Fawful

"I HAVE CHORTLES!"

- Fawful

Fawful (known as Lord Fawful by his minions) is an eccentric Beanish character who is a recurring antagonist in the Mario & Luigi series. He is notable for speaking in grammatically incorrect English and making obscure food metaphors (e.g. "And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!"). Fawful is a mechanical genius, but his common sense suffers due to his extreme fury which often causes him to act in a delusional manner.

''Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
"I HAVE FURY! In the last moments of the finale of the finale when relief leads to negligence that begets rashness, that is when the comeback that falters comes back and beats your pathetic comeback that I scoff at!"

- Fawful

Though his past is largely unknown, Fawful is inferred to have been a long-time follower of Cackletta prior to the events of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and names himself as a pupil of hers in-game. He is officially confirmed to have gained his status as the greatest of Cackletta's students through his evil genius. Fawful accompanies Cackletta to the Mushroom Kingdom during the events of the game, where he aids her in stealing the Princess's voice. While the two are on their way to the Beanbean Kingdom, they encounter the Mario Bros. and Bowser, who have formed a temporary alliance to stop the two villains. After taking care of Bowser, Fawful attacks the Mario Brothers. After giving Fawful a certain amount of damage, the Bros. destroy Fawful's Vacuum Helmet and then beat him. Unfortunately, Fawful summons another Vacuum Helmet after that and uses it to knock Bowser's Koopa Cruiser out of the sky. Fawful appears again attacking Beanbean guards in the mountains. When Mario and Luigi encounter him, he summons a large stone to block their path.

He later appears in Beanbean Castle, stealing the Beanstar alongside Cackletta. After Cackletta tricks Mario and Luigi into fixing the castle's plumbing, breaking the barrier around the Beanstar, he makes his getaway along with Cackletta, force-feeding Queen Bean a Belly Blech Worm to take care of the Mario Bros.

Fawful attacks Woohoo Hooniversity with Cackletta later in the game; it is there that they plan to awaken the Beanstar with Princess Peach's voice. The plan doesn't work out so well; it seems the Princess had been aware of the villains' plan and had gone into hiding, and the Princess whose voice had been stolen was Birdo. Birdo's squawking voice irritates the Beanstar so much it smashes through the floor and the Mario Bros. show up. After taking out Fawful, the Bros. fight Cackletta, who ends up defeated and crippled upon their victory. Fawful sucks his mistress's energy into his Vacuum Helmet and plans to attack the Mario Bros., only to be stopped and flung through the roof by Prince Peasley. Landing in Stardust Fields, Fawful finds an unconscious Bowser whose body Cackletta possesses. Cackletta then begins to call herself Bowletta.

He later appears in Little Fungitown with Bowletta, saying that while she has the body of Bowser, she still has the mind of Cackletta. He flies away along with Bowletta in her Koopa Cruiser, having kidnapped Princess Peach.

Fawful appears again guarding Joke's End where he steals the Beanstar from Luigi after seeing through a fake one. Like Bowletta, Fawful is fooled by Luigi pretending to be the Princess and as a result, the plumber is able to steal back the Beanstar. Fawful shows up again as the penultimate boss in Bowser's Castle. Fawful, here suited in a skin-tight pink suit with wing-like cloth under its arms, now has a large mechanism that looks like his head. After beating him in battle, Fawful tries one last ditch effort to beat the Mario Bros., but only ends up being knocked out of the castle by Luigi, leaving the Bros. only Bowletta to contend with. An apparition resembling Fawful reappears as one of Cackletta's attacks in the final battle, which seems to imply that he is dead; however, future events suggest that this is not the real Fawful. This apparition of Fawful attacked similarly to what Fawful did in his first battle.

''Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
"I have boredom... Guests? Now I have... FURY!"

- Fawful

Fawful appears again in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time; but this time he's not an antagonist, but a shopkeeper running a shop called Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge that is located in the sewers of Princess Peach's Castle. He is only encountered by the babies, whom he does not completely recognize as the younger versions of Mario and Luigi. He sells them some of the rarest badges available in the game in exchange for beans. Fawful goes on a long speech to them about how the brothers defeated him in the previous game, notably mentioning that he plans to return in the future (foreshadowing his major role in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story), creating a period of time in which "no baby's candy will have safety". He, demonstrating apparent clairvoyance, also suggests that the babies go to Princess Peach's Castle's viewing platform prior to the time they discover Gritzy Desert.

''Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
"Bowser meet... FURY OF FAWFUL!"

- Dark Fawful

Fawful appears as the main antagonist in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. He began the outbreak of "Blorbs" by selling "Blorb Mushrooms" to the citizens of Toad Town. Fawful then uses special masks on enemies to put them under his control and has them invade the Mushroom Kingdom.

Fawful is first seen in Dimble Wood disguised as a merchant. He sells Bowser a Vacuum Mushroom, advertising it as a "Lucky Shroom" that will help the Koopa King defeat his enemies. Instead, it causes Bowser to inhale everything around him, including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Starlow, and other Mushroom Kingdom citizens.

Bowser later finds Fawful in Cavi Cape, where the villain reveals that he has captured Bowser's Castle. He then sends his brawny minion, Midbus to battle Bowser, and during the fight, he teaches both combatants how to fight. Sometimes in the game, Fawful will communicate to Bowser with a Fawfulcopter to manipulate his actions. He has Bowser fight the Sea Pipe Statue, only to later tell the victorious Koopa King that he has captured his minions.

Fawful then turns Bowser's Castle into Fawful Theater, where he performs on stage to Bowser's minions, who were under his control. Fawful arranges a VIP seat for Bowser, and when he falls for the Bean's latest plot, the Koopa King is catapulted onto the stage, where Fawful has Midbus fight him in a cage match. Bowser defeats Midbus, but he soon falls for Fawful's next trap by eating the "Victory feast" his nemesis presents him with, which causes him to become bloated and get stuck in the floor. Mario and Luigi have to travel to the Flab Zone after that.

Fawful appears again in the basement under Bowser. He uses his ray gun to extract Princess Peach from Bowser's body. When holding the princess, Fawful almost collapses, showing his lack of strength. Fawful's minion, Midbus then places a treadmill under Bowser, causing him to (literally) burn off fat.

He appears again under the Mushroom Kingdom stealing the Dark Star, which can give him the power to destroy the kingdom. At that point, the Mario Bros. realize that it is too late to stop him. After taunting the heroes, Fawful flies off to Peach's castle. Mario and co. chase him but are stopped by a barrier made by the Dark Star. The only way the Mario Bros. could break it is to get the Miracle Cure.

Fawful, along with Midbus, is found again inside Peach's castle, which he had taken over earlier. They are seen with a machine that sucks the princess's power and brings it to the Dark Star. As they wait for the Dark Star to awaken, an alarm goes off because of Mario and Luigi's appearance outside the castle. Fawful, however, laughs at their "Stupidity" and sends out a Fawfulcopter to speak to the bros., telling them his plans. He then leaves saying that he is going shopping at the Toad Town Mall.

Later, Mario and Luigi create the Miracle Cure, which breaks the blockade in front of Peach's castle. As they attempt to gain access to Peaches Castle through the back trash pit, Midbus appears and constructs a trash robot in which the Bros. have to battle. After the battle the player takes control of Bowser with his newly learned Spike Ball move. With the Marios inside of him, Bowser travels inside the castle where he meets three Fawfulcopters which Fawful can communicate through. Fawful admits to Bowser that he is "Shocked" at how he made it to the castle. However, that doesn't stop him from making another scheme. Fawful explains to Bowser that each of the Fawfulcopters hold a key and Bowser has to catch the copters to get to important rooms. Unable to break down the doors, Bowser must chase the Fawfulcopters to get to the next area.

After getting the keys and going through other obstacles, Bowser is shot into the sky and meets two giant Piranha Plants. However, Bowser falls back down and lands in the very top of Peach's Castle and the three Fawfulcopters seen earlier talk to Bowser, laughing at him because he can't fly, let alone destroy the giant Piranha Plants raised by Fawful. The Fawfulcopters then leave and make Bowser overcome more obstacles.

