#quintessence and Lotor and Haggar and Zarkon

[depressocafe]

Galra Genetics

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Basically just a list of unique Galra only genetics I've seen within the show.

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1. Hair line/Markings:

The Galra seem to have a very specific hair line within the show that can be seen even on scalier Galra, such as Zarkon. This Hair line isn't as straight as others we've seen in the show and appears to point down closer to the Galrans' face in comparison to other races. Galra with markings instead of large quantities of fur tend to also have this as their markings end up pointing towards their face as seen with Ezor, Narti, and Ranveig. This is seen in only Galra and Galra half breeds, such as Lotor's generals.

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2. Mohawk/head point:

Mammalian Galra typically have a Mohawk on the top of their heads and reptilian Galra tend to have the scales end at a point as seen above. Though there are some Galra that don't quite have this such as ranveig, I haven't seen the specific type of hair growth on any other races. And while one could dress their hair up like a Mohawk, the Galrans tend to be more naturally occurring. Possibly due to skull shape? Or maybe some genetic evolution not told to us in show.

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3. Detached ears/predators ears:

This refers to the loose skin and tissue at the bottom of the ear. This is the area where you'd typically attach earrings to. Detached ears are when that skin and tissue is not attached to the side of the head where the jawbone meets the skull. Having detached or attached ears will not affect your hearing in any way. Galra tend to have detached ears or Animal ears genetically closer to that of predators. I tried to see if there were any types of classifications to animal ears and couldn't find squat.

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4. Elongated arms:

While human arms are typically long enough to be a hip length or a tad lower the Galran arms are a tad closer to the knee than other limbs shown in show. This also indicates that unlike humans, when Galrans' stretch their arms away from their bodies, the length from one arm to the other may not match the length of the individual's body like it does for Humans.

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5: Sharp pupils/overall eyes:

Just as said, the Galra typically have sharper more predatory like pupils compared to other races. Though some Galra seem to lack any distinct factors to their eyes compared to other Galra, my personal theory is that when a Galran undergoes large amounts of quintessence treatment, the quintessence in the body begins to take over and seemingly hide the pupil, iris, or other parts of the eye. We can see this happen first hand with Haggar/Honerva and Zarkon. As well as Sendak when we see an alternate version of him in season 8. Other factors of the Galran eye, the Sclera is yellow in color instead of white and the iris is usually red in coloration. I've also noticed that in terms of eye shape, eyes lacking in an iris or pupil, tend to have a more exhausted expression to them (dipping downwards and having eye bags). This could also be attributed to larger amounts of quintessence within the body.

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Like I've said in previous posts, I'm not an expert in any of this stuff regarding, psychology, genetics, ect. While I have studied with ambition into these topics I'm not a viable source for information regarding anything in relation to science and at most may know more than the average individual but that's about it.

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Post Made: 3/12/24

[acherontia-art]

first meeting, ageline, and pic with Esther, his mom

Xasthur's bio (past and meeting with Lotor)

Xasthur was born four years before the Daibazaal rift blow happened.

His mother, Esther, was one of the scientists who helped in Honerva's work, his father was a Galra officer, but Xasthur never knew or saw his father, he and his mother had a brief, casual relationship. His father didn't know he had a son either, Esther chose not to tell him. Xasthur's mother loved him dearly, he spent the first years of his life in tenderness and care.

Not much is known about the Druids and their origins, but I like to think that the first Druids are the Alteans, who became "dark" from interacting with the Quintessence. Esther became one of the first Druids, going on to work for Haggar. Kind and caring herself, the woman played her cruel Druid role in public. I think she just had no way out, just trying to survive the madness around her.

Also I think it was after Zarkon and Onerva went insane that the Galra race became obsessed with blood purity and war with everyone. It's interesting to think of some sort of reference to Nazi Germany. Half-blood children were either killed or sent to the arena for fun. Their parents were executed as an example to everyone else.

So Esther had to hide her son from everyone. They lived modestly, but Xasthur had enough. His mother always spent time with him, taught him writing and basic knowledge. Esther taught him first of all kindness and humanity.

When Xasthur was six or seven years old (to human age), he and his mother were discovered. Someone noticed her carrying toys and buying children's clothes into the house and rushed to report it "upstairs".

Galra officers and Druids, along with Haggar herself, stormed into their house. Esther was accused of sacrilege. I see the Druids also as a sect with its own laws. Sort of like the Anenerbe among the authorities, since we're referring to Germany in the 40s. The Druids were particularly boastful of their purity.

Before Xasthur's eyes, his mother is first tortured to tell her father's name and then violently killed. The child could do nothing, he just froze crying over his mother's corpse as the Druids left the house. The Galra officers were ordered to kill him but Xasthur was lucky. Those two just didn't want to get their hands dirty with killing a child. He is sent to the gladiator barracks to "find his own honorable death in the arena".

Xasthur, who had been brought up quite differently, at first cried all the time, he was afraid, he did not want to fight and kill. He thought it was all a terrible dream or some kind of game. In his first fight, he was just defending himself. When his opponent had him on the ground and was ready to kill him, Xasthur reached for his blade and plunged it into opponent's  throat. From that moment on, he realized the most important thing - kill or be killed.

Later, he befriended three similar half-blood children. They were his first friends in life after his mother. They became very close, supporting and protecting each other.

At that time, a rumor was spread around the arena that the gladiator, who would become the best, would earn his freedom and the right to live in the society of the Galra as an equal.

It was a lie, but the boys didn't know it, and it was the only thing that motivated them to keep fighting.

Time passed, Xasthur grew up and became a skilled fighter. His weapons of choice were the paired hopeshi blades. At human age, he was about 18-19 years old. The final battle was announced.

He and his friends were very excited that finally everyone could prove themselves and become free and maybe live together later.

But only the four of them are allowed into the arena and it is announced that "only one must remain". At that moment it was every man for himself. The friends, mad with terror, began to fight among themselves. Xasthur kills them all.

He had a mental breakdown as he stood among their corpses, covered in blood. And that's when his Druid powers, passed down from his mother, emerged. Maddened, he kills all the Galra officers who had come down to take him back to the barracks.

Only the Druids who came up were able to knock him out.

Xasthur woke up at Haggar's place, bound. She explained the situation to him. He was a murderer and either he would be killed now or he would get amnesty and work for her because "he was lucky to have such a power."

Xasthur remembered the one who ordered the murder of his mother. He accepts the job, only to try to kill Haggar in the future.

So he became a Druid. His "colleagues" despised and envied him as much as possible, because the slave from the arena turned out to be stronger than them and after a while he became Haggar's crony and her right hand.

After some time, (if we take human age, Xasthur was already about 27-28 years old) Zarkon's flagman is attacked. In the commotion, Xasthur tries to kill the witch, but loses the battle. When Haggar was about to kill him, she is thwarted by an explosion, and Xasthur escapes. He runs to the shuttles, and under threat of death, forces one of the privates to fly away with him. They get to the first planet they can find with a normal atmosphere. Hass kills the private, blows up the shuttle and leaves.

Here I'd like to quote one of Xasthur's dialogues with Lotor.

"- What do you do when you feel bad?

- I look at the stars. Yes, it sounds strange to be in space all the time and find peace in it. I've never been able to do that before. The first thing I saw after my escape was a huge canvas of sky dotted with stars. Looking at it reminds me that I am still free."

Freedom has become something new to him, something most precious. For about a year, Xasthur has been traveling with merchant ships to various planets, working as a mercenary (cargo guard). He still wears the mask, but covers half his face so it's not clear who he is.

Xasthur meets Lotor's crew by chance on one of these neutral trade planets. He had finished his work at that point and was just walking around. Lotor, on the other hand, had come for resources that could only be found here.

This is the time before Voltron showed up and after the situation with the Altean colony. Lotor had already recruited a full team.

Prince and his crew are attacked by local mercenaries, who are paid extra by the principled Galra generals to kill half-breeds. The mercenaries didn't bother to find out who Lotor was. Xasthur happens to be there, he is also attacked, his hood comes off in pursuit and reveals the mask of a Druid. Lotor's team sees this and thinks that Xasthur is Haggar's spy. After dealing with the mercenaries, they try to attack Xasthur, but he just walks away. He's too tired of fighting.

Lotor was very interested in this, the Druids he had to deal with were cruel bastards, they fought to the last man and were eager to kill. This one just walked away. Lotor thought about possibly working with him, infiltrating the empire from the other side.

Lotor struggles to find the druid, during their conversation, a squad of Galra, to whom the mercenaries informed what was happening, had already arrived on the planet. Explosions, chaos.

 Lotor has to flee and Xasthur is forced to flee with him to the shuttle. They get hit, the ejection system breaks, they were falling. Xasthur saves Lotor's life (Druid teleportation), but seriously injured himself.

They're hiding in a cave. A storm is brewing and Lotor's team can't fly in to get him just yet. The wounded Xasthur falls heavily to the ground and Lotor tries to help him.

A small headcanon on the fact that Lotor can heal, as all Alteans who have magic do.

Lotor's powers are lacking and Xasthur tells him to give up trying.

 - It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Lotor refuses and keeps trying again. Xasthur, used to being treated as mere cannon fodder since the arena, sees someone trying to take care of him for the first time.

Lotor asks him to take off his top to try heal his wound with direct contact. Xasthur is forced to remove the mask that was in his way. Lotor is surprised to that he is also a half-breed.

"- You were the first to look at me as if I were alive. Equal to yourself. You were worried. In your eyes, I wasn't cannon fodder, a tool, a toy to be broken and thrown away, because there's always another one."

I think that's when Xasthur fell in love with Lotor. He agrees to join the team and a new period in their lives begins.  Later I'll write about their relationship development. Thanks for reading! HIS VOICE BTW Lord of the Lost - Cut me Out Lord of the Lost - Loreley

[galraluver]

I read the fic where Lotors sister was the Embodiment of azula so I was wondering if u could do a different one where His sister is the Total Opposite of Azula?

Ah, I know the one you mean. Of course I can 😊😁

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~ When Lotor's young he really wanted a younger sibling and when he received news that he's going to get one he gets excited

~ But only when he's alone because his parents hate any kind of happiness

~ When you're born Lotor is in awe of how tiny you are

~ From that day on Lotor takes it upon himself to protect you

~ As you grow to be a toddler you're the sweetest sister he could ever have asked for

~ You often follow him around and copy some of the things he does because he's your favorite person in the entire universe

~ Because you're sweet and adorable there's one foot soldier in particular that enjoyed bullying you

~ Every time it happens Lotor's there to defend you

~ Eventually that foot soldier disappeared after Zarkon heard about an adult bullying you

~ As the two of you get older and people start hating your older brother more you're always there for him

~ You stick up for him too because he doesn't deserve the treatment he gets

~ You and Lotor become inseparable during your childhood together and even after the two of you become young adults

~ Zarkon and Haggar aren't too happy that you and Lotor are so alike, so when the time comes they send you with him to collect quintessence from planets

~ And, when Lotor gets banished because he's not ruthless enough you get banished for the same reason

~ It's difficult for both of you at first, but then you and Lotor start the altean colony together

~ You also convince your brother not to harvest the alteans for their quintessence, so everything turns out fine

[graphx]

VOLTRON HIRAETH AU!!

(link to my page here :D) https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraphX

Basically a rundown of the plot I have planned so far! I will be writing and posting in order on AO3!

But there are some specific scenes I wanted to write because I don't have the patience or time to write everything in order(I'll be posting them here under the Hiraeth AU tag) THIS ENTIRE THING IS GEN BTW!!!

Hiraeth

(n.) a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for lost places of your past

• Allura from another reality goes quintessence crazy after defeating Haggar at the cost of the lives of the other Paladins

• She goes from universe to universe trying to gather enough quintessence to bring back her reality that she accidentally tore apart but only gets worse and worse the more quintessence she is exposed to

• In the current universe she experiments with quintessence and accidentally kills her parents along with Zarkon and Honerva. Villian!Allura turns the blame to the Galra, causing the Allura of this universe to wage war on them as the only successor to the Altean throne.

