Line #57 WesternAnimation/SkullIsland2023


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5	%% We trope what DOES happen in works, not what MIGHT happen or is LIKELY to happen.
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10	!!Spoilers from ''Film/{{Godzilla\|2014}}'', ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' and ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' will be unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned
11	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_3343.jpeg]]
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13	''Skull Island'' is a 2023 animated action series and the first television series to be set in the Franchise/MonsterVerse franchise. It stars the voices of Creator/NicolasCantu, Creator/MaeWhitman, Creator/DarrenBarnet, Creator/BenjaminBratt, and Creator/BettyGilpin. The series was developed, executive produced, and written by Brian Duffield (''Film/LoveAndMonsters'', ''Film/{{The Babysitter\|2017}}'').
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15	Set 20 years after the events of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', the series follows a group of castaways as they wash up on the titular island and must contend with the titans that inhabit it… including Kong. The series premiered on Creator/{{Netflix}} June 22, 2023.
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17	'''Previews:''' [[https://youtu.be/kJoT7Tm_byw Teaser]], [[https://youtu.be/ZW6yJMeUjGg Trailer]]
18	----
19	!!''Skull Island'' contains examples of the following:
20	* TheNineties: The show is set about twenty years after the events of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', placing it around 1993.
21	%%* ActionGirl
22	* AdaptedOut: This is the only major [=MonsterVerse=] media which does not feature or even mention Godzilla in any way (although there's a flashback of Cap witnessing something glowing swimming under his boat, [[invoked]]WordOfGod has clarified that this unseen creature was ''not'' Godzilla), nor does Monarch appear at all (at best there is a vague mention of an expedition in the 1970s). It's also left ambiguous whether the Skull Island natives seen in the show are the Iwi, or a totally different and unrelated group of natives (as they do not live in the same location, have a distinct culture, and speak Spanish, rather than being voluntarily mute).
23	* AdaptationalDyeJob: Kong is dark-grey in the series instead of brown, as in other [=MonsterVerse=] media (even though the poster shows him as brown).
24	* AdvertisedExtra: A Skullcrawler and the Croc Monster are featured on the series' promo poster, despite both these creatures having only a single scene each in the series proper and both having no real impact on the plot.
25	* AffectionateGestureToTheNose:
26	** Dog lets Charlie press his palm on the former's nose as a sign of trust when they agree to work together to find Annie.
27	** [[spoiler:The Island Girl who Kong befriended in the origins episode places her hand on Kong's nose as she dies, acknowledging him as her king once more]].
28	* AlienBlood: The Kraken and the giant chameleons bleed blue blood. Strangely inverted with the Skullcrawler, [[Film/GodzillaVsKong previously established]] to have green blood, but here it bleeds red.
29	* AlwaysABiggerFish: The huge burrowing crabs immediately hide when they hear Kong's roar. And the Croc Monster that ate a man whole is nothing but a bite-sized snack for Kong.
30	* {{Animesque}}: As seen in the teaser, the art style is very anime inspired.
31	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Dog is clearly a giant modern-type bulldog, a domestic breed which has only existed in its current form since the late 19th century. Due to their stout, brachycephalic anatomy, they are incapable of running at high speeds, have an intolerance for tropical climates, an extreme degree of debilitating health issues, often require Caesarean section during birth due to the breed's oversized heads, and have a very short lifespan for a dog, making Dog's design basis ''extremely'' questionable on multiple fronts.
32	%%* BadassInDistress
33	* BeardOfEvil: DownplayedTrope. Most of the males among Irene and Sam's subordinate mercenaries have short facial hair, moustaches or goatees. [[spoiler:Downplayed in that the mercenaries aren't half as malevolent as they initially appear to be, and have no interest in continuing to antagonize the heroes when it doesn't directly clash with their goals]].
34	* BigCreepyCrawlies: The giant Rock Bugs, Giant Ants and the giant centipede are all gigantic insectoid monsters larger than people as their names imply, and all of them are aggressive and enthusiastic about finding out what humans taste like.
35	* BolivianArmyCliffhanger: The eighth episode ends with [[spoiler:Annie waking up in a hospital two weeks after being knocked out during the FinalBattle, with only Irene by her side. At the same time the fight with Kong was happening, some other characters were facing their own perils (Mike being poisoned, Charlie being captured by a group of Iwi whom intend to see him pay for endangering Kong), and we are not told of their current statuses.]]
36	* {{Bookends}}:
37	** The FinalBattle between Kong and the Kraken takes place on the very same beach where Mike and Charlie washed up in the first episode. Furthermore, when the boys wash up there at the end of the first episode, there's a broken mug presumably from the ''Once Upon a Maritime'' – that same mug reappears in the final episode, having been seized by a hermit crab. [[spoiler:This also applies in a chronological sense: that beach is heavily implied to be the same one where the Island Girl's village was based, and where Kong lost her to the Kraken, in the WholeEpisodeFlashback]].
