#also can we please leave the disparaging comments out of the main character tags

[angelsndragons]

oh luis, it is a relief to know that ace folk like me aren’t the only ones who completely miss the undertones when we’re producing stuff. also i am punch drunk tired because it has been a long day over here.

but also i’m just going to sit here and laugh at the fandom for a good long time because i was so annoyed at how many bad takes on my boy zerxus are floating around (and how one in particular feels like a dig at me, if you know, you know, if you don’t you don’t) but now it’s just not as annoying anymore. my reading on zerxus is so much closer to where luis’ head was at than the vast majority of people that i ain’t even mad anymore at the people saying zerxus should have had the wisdom to know when to walk away, very pointedly using the mechanics as a sort of gotcha instead of understanding that it’s not hubris to try to make a difference, even a seemingly tiny almost imperceptible difference to the world. when mortals are but ants to the cosmic giants running around, margins matter. it’s not hubris, it’s compassion and anyone who’s yelling at zerxus for trying and failing needs to stop liking the everlight for doing the exact same thing knowing that someone else had failed before her. please, enlighten me as to the difference between their attempts. and don’t say it’s because she’s a goddess and he’s a mortal, the raven queen already proved that the line between the two is much thinner than either would like to admit.

i need to people to recognize that the instant zerxus realized that asmodeus wasn’t serious, he immediately went into damage control and mitigation. when asmodeus actively rejected zerxus’ attempt, as opposed to passively in that one vision, zerxus made it his mission to mitigate as much of the fallout as he could. this man took the first arm of the betrayer, knowing the contract it held, and came back to fuck up asmodeus’ plans as best he could. and he succeeded! he succeeded so hard that eventually, because of him and the ring of brass, the calamity will end. asmodeus gave zerxus the chance to save the world and zerxus took it, hook, line, and sinker.

i need people to understand that zerxus choosing to go to asmodeus in the end is not borne of arrogance or a lack of wisdom on his part. it’s borne of faith. he’s not going to asmodeus because he is still trying to save asmodeus, he’s taking the contract to save himself and to make whatever minuscule difference he can in between the floggings, the slaughtering, the whatever that asmodeus will force him to do. he’s taking it out of the hope that one day he will get to see his husband and son again.

i need people to understand that death does not equal redemption, death just equals death. being alive will always accomplish more, good and bad, than being dead. death just stops everything; it doesn’t fix it, it doesn’t leave you the room or opportunity to make amends. it just makes people dead.

i also need people to understand that your line is not zerxus’ line. i, personally, could not do what zerxus does here. at all. i probably couldn’t even play it in a game. that doesn’t make zerxus wrong because if we talking grand cosmic scale the likes of which even we as nearly omniscient audience members cannot see, the only way to “balance” the scales (and lord i hate that notion, that a good thing done cancels out a bad and vice versa) in the end is for zerxus to live, to be able to one day add good to the world again.

tl;dr: stop saying that zerxus does not know his oaths and that his fatal flaw is his low wisdom and high arrogance. his fatal flaw, if it can be called that, is his high charisma and his unyielding faith.

[lithgaeril]

Interaction

Hello! I’m Lithgaeril, and while I primarily interact with fandom on ao3, I made a blog for the times when that isn’t as convenient. However, there are probably a few important things I should have on the record here, ranging from topics I won’t touch to how frequently you can expect a reply.

If you don’t read below the cut, here’s the very watered down tl;dr: I’m always down to talk tolkien, just don’t be a dick! Also I don’t usually reply quick, sorry.

Availability

1) I can’t guarantee I’ll be on more than a couple times a week (though at other times I may be available multiple times a day, it all depends on my energy levels and schedule). I do try to check at least once a day if I’m participating in any events that involve communication.

2) At present, I am only following event blogs whose events I may participate in. This is to avoid the infinite scroll sinkhole, not because I don’t like other people’s content. This may change in the future, if I become more active on this blog.

