Waluigi

Waluigi

"Hey! I always give it everything I've got, but even I have off days. Just watch, I'll be the next champion!"
― Waluigi • Mario Golf: World Tour

Gender:	Male
Type:	Bumbling Prankster Envious Sports Rival
Age:	TBA
Species:	Human (H. nintendonus)
Portrayed by:	Charles Martinet (2001-2022) TBA (The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2)
Status:	Alive
Media of origin:	'Mario Tennis (2000; first appearance) Super Mario (franchise)

“Hey! You might be getting better, but nobody cheats better than Waluigi! You got that?!”
― Waluigi • Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour

Waluigi is a recurring character in the Mario franchise, who made his debut in Mario Tennis. He is Luigi's self-proclaimed rival and Wario's partner in crime.

While Wario made his debut as the main antagonist and the final boss of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Waluigi has never had a major role or even a single appearance in any mainline Mario game outside of spin-offs (outside of a Mystery Mushroom costume in Super Mario Maker and a costume in Super Mario Odyssey). Despite this, Waluigi has gained much fame as one of the fan-favorite characters from Nintendo.

Why He's WAH-nderful!

Waluigi is an enigma, even moreso than Wario. His background and beef with Luigi are never given any explanation, he just showed up one day as Wario's tennis partner and has stuck around since. He and Wario aren't even real brothers, according to Charles Martinet, he and Wario were just "two nice, evil guys who found each other." This makes Waluigi fascinating in a way.
Waluigi is a classic cartoony rival, embodying many negative traits but played in a comedic way. He's rude, arrogant, sneaky, and scheming. His eccentric personality makes him a fun character, which is exemplified the opening cinematics of Mario Power Tennis and Mario Golf: Toadstood Tour. His wacky personality is also helped by his lanky figure and nasally voice.
Mario is often associated with fire, Luigi is often associated with thunder, Wario is often associated with gas, and Waluigi? Waluigi's specialty is plants. In Mario Party 3, Waluigi's Island is filled with Piranha Plants, is seen with a Piranha Plant in game artwork, and uses a Piranha Plant in battle. In the Mario Strikers series, Waluigi has the unique ability to create purple thorny vines. And ever since Mario Party 8, Waluigi now loves to flamboyantly flaunt and pose with roses whenever celebrating his victory.
Orbot: Wario! Have you ever wanted to win the title of Superstar from Mario?!
Wario: I'm already a Superhero! Why would I need to worry about some smelly title Mario held?
Eggman: Waluigi! Have you ever wanted to win the title of Superstar from Luigi?!
Waluigi: Waluigi will hear all of the details, now!
― Dialogue from Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games for Nintendo 3DS showing the difference between Wario and Waluigi's personalities
“Just because everyone else is having fun doesn't mean I'm jealous! Not one bit!”
― Waluigi in denial • Super Mario Party
While to some, Waluigi seems like nothing more than a joke character, there is a rather tragic side to him. Charles Martinet himself has said that the cornerstone of Waluigi's character is self-pity (source). Waluigi believes that everything goes right for everyone except him, and how couldn't he? Mario, Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and even his own "brother" all have their own adventures, and he's always being left out. The biggest events he ever gets to participate in are just sports, and even then, he's treated as a joke. From the very beginning in his debut in Mario Tennis, his "rivalry" with Luigi is completely one-sided, as Luigi is not intimidated by him in the slightest. To this day, Waluigi is still only called his "self-proclaimed" rival. It seems that Nintendo is very self-aware of how Waluigi never gets his time to shine, as even his outfit description in Super Mario Odyssey makes reference to how he's never appeared outside of spin-offs ("A cap with an upside down "L" on it. It's barely used!", "This outfit makes you want to lurk in the shadows, waiting for a turn in the spotlight."). It's apparent that Waluigi is nowhere near as self-confident as Wario is, so his eccentric and flamboyant persona might be a desperate call for attention. It is, for this reason, Waluigi can be seen as a sympathetic and even relatable character.
Artwork of Waluigi by Camelot Co. Ltd. character designer Fumihide Aoki, creator of Waluigi.
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer... Take them by surprise.”
― Waluigi • Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for Nintendo DS
Although Waluigi can be viewed as pathetic, he can also be intimidating. His early design really sells him as this shady sinister and devious figure, with pale skin, contorting weird pointy teeth, and lurking in the shadows with his eyes flashing in the dark, adding to his mysterious nature. While Waluigi is certainly a cheater, that isn't to say he doesn't have any natural skill or talent. It his been stated in character descriptions that Waluigi has spent most of his life training in the shadows to compete with Luigi, who he so utterly envies.
“𝐻𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑎𝑢𝑡𝑦, 𝐻𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑒”
― Nintendo Australia and New Zealand's comment on Waluigi, promoting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe • Twitter
Many people also find themselves attracted to Waluigi, due to his flamboyant persona and raw sexual energy. His lanky build, self-pity, and the whole rose thing is enough to make him qualify as a "Tumblr Sexyman".
Charles Martinet does an excellent job voicing him, with him providing a heavy Italian accent that is similarly good to Mario's, Luigi's, and Wario's voices.

