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IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Lotor
Canon: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Canon Point: Season 5, the end of Episode 6, "White Lion," after returning from Oriande with Allura on the space Segways

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Tramp stamp central. Lower back, and it's large enough to cover a good portion of the width of it. The antlers look normal, except for the fact that they're against a background of a vibrantly colored nebula. Lots of dark purples, greens and reds, and the stars match the color of the antlers exactly.
Current Health/Status: Alive and well
Age: We don’t really know exactly, but a little over 10,000 since Honerva was pregnant with him when she and Zarkon went into the Rift. Though he looks young due to the influence of the quintessence in his genetic makeup, he's lived every one of those years and is Very Tired, which is actually pretty well displayed at times.
Species: Alien; Galran father and Altean mother

Content Warnings: Child abuse (emotional)/neglect, bullying, racism, mentions of war and imperial conquest, fairly obvious PTSD symptoms

History: The fandom wiki

More:
Lotor nearly wasn’t born at all. His parents were told there were many complications, and Zarkon asked if there was any way to save the baby. Honerva demanded to be taken to the Rift, because “Quintessence is life; it’s the only way.” Zarkon, being unable to deny his love anything, betrayed the other Paladins and took her in.

Lotor wasn’t introduced to the show until Zarkon had been left comatose by his battle with Voltron. Haggar brought Lotor out of exile to lead the Galra as Emperor pro-tem until his father recovered. He was immediately met with opposition and those plotting to keep him from the throne, to which he responded with battle and a rousing speech that was well received by the Galra. This came immediately after two generals in the audience were discussing how small he is, and how he fights on the front lines with his generals like a common soldier (and how this is shameful).

As the season continued, we were shown that Lotor is extremely intelligent. We were also shown that his fighting and tactical prowess is pretty much unmatched in the Empire. This continues through season 4, where he has yet more run-ins with Haggar. He was relieved of his position by a very unhappy and reawakened Zarkon, but he wasn’t unhappy about this.

He obviously had his own plans that he was working on rather than wanting to be in command of the Empire, and these come to a head at the end of season 4, where it’s revealed that he’d been working on making ships from the comet he’d sent Voltron to get from another reality in season 3. After killing his general Narti after realizing she was being controlled by Haggar in order to spy on him and his ships, Lotor tests these Sincline ships as he knows Haggar will know about them. Haggar does, and tells Zarkon, who declares his son an enemy of the Empire and orders that he be shot on sight.

The Sincline ships don’t work, and Lotor is captured by Acxa as revenge for his killing Narti. He dislocates his shoulders to get out of his bonds and escapes in his fighter, but Zarkon’s ships are right behind him, so Lotor literally flies into a sun to escape him. It works, but just barely. He then hears a transmission from Central Command that a large explosion is imminent in a certain zone, and Lotor manages to piece together that this is all being orchestrated by Haggar. He immediately speeds to the location, and fires on Haggar’s ship with his ion cannon. After this, he tells the Paladins that it’s time they have a discussion.

Season 5 opens with Lotor imprisoned in the Castle of Lions. After returning from a mission, Shiro and Allura go to tell him that his intel has checked out and given them a win, to which Lotor replies that he wants to return the Galra Empire to a bygone era of peace. To prove this, he gives them information about Pidge’s father’s location, and Voltron takes Lotor as a prisoner exchange. This ends up going awry, as Lotor warned it would, and Lotor ends up facing Zarkon. After a hard battle, Lotor ends up killing his father.

He later goes to the Kral Zera, the Galran site of determining the new emperor/empress, in the Black Lion with Shiro. He announces that he is the rightful emperor as he killed Zarkon, and faces off with Sendak in a fierce battle for the throne. He succeeds, and from there forward he makes good on his promise to to try to return the Empire to peace. This involves researching in Haggar’s old lab with Allura, and they find that they can go to Oriande, a world of Altean alchemy secrets. They do, much to the dismay of the other Paladins (and Coran) and Allura is able to pass the tests of the sages and achieve the knowledge contained there. Lotor, however, chooses to fight the White Lion, shouting “Victory or death!” and is thus spat back out onto the temple steps. He later says that Oriande was for Allura, not for him.

Personality: Lotor is designed to be morally grey. He is calculating, manipulative, and charismatically persuasive, while simultaneously having a very genuine air to himself and to the things he says. He is one of the poster children of abuse, being abandoned/neglected/hated by his parents, especially his father, as well as looked down upon and scorned by many of the Galra. As a half-Altean he is smaller than most Galra, which means that all his life he has been underestimated and seen as weak when he is anything but. His fighting ability is incredible, and it’s obvious he’s trained very, very hard to get to where he is. It’s already been stated that he fought at the front lines, so he has that experience (though it’s looked down upon by other Galra generals, who state that “he has no honor” for doing so), as well as the fact that he’s somewhere around 10,000 years old and was born the son of an emperor of a race that valued fighting ability more than most anything else. We see him fighting without much trouble at all in the Galran gladiatorial arena, and while as a prince he may have done this simply for entertainment, one gets the sense that he does it often enough to be confident in his matches there.

He is also one of the most competent pilots in the Empire, able to outrun and outmaneuver his father’s warship as well as those of his father’s commanders and generals. He’s well aware that he has these skills, and while it’s never stated outright that he thinks he’s anything special, he’s obviously confident to the point of coming off arrogant. I don’t think he really is, but given that he often needs to put on a show of strength and power to get any respect from his people at all, he’s able to play the part very well.

His intelligence is vast, something that isn’t odd when you consider that his mother was an alchemist and very interested in science. Zarkon was no slouch in that area either - even after his corruption he's shown to be very shrewd, calculating and analytical. Lotor's circumstances and the fact that he grew up and lived all of his life without his parents’ support meant that he also did not have the support of the Empire, other than that afforded him by virtue of birth alone. If anyone hurt him or made his life hard, they could incur the wrath of the Emperor, which means he was likely very well and highly educated in both scholarly pursuits and combat, but left to himself much of the time. He was exiled for quite some time, only coming back when Haggar needed him to stand in for his father.

Lotor has a very quick and analytical mind, able to make plans that optimize his skills and abilities while lessening those of his opponents, be they members of his own Empire or the Paladins of Voltron. He seeks knowledge and uses this to defeat his enemies, knowing when to withdraw from a battle and to use any new information gathered to re-evaluate and edit his plans. He’s able to think on his feet and play the part needed to get the job done, no matter who he happens to be up against. He is also insatiably curious, and has stated himself that he’s always wanted to be an explorer and learn about the universe.

Lotor seems very emotionally closed off when we first meet him, and this doesn’t change much until season 5. The showrunners have said that the Galra have intense emotions, and this is very true of Lotor, who tends to wear his heart on his sleeve. It’s very easy to see when he’s annoyed, angry, or sad, as he doesn’t hide these feelings from anyone. It can thus be concluded that the Galra, while despising weakness, do not see emotion or the expression of it as such. Of course, this may also tie in to the fact that Lotor is the son of the Emperor, as it’s been stated in the show that he has the ability to go and take anything he wants without asking for it. This may very well extend to his being able to show emotion without being looked down on for it, at least not in any way that matters.

Even so, it’s fairly obvious that his life has been lonely. Haggar was so corrupted by her time in the Rift and the need for quintessence afterward that she has no recollection of him as her son until the beginning of the fifth season, and even then, she definitely doesn’t treat him lovingly. Zarkon seems only to detest him and consider him unworthy of both the throne and his attention, and the only times they speak in canon are very uncomfortable. Lotor is also looked down on for being a half-breed, and this seems to drive him to do better. He considers his Altean heritage a strength, where the Galra see it as a weakness.

In the beginning of the series, Sendak says that the greatest weakness of all is to value the lives of others. In an empire based on conquest and subjugation, this makes sense. Lotor, however, tells Allura that he was sent to the far reaches of the Empire's territory to oversee a planet, and while there, he grew to know and care about its inhabitants and their culture. Finding out about this, Zarkon ordered Lotor to destroy the planet. Lotor refused, and Zarkon proceeded to destroy it himself. This was thousands of years ago, and Lotor is still visibly shaken by it, and is quite sad while sharing it with Allura. Through this his claims to want peace and to want to rule differently from his father seem genuine, and the showrunners have confirmed that everything Lotor says has truth to it. Whether or not he’s manipulating people to get his way is undetermined at his canon point, as are his ultimate goals.

That doesn’t mean that he’s a hero or above manipulation and coercion, though. While we haven’t yet seen him mislead Voltron, he was still introduced as one of the antagonists, and has his own plans to get quintessence to secure peace. To do this, he may very well “betray” them, either intentionally or not, but I can’t imagine it would be malicious. He would simply see it as a necessity to meeting his own goals. (Update post series: yeeeeeah nope not buying the "Lotor is Eeeeeevil" plot twist which had no canon evidence, though it's not relevant at his canon point so I'm just keeping him from right after Oriande so I don't need to deal with the weirdness). Voltron and the Paladins seem to be the first time he’s felt comfortable with people in a long time, if ever. When he greets the Paladins and Coran as his friends when they visit High Command, it sounds incredibly sincere and like he believes it. While he was friendly with his generals, able to joke around and visibly care for them, I think there was still a bit of hesitance on his part simply due to the fact that he outranked them and they were duty-bound to stay by his side. With Narti’s betrayal and his quick decision to kill her for it, he drove a wedge between himself and his remaining generals that could not be fixed. When Acxa pulled her gun on him, Lotor could have fought and more than likely killed her (she didn’t really take him that much by surprise), but he didn’t. He didn’t even make an attempt. He just looked sad. Even when putting the pieces together that Narti was spying for Haggar, he looked more panicked when he cut her down than he did angry.

Allura asks him if he’s all right, after Zarkon’s defeat. He has probably been asked this question before, by his generals at least, but it appears to be something he is not used to on a personal level. I would venture to guess that a Galran prince would not have people asking him such a thing regularly, and when they did, it would be simply out of duty and only in reference to his physical condition. He seems a bit out of sorts when he responds that he’ll be fine. He certainly doesn’t sound it, though. During the battle with Zarkon he looked incredibly scared, and sad afterward, showing that despite their tumultuous relationship, Lotor still loved his father. This is also the first time he shows true vulnerability in front of Allura. This increases as the season progresses, as their connection strengthens. By the end of the season he’s been shown to look at her adoringly, and it’s obvious he genuinely cares about her, and by extension the Paladins (although he’s not as close to any of them, obviously). He even flinches on Oriande when the Sages attack, something he would never risk doing before the Galra as they would dismiss him as weak. Yet as Emperor he didn’t even think twice about flinching in front of her. This shows how much his trust in her has grown.

When it comes to the leadership of his Empire, we aren’t really shown much at his canon point. He states that many are loyal to him, but there are sizable factions in revolt. Lotor is very skilled at war and tactics and though his plans seem to be to find an unlimited source of quintessence so the Empire will no longer need to fight for it, should this not be successful, he may well have to fight. His status as a half-Galra is also a point against him to the Empire, and the number of factions in revolt speak to this. Still, he does not appear concerned about this to anyone aside from the Paladins (and even then, it’s never directly addressed and usually neatly sidestepped). This may be something he does not focus on due to his lack of a way to prevent the battles ahead, or it may simply be an instance of his not wanting to show vulnerability to anyone, as he has been raised and lived all his life in a culture in which doing so gets people killed.

In summary, Lotor is a complicated man with a very dark past, who seems to truly want to help his Empire come to peace. While he is still often cold and cynical, this is changing as he learns to trust others, and while he knows the battle is far from over he seems to have a bit of hope. He has always been at odds with the cutthroat nature of the Galra and has been researching his Altean lineage for centuries, as well as many other things, and this has shaped him into someone that may be a bit terrible at dealing with people or his feelings but well versed in the attempt. His quest for knowledge and his penchant for exploration are definitive qualities, as is his ability to think on his feet.

