[COLUMN] I Can’t Stop Thinking About This Dragon in Super Mario Odyssey | by Marty Sliva

The Switch 2 is only three weeks away, but I’m over here still thinking about that one weird dragon from 2017’s Super Mario Odyssey. 

I have a deep level of respect and admiration for Mario’s last mainline outing, even though it ranks relatively low in my own personal rankings of his 3D adventures. For me, it doesn’t have the seismic influence of 64, impeccable vibes of Sunshine, insatiable creativity of Galaxy, or sheer joy of 3D World. But what Odyssey does have is arguably the most unforgettable dragon in all of video games, and that’s saying something, because video games love them some dragons.

You see a lot of strange things as you make your way across the various Kingdoms of Super Mario Odyssey. The floating pyramid in the sky of Sand Kingdom, a world made entirely of food in Luncheon Kingdom, the 9-to-5 hustle and bustle of Metro Kingdom (more on that one later). But nothing can quite prepare you for the shock of arriving at Ruined Kingdom.

As you and Cappy make your way towards Bowser to wrap up the first half of the adventure, suddenly your ship (the Odyssey) begins to rumble in the sky. You go outside to spot your nemesis, but he’s not riding a ship of his own. Instead, he’s perched on the forehead of a massive black dragon, the design of which would feel far more at home in a FromSoftware game than this colorful Mario outing. Bowser gives the order, and the dragon fires off a massive blast of purple lightning, sending your ship careening down below the clouds.

The title card “Ruined Kingdom – Crumbleden” pops up. The Odyssey is in disarray, and needs 3 Power Moons to function again, so you set off into the destroyed wastelands of this area to find them. The ground is littered with swords blunged into the earth – a trope used in everything from the Soul of Cinder boss at the end of Dark Souls 3 to the Forgotten Battlefield of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. These swords can be plucked using Cappy, and when you do, you can spot Bowser’s emblem on them.

There are a few pockets of treasure tucked away in the relatively small land mass, but no signs of life save for bats that flutter off in the smoky distance. The opening platform culminates in a series of lit braziers that encircle a spark pylon that you need to use to traverse to the other chunk of the world. 

Pulling up the pause menu shows that this area only consists of two small land masses. The travel guide info on the Ruined Kingdom contains the subtitle of a “Stark Land Long Past Its Glory Days.” The little blurbs offer some somber tidbits to the mystery of this place, explaining that the swords you found are “...thought to be left over from a large battle here in Crumbleden. One certainly feels a sense of intentionality in the way they're stuck straight down, as if fallen from the sky. Some see them not as swords, but rather nails or stakes. Perhaps the eyelets at the top allowed ropes or chains through to anchor something, but it's impossible to say what.”

Given that Bower’s emblem is on each of these swords/anchors, it would seem like it was him that orchestrated this war and left this Kingdom in the shape we find it. The blurbs praise the Crumbleden architects, saying that it's a testament to their skill that there any ruins actually left standing after what happened here. It points to some sort of massive battle that culminated on the land mass you need to travel to. “Some have theorized that the circular plaza atop the tower was built for a standoff of some kind.”

With these ominous words, you press forward towards that raised altar. On the pause screen, your goal is simple – “Battle with the Lord of Lightning!” This isn’t the first dragon that Mario’s encountered throughout the decades. You fight your share of them in Mario’s various RPGs, there’s Ridley and Rathalos in Super Smash Bros., and if you squint at the right angle, Bowser has some dragon-like tendencies to him. But none look quick like this one.

When you make your way to that final platform, you come face to face with the dragon itself for one of Odyssey’s best boss fights. You start off dodging its purple energy blasts that come in various forms. Eventually the dragon tires and rests on the ground. You have a brief window to hop on top of its head and remove Bowser’s crown that’s tethered to his skull by three of those swords/stakes we saw at the start of the level. This points to the great beast not acting of its own free will, but rather under Bowser’s control.

You repeat this a few times until the dragon eventually relinquishes and rewards you with the three Moons needed to power your ship and press on with your journey. But the Lord of Lightning doesn’t disappear or fly away or anything like that. Instead, after the battle, he rests his head on the platforms and remains there for the rest of the game, free to be ogled and jumped upon at your leisure whenever you want to revisit the Ruined Kingdom. It’s here that you can get up close and see just how much detail this character contains compared to pretty much everything else you’ve encountered in the game. It’s genuinely startling.

A bit of life returns to the Ruined Kingdom upon revisits, but not a ton. There’s a Toad who’ll give you a hint to the location of more Moons, a few warps that send you to small side areas, and some things that can help you later on in the Dark Side world. The most noteworthy addition after you finish the game is Peach, who can be found just off to the side of the docile dragon. She’ll be there with her own Cappy, and when you go to talk to her, you can see the dragon’s eyes follow you. There’s something deeply somber about this Lord of Lightning in his final resting place, forced to watch the foe that bested him getting his flirt on. Truly bizarre, truly unforgettable stuff.

And that’s the thing – I’ve been thinking about this dragon for the better part of a decade, and Odyssey is peppered with strange moments like this, most of which come in the form of things that feel like they simply shouldn’t exist in a Mario game. Pretty much everything in New Donk City falls in this bucket, with the humans in business attire standing in stark contrast to Mario himself. You can find these folks scattered across the various worlds, waiting at bus stops in the desert or just staring back down onto the planet from the surface of the moon. 

Odyssey is such a weird game when you think about it. Super Mario 64 is about rescuing the princess, Sunshine is about clearing your name while also enjoying a vacation, Galaxy is about exploring the cosmos with a very tall woman, and 3D World is about bumming around with your pals wearing cat onesies. Then there’s Odyssey, which is all about asserting dominance and control over every living creature you come across – including the literal Lord of Lightning – and making you question whether we’re any better than the Bowser who started the war that left Crumbleden in ruins.

Video games rule.