Pauline

Pauline as seen in Super Mario Odyssey.
Pauline
Species	Human
Hair color	Brunette
Eye color	Blue
Voiced by	Unknown (2010-2015) Kate Higgins (2017-Present)
Debut	Donkey Kong

Pauline is a supporting character from the Super Mario series. She is known for her appearance in the original Donkey Kong arcade game, where she preceded Princess Peach as the primary female character and the character who Mario had to rescue. Her appearances since then were sporadic outside of remakes until the 2000s, when she began making return appearances in the Mario vs. Donkey Kong subseries, before gaining a more substantial and fleshed out supporting role in Super Mario Odyssey.

Background

Pauline appeared in Donkey Kong, where she had been kidnapped by Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong held her at the top of each level, but Mario constantly chased Donkey Kong down. They first fought in a construction site that would later be established to be part of New Donk City. In the Game Boy remake, Donkey Kong carried Pauline across a variety of other locales before Mario finally defeated him for good. Mario was reunited with Pauline in what seemed to be the Mushroom Kingdom. There, Pauline tossed Mario a Super Mushroom, and ultimately a picture was taken of her, Mario, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr..

Mario vs. Donkey Kong

Pauline as seen in Donkey Kong GB.

After a long absence, Pauline reappeared in Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis. She was described as "Mario's glamorous friend" and appeared as the guest of honor at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at Super Mini Mario World. However, Donkey Kong (the grandson of the original) instantly became infatuated with her and kidnapped her just as his predecessor had done before. This time, Pauline was saved by the Mini Mario toys. Donkey Kong kept her safely held in a room atop the tower with presents, and after the Mini Marios rescued her, Donkey Kong felt remorse, which led Pauline to kiss the Mini Donkey Kong toy in order to make him feel better.

She also appeared in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, which followed an altered version of Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2's storyline; when Mario and the Mini Marios reached the top of the tower, Donkey Kong turned the lights off and ran off with Pauline again. The chase then continued, until the Mini Marios reached Donkey Kong and Pauline at the end. It was revealed that Pauline and Donkey Kong had only staged the whole kidnapping in order to test the Mini Mario toys. In Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!, Mario and Pauline began giving away a hundred of the new Mini-Pauline toys for free. Donkey Kong arrived just in time to miss the last one and, out of frustration, kidnapped Pauline once more while Mario pursued in a toy train. Eventually, Mario was able to placate Donkey Kong with a Mini-Pauline toy, at which point they all rode the Ferris wheel together.

In Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move, Pauline appeared in a supporting role, where she acted as a host for Mini-Land along with Donkey Kong. For once, she was not kidnapped at all. She then proceeded to be kidnapped by Donkey Kong again in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars, but this instance ultimately turned out to be another ruse, staged in order to ultimately lure Mario into a surprise party.

Super Mario Odyssey

At some point, Pauline became the mayor of New Donk City, which essentially made her the ruler of the Metro Kingdom. She had a passion for taking care of her city and was beloved by the populace. She was also known for her singing ability and regularly performed at festivals.

In Super Mario Odyssey, her city was attacked by Bowser and his minions, who drained power from the city hall during a downpour. Pauline was found surveying the scene from a distant rooftop and expressed disgust with Bowser's actions. Mario soon arrived and drove Bowser away. She then worked on getting the city back in working order and prepared for the coming festival. Pauline wanted to thank Mario for his help and tasked him with finding band members to accompany her when she sang. Mario managed to find four people, who became known as The Super Mario Players. The only problem left to resolve at that point was clearing Bowser's minions out from the underground power plant so that the festival could have power. Pauline went there to see the threat for herself and witnessed Mario defeating Bowser's lingering monsters. Afterwards, the festival was held, and Pauline sang a song about Mario that was called, "Jump Up, Superstar!".

At the end of the main story, Pauline was among those who were forced to attend Bowser and Peach's planned wedding in a chapel on the Moon. She was relieved when Mario showed up, and his intervention brought the attempted wedding to an end. Afterwards, she returned to New Donk City. When Mario returned, she would quiz him with several questions about herself and then revealed that it was her birthday. Mario had to bring her a purse as a present, replacing her old one that she had lost, and she rewarded him with a Power Moon. She also appeared at the Darker Side of the Moon, where she sang again with the Super Mario Players to cheer Mario on before he took on the area's difficult challenges.

Sports, Racing and Party Spin-Offs

Pauline made her Mario sports debut and first playable appearance overall in Mario Tennis Aces, where she was made available as part of the game's free DLC. She could be unlocked by taking part in an online tournament during the month of March 2019 or was otherwise made available through an update in the following month.

