Skar King (Godzilla x Kong The New Empire)

The Skar King somewhat resembles Kong, but with proportions similar to a chimpanzee and red fur similar to that of an orangutan. He has a lanky build, with long arms and legs. Reddish fur covers the majority of his body with the exceptions of his face, scalp, and extremities. He possesses luminous, blue eyes with white pupils, red war paint on his face, mutton chops, two prominent teeth which protrude from his lower jaw, and a scar above his right eye. He wears the Whipslash like a sash on his right shoulder.

The Skar King is a sadistic dictator. He takes pleasure in abusing his subjects: Suko, the other Great Apes, and Shimo. Capricious with his punishments, he spared Suko his wrath when the Great Ape Gnarled Finger stepped between them, only to kick the elderly ape into a lake of lava. He even extends his cruelty towards his harem and children, who cowered in fear when he flung food in their direction. Upon meeting Kong, he laughed at his titanium tooth and encouraged his subjects to join in.

The Skar King prefers ample reinforcements in battle. Even when he challenged Kong to single combat, he called upon Shimo to intervene as soon as the ape Titan seemingly gained the favor. Though Godzilla kept Shimo away from Kong during their battle in Hollow Earth, the Skar King repeatedly directed her to attack Kong when the fight moved to Rio de Janeiro.

At some point in ancient times, the ruler of the Great Apes, the Skar King, attempted to conquer the surface world. His lust for domination brought him and his kind into conflict with "The Monster Who Ate a Star", Godzilla, and the Great Apes went to war against the Titan. The Skar King and his army almost claimed Godzilla's life, but the King of the Monsters sealed the Red-Haired Conqueror and the Great Apes deep in the Hollow Earth. At some point during his confinement, the Skar King claimed an ancient power in the form of the ice Titan Shimo, who he controlled with pain, forcing her to act as a weapon for him.

The Skar King possesses immense physical strength and speed, and was easily able to overpower the other Great Apes within his kingdom and establish a tyrannical regime. Other Great Apes stood little chance against him, demonstrated when he launched Suko's caretaker Gnarled Finger into the lava below with a single kick. However, he needed the range and flexibility of the Whipslash to stand up to Kong in single combat, while he was completely overwhelmed by Godzilla.

Despite his advanced age, the Skar King displayed impressive athletic prowess, being able to leap a great distance all the way from his cave’s perch to the floor of his kingdom. During his first battle against Kong, he dodged three swings of his axe before kicking him in the jaw, managing to (briefly) knock him down. After disarming Kong with the Whipslash, he easily leapt over him to strangle him from behind. When fighting on the surface in Rio de Janeiro, he leapt through vast stretches of the city while avoiding Godzilla's atomic breath.

Intelligence Much like Kong, the Skar King is intelligent enough to wield weapons, notably his Whipslash, which he uses very effectively in combat. He was able to direct an army of Great Apes to nearly kill Godzilla in ancient times, and still commanded their near-total obedience in the present day. His empire uses a form of sign language, which One-Eye used to explain to him that there was a portal near the Iwi city leading to the surface. In Rio de Janeiro, he tried using Suko as a hostage, knowing Kong was attached to the smaller ape.

Durability The Skar King was undeterred by an indirect blast of Godzilla's atomic breath, with only slight burns to his fur. He remained alive after being completely frozen over by Shimo's ice breath, prior to Kong shattering him. He also tolerated direct hits to the face from Kong using the B.E.A.S.T. Glove, albeit losing a tooth.

The Skar King possesses a giant whip made from the spine of a Titan, called the Whipslash, which ends with a glowing light-blue crystal. It is an extremely sharp weapon, able to slice through buildings and cut Kong's hand, although it was unable to break the evolved Godzilla's skin. It can also be employed to strangle opponents, as the Skar King demonstrated during his first fight with Kong. Godzilla ultimately broke the Whipslash with a single bite.

