Ludwig von Koopa

Ludwig von Koopa (known as Kooky von Koopa in the cartoons) is the oldest member and presumed leader of the seven Koopalings. This group is closely loyal to Bowser and were originally depicted as his children, with Ludwig serving as his second-in-command and presumed heir to the Koopa throne. However, games released after the Koopalings' debut in Super Mario Bros. 3 usually downplayed or ignored the idea that they were Bowser's children, and Super Mario Sunshine later introduced Bowser Jr., who appeared to take on the role of Bowser's protégé and second-in-command. The Japanese version of New Super Mario Bros. Wii confirmed that Junior ranked higher than Ludwig and the other Koopalings, and in a 2012 interview, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that Nintendo's current story was that the Koopalings were not Bowser's children.

Like the other Koopalings, not much of Ludwig's personality has been revealed, though it is known that he is highly intelligent and somewhat arrogant and is said to be the cruelest of all the Koopalings. The Super Mario Adventures comic revealed that he enjoys video games, and Super Mario World stated that he likes to compose "Koopa Symphonies", much like his namesake, Ludwig van Beethoven, who was also the inspiration for the Koopaling's hair design. In battle he displays feats such as making earthquakes and magic blasts, spitting fireballs, shooting lightning blasts from his hands and the ability to teleport from place to place. Ludwig even has the ability to flutter jump like Yoshis or levitate.

Super Mario Bros. 3
In Super Mario Bros. 3, Ludwig was charged with taking over Pipe Maze. Easily doing so with the aid of his Airship and armies, Ludwig stole the wand of Pipe Maze's king, whom he turned into either a Piranha Plant or Yoshi, depending on the version of the game. He and Roy are the Koopalings that can make people freeze, just like the Sledge Bro.

Boarding Ludwig's airship, Mario managed to fight his way to Ludwig's cabin, there he engaged the Koopa prince in battle. In battle, Ludwig goes into his shell and tries to roll into Mario. Though fast and capable of making stunning earthquakes and magic blasts, Ludwig was defeated and his control over Pipe Maze was at an end. Mario moved on to World 8, where he would soon defeat Bowser.

The GBA remake, Super Mario Advance 4, expands Ludwig's role slightly with the (Japanese-only) e-reader level Kokuppa ni Damasareru na!, where he hid out at a docking area for maritime vessels. If the player took the bottom route to fight Ludwig, he'll fight Mario or Luigi in a flat cabin, and will end up being defeated in one stomp by either of the Mario Bros. However, if the player goes to the end of the armada, they will fight Ludwig in a cabin with an uneven floor, and he will require the usual three stomps to be defeated. His level acted as the penultimate level to the final e-reader level card (counting "Kuppa no Hikōsen Zenpen" and "Kuppa no Hikōsen Kōhen" as one level).

Super Mario World
After he was defeated by Mario, Ludwig was assigned to occupy the fourth world of Dinosaur Land, the Twin Bridges, in Super Mario World.

During his battle with Mario, Ludwig utilized a unique combat strategy: spitting fireballs, sliding around in his spiked shell, and occasionally making huge leaps. Mario or Luigi can stomp on him three times or hit him with a dozen fireballs or a combination of the two methods. Ultimately, he was defeated a second time by Mario who 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. The text that accompanies this suggests that he isolated himself to compose Koopa symphonies, at least until Mario showed up to ruin his work. However, this was added by the localizers.

Ludwig is the only Koopaling whose battle wasn't reused for another Koopaling. Also, like the others, his in-game sprite is coloured differently than his official artwork: he is orange.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Ludwig and the other Koopalings reappeared in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, after six years of absence, now alongside Bowser Jr. His physical appearance remains relatively unchanged, except for his shell, which is now blue instead of green and he now has blue eyebrows.

He first appears in the opening scene, in which Ludwig and the rest of his siblings jump out of a cake at Princess Peach's birthday party, then trapped her inside it by throwing the cake at her and runs away. Mario, Luigi, Yellow Toad, and Blue Toad travel through the Mushroom Kingdom to defeat them, as well as Kamek and Bowser, and save Princess Peach. He is later implied to have commanded the Airship to leave without Bowser Jr., causing Bowser Jr. to chase after it and Mario to board it the second time. He appears as both the fortress and castle boss of World 7.

