Stop your whimpering Chamberlain! It's time to crown the new king of all Skeksis. Today it will be... trial by hunt! Whoever kills more of these duplicitous rodents and winged-gelfings is the winner! They'll make a fine meal for my Garthim. Don't get in my way or you'll join them in the pit!
skekUng,
The Garthim Master
skekUng, also named at various points The General, The Garthim Master and finally The Emperor, is a major antagonist in 1982’s Dark Crystal. One of the frightening skeksis who rule over the world of Dark Crystal, skekUng like his brethren towers over the gelfling and other races, hunched over from centuries of unnaturally prolonged life. skekUng’s monstrous personality befits his appearance. The militaristic skekUng inherits the empire – by the time of the film, only a gloomy castle overlooking barren, empty plains – only to be defeated soon after by a couple of Gelfling and spends his short time as the skeksis leader desperately trying to stop the skeksis’ downfall. At the end of the film, skekUng along with most of the skeksis is “reunited” with his mystic counterpart to become an otherworldly UrSkek. The UrSkek, an alien race banished from their own world (thanks unsurprisingly to Chamberlain’s UrSkek) had accidentally split themselves into two beings long before the events of the franchise and their reunification marks the end of the Dark Crystal story.
As skeksis go, skekUng is a particularly nasty one and that is an impressive feat. All the skeksis revel in consuming the essence of other living creatures to unnaturally extend their own life span and spend their days wallowing in riches forcefully taken from the helpless Podling and scant other survivors in Dark Crystal’s post-apocalyptic world. skekUng had leaded the skeksis army as The General after the first one was murdered and he was summoned back to the castle. skekUng’s initial banishment was ostensibly for being too extreme for the skeksis during the long, peaceful period where the skeksis lived relatively peacefully with the other races merely paying tribute to them, before the crystal was corrupted and needed to be refreshed by sacrificial lambs. While this is yet to be seen in the series, it's known the war caused by this event precedes an apocalypse-like devastation to the entire world that leaves scant traces of life besides the skeksis and few others. skekUng started as The General (all the skeksis have such titles) and later becomes the Garthim Master, an interesting title that hints at his ruthlessness, controlling the abominable experimental monsters, the Garthim, first created by skekTek the Scientist. The war is in fact called The Garthim War, so it would suggest skekUng was instrumental in the skeksis victory, impressive as the skeksis suffered casualties and humiliating defeat early in the war, as shown in the Age of Resistance series.
skekUng was present at the
death of the original Emperor, skekSo, who perished after centuries of abusing the dark crystal's powers of regeneration. skekUng and two others fight over who successes the Emperor; skekSil, the manipulative Chamberlain and skekZok the “ritual master” who had no chance of becoming the Emperor. skekUng and skekSil engage in
Trial By Stone to decide who will be the next Emperor. This involves the skeksis chipping away at a large stone to see who is the strongest. skekUng completely destroys the stone showing off his great power, and then has skekSil humiliated, his clothes torn off and exiled to the harsh outside world to die without the dark crystal's essence the skeksis need to stay alive. Throughout the film skekUng is then shown as the leader of the skeksis in their castle keep fighting against the Gelfing like a distant General, while skekSil directly goes out to take advantage of the situation to worm his way back into the other skeksis' good graces.
skekUng originally appeared as one of the surviving Skeksis in the original Dark Crystal film released in 1982. skekUng stands out from most of the other skeksis as being exclusive to the film and not appearing whatsoever in Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. The first season cuts off just as the villainous skeksis are on the retreat and decide to call back the banished skeksis including skekUng. Unfortunately the future of the series hangs in the balance but there’s still plenty to be drawn from the film and what can be pieced together about skekUng’s background.
There are two Generals, skekUng and his predecessor skekVar. skekVar also has a feud against skekSil and it is possible what happened to skekVar because of skekSil is part of why the two strongly dislike one another. During the film skekUng is shown to hate Chamberlain’s mannerisms such as his “mmmmMMMMMmmmm” whimper and his general demeanour. skekZok commented at the end of Age of Resistance that skekUng is “a strong fighter” which is a big difference from the snivelling politician skekSil, another clue as to why they don’t get along. Despite this rivalry the Trial by Stone was by design never going to physically harm either combatant, showing how despite their differences the skeksis would still never actively hurt one another, if only out of a sense of self-preservation.
statIstics
Size 
10
Weight 9 / 118 Units (5th/Tied with Ganondorf)
Air Speed 4 / 1.015 units (51st, above Squirtle)
Ground Speed 8 / 1.97 units (20th, below Bowser)
Fall Speed 4 / 1.55 units (45th, tied with that idiot Chamberlain, Mewtwo, Palutena and others)
Jumps 6 (Comparable to Bowser)
The statistics on the left are graded out of 10. skekUng towers over much of his opposition as he does the Gelfling in the Dark Crystal universe, a littler taller than Rosalina while being a decent bit wider, comparable to Charizard at his base, while a bit slimmer than that near the top of his chunky frame. He's a full on heavyweight unlike Chamberlain and a super heavyweight at that ranking in at the same weight as Ganondorf, though not reaching the top ends of the weight tier. He's not that slow on the ground surprisingly just below fellow super heavy Bowser and has a shockingly good initial dash for his stature, a terrifying shuffle that barely reveals his decrepit legs beneath his robe. His fast fall is very fast, so he has the benefits of both a floaty and fast faller.
skekUng’s battle stance resembles the image above, hunched over, a massive target for attacks, not aided by his high weight and ironically does lend to him being countered on the face of things by small combo-heavy
Gelfling lightweights. skekUng can take out his sword for some moves like Ganonodorf’s Space World/Melee sword, skekUng’s is from Trial by Stone. The curved blade can be seen in the art for his neutral special. This sword is highly comparable to Ganondorf's sword he pulls out for his smashes in size. skekUng is not such a great combatant in the air, though does move with a basic degree of mobility akin to other big bodies like Ganondorf or Bowser to not be a sitting duck. His air speed is a little worse than skekSil because of his size increase while, like his ground speed, skekUng benefits from being a stronger fighter with competent jumps. skekUng shares Chamberlain's middling fall speed, arguably ending up worse for combos because of his larger weight/size. The better jumps do help a little however.
Unless otherwise stated, KO percentages are on Mario from the middle of Final Destination. All statistics used here can be found on Kurogane Hammer's site (
link).
specIals
SIDE SPECIAL: GARTHIM MASTER
skekUng raises his blade in the air as pictured letting out a triumphant war cry, summoning one of his Garthim beasts to the fight! These giant beetles are intimidating creatures: a little taller than skekUng and as wide as Bowser. In fitting heavyweight fashion the Garthim creates a shockwave a little to both sides as it pinches its claws readying for its attack, then launches forward at Fox's dash speed in a shockingly fast series of snapping claws that will carry foes halfway across Final Destination before they're launched at a high angle, as the Garthim delivers a final uppercut! The Garthim then disappears, and Garthim can only summon one Garthim at a time. The initial shockwave deals 5% and will stun foes long enough to guarantee the Garthim's snapping claws combo. The snapping claws deal 6 hits of 2% damage and a final 7% hit that can KO from as low as 80% if performed near the edge, the hitbox of the claws is also too big to duck under and will catch foes that aren't entirely above the oversized beetle. The Garthim will stop at the ledge and instead snap in place so can set up a ledge trap forcing the foe to wait or roll up, narrowing their options and making it easier for skekUng to punish. When they finish their attack the Garthim will stop to taunt with their claws for 1.5 seconds, giving the foe their best opportunity to attack.
A Garthim doesn't take hitstun or knockback but
can be destroyed, but unlike Chamberlain's inferior minions, skekUng's Garthim are battle hardened! They will only be KO'd after their 20HP is diminished by attacks as they are summoned, this causes them to recoil and scuttle away into the background, but does not outright kill them. There's only a brief moment to attack them before they charge forward, making it rather ineffective. Once they charge they gain a new 40HP instead before they can be KO'd, whereby they are fully killed. This persists over multiple uses of the side special. The Garthim will fall over on its back and dissipate in a much more dramatic animation when defeated this way. If they are KO'd and then skekUng can't summon them for another 10 seconds. The Garthim takes a good 21 frames to be summoned, one frames faster than Ridley's Space Pirate Rush side special. The Garthim are easy to see coming but the shockwave will combo foes so long as they aren’t shielding and the claws will easily keep the foe in shield stun, dealing huge shield damage. skekUng can use this opportunity to attack the foe to go for a shield poke or break, able to move as soon as the Garthim is out, and has much end lag as Dedede's Gordo's Toss.
skekUng can't have 2 Garthim at once, so when he tries to perform this move with a Garthim out he instead points his sword towards the Garthim letting out another distinctive war cry in a faster animation taking only 9 frames. The Garthim will immediately stop its attack or any other action it was doing and look towards the camera, writhing in pain as its body starts to erupt in dark energy emitted by the crystal, this lasts for just under 40 frames before exploding in gory fashion! The exploding Garthim is a strong hitbox dealing 13% damage and will KO at a radial angle from 70% 1.5x the size of the Garthim, and another short distance beyond that deals 10% damage to KO from 90% extending out 2x the Garthim’s hurtbox. skekUng is unfazed by the loss of a worthless Garthim. The blood is a gross dark purple and will burst out of the Garthim alongside other wriggly creepy crawlies and other little creatures you might normally find skekUng snacking on. Tasty! The downside to this is that Garthim will be unable to summon Garthim at all for another 7 seconds. This is shown by the amulet around skekUng’s neck glowing a deep bright purple whenever the Garthim is unavailable.
The foe can destroy the Garthim to stop the explosion; a Garthim who is KO'd normally simply collapses in place stopping the "detonation." This puts an incentive on the foe to at least attack the Garthim a little bit when they first spawn, or preferably, not give skekUng the space to summon it in the first place. This should dissuade the most basic attempts at camping skekUng. The Garthim won't go off stage normally but can be summoned mid-air where it will lose its shockwave but otherwise act the same way, attacking forwards in the air, making the move potentially far scarier. The Garthim does however still only attack forwards and without the initial shockwave, this is a big commitment possibly giving up a more direct gimp attempt.
skekUng can sacrifice his Garthim in the middle of their blitzing attack. This will never combo out of the claws themselves but may catch a foe off-guard or trick them into dropping shield if they think that the Garthim will start to detonate, particularly when the foe is too low to be KO’d by the claws or their shield is too plentiful. This conditions the foe to sit in shield if caught, which is important, as trying to roll behind the Garthim in shield is one of the best ways to escape its onslaught! This is where an observant skeksis General might punish the foe for their insolence when he didn’t in fact call for the Garthim’s Death by Explosion.
NEUTRAL SPECIAL: CRYSTAL BAT
skekUng points his left hand forwards, blithering out another order-like roar to summon a Crystal Bat over his head! This takes 11 frames and has little end lag. The Crystal Bat is relatively small; its main body and hurtbox is only as large as a Pokéball while its wingspan gives it a body around the size of the smoke ball item. The Crystal Bat effortlessly flaps its wings to remain hovering in place for the first few frames it’s summoned, having no hitbox. The Crystal Bat has a meagre 10HP and takes no knockback or hitstun like the Garthim, though has nothing as flashy as its big beetle brother.
The Crystal Bat is not a fighter and instead used for reconnaissance. The bat starts out in front of skekUng but shortly after being summoned it will race towards the nearest foe at Falco's dash speed batting its wings to stay afloat. When it reaches an acceptable distance of 2 Ganondorf heights, and half a Battlefield platform in front of its target, it will start to hover more calmly in place as a weak laser is emitted from the bat towards the foe! This laser strongly resembles the one used by the crystal itself, must be a skekTek creation. The laser scans over the foe’s body and as it scans will start to fill up its own crystal core on its batty body, this takes 8 seconds before the crystal is totally filled. Once that happens the crystal bat flutters its wings in place after a job well done and dissipates, an idle skekUng will chuckle to himself at his success!
