Rosalina's Story
Rosalina's Story,[1] while never explicitly stated, chronicles how Rosalina made it into outer space and how she became the "mother" of the Lumas prior to the events of Super Mario Galaxy. In the Comet Observatory's Library, Rosalina sometimes reads from the storybook to the Lumas traveling with her. Mario or Luigi can come in to listen to the story. In all, the storybook contains nine chapters.
The storybook becomes available to read once the player clears Bowser's Star Reactor and obtains one more Power Star afterwards. More chapters are unlocked as the player obtains more Power Stars.
Yoshiaki Koizumi, director of Super Mario Galaxy, was the writer of the storybook. He wrote the script late at night when no one was around so no one would know what was in it. The next day, he told Shigeru Miyamoto about the story and presented it to him. Miyamoto was surprised that Yoshiaki wrote the script late at night with nobody around. Yoshiaki Koizumi, in a Nintendo Power interview, mentions that he would enjoy seeing Rosalina's storybook get published as a children's book.[2]
Story
After Mario/Luigi enters the Library, Rosalina begins to read the following story.
Chapter 1: The Celestial Duo
This chapter is available after 17 Power Stars are obtained.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
Our story begins a very, very long time ago with a young girl. One day, this girl spotted a rusted spaceship holding a small star child. |
|
"What's your name? Are you lost?" the girl asked the star child.
"I'm Luma, and I'm waiting for Mama. She's coming for me on a comet!" said the star child, who had been waiting day and night. |
|
"Don't worry. I'll wait with you," the little girl promised Luma. |
|
At nightfall, the little girl borrowed her father's telescope and peered into the sky. She looked and looked, but she saw nothing. Hours turned into days and then years, but still the sky revealed nothing.
Finally, the little girl sighed and said to Luma, "If we stay here looking much longer, I'll be an old lady soon." But then she had an idea. "Why don't we go out there and find your mother ourselves?" |
|
The girl and Luma fixed up the rusty spaceship, and then the two set sail into the starry sky.
And this is how the search for the celestial mother began. |
Chapter 2: Star Bits
This chapter is available after 24 Power Stars are obtained.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
Days passed with no sight of the comet, or even a single planet. Instead, asteroids extended for as far as the eye could see.
"If I had known it was going to take this long, I would have packed more jam," said the little girl, above the rumble of her belly. |
|
Before they left, she had packed all the essentials: telescope, butterfly net, stuffed bunny, bread, milk, jam, and apricot-flavored tea, but... |
|
"I forgot to bring water!"
At this, Luma burst into gales of laughter, and the girl began to pout. "As long as I have Star Bits, I'll be fine," said Luma. "Want some?" The little girl couldn't stay mad after hearing this. |
|
Luma continued to laugh, and the girl couldn't help but join in.
"All right, maybe just a nibble." |
|
Leaning far out of the ship, the pair began to collect Star Bits with the girl's net. They almost fell out a few times, but they kept on collecting.
The Star Bits tasted like honey. |
Chapter 3: The Comet
This chapter is available after 28 Power Stars are obtained.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
A beam of light pierced through the ship's window. Thinking it was the morning sun, the girl peered through the window, only to find a turquoise blue comet shimmering at her.
The little girl shook the sleeping Luma awake and shouted excitedly, "We HAVE to get to that comet!" |
|
The pair descended on the comet and found that it was made of ice. They looked high and low, but Luma's mother was nowhere to be found.
Exhausted, the little girl sat down with a flop, utterly unable to take another step. "Look!" |
|
Peering down at the icy ground where Luma was pointing, the girl suddenly noticed clusters of Star Bits encased in the ice.
"Pretty good, huh? Finding Star Bits is my specialty!" said Luma, beaming. "There's ice here, but it's so warm, I'll bet there's water here too." The two decided to stay on the comet for a while. Riding the turquoise comet, the pair continued their search for Luma's mother. |
Chapter 4: The Dream
This chapter is available after 32 Power Stars are obtained.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
One night, the girl dreamed about her own mother.
"Where are you going?" she asked her mother's retreating back. Without turning, her mother replied, "Don't fret, dearest. I'm not going anywhere. I'm always watching over you, like the sun in the day and the moon in the night." |
|
A wave of sadness washed over the girl.
