Matt Purslow
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Warning: this article contains spoilers for Donkey Kong Bananza.
Donkey Kong Bananza is now out in the wild, and one of the biggest burning questions ahead of launch centered on DK’s new best friend: Pauline. She’s a teenager in Bananza – 13 years old, to be precise – and this has led to rampant speculation that Bananza is a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey, which features an adult Pauline living in New Donk City.
We’ve played through the main story of Bananza and completed most of its major post-game beats, which means we now have the answers to that question and more. But be warned, we’re about to spoil the entirety of Donkey Kong Bananza's finale. So if you’re still working your way to the Planet Core, turn back now, and join us once you’ve seen Bananza through to the end yourself.
Bananza eventually reveals that 13-year-old Pauline does, in fact, call New Donk City home, just like her Odyssey counterpart, and the story’s grand finale takes place in the metropolis after it’s been completely overrun by the returning King K. Rool. When DK and Pauline break through to the surface, Pauline exclaims “This is MY city!”, confirming the fan theory that Bananza would end by returning Pauline home to Odyssey’s most iconic location. But is this city connection enough to confirm that Bananza is a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey?
First, some background on Pauline, who is central to this mystery. In Odyssey, Pauline (who’s a full-grown adult) is the Mayor of New Donk City, perhaps most memorable for her performance of Jump Up, Super Star! at the New Donk City Festival. Teenage Pauline and Mayor Pauline share a lot in common: Beyond their shared name, they are both singers and performers, with much of Teenage Pauline’s character arc revolving around gaining enough confidence to perform in front of her hometown. She also sings the Bananza Transformation songs, and Void Kong is obsessed with the power of her voice… at least until King K. Rool boots him out of the story entirely.
Based on Pauline’s age, most expected Bananza would be a prequel to Odyssey, and potentially an origin story for New Donk City itself. It would make sense that DK, acting as Pauline’s hero and best friend, would prompt the people to name the town after her savior once she was safely returned. But in Bananza, New Donk City is already established before DK and Pauline arrive, and during one of Teenage Pauline’s monologues at a Getaway, she references New Donk City’s nickname “The Big Banana”, a Kong-inspired parody of New York’s “The Big Apple.” It’s a nickname we’ve heard before, first uttered in Mario Odyssey by a New Donker.
Using all that as a starting point, it seems that there’s actually more evidence to suggest that Bananza is a sequel to Odyssey, and that Teenage Pauline is Mayor Pauline’s daughter, and the granddaughter of original Pauline (who we’ll call Arcade Pauline). Let us explain.
Teenage Pauline regularly references her grandmother throughout Bananza, including one time directly in the main story. After the pair run into Diddy and Dixie Kong in the Racing Layer, Pauline says to DK during the dive to the next layer, “I’m glad you got to see your friends again! But if I don’t get home, Grandma will worry.” Teenage Pauline’s Grandma is the only family member she directly mentions in Bananza, so Nintendo clearly wants us to think about who her grandma is.
The most likely answer becomes clear when we consider Donkey Kong’s grandfather: Cranky Kong. It is well-established that Cranky Kong is the original Arcade Donkey Kong that kidnapped Arcade Pauline way back in the day. Bananza reinforces this lore, as Cranky rants about his old rival who wore overalls, clearly referencing Mario… or Jumpman, as our favorite plumber was originally known. Cranky and Wrinkly Kong’s son is Donkey Kong Jr., who - despite what the Super Mario Bros. Movie may have tried to tell you - is not actually our current Donkey Kong. Junior starred in the Donkey Kong Jr. arcade game and made various other playable appearances before being essentially wiped from the face of the earth. The tie-wearing Donkey Kong we know and love – first introduced in Rare’s Donkey Kong Country – is actually Donkey Kong the Third, son of Donkey Kong Jr. and an unknown Kong mother.
So, we’ve established three generations of DK, which brings us back to Pauline. Arcade Pauline and Mayor Pauline don’t look like the same person. Arcade Pauline has blonde hair, while the Mayor is a brunette. You could argue this is just a character redesign, but a billboard in Odyssey’s New Donk City shows a blonde version of Pauline. Perhaps that’s just a fun easter egg, but perhaps it’s a clue to canon, and we have to use all the evidence we can. The New Donk City Festival – which sees Mario recreating gameplay from the Arcade Donkey Kong game – is held to “tell the story of our city's beginnings," according to Pauline. This implies that New Donk City was founded after the events of the arcade game, built on the foundation of the girders Jumpman climbed up towards Donkey Kong.
New Donk City is a sprawling metropolis, and it likely took the course of at least a human generation to build it up to such an enormous size. That, combined with the different appearances, leads us to believe that Arcade Pauline and Mayor Pauline are two different people. Perhaps, dare we say, they are mother and daughter?
I suppose it’s possible that Bananza could still be a prequel, that Mayor and Teenage Pauline are one and the same, and that Arcade Pauline is her grandmother with a missing generational link between them, but it feels cleaner to suggest that there are three generations of Pauline: Arcade, Mayor, and Teenage, just like there are three generations of DK: Arcade/Cranky, Jr., and the main DK of today.
We really hope our theory that Teenage Pauline is the granddaughter of Arcade Pauline is true, because it’s absolutely adorable that the grandchildren of two of the oldest Nintendo characters have now teamed up and become best friends in Bananza. It’s very cool to think that Nintendo has found a clever way to redefine one of its oldest character dynamics over 40 years later. Unfortunately, completing the bulk of Bananza’s postgame content – which are called Bananza Rehearsals and leads to Bananza’s true final platforming challenge – doesn’t really shed any more light on this. Pauline returns to the surface to perform a song for her city, but all we see of that is a new piece of art that appears after the credits have rolled.
So while Bananza’s position as a prequel may make a lot of sense, it ultimately can never be more than a theory. There’s just not enough concrete evidence from Nintendo. This theory does raise some concerning, perhaps even supernatural questions about Mario, though. If he has really interacted with multiple generations of Paulines and Donkey Kongs… does this mean Mario never ages, while those around him do? Or are there multiple generations of Mario? Is Nintendo implying that Mario and Jumpman are two different characters? It’s probably best not to think about it too much.
Finally, and perhaps most crucially, it’s important to remember that Nintendo historically doesn’t care about lore and continuity across its games. Even The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild – has lore inconsistencies that are ultra-hand-waved away. So it’s quite possible Nintendo doesn’t even have a truly established timeline between the original Donkey Kong, Odyssey, and Bananza, and just loves to keep fans guessing.
What do you think is going on in Donkey Kong Bananza? Is Teenage Pauline the daughter of Mayor Pauline and granddaughter of the original Pauline Cranky Kong kidnapped all those years ago, or are we being completely ri-Donk-ulous? Let us know in the comments!
Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find him online @LoganJPlant.