In Defense Of Starlow

With the release of the first Mario & Luigi game in almost a decade (which I have not gotten yet so don't expect a review any time soon) comes the unwelcome revival of Starlow discourse. If you're at all familiar with the ever argumentative Mario RPG fandom, you should know that so much as mentioning Starlow is enough for people to get at each other's throats over her. It's gotten to the point where the reveal that she's even showing up in Brothership as not even a companion but a minor character, boasting around an hour of screentime in a 30-40 hour game, is still enough for the fandom to completely freak out. And that's a real shame, because Starlow is one of my favorite Mario characters of all time. So against all my better judgement, I'm going to jump into the discourse and defend Starlow.

Starlow debuted in Bowser's Inside Story as the obligatory companion character, and since I first played the game, she was an immediate hit for me. Her snarky personality meshed with BiS's style of humor pretty much perfectly, and she played a noticeable role as a communicator between Bowser and the Bros. She had a solid character arc too, as she arrived with this idealist mindset of Mario being the sole shining hero, Luigi being the cowardly second fiddle, and Bowser being an irredeemable monster only to slowly learn the latter two had more to them under the surface. Being a kid, I had no idea she was even the slightest bit divisive, and from what I can tell, it wasn't as intense back then. Her appearance in Dream Team stoked the flames a bit more since Starlow was the first companion character to reappear in a second Mario RPG, but I actually saw more people come to like her in this one. This game leans a lot more on Starlow's growing respect of Luigi, as she has to spend the entire game watching him as he sleeps (trust me, it makes more context in-game). Starlow witnesses Luigi's moments of courage and determination to help his brother, and by the end of the game, is completely on board and is rooting Luigi on. Of course, she also serves a much larger gameplay importance as she's the one who activates most of Luigi's dream world powers.

It was Starlow's appearance in Paper Jam where everything really fell apart. People could forgive a single reappearance, but this was Starlow's third game as partner and people wanted something different. On top of that, Paper Jam is pretty infamous for having more mean-spirited writing than most, which from what I've heard is more down to a poor localization. Pretty much every character is mean to Luigi in this game, but of course, Starlow looked like the worst case since she's been with the Bros for multiple games now and seemed to have grown in Dream Team. At this point, it was 100% cool to hate on Starlow. It was totally normal to cheer when the first trailer for Brothership launched with her nowhere to be seen, and it was totally normal to panic when she ended up showing up in the next trailer. Honestly, I do get the complaints over Starlow being reused as a partner too many times. When the Paper Mario series is right there offering incredible partner after incredible partner (minus Kersti), I'd get wanting the Mario & Luigi games to shake things up. But hating Starlow to the point of not even wanting her as a cameo feels like a step too far. Like it or not, Starlow is engrained in the identity of the Mario & Luigi series, it wouldn't feel the same without her.

Though, of course, Starlow's constant reappearances probably wouldn't have gotten as much flack if it wasn't for the main reason why people hated her: Starlow insults Luigi too much. But why is this such a deal-breaker for so many people? Why is Luigi so important? Well, Luigi is important because he's the most relatable character in the Mario series. He's anxious, he's scared, he's imperfect, but he always pushes through his anxiety and tries his best to do the right thing and support Mario. Luigi isn't the eternally upbeat hero that Mario is, he's the underdog, and a lot of people see themselves in him. So when Luigi gets put down by others, it can be easy to want to protect him. The Mario & Luigi games have always made Luigi into a bit of a butt monkey, people forgetting his name is basically a running gag, but the reason why Starlow gets the brunt of the hate is because she goes on adventures with Luigi. She witnesses his heroism firsthand and still chooses to rib him. Don't get me wrong, I see why people don't like Starlow.

But here's where my defense begins. Fans often point as a few choice moments of Starlow being especially mean to Luigi. The one I see the most is when Mario & Luigi tell her about the events of Partners In Time and how they saved the world as babies, where she jokes about how Luigi must've "attacked them with some ferocious crying". This is often depicted as Starlow being mean, and yeah, she is kind of abrasive here. And yet, people conveniently tend to forget that Mario pulls Starlow off to the side, makes it clear that this actually happened, and Starlow immediately apologizes. She recognized when she crossed a line. But also, if you were to tell me your baby self saved the world and defeated an alien race, yeah, I'd be pretty skeptical too. Paper Jam is a bit tougher to defend due to the aforementioned localization issues, but it's hard for me to solely call out Starlow when Peach, the canonical kindest character in the franchise, spends the game insulting Luigi even more severely. At this point, it's not a Starlow issue, it's a writing issue. And then there's Brothership whose only sin is Starlow simply calling Luigi the wrong name, a running gag that has lasted since even before her debut. Just ignore that Starlow still says Luigi several other times in the game including directly before her gag line.

