The Origin of Bowser: Part 1 - The Early Years

Prologue:


    Over the years, Bowser has made hundreds of attempts to kidnap Princess Peach out of love and rule the Mushroom Kingdom. But he always ends up getting defeated by Mario. There is no doubt that the Koopa King, one of the biggest threats, longs for absolute power and respect since he was a baby, but the truth was, he wasn't always evil. In fact, he was once a loving hero with a corrupted childhood that once made him a spoiled brat and a human girlfriend who was later killed by a wicked dictator who formerly fell in love with her.

    During the first galactic Smash War, which was the result of several races either competing for power or putting universal reconciliation, Bowser's parents sent him to a pod to launch him from their battleship to the Mushroom World; this was to ensure his safety from dangers from the massive war. The last words said by the father were "Love is not a happy ending, but it will overcome everything. And when you put your mind to your goals, there's no problem big enough to run away from. You can and WILL overcome them, son, no matter what.” Of course, Baby Bowser did not listen because he was too young to understand the concept of love. After he was sent away with tears, the parents were killed by a nuclear-powered Banzai Bill fired by their enemies.

Chapter 1 - A Rivalry Born


    After the tragic farewell, Bowser landed to the stork's nest where the bird recently received two babies named Mario and Luigi. The stork chose to carry the young Mario Bros. to their parents, but not Bowser, because it indicated "darkness" in him since the war. So it decided to kick the Koopa Prince out of its nest, dropping him off the cliff to the ground, which severely shattered his feelings if not his bones; this was where Bowser met Kamek the Magikoopa, who decided to adopt him when he felt sorry that the poor prince was abandoned by the stork. So Kamek decided to give the prince revenge on the frightened bird by kidnapping Mario and Luigi.

   Later, the stork was flying at the sky while carrying the Mario Bros. with its beak, like what was said in the game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. When the bird traveled from dusk to dawn, Kamek flew near it faster than a cheetah.

    "SCRREEEECH!!!" "THE BABIES ARE MINE!" Kamek cackled. The wizard managed to kidnap Baby Luigi, but he forgot to snatch Mario, who about to fall into the big blue ocean.
In the interim, Yoshi, at the island, was taking a stroll. Suddenly, Mario dropped in onto his back, which amazed the dinosaur. "The baby seems to be fine," Yoshi thought. "This is very fortunate! What?" Then, a map fell with the infant. “Let's take a peek . . . It looks like a map." The stork used to own this map, but Yoshi wasn’t aware of that. Since he couldn’t read it, he decided to talk to his friends.

    "AAAKK!!!" Kamek screeched. When he realized that he forgot Mario, he ordered the Toadies to find him.

    Yoshi came to see the other Yoshies to ask to help Mario return to his parents, as Kamek's army was aggressively searching the island. Later, after undergoing hardships with bosses, such as a three-headed Piranha Plant with a swollen umbilicus, a frog prince with a large appetite, and a giant raven on a moon made of cheese, Yoshi arrived at the castle to foil Bowser, who was holding Baby Luigi captive; he wasn’t aware that the prince only wanted a playmate. After a hostile battle, the Koopa Prince was dramatically enlarged by Kamek to destroy Baby Mario and Yoshi, but he was ultimately defeated, resulting in his glorious rivalry with Mario and Yoshi. And since this day, Bowser was developed to be ill-mannered but lonely.

Chapter 2 - Social Darwinism


    After many of Bowser's unsuccessful ploys against Mario and Yoshi, such as turning the island into a storybook and time traveling to the future to get the Cobalt Star, the two enemies were sent to a city by their owners where they can receive education at a school as they got older. This was when Young Mario finally lived with his biological parents permanently. At elementary school, Mario juggled ten blocks, played "Oh! Susanna" with the accordion fluently and later demonstrated his strength by lifting a 50 pound barbell at recess; all of the students, except Bowser, praised him for these capabilities.

    One of the students, named Johnny, said, "Wow! That's neat, how you're lifting that barbell with just one arm! I wish I could be like you one day, Mario!"

    "You could, if you put your heart to it," Mario replied. I'm-a just doing this to inspire all of you guys to make full potential of things."

    Meanwhile, Bowser was surrounded by a group of certain human kids whose red-haired leader was named Darwin Kurosawa; they did not seem to be friendly to the poor Koopa.

