#being loyal to the koopa family for generations..

[factual-fantasy]

Heya Factual! Congrats on the 23,000! Yet another well deserved milestone earned by your hard work and dedication! Really sorry about the cold- we always seem to get sick at the worst of times! Definitely don't do anything crazy till you're 100%, but thanks for making that really cute celebration piece- you can really tell how much the factual Fam cares about you from their worried expressions...and then there's Gerald, who refuses to let his happy demeanor waver for a second! Though then again, he is still quite young- he might not even understand the concept of getting sick yet!

And on that note, at least till you're better, I definitely won't send any unnecessarily exhausting Asks like last time ( thanks for answering that so thoroughly though- that was really cool! ) and just keep it simple- and my ask today is regarding the simplest Mario enemy, the goomba!

You've mentioned them in the past as beings created by Kamek- How does he do it? How long has he been doing it? Are the goombas sentient, or just savage constructs? How many are there, in ratio to the Koopas? Did the bros have to fight through a bunch of them on their way to the castle? And do any of their variants exist, such as the micro goombas, para goombas, or giant goombas? We require the Goomba Lore!

Thank you! :DD I'm doing my best to take it easy.. I've spent most of my days recently either sleeping, sitting, or playing Pokemon Scarlet XDD that's relaxing right? Yes, I believe so-

As for Gerald, he isn't ignorant to my condition- he's actually meant to be surprisingly emotionally aware. :0 He's smiling though all this because he wants the others to be happy. And if he's calm and smiling, maybe we'll smile too.. 🥺

I was intending to draw a comic that goes into Gerald's character a bit more... But I just haven't been well enough recently to take on a project like that.. :((

And don't worry about "exhausting asks", I encourage them! :D I could really use some lengthy asks as a form of distraction to be honest.. 🥹💔

Speaking of asks, about your Goomba questions..

Well, starting with Kamek actually- I have intentions to make him a few hundred years old. Being the most powerful magikoopa there ever was supposedly.. and he's been associated with the royal Koopa family for generations.. though this idea is in canon limbo, because I'm having trouble figuring how exactly he's managed to live so long. Considering how magic works in my au.. his lengthy life span shouldn't be possible..

None the less, even though I haven't gotten that idea to fit yet- I love it so much that most of the au kinda branches off from it- <XDDD so with that established, Kamek brings Goombas to "life" using magic of course!

I was thinking that the ability animate dead/inanimate things is a very complex magic that took Kamek years to learn. And he was only finally able to master it in the last 100 years or so.

Now for the Goombas, they are not sentient for sure. They are just these little.. zombie like.. machines. They start as poisonous mushrooms and when they are "brought to life", they gain this desire and need move and attack anything that doesn't appear to be a Koopa.

As for the Koopa to Goomba ratio.. I'd say they make up 1.5/10 of the kingdoms population. They are very disposable and "easy" to make.. but they are relatively fragile creatures and take a while to grow.. plus the Goombas don't live very long. Since they uproot themselves upon being "Goomba-fied", they eventually wilt and die.. :/ so that number doesn't ever go over 1.5.

I'm sure Mario and Luigi had to squash some on the way to save Peach the first time. But it was only after her rescue that one landed a bite on Luigi..

As for their variants, the micro and Giant Goombas surly exist! Though king Goomba might not because the original brown mushrooms probably don't grow that big-

As for para-goombas.. hmm.. I know there won't be any Goombas with wings going around. But perhaps there could be a Goomba that can release airborne spores.. or at the very least can attack from afar.. that could get them the title of para-goomba! :0

I think I covered everything, I hope at least-

Thank you for the ask and interest in my au! :DDD it was a nice read and took my mind off of all my ailments for a short time 🥹💖

[tigers-eyes-26]

Bowsers Rise To Power Chapter 3

(of Goombas, Bombs, Drybones, and Koopalings)

From the beginning the goombas had supported Bowser. Goombas had anciently been a part of the Mushroom Kingdom but broke off. They were aggressive little guys that liked the gruffer attitude of the koopas, so they moved there. The heat of the lava fields didn’t bother the hardy little guys. The koopas didn’t mind, even the aristocrats, who thought the goombas were a lower life form, never really antagonized them. That is until food became scarce. Then the goombas had a problem and Bowser was the only one doing anything about it.