38	** [[spoiler:The shipwreck of the ''Once Upon a Maritime'', which hasn't been seen since the ship went down in the first episode, makes a return in the final battle when Kong uses it as an ImprovisedWeapon against the Kraken]].
39	** The first season begins and ends with Annie cast into the sea and waking up in a new environment. The series begins with her escaping into the sea from a boatful of mercenaries, losing consciousness, and getting rescued by the ''Once Upon a Maritime'' and subsequently ending up on Skull Island with them; [[spoiler:and the series ends with Annie getting knocked into a coma while caught in a tsunami, and waking up in a hospital back at civilization (much to her distressed bewilderment), under Irene's care. Annie's situation at the end of the season finale, thrust into a civilized world which she has no memory nor understanding of, is also a mirror image of Charlie and Mike's situation at the end of the first episode when they wash ashore on [[IsleOfGiantHorrors the wild, uncharted, monster-infested Skull Island]]]].
40	* BrainyBrunette: The majority of the human cast including ''all'' of the major scientists, brains and other notable think-tanks have dark hair. By contrast, a blonde-haired member of the mercenaries is kind of a goofball who's not very useful.
41	* CanonForeigner: With the exception of Kong, a Skullcrawler, and a dead Sker Buffalo, the latter two only appearing briefly in flashback, every creature in the series is new, and the same applies to the human characters.
42	%%* {{Cliffhanger}}:
43	%%** "The Last Blank Spot on the Map"
44	%%** "Breakfast Fit For a Kong"
45	%%** "Doggone It"
46	* CommonalityConnection: It's heavily implied that one of the main foundations of Irene and Sam's profoundly-close working relationship and friendship is that they both lost people dear to them, and they had to seek out group therapy sessions to get them through the grief which is where they met.
47	* ContinuitySnarl:
48	** This version of Skull Island lacks the PerpetualStorm circling around it established by other media in the [=MonsterVerse=], the entire reason the island is uncharted and unexplored, making it seem like anyone can get to and from the island with ease. It also suggests Skull Island is part of an archipelago with similar nearby monster-filled islands, but no other media agrees with this, as [=MonsterVerse=] maps have consistently only shown one island with no others nearby, and it's clearly stated to be the ''only'' island with monsters anywhere.
49	** Kong is shown living in a gigantic temple ruin, when other media consistently showed his lair as being a large cave.
50	** The flashback episode with the unnamed Iwi girl has her wondering what the outside world is like (with her only frame of reference being the expedition to Skull Island twenty years prior), seemingly ignoring the fact that the film established that two outsiders lived amongst the natives for decades.
51	** The show depicts Skull Island as having arid regions and a habitat of bright-red grass, but neither of these is noted on otherwise detailed and consistent maps of Skull Island in other [=MonsterVerse=] media, which otherwise consistently show the island as being made up almost entirely of tropical forest and wetland (the red grassland area is an especially egregious habitat, since it would've clearly shown up).
52	* ContrastingSequelAntagonist:
53	** The Skull Devil in ''Kong: Skull Island'' was a green, reptilian-looking monster which primarily lived on land, specialized in close-ranged attacks, only awoke and showed up near the end, and it has the excuse that it's so hostile and murderous because its own biology plagues it with HorrorHunger that constantly drives its species to attack anything made of meat. The Kraken which serves as the BigBad of this show's first season, on the other hand, is a bluish SeaMonster [[spoiler:which is actually a chimeric blend of fish, crustacean and cephalopodic traits]]: its CombatTentacles make it a lot more efficient at very long-ranged attacks, it was awoken and has been a menace since before the series' start according to the WholeEpisodeFlashback, and it's extremely {{sadist}}ic to the point that it's practically a piscine version of [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah Ghidorah]], with the cast concluding that it just acts this way because it's an asshole.
54	** Irene with her band of PrivateMilitaryContractors contrast Colonel Packard from ''Kong: Skull Island''. Packard was a military man motivated by revenge, and he started out as a relatively good man but he was consumed by his vendetta, increasingly endangering everyone else around him whom he was originally supposed to be protecting. Irene on the other hand is a botanist [[spoiler:and a MamaBear motivated to get her now-feral MissingChild back,]] she acts increasingly less antagonistic and more genial to the heroes the closer she gets to her goals, and she and her mercs ultimately help everyone to take down the Kraken.
55	* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: See [[ContrastingSequelMainCharacter/MonsterVerse here]].
