It looks like Nintendo came up with Bowsette before the internet did
To cap it all off.
Unless you've been living under a rock this past week, you'll have seen Bowsette during your internet travels.
Bowsette, as the internet has named her, is a character merge inspired by the idea of Bowser using the Super Crown from New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe to transform into a Peach version. She appears to have originated from the work of artist aykk92, who sketched an amusing comic strip imagining a spurned Mario and Bowser finding love using the Super Crown. To say the internet took this idea and ran with it is an understatement.
Now, it looks like Nintendo may have come up with Bowsette first. The book, The art of Super Mario Odyssey, just came out in Japan, and inside is what looks like an image of Bowsette (thanks, Eventhubs).
The art suggests Nintendo thought about having Bowser use his own version of Cappy in the Nintendo Switch exclusive, dubbed a Koopa Cap, to take control of characters he hit with it. And as the victim of the Cappy takes on some of the features of Mario, the victim of the Koopa Cap would take on some of the features of Bowser.
The book includes a comic strip showing Bowser hitting Peach with this Koopa Cap and, well, turning her into what looks like the OG Bowsette.
Eventhubs points to Twitter user ninpoapipipi as being the first to pick up on Bowsette in the art book, but their account appears to have been deleted. Still, the internet never forgets. So, here it is:
It appears Nintendo thought about having Bowser take control of Peach's body at one point in Super Mario Odyssey, but scrapped the idea for some reason.
This revelation raises a number of profound questions: is Bowsette now canon? Might Bowsette now appear in a subsequent Nintendo game? And, most profound of all, aren't we all a little bit Bowsette?