Today we gather to mourn for Mario’s fraternal twin brother Luigi Mario (yes, their names are “Mario Mario” and “Luigi Mario“). After 35 years of stomping on turtles and not fixing toilets, the “plumber” has died in a video Nintendo revealed during their Nintendo Direct presentation on Wednesday. We thought it would have been a blue shell that would take down this straight-up gangster who is all about that life, but it was the Grim Reaper after all.
The unceremonious death of Luigi came during a promo video for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, coming to the Nintendo Switch on December 7th. Amid Nintendo’s reveal of five more characters coming to the game — Simon Belmont, Richter Belmont, Chrom, Dark Samus, and King K. Rool (but not Waluigi) — Luigi entered Dracula’s castle with his Poltergust 3000 from Luigi’s Mansion, which turns out to be a weapon ill-equipped for fighting the Grim Reaper.
The video is long, but Luigi gets his soul reaped by the literal Grim Reaper at the one minute mark:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=P-kQWJrjRV4
R.I.P. Green Mario.
The immediate response on Twitter focused on a specific part of Nintendo’s 28 minute-long video:
https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1027201716981313537
Are we gonna ignore the fact that Luigi got murdered in cold blood and is literally staring at his lifeless corpse as a ghost? pic.twitter.com/kzCHAZDI1G
— Nintendo Out of Context (@NinTextual) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/ChevyRay/status/1027269255555772416
The reaction was so strong that Nintendo quickly announced “Luigi is okay”:
Luigi is okay
— Nintendo UK VS (@NintendoUKVS) August 8, 2018
Not everyone was willing to believe Nintendo. On Twitter, folks demanded proof of life.
Others dealt with their grief using humor:
PRINCESS PEACH: oh Mario I have terrible news
MARIO: what is it
PRINCESS PEACH: Luigi is dead!
MARIO: who?
PRINCESS PEACH: *sighs and pinches bridge of her nose* green you is dead
MARIO: oh no!— Dr. Bucky Isotope, Astrologist, IQ 188 (@BuckyIsotope) August 8, 2018
since luigi died maybe we can contact his spirit with one of those luigi boards ive been hearing so much about
— kr🦮@art break 🏝 (@dongobongos) August 8, 2018
One of the mysteries of the event was an option on the game’s main menu which Nintendo blurred out during the presentation. This prompted guesses about the mystery game mode. Many people are guessing it’s a Subspace Emissary campaign, while others know the sad truth. Prepare to play “Luigi’s Funeral” game mode, you guys.
https://twitter.com/glenoneill/status/1027245999129948160
In this remixed version, Luigi’s last word gets to be “spaghetti.” It’s-a what he would have wanted.
https://twitter.com/Trudermark/status/1027222039738941440
The jokes continued on Twitter despite Nintendo’s insistence Luigi hadn’t really died even though they know good and well we saw the Grim Reaper scythe his soul.
https://twitter.com/ChrisPJGodfrey/status/1027215765441859585
[unchained melody begins to play] pic.twitter.com/AfX5LeLlZM
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/theyetee/status/1027205372853940224
That #SmashBrosDirect was all well and good, but let's not forget the consequences of our joy
đź’š RIP Luigi đź’š
đź’š 1983 – 2018 đź’š pic.twitter.com/RWwlpenePS— Ryan Blanchard (@ThatRyanB) August 8, 2018
Other people were content to take Nintendo’s word that Luigi is okay even though WE ALL SAW HIS SOUL LEAVE HIS BODY, NINTENDO. WE SAW IT.
https://twitter.com/ElRlKA/status/1027271863528042496
https://twitter.com/love4lies/status/1027221335322370051
There was plenty of speculation over how he really died:
Oh thank god, Luigi is okay pic.twitter.com/oJWDs45I6R
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) August 9, 2018
Hi everyone this is Luigi's wife. Unfortunately LM died after flipping our kart 40x while group texting "I'v-a got-a small-a pepperone!"
— crisp mattman (@cushbomb) August 8, 2018
Some people will still need time to process all of this.
If Luigi can die none of us are safe
— Jason Steele (@FilmCow) August 8, 2018
Despite all of the #SmashBrosDirect reveals for #SmashBrosUltimate, the biggest surprise for me was seeing LUIGI'S COLD, LIFELESS CORPSE IN AN OFFICIAL NINTENDO VIDEO. pic.twitter.com/7R2hZFCIQ1
— Ben B. Singer (@BenBSinger) August 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/Stonepa11/status/1027200487148404738
Someone at Nintendo had to look over and approve that animation reveal.
They had to look and say "Yes, this high-definition dead Luigi meets Nintendo's quality standards."— SHSL Pullahoko (@pullahoko) August 8, 2018
Others weren’t the least bit surprised.
Luigi barely survived a dingy ass mansion with Boos in it.
Then he decides to walk into DRACULA’S CASTLE. What the FUCK did you think was gonna happen pic.twitter.com/yUrckT0yZx
— Gresh (@GreshGANG) August 8, 2018
— yuuko from nichijou (@headfallsoff) August 8, 2018
And some likened Luigi’s recent moods to the progressing weltschmerz of us all.
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/1027274231736725504
But Luigi ain’t dead yet. And we should probably stop talking about it before he finds out we’ve been making jokes. None of us want to deal with Luigi when he’s angry…