56	* CrypticBackgroundReference:
57	** Kong is shown dwelling in an otherwise-derelict, intricately-carved temple high on a mountain, which was built with human-sized steps and a bridge but is big enough to house creatures ''his size'' multiple times over, and has statues of his species dotted around the place; indicating that the Iwi's ancestors on Skull Island used to have a much more advanced society than they do now, and that their regression after being driven out of the HollowEarth by Godzilla wasn't immediate.
58	** In "Breakfast Fit For a Kong", Charlie finds an antiquated rapier (a sword of Spanish origin used in the Renaissance) buried in a Giant Ant colony. Earlier [=MonsterVerse=] instalments made it clear that people from various periods of history have been getting shipwrecked on Skull Island for centuries, and the Island Girl's people in the WholeEpisodeFlashback are a Spanish-speaking people, distinct from the Iwis, who've apparently been living on Skull Island for generations since before the advent of aerial transport.
59	* DeadpanSnarker: Most characters in the show have this, but Annie gets to show it off the most due to her NoSocialSkills.
60	%%* DidntSeeThatComing
61	* DisappearedDad: [[AGirlAndHerX Annie and Dog]]'s fathers both died in a {{mutual kill}} when their children were young and hadn't yet crossed paths.
62	* DownerBeginning:
63	** The first episode climaxes with the ''Once Upon a Maritime'' being destroyed by a malevolent sea monster; killing most of the crew including [[spoiler:Hiro]], and shipwrecking the surviving crewmembers and Annie on the titular IsleOfGiantHorrors, separated from each-other, kicking off the first season's plot. Episode 2 opens to the immediate fallout of the Kraken's attack.
64	** "[[Recap/SkullIsland2023S1E5DoggoneIt Doggone It]]" opens with Irene's group successfully tranquilizing and recapturing Annie, [[spoiler:Dog getting snatched and carried off by the [[KidnappingBirdOfPrey Hawk Monster]] that hunts for food; and Mike, whose growing increasingly sick from the toxic sting that the Kraken gave him, allowing the mercs to find him [[IWillOnlySlowYouDown rather than be a life-endangering hindrance to Charlie]]. Which leaves Charlie completely on his own on Skull Island with no idea how he's going to rescue any of his friends]].
65	** The opening scene of "[[Recap/SkullIsland2023S1E6TermsOfEndearment Terms of Endearment]]" is a flashback to the last time Annie saw her father alive, before he [[HeroicSacrifice laid down his life protecting her]] from an attack [[spoiler:by Dog's father. From there, this episode climaxes with [[PlatonicLifePartners Annie and Dog]], and Cap and Charlie reuniting in the present]].
66	* DramaticIrony:
67	** To the main human cast throughout the season, Kong is nothing more than an enigmatic giant ape who has occasionally been in the right place at the right time to eat one of the smaller monsters that was threatening them whilst the humans themselves avoided garnering his direct attention, and circumstances prevented the cast from seeing Kong's peaceful and philanthropic side. Unlike a viewer who's familiar with Kong's other Franchise/MonsterVerse appearances, the cast have no idea of Kong's benevolent morality, his role as the king and peacekeeper of Skull Island, or even his name, [[spoiler:and it's an InternalReveal for Charlie when the Iwi tell him Kong's name and reveal they view him in a reverent light]].
68	*** [[spoiler:This gets played for conflict at the series' end, when the humans conclude that they need to antagonize and bait Kong into attacking the Kraken head-on so that the latter monster won't bar them from escaping the island any longer. But based on Kong's reaction to Charlie, Annie and Dog's intrusion in his lair before they got to the baiting part, it's heavily implied to the viewer that Kong could've been persuaded to help them out voluntarily if they'd merely communicated their troubles to him and asked for his help]].
69	** Only Kong and the viewer know of Kong's past with the Island Girl and the Kraken from the WholeEpisodeFlashback. To the series' main human cast, the [[TragicKeepsake Island Girl's necklace]] which Kong broods over in private is nothing more than a trinket that Kong has some mysterious attachment towards.
70	%%* DynamicEntry
71	* EverythingIsTryingToKillYou: This is Skull Island, of course almost everything will try to kill or eat you if you aren't careful.
72	* EvilIsBigger: Although Kong is huge, his final opponent, the malicious Kraken, towers over even him.
73	* ExtraEyes: Many of the Skull Island creatures featured throughout the series have two pairs of eyes, including the Giant Ant, the Nightboys, the giant centipede [[spoiler:and [[MonsterDelay the Kraken]]]].
74	%%* EyeAwaken
75	%%* {{Facepalm}}
76	* FamilyEyeResemblance: [[spoiler:Irene and Annie have the same amber eyes, indicating they're mother and daughter.]]
