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| “ | SHOWTIME! | „ |
| ~ Bowser's most famous quote when he starts a battle without an initial hit in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. |
| “ | MARIO! How dare you disturb my family vacation! [roars] | „ |
| ~ Bowser in Super Mario Sunshine |
| “ | I'm bad, and that's good. I'll never be good, and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me. | „ |
| ~ Bowser in Wreck-It-Ralph. |
King Bowser Koopa Sr., also known as King Koopa or Bowser, is the main antagonist of the Mario franchise. Even though he is the main antagonist in the Super Mario Bros. games, he has a more anti-heroic role in some Mario RPG's, and is also an ally in the Skylanders series. Bowser is a turtle-esque monster who can breathe fire out of his mouth. In the Mario RPG's, he aids Mario and Princess Peach in rescuing Luigi from Dimentio who hypnotized him for evil purposes in Super Paper Mario. When he joins Mario and Peach in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, he became an ally to Mario, Mallow, Peach and Geno to fight Smithy and his followers who are the main antagonists. He is also the titular main protagonist of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and it's remake. His mortal enemy is Dark Star, who was the overarching antagonist in the game, because Dark Star had bigger plans than him.
He is voiced by Scott Burns, then Kenny James as his normal self, while being voiced by Frank Welker as his gargantuan form, Giga Bowser, in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Other Media
Super Smash Bros
Bowser appears in most of the Smash Bros games except the original game for the N64.
Bowser makes his debut in the Smash Bros. series as a default playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and is billed as staying true to his archetype in normal competitive Mario games: the heftiest and strongest character, but also the most sluggish. He is actually one of two characters that can be said to best fit this role, the other being Ganondorf. He appears as Giga Bowser as the final boss of Adventure mode who can only be fought if the mode is beat in under 18 minutes. Giga Bowser is also the opponent alongside Mewtwo and Ganondorf in event 51.
Bowser returns in Smash Bros Brawl as a fighter who looks more fierce and serious. He is a major antagonist in Adventure Mode.
He appears as a member of the Subspace army alongside Wario and Gannondorf and has a job in kidnaping fighters. He first appears in the DK Jungle confronting Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong after they find their bananas. He has a special gun that will turn any character into a trophy. He aims it at Diddy to turn him into one, but DK super punches him far away and gets turned into a trophy instead. After running into and teaming up with Fox McCloud, Diddy finds a Bowser trophy laying around that they beat, but it was a fake, and it dissolves into little shadow bugs. The real Bowser appears and attacks the two, but they escape deeper into the jungle.
Later in the story, Bowser distracts Kirby and finds the princess he saved from Petey Piranha. Bowser turns that princess into a trophy and has the shadow bugs turn into a dark clone of that princess. He then takes the princess aboard the Halberd and leaves the clone to deal with other characters. He then receives a transmission from Ganondorf to go to King Dedede's castle and retrieve the other princess trophy. Bowser does so and with his Koopa troops, they storm the castle, knock out King Dedede and take the princess trophy. He is pursued outside the castle by Mario, Link, Pit, Kirby, and Yoshi but he escapes and retreats to the Halberd.
With the princesses successfully captured, Bowser arrives at the swamp after Fox and Diddy Kong again and this time, turns the ape into a trophy. He goes after Fox, but the fox is too fast for the ray gun. Bowser is then attacked and his gun is destroyed by Falco Lombardi. The two then bring Diddy Kong back to life and Bowser flees, but not before having the shadow bugs form a giant False Diddy Kong and has it attack the trio, although the evil copy gets defeated.
Bowser is seen later aboard a giant subspace warship with Ganondorf. The protagonists, all reunited, fly toward the ship and Ganondorf open fires on the ships, but Kirby uses the Dragoon and to destroy the core of the ship; causing it to explode, so Ganondorf and Bowser retreat into subspace. As the two villains head to meet Master Hand, Bowser is betrayed by Ganondorf and turned into a trophy by him and pushed aside. Ganondorf and Master Hand meet and are both betrayed by the true master mind of subspace, Tabuu. Tabuu knocks the Master Hand unconscious and turns Ganondorf, along with all the heroes (Except Sonic, Toon Link, Jigglypuff and Wolf) into its trophies.
Far away, King Dedede, Ness and Luigi are brought back to life, and they enter subspace to bring the other heroes back to life. Halfway through, they find Bowser's trophy and revive him. Bowser reawakens and attacks the trio and King Dedede engages in battle with him. Dedede wins and Bowser is turned back into a trophy. The same thing happens again but Dedede shuts him up and tells him that Tabuu is the real enemy. Bowser then reluctantly joins the groups of heroes. When the rest of the heroes are revived, Bowser finds Ganondorf's trophy and continuously beats it as revenge for earlier and storms off in anger. Bowser then joins the heroes in the Great Maze, beating the clone fighters to make their way to the final fight against Tabuu, and they defeat him as well. They are all seen standing proudly on the cliff at the end after saving their world from being assimilated into subspace.
Bowser returns as a playable character in the video games Super Smash Bros. For 3DS and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. Unlike his more serious Super Smash Bros. Brawl design, Bowser now more closely resembles himself from the Mario games, albeit a bit more feral/aggressive-looking. He is also way more althtic than before standing up stright this time.
In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Bowser was vaporized by Galeem and the only way to unlock Bowser is to defeat Giga Bowser.
