Psychological Diagnoses for Mario Villains!

I completely agree on Fawful.

I also think he's kind of a sociopath as well to be honest. (lack of empathy, lack of remorse, manipulative, completely self-centered, uses people as tools i.e. Cackletta in M&L1 and Bowser in M&L3, has no shame, etc.)


as for other villains, I may know a few - i think Dimentio is certainly a sociopath, Count Bleck suffers from either Major Depressive Disorder (a.k.a. clinical depression) and possibly some sort of Post-Traumatical Stress Disorder that, combined, cause him to go on his cosmic rampage in SPM. Princess Shroob is a bit ambiguous for me since she's alien; either she's a sociopath, or her species simply operates under a completely different moral system (sort of Blue and Orange Morality to quote TV Tropes).

as for Bowser, i doubt it's so much some sort of disorder (maybe narcissism) as it's how he's raised as the Prince of the koopas, basically. Apart from the cases where he's amnesiac and has a different personality (Rookie, talking about you)

i think Cackletta is either a narcissist, a sociopath or suffering from some sort of insanity, or a combination of the three. She still seemed less messed up than Fawful to me, though, but not very much so

Mimi - sociopath. An excruciating a**hole too, to both the good guys and the player.

Most villains would be considered anti-social, actually.

Fawful definitely has a lot of sociopathic traits. If it's possible for someone to be both, Fawful is a poster child.

Assuming stuff like this is accurate:

www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-narcissists-and-psychopaths

He's definitely got both sets of traits, though edges ever so slightly more towards the narcissistic side. I mean, he definitely seems like someone who 'needs' attention and admiration from everyone, and can presumably not function without it.

Heck, at least both narcissists and sociopaths will 'give up' if they've milked someone dry or they don't give them what they want. Fawful is someone who simply won't do that, he'll just brainwash anyone who doesn't outright worship his every move.

I guess based on what I've seen, Fawful could be a fictional example of Malignant narcissism:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malignant_narcissism

It's debated whether that exists or not, but if so it would probably fit Fawful pretty well. A random site basically describes it as someone who 'believes in their superiority to the degree that they view others as
relatively worthless, expendable, and justifiably exploitable'.

www.manipulative-people.com/malignant-narcissism/

Or as tested here:

study.com/academy/lesson/malignant-narcissism-personality-disorder-definition-traits.html

1. The person is emotionless and self-centered, or only thinks of himself or herself.

Maybe a tad less emotionless, but the rest is 100% Fawful as in the Mario & Luigi series.

2. The person is cruel and ruthless, often torturing others emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Yeah, I guess so. Especially if said person is an Italian plumber, a princess or a rival villain.

3. The person views other people as objects and doesn't care about them at all.

What else would you say of someone who physically transforms and brainwashes the entire kingdom into obedient slaves?

4. The person takes excessive risks.

See, the Dark Star.

5. The person has a huge ego and a grandiose sense of entitlement.

Yeah, 100% true of this guy.

6. The person blames others and never takes responsibility for his or her behaviors and shortcomings.

Eh, probably.

And yeah, Midbus probably isn't quite as dumb as he seems. Just ridiculously loyal to his boss.

On another note, I suspect O'Chunks has some sort of depression. His story was:

I heard Mimi was a Pixl from the time of the Ancients. She might be the Pixl Queen, the one who caused them to rebel against their creators.

Now the only question is... what of Antasma? What's his deal?

That's an interesting possibility. Antasma being extremely bipolar might make some sense given his characterisation.

I think the Antasma theory is either right or quite close to being right.

He used to be a normal Bat (or a P'illo, but i thought a Bat) afaik, and he knows Dreambert does he? The fact both know each other might mean/imply that before Antasma turned darkside, he was a normal person and possibly the two knew each other personally. Maybe (this is a totally Wild Mass Guess though) pre-Start of Darkness he was Dreambert's companion or friend, but no proof for that if I recall correctly.

