Pauline - Bob-omb Bombshell~

Pauline is depicted as having light blue eyes, which had a violet hue before her appearance in Super Mario Odyssey, long wavy dark burgundy brown hair (slightly darker in Mario Golf: Super Rush), and fair skin. She has large slanted eyes with four long eyelashes at the top and three smaller lashes at the bottom (a total of seven), coupled with long defined arching eyebrows. Her face is oval in shape with a triangular nose and pointed chin. She is typically shown wearing violet eye shadow, dark red lipstick and nail polish.

Pauline has a curvy hourglass figure, in comparison to other human female characters. She has been shown as average height when compared to other adult human females in the Super Mario franchise, such as in StreetPass Mii Plaza's "Nintendo Heroines/Starlets" 3D puzzle showing her to be as tall as Peach, but is also shown to be taller in other games like in Super Mario Odyssey, where her overall proportions have been changed to match the New Donk City populace, making her particularly tall, especially in comparison to Mario. In Mario Tennis Aces, she appears to be very slightly shorter than Rosalina and taller than Peach by the same amount. In Mario Kart Tour, Pauline occupies the large kart driver classification like Rosalina.

In Donkey Kong Bananza, she is redesigned to be younger. Her hair is styled into a ponytail, she has freckles across her cheeks and nose, and lacks lipstick.

Pauline wears a fitted red halter neck dress with a bow knot connecting the straps behind her neck, and a low cut back. The dress, when not ripped, finishes just above her ankles and loosens to flair out about a third of the way down her legs. Pauline's accessories include a gold bangle on her left arm and large gold bead and teardrop-style earrings. She also wears black ankle strap high-heel pumps.

In Super Mario Odyssey, she wears 1940s-style clothing: her first outfit is a red-colored pantsuit with a gold pin on the right collar as well as a purple hat while out in public, and her second outfit is her trademark dress, worn during the festival, albeit with sparkly details.

In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, while she retains her trademark dress (yet with slightly sparkly details, similar to her appearance in Odyssey) when riding karts, Pauline wears a red and white racing suit with cream-colored edges on the sides and chest when riding bikes and ATVs. She also has a matching red belt and heeled boots with white edges on top. Additionally, her hair is also tied to the back in a ponytail for the first time. Unlike Peach, Daisy, and Rosalina, her suit lacks a scarf and gloves, and instead of heart design in the back, she has her emblem design as her belt buckle.

In Mario Kart Tour, aside from her trademark dress, she also wore three additional outfits for her Pauline (Party Time), Pauline (Rose), and Pauline (Cowgirl) variants. The first is composed of a knee-length red skirt, red heels, black opera gloves, a pearl bangle on her left wrist, a sleeveless high-neck mirror-patterned top resembling a disco ball, large white pearl earrings, a gem-encrusted belt with golden borders consisting of spherical sapphires and smaller rectangular amethysts, and various decorations on her hair composed of various colored gems, hearts, and stars. For the second alternate form, she had a similar dress to her trademark dress, only black fading to a deeper shade of red near the bottom, as well as a poofy red collar around the chest that was reminiscent of a heart, a red beret with a heart design on top, matching red heart earrings with gold borders, red mary jane pumps with bows on the straps, and had a rose bouquet on her hand with a red ribbon. Her third alternate appearance consists of blue jeans, a tan belt with pouch and a pink heart onn its silver buckle, and a red, long-sleeved, plaid shirt with gold buttons and partially rolled sleeves, along with a sleeveless tan vest with small red heart pins that partially hides her brown suspenders. In addition, she wears red, heeled cowgirl boots with two white stripes at the top and tan soles, a red cowgirl hat with a purple hatband, a pink neckerchief, brown gloves, and gold earrings shaped like horseshoes.

Personality

Until Super Mario Odyssey, Pauline did not have much character development. She is shown to be friendly, happy, kind, and even business minded, seen when she tests the quality of the Mario Toy Company’s Mini Mario toys in Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! She is also quick to forgive others, especially apparent when it comes to Donkey Kong’s numerous abductions of her. She is also implied to enjoy games, which is shown when she opens a gaming theme park called Mini-Land with Donkey Kong in Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move. Pauline also acts as a mediator between Mario and Donkey Kong. As mayor, she is apparently adept at city planning, as one of the residents of New Donk City mentioned that he was surprised at how fast she managed to get the city up and running again. In Super Mario Odyssey Pauline has been given more character (re)development overall. She enjoys peppy and jazz music because it brings people together, frequently practices singing to prepare for the next New Donk City Festival, has such a love for New Donk City that she often takes walks to admire it all, and also mentions she adores cake, stating that "It has to be 'good' cake and 'not that package stuff'". On another hand, however, she admits that she is not good at fixing machinery, and implies that she is also bad with flowers. She also goes on walks as a hobby due to her love for New Donk City and has indicated that she likes Fried Mushrooms and Flower Stew (the former due to being a massive Mushroom fan), but is not fond of Leaf Salad.

Relationships

PAULINE 11 Pauline, Mario, and Donkey Kong getting along While Mario and Pauline's relationship was implied to be romantic during the Donkey Kong arcade game and outright stated in most home port manuals, Pauline was soon dropped as Mario's love interest and replaced with Princess Peach. In the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, it is stated that the two are friends, with her attending Mario's Mini Mario business and theme park events as a VIP, and his racing to her rescue when Donkey Kong kidnaps her at said events. Later, she takes a more active role in Mario's business ventures and helps run his Mini-Land theme park.

In these games, Donkey Kong has an unrequited crush on Pauline, flying into childish rages and kidnapping her when he feels rejected in favor of Mario or does not get what he wants. While Pauline is apprehensive of Donkey Kong when he kidnaps her, he never hurts her and she does not bear him ill-will for his impulsiveness (Donkey Kong Jungle Action Special contradicts this however, where Pauline kicks Donkey Kong and threatens him with vengeance for ruining her dress and dragging her to the top of buildings), being quick to forgive him once Mario curbs his behavior and he shows remorse. Aside from the kidnapping incidents, the two get along well, and while Pauline does not return Donkey Kong's affections, it is implied that she finds his gestures sweet. In two instances, Pauline also plots with Donkey Kong for the latter to "kidnap" her in order to test the abilities of the Mini Mario line and lure Mario to a surprise party.

She is shown to not be fond of Bowser, especially when his wedding plans resulted in New Donk City being attacked and him plastering billboards for his forced wedding to Peach all over the city (which she deemed tasteless, especially in light of the city's crisis). In addition, when Mario arrived at the Wedding Hall after Pauline and other characters were forced by Bowser to act as "guests" for the wedding, Pauline tells Mario that he was "just in time", implying she was not happy with Bowser forcing her to attend the wedding.

Super Mario Odyssey (background information)

Marking her debut in the main Super Mario series, Pauline appears in Super Mario Odyssey as the mayor of New Donk City (addressed as Mayor Pauline).

She first appears shortly after Mario arrives at New Donk City, where she, alongside several New Donkers, observes Bowser's Airship in the sky and the city being hit by a rainstorm. She then explains to Mario she cannot talk with him at the moment because New Donk City is currently in a crisis: she explains that Bowser had arrived at the city and has been causing chaos, and admitted she was not impressed with him plastering posters advertising his planned wedding with Princess Peach, stating it was "tasteless". Afterward, she then thanks Mario for saving the city as it meant everything to her, and invited him to set up the city festival.

Prior to the upcoming city festival itself, Pauline asks Mario to help rebuild her band, for which she serves as the lead singer. After that, she then tasked Mario with checking out the underground power plant and restore power. Ultimately, by the time Mario arrived at the power plant, Pauline was present, as she decided to assess the situation herself and deduced Bowser was responsible for the sabotage. They then fixed the power together, and then she personally invited Mario for the New Donk City festival as the guest of honor to repay him for making the festival possible. She is the interpreter of "Jump Up, Super Star!", the theme song of the game. One of the dance moves she does during her performance mimics her sprite animation from the original Donkey Kong game. In addition, the reason she returns and acts as mayor of New Donk City is to avert the idea that the presence of a kingdom necessarily means that the people in charge are royalty.[29]

She is later seen at the wedding between Bowser and Peach in the Wedding Hall, being among various characters forced by Bowser to attend. When Mario arrives, she tells him he is "just in time."

In the post-game, Pauline is able to quiz Mario on facts about herself. She says that her hat is her favorite possession, she loves eating cake, and that her capture in Donkey Kong was "traumatic", although it helped her grow as a person. She also indicated that she had already seen Seaside Kingdom by the time she met up with Mario, and desired to see Cloud Kingdom next, due to it having "clouds that go on forever."

