Crime without punishment

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen.

I present to your attention a phased analysis of all the scenes with the participation of our beautiful Romelle. At the same time, I will add a few conclusions about what could actually happen.

The story begins with Keith and Krolia following the trail of the blue quintessence.

Krolia catches a signal, and this signal leads them straight to the Galran base.

Focus on the size of this base. It’s big… but it hardly reaches the size of even a city. A sort of large multi-story building.

They decide to scout this base. Not having met any security system, they penetrate into it and find a certain space with an illusion.

Large open space, meadows, flowers, trees. And the complete absence of signs of life. After wandering there for a while, Keith hears a girl washing clothes near the water.

That is, he didn’t find anything or anyone else. Only her. Moreover, if he managed to find her so quickly, then the space around wasn’t so big.

It means that: 

a) Keith and Krolia found Romelle fast enough, which indicates the size of this base because they could go in any direction;

b) the only thing Keith heard was Romelle washing clothes in a stream. They found no other signs of the presence of intelligent creatures.

The remaining events are retold from the words of Romelle.

She says that she lived in a peaceful colony with her parents and brother, then only with her brother, and she never left her peaceful settlement before meeting with the Blades.

She claims that all her life she lived at this base. And that a bunch of Alteans live here too.

I remind you: when Keith and Krolia entered this base, on the scale of the whole settlement it turns out that they found Romelle almost immediately, and there were no other signs of life here except Romelle herself. Not even the security system. It’s an absolutely empty base.

Excuse me, where are the inhabitants of the rest of the colony? Even in a remote village, even in the middle of the night, some kind of movement takes place. And they appeared in the daytime, when it’s usually the height of work. Where are the millions mentioned by Lotor and seen by us in S8?

Instead of a whole colony, we meet only one girl who, in the midst of high technology, washes clothes in a stream. Apparently, on this base there is anything but a washing machine.

That is, from this moment on, Romelle begins to lie. Because she was alone at the base where Keith and Krolia arrived.

Let’s continue.

When the brother flies away, he leaves her a communicator. And at some point, this device gave a signal and led Romelle to the fallen ship.

That is, the ship flew in, broke through the ceiling of the base, fell down, and nobody noticed it. Only Romelle.

Have the inhabitants of the colony sharply developed selective deafness? Can you imagine what a rumble was supposed to come from a ship that broke through a thick ceiling?

And you know, I have big questions about how such a small ship managed to break through the dome and not turn into a metal pancake.

When Romelle looked inside the ship, she saw her emaciated dying brother. That is, it’s assumed that he piloted this ship.

And at the same time, she tells the Blades that none of the inhabitants of the colony knew how to use these ships.

Further, according to Keith’s story, they flew to the satellite, found a base there without any security system and half-dead Alteans in capsules.

And what do we have here?

That exhausted Bandor:

— got out of the capsule;

— crawled from the capsule to the hangar;

— managed to open the hangar;

— having no piloting skills, he managed to raise a ship into the air (which, of course, is easier to steal from a secret base than a car from a parking lot) and flew away on it;

— managed to direct the ship exactly to the place where Romelle lived;

— and all this in the presence of Lotor, who at that moment was at this base and rushed in pursuit.

You know… for me, it looks like sheer nonsense. Was there a door open button in the capsule? Or did the dying Bandor turn out to be stronger than the other hundreds of dying Alteans and managed to break through the glass and get out? And I won’t even talk about the hangar, which opens as easily as a window leaf.

This sad story caused even more sad WTF. It’s sad because of the stupidity of grateful listeners. Who were so expecting some meanness from Lotor that they’re ready to believe even such nonsense.

And after her tearful tale with pure innocent eyes full of sadness, the first thing that Romelle demands is to shoot all the cannons at the ship with Lotor.

«I told you such a sad story here, I blinked sweetly with my eyes! Are you still waiting for something? Shoot, now!»

And that… gives us an interesting contrast, which we’ll meet further in the series. This is the contrast between what Romelle tries to portray to the public and what she does when she doesn’t control herself, or when she isn’t paid attention.