77	* {{Foreshadowing}}: There's a lot of foreshadowing to Irene's connection with [[WildChild Annie]] and reasons for pursuing the girl. From Irene getting angry at one of her mercs calling Annie a "feral freak" and threatening her, to Irene looking regretful after tranquilizing Annie, to her tending to Annie's unconscious body, [[spoiler:to their [[FamilyEyeResemblance matching eyes]]; it's not surprising when Irene reveals that she's Annie's long-lost mother]].
78	%%* AGirlAndHerX
79	* GiverOfLameNames: Neither Annie or Mike are very good at naming things, although she thinks she's better at it.
80	* GlowingEyesOfDoom: The [[BigBad Kraken]]'s eyes glow brightly [[spoiler:when it tries to drown Kong on the ocean floor]]. The [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] of the Giant Ant which terrorizes Charlie, Mike and Annie underground glow in the darkness when it approaches. The gremlin-like Nightboys which attack the cast at nighttime have glowing, yellow eyes.
81	%%* GoodAllAlong
82	* GoodLipsEvilJaws: Notably, a lot of the antagonistic creatures on Skull Island, certainly most of the ones that fight Kong (Good Lips), have lipless jaws with beaks or exposed teeth or just {{monstrous mandibles}} (Evil Jaws) -- some of the benevolent creatures have lipless jaws too though, like the Aloe Turtle [[spoiler:and the Hawk Monster]].
83	* HiddenInPlainSight: Per Skull Island's norm, many of the creatures including the dangerous ones can camoflage themselves as part of the environment, some of them on account of being {{planimal}}s living among mundane vegetation. The Aloe Turtle looks like a giant aloe vera plant growing out of a pile of rocks rocks when it's curled up and resting. The Grass Hedgehogs live among long grass identical to that growing over their backs. The Venus Fly Trap Creatures look like gigantic but harmless flowers until you stir one into trying to grab a meal. And the Nightboys sleeping against the trunk of a tree at night look like part of the tree's bark until they stir.
84	* HomefieldAdvantage: The crux of the stalemate between Kong and the Kraken; Kong has the advantage on land and the Kraken in the sea, so despite Kong's hatred of the Kraken and its desire to usurp Skull Island from him, they refuse to engage the other beyond the Kraken occasionally tossing whales his way.
85	* ImpossiblyGracefulGiant: Kong as per usual, who's shown swinging from heavy logs embedded in a stone bridge, [[spoiler:and moving his fists quickly enough to blur when he delivers a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown in the SeasonFinale]]. There's also the Killer Chameleons, which, despite being about the size of a truck each, can be extremely fast and agile when they want to be; dodging in swift bursts of movement around Kong and the Island Girl's strikes.
86	* ImprovisedWeapon:
87	** Kong continues his penchant for this trope, culminating in him beating the stuffing out of [[spoiler:the Kraken]] with half of the sunken [[spoiler:''Once Upon a Maritime'']].
88	** In the final episode, Mike, in a call-back to the climax of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', fires a flare gun that he found in the mercenaries' camp at the giant centipede's head.
89	* InternalReveal:
90	** It's revealed to the viewer via a flashback that Mike and Hiro secretly took money from Irene to move the ''Once Upon a Maritime''[='s=] cryptid surveys into the waters near the area where Irene suspected Annie was located, to aid Irene's own search for the girl. Charlie finds out in the same episode during the present time, while Cap doesn't learn of it until three episodes later.
91	** [[spoiler:In the season finale, Charlie discovers that Skull Island's natives speak English (as they did in the Franchise/MonsterVerse graphic novel ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong''), and he also learns that the giant gorilla he's been encountering on the island is named Kong, and the natives ''don't'' appreciate anyone disrespecting or endangering the gorilla in question]].
92	* IsleOfGiantHorrors: Apart from ''the'' Isle of Giant Horrors that was made iconic in [[Film/KingKong1933 1933]] -- and which even has a GiantFootprintReveal in this series' first episode -- it's revealed that there's another island approximately twenty miles away. This second island is where the giant, ferocious, pitbull-like Dog came from, and where [[WildChild Annie]] was cast away for ten years.
93	* ItCanThink:
94	** Besides Kong -- who's just about at his most [[TheSilentBob expressive]] and emotionally-intelligent here that he's ever been in the Franchise/MonsterVerse so far, when the series shows things from his perspective instead of the humans' -- there's also...
95	** The Kraken. It demonstrates clear intelligence early on, toying with Mike as he tries to strike it. It later brutally throws a whale's body at Kong's home, apparently for no other purposes than to be a gigantic dick and to present a challenge. Charlie theorizes that the Kraken is refusing to leave the water itself to face Kong because, although it wants to usurp Kong as Skull Island's apex predator, it knows that he'll have the HomefieldAdvantage on land, whereas the opposite would be true if the Kraken can goad Kong into venturing into the water. [[spoiler:During the FinalBattle, the Kraken takes advantage of the latter by dragging Kong down to the sea floor and restraining him there, nearly drowning him]].
