As this is a Moment of Awesome page, spoilers will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Dark Bowser: Still here? Has the dark power not crushed your puny hopes? Soon this kingdom will vanish along with all who dwell within. And you, too, will sleep eternally in the dark power's embrace!
Bowser: GWAHAHA! Great dark hurricane! Seriously, perfect backdrop for an awesome final battle! You really sweat the details!
[beat]
Bowser: Listen up! You're saying the kingdom will vanish? NOT TODAY! THIS KINGDOM IS ALL MINE! SO YOU VANISH!
~SHOWTIME!~
Bowser: GWAHAHA! Great dark hurricane! Seriously, perfect backdrop for an awesome final battle! You really sweat the details!
[beat]
Bowser: Listen up! You're saying the kingdom will vanish? NOT TODAY! THIS KINGDOM IS ALL MINE! SO YOU VANISH!
~SHOWTIME!~
— Bowser and Dark Bowser's exchange, mere moments before the final battle begins
- The end of the final boss fight. After Mario and Luigi destroy the Dark Star Core, Bowser finishes off Dark Bowser with five punches, the last one serving as powerful enough a finisher to ultimately KO the dark doppelganger once and for all.
- Keep in mind that the Dark Star's an Artifact of Doom that's lived for probably thousands of years, and Bowser punched it so hard that it exploded. No, he didn't do it as Giant Bowser or any other form - he destroyed Dark Bowser with his bare fists!
- And let's not forget Bowser's moment of Heroic Willpower, with a little help from Starlow. The pre-battle exchange serves as the page quote (see above).
- After the battle is over, Dark Bowser wrestles with the thought that it was beaten by a supposedly inferior being. Bowser's reply couldn't possibly be more appropriate.
- This is something of a moment of awesome for Bowser as well. Throughout the game, he's been supplanted by Fawful and Midbus as the Big Bad of the title and suffered repeated humiliations throughout his journey. Upon reaching Peach's castle, he discovers that the Dark Star has even copied and attempted to replace him completely. Not only that, but it's set up an awesome final boss stage that Bowser thinks is rightfully his. If this were anyone else, then the chances of winning may be rather slim. But this is Bowser we're talking about here. Bowser's not just a final boss, he's THE final boss, and he's not going to be pushed around by some loser pretending to be him. The ensuing fight is Bowser drawing upon more than thirty years' experience of fighting Mario, to kick-ass and establish himself as the only final boss allowed to ravage the Mushroom Kingdom. It proves that, while there will always be pretenders, the Koopa King truly is the biggest badass around.
- As a result, if no other scene proved it, this finale alone shows that this isn't a Mario or Luigi game. It's Bowser's game. He's shown that he is the ultimate hero of the story. Through thick and thin and through the most embarrassing situations, the Koopa King does not falter. Plowing his way through so many different boss fights, his only losses coming at the hands of the Bros. themselves. However, he manages to defeat enemies who may be even stronger than Mario or Luigi. Such as his Foil Midbus, Dragon Ascendant Fawful, and last but not least, the many centuries-year-old Ancient Evil the Dark Star, having copied his DNA. As stated earlier, Bowser punches this ancient, mighty deity, with his bare, completely unaltered fists. If there was any other doubt that Bowser lives up to his Awesome Ego, is the Trope Codifier for video game villains, and is the Arch-Enemy for Mario, those doubts are now utterly gone. Ultimately, while the Mario Bros. helped him throughout the journey, it is without question that Bowser is the real hero of the game, and without him, the Bros. would have failed miserably.
- And it's all accentuated by the fact that Bowser himself receives one of the best Final Boss songs in the Mario games.
- It's a tie between the first time in Bowser's Inside Story that The Mario Bros. have to revive Bowser, and he turns giant as a result - and then proceeds to beat the stuffing out of his own castle and in the beginning of the game when Peach smacks Bowser halfway across the Mushroom Kingdom, quite literally.
