Fawful

Fawful (also known as Lord Fawful to his minions) is a Beanish character and a major antagonist in the Mario & Luigi series. He is the secondary antagonist of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and its remake, and the main antagonist of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and its remake. He is notable for speaking in and making many food-based metaphors. Fawful is quite intelligent, but suffers from extreme fits of anger. His name comes from the words "guffaw" (a term that refers to powerful laughter) and "awful".

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga / Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions
"I am the Great Cackletta's most best pupil, who is named Fawful!"

- Fawful

Though his past is largely unknown, Fawful is implied to have been a long-time follower of Cackletta prior to the events of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and its remake. He is the secondary antagonist of the game.

During the introductory scene, Fawful accompanies Cackletta, who is disguised as The Goodwill Ambassador from the Beanbean Kingdom, to aid her in stealing Princess Peach's voice to awaken the Beanstar. While returning to the Beanbean Kingdom, they are pursued by Mario, Luigi, and Bowser, who had formed a temporary alliance to stop them. After taking care of Bowser, Fawful attacks the Mario Bros., but not before they destroy his Vacuum Helmet. After it breaks, Fawful summons another Vacuum Helmet to knock Bowser's Koopa Cruiser out of the sky before departing. He is later hinted by Beanbean guards to have kidnapped Prince Peasley, after they wrongly accused Mario and Luigi of doing so. When the brothers arrive at Hoohoo Mountain, he blocks their path with a large stone and flies off. He later appears in Beanbean Castle, where he steals the Beanstar alongside Cackletta and feeds Queen Bean a Belly Blech worm to distract the Bros.

The two then go to Woohoo Hooniversity, where they plan to awaken the Beanstar using several Peach-bots, which Fawful had designed. However, due to some planning on the princess's part, the voice used is that of Birdo, which causes the Beanstar to become irritated and break through the floor. Shortly afterward, the Mario Bros. arrive, and before Fawful can do anything, Luigi knocks him into the ground. After hitting him, they defeat Cackletta. Fawful soon recovers and sucks Cackletta's energy into his Vacuum Helmet. Before he can attack the brothers again, he is sent flying through the roof by Prince Peasley. Landing in Stardust Fields, Fawful finds an unconscious Bowser, who he gives to Cackletta to possess. Cackletta then call herself Bowletta, and Fawful accompanies her to Little Fungitown, where they abduct the princess.

The Mario Bros. later encounter Fawful at Joke's End under the pretense of exchanging the Beanstar (which they use a replica of) for Peach. Fawful recognizes this, however, and takes the real one as well as Princess Peach, escaping on the repaired Koopa Cruiser. However, the Princess Peach they abduct is actually Luigi in disguise, and Luigi utilizes the pair's shock to retrieve the Beanstar and escape. Fawful then goes with Cackletta to Bowser's Castle, where they plan to destroy both the Mushroom and Beanbean Kingdoms.

Fawful is encountered in Bowser's Castle as the penultimate boss, wearing a pink outfit with a wing-like cloth under his arms and a large V-neck, with a large antenna replacing his hair. He can attack the Mario Bros. with a large ship that resembles his head. After his defeat, he tries making a final attack to defeat the Bros., but gets into a fight with Prince Peasley and is knocked out of the castle before Mario and Luigi engage with Cackletta and her soul, the latter of which makes a copy of Fawful as one of her attacks. This copy of Fawful attacks similarly to how he does in his first battle.

Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser


Fawful appears as the main antagonist in the remake's new mode, Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser. He intends to enslave Bowser and work him to death, although Bowser manages to escape from him. Fawful then proceeds to brainwash the Koopalings into trying to conquer the Beanbean Kingdom to rescue Bowser.

As the captains make their way to Joke's End to find the Koopa Cruiser, Fawful tells them that he took over Bowser's Castle, and that Bowser himself is "no longer a thing of this world". The captins encounter Fawful at Bowser's Castle, and although he taunts them, they defeat him and make their way to Bowser's chamber, where Bowser immediately tells Captain Goomba to "destroy" Mario. After a while, it is revealed that "Bowser" was actually Bowletta in disguise, and when Captain Goomba confronts them about this, she and Fawful use a trapdoor to send the captains into a dungeon, which turns out to be a Mecha-Fawful factory. After a long final battle, the minions defeat Fawful one last time and escape the dungeon.

