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Villain Overview

You will be immortal. You will be infinite.
~ The Moon King offering to make Kubo immortal.

Raiden the Moon King, also known as The Moon King or Raiden, is the main antagonist of Laika's 4th full-length animated feature film Kubo and the Two Strings.

He is the oppressive ruler of the night and the father of The Sisters and Kubo's mother. After defeating Hanzo, he seeks to kill Kubo's mother for betraying his family and to blind Kubo in order to make his grandson live with him.

He was voiced by Ralph Fiennes, who also played Amon Goeth in Schindler's List, Rameses in The Prince of Egypt, Dennis "Spider" Cleg in Spider, Francis Dolarhyde in Red Dragon, Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series, Lord Victor Quartermaine in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Hades in Clash of the Titans, Barry in Dolittle, Harry Waters in In Bruges, Professor Moriarty in Holmes & Watson, and Chef Julian Slowik in The Menu.

Biography[]

Background[]

The Moon King became incredibly angry and irritable when he found out that his daughter, Sariatu, was in love with Hanzo, a swordsman who questioned his way in ruling both Heaven and Earth, and eloped before she gave birth to his grandson Kubo. He then instigated the attack on Hanzo's home, Beetle Clan castle, and cursed him into a beetle-like hybrid who lost his memories. During the attack, he managed to steal Kubo's eye, but was stopped from taking the other one by Sariatu, who flees to the ocean.

As seen in the beginning of the film, Raiden tried to stop them by dangerously sending two tidal waves towards them when they flee on the ocean, but lost them in spite of managing to injure Sariatu, leaving her sick and mostly inactive during the day.

Raiden would later indirectly cause her first death through sending Karasu and Washi for Kubo upon pinpointing his location in the mortal world, leading her to use all of the remaining magic she has to reincarnate into Monkey.

Kubo and the Two Strings[]

The Moon King first pinpoints Kubo's location when the boy accidentally stays out too late one night, and immediately sends Karasu and Washi after him. He later manifests in Kubo's dream (without revealing his identity to the boy), where he suggests him to head to Hanzo's abandoned castle as the next step in his journey.

Towards the film's end Raiden finally greets Kubo in person, as he wants to take Kubo's other eye in order to join his "family" and make him immortal like him. Kubo refuses, and an angered Raiden transforms into a monstrous Dunkleosteus dragon hybrid known as the "Moon Beast" and attacks. Despite landing several blows, Kubo is beaten and thrown into the village cemetery where the Moon Beast corners both him and the villagers. Kubo sheds the armor and re-strings his shamisen, using his mother's hair, his father's bowstring, and a strand of his own hair. He uses its magic to recruit the spirits of the deceased villagers, showing to his grandfather that memories are the strongest magic of all and can never be destroyed. Kubo uses the spirits to shield himself and the villagers from the Moon Beast and then engulfs him in their magic, defeating him.

To Kubo's surprise, his magic stripped Raiden from his powers and as result, the Moon King becomes a mortal whom, in his human form has no recollection of who or what he was. The villagers are compassionate and forgiving, so they tell him that he was a man of many positive traits, thus convincing him that he was a good man and Kubo promise to tell all the stories he missed.

It is unknown what happened to Raiden afterwards, but it's likely that he joined the villagers. Since the magic that Kubo used to defeat him also stripped him from his powers, it is fair to assume that he is now powerless whether he later regained his past memories as Moon King or not, and will finish his life as human, unable to threaten anyone ever again and having to provide for himself with normal means. With Raiden no longer a threat and the heavens no use without their leader, not only were the Earth and the village safe, but Kubo was also allowed to stay outside and live with the villagers and no longer had to live inside a cave at night.

Personality[]

On the surface, the Moon King presents himself as a wise, composed and imperturbable elder with nothing but his family's own good in mind. Even Sariatu, who has been on the run from him and his other daughters, claim that they do love her and her son, and that they simply want to do what is best for him. This displays an incorruptible and moral complication to his character.

However, despite this, the Moon King is shown to be much crueler, as well as more despotic and authoritarian than he lets on, with this true nature slipping out occasionally as he talks to Kubo. He seems to be remorseless, unmerciful and heartless towards all three of his daughters, all of whom died, and seems to view his daughters and grandson not as actual family to cherish, but as possessions for him to have. When Kubo denies him, he turns into a Moon Beast with the intent of slowly and painfully killing him. It is also worth mentioned that, according to Sariatu, these negative personality traits of his, combined with the way he rule Heaven as the blasphemous tyrant were reasons why Heaven became a cold and dark place during his reign.

The Moon King's opinion of the mortal realm and the people that dwell in it is very low, even describing it as being like "Hell" for the various flaws and horrors that dwell in it (despite being directly responsible for many of these horrors). He is metaphorically blind to humanity's goodness, something he wishes to make Kubo by taking his eyes, and was known to directly antagonize any human that questioned his rule (like Hanzo).

