Random: Don't Worry Folks, Nintendo Says Mario And Peach Are Just "Good Friends"

Yeah, all my good friends kiss me too when I save them from a fire-breathing turtle kaiju monster thing.

https://youtu.be/hJ04pcbszDo?si=JPeZW3lssQLV0HP8

link and zeldas friendship is definitely platonic, no doubt. its always been that, and their friendship has developed beautifully. however peach and mario show more obvious signs for sure but the word of nintendo is the word of nintendo! i want a game that turns mario and bowser from enemies to lovers 😛

This feels like Nintendo is being bizarrely chaste. Which is kind of odd since their closest entertainment analogue, Disney, has no problem displaying romantic relationships in every film.

I wonder if this has anything to do with a planned plot point in the upcoming movie or a new game, or if they just really want to keep their story options open (Peach and Luigi romance coming in hot!).

Some images on the internet contradict this statement

Sure Nintendo. In all seriousness I think the description doesn’t necessarily mean they’re just “good friends”. I just think Nintendo doesn’t want to lock them down. It’s like how old cartoons never had love interests tie the knot.

Makes sense as the whole basis would’ve been baking a cake every time she’s rescued.

@OctolingKing13 I agree though it depends on the Zelda game - in a lot of them, Zelda is merely the princess that Link meets to help (LTTP, TP, OOT) with no other deeper emotional connection beyond that. In others, like MC and SS, they’re childhood friends, with SS giving them a hint of future romantic potential. In TOTK, after the events of BOTW, Link and Zelda straight up live together in Hateno Village, sharing a single bed! So it really depends on the reincarnation.

Though it’s also heavily implied that Mipha and Link were supposed to be a couple when the calamity took place in BOTW as well.

That said, Mario and Peach have always been a couple in my heart. It’s the only thing that makes sense!

@EvilBear Hey at least they let you save them.

Insert Sure Jan gif here

Mario is in love with jumping, which gives him a natural high.

Link is in love with mowing grass, which gives him a natural HIIIYAAAH.

Saving princesses from evil turtle/pig men is just a convenient excuse to do lots of jumping/mow lots of grass.

I don’t know how you guys can read into this differently.

How is this not more evidence of a Nintendo Direct this month?

@stiligFox Link is a busy man but I'd definitely stay in the desert if I was him. He definitely lives with Zelda for a while. But who are we to limit the hero, maybe they have an open relationship. The world is coming back from a calamity and more people are needed.

Got it. Friends with favors but not in love, because things are complicated in the mushroom kingdom. Or maybe it’s about the abuse of power and sexual dynamics? Peach knows she’s untouchable but loves to manipulate Mario and put him in awkward situations to control him? She could be “slumming it” with passes at Mario just to upset some of her prudish royal relatives.

With Zelda and Link they can say they are friends but we know the feelings run deeper after Tears of the Kingdom.

Dayum! Nintendo really just put Mario in the corner chair.

Peach and Mario are just friends? How? I'm not sure about that one, but I guess Nintendo made the characters, so their rules.

LOL friendzoned. Poor Mario just can't catch a break.

Friends with benefits. Mario just doesn't want to put a ring on it.😏😄

They missed out "with benefits".

Shippers are so odd. Who cares? That doesn’t make the karts go faster or stomp more goombas. Bad enough Bowser is a whole arse stalker. So creepy.

This stinks. I was hoping Peach and Mario would make a baby Mario.

I mean it's pretty obvious Mario is depicted as being bashful whenever Peach is affectionate. He'd like there to be something more but she only sees friendship

Lmao okay sure. "It was 1986, I was in the first grade, workin' hard to get Mario laid"...

