Beware My Stinger Tail

"It counters a Zangoose's dazzling agility with its swordlike tail, which also oozes a horrible poison."

— Seviper's Pokédex entry, Pokémon Emerald

A tail is used for things like balance or grasping objects. Another use is a weapon, which can vary from flailing, whipping, or crushing. It is only logical then that a combatant would add things to make their tail hit harder like a club. Why just hit when you can also shoot stuff or stab with a stinger on the end, which may or may not be venomous? This trope is about weapons on tails, be they natural or not. May cause their opponent to Attack the Tail in order to deprive them of it.

Part of the Anatomy Arsenal. If the tail is tipped with actual biting jaws, see also A Head at Each End. Frequently seen on Scorpion People. Compare Combat Tentacles.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• New Cutey Honey: One of the first villains in the second arc has an acid-spewing tail.
• Digimon:
  • Digimon Adventure 02: Ankylomon, Armadillomon's champion form, has a morning star attached to his tail.
  • Digimon Tamers: Mihiramon has an attack that can transform his tail into a sansetsukon.
  • Digimon Frontier: Lucemon Larva has a stinger that it can fire energy bolts from.
  • Digimon Fusion: Greymon has a cannon on his tail that he retains in all of his DigiXrosed forms. In said forms, the cannon is formed from the head of his DigiXros partner MailBirdramon. When MetalGreymon briefly gets absorbed by NeoVamdemon, the latter becomes a serpentine monster with MetalGreymon's head as the cannon. Also, Dorulumon has a drill on his tail that grows large enough for him to stand on when he attacks.
  • Digimon Xros Wars: The Young Hunters Who Leapt Through Time: Gumdramon has an extendable tail with a hammer on the end. When he evolves to Arresterdramon, it becomes a crown-shaped spike meant for slashing. When he becomes Arresterdramon Superior Mode, the spike turns gold and becomes more trident-like.
  • Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna: Agumon Bond of Bravery has a long, thin, segmented tail with a blade at the end.
  • Digimon Ghost Game: GulusGammamon's tail has a large barb on the end, which he uses to spear his enemies with lethal precision.
• Dragon Ball Z: Cell, who introduces a horrifying twist. After stabbing someone with his tail, he actually sucks up all of their internal organs through his stinger, while they're still alive.
• HeartCatch Pretty Cure!: Sasorina is capable of turning her ponytail into a stinging scorpion's tail that she claims can inject venom.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Not a literal case, but an analogous one in an episode. A prototype Spider Tank is clearly modeled after a scorpion, and in place of its tail it has a turret-mounted cannon.
• Mazinger Z: Several Mechanical Beasts had armed tails. For example, Danchel not only had a massive tail it used to crush things with but it also shot gallons of acid.
• Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Elma's full dragon form has a three-pronged tail, which she was shown using during her falling out with Tohru. When she shifts into a human or semi-human form, it's transformed into a trident.
• Mobile Suit Gundam AGE:
  • The Xvm-mzc Zeydars has a blade on the tip of its tail.
  • Most Vagan designs feature a tail with a beam cannon on the end of it, allowing them to fire from unexpected directions against inexperienced opponents.
• Naruto: Sasori, whose fighting style is to fight from inside a puppet-like a suit of armor. The first puppet he is seen in has a sharp tail coated in poison.
• Sailor Moon Super S: In one episode, there is a Monster of the Week, Garigari, with a drill on the tip of her tail, as Para Para's trap is dentist-themed. When she tries to drill Sailor Moon and Sailor Mini Moon's teeth with it, they use the Scream Attack which hasn't been seen since the first episode of the first season
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has one of the Beast Men's generals Adiane the Elegant, who actually looks just like a normal woman besides her long, thick, scorpion tail. In the main series, she beats up Viral with it. In the Compilation Movie, she uses it in a Designated Girl Fight against Yoko, waving her tail to deflect bullets, smacking Yoko around and even ripping away Yoko's top.
• The Tower of Druaga: The Big Bad uses his tail in a surprise attack that kills Ahmey. While his actual "body" lacks an actual tail, it is also designed to invoke the scorpion imagery — the role of a tail is filled by a long cable wound up inside his stomach and ending with a poisoned spike.
• Zoids: A number of Zoids have guns mounted in their tails, and not just the scorpion-based ones.
  • The most notable one of course is on a Scorpion-Zoid: The Charged Particle Gun of the Death Stinger.
  • Another notable example would be the two main "sniper" zoids, the GunSniper and Snipe Master; both resemble dromeosaurs (raptors), with the tail forming the barrel of the primary sniping weapon.

Comic Books

• Captain America: The Rattler (Gustav Krueger) is an adversary as a member of the Serpent Society. He has a 7ft bionic tail that is not only prehensile and an effective bludgeoning weapon, but emits high-intensity sonic waves that can cause adverse physical effects ranging from mild disorientation to death from internal hemorrhaging.
• Godzilla (2014): In the tie-in comic Godzilla Awakening, in its dragon-like form, Shinomura's tail ends in a sharp, blade-like protrusion.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics):
  • E-113 Xi, a quadrupedal, feline-based variant of the E-100 series Badniks, has a tail-mounted laser.
  • Jian the Tiger, a reformed ex-Egg Soldier, has a cybernetic tail-blade.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW): In issue #13, Rough and Tumble use new weapons granted to them by Eggman. Tumble's weapon is a prosthetic club tail while Rough uses a back-mounted cannon which fires Stink Bombs.
• Spider-Man:
  • The Scorpion has a cybernetic tail interfaced with his central nervous system containing weapons ranging from toxins to corrosive acids to energy blasts. It can also be used for bludgeoning, and nowadays has a very sharp point on the end for just straight-up stabbing.
  • Stegron, the Dinosaur Man, uses it as a flail too, but he's very ineffective with his.

