Whips look somewhat like snakes or tentacles on their own, and seem to dart out and "bite" or coil around targets when used. This is usually only a metaphorical resemblance, but some works make it much more explicit by including whips that are literally snakelike. These can range in the whip-to-snake ratio, ranging from whips that possess incidental serpentine traits (usually resembling regular whips with snake heads) to snakelike bodies attached to a handle to living serpents wielded like whips.
The primary notable trait of these serpentine whips is the ability to physically grab onto the things they're whipped at, either by coiling around them or by biting down. Due to this, they may be also usable as equivalents to grappling hooks. In some cases, the snake used as a whip may be venomous, which will give their use in battle a certain extra bite.
The weapons' status as living things is variable. They're almost always portrayed as being at least able to bite down on things of their own volition, but whether they're treated as simply fancy objects or actual living creatures in themselves tends to vary from case to case. In general, the more the entire thing resembles a snake the more it's likely to be portrayed as a living animal.
Depending on the individual whip's portrayal, this may overlap with either Animate Inanimate Object or Equippable Ally. May be a Poisoned Weapon. Compare Serpent Staff. See also Lightning Lash, Whip of Dominance and Whip Sword for other tropes regarding whips.
Not to be confused with the real-life snake genus known as whip snakes
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Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Bleach:
- Renji's zanpakuto, Zabimaru, normally turns into a whiplike blade. Its advanced form, Hihio Zabimaru, instead turns into a colossal serpent that fires energy blasts from its mouth.
- Ryo Utagawa's Doll is a golden snake named Fried that can transform into a sword, shield, or whip.
- Hunter × Hunter: While in the Heaven's Arena, Killua fights Riehlvelt, a man armed with two snake-headed, electrified whips.
- Sakigake!! Otokojuku: Fuuketsu is The Beast Master with close affinity with venomous snakes, which he wields as weapons.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V: One monster Yuya frequently uses, at least early on, is Performapal Whip Snake. He frequently uses it as an Equippable Ally to get a mobility boost in Action Duels.
Fan Works
- Codex Equus: When not using her whip, Queen Sekra of Hatshetpsutra transforms it into a living, golden serpent of impressive length, which she keeps wrapped around her neck and chest.
Folklore
- Pecos Bill, a legendary Texan cowboy famous for his multiple exaggerated adventures, is reputed to have wrangled a giant rattlesnake and squeezed out all its venom, after which he used the cowed creature as a lasso. Some versions also have him use a smaller rattler as a bull-whip.
Literature
- Animorphs: In Book #14, Marco (in gorilla morph) swings Ax (in rattlesnake morph) like a whip at Controllers.
- The Dark Elf Trilogy: Drow high priestesses use six-thonged, living, snake-headed whips that deliver poison when they bite.
- New Jedi Order: The primary weapon of Yuuzhan Vong warriors is the amphistaff, a biologically engineered snakelike creature that can be induced to stiffen and loosen by hand gestures from its wielder. When stiff, amphistaffs can be used as quarterstaffs or hurled like poisonous, biting spears; when loose, they're wielded like whips and will attempt to actively ensnare and entangle foes that they're directed at.
Mythology & Religion
- Aztec Mythology: Xiuhcoatl is a fire serpent, sometimes depicted as a weapon being wielded by the god Huītzilōpōchtli.
- Classical Mythology: The Thebaid describes Tishiphone the Erinye as wielding a live water-snake as a lash.
Tabletop Games
- Chaotic has the attack card Viperlash, which consists of several cobras wielded as living weapons and which can also be used as grapplers to prevent oneself from falling.
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- Explorer's Guide to Wildemount: The Lash of Shadows is one of the Arms of the Betrayers, associated with the serpent god Zehir in the Exandria setting. It's a snakeskin whip that ends in five animated snake heads, and its strikes can inflict various types of magical poison onto its victims.
- Forgotten Realms: The drow cleric Quenthel Baenre uses a whip consisting of several living snakes, with each snake being possessed by a demon, giving them sapience.
