Lotor - Tumblr Posts

Short hair Lotor 😍😍

DO A LOTOR EDIT WITH SHORT HAIR PLEASE, I BEG

INSTRUCTIONS UNCLEAR. MANY HAIRCUTS GIVEN.

Forget Me Not

drew these a while back for some button pins!  🌼  (you can also use them as icons if you’d like) I chose all the flowers based on specific meanings but they’re also kinda up to interpretation! (= 

Shiro: clematis, Lance: forget me not, Keith: protea, Pidge: daisies, Hunk: sunflower, Allura: peony, Lotor: rhododendron

it could be ;;;;;;;

I swear to god if I have to watch Lotor suffer one more GOD DAMN SECOND in this show I will choke...

local rich kid gets beaten up by homeless youth 

Can we all just agree that Lotor is definetly still alive

Louder for people in the back

LOTOR DESERVED FUCKEN BETTER OKAY !!!

About Lotor and the colony Alteans

I rewatched all the past Lotor seasons…

And I’m suffering even more now..

Seeing the urgency and the emphasis by Lotor on how the quintessence is a life giving force…who might you ask in Lotor’s life, would he need healing/life giving energy for? The 2nd colony Alteans. I mean yes he also desired access to unlimited quintessence to sate the galra’s conquer lust…but that use of energy isn’t for “life giving”.

I now have no doubt that he planned to restore the colony Alteans, especially based on his dialogue with Allura after they got out of the quintessence field. This along with many other comments he said, that I picked up on while rewatching..

Remember when he was testing the Alteans to be chosen for the second colony? It was assumed this was purely because of their magical essence, but….rewatching it and seeing all the emphasis about choosing Alteans that could/would SURVIVE the “journey”? Obviously they didn’t know what they were in for, but they were told that it would be dangerous and that it was a sacrifice to help them avoid being discovered, and despite the deception, no one was taken unwillingly.

“Some lives were lost, but it was to save millions.”

I’m going to reiterate Lotor’s telling of the planet he ruled over, and how “just enough energy would be taken at a time, to allow it to replenish.” I believe the intent was the same, and I believe this was foreshadowing that the Alteans were never meant to die. I don’t think nearly as many died as Romelle thought. Some likely couldn’t handle it, and there were likely others like Bandor, who made an escape attempt and became a liability. Also speaking of Bandor, Lotor looks visibly upset at his fate, before hardening his expression to give the order to remove the evidence. That is not the face of someone who lost one of his batteries, that is the face of someone lamenting the loss of even just one life. A life that he likely would’ve been able to restore.

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely believe that Romelle had every right to feel the way she did about Lotor given what happened to her brother….but even she admitted that she still didn’t know everything…which foreshadowed Lotor’s line of “you know nothing of what you speak…”. I don’t believe she was being shady, but there were things we were supposed to learn, and the show FAILED to deliver.

And I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Lotor NEVER lied to Voltron about his plan. Unlimited quintessence, establishing peace in the universe, uniting the Galrans under his rule to end the wars…He told them this as soon as they met in person. He also never betrayed them. Even after being attacked and chased, he still tried to plead with Allura to stop them from fighting.

Of course he didn’t tell them about the colony yet. He was still trying to fix everything there and keep them protected until they could be saved.

It just kills me that he just made discoveries to save the Alteans, and that Romelle’s timing, ultimately led to him being killed, when he finally had everything he needed to save them.

I mean, shit. Even in his first season, where he came off as a villain, he still was on a strict policy of NO KILLING unless absolutely necessary. He never would have killed Narti if she hadn’t (albeit unwillingly) put their lives at risk. I always believed his true intentions, which were confirmed by season 8, but WTF I am so salty that he never came back and never truly got a redemption arc…

Lotor deserved better.

