felixazraelStorming the Pyramid: The Second Missing Sequence in VLD Season 8
@leakinghate Our second missing episode…
The Source: Missing Scene Fragment
Location: Knights of Light Part 2: Lotor’s “corpse” is shown but we see no reaction from Allura and Voltron because that part of the narrative has been cut. Allura and Voltron discover Lotor is melded with Sincline and Allura determines to extract him. This drives the plot toward Storming the Pyramid.
Storming the Pyramid: Missing Sequence
Location in the narrative: Around Episode 11, sequentially between the reveal of Lotor’s body in Sincline during Episode 10 and the “come back to me” hospital scene.
Summary: Allura storms the pyramid where she finds Lotor’s body and does battle with the witch for the soul of her son.
Narrative Structure:
“We’ll do anything to bring back Lotor,” said in Episode 2 plus Honerva’s appearance just before Allura takes in the Dark Entity (she is the last person seen, therefore the “man behind the curtain”) leads us to this point in the narrative. Honerva sent the Dark Entity because Honerva cannot resurrect her son but Allura, a healer, can.
Heroine’s Journey: Reincorporation of and Healing the Wounded Masculine
The heroine makes peace with the “masculine” approach to the world as it relates to her and reclaims her own masculine power. The heroine must also put aside her misperceptions about the masculine and offer love and compassion to that which appears monstrous. Allura repeatedly rebuffs Coran’s, Alfor’s, and Lance’s statements of disappointment in her choice to take in the dark entity and their concerns that what she is doing is “too dangerous”. She states unequivocally that she “will not be afraid to use the power that she has”, calling directly back to her animus’s repeated statements that he “knows she has the power within” and that she has “all the power in the universe at her fingertips” in Seasons 5 and 6, respectively. She heals the prince with her love and compassion.
Jungian Analysis:
The animus, Allura’s (Ro)beastly dark youth counterpart and masculine half Lotor, is recognized and accepted as part of herself. This is highlighted with Allura’s callback to his lines about not fearing to use her power. She heals the animus with her feminine love and compassion.
Freudian Analysis: Tell Me About Your Mother
Freud’s theory about a boy coming into manhood is known as the Oedipal Complex. Freud stated that all boys inherently desire their mother (I know, gross, just hang with me here) and therefore view their father as a threat who must be killed so that the boy can replace him. However, the boy cannot grow into manhood until he puts aside his feelings of fatherly hatred and learns how to project his desire for his mother onto appropriate women.
Lotor has done away with Zarkon and moved into a healthy desire for Allura by Season 8. His coming of age is driven forward when Allura does battle with Honerva, who still wants to keep her son as a possession, to break the spell she has cast over him.
Other Literary Examples:
In Beauty and the Beast, Belle realizes she loves the Beast after his death. She declares her love, and her tears bring him back to life, breaking the fairy’s spell and revealing the Prince in disguise.
In The Hunger Games, Katniss is finally able to break the spell of the brainwashing President Snow inflicted on Peeta with a kiss, telling him “don’t let him take you from me… stay with me.” Peeta responds, “Always” and gradually again becomes the sweet baker boy.
In The Nutcracker, Clara distracts the Rat King so that the Nutcracker can land a fatal blow, breaking the spell and transforming the Nutcracker into the Prince of the Land of Sweets (sweets and decadent food in general are a common literary stand-in for sex and sensuality).
Other items I would expect to see in this sequence based on literary convention and narrative cohesion:
Allura arrives and heals Lotor, who is still under Honerva’s control. This is the place for our alchemist versus alchemist reprisal set up by Allura and Honerva’s initial meeting.
Some version of “You may be the Emperor, but I am your mother and you will do as I say” connects this episode thematically with lines said in Episode 2, “You may be the Prince but I am the Emperor and you will do as I say” and “You may be the High Priestess but I am the Prince and you will do as I say.” This leads to a “my love is stronger than your power” moment, connecting VLD thematically with DotU.
Given the strong Egyptian motif present, throughout the series, I would expect a strong allusion to the Isis and Osiris myth.
I would expect Lotor’s resurrection and “my love is stronger than your power” moment to culminate with a powerful iteration of his musical leitmotif we have frequently heard throughout the season.
artemisarya
remains-of-stardust
starbluesss
quinn-dalim
phd-pepper-jenn
professorpotato
williamwither
logicallotor
jessarts
ruinedchildhood