The Smurfette Principle: Difference between revisions

* The ''[[Super Mario Bros.|Super Mario Bros]]'' games' only recurring female character was Princess Peach, who was usually a [[Distressed Damsel]]. This changed recently, as Princess Daisy and Birdo became full-fledged main characters and the introductions of Toadette, a feminized Toad, and Rosalina, both of which were somewhat less stereotypical than Peach. The ratio still heavily favors males.

** And Birdo? Actually, fandom and the story bits from various games are conflicted over whether Birdo is a man, woman, or transsexual. In the games it was initially a male cross-dresser, but was retconned into being female.

** On the villain side, the first evil female was the single girl of the Koopalings, Wendy O. Koopa. Captain Syrup showed up later as Wario's nemesis, and some stage bosses were female (Naval Piranha). Lately the villainous ladies have become more numerous with Cackletta, the Shadow Queen, Princess Shroob and Elder Princess Shroob, Mimi, the Shadow Sirens, and Robirdo.

* ''[[Donkey Kong Country (video game)|Donkey Kong Country]]'' has only a few female Kongs: Candy Kong was the first, a vaguely [[Fan Service|fanservicey]] monkey who helps the player. Dixie Kong was introduced as Diddy's girlfriend, simultaneously with the grandmotherly Wrinkly Kong, and Tiny Kong was the only female member of ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'''s [[Five-Man Band]].

** Well, let us not forget [[Cast Full of Pretty Boys|Organization XIII]]. Out of thirteen members, there is only ''one'' female (maybe Xion, the new character introduced in ''[[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|358/2 Days]]'', raises the number a little. But since she is nowhere to be seen in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', she was probably killed off for real).

*** Xion's a confusing example, {{spoiler|She's a replica, which doesn't even make gender matter, but she also takes the view of the memories of who's viewing her, this makes her female (A memory of Kairi) to Roxas, but Xigbar sees her as male (Ventus).}}

* Most ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' games allow the player to choose between an equal number of male or female original characters. While this doesn't quite help the ratio among the licensed games, it makes for a more or less even mix among characters in the ''Original Generation'' series.

* The ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series, as a whole, does this constantly. There is a grand total of two female characters in the entire original series - Roll, who took until ''10'' to get a single plot-significant action to her name (and is never playable except as a joke -- she's a [[Meido|housekeeping robot]]), and ''[[Mega Man 4]]'s'' Kalinka, who exists entirely to be kidnapped. As for the villains, they had to be male because of the naming scheme -- every Robot Master is called <word> ''Man''. This has changed with the introduction of Splash Woman in ''9''...then ''10'' went back to the status quo.