Core Values: Lotor despises racism as well as those judging others for how they were born. He feels everyone is what they do rather than the mixture of blood in their veins. He believes in fighting smarter rather than harder, in loyalty and in continuing to fight even when it seems hopeless to keep going. He also believes in keeping to himself, as sharing always winds up hurting him in some way. Peace is just as important to him as knowing where he comes from, and he hopes to return his Empire to a time of peace as it was before the corrupted version of his father took over. He believes very strongly in commanding by experience rather than sitting on a throne and directing people to die for him. He's an explorer and scholar at heart and loves the pursuit of knowledge and learning new things.

Moral Codes: Lotor refuses to destroy planets and peoples just for the material benefit to the Empire. He cares for the people under his command, and fights with his soldiers rather than simply commanding them. Respect is an important one, especially the respect of women, and this is evident in the way he treats Allura as well as his own generals. The only woman we see him treating badly is one of his main abusers; he seems to value women and their strength very highly. He greatly respects expertise and skill in a lot of areas, especially combat.

Weaknesses: Lotor can come off as very cold and arrogant. On the surface, this is true, as over ten thousand years he's lost many people and is terrified to share information or affection with anyone lest it be used against him, either by the person themselves or by Haggar. This leaves him distrustful and prone to relying on himself for everything, never able to ask others for assistance. He has pretty blatant manifestations of PTSD from the abuse of his life, and is shown to despise racism and react very strongly to it, sometimes with bad consequences. He has a great deal of confidence in his battle skills, and he should, but the arrogant attitude he displays could easily cause him to make mistakes.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:

Abilities:
-- Piloting. Lotor is a very skilled pilot, able to take on the lions of Voltron on his own in his personal fighter, managing to confuse them and make them fight one another rather than himself. He is also able to outmaneuver any ship or fleet of his own people he’s been shown to face thus far.

-- Intelligence. He is also vastly intelligent, having a natural curiosity about seemingly everything and using it to gather information to better suit his aims. He is smart enough to think on his feet and persuade great numbers of people to rally behind him, and to fool Zarkon himself into thinking he feels bad about being relieved of his position when he is anything but. His analytical mind is able to put things together incredibly quickly, and he is a skilled tactician because of it.

-- Language skills. He also speaks at least several languages, as he was able to send an Altean distress signal that was believable enough that both Allura and Coran took it for the genuine article, after waking up from a ten thousand year stasis. This means that his Altean is of a level of a native speaker, or at least close enough to touch.

-- Combat Ability. His combat ability is extraordinary. He is able to easily defeat a Galra warrior twice his size, even going so far as to play with his opponent before he kills him. Galra are physically strong, but Lotor, being half-Altean and thus usually much smaller than his opponents, has a strength that surpasses by leaps and bounds what it should. This could be due to training for 10,000 years or it could be due to the strength of the Altean people combined with his Galra lineage, or a combination. Aside from mere strength he is well trained and quick with multiple weapons, including melee and hand to hand combat, as well as more technological weaponry.

-- Endurance. His endurance is well above normal as well, and he is seen to fight for quite sizable amounts of time with very little (if any) true effort. In fact, it is only when facing his father, the strongest warrior of the empire, for quite some time that he appears even winded.

-- Functional Immortality/Very Hard to Kill. The quintessence in his DNA makes him vastly long lived and tough to kill, but as we learn in later seasons, he can melt into his pilot's chair just fine (sorry).

Weaknesses:
-- Emotion. Lotor has the tendency to be blinded by his feelings, be they rage, anguish or pride. There have been several instances by his canon point where he's made mistakes for the sake of his feelings, and they cost him.

-- Overly Critical. In a related vein, he tends to get testy and condescending, sometimes arrogantly flippant to those he feels contributed, even if he's the one responsible.

