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I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.
Okay! The heroes have made mincemeat out of the Evil Minions, stormed their way through the Dungeon and into the Supervillain Lair or Evil Tower and come face to face with the Big Bad. It's time for the Big Bad to pull out all the stops and do something really impressive! He chants his Black Magic, and/or throws the impressive switch and...
A snake? Is that the best you can do?
Oh wait, it's a dragon? Well, I suppose that's a little better, but not much.
Seriously, is that all? Cause we can wait until you think of something better. Take your time.
I mean, we brought along a mongoose specifically for this situation.
Seriously, there's probably something symbolic about the tendencies of a villain to turn into a snake. In the West there is a strong established symbolism for snakes from The Bible (most famously the serpent in the Garden of Eden, although some translators believe that the original text may have indicated that the creature was closer to a dragon than a snake), Norse Mythology, and there's Orochi in Japanese mythology. Adding onto this, there is the fact that when walking in the wild, it's generally not a good idea to stop and pet a snake.
Of course, the result of all that symbolism is that there can be no doubt about the evil nature of a foe, and it gives The Hero a comfortably scary foe to kill. Despite how easily this tends to end with the villain chopped up on the hero's sword, villains everywhere still love the order Squamata because, of course, Reptiles Are Abhorrent. How often have you ever seen a villain turn into a koala, a rhino, or something that would actually be useful?
In short, a specific and much overused variant of One Winged Angel.
Examples where it doesn't work:
Anime and Manga
- Near the end of the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime, Envy turns into a giant serpent in order to cross the Gate and kill his father, Hohenheim. He ends up getting stuck in Germany, where he's captured by the Thule Society and used as a giant Ouroboros to activate their trasmutation circle and open a portal to Amestris.
- Orochimaru from Naruto probably takes inspiration from his namesake Orochi and does this in the series. He gets taken out by a certain Ineffectual Loner after said loner's Face Heel Turn. Lamen noodles, especially since it means he can't perform any of the jutsu that were his goal in life to learn. Though his chances as a snake were probably better than a drugged-up old man who was near-dying, and he apparently didn't have a choice in the matter.
- Rather, Orochimaru takes his inspiration from the original Orochimaru, who likely gets it from his namesake Orochi.
- He does it again later, this time turning into a ginormous eight-headed hydra. It didn't end well.
- More specifically, he takes on the Hydra form to fight and attack called Susano, named for the god that killed the eight-headed serpent Orochi. As this troper's friend said to him, "he was mythologically doomed to lose that fight."
- A Monster Of The Week from Inuyasha does this. Notable as he actually put up a pretty decent fight while in humanoid form, (thanks to a magic trident) but got carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey post transformation. Beyond lame.
- That's technically a reversal; said monster was a water snake spirit who stole the trident from the local river goddess, so he didn't change into a snake, he changed back from his assumed human form.
- In recent One Piece chapters, Boa Marigold and Boa Sandersonia turn into half snakes. They do pretty well against Luffy until he stops holding back...
Comic Books
- The Marvel Comics character Moondragon, who despite her name was a human with psychic powers and Arrogant Kung Fu, recently turned into a literal dragon for no reason— and then got killed. (Well, a lame reason was given, because her backstory involved an evil Energy Being called the Dragon of the Moon (who was also not really a dragon) who had manipulated her into being its Bastard Understudy since childhood, then got Killed Off For Real yet supposedly years later turned her into a real dragon... Oy. Comic Book writers seem to have lost the skill of basic research into the characters they write, explaining why Ret Cons and Re Writes have become increasingly common.)
- The latter one was an inverted, she turns into said dragon to save the day, and is "killed" (the whole Energy Being part) by Ultron, an evil robot that looks liked a Knight In Shining Armor.
Film
- Enchanted: Narissa pulls a Maleficent-crossed-with-King Kong when she turns into a dragon, kidnaps Robert, and climbs a skyscraper during a thunderstorm. Bad idea. The result is impressive, though.
- Beetlejuice.
- Conan the Barbarian.
- Although not her actual intention, when the villainess of the live-action Casper movie dies and becomes a ghost, it more-or-less follows this trope in practice. It doesn't work out for her very well, though.
