Topic on Talk:Designated Hero

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Maybe Bowser counts as a Designated Villain, although one must admit that he's still a pretty big Jerkass when you consider that he attacks Mario's residence with a machine gun, causing injuries and significant property damage, and that he doesn't even pay off the traitor who allowed him to do this in the first place. So much obvious jerkassery that it eventually leads to his own downfall because the traitor betrays him back. And don't forget about the reason for that all: his frickin' car has been vandalized with graffiti. Maybe the category Anti-Villain fits better here.

Even better Designated Villains are the Koopalings: They only do what Bowser tells them to do, and they only lash out in self-defence, although quite excessively. Looks like they are used to living in a Crapsack World, or they are Properly Paranoid with respect to Mario. (Their antagonism in Super Mario Bros Canon, although a different universe, may justify this to some extent.)

Also, I need to watch the movie again to say for sure, but I mean the Koopalings' hats are brown, which would become grey when you converted the film to black and white. Meanwhile, Mario's hat is black. This gives me some Fridge Logic because in some early black-and-white films, the characters' hats were used to indicate their moral alignment: white = good, grey = neutral, black = evil. (This symbolism is used today to classify hacktivists.) Now I don't know whether this is intentional here, but if it is, it would mean that Mario and his gang are indeed villains, while Bowser and his 'kids' are more Chaotic Neutral or something the like. (Although Bob is also more Chaotic Neutral, as he is just in it for the money.)

As for Meggy's facial expression at the very end, it can mean a lot, but most likely she just realizes that they are pretty much screwed, heading for Final Solution first, but then sparing the boss, provoking Genocide Backfire of some sort. (It depends on how much they communicated beforehand what they are going to do.) In whatever way you try to continue the story, things are very likely to get messy for Mario and his foils. That is, unless the Koopalings aren't dead after all.