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The Skull Devil, also known as Ramarak or the Big One, is the main antagonist of the 2017 action adventure monster film Kong: Skull Island, the second main installment in Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse franchise.
She is the tyrannical alpha and queen of the Skullcrawlers and one of Kong's archenemies. She is feared throughout Skull Island, which she has terrorized for thousands of years and is responsible for the near-extinction of Kong's species which left him as the sole survivor, leading to him becoming Skull Island's protector and guardian he is today.
Ultimately, the Skull Devil's reign of terror entirely ended for good in 1973 when she was eventually defeated and killed by Kong with assistance from his newfound human allies, including James Conrad, while engaging him in a brutal fight.
Appearance[]
The Skull Devil is a huge, slender, muscular, 95-foot-tall Skullcrawler who is almost as large as Kong himself. Unlike the smaller Skullcrawlers, she possesses distinct spikes on her elbows, a thorny tail and a more pronounced, sand-colored transparent ridge running down her spine along with a wide flat crest-like structure on her scalp and a more rounded crocodilian shaped snout in contrast to the smaller Skullcrawlers' pointed Tylosaurus shaped snout.
Personality[]
Despite being a predator, the Skull Devil, unlike the other Skullcrawlers, is depicted as nothing more than a heartless, sadistic, ruthless, black-hearted, bloodthirsty, murderous and homicidal beast in nature. As the alpha of the Skullcrawlers, she has better self-control than the smaller individuals (who are implied to be her offspring). This was seen when she appeared only once Kong was subdued and incapacitated by Preston Packard. She also seems to have a hint of sadism, as she sadistically licks Kong's face while she prepares to kill him after he got tangled up in a shipwreck's rudder chain during their final battle.
The Skull Devil was also shown to have a deep desire of killing and eating humans, which was shown several times when she diverted her attention from Kong to James Conrad and Mason Weaver, implying that she acts not only from primal instinct, but some degree of malice and cruelty. She also demonstrates some intelligence when she swats Earl Cole away with her tail before the grenades can detonate.
Biography[]
Background[]
Not much is known about the Skull Devil's origins, although she was the sadistic, heartless and wrathful alpha of the Skullcrawlers who is responsible for slaughtering Kong's species and his parents in the past which left Kong as the last surviving member of his species, making her the most terrifying and feared creature on Skull Island. After killing Kong's kind, the Skull Devil went to the depths of Skull Island, where she would remain dormant for a time. Because of this event, the Iwi became afraid of her, since if Kong died, the Skull Devil would come out of the surface and wipe them out.
Kong: Skull Island[]
In 1973, when Lt. Colonel Preston Packard and his men ambushed Kong in a swamp, the Skull Devil emerged from the water due to being awakened by seismic explosives being dropped onto Skull Island earlier along with the rest of her kind. She heads quickly to Kong, who crushes Packard with his fist and then begins to fight against her while James Conrad and the others escape. The Skull Devil injures and subdues Kong before turning her attention to the survivors, who are running towards the waiting boat just as dawn approaches, prompting the Skull Devil to follow them in pursuit.
The Skull Devil eventually catches up to the group, but Earl Cole stays behind to sacrifice himself by blowing himself up with grenades strapped to him, making sure that both he and the Skull Devil die together. However, the Skull Devil sees this and whips Cole away with her tail into the side of a mountain which causes the grenades to explode, killing him. Before the Skull Devil can kill the survivors, it was revealed that Cole's sacrifice had given enough time for Kong to appear and smash a large boulder over the Skull Devil's head, allowing the survivors to escape while the two monsters battle. During the fight, Kong picks up a large tree and uses it as a club to swing it against the Skull Devil's face. Barely fazed by the hit, the Skull Devil wraps her tail around Kong and throws the giant ape Titan onto a wrecked ship, where Kong becomes entangled in heavy chains of the ship itself. Just as the Skull Devil had Kong at her mercy and prepares to kill him while sadistically licking his face, she is suddenly distracted by Houston Brooks and Lin San with gunfire from Hank Marlow's boat armed with mounted guns.
Distracted, the Skull Devil turns her attention to the boat with the intention of killing the group until the guns are cut off, leaving them defenseless to the Skullcrawler. However, Mason Weaver, who was standing atop a cliff, shoots the Skull Devil in the eye with a flare which then explodes, blinding the creature and letting her guard down long enough for Conrad to lure her away from Brooks and San on the boat. This distraction also gives Kong enough time to free himself and use a propeller attached to a chain like a flail to land a vicious blow on the Skull Devil's back. He then uses the chain to pull the Skullcrawler toward him, yanks the propeller out and slams her into the side of a cliff, unaware that it was the same cliff Weaver was standing on, causing her to fall into the water below. Kong then proceeds to use the propeller as a shuriken to slice the Skull Devil's throat open, apparently killing her.
