| NOTE: This page is only about the Illumination version of Bowser, as the main version wasn't approved as Near Pure Evil, and thus only the Illumination version of Bowser's info and crimes should be put here. |
| “ | (maniacally laughs) I finally found it! And now NO one can stop MEEE!!!! | „ |
| ~ Bowser upon finding the Super Star. |
| “ | GET HIM OUT OF MY SIGHT! We'll see how tough this "Mario" is, when he watches me KILL HIS BROTHER! | „ |
| ~ Bowser threatening to kill Luigi to spite Mario after interrogating the former. |
| “ | LAUNCH THE BOMBER BILL AND DESTROY THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM!!! | „ |
| ~ Bowser ordering his men to nuke the Mushroom Kingdom out of spite. |
King Bowser is the main antagonist of Illumination's 13th full-length feature film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, an adaptation of Nintendo's Super Mario video game franchise.
He is the tyrannical king of the Koopas and ruler of the Darklands who desires to conquer the world using the powerful Super Star, planning to use it to target the Mushroom Kingdom and win Princess Peach's hand in marriage, with his plan bringing him into conflict with Mario after kidnapping his brother Luigi, viewing the former as his rival to winning Peach's love and eventually becoming his arch-nemesis.
He is voiced by Jack Black, who also voiced Slappy the Dummy in Goosebumps.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- He had an infamous reputation so great that everyone in his world was aware, with Toad calling him the "most evil wretched creature alive". This heavily implies that he has committed several other crimes in the past.
- Despite his claims to be "in love" with Princess Peach, it isn't a mitigating factor, as it is only a lustful obsession, not genuine affection. This was most evident when he attempted to incinerate her as soon as she rejected him during their forced wedding. Moreover he didn't hesitate to hurt her at Brooklyn.
- Even worse, he is fully aware that Peach hates him to the core, but claims that it makes him love her even more. This shows that he doesn't value her feelings or consent at all and also explains why he is willing to do things that would disgust her in order to get her to marry him.
- While he's seemingly insecure about proposing to Peach and being contested for her love by Mario, who in reality had no intention (at least at that point) of wooing Peach and was more focused on rescuing his brother Luigi, it's never really played for sympathy.
- He's shown to be a bad boss towards his minions, such as not remembering the name of the Spinies' species (merely referring to them as "Whatever those things are"), burning a Koopa alive and turning him into a Dry Bones after he simply asks him what he'll do if Peach refuses to marry him solely out of curiosity, having a few of them locked in cages with the other prisoners, squashing three Piranha Plants while practicing a proposal to Peach and ordering them all to attack the Mario Bros. even after they became invincible with the Super Star.
- The other Dry Bones that attacked Luigi in the Dark Lands imply that he may have also burned his other soldiers for similar reasons.
- Even his closest minion, and possibly his only friend, Kamek is not exempt from this abuse, as shown when Bowser crushed his fingers under the top of his piano case after he informed him of Mario's presence and association with Peach, not even allowing the latter to free himself immediately. He also declared to Kamek that "pain is the best teacher".
- When the Koopa General sacrificed himself in order to kill both Mario and Donkey Kong, he paid no attention to his death and was simply happy that his enemies were seemingly defeated.
- He imprisons his victims and those who defy him in a large chamber full of cages suspended over a pool of lava and guarded by Koopas in clown-copters.
- At some point, he also imprisoned Lumalee, a child Luma who had been imprisoned for so long that he lost all his sanity, becoming darkly nihilistic, cynical, and suicidal.
- While he implies that he had a miserable past while fighting Mario with how he says "I was finally gonna be happy! Now you will suffer, LIKE ME!", there's not enough context to know the full picture. It is more of a pretext in his attempt to kill Mario. Not only that, but he was already an evil character before the events of the film, which is indicated by Toad.
- Unlike most other Illumination villains and his original version, he has no redeeming qualities and is taken seriously most of the time. He especially becomes terrifying whenever he becomes angry.
In Movie[]
- As soon as he's introduced, he demanded the penguins to open their castle's gates, threatening them with death if they didn't comply, and after he had the penguins captured, he burned through their castle and stole their Super Star.
- He planned to use the Super Star to conquer all of the other kingdoms and have Princess Peach marry him, believing that having the star would impress her enough to marry him, and said he would use the Super Star to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom if she refused.
- Upon learning about Mario and his association with Princess Peach, Bowser immediately hated him out of fear of competition for Peach's affection, despite not having met him yet.
- He even took his anger out on Kamek by slamming a piano case on his fingers, even though he did nothing but deliver the report about Mario.
- When a group of Shy Guys bring Luigi to him, Bowser personally interrogated him about Mario, torturing him by ripping off a good chunk of his mustache when he refused to answer. After learning that Mario was Luigi's brother, Bowser had him then imprisoned in the dungeon while announcing his intention to kill Luigi and make Mario watch just to spite him.
