Bowser x Luigi / Bowuigi

About

Bowser x Luigi or Bowuigi is a ship pairing between the Super Mario characters Luigi and Bowser. The pairing was popularized on Tumblr in 2015, inspiring numerous works of fan art and fanfiction over the following years. In late 2022 the pairing saw a resurgence in popularity on sites including TikTok and Twitter following the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer. In many works related to the pairing, Mario is portrayed as disapproving of their relationship.

Origin

On February 6th, 2015, Twitter^[1] user @cousineggplant posted, "my otp, bowser/luigi | luigi hide his sinful relationship with the koopa king from his brother or risk bringing even more shame to the family," garnering over 30 likes in seven years. On February 7th, the same user posted a comic to their Tumblr^[2] page, arielries, in which Mario walks in on Bowser and Luigi sharing an intimate moment over lunch, garnering over 59,900 notes in seven years (shown below).

On February 9th, the same Tumblr^[3] user then posted a sequel to the original Luigi x Bowser comic, garnering over 32,000 notes in a similar span of time (shown below).

Spread

The ship pairing began to spread over the following years. On June 5th, 2017, DeviantArt^[4] user mariogamesandenemies posted artwork of Luigi feeding Bowser a muffin. On June 6th, 2018, Tumblr^[5] user arielries posted another original artwork of the pair, garnering over 12,300 notes in four years (shown below). On August 24th, Wattpad^[6] user egxhag then posted a piece of fanfiction, titled "He's my kingdom (Bowuigi)," garnering over 9,400 reads in roughly the same span of time.

On January 22nd, 2019, Twitter^[7] user @Iam0rang3 posted a piece of Bowuigi artwork, writing, "mario does not approve of luigi's relationship with bowser," garnering over 22,800 likes and 6,000 retweets in three years (shown below, left). On March 26th, DeviantArt artist^[8] wildo123 posted a piece of artwork that gained over 2,000 views in three years. On December 27th, Wattpad^[9] user BunnyBun2000 published a piece of fanfiction, titled "Love Bites Don't it," garnering over 28,000 reads in three years.

On December 12th, 2020, Twitter^[10] user @cody_soh posted a piece of artwork of Bowser helping Luigi with his tie, garnering over 27,000 likes and 3,300 retweets in two years (shown below, right). On June 19th, 2021, Wattpad^[11] user Yua_Hamato_2012 posted a piece of fanfiction titled "My hero," garnering over 54,000 reads in a year. On July 23rd, Twitter^[12] user @earthsong9405 posted a comic about the pairing, garnering over 23,000 likes in a year.

On October 6th, 2022, following the release of the first trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Twitter^[13] user @cousineggplant posted a piece of Bowuigi artwork, garnering over 14,000 likes in two months. On December 2nd, Twitter^[14] user @Moosopp posted a piece of Bowuigi artwork that gained over 66,000 likes in a week. Animations and memes featuring the pairing became popular on TikTok the same month. For example, TikToker^[15] @hotshotriot posted an animatic of the pairing, garnering over 824,000 views in a week (shown below, left). On December 8th, TikToker^[16] @icedstarmilk posted a video about Bowuigi, garnering over 285,000 views in a day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References