    "Look at this freakish monster," Darwin told all of his members.  He then talked to the prince. "Yo, Bowser! Your breath stinks so badly for a prince that it makes me feel like I'm living in a dump!" he told the prince.

    "You got any more problems with yourself besides the fact that you're so gross and vile, not to mention so slow and stupid that none of the fairies, Goombas, and girls like you?"  added Tim.

    "Why don't you mind your own stinking businesses, you big stupid-heads?" Bowser replied, trying to defend himself.

    "There is no way that I am spending class with that ugly frog," said George with a dirty look. "What do you say that we later show everyone in the school what a HORRIBLE monster he is?"

    After those cruel comments, the kids carried Bowser and sent him to a garbage can without any of the adults knowing. Since then, the Koopa Prince was frequently bullied and framed by the other students so he would get punished by the teacher for several pranks he did not pull; he eventually realized that despite his special treatment from Kamek, he had lived with misery and loneliness due to the influence of the monster stereotype, the lack of friends and most of all, the loss of his parents from the Smash War. Nonetheless, he did not learn from the mistakes he made back in Yoshi's Island.

   Sadly, Kamek was not there for the little victim after his apparent arrest for causing trouble with some citizens who saw him as a "freak show".

   Later, after school, Bowser came to see the teacher Mrs. Kookie to discuss about Darwin teasing him.”

    “Mrs. Kookie, do you see me as a monster?” asked the prince. “Because it wasn’t me that pulled the pranks, it was Darwin.”

    “I realized that, too.” replied the teacher. “I apologize for blaming you for the tricks in the first place. If Darwin was responsible, then why did he pull those pranks?”

    “At recess, that kid called me a “beast” and that group sent me to a garbage can because they believed that I don’t belong here,” explained Bowser.

    “I did not know that,” said Mrs. Kookie. “I will be sure to talk to Darwin tomorrow about what happened today. Just remember try your best to ignore what people say about you, no matter how hard it may seem.”

    “I will, if I can,” said the prince.

Chapter 3 – Kamek in the City


    Earlier, right after taking Bowser school, Kamek decided to explore the city only to fail to adapt to urban life. First, he tried to put a spell on a male human with a bald head to give him hair, but that person ended up resembling a Sasquatch as a side effect.

    “AHHHH!” The hairy man screamed.

    Next, he enlarged some apples at the outdoor market, but they exploded, angering the fruit vendor.  Then, he brought a Donkey Kong statue to life that decided to throw rocks and garbage at the people around it. It seemed that the Magikoopa was only capable of performing black magic, explaining the misfortunes. Consequently, everyone was displeased with the Magikoopa's behavior and treated him like a lunatic.

    "HEY THERE, EVERYBODY!" screeched Kamek. "Want to see some good magic around here?"
    Everyone looked away and left him alone.

    "Let's go to the cafe, shall we?" said a female Koopa with a flowered hat, hanging out with other girls.

    (whistles) "You certainly look like a lovely lady today", said Kamek, blushing. "How about a little bit of card tricks?"

    "Get away from me, you freak show!" screamed the Koopa.

    Suddenly, another Koopa, who married the woman, shows up. "What's going to here?" asked the lady's husband angrily. "And why you are trying to steal my Holly Koopa, you little twerp? I am going to squeeze the filling out of you!"

    "It should you whose filling should be squeezed out", replied Kamek. Then, he used his wand to "deflate" the male Koopa, which made the lady freak out and notify the police. The other girls ran away and screamed.

    This was when everyone else was looking, and not in a positive way.

    "Officer T!" cried Holly Koopa. "Arrest that Magikoopa who turned my husband into a pancake!"

    The Police Toad pointed a tazer gun at Kamek. "Freeze!" he ordered. "Put your wand down!"

    "Freeze?" replied Kamek. "Okay."  He froze the Toad in an ice cube with his wand.

    Soon, another cop, hiding in a bush, tranquilizes the Magikoopa in his butt three times via dart from a gun.

    “That will do!” exclaimed the second officer.

    "Je ne regrette rien," giggled a dizzy Kamek. And he fainted, ending the madness. Eventually, more police officers arrived and carried the wizard to jail and confiscated his wand.

