Ludwig von Koopa (known as Kooky von Koopa in the cartoons) (ルドウィッグ, Rudowiggu) is the oldest and self-appointed leader of the Koopalings, a clan of nine siblings that act as leaders of the Koopa Troop under their father, Bowser.
As the other Koopalings, Ludwig is a conceited show-off, with the recent official bios also underlining his intelligence. In terms of physical appearance, his most notable traits are his large, wild blue hair, his overbite on the upper snout and his eyebrows that are kept at a peculiar angle, conferring him a serious, mature look. He was named after composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
General information[]
Physical appearance[]
Like the other Koopalings, Ludwig has yellow and tan skin and a green head. He also has a four-ribbed, plated belly and padded feet. His facial features are defined, having shaped cheeks, a high nose, a low jaw, and deeply curved lips; his features are most similar to Roy's, although he is unique in having one beaver-like tooth in the upper center of his snout, along with a complete set of teeth as revealed by his idle animation when he's angry and in some of his smiles in battle in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam[13]. He has a round head and small, circular grey eyes, like Morton. Paper Mario: Color Splash also reveals that his eyes present the tapetum lucidum, as eyeshine can be seen when he's partially in the dark while entering the room on his Super Ludship. Ludwig is average in height to most other Koopalings. He is taller than Lemmy, Larry and Wendy but shorter than Roy, Iggy and Morton. Despite earlier official material showing him as shorter than Mario[14], Mario Kart 8 shows that he's taller than most of the other middleweight characters, and is tied with Rosalina and Wario, but shorter than Bowser. His body is like a wider version of Larry's. Ludwig is best known to have large, wild, blue hair (although it was colored white in his sprites for Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World due to graphical limitations, similar to Larry); aside from slight color differentiation his hairstyle is the same one that was subsequently used for Flurrie. He also has small, blue eyebrows (black in his original design). Ludwig's shell was originally green and was once grey in Hotel Mario, but is now blue with light orange rings surrounding the multiple, short spikes. Ludwig wears the same metal, spiked cuffs as the other male Koopalings.
Ludwig von koopa/List of Ludwig's overview
Personality and traits[]
Ludwig is known to be the eldest[1] of the Koopalings, he is said to be precocious and conceited[15]. In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, he gets enraged when ignored by Mario and Luigi, and performs an impressive display of flips and twirls when riding in bikes or karts in Mario Kart 8, which, along with Ludwig's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, explicitly states that he is a show-off. In the New Super Mario Bros. series, Ludwig laughs off the threat posed by the Mario Bros. when they face him in his castle, suggesting he underestimates Mario, a trait he himself starts to acknowledge after being defeated in Paper Mario: Color Splash. In Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, after Wendy and Roy's defeat on top of Neo Bowser Castle, Ludwig stated that he was not impressed by their battle. He then claims that he is a leader, to which the other Koopalings deny. He also stated himself to have been "dethroned" after losing to Mario, Luigi, and Paper Mario. In the English version of Paper Mario: Color Splash he is the only Koopaling to be referred to by his minions as Your Evilness, a title similar to the ones given to Bowser; in the Japanese version, however, such title is absent. Regardless of his title, in both versions Ludwig is the only Koopaling explicitly stating to have worked on his own motive rather than to fulfill Bowser's plans and shows a more humble and respectful attitude when suffering defeat, contradicting previous arrogant depictions.
On the other hand, he has also been portrayed as the most cynical of his siblings, as he expresses disbelief that Princess Peach would ever agree to marry his father in the Super Mario Adventures comic. In the DOS version of Mario is Missing!, he cracks a joke about light bulbs and darkness at Mario's expense after Bowser discovered the hero's fear of the dark. He also had a horror-themed hotel in Hotel Mario.
Another aspect of Ludwig, not found both in Japanese in-game text and Japanese bios, is his love of classical music and his interests in composing. He waves a conductor's baton in Mario is Missing! and his UK blurb in Mario Kart 8 calls him the "Conductor of Chaos". His US blurb in Mario Kart 8 calls him a "Showy Anti-Hero", stating that he is a show-off, but maybe he isn't all bad. His bio from the Mario Kart 8 Prima Guide says that he plans to compose his own victory theme should he win the race, and both the Nintendo Comics System and the English version of Super Mario World reveal that he enjoys composing "Koopa Symphonies", although the former goes on to state that they sound horrendous. The book Pipe Down! implied that he was at least partially deaf for a time, as he claims he can finally hear after an explosion "shook something loose in [his] brain". In the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, his victory animation when he ends up in 2nd or 3rd place has him performing a stationary march, revealing his sense of rhythm[16]. The first game that has lines of dialogue from him specifically related to classical music is the English version of Paper Mario: Color Splash, where he says that the first movement begins, as the battle begins, and calls the cannons of his warship Cannon in Sea Major. According to graffiti of his hair and the list of the points of interests in Super Bell Subway, Ludwig might also be into art, as there's a place called "Ludwig Painting", also mentioned in the graffiti.