The stage for the fortress battle is a straight ground with a pit on both sides. When he sees Mario, he will look away and snicker.

When battling him at his tower, before the player(s) could reach him, he conjures a blue fireball from his wand (he is the fastest to cast a spell out of all the bosses) which slowly homes into the player(s). After that, he then jumps really high and Flutter Jumps above the player(s) whom he is trying to stomp on. After landing, Ludwig then conjures another homing fireball if he is not stomped on. When jumped on, Ludwig retreats back to his shell and spins it to the left and right of the stage in a attempt to hit the player(s) (accompanied by his homing fireballs if it hasn't made contact with anything yet). When he is stomped on 3 times, he is defeated and retreats to his castle.

The stage for the castle battle is three separate, rising platforms which Kamek activated with his magic. The platforms rise up and down during the fight and the sides move in unison while the middle does not. The player(s) could also fall between the spaces between the platforms and lose a life. It is strongly noted that the characters do not get affected by the platforms rising (the player(s) jump normally as if the platforms aren't even rising at all, only the background moves).

In the castle, unlike the tower battle, his fireballs no longer home in, but instead they split into four and it takes more time to cast them. He uses his Flutter Jumping ability to get to another section of a platform. The player(s) can tell in which platform he is going to land due to his legs being visible in the screen, Flutter Jumping for a few seconds before landing. When Ludwig is hit, he slides around in his shell, but he will only slide on the platform he is on, rather than sliding to another platform. He also spends a very limited amount of time in his shell. When he is hit two times, he shoots out another four fireballs after he casts his first set of fireballs. When finally defeated, Ludwig falls off-screen and Mario gets the key to World 8.

Although Ludwig fell during his castle battle with Mario, he was seen along with the other Koopalings getting Bowser back up, only to have Bowser's castle fall on top of all of them.

It is worth noting that he is one of the only two bosses fought in the same order as Super Mario Bros. 3 (the other being Larry, who was the first one Mario fought in both games). Ludwig has an audible voice in-game for the first time. He is portrayed by Mike Vaughn, who gives Ludwig a much deeper voice than the cartoon series' actor. In addition, he is the most resistant Koopaling to Fire Mario's fireballs.

New Super Mario Bros. 2
Ludwig, alongside the other Koopalings, reappears in New Super Mario Bros. 2. He is the World 5 castle boss. He'll once again look away and snicker before battling Mario. In his battle, Ludwig uses his flutter jump ability to grab one of the five chains hanging from the ceiling to attack Mario with 3 blue fireballs, while Mario has to use the five grey pipe cannons on the floor to blast himself against Ludwig fast enough. After that, Ludwig falls onto the floor and gets dizzy. Then Mario can jump on his head. After stomping him once, he starts to shoot four fireballs. After two stomps, the chain Ludwig hangs on starts to swing, making it harder for Mario to hit him but still shoots four fireballs. After another stomp, Ludwig is defeated, leaving the key to World 6.

Ludwig survived the encounter, and rejoined his companions at Bowser's castle, where they attempted to petrify Mario with their Koopa Clown Car's petrification device. He also aided Bowser alongside the rest of the Koopalings by causing him to grow larger, but it resulted in him and the others being knocked into a lava pit by Bowser due to his increased size. He and the other Koopalings survived, however, and attempted to help Bowser by airlifting him with the Koopa Clown Car, but this resulted in it crashing due to it being unable to handle the combined weight of both them and Bowser. Ludwig was some distance away from the crash site with his head down, apparently sulking.

New Super Mario Bros. U
Ludwig, along with the rest of the Koopalings, Bowser Jr., and Bowser, appears in New Super Mario Bros. U, and serves as the final Koopaling boss to be fought, specifically in the world Meringue Clouds. He once again turns and snickers before battling Mario. His boss battle, like Iggy's and Larry's, involves him using his magic wand, and like Roy Koopa, his battle takes place in the crow's nest.

