Fawful
- “I HAVE FURY! In the last moments of the finale of the finale, when relief leads to negligence that begets rashness, that is when the comeback that falters comes back and beats your pathetic comeback that I scoff at!”
- —Fawful, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Fawful is an eccentric Beanish toady who is a recurring character in the Mario & Luigi series. He is notable for speaking in grammatically incorrect Engrish and making obscure food metaphors (e.g. "And this battle shall be the delicious mustard on that bread! The mustard of your doom!"). Fawful is a mechanical genius, but his common sense suffers due to his extreme rage which often causes him to act in a delusional manner.
History
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Though his past is largely unknown, Fawful is inferred to have been a long-time follower of Cackletta prior to the events of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and names himself as a pupil of hers in-game. He is officially confirmed to have gained his status as the greatest of Cackletta's students through his evil genius.[1]
Fawful accompanied Cackletta to the Mushroom Kingdom, where he aided her in stealing the Princess's voice. While the two were on their way to the Beanbean Kingdom they encountered the Mario Bros. and Bowser who had formed a temporary alliance to stop the two villains. Taking care of Bowser, Fawful attacked the Mario Brothers. The Bros. destroyed Fawful's Headgear and then beat him. Unfortunately, Fawful summoned another Headgear and used it to knock Bowser's Koopa Cruiser out of the sky. Fawful appeared again attacking Beanbean guards in the mountains. When Mario and Luigi encountered him, he summoned a large stone to block their path.
Fawful attacked Woohoo Hooniversity with Cackletta; it was there that they planned to awaken the Beanstar with Princess Peach's voice. The plan didn't work out so well; it seemed the Princess was aware of the villains' plan and had gone into hiding, and the Princess whose voice had been stolen was Birdo. Birdo's squawking voice irritated the Beanstar so much it smashed through the floor and then the Mario Bros. showed up. The Bros. took out Fawful and then fought Cackletta who they defeated and crippled. Fawful sucked his mistress's energy into his Headgear and planned to attack the Mario Bros., only to be stopped and flung through the roof by Prince Peasley. Landing in Stardust Fields, Fawful found an unconscious Bowser whose body Cackletta possessed. Cackletta then began to call herself Bowletta.
Fawful appeared again guarding Joke's End where he stole the Beanstar from Luigi after seeing through a fake one. Like Bowletta, Fawful was fooled by Luigi pretending to be the Princess and as a result, the plumber was able to steal back the Beanstar.
Fawful showed up again as the penultimate boss in Bowser's Castle. Fawful, here suited in a skin-tight pink suit with wing-like cloth under its arms, now had a large mecha that looked like his head and could shoot lasers. Also, Fawful could attack the Bros. with an electric antenna in his head. Sometimes, he would come out of his mecha and use electric bolts at the Bros., or he could fly away and then charge at one of them. Mario and Luigi could only attack Fawful when the mech overheated and he was forced to come out. After beating him in battle, Fawful tried one last ditch effort to beat the Mario Bros., but only ended up being knocked out of the castle by Luigi. An apparition resembling Fawful reappears as one of Cackletta's attacks in the final battle, which would imply that he is dead; however, future events seem to prove that this is not actually Fawful.
Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time
Fawful appears again in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time; this time he is running a shop called Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge that is located in the sewers of Princess Peach's Castle. He is only encountered by the babies, whom he does not completely recognize as the younger versions of Mario and Luigi. He goes on a long speech to them about how the brothers defeated him in the previous game, notably mentioning that he plans to return in the future, creating a period of time in which "no baby's candy will have safety." He, demonstrating apparent clairvoyance, also suggests that the babies go to Princess Peach's Castle's viewing platform prior to the time they discover Gritzy Desert.
Mario & Luigi RPG 3
Fawful appears as the the main antagonist in Mario & Luigi RPG 3[2]. He uses a Vacuum Mushroom to mind-control Bowser and make him swallow Mario and Luigi along with other Mushroom Kingdom citizens, including Princess Peach. Bowser is not aware that he has swallowed anything at first. Fawful takes over Peach and Bowser's castles, which angers Bowser. Fawful then uses special masks on enemies to put them under his control and has them invade the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser chases Fawful throughout the game. Later in the game, Fawful steals the Dark Star and plans to recharge it's dark power. He then becomes Dark Fawful, gaining greater powers and a newer attire (most notably red glasses), but is defeated by Bowser. He then transforms himself into a dark bug and gets inhaled by Dark Bowser. In the final battle, Bowser makes Dark Bowser spit out Dark Fawful, and then inhales him. In his stomach, Mario and Luigi have the final battle against Dark Fawful and the Dark Star. They ultimately succeed in destroying both, thus weakening Dark Bowser enough for Bowser to deliver the final blows and destroy him.