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

- Fawful

Fawful reappears in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, now wearing a white skin-tight outfit. He acts as the shopkeeper of Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge located in the sewers of Peach's Castle, and only Baby Mario and Baby Luigi can access the shop. While Fawful does not completely recognize the two as younger versions of Mario and Luigi, he says they seem familiar to him. Fawful then says a long speech about how the brothers defeated him in the previous game, mentioning that he plans to return in the future and create a time in which "no baby's candy will have safety". This foreshadows his role as the main antagonist of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

After his speech, Fawful sells rare badges to the baby Mario Bros. in exchange for beans. Additionally, he hints that the babies should go to Princess Peach's Castle's viewing platform prior to them discovering the Gritzy Desert.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story / Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey
"But I am having a goal! Mushroom Kingdom... WILL BE MINE!"

- Fawful

Fawful appears as the main antagonist in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. He began the outbreak of the blorbs by selling "Blorb Mushrooms" to the citizens of Toad Town. Fawful then brainwashes Bowser's minions to have them invade the Mushroom Kingdom. His true plan is to acquire the Dark Star, an ancient evil artifact, and use its power to kill the Mario Bros. and their friends.

Fawful is first seen in Dimble Wood disguised as a merchant. He sells Bowser, who had just been defeated by Mario, a Vacuum Mushroom, advertising it as a "Lucky (?) Shroom" that will help Bowser defeat his enemies. Instead, it causes Bowser to inhale everything around him, including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Starlow, and the other Mushroom Kingdom citizens who attended the meeting.

Bowser later finds Fawful in Cavi Cape, where the villain reveals that he has captured Bowser's Castle. He then sends Midbus to battle Bowser, and during the fight, he attempts to teach Midbus on how to dodge Bowser's attacks, being descriptive enough that he inadvertently help Bowser. He then has Bowser fight the Sea Pipe Statue, only to later tell Bowser 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 have been brainwashed. Fawful arranges a VIP seat for Bowser and, when he falls for Fawful's latest plot, Bowser is catapulted onto the stage, where Fawful has Midbus fight him in a cage match. Bowser defeats Midbus and eats a "Victory Feast" Fawful presents him with, which causes him to become bloated and get stuck in the floor. It is implied afterward that Fawful did this in order to draw Princess Peach out of Bowser's body and kidnap her.

Fawful appears later in the basement under Bowser. He uses his ray gun to remove Princess Peach from Bowser's body, as part of his new plan. Fawful struggles to hold Princess Peach, showing his lack of strength. Fawful's minion, Midbus, then places a treadmill under Bowser, causing him to burn off the fat he gained.

Fawful appears again under the Mushroom Kingdom to steal the Dark Star, which can give him the power to destroy the kingdom. Fawful then taunts the Mario bros, and flies off to Peach's castle. Mario and co. chase him, but are stopped by a barrier made by the Dark Star.

Fawful and Midbus are found again inside Peach's castle, which they have taken over. They use a machine to suck the princess's energy out and bring 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 tell them his plans. He then leaves saying that he is going shopping at the Toad Town Mall.

After beating Junker and learning the Spike Ball move, Bowser travels inside the castle, where he meets three Fawfulcopters which Fawful can communicate through. Fawful tells Bowser that he is shocked at how he made it to the castle, but then tells Bowser that each of the Fawfulcopters holds a key and Bowser has to catch the copters to get to the next 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 where he meets two giant Piranha Plants. However, Bowser falls back down shortly after and lands at the top of Peach's Castle, where the three Fawfulcopters from before talk to Bowser, laughing at him because he could not fly or beat the Piranha Plants. The Fawfulcopters then leave and make Bowser destroy the Piranha Plants.

