fiery magma boy loves the heat... Max HP is 1 and Attack is 4. Obviously, it's quite immune to fire... It pops out from below when people approach, so take care when jumping over lava...

Lava Bubble is still using its Paper Mario design, but it has returned to its platformer habits of popping in and out of bottomless pits to disrupt your jumps. We have no way of killing it in our current state, but we could if we had our Pixls.

...I think we can make the jump across? Still, though, frustrating.

A Super Shroom Shake up here, if you need it.

...The waters are what? At any rate, while it's often joked the Underwhere is the Christian Hell, the fact is that it is clearly based upon the Greek Underworld. It does, however, transition into the afterlifes of other denominations elsewhere.

For instance, this man is named Charold, and he is a ferryman for a pittance of coins. I don't think many versions of the Charon myth go for four coins, though, most specify one or two.

Still, though. This remains far too eerie in tone for a series whose idea of horror is a white ball of ghost shrieking shrilly behind your back.

At least this sorta defuses the tension.

I don't believe Hades personally judged the souls of mortal sinners in Greek mythology, although I might be thinking of the Percy Jackson version of the myth. The people doing the judging certainly answered to him.

This part does seem to be a part of the Greek version- those too cowardly to face their sins avoided the harsh punishments and instead get an afterlife in a moderately unpleasant limbo. Or, well, they preferred the Fields of Asphodel, but I think the Underwhere matches that.

These purple guys are the servants of Jaydes, the D-Men. I'm not 100% sure what Greek or non-Greek figures they're based on, but more or less they're the gruntwork of Jaydes where she doesn't want to personally stop off in.

...The fact that he specifies "I'm a hero" makes me think Mario tried that one on him.

The D-Men are currently swamped with work, and I'm not entirely sure what this is relevant to. I'd like to think this is them accommodating the sudden influx of Sammer Guys, but it also could be more relevant to a later plot point.

While "the Underwhere" is often ascribed as Hell, "the Overthere" would be Heaven. It is certainly the place that the undead want to be.

There are regular mentions of there being a layer beneath the Underwhere that's where the real sinners go, but this layer is never ascribed a name. It's occasionally called "the darkest reaches of the Underwhere", which hints it's also the Underwhere, but otherwise it's a place no one likes to think of.

Someone seems to think Mario has a shot at making it to the Overthere! Mario certainly would. Paper Mario, though?

...Are you sure?

Shaydes who do not pay Charold find themselves stuck at the bottom of the River Twygz, and the D-Men responsible for fishing them out for one reason or another do not appreciate that job. It's an unpleasant job no matter how you slice it.

...Yup. That's a Queen of the Underworld, all right.

And she is certainly not making the prospect of spending a long conversation with her appealing.

The exposition of the stakes for the people who didn't chat with the Shaydes.

Something distracts her from the process of judging us. I don't know whether to be relieved or irritated.

..."Brought"? How many of the Shaydes bring things...

Especially objects that not only should few people ever touch, but shouldn't ever exist in this state?

Jaydes freaks out on seeing a dead Pure Heart. I'm sure it's entirely because she's appraised of the incredible importance these objects possess.

Although she seems very concerned about the when, where, and how a Pure Heart turned to this state. You see, it was the end of the world as we know it...

Sadly, her ring tone is the most generic ring tone you could think of. I guess the devs couldn't think of a Castle or Ghost House theme spooky enough for the afterlife.

"I have the vitally important job of judging who is fair of heart and who is beyond redemption. I don't want either of those people listening in on my phone calls!"

As if the Pure Heart being destroyed wasn't bad enough, someone important to her is unaccounted for. This is not a good day to be Queen of the Underworld.

Jaydes already has her hands full with at least some off-screen shenanigans, this much extra is way too much for her.

And she realises that perhaps she can lighten her load by throwing some of her problems at other ones.

Grambi and the Nimbis are the inhabitants of the Overthere as Jaydes and the Shaydes are the inhabitants of the Underwhere. In Greek mythology, these roles were filled by the same people, which is an early clue that the Overthere isn't going to be Greek.

