Kludd

"What they did to us? They believe in me like no one else ever has!"

- Kludd to Soren

Metal Beak, real name Kludd, is a barn owl (a sooty owl in the movie) and the main antagonist of the first half of Guardians of Ga'Hoole and the 2010 animated Warner Bros movie, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (however in this movie, Metal Beak and Kludd are separate characters; Metal Beak is the main antagonist, and Kludd is the deuteragonist turned tertiary antagonist/anti-hero).

In the Books
Kludd the barn owl was the elder brother of Soren and Eglantine. He was a bully who hated his brother, and eventually pushed Soren from the nest as part of his initiation into the evil elitist group of owls known as the Pure Ones. Kludd was power-hungry, and wanted to rule the Pure Ones, so be battled with their current leader and killed him, although he paid a price, as a large portion of his face was ripped off. He then had a metal mask made for him to cover the scars, and dubbed himself, Metal Beak. His mate was Nyra, an equally evil barn owl who became second-in-command of the Pure Ones.

In a later battle with Soren, who had survived and now lived at the great Ga'Hoole tree with the Guardians, Soren ripped off his mask and saw that he was his brother. Soren then melted part of Metal Beak's mask off with a burning branch, which ended the battle and Kludd went off in search of water to cool it down.

When the Guardians launched an attack on St. Aegolius Academy, an evil organization that had previously captured Soren, Metal Beak was anticipating their assault, and set up a trap for the Guardians. During the ensuing battle, he lured Soren to a cave, where he had six of his owls waiting to ambush him. Soren and his companions, however, escaped the trap and fought Metal Beak himself, but Soren could not bring himself to kill his own brother. It was until Metal Beak wounded Gylfie, Soren's friend, that he tried to kill him, but another of his fellow warriors, a great grey owl named Twilight, came in and slew Metal Beak with a fatal blow to the back. The Pure Ones were defeated, but Nyra survived and hatched a son for them named Nyroc (later known as Coryn).

In the Movie
In the movie adaptation, Metal Beak and Kludd are two different owls, and Metal Beak was a sooty owl. He was the longtime leader of the Pure Ones, and his face was maimed in a battle of the past. He and his wife Nyra ordered their owls to capture young owlets and moonblink (hypnotize) them into slavery. His plan of vengeance against the Guardians was with flecks, small pieces of magnetic metal found in pellets, to create a super-weapon used to disable and paralyze owl's gizzards, during this time he made a deal with Allomere a Guardain who had some time before the film became a turnfeather. Kludd, Soren's brother (in this film portrayed as roughly a teenager), joined the Pure Ones and quickly rose in the ranks (later while battling Soren he said that the Pure Ones believed in him when no one else did). When the Guardians launched an attack against Metal Beak's stronghold, Allomere lured them into the place where the super-weapon was kept and Metal Beak's bat minions unleashed the super-weapon, downing most of the Guardians. Soren and the band, however, arrived and Soren disabled the flecks. Metal Beak watched this and, assuming that they where guardians too and that Allomere had lied to him, ordered him killed. Immediately, a pack of bats attacked Allomere and dragged him away into the darkness to eat him alive (Metal Beak didn't find this out, but Allomere managed to escape the bats, but was later slain by his former apprentice Shard). While the Guardians and the Pure Ones battled each other, Metal Beak went into combat with Ezylryb, an old warrior Guardian who had given Metal Beak his scars. The two fought fiercely and though Ezylryb came very close to defeating the much larger Owl, he was overpowered when Nyra joined Metal Beak's side. Working together, Metal Beak and Nyra overpowered and nearly killed Ezylryb, but Soren came in and battled Metal Beak. Metal Beak soon gained the upper talon in the fight and dived at Soren in an attempt to slay him. However, Soren managed to mortally wound the evil warlord by impaling him on a flaming spear. Metal Beak then collapsed and died from the wound, his mask falling off as well (though the movie didn't show his scars). Nyra then retreated with the remaining Pure Ones. Some time later, Kludd, who had survived the battle, found Metal Beak's mask and presumably took it for himself.

Trivia.

 * Metal Beak in movie version is similar with previous leader of Pure Ones in the books, though unlike that owl, he had some history with Ezylryb.
 * Also, while Kludd in the book is Metal Beak, in the film he is not, but likely became 2nd Metal Beak if there a sequel to the movie as he is seen staring at Metal Beak's mask with gleaming red eyes near the end of the movie.