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's name comes from the words "dementia", referring to his twisted personality, and "dimension", because he has the power to control various dimensions. He created his own miniature world called Dimension D, and works behind the scenes over the course of the game to ensure Count Bleck's defeat, so he can obtain the Chaos Heart.
Dimentio's face resembles a classical theatrical comedy mask, reminiscent of the kind used in tragic and comedic theatrical plays, and his trademark is his exit line of "Ciao!". He also creates clever analogies and similes ("I'll start with you, as you wallow in helplessly like upside-down turtles!" or "And now I strike, like an unseen dodgeball in an echoing gymnasium!").
In spite of his lighthearted, relaxed personality, Dimentio is cold and calculating. He is outwardly calm, but actually has a quite psychotic mind. His plan throughout the game is extremely twisted, as he intended to turn on his master just to steal the Chaos Heart for himself. The fact that Dimentio is a jester and has a clownish demeanor only serves to contrast the fact that he is completely serious and dangerous. He is cruel, and would kill someone without any regret, uttering the word "Ciao", and always with a kindly smile on his face, hinting that he may in fact be a psychopath.
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 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 succesful suicide/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.
Encounters with Mario and Co.
Mario's first encounter with Dimentio comes before fighting the Chapter 1 boss: Fracktail. Initially, Fracktail is only a security device meant to deliver the Pure Heart to the legendary Prognosticus Hero, but Dimentio appears and threatens Mario before using his magic to turn Fracktail on the plumber.
Dimentio fights Mario himself near the top of the Dotwood tree, transporting himself and the party to "Dimension D": a creation of Dimentio's meant to multiply his power by 256. The plan backfires when Mario's power is amplified as well, and Mario defeats Dimentio.
Dimentio later encounters the party in the Floro Sapien's lair, where he uses a Floro Sprout to brainwash O'Chunks into a more powerful "O'Cabbage" who randomly shouts the names of vegetables.
After Bleck succesfully destroys Sammer's Kingdom, Dimentio appears before a distraught Mr.L (Luigi) and supposedly kills him in a magical explosion. He then appears before Mario's party in Merlon's house and appears to kill them in the same manner. Mario and his party are sent to "The Underwhere", but are reunited with Luigi and able to return to the real world.
Dimentio serves as Luigi's final boss in Castle Bleck, with hundreds of Dimentio clones appearing throughout chapter 8-3. He forces the Mario Bros. to play "tag" by chasing him through all seven areas of the game. After the Brothers catch him, Dimentio reveals his intentions to betray Bleck and asks Mario and Luigi to join him. Agreeing however, results in a game over after Dimentio brainwashes Mario with a Floro sprout. When the brothers refuse his offers, he insults Luigi's mustache, leading to a one on one clash between the two. When Luigi defeats Dimentio, the twisted jester acknowledges his power and attempts to kill them both in a magical explosion to keep "the man in green" out of Bleck's "Velvet lined hands".
Luigi survives however, and returns to Mario just in time to face Count Bleck. After Mario and his party defeat Count Bleck, Dimentio appears and fires a lethal shot of energy at the Count in a final attempt to kill him. Nastasia jumps in the way to absorb the blast and is seemingly killed instead. Dimentio takes this opportunity to mock Mario's party before stealing the Chaos Heart and transforming into Super Dimentio.
Dimentio's plans
Dimentio is perhaps one of the most cunning of Mario's enemies. 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 minionship, Dimentio waits for Bleck to create the Chaos Heart and form the void. Once this is complete, 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 seeems that Dimentio did the same with Bowser although it was never explicity stated.
Soon, Dimentio faces Mario and test his abilites 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 aquiring 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 preperations 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 hencmen, including Luigi asn Mr.L, 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 two heroes to the same place. The pure heart Mario aquired 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; thus killing two birds with one stone. Dimentio murdered Luigi and then quickly murdered Mario, Peach, and Bowser, sending them all to the Underwhere.
Mario was eventually able to repair the heart and meets up 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 more 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 unconciousness.
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 kill later. He becomes one with his creation and began to destroy all existance. Through Bleck and Tipi's love, and the heroes 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 controlloing the Chaos Heart to wipe out all existance. Dimentio explodes and sinks into the ground and obliteration. The Choas Heart and Dimentio's remaining power is wiped out by Bleck and Tipi who sacrfice themselves to save all existance. It is assumed Dimentio is completly 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 a Comedy Mask. The Comedy Mask is a classical theatrical mask used in plays. The Comedy Mask and its counterpart, the Tragedy Mask, are used as symbols of theater, and are often worn by jesters and magicians at the circus and other celebrations.
- Dimentio's character design resembles a stylized version of the jesters from Super Mario RPG. He also closely resembles Harley Quin, another jester character from a Wario game, and Super Dimentio's spinning cape immitates that of Harley.
- It is possible that his "aquaintence" he mentions twice in Chapter 5 could have been King Croacus, for Croacus used Floro Sprouts to control the Cragnons, and Dimentio happened to get two of them.
- Dimentio's mask is shaped like an open book, which could be an allusion to his ties with the Prognosticus.
- 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.
- Dimentio is a very dark character in contrast to the rest of the Marioverse. His manipulative plots and lunatic behavior are worlds apart from Bowser's bumbling failure and gruff personality. However ""Super Paper Mario" is also considered to be one of the darkest Mario games thus far.
- Sipsi, Yold Town's gossip, refers to Dimentio as a "prettyboy clown". This could be a reference to his flamboyant personality and somewhat feminine style of dress.
- In addition to wearing a theatrical Comedy Mask, Dimentio resembles something out of a Picasso painting. This is interesting, considering Pablo Picasso often used theater masks in his work.
- Dimentio's mask resembles the shape of an open book. This could be an allusion to his ties to the Dark Prognosticus.
- Though most likely a coincidence, there is a character in the animated series Mucha Lucha, who is an evil clown named "Coco Demento".
