I totally agree with you. VLD leaving out Pollux was such a wasted opportunity. I thought they were gonna add it and make them like Space!Wikanda or something. Adding Polloux would've added more grey. They could've scrapped the clone subplot and had Shiro end up on Pollux, befriending Romelle and Bandor, that way both Shiro and Romelle get more screentime and development. I still think the clone and Lotor's colony were both stupid and problematic ideas that should've been scrapped.
Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!
I always assumed that Pollux would show up in some form, that it would be related to Lotor in either a shady or trope-defying noble way, that Romelle would also be involved, and it would be for just one episode (like Hole in the Sky) with some mix of legacy/nostalgia goggles and exist to unite some dangling plot threads in a meaningful way that doesn’t create more questions or vagueness. And that’s almost what we got in the worst way possible, and for the sake of nothing because it was never necessary, with only more questions created and everything was vague.
Pollux as an actual political entity could have added meaningful shades of grey instead of the superficial morality gruel continuously heaped onto the story plate with every decision made by nearly every character as the series progressed. But in order for Pollux to add that meaningful grey, there would need to be clear good-and-evil, or ethical-and-unethical representatives in the story without relying on the Tragic Pragmatist Underdog In A Hellscape Setting Who Has No Good Options To Save Lives And Probably the Universe to provide some half-baked measure to judge all actions against that is left intentionally vague by lazy writing posing as Fashionable Leaving It Up To Audience Interpretation.
As for the clone—Kuron, Ryou, Jiro—can we have a new test? Right after the sexy lampshade test, we could have a “Does The Character Who Does The Thing Really Have To Be a Clone?” test.
Does The Character Who Does The Thing Really Have To Be a Clone if:
A long-lost identical twin can do the Thing?
A brain-washed original can do the Thing?
A traitor sleeper agent original can do the Thing?
An alternate reality or time-traveling original can do the Thing?
You have no intention on following up on the ramifications of cloning respective to the setting and what the introduction of the technology means for those who use it.
For #5 above, that’s the biggest reason why BOTH the clone and the Colony were unnecessary (I hesitate to call those ideas stupid b/c it’s all about execution). The clone introduces far too many questions that usually begin with “Why didn’t Haggar also clone X…?”, while the Colony only existed to provide a cheap shock reversal of the Zuko bait, and was never required for S7-S8 to proceed as it did, nor was Romelle required.
I don’t say that to diss the character, but she added nothing to the plot that wouldn’t have been more interesting and fun if Reformed Zuko-Lotor hadn’t been in her position instead. Lotor had a personality that provided contrast and tension against the paladins in addition to already established rivalries and relationships with the paladins and it was too late in the game to give a shit about a new character who didn’t have any of those things.
Additionally, in terms of narrative utility, Romelle could have been replaced with either a strongly worded letter written in blood or a sad-tragic hologram, and the murder-confrontation with Lotor could have been just as easily shoe-horned without care as it already was.
Yes, Romelle is cute and blah blah Yeeting Girl Power blah blah, but Romelle as a part of Pollux-as-political-entity would have done more with her character, either as an antagonist or an ally. Otherwise, she was only a tag-a-long Elf Usagi who had to be given out-of-place-and-inexplicable martial skills/might in order to hold her own in S7—again—Reformed Zuko-Lotor would have made more sense in her place as the 7th Ranger.
Returning to the #5 Clone Problem, and the Colony: S7-S8 could have remained the same (including dead Lotor) because the Colony Alteans were not necessary. They weren’t necessary because Haggar/Honerva had cloning technology and access to Lotor’s body at various points over the past 10k years. If Shiro was fascinating enough for Haggar to clone, then for damn sure Lotor would have been. The Altean pilots in S8 could have been an army of Lotor clones. As-is, some (or maybe all) of the Altean pilots were possessed by the dark entities so there you go. The Lotor clones don’t even need their own personalities or motivations. The dark entities are another reason why the Colony Alteans were unnecessary. Honerva had Oriande, the dark entities, and could have used Galra Empire resources regardless of what state it was in to construct her mechas for Lotor Clones to pilot. Zarkon conquered nearly the entire universe, that’s really fucking big y’all, the resources were there.
Oh, but the Colony Alteans and Romelle’s story were necessary to motivate Allura to reject Lotor and motivate the Paladins to murder-confront him!
Not really. A sad-tragic hologram as a testament to Lotor’s “crimes” *yawn* combined with the Paladins’ existing-but-partly-tamed distrust and Allura’s problematic space racism could have yielded the same outcome in one way or another. The crimes-worthy-of-death could have been different, and he still could have had that discount Azula breakdown moment to pad Monsantos’ resumes with.
That got longer and saltier than I intended, I’m sorry.