In Ludwig's trophy description in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, he is considered the most intelligent of the Koopalings, in Paper Mario: Color Splash he even designs his own warship to fight Mario, that he doesn't manage to fully produce before the latter arrives. He has been given the role of an inventor also in other media, such as the Club Nintendo comic Super Mario: Erholung? Nein, danke!, where he works as the mechanic for the KoopAir airline service. In The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and the Super Mario World cartoon, Ludwig's name was changed into Kooky von Koopa, and was portrayed as a stereotypical mad scientist, whose main purpose was to invent new doomsday weapons and gadgets for his father. He would commonly burst out into maniacal laughter or raise his voice by shouting in the middle of talking and seemed to be very aggressive towards the Mario Bros. Kooky didn't also care much about his hygiene, never washing or combing his hair. By contrast, the comics give him a more refined personality and vocabulary.
Ludwig was given a stereotypical German accent in both the official Nintendo Power strategy guide for Super Mario Bros. 3 and the CD-ROM Deluxe edition of Mario is Missing!, along with maniacal laughter not indicated in the speech bubbles in the latter source. Interestingly, he seems to have a very laid-back tone in the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 3 manual, having some eccentric "cool musician" mannerisms and even using the first-person pronoun 「おいら」 oira (highlighted in katakana as 「オイラ」), a version of 「おれ」 ore with rural connotations. In the Super Mario-Kun manga he uses plain 「オレ」 ore to refer to himself, or occasionally the highly arrogant derivative 「オレさま」 ore-sama. He usually uses as his second-person pronoun オマエ omae, however, in Paper Mario: Color Splash, he instead uses キミ kimi.
Powers and abilities[]
Ludwig is usually portrayed as the most talented and powerful of the Koopalings. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Ludwig shared his attack pattern with Roy; Ludwig could fire projectiles from his magic wand, pound the ground to stun the Mario Bros., and retreat in his shell for both defensive and offensive purposes. Although all the Koopalings in Super Mario Bros 3 frequently retreated into their shells when stomped on by the Mario Bros. Ludwig was the only one of the Koopalings to demonstrate doing so at will, without having to be hit by the Mario Bros. He was given a completely unique attack pattern in Super Mario World, which none of the other Koopalings shared; Ludwig could spit three fireballs in a row and spin around the room in his shell, after which he could perform a long jump to the other side of the room. Ludwig was given even more new powers in Hotel Mario: he can fire electricity from his hands and teleport in a flash of lightning. In Superstar Saga, Ludwig retained his previous abilities of breathing fire (though not as furiously as the previous time) and spinning around in his shell, but also learned the new ability of spinning like a tornado to attack the Mario Bros., which was also done by Iggy.
In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Ludwig learned even more new abilities. He can either blast four fireballs from his wand at time or fire a single fireball, each homing in on the player, and has even mastered the ability of Flutter Jumping, being able to stay in the air for several seconds. His appearance in New Super Mario Bros. 2 has him also expanding on these abilities, utilizing the Flutter Jump to grab a chain, and then move between the two, and in addition, he can also increase his rate of fire. In New Super Mario Bros. U, similar to Lemmy and Wendy in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, he was also revealed to create fake duplicates to fake out the Mario Bros. He is also shown with the ability to levitate without needing to Flutter Jump. He's also proven to be more acrobatic than most of the other Koopalings being able to jump large horizontal distance with several flips in Super Mario World. While his appearance in Mario Kart 8 doesn't show his abilities, it is shown he can do a double-flip in the air while performing a stunt. Most of his tricks involve him jumping out of his kart, something he does more than any other characters meaning. His agility is further confirmed in the 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games when he ends up in 2nd place or 3rd place, as in his victory animation he is able to stand on his right hand and spin, spanning two complete circles with his spinning. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U has Ludwig in his own version of the Koopa Clown Car, as he is a "palette swap" of Bowser Jr., just like the other Koopalings. He can shoot cannonballs, use drills, boxing gloves, wrecking balls, and can even jump out of his Clown Car. Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam shows that he has some decks of Battle Cards that are used in the battle against the Mario Bros. and Paper Mario thanks to Dark Star Points that he and Larry collect by dealing damage to their opponents, showing how ingenious Ludwig is. Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games shows that Ludwig is very skilled in Table Tennis, which has been known to be a patient and strategic game, perfectly suited to him.
Voice Actors[]
- Michael Stark (Formerly)
- Mike Vaughn (Formerly)
- David J. Goldfarb (Current)
- Naoki Tatsuta (Japan dub)
Trivia[]
- Ludwig is one of only two Koopalings whose placement in birth order was officially confirmed, the other being Larry Koopa.
- Ludwig allegedly being deaf in the comics is a reference to his namesake, Ludwig van Beethoven, who was known to have been deaf during his later life, resulting in his aides having to physically turn him around during a standing ovation due to his not hearing the applause.
- According to the Nintendo Power Super Mario Bros. 3 Strategy Guide, Ludwig is a Baron.
