| “ | Attention, paladins of Voltron and rebel fighters. I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but… I think it is time we had a discussion. | „ |
| ~ Lotor after single-handedly saving several star systems, Team Voltron, and the entire Voltron rebel coalition from Haggar. |
| “ | I’ve dedicated my life to preserving Altean culture. Now that we’ve unlocked the quintessence field, all of your people, who would have been hunted down long ago had it not been for my intervention, can live in peace. Were some lives lost in the process? Yes. But they were martyrs to a noble cause. I sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions. | „ |
| ~ Lotor genuinely explaining his good intentions to Allura. |
| “ | Zethrid, Ezor, my deepest apologies for lying to you both, but in order to gain the princess’ trust and make the paladins of Voltron believe we were truly at odds, it had to be done. | „ |
| ~ Lotor revealing he faked Acxa’s betrayal and actually used Zethrid and Ezor’s betrayal to fool Team Voltron and Haggar for over a year. |
Lotor, also known as Prince Lotor, is the secondary antagonist of Voltron: Legendary Defender, serving as the main antagonist of Seasons 3 - 6 and a posthumous character for the rest of the series. He was the exiled son of Emperor Zarkon and Honerva/Haggar who returned to assume the throne and defeat Voltron following Zarkon's seeming death but in reality worked to further his own ulterior motives.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- He has a very tragic backstory. He was born following Zarkon’s corruption with Honerva/Haggar losing her memory and everyone presuming Honerva was dead. He grew up never knowing about his mother and being subjected to constant abuse from Zarkon even as a young child despite his innocent attempts to ask Zarkon about his mother and bond with Zarkon as father and son. He remained a kind-hearted person even as he grew to be an adult and when Zarkon put him in charge of mining quintessence on a planet, he worked with the planet’s population as equals to harvest quintessence healthily and efficiently to achieve prosperity for all. However, when he presented his accomplishments to Zarkon, Zarkon was disgusted Lotor worked with a “lesser” race and ordered him to destroy the planet which Lotor refused and despite Lotor pleading Zarkon not to punish the planet but him instead, Zarkon destroyed the planet with him being powerless to stop it and banished him forever to live with the pain of what happened. This made him resolve to acquire knowledge about his mother and the Altean people, another race destroyed by Zarkon, to preserve their culture by any means necessary and to expand on their work to find a way to cross into the rift between realities that contained the quintessence field to provide a method of peacefully harvesting quintessence and end the Galra Empire’s devastation of the universe.
- He is one of the very, very few Galra officials to not be a xenophobe with all his generals being half-breeds and he allows the worlds he conquered to continue governing themselves.
- He is a pretty good boss and has a pretty cordial relationship with his generals: Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, and Narti.
- He used his immense knowledge of Altean culture to track down the remaining Alteans who were off-world after Altea had been destroyed and used his charm to convince them all to come with him to a hidden planet deep within the quantum abyss where they would be safe from Zarkon’s grasp and created a virtual paradise where Altean culture and society could thrive. His actions and charm would inspire unquestioning devotion of the Altean colonists over time with him coming to be worshiped as a messiah to them. However, when quintessence amounts were running dangerously low, he took advantage of the Alteans devotion to him by tricking countless numbers of them into coming with him to a “new” colony which in reality was simply a harvesting plant where he imprisoned them and harvested the quintessence from their bodies, killing thousands for generations as a temporary measure until he found a way to travel to the quintessence field between realities to peacefully harvest quintessence to end the Galra Empire’s devastation of the universe and stop his atrocity, devoting his life to this goal for centuries.
- He secretly had an inter-reality gate constructed in the ruins of the Galra homeworld Daibazaal, specifically the area of the rift between realities Honerva had experimented with, which would allow trans-reality material fused with Altean alchemy to fuse through it and enter into the quintessence field.
