#golion

[ang-900]

The Original Voltron Adaptations Vs Their Original Japanese Counterparts.

Beast King Go-Lion:

Go-Lion/Voltron's backstory is that he got split due to his hubris after thinking he could take on the space goddess.

Voltron is a sentient being who lived long before time.

Voltron's title is king of the beasts.

All the pilots, save Fala/Allura, are from Earth.

All the boys are effectively in the same boat as VLD Shiro and have the gladiator backstory.

Earth is dead and gone, consumed by World War 3 by the start of the show.

Allura is canonically 16.

Raible/Coran's a strategist.

Altea/Arus's people were assumed to all be destroyed (especially the royal family), but they're all hiding out.

Allura's parents and siblings are executed by Daibazaal/Zarkon's hand while she was a year old baby. Zarkon didn't know she existed.

Hiroshi Suzuishi/Pidge is descended from Ninja.

There's so much blood and gore. People get cut in half vertically and horizontally. We get the privilege of watching people drop dead on screen with these horrifying faces and screams. Zarkon and Sincline/Lotor drink blood, too.

Honerva/Haggar has this bs called occult science.

Akira Kogane/Keith and Allura are so slowburn to the point it might not exist between them.

King Raimon/Alfor's ghost comes back from the grave to tell the paladins how much they suck.

Pidge threatens to eat the space mice twice.

Shirogane Takashi/Sven dies and and a later episode introduces his younger brother, Ryou/Sven, who was captured as a slave among others before Earth was fully destroyed.

Cannibalism

A tragic side character commits suicide at the end of an episode

Amue/Romelle's older brother is willingly turned into a robeast. Her older brother and father are both murdered by the Galra during a battle with Voltron.

Earth is completely destroyed and uninhabitable. The boys become honorary citizens of Arus.

A scene depicting Pidge's mother shows her seeing him off his mission. It's the last time he sees her.

Lotor has a dream about his mother where it suggests Zarkon had a hand in her disappearance. A flashback occurs showing us she was a good person and was killed for moral differences.

Coran's son, Saint/Garret, died as an infant while he and his mother were escaping from the castle. They are buried by a local group of people. The Galra dig up this grave to clone him.

Hys/Nanny is shot by Garret and dies.

A father-daughter bond is implied between Coran and Allura when the latter comforts the former after the Garret incident.

The Galran foot soldiers are living beings.

Romelle almost died via firing squad.

One notable robeast involved a snake like being who survived a civil massacre amongst her people and was introduced burying her deceased child. She adopts Pidge within the same episode. She dies at the end from blood loss.

Another notable side character was a sand person. Allura befriends this one by giving it her bracelet. The sand person is turned into a robeast. It's implied the sand person dies at the end, though it is unclear why.

During the final battle, Lotor sends out trapped prisoners in bubbles as bombs so Voltron can't move without killing them. Lotor also shoots them as missles. Haggar also shoots at the prisoners so Voltron can move and end Lotor's career.

Haggar's motive in helping Voltron lies in that Lotor killed Zarkon.

Haggar is Zarkon's mother.

Ryou dies fighting Lotor.

Honerva dies. Zarkon dies. Lotor dies.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe:

"We don't need clothes." Keith, 1984.

Arus is still alive, they just get attacked.

Voltron's backstory is that Haggar disguised herself as said space goddess and wrecked Voltron into five pieces.

Coran's a diplomat.

Voltron's title is King of the Robots

Galaxy Garrison exists here.

Allura grew up an only child and seldom saw her parents because they were busy.

Sven is severely injured and is, instead, sent to another planet to recuperate, but gets captured as a slave on planet Doom and thinks he's crazy.

Zarkon disrespects Haggar likes it's nobody's business.

King Alfor built Voltron.

Zarkon has a nephew

Pidge has a sister who's stated to be training as a pilot.

That same tragic side character is said to have returned to her home planet offscreen

Romelle's older brother is willingly turned into a robeast. He swims out to see in the middle of a battle with Voltron. Romelle's father in consequence goes mad and is implied to have died as a result.

Balto is ravaged by Lotor's forces. Pidge becomes an honourary citizen of Arus.

Pidge is an orphan and the scene of his mother depicts his adoption

Lotor has a dream about Allura instead. Allura's nightmare shows us she's afraid of Zarkon.

"Lotor, my beloved son, you're a nitwit." -Zarkon, 1984

Doom/Drule council.

Coran's son, Garret, and his wife are said to be alive in another dimension they were beamed to when the Galra attacked them. The clone is robotic like.

Allura when comforting Coran after the Garret incident, calls him a good man.

Lance is a country boy.

The Doom foot soldiers are robots.

Romelle was sentenced to be shot by a firing squad with stun guns.

Lotor and Haggar look for a new robeast victim among the Medusans. Audibly noting that they're all in a deep rest. That Medusan lady chooses to adopt Pidge. She also gets hurt, but it's implied she lives.

The episode about the sand people goes relatively the same way. However, the sand person is stated to be exhausted, but alive.

Sven is injured and sent back to planet Pollux to heal.

During the final battle, Lotor sends out robots in bubbles to trap Voltron. Keith can't move him because the bombs would blow up in their face. Lotor shoots them as missiles. Haggar shoots them down so Voltron can end Lotor's career.

Zarkon lives. Haggar lives. Lotor lives.

Pidge has a brother, Chip.

The same:

The Robeasts sometimes have unique tits (long, metallic, and spiky).

Lotor has three different kinds of chins and noses he alternates between.

Allura's only living relative is her aunt.

Armoured Fleet Dairugger XV:

The show begins with a strong theme linked to the lifestyle and aspirations of young sailors staking their life on the sea.

The Galaxy Alliance's goal is to create a star map of the universe, explore planets, and potentially colonize one.

Shinji Ise/Commander Hawkins is unsure if there are any lifeforms other than the three species in the Galaxy Alliance.

There are three planets in the Galaxy Alliance: Earth, Mira, and Sala.

Miranda Keats/Krik has telepathy.

Barros Karateya/Zandee is possibly from New York.

The cook can sing and cook.

Krik and Moya Kirigas/Cinda are Mirans.

Shota Kreutz/Wolo and Saruka Katz/Tangor are Salans.

The main fleet has spent 7 months in space.

Manabu Aki/Jeff hates spicy food.

Tatsuo Izumo/Shannon has no deeper reason to hate the Galveston/Drule other than they've been fighting one another recently.

Sim/Sandu dies as a pilot with his ship.

Wolo's brother dies.

Haruka Kaga/Lisa's singing when the force is stalled on the weather planet.

Murder

Captain Barataria/Brak kills himself.

Walter Jack/Cliff's brother's name is Jimmy.

Cliff has a magic hobby. He wants to be a member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

The Dairugger crew/Vehicle force sing the theme song when sending off Captain Dick Asimov/Stanley.

The planet Hawkins saw blow up was a consequence of the Galra not wanting a base to be built on that planet - Planet Apollo.

Krik on his shift as commander simply orders the teams to head to their vehicles.

The Vehicle Force are observing the artifact they collected in a previous episode with hopes and doubts the civilization survived.

Commander Hagi/Kernel Klaus dies.

Director Wakasa/Marshal Graham is peeved the people aren't taking Drule threat seriously.

Drake/Mongo dies. Teles/Hazar has a devastating reaction to it.

Graves

Krik is implied to be a prince.

Sirk/Dorma has no biological relation to Hazar and instead is his adjutant.

Hazar's father is a Homeworld secretary socrat and he's immediately dismissed from this position when Hazar returns to Galveston.

Planet Mira has flowers similar to purple orange-spotted flowers.

The Vehicle team learned space combat at the space fortress.

The queen of Eldora states the Galran frontline base is east of the planet Eldora, in the area where the blue light shines.

Earth gets attacked, and are fending off the Galra.

Yasuo Mutsu/Chip trained really hard at the space fortress' juvenile school in terms of science.

The pendant Lisa gives Jeff is what her mother gave her before Dairugger's departure from Earth. Lisa considers this a souvenir.

Commander Date/Kernel Kerbert* and crew die due to how damaged the ship is.

Patty Ellington/Ginger planted a seed she found in her room. She compares the growth of the plant to their perseverance.

A sunset reminds Cliff of his hometown.

Hazar gets promoted to commander of the attack fleet.

Pidge dreams of driving his mother to Mt. Fuji. We see her physically in the back seat.

Krik's letter is from his father who states harvest is good on Mira. Cliff's letter's from his father who sends his greetings to Ginger.

The photo of the baby is Jeff's newborn nephew. He has at least one sibling.

Chip is a lonely single child.

Lisa and Chip are childhood friends. They were in the same class in juvenile school, and they trained together at the space fortress.

Kazuto Nagato/Hutch and Tasuku Izu/Marvin insult the three girls. They're mad because Kai Shinobu/Rocky previously talked about Emma/Twyla continuously, whilst Hutch says he grows tired of the three. Ginger trips Hutch and he cries.

Commander Twyla dies.

The crew of the Space Explorer play rugby with a squad of Galra soldiers. They all die.

Both the buck and the fawn die.

The two dolphins die. One was a calf. The mother swims head on to a bomb.

Ginger is grievously injured, and is piloting her machine while fighting off sleep medication. She is dedicated to fighting by her team.

Hazar hesitates to land a killing blow and his gun is shot from his hand. Dorma shoots the body guard and in pain he shoots about wildly, accidentally striking Emperor Corsair/Zeppo - who dies.

The date by the time of the Drule evacuation is Feb 9 in the space year 2203.

Commander Newley agrees the Drules should have the third planet of the 26 system as they have nowhere to go.

Commander Hazar is assassinated by three Galveston soldiers. One of whom is Sandu's younger brother.

Jeff gives Lisa's necklace to Hazar's corpse.

Voltron: Defender of The Universe - Vehicle:

The Galaxy Garrison's motive is to find a second planet because Earth is suffering overpopulation.

It's implied the Vehicle Team and crew already encountered Hazar. He is described as a pirate.

The Vehicle Force call themselves the Voltron Force.

The Vehicle Force can only stay combined for five minutes.

Lisa is implied go be an alien.

Wolo's planet has seven moons.

There is a spy aboard the Galaxy Cruiser for the Drules. This is never touched upon again.

The food is crap.

Krik's from a water planet and it was at one point saved by Voltron.

Krik has ESP abilities.

The Drule have a confirmed child soldier among their ranks.

Shannon's brother was taken prisoner and is currently being held on Planet Doom.

Commander Hawkins pours hot chocolate from kettles.

Wolo's brother is implied to have survived the encounter with the beast.

Lisa talks about past African civilization when the Force is stalled on the weather planet.

Commander Brak says he'll move to another planet if the Galra choose to be peaceful.

Cliff is a country boy. Has a confirmed younger brother named Ginny* and two other brothers.

The Voltron Force are singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" for Captain Newley's farewell party.

Commander Hawkins saw a planet, Orus*, get blown up. The reason for its destruction is unknown.

Krik on his round as commander gives orders with great enthusiasm which is noted by his teammates.

