#because she thought vld turned allura white

[heynhay]

redrew my old Romellura art that KD unearthed lolll

[raayllum]

there's such an unfortunate pattern of people pushing to age up characters of colour, black kids in particular for shipping and more mature purposes - there's alot of reasons behind why people do it subconsciously and I don't think you mean ill but as a Black tdp it's an uncomfortable across-fandom habit I thought tdp would escape, so far everyones been lovely so im hoping this is taken the right way, cause like I get it Tumblr is a lawless land for ships but that doesn't mean you can't be wary of anti Blackness accidentally worming it's way into how you treat young Black characters, you're usually pretty sound in how you treat Ez compared to some people here so I'm just asking you be wary of this as a Black tdp fan ✌🏾

Hey, thank you for bringing this in in good faith! I have definitely seen what you're talking about happen time and time again. Darker skinned characters of colour (and Black characters in particular) so often get like, pushed into mentorship/parental roles with very little else awarded to them (hi Allura from VLD, a fave who deserved better), sidelined with their plot lines (Finn from SW, Bow from She-Ra, Gus from TOH - all other faves who deserved better), or like... idk fans can definitely get weird about Black characters and have been weird about Ezran (and Harrow dear god) so I get (I hope) where you're coming from!

For me I stumbled into aged up Claudiez ship (when they're both in their 20s) as a crack ship, and then as something more genuine precisely, honestly, because of how it expands both of them, but mainly Ezran, as a character. Ezran I think because he's king and a child walks this line of overt maturation and subsequent infantilization (the fact he very much registers as Autistic to me, another Autistic, probably doesn't help with this facet of it either).

When I write canon compliant Ezran, I usually focus on the fact that however wise, he is still a child and deserves to be treated and respected as one (drabbles here: X, X, X) because the alternative that the fandom can lean towards sometimes is acting like Ezran can't have significant internal problems or messy emotions and subsequently not a fully developed interiority given to his brother (whose lighter skinned) or Rayla / the mage fam (who are white) under the guise of "well he's just too good and selfless".

The other side of it, though, is the infantilization of "well he's a bad king just because he's a kid" even though he's not a bad king, and as though youth means children's feelings/opinions can't or shouldn't be respected. Ezran is often the most level headed of the trio, he has a tried and true moral compass, and his gentleness/compassion are often times a conscious choice, not just naivety. I love Callum, but especially in arc 1 (during which my notions of Claudiez were born), he can have a tendency to unfairly infantilize his brother.

Thus I was drawn to aged up Claudiez because to me, it brought an interesting way to reconcile these two sides of Ezran (through fanon, of course - they're never gonna be 'endgame' and that's hardly the point).

On the one hand, you have the grown king - who's a man now, who's been on the throne for half his life, who needs something that's for him. Not for his kingdom, not for his council, not for his brother, but for himself. Ezran being with someone none of them would approve of - a disgraced former enemy turned die hard loyal high mage - was a way for him to righteously 'selfish' and prioritize something he wants, no matter what anyone else thinks. Claudia is goofy and can help him lighten up and sees the throne in the same way he does ("You're [being king] to help everyone" / "Maybe I can help the world better from a throne") as well as uniquely sharing in Ezran's burden of the younger sibling saddled with your father's mantle in ways your older brother just doesn't have to think and/or worry about. Claudia to me is someone who can honour his inner child and help him keep that kid part of himself - having an easier adulthood than they did childhood / adolescence.

Then on the other hand, you have how it curbs the infantilization. One of the reasons I was drawn to the ship was simply because I didn't think there was a world where Callum would take it well, and I've always liked the idea of Ezran asserting that he's king and doesn't need his brother's permission to do anything, especially if Callum's tendencies to sometimes infantilize Ezran continued in adulthood. He's capable, he does know what he's doing, and he's allowed to choose his own support system. I feel like sometimes fans can take any opportunity where there's a 'sheltered' Black character (whatever that means per context) as an excuse really infantilize them and need a white or lighter skinned character to Teach them about the world and - no thank you please. Ezran is everything that Claudia needs to learn (morality, animals, dark magic wise, etc), not the other way around.

Hopefully that gives a bit more clarity as to how the ship manifests (in my head at least) and why! If it's still uncomfortable (for a lot of people the age gap is the deal breaker, which is understandable) the ship is always tagged accordingly it can be easily filtered/blocked out; if you'd like to have more of a discussion, I'll happily listen to whatever else you have to say here in my inbox or my DMs (whatever's more comfortable for you), either about this topic or about any other. I'm glad to know I'm pretty sound and generally on the right track, but I know I can probably always be doing better! I appreciate you bringing your concern to me and please always feel free to do so - I do my best to keep my eyes peeled and any biases in check, but I'm bound to miss things from time to time.

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

Rewriting Haggar/Honerva’s redemption arc

One of the many things that bothered me about VLD S8 is Honerva’s redemption arc. While I was never fully against the idea of Honerva getting a redemption arc, I just didn’t want VLD to do it because I knew that they would fuck it up if they tried. And low and behold, I was right!

But yeah, I wasn’t against the idea of her being redeemed. And I don’t mean “redeemed” as in “all is forgiven and she’s just a good guy now,” but more like a Darth Vader, “the things she did were inexcusable and she would never be able to right all her wrongs but she goes out on one good act to show that there was still good in her deep down and she at least had the potential to change.”

I know a lot of people don’t like the whole, “redemption=death” thing, which I understand, but I personally never had a problem with it.

Ok, so why didn’t Honerva’s redemption work? Well there are a few reasons but the one that baffles me the most is that, instead of trying to make her more sympathetic, season 8 seemed to go out of its way to show her being more evil and vile than ever.

And because I have nothing better to do, I’m gonna go through Honerva’s story in VLD and explain what I would change to make her redemption more believable.

(Keep in mind I am not a writer, this is just me ranting about my favorite character and how I personally would’ve written her.)

1. Realizing she’s Altean

I always thought it’s was weird that when Allura said “you’re...Altean!?” In the S2 finale, Haggar didn’t seem to react at all, she just kept attacking. It’s as if she didn’t care or already knew, which doesn’t make sense considering in the S3 finale and S8E2 it’s established that Haggar has no memory of who she was before she died. And in S4E3 she seems shocked by her Altean face (which also doesn’t make sense because her blue skin isn’t camouflage that’s just how she looks after the rift) so it seems like she didn’t know.

Wouldn’t it have made more sence if after Allura said “you’re...Altean!?” Honerva looked confused/shocked? If she became defensive and said Allura was lying/trying to insult her? There’s def anti-Altean propaganda in the empire so it would be considered an insult.

After that she starts questioning Zarkon. And when she looks into his mind, it’s out of genuine curiosity and desire to know the truth, not because, “the empire needs him” or whatever that meant.

And isn’t it a bit odd that she doesn’t seem betrayed at all when she finds out Zarkon has been keeping all this from her? She’s just like, “oh, you’re my husband? Cool.” Wtf???

2. Her past relationship with Zarkon

Okay, I love Zonerva, but if we’re being honest, Zarkon was not the best husband. He enabled the shit out of Honerva, even when it was obvious that the rift was doing serious damage to her physical and mental health. To me, it seems like Zarkon was so blinded by the power the rift gave him that he didn’t realize/ignored the negative effect it was having on Honerva. In the same way he downplayed the negative impact the rift had on the planet.

I think that should’ve been explored more. Maybe Honerva notices that she’s been acting differently and is worried somethings wrong (think S5 Kuron). And Honerva tries to tell Zarkon that she feels strange and Zarkon just brushes it off.

And later, when Alfor visits Diaibazaal years later. Things are pretty much the same except when we sees Honerva, she is very obviously pregnant and Alfor’s there when Honerva falls and goes into labor (instead of a random quintessence seizure). Alfor and many Galran doctors try their best to save her and the baby but she dies in childbirth.

Zarkon goes ballistic. He’s yelling, throwing doctors across the room, and Alfor turns to the doctor holding Lotor and tells them to get the baby to safely, fearing Zarkon will take his grief out on the baby.

Zarkon turns on Alfor, blaming him for Honerva’s death and accusing him of letting her die so that he could get his way and close the rift. He lunges Alfor and roars at him to leave.

He spends the rest of the night grieving at Honerva’s bedside, when Kova jumps on the bed and starts gnawing on her finger trying to wake her up. This is what gives him the idea to bring her back with quintessence.