Power and Abilities
- Fire Breathing: Bowser's most prominent and consistent ability, appearing in nearly all games he has been featured in. He can breath continuous streams of fire, or shoot blasts or flurries of fireballs at his foes. In some games, like Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros U, he can make it "rain" fire blasts, and, in Super Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros., can also shoot blue fire blasts that can home in on Mario. His fire breath is so hot that it is also just as effective underwater as it is on land.
- Superhuman Qualities: Over the years, Bowser has displayed countless feats that put him far above the average koopa.
- Superhuman Strength: Bowser's raw physical strength is frequently seen as one of his main powers. He can smash through boulders, lift immensely heavy objects with relative ease, and topple enemies numerous times his size. In many of the RPG and sports games, he is typically among the strongest characters in the game, like in Super Paper Mario, where his attack stat is twice that of Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach's respectively. Much like with his fire breath, he prides himself on his strength and frequently incorporates physical attacks into his fighting because of this.
- Superhuman Durability: Bowser has proven time and time again that he is not taken down very easily by most foes. He can endure a seemingly endless amount of punishment, and somehow always returns from this in one way or another. He has been drenched in lava, electrocuted, blown up, crushed by objects as heavy as his castle numerous times, fallen hundreds of feet, and even squashed by a T-Rex in Mario's Time Machine, and has inevitably survived each fate. In Super Paper Mario, after he seemingly sacrifices himself by holding up the ceiling of Count Bleck's Castle with O'Chunks, Luigi encourages the Princess and his brother to not give up hope on him by saying "he's survived far worse".
- Superhuman Speed and Agility: Although his speed is hardy consistent between games, in some of his appearances, Bowser is shown to be a capable runner and quite agile for his size. In Mario & Luigi: 's Inside Story, he uses a treadmill placed by Fawful and Midbus to burn off thousands of calories gained by eating incredibly unhealthy food in only a few seconds.
- Superhuman Stamina: Bowser's stamina is almost as limitless as his durability. He rarely ever shows signs of tiring, even when massively expending himself for hours on end. In battle, never slows down, keeping up with Mario and other enemies like his dark counterpart Dark Bowser blow for blow.
- Dark Magic: While not as prolific in the use of it as Kamek, Bowser is well versed in using various forms of Dark Magic against his opponents. He knows spells that can transform people into inanimate objects, as explained in the manual of Super Mario Bros. and he has used different magical wands over the years for varying purposes (although this is more commonly seen in the cartoons and comics).
- Size Manipulation: In numerous games, he can transform himself into a giant size to battle his enemies. Most of the time this is by being empowered by Kamek or somebody else, but, as seen in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, if he's supercharged with adrenaline, he can temporarily achieve his giant size naturally. In the Super Smash Bros. series, by breaking a Smash Ball, can become Giga Bowser, an alternate, yet still effective version of his typical giant form. Regardless of how he gains it, Bowser's giant form massively increases his strength, durability, and other abilities, to the point where Mario and other characters cannot fight him directly and must find some other way to defeat him. In games such as Paper Mario and Super Mario Galaxy 2, Bowser can use the power of Stars to grow himself to immense size.
- High Skill in Sports and Other Activities: Like almost all Mario characters, Bowser is an extremely qualified player in numerous sports and physical activities. While not being particularly talented in any activity, he has been shown as a skilled tennis, soccer, hockey and basketball player, golfer, go-kart racer, Olympic athlete, wrestler (given some of his moves in the Smash Brothers games), and even a professional dancer.
Audio Samples
Heroic Roles
- It has been noted by fans that whenever Bowser isn't kidnapping Peach, he's surprisingly friendly towards Mario and co. Examples include when Bowser is forced to ally with Mario against a bigger threat and multiplayer based spinoffs such as Mario Kart.
- As revealed in the spin-offs, Bowser is a very kind and able ruler who rewarded his minions greatly whilst also being a deeply loving father.
- Bowser's first heroic role came in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. He teamed up with Mario, Peach, Mallow, Geno to defeat Smithy and his army to reclaim Bowser's Castle.
- In Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, Bowser aided Mario and Luigi in travelling to the Beanbean Kingdom although he was quickly defeated by Tolstar shooting him from a cannon.
- Bowser was transported to Skylands by travelling through a rift that had been created by Kaos' terrible Sky-Eater. The Skylanders sent out a distress call across all the dimensions to call for reinforcements, and for reasons known only to himself, he has decided to join this epic battle against Kaos and the Darkness in his Clown Cruiser as the newest and most lethal of all the SuperChargers.
- Bowser appeared in Wreck-It Ralph as one of the minor characters and a member of Bad-Anon, which acts as a support group for the bad guys/villains of the arcade.
- Additionally, he is the only character from the Mario franchise that appears in the movie.
- Bowser is a major supporting character in Paper Mario: The Origami King, where he is stapled into a tiny box for most of the game. Upon the death of the Stapler, he assumes his true form and aids Mario and Olivia when confronting King Olly. Once King Olly enlarges, he turns into the gigantic Mega Bowser and proves instrumental in the defeat of King Olly's second form, although the tyrant's final form sends him flying off into the abyss, though he survives. Once King Olly is defeated and peace is restored, there is an apparent ceasefire of tensions between the Bowser and Mushroom Kingdoms as Bowser and his minions join in the Origami Festival.
External Links
- Bowser on the Villains Wiki
- Bowser on Wikipedia
- Bowser on the Mario Wiki
- Bowser on the Wreck-It Ralph Wiki
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