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Some of the ancient magikoopas had created a society of living bombs, living ball and chain, and living bullets. The koopa aristocrats had banished them to an ancient battlefield on the Mushroom Kingdom outskirts. The Mushroom Kingdom allowed them to live there but tended to avoid the place. If you bumped into a Bob-omb in the wrong way, they would literally explode! Bowser needed a little more fire power if he was going to take down the oligarchy. He reached out to King Bob-omb. He told them they were a valuable part of an army he was building. King Bob-omb though that peace was boring. He and his people were literally built for war. So being part of the army was exciting for him and his people.

**********

Months before the official uprising against the koopa aristocrats, Kamek appeared before King Boo. He acquired a necromancy tome from the king of the lingering dead. Bowser had put Kamek up to this. Bowsers following was impressive. But he was worried about those who were loyal to the oligarchy killing off a significant part of his army before he could show off how big his army to Princess Peach. The biggest part of his army was made up of koopas. Bowser held a party for all his koopas troops and told them they were his brethren, how special they were to be born koopas, and how impressed he was at their loyalty to the resistance against the koopa overlords. As a reward Bowser would make sure they would never die! Freedom from death? What a gift! They all cheered and praised Bowser as Kamek cast the spell.

In reality the spell was a curse. Constant hunger, constant thirst, constant dry itching but no skin to itch, constant dry eyes but no eyes to blink. No more sleeping to relieve these feelings. Most who were turned to dry bones resigned to the symptoms of the gift and continued to serve Bowser. Others went into a blind rage and went feral. Others buried themselves in the ground to simulate sleep and would attack anyone who disturbed their ‘sleep’.

Even though they couldn’t truly die, after hearing of the ‘symptoms’ from their fellow koopas, they strived not to end up as dry bones.

*******

With shy guys, goombas, bob-ombs, dry bones, koopas lead by a loyal general, and a magikoopa. Bowser absolutely decimated the aristocrats and their loyal followers. Bowser made a show of not killing the littlest of the aristocratic koopas. He preserved Ignatius, Laurence, and Lemuel Ling; Roderick and Wendelin O’koopa; Ludwig Von Koopa; and Morton High Koopa. How merciful he was to save the children of his enemies! 

They could rise up against him in the future, but he wouldn’t let that happen. He would have them raised by the families of the most loyal koopas under him. Bowser ordered for the noble younglings to be indoctrinated. They were to be told that their parents where horrible people who abandoned them, now they could grow up and do whatever they wanted! Remember your parents wouldn’t have let you do this, and it is Bowser who allows you your freedom! They were 4 years old and younger and it would take a while for them to grow useful to Bowsers cause.

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Author's notes: Again kind of a Lore dump about the different species that are part of Bowser's army. I also added in the Koopalings because they are fun.

Chapter 2:

Chapter 4: Coming soon

[earthnashes]

Okay, cool. To make it a bit easier I'll give some background on the characters I put in and make separate asks for each so you can choose which to play with. First is Kammy Koopa: Basically plays Kamek's role as Bowser's 2nd-in-command in the first two Paper Mario games. Vain, smart, loyal and good with spells and machines (built a machine to beef up Bowser in the final fight). Kamek doesn't show up at all until the third game, so there's no canon relationship between them that I'm aware of.

Kammy Koopa is def in the AU; she's like the only character I actually know about from Paper Mario and I adore her.

In this AU she's Kamek's mother. I'm thinking that Kamek's family served the crown for generations, doubling both as the head mages and crown advisors. Kamek is of course the latest and quite possibly the most successful Mage-Advisor, if only because he directly influenced the sort of king Bowser became since he raised him and Bowsette.

Kammy was the Mage-Advisor for nearly 300 years (MagiKoopas are known for their notoriously long lifespans) before she allowed Kamek replace her during the reign of Klaws and Clawdia Koopa, the great grandparents of Bowser.

She officially retired a few years after that, opting to live a peaceful and stress-free life out in a secluded location in a small but cozy cabin. As it currently stands she is well known for her superb potion making, and I'd like to think Bowser asked to re-employ her skills when he ascended the throne. She holds the title of the head of the Brews and Potions branch of the Guild, though she typically works remotely instead of actually coming in to headquarters.

