Rubber Band

“	Ooooh, I have HAD it with your show stealing and grandstanding! You wish to be the STAR? Fine! Come on up and face the MUSIC!	„
	~ The Rubber Band challenging Paper Mario upon his survival of the third play.

“	No, no, NO! The star of the show isn't Mario, you uncultured HACKS! The real superstar... is MEEE!	„
	~ Rubber Band shortly before formally introducing himself.

The Rubber Band, also called the Elastic Entertainer, is a major antagonist that is encountered in Paper Mario: The Origami King. A member of King Olly's Legion of Stationery, he is the guardian of the blue origami streamer, and the second member of the Legion Paper Mario fights. Like all members of the Legion of Stationary, he is a sentient object, with himself being a rubber band.

Biography

The Rubber Band was once a regular pair of rubber bands used by the Origami Craftman to make his origami. It and the rest of the Legion of Stationary were granted life by King Olly to serve as his minions in guarding the streamers, with the Rubber Band sent to guard the blue streamer in Shogun Studios.

Prior to his battle, the Rubber Band trapped the Toads with his rubber bands within Big Sho' Theater, forcing them to watch him perform in his show. Paper Mario shows up and tries to steal the show, but he gets chastised by the Rubber Band for winning, as that was not part of the show's script. This provokes the Rubber Band into making his entrance in a rather extravagant fashion. Paper Mario and the Rubber Band then duel.

The Rubber Band has a unique defense mechanic where his launches some of his rubber bands onto the stage. If Paper Mario steps on these traps, he will be ejected one space in the direction the band was pointing. Paper Mario will be forced to forfeit his turn should his path cross the same rubber band twice.

The Rubber Band attacks by throwing his rubber bands at Paper Mario with the Rubber Bind technique, attempting to trap him, but this can be easily guarded. If the Rubber Band does succeed in trapping Paper Mario, he will then follow up with a technique called Trapped Snapback, which is more powerful than his regular Snapback technique, although it can be dodged by jumping at the right time. Normal attacks that hit his body will deal very little damage, but will cause him to drop drop rubber bands, which will crawl back to his body to refill the lost stamina. Paper Mario has to use his 1,000-Fold Arms technique to really deal damage to the boss by pulling on his rubber bands. After its health bar drops to half, the Rubber Band will attack faster.

Once Paper Mario depletes his health bar enough, the Rubber Band will collapse and reveal his core, which can attack by snapping at Paper Mario with the Solo Snapback technique. Paper Mario has to use his 1,000-Fold Arms to send the Rubber Band's core flying out of its stage.

After his defeat, the Rubber Band yells his final words, claiming his goal was to truly make the theater great. He then finally accepts defeat, falls dead, and explodes, freeing the captive Toads.

After Olivia's wish reverts her brother's actions, Rubber Band turns back into normal rubber bands.

Appearance

The Rubber Band has the shape of a humanoid figure at first, with a mainly yellow body with black and light blue highlights made of rubber bands. His core is a large, yellow rubber band imbued with King Olly's face that hides at the center.

Powers and Abilities

Fused Form

Injury Immunity: No actual damage was able to be done to the Rubber Band until he was flung out of the arena. Any damage shown on his health bar was just health deducted from his collective total with the other Rubber Bands.
Direct Attack Immunity: The Rubber Band could not be attacked by direct attacks from Mario (eg Boots, Fire Flower, Hammer etc.) since those would take away a lot of his health, but he could immediately reabsorb them to render the attack void.
Bumper Bands: The very first thing the Rubber Band did in his battles was fling rubber bands to send random arrows flying off of the stage and replace them.
Absorption Dance: After each turn, the Rubber Band would perform a special dance that would allow him to reabsorb any and all rubber bands across his arena into his body.
- Health Regeneration: Doing so also regained the health the Rubber Band lost by ejecting them from his body.
Rubber Bind: The Rubber Band would walk up to Mario and fling rubber bands to bind him in place which could be dodged by well timed blocked.
- Turn Skipping: Getting bound by the Rubber Bind restrains Mario for a whole turn which is automatically skipped due to him being unable to move.
  - Trapped Snapback: After that wasted turn, the Rubber Band would walk up to Mario and bend back one of the rubber bands on him and release it to smack back into him for massive damage. Jumping five times would free Mario and prevent this however.
Snapback: A more powerful version of the Rubber Bind where the Rubber Band generated one big rubber band to fling at Mario for heavy damage.