• Lotor tries to convince Allura that her other self is lying to her but she doesn't believe it, leaving Lotor to flee from the Galran commanders trying to kill him to gain the throne(he goes into hiding before organizing a resistance after meeting the other generals)

• Villian!Allura is concerned that the Paladins of this universe will try to stop her so she destroys Earth

• However prior to the Altean invasion the Kerberos mission took place with Sam and his crew consisting of Matt, Adam and Shiro(who are all 16/17 for plot reasons they were interns or something IT MAKES SENSE DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!!!)

• Sam, Matt and Shiro are kidnapped and sent to the arenas while Adam manages to steal a ship to get back to Earth, only to find it destroyed

• The Galran Empire remnants (who were already planning on attacking Earth and communicating with Sanda(who sent Sam away on Kerberos because she thought he would get in the way of her failed "negotiations" and hoped he was kidnapped) fight with the Alteans, leaving Earth in the crossfire

• The Blade of Marmora attempt a relief effort and get one billion people off Earth before it explodes, finding Adam and establishing a planet they can live on before leaving them to their own devices

• In this AU all the Paladins are kids when Earth got destroyed (around 6 to 8) and Keith's dad dies during the evacuation helping defend the transports from Alteans but Kolivan saw that Keith's dad had a Marmoran knife(that he didn't give to Keith at 8 years old)

• Kolivan takes in Keith as a Blade agent since he has no human to provide for him but he keeps his identity as a human secret from the rest of the Blades to ensure none of them snitch since the Alteans have offered a lot for humans

• Kolivan knows the knife was Krolia's but doesn't tell her since she already jeopardized the Blade of Marmora once by leaving for Earth and without the temptation of her son she won't leave again

• Keith(as you can expect) did not have a very happy childhood growing up in an organization of trained killer assassin ninjas which resulted in more ~trauma~

• On one of his missions he is captured by Galra and put in the areans with Champion!Shiro and Keith meets another human for the first time who shows him kindness and starts to question if the Blades are right

• Keith escapes from the Arena with the Blades but convinces Ulaz to go back for Shiro and he meets up with Adam in the human colony

• On another mission Keith runs into Lance, Hunk and Pidge who are searching for a supposed superweapon in an attempt to defend themselves from Alteans and Galrans that prevent them from leaving their hiding spot at the edge of the universe

• he thinks to himself "wow these guys are annoying and weird I sure do hope I never see them again" before the Blades immediately order him to find the superweapon to keep it out of human, Altean and Galran hands because they are unreliable

• Krolia helps track down information it and Keith notices that whenever she is bored she recites star charts (kinda like his dad used to do) and the constellations look eerily familar

• Keith gets hurt, Krolia finds out his identity and takes him to the human colony so he doesn't have to stay in the abusive Blade environment anymore

• When she tries to get Keith to colony they are tracked by Alteans and Krolia manages to trick the Alteans and Keith crash lands on the surface only to see the ship leaving

• now that all the paladins are in one place they protect the colony after going on a couple of missions to find the lions while Keith tries to track down the very elusive Blade of Marmora

Theres more to it than that, BUT that's all for now!

[docgold13]

Profiles in Villainy

Prince Lotar

Charming and duplicitous, Lotor is the prince of the Galra Empire and the son of Emperor Zarkon.  His father is of the Galraian race while his mother is an Altean mystic named Haggar (thus making Lotar a rare Altean/Galraian hybrid).  

Fearful of his son’s guile and potential ambitions to overthrow him, Zarkon sent Lotor away to govern a remote region of the empire.  When Zarkon was severely injured in battle against Voltron, however, the prince was summoned by Haggar to lead the Galra Empire in his father’s stead.  Herein, Lotar was aided by his three generals, a trio of female half-Galraian hybrids who served as Lotor's primary lieutenants. This included  Acxa, Ezor and Zethrid.

Orchestrating his own secretive plans, Lotor would go on to join the Voltron Force, becoming a trusted alley to the humans as well as quite close with Princess Allura of the Altean.  Upon Zarkon’s revival, he declares his son a traitor and enemy of the Empire. The prince eventually killed his father and took the throne as the new emperor.

Hereafter, Lotar’s alliance with the Voltron Force was revealed as a ruse created so to gain access to the powerful Quintessence.  Lotar battled Voltron with his own super-powered robot, The Sincline. Voltron was ultimately victorious and Lotor was left marooned within the Quintessence.

In the original version of Voltron, Lotar is known as Prince Sincline, son and heir to the Emperor Daibazaal. A dangerous and cunning adversary, his only weakness is the fact that he fell in love with Princess Fala.  His plot was to overthrow his father and marry Fala. He is a sly, scheming villain with a sense of honor, preferring to fight fair over his father's dirty tactics, and is Akira's frequent rival. 

In the next iteration of Voltron, Lotar is the son of Emperor Zarkon and his top lieutenant in the battle against Voltron the Defender of the Universe.  This version of Lotar is more dutiful toward his father and fights against Voltron in a desperate effort to earn his father’s respect.  He was seemingly killed in battle against Voltron but was later revived by Maahox, using the power of Haggarium. Hereafter he becomes the new Emperor of the Galraians and resumes his battle with the Votron Force.  

Actor Akira Kamiya voiced the character in his initial appearances; whereas actors Lennie Weinrib, Tim Curry, Mark Hildreth and A. J. Locascio have provided the voice for the villain in the English language dubs of his various iterations.  Lotar first appeared in the fourteenth episode of Beast King GoLion, airing on June 3rd, 1981.  

[ladyandherbooks]

So this week I got a sudden urge to rewatch some of Voltron (only the Lotor scenes and episodes minus the Lotura break up, Romelle's Lotor backstory and Lotor's break down, I'll never be in the mood to rewatch them) and here are some of my thoughts since its been 5 years since this shows cataclysmic end.

The Lotor vs Zarkon fight is still great 5 years on. The best fight in the show by far.

Lotor's escape from Zarkon in season 4 is also great and one of the best examples of his skills as a pilot.

Lotor really was one of the most powerful characters on this show. He went up against so many foes who had a huge advantage against him and still managed to come out on top.

The Galra civil war with Lotor and Sendak as the leaders on either side with Honerva/Haggar plotting and manipulating from the shadows should have been of the main storyline post Lotor's ascension to the throne. They could have done so much with it.

For example, the reasons why certain Galran controlled planets and Galrans would choose either Lotor or Sendak. Perhaps some half or part Galra choose to follow Sendak and the paladins try to find out why. And some Galrans may only choose Lotor because they want to be on the winning side and believe that they will be rewarded for doing so. You could see a range of reasons as why certain Galrans chose a specific side and why.

There needed to be more focus on the prejudices faced by half and part Galra and what Lotor and his generals being in power would mean for the future of the empire.

Speaking of the generals, there really should have been 2 episodes dedicated to Team Sincline's backstory. We should have seen how they all met and how they became so close. And only 1 break up between them, when they reunited in season 6 they should have stayed together.

Speaking of staying I'm now imagining a better version of Lotor's break down. Allura defeats Lotor in space, not in the quintessence field. But when they (Voltron) approach Lotor to retrieve him Lotor, injured and still in the midst of a breakdown gets one more burst of energy and he tries to take them down only to be stopped at the last second by his generals who, knowing that Lotor wasn't truly himself quickly snuck back into the Sincline mech. They subdue him, take control of Sincline and flee before the paladins can react. They then take Lotor somewhere safe to hide out and help him. You could even include the 2 year timeskip and have Lotor be in such a bad way physically, emotionally and mentally that it takes him 2 years to heal and recover. Can you imagine how great that would have been? The angst, the emotions, the friendship, the fact that Axca, Ezor and Zethrid refuse to give up on him no matter how bad he gets in those 2 years. Add in Dayak at some point and it would be great.

Also Axca, Zethrid and Ezor should have learnt about what Haggar did to Narti in season 4 and Lotor should have also provided them with an explanation as well.

We should have also have seen Team Sincline fight in their mech at least once per season.

The show really did suffer from the split seasons from seasons 3 - 5. I know that LM and JDS had a set number of episodes but these seasons would have been better if they had all been 13 eps each. That way they could have explored all their storylines without the rush.

Too many cool and interesting concepts introduced but never explained or explored e.g. Lotor using the black bayard and being able to create 2 different weapons with it.

The moment that Honerva/Haggar remembered that Lotor is her son is still a great emotional moment.

The colony was a good idea that was executed with very little planning or care. It could have been a really good plot point to create a temporary rift between Lotor and the paladins e.g. have the reveal happen at the beginning of season 6, have a season or possibly 2 of angst and then have them work together again after Lotor has atoned in some way. Lotor could provide his actual explanation of what happened to the other Altaeans, the alliance would have remained intact just with the added rift between the paladins and Lotor where the paladins would still help Lotor stop the civil war but they would keep their distance and would only meet with him in public. Then once they had all truly reunited Allura and Lotor finally become a couple.

Also have their relationship be used against them by Sendak and his supporters who believe that this is evidence that they will soon be ruled by non-Galra and the hypocrisy in this belief considering how many planets and people the Galra rule.

[arkham-dossiers]

Patient File: Prince Lotor

Born to Emperor Zarkon, ruler of the Galra, and the Altean scientist Honerva (also known as the witch Haggar), Lotor revealed himself to be a prodigy early in his childhood, possessing intelligence and maturity far beyond his years. Unfortunately, these rare gifts went largely unappreciated by Lotor's parents, both of whom were driven mad by an overdosage of raw quintessence and now only valued power and domination over others. As far as they were concerned, the only future Lotor had was that of a warrior, brutally instilling in him the Galran creed of "Victory or Death". Despite this, Lotor abhorred the warlike ways of the Galra and desired to change them, truly believing that the same imperialistic ends that his people sought could be achieved through diplomacy and peaceful persuasion.

Lotor's efforts were met with tragedy. Even when he succeeded at taking control of a planet through his methods and establishing a quintessence harvesting operation through the consent of its population, Zarkon was angered by his son defying his upbringing and had him knocked out. When Lotor regained consciousness, the planet had been destroyed and all its quintessence taken at once, and Zarkon now proclaimed that Lotor was banished from the Galran Empire's territory. Something within Lotor snapped that day. While his ideals remained the same, never again would he seek to achieve the results he wanted through honest means, and never again would he be fully open and trusting with another person. And while he got by through his reputation as the Galran prince, he all but disowned that side of his heritage in his personal life, identifying as Altean instead and becoming more fixated on the secrets of the Alteans and of quintessence than ever before, vowing to use them to save the universe from his father's despotic reign someday, keeping himself alive through quintessence for hundreds upon hundreds of years.

While his powerful natural mental fortitude kept the full effects of quintessence-induced madness at bay, it still undeniably affected Lotor and impacted his moral judgement. He became obsessed with achieving his dream: a peaceful universe ruled over and defended by him, with all its grateful inhabitants showering him with the love he had been denied by his own parents. He even created a prototype for this sort of universe by finding every surviving Altean he could and creating a secret colony for them to live in under his protection, which naturally earned him their perpetual reverence. He was like a god to them; they trusted him whole-heartedly. Which made it all the crueler for Lotor to betray that trust, weeding out the strongest in natural quintessence and sending them to a "second colony"...in actuality a laboratory where their quintessence was slowly drained from their bodies and studied in all manners of experiments, as well as used by Lotor for sustenance as he desperately needed to keep living so that he could see his glorious vision for the universe's future through.

By the time Lotor was allowed to return to the Galran Empire, he had been firmly twisted into a cold, calculating and even cruel person who displayed great pleasure in toying with his opponents, manipulating them to his own ends, and even making them suffer. Not even his own loyal followers were safe from him - when he learned one was being used to spy on him against her will by Hagarr, he didn't hesitate for even a second before striking her dead in cold blood. He then proceeded to use his other followers' natural misgivings about this as well as the dead end his plan had hit to manipulate them into "betraying" him...exactly the convincing scenario he needed to convince his former enemies, the Voltron Alliance, to bring him on board as an ally. In this position, he was finally able to kill his father in a duel and become the ruler of the Galra. He then proceeded to skillfully manipulate the Paladins of Voltron into aiding him in a plan that, unbeknownst to them, would ultimately end with Voltron's destruction and supplantation by his own "defender of the universe", the Sincline Beast, made from an interdimensional comet that allowed it the ability to phase in and out of the quintessence field between realities. He also manipulated the Altean Princess Allura into providing him assistance through her falling in love with him...an easy feat considering that he was just as genuinely in love with her in something of an Oedipus Complex, as she greatly resembled the woman his mother used to be, the woman he still admired even though he never knew her and he despised her present witchy self.

