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Smug Snake/Literature: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]]s in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
== ''[[Discworld]]'' ==
* Cosmo Lavish from the
== ''[[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.
* Draco Malfoy.
* 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]].
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* 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 ''[[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 ''[[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]].
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