While original Nintendo titles historically consisted of largely the same cast - Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Bowser - every now and then a new character is introduced. This was the case when the world was introduced to Super Mario Galaxy, and in turn, the celestial Princess Rosalina. The character has become a series regular in the time since, as well as a fan-favorite character, so much so that she's begun trending on Twitter.
The main reason for the sudden trend is the 14th anniversary of Super Mario Galaxy's release. Launched on November 1, 2007 for the Wii, the game was another smash hit in the long running Super Mario series, introducing many new gameplay elements by taking full advantage of the system's unique motion controls. The game has since been ported to the Switch, one-third of the semi-controversial Super Mario 3D All-Stars.
As proven by what looks to be hundreds of tweets and re-tweets, Super Mario Galaxy fans are showing up in force to show their appreciation for Princess Rosalina. Dozens of screenshots of the character fill the trending page across the multitude of titles she's appeared in, including the recently released Mario Party Superstars. Even more commonly seen is a wide array of fan art, with Rosalina supporters declaring her the "best video game character" out there, and things like "happy birthday to the queen." Some fans go so far as to declare Rosalina the "GOAT" of the Super Mario series.
While the amount of posts on social media makes sense given the anniversary of Super Mario Galaxy's release, Rosalina was also randomly trending several months ago. For reasons that seemingly remain unknown, Rosalina was trending on Twitter towards the end of February of this year. Many of the posts consisted of the same content and sentiment, with fans declaring their love for the spacebound princess. Even the fans didn't seem to know why Rosalina was trending, with one supporter posting their art with the caption "Why is Rosalina trending? Oh well."
Even though she might not be as significant a character as ones like Mario, Toad, and Peach, Rosalina is featured in Super Nintendo Land at Universal Studios Japan, albeit in a rather obscure cameo. The immersive theme park area features several augmented reality telescopes, which reveal a number of hidden secrets. One of these is when parkgoers zoom in on a "star," they'll see Rosalina flying around the Comet Observatory, the hub to all levels in Super Mario Galaxy.
The love fans have for Rosalina is certainly clear, and it doesn't seem like her fandom is going to fade away anytime soon. Fans are still holding out hope for her return in a Super Mario Galaxy 3, but they'll first get Rabbid Rosalina in the upcoming Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.
Check out all the Rosalina appreciation tweets here.
Super Mario Galaxy is available on Wii and Switch.