Content Specific

3) I flat out refuse to engage in discourse. I used to find it fun, but now I mostly find it ruins my enjoyment of things I love. I may make an original post (using my unique tags to avoid the main tag search) discussing my thoughts on a subject that is considered controversial, but I will not add these sorts of comments onto other people’s posts and if you try to argue with me on mine, I will ignore or possibly block you. I do my best to keep any possibly controversial post out of the main tags, so if you’re reading it on my blog, you’re welcome to leave, unfollow, or even block me. I don’t care. If you’re just curious about my opinion on a controversial topic, ask me and I’ll probably (but not definitely) respond.

4) I am generally open to NSFW discussion, but please always ask first. I will always try to extend the same courtesy in any conversation. If you are a minor, do not initiate conversations regarding NSFW topics. If we get to talking about headcanons/ideas/etc. and you either don’t want to go anywhere near NSFW or you’re a minor, please specify that you don’t want the conversation going in that direction. This will let me know not to bring up anything NSFW without the need to disclose any personal information like your age

Comments/Criticism

5) Please do not compliment my headcanons or works by disparaging someone else’s. Everybody has things they like better and things they can’t stand at all, but comments like “I love that you did ‘x’ instead of the more common ‘y’, which I hate” can definitely be seen by people who like ‘y’. Not to mention, I often hold more than one, sometimes conflicting, headcanons about characters, and it’s very possibly I like ‘y’, too.

6) If you have a legitimate concern with something I have written or posted (ex. you believe it perpetuates racism, transphobia, ableism, etc), please let me know specifically which part is the problem and how, so that I may research the topic further and make changes where necessary.

7) If I say something that contradicts canon and fail to mention that fact, feel free to politely let me know, as sometimes I truly am not aware, but also please know that sometimes I break canon deliberately. That’s part of the joy of fic writing

In Conclusion

8) Alright, I think that’s all the disclaimers lmfao. Fun fact about me: I’m the person who actually reads the EULA/ToS & Privacy Policy :)

9) I do actually enjoy talking to people (although I confess, I *am* always this wordy)! If you want to talk about Tolkien’s work in general, my works/ideas, or even send me fic recs, please feel free! I enjoy in-depth discussions, learning about other people’s ideas & how they differ from mine, and brainstorming fun ideas for fics/hcs/etc! Please don’t be nervous just bc we’re not mutuals or whatever other reason you might be able to think up. I am equally open to asks and messages, but I will post asks publicly unless otherwise specified.

[ganymedesclock]

Isn't Keith the logical foil to Lotor? Both part-Galra, both thrust into a leadership position at the end of S2. It lines up the with the Allura/Haggar and Shiro/Zarkon parallels as protagonist and villain leads. As foils I'd expect Lotor to be strong where Keith is weak (charisma) and vice versa.

Honestly this is part of what really appeals to me about the Lotor twin theory, here, is because, as I’ve mentioned, VLD draws a lot from Voltron Force. And in Voltron Force, Keith is the Black Paladin- but he’s nowhere near the decisive leader Shiro is- Lance is very solidly the second-in-command of the group, to the point that he actively and seriously challenges Keith and second-guesses his plans at times. But they also have each others’ backs in fighting situations (though I think VLD handles that a lot better, and makes the transitions between cooperation and conflict a lot smoother)

I feel like it doesn’t make sense to have Lotor “strong where Keith is weak”.

Looking at Zarkon with Shiro, Zarkon is basically Shiro’s need for control dialed up far enough that many of the other aspects of his personality have broken and atrophied. But their virtues, their strengths, are the same. Zarkon, like Shiro, is an incredible force of personality. Both are the decisive leaders with that powerful presence that people trust, and at a distance admire. Both hide conflict behind a calm, aloof facade that rarely cracks. Both, because of that calm front, are absolutely terrifying opponents to face even when ostensibly outgunned (Shiro vs. Sendak in s1e4 compared to Keith and Red vs. Zarkon in s1e11)

Nothing about what Lotor is doing in the trailer is how Keith operates. Lotor isn’t just leaping into the fight and the empire with focus on a single goal- he’s set up an entire presentation, and if the voiceover lines up with the arena as it seems to, it tells us that Lotor has basically written a speech and carefully set up a platform to speak from out of the gladiator ring.

