"The user attacks by striking the target with its hard tail. It hits the target two to five times in a row."
— In-game description of the move Tail Slap, Pokémon
There are reasons most vertebrates have tails. They can propel you through the water, free up your other limbs for multitasking, are great for balancing, can bait predator and prey alike, are good for showing your intentions, and they can swat flies. Why stop there? If it works on a small pest, why not a larger one? You may not have the thumbs necessary for cracking a whip or swinging a chain, but your tail can be a formidable Natural Weapon.
Prehensile Tails can be flexible enough to hit things, but not all of them are powerful enough to be effective deterrents. See Beware My Stinger Tail when tails have a weapon attached for added power. Also compare Combat Tentacles.
Contrast Ass Kicks You when a character lacks a tail but attacks with their posterior anyway.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Bleach, Ulquiorra's second form has a tail which he uses for slamming people into the ground and holding people up by the throat, let alone the fact it looks like a whip.
- Digimon:
- It's hard to notice, but Renamon whips one of the Flybeemon with her tail in Digimon Tamers.
- Also, as Kyubimon she whips Vajramon with her nine tails later on. Earlier, Allomon does this to her.
- Mihiramon's main attack is Samurai Tiger Tail, which he uses on Kyubimon and Gargomon. He uses his Armored Tiger Tail against War Growlmon who blocks most of the hits before grabbing him by it.
- Dragon Ball:
- Dragon Ball Z has Goku, Giran, Korin, Raditz, and Frieza do this. Usually for comedy early on (Saiyan tails are short, skinny little furry things that - without proper training - cause serious pain if even grabbed), but when a villain attacks with their tail, it's usually very serious (Frieza's tail is long, thick, and muscular enough to deal serious damage with a strike, or be used to constrict and asphyxiate someone, while Cell's tail, in addition to being similarly powerful, is tipped with a syringe that allows him to impale people and slowly absorb them).
- Beerus, introduced in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and reintroduced in Dragon Ball Super, has a tail similar to Frieza's but somewhat less brawny and more whiplike. Because of his massive power he doesn't need to use it, but can if it suits him. In episode 18, Beerus hits Goku with his tail in his sleep while he and Vegeta are trying to change his sheets.
- A somewhat different example of this shows up in a particular arc of Gintama, where Katsura and Gintoki have been turned into cats, and both them end up tearing off their tails and using them as improvised weapons. The former somehow manages to slice through a steel cage to free Gintoki and Kondo, but when he uses it against some Mooks, it's just a blunt weapon. One is probably better off not knowing what Kondo (who's been turned into a gorilla) decides to improvise as a weapon, though...
Kondo: Bring it on, you scum! I will show you the power of the Force!
Gintoki: THAT'S NOT THE FORCE, IT'S JUST YOUR FILTHY HOSE!!! - The Lizard Priest from Goblin Slayer belongs to an intelligent species of lizard people. He is also an adventurer and very strong. His tail is so muscular that he can not only use it in combat, but also effortlessly kills several goblins with tail blows.
- The Chimera Ant King in Hunter × Hunter is one of the most powerful beings on earth and is fond of striking down anyone and anything that annoys him. His long needle-pointed tail can turn almost anyone it hits into a red mist and he is more than happy to use it.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
- Stone Ocean: When fighting against Sports Maxx, Ermes is attacked by an invisible crocodile that strikes her with its tail.
- Steel Ball Run: Upon unveiling his Scary Monsters form, Diego immediately assaults Gyro with a tail-attack that sends him flying out the building.
- In an early chapter of Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Kuroe undergoes a Partial Transformation into Harugon in which she starts to grow a tail. Later, after helping with the clean-up following a P.E. session she awkwardly sat out to hide said tail, she gets locked in the gym closet by several bullies jealous of her relationship with Arata Minami. Arata himself eventually arrives to free her, but before he can fully open the door, Kuroe slaps it back closed before he can see her in her current state.
- Several Robeasts from Mazinger Z (such like Danchel or Deltan V8) and Great Mazinger (such like the whole Reptilian Warrior Beasts division) were endowed with powerful tails, capable to hit or coil around the enemy and strangle it. Often they had some weapon attached or shot missiles, acid or poison.
- In Monster Rancher, this is one of Suezo's primary attacks. Poritoka has a legendary variant of this.
- Gray Wolf whips Tiger in the eyes with his tail, blinding him during their battle.
- Naga does this to Genki and Mocchi as well.
- In My Hero Academia, Mashirao Ojiro's power manifests itself as a large, prehensile tail. He uses it in combination with his martial arts skills, usually in the form of a tail slap. Given that his tail is much thicker and more muscular than his arms or legs, it packs quite the whallop.
