Prince Sincline As A Corrupted Character Copy Of Previous Tragic Evil Princes In Super Robot Anime (Spoilers)

If there was any evil character I had a great fondness for while watching Lion Voltron - it was Prince Lotor. It's only normal that Sincline's my favorite villain Golion - the source material. Sincline's practically almost the Scott Evil while Emperor Daibazaal was the Dr. Evil of the show. Like Scott Evil, he tends to come up with more practical plans while his father (and also Honerva) tend to come up with the typical screwed-up plans. The fact he tried to divide and conquer the Golion team, the fact he held a good amount of the central capital of Altea hostage, and other similar plans. Though, there were times his sadism gets the best of him making him more or less a Stupid Evil and For the Evulz type of villain like Honerva and Daibazaal. 

With the story of Sincline comes a tragedy. He doesn't know who his mother is and Daibazaal keeps refusing to tell him about it. I could only assume that his unnamed mother (who was given a counterpart known as Queen Lora and referred to as Zarkon's wife in the Voltron/Robotech crossover) was wed to Daibazaal. Presumably, Daibazaal held a false peace treaty to get access to the planet. However, Daibazaal would later murder Sincline's mother for asking leniency of the other people who already surrendered. I guess his memory was tampered with by Honerva's magic. He did dream of his mother after all. It seems that he saw his mother die before his eyes but was magically brainwashed.

Some characters similar to Sincline are tragic figures who battled the main hero. General Garuda in Combattler V found out he was just a battle robot. Prince Heinel from Voltes V was suffering for the "sins of the father" and was even manipulated by his boss and first cousin once removed (higher by one generation hence a second uncle) Emperor Zambojil. Admiral Richter of Daimos was too young to become the new Generalissimo of Shou Baam and only wants to protect his own people. I tend to compare Sincline to Heinel because they both frequently rivaled the leader of the respective Five Man Band. Heinel was rivals with Kenichi Go while Sincline was rivals to Akira Kogane. 

In terms of similarities, both Sincline and Heinel aren't only rivals to the Team Leader. Both use underhanded tactics many times such as the use of Malicious Slander. They are Ace Pilots that pilot their own fighter jets. They are Alien Princes and are also Evil Princes, Blood Knights, Card Carrying Villains, Master Swordsmen, Proud Elite, Proud Race Warrior Guy, Royal Brats, Royals Who Actually Do Something, Warrior Prince,  have the tendency to Can't Take Criticism and are The Sociopath. They tend to use Appeal to Force. They have Asskicking Leads to Leadership, and a Bad Boss (though Heinel got better). They are both Bad People Abuse Animals (though Sincline took it Up to Eleven). They are both Beauty is Bad (both are Bishonen characters) as Long-Haired Pretty Boys. Both have a Berserk Button (which both tend to respond with the sword). They use the Blade Blake technique in battle. They became  Broken Aces (when their respective emperors turned against them). They are evil versions of Captain Patriotic (for the Galra Empire). They are  Combat by Champion fighting the main heroes, tend to display dead bodies to make an example out of them, never had a bond with their mothers, the Determinator, the Dragon Ascendant, or Dragon-in-Chief, and they love executions. They both have the Hates Their Parent trope specifically their fathers as Heinel hates his father for his pain while Sincline hates his father for being ABUSIVE. Both also use Hope Crushing techniques if needed to win. In a sense, Sincline had Honor Before Reason when there are times he could've won BUT he does prefer to do things himself. Both have an Inferiority Superiority Complex that both feel superior to the enemies BUT they have their own dark secrets they don't take so lightly. Many times, both had Near Villain Victories, Not Afraid to Die, Opportunistic Bastards, and There's No Kill Like Overkill. Both went under a Villainous BSoD though Heinel got better but not Sincline. Both did become You Outlived Your Usefulness by their respective emperors. 

