Count Bleck

"Count Bleck is the deleter of worlds!"

- Count Bleck

Count Bleck (real name Lord Blumiere) is the main antagonist in the game Super Paper Mario. Count Bleck is responsible for bringing forth the Chaos Heart by forcedly marrying Princess Peach to Bowser, which he uses to open The Void in order to engulf the universe. He leads a troop of minions to help move along his plans, including Nastasia, O'Chunks, Mimi, and Dimentio.

Count Bleck's Past
It is slowly revealed in vague flashbacks that Count Bleck, when he was known as Blumiere, originally had a human girlfriend, Lady Timpani, whom he cherished and loved. Apparently, Blumiere fell off a mountain and was found at its base by Timpania who nursed him back to health at her home. When Blumiere awoke, he was shocked to find that a human saved him as he was from the tribe of darkness. Timpania dismissed the thought and said that anyone with a heart would save an injured one.

The pair soon fell in love and Blumiere attempted to escape from his castle home to see her again. His abusive father who scolded him for making such an attempt caught him. He was able to sneak away nonetheless and became more and more interested in Timpani who returned his feelings. Eventually, Blumiere's father found out what was happening and threatened Timpania and told her to stay away from the tribe. Timpania was scared for her life and told Blumiere that they can no longer see each other again. Blumiere would not accept this and told Timpania that they must go somewhere where their love will be accepted and where they can get married. Timpania agreed and the pair made plans to leave to get married. Before these plans could be put into effect however, Blumiere's father abducted Timpania and used his dark magic to send her away to wander dimensions until her game ends. Blumiere was filled with shock when she suddenly went missing and demanded to know where she is. His father revealed what he had done to her and told Blumiere that it was for the best.

Blumiere was then overtaken by extreme anger and sadness and decided to exact revenge. He stole the Dark Prognosticus, which the tribe kept since its ancestors stole it, and used to it to gain dark powers. Blumiere soon died and was reborn as Count Bleck, a villain motivated by grief and regret. Using his new powers, Count Bleck murdered his father and destroyed his entire dimension in thirst for revenge. After killing his own people, Bleck constructed a fortress called Castle Bleck to serve as a base of operations and as a home.

Bleck still had a small lingering hope that Timpani may still be alive. He went from world to world, searching for the woman he loved. He never found though, but came across a bat held captive in a trap. Bleck let the creature go and then camped out for the night. When he woke up he saw that the bat had transformed into a woman of the same species as him. She would go on to be called Nastasia and pledged her life to Count Bleck for saving her life.

The Count and his new assistant returned to his castle where Bleck realized that the woman he loved was gone forever. All that was left for him was to avenge her death by destroying everything that took her away from his, existence itself. Bleck decided to fulfill the last prophecy written in the Dark Prognosticus, which would end the existence of all worlds and dimensions. Bleck gathered more followers, one being even more sinister and evil than him, and made his plans to destroy all living things, including himself.

Plot
Eventually, Count Bleck put his plans into action and targeted the Mushroom Kingdom. He attacked the kingdom, raided the castle, and abducted Princess Peach. He next attacked Bowser's castle, where Bowser was having a confrontation with Mario and Luigi who thought that Bowser was the one who kidnapped Peach. Count Bleck appeared and opened up a humongous portal that sucked Bowser, his entire army, and Luigi into it, leaving Mario out cold. Bleck forced Peach and Bowser to get married in a chapel of his own creation in order to create a rift of negative energy from such a horrible even occurring. The negative energy cultivated itself into a vessel called the Chaos Heart. Bleck used this newly formed heart to open up a void that will slowly, but eventually swallow all worlds.

After the ceremony, Bleck ordered Nastasia to put Bowser's entire army under mind control so that he can extend his army. In the meantime, Bleck lied to his henchmen by telling them that he will create a new world when the others are destroyed. In actuality, he was planning on leaving them all on ruin and killing himself since he had nothing left to leave for even though he cared deeply about his minions. When the hero of prophecy, Mario, appeared Bleck sent his minions out to defeat him. They all failed though, but Bleck took precautions.

Among the many who were mind controlled by Nastisia was Luigi who assumed a new persona under this control known as, "Mr. L". Luigi fit the description of the man in green mentioned in both prognosticuss' and was destined to posses the Chaos Heart and determine if the prophecy is true or not. Bleck hoped to use Luigi to insure his success, but this too ended in failure. When Count Bleck learned about Tippi and her similar descriptions to Lady Timpani, he suddenly felt regretful for opening The Void, which destroyed Sammer's Kingdom at this point, for he realized that he had found her. But still, Count Bleck couldn't close The Void for he was still in control of the Chaos Heart, which he believed would be destroyed only if its owner perished.

