One of my favorite ironies from the films is that Koba is a bonobo, one of the most peaceful species of great apes, while Koba is undoubtedly one of the most violent characters in the films
@@WhyTho525 Quite right. The fact that Koba is the most horribly scarred of all the apes, and is so un-bonobo-like in his behavior says a lot about how much suffered at human hands.
Koba is such a wonderful example of "Beautiful Evil", sure he's the antagonist, but he's not entirely wrong in his assumptions; as the third film does prove much of his points.
The third film is the result of Koba's actions tho. Woody Harrelson's character is there hunting Caesar because he was contacted by Gary Oldman's character in Dawn when Koba attacked their settlement
@@phatnana2379Later in War, when the Colonel explained the virus mutation. His motivation was no longer just about retaliation for what Koba did, thought it's initially. So Koba was right, the Humans were going to eradicate the apes either way. Caesar attempt to live in peace with the humans was just to delay the inevitable. Caesar shouldn't have allowed the humans to repair the dam, which give electricity to their communication, which helped them contact the Colonel. In hindsight Caesar should've listenned to Koba and attacked the outpost while they are weak.
2:24 Koba learned those tricks through personal experience. As a young ape, he was trained to do those tricks by an abusive, alcoholic man named Tommy, who was the producer of a TV comedy show called 'Monkey of the House.' Tommy is also the one responsible for Koba's facial scar and blind eye. When Koba finally tried to defend himself from Tommy's abuse, Tommy punished him by slashing his face with a knife, which gave him the scar. However, the knife wound failed to blind Koba's eye, so Tommy burned it out with a lit cigarette. Poor Koba.
@@bigdaddywiththehandles Koba's past is explained through six flashbacks in the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes prequel novel, 'Firestorm.' It takes place only a few days after the events of 'Rise.' Koba is a major character in this book, and it shows him work hard to prove his loyalty to Caesar while still struggling with the painful memories of his past, which is now more vivid due to his enhanced intelligence. Koba's chapters in this book are my favorites; they're so dramatic and emotional.
There's a quote from "The Lion King II" Simba says about Scar that I think also perfectly describes Koba: "[He] couldn't let go of his hate, and in the end, it destroyed him." They also have facial scars (!) in the same place.
Pretty good observation, describing Koba's tragedy while not condoning his heinous actions. However, there is one thing I would like to add: Koba's decision to betray Caesar only comes about after Caesar beats and humiliates him in front of the apes and Malcom's group. I think it completely breaks Koba's wounded soul and his already wavering loyalty to Caesar, for several reasons: It reminds him of the abuse he received from humans. He feels betrayed by Caesar for helping humans and for almost killing him. He feels betrayed by the other apes not coming to his aid (I think it's at this point that Koba decides to fight for himself rather than his fellow apes, though he never realizes it or admits it, even to himself) He is deeply humiliated by the fact that the beating happened not only in front of his fellow apes, but also humans; the creatures he hates most. It's even stated by Maurice in the book 'Caesar's Story' that if the events in 'Dawn' (the return of the humans and Caesar's decision to work with them) had never happened, Koba's permanently damaged soul might have stayed merely injured, and he would've lived out his life with the ape colony as his family and died of old age. But because of the events that transpired, Koba's fragile soul shattered, driving him to the evil, cruel, and treacherous crimes he committed. By the way, have you read or heard of the Dawn of the Planet Apes prequel novel? Firestorm? It shows more of Koba's tragic past.
