Roy koopa

Roy Koopa, (ロイ) (known as Bully Koopa in the cartoons) is one of the Koopalings, a clan of seven siblings^[1] that act as leaders of the Koopa Troop under Bowser (originally considered his children). From what has been revealed about Roy's personality, he is more brawn than brains, preferring brute force over thinking things through, although he is usually seen as more intelligent than Morton. Despite this gruff, tough-guy demeanor, Roy originally wore a pink shell. He now wears a purple shell with pink rings around his spikes to give him a more distinct appearance from his siblings. Roy also wears hot pink sunglasses similar to his namesake, the rock and roll musician Roy Orbison.

General information

Physical appearance

Roy has the same yellow-and-tan skin complexion as the other Koopalings, but his head is pink instead of the standard green coloration. Roy has two fang-like teeth in the upper corners of both sides of his snout, they are the same as Larry's. His mouth is feline-shaped, as his lips are deeply curved, and his nose is flat. His head is a very simple round shape, and like the other Koopalings, he has a four-ribbed, plated belly and padded feet.

Roy has always been rather large when compared to the other Koopalings, though his posture causes him to appear shorter than Morton and Iggy. He is depicted with long arms and hunched shoulders, much like a gorilla. His shell was originally pink like his head; it was portrayed as green in the SNES version of Mario is Missing (due to Ludwig, Iggy, and Roy, heads aside, reusing the same body type for their sprites, which featured a green shell), and his unused sprites from Super Princess Peach uses similar colors. In Roy's most recent and current appearances, the shell is purple, lined with a white encasing, and bears multiple short spikes circled with hot-pink rings. His in-game sprites in Super Mario World use a blue-purple palette in his boss battle, and a gray palette in the ending cast roll; the game's graphics do, in fact, contain a pinkish-purple palette which would fit his head and shell, but for unknown reasons, this is applied to Ludwig's cast roll sprite instead. The Super Mario Kun design for his character gives him a third fang in the middle similar to Ludwig's. Roy wears the same metal, spiked cuffs as the other Koopalings, but his distinctive trademark is a pair of cat-eyed hot pink sunglasses; his Japanese New Super Mario Bros. Wii site bio describes these glasses as "Bad Boy sunglasses," and says that they are his most defining feature.^[12] Although Roy's NES and SNES/GBA sprites for Super Mario Bros. 3 are fairly faithful to his artwork, his sunglasses are depicted as having white and yellow lenses respectively, instead of their trademark hot pink lenses.

In the Super Smash Bros. series, Roy's appearance is unaltered compared to most Mario characters, including Bowser. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, however, his appearance is slightly updated, as are those of Bowser Jr. and the other Koopalings; Roy receives a slightly darker and subdued color scheme, while his spikes, shell, and sunglasses receive simple detailing.

Personality

In the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 3 manual and materials related to the game, Roy speaks in Kansai dialect, which the later games seem to have omitted in favor of him speaking in slang. The American medium shows him as a typical bully who usually beats people up for his own amusement (hence the alternate name Bully Koopa). This character trait also carries over to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, where he is shown to enjoy bullying the lower-ranked soldiers of the Koopa Troop. In most appearances, he is nonetheless depicted as preferring brawn and aggression over his brains; he roars at the Mario Bros. in anger when encountering them in New Super Mario Bros. Wii and New Super Mario Bros. 2. In addition, his usage of a Bill Blaster in the New Super Mario Bros. games suggests that he likes using firearms as well. Roy outright says that "books are dumb" in Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, and like his brother Morton, one of Roy's stunts in Mario Kart 8 has him showing off his muscles. In the New Super Mario U adaptation for the gag manga Super Mario Kun, Roy Koopa is indicated to be very vulgar, as he, when encountering the Mario Bros., proceeded to bend over and fart directly in Ludwig and Iggy's faces.

Despite his tendencies towards relying on strength, Roy shows some degree of planning capability at times. In Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, he specifically notes that he has a time bomb present to deter the Mario Bros. from beating him easily. Similarly, in Minion Quest: The Search for Bowser he shows some degree of common sense, acknowledging the possibility of Bowser being abducted due to Bowser being somewhat naïve, and after being restored to normal from brainwashing, he also warns Captain Goomba that the Elite Trio had set a time bomb on the Koopa Cruiser. In Paper Mario: Color Splash, he tells Mario that he started going to night school because knowledge is power, and steals Mario's color and using it as ammo for his paint launcher before eventually blacking out the arena with black paint; Huey in particular yells that there were "treaties" against the former. His trophy in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS also hints that he is pretty quick to act as a soldier when the situation calls for it.

