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Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"[[Trope Namer|Reptiles are abhorrent]] because of their [[The Long List|cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom]]; wherefore [[Blatant Lies|their Creator has not exerted his powers to make many of them]]."''
[https://m.encyclopediadramatica.rs/Offended '''THE PROPHET MOHAMMED he''' simplest is to have reptiles that are FUCKED. In animal stories, villains might be anthropomorphic versions of Real Life reptiles, while the heroes are cute mammons and baals. In Speculative Fiction, they might be fantastic beings such as Lizard Folk, Snake People or RETARDS.]▼
|'''Carl von Linné a.k.a. Carolus Linnaeus'''}}
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Even when the bad guys are not actual reptiles, they may have some sort of reptilian theme. Perhaps they are an [[Animal-Themed Superbeing]] with reptile-related powers. The villain might have reptilian pets and/or exhibit a special empathy with reptiles. They may even be able to [[Scaled Up|turn into giant snakes]]. Even if they have no special powers related to reptiles, they might use reptile related [[Animal Motifs]] and/or [[Theme Naming]]. The trope even turns up, if only by metaphor, in non-fiction; saying that someone is "a snake" or "cold blooded" is enough to get across that you're dealing with a horrible character.
[https://m.encyclopediadramatica.rs/Offended Meanwhile HA HA HA DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS!, turles and various tards seen as cute and harmless, such as eckos and frilled lard ass, are less likely to be associated with villainy.Dinosaurs are also often exempt from this trope. Stereotypically reptilian features such as fangs, claws, tails, visible scales, and slit pupils may distinguish villainous reptiles from friendly ones].]▼
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[https://m.encyclopediadramatica.rs/Offended Despite not even being closely related to them, Amphibians sometimes are portrayed this way too. Toads in particular have become heavily correlated with abhorrence due to their poisonous secretions, association with witches, and the myth that touching one will give you warts. However, there are many favorable depictions of frogs in fiction.]▼
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[https://m.encyclopediadramatica.rs/Offended This is not a character trope. It is a pattern only visible when looking at an entire cast of characters. Merely having a few bad reptiles among a majority of good reptiles does not invoke this trope. When the only reptilian character in a work or the majority of the reptile-themed characters are bad guys, this trope is in play. This trope does not require that reptiles be Exclusively Evil—there may be a few token good reptilians within a race of mostly evil reptiles as an example of My Species Doth Protest Too Much.]▼
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[https://m.encyclopediadramatica.rs/Offended Sometimes the trope in invoked in-universe. Characters may assume that reptiles are more likely to be evil, whether or not it's justified. In these cases you may have Reptiles Are Abhorrent crossed with Fantastic Racism.]▼
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[https://m.encyclopediadramatica.rs/Offended If the expectation of reptiles being evil is set up and then overturned, the trope is being subverted. See Reptiles Are Abhorrent/Playing With.]▼
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[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4JL6vKB5qMU&time_continue=64&feature=emb_title Reptiles Are Abhorrent is fairly consistent, but it's far from omnipresent, so do not list aversions. Do not list subversions unless they actually invoke this trope.]▼
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[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4JL6vKB5qMU&time_continue=64&feature=emb_title See also What Measure Is a Non-Cute?, Never Smile At a Crocodile, Scaled Up, and Fangs Are Evil. Compare Cats Are Mean and You Dirty Rat. Contrast with Turtle Power and Everything's Better with Dinosaurs. This is also closely related to Species-Coded for Your Convenience.]▼
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{{noreallife|just because this is a common [[:Category:Tropes of Hats|"hat"]] for reptilian races doesn't make it true.}}
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Media in General ==
* All of the various [[Attack of the Killer Whatever|killer snake/crocodile/komodo/whatever other reptile]] movies and stories thrive on this trope.
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* ''[[One Piece]]'' has the animal-themed Seven Warlords of the Sea, which usually play as villains. You have Sir Crocodile, Gecko Moria, and Boa Hancock, who is a horrible person but at least is [[Affably Evil|very kind to the protagonist]].