In Godzilla Battle Line, the Skar King uses the Whipslash to pull opponents towards him. The Skar King can use the crystal at the end of the Whipslash to command Shimo to attack, doing so by pointing it at his desired target. This process causes Shimo significant pain through unknown means until she obeys the command given to her, as she was seen slamming her head against the ground when he first used the crystal to command her to attack Kong. This crystal also doubles as a sharp weapon, as it lacerated Kong's hand. However, upon its destruction Shimo was freed from the Skar King’s control. The novelization of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire suggests that this crystal was broken off from Shimo's back spines.

The Skar King relies on his intelligence and agility in combat, lacking the strength or resilience of either Godzilla or Kong. During their first battle, Kong overpowered him, flipping him over his shoulders and picking him up again to slam him into the ground. Following this, the Skar King immediately summoned Shimo to continue the fight. He was unable to mount an effective defense against Godzilla, who caught the first swing of his Whipslash in his jaws, then tugged on it to throw him and chased him through Rio de Janeiro with his atomic breath. His reliance on Shimo to fight stronger foes proved to be his undoing; after Suko shattered the crystal controlling her, Shimo soon turned against her former master.

Shimo is a reptilian monster with some similarities to Godzilla's evolved form. A quadrupedal creature with white scales that have an iridescent sheen, she possesses Stegosaurus-like thagomizers in the shape of a trident on the tip of her tail and crystalline spines down her back. The spines cover her entire back and thin into a line of spines going down the length of her tail. Shimo is also adorned with many crystals arranged in a crown-like formation protruding at a horizontal angle from the back of her head. A continuous row of sharp scutes located on her sides run from where the back of her head connects to her neck to the thagomizers on her tail. Her protrusions when not charged up with energy are mostly ice blue, but they also appear indigo and amethyst purple. Whenever she utilizes her ice blast, Shimo's protrusions glow light blue. Despite her large size, Shimo's abdomen and legs are very slim. Her eyes appear to be blue with black pupils, though her pupils are obscured when she glows bright blue. Shimo usually walks on all fours in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, assuming a bear-like stance, but certain scenes and some concept art (seen above) and merchandise show her standing bipedally

Under the Skar King's control, Shimo was ruthless and aggressive, violently causing widespread destruction and attacking others on command. However, she did so against her will, even initially refusing to fire her beam at Kong during their first encounter. She hesitated again when he directed her to freeze Malenka's largest electromagnetic pyramids in place, but otherwise followed his commands quickly to avoid or minimize the pain he inflicted on her. After being liberated from the Skar King's influence, she looked to Godzilla for advice before deciding to freeze her former master as Kong held him aloft. She stared up in awe as Godzilla dispelled the clouds she had summoned with a blast of his atomic breath following their fight. Afterwards, she was friendly towards Kong and Suko, allowing them to ride on her back and showing affection as Kong petted her head. Shimo did not hesitate to join her liberators as they and their tribe partook in a victory cry celebrating the end of the Skar King.

According to the Iwi, Shimo was responsible for causing the Last Ice Age. In Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted, Kong came upon an ancient cave painting depicting her in battle with Godzilla. She was captured by the Skar King at some point in the past, and he controlled her using a blue crystal attached to his Whipslash that would cause her pain unless she did his bidding. This crystal is repeatedly suggested in the non-canon novelization of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire to be a piece broken off from Shimo's back spines.[20]

In the same novelization, Monarch also finds that the geological layer representing the beginning of the Ice Age was made up of ice specifically caused by Shimo. The novel goes on to explain that this same ice was what surrounded King Ghidorah in Antarctica.[21] It is even theorized in the "Meet The Titans" section on the film's Prime Video rental page that Shimo was responsible for freezing the three-headed Titan.