96	** Intellectually and emotionally, Dog is no more mindless than Kong. Introduced onscreen bowling through two mercenaries before throwing Annie to the air, he's fiercely loyal and protective towards [[AGirlAndHerX Annie]] [[spoiler:-- who he first met when distressed over his father's death, and who he hunted, fought and sheltered alongside for years afterwards --]] and he makes it clear he's wary of Charlie getting too close to either of them. It's also clear later in the series that Dog can understand verbal English commands and physical instructions to a degree, but he'll only heed them if convinced that doing so is in his or Annie's interests.
97	** The Hawk Monster, which at first appears to be a BrutalBirdOfPrey with a fixed hunting behavior pattern, is no mindless beast. [[spoiler:It's a hunting bird that's been tamed by Kong from a young age and is profoundly loyal to him. In the WholeEpisodeFlashback, it's intelligent enough to intervene specifically to rescue the Island Girl from a long fall on its master's behalf when the latter is unable to act in time, and it gives a Killer Chameleon that painfully bites its leg an [[DeathGlare unambiguously pissed-off look]] before it proceeds to send the creature into a deadly freefall]].
98	%%* IWillFindYou
99	* IWillOnlySlowYouDown:
100	** In Episode 5, Mike confirms when arguing with Cap that one of the reasons why he turned himself in to the mercenaries is because he knew that if he stuck with Charlie for much longer, he would soon just be a physical hindrance to Charlie that could very well be the death of them both, [[spoiler:since Mike is getting sicker and weaker from the Kraken's toxic sting]].
101	** Charlie throws himself off Dog while he's fleeing [[spoiler:from an enraged Kong]] with both him and Annie on his back, theorizing that Dog isn't used to carrying two people. It works quite well, [[spoiler:because Annie still has the necklace Kong is after]].
102	%%* JawDrop
103	%%* JunglePrincess
104	* KrakenAndLeviathan: The BigBad of the series is a giant sea-monster with venomous cephalopod-like tentacles, Cap catching brief glimpses of the rest of its body as it sinks his research vessel in the first episode.
105	* LikeFatherUnlikeSon: Cap is a dedicated cryptozoologist who's happy with scouring the sea in a boat for cryptids, and he thinks a normal life would be boring and unremarkable: his son Charlie on the other hand [[IJustWantToBeNormal would love nothing more than to go to college and leave his father's quirky way of life behind for some normality]]. Charlie also isn't smooth-talking nor as good at reading people as his father, and he frequently vents his stress at the overwhelming situation he's in as his nerves get wracked, whereas Cap near-constantly maintains a cool head no matter what's happening around him.
106	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:A major mystery of the first season is what Irene exactly wants with the castaway Annie. It turns out that she is her mother and just wants her daughter back]].
107	%%* MixAndMatchCritters
108	* MonochromaticEyes: Several of the creatures, mostly hostile ones, have pupiless, single-colored eyes to make them more monstrous.
109	* MonsterDelay:
110	** [[BigBad The Kraken]] isn't shown in full until near the season's end, with only its CombatTentacles lurking above the water, and flashing close-ups on parts of its underwater body being seen prior.
111	** Kong's animated appearance is obscured for the first several episodes: when he shows up, he's either in silhouette against the sun or among mist, or alternatively most of his body is offscreen; or otherwise, at the very least it's impossible to catch a good glimpse of his face. It's only from Episode 5 onwards that the viewer clearly sees Kong's face and his full appearance in the show's animation style.
112	* MonsterMunch: The smaller Titans are nothing but snacks for Kong.
113	* MonstrousMandibles: The Trapdoor Crabs have Film/{{Predator}}-like mouthparts on their faces, while the Nightboys possess a set of three mandibles in place of a jawbone on their skulls.
114	%%* MutualKill
115	* MythologyGag:
116	** Annie's name is a reference to Ann Darrow from the original 1933 ''Film/{{King Kong\|1933}}'' movie. Like Ann Darrow, Annie is also lost in the jungle with only a native monster to rely on as her companion, even if said beast isn't Kong himself in this case and the relationship is AGirlAndHerX rather than BeastAndBeauty.
117	** Charlie's early assumption about the PrivateMilitaryContractors that harassed the heroes and have reappeared on Skull Island is that they're monster-poachers. [[WrongAssumption He's wrong in this work]], but several past ''Franchise/KingKong'' works ''did'' have poachers with an interest in Skull Island as their antagonists, including ''WesternAnimation/KongTheAnimatedSeries'' and ''WesternAnimation/KongKingOfTheApes''.
