Hooktail

"Snack time, little appetizers! But which one of you morsels should I taste first?"

- Hooktail

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.

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
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.

Minecraft
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.

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, Hooktail's weakness is frogs and not crickets like in the international versions. 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.

Lohgard Crimilde