When she communicates with the paladins, she constantly portrays a cute little fool.

But as soon as she forgets about holding onto her face, something amusing begins.

Where are you, dear innocent girl Romelle? Why is there a fighter who rejoices in the battle, and then calmly knocks the hatch and throws the enemy off the ship to certain death?

Sorry, but a country girl from a peaceful colony won’t behave like that in a combat situation. Just remember how Hunk, who studied at the Garrison, behaved in the first season.

A resident of a peaceful settlement in this situation will either sit in a corner and whine, or run in circles and yell «Aaah, we gonna diiie!».

And by the way, this frame also raised questions for me:

Beauty, tell me one thing: you have lived all your life inside the base and you have never seen the ships, except for several Altean ones. How do you know what Lotor’s fleet looks like?

Interesting question, right?

New episode. Visiting a druid.

Once visiting «the survived Blade», Romelle doesn’t behave well-mannered.

But it’s not that. The fact is, that having caught herself she begins to lie openly, instead of just apologizing and saying that she didn’t want to offend him.

Even taking into account the fact that she plays the fool, we get… lies as a lifestyle?

You see, for an ordinary person who’s used to telling the truth, a certain moral strain is required for a lie. It’s hard to lie without experience.

For Romelle, lying is as natural as breathing.

The next scene is also wonderful. When Kolivan says that they found absolutely nothing other than an empty base by Keith’s coordinates. Look at the reaction of Romelle.

The complete lack of surprise.

And really, why should she be surprised? The base was empty, wasn’t it?

In the next episodes of S7 Romelle is virtually absent. It’s important to remember, and it’s absolutely reasonable. She simply follows Coran and does nothing, since she’s a civilian.

But then Launch Date (S8 Ep1) comes.

Romelle, along with Allura, looks at Luca. And immediately says a lot of interesting things.

She knew Luca. They didn’t get along, but she respected her for inner strength and a desire to be a part of something greater than herself.

And yes, this is a very remarkable moment.

Millions lived in the colony of Lotor. And among these millions, Rommelle is incredibly «lucky» to have an acquaintance who turned out to be a pilot of the white mecha.

What an amazing coincidence.

And the way she told information about Luca… would you like me to translate Romelle’s words to what she actually meant while talking to Allura?

—  You know, back on the colony, Luca and I didn’t always get along: Luca doesn’t like me, so you shouldn’t be surprised to it;

— But despite that, I always respected Luca: but I still treat her well, I’m a good girl and you can trust me;

— She had <…> a desire to be a part of something greater than herself: she’s a fanatic, so don’t believe her words.

And Allura understood exactly what Romelle wanted to say.

I’ll skip the scene where Romelle’s insisting on a date, but I’ll keep it in your thoughts. Romelle knows that Allura awaits Luca’s awakening with awe, and Romelle must wait for this too – logically, she should be worried about the fate of her people (remembering S7 – not a bit).

But the date, of course, is more important. Romelle literally begs Allura to agree, declaring her concern. By the way, after that episode Romelle never shows a desire to support Allura during the difficult period of her life.

Then the girls go looking for a dress for Allura, where Romelle demonstrates a picturesque lack of taste, which doesn’t at all combine with her own, quite ordinary Altean clothing.

The next scene is with Luca. Romelle’s fawning, asking her where everyone is. But why should she fawn in front of a person with whom she, in her own words, is not in very good relations?

And then she’s quite sincerely surprised that Luca knows about her act. Romelle didn’t take into account the variable represented by Honerva.

There’s no Romelle in the next episode, but I just insert a frame with that bunch of Alteans who, as it’s said, lived freely at that base. And with whom Keith and Krolia managed not to meet.

The next significant appearance of Romelle occurs only in Day 47 (S8Ep7). Allura took her to communicate with pilots of white mechas, rescued by members of the Coalition.

So, we have six pilots of white mechas who refuse to make contact.

Romelle persuades a pilot named Tavo to take the side of the Coalition, to which the man – absolutely calmly, emotionlessly and judiciously – responds that Romelle can go to hell.

