Skwisgaar Skwigelf

General Overview

• Year of the Setting: Mid-2000s to Present
• Full Name: Skwisgaar Skwigelf
• Marital Status: Single
• Nickname: Lead Guitarist of Dethklok, "The Fastest Guitarist Alive," Lothario
• Age and Date of Birth: Adult (exact age unspecified); the only member whose physical appearance has not aged much since joining the band.
• Sexuality: Heterosexual; depicted as the most sexually active member of the band, with a preference for older women.
• Gender: Male (Cisgender)
• Place of Birth: Sweden
• Nationality and Ethnicity: Swedish, Nordic
• Languages: Swedish (native), English (spoken with a heavy Swedish accent, frequent grammatical errors, and a tendency to add or drop the letter 's' from words).
• Cultural Background: The illegitimate only child of Serveta Skwigelf, a former Miss Sweden. He grew up fatherless and was neglected by his promiscuous mother. He sometimes alludes to having grown up poor, mentioning he was fed snow for breakfast as a child when times were tough.

Physical Appearance & Style

• Height and Build: Said to be "taller than a tree," he is the tallest member of Dethklok, standing slightly above Nathan, and is also the most slender member of the band.
• Facial Features: Possesses stereotypical Nordic features, including an elongated facial structure with a high forehead, long nose, and pronounced cheekbones. He has a noticeable pallor and a slightly effeminate appearance compared to his bandmates. He is the only member drawn with lips.
• Eyes: Greenish-blue eyes.
• Hair: Wavy, long blond hair.
• Distinguishing Marks: His last name may be a reference to his elflike appearance—tall, slender, pale, and unaging.
• Posture and Bearing: Generally aloof and detached, often speaking for the band as a whole rather than in the first person.
• Expressions: Capable of a confident public image, but privately suffers from emotional breakdowns and fears failure and rejection.
• Style of Dress: No specific outfit is detailed, but he is known to wear a Swedish flag belt buckle in some depictions.

Voice & Speech

• Voice: Possesses a heavy Swedish accent. His speech becomes worse when he is upset or stressed, and his poor pronunciation is a frequent comedic device. His English can be so awkward that those unfamiliar with him are unable to understand him at all, though his bandmates and manager interpret him easily.
• Speech Patterns: He frequently adds the letter 's' to the ends of words and conversely drops it from words that require it. He makes frequent grammatical errors, usually involving noun-verb disagreement. He refers to things he hates as "dildos".
• Overall Presence: His voice is often described as incomprehensible to outsiders; during the filming of a Dethklok movie, producers found him so unintelligible that his voice was dubbed out entirely, much to his dismay.

Unseen Architecture of the Mind and Spirit

• Personality Traits: Arrogant, haughty, and uptight compared to his bandmates, but also classically laid-back. He is oblivious to his own ignorance and often defends himself when he is blatantly incorrect. He is a self-described nihilist and atheist.
• Temperament: Despite his confident public image, he is prone to private emotional breakdowns and neurosis. He privately fears failure and rejection, and his bandmates are aware of these insecurities and can intentionally trigger them.
• Emotional Tendencies: He is particularly aloof and emotionally detached. However, he is also more pensive and observant than the other members, sometimes able to make insightful observations about the emotional gravity of a situation or the deeper meaning of life.
• Coping Mechanisms: He engages in literally constant, compulsive guitar practice, which can be heard during conversations. He also designs custom guitars as a hobby.
• Motivations: To maintain his status as the fastest guitarist alive. He is highly critical of others' guitar skills and takes particular pride in his own clean speed picking.
• Fears and Anxieties: The title of "The Fastest Guitarist Alive" comes with tremendous pressure and expectation. He fears failure and rejection. The mere idea of Toki improving his guitar abilities is so upsetting that he attempts to ban Toki from the band.
• Desires: He repeatedly refers to himself as a god, which turns out to be more than just a complex. He desires to be seen as the greatest.
• Moral Compass: He has little but contempt for Murderface and looks down on his schemes. He is willing to frame Murderface as a terrorist as part of a revenge plot.
• Philosophy and Worldview: He is a self-described nihilist and atheist. He also believes in Norse mythology, telling Toki he will see him in Valhalla when they believe they are about to be killed.