- He secretly participates in a gladiator match in disguise and effortlessly beats his opponent before exposing the treacherous Commander Throk in public and revealing that he knew Throk had secretly been trying to plot a coup against him before challenging Throk to a duel of honorable combat to become the leader should he defeat him, all with a charismatic, sophisticated, and affable tone of voice.
- He easily defeats Throk in a duel but instead of killing him as expected in the traditional Galra way, he spares Throk’s life and gives an inspiring speech to the empire about how they had to change their ways to inspire loyalty in those they rule instead of fear and wasting all their energy trying to keep their subjects down, when he more pragmatic and beneficial option was to allow those worthy from their subjects to join their ranks as they grew stronger with each ally gained while their enemies would eventually be crushed, inspiring the entire crowd to pledge their fervent loyalty to him. However, after walking out with his generals, he revealed his true manipulative colors and how he was using the crowd all along before ordering his generals to get Throk transferred to the worst sector of the empire as punishment and chillingly walking away.
- He holds respect and even compliments his opponents in battle as shown with Throk and Allura and is pretty graceful and humble in admitting his faults and readjusting in the rare case he loses.
- He launched an attack on the recently liberated planet Puig and effortlessly conquered it, making sure to capture it with no casualties on either side and instead of enslaving the Puigians as the Puig leader expects, he offers them a chance to join the Galra Empire as valuable allies so they'll never need Voltron again.
- He figured out that the Black Lion was missing through intelligence reports from the other lions and set a trap for Team Voltron by having one of his generals possess the Puig leader to send out a fake distress signal.
- He calmly introduced himself to Team Voltron when they fell right into his trap and offered them the chance to surrender instead of being destroyed. It turned out though that he expected Team Voltron to turn down his offer and that he didn't even want to capture the Lions, he just wanted to draw them out and test them to analyze their battle tactics. He only launched enough fighters to see how well the heroes worked together as a team and ordered Zethrid to fire the ion cannon when he noticed the Black Lion's paladin (who was now Keith following Shiro's death in the final battle against Zarkon) wasn't in control, he specifically told Zethrid to just graze it and not cause any permanent damage as he just wanted to draw out the Red and Blue Lions who were still missing from the fight. Once they had all been drawn out and he saw how they operated, instead of opening fire on them like Acxa asked, he ordered a retreat as he had seen enough and now knew for certain all five lions were operational, which was his goal all along.
- He realized Team Voltron was following him and went out to face them by himself in just his fighter and easily plays them against each other, outmaneuvering them and tricking them into crashing into each other while landing countless shots on them with none of the paladins being able to land a single shot on him. After beating them though, Lotor didn't even taunt them or become arrogant despite it being an embarrassment for Team Voltron, he was just genuinely disappointed that the legend of Voltron didn't appear to live up to reality.
- He also figured out that they weren't the same paladins that defeated his father and decided to take advantage of their weakness by luring the paladins all into a trap on the planet Thayserix where the planet’s unique atmosphere would wreak havoc on the Voltron lions sensors and effectively make them blind. Soon after he lured them to an area of the planet that contained a highly combustible gas and revealed himself to trick the paladins into the opening fire which blew up in their faces and separated them from each other where Lotor proceeded to hunt down the most inexperienced one Allura (who had just become a paladin, the blue paladin to be exact in the reorganization of the team following Shiro’s death). When Allura was able to briefly hide from him, he remained calm and collected and even stated how he was impressed that she was able to hide before quickly finding her and chasing her down. He impressively pointed out how Allura was learning to control her lion and when Allura was able to connect with her lion to form a sonar map and froze one of the wings from Lotor’s jet, he simply complimented Allura and pulled back to call for reinforcements. Even when Voltron was formed and destroyed the fleet, he chose to retreat, telling his generals how they would face Voltron on a day of their choosing and that the paladins being able to form Voltron wasn’t a loss but an opportunity, simply readjusting his strategy to take advantage of the new situation.
