"Smiling poison and suspicious craft."
The Smug Snake is a type of character (usually cast as a villain) who tends to treat friends and enemies alike with equal disdain. They almost constantly
speak in a sarcastic tone and punctuate most of their sentences with a smirk. While they aspire to be a formidable and awe-inspiring adversary, they often end up just being a
Big Bad Wannabe, failing in the face of
more cunning villains or ending up as their servants, in which case they'll generally be
The Starscream. Others that fall under this trope are
simply in it to bug the good guys and
take advantage of their
moral insecurity.
A key character trait common to
Smug Snakes is
overconfidence. The Smug Snake is usually too arrogant to be
rattled. Most often, they will think themselves to be the
Magnificent Bastard. While they may believe that they have
the situation under control (whether they do so through
blackmail,
coercion, or simply
being in a position of authority), there will usually be a
hole in that plan that they failed to consider. Perhaps they underestimated their opponents' abilities and
claimed themselves unbeatable, or maybe they made a really stupid mistake along the way. Once that realization hits, expect the Snake to
lose their cool right before
everything starts falling apart for them. They are not necessarily entirely incompetent or ineffectual, however, and may succeed with at least part of their goals, but they are still lacking that charm and grace that the
Magnificent Bastard possesses. Often a
Know-Nothing Know-It-All as well, to inspire added bile, though still enough to take the 'sympathetic' out of
Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain (the
best of them are
Insufferable Geniuses heavy on the former and light on the latter). If a Smug Snake considers himself a
Magnificent Bastard, then he is a villainous
Small Name, Big Ego.
Most of the time, a writer will purposely introduce a Smug Snake as a target for audience hate by making them
Kick the Dog or
bend the rules to get their way and
come out smelling like a rose. Basically, this is a villain that's made
to be hated and the audience will enjoy hating.
This, like all other tropes, can backfire if misused. If the writer still tries to foist the character as a
Magnificent Bastard when their previous actions have proven otherwise, the audience will likely stop enjoying to hate the character, and instead genuinely
hate them as much as they would
The Scrappy or the
Creator's Pet.
Evolving a Smug Snake into a true Magnificent Bastard could be doable, in theory, but shouldn't be attempted lightly, and has only been pulled off successfully in fiction a few times. Ever. Of course, the author might deliberately doing this, playing a villain up as a
Magnificent Bastard when it comes to getting the power he craves, but proving to be so inept at
wielding that power once he finally has it that he ends up as a
Smug Snake instead.
The Smug Snake will rarely be a
Draco in Leather Pants (though it is possible, especially if the character is physically attractive — the
Trope Namer himself is an example).
Contrast
Worthy Opponent and
Magnificent Bastard, who inspire respect and/or admiration from their opponents/the audience, and
Awesome Ego, whose brash cockiness is part of his or her charm. See also
Smug Super.
Not to be confused with the player characters of
Metal Gear, the criminal from
The Simpsons, or the principal of
Degrassi.
Examples
