Villain Critique: Dimentio from Super Paper Mario · 4:56pm Mar 4th, 2022
Here's the second entry to the Villain Critique on the same day. As always, let's get started with the rules:
First, if you haven't seen, read, played, or heard of any of these villains and/or the media that they appear in, there will be spoilers. You have been warned. Also, keep in mind that I haven't seen, heard of, and/or known a lot about every villain out there, so if you have a villain that you want to show me and I haven't known about him or her yet, please be sure to lend me some information through either reply or via PM.
Second, This is all just my personal opinion and you don't have to agree with me if you don't want to. Just please be nice, constructive, and considerate, especially when telling me why you disagree in the comments down below or via PM.
And finally, I don't just do movie or cartoon villains. I also do villains from video games, comics, television, and even fan-made, popular OCs.
Okay. Now, it's time to show you everyone's favorite jester, Count Bleck's master of dimensions, and the true villain of Super Paper Mario: Dimentio.
Out of most of the Mario villain roster, I have never seen someone so enjoyably psychotic, malicious, and cunning, yet entertaining, powerful, and hilarious than Dimentio, at least in my opinion. But why is he so entertaining and more vile compared to his more sympathetic and tragic, yet equally entertaining former boss, Count Bleck? Let's find out:
- Design: His design is very creative and shows off not only his jester/magician persona, but also his more hilarious, yet conniving personality. The drama mask; the purple, black, and yellow color scheme; and his jester hat all sum up his entire character just by his looks alone. He's very appealing to look at in general.
- Personality: While he may seem like a harmless, magical jester, don't let his appearance and showboating personality fool you. This guy is one of, if not the, most evil and sadistic villains in the Mario franchise. He manipulated both the heroes and the villains into furthering his own plans, he tortured and brainwashed others without a second thought, he makes jokes at the expense of others, and he's the first villain to succeed in slaughtering the heroes, even if it was only temporary. He also almost killed one of Count Bleck's minions, Nastasia, when he was actually trying to kill him, and mocked her sacrifice as a hopeless gesture while the Count was devastated by this. Despite this, he's still a very funny and deliciously evil guy who treats every bad thing he does as a magic show and has a twisted sense of humor.
- Backstory: Very little is known about his backstory and motivations behind his plans other than he wants to recreate the multiverse in his own perfect image and rule it as its king after destroying the old multiverse without out any sympathy or remorse unlike his former boss. It's even implied that he was the one who created the Dark Prognosticus in the first place, setting off the events of the game. If so, then it shows that he was going to destroy the multiverse from the start as opposed to Count Bleck, who had to be traumatized and broken into doing it.
- Abilities: You thought Count Bleck was a powerful figure? Dimentio is even more so, in my opinion. He can create his own pocket dimension, shoot projectiles, mind-control, warp reality, create illusions, fly, teleport, manipulate the 2D and 3D space around him, etc. And that's not even going into his Super Dimentio form where he fuses with Luigi to become even more powerful than before to complete his plan.
- Weaknesses: Despite having all that power, he's still no match for the Pure Hearts and can still be damaged by simply jumping on his head. Same with Super Dimentio.
- Character Arc/Development: He starts off as seemingly one of Count Bleck's minions who wishes to create a perfect multiverse free of war and other bad things, just like the other minions. But as the story continues, we slowly get to see his more sadistic, and manipulative personality and his total lack of empathy towards others. This not only shows how different he is from both his peers and his former boss, but also hints that he has ulterior motives besides assisting Count Bleck and the heroes. It's later confirmed near the end that he was just using both parties for his own gain and toying with Count Bleck's feelings in order to further his own goal of recreating the multiverse in his own image where he will rule it all. After being ambiguously defeated by the heroes and reformed villains, he decided to just destroy the multiverse along with him out of spite if he can't rule it at all. Luckily, the heroes were able to stop him with the help of Tippi and Count Bleck.
- Miscellaneous: Like Count Bleck, another thing I love about Dimentio is his speech pattern. He usually speaks in hilarious metaphors and talks like he's always performing in a show. This represents his more comedic, yet still heartless and cruel personality and fits him really well.
- Overall: This guy is so fun to watch and I'd love to know if he is still alive and planning his next scheme for revenge or not. While I do love heroes and villains of any type as long they're well-written and interesting, one of my favorite types are the campy, reality-warping ones. And Dimentio is definitely one of them. Here's to not one, but two great antagonists in Super Paper Mario and in Villain Critique.
For Count Bleck's entry, here's his blog post: Villain Critique: Count Bleck from Super Paper Mario
Now, if you have a favorite villain (movies, cartoons, video games, etc.) that you want me to critique, let me know either in the comments down below or via PM. Also, be sure to give me some information of your villain if I don't know that much about them.
What do you think of both this critique and this villain? Do you like them both? If so, why or why not? Please let me know.
Have a fantastic day.
Very well researched dude! I appreciate how much work you put into it.
I agree too, Dimentio has got to be one of the greatest characters in a Mario game. The paper Mario games in general are filled with awesome characters with a lot of depth to them. Super Paper Mario is really underrated as well, damn you're making me want to go back and replay it.
5641556
Thanks. What about Count Bleck?
Minor nit pick. Technically Dimension doesn't actually kill them personally, he just warps them to Underworld.
The female version of Hades says as much, when she states they wouldn't be able to leave her domain if they had died.
However, the fact that he could forcibly warp them across dimensions, is in some ways just as impressive.
Either way, thanks for the review.
5641572
Him as well, very rarely do we see a "Villain" like him in a Mario game, if at all. That whole back story with Count Bleck and Tippi was really touching. The narrative of that whole game was phenomenal really. They sure don't make them like they used to.
5641590
Thanks.