Czar Dragon

"Flamin' hot, right at ya!"

- Czar Dragon

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. 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 summon 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.

"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.

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 addition, the concept of beating it in the first phase, only for it to unexpectedly return for a more difficult second phase, may have been the inspiration for Lava Piranha from Paper Mario, which also is fought in a volcanic setting.
 * In Final Fantasy VI (a game also manufactured by Square), there is an unused superboss of the same name. It was brought back as "Kaiser Dragon" (the Japanese name of both Czar Dragons) in Final Fantasy VI Advance, though an exact copy of the CzarDragon still exists.
 * Zombone is also a name for an enemy in the same game, although it was translated as "Zombie Dragon" in later releases.
 * 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.