Hooktail

Hooktail is a dragon who appears as a boss in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Hooktail is fought at her castle during the events of Chapter 1. She is a colossal dragon that has terrorized Petalburg. She ate many of its residents who came to her castle to slay her, like Kolorado's father and Koops' dad, Koopley. When Mario, Goombella and Koops came to her castle to obtain the first Crystal Star, the Diamond Star, they were given a clue on how to defeat Hooktail once they found the dead body of Kolorado's father-- Hooktail cannot stand chirping sounds, especially ones that start with cr- and end with -icket, Hooktail once ate a cricket during her travels and had food poisoning from it and since then, she feels queasy every time she hears the sound of a cricket.
She has two older brothers named Bonetail and Gloomtail. It was not revealed that Hooktail was female until the fight with Gloomtail, who attempted to defeat Mario and his friends for slaying his sister. Hooktail resides in Hooktail Castle, and of the three was the only one still freely roaming the world as Gloomtail was locked in a chamber in the Palace of Shadow, and her oldest brother Bonetail was on the bottom floor of the Pit of 100 Trials. Hooktail and her brothers, Bonetail and Gloomtail, once belonged as pets to the Shadow Queen before she was sealed away.
==Physical appearance==
Hooktail is a large red dragon, with a cream-colored underside, jaw, and cheeks. She has small red-and-purple wings on her back, and antennae resembling ponytails on her head. She has large red feet with purple claws, and her tail is light purple, thin, and forked into three parts.
==History==
Hooktail is first seen upon Mario, and Goombella's arrival in Petal Meadows, they see Hooktail flying back to her castle, the colossal dragon takes no notice to the heroes at this point.
Hooktail is first mentioned by name, by the Petalburg residence, who state that she terrorizes Petalburg and kills many of the townspeople. Mario must defeat her to save some of the characters that she previously swallowed, including Kolorado's Father, Old Man Skoo, and Koops' dad. Mayor Kroop also states reveals to Mario and Goombella that Hooktail has the Crystal Star and tells them they will need the Sun Stone and Moon Stone from Shhwonk Fortress to access Hooktail Castle.
When Mario, Goombella, and Koops came to her castle to obtain the first Crystal Star, the Diamond Star, they saw the many skeletons of the victims she had eaten over the years, upon making it through the castle's many traps and defences, they finally reached Hooktail at the Castle's Tower, upon reaching her, they had to face her in combat. After a long battle, they defeated her and Koops' dad burst out of her mouth, saying that he survived in her stomach by hiding in his shell.
Later on the game, when Mario and company visit Hooktail's lair, they find no trace of her. Goombella briefly ponders where did she go, but decides that her absence is a good thing.
In the remake of this game, Hooktail's role remains largely the same. However, there are a few notable differences that the remake has touched on. One of them is that every character is aware that Hooktail is female compared to the original where everyone assumed she was a male and that it wasn't confirmed until Gloomtail says so. The other difference is that Hooktail's weakness has been changed from that of cricket sounds to frog sounds. As a result, the badge Attack FX R has been changed to the Attack FX G to compliment her new weakness.
==Battle==
In battle, Hooktail hits hard with her attacks. Her main attacks include a fire breath attack similar to Bowser's, a stomp attack, and a bite attack. At one point, when all of Hooktail's HP is gone, she proceeds to eat half of the crowd to recover half of her HP.
===Strategy===
Hooktail is very weak to any cricket noises so equipping the Attack FX R badge is needed in this fight (it is still possible to win the fight without the badge however it is much trickier). The badge can be found in a cell in the room right before the Black chest. Koops is needed in this fight as well as Goombella wouldn't even damage Hooktail that much. Also, at the point where Hooktail's HP is fully depleted for the first time, she will plead for mercy by offering 1,000 Coins 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, do not answer "yes" any of her requests as all three are obviously traps and she will bite Mario for 5 damage before moving to the next phase of the fight. 
==Music==
===Up in the Sky, It is a Dragon!===
===What an Enormous Dragon!===
===Dragon Slaying Battle===
==Gallery==
Hooktail Paper.jpg|Hooktail's Tattle Log Sheet
Hooktail Heal.webp|Hooktail revives herself by eating the audience.
Hooktail Audience.jpg|The battle has moved to the audience.
==Trivia==
*Hooktail resembles Valoo from The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and her name alone may be a reference to Valoo's tail.
*Hooktail is the only boss in the game whose main weakness is an equippable badge.
*Hooktail can actually be defeated without equipping Attack FX R. However, this is difficult to do as one needs to master the Superguard to survive in the battle.
*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" or male pronouns, while the Nintendo Official Player's Guide erroneously refers to her as a "he".
**A later chapter of the guide detailing Gloomtail's boss fight however correctly refers to Hooktail as a female, so it is highly likely that this error was made intentionally to avoid spoilers.
**The Nintendo Switch remake has all citizens use female pronouns to describe Hooktail which reveals her true gender sooner. 
*When Hooktail eats the crowd, she mainly eats the Toads that are sitting there. One fact that is that when the battle with Hooktail starts, the Toads will always be in that spot every time.
*She is revealed to be a female character when Gloomtail expresses his surprise that the heroes defeated her, and he wondered why she has not written to him so lately.
*Oddly, Hooktail was shown to actually have a hook at the end of her tail in the game, but in her official artwork, she does not.
*If Mario and his allies reduces Hooktail's HP to 0 during the first phase, she will still eat the audience.
*If Mario reduces the audience because the player got a Bingo! from a Poison Mushroom, Hooktail could regain less than 10 HP.
*In the second part of the fight, if Mario or his allies attack Hooktail's head, some of the Toads she ate will be spat out and flee.
de:Lohgard
fr:Carbocroc
fi:Hooktail
es:Gombaba
it:Crimilde
Category:Dragons
Category:Bosses in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door