Fawful is once again seen in the room with the machine that sucks Peach's power into the Dark Star. The evil star had finally awakened, but Bowser came in the room at that time. Hating his timing, Fawful decides to help Midbus fight, but changes his mind because of Midbus's "pride". Instead, he powers up Midbus with his laser gun to make him become Blizzard Midbus, whom Bowser fights. After beating him, Midbus's body turns into an ice cube, leaving Fawful alone to carry out his plans. At that time, the Dark Star becomes fully awakened and Fawful, stunned, rushes over and drains its power. Bowser, however, punches Fawful away before he has all the star's power. Afterwords, the Dark Star flies into Bowser's body.

Fawful appears again outside of Peach's Castle, looking for the Dark Star. There, he was in his dark form with greater powers, a newer attire (most notably red glasses and a Cackletta-esque cloak), and a headgear that seemingly has a life of its own. Bowser confronts him but Fawful, always having a new plan, power ups the castle to become the Super Peach Castle., The giant castle crushes Bowser, making the Marios inside his body revive him to have another Giant Bowser Battle.

After beating the behemoth castle, Bowser finds Fawful in the castle's meeting room. The two villains begin to fight each other. Before the battle, Fawful speaks much like he did in Superstar Saga, even saying 'fink-rat' for the last time and also the only time in the game. He also speaks of how Mario and Luigi 'always show up' (referring to Superstar Saga's events). If Bowser and the Mario Bros. manage to beat Dark Fawful, he transforms himself into a second form to escape claiming he "has fury?", but gets inhaled by Dark Bowser.

During the final battle, Bowser makes Dark Bowser spit out the Dark Fawful Bug, and then he inhales him so that Mario and Luigi have the final battle against the Dark Fawful Bug and the Dark Star inside Bowser's stomach. They ultimately succeed in destroying both, thus weakening Dark Bowser enough for Bowser to deliver the final blows and destroy him.

Inside Bowser, Fawful makes his last appearance, speaking of how Mario and Luigi will always show up. In his final attempt to destroy the heroes, Fawful explodes, however, he instead frees them from Bowser, undoing what started all the chaos in the first place. The Mushroom Kingdom returns to normal, thus bringing Fawful's reign to an end.

Personality
There are multiple theories as to the origin of Fawful's name. One theory is that his name is based upon the word guffaw, which means "hearty laughter", something which Fawful engages in on numerous occasions (and is also the naming scheme for many locations in Superstar Saga, and similar to his boss, Cackletta). This theory is further supported by the fact that Fawful is named Gerakobittsu in the Japanese versions, a word which refers to derisive laughter. Another common theory is that his name is a pun of awful, upon which his personality is built. It could also be a word play with the food "falafel", as many of the characters are named after bean based foods.

Fawful's extreme rage makes him a psychopath, often harming others without cause or sympathy ("Finally! Now is the time where my true might shines, like many angry sunbeams of rage!"). Fawful only cares for Cackletta in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and frantically helps her when she is hurt. Yet, Fawful's speech prior to his final battle against Mario and Luigi reveals that he's very disturbed at how it was his genius that allowed Cackletta to live on while he remains a lackey and lets her obtain all the power and glory. This was apparently the start of Fawful's true lust for greater power and gratification, having had enough of serving others and allowing his genius to be used for their own gains and not getting anything back in return, not even recognition.

Fawful delights in taunting his enemies before obliterating them ("Your lives that I spit on are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid!"). Fawful is quite deranged, he has several megalomaniac desires, and aspires to create great chaos in the world. He lusts for the ultimate dark power and does not care for the consequences that it would bring to the rest of the world, willing to let it be plunged into endless chaos with millions of lives being consumed by his warped desires.

Fawful is also arguably the most self-absorbed villain in the series, building statues in his honor wherever he goes, hosting shows about him, speaking of himself in third person in honor, constantly making speeches on his genius, and even giving his army his own likeness. To further show off his image, Fawful created several Fawful merchandise sold to his minions, and even made some of his minions look like him (such as "Fawful Guy").