"What about when it rains, and I can't see the sun or the moon?" Her mother thought for a moment before responding. |
|
"I will turn into a star in the clouds and wait for your tears to dry." |
|
When she awoke, the girl's face was damp with tears.
"You have Star Bits in your eyes!" said Luma to the girl. Wiping her face, the girl replied, "These are tears, not Star Bits. I'm crying because I'll never see my mother ever again!" At this, Luma began to cry too. "Mama, oh, Mama... Waaaah!" |
|
The pair traveled through the starry skies, and though they encountered many other comets, not one of them held Luma's mother.
Luma was despondent. "Now, now, Luma. The rain clouds won't go away if you keep crying," the girl said, giving Luma a squeeze. "I'll give you a present if you stop." The girl closed her eyes and said gently, "I'll take care of you." With these words, she felt a small spark in her heart. |
Chapter 5: Home
This chapter is available after 40 Power Stars are obtained.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
"The kitchen will go here, and the library will go over there," the girl said busily to herself. "We'll put the gate here."
Ever since the girl took Luma under her care, she'd been bustling about at a feverish pace. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth it to make a happy home." It turned out that Star Bits weren't the only things buried in the ice. There were tools and furniture unlike any they had ever seen, and the girl used them to build a home. |
|
Looking at the completed house, Luma remarked, "Don't you think it's awfully big for just the two of us?"
With a library, bedroom, kitchen, fountain, and gate, it was certainly spacious, but still, something seemed to be missing. "If only my father, brother, and mother were here," the girl said wistfully. Indeed, the house was too large for its two small residents. |
|
That night, clutching her favorite stuffed bunny close to her heart, the girl fell asleep in the starship. |
Chapter 6: Friends
This chapter is available after 49 Power Stars are obtained.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
Then one day, while the girl sat sipping tea, a tiny apricot-colored planet appeared on the horizon.
From the planet, another Luma of the same color emerged. "Do you two know each other?!" the girl asked the two Lumas gleefully. Despite the girl's excitement, they seemed uneasy. |
|
The two Lumas neither drew closer nor backed away from each other. Instead, they just stared.
Then one Luma broke the silence. "My mama!" At once, the apricot Luma parroted back, "My mama! My mama!" "My mama!" "My mama!" The two Lumas began to dance around the girl frantically, and neither showed any sign of stopping. The girl was so charmed by this adorable scene that she couldn't help but laugh. And that's when something very strange happened. |
|
Suddenly, more Lumas began to pop out from the apricot planet. They were different colors, but they all shouted the same thing.
"My mama!" "My mama!" The sight of all the shouting Lumas only made the girl laugh harder. "What am I going to do with all these children?!" The Lumas just stared blankly as she doubled over laughing. "I guess we'll have to name each and every one of you." Tomorrow, once she had finished naming them all, she would begin moving all the Lumas into the new house. |
Chapter 7: The Telescope
This chapter is available after 58 Power Stars are obtained.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
After seeing their 100th comet, a sudden thought popped into the girl's head: "I wonder if my home planet is still as blue as it was."
That's when she remembered her father's telescope. |
|
Peeking into the telescope, a tiny blue dot floated into sight. It was smaller than a Star Bit.
"How strange... It's so far away, but it feels so close." |
|
She twisted the knob of the telescope, and the blue dot grew until she could make out a grassy hill dotted with flowers. It seemed very familiar to her.
Zooming even closer, a terrace on the hill came into view. "I used to go stargazing there when I lived on my home planet." |
|
She remembered rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she followed her father up that hill to look at the stars... |
|
She remembered how she and her brother would sled down that hill... |
|
She remembered having picnics with her mother on that hill on bright and windy days...
And... |
|
"I want to go home! I want to go home right now!"
The girl burst into tears, and the Lumas didn't know what to do. "I want to go home! I want to go back to my house by the hill! I want to see my mother!" The girl was shouting now, her face wet with tears. "But I know she's not there! I knew all along that she wasn't out there in the sky! Because...because..." |
|
"She's sleeping under the tree on the hill!"
The girl's cries echoed through the stars, and a hush fell over the area. |
Chapter 8: The Wish
This chapter is available after Bowser's Galaxy Reactor is cleared.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
Though usually quite cheery, one day the girl became sad again. Luma drew close and tried to comfort her.