    After a relatively long trial, the Magikoopa was desperate to get out of prison during his punishment. “HEY!! You can’t leave me in here!” cried Kamek. “I have a son to take care of!”

    “Oh, don’t you worry,” answered the warren. “We’ll make sure to send your son to a special foster home where he’ll learn that you can’t get everything you want and how tough it is to be a certain prince. And by the way, I have learned everything about what happened at Yoshi’s Island.”

    “But how?” asked Kamek.

    “A photographer once showed me some pictures of you and Bowser causing havoc at the island,” answered the warren. “You two weren’t playing nice to the child with the red cap and his green dinosaur.  And I have a feeling that your son will eventually mark the beginning of a broad crisis, for a monster he is.”

    Because of the Magikoopa’s long sentence in prison, after the first day of school, Bowser was sent to the special foster home, in which Mr. Clawful the cougar, his new owner, abused him like a personal slave.

    “Hello, Bowser,” snarled Mr. Clawful. “As punishment for your wrongs, you’ve got a lot of errands to do over your free time. And do you wonder why nobody likes you? Because you’re a BEAST who only cared about power! You’re lucky to live with me because if I didn’t have to adopt you, I would end your wrath by hunting you down and hanging your head up on a wall!”

    The truth was that Bowser wasn’t lucky, even though Mr. Clawful actually had no plans of hunting him down right away but to simply discipline him. He was given either no food or inadequate food, dealt with Mr. Clawful’s heavy ranting and insults when he did something wrong, and spent his spare time for various nerve-wrecking child labor assigned by his owner. In some cases, he was completely neglected for long periods of time. However, this was nothing compared to how he was bullied at school every day.

Chapter 4 – Love at First Sight


    Every day at school, the poor prince had to undergo many of Darwin’s stereotypic insults, such as “lizard lips” and “freak of nature”, pranks like putting glue on his seat, and his daily spanking since the boy was told on the teacher, ending up with deep anger as a result.  He often attempts the boy politely and constantly to stop pulling the practical jokes and calling him those cruel names, but this only made Darwin hot-tempered and aggressive that the kid would beat him up extra brutally. In addition, no one wanted to hang out with the prince or give presents to him of any kind.

    However, there was one girl who felt deeply sorry for the recently mistreated Koopa Prince. She was regarded as one of the most beautiful students in the school; she had soft cotton-white hair with a bob cut, skin smooth as high-quality silk, sapphire blue eyes that reminded everyone of the Atlantic Ocean, and beautiful clothes that proved how wealthy like diamonds in the sky she was. Bowser briefly noticed her, but he was too busy grieving over how everyone treated him.

    One weekend, when Mr. Clawful went to a party with his friends, Bowser decided to go visit the forest when he realized that he wasn’t assigned anything.

    “Maybe if I spend time with nature, I would forget about that stupid Darwin who is always picking on me all the time,” said Bowser. “Why does everyone say that I’m a monster? I throw fits and scream whenever I don’t anything I want, but that’s because my life is MISERABLE! I hate my crummy home, I hate my new owner, I hate that horrible school, and I HATE EVERYTHING I HAVE!” Then, Bowser saw a skunk, which was freaked out by his appearance. He screamed and ran into the trees to avoid getting sprayed. Later, he slipped into a thorny bush, got stuck, and scratched his leg by the thorns. The young prince got out, but he was wounded and started to cry. “WAHHH!!!” cried Bowser, bursting into tears.

    Suddenly the white-haired girl from school heard Bowser crying and found him with one of his legs cut by the thorns on that bush.

    “Are you alright?” asked the girl, showing concern.

    “No…” sniffled the prince. “First, a skunk was about to spray me.  I ran away, but I ended up getting tipped by that dumb bush, and here I am with this scar on one of my legs as well as a bruised arm. Some spiky berries are stuck in my head too.”

    “That’s awful,” replied the girl. “May I see where you got hurt, please?” She brought two bandages and placed one on Bowser’s scratched leg and the other for his bruised arm. “There.”

    “…Thank you,” said Bowser, plucking the spiky berries of his hair. “No one else ever showed me with this amount of kindness.

    “You’re welcome,” told the girl. “By the way, I wonder what your name is…other than what Darwin called you.”

    “My name is Bowser Koopa,” he answered. “What’s yours?”

