After Havok's latest plan unleashes an Ancient Evil, Skylands faces its Darkest Hour. Now the Skylanders must fight back from the brink to save the land they love from the Darkness.
General
- Adaptation Amalgamation: The plot is loosely based off of Skylanders: SuperChargers, with Havok having created the Sky Eater and the heroes stopping him, only for the Darkness to become the Final Boss. However, that's where the story begins, leading to the Darkness shattering the Core of Light while effectively removing the Skylanders' ability to fight back for the time being and forcing a hunt for its subcores across Skylands, the plot of the first game. The plot of the Skylanders being stripped of their powers was also taken from the completely unrelated JLA: Act of God...though primarily as a Take That!.
- Adaptation Expansion:
- The Legendary Skylanders in the toyline have some lore about them, but largely are just chase figures with higher stats. Here, they're an ancient power given to heroes who have completed great trials, and a Dismantled MacGuffin key to potentially restoring the heroes' lost powers.
- The plot of Skylanders: SuperChargers was basically happening, but unlike the game where the Darkness is defeated before it can fully manifest, it does fully manifest here and become the Big Bad of an entire long event rather than just being the Final Boss.
- Back from the Brink: The story begins with the Skylanders suffering a Curbstomp Battle against the Darkness, stripped of their powers along with Skylands' other heroes, hunted across Skylands, losing the Core of Light, and left hauled up in a ship, constantly fleeing its minions. Fortunately, Stygian's arrival and Buzz Scales discovering the Core of Light wasn't destroyed, but scattered, gives them the means to start fighting back.
- Big Bad: The Darkness is the main antagonist, being an ancient Eldritch Abomination that Havok accidentally unleashed. It has taken over Skylands and the event is devoted to stopping it and saving Avalar.
- Brought Down to Badass: The Skylanders are backed into a corner, but still keep fighting after being stripped of their powers.
- Darker and Edgier: The story is mostly a loose composite adaptation of Skylanders: SuperChargers combined with the basic plot of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure. However, the overall situation is played far more seriously than in either game, with the Darkness being a straight up Lovecraftian Eldritch Abomination with none of the hammy, comedic traits of its game counterpart.
- De-power:
- The first 'battle' with the Darkness ends with it stripping all of Avalar's heroes of their powers by tampering with the arcane weave.
- This becomes a problem, as this happens to any hero or military magitech that enters Avalar to try and back the heroes up. Stygian is an exception, as he's both immune to the effect and can ward others against it.
- Dismantled MacGuffin:
- The Darkness shatters the Core of Light and seemingly destroys it. However, Buzz Scales figures out that the eight cores composing it must have survived and been scattered across Skylands by the blast. As such, the Core is their only possible weapon against the Darkness, finding its cores and restoring it becomes their mission.
- Stygian reveals a second, connected one: the Legendary Powers, an ancient power granted to heroes who completed great trials that might be able to restore and enhance the Skylanders' lost powers.
- Enemy Mine: Havok, despite being the Skylanders' Arch-Enemy, joins forces with them against the Darkness. This is because Skylands is his to conquer, and he can't do that if it destroys or conquers Skylands first. It's noted the Darkness didn't depower Havok because it couldn't comprehend him doing this, and Stgian wards him before it can, making him ironically one of the heroes' strongest assets.
- Fountain of Youth: When the Darkness depowers the Skylanders of Skylands' other heroes, it also reduces any member whose growth is magically influenced (such as dragons) to children to further render them helpless.
- Like Cannot Cut Like: It turns out, Stygian is immune to the Darkness's Power Nullifier because his power from the Well of Shade is nigh identical to the power that created the Darkness in the first place. He can also ward others to have the same immunity.
- Mythology Gag:
- Like in the first game, the plot sees the Core of Light shattered into its component pieces by the villain in a battle the Skylanders were defeated and reduced to a powerless state in, forcing them to find its pieces and put it back together.
- When realizing Cinder II is about to surprise attack Maul, Cinder I asks 'knock, knock', confusing Maul, to which Cinder II answers "Who's there?! The unexpected! Looks like you didn't expect me!"
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Darkness was sealed inside a Bottomless Pit on a Floating Island (the fact that is impossible highlights how much of an Eldritch Location its prison is) since ancient times. It unfortunately manipulates Havok into giving it the power to break loose, kickstarting the crisis.
- Take That!:
- It's noted that the tech and skill savvy heroes among the Skylanders were entirely supportive of their friends who lost their powers, helping them and promise to help them get their powers back (and were partially depowered themselves due to losing access to Magitech and racial magic), but some of them go on an ego trip and tried to act superior. They were promptly shut up and reminding it wasn't an 'act of god to humble them', but their friends being crippled and in some cases rendered comatose.
Word of God has confirmed the Depower plot point and the heroes' response to it was a big middle finger to JLA: Act of God in general, which the Codex writers utterly despise. - A more subtle one is that the heroes do not give up and angst about their lost powers, rather just continuing to try and help however they can. What angst does happen is due to being unable to save people or the loss of power coming with another, much more serious loss or crippling (such as Gale Wings' children being locked in their eggs or Cinder II and Sonar being left unable to feed and in danger of starving to death).
- A younger Skylander says
Batman's infamous 'welcome to the club' speech to Sonar...and instantly gets tail-whipped across the room by Buzz Scales, who demantles the entire speech before forcing the younger Skylander to apologize and forcing him to do 50 laps around the ship.
