| “ | Pope hurt apes. Makes apes slaves. Pope like humans. | „ |
| ~ Koba on Pope. |
| “ | Pope real leader. Protect many, hurt few. Caesar makes apes afraid. Pope makes apes strong. | „ |
| ~ Pope on his rogue leadership. |
Pope is the main antagonist of the Dawn of the Planet of The Apes prequel comic book. Pope is one of the commanders of Caesar's army, and the most brutal one. After being called out by Caesar for being too reckless, Pope forms a rogue tribe with the intent of taking over Caesar's rule over the colony and establishing a "strong" ape society.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He was known for questionably yet ruthlessly training his soldiers, breaking them psychologically and emotionally to the point they place loyalty to Pope completely as his way of "pushing them to be better". For example, Pope was seen thrashing a fellow trainee ape into the air, which could've harmed other fellow apes had Caesar not caught him, and this was something the latter was against.
- He intends to kill Caesar himself in order to overthrow him and take over the ape colony behind his back, thinking Caesar was too weak to lead them and plotted to wage war against him.
- During his mission to San Francisco to acquire supplies, he attacks and kills a survivor named Jeremy while his guard was down, thus going against Caesar's orders to not kill any humans.
- He ordered Fifer to go after and killed a defenseless woman named Liz, despite the latter's protests and the fact she posed no threat to them, not before convincing him otherwise into thinking she might tell other humans about them. In doing so, Fifer is left emotionally burdened by this.
- He and his troops attacked a zoo full of non-evolved primal apes and tries to kill the alpha ape, however, he seized the attack due to Fifer's injuries but begrudgingly vowed to come back.
- Killed the alpha ape during their fight where he unfairly used his spear's tip to pierce the alpha's head brutally and later took over the zoo.
- Enslaved and brutally trained the apes to become another batch of soldiers for him to serve while "breaking them", something Fifer called him out for, and scoffs the apes off as "dumb animals", despite being one himself prior to evolving.
- He tortures Cora for helping Fifer escape to warn Caesar, placing in her a cold puddle to freeze mentally before having her eaten alive by a starving polar bear.
- He held an ape by its throat and nearly strangled it just for trying to touch him, angrily lashing out at it to make the ape know its place.
- He and his troops took over a building colonized by humans, imprisoning and enslaving them alongside the captured apes to use for slave labor and eventually starved them to death.
- Brutally fought Koba, whom both were originally friends, and his troop while provokingly taunting him about apes being "dumb animals", and then later had Rex strangle a leashed ape just to have Koba send a message to Caesar as a warning.
- He claimed his actions were for the sake of the ape colony and to build a "strong" ape society, however, it comes off as delusional than well-intentioned as he wasn't above abusing or killing other apes himself, let alone calling them "dumb animals" at that point, showing his hypocrisy and the fact Koba called him out for this prior to the latter's descent to evil.
- He likely doesn't care about the soldiers he trained, especially Fifer and Cora, as he used them as fodder for the war he was about to wage on Caesar and the colony. The only reason he retreated was to come up with a better strategy than having Fifer's wounds tend for treatment, making this pragmatic.
- While he is stated to be a former lab ape just like Koba due to his scarred face, it was never shown onscreen nor was it played for sympathy compared to Koba, whose tragic past of being abused and experimented on by humans was explored in the novel Firestorm and played for sympathy multiple times. Unlike Koba who wanted revenge, Pope was a power-hungry ape who was willing to kill both humans and apes in his path for control and dominion.
- Although Koba did worse than Pope, the latter only had fewer resources with his brutality being more visceral and graphic, along with his brutal training of his soldiers being one of his more unique crimes.
External Links[]
- Pope on the Villains Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Apes Coastal Ape Colony | ||
