Rock Lee Vs Gaara Is About More Than Hard Work Vs Natural Talent

Rock Lee vs Gaara is about more than hard work vs natural talent

Rock Lee vs Gaara is about more than hard work vs talent. On the first watch that may be what is taken away from it. Upon a second viewing after watching these characters grow and change and learning about Gaara’s past it takes on a whole different clash. One of views on the society as a whole. 

Both of these characters are products of their society. They were shunned by the people in their society for two completely different reasons and thus grew to have two completely different view points on society as a whole. 

Rock Lee was condemned by society for his lack of ability and therefore was considered an ineffective and useless “weapon” for the society to call upon in a time of need. He was considered worthless, so he worked his way up to prove himself to that society that believed that. He thrived off the atmosphere that society created. He was condemned for weakness and thus strove for strength. Rock Lee condones the society that ninja lived in.

Gaara is the exact opposite. He condemns society for what it did to him. It condoned creating him into a living weapon, but then condemned him for being what they created. He was crushed and twisted under the conflicting ideals society had about his birth and life. He was told his initial purpose in life was to protect the sand, but once he was deemed unnecessary because of the negative atmosphere society created around him his purpose was considered lost. His life was deemed worthless. 

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.”

My Thoughts on Rose Quartz and Pearl in a Single Pale Rose

Spoilers for the new episodes below.

A single pale rose confirmed many of my suspicions about rose quartz as a person. In every previous episode centered on rose quarts she always seemed more curious and fascinated with humans and life on earth in a way that seemed more like she was more entertained by them than truly seeing “inner beauty”. The way she saw people seemed less than natural. Rose quartz/pink diamond created the human zoo which confirms her perception of humans. In this episode it all but confirms her warped perception.

 In the scene where pearl and rose are talking about staging her shattering it didn’t seem like rose had thought the plan through, like she was doing it on a whim because she wanted to. She also emotionally manipulated Pearl. She lead pearl on and let her believe that she had a future with rose. This really bothered me because while I had suspected this for a while, but having confirmation made it worse. Rose clearly knew that Pearl loved her and used that love to get pearl to do her bidding. And because of the actions taken in this scene pearl probably believes it is her fault for the diamonds turning their focus on earth and shattering all but a select few of Rose’s followers. She believes she caused the death of so many gems. Rose has caused many problems for pearl that I can’t help, but empathize with because I have watched Pearl’s struggles to move on from them. We have seen Pearl’s absolute devastation with Rose’s choice to be with Greg, have Steven, keep secrets from her, etc. Rose had long lasting mental scars on pearl. I hope that the issue of Rose’s emotional manipulation of pearl is addressed and Pearl eventually accepts and moves on. 

I never believed Rose was as great as the gems seemed to believe she was. She always seemed like a figure looked back upon riddled with nostalgia and rose tinted glasses. I never thought she would be this morally ambiguous. She lead a war from both sides until getting pearl to “shatter’ her which only made the situation worse. Then she goes on like nothing happened and has a kid and passes all of her problems onto him. She also bubbled bismuth without telling anyone and hid her away. She is incredibly childish and doesn’t think her actions and how they will effect others through. In the episode jungle moon when we see pink diamond complaining about not having her own colony and when she gets one she doesn’t want to tell them she doesn’t want that colony she tries to sidestep and make up excuses. Her shattering plan didn’t take into account the fallout. She didn’t consider the diamonds getting revenge for her, how it would hurt the other diamonds (blue diamond has depression and yellow is sad but tries to repress it), how her emotional manipulation of pearl causes pearl so many problems down the line, her manipulation of her followers on both sides of the war, etc. All of these show a sense of entitlement and immaturity. Rose quartz never existed just a pink diamond who had a fascination with humans because they entertained her like humans who go the the zoo to see the lions, tigers, monkey, and elephants. 

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.

Kuvira - Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Kuvira’s story is that of a descent into villainy through the corruption of power. Her original intentions are noble. She plans on reuniting the Earth Kingdom and create a kingdom where the people under her rule will not have to be afraid or alone. The Kingdom wasn’t united even before the earth queen fell and it didn’t have a strong central government to rule for the people. This is why her regime was important. It united the people under one government and delivered on it’s promises to the regions that joined her, but the more she brought the kingdom together the less she wanted to step aside for Prince Wu. Prince Wu is someone who has never struggled a day in his life, doesn’t understand the needs of the people, and has everyone do the work for him. He is unqualified in every way for his job. Kuvira has seen the struggle the people of the earth kingdom have undergone and does, at least initially, truly want to create a better environment for them. The previous government didn’t work and there needed to be a new form of power for anything to change. Like Zaheer said “new growth cannot exist without first the destruction of the old.” The more Kuvira saw of the kingdom and its circumstances the more she realized the old form of government needed to be done away with. She came to the conclusion that to do that she couldn’t give up her power.

The main turning point in her intentions turning from noble to twisted was with Varrick’s invention of the spirit bomb. Her intentions up until then still had the people in the kingdom’s best interest at heart and she hadn’t up until this point resorted to violence to get a region to sign over power.  Once this weapon of mass destruction was discovered no one could oppose her military might and the power of the weapon started to go to her head.  She displayed her military might to zaofu as a means of intimidation and later forces the people within the city to accept her as their leader. This descent goes even further to her assault of republic city. There is a slow progression throughout the season. The more her power grows the more radical her thinking becomes. When she is faced with eliminating her enemies as well as Bataar Jr she thinks on it for only a moment before making her decision. If this was at the start of the season I have no doubt Kuvira would not have sacrificed Bataar for her cause. This perfectly illustrated how she feels. Her goal has become bigger than any one person. It is the ultimate dissolution of her initial goal. The people were her main reason for taking the position and she let the power she amassed warp that goal until it didn’t even take the people into consideration. It is only though Korra saving her that she realizes the steep decline into the abyss she had taken. Korra saving her signified what she initially stood for, the people. No one goal should be above the lives of the people and she had lost sight of that through her crusade. Once she realized that she stepped down and let herself be taken away for judgement.