Highwayman - Super Mario RPG (PMV)

I’m gay.
I’m also trans, and I also have ADHD.
All of these aspects of myself are ingrained into my art in some shape or form.

My PMV (picture music video), is no exception to this. I have always had vivid daydreams of making animations or videos using songs that I like which often are tied to something I’m hyperfocused on (video game, movie, TV show, or book). After completing Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars for the first time over the summer, I knew I needed to create something that I felt encompassed not only the passion and joy the game gave me, but the emotional journey the main characters went through on their quest to save their world. This video is my way of making the viewer feel what I felt when Mario separated from Princess Toadstool in the fallout of Smithy, the main antagonist’s, occupation, when Bowser lost his castle and experienced complicated feelings about his self-image and how others perceived him, Mallow’s eagerness to reunite with his parents and come of age, and Geno’s bittersweet departure after fulfilling his goal of saving his home at the cost of losing the identity he felt overwhelming security in. I don’t think any other song could hammer in the somberness of Mario, Bowser, Mallow, and Geno’s character arcs as poignantly as “Highwayman” does.

I came up with the concept of this PMV during a car ride. It burned itself into my retinas and it was all I could think of, but I held off on it until recently because of the belief—no—fear, that I would never be able to create it within my artistic capabilities. But I have proven myself wrong, and the passion that flowed through my veins is now on a screen, for all the world to see in all its glory.

This is my passion project. It’s my baby, in other words. I hope you adore it as much as I do.

As you were. JC x