There's a certain cruel duality to Luigi; the somewhat marginalized younger brother of Mario. One the one hand, he's cast as one of the lead characters in one of the biggest franchises in all of gaming.

And yet, he's almost always cast aside in his own series in one way or another, being designated the "2nd player" role in many Mario games. Other times he only makes a brief appearance as an NPC, unlockable character, and occasionally he's absent altogether! Aside from a few exceptions like the recently released Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario's younger, taller brother is just about always the sidekick and rarely the hero.

Naturally, there are quite a few slights or negative circumstances/occurrences surrounding this often neglected character. With that said, let's take a look at ten of the worst things to ever happen to Luigi.

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10 Multiple Death Prophecies

Poor Luigi - not only is he usually relegated to the status of second banana, he's even been shown to be a character that is apparently fated to meet his end soon. This subtle doomsday prophecy for Mario's younger brother has actually occurred on multiple occasions.

One such case is a fan theory showing what appears to be a shadow of Luigi being hanged in the attic of the creepy mansion featured in the first Luigi's Mansion game on GameCube. Another involves a trailer of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which features an ominous grim reaper-like spectre turning him into a ghost after slashing him with a scythe. This apparently doomed plumber just can't seem to catch a break!

9 Gets Captured And Trapped In A Bird Cage

Much like the video games, Luigi tends to get the short end of the stick when it comes to the Super Mario television shows as well. A prime example involves Luigi getting kidnapped along with Toad and Princess Toadstool, before being tossed into a large bird cage by gigantic Koopa Kids.

The once heroic protagonist is basically relegated to the status of defenseless hostage; a plot device that allows Mario to shine as he must save his friends. Luigi's often treated as this sort of peripheral, springboard character from which Mario can leap to glory in these shows, but this is one of the clearest examples.

8 Portrayed As A Timid, Easily Frightened Coward

Despite being taller and quite physically capable given his ability to jump even higher and farther than his older brother, Luigi is bizarrely given the role of Mario's timid and scared counterpart. He's often shown engaging in "heroic" acts like gasping, quivering, and shrieking as he scrambles to safety. These are traits that are more in the vein of Scooby-Doo rather than one of the lead protagonists of a major gaming franchise.

This seems ill-fitting, given that Luigi has had to endure some of the biggest challenges by engaging in acts like seeking out his missing brother and becoming essentially a ghost-buster in Luigi's Mansion.

7 Has His Love Interest Taken By His Own Brother

It would seem that Luigi even tends to get cast aside when it comes to his love interests - or lack thereof. While Daisy is essentially shown to be the love interest of Luigi in the same way Peach is to Mario, there's a bit of a problem with this; or at least something Luigi may find issue with.

This comes in the form of the debut Mario title for the Game Boy, Super Mario Land, where Mario is seen rescuing Daisy rather than Peach/Princess Toadstool, before riding off with her in a plane together. It looks like just another area of Luigi's life that his more beloved brother intrudes on.

6 Relegated To Meme Status

The rising meme status of Luigi can certainly be viewed as his gaining popularity in certain circles. Still, it's a bit of a double-edged sword, as he's increasingly viewed in this goofy, joking light moreso than a serious character in gaming.

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It seems as though Mario's younger brother is known more for his appearance in memes shown with his angry "death stare" as opposed to being an actual character. Though I guess you'd be pretty peeved if you constantly had to play second fiddle to Mario, too.

5 Is Referred To As "Mama"

One of the more heartfelt - but also rather embarrassing - episodes of the Super Mario World cartoon for Luigi involves what you might call a "Yoshi origin story." In the episode, Luigi tries to lull Yoshi to sleep by telling him a bedtime story about how he found the dinosaur and helped raise him.

One of the running gags of the episode is Yoshi's insistence on calling him "Mana Luigi," an amusing bit of dialogue that had largely taken on a meme status of its own, much like the Luigi death stare. To rub it in further, Mario even catches wind of this and laughs at his embarrassed brother.

4 Gets In A Fight With Mario Only To Have To Rescue Him

Going back to the Super Mario Brothers 3 cartoon, another episode involves showing a rarely-even uglier side of Mario and Luigi, as the two are shown fighting - and we do mean physically fighting. Mario even tells him that he wishes he didn't even have a brother, prompting Luigi to storm off.

Despite this squabble, Luigi is then essentially forced to venture out and save his kidnapped brother, who had been taken captive by one of the Koopa Kids. Yes, even after Mario had fought with him and basically disowned him, Luigi still goes through the trouble of saving him.

3 MIA In Super Mario RPG

It's quite a shame that one of the best Mario games of all-time, Super Mario RPG, doesn't even feature Mario's younger brother and sidekick Luigi. This is especially peculiar given this game's abundance of characters and party members that fight alongside Mario. Perhaps Nintendo and Square though the characters would have been too similar in style, but it still seems like an unnecessary snub to not include him at all.

Oh - Mario's neglected brother does get tossed a marginal bone by being alluded to with a vague blurb in one of the "Wish Stars" that can be read on Star Hill. It only states that he "wants to be a great plumber like my brother, Mario." He can also be seen leading a parade during the end credit roll in the game. Hey - it's better than nothing, right?

2 Stars In One Of The Worst Mario Games Ever

No, we're not talking about the underrated Luigi's Mansion series, which does provide plenty of ghost-nabbing fun. Rather, the game in question is the infamous Mario is Missing, which deceptively takes on the appearance of Super Mario World, while playing out more like a dull adventure game chock-full of basic, pointless bits of trivia and geographical facts.

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The game was meant to educate kids, though it tended to achieve little more than bore them - and associating Luigi with this dullness in the process.

1 Always Playing Second Fiddle - If He's There At All

Ultimately, the worst thing to happen to Luigi is his overall status in the Mario series, where he cruelly seems to either be cast as Mario's tag-along sidekick, relegated to an obscure NPC character, or absent altogether.

Games like Super Mario Odyssey designate Luigi to the role of the ringleader of some basic balloon challenge game, while other 3D Mario titles like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine don't feature Mario's green-shirted brother at all.

NEXT: 10 Things We Wish We Knew Before Starting Luigi's Mansion 3