Dimentio
- “Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...Ciao!”
- —Dimentio, Super Paper Mario
Dimentio is a magical jester and a major antagonist in the game Super Paper Mario. Initially a minion of Count Bleck, Dimentio is a powerful magician capable of several feats, such as teleportation, duplication, and invisibility. Like Mario, he has the power to flip between dimensions, and is in control of a dimension of his own, Dimension D. By the end of the game, he reveals his intentions to steal the Chaos Heart from Bleck and use it to destroy all worlds and create new ones of which he is king.
Personality
Dimentio has a very dark personality in contrast to the rest of the game. He is a very playful and lighthearted character, but his true intentions are sinister. His true plan is to steal the Chaos Heart from Count Bleck to control The Void and destroy the universes, so he can build perfect new ones of which he is the ruler.
It is unknown what Dimentio's idea of a perfect world is, but he has clearly shown that he will go to great lengths to insure its creation. Dimiento is one of the more evil characters in the Mario series, he has no conscience or guilt for his actions, murdering people while making a joke and then uttering his line "Ciao". Dimiento is willing to kill evryone is existance to ensure the creation of his new, perfect universes. It has never been made clear if Dimentio wants a world without war as he only jokingly states that no one likes that kind of stuff when discussing the prospect of a new world with Bleck's minions. It can be just as equally assumed that Dimentio would crave a world made of war as he has clearly shown a very twisted personality and violent demeanor. Dimentio's lack of a motive or mind state makes him one of the more ambiguous villains in the Mario series.
Relationship to Bleck
Apparently, Dimentio approached Count Bleck on his own at first, offering to serve him. Bleck turned him down, however. It was only after reading about him in the Dark Prognosticus that he allowed Dimentio into his forces. Dimentio is seen with O'Chunks, Mimi, and Mr. L at each of the meetings of Bleck's henchman. Even before betraying the Count, he holds disdain for all of Bleck's other followers. He takes every opportunity to mock his fellow minions over their failures, and even persuades them to disobey the Count's orders on one occasion.
Dimentio eventually learns that Bleck has a more emotional side when he eavesdrops on him and Nastasia talking. Dimentio also learns of Tippi's connection to him and uses this to weaken Bleck emotionally to make him more easy to defeat.
Dimentio is apparently "the dark one" mentioned in the Dark Prognosticus as opposed to Bleck. If Bleck read this in the Prognosticus, he might have intentionally enlisted Dimentio's help in order to ensure his successful suicide and destruction of the universe.
However, Dimentio eventually turns on Bleck, and starts trying to thwart Bleck's plans. He casually begins to help Mario along, and even tries to convince the party to join him. Bleck wants to end all worlds in order to end his own life, whereas Dimentio wants to end all worlds in order to become king of a universe of his own creation. Their difference in motive is the reason Dimentio gives for betraying Count Bleck. However, it is also possible that Dimentio only feigned allegiance to Count Bleck in order to obtain the Chaos Heart.
Dimentio's plans
Dimentio has shown to be very cunning and capable of intiating his own plans without the notice of Bleck or his other followers. Residing in the shadows of Count Bleck's army, Dimentio carefully plans and executes his scheme to take control of the Chaos Heart. In Count Bleck's service, Dimentio waits for Bleck to create the Chaos Heart and form the void. He plans to use its power and destructive purpose to wipe out all worlds and create brand new ones in which he controls. Once Bleck forms the Chaos Heart, Dimentio carefully watches and testes the abilities of Mario by sabotaging Fracktail.
When he sees Mario as the hero, he moves his sights to Peach. He concludes she will be the second hero and warps her from Castle Bleck and to Flipside to join Mario. It seems that Dimentio did the same with Bowser although it was never explicitly stated. Soon, Dimentio faces Mario and test his abilities again, but this time in Dimension D. Mario also proves worthy as Dimentio had expected.
Dimentio next gains knowledge that Luigi is the ideal host for the Chaos Heart's power and he will use it to spread darkness. After acquiring this knowledge, Dimentio makes use of his ability to turn invisible to spy on Bleck and Nastasia. He learns that Bleck has a emotional side and this could be used as a weakness to make it easier for the heroes to defeat him. Dimentio now is in need of a tool to control Luigi so that he can use him to posses the power of the Chaos Heart. He meets an associate and acquires two Floro Sprouts. These plants are put on people's heads to be mind controlled. Dimentio takes the opportunity to once again test Mario and his friends; this time using O'Chunks. First he warps O'Chunks to Dimension D to test the heroes. Once they defeat him, O'Chunks is put under mind control by a Floro Sprout that Dimentio planted on him. O'Chunks is defeated again and this more than proves to Dimentio that Mario is indeed the chosen one. Dimentio now began to put all the final preparations in order. He knew Luigi would be the fourth hero, so he needed to release him from Bleck's control and reunite him with the other heroes. He needed a time and place however where he wouldn't be discovered.
