Editing Darkness

{{Infobox Darkness
|individual name = Darkness
|image = [[File:DarknessS5 HQ-1-.png|250px]]
|alias = Shadow Mario<br />Dark Mario<br />The Voice<br />"Shadow Scum"<br/>"The Koopa"
|gender = Genderless (masculine)
|series = ''[[Stupid Mario Brothers]]''
|home = Real World
|allies = Mario<br />[[Luigi]]<br />[[Wario]]<br />[[Waluigi]]<br />[[General]]<br />[[Ken]]<br />[[Morgan]]<br />[[Pirate Crunch]]<br />[[Pirates]]<br />[[Link]]<br />[[Merlin]]<br />The [[Mushroom Force]]
|enemies = [[Mario]]<br />[[Ganondorf]]<br />[[Bowser]]<br />[[Nox Decious]]<br />[[Tommy Vercetti]]<br />[[Zubashi]]<br />[[Blaire Vherestorm]]<br />[[Pauline]]<br />[[FedEx]]<br />[[Kamek]]<br />[[Scott Masterson]]<br />[[Ninjas]]<br />[[Wrathnar]]<br/>
|firstappearance = This time, It's Personal!
|lastappearance = Stupid Mario Brothers: Legacy
|status = Unknown (presumably alive)
|actor = Richard Michael Alvarez
}}

{{quote|I'm back!|The Darkness in "[[Act II Part 5]]"}}

The '''Darkness''', also known as '''Shadow Mario''', '''Dark Mario''', '''the Voice''', and '''the Koopa''', is the secondary antagonist in the ''Stupid Mario Brothers'' franchise.

It debuted as a major antagonist in ''[[Stupid Mario Brothers]],'' serving as the secondary antagonist of [[Season Three]], the main antagonist of ''[[Stupid Mario Brothers: The Movie|The Movie]],'' specifically the overarching antagonist of Act I and the main antagonist of Act II, the main antagonist in Operation: Blind Storm, the overarching antagonist in [[Season Four]] and a major character in [[Season Five]]. 

He returns as the main antagonist of ''[[The Plumber Knight Returns]]'', serving as the main antagonist in Season 1 and one of the two main antagonists (alongside the [[Luigi|Blue Hood]]) in Season 2. 

He returns as a major character in ''[[Stupid Mario Brothers: Legacy]]''.

It was a substance who was [[Nox Decious]]' former henchman and [[Mario]]'s counterpart. It was created by Decious with the ancient spell ''El Nox de la Shateu'', translating to the Darkness of the Shadow. Decious created the Darkness to bind his soul to the [[Stone of Righteousness]]. It is the fourth of the six arch villains in the Stupid Mario Bros series (alongside Bowser, Nox Decious, Wario, Blaire Vherestorm and Ganondorf.). He is the archenemy to Wario and later Mario, The Plumber Knight.

Eventually, the Darkness redeems itself and joins the [[Mushroom Force]], betraying Decious in the process. But after what seemed to be his death once and for all, the Darkness left Mario's spirit and overtime manifested itself into a physical being once more, and over the course of 30 years, plotted the events of the Plumber Knight, manipulating events and everyone in Ferrell City to kill an aging retired Mario. Eventually, he seemingly meets his final end at the hands of Luigi in the exact same field that he was killed in by Wario twice before, who seals him away inside of the Truth Stone, and Mario buries it deep in the forest nearby.

==Biography==
===Background===
[[File:Darkness created.PNG|thumb|200px|left|The Darkness in its original form]]
When [[Nox Decious]] was researching the [[Stone of Righteousness]] and its powers of preventing death, he wanted to fuse it with his body so it wouldn't be taken from him.

After having his face terribly scarred by [[Merlin]] in battle, Decious cast the ancient spell ''El Nox de la Shateu'', which translates to "The Darkness in the Shadow." This spell created the Darkness, which Decious said would be a tool to assist in his dominating of the [[Real World]]. He sent the Darkness, his new henchman, to find the Stone of Righteousness, connect the stone to itself, and merge itself to his soul.

At first, the Darkness obeyed his command and made Nox near immortal. However, after nearly 1,000 years of being trapped inside Decious, the Darkness began to resent its master, who viewed it as nothing more than a tool.