- The Nine-tailed Fox's tails in Naruto are incredibly strong, sharp, and hot; they can devastate mountains and raise tsunamis, as well as pierce human flesh and leave chakra behind, which repeatedly burns and heals the affected area.
- In One Piece, the Tontatta Tribe of dwarves are small enough to fit in the palm of a human hand, and yet possess enough strength to hammer someone into the ground with their tails.
- In Pokémon the Series, Ash's Charmeleon, Giant Onix, Crystal Onix, Nurse Joy's Gyarados, and the pink Nidoking all - on separate occasions - whip Team Rocket with their tails to send them blasting off.
- This is how Pikachu defeats Lt. Surge's Raichu in Pokémon: The Original Series.
- In Advanced Generation, Pikachu learns the Iron Tail move, where it charges its tail (in later episodes the tail has an actual iron effect to it) and whips the enemy with it, a technique Pikachu uses frequently afterwards.
- The Bikaku-type kagune in Tokyo Ghoul is essentially a tail, and described as the most balanced of the four types. It isn't as dramatic or powerful as the other types, but in exchange lacks any distinct weaknesses. Nishio uses his to strike at Kaneki from a distance, as well as wrapping it around his leg to make his kicks more powerful. In the Prequel Jack there's another bikaku type, Lantern, who uses theirs to, not only attack from a distance, but also to propel themself forwards and into the air.
Comic Books
- The Lizard's copycat Komodo from The Avengers stories is capable of this.
- The Lizard likes to do this in Spider-Man stories.
Comic Strips
- Garfield once does this to a spider, saying that he learned it from a Jersey cow.
Fan Works
- Godzilla fanfiction Abraxas: Over the course of the story, multiple Titans have used their tails offensively in this manner. Monster X, Godzilla (just like in MonsterVerse canon, he favors using this move in a fight), MaNi/Elder Brother and Keizer Ghidorah, and Manda can use his tail to deliver a venomous sting even as an infant. Downplayed when Rodan attempts to bat Monster X's heads in their faces with his short, fan-like tail. In Vivienne's first Nightmare Sequence, a Tyrannosaurus is using the Tail Slap defensively.
- All Might’s newly acquired tail thanks to All for One attempting to make him into a nomu is useful for this in I Am…
series. He uses it against Aizawa when he arrives on campus frightened and desperate to get medical attention for the nurse who was forced to work for the villains and who helped him. Aizawa is attempting to restrain All Might with his capture scarf as he has no idea yet what the clawed, tailed creature is or (once Izuku recognizes All Might) if he’s still in his right mind.
- Of The Earthling Saiyan: The Saiyans often use their tails as weapons, both in their normal form and in their Oozaru form. Their tails are their strongest limb, so if well trained, they can do more damage than opponents expect.
- Rango fanfiction Old West: Grace weaponizes her tail this way several times, like against a rustler and several members of Bad Bill's gang.
Films — Animation
- Dinosaur:
- At the end, Aladar use his tail to attack the Carnotaurus. At one of these battles the Carnotaurus also did the same thing to Aladar.
- In addition to Aladar, Kron does before the carnotaur kills him, and earlier on, so does Bruton.
- Fantasia: In the "Rite of Spring" segment, a Stegosaurus uses its spiked tail to defend itself against a T. rex.
- Kung Fu Panda: Master Viper's fighting style is based primarily around this, despite being a viper. However, this is justified due to her being born without her species' trademark venomous fangs.
- The Land Before Time:
- Littlefoot's mother in the first movie (see the dinosaur Real Life example below). And not just her, all adult sauropods in the franchise use their tail as their preferred method of combat.
- And then Dil does the same to Ichy in Journey Through the Mists, sending him flying off into the distance.
- Shortly before, Spike does this to Ichy, sending him into Dil's mouth.
- Shrek the Third: Dragon uses a variant of this where she whips a tower with her tail, causing it to fall and crush Prince Charming.
- Son of Batman: Batman encounters Killer Croc with a Prehensile Tail, implied to have been created by a Mad Scientist he's working for. He puts it to immediate use, either trying to crush Batman with his tail or using it to throw things at him.
Batman: The tail's new.
Killer Croc: Yeah, got an upgrade! - The Super Mario Bros. Movie:
- Just like the games, Mario uses his tail to attack with the Tanooki Suit power-up. Including a tail attack on a Bomber Bill's eye.
- Bowser also does this to Mario in the final battle, sending him flying through the pizzeria window and into the wall.