- He used the fact that the paladins could form Voltron again to send a fake distress signal from an ancient Altean ship carrying a trans-reality comet of the same material Voltron was made of, which opened a wormhole between realities to trick Team Voltron into going in, as only material made from that comet could traverse between realities to dislodge the comet. Once Voltron made it out with the comet, he snuck right under their noses and stole the comet which they were powerless to stop as the journey back had temporarily caused them to lose power with Lotor getting away with the comet scot-free, using the comet to build sincline ships to access the quintessence field between realities.
- When Zarkon and Haggar found out about his possession of the sincline ships and ambushed him, he quickly found out that one of his generals, Narti, had sold him out and instantly killed her before escaping with his other generals with the sincline ships.
- He didn’t get angry or lash out when Acxa stunned him with her and his other generals betraying and cuffing him to go give him up to Zarkon to save themselves, telling them he understood they had to do what they must just like he did and rotated his arms a complete 180 to destroy his handcuffs and ejected Zethrid out of the ship so he could take control and escape.
- He outsmarted Zarkon and his forces when they were trying to capture him, plunging his sincline ship nearly onto the surface of an unstable star to force Zarkon to pull back after the radiation nearly destroyed his fleet when they tried to pursue him and allowing him to effortlessly escape from the star with Zarkon being unable to pursue due to his ships’ engines being overheated.
- He single-handedly saved the entire Voltron Coalition and countless star systems from being destroyed by using the sincline ship’s firepower to pierce through Haggar’s ship and neutralize her spell activating the planetary bomb Naxela and using this as an opportunity to request an alliance with the Voltron Coalition, allowing them to take him into custody.
- He provided intel for the Voltron Coalition for months, allowing them to easily take down countless key Galra installations, knowing it would eventually convince Team Voltron to trust him and explained his plan of building sincline ships to pierce the quintessence field between realities and harvest quintessence peacefully instead of destroying planets like the Galra Empire had done before to Allura and “Shiro”, admitting that he did trick them into getting the trans-reality comet for him but explaining how it necessary since only Voltron could retrieve the comet and correctly pointing out how he wasn’t the least bit aggressive after getting the comet and how he had no idea they would cross paths with them in the Ulippa system. He later revealed the location of Pidge’s dad in one of the prisons he used to run so Pidge could go rescue him.
- He secretly orchestrated a plot with “Shiro” to have “Shiro” give him the black paladin bayard to break free of his chains after the prisoner exchange and defeat Zarkon, correctly knowing Zarkon wouldn’t honor his end of the deal and give Pidge’s father in exchange for Lotor and after trying to convince Pidge not to go through with the deal failed.
- He killed Zarkon to save Team Voltron, ending the reign of the most bloodthirsty and hateable tyrant in the universe for good and finally convincing Team Voltron to trust him.
- He went behind the paladins back with “Shiro” to go to the traditional Galra coronation ceremony called the Kral Zera so Lotor could take the throne and even though Keith blew up the and unintentionally hindered his efforts and fractured the Galra Empire, Lotor was still able to formally took control of the Galra Empire by lighting the flame and get a significant portion of Galra forces to pledge their loyalty to him.
- He inspired and encouraged Allura to feel the energy around her in Haggar’s lair to find a compass stone that he realized would lead them to the magical realm of Oriande, the birthplace of all Altean alchemy where King Alfor learned its secrets that would enable Alfor to build Voltron and would allow him and Allura, who had the Mark of the Chosen which deemed them worthy to enter the realm, to learn those secrets so they could fuse his sincline ships with quintessence to allow them to cross into the rift between realities and gain unlimited amounts of quintessence to transition the Galra Empire to a peaceful existence.
- He had a genuinely affable conversation with Allura as they were traversing Oriande, revealing his tragedy to Allura and his motivations. He smiled in respect to Allura when she comforted him over his tragedy and thanked him for his immense help with feelings between the two blossoming into love.
