"Hey, what's up, Slick?" — Doopliss, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door
Doopliss is a major antagonist and boss in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and its 2024 remake. He has the ability to shape-shift and steal a person's body, leaving them as a shadow and is a member of the Duplighost species. He is the main boss of Chapter 4, is both the first and second/final boss of that Chapter and is overall the seventh and eight bosses of the game. Unlike in the first Paper Mario game, Doopliss is the only Duplighost in the game.
Summary[]
Doopliss used his shape-shifting powers to transform the villagers into pigs whenever he rings the bell at the top of Creepy Steeple, striking fear onto the village. Before becoming intertwined with Mario's story, he resided on the top of the clock tower of Creepy Steeple. After his defeat, he takes Mario's body and name, and the player must correctly spell his name to battle him again, but you will only have Vivian as your partner. When the player defeats him and gains the Ruby Star, Doopliss joins the Shadow Sirens as a replacement of Vivian, who joined Mario's party.
He is seen with the Shadow Sirens near the end of the game when Mario is investigating the underground ruins of the Palace of Shadow. During this fight, he has greater attack power and can transform into either Mario or his current partner though without the power of the Ruby Star he cannot steal their body and name. In the epilogue, it is mentioned that Doopliss helped Flurrie when she returned to the stage.
Personality[]
Doopliss's motives for his actions remain mainly unknown. According to himself, he turns the Twilight Towners into pigs because they are "depressing and boring and dimwitted all the time", and he thought that instead of wallowing in gloom, "they might as well wallow in mud". While this characteristic of Doopliss might be described as cruel, he is later portrayed as childish, exclaiming "NO! NO! NO! NO!", "WHY? WHY WHY? WHY?", "HOW? HOW? HOW? HOW?" after Mario has guessed his name correctly. He frequently calls Mario and other people he does not consider friends "Slick," though this trait is not present in the Japanese version of the game. As a member of the Shadow Sirens, he suffers the same taunts as Vivian, but does not have enough power to resist them. Due to the fact that Doopliss changes sides after the game, teaming up with Flurrie, he may not be described as entirely "evil", but simply immature and reckless.
While impersonating Mario, Doopliss talks in a self-righteous manner. To Mario's partners, he says "All right, kids, put on your fighting gloves! Uh... Woo hoo! It's-a me!" He calls Vivian Mario's girlfriend, and after Vivian realizes Mario's true identity, Doopliss teases Mario with "See? Your friends ditch you because you don't have the charisma of me, Super Mario!". He also plays at Mario's popularity at the meeting with Mayor Dour, where the real Mario drops in and is not recognized by anyone else.
Attacks[]
Doopliss[]
In his normal form, Doopliss only has one attack, and that is by flying above and doing a charging dash at Mario or the Party Members.
Mario Form[]
In his Mario form, Doopliss has two attacks that are reminiscent of Mario's, he can either jump or use his hammer at Mario or Co.
Trivia[]
- Doopliss's name is a play on the word "duplicity", meaning two-facedness or trickery.
- During the fight in the Palace of Shadow, Doopliss can transform into Vivian, making the battle similar to that of the Shadow Siren battle at Boggly Woods.
- He also makes an appearance in the Japanese Mario comic, Super Mario Kun.
- The idea of Doopliss taking the form of a darker version of Mario and use's Mario's attacks is very similar to Dark Link, an antagonist from another Nintendo game, The Legend of Zelda.
- Doopliss differs from the previous three Chapter boss and onwards, seeing as:
- He's the only Chapter boss to get fought more than one time in a Chapter (being fought two times in-game).
- He is also the only Chapter boss to be refought in a later Chapter, which makes him both a Chapter Boss and a Regular Boss.
- Doopliss and his Duplighost friends only appeared in Super Mario Kun and the first 2 Paper Mario games. He has not appeared since then.
- In sence, Doopliss is basically a stronger and more powerful version of the Duplisghost from the first Paper Mario game, only difference is that Doopliss has more health and attack power then the Duplisghost, he can turn into Mario and in both the second and third/final battles, he's added by both Mario's allies and the Shadow Sirens.