Smug Snake/Literature: Difference between revisions

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* 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]].

* 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.

* 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]].

* Frederick Chilton from ''Red Dragon'' and ''[[The Silence of the Lambs]]'', who comes across as a bully as head of the Chesapeake State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. In ''Silence'' he makes the key mistake of handing Hannibal Lecter over to people who don't understand how dangerous he can be, which gives Hannibal the opportunity to escape.

* Paul Krendler of the same series definitely qualifies, though it only becomes noticeable in ''Hannibal''. In many ways he's far more of a Smug Snake than Chilton was on his worst day. Like Chilton, he gets his comeuppance at the hands of Lecter.

* Mr. Collins in ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', whilst not exactly a villain, is rather smug and slimy, with a rather vast (and largely unearned) self-regard that makes him believe that Elizabeth Bennet is rejecting his marriage proposal out of some feminine desire to string him along when she's rather explicitly stating that no, it's because she ''doesn't like him''.

* Duke Telrii from ''[[Elantris]]'' is an example of the "thinks he's a [[Magnificent Bastard]]" type, though he winds up little more than a pawn of the book's real [[Magnificent Bastard]], Hrathen. King Iadon from the same book is also an example- he turns out to be a lot smarter than Telrii ([[Obfuscating Stupidity|and a lot smarter than he lets on]]), but his vision is simply too narrow to let him accomplish anything of real significance.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' has a lot of these, a couple of whom (such as Lord Raith) are also [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]. Particularly Quintus "Snakeboy" Cassius, a Denarian who is not only a clear-cut example of those trope, but a ''[[Scaled Up|literal]]'' example as well.

* Simon Lovelace from [[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]] is a perfect example, though he was smarter than the average Snake.

** John Mandrake also counts. Actually, most of the wizards do.

* Ray Scutter of ''[[Blind Lake]]''.

* Depending on who you ask, Senna of [[Everworld]] is either one of these or a [[Magnificent Bastard]]. Her mother is a straight example.

* Gustav Fiers, aka The Gentleman from the [[Spider-Man]] novelisations, ''The Sinister Six Trilogy''. He certainly ''thinks'' he's a [[Magnificent Bastard]], and looks and acts the part, being an excellent [[Manipulative Bastard]] and [[Chessmaster]], and [[Man of Wealth and Taste]] who successfully manipulates the whole of the Sinister Six, has evaded law enforcement for years, and refers to himself as an "investor in chaos". Yet he fails to earn the audience's respect due to his contemptuous attitude and his unpleasant personality, utter heinousness (only his genuine affection for his equally monstrous brother, [[Terrorist Without a Cause|Karl]], keeps him off the [[Complete Monster]] list), and underestimation of Spider-Man, The Chameleon, and Dr. Octopus put him squarely in this trope.

* Philonecron from ''The Cronus Chronicles''. He considers himself an evil genius, and treats everyone he meets like dirt, but is defeated by two middle-school kids.

* ''[[In Death]]'': Some of the murderers are definitely this. A notable example is Dr. Waverly in ''Conspiracy In Death''. He is so arrogant and has such a God complex that he simply assumes one of his security droids will handle Roarke easily. He clearly doesn't know Roarke at all. He happily gives the names of the people he's been working with to Eve while he's got a hostage. He had been conducting experiments on regenerating human organs with a serum. He used sidewalk sleepers and poor people as guinea pigs, and the experimentation resulted in their deaths. He flies into a pompous speech about how this serum can be used on any organ, and eventually will be used on bone, muscle and tissue, which will eventually result in perfect human beings. Oh, and he'll get to decide who will be part of the survival of the fittest, and he boasts that the world will be a better place without the dregs that weigh it down. However, when Eve turns the tables on him, he gets scared, and begs for his life. Yep, he thought he was so great and smart...but he wasn't.

** In general, as soon as a bad guy says something about how they're going to take down or hurt Roarke easily, you know s/he will be put in this category. The [[Dirty Cop]] Jerry Vernon from ''Judgment In Death'' is a good example. He gets in Eve's face about the fact that she is looking for dirt on him, and he brags about how he is going to sue her and bleed that rich husband of hers. No one bleeds Roarke. If s/he tried, he would squish that person like the bug s/he is.

* Since the Yamiko of ''[[Sailor Nothing]]'' are the personification of their host's id, it's easier to list the ones that don't fall into Smug Snake, namely [[Genre Savvy]] Argon, [[Pragmatic Villainy|Pragmatic Villain]] Cobalt, and Ohta, Cobalt's right-hand man. Dark General Radon is a particularly vile example of [[Smug Snake|Smug Snakeery]], being an arrogant [[Knight Templar]] and [[Evil Mentor]] before his [[Face Heel Turn]]; afterwards he just gets worse.