The Letter "p"
| The Letter "p" | |
|---|---|
 The Letter "p" from the Nintendo Switch remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door | |
| The Thousand-Year Door description | A letter needed to get Mario's name and body back. |
- “And making me guard the name's stupid missing letter...No way to treat a parrot!”
- —Doopliss's parrot, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
The Letter "p", originally capitalized "the letter "p"", is an Important Thing in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It is found in a chest in Creepy Steeple, in a room locked from the inside and guarded by a parrot. To enter the room, Mario must use Vivian's Veil ability and his own Tube Mode to access a secret passage under the well outside. Once in the room, the parrot can be eavesdropped on via Veil to learn the true name of Doopliss. The letter "p" can be found and taken in order to guess the name later.
The purpose of the letter "p" is to ensure the game's plot cannot be altered by the player knowing Doopliss's name beforehand. Although the uppercase "P" remains, the lowercase "p" is missing from the input screen when Mario must guess Doopliss's name. The guess is case-sensitive, so the player is forced to progress as normal until the point where the name is supposed to be learned, which is the same place where the parrot is guarding the "missing letter".
Gallery[edit]
The Letter "p" from the original Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
The character "ン" from the Japanese version of the original game
Simplified Chinese version from the Nintendo Switch remake
Japanese version from the Nintendo Switch remake
Korean version from the Nintendo Switch remake
Traditional Chinese version from the Nintendo Switch remake
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | 『ン』のもじ[?] "N" no Moji |
The character "ン" (Katakana "n") | |
| Chinese (simplified) | “蓝”的文字[?] "Lán" de wénzì |
The character "蓝" | |
| Chinese (traditional) | 「藍」的文字[?] "Lán" de wénzì |
The character "藍" | |
| Dutch | Letter p[?] | - | |
| French | p[?] | - | |
| German | "p"[?] | - | |
| Italian | Lettera p[?] | Letter p | |
| Korean | 글자『펠』[?] Geulja "Pel" |
Letter "펠" | |
| Spanish | Letra P[?] | Letter P |
Trivia[edit]
- Doopliss is called "Rumpel" (ランペル Ranperu) in Japan, and the missing letter is ン ("n" in the katakana syllabary) rather than the English "p". This is a reference to the fairytale of Rumpelstiltskin, in which the titular character makes a deal with someone to guess his name, and they eventually discover it after hearing Rumpelstiltskin talk to himself. In other languages, where Doopliss is called "Rumpel" or "Rampel", the "p" is also the missing letter.
- While the missing letter in Japanese is the katakana variant of "n" (ン), the hiragana variant of "n" (ん) is missing in the name input screen as well, despite it not being a correct answer.
