Good vs. Evil, or Voltron vs. Golion

I never actually got the lion Voltron DVDs when they came out.  I did, however, get the Golion release.  Blame it on my graduate studies--I spent a lot of time with textual history and how narratives develop and evolve over time.  So, give me even a hint of an "original version" of ANYthing and I'll be first in line, slavering uncontrollably.

After devouring Golion, however, I did borrow Voltron from a friend.  I love the contrasts between the two.  They might tell us something about American values vs. Japanese values.  Or they might tell us something about a plot conceived and scripted by an experience committee writing under a collective pseudonym (Saburo Hatte writing for Golion and every other super robot series Toei produced in the 70s and 80s) vs. a bunch of Americans struggling to put together a coherent story out of a series for which they have only marginal translations.  If any.  In a very short timeframe.

Voltron first.  Lotor and Zarkon--oh, yeah, and Yurak--are evil.  EEEEEVillllllll.  You can tell because they laugh maniacially and start half their sentences with "Fools!"  They scheme.  They plot.  They send robeasts to get cloven in twain by Voltron.  And they mostly bumble and are pretty funny to your average 8 year old.  They lose time after time because they're evil.  And evil never wins.  Evil's too busy cackling and plotting grandiose schemes to actually win.

The Voltron Force are good.  They say "team" a lot.  They work for the "good guys" .  They always win--because, y'know, they're good.  Sometimes they have arguments, but they always pull it together.

And now for something completely different--same footage (with some extra gore), but everything else is changed.

The Galra Empire--Daibazal, Sincline, and Sadak--are ruthless.  They make walkways out of naked slaves' back.  Their soldiers whip slaves.  A lot.  Because slaves are weak.  The weak deserve only death.  Only the strong are allowed to prosper in the Galra empire.  Failure is rewarded with death.  Sorry, Sadak.  The Galra Empire is a meritocracy.  They lose because they fight even each other.  When Golion actually makes it to planet Galra, what happens?  Do the various Galran factions unite?  Or do they fall apart due to constant infighting?  Hmm.  There's a lesson here. 

The Golion pilots are drifters.  They don't even have a home planet anymore (Earth was depopulated by World War III and then just exploded due to . . . um, volcanoes or something).  Some members of the Altean royal court don't even see them as the rightful defenders of Alrea--they're peasants!  But they're all Altea's got.  They have disagreements.  But, in the end, they win because they're a team.  Not only that, but as they liberate more and more planets from Galra, and inspire more planets to liberate themselves, they build an alliance that works together to defeat Galra.  Well, more or less.  Golion does most of the work.  But it's a team effort.

So: Voltron = good vs. evil.  Good always triumphs in the end.  Golion = working for the greater good vs. rugged individualism.

Crap!!!  So THAT'S why I'm a Socialist!

Just kidding.  This is just one way of contrasting the differences between the two.