===[[Season Three]]===
When [[Nox Decious]] was killed, the Darkness needed a new body to attach itself to. The Darkness knew that the most powerful person was [[Mario]], so it chose to attach itself to him in order to gain more power. It possessed Mario in a form of rage, making him attack [[Wario]]. Then the Darkness combined the energy that it took from his former boss with the energy it took from Mario and left him. It left Mario weak, but it had enough power to sustain itself and take physical form. Darkness took on the form of its most powerful host: Mario. However, Merlin was unaware that Mario was the Darkness' most powerful host and assumed it would take Decious' form.

[[File:Darkness.jpg|thumb|200px|left|The Darkness, as briefly seen in [[Season Three]]]]
The Darkness never had much of a role in Season Three because Wario was the main antagonist. The third season only shows how the Darkness was formed and was used for foreshadowing ''[[Stupid Mario Brothers: The Movie]]''. However, he did try to convince [[Waluigi]] to kill Mario like he did with Wario, but ends up failing as Waluigi is smarter and more reasonable than his brother. The Darkness then convinces Wario to kill Mario and recharge the saber.

It obtains Decious' hidden [[Black Widow Blade]] from the [[Orchard]], which he had planned to use to deal the killing blow to Mario during their battle. {{storylink|Old Friends, New Enemies}}

Later, it is revealed that the Darkness serves Decious as his most trusted henchman. {{storylink|The End of the Beginning}}

===''[[Stupid Mario Brothers: The Movie|The Movie]]''===
{{dialogue a-b-a-b|Mr. L|Is there a point to this sad story?|The Darkness|Don't get coy with me! I helped you get into this body so I could kill you myself, and this time you won't have your precious Truth Stone to keep your soul intact!|How is the hunt going for that? I don't think you're very immortal yourself, my friend.|It makes no difference! I shall be the most powerful being on this planet! Your reign was over before it began!|The Darkness argues with the newly created Mr. L.}}

[[File:Darkness.png|thumb|200px|right|The Darkness meeting [[Link]] in the [[Dark Forest|dark forest]]]]
The Darkness is trying to help [[Nox Decious]] claim a vessel in [[Luigi]] so that he may then kill his own boss. As well, he plans to become immortal and to do so, he decides to eliminate the [[Mushroom Force]] in order of their strength.

He first confronts [[Link]], who has been lost in the [[woods]] for some time. They have a battle, but Link is killed when the Darkness impales him with the [[Black Widow Blade]]. He tries to claim the [[Artifact]], but is quickly angered when he finds out that Link had already sealed it inside his soul.

After once again losing to [[Mario]], the Darkness confronts [[Bowser]]. He tries to strike a deal with the Koopa king, but he denies it and heads back to his portal leading to the [[Mushroom Kingdom]]. However, the Darkness says to himself that even if Bowser had become his friend, he would have ended up betraying and killing him anyway. {{storylink|Act II Part 1}}

[[File:Ness vs Darkness.png|thumb|200px|left|The Darkness battling [[Ness]]]]
Later, he arrives at the [[Orchard]] once again, saying that once he is rid of "him", he will no longer have to hide in his shadow. The Darkness is encountered by [[Ness]], who tells him he was informed of this by the letter Mario sent and tries to kill the Darkness. His PK Thunder attack fails, so he tries to charge the evil being with his baseball bat, which also fails. Ness is defeated, but informs the Darkness that he will meet his demise soon. The Darkness turns out to be somewhat merciful as he allows Ness to walk away from the battle alive. Notably, the Darkness flinches when it is attacked, meaning that Mario is turning it more human (which is explained and shown later on in the series). {{storylink|Act II Part 2}}

[[File:Luigisavessnake.png|thumb|200px|right|The Darkness battling [[Luigi]]]]
While [[Solid Snake]] is out in the field trying to contact [[Otacon]], [[Liquid Snake]] appears behind him, informing him that with his new ally (who turns out to be the Darkness), he will finally take over the [[Real World]]. Liquid leaves as the Darkness insults Snake and tries to kill him, but he is stopped by Luigi. They fight for a short time before Luigi is defeated, as well as having his physical form being taken over by Decious' spirit.

Mario shows up after Luigi is supposedly murdered by Decious, lamenting for him. Luigi finally gets up, only for Mario to be informed that Luigi has already been taken over, now going by the name [[Mr. L]]. The Darkness stabs Mario from behind with the Black Widow Blade, seemingly killing him. The Darkness claims he no longer holds any allegiance toward Decious, informing him that he only served Decious and assisted him in taking over Luigi just so he could kill him and rule the world himself.

