Any fan of the Voltron franchise was excited to hear Prince Lotor’s name dropped at the end of the second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender. Up until the release of Season 3, the cast and crew did a fantastic job of keeping viewers in the dark about Lotor and his intentions. Even well past his debut, we were all questioning Lotor’s credibility and motives. All in all, he shaped up to be an interesting, highly complex villain.
Despite the amount of background we got on Lotor, some details lay in subtext and interviews done within comic cons and press tours. Here are ten things you didn’t know about Lotor.
His Voice Actor
WonderCon 2017 marked the first promotional trailer released from Voltron: Legendary Defender’s third season. Though Lotor’s character design wasn’t revealed (we’ll get to that later), we did hear his voice over a montage of team Voltron as well as the Galra armada.
In the past, Lotor has been voiced by Lennie Weinrib (Voltron, 1984), Tim Curry (Voltron: The Third Dimension, 1998), and Mark Hildreth (Voltron Force, 2011). A. J. LoCascio joins the ranks of the Galran royal, providing his voice for Voltron: Legendary Defender. Best known outside of Voltron as the voice of Marty McFly in the Back to the Future games, this could be considered LoCascio’s big breakout role compared to the credits of the other voice actors. We’re glad the crew cast him, because he’s perfect and sells the character so, so well.
Kova the Cat
Well, he’s actually an alien, but he’s cat-like enough. Kova’s been passed through the Galran royal family, beginning as Honerva’s pet. After Honerva “died,” he bonded with Lotor. Though it’s never stated, it’s implied that Lotor then gave Kova to Narti since we never see Kova with another owner from Lotor to Narti. Then, after Narti dies, Kova was given back to Haggar, who then sacrificed him to perform a divination spell to find out what happened to Lotor.
Kova deserved better.
GoLion Inspiration
Having Lotor as half-Altean isn’t a new thing. Due to the Season 2 finale and the Voltron origin story in Season 3, we were explicitly told that Haggar was once the Altean alchemist Honerva and that Lotor is indeed her biological son.
In the original GoLion series, this reveal was a massive plot twist. Honerva broke the news to Lotor - known as Sincline - in Beast King GoLion. At the time, this reveal didn’t make it to American audiences.
Longevity
It’s not something you think about right away, but Lotor is well over 10,000 years old. And wow, he looks great for his age! This is because when he was conceived, he was exposed to Quintessence by way of Honerva. You can’t help but wonder how long he would have lived had he not gone insane. Still, it’s almost poetic that the thing that sustained him for so long was what killed him in the end.
The Prince’s Name is Kaltenecker
The Voltron: Legendary Defender team began its convention circuit at WonderCon 2016. They opened to a small crowd and barely filled a room. When 2017 rolled around, there weren’t enough seats to fit fans of the show in the largest panel room.
As a thank you to the fanbase, the team brought along a first look of Lotor. But the panel took place on April 1st and the crew just had too big of an opportunity to pass up. Instead of getting to see Lotor’s full character design, they photoshopped the cow, named Kaltenecker, over Lotor’s face. Happy April Fools Day!
Fooling the Fans
Arguably, this is the mark of a well-written, complex character. Leading up to Season 5’s release, the Voltron crew held a poll, asking fans if they thought Lotor was a friend or a foe. While the results were split somewhat evenly, with 59% voting for friend and 41% voting for foe. Ultimately, neither turned out to be truly correct: Lotor fights for himself, not necessarily for others. He's been praised as an incredibly nuanced character and his presence definitely added to the experience of the show.
Altean Roots
Going back to the GoLion tidbit, there are some major differences in how Lotor dealt with that conflict of identity. Having it hidden from him in GoLion, Lotor went insane and killed Honerva, having such hatred towards Alteans.
In Legendary Defender, his insanity drives him in the exact opposite direction, claiming that the Galra are stronger when they embrace another alien race. But in both series, his ambition and obsession with his ideals were his downfall.
Sincline
Used as the name of Lotor’s Voltron clone, Sincline is actually Lotor’s Japanese name. The Sincline ships are a direct homage to that while the mecha itself draws inspiration from the events of Fleet of Doom: A Voltron Movie Special.
The special was a crossover, featuring a team-up between the Lion Force and Vehicle Force teams. Since these two series in Japan had zero continuity together, the special only premiered to the international market. In the special, Lotor had Robeasts that combined into a giant robot, dubbed "Lo-tron" by fans. This feature, plus the energy scimitar weapon both robots possess, feel too intentional to not be a direct homage.
Loving Allura
Unlike in the original Voltron series, Lotor genuinely cares about Allura and did truly fall in love with her. In Lotor’s initial iteration, he wanted Allura as part of his harem. His feelings towards her escalated into a stalker-ish obsession, going so far as to kidnap her in order to make Allura his queen.
With the Legendary Defender version, we get a much more manipulative Lotor, but at no time do we ever feel that his intentions for Allura are less than sincere. While he does use her to access Quintessence, he does genuinely want her by his side and believes he’s doing the right thing for both of them.
Parallels to Keith
We all love characters with angsty backstories and Lotor is no exception to that rule. However, his childhood and upbringing bear a striking resemblance to Keith’s. Despite not having much interaction between the two, it really makes you think about life in general, especially how our childhoods influence us into adulthood.
The biggest difference in Lotor and Keith’s histories is that Keith had Shiro. Keith had someone to look up to, someone who stepped in to be a father/big brother figure. Lotor didn’t. As a result, Keith, with that role model and almost familial support, changed and matured for the better. On the other hand, Lotor followed his ambition and skewed moral compass to the point where he killed one of his generals and let Quintessence destroy him.
The characters act as foils to one another and perhaps Lotor acts as a cautionary tale to us. While Quintessence and giant alien robots don’t exist in our world, neglect and lack of emotional stability does.