Jaydes asks us to be of assistance finding Luvbi while she clears off the rest of her plate.

The Queen of the Damned, the woman who has the ultimate say over our eternity, has asked us for a personal favour.

What?! You would refuse me? Do you not know the fate of those who defy Jaydes? I will ask you once again... Will you please search for Luvbi in my stead?

Still you do not agree? I must warn you... I can be very persuasive. I will ask you yet again... Will you please search for Luvbi in my stead?

You are a stubborn creature. This is your last chance... and I mean that. I will ask one last time... Will you please search for Luvbi in my stead?

I see... Then we are done here, it seems.

Thunderbolt zaps Mario

You will spend the rest of eternity in the foulest corner of The Underwhere! Farewell, mustached Shayde. OhOhOhOhOhOhOhOhOhOhO!

G A M E   O V E R

You damn well bet you say yes.

...You have a physical description to go off?

Well, OK, sure, that's polite. None of the Shaydes have names, incidentally.

(Mario waves his hand to vocalise volunteering his name.)

Jaydes makes us a very curious offer. I find it fascinating what subtle story cue you could read from this scene, although sharing the exact details would be spoiling the surprise.

For now, note her emphasis that she refuses to return it unless we come back with Luvbi. Er, I mean until. Not that there's any difference... chuckles.

"It could help you on your quest."

It's not pointing to Luvbi- in fact, Jaydes is pretty sure she won't be down that way- but she reckons taking a look will be in our best interests. Hey, it's another job to get done.

Translation: "You will find something there, even if it looks as though you're at a dead end."

To get to the bottom of the River Twygz, we've gotta dive. Don't worry, despite the colour, this is normal water in every way that matters.

That’s an Underhand. These creepy hands try to drag the dead deeper into oblivion... If they met a living person, they would certainly try to drag him or her down too... You can’t defeat them, so it’s best to run...

Except for the fact it's full of Underhands. They reach out and deal 1 point of damage to you, trying to grab you and... not actually doing anything more dangerous. Try and stay away, of course.

I always thought these ones were "fixed" to the back wall, but apparently they're mobile? Maybe it's my source that's mistaken on that one.

As you get to the bottom of the Twygz, one of the game's few proximity musical shifts occurs: the song changes from the Underwhere to... the sort of song that sounds like only a creepypasta would need it. 

This game was sold to the casual Mario market. Thank goodness 99% of that market doesn't make it past World 3 of any given game!

The hole in which we need to use our key is down here, roughly in the middle of the river. You can pick it out in 2D with the bubbles.

Thankfully, this sidescrolling area is back to the slightly jauntier Underwhere theme.

Now seems as good a time as any to really recognise that Underhands are not 3D enemies and we can still use our awesome 3D powers to get around them.

Flushing the sewer system, and...

Not so tough now, are we?

Although hold up, I need the water filled right now. (The state of the Twygz during and after this puzzle is left uncommented on.)

We needed this block pushed down first.

It's the only way to jump out of that pit. Our insane 2D height isn't quite that good.

There's a few Brick Blocks that you can't break while it's flooded- and that's what the drainage system is for. It's just a matter of making sure you can get up there.

Remember what Jaydes said about a thorough exploration? Twice, this 2D section fakes you out with an ending that you need to flip into 3D to progress through.

...I think this we need to flood. All right, so...

...That is rather a lot of Underhands. They really don't want us going that way!

We need to float up where that brick block goes first, flipping into 3D to push this block out of this cubby.

The hatch is at the end of this passage.

This is how we get back once we're done.

And one bonus pipe after that section for cash.

...I wouldn't be in 3D for this, this isn't going to help.

Right, so what did Jaydes want us to find in here?

...Not jumping back up there. Clearly this is going to be an upgrade...

A new Pixl?

...No...

LITTLE BRO!