"Numerous games, alternate media, and supplemental material depict Mario and Peach as having mutual romantic affection for each other as well as a friendship. In Mario Party 5, Peach and Mario are called "Cutest Couple," and the official guide for Mario Party 8 states that Peach is the apple of Mario's eye. In the official guide of Yoshi's Island DS, the description for Baby Mario and Baby Peach: Dynamic Duo mentions the "romantic entanglements" in their adult lives, while the official Mario Kart: Double Dash!! guide reads, "Aw, isn’t that cute? Mario and Peach are together again." In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, Peach calls Mario her "knight in shining armor," and in the first Paper Mario, one of the Toads tells Mario to take Peach on a date to Shooting Star Summit. In Super Princess Peach, after Peach rescues Mario, she enthusiastically calls and runs towards him and happily dances with him in celebration. Rosalina refers to Peach as Mario's "special one" in Super Mario Galaxy, with the two seen holding hands toward the ending of the game. In Super Mario Galaxy 2, Lubba and two other Lumas refer to Peach as Mario's "special one." Mario Power Tennis even goes as far as showing Mario himself telling Peach of his love for her in Peach's victory scene, which she responds to with a smile and a blown kiss. Also, in Mario's victory scene in Mario Power Tennis, Peach gives him a small kiss on his cheek."

https://www.mariowiki.com/Princess_Peach#Friends_and_love_interests

Personally I don't think we should speculate on other people's lives. A man and woman can be just friends without there being any romantic connection. If anyone disagrees, then quite frankly I think that says a lot about the NL comments section and how they react to being friendzoned 😜

@Splash_Woman Nah he has too many good friends to discriminate that way, he's also really close with Daisy and Adult Pauline.
^ You know these are fictional characters and we're joking right

Nice that they can still be friends. Things changed for them once Rosalina entered the picture.

As long as they’re both happy it doesn’t matter. Y’all should stop prying to people’s personal lives and relationships.

@stiligFox No they don't. That is specifically mentioned as being Zelda's house, he would have given it to her since his Princess needed a place to live and he probably sleeps happily under the tree outside which is a very Link thing to do. There's even a plot point in Tears of the Kingdom that Link builds himself a new house near Tarrey Town.

I swear, people see two people of the opposite sex being friendly and they ship them. It reminds me of all the people saying Loomis and Bennett from JW Rebirth are now a couple because they smiled at each other.

They’re such good friends that baby Mario and baby Peach exist.

@Jireland92 Doesn't really square when Mario's biggest inspiration Popeye canonically married Olive Oyl in "Popeye and Son"

Well I mean all the hentai shows her with bowser for a reason

Mario's deffo clapped those cheeks on more than one occasion.

Princess Peach gives Mario a peck on the cheek/nose
'They must be an item!'
Princess Elise gives Sonic a kiss on the mouth
'They're just friends.... that's all. It's interspecies and so weird that it's considered non-canon but they're just friends. Friends who....kiss on the lips...while one of them is...in a vulnerable... position..'

@Drago201 Your ancestors are proud that you know this factoid.

Did Mario get Friend Zoned? That's a worse fate than death.

Yeah, after just finishing Xenoblade 3 (with, you know, THAT photo), this statement ain't gonna cut it.

"they help eachother out, whenever they can"
Uhhh that doesnt sound any better. Hahaha

Nintendo: "Oh, they're only best friends. They play Nintendo Switch together."
Nintendo after learning what games they play: "Oh ****!"

@martynstuff
Shipping culture has screwed with people so bad that they can’t accept the idea of platonic relationships between any set of characters in media no matter what, it doesn’t help that a lot of creators pander to them.

Is Nintendo the worst wingman ever? Friend-zoning Mario for Peach...

@martynstuff I'll be the dork who points out Sonic was literally dead when this happened and Elise has life-creating powers, she'd probably make out with Amy if she died. Meanwhile Peach was kissing him for saving her from marrying a weird*ss creep, even in the year 2025 my "friends", male or female, wouldn't do that...

good friends who kiss each other

Most of these comments seems to paraphrase Bacon Guy: "We ship them becase two characters of the opposite gender oh boy!"

So Mr.Pastelloni here A-FriendAZoned Peach ?

Cruel Nintendo.
Luigi just doesn't measure up !

Hey, sometimes that's how it happens, a little make out with your pals, no biggie.

Personally I can tell Mario has a thing for her but I think she's kind of his quest so they won't get together. Bowser is eternally keeping him from shooting his shot so despite their closeness she will always be his love interest and not his partner.

The thing about Link and Zelda is that there are many different Links and Zeldas. Some incarnations are clearly in a relationship (SS, BOTW/TOTK), but many are not, or are left ambiguous. Nintendo in any case has the freedom to shape their relationship differently for each game as it occurs.

