#Mentions of Bowletta and Cackletta

[crusherthedoctor]

Hi crusher I wanted to ask what are your unpopular opinions on the Mario franchise?

I think some people can be too hard on Mario himself. Yeah, he may be very straightforward as a character when compared to several of his castmates, including Luigi, but the sheer volume of demonization he's received over the years makes me feel sorry for him. I like him just fine no matter how simple he is, and I'll always admire the passion Charles Martinet has for him (as well as Luigi, Wario and Waluigi).

Similarly, I think Peach gets too much flack as well. Yeah, it's a shame that most of her roles involve little more than being kidnapped, but that's not her fault, and I think she's a good character when she's allowed to do things. While I'm alright with how she's been portrayed in the upcoming movie so far (mostly; see further below for more details), I was completely unsurprised when everyone reacted to her role as if she had never done anything in her life beyond getting kidnapped before that point. You can always spot the fakers from a mile away; just ask the so-called fans who reacted to the Sonic 2 trailers with "Knuckles is a bad guy??? Why is he working for Eggman???"

I'm indifferent to the Koopalings. Always have been. Don't hate them, but never cared about them either.

Super Mario Land 2 is well liked by all accounts, but I think it might be an unconventional opinion to say it's up there with Super Mario World as my favourite of the 2D Marios. I just really like how unique it is for 2D Mario standards, especially in light of how bland and unoriginal the New Super Mario Bros. games were. Plus, it introduced Wario, who is always epic.

DKC3 is my second favourite in the trilogy after DKC2. DKC3 has admittedly been getting more love in recent years, which I'm really happy to see, but I liked it even when everyone else considered it the weak link of the trilogy. I get why some elements might put some players off, but I think it's just as fun as the first two, and has its own enticing atmosphere.

I'm not a fan of Super Paper Mario, and that includes the story and villains (aside from Dimentio, he's good). For me, it's to Mario what Twinsanity is to Crash: that one game that's honestly pretty flawed in a lot of areas, yet everyone claims is the best of all time while somehow also claiming it to be underrated at the same time.

Conversely, I do like Origami King. This isn't too unpopular an opinion, since I know it does have a lot more fans than Sticker Star and Colour Splash, but naturally it's still a very divisive game. Make no mistake, I would love to see a return to the 64/TTYD formula, but I really do enjoy Origami King in its own right.

Grodus is one of my favourite villains in the series. He's not hated per say, but he tends to get overshadowed by other Mario baddies, including the Shadow Queen from the same game he comes from. And yeah, I know he doesn't get to do a lot compared to others, doesn't have the most colorful personality, and ends up falling into the SA1/Unleashed Eggman trap. But I do think he's underrated, since I enjoy his no-nonsense approach, and he has a pretty badass design. I guess it just annoys me that a lot of fans don't even bother to acknowledge him because they're too busy wanking over the Shadow Queen. As a side-note: for a long time, I always said he was my all-time favourite Mario villain. But in recent years, I realised that as much as I continue to like him, I can't really justify him as my #1 when comparing him "objectively" to the overall showing of other Mario villains, since as mentioned, he didn't get to do an awful lot. He's still up there for me without question, but if I had to say which Mario villain is my true #1 on account of what they actually get to do, that's tied between Fawful and K. Rool. Those two are thankfully beloved, so no need to consider liking them an unpopular opinion. :P

I love Superstar Saga, and I like Cackletta as a villain, but I'm not so keen on the Bowletta twist, as I feel it traded Cackletta's uniqueness in favor of Bowser With Tits. Not to mention it was a rather humiliating moment for Bowser himself.

I like Super Mario RPG, but I prefer Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi in pretty much every way that matters. And while I don't have a problem with the character, I don't quite understand the immense popularity of Geno compared to other RPG-exclusive characters who achieved similar popularity. Like Fawful... or Vivian. <3

I don't have an issue with Bowser being the villain of an RPG as long as they don't pull a Sticker Star with him. The original Paper Mario and Dream Team were able to keep him in-character and did interesting stuff with him, therefore I have no problem with his status in those games.

I'm not losing sleep over its absence, but I'd like to see the Double Dash two-per-kart gimmick make a return in a later Mario Kart, as I think it was a lot of fun. (Double Dash was also my first MK, so y'know...)