-- Connections. Like most creatures who grew up with abuse, Lotor has learned to keep the vulnerable parts of himself private so they won't be used to hurt him. Because of this, he has a very difficult time accepting his own failures and mistakes and makes a valiant attempt not to connect with anyone in a significant manner.

-- Manipulation. Lotor is very good at twisting words to get his way. While he doesn't outright lie, he twists the truth enough so it's close enough, or just omits information he thinks could harm him later. He had to do this growing up and it serves him well with the Galra to this day, so he doesn't realize it or feel bad about it.

Warping:

Not much for this, really. The immortality and super-endurance probably need to be warped, immortality completely. He can die as much as the game sees fit. For the super endurance, it'll be warped so that he will have it, but only for dancing. Since dancing is a huge component of his fighting style it seems like this might be a boon, but nope, only ballroom dancing or slow dance. Otherwise he gets tired on a normal level relative to humans. His piloting ability likely would too but as his fighter is pretty huge and not in game anyway, unless there's a warship for him to pilot it shouldn't be much of an issue. If there's a possibility of it, he can forget how to fly no problem, it'll just make him mad. Or it could be warped into him flying directly into another craft.

Inventory:

1. His armor/flight suit/helmet/gloves/boots/cape. Looks like this, just with a purple helmet It should be noted that the elbows of the armor have small blades of maybe an inch to two inches on the point of the elbow, I presume for ground fighting if necessary. His vambraces have datapads in them, they basically work like tablets.

2. His sword. It looks, like himself, to be a combination of Galran and Altean in style, the blade very similar to an Altean broadsword.

3. Kova - his cat. Well, for most of his childhood he was, anyway, and I think Lotor would appreciate it.

Writing Samples:
I: “You are all aware of my lineage. This has never been kept a secret, and you may be wondering how someone with Altean blood can lead the most powerful and expansive empire in the universe with such weakness in him. It has always been touted as such among the elites, and especially by your former Emperor and his witch. But I will share something with you now. Through ten thousand years of travel and war, I have seen more civilizations than most of you can dream of, and have fought against many worthy opponents. I stand before you now as the victor of every battle I have fought, including that with your previous emperor, and I can definitively state that it is the warped belief of the Galra that all others are inferior which weakens us. When we gain allies, we gain strength. Those parts that are not strong, we shall ignore until we can do so no longer, and then we shall do what must be done.

There is more strength in peace than there is in war, and I shall do everything in my power to guarantee that the poison Zarkon spread through such a lie does no further harm to our Empire. Fight if you wish; far be it from me to insist upon dropping all arms, especially in the wake of the rebellion to come. Be champions; you shall always be commended for it. But to fight with no objective is stupidity, and the Galra have never been a stupid people. Follow me and we shall strengthen the Empire from within, not on insatiable bloodlust and pointless conquest but on discovery and the bolstering of our army and territories with alliances and peace. Those who are subjugated make terrible subjects, I have found.”

and II: The TDM

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: H
Player Age: 37
Player Contact: mutedtempest pretty much everywhere online, mutedtempest#7020 on Discord, or PM Lotor's journal!

Other Characters In Game: not a one
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Lotor: H
Permissions for Character: In progress and should be completed soon!
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: yep
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: the sense of being scared to death and not knowing exactly why, basically just a sense of the unknown in general, flashbacks to terrifying things from childhood or the past, ghosts who aren't happy Casper friends
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: infant/small child/animal mutilation, abuse, or death. Everything else is cool
Additional Information: I'm legally blind and to put it bluntly, this has made html incredibly hard for me. I still try to do simple tags for effect, but forms where the code already exists are kind of impossible. I know they're standard for games and it's a problem sighted people will never have to think about, but my screen reading software just doesn't parse unpublished code in any way that makes any sense. So I just want to apologize in advance if I make posts that have weird formatting or coding errors and wind up needing to make a ton of edits, I swear it's not just laziness!

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Lotor [The Emperor of Yeet]

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