118	** The Island Girl appears to be based on Lua from ''WesternAnimation/KongTheAnimatedSeries'', being a redheaded, tribal Skull Island native whom Kong personally protects.
119	** The Island Girl, when musing on what the technology of the people in the outside world beyond the island can accomplish, thinks that they could [[Film/KingKongEscapes build a machine version of Kong to act as a servant]].
120	** [[spoiler:For pretty much the first time in the Franchise/MonsterVerse, the Iwi become deliberately hostile to one of the western visitors to Skull Island and forcibly capture them, which is in-line with the mainstream reputation of Skull Island's natives due to their role in the original ''King Kong'' narrative formula]].
121	%%* NiceGuy
122	* NoFullNameGiven: ''None'' of the human characters' last names are known. They're all known solely by their first names, or, in Cap's case, by a nickname.
123	* OneSteveLimit: Averted. The BigBad is a cephalopodic-crustacean marine Titan called the Kraken, the same name which another cephalopodic but very distinct Titan in the Franchise/MonsterVerse was initially known by before Monarch renamed it Na Kika. Mike and Sam both share their respective given names with Sam Coleman and his father[[note]]Named on the Monarch website[[/note]] in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', and with Sam Brody from ''Film/Godzilla2014''.
124	* OutOfFocus: Kong, despite the story taking place on his home turf, is only seen in fleeting glimpses for the first several episodes. He begins to take a more active role in the latter part of the series.
125	%%* PapaWolf
126	%%* ThePlace
127	* {{Planimal}}: Many of the creatures on Skull Island, just like in the movie, appear to be part plant, like a tortoise with a back full of aloe, or a huge cat whose fur looks like tall grass.
128	%%* PlatonicLifePartners: Annie and Dog.
129	* PowerPincers: The Trapdoor Crabs on Skull Island's shore use their giant pincers to attack anyone who stirs them. [[spoiler:The Kraken also has gigantic pincers, which can be very briefly glimpsed in the series premiere before being revealed in full in the finale]].
130	* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Annie is being pursued by a group of mercenaries who get stranded with her and her rescuers on Skull Island. [[spoiler:They were actually hired by her mother to rescue her and bring her home.]]
131	%%* RageBreakingPoint
132	* RasputinianDeath:
133	** One of the Killer Chameleons endures falling hundreds of feet with Kong to crash to the ground, being thrown around and used as a living flail against one of its brethren and against the solid ground, and being ''repeatedly and ceaselessly'' smashed against a cliff face and the ground by Kong ''over and over'' before it finally stops getting back up. Another chameleon falls over a thousand feet to the hard ground ''and'' gets impaled through the chest upon landing, yet it still keeps fighting to get a snack inside its gullet until it's buried alive by a massive rockfall.
134	** [[BigBad The Kraken]]'s death. [[spoiler:It gets stabbed in the face, gouging out half its eyes and making it bleed profusely, then it gets an absolutely vicious NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from a furious Kong, and it finally stops moving for good when it's ripped in half at the mid-section]].
135	* RedIsViolent: The AxCrazy [[MonsterDelay Kraken]]'s more elastic set of {{combat tentacles}}, which it uses to attack, electrocute [[spoiler:and poison]] its victims, are a dark-reddish color. The man-eating Trapdoor Crabs on Skull Island's shoreline have dull red carapaces. And the giant centipede which tries to eat Cap has similarly dark red colors. The Hawk Monster which preys on and catches anyone human or otherwise has a bloodred color scheme [[spoiler:-- {{subverted\|Trope}} in that the Hawk Monster is revealed to be [[NobleBirdOfPrey Kong's ally]]]].
136	* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: The Croc Monster, the Chameleon Titans and the Skullcrawler are all reptilian and are far more vicious than the mammalian and bird-like Titans, like Kong, Dog and the red hawk.
137	* {{Robinsonade}}: The central conflict is that Annie, the explorers who rescue her, and the mercenaries tracking her down are all shipwrecked and stranded on Skull Island.
138	* SayMyName:
139	** In the first episode. Mike screams Boomer's name when the Kraken kills the latter, [[spoiler:and a few minutes later, Hiro screams his son's name when he sees the latter in danger]].
140	** Charlie when he believes Annie is under attack by a creature in the second episode:
141	--->"''Annie!''"
142	** Mike and Charlie howl each-other's names when trying to find the other in the third episode, after going over the waterfall to try and escape the Croc Monster.
143	** Sam when his employer and close friend Irene is attacked by a Venus Fly Trap Creature in front of him, before he starts hacking her free:
144	--->"''IRENE!''"
145	** The blonde mercenary calling out for help from his comrades in the sixth episode:
146	--->"''SAM!''"
