This troper's mother freaked out and was convinced a family friend's pet boa constrictor was going to squeeze her to death and eat her, despite said friend assuring her that he'd already been fed and would not react in a hostile manner if treated with kindness.

The troper who launched this page is willing to bet the Boa in question is either a Rubber Boa or a Rosy Boa.

This troper truly misses Sweetheart, his 7th Grade science-teacher's red-tailed boa constrictor. The affectionate creature was longer than this troper's now-adult arm span and commensurately powerful, but was quite friendly and peaceable.

This troper has had both a snake and a lizard as a pet and finds many reptiles charming, if not outright cute. He has never really understood people's dislike for lizards (snakes at least are often poisonous, but you can count the lizard species that are dangerous to humans with one hand).

This troper has two rather harmless sweet geckos that her cousins think are evil and scary. They don't think the same about her bitey, not-harmless, and not-sweet turtles. (that she loves anyway.)

This troper has a pet snake who most people consider absurdly cute, possibly due to her "bandit mask" markings, outright cuddliness with strangers, and charming habit of riding around on this troper's head. However, the parents of this troper's significant other! hate all forms of "creepy crawlies" and will give her apartment a wide berth (both this troper and her significant other are not sad).

This troper has garter and Eastern milk snakes in her backyard, and a stepfather who has been known to run into the house and yell "There's a huge snake in the yard" about them. Let me repeat that: GARTER SNAKES. Apparently, even Reptiles less than a foot long Are Abhorrent.

Actually, garter snakes can get to 3 feet long. This troper has a 2 footer in her back garden. ^_^ Justin guards the veggies. There's also at least one 3 foot Water Snake in our lake. I'm amazed my father's family can stand to visit us. Remember living in the southern US and sitting in the garage at night watching the geckos. And wanting my mom to get me a pet Komodo...

Subversion: this troper thinks reptiles are beautiful.

Even though I'm Australian and have every reason to be deathly afraid of snakes, this troper has a pet lizard and thinks reptiles are UglyCute at worst.

One very ophidiophobic troper likes any reptile with legs just fine. In fact, she thinks anoles and geckos are nearly as adorable as kittens and still has fond memories of a very affectionate iguana she met once at a shopping center.

This troper owns no reptiles, but came very close to buying that chameleon that kept rising up on its hind legs and pawing the glass like a puppy every time he walked past it at the pet store.

AAAWWWW!!!!! I'd have probably rewarded the little guy for the effort with a good home if I were able.

This troper has a grandma will not even let us ''say'' the words reptile or snake because she's so frightened of them.

This troper used to have an Iguana, but it died a couple years ago. Many a day was spent watching TV while he was kept company by his companion. He wasn't expecting much for only $5, but man, was he ''wrong''.

This troper found a dead snake in her yard one day this year. I ''cried''. I'm almost sixteen. It was-- it was so ''little''... and shiny...

This troper loves reptiles, from dinosaurs to snakes. This one time, I dragged my mother into a pet shop to show her the most beautiful snake I'd ever seen (not to get her to buy it, just to share the experience of seeing it). She gave a shudder and went to look at the bunnies. Some people.

Incidentally, this Australian troper thinks Bunnies Are Abhorrent. Might be a cultural thing.

It's a justified cultural thing. In Australia, rabbits are infamous pests

Well they do have those hoppey legs and twitchy little noses. :/

This troper was almost unreasonably thrilled about getting to hold a royal python at a bookshop once (yes, a bookshop). It was very smooth and warm, which goes to show that 'cold-blooded' doesn't necessarily mean what you think it does. Kind of cuddly, really.

This troper LOVES reptiles and always feel greatly annoyed and somewhat disappointed when this trope comes to use (which in his opinion is FAR too often).

subversion, This face has made This Troper and even some of her Reptiles Are Abhorent friends make cutesy baby talk awwwww

You got me with that one too. Adorable baby!

Not as cute as this little guy, if you ask me.

This Troper loves snakes and reptiles of all sorts, even if his parents can't stand them.

