Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Difference between revisions

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Retarded cunts like you refers to the association between reptiles and villainy. This trope manifests itself in several basic ways. The simplest is to have reptiles that are consistently villainous. In [[Animal Tropes|animal stories]], villains might be anthropomorphic versions of [[Real Life]] reptiles, while the heroes are cute PRAY TO MAMMON AND BAAL, FAGGOTCUNT!
 
*{{spoiler|Fuck off bitch.}}
*{{spoiler|His replacement Kabuto, who has integrated bits of Orochimaru's genes into himself has taken this up a notch with blatantly reptilian features, a cobra-like hood similar to [[Soul Eater|Medusa's]], and a giant snake "familiar" that appears to be his tail.}}
 
* ptillian [[Big Bad|boss]], [[Brain Food|The Morgawr]], are the only characters in series who might qualify for [[Complete Monster]]hood.
* being [[Better Than It Sounds|one of the best]].
* The first ''[[Anaconda]]'' film, just in case the audience isn't already unsettled by gigantic snakes trying to eat people, asserts that anacondas will regurgitate their still-living prey after swallowing them, just for the malicious pleasure of ''eating them again.'' {{spoiler|This happens to the main antagonist of the first film.}}
*''[[Snakes on a Plane]]'' had snakes as the designated villains, and in this case they were riled up by a spray of pheromones. It gets to the point that [[Samuel L. Jackson]] has [[Memetic Mutation|had it with these motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plane]].
* In the excellently titled ''[[Ssssssss]]'', the [[Mad Scientist]] in the movie didn't mind snakes. As a matter of fact, he turned people into snakes for fun. The people in question didn't share his enthusiasm.
* They aren't reptiles, but while we're on the subject of horror movies that assume we think crawling, <s> scaly,</s> swamp-dwelling animals are inherently scary: ''[[Film/Frogs|Frogs]]''. Yes, ''Frogs''. (And the frogs in question aren't the poisonous or gigantic variety, either.) Funny thing is, the frogs themselves don't do anything. They just stand around being ominous. All of the mayhem and murder is done by alligators, moccasins, snapping turtles, and anoles (the last lock a guy in a greenhouse and cause a chemical reaction that asphyxiates the guy with vapors).
* In his original appearance, [[Godzilla]] was portrayed as a walking nuclear explosion, destroying everything in his path. In subsequent movies, however, he was depicted in a grayer light, and even became a hero at times.
* The [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]] ''[[Lake Placid]]'' has a giant, attacking, man-eating crocodile. This could be another case of [[Humans Are the Real Monsters]], though—after all, he didn't ''ask'' to be abandoned in a freezing cold Maine lake, did he?
* And in a case of Humans Are Stupid, ''[[Primeval]]'' stars SUV-sized "[[Never Trust a Trailer|Serial killer]]" Gustav, whose large kill record is largely due to idiot fishermen and similarly idiot photographers and big-game hunters. However, it's at least more factually accurate than ''Lake Placid''.
*''[[Reptilicus]]'' is a giant, man-eating lizard-dragon-thing.
*''[[Crocodile]]'' has... [[Never Smile At a Crocodile|yeah]].
*''[[Kill Bill]]'''s villain team, the Deadly Viper Assassin Squad, all had codenames based on lethally venomous snakes. The main character was given the name of the most deadly snake of them all, the black mamba, though she renounces the name and the team when she decides to go straight.
*''[[Q]]'' was about an evil version of Quetzalcoatl, the ancient Aztec feathered snake god. It's a fun movie, but it's also ridiculously [[Sadly Mythtaken]].
*''[[Dreamscape]]'' featured a little boy who suffered from nightmares about The Snake Man. The villain of the piece took on the hero by [[Scaled Up|turning himself into The Snake Man]].
*''Zathura A Space Adventure'' (which is basically ''[[Jumanji]]'' <small>[[Recycled in Space|IN SPACE!]]</small>) gives us the villainous Zorgons, reptilian aliens who are attracted to heat sources.
* The original ''[[Star Wars]]'' films have very few reptilian sentients. Most of them are in the Cantina on Mos Eisley. The only exception is Bossk, a rather vicious Trandoshan bounty hunter. General Grievous was a Kaleesh, a reptilian species that are in war with the Huk, a mantid-like species. The Huk were the Invaders, and Grievous was very noble back then. The prequels have some other reptilian species, but none in a prominent role.