When his true colors and intentions were exposed and his plan began to crumble around him, Lotor's priority was now squarely on keeping Allura at his side, as his passionate feelings toward her had become overwhelming; the fantasy of ruling a new Altean Empire side by side with her too enticing for him to easily give up. But when it became clear that he would have to give it up, with Allura even comparing him to his hated father for good measure, the mental wall Lotor had erected between his psyche and quintessence-induced madness collapsed. This was only made worse as Lotor used the Sincline Beast to start jumping in and out of the quintessence field with reckless abandon, now single-mindedly fixated on destroying Voltron and its Paladins, his beloved Allura included, so that nothing would stand between him reshaping the universe to his own desires.

Diagnosis: Lotor is a very interesting case study, and needs to be discussed both without the effects of quintessence considered and with it considered. When you completely ignore the quintessence factor, then Lotor displays clear symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder over the abuse he received from his parents and Galran society growing up, and the mental defense he turned to in response was the development of a narcissistic personality disorder. As noble as his intentions for the universe are, they are tainted through the prism of his narcissism: he must be the one to bring about the change, he must be the one to rule over the universe and enforce the peace through totalitarian means, he must be worshipped and loved by all. Even the romantic feelings he develops for Princess Allura are rooted in his self-image as the tragic, misunderstood heir to Altea and his fantasy of being his people's (read: Alteans) savior and ruler of a new Altean Empire. He is only able to empathize with Allura because of what she is rather than who she is and what she has personally been through, which is why he is unable to understand why she would take the truth of what he had done to his Altean colony subjects so badly and would view him with such revulsion for it.

With the quintessence factor at play, Lotor is a psychopath. Beyond lacking empathy and having a grandiose self-image, he is also petty and cruel, chronically dishonest, possessing superficial charm that he uses to manipulate others with, forms no legitimate connections, displays an utter lack of remorse or conscience about the immoral means he is pursuing his noble ends with which includes torture and murder, and is driven by a deep well of rage and entitlement that we get to see in full during his final battle with the Paladins of Voltron.

Lotor's tragedy is that neither diagnosis I presented would hold true had he been born and raised in a healthy environment. Indeed, Lotor would have become a devastatingly potent force for good if his parents had been loving toward him and he had never been exposed to quintessence. As his regretful mother Honerva / Hagarr proclaimed when all was through: "He deserved better. Better than I could give."

This patient is dangerous under regular circumstances. Extremely dangerous when under the full influence of quintessence. Avoid!

[ringomess]

we know that Zarkon and Haggar have been alive for 10,000 years because they’ve been drugging off quintessence lol

but is it ever explained how Lotor is alive? like, he is Honerva’s son, not Haggar’s so he’s at least near old as Allura and Allura was in a cryopod for 10,000

how the hell is Lotor alive (/genq i dont remember if it was ever explained)

[artsyjesseblue]

Slowly Going Mad - Part II - Honerva

Welcome to the second part of my Zarkon-Honerva-Lotor meta, focused on their gradual mental transitions along the show's timeline. Each of them are triggered by profound and very unique sets of reasons. (Here’s the link to the first part: Zarkon. Update: Lotor’s analysis is also complete.) My intention is to shine a light on the complexity of the characters and the depth of the scripts.

Just as in Zarkon’s analysis, there are two things to point out from the get-go:

1) Shiro’s statement: “Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts. The quintessence field didn’t create them, it revealed them.” - it basically casts the responsibility on the character, not on external factors, and that is an important point in my analysis.

2) The distinction between the entity and quintessence. The entity is a creature capable of magical stuff, whereas quintessence is a substance (highest known potency in the universe).

Honerva

Her story follows a bit of a more convoluted path. Similar to Zarkon’s, when we first meet her, she’s the High Priestess of the court, the absolute villain with frightening magical powers, capable of creating incredibly destructive machines and robeasts. Her mental transitions make a full 360 degree turn during the show, with ups and downs: 1) A rational, sane scientist. 2) Unstable Honerva, drifting into her research obsessions. 3) Haggar, completely disconnected from self for 10k years. 4) Slowly recovering old memories. 5) Post Oriande Honerva, obsessed with getting her son back. 6) Honerva completely rejected by her son - full madness again. 7) Newly awakened Honerva, ready to help restore all realities.

1) The rational scientist The oldest images of her actually date back from the time when she studied science classes along with Alfor - something shown in the last episode of the series, when Allura stirs up Honerva’s memories.

Chronologically, the next stop is during her time as a rift scientist, when Zarkon first meets her (S3E7). A young, cheerful, beautiful woman, elated about the idea of working on a science project that would revolutionize the entire universe.

2) Unstable Honerva Her passion for pushing the boundaries of science becomes her workaholic obsession, and for a large portion of her backstory, we mostly see her in front of her computer terminal, next to the rift gate. As Lotor later states, “The kinds of experiments she was conducting… she advanced science by eons.” Unfortunately, her passion - turned obsession - also becomes her downfall, just like the need for power destroyed Zarkon. She doesn’t even show up to congratulate Alfor on the birth of Allura. He seemed to have been a very good friend back in their school years. And when Alfor comes to visit her instead, she doesn’t lift her nose from her work, to look him in the eye. She is “working hard, as always,” as he notes. When he thanks her for Allura’s gift, she replies placidly: “It was a customary gesture.” Her distancing from the cordial relations with her friends are inversely proportional with her mania for science.

In fact, she declares that “we must always push into dangerous territory in pursuit of knowledge,” defying Alfor’s plea to exercise caution. Even after the “creatures” from the rift invade Daibazaal, forcing the Paladins to use Voltron to defend the planet, she still fearlessly pushes forward with her experiments.

Fast-forward into the future, Honerva becomes pregnant. As I mentioned during Zarkon’s backstory, her facial features have changed, her hair is white and her Altean cheek marks are now distorted (hint: the entity). After their lovely conversation about having a baby, dressed up in that loose poncho, she jumps back to her console and says: “There is much work to do. First, we must continue to harvest the quintessence. It will be needed for your son’s empire.”

Always about work. Always about her quintessence projects. And now, they both seem to have a higher purpose (or justification?) for their underlying obsessions: their heir. Notice how, even though the baby’s needs and mother’s health should take priority, she launches herself into more work. A mother (especially in the first trimester) is fatigued and needs rest. No, she continues with her rift project, exposing herself - and the baby - to the dangers of radiation, draining herself of energy, standing up long hours, focusing intensely on her project. And, although as a mother, one would want to balance work and personal health for the sake of the baby, she obviously tips the balance in one direction. When Alfor comes to visit, even though he cordially greets her, “Hello, Honerva. It’s been deca-phoebs,” we can see where her preoccupation lies: more work. Again, with her back at the king, she cynically welcomes him: “I hope you haven’t come to try to shut down my work.” Alfor traveled there out of concern for his friends. Due to the rift, the structural integrity of Daibazaal was weakening. Yet Zarkon’s power need and Honerva’s greed for more knowledge worked hand in hand - a self-destructive duo. As Zarkon bragged, Honerva’s team developed a space cruiser, five times the size of their largest ship - and that was nothing - meaning their arsenal of ships and weaponry was probably colossal. Instead of being received with joy, instead of giving him the wonderful news about having a baby, Alfor gets the cold shoulder. Nothing is uttered about having a child - in fact no one on Altea knew Honerva had a child until Allura found out directly from Lotor’s mouth, in Season 5. Instead, she condescendingly explains that “There is more hidden knowledge and power in this tiny fissure than you can possibly understand.” — And there they are - the two keywords: hidden knowledge and power! The two “evil instincts”, the weak spots that tore down this beautiful couple and the love for their son. Just as Daibazaal’s integrity is crumbling, this once strong family is now falling apart.

The scene with Kova follows right after this. I mentioned this in Zarkon’s analysis, but I’ll go over this again: notice king Alfor is visibly aged, while Zarkon continues to look young. Kova the cat shows up. As Honerva explains, the cat fell ill when the creatures attacked (!!), but she treated him with quintessence and Kova is now 28 deca-phoebs (~years) old. We are led to believe Zonerva’s longevity is due to the continuous supply with quintessence, but there is more at play here: the entity. Honerva says: “He [Kova] revealed the truth to us. Quintessence is so much more than you can understand. It is life itself.” Logical conclusion: entity + quintessence = life everlasting. (E + Q = L).

This is confirming to us, the audience, that Kova fell ill due to the entity, and Honerva explains that the quintessence treatment not only revived that cat, but expanded its life (indefinitely, as we know, since Kova is a character very much alive after 10k years). This is something that scares Alfor deeply, and Honerva finally turns around to face him, accusing him of being a coward. Her face… her face has changed - yes, her cheek marks look distorted, and Alfor notices right away with shock (parallel that to how Kova’s appearance has changed). Also, see how her hair is unkempt, unruly, she already has the appearance of a witch.

Preoccupied only with her quintessence obsession, she disregards her own self-care (not to mention - the baby!), and the climax of this madness comes right after Alfor leaves. Consumed with her own anger against the king (perhaps the anger fueled some sort of toxic reaction against that entity as well), she collapses on the floor. And there is no cure for this trance she’d fallen into, except… quintessence. Because Q is a fuel for life, and without it, the equation “E + Q = L” cannot be completed.

Here we are, revisiting the scene with the bedridden Honerva - looking visibly aged - hallucinating and trembling in bed, uttering disparate sentences about the immediate need for Q. Honerva: “We mu— We must… We must have… We must have it. Get back. Get back. Get back…” Zarkon: “What is it, my love?” Honerva: “Uh, quinte— quintessence. Quintessence is life. Into the— Into the rift.” Zarkon: “How?” Honerva: “We mu— We must— We must have Voltron. Voltron. Voltron! Voltron… It is the only way.” It pretty much seems like Honerva is not in control of her mind anymore in this scene. Eyes rolling, incoherent speaking, gasping for air, quivering, spastic muscles. And then she talks about herself with “we”. “We must have it.” Also… “Get back.” “Into the rift.”

Get back into the rift? But… had she ever been there so she could actually say she needed to “get back”? No. At that point Voltron had never been into the rift either. Who had been into the rift and came from there? The Entity. The Entity was the only one who had been into the rift. Who actually hailed from the rift. Logical conclusion: that was the entity speaking. The entity was desperate to get back into the rift to obtain more quintessence, because it was their food, their life. “It is the only way.” Of course it is the only way, because it follows the immutable rule of E + Q = L. You cannot obtain L (life) if you don’t add Q to E. The entity cannot survive without quintessence. The tragic fate of Honerva is, just as Zarkon’s, the complete loss of self to the entity.

3) Haggar - first madness When they wake up, after their “funeral”, they both have glowing purple eyes with motes of quintessence effusing from their orbits. She is shivering, and, unlike Zarkon, cannot remember who she is. Doctor Haggar tries to help her. Instead, she (or more likely the entity inside her) sucks out the life (quintessence) from the doctor, and, apparently, along with it, the doctor’s own consciousness, because Honerva calls herself “Haggar” after this. (Plus we know Honerva was trapping people’s minds in her own mind after killing them, because Allura discovered it during her trippy-trip inside Honerva’s consciousness.) And this is how the High Priestess Haggar is born. Ten thousand years of witchcraft follow, during which she expertly makes use of her powers and tech talents to syphon out quintessence from entire planets. But before she begins this long journey, she gives birth to Lotor. As doctors explain, it was “difficult, but successful.” Something that she also completely forgets. She rejects the little boy, maternal instinct abolished, her own self-awareness buried deep under the potent energies of the entity.

4) And then… very slowly (10k years slow)… her memories seem to come back. Bit by bit. The very first one comes during an interaction with teenage Lotor (S8E2). He wants to pet that curious-looking cat that is always around her. Out of some sort of (protective? motherly?) instinct, she tells him: “Do not touch him. He will hurt you.” Asked about the cat’s name, Haggar replies: “He has no name.” Isn’t it symbolic for how she basically lost her name, too? But then, suddenly, a flash of memory comes back. “Kova. His name is Kova.”