3. Her current relationship with Zarkon

I think it’s pretty safe to say that they’re relationship didn’t get better after the war began. Zarkon hid her identity and her child from her for 10,000 years and essentially used her as a tool of war. It’s pretty fucked up.

I know it’s pretty well established that Zarkon treats Haggar with more respect than his other underlings, but I feel like it would be interesting to see that change overtime. We see that after Voltron comes back, Zarkon becomes very obsessed with Voltron/Black, and he and Haggar start disagreeing more and more.

Remember the moment where one of Haggar’s druids told Zarkon Haggar said he needed to rest and Zarkon hit them with his bayard and told them, “remember who your master is”? What if, instead of a random druid, it was Haggar who he hit?

I feel like that would be a good way to show Haggar and the audience just how much Zarkon’s obsession with Voltron is affecting him, and make the audience feel a tiny bit bad for her.

Then later in season 4, when Zarkon wakes up from his coma and finds out Haggar brought Lotor back to take his place he gets pissed. He puts a price on Lotor’s head and has Haggar arrested for treason. She steals a ship, escapes, and later on meets up with Lotor’s generals.

Her and Zarkon are officially broken up and her quest to reclaim her identity and get her son back begins.

4. Oriande

I never liked the concept of chosen/sacred Alteans. The idea that some Alteans are just born more powerful than others just feels iffy. My idea of Oriande is that it’s an Altean holly land, any Altean can enter it just depends on whether or not you can pass the White Lion’s trial. Passing the trial proves that your intentions are pure and and the White Lion will bless you with power.

I didn’t like how Honerva seemed to force her way into Oriande, I think it would be more effective if she had gone through normally because, at this point, her intentions were pure. She was going there to purge herself of the dark magic corrupting her and reclaim her memories so she could go get her son back.

I also like the idea that Oriande is a sorta link to the Altean after life, and you can speak with people you’ve lost. Allura gets to speak with Alfor, and Honerva speaks with her mother.

You could also have her be confronted by the spirits of the Alteans she helped destroy. Have the weight of her past actions bear down on her. An important part of any redemption arc is acknowledging the terrible shit you’ve done in the past, and that was severely lacking in Honerva’s arc.

Another interesting thing you could do is have Honerva talk to her younger self. The one that died 10,000 years ago. This kinda thing actually happened in 80s Voltron, young Haggar appearing in Haggar’s head trying to convince her to be good again.

5. Her relationship with Lotor

Now this is where the redemption arc really falls apart. I forget who, but one of the writers said after S5 that Haggar/Honerva was motivated purely by love for her son, but man did they do a bad job of showing that.

And it would’ve been so easy to fix that problem, just have her not be horrible to him. Have them have actual civil conversations, have her protect and defend him. Don’t have her reject him as a fucking baby!

Imagine if, after Zarkon destroys Lotor’s planet, instead of immediately deciding to

exile him, Zarkon says that this is the final straw and he’s going to have Lotor executed. But Haggar speaks up to defend Him. There’s actually a scene in DOTU where Zarkon tries to kill Lotor and Haggar gets on her knees and begs for him to be spared. (Though the scene was mostly played for laughs.)

she asks for mercy and justifies it by saying it would be unwise to kill his only heir. It’s a weak argument, Lotor’s a half breed and couldn’t realistically take the throne, but Zarkon does concede, he still loves her after all, and has Lotor exiled.

And Haggar isn’t spying on him because she doesn’t trust him, but because she’s concerned for him. When Lotor confronts Haggar about sending her cronies after him, she says she knows he’s hiding something. Lotor asks if she’s threatening him, thinking she’s going to rat him out, but she says no, she’s not threatening him, she’s just trying to warn him against doing anything stupid because, with Zarkon seemingly on his death bed, the empire needs Lotor’s leadership.

At this point in the story, Haggar is questioning her loyalty to Zarkon, so I feel like it would make sense for her to be silently supporting Lotor from the shadows.

Then at the Kral Zera in season 5, It was weird to me how she was helping Lotor through Kuron while also telling him he couldn’t be emperor and trying to put Sendak on the throne. I feel like it would’ve made more sense for Sendak to just show up on his own without Haggar.

Haggar wouldn’t even be at the Kral Zera, she would just watch through Kuron.

And then we get to S6 when she actually reveals to Lotor that she’s his mom. This scene was just so poorly done. She never actually apologizes to him, she’s just like “yeah I forgot you were my kid and I never loved you, but were cool now right?” I remember when I saw S8E2 and it shows her after Lotor rejects her and she looks like she’s about to cry, I was just thinking, “this would be very emotional and sad IF she had actually apologized and made it clear that she genuinely loved him.” But she didn’t and I don’t know why!

And then we get to season 8, and of course everything in S8 is bad but Honerva’s story is particularly bad. She’s supposed to be motivated by love for Lotor yet she doesn’t act like she actually cares about him at all.

She manipulates his corpse and when she sees his gross melted body, she doesn’t even react that much. When a mother sees her child’s mutilated corpse, how do you think she reacts? Screaming? Crying?? Hurling??? But no. She’s just like, “...”

And then when she goes to the alternate reality and meets baby Lotor and he rejects her, her reaction isn’t disappointment or sadness, it’s anger and entitlement. She immediately decides, “ok, fuck this kid. Let’s destroy this reality.”

It just doesn’t make sense! This is the season you’re trying to REDEEM her! Why are you going out of your way to make her so vile?

6. Her S7-S8 plan

(Keep in mind I haven’t watched S7/S8 since they came out and barely even watched S8 to begin with, so I don’t remember some things and I can’t be bothered to rewatch them.)

Okay, starting with S7, she’s not in this season at all but in “The Ruins” the druid dude says that her final order was to hunt and destroy the Blade of Marmora. I guess it makes a certain amount of sense because she saw that it was Keith who brought Lotor’s actions to light, but that whole plot was really pointless in my opinion. (Was anybody really hoping for a rematch between Keith and that one random druid?)

If you want us to forgive Honerva for her crimes, you really shouldn��t keep adding more unnecessary crimes. It’s established that there were a lot of Galra war lords vying for power and pirates looking for money, just have it be that Kolivan got kidnapped by one of them.

Then you have her season 8 plan and I’m gonna be real with y’all, I have no idea how to fix this mess.

I feel like the basics of her plan could work. She tries to get Lotor and Sincline out of the rift but when she gets him he’s a melted corpse so the plan then becomes to use sincline to go to another reality to find a living Lotor, but opening all these rifts causes problems and the paladins have to stop her.

But all the shit with manipulating the colony Alteans, killing the White Lion, desecrating Oriande, and destroying Olkarion and entire realities, it was all so unnecessary.

Personally I would cut the colony Alteans from the story all together, there are other ways for Lotor to betray the team. It was a lazy way of making Lotor 100% evil and having Honerva manipulate them is unnecessarily cruel, especially in the season you’re trying to redeem her.

Here’s a very basic outline of how I would do this plot.

If we’re going by season 8’s logic that she needs a sacrifice to bring back Sincline, I would’ve had the Galra she killed at the Kral Zera be the sacrifice, not the White Lion. She stands on the pyramid and talks about how the empire stole her life from her and she wants revenge as she absorbs their quintessence into herself and then uses that to bring back Sincline.

Then when she finds Lotor dead she takes Sincline and uses it to go to another reality where she can be with her family.

The danger comes when she opens rifts to the other realities and rift creatures start coming out and causing damage. The paladins fight them and follow her into the rift to stop whatever evil plan she may have. Because the paladins don’t know that Haggar is now Honerva and all this is just to get Lotor back. They think this is all some plan for multiverse domination or some shit.

Meanwhile Honerva has just been rejected by little Lotor and seeing Voltron show up pushes her over the edge and they fight.

But when they find out the real reason she’s doing all this they start trying to appeal to her and convince her to give up and close the rift peacefully. And similarly to how the paladins had to sacrifice the castle to close the rifts created by the fight with Lotor, Honerva has to sacrifice herself to close the rifts.

In the end, I feel like a Honerva redemption arc could’ve worked if the writers were actually competent and actually made an effort to have her be sympathetic, but In canon, her reasoning, “If I can’t indulge in the simple joys of life, why should anybody else?” just doesn’t cut it.

It’s disappointing. VLD had so much potential. I’m thinking of just rewriting the entire series from the beginning. Hopefully putting all my thoughts out into the universe will help me move on.