* ''[[Eyeshield 21]]'' has the Zokugaku Chameleons, with their linebacker, Habishira, having long arms like a chameleon's tongue. The much tougher, [[Affably Evil]] Hakushuu Dinosaurs are another example.
* It isn't quite clear how ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' feels about this trope. {{spoiler|Machina}}'s alternate form (seems to be) a giant snake, and his first acts include {{spoiler|nearly killing the main character}} and acting like an all-around bad guy. But as of Ch.
* In ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' most of the Arcobaleno have cute mammals or birds as their pets. What do the [[greed]]y [[Meaningful Name|Viper]] and [[Mad Scientist]] Verde get? A snake and an alligator, respectively.
* ''[[Bleach]]'': As if Rukia hadn't made the connection several hundred chapters back, Ichimaru Gin himself gave this little monologue in Chapter 414.
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* ''[[Usagi Yojimbo]]'': Lord Hebi, a giant snake and the only non-mammal recurring character, is [[The Dragon]] of [[Big Bad|Lord Hikiji]], who's stuck as [[The Faceless]] since the author regretted making him [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|a human]].
* The Lizard League, ''[[Invincible]]'''s [[Alternate Company Equivalent]] to the Serpent Society.
* Teknophage from ''[[Mr. Hero:
* Alison Bechdel's ''[[Fun Home]]'' mentions how unsettling snakes are, and somewhat rhetorically suggests that this is because they are a strange mix of masculinity and femininity.
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* Played with in the novel ''Chester Cricket's Home'', a sequel to ''[[A Cricket In Times Square]]''. One of the residents of Chester's meadow, a water snake named Walter, realizes that many humans find him horrifying, a fact that he takes an inordinate amount of pride in. However, Walter is actually quite friendly and funny, if a bit of a wise guy at times.
* Subverted by David Eddings' ''[[Belgariad]]'' and ''Mallorean'' series. While the civilization most attuned to and appreciative of snakes, the Nyissans, are usually portrayed as a rather sinister, corrupt, and amoral people, eventually the chief eunuch Sadi becomes a rather amusing hero, and he brings his pet snake Zith, an intelligent, extremely lethal but extremely affectionate and endearing snake with almost cat-like habits. The only member of the party who doesn't take a shine to her is Silk, whose snake-phobia is more comical than rational. Zith's habit of curling up and sleeping in the bosom of Silk's love interest does not help this. Nor does how Silk finds out...
* ''[[Gator Gumbo]]'': The main character is an old alligator that can no longer catch prey. The other animals taunt him over this. In the end, he makes a batch of gumbo. The other animals refuse to help but want some. {{spoiler|So they get get close enough and he sweeps them into the pot, cooks, and eats them.}} It probably qualifies as a [[Family-Unfriendly Aesop]] as well—Don't be a jerk and never underestimate old people {{spoiler|or [[
* Similar to the Disney's ''Aladdin'' example, the Queen of Underland in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia|The Silver Chair]]'' turns into a giant snake when she finally runs out of subtler options for killing the heroes. Prince Rillian is glad of this, because it meant he [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl|wouldn't have to kill a woman.]]
* Debora Chester's ''[http://www.lucasaliens.com/ Alien Chronicles]'' series has the Viis, who resemble giant frilled lizards. They're a despotic race that has enslaved various mammalian races, with the only other reptilian species being their allies instead. When the mammalian races leave to find a utopia, not even their Viis underclass allies go with them, and what becomes of the turtle-people is never said. The web page for the series even invokes this trope.
* In [[Clive Barker]]'s ''[[Abarat]]'' series, despite the archipelago of Abarat being home to a host of wildly different creatures, Finnegan Hob is out to kill all dragons, even young ones, because ''one'' of them killed his bride. All dragons appearing on-page are unsympathetic (and ugly), while Hob is depicted sympathetically, and none of the other characters have a problem with him basically wanting to commit genocide of a sentient species. Notable in that this [[Exclusively Evil|unnuanced portrayal of dragons]] is rare in modern fantasy.
