King Bowser Koopa

Twenty here. This is the application I posted for Bowser to DDD. I've decided to paste it here just for reference or something. Anyway, enjoy, and please let me know what you think of it, OOC.

All formatting's been stripped, since pasting it into Rich Text mode added a white background and a lot of messy code. So I've pasted it into HTML mode. I might format it later.

Player nickname: Twentydragon ("Twenty" for short)
Player DW: twentydragon
Way to contact you: E-mail or chat
Email: Twentydragon at gmail
AIM: None.
Plurk: None.
Chat: Astra (Twentydragon) | Skype (Twentydragon) | GTalk (same as Gmail)
Are you at least 15?: Eeyup.
Current Characters: None.

Character: King Bowser Koopa
Fandom: Super Mario Bros.

Character Notes:
History:
King Bowser's attempts to win the heart of Princess Peach have always ended in disaster. This can mainly be attributed to culture clash and the fact that he has no idea how wooing works in the Mushroom Kingdom. As a result, he often ends up kidnapping his love, prompting the displaced good Samaritans Mario and Luigi to mount a rescue and cause hundreds of thousands of coins' worth of property damage. Fortunately, Bowser's Repair Troop has excellent response times and is able to fix most broken castles within weeks.

His repeated attempts at courtship have been almost singularly of the kidnapping variety, and while Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, and frankly the whole of the Mushroom Kingdom are still wary of his presence, they do at least find him agreeable enough to attend sporting events and the like, even if he does try to take them over.

Lately, Bowser has received word of a magical Rod that grants wishes, nestled high above in a sparkling land inhabited by Stars. "Sounds useful! I want it! It's about time some of my wishes started coming true!"

(Canon point detailed at the bottom of the post.)

Personality:
Bowser is brash, vain, and selfish, often coming across as a conceited oaf but surprising many with deadly competence. When Bowser gets particularly focused on or serious about something, there's very little he can't actually achieve.

Bowser's arrogance is responsible for his likeness's pervasiveness throughout his castle, as well as his total inability to understand Peach's lack of romantic interest in him. On the occasion that he does learn a very harsh lesson the hard way, he gets mad, throws a tantrum, breaks a few things, and underneath all the bluster actually learns it and utilizes this knowledge the next time he attempts something similar. This, combined with his ability to bounce back from any defeat, makes him an extremely dangerous long-term foe.

Despite his arrogant, harsh, and mean-spirited demeanor, Bowser is rather forgiving and is able to put past injustices behind him in order to work toward a common goal and is willing to accept his former minions back into his ranks after they've "seen the light". Even so, when no attempt to reconcile has been made (and he's sure not going to do it himself!), he doesn't soon forget any slight, making good on his constant promise that "I'll remember this!"

In the Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser is known less as a being with thoughts and emotions and more a force of nature, able to send Toads, Goombas, Koopas, and Boos alike fleeing in terror with his presence. While this may be how he prefers it, this conception is far from the truth. Bowser is a very complex, emotionally conflicted individual whose own family is treated more as a group of soldiers and less as a flock of children. While he cares deeply for his minions — and his seven children more especially — he has difficulty showing and demonstrating this.

Other:
Abilities:
Bowser is highly fire-resistant and even able to exhale large quantities of flame at a time. He's also very tough and can take many heavy hits before feeling dazed. He's very strong and fast, as well, able to charge across a large section of flat ground in little time, even with many large obstructions in his path. His agility leaves quite a lot to be desired, however, as the simple act of trying to turn while running can send him careening off course and through a wall somewhere.

Bowser's shell is extremely protective, though he rarely uses it for defense, preferring instead to compress his immense weight into it and slam it into things like a ground-bound wrecking ball.

Throughout the Mario series, Bowser has been on the receiving end of more damage than anyone (or arguably anything) else, mainly because he (a) deserves it for his antics and (b) can take as much punishment as the universe cares to dish out.

Additional Links:
Bowser on Super Mario Wiki

First Person (video):
(There's fumbling with the camera for a few moments, complete with waves of static further indicating the camera's being jostled around.)

Bowser (during the static: "Hey, is this thing on?" (a pause, then shouting:) "Kammy! You old hag! Get in here and fix your camera-thing!"

(Some shuffling and a slight bit of wheezing is heard, followed by Kammy Koopa muttering incomprehenisbly next to the camera's microphone. This suddenly cuts away to an image of Bowser sitting upon his throne, smiling, perhaps maliciously.)

Bowser: "Bwahahaha! It's Bowser Blog time! So, the repairs to the castle are coming along well..."

(Cut to a demolished wall of Bowser's Castle. Goombas, Bob-ombs, and various types of Koopas are picking up pieces of the rubble and attempting to fit it back into the wall.)

