Hooktail

From the Super Mario Wiki, the Mario encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
Hooktail
Artwork of Hooktail from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Artwork of Hooktail
Species Dragon
First appearance Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Latest appearance Super Smash Bros. Brawl (sticker cameo) (2008)
“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.

History

Background

Much of Hooktail's background is unknown, though according to stories told by Grifty, she, along with her two siblings were once pets of the Shadow Queen who traveled around the world terrorizing people before the Shadow Queen was imprisoned behind The Thousand-Year Door. Grifty's stories also mention that Hooktail Castle was created to contain one of the Crystal Stars, implying Hooktail may have been placed there there in order to guard it.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

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 "lovely, rare, extra-special 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.

Hooktail was later referenced nearing the end of the game when encountering her brother Gloomtail, where one of the party members will briefly mistake him for her and question how she survived the encounter. This promptly outraged him and had him decide to fight Mario to avenge his sister.

Super Mario-kun

Mario, Goombella, and Koops battling on Hooktail from Super Mario-kun
Hooktail appearing in Super Mario-kun.

Hooktail appears in Super Mario-kun in volume 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.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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.

Unused appearances

Minecraft

Image of Minecraft: Wii U Edition showing Hooktail as the Enderdragon.
Hooktail as the Ender Dragon.

In the files for the Super Mario Mash-up in Minecraft: Wii U Edition, there is an unused image of Hooktail as the Ender Dragon. In the final version, the Ender Dragon is Gobblegut instead.

Profiles and statistics

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Hooktail
PMTTYD Hooktail Head Sprite.png Max HP 20 (+10 upon revival) Attack 5 Defense 1
Location(s) Hooktail Castle Role Boss Level 65
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)
Exp. points 0 Coins N/A Items None
Tattle Log #:
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
Hooktail
A Sticker of Hooktail
Artwork from:
Effects in The Subspace Emissary: [Flame] - Resistance +36
Usable by: Anyone

Gallery

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); the play on「ウンババ」was also used on every dragon boss in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario.

Dutch Vermila
Pun on "vermiljoen" (vermilion) and the feminine name "Mila".
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".
Spanish Gombaba
Same as Japanese name

Trivia

  • 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 and all other versions except English, Hooktail's weakness is frogs and not crickets like in the English version. However, in the American 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.