The chef paints as a hobby and the Vehicle Force spend an entire scene roasting his painting.

Kernel Klaus lives and wants to continue building bases.

Marshal Graham is down in the dumps when people joke about him and other high ranking personnel.

Mongo took an experimental time travel ship 😭 and left the empire for good because he no longer wanted to be a part of war.

Hazar drops the photo of him and Mongo because he's clumsy. He looks at it and wishes the latter luck.

The Drule are searching for a new planet due to a transient sun while the Galaxy Garrison are searching due to overpopulation.

Commander Hawkins and Jeff's relationship is funnier than it needs to be.

Ginger got run over twice by joggers.

Lisa invented a carrot and cabbage cocktail she calls 'C & C'.

Pidge and Chip are twins.

Jeff's favourite food is spaghetti.

Jeff has been intentionally skipping Professor Page's plant seminars.

We see Krik's family photo.

Hazar and Dorma are brother sister and he has a good relationship with her.

Commander Nerok escapes in an escape shuttle.

The crew drinks hot chocolate in their downtime.

Earth gets attacked and wins against the Drule.

Ginger brought an unknown plant seed aboard ship and is growing a small plant.

Jeff explains a learned philosophical viewpoint to Commander Hawkins, and the latter's answer is that Jeff would make a great politician.

Lisa bought a good luck charm from a wizard on Planet Korb*. Jeff doesn't believe in that, but he wears the necklace the following episode.

"There is a good chance the lieutenant could be damaged." & "You're a brave fool." -Krik, 1985

Pidge and Chip studied solar energy as a hobby.

Kernel Kerbert* and his crew survive by fleeing in escape ships.

Jeff has a dog named Rover. He named a planet after said dog, an idea Commander Hawkins shoots down.

Krik's father bought another hydro bionic farm that he will inherit one day.

It's implied Cliff writes about Ginger to his brother as they want to meet 'that smashing Ginger'.

Jeff's family sent his baby photo. He thinks he's still cute.

Lisa and Chip are close enough she recognizes his hand writing.

Chip dreams about Pidge. He worries greatly about his brother after the lack of a letter.

Hutch insults the three girls based on their looks implying Twyla is hotter. Ginger trips Hutch after he, Marvin, and Rocky insult all three female members of the Voltron Force and he cries.

Commander Twyla escapes in an escape shuttle.

The Voltron Force play football with the Drule. Jeff finds Lieutenant Antor seriously hurt under rubble, but they heal him and he lives.

The buck dies but the fawn lives.

The dolphin is a single dolphin who somehow managed to disable a missile and survive.

"We just signed an important peace treaty right at this table. I've agreed to let Ginger slurp up her spaghetti, and she's agreed to let me slurp up my soup." -Cliff to Jeff, (Ginger present).

"Well I didn't sign and I want my own table away from you." -Krik to Cliff and possibly Jeff, (Ginger present).

Episode 45. Episode 45 is way too funny. Krik and Cinda crave coconuts out of the blue, ask Commander Hawkins if they can stop at a planet for some, and Krik salutes to his commander that it was a 'dumb idea'.

Ginger has PTSD from an experience as a child where she survived a ship blowing up.

The Drule home-world had destructive material buried under the surface.

Hazar spares Zeppo, but the latter's body is slumped on the throne.

Captain Newley relocates the Drule to a planet in the fourth quadrant in the far galaxy.

Hazar lives.

Krik is passive-aggressive.

The Drule blow up perfectly good planets they can't have.

The Same:

Krik has ESP abilities.

Krik can possibly play an instrument. He holds it the entire time, however.

Jeff, when he takes the first shift as Commander, is disgusted and reluctant to sit beside Commander Hawkins much to the amusement of the man.

Commander Hawkins is passive aggressive.

The Drule homeworld is getting hotter. All the residents have moved below ground, and starvation is prominent.

Krik pilots Voltron when Jeff is out of commission.

Krik shoves a whole gun into Jeff's pants.

The Sky Team ft. Krik drive a tank/enemy patrol car.

Dorma is kidnapped and asked to join the resistance which she steadily accepts.

Original Japanese:

All the foot soldiers are organic.

Consequences. Consequences everywhere.

A good portion of one note characters die.

Adapted Shows:

Stun guns. Stun guns everywhere.

All the foot soldiers are robots.

Bonus Voltron season 3:

King Alfor's ghost can bend the fabric of space. He can also shoot lasers without a gun.

Nanny lives.

Pidge has formed murderous intent towards the castle mice.

Fifth castle mouse.

Commander Cossack a.k.a. Cossack the Terrible.

Lotor drinks something called a mean potion that increases his meanness.

Queen Merla.

King Deus Ex Machina Alfor.

Lotor gets put in jail and has his allowance revoked.

"You don't know Zarkon like I do." -Lance, 1985.

Bonus Bonus Fleet of Doom:

Chip is taller than Pidge.

Hunk is buddies with Modac.

Wolo and Lance used to lightly "bully" Cliff.

Keith and Jeff are competitive with each other.

6 year-old Keith got lost in a forest.

Haggar has two wolves within her (not literal wolves).

*Not sure what the confirmed spelling is but I did my best to spell it like it sounds.

[koganeu]

mea culpa 🌟

the frame referenced from this simple gif below:

[trioxina245]

Beast King GoLion (Voltron: Defender of the Universe), art by Nakamura Takeshi

[nesonkin]

VLD Allurance could have been one of the best vld ships if it only had at least half of what kurofala has

[kurotaurus17]

BEAST KING GOLION 1981-1982

52 Episodes

Premiered in the United States on September 10th, 1984 as “VOLTRON” in 124 episodes made from the original 52 by World Events Production.

Like many older Weebs, “Voltron” was and is one of the layers in my foundation of web culture but in all this time, I have never paid homage and reverence to original series and it’s 52 episodes…until now! 🙌🏾

I found the original 52 episodes online and a day off from work…let’s do this!

[scope-dogg]

Source

[arinaco]

Romelle: her story in the past and in the present. Part II

Translated and edited by  @ Nadezhda932    

Link to the part I.

IV. Heroine of the New Age

Before proceeding to the analysis of the biography and personality of Romelle today, I’ll clarify one point. Subsequent assumptions have emerged based on data from the VLD. They already existed when I started researching the plot of GoLion and DOTU, and before writing this article, I had never watched the old series.

That is, the plot of the old series served for me as additional(!) proof of the correctness of my theory, but wasn’t the reason why I came to such conclusions.

Where do we start? With Lotor, of course - Romelle is tightly attached to him in the plot, and when the writers decided to turn his personality inside out, she followed him.

If you compare VLD with the old series, you can see that Lotor hasn’t only changed as a character - he has become a completely different person. Neither Sincline nor his dimwitted counterpart had ever looked like scheming or tempting snakes. Yes, Sincline clearly could and knew how to make cunning plans, but nothing more. He didn’t possess the gift of oratory, and didn’t feel any need to have it. Sincline supported his father until he blamed him for the defeat of the Galra Empire, beat his own subordinates, and killed and raped the victims without a shred of remorse.

In GoLion in particular, Sincline never set up colonies to deceive the civilian population. Why invent something if you can openly let slaves in experiments? Sincline had no reason to do something secretly from his father, and even more so to take care of his moral character, and therefore he calmly used the resources of the empire.

That is, “Lotor creating colonies” is, to some extent, an invention of VLD. And if you’ve read my previous articles, then you know that in my opinion, the second colony was the home of Luca and Merla, not the first. And that the first colony, where the millions of Alteans declared by Lotor live, never appeared on screen.

If you think about it, Romelle's story looks like complete absurdity. Even in the initial episodes of the first season, it was explained to us that virtual reality technology only imitates form without content - people can see objects, touch them, but nothing more. Coran pulled Allura out of her half-sleep when he pointed out the lack of smell in the flower. And if it had occurred to Allura to chew this flower, then, most likely, she wouldn’t have felt any taste.

This technology was intended to create scenery and couldn’t fully replace the real planet in conditions where people literally lived next to the forest and (most importantly) were engaged in farming. Just think about it: according to Romelle, for ten thousand years the Alteans have been planting illusory potatoes in illusory soil not noticing any trick. They didn’t notice that the flowers don’t smell, the berries have no taste, and the forest rests against the wall.

Only a very emotional and impulsive person could believe in the stupidity of the poor, unfortunate Alteans, who for a hundred centuries haven’t been able to distinguish real nature from the local analogue of Stardew Valley.

For example, such as the red paladin. Keith... or Allura.

What about Krolia? Krolia had no idea how this technology worked, she had never come across it...

So neither the Romelle’s base nor the pod space base were real colonies. We can only guess about their true purpose. The space base looks like a stand-alone laboratory/medical unit, but the Romelle’s dwelling is more like a staging post - hastily built according to the standard Galran template and abandoned long ago by the Alteans as unnecessary.

But where’s the truth buried here, Holmes?

The idea that the planet of Luca and Merla isn’t the first colony occurred to me when I began to correlate Lotor's words about millions with what we’re shown. Honerva apparently landed at the point where she could attract the most attention, but she came out to meet almost no one. Moreover, water meadows with low houses stretched around, obviously not designed for a large population. This place couldn’t be the capital of a multi-million advanced race. For ten thousand years, the Alteans had to not only multiply, but also build normal modern buildings for their own comfort.

But if we assume that this place is a secret second colony, then it’s easy to conclude that all the important buildings were simply hidden for security purposes, leaving a few insignificant and inconspicuous houses on the surface. So insignificant and imperceptible that when the BoM arrived at the coordinates of Keith, they didn’t notice any signs of life on the neighboring green planet.

Lotor has always been a paranoid and overcautious person, and he must have put a lot of effort into keeping his hidden colony a secret. So he would never leave the pod base undisguised and protected if he wanted to hide it from the Alteans.

What’s also interesting is the presence in the colony of a huge number of well-trained specialists.

Alteans of Honerva:

managed to create white mechas;

Which means, at the very least, smelters to work with heavy-duty materials and skilled workers who know how to organize the production process. While the Earthlings spent several years perfecting four fighters, the isolated farmers showed unexpectedly deep knowledge in the field of metallurgy.

What wonderful building elevators are there in the background. Is there a second floor? Or is this smelter located underground?

What's more, the white mechas had a striking resemblance to Sincline mecha, suggesting they were designed by the same people. More specifically, Alteans.

And it turns out that in addition to professional metallurgical engineers, they also had design engineers who were versed in modern technologies.

professionally used these mechas in battles;

The white mechas weren’t animated creatures like the Lions and didn’t help their pilots with training, but the Alteans fought well, competing with the Voltron team. The preparation of such personnel requires many years of practice under the supervision of good trainers - but Honerva couldn’t provide anything of that. She flew in alone and had no idea how to pilot combat vehicles. That’s why her personal mecha was equipped with teludav, and as we remember from Allura's ordeals, the control of combat and conventional spaceships was significantly different.

From which it follows that Romelle's statement that the Alteans can’t pilot spaceships smacks of brazen lies. The colony maintained and trained its own small army.