This gives skekUng an icon on his HUD of the Crystal Bat’s core crystal and by shielding, the Crystal Bats will show the stock icons of the characters they’ve scanned, being able to scan any opposing character in the match. He can have one of these per foe in the match, they do get squashed down a little in big FFAs. When skekUng’s amulet around his neck glows a brighter purple than in his side special, he can do a follow-up that channels this knowledge of the foe through the power of the crystal, giving him a special follow-up! These magical augmentations help rise skekUng’s otherwise basic heavyweight play to a level befitting of an emperor. This buff lasts for 5 uses, follow-ups – called a
General Move or GM will use 1 of the uses if not stated otherwise, and each time will crack the Crystal Bat shown on skekUng’s HUD until it shatters into a fiery smouldering mess whereby skekUng has to scan the foe again. While the Crystal Bat is scanning a foe at any point when skekUng already has a crystal core of them in his inventory, this gives skekUng access to all his 1 use General Moves too, but is locked out of anything stronger than that.
The foe can destroy the Crystal Bat before it finishes its scan. Any scanning will be saved for future bats to continue so long as skekUng retains his current stock and the bat will stay at its decently high height above the foe so it's not that easy to destroy. No matter where the foe moves, the bat will continue its scan from where it began, perched the same set distance when it first starts its spying scan of the foe. The only way to stop it is to destroy the bat. At the same time, skekUng can punish the foe's predictable jump to try and hit the bat if they choose to do that, so much of the time, it's better for the foe to just let it be and not give skekUng room to summon the bat in the first place instead.
The first of these
General Moves is for the Garthim in the side special. When first summoning the Garthim, skekUng will be prompted to press A to lower his sword and snarl, using up the Crystal power so that the Garthim glows with energy! This simple evolution for the Garthim means that when they start to claw across the stage, if a foe is detected behind them that has been tracked, they will turn around and claw that way instead, each time they attack! This essentially gives the Garthim an auto-turn and eliminates the one weakness of their charge, as well as ramping up the pressure of the move ridiculously high so foes can no longer roll behind the Garthim. This small change allows skekUng to passively let the Garthim chase foes and easier set up for their powerful explosion hitbox, without any of his own commandeering needed!
Another General Move exists when this input is instead held and costs 2 points, this is shown to players by a sheen on skekUng's HUD as the side special is used with the regular GM. skekUng instead points at the ground, creating an ominous quite large aura of darkness and the ground around shown to be bursting up from underneath, you can imagine what lies in waiting. Whenever a foe walks over the ground or deals that patch of ground 15% damage, the Garthim will burst up from the ground and attack, facing the way it would based on skekUng's original placement. As the Garthim bursts out of the ground it seems to come out of a dark portal, allowing it to exist on top of platforms as well as thinner stages without having to physically be there besides the top of the surface where hints at what's beneath are apparent to anyone in the match.
A scanned foe will give Garthim the ability to turn around as in the regular GM, not costing any extra points, but cannot be buffed when it's placed like a normal Garthim can, which can be a burden and a curse for both skekUng but also his opponent keeping this in mind as they think they can casually roll behind its attack. This opens up the potential for the Garthim to be used in skekUng's set overall, completely detached from the rest of his set, but at the cost of not being able to summon the Garthim on his person defensively and the lag of the move mirrors that of the original side special, so is not cost-free, on top of the point cost. At any point skekUng can use side special to summon the Garthim and depending on the direction pressed, can command his Garthim to attack left or right irregardless of the foe's current scan progress, so can set it up next to ledge then have it attack forward with a delayed attack.
When a Crystal Bat is already out on stage skekUng can perform a unique follow-up that requires no crystal core, this one is free of charge! skekUng will hold up and tighten his fist with a grimace, causing the bat to wince in pain and glow an ambient purple at the centre of its body! For a moment the bat is cowers in midair and frantically bats its wings as it starts to glow on-and-off purple with overflowing energy, now slowly homing in on the closest foe at the speed of Samus’ homing missile, with the same physics/speed. Once the bat hits a foe or solid object or the closest wall/ground (ignoring platforms) it will explode in a small Wario-sized energy blast, squirming in pain as its little wings are spread all over the stage, to skekUng’s delight! As the Crystal Bat falls it’s a weak hitbox that deals 5% and radial weak knockback, good to simply interrupt the foe out of attacks although it can be hit to destroy it before it reaches foes, cancelling the explosion. The bat’s small hurtbox and larger hitbox of its wings makes this a difficult trade however this can push the foe out of range of the explosion too. The bigger hitbox is the explosion that starts off dealing 6% to foes and light upwards knockback, good for a juggle or combo starter, but can grow as the bat has absorbed the foe’s energy. A bat sent out with a full crystal core will use it up completely for its explosion, potentially wasting all of skekUng's hard work. For every 25% of the foe’s scan the bats have completed, this translates to another 2% from the explosion and grows the hitbox’s size until when it deals 14% damage, it is the size of Bowser and can KO from 125%! The foe may opt to
not kill the bat to have it waste the crystal's energy on the ground harmlessly, but not if skekUng has anything to say about it! The issue with this is that it does require some start up and he has to press the input to make the bat dive into foes, all the while the bat is not a hitbox, so this requires a bit of space.
DOWN SPECIAL: TRIAL BY STONE
skekUng points towards the ground and barks out a mean-sounding grunt, summoning 2 Podlings (small enslaved creatures from Dark Crystal) to drag up a giant pillar - for a Trial by Stone! The pillar and podlings are not a hitbox and the pillar can only be summoned on the ground, in the air this instead summons the stone on the nearest ground in front of skekUng. All of this takes 8 frames of lag to summon, but another second to fully be set up, though the Podlings and stone are invulnerable while this happens. The podlings drag the stone up on both sides with tightly-wrapped ropes that descended into the ground, these poor slaves are comparable to the Waddle Dees in Dedede's entrance, and quickly dissipate in a miserable cowering stance on the stone is raised fully.
The pillar is roughly as tall as Ganondorf and elevated slightly off the ground where there's a little rocky ground holding it slightly off the floor. The trial by stone is not solid at any point and is erected in the background of the stage - but it can be attacked. When it is attacked, it will tilt either left or right depending on what direction the attack struck, for purely upward/downward moves this will instead push the pillar in the direction skekUng and foes were facing when he summoned the stone. The stone will take damage passively despite being in the bg much like the statues on the Castle Siege stage. The stone has 50HP and once it’s depleted fully and dealt damage over 6% in one hit, the stone will tip over and collapse onto the stage in a violent thud, dealing 22% damage and high upwards, slightly inwards knockback! This will KO from 80%! I suppose when there’s no skeksis empire to fight over, you have to settle for such brutal tactics.
The falling stone
can hit skekUng, but will only damage him if the foe got the last hit on the stone. Like Pac-Man’s hydrant, the stone will only damage characters that didn’t get the last hit on the stone, and the incredibly powerful hitbox of the falling stone can make this a big deal especially in a confined fights, which the Garthim and Crystal Bat help make a reality for skekUng. These are simple, but effective tactics. The stone will fall to the ground slowly enough and is a massive hitbox that anyone in close proximity is likely to get hit and as it slams the ground, deals another 18% damage, these two hits can easily combo a shielding foe for a shield break, making it a dangerous place to be for a foe! The stone can also if hit to the left or right next to a ledge fall off-stage, falling at Fox’s falling speed. Though it does still deal upwards knockback to prevent it being a strong gimping move, this is still very powerful against any recovering foes.
Whether the stone is leaning hard right or left makes a big difference, as after falling on stage, it can either fall harmlessly to bits and the stone is destroyed there
or the stone can roll to the left or right depending on what direction it leaned. Every attack will cause it to lean in the opposite direction to where the stone was hit, and each attack will shift the stone that much further in that direction. The stone will take 25% damage to be shifted completely in one direction. At that point when the stone falls, it will bumpily roll across the ground in that direction like a barrel for another 1.5 battlefield platform widths until it comes to a halt and dissipates. As long as the stone is rolling it’s a constant hitbox dealing 15% and high upwards knockback to KO from 125%. This is a far cry from its strength while falling, however if it does fall off say, a platform or the stage, it will become a powerful hitbox yet again. This means that tilting it to lean harshly either way then foisting it loose later on can be a very smart strategy. Only leaning moderately left or right will only make it roll a minimum of a Kirby width dealing the same damage and knockback.
As you’d expect from someone like skekUng he has a trick up his sleeve with the move, when the input is pressed again when the stone is already out, skekUng will point forwards with more of a glare than before. The point is very fast at 8 frames but has no hitbox. The podling are re-summoned and in a terrified rush cling to the rock on both sides. The podling will prevent the stone from being launched, though they can't stop it being leaned by attacks. The podlings will stay out until commanded to leave by skekUng, using the same animation, though only the last hit which will decide what direction the rock falls. The catch is that the podlings will not be able to withstand a hit of 30% damage or higher to the stone and this will also cause the stone to fall no matter its HP, the podlings being knocked backwards and dissipating in place instead! Luckily for skekUng, he has a few moves that are powerful enough to break through the podlings' guard and this little trick makes his stone far more easy to cheat than Pac-Man's ham-fisted Hydrant. In all, the Trial by Stone rock is a crucial part of skekUng's playstyle that combines elements of Villager's tree and the Pac-Man Hydrant for a frightening stage control tool that skekUng can easily rig for himself with but a little time to command the podlings.
UP SPECIAL: INTO PURPLE BATS
skekUng emphatically gestures forward with his degraded monstrous arm, summoning Crystal Bats - around twice as small as ones from his neutral special - to surround him and cause him to be shrouded in a mist of the tiny mammals. This will thusly be called the
shroud. skekUng can then move the shroud of crystal bats in any direction, becoming invulnerable after the short start-up, essentially teleporting skekUng the same distance as Mewtwo's up special. The start up does mean it's not an infallible recovery, important to note. skekUng's bats are a constant hitbox that deals up to 6 hits of 1% with flinching knockback to foes all around skekUng's hurtbox and will largely just hit them out of any attempt to punish skekUng off-stage and can end in a ledge snap for skekUng. If he doesn't ledge snap skekUng will roar as he erupts out of the bats who scream in pain as he smacks them out of the way! This is a final hit that will combo out of the weaker hits for 10% damage and moderate upward/forward diagonal knockback to KO from 165%, not bad though is very punishable on shield due to bad end lag, similar to Zelda's up special. The up special leaves skekUng in a humiliating slow and painful free fall if he ends it in midair, grasping at the air with his hands as surprise spreads over his face.
The fact skekUng has a teleport-like up special is enough to be a big deal for his playstyle, but he can perform another move altogether with the bats by holding his up special instead. The bats will be commanded to instead move across the stage while maintaining their shroud-like properties at Fox's dash speed before settling in place. The shroud of bats obscures a Bowser-wide and tall portion of the stage and dealing foes a constant 1% damage with no flinch/knockback five times a second for up to 6 seconds, dealing 30% damage to foes in that area if they stand in it all that time. The success of the obscuring is… not that great, but enough to hide the various similar moves changed by General Moves in skekUng’s set to make a big difference! The Shroud will deal damage to the Trial by Stone and help to hide any Crystal Bats doing scouting for skekUng. The bats however can be destroyed by dealing any part of their large hurtbox 25% over their duration, though hitting them has no hitlag, so is much easier than other skekUng minions. When the bats are out too, it extends the start lag of skekUng's up special by a few frames as he has to dissipate the existing cloud, which he can only have one at a time.
The Shroud can be utilized when skekUng doesn’t have enough Crystal Core to use the stronger General Moves in his set if the Shroud is physically overlapping his hurtbox. When skekUng has a Crystal Core in stock or a Bat actively watching the foe, he will take from those instead, leaving his Shroud untouched, and only draws on its power as a resource when he has nothing else to use, and it's quite a risky venture. The Shroud is compromised of 10 uses of the Crystal Core that will be turned into crystal energy and sapped into skekUng when he attempts to do a too costly General Move. This passively lets skekUng attain some of his strongest attacks without need for a Crystal Bat technically, but at a great cost. Every use will visibly kill off a part of the Shroud and reveal segments of what’s inside, making the obscuring useless from around half and downwards, and reduce the damage done by the move to the percent of bats left alive. As a recovery skekUng’s teleport will only go up to five-percent its normal distance (!!!) as far when he uses up all the bats in his Shroud and even at half the bats, this is still a pathetic thirty-percent its normal distance, dropping massively from its normal usefulness. It takes 2 seconds for each use of the Shroud to be recovered and the bat to respawn, so it can take a long time to recover them all. The Shroud’s damage as a melee attack is equally nerfed with a minimum of 3% damage and far weaker looking ending hit if skekUng lands the move on a foe.
