Smug Snake/Literature: Difference between revisions
→''[[Harry Potter]]'': Replaced redirects
DocColress (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
(→''[[Harry Potter]]'': Replaced redirects) |
||
| (6 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]s in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* ''[[Harry Potter]]''▼
** [[Harry Potter/Characters|Dolores Jane Umbridge]] in ''[[Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix]]'' is a purposeful Smug Snake. A sugary sweet [[Stepford Smiler]] who is [[Fantastic Racism|biased against non- and half-humans]] and [[Obstructive Bureaucrat|uses laws and technicalities]] to get her way, Umbridge is one COLOSSAL bitch, who tourtures children during detention.▼
== ''[[Discworld]]'' ==
** Draco Malfoy. {{spoiler|He gets better, but not before being completely [[Break the Haughty|broken]].}}▼
* Cosmo Lavish from the
** Draco's dad Lucius is one too (apparently being a Smug Snake runs in the family). He's very smart and has the polish of a [[Magnificent Bastard]], but his arrogance and certainty that [[Villain with Good Publicity|he can get away with anything]] lead to some sloppy mistakes. By the end of the series both Malfoys turn out weirdly pathetic after they are forcibly shown that a [[Complete Monster]] [[Evil Overlord]] does ''not'' a good houseguest make.▼
** Voldemort himself, with an emphasis on the "[[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Snake]]" part of Smug Snake. Voldemort has all the resources a [[Magnificent Bastard]] could ever want, but nooooooo... his [[Gambit Roulette|circuitous plans]] fail utterly at basic logic, and while he is clearly trying for [[Magnificent Bastard]] he comes off as a third-rate [[Dastardly Whiplash]].▼
*** Justified by the fact that his making so many horcruxes left him decidedly... [[Axe Crazy|unstable]]. The young Tom Riddle is shown to have been a much more smooth and successful schemer, largely because he knew how to keep a cool head and didn't yet [[Obviously Evil|look like a monstrous snake-human hybrid]]. At any rate, whenever anyone talks about any version of Voldemort's genius, they're generally referring to his ''magical'' genius, which is unquestionable, rather than his ''tactical'' genius, which as has been mentioned above is rather lacking.▼
** James Potter was this as a teenager, though he supposedly grew out of it (even becoming [[Class Representative|Head Boy]] of Hogwarts in his final year).▼
▲
▲
▲
▲
▲
▲
== ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' ==
* Queen Cersei Lannister
** Her son, Joffrey Baratheon, inherited this from her, as he hits off all the qualifications for a Smug Snake in addition to being a [[Complete Monster]].
* The above-mentioned Ramsay Bolton also qualifies, as he acts as though he has a keen, cunning mind and lots of power, but he's really a [[Stupid Evil]]. sadistic little cretin who doesn't even have ''half'' the magnificence of his father, Lord Roose Bolton.
== Other works ==
* [[Artemis Fowl]] from the book series of the same name is certainly a genius but his snarking is usually outdone by most of the other characters, he is physically weak and most of his plans fail due to him either having a crisis of conscience or due to his own overconfidence and incompetance. In short, for a criminal mastermind, this guy is overrated.
** Minerva Paradizo from ''[[Artemis Fowl]] and the Lost Colony'' is trying to be a [[Magnificent Bitch]] and would be as she's easily as clever as Artemis and significantly more ruthless however she is obedient to her patronising and overprotective father, is easily outwitted by Artemis and suffers [[Villainous Breakdown]] when her own Dragon rebels against her.
* In ''[[Skulduggery Pleasant]]'', Davina Marr is a patronising, ageist, sadistic [[Stepford Smiler]] and [[Complete Monster]] [[Oh Crap|who makes Dolores Umbridge look like Mother Teresa]]. Whenever she appears, you want to climb inside the book and punch her in the face. Nevertheless, she's an unwitting pawn in someone else's diabolical plan, spends most of book 5 unconscious and is unceremoniously killed while tied up and begging for her life.
* Imogen Herondale from ''[[The Mortal Instruments]]''. A [[Fantastic Racism|racist]] [[Evil Chancellor]] and [[Manipulative Bitch]] with a pathological hatred of children. She thinks she's playing everyone throughout the book but her grand plan fails spectacularly and [[Big Bad]] Valentine Morgenstern viciously humiliates her, resulting in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when she breaks down. Unusually for this trope, she is revealed to have a sympathetic side and ultimately redeems herself by [[Redemption Equals Death|sacrificing her life to save Jace]].
▲* Queen Cersei Lannister in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. Overestimation of her own cleverness is one of her main character traits. There's a prophecy that everything that could possibly go wrong in her life will, so her ruthless methods are understandable, yet her incompetent attempts at manipulation and power-grabbing alienate almost every one of her allies and could well lead her to the terrible fate predicted in the prophecy.
