Lotor's generals headcanons:
Came from a large family, had many siblings. She wasn't the oldest but she quickly took on the role of the provider, thanks to her relative proximity to Galrahood.
The only member of her family with Galra blood.
Joined the fighting pits.
Lotor found her there; he'd always had a taste for the gladiators, and Zethrid was the best of the best.
Has a lifespan of one and a half human lives. She's around 25 (in human years).
Reads a lot. Prefers classical texts over factual texts; from the way she speaks in 7x3 and 8x5 I get wannabe poetry buff vibes. Apart from Ezor, everybody is shocked to learn this fact.
One of the reasons she liked working with Lotor was because he didn't make her feel responsible the way she'd been made to feel for the larger part of her life.
But she also had the most distant relationship with Lotor out of all the generals because -- compared to them -- what he gave her was terribly impersonal (this is actually supported by canon, but that deserves a post of its own).
A bit superstitious when it came to magic. Narti's methods always confused her.
Sensitive around (and about) her ears.
Got the tear-trail scar from her first ever fight in the pits.
Lost her right eye while protecting Ezor from a rogue druid.
Fentress, her right hand, was a fellow exile who owed the newfound quality of her life to Zethrid. After her relationship with Ezor fractured, the homoerotic tension spiked (but Zethrid is a gentleman & refused to do 'cheat', poor Fentress was left hanging).
Did internalise some of Lotor's values, specifically those surrounding leadership and unity. This is basically canon too, but, you know.
Joined Lotor because her greatest fear was losing a conduit for purpose/violence. Zethrid always needed a goal to occupy her, or else she felt lost. A consequence of growing up amidst a warzone.
Ezor was her first love, but it was not an immediate kind of love. Zethrid was immediately attracted to her, but until she and Ezor created a space wherein those feelings could be expressed, nothing happened.
Out of all the generals, she thinks of Narti the least. But sometimes she'll have nightmares about cut throats and broken mirrors and swords sweating green, and she'll wake up having forgotten their content, recalling only that they had squeezed her heart into a painful pebble.
Could never make the first move against Lotor. A stubborn kind of loyalty kept her.
Self-harms through violent means. Punches walls when she gets angry, etc. She does make sure she never does this around Ezor, or anyone, except those she wants to hurt.
The thing that angered her the most about Acxa was how she was impossible to understand. Constantly shifting like a cold, capricious tide. (By the show's conclusion, I personally believe Zethrid grew to see a strength in this quality.)
Was the third general Lotor acquired.
Proud of her scars, and happy to cheer the comparatively more vain Ezor up about hers.
Wrote poetry about Ezor. When Ezor discovered it, they had the freakiest sex known to man.
Good with kids when she's not trying to kill them.
She's Ty Lee in space, so I'm going to be a cross-consumer stereotype and say she joined the space circus.
She developed a kind of flirty, flakey facade; became afraid of commitment thanks to having spent her formative years moving around and about.
Her gig at the circus was both as a performer and as a thief. Lotor caught her attempting to steal from him, but rather than punish her, he decided to put her to use beneath him.
Ezor was the second general he acquired.
Flirted with Zethrid, Acxa, Narti and on occasion Lotor; she didn't mean any of it. Not until she began to fall for Zethrid in the three decaphoebs between seasons 6 and 7.
Was always afraid of Lotor. Could only make moves against him if jolted into action.
She did make an attempt to get to know Narti, but was warded off with Narti's superficially cold exterior. When she remembered her, she remembered her as a cautionary tale; only for her death. If you asked Ezor of Narti's individual attributes, she'd shrug and guiltily look away.
Ezor lost her leg in a turf war. An avalanche came down that killed the mercenaries she was fighting, but it also pinned her leg. Ezor hacked it off in order to survive.
She trusted and respected Acxa's instinct a lot; moreso than she did Lotor's. She was deeply hurt when Acxa left her 'for Keith'.
Had no siblings, was separated from her mother from a young age.
Does not like having her aerial touched.
Grew to find comfort in her lateral sadism with Zethrid by her side.
Extremely sensitive about being compared to food. Ezor's species was racially fetishised (by the Galra) & these descriptions followed her and her mother throughout her childhood. (Her father was a rapist settler-colonist; one half of all the generals' parents were. Rape is famously a tool for imperialism, so it makes the most logical sense.)
Has no marrow in her bones. Canon, when you consider that Ezor can basically fly.
