Czar Dragon

“Flamin' hot, right at ya!”

—Czar Dragon, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

The Czar Dragon is a dragon made out of many Pyrospheres and the boss of the Barrel Volcano, who is guarding the sixth Star Piece in Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. "Czar" is a Russian title meaning "Emperor," derived from the title "Caesar" used during the Roman Empire. "Kaiser," the Japanese name for the dragon, comes from the German word for "Emperor," which was also derived from the title of "Caesar". The Czar Dragon resembles, and perhaps was inspired by the Blargg species from Super Mario World. The dragon first appears when a group of Pyrospheres join together to form it, and it immediately attacks the party. The dragon is physically strong and uses a small variety of powerful magic, most notable of them Flame Wall. It will also summmon Helio to kamikaze-strike the party, similar to Punchinello. In the end the dragon falls, but promptly rises from the grave as Zombone. Mario and friends must fight an even more difficult battle, but prevail and acquire the Star Piece, only to have it snatched by the Axem Rangers.

Trivia

• The Czar Dragon also bears resemblance to and perhaps inspired the creation of, the Boss Hooktail from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and the red Dragon from Yoshi's Story
• In Final Fantasy VI (a game also manufactured by Squaresoft), there is an unused superboss of the same name. It was brought back as "Kaiser Dragon" in the Game Boy Advance remake, though an exact copy of the CzarDragon still exists, possibly to avoid bugs.
• An unused enemy named "Magidragon" has an identical appearance to the Czar Dragon.
• The Czar Dragon is one of the few non-final bosses in the Mario series to have more than one form encountered in the same game.