Moreover, Romelle says that they grew up together and Tavo doesn’t deny it.

And then the fun begins. Interview with Romelle.

She says she knew all six pilots.

But not even this is the most entertaining.

When she’s asked why the Alteans took up arms against the paladins, Romelle with sincere misunderstanding declares that she doesn’t know. Although it seems that Luca directly told her that the main reason was the killing of Lotor.

And even more. She says that humans should be sympathetic, because the Alteans were haunted nearly to extinction. That they’re afraid.

And you know, this is ridiculous. Because modern Alteans could learn about the persecution and extermination only from history books and educational films.

«Children, read about how St. Lotor saved the Altean people and write an essay on this topic.»

Thousands of years have passed since the establishment of the colony. Not a single Altean lives as much under ordinary conditions. The generation of those who survived the persecution has died. Moreover, many generations gave birth to so many Alteans that there are now millions of them. And they lived in full board at Lotor’s paradise. Full, dressed. Better than the rest of the universe.

Alteans aren’t scared. They’re in righteous rage.

All that Romelle says is sheer lies. And she just amazingly depicts emotions.

And by the way, about the pilots: there are millions of inhabitants in the colony. Why is Romelle familiar with those Alteans who were put in white mechas? Don’t you think that seven different Alteans are somehow too much, taking into account Romelle’s statement that the Alteans don’t have any defense forces and that they don’t know how to pilot ships?

How many questions… who would answer me?

I don’t see the point of further commenting on the series. For one simple reason: after Clear Day episode (S8Ep8), there is NO ONE normal animation with Romelle in the series. There are no full-fledged replicas, only static pictures. Sometimes moving static pictures. The animators tried to create the presence of Romelle where she initially wasn’t. She turned into a literal cardboard (you can find more detailed analysis in A brief analysis of scenes with Romelle).

And I can say why.

In Clear Day, a conversation between Lotor and Allura was to take place. And it seems that this conversation had unpleasant consequences for Romelle.

Now a little bit of my conclusions.

I can’t imagine why Lotor built this empty base with all the amenities which Romelle occupied – but I can explain why the Blades didn’t find anything.

They didn’t find anything, because Lotor protected his objects from external search and they couldn’t be found so simply. Keith and Krolia were able to find the base with Romelle because Romelle made sure that they had this signal.

Therefore, no one discovered a real second colony on a neighboring green planet. After all, it remained protected.

And Romelle knew all the pilots… because they were her colleagues. Lotor had defense forces, and Romelle served in these forces – along with Tavo, Luca and the rest. Romelle was a trained fighter and pilot.

What happened to Bandor is unknown, but Rommelle herself stole her brother from the capsule and took him aboard. Perhaps out of good intentions, but in the result he died in her arms. Because, most likely, it was strictly forbidden to remove Bandor from the capsule. Remember that all Alteans in capsules were still alive.

And I think that she planned to bring her brother to this empty base. The base was fully active, but abandoned. Perhaps the base was simply mothballed as unnecessary, and Romelle turned it on again. That is, the flight with a landing was real – Romelle ran away from Lotor, and then hid in the midst of an illusion. Lotor obviously had no desire to run and look for her in the illusory forest (and he could just turn it off – the base was empty!) And simply left, ordering the laboratory robots (not combat ones!) to repair the base.

Ultimately, Romelle got angry at Lotor, blamed him for everything and decided to take revenge by any means. Ruthlessly and calmly. And the paladins became pawns in her skillful hands.

You know, there’s such a series, She-Ra. And those who watched both She-Ra and Voltron are very fond of finding similar characters: Lotor, Shiro, Allura, Haggar, Zonerva-like ship…

Romelle also has her own analogy.

Double Trouble. Oh, yes.

I like Zarkon with all his madness. And I like Haggar.

I love villains with principles. But I don’t like unscrupulous bastards at all, no matter how charismatic they are. It makes no difference to me how cool Double Trouble is, I just dream of Shadow Weaver dipping their face in a puddle.

And it’s unfortunate that in the series that we received, the main character Allura died tragically, and the unprincipled bastard Romelle won and remained unscathed.