"Mama, you still have me!" "And don't be sad about your mama, because she's a part of you! That means she's always close by!" "It's like me. I love Star Bits because they remind me of my mama." "No...no..." the girl said, unable to stop the tears. |
|
A lonely look flickered across Luma's face, but it was soon replaced by a wide grin.
"I have an idea!" "I will transform into a comet, a soaring comet that can carry you all on this journey!" |
|
With that, Luma, trailing bands of white, soared high into the sky and just as quickly started to plummet back down.
KABOOM! KABLAM! The ground shook, and a bright light poured out of the crater that the Luma had created. |
|
The bands of light twisted together to form a comet tail.
And then Luma emerged, reborn as a comet. |
|
The girl could scarcely believe her eyes.
"But...how?" she kept asking. "Our destiny as Lumas is to transform into different things," said a red Luma who had suddenly appeared. "Stars, comets, planets... We can become all of these things!" "When I grow up, I want to become a star that makes someone special smile," said a green Luma. A blue Luma chimed in, "That Luma turned into a real cutie of a comet, didn't he!" |
|
All of the Lumas together said, "No more crying, Mama!"
"Thank you..." said the girl in a whisper, and she pulled the Lumas close and hugged them. From that day on, Star Bits no longer fell from the girl's eyes. |
|
The comet set forth for the girl's home planet, its long tail blazing proudly behind it. |
Final Chapter: Family
This chapter is available after Bowser's Galaxy Reactor is cleared.
| Page | In-game text |
|---|---|
|
With its many Lumas and telescopes, the comet was quite a sight to behold. The girl and the Lumas were proud to call it home.
At a welcoming party for a new Luma, the girl gathered everyone in the kitchen and said in a louder voice than usual... "All right, everyone! Let's make a cake! A cake sprinkled with Star Bits! Then it will be a star cake!" The Lumas excitedly began to gather the ingredients. |
|
As she watched the Lumas scurry about, the girl smiled and thought to herself, "This is my family now, and I will stay with them until they're ready to leave the nest. And when they do leave, I'll see them off with a smile."
"Because that's what makes a mother happiest." |
|
That night, when the girl lay down to sleep, a soft light enveloped her and reminded her of the blue planet she once called home.
"But it would be nice to return home once every one hundred years to nap in my favorite sleeping nook." |
|
The comet carrying the Lumas and the girl continues on its journey to this very day.
With more "family members" in tow than can be counted, it's said that the comet visits the girl's home planet once every hundred years, its proud white tail glittering in the sky. |
|
-The End- |
Other appearances
The storybook appears in the secret ending of Super Mario Galaxy 2, where Rosalina is seen closing the book, having just finished reading it to the Lumas.
The book itself makes a minor appearance in Mario Party 10, where it can be seen in the south-western part of the Rosalina Board. It is sitting on a round table, surrounded by two Lumas.
Super Mario Galaxy Trading Card description
In the Library, Rosalina reads a story to the Lumas about how a young girl and a Luma built a spaceship to go in search of the Luma's mama. Eventually the little girl takes on a motherly role for this Luma and count-less others, much like Rosalina herself.
Gallery
See also
Trivia
- The starship that is mentioned many times throughout the story appears to be the Starshroom that the Lumas built with the Toad Brigade in Super Mario Galaxy. It differs, though, since it has no glass in the portholes/windows. It can be seen, moss-covered, in the extra credits sequence, after 120 Power Stars have been obtained.
- Baby Rosalina's design may contradict the events of the storybook; she has a crown with jewels, similar to the one she wears as an adult, while the crown of the young Rosalina in the story has no jewels. However, this could merely be a limitation of the art style of the book's illustrations.
- In Super Mario Galaxy 2, beating the game after collecting 120 Power Stars results in a cutscene showing Rosalina reading a similar storybook, only this time, the book recaps the game's events. After finishing said book, Rosalina starts reading another one, this time about the Green Stars.
- In Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, after Rosalina temporarily breaks free from Cursa in Barrendale Mesa, Mario and his friends escape from Cursa. JEANIE then tells the story of how Cursa became, along with pictures depicting how it took control of Rosalina. These pictures have a similar art style to Rosalina's storybook.
References
- ^ Super Mario Galaxy trading card
- ^ Nintendo Power Issue 225, page 66.