[shirophantomvox]

Lotor's Nanny

Hello y’all! I am back yet again with another Voltron short fiction! I got this prompt from @vld-prompts and this one is great! Some dialogue in this are mixed quotes from the show. The prompt is: “Dayak comes to Galra HQ unexpectedly.” The link shows the reference I used in this story. Its somewhat the same, I changed some elements and dialogue. I mentioned the Code of Ethics because some companies do not allow in-dating. That means you cannot date one of your coworkers. This story has been on my mind for a while and it came out better than I expected! I hope you all like it. Be sure to follow me for more writing content!

Team Voltron slowly walked across the bridge of Galra HQ formerly known as Zarkon’s ship. Chills ran down their spines as they approached the now Emperor Lotor and his staff. Right above them were tapestries filled with light purple, white, and yellow; the same colors the paladins of old had. The expression on Lotor’s face was the complete opposite of his new comrades. The paladins had been through enough; their lives could end at this very moment and to think they blindly walked into Galra HQ? Thank God, Lotor didn’t have any tricks up his sleeve...or did he?

Lotor approached the Paladins with open arms aimed at Princess Allura; hoping she’d give him a hug and not leave him looking like a fool. Reluctantly, she embraced him softly, barely placing her arms fully around his back. That was good enough, for now. She backed up quite smoothly, lifted her head, and looked at the tapestries that hung above her head. They all gasped and at the beauty and detail of them. The yellow had thin lines of dark yellow as the outline. They glistened in the spotlights because of the white glitter that was in its place. Lotor smiled large, folded his arms, and lifted his head. This was his time to shine and he was ready to do so.

“The colors you see before you are the same ones that our fathers used while battling. These colors represent friendship, leadership, and an emphasis on an unbreakable bond. Although the unbreakable bond didn’t workout well the first time, I’m certain it will now.”

Lotor’s smile slowly faded as he glanced directly in between Allura and Shiro. “Lover Boy” Lance McClain came storming between the two, stood toe to toe with him, and pointed his lengthy index finger in his face.

“Lance, that’s rude! What are you doing?!” Allura’s tone wasn’t her usual sweet, calm reflection but instead more like an irritated mother. She had been used to Lance’s irrational fears but this was TOO FAR for her. She developed feelings for Lotor, she is one of the leaders of Voltron, and having him misbehave insulted her leadership skills.

“Don’t worry, princess. I just want to make sure he doesn’t have any tricks up his sleeve.”

Lotor arrogantly chuckled quietly to himself. Although Lance appeared to be the airhead surfer boy, he took his role as paladin and valued his team seriously. They had been ambushed several times by Zarkon, his father. They have every right to be paranoid even if Allura didn’t think so. One thing that irked the team was her sense of trustworthiness. She hated Lotor simply because he was truly a threat and was Zarkon’s son but once she found out he was half Altean, it appeared as if she did anything he said. She fell for him; hard and that isn’t always good.

“I assure you, I am not here to play games or have any “tricks up my sleeve”. Trust me, if I did, you would know about it already. I am more skilled than you. There’s no need to lie.”

“As much as I would love to believe you Lotor, the Galra aren’t the ones to ‘turn the other cheek’. They keep fighting and fighting until they die.” Hunk began to sweat a little as his nerves began to run amuck.

“Hunk has a point. Why all of a sudden are we teaming up with Zarkon’s son to fight against his own empire that your the head of? It doesn’t sound right.”

“If Pidge agrees with me, it must be a set up.” Lance turned around and allied himself with the rest of the team. They were not pleased at all. Could it be a possibility that they were being paranoid? Is it wrong that they haven’t given him a chance to prove himself? Lotor released an irritated sigh, closed his eyes, and opened them again.

“I assure you, I have nothing to hide.” He snapped his fingers and two robots came at his side quickly. “If you all don’t mind, we are going to HQ and we will have a chat about what our next steps are going to be.”

The centurions led the way to HQ. On the way there, it was quiet and awkward; the only ones that were talking were Allura and Lotor. He had a large binder open with pages and pages of scientific research that Honerva had been using to figure out information regarding the creatures from the rift. Both were so intrigued by the findings that they began to pick up speed next to the centurions, leaving the team a bit behind. Allura took hold of the binder to find something specifically related to Oriande relating to “life givers”. Lotor began to close the space between the two placing his arm around her waist and gently placing his hand around her thigh. Lance was about to blow his fuse! Pidge and Hunk reassured him that Allura has stated several times before that she is not interested in dating him. It would be unprofessional; Lotor and Allura were considered to be allies. If they dated they’d be violating the Code of Ethics...somewhere.

“If she wouldn’t be interested in dating him, why isn’t she throwing his arm off her?”

“Lance, I haven’t dated yet but I know something about girls.” She pushed her glasses closer to her face and pointed in the air. “Some girls just entertain the behavior in the moment so the guy doesn’t flip out. They also do it so the man’s ego won’t get hurt. Both reasons are stupid and unhealthy but that is why. I have no idea why a man’s ego is so easily destroyed just because a girl rejected his passes.”

“Good question. It makes the good guys look bad.” Hunk stuck his finger in the air and smiled. “I’ll always treat my woman like a queen!”

The team had finally reached HQ. Lotor suddenly became quiet and stood still. He squinted his eyes, frowned, and slowly moved away from them. Once he approached his subject, his eyes widened. There was a tall woman dressed in long black clothing, her head covered, with her back turned. She had two blue binders that said “memories” on the binding side and an old cloth blanket. The emperor face palmed himself quietly backing away instructing the team to leave HQ quickly without making a sound. As soon as the robots began to move, the woman turned around, gasped and yelled his name.

“Lotor!”

“Goodness gracious,” he replied quickly under his breath.

The woman came walking towards him with a smile of endearment. He could now see the front of the binders and nearly lost his mind. He blushed at the sight and glanced back at her. She laughed, assuring him that she was moving his belongings to another part of the ship.

“Oh, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“Embarrassed about what?”

Lotor changed his expression and turned around. Still blushing, he managed to smile.

“This is Dayak, my governess. She raised me when I was a child, trained me, and helped me become the man I am today.”

“Barely,” Lance blurted out. He snapped his head and smiled oddly at Lotor. Lance was able to put two and two together and realized what he was embarrassed about.

“Wait, wait, wait. She raised you from a child? As in your nanny?!”

“Governess!” The emperor face palmed again, not able to look in Allura’s direction.

Why would ANYONE want their old photos to be shown to anyone they liked?!

“Oh boy, you had a nanny! Oh my goodness, I didn’t have one!”

“That’s why you're lacking in so many areas. Can’t you tell?” He began to flex his arm, showing the implied muscles through his shirt.

“That’s all you’ve got? At least mine are real!”

“Mine are too! You look like you’ve been using steroids!”

“Steroids? How do you know what those are? You’re an alien.”

“Ok, Lance, that’s enough. Dayak was going to speak,” Shiro said, somehow not irritated. Given the chaotic life he has, this was nothing but pure entertainment.

“Thank you. True enough I am this young emperor’s governess and I did far more than nanny duties. Lotor underwent intense training at the age of 6 years old. Many doubted his abilities but I knew he had it in him.”

“Thank you, Dayak.”

“Lotor, don’t hate me for this. Dayak, what are in the books that you are holding?” Hunk was generally curious and had no ill intent in asking unlike Lance. Still, Lotor was pained to see what was in those books. His style would have definitely been cramped.

“I’ll show you if it’s ok with the emperor.”

Lotor sighed heavily and threw his hand in the air.

“Yes, it's ok.”

Everyone gathered around his governess as she opened one of the books. The font read “Memorable Moments” and God knows what was in them. The team released a number of “awws”, “wows”, and “oohs” . Dayak, the nanny--governess, smiled as she turned each page remembering how cute the emperor looked in his formal clothing and how hot she looked when she was younger. This stage in his life would have happened matter what; Honerva would have done the same thing.

“This picture was taken after Lotor learned the Galran alphabet, vowel sounds, and numbers.”

“Wow! Lotor used to take a stuffed animal to class?” Hunk laughed. “Ha!”

“I was afraid, ok? I was all by myself.”

“And no one is shaming you for it buddy! Well, maybe Lance, but we aren’t.”

“This picture was taken during PE class. He loved to play buckets. I thought he was going to pursue somewhat of an athletic career!”

“I have to admit, he gets his muscles from Zarkon.”

“Aw. Thank you Princess.”

“That’s not a compliment dude.”

