TEC
- “Goodnight, Princess Peach.”
- —TEC-XX, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
TEC-XX, better known as TEC, is the main computer of the X-Naut Fortress during the events of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. TEC was apparently designed to be "flawless and perfect", though a sort of glitch resulted in him (despite his being mechanical) being apparently able to feel love and ultimately revolting against his X-Naut masters. Due to his mechanical nature, however, it is possible that TEC was not sentient, which would result in his "love" being totally artificial.(However, some what should be lifeless beings, such as Bob-ombs, are indeed sentient, which can be taken into account for TEC).
TEC is typically seen after Mario and his partners complete a chapter; more specifically, TEC is most often glimpsed during scenes where Princess Peach is controlled. As stated above, a strange glitch gave TEC a crush on the princess, although TEC himself could not fully understand love. This particularly irked TEC, who had apparently been told earlier that he was designed to fully understand everything known to the universe. Peach was also one of TEC's only companions and therefore the only person who could possibly teach him about love, and TEC saw an opportunity in this: Peach greatly sought TEC's ability to e-mail anyone (which was her only way to contact Mario, who had armed himself with a Mailbox SP sometime before the events of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door), so TEC offered her to use this e-mail feature in return for lessons about love. He would also often request that Peach go undercover and retrieve secret information from Grodus, his master, for he wished the know the X-Nauts' secret plans as to reveal them to the heroes. (This was because his apparent love for Princess Peach had slowly converted him to her side.)
By the end of Chapter 6, TEC (thanks to Peach's escapades) seemed to have developed a complete understanding of Grodus's plot. TEC was just about to reveal exactly why Peach was being held captive (which was actually so the X-Nauts could let the Shadow Queen possess her later on) to her when Grodus himself (who had seemingly learned of TEC's mutiny from a lesser after Chapter 5) unexpectedly burst into the room. Peach and TEC were both seemingly horrified as Grodus, declaring his awareness of TEC being a traitor, ordered two of his X-Nauts to press the red buttons on TEC's sides at the same time, permanently shutting him down. The X-Nauts succeeded in their plans and Peach was taken off to unknown parts, but it was perhaps comfortingly revealed that TEC had apparently learned of love and its acquisitions at this point, for he produced a long line of letters separated by dots (indicating pauses) spelling "I love you" before his great demise.
The last necessary scene involving TEC occurs during Mario's escapade in the X-Naut Fortress, specifically right after the heroic plumber had destroyed Magnus Von Grapple 2.0 and collected the last Crystal Star, the aptly named Crystal Star. He here created a lock on all doors except the one leading to his own chamber (which had previously been un-openable), eventually leading Mario and his partners to the room he inhabited. He then told the gang that he was running on backup power and cached memory, and, while such rations allowed him to survive, they were running out and affecting the quality of his operations. (Indeed, TEC spoke in a strange, pause-filled sequence in this form and seemed immensely weak, although he was still able to remember Peach and his apparent love for her, even being able to produce an image of the princess standing in her room.) After explaining a few things to Mario and telling him that Grodus had taken Peach to the Palace of Shadow, TEC released the room lock in the Fortress and commanded Mario and friends to save Peach, giving them the specific order to tell her "thank you" on his behalf. He then revealed that, in order to let Mario and friends escape the X-Naut Fortress, he would be forced to send all of the AI energy programmed into himself to the teleporter room (presumably because the X-Nauts had somehow deviously disabled it in hopes of trapping Mario), causing him to "cease to exist as an artificial consciousness." This, however, was a price he was willing to pay for Peach, and he ultimately shut down after his speech as an unknown voice reported a "TEC system failure." TEC's seemingly final words were "Peach... Goodbye...", before a great explosion engulfed the Moon and he was presumably destroyed. However, at the very end of the adventure, TEC reboots and the X-Naut Fortress is up and running again, although the whole place is deserted. (This is because it was apparently TEC himself who detonated the Fortress as to remove all traces of the X-Nauts, though he seemingly destroyed himself in the process.) He seems to have been restored to his original state after Peach gave Mario the last of her power during the battle with the Shadow Queen, which is inferred by the fact that he claimed to have seen a bright light and heard Peach's voice as he awoke, though he himself did not know how he had survived.
Trivia
- TEC is likely based off of the HAL 9000 in 2001: Space Odyssey because of his intelligence and security systems. However, unlike HAL, TEC isn't insane or malevolent. Another Mario series spoof of the HAL 9000 was the HAL 9001 from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! episode "9001: A Mario Odyssey."
- In one of the early scenes of the game, when Peach is in Grodus's throne room, the perspective changes to the view of TEC's camera. Once Peach comes into the shot, a surge of electricity flows over the screen, which is probably the glitch that becomes TEC's crush.
- Although TEC is mechanical and therefore has no gender, male pronouns are often applied to him. As a matter of fact, TEC even experienced love from a traditionally male point of view.
- TEC relatively plays the same part as Twink did in Paper Mario, as both of them helped Peach sneak around the castle/fortress she was held captive. They were both attacked and destroyed after the 7th or 6th chapter by the main villian; Bowser or Grodus. (Twink was sent flying off Peach's Castle in Paper Mario after Chap. 7, while TEC was shut down in the intermission of Chap. 6). They both returned later and played a role that saved Mario and friends; in Paper Mario, Twink reappeared to give Mario the strength he needs to win, and in Paper Mario TYD, he powers up the teleporter room which allowed Mario to return from the Moon to Earth.
- The two X's in TEC-XX can be read as "double cross," which suits his nature to betray Grodus and aid Peach.