Shimo is capable of firing an icy energy beam from her mouth. This ability is referred to as a Frost Bite Blast and Frost Bite Breath on the packaging for Playmates' individual Shimo figure and Godzilla vs. Shimo figure set, respectively.[7][23] When using the attack, Shimo's eyes, back spikes, and thagomizer glow a bright blue. Shimo is shown using the beam to freeze over Kong's axe and arm, and to cause a massive ice storm by firing it into the sky. During the former, the beam creates large ice chunks upon contact. The beam was powerful enough to give Kong frostbite, completely freeze the Skar King's body in seconds, temporarily freeze Godzilla solid (though he freed himself without injury once Mothra intervened), freeze a portion of the barrier concealing Malenka and allow a hole to be punched through it, and block Malenka's two largest electromagnetic pyramids from producing an antigravity wave upon collision. In addition to her Frost Bite Blast's capabilities, Shimo's mere presence is capable of freezing her surroundings, first shown when she froze over the ground in her prison. The forests in the Hollow Earth also froze as she walked through them, and the waters off the coast of Rio de Janeiro froze when she emerged on the surface, acting fast enough to freeze breaking waves solid. After she fully emerged, this power formed an island of ice that stretched over a great distance. According to the Iwi's ancient temple tablets, Shimo's "power" was responsible for triggering the Last Ice Age, but this is not elaborated on. The Godzilla x Kong novelization also states that she iced over Greenland 2.5-3 million years ago in "minutes or hours" using a "radiation burst" that "makes atoms stop in their tracks"

According to director Adam Wingard in the "Godzilla Evolved" home video featurette, Shimo is "stronger" than Godzilla and was his primary motivation for evolving. Shimo was shown to be able to utilize her spiked tail in combat when she smacked Kong with it, sending him hurtling through the air and into a building. She also used her limbs and jaws numerous times during her duels with Godzilla, even managing to send him flying hundreds of meters away with one forelimb, briefly taking him out of the fight. Her jaws were strong enough to clamp down on Kong's arm and hold him in place, then throw him into a building. Her back was also able to support being ridden on by the Skar King, and later Kong and Suko.

The novelization concurs with Shimo being stronger than Godzilla, with the latter being described as "a middleweight fighter in a heavyweight brawl".[25] Kong, while trying to reach the Skar King's crystal, has a "bad feeling about" their fight, as he is sure that Shimo is stronger and doubts that Godzilla can win. Hampton also thinks that it "seem[s] like a toss-up" Shimo was able to endure being wrestled about by Godzilla and notably withstood a prolonged, direct blast of his atomic breath to the side of her head without any visible injury.

Weaknesses The Skar King commanded Shimo using a slender blue crystal which would cause her pain if she did not obey his directives. She was able to temporarily resist the crystal's power, shown most prominently when the Skar King first ordered her to fire on Kong, but she was never shown refusing an order entirely until after its destruction. Though she was durable enough to avoid serious injury from any of her foes, Shimo was vulnerable to being stunned by certain attacks from Godzilla and Mothra, both of whom managed to stop her from firing her Frost Bite Blast. Early on during the fight in Rio de Janeiro, Shimo groaned in pain from a particularly powerful blast of Godzilla's atomic breath striking her underside.

The Great Apes appearance's vary across individuals, with some appearing similar to gorillas and Kong's species while others such as the Skar King and One-Eye resemble chimpanzees. However, the adults are noticeably shorter and less bulky than Kong, possibly due to malnourishment. Their fur color also varies greatly between individuals; many seem to have a dark gray or brown fur, while others have orange or red fur, the latter being true of Suko and the Skar King. A few of the apes, such as some of the ones that attacked Kong initially, appeared to have patchier fur, leaving pale skin exposed. Red paint coats parts of the apes' bodies, such as on the chest, and lines their arms and legs.