When the move is augmented with the power of a successful Crystal Bat, it will instead be covered in the dark crystal's energy, though he can always access his usual up special recovery by tapping the special. Holding special when the shroud is already out will make the shroud rush towards skekUng instead from wherever it is on-stage, going in a straight line at Sonic's dash speed. This deals foes 12% damage and will launch them in the direction they were headed with moderate knockback, whatever way they were faced to go towards skekUng at the start of the move, the bats do not change direction after they choose their path. This isn't likely to KO, though it can go the length of the FD main platform before the bats dissipate for a potential off-stage gimp. skekUng by comparison benefits from the shroud as if they were a gust of wind, giving him a unique movement option!
The surging shroud will give skekUng a strong boost in the direction it headed, pushing him a good Bowser width across the stage when pushed at a horizontal. This is reduced depending on what angle it pushes skekUng, only pushing him half that when angled up/down and diagonal, or purely vertical if straight up/down. skekUng can avoid this by shielding or dodging through the bats, though as has to set this up, it shouldn't be a pervasive issue. The shroud can allow skekUng some exciting utility for a super heavyweight by giving him that extra push to better his mediocre follow up and combo game, as well as avoid punishment from foes. The push is not so extreme as to necessarily push him out of range for his other attacks depending on the angle and as it attacks foes too it can potentially lead into fun combos such as shield grabbing a foe as they're thrown towards skekUng in shield. If he successfully grabs the foe, he could still throw the foe after too, potentially pushing him to the ledge for a bthrow as one example. The shroud will still be summoned back by the up special, though this can be a combo in of itself if the foe is launched into skekUng at a high percent, a combo fit for an Emperor if you find the right percent to KO!
smaShes
FORWARD SMASH: TRIAL BY SWORD
skekUng takes out the massive Trial by Stone ceremonial sword, every bit as impressive as it was in his first special and makes quick use of the huge weapon - swinging it back and as he screams out in anger swiping away at a massive portion of the stage! This deals a huge 25-35% damage, a percent higher than Ganondorf's Doriyah fsmash and has a very comparable, giant hitbox. The move's hitbox and animation is decidedly more vertical than the Ganondorf fsmash that inspired it as skekUng seems to slam the sword more overhead and onto the ground than through the air like Ganondorf. The attack comes out a frame later at frame 32 and a frame longer end lag. This is made up for by the fact the giant hitbox actually extends slightly further than Ganondorf's already impressive hitbox and the power of the move is marginally higher than Ganondorf's that KO'd from 65% at centre stage. The move will like Doriyah reach behind skekUng a good deal and will deal over half a shield's full health and nearly break a shield at full charge.
skekUng has no direct interaction with his Trial by Stone, however the stone will have an incidental effect on the move that makes it very potent. The sword will suffer significant hit lag upon hitting the stone, screeching to a halt as the sword hits the rock and delaying the end of the move, extending the time the extremely powerful sword hitbox is out, comparable to hitting Pac-Man's Hydrant. What makes this a lot more powerful as a mindgame too is that the fsmash deals so much damage it can easily knock the stone forward at the same time, destroying a full shield and pretty much ending a stock for a foe if they're caught anywhere near this terrifying area. This is doubled up in usefulness by the presence of Garthim on stage, particularly if they've been empowered by the Crystal Bats and the shroud making it harder to judge what's exactly happening with the Trial by Stone's position.
The other element that makes the fsmash particularly terrifying in the context of his Trial by Stone when grabbed by podlings is that he can charge the move to deal up to 35% damage, and at around half charge or 30% damage will be able to knock the Trial by Stone down no matter its HP! Depending on where the stone was placed this can be a hindrance to foes to say the least whether at the ledge or to stop foes shielding around it due to the pressure of both the sword's delayed hitbox on the stone and it collapsing on top of them. When the stone does collapse, the sword's delay from hitlag on the stone will end earlier too, freeing up skekUng faster otherwise the sword's hitbox is more greatly delayed causing an even more horrifying Doriyah than usual. The shroud that skekUng creates can make it hard for the foe to tell too, both whether skekUng is going for a charged fsmash or if the stone's HP is high enough for it to matter as damaging it to 25HP or so is not that difficult when it's taking constant damage.
skekUng can use a General Move here, accessible when he's just started fully swinging his sword. This will cause skekUng to be shrouded in bats just like in his up special, and become invulnerable for a short time. skekUng will automatically re-appear 5 frames later but by holding the follow-up press of A skekUng can delay his return another 5 frames, up to 30 frames by using up all 5 uses of his Crystal Bat power! This will save whatever charge the attack had but give the more 4% super armour for every use of the Crystal Bats to max out at 20% super armour, armouring through most moves in Smash Ultimate. The armour is an important factor but being able to delay when the powerful sword attack comes out can in of itself swing the match in skekUng's direction as he fools a foe trying to attack him at ledge or attack him out of the move. The catch is that the bats around skekUng have 10HP that will force skekUng back into the match, so is best for weaker single hit moves, though when skekUng comes back he can utilize his armour to power right through the foe's next attack. Alternatively, the arrogant Emperor can whiff all of his crystal power at once! Unacceptable.
The bats do have low HP but they will still tank a hit for skekUng even if the attack they tank deals up to 15% damage, only hitting skekUng at 16% and above. This increases by 5% for each use of the crystal core. This is just another way for skekUng to cheat with his own Trial by Stone to tank a hit if the foe does manage to knock it on top of skekUng who will then re-appear and attack where the foe was! It's more viable too in this case due to the hitlag the foe will take while attacking the stone. This doesn't require much crystal power, maybe a few uses of the Crystal Bat, to get past the foe's attack and the stone but skekUng appreciates the ability to use as little or as much as he needs depending on the match up.
This is one of the best uses of the shroud too, combining them and the GM so that the foe finds it hard to tell where skekUng will end up using the crystal-powered Shroud to push him a little back or forward, potentially catching rolls or jumps. If he is shrouded by the move's own GM too he can be pushed around before he re-appears to add another level of mindgame to the Doriyah. It is possible to see small signs of what's happening behind the shroud but can be turned into a mess of bats with both GMs utilized at once. In tight situations however and with a Garthim or Crystal Bat itself attacking the foe skekUng can manipulate the situation to catch the foe off-guard using his minutia of mindgames with Trial by Stone and his minions, making this an even more terrifyingly powerful attack than Ganondorf's fsmash in the right hands.
UP SMASH: LINGERING DARKNESS
skekUng triumphantly holds his ceremonial sword with both hands, then raises it straight above his head causing it to surge with dark energy and striking foes for 1 hit of 1% damage, 3 hits of 2% damage and finally a powerful final blast of energy for 16-22% damage! This will KO from 80% with purely upwards knockback. skekUng holds the sword triumphantly like a trophy, this is why it's a touch laggier than it otherwise would be. The first hit will combo foes into the rest of the move from the front, but has a blind spot behind skekUng. This is highly comparable to Roy's up smash visually. Unlike the fsmash, this will linger all on its own and even gives skekUng the same intangibility on his sword hand as Roy's arm (his hand is pretty big), making it a great way to catch out foes trying to jump over skekUng! Moreover, this is a fantastic move for its range, stretching the huge sword 1.5x as far as Marth's up smash, being an absolutely outstanding anti-air.
An anti-air this good is significant as skekUng loves to catch foes in the air trying to knock down his Crystal Bats and in general, he needs all the anti-airs he can get as a super heavy in Smash Ultimate. The move comes 2 frames slower than Roy's at frame 14, still a very fast move by skekUng's standards, the issue being that like Roy's attack this has a long, punishable duration lending to the move's FAF of 61 (2 frame more than Roy's 59 due to the 2 frames longer start up). This duration is the move's saving grace too, the multiple hits and how long the move stays out means that foes won't find it so easy to cross up skekUng. Likewise, this will reach up so high that trying to even get to a Crystal Bat will be difficult with skekUng in the way, drawing a useful line in the sand for skekUng to deter foes with his own intimidating figure.
skekUng can perform a follow-up that alters the final hit of the attack, by pressing A before the final hit comes out. skekUng instead growls and raises the sword even higher into the air shooting out a shroud of bats directly upwards that deal 2% damage to foes each and have weak homing properties. Their formation starts as a small triangle and grows to a diamond with more bats. The amount of bats ranges from 2-6 depending on charge and each is roughly the size of a Pokéball, each one will deal damage and low knockback however near the top of the stage, this can act like a MegaMan UAir tornado to slightly push foes enough to vertically KO them especially at higher percents. Each bat will reach the foe at roughly the same time so dodging them all at once is easy when just 2, but scales up to being impossible at 5-6, while being difficult at 3-4.
The bats will fly off the top of the screen if no foe is within a close range but have homing that will greatly sharpen when a foe is within a battlefield platform width of the attack, chasing them down if they get in range! Unlike the other bats, these are purely made of crystal energy upon closer inspection, counting as a projectile. This means foes can't casually destroy them like the other bats and have to simply avoid the bloodsuckers. On the other hand, skekUng has to watch out for reflector-users! The bats themselves won't be boosted by the GM, however with the moving shroud chasing a foe, they become indistinguishable from the rest and much more of a pain for the foe to keep track of! As the foe can't really dodge the regular shroud, this can prove to be a debilitating combination.
skekUng can perform a GM by pressing the input on hit upon hitting a foe, and if hitting multiple foes will pick the closer one, or default to controller port priority in rare situations where no foe is closer. The foe is shot upwards as normal but there will be a magical Crystal Bat shadowing above them who follows their movement and is launched above their location as if they were hit by a move that deals 30% more damage than skekUng's attack. After being launched the bat will swoop back down towards the foe with strong homing at Falcon's dash speed and deal 7% damage with moderately strong upwards knockback. This is regardless of the bat's exact angle/position, so is always a good juggle or vertical KO attack, but the bat will only be around for 3 seconds so has to be used fast! This can even be used to pressure the foe around the Trial by Stone as the 7% is above the threshold to launch the stone at low HP, so can be a surprising stock ender around the almighty rock.
The bat will still just hit the ground if the foe moves particularly horizontally in the air due to not perfect homing, but this can telegraphed their movement to skekUng as well, especially at low percents. In general this is a massive help to skekUng's anti-air playstyle and can help the bat's fellow brethren in the air to force them out of the way. This is another element of skekUng's playstyle that also benefits from the shroud, particularly one that's already homing in on the foe too, though the two variations in this move can't be used at once as using the follow-up makes the GM inaccessible.
A gluttonous look on his face, skekUng holds out one hand as a stream of disgusting little bugs - ranging from worms, to beetles to giant ants - fall from his open hand and crawl across the stage, all taking place over start-up and charge time. At the same time, skekUng lifts his huge sword one-handed over his head, showing off considerable strength as he then slams the sword down, dealing 8% damage and dragging foes over his head to take the brunt of his damage, 15-21% damage and high largely flat horizontal knockback to KO from 75% on the front side! The start up is a little slower than the usmash but has comparable great range to fsmash, just more focused on the back and front sides of skekUng with less overhead range. skekUng has a devilish look on his face as all those poor bugs are turned into a splash of otherworldly goo! Any of the leftover bugs are but a nuisance and can be quickly gobbled up like Smash food items by skekUng for a useless, but delicious 0.1%, able to heal a paltry 1% damage if fully-charged and the most bugs are released, can't get em all!
The goo from the slain bugs will be thrown forward across the stage for a puny 2% damage to all it reaches, ranging from hitting just a Kirby width in front of skekUng to up to a full battlefield platform, and ranging from a crouching Kirby to a full standing Kirby's height in size, with only flinching knockback, largely just helping to make the move safer against shielding foes or foes trying to wait just in front of skekUng to punish a whiff. The bugs leave behind a pool of their own variety of colours of goo from being crushed that will stain the stage in a Bowser-2x Bowser wide puddle, decreasing the traction of foes to 0.65x when on the puddle, and giving weakened ice physics from stages like Summit. While not quite that bad, foes will find themselves sliding not only on the bugs but for a short period after that. Any character standing on the puddle will also have this effect continue for 5 seconds after being on top of the puddle.
