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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Miss me? | „ |
| ~ Riba in the Sane Route of ARC. |
| “ | No words to say? Well, you're next anyway! But first, let's make this a fun dance, shall we? | „ |
| ~ Riba before fighting Mario. |
Riba is the main antagonist of Team Ari's indie horror duology Mario: The Music Box. He is the spouse of Alice.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- When he met and got in a relationship with Alice, he quickly poisoned Marchionne (Mario's original incarnation's father) and executed him by exposing his secret to the town in order to gain wealth and power.
- While he showed some care to Alice as a child, who was impoverished at the time, it is likely that he only saw her as a means to usurp Marchionne and be the head clergy of Evangeline. Furthermore, even if he actually did care about her from the beginning, he would later subvert this care when she killed Elizabeth, focusing on getting revenge on her.
- While he saves Marchionne during his encounter with Dorothy and shows some friendship to him by giving him a sword and reaching him how to use it, he subverts all of this when he exposed his secret and executed him for the sake of power.
- He secretly poisoned Marchionne's mother through Marchionne, who was unaware that the glass of water was posioned.
- He tried to poison Marchionne several times, but failed because of his maid, Aurora/Misery, saving him all the time.
- He slapped and hypocritically berated Marchionne for selfishly refusing to give his house to the Aduraices, while Riba himself is no better, as he killed his parents for selfish reasons as well up to that point. He also threatened to expose his secret before announcing his resignation.
- On the day before Marchionne’s execution, Riba sadistically told Marchionne that he was the one who killed his parents and, to rub salt in the wound, promises to execute his maid, Aurora/Misery, if they find her.
- He couldn’t be bothered in trying to find a place for Marchionne to be buried, having someone else feed his body to the crows.
- While he had a genuine tragedy of losing his wife Elizabeth to Alice, it doesn't make him sympathetic because he was already cruel towards everyone else before, which included taking the loved ones of Marchionne in a similar way Elizabeth was taken from him, making this loss seem more karmic rather than sympathetic. Furthermore, he causes the deaths of Alice's whole family who were mostly innocent and had nothing to do with Elizabeth's death, not to mention the torment he inflicted on the Mario Bros. for pleasure.
- His execution of Marchionne drove Misery to suicide in the Sane Route.
- He (presumably) murdered Isaac Aduraice, Alice’s father, when the latter found out about Riba’s true intentions for his daughter.
- When Riba discovered that Alice did not want to die due to her disease, he used this as an advantage to make a deal with her, that to sacrifice her family and everyone in the mansion to achieve immortality.
- He expressed joy when watching Alice to kill her family one by one. After that, he beat her to death with a crowbar.
- He showed no care for any of the mansion’s investigators’ deaths, calling them ‘idiots’ for coming to the place.
- While he seemed to be a genuinely decent person in the original game, it was because he lost his memories of his past, due to dying so many times in the mansion and restarting. When he finds Anna's letter, he regains all of his memories and resorts to his evil self.
- Any time Mario died during the first game, Riba (in the remastered version) showed no care for him at all, and was even sickly amused by some of his deaths.
- When Mario was possessed by Alice's spirit, he used this as an advantage to use him as her sacrificial host.
- While he was willing to spare Luigi by telling him to just escape on his own when Mario was about to be sacrificed, it is purely pragmatic as he didn’t want to be distracted and killing him would interrupt the ritual.
- He tries to kill Luigi if the latter refuses to leave and save Mario.
- In the Sane Route, he hunted down Mario and Luigi with the intent to kill them both, and eventually stabbed Mario through the stomach (of which Mario thankfully survived).
- He brainwashed Luigi, attempted to have him kill Mario. If Luigi snaps out of it thanks to the holy water used by Mario, Riba kills him right in front of his brother.
- If he and Mario meet Marchionne in the Continuance 1 and 2 Endings, Riba will openly refuse to apologise to Marchionne for his wrongdoings before being temporarily killed by the latter.
- Before the Absent Ending of ARC, Riba chases Mario and transforms into his demon form, showing a clear intention to eat him. This caused Mario to be so terrified that he fainted and fell down a tall hill, paralysing him, to which Riba laughs at, assuming he died.
- In the Absent Ending of ARC, he succeeded in killing Mario by putting poison in his IV when he was being treated. What makes it worse is that he takes his corpse with him so no one will know that he's dead.
- In the Continuance 1 Ending, when Mario is having chest pains, Riba sadistically chokes him and mocks him for trusting him as well as killing Luigi and Peach. He then decapitated Mario and left his body.
- In the Continuance 2 Ending, he stabs Mario and leaves him to die, angrily scolding him for being a nuisance to him and denying his friendship.
- While Riba did save Mario from committing suicide and from Misery in the Insane Route, even if Mario chooses to not improve their relationship, it is only for pragmatic reasons as Mario was needed to break Alice’s curse and free them both. Although in one Game Over, he apologizes for not being able to save him in time and that he didn't mean for him to kill himself, this apparent 'care' for Mario is still contradictory as Riba happily killed Mario later in the Continuance 1 Ending, proving that his care for Mario was ultimately self-serving.
- In the remake of the True Ending, he is finally able to leave the mansion after Mario destroys the music box and frees Alice's soul. Believing he had gotten off the hook scot-free, Riba curses Alice and the Mario Bros. before attempting to kill Len in her cat form. To his misfortune, she lures him back to Evangeline and receives his karma once he is encountered by everyone he had screwed over in the past.
- His redemption in both the Continuance 3 and Continuance 4 Endings are non-canon (confirmed by the creator themselves), so he still qualifies as Near Pure Evil.
- He represents greed of the Seven Deadly Sins, showing that he was willing to kill everyone to gain power or wealth.
- He is overall responsible for most of the bad things that occur in the games, for Marchionne becoming a witch and having the possibility of being a villain, for Alice’s corruption and her possession of Mario and for the reason why the town and the mansion ended up going missing, subjecting a lot of its residents to become cursed and trapped in the town as spirits.
- While he has to compete with Alice, who targeted to destroy the world, and Len, who, along with Layla, were supposedly the cause of many disasters due to their twin curse, Riba still stands out as he's not as powerful as Len or Alice, but manages to do as much as he can with the resources he has. Furthermore, he was not only aware that Alice would destroy the world, but completely willing to let her do it if it means he could escape the mansion.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He genuinely loved Elizabeth, and he was heartbroken when he found out she was killed by Alice, which causes him to get revenge on her as well. When Mario gives Elizabeth's ribbon to Riba, he will explode in grief and anger, and immediately choke out Mario, thinking he's Alice. Riba also loved both of his daughters. Although it's implied in the main game that he favored Serina over Anna, he was angered when Alice killed her.
Trivia[]
- Riba is one of the three RPG Maker villains to be Near Pure Evil. The others being Ellen and Utsuro.
- It is heavily implied that Riba is even responsible for Alice’s disease. If this is confirmed, it would make Riba even worse.
External Links[]
- Riba on the Villains Fanon Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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Games Films TV Series Fan Works See Also | ||
 Near Pure Evils
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Original Games Fan Made Games Game fanfics | ||