Basic Trope: Reptiles are usually associated with evil.
- Straight:
- The supervillain Lisa Lizard and her lizard-themed henchmen are trying to take over the world. They're the only reptile-themed characters in the story.
- King Blackstone's evil Snake People and Lizard Folk armies are trying to take over the world. They're the only reptile races in the story.
- The characters constantly distrust entirely innocent Snake People and Lizard Folk peasants, assuming they're evil, out of Fantastic Racism.
- Exaggerated:
- EVERY reptile in the world is an Always Chaotic Evil Card-Carrying Villain that wants to take over the world, and has no redeeming qualities.
- EVERY villain in the world uses a reptile motif and has reptile pets.
- Downplayed:
- The heroes stop the evil Snake People army from taking over the world. They are aided by virtuous Lizard Folk.
- Some villains have a reptile motif. Others don't.
- Lisa Lizard is an obvious Anti-Hero, but still on the side of good.
- The Snake People are dangerous to the heroes, but only if they're attacked. Otherwise, they keep to themselves.
- On a team of heroes that otherwise consists of mammals and/or birds, Lisa Lizard is the Token Evil Teammate.
- Justified: Lizard Folk are the Always Chaotic Evil spawn of humans mating with Infernal demons, and therefore nobody trusts them.
- Inverted:
- Reptiles are the only good guys in the story. Everyone else is a Jerkass, and the bad guys are either mammals or birds (even though birds are technically reptiles).
- Lovable Lizard
- Delightful Dragon
- Subverted: The heroes have to stop the evil Snake People terrorists from taking over the world. But when the heroes' army invades Snakeland, they discover that King Slither and his virtuous Snake People army have been trying the whole time to stamp out terrorism in Snakeland. Most Snake People are decent.
- Double Subverted: The heroes have to stop the evil Snake People terrorists from taking over the world. When the heroes invade Snakeland, they discover that King Slither and his Snake People army have been trying to stop terrorism. Then later it turns out that Slither and his army secretly want to mutate everybody in the world into mindless slaves by selling them drugged food products. Terrorism just isn't subtle enough.
- Parodied: Lisa Lizard and her kin perform low-grade acts of evil such as jaywalking and kicking old ladies in the shin.
- Zig-Zagged: Slither joins the good guys, but then turns out to be The Mole ... only for the team to be saved by Pythus, a heroic snake-man. Pythus later turns on them ... until they manage to break him free of King Blackstone's Mind Control.
- Averted:
- Pythus is a reptile on the side of good.
- Reptile-themed characters are no more likely than non-reptilians to be villains.
- The heroes have to stop the evil Snake People terrorists from taking over the world. They are aided by King Slither and his virtuous Snake People army, who want to stamp out terrorism in Snakeland.
- There are no reptile-themed characters in the series.
- Enforced: The author's biggest fear is of reptiles so they think reptiles would be scarier villains.
- Lampshaded: "Why is it that reptiles are the only evil animals? Is it something in the water in Snakeland?"
- Invoked: Evil King Blackstone tricks the heroes into attacking his arch-enemy Lisa Lizard by framing her for a crime. The evidence is shoddy, but they assume Lisa is evil because she's a lizard. Blackstone correctly predicts the heroes will fall for it because ReptilesAreAbhorrent.
- Exploited: The villains breed and capture reptiles to fill out their army.
- Defied: Lisa Lizard decides her species doth protest too much and becomes a Defector from Decadence. She may be an Anti-Hero who struggles with her "unnatural" moral code, but with the help of her friends and allies she stays on the side of good.
- Discussed: "Lisa Lizard betraying us ... We should've guessed. It's her nature as a reptile."
- Conversed: "So a six-foot-tall tool-using reptile is an acceptable character, but a six-foot-tall tool-using reptile with empathy is absurd?"
- Implied: In the peaceful, good villages, no snakes are to be found. But whenever the villains' armies show up, you can hear hissing sounds from the crowd, even if no lizardfolk are ever shown.
- Deconstructed: Due to their Always Chaotic Evil nature, a genocide against all reptilians is started across the world, even the ones who turn to be not so bad.
- Reconstructed: See Defied; enough reptilians join the unofficial forces against evil that they are spared once the heroes can prove their relative innocence, or at least can hide in a remote part of the world where they live on as a species without any Adam and Eve plots until the vitriol against lizards runs out.
- Played for Drama: One of the main heroes turns out to be of part-lizard heritage, leading to uneasiness.
- Played for Laughs: Reptiles are Harmless Villains who barely succeed at Poke the Poodle acts and fail spectacularly when they try to do true evil.
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