| “ | Aroooooooooo! | „ |
| ~ Bonetail |
Bonetail is a minor antagonist and optional boss in the 2004 video game Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and its 2024 remake of the same name.
She is an immensely powerful skeletal dragon who serves as the Shadow Queen‘s lead enforcer and executioner. She is the older sister of Hooktail and Gloomtail, as well as one of the Queen’s three “pets” alongside them.
Appearance[]
Bonetail in the pattern of the Shadow Queen's dragons has a similar design to those of her two younger siblings. However, as her name may suggest, she is reduced down to her skeleton and appears with a dusty-greyish color. She also lacks eyes, though she originally planned to have blue pupils.
Personality[]
Due to a lack of speech, Bonetail's personality is shrouded in mystery as she behaves as a feral being, and only has one goal to eat anybody that the Shadow Queen imprisons in the Pit of 100 Trials. Unlike her younger two siblings who display sadism as they prepares to enjoy eating Mario and co., it seems Bonetail lacks this personality trait on the other hand.
Biography[]
Bonetail is the skeleton of a humongous dragon that resides at the bottom of the Pit of 100 Trials. Before she was there, she was the Shadow Queen's pet. It is unknown what her name was before she became a skeleton. When Mario reaches the hundredth floor, he haplessly finds himself at the ire of the furious fossil. After a time-consuming and challenging battle with the formidable skeletal beast, Bonetail was finally defeated before coughing up the treasure chest containing the Return Postage Badge. After being defeated and knocked unconscious by the heroes, she was not seen again in the Pit of 100 Trials, leaving it entirely ambiguous what became of her. In the remake, once Bonetail is defeated, Whacka replaces her on the hundredth floor as the superboss.
In-Battle[]
Bonetail is an exceptionally challenging and powerful opponent in battle. Her stats exceed that of The Shadow Queen: 200 HP, 8 ATK, and 2 DEF, though she doesn't have any separate hands/appendages that attack. This possibly makes the fight easier. Her breath has several colors and effects: Green confuses Mario, ice freezes him, purple shrinks him and white puts him to sleep. She can also heal 20 HP, twice. Her text box looked identical to that of the Shadow Queen, and she only howled like a wolf.
Trivia[]
- Unlike Hooktail and Gloomtail who are capable of speech, Bonetail is only capable of making growls and dog-sounds.
- Bonetail keeps with the series' tradition of having a superboss who is much harder than the final boss.
- In the original game, Bonetail's referred to with male pronouns.
Gallery[]