Her Altean instincts still subsist somewhere there. When Allura awakens on Arus in S1E1, she senses a resurgence of Altean energy. Many episodes later, when Lotor arrives at Galra central to relinquish power back to his father, she senses “a powerful energy on him,” “something ancient.” A major memory boost comes when she taps into Zarkon’s mind, to revive him (S3E7 “The Legend Begins”). She apologizes before she starts the process, which, yes, involves probing into his memories without his accord. Images of the past zoom through her vision: a Galra attack on Altea; the final fight with the Paladins; planet Daibazaal after and before destruction; then diving deeper back in time - images with the group of five Paladin friends peacefully gathered under their lions; a splendid wedding picture of her and Zarkon; the mighty comet at the crash site; and finally, a picture of her young self - a beautiful, radiant, exuberant Honerva.

She snaps out of her visions and notes, with a flat tone: “Husband. How could I have forgotten?” As probably many have noticed before, there is little emotional attachment in her demeanor. There is only one little glimmer in her reaction, right before Zarkon awakes. She says (and her voice doubles into both Honerva's and Haggar's): "You brought me back to life long ago. Now, come back for me." This is a powerful moment, which shows the beginning of her duality - Haggar and Honerva. But after this, we don’t see her being more affectionate towards her long-lost husband. Neither do we see any scenes in which she would acknowledge to him that she remembered her past. There is no grand reunion of the lost couple. Haggar continues being the placid witch, alongside her villain emperor, now fully armored in a quintessence-infused mega-suit. Some took this as a flaw in the show’s writing. I take it as a very coherent flow of her character’s arc. My wishful mind screams to see Honerva run back to her husband, rocking the walls of their dark magic cage, telling him: “Husband, I remember! We used to love each other, we were once good people!” But, realistically, that is not what an entity-possessed, quintessence-poisoned Haggar would suddenly do, would she? The fact that she is still very much under the dark spells prevents her natural instincts from manifesting. So the only thing she does is notice, coldly, as if someone else watches her life from afar. But not for long, as we’ll see.

In S4E3 “Black Site”, the episode starts with Haggar examining herself in a mirror, a reflection of Honerva instead. As she brushes her long, clawed purple fingers along the brown cheeks and chin, she notices the white cornea of her eyes and the presence of small irises. A very wistful music accompanies the scene (the very same soundtrack used in S8E2, where most of her tragic flashbacks will happen). Her expression is of utter shock, but also astonishment. The mirror motif appears frequently in madness arcs, as a means to show the disassociation between the two personas conflicting inside the character. Her sane persona begins to wake up and claim back her territory, and it is the very first time when we see her in a vulnerable state of mind. It’s the beginning of her reversion into Honerva. This state of mind is immediately suppressed once a Druid enters the room. Her harsh, sour expression and purple facial color immediately replace her Altean features, and the music shifts back to the ominous Zarkon theme.

As you’ll notice, Zarkon’s arc, compared to Honerva’s, is one of descent into the darkness (with a redemption late in S8), whereas Honerva’s is upwards - she gradually ascends towards recovering her memories and feelings. Immediately after, in the scene with the interrogation of Throk, Haggar says something that has multiple implications: “No one can completely wipe a memory away. There are always remnants deep within to claw out.” She clearly speaks from her own experience… as we just witnessed. Her memory is still there, remnants of it buried deep, waiting to be clawed out… Yet, with all their efforts, Throk’s specific memory of a particular event seems to be completely erased - courtesy of Narti’s work - but that belongs to a different meta. Not all of Honerva’s memories are back. She definitely doesn’t recognize Lotor is her son, and happily rats him out to Zarkon once she discovers he’s got his hands on a trans-reality comet. Her allegiance to the emperor is unshaken.

But here comes the next big blow to her fortress of multi-millennial oblivion. As she wallows in a pool of purple quintessence inside her space cruiser, she begins having visions again (S5E2 “Blood Duel”). It seems the dive into her memory reservoir is not without pain, as she releases a sharp scream before more echoes of the past start to surface… This time, they’re about Lotor. There is a crescendo of emotional intensity in these scenes, enhanced by the same nostalgic (almost elegiac) music that envelops her other flashbacks. Watching the tragic life of her lost son rewind in front of her eyes must have been truly heartbreaking. Her pained expression, the angst behind her glowing eyes, the eyebrows raised in incredulity and awe, but also imploring, begging to get back something she never had, her gasps in the darkness, in antithesis with the cute sounds of a cooing baby and then a giggling child, along with soul-stirring violins evolving into a more and more solemn hymn that will later accompany the most inspiring VLD moments with Lotor… these, all of these culminate with her regretful whisper, almost a question at the end, as she herself cannot believe this had actually been a living part of her life and she completely missed it: “My son… Lotor.”

I’m sure a lot of mothers watching this probably shed one or more (or a lot) of tears. How can you not? Honerva’s portrait grows more and more complex, while, sadly, her husband’s shrinks into the distorted image of a heartless monster. When she finds out Zarkon is on an exchange mission to retrieve Lotor, she immediately activates Operation Kuron Stage 4 - which, as we now know, used Shiro’s clone to spy on the Paladins (and her son). After Zarkon’s death, we were never shown any state funerals or Haggar mourning after him. Again, people would say this is a hole in the script. I would say this matters not for Honerva’s evolution. She clearly did not show emotional attachment to him before, so why would she now? The dark entity still has considerable hold of her consciousness, even though she does show empathy towards her son. But how much, actually? Well, it seems that operation Kuron is fully functional, since she is already able to watch Lotor planning to go to Kral Zera to get the throne. Again, she whispers wistfully “My son…” while her purple claw tries to possessively reach out and get him. There is a powerful symbolism here: the hand that extends out into the void - both to try to grasp him for herself (her selfish need towards her lost family) - and as a desperate gesture of reaching out from inside a dark place, reaching out into the light, to the only one who… can save her (which ties well with how the show was initially intended to end).

You’d think that a mother whose instincts have just awoken would want to see her son ascend to the throne… Instead, we see her summon Sendak, because “The Empire will only accept a ruler with Galra blood. It needs a natural-born leader, with an iron will to match his iron fist.” At Kral Zera, she actually insults Lotor in front of everyone and continues to twist the knife in that same spot where the prince has been teased about all his life: being biracial. Haggar: “Lotor, you cannot lead the Galra.” Lotor: “You think you can stop me, witch?” Haggar: “The blood that so bolsters your claim is also what quells it. You are not full-Galra. You are a half-breed. Your mother was Honerva.” It’s so mind-boggling that she is able to talk about herself as if it’s someone else. But if you get to think of it, she is still very much overpowered by the entity, which seems to speak instead of her. The snippets of her reawakening of consciousness were actually just that… Snippets. Which makes this scene even more tragic, knowing that she cannot fully connect with her son. This duality - two persons living inside a character - one belonging to the good/real side, the other one to an evil realm - this duality is characteristic of story arcs that revolve around the subject of madness. This paradoxical pairing of evil and good inside one person evolves via a gradual buildup. Usually, if it declines towards madness, there will be a buildup of negative energies and events. In Honerva’s case, it makes a sinusoidal arc - descending and ascending several times.

5) Post-Oriande Honerva Right after Allura and Lotor go through the Oriande trials, Haggar, who continued to spy through Shiro’s clone, sets a course to the same location. It seems that Shiro is telepathically linked to Haggar’s magic, because he starts having visions of her while she goes to Oriande and takes down the Sages. Notice that her cheek marks, although distorted, still glow at the entrance to Oriande - meaning she does have the marks of the chosen.

The fact that she is telepathically linked to clone-Shiro, I believe, proves that Haggar was using the entity in her clones as well, because that kind of telepathic link, as shown in S8, could only happen via the entity (Keith severs the link when he removes clone-Shiro’s robotic arm - which seemed to concentrate most of the purple energy). Oriande is a turning point in the High Priestess’s story. It is the moment of transition from witch Haggar to Honerva. Alas, not completely. The metamorphosis happens gradually, but now she is definitely more Honerva than Haggar. She’ll start thinking more and more as an Altean and as a mother. Of course, the entity is not gone (it also explains why she destroyed the Sages of Oriande). Which will maintain a significant layer of darkness over her judgement. And her witch-Haggar appearance will still coexist for a while with her newly recovered Altean countenance. Here comes S6E4 “The Colony”: Haggar/Honerva reaches into clone Shiro’s mind, rendering his consciousness inactive and fully turning on the entity-controlled subject. Notice how she retains her Haggar complexion:

In the next episode, S6E5, we discover that Haggar now has the ability to create wormholes. Allura wonders how… but we know. Because Haggar finally connected with her Altean capabilities. Which means, she is double-dangerous now. As a sorceress, and as an Altean. She can fully command her entity-possessed subjects, and she does so with Shiro’s clone, instructing him to lure Keith away. One very interesting scene in her arc is her encounter with Lotor and the way she addresses him while revealing she is his mother: Honerva (slowly taking off her priestess hood and turning around, fully showing her Altean visage; her voice trembles and sounds quite emotional): “Prince Lotor. My son.” Lotor has no reply, just a visibly vexed expression. Honerva: “The anger you feel toward me is to be expected. But understand that the events that transformed me into the witch Haggar also shrouded any glimmer of maternal instinct I may have had for my one and only child. However, you’ve continued the work I started all that time ago and have indeed seen it through to heights I could have only imagined. Your never-ending pursuit of knowledge is truly —” Lotor: “Enough. My mother ceased to exist when Honerva drew her last breath. Do not believe for a moment that I would ever accept you as a kin. You are an abomination. A twisted perversion of what was once so pure and beautiful. The end is near, witch. I know you can sense it. If you beg for your life now, maybe I will take pity on you when the time comes.” Honerva (frowning, visibly offended and pained by the rejection): “Take him away.” Acxa, after a short eye look exchange with Lotor, decides to actually aim at Honerva instead. The witch vanishes in a cloud of smoke.

Let’s unpack this heavy conversation, loaded with angst, with spite, with something that was supposed to be motherly affection. Honerva starts quite emotionally… From her voice, you can sense her tense expectation. She’s been waiting for this moment for a while, and ever since she traveled to Oriande, her Altean senses revived, she really is looking forward to reuniting with her lost son. But… there is a twist to her motherly wish…

This is her apology for ten thousand years of missing in action: “The anger you feel towards me is to be expected.” Um… No “I’m sorry”, no “please, forgive me”. Her voice is actually… quite emphatic and firm. No sense of remorse for her actions, no apologies for her mistakes. Neither does she take the responsibility, nor does she accept her guilt. Actually, she casts the blame on external factors: “the events” that caused her to become witch Haggar are supposed to be the cause. How about… apologizing for being obsessed about her scientific discoveries, to the point where she neglected everything else, including her unborn child’s needs? Also, notice her expression in the above screenshot: despite the pain in her eye squint, she looks rather arrogant. Well, that’s actually the big problem, and she still doesn’t see it. In fact, she applauds Lotor’s accomplishments, because he… “continued the work” that she started, in a “never ending pursuit of knowledge.” Again, these are her vulnerable spots - work and pursuit of knowledge. These blinding obsessions for something that she thinks is absolutely revolutionary and beneficial to the world, these are her downfall. She cannot see anything else, even after ten thousand years. In her own twisted world, these are the ultimate tools for good. Why did she pursue knowledge? Well, first off, out of pure passion - turned into obsession. She wanted to advance science. Secondly, to fulfill Zarkon’s need for power. In contrast, Lotor sought to unveil King Alfor’s knowledge in order to “better the Universe”, to bring peace and prosperity, to defend against the dark forces of his parents. There is a bit of a difference in their scopes, I’d say. This is what she doesn’t understand. And she will continue to misconstrue Lotor’s work and delude all the Alteans into her vengeful plans. Lotor is, unfortunately, right. She (still) is “a twisted perversion” of her original self. Which proves once more that Honerva’s dual personality pervades her newly displayed self. For the entirety of S7, we don’t see Honerva at all (except the caricature from the garfle-warfle episode “The Feud”).