Lotor (season 5)

Season 5 really focused on developing Lotor as a person. At first I thought his character was inconsistent from what we had seen in previous seasons, but the more we saw of him the more I realized that this was the real Lotor. Lotor in the previous seasons felt meticulous and cold and this season established why he always acted like that. He was always told he was less for being part altean and he was raised to believe in victory or death. It was survival of the fittest within the Galran empire and he was at a disadvantage because of his altean heritage and that he was outcast by his own father for his empathy which lead the rest of the Galra to treat him as lower and unworthy. They probably didn’t even try to hide their distaste, so Lotor had to put up a wall to hide his empathy and curiosity from his people. He still continued to “rebel” against his father by allowing the planets he “conquered” to rule themselves and find more peaceful ways to show his strength than his father and people. He is more inherently peaceful and introspective than his father, but due to continuously being taught victory or death he couldn’t throw the teachings away completely which was shown in both his battle with the white lion and Zarkon. No matter how stacked the odds were against him in his battle with Zarkon he kept fighting and finding ways to make the playing field more level. This was, in my opinion, due to his inability to give up because of those teachings as well as his desire to stop his father. I think Lotor truly did want to stop his father, but he didn’t want to kill him to do it. This is why he didn’t look proud or victorious when he felled his father. He was starting to see the cracks in the teachings of the galra. 

His relationship with Allura was one of the most interesting and entertaining parts of the season. I believe that he initially was just fascinated with her power, but has come to genuinely enjoy being around her. I think this relationship will end up being a key player in Lotor’s development and future. I believe Lotor isn’t inherently evil and does truly want what is right, but he is somewhat similar to Zuko in that he doesn’t know exactly what path to take yet. His relationship with Allura could help him make the right decision when the time comes. 

I was worried throughout the season that Lotor would betray Allura and the palladins, but the further along the season went the less sense it seemed to make that he would. I couldn’t find anything he could gain by betraying voltron. I do think he initially planned to betray the palladins, but the longer he stayed with them and got to know Allura the less he wanted to. At the end of the season when he fails the test and Allura passes and gains the knowledge we are shown that he has changed as the season progressed. At the start of the season he wouldn’t have tried to act happy for Allura especially after failing to achieve what he had worked tirelessly for, but he seems to be slowly realizing that his thought process of “victory or death” is flawed and closes him off to other possibilities. This season has managed to convince me they are going through with Lotor’s redemption. I’m still uneasy about him, but I also don’t believe he is evil just mislead in is thinking. 

I think Lotor does believe quintessence can bring peace to the galaxy and it is meant to mirror Honerva’s path. While Honerva slowly becomes corrupted by the quintessence the same may too happen to Lotor, but I believe that his path will end up diverging from his mother’s in that he will learn from her mistakes and if he doesn’t directly learn from them I think Allura can help him see a different path from descent into corruption. This could be an interesting path to see come about.  

Princes Lotor and Zuko

The parallels between Lotor and Zuko are numerous. They were both inherently more peaceful then their fathers and seen as failures and outcast by those same fathers for their empathy and standing up for what they thought was right. Zuko when he was against purposefully sacrificing young soldiers and sending them to a fruitless fight and Lotor for not subjugating and destroying a race of people and instead learning about them and working with them. Due to their banishment they developed a facade that hid their empathy from those around them that slipped at moments. They both work tirelessly toward a goal they think is noble that is warped because of their parents views. Zuko his honor and Lotor the quintessence. I think like preince Zuko Lotor truly believes that the quintessence is the solution to his and his people’s problems. Lotor may end up betraying the Palladins, but it won’t be because he is evil or wanted to betray them. It will be because of a source of conflict and his obsession towards his goal. If he does betray the palladins he will eventually get his redemption arc where he realizes what he strove for wasn’t the solution to his answers. The source of conflict was set up this season in Honerva. I believe it will play out similar to Azula with Zuko in the crossroads of destiny. It is made clear throughout the season that both of Lotor’s parents were neglectful and one was abusive, so if he accepts that Haggar is his mother and discovers she has been helping him with the palladins and indirectly saved him from Zarkon through Kuron he may be manipulated. He admits to Allura in the finale that he envies her because she had Alfor as a father and he travelled the world with her and it was implied that he also envied that she got to have that childhood with happy family memories. If his mother is revealed to have loved him and “love” him his emotions can be manipulated in her favor. There is also the parallel between Honerva and Zarkon and Lotor and Allura. Both sets have a fixation on quintessence and believe that it can bring prosperity to the people, but while Zarkon and Honerva slowly become corrupted in their initially honorable quest Lotor and Allura have the ability to change their projected outcome. I think that while Honerva slowly edges Lotor to corruption Allura, because she is pure at heart, can prevent his downward spiral. The reason the relationship between Lotor and Allura was expanded upon so much this season could be for this reason, to prevent Lotor from becoming his Father and Mother and truly use quintessence to help the people and bring about a new age of prosperity instead of destruction and death. Lotor’s redemption arc has just begun. 