What conclusions can we draw from this?

Lotor built a second colony because he knew that Zarkon's appetites were insatiable, and sooner or later the Galra empire would reach the Quantum Abyss. There lived not just abstract Alteans, but qualified pilots, scientists and engineers. Lotor conducted research in the field of quintessence, designed war machines, and generally increased the combat potential of the Altean people.

“Just remember, we suffer this isolation so the next generation may not have to”.

In particular, Lotor tried to build his own Voltron, as he understood that this was the only weapon capable of fully resisting the Ghalra armadas, and in particular the monsters of his mother.

And here, to complete the picture, I turn to the plot of GoLion.

To the sister planets: Altea and Hercules.

Altea is an unfortunate planet. When Golion was defeated, Altea didn’t have enough combat power left to protect itself from enemy attack, and the population had to hide undeground for many years until the Lions again found pilots for themselves. Apparently, the inhabitants of Altea relied too much on the power of Golion, and therefore didn’t develop their army.

What about Hercules?

Hercules was a former colony of Altea and was considered a militarized and very dangerous state. Even Daibazaal (aka Zarkon) recognized the power of the Heraclians and therefore didn’t try to attack them in the same way as Altea.

Only the beasts of Honerva were considered by the Heraclians to be serious opponents.

Also distinctive features of the Heraclians:

martial arts as an inseparable part of culture;

selfless service to their people and royalty;

fearlessness in the face of death;

And… it actually looks a lot like the Altean VLD civilization.

Yes, Allura said that the Alteans are a peaceful people, but in fact we see that they, just like the Galra, used edged weapons in the space age, and the standard education of the princess included martial arts. Why was the princess staying in the palace was taught to handle edged weapons? Because it was part of their culture.

In addition, the VLD Alteans had a cult of selflessness, and testing for loyalty to this cult was a major part of the trials on Oriande. Willingness to give up personal benefits for the sake of a higher goal. And this is also similar to the behavior of the Heraclians.

As a result, if outwardly the Alteans of the VLD really looked like the inhabitants of peaceful Arus/Altea, then inside they looked like people from Hercules, ready to attack armed Galra with sticks so that their princess could escape.

And this is a very interesting approach of the scriptwriters, if we remember that the Alteans and Heraclians are one and the same people, they just went in different ways of development.

Alteans in VLD are like a tiger raised at home. It’s sweet and kind ... while well-fed and no one offends it.

In addition, when Voltron fell into a trap, the Heraclians themselves made the decision to take over the defense of Altea. Hercules came to the defense of its sister planet, and really saved it when developed a weapon in time that could change the flight path of a dangerous planetoid.

And this already looks like a prototype of the relationship between the second and the first colony. The second colony existed to protect the first.

By the way, do you remember why the Heraclians decided to cooperate with the Galra? To build their counterpart to Golion, which they were going to use not only against Altea, but also against the Galra themselves.

Moreover, if we compare Samson and Sincline...

Don't feel it yet? What if we compare them like this?

 You know, Sincline was the first mecha which main weapon was dual blades. Voltron learned it only at the very end of the series in order to defend himself against Luca's attacks.

And for some reason, I think that it wasn’t just that Sincline was painted in the colors of Samson - in a gray color of a bluish tint. And even red inserts, with due imagination, can be considered a reference to the hair of the elder prince of Hercules.

Why did I describe all this? In order to clarify the conditions in which Romelle was born and lived.

Romelle didn't quite lie - she was born and raised in a colony with her brother. Only not in the first colony, but in the second. For her, the second colony was the only homeland, as the planet Hercules was the only homeland for Princess Amue.

Where everyone worked for a common cause under the leadership of Lotor, to create weapons together to protect the Altean civilization. The colony was founded not just by settlers, but by people who came to live there for a specific purpose, and their children were growing up in this reality and with varying degrees of enthusiasm joined the common work.

I’d like to ask one interesting question: how will a person whose enthusiasm is equal to zero feel in such a society?

Who was born in a second - specialized - colony, where everyone works on one project, and no one asks new members of the society if they want to do the same. Where the cult of sacrifice was considered the norm...

...and where Romelle didn’t fit. Let's remember everything that Romelle said about her people.

First of all, she presented them as people who don’t see the true nature of things and don’t notice that they live in a cage from which it’s impossible to get out.

“My brother Bandor was always faithful, but I had questions”.

The colony really looked like a cage in the eyes of Romelle, but not for all Alteans, for her personally. Of course, no one kept her there by force, but she couldn’t just leave, and her brother wouldn’t agree to fly away.

And where to fly away when there’s an almost uninhabited Quantum Abyss around? It was impossible to enter the first colony - its inhabitants believed that traveling to the second colony was a one-way road, and no one would let her into the explored universe, and even more so, they wouldn’t give a spaceship capable of flying there for personal use.

So, if for Princess Amue, Sincline was a literal jailer, then for VLD Romelle Lotor became a mental jailer. She blamed Lotor for creating a society where she felt like she was in prison and didn't understand why others felt differently.

“...but I also knew that no one would believe me without proof”.

But why (!) she began to break out of the general system is a topic for speculation.

As we already know, it was extremely difficult to build a second Voltron. Lotor was unable to do this, even using the material of a unique comet. Something didn't work, something was missing. And this something, most likely, was the knowledge of alchemy, lost along with the old Altea.

Moreover, the main problem was not the lack of a soul capable of turning a machine into something more - white mechas weren’t animated mechanisms, like Voltron or Sincline. But on the other hand, the white mechas were finalized by Honerva, the greatest alchemist of her time.

The mechas ran on the quintessence of their pilots. Voltron had an extremely high efficiency, and the process of return was exclusively voluntary - as much as the pilot was ready to give to their Lion. Shiro gave everything during the battle with Zarkon, and therefore not even a corpse was left of him - for the sake of victory, Lion dried him.

But what if some mecha isn’t (!) intelligent and simply draws energy from its pilot in the amount it needs? What if the efficiency of this mecha is much lower than we would like, because knowledge about alchemy is critically lacking?

Then attempts begin to understand how to increase the efficiency of the mechanism. And then comes testing on the most enduring volunteers to find out how long the pilot can last in this mech. And not always the pilot had time to return to the hangar and get out of the mecha before it turned them into a mummy.

Finding volunteers among the Alteans was the easiest thing to do, but that doesn't mean their families didn't mourn their loss. The names of the dead were engraved on the monument to forever remember their sacrifice.

As we remember, pink was considered a symbol of military sacrifice. Honoring the dead, not the living.

Romelle said that by the time her brother agreed to the “great honor”, her parents had already “gone”. In her story - to the base with capsules, but in reality, most likely, they died during the testing of the prototype.

The entire Romelle’s family were professional pilots who took part in the tests. And, having lost both parents, she thought about how justified this sacrifice was, and Bandor's desire to repeat this feat completely plunged her into despair.

Most likely, she didn’t believe that the Galra really posed a threat - the colonies had quietly existed for ten thousand years, and no one had attacked them. The Alteans had no idea what was happening in the explored universe, and Lotor was in no hurry to back up his words with some evidence.

And Romelle began to get angry. To be angry from hopelessness, because she couldn’t influence the decision of her younger brother in any way. She hated Lotor for the idea of ​​building a new Voltron and the dedication with which her relatives reacted to this project.

After all, she almost directly called Luca a fanatic. The best pilot of the colony an example to follow for everyone else. Who calmly activated the bomb on her mecha when she realized she couldn't defeat Voltron.

True, Romelle tried to be polite when she was alone with Luca. She didn’t yet know that Honerva had told the Alteans about everything, and, apparently, before this event, her relationship with Luca was at a relatively sane level.

Seeing no other way out, Romelle strove to at least outwardly fit into the society around her. She copied the behavior of others, adjusted, hypocritically. She didn’t want to become an outcast, and therefore she had to lie to others about her attitude to what was happening.

And she learned to lie masterfully.

She was sincere only with her brother, and - like her prototype from the old series - spoke out against the preparations for war and convinced Bandor that Lotor didn’t deserve such blind admiration.

But Bandor… what about Bandor? Even though he was the younger brother of Romelle and the namesake of the little boy from DOTU, but… what colors were his clothes dyed? In the colors of Samson. The same Samson who decided to sacrifice himself for the victory of his homeland in the war with Altea and the Galra. And for some reason, I think that VLD Bandor wasn’t a defenseless naive child, because they didn’t take random Alteans to the test.

And when the moment X came, and Bandor was injured during the next test, he, like other pilots in such cases, was taken to the space base. What exactly was done with them is unknown, but most likely they were kept on artificial life support until they returned to a stable state.

And Romelle decided that this was her chance to forcibly take her brother to a safe place. Perhaps to that same abandoned base, or perhaps she planned to get to the first colony and start a new life there.

But she failed to bring Bandor alive. He died on the way, because it was absolutely impossible to take him out of the pod. And that's why when Lotor was chasing them, he was doing it in the company of medical robots. Not because he was afraid of a lonely woman with an unconscious guy in her arms, but because he took a team with him for urgent resuscitation of a dying person.

If Lotor really wanted to catch Romelle, he would have done it. She had nowhere to run, but he had zero desire to catch her. He didn’t perceive Romelle as a threat, and made a fatal mistake when she found grateful listeners in the face of paladins. And given the whole story with the advent of Keith, here again the old series is remembered.

Episode 21, where Amue tried to escape from Sincline's prison in the company of friends in misfortune.

Amue’s emergency landing on a desert planet – Romelle’s emergency landing on an abandoned base;

Amue sent a signal for help – Romelle sent a signal to the explored universe to bring the curious to her;

The paladins were met by the witch, who pretended to be a princess – Keith met Romelle, who pretended to be a defenseless Altean;

The witch forcibly took the unconscious Alor away - Romelle took the unconscious Bandor away from the space base;

Too much coincidence, don't you think?

It’s also very interesting that Amue was exchanged for Farla, who pretended to be Akira. Just like in VLD, the paladins decided to trade Lotor for Holt, who turned out to be a hologram.

And it was also for the sake of Lotor that the Alteans were ready to die, just like the Heraclians were ready to die for their princess.

And it was Lotor who came to the aid of the paralyzed Voltron by attacking Haggar, although he could simply fly away, saving his own skin. Just like how Amue turned the ship around and went to ram the Galra to save Voltron in the old series.

And the scriptwriters followed the same pattern when they wrote the death of Bandor. It wasn't his transformation into a robeast that killed Samson, but Sincline's order to shoot him. It wasn't the trials that killed Bandor, but Romelle's attempt to take him away from the base.

But since by that time she considered Lotor the reason of all her troubles, she convinced herself that it’s he who killed Bandor, ignoring her role in this tragedy.

She didn’t want to return to the colony - there she would have to answer uncomfortable questions and pretend that nothing had changed. Therefore, Romelle decided to try to get out of the Quantum Abyss into the explored universe - to the place where the "jailer" was losing his power.

Moreover, Lotor had been so conveniently absent for many months and couldn’t prevent this in any way.