However, what truly made Sincline a Corrupt Character Copy is some added villainy. Heinel was definitely NOT a sex pervert nor did he attempt to molest Megumi Oka. Sincline is pretty much what if Heinel was a pervert and had an ugly obsession with Megumi. Sincline lusts after Farla (Allura) and attempts to molest her when the opportunity arises. Heck, Sincline even goes as far as to invoke Rape is a Special Kind of Evil by RAPING Amue. Thankfully, some censorship rules saved Amue as it seems that sexual intercourse never happened. True, Sincline is a Tragic Villain but he's still from a family that raised him to be evil or be evil for the sake of it. Sincline can be shown with many women while Heinel only had Katherine. Sincline would even murder his own women if they did the slightest provocation (ex. a drop of liquid) since he's under no delusion he's a good guy. It's not like Heinel who thought Zambojil was on the side of good and genuinely believed that Earthlings were incapable of love. Come on, Heinel said, "I thought you were on the side of good!" at the finale of Voltes V. Members of the Galra royalty tend to do absurdly evil stuff. What's the logic of feeding slaves their EXECUTED FRIENDS during the episode of Daibazaal's birthday? Heck, Daibazaal even takes pride in his evil that King Raimon's words, "The evil will perish!" offends him. I guess Sincline is taught For the Evulz and it went Gone Horribly Right. A lot of actions by the Galran nobility seem to be nothing more than Stupid Evil. I bet Emperor Zambojil, a Hate Sink, may approve of slaying disobedient slaves at a party but would NEVER feed executed traitors to other slaves for the sake of it.

At first, it seemed Sincline believed in victory in combat or some honorable fight. I guess that's why Sincline preferred to turn Sadak into a gigantic beast fighter to battle Golion. He does have some sense of honor except it's warped because "Screw it! What for? I'm evil!" Sincline challenged Akira to a duel during his first appearance. Sincline wanted to kill Akira HIMSELF than send others to do it. More often than not, Sincline plays that trope to a T. Though Sincline started to become more and more scheming to take over the throne. Sure, Sincline's actions against Daibazaal are rather understandable. However, Heinel had no real intention to overthrow Zambojil and only wanted to redeem himself from his father's shameful shadow. Sincline was already showing signs of disloyalty to his father openly and behind the scenes. Sincline would later eventually overthrow his own father who attempted to make him You Outlived Your Usefulness. Sincline does have some "justification" to do what he did though it's mired with selfish ambition.

The finale had his Villainous BSoD. Sincline overthrow his own father and forced the latter to fight Golion. Sincline ordered the creation of the new mechanical beast fighter where Daibazaal was to be used as its brain component. Later, Honerva was forced to reveal what I think was too random. Rather than just make Honerva a die-hard loyalist - I dunno why the writers decided to make her Daibazaal's MOTHER. Yes, that's what World Events Productions never knew so Haggar was made into Zarkon's former lover when UGH... HAGGAR WAS REALLY ZARKON'S MOTHER ALL ALONG! Honerva gave the random plot out that Daibazaal was her illegitimate son by the previous emperor! We never saw Zambojil's mother in Voltes V though. We never saw how Daibazaal became the Emperor of Galra either. It'd been cool if we saw a darker plot revealing Daibazaal usurping the crown and then turning Galra into the sh*thole it became. However, the revelation never affected Sincline at all like Heinel did in discovering he battled his own flesh and blood. The relationship was just as hardened as Zambojil's discovery that the Gou brothers are his second nephews NEVER AFFECTED HIM ONE BIT. Sincline just proceeded to murder Honerva anyway. Honerva later revealed that Sincline's mother as an Altean woman. Sincline grew mad and murdered HIS OWN GRANDMOTHER anyway. Wow, that really was something. Again, Honerva wasn't exactly too fond of him so I guess that's why the revelation never matter to Sincline.

Like Heinel, Sincline was more than willing to put himself at risk than surrender. However, being a more evil version of Heinel made those evil traits that Sincline has in common Up to Eleven. What truly crossed me was that he MURDERED HIS OWN HENCHMEN who begged him to surrender. Sincline would rather die if the Galra Empire would be no more. Sincline decided to use more underhanded dirty tactics that Heinel would use except it spelled his end. Sincline knew that he could die at any time so why not fight to the end? Sincline tried to destroy Golion by taking Ryou Shirogane (the younger brother of Takashi Shirogane who was killed off too early) hostage. The plan only backfired when Platt and the others blinded him. Ryou stabbed Sincline and both fell to their deaths. Though, I felt Sincline should've just died at Akira's hands instead. Still, I guess Sincline knew he was losing and he'd rather die in combat than surrender. 

That pretty much made him quite the opposite. I guess it was a good move to make Sincline a Corrupted Character Copy. The Robot Romance Trilogy gave redemption to the most recurring foes namely Heinel and Richter. Heinel died saving Kenichi from the fire in a Last Minute Redemption. Richter ended up feeling shame when Kazuya Ryuzaki saved a billion Baamins and committed suicide to atone for his sins. Not for Sincline. Sincline becomes a Corrupted Character Copy so corrupt (since he knows he's evil and LOVES BEING EVIL) that giving him a Redemption Rejection was the best way to conclude. Even better, Sincline became the Final Boss presumably due to how popular he was with the fans.