- Toy Story 2: Rex gives Emperor Zurg one (accidentally), knocking him off an elevator (though the latter survives and also redeems).
- In Turning Red, Mei does this accidentally when she first turns into a giant red panda knocking items off the counter top and pictures off the wall.
- White Snake: A common form of attack from the snake characters. Of note, Blanca gives a hard one to the Daiost's mount, sending his Feathered Fiend mount flying.
Films — Live-Action
- Beware My Stinger Tail usually applies to the Xenomorphs, but a Neomorph uses this trope to rip off a man's jaw in Alien: Covenant.
- Alligator: The eponymous bio-enhanced menace lethally smacks several people with tail-swipes, including the Corrupt Corporate Executive who was inadvertantly responsible for the gator's being enhanced.
- Many, many, MANY instances of it in Anaconda (1997).
- Although not specifically structured as a weapon, Clover's tail in Cloverfield took out the Brooklyn Bridge with one swipe.
- Godzilla:
- Godzilla will sometimes attack this way, usually using it to knock back opponents or catch them off-guard, but he uses it as his finishing blow against the male MUTO in Godzilla (2014), coupled with Impaled with Extreme Prejudice (it was slammed into a skyscraper and got a support beam through its spine).
- Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla: Spacegodzilla's long tail lets him grab and throw things, something his short arms can't do.
- Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.: Kiryu is one of the few Mechagodzilla incarnations who can pull off this kind of attack due to actually having a long, fully functional tail. At one point, a single lash from it sends Godzilla crashing into a building.
- In the novelization of the MonsterVerse movie Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), Mokele-Mbembe's thin, whiplike tail takes up two-thirds of his body length and is a devastating weapon — slicing clean through a pyramid and swatting fighter jets out of the sky.
- Shimo performs this occasionally, and it’s made even more dangerous by the spiked thagomizer at her tailtip.
- The Raptors in Jurassic Park occasionally, but they use their claws more.
- In the MonsterVerse movie Kong: Skull Island, a Skullcrawler whips its tail into the soldier who's using a flamethrower on it, the force in the blow knocking the man clean off his feet and sending him flying. The Skullcrawler also shortly afterwards slams its tail into the ground and creates a shockwave powerful enough to throw a nearby soldier at least eighteen feet into the air.
- The crocodile does this to Kelly in Lake Placid.
- In Lockjaw: Rise of the Kulev Serpent, the serpent kills Clayton by stabbing its tail through his chest from behind while he is screwing Ashley.
- The Snake Prince have the titular character reverting to his monstrous form of a gigantic snake as result of exposure to sulphureous smoke. Facing a mob armed with Torches and Pitchforks, the prince held them at bay by lashing out with his tail, since his upper body is too paralyzed to put up a decent fight.
- The Super Shark from Syfy's Super Shark attacks this way, which would be fine (see real life) except that it does not seem to be based off a species known for it. Then again, it is "super".
Literature
- Animorphs:
- Andalites fight by attacking their opponent with their tail, at the end of which there is a long blade. Male andalites tend to have a larger tail blade than female ones. It later turns out that the tail blades have an important cultural meaning for the andalites.
- Garatrons look similar enough to Andalites that the Animorphs speculate that the two species are related, though one noticeable difference is that Garatrons don't have a tail blade. The lack of a tail blade doesn't mean the tail is harmless, as Garatrons use it as a heavy lash.
- Hork-Bajirs also have a tail, which is not only very muscular but also equipped with blades. However, since the tail is very short, they can only attack opponents who are right behind them.
- Late in the plot, a girl named Colette also gains the strength to turn into animals. She prefers to fight as a crocodile, and also beats her opponents with her long, strong tail.
- Bazil Broketail: Dragons of Argonath do perform this, though not too often, preferring to rely on their swords. In an unusual variation of this trope, their tails are dexterous enough to wield additional weapons — sword or mace.
- Dinoverse: Having been placed in the body of a sauropod, Zane's tail is quite a weapon. Unfortunately he's too prone to panic to use it effectively.
- Earth's Scariest Monsters!: During their fight in "Divine Conflict," Malphas (an evil fire demon from Hell) tries to slam Melody (an angel) with his tail. She blocks it with one of her wings.
- Harry Potter: As the name implies, the tail of the Hungarian Horntail is covered in jagged spikes that it doesn't hesitate to use as a weapon. In the book, Harry gets injured when caught by one of the spikes, while in the film, the Horntail throws Harry around like a ragdoll using its tail.
Charlie Weasley: I don't envy whoever gets the Horntail... Its back end's as dangerous as the front.