Bad Qualites

While Waluigi has all to the makings of a great character, from a creative design with a creative name to an entertaining and interesting personality that can make for great interactions with other characters in the series, Waluigi has never appeared in any game outside of sports spin-offs, which is kind of a waste of potential and why he didn't appear in the Wario games as he should have in which he should have gotten a job and could have easily further expanded his relationship with Wario. This could have possibly had the chance for him to be playable if Nintendo could have put him in the Wario games, as stated above.
An odd thing about his design (as well as Wario's) is how his mouth is rarely ever seen closed. It really limits his expressions, and while there have been moments where Waluigi isn't always showing his teeth, such as his early Nintendo 64 appearances and the Mario Strikers series, those are exceptions rather than the rule.

Trivia

Waluigi's name is a clever portmanteau of Luigi's name and the Japanese word "warui", which translates to "bad" or "evil". There's more, as "warui" can also mean poor, hateful, abominable or inferior - all words that reflect Waluigi's reputation in the Mushroom Kingdom, as well as his place compared to Mario Bros. Additionally, Waruiji (with a short i), is an anagram for "Ijiwaru" which means someone who is bad or mean-spirited; further translations are sadistic, malicious and unkind - all fitting descriptions for Walugi’s personality.
Prior to the creation of the Waluigi we all know and love today for Mario Tennis, Luigi once succumbed to his dark side and became「ワルイージ」(Waruīji, "Waluigi") in the Kodansha manga adaptation of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. The idea of a "Waluigi" predating Mario Tennis was also briefly used as a gag in a 1994 Mario & Wario 4Koma manga.
According to a September 2000 English edition of Nintendo Power, Waluigi is so petty, that he once he sold Luigi's underwear on EBay. That same issue of Nintendo Power got edited into a fake scan that claimed that Waluigi is actually an actor named Jimmy Poppadopolos, who Wario hired after getting jealous of Mario having a brother. The edit went viral, which led to many people being fooled.
- For comparison, here's the real scan, and here's the fake edited one.
Waluigi actually does have one game to his name, or at least he did. That game is Waluigi's Toenail Clipping Party also called Waluigi's Foot Fault which is a flash game made to promote his debut in Mario Tennis. Unfortunately, due to a lack of preservation and awareness, this game has been lost and forgotten. Despite sounding like an absurd joke, it is possible that this game actually existed as there were two Adobe Flash files hosted on the Mario Tennis website - "toenails_coming.swf" which served as an advertisement for the game featuring none other than Waluigis disgusting bare feet; and "toenails.swf", supposedly being the actual playable version of said title. However, since then waluigi.com domain has been turned into a redirect towards Nintendo's official website thus making any trace of these files disappear forever without leaving much evidence behind its existence aside from some speculation amongst fans .
As video game renders have become more detailed over time, taking a close look at Mario and Luigi's caps, you can very clearly see that their emblems are embroidered onto their caps, but when taking a closer look at Wario's cap, it's made out of noticably cheaper material, and the "W" sticking out makes it look like it was glued onto the cap, and when looking at Waluigi's cap, you can see that the "Γ" emblem on his hat is a cheap sticker with a corner that is peeling off. This bit of trivia is a nice touch that further shows Wario and Waluigi's phony nature.

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