Monday, May 23, 2022

Character Analysis: Bowser

Note: I will be including stuff from Paper Mario. For the most part Paper Mario and the main series where not heavily delineated from each other until Paper Jam came out. Prior to that game, Paper Mario’s story elements readily bled into other games in the series (Paper Bowser’s castle in Mario Kart, King Goomba appearing in 64DS, the Star Spirits showing up in Mario Party, ECT). Paper Mario itself also stated Super Mario Bros 1 happened in the Thousand Year Door, and has other smaller references to other mainline or spin off games. Heck Paper Mario was originally conceptualized as Mario RPG 2 and clearly wasn't meant to be its own stand alone thing. So I think it’s fair to say anything Paper Bowser can do, the mainline Bowser can also do. Even at worst they’re essentially the same person and Paper Jam shows all the paper counterparts to be comparable anyway.

Likewise I will also acknowledge one time stuff in this blog as well.

Background

The King of the Koopas and the main villain of the Super Mario Bros series. Bowser has typically acted as a threat to the Mushroom kingdom ruled by Princess Peach, and has repeatedly tried to kidnap said princess MANY MANY times since they were children. He normally fights his main rival Mario for her affection.


His exact motivation for kidnapping Peach isn’t clear. But it’s implied that Bowser desires to have a Maternal figure in his family, as he takes care of numerous children(Both his biological son Jr and the Koopalings).  As well as the fact that Peach has mystic powers that can counter his dark magic, making her an obstacle to world conquering endeavors he frequently engages in.


Despite his nature as a world conquering tyrant, it is made clear that Bowser does actually care about his minions, even those who are not part of his direct family line. He was also revealed to be a “star child” in the Yoshi’s Island series, a person born with great innate power. 

Personality wise Bowser prefers brute force and a bad attitude over smarts and education. Typically working more via actions than words.


Armor


Bowser Shell

Bowser’s best defense is his outer turtle like outer shell. He can tuck into it for defense, and even roll around in it like a spiked ball or battering ram. 


RPG Equipment.

Bowser has a number of armors he can equip in the Mario RPG games, such as additional Shells, Bands, rings, and fangs.  Many of these can increase Bowser’s defense or offense, regenerate his HP, ETC.  Some of the more notable ones include.

  • Heal Shell: Increases defense.

  • Vampire Band: Heals Bowser when he connects with a punch.

  • Red Hot Fangs: Increases the power of Bowser’s flame attacks.

  • Restore ring: Periodically heals Bowser’s HP and Stamina.


Safety Ring

A protective ring that prevents instant death, transmutation and various status effects.


Abilities

 Fire breath

Bowser’s most famous ability is his power to breathe fire. He can do this in a couple different ways.


Fire balls

Bowser can produce small or large fireball projectiles.


Continuous

Bowser can produce continuous streams or beams of fire as an attack.


Lava

Bowser’s fire breath can produce puddles of lava in some games.


Meteor

Bowser can produce large meteor-like stone balls from his mouth.


Fire traps

Bowser can light locations on fire, creating large towers of flame that can serve as traps for foes.


Ground pound/body slam

Bowser can perform a powerful jumping ground pound attack. They can often create shockwaves on impact.


Claw swipes

Bowser can use his claws to perform powerful slashing attacks. In the Mario Strikers series he can also enlarge these claws for more powerful blows.


Shockwave creation

Bowser can create energy shockwaves with ground pounds or jumps.


Spin

A spinning punch attack. Similar to the signature move used by Mario in Mario Galaxy.


Punch/Sliding Punch

A powerful punching attack Bowser learns in the RPGS. He can also slide forward while performing it.


Inhale 

Bowser can inhale his surroundings with extreme force, allowing him to consume objects or enemies. He first gets this ability after consuming the Vacuum Shroom in Bowser’s Inside Story.


Terrorize

Bowser can summon giant boos that can terrorize his opponents, causing them to flee battle.