- Taratzes in Maddrax occasionally attack with their tails. They can move it very agile.
- Raptor Red by Robert T Bakker uses the Diplodocus version, calling them "whip-tails".
- Redwall:
- Otters frequently use their tails as a weapon; the strongest and most skilled can knock an enemy unconscious with a single slap from their tail.
- Cluny, the first Big Bad in the series, combines this with Beware My Stinger Tail. He wears a poisoned barb on the end of his tail which he uses as a lethal weapon. Also, shortly after his first appearance, he gives one of his underlings a tail-lashing for insubordination.
- World's Greatest Animals: In "Reluctant Dragon," Komodo dragon Varanus uses his strong tail to smack around the zoologists who keep pestering him. He later does the same to Ivor in "The Grand Hunt."
Live-Action TV
- How the Mayor kills Larry in the Season 3 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Dinosaurs: Four-legger Monica gets a job as a tree pusher at Earl's job site. She can knock over a whole lot of trees at once by slapping with her tail.
- Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger: Zyuoh TheWorld's "Beast Unleashed" mode activates three kinds of Anatomy Arsenal, including a crocodile tail on his right arm that lets him do this.
- Kamen Rider:
- Kamen Rider OOO's Putotyra Combo gives him a beefy Tyrannosaurus tail with which to smack enemies around; its Finishing Move involves freezing the enemy solid then smashing them with said tail.
- Kamen Rider Wizard's Water Dragon Style does the same thing, except that (obviously) it's a dragon tail rather than a T-rex's.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Tyrannosaurus Dinozord and the Dragonzord do this a lot, the Dragonzord especially. It once tail-whipped a giant-size monster so hard the monster was sent flying from the seabed onto the beach. To make things really suck for the monsters, the Dragonzord's tail has a high-speed drill on the end.
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996): In "You Slay Me", Sabrina gets a magic wedding dress that causes her lower half to become that of a dragon the more she behaves like a Bridezilla. A minor Running Gag involves her swatting Salem with her dragon tail after he makes a crack at her expense.
Sabrina: Huh, there may be an advantage to this thing after all.
Salem: You know what they say: "A cat always lands on his face." - Many of the kaiju in the various Ultra Series. It tends to overlap with Prehensile Tail, but not always, as seen with Gomora from the original Ultraman, who excels at using it to pummel both Ultraman and other monsters.
Mythology & Religion
- The tail is something most people forget about when depicting the Behemoth, except for those who think it was a dinosaur. Most sources depict it as an hippopotamus or a bull, animals most definitely not known for powerful tails. Though some scholars propose that the line is not intended to be read as the behemoth having a massive tail like a cedar tree, but one that bends and shakes like a cedar bough in the wind.
- A Salvadoran folk legend tells of men who go on to find an amulet only known as "la piedra" (lit. "the stone"), which will make its wielder invincible at machete duels. To obtain it, the prospect must find a snake known as "zumbadora" ("buzzer") —named after its ability to bury its head on the ground before whipping its rival with its tail at such speed it emits loud buzzing sounds— and "challenge" it into a fight by covering its lair to keep it in for a week and cleaning up the area in front of it to serve as an "arena". Afterwards, the challenger must enter only armed with a wooden stick three spans long and a white handkerchief before uncovering the lair. If he endures seven whiplashes without being hit, the snake will tire out and start retching, which will be his cue to extend his handkerchief for the snake to vomit the stone into. However, there's a caveat: the winner must keep it a secret in order to keep its power.
Pro Wrestling
- The "Yoshi tail sweep" is a signature move of Chikara's Dragon Dragon.
- Solo Darling has done so by dizzily spinning around after attaching a tail. This was refined into the "tailspin DDT".
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: A 1st Edition Dragon magazine article gives dragons a tail attack usable against creatures directly behind them. In 2nd Edition this is officially added to the game.
- Magic: The Gathering: "Dragons of Tarkir" adds a spell titled Tail Slash, allowing a creature you control to deal direct damage to an opponent's creature.
- In Hc Svnt Dracones Vectors with long enough tails have tail attacks. Though aside from reptiles it doesn't have enough weight behind it to act as more than a distraction.
- Pathfinder: Tail slap attacks are common additions for creatures with long tails. Havoc dragons are especially well-suited to using their long tails as lashing whips, and can use them to trip their foes. Old havoc dragons gain additionally powerful tail attacks, which deal three times the damage they would under normal conditions.
