Query: anyone every find reference to the current population of Arus?

That's an interesting question. Do u mean the amount of people are which races Arus is composed of?

Good morning,

No I was thinking about the actual population of the planet in terms of numbers.

How large were the largest cities?

As a point of reference: in the 13th century Earth, many cities were over 100k and estimated population of Paris in 14th century was 275,000. World population (post Black Plague circa 15th century)) was 300,000,000.

The pre-invasion population of Arus might be comparable to modern-day Earth, numbering in the billions of people. I say this because of the cities shown in the first episode.

But post-invasion, it would appear to be more around the middle-ages Earth population, numbering in the low hundreds of millions. So, it can be assumed that Zarkon killed or enslaved around 5-6 billion people.

That's a good question. However, I got the impression that Arus had a much lower population compared to modern day Earth in pre-invasion times. It's hard to gauge because most cities were destroyed and such. This may sound a bit too cynical, but Arus was not a very aggressive planet before; what remaining architecture that was seen was not designed for high population density, and what little of the political system we are aware of doesn't seem encompassing enough for billions of people. I also don't know how the size of Arus compares to Earth. Pollux, not destroyed by Doom the way Arus was, had a very low population density from what I saw as well. I think if they had that many denizens, there would have been more of a chance to retaliate or counterattack instead of waiting years for 5 GG soldiers to show up. I also think if billions of people were killed, the Drules would have been more supportive when Z asked for reinforcements and the Alliance and GG would have been far more aggressive in their initial reactions. But a backwater planet of a couple hundred million? Eh, send 5 kids to peacekeep.

Post-invasion I would assume a maximum of 100 million, but likely half that. I would think Doom enslaved hundreds of thousands, but the demographic seen did not reflect millions of human slaves (they were an eclectic bunch, of aliens though we never really knew how the slave trade worked throughout the not shown planets so maybe it's bigger than I think), so I'd assume it quite possible a million died minimum from actual military attacks. However, I'm inclined to believe a minimum 20-30 million may have perished from famine and disease post-invasion, but there are no mass graves shown so it's hard to figure that. An aftermath like that is usually expected, especially since it looked like Doom didn't even bother using the planet's resources all that much; any humanitarian aid or resources the Arusians may have had access to if Doom built bases/ colonies on Arus was absent.

(Edit: Sorry, had to edit that massive run-on. I like commas.)

Small enough population to fit inside the castle, from what we are actually told on more than one occasion. Regardless of what we saw with our own eyes in 'Raid of the Red Berets'.

Actually, I'm with Kyence on this one. Low hundreds of millions sounds good for both pre- and post-invasion.

There's a good chance that a majority of the Arusian people are still isolated; maybe the most recent census Arus could conduct only featured the most accessible provinces that could fit in the castle. Thus, the official tally is not accurate, but, it gets them through the day. If they have a chance to create some infrastructure, within 20 years, the census will swell. I know, trying to rationalize a plothole in a kid's cartoon, but it's darn fun

My thought on the population fitting in the castle is only the young, old, and somehow unable to fight in the nearby vicinity of the castle. Perhaps like a castle of old those in the 'inner baily'.

That works. I rather like the 'census' explanation though.

Seriously, I have to disregard much of the spoken dialogue anyway just to make sense out of the series. So for all practical purposes, I won't even acknowledge anyone suggested such lunacy as letting all of Arus take shelter in the castle. Except when I feel like being a smart@$$.

quote:

Originally posted by Kristina:
Good morning,

No I was thinking about the actual population of the planet in terms of numbers.

How large were the largest cities?

As a point of reference: in the 13th century Earth, many cities were over 100k and estimated population of Paris in 14th century was 275,000. World population (post Black Plague circa 15th century)) was 300,000,000.

This screenshot was trimmed from the U.S. version of Voltron, but I still consider it canonical -- it comes from the second episode, from Coran/Raible's flashback to Zarkon's first assault upon Planet Arus; an aerial shot overlooking what's probably the capital city, or one somewhere close to the castle:



(Courtesy of SGB's awesome "deleted scenes" website -- check it out. )

Why this was even cut, I have absolutely no idea (running-time, perhaps), but it shows what appears to be a fairly developed and substantial urban metropolitan area before the planet was laid waste. It also connotes a possible representative sample for what the "typical" population of a decent-sized Arusian city would likely be, judging by the scope of the cityscape glimpsed, relative to the scale of the image and building and street sizes, et al.

And, even more surprisingly, it suggests the presence of more advanced structures on Arus, similar to the skyscrapers seen being destroyed at the beginning of the first episode (originally on Earth, in GoLion), which fits with the style of the "reborn" Castle of Lions, alongside the buildings featuring the "Greco-Roman" motif also commonplace there. What is that -- some sort of spaceport-hub, or another type of central administrative/governmental building?