King K. Rool

Artwork of King K. Rool from DK: Jungle Climber

“*Soon, Donkey Kong and his pretty little island... will be no more.*”
―King K. Rool
**King K. Rool**, sometimes shortened as simply **K. Rool**, is the malevolent king of the Kremlings and the main antagonist of *Donkey Kong* franchise, as well as the archenemy of Donkey Kong.

His name is a pun on the word "cruel", which often describes his actions and his personality, as well as a corruption of "rule".

## Appearance

In King K. Rool's most common appearance, he wears a red cape and a gold crown, but he is fond of adopting many other looks and costumes as well. When he takes on the alias of Kaptain K. Rool, he trades in the cape for a brown trench coat and the crown for a pirate hat. When he becomes Baron K. Roolenstein, he wears a white lab coat and a tall prosthetic forehead with a small black wig resembling Frankenstein's monster, and has a Propellerpack on his back. In *Mario Super Sluggers*, K. Rool wears an Ancient Egyptian-style collar and loincloth, much like a pharaoh. Cranky Kong mentions in the *Donkey Kong 64* instruction booklet that K. Rool had given up his silly disguises in that game. While he has not seriously gone incognito since Baron K. Roolenstein, for the final fight he goes by the moniker "King Krusha K.Rool" as a boxer. During this fight he sports a stereotypical one-piece as well as boxing gloves with a champion's belt.

## Personality

K. Rool, as his name, a pun on "cruel," may imply, is brutal, ruling his minions through threats and intimidation, often punishing them severely when they fail. This is mentioned by Klubba in *Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest*, who says that K. Rool mistreats his minions. This is also seen in *Donkey Kong 64*, when he presumably executes a purple haired Kasplat via a giant Klaptrap for calling him "fatso", not realizing that K. Rool was listening. Even his most powerful followers seem to fear his wrath, as displayed in *Donkey Kong 64*, when his subtle display of anger results in Army Dillo fainting on the spot, and Dogadon ends up begging for mercy over his failure when admitting how his wings ended up singed by the Kongs (although K. Rool seems more shocked than angry at the failure regarding the latter). He does not seem to respect his henchmen, the Kritters, much better either. Even his most powerful followers seem to fear his wrath, as displayed in *Donkey Kong 64*, when his subtle display of anger results in Army Dillo fainting on the spot, and Dogadon ends up begging for mercy over his failure when admitting how his wings ended up singed by the Kongs (although K. Rool seems more shocked than angry at the failure regarding the latter). He does not seem to respect his henchmen, the Kritters, much better either. In *Mario Super Sluggers*, he refers to brown Kritter as "the dirty under-belly of the Kremling Krew". Despite all of this, however, he and the Kritters have good chemistry with each other in *Mario Super Sluggers* and the trophy bios of Kalypso and Kludge show he respects her leadership skills and is intimidated by Kludge's temper. K. Rool is also somewhat of a dirty fighter. He fakes defeat, often collapsing in the middle of combat and making it seem like he has been defeated, only to rise seconds later and begin fighting again. He has also shown himself to be negligent towards nature.

K. Rool hates the Kongs, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong more so than the others, having referred to them as "filthy apes" and "monkey brains". Both *Donkey Kong 64* and *Super Smash Bros. Melee* imply that K. Rool is somewhat insane and demented. The final battle of *Donkey Kong 64* also showed him to be somewhat of showboater, constantly showing-off and making taunting gestures. He has bad chemistry with all Kongs in *Mario Super Sluggers*. In spite of his hate for the Kongs, he is impressed by their skills in *Mario Super Sluggers* and is ironically on their team, though he makes it clear that he is only teaming up with them when playing baseball.

## Trivia

* King K. Rool recently not making any appearances since *Mario Super Sluggers*. Ten years later, he returns as a playable fighter in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*.

## External links

* King K. Rool on Donkey Kong Wiki
* King K. Rool on Wikipedia