Sure. You can say that, if you ignore and throw out all of Lotor’s character development. Unfortunately for antis and Lotor haters, the story has shown us who the real Lotor is.
Lotor is not evil, he’s morally gray. And most importantly, he’s a hero. I’ll get to that in a minute.
Lotor has set of morals that he lives and follows by. They define who Lotor is and how Lotor has defined himself different from his parents. He’s against genocide, and the mass destruction of life, worlds and cultures. And more, he is disgusted by the BARBARIC methods his parents use to extract quintessence.
Draining quintessence from innocent Alteans who just wanted to live peacfully is BARBARIC! It’s absolutely against Lotor’s personal moral code.
“BUT LOTOR SUCKED THEIR QUINT..” shhhhhush. Just focus on the fact that Lotor’s own moral code makes him against barbaric methods of acquiring quintessence.
Then why did Lotor do it? Maybe he did…maybe he didn’t. Maybe its like he said “You don’t know what it is you’re talking about.”
Maybe the reason why it’s so damn confusing to know whether or not Lotor murdered alteans, intentionally or accidentally, is because we haven’t established who he really is! And we can. But first we gotta understand that he’s a goal driven character and its his goals that make him morally gray.
Lotor’s first and outward goal is to end Zarkon’s and Haggar’s reign of terror. But Lotor has another goal and its got something to do with Altea. Whether you believe he wants to save Altea or rule the universe as some Altean emperor, one thing is clear; his Altean goal is something he must keep secret from the Galra.
And he especially needs to keep it secret from Haggar, who he believes is spying on him ALL THE DAMN TIME. He’s right. But it doesn’t change how paranoid he’s become.
Thanks to Haggar, Lotor trusts no one. And this is where his gray morality comes in. If he doesn’t trust someone, he sees no reason to tell them the truth. And if he does, its only half the truth. To Lotor, its others that need to earn his trust before he openly tells them anything.
Call it manipulative if you like, but he’s not manipulating others because he’s heartless and thinks they’re tools. It’s a genuine trust issue that haunts his character.
But there are times in which Lotor is open and honest, when he’s with someone that he believes will truly understand his vision and mission. But do his half galra generals care about his vision for peace? Do they care about his desire to reconnect with his altean heritage? Do they care about saving Altea from Zarkon/Haggar?
Yeah, you can write a whole meta that his generals (with the exception of Axca) probably don’t give a damn about his mission. Knowing this, Lotor is NOT going to be completely open and honest with them.
Look back and how Lotor speaks with his generals. The language is very different than the language he uses with team voltron. He’ll say things like “The masses are easily manipulated.” and “power” instead of peace. And things like “I had to get close to the Princess to use her” It’s not an exact quote, but you get the point.
The point is these are lies/half truths. But his vision for peace is true and Allura is not a tool to him. She’s the love of his life, his equal and someone he genuinely respects and admires.
But how do we know that Lotor hasnt been openly honest to his generals while being more honest with other characters, like Allura? How do we know its not the other way around? Ah you see, that’s the beauty of this show. When no one is looking at Lotor and when Lotor is all alone, we get to see the real him!!
There’s no one to decieve, so he’s simply his true self.
Lucky for us there’s an entire episode where Lotor is alone and all his walls are down; Season 4 Episode 6, A New Defender.
In this episode Zarkon has deemed Lotor an enemy of the state and that all Galra should kill him on sight. His generals have abandoned him. He’s alone. Zarkon is chasing him down and he means to kill his own son. Out of desperation to escape Zarkon and the Galra Empire (which has committed to killing him) Lotor dives dangerously close to the surface of a star!!!
Look at this man’s desperation to flee Zarkon!! To flee the Galra empire! (I had to take crappy photos because netflix won’t let me screencap and the glare, sorry)
His plan works. Lotor gets to breathe for a moment.
But he listens in on the Galra to keep track of their pursuit. He hears an entire sector is off limits. It peaks his interest and he raises the volume.
To his horror, he overhears there’s a detonation that will destroy an entire quadrant! That’s solar systems! Billions of lives! Hundreds if not thousands of planets! Look at this mans expression!
Genuine concern! But also, he doesn’t seem all that shocked, its kinda of like “oh stars again?”
It pains and angers him. He almost looks like he’s remembering something here. Perhaps the time he failed to save his mining colony! Never again!! Of course back in Season 4, none of us knew about the mining colony that Lotor lost. But this expression can mean nothing else! (good on you writers!)
Determination! In just an instant Lotor’s made up his mind. This is Lotor, its through his actions that we know him.
He could have pissed off to another quadrant and keep his well earned freedom. Instead Lotor instantly turns around and heads straight for Naxcella. He stops Haggars bomb that would have destroyed a whole Quadrant. He saved billions of lives, including Voltron!
More importantly, the conversation that Lotor over heard didn’t even mention Voltron. Voltron had nothing to do with his reason for going to Naxcella. There was no ulterior motive. There was only one motive, his goal, the one that defines his entire character. To stop his parents and their insane mass murder and reign of terror!
This episode shows us the real Lotor; he genuinely cares about saving lives.
After being a badass hero, Lotor cheerfully calls up Voltron. There’s no reason for them to be enemies!
And what does team voltron do after Lotor heroically saved the day and offered to peacefully speak with them? They lock him up and use him again and again for information. Then they decide his life is worthless and that it’s morally ok to hand him over to their mutual enemy, knowing that Zarkon will kill him.
This is where things get really morally gray, not for Lotor, but for team Voltron.
But anyways, that’s a meta for another day. The point is, we know who Lotor really is. A New Defender shows us this. When everyone was his enemy, his parents, the galra empire, his generals (minus axca maybe lol) voltron, the coalition, the blade of marmora; he choose to be a hero.
Don’t forget that. No seriously! Romelle’s accusation that he murdered alteans for quintessence doesn’t change it. You don’t get to erase his character development when the story worked so hard to make Lotor alone just so you can see him without his walls up.
“BUT LOTOR KILLED ALTEANS!” Shhh..shush antis and do yourself a favor and actually try to connect the dots. The story has shown us who the real Lotor is.
And real Lotor is in direct opposition to the Lotor that Romelle paints; A Lotor who murders innocent alteans using a barbaric method to extract quintessence. Only one of these Lotors is true.
(Ah, and the next time we see Lotor alone, Allura has impacted his heart so much that now this loneliness is unbearable and he absolutely falls apart..)
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