The emperor realized that the old photos of him weren’t so bad after all. They were milestones; it showed how well he has progressed and how he will continue. These were his allies after all. It was important for them to see him during his softer moments to know that they could talk to him about anything.

[firelxdykatara]

whats crazy is that allura was likely going to end up with keith based on some of the let's voltron podcasts (which makes sense since allura has always ended up with keith in previous iterations and the ships was mildly hinted at) but the popularity of klance had them cutting that whole thing out. people were screaming that keith was "gay coded" and that keith was her "oppressor" so you couldn't ship allura with keith lmao.

......there is so much to unpack here oh my god, i’m dying

first of all, shiro wasn’t even gay coded, and he’s the only character we’re supposed to believe is canonically queer by the end of the show. (well, and curtis i guess, but he barely counts as a cardboard stand-in for a character, so.) so i am almost curious enough to ask what the fuck the fandom thought was so ‘gay coded’ about keith (and, incidentally, i really wish that fandoms would just stop talking about coding until they learn what the fuck it actually means jfc), but i recognize that discretion is the better part of valor, so i’m just gonna be... over here, chuckling in befuddled amusement.

i will note, though, that it has always been terribly interesting to me that allura, in previous incarnations, typically survived the end of the series, was in a romantic relationship with keith who was the leader of voltron, and was very very white..... but in vld, the only version of voltron where allura is not white, she is killed at the end of the series for no real reason, and her romantic relationship is with lance, someone who kept pursuing her despite her marked disinterest for the first six seasons, only for her to turn around and suddenly reciprocate feelings she’d shown no sign of prior, and who was not the leader of voltron (and was, in fact, consistently sidelined because he was off-brand sokka without the good writing to support a half-way decent character arc),

allura was also consistently tormented and demeaned by the narrative (was it really necessary to show her begging the red lion to accept her, sobbing after being rejected, and then being shoved into blue like it was some kinda consolation prize for not being good enough to lead the team??? anyway, my kingdom for black paladin allura [especially because, given the qualities we’re supposed to believe black prized, she absolutely should have been the one to take over in shiro’s absence]), so the fact that she had no agency in her own romantic narrative (kind of like another favorite character of mine after whom my blog is named >.>) is really insult added to injury.

as far as keith being allura’s ‘oppressor’.........what???? i mean, i ship lotura (vld is one of the rare occasions where i multiship, mostly because i wish allura had gotten the love she deserves, and ironically the only person i don’t like her with is lance lmao), so that argument already doesn’t cut it with me (ask me sometime about how beautiful it could have been to see lotor and allura healing the destruction their parents had caused in the universe, the heir to altea and the product of an altean/galran union which caused so much harm coming together in love and peace to make things right and end ten thousand years of pain and suffering) but.... keith??? he didn’t even know he was part-galra. and don’t even get me started on how clumsy allura’s on prejudice arc was handled, because yikes.

but the fact is, keith was not at all part of what happened to allura’s people. nor was his mother! he had no idea he was anything other than human until he found out during the show, and it wasn’t even like their relationship would have had any comparable power imbalance, like. ugh. i don’t get that argument and i probably never will.

anyway, my bottom line is, allura deserved better. and kallura, lotura, or even shallura would have been more fitting relationships that would have meshed better with her overall character arc and given her a happier, healthier ending than what she had in canon, even if she hadn’t been killed off for no damn reason.

[arinaco]

Role of the Dark Entity in the VLD series

Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932

This short meta focuses on a very important element of the VLD series, completely overlooked as a result of the changes in S8. It never received any explanation, although it appeared in S3 for the first time. Namely - the Dark Entity (hereinafter - DE). I thought about its importance when I analyzed the scenes with Allura in Clear Day episode (S8Ep8) and came to interesting conclusions. But ... let's start in order. The first time DE appears in flashbacks, in the story of Coran (S3Ep7). When Alfor comes to visit his friend Honerva, she tells him that only one creature has responded to the signal she sent to the Rift. The creature was a small floating ball that Honerva placed in a flask. Alfor already then felt that it wouldn't end well, but the cycle of events, alas, was launched, and the alchemist king turned into a passive observer of the impending tragedy. At that time, we learned only one thing: that in the Rift between realities, where there's an endless stream of the purest quintessence, such dark creatures live. That is, for them the quintessence is a natural habitat and a natural source of nutrition, since there's simply nothing else there. And this is very (!) Important. Because you need to remember that in the ordinary world, the quintessence is only inside living beings: planets, flora and fauna. Moreover, the concentration of the quintessence inside living bodies is several times less than in the Rift. Just compare. We got to know what the raw quintessence looks like in the episode where paladins get to an imperial staging post (S1Ep12), and Keith tries to steal a vessel with a purple quintessence. The Red paladin is wounded in the arm and crashes into a flask of yellow - raw - quintessence. And having already escaped from the kind, sweet druid, he looks in amazement as, thanks to this yellow liquid, the wound on his hand heals right before his eyes (however, at that moment he was more alarmed by the purple tint of his own blood than by the very fact of healing).

The yellow flask is as tall as Keith, and the resulting violet one fits in the hand... 

Quintessence is the energy of life. The yellow quintessence is the energy that is present in an ordinary living organism in normal natural concentration (someone has more of it, someone has less of it, I don’t know what the process of its extraction is). It's weak, but completely harmless. It healed Keith without harming him.

One large flask of yellow quintessence produces a small flask of purified violet quintessence. And I think that even less is the more powerful blue. And in the Rift, the quintessence was in an absolutely pure - white - form, completely intolerable for normal living beings. Yes, the quintessence is the energy of life itself and can't kill (that is, according to the logic of the series, Lotor just couldn't die in the Rift), but this doesn't mean that its overdose will lead to good consequences. The purple quintessence made the warden at Beta Traz (S2Ep10) swell like a balloon; with the help of blue quintessence they created a real monster (S5Ep5); the pure stream burned Honerva and Zarkon's brains in just a couple of minutes, and melted Lotor like cheese in the microwave.

Nothing from our universe has been able to survive the passage through the Rift.

Because they deformed so much that they ceased to be themselves.

In some way it was lucky, because next to it was a delicious Altean alchemist. As we know, even an ordinary Altean produces quintessence more than other races, and a powerful alchemist turns into a walking battery. In addition, Zarkon visited his wife periodically and became an excellent addition to the main course.

As a result, when Alfor came to check on his friend, he was surprised to notice that she had lost interest in him and was overly enthusiastic about research. And even Zarkon, who was initially wary of research, now also supported it.

This is because the quintessence diet wasn't the only feature of the entity. Remember how it got to Honerva in the first place: the entity responded to the signal sent to the Rift, sent to search for intelligent races, which means that DE is in a sense a kind of intelligent creatures (which "predates time itself", S8Ep8). And due to the lack of material organs, most likely, the entities communicated with each other through telepathy. The entity possessed mental abilities and, seeing a stable source of power in Honerva, tried to keep her close to itself, and also influenced Zarkon so that he fully supported his wife's aspirations.

I thought we've discussed this. We must exercise caution. 

Alfor, belatedly realizing that it's not very smart to investigate an incomprehensible thing, tries to urge his friends to be careful. And it seems that at that particular moment he could have succeeded, because the DE's reaction to this statement was comparable to the reaction of an indignant cat - it immediately released the needles and hissed. And then, almost immediately, a whole wave of the entities poured out of the Rift. I think, it didn't like the new living space in the flask, and feeling a threat to life, the entity used its mental abilities and called for help.

Yes, if you think about it, then a fairly clear logical chain is built: Alfor showed aggression towards the entity - the entity was frightened - a whole wave of its relatives poured out of the Rift. They didn't just attack Daibazaal - they responded to the call for help. The entities clearly had a mutual mental connection, and maybe something like a collective intelligence. They even knew how to merge into a single organism that works no less harmoniously than Voltron.

As a result, literally a stone's throw from the capital, the planet was invaded by an army of dark creatures. Yes, Alfor and Honerva managed to stop the main stream, but who said they were able to trap all entities? Zarkon later stated that if urgent measures weren't taken, his people would be exterminated, which means that the entities had a chance to demonstrate their abilities. Perhaps only the security of the complex suffered, or maybe some of the creatures escaped from its borders, because there was a large lively city nearby. Having lost their natural source of food, the DE infiltrated the first victims, and the Galra died from exhaustion, since they didn't have a high level of quintessence like the Alteans. They literally turned into mummies in front of the doctors. The only thing that saved from the general pandemic was that it seemed that the entity couldn't leave the host itself and died with them, otherwise the DE would have jumped between the victims until they completely exterminated the Galra people (I'll explain a little later what led me to this idea). But not only the Galra were among the victims. Honerva said that Kova suffered from the influence of DE, and she had to treat him with quintessence. It was thanks to this that she discovered that the quintessence is the energy of life, capable of even giving immortality, and after such processing, Kova himself was able to survive even in outer space (S8Ep2). At that moment, Honerva believed that the entity simply hurt/badly affected her pet. No one could have imagined that DE isn't just an intelligent species, but capable of inhabiting living beings and even influencing their minds.

