Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Rebel Moon: Part 1 – A Child of Fire.
In Rebel Moon: A Child of Fire, it’s never said who killed the Slain King, but the plot clearly involved Regent Balisarius (Fra Fee), and could even implicate Kora (Sofia Boutella). Balisarius conveniently comes to power as Imperial Regent shortly after the death of the slain king, and while Jimmy’s opening narration or brief history lesson don’t explicitly confirm he was involved in the king’s assassination, he should be considered suspect number one.
Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire kicks off Zack Snyder’s brand-new original sci-fi/fantasy universe on Netflix, and that comes with thousands of years of established history featuring the rise and fall of kings and plenty of palace intrigue. The death of the king and the royal family is the backdrop for the state of the galaxy at the start of Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire, but the story is only actually addressed in a few key lines of dialogue, although it’s enough to paint a fairly accurate picture of what happened.
Rebel Moon Doesn’t Say Who Actually Killed the Slain King (But it Was Balisarius)
The death of the king seems mysterious, but it’s easy to connect the dots.
In the opening monologue from Jimmy, all he actually says about the death of the Slain King and the royal family is that the “treachery of an assassin’s blade struck down the king and queen.” He gives a little more detail to Sam, the water girl from Veldt, by the side of the river later in the movie. On the day of Princess Issa’s coronation, “she, along with our honored king and queen, were assassinated in cold blood by those they trusted most.” That’s all the movie explicitly states about their death.
Despite the lack of confirmation, the fact that Balisarius becomes Regent in the king’s absence makes him the prime suspect for the king’s death. While it’s not included in the movie, a Netflix site featuring additional Rebel Moon lore explicitly confirms this. It says Balisarius was part of a group of senators who plotted to overthrow the king and take control. The reason this isn’t specified by Jimmy is likely due to the fact that Jimmy, and most of the rest of the Imperium, don’t know Balisarius was involved. After all, the Imperium cloaks itself in the imagery of the Slain King and leans on his memory to coerce its citizens into compliance.
Why Balisarius Killed the King
A lot of politics and palace intregue that happen before the events of Rebel Moon.
Balisarius was ruthless and brutal in his military campaigns. Unlike leaders who commanded troops from their ships in orbit, he’d get down on the ground in the midst of the action, which is how he discovered Kora. For thousands of generations, the kings of the Imperium had been conquering planets and consuming their resources until the arrival of Princess Issa. According to Kora, the king told her he believed Issa would restore a sense of compassion to the Imperium after she became queen, which was in direct contradiction to Balisarius’ tactics and threatened to undermine his power and influence.
According to Netflix’s Rebel Moon lore site, Balisarius and a group of senators and other “powerful interests” were upset over the softening of the king. The king had plans to christen a new dreadnought as a “vessel of peace,” in his new quest to move away from the violence of his past, so Balisarius and the rest of his coalition had him killed. Balisarius took his place as Regent and returned to the Imperium to its former ways of violent conquest.
Kora is the Key to Balisarius’ Betrayal
Did Kora fail to protect the king and Princess Issa, or was she complicit?
Balisarius worked with other powerful agents to dethrone the king and take his place, but Kora is the elephant in the room of Balisarius’ rise to power. She tells Gunnar Balisarius pulled strings to make her Princess Issa’s personal bodyguard, so the death of the royal family raises major questions about her involvement. Did she fail to protect the king, queen, and Princess Issa, or was she complicit in their murder? While Kora’s involvement in the plot to kill the royal family may seem especially villainous, by her own admission, she helped violently subjugate worlds for Balisarius and the Imperium.
Alternatively, Balisarius’ attempts to involve her in the regicide plot could have been what made her finally turn on him. Since Balisarius is currently ruling the Imperium in the name of the Slain King, Kora’s knowledge of his treachery would make her the biggest threat to his rule. If the rest of the Imperium knew what Kora knows, Balisarius couldn’t use the image of the “king’s gaze” to coerce cooperation out of anyone. There’s still a lot to uncover about Balisarius and Kora’s true backstory after the events of Rebel Moon – Part 1: A Child of Fire, leaving plenty of mystery to be discovered in Rebel Moon – Part 2: The Scargiver.
