Dark Fawful

"Bowser! Meet... Fury of Fawful!"

- Fawful

Dark Fawful is the revamped version of Fawful and the penultimate boss of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. In this form, Fawful has greater powers and an altered appearance, featuring red glasses, a cloak that resembles the one worn by his old mistress Cackletta, and his Vacuum Helmet that seemingly has a life of its own.

While his battle in the original game uses the standard boss battle theme, in the remake Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, Dark Fawful has his own battle theme, which is a slowed down arrangement of Cackletta's battle theme from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

History
Fawful transforms into Dark Fawful after stealing the Dark Star and absorbing some of its power, which increases his own powers. After Bowser defeats Super Peach's Castle of Fury, Dark Fawful quickly engages him in battle, which takes place in the Conference Hall, the same area Mario fought Bowser during the first tutorial battle.

Battle
Dark Fawful's attacks vary slightly depending on whether or not Dark Fawful has been severely damaged and/or whether his headgear is still present.

The headgear will move Dark Fawful out of the way of Bowser's punch and fire attacks, and will regularly heal Dark Fawful for 300 HP, until it detaches itself from Dark Fawful. After the headgear detaches itself off Fawful, Bowser can choose to inhale it, allowing Mario and Luigi to fight it. One of Fawful's attacks is to have his headgear grab the chandelier and swing at Bowser, which can be countered by punching Dark Fawful multiple times. After punching him several times, Dark Fawful will swing back behind Bowser in an attempt to ram him, forcing Bowser to duck. Dark Fawful can use his ray gun to create an array of stars in a ring formation, with one star being a red one instead of purple. This star will then turn into the same as the other stars, and lower down to the point Bowser has to duck. Bowser must punch the correct star to blow all the others up and avoid taking damage. Another attack involves Dark Fawful flying to the top of the screen and creating four portals - one on his left and right, one above Bowser, and another one next to Bowser. Dark Fawful will then proceed to toss energy balls through the portals: if he shoots a ball through the portal on his left, Bowser will have to duck, and if he shoots it through the portal on his right, Bowser has to punch the ball. Later in the battle, Fawful may switch the portals next to him around. The final attack involves Fawful spawning four orbs to surround him. Bowser has to time his punches and punch Goombas through the gaps in the orbs to stop the attack. Hitting one of the dark orbs causes the Goomba to fling back at Bowser, and failure to repel the attack will cause all of the orbs to attack Bowser. Later on, Fawful will spawn an extra orb that moves vertically. The star, energy ball and orb attacks may cause Bowser the DEF down status effect.

Bowser can use his special attacks on the Vaccum Helmet as well. If Bowser's power is high enough, Dark Fawful can be defeated without his headgear being inhaled. After he is defeated, the Vacuum Helmet will run away.

In the remake, Dark Fawful's chandelier attack is replaced with a speedier attack; he will swoop at Bowser, who must punch him out of the way. Dark Fawful will zoom in from the back, to which Bowser must duck, and finally zoom in from the front again, to which Bowser must punch once more. Dark Fawful's Vaccum Helmet also heals him for 500 HP instead of 300 each turn.

Upon his defeat, Dark Fawful will become unstable, collapse into a bug, and then flee the room. As soon as he enters the next room, he is forcibly inhaled by the incomplete Dark Bowser and becomes the Dark Star Core, which must be battled as a final boss.

Trivia

 * During the battle, one of Dark Fawful's attacks is shooting multiple stars that move circularly around the room until counterattacked. This move is similar to the move Princess Shroob uses after passing her half-way mark in her Max HP, but Princess Shroob creates just one star-like attack, while Dark Fawful creates multiple from his ray gun.
 * If the challenge medal is equipped, Dark Fawful's orbiting dark energy ball attack is the only Bowser boss attack that can reliably OHKO Bowser (something it probably will do if Bowser is not very overleveled for the fight).

Sogghigno Oscuro