Mr. L has been diagetically forgotten by Luigi- his memory of the events of Castle Bleck ends when Gary and the rest of the brainwashed Koopa Troop grabbed him and begins when he turned up here- but the game assures us that it has not: for some reason, Mr. L, Green Thunder is playing in this scene. I guess it does fit next to the Underwhere theme, but... that song has connotations, game.

Mario doesn't question what's going on, and goes right next to his little bro.

To his joy.

Mario asks him what he's doing down here, in perhaps the closest he comes to broaching the subject of "what happened to you being Mr. L?" Mario ever gets.

Luigi doesn't seem sure. Which doesn't help us figure out what's what here.

Yes, I know it's confusing, but we're hardly better informed here.

Mario has a long, non-verbal chat with Luigi, with this as the takeaway. Mentally fill in as much or as little mention of Mr. L as you pleased, because the plot certainly doesn't care about him and it doesn't sound like Luigi did either.

Luigi takes the whole "so I'm dead now" on the chin. Considering what Count Bleck was doing, he probably figured it was one of the better outcomes.

And hey, if his bro needs help with an errand and his life is literally over?

Who is Luigi to turn down his brother asking for his help?

Luigi's special ability is tied to his crouch- not seeing it in action is why that was taken away from us way back when we saw the intermission with him earlier. Note that it also means we're not going to see Luigi crouch normally, if ever- so that crouching animation he had behind that rock is surprisingly remote. The Super Jump takes three clicks to wind up (I think faster than three seconds, but still an amount of time), and if you release before it's wound, you don't get any height. If you release afterwards, though, you go rocketing upwards, dealing double damage to anything you pass on the way up- provided it doesn't do contact damage from that direction. Super Luigi may have come too late to make his mark, but don't count him out!

(We saw this as an attack from Mr. L, although I don't think his version did the double damage.

Time to play as the Green Thunder!

And here's that signature leap.

There's one of these if you care.

More relevant, there's actually a Dry Bones Catch Card hiding in the lip underneath the water fountain. I don't realise it's there until later. You'd think that'd be an obvious search spot, but no.

It's straight up this way.

We do need to switch to Mario to get out of here, but Luigi can jump us through a ton of these puzzles faster.

Just look at him go!

Luigi also trivialises the walk back through this map, which as you'll remember, is the map Luvbi was on.

There are pipes on the way there, but they don't seem to be the going down kind.

This guy talks about what we eventually found out was Luigi. Clearly his conclusions were premature.

Proof of healing.

If you recall, Luvbi was on top of this pipe earlier, but that seems to no longer be the case.

Clearly, following her takes the form of clambering up this high road.

The top pipe has a secret in it, if you notice that blue block before killing the Squog that's clearly there to get Thoreau... wait, hold on, we don't have Thoreau.

Not to worry, Luigi can get up there! Luigi's going to bust some puzzles wide open...

...Did we get anything in that, or was it just a trap?

This frigid Frost Piranha has subzero breath... Max HP is 7 and Attack is 3. If you get breathed on, you'll be frozen for a bit... Originally hailing from a cold climate, this plant struck out in search of new prey... This plant loves ice cream, but hates hot-fudge sundaes.

Frost Piranhas can't freeze you, since the status is missing from this game, but they're just as frustrating as the Putrid variety, especially since they are often placed on top of these tall pipes for maximum chaos in the way.

Fortunately, Super Jumping them in the chin is enough to take them out.

The things I do to hit blocks.

...These are really weird to still be doing, but sure, might as well.

Ah, that's how we get to the background.

That's a Gigabite. It's an evil skull that soars through the skies... Max HP is 6 and Attack is 2. It will only take 1 damage per attack... Gigabites are even more annoying than Megabites... No one knows where they come from or where they go...

Going through the two background chunks takes us to a fight with a Gigabite. These guys are just for bonus content, and they won't go away like Megabites do. Victory for one of us is assured if I don't run away.

They can be weird, especially their tails, but that shouldn't be too hard to avoid.

That's a lot of coins. I don't imagine he comes back, though.

