#skullcrawler

"Kong vs. Mac 2" © Legendary Pictures, by Karl Lindberg. Accessed at Wikizilla here

[When Kong: Skull Island came out, I was pleasantly surprised that we got a King Kong movie that wasn't just another remake of King Kong. Instead, we get a weird musing on American interventionism in the Pacific, in which a WWII vet is eager to get back home to hot dogs and baseball after decades living peacefully with the least racist depiction of the inhabitants of Skull Island; a Vietnam commander goes full Ahab against Kong in his pursuit of a war he thinks he can win; and the main monster antagonists are mash ups of a background critter from the original 1933 King Kong with Cubone, Sachiel and No-Face. Lots of East meets West stuff here, in lots of different registers, and that goes even harder in earlier drafts. Hence calling the monster Mac here: that's short for MacArthur. As in Douglas. For everyone who goes "oh, the story was supposed to be this!" based on concept art and script drafts... stuff gets cut for a reason.

I like the skullcrawlers as monsters, but I find them frustrating in that they highlight the scale problems with the Monsterverse. The Skull King/Ramarak is theoretically supposed to be representative of the skullcrawlers that killed Kong's family on Skull Island, but then in order to fight Godzilla, Kong gets real big real fast; big enough to dwarf the Skull King. And then we get a skullcrawler that is that big getting Worfed by Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Kong! I made mine Colossal as a compromise; smaller than a full grown titan ape but still long and skinny enough to constrict one.

If you'd like to support an unemployed writer, please check out the Creature Codex Patreon here! $5 a month gets you access to monthly bonus monsters, and the current set is drawn from the Monsterverse. This month's is Kong himself!]

Skullcrawler CR 20 NE Magical Beast This creature resembles a massive snake with two long limbs near the front of its body, jutting out at extreme angles. Its head is wedge shaped and skull-like, with small eyes tucked away behind large black fenestrae. It opens its mouth, revealing multiple rows of hooked teeth and a long tongue ending in a trilobed, hand-like structure.

Skullcrawlers are enormous amphibious predators with a voracious appetite. Skullcrawlers spend most of their lives eating, sleeping or searching for food, and are known to chew on rocks and trees to assuage their hunger if they can’t find food. Skullcrawlers have a dim and malicious intelligence, enough to prioritize threats and enjoy terrorizing victims almost as much as eating them. They have a longstanding, species-wide feud with the titan apes, and local extinctions of titan apes from the surface world can be attributed to the activity of skullcrawler swarms.

A skullcrawler is an all-terrain menace, capable of moving on land, through cliffs and trees, and underwater with equal dexterity. They can mimic the sounds of prey in their environments, including speech, although since they do not actually speak languages limit themselves to short phrases they’ve overheard or the sounds of crying or screaming. A skullcrawler’s entire body is a weapon—in addition to their bone-ridged bites, skullcrawlers slam into foes with their long prehensile bodies. Smaller prey is often snagged with their tongues, yanked into their mouths and quickly swallowed, whereas larger prey is simultaneously constricted while being raked with their clawed feet. Skullcrawlers are quite literally fearless, and often fight to the death.

Despite their reptilian appearance, skullcrawlers are more closely related to amphibians, and are believed to be hypertrophic kin to the gougers. They do best in warm, wet environments and are often found in tropical rainforests, swamps or hot springs. Skullcrawler eggs are laid in water, although they are tough enough to be able to resist periodic desiccation and still come to term. Skullcrawlers lay hundreds of eggs, but most of these are fed on by the first handful of larvae that hatch. Adult skullcrawlers seem to find one another unpalatable and, although squabbles are common, do not fight to the death among each other, or even eat the fallen bodies of their kin.

Younger skullcrawlers (with the young simple template and Gargantuan size) are common and very aggressive. As skullcrawlers age, they grow more rugose, forming deeper ridges along the back and bony protrusions from their elbows. These elder skullcrawlers can grow to titanic sizes, gaining the massive SQ along with the advanced simple template and/or additional Hit Dice.

SkullCrawler babyyyy

Let’s start up with the Mutos!

The strongest types of parasites on earth, once protectors of earth and even allies to Godzilla’s species but now turned hostile and parasitic and became hunters and poachers towards the Gojiras all lead by ruthless Primes

Up Next Suko, Kong’s Young and Greatest Ally

A lot of changes for Suko, this is basically an design on how I imagine an older young adult Suko would be like, It would be also nice if he also had an Beast Glove like with Kong

And now for the Queen of Hollow Earth and Kongs love interest, Kira

A little fun Fact on her, back when I was on deviantart, I had the idea of Lady Kong being an Mandrill after seeing many design speculations of Kong being an Mandrill (there was also one where Kong’s Mother was design as an Mandrill too) so I decided to use that Mandrill design for Lady Kong for Monsterverse NEO

Thought it would be neat that unlike with Kong or Suko, Kira doesn’t need armor from Monarch since she prefers Armor and weapons crafted from her own hands, basically Kira to Kong is like what Catwoman is to Batman like with Suko being like Robin and Skar King being like the Joker and Godzilla being like Superman, Maybe Monsterverse is secretly an DC universe where Superman’s and Batman’s personalities are switched 🤔

Next Up the Daughter of Godzilla, Jira!

Jira is technically the “Zilla Jr” equivalent to Monsteverse NEO, her relationship with Godzilla is similar to X-23s relationship with Logan, technically something I’d love to see in the official Monsterverse

Now for Monsteverse NEOS equivalent for Minilla who is Kai!

Kai is one of the things that shows Godzillas softer side, an adorable little innocent lizard who is the big Gs good old little emotional support buddy, Kai’s personality is inspired by N from Murder Drones, this little champ is the kindest Gojira you will ever meet

Also Godzilla, Jira and Kai makes the best Family Trio, an Depressed but loving protective Father with his teenage emo daughter and adorable wholesome and optimistic son :)

Not to mention that Kai is an Huge opposite to Satazillas while Kai is an happy kind little Goji who wants to do what’s right, Satazillas is an weak minded and hateful asshole who wants to make everyone as miserable as he is, Kai is an Little Titan facing his future about growing up while Satazillas while being an older specimen than Godzilla is basically an Kaiju equivalent of an Petty Man-Child XD

Finally, The pest who crawled over Skull Island, The Skullcrawlers!

A bit on their twisted lore in monsterverse NEO is that Unlike with the Mutos, the Skullcrawler were always Twisted, Burtal and Murderous and have no tethering or compassion towards others as unlike other Titans on Earth Skullcrawlers cannot form meaningful connections and Skullcrawlers also cannot form any redemption arcs like with Barb the Queen Muto did, Skullcrawlers also cannot be tamed or domesticated like pets being the only Titans that The Great Apes can’t tame, the thing is that in Monsterverse NEO, Skullcrawlers don't have the capacity for love, so that's why they resort to plain hurting and consuming others that aren’t them just for the sake of enjoyment and evolution

Skullcrawlers