My Thoughts on Lotor 24 Hours Later

I still think there was some wasted potential with Lotor and don’t like the Altean reveal, but looking back on it Lotor’s arc in this season was actually really good.

Lotor never actually betrayed the Paladins. Even in the end after the Altean reveal and his subsequent kidnapping he still wanted to work with the paladins. He wouldn’t let his generals shoot at the paladins even when the paladins were shooting at them because he truly did want to work with them. Lotor viewed what he was doing as right. By his logic he sacrificed the few to save the many, he was still working for peace. When Allura finally said he was worse than his father Zarkon he snapped. His whole life he had been fighting to be free of his father, free from the prejudice he was put through for not being a pureblood galra, free from the neglect and abuse his parents put him through. He believed he was alone. Because of everyone rejecting him he started isolating himself even from his generals, who he viewed as similar to him because they weren’t pureblood. Allura was up to that point the only person who understood him and was the only thing keeping the quintessence poisoning from taking hold of him. He had been exposed to quintessence from birth, initially to save his mother while she was pregnant, and later of his own free will to find a limitless power source. Allura’s rejection was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Lotor’s general, Acxa, looked sad when Lotor finally broke and it made me feel like she was seeing someone who had tried to fight his whole life finally losing the battle. All of the hatred he felt towards his parents and the galra for their abuse finally got to him and he gave into it. He had nothing left to lose in his mind. Fighting against his anger wasn’t worth it if even when trying to be better he ended up alone.

This honestly made him tragic. He couldn’t escape his upbringing. It was sad that through his constant rejection he grew to block people out and when he finally let someone in and they rejected him too it led to his breaking point. He was rejected by his father for being to soft, he was rejected by his mother through neglect, he was rejected by his “people” because of his heritage, and he was finally rejected by Allura because he was what his upbringing made him. Lotor was a victim of his own upbringing and isolation. It doesn't excuse what he did, but it highlights the tragedy of his story.

This. I understand that people want a redemption arc, but they can't erase what Lotor has done. Erasing what he has done takes away from the complexity of the character. I want a redemption arc as well. A redemption arc isn’t about being innocent all along. It’s about someone learning from their mistake, acknowledging they were wrong, and moving in the right direction. I'm also fine with Lotor ending up a villain because he seems like someone who took his goal too far and those characters make some of the most complex villains. He was also a character bound for tragedy in one way or another. Many people, including myself, feel like they didn't take enough time to explore those complexities that could make him either a hero or a villain before making him into a zarkon 2.0 and that was disappointing. I liked the idea behind what the voltron writing team was going for, but found the execution somewhat lacking.

I'm certain they aren't done with Lotor because of all the plot points and reveals surrounding his character and past in seasons 5 and 6. Hagar had just found a cure for quintessence poisoning right before Lotor himself fell victim to it. It wouldn't make sense to completely discard of him after all the set up they created. I hope they explore more of the complexity of his past and character in the future.

