Mallow the Nimbus prince who thinks he’s a tadpole from Super Mario RPG, and Perry the magical talking parasol from Super Princess Peach. It is my sincere belief that the two are the SAME PERSON!
The first thing that tipped me off was their similar colour schemes. Mainly a creamy/yellow colour with a blue edging (blue in Mallow’s pants). Mallow has reddish shoes and curl, and Perry has a reddish handle. Their mouth and eyes also look totally the same.
The second discovery was their similar backstories. Mallow was lost from his true home in the clouds as a baby and found by an adoptive grandfather, similar to Dragon Ball’s Goku. I discovered that Perry’s background is similar, that he had no memory and was found by an old guy who took him in. Ok, so Mallow’s grandfather is a frog and Perry’s is shown to be…something…with a beard. If you squint they could be the same guy!
Both have odd powers: Mallow can use magic to heal and control the weather; Perry also has powers and is transformed into an umbrella. Umbrella, weather, eh? Ok so someone who may or may not be Kamek transformed him against his will but it could well be a wild sort of magic, that’s not unheard of.
The biggest problem is figuring the order of events and timeline. Mallow actually experiences character growth, and goes from grandfather to his original home, becoming a courageous hero in the process. Perry has been separated from his grandfather before the game and has no personal resolution to finding his grandfather. But each are separated from their grandfathers in both games. So how can they be the same?
Well, there’s always the Miyamoto excuse. In an interview he explained that each Mario game is just like a fresh story with no bearing on previous games, all characters are just actors playing out a new scenario. So both Mallow and Perry could be alternate versions of one another; related, but not the same. But that’s a cop out and as fans, we have to explain everything! Or at least a lot of things.
So here’s a wacky theory. Super Princess Peach is a prequel to Super Mario RPG. This does require some small amount of retconning of SMRPG unfortunately, but it’s more interesting than having no inter-game connection or two characters with the same backstory and similar appearance.
Mallow the cloud prince is dropped to earth, falling into Tadpole Pond. He is found by Frogfucius, who raises him as a tadpole. But Mallow is different. He doesn’t feel like a tadpole and he has strange powers that make him feel like an outsider (SMRPG). Kamek and Bowser find the boy, turn him into an umbrella, and take him away. He escapes and, far from home, finds his way into Toadsworth’s hands. He gives the umbrella to Peach (SPP).
Fanon commences here. After the events of SPP, Peach and Mario take Perry to find his grandfather. Unfortunately, Bowser’s clown car is sighted near Toad Town, so Luigi is tasked with helping return Perry while Peach and Mario deal with that (he doesn’t appear much in SMRPG so he can be doing this while other stuff happens). Thus the plot of SMRPG starts with the kidnap of Peach, followed by the arrival of Exor at Bowser’s Castle. Meanwhile in fanon land, Luigi and Perry, now in familiar territory for the little cloud prince, find their way to Tadpole Pond and Frogfucius.
Frogfucius, in his great wisdom, knows a way to reverse the spell on his adopted grandson and Mallow returns to normal. Mario later comes along and Mallow goes with him on his journey (this is the slight retcon as Mallow apparently had never met Mario, although we could say the reason he looked up to him was that he had actually seen him in action previously). Peach also joins the party later, and we have to assume that Mallow also remembers her in a way he didn’t exactly express during SMRPG. They later return to the cloud kingdom and after all is said and done, Mallow accepts his rightful place there as heir.
That actually works a little better than I thought. This also makes Mallow/Perry a pretty important character, as he is semi-playable in two fairly important spinoff adventures (not just spinoff sports games or whatever). I hope I explained that well enough. I’d be happy to indulge in some clarification or speculation, so if anyone has any questions, use the ask thing or disqus comments or something.