Kaa

**Kaa** is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 1967 animated feature film *The Jungle Book*. He is an enormous snake with an equally large appetite—specifically for Mowgli the man cub. Kaa's most dangerous attributes are his hypnotic eyes, which he uses to manipulate unsuspecting prey and lure them into his jaws.

## Appearance

Kaa is an Indian python that has grown to be extremely long for a member of his species. While his exact size is unknown, in the original book he is described as more than 30ft long. His eyes are yellow and fill with concentric circles of blue, yellow and purple when using hypnosis. He has golden scales and a lighter underbelly, and dark brown spots patterned across his back. Despite having a large body, Kaa's head and neck are small in comparison, although his mouth is large enough to take up most of his head. Kaa can dislocate his jaw to open his mouth wide enough to swallow prey far larger than his head, although this must be done head-first.

## Personality

Kaa is a sly, devious Indian Rock Python. He speaks with a soft, often entrancing tone to either lure his victims into a weary, dreamlike state or manipulate them into bestowing their trust, only to devour them unexpectedly. He furthers this by the use of his iconic ability to hypnotize his prey with his eyes, rendering them enchanted and under his command. A powerful and dangerous ability, Kaa is a feared inhabitant of the jungle. This is evidenced when the usually composed and fearless Bagheera was visibly terrified and pleaded with him when the panther stopped him from eating Mowgli. Such fear, however, does not resonate with the unofficial ruler of the jungle, Shere Khan the tiger. Kaa holds a disliking for Khan, seeing him as a hypocrite and believing the act of killing for pleasure—as opposed to survival—to be dishonorable. The two beasts are often at odds, though Shere Khan views Kaa as an "eyes and ears" of the jungle, relying on him to assist his search for Mowgli at one point in the film.

While not inherently malevolent, Kaa is still a fairly villainous character. His first attempt to devour Mowgli was a casual and opportunistic means to eat and survive. However, his later goal to eat the man-cub was mainly driven out of spite, swearing revenge on the boy after his first attempt to eat Mowgli ended in humiliating defeat. Furthermore, he is perfectly willing to kill those who get in the way of his meals, as seen when he hypnotized and almost harmed Bagheera.

Kaa appears to be playfully sadistic, emphasized by how he gloats over Mowgli's helpless situation as he prepared to devour him. He displayed even more sadism towards Shanti as he did not only gloat over her helplessness, but also outright revealed to her that he intended to eat her knowing she was unable to do anything about it. He enjoys teasing and playing with his food, hypnotized or not. He playfully tugged at Mowgli's wrists and ankles to stop him from escaping, and later savoured the time before the kill when he hypnotized the man-cub and made him sleepwalk over his body.

Nevertheless, Kaa seems to insist on giving his victims a merciful end as he hypnotizes them into a state of bliss or sleep before eating them. Although powerful enough to choke the life out of his victims, he prefers to swallow them alive and whole unable to feel pain or fear. Kaa has even admitted to himself that he is sympathetic towards Mowgli to a certain extent, before remembering his own intentions to make a meal out of the boy.

Though dangerous, manipulative and cunning, Kaa is not without his faults. Although he only hypnotized Mowgli when he was sure Bagheera was too sleepy to notice him, it was his own cockiness that woke the panther and made him lose his supper. He can be clumsy and easily sidetracked from his primary objective: to hypnotize and eat Mowgli. This results in his interactions with the man-cub to often end in humiliation to some degree.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Hypnosis/Mind Control:** Kaa's most infamous power is his unique ability to hypnotize others through eye contact and have them follow his commands. Unlike the original book where Kaa could hypnotize others through the "Hunger Dance" and could only hypnotize animals, Kaa here hypnotized with colored spirals and could hypnotize humans as well. Once fully hypnotized, his victims enter a trance with glassy-eyes and wide smiles on their faces which would persist even after falling asleep. This ability also works when someone sees their reflection in the water. However, his powers are not without limits. His victims' susceptibility relies on needing to make eye contact with them, which Kaa must coax through speech if they're unwilling to look. The effectiveness also depends on the victim's willpower and awareness. Mowgli was less susceptible due to his stubborn nature and strong will, but was still worn down over an extended period of hypnosis. This has prompted Kaa to use his cunning to either make the boy too relaxed to fight back by providing him with comfort from the coils or to trick him into accidentally look into his eyes without time to react. Whereas Shanti, despite being very intelligent and mature, was immediately entranced due to her low willpower as a result of spending most of her life being a perfect daughter and submitting to rules and authority. The hypnosis was so effective on her that Kaa was able to puppeteer her, something he could never do with Mowgli. However, Shere Khan's willpower appears to be so high that he is immune to the hypnosis.
* **Powerful Coils:** As a constrictor, Kaa makes use of his powerful coils to catch and immobilize prey. While pythons will typically squeeze their prey to the point of suffocation or cardiac arrest, Kaa seems to prefer to swallow his prey alive and uses his coils in tandem with hypnosis to ensnare a victim. Kaa's entire body is extremely dexterous, able to form themselves into all sorts of shapes including hammocks, crosses and stair cases. Kaa often uses his delicate control of the coils to relax the victim and provide comfort to them by wrapping his coils gently around them, thus making them tender for consumption. They are also very strong; Kaa was able to perfectly balance Mowgli upside down on the tip on his tail without effort and can very easily climb trees. The coils are, however, very heavy. They have dragged him down to the ground when dislodged from tree branches on more than one occasion, and he has not appeared to notice Mowgli shoving them off tree branches until it was too late.

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

He appeared in Sora’s Adventures in Kipling Jungle

## Trivia

* Kaa means "possession" in Hindi.
* Kaa doesn’t control the Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed.