Caponero

Supreme Commander Al Caponero (Viceroy Throk) is functionally the main antagonist in the early 80's combining mecha series, Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, which was the basis for the adventures of the Vehicle Voltron Force. Even though he answered to the Galveston (Drule) Empire ruler Emperor Corsair (Zeppo), he directly oversaw all Galveston operations, and orders were issued in his name. Like almost all evil members of the Galveston Empire, his name was (story-wise, not in-universe) based on that of a criminal, his Emperor Corsair's name meaning Pirate, while his own was based on legendary crime boss and gangster Al Capone. By contrast, his Galveston arch-nemesis was named Socrat Telesu (Socrates, called Hazar in Voltron), and one of his primary Earth opponents was Captain Asimov (Newley), the names of visionary philosophers and writers. He was chiefly responsible for sending out the seemingly endless waves of fleets and Battle Attackers (Ro-Beasts) against the Earth exploration forces led by Asimov and his more visible second-in-command, Commander Shinji Ise (Hawkins). He becomes increasingly frustrated that his commanders and Battle Attackers cannot turn back either the Earth Fleet or its fifteen weaponized exploration mechas, which combine to form the super robot Dairugger (Vehicle Voltron).

Role as Supreme Commander
While technically a Viceroy (His title in the Amercian dub) only rules distant lands in the name of the royalty, Corsair's absence for most of the series makes this an apt description, despite Caponero having the title Supreme Commander. Unlike Telesu, he makes no allowances for the possibility the Earth forces are sincere, and indeed seeks to use their desire for peace against them. He and the elites surrounding him are cold and uncaring towards the populace of the doomed and dying Galveston homeworld, often destroying habitable planets rather than let the Earth forces have them, even when Asimov and Newley offered on occasion to cede the planet in question to Galveston. When it became clear that Telesu would continue to pursue peace with Earth (his reasoning being this would gain Galveston a new world all the more quickly, to save their people), Caponero almost openly undermined him every chance he got, empowering Telesu's more militaristic underlings to disobey his orders and disregard his authority. This got to the point that Telesu's removal, and that of his father, the Homeland Secretary, were almost anti-climaxes.

But Caponero got no better results when he had commanders of a like nature finally installed. In a case of reaping what he sowed, the new commanders were still prone to disobey master plans for the chance at personal glory, giving the Earth fleet and Dairugger openings that should not have been there. Worse still, after the Galveston efforts to conquer Earth were turned back, Earth's leadership, once disdainful of the exploration fleet's needs and concerns, ordered that the Galveston homeworld be taken and the Empire dismantled. The utter disregard of the Galveston elites towards the common people erupted in resentment after the failure to take Earth, especially when more local worlds had been destroyed out of spite, and at least one they possessed was not being used to begin evacuation of the people, long since forced underground by savage spikes in solar radiation. To this end, a resistance finally took hold and recruited Telesu's ally, Palace Guard Sirk (Hazar's sister Dorma on Voltron), to oppose Caponero's administration.

As always, instead of heeding calls to negotiate or deal more directly with the crisis, said to be only months or even weeks from planetary destruction, Caponero concentrated his forces and remaining commanders in a line of defense against the coming invasion by Earth forces, spearheaded by Dairugger. World after world in the Galveston home sector fell despite their best traps and tricks, till Dairugger set foot on the homeworld itself. Caponero tried to engage Emperor Corsair to flee, with the elites taking over a world previously obtained after Dairugger ceded it. Bilions upon billions would die. The Emperor refused to leave his world, so Caponero fled in a Battle Attacker that Dairugger Commander Aki (Jeff) spotted out and saw as a leader in flight. Dairugger easily took down the Battle Attacker, killing Caponero, with his Emperor not long outliving him.

Telesu, freed from imprisonment, helped lead his people to evacuate aboard Earth ships, including the Dairugger component mechas. Sadly, he was killed by young men who saw him as one of the old leaders, rather than their liberator. Dying, he told Sirk to assume command, and that she should leave him to rest on their once-beloved world. Caponero, who thought he might be the new Emperor, not only lost that and his life as a fleeing narcissistic coward, but it was his arch-enemy who led his people to safety, a martyr to peace who also stood and answered for the crimes of their government.

Differences in Vehicle Voltron's Throk
TBC...