Social Networks, Institutions, and Relationships

• Nathan Explosion: They get along reasonably well and do most of the arranging of the band's music. They have a symbiotic relationship and, along with Pickles, represent nearly all the creative talent in Dethklok.
• Toki Wartooth: A complex dynamic of rivalry, mentorship, and brotherhood. Skwisgaar is bossy and controlling toward Toki and frequently disparages his guitar playing, but this is done to quell his own feelings of insecurity. He is codependent on Toki, and the constant challenge forces him to become a better player. Despite his rudeness, he has a genuine attachment to Toki and was the one who allowed Toki into the band after a guitar duel.
• William Murderface: Skwisgaar writes all of Murderface's bass lines and resents his attempts to take credit for them. He has little but contempt for Murderface, freely admitting that he often deletes and re-records Murderface's bass parts on albums. They are polar opposites in many ways.
• Pickles: They arrange the musical aspects of Dethklok's songs together and take the recording process seriously. Along with Nathan, they are the creative drive behind the band. They seem to get along well as friends, though Skwisgaar's arrogance can clash with Pickles's down-to-earth nature.
• Charles Foster Offdensen: Skwisgaar has been caught crying by Offdensen and attempts to mask his vulnerable state around him.
• Family (Serveta Skwigelf): Skwisgaar deeply resents his mother for her promiscuity and neglect, though he often mirrors her behavior. He experiences psychosomatic nausea during her visits.
• Family (Týr): His relationship with his stepfather is more pleasant, and he treats him with love and respect like a son would with his biological father.
• Skwisgaar's "Double": He became very attached to his body double, doing almost everything with him. When the double was severely burned, Skwisgaar became distraught.
• Children: He has fathered thousands of illegitimate children around the world, none of whom he has ever met or acknowledged, and he has no intention of doing so.

Knowledge, Craft, and Mastery

• Academic Knowledge: He cannot read musical notation, which he blames on his "music dyslex-kia." His grasp of English spelling is even worse than his pronunciation.
• Talents: He is "The Fastest Guitarist Alive," a specialty in speed scales, and he takes particular pride in his clean speed picking. His "godlike" abilities are the result of years of literally constant, compulsive practice. He has developed ambidexterity and is sometimes shown playing left-handed. His hands have been insured for ten billion dollars—one billion per finger.
• Hobbies into Expertise: He designs custom guitars in his free time and owns a collection of bizarre and exotic instruments, including the Swiss Armytar, the Ant Farmitar, and a guitar supposedly made of wood from the True Cross.
• Musical Contributions: In addition to writing songs himself, he is responsible for the majority of the arrangement of Dethklok's songs. He writes both the guitar lines and Murderface's bass lines.
• Survival Skills: He does not have a driver's license and, along with Toki, developed a deep fear of driving after being forced to watch a gruesome safety video.
• Combat Abilities: He is able to survive extreme cold and has high physical endurance, as evidenced by his traumatic childhood discovery of his first guitar in a frozen cave.

Tastes, Inclinations, and Aversions

• Likes and Interests: Guitar playing, designing custom guitars, and collecting exotic instruments. He is also interested in Norse mythology.
• Dislikes and Aversions: He hates the Danish. He is highly critical of other people's guitar playing skills. He refers to things he hates as "dildos".
• Aesthetic Leanings: He has an elflike, effeminate appearance and is self-conscious about being the most effeminate-looking member of the band.
• Indulgences: He is depicted as the most sexually active member of the band, with a taste in sexual partners that leans towards older women. He displays criteria for sexual addiction. He mourns feeling unloved or used.
• Personal Tastes: His musical taste is exclusively tied to his own virtuosic guitar playing; he has almost no interests or hobbies outside of the guitar. When challenged to name something unrelated to guitar, he is left speechless.

Daily Existence and Operations

• Daily Routine: His life is dominated by compulsive guitar practice. He is frequently shown practicing in odd places, such as submerged in water in the hot tub, in an elevator, during mass, while asleep, and during meals.
• Living Arrangements: Dethklok's Mordhaus estate.
• Possessions: He uses a standard ebony black Gibson Explorer, which later becomes his signature "Thunderhorse" Explorer. He also owns an all-white "Snowhorse" Explorer. His hands are insured for ten billion dollars.
• Health Habits: He suffers from psychosomatic nausea during his mother's visits and has private emotional breakdowns.
• Legacy: He is the world's fastest guitarist, a title that comes with tremendous pressure. He is a founding member and the creative driving force of Dethklok.

Canonical Character Trivia

• The God Complex: He repeatedly refers to himself as a god, a belief that turns out to be more than just a complex.
• Musical Dyslexia: He cannot read musical notation and blames it on his "music dyslex-kia".
• The Gibson Explorer: His "godlike" abilities are humorously linked to his ever-present Gibson Explorer, which he is rarely seen without.
• Father of Thousands: Despite his disgust with his mother's promiscuity, he has fathered thousands of illegitimate children worldwide and has no intention of ever meeting them.
• The Cave Discovery: He discovered his first guitar as a child after falling into a hidden cave, where the instrument was lodged within the frozen statue of a guitar god.
• Driving Phobia: He does not have a driver's license and developed a deep fear of driving after a traumatic experience in driving school.