** From the "[http://www.yamara.com/yamara/rfw/rfw2/rfw2pg3.html Call Me MISTER Binks]" article (Radio Free WYHTL):
{{quote|"I'm addressing, of course, the vicious, bigoted pattern of lizard-hate in the culture, and in the media.
''[[Star Wars|The Phantom Menace]]'' doesn't just contain one species-ist character, it slurs the entire reptilian phylum." }}
* Played on in ''[[Enemy Mine]]'', where humans are at war with a hated species of reptilian-like people called "Dracs."
* In a "making of" documentary for [[The Film of the Book]] ''[[Eragon (film)|Eragon]]'', one of the people in charge of designing Saphira said, "We decided first of all, to make Saphira the dragon more likable, so we made her look more like a lioness instead of a reptile."
* In ''[[The Dark Crystal]]'', the evil Skeksis look like lizards with some of the most repellent traits of vultures added for good measure. Their good-guy counterparts, the Mystics, have downplayed reptilian features and much more fur, giving them a softer and cuddlier appearance.
* [[Indiana Jones]] when dumped into a snake-filled pit of doom:
{{quote|"Why did it have to be SNAKES?!"}}
* A [[Cold War]]-era instructional film warned of the dangers of Hostile Intelligence Services (HISS), portrayed as an animated [[Smug Snake]] with a [[Lzherusskie]] accent.
* Although clearly scaleless and unrelated to ''any'' real-world organism, the monsters from the ''[[Tremors]]'' films and series (or just their tongues) are frequently described as resembling reptiles of one sort or another.
* In a ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'' film, the primary antagonist Thulsa Doom is the leader of a snake cult. He can [[Scaled Up|turn into a giant snake]] and even uses one as an arrow.
* ''[[Live and Let Die (film)|Live and Let Die]]'': Mr. Big/Dr. Kananga uses snakes to kill adversaries, either releasing one into their hotel room, or using one in an elaborate voodoo ceremony (pulled from a coffin full of snakes). Then there's his crocodile farm/heroin processing center.
* Rattlesnake Jake and the corrupt Tortoise John in ''[[Rango]]''.
* In ''[[Race with the Devil]]'', the cultists hide a pair of live rattlesnakes inside the heroes' RV.
* Lampshaded in the film version of [[Ray Bradbury]]'s ''[[The Illustrated Man]]'', where Rod Steiger's character crushes a garter snake with a rock and feeds it to his dog. When another character asks why he did it, noting that garter snakes are harmless and good to have around, he angrily responds, "It ain't no good to anyone, it's a damn snake!"
 
 
== Literature ==
* The Snake in ''[[The Little Prince]]'' could certainly qualify. He gets a [[Villain Song]], "A Snake in the Grass," in the 1974 movie version.
* ''[[Redwall]]''. While the mammals are split between being good or evil, pretty much every single reptile and amphibian is a bad guy. In the first book, a snake is given a demon's name (which it likes to chant for some reason) and likened to a giant, intelligent, evil dragon/monster. In one of the later books, a desert-dwelling character [[Furry Confusion|keeps a pet sand lizard]]; "Get 'em when they're young and they're good likkle critters." This was [http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/bargain-book-bin-3.php lampshaded hilariously] by Something Awful, though it was in response more [[Carnivore Confusion|to the mustelids all being evil]].
* ''Ranger Rick'', of all places, used this trope off and on:
** Uncomfortably applied in one issue. There was a short story in which Rick and his gang help an Ocelot in the Everglades and are menaced by an alligator, who was explicitly described as a villain. This was '''jarring''' considering it was the only time an animal filled the antagonistic role; usually [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|Humans Are Bastards]] (and even then, they staunchly used the Humans Are Misguided subtrope). Even worse? The very next issue Rick and co. head back to Florida to help... alligators.
** ''Ranger Rick'' magazine also had a series of nonfiction books about animals and of those, one of the most beloved is ''The Unhuggables''. It did all it could to discredit this trope (though it's telling that snakes get their own chapter to themselves) as well as [[Carnivores Are Mean]] and (as you could probably guess from the so-close-to-being-the-[[Trope Namer]]-title) [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?]].
* [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s stories invoke the trope only when applied to venomous snakes and crocodiles.
** In "[[The Jungle Book (novel)|Rikki-Tikki-Tavi]]", a pet mongoose defends his masters' home against the deadly snakes that are ''[[Everything Trying to Kill You|everywhere]]''.