Comic Strips

• The Far Side had a comic◊ in which a caveman points out the spiked tail of a stegosaurus and says "Now this end is called the thagomizer... after the late Thag Simmons." Paleontologists actually adopted the name despite, you know, simultaneous Neanderthals and Jurassic-era dinosaurs; the scientific community realized they themselves didn't have a name for that part, and decided they may as well.

Fan Works

• Abraxas (Hrodvitnon): In this Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) fanfiction, MaNi/Elder Brother has a thagomizer-like tail as part of his patchwork body.
• A Diplomatic Visit: In chapter 20, Far-Tracker tells the story of how he ran afoul of a porcupine while hunting, which gave him "a tail full of quills, right in the kisser." (And he's pretty sure it was cursing him out afterward.) It doesn't seem to have done any lasting damage though.
• Fallout: Equestria: Enclave Power Armor features weaponized tails, with either stingers for melee or magic energy weapons. Colonel Autumn Leaf's suit has the Alien Blaster from Fallout 3.
• Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK, and he can wield a wand just fine with his front paws. But it's more natural for him to walk on all fours, so Remus Lupin comes up with the idea of a wand-holster for his tail.
• The Return: Succubae tails have a host of mono-filaments at the end that can be used in battle like a biological chainsaw.

Films — Animation

• Onward: The Manticore has a scorpion-like tail with a venomous stinger. Fortunately for a certain pawnshop owner, the venom only causes temporary paralysis.
• Rango: Rattlesnake Jake is a rattlesnake, which opts for a gatling gun instead of a traditional rattle tail.
• White Snake (2019): Snake clan member Chang Pan is a rattlesnake demon, with his tail being quite deadly in his snake form. Blanca's snake tail is shown to be even sharper when she uses it to cut him in half.

Films — Live-Action

• Alien: The Xenomorphs possess long, segmented tails that resemble spinal columns, tipped by a blade-like stinger that is used to impale prey. A few entries show them using this stinger to incapacitate prey before taking it back to the hive to be facehugged, Expanded Universe materials frequently reference this (most often, video games giving Aliens a low-damage, "stun" type attack utilizing the tail).
  • Aliens: The Alien Queen uses her tail as a weapon while onboard the Sulaco. A Deleted Scene from the script (but present in the novelization) makes clear that the xenomorphs secrete a paralytic venom from their stinger tails which they use to pacify host organisms long enough to cocoon them. This was original how Lieutenant Gorman was knocked out, but he just got a Tap on the Head from a falling crate as the original sequence (a xenomorph rips the hatch off the APC and stabs him with the tail) would have been too expensive to film.
  • Alien: Covenant: The Neomorphs have barbed stingers on their tails.
• Anaconda 3: The Offspring: A stinger tail is one of the abilities the snakes get from their genetic enhancements.
• By Dawn's Early Light: A trio of MiG-25 interceptors close in on Powers Boothe's B-52 from behind, until Sergeant Hooker gives one of them a face full of .50-cal from the bomber's tail guns. The two remaining MiGs quickly pull out of gun range, requiring the bomber crew to employ a more extreme solution.
• Dragonheart: Draco's tail ends in a barb.
• Godzilla:
  • King Kong Escapes: Gorosaurus has a pointed barb at the end of his tail, but it can be hard to notice and he's never shown to actually use it in combat.
  • Godzilla vs. Destoroyah: Destoroyah's tail ends with a pincer fitting that he's a (mutated) crustacean.
  • Godzilla Vs Spacegodzilla: Spacegodzilla's crystal tip tail lets him stab things.
  • King Ghidorah, in every single incarnation, has a tail that splits into two at the halfway point, with the tips being decorated with spikes.
• Men in Black: the Bug is a gigantic interstellar cockroach with a lethal stinger in its tail.
• MonsterVerse:
  • Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019): Besides King Ghidorah possessing the same spike-decorated twin tails of his previous incarnations; the film also gives Mothra a wasp-like stinger at the end of her abdomen, a trait she never had before, which she uses in the climactic battle to (non-fatally) impale Rodan.
  • Godzilla vs. Kong: Mechagodzilla has a tail-blade that rotates like a drill and is used against Kong.
• High Plains Invaders: The Bugs have a scorpion-like tails that fire sharpened mineral projectiles (which might be radioactive).
• The Mummy Returns: The Scorpion King, as he's centaur-like scorpion, has a tail ending in a venomous stinger.
• Pacific Rim: Otachi has a claw on her tail which she uses to rip of Crimson Typhoon's head. Slattern has three extremely long spear-tipped tails. In addition to simply stabbing with them, he possesses a unique attack where he would spin his tails mesmerizingly, twisting them into tight spring-like spiral before suddenly uncoiling them, shooting them forward with incredible force.
• Transformers Film Series:
  • Transformers (2007): Scorponok, being a giant scorpion mecha, has one much like a real scorpion.
  • Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: The Honey Trap Decepticon "Alice" is equipped with one, and uses it when trying to kill Sam.
• X-Men: First Class: Azazel's tail ends in an arrow and he stabs an agent with it.

