I would so be behind that game. And for a finishing move she can bring in her hot pan and burn the enemy's face off followed by the comment "Not such a funny joke anymore is it?".
Ugh, that reminds me so much of the humor in that crappy 90's movie and thus should be avoided at all costs. That's like the worst idea ever.
There is so much irony in this thread from GoldenPhoenix it's making other threads anemic by comparison, but the funniest to me are two things.
It is because of the attitude of many gamers that you will never see a character like Rosalina, I dunno, SAVE MARIO. If she did she would have to go to her universal kitchen between levels to cook up some star dust, maybe squirt out a few star babies, along the way.
This is the most sexist thing I have ever read on this site, and it was said by you. Sure, you are "imagining" how the character designers are thinking, but still, you are the one spouting the typical misogynist trope reducing childbirth into *ahem* "squirting." The last person I heard say stuff like that wore a shirt that said "Never trust anything that bleeds for 5 days and lives" or something like that.
The one character I loved in the Mario games and thought had the most potential is all but dead, and that is Wendy O Koopa.
This is the character with Lipstick, High-heels, and jewelry-based attacks, right? That's more stereotypical than anything else!
One thing not discussed here is cultural differences between Japan and America and how that ties into all this. Japan is a pretty gender-role defined place. I mean for example, it's typical for a female employee to quit her job in order to get married and take about 15 years to raise children before re-entering the work force and it is entirely expected and certain companies even help out with a little severance. Try that in America, you'd be lucky to get a week off to actually have the baby in some places.
This is not to say that Japan is "better," but "different." And this difference causes friction in fiction and requires a little more universal symbolism. And one thing that transcends cultural boundaries for both East and West is the symbol of a woman as mother. You speak of this as a product of a male dominated society, when historically, this role of motherhood was the source of all their "powers," so to speak. In prehistoric societies, the people revered the woman as the source of all life, because they basically were. Pre-scientific method and magical thinking caused this and once it was found out that men have just as much to do with childbirthing as women (and were able to out-muscle them), we usurped the power and replaced all goddess statues and stuff with male gods and stuff (Side note, we kicked ass, men! What a feat. High five! UNF, take that!)
So this "Earth mother" archetype, while at times reinforced by men, was created by
women in order to keep the goddess mystique and keep their power in pre-historic societies. Evil video game developer men are not out to get women by way of making stereotypes.
Besides, notice how the only people with authority in the Mario universe are women. I really don't think they are trying to be chauvinists, GoldenPhoenix.