The Tsugikuni Brothers or the Treasure at the Bottom of the Plot. Part II
Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932
Link to the part II.
And then Moment X version 2.0 occurs, which completely destroys his newly restored self-esteem.
When his entire armed retinue and he himself prove incapable of defeating a single demon, whom Yoriichi kills with a single strike.
It all happened again. Again he was defenseless, and again his brother saved him effortlessly. But on top of that, due to his inability to display the same fighting talent as his brother, people died. To us, they were unknown, but to him, they were loyal retainers and comrades in arms. Yoriichi mentioned that the death of his squad was the main motivation for Michikatsu's decision to become a hunter. So, for Michikatsu, their deaths weren't unimportant; the Transparent World allows one to see such things.
Note: Yoriichi says "lent". This means Michikatsu was supposed to be a TEMPORARY member of the organization, not a permanent one.
For him, what happened was clear proof of his complete inadequacy as a combat leader, compared to his younger brother... whose rightful place as heir he had taken ten years earlier. And so we come to how Yoriichi, as the Herald, demonstrated to Michikatsu that an ordinary person, even at the very top of the social ladder, is nothing compared to a unique talent. And that no armor, money, or high status can compensate for this difference.
Yoriichi also revealed that there was an entire organization of demon slayers, and theoretically, one could indeed learn to fight like him. And Michikatsu, with all the tenacity of a heroic soul, decided to answer this Call.
2. Identification with the Masculine and gathering of allies
Michikatsu joined the organization as an ordinary slayer, leaving behind not only his family but also his feudal status. At that particular moment, there was nothing overly reprehensible in his actions. It was normal for a samurai to go on a long campaign, especially since in this case, his family and household could continue to function normally even in his absence. It was normal for a samurai to be concerned with restoring his honor. And most likely, Michikatsu justified his actions by saying he would return home to his wife and children once he had learned everything Yoriichi could.
Yoriichi supported him, and the slayers were naturally delighted to see a professional warrior, not a peasant farmer, appear. His wife's opinion, alas, was ignored.
3. Road of trials, meeting ogres and dragons
Michikatsu convinces himself that if he trains long enough, he can match his brother's abilities. He can't use the Sun Breath (no one has for hundreds of years), but he creates the closest equivalent—the Moon Breath. It's also unique and one-of-a-kind, but not quite the same. Years later, he acquires a mark, which—as he thought—proved he was on the right path.
In his eyes, slaying demons was hardly different from fighting bandits and enemy soldiers. For him, all means of regaining his self-esteem boiled down to the desire to become the strongest of fighters.
His relationships with the other hunters are unknown. His memories only reveal Yoriichi. In Michikatsu's eyes, his younger brother appeared as a calm man, preoccupied with his own thoughts and rarely showing emotion. They didn't go on missions together, as Yoriichi had no need for assistants. Because of this, their interactions rarely extended beyond discussing business matters, which certainly didn't foster a good relationship. When someone walks around with a stony face, showing little interest in you, it's very difficult to detect any signs of affection.
Michikatsu no longer thought about his family. His only thoughts were directed toward one specific goal. Having become the second-strongest Hunter in history by the age of 20+, he still couldn't be satisfied with such a "modest" result.
4. Finding the boon of success
So we have reached the moment when the slayers learned that the mark shortens its bearer’s lifespan to 25 years.
Considering Kokushibo's words that "Yoriichi lived for over 80 years, and they hadn't seen each other for 60 years", Michikatsu would have been at least 20 years old at that point. And if we take into account the phrase "I have no time left," then most likely the meeting with Muzan took place when our hero was already exactly 24 years old.
Did he fear the very fact of death? No. But HOW he would die was of the utmost importance to him.
Like Yoriichi, he faced a second trial — accepting his fate. In his case it meant to die humbly, like all the other lesser slayers who had managed to achieve the mark. But certain that he must justify his existence with some significant feat, Michikatsu looked back and saw nothing. Not even apprentices capable of maintaining the techniques and the Breath he had developed.
И всё же он проделал такой долгий путь. Он поднялся так высоко. И казалось, вершина была прямо перед его глазами. И умереть всего в двух шагах от цели было невыносимо. Он всё ещё верил, что сможет сравняться с Ёриичи.
He desperately needed support at this moment. For someone to approach him and tell him that, despite his young age, he had achieved much and truly deserved respect. But he always kept all his worries to himself, ashamed of his envy, realizing that such a feeling was unworthy of a true samurai.
And that conversation with Yoriichi was probably the limit of what Michikatsu was capable of. Dry and concise, purely businesslike. "We will die, and all our achievements will die with us". Michikatsu hoped that his brother, who was in similar circumstances, would understand and say something encouraging.
But Yoriichi couldn't understand, having never experienced such emotions himself. And their conversation could be compared to that of a rich and poor man, where the former assures the latter that money is unimportant.
Muzan, however, was clearly not in the best of spirits at that moment. Not only had the slayers suddenly become equal in strength to the demons, but they had also become immune to forced conversion. Recall Tanjiro, who resisted even when Muzan poured his all into him.
And the sudden death of the organization's main fighting force was a true gift for him. True, this didn't guarantee that no one would replace them, but he could try to take advantage of the situation, so that the voluntary conversion of one of the hunters would be a true finishing blow.
And who should he turn? That's right, the second strongest. After all, the second always dreams of being first. Especially since the strongest should be eliminated anyway before they have time to train the next generation.
Did Muzan spend time studying his victim? Most likely, yes. Unlike many other Moons, Muzan wasn't some kind of benefactor to Michikatsu, and forced conversion was impossible. He needed to think of something to offer beyond simply saving someone from death, and to do that, he needed to understand the person's desires and aspirations.
And so he did. On one side of the scale stood Yoriichi, proposing that they die like ordinary people, accepting the path of victim. And on the other stood Muzan, proposing that he becomes someone truly special and shapes his own destiny.
If Michikatsu had had even a day to think about it, it's far from certain he would have agreed. But he didn't have that luxury. Most of his comrades had already died or were expected to die soon. His relationship with his brother hadn't worked out, and it was assumed he would soon die too. And he didn't have a minute to think. Moreover, the very proposal shocked him and threw him off balance. He had been preparing for battle. He had already drawn his sword.
And so he leaped into the abyss. He leaped because he thought this leap would allow him to achieve what he desired. That very summit.
And for a while, he even thought he had. Having given up his last—his humanity—Michikatsu transforms into a demon, completely severing his ties to the world of ordinary people on a material level.
The trial of the Guardians is passed. The Threshold into the Unknown World is crossed.
5. Awakening to feelings of spiritual aridity, death
And... the main tragedy was that he became a demon, but retained almost his entire personality. A completely normal personality, without any deviations.
Why did Kokushibo like Akaza so much that he even got angry when he died? Because Akaza's behavior closely resembled that of a human and a professional fighter, while the vast majority of demons behaved like Douma — that is, they found a convenient hiding place and caught everyone who passed by, wasting their eternity on the pathetic theft of other people's chi. It was not without reason that Muzan measured the power of a demon by the number of people he ate — because they didn't try to develop in any other way, while Kokushibo, by the age of 480+, had created 16 styles for his Breath.
Yes, for the first 60 years or so, immersed in a life freed from the need to do anything but train, everything seemed wonderful to him. And perhaps it would have lasted longer, but fate, in the person of Yoriichi, found him then, abruptly ending the aura of "freedom" that had turned Michikatsu's head in the first decades.
When it turned out that, having become a demon and dedicated more than half a century to endless training, he was still inferior in skill to the aging Yoriichi. When Yoriichi died of old age, in battle, victorious. The perfect death of a samurai. While Michikatsu himself remained alive as a hideous monster.
That's why Kokushibo had a genuine breakdown at that moment. Because in his dreams, he himself wanted to die exactly like that. And not live forever like Muzan. And the only reason he agreed to become a demon... turned out to be false. Yoriichi passed away in a blaze of glory, and thus his greatness became impossible to attain. Because the dead cannot be surpassed, as he will always be remembered as an unattainable ideal.
And so he was left with the cut flute in his hands, a symbol of a broken brotherly bond, which further fueled his sense of guilt—the main source of his obsession. And for the rest of his life, he kept it close to him, as if deliberately picking at an unhealed wound.
Didn't he call himself "all people"? Didn't he confess in these lines his longing for his twin brother?
And then... then it was all over. Having turned into an Oni, he lost everything but the warrior's pride that wouldn't allow him to go out into the sun or lose to any opponent less worthy than Yoriichi. Pure, mindless stubbornness without any real ambition.
Well, and serving Muzan. Unlike Ubuyashiki, he actually swore a vassal oath to him. Kokushibo addressed the demon king as "Muzan-sama". The fanbook says that Kokushibo got along with Muzan and saw no reason to hide his thoughts from him, but that doesn't mean he liked his superiors. Rather, it's because, desperately clinging to his samurai status, he followed his oath with particular zeal.
Remember how Yoriichi constantly walked around with the mantra, "I'm a mere mortal"? So, Michikatsu also had his own mantra: "I'm still a samurai". When he left his family, he probably justified it by saying he needed to restore his honor. It was the same with his transformation into a demon, because from a Buddhist perspective, eating not only people but meat in general is bad. But samurai ate meat; it was necessary for the military. Not beef, of course, that's taboo, but they allowed themselves wildfowl or chicken, ignoring the priests' heavy sighs.
A samurai has to kill other people. A samurai needs to eat meat. Therefore, having become a demon, he still remains a samurai. And for centuries, he continued to deceive himself, pointedly pretending that nothing had changed for him after his transformation:
- he retained almost a completely human appearance. His six eyes served a purely functional purpose, allowing him to constantly use the Transparent World.
- his combat methods also remained as human as possible, including dodging attacks, despite his frantic regeneration. He gave his weapon a name, even though his blade was no longer a unique and prized possession, but simply a piece of his flesh.
- his behavior was emphatically in keeping with samurai etiquette. He removed his shoes on the tatami mats (though this was pointless in the Infinity Castle), he never attacked first, and he strictly enforced military discipline among the Higher Moons, even though they met once every century. He even called himself "watashi"—an extremely polite form of the personal pronoun.
A psychological defense against the realization of how far he had fallen, just as Yoriichi had denied his Chosen Oneness to the very end.
6. Initiation and descent to the Goddess
In the Heroine's Journey, this stage is considered the beginning of the ascent, when the hero gains a second wind and overcomes a psychological crisis. But... Michikatsu doesn't have this stage because he dies in the previous one.
Such is the sad reality. The Hero may not defeat the Dragon, and the Heroine may not survive the stage of Spiritual Death.
Kokushibo kills Muichiro and, with him, the last memory of himself. He then loses the outwardly decent shell that allowed him to deny reality and falls into an existential crisis, weakening his ability to withstand damage.
People debate the cause of his death, but if you break it down and compare it to Akaza, it becomes quite clear.
1. The red-hot sword deals constant damage to the demon upon contact and, most importantly, slows regeneration. But it can't kill on its own: remember Muzan, chopped to pulp.
2. Decapitation or sunlight is the main requirement for killing a demon. Without this, the demon can’t be killed, even if you plunge ten red-hot swords into it at once.
3. Kokushibo regenerated his head while simultaneously resisting both decapitation and the red-hot sword already embedded in him. The sword’s damage has no “delayed” effect; it takes effect immediately upon being stabbed. The damage Kokushibo received before and after his head regrowth was the same.
What's the difference then? The difference is in willpower and the desire to fight. When Kokushibo's human form was taken away, his self-perception that he was living a normal samurai life, and that there was nothing special about it, crumbled with him. Sure, a liege lord with a bad temper happens. And then he was slapped in the face with the fact that no, that wasn't true. And denying reality became impossible. And so he lost the desire to fight at a level that would allow him to regenerate while constantly taking damage.
And he died in despair, regret, and self-hatred. A sad end to a tragic character. But then why did I even start this section? The thing is, although Kokushibo doesn't have a Descent to the Goddess stage, its central character—Animus—is still present in the plot.
Who is this character? Gemei.
A man who had achieved incredible heights in martial arts and also faced the fact that as soon as he activated the mark, he would die within 24 hours. Do you remember his response to the offer to become a demon?
"The weak-willed do not become slayers. We will live the days that remain with pride."
These were the words Michikatsu needed when he was overcome with grief over his ignominious death: "You are a samurai. It doesn't matter how many victories you have won. The main thing is to live your life with dignity, and let that be enough for you".
While the Tsugikuni brothers completely misunderstood each other, Gemei spoke the same language as Michikatsu. He used terms he understood. And if this phrase had been spoken to Michikatsu back then, 480 years ago, he would never have accepted Muzan's offer. It was a voice calling him to remember who he was. To remember something very important, something that Michikatsu had forgotten in his self-flagellation. But the person capable of telling him these words arrived too late. And given the plot circumstances Gotoge had devised for the Animus's appearance, any other course of events for Kokushibo was impossible.
Could his ending have been different? It could have.
If he had been transformed into a human with the vaccine, he would never have thought of returning to the demon ranks.
If the characters had met Kokushibo off-duty and not in the Infinity Castle, he would have been more than happy to talk to them without resorting to cutting off their limbs. Because even an introvert needs someone to talk to from time to time, and finding a worthy companion among demons is extremely difficult.
Either scenario could have led to a completely different outcome. Perhaps even to Michikatsu's appearance at the decisive battle, which would have reduced the losses among the main characters.
But unfortunately, Gotoge didn't consider the three strongest Moons worthy of their own separate arcs and killed them off in one. Rumor has it that she was forced to abruptly end the manga, and perhaps that's exactly what happened. The result is two wonderful stories told on the sidelines of the protagonist's adventures. And psychologically, they are far more powerful than the main plot.
The Tsugikuni Brothers or the Treasure at the Bottom of the Plot. Part I
Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932
Link to the part I.
Unfortunately, both of these characters appear extremely rarely, and their biographies are spread thinly throughout the manga.
But even this was enough to create a more complete Journey for each of the brothers than that of the main trio. Moreover, most importantly, their Journey is not simply a description of events with symbolic figures, as was Tanjiro's, but a story of a spiritual transformation of the individual.
Yoriichi, like his brother, is a tragic hero, whose essence is summed up by the phrase “I’m a mere mortal”, Yoriichi, clearly no mere mortal, constantly uttered these words like a mantra, demonstrating a complete reluctance to embark on the Journey. A man stuck in the Refusal stage, suffering the full weight of problems that befalls those who do so.
He was born the Chosen One. Yes, he truly is the Chosen One, for the Demon Slayer world is a world where hell and heaven truly exist. With a mark, incredible strength, enormous chi, and other gifts from Amaterasu, something his family naturally knew nothing about. His Known World was an extremely sad spectacle, as his father was a superstitious man, and also a samurai from the early Sengoku period, meaning he was very far removed from any notions of humanism. Therefore, the man considered the younger of the two twins (which is already a source of fear) with a strange mark on his forehead to be cursed and bringing misfortune. Nothing special, really, just standard magical thinking for a person of that time.
He wanted to get rid of the child, but his mother, Akeno-san, showed unexpected aggression, shocking everyone around her, including her husband, and thus saving her son's life.
And so we have the Master of the World — the unnamed father (the author didn't consider him worthy of a name). A military man, a feudal lord, a stern and calculating man.
The Mistress of the World — Akeno-san. A calm, sickly, and deeply religious woman.
And the First Heir — Michikatsu's older brother, who grew up in a system where he was expected to be both filial piety and to become his father's replacement in the future, the ruler of the fief, not just a submissive soldier. And he grew up tenacious, hardworking, and stubborn when it came to achieving his goals. And although his father wielded absolute power in the household, Michikatsu clearly believed he had his own opinion on matters, even under the threat of violence.
Excerpts from the fanbook. From here on, translations from the original are shown in red to convey the exact meaning.
How should we assess his role in Yoriichi's life, given the significant discrepancy between the brothers' perspectives? It's important to be clear who's speaking. Gotoge has always been excellent at creating psychological profiles. And if Kokushibo is a 480+ year-old individual recalling events he remembers only very vaguely, and through the lens of his present-day perspective, then it is unlikely he remembers the thoughts and perspectives of a little boy named Michikatsu. Even the faces of his family have faded from his memory, much less his own thoughts at age seven.
On the other hand, we have Yoriichi, who is about 30 years old and has possessed the Transparent World since birth, allowing him, among other things, to see people's psychological states. Putting it all together, we can say Yoriichi's opinion is far more credible. According to him, Michikatsu didn't despise his younger brother; he pitied him and worried about him.
He played with him, gave him a device so he could call for help, since Yoriichi was considered deaf (and no one knew how to teach a deaf person to speak at the time). He communicated with him despite all the prohibitions.
That's why Yoriichi loved his brother so much. At that particular time, Michikatsu wasn't "Kaigaku Number 2"; in Yoriichi's eyes, he was a protector and a positive role model. A source of good memories of home.
Yoriichi himself was already an extremely passive and submissive person, accustomed to being led by his older brother's hand. Those who like to label him consider him autistic (it's a fashion these days to attribute mental illness to everyone), but Yoriichi should be viewed as a mythical Buddhist hero. And he's not mentally ill, but rather blessed. Or even Enlightened. A perfect being from birth, incapable of experiencing negative feelings towards people or any strong aspirations, as the Enlightened One has already completed his Path. The very tree Tanjuro mentioned.
And... this is the main source of problems in his life. Because who is a Hero? A Hero is the primary driving force of Existence. He is the leading manifestation of Yang energy in history—movement, activity, sometimes even chaos. One who knows no rest and seeks development.
A perfect and passive being can’t be a Hero, because only Yin energy can be perfect and passive. A Goddess, a Mistress of the World, a Princess, any metaphorical Mother, but not a Father, whose essence is struggle.
Yoriichi possessed heroic abilities and a heroic Body, but he lacked a heroic soul.
...and the heroic soul ended up in another child. "Oops," said Amaterasu...
The turning point occurs when the brothers turn seven years old. Seven years old is a special milestone in Asia, as people believe that until that age, a person belongs to the spirit world. The tradition of celebrating this milestone in a child's life continues in Japan to this day.
The reasons why Yoriichi chose to speak with his brother now aren’t revealed, but the most important thing is that he demonstrated his phenomenal fighting ability. Picking up a weapon for the first time in his life, he instantly knocked out an adult professional fighter.
And this... instantly destroyed his Known World, as the backlash came immediately.
1. The Call to Adventure
The father decides to make Yoriichi his Heir, getting rid of his eldest son in the process, as he could theoretically pose a threat to his brother.
The stress of this situation overwhelms Akeno, and she dies of illness.
In other words, Yoriichi's biological father acted as the Dragon, destroying his world (as manifested in the death of his mother) and planning to send his eldest son to a monastery, symbolizing the imprisonment of the Princess in a tower, where she will never be able to begin a new era. Yes, in this Journey, Michikatsu played the role of the Damsel in Distress, whom Yoriichi needed to save. Save his soul and his world, where he has a family.
2. Refusal of the Call
Instead of confronting his father, Yoriichi runs away, abandoning his brother (the Princess) in the Dragon's arms.
Yoriichi didn't want to quarrel with his father, so he saw only one way to help his brother: leaving. While this truly saves Michikatsu, it also leaves him in the company of the man who so recently intended to get rid of him, and it's unlikely that such a thing can be easily forgotten.
Nothing more can be learned about this period, as Kokushibo himself immediately switches to memories of his wife, and his father dies shortly after his marriage.
According to the logic of the Journey, the stage of Supernatural Aid, or at worst, the stage of Threshold Guardians, follows after Refusal, but what happens to Yoriichi?
Yoriichi finds Uta and, in her, acquires a new Mistress of the Known World. Michikatsu remains in his memory, but Yoriichi considered his connection with his home severed and never planned to return there.
The gods were probably astonished: "Hero, are you... planning on being a hero? What do you mean, not?"
And at first, Yoriichi was lucky. He spent serene days in Uta's company, and the terrifying Dragon in the person of his father died on its own, allowing Michikatsu to live a peaceful life, as peaceful as it could be for a feudal lord of the Sengoku era.
But fate still found Yoriichi. For fate leads the willing, and drags the unwilling.
When Yoriichi went to negotiate with the midwife, leaving his pregnant wife alone for a whole day (in the mountains, in the forest, in a house without a fence... what stunning, unadulterated naivety), he returned to find her dead.
The higher powers cruelly punished the one who dared to defy his destiny.
3. Supernatural Aid. Appearance of the Mentor
Help, as with Tanjiro, arrives, but too late. A demon hunter appears and invites Yoriichi to follow in his footsteps.
It's unlikely he could teach the Chosen One anything, but he showed him where the futon was in the barracks, and that's all he needed.
So, Yoriichi himself didn't rush into the Unknown World; he was simply led there, given a sword, and pointed a finger at the demons. Even the Threshold Guardians were absent, because there was no one to check here. He had enough power for an entire army, and Yoriichi's enthusiasm always strove for perfection. To zero.
The Threshold Guardians and Belly of the Whale stages are skipped.
4. Road of Trials
Instead of burning with an unbearable thirst to kill every demon on the planet, Yoriichi found his calling in sharing his divinely bestowed knowledge with other slayers, like a Goddess. This knowledge literally encompassed how to transform one's Qi into a tangible form—Breath—and thereby increase one's combat potential.
Although, according to the rules of the Hero's Journey, a Hero should develop himself, not improve others. But Yoriichi was already born perfect, and I don't think he spent even five minutes of his life on personal training.
5. Meeting with the Goddess
If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must be brought to the mountain—so the gods thought, and they orchestrated a local emergency for Michikatsu, sending a demon to his military camp at night. Michikatsu experienced shock when all his fighters were instantly slaughtered, and Yoriichi, pursuing the demon, meets his brother after 10 years of separation. If a Body without a Soul can't function properly, it must be given a Soul. But this Michikatsu was no longer the sweet, kind boy; he had become a samurai and an aristocrat, whose pride and self-esteem had been twice crushed by a tractor (which we'll discuss in more detail later).
And a warrior aristocrat takes such blows very hard. He needed to restore his self-respect—to prove to himself that he wasn't worthless but had a right to live. Therefore, without any persuasion or entreaties from Yoriichi, Michikatsu abandoned all his possessions and family and went to a place where—as he believed—he could restore his dignity.
But Michikatsu wasn't just a soldier and couldn't be satisfied with the routine of "kill a demon, get money and someone's gratitude," if only because he thought beyond the confines of a single mission. A soldier strives to win a battle, while a general thirsts to win a war. And Michikatsu likely understood perfectly well that killing one, ten, even a hundred demons would change nothing. Especially in the Sengoku period, where a village and its inhabitants could be plundered or burned just to spite the village's owner. Humans killed on a much larger scale than demons.
And so, killing demons alone brought him no satisfaction. The Hero's soul and wounded pride craved a sense of significance, craved heroic deeds and recognition.
But the Princess doesn't perform heroic deeds; instead, she’s the one being fought for. She doesn't seek meaning in life, because she is meaning for others. And she certainly doesn't need to transform, because the Hero values her as she is.
And the role Michikatsu was assigned in this life greatly oppressed him. He didn't understand why he existed. The concept of "living to be happy" didn't exist for him, because at that time, for the vast majority of people, happiness consisted of having a crust of bread, good health, and not fearing for their lives. Michikatsu had all of this, and even his abandoned wife and children lived far better than any peasant woman — better, in other words, than 90% of women in Japan. But this didn't make him any happier, because his problems lay much higher up Maslow's pyramid.
And it must be understood that when Yoriichi agreed to take Michikatsu with him to the hunter organization, he assumed the responsibility of a Mentor on his Journey. The responsibility of someone responsible for spiritual guidance and preparation for the transition from the role of an ordinary soldier to the role of a hunter living in the name of a sacred purpose.
And Yoriichi failed in this role. He couldn't.
Why? It's simple. A Mentor on the Journey is someone who has completed the entire cycle, at least to the Master of Two Worlds stage. Master of Two Worlds means that a person has successfully completed their transformation and successfully integrated back into the Known World.
In other words, they have completed the Journey themselves and can now explain how to do so to others.
But Yoriichi didn't complete the Journey; he refused it.
So it turns out that Michikatsu never made the transformation from an ordinary soldier, treating his enemies with the principle of "nothing personal, just business," to a hunter convinced he was fulfilling a sacred mission. And the only way for him to restore his self-esteem was to compete for the title of the best warrior, a competition he could never win. This, combined with his stubbornness and battered self-esteem, drove him to despair. Moreover, let's recall Yoriichi's phrase, "All masters of their craft converge on one point." He was primarily referring to spiritual Enlightenment, but he himself had already been born Enlightened and therefore couldn't explain to his brother how to become one. He simply didn't understand the torment of his soul.
And when Michikatsu came to him with the question of how he should live when he was soon to die and not even a memory would remain, what did Yoriichi say? He replied, “Don't worry and be happy. Just calmly await your fate; a more talented person than you will soon be born”.
No Hero would sit and meekly await their death, leaving the accomplishment of heroic deeds to someone else.
And at that moment, Yoriichi failed his meeting with the Goddess. Michikatsu went off to seek answers elsewhere and was "kidnapped" by the cunning Dragon.
6. Atonement with Father
Two monsters, one from the human world, the Chosen One of the gods, the other from the demon world, the Progenitor... no, they don't clash in a fierce battle for dominance of the Unknown World in the main villain's castle, but meet completely by chance on a path at night.
Unlike Tanjiro, Yoriichi never specifically tried to search for Muzan, which once again demonstrates the extent of his inertia.
And what does Yoriichi do? Defeats evil, realizing that this is his destiny? No. Instead of immediately focusing all his moral and physical strength on destroying Muzan, Yoriichi spends precious minutes expressing his indignation at his uncultured behavior.
Tanjiro meeting Muzan: running at him and yelling.
Yoriichi: ...
Yoriichi was sorely lacking a genuine desire to defeat the villain at any cost... or an extra pair of hands.
Perhaps if Michikatsu had died in battle with Muzan, it would have been enough to truly anger Yoriichi.
Perhaps if Michikatsu had undergone the transformation and become a slayer not only in rank but also in spirit, he would have been able to heat his sword and inflict enough damage on Muzan before dying to make Yoriichi's task easier.
Perhaps, if Michikatsu had been nearby at that moment, he wouldn't have wasted time currying favor with the progenitor of monsters and would have prevented his brother from doing so.
But none of the above happened, because the hero's Soul had already been stolen by the evil Dragon. And Yoriichi never received his weapon—the unquenchable flame of the heroic Soul, necessary for the feat. Ultimately, Muzan escapes and then spends the rest of eternity erasing any memory of the Breath of the Sun. And even here, Yoriichi made no effort to hinder him. He didn't keep any archives, didn't create a hiding place for future generations. The fact that the Breath of the Sun has survived centuries is the initiative and merit of the Kamado family, not Yoriichi himself.
As for Michikatsu as a prisoner and the Dragon's most prized possession (yes, Muzan truly considered himself extremely fortunate to have obtained him) – again, Yoriichi did nothing to free his Soul from its prison, even at the cost of destroying his physical form. Although Yoriichi, perhaps better than anyone, understood how dangerous Michikatsu was. As the second most powerful hunter in history, he had become a truly terrifying demon and threatened the very existence of the extermination organization. But Yoriichi took no steps to quickly find and kill him, even though Michikatsu, unlike Muzan, never hid or avoided combat, meaning finding him wouldn't have required any extraordinary effort.
Only in his eighties did Yoriichi resolve to do what was necessary... and failed, because he died of old age, leaving his Soul eternally trapped in the immortal Dragon.
But from the point of view of samurai honor, Yoriichi was obliged to do this.
Yes, this is the true apotheosis of the Hero, who failed to do anything he should have.
He couldn't protect his World, he couldn't save his Princess, and he couldn't defeat his Dragon.
Because without a heroic soul, a heroic body is an empty vessel.
And yes, like all good characters, Yorichii was reincarnated as an ordinary man with a wife, children, and a life where the worst thing is a mortgage. Who has no idea that his Soul is burning in hell, or that he ever even had a brother. Can you call that a happy ending? I don't know.
Michikatsu's own journey didn't even hint at a happy ending. Fortunately, hell in Buddhism isn't a final destination, but a transit point (though not for those who end up in Avici. Muzan will have to languish there until the next kalpa).
But while in Yoriichi's Journey, Michikatsu is the Object (that which is influenced), in his own Journey he’s the Subject, and in many ways, he has ruined his own life.
There are many absurd opinions about him as a hero. For example, the claim that Michikatsu could never have equaled Yoriichi because he was bad and jealous, and bad boys naturally never win. This position is preschool-level, because Yoriichi is the Chosen One of the gods, and it is impossible to equal him in principle, and life is such a thing that you can do good deeds as much as you want and still never achieve success.
The second popular claim is that the moons symbolized the seven deadly sins, and Michikatsu was responsible for envy. This is no less clever than the first, because the leading religion in Demon Slayer is Buddhism, which doesn’t have the concept of the seven deadly sins. Christianity isn't mentioned at all, and there’s only hint of Shintoism. The theme of Buddhism is indeed present in Michikatsu's plot, as the main tenet of that religion is: "All desires lead to suffering. As long as you desire, you continue to suffer”. And Kokushibo's story is the story of a man whose desperate desire to achieve the impossible destroyed everything he held dear. The connection is obvious.
