Bowser

**Bowser**, sometimes known as **King Koopa** (Japanese: 大魔王クッパ, *Daimaō Kuppa*, which translates into "Great Demon King Koopa" or "Great Sorcerer King Koopa", the latter being used in the manual of *Super Mario Bros.*), is a major character and the main antagonist of the *Mario* franchise. He is a large, powerful, fire-breathing Koopa who leads the Koopa Troop, an antagonistic organization of turtle-like creatures, and has been the archenemy of Mario since his debut in *Super Mario Bros.* He has repeatedly kidnapped or attempted to kidnap Princess Peach with the ultimate goal of defeating Mario and taking over the Mushroom Kingdom.

## Character Bio

Bowser is a huge, burly, green-shelled Koopa with spikes, horns, and hair. His bushy eyebrows and mane are fittingly a bright, fiery red-orange and has bright red eyes. He sports two small horns, many spikes on his shell (similar to a Spiny) with brown-orange spike-rings, as well as along his tail (minus the spike-rings). He wears several spiked collars around his neck and arms. He has three claws on each of his massive padded feet, four claw-tipped fingers including a thumb on each hand, and his arms are noticeably burly, indicating his vast physical strength. While his face and his shell are green, his plastron and muzzle are beige colored (occasionally depicted as being closer to tan or even yellow), and his tail and limbs are an orange-tinged yellow. The exact coloration of Bowser's head varies depending on the media: while official 2D artwork and most of his in-game appearances have his head and shell match in color, the majority of the official 3D artwork, trailers, merchandise as well as *Mario & Luigi* games show him with a light green head, similar to Bowser Jr.'s appearance. In his various appearances, his red/orange hair is depicted in a loose cockscomb, the only exception to this being in *Super Mario Odyssey*, where he instead has his hair groomed in a perm-like fashion for the wedding until he is defeated for the second time.

Bowser possesses various abilities, the more prominent of which being his fire breath. He can produce continuous flares or flurries of individual fireballs, and as seen in *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door* and *Super Paper Mario*, he can even use his fire breath underwater. He has been shown to cause fiery rain in *Super Mario World* and *New Super Mario Bros U*, while in *Super Mario 64* and *New Super Mario Bros.*, he can produce blue flames that home in on Mario. Bowser is very proud of his fire breath, and is immensely displeased to find himself temporarily unable to use his flames in *Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story*. In the PC version of *Mario is Missing!*, Bowser is immune to fireballs, however this is not the case in most other games. Similarly, while lava defeats Bowser in many games, including the original *Super Mario Bros.*, or *New Super Mario Bros.* (in which it skeletonizes him into Dry Bowser), in other titles, he appears to be resistant to it, such as *New Super Mario Bros. Wii*. In addition, in the SNES version of *Mario is Missing!*, Bowser ends up launched at high velocity into the snow in Antarctica, resulting in him freezing solid and then shattering, and in the PC and SNES versions of *Mario's Time Machine*, Bowser in the best endings is sent back to the Cretacious Period and ends up stepped on by a T-Rex, squishing him into a puddle, although his moving and blinking eyes suggests he survived.

Bowser's near immunity and the fact that he always recovers from his defeats is another hallmark of his capabilities. As well as being submerged in lava, Bowser has also fallen great distances, been blown up, crushed, electrocuted, flash frozen and shattered, yet not one of these defeats has been permanent, with Luigi once remarking that "Bowser's survived far worse" after the Koopa appeared to sacrifice himself to save the others from a collapsing roof in *Super Paper Mario*. Bowser's playable side-scrolling sections in *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door* show him to have infinite lives, which may explain his durability.

Another hallmark of the Koopa King is Bowser's raw physical strength and power. Bowser is often the most powerful character in sports games, and in *Super Paper Mario*, his attack stat as twice that of the other heroes. He can easily break through boulders and topple enemies many times his own size, and in *Mario & Luigi Bowser's Inside Story*, when Mario and Luigi stimulate his muscles with minigames, Bowser can move islands and lift giant stone statues, among other things. Like his fire breath, Bowser takes pride in his strength, and is quick to use punches, claw swipes, tackles, stomps, body slams and other physical attacks in battle.

