#so basically sendak is a galra knight but for real

[vrepit-sa]

Modern galra have very streamlined titles, but the galra of old are fond of having multiples. Each title for each story so goes the idea. The more accomplished a galra is, the more titles they have.

King of Galra, Emperor of Galra, King of Daibazaal. Unifier of Daibazaal, Sovereign of Stars, Best in Battle. Prolific kings have personal titles; for example, Zarkon was also called the Black King or the King in Black for his status as the Black Paladin. He went by King of Daibazaal more traditionally than the Emperor of the Galra Empire, prior to his corruption.

The personal entourage the King of Daibazaal keeps around at any given point are also known by a handful of titles, and since the King and his guard are the most important occupations to be held for a galra, it's only natural that occupation goes by many variations.

King's Guard, Hands of the King, Teeth of the Empire, Bulwark of the King, the Blades (of the King), lots of ___ of the King titles. Since the role itself goes right back to the most primitive pre-unification of Daibazaal times, they were also often called Knights, since they were knights. More specifically, the King's Guard were the elites of a faction specifically known as the Last Knighthood of the Galra. They were the last faction to carry down these ancient traditions.

These titles have been forgotten by history, and they've been long unused and discarded. Zarkon himself had them all killed or driven away and never bothered to have them replaced... Except for the one that remains, who he's never actually technically demoted from the role.

[ganymedesclock]

What do you think of the theory that there could be a secret sixth Lion (the White Lion) and that if found, it might choose Allura as its paladin?

From a storytelling perspective, I don’t really see the appeal, but, here’s my thematic beef with it.

I think that this devalues Allura, actually, by acting as if she already does nothing for the team, or that her accomplishments do not matter unless she has her own Lion.

Because the writers did give Allura the ability to take the field in season 3. This is significant to her character because, as she outlines herself- she will not demand her knights, her soldiers, to fight if she is not willing and ready to fight herself for this cause. She is a soldier of the rebellion too, and she’ll make good on that.

However- I actually think it won’t defeat all of Allura’s characterization if she’s not always a Lion pilot. If it’s a matter of shuffling who’s available and who’s needed.

Because here’s what I think is the impressive thing about Allura in VLD.

I think they took the archetypal, feminine, princess role, and rather than apologizing for it, or sweeping it under the rug with everything else that aged badly about Allura’s original character...

They decided to make it Allura’s power base.

Allura has her own ship. And it is the castle. The castle that a lot of people mock, but, don’t seem to really understand in context: yes, the particle barrier is often in danger of failing, but this is a world where no other ship actually has a barrier.

Other ships take that punishment directly onto themselves. The castle’s outer wall has virtually never failed in a direct battle. The only time I can think of is Sendak’s bombardment in s1e1, and on that occasion, that told us exactly what it takes to breach the first wall of the castle.

Four consecutive shots from the literally strongest weapon an imperial battleship can muster.

And that’s not counting the castle itself. Again- the barrier is so powerful we almost never see the castle take direct damage but it’s a literal castle.

Castles were originally built, in actual medieval history, to withstand armies. Potentially, for months. They were in some cases self-contained armored cities that could support its defenders and populace indefinitely.

The Castleship is this. Reimagined as a spaceship. It’s a slow moving goliath with a battery of guns the likes of which we’ve watched chomp up the imperial fleet.

Lotor’s mister hotshot new threat on the horizon and in his first altercation it’s not any of the Lions that make him flinch- it’s the castle that’s able to rock the prince’s cruiser with one hit and make the guy himself sit up and go what was that.

Rather than sheepishly, desperately going “Allura was never the princess in the tower!” they decided that she is, at her core, that figure... and then said “and this, this is her tower.”

The reason why Allura struggles with the Blue Lion is how small and vulnerable it is. Because she’s used to the castle. It’s hers. The castle is Allura’s Lion.

Attaching a sixth Lion onto Voltron, and ascribing it to Allura, suggests a couple of things.

It acts as if Voltron was incomplete, despite Allura being there from the start, despite the Castle being there from the start.

Since we’ve seen Voltron in its heyday, it also comes entirely out of left field. There is no real actual implication of its presence besides Voltron sure is mysterious- but how could there be another fully-formed Lion without Lotor’s intervention? The Lions’ connection makes sense because they were all forged of the same comet. It’s not like Lotor is going to make Voltron another Lion.

And even so, that feels like an awkward addition. Josh Keaton riffed on this when he was asked on twitter by having Lance ask if it forms Voltron’s (cut off by Shiro) but really... Voltron has a beautiful allegory of a human body.

