Tippi

"I'm going to believe in them... And I'm going to believe in HIM... most of all."

- Tippi

Tippi (real name Lady Timpani) is a Pixl in Super Paper Mario. She is introduced to Mario at the beginning of the game, teleporting him to Flipside to meet Merlon so that he can fulfill his destiny to save the worlds. She helps Mario in his quest by finding secrets, talking to him in cutscenes, and most prominently, providing tattle information on enemies, as Goombario and Goombella did in the first two Paper Mario titles. The name "Tippi" even refers to the tips she gives to Mario in her tattles, while her real name, "Lady Timpani", is derived from the timpani, a kind of drum used in orchestral music.

The player can use Tippi by pointing the Wii Remote at the screen, causing her to tattle on enemies, search for hidden doors, and find other secrets. She resembles a butterfly, and is the first of many Pixls that Mario and team will find. Unlike the other Paper Mario tattle partners Mario has had, Tippi tattles in third person, and she also remains onscreen regardless of the other active Pixl. After she is reverted to human form, she can no longer be used as a Pixl, but she can be replaced by Francis's Tiptron at the cost of 999 Coins (the maximum number of coins held in the game). Her Catch Card is found on the tenth floor of the Flipside Pit of 100 Trials.

Background
Prior to becoming a Pixl, Tippi lived as a human girl and a descendant of the Tribe of Ancients named Timpani. One day, she found an injured member of the Tribe of Darkness named Blumiere at the base of a cliff and, despite knowing of his kin's nature, nursed him back to health. The two met with each other in secret frequently and decided to marry and go searching for a world where they could be happy together. However, Timpani was abducted by Blumiere's father, who wiped her memory and cursed her to wander through dimensions until she perished; this was done to preserve the blood of his tribe by preventing the union of her to his son.

Despite Blumiere's efforts to search for her, Timpani eventually arrived in Flipside and was found by Merlon, another descendant of the Ancients, who transferred her soul into a Pixl form to save her life, christening her Tippi. She remained there with him, while Blumiere, distraught by the loss of his love and unaware that she was still alive, turned to the Dark Prognosticus with the intentions of bringing forth the Chaos Heart to destroy all worlds.

Super Paper Mario
Tippi is first introduced to Mario after Count Bleck abducts Bowser, Luigi, and the Koopa Troop from Bowser's Castle - she brings him to Flipside and, along with Merlon, explains the events foretold in the prophecy of destruction, as well as how Mario matches the description of the hero in the Light Prognosticus. Tippi agrees to accompany Mario in his quest to find the Pure Hearts.

As Mario reunites with his friends and progress is made through the game, Tippi begins to recall memories of her past with Blumiere. At the start of Chapter 3, she is kidnapped by Francis, a nerdy chameleon, and imprisoned in his fort as a 'rare collectable' that he names 'Francine' - Mario and co. make their way there and battle Francis to save her. After his defeat, Tippi expresses her gratitude toward the heroes for rescuing her and comes to trust them more, and the Green Pure Heart appears from her, much to her surprise. Merlon later explains that it was sealed in the fort and could only be gained by strong feelings of trust and friendship.

Following Chapter 4, Tippi mysteriously falls unconscious, and Merlon reveals to the heroes how he had found and saved her from death, telling them she cannot survive much longer even in her Pixl form. Despite this, he is able to revive her and she chooses to continue travelling with the heroes, stating her desire to be near Mario. During their trek through the near-destruction Sammer's Kingdom, Tippi and the heroes encounter Count Bleck, who finally reveals the first hint of his true motives to them through the mention of the name 'Timpani'. Tippi is surprised by this, having heard the same name in her memories, but the count disappears before she can say anything more to him. She concludes soon after that she knew Bleck in the past but cannot remember when or how.

After Mario and his friends defeat Bonechill and obtain the eighth and final Pure Heart, Tippi recalls the last of her lost memories and finally learns to her horror that Blumiere is indeed Count Bleck. Despite this knowledge, however, she keeps her past a secret from the heroes as they travel through Castle Bleck to defeat the count, knowing that only his death can end the prophecy of destruction. After the battle is won, Tippi is caught between killing the man she loves and letting every world be destroyed, while Bleck himself begs for the heroes to end his game, desiring for the universe to be saved so that Tippi herself can live on.