In battle he levitates in the air while making two duplicates of himself, and all three will blast fireballs at Mario before dropping onto the ground. If the duplicate is jumped on, it will simply disappear. There are 2 ways to find out which is the real one. The one that is the real one fires three fireballs, while the duplicates fire 2. The real Ludwig will also drop to the ground last, after the duplicates. When the fight starts off, after shooting their fireballs, the clones disappear before landing. After the first stomp, the duplicates don't disappear, making it a little harder on which is the real Ludwig. After the second stomp, not only do Ludwig and his duplicates shoot faster, but swap positions, but the real Ludwig still shoot three fireballs. After being stomped on three times, Ludwig falls out of the crow's nest and off screen, and his airship is destroyed by Mario. He is last seen hanging from Bowser's tail along with the other Koopalings as they all fly away on Bowser Jr.' heavily damaged airship at the conclusion of the game.

Ludwig has his own personalized airship, with his face as the bow, and his blue-colored shell at the top. The stern of his ship has a green color design, similar to his former shell color from past appearances. Like most of the airships, Ludwig's airship is equipped with a propeller at the back of his ship as well as another one placed just beneath the crow's nest. The airship is equipped with two cannons, one on each side. There are also orange lids on top of the cannons used for closing and opening the cannons. The airship has a unique feature. The hull is rimmed with green, and there is a balcony-like platform at the base of its mast. Like Roy, the interior of Ludwig's ship is unknown since the player never gets the chance to enter the cabin and instead fights Ludwig at the crow's nest.

Additionally, in the fastest possible route to complete New Super Mario Bros. U, Ludwig is the only Koopaling that needs to be fought.

Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros.
The Koopalings were featured in the Amada Anime Series: Super Mario Bros., a set of three Japanese OVAs. In the Mario retelling of the story "Momotaro", Ludwig and the other Koopalings appear as minions of Bowser, aiding him in abducting Princess Toadstool. In "Shirayukihime" (or Snow White), the Koopalings also appear in similar roles; Ludwig ends up being beaten by Mario like the other Koopalings.

DIC Cartoons
Ludwig also appears prominently in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Super Mario World cartoons produced by DIC Entertainment and Nintendo. Here, Ludwig was portrayed as having a mad scientist-like personality, inventing various gadgets and doo-dads for his father. In the cartoons, Ludwig was renamed Kooky von Koopa, had somewhat messier hair, was smaller in size, had only one spike on his shell, his tail was usually twisted or curved, and also possessed an extremely bizarre laugh. Also, Kooky wasn't the oldest Koopa Kid, as that position was taken by Bully. His personality was different too, as he didn't ever listen to classical music, and was never portrayed as a composer.

In the Super Mario World cartoon, Kooky appeared exactly the same with the exception of the episode The Wheel Thing, where his snout was colored the same as the rest of his body. His silent appearance in Rock TV colors his snout a lighter shade, as in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3.

"Baby Ludwig", or more appropriately, Baby Kooky, has made his first appearance in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode, "Toddler Terrors of Time Travel", which had Kooky, as well as Mario, Luigi, Toad and Bowser, regressed to infant states due to a malfunction with a time machine.

Comics
Ludwig appears in the Nintendo Comics System's story Bowser Knows Best, and the Super Mario Adventures comic, where he and his siblings aid Bowser in his attempt to marry Princess Peach. Here, he is portrayed as the most cynical of the Koopalings, disbelieving that Princess Peach would ever agree to marry his father. He is also in charge of communication with Bowser through their television.

He makes another short appearance in the Club Nintendo comic "Super Mario: Erholung? Nein, danke!", where he works as a mechanic for KoopAir. The plane he is working on takes off before he even finishes his work.

Nintendo Adventure Books
In Leaping Lizards, either Ludwig or Larry compete alongside five of their siblings in the International Mushroom Games.