Most likely, Romelle didn’t even hope to find those who would be able to kill Lotor. The chance that a real Voltron paladin would fly to her signal was well below one percent. I think she just wanted to lure someone with a capsule of quintessence, and then bargain for her way into the explored universe.

Nor had she planned for the Alteans to ever learn of their saint's murder. Romelle thought that they would continue to live in the colony in blissful ignorance, and considered these ends cut off. That’s why she was so surprised when Luca accused her of betrayal.

She was already in amazement and horror when, in the wreckage of a white mecha, they found a painfully familiar Altean woman. Alive and relatively unharmed, which provided a chance to talk to her, which Allura and the earthlings decided to use.

Allura was very worried about the fate of the Alteans, and Romelle - that the truth might come to the surface.

By that time, the universe had suffered greatly due to the loss of Lotor, and if the paladins (and most importantly Allura) found out that he didn’t use the Alteans as a source of fuel, and indeed didn’t deceive anyone, then Romelle would have been waiting for a real massacre.

Therefore, she sharply grabbed Allura and began to follow her, pretending her best friend. Firstly, she wanted to convince Allura that Luca was inadequate and her words couldn’t be trusted, and secondly, if not to drive Allura away from Luca, then at least control what they would talk about.

I think Lance and his love plans have become a real gift of fate for her. She had no idea what kind of past connected Allura and Lance, but she took the opportunity to kick Allura out of the Garrison for at least one evening.

And of course, it was on this evening that Luca came to her senses. It remained unknown how Romelle entered Luca's room unaccompanied. Maybe while Coran was looking for Allura, she hung around and offered to talk to the Altean instead of the princess. And the earthlings decided that this was a good idea, since Romelle and Luca already knew each other.

While talking to Luca, Romelle was obviously nervous and spoke ingratiatingly. She realized that the situation had gone completely in the wrong direction, although more recently she was sure that a new life was beginning for her.

Plus - Luca died without having time to give out some important information, minus - she said that the Alteans know about the murder of Lotor, they’re angry and thirsty for revenge.

As it turned out, the ends weren’t cut off at all, but were dragged along from behind, having managed to catch on a huge fragment along the way, which became a heavy burden and almost a stone around the neck.

We don’t kbow what Romelle was doing on the Atlas while the whole company dealt with current problems. It’s quite possible that she not only portrayed ballast, but also thought about how she should behave in the new realities. So far, the Alteans haven't looked like people to sit down at the negotiating table with, but that doesn't mean the paladins and Allura won't try to do so.

And then Honerva managed to pull Sincline out of the Rift and showed Allura that she was in complete control of him...

And after all, the Alteans also saw this, and were unlikely to be delighted with what was happening. They didn’t help Honerva at all so that she would turn their prince into her obedient slave. Such behavior wasn’t very similar to the joyful meeting of mother and son.

This was the moment when their trust in Honerva gave the first crack.

However, not so big as to feel the desire to communicate with a traitor.

In fact, the Day 47 episode, although it seems filler, is of great importance to Romelle's plot. It very clearly shows how she reacted that not one, but a whole bunch of Alteans were dragged into the Atlas. It was already much more difficult to expose a whole group of people as inadequate fanatics, especially since Tavo didn’t make such an impression. He was calm, polite and much older than Luca.

And... Romelle was freaking out.

She appears near Allura, portraying her best friend, exactly when she wants to chat with the pilots, and then immediately disappears, leaving the princess alone with the deepest stress.

When the earthlings try to question her about the Alteans, she says that she has no idea why they’re attacking, breaks into a scream and is clearly worried, with her lies getting more and more rude, such as claiming that the Alteans are scared.

...the same ones that built white mechas and flew to smash the universe...

“But you must understand: my people were haunted nearly to extinction”.

And it’s very curious that in the next episode, Clear Day, she isn’t among the vacationers, and in subsequent episodes she did appear only in edited scenes.

Why did she suddenly disappear? Where’s she?

Romelle constantly pretended to be a cheerful fool, and couldn’t help but go to the festival with the rest of the paladins. Unless, of course, she was doing something else at that time.

For example, running away.

Yes, I believe that while all the earthlings were resting during the Clear Day, Romelle escaped from the Atlas. It was the most logical decision in her situation. She could easily hijack a ship (and even turn off some of the cameras), because in fact she was very good at piloting spaceships.

After all, what happened at the very beginning of the Clear Day episode? Tavo decided to talk to Allura. Personally, without a company. Perhaps Romelle's absence was discussed separately, but that doesn't matter.

The important thing is that Tavo, unlike Luca, survived, and Allura realized that he was ready to share information. It was foolish to wait for them to raise the topic of Lotor in a conversation, but then there was such a great opportunity to run away while the entire Atlas team was walking at the holiday.

What happened next? Here begins guessing without an evidence base.

Theoretically, this story could have ended in an instructive style, where the villain went unpunished, and the only thing left for the heroes is to fully feel their stupidity and pay for their mistakes. But I don’t think that such endings are VLD-style - so, most likely, the fugitive should have been caught and returned to the main characters for a heart-to-heart conversation. Or rather, for a public conversation with Lotor, since such a meeting was required by the symbolism of the plot.

And despite the fact that many Lotor fans quite naturally dream of punishing Romelle in various inhumane ways, I think... that Lotor would forgive her.

Firstly, because he’s not a vindictive person. Throughout history, Lotor never took revenge on anyone, and if he got rid of someone, it was only because he considered this person a threat. Lotor never considered Romelle a threat - for him she was just an offended woman.

Secondly, Lotor really felt guilty for the death of the pilots during the tests. He called them martyrs, and didn’t deny that they suffered because of their participation in his project. And he could sincerely sympathize with the grief of a girl who had lost her entire family.

And that would be a very powerful moment. After 7,5 seasons, where someone constantly took revenge on someone, Lotor would have forgiven his offender and lowered in peace. He could, I believe in him.

[castlewyvern]

[undeadfillum]

So I keep an eye on charity ebay stores for camera deals and sometimes there's a flurry of items listed that all share a theme, which to me reads that they've been donated at the same time.

These 3 listing appeared at the same.

The items aren't mint, and there is some parts missing but I love the idea that they were played with, cared for and then popped back into the boxes and stored in the cupboard for 30 years. Then they ended up donated to charity because maybe someone didn't know their value, or couldn't be bothered listing themselves and thought they were just toys.

[o-haw-clan]

Tapi & Cat Too . . #tapigal #milkteagirl #snailshellstudio #wozhike #voltron #golion #blitzway #carbotix #yellowlion #actionfigurephotography #acba #acbaglobal #toyphotography #toysaremydrug #toystagram #actionfiguresasart #toyartistry #ohawclan #acemarkenphotography #acemarken https://www.instagram.com/p/CmGw6hfOzp1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bleh1bleh2]

Her <3

[nesonkin]

All Shirogane brothers do is disrespect women and die

[freckled-moss]

Original under cut :)

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 3.1: Do You Remember Love? (1980-1985)

Welcome back to An Abbreviated History of Mecha! Last time, we covered a small smattering of shows from the 70's. I tried to cover the big names, with a focus on the Holy Trinity (Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Mobile Suit Gundam). While the latter of the three will be showing up throughout this series, the other two will largely fade into the background. Do not mistake this for them no longer being relevant though, as there is a very good reason why they are part of the Trinity. Besides, they'll show up again in some capacity towards the end. This also ignores the fact that both Mazinger Z and Getter Robo would constantly get updates throughout the years, so to say that the other two were somehow lesser than Gundam is foolish.

What we DO see in the 80's though are mecha shows popping up left, right, and center. A lot of this is helped by the fact that the 80's are also a time in Japanese history where the economy was booming. OVAs also become a major thing in this time period, as do a lot of surprisingly influential series. As such, I will be covering 80's (and later the 90's) in multiple parts due to how many series come up in this time period:

Part one (this part) will cover the time period from 1980-1985

Part two will cover 1986-1990

Part three will cover pretty much everything directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino from 1981 to 1993 and will serve as a bridge between the 80's and the 90's

Oh, and let me reiterate something about Mobile Suit Gundam from the last point: Gundam wouldn't become successful until the 80's with the release of the compilation movies.

With that out of the way, let's transform and ROLL OUT!

Space Runaway Ideon (1980)

Coming off the heels of Mobile Suit Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino would follow it up with Space Runaway Ideon. Think of it as a classic giant robot series mixed with the style of war stories that would be more in line with Space Battleship Yamato or Mobile Suit Gundam. Do not let the brightly-colored giant robot fool you. Ideon is, to my understanding, one of the darkest entries in the canon of mecha. Ideon is also where the Itano Circus came from, so that's another reason to be aware of this series. More importantly, Space Runaway Ideon specifically would be the inspiration for one Hideaki Anno when he made a certain series that I will talk about in the future. Something about a young man needing to get into a robot something, I don't know.

Diaclone (1980) & Transformers (1985)

Remember when I brought up Microman (the toy, not the wrestler)? This is why.

In 1980, Takara would release the Diaclone line of toys as a spinoff to Microman. This series would be noteworthy due to its inclusion of transforming machines designed by one Shoji Kawamori (more on him soon). One of these machines would be the eighteen-wheeler known as Convoy.

In 1985, Hasbro would license out the Diaclone line among other Takara licenses for the surprisingly ambitious series known today as Transformers. The story would follow the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (who Diaclone fans would recognize as Convoy), as they fight against Megatron and the Decepticons. Chances are very likely that if you're not thinking of the RX-78-2 Gundam when you hear the word "mecha," chances are likely you're imagining Optimus Prime.

Transformers' success in America and beyond would be so great that, in the 90's, Takara would end the Diaclone line and create a new line of toys, complete with accompanying TV series. That's another story for when we get to the 90's though, so stay tuned for that.

Beast King GoLion (1981) & Voltron (1984)

In 1981, the anime Beast King GoLion would air in Japan. GoLion itself would be pretty run-of-the-mill as far as mecha shows in the early 80's would be concerned. However, GoLion is worth mentioning as it would be one of the first anime properties that US showrunners would splice with other shows like it in order to make something for syndication.

In 1984, World Event Productions would splice Beast King GoLion with another mecha series, Armored Fleet Dairugger XV (1982), to create Voltron. And when it comes to combining robots, chances are very likely that one would think of Lion Voltron (or GoLion for those more familiar with the original) over something like Getter Robo or Voltes V. Voltron is an icon of the 80's, so much so that Voltron (specifically the lion version) would get multiple adaptations over the years, including but not limited to Voltron Force in the 2000's and Voltron: Legendary Defender in the 2010's, the latter of which I am told is a big part of Tumblr history. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if people considered GoLion/Voltron to be more of a US creation than a Japanese one.

Fang of the Sun Dougram (1981)

Starting in 1981, Ryousuke Takahashi and company would create Fang of the Sun Dougram. Building off the themes of Mobile Suit Gundam, Takahashi would begin to push the envelope in terms of what one could present with a military mecha series. Whereas Gundam's relative realism comes from how the One Year War affects the soldiers, Dougram would go further and show us just how the parties involved plan out their attacks and political machinations.

If you want to learn more about Dougram, I'd highly recommend Pyramid Inu's video on Dougram, as they're a big Takahashi nut.

Also, Dougram is of vital importance to a certain tabletop RPG coming up.

Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982) & Robotech (1984)

In 1982, Shoji Kawamori and the people at Studio Nue would release Super Dimension Fortress Macross, a series that would explode in terms of popularity. Like Gundam and Dougram before it, Macross would give us a war story featuring giant robots. But unlike Gundam and how war has its tolls on soldiers, or Dougram with its focus on political machinations and realistic strategy, Macross would focus more on how love and culture can overcome conflict. Macross is notable not just for popularizing transforming robots, it would also bring idol singers into vogue.

In 1984, Carl Macek would be tasked by Harmony Gold to make Macross eligible for syndication. Doing the best he could, Macek would fuse Macross with two other series, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada, to create the controversial Robotech.

Why is Robotech controversial? To put it very shortly: Robotech would be the reason why the original Macross has never been brought over to the west, for reasons that we will see later. It's a shame too, since Macross is one of the biggest mecha franchises after Gundam. But, it should also be worth noting that Robotech, while controversial, is still important due to it being a major introduction point into mecha stories and anime as a whole for a whole generation of people.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu/Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1982)

In 1982, Yoshiki Tanaka's Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu, or Legend of the Galactic Heroes for us westerners, would be published. Over the course of ten volumes, the series would follow the exploits of the so-called Galactic Heroes, Reinhardt von Lohengramm and Yang Wen-Li, as the factions the two belonged to fought for control of the galaxy, with all of the politics and strategizing that ensues. Galactic Heroes is such a large and sprawling story that, when it came time to adapt it into an animated original video animation (OVA) series in 1988, it ended up becoming the longest-running OVA series of all time, clocking in at about a whopping 108 episodes in total. The series would also get another animated adaptation in 2018, Die Neue Theiss.

Armored Trooper VOTOMs (1983)

Following up on the success of Dougram, Ryousuke Takahashi would release the extremely iconic Armored Trooper VOTOMs in 1983. While Dougram was already a pretty grounded military robot in its own right, VOTOMs would take that concept to its logical conclusion. Here, VOTOMs were 4-meter tall machines that acted more like humanoid jeeps, and not only were they expendable, they were easily replaced. When mecha heads talk about realistic mecha series, VOTOMs is oftentimes brought up as the gold standard for this.

Panzer World Galient (1984)

Galient gif courtesy of Sakugabooru

Following up from VOTOMs, Takahashi would then follow that up with Panzer World Galient, a series that would trade out the military robots in favor for fantasy-flavored mecha. What's interesting to note here is that this would come out a year after a series called Aura Battler Dunbine, and I'd argue that both series would be the bases for later fantasy-inspired mecha series such as Magic Knight Rayearth and Break Blade.

Battletech (1984)

1984 would also see FASA Corporation release the first edition of its BattleTech ruleset. Rumored to have taken inspiration from series like Fang of the Sun Dougram, Macross, and Crusher Joe, BattleTech would become the poster child of the western giant robot aesthetic, that of the walking tank.

Also due to a messy copyright situation, BattleTech would also get tied up with Harmony Gold due to stolen designs. This legal back and forth would eventually be the reason why Macross would be unavailable outside of Robotech to this very day, though at one point the legal nonsense got so out of hand that, if I remember correctly, they tried to also bar FASA and their successors from using mechanical designs from Dougram and Crusher Joe (even though they did not have the rights to either series).

Blue Comet SPT Layzner (1985)

Blue Comet SPT Layzner is a 1985 series created by Ryousuke Takahashi. The series, from my superficial glancing of the series, would be the first major Gundam-like series to come out. It should be noted that, prior to this, the only major Gundam series to exist prior to 1985 was the original Gundam. Unfortunately for Layzner, 1985 would be the year that Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam would air, which is generally considered to be the most popular Gundam series in the franchise.

Conclusion

As we get further into the 80's, we will begin to see more and more stories show up that would be a part of the mecha canon. The latter half of the 80's is where we see the rise of the OVA which, as I mentioned briefly with Legend of the Galactic Heroes, will be where we see a lot of OVA series pop up. We'll also see couple more western productions, along with an appearance by a certain Blue Bomber.

This is a work of fiction, but in ten years? Who knows?

[arinaco]

Romelle: her story in the past and in the present. Part I

Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932  

Link to the part II.

I. Introduction

Hello again. The fandom has been sleeping in suspended animation for a long time, and so have we, but it suddenly turned out that enough information and thoughts had accumulated about Romelle to talk about her not only as a cunning and dodgy liar.

The trends of our time are such that it is no longer enough for a villain to be just a villain. This doesn’t work with an older audience, the level of average education already makes it clear that a person isn’t born bad by default. It isn’t for nothing that films about villains began to appear here and there, although this is done primarily because of the crisis of ideas, and the desire of large companies to rape existing franchises.

Therefore, we begin to wonder: why Romelle hated Lotor so much? How many lies are in her truth and truth in her lies? Is it just her brother?

But we’ll begin to approach that question from afar.

We'll start from the beginning - with GoLion and DOTU.

The thing is, the VLD writers didn't reinvent the wheel. When they got into the revival of the saga, they took all the old stuff, including the comics, and worked it through, pulling out whatever was useful. Characters, their past, their characters, plot ideas and conflicts. Those who have been familiar with the fandom for a long time have probably watched VLD and constantly had the feeling that they had met this or that twist.

And Romelle, as a character, isn’t something new, she’s a construct assembled from what has already been, simply reworked to fit new realities.

Unfortunately, I’m not an ardent fandom fan, and have not watched every series without exception that was drawn or bought. I will be working with the franchise's progenitors and building my conclusions on that basis. GoLion or Voltron 1.0 is a relatively serious space opera with a lot of violence and a clear ending. Yes, there is an ending: the villains die, and Altea celebrates the victory. The story doesn’t imply any continuation of the saga, at least with the same antagonists.

Moreover, this series was mostly filler. One series - one adventure that didn’t have a significant impact on further events. There is a normal plot, but there’s very little of it, and I’ll raise this topic later.

DOTU. Voltron… 1.5? I don't even know if I can give this piece number 2. The fact is that when American businessmen bought the rights to the GoLion anime series, it turned out that they didn’t have a Japanese translator. Perhaps in those days such a direction was extremely rare, or perhaps the services of a specialist cost huge money.

As a result, the scriptwriters had to turn on the fantasy and, based on the visuals, come up with lines for the characters themselves. Sometimes they couldn’t compose anything, and then the audience got the opportunity to admire how the characters move their lips in absolute silence.

As a person who made a comparison of certain episodes, I can say that they didn’t always succeed in getting closer to the original. Especially when you consider that the target audience of the cartoon was children.

They bought a series with a lot of death and violence in order to show it with a PG rating.

How did it end? The fact that a huge number of humorous and stupid phrases appeared where they never existed. Also, the showrunners tried to cut out all the excessive cruelty from the series, which didn’t always benefit the story line. In general, it turns out that VLD’s S8 repeated the fate of the entire GoLion series. And this isn’t a unique case, but a glorious WEP tradition.

For example, Prince Sincline in GoLion (Lotor) isn’t a comedic villain, and not a stupid boy, but a real sadist. Moreover, he’s over a hundred years old, which brings his obsession with 16-year-old Farla (Allura) under a criminal article on the seduction of minors – fortunately, at least it doesn’t make him a pedophile.

In addition, there’s a difference in the endings. In GoLion, the main villains die, and the story ends there. There’s not even a lovestory of Alura and Keith, because the maximum that a simple samurai (paladin) can count on is a perfumed handkerchief thrown by a beautiful hime (princess).

DOTU, on the other hand, was developed immediately with an eye on sequels, so the death of the main villains was removed, but over time, a bunch of episodes were added, introducing new characters like Queen Merla. As a result, the DOTU series consisted of 72 episodes (season 1 "GoLion" + season 3 with Merla). I won’t take into account the anime that was retroactively attributed to Voltron as season 2, Romelle isn’t there anyway.

And with such knowledge, we approach the description of the prototype of the character. I’ll describe the biographies of Princess Romelle and Princess Amue in parallel, so that you can see both the similarities and the differences. II. Plot basis

So, we have a planet related to Arus/Altea. It isn’t specified what kind of people live there, but it’s possible that the Alteans once colonized it.

In DOTU, the planet is referred to as Pollux, the sinister twin of Arus.

In GoLlion, the planet is called Hercules... and described as a cosmic body with a special orbit, which approaches Altea once every 18-20 years. No malice, negativity, etc.

In DOTU, Coran tells that the first king of Arus had two sons, a bad one and a good one. And when their parent died, the bad son thought only of the inheritance, he was exiled to Pollux for his disrespect. And since then, the descendants of the brothers have been at enmity with each other.

In GoLion, the accents are placed differently. The king of Altea really had two sons, but the division was not between good and evil, but between the elder and the younger. And it was said that the youngest son had such an intolerable character that the crowned father couldn’t stand it and expelled the child to Hercules. And since then, the family of the youngest son has harbored a grudge and attacks Altea every time the planets approach each other.

In DOTU Romelle's ancestor is presented as greedy and "bad", in GoLion  - only as a person with a violent temper and resentment towards relatives for expulsion. But in both cases, he gets to rule a whole planet, which is clearly not enough for him. 

And this discrepancy will occur several more times.

 during Lotor/Sincline's arrival on Pollux/Hercules. Meeting the dear guest at the gangway, Koba will say that he’s concerned about the issue of dividing Arus, and Hercules –  that the Heraclians are ready to fight even tomorrow, but for now he must send Altea a challenge to fight (well, how can you attack without warning? This is unethical).

 at a closed military council, where Koba will declare that he doesn’t want to share Arus with the Drules, and Hercules - that they planned to betray the Galra from the very beginning, but first they need to avenge Altea for the offense.

 and in the person of Bandor / Alor, who in DOTU tells his sister that Lotor promised him his own palace, and in GoLion he rejoices at the opportunity to fly to war on the same ship with such a great warrior as Sincline.

This view of American screenwriters is quite predictable, but still has a fundamental difference from the original. After all, the royal family of Pollux eventually becomes an ally of the paladins and acts on the side of good heroes. And it turns out that all the statements about what a bad planet Pollux is just dissolve in the further plot. There’s also a theory that the legendary brothers were King Alfor/Raimon and King Coba/Hercules, but no matter how much I looked through both versions of the series, I didn’t find such information. Coran refers to very old times, especially since in GoLion the planets intersect only once every two decades.

So what about Romelle herself?

Everything is very interesting. The fact is that she’s one of the rarest characters in the series who has a personal development story arc.

Yes. The secondary character had something that most protagonists didn't have.

For example, male characters - paladins - had no development at all. Because GoLion and DOTU are filler series, and as a result, their characters are static. As they were in the beginning, so they remain in the end. Even the age has not changed.

Farla was a little more fortunate, because her desire to become a pilot got her a small development arc, which was completely cut in DOTU, where Allura was turned into a plot device. By the end of the series, she’s still the same sweet, kind 16-year-old girl, somewhere naive, somewhere principled, but if you mix the episodes, you can hardly determine their order in the series.

But with Romelle's prototype, it's not like that. She has a plot. She has development.

Her path is the transformation from a classical damsel in distress into a Valkyrie, storming the main stronghold of the antagonists together with her soldiers.

Allura from the 80s can only turn green with envy. Against the background of Princess Romelle, she looks bypassed in terms of scenario.

Moreover, since Romelle's story arc begins in episode 17 and ends in episode 52, it turns out that her story arc moves the story of the entire series. Almost all episodes between episodes with Romelle are fillers. Her plot has a clear narrative line, and the plot of the series clings to this line, turning from a collection of fillers into a whole story at the intersections.

And suddenly it turns out that Romelle/Amue was an important character for the old Voltron. More important than the main characters.

But let's move on to the description of events. III. Personal arc

1. Alliance with galra and captivity

So, episode 17.

The king of the planet Hercules (nameless, and therefore I will call him by the name of the planet) comes to Lord Daibazaal to bow and offers to capture Altea together. Well, or Coba from the planet Pollux comes to Zarkon, as you prefer.

He wants to turn his eldest son Samson (in DOTU - Avok) into a robeast and claims that since his son is the greatest of warriors, he will surely be stronger than Voltron and be able to defeat it.

The plan looks as reliable as a Swiss watch, and at this point I want to give Coba/Hercules a goblet with the words "Father of the Year" written on it. But further in the series, it’s still specified that the transformation was considered reversible, and in GoLion, before his death, Samson will indeed return to his human form.

During the battle with Voltron, Avok/Samson will even speak intelligibly, which means the presence of reason and consciousness. I think the very opportunity to fight a legendary and invincible opponent seemed seductive to the guy. His people were clearly obsessed with military prowess; it wasn’t for nothing that they were drawn wearing ancient Roman helmets and tunics.

Lotor/Sincline is outraged by this speech. Some petty king has declared that his son is the best of warriors, and this clearly hurts the vanity of a Drule/Galra prince. He jumps up and expresses doubt about Avok/Samson's ability to defeat Voltron, to which Zarkon/Daibazaal offers to test the volunteer in the arena.

In DOTU, Lotor agrees and with a grin tells Avok that he will certainly not stand against the monster, and Sincline in GoLion promises to cut off his head if the prince loses.

Avok/Samson, confident in his abilities, readily accepts the challenge. There definitely was the reason why the guy was named after a mythical hero who suffered because of his own pride. He also considered himself invincible, for which he paid.

Princess Romelle/Amue, along with the younger prince, appear on screen at the moment when Avok/Samson defeats the robeasts. Lotor/Sincline, visibly annoyed by their rival's triumph, jumps into the arena and proposes a second duel, to which Pollux/Hercules' heir agrees without hesitation.

... it's so noble and fair to challenge a man who has just fought another opponent to a duel ... Romelle/Amue and Bandor/Alor enthusiastically look at the duel and cheer on their older brother. In GoLion, they admire the military prowess of both rivals, and in DOTU they say that it’ll be great when their brother becomes a robeast and defeats Voltron.

Alor was amazed and fascinated by Sincline's martial prowess. Not for long, but the prince will become an idol for him, which at the end of the series the boy will bitterly regret, sobbing over the graves of his father and brother.

As for Romelle/Amue… she supported her family, and her father. At least in the first minutes of appearance on the screen. Both Amue and Romelle will wish their brother success in the battle against Voltron. The royal family is shown as very loving and very friendly, where Avok/Samson doesn’t look like a person who was decided to be heartlessly sacrificed for the interests of the country.

But the first red flag comes when, during the duel, Lotor/Sincline notices the resemblance of the guest to the object of his obsession - Allura/Farla. After staring, he loses, the witch takes away the victorious Avok/Samson, and Lotor/Sincline rushes to get acquainted with a girl with such attractive facial features.

At first everything goes fine. The princess even flirts, but it stops abruptly when Lotor/Sincline boorishly drags the girl down the stairs with him. Even in DOTU, where Lotor invited Romelle for a walk, and she seemed to agree, the scene doesn’t look at least a little cute, since itn’t customary for a lady to be dragged by the wrist, she’s politely led by the arm, especially if the gentleman has considerable physical strength.

Of course, it can be assumed that the DOTU writers aren’t very well versed in human facial expressions, but as you can see in the picture above, Romelle/Amue's face doesn’t shine with joy even without comments from the crowned father of the family.

The fact is that against the background of what’s happening, it’s shown how King Coba/Hercules abruptly rises from his seat and looks worried. And if in DOTU he worries about Avok (whom he sent for experiments... logic, where are you?), then in GoLion he was horrified when he saw his daughter being dragged away by Sincline. Only Alor remains imperturbable in this situation, as he looks at Sincline through rose-colored glasses.

As for the princess... From now on, she’ll never say a single kind word about Lotor/Sincline again. He’ll leave her on his planet, and she’ll return home only after a few months in the company of the prince himself and a bunch of his concubines.

Somewhere I heard that Romelle was considered Lotor's bride in DOTU, but I didn't find anything like that in the series itself. Romelle/Amue's status on the Planet Doom wasn’t specified in any way, Lotor/Sincline kept her to himself out of a personal whim, without asking her or her family's opinion.

Later - in a personal conversation with her younger brother – she’ll shed light on her opinion about the alliance with the Drules/Galra. And if Romelle basically says that war and happiness are incompatible things, which is a very strange statement for the daughter of the militant Pollux, then the Amue will begin to convince Alor that Sincline is a terrible person and shouldn’t be admired.

In both cases, Romelle/Amue is no longer happy with her father's plan and tries to explain to her younger brother that the situation is much more complicated than it seems. And when, in a few minutes, she encounters paladins in the corridor of her native castle and sees Allura/Farla, she’ll experience a real shock. The striking resemblance elicits a strong emotional reaction from her, because the princesses do look like twin sisters.

Moment X comes when the Drules/Galra find out that the paladins have snuck into the castle and unleash Avok/Samson on them. He doesn’t rush at the enemy like a crazy beast, but uses fighting techniques, and does it successfully.

Voltron breathes fire in his face, hits with electricity in the water, but Avok/Samson still safely gets to his feet and continues the battle. His father didn’t lie, he really could compete with Voltron, although he wasn’t a machine, but a biological being, that is, capable of experiencing pain.

In general, when creating classic fairy tales, there’s an unspoken rule that heroes shouldn’t kill a lot, and even more so, kill non-villains. Ideally, the antagonist should fall into the abyss, run into their own weapon, refuse help, but not force the protagonist to get their hands dirty in blood. And the paladins completely fell within the framework - they didn’t injure Avok/Samson in any way, although they bludgeoned each other from the heart.

It isn’t known who would have emerged victorious if they had been allowed to finish the fight. But Lotor/Sincline, who was watching the battle through the monitor, loses patience and gives the order to attack both giants.

Yes, both Voltron and Avok/Samson.

First, because the witch's cat overheard the royal council, and warned Lotor/Sincline of the betrayal. Secondly, in DOTU, the villainous trio had already agreed in advance that Avok would be killed, Romelle would be given to Lotor, and Pollux, under the leadership of a young Bandor, wouldn’t pose a threat.

It was unprofitable for the Drules/Galra to leave a living Avok/Samson to the pseudo-allies. He was intelligent, loyal to his homeland and extremely dangerous.

Avok's death in DOTU was severely cut. Yes, he still dies when the Drules shoot missiles at his back, but in GoLion he’s also blinded by well-aimed shots to the eyes, which makes poor Samson feel like his mythical namesake.

But what else was cut in DOTU - and this is something I can't explain - is the death of King Coba. In GoLion, after seeing the Galra ships killing his son, the king rushes to the ground cannon and starts firing at Sincline's cruiser. With this gun, they blow him up, right in front of his daughter and youngest son.

Apparently, the DOTU writers decided that this scene was too violent for young children, removed it and it turns out that King Coba - who looks like a strong muscular man on the screen - is actually old and weak. Yes, yes, he’ll die soon, and in his dying fever he didn’t come up with anything better than to declare war on Arus, send the heir to a risky battle, and leave the planet to a 12-year-old child.

In GoLion, Alor becomes the new ruler of Hercules for a more logical reason - because his older brother and father tragically die and Amue is captured.

After the death of her father and older brother, Romelle/Amue is taken away by the Drules/Galra. And here’s a very important point – Romelle curses Lotor for killing Avok (which is doubly insulting for her, if we assume that, according to the American scriptwriters, she really liked Lotor), and Amue... calls her brother for help.

Younger brother.

Moreover, until the very meeting with Ryu (aka Takashi's twin brother, aka Sven version 2.0), she’ll repeatedly turn to her younger brother in her thoughts and beg to save her. And that's what was missing from DOTU.

The fact is that when the American screenwriters lined up the line of Bandor's behavior, they prescribed him as an ordinary 12-year-old child. Silly, naive, cocky, and sometimes self-centered.

What they didn't notice was that this "little boy" has bigger biceps than the average office worker.

Alor is much more serious, responsible, courageous and smart. He dreamed not of a personal palace, but of becoming as great a warrior as his elder brother. He isn’t conceited, knows how to admit mistakes and be grateful. Having been wounded in the knee, he continued (!) to crawl after the Galra in order to save his sister. And the Heraclians never questioned his orders the way Bandor's subordinates did.

True, there’s something that both GoLion and DOTU agreed on - that Bandora/Alor never (!) had to be saved. Remember this. With the exception of being captured in episode 21 (literally for a few minutes) and episode 18 of season 3 (created by WEP itself), it was the prince who ran around space and tried to save his sister, not vice versa.

Princess Amue never perceived Alor as a stupid little boy. She saw in him a young man and a warrior of her family.

On this tragic note, episode 17 ends, and the series will only return to this storyline in episode 21.

And no, in the interval between them, the paladins will never remember Romelle/Amue, as if she never existed. 2. Escape

The poor thing was sitting in a dark cell all this time along with other unlucky girls. There were no loungers or at least some amenities, only a cold stone floor. In GoLion, the storyteller adds some dark colors, describing that they were given practically no food, just enough to keep them from starving to death.

I must say that when Lotor/Sincline enters the cell, and we’re shown how the girls huddled against the walls, it becomes not so important that Lotor didn’t seem to rape Romelle, and her off-screen scream was cut out. If only his appearance horrified women, then there were reasons.

Romelle/Amue tries to attack him with a sharp stone, but, alas, to no avail.

However, there was still a difference in the behavior of the characters. Romelle begged not to touch her, and Amue asked him to kill her, but both are the usual reaction of a tortured person.

Lotor boasts that by using Romelle as a hostage, he’ll be able to control Pollux. Sincline, on the other hand, says that as long as Farla is running free, Amue will do just fine as her replacement.

