| “ | Among Lotor's generals, Zethrid is the wild card. As stubborn as she is strong, the only person Zethrid truly listens to is Lotor - to the point of taking his commands to an extreme. She can be cruel and enjoys toying with her adversaries. | ” |
— Official Profile , Voltron: Legendary Defender Official Website | ||
Zethrid is a general of the Galra Empire and one of Prince Lotor's top generals and later a warlord in her own right. She is very muscular and has an affinity for violence. After Zarkon's death, she was imprisoned alongside Acxa and Ezor, before being freed and recruited by Haggar. After the loss of Lotor, she and Ezor became warlords of the empire, causing Acxa to defect to find a new path.
Biography[]
Season 3[]
Zethrid debuts in "Changing of the Guard," where alongside the other generals, she hides within the Gladiator audience while cloaked. Once Lotor reveals himself, Zethrid uncloaks herself and growls at Throk, whom she and the others have surrounded. After Lotor defeats Throk, she is seen saluting and then waiting for Lotor alongside the other generals.
In "Red Paladin," she along the other generals are seen taking over Puig. Once the take over is complete, she is seen reporting alongside the other generals, where she plays with Kova. Later on, when the paladins are engaged in a fight against the Royal Cruiser, Zethrid is in charge of the weapons systems of the cruiser.
Zethrid and the other generals provide backup to Lotor as he tests and then hunts down the paladins in "The Hunted." She is shown to be increasingly frustrated at how he toyed with them, and would yell at him from the Cruiser, only to be silenced by Acxa.
In "Hole in the Sky," Zethrid along with the others are seen discussing Lotor's plan to trick the paladins into retrieving the comet ore. Zethrid remarks how Lotor's earlier attempts to retrieve it had brought her amusement, even if not for his pilots.
In "The Journey," she along the other generals are shown to be manning the cruiser as General Raht spies on Lotor. When they detect Raht, Zethrid suggests destroying whoever is following them.
Zethrid and the other generals are seen infiltrating Throk's base in "Tailing a Comet." There she is shown to break down the entrance into the control room, while providing a distraction for Narti to take control of Throk. Throughout the process, she is quick to demand to "finish" Throk and go against Acxa's orders. Once Narti has Throk shut down security and open the hatch to the base, Zethrid and the other generals return to their ship to find that the paladins have broken into it. Zethrid is the first to attack, aiming for and battling Allura. After the paladins escape, Zethrid intended to pursue them, but is again stopped by Acxa. As Acxa and Narti attempt to divert the paladins, Zethrid and Ezor attempt to take the piece of the teleduv outside of the base, only for it to be accidentally destroyed by Acxa and Narti. She is last seen this season being picked up by Acxa and Narti, before they disappear away from Voltron.
Season 4[]
Zethrid appears when Lotor is summoned by Haggar in "Code of Honor." Alongside the other generals, she watches as Haggar reprimands Lotor for being an absent Emperor and allowing planets to fall astray of the Empire.
She appears afterwards in "Black Site," where she is in charge of manning the Bridge as Lotor, Ezor, Acxa, and Narti are overseeing the construction of the sincline ships. When the cruiser gets attacked by Zarkon's Royal Fleet, Lotor contacts Zethrid telling her to open fire. Zethrid tells him that there's too many, and they keep coming. The team decides to load the comet ore into another one of the sincline ships and leave, but as they do they receive more heavy fire. Zethrid questions if they've been spied on, and Lotor kills Narti for it, to the surprise of Zethrid herself. After abandoning Narti and Kova on the ship, the rest of the team escape on the Sincline ships. Zethrid is seen refusing to drive the ship and is in visible mourning.
Later when the team inside the Sincline ships are on route to the rift of Daibazaal in "Begin the Blitz," Zethrid mentions how there's nothing to detect at the rift. Lotor tells her they're not supposed to. At the rift, Zethrid warns Lotor that he's using all their concentrated quintessence as he plans to enter the rift gate. They both enter the rift gate, only to come out the other end in failure. Afterwards alongside Ezor, Zethrid agrees that Lotor is dangerous with plans that fail. When Acxa takes him down, Zethrid is shocked but agrees to tie him up in the ship. She apologizes to Lotor when he wakes up, only to get ejected by Lotor himself. She is last seen this season saying that since they've lost Lotor, their bargaining chip, they're as dead as him.
Personality[]
Zethrid possesses a strong, outspoken, aggressive personality. Out of all of Lotor's generals, Zethrid approaches her line of work with the most zeal and violence without any careful forethought. This is seen when she encourages Lotor to attack the Lions outright at Thayserix, before Acxa explains that the planet was made of a highly combustible gas which reacts violently to the amplification of light.
Zethrid is extremely loyal to Lotor and her affinity for violence means her job as one of Lotor's generals is suited to her talents. She enjoys her line of work, and is disappointed if she is held back from excessive action. For example, when Lotor told her to merely graze the Black Lion, not destroy it, Zethrid responded with a dull "Fine." However, after telling her to fire at the Altean ship with everything she had, she responded with an enthusiastic "Yes sir!" Zethrid is entertained by destruction even if it is not caused directly by her own hand. When Lotor sent pilots to pull out a Trans-reality Comet, but they failed and exploded, Zethrid stated that the failed attempts to retrieve it were more enjoyable for her to watch than an actual success.
Zethrid has displayed respect for others who give her a proper battle; this was shown when she considered Allura a "worthy opponent."
After witnessing Lotor murdering Narti, Zethrid and the other two generals quickly lost their trust in the Galra prince. Believing that Lotor would dispose of them as well if it was in his interests, they conspired to hand him over to the Empire in exchange for their own lives.
In Season 7, Zethrid is much crueler and somewhat sadistic since becoming a warlord as shown what she, along with Ezor, planned to torture the Paladins for information about Lotor's whereabouts. She also is not above taunting or making fun of her opponents, as was the case with Keith and Acxa when she made fun of Acxa for defending Keith.
Despite all of her penchant for violence and cruelty, Zethrid is not without a caring side: When Ezor feared the possibility of Lotor's return, Zethrid comforts her and declares she will always take care of her.
Powers and Abilities[]
Zethrid's large body grants her immense strength and durability, allowing her to throw enemies across the battlefield with a single punch or drop onto a planet's surface with no landing gear from great height while sustaining no damage.[1][2]
Aside from her fists, she favors using a laser rifle or blasting enemies with whatever large guns she can command.[1][2] Zethrid is very resourceful, often utilizing anything she can find in the battlefield to gain an edge in combat. She has been observed tearing chunks of rock or metal from the ground and hurl them at her enemies. In addition of her resourcefulness and marksmanship, Zethrid able to handle herself pretty well in close quarters. In spite of possessing strength and combat prowess which advantageous for such combat style, she lacked a mental acumen. Zethrid's brash side, coupled with her obsession with the conflict, often blinded her from fully understand the situation in the battlefield that whatever advantages that she had tends to be counter-productive. In spite of this, she makes up with her vast knowledge in weaponry, having in charge of arsenals installed in Lotor's ship as well as the one who used them and taking direct orders from him to use them.
Trivia[]
- Zethrid's name was originally either "Ythorod" or "Aihpos", but was changed when Studio Mir pointed out to series staff that it was a name common to old women spelled backwards; it was intentional on the writers' part as being a reference to The Golden Girl's along with "Esor", spelling "Rose", "Dorothy", and "Sophia".[3]
- For Lotor's generals, series staff went with a standard RPG team format; Zethrid is intended to be the big, strong fighter or the tank.[4]