This Article Contains Spoilers -
WARNING: This article contains major spoilers. If you do not wish to know vital information on plot / character elements in a story, you may not wish to read beyond this warning: We hold no responsibility for any negative effects these facts may have on your enjoyment of said media should you continue. That is all. |
“ | A powerful and ruthless ape, desperate to conquer the surface world, led his tribe into war against the one they called the monster who ate a star: Godzilla. The war with the apes nearly destroyed Godzilla, but after a great battle, he imprisoned the apes in a fiery realm on Hollow Earth. Their false king remains obsessed with reaching the surface. The Iwi called him the Skar King. | „ |
~ Ilene Andrews explaining the Skar King's past. |
The Skar King, also known as simply Skar, is the main antagonist of the 2024 sci-fi action crossover film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the fifth installment of the MonsterVerse franchise.
He is a ferociously cruel, sadistic, ruthless, psychopathic and tyrannical simian Titan who rules over a clan of other great ape Titans with an iron fist and is personally responsible for the deaths of many other Titans.
No longer satisfied with simply having dominion over the Hollow Earth, Skar strikes out against the world by using his lapdog and minion Shimo, a benevolent ice Titan whom he mind controls with a crystal to unleash destruction upon the surface world. He is one of Godzilla and Kong's archenemies and the primary reason why Godzilla hates the Great Apes in the first place.
He is portrayed by Allan Henry through motion capture.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Much like King Ghidorah and the Kraken, he is a monstrous kaiju/Titan both metaphorically and literally. While he lacks the omnicidal machinations of Ghidorah, he more than makes up for it with his stronger personal villainy than the Kraken.
- He's shown to not hesitate killing members of his kind, be it for small petty mistakes, sadistic pleasure, or expired usefulness, which shows how he doesn't care for his species and uses them as pawns for his goals. Because of this, his subjects live in constant fear of him, further solidifying how cruel, abusive, psychopathic, disgusting, barbaric and horrible he is.
- There are several moments where he sadistically smirks and laughs, showing that he indeed embraces his cruel nature while showing no hesitation or remorse for the atrocities that he committed.
- It's also implied that he has killed a lot of Great Apes and other Titans as skeletons on the cave inside the sinkhole as well as other skeletons in the boneyard outside of his lair are seen.
- He doesn't show any care for Suko, whom he has abused to become a monster like him, even though Suko was just a child at time and was very afraid of him. Suko eventually turned against the Skar King when he joined Kong to defeat him.
- He doesn't show any care for the female apes that he turned into his sex slaves nor the offspring that he sired, showing that he only sees them like objects to be tortured, as they were terrified of him.
- He doesn't show any care for his second-in-command One-Eye and the Red Stripes despite them being loyal to him, showing that he only sees them as pawns that he can use to bring terror to his subjects to keep them in line, not even caring if his minions get killed.
- He is also implied to be abusive towards his henchmen as he is shown growling angrily at One-Eye for invading his personal space when the latter notified him of Kong's presence.
- He doesn't provide any assistance to his minions when they are incapacitated or killed during the anti-gravity battle, though it's possible that he didn't know about their deaths because he was distracted fighting Kong when it happened.
- He doesn't show any care for Shimo considering that he only sees her as nothing but a pawn that he uses to do his dirty work, despite her being his attack dog and minion.
- While it's true that Shimo is aggressive and dangerous, it's not her fault as she is a peaceful and benevolent Titan who never wanted to hurt anyone, but was forced to do what she is commanded by the Skar King due to being brainwashed by the crystal that he uses to control her, making this his actions and not hers.
- She would eventually turn against the Skar King after Suko frees her from his control by destroying the crystal. It's implied that Shimo used to be far more intelligent in the past, but due to all the pain the Skar King inflicted on her, she became much less intelligent to the point where she was a simple animal, as Kong pets her head like a dog at the end of the movie.
- While it's true that Shimo is aggressive and dangerous, it's not her fault as she is a peaceful and benevolent Titan who never wanted to hurt anyone, but was forced to do what she is commanded by the Skar King due to being brainwashed by the crystal that he uses to control her, making this his actions and not hers.