Shortly after, Wario appears and demands to battle the Darkness, who is able to impale the Black Widow Blade through Wario, presumably killing him. The Darkness believes he didn't have the [[Stone of Righteousness|Truth Stone]] after all and wonders where it is. Suddenly, Darkness stops in his tracks and monologue and finds that the [[Nether Saber]] has been thrown through his back by Wario, who faked his death and was really protected by the Truth Stone. The Darkness laments having been cut off from having more fun before laughing evilly and presumably dying. Afterwards, Wario retrieves the Black Widow Blade and puts it in his pocket. Then he goes over to the Darkness' corpse and tells him to "rest in Hell" before leaving. {{storylink|Act II Part 3}}

Later on, [[Merlin]] reveals that only a specific counter-curse can destroy the Darkness in an absolute sense; [[Waluigi]] was supposed to give Wario the means to perform this curse, but he ended up forgetting about it. Meanwhile, the Darkness comes back to life, casts off his hat (as he says that he no longer needs to associate himself with Mario), and swears revenge on Wario, joyously shouting that he is back. {{storylink|Act II Part 5}}

[[File:DARKNESS WARIO.jpg|thumb|left|180px|The Darkness battling [[Wario]] on the [[battlefield]]]]
Whether Merlin knew it or not, the Darkness had known about the counter-curse, so he forms a long-term plan behind the backs of the heroes. He studies everything Decious had learned, which included his knowledge of beam swords, allowing him to create several beam swords that mimicked and surpassed the Black Widow Blade's power. When he discarded his hat, the Darkness really transferred almost his entire being into it, except his body and mind. He recruits a boy named John (whose name he changes to [[Blaire Vherestorm]]), upon striking a deal with the Darkness. The two of them build an [[Beacon|energy source]] designed for after his destruction. {{storylink|The Darkness Explains It All}}

Afterwards, Wario returns to battle the Darkness one more time. After an initial struggle, Wario pins him to the ground, recites the counter curse, and supposedly kills him for good. {{storylink|Act II Part 6}} However, it is revealed that Wario had only managed to kill a shell and the Darkness was actually dormant in the hat. {{storylink|The Darkness Explains It All}}

===''[[Operation: Blind Storm]]''===
The Darkness' hat is found by [[Solid Snake]] and [[Ness]]. When Ness puts it on briefly, the Darkness transfers itself into Ness, possessing him. The Darkness then uses him to lead Snake to the [[Beacon|Energy Source]]. Still being controlled by the Darkness, Ness tells Snake to destroy it while [[Wario]] tells him otherwise. Since Ness is psychic, the Darkness always knew they would trust Ness over Wario and Solid Snake proceeds to destroy the source. The Darkness speaks to the entire group, telling them that the Energy Source was a beacon that connected their powers from the other worlds and that they are now powerless.

The warriors believed that the Darkness would never rise again, {{storylink|Operation: Blind Storm}} but it is later revealed that the Beacon's destruction only made it more powerful. {{storylink|The Darkness Explains It All}}

===[[Season Four]]===
With the destruction of the [[Beacon]], the powers of [[Mario]], [[Luigi]], [[Wario]], and [[Ness]] are transferred to the Darkness, thus making him the most powerful being in existence. It tries to take physical form but it can't because Mario was the first one it took. The Darkness soon realizes that it's spirit will only take physical form when [[Mario]] regains his powers first as the universe demanded at least that much equilibrium between it and the person it's taking the form of.

He orders [[Blaire Vherestorm|Blaire]] to create the [[Trifecta]] to force the Mushroom Force to regain their powers. However, knowing about [[Ganondorf|Ganon]]'s evil plan, he warns Blaire to cease action the moment Mario has gotten his powers in order to have him defeat Ganon, which would allow the Darkness to take over instead. Afterwards, he obtains his physical form, but doesn't let Blaire know about this so that he can be sure he follows his orders. {{storylink|The Darkness Explains It All}}

[[File:TDA4.png|thumb|left|200px|The Darkness revealing himself to [[Mario]]]]
Blaire betrays him by attacking Mario and the Darkness reveals himself. Allowing Mario to escape, Darkness confronts Blaire. Disgusted at his former apprentice's disobedience, the Darkness kills him with a Black Widow Blade replica and walks off to find and kill Mario. {{storylink|Plumbers and Ninjas and Snakes OH MY!}}