The puddle really helps skekUng with his great usmash to have a much better dash into other attacks. For skekUng this is great to rush in and catch foes in the air. His Garthim also directly benefit as they will slide 1.2x as far with each of their claw swipes expanding their reach to a far greater degree and helping them push a foe off-stage from further away. The foe sliding around the stage will help with skekUng's general playstyle of wanting stage control and with his shroud especially, as the foe will have to have more staggered movement to stop sliding into it or into a disadvantageous position. The puddle lasts for 8 seconds.
skekUng can perform a GM with the move by pressing A as he raises his sword above his head, after charge and about to strike even as a foe is still being swung over to be hit, so uniquely can do this while a foe is in the middle of being attacked. skekUng cries out as his sword glows purple and he strikes the ground. Instead the foe is launched at a more diagonal angle as the magic of the sword bursts against the ground, dealing a slightly higher 20-28% damage to KO from 75%. This is not only stronger but much better for skekUng's playstyle versus just sending the foe off-stage where recovering low, skekUng has fewer options. The more important change is there has been a reprieve for skekUng's creepy crawlies!
The bugs will not be killed be launched by the burst of magic and instead launched all over the stage. The range of where the bugs end up from this attack is largely comparable to the splash from the default move, shifting the bugs into that area rather than their gooey remains. The bugs have no hitbox but will potentially crawl forwards at Ganondorf's walk speed, while not fast, their size means they can cover a surprising amount of the stage. This gives skekUng the potential to gobble down up to 3% worth of bugs if he gets a run of the stage. Any character that directly walks on the bugs will crush them into the ground potentially creating a much bigger puddle of goo to slide on. These bugs are more prone to spreading goo than the ones simply being splashed across the stage by skekUng's sword and skekUng merely walking over the uncharged portion of bugs will create as much of a puddle as a fully-charged dsmash, this scales to create up to 2x as much goo on stage as the regular move because of more bugs. This goes for the Garthim too who will cover all of the stage they walk over with the goo, for the duration of their attack. The downside of this is that any puddle created in this way lasts a shorter 6 seconds, trading longevity for range.
skekUng inadvertently aids his disgusting minions when they feast on the bugs! A Garthim at the same time as crushing the insects under its girth will eat the goo that splashes onto them, healing them for a constant 1% up to 5 times if they charge over a full stream of bugs even with an uncharged amount, at least healing for 5%, which can be significant if the foe was ever getting close to KOing the Garthim. The shroud of Crystal Bats from up special will feast on the bugs just like a foe when overlapping them on the ground. This will sustain them just like a foe would without needing a GM to do so, but will only heal them for 2% once a second and will periodically cause 2-3 of the bugs to be exploded to death! Nonetheless, don't say skekUng is such a bad guy, he truly does care for his subordinates after all.
standArds
JAB: PIG POKE
skekUng is suddenly more inspired by Ganondorf than usual as he rams out his hand with a flat palm, coursing with dark purple crystal energy, dealing 6% damage and moderate knockback. The jab hits a foe in an arc like Ganondorf's own ftilt so can be a real pain for characters like Mac when sent off-stage above middling percents. The animation is a little more curled over then down than Ganondorf's jab so it's not identical and the angle makes a bit more sense. Effectively this means the move will miss more low/crouching foes but can curl around low hitting attacks too. This is not quite as strong as Ganondorf’s jab, but is just as fast and has slightly short end lag, making it much more spammable. A key difference is that skekUng’s comes out a touch higher so is easier to crouch under and reaches slightly further due to his long reach. This is his go-to for foes trying to approach haphazardly to push them back into a mid-range position that he prefers to fight.
A move this spammable is an obvious choice to attack the stone. As a quick move with short end lag, the attack is perfect to manipulate with the hitlag mechanics present in the Trial by Stone, extending the short duration to abuse, while maintaining the short end lag once it’s over. At the same time, the 6% damage is the perfect amount to damage the stone without unearthing it fully when its HP is depleted, whether or not the Podlings have been commanded to keep it in place. This lets skekUng casually wear down the stone with no worries of ever having it unsettled from its current spot.
The General Move for this attack is performed by just holding A, a simple follow-up with the other arm doing a reversed underhand but slightly more forceful motion for an enhanced 7% damage, dealing much higher knockback that can KO from 130% as the foe is launched weakly upwards in the same arc. The attack comes out a touch faster than just doing another jab on its own too. This is mostly useful as a mix-up to catch foes that are trying to spot dodge or shield the jab. This goes over the threshold of the Trial by Stone so that it will cause the stone to collapse, which is very problematic for foes trying to shield the move and are in range of the Stone at the same time. This has the same low end lag as the normal jab. Fittingly enough the combination of the two hits is somewhat similar to Ganondorf’s nair in terms of hitbox placement as the lower, second jab will hit many ducking foes and cover the blind spots of the first, though they only ever “combo” into a shield.
The two jab hits can be continuously performed at the cost of using up another Crystal Bat usage each time, up to a maximum of 4 times beyond the second hit. This will raise the damage by 1% each hit, going to 8%, 9%, 10% and finally 11%, which will end on the second hit’s stronger knockback being able to KO from 100%. Each time skekUng will scream out his anger channelling more of his own power into the move, or perhaps angry not to have hit those disgusting little enemy peons! This is practically less viable than landing a Warlock Punch, if not for the rest of skekUng's set. This is the perfect way to catch foes haphazardly spot dodging or trying to roll around skekUng, or just shield when anything else is hitting their shield from skekUng's set. A foe can easily challenge this violently repeating jab but only if they can give it their full focus.
The move as fast as it is, performed 6 times is not fast, but is enough to bring down a Trial by Stone at the ledge all in one go and if it’s already weakened won’t require an entire Crystal Bat worth of hits. At the same time, it can be a very fun game of Chicken if the foe does want to sit in shield for too long or try and drop shield to attack skekUng as he simply says “no” and slaps them across the face. Ganondorf would be proud of such a disrespectful and read-based tactic.
DASH ATTACK: STAMPEDE
skekUng makes use of his massive feet hidden under his robe by stomping over and over again on the floor as he looks downward at a disgusting sight, perhaps at a character like Pikachu, these stomps deals 6 hits of 1% damage and a final hit to launch foes behind skekUng for 7% damage and decent low angled knockback to KO from 120%. This can be reversed to in front of skekUng if the foe is not sufficiently pulled in enough to be swept under his feet, instead launching them out for 7% in front for the same power, which isn’t too hard to land as it only means landing the move after whiffing the first 2-3 hits, depending on the foe’s percent, the higher percent the more they will be dragged in towards skekUng. There is a hitbox in front of skekUng too as he runs forward dealing 5% and hitting the foe downwards either for a ground bounce at high percents, or at low percents forcing them into the vortex that are his fat feet.
skekUng runs forward about as far as Luigi’s dash attack only scaled up for the skeksis’ impressive size, so covers a good deal of the stage, as he travels slightly faster than his dash speed. The end lag of the move is quite bad and the start lag is poor, but the long duration is more than enough to hit into other attacks like his Garthim or delay for the Crystal Bat to finish its work. Rushing over the bugs from dsmash will add 0.5% damage to each hit and marginally stronger knockback for the last hit, can't make wine without crushing a few bugs!
The GM of this move is a simple one; skekUng’s crystal power can be activated at the start of the move to make his entire body glow in a purple hue for the duration of the move. He gains super armour up to 15% damage and if he reaches a foe, retains the 5% hitbox but also gains a grab hitbox on his feet as he stomps on them like Meta Knight’s dthrow, but as a giant character! This deals 6 hits of 2% damage and a final 5% kick away from skekUng that will KO from 105% at a low horizontal angle. This can only be activated at the start so is a hard commitment, if the foe dodges or counters with a stronger move, this will waste both skekUng and the energy put into the attack. What makes this scary is out of the Shroud where the foe can’t see which version skekUng went for, so they have to always be wary of his dash option out of the cloud of bats. As it can only be initiated at the start, skekUng can aim to attack the foe with his Garthim or the Shroud itself through another GM just as he comes out of it to try and force them into a combo with either version. skekUng does have a weak spot somewhat like K. Rool on his head where he can be hit ignoring the armour, but is much harder to hit as a smaller character, only existing in the GM version of the move however. When the foe is crushed against the bugs from dsmash, their face is visibly seen with a disgusted expression and take another 0.5% a hit like the regular attack.
All this hard work for skekUng, and the Garthim are doing nothing! When the foe has been fully scanned, skekUng gets that classic sheen effect on his HUD telling the player they can press the special input to summon the Garthim a good distance behind skekUng doing its own version of the move! It appears far enough behind or skekUng that it will only hit the foe after they've been launched by skekUng already and disappear as in the normal move, and this can obviously only be used when no Garthim is out on stage already. The Garthim performs its own devastating version of the dash attack by standing up straight and trampling its giant legs down on any unsuspecting foes, dealing 6 hits of 2% to them before launching them out of the front or back of the Garthim at a low angle for good knockback, though at such an inconvenient angle it will never KO, only able to from around 185%. The main appeal of this is of course the foe is put in much worse disadvantage as skekUng already will have finished up the move, though not by much, as the skekUng's attack finishes much faster than skekUng.
The main way to abuse this is by having the Garthim rage into a Trial by Stone to further delay the attack, giving a tick of extra hit lag for each addition leg stomp. Another more cruel way to take advantage of the situation is that skekUng can blow up his Garthim as it's going through the motions, this will launch out the foe early (using the same mechanics as the regular move), a good reason to do this in of itself, but can also set up the foe to be forced to shield or back off towards skekUng for a predictable getaway option. This comes at the cost of the Garthim's life, but when the foe is already in the process of being hit anyway, it is if nothing else a guarantee. One negative is that you can still summon a Garthim behind skekUng when the foe is launched forwards when hit early, serving no purpose other than the potential to bthrow the foe into an exploding Garthim or something of that nature.
FORWARD TILT: SCEPTRE OF A RAD POWER
skekUng takes out his Emperor’s sceptre and bashes it in a downward swipe, somewhat similar visually to Isabelle’s ineffectual jab, dealing a meagre 3% damage and low knockback at a Sakurai angle at the beginning, 5% and stronger forward/down diagonal knockback at a low angle and finally the most powerful 7% hitbox when hitting foes as the sceptre hits near the ground for a ground bounce or spike to off stage foes like Falcon and Samus’ utilts. These three hitboxes give the move three distinct uses, as both a weak combo starter or get away move due to the move’s fast 3 frame start up, then a decent way to put foes in the air next to skekUng at low percents or punish a failed tech chase at low percents, finally the 7% hitbox is a fantastic read much like the aforementioned moves at ledge, also a fantastic 2-frame.
The rad part of the move is the special effect that skekUng, or likely skekTek, constructed on the sceptre. When the sceptre hits any character or one of skekUng’s constructions ranging from the foe, to the Garthim, to the Shroud/Crystal Bats, to even the Trial by Stone, it will leave behind a bright green glowing and pulsating little sac of goo. This will be placed much like a Crash Bomber wherever skekUng hit with his sceptre, though only one can exist at a time, limiting how much it can be utilized.
The green sac will on a foe, wall (it won’t be left on the ground) or the stone attach itself and after 5 seconds, merely explode, dealing 5% and weak knockback, an unimpressive result, but it can’t work much with an inanimate object. The sac will at least blow up if attacks with any attack, so the foe can be deterred from attacking the stone or prolonging a fight next to a wall on certain stages. Foes will avoid the explosion by hitting it off themselves, harmlessly causing it to fall to the ground like a Pikmin. Even touching it as another character will cause it to explode, the explosion of green goo ranging about the same as a Bob-Omb explosion, so if nothing else, it has size going for it.
