Shadow Queen

"Then, you wretched fools... you will learn the error of your ways!"

- Shadow Queen

The Shadow Queen is the final boss of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. An ancient 1,000-year demon from the dark beyond, the Shadow Queen came to the Mushroom World with designs on enslaving it and becoming its tyrannical ruler. To this end, she destroyed an ancient civilization and began a conquest on the entire world with the aid of numerous monsters and the Crystal Stars, incredible treasures of amazing power said to be capable of holding the essence of the heavens themselves. In the end, her plans are ruined, and she is sealed away by four heroes within The Thousand-Year Door, though her demonic spirit would continue to live on and influence others into planning her resurrection. The basis of the game revolves around numerous villains working together to revive her. Each of them has his or her own agenda for doing so, though, but the Shadow Queen represents the source of all conflict for the entire game.

Background
Legend has it that the Shadow Queen simply appeared one day and waged war against the city where Rogueport now stands. She destroyed the city and all who opposed her. The city eventually succumbed to the Queen's rule. She transformed a quarter of the city into the Palace of Shadows, which was her personal base.

With the city under her control, the Queen planned to conquer the rest of the world. She created an army of demonic beasts, the three Shadow Sirens, and the three dragons, Hooktail, Gloomtail, and Bonetail. She used her forces to wreak havoc on any settlement she could.

The Queen then created the Crystal Stars, which held the essence of the heavens. The Queen planned to use the stars to remake the planet in her image. She hid the stars in fortresses and castles across the land. She also created the Pit of 100 Trials to torture those who opposed her.

When the Queen was nearing the peak of her power, four warriors emerged to stop her. They were a Toad, a Goomba, a Koopa, and a Boo. The four planned to steal the Crystal Stars and use their power against the Queen. They gathered the stars and mounted an attack on the Shadow Palace. They fought through the Queen's entire army, until finally they reached the Queen. The warriors destroyed the Queen's body and sealed her spirit in the foundations of the palace.

The Queen had cursed the warriors before her death, causing them to prepare for the day when she would return. They sealed the palace entrance using the Crystal Stars, and hid the stars where only a pure-hearted hero would be able to obtain them.

The Queen left behind her Shadow Sirens, who began preparations for her revival. They spread a rumor that a great treasure was sealed in the Shadow Palace so that as many people as possible would try to break the seal.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
One thousand years pass and the warriors, the Shadow Queen, and their great battle fade into nothing more than a legend. Since one millennium has almost passed since the Queen's defeat, the seal on the palace door begins to fade and the Shadow Queen's servants, the Shadow Sirens, know the time to release their queen is coming. In preparation to release their queen and ensure that she obtains the Crystal Stars when she awakens, the Shadow Sirens join the cult of the X-Nauts, a criminal organization of unknown origin that exists to conquer the world. With this information Beldam, the head of the Shadow Sirens, manages to convince the X-Nauts master, Sir Grodus, to seek out the Crystal Stars and use them to release the Shadow Queen. Grodus, who hopes to rule the world, believes that by releasing the Shadow Queen he will be able to control her and use her to fulfill his dream of destroying the world and recreating it into his image with his organization serving as the ruling elite. However, this is was nothing more than a mere tale of fabrication made up by Beldam just to convince Grodus to enlist his help, who is blissfully unaware that the Shadow Queen is an evil beyond any form of control.

With the X-Nauts playing into her hands, Beldam comes into possession of the chest that contains the Magic Map the four heroes originally sealed away and gives it to Grodus, telling him that it would be the ideal way of finding a maiden of pure heart. If the queen returns to full power, a vessel is needed that she could possesses in order to cultivate her dark energies and powers once again. The vessel however, needs to be one of pure origin and seeing how the chest can only be opened by someone of such nature, it would be the perfect way to find such an individual. Grodus approves of the plan and has Beldam disguise herself as a merchant, selling various items they looted while looking for people to open the chest in Rougeport. Eventually Beldam finds the perfect person to open it who turns out to be none other than Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. While Beldam finds the perfect maiden, she is unable to abduct Princess Peach right there and then because of too many witnesses. Peach in the meantime mails the map to Mario to aid in searching for the treasure. As a result, Grodus loses his patience and sends his army to abduct the princess while she is in a back alley and search for the map themselves.

