{"id":52231,"date":"2025-09-23T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=52231"},"modified":"2025-09-22T18:18:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T09:18:32","slug":"nintendo-devs-wont-elaborate-on-whether-adult-pauline-and-kid-pauline-are-the-same-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-devs-wont-elaborate-on-whether-adult-pauline-and-kid-pauline-are-the-same-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo devs won’t elaborate on whether adult Pauline and kid Pauline are the same person\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From her role as the mayor of New Donk City in 2017\u2019s Super Mario Odyssey to her appearance as a teenage girl in this year\u2019s Donkey Kong Bananza, Nintendo<\/strong> has been shining the spotlight on longtime character Pauline. But despite the characters\u2019 new appearances across different timelines, it seems the developers\u00a0prefer to leave the relationship between the adult and teenage Pauline up to players\u2019 imaginations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pauline<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview with Famitsu<\/a>, Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura offered some extra insight into how Pauline came to be included in the game. Pauline\u2019s role was to perform actions that Donkey Kong could not, including singing to activate DK\u2019s Bananza transformations and serving as a guide. As this version of DK cannot really talk outside of spouting his love for bananas, the developers felt that Pauline would serve as a character that players could empathize with.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Pauline is supposed to accompany DK throughout his journey, the devs experimented with different body shapes and sizes until they settled on the smaller, more \u201cportable\u201d version of her that exists in the final game. Her age was also taken into consideration, as 13 years old is around the time when children begin to branch out on their own. Pauline’s shyness at the start of Donkey Kong Bananza eventually gives way to a more confident personality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Pauline<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Pauline\u2019s evolution from timid child to confident singer could serve as an origin story for her Super Mario Odyssey iteration, the developers neither confirm nor deny any connections. When asked about whether the two Paulines are the same person, Motokura tells Famitsu, \u201cWe do, of course, have our own lore about it in the development team, but I\u2019m afraid I can\u2019t elaborate. We\u2019d like to leave it to your imaginations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several fan theories exist<\/a> regarding the relationship between teenage and adult Pauline. Some think they are the same person, with Donkey Kong Bananza being a prequel to Super Mario Odyssey<\/a>. Others speculate that teenage Pauline is a descendant of both the Pauline from the original 1981 Donkey Kong arcade game and the one from Super Mario Odyssey (Bananza Pauline makes several references to her grandmother, an unnamed singer whom she looks up to). A future Nintendo title could end up revealing more about the Paulines, but in the meantime, this looks like a secret that the developers are more than happy to keep under wraps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura shares insights about Pauline’s inclusion in the game, but leaves one big question unanswered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":52240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17,33],"class_list":["post-52231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news","tag-nintendo"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nNintendo devs won't elaborate on whether adult Pauline and kid Pauline are the same person\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Donkey Kong Bananza producer Kenta Motokura shares insights about Pauline's inclusion in the game, but leaves one big question unanswered.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/nintendo-devs-wont-elaborate-on-whether-adult-pauline-and-kid-pauline-are-the-same-person\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nintendo devs won't elaborate on whether adult Pauline and kid Pauline are the same person\u00a0 - 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