u/Dulphinboi

One more Skar King matchup, then I'm done with finding one that clicks after my "three strikes" of making multiple matchups on one character. Thankfully I think I cracked the code lol

Also, shoutout to someone who listed SK as one of K. Rool's Ws despite that selection unfortunately not being addressed, ehh

Core themes:

• Monstrous kings, fueled by pure spite against primates, and trapped underground because of this destructive disgust of apes and humans alike. They'll do anything to get rid of them, even if it means ending the world.
• Apes (Great Apes; the DK crew) VS Reptiles (Titans; kremlings).
• Wrath VS Gluttony.

Connections:

• Cruel, sadistic, overindulgent, and unabashedly heartless, these two kings have proven themselves to be complete monsters (while K. Rool is notably comedic in the TV show, this focuses solely on his characterization the mainline games, meaning he would be certifiably pure evil).
• Upon their first decree, they have cemented their respective deadly sins (Skar King waged war on the titans and seized control of Shimo, seething with wrath; K. Rool continuously ransacks the Kong family's banana hoard, forcing them to retrieve them from his insatiable gluttony).
• Their nemeses (Godzilla; Donkey Kong) are the first ones to stand up to them, kickstarting a long-lasting rivalry between their species, and posthumously or not, they themselves are the reason why it's still going.
• Despite kicking off this interspecies rivalry, they themselves are also a threat to their own kind (Kong & Suko; K. Lumsy).
• Their cruelty caused them to become trapped underground as "banishment" (Godzilla imprisons the Skar King's tribe in what would become his hideout; Upon searching for the Banandium Root, K. Rool ends up becoming trapped within the Forbidden Layer, his "tomb" appearing as a fake of the Banandium Root).
• After years of dormancy, new arrivals to these underground realms (Kong; DK, Pauline and VoidCo.) kick off a domino effect that leads to a one-on-one meeting with the kings themselves, accidentally releasing them upon the world and dooming it once more.
• In the end, even after being defeated on the surface world (Rio de Janeiro; New Donk City), they were so close to ending the world that they have undoubtedly left a mark in the eyes of their nemeses.
• Haha their names emphasize the letter K hahahahaha

Contrasts:

• While K. Rool's cruelty continued to spiral out of control in a corruption arc, with Bananza being its "climax" and absolving him of most of his "silly" qualities, the Skar King was already presented as a complete monster.
• A slight tonal whiplash. Despite K. Rool being an inherently heartless psychopath, he's still designed as a cartoony Rareware villain, thus his silliness is repressed rather than subverted. Then again, he has a reputation of causing childhood night terrors in DK64, so it's not a COMPLETE mismatch.
• While K. Rool weaponized a mechanical weapon out of spite towards the Kongs with the Blast-O-Matic, Skar King enslaved Shimo, an ancient Titan, to do all of his heavy lifting and, in a similarly beam-like fashion, cover the Earth in another ice age to end all life on it.
• This is mainly an army-on-one battle. Sure, K. Rool is smaller, but if he can take on Donkey Kong at his moon-punching peak, then he'll be fine fighting an army of apes the size of skyscrapers. >!Unless the humble Klobber and Kaboom have anything to say about that idk!<