On a Garthim the green sac will grow every passing second it is seen on that Garthim. It not only grows, after 5 seconds growing to the size of a Purple Pikmin on whatever part of the Garthim it hit, the green sac will slowly drain away the life force of the Garthim itself. The Garthim’s attacks slow down considerably, after each second becoming 10% slower until after 5 full seconds, attacking at only half speed. The slowed down attacks lose 10% each time (mathematically, not Smash %) in both power and knockback, though this can not be a bad thing to make the Garthim into a better combo enabler for skekUng! This Garthim will continue to look ravaged and aged by the infected sac until put out of its misery by foes. If they are exploded by skekUng now, the resulting explosion will be green-coloured showing how much their innards were corrupted, extending the range and power of the explosion by 1.2x at max, or at least 1.05x at its minimum strength. To get to that point requires decent management of the Garthim to have it attack a couple times and at least not get KO’d by the foe and hitting the sac at all before the end will make it explode as it does when connected to a wall, ending the skek-citing interaction.
The point of all this is build up is after 5 seconds the completed sac will sink into the Garthim and is seen to travel through their body slowly, halting the Garthim in place wherever it is in the middle of its attack, writhing in more pain than ever holding its claws to its head. As the green sac travels to its assumed brain the Garthim will become lifeless and merely stand in place on stage with a creepy green glow emanating from its eyes.
The Garthim regains HP if it had less than 30HP, this can be depleted by skekUng too unlike the normal Garthim. Once it’s dealt that, it will bulge at the seams before exploding in a massive green gutty explosion 0.9x as big as Kamikaze for 20% damage, going through shields, though fittingly able to damage skekUng too. This will KO vertically from 100%. The Garthim in this lifeless state will be like a Sandbag, easy to push horizontally but falling like a rock, the delayed explosion as it bulges takes 2 seconds to go off so this makes it a good punching bag to hit towards foe or for skekUng to simply play hot potato with the foe.
While it’s not destroyed yet the Garthim can be commanded with the side B, as this no longer makes it explode. Instead it will act as a makeshift “pocket” for whatever skekUng has in close range. Pressing side B will have skekUng raise his sword the same way, and the zombie Garthim will lift its glowing green eyes into the air and perform 5 slow claw swipes in place each doing a powerful 8% damage and semi spike knockback to KO from 160%. Each clawing attack takes around 35 frames to complete, with the entire motion taking almost 3 seconds to finish, turning the zombie Garthim into a stationary trap contrary to how pro-active the normal Garthim acts.
When the sac is put on the Crystal Bat it will behave like the zombie Garthim, simply standing in place lifeless in midair. Justifiably angry at him perhaps, the Crystal Bat after a few seconds will start to mindlessly head in skekUng’s direction! It turns on friendly fire on the Emperor himself, how dare it! And for good measure skekUng can use his neutral B to cause the Crystal Bat to explode wherever it is on stage for a strong 15% damage that KOs from 115% vertically, as it’s aerial, this can be much lower however and like the zombie Garthim this can’t be shielded and can hit skekUng. If the Crystal Bat hits any character it will have a stronger wing attack as it flutters by that deals constant 3% damage and mild flinching to any foe it passes at 1.1x Falcon’s dash speed. If it does finally reach skekUng it will attempt to leech onto his head to his dismay, sucking 2% HP a second as he has to hit it off like a Pikmin causing it to rebound and be launched away 2 battlefield platform widths before it tries again. The zombie bat has a solid 20HP and can overheal to 30HP this way, so skekUng’s pain – or a foe if they get in the way of his ravenous grab – can help delay the inevitable explosion that also happens if the zombie bat’s HP is depleted fully.
Important to note on the Bat: it can only be hit either when it's first summoned or if there are platforms on the stage, as it will usually be hovering well above the foe. This is still a big mix up option for if the foe is high enough percent or playing in a way where sandwiching yourself between you and the bat helps, pressuring them further to stop giving you the space to summon the bat in the first place. As this can backfire without much thought it's still best to not use most of the time and save later on in the match especially when skekUng has GMs available to pressure the foe at the same time and use his armour to avoid potentially friendly fire.
The GM for this move is a simple but great one, as skekUng hits the foe he can press A again to imbue the power of the crystal into the foe’s green sac. This causes the sac to have 15HP and instead of how it normally acts, can now build up in the same way it does on a Garthim, only at double the speed, building up over 2.5 seconds ignoring things like hitlag or the foe being grabbed/stunned in any way. If the sac is a success, it will fall off the foe dealing 11% damage and flinching, revealing the sac all along to be some kind of gross caterpillar monster around the size of a Klaptrap. The dead eyes are recognizable from the zombie Garthim’s eyes. It will travel across the stage at the pace of Ganondorf’s walk away from the foe. It can be destroyed by dealing it 30% damage, causing it to limp over in place, no explosion this time! skekUng now has two options – the caterpillar sac monster will attach itself to a Garthim if it touches once, immediately skipping to the phase where it becomes a zombie Garthim, so he can use side B next to it to make that happen.
On the other hand, that caterpillar looks delicious. If skekUng presses A next to it he’ll lift it up and consume the caterpillar feasting upon it like a juicy watermelon, healing himself 4% once every 30 frames, healing 12% over 1.5 seconds. This may not sound that great but that’s more than Hero’s Heal, and doesn’t require any RNG to acquire. This isn’t too viable to go for in of itself but presents a great distraction to foes who really won’t want to see skekUng go for the most elaborate snack break in history.
UP TILT: DAGGER
skekUng takes out a new weapon, a ceremonial dagger rich in jewels despite its short handle, and performs a quick crescent motion cut overhead, visually similar to Marth’s utilt, dealing 6% damage with moderate knockback. This is a 4 frame attack and has low end lag, though is marginally longer duration than jab, it’s another core part of skekUng’s important anti-air game. The dagger will hit at a radial angle so is a multipurpose tool to space foes away from skekUng, doubling up as both anti-air and at times GTFO as it has decent range, though fails to hit low foes on either side, a thorn in his side as always!
The dagger has an interesting sweetspot likely due to its apparent jewels, these must be shards of the dark crystal itself! At a close range to skekUng, the closest part of the hitbox that may usually be a whiff on other similar moves, will instead deal a stronger 7% damage and stun the foes momentarily as they are shocked by a purple spark of energy. The foe can then be easily combo’d into a utilt again for 6% hit as they cannot be combo’d by the 7% hit a second time in a row, a meaty 13% just off a utilt, though this will never KO it can delay for skekUng’s various minions to have a nice advantage. While the attack retains the same hitboxes throughout the sweep of the air, it can be slowed down considerably by hitlag depending on the timing of when the dagger hits the stone. This can be a help or hindrance, but is most important for the GM of the move.
At any point during the sweep of the dagger skekUng can press A again to pause the dagger where it stands, glowing with dark crystal energy that surges into a blast of energy, dealing 9% damage and high damage pointing in the direction the dagger was facing at the time. This blasts is a small disjointed hitbox around twice as big as the dagger but will give intangibility on skekUng's hand, similarly to usmash, making it a useful way to trade with foes. Somewhat like the jab, skekUng can press A again to use up further uses of his Crystal Core to continuously pause his dagger in the air without the blast but re-activating the dagger's attack on shields and delaying the attack. Any use after the first will count as more than one use for his free single use when a bat is already scanning the foe.
Normally skekUng would only be able to pause the dagger twice during the attack, dealing a nice 6% or 7% twice on shield, before the dagger attack ends, netting a nice 12% or 14%, because the utilt is too fast to stop faster than that. When in front of a Trial by Stone so long as the dagger is pushing against the stone again after being stopped by the GM, skekUng can then re-activate his GM up to an excellent 4 further times after the first, dealing up to 30% or 35% along with the 9% hitbox potentially. In this perfect scenario, this and the foe being forced to sit in shield for so long is a recipe for at minimum a shield poke, if not outright shield break, especially damaging the stone at the same time. This isn't such a great move to directly attack the stone as jab as this is much more telegraphed and the coverage means foes will likely only be hit a few times at best, but makes it a comparably great anti-air and pressurizing move to play hot potato in the same way.
DOWN TILT: BEETLE BOUNCE
skekUng kicks out a Pokéball sized beetle carcass from underneath his robe, the kick itself is a close range hit for 5% damage single flinching hit while the beetle deals 4% damage and light radial knockback as it rolls across the ground. This can be reflected, but in the initial kicking animation is treated as a disjoint. skekUng is limited to only one beetle at a time, when one is already out he will only perform the ineffectual kick. The move has average speed for a dtilt and a long duration and end lag. The beetle can't 2-frame, but is a good off-stage gimp as it can travel as far as MegaMan's down tilt slide before the beetle rolls over on its back and dissipates. Against solid objects the beetle will bounce back, and this can refresh it to roll back the same distance it travelled forward creating a passive one-two punch to foes or their shield. This works even on the usually background-oriented Trial by Stone giving a nice bit of pressure to foes with their back turned to the stone. This can be a good tool as well if a foe spot dodges and is then hit as the stone bounces back the beetle to hit them on the rebound.
For the GM skekUng can press the button at the very start of the move twice, this will make skekUng reel back his body further in the start lag, making the move come out a little slower, this delay can prove to be a positive on its own. Giving the beetle an extra bit of a kick with a rageful strike, the beetle is launched at 1.4x its previous speed and deals 12% damage able to KO radially from 130%. The kick itself now deals 14% damage and high upward knockback able to KO from 115% but still only hits from a super close range, comparable to MegaMan's utilt. When he kicks rather than go across the ground, the beetle is launched at a slight upward angle and will continue through the air as a disjointed hitbox that can't be reflected and if it had infinite range would eventually go past the diagonal top blast zone if launched from the right side of FD. It doesn't go quite that far, but does go as far as Falco's laser. The beetle has the same physics as when it rolls except it will reflect off and the walls or Trial by Stone can go into the air and will reflect up to 2 additional times. This is more than anything else a great mindgame to hit foes trying to jump over the dtilt or for example, shield then instinctively jump over the rolling beetle.
The beetle can be hit back by attacks and will damage skekUng if it hits him, having the same physics as the Wii Fit Trainer ball. This also refreshes the move's distance able to travel before it dissipates up to 2 more times. One fun way to get around this is to utilize dtilt again to approach and kick it right back! The GM dtilt provides a great mix up for this too if the foe sees that coming, as this will then go over the low hitting attack the foe might have used and the slower delayed version of the move means their timing will be off if they tried to challenge it like a Gordo. A Garthim can also keep attacking a beetle with its claws making it almost impossible to hit it back without it being hit back at the foe instead.
On top of the normal GM, whether the GM was used or not skekUng can hold the input to imbue the shell with a dark magic aura as he's kicking the beetle. This serves no purpose at first, seemingly just an aesthetic, but becomes more clear when the shell is hit in front of a Garthim! Instead of just attacking the Garthim will rear back its claw and actively aim for it with a crunching back swipe, hitting it forward at a high diagonal angle for 13% and high upwards knockback KOing from 125%! This largely is an anti-air though will hit foes right in front of the Garthim too, adding another pause like the original GM to the shell so that foes can be caught out yet again if the shell's been imbued with energy at the feet of a Garthim. At the same time if
not doing this will net the foe being hit as the Garthim reaching them as normal so they have to pay attention. When a foe has been fully scanned by a Crystal Bat, the Garthim will no longer launch the shell at a high angle, but instead directly at the foe! This not only makes the projectile even harder to dodge but adds a unique buff to the Garthim in this circumstance and changes the knockback to be radial - especially dangerous if the foe is at the ledge. This is another fun mindgame for skekUng if the foe forgets they're scanned and assumes they can duck under the shell, only to be launched for pretty considerable knockback.
grabGame
GRAB & PUMMEL: POWER GRAB
skekUng claws out a meek looking-hand, but the range on the move is no joke! skekUng has very good grab range due to his tall build and has a wide-reaching grab, with average lag for a standing grab. His dash grab is not as good but still comparable to Bowser’s, while his pivot grab is excellent, as you’d expect out of any super heavy worth his weight. skekUng’s pivot and dash grabs are tricky ones when he can use the dsmash’s puddles of bug goo to slide across the ground as well as his up special's GM upgrade, either extending the range of his grab itself or the range that skekUng slides across the ground as he grabs hold of his hapless foe!