Dimentio then appears and betrays the count, banishing Bleck, Tippi and a dying Nastasia to Dimension D before battling the heroes with the now-brainwashed Luigi and the Chaos Heart. While there, Tippi encourages Bleck not to give up, exclaiming that staying alive was how they were able to find each other again - her hope for all worlds, as well as the loyalty of Bleck's other minions, restores power to the Pure Hearts, which had been drained previously in the fight against Bleck. Tippi returns with them to Mario and aids him in the fight against Super Dimentio. Upon his death, however, the Chaos Heart remains intact - Bleck claims that Dimentio has left behind a shadow of power to continue the destruction of all worlds. The heroes and villains are returned to the chapel of Castle Bleck, where Bleck and Tippi exchange vows and wed each other at long last, using the true love they possess as a last effort to shatter the Chaos Heart and save the universe.

The fate of Blumiere and Timpani is hinted at in two parts. The first is an in-game dialogue between Bleck and Tippi (or, alternatively, Lord Blumiere and Lady Timpani), which includes a mention of going to a "place" where both could be happy together. The other occurs after the credits; Tippi and Blumiere are seen walking off into the distance on a grassy field. What is seen of the actual Timpani is a thin, dress-clad woman slightly resembling Princess Peach's sprites from the original Super Mario Bros.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Tippi appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a Sticker.

Super Mario-Kun
In the Super Mario-Kun manga series, Tippi has taken on a much more cartoony appearance, and now has a face and a visible body beneath her wings. While the in-game Tippi ended most sentences with a mysterious "...", in the manga, she is much more cheerful and upbeat (sometimes to the point of annoying Mario).

Personality
Tippi has a somewhat reserved personality, which is shown by the fact that almost all of her sentences end with "...". She often talks to herself about her past life, although she never really discusses it with other characters until the end. She is shown to be very caring and kind. She is not easily embarrassed, this shown when she openly tells Mario of her love for Blumiere and makes it known that she "wants to be near Mario". However she does get rather embarrassed when Luvbi makes fun of her for, what Luvbi interprets as, a crush on Mario and Luigi.

Tippi also appears to take an especially strong liking to Mario and tends to speak for him during cutscenes.

Powers and Abilities
Although Lady Timpani has no known powers, Tippi can see invisible objects, as well as make them visible to the player. She also holds an abundance of information on the many different characters and enemies found throughout the game. It is unknown how she knows this information - it's possible it is hard-wired into her Pixl form as its main function, or that she gleaned some from reading the Light Prognosticus, or even through observations made during the time she spent wandering through worlds.

Tippi also has the ability to transport the heroes to Flipside independently of the Return Pipe, although the extent of which she can do this is unknown; as she claims later in the game that it 'just happens'. There are three times she demonstrates this power in-game:
 * When she first meets Mario in Bowser's Castle.
 * When the heroes first visit Outer Space and find they cannot breathe there.
 * Following the destruction of Sammer's Kingdom

Catch Card

 * Card Type: Rare
 * Card Description: It's Tippi, your friendly...friend. And guide. Her name was Timpani before Merlon turned her into a Pixl.

Situations of unavailability
There are certain situations in the game when the player can not use Tippi's abilities:
 * Right before going to Lineland, the player cannot use her yet.
 * After Francis kidnaps her, she is unavailable for the entirety of Chapter 3.
 * Right after the player completes Chapter 4 and during their first trip to Flopside.
 * When Dimentio sends the player to the Underwhere from Merlon's house.
 * When Luigi fights Dimentio by himself all Pixls are unavailable.
 * In the first few seconds of the Super Dimentio battle she cannot be used.
 * After beating the game she is unavailable. However, players can buy Tiptron for 999 Coins from Francis.

Trivia

 * Prior to the battle with Fracktail, Tippi recognizes and claims to remember Dimentio immediately after he appears. The reason for this is never explained or even hinted at throughout the rest of the game.
 * Although it is never directly stated, it is possible that Tippi's Pixl form was the same one whose game ended while fighting the Pixl Queen - it was said that the Pixl could see through illusions, similar to how Tippi can sense and reveal things that are invisible. The creation of new Pixls was also outlawed after the fall of the queen, making it possible that, rather than break this law, Merlon instead captured Timpani's spirit inside an already existing Pixl. This would also explain why she didn't have long to survive, as he claimed, seeing as the Pixl was likely damaged while fighting against the queen.
 * However, Thoreau seems to dispute this when he first meets Mario - he claims to not recognize Tippi and asks if she is a newer Pixl model. If she were truly one of the twelve original Pixls, Thoreau likely would've remembered her, as he was also implied to have fought against the Pixl Queen.
 * If the player flips into 3D in the room where Francis is battled, several close-up pictures of Tippi are shown plastered to the back wall, supposedly those he took of her.
 * Despite the visions Tippi experiences at the end of each chapter being referred to as 'memories', those witnessed as the ends of chapters 7 and 8 are both conversations between Blumiere and his father, taking place after Tippi was banished from her dimension, thus making it impossible for her to have actually remembered them as she was never there to witness them in the first place.

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