Pauline (originally known as Lady and The Beautiful Girl) was Mario's original love interest before Princess Peach was introduced. She is the damsel-in-distress in the arcade game Donkey Kong, in which she was captured by the original Donkey Kong. She also makes regular appearances in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series. There, she fulfills the same role as in prior games, although she has played other supporting roles.
General Information[]
Development[]
Pauline’s original design was somewhat inconsistent, appearing noticeably different in official game art each time. Most often she appeared as a blonde woman with long wavy to curly hair wearing a deep pink to red, usually torn, strap dress and ankle-strap pumps of the same color. Since Donkey Kong on the Game Boy, Pauline’s appearance was updated closer to her more current appearance with only minor difference to her most recent look. This redesign was speculated in her Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS trophy to be an attempt to differentiate herself from Princess Peach. Her original redesign gave her a ribbed-chest red halter neck dress, black Mary Jane high heels, dark brown hair, red lips and violet eye shadow. This appearance would be refined over the years to her final look.
Identity[]
While the name "Pauline" has been used for the character in the west since the manual for the NES version of Donkey Kong; in Japan, she was still known as "Lady" until her return in the Game Boy version. Because of this and the redesign that Pauline was given in the Game Boy version, the original version of the character and redesigned version were treated as separate characters in certain Mario media in Japan, with the original version of the character being known as Lady and the new version being known as Pauline. This was likely due to the fact that Pauline was described as a "new heroine" when Donkey Kong '94 was released in Japan, despite the fact that Miyamoto and game director Masayuki Kameyama stated in an interview that the game was a prequel to Super Mario Bros. (being a remake and all) and that Pauline was Mario's "old flame" (昔の彼女) before meeting Peach.[7] Similarly, during the Cat Mario show's coverage of some old NES games, Cat Mario, when asked by Cat Peach about the woman's identity, simply identified her as "Lady."[8] She was also named Lady on the description of Donkey Kong on the Japanese Virtual Console site.
In the Mario Character Encyclopedia, published in 1994 by Shogakukan, Lady and Pauline are given separate entries. Curiously, both of them have "New York" listed as their place of origin, but Lady's personality is described as "docile" (おとなしい) while Pauline's personality is "vigorous" (活発).[9]
Kazuki Motoyama's Super Mario manga introduced Lady during the Super Mario Kart story arc as Mario's childhood girlfriend who established an automobile repair shop and volunteers to become Mario and Luigi's mechanic during the kart race. Later on, during the Donkey Kong story arc, Pauline was introduced as an acrobat hired by Peach for her circus alongside Donkey Kong Jr.
Volume 2 of Yukio Sawada's Super Mario-Kun featured a gag in which Lady leaves Mario for Donkey Kong. However, Volume 11 of the same manga would introduce Pauline as a clerk in a clothing store that Mario frequents with no mention of her having a prior romantic relationship with Mario (or Donkey Kong for that matter).
The Japanese versions of both, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, would eventually confirm to Japanese players that Pauline and Lady are indeed meant to be one and the same on Pauline's trophy description.
Pauline has several naming errors across media. In at least one ad for the Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong, Pauline was referred to as Louise.[10] However, the instructions leave her unnamed. NES information packs, mailed as late as April 1986, referred to her as "Paula" instead of Pauline. [11]
Character Description[]
Currently Pauline is depicted as having pale to dull blue eyes, long wavy burgundy-brown hair and pale skin. She has large slanted eyes with four long eyelashes at the top and three smaller lashes at the bottom (a total of seven), coupled with long defined arching eyebrows that thin out as they extend. Her nose is triangular in shape with an oval shaped face and pointed chin. She is typically shown wearing violet eye shadow, dark red lipstick and nail polish.
Pauline has a curvy hourglass figure, in comparison to other human female characters. She is most often shown as average height when compared to other adult human females in the Mario franchise, although some sources such as Streetpass Mii Plaza's 3D puzzle with Peach, Rosalina, and herself indicated that she was at least as tall as Rosalina (who is shown to be very tall), and is also shown in Super Mario Odyssey to be fairly tall among the New Donk City populace, especially in comparison to Mario.
