Giant Spider: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|And [[Superman]] needs to fight a Giant Spider in the third act. Do you know about spiders? [[Critical Research Failure|They're the fiercest killers in the insect kingdom!]]

 

Arachnophobia is probably the second-most popular phobia (after [[Monster Clown|coulrophobia]], that most tired of plot devices), and even non-arachnophobes have to admit that spiders can be pretty freaky. Therefore, the most popular form of [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]], and one of the most popular [[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Fifty Foot Whatevers]] to attack has to be a [http://www.livescience.com/animals/news-spider-species-100111.html big spider]. (Don't click the link if you like to browse All The Tropes before bed.) The bigger they are, the less likely there are to be more of them, but they're almost all so big that [[Square-Cube Law|they logically shouldn't be able to move or breathe]]. They will usually have hypertoxic venom, both spin webs and hunt for prey, and spit silk out of their mouths (most spiders in real life only focus on one trait).

* Giant space spiders are the antagonists of Philip Reeve's [[Steampunk]] novel ''[[Larklight]]''.

* The ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' series includes creatures called Acromantulas, essentially giant spiders that can get up to elephant-size. They can talk and are sentient, but [[Exclusively Evil|don't think you're likely to survive a conversation with one]] (unless you're Hagrid). They are most prominently featured in Chamber of Secrets, whose film adaptation actually specifies spiders in the BBFC content notice.

*** And the spiders return in ''Deathly Hallows'' when {{spoiler|the Death Eaters drive them out of the forest and force them to attack Hogwarts.}} Presumably this will be in the film too...though some hope otherwise.

* ''[[The Hobbit]]'' has lots of spiders about the size of a dog, who can speak. ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' introduces Shelob, their much larger mother. And her mother, Ungoliant, featured in ''The Silmarillion'', is even bigger. [[J. R. R. Tolkien|JRR Tolkien]] was bitten by a tarantula in South Africa when he was a young boy; he almost died. The numerous spider-monsters in his books are probably influenced by this.

** Let's not forget the Bebiliths, quite literally [[Demonic Spiders]]. The ''normal'' variant has a body the size of a plow horse and over 4 metres leg span. Let it be noted that a Bebilith is an Arachnid demon that hunts OTHER DEMONS!

** Giant spiders in the Classic D&D game (Basic, Expert, etc) were a bit more varied than in other versions of D&D, and often had [[Truth in Television]] (crab spiders blending into their surroundings) or folklore-inspired abilities (the "tarantella"'s poison causing a spastic "dance") to make them interesting.

** Giant Spider is not the biggest Spider in the game, either. Goliath Spider is. It's a 7/6 and its illustration is it eating a drake. There's also Plated Spider, which has the amusing flavor text "Most spiders wait patiently for their prey to arrive. Most spiders aren't forty feet tall."

** The card, [http://magiccards.info/al/en/107.html Giant Spider], is now the only card that has been in [http://magiccards.info/m11/en/179.html every base set ever printed].

** They reappear in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' alongside the Queen Spider, which makes the others look like midgets.

* ''[[Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles]]'' features a giant spider who is actually very friendly.

* You have to fight a few Giant Spiders in ''[[Rayman|Rayman 2: The Great Escape]]''. They're very tough opponents. Also, in the original concept of ''Rayman Raving Rabbids'', Rayman would have been able to ride a Giant Spider. [[What Could Have Been]]...

* ''[[Darksiders]]'' features an entire level filled with oversized arachnids. They range from the table-sized mooks (which can be annoying until you realize you can just have War stomp on them with a melee attack), the car-sized [[Elite Mooks|Loom Wardens]] (which can be easy enough once you get the Abyssal Chain), the house-sized [[Mini Boss|Brood Mother]] (which isn't so hard once you figure out the trick to beating it), and three-story tall Spider Queen Sliltha (which is... [[That One Boss|not easy at all]]).