Mario

The key to understanding the Super Mario universe is a literary device called the "unreliable narrator". Most of what we know about this universe and the events in it come from Mario himself, and almost all the stories are centered on him.

Here's what we know objectively about Mario:

1. He eats a lot of mushrooms, and they have various effects on him. This isn't so much a "reference" to drugs; Mario just literally eats psychotropic mushrooms in game.
2. When Mario eats a certain flower he then spits fireballs. To me this sounds like some executive looked at a demo then said "Guys you can't have Mario smoking weed in a kid's game." So they switched it around: instead of putting fire to flower, the flower causes fire.
3. There was that period around 1990 when he did a bunch of pills (Dr. Mario). Enough said.
4. Sometimes feels like he's flying! (cape feather from Super Mario World, tanooki suit in SMB 3) Sometimes he feels like he can touch the stars, and he feels invincible!
5. While he says he's a plumber, we rarely see Mario do any actual plumbing. However, he is often crawling into pipes and battling the small creatures he finds there. This is not work a plumber does. This is work a plumber sends their apprentice to do.
6. Mario seems to be always trying to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser's castle.

From these observations we can make some conclusions.

1. Mario is a druggie burnout. He's always doing mushrooms and weed, and sometimes harder stuff.
2. Mario isn't a plumber. Luigi is a plumber. Luigi the successful plumber sometimes brings his burnout brother on jobs. Mario is usually high on the job, but he's in a sewer fighting rats so Luigi doesn't think it matters much.
3. Princess Peach is not "kidnapped". She does not need rescuing. She's always at her boyfriend Bowser's place. Mario believes she needs rescuing because he has an unhealthy fixation on her. While he believes she is his girlfriend, she does not agree.
4. Bowser is actually a pretty great guy! That one time he took basically the entire social group go-karting he even invited the stoner burnout who's always hitting on his gf. Yeah he sometimes spits fire when Mario comes by his house to try to steal his girl, just like most men would.