Koba (Novelization)

Koba is the main antagonist of the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy.

He is a supporting character in *Rise of the Planet of the Apes*, the main antagonist of *Dawn of the Planet of the Apes*, and the posthumous overarching antagonist of *War for the Planet of the Apes*. He is an aggressive, dangerous, vengeful, and violent Bonobo ape who is considered to be an evil counterpart to the main protagonist Caesar, whom he formerly respected. He was formerly the right-hand advisor and brother-in-arms-turned-archenemy of Caesar.

## What makes him Sympathetic?

* + Koba was born in a primate research facility, where he lived with his beloved and loving mother and was taught Sign Language by their caregiver Mary, who allowed Koba to believe that he was human. After Koba's mother was beaten to death by Mary's alcoholic assistant Roger, funding for the program he was involved in was cut, and he was sent off to a new home which Mary promised would be good.
	+ That turned out to be false, as Koba was sold to an abusive TV producer named Tommy, who owned another ape who knew sign language named Milo. Tommy was the producer of a comedy show entitled Monkey of the House, and frequently made the two of them do tricks, electrocuting or beating them if they failed.
	+ After Tommy's show was cancelled due to poor ratings and litigation sparked by Milo biting an unruly child visiting the set, Tommy began to take his anger out on the two apes. When Koba finally tried to defend himself from Tommy's abuse, Tommy punished the bonobo by slashing his face with a knife and then blinding his left eye with a lit cigarette, which is a very horrible way to lose an eye. After Tommy committed suicide, Koba and Milo attempted to escape his home, only to be caught and separated by animal control officers.
	+ Koba was subsequently sent to a laboratory, where he was subjected to painful experiments and otherwise kept in complete isolation. As a result of boredom, loneliness and the trauma of the experiments, Koba developed self-harming behaviors such as pulling his fur out and injuring his knuckles by signing them against with the floor of his cage.
	+ He was eventually discovered by a neuroscientist Amol, who knew sign language and used Koba in various experiments. Although Koba formed a bond with Amol, the neuroscientist's superior, Steven Jacobs, fired him, and afterwards 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 dislike of Jacobs.
	+ Koba was then moved to several other labs, where he was experimented on many more times and fell so deep into despair that he felt as if he was his cage and his pain.
	+ Eventually, Koba who was sent to Gen-Sys, where he was sadistically taunted by Jacobs, who called Koba the 'ugliest ape in the world' and told him that he no matter how human he thought he was, he was nothing but an animal. This proved to be the breaking point for Koba, who repudiated all affection he had for humans and focused on Jacobs as the source of all his pain.
		- These awful experiences give Koba a great deal of sympathy and make it very understandable why he hates humans and wants to make sure they can never threaten him again.
* Koba is heavily implied to suffer from PTSD, as he sometimes has flashbacks, nightmares and occasional hallucinations.
* Another tragedy of Koba is that if the events triggered by the return of the humans had never happened, Koba would never have decided to betray Caesar and would've instead eventually of died of old age as a loved and respected member of the ape colony. This is specifically mentioned by Maurice in the book, *Caesar's Story*.
	+ Koba's beating and humiliation by Caesar in front of the ape colony and Malcom's group, while partly his fault for insulting Caesar, played for sympathy, as it is very traumatizing and humiliating for Koba, and serves as the final tip of his descend into villainy.
* He is shown to feel guilty about betraying Caesar