Poison manipulation

Bowser can produce various poisonous gasses. He can also utilize this position in the form of a bite and his claws.


Crusher

Bowser can magically control earth and use it as an attack.


Brawl attacks



Bowser has several “combo” attacks that utilize members of his army, including the Goombas, Koopas, Shy Guys and more.


Dark Magic

Bowser has talent in numerous forms of black magic. Some common applications are the following.


Transmutation

Similar to many of the Magikoopas under his employ, Bowser can use dark magic to turn people into objects or vice versa. His most famous usage being when he turned the entire mushroom kingdom into stone in the first Mario Bros game.


Sealing

Bowser has a few magical “sealing” moves. For example he was able to trap several Yoshi’s in their eggs during the events of Super Mario World. It’s also stated he sealed various characters in the painting worlds featured in Mario 64.


Telekinesis

Bowser’s magic also includes the ability to move objects telekinesis.


Teleportation

Bowser can teleport with magic in several games. Often using it as a means of escape if he’s backed into a corner. He can also teleport others to his location.


Shapeshifting

Bowser has shapeshifting abilities in some media. Being able to become inanimate objects like scarecrows or change the shape of his physical form to match somebody else.


Warp portals

Bowser can open dark warp portals using magic.


Electrokinesis

Bowser can call down lightning strikes.


Energy manipulation

Bowser can create massive energy orbs, and then throw them as projectiles.


Creation

Bowser can use magic to conjure objects and enemies out of nothing. The largest object he’s created is an entire fortress.


Reality warping

Bowser can use magic to alter reality. For example, altering space to make a staircase endless, and transforming Yoshi’s Island into a storybook.


Divination

Bowser can use magic in conjunction with a crystal ball to see visions of the future.


Bowser curse

Bowser can cast a curse that can reduce or control an opponent's movement.


Pyrokinesis

Bowser also has a general ability to control fire, even without directly using his fire breath. He can use this ability to set objects ablaze on touch.


Time Travel

Bowser apparently has the ability to time travel at will. Having used this ability twice to go to the era of the Yoshi Island games.


Misc


Weapons 

 Hammers

Bowser has various metal and wooden hammers he can throw as projectiles or use as melee weapons.


Mecha Koopas

Exploding wind up koopa toys. Bowser can throw them as projectile weapons.


Spiked balls

Bowser can summon giant spiked balls and throw them as projectiles.


Flaming boomerangs

Bowser’s can produce flaming boomerangs to use as a projectile weapon.


Chain Chomps

Bowser can throw chain comps as a flail like weapon. These can bite into opponents they come in contact with.


Hurley Gloves

Gloves Bowser can get in Mario RPG to enhance his throwing power.


Spiked Link

A spiked flail weapon Bowser can throw at his foes.


Drill claw

A claw attachment that increases slashing power. Used in Mario RPG.


Barrels

Bowser can throw giant barrels as a projectile attack.


Soccer Balls

Bowser can throw explosive soccer balls as a weapon.


Hat

Bowser can conjure hats with attachable boxing gloves. He can also produce hats to throw as projectiles.


Minimizer

The minimizer is a weapon that can shrink Bowser’s opponents to the size of a field mouse.


Vibe Scepter

A magical scepter that can control the emotions of a target, making them happy, sad, angry or calm.


Spiked Bat

A large spiked bat Bowser uses as a weapon in some animated series or as his bat in the Mario baseball games.


Shells

Large shells modeled after the Shell Bowser wears on his back. They can be thrown as projectile weapons.


Star Rod

A magical rod used by Bowser in Paper Mario. It can grant “any wish” and can be used to enhance Bowser’s stats in combat or heal himself


Misc


Arsenal

Mario RPG items

Bowser also has various consumable items in the various mario RPG games. Some of the more notable are the following.

