I know a lot of people are upset with the direction of Lotor’s story, and I understand. Even though I expected him to turn on the team, I don’t think anyone was ready for the extent of his actions. I was anticipating a morally ambiguous move along the lines of, “the ends justify the means.” But this is more so a case of the means being so innately evil, it blots out any intentions. This isn’t me saying that you shouldn’t like Lotor–as a character or as a villain, because he can be amazing in terms of both–or you know if you just like him or he’s just your fav, because that’s valid too. But this is just my thoughts on the canon direction he went. So:
One of the truly insidious parts of Lotor’s plan is that he has the Alteans worship him as their savior. To the point where those most loyal to him are described as “faithful,” to the point where they have a statue errected in his honor. Something I haven’t seen others mentions yet: the subplot of Lotor being revered as a god didn’t just come out of nowhere. We’ve seen this before, very early on–remember how Allura was worshipped as the Lion Goddess?
Yet, there is a clear distinctio here. Allura never asks for this, and she is quick to reassure the Arusians that she has no desire to be idolized, whereas Lotor is content to have the Alteans worship him in unquestionable devotion. The god subplot of the colony links back to Allura and further shows the distinction between the two. There’s a reason the White Lion chose Allura and not Lotor, something that the being clearly saw in him. Also very telling how the Arusians assumed Allura was an aggressive god, and the Alteans believed Lotor to be benign and benevolent–that irony, man.
In his intro, Lotor quite literally says, “The masses are easily manipulated”–and in the colony, he executed that to a chilling degree. I know people are saying that Lotor’s betrayal came out of nowhere, but this was him on day one. We always understood, on some level, that he was a master manipulator not above using others. He’s cunning, shrewd, calculated. And this is a message that persists into season 6–earlier in the season, Allura chastises Lotor for not putting the safty of his subjects first. Even after all he’s changed, Lotor still isn’t the leader Allura is. And he’ll never truly have his subjects’ best interests at heart.
He’s too busy thinking in broader terms–thinking that he’s going to “save the universe.” But you can’t just abuse and torture your subjects into a long, agonozing death for the sake of some abstract ideal. He led them like lambs to slaughter. They trusted him, revered him. Lotor seems to think he treated them as best he could. He “cared” for them and “sheltered” them in life, then he honored their sacrifice in death. But it was a sacrifice they never consented to give, their lives were forcefully taken from them. They were used. Lotor has committed an atrocity on such a scale, he has no right to call them his people. Nothing Lotor did can justify him for being worshipped as a god that demands sacrifices. Nothing.
Bandor went as soon as he was deemed of age. The implications there are chilling.
I think the rift greatly contributed to Lotor being so drawn to quintessence. I think he thought he was somehow working towards peace. I think he genuinely loved Allura. But at the end of the day, some things just can’t be erased. And, returning to the question of “it came out of nowere,” I think what the show runners said about how some actions are beyond redemption sums it up best:
Joaquim: “There’s also - not just to always bring it back to Star Wars analogies - but in the original trilogy, Darth Vader had this arc where there was a clear redemption when he finally throws the Emperor over the cliff. ‘Like, oh my god, redemption! He’s good after all.’ Then they went back and sort of retconned all of that when he killed all the little child Jedi. Well, that redemption’s gone. There’s no redeeming yourself from that. So the story is forever evolving and you might feel redemption at one end of the story and maybe later on that will get swooped away and vice versa.” (source)