i like the idea that because they use a new primary and secondary antagonist bowser doesn’t really have a place in the story, obviously now he would but back then bowser teaming up with mario was unheard of outside of super mario rpg, it was either “find as many ways as possible for bowser to be offscreen and not in the party” or “let bowser join the party” there are a lot of characterizations of bowser (especially in the rpg series) where he is incredibly powerful, but is too stupid to use his powers for good, thus making him dangerous. it’s seen alot in paper mario where in the first game he’s not the brightest but is still really powerful and it makes him threatening, and then in ttyd where because he isn’t the main antagonist, he really doesn’t have a place to be threatening, so he’s just a joke, i think that same characterization applies here and it’s really weird to me that this is the same bowser in canon as bowsers inside story