Kind of vain, she cuts herself when she feels particularly lost because the cuts are invisible against her red skin.
Zethrid was her first love, but Ezor was never all-in on their relationship until after 'The Grudge'. She kept herself comparatively guarded, and before Zethrid could leave her, Ezor left her first.
Used to be a prideful child. Got the pride kicked out of her somewhere along the way, and became dedicated to survival through any means.
She isn't very good at it, but she tries to paint. Mostly just skies and space.
Zethrid's age, with roughly the same lifespan too.
Raised as a druid. Her mother was a druid.
Was born with exceptional power; blinded in an experiment gone wrong. She escaped as an unrealised druid from the facility she was held in, and wandered the galaxies for decaphoebs to come. She managed to temporarily tap into other people's vision, but could not do it for long; the quintessence concentration gradient was too steep (Narti had quintessence running through her veins), and Narti ran the risk of draining them dry. She was not opposed to murder, but in many cases it was an inconvenience.
Thanks to Kova being part-quintessence, Narti managed to permanently steal his eyes. Lotor allowed her to keep him in exchange for her loyalty.
Narti was the first general Lotor acquired.
Had a lot of bottled-up anger directed at the institutions that violated her.
An ardent believer of 'patience yields focus', however. She never got a chance to unleash the anger on its true source.
Her people were entirely genocided. Kind of like the Alteans.
Had a love-hate relationship with Lotor.
A little bit younger than Ezor and Zethrid (24-ish in human years), her lifespan is 20,000 decaphoebs. She's burnt through only a couple of centuries though.
The only general who matched her rigour with regards to training was Acxa.
Struggled with internalised ableism: Narti both hated the druids and believed she was nothing without the alterations they had forced upon her body. Stayed with Lotor because he partially reaffirmed this twisted sense of self-worth.
Always thought the bulk of Lotor's ideas were silly, and that Acxa's loyalty/honour codes were pretensions.
Unafraid of/uncaring of potential consequence to her insubordination.
Used to be hyperloyal to her cause -- Acxa's demeanour irritated her for this reason.
Never really bothered to connect with Ezor and Zethrid. But although her relationship with Acxa was pendulumic in nature, Narti could not help but see a version of herself within her. For this reason, she was slightly more open with her.
Was cloned somewhere between her becoming Lotor's general and 'The Changing of the Guard'.
Pity-raised by her Galra father as a Galra soldier.
Her people were technologically primitive (I have a reason for believing this, but it's such a weird one, honestly, it deserves a post of its own).
Fervently believed she was monoracial Galra until she was 6-ish (human years) and the other kids ridiculed her for it.
Was an alarmingly talkative child. This bred contempt amidst her peers, so Acxa learned to make herself small/speak only when necessary. When auto-rehabilitated outside the military structure, Acxa's talkative aspect re-emerged, but it translated poorly into a social context (see: 'The Grudge').
Based on her weird horn-shedding patterns (in the second arc, Acxa has two pairs of trimmed horns, in the third arc only one, grown-out pair), I'd wager she was born with four horns on each side of her head. The pair in the third arc signifies her entrance into mature adulthood.
Her lifespan is slightly shorter than that of a human being's (70-ish human years?).
She's the youngest general, and she's 22-ish in human years.
Acxa's unique combat style was gleaned from her study of tribal Galra combat literature. It compensated for her smaller form.
Acxa killed a lot in her formative years. It damaged her and her perception of the Galra empire's work. Lotor's offer was a lifeline; it preserved her stale notions of honour through her worship of a Galra figurehead without the stain upon her moral compass.
Acxa began to be comfortable with murder only after her defection.
Over-read a lot of factual literature. When she was young, the pressure to be the 'best of the best' sat heavy upon her shoulders thanks to her racialised status.
Knows a lot of useless bullshit.
Would have loved to learn the sword but unfortunately it was *Lotor's* thing, so she learned the gun instead. It wasn't her favourite weapon, but it was practical, and she wielded it well.
Sometimes she forgets that Narti is dead. She will be reminded of her in the smallest things, and the confusing pain of Narti's death hits her every time.
The last general Lotor acquires.
Her horrible relationship with touch is derived from the Galra kids she was raised alongside feeling entitled to her body on account of her 'exotic' features.
Lotor picked up on this & played into it when he wished to keep Acxa in line (ie, a hand on a shoulder as a threat).
Out of all the generals, Acxa had the closest relationship with Lotor.