@@bigdaddywiththehandles Very well. Word of warning, his past is quite scary, sad and graphic. Koba was born in a primate research facility (the name of which is never revealed), where he lived with his beloved and loving mother and their caregiver, Mary, who taught them sign language and howw to count and speak using buttons. Like many Sign Language apes, Koba didn't understand that apes who didn't use sign language were like him, and also wasn't taught by Mary what the word "chimp" meant. As a result, Koba regarded non-signing chimps as 'big black caterpillars,' and identified himself with humans, a sentiment Mary was aware of, but never made any attempts to change. When Koba was still very young (it's not stated exactly how young, though it is mentioned that he was small enough to be picked up by a human at the time), Mary got a new assistant; a man named Roger who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. Due to being unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Roger's rough handling methods, Koba disobeyed him without even meaning to, causing Roger to verbally and physically assault the young bonobo in a drunken rage. When Koba's mother attacked Roger to defend her son, Roger retaliated by fatally beating her with a sack of oranges. One of the saddest parts about this part of Koba's life was that due to having never seen a dead animal before or even been taught about death, he did not understand at the time that his mother was dead, though he missed her terribly, showing that he truly loved her. As a result of the death of Koba's mother, Mary's project funding was cut, and Koba was sent off to a new home which Mary promised would be good. That statement turned out to be false, as Koba was sold to another abusive alcoholic named Tommy. Tommy also owned a young chimp who knew sign language named Milo, with whom Koba became friends, although they were never as close as Koba was to his late mother. Tommy was the producer of a TV comedy show titled 'Monkey of the House,' and regularly forced Koba and Milo to do silly tricks, electrocuting them or beating if they failed or disobeyed him. One night, for his own amusement, Tommy forced the two apes to drink alcohol, causing them to get drunk and accidentally hurt themselves. The next day, Koba and Milo were unable to perform correctly due to still being slightly groggy. Frustrated, Tommy left to talk with Alice, his supervisor. In Tommy's absence, an unruly boy visiting the set harassed Milo by poking him, insulting him and demanding he do a trick. Provoked, Milo bit the boy on the nose in self-defense. Upon discovering this, Tommy punished Milo by wiring his mouth shut, which disturbed Koba. Tommy's show was eventually cancelled due to poor ratings and litigation sparked by Milo biting the boy. Depressed and angry, Tommy began to drink more heavily and took his anger out on Koba and Milo. When Koba finally tried to defend himself from Tommy's abuse, Tommy punished the bonobo by slashing his face with a knife, giving Koba his iconic facial scar. However, the knife wound failed to blind Koba's eye, so Tommy burned it out with a lit cigarette. Tommy later committed suicide and Koba and Milo attempted to escape his home, only to be caught and separated by animal control officers. Koba was then sent to a laboratory, where he was subjected to painful experiments, the very first of which involved giving him an injection which almost instantly made him vomit while he was muzzled. He was also vivisected several times, always with anesthetic, but this ultimately made little difference because Koba's stitched up wounds always hurt whenever he woke up and the sedative drug always made him feel sick. When he wasn't being experimented on, Koba was kept locked up in a cage which had no enrichment. He tried to sign to his captors that he was not a "big black caterpillar" like he believed the other lab apes to be, but they ignored him. As a result of boredom, loneliness, and the trauma of the experiments, Koba quickly descended into depression. He even developed self-harming behaviors such as pulling out his fur and injuring his knuckles and fingers by Signing them against the floor of his cage until they bled. Koba was eventually discovered by a neuroscientist named Amol and the latter's superior, Steven Jacobs. Amol knew sign language and, since Koba knew it too, selected him as his test subject for an experiment intended to improve cognitive ability. Delighted to finally have someone to sign with him, Koba reluctantly submitted to being experimented on. Amol then had a machine designed to produce images directly from the brain attached to Koba's head and back while the bonobo was sedated, though this ultimately made little difference as the machine still caused Koba crippling pain when he woke up. A few days later, after the pain had diminished enough for Koba to think clearly, Amol did lots of signing with Koba in order to test the machine's effectiveness. Although Koba came close to forming a bond with Amol, Jacobs fired the neuroscientist after his experiments failed and resulted in a severe financial loss for Jacobs. Afterwards, Jacobs confronted Koba in his cage, callously deriding him as a "stupid, ugly monkey" and claiming he would put Koba down if he could. This caused Koba to develop a strong dislike of Jacobs. Koba was then moved to several other laboratories, where he was experimented on many more times by many different scientists. The experiments included being vivisected, forced to breath in two different gases (one made him go to sleep, while the second gave him a hacking cough for two days), having long needles stuck into his stomach without anesthetic, and having his eyes sprayed with a substance that hurt worse than tear gas (though very fortunately for Koba this didn't further damage his eyesight despite the pain). As a result of his unbearable suffering, Koba fell so deep into despair that he felt as if he was his cage and his pain. He also displayed aggression toward non-signing apes who tried to interact with him, as he still didn't know how, nor did he want to, interact with non-signing individuals, and only wanted to be left alone. Eventually, after he turned 16, Koba was taken to Gen-Sys Laboratories, where he was visited in his new cage by Jacobs, who had become the CEO of the lab. Jacobs sadistically taunted the already scarred and tormented Koba by calling him the "ugliest ape in the world" and telling him that no matter how human he thought he was, he was nothing more than an animal. This proved to be the breaking point for Koba, who finally realized that he was not human and thus concluded that Mary had lied to him that he was. Jacobs' cruel taunt also prompted Koba to reflect on how much pain and suffering humans had caused him throughout his life; taking his mother from him, blinding his eye, and abusing and torturing him in countless horrific ways against his will. After that Koba had nothing but pure hatred for all humans and a desire to kill them all. Knowing it was impossible for him to reach all humans, but it was possible for him to reach Jacobs, Koba decided to focus his anger and hatred on Jacobs for the time being, knowing that, as the CEO of Gen-Sys, Jacobs was the one who directed the experiments. So, after everything he went through, it's no wonder Koba became the angry, violent, aggressive, miserable, vengeful savage we see the movies. PS: I've also written a more detailed version of Koba's past in a word document, if you ever want to read it.
