King Boo (Luigi's Mansion series)
| King Boo | |
|---|---|
 King Boo as he appears in Luigi's Mansion 2. | |
| Full name | King Boo |
| Species | Boo |
| First appearance | Luigi's Mansion (2001) |
| Latest appearance | Luigi's Mansion 3 (2019) |
- “But I am a KING among Boos! I swear it, I shall fear no mere house-cleaning device!”
- —King Boo, Luigi's Mansion
King Boo is the leader of all the Ghosts and the main antagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series, and is the arch-enemy of Luigi. He is more than capable of devising and enacting villainous plans by himself, including his capture and imprisonment of Mario. Although not the biggest Boo, King Boo has abilities that far surpass that of the average ghost and he wields a number of impressive magical abilities, including the ability to materialize objects. King Boo's magical power is directly proportional to the number of Boos in his vicinity. This King Boo is far more evil than the King Boo from the main Mario games and goes far beyond the standard villainy.
History
Luigi's Mansion series
Luigi's Mansion
| King Boo (Luigi's Mansion series) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Age | Unknown |
| Biography | Nothing is known about this mysterious entity. |
| Room | Roof/Secret Altar |
| HP | 500 |
Before the events of Luigi's Mansion, Professor E. Gadd captured Boolossus. Using a device called a Ghost Portrificationizer, E. Gadd trapped Boolossus in a portrait and hung it in his Gallery inside his lab in Boo Woods. This angered King Boo, so he devised a plan to rescue Boolossus.
King Boo and his forces attacked the laboratory. The Boos reversed the settings of the Portificationizer and released Boolossus. King Boo then ordered that all the ghosts that E. Gadd had captured should be released as well. After releasing all the portrait ghosts, King Boo created a huge mansion and placed it next to the professor's lab. King Boo, his Boo minions, and the recently freed portrait ghosts decided to inhabit the mansion. With a huge mansion and an army of ghosts, King Boo decided to exact revenge upon Mario and Luigi by capturing them.
Hoping to capture Luigi, King Boo sends him a letter. The message states that Luigi has won a mansion in a contest and provides the location of the prize. Luigi asks his brother Mario to investigate the mansion and says that he will arrive shortly thereafter. Mario and Toad travel to the mansion, but right after Mario enters, he is instantly overwhelmed by King Boo's forces and captured. King Boo then imprisons him in a portrait, similar to how Boolossus was imprisoned. Mario is placed in the Secret Altar in the basement of the mansion. With Mario captured, King Boo is ready to capture Luigi.
While waiting for Luigi, King Boo and his Boo minions wait behind a secret door in the floor of the Storage Room. When Luigi enters the room and reveals the secret door, the Boos spring out from the floor. However, the Boos (including King Boo) stop their surprise attack when they notice the Poltergust 3000 on Luigi's back. Luigi had been given the Poltergust 3000 by E. Gadd so he could recapture the Portrait Ghosts and save his brother. The Poltergust 3000 is one of the few things King Boo fears, and he and the other Boos scatter and hide in the mansion. King Boo travels to the Secret Altar in the mansion's basement.
The special key that Vincent Van Gore holds unlocks the path to the Secret Altar. However, he is locked in the Artist's Studio on the third floor of the mansion. After capturing him and retrieving the key, Luigi discovers that he still cannot enter the Secret Altar. If Luigi attempts to enter the Secret Altar without catching a certain number of Boos, King Boo blows Luigi to the Foyer, the entrance of the mansion. Since King Boo's power is related to the number of Boos in the mansion, Luigi can weaken him by capturing the Boos hidden in various rooms. After Luigi captures at least forty of the mansion's fifty Boos, King Boo loses his ability to blow Luigi from the Secret Altar. Once King Boo is weakened, Luigi enters King Boo's Secret Altar.
Upon entering the Altar, Luigi notices King Boo staring at Mario in the painting. King Boo turns around to face Luigi and states his desire to add a Luigi painting to the collection. After this, King Boo flies into the Mario painting hanging on the wall. The picture of Mario transforms into Bowser, then the new Bowser painting inhales Luigi into the canvas, transporting Luigi into an arena that resembles the mansion's roof. Luigi then confronts Bowser. In reality, this is an illusion of Bowser that King Boo controls from the inside and uses as a shield.
