Bonetail

"AROOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

- Bonetail

Bonetail is a large Dragon in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, who, as it's name suggests, is but a mere skeleton, residing at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials. There is some regional dispute over the gender of Bonetail, as while English releases of the games depict Bonetail as male, most other regions consider Bonetail as a female. In the Italian version, Bonetail's name is derived from "Cassandra", a girl's name. In the Japanese version, all three dragons have baba in their name, which means "old woman".

It is the older brother of Gloomtail and Hooktail. Unlike its still-living siblings, they are an undead dragon, having died of old age after not eating anything for centuries at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials. It was once a pet of the Shadow Queen, but it is never stated why or how Bonetail came to reside at the bottom of the Pit. According to Grifty, Bonetail, along with his two siblings, went around the world terrorizing people some time before the Shadow Queen was imprisoned behind The Thousand-Year Door.

After Mario and his teammates reach the bottom floor of the Pit of 100 Trials, Bonetail will roar, making it questionable if it can talk, as they never demonstrates that ability. Bonetail's many breaths cause a variety of status ailments in addition to dealing damage. His blue breath can freeze Mario, green breath can cause confusion, purple can shrink him, and white can put him to sleep. All of its fire breath attacks can be avoided with Shell Shield. It can also restore his HP if it's low. Eventually, Mario defeats Bonetail, and it coughs up a chest containing the Return Postage Badge.

Bonetail is much stronger than its younger siblings, Hooktail and Gloomtail, and even stronger than the Shadow Queen. It is the strongest boss in the game; though the Shadow Queen has two hands to assist her to restore 7 HP from Mario and co., Bonetail can restore 20 HP from his own when having lower HP. Also, Bonetail has the same default attack and defense stats as Gloomtail, but doesn't have Gloomtail's earthquake or MegaBreath attacks. However, the strain of completing the previous 99 levels of the Pit of 100 Trials contributes to the difficulties faced when fighting Bonetail, as items, FP, and HP are more likely to be depleted by the time he is reached than when the player confronts the Shadow Queen. If the player is skilled enough, it is very possible to defeat Bonetail before fighting his youngest sibling, Hooktail. By using a series of glitches during and after the Shadow Queen fight, Bonetail can be reached before beating the prologue. Despite being the strongest boss, Bonetail only offers one Star Point after defeat, just like the Shadow Queen.

Trivia

 * Unlike his younger siblings who are capable of speech, Bonetail is only capable of making growls and dog-sounds (Ex.: "Aroooooooooo!").
 * Bonetail, along with Gloomtail, possesses one of the very few attacks in the game that cannot be blocked with a Guard or Superguard: the bite attack. Other such attacks are the Bulky Bob-ombs and Bob-ulk's explosions.

Lohviata Ossandra