Bowser (giving orders): "Okay, the jaggedy piece needs to be in the corner... No, not that corner, the other one! No, the other-other one! Okay. Take the whole block and—" (thud) "Argh, you idiot! Get that block off of Kammy and put it in the wall! Why do I have to tell you how to fix this? I've got better things to do!"

(Cut to Bowser and Donkey Kong golfing.)

Bowser (gazing downrange): "No, I have no idea where it went." (points the plainly-visible ball out to the camera while DK's back is turned to him) "You oughta hit another one to make sure you didn't lose it." (smirks and raises an eyebrow to the camera)

(DK scratches his heard for a moment, then nods, sets up another ball, and whacks it down the course. It makes a large splash in a water hazard. DK facepalms, and Bowser chuckles.)

(Cut back to Bowser on his throne.)

Bowser: "Looks like I'll be able to have my castle's repairs done before the end of the week! And then—" (unrolls a blueprint showing Bowser's Castle on top of a very large Koopa Kopter) "— this baby's going mobile!" (rolls it back up) "That's right; my castle's gonna be able to fly around and go underground and do all sorts of things that'll finally impress Pe— I mean, catch those no-good (air-quotes) 'plumbers' by surprise! There's no way they'll see this coming!" (stands and walks casually down a hallway lined with windows, Bowser statues, and paintings of his children) "Yeah, this is gonna be a goooooood year to be me."

(The camera stops moving, and the video fades out while Bowser continues walking.)

Third Person:
Princess Peach sat on the chair Bowser provided her, locked inside a dungeon cell. Again. Her face cupped in her hands, tears escaped between her fingers and down her gloved forearms.

This was too much. Bowser recoiled but attempted to maintain the macho façade everyone knew him by. He informed her that she'd be staying a while, that Mario and Luigi were still several continents away, and that she should get comfortable. He motioned to some kind of mattress inside the cell, which looked lumpy and all kinds of uncomfortable from where Peach was sitting.

Once she'd at least looked at it, Bowser retreated into another room of the dungeon and shut the door firmly behind him. He gave the room a once-over and, certain he was alone, pounded his head onto the table.

She just didn't get it, did she? All of this effort, the repeated kidnappings, the fancy gadgets, the continual shows of force. They were all to impress her, to show that he could protect her and her kingdom far better than anyone else could.

And yet.

Those two plumbers were constantly mucking things up, somehow winding their way into his fortress, defeating him personally, and whisking his Princess away again. So he'd revise and replan. He'd build better castles, train better troops, and throw in new surprises to catch them off-guard. But in the end, Mario and Luigi would always win out.

Fine.

They were his rivals, his obstacles to overcome. One day, he'd best them. One day, they would fail utterly to rescue the fair Princess, and then she'd understand that the Koopa King was the one for her.

But he just didn't get it, did he? Princess Peach cared little about force or gadgets, and her constantly alternating state of kidnapped and rescued was becoming increasingly unbearable. Even though Mario and Luigi would always win out in the end, she had to face each time the inevitable possibility that one day, they wouldn't. Then what?

Bowser lifted his head from the table. Then she'd have to accept him! He pulled a small box from his shell and stared at it for a moment. He opened it and examined its contents: a vibrant, slightly glowing jewel that shattered the visible spectrum within its facets and sent them out again in dazzling patterns. A warm smile crossed his face. He caught himself, reassumed the stern look of Bowser, clapped the box shut and marched back into the dungeon.

Peach lay asleep on the mattress. Having found it much more comfortable than it looked, she'd fallen soundly asleep very quickly. Bowser opened his mouth to speak to her, but he stopped, instead turning the lamps low and softly shutting the dungeon door as he exited.

Mario and Luigi would come and take her away again. This Bowser knew. But right now, she had nothing to fear. Right now, she was his.

Canon Point:
Starting: Just before the events of the first Paper Mario.

Preceding: Mario canon's a funny thing, so here's a list of games relevant to Bowser that I'm assuming to have actually taken place prior to his starting point here (in chronological order):

Yoshi's Story
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Wario's Woods

Super Mario Kart
Super Mario World

Super Mario Land
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins
Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land

Super Mario 64
Mario Party
Mario Golf
Mario Kart 64
Mario Party 2
Mario Tennis
Super Smash Bros.
Mario Party 3


Un-Canon:
The events, characters, and settings of Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars are not canonical, but it exists in-universe as a novel series, of which Bowser has heard but has not yet read himself (he might be convinced).

The events of games beyond Paper Mario have not yet occurred. Additionally, no characters will ever be treated as if they were or had been made of paper (I'm chocking that up to the style of the game, and it'll make more sense later).