#justiceforlotor

[mistiqartsillustration]

I love love LOVE PALADIN LOTOR! I have no idea where are all these defensive interviews coming from @voltronofficial ? Either fix the last season or just keep being quiet. #justiceforlotor #lotura #lotor #allura #teampurplelion #FREEVLDS8

[leakinghate]

You are Wrong about Lotor

The advertisements for this season promised to blur the lines between good and evil and delivered exactly that. By the conclusion of Voltron Legendary Defender season Six our paladins have apparently killed the only true hero in this show, destroyed their only access point to unlimited clean energy, and kickstarted a civil war in the Galra Empire. Team Voltron, has become the villains.

What’s that?

Doesn’t sound like we watched the same show?

Let me explain.

The writing and framing this season were truly incredible. Meticulously calculated to provide just the right information at just the right time to draw the exact wrong conclusions. It aims to provoke a violent emotional reaction in the viewer and discourage them from thinking critically about what they’re seeing. Even better, it’s a double trick, as additionally, our protagonists in the show fall into the same trap. It’s so incredibly meta, to have your audience make the same, independent conclusion as your characters.

It’s emotional manipulation at it’s cruelest, and this is only the first of the one-two punch that’s due to land it’s second hit next season.

Because team Voltron is wrong about Lotor, and so are you.

To cut to the chase, the story the narrative wants you to conclude, is that Lotor is keeping a group of Alteans hostage to systematically drain them of quintessence for use in his experiments.

I’m going to tell you right now, that’s not what’s happening.

Romelle is either hopelessly naive or malicious: she straight up admits to only knowing parts of the truth. Suspiciously, she is the first and only person Keith and Krolia encounter, but just so happens to be the only person privy to the ‘dark secrets’ of the colony. What luck! Of course, they must avoid interacting with the other Alteans who reside in the colony, as nobody else would believe Romelle if she told them. Convenient.  As far as I am concerned, everything she tells them that was not also directly witnessed by Krolia and Keith is suspect.

Speaking of, how is it, exactly, that we know Lotor is extracting quintessence from these people? Hmm? Do we have any concrete proof? No. Keith jumps to conclusions. Keith shoots first and asks questions later.

Upon discovering the emaciated Alteans in the pods Keith immediately declares that Lotor must be harvesting their quintessence. We see no actual quintessence in the lab, and by the accumulation of dust it appears that the facility has been unused for quite some time. Logically, the quintessence that the blade intercepted, and that Keith and Krolia have been seeking the source of, had to have come from somewhere, but that place isn’t this lab. But, this is no time for logic; Keith, Krolia and Romelle race off to the Castle of Lions to confront Lotor.

Sendak was absolutely correct when he said that the paladin’s greatest weakness was that they value the lives of others. Because just the suggestion that some innocent people may have lost their lives is enough to prompt the paladins to ambush someone, guns drawn, who has thus far proved himself a powerful and valuable ally. They ask Lotor exactly zero questions and don’t allow him the time to explain themselves. And it was the idea alone that caused them to act, because at no point did they seek out any proof whatsoever!

Allura alone I will grant some leeway in her reaction.

I 100% understand why Allura reacted the way she did, after all the shit she’s been through. She’s only just managed to feel that not all Galra are as monstrous as Zarkon. She’s fallen in love with his own son, and she’s hoping with everything she has that he’s really a good person. I’m sure there was still some residual fear there, it can’t have been more than two years from her perspective since everything she’s known and loved was taken from her. It takes so long to shake a trauma like she’s been through, and many people never fully do. And when she discovers that Lotor has been hiding the existence of other Alteans from her? That he admits to having to sacrifice a few? That fear and anger flared up.