What's less obvious, however, is his Journey, because to properly understand the plot, one must understand the motives and origins of the hero's actions, and all we have are a few meager pages of biography, conveyed by an unreliable narrator.
But what do we know for sure about Kokushibo as a person? Let's try to list all the information that can be considered reliable (this is where the repetition begins, but it's inevitable):
1. Michikatsu Tsugikuni was born at the beginning of the Sengoku period to a wealthy samurai family and was a man with a sense of honor and ethics appropriate to his time and social standing.
Only a VERY rich person could afford large rooms, expensive furnishings, multi-layered clothes and equipment for a personal army.
What conclusions can be drawn from this?
A) He had a very specific attitude toward death and murder.
Michikatsu Tsugikuni was a professional military man who lived during the feudal wars, when death was omnipresent.
And from his perspective, demons eating people was far more repulsive than killing them at all. Ordinary people were just as likely to rape, rob, and enslave. Cannibalism is disgusting, but death is the reality of life.
And he was part of this reality. While Yoriichi and villagers like him initially led relatively peaceful lives, Michikatsu regularly killed ordinary people without any personal grudge against them. And he regularly lost his comrades in arms, because war is a place where people die.
Why is this important? Because Michikatsu Tsugikuni never perceived the work of a slayer as a great mission, lacking the personal element. He approached demon slaying with complete coolness and businesslike efficiency, as befits a professional.
Such a man would never be able to heat his blade, as it requires a tremendous emotional outburst. A self-respecting samurai, however, strives to remain calm in any situation.
On the other hand, such a man would never perceive the very need to kill humans as something terrifying, because he had already done it before.
B) Michikatsu Tsugikuni was not an ordinary plebeian, but a wealthy feudal lord, which, in the era of warring provinces, made him practically an independent ruler. Consequently, he wasn’t one who served, but one who was served.
Roughly speaking, he wasn’t a knight, but a lord. Every lord is a knight, but not every knight is a lord. Why is this important? Because it means that Michikatsu Tsugikuni never swore an oath of allegiance to Ubuyashiki. He was a political entity whose oaths automatically affected his family, his vassals, and his political alliances with other feudal lords.
The Ubuyashiki clan and the Tsugikuni clan were on the same rung of the social ladder.
And if he had sworn an oath of allegiance to Ubuyashiki, his entire family and all his subordinates would have automatically become Ubuyashiki vassals. Like the Rengoku clan, for example. And then, after Michikatsu transformed into a demon, his family would have been obligated to find him and destroy him to clear the honor of the Tsugikuni clan. This didn't happen. The Tsugikuni clan degenerated over centuries for reasons beyond its control—Kokushibō states this explicitly.
Only Yoriichi swore a personal oath to Ubuyashiki. Not as a samurai, but as a humble man named Yoriichi. And he bore responsibility not as a member of the Tsugikuni clan, but as a slayer who had brought another person into the organization and vouched for him.
What was Michikatsu considered within the organization then? Most likely, some kind of honorary ally. He was bound to the organization by absolutely nothing other than his personal desire to be there.
C) Michikatsu was born into a very religious family, a very religious and superstitious class, and in an era when belief in God was taken for granted. And so he grew up a deeply religious man.
Furthermore, as the heir to a wealthy samurai clan, he had access not only to combat training but also to a good education, and therefore, in his eyes, the Way of the Samurai was not simply military service, but a philosophy with specific concepts of honor. And he couldn't have grown up any different in the conditions in which he was raised.
He wasn't isolated from society like Muzan, and his parents didn't turn religion into a profitable business like Douma's. His father devoutly followed feng shui, his mother constantly prayed at the altar of Amaterasu, and everyone around him lived the same way.
And while none of this was ever verbally expressed, it's important for understanding both the character and the plot.
Particularly because Kokushibo's main opponent in his final battle is Gemei. The best warrior in centuries, according to him, and also... a Buddhist monk. A man strong in his faith, he didn't turn away from his principles even after being accused of murdering children.
And this has great symbolic significance, as Michikatsu himself almost became a monk as a child, something he terrified of, having set all his intentions on the path of the samurai. But again, having become a samurai, he ended up betraying his own principles, which once again puts him in opposition to Gemei.
2. Michikatsu Tsugikuni was born at the beginning of the Sengoku period to a wealthy samurai family and was a man with a sense of honor and ethics appropriate to his time and social standing.
Michikatsu Tsugikuni was a normal, adequate member of society, as much as possible for someone who had been going to war as a job since the age of 14. While Nakime is a serial killer, Douma a psychopath, and Hantengu a schizophrenic, Kokushibo shows no signs of deviant behavior. Before becoming a demon, he led a completely law-abiding life, and his quirks were fueled by internal conflicts, not mental illness or flawed ethical standards.
Look at his bowed head posture. It's the posture of a man who understands he's doing wrong.
He understood that envy weighed heavily on him, and considered it a flaw. He understood that betraying one's duty as head of a family and feudal lord was wrong. And he understood that eating humans was immoral, and that demons were vile monsters.
He always knew this, it wasn’t as if he suddenly had an epiphany before his death (there is such a theory).
The Kokushibo’s sword translates as “The Empty Cry of the Abandoned by God”. And when a believer calls himself “abandoned by god”, it doesn't seem like a compliment at all.
Year after year, finding excuses to indulge his obsession, he drifted further and further down the path of no return, which gave rise to yet another attempt to convince himself that the end justifies the means. Until he reached a situation where making excuses became impossible.
3. Kokushibo has very low self-esteem, despite his high social status and military successes.
Moreover, this low self-esteem shines through in all his actions:
His inability to accept defeat from anyone other than the incomparable Yoriichi. Only the most insecure people constantly fear being in a "shameful" position. This applies both to the demons he demonstratively devoured, punishing them for even attempting to challenge him, and to his refusal to acknowledge the possibility of a more capable person being born than himself, even though to him — a man with children of his own — such a development should have seemed the natural course of events.
His desire to prove his worth to himself by any means necessary. For example, to emphasize that this talented boy is the heir to his bloodline. That is, the child's talent is a consequence of being the descendant of such a remarkable warrior.
His inferiority complex toward his younger brother was so strong that the mere sight of Yoriichi made him feel almost physically ill. Any achievements below Yoriichi's level seemed unworthy to Michikatsu, not enough to justify his very existence.
I remind you that they are twins.
He literally didn't understand why he should live if he was worse than Yoriichi. Therefore, he longed to accomplish something great, to convince himself that Tsugikuni Michikatsu's birth into this world was not in vain.
And this isn't just envy. A person overcome by banal envy never doubts their right to live and being worthy of same blessings as their more fortunate rival (Zenitsu and Gyutaro send their warmest greetings). This is something on the level of psychological trauma, where Yoriichi acted as a trigger, initiating another bout of self-abasement. Almost like PTSD.
And his decision to become a demon was born not out of fear of death, but out of the hope that, with endless time to train, he would one day be able to equal his brother and finally calm his fevered mind.
4. Before his death, Kokushibo listed the things he believed he had sacrificed for the sake of his desire to equal Yoriichi. And since he considered it a "sacrifice," it means he perceived it as something valuable. Something personally important to him.
Moreover, the listing proceeds in ascending order of severity, symbolizing how Michikatsu "went ever further, out of a desire to equal Yoriichi." The worst sin, naturally, was betraying the Way of the Samurai. Essentially, betraying himself.
He didn't want to kill Muichiro. And he described his married life as peaceful and prosperous. If he had been indifferent to this, he wouldn't have cherished the memory of it for so many centuries. The fact that he was genuinely happy (!) to meet his descendant speaks to the importance of family and children to him.
And summing up his achievements and sacrifices, Kokushibo sadly admitted that the life he had lived wasn't worth leaving his family, betraying his principles, and killing his descendant.
What follows from this? It follows that Michikatsu valued two things most in his life: the way of the samurai and his family. And why he abandoned what he considered important and valuable is what we must understand when charting the Journey.
Now about the Journey itself.
The stories of Yoriichi and Michikatsu run parallel, contrasting each other in almost every way, including the subtype of the Journey. If Yoriichi is the defeated hero of the classic Hero's Journey, then Michikatsu... is the deceased heroine of the classic Heroine's Journey.
The Heroine's Journey is a special case of the Hero's Journey, where the hero sees no need to evolve beyond their initial way of life, but rather questions the wisdom of their established way of life in general. This Journey primarily reflects a psychological crisis within a person, where the primary goal is not to respond to the challenges of fate, but to come to terms with oneself.
This type of Journey is most often found in fairy tales for girls, and the Journey itself was identified as a separate category by psychologist Maureen Murdoch, who spent many years helping adult women struggling with balancing their personal and professional lives. This explains the specific names of the stages, but one shouldn’t think that only the emancipated woman of the 20th century can be a "heroine".
1. Separation from the Feminine
The Hero realizes, that although he fully conforms to social norms, he does not feel successful at all. Someone from a different social stratum not only receives far greater benefits but also demonstrates this directly to the protagonist, often while inflicting harm on him.
The Call to Adventure stage. With the emergence of the Herald, as a demonstrator of the advantages of another social group.
2. Identification with the Masculine and gathering of allies
The Hero receives help in their attempts to cope with the crisis and meets those who support their desire to change their social status. From this point on, the Hero also begins to gradually lose the attributes that connected them to their original status.
The Supernatural Aid and Appearance of the Mentor stages are possible.
3. Road of trials: meeting ogres and dragons
Trials on the path to the goal.
4. Finding the boon of success
The Hero, at the cost of enormous investment and effort, achieves success in their new status, but completely severing ties with their old one.
In fact, this stage correlates with the Threshold Guardians stage. The Guardians demand a price for the transition to the Unknown World of a new social status, and this price is a final break with the old social status.
The severing of ties with the old status correlates with the Ritual Death stage.
5. Awakening to feelings of spiritual aridity, death
The hero begins to experience disappointment in the choice they made, leading to a psychological crisis.
6. Initiation and descent to the Goddess
The Hero meets their Anima/Animus, a spiritual mirror—a person who has faced similar dilemmas but with a different attitude. Sharing experiences leads to revelation, and new horizons open up for the Hero.
Meeting with the Goddess stage.
7. Urgent yearning to reconnect with the Feminine
The Hero realizes the need to reestablish ties with their former social status.
8. Healing the mother/daughter split
The Hero reestablishes ties with their former social status. Most often, this is accompanied by a symbolic reconciliation with the person who, in the Hero's eyes, embodied their previous social status.
The Atonement with Father stage.
9. Healing the wounded Masculine
The Hero comes to terms with oneself.
The Apotheosis stage.
10. Integration of Masculine and Feminine
The Hero realizes the value of both statuses and understands how to achieve balance between them.
The Master of Two Worlds stage.
And I'll state right away that:
The Known World, also known as the "previous social status," in Michikatsu's Journey is the world of ordinary, down-to-earth people, while the Unknown World, also known as the "new social status," is the world of special people with superpowers.
Just like Yoriichi, Michikatsu's main problem was his refusal to accept his destiny. If Yoriichi didn't want to be the Chosen One, then Michikatsu... didn't want to be an ordinary, insignificant person. He wasn't even 17 when he climbed to the very top of the Japanese social pyramid, but this didn't make him happy.
Why? Let's try to understand.
Separation from the Feminine
What do we know for sure about Michikatsu's childhood before moment X?
He had a younger brother, Yoriichi. He was considered deaf, which in medieval times also meant muteness. An authoritarian father with complete power within his fiefdom. And a quiet, modest mother who spent most of her time engaged in religious practices.
What was Michikatsu's relationship with them? What do we know for sure?
Initially, Yoriichi and Michikatsu got along well. Despite explicit prohibitions, Michikatsu visited his brother and played with him, even under threat of physical punishment. He made him a flute so that the "deaf" Yoriichi could call for help, meaning that for the sake of creating the gift, Michikatsu found the materials, tools, and time to make it. This required some effort on his part, as no one had taught the heir of a wealthy clan how to work wood. Besides, chisels aren't exactly on every shelf in a samurai's estate.
Kokushibo also mentioned in his memories that he couldn't give his brother any of his belongings... which means he tried.
He himself (almost 500 years later) attributed his behavior to pity, but it seemed like too much effort was being expended on behalf of a man whom — according to Kokushibo himself — he despised.
Yoriichi said that "my brother was kind and constantly worried about me". So, Michikatsu certainly didn't consider him a "mama's boy". So where does this rhetoric come from? I can only speculate that in his memoirs, Kokushibo was quoting his father, attributing his words to himself hundreds of years later.
And what about his parents?
Michikatsu described his mother as a quiet woman, but he knew that it was she who stood up for Yoriichi when the head of the family wanted to get rid of the marked child. According to the «Rumors», Akeno treated the children equally, and Kokushibo's memories show that he wasn’t isolated from his mother in any way.
Furthermore, the «Rumors» mentioned that Akeno constantly quarreled with her husband over their sons, which caused great stress for the boys. And when their father hit Michikatsu, she even attacked him with her fists. This suggests Michikatsu felt a certain affection for his mother, since his parents' quarrels had such a severe impact on him. And regarding Yoriichi's position in the family, he sided with his mother, not his father.
But his father's situation is particularly interesting. It was emphasized that, despite his character, he loved his wife dearly. He had no concubines or children with other women. He didn't even remarry when his wife died, even though, by the standards of the Sengoku period, one son was too risky for a feudal lord.
Why is this important? Because it means Michikatsu was considered his father's sole heir, which... afforded him a certain protection. Given the particular upbringing of that society, the boy was constantly reminded of the importance of his status, and, aware of his value, Michikatsu allowed himself far more freedom than an ordinary manor resident.
He knew his father was capable of killing even his own child, but he wasn't afraid of him and easily sabotaged his orders within the bounds of etiquette. Not directly, of course, but "when his father isn't looking," he could, for example, visit his brother, knowing that the guards would be afraid to inform on the future master. Because his very existence is a guarantee of the fief's future stability. As long as he meets the expectations of adults, he is untouchable.
As for his father himself, given Michikatsu's behavior, one might assume he viewed him less as an authority figure and more as an aggressor. A man constantly yells at your mother and dreams of getting rid of your younger brother. It's unlikely that a stubborn child with a strong character would feel much sympathy for such a parent.
The degree of obedience of the child to the main person in the house is immediately visible.
And most likely, it wasn't ambition, but rather the desire to be independent of others' will, that gave rise to the dream of "becoming the best samurai in the country" in little Michikatsu. Why do I think this? Firstly, we know of no evidence that he actively engaged in conquest, politics, or dueling other samurai. Thus, as a feudal lord — effectively an independent ruler — he showed no desire to realize these ambitions, although he could have. On the contrary, having become the head of a wealthy family, he led a "quiet, languid life" by his own choice. His father died almost immediately after his marriage, and this lifestyle was his personal choice (!).
For some reason, it seems to me that a person with great ambitions wouldn’t become a homebody...
And secondly, because the fear of helplessness runs like a thread through the character's entire story. Time after time, his life found itself in the hands of others. In the hands of his father. In the hands of a demon. In the hands of a mark.
"Become the master of your destiny" - Muzan told him, luring him into his net. And the most important thing wasn't "save yourself from death" or "become the strongest", but precisely this. The entire life of a samurai is a struggle. Even seppuku represents a conscious choice by the samurai to end his own life with his own hand. Humbly awaiting his fate — that's what Michikatsu couldn't and didn't want, because he had been raised differently.
But. I said "dream", not "future plan". Until moment X, the desire to become the best samurai hadn't yet turned into an obsessive drive, as Michikatsu had no reason to obsess over it. No one ever told the child he would inevitably become the best. Nor did they instill in him false hopes of being a rising star of the samurai world.
A normal, experienced mentor wouldn't say such things, because the proud, like the fool, die first in war. Everything the mentors said boiled down to: "You have talent, and you will become strong if you train hard".
And by moment X, the dogma “I am the most talented boy in Japan” couldn't form in little Michikatsu’s head. The mere appearance of a more gifted child could not, by itself, have shocked him enough to leave him traumatized for the rest of his life.
Yoriichi hadn't humiliated him in a personal duel, hadn't insulted him in any way, and posed no threat to his life. But then why did Yoriichi become Michikatsu's personal trigger? To do this, we need to examine in detail all the events that occurred from moment X to Michikatsu's departure to join the slayers.
First, moment X itself. It’s not the specific scene of Yoriichi's duel with the trainer. No. Just because the adult Kokushibo is fixated on his younger brother doesn't mean that a little boy named Michikatsu was fixated on him. After all, before their second meeting, Michikatsu led a completely ordinary life, not preoccupied with winning. And at seven years old, Yoriichi, his father who disowned him, and his deceased mother all mattered to him. It's a whole series of events that occurred in a very short period of time. When Yoriichi came to Michikatsu to tell him of his mother's death, he was still living in his room, meaning he hadn't even been moved to the storage room as planned.
The area marked in red is three tatami mats. This means the decision has been made, but hasn’t yet been implemented.
And so it turns out that in just a few days:
Michikatsu suddenly realized he didn't know his brother at all. He wasn't deaf, wasn't sick, and didn't need any protection;
His father decided to rearrange the positions of his sons, sending the eldest to a monastery, thus destroying the entire system of existence that his mentors had built in the boy's head from infancy.
He lost his "heir's armor", which had protected him from his father's tyranny, and for the first time in his life, found himself in the position of a meek victim.
And then his mother, the only source of unconditional love in the child's life, who could have supported and comforted him in difficult times, suddenly died.
The mentors didn't dare interfere, his mother's retinue was busy with the funeral, and Michikatsu endured all these events alone, without any moral support. Silently and helplessly, he watched as his familiar world crumbled before his eyes.
Centuries later, Kokushibo remembered his emotional experiences at that moment quite clearly, so traumatized he was.
If we look closely at the boy's behavior, we can discern in these memories the famous five stages of acceptance of the inevitable.
First Shock, then Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Despair, and Acceptance.
Shock: when everyone learns that Yoriichi is gifted with a unique fighting talent, and his father rejects him, his entire life collapses before his eyes.
Denial: Michikatsu's attempts to find a logical explanation for Yoriichi's abilities. To prove, at least to himself, that they aren't so different.
Anger: after finding his mother's diaries, Michikatsu is confronted with proof of Yoriichi's unique abilities. The anger he felt at that moment was irrational and yet a completely natural reaction to stress. It is a person's anger at the injustice of existence, which he takes out on the nearest object nearby. In this case, his brother.
Bargaining: A person's attempts to bargain with doctors, higher powers, anyone. "Please die. Such a person should not have been born. Your existence defies the laws of nature" - a reliance on the justice of heaven.
Moreover, it's important to focus on the moment of Anger and the moment of Bargaining, when Michikatsu (a deeply religious man living in an era when magical thinking was considered commonplace) was sincerely angry at his younger brother, blaming him for everything, and begged the heavens to rid him of him, as the existence of a person with such abilities was abnormal.
Why is this important? Because in his quest to become stronger, Kokushibo was driven not only by the desire to be the master of his own destiny, but also by the conviction that if he was worse than Yoriichi, then there was no point in his existence at all.
He says outright, "If I'm worse than Yoriichi, then why was I even born?". This isn't envy anymore. And it's not a question of achieving a sense of security.
Because when Yoriichi went missing and the threat passed, Michikatsu, having calmed down, began to assess the situation differently.
It was he (!) who wished for his brother to disappear. A believer in an era of magical thinking, when people believed in witchcraft, evil spirits, and curses. A seven-year-old child with no one to discuss his experiences with. He wished his brother dead, so he could take what was rightfully Yoriichi's. Although what awaited him was not death, but rather the relatively peaceful and prosperous life of a Buddhist monk.
Quoting Kübler-Ross's book "On Death and Dying":
The next fact we must understand is that, at a subconscious level, we are unable to distinguish between desire and action. Everyone remembers examples of those illogical dreams where two contradictory statements coexist side by side. In the dream, this seems insignificant, but in the waking state, it becomes unthinkable and illogical. The subconscious is unable to distinguish between the desire to kill someone in a fit of rage and the actual act of murder. A child is also unable to make this distinction. An angry child, secretly wishing death on his mother for not fulfilling his whims, will suffer severe trauma if his mother actually dies — even if the event doesn't coincide with the destructive wish. He will forever hold himself responsible for his mother's death. He will constantly repeat to himself (and occasionally to others): "I did it, it's my fault. I behaved badly, and Mom left".
Michikatsu believed himself to be responsible for his brother's disappearance. And that through his prayers and curses, he had taken the place of the clan's heir, even though his brother had proven more worthy. This is where his conviction arose that he had no right to be worse than Yoriichi. If he deprived his brother of his rightful place as heir, then he had to be at least as good as him. Fear of helplessness and guilt were personified in one specific person. And guilt has every chance of developing into hatred.
Grief, shame, and guilt are not so different from feelings of anger and resentment. Grief always implies certain signs of anger. Since none of us wants to admit to being angry at the deceased, these feelings are usually carefully hidden and suppressed, prolonging the mourning period or expressing them in other ways. It is not for us to judge such feelings or regard them as bad or shameful. Our task is to understand the true causes and meaning of these very human reactions. To explain this, I will return to the example of a child—the child that lurks within every person's soul. A five-year-old who has lost his mother blames himself for her departure, but at the same time is angry with her for disappearing and no longer fulfilling his wishes. Thus, the deceased person simultaneously evokes in the child equal love and hatred for such a cruel punishment.
It wouldn't have been so bad if that had been all. The period after his brother's escape and before his father's death is never mentioned, but it's likely that Michikatsu more or less reflected on his injuries over the course of seven years, got married, became the head of the clan—that is, he seemingly achieved practically the highest position in society, with the exception of some emperor. But no one remembered the emperor during the feudal wars.
He's a wealthy feudal lord. Perhaps even a daimyo (a daimyo was a feudal lord with an income of at least 10,000 koku of rice per year). He's a successful ruler, married to a beautiful woman, and has two sons. It would seem that his life plan has been fulfilled, he's established himself as a person and can respect himself for it.
And then Moment X version 2.0 occurs, which completely destroys his newly restored self-esteem.
The Problem with Implementing the Hero's Journey in the Demon Slayer's Plot
Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932
When I say "journey," I don't mean the locations the heroes visit, but the actual Journey. This one:
The Hero's Journey is a system not invented by Joseph Campbell from scratch, but rather compiled by him based on his research of countless myths, legends, and folktales from diverse cultures, eras, and places. He described it in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as in many other books on mythology and its role in human life and society as a whole.
A cycle symbolizing a rite of passage. A person's transition from one spiritual state to another as a result of a unique new experience, dividing their life into "before" and "after”.
How do you understand this? Easy. Imagine you've entered university, for example, to study medicine. And after completing your studies, you see the world completely differently through the prism of new knowledge and experience, experiencing what's called "professional deformation." You're no longer that teenager who didn't know where to go next. You've become someone entirely different.
And this happens to us constantly throughout our lives. When we acquire a profession, move out of our parents' home, get married, have a child, or, conversely, bury someone. Even a vacation in a new place can have a powerful impact on us.
And as you can see, since ancient times, such events have always been accompanied by rituals aimed at metaphysically representing the death of a person in their old status and their birth in a new one. So that they would metaphorically shed the shell of their past life, rather than drag it along like dead weight.
This most often manifested itself in the ritual of coming of age. When adults in society wanted to make it clear to a child that their life was changing dramatically, and "the way things used to be" would never be. And that their only choice was to learn to live by new rules.
That's why fairy tales about a boy's (usually a boy's) coming of age are the most common examples of the Hero's Journey. After all, if you're lucky enough not to die from hunger and disease in the first ten years of your life, you'll have to grow up anyway, whether you like it or not.
And... the main plot of Demon Slayer was supposed to be such a Journey. It had all the makings of it and honestly tried... but failed. And that's why we have several factions of viewers: some are wildly enthusiastic, some point out the countless plot holes, and others call the series incredibly boring and criticize everything, sometimes nitpicking every little detail.
But to understand what's wrong with it— consciously—let's break down the "Hero's Journey" into its components. Let's consider its meaning as a whole, as well as the meaning of the main characters and stages in particular, and relate it all to the plot of Demon Slayer.
So. From Joseph Campbell's perspective, during the Journey, the Hero must accomplish two tasks:
Go to the Unknown World to get the Revelation and Transformation;
Return to the Known World and bring the Revelation to the rest of humanity;
In other words, the hero must descend into the depths of the subconscious, conquer the evil within themselves, and then return to the conscious world and use their experience for the benefit of the rest of society. This is reflected in the story's literal journey: the hero defeats the dragon, rescues the princess, so that the princess can then give birth to a new era, which will give birth to its own hero, dragon, and princess. And this cycle will be endless until the end of existence comes.
The hero himself is described by Campbell as one who "voluntarily resigns himself to his fate". This means a person's consent to answer the Call and set out on a journey. Because if the hero remains sitting on a rock and feeling sorry for himself, no heroic deed will occur.
In general, the main plot-forming characters of the Journey can be roughly divided into two categories: Fathers and Mothers. Yang and Yin, in terms of Asian terminology (and Campbell was very fond of the Eastern theme of achieving Enlightenment and the mythologies associated with it).
These characters exist in pairs, embodying the same aspect of existence through Yang and Yin, respectively:
The Master and the World;
The Dragon and the Temptress;
The Mentor and the Goddess;
The Hero and the Damsel in Distress;
At times, some of these characters merge into one, and sometimes they are completely absent if the story can do without them. Let's briefly review who they are, so that we can easily understand who is who in our story.
The Master of the World is the legitimate master of existence and determines how it should be. He embodies the Law and Order of this world. For the Master, the Hero may act as an heir, must prove himself worthy of the throne, while the Master becomes an examiner and tests the Hero.
The World is both the literal world surrounding the Hero and a character who is a personification of this world. Most often, this is a woman. She is Yin, she is Matter, she is the Vessel for the Spirit. For example, the personification of the Known World might be the hero's mother (being near one's mother is a classic symbol of childhood), while the personification of the Unknown World might be a sorceress who aids the villain and lives in his castle.
In Tanjiro's case, his story began with the death of his mother, symbolizing the end of childhood. And the main embodiment of the Unknown World was Nakime. She is both the will of the demon king's fortress and what allows this fortress to exist. And only by defeating Nakime were the heroes able to destroy Muzan, since as long as the Fortress existed, he could hide from the sun at any moment.
Mistress of the world. She rarely leaves her palace, but nothing can escape her gaze, for she is the world. And by getting rid of her, Muzan destroyed his greatest trump card with his own hands.
The Dragon is an aggressor, invading the Mundane World with a desire to destroy or subjugate it. It is not the Master, but it aspires to be one. The protagonist must defeat it either as a Defender of the existing world or as a Rival for the right to become the Master himself.
The Temptress - while the Dragon embodies the furious, scorching Light (Yang), the Temptress is the sinister Darkness that hides danger in its depths (Yin). Cunning and clever, she conceals selfish intentions behind deception and illusions and seeks to lead the Hero astray. While the Dragon is not shy about displaying its evil nature, the Temptress strives to appear attractive and enticing.
The Mentor accepts the Hero, cares for them while they are too weak, and explains to them the rules of the game in the new world. He is not the Master of this world; he is a part of it, and therefore does not compete for the title of victor, but rather trains someone he believes can become one.
Usually, the Mentor dies or otherwise abandons the Hero, as the Hero must navigate the rest of the journey alone.
The Goddess - while the Mentor helps the Hero develop their inner qualities, the Goddess embodies the help of the world itself on a material level.
The Mentor teaches the Hero how to fight with a sword, the Goddess will give them the sword itself, capable of cutting through the hard scales of a dragon, or a magic ball of thread that allows them to stay on their path. The Goddess's gift can also be Knowledge, as the Goddess knows all secrets hidden even from the Overlord.
Furthermore, unlike the Mentor, the Goddess has the right to support the Hero at any stage of the Journey, as she is in a different faction.
The Hero is the main driving force of the plot. He is the one who must become the new Master of his world (master of his life) and the primary embodiment of Yang in the form of constructive development.
The Damsel in Distress is a symbol of power, proving the Hero's right to become the new Master and the potential Mistress of his world. She doesn't always appear as a person; sometimes she is an actual object (for example, a crown, sword, or ring demonstrating the right to rule).
Only the worthy can acquire this symbol, and therefore, one of the key moments of the story is the Damsel's voluntary agreement to leave the Unknown World with the Hero. She is not prey, but a precious treasure bestowed upon the Hero.
Have you already made any associations with the characters depicted in the anime?
Let's move on and briefly review all the main stages of the Journey:
1. Call to Adventure – The Hero feels that their current life is coming to a natural end. Symbols appear around them – harbingers of future changes. The old world is bursting at the seams, like a child's clothing that the Protagonist has long outgrown.
A Herald often appears – one who calls the Hero to set out on their journey. They usually appear dark, frightening, and terrifying, as they come from the depths of the subconscious, where our inner demons dwell. This Herald can be a single character, or even the Dragon itself – the main villain of the tale.
