| “ | SHOWTIME! | „ |
| ~ Bowser when he starts a battle without an initial hit in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, as well as his most famous quote. |
| “ | I know, I know! You're thinking, 'A big strong guy like him would be great to have along!' right? I'm gonna do something I may regret later...! I'll let you join the "Koopa Troop". You can thank me later... | „ |
| ~ Bowser agreeing to help Mario save the world in Super Mario RPG. |
King Bowser Koopa Sr., also known as King Koopa, is the main antagonist of Nintendo's Mario franchise.
He is the leader of the Koopa Troop, and the archenemy of Mario, ever 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.
Even though he is the main antagonist in many Super Mario Bros. games, he plays an anti-heroic role in some of the Mario RPG’s, where he occasionally aids Mario and his allies to defeat a greater threat.
He is voiced by Kenny James.
His Good Ranking[]
What Makes Him Admirable?[]
In General[]
- He is genuinely honorable, as he never betrays the heroes when he teams up with them (while he does attack Mario and Luigi at the end of Bowser’s Inside Story, this doesn’t count as betrayal as he wasn’t aware that they were helping him out inside his body to begin with).
- He shows genuine care towards his son Bowser Jr., and sometimes dedicates his time to making him happy and never yells at him for failing.
- The Nintendo Switch Parental Controls video also proves that Bowser doesn't want to spoil his son too much because he wants to make sure he does not abuse his screen time on the Switch, or go onto inappropriate games or chat messaging by setting up time limits and scaring off Boos (who represent online predators).
- He also cares about the well-being of his minions more often than not, as he was genuinely upset when learning Fawful locked up the ones he did not brainwash. While he is more harsh on the Elite Trio, it's justified since they willingly betrayed him for Fawful and are extremely disloyal to him beforehand and even after returning to his ranks. Regardless, he reinstates them as minions.
- In recent games, he seemed to have mellowed out with Luigi and Rosalina, as he no longer shows as much hostility towards them.
- He seems to have a friendship with Starlow. By the time of Brothership, he's formed somewhat of a friendship with Starlow. According to the latter, she visits Bowser on some occasions and he begrudgingly lets her get away with poking fun at him even though he's gotten mad at others for doing less. While he kicks her and the Mario Bros. out of his throne room shortly afterwards, he does accept the chicken leg she got for him as a gift, meaning he does appreciate the gesture.
- He occasionally takes breaks from villainy by joining Mario and his friends in various events such as kart races, tennis, and golf, despite the fact that they are usually enemies and having nothing truly to gain from doing so. This is especially shown in Mario Tennis and Super Mario Party, where he showcases no hostility towards the heroes aside from some minor competitiveness.
- Although the admirable standards of the franchise are high, Bowser manages to stand out due to saving the world on multiple occasions. Most notably, he was ultimately the one truly responsible for defeating Fawful and the Snow King, and played a significant role in defeating Smithy, Reclusa, and Cursa.
Mainline series[]
- In Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, he helped Mario and his friends defeat Smithy and save the Mushroom Kingdom.
- In Mario & Luigi: SuperStar Saga, he helped the heroes again by retrieving Princess Peach’s voice, using his airship to get to the Beanbean Kingdom (although he doesn’t help much after this, this is due to losing his memory and being possessed by Cackletta).
- During the fight with Fawful, he helped Mario and Luigi by teaching them how to dodge his attacks.
- In Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, he tried stopping Fawful’s plans, and at the end of the game, stopped the Dark Star from committing omnicide (with the help of Mario and Luigi, who both were inside his body).
- He helped save Broque Monsieur, who lets Bowser use his dog as a reward.
- He helped the heroes defeat Reclusa in Mario & Luigi: Brothership.
- In the ending of Mario & Luigi: Brothership, he saves two Goombas from being permanently trapped in Concordia by throwing them into the portal right when it was about to close.
- While he does fatally endanger the universe, including himself, in Super Mario Galaxy, he fully clarifies this was never part of his plan.
Spin-offs[]
- In Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, he helped the heroes defeat Cursa, even helping them deliver the finishing blow.
- He saved Mario from Wario and Waluigi’s Bullet Bill attack, even when he had no reason to help his rival.
- He defeated the Snow King in Mario Golf: Super Rush, ultimately saving the world from being frozen in the process.
- Joined the Smash Bros fighters to take down Tabbu.
- He was the only Smash fighter who was truly loyal to Master Hand, unlike Wario and Ganondorf, and his defeat ultimately convinced him to join the heroes.
- He later bands together with Various Nintendo characters to save the world from Galemm and Dharkon having no problem with helping out his Nemesis and various other heroes.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is On & Off as he is usually a villain and normally does heroic deeds out of self-serving reasons and not out of the goodness of his heart.
- He commits various villainous acts throughout the series, ranging from kidnapping Princess Peach; attempting to rule the entire universe; flooding the Earth in Mario is Missing; attempting to burn the paperverse book; and turning all the Toads in the kingdom into lifeless bricks, effectively killing them temporarily thus passing the henious standard. He never shows explicit remorse for these crimes either.
- As Baby Bowser, he constantly abused Kamek, tormented and bullied the Yoshis, and was arguably brattier and more spoiled than his son, which indicates even as a baby he was malicious and difficult to put up with.
- He turned Donkey Kong, Princess Zelda and Peach into trophies, and kidnapped them. He also attempted to do the same with Diddy Kong thrice and Fox McCloud twice, but to no avail, as the first time, Fox fled with Diddy to protect them both, and the second time, Falco Lombardi intervened to rescue them (primarily Fox).
- He trained Wario and Waluigi in tennis then the three of them crashed the opening ceremony attacking with Bob-ombs.
- Even then, he sometimes considers taking a U-turn in his heroic acts, as in Super Mario RPG, he almost refused to go into Smithy's lair until Geno convinced him otherwise. This is further shown in Bowser's Inside Story where he goes up against Fawful mostly to take back his territory, kidnap Peach back, and ensure only he can take over the kingdom himself; at several points, he even showed desire to take over Fawful's plans for himself.
- He is an anti-hero, as even in his heroic and non-villainous roles, he is prone to behaving like a massive jerk.
- He feels jealous of Mario for being the hero and constantly wants to one up him.
- He is lethal as he usually tries killing those who get in his way, even in his heroic roles.
- Best shown in Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, he is shown to be wrathful as he lashes out at those around him if they anger him enough. This is further shown in Bowser's Fury where he ungratefully tried to attack Mario after he saved Bowser from the black paint.
Trivia[]
- His paper counterpart is the second version of Bowser to qualify as both Inconsistently Admirable and Inconsistently Heinous.
- He is (alongside Mario and Peach) are the only three characters where their paper equivalents have the same status.
- He is one of the three mainline characters to be Inconsistently Admirable, the other two being Wario and Donkey Kong. All three of them are rivals to Mario, though Bowser is the only one to be Inconsistently Heinous.
- Also unlike Donkey Kong who’s more commonly considered a friendly rival to Mario and Wario who’s more commonly considered to be an arch-rival to Mario, Bowser is usually depicted as Mario’s arch-enemy.
External Links[]
- Bowser on the Heroes Wiki
- Bowser on the Villains Wiki
- Bowser on the Mario Wiki
- Bowser on the Super Mario Wiki
- Bowser on the Nintendo Wiki
- Bowser on the Inconsistently Heinous Wiki
- Bowser on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
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 Inconsistently Admirable
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Video Games Paperverse Rabbids Others Manga Fanon See Also | ||
 Inconsistently Admirable
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