It’s conspicuous, that circumstances conspire to both render Lotor unconscious and to remove him from the castle before he can explain himself. He doesn’t even hear half of the things that he’s been accused of doing and so wouldn’t know to deny them. No one ever, at any point, asks Lotor if he’s been harvesting quintessence from living Alteans. We’re left waiting to hear his side of things, and then, the next thing he says referencing Team Voltron is this:

“Zethrid, Ezor, my deepest apologies for lying to you both. But in order to gain the princess’s trust, and make the paladins of Voltron believe we were truly at odds, it had to be done.”

This comes at an interesting place in the narrative. Seemingly confirming that Lotor has been manipulating Team Voltron the whole time, and thus invalidating the sincerity of any of his prior actions since splitting from his generals. Because it follows immediately upon the horrific accusations he was denied the chance to refute it also tricks us into thinking he’s admitting to them. After all, if he’s been faking this entire time, what couldn’t he be capable of? Except. This apology is itself a lie.

In fact, regardless of whatever understanding Lotor and Axca have between them, it is impossible for them to have been working together at any point between Axca’s betrayal at Daibazaal and The Generals allying themselves with Haggar; after the point in which Allura and Team Voltron began extending some trust to Lotor. While it’s possible - even probable - that Lotor and Axca may have had contingency plans for faking a split between the generals and Lotor, and some of those plans may have included attempting an alliance with Voltron, there are far too many moving pieces for all that transpired between them to have been planned ahead of time. Far too many opportunities for one or all of them to have died. And, consistently, Lotor puts his own survival and that of his loyal allies above all other priorities.

Simply put, if the generals hadn’t been recruited by Haggar they would have been executed. If Axca was loyal to Lotor at this point she would have had no good reason to risk her life by returning to the empire, especially when Lotor had just killed Zarkon.

He says this when he does because he needs Ezor and Zethrid to not fight him over returning to the Castle of Lions. His words towards his generals, notably using ‘power’ instead of ‘peace’, are chosen to convince them to work with him again and to give the impression that he has control of the situation and a plan - which he absolutely does not.

We know this is a facade, because the moment Lotor comes face to face - or ship to lion - with Allura again he drops it and reverts to language and mannerisms he’s been using before with her. But he’s doing this openly in front of his generals and they’re visibly perplexed.

Lotor rushes back to the Castle of Lions to attempt to reason with Allura. He loves her, and he's willing to put aside his pride and plead with her in front of both of their teams. You can hear the panic in his voice as he tries to hold it together.

And then Allura accuses Lotor of being worse than Zarkon. Everything after that, isn't really him. He has a mental breakdown. He’s had every support ripped away, and 10,000 years worth of repressed pain and anguish come crashing down on him. He's lost everything that matters to him, had the one person he though he could trust, the woman he loves, accuse him of his own greatest fear, and he's hurting.

In meta about prior seasons I’ve seen it expressed that it’s a miracle that Lotor escaped his upbringing as apparently put together as he did. He’s paranoid, and occasionally willing to go against his own moral code if it means surviving another day, but surprisingly stable.

Well, it turns out he isn’t. Lotor fairly obviously has some degree of mental illness, and it unfortunately contributes to his decline in the season finale. At the risk of getting too personal in a fandom meta post, Lotor’s breakdown is eerily familiar to me - and I would expect many other fans with experience with mental health issues as well. I too have had crisis like that, complete with screaming, ranting and threatening to kill everyone who’s ever even so much as looked at you funny.

This whole situation went to hell because team Voltron has a history of making decisions based on emotions rather than logic. So far, it’s worked out pretty alright for them, but that’s about to change. They’ve lost their home, their best chance for stability and avoiding a civil war in the Galra Empire, and a loyal friend. Because they let their emotions get the best of them and couldn’t take fifteen minutes to sort out their facts from their fears.

The only negative thing. The only negative thing Lotor admits to, is that ‘many Alteans perished in [his] quest to unlock the mysteries of quintessence.’ He does not say how they died, he does not say he killed them, he doesn’t even say that their deaths were intentional. For all we know, they died in a lab accident. Those Alteans in pods? Among the many functions pods like those are established to have in VLD are healing and cryopreservation. We don’t even know that those people are the deceased Alteans in question. We don’t even know if they’re dead!