It sucks koba only saw the evil in humanity when there's alot of people who protect and get animals out of labs they give them homes yes there put in cages but the cages are huge and there with there own kind
A foreshadowing of Koba's evil when you look it from a meta sense, is that Koba was an alias of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, who was also known as Iosif Stalin. Similar to Stalin, Koba achieved power by usurping Caesar.
I disagree that his hatred towards humans was something that he was predisposed to that would imply it would be an intrinsic attribute he would gain no matter what from birth. It's the whole nature vs nurture concept. For a while he nurtured with great care from humans or at least a few particular with Mary before they switched her with a begrudging alcoholic, and it only got worse from there leading to him being cemented with hatred towards our humankind.
One of my favorite ironies from the films is that Koba is a bonobo, one of the most peaceful species of great apes, while Koba is undoubtedly one of the most violent characters in the films
Interesting, great insight!
@@inthemindofavillain
It also shows how much the experiments and abuse molded Koba into the monster he was in Dawn.
@@WhyTho525 Quite right. The fact that Koba is the most horribly scarred of all the apes, and is so un-bonobo-like in his behavior says a lot about how much suffered at human hands.
@@samfforde5120
Indeed. I almost feel sorry for him, but then again he was Pure Evil in Dawn so yeah.
@@WhyTho525i would say majority of his kills was justified apart from the apes
Koba is such a wonderful example of "Beautiful Evil", sure he's the antagonist, but he's not entirely wrong in his assumptions; as the third film does prove much of his points.
The third film is the result of Koba's actions tho. Woody Harrelson's character is there hunting Caesar because he was contacted by Gary Oldman's character in Dawn when Koba attacked their settlement
@@phatnana2379 Which is great, in the sense that his actions are not ignored and build the future narrative.
@@phatnana2379Later in War, when the Colonel explained the virus mutation. His motivation was no longer just about retaliation for what Koba did, thought it's initially. So Koba was right, the Humans were going to eradicate the apes either way. Caesar attempt to live in peace with the humans was just to delay the inevitable. Caesar shouldn't have allowed the humans to repair the dam, which give electricity to their communication, which helped them contact the Colonel. In hindsight Caesar should've listenned to Koba and attacked the outpost while they are weak.
This villain is iconic very accurate analysis on this ape villain.
2:24 Koba learned those tricks through personal experience. As a young ape, he was trained to do those tricks by an abusive, alcoholic man named Tommy, who was the producer of a TV comedy show called 'Monkey of the House.' Tommy is also the one responsible for Koba's facial scar and blind eye. When Koba finally tried to defend himself from Tommy's abuse, Tommy punished him by slashing his face with a knife, which gave him the scar. However, the knife wound failed to blind Koba's eye, so Tommy burned it out with a lit cigarette. Poor Koba.
Indeed, such a tragic story.
where did you know this from? is this from a book or something cus its not part of the movie trilogy
@@bigdaddywiththehandles Koba's past is explained through six flashbacks in the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes prequel novel, 'Firestorm.' It takes place only a few days after the events of 'Rise.' Koba is a major character in this book, and it shows him work hard to prove his loyalty to Caesar while still struggling with the painful memories of his past, which is now more vivid due to his enhanced intelligence. Koba's chapters in this book are my favorites; they're so dramatic and emotional.
Tommy also killed Koba's mother during a drunken rage.
@@Ink_Floyd Actually, it was a man named Roger who killed Koba's mother in a drunken rage.
There's a quote from "The Lion King II" Simba says about Scar that I think also perfectly describes Koba:
"[He] couldn't let go of his hate, and in the end, it destroyed him."
They also have facial scars (!) in the same place.
Oh yes that’s a great description to summarise Koba. In a sense, Caesar almost fell into the same trap of hate in the next film.
Such a great villain
The best in the Planet of the Apes franchise.
