Cortez

"I'll turn your mustache into a bone-polisher, amigo!"

- Cortez

Cortez is the holder of the fifth Crystal Star, the Sapphire Star, in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. He fights Mario when he thinks Mario is after his treasure. He no longer saw Mario as an enemy and gives him the Crystal Star when Mario tells him he isn't interested in his treasure, and later helps him in the battle against the X-Nauts when Lord Crump attacks Keelhaul Key. From then on Cortez would stay docked at Rogueport and would ferry Mario to Keelhaul Key and back whenever he wanted.

In battle, Cortez can attack the party with each of his four weapons before attacking himself, thus essentially giving him up to five attacks per turn. He has three forms, his basic first form (pictured), an armless version with a gem encased in his rib cage that serves as a weak point, and a mere floating head. In his last form, he can absorb the souls of the Audience to restore his HP, similar to Hooktail and the Shadow Queen.

Cortez is the one who defeated the Stalwart Koopa and caused him to be sealed in a magic Black Chest.

At the end of the game Goombella says Bobbery, Cortez, and a few others went to sail the world.

Field Tattle

 * ''That's Cortez, remember? The dread pirate ghost feared by all? Ring a bell? Boy, hard to imagine someone that scary would like us... But he's just a big sweetie! Plus, he's like our taxi service between Rogueport and Keelhaul Key! I love him!

Trivia

 * He is named after the Spanish Aztec conqueror Hernán Cortés, although Cortés was not a pirate.
 * Flurrie's Gale Force obviously can't blow Cortez, but it could blow away his weapons in his 3rd form making the battle much easier.
 * He has a personality similar to Jonathan Jones. They are both pirates, they allied themselves with Mario after being defeated in combat, and they have red and blue minions (Lava Bubble/Bandana Red; Ember/Bandana Blue).
 * In the beta version, Cortez had a fourth form.
 * He sometimes shifts into Spanish dialect for no obvious reason. (As shown by the quote at the top of the page.)