Literature

• After Man: A Zoology of the Future: The hiri-hiri has a Prehensile Tail so strong that it strangles its prey with it.
• Alice, Girl from the Future: Rat, a shapeshifter (or Latex Perfection user, depending on the book) Space Pirate, resembles a fly-like insect with scorpion tail in his default form. However, since the venom works only on those of his own species, which is mostly extinct, the only known use for it in the books is for stinging himself and Playing Possum.
• Animorphs: Andalites and their super-fast scythe tails.
• Below: Brenish discovers that water nymphs have stinger tails—by accidentally burning one just before it could strike, ruining the camouflage. He theorizes this is how nymphs incapacitate their victims to rob them of trinkets and valuables.
• Circe: Trygon is an extremely ancient stingray-like being whose tail is lethally venomous— enough to ward off deities who are much more powerful than Circe.
• Deathtrap Dungeon: One of the paths can lead you to fight in an arena against a giant scorpion. If it manages to get attacks in with both its pincers it would follow up with a stinger, which guaranteed a near-instant kill for the reader.
• Dinoverse: Bertram is put into the body of an Ankylosaurus, and naturally his clubbed tail comes in handy several times. It's not his only rear-mounted offensive talent, just the one that's actually dangerous.
• Dr. Franklin's Island: Semi-the-fish is a creature similar to a manta ray, with a tail that can lash and splash about dramatically when she's at the surface of the water. There is a sting in it, she doesn't know if it's lethal. She never gets the chance to find out.
• Harry Potter: Chimeras are one of the confirmed magical beasts of the setting. Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts also have stingers among their many unpleasant attributes.
• Kong: Skull Island: In the novelization, the Skull Devil has a bladed tail that it slashes at Kong with, something absent in the film.
• The Magic School Bus: This becomes a worry in a book where the teacher shrinks the class and sends them into a beehive.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians: In the third book, The Titan's Curse, the heroes meet a character named Dr. Thorn who is actually a manticore and as such has the ability to shoot venomous spines from his tail.
• Redwall: Cluny the Scourge has a poisoned blade he attaches to his long tail.
• Spellsinger: The gatekeeper of Polistrindu is an intelligent beaver, whose personal armament includes a spiked metal plate that turns his flat tail into an intimidating weapon.
• Stinger: The alien antagonist and the biomechanical replicants it creates have segmented tails ending in a heavy ball of spikes which are used as brutal weapons (and in the case of the larger replicants, they are also used to demolish buildings and cars like a wrecking ball).
• The Thrawn Trilogy: Vornskrs are vaguely wolf-like creatures with heavy venom-bearing tails. When the tails are amputated, the creatures become calmer and are easier to domesticate.
• s Twisted (2010): Static the living bumper car can sting people with his cable-tail, apparently vis an electrical shock.
• Wings of Fire: The SandWings have a scorpion-like venomous barb at the end of their tails.
• Xanth: In the novel A Spell For Chameleon, the manticora has the tail of a scorpion (and is featured on the cover◊).

Live-Action TV

• Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking: A hypothetical species of predator with a pair of stinger-tails appeared on an alien life-themed episode.
• Merlin (2008) has the Manticore, a creature of legend, and the serkets, giant scorpions, both with stinger tails.
• Super Sentai: Several characters and mecha have this as a weapon. Most of the time, when a Monster of the Week is based on a scorpion, it has a stinger tail.
  • Lami in Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger AKA Scorpina from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers has a deadly tail capable of electrocution in her giant, monstrous form. On the side of the good guys, Dragon Ceasar/Dragonzord also has a drill on the end of its tail.
  • Both the Tyrannosaurus and Ankylosaurus mecha from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger (which is adapted into Power Rangers: Dino Thunder) have drills for their tails. The Parasaurolophus has a tail that opens like a pair of scissors.
  • Gozyujin, the Humongous Mecha belonging to the Sixth Ranger in Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (adapted as Power Rangers Super Megaforce) has one transformation based on a theropod dinosaur, which, like Dragon Ceasar and the Abaranger Mecha above, has a drill at the tip of its tail. The similarity in this case is justified, as this mecha is meant to be similar to both the Zyuranger and Abaranger Mecha, as Gokaiger is an anniversary series.
  • Yet another dinosaur-based example happens in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (and its adaptation Power Rangers Dino (Super) Charge, where each of the dinosaurs capable of transforming into an arm has its weapon inside its tail. These weapons include a claw, gun, hammer, wrecking ball and, yet again, a drill.
  • The aptly named Stinger from Uchu Sentai Kyuranger is a Humanoid Alien with a venomous tail, which he can extend at will to execute sneak attacks. His Ranger powers are based on the Scorpius constellation, so naturally, his Mecha is based on a scorpion and has a laser-shooting tail.
• Terra Nova: The slashers have tails tipped with hard, serrated blades that they wield like whips.
• That Mitchell and Webb Look: Not the Armored Scorpion of Death. Its tail simply fires "helpful bullets".
• Ultra Series: Many kaiju use their tails as weapons, so it comes as no surprise some of them are tipped with deadly weapons too.
  • Ultraman Leo: Antales is a scorpion-like alien from the constellation of Scorpius (where else?) with a pincer-like stinger on its tail. In its human disguise, the tail becomes invisible in order to strike Gen in the head when challenging him to a martial arts duel. Additionally, in kaiju form, it can use its tail like a flamethrower.
  • Ultraman Nexus: Grantella is a scorpion Space Beast that shoots lasers from its stinger tail.
  • Ultraman Max: Ruganogar can use its needle-tipped tail to stab Max in battle and drain his Color Timer's energy.
  • Ultraman Mebius: Kelbeam has a spiked club on its tail. Additionally, it can spin itself like a tornado to recklessly destroy its surroundings with said weapon.
  • Ultraman Orb: The Origin Saga: The Bezelbs use their stinger tail to inject victims with Kugutsu venom, causing them to become mindlessly violent slaves to their Hive Queen.
• Young Hercules gives the hydra a spiked tail.

