Hooktail

Hooktail
Artwork from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)
Species	Dragon
First appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (2004)
Latest appearance	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch) (2024)

“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 featured in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and its remake. She resides in Hooktail Castle and serves as the boss of Chapter 1.

History

Background

Much of Hooktail's background is unknown, though according to stories told by Grifty, she, along with her two siblings were once pets of the Shadow Queen who traveled around the world terrorizing people before the Shadow Queen was imprisoned behind The Thousand-Year Door. Grifty's stories also mention that Hooktail Castle was created to contain one of the Crystal Stars, implying Hooktail may have been placed there in order to guard it.

As explained by the residents of Petalburg, Hooktail has terrorized villages in Petal Meadows for a long time, devouring many of their residents. Those who tried to stop her were ultimately devoured as well, if they were even able to make it to her past the traps of Hooktail Castle. Ten years before the events of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Koopley nearly defeated her in battle, but was tricked into smelling her feet and eaten.

At some point, she got food poisoning from eating a cricket (in the original game) or a frog (in the remake), causing her to hate the creatures and feel sick from just hearing them. Adventurers such as Kolorado's father were able to discover this weakness and note it for those who follow.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

When Mario first visits the Thousand-Year Door and holds the Magical Map aloft, the map reveals that the first Crystal Star, the Diamond Star, is located in Petal Meadows. Shortly after Mario and Goombella arrive in Petal Meadows, they see a giant creature fly above them and into a castle in the distance. Upon arriving in Petalburg, they learn that the thing they had seen is called Hooktail and that she has the Crystal Star. Koops, Koopley's son, joins Mario and Goombella on their quest to Hooktail Castle, hoping to avenge his presumedly dead father.

Once the three make it to Hooktail at the top of the castle, she is surprised to see more come to "steal the treasure [she protects]", initiating a battle. Wearing the Attack FX R badge in the original game or the Attack FX G badge in the remake in the battle will progressively weaken her Attack (to a minimum of 1) in addition to lowering her Defense to 0, making the battle much easier. After depleting her HP, she tries to bargain with Mario. She at first offers 1,000 coins (10,000 coins in the remake), then a "lovely, rare, extra-special badge", and finally a chance to sniff her feet. All three are false offers, and she will attack Mario for 5 damage if the player accepts any of them. After this, she eats six of the eight Toads in the right side of the audience, healing her by 10 HP and causing the rest of the audience to run away. Jumping on Hooktail or using Goombella's Headbonk will make her spit out the Toads she has eaten, two per hit. Upon defeat, she faints before coughing up the missing Koopley, who had managed to survive. He then rewards Mario with the Diamond Star, which was trapped inside her gut.

Hooktail is later referenced near the end of the game when encountering her brother Gloomtail, with one of the party members briefly mistaking him for her and questioning how she survived the encounter. This promptly outrages him and causes him to start a fight with Mario to avenge his sister. However, it is possible that Hooktail did survive, as if the player returns to her lair after her defeat, her body is nowhere to be seen, and Goombella questions where she went in her field tattle.

She is additionally mentioned in Koopie Koo's email, as well as in the 66th Trivia Quiz-Off, where "Hooktail's Belly" is the correct answer for where the Diamond Star was located. In the remake, one of the Creepy Steeple Boo's quizzes asks what her relation to Gloomtail is, with the correct answer being "younger sister".

In the remake's end credits, she breathes fire at a horde of Dull Bones, scaring them off as she walks onstage, visibly shaking the screen as she does so.

Super Mario-kun

Hooktail appearing in Super Mario-kun.

Hooktail appears in Super Mario-kun in volume 32 of the series, which contains the first part of the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door arc. In it, she attacks Mario, Goombella, and Koops. As the manga is based on the original Japanese game, she is weakened by a frog's croak rather than a cricket's chirp. Hooktail also appears in volume 34 during a flashback, in which Bowser and Kammy Koopa end up in her castle. Angered by her defeat, she demands to know if the two are friends of Mario, and burns Bowser with her fire breath after he mentions being Mario's "acquaintance".

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Hooktail appears as a Sticker in the game Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The sticker is usable in The Subspace Emissary by every character and increases resistance to fire-based attacks by 36 points.

Unused appearances

Minecraft

Hooktail as the Ender Dragon.

In the files for the Super Mario Mash-up in Minecraft: Wii U Edition, there is an unused image of Hooktail as the Ender Dragon. In the final version, the Ender Dragon is Gobblegut instead.

General information

Physical appearance

Hooktail is mostly red with areas of light greenish yellow. Her facial structure is similar that of a Blargg from Super Mario World, though she has more teeth and one on each side sticks out. Her green eyes are also on the sides of her face instead of in the front. Three red spirals with yellow tips extend from her head, resembling ponytails, and her namesake tail is a dark blueish purple and split into three. Humorously, she can still fly despite her tiny wings.

Personality

Hooktail is an evil and gluttonous dragon, making a hobby out of eating people and feeling no remorse whatsoever for doing so. Even when she thinks someone does not look appetizing, such as Mario, she tries to eat them anyway, and her last words are her regretting all the meals she never got to try. She is also prideful in herself and her abilities, being unable to imagine anyone defeating her and claiming to have "world-renowned" feet.

