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Heartwarming / Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

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As this is a Heartwarming Moments page, spoilers will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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This time around, the cake isn't a lie.
  • When one of the Bros loses all HP and falls during battle, the other runs to them and carries them, protecting them from attack while they're vulnerable, just like in the previous games. This time, however, the remaining bro's scream is more intense and shows more emotion. It's very sweet.
  • The Koopa Troopa/Boo couple in Bowser's Castle. Doesn't seem like much on the surface, but if you think about it, their love was strong enough to persist even after they were brainwashed into being Fawful fans.
  • The ending, where Bowser, while nursing his wounds after being beaten by Mario & Luigi, gets a gift from his enemies: A cake with little figures of Mario, Luigi, and Peach, along with Bowser's face right in the middle.
    • Starlow coming out of the gift box to check up on Bowser is also heartwarming, considering the Odd Friendship of sorts she and Bowser had developed throughout the game.
    • Even more so in that he's always wanted Peach to make one for him ever since Super Mario 64 back in 1996.
    • Also fairly heartwarming is the fact that when his minions are around, he makes a big show out of not wanting the present at all, but once they leave, he glances around before cracking the box open anyway.
  • In Bowser's "memory banks", after failing to repel the Bros., the synapse running the place takes the shape of a pixelated Peach for communication purposes. The synapse says the shape is based on "the host's most carefully preserved memory".
    • Likewise, using copies of Mario and Luigi as his defense against intrusion into Memory Banks. Shows some respect that rather than following his ego, and having a fake Bowser to fight there, or even an army of his minions, he has deep seated enough respect for the Bros' strength that his mind chose THEM as his defense.
  • This theme (known as "Persistent Joy"). It's played whenever Bowser's friends are around (Broque Monsieur, Private Goomp, Sergeant Guy, Corporal Paraplonk). Even though he may be a villain, he does have friends who help and support him, which makes it all the more heartwarming.
  • Bowser and his minions. Specifically the ones Bowser rescues from the cages. There was this odd sense of... almost family going on between them, with Bowser being the classic gruff-but-devoted Team Dad. After viewing Bowser as a Jerkass tyrant for years and years of games, it's both odd and touching to see that some of his minions genuinely like him and want to serve him.
    • Particular mention should go to the part after he rescues the Goombas and gets Goomba Storm, and a Fawfulcopter shows up and Fawful taunts him by showing him various minions in trouble. You can actually see his expression changing from neutral to pissed off as he sees his minions being captured.
  • Luigi's reunion with Mario early on in the game is a perfect blend of this and Funny Moment, and just all-around very easy to smile at.
  • Starlow's conversation with Bowser just before the final battle with Dark Bowser, during which she assures him that he can count on her, Mario and Luigi to help him. (But due to the wind, Bowser doesn't hear her, and doesn't yet find out about the plumbers' presence.)
    Starlow: "No, listen! When you face off in battle... Don't forget you can count on us!"
  • The next time anyone says that Mario doesn't give a damn about Luigi because he's too occupied with his own fame and glory, ask them to take a look at this. After Bowser gets fattened and the bros go into his digestive system to find Peach after she gets taken away, there is a part where Luigi goes on some Donut Blocks to cross the mucus, but they drop, causing him to fall into it, and Mario screams in concern for his little bro. Princess Lipid appears and asks what Mario has dropped, a treasure of everlasting wonder or the shabby, mustachioed man, she automatically assumes it is the treasure chest. Mario, however, says, that Luigi is his brother and is therefore far better than any treasure.
  • When the Bros. sloooowly heal Bowser's back. Although this can also be thought as funny, the fact that the developers chose a long cutscene rather than a minigame really shows that even though Bowser is a villain, he has feelings and feels all the wounds that he gets, which need to be healed.
    • The scene is made better by the fact that the game is filled to the brim with difficult and sudden minigames, so this event not being one of these is a welcome surprise. It even has a song playing during the cutscene that makes it all the more calming.
      • The game even suggests that you set your game down for a while, and maybe go make some tea. It gives you a well-deserved break; one that you probably will not get again, seeing how fast the game usually goes.

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