- “Koopa General: You... can't escape ME!
Mario: WHAT?!
Koopa General: BLUE SHELL...!!!” - ―Koopa General's villainous breakdown, last words and most famous quote as he attempts to kill Mario and Donkey Kong one last time
Koopa General is a major antagonist in Illumination/Nintendo's 2023 animated feature film The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Koopa General is the leader of Bowser's army in the Darklands.
Appearance
Koopa General is a unique Koopa Paratroopa with yellow scales, brown eyes, and white wings. He sports blue armor, complete with a spiky shell, a gorget, shoulder guards, laced boots, and a helmet with horns, spikes, brown neck strap, and Bowser's icon on the front.
Personality
As with any other general in an army, Koopa General is very loyal to his nation's leader, Bowser, following his orders without question. Whenever Bowser is present, he acts dignified and salutes him whenever addressed. On the other hand, whether or not his king happens to be present, he is unashamed of his own extremely maniacal, temperamental, wrathful, and bloodthirsty nature. An extraordinarily hateful, vicious, and cruel Koopa at any given occasion, he frequently takes sadistic enjoyment inflicting pain on his targets and more than willing to go as far as murder. He takes a lot of pleasure in his job and will do whatever it takes to get the job done, even if it means suicide. He is also shown to be extremely vengeful and vicious as seen when after he is outsmarted by Mario and Donkey Kong, he tucks himself inside his shell with white wings, transforming himself into a Blue Shell just like in Mario Kart games and launching himself like a homing missile at the duo in a final attempt to kill them, costing him his own life in the process.
One trait that stays consistent with him, loyalty aside, is his fearlessness. He demonstrated the least amount of fear and wimpyiness, even compared to Bowser and Kamek as the former is insecure about himself whenever competition for Princess Peach is present, and Kamek can feel intimidated whenever his king is fuming with fury.
Biography
Past
Not much is known about his past, but considering his high status, he most likely went through rigorous training and expertise. This is evident due to his dignified mannerisms and formal diction whenever he's in Bowser's presence.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
He is first seen invading the Penguin Kingdom along with his army, Kamek, and Bowser, in a bid to steal the Super Star stowed away in the Penguin Kingdom's castle, leading the other Koopa Paratroopas via flying down into their offense positions. When Bowser burns down the castle and finds the Super Star, the General restrains the Penguin King, who unsuccessfully escapes the Koopa's grasp.
After the invasion, he is seen at a rock party (celebrating said invasion), walking past one of the Bob-ombs unfazed to get in front of the crowd for Bowser's speech, to which he announces to his army about his plan to marry Princess Peach. Although it's unknown what his reaction was upon hearing Bowser's planned proposal, it's likely he never questioned it due to his loyalty.
While Bowser and Kamek were rehearsing for the former's proposal to Princess Peach, Koopa General unexpectedly bursts in and explains that Mario, Princess Peach, Toad, and the Kongs are taking a shortcut to the Mushroom Kingdom, giving Bowser the idea to ambush them on Rainbow Road.
During the kart chase, he bulldozes a few of the Kongs aside trying to kill Mario himself with his tank, with the front, acting as a mouth, eating anything unfortunate enough to stand in its way. He then tells Mario that he's a dead man while laughing sadistically. When Mario gets away from him by drifting off the road and landing on a new path, Koopa General uses Bullet Bills in an attempt to kill Mario, which destroys the red kart. Even when Mario hijacks a Koopa's kart and gets away briefly, Koopa General still manages to catch up and eventually destroys the hijacked kart with his tank. Although Mario saves himself from being crushed, Koopa General laughs evilly thinking he successfully killed his target. But when he found out that Mario survived, Koopa General gets distracted, gets stomped on by Mario who then lands on Donkey Kong's kart, and Donkey Kong takes the opportunity to blow up the tank. Infuriated, Koopa General walks out of the rubble and fire to make one final attempt to kill both Mario and Donkey Kong while retracting inside his shell that pops out white wings, swirling around Donkey Kong's kart, and destroying part of the rainbow road with a good smack on impact. This causes both Mario and Donkey Kong to plummet into the water below and get eaten by a Maw Ray while Cranky Kong and the rest of the Kong army end up being captured by Bowser's minions, forcing Princess Peach and Toad to retreat.
Considering Koopa General doesn't appear again after this encounter, it's safe to assume that he had died upon impact. This is further backed up as nothing of him remains in the aftermath of the explosion.
Trivia
- Koopa General's design is based off of the infamous Blue Shell item, officially known as the Spiny Shell, from the Mario Kart franchise.
- When used, the Blue Shell will always target the person in first place like a homing missile and will explode on impact (which is what the Koopa General does in a scene of the movie, though Princess Peach and Toad were in front of Mario and Donkey Kong , so Koopa General didn't attack first place like in the games).
- It's implied that blue is the highest ranked color of the Koopa Troop as both Koopa General and Kamek, the two leaders of the army excluding Bowser, wear blue armor and robe respectively.
- Considering that he died after striking Mario and Donkey Kong as he isn't seen again for the rest of the movie, his final assault on them can be seen as the equivalent of a kamikaze attack.
- If that is the case, then he is one of the few major characters in the entire Super Mario franchise to commit suicide.
- In addition, this may be the first case in a long time where a villain's servant in a PG rated movie sacrifices himself instantly (by his loyalty to his boss) on screen, or perhaps even the very first time.
- However, his self-destructive attack was the catalyst for the argument between Mario and Donkey Kong.
- If that is the case, then he is one of the few major characters in the entire Super Mario franchise to commit suicide.
- His spiky helmet could possibly be a reference to the Army Hammer Bro from Super Princess Peach.
- His alias in the movie credits is Koopa General, but the two words are switched around for marketable items of him.
- In a leaked concept art, it was shown that there were going to be more Koopas wearing the exact same armor as the General, color palette and all. For some unknown reason, this idea was scrapped and only the General wore the blue shell-inspired armor.
- Due to being a high ranked member of Bowser's army, it is possible that he interacted with Bowser Jr. prior to the events of the first film.
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