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NOTE: The following article's information and titles comes from the director cuts, which have been confirmed to be the definitive version of the series. Information from the PG-13 cuts will not be included.
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Regent Balisarius is the overarching antagonist of the 2023 Netflix epic space opera film series Rebel Moon.
He was a former commander of the Imperium who, after the death of the royal family, rose to become Regent and de-facto ruler of the Motherworld. Becoming a cruel dictator who ruled the Motherworld with an iron fist, Balsiarious set out Admiral Atticus Noble to hunt down rebels in the far reaches of space to solidify his rule, including his adopted daughter Kora, whom he raised after destroying her home planet to become the infamous Arthelais the Scargiver before Kora deserted the Imperium for a normal life in the moon of Veldt as a farmer.
He is portrayed by Fra Fee, who also played Clown in Hawkeye.
History[]
Backstory[]
While Balisarius' full backstory has yet to be revealed, he was once a decorated general of the Imperium who, in the past, razed and destroyed many planets in the name of the Motherworld. During one of his missions, he came across a young orphan girl named Kora. Impressed by her lack of fear towards him and possibly seeing a kindred spirit in her, he took Kora in as the sole survivor of her planet's destruction and raised her in the ways of the Imperium Army, renaming her Arthelais and grooming her to become one of the most dedicated and ruthless soldiers for the Motherworld and earning her a place as the bodyguard for Princess Issa.
Eventually, Balisarius was stripped of his military rank by King Athander, who had become softened and remorseful of the Motherworld's brutal ways through Issa's kindness and compassion. Due to loving him like a son, Athander chose to delegate Balisarius to the role of a senator. However, Balisarius ended up employing his intelligence to politics by swaying the entirety of the Senate to his side. He then learned of the King's plan to disband the Imperium on Issa's coronation day and have all the generals, including himself and Arthelais, executed. Informing Arthelais of this, he plotted to have the royals assassinated, coercing her to follow by promising to protect her and have her take Issa's rank and place under his rule.
On the day of Issa's coronation, the royal family boarded the last Dreadnought ship, intending the christen it as "Peacemaker" in the wake of putting an end to the Motherworld's cruel ways. However, once aboard the ship, Balisarius and the rest of the Senate proceeded to assassinate the royal family, cruelly forcing Arthelais to kill the princess herself. After doing this, he betrayed Arthelais by having her named as the sole assassin of the royal family and to be taken into custody. Arthelais proceeded to escape by murdering the guards but was unable to bring herself to kill Balisarius as a result of the emotional control he had over her. Taking over as Regent and naming Arthelais as the most wanted fugitive in the universe, Balisarius continued the Motherworld's tyranny, specifically tasking Admiral Atticus Noble, his top enforcer, to the outer reaches of space to crush any forms of insurgency and rebellion, providing him with the last Dreadnought, now named The King's Gaze, as transport.
Unbeknownst to him, Arthelais had taken refuge on the moon of Veldt and, having re-adopted her former name Kora, began a new life in a farming village, hiding from the Imperium in hopes of running from her past, having been moved by Issa's last words of forgiveness towards her prior to killing her.
Rebel Moon[]
Chalice of Blood[]
Balisarius does not appear in person for most of the film, mostly being shown through flashbacks. He is mentioned at the beginning of the movie during Jimmy's introductory narration, describing how he seized control over the Motherworld in light of the royal family's death and turned the Motherworld into a far more ruthless government than it was before.
During her journey with Gunnar, Kora reveals her past with the Imperium and how Balisarius took her in before she abandoned her role out of horror and guilt in taking part in the Imperium's cruelty, leading to her becoming marked the most wanted fugitive in the galaxy. After discovering Kora and her association with the rebels, Noble, having come to the planet of Veldt before, becomes dedicated to capturing her and the rest of the insurgents with the hope that he will be given a place in the Senate.
Balisarius appears at the end of the film following Noble's supposed death, the latter having been found and revived by the Motherworld forces before being connected to tubes and placed in a watery bubble that would telepathically connect him to Balisarius. Meeting him in an icy mental landscape, Balisarius is informed by Noble of his discovery of Kora with the rest of the rebels. However, he expressed coldness and quiet fury after realizing that Noble had let the most wanted fugitives in the galaxy form together as a team. Cracking the icy floor of the landscape with his staff, Balisarius orders Noble to put an end to the insurgency and bring Kora back alive so he could personally 'crucify' her in front of the Motherworld himself, threatening to have Noble executed in her place should he fail. He ends the meeting by breaking the icy floor one last time, sending Noble falling into the cold waters of the landscape and waking up in the real world.
Curse Of Forgiveness[]
Like the first movie, Balisarius only appears through flashbacks which detail his relationship with Kora and the buildup to the assassination of the royal family.
Balisarius appears at the very end of the film where he is shown seemingly being crowned as King. On his way to receive the public, he is informed by one of his soldiers of the lost contact with the King's Gaze and Admiral Noble. Realizing that Kora has defeated Noble and emerged victorious, proceeds to appear in public amongst the people of the Motherworld.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It was initially thought that Rupert Friend was originally set to portray Balisarius before scheduling conflicts prevented him from playing the part and led him to be quickly recast with Ed Skrein, but once director Zack Snyder gave a first look to the film, it was revealed that Skrein was actually playing Admiral Atticus Noble and that Fra Fee would be playing Balisarius instead.
- Rebel Moon initially started development as a Star Wars film that was considered by Lucasfilm to be made between the release of Revenge of the Sith in 2005 and the Disney buyout in 2012, but Zack Snyder didn't get to make it due to his project being a "more mature take" on the Star Wars universe that Disney's brand couldn't distribute, leading Snyder and producer Eric Newman to redevelop the project into an original film for Netflix. Had the film been produced as a Star Wars one, it's possible that Balisarius could have been part of the Galactic Empire, maybe as a Moff.
- It has been confirmed by Netflix that a TV series fleshing out Balisarius' backstory is in the works and that in the third Rebel Moon film (which is gonna be a two-parter like the first two Rebel Moon films and its planned two-parter sequel), Kora and the Rebels will have their showdown with Balisarius at his titular moon.
- Balisarius' character seems to be an amalgamation of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine, the former being a former soldier for his galactic government who has a parental relationship with the main protagonist, as well as the latter being someone who seized control of said government and became its cruel dictator. However, the major difference is that, unlike Vader, Balisarius is not biologically related to Kora and has no qualms about murdering her for her betrayal of the Motherworld.
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