A Brief Dissertation

Why Sven is Wonderful

Oh, gee. There's a hard one. ::blush:: Sorry. I suppose Sven was my first crush, real or imaginary. I first saw Voltron when it aired in 1984, when I was four. The only thing I really remember was Sven, which is pretty significant, since until his resurrection at the end of the season, he's only in about six episodes. Here's a brief list of what makes Svenny a cut above the rest... ;)

1. He was the best-dressed (the black and gold uniform was snazzy, and the outfit he wore later in the series was nice) 2. He has ESP (That's Extra-SVENsory Perception: the ability to KNOW exactly when the villains are about to shoot the pretty blonde princess, enabling him to knock her gallantly out of the way. He just KNOWS.) 3. He can change colors at will (cf. Season One, Episode Six) 4. He actually gets the girl (sort of) 5. He's the only guy on the series who goes through (bless my soul!) SIX different costume changes!

6. The laws of physics do not apply to him. (In the ep where he disguises as a robeast he escapes the soon-to-be-exploding enemy spacecraft by leaping OUT of said spacecraft and INTO an escape pod...without a space suit! Come to think of it, WHY was there a hole in the side of ship, anyway?)
7. He is by far the handsomest. Sorry, Keith fans. He is! He doesn't have that big-cheeked baby face, those big cutsie saucer eyes, that insane hair, those...gogo boots! Sven is actually rather more masculine than most anime heroes I've seen. He's got a good strong jaw, lovely build, long legs, normal hair, great eyes, a sweet smile... ::sigh:: And a nice personality! Really. He's a man of few words (thank goodness, since I wouldn't be able to take that corny accent for long if he were the loquacious type!), but he has a sense of humor, a sense of honor, a sense of altruism. Which, actually, isn't that great, as it has a tendency to get him killed, although it makes for great story fodder. :)

The neat thing about Sven is that his character actually changes over the course of the series. He goes from this self-sure, knightly figure, to one with a wild self-destructive streak and a need for redemption. ::sigh:: I don't buy the inferiority complex theme I've seen applied to him a few times. He's not "just a pilot" and he knows it. In episode six, when he told Lance to get help so he could fight Haggar alone, that wasn't self-sacrifice; it was bravado. The guy honestly thought he had a better chance of defeating the witch than Lance did. And he would have, too, if she hadn't cheated! ::grr, snarl:: So the guy's ego took a major shock and that was why when Romelle

found him in the Pit of Skulls many episodes later, he was sort of down. I think he saw his failure to rally and save the day on Planet Ebb where he was hospitalized as a personal failure and figured he never really was the superhero he'd imagined himself to be. Which has to be depressing. In going after Lotor alone during Episode 52, Sven's motives must have been two-fold. Of course he wanted to avenge Romelle, who had faced terrible torment at Lotor's hands. But I think he also needed to atone for his own weakness, figuring that if he killed the Bad Guy, he would have proven his worth once more. Maybe he saw the duel as a trial by combat. And when he failed even to kill Lotor (which he could have, I mean, c'mon, Lotor had a sword and Sven had a gun), it brought home to him once again the truth that he was only one mortal person. I have a friend who says his actions at the very end of that episode were a little suicidal. I think I agree with her, there. What Sven needs is a good, decisive victory...and a big hug. :)

I think what Sven saw and admired in Romelle was her strength. She had just been dumped into the Pit of Skulls, after having been royally abused by the bad guys, and yet she was able to rise to her feet, confront her fears, and his. She must have shamed him with her resilience. He was very standoffish at first. Then when Lotor and Zarkon employed the Iron Maiden (this giant souped up robeast) to torture some prisoners in an attempt to lure Romelle from her hiding place, and she would have given herself in to save those people, Sven's whole attitude changed. He switches at once from snarling, "Personal problems? They're your problems!" to absolutely refusing to let Romelle surrender herself, and actually saddling his grief and escaping to Pollux with her. ::romantic sigh::

And that is where the inferiority complex regarding Romelle comes from. She's an indomitable spirit and becomes a beacon for him (like Beatrice for Dante, maybe?) and he just feels that until he does something to redeem himself, he does not deserve her.

