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 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) 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.
 * 11) He has a perfect villainous design for his species, combining standard Koopa elements with those of a fire-breathing dragon. His Dry Bowser form looks awesome and intimidating as well.
 * 12) Contrasting Mario, who is usually a silent protagonist, Bowser has many great quotes that show off his personality.
 * 13) *“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."
 * 14) *“Huuuuurgh! My brain hurts! I can't keep up with plot points this complicated!”
 * 15) *“Come on! Man up a little. You never give up this easy when you attack MY castle!”
 * 16) *“You believed your prophecy, and we believed in mopping the floor with you!”
 * 17) *“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.”
 * 18) *“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!”
 * 19) *“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!”
 * 20) *“One of the nice things about being evil is, you get to lie a lot.”
 * 21) Harvey Atkin, Scott Burns, and Kenny James are awesome at making him sound like the goofy evil beast he is, and Jack Black is sure to give an awesome performance in the upcoming movie.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) His portrayal in the Super Smash Bros. series is awful, as it lacks the humanity 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 personality and voice, but this is thankfully not an issue in later sequels.
 * 3) *His incarnation in mh:terribletvshows:King Koopa's Kool Kartoons is flat-out weird and he has a very horrifying character design that is supposed to be faithful to his animated counterpart from the DiC cartoons.
 * 4) Doesn't always provide fresh twists in his casual schemes or fights, which can get kind of stale and predictable, such as in the New Super Mario Bros. series.
 * 5) There are times when he can fail to seem like an actual threat, even in games where he's supposed to be the main villain.

Videos
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