He revealed the truth to us.

Kova became unexpectedly aggressive towards Alfor in the absence of any clear reason.

And that was very bad, because Honerva herself became a victim of the parasite. She was an Altean and also an alchemist, and therefore at the beginning didn't even notice the "tenant". It ate hearty, almost without harming its feeder, even helped in some way - for example, it suggested to Honerva that the quintessence could save Kova from "illness", otherwise why would she even think of treating her beloved cat with a source of energy for ships and equipment? But. Just because an entity found a stable host doesn't mean that it was content with its position. The entity wanted to go home back to the Rift and began to influence its host to help in this. And therefore, after the death of the monster, despite all the troubles that it had caused, Honerva suddenly announced that she wanted to continue research. And Zarkon's behavior looks absurd at all: first, he demanded from Alfor to urgently use Voltron to save his people, and then almost immediately didn't care of Daibazaal's well-being and supported Honerva in her desire to continue working on the Rift.

My planet, my people ...

You would risk your entire planet, the entire solar system? For what? 

And all because the entity tried to take control of him too. It no longer just sat in a flask, as happened with its predecessor. It had a feeder in the form of a powerful alchemist, and it was able to draw energy from her in sufficient quantities to spread its influence. And although the influence on Zarkon was weaker than on Honerva, it was still present enough for the Galra emperor to blindly agree with his wife.

Unfortunately, Alfor never understood what was happening. He thought that the prospect of owning the quintessence had simply overshadowed Zarkon's eyes, he didn't notice how dramatically his friend had changed. And even after whole years, the alchemist king realized that something bad was happening only after visiting Daibazaal years later. Apparently, away from his wife, Zarkon behaved quite adequately, because he got rid of the influence of the essence. But next to her he became blind and deaf, repeating the words of his wife like a dummy. As a result, the paladins continued their heroism, and the entity continued to eat Honerva and influence Zarkon. And at first no one noticed the changes. After all, the Alteans in S8 also didn't notice that the entities were harming them. When Honerva informed Zarkon that she was expecting a baby, she looked gray-haired but still as young as when she first appeared on screen. The body of the great alchemist more or less coped with one parasite. But when the fetus grew and began to draw all the juices from the mother, Honerva's health deteriorated. And the mind too, because the entity, sensing the critical state of the host, began to worry and increased its pressure.

A huge difference with a timeline of several months.

Remember what Lotor said about his mother's logs. According to him, at the very end, the recordings were made... as if by another person. Feverish, insane and disorderly. Fear and paranoia appeared in them.

She's frantic, paranoid, erratic, her reason and intellect have gone.

But what could Honerva be afraid of? Where did she get paranoia? She was expecting a child and was happy with the thought that she would give the empire her son, knowledge and a bright future. And all because it wasn't her emotions. The entity sensed that its host was dying and panicked. DE was afraid for its life and was afraid that it would be revealed when the host became very bad. It panicked and at times even subdued the body, trying to write something itself.

Therefore, when Alfor received disturbing news about Daibazal's condition and decided to visit a friend, he saw Honerva aged and... not quite in an adequate condition. Not realizing that Zarkon and his wife were under the influence of the DE, the alchemist king quarreled with them and left, slamming the door, although he was probably the only one who could help them in this situation.

After the conversation, Honerva faints as her condition reaches a critical point.

Remember what Honerva said when Zarkon desperately asked how to help her? She said she needed quintessence. Because the entity sensed that the host wasn't doing well and broadcast signals for help. Honerva asked to open the Rift not because of a clouding of her mind, but because DE really wanted to return home and save its life.

Quintessence is life.

For Honerva and DE - literally.

If we collect all the scraps of her phrases together, then we get this:

"We must... we must have it...we must have it... get back, get back, get back... quin... quintessence... quintessence is life... into the R... into the Rift. We must... we must have Voltron. Voltron! Voltron! This is the only way"

And it can be understood approximately like this:

"We must return to quintessence in the Rift. The quintessence is life. We need Voltron, only this can help"

And... who are "we"? Zarkon, of course, thought to himself, but who said that Honerva was talking about him?

If Alfor knew what was happening, if he tried to help Honerva, he might have saved both the mother and the child, as Allura saved Tavo (S8Ep8). In our situation, events developed in a sad direction: Zarkon deceived his friends in a desperate attempt to save his wife. And look: when Zarkon climbed out of the Lion with Honerva in his arms, they were immediately surrounded by entities. Because they were waiting to take one of their kind home. They didn't attack the paladins first, they were just going to take Honerva. 

But one way or another, the DE's plan fell through. It remained inside Honerva, while Zarkon returned from the Rift with a burnt-out brain and a parasite inside. Actually, then even Lotor got the DE. The doctor noted that the child had the same strange energy background as the parents, and expressed concern that it wouldn't be possible to save the empress. Now there were already two entities and a child sitting inside - no wonder Honerva was getting worse and worse. And the poor nurse Haggar died simply because even the charge received from the Rift wasn't enough to survive Honerva. No alchemical gift was enough to cope with such a burden.

She only seems to become aware when we administer her Quintessence. 

From this it's possible to draw conclusions about how the “illness” proceeded in other people, and it's weighty to assume that the entity couldn't leave the host of its own accord, dying with them. Otherwise, the DE would have left Honerva as soon as she began to fade.

Honerva only survived because Zarkon took care of a constant supply of the quintessence for his wife. Now he himself turned into a feeder and needed nourishment from the outside, since he was neither an Altean, nor an alchemist. The entity inside him, like all its relatives who fell into this world, wanted to return home, and therefore gradually a manic desire developed in Zarkon not only to get more quintessence, but also to return Voltron, as the only weapon capable of opening the Rift again. That's why he considered the creation of Alfor so special and necessary, despite the fact that the empire itself perfectly coped with the spread of its influence in the universe.

Moreover, in this situation, it's worthwhile to clearly distinguish between the change in character of Zarkon and his mania. Since the change in character was due to irradiation with pure concentrated quintessence, and mania appeared due to the presence of a parasite.

How the entity influenced Lotor remains questionable. The statement that it's DE who made him extract energy from the Alteans can be dismissed at once: first, as a prince of the Galra, he could receive the quintessence in the official way in any quantity and even take a bath of quintessence every day; secondly, even before birth he was irradiated with pure energy, which not only endowed him with immortality, but also awakened the sleeping gift of the alchemist. That is, Lotor didn't need personal consumption of the quintessence. On the other hand, his quest to end his mother's research may seem a little intrusive... but only slightly when compared to Honerva's obsessive research. Lotor was cold-blooded and non-fanatic about development, believing that research could solve the empire's energy issue. Therefore, the most stable theory is that, having settled in an unborn child, the entity simply fell asleep and slept peacefully for ten thousand years, signing with the energy of its immortal host.

But let's get back to Honerva, as her postpartum changes affected the future of the entire universe. Having given birth to a son, Honerva got rid of two parasites at once and, thanks to the influx of quintessence, gradually returned to normal. She didn't remember her past, but at some point she managed to realize that "a guest worker" was sitting in her body. Perhaps this knowledge came to her during a crisis, when the entity tried to contact everyone and asked for help. Being a great alchemist, Honerva no longer just put up with the intruder and obey it, but, on the contrary, set her own rules. From a parasite, the entity turned into a subordinate symbiont and shared its abilities with Honerva. It was from DE that Haggar received the gift of influencing other people's minds and drawing energy from living beings, which led to the creation of the Komar. Before her, none of the alchemists possessed such talents, and only Allura showed similar skills after a Clear Day episode. Haggar ceased to be just a feeder, she began to purposefully use the entity for her own purposes, and it had only to obey. As you can see, Haggar supported Zarkon in everything, but at the same time she was inclined to destroy Voltron rather than use it, and this is a consequence of the fact that the DE lost its control over her, turning into a humble servant.