This troper used to catch snakes and lizards as a child, and thinks that geckos have a very interesting skin texture.  Her significant other, however, says that he'll take her word for it.

This troper doesn't particularly love reptiles, but doesn't really hate them either. When my younger brother and I spotted a small lizard in our garage, I was at a loss at what to do, since I didn't want the thing to be accidentally run over by the car. My brother solved the problem by ''stomping on it''. Ever since, I've been more than a little afraid of him.

Sweet Jesus, that brother of yours is horrible!

No offense, but as a big reptile lover, I would say your brother is a monster because of this.

Had a sort of similar experience. Once my brother and I were arguing and apparently he was more serious about the argument than I was. Paying only half attention, I found a frog that was in a small puddle, picked it up intending to move it to the nearby creek, when my brother snatched it out of my hand and threw it like a baseball into a nearby tree. I looked at the small thing and could see it's SPINE STICKING OUT OF ITS BACK. Queue my brother saying "Hah! That's what you g-" ... He didn't finish because I chipped his front teeth with the walking stick I was using. Then I hit him a few more times for good measure. 14 years later it happened to come up over the phone and he reminisced that he still feels guilty doing that.

This troper is rather conflicted in that she considers snakes to have extremely lovely patterns, and has often wanted a pet turtle. The small (1-2 feet) reptiles are fine with her, but when they get to be bigger than her arm in width and length, she gets a bit unnerved. As she is barely five feet tall and rather skinny, it may be a subconscious mindset of EverythingTryingToKillYou. Ironically, the reverse is true for dogs: She adores large dogs that often weigh as much as herself and is rather indifferent to the tiny breeds.

Considering that Australia has quite a few poisonous snakes, some of which are deadliest in the world, it's not surprising that the general attitude is 'the only good snake is a dead snake'. This troper's father has come across quite a few, and as a result refuses to watch SnakesOnAPlane.

This troper (who ironically was looking for pet snakes when he was very young, never to find them) was told there's a snake near his pool outside in the yard, and because reptiles are abhorrent, no one would pick it up to move it before the cats might've gotten it. So he picked up the snake, calmly walked out the yard, and threw it in the bushes gently, even though he was 9 at the time. Even this troper's "fearless" uncle who's 38 or so years older than him wouldn't do it.

This Australian troper found a baby carpet python in his backyard. It was a beautiful creature. I just put in a box and let it go by the local creek.

This troper loves reptiles, but is unfortunately surrounded by the people who play the trope straight. When describing a holiday in Africa where he saw a rock python big enough to eat an impala, the woman he was speaking to actually seemed to freeze up for a moment at the mere thought of such a monster.

This troper use to be afraid of snakes... Until his sister got a ball python. He was small enough to fit in a margarine tub, and had the personality of a kitten. The fear soon subsided. The snake is a lot bigger now, about four feet long, but still adorable. Monty bit him once... And this troper mainly felt ''guilty'', because it meant he'd startled the little guy.

Almost the exact same story, except I got the snake instead of my sister. Ball Pythons are just wonderful little creatures.

I know! They're so sweet! And cuddly!

Many years back while this troper was much younger he and his mother were at the mall. Upon leaving and getting into the car he noticed a small anole hiding near the right front tire of the car. This troper pointed it out to his mom who then picked up the lizard, commented about how cute it was, and, not wanting it to get squashed in the parking lot, put it in a little box. Once we got home mom released it in the back yard by some bushes which it immediately ran and hid in. Also, this troper's mom likes, and claims to have liked since she was a kid, garter snakes, turtles, and other such reptiles; she also likes frogs.

This troper's grandfather and parents think reptiles are abhorrent. Which sucks, because this troper has always wanted a pet snake and thinks reptiles are the most beautiful kinds of animals.

I always was a big fan of reptiles myself, though my mother assuredly isn't. Once, our housecat found and started to bat around a garter snake. My mother was flipping out that the cat (a badass old tomcat that hunted EVERYTHING) would get hurt by a snake that was about as big around as it's paw.