Defeating him unlocks another of the Peach alt Catch Cards. But what other design could she have?

Peach is sporting a fresh and breezy new hairstyle! It's perfect for the princess with an active lifestyle!

Ah yes, the Gamecube ponytail! I mentioned that was in SPM, and it's in more than just a Catch Card! But at the time I recorded this, I didn't actually know where. I imagine we have the option of doing it by now, though, if we're getting a Catch Card referencing it.

Since we have neither Peach nor freedom of movement, we should continue to press on in search of Luvbi.

Imagine dealing with these guys in 2D. Maximum chaos. Honestly, if anything, this game is a showcase of why Mario's 3D outings are easier than his 2D ones.

This weirdo has realised that her old home was a bit too close to traffic for her ambitions to be met, so she's gone off to a corner to pine for someone to sweep her off her feet in peace.

And is highly irritated we're still here. Although she is a bit colour-blind and doesn't care about the fact we are not Mario, but Luigi. This is probably the politest way Luigi is disparaged across the series, and this time it's mostly accidental.

Body hair is a fact of life, princess. Or, well, undeath.

...Do Shaydes grow moustaches?

Proud descendant of Mama and Papa Mario!

...This is definitely a fairy tale understanding of romance, princelihood and general everything. But it does explain why the name "Luvbi" was highlighted by Jaydes when we were sent to look for her.

Looks like we've found our errant Nimbi.

This means Jaydes wants you, and I couldn't care less what happens as long as you get your sorry wings back there.

Not that she makes any acknowledgement of Luigi's attempt to explain this (he does make one, but owing to being a protagonist, it was not in text form.)

Right, time to skip across the River Twygz back to Jaydes to go make sure she's OK.

Well, if somebody cleaned the gunk out from her ears, you would have learned that sooner.

Jaydes disavows any and all support for Luvbi's position, since she's currently in big trouble for going off unattended, without permission and generally left herself to being eaten alive by all the enemies in the Underwhere, if not worse below.

And tries to get her to apologise for her behaviour.

She's a little ways off from that.

Incidentally, the "Shakespearian Olde English" that she speaks with is a common trait of Nimbis. In this game, that's mostly "yea", "thou", "art" and "verily", of course.

Jaydes doesn't make any more effort to get a genuine apology out of Luvbi. Grade A parenting, there, not at all worried about how she's going to grow up.

With Luvbi returned to her, Jaydes is prepared to return the Pure Heart- and as a bonus, turned it back on while she had it. Turning it over to her proved to be a very beneficial idea!

...Wait, wasn't that Pure Heart supposed to be purple?

Yeah, no big deal, Jaydes can do things like that. Presumably, Jaydes actually contributed to the Ancients' study of the Purity Heart, or at least understands their inner workings.

Since she can be sure we weren't the ones who ruined the Pure Heart to begin with, she feels confident that it was conferred onto us for the right reasons. And in general supports the whole "use the Pure Hearts to save the world" thing, gotta add that. Not that we've seen the Void in here.

...We're not actually dead?

Since Jaydes has the power over life and death, I'm sure she'd be able to return us to Flipside regardless of whether or not Dimentio's power killed us, but it turns out he didn't. Whatever it is he did to us may have sent us to Hell, but it did not do so the way everyone else arrives. I imagine the reason we didn't actually die is because Nintendo's Brand Awareness notes- what little this game had- came back and wrote, in big red letters, "DO NOT KILL MARIO."

At which point the writers were allowed to do all the individual steps of killing Mario.

There's no reason not to Return unless you really want to explore every single nook and cranny of the Underwhere for those last few goodies.

Jaydes' magical spell is accompanied by a particularly weird choice in tune, one I feel is done entirely for the sake of a pun. You see, this song has been used before.

It's the song that plays when you're using Merluvlee and Merlee's services. The name "Road for the Lost" equally describes the circumstances of a lost gamer asking for advice and a lost soul returning to where it belongs. Despite those two situations being about as far apart as it is possible to be.