The Darkness explains his plan in its entirety to Mario, why he killed Blaire, and warns him of Ganon. He then walks off in order to build his own army in case Mario fails to defeat Ganon. {{storylink|The Darkness Explains It All}}

===[[Season Five]]===
{{dialogue a-b|Zubashi|You have continued to fail at destroying Mario!|The Darkness|So have you...|[[Zubashi]] ambushes the Darkness and his army in [[PIRATES VS NINJAS!]]}}

[[File:Darkness Season 5.png|thumb|200px|right|The Darkness watching the battle and smiling evilly]]
The Darkness meets with the [[General]]. He tells him of his changing of hair and complains about General not forming his army. However, he is then shown his army, which he thanks the General for. {{storylink|Dark Dookie}}

The Darkness is warned by the General about the upcoming [[Ninjas|ninja]] attack. He responds with an attack by his forces and then summons [[Ken]] for the task. Darkness, Ken, and General confront [[Zubashi]] and the ninjas. The Darkness then summons his [[pirates]] to battle the ninjas. After the battle, the pirates end up victorious and Ken knocks out Zubashi. He orders the General to shoot the remaining ninjas except for [[Gangles|one]] to be followed by [[Legion of Villains' Base|Ganon's base]]. The Darkness also tells Ken to follow the ninja back to Ganon's base. {{storylink|PIRATES VS NINJAS!}}

[[File:Ganondorf VS Darkness.png|thumb|180px|left|The Darkness battling [[Ganondorf|Ganon]]]]
The Darkness, Ken, and the General arrive at the base in the midst of [[Mario]]'s battle with the [[Legion of Villains]]. He orders the General to kill the ninjas and freezes the Legion members in place when they rush him, allowing him to confront [[Ganondorf|Ganon]] alone. After using telekinesis to push each other back, the Darkness nor Ganon find who is more powerful as the Darkness teleports the [[Mushroom Force]] as well as his own team back to their bases.

At his base, the Darkness is angry about Ganon's power. He gets angry with himself by not recruiting Link when he has the chance but Ken points out that the Darkness did kill Link once before. He decides to do something he never thought he had to do while Ken tries to ask what he is talking about. Immediately, the agitated Darkness rushes over to close his mouth. {{storylink|Shadow Scum VS Ganon....Or Ganondorf...Whatever his name is!}}

[[File:The Darkness and his Proposal.png|thumb|200px|right|The Darkness proposing an alliance]]
The Darkness meets up with [[Luigi]] and [[Wario]] and suggests a team-up between their two armies to take down Ganon's. He then gets mad at them for indirectly breaking the fourth wall, an idea that they don't understand. Finally, he then asks them one more time about the team up. {{storylink|An Unexpected? Proposal}}

Eventually, he falls asleep while waiting for their answer. They agree to let him work with them and he gives them full use of his pirates. Later, the Darkness is told by Ken about Zubashi and the ninjas' upcoming invasion.{{Storylink|The Business Man and The Ape}}

The Darkness tells [[Ryu]] and Ken to spend their time as they please until the invasion comes. However, he regrets it when he forgets to tell them about getting him something to eat. {{storylink|It's Never a good time to ignore your girlfriend. EVER!}}

[[File:Darkness thinking.png|thumb|180px|left|The Darkness questioning his own motives]]
While waiting for the two to return, the Darkness begins questioning his placement in the war, now believing himself not to want to take over the [[Real World]] anymore. Instead, he believes that his purpose is to kill his former boss [[Nox Decious]]. {{storylink|Fantasy Wizard Bullsh*t!}}

[[File:DarknessdismissGeneral.png|thumb|180px|right|The Darkness dismissing the [[General]]]]
With this in mind, the Darkness begins recalling his conversation with [[Mr. L]] and how ambivalent [[Nox Decious]] was when he had tried to threaten him. The Darkness is then met by the [[General]], who informs him that the [[ninjas]] are on their way. The Darkness is glad he will finally be able to get this over with and the General asks him what his orders are. Darkness pauses and tells General to go home, granting him an "honorable discharge". General is confused at first and is hesitant, but the Darkness reminds him of his wife and children and dismisses him. The General leaves for good and the Darkness declares it time for the death of Nox Decious.{{storylink|"As the Fanboy's say, Only Link can defeat Ganon"!}}

{{dialogue a-b-a-b|Nox Decious|We both lose here today, but Lord Ganon will be victorious.|The Darkness|I think you're wrong.|Your team cannot stop him.|Maybe not, but at least I can die knowing that I finally killed you!|The Darkness and Nox Decious, just after stabbing each other.}}
After killing several ninjas, Wario was mortally injured by Decious, and was later carried to [[Dr. Naomi Hunter]] by [[Mona]] as the Darkness came and took over the battle.