## History

### In games

Bowser is usually a boss. He is one of the series primary characters. He would often be the one commanding the Villains.

#### KaijuKing Must Die

Bowser made a brief cameo in the intro to remind the player that Bowser is not the villain.

#### Brutal Mario

Bowser is fought in Bowser's Castle in the same way in SMB3, just get him to smash the bricks below him 3 times to make him fall into the pit below. He will throw hammers at you if you are playing the 7hero Demo or the Final Boss Demo. If you want to fight his Second Phase, jump into the pit he fell into. In the second phase, you will start off with a timer of 666 seconds. Both Bowser and Mario fall for a bit, while Bowser is constantly breathing fireballs at Mario. It may seem that both Mario and Bowser are done for after falling for a while, but both of them will safely land on a bridge, while a free Cape Feather is provided for Mario. Here, Bowser will begin breathing multi-colored fireballs at Mario or trying to create Earthquakes to stun Mario from stomping. The fireballs have different functions: Red fireballs go straight to the left or right, Blue ones will home in on Mario as he jumps, Green ones bounce once and then go straight, and Yellow ones just keep bouncing. In order to damage Bowser, Mario must hop on the Mechakoopas that Bowser throws out, and throw them back at him as projectiles. As the fight goes on, Bowser hides in his shell and attacks, making himself invincible to the Mechakoopas, and he breathes a lot more fireballs. In the final phase, two giant pillars rise and trap Mario and Bowser in. A giant spiked crusher comes down, with a small hole in the middle. Mario must then lure Bowser into one of the pillars and stun him in order to let the crusher damage Bowser when it comes down. If done too early, Bowser retreats into his shell and becomes unharmed. If done at the right time, he will take damage. After done twice, the spiked crusher repairs itself. Finally, Bowser will release two more Mechakoopas, but it is however, impossible to damage him with them now. He will quickly hide his shell before it hits him. If the Mechakoopas are thrown upward and hit the spiked crusher as it falls down, it will stop and rise back up to save Mario. Bowser can not be hurt by the crusher either, since he hides in his shell when it comes down as well. The only way to defeat Bowser now is to throw the Mechakoopas at the right pillar to break it. Doing it twice will reveal an Axe that removes the bridge. As soon as Mario pulls it, Bowser panics when the bridge breaks, and he falls down, presumably to his death. Mario then goes more to the right, revealing a hidden Key and Keyhole, leading him to the secret exit of this level.

#### Super Smash Flash 2

Bowser is a playable character in the *Super Smash Flash'*s reboot, *Super Smash Flash 2*. While being "confirmed" for the initial roster many years back, he was shelved by the developers following a change in the game roster. After that, Bowser could be numerously spotted on a few pages on the Smash Flash DOJO!!!, prompting many fans to believe he would be in the game after all, however, developers stood once again claiming that was not the case and that Bowser still was not confirmed for the game despite the images, which were utterly removed when the DOJO!!! got revamped. Bowser was ultimately confirmed to be playable in the second McLeodGaming Direct. Throughout his development history, Bowser has carried different sprite designs, the first ones were taken from his appearance in *Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time*, the second sets were taken from *Super Princess Peach*, but his third and final designs — the ones he uses in-game — are completely custom made. Bowser's attributes, and overall sprites' appearance mixes elements from *Super Smash Bros. Brawl* and *Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS* and *Wii U*. Bowser is currently ranked 29th in C tier on the most recent tier list.

#### Mushroom Kingdom Fusion

Bowser is a villain in this game. It has been revealed that Bowser will ally with the Mushroom Kingdom Coalition after being defeated in World 1. He had actually been trying to hide Peach from Legion all along to minimize its spread. He will assist Solid Snake and the Codec team with offering hints to the Coalition on call. During World 0, however, he will leave the Coalition to rejoin the Villain Alliance, who were conspiring against Legion. Bowser also appears in this game as a baby known as "Baby Bowser".

#### Cub Shoot

Bowser is a playable character in this game. He hits Cub with a bat to a distance.