- Used and averted in Disney's The Sword In The Stone. Merlin and Madam Mim have a wizard's duel. Madam Mim, who announces the rules at the start, breaks them in an attempt to beat Merlin, only to have Merlin go in exactly the opposite direction. He makes her sick, which pushes her to bed rest.
- An unintentional example in the otherwise forgettable Bartok The Magnificent: the villainess is turned into a dragon after downing a potion. If you'd like an idea of why that scene's popular, it's referenced on two Fetish Fuel pages.
Literature
- The Lady of the Green Kirtle does this in The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Silver Chair. Lewis was definitely being symbolic in this case, but it's still a dumb move, especially when confronted by a Good Stupid hero who Wouldnt Hit A Girl but has no problem cutting a giant serpent in half. Lame.
- In another incident in the same series, a protagonist is turned into a dragon for being greedy (again, symbolic). For some reason, a teenage boy treats this like it's a bad thing.
- To be fair, he was apparently an old-style gangly ugly dragon. And he had a metal ring digging painfully into his arm the entire time due to his increase in size.
- The various practical problems of dragonhood are thoroughly expounded on in his situation, and anyway, it had already been established that Eustace wasn't into that scene, "having read none of the right books."
- In The Prydain Chronicles, when Evil Overlord Arawn, (based on the Celtic God of the Dead, who shares the name), master of terrible armies and incomprehensible Black Magic is finally confronted face to face, he promptly turns into a serpent and dies within a paragraph or two, managing only to kill the slightly less evil queen before falling to everyone's favorite assistant pig keeper. Lame.
- In The Death Gate Cycle, the ultimate evil beings are shape shifters that like to take the form of giant dragon-snakes, probably meant to resemble wingless Chinese dragons with a more snakelike head. In a final confrontation with the heroes one of them reverts into this shape, growing too large, and his head hits the roof of the room they're in, which is inscribed with death runes, killing him. Uber Lame.
- The universe of Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont, best known from the Malazan Book Of The Fallen books, features the Soletaken, who can change ("veer") from humanoid to beast form. Some Soletaken veer into draconean [sic] form, which is powerful, but somehow never seems to really work out in the story. Examples:
- Gardens of the Moon (book one): Silanah (a true dragon, not a shapeshifter) and four Tiste Andii Draconean Soletaken face off against Raest, the Jaghut Tyrant. He chases them off.
- Gardens of the Moon (book one): Anomander Rake veers into draconean form and flies over Darujhistan, but he doesn't accomplish anything, and sembles back to humanoid form to fight a Malazan demon.
- Memories of Ice (book three): Anomander Rake veers into draconean form to harry a horde of humans, which should be a trivial task. But one of them, Anaster, somehow poisons him, and Rake shies away. Then he takes humanoid form in order to kill some measly witches.
- Reaper's Gale (book seven): In the prologue, Scabandari Bloodeye, in draconean form, fights two Elder Gods and is killed.
- Reaper's Gale (book seven): Menandore, Sheltatha Lore and Sukul Ankhadu, in draconean form, face two measly humans (Quick Ben and Hedge). All three end up badly wounded and getting killed soon after.
- Reaper's Gale (book seven): In the ultimate anticlimax to this book, Silchas Ruin (Anomander Rake's brother) faces (again) a bunch of measly humans and gets his butt handed to him.
- Apparently the only time this ability was used successfully was in House of Chains when Osseric veered into a dragon to fly his son L'Oric out of the crumbling memory of Raraku.
- In the Dragon Knight series, James actively avoids turning into his dragon form during battle unless he needs to intimidate his enemies. While he is big and scary, he's also extremely vulnerable and unable to move as quickly or nimbly as a human foe.
- During a magic-transforming fight in Discworld, at one point the wizard transforms into a snake, but then Granny Weatherwax transforms herself into a snake charmer's basket as a counter.
Live Action TV
- This was actually the end goal of the Mayor from Season 3 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which he'd spent a century working towards and built all sort of elaborate machinations around. He promptly gets taken out by Buffy taunting him and a little well placed dynamite, while a bunch of high schoolers mostly armed with crossbows and such fight off his minions. Lame lame.
- But hilarious-aside from his undeniably evil aspirations, he's been characterized as a personable, mildly absent-minded guy who doesn't like swears. His only comment on his seconds-nigh doom? "Well gosh!"