[[File:NoxDeciousvsDarkness.png|thumb|180px|right|The Darkness battling [[Nox Decious]]]]
Nox Decious spent a majority of the battle moving away as the Darkness brutally tried to attack. As the battle progressed, the Darkness became increasingly frustrated when Decious escaped him. [[File:NoxDeciousDarknessStab.png|thumb|170px|left|Nox Decious and the Darkness killing each other]] Eventually, the two got to the ground and crawled towards each other. Both pulled their beam swords to each other. The Darkness and Decious stabbed each other in the stomach. Decious believed that Ganon would triumph, though Darkness believed he was wrong. He assured Decious that he could find satisfaction in the fact that he finally killed his creator. As Decious toppled over, the Darkness fell silent for a few seconds before realizing it was the end and dropping to the ground.

[[File:DarknessSpirit.png|thumb|200px|right|The Darkness' spirit speaking to [[Mario]]]]
As Mario was in Hyrule still getting training from [[Merlin]], he realized that he couldn't remove the Master Sword. The Darkness spoke to Mario and agreed to give his spirit up along with Link and Merlin so they could combine their souls to give him the power needed, but giving up was remained of themselves to Mario. This gives him power enough to wield the Master Sword and kill [[Ganondorf|Ganon]], defeating him for good. {{storylink|The Super Mario Brothers}}

[[Stupid Mario World]]
Mario reveals that The Darkness's spirit left his head along with Link and Merlin's spirits. However Mario and Luigi don't really worry about it as they believe that he is dead for good. Wario however shows concern about this as he believes bad things could happen. Mario just dismisses it.

==''[[The Plumber Knight Returns]]''==
[[File:DARKNESS.png|thumb|200px|right|The Darkness, as seen in ''[[The Plumber Knight Returns]]'']]
After leaving Mario's head, the Darkness would end up returning. It turns out that it has never truly been alive. Everyone, "including the Darkness", thought it had become mortal because Mario's soul was growing strong within it. So when the Darkness "died", it returned to its incorporeal form while Mario's soul returned to Mario. Now the Darkness is back to its evil roots with none of Mario's soul to make it soft. About 30 years after the events of Stupid Mario Brothers, The Darkness would end up taking the disguise of "The Koopa" to try and get Mario out of retirement after he fell into a deep depression after Bowser killed Peach and then his brother Luigi was murdered. Darkness would fake that he was the one who killed Luigi which made Mario put on the suit once again. Throughout The Plumber Knight Returns Season 1, Mario keeps trying to hunt him down, battling Goombas and a giant Goomba named Jeckle. Darkness then ends up kidnapping Denise, who is a friend of Mario's, to lure Mario to his location to fight him. Once Mario rescues Denise, he then leaves to find "The Koopa". Once he meets him in the forest, Darkness tells him that he killed a bunch of innocent people just to get Mario out of retirement so they could have a final duel. Mario is disgusted by this. Darkness then brings up the topic of Beam Swords, claiming that they were Mario's favorite weapon. He then pulls out the Black Widow Blade and remarks on how Mario doesnt have his anymore until he reveals he still has a Beam Sword. They then have a duel. They are both evenly matched until Darkness disarms Mario and attempts to kill him. Mario blocks his swing and fires up a fireball while Darkness charges up a ball of dark energy. They both fire at each other sending them both flying backwards. Mario gets up and beats him to the ground demanding for his identity. Darkness then gets up and laughs continuously before taking off his mask and revealing his true face with grey hair and a grey beard, much to Mario's horror.

The Darkness reveals that it did not kill Luigi and was on playing Mario along to get him out of retirement. It doesn't reveal its true motives or its reasoning for the creation of the Goombas and its persona of the Koopa. Later, the Darkness vanishes off to let Mario take care of the new problems that have emerged.

Later, The Darkness then transforms back to his Koopa disguise to talk to Dr. John Horrus. He tells him to get rid of Comissioner Steve McGuinness.