  • Bracer: Increases defense 100%

  • Energizer: Increases attack 100%

  • Fire Bomb, ice bomb,Fright bomb, Rock candy, star egg: Elemental AOE attack items.

  • Sleepy bomb: Puts enemies to sleep.

  • Lamb's lure, Sheep attack: Turns enemies into sheep.

  • Red Essence: Grants invincibility.

  • Megalixir: Fully heals the user.

  • Freshen up: Heals status effects.

  • Drumsticks: Heal the user.

  • Earlier times and Retry clock: Restarts a battle from scratch and replenishes all used items.


Clown car

Bowser has a flying hovercraft with a clown face on it. It can be used as a form of long distance travel and comes with various weapons.


Steel balls

Bowser’s clown car can produce giant steel balls to crush opponents.


Rocket Launchers/Cannons

Bowser’s clown car has in-built rocket launchers and cannons.


Laser

The clown car can also produce a laser canon in its mouth.


Petrification

Bowser’s clown car can also turn people to stone with an eye flash.


Koopa Chase/Karts

Bowser has a large convertible car. He uses it mainly for transportation.


Bubble clone machine

A machine that creates “bubble” clones of various Mario characters. These clones have the powers and abilities of the original counterparts, and are stated to be as powerful as the originals as well.

  • Bowser creates bubble clones of the Mario cast MPIT https://youtu.be/qN4nsA68WF4?t=224

  • Bowser created a machine that can conjure  Bubble warriors MPIT https://youtu.be/qN4nsA68WF4?t=3844

  • It’s stated that a Bowser from a previous fight was just a bubble copy of himself. Bowser also reveals  can just reconjure more bubble machines(Along with the Tower it was kept at) wherever he wants MPIT https://youtu.be/qN4nsA68WF4?t=3903



Power Stars

The powerful stars collected by Mario in most of his 3D games. They can act as a source of power to amplify the abilities of the user or as explosive weapons.


Power stars can also be used as a means to create things, such as the painting worlds in Mario 64.

In the galaxy games they can be used for flight and to travel across cosmic distances in seconds.

Power stars can also ward off dark magic or illusions. Such as Bower’s endless staircase spell in SM64.


Grand Stars

More powerful variants of Power stars. Bowsers can absorb their power to become giant, and they grant a myriad of additional powers when consumed. 


Some powers include


Space/Time manipulation

Grand stars can create massive rifts in space that can be used to travel interstellar distances


Gravity Manipulation

Grand stars can control gravity. Allowing Bowser to fly, change the direction gravity is pulling, call down meteors from above and create massive black holes.


Dark Matter generation

Finally, Grand stars can generate “dark matter” , a substance that destroys the “space” the objects occupy.


Pure Hearts

The macguffins used in the game Super Paper Mario. They act as the counterbalance to the “chaos heart” in that game, an evil power source that can destroy the multiverse. The pure hearts are powered by love, and can be used to restore the multiverse should it be damaged.


Power-Ups

Metal Box/Metal Bowser

The metal box power-up used by Mario to become Metal Mario. Bowser can use it to become Metal Bowser, who has increased defenses and about 10 times the weight of normal Bowser.


Double Cherry

A power up that creates a perfect duplicate of the user. Bowser can use them to create up to 5 autonomous copies of himself.


Cat Bell/Meowser

Bowser can use the cat bell power-up, allowing him to take on a cat-like form. In this form Bowser can climb up walls and perform claw swipe attacks.


Transformations


Giant Bowser

In various games Bowser can grow to gargantuan sizes, increasing his strength and durability proportionally. How he accomplishes this in his appearances varies. In some games his minion Kamek can cast a magic spell that will make him grow to that size. In other games Bowser will consume a magic artifact that will have similar growth effects( for example potions and grand stars). 

In many games however this growing ability is also something Browser can access innately. For example, in Bowser’s Inside Story, it’s shown that he has growth hormones that can naturally cause his body to enlarge under threatening conditions.