Like Kamek, she considers Bowser and Bowsette family, even going so far as to call them her grandkids. She's very grateful for the changes made to the kingdom too; she was there when it started being handled... poorly, shall we say, and I'd imagine she actually feels a little guilty for being unable to put a stop to some of it, even if there's only so much she could've done at the time. O:

[thebigpapilio]

The Koopa, The Dad, & The Better

This writing is inspired from/based on “https://duckapus.tumblr.com/post/184704406530/i-want-bowser-to-punch-gabriel-agreste-in-the-face by @duckapus​“. It’s also a not-exactly-sequel to my post “https://thebigpapilio.tumblr.com/post/175002411360/mario-fans-heres-a-thought”.

Bowser had been monstrous, forceful, and many other things he would spend his life atoning for, but he was by no means a bad father. The Koopalings - quite young at the time - were entrusted to him by their blood father should they fall in battle. The previous Boom Boom had been loyal and a great ally of the Koopa royal lineage, so when the sad day came that he fell - thankfully long before Mario, or things would be a lot worse between the plumber and his adopted kids - Bowser was more than willing to take the mantle. Bowser took as good care of them as he could, and Kamek helped him through the whole family’s issues. Even when Junior was born, Kamek was there for all of them.

Bowser had been angry his father magically forced Kamek to hide the truth of the racism that started the generational war between the Koopa & Mushroom Kingdoms with a silencing spell, he knew it was not Kamek’s fault and forgave him. After learning the truth, Bowser swore to fix his father’s mistakes, and it was not much later that a peace treaty resumed, complete with Peach’s also-restricted memories being restored.

It also helped him move on from the then-princess, which was good, because when he had arrived to offer peace, he’d just missed Mario proposing.

After fixing up everything, Peach saw fit for Bowser to be invited to the wedding, though Mario had still been suspicious of him.

Nevertheless, despite Bowser’s newly-attained and seemingly-infinite patience, there had been - and there still would be - plenty of times in Bowser’s life when he became especially angry.

When he was taken away from his childhood best friend Peach? Mostly confused, but still angry.

When he first lost to Mario, followed by an uncounted amount of repeated results? He’d been furious, and with each time he returned from a fight in great pain, he found less and less things more aggravating than so much as the thought of that provocative plumber.

When memories of his father and why he “hated” the Mushroom Kingdom returned to him? Bowser thought he couldn’t be angrier.

But after he stepped into that portal disguised as a human, Bowser found himself to be wrong.

It had started when he’d saved the kid from collateral damage caused by one of those… what was it, akumas? To his horror, he learned this was a regular occurrence in the city from the boy (Adrien, Bowser, his name is Adrien) in a tone more surprised that he didn’t know. That was fair, but the tone should have been a red flag that something was wrong. Later, he watched the boy’s ride show up at his school while walking by, and his heart broke watching how fast Adrien’s face fell.

It got worse when he started sending in spies. They returned with information of his dad and secretary being incredibly inconsiderate of Adrien and what he wanted, telling him what he was going to do as if he had no choice, and even when he did them, he was treated like a rebellious teen. Apparently, it was so bad the kid had fought to go to the public school. Junior didn’t mind being tutored, but Bowser still knew that even if his kids hadn’t wanted to do evil like they had done, the Koopa King would still be supportive of him and his siblings.

Bowser had been about to lose his temper for the first time in what may have been a record-breaking drought when a Paratroopa returned with urgent news. When Bowser learned about the correlation behind the two pitiful excuses for “adults” and the reason behind the villains, he knew something had to be done.

He couldn’t do it alone, however - he had to do things more quietly than an invasion could, and while he was incredibly strong, he would be outnumbered, and he was especially bad against smaller & faster opponents, if Mario and Luigi (he’d finally remembered to not address the younger hero as Green 'Stache) were anything to go by. Plus, he was mad right n-

The Mario Brothers.