Myths & Religion

• Thanks in no small part to Mix-and-Match Critters, many mythical and legendary creatures are described as having barbed, spiked, or otherwise dangerous tails. Some go so far as to have a snake for a tail.
  • The Ur-Example is the Scorpion People of Mesopotamian Mythology.
  • The Chimera of Classical Mythology is often portrayed with its snake head as being on its tail. The Sphinx and Cerberus are also occasionally depicted with similar tails.
  • The dread Yōkai known as the Nue also possesses a snake for a tail, which is one reason for its common nickname, the "Japanese Chimera".
  • The Manticore is described as either having a tail loaded with deadly spines or simply having a scorpion's tail. Either way, it's agreed upon that being hit means instant death.
  • Among the Fearsome Critters of American Folklore is the Ball-Tailed Cat (also called Digmaul, Dingmaul, Silvercat, or Slivercat), which uses its clubbed tail to bash prey.
  • The Ahuizotl of Aztec Mythology possessed a hand on the end of its tail, which it used to snatch humans and pull them into the water to be eaten.
• One of the distinguishing features of wyverns is a venomous stinger at the end of its tail.

Pinballs

• Flash Gordon: Flash is shown reaching into a hollow stump that contains a giant Wood Beast, complete with a deadly stinger.

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: Among the dangerous creatures of Fraggle Rock are the Poison Cacklers, which have large teeth, protruding tongues, and tails similar to those of scorpions.

Tabletop Games

• Champions: The villain Ankylosaur is a man wearing powered armor with a Grenade Launcher in his tail.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In some versions, dragons can use their tails as weapons (usually to hit creatures directly behind them). Fang dragons in particular have long tails tipped in a forked pair of scythelike blades.
  • A dracotaur's tail is lined with strong, sharp spikes that allow it to be swung as an effective weapon.
  • Wyverns have a stinger with a very strong venom, as do purple worms and, obviously, scorpions.
  • In the Oriental Adventures supplement, members of the Nezumi race can equip tail spikes as an exotic weapon.
  • The catoblepas, although infamous for its Deadly Gaze, also sports a bony club on the end of its long tail. As adventurers' favored method of killing this swamp herbivore is to attack it when it's grazing on water weeds and its head is submerged, a tail attack comes in handy.
  • Guulvorgs have long tails ending in bony maces.
• Godforsaken: A manticore can use its poisonous scorpion-like tail to strike a nearby creature or hurl up to four barbs up to a short distance away, hitting one or more creatures in an immediate area.
• Pathfinder:
  • Kobolds can attach weapons to their tail, with the appropriate feat.
  • Digmauls are big cats with tails ending in spiked, bony clubs, which they use to batter prey to death and to message to each other by drumming them on logs.
  • Pathfinder: The game's version of the Tarrasque can launch spikes from its tail. This was added to counter the ranged kiting tactics that could trivialize a fight with the D&D version of the monster.
  • "Old Tilimaquin", a taxidermied cryptid on display at a tavern, looks like a wolverine with a spiked club of bone at the end of its tail. Neither the tavern's current owners nor anyone in town can recall where it came from, or even if it's real or fake.
• Rifts: The "Tsunami" Dragon Borg has a particle-beam cannon for a tail.
• Warhammer:
  • The daemonic Fiends of Slaanesh have long, sinuous tails that are tipped with a viciously sharp barbed stinger. These stingers constantly drip a highly venomous liquid capable of bringing exquisite agony and death to any mortal creature.
  • Like their representations in other works of fiction, Wyverns from Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar have tails that end in a wickedly barbed, venomous stinger. In some versions of the rules a wyvern who is slain can make one last Taking You with Me attack with the stinger before it falls.
  • The Fimir from Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and Warhammer: Age of Sigmar have tails that end in a bony club perfect for bludgeoning any enemies who approach too close.
  • Mordheim: Mutants and Possessed of the Cult of the Possessed warband can purchase the scorpion tail mutation, giving them a long tail that ends with a barbed stinger that drips deadly venom from its tip. Models with this mutation are able to use it to make an extra attack during close combat.
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • From the 4th Edition of the game onwards, the Tyranid Carnifex has the option of has either a scythe or mace tail upgrade option. The difference is that the scythe tail has multiple weak attacks while the mace tail has one strong attack. Later editions give these weapons to other beasties such as Hive Tyrants and Trygons.
    • The Brass Scorpion daemon engines of Khorne mount a rapid fire scorpion cannon at the end of their tails that can unleash a hail of bullets to shred their enemies.
    • The Clawed Fiends, apelike alien beasts used by the Drukhari in battle, have long tails that end in sharp bony spikes, which they can whip through groups of opponents to wound and maim them.
  • Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: The Scorpion Tail mutation, one of the mutation options in the 2E Tome of Corruption, causes the bearer to develop a long, armor-plated tail tipped with a hooked, poisonous stinger. The Spiked Tail mutation instead produces a reptilian tail ending in a spiked ball built for bashing blows. Mechanically speaking, these are strictly beneficial additions, as they give powerful weapons for no built-in downsides. Socially, however, they're a tiny bit of a handicap.

