#origami king does a fantastic job at humanizing bowser's minions in general

[globin--goblin]

Paper Mario: The Origami King has the best depiction of good guy Bowser in the franchise: a short essay

In Super Mario RPG, he's still thinking about kidnapping Toadstool after joining the party.

In Superstar Saga, he acts only because Peach being cursed would be bad for his castle. And after the first area he stops being himself, so the game barely has any "good Bowser" material.

In Super Paper Mario, he's always talking about how he's still married to Peach, and in chapter 7, randomly decides to attack Mario and Luigi over it, only getting a redeeming moment when saving O’Chunks. 

In Bowser's Inside Story, right at the end, when he finds out he's been helping the bros all this time, he decides to attack them. Instead of having a sweet, emotional moment after saving the world, he becomes evil again and ends up bedridden before receiving a proper thanks.

All of these games have one thing in common: Bowser is still a villain. He wants to be the bad guy, and he makes it clear that as soon as this game’s badder guy is dispatched, he’s going back to his usual self. The writers have no intention of taking him out of his regular role, and neither does he. He never sees this as anything other than a short truce. “The moment this is over, I’m back to beating those pesky plumbers for my sweet Peach.”

But in Origami King? It’s completely different. He’s not acting to get his revenge on Mario, take Peach for himself from Olly, or defeat an obstacle in his evil plan. He just wants to save his minions and beat Olly up personally. As he says himself, “Mario needs to rescue the princess… and I need to find Olly and punchify his face for making me like this!”

After Mario saves him from the Scissors in his castle, he never acts antagonistic. He has his usual personality, but no evil plans in mind. He wants to defeat Olly and save everyone. After Mario defeats the Stapler and unfolds him, he finally has his sweet, emotional moment, giving Olivia a pep talk before the final boss. He has an honest speech about dealing with Junior. He reassures the origami girl that it’s all fine, and she shouldn’t be worried about putting him in danger, because he’s not scared of Olly, he can take him. And Olivia is grateful for him, as much as she’s grateful for every friend that helped along the way.

Because think about Olivia’s point of view. She never met Bowser the cartoon villain, Bowser the kidnapper, Bowser the destroyer of kingdoms. All she saw was Bowser the father, Bowser the cool and awesome king, Bowser the good guy that helped save the world. She saw him letting Mario ride the airship to reach Olly, his son and nanny assisting Mario in breaking the final streamer, his subjects bravely fighting against the Folded Soldiers out of their loyalty to him.

After this is over, Bowser is invited to the origami festival. No ifs or buts, no attempts to ruin it for everyone else, no recovering from a beating… They just bring him along as he has fun with everyone else. Bowser Jr, Kamek and the minions are having fun with everyone else. Origami King did the impossible, it developed Bowser out of his eternal bad guy role. All this time, Bowser has been an evil villain and a temporary reluctant ally with a soft spot. But now, as the game comes to a close, he's just a friend. Nothing more.

A few years later, Super Mario Bros Wonder was released, and Bowser went back to his usual villainy, as if none of this happened. But I trust Paper Mario. I believe that, if Intelligent Systems cares about this series’ continuity at all, the next game won’t forget Bowser’s part in taking down Olly, and his final transformation into a good guy.