- It's noted that the tech and skill savvy heroes among the Skylanders were entirely supportive of their friends who lost their powers, helping them and promise to help them get their powers back (and were partially depowered themselves due to losing access to Magitech and racial magic), but some of them go on an ego trip and tried to act superior. They were promptly shut up and reminding it wasn't an 'act of god to humble them', but their friends being crippled and in some cases rendered comatose.
- Villain World: The Darkness wins at the beginning, taking over Avalar and plunging it into a dark kingdom where the heroes have lost their powers, demons and villains run free, and there's an overall sense of despair.
Part 1: Darkness Falls
The Skylanders continue their latest battle with Havok to stop his Sky Eater. However, the battle is interupted when one of the greatest evils Avalar has ever known breaks free of its prison, and the Skylanders may be powerless to stop it.
Can be found here and is complete.
- Curbstomp Battle: The Skylanders are soundly defeated in their first fight with the Darkness, failing to protect the Core of Light and having their powers stripped while failing to do any meaningful damage in return.
- Darkest Hour: The Skylanders' first battle with the Darkness ends with the Core of Light seemingly destroyed, Guiding Light in a coma due to her bond with it, the Skylanders and every other hero in Skyland depowered and hunted across Avalar by its forces, and the Darkness covering all of Skylands in eternal night and despair. The event is called 'The Darkest Hour Crisis' for good reason.
- Downer Beginning: The event begins with the Darkness being freed from its prison, seemingly destroying the Core of Light, Guiding Light falling into a coma, the Skylanders and other heroes depowered, and Skylands plunged into darkness, despair, and Avalar under the Darkness' complete control.
- Gilligan Cut: Havokssandra comments that she hopes Stormswirl is enjoying his stay in the Void Between the Worlds. There's a cutaway to Stormswirl, still silently screaming into the void as he tumbles through the darkness until the end of time.
Part 2: The Circles of Hell
The Skylanders' first battle with the Darkness ended with them crushed by the ancient entity, left powerless as it rampages. However, they learn of a power that can give them a fighting chance, and a way to rebuild the Core of Light. However, to reach it, they must begin with a journey to the depths of Hell, where an old foe awaits, deadlier than ever.
Can be found here and is complete.
- Arc Villain: Miche King Maul serves as the main antagonist of the arc as the heroes try to retrieve the Undeath Core and Legendary Power.
- Face Your Fears: Cinder I is terrified of King Maul, who spent her childhood horrifically abusing her in Valefor's name, in part due to being reduced to a powerless child by the Darkness. After a pep talk from Cinder II, however, she manages to get the courage to pull a You Shall Not Pass! on him so the rest of the party can find the Legendary Power.
- Fear Is Normal: Cinder II manages to break Cinder I out of her Heroic BSoD by telling her it's alright to be afraid of King Maul, and in general, and saying it's facing your fears that makes you brave (something she learned from Master Aeon).
- Heroic BSoD: Cinder I has a complete panic attack when brought face to face with Miche King Maul, who'd ruthlessly abused her when she was being 'raised' to become Valefor's monster. That, combined with her being reduced to a powerless child, leaves her shaken and depressed afterwards until Cinder II helps her out of it.
- Heroic RRoD: Cinder II being starved of life energy due to losing her magic eventually causes her to collapse and begin starving to death as the mission nears its end, putting the group on a race against time. Fortunately, once her powers are restored, the party quickly feeds her.
- "Knock Knock" Joke: Cinders I and II manage to turn one into a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner when Cinder I notices Cinder II preparing to ambush Maul.
- Run or Die: The party is in a Hellrealm with its inmates running rampant, without their powers.
- To Hell and Back: The Undeath Core and Legendary Power turns out to be in the Avalarian Hellrealm, so the heroes have to venture there to get them. Ironically, they expected it to be the easy one, as Cinder II both grew up there and technically rules it due to inheriting it from Valefor...but unfortunately, the Darkness stripped the 'guards' of their powers and put Miche King Maul in charge to protect the Core, making things far more dangerous.
Part 3: The Black Abyss
While Cinder II's group was braving the Hellrealm, another group braves the depths of the ocean. However, they are not alone, as hungry eyes are waiting in the black abyss.
Can be found here and is still in progress.
- Evil Versus Evil: A massive group of pirates is rampaging through the area near Pearl Plunge, presenting a massive problem. To help deal with it given their lost powers, several Skylanders trick the pirates into disturbing a kingdom of troll revenants nearby, leading to a large battle between the two to weaken the pirates.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Skylands' pirates can be dangerous, but most are generally considered Starter Villains for rookie Skylanders and fodder for experienced ones. With the Skylanders' powers gone, however, they've become a much larger threat and thus become much more major threats to the point the Skylanders actively have to run from Sky Pirates they'd normally have no issue with. The secondary threat of the arc are a massive alliance of pirates.
- Heroic RRoD: Like Cinder II, Sonar's powers being gone means she's been unable to actually feed on negative emotions since they were taken. As a result, she collapses early in the mission, beginning to starve to death. Fortunately, Havok has a spell that let's him transfer his vexation to her directly and save her.
- Oh, Crap!: Sonar, and then the rest of her party, understandably panic when they learn malevolent Oceanaiads are in the area, given how powerful and dangerous Oceanaiads are.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Sonar starts starving to death, Pyro III swollows his pride despite his massive ego and genuinely asks Havok to save her.