147	** The island girl in the WholeEpisodeFlashback when things are dire in the fight against the Killer Chameleons:
148	--->"''Kong!''"
149	* SeaMonster: The biggest obstacle to the protagonists leaving the island is the giant sea creature that shipwrecked them to begin with and will destroy any chopper that approaches the island.
150	* SeriesContinuityError: Two with the series' portrayal of the titular island relative to its Franchise/MonsterVerse movie and graphic novel appearances. The bright aurora which fills the [=MonsterVerse=] Skull Island's nighttime sky is completely absent throughout the series' nighttime scenes. Likewise, there is no sight, mention nor reference to the PerpetualStorm encircling Skull Island whatsoever, even though it's established that the storm is the entire reason why the island remained uncharted to the outside world for so long and why entry to or exit from the island without being stranded is so difficult for manmade craft.
151	* SharedFamilyQuirks: Irene says that she's not very good at social interaction with people, and it turns out she's not the only one in her family who's like this. [[spoiler:Annie, a WildChild who has very little common social knowledge, a streak of BrutalHonesty, and wariness of people (albeit justifiably after Irene's party shot at Dog and then imprisoned her without explaining themselves); is later revealed to be Irene's daughter]].
152	* ShipwreckStart: The first season, which follows the crew of the ''Once Upon a Maritime'', Annie, and the group of PrivateMilitaryContractors led by Irene all getting stranded on the IsleOfGiantHorrors, starts with the Kraken violently attacking the former ship in the season premiere, with the next episode confirming that the Kraken also destroyed Irene's group's ship offscreen; shipwrecking the entire cast. The overarching plot of the first season focuses on the cast trying to find a way off the island, which is further hampered by the Kraken continuing to destroy any potential rescue that comes by sea or air for the group.
153	* TheSilentBob: Aside from Kong -- who's in some ways at his most expressive in the animation -- Dog is no less incapable of speech with humans while being just as emotive and expressive as Kong. To a lesser extent, the Hawk Monster is quite expressive in the WholeEpisodeFlashback when it's angered or concerned.
154	%%* SnakesAreSinister: The vine snakes and the Skullcrawler.
155	* SpiritualAntithesis: See [[SpiritualAntithesis/SkullIsland2023 here]].
156	* SquashedFlat:
157	** [[spoiler:Hiro]] suffers this fate courtesy of the sea monster in the first episode. The body isn't shown, but Mike's horrified reaction confirms it was messy.
158	** Kong kills a giant chameleon that has its tail trapped under a boulder twice its size, by rolling the boulder over the rest of its body.
159	%%* StunnedSilence
160	* SupernaturalGoldEyes: Two of [[IsleOfGiantHorrors Skull Island]]'s creatures, the Croc Monster and the Hawk Monster, both have bright-yellow eyes, {{monochromatic eyes}} in the former's case.
161	* SuperPersistentPredator:
162	** The Croc Monster relentlessly pursues Charlie and Mike for food immediately after it's already slain a grown mercenary, but it's smart enough to strictly stick to the river bank and above-water natural formations due to the rapids carrying anything caught up in them to a nearby waterfall. Then after Mike and Charlie survive falling over the waterfall, the Croc Monster fully embraces this trope like there's no tomorrow, jumping after them.
163	** Dog's father on [[IsleOfGiantHorrors Annie's Island]] was so persistent in hunting Annie and/or her father that he clawed through the metal hull of their shipwreck to try and get to them, a process which would've taken him several minutes to complete from what we saw in the flashback, and he fought Annie's father to a MutualKill despite having a small pup to look out for. What we see of Dog's first interactions with Annie in the flashback hint this might have been [[JustifiedTrope because food for their kind was scarce at the time]].
164	** The Killer Chameleons, once they're antagonized by Kong and once they catch sight of the Island Girl as a prospective extra meal, absolutely ''do not stop'' for either of them until they're dead. In particular, the chameleon that goes after the Island Girl keeps trying to eat her even when they're both in freefall hundreds of meters above ground, and even ''after'' it's been horrifically impaled through the chest by its landing.
165	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: The Kraken as a character is in many ways the Ghidorah to Kong's Godzilla, while the Hawk Monster seems a lot like the pre-[=MonsterVerse=] iterations of Rodan.
166	** Like Ghidorah, the Kraken is a very [[ItsPersonal personal]] and exceptionally powerful enemy Titan to Kong who's looking to usurp Kong's kingship and territory for itself, it possesses an exceptional wicked intelligence and homicidal tendencies that go above and beyond most other Destroyer Titans' instincts, [[spoiler:and it kills a female character that Kong cares deeply about much like how Ghidorah killed Godzilla's Queen Mothra]]. The Kraken is literally [[spoiler:partly]] a cephalopod with octopoid {{combat tentacles}}, where Ghidorah had a subtle [[AnimalMotifs octopus motif]] in his biology.
