Emperor Zeppo in his Throne Room.
Emperor Zeppo was once the ruler of the Drule Empire. He fully supported the efforts of the other Drule leaders to thwart peace with the Galaxy Alliance, and was utterly uncaring of the fate of his subjects as the end of the Drule Homeworld approached. This attitude ultimately forced the otherwise loyal Commander Hazar and his family to promote open rebellion against his rule.
Fiction
Voltron: Defender of the Universe Continuity
Throughout most of the series, all we ever see of Zeppo is a portrait of him adorning every Drule command ship.
It is not until much later that he is introduced in the flesh, attending meetings of the Drule Supreme Council. No other Drule holds higher royal rank than the Emperor. When the liberation of planet Drule finally came, Zeppo quietly stood by as Commander Hazar personally overthrew his rule. Hazar thus immediately became Drule's rightful emperor, though he then decreed that their world would no longer have any Emperors, but that leaders would from then on be elected. Zeppo and Viceroy Throk proceeded to quietly flee the dying planet.
Shortly after the inevitable destruction of planet Drule, the liberated citizens were being moved to a new planet by the Galaxy Alliance. Zeppo revealed a secret world named Deeva that he had sent forward robot scouts to. There, they would rebuild the weapons of the Empire, permitting them to one day strike out, take over the new Drule planet, and threaten the galaxy once again. Their success or lack thereof in this has never been established.
Notes
- This possibly would have led to a second season of the Vehicle series, had WEP decided to animate their own episodes of it, as they had with the Lion Force series.
- Zeppo's name in the original Dairugger XV series was Emperor Corsair Of The Galveston Empire, in keeping with the outlaw motif of the villains' names in that series. Like Zarkon's Go Lion counterpart Daibazal, he did not survive the end of the series.
- Zeppo's name may be a bit of humor on the part of the writers. Actor, comedian and bandleader Herbert "Zeppo" Marx was an early 20th Century entertainer, part of the legendary comedic family troupe, The Marx Brothers. His brothers included the far better known Julius "Groucho" Marx, Leonard "Chico" Marx, and Arthur "Harpo" Marx. Like Emperor Zeppo to King Zarkon, Zeppo Marx is often overlooked in favor of his brothers.