Having defeated his foe, Kong turns his attention to Weaver and manages to save her before she can drown. However, as soon as he had her in hand, the Skull Devil, revealed to be still alive, rose back to her feet and attacks Kong once more. In the ensuing fight, Skull Devil wraps her prehensile tongue around Kong's fist in order to devour Weaver. As the Skull Devil drags her and Kong's hand into her mouth, Kong uses all of his strength to pull his fist out with the Skull Devil's tongue still around it, but also ripped out all of the Skullcrawler's organs, finally killing her and ending the Skull Devil's reign of terror for good, thus avenging the deaths of Kong's parents, his species and even Cole. With the Skull Devil dead, it is implied that the remaining Skullcrawlers are now left completely helpless and hopeless without their alpha.
In Other Media[]
Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong[]
The reborn Skull Devil in Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong.
The Skull Devil appears as one of the secondary antagonists of the crossover comic book series Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, where she is resurrected by the League of Assassins, by dropping her skull into the Lazarus Pit. Having been fully resurrected and restored in a much larger and stronger form, the Skull Devil proceeds to lead an army of other Skullcrawlers against the Justice League and Mechagodzilla's army.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Skullcrawler Physiology: As a Skullcrawler, the Skull Devil is incredibly powerful, possessing several physical and supernatural attributes.
- Immense Strength: The Skull Devil is strong enough to send Earl Cole flying a good distance with a tail slap, grapple and wrestle against Kong and also pull his hand into her mouth with her tongue. She even threw Kong a considerable distance, despite the ape weighing 158 tons.
- Immense Durability: The Skull Devil is capable of withstanding a boulder smashed on top of her head by Kong, getting whacked across the face with a fallen tree and even having her throat sliced open with a boat propeller.
- Immense Mobility: The Skull Devil is fast and agile enough to dodge and counter most of Kong's strikes.
- Immense Stamina: The Skull Devil's stamina is shown to be high, never needing to stop or even slow down during her battle with Kong.
Abilities[]
- High-level Intellect/Leader: The Skull Devil was the most intelligent of the Skullcrawlers, considering the fact that she swatted Cole away when he tried to get Skull Devil to devour him while he was holding grenades that was about to detonate. As the alpha Skullcrawler, the Skull Devil was a very capable leader.
- Prehensile Tail: The Skull Devil's long prehensile tail can be used as a formidable weapon or even used in a snake-like manner to hold opponents such as Kong in her grasp.
- Prehensile Tongue: Just like the other Skullcrawlers, the Skull Devil possesses a long triple-forked prehensile tongue that she could use to grab and swallow prey whole.
Weaknesses[]
- Limited Durability: Despite her power, the Skull Devil possesses a critical vulnerability: her tongue is physically connected to her internal organs. During her battle with Kong, he exploited this weakness by forcibly pulling out her tongue, which simultaneously ripped out her organs and caused her immediate death. Her eyes are also vulnerable, seen when one of them was shot out after Mason Weaver fired a flare gun at it. In Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, her durability is increased dramatically but was harmed by Godzilla's Atomic breath and Superman's heat vision before being finished off by a Green Lantern Construct Axe by King Kong.
Trivia[]
- Since after her death at the hands of Kong, it can be assumed that Skull Devil might be the only adult Skullcrawler in the film as there are no sightings of any other adult individuals anywhere on Skull Island. However, it was somehow proved wrong when one adult Skullcrawler made its appearance in Godzilla vs. Kong.
- It is unknown if Skull Devil is the parent of the Skullcrawlers or if she is just the alpha of the pack, but in Behind the Magic: Kong Skull Island, she was revealed to be a female and is the queen of the smaller Skullcrawlers.
- Although the Skull Devil was thought to be a male, it turned out that the creature was revealed to be a female and is larger in size compared to the smaller male Skullcrawlers.
- It is also believed that the smaller Skullcrawlers shown in the film are implied to be males and are likely either the Skull Devil's offspring, her mates or her soldiers. Similar to ants, wasps and bees, it is implied that larger female Skullcrawlers such as the Skull Devil act as a queen and are capable of laying eggs while smaller male Skullcrawlers seen in the film are implied to be the workers.
- She is the second antagonist to be Kong's archenemy, the first being Mechani-Kong and the third being the Skar King.
- The Skull Devil is the first kaiju to nearly kill Kong in the MonsterVerse, following the Skar King, Mechagodzilla and the Kraken.
- The Skull Devil is regarded as one of the most evil and darkest Titans in the MonsterVerse franchise due to her sadistic and bloodthirsty nature.
- The Skull Devil's story can be compared to that of another King Kong villain Gaw as both characters are known for being the murderer of Kong's parents as well as being the leaders of their respective species.
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