Koopa General

Villain Overview

“	Mario, you're a DEAD MAN!!	„
	~ The Koopa General attempting to kill Mario with his kart.

“	Koopa General: You... can't escape ME! Mario: What?! Koopa General: BLUE SHELL!!!	„
	~ The Koopa General preparing to kill Mario and Donkey Kong for the last time; also his last words.

The Koopa General is a major antagonist in Illumination's 13th feature film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, an adaptation of Nintendo's Mario video game franchise.

He's a Koopa Paratroopa with a blue spiked shell who is the highest ranked member of the Koopa Army assisting Bowser in his quest to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom and the world.

He was voiced by Scott Menville, who also voiced Doctor Octopus in Marvel's Spider-Man (2017), and Declan in Oddballs.

Appearance[]

The Koopa General is a unique Koopa Paratroopa with yellow scales, brown eyes, and white wings. He sports blue armor, complete with a spiky shell, a gorget, shoulder guards, laced boots, and a helmet with horns, spikes, brown neck strap, and Bowser's emblem on the front.

Personality[]

As with any other general in an army, the Koopa General is very loyal to his nation's leader, Bowser, following his orders without question. Whenever Bowser is present, he acts dignified and salutes him whenever addressed. On the other hand whether or not his king happens to be present, he is unashamed of his own extremely maniacal, temperamental, wrathful, and bloodthirsty nature. An extraordinarily hateful, vicious, and cruel Koopa at any given occasion, he frequently takes sadistic enjoyment inflicting pain on his targets and more than willing to go as far as murder. He takes a lot of pleasure in his job and will do whatever it takes to get the job done, even if it means suicide. He is also shown to be extremely vengeful and vicious as seen when after he is outsmarted by Mario and Donkey Kong, he tucks himself inside his shell, launching himself at the duo in a last attempt to kill them, costing him his life in the process.

One trait that stays consistent with him, loyalty aside, is his fearlessness. He demonstrated the least amount of fear and wimpyiness, even compared to Bowser and Kamek as the former is insecure about himself whenever competition for Peach is present, and Kamek can feel intimidated whenever his king is fuming.

Abilities and Powers[]

The Koopa General has great authority within Bowser's army, being exceeded only by Bowser himself as well as Kamek. He has wings to fly and wields a spear, and has access to a massive tank armed with large teeth and four Bullet Bill launchers. When all else fails, his trump card is a seemingly self-destructive attack where he tucks into his shell, which flies quickly towards a target and strikes it in an explosion.

Biography[]

Past[]

Not much is known about his past, but considering his high status, he most likely went through rigorous training and expertise. This is evident due to his dignified mannerisms and formal language whenever in Bowser's presence.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie[]

He is first seen invading the Penguin Kingdom along with his army, Kamek, and Bowser, in a bid to steal the Super Star stowed away in the Penguin Kingdom's castle, leading the other Koopa Paratroopas via flying down into their offense positions. When Bowser burns down the castle and finds the superstar, the general restrains the Penguin King, who unsuccessfully escapes the Koopa's grasp.

After the invasion, he is seen at a rock party (celebrating said invasion), walking past a Bob-Omb unfazed to get in front of the crowd for Bowser's speech, to which he announces to his army about his plan to marry Princess Peach. Although it's unknown what his reaction was upon hearing Bowser's planned proposal, it's likely he never questioned it due to his loyalty.

While Bowser and Kamek were rehearsing for the former's proposal to Princess Peach, the Koopa General unexpectedly bursts in and explains that Mario, Peach, Toad, and the Kongs are taking a shortcut to the Mushroom Kingdom, giving Bowser the idea to ambush them.

During the kart chase, he bulldozes a few of the Kongs aside trying to kill Mario himself with his tank, with the front, acting as a mouth, eating anything unfortunate enough to stand in its way. He then tells Mario that he'll be a dead man all the while cackling and maliciously grinning. When Mario gets away from him by drifting off the road and landing on a new path, the Koopa General uses bullet bills in an attempt to kill the plumber, which destroys the red kart. Even when Mario hijacks a Koopa's kart and gets away briefly, the General still manages to catch up and eventually destroys the hijacked kart with his tank. Although Mario saves himself from being crushed, the Koopa General maniacally laughs thinking he successfully killed his target. But when he found out that Mario survived, the General gets distracted, gets stomped on by the plumber who then lands on Donkey Kong's kart, and said Kong takes the opportunity to blow up the tank. Furious, the Koopa General walks out of the rubble and fire to make one final attempt to kill both Mario and DK via retracting inside his shell, flying around DK's kart, and destroying part of the rainbow road. This causes both Mario and DK to plummet into the water below and get eaten by a maw ray while Cranky Kong and the rest of the Kong army end up being captured by Bowser's forces, forcing Peach and Toad to retreat.

Considering the Koopa General doesn't appear again after this encounter, it's safe to assume that he died upon impact. This is further backed up as nothing of him remains in the aftermath of the explosion.

Quotes[]

“	YYAAAAAGGHHH!!!	„
	~ Koopa General's first yell leading the other Koopa Paratroopas.

“	Koopa General: We have found the princess and the mustachioed human! He has defeated Donkey Kong, and won the Kong Army. Bowser: So, like, Peach was super-impressed? Koopa General: It appears so, yes. They are heading towards their secret passage!	„
	~ The Koopa General's report to Bowser.

“	Time to die, Mario!!	„
	~ Koopa General after catching Mario in his tank.

“	NOOOOOOOO!!!	„
	~ Koopa General as DK's rocket barrel was heading towards him.

Trivia[]

The Koopa General's design is based off of the infamous Blue Shell item, officially known as the Spiny Shell, from the Mario Kart franchise.
- When used, the Blue Shell will always target the person in first place and will explode on impact (which is what the Koopa General does in a scene of the movie, though Peach and Toad were in front of Mario and DK, so the General didn't attack first place like in the games).
It's implied that blue is the highest ranked color of the Koopa Troop as both the Koopa General and Kamek, the two leaders of the army excluding Bowser, wear blue armor and robe respectively.
Considering that he most likely died after striking Mario and Donkey Kong as he isn't seen for the rest of the movie, his final assault on them can be seen as the equivalent of a kamikaze attack.
- If that is the case, then he is one of the few major characters in the entire Mario franchise to commit suicide.
  - In addition, this may be the first case in a long time where a villain's servant in a PG movie sacrifices himself (by his loyalty to his boss) on screen, or perhaps even the very first time.
  - However, his self-destructive attack was the catalyst for the argument between Mario and Donkey Kong.
Scott Menville also worked with Khary Payton, who voiced the Penguin King, in the TV series Teen Titans.
His spiky helmet could possibly reference the Army Hammer Bro from Super Princess Peach.
His alias in the movie credits is Koopa General, but the two words are switched around for marketable items of him.
In a leaked concept art, it was shown that there were going to be more Koopas wearing the exact same armor as the General, color palette and all. For some unknown reason, this idea was scrapped and only the General wore the blue shell-inspired armor.

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See Also
Donkey Kong Villains | Luigi's Mansion Villains | Paper Mario Villains | Wario Villains | Super Mario-kun Villains

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