- “Snack time, little appetizers! But which one of you morsels should I taste first?”
- —Hooktail, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Hooktail is a dragon featured in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. She resides in Hooktail Castle, and serves as the boss of Chapter 1.
Description
 Hooktail's battle sprite. Hooktail is a large red dragon, with a cream-colored underside, jaw, and cheeks. She has small red-and-purple wings on her back, and antennae resembling ponytails on her head. She has large red feet with purple claws, and her tail is light purple, thin, and forked into three parts.
History
As explained by the residents there, Hooktail terrorized Petalburg for a long time, devouring many of its residents. Those who tried to stop her were ultimately devoured as well, including Kolorado's father and Koopley. However, her victims discovered that her weakness was cricket chirps, noting that she became nauseated and weakened upon hearing them.
When Mario visited the Thousand-Year Door and held the Magical Map aloft, the map revealed that the Diamond Star was located in Hooktail Castle. After progressing through it, it is revealed that Hooktail is the guardian of the Crystal Star, and Mario battles her to retrieve it. Wearing the Attack FX R badge in the battle against her will progressively weaken her attacks, making the battle much easier.
Upon defeat, she tries to bargain with the player. She at first offers 1,000 coins, then a "Really Ultra Rare Badge", and finally a chance to sniff her feet. All three are false offers, and she will attack the player if they accept any of them. After this, she eats some of the audience members, healing her by 10 HP and causing the rest of the audience to run away. Mario then defeats her, and she coughs up the missing Koopley after fainting. He then rewards Mario with the Diamond Star, which was trapped inside her gut.
Other appearances
Hooktail also appeared in Super Mario-Kun in issue 32 of the series, the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door issue.
In it, she attacks Mario, Goombella, and Koops. As this manga is based on the original Japanese game, she gets weak by a frog's croak rather than a cricket's chirp.
Hooktail appears as a Sticker in the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The sticker is usable in The Subspace Emissary by every character and increases resistance to fire-based attacks by 36 points.
Profiles and statistics
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
| Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Enemy
|
| Hooktail
|
|
Max HP
|
20 (+10 upon revival)
|
Attack
|
5
|
Defense
|
1
|
Location(s)
|
Hooktail Castle
|
| Sleep?
|
20%
|
Dizzy?
|
50%
|
Confuse?
|
50%
|
Tiny?
|
0%
|
| Stop?
|
0%
|
Soft?
|
0%
|
Burn?
|
100%
|
Freeze?
|
0%
|
| Fright?
|
0%
|
Gale Force?
|
0%
|
KO?
|
0%
|
Moves
|
Fire Breath (4, Piercing), Stomp (5), Chomp (5)
|
| Level
|
65
|
Exp. points
|
0
|
Coins
|
N/A
|
Items
|
None
|
Bestiary
99
|
Log
|
This giant dragon attacks by munching, stomping and breathing stinky, fiery breath. She hates things that make chirping noises, especially creatures that start with "cr-" and end with "-icket".
|
| Tattle
|
That's Hooktail! Max HP is 20, Attack is 5, and Defense is 1. It'll stomp and munch on you, and it has a more dragonish attack: stinky, fiery breath! It's tricky, especially when it's losing, and it'll try to fool you into being merciful. Oh, yeah, and one more thing. It hates things that start with "cr" and end with "icket". Supposedly, there's something related to that somewhere in this castle. Did we find it?
|
Super Smash Bros. Brawl sticker
See also
Names in other languages
| Language
|
Name
|
Meaning
|
| Japanese |
ゴンババ
Gonbaba |
From ウンババ Unbaba (Blargg), and possibly ドラゴン doragon (dragon).
|
| Spanish |
Gombaba |
Taken from the Japanese Gonbaba, but with the "M" before "B" because, in Spanish, "N" does not come directly before "B".
|
| French |
Carbocroc |
Pun on "carboniser" (burn, char) and "croc" (fang)
|
| German |
Lohgard |
Portmanteau of "Lohe" (blaze) and the feminine name suffix "gard" (e.g. "Hildegard" or "Irmgard")
|
| Italian |
Crimilde |
Portmanteau of "crimson" and the feminine name suffix "hilde".
|
Trivia
 Hooktail as the Ender Dragon. - There will always be eight Toads seated in the lower right seats in the audience. Hooktail will eat these Toads to replenish herself for the second round, but two of them will escape from being eaten.
- Jumping on Hooktail or using Goombella's Headbonk during that round will make her spit out the Toads she has eaten, two per hit. Up to six Toads can be released from Hooktail's mouth.
- In the Spanish localization, Hooktail is depicted as a male.
- In the Japanese version, Hooktail's weakness is frogs and not crickets like in the international versions. However, in the US Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door demo included in the Demo Disc Version 18 for the GameCube, Hooktail is weak to frogs like in the Japanese version.
- In the files for the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack in Minecraft: Wii U Edition, there is an image of Hooktail as the Ender Dragon. The concept for Hooktail as the Ender Dragon was scrapped before release, where the Ender Dragon is Gobblegut instead.
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