Prompted by an Ask, this very long post examines the White Lion and its condition for obtaining the knowledge of Altean Alchemy.
“Hi! I can’t stop thinking about White Lion. Why is the condition for obtaining the knowledge so stupid? Give up your life? If anything, Allura wanted that knowledge for personal reasons (being Altean, father’s daughter etc.), while Lotor went there with a purpose—he needed that knowledge so his own “Voltrons” would work with Alteans from Colony. It seems natural to fight, when lives of people depend on your success. And how did Haggar get that knowledge?”
My answer as to these questions—especially the White Lion and its condition for obtaining knowledge—is to deep dive into some meta and analysis by:
Skimming some literary and mythological concepts that relate to the Life Givers of Oriande and the White Lion via the basics of the Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge
Comparing VLD and the Prometheus and Alien: Covenant films where this quest appears
Exploring the requirements for entry to Oriande and the price of obtaining Secret & Sacred Knowledge in VLD
And how that applies to Lotor, Allura, Haggar, and Alfor
First, some context: There is a Reason™ why certain tropes, and certain types of plot lines, and certain types of character arcs are bundled together and progress in certain ways. These combinations are Timeless. Generally speaking, they work well so long as one follows the unwritten rules that bind them together. Their predictability can be offset by a skilled and clever writer. These combinations are the building blocks of Ur Stories, and many Ur Stories (and their contemporaries) involve Quests for Secret & Sacred Knowledge.
The White Lion’s strange condition for obtaining knowledge is one found in many such stories, told in myriad ways, and is one of the oldest concepts in human story-telling, hence why it almost always appears bundled with certain tropes, plot lines, character arcs, etc.
From Odin’s unyielding quest for knowledge and willingness to pay any price for it, to Prometheus’ defiance of the Gods to give mortals the Gift of Fire, to Victor Frankenstein’s ‘dangerous pursuit of knowledge’ resulting in the tragic creation of a monster, to Enkidu’s tryst with Shamhat leaving his physical prowess diminished but his mind expanded, and throughout many more such stories; the following theme emerges: When knowledge is gained, something is lost.
The loss can be intentional (e.g. sacrifice) or unintentional (e.g. consequences).
In many stories with a similar setup, the White Lion and the Life Givers of Oriande would be a case of Blue & Orange Morality (this is not the same as being “morally gray”). In these kinds of stories, the Keepers of Knowledge often judge worthiness in a completely different way from that of the Knowledge Seeker, and they may even be pulling the strings for their own purposes that are incomprehensible to those who seek their knowledge. Their requirements for the gift of knowledge fulfills their own morality, and one to which they adhere, but that morality has little resemblance to what a Seeker of Knowledge may believe in…unless that Seeker learned their ways and began to practice them.
The Secret & Sacred Knowledge is for the taking by whomever is willing to pay the price, meaning that even the most vile and evil being that ever lived could gain the Knowledge for their own use. Thus the Keepers of Knowledge are not bound by a morality that would require them to prevent access by the evil and wicked. The only time the Keepers will care (e.g. divine retribution of some kind) is when the rules for gaining or using that knowledge are broken or some line is crossed by a prideful mortal. While there are stories where the morality of Keepers of Knowledge align with a general black-and-white morality of good and evil, Oriande and associated Altean-related concepts (not to mention, the Voltron lions) do not consistently give off the usual and unambiguous signals of black-and-white (e.g. good vs evil) morality.
Part I: Breaking the Keeper’s Rules (two examples).
The titan Prometheus’ punishment for defying the Keepers (e.g. Zeus and the gods) is to be bound to a rock for an eternity as an eagle eats his constantly regenerating liver each day; and
Victor Frankenstein has no deity to punish him for his God-defying scientific experiments, but tragedy finds him anyway.
In both of these examples, the knowledge gained came with a heavy and tragic price.
In example of Prometheus, (there are several versions) he is moved by the plight of mortals, their hard lives could be made better with the Gift of Fire (e.g. Knowledge), a gift that is jealously guarded by Zeus and the gods on Mt. Olympus. In some versions, the mortals already had the Gift of Fire, but Zeus took it from them out of anger of a trick played by Prometheus which benefitted the mortals in the form of sacrificial offerings. Either way, Zeus and the gods have a Blue & Orange morality. Prometheus’ intentions were noble and good, but his means via trickery broke the arbitrary rules of the gods (e.g. the Keepers of Knowledge). Why would the gods withhold this gift if it could do good? Because in the wrong hands, Fire can be weaponized and used for destruction. Remember that because we’ll return to this as VLD gives us a subtle Promethean character arc.
In the example of Victor Frankenstein—from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus”—he takes his obsessive pursuit of knowledge, the secrets of life and death, too far in the name of science. He realizes too late the horror that he has created, and abandons his creation (the monster that is erroneously called Frankenstein outside of the story). Frankenstein’s monster gradually destroys his life by murdering friends and family, even framing him for it. Shelley’s use of “The Modern Prometheus” as the subtitle of her novel intentionally invokes the myth of Prometheus and the divine retribution he suffered for his transgression against the Keepers of Knowledge. The punishment delivered to Frankenstein is a strange kind of black-and-white morality, as it is the price paid for transgressing Natural Law through science. One could call it “natural retribution” in absence of the divine. Here, the Keeper of Knowledge is simply Nature itself.
Above, Honvera rebukes Alfor’s caution: “The ancients thought that lightning was shot from the bows of the gods until science proved otherwise. We must always push into dangerous territory in pursuit of knowledge.”