In Koopa Capers, Ludwig and his brothers have their wands stolen by Wendy, who disappears with them shortly afterward, intent on overthrowing their father with her own army, and a super wand she intends to create by fusing her own wand with her brothers'. If Luigi, who had been coerced by Bowser into searching for Wendy, tracks the female Koopaling down to her hideout, Bowser and male Koopalings, who had been following him, will barge in after the plumber, but decide to stave off punishing Wendy for her mutiny if she helps search for the hiding Luigi. If Luigi had acquired Boom Boom's socks earlier in his adventure, he can toss them into Wendy's simmering wand combination potion, which will release fumes that knock the entire Koopa family and their minions out for at least a week.

In Pipe Down!, Ludwig appears as the main antagonist, having set up a base (complete with a giant pipe organ, stage and Piranha Plant string quartet) in a chamber in Pipe World. After his family refuses to have any part in his new basketball-themed opera, Dribbling Beauty, Ludwig sends a pair of enchanted sneakers to Princess Toadstool, disguised as a gift for her ninety-ninth (in mushroom years) birthday. Once the princess puts the sneakers on, Ludwig has them bring her to his lair by playing his organ; once the princess is in his clutches, Ludwig forces her to take the starring role of the Prima Slamdunkerina in his opera, which he intends to show all over Dark World as a part of nine-year tour. In the book's best ending, Mario and Luigi track Ludwig down, destroy his organ, and cause most of his lair to collapse, an act that actually has the beneficial effect of curing Ludwig's partial deafness. While distracted by his newfound ability to hear with perfect clarity for the first time in fifteen years, Ludwig is knocked out when the princess throws a basketball at his head.

Mario is Missing!
In Mario is Missing!, Ludwig, along with a few of the other Koopalings, invades Earth with Bowser as part of a plot to flood the world by melting Antarctica. Guarding a corridor of Bowser's headquarters, Ludwig battles Luigi, who plans on stopping Bowser's plot and saving the kidnapped Mario. He appears in all versions of the game except for the Nintendo Entertainment System version. In the Super Nintendo Entertainment System version, he is the first boss, while in the PC version, he is the last. In the former, Ludwig appears when Luigi arrives back at the castle after clearing the last of the first floor's cities. Ludwig runs around the castle like mad; however, like the other bosses in the game, he cannot harm Luigi, simply running past him instead. Once Luigi jumps on Ludwig a total of six times, he disappears in a puff of smoke. Defeating Ludwig in combat enables Luigi to move on. In the latter, he obstructs Luigi's path while conducting a baton to an unheard beat. Like the others, all he can take is a fireball.

Yoshi's Safari
The Koopalings later help Bowser conquer Jewelry Land in the game Yoshi's Safari. Ludwig occupies the Mushroom Land region of Jewelry Land.

In battle, Ludwig uses a large robot with four legs, a spiked shell and a retractable head (in which Ludwig himself is stationed). Two cannons are attached to the head. The robot's weak spot is a large red area which Ludwig normally guards with the robot's head. However, as he has to move while he shoots, the red spot often becomes temporarily visible, allowing Mario to destroy it. After the robot explodes, the pieces salvage themselves together into a fighter style mech, which has fists that fly off to attack Yoshi and Mario. Once this robot is also destroyed, Ludwig concedes defeat.

Hotel Mario
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. Ludwig is slow and primarily changes floor via teleportation, though he will take the opportunity to take Mario or Luigi in an elevator if he comes across them. If this happens, he shows no mercy and puts a gluttonous end to them, though at least he has the dignity to keep their cap in his stomach. Despite these new powers, Ludwig is still defeated by the Mario Bros.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
After years of absence, the Koopalings finally made a reappearance in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, acting as guards in Bowser's Castle during Bowletta's invasion of the Beanbean Kingdom. He is the fourth Koopaling to be fought, like in Super Mario World.

Ludwig attacks the Mario Bros. by moving inside his shell, which they have to jump over quickly. However, Ludwig sometimes fakes the brothers out, meaning they had to be observant. Afterwards, Ludwig jumps into the air. Mario and Luigi, confused, attempts to leave the room, only for Ludwig to return, roar angrily at the Mario Bros., and proceed to rush to attack them.

