What is the most legitimately cruel act throughout the franchise?

Time Turner

You are filled with determination. (R/GD/TT)
The franchise has a reputation for either comical villains (Bowser is the butt of every joke, King K. Rool steals all of the bananas which is Very Important) or comically megalomaniacal villains (Shadow Queen wants to take over the world, Bleck wants to destroy literally everything). However, I think that it's rare for one of the villains to actually do something that goes beyond clichéd and actually makes the player feel something more gut-wrenching than just a desire to do good and stop bad. Most of the time, you're never concerned about not stopping the villain, to the point where you don't even consider what might happen if you lose, so it's worth noting those situations where sometime stops being high-fantasy evil and becomes morbidly evil.

I'll start with my wheelhouse, Mario's Time Machine. Bowser travels back in time and steals a lot of important items, usually just when they're needed. This ranges from comical, like stealing the Apple that fell on Newton's head only after it had already fallen, to more legitimately concerning but not unsurmountable, like stealing America's Declaration of Independence before it was even signed, which would confound the founding fathers for all of a couple of hours before they grab a blank parchment and write it again. Most of these thefts become mild inconveniences if you think about what would happen afterwards, but there's one that goes too far: Louis Pasteur's Flask. This flask contains the vaccine for rabies, and just before Bowser stole it, it was going to be used for the first time on a human subject, to great effect. They don't have a back-up, either: Louis is actively panicking when he can't find the vaccine. I don't think that it would be impossible for him to synthesize the same vaccine again, after having done it once already, but in that time, his live subject might die. Even if he is able to then test it on another human, his reputation would have already been ruined by the previous death. That was the human that his vaccine was supposed to save, and it failed. This is bad, because Pasteur was one of those people who helped create vaccines and his techniques were a crucial stepping point for modern vaccines. There were other people working separately, sure, but there's no guarantee that they would have been able to produce a rabies vaccine, not to mention that his anthrax vaccine might have also gone down the drain due to his reputation. It's worth pointing out that both rabies and anthrax are very deadly, and again, if Pasteur was disgraced, his research might have not been taken into consideration by others, and plenty of other vaccines could have been set back as well. Bowser could have caused thousands, if not millions, of deaths across the globe, just so he could have something neat for his museum. At the very least, Mario saved the life of one person, and likely saved the lives of many more, whether he knew it or not (and I'm going to say he didn't know, considering that he didn't know what a vaccine was).

this is what happens when you spend too much time doing research in the middle of the night
 
You really do have this thing with Mario's Time machine, don't you?

And yes, I almost can't find anything other than what LB said.
 
Tadaomi Karasuma said:
You really do have this thing with Mario's Time machine, don't you?
At least this time I sprinkled in some historical facts? I can't help it, I like history and I'm a sponge for the kind of useless trivia that the game provides me.
 
Time Turner said:
Bowser could have caused thousands, if not millions, of deaths across the globe, just so he could have something neat for his museum. At the very least, Mario saved the life of one person, and likely saved the lives of many more, whether he knew it or not (and I'm going to say he didn't know, considering that he didn't know what a vaccine was).

this is what happens when you spend too much time doing research in the middle of the night
Oh no, anti-vaxxers won't take Mario too kindly once they find THAT out. What's next in their insipid agenda, Mario causes autism???

p.s. some anti-vaxxers seriously believe vaccines don't save lives; they think hygiene and sanitation and shit saved lives all while confusing mortality with morbidity
 
I think literally erasing entire worlds is worse than anything any Mario villain has done

So congrats, Count Bleck
 
And washing them away just because he's sad, that's even worse.

God I seem to agree with every single person here. Must be my memory coming back together reading those posts.
 
Beldam has said some pretty dang nasty things to Vivian.

Starlow can also be pretty cruel to Luigi.

idk personal insults hit a little too close to me
 
Kamek kidnapping Baby Luigi is still my vote. If the events serve correctly, in Yoshi's New Island and Yoshi's Island DS, he was kidnapped nearly immediately as he got rescued....twice.
 
King K. Rool steals all of the bananas which is Very Important

When I think about it, K.Rool stealing the banana hoard is pretty bad actually. He took the entirety of DK's food supply which left him with nothing to eat. If he never got it back both DK and Diddy would've slowly starved.
 
Bowser forced equality on everybody in Mario Party and a forced equality is the worst equality.
 