Given that they protected humans in ancient times, the Great Apes likely have more benevolent tendencies naturally. Under the oppressive rule of the evil Skar King, however, they seemed far more hostile towards other entities. Suko and the three adult Great Apes attacked Kong on sight when he entered their level of Hollow Earth, and even when Kong showed one mercy in the midst of their clash after he was almost knocked off a cliff, he quickly attempted to kill Kong with a dagger. Some of the guards and seemingly higher-ranking Great Apes display a notable degree of cruelty, probably also inspired by their leader's ruthlessness, such as when one beat fellow Great Ape Boots for dropping a stone that was likely used for construction. Later, One-Eye unhesitatingly used Knob's body to shield himself from falling rocks, at the cost of the ape's life. The Great Apes were not completely vicious under the Skar King's rule, however. When Suko returned to the Skar King's lair, one ape, Gnarled Finger, seemed worried about where the young simian had been; additionally, Suko's caretaker intervened when the Skar King threatened to harm Suko. The Great Apes largely lived in fear of the tyrant, who intimidated them and beat them casually and remorselessly; the mere toss of his food was enough for the Great Apes near him to cower. When Kong entered their cave, he observed several Great Ape heads mounted on spikes, presumably belonging to those who displeased the Skar King and displayed as a warning to others.

The Great Apes are able to cooperate well in battle, as shown when the three adults and Suko carried out their ambush on Kong. In ancient times, armies of them commanded by the Skar King threatened even Godzilla. They appear to use sign language and sounds to communicate.

The Iwi wrote that the Great Apes were protectors of humanity in ancient times. However, the apes' leader, the Skar King, desired to claim the surface for himself, bringing the Great Apes into a massive conflict with Godzilla. The battle almost cost Godzilla his life, but the Titan prevailed and locked the Great Apes deep within the Hollow Earth. The Skar King's desire to conquer the surface remained firm, however, and he ruled over the Great Apes with unwavering cruelty as he waited for his chance to exact his plot, also taking control of the ancient Titan Shimo.

According to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire's Japanese theater program, the Great Apes are of the "same species" or "same kind" (同種 dōshu) as Kong.[1] Director Adam Wingard and Ilene Andrews actress Rebecca Hall also refer to them as "[Kong's] kind" and "Kongs," respectively, in home video featurettes for the film.[2][9] Despite this, designer Jared Krichevsky testified that the Skar King and other Great Apes were "not [the] same species" as Kong in a since-deleted tweet.

Physical abilities The Great Apes possess notable strength. Stone Fist and Catcher were able to hold Kong down briefly before he was able to free himself. Additionally, the apes could tow large bricks and carry stones across the grounds of the Skar King's lair. They also display great speed and endurance, as they were able to pursue Kong across the Hollow Earth. They are well adapted to environments in the Hollow Earth, and could fight fairly competently amid the disrupted gravity during their raid on the Iwi village.

Tools While many of the Great Apes rely on their physical capabilities, they are also capable of using tools, especially weapons. During One-Eye, Stone Fist, and Catcher's initial attack on Kong, they attempted to use a club made of bone and a dagger made of stone against him.

Intelligence The Great Apes demonstrate high intelligence, such as their use of weapons. They also demonstrate coordinated attacks, as shown when a group of three ambushed Kong as he attempted to pursue Suko, possibly having the younger Great Ape serve as a decoy. Later on, as Kong and Suko escaped the Skar King's lair, Kong attempted to trick a horde of Great Apes pursuing him into setting off a trap, but One-Eye noticed the tripwire and cautiously stepped over it, and the rest of the apes took steps to avoid tripping it as well; it was only when Suko purposefully set the trap off to help Kong that they were caught by it

As individuals, the Great Apes are physically weaker than Titans such as Godzilla or Kong. While the three adults were able to briefly restrain Kong after ambushing him, they proved to be little match once Kong freed himself and could properly retaliate. Later, in the Great Apes' cave, he felled an aggressive guard with a single punch. Godzilla pushed aside multiple Great Apes with ease in the anti-gravity fight, while Mothra also restrained some of them with her silk. Most of the Great Apes failed to adapt to the gravitational nullification and helplessly flailed and floated. The Great Apes can be killed by falling from heights that left other Titans unharmed.