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Emperor Daibazaal, the ruler of the Galran Empire, is a despotic conqueror, slaver and murderer. Seeking to expand his grasp across the Galaxy, Daibazaal conquers planets that will submit and destroys those that will not. The slaves taken are condemned to fight in gladiator arenas, or fed to the monsters on planet Galra for his amusement. He also has no hesitation at taking attractive women from these worlds as concubines; One that he once favored once begged him to give better treatment to the slaves, for which he strangled her to death. Daibazaal and his son Sincline (whom he fathered with the concubine that he killed) have a mutual loathing of one another and Daibazaal has no compunction trying to get him killed. Brutal, nasty, smug and cruel, Daibazaal is an example of an Evil Overlord at his worst.
GoLion Is Big In America: Voltron is far better known in America than GoLion is in Japan. In fact, GoLion is almost forgotten there. This is because when GoLion premiered in Japan, there were already tons of transforming/combining mecha shows on the airwaves, while in America it was pretty much the only show of its kind (not to mention it had to compete with Super Sentai in Japan too, which, aside from a USA Network Gag Dub, America didn't get until the early 90s). This got to the point that, in The New Tens, a whole Netflix series based on "Lion Voltron" spanned from this: Voltron: Legendary Defender.
Narm: Ryou's voice sometimes gets quite high-pitched, kinda ruining the scenes where this happens. It doesn't help that he sounds like Kabamaru; people familiar with Ryusei Nakao's early roles will giggle immaturely at that.
Narm Charm: Shirogane's death would normally not age very well... and yet, decades afterwards, it still manages to be heartbreaking. This is in no small part due to the voice acting: the viewers can almost imagine Akira and Isamu's VAs actually crying as they deliver their lines, especially as their characters assist Shirogane in his last moments, desperately beg him not to die, and are pretty much screaming when he does..
Nightmare Fuel: Quite more than one would expect from an 80's Super Robot show.
The start of episode 21, what with all of the rape imaginery surrounding Sincline and Amue's interactions.
Episode 38 was especially horrible regarding this, featuring enemies that hunt others for pretty much sport and graphically kill their victims.
The Scrappy: Ryou Shirogane has garnered quite a bit of a Hatedom from fans of the dubbed Voltron, particularly Sven/Romelle shippers who compare him unfavorably to his dub counterpart Sven, who retained Takashi's cool-headed and gentle personality and is more of a traditional knight to Romelle than the Hot-Blooded Ryou is to Amue. Entire blog posts exist to compare the two and rant about how much Ryou is a horrible person and Sven is perfect!
Tear Jerker: The death of the Gorgon beastwoman who adopted Suzuichi (because he reminded her of her dead child) in episode 27.
Shirogane's death, in Kogane's arms and in front of Kurogane; plus, his wake and his funeral. This has a massive Break the Cutie effect on the team, with everyone sobbing their hearts out (especially Fala and Kogane) and poor Suzuichi having a full-blown breakdown in front of his open casket..
The destruction of the already ravaged Earth in the aforementioned episode 20.
Episode 21 is dedicated to Amue's hardships during her times as Sincline's prisoner and apparent Sex Slave. Naturally, it's full of this and double when she and other girls try to escape, but the plan fails and she's recaptured, much to the GoLion team and her brother Alcor's frustration..
The rather tragic friendship between Isamu and Aimee in episode 22.
What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: GoLion has genocide, many graphic deaths (including children), lots of blood, allusions to traditional and sexual slavery, etc. And yet it was aired like pretty much any Super Robot shows in Japan (and Italy too, though it was later overshadowed by the Italian dub of Voltron). No WONDER it was Bowdlerised in the USA.