Beldam resides in the shadows of the organization, making sure that everything is going to plan and aiding the X-Nauts in any way she can to obtain the Crystal Stars and stop Mario and his companions. With the seal on the Thousand-Year Door weakening and Grodus's intelligence at her side, the queen's resurrection seems assured. Attempting to collect the stars the X-Nauts are foiled at every turn by the hero Mario and his friends (including another traitor to the Queen). Eventually Mario, after defeating Grodus's second in command Lord Crump and shutting down the X-Naut base, manages to claim the last Crystal Star. In the meantime, Beldam abducts Frankly and has him locked in a secluded area and Grodus has Doopliss, a new associate of Beldam, disguise himself as the aged professor. In this guise, he is able to convince Mario to open the door and allow entry for Grodus. Mario does and goes after Grodus who, along with a kidnapped Princess Peach, had entered the Palace of Shadow shortly after Mario cracked the seal on it with the Crystal Stars. Eventually after making his way through the palace traps, Mario encounters and battles Grodus. When Grodus is defeated he chooses not to accept it and uses the Princess as a hostage, it is only with the intervention of Bowser that Peach is saved from harm. Unfortunately Bowser engages Mario and his friends in battle along with his assistant Kammy Koopa, this distracts Mario and co. long enough for Grodus to escape with Peach to the Queen's chamber. After Mario defeats Bowser and Kammy he goes after Grodus and corners him in the chamber, there it is revealed why Grodus needs the Princess. It seems the Shadow Queen needs a body to be revived fully and Grodus plans to use Peach as the Queen's host body.

Summoning the Queen, Grodus presents her with Peach whom she then possesses, her summoning engulfing the world in darkness. Grodus, thinking the Queen is under his control because he revived her, orders her to destroy Mario. The Queen, insulted by Grodus thinking her to be a slave, blows apart his robotic body. The Shadow Sirens then appear, and Beldam explains to the Shadow Queen that they created the myth of an ancient treasure and tricked Grodus into reviving her. The Shadow Queen then sees Mario, and offers him a choice of being her servant, which he refuses (the player can choose yes, but it will result in an instant Game Over). She then attacks Mario, and while the fight is not too hard at first, the Shadow Queen eventually becomes invincible. None of Mario's or his companion's attacks are able to do any damage to the Queen and all Mario can do to survive is to wait until the Crystal Stars come out in response to the evil in the area.

Once the Crystal Stars appear, they transport themselves to their respective locations, one per location (except the last Crystal Star appears in Fahr Outpost, rather than the Moon). They then allow the people in that area to communicate to Mario. Once this is discovered, the friends who Mario had made during the course of his journey encourage him with their pleasant thoughts, which are communicated through the Crystal Stars. This distracts the Shadow Queen long enough for Peach to gain momentary control and give Mario all her power (restoring his Star Abilities in the process). Receiving full power, Mario can now harm the Shadow Queen and the true battle begins. After a lengthy and intense showdown, the demon is defeated and she expresses disbelief at how she could be beaten by such beings after waiting years to be revived. She was sealed and is sent to the netherworld forever. Peach is released perfectly unharmed, while the rest of the Queen's followers flee and eventually turn good all together. With the queen finally sealed, the world enjoys a sense of peace with her army and influence gone at last. Mario, Peach, and all their friends then go back to Rogueport to celebrate.

Super Mario-Kun
The Shadow Queen also appears in the Super Mario-Kun manga adaptation of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door's plot.

Personality
Like many Mario villains within the series, the Shadow Queen is shown to be a cold and calculating villain who cares for nothing but power and control. She is a highly sadistic, power hungry, and ruthless demon whose actions have led to the destruction of entire lands and the deaths of millions. She is shown to be one of the more evil villains within the series as she has been known to be a complete monster, devoid of any type of kindness or goodness, nearly destroying Grodus without a second thought even after he revived her. Unlike some of the other villains, the Shadow Queen possesses no comical undertones whatsoever and only has a sadistic sense of humor. While it is unknown if she instructed Beldam to revive her, the Shadow Queen in essence is responsible for all the events in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Many of the monsters Mario fought were part of her army, and her most loyal followers were the ones manipulating the course of events to revive her.

In addition to being a demon from the dark depths, the Shadow Queen is highly sadistic as all her strongholds and fortresses are overflowing with thousands of mutilated corpses. The corpses were so mutilated that only the skeletons of their former beings were left, their only purpose left was to serve the very being that murdered them. In addition to this, the demon was also in control of the Pit of 100 trials, which eerily resembled a torture chamber. This all contributed to her sadistic personality and thirst for violence. Her evil and power seemed to possess no limits as she created demonic armies, three fierce and immortal dragons, and even the Crystal Stars themselves. The Crystal Stars seem to have unlimited power and taking into account that they represent only portions of the queen's power, her powers seem nearly god like. After years of her reign of terror, her reputation became so horrible and well known, that people shuddered at the mere mention of her or any of her followers and monsters.