Makes me wonder tho... how did his nightmare corruption/Start of Darkness actually go?

Maybe his soul got corrupted in some way? Given dreams IRL aren't physical and given how Dreamy Luigi and the other dreamers (Dreamy Big Massif, for example) are Projections of the mind and can do crazy feats such as copying, Luigi can go Giant Battle Mode by absorbing his Projections and many dream monsters can do stuff that's amazing even for Mario standards, i doubt the dreamworld is physical. Or, given how Dreamy Luigi can absorb his other forms to become Giant, maybe some other dreamers can do similar things and Antasma absorbed something evil/nightmarish. Or maybe Antasma died in the dreamworld and he Came Back Wrong (something I might do in my fangame). Possibilities are endless.

On-topic though...

I think he may be bipolar or have some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder or some sort of other kind of insanity as a side effect of either the corrupted soul idea, absorbing negativity or Coming Back Wrong. He certainly has a part of his original self in him given how he seems to genuinely respect or even care about Bowser and is visibly hurt by his betrayal. He certainly doesn't have Antisocial Personality Disorder (sociopathy/psychopathy as it is defined by the DSM-IV and DSM-V afaik), Narcissistic Personality Disorder or anything like that though- that would mean he wouldn't be hurt by Bowser's betrayal in the first place since a Sociopath/Psychopath/Narcissist does not care about others. He might be Borderline though- with the moodswings and things like that, but I know little to nothing about Borderline Personality Disorder so I won't comment on that any further.


EDIT:
Wait, now Bowser obviously comes to mind when talking about Antasma and his role in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros., has anyone analyzed Bowser yet?

I feel Bowser is kind of a complicated case, to be honest, due to how his portrayal is different between many of the spinoff's and even some mainstream games.
I feel though, if we are gonna analyze him correctly, we should either assume every portrayal is equally canon, or analyze Paper Mario (pre-Sticker Star) Bowser, M&LRPG Bowser, Main Series Bowser and so on separately as completely different characters, kinda, in some sort of Alternate Universe kinda model- same with other characters that appear everywhere.


WARNING! A HUGE ESSAY IS AHEAD:

I think M&L Bowser is certainly not "pure evil" though, not even in the more recent ones. in Superstar Saga, he seems to be genuinely on the side of good (his motivations might be selfish- his own survival, his Koopa Kingdom's survival, etc. but I think most monarchs/kings, at least the non-sociopathic ones, would take whatever option is the best to ensure their kingdom's survival; in this case, siding with the Mario bros. and keep in mind that Cackletta and Fawful at the time were much more dangerous than Bowser (i say at the time due to character development & evolution in later M&L games and Bowser becoming more confident/badass) and he clearly wouldn't have been able to stop them himself, even with the bros.'s help he got turned into Rookie and later possessed.

Rookie, his amnesiac alter-ego, in fact seems to truly care about Popple and doesn't punch him out or treat him like dirt like Antasma or some of his allies in BiS. I always felt like Bowser might actually not have been born the way he is, but being raised as a spoiled prince (as Baby Bowser shows in PiT too, will go into that later) has influenced his outlook on life. His behavior as Rookie, to me, suggests that his behavior is learned instead of born-in; Rookie of course doesn't have the experiences that Bowser had before being shot out of Tolstar's cannon and being found by Popple. I think, in fact, it was Popple who was using HIM instead of the other way around- Popple seems to have no issue replacing his old Rookie, but Rookie!Bowser sticks around from being found by Popple all the way to his memory being restored; and he would have had plenty of opportunities to have went away on his own and since he seems to be stronger than Popple, it would have succeeded I think. He seems to have stuck with Popple out of his own free will and violition, maybe to find out who he was. (in one of my fangame ideas, an amnesiac Bowser sticks around with the Mario bros. actually. Off-topic)

Bowser, in PiT, seems to dislike his younger self as shown in Thwomp Volcano and his younger self seems to dislike adult self as well; it might imply that his ego isn't as big as it seems, because a true Narcissist like Fawful would probably love to stick around with his past/future self being an "extension" of his, probably, but idk since time travel IRL hasn't achieved (yet), but Baby Bowser on the other hand doesn't really seem evil at all to me; just a spoiled brat. He takes the Mario bros. (both adults AND babies) with him on his Koopa Cruiser to escape Princess Shroob while nothing would have stopped him (at least, I doubt Kamek would have) from just leaving them behind and taking off with Kamek and his troops.