With Mario and Peach, Nintendo wants the narrative flexibility to hit the reset button to fit the narrative of each game, and since there's only one Peach and Mario (or perhaps only a few generations of Mario) they gave to keep them perpetually in a will-they-won't-they state. There can be hints, but there can never be commitment.

@Fiergala yeah but who the hell remembers Popeye and son

@Jireland92 I'll admit I thought it was an original Popeye short typing that, before later looking it up and seeing it was some terrible 80s thing... okay they're still in a consistent relationship 100% more than friends and Bluto is just an a-hole butting in

I love the looks of Mario and Peach, when they bump into each other in the Mario Kart Wii intro video.

GFWB

More words kind of ruins the succinctness of what I was going for, but sure message filter.

Donkey Kong clearly loves bananas, but it wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo tried saying that Dixie Kong isn't Diddy Kong's girlfriend... Oh wait, they did do that!

Pretty sure Miyamoto confirmed this years ago in a random YouTube video, and then Nintendo promptly put out a Valentine's card for them.

What about the Wii U era amiibo commercial for Smash Bros where the kid is daydreaming about his crush and buys the Mario amiibo because she’ll have the Peach amiibo, he has an internal monologue “Mario and Peach together, Me and Gina together”

Aren't lovers also friends?

With benefits.
And by that I mean cake.
Obviously.

eyes narrow Yeah, sure buddy.

I don't believe you, Mr. Nintendo. Why did you ruin my weekend?
They are. It is just....a secret. Or something.

Well, yeah. She's married to the Potato Prince.

@Jireland92 This. This I can accept. Yes. We will go will that. I feel better now.

Eh, still better than how SEGA is dealing with Sonic and Amy, they had to lobotomize Amy into being a different character to break it up.

They want to keep it PG, simple as that.

@OctolingKing13

Link, as in "The Hero of Time", is a reincarnated spirt who pops up in a lot of games. Link, as in, the most common male name in Hyrule, but other then that no one special, is the protagonist in some other Zelda games, generally the ones where he uses the Picori Blade (or the Four Sword).

So it's not just one character or one time line. Link and Tetra likely hooked up after Phantom Hourglass, given they repopulate a Kingdom together and it is hinted that they have direct ancestors in Spirit Tracks. But in BOTW, link in engaged to Mipha. Link and Zelda's relationship in Skyward Sword is also very will they won't they.

Shigeru Miyamoto has said, time and time again, that he see the Mario characters as actors, and each individual game is a completely new story. So it's impossible to assign a relationship based on "evidence" from the games. And if they are both actors working in the same theater group ... yeah, who wants the drama of a relationship on top of that? Keep your workplace professional!

Okay, now put them back as a couple again, that's the answer humanity needs.

@Friendly

Sorry for off topic but... best Fire Emblem character! 🥰 ;D

And ofc Mario & Peach will be an item, she's just playing annoyingly hard to get - my take anyway haha

Obi-Wan also said Ahsoka was a good friend too btw

I'm loving this comment section 😂 It's such a Nintendo thing to say this... Friends definitely don't kiss like that. Or is Mario friendzoned? 🥲

If they are just only "good friends" and why Princess Peach, Mario and Bowser had wedding in Super Mario Odyssey?
Wedding is more serious relationship than just good friends.

Spike is Mario's true lover.

@Anti-Matter

I guess you never finished that game? At the end she tells Mario she's had enough of his advances and leaves him to rot on a moon.

Wicked friendzoning! Guess it’s not just his overalls that are blue.

@HeadPirate
I had finished the game since year 2018.

“It’s a lie!!! We’re just good friends.”

I’ve heard that line before, usually when someone is trying to deny something more than just being good friends is going on

DK only likes bananas ( according to Ninny ) ...

Mario and Peach are " good friends " , only with benefits .

They're just going through a rough patch right now. Every relationship has its ups and downs

You people simply don't understand marketing. This comment section describes exactly the reason for their decision. As long as the conversation continues, your brains are filled with "Nintendo". The more it's filled with "Nintendo", the more likely you are to buy their products. And of course, this controversy draws even more people into the world of Nintendo. At the end of the day, it's all fiction. Yet the more people connect emotionally with the storyline, the more money it will generate. So, to their benefit, keep this pointless discussion going...