Fawful is once again seen in the room with the machine that sucks Peach's power into the Dark Star. The Dark Star had awoken when Bowser came into the room. 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 turns into an ice cube, leaving Fawful alone to carry out his plans. At that time, the Dark Star becomes fully awakened, and Fawful rushes over and drains its power. Bowser punches Fawful away before he absorbs all the star's power, and the Dark Star flies into Bowser's body.

Fawful appears again outside of Peach's Castle as Dark Fawful, where he looks for the Dark Star. Bowser tries to confront him, but Dark Fawful powers up the castle to become Super Peach's Castle of Fury. The giant castle crushes Bowser, causing the Mario Bros. inside his body have to revive him and fight another giant battle.

After beating the castle, Bowser finds Dark Fawful in the castle's meeting room. Before the battle, Dark Fawful speaks like he did in Superstar Saga, even saying 'fink-rat' for one moment. He also says how Mario and Luigi "always show up" (referring to Superstar Saga's events), causing Bowser to become annoyed and tell Fawful to never again compare him to Mario. After Bowser and the Mario Bros. manage to beat Dark Fawful, he collapses into a bug-like form known as the Dark Fawful Bug and tries to escape, but gets inhaled by Dark Bowser, causing the completion of the Dark Power.

During the final battle, Bowser makes Dark Bowser spit out the Dark Fawful Bug, and then inhales it so that Mario and Luigi can beat both the Dark Fawful Bug and the Dark Star, which Fawful had fused with. They succeed in destroying both, thus weakening Dark Bowser enough for Bowser to deliver the final blows and destroy him.

Inside Bowser, a highly unstable Dark Fawful makes his last appearance, speaking of how Mario and Luigi will always show up and get in the way of his grand plans. Despite the Bros.' attempts to convince him to apologize for the issues he has caused, Dark Fawful, in his final attempt to destroy the heroes, explodes. However, he instead frees them from Bowser and seemingly cancels the effect of the Vacuum Shroom, undoing everything it had caused. The Mushroom Kingdom then returns to normal.

Bowser Jr.'s Journey
Fawful has the same role in the game's remake, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey, during the main story, although he also has a minor role in the alternate game mode Bowser Jr.'s Journey, being the one in charge of the three primary villains of that mode, the Best Fitness Friends. It is also implied in that mode that he had a hand in Bowser not being invited to the emergency meeting for the Blorbs outbreak at Peach's Castle. He is first seen watching Bowser leave his castle to go to the meeting, when he orders the Best Fitness Friends to infiltrate Bowser's Castle while he and Midbus go to capture Bowser. Later, Fawful speaks with Midbus and Dieter outside his shop, where he just obtained the Vacuum Shroom, planning to use it on Bowser. Although Fawful is mentioned a few times after this, he does not physically appear for the rest of the game.

Super Mario-Kun
Fawful is also in the Super Mario-Kun manga, in volume 40, filling the same role as in Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Fawful appears as a neutral-type Advanced primary spirit in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, using his artwork from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. Fawful's spirit battle is against Iggy (representing Fawful) and a green R.O.B. (likely representing a Mechawful), on the Prism Tower stage. The music played in this battle is "The Grand Finale" from Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. When equipped, the Fawful spirit gives an increase in power of electric attacks.

Appearance
Fawful is a Beanish character who wears eyeglasses, has a single strand of hair, and is often seen with a big grin. He is relatively the same height of both Mario and Luigi, sharing a lot in common with Professor E. Gadd. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Fawful wears a red cloak with a ripped bottom and is commonly shown with a Vacuum Helmet. His cloak hides most of his body, leaving only his head and legs visible. During his encounter in Bowser's Castle, he is seen with a pink, V-neck suit with a translucent, wing-like cloth that covers his arms and legs. He also has a large antenna sticking out of his head, replacing his single-strand hair.

In Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, Fawful is initially seen with a hooded cloak, though after Baby Mario and Baby Luigi hear his story about his past events in the previous game, he appears with a white suit and large antenna, reminiscence of his appearance during his encounter in Bowser's Castle from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Fawful wears a black suit with black gloves and grey sandals, which are hidden underneath his red and grey coat. Most of the time, he is shown on a green, circular hovercraft. Once he transforms into Dark Fawful by absorbing some of the Dark Star's power, his glasses turn red and his coat separates, revealing his suit, which now has a black star on it. His coat gains a purple-red color scheme, and the collar becomes spiky in appearance. After being defeated by Bowser, Fawful turns into a small, black "bug" that has a star for an antenna, that also has his red eyeglasses and wide grin. During the final battle against Dark Bowser, Fawful transforms into a larger bug form with three leg appendages. He still retains the two arms and antenna, and now has the Dark Star Core at the top.

Personality
Fawful is shown to be very angry at times, but is also seen to be very devoted to Cackletta, whom he served with blind devotion in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, and is considered to be Cackletta's "favorite subordinate". He is shown to be understanding of Midbus, who showed the same devotion to Fawful himself in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. He enjoys taunting his enemies and believes he is never wrong. While initially content to be Cackletta's subordinate, he is shown to be quite self-centered when he becomes his own villain, creating many things based on his own likeness. Even prior to Cackletta's final defeat, however, Fawful briefly considers the possibility of rising beyond a "toady" of Cackletta's, though he ultimately still remains loyal to her.

He is also shown to be manipulative, which can be shown in how he faked "acceptance" of defeat from Bowser and made a "victory feast" specifically to fatten Bowser up, and in the remake's Bowser Jr.'s Journey, it is heavily implied that he had arranged for Bowser not to be invited to the emergency conference about the Blorbs in order to force a confrontation between the two parties.

Speech
Fawful speaks in, often saying redundant things, and uses several food metaphors and references throughout his speeches (ex. "I drizzled rage dressing on the country next door. Rage dressing on a salad of evil!" or "Two pieces of Fawful chortle bread get put together on Beanbean Kingdom, making a danger sandwich!"). He specifically refers to the Mario Bros. as "fink-rats".

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

Fawful usually rhymes his sentences, only not rhyming when he can't think of one (ex: "Fawful sings a song of bad! Mushroom Kingdom is so sad! All of it is for Fawful! And the... rhyme... with... that...").

In the Japanese versions, Fawful adds strings of "ru" (る) onto his sentences, and sometimes says "Fururururu" (ふるるるるるる). In the French versions, Fawful also uses many metaphors and speaks with a strong accent, exaggerating when saying the letter R, and frequently saying "Fuyuyuyuyu". In the German versions, he stutters. In the Latin American Spanish versions, he speaks with a very literal translation of English to Latin American Spanish. In the European Spanish versions, he speaks in a very refined European Spanish with a lot of set phrases and an enthusiastic tone. In the Italian versions, he speaks with lots of invented words such as "disgustevole" (disgust able). In the Korean versions, he talks in a similar way to the Japanese versions, adding strings of "rong" (롱) in every sentence such as "Rongrongrongrong" (롱롱롱롱).

Powers and abilities
Fawful often uses his Vacuum Helmet to fight the Mario Bros., and 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 transfer Cackletta's spirit to Bowser and create Bowletta. He also sports a laser gun which he can use to power up his minions or fire beams. In Bowser's Inside Story, many enemies have masks resembling Fawful's face, which is possibly tied to Fawful brainwashing many of Bowser's minions.

Attacks
Fawful is the second boss of Superstar Saga. When fighting him, he does not have much HP. Being an early battle, Fawful also does not have a large variety of attacks. In his first attack, he shoots green energy balls at the Mario Bros. from his Headgear, and in order to avoid the attack, the player must look at the color of the text when he calls the heroes "Fink Rats". If the text is red, he shoots at Mario, but if the text is green, he shoots at Luigi. Then, later in the battle, Fawful will say "Have you readiness for this?!?", in which he will shoot two energy balls - One at each brother, and the color of "this" indicates which brother Fawful will target first. After 18 points of damage, Fawful's helmet will fall off, making him unable to shoot fire balls. In this state, Fawful has only one other attack; He can run up to one of the Bros. and try to roll into him. This can be countered by a well-timed jump.

