Posted by She’s the protagonist of Rebel Moon and its most complex and mysterious character: here, the story of Kora / Arthelais is explained, how is it connected to Balisarius?
Rebel Moon‘s plot is undoubtedly fascinating. The movie drags the spectators into the story of a war between a farmer’s village on a small planet and the King’s army, with its evil intentions. At the same time, while the battle develops, we progressively discover another story: the journey that brought Kora to Veldt and transformed her into a rebel against Balisarius and the Motherworld. In Rebel Moon, the origins of Arthelais and how she became the warrior we see in the movies are the biggest mysteries of the saga.
The ending scene of the first movie tries to reveal something, triggering many questions among the spectators. We see Atticus Noble returning to life after a futuristic treatment that extracts his vital fluids from his dead body. He has this cryptic conversation with Balisarius, the tyrant in charge of interstellar armies for the Imperium. Balisarius orders Atticus Noble to find “his daughter Arthelais and bring her to him alive.” Arthelais is Kora; at least, that’s what Noble is sure of. However, we know almost nothing about her life and her childhood. Therefore, the natural question is: Is Kora / Arthelais really Balisarius’s biological daughter, or is he calling her this way for a different reason?
Who is Kora / Arthelais in Rebel Moon?
We surely know how the role of a hero falls upon Kora / Arthelais in Rebel Moon. She is the warrior who leads Veldt’s rebellion against the Motherworld, starting a long journey to involve Darrian Bloodaxe, General Titus and an entire army in their battle. From this point of view, her destiny reflects the story in Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, which is the main inspiration behind the Rebel Moon saga. We explained everything in the article below: check it out.
Moreover, we also know she’s known (and feared) as Arthelais, the most talented warrior in the universe, who also became the most determined rebel against the Motherworld. What turned her against the Imperium? How has Rebel Moon explained the story of Kora / Arthelais?
The story of Kora / Arthelais and how it’s connected to Balisarius
In the middle of the Rebel Moon Part 1, when Kora plans the next steps with Gunnar, she actually tells him a big part of who she is. Arthelais’s story begins in her childhood: when she was nine, the Imperium came to her planet and destroyed everything without caring for those who lived there. The Imperium was already led by Balisarius, and in one crucial moment of the battle, young Arthelais was about to shoot him. However, the gun didn’t help, and Balisarius took Kora / Arthelais with him, raising and training her for war.
This is how Arthelais remembers the beginning of the story in Rebel Moon: Balisarius killed her parents, destroyed her planet, and raised her as her child. However, Arthelais was too young to fully understand what happened. She also needed to survive. Therefore, most naturally, she followed her new life under Balisarius’ care: she was trained as a member of the Imperium’s military. She became an adult; she fell in love with a man from the same context. However, she lost him during a battle when she was 18.
At that point, she was already old enough to realize something more profound about her life. Kora has been raised in the image of the Imperium. Balisarius deprived her of her own life, killed her family, and transformed her into a fighter who only knew about war. Therefore, adult Kora / Arthelais develops her renewed hate for Balisarius and the Imperium: this is how her story has turned her into the most dangerous rebel the Motherworld has ever seen.
More will undoubtedly be revealed in Rebel Moon Part 2, and we look forward to discovering it. Meanwhile, we already know many things: Kora / Arthelais was raised by Balisarius as a daughter after he killed her entire family, and years later, when she grew up, she turned against him, escaping his control and finally settling in Veldt. When the Imperium came into her village and used their brute force against the villagers, her warrior spirit couldn’t stay hidden, and that’s how her rebellion started.
The rest will come when Rebel Moon Part 2 will be released in April. That’s when we’ll also know why she’s known as the Scargiver: we’ll return to it soon.