Yoshi and the Mysterious Book gives one of Mario’s weirdest characters his due

If you were to conduct a survey that asks players to pick the best enemies from the extended Mario universe, I reckon you wouldn’t find many surprises there. Goombas and Koopas are too iconic to ignore. Shy Guys are so lovable that it feels wrong to defeat them. Even baddies like Dry Bones have stood the test of time long enough to appear on the silver screen. Each of those classic monsters deserves their spot on any list.

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, however, reminds us that there are so many Nintendo critters beyond the household names, and many of them are overdue for their flowers. Just look at one of gaming’s great weirdos: Raphael the Raven.

First introduced in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Raphael the Raven is a black bird with big feet and a thousand-yard stare that can burn a hole through your chest. He, or at least a Raven like him, gets a moment to shine in Yoshi’s latest adventure, appearing in the game’s outer space biome. (Big year for moon.) In his habitat, Yoshi can use Raphael to hop between small moons, Super Mario Galaxy-style. He’s a sort of cosmic entity who has mastered the dark art of gravity, which begs a very important question: What heck is Raphael’s whole deal, anyway?

That’s one of the Mario universe’s strangest mysteries, because there’s not much information about Raphael and the bird species he’s part of. We know so little about them that there’s even debate around whether they are ravens at all. (Mario fan wikis note that they’re actually hill mynas, citing a line from a Japanese Yoshi’s Island strategy guide.) All we really know is that they are flightless birds and Yoshi really hates them. And honestly? The fact that we don’t have much more to go on is what makes me love them.

Look back to Raphael’s introduction in Yoshi’s Island, and you’ll find it comically bare. At the end of World 5, Yoshi must venture into “Raphael the Raven’s Castle.” The implication is that he’s some kind of evil king like Bowser. In reality, he’s just a bird. When you reach the top of the castle, the guy is just kind of puttering around minding his own business. He doesn’t seem all that evil until Kamek flies in and sprinkles magic dust around that turns him into an angry giant. He charges Yoshi, bashing him so hard that Yoshi and Baby Mario are sent into the stratosphere. Raphael doesn’t give chase so much as he just kind of gets sucked into another planet’s gravitational field and goes with it. After a battle with Yoshi, Raphael is launched into the cold depths of space where he seemingly becomes a star. Bad luck, dude.

There’s no real indication that the Ravens are inherently evil or willing soldiers for Bowser’s army. (Raphael is often depicted as having been brainwashed by Bowser in games like Tetris Attack.) In fact, a trophy of Raphael in Super Smash Bros. Melee calls the Ravens “basically laid-back.” In Paper Mario, Raphael is even portrayed as the benevolent leader of an island who is immediately willing to help Mario out. If you use tattle on him, you actually get a pretty loving description of the guy: “I bet there’s nothing he can’t do. Doesn’t he seem trustworthy?” It really makes Yoshi seem like a jerk for ejecting him into space, doesn’t it?

Image: Nintendo via Polygon

Yoshi and the Mysterious Book reinforces the very little Raphael lore we do have — which is to say, it continues to imply that Ravens are cosmic entities with some higher power. Yes, really. When Mario seeks Raphael for advice in Paper Mario, the bird implies that he has a mystical connection to the stars: “To be honest with you, I knew you’d ask something like that. I got a message from the Stars so I knew you were coming.” The guy is seriously tuned into the universe, which makes it all the more insulting that he didn’t get so much as a cameo in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. For shame!

As someone who enjoys thinking about Nintendo’s lesser-known side-characters, I love that Yoshi and the Mysterious Book indulges my curiosity. It gives me a bevy of weird critters to poke at and invites me to discover all their eccentric behaviors. I’ve always liked Raphael the Raven, but I didn’t think to do a deep dive into him until playing around with him in Yoshi’s adventure. Hopefully, kids have the same reaction, so that we can see The Raphael the Raven Movie on the big screen in a few years. It’s time for this bird to go Hollywood, baby.