Bonetail

"AROOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

- Bonetail

Bonetail is a large, skeletal dragon in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door residing at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials. He is the older brother of Gloomtail and Hooktail. Unlike his still-living siblings, he is an undead dragon, having died of old age after not eating anything for centuries at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials. He was once a pet of the Shadow Queen, but he is never stated why or how Bonetail came to reside at the bottom of the Pit. According to Grifty, Bonetail, along with his two siblings, went around the world terrorizing people some time before the Shadow Queen was imprisoned behind The Thousand-Year Door. There is some regional dispute over the gender of Bonetail, as while the English version depicts Bonetail as male, other versions depict Bonetail as female. In the Italian version, Bonetail's name is derived from "Cassandra", a girl's name.

After Mario and his teammates reach the bottom floor of the Pit of 100 Trials, Bonetail will roar, making it questionable if he can talk, as he never demonstrates that ability. Bonetail's many breaths cause a variety of status ailments in addition to dealing damage. His blue breath can freeze Mario, green breath can cause confusion, purple can shrink Mario or his partner, and white has the effect of a Sleepy Sheep. All of his fire breath attacks can be avoided with Shell Shield or simply guarding. If Mario defeats Bonetail, he coughs up a chest containing the Return Postage Badge.

Bonetail is much stronger than his younger siblings, Hooktail and Gloomtail, and even than the Shadow Queen. He is the strongest boss in the game; Bonetail can restore 20 HP when having lower HP, and has the most HP out of any enemy. Additionally, Bonetail has the same default attack and defense stats as Gloomtail, with other buffs added throughout the fight (but note that Bonetail doesn't have all of Gloomtail's attacks, like Earthquake or Megabreath).

Trivia

 * Bonetail, along with Gloomtail, possesses one of the very few attacks in the game that cannot be blocked with a Guard or Superguard: the bite attack. Other such attacks are the Bulky Bob-ombs and Bob-ulk's explosions.
 * If the player is skilled enough, it is possible to defeat Bonetail before fighting his youngest sibling, Hooktail. By using a series of glitches, Bonetail can be reached before beating the prologue.
 * Despite being the strongest boss, Bonetail only offers one Star Point after defeat, just like the Shadow Queen.
 * In the early version of Bonetail's head, he is depicted with blue eyes.
 * At the beginning of the fight with Bonetail, Mario's partner will make a comment regarding Bonetail:
 * Goombella: "Wow! What a freak!"
 * Koops: "Yikes! What a grump!"
 * Flurrie: "Mercy! Such anger!"
 * Yoshi: "Whoa! What a psycho!"
 * Vivian: "Wow! What a grouch!"
 * Admiral Bobbery: "Rather a crabby sort, eh?"
 * Ms. Mowz: "My! What a crab!"
 * When equipping enough Power Rush badges to give Mario the highest attack possible (99 damage), and as a standalone enemy by excluding Grodus equipping four Grodus Xs to shield him upon starting his battle, as well as the Shadow Queen's first phase of being invincible upon doing at least 60 damage total, Bonetail is the only boss that cannot be defeated in one turn without using FP (a la the Power Bounce badge) or a leveled-up partner to deal the final blow.

Lohviata Ossandra