Today’s 30 day video game post is number seven, my favorite video game couple (which is perfect for Valentine’s Day, no?). Now I am not normally the type that is into love stories, as I have mentioned in previous posts, but video games are an exception, probably for two reasons. One, because I love them. And two, because never have I found a video game that focused mainly on the love story more than anything else. There aren’t any romance video games, as far as I can tell, though there are certainly books and movies of the romance genre, which is far too upsetting to me, as I can only stand it in small doses and only when it isn’t too…icky.
And so, despite this normally being a topic that repels me, I was able to think it over with no gagging whatsoever. Yay. And several couples came to mind, Cloud and Aerith from “FFVII”, Yuna and Tidus from “FFX” (and even Vincent and Lucrecia from “FFVII”, which is not a favorite, but it came to mind when I realized all three of these couples ended tragically). I even thought of Kafei and Anju from “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask”, a couple that will always have a special place in my heart simply because I had to do so much darn work in that game to make it work out in the end. But, no, those are not my favorite couples. Why did I even bother listing them in the first place? I don’t know. What’s it to you? Ahem, my favorite game couple…contains spoilers for “Super Paper Mario”, so read at your own risk.
Yes, my favorite couple is not one of those more well-known pairings from famous “Final Fantasy” games (alliteration), but from a “Mario” game. A “Paper Mario” game, but still. This couple is one which remains secret until later in the game. Oh, we know this couple exists, as we get little snippets of dialogue whenever we complete a chapter, but the people involved in this particular love story are not known to us at first. One of them is injured, while the other nurses them back to health. One of them is from the Tribe of Darkness and is shocked to find this fact does not bother the other. And they meet with opposition from a father that doesn’t approve of the union. It’s really quite typical, really, but it kept my attention because of the mystery surrounding it. Who were these people? Who was this Blumiere and Timpani? And how does it relate to the game?
Eventually we find that Blumiere now goes by the name of Count Bleck, this game’s main antagonist, who was not always evil like we see now. We know his heart aches for this Timpani, whoever she is, and despite the fact that this fiend is trying to destroy all dimensions with the Void, you can’t help but feel a bit of pity for him. This Timpani was lost to him when his father banished her to wander the space between dimensions due to him not wanting his son to marry someone of another race from theirs, and though Blumiere looked for her, he never found her, and his anguish caused him to create the Void in an attempt to destroy all worlds, worlds that are too terrible to be allowed to exist, if something like that could happen. A bit rash, I must admit, but his story is still a tragic one, nonetheless.
Well, we do end up finding out the fate of his beloved, and she turns out to have been with you all along, though unrecognizable from her previous form. Mario’s sidekick, Tippi, turns out to be the lost Timpani. Once an ordinary woman, she was found by Merlon, near death after her wandering between dimensions, and the only way he could save her was to turn her into a Pixl, though this also caused her to lose her memory of her past. Her memory does finally return to her towards the end of the game, however, and she and Count Bleck are reunited, at which time he has a change of heart. This is not enough to stop the Void, however, as someone else still wishes to see all worlds destroyed, and after a nice, epic final boss battle (necessary to a proper love story, wouldn’t you say?), Tippi and the Count find there is only one way to fully stop the Void, which was created by the Chaos Heart when Count Bleck forced Bowser and Peach to marry at the beginning of the game. This solution (a rather corny one, but hey, we’ve been collecting Pure Hearts the whole game through, so I guess it’s unavoidable at this point), in so many words, is true love, basically. The former Timpani and Blumiere marry, at which point the Void is destroyed (I rhymed), but the couple cease to exist.
And so Count Bleck has redeemed himself, as Tippi and he sacrificed themselves to stop the Void (he really shouldn’t have created it in the first place, though). Things are both sad and triumphant, as the two seem to have been wiped from existence, but at the same time, all worlds are safe from the Void again. However, we find things to not be so sad, after all, as we then get a short scene with the silhouettes of the Count and a certain woman in the distance, on a grassy hill in a beautiful place, where they stay for a short time before they walk over the hill and are lost to sight. So it seems that, things did finally work out for Blumiere and Timpani in the end, after all.
So it may not be the best love story out there or the best couple, really. But, I still enjoyed playing this game and wondering who these two people were. It was the most interesting part of the game for me, as I wanted to know so badly who they were and what would happen to them next. And how shocked I was to find this couple was the main villain and one of the main protagonists! So this couple turned out to be my favorite, both due to the mystery of this particular story and the two people involved in it, the sweet Tippi and the charming Count Bleck (if you can get over his attempts to kill everyone, that is). This is a love story I can handle.
Favorite Duck Couple, Couple of Ducks
The Duck of Indeed 