I feel like people tend to expect the worst from Starlow, assuming that she is always malicious towards Luigi and any attempt to show support is her being fake or disingenuous, and that just completely removes my favorite aspect about her relationship with the Bros. The advantage of being a reoccurring partner is that Starlow has this history with Mario and Luigi, she gets them. Her remarks in Bowser's Inside Story come from a lack of understanding of what Luigi's capable of, but most of the dialogue I've seen from her in Brothership give off a more playful, sisterly vibe. And this even applies to Bowser, as their oddball relationship in Bowser's Inside Story is honestly one of the strongest things about the game. You can't imagine how happy I was to learn that she has a scene with Bowser in Brothership where she shows her ability to get under his skin unlike anyone else. I like Starlow because in a series as lighthearted as Mario, she has a more cynical, abrasive, and witty vibe to her and her ability to take the piss out of pretty much anyone makes for a really funny and endearing character. But I love Starlow because of those few moments where she drops the bullshit, supports her friends wholeheartedly, and seems to know exactly what to say every single time. There's a reason her cheering on Bowser at the end of Bowser's Inside Story and her cheering on Luigi at the end of Dream Team are two of my favorite moments in the series. Even Paper Jam, for all its flaws, has a moment just like this when Starlow encourages Luigi to rescue the other Marios, even making a funny fourth wall break referencing the Year Of Luigi.

But wait, let's not forget about Luigi because this goes two ways. The thing about underdogs is that if they're not going through any form of conflict, they're not underdogs anymore. What makes Luigi and many characters like him so appealing is how they overcome the odds and do things no one believes they were capable of. If everyone loved Luigi and treated him like a treasure and a hero on the same level as Mario, moments like his kaiju fight with Bowser in Dream Team or his mini-adventure in Superstar Saga to save Mario's life wouldn't be nearly as impactful or memorable. Hell, there is an entire spinoff series built around pushing Luigi outside his comfort zone, a huge chunk of the appeal of the Luigi's Mansion games is seeing Luigi freak the hell out every time he enters a room. So when I see fans getting mad every time Luigi gets insulted or depicted as a coward, I just get confused. Do you want Luigi to be less interesting and relatable? People get so fiercely protective over Luigi too, like he's an adult, he doesn't need to be "protecced". And the sheer vitriol I see towards Starlow, seeing comments wanting to step on her or shove her into a blender, I just can't imagine how people can get so violent over this goofy character. It just kinda unnerves me how weirdly personal this discourse can get.

Though, I'd also be remiss not to mention that Starlow is also just her own character, completely separate from Luigi. The amount of actual "Luigi insults" she lets out across four games is no more than a dozen, and she's had at least several hundred lines of dialogue at this point. Even on her own merits, I just like Starlow as a character and I find her to be a welcome and pleasant addition to the series. I like her snarky dialogue, I like her silly "Yello hello!" catchphrase, I like her simple but cute design and how utterly goofy it looks in 3D, I like how quotable Starlow is across all of her games, I like her friendship with Peach and her rivalry with Bowser, and I genuinely like how mean she could be. At her most biting, Starlow reminds me a lot of Kazooie, another one of my favorite video game characters (What can I say? I like the deadpan snarkers). When you compare Starlow to the other major partners in the Mario & Luigi series, she stands out as a lot more multi-faceted and colorful in her personality. I like Dreambert a lot, his more prim and proper personality plays off of Starlow really well. But Stuffwell? I'm sorry, I don't get why people seem to like this guy so much. His only personality is shouting "Back To Adventure!" and after smothering you with tutorials for the first hour, he pretty much dips from the plot entirely. But I guess he doesn't make fun to Luigi, so he's obviously better than Starlow, right?

I'm not trying to force anyone to like Starlow more with this, I mostly want to articulate on why I personally find her to be such a fun character, and also argue against some of the misinformation I see used against her. As someone who got into the series with Bowser's Inside Story, Starlow is a character that I have a lot of fondness for, and I really couldn't imagine the Mario & Luigi series without her. I know Brothership is quite the divisive game at the moment, which I guess is part of the reason why I'm not planning on getting it immediately, but I'm at least glad that it kept Starlow around and seems to have showed off some of her best qualities.