Well, if Peach isn't going to marry Mario then he just needs to start rescuing other women until someone really appreciates it.

@MirrorFate2 I will NEVER forgive Sega for it, Amy was fine but the rabid, very vocal haters forced Amy’s lobotomy, now it's just a girl in an Amy skin.

I honestly have no idea why Nintendo would feel the need to avoid acknowledging romance between these characters. I mean sure, don't show/imply anything steamy, but romantic love is not something to be repulsed by. If families watching Disney movies in the 1930s and 40s could handle it, I think the modern human can too.

@martynstuff

Well for starters, they're fictional characters and secondly, it's kinda obvious to anyone with a couple of braincells there's a romance angle involved. This has got nothing to do with you or anyone being friendzoned irl lol.

@Mesozoic_Masquerade

Link and Zelda clearly share a bed in Tears of the Kingdom, that goes beyond platonic friendships. I think the irony here is that while you, @SalvorHardin and @CaleBoi25 make good points...those points are mostly only accurate towards shippers who largely like to ship same sex characters if one man so much as says "hi" to another because apparently two men can't interact without it being romantic. I still remember the shippers freaking out over Prince Sidon getting married to a woman in Tears of the Kingdom because shippers had convinced themselves him and Link were romantically involved simply because he "considers Link a friend." I can only wonder what mental gymnastics those people performed to convince themselves that there was a romantic angle based on that and especially from the silent Link's side.

However Link & Zelda being linked together romantically isn't a hard sell because it's implied in Skyward Sword, just as it's implied in Tears of the Kingdom in the single bed house they share where Link's headband is kept in the Zelda's cellar study almost like Zelda treasures it. You do that with platonic friends? Share beds with them and keep quite personal items of theirs lol?

It's the same with Mario & Peach considering he's always chasing after her...same as Bowser who wants to marry Peach and in Odyssey, he downright asks Mario if he's "jealous" implying his own awareness of Mario's romantic feelings for Peach.

You know how you guys always say people are blind to queer coded characters, well I think you guys are blind to very obvious straight romances or implied straight romantic attractions.

The whole idea of a man saving a princess (i.e Peach or Zelda) is also a classical romantic love story. It's literally tradition that's been long embedded in the public consciousness too. It's too late to say it's anything different. All those classic stories end up with the man marrying the princess.

@TruestoryYep

Not really sure where that rumor about ToTK comes from. If you read her journal it clearly states that she kicked Link out of that house. They don't share a bed, she STOLE his bed. There are also several NPCs in that town who interact with you (as Link) by saying they thought you moved out, and that they haven't seen you around since Zelda moved in.

Zelda also flat out says they are not in a relationship when asked about it. Maybe you might do that in the will they wont they stage of a relationship, but not if you're living together. Not to mention that Link was engaged to Mipha and lost her only a few years ago, based on his perception of time.

Of course they're "just friends." Peach dumped his ass in Odyssey.

Soon as bowser makes a move she’s always on Mario’s arm. Perhaps peach is toxic bad news causing all the Mario bowser conflict.

My boy got Friendzoned

Don't worry Donkey Kong and Bananas are just really close friends.

Peach has kissed Luigi, so this must be true.

don't lie to me, nintendo

@OctolingKing13 Skyward Sword begs to differ😂

@TruestoryYep I should clarify, nothing against Peario! I just found it funny. (This from a diehard Monte X Violynne shipper in TotK, even tho they literally never meet lol)

@BBBBBBBBBBB I mean if you know some Beatles lore, they (and especially John and Paul) were good friends that did more with each other than just making out...

In most of the Zelda games, Link and Zelda are platonic if they even interact with each other at all. But not in BOTW. The entire crux of Zelda's awakening comes over realizing her romantic feelings for Link. Mipha is just starting to suggest that her repressed feelings might be the root of the issue in the cutscene when Calamity Ganon awakens—a suggestion which clearly is causing her a bit of discomfort because of her own unrequited feelings for Link, but something Mipha is noble enough to accept. This is not a theory, this is fact. All her other friends, including Urbosa who was like a mother to her, and her own father were not enough to cause the awakening. Only Link. Anyone who thinks this is not romantic needs to go back and read some books with romance in them and watch some anime in particular, since this is a Japanese product, and pay attention to tropes and the way these kinds of storylines play out. For example, in every incarnation of the series, Sailor Moon awakens as Princess Serenity when there is a threat to Tuxedo Mask. This is a trope. This is how it's done. It is not written this way in platonic situations. Nintendo demurring like this is corporate not paying attention to what its own writers are doing and trying to save face. I do not know WHY, other than if this is like why j-pop and k-pop stars are supposed to keep their IRL romances secret and apologize profusely on social media when they get married, or if Nintendo somehow thinks it would not be family-friendly. That doesn't change the way their games are CANONICALLY written. If they don't like it, they need to take it up with their creative team instead of trying to gaslight everybody.

