Zack Snyder’s space adventure thriller, Rebel Moon, still remains as unconvincing and superficial as before, even after the release of Part Two: The Scargiver. The franchise had begun with a former Imperium soldier, Kora, hiding on the small planet of Veldt when the vicious Imperium army raided the place and demanded to be given enormous amounts of grain. As Kora realized that the Imperium would obviously not stop after being handed the supplies, she traveled across the galaxy to gather an army of warriors to fight against the evil that was headed their way. During this time, Kora and the others had to face betrayal, as the main antagonist, Regent Balisarius, happens to be her adopted father. Rebel Moon Part 2 presents the mighty battle on the planet of Veldt, while Kora continues her struggle to kill the revived Atticus Noble.
Spoiler Alert
What is the Film about?
The Scargiver begins aboard King’s Gaze, the mighty advanced starship belonging to one of the Imperium’s strongest admirals, Atticus Noble. While the previous film, A Child of Fire, had shown the protagonist, Kora, defeating Noble in a fight and ensuring his death, it also presented a teaser in which the Admiral’s body had been recovered, and some mysterious tests were being conducted on it. The new film confirms that Atticus Noble had some non-human parts in him, with the help of which he is revived back to life, with no effects of the injuries other than a small scar on his chest. Noble wants to keep this scar intact as a reminder of the fight that he has to lead in the near future, and he starts to track down the one who gave him the scar—Kora.
Meanwhile, the heroic warriors return to Veldt together with the joyous news that they have gotten rid of the Imperium army in this part of the galaxy, which means that the villagers are finally safe from any further attacks. Kora is confident that she has killed Noble, and so she spreads the news of peace finally coming to Veldt among the friendly villagers. Hagen and Den welcome the warriors and help them make Veldt their own home, while Aris still keeps up the pretense that he is serving the Imperium army whenever the authorities contact him. Since Aris had been left by the army to be their representative at the village, he is the one who first receives news of the King’s Gaze approaching Veldt in three days’ time. Noble’s assistant, Cassius, does not tell anything about his general’s revival and only states that the ship will be reaching the village in order to collect the grains as promised earlier. After all, Cassius and Noble have become suspicious that Aris has turned against them.
The news of the starship approaching the village is quite surprising to everyone, including the warriors. It is not customary in this universe to have any starship travel to a place without the presence of its commander, and since the commander of King’s Gaze, Atticus Noble, has been killed, the scenario starts to seem suspicious. Nonetheless, the villagers, under the leadership of Titus, start to prepare for the visit, gathering all the harvest while also readying to defend their home against another Imperium attack, which is most definitely about to follow.
How was Atticus Noble revived?
In Rebel Moon Part 1, Atticus Noble and his fleet launched an attack on Kora and her band of warriors with the help of the mercenary Kai, who had pretended to be an ally. Kora finally got her chance to have a direct confrontation against Noble, and she defeated him with a powerful stab, which also led to his body falling down onto a lower platform. A ship from the Imperium army crew was already seen collecting the body and bringing it back to his starship, making it clear that Noble’s forces were prepared for such an outcome. Although the sequel, The Scargiver, does not necessarily provide any new information about the healing techniques used on Noble, we can still guess, to a certain degree, how he had been revived.
Atticus Noble had always had some mechanical robotic parts inside him, and he was never completely human, because of which he sometimes powered himself with cables and external energy. When he was defeated and had seemingly died, his body was rescued and plugged in with similar cables all over his back and torso in an effort to revive him. The quick execution of the process made it quite evident that Noble’s team on his starship were always prepared for such a situation, in which their Admiral would fall in some battle and would need reviving. This is why teams of medics and specialists conducted experiments on the technique and were always present onboard to carry out the procedure.
It is General Cassius who oversees the revival plan at present, and this, too, has been pre-decided, for Cassius is the one in charge of the starship after Noble’s fall. Eventually, Noble regains his health and feels ready to be back in action, but the technicians have not cleared him to do so. He is frustrated at being told that certain rules and protocols need to be followed before he can be allowed to rejoin the Imperium, and Cassius has to step in. Since Atticus Noble is characterized as the pure villain, with no other shade in him, he obviously kills the chief technician standing in his way of becoming the Admiral once again, and Cassius does not mind this unnecessary killing either. Very soon, in the plot of The Scargiver, Atticus Noble completely revives and goes back to being the villainous admiral that he had always been.
Why is Kora actually on the run?
When Kora spoke about the incidents in her past back in A Child of Fire, she revealed that, as a child, her planet had been raided by the Imperium army, which resulted in the death of her family. As an orphan, Kora was adopted by Balisarius, who trained her to be a ruthless soldier of the regime, following which she was chosen to be the bodyguard to the very royal family. However, Kora had failed to protect the King, Queen, and young princess when a massive attack was launched by some assassins, and the royal family was slain. After this incident, Kora had crashed into the village in Veldt and was rescued by the villagers, with whose help she stayed hidden at the place. While it seemed like the protagonist was hiding out of shame and remorse, and also for having abandoned her post as an Imperium soldier, the real truth is quite different.