- Even better - in tune with some Continuity Porn, she uses her Wish power (see SMRPG and Paper Mario) and, together with Starlow, not only casts an Epic Level Drain, she also levitates him up, and with the tiniest hand movement, sends him flying. Clearly, one does not bother the Princess when her Kingdom needs help.
- How about when Giant Bowser has to fight Super Peach's Castle of Fury, which has a freaking black hole gun that fires at the start of the battle, and again halfway through, and both black holes can suck in either Bowser or Fawful Castle, causing damage?! The punch mechanic is your friend in the second half of this battle, as a force field prevents fire damage to SPCF after it takes about 50% damage. Hope you burninated the castle to get Refreshrooms beforehand.
- The actual cutscene before the battle in the original version was also pretty awesome. Bowser growing about ten times larger, right outside of Toad Town, with all the Toads running around screaming "It's Bowser!" "Flee!". It's the equivalent of seeing Godzilla rising up for battle in a city!
- Meanwhile in the remake, the cutscene of the fight has Bowser starting to lift up Super Peach's Castle of Fury as he's growing, only to quickly be stomped back down... As he shortly after manages to push the foot back off him once more, and proceeds to perform a Human Hammer-Throw on the castle, sending it flying into the sky only for it to stop its crash with several jets, landing back down as the two titans approach each other, ready to clash.
- The battle with Super Peach's Castle of Fury has a special moment in the remake. For the remake's version of the Giant Bowser battles, each of them ends with a finishing move, where Bowser punches the enemy into the sky with some Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs, then clobbers them across the battlefield with a Megaton Punch to finish them off. Here though? He punches the castle SO HARD, he sends it flying around the planet so fast it catches fire and crash lands back into the battlefield. It's a miracle the castle was even intact at that point, letalone barely able to function before collapsing.
- As Fawful absorbs the power of the Dark Star, he taunts Bowser about how powerful he is becoming, as he turns into a dark silhouette with red eyes. Then, Bowser steps forward and punches him in the face, sending him flying.
- Fawful as the Big Bad is this. He started out in Superstar Saga as The Dragon to Cackletta, and also the one who did most of the work, from his destruction of the Koopa Cruiser, to his constantly getting in the Bros. way, to even giving his master the means to possess Bowser. After his defeat, he retreats into the sewers for the entirety of Partners in Time, awaiting the day he can rise up and strike again. Then, come this game, he finally does. He successfully takes over both Bowser's Castle and Peach's Castle, turning the latter into his final base of operations, and eventually fuses with an ancient evil, which threatens to consume the entire Mushroom Kingdom. He went from a lowly, but tenacious minion, to one of the biggest threats the kingdom had ever known, and even though he had his minions (which, by the way, most of them were built by him, or bent to his will), all of his major accomplishments were completely his very own.
- If you manage to defeat Bowser X, it becomes an awesome moment for you as the Emoglobin host will proclaim "You two, best globins ever!"
- It's relatively small, but hearing Bowser say Mario's name. It's not said through a chat bubble or a subtitle, but through his own deep, intimidating voice.
- With all the little dialogue bits Bowser gets, it really shows the range of his newest VA, Kenny James. Seriously, who wouldn't destroy their throat doing those guttural growls? This guy's dedicated.
- Another, more subtle one, is when he is hit by the train. If you pay attention, you'll see that near the end of the track, he nearly stops the train while at his normal size, if it weren't for Rule of Funny putting that rock there. This is the true extent of his strength.
- Broggy Bonker. Just the plain attack itself. It's already quite funny that the giant angry guard dog you fought and buy items from earlier in the game is beating up bosses, including Dark Bowser. It's freaking awesome when, if you get the attack perfect, about twenty Blitties attack the enemy after it in a line, possibly making the enemy confused.
- A small detail, but when Mario is preparing to counter with his hammer while carrying Luigi after he gets knocked uncounscious in battle, he is pissed off. And when he's holding the hammer for too long, he grits his teeth. If you hurt his brother, he's gonna make you pay for it, that's for sure.
