Talk:Squizzard

Category: "Insects"?

Why's this? He has no insectoid features as far as I can tell.

Rendumguy (talk) 15:47, October 14, 2025 (EDT)

I'm not sure what exactly Squizzard is, but the fact that he's in the middle of a streaming sand pit in a desert area is reminiscent to the behavior of an antlion larva, which dig a pit in the sand, and awaits in the middle as trapped ants sink right towards it. The franchise has had a couple of antlion larvae before, such as Priscilla the Peckish. rend (talk) (edits) 16:03, October 14, 2025 (EDT)

I'm gonna have to disagree here, many creatures in both the real world and fictional characters are predators that live in sand pits, and aren't insects or antlions. Such as the Sarlacc Pit, Molgera, or the worms from Castlevania Portrait of Ruin. It's a very common trope with worm-like creatures in fiction.

In Mario alone, the Pokey boss from Mario Kart Wii also resides in a sand pit. In Quicksand Cache, Mario, Luigi, Wario, Peach, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong all act like antlions. In Partners in Time, Petey Piranha uses an antlion-style sand pit attack.

Squizzard, due to its name and design, is clearly some sort of a lizard, or at least a reptile.

Squizzard shows no insectoid traits at all, aside from the general concept of being an aggressive creature who uses a sand pit to trap prey, which is something that Mario himself is capable of doing, and Mario is not an insect. Rendumguy (talk) 15:25, November 12, 2025 (EST)

Antlions are the only creatures on earth that make funneling sand pits, as demonstrated here and elaborated on in detail here. I am hard-pressed to think that this funneling sand pit is the core gameplay mechanic of Squizzard is coincidental.

Antlions are not an uncommon basis of inspiration across fantasy media, including in Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Wario World, and many other works. (Incidentally, this includes the Sarlacc Pit of Star Wars you mention, which has also been likened to antlions.) They are not uncommon in Japanese pop culture in particular, as is the case with Trapinch (who incidentally also looks more like a reptile than an actual antlion). The name of the quicksand in the Super Mario Galaxy games is notably called 砂地獄 (sunajigoku, "sand hell"), which seems derived from the name for antlion pits 蟻地獄 (arijigoku, "ant hell"). Since most members of the general public do not know what the creature at the base of these pits look like, my impression was that they decided to present it as a strange dragon-like animal because it would be whimsical. That does not untether Squizzard from antlions, in what I see as an unambiguous source of inspiration. No other animals make funneling sand pits. - Nintendo101 (talk) 18:43, November 12, 2025 (EST)

You're conflating a character being based on an antlion's sand pit with a character being an antlion.

You also don't address any of the facts that it shares no characteristics with an insect.

I already mentioned that Petey Piranha and Mario also reside in these sand pits.

You're making too many assumptions, why should we assume that Nintendo was intending for Squizzard to be an antlion, because it's a too obscure animal?

Not only does that not make sense on its foundation because multiple Mario bosses are based on obscure concepts, like the manta ray from the shining, multiple antlions appear in Nintendo and Mario games as enemies. Antlions aren't even "obscure" animals because of how common they are in media.

But why would they secretly intend for a character to be an antlion but not actually give it any antlion features?

Trapinch is literally a Bug Type, which confirms it's based on an arthropod, and its design is so simplified that it's beyond a normal looking animal. It's not even intended to be a reptile.

In fact it even matches the real life Antlion life cycle of being a trapper bug turning into a more normal looking flying insect.

Squizzard a lizard in a desert, the simplest explanation is that they gave it an antlion pit because they wanted to give the lizard boss fight some connections to the desert and the sand.

You can't just make up that they intended for it to be an antlion but somehow didn't design it to look like an antlion with no evidence, when it doesn't have any antlion traits besides the sand pit, which, to emphasize, is a pit used by both Mario and Petey Piranha, who are not insects.

Antlions are incredibly common in videogames, as are creatures who have nothing to do with Antlions but use their abilities. If you call Squizzard an insect you have to call Petey Piranha and Mario insects by this logic.

Rendumguy (talk) 18:25, November 13, 2025 (EST)

"Trapinch is literally a Bug Type"
Actually, it's not. While it's based on an antlion larva, it's a pure Ground type. And in fact, its evolutions, Vibrava and Flygon, are Bug/Dragon type Pokémon, which, by your logic, should mean it's also draconic or reptilian in nature, which also throws your "It's not even intended to be a reptile" under the bus. Even then, the Pokémon franchise also has a few other Pokémon that are based on insects, but aren't Bug type Pokémon regardless, such as Lurantis. rend (talk) (edits) 06:23, November 15, 2025 (EST)

References

While it's true that Squizzard is inspired by the antlion's abilities, I think it's anatomically incorrect to categorize it with the insects. Yes, Mario characters can have some creative liberty, like Piranha Plants having tongues, but looking at Squizzard, there are no similarities between its body, limbs, mouth, face, etc. that parallel it with other insects in the Mario series. Additionally, if one argues Squizzard should be categorized as an insect for having the antlion ability to build a sand trap, then the Pit Plant needs to be categorized there too. I argue that neither should be "an insect" simply for having insectoid behaviour. MarioComix (talk) 00:35, November 15, 2025 (EST)