There is no time for such lowly things as directly grabbing the foe, so skekUng has his own minions, the worthless Podlings perform this in his stead! skekUng will snarl summoning two Podlings on either side of the foe the second that the foe is grabbed, relinquishing his grab but instead grabbing the closest Podling slave's back! Both of the Podlings look petrified, although markedly less so when their essence has been drained so much already, but the one that has skekUng breathing down their neck looks more alive than they probably have been in a long time! When the foe escapes or if not stated otherwise, the Podlings will dissipate and have no effect on the match and are treated like other grab elements such as Incineroar’s wrestling ring rope or Steve’s pen, not interactable for foes.
That’s not to say skekUng can’t have some use out of them! The Crystal Bats are not picky eaters and will happily feast on the Podling if they’re in range, healing themselves as much as they do on bugs for 2% every second and can stack with dining on the foe if they have been strengthened by a GM to get double the leeched health! This alone can be a worthwhile venture to get potentially both sources to get an easy 30% health for the shroud. While the Podlings won’t be moved by the foe’s attacks, Garthim cancelling the grab will dissipate the Podlings in a confused stupor, leaving the foe a little further away than a normal grab, which plays well into his own set, giving enough room that summoning a Garthim is much more viable unless the foe makes a mad dash to stop the skeksis.
For the pummel skekUng will subvert expectations and not attack the foe, but instead with a wicked stare on his face crush the Podlings’ shoulder with his hand, which in turns then has the other Podling react by bashing the foe over the head with their hand! This is a weak pummel dealing 1.3% but in a quick motion. The shoulder crunch is not what’s spammable here, but the Podling slave’s bash, so you could argue you “play as” the Podling for the pummel. This is surprisingly relevant as if the foe grab escapes while being pummelled, the Podlings closer to skekUng will dissipate first as he suffers in agony, causing the foe to fall closer to skekUng as they're pushed away. This can be good or bad for skekUng as the frame neutral position is all the same.
FORWARD THROW: GARTHIM SHELL
The podlings throw the foe into a quickly appearing round shell of a dead Garthim, on its side to have a circular outline, the foe is smashed into the gooey half facing the screen. skekUng triumphantly roars out as he Sparta kicks the shell and foe away for 4% damage, rolling it like a barrel across the stage! The foe can mash out using the same mashing they had left over from the original grab, harmlessly released with the shell dissipating when they do. As they roll, the foe passively takes 1% damage three times a second. If the shell hits a solid object or the ledge, it explodes dealing the foe 5% damage and moderately strong forwards, low angle knockback to KO from 235%. The foe will be hit backwards when hitting a wall, rebounding off it without the chance to tech. The shell deals 8% damage and high forward/up angled diagonal knockback to KO from 105% to outside foes. The Trial by Stone as it is in the background is not treated like a solid object or wall, but can be broken . The hitlag from the Trial by Stone "slowing down" the shell can be important as the Garthim shell rolls at just above skekUng's own dash speed and he does have some end lag after kicking the shell too, so this allows him to catch up with the foe and the shell!
The foe can take damage and be attacked while stuck in the shell, having the same mechanics as an opponent who is frozen by a Freezie item or Kacrackle Slash. They won't take any knockback but take damage and if they are released out of the shell, can be caught by moves like normal, this requires some tight timing if nothing else is utilized to help skekUng catch up to the foe. Once caught up to the foe, one of the best ways to help guarantee a hit is the dsmash goop from the bugs to slide up to the foe in the shell and use usmash or utilt out of dash to catch the foe as they're released. The multihit of the usmash will make it easy to hit the foe while they're released from the shell in time.
The fthrow's GM can be activated as skekUng kicks the shell, imbuing his foot with the power of the crystal! This kick sends the shell with much more force dealing the foe 7% damage and sending the shell at 1.3x the speed of skekUng's dash speed. The podlings fall over in reaction to the powerful kick as another visual flair on the attack. The difference from this is that the shell is much harder to catch for skekUng, but also has a much different result when it hits a wall/object or the ledge. Against a wall, the shell will instead travel over it using Hothead-like physics. A small object on the ground will bounce it slightly into the air, while it will travel a short way up a wall before falling back down.
The shell will explode as normal if it does come to a stop unless the foe mashes out, which usually happens if it does hit a wall, in this case the more chaotic way the shell rolls
will hit the Trial by Stone on the side causing it to go into the air in this way. The shell will go up and come down around half a second later, exploding and launching the foe into the air for 5% damage able to KO from a slightly stronger 200%. More importantly, this can lead into a great juggle or combo for skekUng. The shell when it goes off the ledge will carry the foe for up to 1.3 battlefield platforms distance before it automatically explodes. This will however launch the foe upwards, so even Little Mac won't be gimped by this throw. The real strength is that skekUng can abuse this healthy advantage state to spike foes off-stage or set up a ledge guard.
The mix up potential of the two fthrows is a great boon to skekUng's grab game. Next to a ledge they can be weakly thrown forward and not be in very much disadvantage, or be launched for a longer duration allowing skekUng more of an advantage state, but no opportunity to KO the foe whatsoever. Not at ledge it's a choice between making space or going for follow-ups, the bridging of the gap means skekUng is never far away from whatever he has created on stage.
BACK THROW: SACRIFICE WILLING
skekUng sidesteps past the podlings and raises his ceremonial sword over his head with both hands as his shout bellows out, swinging the sword after pivoting around in the background - another ferocious powerful swing for 16% damage and high knockback as powerful as Incineroar's bthrow. This swing can hit outside foes and his Trial by Stone too, as skekUng sidesteps he is briefly intangible like a roll, he can abuse this if he's a true expert tactician. The range for the sword strike is compact compared to the fsmash as he swings it a little more haphazardly into the foreground too, but still has around the same range as Marth's fsmash.
This is an absurdly powerful bthrow especially on skekUng and his many ways to deal damage, there is a big catch. skekUng can let it rip and if he does, the podlings are equally victims to the sword strike, being launched and immediately dissipating if the foe is hit. The podlings being KO'd like this will mean that when skekUng tries to use them in his down special, it will take another full 60 frames to summon fresh podling slaves! Unacceptable laziness! skekUng can delay the sword strike by holding the B button as he goes to perform the bthrow, indicated by a sheen on skekUng's HUD. As the sword is held over head, the podlings will slowly shuffle out of the way, taking 30 frames for the furthest podling to get out of the way and 50 frames for both! If he KOs just the nearest podling slave, this will increase the lag of the down special by only 40 frames, still a painful downgrade. The foe can escape by mashing all of this time like a Cargo Throw and skekUng will suffer more end lag than them when they are grab released, with the podlings shuffling away the foe will be released a little further away than usual behind skekUng. At worst, this can be useful to push the foe into a Garthim or Shroud behind skekUng so even if they do escape they take considerable damage. As he does delay the move skekUng's swing becomes more refined and damaging as an upside, increasing the damage to 17% or 18% and marginally improving the already great knockback of the move.
Holding the button as skekUng starts the move will cause skekUng to slowly charge up the crystal energy into his sword, taking 10 frames per use of the Crystal Core before the sword is maxed out and comes crashing down where the foe stood for 2% extra damage per use of the sword, up to 36% damage, but that would take a massive 100 frames, KOing at a ridiculous 10%. At least by then those useless podlings would be fully out of the way! As the sword charges up in power as does skekUng's super armour, going up in 5% increments before reaching a peak of 50% super armour. skekUng will no longer cancel the move when the foe escapes but instead bring the sword down whenever the crystal core runs out of energy. This means that skekUng has to keep an eye on his crystal core to see how much of it is left, but if it misses, he wastes all of the energy that went into the attack too. If skekUng plays very dumb, at a low percent he can even whiff a full 5 uses of the crystal core to go for the 36% hitbox, then the foe waits until the last second to grab him, ruining his plans completely! skekUng
can go early and strike his sword down without using up the crystal completely, but this requires using up another 2 uses of the crystal immediately and if they aren't in reserve, he can't go through with it, a costly course correction! If skekUng can grab the foe at the right percent, he can KO them ridiculously early, but it's all with a large amount of risk attached.
The power of the charged bthrow is so great that it will hit the Trial by Stone off its base, launching it through the air surrounded in purple energy! It still isn't sent too far, travelling from 1.3x Kirby-width at the minimum to 1.5x Bowser's width in the direction of the sword strike, before collapsing back down as normal. This is still if the stone is struck enough to break it off the base in the first place. The power of the crystal extends the hitbox of the sword when it comes to striking the stone, around 1.4x the range it has against foes, due to the crystal energy's magical powers. This can be a further reward for skekUng having good positioning around the stone and can be a great consolation prize if the foe does escape in time but is still in range of the stone.
UP THROW: A HOMERUN
skekUng points up causing a withered looking but extra large gaudy Crystal Bat to grab the foe and fly high up into the air, but it’s so aged and likely mutated from skekTek’s experiments it withers away as the foe is launched just above skekUng, dealing the foe 10% damage and decent knockback, but mostly good as a juggle at low percents or for its high base knockback on a platform, particularly the top platform of a tri plat stage. This will only KO from around 190% and lower on platforms. skekUng can go for a 50/50 at near enough 0% with his uair as one of his best early game combos, or he can simply wait for the foe to fall for a juggle. The usmash comes especially in handy here to wall off the foe effectively so they have to land to one side of it, even if not hit this boxes them in where skekUng can better utilize his stage control.
skekUng can hold the input to keep channelling his crystal energy into the bat, 1 use at a time, though is locked into just the one use with the free 1-use of the core from a pre-existing Crystal Bat. This channels the energy directly into the Crystal Bat that seems to flow into it from its own core, revitalizing it slightly with each use! Each one will give the bat the strength to go marginally further, like the uthrow is being balance patch buffed each time, and deal 1% more as well! Ultimately the Crystal Bat will fly up 2 further skekUng heights above skekUng, over double where it normally ends up. This can be used to KO the foe directly, but if the Crystal Bat flies over the blast zone, it will not KO the foe even if the foe is carried above the blast zone. They are only KO’d if they’re launched over it, which is now around 140% at 10 uses or 160% at 5 uses, respectively from the stage and on platforms, so easily on a platform the strongest KO throw.
The uthrow can be altered a little by doing the same enhancement but when skekUng has no crystal core to use, instead channelling in any nearby Shroud to do the busy work! Every individual use of the Shroud he summons forth will change the direction of the bigger uthrow bat, pushing it away from the centre of the shroud at that time! This will push the angle just 15 degrees each time but when that can happen up to 10 times, a 150 degree change makes a huge difference! That basically means the foe is launched diagonally down and to the left or right of skekUng to potentially totally change the move’s trajectory. This also increases the damage by 2% each time, and the knockback goes that much higher too, making it overall stronger but from a more horizontal angle.
skekUng can make use of combining his Shroud and uthrow to go for more specific combos like hitting the foe at a low percent closer to the edge for a ledge guard or higher into the air for an easier juggle. The foe can be launched at the ground for a usmash or even a fsmash attempt, though skekUng only gets much of an advantage to do a risky move like that around 7 uses and up. The foe can also simply be KO’d much earlier by this vertically but it requires some heavy set up of the Shroud. That these sort of crazy early combos and keep away at high percent is possible makes it much scarier being around the Shroud when skekUng is inside of the blasted bats.
DOWN THROW: IMPALE
skekUng grabs the foe out of the hands of those worthless podling slaves and slams them into the ground, dealing 2% damage, then takes out the ceremonial dagger from his utilt and stabs it violent into the foe for another 10% damage, launching them off the ground for high knockback! This will never KO due to being a ground bounce (obviously can’t be tech’d) but launching the foe at an angle that they would hit a Crystal Bat right in front of them, though they obviously can’t literally hit the Crystal Bat. This does force skekUng on the aggressive somewhat if they do go after the bat though at certain percents.