** In "Kaa's Hunting", the "poison people" are self-absorbed. The mad cobra in "The King's Ankus" seems somewhat insane, claiming that a jeweled inanimate object is "death" ({{spoiler|and it turns out he's also outlived his poison}}), but turns out to be right.
** Likewise, in "The Undertakers", the chief villain is a vain old crocodile called the Mugger,<ref>although mugger/magar/makara is an actual word for a crocodile species in South Asia</ref> who ''boasts'' of having attacked human women and children (but is less than thrilled to be reminded that a woman once drove him away by shooting at him).
* [[Raymond E. Feist]]'s novel ''[[The Riftwar Cycle|A Darkness at Sethanon]]'' introduces the Panthathians, a race of snake-men who worship a race of evil [[Precursors]] that will [[Sealed Evil in a Can|destroy the world if ever freed]]. Naturally they are attempting to do exactly that.
* Played straight and occasionally subverted in ''[[Harry Potter]]'':
** A snake is the mascot of Slytherin House, which was never an "evil" house, but has a bad reputation due to the many Death Eaters who were sorted there in their school days. The snake is used as an evil motif by the Death Eaters. The ability to speak Parseltongue (snake language) is said to be associated with Dark magic, worsening the snake's reputation even further.
** There was also the basilisk, a huge snake that Harry fights at the end of the second book. It was Slytherin's pet back in the day, and he kept it hidden in the chamber in hope that his heir would release it and use it to drive Muggle-born wizards out of the school.
** Nagini is essetially Voldemort's [[Right-Hand-Cat|Right Hand Snake]] {{spoiler|and a partial [[Soul Jar]]}}.
** Subverted with an actual boa constrictor in the first book, who seems genuinely pleasant and just wants to go to Brazil, where his particular species comes from.
* This trope becomes Reptiles Are Stupid in Foster's ''[[Spellsinger]]'' series, in which reptiles are the only air-breathing vertebrates that ''aren't'' intelligent tool-users. Except for the turtles and dragons, which of course get an exemption on grounds of popular appeal.
* 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 [[Bad Ass Old Guy|they will destroy you!]]}}
* 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. {{spoiler|It later turned out that the Mahars -- who are deaf and communicate ''entirely'' by telepathy -- were unaware that humans were sapient.}}
* 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.}}
* [[Harry Turtledove]]'s books have [[Lizard Folk|The Race]], which initially seem to be this trope [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|perfectly personified]], along with [[Little Green Men|many]] [[The Empire|other]] [[Aliens Are Bastards|tropes]] related to villainy, but later they're revealed as being simply arrogant but chivalraic beings.
* [[Robert E. Howard]]'s stories of King Kull include the Serpent People, an ancient, pre-human species that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs. They were evil, dying out, yet determined to retake the world for their species. Among their magical talents was the ability to cast a glamour that made them seem human to observers. The illusion was so good in one story that Kull himself doubted (for all of a minute) his own existence. After which he killed the imposter. Death broke the spell, revealing the truth.
* In Lovecraft's writing, reptiles are a frequent source of horror, most notably in ''The Nameless City''.
* In Korney Chukovsky's children story ''[[Stolen Sun]]'', a crocodile swallows the sun (just go with it) and it takes a bear to tear him apart and release it.
* ''[[Villain Dot Net|Villain.Net]]'' plays with this one: upon encountering Chameleon, apprentice supervillain Jake Hunter presumes the reptilian shapeshifter to be a fellow evil-doer. He is quickly disabused of that notion. However, over the course of the first book, Chameleon shows himself to have a nasty edge, being perfectly willing to kill, and seeking revenge rather than justice.
* Pretty much anytime a reptillian character shows up in one of [[Terry Brooks]]' books, you can expect raw evil (although [[Our Dragons Are Different|Strabo]] is a noticeable exception). It's especially obvious with [[Lizard Folk|The Mwellrets]], who are the only species in the [[Shannara]] universe that hasn't featured a heroic member. Indeed, one of them, [[The Dragon|Cree Bega]], and his equally reptillian [[Big Bad|boss]], [[Brain Food|The Morgawr]], are the only characters in series who might qualify for [[Complete Monster]]hood.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] novel ''[[The Hour of the Dragon]]'', the priests of Set keep giant snakes.
{{quote|''The Cimmerian recoiled, remembering tales he had heard -- serpents were sacred to Set, god of Stygia, who men said was himself a serpent. Monsters such as this were kept in the temples of Set, and when they hungered, were allowed to crawl forth into the streets to take what prey they wished. Their ghastly feasts were considered a sacrifice to the scaly god.''}}
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