What a Concept: Mario Opera Act 2+3 is Insanity

 Now of course, Act 1 was only Act 1,  shouldn't there be more?

This is a continuation of "Why the Fuck do I like this Mario Rock Opera?"

You can listen to act 2+3 here.

So, Act 2, the opening song is actually just 3 songs. Unlike in Act 1 when some songs were more a medley of 5 different songs (e.g. "Chorus Back and Forth"), this one doesn't have them all under 1 title, rather listing the names of the segments of the songs, this gets quite convoluted later with 1 song but right now it's a bit more simple with the easy to remember title "Princess Lament, Bowser in Love, Mario is Dead!". In this track, we do get some insight into how the 2 most ignored important characters in the Opera (Princess Peach and Bowser) think, and also how they react to somehow learning Mario is dead. I did admittedly get the conclusion that Bowser was used to getting everything from a moment in this song when he says that, he also talks about Mario coming as if that's happened before, which is interesting because (assuming you've been listening to the Concept Album and not the Live Recording) Bowser hadn't hinted at that earlier. 

This song also introduces Ludwig Von Koopa, my favourite character in this Act but not for anything in this song (though he does confirm that Mario died in "1-2" which really makes the line in the Lizard Wizard "I can't have that far to go!" more sad). 

Once they both learn that Mario is dead, it's interesting to see how they react, Peach tries to flee the Castle (as bad as an idea that might be) to help her people, and Bowser is just confused, and this carries over into the next song "Princess Escape, (second half of title hidden for comedic purposes)" where the Princess escapes but is stopped by Bowser, prompting them to really just talk it out... look into each other's eyes... decide to get married on the spot... this is the first hints of insanity hidden within these mp3 files. The second half of the title is "Let's get married" because they're getting married (I hope that Goomba was just lying then because otherwise this is waaaaaay worse).

Onwards to Ludwig Von Koopa, this song is the real introduction to Ludwig, his voice is annoying here (2nd worst voice in the act because Toad is still in this one eventually), just easily getting across his immaturity and making his concerns be taken less seriously, reasons like "he's too soft now to command" and... I think that's the only reason, because after elaborating on that, he goes right to "I'm sick of waiting for my father to die!". Overall, it's quite the character introduction, it definitely made me like this weird scheming goofball. 

Now what are his plans? This is his plan, if you didn't listen to the album before reading then please, I'm begging you, listen to this song before you proceed because it's the highlight of the album for better or for worse.

So yeah, he Summons Luigi, the Goomba and Koopa killing machine, possibly blood related to the Doomslayer based on that guitar riff. This is sort of the peak of this Act's insanity, just the idea of this mass murdering... Luigi. I'm fairly certain Johnathan's view on Mario is only really influenced by the early 2d platformers, those ones never really established the idea that Luigi is a coward who couldn't kill a fly. Here he's really more of a reflection of Mario, I mean, if Mario isn't a "Koopa and Goomba Killing Machine" then I don't know what was happening throughout most of "Freakout!" and "Things are Familiar", Luigi's just a problem because he's being controlled by that weird scheming goofball.

Onto the worst offender for the multiple song title list thing I mentioned earlier, "Heaven, Evil Wedding, Luigi & Ludwi , I must stand and Fight" all 1 song title and Ludwig is spelt like that at least on the version I have...  So, Mario is in Heaven, and learns basically all he did in Act 1 but a bit more specific, he is just a video game character being controlled by someone... God? Miyamoto? A Gamer? It's weird. The song also uses the overworld theme for Super Mario Land, which is very interesting to me because it's the same as the castle theme but in a major key. The castle theme of course being used in the song where Mario dies in Act 1, "The Lizard Wizard", so the song sort of positions itself as a positive look at Mario's situation as opposed to the negative one in the Lizard Wizard.

 The character tells Mario about Nintendo and moves on to showing what happens when Mario just gives up like he did in Act 1, first showing that Peach is Marrying Bowser. It's sort of interesting to compare this wedding to the wedding from Act 1 of the Mario Opera. The wedding of Mario and Peach is way longer, lasting 2 songs, whereas the wedding of Peach and Bowser almost comes off as rushed, the instrumental is more energetic, the vocals are in a minor key trying to sound joyous and happy, it all comes together to make this sound wrong. Luigi and Ludwi sure does tell us that Luigi is working with Ludwig, though it also tells us that the wedding hasn't actually happened yet. Lugi says fuck. Mario concludes he must go back and fix this, taking a cape which could be seen as just another Mario reference in an act that sort of indulged in them (I didn't mention in "Summoning Luigi" how Luigi is hypnotised to harm no-one when he hears the words "your princess is in another castle"), but could also be seen as Mario finally seeing himself as a hero, completing what was set up in Act 1 with the lyric in act 1 "... they look to me like I'm some sort of Hero, I'm not, I'm just a man.". Hell, it could also be seen as subverting the part in "I was Wrong" where he said he was wrong for thinking he could "... break the rules and fly away...", because the cape powerup makes you fly in Super Mario World.

So Mario comes back to life, more powerful yet more vulnerable, cut to Luigi getting into an argument with Ludwig, ending in him running away into a forest, and the happy last song where Mario finds Luigi and they go off to save the Princess, the end because this Opera is unfinished and Johnathan Mann hasn't really touched Act 2 after he released the demos. Act 1 has only ever been performed by itself, which is so odd to me and a shame. For how bizarre the events in this Act are, I'm really interested in how the character arc of Mario went here, from realising that he's not in control to realising that it's necessary to save the Princess and becoming the Hero he never thought he could be. I wonder what would've happened to Luigi, would Act 3 have had more insane characterisations, would they acknowledge some of the weirder appearances Mario has had (the trailer for the concert version of Mario Opera did reference Donkey Kong), would it even be good? Act 1 does stand on it's own, but Act 2 seemed to be going somewhere before being stopped.

I mean, you could just assume a normal Mario game happened after this, but that's way less fun.