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The face of Altea's nightmares...

Sorceress Honerva is a regular supporting character in the classic 1981 super-robot anime series Go Lion. She is the lead female villain, a powerful witch in the service of Emperor Daibazaal whose wickedness and cruelty have brought massive suffering, misery and death to the people of Altea, and even to the Go Lion team itself. Any time Galra came close to defeating the super-robot, you can be certain Honerva was at the center of the plan. She was also not to be taken lightly in hand to hand combat, her powers at times capable of turning back the entire team, and early on killing one of them, Blue Lion's original pilot, Shirogane Takashi. The energy blasts from her staff can incinerate a living being with no effort. Her tricks and traps are invariably devious and deadly, and sometimes are so successful, only other magic can turn them away, such as the spirit of King Raimon, father of Altea's Princess Fala. Yet for all the power she turns against Altea and Go Lion, the power she wields over Galra's royal family by way of two deadly secrets is even more startling. Galra would still be an enormous threat without her. With Honerva, it was close to invincible, striking at whim without ever suffering reprisals. Without her, Galra would merely be an evil empire; with her it is a darkening icon of sin and depravity.

Honerva is apt to call what she accomplishes occult science rather than merely sorcery. She indeed knows the ins and outs of manipulating genetics, but seems at times to bend physical laws to her will, as when she quickly bred an enhanced clone of Prince Imperial Sincline within about an hour. She is the main crafter of the MechaBlack Beastmen that challenge (and fail against) Go Lion, crafting creatures that are ever more bloodthirsty, sometimes literally. She was able to create a rain of fire on Altea, a plague of saboteur frogs, alien mice, poisoned flowers that seeded and grew quickly, resulting in massive fatalities, and once even faked Princess Fala's death so that her body could be stolen and revived later. She embodies the stereotypes of both the evil fairy-tale witch and an amoral mad scientist, doing certain things purely because she can. Unlike Supreme Commander Sadak or even Prince Imperial Sincline, Daibazaal never seems to call her on the carpet or chastise her for the many times they've failed to destroy Go Lion.

Honerva is also a cunning strategist, using psychological warfare against the team members and their allies. Princess Fala was targeted by a White Lion that claimed to hold her mother's spirit, and then by the old witch herself, disguised as Fala's long-lost aunt, a scheme undone by the suspicions of Lady Hys and Honerva's extreme aversion to the Space Mice. Seido met and fell for a girl from Earth who had chosen to believe the false promises Galra made to her and her brother, who had been transformed into a MechaBeastMan by Honerva, and who ended her life when her brother was destroyed by Go Lion. Suzuishi watched as a friendly creature who took a motherly affection towards him was killed for refusing to be a monster, despite Honerva's magic. In the cruelest trick of all, she desecrated the grave of Minister Raible's infant son and created a grown-up clone that betrayed the Alteans and killed Lady Hys before being deserted by the Galrans, though this proved to be foolish on their part. With her laboratories seeming like castles and dungeons unto themselves, it often seems vast portions of Galra and its population are left to her disposal. One of her worst BeastMen dwelled chained up alone in a region spattered with the blood and body parts of its fellows. Whatever her failure rate, Honerva kept on coming up with grimmer and more difficult challenges for Go Lion throughout the series.

Jaga The Blue Cat[]

Jaga serves ably as a witch's familiar, as much a tool or extension of her power as a pet. She can see through its eyes, and served as a spy until the team later took any appearance by it as meaning trouble. Jaga is physically strong enough to knock a grown man down or to slash with devastating force, as it did to the eyes and face of Shirogane Takashi, just prior to Honerva killing him. Jaga is the natural enemy of the Space Mice, who inevitably outwit him, especially later on when they use their own Mouse Mecha against him. Jaga is a weapon Honerva possesses and also part of her power as well, and should not be taken lightly. Jaga also has insight into near-future events, and foretold in its own way the re-emergence of Go Lion.

The End[]

As Go Lion prepared to invade Galra itself, the villains began to feud among themselves. Blaming his son for the failure to conquer the Alteans and Go Lion, Emperor Daibazaal attempted to have Prince Imperial Sincline arrested and executed. Sincline instead turned the tables on him and ordered Honerva to have Daibazaal pilot a MechaBeastMan against the invading Go Lion. Honerva agreed to this only on the condition that, if Daibazaal were victorious, Sincline should relinquish the throne back. She crafted what she saw as her personal masterpiece, a MechaBeastMan in the likeness and image of the wicked emperor, with him piloting it via sensor relays from the inside. At one point, he was actually victorious over Go Lion, but Sincline, who had no intention of ever giving up the throne, betrayed his father, giving the Go Lion team time to recover and end Daibazaal's threat forever. At this betrayal, Honerva set Jaga against Sincline, only to see her beloved cat killed by the savage Prince-Emperor.

Honerva chose then to reveal two ultimate secrets. The first was that she herself was the late Daibazaal's mother. The second was that Sincline's mother had been an Altean, something that disgusted Honerva so much, she never referred to them as being related, and moved to avenge her fallen son. Sincline slashed, stabbed and killed the attacking Honerva, who, as she turned to bone and dust, warned mockingly that he would not sit on the throne for long. Her words proved prophetic, as grandmother, son and grandson soon joined each other in death. Presumably the victorious allies destroyed her labs, many of which had already been taken out by Princess Amue and Shirogane Ryou, who fulfilled her warning by killing Sincline.

Honerva's American counterpart, Witch Haggar, was not the mother of King Zarkon, survived into a second season, and was responsible for breaking up Voltron into five lions by posing as a space goddess, whereas Go Lion was broken up after offending an actual space goddess with a challenge to battle.

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