After Mario fights the Blue Hood and realizes he is actually his brother Luigi, he travels back to where he encountered the Darkness earlier and Darkness shows up as well. The Darkness reveals to Mario that the Blue Hood is Luigi and that Luigi's true killer was Bowser Jr. in revenge for Mario killing Bowser. He also tells Mario that after he buried Luigi, Bowser Jr. and a group of magikoopas stole Luigi's body and brainwashed him to give him one goal: to kill Mario. He says that there is probably still a little bit of the old Luigi left since he killed many of the criminals in Rapid City. He then tells Mario to not bother going to see Bowser Jr. because he's dead, he was the first person killed by the Blue Hood once he was freed from his chains. He reveals that he plans to have the Blue Hood kill Mario because he knows Mario won't be able to to kill Blue Hood because he is his brother. The Darkness then leaves him once again

The Blue Hood confronts Mario. He beats up Denise, knocking her out cold, fights Mario, and quickly overpowers him, but as Mario finally breaks the hold on Luigi's mind, the Darkness appears and quickly kills him off, stabbing him in the back with the original [[Black Widow Blade]]. Later, the son of Luigi confronts the Darkness in the exact same field he was killed in by Wario many years before. The Darkness goes on to explain that he was the mastermind behind everything that had happened in the Plumber Knight, and once even tricked Mario and his friends into letting him fight Ganondorf and his legion with them. Thinking that no one will ever truly stop him, he boasts about how many have tried to end him, but he always returns. He goes into detail about how he will create his new world out of choas, and Luigi (the son of the original Luigi) exposes the Darkness' true feelings towards Mario and vows to stop him permanently. After an evenly matched battle, the Darkness hits Luigi with an energy blast, knocking him down and thinking he'd won. However, much to his dismay, Luigi pulls out the Truth Stone, rises, and throws it at the Darkness while saying the curse "El Nox de la Shateau". As the Darkness is being trapped in the stone, he lamented at the fact that he just wanted to be alive before finally being sealed away. Mario at some point after buries the Truth Stone deep underground in the woods, so that no one will ever find it. However, he forgets about the Black Widow Blade, which is found and taken by Rosalina and [[Omega]].

==Character Overview==
Originally, the Darkness was pure evil as it was created by evil magic from [[Nox Decious]]. The Darkness grew to have eventually hated Decious as it was forced to live inside him for centuries.

When the Darkness took on human form, it began to become overpowered by [[Mario]]'s spirit, whom it has used to take the form of and become stronger. Eventually, the Darkness found that it wasn't truly evil anymore. It eventually died after not only killing its former boss, but saving [[Wario]]'s life in the process.

Sometime within the following 30 years, the Darkness was reanimated, but this time it did not have Mario's spirit to reduce the shadow magic, so as a result it became even more insane than ever before, disguising itself as the Koopa and took Jeckel in as it's right hand man and creating a gang called the goombas. It later abandons Jeckel and it's followers and works alone, preferring to stick to the shadows and let others do it's dirty work.

==Personality==
The Darkness' personality went through multiple changes throughout the [[Stupid Mario Brothers|series]]. Not much was explored throughout [[Season Three]], but he was shown to be a calm and calculating individual, only showing anger when Nilrem revealed himself to be Merlin.

In the [[Stupid Mario Brothers: The Movie|film]], he was shown to be more mentally unstable and sadistic, breaking into fits of insane laughter and describing all the horrible things he did and could have done as "fun". Also, he was determined to differentiate himself from the real [[Mario]], and often referred to the latter simply as "him" in a derisive manner, except when he addressed Mario, where he called him by the name. Despite his love for killing, he showed mercy on Ness by letting him go after defeating him.

Despite his insanity, the Darkness is highly intelligent, finding out about Merlin's counter curse to kill him and working out a long term plan to rise to power and take over the world. However the Darkness has shown to be somewhat of a coward, waiting for [[Link]] to tire out so he can kill him, although this was out of careful planning. However, later on he cloaked himself and stabbed Mario from behind. He also said he'll just leave Ganondorf to Mario instead of fighting him. He has shown to be very egomaniacal, after absorbing our heroes powers, he calls himself the most powerful being in existence, despite the fact he's going to leave Ganon to Mario and not do anything relevant himself.

However, the Darkness can carry a conversation well enough. He has a sense of humor and can be playful at times. This side of him is mostly seen in Season Five as he has dreams of fighting Decious and enjoys reading magazines, ironically enough, the same sort as Decious.