This troper's mother is ''terrified'' of snakes, to the point where she outright ''refused'' to ever enter my Student Naturalist class because the teacher kept lots of snakes. Including a big constrictor whose cage was built into one of the walls... right in front of where I happened to sit, at the front of the classroom. Oddly, my ''dad'' never came in, either, though he doesn't share her phobia. Ironically, the year I was in that class was the ''same year'' that the teacher got bitten by one of the poisonous snakes and spent most of that semester recovering while we had a sub... I don't think that helped much.

I REALLY WANT to take that class. Although I think I'd probably be distracted by all the snakes. I'd probably spend most classes watching them.

My awesome biology teacher kept snakes, lizards, and tarantulas in the class. Though they aren't there anymore, because her husband took them when she got divorced.

This troper impressed most of the girls in her third-grade class, at the end-of-year sleepover, by being the only one (aside from the fearless Japanese exchange student... I miss you, Akane-chan) who didn't run away screaming when our hostess found a garter snake. She in fact finds them cute, the same with the smallest of the lizards (anything big enough to pose a threat is by definition Awesome rather than Cute).

Aversion. This Troper absolutely ''loves'' all reptiles ever since he was young, whether adopting several reptiles as pets, buying reptile toys, using the name of a reptile as my username (usually), and wearing clothing with reptiles on it. Luckily most of my family doesn't mind my obsessiveness with reptiles. Heck, my favorite color is green, the color of most reptiles! As a result, I'm easily annoyed with all the negative portrayals of reptiles in general.

As with many other tropers on this page, I love reptiles, and am actually ''insulted'' when they are said to be horrible creatures that are evil and are bent on devastating the human population or some bull crap like that. What makes me more insulted and pathetic, if you ask me, is when people always depict dragons as evil; mostly with the western cultures. Perhaps I'm just being biased at this point, or perhaps it's out of pity for some breeds/species of dragons being given (quite possibly) the worst reputation of all reptiles for little reason. As far as I know, at least. If, of course, dragons are even reptiles in your universe.... Why ''are'' reptiles considered so bad, anyway?

There hasn't been a singularly evil depiction of dragons in media in at least forty years.

While This Troper and her mother lapse into near-brainless gibbering around reptiles, her father finds them more than a little creepy and refuses to let us get a lizard. ):

An aversion occurred when this troper's family had a pet Albino Burmese Python named Slinky, who was the sweetest and most docile snake we'd ever seen. Though as he grew a lot bigger (over six feet) most of the family was too nervous to stay too close, Troper's Dad would pet him, talk to him, and even sit down with Slinky draped all around his neck and arms like a feather-boa and scratch the top of his (the snake's) head. We were all very sad to see him go. :(

Same troper as above--the ''public library'' in her town averts this as well. On either side of the doors are intricate carvings of serpents--and rather noble-looking ones at that, and a picture of a snake on the door itself. Walking inside, snakes seem to be the library's mascot, as there are pictures all over the place, and a giant, custom-made poster of a snake reading a book.

This troper is overall neutral when it comes to real-life reptiles, but in the book series she is currently working on, there is a race of sentient reptilian humanoids that toy around with this trope, sometimes playing it straight, sometimes averting it. They are literally embodiments of fire, negativity, and destruction, and have some distinctly non-human morals (for example, revenge is acceptable and not pursuing revenge is seen as weakness, but -avenging- revenge is seen as foolish and prideful) but because their culture is so focused on hatred and apathy, they can understand evil like no other creatures, and how to prevent it. They're basically Lawful Neutral creatures using Evil to create Good, and occasionally the opposite.

This Troper was the only girl at a residential that did NOT freak out at a CORN SNAKE.

This troper adores snakes and lizards, thinks Komodo Dragons are basically some of the coolest things ever, and really, really, really wants a pet snake. Except that her mom hates reptiles and her grandma is scared to death of snakes, so while this troper lives with her parents, the only pets she'll ever be allowed to have are dogs and fish. :( Someday...

I have always loved snakes, I remember holding one that was bigger than me at a zoo when i was about 6. Its a shame most of my family follow this trope and wont let me have a snake....or a tarantula, rat, lizard, tortoise, hamster...they dont seem to like any of the coolest animals.

