The Death of Captain Robau

[Too Much Fun]

Something always bugged me about Captain Robau's death. No, this isn't yet another post about how awesome he was (although I did like him a lot) . What I'm talking about is that initially I didn't understand why Nero killed him. It seemed to me like the writers only had Nero kill him just to make Nero look like an evil bastard, and/or as a way of showing off Nero's power to Starfleet. After all, it's not like Robau was a threat to him or said anything especially offensive. He came on to the Romulan ship by himself, surrounded by Romulan guards with clearly no chance of fighting his way out. While he was hostile towards Nero with his question, that hardly warranted his death.

A thought just occurred to me the other night, though, and now I think I may have come up with a logical reason why Robau was killed. Ayel asks Nero if he knows Ambassador Spock. Once he's been asked this question, Robau has knowledge of the future. He's the only person who knows that first officer Spock of the Enterprise at the time will someday be an Ambassador. Could he have been killed to prevent him from carrying this knowledge of the future to his fellow officers? It's either that, or I'm just over thinking this and Nero only killed Robau to show off how powerful he is (that is assuming he knew that the Kelvin was monitoring Robau's life signs), and/or just so the writers could establish his evilness (as well as showcase his badass space axe.)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I always thought Nero killed Robau in a simple fit of rage.

 

[DonIago]

^Agreed.

Plus he clearly intended to destroy the Kelvin in any case, so it's not like Robau was ever going to survive.

 

[Kelso]

Many people missed this detail because it was pretty subtle... but Nero was crazy.

 

[6079SmithW]

Yeah, rage and craziness. I think what set Nero off was the revelation that he had been transported into the past. He had been chasing Spock and I guess when Robau tells the stardate he realizes that he might never get the chance for revenge against Spock, so he goes nuts and decides that someone needs to die in order to assuage his pent up anger.

 

[T'Girl]

How much chance would there of been of Caprain Robau identifying a future Ambassador Spock? Spock was a small child at the time and unless all six billion Vulcans have completely unique names, there could easily be thousands of Spock's in the Vulcan race.

 

[Too Much Fun]

Well he wouldn't have identified him at the time, but I imagine he would never forget his experience of being aboard Nero's ship and everything he heard there, so presumably he could identify Spock at some point further down the line. Anyway, based on the responses, it does appear that I was over thinking it and Nero really was just simply crazy and enraged.

guess when Robau tells the stardate he realizes that he might never get the chance for revenge against Spock, so he goes nuts

Probably, but that's not Robau's fault! Poor dude didn't deserve to die.

 

[Photoman15]

Well, as one person already pointed out, you have to think a little harder, because at the time Nero killed Robau, Spock was either not born (after Kirk's birth, the next (deleted) scene was Spock's birth) or a very little boy, not 1st officer of any ship.

 

[Elemental]

I don't know that anything in particular set him off. As was mentioned, he was going to destroy the Kelvin anyway (and kill Robau). He only brought Robau aboard to question him about Spock. When Nero realized he wouldn't be getting any more useful information out of him, he killed him.

 

[cooleddie74]

It was an act of rage, pure and simple. When Robau revealed that they had been thrown back in time to the year 2233, an already-enraged Nero went apeshit and murdered Robau. It was at that moment that Nero realized that he and his crew were in DEEP shit, having been thrown back history a whole century and a half. Not only was Romulus gone along with his wife and unborn son, but now he wasn't even in his own TIME anymore. He snapped.

 

[pookha]

it also went from bad to as bad as one can imagine after robau mentioned the federation.

nero not only blamed spock but remember he also blamed the federation as a whole.

 

[cooleddie74]

I'm sure when the Narada went into the black hole Nero and his crew assumed they emerged at WORST in some other star system or sector because this massive orange star was nearby when the ship came out the other side.

 

[Tosk]

Why would Nero even care if someone had knowledge of the future? Nothing he did or said seemed to indicate that he cared about preserving the timeline. Quite the opposite.

 

[Aragorn]

One simple line could've solved everything, involving the fact that the Federation hadn't seen Romulans face-to-face yet (for the fanboys) and that Nero blames the Vulcans. All Robau needed to ask was, "Are you Vulcans?" and then BAM, Nero kills him.

 

[6079SmithW]

One simple line could've solved everything, involving the fact that the Federation hadn't seen Romulans face-to-face yet (for the fanboys) and that Nero blames the Vulcans. All Robau needed to ask was, "Are you Vulcans?" and then BAM, Nero kills him.

Yeah this would have worked nicely. It also would give Nero a better reason to continue attacking the Kelvin because the bridge crew saw Ayel's face and he would need to eliminate all witnesses. It would have worked better then just having Nero kill Robau and the Kelvin in order to show the audience how evil he was.

 

[DonIago]

I never thought that Nero's motives for attacking the Kelvin or Robau needed to be more thoroughly explained, myself.

 

[SilentP]

I never thought that Nero's motives for attacking the Kelvin or Robau needed to be more thoroughly explained, myself.

Same really. The dude was mega pissed at his predicament.

 

[Timo]

...And there was audience enjoyment there in us finding out why Nero was so pissed off, not in that scene, but afterwards, through evidence presented a bit later in the movie.

The spearing scene gives us all the necessary bits, but no reason to believe in them yet, because Nero appears crazy. The scene where Nero explains himself to Pike, combined with the one where old Spock explains the events to Kirk, sends us thinking back on that initial scene and finding reason where there originally seemed to be none.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jeri]

This scene reminds me of the scene in Ghostbusters, where Zul gets the wrong answer to: "Are you a god?" and toasts the ghost busters, whereupon the hapless hired help must insist, "Ray, the next time someone asks if you're a god, say YES!" Captain Robau should have said "Yes."

 

[Too Much Fun]

...And there was audience enjoyment there in us finding out why Nero was so pissed off, not in that scene, but afterwards, through evidence presented a bit later in the movie.

The spearing scene gives us all the necessary bits, but no reason to believe in them yet, because Nero appears crazy. The scene where Nero explains himself to Pike, combined with the one where old Spock explains the events to Kirk, sends us thinking back on that initial scene and finding reason where there originally seemed to be none.

That was one of the things that disappointed me most about the movie. I remember in that first scene being so intrigued by Nero's appearance and actions (and that cool axe). I spent a long period of the movie waiting anxiously to find out what his motives were.

I remember at one point even thinking to myself, "everything is coming together beautifully in this movie, now if we can just get an interesting, plausible explanation of the villain's motivation, I'll be totally won over and maybe even consider this the best Star Trek movie yet". Then Nero's explanation came, and it felt like a cheap, unnatural rip-off of Khan...just like Shinzon. As Ebert said in disparaging "Star Trek: Nemesis" - "a copy of a copy".

Perhaps I'm just trying to think of a logical explanation for Nero's actions because the one we got in the movie bothered me so much. I may be wondering about why Nero killed Robau now, but when I first saw it, not knowing just made me anxious to find out more about the villain. Too bad when I did it was so disappointing. It was a good way of making me interested in the villain, but the pay-off was a letdown.