In S8E2 “Shadows”, we get an avalanche of flashbacks - some recent, some very old, revolving around Honerva (not going to touch the subject of why these flashbacks should belong to S7 and not S8, as it’s been already discussed in other metas and reconstructions (especially the work of Team Purple Lion) in great detail. My focus is on her evolution overall, which is chronological, not based on episode order). The episode starts right where S6E5 left off… when Acxa shoots at Honerva, after Lotor’s tense conversation with her. Here, we finally find out where Honerva went after vanishing in a cloud of smoke. She’s back at the command of her cruiser. Her pained expression (after being rejected by her son) becomes stark. She pulls her hood back on and Haggar’s purple complexion and glowing eyes return, as she contacts commander Mar and orders him to track Lotor down. For a considerable amount of time, as the scenes suggest it, she’s searching for her son, who has disappeared. She finds out that commander Mar is also nowhere to be found, and we can see that her desperation grows. She’s hunting high and low for him, roaming the universe in her ship. Until she finds the wreckage of his cruiser, at Daibazaal (the location sort of doesn’t make sense, because the last place his cruiser has been seen abandoned, in S4E3, is nowhere near Daibazaal, but that belongs to a different discussion that pertains to the inter-dimensional meddling into S7-8). In his cruiser wreckage… there’s Kova. Which, once aboard Honerva’s ship, triggers more of her old memories (we already discussed them earlier - her past memories about her pregnancy and about Lotor). One of her loyal Druids tries to persuade her to take command of the empire, because “it has been phoebs [~months] since Emperor Lotor has disappeared. The empire is in a state of chaos.” Her response is rather surprising, but then again, Honerva has never been one to actually seek power. That was Zarkon’s obsession. She replies bluntly: “Tell them to look elsewhere. The Druids are but ash in the winds of infinity. Let them be led by someone of equal esteem. […] Depart my presence.”

Her focus is not ruling an empire at this moment. Her focus is finding her son. A motherly instinct, full of emotional resonance. Imagine that after ten thousand years, she is finally able to see her son through the eyes of the mother she was supposed to be. She is able to talk to him, express - in her own, still twisted way - her regret for not being beside him all this time. She finally meets him face to face, finally reveals herself to him… Only to have the rug pulled from underneath her… Not once, but twice. First, her own son rejects her. How painful that must have been!… And then… he completely disappears, along with her archenemy, Voltron, on whom she casts all blame, hatred and bitterness. How desperate must she be now, to find him, to get him back! Even after he rejected her, she still wants to reunite with him. Underneath all the dark magic and potent influence of the entity, she still finds the power to go past his wrath against her, because that’s what a mother does… But she has yet to see her own fault in this. She blames everyone else around but herself. There is this constant push and pull between the two personas inside her. She is aiming for the light, for finding her lost self, but her own weaknesses, which have been there since the beginning, prevent her from fully becoming what she once was. After retrieving commander Mar, who reveals what happened to Lotor and Voltron, she remarks in awe: “He pierced the veil.” When Mar says that “Lotor and Voltron perished”, her expression suddenly shifts to a terrified look, beads of sweat glinting on her cheek. “No! I must find him.” She summons the Kral Zera, but not to elect a new emperor. She wants to spew out all her rage and revenge on the Galra. By destroying them. Notice she changed her garments. She no longer wears Haggar’s cape. Now, she proudly dons an Altean outfit. Symbolic of her new persona.

This is her justification, standing in front of the Kral Zera flame: “This flame represents Lotor, son of Zarkon, prince turned emperor, emperor that pierced the veil. And my Altean blood coursed through his veins. But the Galra empire failed him. It was the Galra blood, deeply boiled in traditions of evil, that tainted him. Your ways weakened a god.” A Galra general pulls out his blade: “That treacherous witch!” Honerva: “The empire is weak. And now, I will end it.” Holding out her dark purple globe of magic energies, she melts away all the Galra generals in a monumental deathly spell.

*Quick pause in her analysis to point out something that the Paladins figured out in S8E10 “Knights of Light Part 2” while traveling inside her mind. While unveiling some of her old memories, they get to watch the very last moments from the lives of the original Paladins. It turns out that Zarkon was not the executioner. It was Honerva, who performed exactly the same magic as later at Kral Zera, spewing the purple energies out onto her enemies. And Pidge concludes: “That’s how the original Paladins ended up trapped in here. She took their quintessence, trapped their minds inside her consciousness.” And this explains exactly how she operates the dark entity, or, should I say, how the dark entity operates through her. The entity is constantly seeking for a source of energy, which is quintessence, or “life itself”. By draining the “life” out of others around her, Honerva was constantly feeding her entity. Bonus: she was trapping their consciousness inside her mind - which explains why the first one she trapped - doctor Haggar - became the name she adopted. Devoid of her own memories, she took the persona of the first being she absorbed. Also, notice her use of the entity in mind-controlling her subjects: clone Shiro, the Alteans on the colony, her attempts at controlling Allura after she takes the entity, as well as… robeast!Lotor.

Honerva is extremely mad at everyone that “tainted” her son. She blames the Galra blood, deeply boiled in traditions of evil, for weakening him. She not only throws the guilt at the empire, but she basically blames her husband for it. She proudly states that her Altean blood coursed through his veins, but the Galra blood threw a wrench in his destiny. This is a 180 degree shift from witch Haggar. Now, the Alteans are the saints, while the Galrans are the devils. Also, wow, she calls her son a “god”. Unfortunately, again, she fails to see her own mistakes in any of this. The next scenes in this episode are an interesting choice to juxtapose next to her vengeful actions. We’re seeing into her memories with child Lotor and the way Zarkon treats him, while she - as witch Haggar - watches impassively: Little Lotor: “Please, father, I must know where I come from.” Zarkon: “I said enough!” Then turning to Dayak: “If you do not remove his impurities, then I will find a Dayak that can.” Dayak: “He will be punished accordingly. We will sear him down to his inner fire so that he may burn the universe. Vrepit Sa!” The inscrutable visage of Haggar slowly transitions to present-time Honerva and we see the sorrow in her gaze. Sorrow for not being there to protect her little child, empathy for his innocent suffering and grief for what he had to go through. There are several of these transitions from Haggar to Honerva throughout the show. They hint at her physical metamorphosis but also, more importantly, they suggest her mental journey, her slow awakening to that initial persona, buried deep beneath, the resurgence of her emotions.

Although many of us may regard Dayak dearly due to other, more comedic interactions in the show, the fact that she needs to “sear Lotor down” tells a lot about the kind of trauma this little kid had to go through. It’s what makes present-day Honerva so angry at the Galra: these “traditions of evil” that tainted her little boy… She is now driven by revenge, against anyone that, according to her newly formed world views, is standing in the way of her grand plans. Yet she still doesn’t know her son’s whereabouts, still searching for him across the galaxies. As her cruiser hovers around Daibazaal once more, she decides on what looks like another one of her sacrificial rites… this time on Kova the cat. It seems like this is a last resort in her frantic attempt to find her son.

This pet had been around for ten thousand years and we can see Honerva’s attachment to him from the way she holds him to her chest, before setting him down on the altar of sacrifice. She is willing to lose him to get her son back. And apparently, Kova possesses more knowledge about the prince than expected. We know the cat also has the entity within. As I’ll discuss when looking at Lotor’s arc, I’m convinced he had it as well. The link that the entity formed with him was strong, because the cat was in his possession since childhood. Motes of purple quintessence rise from the floor all around, while Kova meows in distress.

The suspenseful music converges in a dramatic flow of celestial sounds and Honerva starts her dive into the depths of Lotor’s past. A tragic crescendo of flashbacks starts pouring, and Honerva finally knows where to find him: in the rift.

She wakes up again next to her altar, Kova completely gone, a few motes of purple quintessence still floating through the air. Perhaps as an homage to the defunct cat, the next scene brings more memories of little Lotor, back when he started his friendship with Kova. And right after this, we see Honerva traveling to the hidden Altean colony planet. Just a quick reminder - these scenes from S8E2 actually take place in S7, but they have been inserted in S8 as flashbacks. In S7E5, when the newly rescued Kolivan tells the Paladins that he sent a team to the Quantum Abyss and he didn’t find any Alteans - “just an empty facility”, that happens after Honerva had already been there and scooped them out for her own plans.

This is an important point of inflection in Honerva’s arc, because finding out that her son has died creates a powerful motivator in her actions and this motivator is called grief. Her world has been shattered by this devastating news. A mother that has just been awoken from 10k years of self-unawareness tries to reconnect with her one and only son, only to lose him to such a tragic death. A character put in this kind of situation would want to fix the world, in order to bring things back as they were (she will want to resurrect him, as we’ll see), and/or get back at the enemies who did this (she will want revenge on Voltron). And Honerva decides on both.

Her speech in front of the Alteans tells us only a part of what her new beliefs and plans are. Honerva: “Lotor is gone.” Merla: “How did he die?” Honerva: “Voltron. To all of you who believed in my son so justly, your faith will be rewarded. I have come here today to continue my son’s mission. And for that, I need you all.” Luca: “We are your humble servants, as will be the members of our sister colony once we inform them of the news. Do you know of their whereabouts?” Honerva: “Unfortunately, they have also fallen to the evils of Voltron. Voltron and the Galra will pay for what they have done. With your help, I will resurrect my son’s dream.” Merla: “We pledge our allegiance to you, Honerva, mother of Lotor.”

So she wants to “continue” her son’s mission. After linking with him through Kova, she got a comprehensive view into Lotor’s life, so she (allegedly) knows what his intentions are. Based on what she will say in the next episodes, and also based on what Lotor uttered in S6 while fighting Voltron, it all seems to boil down to creating a “new Altea”, one that can rule the universe and reverse the evils of the Galra (one in which Honerva wants revenge on anyone she considers her enemy). Which… unfortunately sounds a lot like the alternate reality where the Paladins traveled in S3E4 “Hole in the Sky” (Yes, the one with Sven and the other Slav, where the Alteans are turning everyone that stands against them into “non-cogs”. The one where Allura concluded: “That is exactly why my father sent the Lions away so many years ago. To avoid this reality.”) But was this really Lotor’s initial plan with Altea? I’ll discuss more when I’ll get to his meta. An interesting detail is the mention of the “sister colony”, where Honerva casts the blame on Voltron for their death. Which we know is not true. This so-called canon pours all guilt on evil!Lotor. But was it really his doing? The garfle-warfled S8 that we got (thanks to Bob!akaWEP) left a lot of loose ends. In any case, she wants to use the Alteans to “resurrect” her son’s dream. In fact, she actually doesn’t only look for a revival of his dream, she intends to literally resurrect him. And she does tell the Alteans that she intends so, because Merla confirms it in a conversation with her at Oriande: Honerva, overlooking the magical landscape of Oriande: “This ancient land was created through powerful magic. Alteans would travel here to learn the secrets of our race. We have a long and difficult road ahead of us, but our path is true.” Merla: “We will do anything to bring Lotor back.” Honerva: “I know.” This little snippet of conversation with Honerva, as well as the previous one, shows the level of devotion these Alteans have, towards Lotor, towards his mother. They are willing to go above and beyond for him, and this is an incredibly powerful description of their community. But, as Allura noted when discussing about the acolyte Luca, “If she were so desperate for something to believe in, it may have made her susceptible to being manipulated.”

