#i will remind you / inform any newcomers that LB was originally intended to be 4 chapters and like.. 20k words MAXIMUM

[lilflowerpot]

What was Lotor’s relationship with his father like? He seems to be very set on there being a difference between Zarkon and who was his father. What is that difference? Lotor obviously revered his mother a lot, did he feel the same towards his dad or were their differences always a point of divide between them?

Love little blade sm!! I think I’ll be 30 and still waiting for updates (ouch didn’t mean to be backhanded with that. It works anyways)

Okay so I shan't go into //great// detail with this one, because Lotor's relationship with his father is very much crucial to the narrative in that it has a subconscious impact on,,, pretty much everything he does. That conversation—some iteration of which may occur sooner than you think—is one I have dwelled upon e x t e n s i v e l y but what I can tell you for now is this:

When Lotor briefly touches upon his childhood in chapter 12, he speaks of that particular point in time when he and his mother were both frail (Lotor due to his dual lineage, Honerva due to having barely survived being pregnant with a galra child, and the both of them as a result of having spent so much time in such close proximity to such vast quantities of raw quintessence) and Alfor begged Zarkon to close the rift, because the dangers of meddling with what they didn't fully understand were becoming apparent. The issue being, of course, that the rift held the answers to curing Lotor, and so neither of his parents were willing to simply let him die, Alfor be damned.

“He told me what had happened, told me of Alfor’s concerns, and then told me that if the whole damn universe had to burn for my sake, and the sake of my mother, then he’d set each and every planet aflame with his own hand.”

- Little Blade, chapter 12

This bit in particular illustrates the very beginnings of Zarkon's corruption, and isn't that sad? Because, yes, there's an undercurrent of violence there that we see tenfold in the present-day, but in this moment it stems from nothing less than love.

“He loved you,” Keith hears himself say, and can hardly reconcile this image of Zarkon as a devoted father, with the tyrant he’s become.

“Yes,” Lotor agrees, softly, “he did. He loved me, and he loved my mother, and the entire universe paid the price.”

There isn’t anything Keith can say to that.

- Little Blade, chapter 12

As a child, Lotor knew a Zarkon who was devoted beyond compare to his Empire and his family both; a Zarkon who loved his wife and child and was desperate to do right by them; a Zarkon who would have done anything—everything—to ensure the safety of those he held most dear (and ultimately, to his own detriment, did exactly that).

The creature that returned from the rift wearing his father's face was not that man.

And it's not even just Lotor! We see the same dissonance between who Zarkon once was and who he now is presented (though indirectly) by Allura.

She doesn’t breathe a word of Zarkon.

She doesn’t, but Keith hears it regardless, because there are gaping holes in the stories of Allura’s childhood that can only be filled by a great shadow—one that is powerful and disciplined and her uncle by everything but blood. Somehow, Keith never thought to connect Zarkon’s past as Alfor’s dearest friend to Allura in any way.

It seems like an obvious oversight.

- Little Blade, chapter 15

Because once upon a time, long before he was warped into an immortal monster, Emperor Zarkon was....just a man, and a good one at that. A paladin of Voltron, and everything that represents.