Pretty good observation, describing Koba's tragedy while not condoning his heinous actions. However, there is one thing I would like to add: Koba's decision to betray Caesar only comes about after Caesar beats and humiliates him in front of the apes and Malcom's group. I think it completely breaks Koba's wounded soul and his already wavering loyalty to Caesar, for several reasons:
It reminds him of the abuse he received from humans.
He feels betrayed by Caesar for helping humans and for almost killing him.
He feels betrayed by the other apes not coming to his aid (I think it's at this point that Koba decides to fight for himself rather than his fellow apes, though he never realizes it or admits it, even to himself)
He is deeply humiliated by the fact that the beating happened not only in front of his fellow apes, but also humans; the creatures he hates most.
It's even stated by Maurice in the book 'Caesar's Story' that if the events in 'Dawn' (the return of the humans and Caesar's decision to work with them) had never happened, Koba's permanently damaged soul might have stayed merely injured, and he would've lived out his life with the ape colony as his family and died of old age. But because of the events that transpired, Koba's fragile soul shattered, driving him to the evil, cruel, and treacherous crimes he committed.
By the way, have you read or heard of the Dawn of the Planet Apes prequel novel? Firestorm? It shows more of Koba's tragic past.
Very true, he felt enraged believing that Caesar would put the humans above his kind. I haven’t read the book but it sounds insightful.
@@inthemindofavillain Thanks for replying. I can give you an explanation of Koba's past if you like.
@@samfforde5120 please do
@@bigdaddywiththehandles Very well. Word of warning, his past is quite scary, sad and graphic.
Koba was born in a primate research facility (the name of which is never revealed), where he lived with his beloved and loving mother and their caregiver, Mary, who taught them sign language and howw to count and speak using buttons. Like many Sign Language apes, Koba didn't understand that apes who didn't use sign language were like him, and also wasn't taught by Mary what the word "chimp" meant. As a result, Koba regarded non-signing chimps as 'big black caterpillars,' and identified himself with humans, a sentiment Mary was aware of, but never made any attempts to change.
When Koba was still very young (it's not stated exactly how young, though it is mentioned that he was small enough to be picked up by a human at the time), Mary got a new assistant; a man named Roger who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. Due to being unfamiliar and uncomfortable with Roger's rough handling methods, Koba disobeyed him without even meaning to, causing Roger to verbally and physically assault the young bonobo in a drunken rage. When Koba's mother attacked Roger to defend her son, Roger retaliated by fatally beating her with a sack of oranges. One of the saddest parts about this part of Koba's life was that due to having never seen a dead animal before or even been taught about death, he did not understand at the time that his mother was dead, though he missed her terribly, showing that he truly loved her. As a result of the death of Koba's mother, Mary's project funding was cut, and Koba was sent off to a new home which Mary promised would be good.
That statement turned out to be false, as Koba was sold to another abusive alcoholic named Tommy. Tommy also owned a young chimp who knew sign language named Milo, with whom Koba became friends, although they were never as close as Koba was to his late mother. Tommy was the producer of a TV comedy show titled 'Monkey of the House,' and regularly forced Koba and Milo to do silly tricks, electrocuting them or beating if they failed or disobeyed him. One night, for his own amusement, Tommy forced the two apes to drink alcohol, causing them to get drunk and accidentally hurt themselves.
The next day, Koba and Milo were unable to perform correctly due to still being slightly groggy. Frustrated, Tommy left to talk with Alice, his supervisor. In Tommy's absence, an unruly boy visiting the set harassed Milo by poking him, insulting him and demanding he do a trick. Provoked, Milo bit the boy on the nose in self-defense. Upon discovering this, Tommy punished Milo by wiring his mouth shut, which disturbed Koba.
Tommy's show was eventually cancelled due to poor ratings and litigation sparked by Milo biting the boy. Depressed and angry, Tommy began to drink more heavily and took his anger out on Koba and Milo. When Koba finally tried to defend himself from Tommy's abuse, Tommy punished the bonobo by slashing his face with a knife, giving Koba his iconic facial scar. However, the knife wound failed to blind Koba's eye, so Tommy burned it out with a lit cigarette. Tommy later committed suicide and Koba and Milo attempted to escape his home, only to be caught and separated by animal control officers.