My problem with the whole #justiceforlotor tag going around on tumblr and twitter is that I wish it focused more on his wasted potential as a character rather than advocating for his innocence. I agree that he is a victim of his parents and his terrible upbringing, but his crimes are still pretty heinous, so he’s far from innocent at this point. If anything I just wish the wording on the photo was less “Lotor is innocent give him a redemption arc!” and more “Lotor is a very nuanced, morally ambigous character who deserves more screen time to show that, and shouldn’t have been turned into Zarkon 2.0 for shock value.”

This is what frustrated me the most about how season 6 ended. It seemed the power struggle that has been happening since the end of season 2 was completely forgotten, so that the Paladins could go back to earth. The paladins so far have failed to see the bigger picture, they look at all the small scale injustices and don’t even think as to why they came about only that they are wrong. With Lotor they lost the only chance they had of stopping the Galra without completely destroying them and the empire. This is an empire where all the subjects have been taught victory or death from a young age, now that voltron has disposed of not one but two of their leaders especially one who trusted them they will undoubtedly view them as public enemy number one. Voltron has also given Sendak a point that he can rally the Galra behind him with, that voltron is evil and must go. What the paladins fail to realize is the effect their crusade has on not just planets under Galra rule, but the Galra themselves. They have now made it so as long as Lotor is gone they have no means to stop the Galra without excessive force and to wipe them out. The Galra will not let Voltron dismantle their empire until their dying breath. Right now voltron has lost their option that keeps them in the moral “white”. 

Even at the start of the season when Lotor tells the empire he is their ruler and that he will bring peace Lance immediately asks him if he will free the planets from Galra control now, but Lotor can’t do that. This situation doesn’t have a quick fix. If Lotor just started freeing planets right when he seized control he would lose the faith of the entire empire and would probably be labelled a traitor instead of their leader. Lotor voiced to Allura that he believed that the Galra and planets they had control of could live together in peace and it would be mutually beneficial to both societies. His story to Allura in Alderan would have been the perfect way to slowly integrate peace and freedom in the galaxy which would be based on the exchange of goods rather than the forceful taking of them. This could then branch out into the Galra having no real control of the planets they trade/buy from getting rid of the empire’s totalitarian reign. Lotor’s thinking in this instance was right, but the paladins don’t want to have to wait for peace or gradual change and that is their true shortcoming. 

It’s kind of sad that we haven’t gotten to see the paladins learn that they can’t force change throughout an entire galaxy that has run the way it has for thousands of years and that not everything is black and white in war. Even the blade of marmora are only accepted by the paladins because they outright oppose the empire through force instead of looking at the people who try to instigate change from within. 

Alright. I’m going there. I’m gonna say what a lot of people are too scared to admit:

Allura made the wrong choice.

There’s a lovely theory out there about how Lotor may not have been harvesting quintessence from the colony Alteans, and the Paladins jumped to conclusions. I love that theory, but I’m going to take it a step further. Even if Lotor WAS harvesting quintessence, the Paladins were still in the wrong.

Allura opposed the idea of harvesting quintessence in the name of saving lives. But she actually only saved the few Altean lives of those who had yet to have their quintessence harvested. And she sentenced probably millions more people to death, and even more to suffering. With Lotor gone and his quintessence plan shut down, the war is going to continue, and it’s not going to be pretty.

Let’s think about the Galra. They just lost their emporer AGAIN. There’s going to be another Kral Zera, and I think we all know who’s going to become emporer: Sendak. Lotor failed, proving that trusting a half-galra as their emporer was a great mistake. Likewise, people are not likely to trust the generals who had sided with Lotor. They’re going to turn to the “purest galra” to lead them back into prosperity.

Yes, there will be some that continue their loyalty to Lotor, but in that case who is their biggest enemy? Who took down their beloved emperor not once, but twice? Yep, it’s Voltron. This also gives Sendak a chance to reunite the people under a common enemy. Regardless of if he does this, though, Voltron is back to being public enemy number 1, and Sendak is sure to continue a Galran reign of terror.