She seems to be so evil, that her very presence brings a horrible aura as well as darkness in the skies. Her palace and even the Thousand-Year Door itself all have a horrible feeling and even the thugs of Rogueport stay away from the door due to the feeling it evokes. Unsurprisingly, the queen was able to instill massive fear in not just the world itself, but her followers as well. While the demon's followers are shown to be loyal, this seems to be as a result of fear rather than respect. Even after her first defeat, her minions, the Shadow Sirens, attempted to revive her by using other villains. It is later shown that they turn good after her destruction, hinting that they were never truly evil, but were afraid of the queen's wrath should she return without their assistance. Other than the stories told within the game, not much more is known about the demon and it seems that she has done nothing else within her existence other than creating destruction, chaos, and mass murder. As of now, it has been stated that she has been defeated by Mario and sent to the netherworld for all eternity.

Power and Abilities
The Shadow Queen, being an ancient demon, is in control of numerous powers. At her full power, she is completely invincible (even attacks that pierce defense don't work on her), and can only be made vulnerable with the power of the Crystal Stars. In her spiritual form, she is able to use her hands to drain the life force of her enemies. This damages her opponents while at the same time giving her energy and also pierces their defense. In addition to this attack, her arms are also capable of smashing opponents to the ground. Her hands are considered separate enemies. However, whenever they're defeated, the Shadow Queen revives them a turn later. The Shadow Queen is also able to strike her opponents with lightning, an attack that is difficult to avoid due to how fast it is implemented and pierces Mario and his companion's defenses. When in a dire situation, the queen will often resort to poison, confusion, or allergic toxins. One makes her opponent lose health every turn, another makes her opponent so incapacitated that he or she will often attack their own allies or miss an attack all together, and the last one makes her opponent resistant to status changes, thus making Mario and his partners unable to use Power Lift or a Boo's Sheet.

One of the most harmful attacks of the queen is when she summons upon dozens of demonic hands to come up from the ground and drag her victims down to be issued a large beating. A even stronger attack with her dead hands is when she uses them to stampede Mario or his partners, which if not protected against can deal 12 damage. Her dead hands can pierce defense. The demonic queen used this early in the battle with Mario to murder the audience members and drain their life force to give her full health and power. Another very harmful attack is when the queen uses one full turn to build up energy and then release demonic energies at her enemies. This attack alone can take off a large portion of Mario's health. Her strongest attack consists of sending out black waves of darkness, which hits Mario and his party member, but this attack takes a turn to charge up before she can use it, allowing Mario avoid it with Vivian's Veil ability. The Shadow Queen also has the ability to temporarily raise her attack and defense by noticeable amounts, and when the queen has her attack and defense raised, she is able to do the Megawave, a special and powerful attack reminiscent of Mario's own Supernova created when the queen charges and boosts her attack and defense power by 3, dealing 17 damage, and, if the player is using the P-Up, D-Down badge, the damage can be devasting, dealing up to 20 (if the player uses 3 P-Up, D-Down badges). While not considered to be a battle power, the queen also holds the ability to possess other beings for her own uses. The Queen seems to be immortal. She holds the abilities of creating unlimited amounts of demonic monsters and other spirits to do her bidding.

Trivia

 * Some of the Shadow Queen's speech and behavior varies somewhat between the Japanese and English versions of the game. In the Japanese version, she speaks in a far more down-to-earth manner. For example, when she sees Mario and his party members, she describes them as looking "agreeable," and when she offers them a second chance to serve her, she says if they agree she will "Let by-gones be by-gones." In the English version, she speaks more formally, and is more condescending, describing, backhandedly, Mario and his party members as looking weak, but possibly useful, and when she sees Beldam she says "what ages have past."
 * The Shadow Queen recognizes Beldam and Marilyn, but not their sister, Vivian. Combined with her naivety about their true scheme, it would seem that Vivian wasn't alive during the Shadow Queen's initial reign, and that Beldam never told her about her true intentions.
 * The Shadow Queen (first phase, both before and after transformation) is one of four chapter bosses that the Yoshi Kid can swallow. The others are Macho Grubba, Doopliss, and Sir Grodus.
 * The Shadow Queen is one of the only female final bosses in the Mario series, alongside Cackletta and Elder Princess Shroob.