Speech
Fawful speaks in Engrish, often saying things that are redundant or hardly make sense (if at all). Fawful is made stranger by his making of several food metaphors and references throughout his speeches ("I drizzled rage dressing on the country next door. Rage dressing on a salad of evil!").

Fawful often speaks about himself in a third person point of view, only speaking in first person when saying phrases such as "I HAVE FURY!". In Mario & Luigi Bowsers Inside Story, he often replaces the word fury with other odd words, such as "chortles" or "uneasiness". When talking to Baby Mario and Luigi in Partners in Time he often skips words like do or are in the beginnings of sentences and instead says things like "You wearing this now?".

In Japanese versions, Fawful adds strings of "ru" (る) onto every sentence, sometimes even saying "Fururururu" (ふるるるるるる﻿ ). In French versions, Fawful speaks with a strong accent, exaggerating when aspiring the letter R, and frequently saying "Fuyuyuyuyu" ; he also does strange metaphors. In German versions, he stutters. In the American Spanish Versions, he speaks a literal translation of Engrish to Spanish. In the European Spanish versions, he speaks in a very refined Spanish with a lot of set phrases. He speaks, also, with a slight tone "enthusiastic". In the Italian versions he speaks with lots of invented words such as "disgustevole" (disgustable). A Sammer Guy named Mustard of Doom talks like Fawful, and is a reference to Fawful and his "Mustard of Doom!" quote.

Powers and Abilities
Though he is a bit of a loon, Fawful is an extremely intelligent genius, shown by how complex his Vacuum Helmet is. He uses the rocket-jets on his Vacuum Helmet to get around places. There is also a vacuum peripheral on the helmet, which can be used to shoot energy balls and was also used to suck in Cackletta's spirit to transfer to Bowser and create Bowletta. In Bowser's Inside Story enemies have masks resembling Fawful's face, making it possible that they were invented by him.

Fawful is the second boss of Superstar Saga. When fighting him, he is fairly easy and has little HP. Being an early battle, Fawful does not have a large variety of attacks. In his first attack, he shoots green fire balls at the Mario Bros. from his Headgear. In order to avoid the attack, the player must look at the color of the text when he calls the heroes "Fink Rats" or when he says "Have you readiness for this?!?". If the text is red, he shoots at Mario, but if the text is green, he shoots at Luigi. Sometimes, the bean's helmet falls off, making him unable to shoot fire balls. At times like this, Fawful has only one other attack. He can run up to a bro. and try to roll into him. This can be countered by a well-timed jump.

Later at the end of the game, Fawful is fought again. This time, he is much stronger and also has a giant mecha of his head that completely protects him and shoots powerful lasers at both bros. Unlike in the first battle, Fawful has many different attacks, some of which can last for a long time. During the battle, he hides in his mecha, defending him from all attacks. He uses his mecha to perform some of his attacks. The main attack used by his mecha is shooting laser eye beams, which move around the bros., trying to hit them. As the battle progresses, this attack lasts longer. Sometimes when it is the bean's turn to attack, he exits his mecha for a short moment and shoots more laser bolts from his antenna. The shadows created by the bolts appear above one of the heroes, letting the player know which character is being targeted. To avoid the attack, the Marios need to hit the bolts with their hammers and send them flying at Fawful, giving him a small amount of damage. In addition, when the mecha gets hit four times, Fawful gets enraged and spins around, shooting more laser bolts at the heroes for them to counter with their hammers. After the bolts spin around the area twice, the Bros. are no longer able to use their hammers, making them jump over the remaining bolts. The mecha eventually overheats, causing Fawful to stay out of the device for three turns. When this happens, the bros. can deal more damage to him. After he gets hurt, he adds some more attacks to his possessions, such as charging a laser beam while putting a Fawful block over the heroes' heads, making them rapidly jump to break it. Shortly after the blocks appear, the laser beam swoops across the stage, trying to hit the Marios. If the blocks are still above the two heroes, they are unable to jump over the beam. Fawful's final attacks is charging at the bros. The player has to hit his body with the brothers' hammers to counter him as he swoops down at the heroes. During the attack, he flaps his right arm when attacking Mario and keeps it still when attacking Luigi.