One of the questions I asked myself while watching the show was who the druids of Haggar were and why they worship her so much. The druids had similar abilities, and I couldn't help thinking that Haggar was conducting experiments on the Alteans and turning them into her minions. But in the light of these considerations, everything turns out to be much simpler: Haggar gave dark entities to her subordinates/laboratory assistants and taught them to use them. For them, it became a revelation and a special gift, and therefore they treated their high priestess with such respect, and the needs of the essence were easily satisfied with the quintessence available to them.

And by the way, the real Lotor couldn't know about all this, since he was born much later than the events on Daibazaal. Lotor was aware that Haggar was able to read other people's minds and therefore became a real paranoid, but had no idea about the nature of this ability.

Entities like this gave Haggar the ability to conquer the worlds...

Lotor just couldn't know about it either.

What does Lotor's degree of falsity have to do with it? And here we need to move on to the events of Clear Day episode and the scenes with Allura, which made me think about the importance of the DE for the plot. And yes, on Clear Day we meet a different prince than the one who accompanied us throughout most of the series. Remember the moment Tavo was saved. Sam put the entity in a flask, and the first thing the entity tried to do was to take control of Allura. But the fact that Sam interrupted the process doesn't mean that DE stopped there. It's hungry, it lost her host - well, how can you resist a walking battery right in front of your nose?

And all of Allura's dreams, all visions didn't just appear out of thin air. DE really wanted a new host for itself, it aimed at Allura and wasn't going to stop. And note an interesting point: the longer Allura was near the entity, the closer she was to it, the larger the DE became. How small it was after being removed from the Tavo, and how huge it became by the end of the episode. First, the DE dug at the very top of her consciousness, and saw regret for her motherland and mother, because Allura just turned off the hologram with her parents before going to bed. Then it dug a little more and saw Lance. And then it dug in the very depths, saw Lotor and realized that yes - it would work. 

Look at this frame and remember the frame with Honerva that I inserted above.

They (who edited S8) tried to show us that the terrible ghost of Lotor inclines Allura to something bad, but in reality Lotor didn't send anyone or anything. Lotor doesn't know alchemy and doesn't know how to control entities. How does he even know what kind of creatures they are? After all, he's a very proud man and will never beg anyone for himself. Why would he come and ask for help a woman who actually betrayed him and left him to die? The entity just wanted to eat and get a new host. And this whole performance with visions had one specific goal - to get Allura to free the parasite. And in order to achieve what it wanted, the DE showed Allura what she wanted to see. With these scenes, we were actually shown to whom at a given moment Allura had the greatest trust and affection, whom she wanted to see, and therefore they tried to either cut out or alter the scenes, because they clearly showed that memories of her mother became the main hook for Allura, and most importantly - Lotor. ...however, they didn't succeed. The scenes still look like Allura chased Lance away and indulges in  erotic dreams of Lotor... 

And laughing Lotor at the very end of the episode is the joy of the very DE that it achieved its goal. And it said to Allura "Follow me!" because in some way it decided to fulfill the desire of the new host. Want to chat with Lotor? I'll deal with it - in the end, my relative is sitting in him, and we have a mental connection with each other. And it was the understanding that such a connection between entities exists that allowed Allura to then penetrate into Honerva's mind. But first, Allura had to figure out that yes - there was a connection. And she could only figure out, only realizing that it was thanks to the presence of the DE inside that she was able to connect with Lotor. Does it look logical? It is logical. And I can easily imagine the beginning of their conversation, when Lotor is surprised at the appearance of Allura in his mind/dream, and she exclaims in amazement that he himself called her. A situation will arise that requires a retelling of the events that have taken place, which will make Lotor understand that now Allura is ready to listen to him and is capable of a reasonable dialogue. 

On the other hand, Alfor's worries becomes more justified. He was frightened not just by the self-will of his daughter, who decided to play with an unknown force. Before his eyes the example of his own best friend, who suffered from a parasite, arose, and after all, Honerva was an experienced and powerful alchemist. He was afraid that Allura would also become a victim of the entity, and therefore began to persuade his daughter to abandon the dangerous idea. Yes, Alfor was prone to hyper-custody, but he wasn't as bad a father as they tried to show us in S8.

But at what cost?

And after all that has been described, only one question remains: how did the history of the DE come to an end - but alas, it's no longer possible to find out, since the end of this storyline was simply cut off. Perhaps the entities managed to somehow come to an agreement with Allura, and she helped them return home, because in the end this is exactly what they wanted most.

Personally, I'm simply glad that, despite the flair of alchemy aka magic, Voltron turned out to be much closer to science fiction than to a space opera, and the events have a more weighty explanation than just a magical plot twist that arose at the behest of the screenwriter. A parasite from another reality, a higher mind as the last stage in the evolution of an intelligent being - these are quite classic elements of this genre, very elegantly blended into the outline of the series.

[backupblogforjg]

The racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism and cruel tropes in Voltron

So, it’s the anniversary of the ending of Voltron. And I’m getting really, really tired of people saying that only shippers hated the ending. There were many issues with Voltron, and they were neither limited to shipping nor to S8.

So, I’ve decided to compile a list.

It gets LONG. Turns out there was a hell of a lot of racist, sexist, ableist and cruel tropes in VLD.

In fact, I had originally planned on writing a list of both the terrible tropes and the plot holes. But there just wasn’t enough room for both. The post is huge as it is, and with the plot holes, it would have been twice as long, so I had to focus on only one thing.

Salt, obviously. So, so, so much salt. I could turn a lake into a sea here. You’ve been warned.

RACISM:

1) The Alteans are genocide survivors. Out of all the Alteans, only the black Altean was used for a Reverse Racism story where she resents a teammate for belonging to the race that exterminated hers. The white Alteans are totally cool with him, and with his race in general, and only hate the bad people. But the black one had to be taught that hating people because of their race is wrong.

2) VLD Allura is also the only version of Allura who is black. In every other Voltron media (several different cartoons and comics), Allura is blond with blue eyes. All the white versions of the character get a happy ending, while only the black version ends up dying to save the world.

While "hero sacrifices their life to save the world" is not a bad trope in and of itself, it becomes bad when it kills off one of the extremely few black female characters in leading roles. You kill off a white male hero, there are 463278462387 more. You kill off the black female hero, you are kinda screwed. Making it worse, Allura had been portrayed as suffering from depression throughout the latest seasons, so that her death comes across less as heroic sacrifice and more as suicide.

3) The brown Cuban kid who dreamed of being a pilot, and never once in 78 episodes ever expressed anything but sheer love for an exciting life, in the final two minutes of the final episode ends up realizing that the place for him is a farm.

4) As told in interviews, Lotor was meant to be a bad example of mixed-race person, to contrast him with Keith as good example of mixed race person. Do I even have to point out how messed up this is?

5) Even before they became Space Nazis, back when they were still on the side of the angels, the Galra invaded and conquered planets. This is portrayed as totally cool when they happily name the prince after a "hero" who invaded and conquered a lot of worlds, and the peaceful Alteans think the guy is just as heroic as one of their greatest scientists. Apparently there is such a thing as ethically killing people to steal their land.

6) They whitewashed Keith, a character who is poc in every other iteration of Voltron.

I’m sure a lot of people are going to get angry here, claiming that I hate Keith. Let me assure you, I don’t. I love Keith, and I hate what was done to him. I hate that they took a traditionally poc character and went to frankly ridiculous lengths to erase that part of his character. Keith should be Asian, and it would be incredibly easy to make him so in VLD (seriously, all they’d have to do is update the freaking bios, an intern could do it right now in 5 minutes). But they refuse to do it.

A lot of people don’t realise that the surname “Kogane” in VLD is fanon.

I’m serious. Check his official bios page. Keith is not actually called Keith Kogane in VLD. Fans started calling him that in fanfiction, and it stuck, but it’s not canon.

In every other Voltron media, Keith is an Asian guy. But in VLD, they:

- went out of their way to always avoid giving him an Asian surname

- gave him a Texan father

- refused to confirm his race, even when every other character had a specific race. Again, check his official bios. All the other characters got a race, Keith gets “human.” It got so ridiculous it would be funny if it weren’t sad. It pretty much went like this:

Fans: Keith is half alien, but about his human half, what is his ethnicity? EPs: oh, we couldn't possibly say, because the story takes place in the future, and in the future, everybody is mixed up! So, Keith is HUMAN, we can't give him a specific race because there are no specific races in the future! Fans: ok. And what are the races of the other characters? EPs: Pidge is Italian, Lance is Cuban, Hunk is half-black half- Samoan, Shiro is Japanese. Fans: but Keith...? EPs: HUMAN! There is no such thing as race in the future!