    “I’m Rosaria Silvestriano,” she responded. “Anyway, I don’t see why everyone teases you all of the time. You seem be an innocent person.”

    “I am today,” said Bowser. “It’s just that ever since Kamek and I moved to this city, we have been struggling to get used to living with all of these new people. Especially if everyone treats you like a monster. Also, there are no Bob-ombs, no treasure, no relics, and no reason to destroy Mario…”

    “Wait, you wanted to destroy Mario?” asked Rosaria. “Why?”

    “It’s not that I WANTED to destroy Mario,” said Bowser. “It’s true that I was a bit evil back in Yoshi’s Island, considering the fact that I wanted power and pretty much everything else. But the truth is that everyone saw me as a monster before so. I was also jealous that the twerp with the red-cap had lots of friends like Peach, Donkey Kong, and most of all, Yoshi. Kamek kidnapped Luigi a few times so that I would have someone to play with, unlike NEVER, but unfortunately, I lost. And while those Star Children now live with their parents, my Mom and Dad, who were in a war, sent me away, and died. When I got here, I abandoned my foul ways and focused more on how everyone sees me a beast. Anyway, that wizard who owned me was arrested for using magic on the humans. Since then, I live in a foster home with that nasty brute Mr. Clawful.  I really miss my old owner Kamek. I remember the time when he gave me a large box of cookies and how I ate the whole container in one sitting.”

    “I understand how lonely you are and how everyone treated you,” said Rosaria. “But have you ever considered being a friend and doing something good for other people? It’s not where you came from or what you look like that defines you. It’s who you choose to be. And you may have lost your parents, but once you pay no attention to what everyone says about you and make them your friends, you wouldn’t be as lonely or mistreated as before.”

    “Thank you for the advice,” said Bowser.

    Since the first time Bowser met Rosaria, every recess, they would spend time talking to each other and playing together. The prince also made fine attempts to ignore all of Darwin’s teasing and treated all of the students with generosity and empathy, including Mario and the Star Children (Luigi, Peach, Wario, and DK). As a result, he felt better about himself and finally adjusted to his new life…well, almost.

Chapter 5 - Family Appreciation Day


    Since he was a baby, Bowser has been thinking about his parents before their demise during the Smash War. He remembered the time when back in his home place, he was given ancient artifacts such as a jewelry embedded lamp discovered by his father on his first birthday. There was also the time when his mother sang authentic songs right before every nap time. But the more he thought about the time his parents were killed by the giant atomic missile, the worse he felt. Since then, he wrote himself a diary focusing on his most precious memories with his family during his bedtime. On Family Appreciation Day, he decides to show the diary only to his beloved friend Rosaria as a special consideration regarding the fact that he no longer had parents to be thankful for. Unexpectedly, Darwin showed up and saw the prince carrying the book.

“Hi, freak,” greeted Darwin in an unpleasant manner. “What have you got there?”

    “It’s none of your business, Darwin,” answered Bowser. “Now leave me alone.”

    “Me, leave you alone? After stealing my girlfriend, Rosaria?” replied Darwin. “No way! Not until you hand over that book!”

    “I told you, this is something that’s none of your business!” told Bowser. “Will you please leave me ALONE, for just once in my whole life!?”
Then, Darwin tried to yank the diary from the prince’s hands. Bowser tugged back.

    “Hey! Give it back! That’s mine!” yelled the Koopa Prince. The two were tugging the book until the red-haired boy won and threw the prince to a water puddle.

    Darwin opened the book and read every single page. “Let’s see here,” he said. “….At Smash War I, your parents sent you away in a pod to Yoshi’s Island. They were killed by a nuclear missile and that was the last time you ever saw them. Wow! Do you know what this means, turtle trog? You have no family today! They abandoned you because they hated you for a monster you are!”

    Suddenly, Mario showed up and saw Darwin with Bowser’s diary. “Give back his book, Darwin Kurosawa,” he told the red-haired boy in a serious tone.

    “Mario?” asked Darwin. “What are you doing here? This is something you should stay out of.”

    Mario gave Darwin a stern look. “It doesn’t matter whether someone’s a monster or not, if you are going to pick on this orphan, make sure he’s your size. Now return the diary to the owner.”