- When he discovered that Peach, Mario and Toad were intending to ambush him with the Kong Army, Bowser ordered his own ambush on them, almost killing Mario and Donkey Kong and capturing the rest of the Kong Army.
- When Peach initially refused to marry him, he had Kamek torture Toad in order to blackmail her into compliance.
- After invading the Mushroom Kingdom, he allowed his soldiers to pillage it for anything of value, showing that he is willing to steal money and other valuable things from people.
- During his wedding with Peach, he attempted to have all his prisoners ritualistically sacrificed in lava in "her honor", despite her being horrified by it.
- He also intended to sacrifice the residents of the Penguin Kingdom, so if he succeeded, he would have committed genocide against them.
- When Peach revealed that she had no intent on marrying Bowser while ambushing him with an Ice Flower, he angrily responded by stating that they were "breaking up", and then tried to burn her alive with his fire breath.
- Following his wedding being ruined and seeing Mario and Peach happily reuniting and enjoying each other's company before holding hands, he crosses the Moral Event Horizon by angrily ordering his men to fire the Bomber Bill at Peach's Castle to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom out of spite, which would have potentially killed hundreds, if not thousands of Toads as well as his own soldiers who were down there laying waste to the kingdom, further proving his lack of care for his soldiers.
- Even if this wouldn't have killed any citizens since Peach had told them to evacuate earlier, it still would have left them all homeless.
- Once Bowser and his army were warped to Brooklyn, he brutally attacked, beat up and tried to kill Mario without provocation as he falsely accused the latter of ruining his wedding with Peach (despite the fact that Peach had rejected him before Mario's arrival) and later sadistically taunted him as he took cover in a pizzeria.
- When Peach, Toad and Donkey Kong attempted to stop him from attacking Mario any further, he fought back at them and dominated them, brutally beating Donkey Kong and nearly killing him by gutting him with his claws while his army held Peach and Toad back, only interrupting the attempt due to Mario's intervention.
- When Mario went to obtain the Super Star after Peach knocks it away, Bowser attempted to kill Mario by breathing fire in his direction, and would have succeeded if it weren't for Luigi using a manhole cover to block the flame. He then laughed cruelly after believing he had incinerated the brothers.
- Even after Mario and Luigi became invincible with the Super Star, he refused to surrender and ordered his minions to attack them, knowing very well they would have no chance against the brothers.
- Once defeated, he fakes remorse and cowardly begs Peach to give him another chance. But Peach perfectly knows he wants to retry to kill them and that his apology isn't genuine. For this reason, she shrinks him with a mini-mushroom.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- While his acts are taken seriously for most parts of the film, he still has several comedic moments related to his feelings for Peach that detract from his villainy and slightly downplay his threatening side, because of this he isn't taken completely seriously enough by the narrative or the characters to be considered PE. Given that his comic moments mainly take place before his attempt to kill Peach, it is a minor prevention. These moments include:
- Him preaching about his supposed "love" to his army, which caused an awkward silence.
- His self-made serenade called "Peaches", which he sings very passionately and exaggeratedly.
- Him practicing his proposal to Peach with Kamek, who was was dressed up as Peach for the rehearsal.
- His actual proposal leaving Peach feeling confused, much to his embarrassment.
- His awkward reaction to Peach ambushing him during their forced wedding.
- Him pathetically begging Peach for forgiveness upon his defeat, only to be shrunken down after he's force fed a mini-mushroom and placed in a jar by Toad, much to Bowser's frustration.
- Finally, him singing his song again while inside a birdcage in Peach's castle, only to be interrupted and humiliated by a Toad guard, and then having the door shut in his face while shouting empty threats.
Trivia[]
- This version of Bowser is much darker, more vile and consistent than his mainstream counterpart, who, while still evil, is kinder to both his minions and Princess Peach (and truly loves her), has genuine respect towards Mario and (albeit to a lesser extent) Luigi as enemies, has a son he genuinely loves, takes occasional breaks from villainy and is on & off due to having some anti-heroic roles.
- He is one of the two official versions of Bowser to be Near Pure Evil, alongside President Koopa. Coincidentally, both of them are from the franchise's only two Western-made films, and have minor comedic moments as a prevention (though the latter is also an extremist).
- Bowser is the first and, so far, only Illumination villain to be Near Pure Evil, since every other villain the company featured in their movies is too comedic and/or mischievous, has too many redeeming qualities, occasionally has heroic roles, is extremely bog-standard, or a combination of these factors, while Bowser hardly displays any of these qualities.
External Links[]
- Bowser on the Mario Wiki
- Bowser on the Villains Wiki
- Bowser on the Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Bowser on the Shonen Villains Wiki
- Bowser on the Universal Studios Wiki
- Bowser on the Universal Pictures Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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Games Films TV Series Fan Works See Also | ||