- While the heinous standards of the MonsterVerse franchise are high, the Skar King stands out due to his large kill count and his Whipslash, intelligence, agility, combat skills and Shimo (the one who caused the first Ice Age) at his disposal while also being able to live up as one of the most vilest villains in the franchise due to his nefarious crimes of enslaving the Great Apes, keeping the females as sex slaves and conquering them with fear while being an abusive tyrant to them.
- Not only that, but the Skar King also served as a personal villain to Kong, Suko and Godzilla to an extent, which caused them to hate him because of all the cruelty and abuse that he had inflicted.
- Although he somehow shares the same motives with Ghidorah as both tried to be conquerors, the Skar King does it in a different and perhaps even worse way.
- While the other Titans submitted to Ghidorah following their natural instincts to respect their alpha, the Skar King uses violence to force his subjects to worship him out of submission. Not to mention that while Ghidorah also has a defined sadistic personality, it's more animalistic whereas Skar's is more human-like.
- He is considered to be one of the most heinous and darkest villains in the MonsterVerse franchise while he also has no tragic backstory or redeeming qualities whatsoever.
- Because of this, he is the most sadistic and heartless villain Godzilla and Kong have faced in the MonsterVerse as well as being more personally vile and psychopathic to the two Titans than any of the other villains in the franchise.
- While he does have comedic moments, the said moments are brief and don't detract his heinousness and is still taken seriously. Plus, most of of his comedic scenes were either to show how much of a twisted, egotistical, psychopathic Titan that he is, or are karmic, especially when Godzilla and Kong gave him the well-deserved beating moments before his death.
Background[]
- Thousands of years ago, he attempted to invade and conquer the surface world, starting a long-lasting clash between the Great Apes and Godzilla's species, which would result in the latter's near-extinction.
- During the war, he would enslave hundreds of apes of the Titanus Kong species to act as his personal army, making sure they would follow his orders and that he would have them killed if they opposed him.
- At some point, he also captured, imprisoned and tortured the gigantic ice Titan Shimo for millennia through abusive and cruel methods, using a crystal to control her through pain before using her ice-based abilities to start the last great Ice Age.
- It is implied that he has killed a lot of Godzilla's species and used their dorsal plates to create weapons such as battle axes.
- Upon his defeat by the hands of Godzilla, which lead to him, his tribe and Shimo being imprisoned in the Hollow Earth, he develops a deep hatred against the Titan for banishing him while being forced to lie in wait for the day when he would finally escape his confines and claim the Earth as his own once he has defeated and killed Godzilla.
- He is responsible for killing one of Godzilla's ancestors, which leads to Godzilla mistakenly believing that the apes were a threat to him as it would eventually be the catalyst for him fighting against Kong on several occasions, thus making the Skar King responsible for Godzilla's hatred against the Great Apes in the first place, especially Kong.
- For a millennia ruling on his throne, he ruled his subjects with a brutal iron fist.
- He forced them to endlessly work without ceasing; if any apes disobeyed him or made a mistake while working, he would have them beaten and abused by his guards at best or executed at worst, which is demonstrated when a fellow Great Ape named Boots was beaten by one of the Skar King's guards for dropping a boulder that was likely used for construction.
- Those who faced the latter would be beheaded, and their severed heads are mounted on stakes as a reminder of what happens to those who defy him.
- He forced his subjects to live in horrible conditions, which includes his abuse, fiery biome, torture, and the fact that their bruises, scars and hair loss can be seen, caused by them being stressed out and living in fear (possibly the reason why they couldn't grow as big as Kong).
- He didn't even care that his subjects were starving considering that he consumed all the food himself instead of sharing it with the others.
- He entrusted several apes called the Red Stripes with leadership positions, ordering them to abuse his subjects if they fail him.
- It's implied that he had Suko abused by his soldiers for disobeying him as he intended to make him obedient and turn him into a cruel ape like himself, despite the fact that Suko was only a young ape and was too scared to obey the Skar King because of his horrific actions.
- It's also implied that the Skar King likely orphaned Suko after killing his biological mother, leading to his caretaker Gnarled Finger taking care of him.