Theme Parks
- This is how the titular fight of Godzilla vs. Evangelion: The Real 4-D at Universal Studios Japan ends: Godzilla, fed up with the constant interference of Shinji, Rei, and Asuka in their respective EVAs, slaps them away with his tail so he could fire his atomic breath at King Ghidorah without them getting in the way.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: In the final fight against C's Draconic Abomination form, Nidhogg, one his attacks is swiping his tail with powerful force to deliver knockback damage upon hitting his target.
- Battleborn: While technically identified as a tentacle, Pendles' quick melee attack is kind of a tail slap since the tentacle looks like a regular snake's tail.
- Battle for Wesnoth: The campaign unit Merman Brawlers can use their fish tails to hit and stun their enemies, slowing them. Also, the downloadable setting "Era of Magic" has the lizardfolk's Chaos Riders, who can use their Chaos Wyverns to perform a "tail sweep" at the enemies.
- BlazBlue: Makoto (a squirrel girl) does this in some of her grab attacks.
- Brütal Legend: The Punishing Party's Dominatrices are seen using their tails to whip up their slave (referred to as "Pin Boy") during their introduction in the main game.
- Cavern of Dreams: Fynn's primary attack has him spin in a circle to hit things with his tail.
- Chrono Trigger: One of Ayla's abilities summons a dino so huge you can only see its tail swinging across the screen, and does more more damage the closer she is to death.
- Conker's Bad Fur Day: The Final Boss can use its tail to attack Conker this way. And before the latter equips with a space suit, this attack can kill him instantly.
- Darkstalkers: More of a tail-jab, Felicia's standing LP.
- Dino Crisis: Some of the dinosaurs can use their tails to smack Regina and knock her down. The same attack also has a chance to knock her gun out of her hand, effectively disarming her until you swap to another gun or retrieve your dropped weapon.
- Dino Strike (Wii) have ankylosauruses as enemies, who attacks either by ramming you or using their clubbed tails.
- Dota 2: Usually, the "Dragon Tail" ability of Dragon Knight is a short-range Shield Bash that stuns and lightly damages the target enemy, but in Elder Dragon form the ability receives increased cast range and changes into a quick tail whip from under the Eldwurm's body.
- Dragon Quest: Dragon monsters such as Great Dragons and Black Dragons in Dragon Quest V and Flythons, Diethons, and Sail Serpents in Dragon Quest VI attack this way. Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI give the Night Clubber, Great Dragon, Heligator, and Frou-Frou monster families, as well as Rashaverak and the Dragonlord's true form in the former game Tail Slap, which can also be used by players in the Dragon Magician Master Vocation after transforming into Dragons with the Puff! Pep Power. Said former game also introduces Tail of Woe, which is used by the Raptile and Jurassic Lloyd monster families, as well as Doggudura, a Unique Enemy encountered in the Netherworld.
- EarthBound (1994): Crocodile-like enemies can "swing their tail very hard" as an attack.
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Dragons gained this ability after a patch, along with Wing Attack. This allowed them to hit you even when you are not standing directly in front of them.
- Endless Ocean: Despite aggressively baring their teeth, the sharks' attacks just consist of whipping you with their tails, knocking off part of your oxygen gauge.
- Final Fantasy X has a few bosses:
- The Sanctuary Keeper has a Tail Sweep attack that will both damage the entire party and delay everyone's next turn. (A bonus boss called Th'uban is nearly identical. The attack is instead called Condemn, which not only does heavy damage and delay, but also removes all beneficial status effects from the party.)
- The Spectral Keeper has a Berserk Tail that will damage a single character and inflict Berserk at a very bad time. The attack could count as both a slap and a sting.
- Furwind: The Player Character can defeat enemies by smacking them with his tail.
- Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!: One of Godzilla's three attack in this game, useful for ground-based enemies.
- Half-Life 1: Bullsquids possess surprisingly powerful spinning tail-smack finisher which often reduces a victim to Ludicrous Gibs.
- JP Rampage Edition: Both the playable and enemy Velociraptors can use a powerful whip attack with their tail.
- Kaiju Wars: Alphazaurus Prime, the game's resident Notzilla, can use its Tail Swipe ability to instantly destroy one adjacent enemy unit at the start of its turn, so long as that unit is not in the creature's path.
- Killer Instinct: Riptor can use this as a jump attack, coming down on her enemy.
- Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]: The Tyranto Rex, Hebby Repp, Fin Fatale, Toximander, and their variants all have a tail smack as one of their attacks. The first of the four's is the most dangerous, as it spins to deliver multiple hits to everything around it and has the longest tail of the bunch by far.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land: Genwel Meteonelfilis from the Nintendo Switch 2 version's Star-Crossed World campaign can attack by slamming the stage with his tail after tossing some spiked balls onto the platform.