Like in Super Mario World, the eldest Koopaling attacks Mario and Luigi by shooting balls of fire and zooming around in his shell, as well as a spinning attack like Iggy. However, Ludwig is no match for the brothers' teamwork and was ultimately beaten. Defeating him loweres the spikes preventing Mario from hitting a switch, raising a platform and allowing the Mario Bros. to continue to Roy.

Super Princess Peach
Ludwig was originally going to appear in Super Princess Peach, although he was taken out of the final game with the rest of the Koopalings.

Physical Appearance
Like the other Koopalings, Ludwig has yellow and tan skin and a green head. He also has a four-ribbed, padded stomach and padded feet. His facial features are defined, having shaped cheeks, a high nose, a low jaw, and deeply curved lips; his features are most similar to Roy's, although he is unique in having one beaver-like tooth in the upper center of his snout. He has a round head and small, circular eyes, like Morton. Ludwig is similar in height to most other Koopalings; his body is like a wider version of Larry's. Ludwig is best known to have large, wild, blue hair (although it was colored white in his sprites for Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World due to graphical limitations, similar to Larry); aside from slight color differentiation his hairstyle is the same as Flurrie's. He also has small, blue eyebrows. Ludwig's shell was originally green and was once grey in Hotel Mario, but is now blue with light orange rings surrounding the multiple, short spikes. Ludwig wears the same metal, spiked cuffs as the other Koopalings. His redesigned shell also bore a close resemblance to his NES sprite, which was a dark shade of green.

Personality and Traits
Ludwig is the oldest and smartest of the Koopalings, and possibly the most eloquent as well. His exact age is unknown, but he is said to be adult-like, conceited and cruel. Nevertheless, he is very much into culture: he likes listening to classical music and composes his own "Koopa Symphonies" which, according to the comics and adventure books, are horrendous. He was also implied to have been partially deaf at one point (which may have explained why his music was bad), as when Mario caused an explosion that "shook something loose in Ludwig's brain" in Pipe Down! he claimed he could finally hear, and presumably discovered how bad his music was as a result; whether he still chooses to compose music or not is unknown. Ludwig is possibly the most intelligent of the Koopalings, though he doesn't seem to be as much of an inventor as Iggy. His skill with machines was also implied in the Club Nintendo comic ''Super Mario: Erholung? Nein, danke!'', where he worked as a mechanic for the KoopAir airline service, although he wasn't able to completely maintain Mario and his friends' plane before it took off. He also seems to be into horror, as he had a horror-themed hotel in Hotel Mario. His actions in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga also suggests that he gets enraged when the Mario Bros. ignore him. He was also implied to be somewhat treacherous, as evidenced by his leaving without Bowser Jr. shortly after Morton's defeat, which also resulted in Bowser Jr. being forced to allow Mario onto his airship a second time when attempting to re-board the airship. Ludwig was also implied in the Super Mario Adventures comics to be skilled at video games, where his brothers and sister were also rooting for Ludwig to get the 1-Up Mushroom. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and New Super Mario Bros. U, Ludwig has a tendency to turn back and chuckle to himself before saying "oh?" prior to fighting the Mario Bros. In the DOS version of Mario is Missing!, Ludwig seemed to focus on light bulbs and darkness, also once cracking a light-bulb related joke on Mario's expense.

In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World Cartoons, Ludwig's name was changed into Kooky von Koopa, and was portrayed as a stereotypical mad scientist, whose main purpose was to invent new doomsday weapons and gadgets for his father. He would commonly burst out into maniacal laughter or raise his voice by shouting in the middle of talking and seemed to be very aggressive towards the Mario Bros. Kooky didn't also care much about his hygiene; he never washed or combed his hair.