The one and only time we see the blue quintessence used as intended in show is when Lotor uses the last of his supply of it to energize his Sincline ship and attempts to pass through the gate for the first time. In response to Zethrid’s concern that this is the last of their concentrated quintessence Lotor states that once they get into the rift they will have access to an unlimited amount of it. Therefore, it stands to reason that the white quintessence found in the rift contains the same properties as the blue of unknown origin. But that the yellow and purple the Empire uses apparently does not.  Lotor doesn't need the quintessence in the rift for the empire: he needs it for the Alteans. He's not manipulating anyone, his goals are the same as theirs: peace and free energy for the universe. While it’s likely the blue quintessence does have some relation to the colony, whatever that is, there is currenly no evidence whatsoever that it’s being extracted from sentient beings. He’s clearly looking for a replacement source as it is. He likely wanted to tell Allura about the Altean colony, but felt he needed to secure reliable access to the quintessence field before he could do so.

So what’s this second punch that’s going to land next season?

If you haven’t guessed already, think how this is actually going to turn out. Because we know Romelle is wrong, whether on purpose or by accident. She basically conspired to kill the man who did everything in his power to save her people and her culture. And she did so by turning his friends against him.

How are the paladins going to feel when they realize this? How is Allura going to feel? She left Lotor to die in the rift. After he begged her to see reason. After he confessed his feelings for her. After she fell in love with him.

Ultimately, despite what many people expected, and indeed what many people are saying, Lotor has never intentionally manipulated the paladins and he didn’t betray Team Voltron.

Allow me to repeat myself:

Lotor didn’t betray Team Voltron

They betrayed him.

Sincere thanks to all my fandom family in the Lotura 18+ discord. Nearly all of the conclusions reached in this meta were origionally hashed out during chat sessions. Love you all, and I hope for anyone disheartened by s6 this meta can give you a bit of hope for the future.

I sincerely believe, that when all things are said and done, Voltron: Legendary Defender is going to go down as one of the best shows ever created.

[petrockgermany]

VREPIT SA

——

The Killing Thrust

Behold, His Purple Majesty. Working my way through Procreate by mashing buttons and ignoring tutorials. #lotor #voltron #voltron legendary defender #emperorlotor #royalpurple #galra #blackbayard #justiceforlotor #digitaldrawing #artistsoninstagram #fanart @aj_locascio

[ancientmeadows]

THE WHOLE TIME I WAS SCREAMNG “NO!” WHEN HE SNAPPED

I FEEL SO BAD FOR HIM.

Lotor is my favorite character. I really do hope that he does come back, but I know that he wont be the same if he does. I FEEL that he is not dead.

but god who knows. 

Season 6 was the best, it left me in so many feels i cant even feel my body. i am shook 

[angelaariasm]

Lotor's happy childhood?

I have a mini theory. With the new poster for season 8, we have small Lotor with his mom and his dad.

He looks so happy! It looks like he had a loving mother and a proud father who loved him very much.

It's just than he didn't. Not really. We know they were abusive. And as far as we know, that happy childhood was never real. But this was:

So his parents destroyed his colony. They were never proud of him nor did they love him. Lotor was just a nuisance to them.

So, why do we see small and happy Lotor in the poster?

I think that's a false memory.

I think Honerva got him out of the rift, but Lotor was so far gone and resented her so much that she needed to find a way to control him. And so, she gave him false memories. The happy childhood he so desperately wanted. The loving parents. The life they denied him.

Perhaps when we see Lotor again, his body will be fighting the paladins. But his mind will be trapped in the cage of happy memories his mother createad for him.

And Allura will be the one to help him regain his true memories, and that way she'll find out that everything he told her was true.

[king-hiryuu]

#JusticeForLotor

Because he deserved a better ending than this.  Even Allura, after all that has passed deserved a better ending this season.