There will be people lost in the Galran conquest, lost in the Galra fighting each other based on their loyalties, and lost in Voltron fighting back. Not to mention that we don’t even know how much longer all of this is going to continue. So many more people are going to die, when Lotor had a plan to end it all for good at the cost of only a few lives in comparison.

Did he go about it the wrong way? Absolutely. I personally think he should have been up-front with the Alteans. Let them CHOOSE to be the sacrifices, not trick and force them into it. But he really was working for the sake of saving as many lives as possible, whereas Allura allowed her feelings about her heritage drive her to drag out the suffering of the universe.

Honestly I’m not sure why so many people are against this thinking. We’ve already seen in the other reality that she’s perfectly capable of doing the wrong thing for the right reason.

Voltron Season 8

There are spoilers for season 8 so proceed with caution.

I want to start off by saying I love Voltron and there is something I love about each season of Voltron. I have been seeing quite a bit of negativity towards this season, so I want to start off talking about what I liked about this season before getting into what I didn’t. I will recommend Voltron to other people because I believe over all there were a lot of good things that it did with its characters and stories.

I liked Allura’s arc throughout this season. We got to see her struggling with the lengths she would go to to end the war and come out better because of it. She also comes to understand that not every choice in war can be without sacrifice which is something the paladins seem to struggle to understand up until this point. Allura has been consistently developed throughout the seasons and has grown into her own in this season. She has had to overcome so much and is a character I felt was developed well and will be a character I look back on fondly.

I also liked that they clarified Lotor’s character within the show. Before this season there were multiple ways that lotor’s character could be interpreted and now they have a definitive version of him. The clarification also accentuated the tragedy of the character. His eventual downfall is tragic because he did deserve better. He fell victim to his upbringing after trying to be better and being punished severely for his efforts. This is a character that while I may not be the biggest fan of the execution of Lotor’s story I liked the idea behind it. I liked how they did redeem Lotor in the eyes of Allura and it was acknowledged how his childhood and upbringing affected him, his choices, and his downfall all without erasing the mistakes he made. It also acknowledges that he wasn’t given a fair shot by anybody and despite his attempts to be better he was always thwarted or shunned at every turn. There is only so much someone can take before they break.

Haggar was a great villain and her arc was somewhat of a Greek tragic hero and was almost Shakespearean. Her unquenchable thirst for knowledge led to the destruction of both her old and new homes, the creation of the galaxy’s most infamous tyrant, and her son living through a neglected and abusive life that meets a terrible end. She realizes too late what she missed out on and works to undo her mistakes without care for the destruction she causes because she believes that with the end of her quest everything will be perfect. It’s only once she gets to her desired outcome and her son and husband recognize the monster that she has become that she reaches her lowest point and is able to be convinced by Allura of the error of her ways. That Haggar herself is to blame for how her life turned out not the universe or anyone else. That this outcome isn’t what Lotor would have wanted despite what Haggar kept telling herself and that while she can’t get back what she lost, but she can give back what she took from the universe in her desperate bid. This season wrote its villains really well with Lotor, Haggar, and Zarkon and while I didn’t agree with all the choices made with the characters I do believe the writing was well done and Haggar is the pinnacle of this statement.

I appreciated that all the character’s that lived got their happy endings. Keith has found his purpose and continues to help people. Shiro finally leaves the battle after years of nonstop fighting and suffering and gets to settle down with his husband. Pidge and Hunk both get to follow their dreams and Lance surrounds himself with what he loves and lives a quiet peaceful life. I honestly just wanted to see these characters be happy. They have all been through so much so seeing them get to be happy in the future made me happy.