King Boo uses this Bowser illusion to attack Luigi, shooting flames at him, and even attempting to inhale him into its mouth. The illusion also has the ability to create three large spiked bombs and toss them at Luigi. Luigi can use his Poltergust 3000 to grab one of the spiked explosives and release it into the illusion Bowser's mouth. This attack blasts the head off of the illusion Bowser, causing King Boo to exit the illusion shield and expose himself to the Poltergust 3000. Luigi begins to deplete the ghost's five hundred hit points. Meanwhile, the illusion's head hovers around the arena, shooting icy blasts at Luigi. King Boo, after a while, flies back into the dormant Bowser body and the head reattaches itself, resuming the fight. Luigi repeats this process, slowly weakening King Boo, but after King Boo's life falls below two hundred HP, the head of the illusion reattaches backwards whenever he returns to the Bowser body, causing the illusion Bowser to run around aimlessly. The illusion soon corrects its head and resumes the fight. Eventually, Luigi manages to completely drain King Boo's HP and capture him inside the Poltergust 3000.
After the battle, Luigi receives King Boo's crown, worth 5000G, and adds it to his treasure collection. Upon returning to the mansion, Luigi quickly travels to Professor E. Gadd's lab. In the lab, Luigi connects the Poltergust to the professor's Portrificationizer, dumping its contents into the machine. Oddly, not only does the spirit of King Boo appears in the Portrificationizer, but also the Bowser illusion. With King Boo captured, Professor E. Gadd hangs his new portrait in an empty room in his gallery.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
King Boo reappears in the Nintendo 3DS game, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon once again as the main antagonist and final boss. Appearance-wise, he is much similar to his appearance from Luigi's Mansion, but retains the full set of teeth and sped-up voice he had in his appearances in the other Mario titles and he is also much larger.
It is revealed later in the game that Professor E. Gadd had sold the portrait of King Boo from Luigi's Mansion at a garage sale (a car boot sale in PAL versions), which is how the king escaped. King Boo shatters the Dark Moon into six pieces with a bolt of energy from his crown, which contained a power-enhancing gem. This turns the once-friendly ghosts of Evershade Valley hostile and mischievous as well as sprawling the Dark Moon's pieces to each Mansion of the valley, which Luigi has to recover.
Towards the end of the game, it is revealed that he has captured Mario like he did in the last game. After Luigi gets the last Dark Moon piece and returns to the Bunker, he captures Luigi and pulls him back into the Paranormal Dimension. He reveals to Luigi he escaped from the painting and broke the Dark Moon, causing the ghosts to become under his control. He intends to use the ghosts as an army to conquer the world. He also plans to put Luigi and E. Gadd into paintings as well for revenge. He then engages into battle with Luigi but he fails and is sucked into the Poltergust once again.
Luigi's Mansion 3
King Boo reappears in Luigi's Mansion 3 with the same design as in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, albeit with more detail on his crown and a more expressive scowl. King Boo is one of the two main antagonists, having been released by the other main antagonist Hellen Gravely, the owner of The Last Resort hotel and a big fan of his, in order to impress him. Seeking revenge on Luigi for his previous defeats, he traps Professor E. Gadd, Mario, Princess Peach, and the three Toads in portraits before going after Luigi, who manages to escape his capture by going down a laundry chute. He later ends up entrusting Hellen Gravely with Mario's portrait, although it's implied that he intended for Luigi to win both due to Gravely's failures by that time and so he could capture both alongside Peach by using the latter as bait, also recapturing the Toads and Professor E. Gadd just after Mario was freed. However, he ultimately fails to capture Luigi atop the hotel due to Polterpup shoving him out of the way of King Boo's portrait, and then proceeds to battle Luigi. To defeat King Boo, Luigi must throw a bomb from a spiked ball King Boo throws into his mouth, then pull on his tongue with Gooigi's help and slam him repeatedly. Upon doing so, King Boo will then generate a clone that attacks alongside him. After this is done twice, King Boo will enlarge the painting, and Luigi will then have four minutes to attack King Boo one last time. The battle ends with King Boo being recaptured by Luigi and placed in a containment jar alongside Gravely, much to his chagrin. As the purple gem in his crown was taken by Luigi after the final battle, it is missing from his crown.
The clones that King Boo summons in the final battle reference his original design from Luigi's Mansion, as they only have two teeth, lacking the middle two fangs King Boo is depicted with now.
If the player gets a game over at any point during this game, King Boo will be shown trapping Luigi in a portrait alongside the rest of his friends.
General information
Physical appearance
King Boo's appearance has changed throughout his appearances. In his debut appearance in Luigi's Mansion, King Boo has dark red eyes, a blue tongue, two fangs, a purplish complexion, and a ruby crown. However, his appearance in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon shows him with his original appearance, although he retains a full row of four teeth as well as a white body. He also has his eyes surrounded by a black shadow and has a more purple mouth and tongue, as well as his crown having a purple jewel.
