Parakarry

"Another letter, dully delivered. A postman's job is never done."

- Parakarry

Parakarry is Mario's fourth party member in Paper Mario. He is a Cyan Paratroopa and is the Mushroom Kingdom's primary mail carrier. In fact, at the beginning of the game, Parakarry delivers Princess Peach's party invitation to Mario and Luigi. It is this letter that starts the events of Paper Mario.

Parakarry works for the Post Office in Toad Town, the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom; his boss is the Postmaster. Parakarry tends to be quite clumsy and often loses the letters he is supposed to deliver, and it is also noted in-game that he is rather slow at delivering mail. As such, there are quite a few pieces of undelivered mail scattered across the kingdom. Parakarry's name is a portmanteau of "Paratroopa" (or perhaps the alternate "Parakoopa", as his name features a "K") and the word "carry", as he is a mail carrier whose ability involves carrying Mario.

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Yoshi has the same ability has Parakarry, to carry Mario over gaps that he can't jump over.

Paper Mario
Mario first meets Parakarry on Mt. Rugged. (Though he can optionally find him standing in the Post Office earlier in the game, before Chapter One to be specific.) Parakarry explains to Mario that he has lost three Letters and asks Mario to retrieve them. After Mario recovers the Letters and returns them to Parakarry, the Paratroopa joins Mario's party seemingly out of both thanks and as a wish to assist Mario in finding all of his other lost Letters. Outside of battle, Parakarry can carry Mario for a short amount of time, flying over gaps Mario cannot Jump over. With Parakarry on his team, Mario can also deliver the Letters he finds by talking to their recipients with Parakarry out on the field.

Tattle
"His name is Parakarry. He's a Paratroopa who works for the post office. He's well known for being the slowest mailman around. A slow mailman? That can't be good." - Prologue

"He's Parakarry, a Paratroopa who develivers letters. He's got some problems. It must be nice to have wings. He can fly anywhere. All postmen should have wings. You know, some people say that if you help someone in trouble, good things will happen to you. You know, karma. What? You've never heard that?" - Chapter 2

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Parakarry makes a cameo appearance in the beginning of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Like the previous game, Parakarry delivers a letter to Mario from Peach, and yet again another adventure starts. Because this opening scene was near-identical to that of Paper Mario, Parakarry's appearance is likely just a small part in a larger reference to that game.

Super Paper Mario
In Super Paper Mario, Peach doesn't send a letter to Mario to begin the story, so Parakarry does not appear at the beginning scene of that game. Toad takes his place by just alerting the Mario Bros. that Peach was kidnapped. However, he does appear in a portrait with all of Mario's partners in Mario's house, as well as on a Catch Card found on the fiftieth level of the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials.

Catch Card
Card Type: Rare Card Description: Parakarry earned his fame from the original Paper Mario. He's the most fearsome mail carrier of them all!

Trivia

 * Parakarry is one of two partners who originated in the original Paper Mario (the other being Lady Bow) to make a cameo in both sequels.
 * Parakarry has some sprite data from Super Paper Mario, but he was never used in the final game.
 * He (along with Corporal Paraplonk, Koops, and Holly Koopa) is one of the only Koopas whose shoes have a different color than the shell.
 * It has been stated in Paper Mario that the Postmaster plans to take his retreat and is happy Parakarry will be his successor. That may mean Parakarry is now the current Postmaster.