Galaxy is a great game that deserves its praise and legacy, but I wouldn't put it in my personal Mario top ten. Not because I have any real issues with it, I just prefer other Mario games is all. With 3D Mario specifically, I prefer the exploration of 64, Odyssey, and yes, even Sunshine despite its numerous flaws and other... interesting qualities. ("MARIO, HOW DARE YOU DISTURB MY FAMILY VACATION")

I'm currently very mixed on the upcoming movie, and not just because it's-a me, Chris Prattio. On one hand, Illumination are certainly putting more effort into it compared to their other movies although I suspect that's because Nintendo is holding them at gunpoint, the little Easter Eggs are nice and clever, the world as presented looks interesting, and Jack Black as Bowser is gonna steal the show. On the other hand - Jack Bowser aside - it's still not really exciting me all that much, I sense that half of the praise it's received is born purely out of dunking on the Sonic movies for not being animated (or, let's face it, because it's Sonic), and even putting Chris Pratt as Mario aside, I'm not feeling some of the other actors. Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong goes without saying because DK did not deserve that fate, but I'm not vibing with Peach's voice either. I know they probably didn't want to emulate her usual squeaky voice, which is understandable, but why not something akin to her 64 voice?

Not to say there aren't any mainline Mario tracks that I love (Dire, Dire Docks fans rise up), but I've noticed that most of my favourite Mario soundtracks as an overall package tend to come from the spinoffs. Particularly from the DKCs, the RPGs, and the Mario Karts.

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show is about as good of a Mario show as SatAM was a Sonic show (read: not very), but I'm less hostile to the former because the Mario universe's earliest years were much more primitive in setup compared to Sonic's earliest, so the Super Show's creative liberties are slightly easier to forgive by comparison... and it's fun to point and laugh at. (Who the fuck would willingly live in a place called Crime Land?)

Bowser's current voice in the games is fine, but I'll always have a soft spot for his N64-era dinosaur roars. I just like the way they sound. :>

[anomander-dragnipurake]

Bowser’s Castle Chapter One: Anger

First off, this fic is an alternate path for Possessed, breaking off from it at the end of part one. Second, the reason it exists: Bowuigi is my OTP for this fandom. So while playing Superstar Saga for the first time, when I reached the part where Cackletta possesses Bowser, which happened around the time I started working on part 2 of Possessed, I naturally made the connection that Bowletta and Booigi are very similar in nature. My next thought was that after that experience perhaps Bowser would be disgusted by the idea of possession and thus wish to do something about King Boo possessing Luigi which was the sole thought that ultimately led to this fic. And I know It's implied at the end that Bowser doesn't remember anything that happened to him while Cackletta was controlling and that he doesn't even know that that's what happened but that's less fun so we're just going to ignore that for the sake of the fic.

~

Luigi’s car was still where King Boo had parked it, making it easy to circle round to it and find. Where to now? Luigi asked with a mental sigh as King Boo hopped in.

‘Uh…’ King Boo paused, holding Luigi’s hand on the ignition. ‘I don’t actually know. I didn’t think this idea would work so I didn’t plan for anything beyond this point. … You don’t have any more friends, do you?’

No. Unlike Mario he’d never been good at making friends. And the few friends he’d met in adventures, he’d never had the courage to try to keep in contact with them.

King Boo laughed. ‘You’re so pathetic, it’s funny.’

Luigi already knew he was pathetic; he knew it better than anyone. There was nothing funny about it though; he hated it even while lacking the willpower to change it.

‘Whatever though. I can think of at least one more person who should have a fun reaction to this situation.’

Who? Out of decency most people would dislike this situation but Luigi couldn’t think of anyone else who’d have a ‘fun reaction’.

King Boo didn’t reply as he started the car at last. Apparently, Luigi would just have to wait and see.

***

“Lord Bowser sir, King Boo’s here to see you,” the goomba said as they poked their head into the room. “He’s possessing an uh… ‘meatsuit’ as he calls it and he says he wants to talk to you. He’s waiting for you in the throne room.” Message delivered, they fled, as most goombas tended to do for fear of getting yelled at for delivering unwanted news, and thus no clarifying questions could be asked.

“King Boo’s the one who beat Mario up, right?” Bowser Jr. said before Bowser could even decide if he wanted to bother with trying to call the goomba back for more questions.

From the way Bowser had heard it, ‘beating up Mario’ wasn’t quite what King Boo had done. It was close enough though so… “Yeah, supposedly three times.” And Bowser was jealous about it but he wasn’t about to show that in front of his son.

Looking back down at the kitten still carefully cradled in his hands – Bowser had been teaching him the proper way to handle them – Junior gave her another little pet. “Maybe that’s what he wants to talk to you about. If you two teamed up, you’d be unstoppable, right? You could take over the whole Mushroom Kingdom and more.”