Koba was then sent to a laboratory, where he was subjected to painful experiments, the very first of which involved giving him an injection which almost instantly made him vomit while he was muzzled. He was also vivisected several times, always with anesthetic, but this ultimately made little difference because Koba's stitched up wounds always hurt whenever he woke up and the sedative drug always made him feel sick. When he wasn't being experimented on, Koba was kept locked up in a cage which had no enrichment. He tried to sign to his captors that he was not a "big black caterpillar" like he believed the other lab apes to be, but they ignored him. As a result of boredom, loneliness, and the trauma of the experiments, Koba quickly descended into depression. He even developed self-harming behaviors such as pulling out his fur and injuring his knuckles and fingers by Signing them against the floor of his cage until they bled.
Koba was eventually discovered by a neuroscientist named Amol and the latter's superior, Steven Jacobs. Amol knew sign language and, since Koba knew it too, selected him as his test subject for an experiment intended to improve cognitive ability. Delighted to finally have someone to sign with him, Koba reluctantly submitted to being experimented on. Amol then had a machine designed to produce images directly from the brain attached to Koba's head and back while the bonobo was sedated, though this ultimately made little difference as the machine still caused Koba crippling pain when he woke up. A few days later, after the pain had diminished enough for Koba to think clearly, Amol did lots of signing with Koba in order to test the machine's effectiveness. Although Koba came close to forming a bond with Amol, Jacobs fired the neuroscientist after his experiments failed and resulted in a severe financial loss for Jacobs. Afterwards, Jacobs confronted Koba in his cage, callously deriding him as a "stupid, ugly monkey" and claiming he would put Koba down if he could. This caused Koba to develop a strong dislike of Jacobs.
Koba was then moved to several other laboratories, where he was experimented on many more times by many different scientists. The experiments included being vivisected, forced to breath in two different gases (one made him go to sleep, while the second gave him a hacking cough for two days), having long needles stuck into his stomach without anesthetic, and having his eyes sprayed with a substance that hurt worse than tear gas (though very fortunately for Koba this didn't further damage his eyesight despite the pain). As a result of his unbearable suffering, Koba fell so deep into despair that he felt as if he was his cage and his pain. He also displayed aggression toward non-signing apes who tried to interact with him, as he still didn't know how, nor did he want to, interact with non-signing individuals, and only wanted to be left alone.
Eventually, after he turned 16, Koba was taken to Gen-Sys Laboratories, where he was visited in his new cage by Jacobs, who had become the CEO of the lab. Jacobs sadistically taunted the already scarred and tormented Koba by calling him the "ugliest ape in the world" and telling him that no matter how human he thought he was, he was nothing more than an animal. This proved to be the breaking point for Koba, who finally realized that he was not human and thus concluded that Mary had lied to him that he was. Jacobs' cruel taunt also prompted Koba to reflect on how much pain and suffering humans had caused him throughout his life; taking his mother from him, blinding his eye, and abusing and torturing him in countless horrific ways against his will. After that Koba had nothing but pure hatred for all humans and a desire to kill them all. Knowing it was impossible for him to reach all humans, but it was possible for him to reach Jacobs, Koba decided to focus his anger and hatred on Jacobs for the time being, knowing that, as the CEO of Gen-Sys, Jacobs was the one who directed the experiments.
So, after everything he went through, it's no wonder Koba became the angry, violent, aggressive, miserable, vengeful savage we see the movies.
PS: I've also written a more detailed version of Koba's past in a word document, if you ever want to read it.
@@samfforde5120 I wanted to congratulate you for taking the time to write such an enlightening text. thanks
Koba is the best…dats my guy. Cesar a Uncle Tom
Kona seems to have as many scars as blue eyes
It sucks koba only saw the evil in humanity when there's alot of people who protect and get animals out of labs they give them homes yes there put in cages but the cages are huge and there with there own kind
A foreshadowing of Koba's evil when you look it from a meta sense, is that Koba was an alias of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, who was also known as Iosif Stalin.
Similar to Stalin, Koba achieved power by usurping Caesar.
He a monster.
Greetings from France !
hello!
Love koba's spirit
The sequel proved Kooba was right
will the other channel ever do caesar
Do hades from hercules
woah, that was weird lol 3:38
I disagree that his hatred towards humans was something that he was predisposed to that would imply it would be an intrinsic attribute he would gain no matter what from birth. It's the whole nature vs nurture concept. For a while he nurtured with great care from humans or at least a few particular with Mary before they switched her with a begrudging alcoholic, and it only got worse from there leading to him being cemented with hatred towards our humankind.
Koba is just pure evil mosnter.
I think koba should have been left at the laboratory To be experimented with
He went too far
1rst
2nd.