Jaydes quite literally grants us a Continue. Because if dying in this game is considered Game Over, what else do you name coming back from Near Death?

Welcome back to the world of the living!

And Merlon and Tippi are here to welcome us back! I suppose they were on Flipside Tower debating how to find someone who can solve the problem- or perhaps more accurately, discussing how they wanted to spend the last of their time.

Oh, never mind, Tippi had one of her weird feelings Jaydes was up to something. I feel like I was more content with the explanation without that reasoning.

Luigi had absolutely no doubt Mario could find a way out of that particular predicament. And he wasn't even fully aware he was in it until much later! Luigi always knows what his brother is capable of and puts the utmost faith in him regardless of his own feelings on the subject.

He's my brother!

Tippi gets a thorough off-screen explanation on what happened, although I'm not fully sure she's appraised on the scale of how weird that was. We just "died" and went to the afterlife! Yes, coming back was traditional "run a quick errand", but there are some places where concept is enough.

Luigi accepted the change in venue, but he would like to be given his credit now.

And Tippi... sorta recognises him. This is her picking up on Mr. L, although apparently the disguise worked well enough on her that she's fooled by its absence.

Since Luigi doesn't remember being Mr. L, there's nothing these two can do to help tell Tippi what went on. Mario continues to be alone in even being ambiguously able to identify Luigi when he's wearing a mask and nothing else while flashing his signature emblem everywhere.

It's about time we found someone to fill that seat. We've been making do with just the three so far. And yet that felt like enough. The brave leading explorer, the defensive girlboss, and the giant powerhouse that deletes everything he breathes on.

...Either this book is not written in order, or you're reading it slower than I'm progressing through the story. Either seems like a bad idea.

...And once again, the flowery language of the Prognosticus makes me question whether it is saying what it proclaims to be saying. It reunites Mario with his brother at last, and then the seventh Pure Heart's revival will open the path to finding someone who'll fill the spot of the fourth Hero. We already found Luigi and called upon his help before that. If I read that, I would be absolutely preparing for a curveball character.

Thankfully, we're not going to find Toad, so Luigi it is.

...She brings up a good point. We got our Continue, but Peach and Bowser are still in the afterlife, dead or otherwise. Peach will be fine- she probably got a free pass to the Overthere. But Bowser...

Tippi decides that we'd better hope for the best. Surely they'll find their way to eventually have an audience with Jaydes and Grambi, who might recognise them being out of place.

Whether they'd send Bowser back, on the other hand...

Yeah, don't want anything else to happen before we've set it in stone.

Right. Heart Pillar.

We know exactly where to go- Flopside basement, behind this pillar. Luigi's Super Jump is exactly what we need to get to the thing.

...

I can't believe I never noticed it before, but the Pure Heart we saw in the Sammer Kingdom itself (when Mimi showed it on presenting the Duel of 100) and in the Underwhere when Jaydes returned it was indeed a shade of blue. When putting it in the Heart Pillar, though, the game remembers it's supposed to be purple.

Because this one's going to the purple door.

And Tippi continues to betray herself somewhat about who she truly is.

The cat's almost certainly out of the bag for the audience, although the characters are going to continue being up the creek without a paddle on the topic. This is largely because Tippi is the only character who could inform herself on the subject, in all honesty. Nobody else even knows who Blumiere and Timpani are. Tippi is implied to be receiving the flashbacks, diagetically, but she's not sharing because she doesn't understand them.

If you stand on top of this and flip into 3D, there's actually a hole for the back of the place- the hole to the back was more accessible in Flipside, but it's still there, and if you know to look, this becomes more apparent.

This pitch-perfect Pixl plays the most melodious tunes. She lived in Flopside before joining your ragtag group.

And there's our Piccolo Card. Say, aren't we supposed to have a Barry one? Yeah, we are, and that's also accessible to us in a weird place. I get it later.

For now, we need to see Chapter 7.

Next time: Any questions you still have will likely be answered. And subsequently further confounded.