People being deathly afraid of snakes always confused this Troper. I'm Australian, and obviously we have a lot of snakes that should be avoided, but the idea of people having a primal fear of snakes (and other reptiles) just doesn't click with me (I like lizards, and always have. I think geckos are cute. Non-poisonous snakes are kinda nifty, too). A recent segment on a current affairs show saw an environmental spokesman arrive with a carpet python -- and the other hosts ''immediately'' put metres and metres of distance between them and the snake. They all looked absolutely terrified, and you could see the tangible terror in their expressions. I just don't get it.

This troper has also been confused by the terror of reptiles. She recently took a vacation to Phoenix and made two new friends in an alligator and her boyfriend, a water monitor lizard along with a king snake that decided her shoulders would make a good perch. She actually got to pet them and do some point blank sketching. Both were mellower than most dogs and she enjoyed their company better than most people she knows.

This troper is afraid of snakes, but loves lizards and other reptiles.

This troper loves reptile, (especialy dinosaurs. In fact, I draw me and my friends, no, everyone as dinosaurs, fitting their personality). I try to avert this as much as possible.

This troper loves reptiles to the point to think of them as cute and cuddly and wanting to hug them all, she had a pet tortoise for over a decade and her sister had box turtles and a green iguana. She encountered people who jump at the sight of a tortoise already and is still puzzled by this and how the Proto-Indo-European tale of a hero slaying the "evil" serpent/dragon is still affecting modern cultures that much.

Mister Always is quite fond of reptiles. Komodo dragons are some of the coolest motherfuckers on Earth, all manner of crocodiles and alligators are awesome as well. Then there's the variety of often cunning, often poisonous and sometimes lethal but almost always BEAUTIFUL snakes (it's not even the colour - it's the way their bodies move, the patterns of their scales, their grace...). And don't get him started about geckos. Amphibians are cool, too - froggies! And eh, toads. Yay, toads. Anyway, there's a story here...When he was but a wee little fuck, he went to a small "exotic" petting zoo place thing. They had a show with birds of prey (also very cool!), there were big ugly toads (seriously, those things were like 80% wart and also toxic), bats (eee!), and joy above joy, a caiman. There were also a few terrariums with lizards and snakes (there was one with a boa constrictor, and let me tell ya, I was glued to that fucking window for at least half an hour, god ''damn'' that beastie was beautiful), and upstairs there was another show of sorts. Two animals that were generally considered icky - a tarantula and a Russian ratsnake (I may be misrembering the name a little). You were allowed to hold them, if you liked. The tarantula, no problem, it was like a big fuzzy hamster. The snake, though...I was scared. Hey, sue me, I was a little kid, and that thing was black and had evil little beady eyes. Then the lady doing the show put it around my neck, and I've loved snakes ever since. They're made of fucking hugs, I tell ya.

This troper and his brother were hanging out at the Disney plaza waiting for the Disney Quest to open (we were on vacation). They waited at the rails next to the rocky shores of the river. Another person nearby noticed a small snake on the rocks. He said he would go ahead and bring it out into the sun (naturally, this troper and his brother couldn't believe what he was saying). The person then hopped over the rails and then handled the snake quite well (my brother and I offered to call emergency just in case). When he came back, he said he had a pet snake (a big one too).

Quite inverted with this troper. I find most reptiles to be absolutely adorable, and have had a pet turtle for 16 years. On the other hand, certain mammals, dogs in particular, squick me out beyond all reason. C'mon people, you're letting a big toothy predator have free reign of your house! Where's the sense in that?

At the local zoo there's this fella named James. He's a ball python, and is very cute. Problem is, he's always hiding in his sleeping box. So one lovely Sunday they broght him outside, and I got to stroke him! This only increased my desire for a scaly sweetheart of my very own.

Unfortunately, I also have a very sad addition. About two years ago, I heard the story of Popcorn the Corn Snake. She was taken to a kindergarten class, and was hanging out on the floor. One little girl was asked if she liked Popcorn. Her answer? "NO!*stomp*" Poor Popcorn; a well loved pet condemned to an agonizing death by a little brat.