Here's another S'Mellee notion. Dig it: before she ever turned her pretty blue eyes on Keith (or Lance), Princess Allura dug Sven. It's true! Check it out: in the episode where the VF first meets the princess, Keith may be smooching her hand, but she's looking right over his shoulder at Sven. When the Lions first fly and are doing badly, who does Allura contact? Not Keith. And whose face appears in a bubble next to her head when she's seeking inspiration? The cutie in black. Finally, who can forget the Antenna Incident? ;) While the other boys are tromping around Arus, Sven and Allura are putting together what looks like an antenna, on the castle battlements. And when the Doom ships attack a minute later, Keith may object to Zarkon's plans to make Allura his slave, but it's Sven who gallantly knocks her out of the line of fire...and pretty much lands on top of her. I'm sure she didn't mind. :)

Finally...there is no Sho. Only Sven. As far as I'm concerned, Voltron and its Japanese forerunner, Golion, are two completely different shows. In Golion there were two characters named Shirogane Takashi and Sho, who died. In Voltron, there is a character named Sven, who lives, solves his problems, and, eventually, gets the girl.

And now, about that girl...

The Romelle vs. Allura Debate

My history with Romelle is a little sketchy. I mean, when I first saw this show, almost sixteen years ago, I was interrupted halfway through, didn't remember Romelle at all. The last image I remember seeing was Sven in the Pit of Skulls, pulling a young blonde woman in a blue dress to her feet. I remember him saying something like, "You as captive and I as slave..." (which turned out not to be what he said, exactly, nor was that even the episode in which he said it!) and that was it. The long mystery.

I imagine what people say when they see Romelle for the first time is, "Oh, another Allura clone!" They certainly look similar, although I don't think the resemblence is that striking. (Roma is much prettier!) But they're really not that similar at all. Where Allura is the cute, pampered princess who rides around like one of the guys, Romelle's story is more romantic and tragic. She lives on a planet with a father who is insane and evil, Brother Avoc (who may be a decent guy deep down) is turned into a robeast by Haggar and killed by the Voltron Force, and her other brother is Prince Bandor. Poor girl! >_< Following her brother's defeat she is abducted and tortured by Lotor for the simple and unfortunate fact that she happens to resemble the woman he is obsessed with, then dumped into the Pit of Skulls to die. ::breaks out the violin:: In the Pit she bumps into a nutcase who, in a turn of luck, turns out to be a Cute Hero underneath the rough exterior.

(You are invited to skip this paragraph as it may be offensive to young and/or sensitive readers. Did Lotor actually rape Romelle? There's a debate going on. I want to say yes, despite the fact that this is a cartoon. Golion, from whence Voltron emerged, was intended for a more mature target audience. In Golion a lot of nasty business was edited out to turn the show into Voltron. Why the editors missed this is beyond me. Maybe they figured since it's implied it would go over the heads of young viewers? In any case, I think that yes he did. When he approaches Romelle in the dungeon his overtures are definitely sexual in nature. The other women in the cell seem terrified by his presence. Anyway, what else is this creep going to do with a woman who looks a lot like the girl he has a sick obsession for? When Romelle returns to the cell alone she has a look on her face of absolute horror. It's pretty clear she hates Lotor's guts. That poor girl. Lotor deserves to die. End of rant.)

Okay then, the Romelle vs. Allura debate. ::rubs hands together:: Goodie. ;) Allura is a lovely person. She is sweet and gentle. She would make a wonderful friend. However, given the choice, I would much rather have Melle on my team. Melle doesn't whine. Her ideas actually work (like when she hijacked a spaceship and escaped from Doom--it's not her fault the ship got shot down--or when she and Sven led a ground assault on Doom in the last few eps). Melle is more comfortable with her femininity. (How about that hot pink outfit she wears in the latter half of the series?) She can run in heels. She has better hair. She doesn't frolic with Space Mice. She can pilot a ship. She only flirts with one man, and that's Sven. (Allura makes eyes at just about everyone! And people call Romelle promiscuous! Please.) I mean, just look at how the ladies deal with Lotor!

     

'Nuff said. ;)

I mean, Romelle isn't perfect. She can be a little girly at the wrong moments, and the short skirt probably isn't the best outfit to be doing espionage work in. Oh, well. Women worth rooting for on this series are in limited quantities. Romelle's the best of what we got. She's pretty cool. Definitely deserving of our Sven.

And for anyone who thinks differently, because this is the S'Mellee Zone... ;)