Some people at least hoped that Keith's Texan father had Asian ancestry because he kinda looked like Shiro, who is Japanese. But the EPs confirmed that the resemblance was just a coincidence, they never meant for the dad to look Japanese.

At this point pretty much the only evidence that Keith is Asian is that he is voiced by an Asian person. But then, Josh Keaton is not Japanese, is he?

7) After whitewashing Keith, they claimed he is the best leader of Voltron, better than his poc predecessor, because he has Galra blood.

So, instead of bringing up any sort of legit reason to justify why Keith should be in charge (like his empathy or pilot skills), they go with "the half-white guy is also half space-nazi and that's why he should give the orders instead of the poc guy."

If you think I’m bashing Keith here, please ask yourself why you are getting angry at the person pointing out the whitewashing instead of getting angry at the whitewashing. Especially when, again, making VLD Keith canonically poc could be done anytime with zero cost and zero effort, and DW just doesn’t want to.

- Hunk, the half-black half-Samoan guy, was going to be killed and replaced as Paladin by a blue alien. The EPs were pissed when DW forbade them to, and complained in the interview about it.

SEXISM:

Every single woman who is ever put in charge ends up going insane, making terrible decisions that endanger her planet, or losing all of her authority.

Allura starts out as co-leader of Voltron and leader of the Coalition. Ends up as a foot soldier who takes orders from the new leader and his right-hand man, and is treated as a cadet by the Earth military.

HOMOPHOBIA:

1) Dreamworks, Netflix and the EPs very, very, very heavily promoted S7 as GLBT-friendly. The EPs gave whole interviews about the past relationship between Shiro and new character Adam, retweeted a ton of posts celebrating Shiro’s homosexuality, and enthusiastically sent tweets like "you are going to see more of Adam in S7! :D" from their personal accounts after they showed the episode that introduced him.

In S7:

- Shiro's homosexuality is so ambiguous that even the Brazilian voice actor didn't realize that he was supposed to be gay. Just by watching the show, without knowing the World Of God, you can’t tell he and the other guy were engaged.

- Adam gets about 30 seconds of screentime after that one episode they had already shown. Then he dies screaming in pain and terror in a fire.

A lot of people claimed that it was okay to kill Adam because Shiro was supposed to be our rep, not Adam, who was a brand new character we knew little about. And, out of context, that would be true. Adam was pretty much a NPC, why would his death matter?

But the problem here is the context:

- Shiro is closeted in S7, you need to read interviews to know he is gay. So, if only Shiro is meant to be the rep, they couldn’t even do that right.

- They very heavily marketed both Shiro and Adam as gay rep, and specifically talked at length about Adam in several interviews.

In THAT context, REGARDLESS of what you ship, killing off Adam revealed a complete willingness to manipulate the audience to the point of outright lying. Even if you hated Adam, even if Adashi is your NOTP, the clear evidence that the creators had absolutely no problem making empty promises was NOT a good sign.

2) The moment Shiro is revealed to be gay in interviews, he is practically quarantined from the Team.

3) Shiro is also given a Totally Not AIDS deadly disease.

Making it even worse, Shiro never actually gets cured in canon. We are told he is cured in interviews, but the show itself drops the topic entirely. Depending on where you lean in the Word Of God VS Death Of The Author debate, Shiro may be doomed to die.

4) A female villain is revealed to be a lesbian. 30 seconds later she gleefully tortures a little girl. Then she, too, dies in a fire.

(Fan outrage about pulling two Bury Your Gays in the Season that had been very heavily promoted as GLBT-friendly caused DW to retcon her death and bring her back in S8, but she was originally meant to die in the explosion)

5) Shiro ends up marrying a random character who doesn’t even get a name in the show.

ABLEISM:

1) Shiro's PTSD magically disappears offscreen. In interviews, the EPs claimed that he "got over it" between S6 and S7 because "he is a professional." Wow! Who knew being a professional magically cures mental illnesses!

2) Shiro is an amputee. The EPs admitted that they never put any thought into his status as disabled rep, they just wanted a character with a cool-looking arm. It literally didn't occur to them that making him lose his arm (TWICE! First up to the biceps, then up to the shoulder) meant anything. Also worth noting that Shiro’s new arm makes him look like the guy who tormented him.

3) Shiro is systematically robbed of his agency.

- He is the only Paladin who never gets to use his bayard.

- He loses his bond with Black for no given canon reason (and the reason they give in interviews makes no sense, they basically say that transferring his soul out of the Black Lion makes her stop loving him. But she still lets Zarkon fly her!).

I know that Keith is traditionally Black’s pilot in Voltron media (although that shouldn’t matter, because VLD made a lot of huge changes to the traditional status quo). But if they wanted Black Paladin Keith that badly, they could have given some non-insulting reason for it. For example, say “because Shiro has spent so much time within Black, their bond is now so strong that he will get absorbed again if he flies her again.” Or co-pilots in Black (if Pidge can co-pilot with Matt, why can’t Shiro co-pilot with Keith?).

- He is defeated not only by Sendak, but also by a bunch of random Alteans. He basically can’t win a fight anymore unless it’s played for laughs.

- His new robot Atlas is bigger than Voltron, but also much weaker, and can only buy a few minutes for Voltron to come save the day.

- Every single enemy he ever defeated comes back to be finished off by somebody else (even the friggin' Gladiator from S1 comes back in S8). In the epilogue, he retires in his twenties.

4) Narti, the disabled General, is fridged shortly after her introduction. For a while at least it seemed like her death had affected the remaining three Generals, but then it turns out that the "For Narti" line was a trick and they never actually planned on avenging her.

CRUEL TROPES:

1) They intentionally baited the fans by pushing the plot thread that Lotor would be redeemed. They named the episode where he defects "A New Defender," they kept saying in interviews that they come from Avatar and they are very familiar with Zuko *hint hint*, they showed his family as incredibly abusive and Lotor himself as desperate, they showed that Lotor was a victim of severe racism (he is mixed race, and as stated above, the Galra are Space Nazis and are pretty obsessed with blood purity).

Then, after revealing him to be a villain, they gave an interview where they practically dislocated their shoulders by patting themselves on the back as they gleefully bragged that "we made them think we would give them a Zuko, but we gave them an Azula!"

(Nevermind the fact that Azula herself was a 14-year-old child, not a monster, and that Aaron Ehasz himself confirmed that he always wanted her to be redeemed).

When fans who are survivors of child abuse told them that the bait-and-switch was really hurtful, they laughed it off, and claimed that Lotor was just beyond redemption. Then they proceeded to redeem Lotor's abusive parents, who were objectively much worse.

2) Shiro’s clone, who sincerely believed he was Shiro and always meant well, was dehumanised, demonised and discarded like his life meant nothing. His short existence was full of pain from literally the moment he first opened his eyes, as Haggar kept torturing him with migraines to manipulate him. In the end, she brutally violates him body and mind, and brainwashes him to force him to turn on the family he was so desperate to find in The Journey. He dies in incredibly questionable circumstances, without ever getting to learn that his family survived Haggar’s plans. He is victim-blamed for the things she forced him to do against his will with mind-control, and is never mourned because the only family he ever had writes him off as a “thing” and “evil.”

In fact, the horrific treatment of Kuron foreshadowed S8. The Medium article “It never stops at one - Why Voltron: Legendary Defender's tragic ending wasn't a surprise and why more DreamWorks' series will follow suit” explains how.

The tl;dr version is that, when a story posits that the circumstances of your birth determine the value of your life, so that good intentions and hard work mean nothing, and long-established bonds can be discarded with zero thought and care, and your very humanity can be revoked over something you have absolutely no control over, and the whole sociopathic disaster is celebrated as a happy ending... it really, really can’t end well. Not just for you, but for the entire cast.

[voltrontranscript]

VLD S8E4: Battle Scars

Season 8 Episode 4: Battle Scars

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: In a race against time as a weblum approaches Olkarion, the paladins have to piece together what happened to destroy the once-vibrant planet and all its people as flashbacks reveal the destructive powers of Honerva’s white Altean mechs.

[Google Doc]

Hunk: Okay, that’s the third star system we checked in the last eleven days, and we still haven’t found a single clue about any robeasts.