2. Refusal of the Call symbolizes the Hero's unwillingness to leave their comfort zone or sacrifice their personal interests. Sometimes, the Hero truly refuses completely and irrevocably, and the ending of such a story is rarely happy. Supernatural Aid is unexpected help of miraculous origin. It is most often a manifestation of the Goddess, as it is in her nature to selflessly assist the Hero.
A Mentor often appears at this stage, and he or she may also be a messenger of the Goddess.
3. First Threshold – meeting the Guardians.
The Guardians of the Threshold symbolize the doubts and fears of the unknown that hold the Hero back and prevent them from entering the Unknown World. The Hero must show determination and prove to themselves that they truly must cross the threshold.
4. Belly of the Whale – ritual death. If the Hero's determination is insufficient to enter the Unknown World, they are metaphorically killed to be reborn as a new person.
5. Road of Trials – the Hero faces difficulties, overcoming which should purify them and prepare them for the main feat. Test Challenge is also possible during this period. This is the first encounter with the main enemy, where the Hero realizes their limitations and retreats.
6. Meeting with the Goddess, aka the Abyss, aka the Celestial Marriage, aka the Receipt of the Symbol of Power (Knowledge, Crown, Sword, Blessing) – the Hero descends into the very depths and, as the personified Yang, encounters the great Yin – the Universal Mother in all her splendor. The life and death of all things.
But if his Yang isn't strong enough, his Yin will crush and consume him. The Crown will burn away the unworthy challenger.
7. Woman as Temptress - when the Hero comes face to face with the Abyss, he sees not only what he most longed for, but also what he most repulses. To finally leave childhood behind, the Hero must endure the disillusionment of his illusions. Understand and accept the bitter truth that everything has both a constructive and a destructive side.
8. Atonement with Father – a clash between Father and Son ensues for the right to dominate this world. If the Father played the role of the Dragon, the Hero defeats him. If the Father played the role of the Master, the Hero withstands his test. One way or another, the Hero resolves the natural conflict between the old and new generations and becomes master of his life.
9. Apotheosis – having developed his spiritual and physical qualities to the limit, the Hero defeats the Dragon (if they didn't win in the previous stage), achieves Transcendence, and is Transformed (becoming a full-fledged Adult, King, God, Buddha, etc.).
The Hero is born as something new, more perfect, and self-sufficient.
10. Ultimate Boon is the attainment of the highest good: the Hero achieves Enlightenment, ascending to the Higher Realms. Or, alternatively, they simply receive what they set out on their journey for: medicine for their sick mother, retrieving the Princess from the tower, saving their homeland from a cataclysm.
11. Refusal of the Return – having experienced Revelation and Transformation, the Hero considers whether it's worth returning now. And some truly do not return. Not because they lost, but because after their victory, the Known World lost its meaning for them.
12. Magic Flight – if a cruel accident or higher powers refuse to let the Hero go (prevent them from taking the Treasure to the Known World), the Goddess can help them overcome the obstacle.
13. Rescue from Without – if the Hero's own strength proves insufficient to return, they can be assisted by those who remained on the other side. If the Hero is killed during the Journey, then at that moment their rescuers seek their resurrection/recovery from a coma/awakening from sleep.
14. Return Threshold and Return– upon returning, the Hero finds themselves too different from their old world, or the world itself may have changed beyond recognition. Now they must relearn how to live in the Known World and find their place.
15. Master of the Two Worlds – the Hero now becomes a guide to the Unknown World, for they know the way there and back, and can travel freely on their own and lead others. Freedom to live – having overcome all obstacles, the Hero affirms their Being and brings Revelation to others until someone else – perhaps even them – sets out on the Journey again to bring Renewal and New Birth to a decrepit world.
Over the course of their story, the Hero may traverse the Journey several times. The classic case is when the first cycle serves as a prologue to the second.
Now let's look at the announced main characters: Tanjiro, Zenitsu, and Inosuke, and... while Tanjiro's plot requires long and careful consideration, while Zenitsu almost came close to looking like something decent, Inosuke... everything is completely and irrevocably bad with him.
The Hero's Journey is a story not so much about physical overcoming as it is about the spiritual transformation that comes with that overcoming. In its most popular form, it's a tale of a child's literal coming-of-age. And with Inosuke, it's a complete virgin land, because at the beginning of his journey, he was a completely childish, egocentric, aggressive, and narrow-minded person who grew up outside of society. I’m not saying about his lack of education—he can't read—but from a purely psychological standpoint, Inosuke was somewhere in the realm of preschool.
Has anything changed over the course of the manga? If you look at his behavior patterns from the beginning of his relationship with Tanjiro, then during the Red Lantern period, during his training with the Pillars, and in the epilogue, can you see any significant difference in his maturation?
None. He's still just as childish, egocentric, and antisocial.
Even after meeting Douma and the shock of his memories returning, he remained completely unchanged. His thinking remained at the same primitive level.
And his entire social progress boiled down to this:
But later he'll marry Aoi and have children. A serious, responsible Aoi, whom I already feel sorry for, because she'll always have N+1 children, where the +1 child will be Inosuke, whose behavior at 16 is barely different from that of a 5-year-old. A saintly woman, starting a family with a real Mowgli.
Gotoge, why are you doing this to her?
Sure, he can be kind (when it's not about fighting for food and other primal aspects of survival), he cares for his friends (pack members), and he's funny. But at the same time, he's a static figure whose duties are limited to helping in battle and playing comedic roles.
Someone might say: but he has such a dramatic story! Excuse me, but his story is nothing compared to the biography of any of the Pillars, the supporting characters. His percentage of spiritual experiences is practically zero, since "not thinking" is his main motto. And this is one of the three main characters? No, he's not really a protagonist, but merely a supporting character, whose purpose is to demonstrate how patient and forgiving Tanjiro can be. He simply doesn't have a Journey.
Zenitsu. That's more complicated, and his story actually began to show promise towards the end... which is completely dashed in the epilogue.
At the beginning of the story, we see him as a rather egocentric, hysterical, and cowardly person.
He easily takes offense and blames others for his problems, which is a sign of infantilism. He easily becomes hysterical and is just as easily frightened to the point of unconsciousness. And none of these qualities can be considered even remotely good.
At the same time, he is obsessed with women, as he views having a woman as proof of a man's success. So much so that he tried to persuade the first girl he met to marry him, despite having no real means to support a family. It was repeatedly noted that his behavior toward women was completely egocentric.
He treated them the same way Inosuke treats food—the most valuable commodity for a forest dweller. However, Zenitsu grew up in a civilized environment and should understand that in the Taisho era, a man bore the full responsibility for the well-being of his entire family. Trying to assert oneself in this way is a clear sign of low self-esteem and a failure complex, and it also reduces a woman to an object—a "prize”.
And it seems the mangaka never considered this cute. She demonstrates her attitude toward this behavior pattern through Tanjiro when he meets Zenitsu on a shared mission:
least at that particular moment, Gotoge understood that such character traits weren't what would make a hero attractive. Moreover, they were something strategically important for the character to overcome, because they were clearly visible as a flaw and a sign of spiritual weakness.
Typically, such heroes are seriously hurt by the Temptress and, having found themselves in a dire situation, draw certain conclusions. But Zenitsu's biography is such that he had already (!) run into a swindler in the past, ended up in debt slavery because of her, but hadn't changed a bit.
Because someone suddenly decided that such an obsession was funny. Another comic relief character, hello. But the plot raised the question of the source of all these flaws—Zenitsu's low self-esteem and immaturity. And accordingly, it was assumed that by eliminating the cause of his flaws, the hero would also get rid of the flaws themselves. In theory.
But what do we have in practice?
So, at the beginning of the journey, we have the hero Zenitsu. A talented, well-trained, but extremely cowardly demon slayer. His positive qualities include a certain common sense, a capacity for genuine kindness and selfless acts, and an inner double—a psychological defense mechanism that activates when his consciousness is out of reach. The goal of the Journey is to fulfill the expectations of his teacher, who sees Zenitsu as his Heir. Thus, Zenitsu's official goal is to become a Pillar, making his grandfather proud. His actual goal is to stop being a coward and gain self-confidence, because that is precisely what his teacher truly expected of him.
Thus, we have the first and main figure of Zenitsu's Journey: the Master of the World, the former Lightning Pillar, Jigoro.
And who is Kaigaku in this story? Kaigaku is the second heir and his main rival, considered a role model, though in reality, he's just as cowardly as Zenitsu. Ultimately, it's precisely because of this cowardice (and not because of envy, as those who like to equate him with Kokushibo claim) that Kaigaku transforms into the Dragon of Zenitsu's world. His betrayal leads to Jigoro's tragic death, which destroys Zenitsu's Known World, leading him to embark on a path of transformation, realizing that his teacher's love and honor are far more important to him than his personal life and insecurities.
By defeating Kaigaku, Zenitsu receives the Master's blessing (Jigoro says he's proud of him), accomplishes a feat worthy of the title of Pillar (killing the Moon), and also frees himself from the grip of his inner double. Kaigaku, with his eternal disdain for his younger "brother," was one of the main sources of his low self-esteem, and by defeating him, Zenitsu symbolically slays this terrible serpent within himself.
His fall into the Infinity Castle is a voluntary ritual death, after which he was supposed to be reborn as a new man—courageous, mature, and freed from the major flaws declared by history. But... what do we have in the epilogue?
In the epilogue, we have this:
What's worse, we see echoes of this behavior in Zenitsu's reincarnation:
That is, the hero overcame the low self-esteem that was the source of his obsession with winning a woman, but the obsession itself not only did not disappear, but, as a natural quality, it passed along with his soul into his new life.
And the same thing happened to his childishness and capriciousness, although, after what he had experienced, it would seem inappropriate for a grown man to behave in such a way.
Nezuko, stripped of her demonic powers, carries a muscular, strong man...
The situation is exacerbated by a short manga about the main characters' lives after the epilogue. It turns out Zenitsu wrote a book in which he transformed himself into a great hero with his henchmen Tanjiro and Inosuke, which resembles Inosuke's fantasies from the "Mugen Train" arc – fantasies belonging to a mentally immature man with primitive methods of self-affirmation.
So, does that mean his low self-esteem still exists? The Dragon hasn't been defeated? Then what were all those sacrifices for? The death of his teacher, the murder of his brother? For what? So that Tanjiro would hint to him that girls don't like freaky boys, and only then would Zenitsu start behaving like an adult? And the test had no effect on him?
The ending simply devalued the entire arc in the Infinity Castle. From the author's perspective, the teacher's death isn't enough of a stimulus to grow up, but the desire to please a girl is.
Well, that leaves only Tanjiro as the main character. Come on, Kamado, all hope lies with you.
Interestingly, if we begin to examine Tanjiro's story, it seems to fit almost entirely within the Journey. In fact, it takes two full turns.
First cycle. Introduction to the Demon World and the transformation from an ordinary human to a demon hunter.
Tanjiro's Known World: Tanjiro is the eldest son in a large family, working as a charcoal burner and caring for his mother and younger siblings. The Mistress of the Known World is his biological mother, the Princess of this world – Nezuko.
The Unknown World – the world of Demons and Hunters.
Call to Adventure. While Tanjiro is away selling charcoal in town, the Herald, aka Muzan, comes to his house and kills his entire family.
Tanjiro discovers that only his younger sister is alive and desperately tries to save her, as the last fragment of his Known World. The young Mistress. As long as she lives, his world lives. He assumes the role of Defender, and for Nezuko, preserving her human nature, despite her demonic tendencies, becomes paramount. From now on, Nezuko will be Tanjiro's embodiment of the mother world's protection and his divine defense. And her corporeal blood will become the fire on his sword, until his Spirit is strong enough to heat the blade.
Refusal of the Call. Tanjiro's rejection of the Call occurs through five stages of acceptance. He’s sure that he'll bring Nezuko to the doctor and everything will be fine. But he quickly discovers that the situation is far more complex and terrifying than a simple attack by bandits or a beast.
Supernatural Aid is embodied in the appearance of Giyu. He shows mercy, uncharacteristic of Demon Slayers, and explains to Tanjiro that Nezuko now belongs to the mythical Demon World, and if there is a way to bring her back, it can only be found there. Giyu directs Tanjiro to Urokodaki, while also informing his teacher about the talented boy and his special sister.
...well, I suppose she’s not that special. There's a theory that his mother's blue lily root soup (lily roots are part of traditional Japanese cuisine) taken from Uta's grave had something to do with it, but we'll never know the truth...
Crossing the First Threshold means meeting Urokodaki. He acts as the Guardian of the threshold to the new world of Slayers and Demons, and is also the Master of the micro-world of Mount Sagiri, where Tanjiro will have to live for almost two years. He will also be his first Mentor.
First, he demands that Tanjiro finish off the demon, but he hesitates too long, and the sun kills the demon.
He then asks if Tanjiro is capable of accepting the responsibility if his sister eats a human, to which Tanjiro again demonstrates his hesitation. It is only when Tanjiro descends from a mountain full of traps that Urokodaki agrees to take him as an apprentice.
The Road of Trials – Tanjiro trains under Urokodaki.
Meeting with the Goddess – while training Tanjiro, Urokodaki hid from him the fact that he didn't want him to participate in the Slayer exam and ordered him to cut a huge stone, something a human being—not knowing how to use the Breath properly—couldn't do.
But the ghosts of Urokodaki's students come to Tanjiro's aid: Sabito and, most importantly, Makomo. Although Sabito demonstrated the true power of a Slayer and served as his sparring partner, it was Makomo who clearly explained to Tanjiro how the Breath works and how to use it properly.
She gave Tanjiro the Knowledge he needed to complete his quest.
Atonement with Father. Tanjiro cuts through the stone, passing the test, and Urokodaki agrees to let him take the exam.
Apotheosis. Tanjiro attends the exam, where he encounters the Dragon of the Mount Sagiri micro-world. A demon captured by Urokodaki in his youth, who, out of a desire for revenge, sought out his apprentices among the test subjects and killed them first.
Fighting him, Tanjiro discovers and applies his Slayer skills, thus saying goodbye to his peaceful life and becoming one who can enter the Unknown World with his head held high.
Ultimate Boon and Return. Tanjiro is initiated into the Slayers. During this time, Nezuko awakens from her slumber, symbolizing that he is on the right path.
From that moment on, the world of Slayers and Demons becomes his new Known World, and the road to his mother's house is closed for an indefinite period.
In fact, this little Journey (2 of 23 volumes) is perfect, despite the omission of some stages (they are optional if they aren't essential to the plot). The process of transformation from an ordinary peasant boy into a man ready to wield weapons and act decisively unfolds. The peasant has transformed into a warrior.
Both the physical and moral transformations are obvious and unquestionable. All the symbolic characters are in their proper places and act according to their tasks.
However, I must say that the Prologue is one of those things where the author rarely makes mistakes. Problems arise later, especially if a client or censor intervenes and begins expressing their particularly valuable opinions, lacking creative talent but eager to make as much money as possible from the project.
For example, did you know that Gotoge originally envisioned Tanjiro as a darker character, something very different from the positive, cheerful teenager? But the mangaka wasn’t allowed to do this, and it is unknown how many more such interventions took place.
But let's leave these sad rants and move on to the main story.
The balance of power is as follows: there is Tanjiro's Known World—the world of Slayers. And there is the Unknown World—the world of Demons. After Tanjiro crossed the Threshold, they ceased to form a single, incomprehensible mass and split into two factions.
The Slayer World is led by the Master Kagaya, and the role of Mistress is played by Amane, who at this point in the story has literally become her husband's eyes, as he has already gone blind. Amane embodies the core essence of slayers—their voluntary sacrifice, as she married knowing well that her husband would soon fall ill and die, and that she would have to bury his sons, if any, after him.
The Master of the Demon World is Muzan. He is also the father of the entire shared Unknown World, the Dragon of ordinary people's existence. And its Mistress and creator of the main stronghold is Nakime. An amazing woman and serial killer who killed people just to feel the adrenaline rush again, because it made her music especially beautiful.
In the second cycle, Tanjiro will no longer fulfill the role of the Master's Heir, as he did with Urokodaki, but will become a knight-protector in service to his liege.
1. Call to Adventure
Tanjiro is gradually adjusting to his new reality; killing demons has become routine for him, and even with his sister, things have somehow settled down. She's not dead asleep, she doesn't attack people, and most importantly, she recognizes her brother and reciprocates his affection.
But this isn't enough for Tanjiro; he still wants to restore her to normal human form. He tries to ask demons about Muzan or a cure for demonism, but nothing works. It feels as if he's stuck in the world of Slayers forever.
At that particular moment, Tanjiro couldn't even imagine that in the future he would try to somehow change the existing order of things. He only wanted to help his sister, considering himself an ordinary citizen of Japan, not some potential savior of humanity. But then Tanjiro arrives in the city and meets Muzan face to face for the first time, which leaves him in complete shock. And it's not the demon king's dark aura that scares him to death.
First, Tanjiro saw him calmly walking through the human world, holding a little girl in his arms, the child unaware of his presence and calling him "daddy".
And second, he saw Muzan effortlessly transform a man into a demon, causing the latter to lose his mind and attack his own wife.
In other words, no one is ever safe anywhere. And even if Nezuko were suddenly healed right now and they returned home, there was no guarantee it would be over.
Muzan, as a Dragon, is a constant, ever-present threat to humanity, and this realization chilled Tanjiro to the bone.
Seeing a slayer with familiar earrings, Muzan did what he always did – he ran, even though at that moment he could have killed Tanjiro with a flick of his finger. Cowardice and fear of death are his main personality traits, perfectly fitting the biography of an effeminate aristocrat of the Haiyan era. The aristocrats of that time cultivated elegance and high arts like poetry and music, while the military aristocracy developed much later.
...I wonder why couldn't Muzan fight as well as Kokushibo...
...probably because swordsmanship requires training, doesn’t it?..
In any case, Muzan is the quintessence of fear of the fundamental aspect of Yang: Change. Creation and Destruction. He dreamed of eternal life without beginning or end, but a Yin vessel deprived of the Breath of Yang will not be life, but only eternal, incessant decay. Like a lake without oxygen, it turns into a murky, dead quagmire, although both appear as flat, motionless surfaces.
It's not for nothing that demonism most closely resembles a contagious disease. It transforms people into Oni, mystical beings, but spreads materially, through blood. So Muzan leaves, and Tanjiro tries to save the situation—to prevent the newly turned demon from harming people. He has no idea what to do in such a situation, but then suddenly comes...
2. Supernatural Aid in the form of Tamayo.
Tanjiro's first Goddess in his new existence. A Goddess from the Demon World, she decided to lend him a helping hand because she sensed his compassion for those who had been turned. She helps him escape with the injured man and leads him to her secret refuge.
As befits a Goddess, she possesses secret knowledge and special vision, manifested through her assistant, Yushiro.
It is she who opens the way for him to heal his sister. She proposes developing a cure using samples of Muzan's blood, but to do so, she must kill his closest minions, who are incomparably more powerful than ordinary demons.
And this is the answer not only to Nezuko's problem, but also to the grief of everyone who suffered at the hands of Muzan. A chance to return to normal life. To accomplish a feat not only for his sister, but for the sake of all of society. And Tanjiro readily agrees to embark on the Journey for this purpose.
3. Threshold Guardians. This role has been taken on by the demons sent by Muzan to kill Tanjiro.
These are no longer just ordinary monsters who have eaten many people. They are infused with Muzan's blood and carry out his personal orders, not wander aimlessly through the world. They aren’t yet Moons, but those who dream of a place in the hierarchy.
Tanjiro could hardly have killed them alone. Tamayo destroys the main attacking force with her knowledge of the curse of Muzan's name. But the Guardians' task is not to test a hero's strength, but his resolve, and Tanjiro's has not diminished.
4. Road of Trials
The Arrival of Helpers
These include Inosuke and Zenitsu's closest allies, as well as the Hashira Brigade, who will be tasked with exterminating the Moons. Tanjiro, as the Hero, will act more as a catalyst for events than as the main attacking force.
In fact, Tanjiro's greatest achievement on his Road of Trials is precisely the gathering of a support group around himself, since, despite what anyone might say, even the Breath of the Sun didn't make Tanjiro the strongest, and he was sensible enough to adequately assess his own capabilities.
Test Challenge
First encounter with Akaza, Tanjiro's personal enemy. Tanjiro is given a taste (literally) of the Upper Moons. They barely managed to kill the first Lesser Moon, and now they’re being offered to face the third Upper Moon.
The encounter ends with Rengoku's tragic death. Akaza arrives with orders to kill everything that moves, but upon seeing a Pillar, he expresses his desire to transform him into a demon. But Rengoku refuses. An ideological clash ensues between them, where Kejuro's belief that the strong are obligated to protect the weak completely contradicts both the parasitic lifestyle of demons in general and Akaza's personal belief that the weak don’t deserve leniency or the right to live.
Rengoku naturally fails to defeat Akaza alone and without his mark, but he manages to hold out until dawn and thus save everyone else.
Having become Tanjiro's Mentor on this Journey, Rengoku blesses him as the heir to his beliefs and takes his last breath, a common occurrence among such characters.
In this story, Akaza is Tanjiro's main ideological opponent. Not Muzan, oddly enough—he's simply a coward, deathly afraid of death—but Akaza, a person who deeply and sincerely despises the weak, believing them fit only for demon food.
Tanjiro, in this conflict, acts not only as a representative of the Hunter ideology, but also as a representative of human society, where supporting the weak is the most effective model of survival.
5. Meeting with the Goddess
Tanjiro arrives at the secret hideout of another Goddess. This time, a Goddess from the Slayer world—Shinobu, accompanied by a retinue of female assistants. His wounds are being patched up after his battle with Enmu, but most importantly, Tanjiro learns that the secret to the true strength of a true hunter lies in constant concentration, allowing them to reach a completely new level of physical performance, inaccessible to ordinary people.
This is what will allow him and his friends to truly fight the Moons in the future, rather than look like punching bags.
The Great Yin, in Tanjiro's case, is Kanao, whom he not only defeated in a competition (which was necessary for her to take him seriously), but also awakened in her the desire to act — in this case, to stand up to the Pillar and protect her family.
Later, the infirmary's residents direct him in search of a new weapon to replace the broken one. And, tellingly, instead of an ordinary katana, Tanjiro finds a true relic of the past—a sword belonging to Yoriichi himself.
As you can see, the scenes in the Butterfly House unfold in several stages, which is natural, as they are part of the hero's overall preparation for the battle against evil.
6. Atonement with Father
This event actually occurs during the second duel with Akaza. Tanjiro finishes the dialogue initiated by Rengoku and emerges victorious when he recalls his father's lesson on how to temporarily become Enlightened, that is, completely suppress one's dominant aura. Thanks to this, he and Giyu cut off Akaza's head. Akaza remembers his past, admits ideological defeat, and commits suicide.
Tanjiro doesn't appear in the battle with Douma and Kokushibo, but he shouldn't have, as he has no spiritual connection with them. They are not his enemies.
7. Apotheosis
Tanjiro battles Muzan with the support of his friends and Tamayo, and fully masters the Breath of the Sun technique. Muzan dies.
8. Ultimate Boon
Nezuko becomes human.
9. Magic Flight and Rescue from Without
In his death throes, Muzan tries to turn Tanjiro into an heir to preserve his will and the Unknown World. The spirits of the living and the dead come to Tanjiro's aid, as well as a cure from Tamayo.
10. Return and Freedom to live
Tanjiro, along with his sister and friends, returns to his mother's house.
This is what Tanjiro's Hero's Journey looks like. It seems to be all good, but have you already sensed the holes in the description? I completely skipped one arc. Why did I do that?
Let's take a look.
But first, a general digression.
Having stepped into the Unknown World, Tangino began to constantly encounter death. Often painful death. And also incredible cruelty, and not just from demons. He was mired in this for several years, literally stepping into war from the very threshold of his home.
Do you know many people who, after experiencing similar events, returned the same as they were before? And I don't mean in full health, but in their mental health.
There's even a specific term for people who survived the war—combatants—which encompasses a whole complex of mental disorders and problems associated with reintegration into civilian society. The Threshold Crossing and Return stages of the Journey largely reflect the existence of such people, because upon returning, they feel out of place.
If we take the Pillars, almost everyone (with the possible exception of Mitsuri) has a traumatic past. Giyu has impostor syndrome, Shinobu has last-man-standing syndrome, and so on.
And what about Tanjiro? Nothing, unless you count Urokodaki teaching him how to kill in the first two volumes.
Also, note that his second cycle is missing some stages too. This isn't a micro-Journey like the prologue; it's a long, uninterrupted story. And the stages responsible for spiritual transformation are the most missing.
Let's start with a stage called Belly of the Whale or Ritual Death. Zenitsu had it, but Tanjiro didn't. Falling into the Castle doesn't count, because Tanjiro's Unknown World began long before the decisive battle. It's merely the final leap into the darkness, into the dragon's lair, but the Threshold Crossing actually occurred much earlier.
Despite his long and eventful Journey, Tanjiro has never been reborn. If you take him in the prologue, in the middle of the story, and at the end of the story, and put them side by side, they'll be three completely identical people, just like Inosuke. A character-function without a Journey.
He went through a real bloodbath at 16 and didn't change as a person in any way . That doesn't happen in real life.
The second most striking example of this contradiction is the Rengoku arc. Tanjiro constantly reminisces about Rengoku, as if he'd given him some kind of revelation, but what exactly did Kyojuro teach him? To remain true to his convictions and never give up? The belief that the strong should protect the weak? Did Tanjiro behave differently before meeting him? Tanjiro followed these dogmas long before Rengoku appeared and before he even became a demon hunter.
Rengoku saved him at the cost of his own life? Okay, fine, but we have Giyu, who decided to turn against his own kind for Tanjiro and Nezuko, which is even more terrifying.
You see, all the characters act as if Rengoku's death was some unimaginable tragedy for Tanjiro, but they'd known each other for barely a day.
What did Tanjiro feel differently when Rengoku died? Tanjiro had already buried his parents, siblings, and witnessed countless deaths. Rengoku is considered a Mentor in this Journey, but in reality, Tanjiro experienced no spiritual growth from meeting him.
In the second cycle, only the Goddesses fully developed their symbolism, while the Mentor appeared for show. "Please sign that I've completed my pre-graduation internship with you, otherwise I won't be allowed to defend—pardon me—the murder of an archdemon".
Next. Why doesn't my outline mention the "Red Light District" arc, even though it takes up so much of the plot? Because it was potentially a candidate for the Meeting with the Temptress phase, but it wasn't actually one.
The Temptress tests the hero's spirit and convictions. She tries to lead him astray and persuade him to stay in the Unknown World.
So what? Has anyone ever tried that in the entire arc? Well, Daki told Tanjiro how wonderful it is to be a demon. That a demon doesn't need food, doesn't get sick, and won't die of old age. Considering that Muzan, at the last moment, wished to turn Tanjiro into the heir to his will, this could somehow align with the Temptress's work. Somehow.
But Tanjiro had already faced hunger, illness, and death while living in the Known World, and all these arguments didn't work on him. He simply brushed them aside like flies.
Have you even seen Daki? According to the fanbook, she could make any man tremble with a single word. But in the manga, although she's depicted as a stunning beauty, her behavior remains that of that 13-year-old girl.
Who could a naive child lead astray? Who could he deceive or convince of his own rightness? She couldn't even manipulate Zenitsu, even though he openly admitted that he was constantly swayed by attractive women.
...the oiran's main strength lies in their ability to charm with their minds and movements, but in conflict with the hunters, these skills were never used...
Daki is a direct reflection of Tanjiro's entire story. Yes, outwardly she looks like she belongs in her symbolic role, but internally she's not up to it. And the Journey is, first and foremost, a story of spiritual transformation, not physical change. Tanjiro's character is static, like that of the Enlightened One, which seems completely out of place amidst the general apocalypse. Everyone around him, having encountered the demon world, has changed in one way or another, but not the protagonist.
But let's consider the next stage, Atonement with Father. What happens in this stage? The old and young generations clash for the right to dominate the world. The son must take his father's place, either by proving himself worthy or by killing him symbolically or literally.
Where and when did Tanjiro reconcile with his father figure in the second cycle? In the first cycle, Urokodaki didn't want to let Tanjiro take the exam, but by cutting the stone, Tanjiro forced him to give his blessing.
And what about the Atonement of the second cycle? Well, Tanjiro literally remembered how his father managed to kill a bear while dying and learned to enter the state of Enlightenment. But where is the dilemma? Where is the conflict?
But there was potential. He and Akaza are incredibly similar. Akaza, too, selflessly cared for his family his entire life, leading his gravely ill father (like Tanjiro's) to hang himself rather than burden his son. And a stunning parallel could have been drawn between him and Tanjiro, where Tanjiro realized that all these years he had lacked a strong father figure, which led him to unwittingly harbor resentment. Or that Tanjiro had trouble understanding his father's lessons, which led Tanjuro (Kamado's father) to feel disappointed and depressed.
But no. There's nothing here. No conflict, and Tanjiro's ideology is pure and unwavering. But then why does he need the Journey? He's already perfect.
And even the Apotheosis didn't change anything. At this point, Tanjiro merely completed the Breath of the Sun, when he should have completed himself. His spirit. But what kind of ending can we talk about when the hero is already as perfect as a drop of water in zero gravity?