- It is also implied that his giant snake form was only temporary, something that he had to pass through on his way to a higher plane of existence.
Myth And Legend
- Greek mythology example: the river god Achelous turns into a serpent to fight Hercules for the hand of a princess called Deianeria. He loses, and in one version Hercules rips off one of his horns, which was used by the nymphs to make the Horn of Plenty.
Theater
- In Wagner's opera Siegfried, Fafner has already transformed himself from a giant into a dragon. Since he has the Artifact Of Doom, his fate is sealed.
- Wagner's Das Rheingold also has Alberich turning himself into a gigantic snake or dragon.
Video Games
- Maleficent, the Big Bad from Disney's Sleeping Beauty and a major villain in the Kingdom Hearts games turns into a dragon at times of danger. In the game she gets smacked down by a preteen kid wielding a giant key. Lame to the power of lame.
- Nobody's mentioned the Dragonlord yet?
- Eye Of The Beholder 2 has a seemingly regular wizard turn out to be a Dragon. Of course, the dragon is still vulnerable to the attack+side-step maneuver.
- The World Ends With You: The Final Boss first fights you as human. This is probably the hardest fight you're required to win in the game. Then the turns into a snake. This is very easy. Then he turns into dragon, which is at least something of a challenge.
- No pity for Luna? Especially after she's forced into this due to the FMian Ophiuchus hijacking her? Thankfully, Geo beats her back to normal and Gemini slaughters the smug snake, but still...
- On a side note, why wasn't Luna's hair as Queen Ophiuca/Ophiuchus Queen ued as a weapon? It was VISIBLY ROTATING!
Western Animation
Examples where it partially works:
Anime and Manga
- In Berserk, the Baron transforms into a disturbingly Freudian snake-monster and actually manages to land a few good hits on Guts. He still doesn't last very long though.
Film
Literature
- A protagonist turns into a dragon during The Siege in the sixth book of The Death Gate Cycle. He kicks a lot off ass (mostly off-screen, but considering what he's facing it's still badass). It's only a partial success because he ends up missing in action. The seventh book reveal why: he was defeated and captured by a real dragon. And not the lame kind mentioned above, a "one person in the entire series has defeated one in battle" dragon.
- This plays into the final Animorphs book. Rachel has snuck aboard Tom's ship, hoping to defeat his rogue Yeerk army. She transforms into a Grizzly Bear and he sends his minions after her after they have each changed into equally fearsome and tough creatures. Rachel has just enough of an opportunity during the battle to check on Tom as he hangs back and transforms - into a very small but very poisonous snake. After Rachel has defeated each of the minions, she bites Tom in half. She demorphs, exhausted, and another minion, transformed into a polar bear, kills her with a single blow.
- Mister Monday transforms into a giant snake in the first book of the Keys To The Kingdom series, He ALMOST succeeds in killing Arthur, until Arthur gets Suzy to write on him with her fingers and a bottle of ink, causing him to be attacked by hundreds of text-destroying, acid-spitting Nithling-snakes.
- In The Silmarillion, Sauron transforms into a serpent (as well as a monstrous wolf and a vampire) to defeat Beren and Luthien. He holds his own but is still driven off.
Video Games
- Draconis and Abazigal from Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal revert to their true forms — adult dragons — upon being whacked sufficiently while in human form. While you still kill them, the 'partial success' part is because Draconis' dragon form is a challenge (or at least a bloody annoyance) and is widely considered to be an actually difficult boss. Abazigal, however... Isn't.
- After being thrashed sufficiently by Isaac's team in Golden Sun, antagonists Saturos and Menardi transform into a single two-headed dragon. While the Fusion Dragon is a more powerful boss than either opponent separately, team Isaac still wins. In the sequel, the final boss is actually another fused dragon comprised of three of the heroes' parents.
- Avaritia, the leader of the Black Knights in 11eyes, stays on the sidelines for most of the game. Come the final fight, he transforms into a gigantic black dragon. Kukuri and Shiori face him down, and, though it takes a hell of a lot of power from Shiori, they just barely end up victorious.
- In a heroic version, Aelia of Valkyrie Profile turns into a dragon briefly during her finishing move to fire a giant beam at enemies. It only partially works because it's a bit weaker than most anyone else's finishing move, and is even less useful when you consider the one hit does little to help the Combo Meter.
