Skold is a Predacon from the 2021 Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

A young and loyal warrior, Skold believes that the rising Megatron will lead the Predacons to glory. She's the strongest of all his henchmen, but suffers from crippling self-esteem issues that have seen her get looked down on by her teammates. Worse, Terrorsaur wants to keep her insecure for fear of Skold fully realising her strength and becoming more important than him taking over the Predacons.

Fiction

2021 Beast Wars comic

Press X to Scold Skold

Born in the era succeeding the Great War, Skold had originally dreamed of becoming an artist only to be harshly rebuked by Maximal prejudices. After running afoul of a trio of bullies at Iacon's Sculpture Garden, Skold was recruited by Galavar. Thicker Skin When the ambitious Predacon agent—now going by the name "Megatron"—launched a plan to steal a Golden Disk held within the Maximal Science Ministry, Skold joined Tarantulas and Waspinator as they commandeered the Maximal warship Darksyde from the Great Shipyard in Vos and sabotaged the other transwarp-capable ships to cover their escape. The deed done, the Predacons fled Cybertron aboard their stolen vessel. While spooling their transwarp drive, however, they came under fire from the Maximal science ship Axalon. Using the coordinates encoded on the disc, their trip through unspace warped them across time and space, and the subsequent ship-to-ship combat ended with both sides shipwrecked on a primitive, energon-rich world. The Darksyde's computer brought the Predacons back online with new beast modes obtained from the local wildlife, and Skold awoke as a snapping turtle. Savage Landing Part 1

While trying to get the lay of the land, Skold assisted Tarantulas as he conducted a geographic survey, but when she accidentally scanned the ship she discovered a number of unspace anomalies in the Darksyde itself. Savage Landing Part 2

Following the capture of the Maximal Nyx, Skold took part in her torture before Dinobot rebelled and destroyed the Transformation Lock Lens. After he'd defeated the others, he offered Nyx the chance to defect with him, claiming that Megatron was only using her, before she found her beast mode used as a frisbee against Megatron, knocking him back into the Darksyde. Before the Predacons could regain their wits, Dinobot activated the ship's lockdown protocols. Though Skold's raw strength managed to ding the heavy doors, Savage Landing Part 3 the Predacons were trapped until the next morning, when Tarantulas managed to hack into the security. When Megatron ordered a hunt for the traitor, Skold was compelled to point out that their numerical advantage hadn't been much help last time, only to be shushed by Tarantulas. Savage Landing Part 4

Tracking the traitor to the Axalon, the Predacons began a forward assault, distracting their foes enough for Tarantulas to sneak into the crashed ship and unleash chaos. In battle, Skold faced off against Rhinox before Dinobot dramatically entered the battlefield. Savage Landing Part 5 Paying no heed to this, Skold continued her contest of strength against the Maximal before the ship's force field activated and ejected all Predacons from its perimeter. With Dinobot ejected alongside them, the Predacons began beating him before they were scared off by the Axalon's point defences. Savage Landing Part 6

As tempers flared at the Darksyde, Skold volunteered to be part of an energon scouting mission but Scorponok told her to remain behind and guard the base. When she retorted with his own claim that Maximals wouldn't attack, Terrorsaur smugly said that she was "too slow" to keep up, a sentiment she validated by failing to grasp his meaning. He later claimed to Waspinator that he had done this to lower Skold's self-esteem and negate the possibility of her turning her frightening strength against them. Pod Part 1

When new recruit Blackarachnia arrived at the Darksyde, she revealed that just over half of the now descended stasis pods had been reprogrammed into Predacons. When Skold offered to team up with Blackarachnia to find the pods, the arachnid contemptuously brushed her off, noting that the fliers could find them faster. Going out for a mope, Skold chanced across one of the pods at the bottom of a lake. Bringing it ashore, the pod finished its sequence and birthed Razorbeast. When the Maximal bonded with her, Skold indulged his curiosity about her past before they were beset by ironwolves. While Skold's mighty strength was able to best the beasts, Razorbeast was left injured. Aware that she couldn't take him to the Darksyde, Skold instead brought him to the Axalon to be healed but she once again refused Dinobot's offer to defect, noting that Predacons were at least honest about their cruelty. Thicker Skin

Skold wins. FRIENDSHIP?

After a particularly bad day, Skold was tricked into the Darksyde's cell by Terrorsaur. Though despondent at her failure, Skold was soon cheered up by the captive Maximal Powerhug who encouraged her to have more self-confidence. Bolstered, Skold promptly decapitated Powerhug and fished around his internals for what she needed to override the cell door. Skold's No Good, Very Bad Day

The Predacons, confident that the Maximals would not strike, later conducted a team building exercise, one that was interrupted when the Maximals attacked. Maximals Strike Back, Part 1 In the following battle, Skold found herself facing off against Optimus Primal before Razorbeast intervened, pointing out to Skold that the Maximals had hurt no one and simply wanted the Golden Disk back before he was grabbed by Terrorsaur. To Skold's horror, Terrorsaur carried her friend to the nearby flying mountain and dropped him atop the energon crystal, detonating it. When Terrorsaur later mocked the Maximal, a furious Skold tore the flier's spark out of his chest before going off to rouse Waspinator, telling him simply that the Predacons had lost Terrorsaur. Maximals Strike Back, Part 2

Skold wins. FATALITY.

Returning to the battle, Skold engaged Rhinox once again, even using Scorponok as a bludgeon, but Rhinox, seeing her distress, refused to fight back, offering himself as a punching bag so she could work through her trauma. Overcome by emotion, Skold ordered Rhinox to leave. Maximals Strike Back, Part 3

In a later battle that took place on a field of energon crystals, Skold and Rhinox engaged in another contest of strength. The Speedway of Central Consciousness

When Megatron began repairing the Darksyde's Transwarp Drive, Skold held up an engine component for him, having her holding skills criticized. Primal Rage

When the Maximals and Predacons joined forces to fight off the Vok, Skold was assigned to the Axalon, helping Nyx brainstorm how to disrupt an energy being. As she noted that the Vok could be watching them, she remembered picking up unspace signatures following the crash. Finding those same signatures on Optimus, Skold passed on her theory on how to track the Vok to the Maximal leader before a distress call in from the Darksyde. The Beginning of the End

Leaving Rattrap and Waspinator to repair the Axalon, the rest of the group made for the Darksyde, finding it under attack by the Children of the Vok. During the battle, Skold was struck by a stun blast, leaving her vulnerable to the reanimated Terrorsaur only to be saved by Rhinox before the Vok arrived. Deeming all Cybertronians to be too disruptive to their plans, the aliens immobilized all combatants before they prepared to fire their reversion device. As the superweapon built up its charge, the Vok were fired on by the repaired Axalon, being dissipated by the unspace blasts before another blast displaced Megatron in time. Though Optimus Primal proposed an extension of their truce, the Predacons refused. As the Maximals flew off, Skold questioned interim leader Blackarachnia about her plans to repair the Darksyde, the arachnid deciding that they would help themselves to the remains of the reversion device. The End

Notes

• The name "Skold" derives from sköldpadda ("shield-toad"), the Swedish word for "turtle".^[1]
• Skold's pre-beast vehicular form is heavily based on Beast Machines Tankor's first toy.^[2] For her Earth body, Josh Burcham used elements of Snapper's body-type and adjusted the design to an alligator snapping turtle at Erik Burnham's request.^[3]
• Burcham mulled the idea of "casting" Kate Mulgrew as a possible voice actor for Skold, based on Mulgrew's performance as Red Claw in Batman: The Animated Series.^[4]

References