It is now, in The Scargiver, that Kora reveals the real truth to her lover, Gunnar, about the shocking incidents in her past. Although Balisarius had taken Kora under his wing, helping her develop into an effective soldier, his plan with her was something very different and rather cruel. As a powerful senator, Balisarius wanted to seize control of the Motherworld for a long time, and the changing mindset of the erstwhile King made him all the more determined. While the King did lead many invasions of planets for the Imperium, he gradually started to regret these actions after the birth of his daughter, Princess Issa, who had a healing effect on everyone and everything around him. As a direct effect of this change, the King wanted to dismantle a starship that had been used by the army in the many invasions, which was a matter of shame for Balisarius. The starship had been built with great precision and engineering marvel, and to many, it was a symbol of pride for the Motherworld. Therefore, the destruction of this symbol was an outrageous act, and for Balisarius, it was time to finally take action against the King.
On the day of the official dismantling, Balisarius won over the confidence of some troops of soldiers in the army and staged a sabotage against the royal family. Trapping the King, Queen, and princess inside a chamber with soldiers inside, Balisarius completed his betrayal by launching the attack. He stabbed the King to death, and as the Queen was killed as well, it was Kora’s turn to get rid of Princess Issa. Kora had been given this responsibility before, and although she knew that she was going to kill an innocent girl, the protagonist could not turn down the order, for she still revered Balisarius like her father. With no other choice, Kora shot Issa dead with her laser gun and completed the sabotage plan.
However, Balisarius had a different plan, for he had always wanted to use Kora as a scapegoat and to claim to the world that she was the killer of the royal family. Kora was an outsider, as she hailed from a planet in the outer regions of the galaxy and had no connections with the Imperium or the royal family. Balisarius had made use of this very situation, as an outsider killing the King and his family out of jealousy and respite would be more believable to the common masses and would also protect his reputation. Therefore, right after Kora killed Issa, Balisarius ordered the soldiers to arrest her and labeled her as the assassin who had murdered the royal family. Realizing the grand betrayal in the works against her, Kora refused to play along with the plan, and she escaped the chamber after killing multiple soldiers. She then also managed to escape the place aboard her starship and took refuge on Veldt, hiding her real identity, for she had been branded as the assassin and Princess Issa’s killer, whom she had sworn to protect earlier.
Why does Jimmy help the Warriors?
The weaponized robot, Jimmy, which had gained sentience and had fought against some of the Imperium soldiers in order to protect the villagers of Veldt, is once again seen in The Scargiver. At the end of A Child of Fire, Jimmy was seen wearing antlers and having taken on the appearance of a villager. However, Jimmy does not live in the village on Veldt and chooses to stay away in the nearby wilderness as a recluse. Jimmy seems to be caught up in a philosophical tussle after becoming sentient, for he cannot fully comprehend why he had betrayed the ones he had been created to serve. However, when he meets with Kora during the village’s preparation against the imminent Imperium attack, the robot reveals that meeting her had brought about a massive change in him. Kora’s behavior towards Jimmy and the principles she spread had all influenced Jimmy towards becoming more benevolent, and so naturally against the Imperium army. While Jimmy’s act of shooting the soldiers down in the first film could have been seen as his impulsive decision to side with the good, he now finally takes the stand once more, wholeheartedly, towards the end of “Scargiver.” As the battle between the Imperium army and the villagers ensues, Jimmy joins the villagers and wages war against the soldiers, crucially taking down an artillery machine.
Did Kora kill Atticus Noble in the end?
In Rebel Moon Part 2‘s ending, a fierce battle takes place on Veldt, with the villagers trying to defend their home with the help of the warriors against the invading army. While the King’s Gaze starts to retreat, Kora knows that she cannot let such a chance to kill the villainous Admiral go by. Using her crashed starship, which was still in working condition, she and Gunnar sneaked into the King’s Gaze warship with the plan of bombing it down. Along with blowing the ship up with the bombs, Kora also wants to kill Atticus Noble once and for all, thus sneaking through the labyrinthine place looking for the Admiral. By this time, Noble had also ordered his troops to open fire on the village on Veldt, which would not only kill the villagers but also the Imperium troops still on the ground and also destroy the grains that were stored.
Just as this attack is launched and the guns on the ship are fired, the bombs set by Kora explode, making the gigantic King’s Gaze warship plummet towards the earth. In this time, Kora confronts Atticus Noble and finally kills him with the help of her lover, Gunnar. This time around, Kora ensures to decapitate Noble, ensuring that the Admiral is truly killed at the end of The Scargiver, and he can no longer be revived. But this also fatally injures Gunnar, as the man finally dies by the time Kora can return to Veldt. Kora has to live on with the loss of her beloved while she also receives a new mission for the future. During The Scargiver‘s ending, it is revealed by Titus that Princess Issa is not really dead but is still alive because of her magical powers. This not only absolves Kora of the murder she believed she had committed, but it also means that the very average franchise will be dragged forward through another sequel some time in the future.
