Season 6 Spoilers - Tumblr Posts

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.

I scripted this right after seeing S6, so it's ignoring that one interview that states that original Shiro DOES have Kuron's memories, and probably ignoring a whole lot of other things revealed afterward lol