Discussion YMMV / NewSuperMarioBrosU

On the subject of Bowsette... yeah, I knew all her tropes here would be deleted as soon as I put them in there own section. While I get that Bowsette is not an actual part of the game itself, the size of said section and the scope of the Bowsette phenomenon itself proves that Bowsette is a very trope-worthy entity in her own right, so how should we best approach this?

Bowsette section restored for posterity's sake

Bowsette and other Super Crown reactions:

• All There Is To Know About The Crying Game: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe introduces the Super Crown. While people who keep up with internet culture will likely learn about this due to the unending amount of Fan Art and memes that it spawned, nothing else about the game is notable. Even the Super Crown's specific in-game function of turning Toadette into Peachette is secondary info to the Fanon interpretations of said ability.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • The exact effect of the Super Crown beyond Humanity Ensues is purely speculative, with interpretations ranging anywhere from "Princess Peach clone with Morphic Resonance" to just plain Moe Anthropomorphism. How many Cute Monster Girl aspects are present will vary Depending on the Artist. The only thing agreed upon by pretty much everyone is that the wearer will always become female if male, due to both Male Gaze and the power-up's connection to Princess Peach.
  • The original Bowsette comic by Ayyk92 depicted her being with Mario at the end of it. While most people interpret this as them becoming a couple, it could be simply that they were trying to make Peach jealous. There are questions about if Bowser would really turn into a girl just to date Mario or if he is still in love with Peach. It really depends on if you think Bowser/Bowsette just wanted anyone to love them or if they wanted Peach specifically.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: In spades, though it's strictly Self-Fanservice. The first character to spawn from Super Crown fan-art, Bowsette, is definitely Hotter and Sexier than what you'd expect from the Mario series, even in the more modest depictions. Not to mention a large chunk of Bowsette's fan-art is porn. Other popular characters like King Boo and Chain Chomp tend to follow Rule of Sexy with their Super Crown forms as well.
• Counterpart Comparison:
  • The Super Crown's Memetic Mutation status in September 2018 has seen several comparisons to the December 2017 meme Earth-chan. Both center around Moe Anthropomorphism and are fueled/spawned by an omnipresent underlying joke. There's also plenty of room for interpretation on how the "rules" work and how the characters look in both memes.
  • Bowsette is similar to Jeanne D'Arc Alter in design and powers. Both are pale blonde Evil Counterparts that wear black dresses, have fire powers, and are related to reptiles (With Jeanne Alter having the power of having dragons obey her). Worth noting that before Fate/Grand Order, there were fan concepts of Jeanne having an Alter form.
• Epileptic Trees: The ability for Toadette to transform into a Princess Peach lookalike named Peachette. This has led people to wonder if Peach is an evolved Toad or if Toads are simply larval humans in the Mario universe. There's also the theory that the Super Crown was made in case Peach needed a body double while she was out, willingly or otherwise.
• Evil Is Sexy: Princess Peach was already good-looking as it is, but adding on a coat of Bowser paint results in a very bedeviling contrast.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The fact that Mario, Luigi, and Yellow Toad don't transform if they touch the Super Crown implies that only Toadette is actually able to use it, but that's not going to stop anyone.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The fandom was a little late in turning common enemies into royalty — Tatanga did it first, though he made Daisy clones out of them instead.
  • While it may not have been King Koopa himself, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 has Wendy (known as Kootie Pie there) turn herself into a cute blonde girl to capture Mario's attention. The resemblance unfortunately ends there, as Peach is brunette in the DiC continuity.
  • The original fan comic that spawned Bowsette was a riff on the ending to Super Mario Odyssey, having Bowser (as Bowsette) and Mario hook up after getting rejected. One week later, the artbook of that game is found to contain a small concept comic of Bowser using an Evil Knockoff of Cappy to capture Peach, which turns her into a Peach/Bowser hybrid.
• LGBT Fanbase: As one of the most iconic and fearsome Final Bosses in gaming with the body of a Pretty Princess Powerhouse, Bowsette is always depicted with an air of confidence in her voluptuous looks, making her a potential Escapist Character for trans women.
• Memetic Loser:
  • Peachette was overshadowed almost immediately upon the birth of the fan characters her Power-Up inspired. In the rare occasions where people remember she exists at all, she is usually portrayed as upset, heartbroken, or even just annoyed at the sheer scale of her stolen spotlight.
  • If not her, then Princess Peach herself will be this, consistently confused about the Super Crown phenomenon and (like in the original comic that inspired the meme) getting passed up by Mario for Bowsette/other Super Crown users.
• Memetic Mutation: The Super Crown has proven to be quite the Fountain of Memes.