When he stabs the foe skekUng imbues them with the power of the crystal, so that 5 seconds later a glowing purple aura at the centre of the foe’s hurtbox will glow violently, then explodes 3 seconds later! This must be shielded, rolled or dodged to avoid it, otherwise it is unavoidable sans other invincibility a character might have. The explosion deals 5% damage and lightly knocks the foe into the air. Nonetheless on top of the other pressure tools at skekUng’s disposal this creates a nigh impossible barrage for the foe to dodge! This and the following effect cannot be stacked, the first will cancel out any manipulation of the second, and in fact gets rid of the explosion later entirely.
skekUng like in the uthrow can hold the move to channel the crystal energy, this time into the dagger – but also into the foe if he waits to hold A but a little longer! If he charges energy into the dagger as he stabs the foe it explodes on contact, dealing an extra 1% to the foe for every use of the Crystal Core. This would normally mean with higher knockback the foe is KO’d earlier than uthrow, however due to the sheer power of the attack, foes are shot right through drop through platforms! The foe is sent at such a steep angle that until they were grabbed right at the edge of a platform, this also won’t spike them off stage, still hitting the stage below them first. This is even more true if skekUng manages to hit the foe into the Trial by Stone to extend their hitlag, so he can then get even more disgusting levels of advantage to punish the foe! Though this will only occur once as they’re hit into the stone, it’s more than enough to make a difference.
Nonetheless when skekUng does hit the foe through a platform like this, he can then follow up much easier in the air at certain percents. The foe will not go through lower platforms on a tri plat, so can be easily hit back into skekUng for easy air-to-airs and force 50/50s, depending on the match up and percent. If the foe is launched at a high percent it can be preferable if they aren’t high enough for uthrow to KO without a lot of investment to go for dthrow. This will leave up much higher in the air without KOing them and if skekUng is elevated at all, will make it easier for him to follow up, but it is again very match up and percent dependent.
When skekUng channels the crystal core into the foe instead by waiting a little longer, the dagger will cause a bigger glow of energy to appear inside of the foe for their skeksis time bomb! The explosion not only gets 2% stronger for each use of the crystal core will make the explosion linger longer, eating away at the foe’s options. The blast will KO at ridiculous 100% at full 10 uses, and 150% at 5, so scales madly quick and if the foe is in the air when it goes off, eventually even their air dodge will barely be enough if timed perfectly! This will almost certainly be punished by skekUng too, say by him using a fsmash right in their miserable face. Even shielding this hugely powerful attack again is a risk unless the foe manages to perfect shield it (which considering it’s timed the same for each use, is learnable), as skekUng can go for another grab! However considering the expense of the higher uses here, the fact it is so punishing only makes sense. One thing that makes this harder for the foe to judge is just how fast skekUng can channel his uses, if his player isn’t keeping up, it’s possible that even he won’t know if it’s not the full ten, so the foe has to guess at exactly how long the explosion lingers for what defensive option may even be enough to dodge it… while not letting themselves fall into disadvantage too! As it can backfire, not the surest way to win, but an impressively strong option anyway!
aeriaLs
NEUTRAL AERIAL: DARK SPARK
skekUng faces at a diagonal towards the screen and in a fast animation throws back his arms in an angry, near dismissive motion, as if throwing off a heavy robe, his back spikes flare out to deal a powerful 11% sweetspot that hits foes behind skekUng at a low downward angle that KOs from 140%, while the rest of his body surging with purple crystal energy deals 1 hit of 3% and then repeated hits of 2% for up to 9% damage and weak radial knockback at the end. The spikes would not come out too far if not for the fact skekUng leans back into the move so that they extend a good deal out from his body, dodging any moves hitting his big upper body. The rest of the move then works as a nice high profile against other mid-air foes, similarly to Mewtwo's Body Spark nair. This comes out fast and has decently low end lag in the air but poor landing lag as skekUng has to awkwardly gather his bearings.
The move is a sex kick that lasts for a little on the low end for a sex kick. The sweetspot gets stronger over time as the edge of skekUng's back spikes gain a "sheen" effect dealing 13% damage and stronger knockback to KO from 130% almost at a flat angle backwards. This is another great bait tactic to catch out foes to dodge in on skekUng to avoid another attack, or simply throwing out skekUng's big body as a meat shield when his back is turned. On the other hand the hits of the "sourspot" more resemble Body Spark play out as normal. This effectively means that if he whiffs the cross-up with his back spikes, he can still safely get out of trouble on shield or just hit away foes, not being trapped with the stronger hitbox. This is a better tactic as well when he can be pulled across the stage by his bats in the air ensuring the cross up when timed to push him past foes and land at a safe distance.
In the middle of the move a GM can be performed when a foe is within a short range of half a BF platform. skekUng will throw his hands forward at the foe with no hitbox, using the foe as a conduit to channel powerful magic! This pulls in skekUng in the middle of his nair towards that foe, ensuring he is pulled past them for a cross-up while retaining the same hitboxes of the attack (albeit with his arms extending the range a bit). This can be timed at any point during the nair and the vacuum-like properties will ensure he always ends up on the opposite side of the foe unless they moved/attacked skekUng. This can be a useful mindgame either to cross-up the foe twice used late in the move, or to completely change directions to mindgame a foe trying to punish skekUng.
skekUng can even use this GM when he's already hitting the foe to ensure they get hit either by the full damage of the sourspots, or combo out of the sourspots into the sweetspot and max damage of the sweetspot. skekUng can hit the foe with the sourspot of his body, then pull himself past them so they're hit by his back spikes with the full power of his back spikes. The issue with this is it's highly percent/match up dependant, due to each foe's different size/weight combination, so skekUng must instinctively know the right timing for the chance to combo all the hitboxes. Naturally just the vacuum by itself can be good to recover if the foe is going for a risky gimp and its mere existence can make foes go for an early gimp guessing it will come out. This gives skekUng an edge recovering with a Crystal Bat.
FORWARD AERIAL: USURPER SWIPE
skekUng uses his right claw to swipe in an uppercut from just below and in front of his hurtbox all the way to the middle, dealing 11-13% damage, gaining in power the later the move lands! The start lag of this move is pretty fast too coming out on frame 9, 2 frames faster than the infamous Bowser forward air but at slightly less power and has far lower duration, though comparable end lag. The knockback ranges from a weaker launching angle mostly upward for the early 11%, setting up for an air-to-air juggle or stuffing short hop approaches, a moderately strong spacer when dealing 12% that's almost a pure diagonal upwards to KO from 140%, while the 13% hit is a strong more horizontal hit and can KO foes from a decent 120%. his motion strongly resembles Robin's fair in terms of animation and while not quite on that level, it's impressively close given he is only using his bare claws. In comparison to a move like Bowser's forward aerial it lacks the range on that move but makes up for it by covering grounded foes trying to approach skekUng in the air, boasting great coverage below his hurtbox in midair and lingers long enough with a wide hitting quarter-circle shaped hitbox that foes will find it hard to avoid without falling into a potential 50/50. skekUng positions himself to be hitting below and in front so that he can dodge low hitting attacks, making it a great move to counter-hit those annoying combo starters like Bayonetta's side special!
The fact the move has different, more powerful hits can be abused through the Trial by Stone as skekUng can space the attack to hit the stone either to delay the earlier hits, or so that the later, stronger hit is the one delayed by hitting the stone and catches foes trying to approach through the stone. On the other hand, foes who are too hasty trying to attack skekUng assuming he'll go for the later hit can be countered by jumping through the stone entirely to attack with the frame 9 hitbox. The attack lacks great coverage above but it still has very good range all skekUng's body in front, so they have to try and full hop over him to punish it correctly. The fact that foes have to full hop in of itself can be a good way to condition foes to instead hit them with an nair or uair instead. If skekUng has a Crystal Bat available to attack the foe from above with their explosion, he can instead instill a sense of fear forcing them to approach carefully with short hops or more grounded approaches, where the fair is much stronger! The fair then becomes a far scarier tool and a reason for the foe to be wary of letting the Crystal Bat complete its scan.
skekUng has another hitbox upon landing during the move, similar to Falco's fair, where skekUng reaches out his claw for one final, quick slash for 5% damage and low Sakurai angle knockback! skekUng grimaces forward as he delivers the clawing attack, angered by the fact he's had to resort to such a tactic - the claw reaches just a bit further than Falco's move because of skekUng's large body covering more space. This comes out frame 1 mirroring the Falco move and can be autocancelled frames 1-4 just like the air preferring bird and has a little higher end lag besides. This further adds to the move's potential to mix up the foe in the context of the Trial by Stone as skekUng can also mix up his
vertical spacing to purposefully land late and hit foes with the final, landing hit, perhaps out of a short hop to combo it all at once. skekUng is no stranger to dealing shield damage so even not in the context of his stone, this final 5% hit can potentially be enough to poke or bring the foe so close as to finish them off with a Garthim. The amount of shield stun from this and the fair proper hitting can surprise foes or at minimum condition them to respect skekUng approach from a short hop/low altitude, which he very much likes to encourage them to go for more committal full hop strategies instead. This all sounds very appealing but is only possible by landing the move grounded in the first place which is a nice mix up, but makes skekUng far more predictable to punish so is best used to put fear into foes from skekUng's SH, especially when foes are around his stone, at low shield health or with bats at the ready!
For the General Move activated in the first few frames, skekUng's animation looks the same except in the middle of his palm he is clenching an orb of dark energy, disappearing at the end of the attack if it doesn't hit anyone. If he does hit someone, the orb will explode on contact, damaging the foe for an additional 4% damage on top of the normal damage and KOing a good 10% lower than the norm. As the orb explodes on a foe it activates a secondary effect, creating a dark purple shadow that appears opposite to the side the foe was launched. This means for the first hit, it will appear almost directly above the foe, for the second hit diagonally behind them from where skekUng hit them and the last hit appears almost directly behind them. This will follow the foe, like a shadow, wherever they go. 100 frames or around 1.5 seconds later, the shadow will rush towards the foe dealing them 3 hits of 1% damage and hitting them in the opposite direction with weak knokcback, usually back towards skekUng! The same applies for the landing hit of the fair too, except hitting them back towards where skekUng originally hit them. This will lead to many more natural follow up attacks.
More than simply follow ups or combos, this can act as an active deterrent for foes trying to attack the Crystal Bats or Garthim from these angles and makes it open season for skekUng to set one up knowing the foe can't afford to leave themselves open to being hit by the delayed magical attack. This is complicated by the fact that the shadow attack can be shielded or dodged despite the multiple hits, but takes about as much skill to do so as a Crash Bomber. skekUng can also stack multiple shadows at once if the foe is foolish enough to be hit by the move multiple times within 100 frames! This makes it even scarier to be in front of skekUng at a low angle, and opens up potential crazy combos if skekUng can hit the foe from the opposite side or juggle them with moves like his up tilt. On top of everything else, this can also hit shields and while it won't ever break shields, it can be positioned in such a way (mostly the second hit) to be a great shield poke, which further makes it difficult to shield and not rely on the more punishable dodge or roll options.
UP AERIAL: SPIKE CARAPACE
skekUng looks to his back and hunches forward, raising his back and spikes as high as he can for 12% damage to KO from 150%, this has 12% super armour on skekUng's body everywhere except his head, not quite Bowser's invulnerability on his usmash but very impressive on an aerial that will often trade when skekUng is such a large target. The move has average start and end lag with shorter landing lag, so is a great way to hit foes above skekUng as he lands, as he often will do out of a fast fall or when defending his Crystal Bats. The move is great when jump at a foe who is attacking a Crystal Bat, rising his back as he passes foes then landing behind or in front of them, though it's a pretty bad air-to-ground move. The move also has some big and obvious blind spots at skekUng's front as his head is not a hitbox and does not get the super armour. This attack has a comparable hitbox to if Bowser's usmash was an aerial in shape, though not nearly as good range.
skekUng transcends to Koopadom when he has 5 uses of his Crystal Core available, pressing A as skekUng’s hitboxes come out will cause them to be covered in a purple aura and skekUng’s animation is more exaggerated. This both stretches the back spikes out to be as tall a hitbox as Bowser’s usmash, despite not having the same little jump Bowser performs, and gives the moves full invincibility and makes the move deal 18% damage to KO from 90%. There is a downside to this however, skekUng has much longer end lag as skekUng has to rebalance his stance in midair, plus the ludicrously costly crystal usage. skekUng can go for this General Move when he doesn’t have 4 uses of the crystal left, instead this will delay the attack for 30 frames as skekUng falls in midair as normal, then performs the normal uair with 2% extra damage for each single use of the crystal added on and KOing marginally earlier. This only happens when skekUng initially has less than 4 to use, but can be useful in its own right as both a bait and to wait for his Crystal Core to return to him from a bat or from the Shroud.