After his defeat, the Moon King was left with no memory of who he was, lost and confused of where and who he was. The villagers then go on to explain how he was a kind, caring, nonjudgmental and open-minded man, a standard that he himself now lives by with his grandson. He may actually have been this positive before, until he became consumed with bigotry and corruption later in life.

Powers and Abilities[]

The Moon King acts as the standing ruler of the Heavens, and thus holds authority over both the Heavens and the Earth, though how far this authority reaches is never seen in full detail.

As his name suggests, the Moon King has powers relegated to the night. He was able to locate his daughter and grandson when Kubo accidentally stayed out after sunset, and was able to project his form through the moonlight. He was able to curse Hanzo into the form of an anthropomorphic beetle with the loss of his memories, and he was able to communicate with his grandson through his dreams. It can even be assumed that he was responsible for the creation of the Gashadokuro and the Garden of Eyes used to guard Hanzo's armor, and was even able to turn into a draconic monster himself. Despite being physically blind, the Moon King is fully capable of physical sight. Given the dark nature of his daughter's powers, it can be assumed that he is capable of all of the various forms of magic that Sariatu and the Sisters are capable of.

Despite all of this immense power, he does have his limits. The Moon King is vulnerable to the power of Hanzo's magical armor, with the Sword Unbreakable managing to permanently blind him in his right eye.

Quotes[]

Hello, my young friend. Why don't you join in my song?
~ The Moon King's introduction disguised as a mortal.
Claim your birthright, Kubo. Give this story a happy ending!
~ The Moon King tricking Kubo into heading towards the temple.
Hello, grandson. It's so good to see you at last. So to speak. And I see you found the armor. Seems your mother had a reason to bring you to this dreadful place after all.
~ The Moon King appears in person with his grandson.
Where I want to take you, we have none of those things. It'll just be you, with your family. Where you belong.
~ The Moon King offers Kubo to be with him.
They brought their fates upon themselves! They disgraced me and upset the order of everything!
~ The Moon King blames his daughter and Hanzo for putting their own deaths at risk.
Is that right? And how does this story end? (Kubo: I kill you.) Oh. Very well. Is this your wish? To do battle with a hideous monster who ruined your life? To prove your worth, like your doomed father? How mortal!
~ The Moon King preparing to battle Kubo before his transformation.
You want to be human? Then share their weakness! Suffer their humiliation! Feel their pain!
~ The Moon King throwing and beating up Kubo.
This is the end of your story. Now take one last look with that lonely eye. One last look at this wretched place you call home.
~ The Moon King about to finish Kubo off.
Then I'll just have to rip it out of your head again, won't I?
~ The Moon King getting ready to steal Kubo's other eye.
Everything you loved is gone! Everything you knew has been taken from you!
~ The Moon King reminding Kubo about the things and people he loved and lost.
Where am I? (Kubo: Hello, grandfather.) Hello. What happened to your eye? (Kubo: Don't you remember?) Oh... Oh no... I'm sorry, young man. I seem to have forgotten my story. Can you help me?
~ The Moon King turns into a mortal with no memory of anything after being defeated.
You're a great example! Yeah. Oh! It turns out I'm pretty selfless.
~ The Moon King given false but positive stories about his life from the villagers.
But I... But I don't remember. (Well, your grandson's a storyteller. He'll tell you all the stories you've forgotten.) Really? (Kubo: Of course.)
~ The Moon King's last words when Kubo promises to tell him the stories he needs to know about his past life.

Trivia[]

  • The Moon King is the second male main antagonist of the Laika and Focus Features film, the first being Archibald Snatcher from The Boxtrolls.
  • He is also the second main antagonist of a Laika and Focus Features movie who redeems himself, after Aggie Prenderghast in ParaNorman.
  • He is also the first Laika and Focus Features main villain who does not die at the end of his movie after The Beldam from Coraline. However, the Beldam's fate was left a mystery, because she survived, but between the fact that she needs to eat children and that Coraline (the title protagonist of the movie the Beldam is) locked the small door that leads to her world forever, she probably starved. If that's the case, Raiden would be the first.
  • The Moon King has since beat The Beldam, the main villain of Laika and Focus Features' first film, Coraline, as being both their oldest and most powerful villain since he's the ruler of the Heavens along with the gods that dwell there, as opposed to the Other Mother's dominion over a small pocket dimension.
  • According to the film director Travis Knight, he is modeled after the late Peter Cushing, who was known for playing Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars.
  • He is likely also based on the Japanese Moon deity named Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto
  • This is Ralph Fiennes' third animated villainous role after Lord Victor Quartermaine and Rameses.
  • The Moon King is the first Laika role to be played by a cast member from the Harry Potter franchise (of which Ralph Fiennes played Voldemort), followed by the Yeti Elder (played by Dame Emma Thompson, who played Sybill Trelawney).
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