167	** Like the Toho versions of Rodan, the Hawk Monster is a red-themed avian {{brutal bird of prey}}, which is presented as a threat to human life [[spoiler:first and is then presented as a loyal sidekick to the Titan BigGood Kong in the same way as the Toho Rodan imcarnations were to Godzilla]].
168	* SympatheticVillainDespicableVillain: It would ultimately be a little bit of an exaggeration to call the Sympathetic party villains, but they do function as antagonists for the series at first.
169	** '''Sympathetic:''' The mercenary group are actively trying to capture [[WildChild Annie]] and bring her back to the U.S., being (understandably) willing to kill Dog to get rid of the threat he poses to them, and they're also initially willing to bribe or intimidate the other human heroes if the latter group are between them and their goal; but they're ultimately just trying to bring a lost feral child back home to civilization [[spoiler:per the orders of her grieving mother who is their leader]], they never go any further than threatening the heroes into backing down or helping them, and most of them are quite affable and generous if you're not being a problem for them.
170	** '''Despicable:''' [[BigBad The Kraken]], despite being a sea {{kaiju}}, is established to be [[ItCanThink intelligent]] and utterly malevolent, displaying a psychopathic and homicidal personality akin to [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah Ghidorah]]. [[spoiler:It kills and toys with ''any'' one or thing that approaches the waters off Skull Island, using its tentacles to cruelly toy with its human victims before it kills them, and it's responsible for killing Kong's beloved island girl and eradicating her entire village in a single day. Apart from satisfying its vile urges, the Kraken's only other objective is to kill Kong so it can apparently claim his kingship over Skull Island, goading Kong through methods like brutally murdering a whale in an effort to lure Kong to his death]].
171	%%* ThatsNoMoon
172	* TranquillizerDart: The mercenaries use tranquilizer darts in some of their handguns, specifically when they're trying to capture Annie alive. Sam fires a dart at her in the series opening, and Irene successfully tranquilizes her in Episode 5.
173	* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Twofold if only counting human party-members.
174	** Two teenage boys, Mike and Charlie, band together with teenage girl Annie (and her non-human male companion Dog) on the island. Charlie is clearly interested in Annie, while Mike is not and often banters with her. [[spoiler:Per the trope standard, the trio's token female gets tranquilized and kidnapped by antagonists midway through the series, although it should be noted that neither of the two teen boys fare much better, on account of one being crippled by a poisonous sting to a point where he has to resort to giving himself up to those same antagonists for medical aid before he becomes bedridden, and on account of the remaining boy subsequently being left alone at the mercy of an IsleOfGiantHorrors, and (not for a lack of trying) being a bit too late to actually ''rescue'' his comrades per se]].
175	** Meanwhile, amongst the PrivateMilitaryContractors who Cap ends up tagging along with on the island, the only three named members of that party as well as the members who get the most characterization and plot relevance, are: Cap himself, and the merc leaders Sam (male) and Irene (female). Sam and Irene are close and old friends to each-other [[spoiler:due to a {{commonality connection}} based in grief and loss]], and they both get along quite swimmingly with Cap despite the bad first contact between their respective parties while they're on the island.
176	* TheUnreveal: It's never shown what monster Cap spotted that inspired him to hunt for cryptids, but the offscreen glow and description of it as like a dragon suggests that it may have been Godzilla himself ([[invoked]]WordOfGod has {{Jossed}} this however, stating that it's another CanonForeigner).
177	%%* TragicKeepsake
178	* VilerNewVillain: Compared to the Skullcrawlers in ''Kong: Skull Island'', who are so vicious, voracious and hostile because they're [[HorrorHunger hypervores]] who can't help themselves; the Kraken in this series has no such excuse, and it's even ''more'' sadistic and cruel in personality -- think if King Ghidorah got reincarnated inside a SeaMonster. Among the PrivateMilitaryContractors however, this trope is {{inverted\|Trope}} [[spoiler:-- compared to the human antagonists of preceding Franchise/MonsterVerse instalments, whom conspired and plotted murder, mass endagerment, genocide, and Protector Titan regicide, the mercs in this series are among the nicest human villains in the franchise; being cordial to the human heroes once they get to know them, and ultimately being out to bring a [[WildChild feral child]] back to civilization and to her long-lost grieving mother]].
179	%%* WalkingSpoiler
180	%%* WallCrawl
181	%%* WhatTheHellHero
182	* WorldOfSnark: Almost everyone has at least one moment of snark, even the mercenaries do it occasionally.
183	%%* YouExclamation

Context WesternAnimation / SkullIsland2023