Midbus

"I DON'T HAVE TEETH!"

- Midbus

Midbus is a brawny, unintelligent, pig-like creature in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. In lieu of working to conquer his own kingdom, he is a minion of Fawful who was robotized and was tasked with guarding Bowser's Castle, as well as fighting Bowser three times. Akin to his master's tendency to speak in English, Midbus speaks in broken sentences that make little sense (he claims 'sense is for the weak'), and gives unnecessarily long names to various weapons that he uses. Given his physical similarities to Bowser, he may have been created as a foil to the Koopa King. He is also shown to be able to survive fire as shown when Bowser's breathed fire on him when fighting his Castle.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
When Bowser meets Fawful, he sends Midbus to battle him. During the battle, Fawful unintentionally teaches Bowser how to use his action commands on Midbus. Due to the effects of the Vacuum Mushroom, Bowser ended up getting weakened, and Midbus and Fawful abandon him, but not before telling him that they plan to take over his castle.

Later in the game, Fawful puts him in charge of Bowser's Castle, his now secondary base, along with Bowser's now brainwashed minions. When Bowser approaches the castle, Midbus makes it animate to attack him. In a scene of delicious irony, he lands the castle on top of Bowser. Bowser then becomes giant thanks to Mario and Luigi. Midbus fights Giant Bowser within his own castle. After being defeated, he retreats with the castle into a new area. He later drops an enormous iron ball on Bowser, but he is able to toss it back, preventing the castle from moving any further.

When Bowser reaches the castle, he realizes it's been completely changed by Fawful. Bowser finds out that he made a piece of Bowser's castle into a gigantic auditorium with a big stage at the end of it. Fawful is seen hosting some kind of show or act. When Bowser is about to fight Fawful, he sends Midbus to battle him again in a cage match.

In this battle, Midbus attacks in various ways. One of Midbus' most prominent moves is his body slam move (which he also did at the beginning of the game in the tutorial). He'll bounce three times on his belly, then jump into the air either directly above Bowser or a little to the side. If the former, Bowser must press Y so that Midbus will land on his spiky shell rather than his head. If the latter, he must punch Midbus away or make Midbus land on his arm or risk getting hit by the shockwave from Midbus' body slam. This move can Confuse Bowser or flip him over for the latter. He can also go off-screen and grab a wrecking ball and return while swinging it rapidly. As Midbus approaches Bowser, he must duck and hold Y for three seconds, then Midbus will spin back, but before he stops, he'll either have the wrecking ball raised up high or down low. If it is up high, Bowser must duck the attack, and if it's down low, Bowser must punch it away. This move can confuse. His last move is sucking up all his energy and then walk forward for a giant punch. Bowser must rapidly punch his belly to cancel his attack. He can also counter the second Midbus grabs his belly in pain, and hurt him with a punch. This move can flip Bowser on his shell. If he executes any of his moves correctly on Bowser, the Audience will throw him Coins (which are useless) and Food which Midbus will eat to heal. The doughnuts and cakes will heal him for 10 HP, but the drumsticks will heal him for 50 HP. Bowser can Inhale the food to use himself which will do the exact thing, but drumsticks make his Attack go up and heal 50 HP as well. If Bowser makes any of his moves excellent, Bowser will only receive coins. After Bowser finally defeats Midbus, he is rewarded with a banquet feast. He gets overstuffed though and gets stuck in the floor shortly.

Later in the game, Fawful and Midbus see Bowser stuck. Midbus then watches as Fawful begins to use a ray gun, the reason for doing so being to find the princess for part of his plan. He then increases the power on the ray, and eventually finds the princess. Fawful then stops firing the ray as a light emerges from Bowser's body, and the princess emerges on Fawful's shoulder. Midbus brings out a treadmill, which Bowser falls onto and uses to make himself normal-sized again. Before Bowser can fall on, though, the pair leaves, with Midbus ignoring Fawful's orders to help him carry the princess.

In Princess Peach's Castle, Mario, Luigi and Starlow meet the pig for the first (and so far only) time. Midbus makes a trash monster attack the Mario Bros. so they can't pass to rescue Bowser who is knocked out. After the defeat, he goes into another area of Princess Peach's Castle.

Later in Peach's Castle, Bowser meets Midbus again. Fawful powers the pig up, and he becomes Blizzard Midbus, whom Bowser must fight to progress through his adventure. After Midbus is defeated for the third and final time, he freezes up and starts spraying frozen mist from his nostrils. Bowser inhales this mist due pain in his chest (owing to the Dark Star eating his DNA). The mist freezes up the Airway, Mario's next destination. Mario, Luigi, and Starlow must use this frozen environment to their advantage to get to the Dark Star. Midbus supposely got free from his ice block due to Dark Bowser's storm before Bowser fights with him.

Battle Areas

 * Cavi Cape
 * The Fawful Show (Bowser's Castle/Fawful Theater)
 * Peach's Castle (Blizzard Midbus)

Trivia

 * The sign on Midbus's arm bears a resemblance to the logo seen on Pigmask machinery in MOTHER 3.
 * Midbus' name is a pun on the phrase "mid boss".
 * Midbus can be seen as a contrast to his boss Fawful, although he is far less intelligent, he is far more muscular than him.
 * Midbus is the only RPG secondary antagonist who didn't battle Mario. He is seen as a "rival" for Bowser.
 * However, he does meet Mario and Luigi once in the game. But instead, he uses the Junker to deal with them.
 * Just as Bowser seems to be a cross between a dragon and a turtle, Midbus appears to be a hybrid of a warthog and an armadillo.
 * Midbus seems to be the opposite of Bowser, seeing as Bowser uses fire powers and Midbus uses ice powers.
 * Midbus's signature "MUH MUH MUH!" is German for "Moo Moo Moo", which is odd, as Midbus is believed by many to be a pig of sorts.
 * Midbus and Broggy are the only bosses that Bowser fight which the Mario Bros cannot contribute to defeating.
 * Midbus may be loosely based on Ganon from The Legend of Zelda series.