I was sad that my two favorite Voltron characters, Lotor and Allura, ended up dying. Allura had been through so much loss, suffering, and pain on her quest to bring about peace and grown so much only to finally be able to bring about the peace she strove for and not even be able to see the it. Allura had lost so much and when she finally has a means to restore peace the only way to bring about peace is through sacrificing herself. I know I was upset with the season in the past for the lack of true sacrifice or lasting death, but I’m sad that this was the sacrifice that ended up happening because Allura deserved to see the peace she helped create. We finally got to see Lotor’s past and have his character in hindsight be redeemed, in showing he did truly care about others and Allura but was misguided in his methods, and bring him back from the rift only to have him be dead the entire time. This means he ended up having arguably the worst and most painful ends of anyone on the show. He died after the only real trusting relationship he had was destroyed and believing that no one cared for him while his mental stability eroded and his body was overloaded with quintessence. I would have liked to see him be alive and have him carry on doing the best he could instead of everyone admitting that he wasn’t given a fair shot, that he deserved better, and really did care and wasn’t a monster. The second colony is completely forgotten and is never explained. The second colony honestly just feels like a plot device to trigger the paladins turning on Lotor and Lotor’s subsequent descent into quintessence poisoning instead of an actual thing that happened because the reasoning behind it was never explained so it feels as though it was unnecessary.

I’m sorry to every Allurance shipper, but I didn’t like how it played out within the series. They made Allura uncomfortable with Lance until season 5, had her look upset when she found out he liked her in the same season, made her suddenly romantically interested in Lance at the very end of season 7, and then in season 8 showed hints that Allura still wasn’t completely over Lotor (the most prominent examples are when Lotor emerges from the rift and she panics saying she can’t do this and when Lotor is the vision she sees to convince her to use the rift creature). I honestly think this ship could have played out really well if they hadn’t had Lotura and had Allura a lot less visibly uncomfortable with Lance in earlier seasons. I am happy for whoever shipped Allurance and got to see their ship sail in cannon. Allurance just wasn’t my cup of tea with the way it was written. I personally would have preferred if Lance hadn’t gotten Allura and could have continued with his journey of self discovery and learned who he was without a girl because his character the last few seasons had a lot of him pining for Allura instead of focusing on his growing self-confidence and worth. With him ending up a farmer and probably sad over Allura for the rest of his life. Lance was a character I wish had gotten an arc of episodes to himself that didn’t involve a girl because he was set up as incredibly relatable with problems that everyone faces.

I may have been disappointed with this season, but I still like voltron and hope to see more of it in the future. I can understand the issues people are having with the season and can empathize with the disappointment, but I hope that people don’t attack the creators and cast. They’ve worked for years to bring us this series and they don’t deserve to be harassed. I hope that others can find the enjoyment I found out of the series and I hope there are many great fanfics to read. It was an honor to see this series to completion.

The Biggest Difference

I’ve seen people saying that Lotor became Zuko this season just written worse and while I do believe that there are a lot of similarities between the two this season really accentuated the differences. The whole season built upon the idea that Lotor deserved better. That he tried to overcome his circumstances, but wasn’t given a fair shot by anyone and was punished for his attempts to be better. This showed me the biggest point of divergence between Lotor and Zuko: Zuko had Iroh. Zuko had someone who believed in the best in him and even when he stumbled or made the wrong choice Iroh never gave up on him. It was because of this that Zuko was able to overcome his upbringing and move forward in a better direction. Lotor never had his Uncle Iroh. He had to make do by himself and forge his own path without a guiding light and because of that he got lost along the way. When he finally found found a guiding light in Allura it was quickly snuffed out because of actions he took in his misguided attempts to be better. The loss of the light after finally obtaining it after so long in the dark caused Lotor to snap. I think the flashbacks and characters this season realized that if Lotor was given a fair chance earlier in life or if Allura and the paladins hadn’t given up when they did on him he could have ended up like Zuko. He did do things in his past that were horrible, but he could have created the better future that he had wanted to bring about in the first place. 

Lotor-antis: How can you guys still like Lotor!?!? He murdered tens of thousands of alteans, played with the Allura's feelings before betraying both her and the paladins, and then pledged that he would destroy anything in his way of power.

Lotor-stans:

It's unreal how lotura went from this

To this

In less then 2 minutes.

The biggest tragedy of season 6 is that Lotor continued his mother's research to feel closer to her but in the end followed in her footsteps to become just like the person he hates most, Haggar.