Dark Fawful is the penultimate boss in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey. He is the darker version of Fawful (hence his name), after Blizzard Midbus is defeated, the Dark Star is complete and Fawful absorbs its power, turning resulting in his transformation into Dark Fawful. Dark Fawful is fought by Bowser.
Upon his defeat, Dark Fawful dies and his ghost (a bug) flees the room.
While his battle in the original game uses the standard boss battle theme, in the remake, Dark Fawful has his own battle theme, which is a slower arrangement of "Fawful and Cackletta", the battle theme heard during the first fight with Cackletta from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and its remake, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions.
In Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story[]
After stealing the Dark Star from Toad Town Caves and taking over Princess Peach's Castle Fawful and Midbus oversee the evil artifact's awakening, using Princess Peach's power to break the seal. However, Bowser manages to enter the castle and reach the room where the two are at. After defeating the newly-powered Blizzard Midbus, the Dark Star awakens, and Fawful uses his headgear to absorb its power, transforming into Dark Fawful. Before he could absorb all its power, Bowser punches him away.
Later on, after following the incomplete Dark Bowser into Peach's Castle Garden, Bowser meets up with Dark Fawful. He sends out the Fawfulized Super Peach's Castle of Fury after Bowser, whom the latter defeats after Mario and Luigi help him to become giant to battle the castle, returning it to normal. The next time Bowser encounters Dark Fawful is when he is searching for the Dark Star so he can absorb the rest of its power. He corners him in the Conference Hall; the place where he first fought Mario back in the beginning of the game. Having enough of Bowser's meddling, Dark Fawful fights Bowser, but is defeated.
After the battle, Dark Fawful sustains too much damage and turns into a small insectoid-like blob creature. He flees the hall, though he is inhaled by Dark Bowser shortly afterwards, completing him. It is assumed that he merged with the Dark Star within Dark Bowser's body to turn into the Dark Star Core. During the final battle between the two Bowsers, the Dark Star Core helps Dark Bowser out by fully recovering and turning him giant once Bowser reduces his health to zero, though it is spat out of his body once Bowser punches his stomach. Bowser inhales the Dark Star Core, forcing Mario and Luigi to battle it, destroying its legs in order to attack its weak point; the Dark Star itself.
Once the Dark Star is defeated, it explodes and leaves Dark Bowser unstable, giving Bowser the opportunity to defeat him, returning the Mushroom Kingdom back to normal. Meanwhile, Fawful is shown to have survived, albeit very weakened. As a last ditch effort to destroy Mario and Luigi, Fawful feigns accepting defeat and explodes inside Bowser's body with a wide grin on his face. However, the explosion reverses the effects of the Vacuum Shroom and actually frees both brothers, Starlow, Toadsworth, Toadbert and many other Toads from his body. It is not known what occurred to Fawful afterward.
Tips[]
In battle, Dark Fawful will use his Vacuum Helmet to hang on to the lights and swing on them. Bowser has to punch him three times, then for the fourth time, Dark Fawful will swing around, and Bowser has to duck. In the remake, Dark Fawful instead charges headlong, which must be punched if the boss is coming from in front of his target or ducked if from behind. Dark Fawful can also fire stars from his ray gun. Bowser must use his punch to destroy the big one in order to avoid taking damage. (Doing so causes Fawful to cry.) Dark Fawful can also fire energy into portals and which must be destroyed with a punch or a duck, depending on the portal. During his second phase, Dark Fawful summons energy balls. This can be countered by punching Goombas into him before the boss can throw the dark energy. (as it disrupts his concentration.)
Trivia[]
- When Dark Fawful attacks with dark energy balls, his pose looks very similar to his second form from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
- The song that Dark Fawful sings in Bowser's Inside Story before his battle against Bowser is a parody of the Scooby-Doo theme song.
- During the battle, one of Dark Fawful's attacks is shooting multiple stars that move circularly around the room until counterattacked. This move is similar to the move Princess Shroob uses after passing her half-way mark in her Max HP, but Princess Shroob creates just one star-like attack, while Dark Fawful creates multiple from his ray gun and Dark Fawful's also has a star trail behind.
- It is briefly shown that Dark Fawful's costume underneath his cloak is black and has a picture of the Dark star on it.
- If the Challenge Medal is equipped, the energy ball attack can kill Bowser in one hit especially if the player is underleveled.
- The music that plays when battling Dark Fawful is a remix of Cackletta's battle theme from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga & Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions.