View source for Hooktail

{{pmenemybox
|PM2=yes
|image=[[File:Hooktail Artwork - Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door.png|200px]]
|hp=20 (+10 upon revival)
|atk=5 (decreases by one every time Attack FX R makes noise in battle; cannot be lower than 1)
|def=1 (decreases by one every time Attack FX R makes noise in battle; cannot be lower than 0)
|items=None
|moves=Fire Breath (4, [[Piercing attack|Piercing]]), Stomp (5), Chomp (5)
|location=[[Hooktail Castle]]
|log=This giant dragon attacks by munching, stomping and breathing stinky, fiery breath. She hates things that make chirping noises, especially creatures that start with "cr-" and end with "-icket".
|tattle=That's Hooktail! It'll stomp and munch on you, and it has a more dragonish attack: stinky, fiery breath! It's tricky, especially when it's losing, and it'll try to fool you into being merciful. Oh, yeah, and one more thing. It hates things that start with "cr" and end with "icket". Supposedly, there's something related to that somewhere in this castle. Did we find it?
|before=[[Blooper#Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door|98]]
|#=99
|after=[[Gloomtail|100]]
}}
{{quote|Snack time, little appetizers! But which one of you morsels should I taste first?|Hooktail|Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door}}

'''Hooktail''' is a [[dragon]] in ''[[Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door]]'' that had terrorized [[Petalburg|Petalburg's]] residents. As well as eating Petalburg's citizens, she had eaten anyone who came to her castle to slay her, including [[Kolorado's father]], [[List of Implied Characters#Old Man Skoo|Old Man Skoo]], and [[Koopley]]. When [[Mario]], [[Goombella]] and [[Koops]] came to her castle to obtain the first [[Crystal Stars|Crystal Star]], the [[Diamond Star]], they were given a clue on how to defeat Hooktail once they found a letter being clutched by the corpse of Kolorado's father &ndash; Hooktail cannot stand chirping sounds, especially ones that start with ''cr-'' and end with ''-icket'', the reason for this weakness being because she got food poisoning from eating a cricket. Some believe that it is a reference to the [[Toad]] of the Four Heroes, who is described as having a "strange voice". He defeated Hooktail long ago and his voice may have sounded like a cricket. (For some reason, in the comic Super Mario-Kun, Hooktail is extremely scared of ''frogs''.)

[[File:Hooktail.gif|left|thumb|An in-game sprite of '''Hooktail'''.]]
During the fight it seems Hooktail is defeated, but she then offers 1,000 [[Coin]]s and a "Really Ultra Rare [[Badge]]" for her trust. She also, disgustingly, asks Mario if he would like to smell her feet, claiming that people pay good money to do this. It is the player's choice if Mario accepts or declines her offers. All three are traps and Hooktail will gobble Mario or stomp Mario for some damage if he accepts them. Before Mario and his team can finish her off, she swallows some of the [[audience]] members to replenish 10 of her [[Heart Point|HP]]. If the player reduces Hooktail's HP to 0 the first time, she will still eat the audience. If the audience is reduced below 10 since the player got a Bingo! from a [[Poison Mushroom]], Hooktail can regain less than 10 HP. Once Mario defeats her once and for all, Koops's dad will burst out of her mouth, claiming he survived in Hooktail's stomach by hiding in his shell. In the second part of the fight, if the player attacks Hooktail's head, the Toads she ate will be saved and will run away.

Hooktail also has two older brothers named [[Bonetail]] and [[Gloomtail]], all three being the [[Shadow Queen|Shadow Queen's]] pets. It was not revealed that Hooktail was female until the fight with Gloomtail. Koopley, Koops, [[Koopie Koo]], and Goombella all referred to Hooktail as "it", while others erroneously refer to her as a "he". Gloomtail attempted to avenge his sister by killing Mario and his friends, but Mario proved too strong and Gloomtail failed. Hooktail resides in [[Hooktail Castle]], whose builder is unknown. Her castle was built to accommodate her massive size. Later on in the game, when Mario and company revisit Hooktail's lair, they find no trace of Hooktail. Goombella wonders briefly where Hooktail disappeared to, but ends up deciding Hooktail's absence is a good thing.

Oddly, Hooktail was shown to actually have a hook at the end of her tail in the game but in official artwork she does not. Hooktail resembles [[zeldawiki:Valoo|Valoo]] from ''[[zeldawiki:The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker|The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker]]''. Her name may even come from the boss battle with [[zeldawiki:Gohma|Gohma]], in which [[zeldawiki:Link|Link]] must use the [[zeldawiki:Grappling Hook|Grappling Hook]] on Valoo's hooklike tail.

==Other appearances==
[[File:SMKun_Hooktail.jpg|left|thumb|Hooktail appearing in the ''[[Super Mario-Kun]]'' series.]]
Hooktail also appeared in ''[[Super Mario-Kun]]'' in issue 32 of the series, the ''Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door'' issue.
In it, she attacks Mario, Goombella, and Koops. She gets weak by a frog's croak rather than a cricket's chirp.

Hooktail appears as a [[Sticker (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)|Sticker]] in the game ''[[Super Smash Bros Brawl.]]'' The sticker is usable by every character and increases resistance to fire-based attacks.
<br clear=all>

==Names in other languages==
{{Foreignname
|Jap=ゴンババ
|JapR=Gonbaba
|JapM=
|Fra=Carbocroc
|FraM= Pun on "carboniser" (burn, char) and "croc" (fang)
|Ger=Lohgard
|GerM=Portmanteau of "Lohe" (blaze) and a female name ending with "gard" (e.g. "Hildegard" or "Irmgard")
|Spa=Gombaba
|SpaM=Taken from the Japanese ''Gonbaba'', but with the "M" before "B" because, in Spanish, "N" does not come directly before "B".
|Ita=Crimilde
|ItaM=Italian female name}}

==Trivia==
*There will always be eight Toads seated in the lower right seats in the audience.
*In some translations, like the Spanish one, Hooktail is actually male.

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[[Category:Dragons]]
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