Her next appearance was in Mario Kart Tour as a playable racer who could be unlocked at random through the game's gacha mechanics or in-game shop and had a High End rarity level. She was initially exclusively available during the New York Tour before becoming normally available during the Holiday Tour in December 2019. There have also been two variants of Pauline wearing different outfits that have been made temporarily available during certain tours, respectively known as the Party Time and Rose variations.

She later made her first playable golf appearance in Mario Golf: Super Tour. She was also added to Mario Strikers: Battle League as a playable character through a free update in September 2022.

Other Appearances

Video Games

• Mario and Pauline also make a cameo appearance together in the Bonus Stage of the NES game Pinball.
• In NES Remix, Pauline appears in challenges and remixes based on Donkey Kong and Pinball.
• In Game & Watch Gallery 2 and Game & Watch Gallery 4, she was seen as part of the original Classic versions of her Game & Watch appearance, but she was replaced by Princess Peach in the Modern versions.
• Within the Super Smash Bros. series, Pauline made a physical appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, where she would perform with the Super Mario Players in the background of the New Donk City stage. Throughout the series, she has also been represented by a sticker (of her being captured by Donkey Kong) in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U and as two Legend-rank Spirits in Ultimate. One is a Support Spirit (which allows players to recover health while shielding attacks) of Pauline as seen in Super Mario Odyssey, and the other is a Primary Spirit of Pauline being carried by Donkey Kong from the original Donkey Kong, referred to as "Donkey Kong & Lady".
  • During Spirit battles in Ultimate, Pauline's Spirit will possess Princess Peach. The Spirit battle for the Odyssey Spirit involved trying to defeat an elusive Pauline-possessed Peach within a time limit while Mario and a giant Donkey Kong protected her; in a Spirit battle for the classic Spirit, the player instead had to defeat a giant Donkey Kong in a stamina battle while protecting Pauline/Peach from him.
  • In the American localization of the 3DS/Wii U Smash, her trophy description highlights the change in her look over the course of her appearances and suggests that she may have consciously wanted to look less like Peach.

Other Media

• Pauline appeared in the Donkey Kong segments of the Saturday Supercade cartoon. The cartoon version eliminated Mario and Donkey Kong's love triangle with Pauline by making Pauline Mario's niece. Pauline accompanied Mario in his hunt for Donkey Kong, but she wound up being saved by him several times. She was played by Judy Strangis.
• In the Super Mario-Kun manga, Pauline has made a few appearances. In one short within the second volume, the gag was that Pauline ultimately preferred Donkey Kong after Mario's face was beaten up by barrels. A later volume gave an alternate version of the backstory to Donkey Kong, in which Pauline ran a shop that sold clothing including Mario's power-up outfits. After Mario infuriated Donkey Kong by suggesting that he buy a collar as clothing, Donkey Kong retaliated by taking a tie instead and kidnapped Pauline.

Canceled Appearances

• She would have appeared in the canceled NES game Donkey Kong no Ongaku Asobi, which would have been an edutainment game about music based on the original Donkey Kong game. In Music Quiz mode, Pauline would have hit notes with a hammer in the single-player mode and could be played by a second player in the two-player mode. In the Donkey Band mode, Pauline was depicted as the singer, much like her later appearance in Super Mario Odyssey.

Trivia

• In the original version of Donkey Kong, she had blonde hair. The Game Boy remake changed her hair color to brown, presumably to avoid confusion with the blonde Princess Peach. Graffiti art of Pauline's original appearance can be seen on a wall in New Donk City in Odyssey.
• The Japanese version simply calls her "Lady". She was named Pauline by Nintendo of America after Polly James, the wife of Don James, who was Nintendo of America's warehouse manager when the game came out. Some Japanese sources erroneously treated "Lady" and "Pauline" as separate characters. Even Super Smash Bros. Ultimate used the name Lady for her shared Primary Spirit with Donkey Kong and in a loading screen blurb summarizing the original Donkey Kong, while otherwise using the name "Pauline".
• In Donkey Kong, she had three items that she dropped which Mario could collect for bonus points: her parasol, hat and purse. This is referenced in Super Mario Odyssey, where Pauline is said to have lost her purse at some point, and Mario can give her a new one as a birthday present for a Power Moon. An umbrella and hat also appear nearby at this time, neither of which Pauline wants.
• In Super Mario Run, a statue of Pauline appeared in the Kingdom Builder mode as part of a temporary Super Mario Odyssey tie-in event that was held for several days in November 2017.
• In the 3DS and Switch versions of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Pauline's face is seen on a billboard in New Donk City.