@Ryu_Niiyama Nobody really cares if Mario and Peach are in a relationship. When people interact with stories, they are left to fill plot holes and head canons. Especially when its fictional characters. Though real life shippers are weird though

Alright Nintendo, whatever you say

Hope they will ”adventure time” this relationship

However; Mario and Bowser, that’s a different story …

Weird to see them backtrack on all these romantic pairings when Nintendo once implied that Wario and Waluigi were a couple.

@OctolingKing13 it depends on the game. The botw timeline it is still ambiguous but it really is heavily enough implied that they are in a relationship to just get there if you want. Some are friends like pretty much all the windwaker timeline links and Zeldas and they barely interact in any of the games in the links dead timeline, but I think we can call it that they are in some kind of more than friends relationship in totk. I think there's a kiss in one of the older ones, but I may be misremembering and even then it's after link saved the lady. Think it's Zelda 2.

@SailorDonut I mean, this is an statement about mario, not Zelda. It's incredibly heavily implied they're banging in totk, but it stays just an implication because, honestly, it's not really that important to that game. They're close and they're definitely more than friends, but whether they live together or whatever is kinda irrelevant and it's a little fun to keep some mystery about it imo. And it is just one of the things of life where media for kids is desexualized. The amount of nephews and nieces in 90s cartoons is astounding. James Bond Junior is james' nephew. It's weird, but like you said, it's a trope

@Xansies My comment was a reply to like half a dozen commenters here rather than to the article, I just didn't want to @ them all because it was like six people lol

He was prepared to pop the question at the end of Odyssey. He's not THAT competitive with Bowser is he?

Long ah aside on Link and Zelda in the recent games because some of these tourists are insufferable -

The starting zone NPC dialogue is the way it is to not alienate players of only the 2nd game, they have stated that, not that it matters since the dialogue is both generic and inconsistent (some recognize him, some don't), anyway and says nothing about their living status. Zelda never denies being in a relationship with Link (where would that even take place, and to whom?) and there's no journal about kicking him out. Nothing was stated or suggested to be stolen in any regard, that's a dead Reddit tier meme for people who never played.

Masterworks says Link got the house with Zelda in mind as well. You have to provide a valid alternative place to live otherwise, and people can't do it without larping "he lived in the woods for 2-6+ years apart from the only royal of the nation who is in potential danger for laughs, it was revealed to me in a dream" isn't an argument. The buildable home came much later, not between BOTW and TOTK, and is blatantly stated to be intended as a home for couples/families, pretty clearly suggesting the path forward. You can also build things like studies which Link would have no interest in. Mipha engagement thing is wrong, the whole point of the armor is that the proper proposal never took place because she passed away beforehand, that is the narrative's intention, it is meant to be sad and tragic.

There's a lot more than that too. Its very in your face about it without stating it outright and you ironically have to write fan fiction to escape it, but its Japanese children's media headed by the company's aged and at least semi conservative leadership, so they are already going beyond expectations. Zelda is explicitly stated to love Link in BOTW, her love for him resolves a core plot point, in Zelda notes for TOTK she says Link's old hairtie (with 0 material value) is precious and treasured by her, etc., this is one of the first games in the series to be that on with it since the old entries. Its not even shipping (not concerned with it either just can't stand walkthrough watchers thinking their lack of knowledge/personal stake means gospel in any of these franchises with established lore) this is just narratively true. The plot has little to no emotional weight or gravity without these themes. The resistance to this lore comes from anti-heteros and actual shippers, funnily enough.

It doesn't say they're "just" good friends...

More like Mario’s unrequited love and Peach leading him through that wonderful vast garden called the friend zone.