Lotor defeated Zarkon in ONE EPISODE. It took the Paladins 2 SEASONS just to hurt him. This just shows how strong Lotor is. But, he’s not just strong in a physical sense as well.
The thing that stood out to me in this scene was Lotor’s speech on power. The subject of power is very close to Lotor, especially since that’s how his own father got corrupted. So, when Zarkon lectured him about weakness, Lotor retaliated and told Zarkon what he’s kept inside his head for thousands of years. Let’s look into the speech:
He’s been down before. He knows what it’s truly like to be weak. To have nothing at all. And then, through strength of will, rise up. Zarkon has never known weakness like Lotor has, if at all. And to lecture him on it, is the greatest insult Zarkon has ever told Lotor.
Lotor then tells Zarkon on what he fears the most. Being controlled. To not be the greater power. Confronting this is Zarkon’s worst fear, and Lotor knows it.
He retorts back with his own insult. He forces Zarkon to relive the experience of weakness with his question. He strikes him where he fears the most. He turns Zarkon’s greatest strength into his weakness.
Lotor finishes off with this line before Zarkon attacks him. Lotor faces Zarkon with his worst fears: weakness and truth. Zarkon misses the true meaning of strength if he hasn’t felt weak, and Zarkon denies the claim, fighting with his fists.
In my opinion, Lotor is one of the strongest in the series. He’s fallen under Zarkon’s cruelty, faced the loss of his true mother, Honerva, and seen the true monster his mother has become. He knows what it’s like to be weak. But from there, he rose. He used both his strength and his intellect to guide himself forward and become something more.
He dedicated himself in his studies, he continued his mother’s work, he seeked knowledge in the most dangerous of places.
And whenever he failed, he didn’t get jealous. Instead he congratulated them, smiled, and showed genuine happiness for their acheivement.
Because to Lotor, the most important thing to him is to move forward, even if you’re not the one doing it. It’s something Zarkon sorely missed.
Honestly, I love this season’s Lotor. He showed another side of him that he couldn’t show when he was still with the Galra. He displayed another type of strength to us. A strength that Zarkon ignored.
[Edit: Tumblr fucked up. Here’s the finished post]
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