The next scenes depict the mega-lab that Honerva created inside Oriande, where she melts the statues of the Sages in order to build her Komar mechas. Here we find out something that S7 teased us about, in the last episode: the Komar machines that Honerva built have an Altean inside them, an Altean that is used as “its power source” (direct quote from commander Holt). A battery source? (clears throat - certain VAs spoke about Lotor using Alteans as “batteries”. Well… Honerva is “continuing [her] son’s mission”. But how much is she continuing, and how much is she actually altering for her own agenda?) She asks Merla: “Find me the most faithful amongst us.” So the mech pilots are the most zealous believers, which… yes, it makes them susceptible to being manipulated. After the tragic flashback scenes with Lotor and Ven’tar’s planet (where, again, we see Haggar exerting her abominable sorcery upon her own son), we switch back to Honerva (disguised as Haggar) receiving news from Sendak: the Lions have returned. She commands him to destroy them. Immediately after, she activates the first Komar mecha, piloted by the most faithful acolyte, Luca. Her words towards the Alteans clearly speak of her vengeful intentions: Luca: “Voltron will pay for what they have done.” Honerva: “May the light guide you. Rise and avenge my son.” Chronologically, after these scenes, the order of events belongs to S7 E7-13: Earth versus Sendak, then Luca’s Komar mech attack, defeat and capture. After a few episodes in S8 in which we find out that Honerva has been pumping more of these Komar mechs across the universe, while also destroying the Olkari planet in order to get their cubes, we have another view of Honerva at the Oriande pyramid, addressing her Altean people before she begins her mega-magical ceremony:

“For eons, our people have suffered, cast out from our home, driven mad by the cursed Galra. We have sacrificed much. You have sacrificed much. But Lotor gave more than any of us. And today, his ultimate wish will be fulfilled. The Galra will pay for what they have done to the Alteans. The end for anyone who dares oppose us is near. It is time to begin. May Lotor’s light guide you.” Hmmm… “driven mad”…? Then she adds: “But Lotor gave more than any of us.” “Lotor’s light”… I keep hearing Honerva talking about it. Does it have anything to do with… the “enlightenment”? (aka the “wisdom about the quintessence and the entity”, as mentioned by Honerva in her youth). Also, here it is, again, her vengeful stance: “The end for anyone who dares oppose us is near.” A very absolutist declaration. Politically, although anti-Galra, it actually mirrors their doctrine. So, if the universe were to be ruled by this new Altean order, what difference would it make from the previous oppressors? Now, do you see the purpose of the alternate reality episode? Also, Honerva makes use of her Komar mechs to syphon out quintessence from entire planets (while Matt and the Coalition struggle to save all the planet inhabitants), in order to gain galactic proportion energies for her Oriande magic. These are not even Galra, they’re innocent people, caught in the midst of this war, but according to Honerva’s twisted logic (which the Altean acolytes follow blindly), she can sacrifice anything and anyone in order to bring her son back.

A comment on Honerva’s statement regarding Lotor: “Today, his ultimate wish will be fulfilled. The Galra will pay for what they have done to the Alteans.” So, her opinion is that Lotor’s ultimate wish was to make the Galra pay for the genocide against the Alteans. Which, since she connected with him via Kova, means that she inferred it from his final words uttered at the rift battle with Voltron: “I’m ready to wipe the Universe clean of all my enemies: Voltron, Haggar and the rest of the Galra.” What she fails to recognize is that Lotor uttered those pronouncements in an unfortunate state of mental breakdown (“driven mad”). Nothing prior to that indicated that he ever intended to end the Galra. On the contrary, he told Allura that he wants to return the Galra Empire to a “bygone era of peace. […] This isn’t a zero-sum game. Meeting the needs of the Galra Empire means bringing peace to the universe.” Also, he stated that he does not want to make use of the “barbarism of the Komar.” Well, Honerva clearly still does. So much for Honerva walking in the footsteps of her son… And I shall return to this controversial subject when analyzing Lotor’s story, which is the most nuanced of all, precisely because of the suffering he’d been through, precisely because “he gave more than any of [them]”.

During the battle at Oriande, we have a one-on-one encounter between Allura and Honerva. I’ll discuss more about Sincline’s reaction to seeing Allura during Lotor’s arc, but just note that the mech prepares its aim then lowers the weapon at her sight. Lance attacks him to protect Allura, only to be pushed away by a Komar robot. The Altean quickly becomes a casualty of Sincline’s seemingly indiscriminate violence. As Lotor’s mech swings its blade at the Red Lion, Honerva commands: “Still.” Sincline complies, as if remote-controlled. Concomitantly, Allura plunges at Honerva with her bayard, only to be pulled into a dark space where the two of them will have a captivating chat, suspended in time. Honerva: “Altea’s wayward daughter.” Allura: “Don’t you dare mention Altea to me.” Honerva: “This is just the beginning. Join me and our people. Together, we will go back to Altea.” Allura: “We cannot go back. It is destroyed because of you.” Honerva: “Think of your father. I knew Alfor well. This is what he would have wanted. Join me and the Alteans.” Allura: “Never! You cannot keep me here forever. And the moment you release your hold, I will end you. Honerva, holding a sphere of purple magic, depicting Sincline in frozen-motion: “Then you will end your friends as well. I am the only thing keeping my son at bay. Join the right side of this war.”

As we’ve been shown across the many episodes, Honerva frequently makes use of that purple sphere. If you haven’t guessed yet what it is, let me remind you: [the power of] the entity (the entity itself is spherical and purple, as Allura will discover in the episode “Clear Day” S8E8). Honerva actually makes double-use of the entity in the same scene: she’s “keeping her son at bay”, and she’s also holding Allura trapped in that dark place, where they have the little conversation.

A few things worthy of analyzing in Honerva’s current state of mind:

She actually wants Allura to join her quest. The one that has been her enemy for so long, the princess she hated with all her might, yet Honerva wants her as an ally… Why? Well, first off, most likely because she is Altean, and now the newly awakened Altean Honerva wants to recruit every kin possible. Secondly, most likely because she values Allura’s immense powers. Together with her, they’d be invincible. I don’t believe Honerva has any emotional attachment to her; it’s purely a tactical decision.

Honerva wants to resurrect Lotor, not just bring an entity-possessed son back from the rift. She knows Allura has the real Oriande knowledge. (Speculation, but…) maybe gaining Allura as an ally will help her fully resurrect her son…?

She blackmails Allura so she can force her to join her side of war. Which, again, proves my point, that Honerva has no feelings towards the “wayward daughter of Altea” (actually note the snarky tone), and she uses any means to achieve her scope.

She believes she knows what Alfor would have wanted. Allura already explained to us that Alfor wanted to avoid this kind of reality, so we know Honerva is on the wrong side.

She is keeping her son at bay. Well, well. Logical conclusion: her son IS in there. She uses her entity powers to remote-control him just like she does with all the Alteans piloting the Komar mechs when she telepathically links with them. This, right here, blatantly contradicts S8's official stance, that Lotor was dead.

Some of you might say: yes, but the Komar pilots also have free will, they are still conscious of their actions, they are able to speak freely and express their thoughts and concerns (as we see Merla do, noticing “something’s wrong with Lotor”). You might say the mad!Lotor inside Sincline is something completely different: a being devoid of consciousness, indiscriminately violent, fully on remote-control (psst: except when pointing the gun at Allura). Taking a deep breath... Well. What did I just talk about all along this meta, and during the full length of Zarkon’s meta? What is the title of these essays? “Slowly going mad.” The entity’s takeover happens as a GRADUAL progression towards complete disconnect from self. Zarkon and Honerva prove it to us during their arcs: the entity does not take full control of someone’s consciousness right off the bat. It takes time, years actually. We know the Komar pilots were possessed by the entity because we have the example of Tavo. Honerva exerts bursts of remote-controlling over them, when they do become, temporarily, completely someone else. In time, they would have turned out exactly like Zarkon and Honerva. That is my analytical take on how the writers built the entity’s behavior, based on examples that clearly demonstrate that. Which, again, logical deduction, means that Lotor right now is at the far end of the spectrum - fully gone mad, fully possessed by the entity. And I’ll come back to that during his analysis.

No mother would want to have her child perpetually in this state. And I’ll further suggest that she wanted and intended to wake him up, with examples. Examples which, unfortunately, due to the garfle-warfled S8, made little sense in the context in which they were placed. I’ll put the next few paragraphs under an indented format, because they’re more ‘speculative’ in nature, due to the aforementioned scramble-warfle.

S8E11 “Uncharted Regions” is probably the most scrambled of all, as many others noted before me. It seems to be an episode patched up with scenes from different other (chopped out) episodes. In any case Honerva suddenly wakes up after Allura traveled inside her mind.

She then goes to the bridge of her pyramid-ship and orders her Altean pilots: “Exit at coordinates beta-four-ex-seven. The Paladins are aware of our plans.” Merla asks: “Is that a problem?” Honerva: “No, it’s an advantage.” We’ve heard Lotor utter a similar phrase when cunningly using Voltron to retrieve the trans-reality comet. What advantage is Honerva seeking to gain? Was it just to use the powers of Atlas’s crystal and the Balmeras? I suspect it actually had to do with using Allura’s powers to wake up her son. Which we never got in this S8 edition. But we witnessed other little details: During their trip inside her mind (S8E9) the Paladins see a glimpse of how Honerva interacts with her son (all throughout S8, we are led to believe he is deceased - because we see what appears to be a cORpSe, but there are motes of purple quintessence rising from his body - similar to how Honerva and Zarkon wake up after being ‘resurrected’ by the entity. Also, logical questions: 1) why would she talk to a dead body and 2) why would she even carry around a corpse inside a mech robot while fighting the Paladins? I don’t believe a kids’ show would employ such an insane, horriffic, mind-twisting scenario, and, again I posit that this is a butchered version of the #realS8).

Pay attention to what she tells him, face to face (while he supposedly is dead): “Lotor. We’ll all be together soon.” Again, in S8E11, Honerva facing Sincline: “We will be back on Altea soon, my son.”

The intent is to show us that Honerva wants to get him “back”, to be “together” with him, in the environment in which she grew up, her perfect version of an Altean reality. She desperately yearns for a normal family, just like they unveiled during the trip in her mind. Her deepest desire is to have what she never experienced: family love, connection to her son, to a caring husband. Which means she wants to bring Lotor again to a normal, sane being, one with which she can communicate and share her emotions and thoughts. But she cannot do that anymore, can she? Because the only place where she could have done that, the place that helped her recover her own memories and (partially) her sensibility, Oriande, is gone. She destroyed the guardian Lion, she took away the quintessence from the Sages, she melted their statues. All the magic of Oriande is gone. But there is ONE more person left in the Universe that retains the wisdom of Oriande. One person who can probably resurrect Lotor. And that is Allura. (she’d done it with Shiro, hadn’t she?). Which, once more, proves my point that Lotor is actually there, alive (albeit fully possessed by the entity), his consciousness buried deep, deep under (and only Allura can trigger a small flicker of it), tragically resembling his father Zarkon, fully collapsed into madness (for completely different reasons, but we’ll get to that in his own meta). And (speculating - yes, I know) Honerva bets on Allura’s “life giving” powers (“Alteans are life-givers”) to bring him back for her.

Here are some extra snippets of how Honerva interacts with Merla and the other altean acolytes. Note how the order of events makes no sense chronologically: Beginning of E11, Honerva tells her Alteans to set a course to beta-four-ex-seven. Once there, she pulls up her own mech and starts sorting through all realities, using her purple-winged rosette. Nothing major happens there, just some of her robeasts eliminate a few Coalition scouts. Next, she orders Merla, while inside her mech:

Honerva: “Preparations are complete. Set a course for Altea. It’s time” (wait, set another course? She just made a pit stop to sift through a few realities and then off they go again?) Just a bit later, when Allura wakes up, Honerva is suddenly not in her mech anymore (why?):

Honerva: “The princess has awakened.” The next scene we see her in, she’s back in her mech again (huh?), the Sincline is next to her robot, and she’s about to fuse them together.

Then, she uses her telepathic powers via the entity to summon her Altean acolytes on Atlas (Allura is caught in the midst of it, debilitating headache preventing her from operating the teludav): Honerva: “Arise, my children. The time has come to act. Repent for your traitorous ways. Lend me your quintessence and all will be forgiven. […] Deliver me the power I need to return to our homeland. Give your energy along with the ship’s crystal. All of it.” Merla: “My people. Honerva, transferring that much energy will destroy them!” Honerva: “Their lives will be sacrificed for their savior.”

Merla interrupts the process, turning against Honerva. Later, she tries to directly attack Honerva, but - as implied from the animation of Merla's (clearly) exploding mech - Honerva kills her:

Paradoxically, we see Merla again in the next episode, asking the paladins not to harm her fellow acolytes - the subtitles confirm it’s Merla - and she pilots her Komar mech… um, again. Did she just, like, survive the explosion then just go grab another robot? (which, no surprise here, is another proof of the S8 garfle-warfle).

Anyway, apologies for the detour, let’s return to analyzing Honerva: She is willing to sacrifice anyone, including Alteans, to reach her goals. As we see from her facial expressions, although not Haggar anymore, she is basically back to her state of madness. But why is she so mad? She looked more calm and confident at the beginning of the episode. After all, didn’t she just bring her son back from the rift? Is it just her frustration against the annoying Voltron? Or is it more at stake here?

