Popple

Popple in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.
Popple
Species	Bean
Debut	Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Popple the Shadow Thief is a bumbling burglar who appears as a recurring enemy in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga.

Background

Popple was a persistent but ultimately ineffectual thief who called himself "the shadow thief" and was based in the Beanbean Kingdom. He sought to be rich and believed that he was a much more successful thief than he actually was. He is easily enraged by his failures. During Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, he takes in an amnesiac Bowser as his masked sidekick and nicknames him "Rookie".

The pair are first seen at the Chateau de Chucklehuck attempting to steal the Chuckola Reserve. There they meet Mario and Luigi, and when Popple believes that they are rival thieves, he and his Rookie engage them in a battle. They flee after being defeated, and lay in wait within the Chucklehuck Woods until Mario and Luigi open the path to the Chuckola Reserve. They arrive at the Chuckola Reserve first, only to be trapped in barrels and then sent flying away by the Chuckolator.

They next showed up in the basement of the Woohooniversity, where the Beanstar fell to them after Cackletta's defeat. However, Mario and Luigi soon arrived and defeated them again. However, at that point a Peach robot speaking in Birdo's point irritated the Beanstar to the point where it flew off in a rage with the brothers, Popple and Rookie all holding on, and then split into pieces. This split the four up, and Popple was never reunited with his Rookie again due to Bowser regaining his memories and then being possessed by Cackletta. Popple wound up in the Chucklehuck Woods, where he struggled to retrieve a Beanstar piece from a statue. However, Mario and Luigi arrived just as he claimed it, and without a Rookie to depend on he was easily defeated and forced to surrender the Beanstar piece.

Popple was later able to recruit a second Rookie in the form of Birdo, who formed a romantic attraction to Popple, although Popple seemed to mostly be frustrated by this. They were based in the Teehee Valley, where they discovered an unconscious Luigi and captured him in order to lure Mario into a battle with them, believing that his new rookie made him unstoppable. However, after they were defeated again, he blamed the loss on Birdo and gratuitously insulted her abilities before firing her. This caused Birdo to turn on Popple and send him flying with a smack from her tail. Near the end of the game, it is shown that this apparently caused Popple to lose his memory, after which he was captured by authorities and forced to work community service scrubbing mushrooms in Little Fungitown, under the supervision of a Toad who ironically referred to Popple as a "rookie".

Trivia

• He is referenced in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in a rare continuity callback when the player controls Bowser in his attempt to steal the Garnet Star from the Poshley Sanctum; when Pennington asks Bowser who he is, one of the options is "The Shadow Thief", and when chosen Bowser will say a line similar to one of Popple's from the game (likely taken from his memories of his time as Popple's Rookie).