- La-Mulana: The boss Tiamat can whip out her massive tail to do a lot of damage to Lemeza.
- The Legend of Spyro:
- The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: When you fight Cynder as the final boss, one of her main attacks is a tail whip. She also uses her tail in a few melee attacks when you play as her in Dawn of the Dragon, but in this case she slashes with the blade on the tip of her tail.
- The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night: The Elemental Dragon's main melee attack is a broad sweeping blow with its tail.
- The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon: The Golem does this as well when you are fighting some orcs at the beginning of his boss level.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: Dodongos might not seem like much of a challenge at first glance; their fire breath is easy to avoid, and their flanks and tails make intuitive weak points, but Link can take a lot of damage simply from the Dodongo turning around after each hit, since it's hard to dodge being swatted by the Dodongo's tail whenever it rotates.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: The Lizalfos enemies employ a tail slap as one of several Natural Weapons that they can use during combat in addition to their forged weapons.
- Mabinogi: Dragon pets always finish their combo on an enemy by spinning in a complete circle and bashing the enemy with their tail.
- Marsupilami: Hoobadventure: The Marsupilamis' main attack isn't just a tail slap, it's a tail punch. The way they perform the move is by tying their several meters long tail into a massive knot, and then thrusting it forward.
- Marvel Rivals: Squirrel Girl can initiate a three hit melee combo that gives a left uppercut, a right hook, and then finishes off with a slap from her massive squirrel tail. Cross-Popping Veins included.
- Mega Man ZX Advent: Bifrost the Crocoroid's tail normally serves as a weak spot when fighting him as a boss and typically about-faces if you do manage to get behind him to exploit it, but after Grey/Ashe defeats him and can transform into him via A-Trans, they can weaponize the big guy's doing so to make the tail attack things instead.
- Monster Hunter:
- Almost every monster with a tail of a decent length, like Rathian and Rathalos, will use this in some manner; a simple Spin Attack being the most common form of it. A common means of reducing the threat is by cutting it off.
- Monster Hunter Freedom Unite: Nargacuga is capable of doing a deadly tail slam that has a hitbox twice the size of the tail.
- Monster Hunter Generations: Glavenus is built around this; its tail amounts to an inbuilt BFS made of extra-hard ore, so naturally getting slapped by that thing would really hurt. It can even heat the tail up by scraping its teeth on it!
- Monster Rancher: Card battle 3 is the trope namer and it is mostly used by Dinos, Suezos and Nagas. Dragons also use this technique, but it is less common compared to their far more powerful attacks.
- Ninja: Shadow of Darkness: The relatively easy first boss, being a Warm-Up Boss, uses its tail as its primary means of attack. It's fireballs are easy to avoid, its punches and kicks are slower than yours, but it's tail can deal massive damage and knock you off your feet for getting too close.
- Pokémon:
- The move "Tail Whip" has existed since Gen 1, but merely lowers the opponent's defense without dealing any damage, and flavor text describes it as a cute gesture that puts the enemy off-guard rather than an actual attack. The Japanese name of the attack is actually "tail wag".
- The former Secret Art of Minccino and Cinccino is named Tail Slap. They usually use their tails to sweep away dust, but at a high enough level can use it offensively in combat. In addition, the moves Iron Tailnote , Dragon Tail, Poison Tail and Aqua Tail follow this trope.
- A variation: Tauros has whip-like tails, but instead of swatting others it swats itself to psyche up.
- Some moves like Pound and Slam, can fall into this trope depending on the Pokémon using them.
- Primal Rage: Vertigo, Sauron and Diablo have tail-swinging blows.
- Punch Club: Parodied. The reward for beating Master Raccoon is him teaching you the Tail Strike technique. However your character doesn't have a tail so the technique is worthless.
- Raging Bless: The Cobra Man boss alternates his attacks between slashing you from up close with his Wolverine Claws, or using his huge tail to pummel you.
- Red Earth: Being a big dragon-dinosaur-thing, Hauzer would naturally enough have a tail attack. Assigned to HK in Capcom Fighting Evolution.
- Shantae: Half-Genie Hero: During the second phase of her boss fight, the Giga Mermaid can attempt to smash the titular half-genie with her tail.
- So Many Me: When Filo and the Mes combine into the Jellosaur, they're able to attack enemies with its tail.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Tails can defeat most enemies with a simple swipe of his twin namesakes.
- Of all characters, Metal Sonic, who usually doesn't HAVE a tail, transforms into Metal Madness in Sonic Heroes, and one of his attacks is a tail whip, which he uses against Amy and Vector's teams.