Powers and Abilities
Ludwig is usually portrayed as the most talented and powerful of the Koopalings, mentally, magically, and, alongside Roy and Morton, physically. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Ludwig shared his attack pattern with Roy; Ludwig could fire projectiles from his Magic Scepter, pound the ground to stun the Mario Bros., and retreat in his shell for both defensive and offensive purposes. Although all the Koopalings in Super Mario Bros 3 frequently retreated into their shells when stomped on by the Mario Bros. Ludwig was the only one of the Koopalings to demonstrate doing so at will, without having to be hit by the Mario Bros. He was given a completely unique attack pattern in Super Mario World, which none of the other Koopalings shared; Ludwig could spit three fireballs in a row (thus making him the first Koopaling to have learned the ability to breath fire) and spin around the room in his shell, after which he could perform a long jump to the other side of the room. Ludwig was given even more new powers in Hotel Mario: he can fire electricity from his hands and teleport in a flash of lightning. In Superstar Saga, Ludwig retained his previous abilities of breathing fire (though not as furiously as the previous time) and spinning around in his shell, but also learned the new ability of spinning like a tornado to attack the Mario Bros., which was also done by Iggy. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Ludwig learned even more new abilities. He can either blast four fireballs from his scepter at time or fire a single fireball with circling capabilities, and has even mastered the ability of Flutter Jumping better than the Yoshis themselves, being able to stay in the air for several seconds. His latest appearance in New Super Mario Bros. 2 has him also expanding on these abilities, utilizing the flutter jump to grab a chain, and then move between the two, and in addition, he can also increase his rate of fire. In New Super Mario Bros. U, similar to Lemmy and Wendy in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, he was also revealed to create fake duplicates to fake out the Mario Bros. He also has the ability to levitate, without needing to Flutter Jump.

Bio from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 Writers Bible
''When Koopa's villainous schemes require sheer lunacy, he calls on Kooky. A graduate of Frankenstein University, Kooky loves to construct monsters in his basement lab in Kastle Koopa. He's responsible for many of the new villainous characters in SM3 [sic]. He built the Doomship. Kooky never showers or combs his hair. He sleeps during the day, if he ever sleeps at all. Eats nothing but candy and fried foods.

Trivia

 * Ludwig is one of only two Koopalings whose placement in birth order is officially confirmed, the other being Larry Koopa.
 * Ludwig allegedly being deaf in the comics may have been a reference to his namesake, who was known to have been deaf during his later life, resulting in his aides having to physically turn him around during a standing ovation due to his not hearing the applause.

Quotes

 * "Quite an exciting game isn't it? I'm glad to know that we have such powerful enemies helping us out. We have more guys helping us besides these... but don't tell Mario." - The Super Mario Bros. 3 manual (page 41)
 * "「イエーイ！　のってるかい. 攻撃的で過激な仲間が増えてオイラもうれしいぜ. ベイビー. 実を言うと他にもっと仲間がいるんだけど、そいつはマリオにはナイショだぜ. 」("Yeah! Let's get down. I'm also glad to know that the number of such aggressive and violent enemies helping us out increases. Baby. To tell you the truth, we have more guys helping us besides these, but don't tell Mario.")" - The Super Mario Bros. 3 Japanese manual (page 42)
 * "This is a fun game called "STUFF YOUR FURNITURE DOWN THE DRAIN"!" - Toddler Terrors of Time Travel
 * "Calm down, King Dad! Your cold Koopa blood is getting overheated!" - True Colors
 * "Oh brother, it looks like the nice guy potion is wearing off." - Princess Toadstool for President
 * "Smash! Crush! Pound! Destroy!" - Oh, Brother!
 * "How many Bowsers does it take to unscrew in a lightbulb? Ha ha, only one, and he's dying to plunge Mario into darkness!" - Mario is Missing!
 * "You think YOU'RE in the dark, friend? Just imagine poor Mario without any lightbulbs!" - Mario is Missing!
 * "You made it past the others, but you won't get past me, you wrench wielding weirdo! I'm the mighty Ludwig von Koopa!" - Mario is Missing!
 * "You got at me? ONLY FIRE CAN DESTROY ME!" - Mario is Missing!
 * "Eh? Hmhmhm! Oh..." - New Super Mario Bros. games
 * "Uwaaaaaaaahh!" - After being defeated in his tower in New Super Mario Bros. Wii