A few things I noticed, realized, or better understood on my second watch

I re-watched yesterday afternoon (the movie is good in both IMAX and Dolby), and noticed a few things I hadn't before.

• Noa's father's name is "Koro" and the ape the Eagle Clan Elders sent to scare off the humans is "Oda". User slipperswiper helped me figure out their spelling in this post (thanks again!)
• I also noticed a lot more world building stuff (I talk about them in this comment.)
• The movie does very well in making things Not feel like a coincidence or random occurrence. There's a clear chain of events for everything that happens.
  • The eagle we see in the very beginning of the movie that captures a fish is "Eagle Sun", Koro's eagle. Sun then flies to Noa's mother as she teaches a lesson and she passes the fish off to one of the children. Sun leaves. Noa comes to greet his mom. He notices a fish rack is broken. This is what triggers the events where he's near the hut after dark, his egg gets broken, and he has to go find a new one.
  • In his haste to find a new egg and after hearing the commotion of Oda's fight, he forgets to tie down his horse. We get a shot of the horse walking behind him freely. This is what leads to the horse walking right in the path of Sylva's hunting party.
    • This is just a few examples. The chain of events in the film tie together really smoothly. And for those that are still left in mystery, it's clear they're going to be elaborated on in future films (for example Mae's exact relationship with the vault humans.)
• When Noa fixes the broken staff and Mae watches him as she's about to go to sleep, I didn't know what her look meant the first time. On my second, I realize it's discomfort / unease. She doesn't want the apes to continue advancing, and she just witnessed Noa gain skills and advance right before her eyes.
• Raka is more knowledgeable about Ceasar's morality than Proximus, but that's all. It didn't hit me just how clueless Raka is about the old world. He truly has zero idea what any of it was like, and I think learning that apes used to be silent and (if not in the wild) were kept in zoos would genuinely fracture everything he believed in. I think he'd have an existential crisis.
  • While Raka understood Caesar's morality more, Proximus truly was the smartest ape in the whole movie. It's a direct contrast to Caesar, who was the smartest ape in his time but was their hero, while Proximus was their villain.
• The discovery of Trevathan is likely what triggered Proximus. Trevathan says Proximus stumbled across him after he broke his ankles. Proximus found him, had Trevathan teach him human history (which is why he started making his kingdom resemble the Roman empire), and is who inspired him to want to "evolve". Discovering Trevathan is why he started hunting intelligent humans in the first place. Trevathan was essentially the start of everything.
  • Trevathan was likely so resigned because he knew his simple discovery was the source of everything Proximus started doing, and to cope with the guilt he convinced himself "this is just the way things have to be".
    • Initially, I thought Proximus had already started hunting humans and had been successful when he discovered Trevathan. I didn't realize until the re-watch that order of events was more likely in the reverse.
• Mae's "story" when Noa confronts her in the ship (after Trevathan left her for Proximus' evening lesson) is probably the truth or at least the closest to it.
  • Mae did not grow up in a vault. At least not the one we see. The vault human (played by Dichen Lachman who is undoubtedly going to have a bigger role in the next film) wore a hazmat suit when interacting with her. Mae is an immune carrier of the virus, vault humans literally can't interact with her without a suit.
  • So the theory that there are 3 types of humans in the world (wild, vault, and immune) is the most accurate. Mae was likely with a settlement or nomadic group of intelligent humans, but after the discovery of Trevathan, Proximus' hunting parties began. But Proximus explains that his apes misunderstood and slaughtered them all instead of capturing them.
  • Mae was likely the sole survivor (her "I'm alone" was the truth) which would explain how she knew about Proximus' group and why she started following them before she met Noa (because that's how she stumbled upon Eagle Clan in the first place. Sylva's hunting party had gotten closer, and as Mae was hunting them, she got closer to their clan too.)
• I think Sylva knew he was going to die the minute he was pushed further into the vault and away from the main entrance. He likely couldn't swim and there's no way he would've fit through the hole Noa and Crew had come through (all chimps, no gorillas. Most of the gorillas survived by climbing Proximus' ship before the flood, or by climbing to the top of the vault's main entrance). Sylva fights Noa because he wants to at least take Noa down with him and not have everything they did be in vain.
• The conflict between Noa vs Proximus at the end parallels Caesar vs Koba, just not in the way people would've expected.
  • When Caesar gets hurt in Dawn and Blue Eyes begs him to come back and unite the apes, Caesar says they won't follow him if he's weak. Because while they were getting smarter, they still valued strength first and foremost. Some apes refused to follow Koba, but majority continued to do so because of his strength. Caesar only won back most of their trust after defeating Koba in combat.
  • At the end of Kingdom, Proximus is undoubtedly stronger than Noa. He beats Noa to a bloody pulp, and the only thing Eagle Clan can do is cry out as they watch it happen. Proximus was establishing dominance through combat like apes used to. But Noa used the culture they've established to rally them back to his side. He inspired the others to remember their intelligence, their ways of life, and songs. The fight no longer needed to be won through brute force and dominance. It was won by advanced customs. Despite being the strongest of the two, Proximus loses because apes no longer place as much value on physical strength.

These are just some tibits I noticed on my second watch. I advise others to rewatch the movie if they're able to as well. It was worth it and very fulfilling!