Bonetail
| The Thousand-Year Door enemy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bonetail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Location(s) | Pit of 100 Trials (Level 100) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Max HP | 200 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attack | 8 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Defense | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Moves | Dangerous Breath (8, Piercing; sleep (white), confusion (green), shrunk (purple), frozen (blue)), Recover (20 HP, max twice), Stomp (8), Chomp (8) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Items | Return Postage | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coins | N/A | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Log | The oldest brother of Hooktail. He's just bones now. He's incredibly tough... Maybe even the toughest? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tattle Log #: 101 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
- “AROOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
- —Bonetail, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Bonetail is a large, skeletal dragon in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door residing at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials. He is the older brother of Gloomtail and Hooktail. Unlike his still-living siblings, he is an undead dragon, having died of unknown reasons. He was once a pet of the Shadow Queen, but it is never stated why or how Bonetail came to reside at the bottom of the Pit. According to Grifty, Bonetail, along with his two siblings, went around the world terrorizing people some time before the Shadow Queen was imprisoned behind The Thousand-Year Door. There is some regional dispute over the gender of Bonetail, as while the English version depicts Bonetail as male, other versions depict Bonetail as female. In the Italian version, Bonetail's name is derived from "Cassandra", a girl's name.
After Mario and his teammates reach the bottom floor of the Pit of 100 Trials, Bonetail roars, making it questionable if he can talk as he never demonstrates that ability. Bonetail's many breaths cause a variety of status ailments in addition to dealing damage. His blue breath can freeze Mario, green breath can cause confusion, purple can turn Mario or his partner tiny, and white can inflict sleep. All of his fire breath attacks can be avoided with Shell Shield or simply guarding. If Mario defeats Bonetail, he coughs up a chest containing the Return Postage badge.
Bonetail is much stronger than his younger siblings, Hooktail and Gloomtail, and even more than the Shadow Queen. He is the strongest boss in the game, but only offers one star point after defeat; Bonetail can restore 20 HP when having lower HP, and has the most HP out of any enemy. Additionally, Bonetail has the same default attack and defense stats as Gloomtail, with other buffs added throughout the fight. However, Bonetail does not have all of Gloomtail's attacks, like his earthquake attack or Megabreath.
At the beginning of the fight, Mario's partner makes a comment regarding Bonetail:
- Goombella: "Wow! What a freak!"
- Koops: "Yikes! What a grump!"
- Flurrie: "Mercy! Such anger!"
- Yoshi: "Whoa! What a psycho!"
- Vivian: "Wow! What a grouch!"
- Admiral Bobbery: "Rather a crabby sort, eh?"
- Ms. Mowz: "My! What a crab!"
In the Switch remake, Bonetail is referred to with female pronouns.
Gallery
Mario encounters Bonetail
The battle with Bonetail
Bonetail defeated
Bonetail's unused early head design
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
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| Japanese | ゾンババ[?] Zonbaba |
Portmanteau of「ゾンビ」(zonbi, "zombie") and「ゴンババ」(Gonbaba, "Hooktail") or「ブンババ」(Bunbaba, "Gloomtail") | |
| French | Occicroc[?] | Portmanteau of occire ("slay") and croc ("fang") | |
| German | Lohviata[?] | Portmanteau of Lohe ("blaze") and possibly the English word "bloviate"; also likely a pun on "Loviatar" | |
| Italian | Ossandra[?] | Pormanteau of osso ("bone") and the female name "Cassandra" | |
| Spanish | Zombaba[?] | From the Japanese name "Zonbaba", but with an "m" before the "b" because, in Spanish orthography, "n" should not come before "b" |
Trivia
- If the player returns to the 100th floor after beating Bonetail, quiet and eerie music plays in the room.
- Along with Sir Grodus and the Shadow Queen's first phase, Bonetail cannot be defeated in a single turn using Mario only with his non-FP attacks strengthened by Power Rush badges.
- In the remake, Bonetail is female.
