Fawful

"I HAVE FURY!"

- Fawful's famous quote.

Fawful is the toady of Cackletta, and is an eccentric Beanish toady who is a recurring character in the Mario & Luigi series. He is notable for speaking in grammatically incorrect English 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. He is the secondary antagonist of Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and the main, later secondary antagonist of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. He is an anti-hero in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time. He's a shopkeeper and plays no role in the story aside from foreshadowing Bowser's Inside Story.

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.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
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. He seemingly exploded as he fell, and 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 returns, confirming his survival, but does not play an antagonistic role this time; He owns a badge shop where the baby Mario Bros. (who can enter his ship while the older Mario and Luigi can't) can trade Beans for badges. He foreshadows his next evil plan, however.

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Fawful again makes his latest appearance in this game as the main, later secondary antagonist. He was introduced as the main antagonist for most of the game, but this was a campaign to hide the true main villain. Fawful now has his own henchman Midbus to act as his brawn. He tricks Bowser eating a vacuum mushroom and takes control over him. Bowser sucks up the Mario Bros., Peach, Toadsworth, and a number of Toads into his stomach, gloats, then falls unconscious. Fawful then takes over both Bowser's and Princess Peach's castles. Then Fawful uses special masks to take control of Bowser's army and invades the Mushroom Kingdom. Bowser chases after Fawful to defeat him for the rest of the game.

Eventually Fawful steals the Dark Star, an evil star Peach tells about that was sealed under Toad Town, and absorbs half its power to become Dark Fawful. He becomes much more powerful, this seen with his much more darker appearance. He also gains a new head gear that allows him to hover and suck up the Dark Star's power, this too has some power as seen when Bowser sucks it up and the Mario Bros. have to defeat it. His power is also shown when he turns Peach's Castle into a giant robot to fight Bowser, which triggers a giant fight after it steps on Bowser, however Bowser defeats it. Bowser then fights Dark Fawful and defeats him, destroying most of him, but still lives as Dark Fawful Bug. He is then inhaled by the Dark Star, completing its dark power and turning it into Dark Bowser. Bowser chases Dark Bowser to the top of Peach's Castle and the final battle begins. During the Battle after Dark Bowser loses 1000 HP, Dark Fawful Bug heals him and powers him up making him huge. Punching his stomach makes him spit out Dark Fawful Bug and lose his power-up. Bowser now can inhale him for the Mario Bros. to fight. Once he falls into him he turns into a giant more Buggish black creature with wiggling limbs and the Dark Star Core on his head. By taking out Fawful's glasses and his three leg appendages, the Bros. can directly damage the Dark Star Core.

When the core was destroyed, Dark Bowser was left defenseless, and was destroyed by Bowser, leaving only the Dark Star, which rose into the air and exploded, restoring the light to Mushroom Kingdom. As for Fawful, he survived the battle, though was reduced to a head. He said he felt remorse for his evil actions and that he would disappear and do no more evil, but this was a trick, as he tried his final attempt to destroy the Mario Bros., and self-destructed in a massive explosion that, instead of destroying them, forced them and all the Toads out of Bowser. Thus, Fawful's final plan fails.

Trivia

 * Fawful is similar to Dimentio from Super Paper Mario. While Dimentio speaks in regular English (and uses similes, as opposed to Fawful's food metaphors), both begin as the assistant of a main villain, and later (whether in the same game or another game) take the role of antagonist themselves. Both are tagged as being "insane" and "psychotic", and on top of that, both assume a final form at the end as the final boss, and after which their body is destroyed and they are reduced to nothing more than a head, but are still able to try to destroy their enemies one more time before they explode and are completely destroyed. (In Fawful's case, the explosion WAS his final attempt, and in the case of Dimentio, he left behind a shadow of his power to control the Chaos Heart so it could ensure the end of every world).
 * Interestingly enough, Dimentio and Fawful's styles are somewhat opposites: Fawful uses science while Dimentio uses magic, and Fawful uses metaphors while Dimentio uses similes.
 * Despite his disappearance in Bowser's Inside Story, some fans were surprised to not see him in Dream Team, which was the first Mario & Luigi title where he did not appear. He also did not make a reappearance in Paper Jam.
 * Fawful is one of few recurring Mario villains not affiliated with Bowser.