It has no missing pieces right now. To attach another Lion, you’d need to make a non-essential addition, give Voltron a tail or beef up its wings, and once again that’s rude to Allura because it suggests somehow Allura hasn’t been pulling her weight all this time- but also, even though Voltron can be better with this hypothetical sixth Lion, that it’s perfect and whole without Allura, and can just operate without her unique addition.

I think it’s a lot more powerful rather than trying to stuff a sixth Lion onto Voltron and go “see, Allura’s important now!” to acknowledge how Allura already is important, because the show has not exactly given us peanuts in that regard.

Allura is important, Allura is powerful, and this is exemplified by what she is connected to. The castle is literally Voltron’s safe harbor and central station, it is everything they have and everything they come back to.

It perfectly illustrates what’s explored in the first two season finales: that if Allura goes down, Voltron literally cannot continue without her. And this is before they have the slightest inkling that Allura could be a paladin.

Allura doesn’t need to be a paladin to be important. That she can potentially step up in that sense is an addition to her existing importance. And her unique armor color, I think exemplifies that Allura’s not taking importance from Lance. She doesn’t have to just only keep that armor as long as she’s piloting Blue, or as long as there’s any absent Lion for her to step into.

Allura is the princess and that is important. She’s not the queen, because she doesn’t need to be, because that doesn’t reflect who she is: still young and vulnerable in some ways, and this is explored and exemplified through her rightful vessel, as well as her terrific strength of character- which can coexist.

You can recognize Allura’s importance and central role to the team without diminishing or dismissing how scared and hurt she also is! The Castleship is a magnificent, powerful entity and yet it is also something the team desperately defends, for good reason! It’s not going “Allura, you Fragile Pathetic Creature”, but rather, once again:

The Voltron pilots in Legendary Defender are deliberately styled after knights. Calling them paladins, giving them actual armor as opposed to the sleek jumpsuits that are often envisioned- the silhouette of their shields, the coat of arms, their honor and creed, all comes to the same concept.

And the thing about knights is, knights were servants of a higher royalty. Always. They were often nobles themselves, but they bent their knee to a lord or lady.

Allura is the one who completes that metaphor. Because Allura is the liege to whom the knights owe their fealty. This was explored in classic Voltron where all the pilots, when they became pilots, kissed Fala/Allura’s ring. VLD didn’t do that, because Allura doesn’t really like people bowing and scraping, but- at the same time...

Without Shiro the team reeled, came together, stabilized, and moved forward.

Without Allura, both times the team basically threw everything into a final stand because without her, they were done.

That’s not knocking on Shiro. It’s because if we’re talking chess, Shiro’s the queen- incredibly powerful, incredibly important, but Allura’s the king piece. Taking her ends the game. 

And this is the same thing across the board, with the galra empire- it’s not Zarkon, the ex-Black Paladin soldier, warlord, and pilot of mecha that when he falls the empire falls. The empire stumbles, struggles, but gets right back on its feet again and the beating heart yet sustaining it?

Haggar, the white-haired, magical Altean in the full-length dress who operates and attacks from Zarkon’s flagship- his castle.

Of their enemies, it’s Allura’s nemesis, not Shiro’s, that’s the ultimate peril. It’s Allura’s nemesis that needs no new amounts of quintessence to sustain herself, but wields it to sustain Zarkon- and can bring him back just as many times as she needs to.

Again, Allura is, weaponized in the particular sci-fantasy world Voltron writes, the princess in the tower that the paladins, her soldiers, are defending. She is a just ruler, and not one afraid to take the battlefield herself, but there’s nothing uplifting or revolutionary about denying that’s who she is at her core.

Other continuities, like Force, pretty much erased that importance, downplayed aggressively her royal status, treating her like just another soldier- and I think that’s a terrific disservice.

I think that people- and I’ve been guilty of this myself- got so used to princesses and rolling their eyes at princesses, treating the “princess” as the “everything wrong with how female characters are written” that they stopped looking at princesses as royalty, nobility, as a powerful central figure in their own right.

So what this all boils down to is:

I think there’s absolutely no need for a sixth Lion, not to Voltron, and not to Allura. Because it fundamentally misunderstands Allura’s situation- it acts like she’s not doing anything important unless she has her Own Lion (tm) all to herself that nobody else can use when the Castle’s systems, as have been pointed out many times, don’t sing fully for anybody but Allura, in a clear nod to how nobody pilots Black, Red, or Blue like Shiro, Keith, or Lance do.

I think Allura is wonderful exactly how she is and I’m eager to see her continue to grow, at the helm of the castle, flying one of the five Lions, or, probably, a mix of both.