- Ravenloft: Pre-5e, Larissa Snowmane wields a whip gifted to her by Anton Misroi that turns into a snake when used, but requires a bit of her blood to activate.
- Pathfinder:
- The demon lord Abraxas, who is strongly associated with serpents and serpentine monsters, is sometimes depicted wielding a whip that ends in a living snake's head. One of the boons he grants his followers, Fanged Lash, causes any whip or lash they wield to grow scales and a snake's head capable of poisoning those it strikes.
- Empusae can manifest a whip-like weapon that appears to be a coiling serpent, whose strikes poison targets.
Video Games
- Bayonetta: One of the weapons that can be used is "Kulshedra", a whip that contains the soul of an "ancient serpentine demon", and which resembles a cobra with a handle at the tip of its tail. Its greatest advantage is its range and crowd-control ability, and Bayonetta can use it to snare and drag in distant enemies. Jeanne, an alternate character, has "Vritra", a Palette Swap that functions exactly the same.
- Castlevania Chronicles: Being a literal Mirror Match, Simon's doppelganger naturally fights identically to him, and by extension the rest of the Belmont family. But instead of a leather whip or a morning star, his primary weapon is a snake.
- Crude Buster: The boss of the first level wears a giant snake that he can both whip you with and throw at you.
- Earthworm Jim: Jim (ClayFighter appearances included) creates a worm version of this when he uses himself as a whip to attack or grab the ceiling to move by having his supersuit grabs his body and fling it like a whip.
- An Egyptian Tale: The second boss, the priestess, attempts to rough you up with a whip that can transform into a giant asp's head at will, capable of inflicting Poison status on your heroine if she scores a direct hit.
- EXTRAPOWER: Davie's weapon of choice in Attack of Darkforce is the Snake Whip, which transforms into a snake's head to bite the foe. It doesn't make him any less of the muggle though, when up against shadow creatures and robot armies and super-powered aliens.
- Gems of War: Matron Velenne wields a multi-headed scourge tipped with live serpent heads.
- The Genius Of Sappheiros: Sanae's personal weapon is a snake she uses as a whip and which inflicts and protects against poison or paralysis.
- The Gladiator: Hsi-Men, one of the bosses, use a whip made from a blue serpent as his weapon.
- Granblue Fantasy: Stheno the gorgon's weapon is a whip that is actually a pair of flaming snakes.
- Hissatsu Buraiken have an unnamed mercenary boss in the jungle stage whose weapon is a green boa-constrictor he uses as a whip.
- King Arthur & the Knights of Justice: Viper's summonable weapon is a snake that functions as a whip. He doesn't use it very often, favoring his sword.
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: The whip that Link acquires ends in a fanged snake head capable of grabbing objects it's whipped at. This allows Link to grab onto distant supports to swing himself across gaps, snatch shields away from enemies, and battle the boss Phytops by throwing objects at him.
- Mother 3: Duster uses Rope Snake as a grappling version of this, allowing him to swing across gaps in a dilapidated castle. On two different occasions in the game's second half, the entire party has to use Rope Snake to grapple onto an aircraft, but both times it can't support their combined weight. Having thus dishonored its ancestors, it changes its name to Snake Rope and mopes.
- Skullgirls: Deep Violet's whip, Pazuzu, is a whip with a viper's head, complete with fangs.
- Super Smash Bros.: Lucas uses Rope Snake as his grab attack. In addition to serving as a way to grab distant characters and pull them closer, Rope Snake can be used to grab ledges from which Lucas can swing or to prevent him from falling into bottomless pits.
- Under Night In-Birth: Phonon's pet snake can transform into an incredibly long whip.
- West of Loathing: The Snake Oiler class starts out with the Snakewhip combat skill, a Fixed Damage Attack that also applies a poison effect to its target.
Web Original
- Neopets: Played with by the Kazeriu Whip, which resembles the setting's equivalent to an Eastern dragon.
