Kroop

Kroop
Sprite from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Species	Koopa Troopa
First appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)

“I appreciate that, Murphy! They ARE nice eyebrows.”

—Kroop, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Kroop (also known as Mayor Kroop in the Trouble Center list) is a character in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. He is an elderly Koopa Troopa and the mayor of Petalburg. Kroop and his life experience serves him and the citizens of Petalburg during times of peace and of crisis alike. Kroop has large, bushy eyebrows, a white beard, a wrinkled face and green skin.

Kroop provides Mario access to Shhwonk Fortress, the site of the Moon and Sun Stones needed to open the path to Hooktail Castle.

Kroop's hearing is not what it used to be. For example, the old Koopa calls Mario by the name "Murphy" (Japanese: マニオ - Manio) throughout the plumber's adventure and he calls Mario unselfish if Mario tries to accept a reward. Kroop also has a trouble in the game, in which he wanted someone to talk to him. After Mario listens to his long speech, Kroop rewards the plumber with a Turtley Leaf.

Kroop had a wife in his past. She is only necessarily brought up when Mario first enters Kroop's house. After this entrance, Kroop (who seems to be afflicted with bad eyesight) swiftly "identifies" Mario as a thief. After some ramblings, he eventually tells Mario that he can take any of his belongings; everything but his "pictures of him and the missus." After this is stated, he begins trailing off about memories before quickly getting back to the point.

Later on, if Mario accepts Kroop's trouble, the elderly Koopa mentions "dating the missus back before she was the missus." Apparently, his wife's father was very strict, always requesting that Kroop's wife be brought home before sundown. As such, on dates, Kroop would constantly watch the sun (even more so than he did his date), which was "kind of blinding, in a painful sort of way." He also mentions that he first told his wife he loved her (apparently by stating something about her shell in a loud voice) on a boarding platform as she left on a nearby train; situations such as this happen to be a movie stereotype, as Kroop himself notes. Before ending his long conversation with Mario, he talks about how he and his wife were madly in love and how his wife used to comb his eyebrows in a tender manner that he enjoyed.

Like all implied characters, little is known about Kroop's wife. Kroop has three pictures set up in his house, and, while these are possible candidates for his "pictures of him and the missus," it is hard to make out what they depict (if they even depict anything in particular at all). However, in the Switch remake, these pictures are now clearly visible, and they do indeed appear to depict a younger Kroop as well as his wife in her younger years.

Profiles

• Tattle: "That's Kroop, the mayor of Petalburg. He just babbles, whether he's alone or not. I just can't tell if he's really senile, or if he's just working that angle, y'know?"

Gallery

• 

  Screenshot from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

• 

  Concept artwork showing pictures of a younger Kroop and his late wife

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	カメサブロウ[?] Kamesaburō	Portmanteau of「亀」(kame, "turtle") and「三郎」(Saburō, an old-fashioned but common Japanese male given name)
	ハナハナ村の村長 (Trouble Center list and field Tattle name)[?] Hanahana Mura no Sonchō	Petalburg Mayor
Chinese	卡米三郎[?] Qiǎmǐsānláng	Transliteration of the Japanese name
Dutch	Koopaerts[?]	-
French	Koopert[?]	Portmanteau of "Koopa" and common French name "Rupert"
German	Kooperich[?]	Portmanteau of "Koopa" and common German name "Erich"
Italian	Tartaddeo[?]	Portmanteau of tartaruga ("turtle") and the given name "Taddeo"; his name is only revealed in the Thwomp's quiz.
Korean	거북돌이[?] Geobukdol'i	Portmanteau of "거북이" (geobuk'i, "turtle") and the Korean diminutive suffix "돌이" (-dol'i)
Spanish	Koopablo[?]	Portmanteau of "Koopa" and the Spanish name "Pablo"