- He would force several of the female apes into becoming his sex slaves to sire offspring. The film briefly shows them cowering in fear when the Skar King angrily threw his food into a wall after One-Eye informed him of the portals found in the temple of the Iwi tribe, showing how awful and vile he treats the female apes likely due to the trauma from being raped. It is also implied that he raises, abuses and trains the male offspring into becoming his guards and enforcers.
- It's implied in the novelization that once his female offspring reached adulthood, he would also add them to his harem and rape them, making this incest.
- It's also implied in the novelization that the Skar King orders the offspring to be separated from their mothers so he can keep them from developing attachments to someone other than him, molding them into monsters like him, which is demonstrated when Suko tried to get Kong killed by luring him into a lake where a Drownviper lived until they form a bond with one another.
- He forced them to endlessly work without ceasing; if any apes disobeyed him or made a mistake while working, he would have them beaten and abused by his guards at best or executed at worst, which is demonstrated when a fellow Great Ape named Boots was beaten by one of the Skar King's guards for dropping a boulder that was likely used for construction.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire[]
- After a sinkhole is accidentally created by Kong, he attacked and destroyed the nearby Monarch Outpost 1, killing all the Monarch members in the process before leaving a red handprint as a sign of warning to others that he intends to conquer the surface world once more.
- When first meeting Kong after being alerted to his presence by One-Eye, he laughs and mocks him upon noticing Kong's metal tooth before forcing the other apes to join in as well.
- When he notices that Suko doesn't want to laugh and deducing that he was the one who brought Kong to his lair so he can overthrow him, he attempts to either abuse or even kill the younger ape until Gnarled Finger intervenes.
- However, rather than forgiving them, he instead decides to punish Suko by sadistically kicking Gnarled Finger into a lava pit to his death for seemingly no reason other than sadistic pleasure, giving Kong a cruel smile just to provoke him while taking joy in tormenting Suko just to break his spirit. This is the last straw for Kong, who resolves to overthrow and kill the Skar King in order to free the apes from his enslavement.
- During his first battle with Kong, he injures and lacerates his hand with the crystal on the end of his Whipslash before sadistically strangling him.
- After being overwhelmed by Kong, he summons Shimo to attack him using the crystal (which is implied to be a part of Shimo herself). However, when she refuses, he uses the crystal to torture her into submission which causes her overwhelming pain, leading to her firing her frostbite blast at Kong which results in his right arm getting injured and frostbitten in the process, thus allowing the Skar King to steal his axe, whom he had searched for centuries to eliminate Godzilla.
- Upon gaining Kong's axe, it is implied that the Skar King plans to kill Godzilla with it as an act of revenge for being imprisoned in the Hollow Earth and take his place as the "true alpha Titan", and then kill Kong with it as well.
- After being overwhelmed by Kong, he summons Shimo to attack him using the crystal (which is implied to be a part of Shimo herself). However, when she refuses, he uses the crystal to torture her into submission which causes her overwhelming pain, leading to her firing her frostbite blast at Kong which results in his right arm getting injured and frostbitten in the process, thus allowing the Skar King to steal his axe, whom he had searched for centuries to eliminate Godzilla.
- When Kong escapes with help from Suko, he sends One-Eye and the other Red Stripes to chase down and kill him, although his minions would end up getting killed thanks to Kong and Suko using one of Kong's hunting traps to dispose of them, except One-Eye, who manages to survive.
- Upon being alerted by One-Eye that Kong has fled to seek refuge at the Iwi temple where the portals leading to the surface world are being held, he gathers his army and Shimo before heading to the surface for war.
- Once the Skar King gets to the surface, he intends to wipe out the Titans, humanity and other species on Earth so that he and his apes can become the planet's dominant species.
- Upon arriving at the Iwi's barrier, he breaches it using Kong's axe after forcing Shimo to weaken it with her ice breath before ordering her to freeze the gap between the pyramids that were about to unleash a brief anti-gravity shock wave to prevent them from touching.
- He doesn't show any care for his minions (including One-Eye) who were defeated or killed by Godzilla, Kong, Suko, and Mothra during the anti-gravity battle.
