Ludwig von Koopa



"I'm a mad genius, not a plumber!"

- Ludwig

Ludwig Von Koopa is the oldest Koopaling and Bowser's second-in-command. As such, he has the greatest authority of all the Koopalings, at least, until the arrival of Bowser Jr. Like the other Koopalings, not much of Ludwig's personality is known; what is known is that he composes "Koopa Symphonies" and is somewhat arrogant and cruel.

The Conquest of Pipe Land
In Super Mario Bros. 3, Ludwig was charged with taking over Pipe Land. Easily doing so with the aid of his airship and armies, Ludwig stole the wand of Pipe Land's king, whom he turned into either a Piranha Plant or Yoshi, depending on the version of the game.

Boarding Ludwig's airship, Mario managed to fight his way to Ludwig's cabin, there he engaged the Koopa prince in battle. Though fast and capable of making stunning earthquakes and magic blasts, Ludwig was defeated and his control over Pipe Land over.

Battle for the Bridges
After he was defeated by Mario, Ludwig was assigned to occupy the fourth world of Dinosaur Land, the Twin Bridges, in Super Mario World. Doing so, he then isolated himself in his castle. During his isolation, he composed Koopa symphonies, at least until Mario showed up to ruin his work.

During his battle with Mario in, Ludwig attacked by spitting fireballs and by sliding around in his spiked shell. Ultimately, he was defeated a second time by Mario. Mario destroys Ludwig's castle by detonating explosive charges near the bottom of the building, sending it flying into a nearby hill. Subsequently the hill is bandaged in the spot it gets hit.

Meltdown
In Mario is Missing!, Ludwig, along with a few of his siblings, invaded Earth with his father, with the plan of flooding the world by melting Antartica. Guarding a corridor of Bowser's headquarters, Ludwig would battle Luigi, who planned on stopping Bowser's plot and saving the kidnapped Mario. In the end, Ludwig was defeated in combat and Luigi managed to move on.

Hi-Tech Battle
Ludwig later helped his father conquer Jewelry Land during the events of Yoshi's Safari. The eldest Koopaling occupied the Mushroom Land region of the kingdom. In battle, Ludwig uses a large robotic Koopa Troopa covered in spikes and equipped with four cannons. Despite the power of his mech, Ludwig is beaten by Yoshi and a Super Scope wielding Mario.

Hotel Havoc
In Hotel Mario, Ludwig appears as the boss in Ludwig's Thump Castle Hotel in Ludwig's Frantic Lab. In this game, Ludwig displayed the previously unseen ability to teleport and shoot blast of lightning from his hands. Despite these new powers, Ludwig is still defeated by Mario.

Ludwig's Return
After years of absence, Ludwig finally made a reappearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. Having made some sort of deal with Bowletta, Ludwig and his siblings (minus Bowser Jr.) act as guards in Bowser's Castle during Bowletta's invasion of the Beanbean Kingdom. Attacking Mario and Luigi by shooting balls of fire and zooming around in his shell. Unfortunately, Ludwig was no match for the Bros. teamwork and was ultimately beaten.

Appearances in Other Media
Ludwig, as well as his siblings were featured in the Super Mario Amada Series, a set of three Japanese OVAs. In the Mario retelling of the story "Momotaro", Ludwig and his siblings appear as minions of Bowser, aiding him in abducting Princess Toadstool. In "Shirayukihime (Snow White)" Ludwig also appears as a minion of Bowser once again, like his brothers and sister, Ludwig ends-up being beaten by Mario.



Ludwig also appears prominently in DiC Entertainment's The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Super Mario World cartoons. Here, Ludwig was portrayed as having mad scientist like personality, inventing various gadgets and doo-dads for his father. In these cartoons, Ludwig was renamed Kooky Von Koopa and he had somewhat messier hair and was smaller in size, he also possessed an extremely bizzare laugh.

Ludwig also appeared in the Nintendo Comics System's Mario comics, as well as Mario's Nintendo Adventure Books. Ludwig also appears in the Super Mario Adventures comic, where he and his siblings aided Bowser in his attempt to marry Princess Peach.

Trivia

 * Ludwig Von Koopa is named after the famous composer Ludwig Van Beethoven. Additionally, both Ludwig's have the same wild hair and both like to compose music.