When Mario and Tippi confronted Count Bleck, the count attempted to destroy them using his magic. However, the power of the Chaos Heart was negated using the power of the Pure Hearts, allowing him to be defeated and left weak, frail, and hopeless. Wanting to die because of his evil deeds for opening The Void and putting his love in serious danger, he asked Mario and Tippi to finish him off. However, Tippi forgave him for she still loved him, and couldn't do it.

When everything seemed to be finally be alright, Dimentio appeared and took control of the Chaos Heart, imprisoned Tippi, Count Bleck, and Nastasia in Dimension D and tried to destroy the universe in hopes of creating a new universe for him to rule himself as Super Dimentio. Tippi and Count Bleck reestablished their love, and with the help of O'Chunks and Mimi, the Pure Hearts were restored and Dimentio was defeated. In order to banish the Chaos Heart and close The Void, Count Bleck and Tippi demonstrated the true love they possessed and married.



What exactly happened to Lord Blumiere and Lady Timpani afterwards is a mystery, although it is said that they are both alive and happy somewhere unknown. Indeed, the very final scene of Super Paper Mario (appearing even after the staff credits) depicts two figures standing on a green hill in the midst of a bright meadow.

It is heavily implied that these two figures (who appear to be a man and a woman) are Lord Blumiere and Lady Timpani living out their lives in the unknown place. In a manner similar to how Tippi became human when she reverted back to Lady Timpani, the Lord Blumiere form of Count Bleck seen in this picture also appears to be slightly different. Blumiere looked almost identical to Count Bleck except that he was taller and his hat was noticeably larger.

Personality
The loss of Timpani made Bleck vengeful towards the world. Bleck wants to destroy the universe because he thinks that life is meaningless without Timpani. So, technically, it was his love towards Timpani what made Bleck evil. Despite this, Bleck has still one redeeming quality: his love for Timpani.

Even when seeking to plunge all that is to destruction, Bleck is not sadistic by nature. He is shown to be very upbeat and forgiving, never punishing his henchmen for their failures with any physical torture or insults. The form of punishment is writing papers or singing songs in which Bleck does not even issue; Nastasia issues these forms of punishments. Bleck also seems to be very likable, as all his henchmen have a strong bond with him. The exception of these bonds is Dimentio, who is the only truly evil minion and is far more evil than the Count himself. In the end, it was Timpani who made him realize the error of his ways and they both saved the universe together.

Count Bleck speaks about himself in the third person. He also has a tendency to narrate his own dialogue (for example, "Bleck, says Count Bleck!").

Powers and Abilities
In addition to being able to use the Dark Prognosticus, Count Bleck has many other magical powers granted by the Chaos Heart that aid him in and out of combat. His most obvious and freqently used power is his ability to freely float without any hinderence to gravity. This power is particularly important due to his lack of visible legs. He also often shows his ability to teleport at will by "flipping", along with the Dark Prognosticus which always teleports at his side. Also, he can use the Chaos Heart's power to shield him from any harm.

In combat, Count Bleck uses his cane to conjure globs of dark energy and hurl them at Mario and other foes. He can also summon a huge vortex of dark energy that sucks up his enemies, however, this skill is simply thwarted by running away from it. Bleck can temporarily slow the flow of time as well, throwing his enemies off. Finally, he can coat himself in a small barrier of red energy and simply ram into his opponent, damaging them.

Count Bleck is also shown to be quite clever and intelligent. He also is very charismatic, as his followers are loyal to the end, and his capable of easily persuading others to join his cause (and having both of his female minions develop crushes on him, a very slight one in Mimi's case). However, it's much more effective for him to rely on Nastatia's mind controlling powers to gather more minions.

Trivia

 * Count Bleck's name appears to be a pun on "black" and "blech," the latter being an interjection of disgust. However, the "bleck" part of his name may actually be an alternate spelling of "blech," as may be indicated by the fact that previous game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door used the word "bleck" in place of "blech," as well as the fact that Count Bleck himself seems to use "bleck" in such a manner. (However, it should be noted that the original Paper Mario used the traditional "blech," and even Bleck himself has been known to use this traditional spelling in his Blumiere form.) Even still, though, "black" may have had some sort of influence on his name, as his Japanese name (Count Noir) actually uses it indirectly (as "noir" is French for "black"). It is finally worthy of note that "bleck" can also mean "violate" or "blacken," uses fitting for the count's sinister personality.
 * The texture used for the shadowy inside of his cape is the exact same texture used for the background in Outer Space. Also, this could be a reference to the boss Nightmare from the Kirby series.
 * According to The InterNed, the music that plays during the dialogue from Lord Blumiere's past are titled "Memory 1," "Memory 2," "Memory 3," and "Memory 4," the music that plays during Count Bleck and his lackeys' appearance between chapters is titled "Count Bleck's Plan," and the music during the opening wedding cinematic is titled "The Wedding Begins." The music for the final fight with Count Bleck is titled "Closing Battle."
 * Count Bleck's face is similar to that of the Black Chest Demons from the previous Paper Mario game. He also vaguely resembles Haunter from the Pokémon franchise.