Bowser couldn’t think of anyone better to help him then the newly-dubbed Mushroom King and his brother. Luigi and Bowser were on decent terms, but that didn’t seem to be enough for his bro - even when Bowser helped find a way back to the brothers’ home world, Mario still seemed to not trust Bowser, however quiet or loud he was about it. The Koopa King wondered if this plan he was forming would get Mario to fully trust him.

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Mario and Luigi had been suspicious at first at a request for help - as much as Bowser had changed, the Koopa King seldom asked for help, certainly not in the desperate fashion that he had. But Luigi convinced at least get Mario to hear the Koopa King out, and looking back, Mario thought it was a good idea - when Bowser explained the situation, the Mario Brothers would have agreed instantly had Bowser not wanted to explain how bad it was.

Mario had mostly been on guard due to their wedding; he wasn’t exactly of noble stock, and if he were to let his Queen be taken by someone they had known was not always trustworthy, he didn’t know what anyone - least of all him - would think of the new King. But Peach seemed to trust the former enemy after missing memories returned, and Bowser had looked like a husk of himself on that day, so Mario had been too shocked by this new information to really do much at the time.

With the peace between the two Kingdoms, Mario had seldom needed to do any hero work with the Koopa army practically handling all defensive matters for him, so if nothing else, this was an excuse to get some exercise and do good for someone.

Besides, this was a human from a parallel world to he and his brother’s, right? The Mushroom World had ultimately changed their lives for the better, and if this Adrien kid needed it, they would do the same for him.

After conferring with Peach and making a plan, the three fighters were ready to go. Going through the portal made things a bit awkward given the wait and Bowser’s human disguise, but Mario finally started to feel that Bowser was becoming better.

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Just our luck that there’s an akuma attack going on, Bowser mused.

Looking further at the situation, there appeared were multiple akumas and two new creatures that Bowser assumed to be sentimonsters - Hawkmoth had decided to try Heroes’ Day again, it appeared, but this time he was nowhere to be found, a young, brown-haired girl in the villain’s costume.

In a hidden spot near the battlefield, Bowser murmured to Mario and Luigi to go and help the heroes, saying he needed to save Adrien first. They all wore communicators - Bowser’s on an arm bracer, and the Mario Brothers under their hats. Nodding, they went off to go help, a well-placed fireball knocking Befana off her motorcycle and ultimately ending up purified in Luigi’s arms. Chat Noir - the kid was there, which made Bowser’s job a lot easier - and his friends were caught off guard, but when the brothers started to keep pace, they relaxed and returned to fighting the akumas once more.

Bowser would have loved to join them, but he had bigger fish to fry. Transforming back into his true form, he took off for Gabriel’s mansion.

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Hawkmoth and Mayura were a bit worried when new heroes stepped in. It was already a taller order than last time due to the reactivated Monkey, Snake, & Horse joining the original five, but they had saved up enough energy to be at least on par with that. When the dynamic duo showed up, however, the villains started to become quite uncomfortable.

On the battlefield, Luigi’s hammer smashed the last akumatized item - Volpina’s necklace. This Lila girl had turned out to be willingly akumatized and working with the villains, and she was promptly taken to the police by an infuriated Carapace and Rena Rouge while the other heroes celebrated.

The brothers’ communicators came on then, their draconid ally’s voice arriving right on time.

“You guys cleaned up yet?”

“Perfect timing, big guy!” Mario said, the two brothers watching as Carapace and Rena Rouge returned.

“Good. Now, tell them to follow you to the big bads’ place, got it?”

With all the up-close fights Bowser and the brothers had, they still forgot sometimes that in the end, he was a born leader and knew how to give commands without being angry. Walking over to the heroes, they introduced themselves as “Fireball” and “Green Thunder,” and told the heroes not only that that they’d been doing detective work about Hawkmoth’s identity but that they’d tracked him down, with someone holding personal quarrel with the villain already confronting him.

Ladybug would have spoken first, but she was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering from a while away.

“That’s our cue, then…” Green Thunder smiled. Gesturing in the direction of the sound, he continued, “...care to follow us there?”

You would have thought their heads would fly off their necks with how fast they nodded.

Meanwhile, Hawkmoth and Mayura caught their breaths after dodging the shards of glass sent their way. When they looked up, their breaths were caught once more as they took in the appearance of the cross-looking creature whose glare that screamed you are in for the beatdown of your life. Fortunately for Mayura, she could see that the glare was mostly trained on her boss. Unfortunately for her, it was only mostly.