As indicated by his use of Mario's paint in Color Splash, much of Roy's planning ability exhibits itself through dirty tactics, established as early as his appearance in the book Leaping Lizards. In both Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and its remake in particular, he initially appears to run from Mario and Luigi, with the next section of Bowser's Castle unlocking as usual, only to ambush the Mario Bros. as they proceed. However, even his love of fighting dirty has its limitations; in the remake, while brainwashed earlier in the story, Roy seems to disapprove of Fawful's plan to have the then-brainwashed Elite Trio set up the aforementioned time bomb, calling it "cowardly." His bio in the Super Mario Bros. Memorial Book also implies that his scoundrel behavior is an act.

Roy's shades and various other hints suggest that he may have a thing for acting or looking cool. This is particularly evident in Mario Kart 8 with his choice of tricks, as well as the advertisements featuring him by "Roy's Smooth Sounds". Roy is also seen driving the Badwagon in the trailers and in artworks^[13]; said kart is pink, with many lights that are the same shade of pink as Roy, even in the dashboard, and features many different stereo speakers and a "Roy Smooth Sounds" logo.^[14] Mario Kart 8 also suggests that he enjoys music, between the company associated with him and the appearance of the Badwagon in his trailer and artworks. This is also a trait hinted at much earlier, with his quote on the Classic World 2-2 e-Reader card for Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3.

His love of the color pink may be considered a subversion of his personality, although it could be an indirect reference to the popular depiction of pink as a manly color. In New Super Mario Bros. Wii, most of his colors were changed to purple, which in Japan is synonymous with death. He was also shown to be somewhat sarcastic in the PC version of Mario is Missing, such as when he faked fear of Luigi. His knack for sarcasm is played up in the Bowser Jr.'s Journey sub mode of Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey , where, upon first meeting the Best Fitness Friends, he says "Man, Bowser will let ANYONE in here..." He also suggests in Bowser Jr.'s Journey that he was even willing to bear the brunt of Bowser's wrath for disobeying the latter's command of looking after Bowser Jr. if it meant not having to put up with the latter's bratty behavior any longer. Despite this, Roy also maintained a large amount of faith in the success of Bowser's plans even if he himself was defeated, as evidenced by his final lines to Luigi before being blasted by a fireball in Mario is Missing!. He also displays loyalty to Bowser Jr. as well, finally accepting his apology along with the other Koopalings.

Powers and abilities

Roy is one of the strongest Koopalings. He has the ability to jump high into the air and use Ground Pounds to cause powerful tremors, capable of stunning (or even crushing) the Mario Bros. He can also climb up vertical walls and drop down from the ceiling to create tremors. He can also use his wand to shoot magic blasts or purple fireballs at his opponents. He is also shown to be strong enough to wield a huge Bullet Bill Blaster with only one hand, as well as lifting a boulder twice his size to throw at the Mario Bros. In Hotel Mario, he uses his brawn by extending his arms to punch at Mario^[2]. Like the others, Roy is capable of spitting fireballs and spin around while inside his shell. His unused sprites in Super Princess Peach suggest he was going throw spiked-balls and use a full body tackle for attacking. The latter concept was revived for New Super Mario Bros. 2. In Super Mario World at least, he was also shown to be somewhat athletic, as he was able to run up a wall and on the ceiling before striking a pose when landing. Similarly, in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions, Roy was seen tucking into his shell and spinning around in place in it when some Beanies attempted to attack them while conversing with his fellow comrades about Bowser's disappearance. His status as being among the strongest of the Koopalings was further highlighted in Bowser Jr.'s Journey, where after leaving Bowser Jr.'s command and being ambushed by Malatone X-affected minions, he managed to fight off and defeat several of them, defeating enough of them to leave a trail of unconscious bodies and even wipe out three units congregated near the front gates before ultimately passing out from exhaustion, and when fighting Bowser Jr. to settle things, it took Bowser Jr. all of his energy to be able to defeat Roy without using any critical hits, and required several healing spells to resuscitate Bowser Jr. Super Mario Maker 2 reveals that he can dig by tucking into his shell to another portion of the room, including the ceiling, and can even pull it off on areas not directly attached to the walls.