That meticulousness of presentation- that perfect awareness of how to play a crowd, and being able to set it all up and pull it off in a way that it seems effortless and natural- is nothing like Keith, and everything like Lance. Furthermore, Lotor is actively trying to prove himself.

Lotor is only here because Zarkon is unavailable, otherwise seemingly Haggar wouldn’t bother with him. He’s small by galra standards- met dismissively with “who’s this little fellow?” by commanders who would never in a million years make that kind of comment about Zarkon. In an empire where Zarkon is so publicly known he literally has merchandise, Zarkon’s highest levels of command don’t know Lotor enough to recognize him on sight.

Tell me that doesn’t sound like Lance. The futile way he tries to get Keith to recognize him, feeling chronically outshined. There’s no way Lotor isn’t aware that he’s small and strange-looking by Galra standards. Heck, in DotU Lotor was endlessly disparaged and mocked by Zarkon and his own allies, and in Voltron Force Lotor as an antagonist is patronized by his main ally and has a chip on his shoulder the size of a tectonic plate about how he’s going to do so much better than Zarkon he’s gonna fight Voltron barehanded in his underwear.

Superficially, Lotor uses a sword, he’s half-galra, he’s the obvious successor to Zarkon- Shiro’s counterpart. It seems like it’d make so much sense to match him against Keith. But the more we’re looking at this character the less it fits.

Whether or not WG is Lotor’s sibling and another half-altean child of Zarkon- that’s up in the air still- if WG and Lotor aren’t the same person, but operate closely and fight together, I think it’s much more likely WG is Keith’s counterpart, even though at a glance they’re the marksman to Lotor’s swordsman.

Because it’d be very difficult to introduce a Lance counterpart without a Keith counterpart. Lance and Keith and their dynamic factors rather significantly into each other. A lot of what Lance and Keith accomplish, they do together as a team.

WG is introduced in a context that frames them very closely with Keith. If they are Lotor’s sibling, then Haggar only sent for Lotor, suggesting somehow, WG has alienated themselves from the royal family, or made themselves undesirable somehow. But they’re also kind of a hotshot- someone who can take on dangerous missions alone, and who is overwhelmingly focused on a single goal, but not unwilling to let other people tag along provided they help. Either way, they seem to have gone off on their own, while Lotor, after the fact, is introduced to the main empire. 

Keith also actively points out this is not someone who talks very much. They clearly have opinions and a sense of sass to them (watch their head movements) but mostly, they come across as standoffish, operating alone, and their response to needing a diversion is to blow something up. 

They’re also someone who doesn’t lose their head easily, and someone who isn’t afraid to make somewhat ruthless decisions to further a goal- but those decisions are made out of an attempt at pragmatism rather than active malice. 

Keith doesn’t hate Allura, as abundantly seen in s2e6 and furthermore later, with how much her opinion matters to him- he points out the reason why they shouldn’t attack the main fleet is that it’d be practically gift wrapping Voltron for Zarkon, something Allura herself brings up “Please tell me you didn’t bring Voltron here.”

WG threatens Keith, but doesn’t shoot him, even when they have no reason not to- he’s an enemy of the empire and actively stated as a Voltron paladin. If nothing else, they know the value in scaultrite- it would have been very easy for them to destroy Keith’s bags and leave with their own.

But they don’t- which suggests to me that they’re indifferent to Keith, not really hating him, but not buddy-buddy either.

TL;DR foils work because there’s some fundamental similarity to how these people operate, and with Lotor, I feel like he’s way more like Lance than he is like Keith. Even if what we see in the arena is his “stage persona” and his true self is the Weblum Galra, and thus more like Keith- that still would require a level of emotional duplicity that Keith just plain doesn’t have.