- In Breath Of Fire 4, Fou-lu transforms in dragon twice: one extremelly bulky and powerful and other latter slimmer but who could tunr the whole party HP to one - and he would ALWAYS use on the FIRST turn. Made even harder because that was a Sequentiale Boss, since you spend most of your healing resources on the first dragon. That One Boss for many indeed.
Western Animation
- The Evilutionary Biologist Grimsby Roylott turns himself into a giant snake-creature in order to slip into buildings through the air vents in the Sherlock Holmes In The Twenty Second Century episode "Scales of Justice" (Holmes affictionados will recognise this plot as being just barely based on "The Adventure of the Speckled Band"). It also helps in his fight with Holmes, but not as much as he'd hoped.
- Danny Phantom: While the second episode that showed a dragon (transformable via a magic pendent) played this trope straight, the second, more evil one, was much, much harder for the hero to defeat. In fact, his abused little sister was the one who ended it, but not before he created some serious damage.
- The Batman Beyond episode "Splicers" has the villains mix animal DNA with their own. While the lead villain uses DNA from several different animals, he winds up as basically an eight-foot-tall snake (at least until Terry overloads him with injectors and he turns into a monster). He puts up a fairly decent fight against Batman (certainly better than he would have as a human), but still loses in the end.
Examples where it works:
Anime and Manga
- A recurring antagonist in Shakugan No Shana lives to be recurring only because he shapeshifts into a small snakelike creature to escape a losing battle.
- Medusa the Serpent Witch from Soul Eater does this to escape her main body being cut in half. This is after her band succeeded in releasing the Sealed Evil In A Can; so definitely a win.
Card Games
Comic Books
- In the Omega Men comic book, turning into a giant snake was Demonia's only real superpower. It did, however, make her quite tough in a fight.
- The Last Temptation graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Alice Cooper (yes, you read that right) has The Showman turn into a giant snake at the end, but he doesn't actually attack the hero. He just messes with his head a bit, and scares him away. And according to "Welcome To My Nightmare", it was an entirely successful head-mess, because by then, Stephen is now a Serial Killer.
Film
- At first, Thulsa Doom of the Conan The Barbarian movie seems to be doing this for no reason at all, but then subverts the expectations of the audience by fleeing through a hole in the wall made for a snake and getting to safety. (It's also in keeping with his character so far as he seems to have a thing for snakes: his religion worships them, he has a pet snake that Conan kills, he has snake arrows... no, really.) Thus, not lame.
- Jafar does this in Aladdin. To the surprise of many, it actually works OK for him. (And to his credit he has the good taste to use a cobra as the type of giant snake to turn into, adding onto the menace). He fails when Aladdin tricks him into upping the One Winged Angel ante by turning into a genie, trapping him in a lamp. He would have won if he had just stayed a snake.
Literature
- The novel Brothers in Arms inverts this trope: the Dark Action Girl Kitiara is trying to kill a dragon and her only chance to do so is when he is in his vulnerable human form, rather than in his nigh-invincible natural shape.
Live Action TV
- In the final battle of the Ryuki arc of Kamen Rider Decade, Decade uses the Final Form Ride to force Ryuki into changing into a leaner version of his own contract monster, Dragredder. Ryuki as Dragredder tears the enemy's shark contract monster to pieces before Decade and Ryuki together blow the enemy himself up. Naturally what makes it work in this instance is that the good guys did it.
Music Videos
- In the Robbie Williams music video "Radio" - Robbie becomes something like this at the very end.
Religion
- The Devil. The Garden of Eden.
- Assuming that that snake was even diabolical. The Bible never actually says.
Video Games
- Seems to work pretty well for Ryu in the Breath Of Fire series.
- The Manaketes in Fire Emblem. They can pretty much take out anything in dragon form, even at level one.
- In later [1] games, the Be Dragon spell, or Puff as it is now known, appears a handful of times. It allows the user to transform into a fire-breathing dragon for a few turns.
- In Earthbound, the dragonite item turns one character into a dragon and damages every enemy for a ton of damage, of course, you don't see the dragon, but I assume it looks pretty cool.
- One of Liu Kang's finishers in the Mortal Kombat series is to turn into a dragon and bite the opponent in two.
Western Animation
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