Gender

In all localizations of the original game and remake, barring European Spanish, Hooktail is female. However, in the English localization of the GameCube version, she is referred to with masculine or gender-neutral pronouns prior to the confrontation with Gloomtail. This portrayed her true gender as being a plot twist, despite the original Japanese making it clear early on that she is female by having her use the feminine personal pronoun "warawa". The English script of the remake is changed to refer to her with feminine pronouns from the start. In addition, masculine terms used for her are removed or replaced with feminine or gender-neutral alternatives, such as "guy" being replaced with "gal".

Profiles and statistics

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Hooktail
	Max HP	20 (+10 upon revival)	Attack	5	Defense	1
	Location(s)	Hooktail Castle	Role	Boss	Level	65
	Sleep?	20%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	0%	Stop?	0%	Soft?	0%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	0%	Fright?	0%
	Gale Force?	0%	KO?	0%	Moves	Fire Breath (4, Piercing), Stomp (5), Chomp (5)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	N/A	Items	None
Tattle Log #: 99	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! Max HP is 20, Attack is 5, and Defense is 1. 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?

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door enemy
Hooktail
	Max HP	20 (+10 upon revival)	Attack	5	Defense	1
	Location(s)	Hooktail Castle	Role	Boss	Level	65
	Sleep?	20%	Dizzy?	50%	Confuse?	50%
	Tiny?	0%	Stop?	0%	Soft?	0%
	Burn?	100%	Freeze?	0%	Fright?	0%
	Gale Force?	0%	KO?	0%	Moves	Fire Breath (4, Piercing), Stomp (5), Chomp (5)
	Exp. points	0	Coins	100	Items	None
Tattle Log #: 102	Log	This giant dragon attacks by munching, stomping and breathing stinky, fiery breath. She hates things that make ribbit noises, especially creatures that start with "f" and end with "rog."
	Tattle	That's Hooktail! Max HP is 20, Attack is 5, and Defense is 1. She'll stomp and munch on you, and she has a more dragonish attack—stinky, fiery breath! She's tricky, especially when she's losing, and she'll try to fool you into being merciful. Oh, yeah, and one more thing. She hates things that start with "f" and end with "rog". Supposedly, there's something related to that somewhere in this castle. Did we find it?

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Sticker Hooktail
	Artwork from:
	Effects in The Subspace Emissary: [Flame] - Resistance +36
	Usable by: Anyone

Gallery

Screenshots

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

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  Mario and Koops encounter Hooktail

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  Hooktail threatens to devour the heroes.

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  The start of the battle against Hooktail

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  Mario prepares to swing his hammer at Hooktail

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  Hooktail hearing the cricket sound

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  Hooktail breathing her "stinky, fiery breath" at Goombella and Mario

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  Hooktail's first bargain

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  Hooktail's second bargain

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  Hooktail's third bargain

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  Hooktail gobbles the Toads in the audience and restores 10 HP.

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  Hooktail faints.

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  Hooktail defeated.

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  Hooktail spitting Koopley's shell out

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (Nintendo Switch)

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Miscellaneous

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  Hooktail's original artwork

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  Concept artwork with various design iterations of Hooktail; the colored one notably lacks the "pop-up book" effect and has a floral pattern on her back.

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  Promotional character introduction

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  Hooktail on the Nintendo Magazine for summer 2024, showing a relationship chart featuring many characters from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

See also

• Bonetail
• Gloomtail

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ゴンババ Gonbaba	From「ウンババ」(Unbaba, "Blargg"), and possibly「ドラゴン」(doragon, "dragon"); the play on「ウンババ」was also used on every dragon boss in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and Super Paper Mario.
Chinese (simplified)	轰巴巴 Hōngbābā	Transliteration of Japanese name
Chinese (traditional)	轟巴巴 Hōngbābā	Transliteration of Japanese name
Dutch	Vermila	Pun on vermiljoen ("vermilion") and the feminine name "Mila"
French	Carbocroc	Pun on carboniser ("burn", "char") and croc ("fang")
German	Lohgard	Portmanteau of Lohe ("blaze") and the feminine name suffix "-gard" (e.g. "Hildegard" or "Irmgard")
Italian	Crimilde	Portmanteau of "crimson" and the feminine name suffix "-hilde"
Korean	곤자잔 Gonjajan	From Japanese name and "짜자잔" (Jjajajan, "Blargg")
Spanish	Gombaba	Same as Japanese name

Trivia

• In non-English versions of the GameCube original (as well as all versions of the remake), Hooktail's weakness is frogs and not crickets. However, in the American Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door demo included in the Demo Disc Version 18 for the GameCube, Hooktail is weak to frogs.
• Usually when Mario levels up, both Star Power and the number of audience members are maxed out. However, if Mario levels up from the Hooktail battle, the audience remains empty and no Star Power is refilled, the only instance of this happening in the game. The same applies for getting a Bingo! during her second phase; the audience remains empty.