Skurd

This article belongs to the Classic Continuity

Skurd is a Slime-Biot and once an accomplice of Khyber.

Appearance

Skurd looks like a squid-like green blob with small straight eyes and little points that he refers to as "tentacles"^[5] on the top of his head. On his forehead, he has a symbol which changes appearance depending on the device he is attached to, such as the Nemetrix and Omnitrix.

Skurd with the Nemetrix symbol

Skurd with the Omnitrix symbol

Personality

Skurd talks in a very classy tone. He also appears to be willing to work with anyone who can offer the highest amount of money and/or samples of DNA, seeing how he switched his loyalty to Ben over Khyber after seeing that his Omnitrix possessed more DNA samples than the Nemetrix.^[1]

Skurd is slightly egomaniacal, since upon meeting his past counterpart he stated that he finally met an intelligent lifeform like himself.^[6] However, this is actually hiding a deep sense of insecurity as it is revealed that Slime-Biots are thought to be extinct and that Skurd was the last of his kind in the known universe, even saying that he thought he was alone in the universe.^[4]

Skurd doesn't like humans always stating the obvious and constantly informs Ben about this, much to his annoyance. He finds eating bugs gross.

Skurd has a twisted sense of humor, which was shown when he hacked the Omnitrix's Universal Translator to make Ben babble Spanish words he already knew rather than translating his sentences to Spanish.^[2] This is acknowledged when he admitted that he found antagonizing Ben 'so much fun.'

During the events of Malgax Attacks, Skurd took on a more sympathetic attitude towards Ben, and even developed a sense of righteousness. During his final moments with Ben and Rook, he confessed to all the fun he had with them before admitting that he owes Ben his life, with Ben saying the same, showing how far their friendship has developed.

History

Omniverse

Skurd first appeared in Stuck on You, when Khyber was looking for him in the Black Hole, discovering him attached to Trombipulor. After a short "fight", Khyber suggested joining forces to take down Ben Tennyson. Khyber attached both Skurd and the Nemetrix to himself, so he could use its powers without losing his sanity not using the device directly. However, Skurd double-crossed Khyber after seeing that the Omnitrix has even more DNA. He stuck onto the Omnitrix and left Khyber transforming into Tyrannopede. He helped Ben to take him down and told him that his original plan was to let Khyber's mind rot by the Nemetrix. After they defeated Khyber, Skurd remained attached to the Omnitrix, assisting Ben.

In Let's Do the Time War Again, Skurd found himself in a time war either fighting Exo-Skull and Subdora, or containing a Time Beast set loose by Eon. Upon meeting a duplicate of themselves created through time travel, the two Skurds vainly complimented each other.

In The Secret of Dos Santos, Skurd joined Ben, Rook and Kai in their search for the Temple of the Sky. While gathering information, Skurd activated the Omnitrix's translation function, causing Ben to speak nonsense in Spanish. Later, he figured out the secret of Dos Santos, leading them to the temple.

In Third Time's a Charm, Skurd came with Ben and Rook to Friedkin University, where he met Kevin. While fighting Charmcaster as a dragon, he assisted Kickin' Hawk in performing a magic trick to trick her into checking bag for Bezel's totem.

In The Final Countdown, Skurd joined Ben in his fight against Yetta. Later, he helped Ben as Walkatrout enter the Plumber Headquarters through the toilet in Max's Plumbing, by using Four Arms' DNA to plunge themselves.

In Malgax Attacks, Ben finally decided to remove Skurd from the Omnitrix for good, despite the parasite not wishing to leave. After numerous failed attempts from Blukic and Driba to remove him, they decided to travel to Galvan Prime for Azmuth's help. On Galvan Prime, Skurd met Azmuth, who had never seen a Slime-Biot prior. Although Azmuth advised Ben that keeping Skurd around may be for the better, he removed Skurd anyways, and placed him within a container with a morphogenetic-dampening field.

After Albedo and Vilgax attacked Galvan Prime, the two were further separated, as Ben had boarded the Chimeran Hammer to fight Malgax. However, Max was able to communicate to the surface, allowing Ben as Whampire to apologize to Skurd for his treatment. Using her ship, Luhley tried to fly to the Chimeran Hammer with Skurd. On the way, it was destroyed by Mechadroids, but they were able to fly themselves to the ship. Upon reuniting, Whampire was given various alien accessories by Skurd, which he used to defeat Malgax.

In The Most Dangerous Game Show, Skurd was teleported alongside Ben onto the set of The Most Delicious Game by Charles Zenith.