Personality
Fawful's name is a pun of awful, which his personality is built on. Fawful's extreme rage has him act like a psychopath, often harming others without cause or sympathy ("Finally! Now is the time where my true might shines, like many angry sunbeams of rage!"). Fawful only cares for Cackletta in Superstar Saga, and frantically helps her when she is hurt. Fawful delights in taunting his enemies before obliterating them ("Your lives that I spit on are now but a caricature of a cartoon drawn by a kid who is stupid!"). Fawful is quite deranged, he has several megalomaniac desires, and aspires to create great chaos in the world.
Fawful speaks in Engrish, often saying things that are redundant or hardly make sense (if at all). In French versions, Fawful speaks with a strong accent, exaggerating when aspiring the letter R, but only rarely, he also does strange metaphores. In German versions, he stutters. Fawful is made stranger by his making of several food metaphors and references throughout his speeches ("I drizzled rage dressing on the country next door. Rage dressing on a salad of evil!"). A Sammer Guy named Mustard of Doom talks like Fawful, and is a reference to Fawful and his "Mustard of Doom!" quote.
Powers and Abilities
Though he is a bit of a loony, Fawful is an extremely intelligent genius, shown as how complex his Headgear is. He uses the rocket-jets on his Headgear to get around. There is a vacuum peripheral on the helmet, which can be used to shoot energy balls, but was also used to suck in Cackletta's spirit to transfer to Bowser and create Bowletta. Fawful also created a giant mecha of his head that could use extremely powerful attacks in his final battle with the Mario Bros. in Superstar Saga. On many enemies in RPG 3 is a mask resembling Fawful's head which controls them. He is also shown to be extremely speedy, as shown in Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!!. When Bowser tried to punch Fawful, he quickly evaded the attack, showing that he can do physical activity with ease, meaning he isn't as weak as the player thought.
Trivia
- In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, one of the names that can be gotten from pressing the "RANDOM NAME" button is FWFUL, a reference to Fawful.
- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, his battle theme for the final battle against him is the same as Popple's battle theme.
- Even though people from the Beanbean Kingdom have four fingers to each hand, Fawful has five fingers on each hand, like we can see in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, meaning he may not have Beanish origins. He had also five fingers in Mario and Luigi RPG 3, meaning that this is not an error from the creators of the game. It should be noted that Popple also had five fingers, as well.
- It is unknown if Fawful is wearing glasses, or if they are his eyes. It could be his glasses because during the final fight on Mario and Luigi RPG 3 they crack after taking significant damage, but it could be his eyes because they seem to move as if they were eyelids whenever he expresses a certain feeling.
- Also, unlike other Beanish, he has an antenna on his head that can shoot electric bolts. This antenna wasn't seen in any other person in the Beanbean Kingdom. In fact, Fawful is currently the only character that have an antenna in hs head, but this may have been a result from an experiment of Fawful's.
- In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Fawful mentions in his speech that he is "Fawful, who is just a Toady." Thus it is possible that Fawful is some sort of beanish Toady. Both normal Toadies and Fawful have spectacles, and they fly by using some sort of headgear mechanism, as well as the fact that they serve some type of master. (Fawful serves Cackletta, while normal Toadies serve Kamek.) Fawful also claims to have been the best of Cackletta's pupils, which means that Cackletta does, or did at the very least, have other henchmen, who probably were also beanish Toadies. Prince Peasley seems to confirm this when he mentioned that Cackletta and her underlings had snuck into Woohoo Hooniversity. However, "toady" is also a generic term for a minion, and considering the nature of Fawful's speech (an indecisive rant on his underrated work), this may have been the script-writer's intention.
- It is hinted in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time that Fawful will make a comeback, thus his major inclusion in Mario and Luigi RPG 3.
- In Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga in the final battle with Fawful, he mispells Cackletta, spelling it as Cakletta instead of Cackletta.
Names in Other Languages
References
- ^ According to the Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga manual.
- ^ IGN: Mario & Luigi 3 Battle Systems Detailed, accessed 2009-01-15