    Darwin gave Bowser his diary back. “Just wait until school starts,” he told the prince.

    “Mario, why did you help me? I always hated you since we were babies,” Bowser told Mario.

    “Sometimes, you got to help your enemies in need,” said Mario. “They have feelings just like all of us.”

    Bowser simply got out of the puddle and walked to school. At school, the students were to make presentations focused on their parents to explain why they were thankful for them. The teacher Mrs. Kookie chose Mario first to come up to the front of the class.

    “Mario, can you show us why you appreciate your parents?” asked Mrs. Kookie.

    Mario played his slideshow and began to speak. “I am thankful for my parents because first of all, my mother makes me that flavorsome lasagna that I love so much that my mouth always water whenever I smell it. My father also teaches me how to fix things such as a bicycle and cuckoo clock.” After his 5-minute presentation, everyone gave a round of applause.

    “Can we have the next person to show up?” asked the teacher. “How about you, Rosaria? You look highly prepared today.”

    “Okay,” replied Rosaria.

    After large number of presentations, Bowser was the last one to present. This was due to the fact that he lost his parents.

    “What’s wrong, Bowser?” asked Mrs. Kookie. “You look so tremendously sad.”

    “I’m fine…right this second,” replied Bowser. But when he showed up with his diary to face all of the students, he began to shed tears and sobbed quietly that he could not bear to speak.

    “….Are you sure you’re fine?” questioned the teacher.

    The prince didn’t say anything. He simply continued weeping.

    “I think I know why he’s not saying anything,” said Darwin, smirking. “You see, his parents took him to a pod to send him away from outer space before they died in a war. They deserted him because they LOATHED him!  They weren’t happy to take care of them because he was too much of a big, mean, awful, and unlovable abomination, and that’s all he’ll ever be!”

    “You can say that again!” said Darwin’s group.

    “Well, his parents could be monsters too, not only Bowser,” confronted Wario.

    “Then that turtle DOES NOT belong here!” replied Darwin. “He never had, and he never will!”

    The prince was hurt after the severe verbal abuse.

    “Mr. Kurosawa, what you said was very cruel! Why don’t you report to principal’s office for this harassment?” scolded Mrs. Kookie.

After several heavy breaths, Bowser’s blood started to boil, his head turned steaming red, and he started shaking with a threatening look until he triggered an explosive outburst of rage! First, he attempted to burn Darwin into charcoal with a fire ball. “I’m through with you, Darwin!” he yelled. “What you said were lies! My parents LOVED me! They wanted to save me! You will roast for lying to me!”

    Scared to death, the boy ran away. Then, Bowser tore every book, smashed every single desk with his fists, and either injured or scared off every student in the school (except for Mario, Peach, and Rosaria), resulting in his most devastating rampage ever. He was fed up with all the bullying throughout the school year! “My life is MISERABLE! I hate my crummy home! I hate my new owner! I hate this horrible school!” he shrieked. “I’M GOING TO DESTROY THIS STINKING TOWN RIGHT NOW!”

    As the enraged Bowser laid waste to the city by throwing cars with his bare hands and burning down buildings, a portion of the citizens chased him with torches and pitchforks to stop his rampage.

    “I knew this day would come,” said Mr. Clawful, who was leading the angry mob. “Come on, people, we’ve got a monster to hunt!”
In prison, Kamek saw Bowser being chased by the angry mob. He wanted to save him, but he could do nothing without his magic wand. Thus, he had to wait until his sentence was over.

    When Bowser went to a bridge, there was a dead end, as he stood watching the mob getting closer and closer. Thus he only choice he had was to dive into the ocean and fake his death to put relief on everyone in the city. Mario, the Star Children, and a brokenhearted Rosaria watched him fall and wondered if he actually died in the ocean. In truth, Bowser resentfully swam miles to Brooklyn without stop. By the time the prince arrived to the new place, he slowly looked for a bench to sleep on. When he found one, he thought about what happened during Family Appreciation Day and cried.

“My life really stinks this time,” he wept. “I lost everything I had: Kamek, a home, a friend, everything. Why does it have to be this way?”

    To ensure that he would not be recognized, he took off his bandanna when he got older, and this marked the beginning of his true obscureness, where he experienced what it’s really like to be all alone with absolutely no one to love him.