  • At first, it was simply the Mario fanbase exploring what such a power-up means for the Mario setting as a whole (see Epileptic Trees above), or wondering what would happen if the Mario Bros, other Toads, or even folks like Bowser used Toadette's Super Crown...
  • ...But then the idea of Bowser using the Super Crown inspired Twitter user Ayyk92 to draw a comic depicting Bowser using the Super Crown to turn into a Peachette-esque woman (using elements from Bowser's design instead of Toadette's), and then dating Mario after Peach dumps Bowser and Mario at the end of Super Mario Odyssey. This comic then promptly exploded, with the internet quickly dubbing the character "Bowsette". Fan-art of Bowsette based on her design in the comic (as well as edits of it which retain Bowser's red hair, and alternately also tan skin to represent Bowser's yellow-brown) flooded the internet afterwards, to the point of her becoming an Ensemble Dark Horse in the fandom mere days after her inception.
    • Although Bowsette is her accepted English name, some people have pointed out that "Peachowser" or "Peacher" would be more appropriate (following the name pattern of Peach + Toadette), or even "Koopeach". Meanwhile, Japanese fans have dubbed her "Kuppa-hime" ("Princess Koopa") after Bowser's Japanese name, which became a top-trending Twitter and Pixiv tag in short order.
    • Of note, some professional manga artists, including those of Dagashi Kashi, Ane Naru Mono, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (whose mangaka drew no less than nine different Bowsette pictures), Tsugumomo, Pop Team Epic, One-Punch Man and the manga version of Goblin Slayer, as well as the character designer for Street Fighter and Darkstalkers have joined in and drawn their own art of her based on Ayyk92's design.
    • To put into perspective how popular Bowsette has become little more than a week since she was introduced, the amount of Bowser fan-art on Pixiv numbers to around 3000, while the amount of Peach fan-art numbers around 5000. Bowsette, on the other hand, numbers at a whopping 7000 fan-art pieces and counting. To clarify, this means Bowsette got more fan-art on Pixiv in less than a month since her creation than either Bowser or Peach have gotten since the website Pixiv was founded. She even has a page on The Other Wiki. Yes, really.
    • Bowsette has caught the eye of many fans all over the world, but based on the above, take note of how she has particularly hit a sweet spot with Japan.
    • "If Bowser turned into Peach, then who's ruling the Koopa Kingdom?" Naturally, this led to Peach getting her own item that turns her into Bowser.
  • The Bowsette comic also quickly spawned another, separate trend of applying the Super Crown to other Mario characters and common enemies, with most recurring ones having at least one fan-art depicting a Super Crown form, as well as various Crossovers with other franchises and, of course, other memes.
    • King Boo's Super Crown form in particular is a Cute Ghost Girl and the only one to come close to Bowsette in popularity. She's called "Booette" or "Peach-a-Boo" and gained over a thousand search results on Pixiv within a day of her conception.
    • The Splatoon 2 character Pearl is a squid-girl who wears a crown. Images have cropped up of her actually being a Blooper who put the Super Crown on and/or encountering a Blooper wearing the crown.
    • Nevermind the idea of what would happen if Peach herself wore the Super Crown. Though some people will respond with one of the earlier fan theories and say she already is.
  • People jokingly asking "Is that your Bowsette OC?" to pictures of Peachette or asking "But what if Toadette got the Super Crown?". Alternatively, portraying Toadette as jealous or upset that she got her spotlight stolen. (Isn't it sad, Toadette?)
  • Sidestepping the Super Crown altogether to ask where Blue Toad went^note The most common answer to this is that he's busy assisting Princess Daisy with her special moves in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • Since becoming wildly popular out of nowhere, stealing the spotlight, keeping it while refusing to die, and inspiring copious amounts of Rule 34 and Rule 63 are not exactly the most desirable traits a meme can have, the Super Crown after a week or so became (jokingly) referred to in a negative light, with people retroactively labeling the entire power-up as a bad idea like so◊.
    • One particular brand of this is to straight-up antagonize the crown In-Universe, depicting characters (especially the real Peach) as disliking it for various reasons (sometimes meta, sometimes not). However, if said characters attempt to actually destroy the crown, it inevitably goes horribly wrong and humanizes yet another thing, alluding to the meme's unfaltering popularity.
• MST3K Mantra: Don't think about how the Super Crown works. Just enjoy that you can play as basically-Peach without the plot having to change at all.
• Older Than They Think:
  • While Toadette turning into Peach using a crown was a surprise, Super Mario 64 DS also had hat items that transformed characters into Mario, Luigi, or Wario.
  • One of Peach's subjects turning into a lookalike is new, but Bowser's minions have been doing it since the first Super Mario Bros. In their case, though, Fake Bowsers don't usually have a tell-tale sign (Blue Bowser and the Tail Bowsers are exceptions, though).
  • This isn't Toadette's first time as a playable character in a Mario platformer. That honor goes to her tenure in Super Mario Run.

Edited by Noah1 An open mind and compassionate heart are among the most important qualities we can have. Hide / Show Replies