Speculating once more - I infer that she reverted to a high level of mental instability after Allura presumably saved Lotor, because the newly awakened son most likely rejected her… again. Deeply hurt by his refusal to accept her as his mother after she worked so hard to bring him back from the rift, she furiously decides to check out other realities and find her version of Lotor that would fit her selfish needs. So she sets her eyes on a reality where Lotor is an orphan child, because he’d be naive enough to believe she’s the good mother. This would infuse more tension buildup into her arc, creating an even more credible trajectory towards full-blown madness. Also, let's give this a logical spin: let's do a reductio ad absurdum. Why would Honerva rescue Lotor from the rift then completely abandon him (knowing that he IS in there, possessed by the entity) to go search for a child-Lotor in another reality?? It makes no sense.

6) Complete rejection But, surprise… Little boy Lotor is just as intelligent as his adult version: “She’s not my mother.” Honerva tries to plea with him, but eventually, the suppressed anger and madness that she tries so hard to mask does come out. She demands with a harsh tone: “Come to me.” And Lotor denies her again, with the same stark voice. “No. My mother is dead. And you cannot replace her.” This, this is the last straw that breaks the dam. She collapses into an unleashed mental breakdown: “[…] I’ve spent lifetimes trying to get back. Countless worlds have fallen in the wake of my effort to return to you. And this is how you welcome me? My own child, my own husband question who I am? I have sacrificed more than you will ever know! […] If there is no place in this universe for me, then there will be no universe at all.”

Honerva dramatically reverts to her state of insanity, this time amplified to multiverse proportions. The buildup of emotional distress she goes through ultimately collapses into this apocalyptical unleash. Her son’s rejection across realities is… world-shattering for her already fragile state of mind. If no one loves her, then everyone should perish. This extremist vision, completely disconnected from reality, devoid of empathy, filled with unrestrained violence and rage, is typical of what we simply define in lay terms in stories as madness - the kind of madness that is violent, completely devoid of any rational behavior (clinical definitions encompass a wide range of mental and psychotic disorders and I shall leave the exact diagnosis to experts). This climactic point of madness in her arc happens in an episode called “The Zenith” - or a “high point”, the time when someone is most powerful. She reached the “zenith” of her madness… She breaks the dam of mental disarray, letting herself completely go on the other side. Disconnected from from herself and from all realities, she intends to obliterate all of them - and her own life - in the process. It parallels what happened to Lotor in S6.

7) Redemption The last episode brings the Paladins face-to-face with Honerva, in the Connected Consciousness, after she scorches all realities in her wake. The Paladins give Honerva a moralizing discourse, trying to convince her that everyone deserves to live. She bluntly dismisses them: “You think your words mean anything to me? I’ve lived multiple lifetimes, and all of them filled with pain and loss. If I cannot experience the simple joys of life, why should anyone else?” Translation: If nobody gives me what I want, then screw you all. But then Allura approaches her and does a mind meld (remember the tempestuous mind meld with Zarkon? Well, this one’s more peaceful, actually suspiciously peaceful). She reminds her of her past life: “There was a time when you loved more than just your family, a time when your fascination with how vast the universe is gave way to your desire to help and uplift others.” Honerva’s distorted cheek marks suddenly reshape into their original Altean form. A short recap of Lotor’s life ensues, and Honerva bitterly concludes: “He deserved better. Better than I could give.” She weeps sincerely when Allura asks her to change everything back. “I’m sorry… but the damage is done. There’s nothing left to save.”

Although the scene is emotional and uplifting, I believe it lacks the buildup and intensity needed for a redemption of this magnitude. And that is because…

There has been much discussion around the edits made in these last scenes, including my own analysis - here and here. A recent tweet (2023) suggesting Shiro was drawn over Lotor in this last scene - liked and shared by Shiro’s VA - also sparked more interest in this subject. My opinion is that Lotor was drawn over with multiple characters, depending on the scene. They used Shiro, they also used Allura, and who knows who else. S8 was profoundly altered, the original message erased… Starting from that premise, here’s what I think really happened in this scene, which would have elevated the last part of the show to a truly remarkable ending: instead of Allura, it was Lotor who revived Honerva’s consciousness, as a follow up on what Lotor told her in their interaction in S6: “[…] maybe I will take pity on you when the time comes”. It would mean the ultimate family reunion and both son and mother would heal their multi-millennial wounds. Because, like I said, this mind meld looked suspiciously peaceful coming right after Allura and Honerva had fought a trans-reality life-and-death battle. Honerva allowing Allura’s hands over her head feels a bit unrealistic, but if Lotor were the one approaching her, the mother would be more receptive. This is speculative, of course. But keep in mind more and more evidence has started to emerge, supporting this version. And I’ll discuss more about this during Lotor’s analysis.

No matter, this ending that we got still partially preserves the original intent for Honerva, which was forgiveness, redemption through her own participation in the salvation of all realities.

Honerva finally reverts to her original self and the beautiful story arc closes.

A more complex arc than Zarkon’s, for sure (this took 3 times as many pages). Complex, interesting, diving into subjects such as ambitions versus obsessions, mental illness, motherhood, love, various emotional stages and subtle transitions, suppressed feelings, tension and accumulation of negative emotions, culminating with mental breakdown. And let’s not forget the artistry of Studio Mir in rendering the vast array of facial expressions, and the VA’s exceptional job with Honerva’s nuanced script.

Many of these nuanced emotional transitions will be found again in Lotor’s analysis, although effected by completely different reasons.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long, long analysis. Thoughts and opinions are always welcome!

[numerous-bees-in-a-skin-suit]

some more concepts for the voltron dragon prince au!!!

So I decided to go with Lotor as Claudia because I think it fits him better, and also I liked the idea of Lotor in an outfit like Claudia’s and also because I think he just looks cool as Claudia. He is going to still be Lotor, just in Claudia’s role.

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with Zarkon and Haggar, because I am leaving towards two ideas for them. The first one is that Haggar/Honerva is in Viren’s place, and the reason I am thinking about that is because of the whole dark magic/quintessence things that they do, and I also think that since Haggar *is* a Druid, it could work reasonably, and then Zarkon would be a version of Aavaros I guess?

The other thing I’m thinking about with that is having Zarkon be Viren (but a Zarkon that is more like pre-canon, still bad but not as bad yk), and then having Haggar be Aavaros since the whole magic thing. It could also work because King Harrow and Viren are shown to be like kinda friends in the beginning of the show (more like allies when the show starts and less friends, but not the point) and I think that could work well since I’m going to have Alfor be Harrow. Haggar taking Aavaros’ place could also work out really well, and yes, I know that Zarkon and Honerva are Lotor’s parents but I will come up with an explanation of sorts for that. Probably.

I made Allura take Ezran’s place because I think it works out well with her character in Voltron and what I would want her to be in this AU. She will NOT be Ezran, they are two different characters but I thought the role suited her really well. I think that her connection to the mice and to the Lions is what really solidified this decision for me because Ezran can also talk to animals, and I thought it was a good fit. I also think that I could do a lot of cool stuff with Allura being in his role. (I also wanted Allura to be Ezran so I could have the mice being bait and glowing :>)

Allura will be probably in between the ages of 16-17 in this AU, and I’m still trying to decide if I want Lance to be older or younger than her. I don’t really think that him being a little bit younger than her (like a year) would really have any repercussions in this, since I would still want him to be protective because that’s part of who I think he is as a character, and being older or younger than Allura in this wouldn’t make any difference to that.

I’m gonna make a pt 2 of this post because I don’t know how to do the “read more” thing on mobile and this is getting long and I want to be able to read this easily in the future ahahahhsdhhs

[willowtreebee]

So, I read @leenfiend ‘s comic: What’s ur Type.

And I was thinking a little too hard about the part where they found out Alteans have Marco-Polo too.

A thought dump (and spoilers) 👇

Like, why is that what’s crazy? If I went to space and there were humans with pointed ears, glowy things under their eyes, and magical powers, THATS what would shock me.

How is it that a whole other part of the universe has a planet with similar beings existing on it, and they aren’t related at all?

Also they speak a dialect of English??? HOW DO THEY SPEAK THE SAME LANGUAGE-

I know it’s just a show, and it’s made for kids, but THIS IS A BRAIN TWISTER FOR ME.

Another thing, how tf did the patriarchy also exist on another part of the universe???

This might be a stretch but-

It’s kinda crazy that the patriarchy also occurred for the Galra, like even though Honerva’s Altean, SHES the one who discovered Quintessence, not Zarkon. (I think)

Maybe it’s because he was a paladin of Voltron and he’s Galran? But even so, Honerva killed the other paladins from what I remember, did she not? (So she asserted dominance LOL)

Also Lotor and most of the Galra called Honerva “The Witch”, they didn’t even call her Haggar, but hey called her a WITCH.

Yes, she does magic, and she’s Altean, but we’re there not other druids too alongside her? They never called them witches.

And even the claim that she’s Altean, I know this is a fault of character, but she’s literally proven her loyalty to Zarkon. She works under him, has been with the Galra for numerous years, hell, SHE EVEN HAD A KID WITH HIM. But I guess they’re so corrupt by the Quintessence that they just forgor!!

Another thing is, there’s mostly men in the Galran army, why is that?

I can count on my hands how many (full) Galran women I’ve seen throughout the show.

This is either that the people behind the scenes didn’t bother to draw women, or that Zarkon purposely chose men to fight for him.

Basically what I’m trying to say is, we don’t pay enough attention to how wild the concept of this show is.

Four random ass teenagers and some dude who got abducted were chosen to be in control of this space super weapon that is supposed to defend the universe from this race of aliens that are all chasing after some sort of a space drug that is essentially made up of LIFE FORCE.

DO YOU KNOW HOW CRAZY THAT IS????

Thank you for reading!! 😽

[vldshitposts]

Zarkon and Honerva: die, get quintessence zombified, zarkon dies, haggar shit, etc.

Alfor and Melenor: Melenor dies at some point I guess?

Alfor and Coran: Alfor dies

Krolia and Keith's Dad: Krolia leaves them, Texas Dad dies

Lotor and Allura: They kiss once and then 8 seconds later she finds out he's using her people as batteries, Lotor dies

Ezor and Zethrid: Ezor dies but gets retconned back into the season that did not happen because everyone got Big Mad so they just broke up I guess

Shiro and Adam: Adam dies

Shiro and Keith: They go through hell like 20 times and Shiro dies once or twice (temporarily, but they never even officially got together, so he's allowed to come back)

Lance and Allura: Allura dies (and Lance probably died that one time but they weren't together yet so he gets to live)

Anyway Voltron is not a romantic show and you don't want your ship to be cannon because then at least one of them is contractually obligated to bite the dust. So maybe shut up, sit back, and enjoy it for what it is.

[variantia]

Voltron: Legendary Defender muses

LOTOR canon

Lotor is the son of Zarkon, the emperor of the Galra Empire. Lotor is only half-Galra himself, the other half being Altean from his mother Honerva, who is known now as the witch Haggar. All of his life, Lotor was pushed away by his parents and grew up in an incredibly toxic environment; expected to train constantly and punished for anything other than crushing others under his heel. His dark secrets have surface, and despite that he has always tried to do the right thing, his morals are twisted. Being poisoned by an energy source known as quintessence only furthers his breakdown. Eventually, after escaping its effects, Lotor wants desperately to make amends and do what is truly right. Time will tell whether or not his attempts to change will stick.