Zenitsu's apotheosis was even better, if you don't remember how he reverted to factory settings immediately after returning home.
All the stages of the second Journey were executed to the letter, but not the content. It's like food that looks beautiful, smells nice, but has no taste.
And you look at this picture, the beautiful animation, but... it lacks emotion. There are rivers of tears, but no heartbreak.
So it turns out that Demon Slayer fans often love anyone but the main characters.
But you know what the main irony is? These aren't all the Journeys in the story. There are two more. They're so well done that the main characters' stories feel especially bland.
Yoriichi and Michikatsu. They're not even supporting or tertiary characters. One appears in flashbacks, the other only to die with pathos. But in their biography, Gotoge was able to accomplish what she failed to do in the main story. We'll talk about that in part two.
Romelle: her story in the past and in the present. Part II
Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932
Link to the part I.
IV. Heroine of the New Age
Before proceeding to the analysis of the biography and personality of Romelle today, I’ll clarify one point. Subsequent assumptions have emerged based on data from the VLD. They already existed when I started researching the plot of GoLion and DOTU, and before writing this article, I had never watched the old series.
That is, the plot of the old series served for me as additional(!) proof of the correctness of my theory, but wasn’t the reason why I came to such conclusions.
Where do we start? With Lotor, of course - Romelle is tightly attached to him in the plot, and when the writers decided to turn his personality inside out, she followed him.
If you compare VLD with the old series, you can see that Lotor hasn’t only changed as a character - he has become a completely different person. Neither Sincline nor his dimwitted counterpart had ever looked like scheming or tempting snakes. Yes, Sincline clearly could and knew how to make cunning plans, but nothing more. He didn’t possess the gift of oratory, and didn’t feel any need to have it. Sincline supported his father until he blamed him for the defeat of the Galra Empire, beat his own subordinates, and killed and raped the victims without a shred of remorse.
In GoLion in particular, Sincline never set up colonies to deceive the civilian population. Why invent something if you can openly let slaves in experiments? Sincline had no reason to do something secretly from his father, and even more so to take care of his moral character, and therefore he calmly used the resources of the empire.
That is, “Lotor creating colonies” is, to some extent, an invention of VLD. And if you’ve read my previous articles, then you know that in my opinion, the second colony was the home of Luca and Merla, not the first. And that the first colony, where the millions of Alteans declared by Lotor live, never appeared on screen.
If you think about it, Romelle's story looks like complete absurdity. Even in the initial episodes of the first season, it was explained to us that virtual reality technology only imitates form without content - people can see objects, touch them, but nothing more. Coran pulled Allura out of her half-sleep when he pointed out the lack of smell in the flower. And if it had occurred to Allura to chew this flower, then, most likely, she wouldn’t have felt any taste.
This technology was intended to create scenery and couldn’t fully replace the real planet in conditions where people literally lived next to the forest and (most importantly) were engaged in farming. Just think about it: according to Romelle, for ten thousand years the Alteans have been planting illusory potatoes in illusory soil not noticing any trick. They didn’t notice that the flowers don’t smell, the berries have no taste, and the forest rests against the wall.
Only a very emotional and impulsive person could believe in the stupidity of the poor, unfortunate Alteans, who for a hundred centuries haven’t been able to distinguish real nature from the local analogue of Stardew Valley.
For example, such as the red paladin. Keith... or Allura.
What about Krolia? Krolia had no idea how this technology worked, she had never come across it...
So neither the Romelle’s base nor the pod space base were real colonies. We can only guess about their true purpose. The space base looks like a stand-alone laboratory/medical unit, but the Romelle’s dwelling is more like a staging post - hastily built according to the standard Galran template and abandoned long ago by the Alteans as unnecessary.
But where’s the truth buried here, Holmes?
The idea that the planet of Luca and Merla isn’t the first colony occurred to me when I began to correlate Lotor's words about millions with what we’re shown. Honerva apparently landed at the point where she could attract the most attention, but she came out to meet almost no one. Moreover, water meadows with low houses stretched around, obviously not designed for a large population. This place couldn’t be the capital of a multi-million advanced race. For ten thousand years, the Alteans had to not only multiply, but also build normal modern buildings for their own comfort.
But if we assume that this place is a secret second colony, then it’s easy to conclude that all the important buildings were simply hidden for security purposes, leaving a few insignificant and inconspicuous houses on the surface. So insignificant and imperceptible that when the BoM arrived at the coordinates of Keith, they didn’t notice any signs of life on the neighboring green planet.
Lotor has always been a paranoid and overcautious person, and he must have put a lot of effort into keeping his hidden colony a secret. So he would never leave the pod base undisguised and protected if he wanted to hide it from the Alteans.
What’s also interesting is the presence in the colony of a huge number of well-trained specialists.
Alteans of Honerva:
managed to create white mechas;
Which means, at the very least, smelters to work with heavy-duty materials and skilled workers who know how to organize the production process. While the Earthlings spent several years perfecting four fighters, the isolated farmers showed unexpectedly deep knowledge in the field of metallurgy.
What wonderful building elevators are there in the background. Is there a second floor? Or is this smelter located underground?
What's more, the white mechas had a striking resemblance to Sincline mecha, suggesting they were designed by the same people. More specifically, Alteans.
And it turns out that in addition to professional metallurgical engineers, they also had design engineers who were versed in modern technologies.
professionally used these mechas in battles;
The white mechas weren’t animated creatures like the Lions and didn’t help their pilots with training, but the Alteans fought well, competing with the Voltron team. The preparation of such personnel requires many years of practice under the supervision of good trainers - but Honerva couldn’t provide anything of that. She flew in alone and had no idea how to pilot combat vehicles. That’s why her personal mecha was equipped with teludav, and as we remember from Allura's ordeals, the control of combat and conventional spaceships was significantly different.
From which it follows that Romelle's statement that the Alteans can’t pilot spaceships smacks of brazen lies. The colony maintained and trained its own small army.
What conclusions can we draw from this?
Lotor built a second colony because he knew that Zarkon's appetites were insatiable, and sooner or later the Galra empire would reach the Quantum Abyss. There lived not just abstract Alteans, but qualified pilots, scientists and engineers. Lotor conducted research in the field of quintessence, designed war machines, and generally increased the combat potential of the Altean people.
“Just remember, we suffer this isolation so the next generation may not have to”.
In particular, Lotor tried to build his own Voltron, as he understood that this was the only weapon capable of fully resisting the Ghalra armadas, and in particular the monsters of his mother.
And here, to complete the picture, I turn to the plot of GoLion.
To the sister planets: Altea and Hercules.
Altea is an unfortunate planet. When Golion was defeated, Altea didn’t have enough combat power left to protect itself from enemy attack, and the population had to hide undeground for many years until the Lions again found pilots for themselves. Apparently, the inhabitants of Altea relied too much on the power of Golion, and therefore didn’t develop their army.
What about Hercules?
Hercules was a former colony of Altea and was considered a militarized and very dangerous state. Even Daibazaal (aka Zarkon) recognized the power of the Heraclians and therefore didn’t try to attack them in the same way as Altea.
Only the beasts of Honerva were considered by the Heraclians to be serious opponents.
Also distinctive features of the Heraclians:
martial arts as an inseparable part of culture;
selfless service to their people and royalty;
fearlessness in the face of death;
And… it actually looks a lot like the Altean VLD civilization.
Yes, Allura said that the Alteans are a peaceful people, but in fact we see that they, just like the Galra, used edged weapons in the space age, and the standard education of the princess included martial arts. Why was the princess staying in the palace was taught to handle edged weapons? Because it was part of their culture.
In addition, the VLD Alteans had a cult of selflessness, and testing for loyalty to this cult was a major part of the trials on Oriande. Willingness to give up personal benefits for the sake of a higher goal. And this is also similar to the behavior of the Heraclians.
As a result, if outwardly the Alteans of the VLD really looked like the inhabitants of peaceful Arus/Altea, then inside they looked like people from Hercules, ready to attack armed Galra with sticks so that their princess could escape.
And this is a very interesting approach of the scriptwriters, if we remember that the Alteans and Heraclians are one and the same people, they just went in different ways of development.
Alteans in VLD are like a tiger raised at home. It’s sweet and kind ... while well-fed and no one offends it.
In addition, when Voltron fell into a trap, the Heraclians themselves made the decision to take over the defense of Altea. Hercules came to the defense of its sister planet, and really saved it when developed a weapon in time that could change the flight path of a dangerous planetoid.
And this already looks like a prototype of the relationship between the second and the first colony. The second colony existed to protect the first.
By the way, do you remember why the Heraclians decided to cooperate with the Galra? To build their counterpart to Golion, which they were going to use not only against Altea, but also against the Galra themselves.
Moreover, if we compare Samson and Sincline...
Don't feel it yet? What if we compare them like this?
You know, Sincline was the first mecha which main weapon was dual blades. Voltron learned it only at the very end of the series in order to defend himself against Luca's attacks.
And for some reason, I think that it wasn’t just that Sincline was painted in the colors of Samson - in a gray color of a bluish tint. And even red inserts, with due imagination, can be considered a reference to the hair of the elder prince of Hercules.
Why did I describe all this? In order to clarify the conditions in which Romelle was born and lived.
Romelle didn't quite lie - she was born and raised in a colony with her brother. Only not in the first colony, but in the second. For her, the second colony was the only homeland, as the planet Hercules was the only homeland for Princess Amue.
Where everyone worked for a common cause under the leadership of Lotor, to create weapons together to protect the Altean civilization. The colony was founded not just by settlers, but by people who came to live there for a specific purpose, and their children were growing up in this reality and with varying degrees of enthusiasm joined the common work.
I’d like to ask one interesting question: how will a person whose enthusiasm is equal to zero feel in such a society?
Who was born in a second - specialized - colony, where everyone works on one project, and no one asks new members of the society if they want to do the same. Where the cult of sacrifice was considered the norm...
...and where Romelle didn’t fit.
Let's remember everything that Romelle said about her people.
First of all, she presented them as people who don’t see the true nature of things and don’t notice that they live in a cage from which it’s impossible to get out.
“My brother Bandor was always faithful, but I had questions”.
The colony really looked like a cage in the eyes of Romelle, but not for all Alteans, for her personally. Of course, no one kept her there by force, but she couldn’t just leave, and her brother wouldn’t agree to fly away.
And where to fly away when there’s an almost uninhabited Quantum Abyss around? It was impossible to enter the first colony - its inhabitants believed that traveling to the second colony was a one-way road, and no one would let her into the explored universe, and even more so, they wouldn’t give a spaceship capable of flying there for personal use.
So, if for Princess Amue, Sincline was a literal jailer, then for VLD Romelle Lotor became a mental jailer. She blamed Lotor for creating a society where she felt like she was in prison and didn't understand why others felt differently.
“...but I also knew that no one would believe me without proof”.
But why (!) she began to break out of the general system is a topic for speculation.
As we already know, it was extremely difficult to build a second Voltron. Lotor was unable to do this, even using the material of a unique comet. Something didn't work, something was missing. And this something, most likely, was the knowledge of alchemy, lost along with the old Altea.
Moreover, the main problem was not the lack of a soul capable of turning a machine into something more - white mechas weren’t animated mechanisms, like Voltron or Sincline. But on the other hand, the white mechas were finalized by Honerva, the greatest alchemist of her time.
The mechas ran on the quintessence of their pilots. Voltron had an extremely high efficiency, and the process of return was exclusively voluntary - as much as the pilot was ready to give to their Lion. Shiro gave everything during the battle with Zarkon, and therefore not even a corpse was left of him - for the sake of victory, Lion dried him.
But what if some mecha isn’t (!) intelligent and simply draws energy from its pilot in the amount it needs? What if the efficiency of this mecha is much lower than we would like, because knowledge about alchemy is critically lacking?
Then attempts begin to understand how to increase the efficiency of the mechanism. And then comes testing on the most enduring volunteers to find out how long the pilot can last in this mech. And not always the pilot had time to return to the hangar and get out of the mecha before it turned them into a mummy.
Finding volunteers among the Alteans was the easiest thing to do, but that doesn't mean their families didn't mourn their loss. The names of the dead were engraved on the monument to forever remember their sacrifice.
As we remember, pink was considered a symbol of military sacrifice. Honoring the dead, not the living.
Romelle said that by the time her brother agreed to the “great honor”, her parents had already “gone”. In her story - to the base with capsules, but in reality, most likely, they died during the testing of the prototype.
The entire Romelle’s family were professional pilots who took part in the tests. And, having lost both parents, she thought about how justified this sacrifice was, and Bandor's desire to repeat this feat completely plunged her into despair.
Most likely, she didn’t believe that the Galra really posed a threat - the colonies had quietly existed for ten thousand years, and no one had attacked them. The Alteans had no idea what was happening in the explored universe, and Lotor was in no hurry to back up his words with some evidence.
And Romelle began to get angry. To be angry from hopelessness, because she couldn’t influence the decision of her younger brother in any way. She hated Lotor for the idea of building a new Voltron and the dedication with which her relatives reacted to this project.
After all, she almost directly called Luca a fanatic. The best pilot of the colony an example to follow for everyone else. Who calmly activated the bomb on her mecha when she realized she couldn't defeat Voltron.
True, Romelle tried to be polite when she was alone with Luca. She didn’t yet know that Honerva had told the Alteans about everything, and, apparently, before this event, her relationship with Luca was at a relatively sane level.
Seeing no other way out, Romelle strove to at least outwardly fit into the society around her. She copied the behavior of others, adjusted, hypocritically. She didn’t want to become an outcast, and therefore she had to lie to others about her attitude to what was happening.
And she learned to lie masterfully.
She was sincere only with her brother, and - like her prototype from the old series - spoke out against the preparations for war and convinced Bandor that Lotor didn’t deserve such blind admiration.
But Bandor… what about Bandor? Even though he was the younger brother of Romelle and the namesake of the little boy from DOTU, but… what colors were his clothes dyed? In the colors of Samson. The same Samson who decided to sacrifice himself for the victory of his homeland in the war with Altea and the Galra. And for some reason, I think that VLD Bandor wasn’t a defenseless naive child, because they didn’t take random Alteans to the test.
And when the moment X came, and Bandor was injured during the next test, he, like other pilots in such cases, was taken to the space base. What exactly was done with them is unknown, but most likely they were kept on artificial life support until they returned to a stable state.
And Romelle decided that this was her chance to forcibly take her brother to a safe place. Perhaps to that same abandoned base, or perhaps she planned to get to the first colony and start a new life there.
But she failed to bring Bandor alive. He died on the way, because it was absolutely impossible to take him out of the pod. And that's why when Lotor was chasing them, he was doing it in the company of medical robots. Not because he was afraid of a lonely woman with an unconscious guy in her arms, but because he took a team with him for urgent resuscitation of a dying person.
If Lotor really wanted to catch Romelle, he would have done it. She had nowhere to run, but he had zero desire to catch her. He didn’t perceive Romelle as a threat, and made a fatal mistake when she found grateful listeners in the face of paladins.
And given the whole story with the advent of Keith, here again the old series is remembered.
Episode 21, where Amue tried to escape from Sincline's prison in the company of friends in misfortune.
Amue’s emergency landing on a desert planet – Romelle’s emergency landing on an abandoned base;
Amue sent a signal for help – Romelle sent a signal to the explored universe to bring the curious to her;
The paladins were met by the witch, who pretended to be a princess – Keith met Romelle, who pretended to be a defenseless Altean;
The witch forcibly took the unconscious Alor away - Romelle took the unconscious Bandor away from the space base;
Too much coincidence, don't you think?
It’s also very interesting that Amue was exchanged for Farla, who pretended to be Akira. Just like in VLD, the paladins decided to trade Lotor for Holt, who turned out to be a hologram.
And it was also for the sake of Lotor that the Alteans were ready to die, just like the Heraclians were ready to die for their princess.
And it was Lotor who came to the aid of the paralyzed Voltron by attacking Haggar, although he could simply fly away, saving his own skin. Just like how Amue turned the ship around and went to ram the Galra to save Voltron in the old series.
And the scriptwriters followed the same pattern when they wrote the death of Bandor. It wasn't his transformation into a robeast that killed Samson, but Sincline's order to shoot him. It wasn't the trials that killed Bandor, but Romelle's attempt to take him away from the base.
But since by that time she considered Lotor the reason of all her troubles, she convinced herself that it’s he who killed Bandor, ignoring her role in this tragedy.
She didn’t want to return to the colony - there she would have to answer uncomfortable questions and pretend that nothing had changed. Therefore, Romelle decided to try to get out of the Quantum Abyss into the explored universe - to the place where the "jailer" was losing his power.
Moreover, Lotor had been so conveniently absent for many months and couldn’t prevent this in any way.
Most likely, Romelle didn’t even hope to find those who would be able to kill Lotor. The chance that a real Voltron paladin would fly to her signal was well below one percent. I think she just wanted to lure someone with a capsule of quintessence, and then bargain for her way into the explored universe.
Nor had she planned for the Alteans to ever learn of their saint's murder. Romelle thought that they would continue to live in the colony in blissful ignorance, and considered these ends cut off. That’s why she was so surprised when Luca accused her of betrayal.
She was already in amazement and horror when, in the wreckage of a white mecha, they found a painfully familiar Altean woman. Alive and relatively unharmed, which provided a chance to talk to her, which Allura and the earthlings decided to use.
Allura was very worried about the fate of the Alteans, and Romelle - that the truth might come to the surface.
By that time, the universe had suffered greatly due to the loss of Lotor, and if the paladins (and most importantly Allura) found out that he didn’t use the Alteans as a source of fuel, and indeed didn’t deceive anyone, then Romelle would have been waiting for a real massacre.
Therefore, she sharply grabbed Allura and began to follow her, pretending her best friend. Firstly, she wanted to convince Allura that Luca was inadequate and her words couldn’t be trusted, and secondly, if not to drive Allura away from Luca, then at least control what they would talk about.
I think Lance and his love plans have become a real gift of fate for her. She had no idea what kind of past connected Allura and Lance, but she took the opportunity to kick Allura out of the Garrison for at least one evening.
And of course, it was on this evening that Luca came to her senses.
It remained unknown how Romelle entered Luca's room unaccompanied. Maybe while Coran was looking for Allura, she hung around and offered to talk to the Altean instead of the princess. And the earthlings decided that this was a good idea, since Romelle and Luca already knew each other.
While talking to Luca, Romelle was obviously nervous and spoke ingratiatingly. She realized that the situation had gone completely in the wrong direction, although more recently she was sure that a new life was beginning for her.
Plus - Luca died without having time to give out some important information, minus - she said that the Alteans know about the murder of Lotor, they’re angry and thirsty for revenge.
As it turned out, the ends weren’t cut off at all, but were dragged along from behind, having managed to catch on a huge fragment along the way, which became a heavy burden and almost a stone around the neck.
We don’t kbow what Romelle was doing on the Atlas while the whole company dealt with current problems. It’s quite possible that she not only portrayed ballast, but also thought about how she should behave in the new realities. So far, the Alteans haven't looked like people to sit down at the negotiating table with, but that doesn't mean the paladins and Allura won't try to do so.
And then Honerva managed to pull Sincline out of the Rift and showed Allura that she was in complete control of him...
And after all, the Alteans also saw this, and were unlikely to be delighted with what was happening. They didn’t help Honerva at all so that she would turn their prince into her obedient slave. Such behavior wasn’t very similar to the joyful meeting of mother and son.
This was the moment when their trust in Honerva gave the first crack.
However, not so big as to feel the desire to communicate with a traitor.
In fact, the Day 47 episode, although it seems filler, is of great importance to Romelle's plot. It very clearly shows how she reacted that not one, but a whole bunch of Alteans were dragged into the Atlas. It was already much more difficult to expose a whole group of people as inadequate fanatics, especially since Tavo didn’t make such an impression. He was calm, polite and much older than Luca.
And... Romelle was freaking out.
She appears near Allura, portraying her best friend, exactly when she wants to chat with the pilots, and then immediately disappears, leaving the princess alone with the deepest stress.
When the earthlings try to question her about the Alteans, she says that she has no idea why they’re attacking, breaks into a scream and is clearly worried, with her lies getting more and more rude, such as claiming that the Alteans are scared.
...the same ones that built white mechas and flew to smash the universe...
“But you must understand: my people were haunted nearly to extinction”.
And it’s very curious that in the next episode, Clear Day, she isn’t among the vacationers, and in subsequent episodes she did appear only in edited scenes.
Why did she suddenly disappear? Where’s she?
Romelle constantly pretended to be a cheerful fool, and couldn’t help but go to the festival with the rest of the paladins. Unless, of course, she was doing something else at that time.
For example, running away.
Yes, I believe that while all the earthlings were resting during the Clear Day, Romelle escaped from the Atlas. It was the most logical decision in her situation. She could easily hijack a ship (and even turn off some of the cameras), because in fact she was very good at piloting spaceships.
After all, what happened at the very beginning of the Clear Day episode? Tavo decided to talk to Allura. Personally, without a company. Perhaps Romelle's absence was discussed separately, but that doesn't matter.
The important thing is that Tavo, unlike Luca, survived, and Allura realized that he was ready to share information. It was foolish to wait for them to raise the topic of Lotor in a conversation, but then there was such a great opportunity to run away while the entire Atlas team was walking at the holiday.
What happened next? Here begins guessing without an evidence base.
Theoretically, this story could have ended in an instructive style, where the villain went unpunished, and the only thing left for the heroes is to fully feel their stupidity and pay for their mistakes. But I don’t think that such endings are VLD-style - so, most likely, the fugitive should have been caught and returned to the main characters for a heart-to-heart conversation. Or rather, for a public conversation with Lotor, since such a meeting was required by the symbolism of the plot.
And despite the fact that many Lotor fans quite naturally dream of punishing Romelle in various inhumane ways, I think... that Lotor would forgive her.
Firstly, because he’s not a vindictive person. Throughout history, Lotor never took revenge on anyone, and if he got rid of someone, it was only because he considered this person a threat. Lotor never considered Romelle a threat - for him she was just an offended woman.
Secondly, Lotor really felt guilty for the death of the pilots during the tests. He called them martyrs, and didn’t deny that they suffered because of their participation in his project. And he could sincerely sympathize with the grief of a girl who had lost her entire family.
And that would be a very powerful moment. After 7,5 seasons, where someone constantly took revenge on someone, Lotor would have forgiven his offender and lowered in peace. He could, I believe in him.
Romelle: her story in the past and in the present. Part I
Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932
Link to the part II.
I. Introduction
Hello again. The fandom has been sleeping in suspended animation for a long time, and so have we, but it suddenly turned out that enough information and thoughts had accumulated about Romelle to talk about her not only as a cunning and dodgy liar.
The trends of our time are such that it is no longer enough for a villain to be just a villain. This doesn’t work with an older audience, the level of average education already makes it clear that a person isn’t born bad by default. It isn’t for nothing that films about villains began to appear here and there, although this is done primarily because of the crisis of ideas, and the desire of large companies to rape existing franchises.
Therefore, we begin to wonder: why Romelle hated Lotor so much? How many lies are in her truth and truth in her lies? Is it just her brother?
But we’ll begin to approach that question from afar.
We'll start from the beginning - with GoLion and DOTU.
The thing is, the VLD writers didn't reinvent the wheel. When they got into the revival of the saga, they took all the old stuff, including the comics, and worked it through, pulling out whatever was useful. Characters, their past, their characters, plot ideas and conflicts. Those who have been familiar with the fandom for a long time have probably watched VLD and constantly had the feeling that they had met this or that twist.
And Romelle, as a character, isn’t something new, she’s a construct assembled from what has already been, simply reworked to fit new realities.
Unfortunately, I’m not an ardent fandom fan, and have not watched every series without exception that was drawn or bought. I will be working with the franchise's progenitors and building my conclusions on that basis.
GoLion or Voltron 1.0 is a relatively serious space opera with a lot of violence and a clear ending. Yes, there is an ending: the villains die, and Altea celebrates the victory. The story doesn’t imply any continuation of the saga, at least with the same antagonists.
Moreover, this series was mostly filler. One series - one adventure that didn’t have a significant impact on further events. There is a normal plot, but there’s very little of it, and I’ll raise this topic later.
DOTU. Voltron… 1.5? I don't even know if I can give this piece number 2.
The fact is that when American businessmen bought the rights to the GoLion anime series, it turned out that they didn’t have a Japanese translator. Perhaps in those days such a direction was extremely rare, or perhaps the services of a specialist cost huge money.
As a result, the scriptwriters had to turn on the fantasy and, based on the visuals, come up with lines for the characters themselves. Sometimes they couldn’t compose anything, and then the audience got the opportunity to admire how the characters move their lips in absolute silence.
As a person who made a comparison of certain episodes, I can say that they didn’t always succeed in getting closer to the original. Especially when you consider that the target audience of the cartoon was children.
They bought a series with a lot of death and violence in order to show it with a PG rating.
How did it end? The fact that a huge number of humorous and stupid phrases appeared where they never existed. Also, the showrunners tried to cut out all the excessive cruelty from the series, which didn’t always benefit the story line.
In general, it turns out that VLD’s S8 repeated the fate of the entire GoLion series. And this isn’t a unique case, but a glorious WEP tradition.
For example, Prince Sincline in GoLion (Lotor) isn’t a comedic villain, and not a stupid boy, but a real sadist. Moreover, he’s over a hundred years old, which brings his obsession with 16-year-old Farla (Allura) under a criminal article on the seduction of minors – fortunately, at least it doesn’t make him a pedophile.
In addition, there’s a difference in the endings. In GoLion, the main villains die, and the story ends there. There’s not even a lovestory of Alura and Keith, because the maximum that a simple samurai (paladin) can count on is a perfumed handkerchief thrown by a beautiful hime (princess).
DOTU, on the other hand, was developed immediately with an eye on sequels, so the death of the main villains was removed, but over time, a bunch of episodes were added, introducing new characters like Queen Merla.
As a result, the DOTU series consisted of 72 episodes (season 1 "GoLion" + season 3 with Merla). I won’t take into account the anime that was retroactively attributed to Voltron as season 2, Romelle isn’t there anyway.
And with such knowledge, we approach the description of the prototype of the character. I’ll describe the biographies of Princess Romelle and Princess Amue in parallel, so that you can see both the similarities and the differences.
II. Plot basis
So, we have a planet related to Arus/Altea. It isn’t specified what kind of people live there, but it’s possible that the Alteans once colonized it.
In DOTU, the planet is referred to as Pollux, the sinister twin of Arus.
In GoLlion, the planet is called Hercules... and described as a cosmic body with a special orbit, which approaches Altea once every 18-20 years. No malice, negativity, etc.
In DOTU, Coran tells that the first king of Arus had two sons, a bad one and a good one. And when their parent died, the bad son thought only of the inheritance, he was exiled to Pollux for his disrespect. And since then, the descendants of the brothers have been at enmity with each other.
In GoLion, the accents are placed differently. The king of Altea really had two sons, but the division was not between good and evil, but between the elder and the younger. And it was said that the youngest son had such an intolerable character that the crowned father couldn’t stand it and expelled the child to Hercules. And since then, the family of the youngest son has harbored a grudge and attacks Altea every time the planets approach each other.
In DOTU Romelle's ancestor is presented as greedy and "bad", in GoLion - only as a person with a violent temper and resentment towards relatives for expulsion. But in both cases, he gets to rule a whole planet, which is clearly not enough for him.
And this discrepancy will occur several more times.
during Lotor/Sincline's arrival on Pollux/Hercules. Meeting the dear guest at the gangway, Koba will say that he’s concerned about the issue of dividing Arus, and Hercules – that the Heraclians are ready to fight even tomorrow, but for now he must send Altea a challenge to fight (well, how can you attack without warning? This is unethical).
at a closed military council, where Koba will declare that he doesn’t want to share Arus with the Drules, and Hercules - that they planned to betray the Galra from the very beginning, but first they need to avenge Altea for the offense.
and in the person of Bandor / Alor, who in DOTU tells his sister that Lotor promised him his own palace, and in GoLion he rejoices at the opportunity to fly to war on the same ship with such a great warrior as Sincline.
This view of American screenwriters is quite predictable, but still has a fundamental difference from the original. After all, the royal family of Pollux eventually becomes an ally of the paladins and acts on the side of good heroes. And it turns out that all the statements about what a bad planet Pollux is just dissolve in the further plot.
There’s also a theory that the legendary brothers were King Alfor/Raimon and King Coba/Hercules, but no matter how much I looked through both versions of the series, I didn’t find such information. Coran refers to very old times, especially since in GoLion the planets intersect only once every two decades.
So what about Romelle herself?
Everything is very interesting. The fact is that she’s one of the rarest characters in the series who has a personal development story arc.
Yes. The secondary character had something that most protagonists didn't have.
For example, male characters - paladins - had no development at all. Because GoLion and DOTU are filler series, and as a result, their characters are static. As they were in the beginning, so they remain in the end. Even the age has not changed.
Farla was a little more fortunate, because her desire to become a pilot got her a small development arc, which was completely cut in DOTU, where Allura was turned into a plot device. By the end of the series, she’s still the same sweet, kind 16-year-old girl, somewhere naive, somewhere principled, but if you mix the episodes, you can hardly determine their order in the series.