* In Taylor Anderson's ''[[Destroyermen]]'' series, a pair of WWII destroyers slip sideways into a [[Alternate History|timeline]] where dinosaurs were never wiped out and humans never evolved. Instead two other intelligent races did, one mammalian, one reptilian. Guess who the bad guys are?
* In his ''[[Pellucidar]]'' series, [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] created two reptilian species: the Snake People Horibs who are villains right out of central casting, and the more nuanced [[Giant Flyer|Mahars]] who are telepathic, parthenogenic pterosaurs who start out ruling Pellucidar but are overthrown by the human hero.
* Both used and inverted in ''[[Chess With A Dragon]]''. On the one hand, the galaxy is populated by many dinosaur-derived alien races, any of which would be content to experiment on, enslave, and/or eat humans. On the other, mammalian races are an extremely rare fluke in this novel, hence most civilized species insist that Mammals Are Abhorrent.
* In ''[[The Book of Night with Moon]]'' by [[Diane Duane]], it is revealed that humans' association of reptiles with evil (in the Book of Genesis and elsewhere) is due to the lizard people choosing to align with the power of evil. Also, both feline mythology and cetacean mythology has [[Satan]] taking the form of a giant snake. The city of the sentient lizard people is a horrific [[World Half Empty]] which runs on systematic oppression and [[I'm a Humanitarian|cannibalism]]. However, {{spoiler|the victory of the heroes give the lizard people a chance to choose a better path, and the lizard Ith becomes a sympathetic character. By the second book, the lizard people are as moral and agreeable as any other species.}}
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* In the Ani-Earth [[Animal Superheroes]] setting for ''[[Mutants and Masterminds]]'', it is specifically stated that reptiles tend to be villains, with snakes as evil masterminds, lizards as mid-level bad guys and crocodilians as dumb mooks. Freedom City's [[Big Bad]], Overshadow, becomes Cobrashadow.
* In the ''[[Vampire: The Requiem]]'' sourcebook "Mythologies", one of the possibilities for the first vampire? The son (or daughter) of Eve, the First Woman... and The Serpent of Eden. The book includes several snake-based powers to apply to vampires to further imply that this might be true, including making snakes into default forms for the Protean discipline, it being easier to Ghoul snakes, and making vampires immune to snake venom (ordinarily, snake venoms—like most haemotoxins—work just fine on vampires).
* [[Dungeons & Dragons]] mostly do without this - Lizardmen are crude savages, but not particularly malicious,
** ...and then there are Yuan-ti. Who manage to fill this niche all on their own, though with several different breeds that range from bloated abominations to human-like infiltrators. Whatever the case, these [[Snake People]] are usually [[Exclusively Evil]] and consider humans to be their [[Arch Enemies]].
== Toys ==
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* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' has not one, not two, not three, but ''four'' serpent-themed villain groups: the Serpent Society, the Viper Squad, the Venom Brotherhood, and finally the Cthonians, an ancient race of [[Snake People]] who predate humanity and want to bring back the rule of [[Eldritch Abomination|the Old Ones]].
* Both Tropes wikis refer to a certain type of villain as a [[Smug Snake]].
* In a ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' webisode, one of the villains is a humanoid snake called [https://web.archive.org/web/20131222094908/http://heroeswiki.com/The_Constrictor the Constrictor].
* In ''[[RWBY]]'' there is the King Taijitu, a monstrous two-headed duotone snake fought by Lie Ren in the Emerald Forest, said to lack (like all creatures of Grimm) even the rudimentary soul a "natural" animal possesses.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Reptile and Amphibian Tropes]]
[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]
[[Category:Evil Tropes]]
[[Category:Villains]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:No Real Life Examples, Please]]
[[Category:Tropes of Hats]]
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