Bowser: Difference between revisions

Bowser is a huge, burly, green-shelled [[Koopa (species)#Bowser's species|Koopa]] with spikes, horns, and hair. His bushy eyebrows and mane are fittingly a bright, fiery red-orange and has bright red eyes. He sports two small horns, many spikes on his shell (similar to a [[Spiny]]) with brown-orange spike-rings, as well as along his tail (minus the spike-rings). He wears several spiked collars around his neck and arms. His neck collar in some games such as ''Mario Kart Tour'' is also implied to be part of his shell. He has three claws on each of his massive padded feet, four claw-tipped fingers including a thumb on each hand, and his arms are noticeably burly, indicating his vast physical strength. While his face and his shell are green, his plastron and muzzle are beige colored (occasionally depicted as being closer to tan or even yellow), and his tail and limbs are an orange-tinged yellow. In his artwork for ''Super Mario 64'' and ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' and the ''Paper Mario'' games, his limbs and tail are bright orange. The exact coloration of Bowser's head varies depending on the media: while official 2D artwork and most of his in-game appearances have his head and shell match in color, the majority of the official 3D artwork, trailers, merchandise as well as [[Mario & Luigi (series)|''Mario & Luigi'' games]] show him with a light green head, similar to [[Bowser Jr.]]'s appearance. In his various appearances, his red/orange hair is depicted in a loose cockscomb, the only exception to this being in ''Super Mario Odyssey'', where he instead has his hair groomed in a perm-like fashion for the wedding until he is defeated for the second time. ''[[Super Mario World]]'' reveals that his eyes present the [[Wikipedia:Tapetum lucidum|tapetum lucidum]], as eyeshine can be seen when he is in the dark flying around the World of Bowser (excluding the occasional thunderclap briefly showing him in silhouette); this trait is also applied to [[Baby Bowser|his baby self]] in ''[[Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island]]'', as seen when he is shown in the darkness before beating up Kamek and then confronting Yoshi and Baby Mario. According to ''[[Koopa Capers]]'', Bowser has 264 teeth.<ref>''"Bowser smiles at Wendy O., showing all 264 of his teeth."'' – ''Koopa Capers'', pg. 97</ref>

According to [[Prima Games|Prima]]'s ''Super Mario Galaxy'' guide, the appearance of Bowser and the Koopas are also based on {{wp|Kappa (folklore)|kappa}} of Japanese mythology, although this has not been officially stated by Shigeru Miyamoto.<ref>Black, Fletcher. 2007. ''Super Mario Galaxy [[Prima Games|Prima]] Official Game Guide''. Page 7.</ref>

The creators of the ''Super Mario'' cartoons wished to follow the graphic design of ''Super Mario Bros.'',{{ref needed}} and so their portrayal of King Koopa had him almost completely green in color and lacking hair, with a crown atop his head instead. His stomach was a deeper yellow than in later game depictions, and the whites of his eyes were also yellow; he also had a more crocodile/dinosaur-like snout, which was also colored green. He was also given a single pair of spiked bands on his wrists, which now match his shell's coloration.

''Nintendo Comics System'' used the same design as the cartoons for the ''Super Mario'' comics, and different installations in the ''[[Nintendo Adventure Books]]'' series used either it or Bowser's game depiction, interchangeably. The cartoon, ''Nintendo Comics System'', and ''Nintendo Adventure Books'' designs were later reused to a certain extent for Bowser's green palette swap in ''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS'' / ''Wii U'' (as well as being based on a palette swap for him in ''Mario Golf''). By comparison, the two ''Super Mario'' anime (the three OVAs and ''Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyūshutsu Dai Sakusen!'') are relatively true to the games' depiction of Bowser. Here, his eyes are blue instead of red, as in ''Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels'' and ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. Similarly, in the three OVAs he also frequently wears a cape, like he did in artwork for ''Super Mario Bros. 3''. On the other hand, in ''Super Mario World: Mario to Yoshi no Bōken Land'' he has red eyes, and his appearance on overall is similar to the appearance of Bowser in artwork for ''Super Mario World''.

In the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, he had various palette swaps (4 in ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'', 6 in ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', and 8 in ''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS'' / ''Wii U'' and ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''). His red palette swap in ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'', and to a certain extent ''Nintendo 3DS'' / ''Wii U'', was based on one of his palette swaps in ''Mario Golf'' (although the latter two games also had it resembling Bowser's in-game sprite from the NES version of ''Mario is Missing!''), while his blue palette swap was based on how he appeared on the Japanese box art for ''Super Mario Bros.'' His white appearance in ''Brawl'' and gray appearance in ''Nintendo 3DS'' / ''Wii U'' was likewise based on Morton Koopa Jr. prior to his ''New Super Mario Bros. Wii'' redesign. His green appearance was based on one of his palette swaps from ''Mario Golf'', his in-game sprite for ''Super Mario World'', and to a certain extent his appearance in the DiC cartoons and ''Nintendo Comics System'' and his in-game sprite from the original ''Super Mario Bros.'' game. His blue palette swap in ''Nintendo 3DS'' / ''Wii U'' was primarily based on the bluish [[Bowser's Brother]] from ''Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels'', although it also to a certain extent resembles a palette swap of his from ''Mario Golf''.

As another trait exclusive to the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, Bowser's body has better defined scales and muscles; in ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'', he has defined biceps, and his limbs and tail are a gold-brown color. Starting from ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'', Bowser is less bulky and slightly scalier, better resembling his appearance in contemporary ''Super Mario'' games. Starting from ''Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS'' / ''Wii U'', Bowser is also upright and even less detailed than before. In ''Ultimate'', Bowser retains his upright posture, though his color scheme is darker and more monotone (traits taken from ''Melee''), while his horns, spikes, hair, and scales feature simple detailing (traits taken from ''Brawl'').

Although Bowser does not generally wear clothing, there are a few instances where he does: The Japanese artwork for ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' depicts Bowser wearing a purple cape. In addition, Bowser, or, rather, King Koopa, frequently uses disguises in the DiC cartoons (mostly based on pop-culture icons), and in ''Mario Party 2'', similar to how the playable characters wore themed outfits befitting the various boards (i.e., a Pirate for Pirate Land, a Cowboy in Western Land, a Space Cadet in Space Land, an archaeologist in Mystery Land, and a Witch/Wizard in Horror Land), Bowser wore various outfits and adopted aliases befitting the themes of all the game boards except for Space Land (as he instead just pilots a space vehicle without wearing an actual costume). In addition, in a few cases when he is about to marry Peach, such as ''Super Mario Adventures'', ''Super Paper Mario'', and ''Super Mario Odyssey'', he wears white Groom's outfits having each time different features such as the shoes, or lack thereof, and the bowtie. In ''Mario Tennis Aces'', Bowser receives his own tennis outfit, which is a black T-shirt with orange flame designs on it, accompanied by red kneepads. In ''Mario Kart Tour'', Bowser received a Bowser (Santa) variant as a High-End driver in the [[Winter Tour (2020)|2020 Winter Tour]]. For this variant, Bowser wears a [[Santa Claus|Santa]] hat, a red and white collar, and has Christmas lights on his shell. He also carries a red and green present and a white sack for this variant.