But with Romelle's prototype, it's not like that. She has a plot. She has development.
Her path is the transformation from a classical damsel in distress into a Valkyrie, storming the main stronghold of the antagonists together with her soldiers.
Allura from the 80s can only turn green with envy. Against the background of Princess Romelle, she looks bypassed in terms of scenario.
Moreover, since Romelle's story arc begins in episode 17 and ends in episode 52, it turns out that her story arc moves the story of the entire series. Almost all episodes between episodes with Romelle are fillers. Her plot has a clear narrative line, and the plot of the series clings to this line, turning from a collection of fillers into a whole story at the intersections.
And suddenly it turns out that Romelle/Amue was an important character for the old Voltron. More important than the main characters.
But let's move on to the description of events.
III. Personal arc
1. Alliance with galra and captivity
So, episode 17.
The king of the planet Hercules (nameless, and therefore I will call him by the name of the planet) comes to Lord Daibazaal to bow and offers to capture Altea together. Well, or Coba from the planet Pollux comes to Zarkon, as you prefer.
He wants to turn his eldest son Samson (in DOTU - Avok) into a robeast and claims that since his son is the greatest of warriors, he will surely be stronger than Voltron and be able to defeat it.
The plan looks as reliable as a Swiss watch, and at this point I want to give Coba/Hercules a goblet with the words "Father of the Year" written on it. But further in the series, it’s still specified that the transformation was considered reversible, and in GoLion, before his death, Samson will indeed return to his human form.
During the battle with Voltron, Avok/Samson will even speak intelligibly, which means the presence of reason and consciousness.
I think the very opportunity to fight a legendary and invincible opponent seemed seductive to the guy. His people were clearly obsessed with military prowess; it wasn’t for nothing that they were drawn wearing ancient Roman helmets and tunics.
Lotor/Sincline is outraged by this speech. Some petty king has declared that his son is the best of warriors, and this clearly hurts the vanity of a Drule/Galra prince. He jumps up and expresses doubt about Avok/Samson's ability to defeat Voltron, to which Zarkon/Daibazaal offers to test the volunteer in the arena.
In DOTU, Lotor agrees and with a grin tells Avok that he will certainly not stand against the monster, and Sincline in GoLion promises to cut off his head if the prince loses.
Avok/Samson, confident in his abilities, readily accepts the challenge. There definitely was the reason why the guy was named after a mythical hero who suffered because of his own pride. He also considered himself invincible, for which he paid.
Princess Romelle/Amue, along with the younger prince, appear on screen at the moment when Avok/Samson defeats the robeasts. Lotor/Sincline, visibly annoyed by their rival's triumph, jumps into the arena and proposes a second duel, to which Pollux/Hercules' heir agrees without hesitation.
... it's so noble and fair to challenge a man who has just fought another opponent to a duel ...
Romelle/Amue and Bandor/Alor enthusiastically look at the duel and cheer on their older brother. In GoLion, they admire the military prowess of both rivals, and in DOTU they say that it’ll be great when their brother becomes a robeast and defeats Voltron.
Alor was amazed and fascinated by Sincline's martial prowess. Not for long, but the prince will become an idol for him, which at the end of the series the boy will bitterly regret, sobbing over the graves of his father and brother.
As for Romelle/Amue… she supported her family, and her father. At least in the first minutes of appearance on the screen. Both Amue and Romelle will wish their brother success in the battle against Voltron. The royal family is shown as very loving and very friendly, where Avok/Samson doesn’t look like a person who was decided to be heartlessly sacrificed for the interests of the country.
But the first red flag comes when, during the duel, Lotor/Sincline notices the resemblance of the guest to the object of his obsession - Allura/Farla. After staring, he loses, the witch takes away the victorious Avok/Samson, and Lotor/Sincline rushes to get acquainted with a girl with such attractive facial features.
At first everything goes fine. The princess even flirts, but it stops abruptly when Lotor/Sincline boorishly drags the girl down the stairs with him. Even in DOTU, where Lotor invited Romelle for a walk, and she seemed to agree, the scene doesn’t look at least a little cute, since itn’t customary for a lady to be dragged by the wrist, she’s politely led by the arm, especially if the gentleman has considerable physical strength.
Of course, it can be assumed that the DOTU writers aren’t very well versed in human facial expressions, but as you can see in the picture above, Romelle/Amue's face doesn’t shine with joy even without comments from the crowned father of the family.
The fact is that against the background of what’s happening, it’s shown how King Coba/Hercules abruptly rises from his seat and looks worried. And if in DOTU he worries about Avok (whom he sent for experiments... logic, where are you?), then in GoLion he was horrified when he saw his daughter being dragged away by Sincline. Only Alor remains imperturbable in this situation, as he looks at Sincline through rose-colored glasses.
As for the princess... From now on, she’ll never say a single kind word about Lotor/Sincline again. He’ll leave her on his planet, and she’ll return home only after a few months in the company of the prince himself and a bunch of his concubines.
Somewhere I heard that Romelle was considered Lotor's bride in DOTU, but I didn't find anything like that in the series itself. Romelle/Amue's status on the Planet Doom wasn’t specified in any way, Lotor/Sincline kept her to himself out of a personal whim, without asking her or her family's opinion.
Later - in a personal conversation with her younger brother – she’ll shed light on her opinion about the alliance with the Drules/Galra. And if Romelle basically says that war and happiness are incompatible things, which is a very strange statement for the daughter of the militant Pollux, then the Amue will begin to convince Alor that Sincline is a terrible person and shouldn’t be admired.
In both cases, Romelle/Amue is no longer happy with her father's plan and tries to explain to her younger brother that the situation is much more complicated than it seems. And when, in a few minutes, she encounters paladins in the corridor of her native castle and sees Allura/Farla, she’ll experience a real shock. The striking resemblance elicits a strong emotional reaction from her, because the princesses do look like twin sisters.
Moment X comes when the Drules/Galra find out that the paladins have snuck into the castle and unleash Avok/Samson on them. He doesn’t rush at the enemy like a crazy beast, but uses fighting techniques, and does it successfully.
Voltron breathes fire in his face, hits with electricity in the water, but Avok/Samson still safely gets to his feet and continues the battle. His father didn’t lie, he really could compete with Voltron, although he wasn’t a machine, but a biological being, that is, capable of experiencing pain.
In general, when creating classic fairy tales, there’s an unspoken rule that heroes shouldn’t kill a lot, and even more so, kill non-villains. Ideally, the antagonist should fall into the abyss, run into their own weapon, refuse help, but not force the protagonist to get their hands dirty in blood. And the paladins completely fell within the framework - they didn’t injure Avok/Samson in any way, although they bludgeoned each other from the heart.
It isn’t known who would have emerged victorious if they had been allowed to finish the fight. But Lotor/Sincline, who was watching the battle through the monitor, loses patience and gives the order to attack both giants.
Yes, both Voltron and Avok/Samson.
First, because the witch's cat overheard the royal council, and warned Lotor/Sincline of the betrayal. Secondly, in DOTU, the villainous trio had already agreed in advance that Avok would be killed, Romelle would be given to Lotor, and Pollux, under the leadership of a young Bandor, wouldn’t pose a threat.
It was unprofitable for the Drules/Galra to leave a living Avok/Samson to the pseudo-allies. He was intelligent, loyal to his homeland and extremely dangerous.
Avok's death in DOTU was severely cut. Yes, he still dies when the Drules shoot missiles at his back, but in GoLion he’s also blinded by well-aimed shots to the eyes, which makes poor Samson feel like his mythical namesake.
But what else was cut in DOTU - and this is something I can't explain - is the death of King Coba. In GoLion, after seeing the Galra ships killing his son, the king rushes to the ground cannon and starts firing at Sincline's cruiser. With this gun, they blow him up, right in front of his daughter and youngest son.
Apparently, the DOTU writers decided that this scene was too violent for young children, removed it and it turns out that King Coba - who looks like a strong muscular man on the screen - is actually old and weak. Yes, yes, he’ll die soon, and in his dying fever he didn’t come up with anything better than to declare war on Arus, send the heir to a risky battle, and leave the planet to a 12-year-old child.
In GoLion, Alor becomes the new ruler of Hercules for a more logical reason - because his older brother and father tragically die and Amue is captured.
After the death of her father and older brother, Romelle/Amue is taken away by the Drules/Galra. And here’s a very important point – Romelle curses Lotor for killing Avok (which is doubly insulting for her, if we assume that, according to the American scriptwriters, she really liked Lotor), and Amue... calls her brother for help.
Younger brother.
Moreover, until the very meeting with Ryu (aka Takashi's twin brother, aka Sven version 2.0), she’ll repeatedly turn to her younger brother in her thoughts and beg to save her. And that's what was missing from DOTU.
The fact is that when the American screenwriters lined up the line of Bandor's behavior, they prescribed him as an ordinary 12-year-old child. Silly, naive, cocky, and sometimes self-centered.
What they didn't notice was that this "little boy" has bigger biceps than the average office worker.
Alor is much more serious, responsible, courageous and smart. He dreamed not of a personal palace, but of becoming as great a warrior as his elder brother. He isn’t conceited, knows how to admit mistakes and be grateful. Having been wounded in the knee, he continued (!) to crawl after the Galra in order to save his sister. And the Heraclians never questioned his orders the way Bandor's subordinates did.
True, there’s something that both GoLion and DOTU agreed on - that Bandora/Alor never (!) had to be saved. Remember this. With the exception of being captured in episode 21 (literally for a few minutes) and episode 18 of season 3 (created by WEP itself), it was the prince who ran around space and tried to save his sister, not vice versa.
Princess Amue never perceived Alor as a stupid little boy. She saw in him a young man and a warrior of her family.
On this tragic note, episode 17 ends, and the series will only return to this storyline in episode 21.
And no, in the interval between them, the paladins will never remember Romelle/Amue, as if she never existed.
2. Escape
The poor thing was sitting in a dark cell all this time along with other unlucky girls. There were no loungers or at least some amenities, only a cold stone floor. In GoLion, the storyteller adds some dark colors, describing that they were given practically no food, just enough to keep them from starving to death.
I must say that when Lotor/Sincline enters the cell, and we’re shown how the girls huddled against the walls, it becomes not so important that Lotor didn’t seem to rape Romelle, and her off-screen scream was cut out. If only his appearance horrified women, then there were reasons.
Romelle/Amue tries to attack him with a sharp stone, but, alas, to no avail.
However, there was still a difference in the behavior of the characters. Romelle begged not to touch her, and Amue asked him to kill her, but both are the usual reaction of a tortured person.
Lotor boasts that by using Romelle as a hostage, he’ll be able to control Pollux. Sincline, on the other hand, says that as long as Farla is running free, Amue will do just fine as her replacement.
Then he grabs the princess and takes her away. Lotor states that he will use her as bait, but Romella returns to the cell exhausted and sobbing anyway, so it's unlikely she enjoyed Drule company.
Her friends in misfortune console her, talking about how good it would be to run away, and then Romelle/Amue says that she has a plan.
It’s unknown how they managed to start the fire, although Amue had more room to act as Sincline's concubine. And while the soldiers hastily extinguished the source of smoke, the girls made their way into the hangar and stole the spaceship.
True, a very interesting question arises - how did they know how to pilot it? They sat down in the cabin in their places and managed to fly away safely, which is very strange for ordinary unremarkable women. Apparently, the writers considered such knowledge to be something natural for the inhabitants of a militarized planet.
How did Lotor/Sincline react to this escape? Lotor exclaimed that Romelle would pay for her act, and Sincline promised to cut Amue to pieces.
If Lotor needed Romelle alive, then Sincline was ready to kill a naughty toy.
When the ship is hit, Romelle/Amue sends an SOS signal to her brother at the last moment and reports the crash site. The paladins also receive this message and rush to the rescue, crossing the road with the Pollux/Hercules rescue ship.
They land on a snow-covered planet, where they find a ship that sent out a distress signal. But it's empty. There are no corpses in the broken cabin, but there are no living ones either, because the Drules/Galra took the nameless girls. Their further fate will remain unknown.
At some point, Allura/Farla notices an unconscious woman in one of the cabins. That was a witch disguised as Romelle/Amue, who decided to set a trap for the paladins. She takes advantage of the sluggishness of Bandor/Alor, hits him on the head and takes him away with her.
Later in the same episode, the boy, along with his older sister, will be used to blackmail the paladins and in particular Allura/Farla. Lotor/Sincline will offer an exchange, promising to kill the captives if they refuse.
Unfortunately, events will turn out in such a way that Keith/Akira will only be able to recapture Bandor/Alora. He would use the blizzard to disguise himself and pretend to be Allura/Farla, but without a proper weapon, his chances of defeating Lothor/Sincline were slim. And he certainly wouldn’t show compassion for the one who deceived him.
So the decision of the captives to return and help may not have been too smart, but it saved their savior.
The episode ends with the witch Haggar/Honerva unleashing a robeast on the paladins, and while they fight it off, Lotor/Sincline safely takes all the fugitives away. Yes, it wasn’t possible to save anyone in this episode - in GoLion, having dealt with the monster, the paladins look sadly after the departing ship. In DOTU... Voltron returns to Arus and is met with fanfare, which looks extremely inappropriate in this episode. Just like many other things added by American screenwriters to reduce the level of tragedy in a non-children's series
3. "Space Wolf"
And then ... we move on to episode 39. More precisely, to several episodes from 39 to 40, because the 40th is actually the second part of the 39th.
And in this story there’s a very serious difference between DOTU and GoLion. In particular, because the Americans didn’t know what exactly was going on there.
What was in the original?
In the original, the witch informs Zarkon/Daibazaal and his son that at an unknown time, the White Hole spewed out a cosmic body with a diameter of 1 kilometer with an incredible force of gravity. Hypergravitational planetoid - that is, it seems to be a planet, but very small and with huge gravity. I’ll try to explain it in simple words: there’s a theory that at the end of the black hole, where everything is drawn in, there’s a white hole, from which everything flies out. Both the white hole and the black hole are real cosmic phenomena that have given rise to many fantasies about interdimensional portals. As in other parts of the universe, so in other universes in general.
The planetoid was named "Space Wolf" and began to go around in a wide arc, as it attracted absolutely everything to itself, grinding its victims into dust. We don’t know what trajectory it flew before the events of the series.
In front of the overlord's eyes, Honerva directs a Galran ship to the space body, and the planetoid immediately pulls it towards itself, twisting and crushing. But the rings that it carried jump out and, having expanded, cover the entire planetoid. Satisfied with the result, Honerva reports that now these rings completely control the movement of the Space Wolf.
Apparently, the rings caused a strong explosion at a certain point and thus pushed the planetoid. I don’t know how sane such an idea looks from the point of view of physics and astronomy.
And what is very remarkable: when Akira and Raible (Coran) will discuss whether it’s possible to destroy the Space Wolf, Raible will say that Altea's existing capacities are not enough even to force the planetoid to change its trajectory.
Yes, it turns out that the power of friendship is far from always able to overcome any evil.
What's in DOTU?
DOTU caught up with a lot of pathos. That when the Big Bang occurred at the beginning of time, in addition to ordinary cosmic bodies, it also gave rise to several anomalies, one of which was the comet Omega. That is, if the Space Wolf appeared on an unspecified date, then comet Omega has always existed.
Haggar described this comet as a flying black hole, which sounds ... somehow more absurd than the banal magnet from Japanese screenwriters. On the other hand, it now becomes clear how comet Omega managed to throw comic book characters (Voltron/Robotech crossover by Dynamite Comics) into other worlds.
And what is fundamentally important: the paladins of the past were able to stop this comet and hide it. The rumor about this feat spread throughout the universe and turned into a legend that every child knew.
But no one remembered how (!) the paladins did it. According to Coran, data on the event was lost and it took 10 years to develop the plan.
At the end of the story, the witch boasts that she found this comet, and took control of it with the help of rings, as it was in the original.
Hearing of this, Lotor/Sincline tells to bring Romelle/Amue. Sincline did it on purpose, and Lotor... apparently, in order to mock her.
And here again there is a difference in the series.
Amue sees how the witch orders the rings to send the Space Wolf towards Altea. Savoring the moment, Honerva tells her that the cosmic body will cause terrible cataclysms on the planet, the princess is horrified and screams that Golion won’t allow them to do this.
Moreover, subsequent events will show that Amue doesn’t know what the "Space Wolf" is.
Romelle is told that the legendary comet Omega is in front of her, which is now heading towards Arus. And the princess of Pollux knows this legend, as well as all the inhabitants of the universe. The girl bravely declares that she will find a way to stop Lotor and the witch... which doesn’t sound very smart from the point of view of her behavior. Oh, it's DOTU... *heavy sigh*.
What's next?
Romelle/Amue shows espionage skills and manages to get to the communication system. But how she did it remains behind the scenes. The princess informs the paladins that a dangerous cosmic body is moving towards them and must be stopped by any means necessary.
Lotor/Sincline is informed of this, but he doesn't seem the least bit surprised. Sincline laughs and calls the princess a fool for not realizing that this is a trap, and Lotor simply suggests using the girl's zeal for his own purposes.
In the castle, they discuss the information received. And it's quite interesting that Akira and Raible know what a Space Wolf is and are surprised when Amue calls the Wolf a weapon created by Honerva. Here we can assume that the planetoid appeared relatively recently, after the princess was captured. And then it becomes clear why the witch became interested in him just now. Despite the seeming hopelessness of the situation, Akira makes the assumption that the planetoid is controlled by the occult powers of Honerva (it is), and suggests that everything be done to keep the Space Wolf from Altea. Raible turns to Hisa and tells her to be ready to face death like a samurai. Farla orders to prepare everything for the evacuation of the population, so that people have the opportunity to keep their dignity alive.
In DOTU... Keith proudly declares that they are the Voltron Force and will be able to take down Omega no matter what. Coran dejectedly retorts that nothing will come of it and they must prepare for death. Allura… doesn’t consider it necessary to issue an evacuation order. It seems that Farla at 16 was still smarter.
Voltron flies up to Omega/Wolf. The GoLion paladins tried to keep their distance, but they were still pulled, because the planetoid's gravitational field was truly enormous. The heroes of DOTU… showed themselves to be not very smart people and flew into the gravity zone themselves, because Pidge couldn’t collect the necessary information about the comet at such a great distance.
Romella/Amue is brought in to watch Voltron floundering in the gravity zone and trying to fire all the cannons in order to at least change the trajectory of the Omegawolf and thereby save Arus/Althea.
And then there's a scene that, in the DOTU version, makes me want to roll my eyes.
What's going on in GoLion? Amue is led to Sincline and Honervra from behind, and the witch tells the prince to seize the moment and destroy Golion before the paladins figure out where the Space Wolf's vulnerability lies. To which Sincline replies that they’ll never guess to shoot at the rings, but he isn’t going to give them such an opportunity and orders adjutant Gobra to launch an attack.
Princess Amue, in a panic, rushes to the radar station in front of her, and, after contacting Altea, screams that they need to shoot at the rings. In the Japanese voice acting, she screams in short phrases, which means she understands that she has a chance in a million, and she’s about to be interrupted.
Sincline and Honerva watch this scene with a smirk, and the paladins, alas, when trying to shoot at the rings, lose concentration and crash into the surface of the Space Wolf at full speed. For an unstated reason, the main cannon fails, which genuinely surprises Akira.
What's going on in DOTU? Romelle is again brought in from the back. Lotor says that the paladins would have a chance to defeat the comet if they did this, that, and that, but they would never think to do so. Moreover, he mentions the crystal inside Voltron, although how does he even know how this weapon works?
Yes, he behaves like a typical ostentatious villain who needs to tell the enemy about how to defeat him.
Romelle, abruptly dumbfounded, doesn’t feel any trick, rushes to the microphone and retells this whole long tirade to the paladins. Apparently, she thought that she was surrounded by only gentlemen who would politely wait until the lady had talked enough with her friends.
The paladins, on the other hand, try to follow the instructions, but this, on the contrary, stops Voltron, and they still - but for a different reason - crash into the surface of Omega at full speed.
… but excuse me… what kind of surface can a black hole have?...
The prince and the witch laugh, Amue/Romelle is predictably hysterical and calls herself an idiot. In the second case, not without reason.
Voltron tries to rise, or at least tear off the limbs from the surface, but to no avail. The Omega/Wolf flies up to Arus/Althea and begins to slowly disintegrate the planet along with the population. Coran/Raible announces an emergency evacuation, and in DOTU adds that he asked the Alliance for help, but most likely they won’t send anyone.
...and why the hell is this Alliance needed then?..
Meanwhile, the witch gets tired of waiting for the planet's gravity to crush Voltron, and she releases a weapon in the form of spiked rings from the crumpled ship (the same one that delivered the rings). The situation seems hopeless, but suddenly help comes in the person of Bandor/Alor.
In GoLion, Alor says that the Heraclians were tracking the Space Wolf's trajectory and rushed to help when they realized the situation was becoming critical. In DOTU…. Bandor reveals that he’s the commander of the 11th Starfleet of the Alliance, but didn’t arrive for long, because his troops must guard the energy carrier. We’ll never know why the young king of Pollux ended up on packages from the Alliance and guards some kind of energy carrier instead of his native planet.
…just think how strange it sounds for a child of royal blood to lead a guard post…
What is even more frustrating is that in DOTU, due to a mistranslation, it completely disappeared that the Heraclians not only followed the movement of the planetoid, but also managed to construct a cannon to protect others against it. The weapon didn’t have enough power to destroy a dangerous object, but it could change its course and thereby protect people against its impact.
In DOTU, the ships will just abstractly shoot at the comet, although in theory the black hole should be completely inert to such an impact.
And yes, Bandor/Alor will order a shot at the Omega/Wolf, knowing that Voltron will be hurt at best and destroyed at worst. With the full consent and approval of the paladins. This will destroy the rings and move the cosmic body, thereby saving Arus/Althea.
In response, Lotor/Sincline will become furious and send troops, both for unexpected saviors and to the planet, in order to complete what they started without the Omega/Wolf.
And then we move on to the events of episode 40.
Which starts with Lotor/Sincline flying over Arus/Althea and bombing cities. He makes princess Romelle/Amue watch the ships shoot down civilians, while he laughs and promises to kill every single one. "To the last midge" - quoting meticulous Lotor.
Bandor/Alor, meanwhile, is trying to pull out Voltron, and unlike the paladins, it wisely doesn’t approach the planetoid, but sends "laser anchors" to try to overcome the Omega/Wolf's gravity and pull the robot from the planet with the whole fleet.
Moreover, there’s a big difference in the behavior of Alor and Bandor - Alor listens to the words of his subordinates, and they support his desire to save Golion and protect Altea. While Bandor's relationship with the soldiers reaches the point that they begin to sabotage his orders.
And perhaps they would have been able to save Voltron, but the Drules/Galra didn’t give the enemies such a chance, and began to shoot the ships tied with anchors and therefore unable to defend themselves.
As a result, only Alor's ship remains, whose anchor breaks and he loses sight of the Omega/Wolf.
The allied soldiers say that they’re now millions of light miles from Arus and blame Bandor for not listening to them, but the Heraclians urge Alor to be strong and protect Altea instead of Golion.
What about paladins? No, they don’t overcome gravity with the power of friendship, alas, this doesn’t work with the laws of physics, but the Goddess of the Universe charges Voltron/Golion and destroys the Omega/Wolf.
...that's what it means to "have good acquaintances"!..
Meanwhile, Lotor/Sincline is trading with Bandor/Alor, who has dented his cruiser pretty well. He shows the boy his sister and threatens to kill her if he doesn’t stop his attack.
...in general, it seems that the superiority of the Galra over the Heraclians consisted solely in the robeasts...
As you understand, the young king didn’t want to sacrifice his sister, but Voltron/Golion arrives and solves this moral dilemma in favor of Arus/Altea. It destroys the Drule/Galra forces, and Lotor/Sincline hastily leaves the planet.
The prince is furious that all his plans have been ruined and takes the captive princess to a place full of skulls on the Planet Doom. Lotor wants to destroy Romelle for his loyalty to Voltron, and Sincline says that although he hates the idea that Amue needs to be disposed of, he must take revenge on Alor for saving Golion (yes, Sincline thought it was Alor's merit).
In general, here Romelle/Amue demonstrates remarkable restraint - she looks her killers in the face without fear and snaps, declaring that Voltron will win anyway.
But the princess manages to avoid death - a voice from underground orders her not to move (however, in DOTU it’s female for some reason ...), and when the soldiers start shooting, she falls under the ground.
The episode ends with a strange figure holding a candle who decides to approach the unconscious princess.
4. Field romance and shock content
And ... we go straight to episode 41. Yes, unexpectedly we got as many as three storylines in a row.
But the surprise was not only in this. I have to admit, when I watched episode 41 of GoLion, the thought flashed through my head that I wasn’t mentally prepared for such scenes.
...sometimes the Japanese scare me...
The guy with the candle turns out to be Ryou Shirogane (yes, Shiro is a surname), aka Sven.
The reasons why Sven/Ryou ends up in caves on an enemy planet are slightly different in DOTU and GoLion. Ryou was captured a long time ago, back in the days when his brother piloted the Blue Lion, but since then he managed to get out of the dungeon and is now a partisan (what exactly he did was never said). Sven, on the other hand, was much less fortunate. When he was seriously injured and sent to the hospital, by coincidence, it was on the planet where he was being treated that the Drules raided and took away many slaves. Including Sven. Injuries didn’t allow him to resist, and as a result he was thrown to die in a dungeon, since no one wanted to support a disabled slave at their own expense. He didn’t agree to die just like that and was able to get out into the wild, if, of course, vagrancy on the Drule planet can be called such a word.
What’s even more different is the behavior of the characters.
In general, against the background of the slender and logical replicas of GoLion, the lines in DOTU look somehow crazy. When the princess stumbles and falls while running (long skirt, shoes, you know), Ryou asks her to be quick, but Sven says that they have no time to rest.
Sven generally resembles a half-madman and calls himself a Savage who has no name. A guy crazy from loneliness, downtrodden and despising himself for being weak.
Ryou, on the contrary, is in a fighting state of mind and is confident in himself. He introduces himself as the younger brother of the famous paladin Takashi, and when Amue protests that Farla is piloting the Blue Lion, he loudly calls her a liar. The mourning of the brother takes place according to all samurai canons, with the mention of a ghost that appeared to Ryou in a dream and bequeathed to defeat the Galra Empire.
Relations between the characters are also built differently. If GoLion they’re dogging at first (love-hate fans - a step forward), then in DOTU Romelle has to shake Sven to come to his senses and encourage him to take action. Sven will even refuse to mess with the paladins, because, you see, he’s ashamed, and Romelle will have to persuade him to do this. Ryou at that moment just called without any persuasion and bowing.
Actually, the GoLion couple cooperated so much that they even arranged an escape for the Heraclian captives - who, unfortunately, were caught. Alas, in GoLion, a successful escape is a rarity.
And now we move on to shock content.
Sincline/Lotor realized very quickly that the princess wasn’t dead. His soldiers noticed that she had fled into the caves, but couldn’t catch her up. And although he initially ordered the destruction of the escaped slaves, the witch suggested that he’d use the captives for blackmail and thus return the fugitive.
And here's what it looked like. People (men, women, at least children weren’t shown, hanks for that) were taken to something like an arena, hollowed out among the rocks, and a huge metal golem was put in front of them. The prince, standing on the edge of the abyss in the company of a witch and his father, loudly declared that he knew that the princess was there, and offered to surrender and thus save the captives.
In GoLion, Sincline also appealed to royal honor, because it was clearly indicated that all slaves were from Hercules, that is, they were subjects of Amue.
Naturally, no one wanted her to agree to this proposal. First of all Sven/Ryou. The captives themselves began to shout for her not to come out, as they would be killed anyway.
Moreover, in GoLion, the Heraclians not only asked the princess not to go out, but began to chant “Long live Hercules! Long live Princess Amue!". That is, they clearly stated their position and stated that they value the life of the princess more than their own.
And the Heraclians will continue to shout these words even when the iron golem begins to crush them with its hands.
Yes. In GoLion, it’ll be shown close-up, accompanied by the crunch of breaking bones. In DOTU, the screams of people will be re-voiced, the scene itself will be cut and the sound will be replaced with a less impressive one.
... and that's when I realized that there is much more Japanese in this series than it seemed at first. Don't let European interiors confuse you...
Moreover, it’s worth noting that if the reaction of the princess in both versions was approximately the same, then Ryou showed much more callousness than Sven. Ryou said that Amue must endure for the sake of sacrificing her people, while Sven expressed regret that he couldn’t help these people in any way.
As you understand, Sven's behavior is the behavior of a Western person, while Ryou is harsh, as befits a samurai. The Heraclians die for their hime, it is their duty. His duty is to avenge his brother, Amue's duty is to survive so that the sacrifice of her people won’t be in vain.
After some time, the main characters find several more fugitives and offer them to cooperate. In DOTU, these are random people, and in GoLion, there are a few more Heraclians.
And yes, these people will also die to enable the princess to escape from the planet. Although in DOTU such dedication seems incomprehensible - the fact that Romelle is undeniably a beautiful woman doesn’t explain why several men decided to sacrifice their lives for the sake of a captive like themselves.
