Wario Platformers and grey morality

warelander

Some random guy online
The Wario platformers are often noted for having far more of a grey morality focus, in comparison to the goody two shoes Mario, but how much would you say does that really apply to each game?

To me the games that really show this trait of the series the best are the ones that feature Captain Syrup, when you get down to it all their ecounters have no real villain or hero, they are just two very greedy people trying to one up each other:

Sure Syrup stole the golden Peach statue first, but Wario really only planned to rescue it so that he could demand a ransom, pretty much the same thing Syrup wanted.

Sure Syrup and her crew stole from Wario, made a mess in his castle and in one scenario even took it over, but while Wario may have been wronged first, he is at the end of the day, just as willing to rob them of all their treasures, taking more then just his fair share back, one could call it deserved retribution, but to me it's just another example of how alike they are.

And Shake It has them both pretty much in the plan to save the Shake Dimension for the sake of getting the bottomless coin sack, only unlike the other two times Syrup has the last laugh, which makes it easy to see her as worse, but Wario's general attitude to the distressed kingdom and his treatment of it's queen show once again how both only ever cared for one thing and one thing only.

Land 3 I'd actually say is pretty black and white, since Rudy is obviously far worse then Wario, who this time, really only wants to escape the music box world, collecting treasure on the way is just a much appreciated bonus, same can be said about Land 4, while it's clearly Wario, with his typical attitude, the ending and his interactions with Shokora even show him in a very unambiguously good light, moreso then any other Wario game.

Virtual Boy Wario Land really only has Wario trying to get his stuff back and the same can also be said to an extend for Wario World, since the Black Jewel is never shown to have any bigger plans, apart from getting back at Wario for collecting it, either way I'd say that's not particulary grey in this case, since while Wario's quests weren't heroic he isn't really doing anything wrong either and was just living life until the villains came along to mess with him.

Master of Disguise I'd say does a good job at going back to grey territory to a degree. Terrormisu may be the big threat, but all three of the heroes are thieves, thing is that Wario get's tricked into playing into the villain's scheme, so while he's only out for valuables and even becomes a genuine criminal this time around, he really isn't any worse then Cannoli and Carpaccio, who despite being just as guilty of these things, do consciously work against the big bad, so it's actually a bit more complex this time around.

So yeah, what are your thoughts on the matter and how it could apply to every game?
 
The games definitely have grey morality, though generally they keep your sympathies with Wario by making the main antagonists (outside of Wario Land 1/2) significantly worse than him.

It's what Rudy, the Golden Diva, Terrormisu and the Shake King all have in common. They're horrible enough individuals than they make the other characters in their games sympathetic by comparison. The Black Jewel is more questionable, but I assume it was horrendously evil in its backstory, since the Spritelings wanted to seal it away/destroy it.

So in that sense, Wario Land is basically a clear example of black and grey morality:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackAndGrayMorality

Or as TV Tropes themselves would put it, Wario is kinda evil and most of his antagonists are soul crushingly evil.

Of course, there are exceptions. Wario Land 1 is pretty much grey and grey morality, since neither Wario nor Syrup are particularly evil or heroic. They're both just selfish individuals.

Wario Master of Disguise is probably something like 'morally grey character x 3 fight among themselves and against a pure evil one that's playing them like a fiddle'.

But for the most part, it's just as simple as selfish jerkass anti hero vs near sociopathic villain of the week.
 
Wario may be worse than many of us but i think he's more relatble because of this. I don't know about you guys but if there's one, awesome, sexy, interesting person i love its me. You think i'll fight monsters out of the kindness of my heart, hell no! i'd best be getting paid. This is why i like Wario so much more than Mario with his black and grey morality. He is kinda like all of us but a tad exaggerated, I would help Shokora out of kindness i mean come on. But i don't see myself in Mario where he is just this jolly heroic dude (sorry Mario).

I also think a main characters personality tend to be built around the game.
Mario wants to save the princess so he takes a linear path to Bowser's castle
Sonic likes to go fast so his games encourage building momentum and soaring through the acts.
you get the point if Wario hunts and searches for treasure you cover every inch of the level to get all the coins.
 
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