Personality
This King Boo is shown to have a deep hatred for the Mario Bros., especially Luigi after he defeats him in Luigi's Mansion. He says that he fears nothing except the Poltergust 3000. Also, in both Luigi's Mansion games he traps Mario in a painting as well as Toads and various other objects, Professor E Gadd also comments on how King Boo redecorated the Treacherous Mansion to make it scarier. He also goes into fits of rage when his plans don't go the way he wants. Even gigantic Boos like Boolossus follow his leadership despite their superior size. Lastly, King Boo has a distinct cackle, which is significantly lower in pitch than other Boos. He is shown to not care at all for his minions. He and is shown to not care if he wins as long as Luigi loses. He is also shown to be hypocritical as he callously dismisses the rest of Hellen's staff as useless for failing to catch Luigi, despite his own lack of success attempting to do so in the past. He also Notably grew to care little for his troops as of Dark Moon, experimenting on the ghosts he enslaved and broke into submission and treating his Boos as common casualties. It reaches the point where King Boo willingly opens a portal to the ghost's homeworld with the intent to destroy the universe as an act of spite showing how dark this King Boo can get.
Abilities
Besides possessing the abilities of other Boos, including the ability to teleport, King Boo has a numerous amount of other powers. Notably in Luigi's Mansion, King Boo's power increases when he is in the presence of other Boos. For example, King Boo has the power to blow Luigi to the Foyer when enough Boos are in the mansion. King Boo also has the power to materialize things, including highly detailed mansions and lifelike robotic replicas of some of Mario's enemies. He has also shown the ability to create Boos, bubbles, and blue fire, which he spits out of his mouth. King Boo is also shown to be able to regenerate from his crown in Super Princess Peach.
In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, King Boo exhibits new abilities such as being able to open Paranormal Portals,teach Boos how to create Spirit Balls, and his new crown exhibiting the ability to shoot a laser that can shatter the Dark Moon or trap Toads within paintings. He can also create dimensions and illusions, giving him the title "The Master of Illusions." His power is no longer reliant on the presence of Boos.
King Boo appears with a rather high power stat in many of his spin-off appearances. This is most noticeable in the Mario Baseball series, where he is able to hit home runs with relative ease. King Boo also appears to be a good Alpine Skier, as he states that he is exceptional at that event, though this remains questionable due to his lack of skis (or legs for that manner).
Boo leadership
Although he commands a large band of Boos, not all Boos call King Boo their leader, with some Boos working directly for Bowser, and many others living peacefully with the other denizens of the Mushroom Kingdom, either independently or as part of a small band of Boos led by Lady Bow.
Relationships
King Boo initially viewed Mario as his main threat, however after his defeat at Luigi's hands during Luigi's Mansion, Luigi has become King Boo's arch-nemesis. Parallels are often drawn between Luigi and King Boo's relationship and Mario and Bowser's.
As well as the Mario Bros., King Boo also hates Professor E. Gadd for his ghost-capturing work, even stating that the only thing that scared him was E. Gadd's invention, the Poltergust 3000. In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, King Boo reveals a desire to get revenge on E. Gadd as well as Luigi, by trapping the scientist within a portrait of his own.
Quotes
- "White gloves! A cute little moustache! Soft shoes! How did you get out of my...? ... Huh? Wait just a second... Your clothes are... green... Hey, you must be Luigi! Whoa, you had me a bit confused for a moment there!" - Luigi's Mansion
- "I swear it... I shall fear no mere house-cleaning device!!" - Luigi's Mansion
- "Now who do we have here? Why, if it isn't my old pal Luigi! Or is it Baby Luigi? I can't tell the difference. Hey, remember that time when you trapped me in a painting for all eternity? Good times. But guess what? I GOT OUT! And now I'm painting the town RED!" - Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
- "Yes, it was I who broke the Dark Moon! This power-enhancing jeweled crown of mine made it easy. And now that all the ghosts of Evershade Valley are under my control, it's time to take my rightful place as the supreme ruler of your world! You, that annoying scientist, and all your friends will look great hanging on the wall of my throne room!" - Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
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Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
- Website Bios:
The orchestrator of the Dark Moon debacle is as regal as he is round...Can you bring peace back to Evershade Valley?
This spooky sovereign shattered the Dark Moon, causing the ghosts to turn mischievous. Piece the Dark Moon back together and restore peace to Evershade Valley!
Names in other languages
Note: The Japanese, Dutch and Korean names use the English word for king, instead of a word in their own language.
Trivia
- When King Boo says, "I don't plan to give up my favorite decoration. I like Mario where he is.", he references a quote from Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi, when Jabba the Hutt said, "I don't plan to give up my favorite decoration. I like Captain Solo where he is."
- This version of King Boo is one of the few Mario villains to be considered Pure Evil. This is why he's considered a different Boo entirely.