In The End of an Era, Skurd travelled to the future with Ben and Rook to fight Maltruant and his minions. He assisted Whampire by giving him armor and weaponry made out of Diamondhead's DNA.

In A New Dawn, Skurd left Ben to reunite with his ancestors in their original mission of seeding life across all of creation.

Powers and Abilities

Skurd feeds on DNA and is able to grow replicas of his host's body parts from himself. He is impossible to remove, except through Ionic particle surgery, since he only leaves his host whenever he wants to.^[3]

When attached to the Nemetrix or Omnitrix, Skurd could use the various alien DNA within them to grow replicas of the body parts of an alien and use it as an armor or new power for himself and the wielder by spreading to their respective body parts and then shifting into another alien's limb or something based on another alien. This allows a sapient wielder to remain sane by not using the Nemetrix directly. Furthermore, Skurd has a high tolerance for Neural Shifts, which prevents him from going insane as well.

Skurd's body is extremely flexible and stretchable, allowing him to change shape and mold himself to whatever host he is attached to. Skurd is able to form pseudo-pods that act like limbs to grab objects and pull them toward him.

In The Secret of Dos Santos, Skurd is shown to have fixed certain errors in the Omnitrix, like Rath being naked. It was also revealed that he can speak Spanish.

Skurd, like the rest of his species, can gather, carry, and mix DNA to deposit it on planets. He can also perceive the true visage of fifth-dimensional beings like the Contumelia.^[4]

Skurd can survive in space.^[4]

Skurd can withstand radiation, such as that generated by a Prypiatosian-B.^{[DJW 1]}

Weapons

• Liam's arm
• Gorvan/Four Arms's arms
• Crabdozer's head and pincer
• Diamondhead's arm with a sword and shield made from his body
• Armodrillo's drill
• Bloxx's Bloxx-lobbers
• Wildvine's tendrils
• A megaphone made from Echo Echo's body
• Heatblast's fire breath and maces made from his body
• Feedback's hands
• Alien X's arm with a sword made from his body

Non-Combat Items

• Diamondhead's crystals as an anchor, a shelter, and a helmet
• Stinkfly's wings
• Grey Matter or Brainstorm's intelligence as a thinking cap^{[DJW 2]}

Weaknesses

As stated by himself, because he is a single-celled organism, a teleporter beam will take him apart and destroy him upon reconstitution. He also stated that teleporting makes him space-sick. Though if he is attached to a host body, then he would be able to withstand teleportation.^[3]

Ionic particle surgery can forcibly separate him from his host. He can also be contained within a morpho-genetic dampening field.^[3]

Skurd is not immune to Toepick's face.^{[DJW 3]}

Appearances

Omniverse

Every episode of Season 8 except for From Hedorium to Eternity.

Naming and Translations

Trivia

• Skurd is room temperature.^{[DJW 4]}
• When Skurd was attached to the Omnitrix:
  • Ben dealt with privacy issues by covering him with a smoothie cup.^{[DJW 5]}
  • When Ben was in the shower, he wore a shower cap.^{[DJW 6]}
  • He could give alien features to Ben in his human form, but Ben's human form is not strong enough to use many.^{[DJW 7]} For example, Crashhopper's legs would be pretty dangerous for Ben's more fragile human form.^{[DJW 8]}
• If Skurd were attach himself to Albedo's Ultimatrix, it would have been like eating nothing but junk food all of the time.^{[DJW 9]}
• Skurd was originally a concept Bandai wanted in the show; the idea for something that allowed one Omnitrix alien to use the abilities of another.^{[DJW 10][DJW 11]} His inclusion was a last-minute change that the crew had to go back and integrate into what they were already planning. They were afraid that they would put work into it, and Bandai wouldn't end up making any toys of it.^{[DJW 12]}
  • Ultimately, the toys were never released as Cartoon Network never shared their programming schedule with Bandai. Derrick J. Wyatt guessed that this was because the network was just making up the schedule on the fly without putting any thought into it. Also, the crew could make cartoons faster than Bandai could make toys, and the network aired the last season without any consideration for how long it would take Bandai to make anything.^{[DJW 12]}
  • The crew ended up liking Skurd, due in big part to the personality David Kaye gave him.^{[DJW 12]}
• During recording sessions, David Kaye gave Skurd a much deeper voice. His voice was digitally altered to sound higher-pitched in the show.^{[am 1]}

References

Production Material

Animatics

Crew Statements

Derrick J. Wyatt