#### Happy Tree Friends Adventures Series

In all the games, he is the main antagonist. In the first game, release-wise, in the context of this fan series, Bowser first appears in *Happy Tree Friends Adventures*. While not shown on-screen, Bowser has captured a chipmunk named Giggles. Bowser's attack pattern always involves him spitting fireballs, with only his encounter in World 6-3 having him jump around the boss room. Shooting him enough times causes him to flee on his Koopa Clown Car, except during the fight against his powered-up form, where his head explodes gruesomely. In the second game, Bowser proceeds with another kidnapping in *Happy Tree Friends Adventures 2*, where this time the victim is Princess Allay. He holds her in a spaceship, where he resides. Bowser is first fought with his alien pet, who flies around while spitting fireballs. Bowser once again grows gigantic during his final battle in this game. The arena, however, is different, having two stair steps and a lone platform on each side instead of a tiered room with a platform on each side at the top. It also has small platforms at the top to ease jumping over the gigantic Bowser. Shooting him enough times once again defeats Bowser, allowing Cuddles and his friends to rescue Princess Allay. In the third game, Bowser returns, along with four of his Koopalings (though Iggy first appeared in *Happy Tree Friends Adventures*), in *Happy Tree Friends Adventures 3*. While the kidnapping itself is not shown, Bowser has managed to kidnap Princess Allay once again, taking her to Bowser's Fortress Zone, his homeworld. Upon reaching the final room of Bowser's airship, Bowser sics Shi-vai at the tree friends before fighting them himself. His attack pattern involves shooting four fireballs in a spread shot while flying on his Koopa Clown Car back and forth. Meanwhile, the final battle pits the tree friends against Bowser's Giga form. Only after defeating him there do the tree friends manage to rescue Princess Allay. In the fourth game, he kidnaps Princess Allay while she is walking alone in Happy Tree Kingdom. Bowser's boss fight in *Happy Tree Friends Adventures 4* has him inside the final room of his lair, fighting the player character one-on-one. He spits fireballs at the player, and can ground pound to strike directly or unleash more flames. After defeating him the first time, he will change his position to stay on the middle platform, which inexplicably appears, starting the second phase of the fight. Clearing this phase will start the final phase where Bowser becomes giant once again and his head must be shot enough times to defeat him for real. This game marks the first time in the fan series where Bowser's sprites are taken from *Super Princess Peach* instead of the *Super Mario All-Stars* version of *Super Mario Bros. 3*. In the fifth game, he simply appears in *Happy Tree Friends Adventures 5* as a boss in the final stage. In *Happy Tree Friends Adventures 6*, Bowser's Koopa Masters are introduced, with Bowser only appearing in the beginning, before storming his fortress, and near the end of the game. Bowser orders Shifty to capture Princess Allay, while Lifty freezes her companion Brandy. With Allay and Brandy helpless, the trio teleport away with their captives and leave a ransom note.After Fliqpy is defeated and returns to normal, Bowser, Pete, Lifty, Shifty, and Allay are seen together as Cuddles and his friends arrive. After the five disappear, the heroes continue to give chase, eventually ending up in the battle against Bowser himself. Bowser, with the help of his mech, attacks the tree friends by firing flame shots, two of them being regular fireballs fired in a spread shot, one being a shot that results in a burst of flames spread along the ground when it hits there. Shooting the head part causes Bowser to reveal himself, using said head part as his own aircraft. At this state, the two fireballs shot are increased to six and Bowser becomes mobile as he flies his mech around. Defeating him causes the mech to explode, dropping Bowser to the floor.During the ending, it is shown that Bowser managed to escape his collapsing fortress via his Koopa Clown Car.

### In Movies

Bowser is usually once again the main or at least major antagonist.

#### Super Smash Adventures

Bowser is one of the Villains of the World. He would be more serous than his peers but he is sometimes dim-witted and bumbling.

#### Mario and Kirby's Superstar Legacy

Bowser is one of the main antagonists in the movie. He would be more serous but still would be arrogant.

### In Tv Series

In the tv series, Bowser is more of a comic relief. Bowser would also sometimes be depicted as a drinker.

### In Other Media

In official art, he is the closest to his canon personality. He seems to hang out with Dr. Eggman the most.