Bowser

"Penguin King: Do you yield? Bowser: (evil chuckle) I do not."

- Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer.

King Bowser (sometimes known as King Koopa) is a major character and the main antagonist of the Mario franchise. He's the king of the Koopa Kingdom, and has been the archenemy of the Mario Bros. since his debut in the first Super Mario Bros, repeatedly kidnapping Princess Peach (or trying to do so) with the ultimate goal of defeating Mario and taking over the Mushroom Kingdom.

Why He's a Grade-A, 100% Prime-Cut Final Boss

 * 1) When Bowser was created, he was a typical villain without much personality beyond simply wanting to take over the Mushroom Kingdom. Later games started showing various different aspects of Bowser's character, depending on the nature of the plot.
 * 2) * While his platformer role continues to be that of a simple antagonist, his Mario Party antics typically depict him being more angry, childish, and mischievous than dangerous, and his portrayals in the RPGs range from a threatening, yet humorous villain, to a playable anti-hero.
 * 3) * Even when Bowser is acting as a protagonist in a game, however, he continues to insist he is an evil character, and his reasons for helping the protagonists are typically his own selfishness. In some games, he even breaks the fourth wall to do so.
 * 4) His goofy and hammy incarnation in the Super Mario Bros Super Show and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 is very entertaining to watch, he's pretty much on par with AoStH's Robotnik and King K. Rool from the Donkey Kong Country TV series with being really entertaining and hilarious villains.
 * 5) He's more than a generic princess-napping dragon, he's the king, and he'll make sure you know it. The Koopa King has a sense of style and showmanship when it comes to his dastardly deeds, after all, he is the King of Awesomeness.
 * 6) *The biggest examples of this would be in Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey, the former having Bowser ride in a gold-plated muscle car with an entire world themed after a lit-up carnival, and the latter having Bowser dressed in dapper wedding attire for his big day.
 * 7) *Even in the more standard games, Bowser shows off his ego by having his castles designed in his likeness, many of them having his head as the entrance and his spikey shell as the roof.
 * 8) While not exactly a genius, he's nevertheless cunning and clever while still remaining an arrogant brute, take for example, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, where Bowser plays dumb for most of the game and betrays Antasma once everything falls into place for him, also getting to be the all-powerful final boss of the game.
 * 9) While he is a villain through and through, Bowser won't tolerate Mario getting beaten unless it's on his terms, because the only person entitled to defeat that pesky plumber is him. In Mario Super Slugger 's ending, Bowser is the one to save Mario from an oncoming Bullet Bill, and immediately walks away instead of staying to get thanked. In Super Mario Galaxy, he says that he "chose the right guy to be [his] archenemy", and continues by saying that Mario always puts up a fight as a compliment, implying that despite his countless losses, Bowser really enjoys his battles with Mario.
 * 10) Not only is he just as strong as Mario, he is even capable of pulling an entire island to the shore of a beach!
 * 11) He might act tough, but Bowser does have a soft side underneath that intimidating shell (pun entirely intended). He's a single father who tries his best to raise Bowser Jr., and he often treats his troops with respect.
 * 12) He has a perfect villainous design for his species, combining standard Koopa elements with those of a typically fire-breathing dragon. His Dry Bowser form looks awesome and intimidating as well.
 * 13) Contrasting Mario, who is usually a silent protagonist, Bowser has many great quotes that show off his personality.
 * 14) *“But... But I'm Bowser! I'm grade-A, 100% prime-cut final boss! I'm going to take over the world any day now! No way am I helping Mario! He's always trashing my awesome plans."
 * 15) *“Huuuuurgh! My brain hurts! I can't keep up with plot points this complicated!”
 * 16) *“Come on! Man up a little. You never give up this easy when you attack MY castle!”
 * 17) *“You believed your prophecy, and we believed in mopping the floor with you!”
 * 18) *“Hey, origami girl! Look at me. I'm Bowser! I breathe fire and punch through solid rock sometimes! You think I'm scared of that little twerp? Plus, I mean... I'm raising Junior! You think that's easy? Try parenting a high-energy kid with access to a flying car and his own army! Your brother doesn't scare me.”
 * 19) *“GWAHAHA! Great dark hurricane! Seriously, perfect backdrop for an awesome final battle! You really sweat the details! Listen up! You're saying the kingdom will vanish? NOT TODAY! THIS KINGDOM IS ALL MINE! SO YOU VANISH!”
 * 20) *“Hear this! I will kidnap Peach OVER and OVER until I pull it off! And no one can stop me! Losing is not an option! And neither is giving up!”
 * 21) *“One of the nice things about being evil is, you get to lie a lot.”
 * 22) Harvey Atkin, Scott Burns, and Kenny James are awesome at making him sound like the goofy evil beast he is, and Jack Black gives an awesome performance in the upcoming movie as seen in the teaser trailer.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) His portrayal in the Super Smash Bros. series is lackluster, as it lacks the humanity and goofiness that makes him so endearing, being nothing more than a fearsome beast. He doesn't even have his voice from the mainline series, instead only being generic monster noises. What makes this especially baffling, is that Bowser Jr. and the Koopalings are all represented quite faithfully compared to Bowser himself.
 * 2) *His appearance in the first New Super Mario Bros. also lacks his silly personality and voice, but this is thankfully not an issue in later sequels.
 * 3) *His portrayal in mh:terribletvshows:King Koopa's Kool Kartoons feels a bit off. As he is depicted as the titular villain who, while having the same personality in the Super Show and the Super Mario Bros. 3 show, takes over a television studio with the help of his troops (children dressed as Koopas) and starts his own program in which he gives out prizes to the children in the audience, which is flat-out weird and doesn't make too much sense since King Koopa is a tyrant in the cartoons, and he has a very horrifying character design that is supposed to be faithful to his animated counterpart from the DiC cartoons.
 * 4) * His portrayal in the Super Mario Bros (1993) movie as President Koopa (despite being played by Dennis Hopper), is bland for the most part. As he is a calculating and manipulative person who pretends to be a lawyer for Mario and Luigi only and not hiding his lies in public, his goal and motive are to mutually merge both dimensions, citing that he intends to use Daisy to merge them for the future of his species that was extinct; which doesn't make that much sense. The only two memorable scenes he provided were him saying "monkey" and him ordering a pizza could've been funny but it really wasn't.
 * 5) Doesn't always provide fresh twists in his casual schemes or fights, which can get kind of stale and predictable, especially in the New Super Mario Bros. series.
 * 6) There are times when he can fail to seem like an actual threat, specifically in games where he's supposed to be the main antagonist.
 * 7) * Best examples include his bridge that has an axe that Mario can touch and easily makes Bowser fall to his doom (an very iconic setup that allows Mario to win over him all the time), setting explosive spikes that Mario can throw him into in Super Mario 64 (another iconic setup that lets Mario easily defeat him), and his arrogance making him fallible in the cartoons and spin-off games like Hotel Mario.

Videos
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