So one Bowser Jr. aka Bowser's only son, looks almost identical to Bowser when he was young. This has lead to many people to believe Bowser Junior is actually Baby Bowser who was kidnapped from the past by his adult self. This is not the case.

Now Bowser Junior does look nearly identical to Baby Bowser, and this design choice is intentional. This is made clear in his Nintendo Kids Space of The Nintendo Co. Ltd. website description. "Apparently he looks just like Bowser when he was little.".... Basic Google Translation....... This description also further confirms Bowser Junior and Baby Bowser are 2 separate characters.

Now how does one tell them apart? Well Bowser Jr. wears a bandana with markings on it such as teeth or a moustache, and so far has only been seen in the present. Baby Bowser on the other hand doesn't wear a bandana usually, and the one time he did it was a blank bandana. Baby Bowser only ever is seen in games that take place in the past as well so far.

Also a bonus, the Mini Bowsers/Kuppas is not Bowser Junior or Baby Bowser, but rather a clones of Bowser. Written by Eris the Lorekeeper

A little fact many people overlook is the cloning of characters in the Mario World through various means.

One way is through power-ups such as the Copy Flower from Mario & Luigi: Partner's In Time, and the Double Cherry from Super Mario 3D World. Another way we've seen was through Belome is able to make clones of Mario and friends.

Another way is magic like we see with the Fake Bowsers who are enemies like Goombas transformed by magic. As well as illusion copies we see characters like the Koopalings create with their magic wands.

Characters like the Yoshies, Mario, Luigi, and Wario are also able to put on special hats that allow them to transform into one another, thus technically making clones. However, these hats don't work on everyone as seen with the Goombas.

Since clones are so common this could explain that second Mario seen in Donkey Kong Junior, or that could just be Luigi. But this could also explain all the Luigis in ScareScraper and ScreamPark, these Luigis could be clones created by any of the various means listed above. We have also seen Bowser make bubble clones of the main cast before as well.

Finally is the Mini Bowsers, so something interesting we've seen them do is duplicate themselves in Mario Party 5, which would explain why there is so many of them. But there is an extra detail here. When working on this post I found something, the phrase Kuppa-sama no bunshin being used to refer to Koopa Kid. The word bunshin while it can mean offspring and the localizers seem to have interpreted it to have mean that it doesn't just mean offspring. The word bunshin can mean alter ego but primarily clone or doppleganger. The word bunshin I've seen used for specific type of Ninjutsu called bunshin no jutsu which means exactly that. So the Koopas Kids are Kuppa-sama no bunshin or Bowser's clones/dopplegangers. The cloning thing also seems to be a theme with the Mini Koopas due as seen in Mario Party 5. Written by Eris the Lorekeeper

In a previous post I talked about how the Koopalings were originally meant to be Bowser's Kids, and that this was retconned. However, upon further examination it seems the Koopalings since the start might have never been intended to be Bowser's children.

Okay so in the Japanese Manual of Super Mario Bros. 3's manual they are called Kokuppa 7 Kyōdai, meaning 7 Little Bowser Siblings. Notice how that doesn't say Bowser's kids, let's move on.

In the Super Mario World Japanese manual they are called Kokuppa 7 Ninshū meaning Team of 7 Little Bowsers. Again, not outright saying they are his kids.

So here's the thing, kuppa is Bowser's Japanese name, but also more than likely the name of his whole species. Similar to how Goomba can be named Goomba, but it's also the name of their species. So with that being said the little of 7 little Bowser/Koopa Siblings begins to make sense. Keep in mind Koopa Troopas or Common Koopas are called Nokonoko in Japan instead of Kuppa. The Japanese said wasn't saying they were Bowser's 7 children, it was saying that's their species name. Heck if the English side didn't give them their names they would have probably all just been called Bowsers.

So what's going on here? It's probably a localization problem based on misunderstanding the Japanese text and or adding to it. This is not uncommon especially back in the day. I intend to cover some examples in the future which I will link here. So if anything the the Team of 7 Little Bowsers were not intended to be his children, but the localization team added it in.

This naming is even seen in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga with them being called Kokuppa-gundan, aka Little Bowser Corps.

This naming could also explain Koopa Kid or his proper name Minikuppa, he is a species of Mini Bowsers, or if we were to say it in English Boss Koopas. Also showing this hypothesis to be wrong, and a hypothesis in this post to be correct. But..... In the manual it Morton and Larry call Bowser oyaji, which apparently means father. However, it can also mean boss, or old man. But Bowser does say ore-sama no musuko-tachi meaning my sons or my children.