Giant Bowser can also stack the effects of magic spells or his innate growth hormones to become even larger for that matter. Allowing him to become a giant giant Bowser.


Dry Bowser

Bowser’s “undead” form. It has all of Bowser’s normal abilities, but has more resilience to damage, being able to assemble itself if blown apart. 

Bowser transforms into Dry Bower via a potion BIS https://youtu.be/M9Hzim27ZNo?list=PL3vs_m6C8B5aumafTPT762yH7V1VeCy8k&t=1264


Bones

Similar to Dry Bones, Dry Bowser can produce an endless amount of bones to throw as projectiles.



Fury Bowser

An enhanced giant Bowser, gained by being draped in "black paint", a corrosive substance produced by the magic paintbrush used by Bowser Jr.  


Fury Bowser can affect the weather around him, shoot fireballs, and produce giant spiked projectiles out of his back shell. Finally he can create massive explosive soccer balls.


The fury Bowser transformation is fairly uncontrollable and puts Bowser into a mindless rage when he uses it. The form can be quelled somewhat with the power of magic artifacts called cat shines, though Bowser’s power eventually makes this counter grow ineffective.


Dreamy Bowser

A special form granted by the “dream stone”, a wish granting artifact that Bowser temporarily consumed at the end of Mario and Luigi Dream team. The dream stone is stated to be powered by numerous dream worlds that exist in parallel dimensions of the Mario's universe.


 In addition to being able to reality warp, create duplicates of himself and create objects or enemies from nothing. The dreamy Bowser form also gives Bowser’s normal flame attacks additional power.



Feats

Strength


Endurance


Speed



Scaling


Mario

Mario is Bowser’s main rival, he obviously scales given they’ve fought regularly. Some notable feats of Mario include.



Power Stars

Power stars are regularly used by Bowser and his army as a source of power. In Mario 64 it is stated that they can create or warp the painting worlds that serve as that game's main levels. While there’s some arguments about translations regarding this ability, other characters like King Boo have also created painting worlds, backing up the claim as possible.


Power stars should also be comparable in power to Lumas, cosmic creatures that can transform into stars, planets, and sometimes even galaxies upon reaching adulthood.  Lumas and power stars are likely comparable as it’s stated a rare minority of Luma can transform into power stars after reaching adulthood.


Power stars have also consistently been used to cross interstellar distances. For example in the original Mario Galaxy the comet observatory can observes galaxies light years away from the mushroom planet and Mario can fly back from those galaxies using power stars. The interstellar starship Mario also uses power stars as fuel.


Grand stars

Grand stars are another power source commonly used by Bowser and his army. They’re used as the power source for the comet observatory, which can fly from the mushroom planet to the center of the universe.


They can also be used as a power source for “galaxy reactors” machines that can create entire galaxies.


Finally at the end of Mario galaxy one of Bowser’s grand star constructs goes out of control and 

forms a black hole. It later compresses and seemingly undergoes a big bang like explosion, alluding to some kind of cosmic reset. 


Rosalina

A princess introduced in Mario Galaxy. She acts as the main ally in that game and is an entity stated to watch over the universe. Rosalina seemingly survives the universe reset in Mario galaxy no worse for wear and later becomes playable in mainline Mario games allowing her to scale to the rest of the cast.


Donkey Kong series

Bowser in spin off games is typically portrayed as being near or stronger than Donkey Kong and his allies. Some feats from his series include.


Wario

Bowser and Wario have fought in various spin off games. Likewise Bowser is on par with Mario, who's Wario’s rival, thereby making them scale. Bowser should also be reasonably on par with Wario’s allies from the WarioWare games as well.


King Boo

King boo has regularly worked under Bowser and has fought Mario’s brother Luigi. 


Millennium star

A magical being that came to the mushroom kingdom from space. The majority of the Mario cast later fight in battle, allowing them to scale.


