Bonechill

“Brrrrooo ha ha ha ha... A touching scene, to be sure.”

—Bonechill, Super Paper Mario

Bonechill is an enemy in Super Paper Mario and the boss of Chapter 7. He is a massive, undead dragon with a large, blue-scaled head, six small, white-feathered wings on his back, and a large golden cannon with two wheels for a lower body. He is the affluent, arrogant and ambitious leader of the Skellobit army, and uses ice attacks in combat during his attempted takeover of The Overthere. According to The InterNed, his theme is called "Bonechill Appears".

According Tippi's tattle implies that Bonechill was once a Nimbi, which is supported by the fact that he speaks in antiquated English like them and has feathered wings on his back. This fits into the overall motif of The Underwhere and The Overthere, which draw heavily from both Ancient Greek and Christian mythology. In particular, the concept of a fallen angel (Nimbi) is inspired by the Biblical story of Lucifer, who became the devil after betraying God. Furthermore, in Dante's Inferno (of the epic Italian poem, the Divine Comedy), Lucifer (now known as Satan) is depicted as a giant, six-winged beast imprisoned in ice in the deepest circle of Hell. This is all paralleled by how Bonechill has six wings, was imprisoned deep below the Underwhere, and is a self-styled "master of the cold dark" who is "something of an evil celebrity in certain circles of the Underwhere". Similarly, his being released during what was implied to be a catastrophic event (in this case, the emergence of the Void) was derived from some renditions of the Book of Revelations, where Satan escaped from Hell before being put down for good by Jesus Christ.

Before the outset of the game, Bonechill was stuck in that prison below The Underwhere along with his army. Count Bleck set him free to defeat Mario (who was the hero of legend as told in the Light Prognosticus), and the presence of Bonechill's Skellobits in Castle Bleck support the idea that they had some sort of affiliation or agreement, although Bonechill claims to be seeking the Pure Heart in order to use its power for himself. Ultimately, Bonechill failed in his attempt to destroy the Heroes of Light and seize control of The Overthere and The Underwhere, as his army was defeated and he himself was shattered to bits by Mario and his companions.

Battle

In battle, Bonechill fires large ice bullets from his cannon and attempts to freeze the heroes with his icy breath. If he freezes one of the heroes, they will start taking 4 damage points a second, the highest amount of freezing damage in the game. Bonechill can also use his breath on the ceiling to create icicles that will fall and damage the player if they are standing underneath.

Bonechill's only vulnerable point is his head, which is out of range for most of the player's conventional attacks. However, Thoreau can be used to grab the ice bullets and icicles, allowing the player to throw them at Bonechill's head for damage. Bonechill can also be defeated by using Luigi's Super Jump technique below his head. If the characters are suitably high-level, or if an attack-boosting item is used, it is possible to defeat the boss with only one use of this attack.

Catch Card

File:BonechillCard.png

Bonechill's Catch Card.

• Card Type: Super
• Card Description: Tremble before the frosty lord of The Underwhere! Bonechill's minty-fresh breath will freeze you solid!

Trivia

• In the Japanese version, Bonechill used the archaic zansu conjugation of the auxiliary verb gozaimasu at the end of each sentence, which is typically used to characterize older, snobby, social-climbing females in fiction.
• Bonechill bears a similarity to Cortez; they both sit atop something (a cannon and a bone pile, respectively) and they both talk in a ghost-like manner.
• Bonechill is one of the two bosses whose looks change as the player damages him; the blue scales on his head begin to fall off as his HP declines. The other is Mimi, who loses her legs as the player damages her more.