Later on at the end of the game, Fawful is fought again as the penultimate boss. This time, he is much stronger and fights from within a giant ship resembling his head. The ship completely protects Fawful and shoots powerful lasers at both Bros. Unlike the first battle, Fawful has many different attacks, some of which can last for a while. During the battle, he can hide in his ship, defending him from all attacks.

He uses his ship to perform some of his attacks. The main attack used by his ship is shooting laser beams that move around the Bros., trying to hit them. Sometimes when it is Fawful's turn to attack, he exits his ship 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 Mario Bros. need to hit the bolts with their hammers and send them flying at Fawful, hitting him for a small amount of damage. In addition, when the ship 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, causing them to jump over the remaining bolts. After hitting his ship four times (eight times in the remake), the ship eventually overheats, causing Fawful to stay out of the vehicle for three turns. When this happens, Fawful will not attack until the three turns are up.

After taking enough damage, he starts charging a laser beam and puts a Fawfulized 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 intact, the Mario Bros. are unable to jump over the beam. Fawful's final attack involves 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 flaps his left arm when attacking Luigi.

In Bowser's Inside Story, Fawful is fought by Bowser as Dark Fawful. He's shown to have a very high speed and the ability to utilize Dark Magic. His Vacuum Helmet also aids him in battle and can give him 300 HP when needed. After being beaten, Fawful collapses into a Dark Fawful Bug and escapes from Bowser.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

 * Instruction booklet bio: His evil genius has made him Cackletta's favorite subordinate!
 * Japanese: 天才的な頭脳を持った、ゲラモーナの一番の部下. (He is Cackletta's best subordinate with a genius mind.)
 * Official Nintendo Player's Guide: Cackletta's henchman is an evil genius with a very unusual manner of speech. Every time he confronts Mario and Luigi, he launches into a semicoherent yet wildly amusing rant.

Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser profiles

 * Most Furious Fawful X: Cackletta's faithful underling. Fights as a Melee trooper.
 * Most Furious Fawful Y: Cackletta's faithful underling. Fights as a Flying trooper.
 * Most Furious Fawful Z: Cackletta's faithful underling. Fights as a Ranged trooper.
 * Fawful: Cackletta's faithful servant with extreme fury issues. Brainwashes Bowser's Minions to take over the world.

Quotes

 * "Y-You again! You are the pair of fink-rats that swooped in with the Bowser that I hate!"
 * "I HAVE FURY!"
 * "And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!"
 * "Now is the time where my true might shines, like many angry sunbeams of rage!"
 * " and a pair of Jumping Hammers in red and green who are looking like YOU!"
 * "Fawful says farewell to your finkrat faces forever!"

Trivia

 * In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, before the Dark Fawful battle, the radar-devices that he uses is shaped like a Nintendo DS Lite.
 * In the same scene, he also sing-songly asks the Dark Star's location in a similar manner to the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! opening song.
 * Also in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, Fawful's first quote is "A WINNER IS YOU", possibly referencing said infamous quote from the NES game .
 * In the original game, the Dark Fawful battle utilized the same boss theme as most other boss themes (barring the final battle with Dark Bowser). This was changed in the game's remake, which instead utilized a darker remix of the theme used by Cackletta in Superstar Saga (and also Fawful in the Japanese and remastered versions, as explained below).
 * In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, one of the names that can be generated from pressing the "RANDOM NAME" button is FWFUL.
 * Using the same method, the name "Fawful" may be generated in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U.
 * In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, during the second fight with Fawful in Bowser's Castle, Popple's battle theme plays instead of the normal boss theme. This is replaced with Cackletta's battle theme in the Japanese version and in the 3DS remake, as this theme is intended to be shared by Cackletta and Fawful, being a combination of their overworld themes and being titled "Fawful and Cackletta" in the remake.
 * In Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, a character in a Zeekeeper costume at the beginning of the game references Fawful by saying, "I have excitement!"
 * In Super Paper Mario, a Sammer Guy named Mustard of Doom talks like Fawful, referring to him and his "Mustard of Doom!" quote.