“Hawkmoth and Nathalie Sancoeur,” he uttered, and the two in question froze up in not only shock at this creature’s ability to speak so clearly and the fact he appeared to know Mayura’s identity but confusion, because this beast referred to Gabriel as Hawkmoth, even though at this point there was no conceivable reason this monster did not know that Gabriel was Hawkmoth.

“I have some words for you.”

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“You may never have heard of me, given the differences of our origins, so let me tell you just who you’re messing with.”

Slowly stomping towards them, he proceeded to do just so. “I am King Bowser Koopa, ruler of Dark Land and former villain. I’m the ex-scourge of the Mushroom Kingdom and the first of the Seven Star Children. I was known as the Final Boss, the Destroyer of the Dark Star, and old enemies-turned-friends once called me la tartaruga mortale - the death turtle."

To himself, Bowser thanked Luigi and Mario for teaching him Italian, because someone needed to know it other than those two if the brothers went evil.

"I did a lot of evil things in my career as a villain - I’ve conquered galaxies simply because they stood in my way.”

“I could raze you and this whole mansion to the ground right now if I wanted,” he roared, clearly putting fear into the two villains, “but I won’t. You wanna know why?”

At their somewhat-frantic nods, any amusement on his face said goodbye.

“Because there’s a kid in this place.”

At their slight confusion, he scowled. At this point he stood over the floored duo.

“The title I hold more dearly to me than any of the ones I just named is Dad. I have eight wonderful children, and every day of my life I do my best to make sure they want for nothing, least of all my attention. ”

At that point he snatched Mayura’s brooch faster than either of them could react, leaving a stunned Nathalie Sancoeur in her place. Looking back for a second, he noticed the other heroes had arrived - Red & Green with them. Grinning, he returned to Hawkmoth’s fearful gaze.

“Now I’m not perfect, true, but at least I try. I support my kids, I take time to understand them and their interests, I teach them as best as I can, and even if they hadn’t wanted to follow in my villainous footsteps during that time, I like to think I would have respected that and continued to love them nonetheless.”

His glare hardened even further.

“Too tall an order for you, huh? If you can pretend to be the fashion mogul known as Gabriel Agreste, I think you could easily take time to be a parent to your kid.”

“Why do you keep saying he’s not Hawkmoth?” Chat Noir spoke up from Roi Singe & Ladybug’s grips.

“For what I know, Gabriel Agreste was a kind, caring, and patient guy who liked to do good for others simply for the sake of it. This guy doesn’t fit the description, so he can’t be Hawkmoth, right?”

It was clear that Bowser knew Gabriel was Hawkmoth, but the message he was conveying was clearer - Gabriel had changed, and not for the better.

“You’re using your grief as an excuse to hold your son at arms’ length, but you only take control of him when it’s convenient. If I asked you about his favorite color, or his friends’, or what he wants to do with his life if he could choose, or even what he thinks of the “designer clothes” you stick him in, how much could you really tell me?”

At this, Hawkmoth was silent. Bowser let out an angry snort, then finished his tirade.

“I’m not gonna go too far on your failing attempts at villainy. You’re a faulty & foolish failure as a villain and a parent, and as I said earlier, if it wasn’t for the kid, you’d be burned to a crisp and stomped into a paste - not to mention scum like you aren’t worth the effort.”

He picked up the main villain, dropped him on his two feet, and with a growl of “Get bent.” he walloped him into the wall with a single punch.

Hawkmoth would wake up after about a week and a half in the hospital, having changed from purple to white. A change to orange would follow soon after.

But for now, Bowser would turn around to face the other heroes. He would help get the detransformed shell of Gabriel to the police and hospital, and after taking the Black Cat wielder aside, he gave him a small remote-like item he’d packed that let him and anyone he wanted - other than Hawkmoth and Nathalie - come to the Koopa Kingdom if he wanted or needed to.

Bowser sometimes felt the repercussions of his past villainy too strongly. But whenever he remembered that day - especially punching Hawkmoth in the face - he felt a lot better about himself.