He came up with the perfect plan. He coaxed Bleck's henchmen, including Luigi, to attack Mario in a world on the brink of destruction. The world was indeed obliterated by the void, but it remained in a withered state. This would be the perfect area to kill Luigi and send him to the underwhere. This would release his mind control and also have him meet up with Mario as Dimentio planned to send him and the other three heroes to the same place.
The pure heart Mario acquired in this land was powerless from the destruction, but it could be repaired in the Underwhere. If Mario would be sent here, he would repair the pure heart and meet up with Luigi; killing two birds with one stone. Dimentio murdered Luigi and then quickly murdered Mario, Peach, and Bowser. Mario was eventually able to repair the heart and meets up with Luigi and the other heroes. Dimentio reported to Bleck that his henchmen, Mr. L/Luigi, had betrayed them and joined the heroes. As the heroes gathered the last pure heart, Dimentio told Bleck that Tipi had uttered Blumiere, which was Bleck's true name.
This proved to Bleck that Timpani, the woman he loved, was truly alive. Dimentio did this to weaken Bleck emotionally and make it all the easier for the heroes to defeat him. When Mario and Luigi, Peach and Bowser are presumed dead, meet Dimentio he reveals his intentions. Luigi fights and beats him, but this was all a ruse. Dimentio appeared to commit a suicide attack, but he was actually planting a Floro Sprout in Luigi's unconsciousness. Once Bleck was defeated, Dimentio shot a burst of energy to finish him off. Nastasia took the shot instead and seemingly died. Dimentio took control of Luigi through the Floro Sprout and took control of the Chaos Heart.
He combined them to form Super Dimentio and sent Bleck, Nastasia's body, and Tipi to Dimension D to torture and kill them later. He becomes one with his creation and began to destroy all existence. Through Bleck and Tipi's love, and the hero’s efforts, Super Dimentio's body explodes and leaves only his head.
With his last breath, Dimentio leaves a portion of his power behind to continue controlling the Chaos Heart to wipe out all existence. Dimentio explodes and sinks into the ground and obliteration. The Chaos Heart and Dimentio's remaining power is wiped out by Bleck and Tipi who sacrifice themselves to save all existence. It is assumed Dimentio is completely destroyed.
Trivia
- Dimentio has features of a jester, a clown, and a magician. He wears a court jester costume with clownish colors, and he has great prowess in magic tricks. Dimentio's face is also Comedy Mask, which is a classical theatrical mask used in plays.
- Dimentio's character design resembles a stylized version of the Jesters from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. He also closely resembles Harley Quin, another jester character from the game Wario's Woods, and Super Dimentio's spinning cape imitates that of Harley.
- Mysteriously, Tippi seems to have known Dimentio before the events of Super Paper Mario. She recognizes him immediately on their first encounter in the game, during the dialog shortly before Mario battles Fracktail. However, the game never touches on this again, leaving the player to only speculate as to the meaning of it all.
- It is implied that Dimentio has his own brand of perfume, called "Demented, by Dimentio". He offers Mario a signed bottle of it in Chapter 8-4, listing it among other bribes to persuade him to help fight Count Bleck.
- In Flopside, if one listens to the bartender Carson's stories, there is one about Dimentio that seems to hint at him possibly being the one who wrote the Dark Prognosticus, for the fact that his role was mentioned in the book sounds suspicious. The exact text that he says reads: "So Count Bleck has four minions, as you know. I hear that one of them, Dimentio, wields powerful magic. I don't know where he comes from or who he is... But I hear he approached and befriended the count all on his own. And the count even turned him away once... Until he read in the Dark Prognosticus about the role of someone similar... Why was he mentioned in the Dark Prognosticus? Sounds fishy to me!"
- Interestingly, the seemingly good Shaman Merloo is known to have similar abilities to Dimentio (being a powerful magician who could control dimensions); it is also thought that Merloo wrote the Light Prognosticus, perhaps further verifying the possibility that Dimentio, who was perhaps related to Merloo, is the Dark Prognosticus's author.