[rambling-entity]

S4 Voltron thoughts and spoilers

Just thoughts full of spoilers. Might not include only season 4 stuff either. How Shiro has been acting basically throughout the season kinda pissed me off. I mean it's one thing to pressure Keith into leading Voltron, it's another to not give him any training or advice in doing so. There's only so far natural leadership tendencies can get you. Plus there was the utter disregard for the advice given by Lance, who is now the right hand of Voltron. Them at least viewing the random pillars from a farther distance would have been an acceptable compromise. Hence why I love the theory Shiro is Kuron, a clone, because it fits this un-Shiro-like behaviour. Then there's Keith leaving Voltron. That hurt basically everyone, Keith most of all. I mean Voltron was his family when he never really had one before, and to feel so easily replaced cannot possibly have been easy. Plus (and yes I am a Klance shipper) but there was also so much bonding that happened between those two, and I'm sure that with how friendly and open Hunk is there had to have been some bonding there too. Allura may have noticed Keith leaving the most out of the group, and that brings another point of bonding. Keith is part Galra, so for Allura to have gotten past that and felt concern for Keith is a major point. She really grew this season, particularly when she is supported by Lance to basically fight Honerva (a 10 000 year old witch) and freaking WIN. As one of the last Alteans, she bears so much responsibility on her shoulders. Lance acknowledges that and by putting his faith in her during that deadly moment, he was such stable support. Fans, including me, want Lance character development, and I think it's slowly being revealed in moments like that. It's not about sacrificing himself, not totally at least, but Lance is growing into his role as a right-hand man, an advisor and a support. Season 3, where he really was supporting Keith? Yea, that's also showing up in s4. Someone mentioned the fact he didn't make a snarky comment at Shiro when he could have been all "I told you so" and that's really showing maturity. Sure, during the Coran brainwashing episode, he's definitely playing up his "player" status but really, that episode was about the creators. I mean all those stereotypes, they are the initial boxes into which the characters are placed. It just makes for easy relatedness, like yea, this character has these traits, etcetera. But for those characters to break out of those boxes will take time. Also, there was Hunk charactr development, and sort of reaffirmation too. I mean, he's lovable cuddly chef but he's also freaking smart (there is now a smart trio that are all nerds together and I love it). The fact he went and freaking elbowed that Galra in the face to save Pidge, oh man was that excellent. It shows the bravery Hunk now has, that he goes shooting into the fray instead of being scared. I mean I'm sure it is still scary to him but bravery is acting despite fear. Being given Pidge background was wonderful too, but seriously, freaking heart attack when she got to that grave. After (spoiler for How to Train Your Dragon 2) Hiccup's dad died, I am now vulnerable to believing in character deaths for kids shows. Matt is also just such a total nerd, it's so pure. (Also Kaltenacker interactions were pure fluff and sooooo cute, Coran and Allura being astonished at the act of milking a cow). Speaking of character deaths, NARTI. The total callousness of Lotor in killing her was just absolutely shocking and drove his generals away. I mean, especially for Axca to betray him when she believed in him the most. She will never get over that, because the more faith she had, the greater the betrayal will feel. You could see it in the other two as well, their silence and body postures in their ships after their escape. And it just adds to this utter confusion I have about Lotor. I mean honestly, what is he going to do with quintessence and a trans-reality comet? His duplicity and smarts are the foil for the headstrong Keith, and him saving Keith in the end was great and all but WHAT IS HIS MOTIVE. What drives his actions because I really, truly cannot fathom even much of a theory. AND KEITH SACRIFICING HIMSELF. Lemme talk about that, because that speaks volumes about his character. Part of me thinks that because he now has a firm foundation in Voltron, but also him realizing he isn't actually needed within that foundation of Voltron, it's like he's experienced happiness once and that was enough for him. Like, him reaching out for help by talking to Matt and captain Olia was just so awesome to see because he's not a lone wolf anymore. He can lead and he can ask for help, he won't go it alone, but he also won't put anyone else in danger more than he has to and is willling to give up his life to preserve others. This was to be an act that would save others, total self-sacrifice worthy of the BoM but also because he knows how precious other lives are through Voltron. Keith is a mix not just in terms of being human and Galra, but also creating beliefs and values and actions worthy of both Voltron and the Blade of Mormora. But being a mix also means not truly fitting into either place. Lance is his support, but Keith has always stood on his own two feet alone. Shiro has also been there (anyone else want to know how in the heck Keith and Shiro bonded) but with Shiro not only pressuring him into being a leader when Keith clearly doesn't know how, and then replacing him, that drove Keith away. And then there's Haggar who appears to be returning to being Honerva and that is just, oh heavens what will happen. There like a war going on within Haggar right now, Altean light versus the dark creatures of quintessence. And the cliffhanger ending. Oh how I look forward to next season, particularly interactions between Keith and Lotor, both who don't truly fit in.

[void-tiger]

Lotor is not 10k years old. He is also a clone.

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Do you think quintessence exposure prolonged Allura’s life and she would’ve lived an unnaturally long life for even an Altean if she’d lived? I think about this question a lot because this girl got blasted by and was exposed to insane amounts of it.

Hi, asennnaa. Ah, those are good questions! I’m not sure I have a perfect answer because I’m still grappling with how to handle some of the holes or contradictions in this show. I do think VLD’s entire universe confirms that infusions of quintessence into a body, as you suggest, can unnaturally prolong a life. But what counts as “enough” quintessence exposure to really make one immortal? Just “how immortal” can Allura get? Because other characters are shown to require multiple infusions of quintessence in order to remain even marginally immortal.

It looks like Zarkon was still aging, even with quintessence infusion. Here is a fresh Zark:

And here he is again ~10,000 years later with the wrinkly lips, sunken-in cheeks, and big eye baggies that are all standard signs of aging.

Old zarkturtle status achieved.

So despite standard access to quintessence infusions, and even being overcome with quintessence in the rift itself, both he and Haggar seem like they’re fighting a battle with the clock and still losing. Could their lack of immortality and constant need to infuse with quintessence be because they were accosted by rift creatures (so not experiencing “pure” quintessence infusion in the rift)? I suppose it’s possible.

And a lack of ongoing access to pure quintessence might also be part of the entire Galra Empire’s continuous desire to get to purer and larger amounts of quintessence. Because it’s not just power on the line.

Zarkon himself confirms what he hopes to achieve through quintessence in s3:

Desire for immortality is a huge motivator for the entire empire harvesting quintessence in the first place. Zarkon wants to live forever with his friends and family. But oh nu, he’s still aging. And even Lotor?? What is ten or one-hundred-thousand years in the face of a universe that is billions of years old? Is anyone technically immortal in this show? How long can anyone actually live?

An “imperfect-immortality” would also explain the strange reality of Lotor. He is a beautiful boi and is also 10,000 years old as well. Executive Producers Lauren Montgomery and Joaquim Dos Santos suggest in a Season 5 AfterbuzzTV interview that Lotor’s infusion with quintessence in utero results in him aging very, very slowly.

(Here’s the dialogue from the interview if you want it, from around the 13:30 mark:

JDS: It’s pretty safe to say that Lotor’s kind got that Daywalker kind of thing going on.

Interview: —Little vampire—

LM: Being in…in her womb, as [Honerva] was being exposed to all of this quintessence—it’s part of his DNA. It almost puts him on a level with Allura, pretty much who her quintessence is a part of her DNA. So it’s interesting to see.

JDS: And it’s allowed him to stay so beautifully young.

LM: He’s aged at a much slower rate than your average Galra.

Interviewer: So he IS a vampire.

LM: I think all Galra are kinda space vampires.

JDS: They’re kinda space vampires, yeah. Safe to say. You’re getting instead of blood, you’re getting like…planet juice.)

And it just so happens that, in the active plot of VLD, we’re introduced to Lotor at a point in time where he’s aged physically and mentally to the point of, what, maybe early twenties? The canon’s not clear about it. Despite the lack of a canon-backed “mental-to-physical human-age equivalent,” Lotor appears to careen between a tricky mastermind and a boi who’s still a bit embarrassed about his nanny:

(While I tend to think he’s early 20s in physical and mental agility, you could probably even argue Lotor acts like an older teenager still sometimes, lol. Quality eye-roll and pout right here. Does anyone else get, “Mom, shut up” vibes from this gif? And even his idealism, his unshakable belief that simply giving the empire what it wants will result in peace--it lacks a critical foresight about other people experiencing quintessence madness, dangers from within the rift, and the inevitable wars to “control the gates” and such technology. And there’s some things to be said about humans obtaining full brain development around age 25, as the prefrontal cortex, which inhibits impulses and assists with critical decision-making, is the last section to develop in full. So it makes me think, for all his intelligence and schemes, that he’s mentally a bit younger than he’d like to appear. And obviously doesn’t want to appear, considering how embarrassed he is about his nanny in front of his new-found friends, lol.)

But I digress. So just based on the evidence and the extra-canon commentary from EPs, it seems that if we panned out 20,000 years in the future, we might see a significantly aged Lotor, with the deep face lines and lip wrinkles and gaunt cheeks. Because he’s never stopped aging. His body clock is just totally and utterly creeping along, lucky boy.

If you want to trust the extra-canon text, then you might be able to extrapolate that like Lotor’s DNA, Allura’s DNA gives her an extended life. Although unlike slow-age Lotor, Allura appears to have had a more accelerated childhood. She can’t be more than Kova’s 28 decaphoebs (years), given that the season 3 finale shows Allura was born after Kova’s introduction. And yet, unlike Lotor’s strange history of taking forever to grow up, Allura presents as physically mature within a fairly normal timeline.

This would actually suggest that something is a bit weird about Allura’s DNA. And its something that makes her quintessence more intense than even Lotor’s own quintessence signature, if you want to go by the interviews where LM says, “It almost puts him on a level with Allura.”  

So what was this mysterious event?

Allura certainly could still infuse herself or be infused with quintessence to prolong her life, but that wouldn’t prolong her life indefinitely or put her even within range of what’s naturally going on with Lotor’s DNA.

Is there something inherently unique about Allura’s lineage or species, then, that could answer this?

Let’s look at Alteans first. The canon seems oddly contradictory about the natural age of Alteans. Coran is at least 600 years old because he was alive with the Castle of Lions was being built. But yet executive producer LM states that there’s something inherent in Allura’s DNA that makes her even more special than the average person, and even more strangely…Allura’s father, Alfor, doesn’t seem to fall into either of these two categories.

??

Despite Alfor understanding the deep secrets of the universe via Oriande, and having personal direct exposure with unlimited pure quintessence through building and even fighting in Voltron, he ages. Hard.

Here’s Alfor as a young man:

Here’s Alfor, only decaphoebs later, not long before he died.

So here we have an aging Alfor. And oof, in less than 28 decaphoebs, with no explanation as to why Coran would be doing so well in comparison. (Feel free to speculate!)

So whatever is wrong with Alfor’s life cycle, it would seem to be an isolated incident that not even exposure to Voltron or to the rift could undo. In which case, it’s hard to know if Allura’s DNA would naturally have the same weaknesses from her lineage. If not, then she should at least be able to reach 1,000 years naturally, if the spunky Coran is any measure to go by.

But Alfor did do something that I think places Allura as entirely unnatural and probably the most likely candidate to have a form of true immortality in this entire show:

So right in season 1, episode 1, Coran admits that Alfor has done some pretty wild alchemy. He physically connected Allura’s essence with the essence of Voltron—the single source of self-regenerating, infinite quintessence throughout the whole of the entire universe.

I’m not sure if this alchemical forge-bond would protect Allura from physically aging, but it would suggest that Voltron’s life force and Allura’s life force are intimately tied on the material plane. There is no other canonically shown bond like this in a living person, in the VLD universe. It makes Allura entirely unique as a character and likely helps to explain why she is so consistently over-powered compared to even Haggar/Honerva.

Because unlike ANY other Altean, including Honerva, Allura has an infinite, massive battery of pure quintessence to pull from at will. And it’s tied to her very life force.

I don’t know if a person’s life force being personally connected to Voltron would confer physical immortality, but I do think there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that as long as Voltron exists, Allura’s essence would be preserved within it. And as we saw in season 6, Shiro was capable of interacting with other paladins despite his physical death, because Black Lion had preserved his essence.

So I guess all of this is to say, it seems there would be a lot of reasons for why Allura could live a very long life. It does seem that if she infused herself with quintessence in an ongoing fashion, and she quite often has, then her already long Altean lifespan would become longer. And even in physical death, Allura could still “exist” like s6 Shiro to communicate and interact with the living, in a way that not even her father could.

(Which makes you wonder about that s8 ending with the Lions mysteriously flying off for an unknown reason and Lance’s Altean marks lighting up like a homing beacon, but oof, that’s perhaps another topic.)

Thank you so much for the ask! I hope my winding ramblings help to answer your question or encourage further thought about the possibilities!