Toys

• BIONICLE is the Trope Namer, based on a memetic quote ostensibly from a Vorox on its website. Besides the Vorox, we also have the Nui-Rama, Nui-Kopen, Nui-Jaga, Kofo-Jaga, Kinloka, Krahli, Zivon, Hydruka, Zesk, and Skopio (and Skopio XV-1). BIONICLE (2015) even gives the trope Ascended Meme status when Ekimu warns the Toa of the Skull Scorpio's tails by reciting the quote verbatim.
• Mixels has various characters with weaponized tails, such as Flamzer with a fire-spewing one, Teslo with an electric-tipped one, Scorpi with a double-bladed one, Mesmo with a magic spell-dropping one, and Wizwuz with a hooked one.
• Transformers: Every incarnation of Scorponok comes with these.

Video Games

• Albion
  • The Iskai are a sapient humanoid race native to the planet with distinctive feline characteristics, including long tails, but unlike cats' theirs are Prehensile Tails. Iskai characters in your party, like Drirr, may use their tails as an additional weapon slot.
  • Warniaks are flying predators that look like huge flying bugs (though they are vertebrates), and they have tails that hang below them and push out a venomous singer when they attack with them.
• Aliens vs. Predator: Tail attacks are commonly given to Xenomorphs.
• Axiom Verge: Gir-Tab is a scorpion-like biomechanical creature that used to be human. His tail has a flamethrower attached to it that he uses liberally in his boss battle.
• Brawlhalla has Onyx who has her Gauntlet Down Signature and Cannon Side Signature involving hitting forward with a scorpion tail made out of stone. The only difference is how she follows up: Another tail swipe for gauntlets and a blast for Cannon. In her up signature for Cannon she uses the tail to point the cannon upwards, instead of her arms.
• Bug has the eponymous character, who defeats his enemies by jumping on them with his stinger tail. There are also literal army ants that fire grenades out of their stingers, as well as scorpions (who rarely use their tail, preferring to attack with their claws instead).
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow had two souls you could get that allowed your character to grow a tail. It would strike whenever you attacked for an additional hit.
• Cataclysm: Gaining this is a possible result of drinking too many mutagens.
• City of Heroes: Black Scorpion has one of these, as his name would imply. His tail is used for firing energy beams, not stinging, though.
• Dante's Inferno: Devils from the Lust Circle have deadly scorpion tails. Just not in the usual place...
• Darksiders Genesis: In his Anarchy form, Strife gains barbed tail that he can use either to fire beams of energy or as a melee weapon.
• Dark Souls has beast-based enemies that use their tails to knock the player off their feet, and deal significant damage if there is a weapon attached to the tail. Said tail can usually be cut off and collected as a rare weapon... Which makes the optional killing of the cute dragon girl and cutting off her really short tail very cruel and violent.
• Disgaea: Succubi can attack with their tail, draining hit points.
• DonPachi: Hibachi, the eponymous Angry Boss Bee can shoot Eleventy Billion bullets at you from her stinger and shoot the stinger itself and then pull it back with a chain that also shoots bullets.
• The Elder Scrolls: This is a tactic of Winged Twilights, a bat-like form of lesser Daedra with some harpy-like traits. Their primary method of attack is to fly slightly above their target and whip around their sharp, hooked tail. Otherwise, they kick with their taloned feet.
• EXTRAPOWER: The Spy Flies in Dark Force's army are giant alien dragonflies engineered for hardened, razor-sharp tails that they use to attack their foes. It's best demonstrated in Attack of Darkforce when a Spy Fly crashes through the windsheild of the plane that the heroes are riding in and effortlessly drives its tail through the pilot's face.
• Fallout:
  • You'd better beware the Radscorpion's stinger tail!
  • Fallout: New Vegas: The DLC Old World Blues has Robo-Scorpions that will sting you with their pointy laser tails In the name of science!
• Final Fantasy:
  • The series has had many bosses with a stinger tail, many of which seem to have been inspired by the Guard Scorpion of VII.
  • Final Fantasy VII has The Guard Scorpion of Midgar's Sector 1 Mako Reactor, a giant Mechanical Scorpion that serves as the first boss of the game. Particularly memorable due to Tutorial Failure as a combination of bad translation and an unfortunately broken-up set of instructions, making Cloud's warning of "Attack while its tail is up" appears several seconds before seeing "it'll counterattack with its laser!", causing several players to make a mistake eat the Counter-Attack.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake has it return, now called the "Sentinel Scorpion", who doesn't have the "Counter-Attack" mechanic, but still fires plenty of Beam Spam from its mechanical stinger tail.
  • Many Notorious Monster Species in Final Fantasy XI have a special attack for players who get hate from behind, such as Behemoth with "Kick Out", Hydra with "Serpentine Tail", and Khimaira with "Plague Swipe". But the absolute kings of this trope are the Wyrms with Spike Flail which is virtually an "Instant Death" Radius for the Alliance fighting the mob if someone pulled hate from behind, or for anyone who happens to be nearby in the case of certain powerful monsters like Nidhogg.
  • The first stage in disabling Final Fantasy X-2's Vegnagun is destroying its vicious tail. Its attack is called Noli Mi Tangere.
  • Final Fantasy XII: Cúchulainn has a stinger tail that sprouts out of his back during his Limit Break.
  • Final Fantasy XIII has the Manasvin Warmech has a similar tail, and is likewise the first boss of its game in a deliberate homage to Guard Scorpion.
  • Final Fantasy Type-0 has the Vajra which heavily resembles the Guard Scorpion.
  • Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood expansion has a Magitek Scorpion boss in Ala Mhigo which also greatly resembles the Guard Scorpion.
• Gene Troopers has gigantic reptilian monsters in forest-themed planets, whose main weapon is their barbed tail.
• The giant scorpion boss from God of War III can attack with its sting.
• In Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder, one of the Powerup Mounts is a giant scorpion that attacks with an electrified stinger.
• Dizzy's tail in Guilty Gear games looks normal, but like the rest of her body, she can transform it into various painful implements to defend herself.
• League of Legends:
  • Skarner is a giant, sentient crystal scorpion, so this clearly applies. One of his lines is "Beware my sting!"
  • Vel'koz doesn't exactly have a tail, but one of his tentacles is in the same place, and he lifts it over his head like a scorpion for one of his auto-attack animations and for his ultimate.
• The Legend of Spyro:
  • Cynder has a metal blade at the end of her tail that can be used as a weapon in various ways, including coating it with her Poison element.
  • Although he never uses it in battle, the Earth Guardian Terrador has a rocky, ankylosaur-like mace at the end of his tail.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: The Helmasaur King can attack with a spiked ball at the end of its tail.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: Slime Eel's tail ends in a giant flail that it swings in a circle around the arena.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: The Male Gyorg can swivel its tail around to hit Link when the latter is trying to attack the Female partner.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: The Lizalfos tie sharp objects, such as axe heads, to their tails.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword:
    • Lizalfos tie spiked balls to their tails, which you can collect after you kill them for use in item upgrades.
    • Moldarach is a giant scorpion boss whose tail attacks supplement its giant pincers.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds: The Gemesaur King's tail is tipped with a cluster of sharp crystals, which it swings around as a weapon in combat.
• Metroid:
  • Super Metroid:
    • This is the first game in the series where Ridley demonstrates his deadly, serrated tail with a spaded stinger. Unlike most attacks, it can damage Samus while she's using the Screw Attack. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate he impales Mega Man with it.
    • Evirs fire spiked balls from their tails, usually while buried in sand so Samus cannot retaliate. Draygon has a very damaging sting, but has to get close to Samus.
  • Other adherents of this trope in the Metroid series include Kanden, the War Wasps and the Kihunters.
• Most Wyverns and other types of monsters in Monster Hunter can and will smack you with their tails. Luckily, you can usually cut the tails of most monsters off, greatly reducing their effectiveness (or range, at the least).
  • Monster Hunter (2004):
    • The Rathian and Rathalos and all their variants use their tails in their attacks; Rathian, in particular, can envenomate you with hers, just like the Wyvern of legend and even does an aerial backflip to attack you with its tail.
    • Diablos and their variants have an axe-shaped tail they use in many attacks, inducing the KO effect.
  • Monster Hunter Freedom Unite: Nargacuga has a long spiked tail, using it to swipe or smash hunters. It also throws long-range spikes by flinging the tail around. The Green subspecies (introduced in Portable 3rd) and the Lucent rare species (introduced in 3 Ultimate) make even more efficient uses of their tails during battle, and the latter one can even throw poisonous spikes with it.
  • Monster Hunter 3 (Tri): Gobul's tail is tipped with quills that are capable of inflicting paralysis if touched.
  • Monster Hunter Portable 3rd: The Duramboros uses its huge tail like a hammer, usually in a Spin Attack. The Updated Re-release of Tri, 3 Ultimate, introduces the subspecies Rust Duramboros, which can spin its tail as well (only the tail itself has the form of an axe).
  • Monster Hunter 4:
    • The Nerscylla has a stinger in its abdomen that can induce the Sleep status effect. The Shrouded subspecies, introduced in the Updated Re-release 4 Ultimate, has its abdomen paralyze the hunter instead.
    • The Seltas Queen has a long pincer tail that she uses to capture Seltas and attack hunters. The Desert subspecies, introduced in the Updated Re-release 4 Ultimate, can do the same thing.
  • Monster Hunter Generations:
    • Astalos has the tip of its tail shaped like a pair of scissors, which paralyzes anyone that gets hit by it.
    • Glavenus has a razor-edged swordtail that it uses for the majority of its attacks. It's dangerous enough as is, but it'll occasionally decide to superheat its tail with its flame breath, granting its attacks fiery after-effects for extra pain, but also softens it and makes it vulnerable to being cut off. the Iceborne expansion of Monster Hunter: World adds an Acidic subspecies that secretes an armor-eating acid along the tail blade.
  • Monster Hunter: World Iceborne: Velkhana uses the tip of its tail as a lance to jab at hunters from various angles.
  • Monster Hunter: Rise: Magnamalo has a distinctly bladed tail that it can use to sling hot violet flames (known as Hellfire). The Scorned variant of the monster, introduced in the Sunbreak expansion, can use its tail to sling even stronger flames.
• The worms and arrowheads from Monster Rancher have extendable stings.
• A few Pokémon attacks, such as Seviper's Poison Tail as described in the page quote. Though it doesn't make much use of it in the main series games, Charizard's tail attacks in Super Smash Bros. series cause the most damage when striking with the flame on the tip.
• Giant Scorpions wander the Shapeir desert in Quest for Glory II, and are deadly combatants, the second-toughest random monsters you can fight. Their tails are particularly deadly: when it starts to shake, you'd better either run away, prepare to dodge, or prepare to die, as a single strike will kill you no matter how many health points you have left. Poison cure pills can make you temporarily immune to the scorpion's tail strike, but due to the way the game is coded, it will always wear off when the stinger starts to shake, making the pills functionally useless.
• Shantae features scorpion people in the desert outside Oasis Town. The female variant just swipes at you when you come close, but the males will jab their stinger through the ground to hit you from farther away. Shantae and the Seven Sirens calls them Scorpgals, and also have the larger and male version, Scorpmen.
• Egyptian venom Goddess Serqet as portrayed in Smite is supposed to represent most of the venomous animals like scorpions or snakes. Well, for that, she has a HUGE scorpion tail right on her back.
• The Skorp Badnik from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Charmy from latter games, being a bee.
• In Spore, if you attach a weapon to your creature's tail and make it an epic, it will use its tail weapon to attack.
• Titan Quest has plenty of giant scorpions and scorpionmen on the deserts of Egypt, whose stings inflict a hefty poison debuff. The elite scorpionmen in particular are Lightning Bruisers who Dash Attack before stinging.
• Trypticon in Transformers: War for Cybertron uses his enormous tail for both projectile attacks (two rows of cannons along the underside fire at you when he has it curled up over himself) and physical attacks (slamming his tail down on one side of the stage, you have to get out of the way AND jump to avoid taking damage).
• In Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, the S'morepion paralyzes piñatas as a Sour, but does it to Ruffians instead when tamed.
• Most dragon bosses in World of Warcraft do this in some manner.