Weasel said:
King K. Rool steals all of the bananas which is Very Important

When I think about it, K.Rool stealing the banana hoard is pretty bad actually. He took the entirety of DK's food supply which left him with nothing to eat. If he never got it back both DK and Diddy would've slowly starved.
Yeah, he really lives up to his name. When you find him in Country 2, he's been attacking a helpless DK with cannonballs for who knows how long, and his goal in 64 is just as genocidal as his plan to starve the kongs, only faster.
 
Although unintentional, the ending of Super Mario Galaxy is pretty cruel, as after Bowser's greed to be the ruler of an entire universe backfires, it almost destroys all of the current universe (Though it actually wouldn't in the way it does due to physics inaccuracies, but I'll leave that be...). Yoshi's Island DS is rather cruel too, i.e. kidnapping as many babies as possible to get the star power from just a few. King Boo in Luigi's Mansion 2 is also pretty evil, trying to take over the world, but he shot himself in the foot whatever ghosts are made of by breaking the Dark Moon and imprisoning Mario in a painting, as if he hadn't done that Luigi wouldn't have come after him. And if you know the background for it, the original Super Mario Bros., i.e. all of the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom were turned into blocks, mushrooms, plants, etc., and Bowser kidnapped Princess Peach to stop her from turning them all back, as only she had the power to do this. And unintentionally, Mario made this worse by smashing the blocks and collecting the mushrooms, etc., so that one's not brilliant either.
 
I like to imagine that all the brick blocks in Super Mario Bros. were there before Bowser transformed the Toads, and the Toads that were transformed into brick blocks never appeared in the game.
 
At least they are just transformed in SMB and Lost Levels, never after that.
 
Lord Bowser said:
Lord Buckethead said:
Lord Bowser said:
three words;

holli jolli village
Angry-Old-Lady.jpg

i think that speaks for itself
nevermind, i think i misunderstood the reasoning, holli jolli village is a cheerful place UNTIL the shroobs attack, then it's sinister

i thought you meant the cruel act was including the location in the game
 
Lord Buckethead said:
Lord Bowser said:
Lord Buckethead said:
Lord Bowser said:
three words;

holli jolli village
Angry-Old-Lady.jpg

i think that speaks for itself
but that's awesome vg music

sounds christmassy yet sinister, which is what the theme should fit into

i mean, to each their own, but i still don't really understand
have you played partners in time? if not, explanation below

according to the game, holli jolli village used to be a fun christmas-themed town, living up to its name. but then the shroobs attacked the mushroom kingdom, and holli jolli village was one of their very first targets. the village, once a happy, jolly town, full of christmas cheer all around, was left in ruins. you first visit the village almost immediately after its been wiped out, and see the devestation left behind, along with several of its residents in disarray. the song only further emphasizes the cruelty of the act; immediately going for such a harmless, happy little village in a campaign for destruction and domination is more than cruel, and among one of the most vicious acts ive seen in the entire franchise.
 
Yeah, I just haven't played it in a long time. I remembered it as a cheerful place, forgot that it's the site of much destruction until I read the comments on the video and instantly remembered.

I made biiiiiiiig mistake, I edited my reply to reflect that. Forget I said anything.
 
Lord Bowser said:
Lord Buckethead said:
Lord Bowser said:
Lord Buckethead said:
Lord Bowser said:
three words;

holli jolli village
Angry-Old-Lady.jpg

i think that speaks for itself
but that's awesome vg music

sounds christmassy yet sinister, which is what the theme should fit into

i mean, to each their own, but i still don't really understand
have you played partners in time? if not, explanation below

according to the game, holli jolli village used to be a fun christmas-themed town, living up to its name. but then the shroobs attacked the mushroom kingdom, and holli jolli village was one of their very first targets. the village, once a happy, jolly town, full of christmas cheer all around, was left in ruins. you first visit the village almost immediately after its been wiped out, and see the devestation left behind, along with several of its residents in disarray. the song only further emphasizes the cruelty of the act; immediately going for such a harmless, happy little village in a campaign for destruction and domination is more than cruel, and among one of the most vicious acts ive seen in the entire franchise.
Also, it never gets repaired. None of the citizens return and all of the buildings remain destroyed for the entire game. Pretty harsh.
 
Actually it's implied they do come back since they all get taken to the forest and are then all set free once the baby tears come.
 
Were the Toads in the forest from Hollijolli Village though? Toadiko came on the time machine and I'm not sure about the rest. I agree that that area and the Shroobs in general were pretty cruel by Mario standards. Though, they were controlling the Toad population so maybe they should've stuck around a bit longer ;)
 
I can't be the only one who laughed at HoliJolli village.
 
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