Hooktail's pretty cool. Out of all of the Mario dragons, she's definitely one of my favorites, with her silly yet sinister character and unique papercraft design. Though, for this piece, I decided to draw her as more of a traditional dragon, without the papercraft elements, because that just seemed like a pain to draw. So just imagine this as a version of her that would appear in a non-paper Mario game, if she ever made that sort of cameo.

Though, a lot about her leaves me with questions. Mainly in regards to who you save after defeating her, Koopley. Apparently, ten years prior, he had nearly defeated Hooktail, but she tricked him into sniffing her feet and gobbled him up. First of all, damn, he must've been down bad, but secondly, how did he survive in her belly for an entire decade? He says he just hid in his shell, which I guess would explain it, but then, why couldn't all of the other Koopas Hooktail ate do the same? You encounter an entire army of Dry Bones in her castle, which are assumedly her past victims, and I sincerely doubt none of them would think to pull the same maneuver. Maybe Koopley is just built different, but... I don't know. I feel like something has to be going on that we don't know about.

There's also not much explanation for what happens after you defeat her— she just disappears from her castle. She didn't leave behind a skeleton or anything, so I don't think she died. Maybe she fled to find another village to terrorize, one where the people she preys upon don't have shells that sit like rocks in her stomach.