She later appears at Darker Side alongside the band and various other characters to root for Mario as he undergoes the rigorous challenge. After the Multi Moon is collected, she replaces her hat with a hat similar to that of Mario's own hat.

Donkey Kong Bananza: (background information)

Pauline appears in a deutoragonist role in Donkey Kong Bananza as a 13-year-old girl from New Donk City who loves singing and dreams of becoming a professional singer. Before the main events of the game, Pauline was kidnapped by Void Kong and Void Company and turned into the Odd Rock, after they discovered that her voice has special powers that can be used to awake the Banandium Root in the Planet Core, which is known to grant the wish of anyone who reaches it. The Odd Rock managed to escape, crash-lands in Ingot Isle, and is discovered by Donkey Kong, who scares her and makes her run away, causing her to become cornered by a group of enemies. Donkey Kong defeats these enemies and saves the Odd Rock, who calms down after listening to his whistles and decides to join him. Not too long after that, the two meet the Kong Elder in the Lagoon Layer, who invites them to a music performance act by the Odd Rock after seeing her potential as a singer, and, thanks to Donkey Kong's drumbeat, Pauline is freed from her Odd Rock form, but immediately shows stage fright in front of the large crowd. She is able to overcome it thanks to Donkey Kong's support and activates the Kong Bananza by singing its respective song. Pauline then explains everything that happened to her to Donkey Kong and becomes his friend, and they both decide to travel to the Planet Core to have Pauline's wish of returning to the surface granted by the Banandium Root, going through the different layers and facing the different members of Void Company in the process, who wanted to kidnap her again. Pauline slowly becomes a better singer and performer with each Bananza song learnt, as well as progressively becoming a closer friend to Donkey Kong.

After the two reach the Radiance Layer and learn the final Bananza, Pauline is swallowed by a giant eel who is being controlled by Void Kong and Donkey Kong passes out in the process. In the Groove Layer where Donkey Kong reawakens, he manages to find the location of Pauline with the help of Poppy Kong, saves her, and turns her back to normal. Then they finally reach the Forbidden Layer, where they face Void Kong one last time, apparently defeating him before he manages to turn Donkey Kong into stone, forcing Pauline to sing to save him while also awakening what they thought was the Banandium Root. Pauline hesitates, but decides to do so after hearing Donkey Kong's drumbeat, declaring that they are strong when they are together. Donkey Kong turns back to normal, but what was supposedly the Banandium Root reawakens and reveals itself to be King K. Rool, who had been trapped for a long time and proceeds to defeat Void Kong and head for the Planet Core, forcing Donkey Kong and Pauline to follow him.

Pauline and Donkey Kong fight King K. Rool in the Planet Core and defeat him, then make their wishes to the Banandium Root, with Pauline wishing to return home and Donkey Kong wishing for bananas. King K. Rool regains consciousness and chases after them with his Propellerpack to New Donk City, where he uses the power of the Banandium Root to turn the city and its inhabitants into Banandium Mush. Pauline and Donkey Kong quickly avoid the new dangers present and fight him, now in his King of Rot form, and defeat him, turning the city back to normal and saving everyone. With the danger over, Pauline decides to follow her dream of becoming a singer and wants Donkey Kong to join her, which he initially accepts but becomes undecided after remembering that his dream was to have as many bananas as possible. Pauline understands and tells him that he should follow his own dream without needing to be tied to her. The two then bid each other farewell, ending the main story of the game.

After three months, Pauline returns to Ingot Isle to reunite with Donkey Kong, who is happy to see her again. Pauline tells him that she was going to perform at New Donk City Hall and needs inspiration to write a new song, so they go to see the elders once again. After doing their respective Bananza Rehearsals, Pauline writes a song, which is not shown to the player aside from the fact that it uses the same melody as "Round 1 BGM" from the original Donkey Kong game (which is also present in both "Jump Up, Super Star!" and "Break Free (Lead the Way)", both sung by adult Pauline in Super Mario Odyssey). She finally performs this song at the end of the game's story in front of an audience, including Donkey Kong, in her new "Diva Dress", which is similar to the dress she wears in Super Mario Odyssey.

In the DK Island & Emerald Rush DLC, Pauline and Donkey Kong travel to DK Island via the Warp Gong after being informed by the Eelevator that Void Kong had landed his Pay-Dirt Piledriver nearby. Confronting him, Void explains he has discovered emerald ore and hires the two into the company to collect the ore for him.