The hijacked ship was immediately pursued, and Lotor/Sincline decided to personally participate in the capture of the fugitives. But since Sven/Ryou contacted the paladins, they flew out to meet him along with Bandor/Alor.
An improved version of the iron golem will be released on Voltron, but Bandor/Alor will help ensure the sister's path to Hercules/Pollux.
And here comes another interesting point.
The iron golem forges Voltron’s hand and foot with the help of its crown. The creature that crushed living people a day ago was now about to destroy the main weapon of the resistance forces. And then Romelle/Amue herself (!) will deploy the ship and head to the rescue of the paladins.
In GoLion, Amue will simply decide to go for a ram, which Ryou will silently approve of, but Romelle will ask the sluggish Sven to become her navigator and dictate her coordinates (which again will look extremely strange, but I probably should get used to it) .
The ship won’t be able to ram the golem, but it’ll be able to knock down the crown and free Voltron.
And after a glorious victory, the heroes will finally return safely to Hercules.
Episode 45.
Alas, there aren’t so many interesting events for Romelle/Amue personally. She returns to the Planet Doom with Sven/Ryou to spy. In a new stylish suit and earrings to match the color of the dress.
It's funny that the dress was blue and the combat suit was pink. If you know what I mean.
The main character of this episode is Sven/Ryou, who sneaks onto an enemy ship to find out where the fighters are being taken to create a huge army of robeasts. Both the ship and the plant planet are eventually destroyed.
Of the interesting moments of the episode is the development of a romance between the characters. The characters of GoLion continue to quarrel, clearly experiencing a certain pleasure from this. In DOTU... these same disputes are spelled out a lot more boringly. The feeling that this is just a game for the characters has disappeared from the text and voice acting, and it’s more difficult to believe in any feelings between them.
Further, Romelle/Amue will appear only in episodes 51-52.
There are no longer any plot twists that are important for us, there are only battles going on in a continuous stream. The alliance, assembled by Altea from 7 allied planets, storms the Drule/Galra planet. Voltron and Castle of Lions (which suddenly remembered that it’s actually a spaceship) attack from above, and our heroes lead the assault from below.
And I must say that the princess will fearlessly rush into battle in the forefront. Throw grenades at enemies, plant bombs on walls and shoot from a machine gun.
The minuses of the series ... Ryou tragically dies. Lotor/Sincline captures him, but Sven/Ryou manages to stab the prince with a dagger and they fall into the abyss together. And in GoLion there’s no water down there, because there were no seas at the foot of the tower. Yes, they’re smeared on the ground, and before his death, Ryou triumphantly says "I did it, brother!" and proudly dies. Like a true samurai.
Many thanks to the Japanese writers for burying the best pairing of the series in the very last episode. In GoLion, it’s actually the only one, since Farla and Akira had no relationship.
This is where the story of the old Romelle ends. She, of course, appears in additional episodes of DOTU season 3, but there she’s given very little screen time, and her entire role is reduced to waving a handkerchief after Sven. Simply put, the American screenwriters turned her into a plot tool.
I sincerely hope that my retelling didn’t cause your yawning, but I considered it necessary to describe everything that in theory could have a connection with VLD. I even wonder how many similar scenes and references you noticed yourself, without my help.
The world of Naruto is influenced by a number of different cultures, but the references I was most familiar with were those which related to Hinduism. So here is a breakdown of some of those connections, focusing on Otsutsuki clan.
Ashura and Indra Otsutsuki
The words “As(h)ura” and “Indra” appear both in the Vedas, the earliest Hindu scriptures, and in Sanskrit epics of Ancient India depicting Hindu mythology, the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
There are a number of ways to interpret Indra’s role in the Hindu pantheon, but I think it’s easiest to start with Indra in the Rig Veda (earliest of the Vedas). Indra can be understood as a deity who is “King of the Gods” in that text. An early description of Indra’s status: “Mighty is Indra, yea supreme; greatness be his, the Thunderer: Wide as the heaven extends his power.” (Rig Veda 1.8.5)
Trying to explain the meaning of Ashura in Hinduism is more complex; it is not a single deity but a descriptor. In Rig Veda, the word appears numerous times. In the earlier Books, or Mandalas, the connotations of Ashura are that of a powerful being/“god”/“lord.” By the later Books as well in other texts like the Mahabharata, the meaning has transformed to something closer to “demon.”
One of the many things that I appreciate about Voltron Legendary Defender is that Lotor has received a serious character-upgrade. His characterization has built upon slow improvements over the years throughout the different Voltron continuities—and in VLD—he’s starting to feel a lot like Hazar from the Vehicle Voltron season of Defender of the Universe (that skin color change from blue to purple/lavender certainly helps).
I would not have considered that VLD Lotor’s upgrade aligns his character with Hazar if S3 hadn’t introduced Throk and set him up against Lotor. Of all the characters to name-drop from Vehicle Voltron, Throk was not the one I would have guessed. In DotU, Throk’s character works with Lotor in the Fleet of Doom TV special, but is otherwise focused on undermining Hazar while preserving his position of power during the Vehicle Voltron season. Once I sat down and really thought through both Hazar and VLD Lotor’s characters, the comparison became very apparent. This does not mean that VLD Lotor was meant to take on Hazar’s traits/concepts and story arcs, only that—once certain traits/concepts were changed/added/removed—his character ended up being more like Hazar than his incarnations in prior continuities.
Political themes dominate Vehicle Voltron, and VLD gives us a look at Galra politics. Both Lotor and Hazar are the viewers’ peek inside the world of Imperial politics for their respective continuities.
This short meta focuses on a very important element of the VLD series, completely overlooked as a result of the changes in S8. It never received any explanation, although it appeared in S3 for the first time.
Namely - the Dark Entity (hereinafter - DE). I thought about its importance when I analyzed the scenes with Allura in Clear Day episode (S8Ep8) and came to interesting conclusions. But ... let's start in order.
The first time DE appears in flashbacks, in the story of Coran (S3Ep7). When Alfor comes to visit his friend Honerva, she tells him that only one creature has responded to the signal she sent to the Rift. The creature was a small floating ball that Honerva placed in a flask. Alfor already then felt that it wouldn't end well, but the cycle of events, alas, was launched, and the alchemist king turned into a passive observer of the impending tragedy.
At that time, we learned only one thing: that in the Rift between realities, where there's an endless stream of the purest quintessence, such dark creatures live. That is, for them the quintessence is a natural habitat and a natural source of nutrition, since there's simply nothing else there. And this is very (!) Important. Because you need to remember that in the ordinary world, the quintessence is only inside living beings: planets, flora and fauna. Moreover, the concentration of the quintessence inside living bodies is several times less than in the Rift.
Just compare. We got to know what the raw quintessence looks like in the episode where paladins get to an imperial staging post (S1Ep12), and Keith tries to steal a vessel with a purple quintessence. The Red paladin is wounded in the arm and crashes into a flask of yellow - raw - quintessence. And having already escaped from the kind, sweet druid, he looks in amazement as, thanks to this yellow liquid, the wound on his hand heals right before his eyes (however, at that moment he was more alarmed by the purple tint of his own blood than by the very fact of healing).
The yellow flask is as tall as Keith, and the resulting violet one fits in the hand...
Quintessence is the energy of life. The yellow quintessence is the energy that is present in an ordinary living organism in normal natural concentration (someone has more of it, someone has less of it, I don’t know what the process of its extraction is). It's weak, but completely harmless. It healed Keith without harming him.
One large flask of yellow quintessence produces a small flask of purified violet quintessence. And I think that even less is the more powerful blue. And in the Rift, the quintessence was in an absolutely pure - white - form, completely intolerable for normal living beings. Yes, the quintessence is the energy of life itself and can't kill (that is, according to the logic of the series, Lotor just couldn't die in the Rift), but this doesn't mean that its overdose will lead to good consequences. The purple quintessence made the warden at Beta Traz (S2Ep10) swell like a balloon; with the help of blue quintessence they created a real monster (S5Ep5); the pure stream burned Honerva and Zarkon's brains in just a couple of minutes, and melted Lotor like cheese in the microwave.
Nothing from our universe has been able to survive the passage through the Rift.
Because they deformed so much that they ceased to be themselves.
In some way it was lucky, because next to it was a delicious Altean alchemist. As we know, even an ordinary Altean produces quintessence more than other races, and a powerful alchemist turns into a walking battery. In addition, Zarkon visited his wife periodically and became an excellent addition to the main course.
As a result, when Alfor came to check on his friend, he was surprised to notice that she had lost interest in him and was overly enthusiastic about research. And even Zarkon, who was initially wary of research, now also supported it.
This is because the quintessence diet wasn't the only feature of the entity. Remember how it got to Honerva in the first place: the entity responded to the signal sent to the Rift, sent to search for intelligent races, which means that DE is in a sense a kind of intelligent creatures (which "predates time itself", S8Ep8). And due to the lack of material organs, most likely, the entities communicated with each other through telepathy. The entity possessed mental abilities and, seeing a stable source of power in Honerva, tried to keep her close to itself, and also influenced Zarkon so that he fully supported his wife's aspirations.
I thought we've discussed this. We must exercise caution.
Alfor, belatedly realizing that it's not very smart to investigate an incomprehensible thing, tries to urge his friends to be careful. And it seems that at that particular moment he could have succeeded, because the DE's reaction to this statement was comparable to the reaction of an indignant cat - it immediately released the needles and hissed. And then, almost immediately, a whole wave of the entities poured out of the Rift.
I think, it didn't like the new living space in the flask, and feeling a threat to life, the entity used its mental abilities and called for help.
Yes, if you think about it, then a fairly clear logical chain is built: Alfor showed aggression towards the entity - the entity was frightened - a whole wave of its relatives poured out of the Rift.
They didn't just attack Daibazaal - they responded to the call for help. The entities clearly had a mutual mental connection, and maybe something like a collective intelligence. They even knew how to merge into a single organism that works no less harmoniously than Voltron.
As a result, literally a stone's throw from the capital, the planet was invaded by an army of dark creatures. Yes, Alfor and Honerva managed to stop the main stream, but who said they were able to trap all entities?
Zarkon later stated that if urgent measures weren't taken, his people would be exterminated, which means that the entities had a chance to demonstrate their abilities. Perhaps only the security of the complex suffered, or maybe some of the creatures escaped from its borders, because there was a large lively city nearby. Having lost their natural source of food, the DE infiltrated the first victims, and the Galra died from exhaustion, since they didn't have a high level of quintessence like the Alteans. They literally turned into mummies in front of the doctors. The only thing that saved from the general pandemic was that it seemed that the entity couldn't leave the host itself and died with them, otherwise the DE would have jumped between the victims until they completely exterminated the Galra people (I'll explain a little later what led me to this idea).
But not only the Galra were among the victims. Honerva said that Kova suffered from the influence of DE, and she had to treat him with quintessence. It was thanks to this that she discovered that the quintessence is the energy of life, capable of even giving immortality, and after such processing, Kova himself was able to survive even in outer space (S8Ep2). At that moment, Honerva believed that the entity simply hurt/badly affected her pet. No one could have imagined that DE isn't just an intelligent species, but capable of inhabiting living beings and even influencing their minds.
He revealed the truth to us.
Kova became unexpectedly aggressive towards Alfor in the absence of any clear reason.
And that was very bad, because Honerva herself became a victim of the parasite. She was an Altean and also an alchemist, and therefore at the beginning didn't even notice the "tenant". It ate hearty, almost without harming its feeder, even helped in some way - for example, it suggested to Honerva that the quintessence could save Kova from "illness", otherwise why would she even think of treating her beloved cat with a source of energy for ships and equipment?
But. Just because an entity found a stable host doesn't mean that it was content with its position. The entity wanted to go home back to the Rift and began to influence its host to help in this. And therefore, after the death of the monster, despite all the troubles that it had caused, Honerva suddenly announced that she wanted to continue research. And Zarkon's behavior looks absurd at all: first, he demanded from Alfor to urgently use Voltron to save his people, and then almost immediately didn't care of Daibazaal's well-being and supported Honerva in her desire to continue working on the Rift.
My planet, my people ...
You would risk your entire planet, the entire solar system? For what?
And all because the entity tried to take control of him too. It no longer just sat in a flask, as happened with its predecessor. It had a feeder in the form of a powerful alchemist, and it was able to draw energy from her in sufficient quantities to spread its influence. And although the influence on Zarkon was weaker than on Honerva, it was still present enough for the Galra emperor to blindly agree with his wife.
Unfortunately, Alfor never understood what was happening. He thought that the prospect of owning the quintessence had simply overshadowed Zarkon's eyes, he didn't notice how dramatically his friend had changed. And even after whole years, the alchemist king realized that something bad was happening only after visiting Daibazaal years later. Apparently, away from his wife, Zarkon behaved quite adequately, because he got rid of the influence of the essence. But next to her he became blind and deaf, repeating the words of his wife like a dummy.
As a result, the paladins continued their heroism, and the entity continued to eat Honerva and influence Zarkon. And at first no one noticed the changes. After all, the Alteans in S8 also didn't notice that the entities were harming them. When Honerva informed Zarkon that she was expecting a baby, she looked gray-haired but still as young as when she first appeared on screen. The body of the great alchemist more or less coped with one parasite. But when the fetus grew and began to draw all the juices from the mother, Honerva's health deteriorated. And the mind too, because the entity, sensing the critical state of the host, began to worry and increased its pressure.
A huge difference with a timeline of several months.
Remember what Lotor said about his mother's logs. According to him, at the very end, the recordings were made... as if by another person. Feverish, insane and disorderly. Fear and paranoia appeared in them.
She's frantic, paranoid, erratic, her reason and intellect have gone.
But what could Honerva be afraid of? Where did she get paranoia? She was expecting a child and was happy with the thought that she would give the empire her son, knowledge and a bright future. And all because it wasn't her emotions. The entity sensed that its host was dying and panicked. DE was afraid for its life and was afraid that it would be revealed when the host became very bad. It panicked and at times even subdued the body, trying to write something itself.
Therefore, when Alfor received disturbing news about Daibazal's condition and decided to visit a friend, he saw Honerva aged and... not quite in an adequate condition. Not realizing that Zarkon and his wife were under the influence of the DE, the alchemist king quarreled with them and left, slamming the door, although he was probably the only one who could help them in this situation.
After the conversation, Honerva faints as her condition reaches a critical point.
Remember what Honerva said when Zarkon desperately asked how to help her? She said she needed quintessence. Because the entity sensed that the host wasn't doing well and broadcast signals for help. Honerva asked to open the Rift not because of a clouding of her mind, but because DE really wanted to return home and save its life.
Quintessence is life.
For Honerva and DE - literally.
If we collect all the scraps of her phrases together, then we get this:
"We must... we must have it...we must have it... get back, get back, get back... quin... quintessence... quintessence is life... into the R... into the Rift. We must... we must have Voltron. Voltron! Voltron! This is the only way"
And it can be understood approximately like this:
"We must return to quintessence in the Rift. The quintessence is life. We need Voltron, only this can help"
And... who are "we"? Zarkon, of course, thought to himself, but who said that Honerva was talking about him?
If Alfor knew what was happening, if he tried to help Honerva, he might have saved both the mother and the child, as Allura saved Tavo (S8Ep8). In our situation, events developed in a sad direction: Zarkon deceived his friends in a desperate attempt to save his wife. And look: when Zarkon climbed out of the Lion with Honerva in his arms, they were immediately surrounded by entities. Because they were waiting to take one of their kind home. They didn't attack the paladins first, they were just going to take Honerva.
But one way or another, the DE's plan fell through. It remained inside Honerva, while Zarkon returned from the Rift with a burnt-out brain and a parasite inside.
Actually, then even Lotor got the DE. The doctor noted that the child had the same strange energy background as the parents, and expressed concern that it wouldn't be possible to save the empress. Now there were already two entities and a child sitting inside - no wonder Honerva was getting worse and worse. And the poor nurse Haggar died simply because even the charge received from the Rift wasn't enough to survive Honerva. No alchemical gift was enough to cope with such a burden.
She only seems to become aware when we administer her Quintessence.
From this it's possible to draw conclusions about how the “illness” proceeded in other people, and it's weighty to assume that the entity couldn't leave the host of its own accord, dying with them. Otherwise, the DE would have left Honerva as soon as she began to fade.
Honerva only survived because Zarkon took care of a constant supply of the quintessence for his wife. Now he himself turned into a feeder and needed nourishment from the outside, since he was neither an Altean, nor an alchemist. The entity inside him, like all its relatives who fell into this world, wanted to return home, and therefore gradually a manic desire developed in Zarkon not only to get more quintessence, but also to return Voltron, as the only weapon capable of opening the Rift again. That's why he considered the creation of Alfor so special and necessary, despite the fact that the empire itself perfectly coped with the spread of its influence in the universe.
Moreover, in this situation, it's worthwhile to clearly distinguish between the change in character of Zarkon and his mania. Since the change in character was due to irradiation with pure concentrated quintessence, and mania appeared due to the presence of a parasite.
How the entity influenced Lotor remains questionable. The statement that it's DE who made him extract energy from the Alteans can be dismissed at once: first, as a prince of the Galra, he could receive the quintessence in the official way in any quantity and even take a bath of quintessence every day; secondly, even before birth he was irradiated with pure energy, which not only endowed him with immortality, but also awakened the sleeping gift of the alchemist. That is, Lotor didn't need personal consumption of the quintessence. On the other hand, his quest to end his mother's research may seem a little intrusive... but only slightly when compared to Honerva's obsessive research. Lotor was cold-blooded and non-fanatic about development, believing that research could solve the empire's energy issue. Therefore, the most stable theory is that, having settled in an unborn child, the entity simply fell asleep and slept peacefully for ten thousand years, signing with the energy of its immortal host.
But let's get back to Honerva, as her postpartum changes affected the future of the entire universe. Having given birth to a son, Honerva got rid of two parasites at once and, thanks to the influx of quintessence, gradually returned to normal. She didn't remember her past, but at some point she managed to realize that "a guest worker" was sitting in her body. Perhaps this knowledge came to her during a crisis, when the entity tried to contact everyone and asked for help. Being a great alchemist, Honerva no longer just put up with the intruder and obey it, but, on the contrary, set her own rules. From a parasite, the entity turned into a subordinate symbiont and shared its abilities with Honerva. It was from DE that Haggar received the gift of influencing other people's minds and drawing energy from living beings, which led to the creation of the Komar. Before her, none of the alchemists possessed such talents, and only Allura showed similar skills after a Clear Day episode. Haggar ceased to be just a feeder, she began to purposefully use the entity for her own purposes, and it had only to obey. As you can see, Haggar supported Zarkon in everything, but at the same time she was inclined to destroy Voltron rather than use it, and this is a consequence of the fact that the DE lost its control over her, turning into a humble servant.
One of the questions I asked myself while watching the show was who the druids of Haggar were and why they worship her so much. The druids had similar abilities, and I couldn't help thinking that Haggar was conducting experiments on the Alteans and turning them into her minions. But in the light of these considerations, everything turns out to be much simpler: Haggar gave dark entities to her subordinates/laboratory assistants and taught them to use them. For them, it became a revelation and a special gift, and therefore they treated their high priestess with such respect, and the needs of the essence were easily satisfied with the quintessence available to them.
And by the way, the real Lotor couldn't know about all this, since he was born much later than the events on Daibazaal. Lotor was aware that Haggar was able to read other people's minds and therefore became a real paranoid, but had no idea about the nature of this ability.
Entities like this gave Haggar the ability to conquer the worlds...
Lotor just couldn't know about it either.
What does Lotor's degree of falsity have to do with it? And here we need to move on to the events of Clear Day episode and the scenes with Allura, which made me think about the importance of the DE for the plot. And yes, on Clear Day we meet a different prince than the one who accompanied us throughout most of the series. Remember the moment Tavo was saved. Sam put the entity in a flask, and the first thing the entity tried to do was to take control of Allura. But the fact that Sam interrupted the process doesn't mean that DE stopped there. It's hungry, it lost her host - well, how can you resist a walking battery right in front of your nose?
And all of Allura's dreams, all visions didn't just appear out of thin air. DE really wanted a new host for itself, it aimed at Allura and wasn't going to stop. And note an interesting point: the longer Allura was near the entity, the closer she was to it, the larger the DE became. How small it was after being removed from the Tavo, and how huge it became by the end of the episode.
First, the DE dug at the very top of her consciousness, and saw regret for her motherland and mother, because Allura just turned off the hologram with her parents before going to bed. Then it dug a little more and saw Lance. And then it dug in the very depths, saw Lotor and realized that yes - it would work.
Look at this frame and remember the frame with Honerva that I inserted above.
They (who edited S8) tried to show us that the terrible ghost of Lotor inclines Allura to something bad, but in reality Lotor didn't send anyone or anything. Lotor doesn't know alchemy and doesn't know how to control entities. How does he even know what kind of creatures they are? After all, he's a very proud man and will never beg anyone for himself. Why would he come and ask for help a woman who actually betrayed him and left him to die?
The entity just wanted to eat and get a new host. And this whole performance with visions had one specific goal - to get Allura to free the parasite. And in order to achieve what it wanted, the DE showed Allura what she wanted to see. With these scenes, we were actually shown to whom at a given moment Allura had the greatest trust and affection, whom she wanted to see, and therefore they tried to either cut out or alter the scenes, because they clearly showed that memories of her mother became the main hook for Allura, and most importantly - Lotor.
...however, they didn't succeed. The scenes still look like Allura chased Lance away and indulges in erotic dreams of Lotor...
And laughing Lotor at the very end of the episode is the joy of the very DE that it achieved its goal. And it said to Allura "Follow me!" because in some way it decided to fulfill the desire of the new host. Want to chat with Lotor? I'll deal with it - in the end, my relative is sitting in him, and we have a mental connection with each other.
And it was the understanding that such a connection between entities exists that allowed Allura to then penetrate into Honerva's mind. But first, Allura had to figure out that yes - there was a connection. And she could only figure out, only realizing that it was thanks to the presence of the DE inside that she was able to connect with Lotor.
Does it look logical? It is logical.
And I can easily imagine the beginning of their conversation, when Lotor is surprised at the appearance of Allura in his mind/dream, and she exclaims in amazement that he himself called her. A situation will arise that requires a retelling of the events that have taken place, which will make Lotor understand that now Allura is ready to listen to him and is capable of a reasonable dialogue.
On the other hand, Alfor's worries becomes more justified. He was frightened not just by the self-will of his daughter, who decided to play with an unknown force. Before his eyes the example of his own best friend, who suffered from a parasite, arose, and after all, Honerva was an experienced and powerful alchemist. He was afraid that Allura would also become a victim of the entity, and therefore began to persuade his daughter to abandon the dangerous idea. Yes, Alfor was prone to hyper-custody, but he wasn't as bad a father as they tried to show us in S8.
But at what cost?
And after all that has been described, only one question remains: how did the history of the DE come to an end - but alas, it's no longer possible to find out, since the end of this storyline was simply cut off. Perhaps the entities managed to somehow come to an agreement with Allura, and she helped them return home, because in the end this is exactly what they wanted most.
Personally, I'm simply glad that, despite the flair of alchemy aka magic, Voltron turned out to be much closer to science fiction than to a space opera, and the events have a more weighty explanation than just a magical plot twist that arose at the behest of the screenwriter. A parasite from another reality, a higher mind as the last stage in the evolution of an intelligent being - these are quite classic elements of this genre, very elegantly blended into the outline of the series.
Once I was asked if I would write a meta about Keith or Shiro, and then I refused, because their story at that moment seemed to me simple and clear. But since then, a certain amount of nuance has accumulated that could be written about, so I decided to write a meta.
Warning – the topic of Sheith won’t be raised. All the ships are respected here, but in order to avoid any controversy, in this meta the relationship between Shiro and Keith will be considered exclusively in the context that was declared by the series itself, where Shiro became like an older brother for Keith.
Shiro and Keith’s storylines are closely related, so it’s pointless to look at them separately. Moreover, if Keith’s story is in many ways the standard story of a teenager growing up, then Shiro’s story touches on a completely different – not childish – question.
And I’ll start with the most scandalous – if I may say so – part of Shiro’s storyline. His flashbacks in S7. In the interviews, EPs said they planned to introduce these flashbacks much earlier, but many didn’t believe them. And I’ll start with them because they have an important storyline for Shiro in S8, and most likely one of the reasons why Shiro’s story arc was practically cut out there.
To answer the question of whether these flashbacks were inserted at the last moment, we need to go right back to the first seasons to remember the strange behavior of Shiro, the weirdness of which passed us by, because at that moment there was no clear explanation.
In S1, Shiro appeared before us as a young strong man, mature and confident in his professionalism. He’s almost 30, and this is the very age when a military man can finally begin to count on some serious shoulder straps and a promotion. And suddenly this young man begins to talk with Keith that he may lead the paladins instead of Shiro. As if he was about to retire and needed someone to replace him, although future successors of people at this age usually command an army of plush toys.
I want you to lead Voltron.
After being wounded, Shiro remembered that he was mortal… and that death was very close to him
Of course, the situation was difficult and there was a constant risk, but only Shiro prepared a successor in advance… as if he was about to die. Why did the young man have so many thoughts about death? And here I’ll ask you to remember the plot of flashbacks from S7. Because it’s only in the flashbacks of S7 where we find out… that Shiro was really going to die.
He was ill. Terminally ill. And he knew that soon the very time would come when he lay down in a hospital bed and would never leave its walls again. Yes, the Galra, who had big plans for their new champion, cured the disease, but Shiro didn’t know about it.
And this can serve as the main proof that yes – the flashbacks were indeed planned initially. And only the creators of the series know why they were introduced to the series so late. And they must be taken into account when we talk about Shiro’s storyline, as well as his relationship with Adam.
So where does Shiro’s journey actually begin? It’s unknown when exactly Shiro found out about his illness. Perhaps already in adulthood, or perhaps he even experienced difficulties when entering the Garrison, because the selection for pilots in terms of health has always been very strict. The main thing is different – how Shiro reacted to his illness. He turned out to be one of those people who decided that if they were destined to burn like a match, then they had to shine so as to eclipse the supernova. The entire closet in his house is filled with commemorative awards and diplomas; he’s called the best pilot of the Garrison in plain text. And that’s why his close friend, Professor Holt, decided to take him to Kerberos – this was a gift before his death. At that time, this would probably have been the highest achievement for a space pilot. The title of the discoverer of deep space for planet Earth. Gagarin of a new era, who, by the way, also died young – at 34.
Clear your mind. Now imagine your Lion.
At the same time, of course, it should be noted that Shiro as a whole was a selfless person, striving to take care of others. Perhaps it was a way for him to come to terms with impending death – to live for others, forgetting about himself. The presence of the disease made him a person who doesn’t think about his future and believes that his personal problems don’t matter. If he dies soon anyway, what’s the difference?
There was a difference, though not for Shiro himself. Adam is the very best friend of the hero who always remains in the shadows, behind his back. They started as co-pilots, friends and associates. They worked in one team. Pilots often work in pairs to duplicate each other, and Adam was the one to back Shiro on combat missions. And so their photo together was in the same closet where the awards that Shiro had so eagerly sought to receive were located.
And to better understand Adam… how do you think, who in this situation made sure that Shiro took pills on time, followed the regimen and went to the doctors? Despite the fact that Shiro chose the path of absolutely not giving a damn about his life.
I think the answer is obvious.
While Shiro dedicated his life to the stars and serving the community, Adam dedicated his life to caring for Shiro. And from a moral point of view, this is a very difficult role: to take care of an incurable patient, to take him to hospitals, to monitor his condition, to look at disappointing forecasts with despair, but still continue to fight the disease, winning if not a year, then at least a month… Shiro told Keith that he had only a year or two left, but I think Adam could have given more accurate numbers.
And the problem with this situation is that… Shiro didn’t look back. Only forward, only to the stars. And Adam couldn’t help but start wondering how much Shiro appreciated his efforts. Shiro had a couple of years of normal life left, and Adam wanted them to spend these years together, but then a dangerous, though truly starry peak appeared on the horizon, and of course, Shiro decided to conquer it, even though the high command spoke out against it…
But this is more than a mission, this is your life at stake.
And… Adam just couldn’t stand it. All these years he obediently covered his back, but now Shiro was going on a solo mission, and if something happened, Adam wouldn’t even have anything to bury. So he just left. Broken. It’s very hard to love and care for someone if you don’t feel the same in return.
Takashi, how important am I to you?
How did Shiro feel about this? Perhaps, at that particular moment, he even thought that it would be better this way, because Adam one way or another would have to continue to live without him. Being a selfless person, he probably wanted Adam to be happy after his death, and in order to move on, the dead must be left in the past.
I’m going on a mission.
It didn’t even occur to him that Adam would fulfill his promise in the most literal sense. And that the very question «How important am I to you?» would remain unanswered.
This was the starting point of his journey. The journey of a person who, due to illness, began to regard his life and problems as something insignificant. A person who’s used to devaluing his personal needs and health. And it’s the question of depreciation that runs like a red thread throughout his entire storyline.