However, by the end of Season Five, he begins to question what his goal is, no longer desiring conquest. According to Rich Alvarez in the May 13th update, the Darkness has become more humane from absorbing the heroes' powers. This shows when he dismisses the [[General]] right before the major battle, showing genuine concern for the well-being of the General's family if he were to die.

In ''[[The Plumber Knight Returns]]'', the Darkness is once again evil after becoming the crime-lord known as the Koopa. It has also become obsessed with Mario to the point where it pretended to kill Luigi so that it could battle Mario and built its own criminal empire to further motivate him. The Darkness has also become much more organized, sneaky, cunning, despicable, and patient as it was able to manipulate events to where it and Mario would have their final battle. It was shown to be cruel and ruthless, having dealt harsh and painful tortures of both its enemies and its minions. He was also shown to be more laid back as instead of killing Mario himself he will have the Blue Hood do it instead, sadistically claiming it will be more fun that way. However, this turned out to be a lie, hoping to shock and break Mario by killing Luigi in front of him.

Ultimately, Luigi's son (who would now be known as Luigi Jr.) would then come to battle Darkness to avenge his father, and get retribution for all that it's done to Mario. After Darkness reveals his plan of chaos, Luigi Jr. then accuses it's true reason behind his goals and torturing of Mario, being out of spite and jealousy. Darkness reacts to this with anger, trying desperately to deny it, implying that Luigi Jr.'s accusation was correct. Along with Darkness' confession in the end, that it just wanted to be alive. These reactions to Luigi Jr in defeating him confirms his accusation, that Darkness did want desperately to be Mario. It wanted to be Mario so bad, that he deliberately took his form, or as Luigi Jr. put it, "that it was literally on it's face." Luigi Jr.'s accusation strongly suggests that because Darkness wasn't human, and that he couldn't grasp human emotion, Darkness twisted them and decided if he couldn't have a life like Mario's, it'd destroy his.

==Abilities / Skills==
[[File:PK_Thunder_negation.gif|The Darkness nullifies Ness' PK Thunder.]]
As his physical body was created from half of the energy of [[Mario]] and a being a portion of magic created by [[Nox Decious]], the Darkness has their combined power at his disposal. He mostly displays Mario's abilities, such as throwing [[fireballs]] and is also able to teleport and turn invisible like Decious. Because both Mario and Decious are both very skilled with a [[Beam Swords|beam sword]], the Darkness demonstrates great skill himself. Like his master, Darkness was a skilled fighter able to fight on par with Link and win (note link was exausted from all the walking) easily beat ness, bested [[Luigi]], and overpower [[Wario]] and would've killed him if Wario had no Truth Stone. After waking up from his first death, he says he was able to perfect what Decious had learned and mastered, allowing him to create superior replicas of the [[Black Widow Blade]].

The Darkness is also capable of surviving mortal wounds to some extent: when he fought [[Wario]] in "[[Act II Part 3]]," he was able to recover from being impaled through the back with the [[Nether Saber]], though he was in a death-like state for some time. Later, he told Mario that the Counter Curse and killing blow that Wario dealt him with in their second battle would have indeed killed him, had he not stored his essence in his hat.

After the events of ''[[Operation: Blind Storm]]'', he also obtained the combined powers of Wario, Luigi, and [[Ness]]. With these combined powers, he killed [[Blaire]] with ease, freezed the [[Legion of Villains]], and finally matched Nox Decious in battle, ultimately killing him and vice-versa.

In [[Plumber Knight Returns]], he has shown to still possess most of his old abilities, such as teleportation, his Beam Sword skills, and ability to create blasts of dark energy.

==Attire==
In its original form, the Darkness looked like a dark version of [[Mario]]. It wore black overalls over a black shirt with chains under a trench coat and black gloves. It wore a hat similar to Mario's and had dark rings around its eyes. Over this, it wore a black overcoat and wielded the [[Black Widow Blade]] until its first duel with [[Wario]].

Eventually, the Darkness took off its overcoat before its battle with Wario, which it never donned again. Following the battle, it discarded its hat, saying it had "no need of that disgusting thing anymore" as it did not want to associate itself with Mario, the latter of which it transferred a large percentage of its being. Before its "final" battle with Wario, the Darkness seemed to have required a necklace and its hair had orange highlights.