- He launched his updated ships with Allura to successfully cross into the quintessence field for the first time and harvest some quintessence, congratulating Allura and telling her how he never could have done it without her before they kissed each other for the first time. However, when their relationship was soon ruptured when Keith and Romelle exposed his atrocities against the Altean colony, he remained calm and admitted the truth whilst still trying to convince Allura not to let this ruin their relationship and everything they had worked for together albeit to no avail.
- After being captured by his generals and taken to Haggar who revealed her true identity as his mother Honerva, he chillingly told her how she was just a corruption of what was once so pure and altruistic before Acxa shot Haggar and forced her to retreat, revealing he had Acxa pretend to betray him all along which his other two generals were unwitting pawns of and he had outplayed Haggar and the heroes all along in a truly successful chessmaster gambit to gain Team Voltron’s trust and get Haggar to trust his generals by tricking them into thinking he and his generals were on opposite sides.
- He tried again to reason with Allura and the paladins, using his charm to try and convince them they were on the same side while admitting what he had done in the past and not trying to hide from it but revealing that his intentions and love for Allura were genuine and he wanted to work with Team Voltron, even telling his generals to hold their fire and not attack when Allura shot a blast at them. He only becomes cold when Allura calls him just as bad as Zarkon and coldly orders his generals to destroy the Voltron paladins.
- When his generals betrayed him for real this time after he stated he was willing to destroy all his enemies including the rest of the Galra, he hacked the sincline ships they were in and ejected them out to take control of all three sincline ships himself and reveal that all three ships could combine, forming his version of Voltron to take down the paladins. Btw, he spares the lives of his generals and doesn’t decide to kill or even attack them, but just lets them go.
- Although he becomes somewhat unstable and increasingly megalomaniacal in his final battle with Voltron following his exposure to unlimited amounts of quintessence, it wasn’t of his own free will as overexposure to quintessence forcibly corrupts anyone even the most pure-hearted heroes and this doesn’t detract from his magnificence as Lotor gaining ultimate power only highlights how intelligent and competent a threat he had become especially since he proceeds to lay an epic beatdown of Voltron, constantly using the sincline mech to disappear and cross into the quintessence field before reappearing to surprise attack Voltron again and again. However, when Allura can make Voltron pierce through the rift and enter the quintessence field, he is impressed and admits he underestimated her before continuing their battle, instantly recognizing Voltron’s attempt to overload him with a blast of excess power and powering through it and nearly getting Voltron until his systems were overloaded at the last second. In short, he retains his intelligence, competence, cunning, charm, and even humility despite becoming corrupted by quintessence not to mention that he posthumously recovers and redeems himself anyway.
- His final moments before his death are played for sympathy as Team Voltron was reluctantly forced to leave him the quintessence field which was about to destroy them and he is subjected to a truly horrific death as he painfully and slowly died of radiation/starvation poisoning with the remnants of his flesh having melted and decomposed by the time Honerva finds his corpse in the final season, making him a clear scapegoat.
- He posthumously redeems himself and appears in the finale alongside the spirits of the original paladins and Zarkon to accompany Allura and Honerva into the afterlife following their sacrifice, reuniting and reconciling with his parents as a happy family.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- He conquered countless worlds for the Galra Empire.
- While it was born out of good and understandable intentions to preserve a majority of lives, he harvested the quintessence of thousands of Altean colonists including children, killing them to obtain quintessence when supplies were running dangerously low.
- He used to run a prison holding kidnapped scientists from different worlds and enslaved them to advance Galra Empire technology.
- He murdered one of his generals, Narti, after figuring out she was Haggar’s spy who Haggar used to ambush him, but it wasn’t clear if Haggar was possessing Narti or if Narti was a spy of her own free will, making this action rather cold.
- He risked Team Voltron’s lives by tricking them into getting the trans-reality comet from a mysterious wormhole and stealing it right from under them after they came back.
- He threatened genocide against the Galra when stating he was willing to kill all his enemies.
Trivia[]
- He is one of the two Voltron: Legendary Defender Magnificent Baddies alongside his mother Haggar.
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 Magnificent Baddies
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Animated Features Animated Television | ||