“Maybe, I don’t know.” And it that was it, would Bowser go with that idea? On one hand it would be a guaranteed victory against Mario but on the other it would mean working with King Boo.

“Let’s go see then. I want meet him.” With exaggerated care, Junior gently placed the kitten back on the cat bed with her siblings and mama before hopping up and rushing out of the room. He didn’t even bother to close the door behind him.

With a sigh, Bowser rose to his feet too. He’d have preferred to ignore King Boo until he left but it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway. Might as well go see what he wanted to hopefully get rid of him fairly quickly.

Moving far slower than Junior meant Junior reached the throne room well before Bowser did. Upon approaching it, Bowser could hear his chatter from halfway down the hall.

“… still in there? Or is he like gone now?”

King Boo’s reply was spoken much softer, rendering it indecipherable. Which was odd all by itself but his voice didn’t sound as high pitched as it should.

“Isn’t that going a bit far then? Like… it’s kind of super creepy to think about even if he is one of the bad guys.”

Bowser reached the throne room. Junior had perched himself on the arm of the throne so that he would thoroughly tower over the fellow that stood at the bottom of the throne’s dais who was decidedly not King Boo because he was human.

“His suffering is the whole point though,” the fellow said. He then turned his grin towards Bowser. “Hey Bowser, it’s been while, huh?”

"Who are you?" He was familiar but Bowser couldn’t place where he’d seen him before.

“You really don’t recognize me? I guess that’s to be expected though. It’s a-me King Boo.” He laughed, very boo-like but also very not. “And guess what I’ve done.”

Bowser’s scowl deepened to hind his confusion because why and how was King Boo suddenly human and why did Bowser recognize him? “What?”

“I’ve thoroughly defeated the Mario bros, so much so, they had me captured in a cell but Mario let me go almost right away. Not that he could’ve kept me locked up for long anyway but that’s beside the point. I’ve utterly defeated them, something you’ve failed to do time and time again.”

With an angry growl, Bowser strode all the way over to grab King Boo by the neck to lift him to face height. “How?” He was clearly missing something here and he didn’t like it. He also didn’t like King Boo’s new form or him coming here to gloat about defeating Bowser’s enemy.

“Even as stupid as you are, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that this body of mine is familiar.” He seemed totally unphased by Bowser’s manhandling. “That’s because it’s Luigi’s, Mario’s brother, I possessed him and am now using him as a meatsuit.”

Bowser’s initial flash of rage at being called ‘stupid’ was immediately replaced by revulsion. Possession and his body being controlled by another being was something he had personal experience with and honestly it was probably the worst thing that had ever happened him, he still had nightmares about it sometimes. So this disgusted him on a personal level.

“Stop it,” he said, squeezing King Boo’s neck a little harder.

“Stop what?”

“Possessing him!”

Another boo-like laugh that sounded creepily strange coming from a voice that wasn’t a boo’s. “You disapprove, really? And here I was thinking you’d just be jealous over how thoroughly I beat the Mario bros when you never could.”

“It’s disgusting so stop it.” Bowser breathed a puff of smoke in his face.

“Nope! And there’s nothing you can do to make me stop. Unless you want to kill Luigi, I guess. It would be a disappointedly quick end to my game but go ahead if…”

Bowser growled and headbutted him as hard enough to make his own head hurt a little. King Boo made another small laugh that faded out as he went limp, his eyes sliding shut.

“Uh… Papa, did you just knock him out?”

Bowser turned to face Junior, still standing on the throne’s armrest. “This is disgusting.” He gestured with the limp body. Junior hadn’t been there for the incident with Cackletta so he probably didn’t get why Bowser was so enraged by this. He didn’t have time to explain right now though because he had to deal with it.

“KAMEK!” He stamped his foot hard enough to shake the whole room a little.

It was maybe a grand total of five seconds before little old Kamek was rushing into the room.  “Yes, Lord Bowser?” he said, wheezing a little from the run over.

“Take care of this,” he said, pushing the now not so green fellow towards Kamek.

“Um… may I ask what this is? And what exactly you’d like me to do with it.”

Bowser groaned but thankfully, Junior, hopped down from his perch to explain the situation better and faster than Bowser probably ever could. He was a smart kid.

“Okay so uh… you want me to get King Boo out of him?” Kamek asked when the explanation was finished.

“Yes!” Bowser thrust the body towards him again.