True Form

Jump Immunity: Using Mario's Boots to jump on the Rubber Band did no damage to it whatsoever due to his durable rubber nature.
Ranged Attack Immunity: Using any of the Flowers (Fire or Ice) would have no effect on the Rubber Band as it would pass straight through his middle. This happens even if you are facing his side and not the gaping hole in his middle.
Agility: The Rubber Band's true form was extremely agile and fast which made it hard for Mario to grab with the 1000-Fold Arms. Failing to grab him in twenty seconds resulted in him performing his Solo Snapback.
Solo Snapback: The Rubber Band's most powerful attack in either form where he bent back whilst energizing himself with yellow energy before snapping forward to deal devastating damage to Mario.

Weaknesses

Bumper Bands: Despite removing the traditional arrows, the rubber bands flung by the Rubber Band served the same purposes as the traditional arrows, so they did nothing to stop Mario from defeating him.
Rubber Band Projection: For every one of the rubber bands fired by the Rubber Band, he lost some of his health. Although minimal at first, when combined with his critical weakness to 1000-Fold Arms, this was easily exploited to quickly whittle down his health.
1000-Fold Arms: Despite being able to absorb his rubber bands to regain health, preventing the player from attacking directly, Mario's 1000-Fold Arms would send a bunch of them flying off the stage and leave him unable to absorb them for health. How much health taken off depends on what ring the Arms are used from (outermost ring causes the least amount of damage whereas the innermost did the most damage).
Elasticity: The Rubber Band was so elastic Mario's 1000-Fold Arms were easily able to ping him off the stage to his death.

Quotes

“	ATTENTION, honored guests of Big Sho' Theater! Your attention, if you please! Today's VERY special performance will begin VERY shortly. So fill those seats before I SNAP! My patience is stretching thin! I shan't tell you TWICE!	„
	~ The Rubber Band's first words, albeit over a loudspeaker.

“	ARGH! That's NOT how that scene was written! They were supposed to POP you to SMITHEREENS! Ugh. I DESPISE improvisation.	„
	~ The Rubber Band's angered response to Paper Mario surviving the first play.

“	UGH! That's NOT how that act was supposed to end! I mean, really! There's no way Mario is actually THAT strong! Talk about a STRETCH! You Paper Macho goons had better band together in the NEXT act... or I may SNAP!	„
	~ The Rubber Band upon Paper Mario surviving the second play.

“	Ah, such a long monologue... yet you didn't flub a single line! Have you ever considered a career in acting? Oh, never mind. Your SKILL* at the performing arts shouldn't trip ME up!*	„
	~ The Rubber Band when Olivia berated him for his horrible actions.

“	Behold the power of my rubber bands! Let's see how well you take stage direction, ha ha!	„
	~ Rubber Band after he launches his rubber bands onto the stage to redirect Paper Mario's movement when he begins his battle.

“

Oooh, your PITIFUL attacks have no effect on my BOUNCY body!The Rubber Band when Paper Mario tries a regular attack on his merged form. He only says this the first time it is attempted.

„

“	Ow! Hey! Don't YANK* on my rubber bands like that! That's no way to treat a star!*	„
	~ Rubber Band reacting the first time to Paper Mario's 1,000-Fold Arms Attack.

“	Prepare yourselves! Here comes my Rubber Bind attack!	„
	~ The Rubber Band shooting his rubber bands to attack the first time.

“	Olivia: Ew! It's all wiggly and wobbly! Rubber Band: The curtain's pulled back! I've been EXPOSED! You've reduced my ensemble to a one-man band! You'll pay for that!	„
	~ The Rubber Band revealing his weak point after Paper Mario pulls off all the boss's rubber bands.

“	(Groaning) It wasn't supposed to end like this, Mario... The AGONY! The BRUTALITY! The sheer injustice of it all! Oh, muses! Oh, bard! Have you TRULY forsaken me for these flimsy, flat PAPERY beings!? I wanted to make things GRAND! Eliminate things DULL and bland! Alas, this was my FINAL stand. It's curtains for poor Rubber- (dramatically asps and explodes.)	„
	~ The Rubber Band's last words.