Then he grabs the princess and takes her away. Lotor states that he will use her as bait, but Romella returns to the cell exhausted and sobbing anyway, so it's unlikely she enjoyed Drule company.

Her friends in misfortune console her, talking about how good it would be to run away, and then Romelle/Amue says that she has a plan.

It’s unknown how they managed to start the fire, although Amue had more room to act as Sincline's concubine. And while the soldiers hastily extinguished the source of smoke, the girls made their way into the hangar and stole the spaceship.

True, a very interesting question arises - how did they know how to pilot it? They sat down in the cabin in their places and managed to fly away safely, which is very strange for ordinary unremarkable women. Apparently, the writers considered such knowledge to be something natural for the inhabitants of a militarized planet.

How did Lotor/Sincline react to this escape? Lotor exclaimed that Romelle would pay for her act, and Sincline promised to cut Amue to pieces.

If Lotor needed Romelle alive, then Sincline was ready to kill a naughty toy.

When the ship is hit, Romelle/Amue sends an SOS signal to her brother at the last moment and reports the crash site. The paladins also receive this message and rush to the rescue, crossing the road with the Pollux/Hercules rescue ship.

They land on a snow-covered planet, where they find a ship that sent out a distress signal. But it's empty. There are no corpses in the broken cabin, but there are no living ones either, because the Drules/Galra took the nameless girls. Their further fate will remain unknown.

At some point, Allura/Farla notices an unconscious woman in one of the cabins. That was a witch disguised as Romelle/Amue, who decided to set a trap for the paladins. She takes advantage of the sluggishness of Bandor/Alor, hits him on the head and takes him away with her.

Later in the same episode, the boy, along with his older sister, will be used to blackmail the paladins and in particular Allura/Farla. Lotor/Sincline will offer an exchange, promising to kill the captives if they refuse.

Unfortunately, events will turn out in such a way that Keith/Akira will only be able to recapture Bandor/Alora. He would use the blizzard to disguise himself and pretend to be Allura/Farla, but without a proper weapon, his chances of defeating Lothor/Sincline were slim. And he certainly wouldn’t show compassion for the one who deceived him.

So the decision of the captives to return and help may not have been too smart, but it saved their savior.

The episode ends with the witch Haggar/Honerva unleashing a robeast on the paladins, and while they fight it off, Lotor/Sincline safely takes all the fugitives away. Yes, it wasn’t possible to save anyone in this episode - in GoLion, having dealt with the monster, the paladins look sadly after the departing ship. In DOTU... Voltron returns to Arus and is met with fanfare, which looks extremely inappropriate in this episode. Just like many other things added by American screenwriters to reduce the level of tragedy in a non-children's series

3. "Space Wolf"

And then ... we move on to episode 39. More precisely, to several episodes from 39 to 40, because the 40th is actually the second part of the 39th.

And in this story there’s a very serious difference between DOTU and GoLion. In particular, because the Americans didn’t know what exactly was going on there.

What was in the original?

In the original, the witch informs Zarkon/Daibazaal and his son that at an unknown time, the White Hole spewed out a cosmic body with a diameter of 1 kilometer with an incredible force of gravity. Hypergravitational planetoid - that is, it seems to be a planet, but very small and with huge gravity. I’ll try to explain it in simple words: there’s a theory that at the end of the black hole, where everything is drawn in, there’s a white hole, from which everything flies out. Both the white hole and the black hole are real cosmic phenomena that have given rise to many fantasies about interdimensional portals. As in other parts of the universe, so in other universes in general.

The planetoid was named "Space Wolf" and began to go around in a wide arc, as it attracted absolutely everything to itself, grinding its victims into dust. We don’t know what trajectory it flew before the events of the series.

In front of the overlord's eyes, Honerva directs a Galran ship to the space body, and the planetoid immediately pulls it towards itself, twisting and crushing. But the rings that it carried jump out and, having expanded, cover the entire planetoid. Satisfied with the result, Honerva reports that now these rings completely control the movement of the Space Wolf.

Apparently, the rings caused a strong explosion at a certain point and thus pushed the planetoid. I don’t know how sane such an idea looks from the point of view of physics and astronomy.

And what is very remarkable: when Akira and Raible (Coran) will discuss whether it’s possible to destroy the Space Wolf, Raible will say that Altea's existing capacities are not enough even to force the planetoid to change its trajectory.

Yes, it turns out that the power of friendship is far from always able to overcome any evil.

What's in DOTU?

DOTU caught up with a lot of pathos. That when the Big Bang occurred at the beginning of time, in addition to ordinary cosmic bodies, it also gave rise to several anomalies, one of which was the comet Omega. That is, if the Space Wolf appeared on an unspecified date, then comet Omega has always existed.

Haggar described this comet as a flying black hole, which sounds ... somehow more absurd than the banal magnet from Japanese screenwriters. On the other hand, it now becomes clear how comet Omega managed to throw comic book characters (Voltron/Robotech crossover by Dynamite Comics) into other worlds.

And what is fundamentally important: the paladins of the past were able to stop this comet and hide it. The rumor about this feat spread throughout the universe and turned into a legend that every child knew.

But no one remembered how (!) the paladins did it. According to Coran, data on the event was lost and it took 10 years to develop the plan.

At the end of the story, the witch boasts that she found this comet, and took control of it with the help of rings, as it was in the original.

Hearing of this, Lotor/Sincline tells to bring Romelle/Amue. Sincline did it on purpose, and Lotor... apparently, in order to mock her.

And here again there is a difference in the series. Amue sees how the witch orders the rings to send the Space Wolf towards Altea. Savoring the moment, Honerva tells her that the cosmic body will cause terrible cataclysms on the planet, the princess is horrified and screams that Golion won’t allow them to do this.

Moreover, subsequent events will show that Amue doesn’t know what the "Space Wolf" is.

Romelle is told that the legendary comet Omega is in front of her, which is now heading towards Arus. And the princess of Pollux knows this legend, as well as all the inhabitants of the universe. The girl bravely declares that she will find a way to stop Lotor and the witch... which doesn’t sound very smart from the point of view of her behavior. Oh, it's DOTU... *heavy sigh*.

What's next?

Romelle/Amue shows espionage skills and manages to get to the communication system. But how she did it remains behind the scenes. The princess informs the paladins that a dangerous cosmic body is moving towards them and must be stopped by any means necessary.

Lotor/Sincline is informed of this, but he doesn't seem the least bit surprised. Sincline laughs and calls the princess a fool for not realizing that this is a trap, and Lotor simply suggests using the girl's zeal for his own purposes. In the castle, they discuss the information received. And it's quite interesting that Akira and Raible know what a Space Wolf is and are surprised when Amue calls the Wolf a weapon created by Honerva. Here we can assume that the planetoid appeared relatively recently, after the princess was captured. And then it becomes clear why the witch became interested in him just now. Despite the seeming hopelessness of the situation, Akira makes the assumption that the planetoid is controlled by the occult powers of Honerva (it is), and suggests that everything be done to keep the Space Wolf from Altea. Raible turns to Hisa and tells her to be ready to face death like a samurai. Farla orders to prepare everything for the evacuation of the population, so that people have the opportunity to keep their dignity alive.

In DOTU... Keith proudly declares that they are the Voltron Force and will be able to take down Omega no matter what. Coran dejectedly retorts that nothing will come of it and they must prepare for death. Allura… doesn’t consider it necessary to issue an evacuation order. It seems that Farla at 16 was still smarter.

Voltron flies up to Omega/Wolf. The GoLion paladins tried to keep their distance, but they were still pulled, because the planetoid's gravitational field was truly enormous. The heroes of DOTU… showed themselves to be not very smart people and flew into the gravity zone themselves, because Pidge couldn’t collect the necessary information about the comet at such a great distance.

Romella/Amue is brought in to watch Voltron floundering in the gravity zone and trying to fire all the cannons in order to at least change the trajectory of the Omegawolf and thereby save Arus/Althea.

And then there's a scene that, in the DOTU version, makes me want to roll my eyes.

What's going on in GoLion? Amue is led to Sincline and Honervra from behind, and the witch tells the prince to seize the moment and destroy Golion before the paladins figure out where the Space Wolf's vulnerability lies. To which Sincline replies that they’ll never guess to shoot at the rings, but he isn’t going to give them such an opportunity and orders adjutant Gobra to launch an attack.

Princess Amue, in a panic, rushes to the radar station in front of her, and, after contacting Altea, screams that they need to shoot at the rings. In the Japanese voice acting, she screams in short phrases, which means she understands that she has a chance in a million, and she’s about to be interrupted.

Sincline and Honerva watch this scene with a smirk, and the paladins, alas, when trying to shoot at the rings, lose concentration and crash into the surface of the Space Wolf at full speed. For an unstated reason, the main cannon fails, which genuinely surprises Akira.

What's going on in DOTU? Romelle is again brought in from the back. Lotor says that the paladins would have a chance to defeat the comet if they did this, that, and that, but they would never think to do so. Moreover, he mentions the crystal inside Voltron, although how does he even know how this weapon works?

Yes, he behaves like a typical ostentatious villain who needs to tell the enemy about how to defeat him.

Romelle, abruptly dumbfounded, doesn’t feel any trick, rushes to the microphone and retells this whole long tirade to the paladins. Apparently, she thought that she was surrounded by only gentlemen who would politely wait until the lady had talked enough with her friends.

The paladins, on the other hand, try to follow the instructions, but this, on the contrary, stops Voltron, and they still - but for a different reason - crash into the surface of Omega at full speed.

… but excuse me… what kind of surface can a black hole have?...

The prince and the witch laugh, Amue/Romelle is predictably hysterical and calls herself an idiot. In the second case, not without reason.

Voltron tries to rise, or at least tear off the limbs from the surface, but to no avail. The Omega/Wolf flies up to Arus/Althea and begins to slowly disintegrate the planet along with the population. Coran/Raible announces an emergency evacuation, and in DOTU adds that he asked the Alliance for help, but most likely they won’t send anyone.

...and why the hell is this Alliance needed then?..

Meanwhile, the witch gets tired of waiting for the planet's gravity to crush Voltron, and she releases a weapon in the form of spiked rings from the crumpled ship (the same one that delivered the rings). The situation seems hopeless, but suddenly help comes in the person of Bandor/Alor.

In GoLion, Alor says that the Heraclians were tracking the Space Wolf's trajectory and rushed to help when they realized the situation was becoming critical. In DOTU…. Bandor reveals that he’s the commander of the 11th Starfleet of the Alliance, but didn’t arrive for long, because his troops must guard the energy carrier. We’ll never know why the young king of Pollux ended up on packages from the Alliance and guards some kind of energy carrier instead of his native planet.

…just think how strange it sounds for a child of royal blood to lead a guard post… What is even more frustrating is that in DOTU, due to a mistranslation, it completely disappeared that the Heraclians not only followed the movement of the planetoid, but also managed to construct a cannon to protect others against it. The weapon didn’t have enough power to destroy a dangerous object, but it could change its course and thereby protect people against its impact.