Only… it’s easy to devalue your health and feelings when you’re generally a happy person. Maybe Shiro even wanted to die before becoming a helpless vegetable. Better to die a hero than live bedridden. But then the Galra appeared in his life – the very variable that he couldn’t take into account. And uninvited guests «rewarded» him not only with good health, but also with strong PTSD. After all, Shiro, like all other paladins, including Allura, grew up without war. He didn’t know the war. The difficult tasks that Shiro had to solve in space came from an aggressive environment, not from aggressive neighbors. The last war on Earth took place long before his birth.
And Shiro was really shocked when he met the Galra. «We’re unarmed, what are you doing?» – quite a classic reaction of a person who lived in a prosperous, peaceful society. There were thousands of them – boys who, from their usual peaceful environment, unexpectedly went to war, and then returned as crippled combatants. And PTSD in Shiro’s situation is a tragic, but quite natural development of events.
If you open some serious scientific text on PTSD (and I found one, not even a very old one – 2015 edition), then it’ll be written there that one of the main problems of sufferers of PTSD is that they don’t perceive symptoms as one whole and just don’t understand that they need help. And a man like Shiro thought that amnesia, flashbacks and nightmares were his own problem, which shouldn’t prevent him from playing the important role of leader and nanny of other paladins. No, under favorable conditions, PTSD can really go away on its own – new emotions and positive experience repeatedly assure a person that now everything will be fine, and after a certain time his psyche relaxes. But Shiro didn’t have such conditions. He sharply turned out to be the most important and eldest in the company of children, and his task was not to go into space to conduct experiments, but to stop the aggression of a huge empire. And his PTSD from the acute phase just turned into a chronic one.
And here we need to briefly recall how PTSD affects a person. PTSD is a state when tragedy doesn’t let go, when a person continues to cycle through events, and as a result begins to fear their repetition. And he spends all his efforts to prevent this from happening. The simplest case: I was bitten by a dog – so I’ll avoid all dogs. By keeping my distance, I’ll be safe.
And all of Shiro’s changes – his desire to control the situation, his bitterness throughout the series – it all grows out of this. And that’s not even considering the influence of Haggar. Ever wonder why the clone had the memory of the real Shiro? Because Haggar thrust her fingers into Shiro’s mind and didn’t want to let go. As she appropriated the souls of the old paladins, so she did with Shiro, and then used him to protect herself from the White Lion. Only in S7 Allura managed to rid Shiro of the last fragments of this influence.
I won’t listen to you!
Are you saying this to Sendak or to your memory?
Fortunately, Keith was next to Shiro. At the time of their first acquaintance, Keith was still a child whom Shiro took into care. Shiro saw in him that very problematic teen who needed support, and naturally he couldn’t pass by. Under his leadership, Keith became more balanced and was able to reveal his pilot talent. Shiro saw potential in him and wanted to help Keith channel his energies in a positive direction.
Keith, being a lonely child and an orphan, saw Shiro as his only close person and naturally couldn’t agree that Shiro’s health and well-being were something unimportant and unnecessary. He was ready to tear his veins in order to save the only semblance of a family that he had, and thus repeatedly proved to Shiro that yes, Shiro was important, that yes, he must live, because his life was valuable even without victories and awards. Keith literally forced Shiro to accept help, forced him to put up with the fact that Shiro couldn’t always control the situation. Keith helped Shiro learn to rely on others again.
And that’s why they win Sendak together. Sendak has been Shiro’s personal enemy since the first episode, but the truth is, alas, that Sendak and Shiro are fighters of different weight classes. Sendak is more than ten thousand years old, he’s a Galra from the days of old Daibazaal, he was trained personally by Zarkon. There were only three fighters of this level in the universe at that time, and, unfortunately, Shiro wasn’t included in this three. And Lotor wasn’t allowed to kill Sendak, otherwise it would have been a shame that Lotor had killed all the main enemies of the paladins.
Shiro objectively couldn’t defeat Sendak alone. And that’s why Shiro killed Sendak together with Keith – Shiro accepted his help and said not «How many times will you save me again?», but a simple «Thank you».
But then… after S7 everything goes downhill. And scraps of Shiro’s story arc stick out like torn threads. And this applies to two aspects:
Shiro’s personal life;
his being a paladin;
First, I’ll tell you about him as a paladin. Despite the fact that Shiro is no longer a Black Paladin, the last episodes of S8 clearly show us that he’s still a paladin. His eyes also shine along with everyone else, and… against a WHITE background. And the background at that moment was the color of the paladin’s Lion.
Because Shiro became a White Paladin, although this has never been officially confirmed. Most likely, this moment fell under the carving knife along with many other cut scenes. But we still can trace the general outline of this story arc.
And here we need to remember the Alteans and their culture. The Alteans had a real cult of sacrifice, most likely as a consequence of the potential danger of the alchemists (say hello to Honerva). Therefore, the test on Oriande isn’t a check on whether you’re good or bad, but a check on the conformity of belonging to the Altean culture.
Stage 1 is a pass from Honerva’s storage. Perhaps this pass was given to every alchemist without any explanation of how to use it. The alchemist had to guess it, but Honerva for some reason couldn’t. And only an Altean could get such a pass.
Stage 2 is checking basic knowledge. In the space age, the ability to use the Teludav was most likely a must-have for any alchemist.
Stage 3 is the most important. White Lion, testing not your moral qualities, but your belonging to the culture of the Alteans. Understanding the cult of sacrifice. That’s why Lotor didn’t pass this stage – his upbringing is different. A true Galra must not die for his homeland, he must make his enemies die for their own.
But Shiro, one might say, is the ideal member of this cult. Pass a sea of quintessence through yourself so that Professor Holt can hack the ship? Yes, please, he doesn’t mind. The White Lion appreciated that. More precisely, the White Lion appreciated Shiro even earlier, when Honerva used Shiro’s soul to pass the trial. And Shiro… actually passed the trial of sacrifice in her place. The White Lion saw him and realized that Shiro was really selfless to the extent that a true Altean should be selfless.
And Atlas didn’t transform into a robot because the brilliant Professor Holt was able to build a second Voltron. It happenned because the White Lion came and said to the other Lions: «Hold my beer, now I’ll show you how to save the universe». By sacrificing himself, Shiro initiated himself as a White Paladin, and combined with the Castle’s crystal this allowed him to summon the Lion to the Atlas.
A very important nuance in fact. But it flies past us, forcing us to wonder how a huge bucket of nuts from the backward Earth managed to catch up with the creation of King Alfor.
The loss of the second aspect of Shiro’s storyline was so great that couldn’t be unnoticed. Shiro abruptly lost touch with other paladins, and his behavior became authoritarian and aggressive. As if as soon as Shiro sat in the admiral’s chair, power hit him in the head.
And then at the end of the story, he unexpectedly quits his job and marries a random character. I’m sorry, what?! O_o
For unknown reasons, someone abruptly decided to delete Shiro’s line from the story, due to which the character completely lost the logic of his behavior. And we can only guess what was really there, armed with common sense and a reference book on psychology.
The most obvious line that was cut (of which I’m 90% sure) is the line of Adam’s death. When Shiro learns about Adam’s death in S7, he remembers his name with great anguish. Until then, the thought that Adam might die before him seemed inconceivable to Shiro. And here he was left alone with the very last question, to which he never gave an answer. And when Shiro says that «their deaths won’t be in vain», he speaks first of all about Adam. And he rushes into space «to do good» with thoughts of Adam. Despite the fact that the Galra Empire is no longer there, there’s no one to fight with. Only to catch small associations throughout the universe that do no more harm than ordinary pirates, and in most cases they just try to survive. Shiro in S8 behaves exactly like Allura in S1, who shook her fist and threatened all Galra with revenge in a desire to fulfill the command of her deceased father and save the universe.
Adam…
He never told Adam that he was really important to him, and tried to express these words with his actions. And against the background of this grief, which remained unmourned in the series, the wedding looks weird. He didn’t refuse Kerberos mission for the sake of Adam, but gave up his life’s work for the sake of the first comer.
All Shiro’s experiences, all his pain were simply put under the knife, as if it never existed. As a result, we got a character whose behavior changed dramatically, as if instead of Shiro there’s again another clone.
And if you evaluate the arc from the point of common sense, Shiro should have shared his grief with his friends. With Keith at least. Express it, rather than go through this stress alone. Otherwise, it turns out that Shiro’s entire storyline was just about nothing. So many times Keith saved him, but he still continued to keep all the problems in himself, not telling anyone about them.
It truly feels like the light has gone out in our lives
The rest of the storylines have no real confirmation, except for theories, so I won’t describe them. Moreover, against the background of the main experience mentioned above, they look less significant and practically don’t affect the plot.
The epilogue of Shiro in the original script, most likely, was supposed to be a significant political position, but a peacemaker, not an aggressor. The conduct of diplomatic negotiations between the races, which flashed for a couple of seconds, fits well into this image.
Now let’s talk about Keith. It’s even sadder with the end of his arc, because it’s completely lost. And as a result, instead of normal development, Keith sharply turned into Marty Stu.
And I have to admit, probably the Keith’s storyline in S8 is what comes second on my list called «Things That Piss Me Off In This Season». Only Romelle’s storyline pisses me off more than Keith’s one. And the reasons why it pisses me off can be divided into two categories:
Category 1 – Keith as a «good Galra»
Category 2 – Keith as a «great leader»
I don’t like the first one for one simple reason: Keith is not a Galra. Because belonging to a people isn’t determined by a set of genes. Because any nation is primarily a language, culture and history. When an invader wants to demonstrate his power, he forbids the people to speak their native language. And the fact that Keith is very similar to his mom doesn’t make him a Galra. Keith was born on Earth, raised on Earth and is psychologically an Earthling. He’s an Earthling with Galran blood, nothing more, nothing less. And that’s why, when he tells Lahn that he’s also a Galra, Lahn replies something like «You don’t say» with obvious skepticism in his voice. Because the Galra are a people with a very ancient culture and their own special collective psychology, and all this can’t simply be inherited through genes. Through genes, only temperament is inherited, and a certain belonging to culture in a person appears only during upbringing. Moreover, in the series we see an example of the fact that no matter how strong the desire to become a part of another culture is, it doesn’t always help. Who is this example? The answer is simple – Lotor.
Lotor has spent his entire life studying the culture of the Alteans, and he’s nearly ten thousand years old. But at the same time he was born among the Galra, was brought up by the Galra and lived according to the principles of the Galra. As a result, Oriande said goodbye to him. Lotor wanted to be part of the Alteans, but he couldn’t – despite the fact that he’s half Altean. Half the blood didn’t help him in any way.
But for some reason, Keith has suddenly become a real «good Galra» just by the wave of a magic wand. Despite the fact that he never showed interest in the Galran culture, and even among the Blades he remained on his own special wave. He felt at home among the Blades not because he was a Galra, but because Galran society was historically formed to be able to live in close groups and get along with each other. And when Keith went to the Blades, they just took him under their wing, and thereby gave him what he needed then. Therefore, this is why Keith felt that he belonged, not because of some mythical voice of blood.
The second category is worth talking about after analyzing Keith’s storyline.
Keith’s storyline is the Hero’s Journey. Almost a classic version. A young man must leave the comfort zone, perform a feat, receive a reward for this feat, and return home matured after the trials he has endured.
The reward for Keith is finding a family, and his trial is becoming a leader. Now remember his epilogue. Do you remember what happened there?
In the epilogue, Keith never appeared with his family – neither with Shiro, nor with Krolia, nor with Kolivan, but he got a chance to take the imperial throne. The trial was turned into a reward, and Lotor’s generals, almost strangers to him, became his circle of friends. Who, by the way, betrayed Lotor, so Keith should watch his back.
It looks so cute, if you forget that Zethrid has problems with aggression, and Ezor is a hidden sadist…
Just because Keith had to become a leader doesn’t mean he wanted to be. The fact that he has assumed responsibilities doesn’t mean that he has dreamed of fulfilling them all his life. But, in order not to be unfounded, let’s take a closer look at how Keith’s personality changes according to the plot.
The Hero’s Journey of Keith
Stage 1. Everyday World
To understand what his Call to Adventure was, as well as the Unknown World and the Trial, you need to look at where it all started.
After the decision was made to change S8, Keith was compared to Lotor, despite the fact that they’re two completely different people with completely different fates. And if Lotor’s childhood was stable and predetermined (from birth he was in the hands of the governess and from birth he knew that his destiny was to rule the Galra), the situation with Keith turned out to be radically opposite. He knew nothing about his mother, except that she was missing. It was even sadder with his father – he died, leaving behind only a dagger. It’s sadder, because it was the father who embodied for Keith the stability and security that every child needs. And although everyone said that Heath died as a hero, Keith, who ended up in an orphanage, didn’t get any easier from this knowledge. The exact period of his father’s death wasn’t named, but most likely Keith at that moment was at least 6-7 years old, mature enough to remember his parent well.
Keith was by nature a classic introverted child (which, by the way, isn’t a Galran character trait at all) who needs his own corner and wants to be able to be alone in this corner. An introvert prefers that his social circle is limited to a certain list of people, and he’s morally stressed by the constant need to be in society, since he’s simply mentally tired of this.
But, alas, the orphanage isn’t the place where they will give you your own room when you want to be alone. And against the background of a hot temper, this led to the fact that Keith didn’t get along with the children and educators. He desperately wanted to regain the very cozy world where he and a strong loving dad were, but those around him simply couldn’t give it.
Ultimately, this resulted both in the absence of friends, and in the reluctance of educators to spend time on him. After all, they had others – talented, not problematic, excellent pupils with perfect discipline. And without support – especially the support of wise adults – Keith has turned into a kind of a little mouse that wants to sit in a mouse hole, categorically unwilling to protrude into this dangerous unknown world, where everyone can offend him. And if this tiny mouse does get out, it begins to run and grind its teeth on everyone, so that every potential aggressor knows that this mouse, although small, can bite you.
Stage 2. Call to Adventure. The first Mentor appears
Maybe you’ve got what it takes?
At first glance, it may seem that the Blue Lion has become the Call to Adventure for Keith. But in fact, the Unknown World for Keith was not distant space, but life itself. And this Call happened much earlier than the events of the first episode.
Namely, the appearance of Shiro. The very moment when he came to school to tell the children about piloting and offer to play the simulator. The big man saw this very little mouse sitting in the corner and offered him his hand. He offered to show that the world outside the mouse hole isn’t so scary, and even interesting and wonderful.
What did our mouse do in the first moment? That’s right, he bit this hand. Keith perceived Shiro as another potential aggressor and didn’t want to make contact.
But Shiro’s tenacity was beyond measure. He told Keith over and over again that he needed to be bolder. He showed him the spaceship and told him about the astronauts who weren’t afraid to go into the unknown. He jumped off the cliff with him, demonstrating by his example his willingness to step towards this terrible frightening thing called life. And he explained that even such a flight can be controlled if you’re prepared for it in advance.
The mouse bit him on the finger, but he continued to offer his hand, promising to protect and help, to become a guide in the world around him, and under the guidance of Shiro, our tiny animal got out of the hole and began to gradually look around. Keith kept snapping at the people around him, but Shiro’s guardianship helped him start to feel a kind of security and certainty. He got a new father figure in Shiro and began to stabilize mentally.
But this process was cut short in the middle.
The first alarming call was the news about the illness. Keith of course told Shiro that he’s grown up enugh for this kind of news, but just remember how hysterically he spoke about it. The possibility of losing a father figure (for the second time!), guaranteeing stability and security, seemed daunting to Keith. He didn’t want to believe it, he refused to believe it, and by the events of the first season he simply threw this knowledge out of his head as unwanted information.
But then something happened that we already know. The expedition with Shiro disappeared, and the mouse, left without a protector, scaredly bit everyone who was nearby, and at the first cosmic speed rushed back into the hole. Keith quarreled with others and was expelled from the Garrison for deviant behavior, and then returned to his old house, where he once lived with his father. We now know that Heath lived there because he was guarding the Blue Lion, but then Keith simply returned to that one place where he felt comfortable and safe.
2.1 Supernatural Aid
As the saying goes, sometimes a decisive step forward is the result of a good kick from behind. Either the Blue Lion sensed the approach of the Galra, or she was simply bored, but she started sending Keith signals to go to look for the «anomaly» and, in the end, brought all the main characters of the series to her.
And by the will of the magic princess, for a more comfortable confrontation with the world around him, Keith receives a transforming sword, a stylish suit and a mechanical cat with character.
2.2 Refusal of the Call
No, I can’t take it.
Keith refused the Call from the beginning. But. Up to this point, Shiro played the role of the Good Father: he didn’t demand that Keith decide something himself, he stroked his head and persuaded him to trust father’s decisions. He took full responsibility for himself, allowing Keith to remain in the role of a child.
Now, with the arrival of the Galra, everything has changed. Shiro was no longer the same, and the world around him wasn’t the same. Shiro found himself in a situation where he was appointed commander-in-chief in a war against a huge hostile empire, and instead of the army he was given a handful of teenagers. Moreover, Shiro was sincerely convinced that he would soon become incapacitated, and the newly acquired PTSD demanded to keep everything under control. This means that he – Shiro – must take care of everything, including what will happen when he can no longer lead the team.
And in this situation, it turned out that Shiro really knew well only Keith. He knew what Keith could, and he knew Keith was trustworthy. In Shiro’s eyes, there was no longer a child, but a rather grown up guy, and Shiro treated him as an equal. And he began not to persuade Keith to go forward, holding his hand – he began to insist that Keith go and lead the others.
If you become a leader, you’ll have to act wisely.
From that moment, from a Good Father, Shiro began to gradually turn into an Evil Father, who demands that his son pull himself together and grow up. The Evil Father isn’t actually bad, he loves his son, but he believes that it’s time for the boy to stop being afraid of the outside world and become a man.
But Keith wasn’t ready yet. The child has just learned to stand on trembling legs, but here they’re demanding that he not only run forward, but also drag someone along with him.
So Keith began to refuse. To give up not so much the role of a leader as the obligation to take responsibility for himself. From the obligation to become an adult.
But the more the son resists, the angrier the father becomes. Because you can’t hide forever, and you can’t remain a child forever. Sooner or later, a moment may come when a father, out of love for his son, simply throws him out of the nest so that he forcibly learns to fly.
Stage 3. First Threshold. The second Mentor appears
3.1 Threshold Guardians
Trials can only have two outcomes.
First Threshold is the line that the hero needs to pass in order to enter a new unknown world. In Keith’s case, a new, unexplored world of maturity. At this turn, depending on the behavior of the protagonist, he’s met by either the Threshold Guardians or the Belly of a Whale.
What’s the difference? In the first case, the hero meets the Guardians, and they check the hero, whether he’s ready to cross this line. And only after passing their check, the hero receives permission to go further. In the second case, the hero is metaphorically killed, that is, he’s forced to change so that he meets the necessary requirements for entering a new unknown world.
Knowledge or death.
In Keith’s case, the first scenario happened. And Kolivan, accompanied by the Blades, becomes the Guardian at the turn of the new adult life. The one who will later become Keith’s guide through this world.
When the Blades meet Keith, they demand that he return the dagger to them, but Keith refuses. The fact is that for Keith the dagger embodied the very bright past that he desperately wanted to return. The last connection with that wonderful childhood, where he and his loving dad were. And the hope that if he tries, if he’s lucky, he’ll understand what this dagger means, and will know who he is and where he belongs. Where is his home and family.
But the Blades, as Guardians of the threshold of maturity, ask Keith how much he’s willing to give for this last hope. What are his priorities. For a very long time Keith turned away from people, from the whole world, in order to cherish dreams of a bright past in his head. And then he was forced to ask the question: how much he values these dreams. And he had to answer. Give the answer not to them, but to himrself.
Ultimately, between a childhood dream of a family and an adult responsibility to others, Keith chooses the latter. He passes the test of his willingness to begin the journey to maturity, and the Guardians let him through.
But think: what marks the passage of this milestone for Keith?
It’s marked by the battle with Zarkon, in which Shiro is killed and merged with the Black Lion.
Moreover, after these events, Shiro, in the person of Kuron, finally turns into the Evil Father. He simply refuses to lead Keith by the hande. And he inherits the Black Lion and the title of the Black Paladin.
Remember my words about throwing a chick out of the nest?
This is exactly what Shiro did. By becoming one with the Black Lion, he forcibly made Keith the Black Paladin.
Stage 4. Road of Trials
You wanted me to lead Voltron? This is the kind of leader I am.
It’s difficult to say how correct this decision was. Rather, Shiro simply didn’t see other options, since the Black Lion itself was made for an adult, responsible leader, and such ones don’t lie on the road.
And Keith, who was left with no choice, began his journey. On his trembling legs, the child began to walk forward, constantly falling and dropping the rest of the children following him. Naturally, he wasn’t happy about this. He constantly looked back, looking for thefsther figure and hoping to take him by the hand again. But dad saw was no longer a kid, but an adult and wasn’t going to help at all.
However, such a harsh decision did bear fruit. Other kids helped the main character; they walked tightly holding each other’s hands, and Keith began to feel grateful for the support and responsibility for the fact that when he falls, everyone else falls.
But then comes the second most important event in Keith’s life.
4.1 Test challenge & prepare hero
Shiro: Here’s the plan.
Keith: Okay, team, we need to…
A sure sign: two housewives in the kitchen will lead to broken plates.
To accurately understand the meaning of this stage, I’ll briefly describe this stage in understandable language: this is the moment when the main character tries to defeat the main boss of the game for the first time. The main boss kicks him, but doesn’t kill, and the main character retreats, realizing that his level is too low.
And yes, the main boss of Keith’s game is the Evil Father in the person of Kuron. Kind dad has become a terrible dragon, and the boy must figure out what to do with it.
Kuron-Shiro returns. He returns, and the paladins receive not one, but two Black Paladins at once, which entails the need to establish a hierarchy. Because two drivers can’t sit behind the wheel at once – sooner or later a conflict will begin.
And on the one hand, Kuron actively advocates for Keith to be in command, and on the other hand, out of habit, gives instructions himself. And Keith needs to enter into some kind of rivalry in order to arrange roles and finally establish himself as a leader.
The boy has just begun to walk firmly, and dad is already offering to run a hundred meters for a bet.
And what does Keith do in this situation? He runs away He runs away to the Blades because he feels completely unprepared for such a challenge.
There’s only one question: why to the Blades? At first glance, the answer seems obvious: Keith learned that he was half Galra, saw his own kind in the Blades and decided to go to them. This is exactly what the paladins thought, and therefore they forgave Keith for such a decision.
In reality, the main motivating reason wasn’t race, but the behavior of the Blades in relation to Keith. More precisely – Kolivan’s behavior.
You broke protocol.
Statement of fact without any punishment.
If Shiro saw Keith as an adult and treated him like an adult, then for Kolivan – from the height of his past centuries – Keith was still a child. Colivan didn’t read him speeches about the need to become a leader and didn’t arrange competitions, and therefore, faced with an insurmountable obstacle, Keith simply fled under his wing.
And he got in Kolivan exactly the one he needed all these long years. Kolivan saw how the boy was unstable on his feet, took his hand and led him. He didn’t require Keith to walk on his own, but didn’t interfere with his attempts to do so. And he didn’t threaten with this terrible word «responsibility», but only reminded that every action has consequences, that if Keith falls in his desire to rush forward without looking, it will hurt.
You didn’t consider that something could have happenned to you.
Kolivan didn’t go easy on him, because such behavior was contrary to the Galran culture based on survival. But under his leadership, Keith became calmer, more concentrated and more confident in himself. He was in the position of an ordinary soldier, and therefore he wasn’t required to make decisions. On the other hand, Kolivan kept him nearby and from his example Keith learned what it means to be a leader.
Shiro: You must defeat the dragon!
Keith: o_o
Dragon called Life: You can’t defeat me, hero!
Keith: O_O
Kolivan: Dayak’s Galran Recreational School offers dragon-fighting training services
Keith: Six months, please.
The evil Shiro demanded that Keith go ahead and lead everyone. Kolivan the mentor showed Keith how to do it.
The long-lost father returned home, and the child, having ceased to fear for his future, finally regained his balance. He began to stand harder on his feet and walk harder, because he felt that now he wouldn’t fall.
Again, speaking in gaming language, up to this point, Keith was offered to level up in locations with enemies above his level. It went slowly, the enemies were killed badly, and they could also kill Keith himself, and then he would lose experience and go back. Now he found a location with enemies of his level, and the process went quickly, fervently and without unnecessary risk.
Stage 5. Nadir/Abyss
So, Keith has leveled up and is ready to face his dragon again. What happens to him when he comes close to the moment X?
5.1 Meeting with the Goddess
The Goddess embodies for the Hero the personification of unconditional love, as the beginning of life. And meeting with her allows the protagonist to learn this aspect and understand that life is not only a series of suffering.
And here I can’t help but remember that initially a pairing with Acxa was planned for Keith, but then, to the great joy of some of the fans, this pairing was cut out. Since I hate it when the screenwriters cut a ready-made script, I can’t say that I’m satisfied with this fact, but at the same time I can’t but admit that this pairing practically didn’t play any role for Keith’s storyline. In Keith’s storyline, pairing isn’t at all important or even needed, because an abandoned child needs a completely different manifestation of love.
And his mother becomes his Goddess, the one who bestows unconditional love. Kolivan – who probably quickly guessed whose son Keith was – gives Keith a task and sends him to meet with Krolia. Subsequently, they travel together for several years, allowing Keith to satisfy the need for maternal love and close the state of his relationship with the maternal figure.
5.2 Woman as Temptress
And here we’re beginning to say hello to the edited S8. Temptress or Deceiver. A person encountered on the path of the protagonist, who takes advantage of his weaknesses and manipulates him for their own purposes. Historically, most often this person appears in the image of a seductive woman, because:
men in life easily trust beauties;
intrigue is a favorite female way of achieving a goal
Keith’s Journey at this stage is still a classic version, but thanks to the people who edited S8 this moment is completely lost. And it’s very bad.
Because the moment disappears when the hero realizes that he was deceived. When he realizes that his weaknesses have been taken advantage of. When he realizes that weaknesses can’t be indulged if you don’t want bad consequences.
So who is our very woman-temptress? That’s right, this is a sweet helpless girl Romelle, tearing out the metal sheathing with her bare hands and knocking out the hatches with her foot. (In this meta, I went through the scenes with Romelle in detail to explain why I consider her a liar )
Keith, look at those sad innocent eyes, how can you not believe them? Look how lonely she is, how she suffers after losing her brother.
What is Keith doing? Keith makes a stand: I see the goal, I believe in myself, I don’t notice obstacles.
When they flew to the moon base, he was already mentally prepared to see evidence of Lotor’s villainy. At the base, they didn’t see either guards or any warehouses with quintessence, but he immediately concluded that Lotor would get it from the Alteans. Why? Because «Do first, think later» is the main motto of the Red Paladin. After all, they were following the trail of the blue quintessence, and Romelle said that Lotor was taking away the Alteans. And Keith hastily decided that there’s a direct connection between the two events.
In mathematical logic, there’s such a concept as necessary and sufficient conditions. A sufficient condition is a condition that is sufficient to declare that the theory is correct. A necessary condition is a condition without which it’s impossible to prove that a theory is correct. The sufficient condition can’t exist without the necessary, but the necessary condition can’t replace the sufficient.
And it so happened that Keith used the necessary condition as sufficient and as a result came to the wrong conclusions. And inspired by righteous rage, our protector of the innocent flew to punish the big bad Lotor. Punished, well done. So that the whole universe backfired.
5.3 Atonement with Father
Here it is, here is the main moment of the feat. When the hero is faced with the dual figure of the father: both a protector and a tyrant. Literally dual in the face of Shiro and Kuron.
Kit tries to save the Good Father, Shiro, and at the same time – save the last echo of his childhood. But the Good Father says that he’s lost forever and can’t be returned in any way, and Keith has to come to terms with this. Because his friends need him. Because paladins need their leader.
And only at this moment, when Keith agrees to give up childhood and accept responsibility, he comes to terms with his father figure.
The Evil Father waited until his son became an adult, and ceased to be a source of fear and aggression. Kuron and Shiro merge, returning not Good or Evil, but just a Father to Keith. Not an all-powerful protector, but a person who’s ready to support his son and needs to be supported.
The feat was finally accomplished. The dragon is defeated without firing a shot.
But is this the end? No, this is not at all the end of the Hero’s Journey, but only the middle. The only problem is that the next stage – leading up to the recieving of the award – has been ripped out of Keith’s storyline.
But this is the most important stage.
Stage 6. Transformation
Having accomplished the feat, the hero changes internally and looks at the world with new eyes.
This stage for Keith began in S7 and should have reached its top by the middle, if not the end of S8.
Keith stopped running from responsibility. He agreed to become a leader. But he must also understand how to do it correctly. Draw conclusions from everything that happened in the past.
Shiro taught him to be decisive and not afraid of the unknown. Keith learned this lesson.
Now it’s time to learn Kolivan’s lesson. A lesson of realizing that every action has its consequences. And that you need to calculate and think before you do something.
But thanks to the changes in S8, instead of a process of awareness, instead of seeing the consequences of his actions and drawing conclusions, Keith suddenly turned into a «wise leader», infallible and invincible. So wise that he even teaches Zarkon.
Keith. Teaches. Zarkon.