Count Bleck

The main villain of Super Paper Mario, who’s later fought by several characters including Bowser himself. Even without the “Chaos heart” it’s stated/shown that Count Bleck destroyed his home universe after having his dark magic enhanced by the Dark Prognostics book.

The book that gave him this power was also implied to have been written by Dimento, who Bowser and others also fight.


Chaos Heart

The power of the pure hearts can counter the chaos heart, which can create a void that consumes all worlds. The pure hearts can also recreate said multiverse.


Dream Stone

The magical wish granting stone introduced in Dream Team.  It’s stated to be powered by numerous dreams. Bowser uses it for one of his forms(Dreamy) and the Mario bros fight this form, along with being comparable to others with similar power(such as the Zeekeper who fought a person using the Dream stones antithesis, the Dark Stone).


Keeping that in mind, there are multiple different dream dimensions. Mario Bros 2/USA had the dimension Subscon, while Mario party 5 had Dream Depot, in addition to Dream team stating there’s multiple dream worlds.


In the little known sequel BS Super Mario USA It’s stated that dream worlds like Subscon are “real” locations.


In Maro party 5 it’s also stated several times that one of the dream worlds is of a “universe”

Finally it’s stated that when Bowser became Dreamy Bowser he absorbed “all” of the Dreams stones power.


Megabug

The final boss of Mario + Rabids, who fuses with Bowser and Mario eventually fights. The Megabug is the personification of a dimensional vortex/instability that was going to destroy Mario’s dimension.


Misc


Experience


Main series


Yoshi series


Misc Spin offs


RPGS

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4 comments:

  1. Corn DogMay 24, 2022 at 11:07 AM

    Holy cow, this is incredible. As a huge Mario fan, this is really cool to see. I can tell a lot of work has been put into this. If you don’t mind however, I would like to give some input about some stuff on here, as I also like to research Mario characters in a versus scenario.

    I personally don’t think the Paper Mario series should be counted as canon. Yes there are several references to the series both ways, but I don’t think a lot of those hold up. References to the main games in the Paper Mario games shouldn’t really count as evidence, as that is more than likely the same event happening in the paper world as well (similar to how Sonic ‘06 also happens in the Archie comics universe, but that’s still not canon to the games). Similarly, I don’t think characters who first appeared in Paper Mario showing up in the main games should count as evidence either, as Paper Jam shows us that many characters have counterparts in the paper world. Goomboss and the Star Spirits could simply be among the characters that exist in both universes. In my opinion the only two references between the two that is actually relevant are Bowser’s Castle from Paper Mario being in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and Paper Mario being referenced as a past adventure in Superstar Saga. However, when combined with the fact that the Paper Mario series references that the world is made of paper so many times, including characters getting folding, crumbled, torn, and had the color drained out of them, plus the existence of the thing cards and the entire plot of Origami King, I don’t think 2 small references is enough to rebut an entire game where they’re explicitly separate worlds.

    With that said, they definitely scale to each other thanks to Paper Jam, so the only part I disagree with is including items and abilities exclusively in the Paper Mario games.

    On a higher note, I don’t think Tippi saved the gang from the Sammer Kingdom dimension. They were clearly affected by it, seeing as how they were awake before the destruction, but unconscious afterwards. And Tippi wasn’t even sure what had happened after the destruction, and she’s never teleported without knowing it (to my knowledge).

    The UK Nintendo website page for Wario World describes the Black Jewel’s dimension as a “parallel universe” so it’s likely the same size as the Mario universe, not just a pocket dimension.

    For electrokinesis, the opening scene of Mario Galaxy might be good to include alongside the Mario Party one.

    For summoning, in the Dry Bowser boss fight in Paper Jam, Dry Bowser is able to summon any of the Koopalings, as well as Thwomps.

    For teleportation, it might be good to include his Bowser in the Fire Sea boss fight in Mario 64 as well.

    He’s also able to fly, as he does it after the boss fight in 8-Castle from Super Mario 3D Land.