BACK AERIAL: SKEKSIS FANG
skekUng takes out the ceremonial dagger from his utilt and glaring to his back, uses it to stab at anyone in the way! The stab comes in 3 hits, progressively getting stronger the later each come out but having a similar frame data to
Ridley's forward aerial, so plenty fast. This even gets comparable range to the Space Pirate's tail, and similarly sized hitboxes, though marginally wider due to skekUng's size. The first hit deals 4%, the second 5% and and the final another 6%, though come out at different angles, and each has their own sweetspot at the tip of the blade that deals 2% more damage and considerably more knockback, otherwise usually just doing decent knockback at its stabbing angle forwards. At 15% landing all hits, and they all do combo together at low-mid percents, this does a significant chunk of damage to foes though it's a needed boon for skekUng when he's such a vulnerable hulking hurtbox from behind and adds a threatening option for foes getting too trigger happy against the Garthim Master. skekUng can autocancel the attack from frame 1-2 and besides that from frame 45 onward, a couple frames worse than Ridley's comparative move, while the hits come out on frames 11/14/20 respectively. The frame data single frame slower than Ridley's FAir on all but the final hit which has 4 frames slower start up; overall it's almost just as good as the skeksis-resembling villain!
Comparisons can be drawn for frame data between this and Ridley's FAir but in reality the hits not only come out at slightly different angles, but have very different uses due to the way they're delivered. The first hit is delivered at a downwards diagonal but more acute angle, from a much higher position on skekUng's body compared to Ridley's tail lower on his back, making it far better for checking full hops/jumps. As this sends the foe at a low downward angle, this can potentially send foes off stage from surprisingly far onto the stage from the ledge the sweetspot will start to KO from a not completely irrelevant 165% from on stage, and at a very nice 100% off stage. This is a powerful hitbox but only powerful in the context of the sweetspot as it will launch the foe out of the combo, or when the move is autocancelled out of the first hit by landing first. Like the forward aerial the back aerial benefits a lot from hitting the stone, here instead delaying the stabbing hits rather than the move proper to hit the foe with the preferred strike.
The second hit is a middle stab, most comparable to the first hit of Ridley's FAir, this is a little higher angled than a semi spike so is best used as a spacer or as the safest part of the move. As skekUng will be usually falling while performing the move the higher-angled hit can do wonders for shield pressure, hitting from above then later when he's more on level with foes as a surprising one-two punch. While the regular hitbox only deals middling knockback at the not semi spike angle, the sweetspot does hit the foe at a semi spike making it a powerful KO move when it can be landed, again best used as a delay tactic out of the stone or a hard read. This has rather similar knockback to the first hit only marginally stronger.
The final hit is an upward strike as you may have guessed, though pointedly more diagonal than the first hit is downwards hitting at a near 45 degree angle up. The only reason this will combo properly is a generously large hitbox as skekUng puts more of his arm into the stab and is why this hit takes a bit longer to come out, but will still reliably combo out of the second hit. The angle will send foes high like the first hit and KOs at a very nice 95% off stage. The potential for this to gimp recovering foes is worsened by the fact skekUng has to physically be there, with his giant punishable hurtbox stabbing away with a pretty finely shaped hitbox of his own, but it is doable, especially when he's not used up all of his bats for his recovery. The last hit is high enough of a hitbox skekUng can even throw it out as a read against foes trying to jump over him as a mix up and is a good defensive tool, though only for reads or punishes, throwing it out as a mindless lingering hitbox is impractical due to the lag and hitbox placement. The sweetspot will KO from 70% though this requires specific percents, very good spacing or a hard read/punish to land.
The back aerial is an important part of skekUng's melee both to read approaches, throwing out to cover full hops or to land against foes aided by his stone or approaching Garthim, and a great way to test the foe's responses. It does have obvious weaknesses though as simply throwing it out in the foe's face will generally always be punished at close range and at awkward far or high percents it will stop combo'ing consistently, limiting its usefulness.
The GM for the move is a simple one, usable before any of the 3 individual hits. skekUng snarls putting more force into the now glowing purple dagger, instead of powering up the strike he instead performs 3 strikes at that same angle each coming out only a frame apart and each greatly extending the hit lag and shield stun or any foes they hit! Each hit does 0.8x the damage of the normal hit, resulting in overall 2.4x the damage of that hit to the foe if they all landed, with an extra 2% damage to shields apiece so 6% damage. This does not affect the end lag of the move but effectively pushes it back 2 frames, while not having any practical impact on the move's speed besides that. What this does is greatly improve the move's ability to linger in place with that one hit to catch foes out expecting to weave between hits or punish skekUng. The magic extends the hitbox's range too so that it will now definitely combo all the hits in the move at any percent besides in fringe cases and the sweetspot becomes 1.3x as large, making it much easier to throw out and hit with them! While it may be most appealing to to do with this last hit of the move, this is also the one where it's harder to hit the sweetspot, so skekUng has to choose whether he wants a more reliable or more powerful enhanced ending hit. I suppose that's why he's The General!
DOWN AERIAL: POWER GRAB
skekUng lifts his back arm into the air above his head, leaning his body as far back as he can, shouting out as he delivers a mighty punch down at any unsuspecting foes! This laggy spike deals 16% damage and high downwards knockback as strong as Terry's down aerial. The fact it is straight down and not at a horizontal like Terry's makes it slightly worse, but the hurtbox-shifting makes up for that considering how difficult skekUng may find it to land the move. The fist of skekUng is massive, but doesn't compare to the sword and other weapons. This is made up for a little by skekUng being able to halt his falling in midair a moment after hitting foes or anything solid with the attack, somewhat similar to Greninja's dair. This is helpful for skekUng who is prone to being juggled and weak to anti-airs, especially on shields.
The move has average end lag for an aerial spike while landing lag is surprisingly fast, only if he lands after performing the attack. skekUng will punch the ground or any other object from above in the air, causing a shockwave reaching each side the same range as DK's Hand Slap down special, this causes 4% damage and low upwards/slightly forwards or backwards knockback on either side. This can be a nice way to make use of the move as a cross-up to hit the foe into an attacking Crystal Bat or Shroud nearby, if he can't land the attack itself.
On a construct that's potentially elevated in the air like the Trial by Stone the shockwave will instead come out of the base of whatever was hit, for the stone this means both on the ground in front of the stone and on either side, the shockwave will rattle out and hit any foes stood on the ground. The remote-range shockwave can be a great way to conduct oppressive stage control with any foes hanging around the stone even if the stone's own HP is not low enough to be knocked down. The fact this is a possibility means that skekUng merely looming above the stone puts a little pressure on the foe to not cede the aerial control to the usually ground-focused skekUng.
The move has a strong 3-use General Move that has skekUng's hand glow with bright purple energy, skekUng's frame data is the same however the move animation is different from the start. skekUng's hand is open when he raises it and instead of punching down, he instead grabs in a wide sweeping motion below! A foe is then held up over skekUng's head before being slammed downwards and grinds them into the ground as skekUng channels his anger into drilling the stage using the foe's head. The slam and grinding against the stage deals 3 hits of 2% damage and a final powerful 12% hit launching foes up and away at Power Geyser's angle, KOing from the same percents as Flying Slam! This is naturally much stronger on platforms, but also on the Trial by Stone which can be landed on too. The hits will deal damage to the stone and potentially even breaking it, hitting the foe as it falls too as a guarantee, a massive payoff for massive reads! The grab and fall takes the foe all the way to the blast zone off-stage like Ganondorf! skekUng does lose his stock first. This has a great range for a grab horizontally, utilized well on a grab that uniquely in Smash can grab below you in the air, so that he can sweep foes off their feet shielding a little farther away on either side of him on stage.
The difference in the two dairs is subtle but important. The expensive GM version has great horizontal range and can be a shocking turnaround KO move when it lands, giving skekUng a viable KO throw option if he can turn the tables on foes going for the typical anti-heavy anti-air playstyle. The default version has its own strengths when skekUng can directly trade with foes going for those same jungles, but more than that can be a great way to remotely attack the foe using the Trial by Stone, punishing those trying to cut it down for themselves and turning it into a weapon. One can even bait into another as a foe shields the default, but is grabbed by the GM version especially if they are hit in shield by a Garthim or Crystal Bat so they can't drop shield in the brief moments where skekUng locks in his chosen dair.
finalSmash
FINAL SMASH: BANISH HIM!
skekUng points forward and summons forth a mob of Garthim – 3 in a row, all the same size as in his moveset rushing forward an FD width, invincible, and knocking any foes they hit into a cutscene! The opponent appears in the Castle of the Crystal’s throne room, surrounded by the skeksis! That is, any skeksis not in the match, and
not Chamberlain! After a moment of the foe being pushed around by the skeksis they begin to swarm on top of them, grabbing any loose items, and showing pieces of clothing to be ripped off and torn asunder! The greedy skeksis claim any possessions they can find for themselves! The ripping and tearing of the victim(s) deals 5
1% damage and will KO around 5
4% percent when the foe is launched, after being returned to the stage, take that skekSil! skekUng looks positively delighted if it was his rival skekSil who was hit by this attack, oh the good memories it brings back…
skekTras
UP TAUNT: PROUD EMPEROR
skekUng looks around with his claws on his hips, nodding at his accomplishments, taken from the scene posted at the end of this moveset.
DOWN TAUNT: ADMIRING POWER
skekUng takes out and admires his Emperor's Sceptre seen in Dark Crystal in the infamous scene, tilting his head back and forth to get a look at it before stashing it away. At least he does use this weapon in battle!
SIDE TAUNT: GLARE
skekUng stops in place and glares openly at whatever's in front of him, becoming notably angered and grunting at whatever he sees. There is a special interaction where if he performs this taunt in front of
skekSil as he performs his mmmmmMMMMMmmmmm, he'll comment on it at the end of his side taunt saying one of "I hate your whimper!", "quiet!" or merely an angrier grunt than usual.
ENTRANCE: GENERAL OF THE GARTHIM ARMY
skekUng can't be seen initially as a crowd of Garthim charge onto the screen from the background and a dark mist covers that portion of the stage. The mist clears and as the Garthim approach they bow down revealing skekUng amidst them, who looks on angrily at his foes and points behind his back, causing the Garthim to disperse into the wind.
VICTORY POSE 1: SKEKSIS WIN
A close-up of skekUng's snarling face is seen before zooming out as he laughs triumphantly, markedly similar to the old Ganondorf victory pose, but is surrounded on all sides by all of his Dark Crystal skeksis allies! All except for skekSil, who is not present even if he is not in the match and any skeksis who dared to oppose him who have received sets since the posting of this moveset. They all encircle skekUng and in their diminished aged forms can only manage an enthused nod and look on in anguish while skekUng is the lone one to actively celebrate. Curiously this means skekMal will never appear alongside skekUng, they
do never cross paths in the series.
VICTORY POSE 2: STONE DESTROYED
skekUng, sword in both hands, holds it back behind him then brings it over his head revealing a Trial by Stone to his front that is smashed to pieces in a casual manner! As the rocks fall about, skekUng squints his eyes around in paranoia as if looking for any potential usurpers to his throne.
VICTORY POSE 3: HUNGRY HUNGRY GENERAL
Many disgusting bugs and creepy little creatures are seen crawling around skekUng's feet, as the camera scrolls up his body showing a cascade of other gross worm-like creatures falling down skekUng's robe. Finally the camera finds skekUng stuffing his mouth with bugs as it then zooms out to show the full picture, looping the eating so long as the player stays on the screen, skekUng does have an Emperor's appetite!
VICTORY THEME
skekUng shares the same orchestrated snippet from the Dark Crystal theme as skekMal and that worm skekSil.
LOSS POSE
skekUng leans his head to one side and slowly claps, showing a visibly huge amount of contempt for the winner.
Gah! A satisfying hunt indeed Chamberlain! Lets see if your politicking matches up to my might – it won’t!
docs.google.com
(this one has already been shared but for completion's sake)
