And yet, there is something perhaps more twisted at play. Balisarius probably would have happily welcomed a dead king. It’s left him with absolute tyrannical power, after all. However, his title is Regent Balisarius. As in he is the adult supervisor to another monarch who perhaps has not come of age. All of which brings us back to the princess whom Kora was supposed to serve. We know from Kora’s memories that the princess was touched by providence to have special abilities—a magical talent gifted to her by some kind of unnamed Force, you might say—and Kora feels guilty for betraying this child. We also know that the robot Jimmy misses the princess whom he believes is dead. Still, he feels “warmth” and recognition of her when he looks into the face of the farm girl on Kora’s moon, Sam (Charlotte Maggi).
So what if Sam is the princess that Kora swore to protect but then betrayed? And what if she is therefore the rightful heir to the Imperium? It would explain Balisarius’ title of “regent” as well as his obsession with Kora. To put it plainly, he likely had Kora help orchestrate the assassination of the king, which she did like an obedient daughter, but after the fact couldn’t bring herself to kill the princess she grew to adore. So she spirited her away, and brought her to this unimportant moon where she grew older as a farm girl named Sam. Balisarius is not vengeful because Kora killed the king. He’s vengeful because she didn’t also kill the princess, who has a claim that challenges his rule.
This is likely the dirty secret that sets up the end of all things.
Jimmy, Antlers, and a Magnificent Seven
The final shot of the movie is an evocative one. Alone in a field, Jimmy the Robot watches as six warriors return to Kora’s home. The group are under the false assumption that they do not have a fight coming, but Jimmy might know better. After all… he’s wearing antlers?!
It’s a strange sight, but one portent with meaning. The entire community in which Kora’s adopted people live has a faint air of the Norse about them. They’re agrarian farmers who gather for communal events in great longhouses, just as the Vikings did in the Middle Ages. They worship old gods and keep antiquated customs. And in his appearance, Jimmy resembles a pagan deity, perhaps Cernunnos, an Gaelic god that Nordic sailors might have come across. In any event, our dear robot appears to be going native. At the beginning of the film, he told Sam he has sworn off weapons and violence, because his kind was built solely to serve and protect the royal family. However, it seems the robot might have intuited something: the royal family is alive and right here on this rock.
It also would align with Zack Snyder’s passions and influences. The filmmaker has not been coy in the past when he said he imagines Rebel Moon to be a science fiction variation on Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), a film where four warriors come to protect a small village. Before the climax of Snyder’s Part One, however, Kora had assembled eight warriors, including herself. Unfortunately, Kai (Charlie Hunnam) was a traitor in their midst, and while he perished for his sins, his duplicity caused the death of Darrian Bloodaxe (Ray Fisher).