In [[Season Four]], the Darkness' attire is drastically different: Although it still wears the shirt, overalls, and the chains, it now wears a leather overcoat as opposed to its older one and has smaller circles around its eyes. Its hair is turned red, which it claims it dyed, but is truly a side effect of Mario's energy as both the Darkness and "him" grew stronger.

In [[Season Five]], the Darkness has dyed its hair closely back to its black color as it was told that "red was not in this year". It is seen without its necklace until the last few episodes. Also, the Darkness' hair style constantly changes: In the [[Stupid Mario Brothers: The Movie|film]], it was sort of flat with a curve in the front. In the last few episodes, its hair is more like a mohawk.

In ''[[The Plumber Knight Returns]]'', the Darkness has bleached hair and a bleached beard, even retaining the dark small circles around its eyes. Its appearance is the same as Mario probably because it still has a bit of Mario's spirit left in it. His attire consists of his leather trenchcoat, a black shirt, a chain necklace and a pair of jeans

==Relationships==
===[[Mario]]===
The Darkness as Wario refers to it is Mario's shadow. In the movie, the two were enemies. In [[Episode 66]], Wario welcomes the Darkness as an ally in hopes of defeating Ganondorf. The Darkness does not seem to have a problem with working with Mario. In Episode 75, he even sacrifices his spirit of power to Mario to kill Ganondorf even asking Mario to take Ganon's head, showing that he still has his own agenda even in death.

After it gave Mario's spirit back to him, it eventually regenerated and became evil again due to Mario's soul making him more humane. After 20 years of Mario's retirement, The Darkness took the alias of the Koopa and formed a revolution of goomba's, after the goomba's have stated to terrorize Ferral City, The Darkness has made constant threats to the city and claimed to have killed Luigi to get Mario out of retirement. Once it and Mario finally fought, the Darkness revealed himself to him, and revealed he didn't actually kill Luigi and that everything was to get Mario out of retirement, then left. Eventually after Mario fought the blue hood, The Darkness had confirmed to Mario that the blue hood is Luigi, and that the one who killed him was Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr killed Luigi out of revenge for Mario ripping his father Bowser's head off, and then made him the blue hood to kill Mario. Darkness reveals he would now let blue hood kill him.

===[[Nox Decious]]===
The Darkness was originally created by his original boss Nox Decious, but it fed off of his heart for generations.

When the Darkness finally split from Decious, he pretended to recognize Decious as his master. However, after he killed Mario and Decious took over Luigi's body, he officially split from Decious, stating that he never cared about Decious and only wanted to give him a new body just for the purpose of killing Decious himself, which he eventually did in episode 75 after Nox was resurrected by Ganon. He has then grown to hate Decious more and more.

In Episode 73, the Darkness states that his only purpose is to kill Nox Decious.

In Episode 75, the Darkness and Nox Decious do battle, which results in the two killing each other. However, the Darkness doesn't mind his death, as he killed Nox Decious. The only reason he had for doing so was to finally rid himself of his past.

==Trivia==
* [[Richard Michael Alvarez|Rich Alvarez]] did not expect the Darkness to be so popular with the fans. "I'm actually really surprised at how much people liked the Darkness. The entire time I was playing the character I was always worried that I was doing it wrong and / or bad... I thought he would come off too stupid."
* He is never referred to as "Shadow Mario" onscreen; the other characters only refer to it as "the Darkness." However, both Alvarez and [[Christopher Anthony Muller|Chris Muller]] have referred to him as "Shadow Mario," most notably in "[[Unpersuasive Persuasion]]."
* The Darkness is actually not human nor is he alive really since he is only a substance that took on [[Mario]]'s form. However, in "[[Act II Part 6]]," [[Wario]] says the counter curse "Obscurem Absentis Humanis," which is Latin for "Darkness be gone and become human." However, the Darkness revealed that he was actually mortal the entire time and was able to survive Wario's killing blows because he stored its being in his hat.
* The Darkness may never be truly killed as he was defeated 2 times by Wario, then he and Decious killed each other and he came back every single time. Also Richie said that he can't help but keep bringing him back, as he loves portraying him so much.
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Original characters]]
[[Category:Season Three]]
[[Category:Season Four]]
[[Category:Season Five]]
[[Category:Spin-Offs]]
[[Category:The Movie]]
[[Category:The Brotherhood of Darkness]]
[[Category:The Plumber Knight Returns]]
[[Category:Trifecta]]
[[Category:Males]]