Web Animation

• The Disassembly Drones in Murder Drones have these as part of their massive arsenal. They’re filled with nanite acid that can easily burn through metal, which can only be neutralized by their saliva. Of course, it also presents risks to the Disassembly Drones themselves too, as seen when N nearly stabs his head with his tail by accident while talking to Uzi. Additionally, Uzi later takes advantage of this, stabbing J’s leg while she’s monologuing about how Uzi resisting her is futile.
  • In Episode 4, the risks to the Disassembly Drones themselves once again come back up, when Uzi almost stabs V in the head with the vial from her tail, which she had torn off, before promptly stabbing N in his hand when he intervenes. His casual response is comical in contrast to Uzi’s panic when she got stabbed in Episode 1, though, as he simply says “ow” before sticking his hand into his mouth. Considering that in Episode 1 he implied he’s been jabbed, likely accidentally by himself at least a few times, before, he might just be so used to having dealt with incidents like that that it doesn’t really affect him.
• Tyrian from RWBY, naturally, as he is literally a Scorpion Faunus.

Webcomics

• Battle Kreaturez Many Battle Kreatures are equipped with deadly tail weapons, most notably Wally the Platrox, the Series Mascot.
• In Captain Ufo, the scorpion pirates have, appropriately, scorpion stingers at the end of their tails. The admiral's champion uses his stinger as a weapon during the duel with Commander Grishko, toward the end of season one.
• In Champions of Far'aus, Kasyzons, which are some sort of predatory creature, have scorpion-like tails.
• Lezzaria of Charby the Vampirate has a barbed tail from which she spins her webs and can use to impart a powerful paralyzing sting.
• There are a couple of Dawn of Time strips involving barbed stegosaurus tails.
• In El Goonish Shive, Grace's Omega form has spikes on each of its three tails but only when she's angry.
• One of the alternate universe Kin from Goblins is half-scorpion instead of half-snake. She goes on at length about how her armored, razor sharp, venomous tail is superior to "our" Kin's fleshy, soft, weaponless tail. until that fleshy, soft tail manages to wrap itself around Scorpion!Kin's throat.
• In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! although Galatea's tail does not actually have a stinger, when she's really angry she crouches down and her tail arcs forward over her head threateningly like a scorpion tail.
• Accidentally inflicted in one of The Perry Bible Fellowship's [[crueler moments.
• Slightly Damned:
  • The earth demon Iratu has a massive scythe-like blade at the end of his tail, however when his moon pendant isn't activated it changes to a spearhead shape and his tail becomes proportionally shorter and thicker.
  • Also when Sakido goes berserk she sprouts a long bladed tail which we see her use to skewer a demon.

Web Original

• Codex Inversus: Chimericats have long, agile tails tipped with sharp blades, which they use to skewer flying or leaping prey and to slash at larger opponents.

Western Animation

• Angel Wars: Gargoyle-type demons called ripwings have the ability to stab targets with the sharp point of their tails and electrocute them.
• Batman: The Brave and the Bold: In "Cry Freedom Fighters!", the Supreme Chairman's battle suit includes a stinger tail.
• Beast Wars:
  • Scorponok could create a variety of toxins and launch them from his scorpion tail. His venom is noted to be primarily chemically-based rather than the computer viruses Tarantulas and Blackarachnia use.
  • Quickstrike goes one step further, having a cobra in place of his tail.
• In Ben 10, one of Ben's original aliens, Stinkfly, has a sharp spiked tail that can cut through metal with ease.
• Family Guy had an episode with a talking bee (who sounds Camp Gay), which warns people about its stinger. It accidentally stings itself (somehow...) later in the episode, and dies. Sounds like they read Sherman's Lagoon.
• Felix the Cat's tail sometimes serves as this, seeing as it can do pretty much anything. In an episode of The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, he turns it into a mallet and smashes his alarm clock with it.
• Whiplash from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) has a muscular tail used to crush or strike things. Unfortunately, it was also used to grab onto and throw him. The 2002 version adds a spiked ball to his tail to make this harder.
• Zok of The Herculoids is a dragon that can shoot stuff from its tail.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Spike the "baby" dragon balances himself on his barbed tail to act as a jack-hammer, including on an attacker's foot. He also impales a box with his tail in the first episode.
  • The chimera's tail is a snake, with the tail ending in a snake's head.
  • When Ember competes in the Gauntlet of Fire, her tail armor has spikes on it, including one at the tip, though she doesn't really use it for anything.
• Siege from Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series has a club on his tail.
• Finster, the half-man/half-mechanical scorpion crimelord from The Secret Saturdays.
• Scorpia of She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has one of these, befitting a scorpion-woman. Her venom is a surprisingly safe knock-out drug with no apparent after effects once the victim regains the ability to move, which she even uses on allies if she needs to stop them.

