Thoughts on Princess Peach

This is a little bit of an alternative character interpretation, and not something I usually do, but I've had this thought lately, and I feel like the only way to get it out is to write it down.

Basically, the thought is: what if Princess Peach (of Mario franchise fame) isn't all that interested in Mario?

In the main series, Peach and Mario have very little interaction with each other directly. Peach gets kidnapped, usually by Bowser, Mario comes to the rescue, and she's saved, sometimes offering a cake back at the castle, a kiss on the nose and then the credits roll. That does not necessarily scream romantic interest to me. Gratitude, yes, romance...not quite. There is an argument there for the game's intended audience and how anything else could be inappropriate for a family-friendly game, however.

In the RPGs and other 'side games' we get to see a little more of Peach as a person. In Paper Mario (N64), she works within the confines of being captured to get Mario more information on how to beat Bowser (thus rescuing her and restoring the kingdom to it's normal state). In Super Paper Mario (Wii), she's a playable character in her own right, standing beside Mario, Luigi and Bowser to help save the day.

Small romantic gestures can be written off as obligation in this way - stuck between a captor who repeatedly abducts her and proclaims romantic intent, and her consistent rescuer, there's a certain sense of obligation to repay him in some way for his efforts. Especially as, inevitably, she will be kidnapped again - it's in her own best interests not to snub the one man who reliably rescues her, when her own staff and seemingly no one else in the kingdom is even willing to try.

There's also her position to think about. As Princess of the Mushroom kingdom, there are all kinds of people apart from her invested in this relationship. Talking to many of the NPC Toads in the Paper Mario, and the Mario and Luigi games reveals that her relationship to Mario is the subject of a lot of gossip around the Mushroom Kingdom. Simply declaring that she has no interest for Mario won't work, not when so many others are invested in the outcome.

The only other notable time when Peach is approached in a romantic/sexual way by anyone apart from Bowser or Mario that I'm aware of is in Super Paper Mario, where Francis (gross butterfly collecting dudebro) talks to Peach as though she is a character in a romantic visual novel. This goes about as well as can be expected, and Peach, gratifyingly, doesn't pander to his expectations, but it does come some way to explaining how the few people who don't see Peach as an untouchable figure treat her as a mute object to possess. With that in mind, how many other options does Peach really have?

In Super Mario 64, the game opens with Peach's letter, asking Mario to come to the castle because she's baked a cake for him. This could be read as a romantic gesture, but it's not as though Mario is alone in having had Peach cook for him. Gourmet Guy in Paper Mario also receives a cake from Peach, albeit in order for her to get more information about Bowser's schemes. Even Bowser receives a cake for his part in saving the Mushroom Kingdom in Bowser's Inside Story (DS). Maybe she just likes baking?

Mario is invited to numerous events, such as the Star Festival in the Super Mario Galaxy games (Wii), tea parties in New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii), but usually with others present (like Luigi or Toads), so it's rarely them together alone. To me, this reads more as inviting friends to events, over inviting a significant other to a date.

This is, by no means to say that this is true or it's the best interpretation of her character. Merely an alternative to the obvious and easy plot of damsel in distress falls in love with her rescuer. There are other possibilities, too. Perhaps she doesn't have romantic affection for him, but a sisterly affection? There is nothing to say that she doesn't hold platonic feelings towards him, just as there's nothing to say that her feeling aren't romantic, despite everything I've just said. Characters are open to interpretation of subtext and events and especially in a franchise like Mario's, small details are often the only clues we get about a much more complex character than we initially thought.