You know, I sincerely admire Zarkon as a person. A great warrior, a great strategist, a wise ruler who concluded peace treaties and alliances for the good of his people. A loving husband and father. He was mistaken in only one thing – when, in desperation, he risked everything to save his wife and son.
Whatever one may say, but this is the most well-written pairing of the series.
And even mad after the shock dose of the quintessence, he – having in his hands only a disadvantaged people and a handful of ships practically left without energy – managed to build the strongest empire in the universe.
And Keith teaches him. The same Keith, who more than once abandoned everything and everyone to save Shiro.
When I watched this scene, I wanted to say only one thing: boy, you are now lecturing a man who came out against your Red Lion with one bayard and almost rolled you into a pancake. And you screwed up so many times that the entire universe burns with a bright flame.
Who are you to teach him?
Neither you nor your whole bunch of paladins were able to defeat Zarkon. Lotor did it, in a fair one-on-one duel.
Who are you to look down on him and claim victory over him? You didn’t defeat him. You weren’t even with the team at that moment.
And who is Keith for the Galra to offer him the throne of the emperor? He’s a savior to Earth, but to the Galra he’s nothing. They don’t care that he’s a Black Paladin, but they know that the paladins of Voltron destroyed the empire and thus broke the lives of many representatives of their people.
I could understand if they tried to make Lahn the ruler. Lahn tried to save at least something left of the empire and took care of his people. Or Kolivan, although the Blades always tried to stay in the shadows. But Keith has done absolutely nothing for the Galra to claim such a title.
Child, instructing adults – quite silly content for children. And all I can do in this case is an endless facepalm.
Someone who seemed to have Keith as a favorite character decided to give him a cookie in the end. To take this cookie from another – hated – character and give it to Keith. True, Keith didn’t need it at all, but the main thing is that another – hated – character has lost his cookie.
But let’s get back to the Hero’s Journey. What was really going to happen there?
Fortunately for us, the initial outline of Keith’s transformation is still being felt. This allows us to make fairly strong assumptions, and not just poke a finger in the sky.
The first – the earliest demonstration of Keith’s internal changes – is the scene with Zethrid. The episode was added in S8, but let’s keep in mind that it was originally planned for the beginning of S7.
Keith forgives Zethrid. Remember what Keith did to any hurt he got as a child? He got into a fight. Why did he do it? Because an insecure, scared person is afraid to appear weak. Therefore, any aggression is immediately responded to, if suddenly someone decides that they can offend him with impunity.
You need to have inner strength and confidence in order to respond to aggression with calmness and mercy. Lotor forgave his generals not only out of sentimentality, but also because he was confident in his abilities. A person filled with inner strength remains calm and merciful even to enemies, because in his soul there’s no fear for his life.
Keith became more confident, and therefore calmer, and most importantly, more merciful. And he found the strength to understand Zethrid, forgive and respond to her aggression with compassion.
There’s nothing special about killing your enemy. True valor is needed to understand them and forgive them. And he needed it, it took him later at the end of S7 to learn an important new lesson.
Unfortunately, to really understand the essence of my reasoning below, you’ll need to read my meta about Admiral Sanda. There’s a lot written there, and I wouldn’t want to drag it all here, so I’ll just build my ideas on what I wrote there.
Now I’ll return to the most recent events of S7. When the team of paladins ends up in prison and learns that it was Admiral Sanda’s fault.
Have you ever wondered why at the moment of confession we’re shown Keith’s face? And what was that face like?
Keith had been running away from the title of leader for so long, because even then he realized that this was a difficult role. Keith became a leader against his will and felt that he was carrying a huge burden.
But becoming more self-confident, more mature, Keith also learned to be more indulgent towards other people’s mistakes.
He understood Sanda because he knew how terrible it was to hold other people’s lives in his hands. And he forgave her, because he found the strength to respond to the stab in the back with compassion.
And Sanda taught him something that no one had ever taught him. Neither Kolivan nor Shiro.
Sanda taught him how to behave as a leader if he realized that he had made a total mistake.
She made no excuses, throwing the blame on Sam Holt.
She didn’t quarrel with the paladins, proving her case to the last.
When she realized that she was mistaken, thereby substituting people who depend on her, she admitted she was wrong. She admitted and asked for forgiveness. And she did everything to fix it – standing up to protect the paladins in a moment of danger.
And this is the most difficult option for taking responsibility. Taking responsibility for the fact that your actions have hurt other people. Who aren’t obliged to forgive you just because you threw up your hands and said «I’m sorry».
And Keith, whose actions brought trouble on dozens, if not hundreds of planets, badly needed this lesson. Sanda, without knowing it, gave Keith advice on how to act in such a situation, and later – in S8 – Keith began to use this advice.
When? Remember the conversation with Lahn. Did Keith have any need to reveal that it was he and Krolia who released the monster? No. Would Lahn ever know about this? Also no. Only Keith and Krolia knew why this creature was free. They might have shoved responsibility on the long-dead Galra, and no one could ever prove otherwise.
But Keith felt guilty for the death of Lahn’s subordinates and felt it right to confess. To take the responsibility. Would Keith from the first seasons, who sought to hide from responsibility behind his Father’s back, have done this? No. That Keith would have said nothing.
The completion of Keith’s Transformation stage, alas, is associated with the return of Lotor and therefore has been completely cut out. After the events of Clear Day, the true details of the events on the Altean colony were to surface, and Keith had to decide how to react to this information.
One thing I can say for sure: a conversation with Zarkon would have had a completely different tone. It’s unlikely that Zarkon would have been struck to tears by the fact that he fought with the entire universe, because for the Galra, all life is war. But he wouldn’t forgive himself an attempt to kill his own child. He wouldn’t forgive himself for the betrayal of his only son.
And Keith, from the height of his guilt – after all, it was he who left Lotor to die – couldn’t help but try to support Zarkon in this moment. And in the end, Zarkon would talk to him about responsibility, not that «Galra blood is cool, it made you a leader».
Upbringing made Keith a leader, the Galra blood gave him only beautiful eyes and chic hair.
Stage 7. Apotheosis
The hero receives his reward, consolidates the experience gained and sets new goals for himself.
Everything is quite simple here. The Blades in the face of Kolivan and Krolia join the celebration of life again, and they all decide what to do with Honerva. Keith has a mom, dad and an older brother. Keith paid off his debts, got his family, and the only obstacle to returning a quiet life is Honerva, not Keith’s personal problems.
Stage 8. Return Threshold
8.1 Refusal of the Return
About this, alas, nothing is known. The only thing I can assume is a state when a person who has returned from the war can’t learn to live peacefully again. In the case of Keith, he’s used to being the leader of the paladins and perhaps so got used to this role that he will no longer want to leave it. But whether Keith had this in reality is unknown.
8.2 Magic Flight
Flight of the paladins between realities on the mega-Voltron.
8.3 Rescue from Without
The Lion Goddess helps the paladins follow Honerva.
8.4 Final Challenge
Paladins meet Honerva in the space between realities. Allura and Lotor leave to restore the worlds, the guys return home.
Stage 9. Return
Free life, the hero becomes the master of his destiny. Epilogue.
From my point of view, there could be no disbandment of the Blades of Marmora. There are enough problems in the universe to require the services of an elite combat unit. And Keith could have stayed there as Kolivan’s assistant. It’s a bit early for the leadership, and it’s not a fact that Keith wants this. By the standards of the Galra, he’s still a very young man, with a whole life ahead of him. Surely there would be scenes with family and friends. Keith should be shown as a serene mature person.
What conclusions can be drawn from everything described above? Well, I personally understood for myself why it was Keith who gained such wild popularity among fans. Monomyth, as always, worked flawlessly and took the minds of people with it. I’m even beginning to suspect that the screenwriters simply took Campbell’s book and used it as a scheme for work, as Lucas once did when creating the old Star Wars trilogy. Keith had every chance of becoming Luke Skywalker of VLD, but, alas, not with that ending.
It’s a pity that such a wonderful work was let down the drain, I hope the screenwriters will please us in the future, and the result of their work will fall into more gracious hands.
The story of Pidge or Dark Youth as the main character
Translated and edited by @Nadezhda932
First warning: Plance
Second warning: before reading this meta, I strongly advise you to read the previous metas about Lance and Pidge. Because I won’t repeat the thoughts expressed there, but I will refer to them.
Not so long ago (at the time of writing), a 200th Let’s Voltron podcast took place, where the voicers gathered together and remembered the glorious past when they voiced the series together. And Bex – the voice of Pidge – remembered Plance and compared it to a wonderful little garden. Naturally, this led to the beginning of the discussion, where we analyzed the characters and their interaction with each other. And the idea came up to try to pull the Pidge storyline on Heroine’s Journey. Well, I mean to try to check whether there are those necessary components in her story that allow us to say that yes, this is the real Heroine’s Journey. And, to my pleasure, I suddenly realized that the story arc of Pidge really suits these requirements, and it’s even more interesting in its nuances than the Journey of Allura. Why? Because Allura has a classic story – a girl must become more confident in herself, go against society, save her prince, defeat the evil queen, etc.. Pidge… her situation is the opposite. And I’ll try to explain why.
I’ll begin by describing how the attempt to “pull” the story into the stages of the journey actually takes place. To do this, you need to determine that the storyline of the character doesn’t consist of separate episodes, but has a single common outline that runs through the series, and find several important components in this outline:
A) The drawback of the main character, preventing her from gaining inner balance and harmony;
B) The lowest point of the Journey. The moment when the heroine realizes this shortcoming and begins her work to fix it.
These two things also make it possible to determine what becomes an imaginary reward for a heroine and what becomes a real reward, and thus we begin to perceive individual scenes with the heroine as a single construct – a story about self-digging, which is the Heroine’s Journey.
And the main drawback of Pidge is not only her egoism, because there are a lot of happy egoists in life. The main disadvantage of Pidge is the zero ability for social interaction that developed as a result of this egoism.
As well as an absolute lack of understanding of what is “criminal liability”.
The Holts adored their daughter with blind love, were proud of her mind and indulged in everything, and thereby served her very evil service, because the parents should not only love their child, they should prepare the child for adulthood and set the right moral compass. And, alas, Pidge has serious problems with this. In the series, she appears as a brilliant teenager, but at the same time lagging behind in social development. Not because she’s mentally ill, but because she grew up in an environment where that metaphorical muscle responsible for social skills simply wasn’t trained.
Honestly, there are not so many ideal parents in the series. These are the parents of Hunk and Dayak, who performed a miracle, having managed to raise a mentally healthy person in an environment that clearly didn’t contribute to such a development of events. The classical educational school of ancient Daibazaal showed a real master class, and it’s a pity that the main characters cost only an orientation course.
The Pidge’s storyline isn’t the main one in the series, but it’s important enough to make an integral picture of her behavior if desired. You need to understand that social interactions are not just “hello – bye” or “let’s be friends against a common enemy” – I would even say that in such situations, skill isn’t required. The skill of social interaction is necessary in order to join the society where you’re only a drop in the ocean of people, and to learn how to live in it, avoiding conflicts. This is the ability to please, and the ability to circumvent sharp corners in communication… and this all needs to be learned. A person isn’t born with these skills, they learns them in the family and in society, and … by the age of 14, Pidge didn’t possess these skills. She often behaved rudely with others, if not boorishly, completely ignoring the status of these people, and this can no longer be attributed to a simple straightforwardness of character.
You may ask: where did all this come from? It’s easy to imagine.
Pidge had greenhouse conditions at home. Parents loved and understood each other and pampered their beloved daughter. The brother was much older, and Pidge didn’t have to be jealous or fight with him for a favorite toy. In addition, the Holt family was united by a love of science and lived, as they say, on the same wavelength. The absence of conflicts and acute angles in the family is wonderful, but alas, it doesn’t at all contribute to the ability to solve the conflicts and circumvent acute angles.
Another teacher is the surrounding society. The child looks at this society, observes and begins to repeat. The child tries to communicate, with alternating success, and draws certain conclusions from the result. And the problem of Pidge is that all her conclusions boiled down to the fact that “they love me because I’m special and smarter than all of them.” She considered herself the smartest and didn’t strive at all, not only to observe how others communicate, but also to try to adapt herself to other people. She didn’t hesitate to interrupt the teacher and make her incompetent, although at the age of 14 you can already understand that this is simply ill-mannered. Moreover, judging by the behavior in the classroom, it wasn’t the first time she acted in this way, but which is characteristic – none of those present was imbued with respect for her knowledge. Because social interaction doesn’t work unilaterally. You can demand only for submission, respect or acceptance is always a two-way work.
Pidge didn’t even realize that she was doing something wrong. She sincerely shared knowledge…
…but you must also be able to share knowledge, so as not to make yourself an arrogant pride.
And the problem is that the Holts didn’t attach any importance to this. After all, they also believed that “Katie is just a special and brilliant girl, and this civilians aren’t able to understand her because of their earthliness, but when she enters the Garrison …”. She entered the Garrison, so what? Her environment consisted only of extremely condescending and patient people – Hunk and Lance, and she rejected their friendship at the first meeting.
You see these people for the first time and don’t even want to spend a couple of minutes getting to know each other.
School is that litmus test that shows how the child will get along in society, and you can’t turn a blind eye for the fact that your child isn’t accepted in this micro-society. You need to work, you need to try to understand what’s wrong, and keep in mind that the problem can be not only in evil peers, but also in your own child, who is an innocent angel only for you.
Because a person is a social animal, and we have a psychological need for respect and recognition. While Pidge was a child, she was fine with her parents, brother and dog, but now a new adult life is knocking on the door, where she wants something more. She’s already 14 years old, even though psychologically she’s 11-13 years old, but she’s already a teenager. And she has a completely positive example of a motherly figure – successful professionally and in her personal life, and she probably wants the same for herself.
Nothing prevented Colleen from being both a brilliant scientist and a charming woman at the same time.
Moreover: Mrs. Holt has a short haircut, which means that having long hair is a personal desire of Pidge. Yes, she doesn’t get along with other children, but she tries to wear beautiful dresses and looks after her magnificent hair. She doesn’t say it out loud, but she clearly feels the need to be accepted not just as a child, but also as a young woman.
And she feels upset when she can’t get in contact with peers.
And here your parents won’t help you.
Yes, mother can say a hundred times that you’re beautiful, but this is not the same as the approval of your friends and the attention of the boys. And Pidge had problems with this, because she pushed peers away and couldn’t even get respect from them for her intellect and knowledge, which, with different behavior, could earn the approval of the teacher and admiration from other children. Because social skills in society are like traffic rules in a stream of cars. You can be a brilliant driver, but you will still be cursed by others if you turn without turning on the turn signal, or if you don’t miss a pedestrian.
But to solve a problem, you need to know about its existence. You need to understand that it’s here, and you need to solve it. And since her beloved relatives assured that everything was fine, Pidge didn’t realize what was wrong until she faced the real consequences of her actions. And this is exactly what the Heroine’s Journey tells. Moreover, the Journey of the Dark Heroine, because Pidge is the real Dark Youth, traveling in a group of the main characters of the series.
It’s actually not so difficult to distinguish Dark Youth from Light Youth. You just need to look at what’s the main motive for a person to start a journey. Allura traveled for the desire to become the winner of evil, Lance – for the recognition of loved ones, Pidge… for her selfishness. Yes, because her love for relatives is very selfish, and we can clearly see how she treats the love of her relatives in a consumer way when she easily abandons her mother to regain her “property” – her father and brother.
Look at this poor woman. How she got older, how her hair grew – having lost her children and husband, she even stopped monitoring her appearance. But what does Pidge think about in S7 when they prepare to return to Earth? About how she’ll be punished. She doesn’t think about WHAT her mother experienced during all this time. Sorry, but for some reason I’m not too lazy to call my family at the age of 30 and say that everything is fine. And Pidge isn’t a toddler or even 10 years old to behave in this way.
But if Pidge is Dark Youth, then who is our Light Youth and where is our Animus? And here we get a very interesting point: the fact is that the series forms a whole bunch of heroes, where one character has two Dark Youths at once, and the other has two Light ones.
And these ligaments look like this: Lotor-Allura-Pidge and Allura-Pidge-Lance. Funny huh? A sort of love quadrangle.
In the case of Allura and her Dark Youths, the question arises of contrasting the common good and personal desires. Lotor and Pidge are two opposing sides of personality development that pull Allura like a rope in a competition.
Lotor is not just the Dark Youth of Allura. He’s an allusion to her ideal, to which she aspired. Lotor is not a teenager with personality problems, no, he’s a mature – even old – man. He’s a great diplomat and speaker, he’s polite and ready to compromise with everyone, but he never trusts anyone, because he’s constantly stabbed in the back. He’s ready to sacrifice all desires and affections for the fulfillment of the plan for the salvation of the universe, which he once set for himself. He’s confident in himself, he knows what he’s doing, he calculates everything in advance, but at the same time he improvises very well. An ideal politician and strategist with the most noble intentions. And he’s not a friend of the Alteans, not a commander or a king, but the Holy Savior Lotor. An example to follow, who took the cross upon himself – to atone for the sins of his father – and carried it, pushing aside everything personal for the sake of the greater good. He doesn’t allow himself to be angry at people or become attached to them, because all this can ruin his important mission.
So perfect and lifeless…
This is what Allura’s dream of becoming a ray of light for the universe could turn into. Nothing for yourself – everything for others. A lifeless holy idol who has long forgotten about love and personal wishes. The Alteans with their cult of sacrifice will fully approve it.
And Pidge really turns out to be his complete antipode.
Lotor is old, she’s almost a child. Lotor is polite and eloquent, she’s straightforward and often rude. Lotor doesn’t trust anyone, she completely believes her loved ones. Lotor acts for the common good, Pidge – exclusively for personal purposes. Lotor turned his back on his family, because he considered their actions immoral, Pidge fully and completely supports her family, no matter what happens. They can only be united by confidence in what they’re doing is right, but this is not much in which they agree.
An ancient man who wants to save the universe and a little girl demanding to return her dad.
And this pulls Allura in different directions – the dream of serving others and her own desires. None of it can be put on a pedestal, as the path of Allura is the path to a balance between these two aspirations. In the end, it was for a reason that Lotor reached out to her – the lifeless Saint figure really wanted to feel alive again, to love and trust someone. The savior wanted someone to save him.
Pidge’s parallels appear a little different. They say that all families are equally happy, but each suffers in its own way. And how much Lotor and Pidge differ in the role of Dark Youth, so much in the role of Bright Youth are Lance and Allura alike.
The Red Paladin, which should be Blue, and the Blue Paladin, which should become Red. As brother and sister, they go hand in hand in their insecurity, albeit regarding various aspects of life.
And you know, it's funny when you think that the Blue Lion is the right leg and the Green Lion is the left arm. Indeed, opposites.
I've already written about Lance and Pidge. Here I will say that the question of Lance and Pidge's relationship is a question of selfishness. Lance and Pidge both wanted public acceptance. But if Pidge, in pursuit of her family, abandons the idea of establishing contact with others and achieves her goals through conflict and breaking the rules, then Lance, on the contrary, goes out of his way to achieve what he wants, almost pursuing people in attempts to get attention from them.
Funny contrast: Pidge completely neglects her appearance at the start of her journey, while Lance is the only one on the show who takes the time to look after his appearance even in the middle of a war. Beauty is one of the most affordable ways to gain recognition. And if Pidge refuses even it, then Lance clings to attractiveness with his legs and arms, considering it a measure of a person's level of happiness.
Lance is a very compassionate selfless person, but in pursuit of status, he went against his own nature - he began to consider loved ones from a consumer point of view. And crossing with Pidge on this subject should have made him stop, take a look at himself and what he was doing. Take a look and think about it at last.
On the other hand, Lance is also a subject of interest. This is a childlike innocent affection that Katie developed towards the end of the story. Lance may not be the most attractive man, but he's an open and cheerful person who gave Pidge exactly what she lacked in school - sincere friendship and acceptance with all her flaws. Katie is still quite small in this regard, this is not some kind of serious romantic love, but this is a strong feeling, which over time, over the years, can turn into something more mature.
Having fun with friends is what Katie has dreamed of since school.
He is Pidge's Animus. A person with similar problems, but with the opposite approach to solving them.
It’s interesting that at the beginning of the journey it was Lance who didn’t notice until the last moment that Katie was a girl.
Everything is a little more complicated with Allura: Allura doesn’t appeal primarily to Pidge’s egoism, but to social skills. Yes, the idea of sacrifice is close to Allura as an Altean, and it is opposed to the egoism of the Green Paladin. But the main thing is different: Allura is polite, educated, diplomatic and, in the end, accepted and loved by society as an amazingly beautiful woman. And this is what Pidge would like for herself, without even realizing this need. On the other hand, Allura’s professional skills are forgotten by S8, those around her begin to perceive her only as a pretty alien girl, against the backdrop of the triumph of Pidge, whose ingenious mind is recognized in the professional circle of scientists.
And if Allura in the changed S8 turns into a damsel in distress for a noble knight who will worship her like the Virgin Mary, then Pidge becomes that very caricatured strong and independent woman, only instead of 40 cats she has robots. It’s caricatured, because it’s the image of a woman who declares that she doesn’t need anyone, and then, in longing for human warmth, she turns herself on to a pet in order to sublimate her psychological needs. In the case of Pidge, she builds herself a metal brother. And in ten years she’ll also build a metal lover, why not.
The truth is that a person is happy only when they realize themselves both professionally and personally. There’s a huge number of people who put their lives on the altar of some important mission, but later not so much of them could call themselves happy. On the other hand, there are a lot of women who abandoned their ambitions for the sake of marriage, and then regret it until their death.
So what is it – Pidge’s Heroine Journey? Let’s look at it in stages.
Stage 1 – Separation from the feminine.
Pidge is a teenager of 14 years old. She has problems with her peers, she can’t find a common ground with them, and therefore clings to her family – her cozy mini-world, comfort zone. But here a tragedy occurs: father and brother disappear on an expedition. Pidge finds out that something is unclear in this case, but the father’s authorities refuse to explain the situation, and she decides to find the answers in a not too legal way – secretly, despite all the prohibitions.
Feminine figure and beautifully decorated room…
…all this was left in the past.
This is very symbolic: Pidge leaves her mother alone to experience the tragedy and cuts off her hair – a symbol of her femininity.
Katie is not at all happy to lose her beautiful curls
Stage 2 – Identification with the masculine and gathering of allies
Pidge studies at the Garrison in the company of Hunk and Lance, hiding under the guise of a homely boy. At first she repels them, but since they’re a team, she has to communicate with them. But instead of making friends and learning to communicate, Pidge spends all her efforts looking for information about the family. Meanwhile, she begins to have confidence in Hunk and Lance, finds common interests with them, and gradually these two in her eyes pass from the category of strangers into the category of the ones whom she can even tell her secret.
And when Pidge once again can’t keep her mouth shut…
…it’s Lance who protects her.
Stage 3 – Road of trials, meeting ogres and dragons
Shiro's return and the beginning of their journey. Pidge grabs any lead to find her father and brother, and is even ready to give up everything and everyone for the ghostly opportunity to save the family. On the other hand, one way or another, she begins to become attached to the people around her. True, this attachment is selfish. Pidge worries about the safety of her friends, but she isn't interested in what they grieve and worry about. Her fixation on the family is in stark contrast to the fact that the main leadership backbone of the team - Allura, Shiro, Keith and Koran - are orphans who have no loved ones except for each other and a common cause.
Keith with his desire to save Shiro is certainly disingenuous, but he described Pidge's problem correctly...
Stage 4 – Finding the boon of success
Pidge finds her brother and saves his father. But at what cost? The height of selfishness is to send a person to certain death, without even trying to give him a chance for being rescued. And personally for Pidge, this person is only to blame for the fact that he's not included in the circle of her loved ones - the circle of those whom she considers her "property". But she still gets her way, she saves her family, without any remorse. And then she has fun with friends who have already become family members for her - part of that very micro-world.
And it was during this period that Pidge appeared in the game as the most closed character, fenced off by armor from other people.
And the mess in her room as an indicator that Pidge wasn’t going to invite guests at her place…
Stage 5 – Awakening to feelings of spiritual aridity; death
Homecoming. As people say, be careful of what you wish for. Pidge constantly tried to leave friends and other people behind, in the pursuit of saving the family; as a result, when she returns home, she’s grounded. Now, her circle of loved ones is forcibly composed only of her parents and brother. Moreover, the most annoying thing happens: Lance invites Allura on a date. Lance complained to Hunk for several weeks about being unworthy of Allura, while Hunk listened sympathetically. And there was no one who could interrupt the flow of this whining, because this someone was sitting at home. As a result, Hunk persuades Lance to go out and invite Allura on a date, and she unexpectedly agrees.
And after so many days of isolation, Pidge is free only to find out that Lance is going on a date with Allura. Pidge liked Lance, she even tried to compliment him, although unsuccessfully – and now he sailed away to a beautiful princess, and Pidge could only watch this process.
A scene called “She tried”.
She even helps to arrange this date: to get Allura the dress for which she gives the game – the subject of their common interest with Lance. But that’s where her altruism ends: she doesn’t stand it and decides to follow them, because until the last she hopes that Allura will refuse Lance, but this doesn’t happen.
Yes, Pidge is respected as a scientist, but how much does it mean if the person dear to her, whose attention she values, is now fully devoted to his new girlfriend? You can say as much as you like that they’re a team of paladins, but we know very well that couples are always a little apart, as they feel like spending time together.
And Katie knew perfectly well that now Lance is unlikely to find time to play with her.
Stage 6 – Initiation and Descent to the Goddess
Here’s a difficult moment. The fact is that this moment takes place in S8, in an episode that was originally intended for S7. And I can’t help but wonder if it should have taken place in the earlier version of the script, because according to the logic of the travel, Pidge should have it. This conversation takes place in a dead forest, where Pidge and Allura are left alone at some point, and Pidge, who saw how Allura saved the tree, asks if she can help Olkarion. After this, Katie has to admit that yes – she followed them, and naturally the question of Lance’s feelings will be raised.
Allura is Pidge’s Light Youth. She agreed to a date with Lance out of feeling guilty and out of gratitude for his concern. Her consent is pure sacrifice, altruism. And she admits it while talking to Pidge. That yes, she doesn’t have feelings for him, but he loves her. Remember the first episodes, where Pidge confidently says that a princess in her place would do the same. But now she sees that Allura, on the contrary, is ready to sacrifice the personal for the sake of someone else’s good. And this makes her think, because Lance chose Allura.
Throughout the series, Pidge was not very friendly with the princess. When Allura found out that Pidge was by no means a boy, she was the first to welcome Pidge as a girl, because having only men in her social circle wasn’t very comfortable for a girl. But then Pidge kept in mind only the search for a family and simply didn’t understand that she was offered girlish friendship. But now, in this situation, Katie was the only one to whom Allura entrusted her “female” secret, and the Green Paladin saw her tragedy and in some ways even managed to share it. Pidge saw in her not a rival, but a person who had lost absolutely everything and was ready to sacrifice the little that was left of her.
You know, at the first meeting with the Olkari, Pidge says that she’s very far from nature, she’s closer to technology and robots, to which she doesn’t need to adapt. This can be considered a metaphor for how she pushes living people away from her, how she turns away from a simple human desire to realize herself socially.
And it is very symbolic that the bottom point of the journey occurs precisely in the middle of the dead Olkarion.
Stage 7 – Urgent yearning to reconnect with the feminine
After talking with Allura, Pidge begins to look at the situation in a new light. She’s still upset that Lance is now devoting all his time to his new girlfriend, but now sees him not as an “escaped property”. Now for her he’s a really unhappy guy deserving of support, not ridicule. She generally begins to reconsider her position towards people, although this is a very slow process.
When they leave to celebrate Clear Day, she leaves her family — which she saved with such zeal — for the sake of helping Lance get a present for Allura. For the sake of the opportunity to stay with a loved one and find a gift for his girlfriend. And she sincerely seeks to please Allura, because she really imbued with sympathy for her. And when Lance tells her how useless he feels, Katie tries to support him, inspire, and somehow help him solve the problem of relations with another girl. And for a spoiled egoist, this is a very serious step towards change.
By the way, did you notice that in Clear Day episode there’s not a single scene of the interaction between Pidge and Lance, although Katie knows from somewhere that Allura asked for a present? It was cut out while editing S8.
What kind of torment would you go for friends?
Unfortunately, I can only assume what the next steps should look like, too much has been cut.
We know that Allura will decide to announce to the paladins that she’s going to save Lotor, and perhaps Pidge will be the second after Lance to support her in this. Maybe she will even play a role in ensuring that the conversation between Allura and Lance takes place.
She will be next to Lance after the return of the prodigal prince and will morally support him. Perhaps they will even play the game as they dreamed in their podcasts. They’re still children who are just entering adulthood, and after everything they have experienced, they must find a place for joy.
In addition, Pidge has guilt before Lotor, and after her selfish behavior it’ll be important that she realize this and apologize. In general, this will be a lesson for her: a lesson in acknowledging her wrong, and a lesson in humility. The beginning of a long journey of working on oneself, which will allow Pidge to finally realize herself not only professionally, but also personally. It’ll allow her to stop repelling the world, accept it, and learn to swim with everyone in a single stream of the river called “life”.
After all, green is the color of life. As well as blue.
