- “A WINNER IS YOU!”
- —Fawful, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Fawful is an eccentric Beanish character who is a recurring character in the Mario & Luigi series. He is notable for speaking in grammatically incorrect English and making obscure food metaphors (e.g. "And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!"). Fawful is a mechanical genius, but his common sense suffers due to his extreme rage which often causes him to act in a delusional manner.
History
Mario & Luigi series
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Though his past is largely unknown, Fawful is inferred to have been a long-time follower of Cackletta prior to the events of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and names himself as a pupil of hers in-game. He is officially confirmed to have gained his status as the greatest of Cackletta's students through his evil genius.[1]
Fawful accompanied Cackletta to the Mushroom Kingdom, where he aided her in stealing the Princess's voice. While the two were on their way to the Beanbean Kingdom they encountered the Mario Bros. and Bowser who had formed a temporary alliance to stop the two villains. Taking care of Bowser, Fawful attacked the Mario Brothers. The Bros. destroyed Fawful's Headgear and then beat him. Unfortunately, Fawful summoned another Headgear and used it to knock Bowser's Koopa Cruiser out of the sky. Fawful appeared again attacking Beanbean guards in the mountains. When Mario and Luigi encountered him, he summoned a large stone to block their path.
Fawful attacked Woohoo Hooniversity with Cackletta; it was there that they planned to awaken the Beanstar with Princess Peach's voice. The plan didn't work out so well; it seemed the Princess was aware of the villains' plan and had gone into hiding, and the Princess whose voice had been stolen was Birdo. Birdo's squawking voice irritated the Beanstar so much it smashed through the floor and then the Mario Bros. showed up. The Bros. took out Fawful and then fought Cackletta who they defeated and crippled. Fawful sucked his mistress's energy into his Headgear and planned to attack the Mario Bros., only to be stopped and flung through the roof by Prince Peasley. Landing in Stardust Fields, Fawful found an unconscious Bowser whose body Cackletta possessed. Cackletta then began to call herself Bowletta.
Fawful appeared again guarding Joke's End where he stole the Beanstar from Luigi after seeing through a fake one. Like Bowletta, Fawful was fooled by Luigi pretending to be the Princess and as a result, the plumber was able to steal back the Beanstar.
Fawful showed up again as the penultimate boss in Bowser's Castle. Fawful, here suited in a skin-tight pink suit with wing-like cloth under its arms, now had a large mecha that looked like his head and could shoot lasers. Also, Fawful could attack the Bros. with an electric antenna in his head. Sometimes, he would come out of his mecha and use electric bolts at the Bros., or he could fly away and then charge at one of them. Mario and Luigi could only attack Fawful when the mecha overheated and he was forced to come out. After beating him in battle, Fawful tried one last ditch effort to beat the Mario Bros., but only ended up being knocked out of the castle by Luigi. An apparition resembling Fawful reappears as one of Cackletta's attacks in the final battle, which would imply that he is dead; however, future events seem to prove that this is not actually Fawful.
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Fawful appears again in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time; this time he is running a shop called Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge that is located in the sewers of Princess Peach's Castle. He is only encountered by the babies, whom he does not completely recognize as the younger versions of Mario and Luigi. He goes on a long speech to them about how the brothers defeated him in the previous game, notably mentioning that he plans to return in the future (foreshadowing his major role in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story), creating a period of time in which "no baby's candy will have safety". He, demonstrating apparent clairvoyance, also suggests that the babies go to Princess Peach's Castle's viewing platform prior to the time they discover Gritzy Desert.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Fawful appears as the the main antagonist in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story[2]. He uses a Vacuum Mushroom, which he peddles as a "Lucky Mushroom", to take control of Bowser and make him swallow Mario, Luigi, Peach, and other Mushroom Kingdom citizens. After he comes to, Bowser is not aware that he has swallowed anything at first. Fawful takes over Peach and Bowser's castles, which angers Bowser. Fawful then uses special masks on enemies to put them under his control and has them invade the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser chases Fawful throughout the game. Later in the game, Fawful steals the Dark Star and plans to reawaken and absorb its dark power. He then becomes Dark Fawful, gaining greater powers and a newer attire (most notably red glasses and a Cackletta-esque cloak), but is defeated by Bowser. He then transforms himself into the Dark Fawful Bug to escape, but gets inhaled by Dark Bowser. In the final battle, Bowser makes Dark Bowser spit out Dark Fawful, and then inhales him. In his stomach, Mario and Luigi have the final battle against Dark Fawful and the Dark Star. They ultimately succeed in destroying both, thus weakening Dark Bowser enough for Bowser to deliver the final blows and destroy him. Fawful then appears before the Mario Bros. one final time. Without a body or his dark power, he doesn't have much time left. He gives one last psychotic smile before self-destructing, which expels Mario, Luigi, Starlow and the Toads from Bowser's body.
Super Smash Bros. series
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, one of the names that can be generated from pressing the "RANDOM NAME" button is FWFUL, a reference to Fawful.
Personality
Fawful's name is a pun of awful, which his personality is built on. Fawful's extreme rage has him act like a psychopath, often harming others without cause or sympathy ("Finally! Now is the time where my true might shines, like many angry sunbeams of rage!"). Fawful only cares for Cackletta in Superstar Saga, and frantically helps her when she is hurt. Fawful delights in taunting his enemies before obliterating them ("Your lives that I spit on are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid!"). Fawful is quite deranged, he has several megalomaniac desires, and aspires to create great chaos in the world.
Fawful speaks in Engrish, often saying things that are redundant or hardly make sense (if at all). Fawful is made stranger by his making of several food metaphors and references throughout his speeches ("I drizzled rage dressing on the country next door. Rage dressing on a salad of evil!"). A Sammer Guy named Mustard of Doom talks like Fawful, and is a reference to Fawful and his "Mustard of Doom!" quote. In Japanese versions, Fawful adds strings of "ru" onto every sentence. In French versions, Fawful speaks with a strong accent, exaggerating when aspiring the letter R (but only rarely). He also does strange metaphors. In German versions, he stutters.
Powers and Abilities
Though he is a bit of a loon, Fawful is an extremely intelligent genius, shown by how complex his Headgear is. He uses the rocket-jets on his Headgear to get around. There is a vacuum peripheral on the helmet, which can be used to shoot energy balls, but was also used to suck in Cackletta's spirit to transfer to Bowser and create Bowletta. Fawful also created a giant mecha of his head that could use extremely powerful attacks in his final battle with the Mario Bros. in Superstar Saga. On many enemies in Bowser's Inside Story is a mask resembling Fawful's head which controls them. When he's Dark Fawful, he's shown to have many more abilities, including very high speed, dark magic and other powerful attacks.
Trivia
- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, the music that plays during Mario and Luigi's final battle with him is the same as Popple's battle theme.
- Even though the natives of the Beanbean Kingdom have four fingers to each hand, Fawful has five fingers on each hand, as seen in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, meaning he may not have Beanish origins. He also has five fingers on each hand in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, meaning that this is not an error on the part of the creators of the game. It should be noted that Popple and also the Queen Bean has five fingers, as well. The three characters also share the same big smile.
- In Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time the Mario Bros. have to use the Bros. Ball move to activate a machine to get to the basement, where Fawful is found. Strangely, the device on top of the machine used to activate the warp pipe looks and behaves a lot like Fawful's antenna.
- Nintendo Power calls Fawful "Quite possibly, the most quotable character video game character ever."
Names in Other Languages
References
- ^ According to the Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga manual.
- ^ IGN: Mario & Luigi 3 Battle Systems Detailed, accessed 2009-01-15