- Metal Overlord returns as a boss in Shadow Generations, this time electrifying his tail before whipping it several times. There's also Neo Devil Doom, the second One-Winged Angel transformation of Black Doom, whose second head elongates into a tail to attack Shadow with; if it successfully lands, Neo Devil Doom follows up with a Teleport Spam attack. Interestingly, if the fight prolongs to a certain point and Shadow manages to dodge this attack, he can use a Doom Blast to have Devil Doom's tail slap him instead.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Super Mario Bros. 3 has the Raccoon Suit's tail as well as the P-Wing and Tanooki Suit. In Super Mario 3D Land, this is extended to a lot of things.
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga:
- Tanoombas can attack by spinning their tail. This attack must be jumped over.
- After Popple is defeated for the last time, he pins the blame for the loss on Birdo, who responds by tail-slapping him out of the cavern.
- Paper Mario: Sticker Star: One item Mario can use in battle is equipping a tail that lets him deflect enemy attacks. A similar item also appears in Paper Mario: Color Splash with the same in-battle function.
- Super Mario Odyssey: One of Bowser's attacks is igniting his tail before spinning to swing it at Mario.
- Super Smash Bros.: Some playable characters can have tails, and will use them in certain attacks.
- Yoshi arms can't reach past his head, so he uses his tail for longer reaching attacks.
- Pikachu and Pichu also have short arms and compensate with tail attacks, though Pichu's shorter tail means he has less than Pikachu.
- Fox and Falco both use their tails to trip opponents if they attack while ducking.
- Mewtwo has a fairly long tail, meaning it has plenty of animations where it whips enemies while not breaking its Badass Arm-Fold.
- As in Pokémon proper, Charizard's tail is on fire, which it puts to good use as a burning club in some attacks.
- Diddy Kong's neutral attack ends in an infinite loop where he rapidly whips his tail in at opponents.
- Ridley's tail has a barb at the end that causes serious damage if sweet spotted. He also has the strongest tail attack in the game with his down special, Skewer, which does up to 45% damage and causes the victim to crumple to the floor.
- Tekken: Boxing kangaroos Roger and Roger Jr and boxing velociraptor Alex all have moves where they use their tails to strike or trip their opponent. Azazel also has this, since he is modeled after a jackal.
- Tiny Hands Adventure: Borti can perform a tail whip from the start of the game. He learns to do it in the Tutorial Level.
- Total War: Warhammer III: When in her dragon form, one of Miao Ying's melee attacks has her electrify her tail spikes and lash them through her enemies.
- Trip World: One of Yacopu's forms has a tail attack with a good range.
- Warriors Orochi: Although Kyubi's weapon is ostensibly her robe, she mostly relies on slapping her enemies with her nine tails, complemented by a scythe that she conjures out of nowhere.
- World of Warcraft: Never stand behind an enemy dragon or you'll get a face full of tail, which combines a cleave with a Knock Back.
- Workshop In The Ironwood Grove: The Air Form's Tailwind Sweep is referencing the idea of a tail sweep, but making it air-themed, with a tailwind.
Web Animation
- DSBT InsaniT:
- ???'s Tyrannomon can create earthquakes by slamming the ground with its tail.
- K-Seal can break the ice by slamming it with his tail.
- Dreamscape: CHEN, the giant cyborg chameleon, can use his tail in combat.
- Minilife TV: In "Clair's Surprise", the T-Rex in Ian's dream attacks Chris and Ian with his tail twice.
Webcomics
- In El Goonish Shive, in her Omega form, Grace can use her tails to attack with two of them acting as Prehensile Tails to hold her enemy in place while the third slams them.
- In one Kevin & Kell strip Kell uses her tail to Dope Slap her cousin after Sheila asks why it matters what her boyfriend's daughter thinks of her.
- The Order of the Stick: In the fight against Calder the red dragon, even pinned down by Bloodfeast, Calder's tail proves long enough to reach Sunny, and strong enough to knock out the beholder by sending them bounce against a wall.
Western Animation
- American Dragon: Jake Long: In addition to being a dragon's Natural Weapon to pummel their enemies, Jake occasionally uses his tail as an extra limb to access objects beyond his normal reach.
- Ben 10:
- In the second episode of the original series, a resurrected T. rex attacks Ben (as Stinkfly) by whacking his giant tail against him.
- Ben's transformation Humungousaur, a dinosaur-like alien, can do a tail sweep to attack enemies.