“Sir, I don’t intend to be contrarian but this is King Boo we’re talking about here, I’m not sure if I can…”

“Just do it!” Bowser stomped his foot again. This was his castle; things were done his way here. If he wanted King Boo forced out of Greenie’s body, then Kamek was going to find a way to do it whether he liked it or not.

“Yes sir.”  Kamek saluted before gesturing a couple shyguys over to take the body from Bowser to carry away presumably to his lab.

“Does this mean we’re going to be at war with King Boo’s kingdom now?” Junior asked after all the minions had filed away and it was just the two of them again.

“I don’t know and I don’t care.” It would probably be awkward if that did happen because some of his minions were boos, asking them to fight their own kind was bound to cause issues. Also, how did one wage war against ghosts? Yeah sure, sometimes boos could be defeated by physical force, but normal ghost certainly couldn’t be. But those were only potential future problems and thus he wasn’t going to worry about how to deal with them until they came to pass. For now, he was angry and wanted to punch something until it broke into a million pieces.

[greatcacklingwitch-moved]

“Geragemouna?”

“Hm?”

Stheno glanced downwards, approaching the magenta witch, her steps very stiff. At least she seemed willing to talk, or at the very least, Cackletta wasn’t going to immediately act snarky.

“I just wanted to mention your shapeshifting abilities are impressive.”

“Well, I didn’t need the reassurance, I know of my skills. ...  But hearing it come from you is different, intriguing really.”

“Good, it is fortunate you are willing to hear me out. Because your skills are beyond remarkable. Your ability to fluctuate your energy and form on a whim is amazing, how do you do it?”

“No idea!”

Of course, the blue witch thought. Still, she thought that the unstable nature of her offspring would be more of a detriment rather than a benefit, the power Cackletta possessed was more than she could have ever dreamed of. Maybe it wasn’t so much of a bad thing that her exact beginnings was... ‘held back’ a bit.

Though, while she was lost in thought, she didn’t notice Cackletta glance over to her, an expression on her face as if she was thinking about saying something, perhaps to take more of a step of clearing up their misunderstandings. That could not be further from the truth.

“So has anyone explained to you about Bowletta?”

“... No?”

“Oh great, then that will make this next part much more fun, if you’re so interested in what I can do!”

Cue maniacal laughter while the wicked witch shifted her state into something that loomed over Stheno, her eyes going wide even though the rest of her expression was neutral. She was flooded with questions to ask, but didn’t know where to begin. The main question that she still asked herself when joining this group still remained, however, which was ‘what did I get myself into’.

[greatcacklingwitch-moved]

A VERY DESCRIPTIVE & DETAILED PROFILE OF YOUR MUSE. Repost with the information of your muse, including head canons, etc. If you fail to answer some of the facts, add some other of your own. When you’re done, tag 15 other people to do the same.

NAME: Cackletta (yeah she doesn’t have a last name.) AGE: The equivalent of 56, let’s just say that. SPECIES: Beanish GENDER: Nonbinary, uses she/her pronouns. ORIENTATION: Lesbian INTERESTS: Practicing her talents as a witch, committing crimes, being an overall tease towards the only ones knowing she’s alive. PROFESSION: Witch, fugitive, Fawful’s mentor. BODY TYPE: Tall, has lanky and long limbs, actually chub under her dress. EYES: Very obviously bloodshot, somehow giving it a bright pink colour. HAIR: Should her hair grow back, it would be black and messy. SKIN: Pale lime green. HEIGHT: Seven foot even.

COMPANIONS: Her two Fawfuls, and one of the Fawful’s Midbus. ANTAGONISTS: Oh boy, where does one begin. All of the Beanish monarchy, all of the Beanish kingdom, all of the Mushroom kingdom, every damn Koopa there is probably. SMELLS: I can’t tell if this means favourite smells or what she smells like. Regardless, it’s floral scents. And coffee. Lots of coffee. FRUITS: She likes apples and pomegranates.  DRINKS: COFFEE ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE: She isn’t picky, but she’s particular fond of liqueurs, her favourite being chocolate liqueur. SMOKES?: Done it once, didn’t like. DRUGS?: Ill-advised. DRIVERS LICENSE?: Can’t drive.

RANDOM HEADCANON: She really gets a high out of shapeshifting into Bowletta, due to her own insecurities over her body. Besides for the earlier mentioned pudge, beneath her various long dresses and robes, she’s actually covered in scars from burns.Plus Bowletta gives her an excuse to focus all her magical ability into raw strength, which she welcomes as a change of pace.

Tagged by: @cacklettasbestpupil

Tagging:  I don’t really do the tagging thing.