    Sorry if this sounds condescending, I don’t mean it to. This is extremely impressive and clearly took a lot of effort to put together, and I have much respect for that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Corn DogMay 24, 2022 at 1:30 PM

      Oh, and for some extra speed feats

      The Trial Galaxies are located at the edge of the universe - https://imgur.com/a/vLTLZ2f

      And Mario is able to react to traveling there, as well as Power Stars flying back from there

      Rosalina is able to pilot her Comet Observatory to the center of the universe - https://youtu.be/djCrOWpbgqY?t=43

      Later on in that scene several of Bowser’s airships fly alongside it, further confirming scaling to the feat

      Green stars are able to fly past World 5 (a galaxy supercluster) in less than a second, as well as flying past all seven worlds in a few seconds - https://youtu.be/dQus5zTxbAw?t=9

      Yoshi’s able to hit Raphael the Raven far into space, becoming a star (that, or it’s due to Kamek’s magic, which would also scale since he buffs bosses with his magic and uses it constantly against the Mario bros.) - https://youtu.be/DUXzlae4T_A?t=126

      Delete
    2. UltraguyMay 25, 2022 at 6:23 PM

      Nah ur actually fine. This is actually one of the nicer comments I've gotten on this blog. I'm probably still gonna keep the paper Mario stuff in tbh, but I'll add in these other feats once I get a chance.

      Delete
  2. Kirbonic PikminAugust 18, 2022 at 4:01 PM

    I've got some input and a few issues with this blog I'd like to bring up. Before that though, you did do a good job at generally indexing everything across the franchise at large though, this is a pretty impressively sourced and indexed, so take nothing I say here as an attack against you.

    For one, Paper Mario really should not be counted as canon to mainline. Sure, there's references to and from one another, but there's also plenty of things showcasing they're completely different continuities. Ignoring the major example of Paper Jam. While characters that were originally first seen in PM are seen in mainline, often times they don't even serve the same role in the world, such as the Star Spirits appearing in Mario Party 5, but with a completely different role in the world compared to PM64. Them being the same entities as the ones in PM64 literally wouldn't make sense, since their purpose for existing would be completely different.

    Generally, Base Paper Mario characters should be able to cross scale to Base Mainline characters and vice versa, but the amps, exclusive abilities, and powerups given to Paper characters such as specific items, the Star Rod, or Pure Hearts really should not be counted in a fight with mainline characters.

    The Mario 64 Power Star statements are iffy to use, as the context for the Paintings being alternate worlds and Bowser having created them actually doesn't exist in the original Japanese text at all, making it entirely added in the English translation. There was a pretty big VSBW thread on it a while back, and it has the scans if you'd like to see it:
    https://vsbattles.com/threads/attempting-to-debunk-super-mario-64-power-star-yet-again.129109/

    Scaling Power Stars to Luma's off of that one statement is probably valid, but I still think its a bit iffy. I think utilizing King Boo to reason that Power Stars could POTENTIALLY do the same is very iffy regardless. King Boo is generally depicted as a very powerful character in the verse and is usually only defeated through unorthodox means, scaling the Power Stars to something like this seems like a huge stretch.

    Next up would be Dream Stone/Dreamy Bowser scaling, while I doubt is something that would be used in a Bowser fight, is also very... contentious and contradictory considering how inconsistent it would make much of the characters in DT. Mario & Luigi needing the full power of the Zeekeeper just to simply break a barrier of the Dream Stone, but suddenly being able to overpower Bowser with the full might of the Dream Stone only an hour later just works as a massive anti-feat against it, and would make M&L's scaling absolutely baffling, it's generally an outlier/something that has to be ignored.

    I'm also relatively sure the M+R games take place in a completely separate continuity to the rest of the franchise, but I haven't searched for an exact statement regarding that one, so I won't push it much until I do.

    That's all the major things I noticed here, really.

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