*Note: images below come from YouTube and Super Mario Wiki.
Mario is quite possibly the most famous, “innocent” and family-friendly figure in all of gaming, birthing the best selling game franchise of all time.
After the video game crash of 1983, Nintendo almost single-handedly resurrected the industry with the release of the NES and its marquee title, Super Mario Bros. It’s revealing that today, many game developers, journalists, etc. trace their beginnings to that very game.
With such an amazing and relatively spotless history, you would never associate Mario with curses, demons or transgender witches. However, we find all of this and more in Paper Mario and the Thousand-Year Door. _____________________________________________
Below is part of the opening cutscene for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (TTYD):
“An awfully long time ago…“
“In a strange and far-off land, a big, bustling town thrived.“
“It was a town where all people lived very happy lives.“
“And it was said that the town was very prosperous.“
“But one day…tragedy befell this blessed place.“
“A great cataclysm struck the town and its people.“
“Darkness filled the skies, and the earth roared and shook.“
I’d like to stop and draw your attention to something. As we follow this sequence, it begins to look and sound an awful lot like a familiar biblical event…
First we see the waves rising, storms covering the heavens, the earth roaring and shaking and darkness filling the skies:
“And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” (Genesis 7:10-11)
“And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.” (Genesis 7:23)
“The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,” (Zephaniah 1:14-15)
“It was as if the very world had come to a violent end.“
Now it looks like the world has come to “a violent end:”
“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Genesis 6:12-13)
“And in but a single night…“
“The town sank into the depths of the earth…“
In a single night this entire city is sunk into the earth…
[God speaking] “And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.” (Jeremiah 51:63-64)
“If these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the Lord hath not sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord.
And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them: And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation.” (Numbers 16:29-33)
“Many moons rose and set…“
“Stories of the town passed into the pages of fairy tales…“
“And when the town’s site no longer held relics of its past…“
“People gathered at that spot and built a new town.“
After the Flood, Noah and his sons rebuilt civilization:
“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Genesis 9:1)
So what we’re seeing here, is not only symbolic of the flood, but a direct act of God. In and of itself, this is not that important. However, if you dig a bit deeper, and do a little exploring, you’ll find this story has much more to it than we originally realized…
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Video Games and the Bible 