Real Life

• Many prehistoric creatures are known to have had structures on their tails that could be used as weapons:
  • Perhaps the most famous are the ones possessed by thyreophoran dinosaurs — the club wielded by Ankylosaurus and its relatives and the spikes carried by Stegosaurus and its relatives. The Other Wiki has a page for the stegosaurian versions specifically under its official name, "Thagomizer" (taken from a strip from The Far Side).
  • Ankylosaurs came in three varieties, each sporting a different tail weapon:
    • The northern variety, the euankylosaurs (found in North America and Asia), can be divided into two subgroups; the nodosaurids and ankylosaurids. Ankylosaurids are the club-tailed, Late Cretaceous variety, which includes some of the largest genera (like Ankylosaurus and Tarchia), while nodosaurids contain a wider variety of genera, ranging from little Jurassic critters like Gargoyleosaurus to Late Cretaceous giants like Edmontonia, and they lacked clubs, and instead had tails with sideway-facing spikes. The former tail weapon could easily break the leg bones of a tyrannosaur (their main predators), while the latter would have resulted in lethal goring.
    • The southern variety, the parankylosaurs (known from Argentina, Antarctica, and Australia), are much less well-understood (due to the rarity of their fossils), but based on the very complete Stegouros, they had evolved a very different kind of tail weapon, which experts have likened to an Aztec war club, though older forms like the Kunbarrasaurus hadn’t yet evolved that feature (looking more like nodosaurids). They would have used those weapons to defend themselves from abelisaurs and megaraptorans.
  • Sauropods are thought to have used their tails as weapons against predators. The last bit of many sauropods' tails lack the ossified tendons that hold the rest of the tail rigid and are very slim, which would have let them use their tails like whips to crack at enemies to discourage them. Some other herbivorous dinosaurs like hadrosaurs and iguanadons may have also used their tails as bludgeoning weapons. There was even one sauropod, Shunosaurus, that independently evolved a spiked tail club like those used by the ankylosaurs.^note Shunosaurus was among the smallest known sauropods, being a mere three tons (smaller than a male elephant), and thus had more need of a powerful defensive weapon than a kaiju-sized species would.
  • Drepanosaurs were a clade of small tree-dwelling reptiles from the Triassic with grasping hands, feet, and a prehensile tail much like those of modern-day monkeys. Unlike monkeys, though, they had curved claws tipping each of these appendages, thus earning their name, which translates to "sickle lizard". One of the largest and most notable of these claws is the one on their tail.
  • Gyptodonts were giant, heavily armored armadillos who inhabited the Americas during the late age of mammals. Their armor extended to their tails — most had armored tails that could be swung like bludgeons, and a few developed Ankylosaurus-like bony clubs. However, due to the fact that their bodies were too broad and inflexible for them to see behind themselves, they probably didn't use the tail clubs for defending themselves from predators and instead used them for sparing with rivals of the same species, smacking each other in the bodies. Damage to their side armor supports this as well.
• There are small vipers that have similar spiky tails, but they don't use them to attack. It's still the other end of the viper you should beware of. The tail resembles a small invertebrate and is used to attract prey to the viper, a process known as caudal luring.
• Some bees, wasps, and ants can spray formic acid from the end of their abdomens. One of them, the Asian Giant Hornet, is one of the most dangerous flying insects in the world.
• Stingrays may be peaceful fish, but bothering them is a very bad idea. Depending on the species, they may have a spike up to 40 cm long stabbing with force enough to pierce a wooden boat's bottom, and it's often venomous as well. The largest species, the short-tailed stingray, is infamous for causing the death of Steve Irwin, after he got too close to one by mistake and got speared straight through the chest.
• Those pretty blue or yellow tangs seen in saltwater aquariums? They get their name from the "tangs" protruding from the hilt of a dagger, because they have retractable spines on each side of their tails that they use to discourage pursuing predators. As do their cousins, the surgeonfishes. And Dory is one of them!
• Scorpions, of course, have venomous stingers at the end of their tails.^note Though technically, it’s not a tail as in a separate limb, but is actually the metasoma, part of the abdomen.
• North American porcupines defend themselves by turning their backs on their attackers and lashing their spine-filled tails in the would be-predator's face. Other species of porcupines avert this as they either lack long tails (like the African and Asian species), or have a spineless, prehensile tail (South American arboreal porcupines), so they instead run backwards at their enemies, quills-first.
• The long tails of lizards can be used as either an escape mechanism via autotomy or as weapons. Many large lizards such as monitors and iguanas can whip their tails in self-defense and cause painful injuries, while some smaller species such as the aptly-named spiny-tailed lizards instead opt for short but strong tails with spiky scales that they can use like morningstars to discourage attackers.
• Thematically similar are aircraft tail gunners, much more common in WWII bombers but still extant in modern Russian bombers, to fight off chasing fighters. Descriptions of them often reference them as the "stinger in the tail".

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