▲** Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish ''seems'' like a Smug Snake to most of the other characters, {{spoiler|but this is a smokescreen to hide what is actually a subtle [[Magnificent Bastard]], who has apparently single-handedly organized the War of Five Kings as well as the assassination of two kings, while simultaneously organizing the rise of a new queen... his protegee Sansa Stark.}}
▲*** The trope is also subverted {{spoiler|by the eunuch Varys, who wears his [[Sissy Villain]] persona as a mask to operate behind the collective back of the [[Deadly Decadent Court]].}}
▲** In every appearance of Viserys, the book contrasts his attitude ("You don't want to wake the dragon, ''do you?''") with the reality: he's a spineless, pathetic little man who bullies his sister Daenerys because there's nobody else even close to being weak enough to let him get away with it. {{spoiler|When Dany develops enough strength to resist him, Viserys mentally collapses and gets himself killed within a few pages.}}
▲** Theon Greyjoy could be the poster boy for this trope. {{spoiler|At least until A Dance with Dragons, where Ramsay Bolton has tortured him into insanity - he's a thoroughly broken shell whose mind slides between his current identity as 'Reek', Ramsay's completely subservient and terrified slave, and his former identity, Theon, who bears little to no resemblance to his former self.}}
* In the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' novels, Quarath, the [[Evil Chancellor]] to the leader of the [[Corrupt Church]] fits this model. His own ambitions for power and wealth are compared to the epic confrontation between ''actual'' [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastards]] Raistlin and Fistandantilus of which Quarath is completely unaware. Ended up {{spoiler|being squashed by a pillar as his temple collapsed}} when his master pisses off the gods that Quarath had stopped believing in by this point.
** In the later War of Souls trilogy we get Morham Targonee, [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Lord of the Night]], who despite his impressively evil sounding title is a scheming accountant who happened to be in the right place at the right time to seize power. When the local [[Dark Messiah]] shows up and steals his job, she punishes him in what is perhaps the worst way a Smug Snake can experience- by forcing him to realize his own cosmic insignificance before killing him.
▲* Cosmo Lavish from the [[Discworld]] novel ''[[Discworld/Making Money|Making Money]]'' is an [[Loony Fan|obsessed fan-boy]] of Vetinari, who is an actual [[Magnificent Bastard]]. He tries extremely hard to be just like Vetinari, trying to get his old clothes and practising his [[Character Tics|eyebrow-raising]]. {{spoiler|He eventually goes crazy, thinking he [[Napoleon Delusion|really is Vetinari]], and gets committed to an insane asylum, which apparently has a whole ward dedicated to people who think they're Vetinari.}} His sister, Pucci Lavish, isn't much better.
▲** Lord Hong from ''Interesting Times'' is another, though less funny and less pitiful, example. He is, admittedly, [[Awesome By Analysis]] and the [[Big Bad]] of the novel, so not a pure specimen. He does, however, exhibit the trademark snarky attitude, overconfidence and pre-failure breakdown.
▲** There's also the Supreme Grand Master, a.k.a. {{spoiler|Lupine Wonse}} from ''[[Discworld/Guards! Guards!|Guards! Guards!]]'', who vastly overestimates his own power in summoning and controlling the dragon which terrorizes Ankh-Morpork, in that he can summon it but has no means to control it.
* The emperor of France, [[Napoleon Bonaparte]], in ''[[War and Peace]]''. The characters take up at least a third of the book talking about, predicting the actions of, or plotting against him. When Prince Andrei and later when Balashov, an emissary of the Russian emperor, finally meet him, they're both struck by how disappointing he is compared to his reputation. [[An Aesop|He's purposefully portrayed this way.]]
* The title character of ''[[A Coffin for Dimitrios]]'' is a good fit, being a clever schemer, but such an unpleasant treacherous thug that he's completely unlikable. Also notable is that he ends up addicted to the same drugs he sells, something which would never happen to a [[Magnificent Bastard]]. Interestingly, the character might have been an inspiration for Keyser Soze of ''[[The Usual Suspects]]'', who by contrast is definitely a [[Magnificent Bastard]].
Line 62 ⟶ 71:
* Classic example from children's literature - [[How the Grinch Stole Christmas|The Grinch]]. Constantly smirking? Believing himself to be cleverer than he really is? Enacting a scheme that ultimately accomplishes nothing and in fact blows up in his face so badly that it triggers his [[Heel Face Turn]]? Check, check, and check. It's extra apparent in the animated adaptations, where his smirks are even ''more'' smug looking and there's a whole "The Villain Sucks Song" about what a repellent, unlikable slimeball he is.
{{tropesubpagefooter}}
| |||