| “ | Mario, you do remember what I told you Maizee was doing here, don't you? Experimenting with ingesting poison and all that? Yes, I'm sure you remember. Well, obviously there was a grain of truth to that. That is exactly what I've been doing here, after all. And I've come to the conclusion that there's simply no way to avoid the mental detriment with ingesting this poison... but knowing you'd come in here trying to stop me at any moment, I decided to risk it and ingested it anyway. (...) Oh, quite possibly. Yes, I have quite a bit of it inside of me right now, I imagine you'll all be no match for me once the effects kick in. Oh, yes... it's starting right now. I can feel it. | „ |
| ~ Bulbin revealing he's been ingesting poison for experimentation before transforming into Toxic Bulbin. |
Mayor Bulbin is a major antagonist in the 2009-2012 Paper Mario fanfic Paper Mario: The Temple of the Sun, serving as the main antagonist of the fifth chapter "The Plant and the Factory". He's the mayor of Viney Valley who runs the Poisoned Factory that tampered Chronoside's main source of water, Trickleback River. He seeks to use the Sun Souls to take over Chronoside and keep his factory running forever. He's Maizee's archenemy and former boss.
Appearance[]
Bulbin is a Bub-Ulb with a dark blue flower on his head. He wears a white collar with a small flower on where would his lapel and a brown pork pie hat with a hole that allows his flower to stick out.
As Toxic Bulbin, he becomes a lot bigger, his skin becomes green similar to the poison from his factory, his mouth now sports a set of fangs and poison dripping from it and his eyes have a crazed look to them. His hat and collar were removed from him due to his sheer size.
Personality[]
At first, Bulbin seems to be a friendly old mayor who cares for the well-being of his citizens. Underneath that polite facade, however, lies a power hungry manipulator who wants to control Chronoside poisoned it's main source of water, Trickleback River for his own sick amusement, not caring about how many lives would be endangered because of it.
Even after he gets found out, however, Bulbin chooses to remain sophisticated when talking, to the point it sickens Mario himself after hearing about everything he has done. As sophisticated as he can be, Bulbin does have a bit of a temper such as when Maizee stands up to him and tells him that Mario will eventually find out about his crimes and especially when he becomes Toxic Bulbin.
Synopsis[]
Background[]
Some time before the events of the story, Bulbin opened up the Poisoned Factory. The poison from it infected the Trickleback River and caused everyone in the Viney Valley to get sick. A Crayzee Dayzee called Maizee notices that the villagers are getting poisoned and went to the factory to see who's responsible. When he got found out, Bulbin framed Maizee for the poisoning, causing her to get exiled from the Viney Valley.
Despite her exile, Bulbin kept Maizee in the factory for a while to make sure she doesn't tell anyone the truth. Later, Bulbin eventually learns about the Sun Souls. Wanting to use them to keep the factory running forever, he has Maizee get the Sun Souls along with a trio of Putrid Piranha Plants, threatening to kill her son Daymien if she doesn't follow his orders.
Shortly before the chapter, the poison starts infecting the waters of Soluna Town, causing most of the citizens to panic. Rodolfo sends Mario and co. to the Viney Valley to stop the Poisoned Factory and get the Eve Soul or else the entire Chronoside will get poisoned.
The Plant and the Factory[]
When Mario and co. first arrive at Viney Valley, they get greeted by Bulbin himself coming out of a mushroom-like building. Bulbin takes the gang to his office to talk about the Poisoned Factory. He claims that Maizee has been the one poisoning the waters of Trickleback River which led to the villagers getting sick. After the talk, Mario and co. decided to track down the factory and shut it down once and for all. Bulbin tells them that the factory is at the top of a waterfall and that they'll need the Leaf Stone to get to it.
When Mario and co. switch from the Dayside to Nightside, they get the Leaf Stone from Bushwack and return to the village, only to find Bulbin get kidnapped by Maizee and three mutated Putrid Piranha Plants and taken to the Poisoned Factory. With no time to waste, Mario and co. head to the factory.
Inside the factory, after Mario and co. take care of the Putrid Piranhas, they enter a room where they see Bulbin and Maizee standing on a metal catwalk. Maizee argues to Bulbin that Mario and co. will find out that he was the one who poisoned Trickleback River, causing him to get angry and orders the Putrid Piranhas to throw her into a wall. Maizee slides off to the ground floor far below everyone.
Mario and co. go down the staircase to the ground floor to check on Maizee if she's okay. They find her floating on the murky waters of the factory get her out of here. Maizee wakes up and tells everyone the truth about Bulbin and what he did. After she finishes explaining, Maizee joins Mario's party to take down Bulbin once and for all.
When Mario and co. meet him in the room with the Eve Soul, Bulbin reveals to them that he's been ingesting the poison of his factory for experimentation. He then transforms into Toxic Bulbin and the fight commences. During the fight, when it looks like Bulbin is about to be defeated, he heals himself with a spray of poison from the metal tank with a showerhead, much to the heroes' frustration. The process keeps repeating until the citizens of Viney Valley appear to help by tipping over the tank from the outside, having found out about Bulbin's true nature. The heroes eventually take down Bulbin.
After his defeat, Maizee offers Bulbin a chance to do a right thing for once and stop what he's doing. Bulbin rejects her offer and tries to attack her one last time, only for the floor beneath him to break and send him plummeting into the poisonous water, never to be seen again. Because of the impact Bulbin had caused, the factory starts to collapse, forcing everyone to get out. When everyone escapes, the factory completely collapses. Although the factory had been, one of the citizens and Bulbin's former assistant, Pollena reveals that she grabbed the Eve Soul along the way. The Sun Soul then flies towards Maizee, signifying her role as a Guardian of Day.
With Bulbin and the Poisoned Factory gone, Trickleback River is restored back to normal and the Viney Valley, and to an extent, Chronoside, were saved from an impending doom.
Trivia[]
- Bulbin shares some similiarities with Grubba from The Thousand Year Door. They both start out as allies for Mario, only to later reveal themselves as evil all along and both use a powered-up form to fight him and the partners.