In VLD, Honerva’s Frankenstein-like obsession with quintessence, and her willingness to push further—to break natural boundaries in pursuit of knowledge—is her undoing. Honerva’s tragedy does not stop with herself and her family, as the price of knowledge gained is paid for by the entire universe for 10,000 years.
Part II: The Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge In Space.
In Season 5 of VLD, the basic template of a Quest for Secret & Sacred Knowledge appears in the form of the journey to Oriande. The same basic quest template also appears in the Prometheus and Alien: Covenant films.
Above, a summary: A pretty, well-spoken, ageless, pale-haired man with a British accent is used-and-emotionally-neglected by his powerful father whom he grows to despise and is treated badly and distrusted by his father’s kind. The father is prideful and has a bit of god complex. After his father’s well-deserved death, the man embarks upon a Quest of Secret & Sacred Knowledge held in a far-off utopia guarded and/or inhabited by Ancient Keepers of Knowledge. His companion to this utopia is his love interest, a petite and well-spoken woman with a British accent who is stronger than she looks, and is instrumental to finding the star map that initiates the quest to begin with. The sought-after secret knowledge has themes of life and creation. These secrets are yielded through life sacrifice and prove to be dangerous in the wrong hands.
I’m not saying that VLD ripped off Prometheus and Alien: Covenant but here we are…
“Why does Hagger call herself the high priestess? How did she gain that title? What is she capable of?”
The altean girl Allura and the garrison had saved paused and looked up at her and bluntly said, “You know as much as I know. I don’t understand why you would even ask. You have seen what she has done”
Allura, annoyed and fed up from hours of interrogating was about to walk away when the girl finally said, “But I see why they worship her”
Allura stopped in her tracks, sat down and refused to look at her
The Altean girl took this as a sign and continued
“I remember the day Hagger took me to her lair to show the progress of her work. The limits of quintessence. Her study and her life-long work. I never believed in it until I saw her perform alchemy herself.
I saw her as she powered all her energy into one of her captured galra empire soldiers and I watched her as she molded and built on him until nothing was left except an ore. A figment of what he used to be.
It was marvelous really. What power she wields”
Allura horrified, felt a shiver run down her spine.
Am I the only one hoping that the Altean found inside that mech at the end of Season 7 turns out to be a volunteer? It’s one of those situations where it would be so much easier for Haggar to manipulate the remaining Alteans into laying down their lives against Voltron willingly, rather than to go through the effort to hold them all prisoner.
Let me explain, back in Season 6, Romelle told us that she kept quiet about what happened to her brother, because none of the other Alteans would have believed her if she told them Lotor, the savior of the Altean, race was secretly draining some of them of their life force.
Lotor was a saint like savior to the Alteans of the colony. When their home planet was lost, when they were being slowly and methodically hunted to extinction across the universe. He came to them and took them to a paradise, where they could live out in the open, free of fear.
Everything the Alteans of the colony have, including the preservation of their culture, they owe to Lotor’s actions, and that creates the sort of life long fanaticism that won’t just disappear because someone tells them that Lotor was actually killing the people who left the colony. They’d need to see it with their own eyes, and even then, you’d probably have a non-insignificant amount that thinks the evidence is faked.
So you have this colony full of Altean Lotor fanatics, and then Voltron goes and kills their savior. It wide spread knowledge across the universe, Lotor’s dead and Voltron is the one who did it.
Also on top of that, the only witnesses to what Lotor was doing to the Alteans are all stuck in a time freeze or Haggar. All anyone else can know is either Voltron just randomly turned on their ally, or if someone intercepted any of their transmissions, that Lotor wanted to wipe out all the Galra and rebuild the Altean Empire. So either random murder or well deserved justice/revenge from an Altean colonist perspective. Neither will endear Voltron to the colonists.
Then who should show up on the colony’s doorstep? Why it’s Honerva, the beloved mother of their savior, who Lotor refuses to accept suggestions was the same the same person as Haggar. Honerva is wielding ancient Altean magic that only the worthy can learn. Honerva is opposed to Voltron. Honerva gets to tell the story of how the Altean’s savior died with no one to contradict her, and Honerva has a means that those colonists can take revenge against his murderer.
Why turn them into slaves, when they will happily help her build her weapons against Voltron and pilot them with righteous fury in their veins? What they are doing is justice, and who is there to tell them differently? Voltron? That’s Lotor’s murderers. Romelle? She’s no more trustworthy now than she was back then. The BOM? Galra scum. Perfect allies and not a single lock needed to keep them in.
The implication here is that Haggar was the leader of a ‘religion’. A religion which garnered a great deal of fealty from its followers and even more fear from those outside of its power.
In early seasons of VLD, Galra speak of Haggar and the Druids as though they are accessories to the empire rather than of it. They are weary of her ilk and are hesitant when expected to work alongside the druids, behavior rather uncharacteristic of a Galra Soldier™. Especially when we consider that the Druids were necessary to convert quintessence into usable Galra fuel.
Additionally, Macidus’s character design is very reminiscent of Joker (from Batman) with his maniacal smile and dark, cold green tones. It’s a very interesting choice which lends to the sense that Macidus has been driven mad in Haggar’s absence and was currently operating under delusions and a twisted sense of reality. (Quite possibly has been operating under a twisted sense of reality long before Haggar’s disappearance.)
All of this to say despite Honerva not being physically present in s7, we learned a great deal about how she operates-
She preys on susceptible yet powerful individuals to sway them to her ways, creating a strong sense of loyalty.
She creates a system which is dependent on her / her followers in order to sustain itself.
Even after she has abandoned her ways, those that remain will still fiercely defend what she fostered.
superheroladies 