In BiS, he seems to work with the Mario brothers and Starlow (but is, admittedly, kept in the dark) and also clearly cares about his troops despite his exterior and treating them like dirt; he gets upset when the Elite Trio (that's how they were called am I right?) betrays him, but forgives them in the ending and they work with him again in Dream Team. He gets furious upon finding out his minions are brainwashed by Fawful and he seems to realize the situation. He gets furious at Starlow and the Mario bros. in the ending after finding out they are in his body, but honestly, I think Starlow should have been honest about it- i think it's more or less finding out he's been used and played for a fool the whole time and he might have reacted differently if she'd been honest way, way earlier. I mean, wouldn't you be furious if you found out someone you don't like has been inside your body for who knows how long? I'm honestly not surprised.

In DT, he seems to have visibly become more cold and calculating, and he hates Starlow a lot- i think it's either the confidence he's gotten from defeating Fawful and The Dark Star in BiS or some sort of trauma from the whole Vacuum Shroom experience (i would feel very violated if a lot of people were in my body including people I dislike), but mainly I do think he still IS the Koopa King at heart and wants to take over some land and expand his kingdom; we don't know his reputation after the end of BiS and it's possible some of his people have been disappointed and he is trying to show he's still THE Koopa King and no one messes with him.

In Paper Jam, i think he is mainly, like in DT, returning to his old ways. Can't say much else about Paper Jam due to it's simple plot and all, and the fact it may or may not be canon (i'm not sure).


Tell me what you think :3

"As evil born of foul parents. Its mother was corruption; its father, base cunning."

Is this possibly a metaphor for some sort of abusive parents / Freudian Excuse that led him to the darkside?

"Antasma was once but a tiny bat living on the island until one day he ate the nightmare of a Pi'illo, he took a taste in dark dreams and ate more, slowly they turned him into the horror he is now..."

This could be literal or in fact a metaphor. if anyone has watched Supernatural, in Season 4, SPOILER ALERT: Sam gets addicted to Demon Blood that temporarily gives him crazy powers to kill demons with his mind, super telekinesis, enhanced strength, makes him feel powerful "like a Big Bad Wolf in a world full of pigs" and acts like some sort of Psycho Serum for temporary effect. 

Possibly pre-Nightmare Antasma got a taste of the darkness/nightmares/the Dark Side and he felt he liked the power it gave and got addicted in some way. Antasma is also kind of a Dracula-ish character in characterization as well. and vampires cannot live without blood in folklore afaik which is somewhat like a sort of addiction in how it is necessary for them to drink blood or they die. Maybe Antasma first thought it wasn't right but the dark power was just irresistible and he gave in.

"None know in what dark den it was born or what nightmare byways led it to Pi'illo Island's shores... But once it came to roost on the island, the fate of the peaceful inhabitants was set in stone."

Pi'illo Island and its inhabitants are all named about sleep, dream or related things and it has a lot of connection with the dream world. Maybe the dreams Antasma "ate" was sort-of the "darkness in the Island's inhabitants's hearts" and he fed on that negativity and it corrupted him. I wonder if he was born on Pi'illo Island though.

And yeah,

I definitely feel there is more about it, and I hope we will ever get answers, to be fair tho I am pessimistic about the future of Mario RPG's but that's for a different topic.

Honestly tho this is an interesting read. I love analysis like these