- Upon arriving in Brazil when he gets to the surface, he sadistically laughs at hundreds of beach-goers running away from him before frightening them by roaring at them to make them even more scared of him. He then orders Shimo to freeze the atmosphere and the city of Rio de Janeiro with her ice breath in order to make another Ice Age which would likely lead to the extinction of both the Titans and humanity.
- He also wastes no time attempting to kill any humans still present, most likely killing a major portion of people given all the destruction caused by the fight between him, Shimo, Godzilla, Kong and Suko.
- He sadistically chokes Kong while attempting to prevent him from reaching and destroying the crystal, fearing that Shimo would turn against him if she is freed from his control.
- After Suko uses Kong's axe to destroy the crystal controlling Shimo, he grabs the young ape and attempts to strangle him before Kong intervenes and saves him.
- In his final moments, he angrily orders Shimo to attack Kong while being strangled by the latter, though this leads to his well-deserved death considering that Shimo is now freed from his control after Suko destroyed the crystal, leading to her turning on her former master at Godzilla's prompting and freezing the Skar King before Kong smashes him to pieces.
- While his death of being frozen by Shimo and having his frozen body smashed to pieces by Kong was brutal, it's not played for sympathy by any measure, but rather for karma and satisfaction as he truly deserved to die for his horrible actions considering not only for what he did to the Great Apes which he had abused and enslaved, but also for what he did to the other Titans as well as being the most ruthless and sadistic monster he really was.
- Furthermore, the other Great Apes in the Hollow Earth are shown celebrating his death after everything he did to them, and they quickly accept Kong as their new king as he frees the apes from the Skar King's enslavement while intending to rule in a more benevolent way than the latter previously did.
- While his death of being frozen by Shimo and having his frozen body smashed to pieces by Kong was brutal, it's not played for sympathy by any measure, but rather for karma and satisfaction as he truly deserved to die for his horrible actions considering not only for what he did to the Great Apes which he had abused and enslaved, but also for what he did to the other Titans as well as being the most ruthless and sadistic monster he really was.
Trivia[]
- The Skar King is the third MonsterVerse villain to be Pure Evil, the first being King Ghidorah, and the second being The Kraken.
- Likewise, the Skar King is the third Pure Evil to come from a speculative biology work.
- He, alongside The Kraken are the only Pure Evils to originate from the MonsterVerse.
- It is implied that the Skar King sent the Skull Devil and the other Skullcrawlers to kill the Great Apes who migrated to Skull Island due to a similar red handprint (which was too large for Kong to plant it) being marked on one of the mountains that was found by Lt. Col. Preston Packard and his men in Kong: Skull Island, which would make him indirectly responsible for the deaths of Kong's parents. If this is true, it would make the Skar King even worse.
- The Skar King serves as an evil and darker counterpart to Kong as both are primates and Alpha Titans. Kong suffers from loneliness as he desired to find more of his kind after the deaths of his parents and demonstrates compassion towards the apes once finding the whole colony, while the Skar King shows no care to his fellow apes (even to his loyal servants) due to being abusive and tyrannical towards them. While Kong teams up with Godzilla to fight the bigger threats as an ally, the Skar King uses Shimo as his enforcer and attack dog to do his dirty work when the fight doesn't go in his way. Kong doesn't seek dominance, whereas Skar desired to conquer the surface world. If Kong didn't desire to find more of his kind and instead desired conquest, he would've ended up becoming like the Skar King.
- It's also said that while Kong represents the best side of humanity, the Skar King represents the worst of it.
- In addition to Kong, the Skar King could also be considered as a dark reflection of Godzilla as both are ancient Titans who fought wars extensively while both are extremely wise and intelligent creatures with supreme leadership capabilities. While Skar King is a ruthless dictator and does not care for any destruction he causes, Godzilla is compassionate and seeks to liberate the world of tyrants such as Ghidorah and Skar himself. If Godzilla didn't learn to form relationships and find compassion in his heart, he might have ended up like the Skar King.
External Links[]
- Skar King on the Villains Wiki
- Skar King on the Gojipedia Wiki
- Skar King on the MonsterVerse Wiki
- Skar King on the Hate Sink Wiki
[]
Pure Evils | ||
Films TV Shows Comics and Manga Fanon |
Pure Evils | ||
Live-Action Features Literature Video Games See Also |