A Super Mario lore specialist issues an important correction: "Mario does not 'die and go to hell' - he is sent there directly while still alive"

Mario in the water with a shocked extpression

Mario historian Supper Mario Broth has acknowledged a mistake where they incorrectly stated that Paper Mario died and went to hell; it turns out that isn't true.

Despite never being a story-focused game, the Super Mario extended universe has some bizarre lore. We're seeing this recently with the mass confusion around Donkey Kong Bananza adding a young version of Pauline despite her being an adult when Donkey Kong's grandpa (or maybe dad?) kidnapped her in the original arcade game.

To illustrate how wild the Mario lore gets, Twitter user Shitposts.mp4 reposted a tweet from the lore specialist Supper Mario Broth. The original post points out that in the 1990s Super Mario World, when Mario loses all of his lives, he is shown with a halo above his head, implying Mario will go to heaven when he dies. However, in Super Paper Mario (2007), he is sent to "The Underwhere," which is the series' equivalent of hell, implying that Mario committed some heinous act between 1990 and 2007 that secured him a spot in hell.

I am deeply grateful for this appreciation of my post, however, please note that the original post was deleted in accordance with the Supper Mario Broth veracity policy. Mario does not "die and go to hell" - he is sent there directly while still alive.https://t.co/ttF5V49ejNJuly 7, 2025

However, the original post erroneously says Mario goes to The Underwhere after he dies, which Supper Mario Broth has corrected since this repost went viral. "I am deeply grateful for this appreciation of my post, however, please note that the original post was deleted in accordance with the Supper Mario Broth veracity policy." Broth adds, "Mario does not 'die and go to hell' - he is sent there directly while still alive."

But worry not, there is another bit of Mario lore that could potentially explain this. In a WGBS Philly Drug PSA from professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano (who is in his Mario outfit from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show), he says, "If you do drugs, you go to hell before you die." S,o bringing together these two crucial bits of the Mario canon, we can piece together that Paper Mario did drugs and thus went to hell before he died. Or Dimentio sent him there like we saw in the game, but that's not a very fun explanation is it?

We'll probably get some big lore dumps in Donkey Kong Bananza, which you can check out our preview of right here.