[elessent]

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."

[dinosaurwantsice]

I strive for #JusticeForLotor just as desperately as Zarkon strives for Voltron

[un-beeleaf-able]

About Romelle

At this point I think I'm just gonna block tags of Romelle.

She's not that great, I don't trust her, and I'm tired of all the stupid new praise and ships for her. We don't even know too much about her other than that she is Altean, she knows more about Lotor's past than the rest of them, and that she is apparently Allura's cousin somehow. Other than that its just 80s Voltron knowledge that it somewhat unreliable in this show's own universe. She managed to brainwash every one of the paladins just by being the only other Altean in their dimension besides Allura and Coran. Immediately trustworthy? Not at all really.

I really wanted Lotor to be better (even if it was through canon Lotura that I wouldn't have minded anyways) and grow past his abusive past and all she did was ruin his trust and the trust of everyone else by telling a story neither she or Lotor could confirm. She told a story with little real evidence, no other Alteans to confirm it, and Lotor was immediately silenced and didn't outright say it was all correct. He didn't have time to since he was with Allura when she told her whole side of the story, he was understandably startled by the new Altean and everyone pointing weapons at him, also he got thrown across the room before he could explain to Allura. Her new stans are too quick to trust her words and call Lotor heinous things and I'm pretty sure even AJ isn't even really comfortable with that. They're very aggressive to Lotor stans as well. I love Lotor from the beginning but I still didn't trust him entirely because he was just another cool rebellious villain dude for me to drool over until I found out more and got really attached. That took at least a season to get through to me but Romelle's took a few episodes.

Romelle fucking with Allura's head and making her act out caused so much avoidable conflict. Allura wasn't even entirely at fault, almost all of the ending conflict, was really Romelle's... I find it very hard to hate a character, especially if I feel an even an ounce of sympathy for them, which I do feel for her. My problem is that she seems untrustworthy in a way that's vague to me, different from other characters in the show like Lotor and his group where its supposed to be.

I'm not gonna pretend to love her. I dislike her for the same reason I disliked Keith for a few seasons (until recently): she's another over-hyped character who has very high praise with little goodness to show for it. I'll love her when I have reasons for it. Right now I have none and I'm too tired for this.

[starcookiechu]

Just wanna say something. I think being in the quintessence made Lotor crazier probably... cuz we’ll let’s see. His mother was basically resurrected while pregnant with Lotor. We already know how that went down.

Guys look at his Altean marks! It’s like Honerva’s! Corrupted, but not entirely.

So Lotor is already somewhat corrupted...

Just something to maybe think about.

[youremymiracleelliot]

Quick doodle of what I had to get out of my system! I loved season 6 so very very much and I can relate to Allura’s decision but I just wish she hadn’t dropped him like that ;-;

☆.｡.:* My Instagram .｡.:*☆

[alvie-pines]

Lotor needs a redemption arc!

[leakinghate]

Unpopular Opinion:

Even if Lotor did exactly what he’s been accused of doing.

Even if.

He didn’t deserve to be left to die in the rift.

He deserved to have his side of things heard.

And.

He deserves redemption.

[l0veisdexd]

Not to be that bitch but....

season 7 comes out tomorrow and if Lotor happens to not be what season 6 set him up to be just know that if you abandoned him last season and have been calling him crappy names during this time between seasons your Lotor stan membership card can not be reactivated.

To say you love someone and then drop them when they needed you the most and then crawl back when you find out your wrong is most definitely kinda toxic.

This goes out especially to ex Lotor stans that have been attacking current Lotor stans after season 6 

Sorry I don’t make the rules *shrugs*

No one knows whats going to happen yet but I thought I’d make my stance clear before the season even comes out.

btw this goes for whatever happens in season 8 as well

[ancientmeadows]

Look at that faaace. hes not a snaaake you guys. stoooop it >>.

itwasfuckedwhathedidtothealteansthoiwillgiveyouthatbutstiiiill