- The Dragon Prince:
- The young dragon Zym uses his tail to ward off annoying insects. Because he is still a baby, it's Played for Laughs, but adult dragons can do much more damage this way.
- Pyrrah, a large red dragon, fends off several soldiers in an attack. Soren is hit hard by her tail and hurled against a rock.
- Gary the Rat's tail is strong enough to knock a man out a building with a flick.
- Happens several times in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, with most of the cast being sentient ponies.
- After being corrupted by Discord, Fluttershy whips Twilight with her tail in The Return of Harmony.
- Rainbow Dash whips a cloud with her tail a few times in Too Many Pinkie Pies.
- Rarity also does this to knock her original design for Twilight's dress into the garbage in Sweet and Elite.
- Twilight Sparkle swats a parasprite like a fly in Swarm of the Century after they completely lose their cuteness factor to her.
- Rainbow Dash does this to Quibble Pants in Stranger Than Fan Fiction, whipping him in the face.
- The Owl House: Lilith's old mentor, Flora D'splora uses a whip that is actually the tail of her monkey Palisman.
- Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: Whenever she's not using her jaws, Fang uses that tail of hers for good use in combat. Although trying to use her tail as a desperate attempt against Krog wasn't a good idea as he instantly caught it before breaking her leg.
- Skull Island (2023): One of the Killer Chameleons knocks the Island Girl off her feet and over a cliff edge with a flick of its tail.
- Storm Hawks: Repton will occasionally lash out with his tail in close combat, as shown during his battle with Starling in "Absolute Power".
- A dragon bird from The Legend of Korra pays Korra back for helping it earlier by giving an attacking Unalaq a well-deserved smack with its tail.
Real Life
- Dolphins use their tails to stun fish, slamming them through the water at high speed to create a wave of energy that stuns and confuses the fish. Orca will use their tails against smaller prey as well, while humpback whales will use their own tails as weapons if attacked by orcas. This latter form of highly aggressive defense is one of the reasons that orcas prey on humpbacks much less often than they do on other baleen whales.
- This footage shows such a technique in action, performed by an orca against a stingray. While swimming close to the surface, the orca delivers a vicious strike with its tail fin to the underside of the ray, seemingly knocking it unconscious!
- This footage shows such a technique in action, performed by an orca against a stingray
- Thresher sharks use their tails to stun potential prey.
- Some lizards and similar-bodied reptiles, even juvenile water dragons. In particular, monitor lizards will do this, as seen here.note Iguanas will also do this. Just ask anyone who's ever owned one and they'll tell you that a displeased iguana can smack you quite hard!
- This was not an uncommon feature among dinosaurs, although some graduated to another trope:
- Some sauropods, namely the diplodocid family which included Diplodocus and its relatives such as Apatosaurus and Supersaurus, had long tails that seem to have been whiplike. In the case of Diplodocus, it's been theorized that it could break the sound barrier with a full-powered tail swing. Possibly other sauropods as well, as many had long, muscular tails, and some like Shunosaurus and Mamenchisaurus also had spiky clubs at the ends.
- The duckbilled hadrosaurs were probably capable of this too, especially seeing as they didn't appear to have any other methods of defense. With their long and muscular tails, they were probably able to deliver a pretty painful whipping to an opponent.
- Probably averted with theropods. As most theropods had the lower half of their tail bones fused together, they wouldn't have been very good at using them for anything other than balance.
- As mentioned in the description, cattle make use of their tails to swat flies, as it can reach everywhere their head and legs do not and has multiple ends that the flies have trouble avoiding. They give the same treatment to farm hands they don't like. Cattle tails are so good at flyswatting that royalty and nobility of many African cattle-herding peoples (and there are a lot of African cattle-herding peoples) traditionally bear fly-whisks made from the tail hairs of cows (usually attached to a wooden stick, often intricately carved or decorated) as insignia of their rank.
- Catfish don't have stingers, but many species have fins bony enough that people will often assume they were stung by something if hit by them in murky water. Yes, this includes the tail fin.
- Some dog breeds, most notably greyhounds and their closer relatives, have thin, bony and muscular tails that can leave welts on a human if the animal gets in an excited enough state to wag their tail wildly.
- Horses can do this if the tail hair is long enough, although it's usually accidental when it's simply trying to shoo a fly away. But like cows, a horse can easily smack a rider when it's not happy with something.
- According to How Come?: Planet Earth, a porcupine named Tubby used to play a game similar to Duck, Duck, Goose that involved slapping biologist Earle with his tail. However, he turned it so that only the spineless underside of the tail hit Earle's leg.
- Beavers are known to slap their tails against the water's surface in order to alert each other of approaching predators.