In Bowser's Inside Story, Fawful drains the Dark Star's power with his Vacuum Helmet and is fought by Bowser as Dark Fawful. He's shown to have many more abilities, including very high speed, dark magic and other powerful attacks. His Vacuum Helmet is also with him in this battle and can give him 300 HP when needed. After being beat, Fawful becomes the Dark Fawful Bug and escapes from Bowser. Despite all his genius, Fawful is physically frail, to the point of finding Princess Peach a huge burden. As such, it is logical to assume that Fawful meant Midbus to carry anything heavy for him.

Quotes

 * "I HAVE FURY!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "Fink-rat, try as you might, the resulting end will be the same." - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "Bah! Now is when the talking stops! I do not have time to stop and smell foul roses such as you!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "Finally! Now is the time where my true might shines, like many angry sunbeams of rage!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "I need no long speech before this battle, which will be mighty! Snack on my wrath, fink-rats!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "Soon Princess Peach's voice will be Cackletta's snack cake!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "Your lives that I spit on are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "So! The fink-rats come at last!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "OUCH! HOTNESS! It is the overheat!" - Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
 * "Guests? Now I have...FURY!"- Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
 * "I say to you WELCOME! Welcome to Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge!" - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
 * "Red and green put the fog of rage in my eyes and my mind goes crazy!" - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
 * "I WILL HAVE FURY! I LAUGH AT DEFEAT! I FIGHT WITH RAGE! I HURT YOUR FACES!" - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
 * "I supress the fury, but sometimes... The fury has me." - Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
 * "A WINNER IS YOU!" - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "Beef? I am lacking in beef. Fawful is beefless." - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "Fawful is on the cozy couch, sipping tea that laughs at you!" - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "I HAVE FAWFUL!"- Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "All who resist will be beat like naughty little eggs!" - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "I have... DARKNESS!" - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "Fawfully-doo!♪ Where are you?!♪ Dark Star, needing you!♪ Dark power, yoo-hoo!♪ WHERE TO FIND YOU...♪" - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "Fawful says farewell to all your fink-rat faces forever!" - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "Bowser keeps appearing like an ugly rabbit from the hat of a magician who stinks!" - Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
 * "You inhaled like a hungry syrup pig at the free pancake buffet."- Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Trivia

 * In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the music that plays during Mario and Luigi's final battle with him is the same as Popple's battle theme. However, Japanese version's music is the same as that sounds in the battle against Cackletta.
 * Even though the natives of the Beanbean Kingdom have four fingers to each hand, Fawful has five fingers on each hand, as seen in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, meaning he may not have Beanish origins. He also has five fingers on each hand in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, meaning that this is not an error on the part of the creators of the game. It should be noted that Popple and also the Queen Bean has five fingers, as well. The three characters also share the same big smile.
 * The September issue of Nintendo Power calls Fawful "Quite possibly, the most quotable character video game character ever." Later in the October 2009 issue of Nintendo Power, he was called the "Star" of Bowser's Inside Story.
 * The song that Dark Fawful sings in Bowser's Inside Story before his battle against Bowser is a parody of the Scooby-Doo theme song.
 * In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, before Fawful is fought the first time, one of the radar-devices he uses is shaped like a Nintendo DS Lite.
 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, one of the names that can be generated from pressing the "RANDOM NAME" button is FWFUL, a reference to Fawful.
 * Fawful shares many similarities to Dimentio, the main antagonist in Super Paper Mario. They are often tagged as being "insane" and "psychotic". Both of them begin as assistant villains, then later, whether in the same game or two games later, they become the main antagonist. They take an ultimate form in the final battle, and both have a similar death scene at the end. It is also notable that both Dimentio and Fawful share the "always smiling" personality.
 * In the November 2010 issue of GameInformer, on the "Top 30 Iconic Characters of the Decade", Fawful didn't make the list. However, he got a notable mention for "having notably funny quotes that make you laugh while he tries to destroy the player".
 * Welderberg, who appears in Super Paper Mario, talks in a similar manner to Fawful.