In DOTU, the ships will just abstractly shoot at the comet, although in theory the black hole should be completely inert to such an impact.

And yes, Bandor/Alor will order a shot at the Omega/Wolf, knowing that Voltron will be hurt at best and destroyed at worst. With the full consent and approval of the paladins. This will destroy the rings and move the cosmic body, thereby saving Arus/Althea.

In response, Lotor/Sincline will become furious and send troops, both for unexpected saviors and to the planet, in order to complete what they started without the Omega/Wolf.

And then we move on to the events of episode 40.

Which starts with Lotor/Sincline flying over Arus/Althea and bombing cities. He makes princess Romelle/Amue watch the ships shoot down civilians, while he laughs and promises to kill every single one. "To the last midge" - quoting meticulous Lotor.

Bandor/Alor, meanwhile, is trying to pull out Voltron, and unlike the paladins, it wisely doesn’t approach the planetoid, but sends "laser anchors" to try to overcome the Omega/Wolf's gravity and pull the robot from the planet with the whole fleet.

Moreover, there’s a big difference in the behavior of Alor and Bandor - Alor listens to the words of his subordinates, and they support his desire to save Golion and protect Altea. While Bandor's relationship with the soldiers reaches the point that they begin to sabotage his orders.

And perhaps they would have been able to save Voltron, but the Drules/Galra didn’t give the enemies such a chance, and began to shoot the ships tied with anchors and therefore unable to defend themselves.

As a result, only Alor's ship remains, whose anchor breaks and he loses sight of the Omega/Wolf.

The allied soldiers say that they’re now millions of light miles from Arus and blame Bandor for not listening to them, but the Heraclians urge Alor to be strong and protect Altea instead of Golion.

What about paladins? No, they don’t overcome gravity with the power of friendship, alas, this doesn’t work with the laws of physics, but the Goddess of the Universe charges Voltron/Golion and destroys the Omega/Wolf.

...that's what it means to "have good acquaintances"!..

Meanwhile, Lotor/Sincline is trading with Bandor/Alor, who has dented his cruiser pretty well. He shows the boy his sister and threatens to kill her if he doesn’t stop his attack.

...in general, it seems that the superiority of the Galra over the Heraclians consisted solely in the robeasts...

As you understand, the young king didn’t want to sacrifice his sister, but Voltron/Golion arrives and solves this moral dilemma in favor of Arus/Altea. It destroys the Drule/Galra forces, and Lotor/Sincline hastily leaves the planet.

The prince is furious that all his plans have been ruined and takes the captive princess to a place full of skulls on the Planet Doom. Lotor wants to destroy Romelle for his loyalty to Voltron, and Sincline says that although he hates the idea that Amue needs to be disposed of, he must take revenge on Alor for saving Golion (yes, Sincline thought it was Alor's merit).

In general, here Romelle/Amue demonstrates remarkable restraint - she looks her killers in the face without fear and snaps, declaring that Voltron will win anyway.

But the princess manages to avoid death - a voice from underground orders her not to move (however, in DOTU it’s female for some reason ...), and when the soldiers start shooting, she falls under the ground.

The episode ends with a strange figure holding a candle who decides to approach the unconscious princess. 4. Field romance and shock content

And ... we go straight to episode 41. Yes, unexpectedly we got as many as three storylines in a row.

But the surprise was not only in this. I have to admit, when I watched episode 41 of GoLion, the thought flashed through my head that I wasn’t mentally prepared for such scenes.

...sometimes the Japanese scare me...

The guy with the candle turns out to be Ryou Shirogane (yes, Shiro is a surname), aka Sven.

The reasons why Sven/Ryou ends up in caves on an enemy planet are slightly different in DOTU and GoLion. Ryou was captured a long time ago, back in the days when his brother piloted the Blue Lion, but since then he managed to get out of the dungeon and is now a partisan (what exactly he did was never said). Sven, on the other hand, was much less fortunate. When he was seriously injured and sent to the hospital, by coincidence, it was on the planet where he was being treated that the Drules raided and took away many slaves. Including Sven. Injuries didn’t allow him to resist, and as a result he was thrown to die in a dungeon, since no one wanted to support a disabled slave at their own expense. He didn’t agree to die just like that and was able to get out into the wild, if, of course, vagrancy on the Drule planet can be called such a word.

What’s even more different is the behavior of the characters.

In general, against the background of the slender and logical replicas of GoLion, the lines in DOTU look somehow crazy. When the princess stumbles and falls while running (long skirt, shoes, you know), Ryou asks her to be quick, but Sven says that they have no time to rest.

Sven generally resembles a half-madman and calls himself a Savage who has no name. A guy crazy from loneliness, downtrodden and despising himself for being weak.

Ryou, on the contrary, is in a fighting state of mind and is confident in himself. He introduces himself as the younger brother of the famous paladin Takashi, and when Amue protests that Farla is piloting the Blue Lion, he loudly calls her a liar. The mourning of the brother takes place according to all samurai canons, with the mention of a ghost that appeared to Ryou in a dream and bequeathed to defeat the Galra Empire.

Relations between the characters are also built differently. If GoLion they’re dogging at first (love-hate fans - a step forward), then in DOTU Romelle has to shake Sven to come to his senses and encourage him to take action. Sven will even refuse to mess with the paladins, because, you see, he’s ashamed, and Romelle will have to persuade him to do this. Ryou at that moment just called without any persuasion and bowing.

Actually, the GoLion couple cooperated so much that they even arranged an escape for the Heraclian captives - who, unfortunately, were caught. Alas, in GoLion, a successful escape is a rarity.

And now we move on to shock content.

Sincline/Lotor realized very quickly that the princess wasn’t dead. His soldiers noticed that she had fled into the caves, but couldn’t catch her up. And although he initially ordered the destruction of the escaped slaves, the witch suggested that he’d use the captives for blackmail and thus return the fugitive.

And here's what it looked like. People (men, women, at least children weren’t shown, hanks for that) were taken to something like an arena, hollowed out among the rocks, and a huge metal golem was put in front of them. The prince, standing on the edge of the abyss in the company of a witch and his father, loudly declared that he knew that the princess was there, and offered to surrender and thus save the captives.

In GoLion, Sincline also appealed to royal honor, because it was clearly indicated that all slaves were from Hercules, that is, they were subjects of Amue.

Naturally, no one wanted her to agree to this proposal. First of all Sven/Ryou. The captives themselves began to shout for her not to come out, as they would be killed anyway.

Moreover, in GoLion, the Heraclians not only asked the princess not to go out, but began to chant “Long live Hercules! Long live Princess Amue!". That is, they clearly stated their position and stated that they value the life of the princess more than their own.

And the Heraclians will continue to shout these words even when the iron golem begins to crush them with its hands.

Yes. In GoLion, it’ll be shown close-up, accompanied by the crunch of breaking bones. In DOTU, the screams of people will be re-voiced, the scene itself will be cut and the sound will be replaced with a less impressive one.

... and that's when I realized that there is much more Japanese in this series than it seemed at first. Don't let European interiors confuse you...

Moreover, it’s worth noting that if the reaction of the princess in both versions was approximately the same, then Ryou showed much more callousness than Sven. Ryou said that Amue must endure for the sake of sacrificing her people, while Sven expressed regret that he couldn’t help these people in any way.

As you understand, Sven's behavior is the behavior of a Western person, while Ryou is harsh, as befits a samurai. The Heraclians die for their hime, it is their duty. His duty is to avenge his brother, Amue's duty is to survive so that the sacrifice of her people won’t be in vain.

After some time, the main characters find several more fugitives and offer them to cooperate. In DOTU, these are random people, and in GoLion, there are a few more Heraclians.

And yes, these people will also die to enable the princess to escape from the planet. Although in DOTU such dedication seems incomprehensible - the fact that Romelle is undeniably a beautiful woman doesn’t explain why several men decided to sacrifice their lives for the sake of a captive like themselves.

The hijacked ship was immediately pursued, and Lotor/Sincline decided to personally participate in the capture of the fugitives. But since Sven/Ryou contacted the paladins, they flew out to meet him along with Bandor/Alor.

An improved version of the iron golem will be released on Voltron, but Bandor/Alor will help ensure the sister's path to Hercules/Pollux.

And here comes another interesting point.

The iron golem forges Voltron’s hand and foot with the help of its crown. The creature that crushed living people a day ago was now about to destroy the main weapon of the resistance forces. And then Romelle/Amue herself (!) will deploy the ship and head to the rescue of the paladins.

In GoLion, Amue will simply decide to go for a ram, which Ryou will silently approve of, but Romelle will ask the sluggish Sven to become her navigator and dictate her coordinates (which again will look extremely strange, but I probably should get used to it) .

The ship won’t be able to ram the golem, but it’ll be able to knock down the crown and free Voltron.

And after a glorious victory, the heroes will finally return safely to Hercules.

Episode 45.

Alas, there aren’t so many interesting events for Romelle/Amue personally. She returns to the Planet Doom with Sven/Ryou to spy. In a new stylish suit and earrings to match the color of the dress.

It's funny that the dress was blue and the combat suit was pink. If you know what I mean.

The main character of this episode is Sven/Ryou, who sneaks onto an enemy ship to find out where the fighters are being taken to create a huge army of robeasts. Both the ship and the plant planet are eventually destroyed.

Of the interesting moments of the episode is the development of a romance between the characters. The characters of GoLion continue to quarrel, clearly experiencing a certain pleasure from this. In DOTU... these same disputes are spelled out a lot more boringly. The feeling that this is just a game for the characters has disappeared from the text and voice acting, and it’s more difficult to believe in any feelings between them.

Further, Romelle/Amue will appear only in episodes 51-52.

There are no longer any plot twists that are important for us, there are only battles going on in a continuous stream. The alliance, assembled by Altea from 7 allied planets, storms the Drule/Galra planet. Voltron and Castle of Lions (which suddenly remembered that it’s actually a spaceship) attack from above, and our heroes lead the assault from below.

And I must say that the princess will fearlessly rush into battle in the forefront. Throw grenades at enemies, plant bombs on walls and shoot from a machine gun.

The minuses of the series ... Ryou tragically dies. Lotor/Sincline captures him, but Sven/Ryou manages to stab the prince with a dagger and they fall into the abyss together. And in GoLion there’s no water down there, because there were no seas at the foot of the tower. Yes, they’re smeared on the ground, and before his death, Ryou triumphantly says "I did it, brother!" and proudly dies. Like a true samurai.

Many thanks to the Japanese writers for burying the best pairing of the series in the very last episode. In GoLion, it’s actually the only one, since Farla and Akira had no relationship.

This is where the story of the old Romelle ends. She, of course, appears in additional episodes of DOTU season 3, but there she’s given very little screen time, and her entire role is reduced to waving a handkerchief after Sven. Simply put, the American screenwriters turned her into a plot tool.

I sincerely hope that my retelling didn’t cause your yawning, but I considered it necessary to describe everything that in theory could have a connection with VLD. I even wonder how many similar scenes and references you noticed yourself, without my help.