Bowser

**Bowser**, sometimes known as **King Koopa** (Japanese: 大魔王クッパ, *Daimaō Kuppa* or "Great Demon King Koopa"), is the main antagonist of the *Mario* series and the King of the Koopas. He has repeatedly kidnapped or attempted to kidnap Princess Peach and take over the Mushroom Kingdom. He has also attempted to conquer other lands, such as the Mushroom World, Dinosaur Land, Vibe Island, Sprixie Kingdom, and even the entire universe. Despite his villainous nature, he has occasionally helped the heroes of the Mushroom Kingdom against common threats and participates with them in their numerous sporting events in spin-off games.

Role in the series

It is revealed that Bowser and Vixion had a rivalry of two kingdoms, (Koopa Kingdom and Shadowling Kingdom). They always fight even though they are evil.

## Personality

When Bowser was created, he was a typical villain without much personality beyond simply wanting to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Later games started showing various different aspects of Bowser's character, depending on the nature of the plot. While his platformer role continues to be that of a simple antagonist, his *Mario Party* antics typically being more angry, childish, and mischievous than dangerous, and his portrayals in the RPGs ranging from a threatening, yet humorous villain to a playable anti-hero. Even when Bowser is acting as a protagonist in a game, however, he continues to insist he is an evil character, and his reasons for helping the protagonists are typically selfish.

Bowser's personality is explored most extensively in the various RPGs, starting with the first one, *Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars*, in which Bowser loses his castle to a greater villain. As well as the grief he expresses over his castle, Bowser is shown to be as sad as the other playable characters about Geno's body breaking down, and at one point, his boasting takes the form of a haiku. As in later RPGs, however, most of Bowser's actions in the game are self-centered, with his motivation for joining the heroes solely being to reclaim his stolen castle and prevent another villain from taking over the world that he himself desires. This reasoning is also behind Bowser's alliance with Mario and the others in *Super Paper Mario*, after the somewhat oblivious Koopa is reminded that he can't conquer anything if the other villain's plans to destroy all worlds comes to fruition. While Bowser is shown to take pride in his villainy and boasts of being a quality "final boss" throughout the adventure, he seemingly sacrifices himself to save Mario and the others, and even argues with his rival O'Chunks to save himself while Bowser held the crumbling roof above them (although it is later revealed that they both survived). He is also shown to be as horrified as the others when witnessing the Sammer's Kingdom's destruction, a sharp contrast to his attitude in the *Super Mario Galaxy* platformers, where he is willing to create his own galaxy at the expense of the universe.

As in *Super Mario Galaxy*, most other platformers leave Bowser as a typical villain, as does the most recent RPG, *Paper Mario: Sticker Star*. The original *Paper Mario* also casts Bowser as the main antagonist, however like *Super Mario RPG* that came before it, this portrayal is more well-rounded, introducing a humorous side to Bowser alongside his evilness, and revealing that he has a crush on Peach. Bowser's affection for the princess is later showcased in *Super Paper Mario*, with the two being forcibly wed in the game by the main antagonist; while the princess disavows the ceremony, Bowser happily and persistently acts as if they are indeed spouses. Bowser's relationship with Peach also comes into play in *Super Mario Sunshine*, in which Bowser's son apparently believes her to be his mother, although at the end of the game, Bowser sadly admits that he had lied to his child about his parentage. Aside from this, Bowser has never shown remorse for his troublesome actions and the havoc they often cause, but he is often saddened by his own losses. In *Super Mario Galaxy*, his only regret is his failure to create his own realm, and in *Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story*, he is upset about having to damage his own captured castle as he tried to reclaim it from Fawful. By contrast, in *Mario Party 4*, Bowser grudgingly giving the player a present and wishing them a happy birthday as he leaves in shame, moving one of the Koopa Kids to wonder if there might be more to Bowser than he leads others to believe, as Bowser claimed to be somewhat happy.

Unlike the platformers and the other *Paper Mario* titles, Bowser's role is reduced to a dim-witted comic relief villain in *Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door*, where he tries and fails to collect the Crystal Stars before Mario. The first two *Mario & Luigi* titles also cast Bowser as a comical recurring secondary villain, with *Partners in Time* having him team up with Baby Bowser, whom he did not even recognize as being his infant self. Despite being the central character of *Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story*, the third *Mario & Luigi* game reveals nothing new about Bowser's character, but it does provide an overview of his personality to date. His reasons for saving the world from Fawful and the Dark Star involve pride, selfishness, and possessiveness toward Peach. He is extremely conceited and boastful about himself and his accomplishments, and he resents having to ask nicely for help from Starlow. He acts as a leader to his troops and forgives them for joining Fawful, but his usual rashness and his penchant for destruction and violence come to a head when he flies into a rage upon discovering that Mario and Luigi had been helping him the entire time from within his body. He attacks them and is promptly defeated, mere moments after the three had worked together to save the world.

While his range of emotions varies from game to game, it is his nearsightedness, frustration, anger, arrogance, and contempt that typifies Bowser in all his appearances, whether he is a reluctant protagonist or a straightforward villain who cares only about conquering lands and destroying his opposition.

## Relationships

### Queen Vixion

Bowser is not even in villains team but he's Queen Vixion's rival. They always fight each other even though he ends up being defeated by Vixion. Even though Bowser is on the side of evil, he'll do whatever it takes to defeat Vixion.

### Sonja Farrington

Sonja and Bowser are enemies which he makes a alliance with Sonja in Sonja's Adventures of Mockingjay-Part 1 and 2. Until the ending of Mockingjay-Part 2, Bowser betrays Sonja, capturing her. The Lombax Six defeated Bowser which he flees from the Capital after all of that.