Donkey Kong was NEVER Mario's Pet

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Donkey Kong is Mario's pet. No, no, he's not. And this was never canon. Let me ask you a question. Where did this interpretation come from? There are two primary sources that make this claim. a Donkey Kong 1994 developer interview in a Japanese strategy guide produced by Ape and an interview from the Japanese Nintendo online magazine in a whim number 18 overall slash the second one of the year 2000 which then gets echoed in a profile for Donkey Kong Cranky in the same issue web page however you want to put it claims that from the beginning Donkey Kong was Mario's pet who kidnapped Pauline to get a rise out of him hello Miiamoto's Son, I'm Divider Son.

[00:00:46]Question. If DK being Mario's pet was always the case, why does no official profile game box manual game or really anything besides your own words back up this narrative that's allegedly been the case for more than 30 years.

[00:01:02]Take your time.

[00:01:04]Miiamoto, no comment.

[00:01:09]Well, that tells me everything I need to know. Donkey Kong being Mario's pet is simply Miyamoto's interpretation. It is not valid in the games. I don't care what anyone who works on the franchise has to say. Creator, writer, they don't matter. We abide by death of the author around here. They had over 30 years to put this information in a game and they didn't do it. So, I'm going to handwave this off like the rest of the everchanging interpretations of Shigaru Miiamoto writers and anyone else at Nintendo. Oh, and any other version of the games not produced by Nintendo for other consoles, cartoons, comics, etc. That's a subject worthy of its own video. To really hammer home the fact that these people are not consistent with their interpretations, I'm going to show you an example of something else Major said in one of these interviews.

[00:01:57]In the 1994 one, the interviewer asked if Pauline is Mario's girlfriend. to which Kamiyama says she's his ex, followed by him and Miiamoto saying the Mushroom Kingdom looks to be on the outskirts of Donkey Kong's homeland as seen in the game's ending. I guess Mario met Peach there in his eyes started to wander. In other words, this takes place before Super Mario Bros. later on after Mario became famous, he probably gave Pauline the flick. For those of you who don't understand that last part, originally Mario wasn't a resident of the Mushroom Kingdom. He wasn't isekai to this world like the movies or older media would have you believe. He just wasn't a native. Not even one year later, this was recconed by Yoshi's Island, which made it so that he was always a resident of the Mushroom Kingdom, followed by Yoshi's Island DS and Partners in Time, proving that Mario has known Peach since he was a baby.

[00:02:50]Again, why should I take the word of these people when they can't keep their story straight? And that's just one example. There are countless more. Moral of the story, don't listen to anything Nintendo or anyone affiliated has to say unless the game supported directly. At that point, you didn't need them in the first place. Death of the author, baby.

[00:03:11]With that said, I hope you enjoyed this video. Be sure to like, comment your thoughts down below, and subscribe to keep up with the channel's content.

[00:03:20]Until next time, see you.

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