Pidge: Actually, that was the eleventh star system in the last three days.

Hunk: Was it, really? Oh my gosh. Okay, see, I’m so worn out, I can’t even… you know.

Lance: Uh, count?

Hunk: No. Think.

Allura: I know this is not ideal, but the intel we received from the Galra cruiser in Lahn’s fleet identified one of those robeasts within this quadrant. We must find it.

Keith: Unfortunately, we just don’t know how current that information is.

Pidge: Also, this celestial quadrant is two hundred and thirty thousand lightyears in diameter.

Hunk: I can’t even process what that means.

Pidge: Okay, picture five fleas searching for another flea on a dog that’s the size of Earth.

Hunk: Ugh, all this talk about fleas is making me itchy. Are you guys feeling itchy?

Lance: Pidge, why can’t you and Hunk just make a robeast tracker thingy, you know? Do some math and science stuff. Then put some components together and bam, it’s done.

Allura: Perhaps we should set our heading for the Altean colony.

Keith: We talked about this. To get to the colony, we would have to travel through the Quantum Abyss.

Pidge: Plus, Kolivan said the colony no longer exists.

Allura: But there will be clues there, something to go off of.

Keith: Traveling through that abyss was one of the most harrowing experiences of my life. A single misstep could turn a six-month journey into a ten-year journey. The creatures, the environment, everything in there wants you dead. Except you.

Allura: I’m tired of hearing what we can’t do and what we don’t know.

Lance: Allura, we just want to make the best decisions--

Allura: The Alteans were my people, and the last of them are being exploited as soldiers in someone else’s war. You don’t understand.

Lance: I understand what it feels like to see someone I care about hurt so much.

Allura: I’m sorry, Lance.

Hunk: Okay, maybe we head to Olkarion. We’re just a few galaxies away. They might have some information on any unusual sightings.

Keith: Hunk’s right. Olkarion is a great spot to regroup and evaluate our situation.

Pidge: And it’ll be awesome to see everyone again. I wonder what kind of technological advances they’ve made in the last few years. Oh, man! If they figured out a way to untangle the uncertainty principle, new precision calculations could open the doors to a flood of innovations!

Lance: I think I understood, like, three of those words.

Keith: Allura, what do you think?

Allura: Perhaps a trip to Olkarion is best.

Hunk: Alright! Let’s do this!

Pidge: Hailing Olkarion. Be advised the Paladins of Voltron are en route. This is Pidge… hailing Olkarion. Do you copy?

Hunk: Are they not home?

Lance: Probably too busy untangling calculations. Am I using that right?

Hunk: No, not even close.

Pidge: I’m guessing there’s a delay due to our distance. We’ll probably receive their reply on the way.

Keith: Paladins, if we want to get to Olkarion quickly, there’s only one way to do it.

[Voltron transformation sequence.]

Keith: Engage wings!

Lance: Welcome to Olkarion’s galactic neighborhood. Did we ever hear from them?

Pidge: Actually, no, which is strange. I’ll try and contact them again. Whoa! We got incoming! Something big is headed our way at an incredible speed.

Lance: A Galra cruiser? Some kind of weapon?

Allura: Is it a robeast?

Keith: Shield up!

Lance: What the heck is that thing?

Hunk: It’s a weblum! Keith, look! We’ve been inside one of those!

Keith: How could I forget?

Pidge: Um, what’s it doing?

Hunk: Actually, it’s creating scaultrite. Pidge, you would love it. It’s this amazing chemical process--

Lance: Science talk later! We’re in its line of fire!

Keith: Thrusters!

Lance: Should we go on the offensive?

Hunk: No, no. They may be dangerous, but they’re essential for the universe. Think of them like giant space bees. Keith and I learned all about them from a video that Coran made. There was some rule, like, “If you don’t want to be killed stay away from its gills”?

Keith: That wasn’t the rhyme. It’s “If you don’t want to be dead, avoid its head.”

Allura: We don’t have time to listen to you rhyme!

Hunk: You just--

Keith: Hunk!

Allura: Where is that weblum going?

Pidge: According to my calculations, it’s headed towards… Olkarion.

Keith: Then we better get there first.

[Transition to Olkarion’s surface.]

Pidge: They were our allies, our friends.

Keith: Paladins, I know this is a difficult moment, but we need to get to work. That weblum is headed here right now, so time is short. Our top priority is search and rescue. If there are survivors, we need to find them, and we need to find out what happened here.

Allura: There is only one thing capable of this.

Keith: Well, let’s confirm it.

[Cut to each paladin conducting their search.]

Keith: I think our worst fears have been realized.

Hunk: What do you see?

Keith: The physical wreckage and destruction patterns are just like those on Earth.

Allura: Our findings are the same. It appears the quintessence was siphoned out of Olkarion as well.

Hunk: Lance and I took readings. We picked up trace elements of psyferite. That’s the same metal the creature on Earth was made from.

Allura: Why did this robeast attack Olkarion of all places?

Lance: Maybe because it was a central part of the coalition.

Allura: Maybe. I just get the feeling there’s something more to it.

Keith: You might be right, but we don’t have any way to confirm it. Right now, we just need to focus on finding survivors.

Allura: Pidge, have you picked up anything? Pidge, do you copy? Pidge?

Pidge: I know this place. This is where Ryner taught me how to bond with the forest. The Olkari people helped me to make that connection. I learned more from them than I ever thought possible. Allura, they had so much more to teach the universe. And now they’re gone. Huh? Huh?

Allura: Pidge. Are you alright?

Pidge: You didn’t see it?

Allura: See what?

Pidge: The forest, it was back to how it was before. There were girls playing.

Allura: Maybe this place is trying to show you something.

Pidge: What?

Allura: The Olkari had a profound connection to the land, just like you do. Their history could be etched into the very soil for you to see. Concentrate. See if you can tap into its energy.

[Transition to a flashback of Olkarion shortly before its destruction as Pidge watches.]

Olkari Girl: Come on! Follow me!

Pidge: Huh? We need to get to the city!

[Cut back to the present as Allura and Pidge return to the city, then the flashback resumes with Pidge watching.]

Pidge: Ryner.

Allura: You can see Ryner? What is she doing?

Pidge: The robeast! It’s here! We need to get closer. Ryner!

Ryner: Get civilians to evacuation pods and launch them immediately! Have all military personnel report to battle stations. Scramble the mechs for counterattack. Come with me!

[Cut back to the present.]

Pidge: Ryner. It seemed like she was talking to me. Or it could have been to the soldiers. I don’t know.

Allura: All the answers we’re looking for could be here. We may be able to find out where this beast came from and where it’s going next. There might be some clue here about the Alteans.

Pidge: If there is, I will find it.

Hunk: Guys, we have a, uh--we have a major problem here.

Lance: Hunk released some low-orbit trackers outside of Olkarion on the way in. The weblum just set them off. We have about ten minutes to evac!

Keith: Copy that. Everyone to their lions! Let’s go, now!

Allura: We can’t leave yet. How long do you think you can hold it off?

Lance: Hold it off? It’s a giant space worm! We can’t hold it off. What are you talking about?

Allura: Pidge found a way to tap into Olkarion’s history. She may be able to find out what we need to know, but we need a little more time.

Keith: Alright, we’ll buy you as much time as we can.

Allura: Copy that. Thank you.

Keith: Hunk, Lance, we need to hurry! I got it on scanners. Let’s intercept it.

[Flash back to the fall of Olkarion.]

Ryner: Go, go, go! We need to preserve the information from the communications tower! Keep the beast at bay as long as you can.

[Cut to Keith, Lance, and Hunk in space.]

Keith: We need to get it to divert its course.

Lance: And how do we do that?

Hunk: How about like this? Uh, my idea isn’t working!

Lance: Okay, okay, well, what were the rules with this thing?

Hunk: I’m drawing a blank. I’m not good under pressure!

Keith: It’s still heading for Olkarion! We haven’t slowed it down at all!

[Cut to Pidge and Allura on the communications tower as the flashback continues.]

Olkari Officer: How did we not pick this thing up on our scanners?

Female Engineer: It just appeared!

Pidge: Just like on Earth.

Olkari Officer: How could that be? Wait, bring up our scanner logs. Those anomalies we detected recently. I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. The anomalies are from the warping of space-time. This creature came through a wormhole.

Ryner: Transfer all data from this facility to a safe location off-planet, then evacuate immediately!

Olkari Officer: Understood. What we just discovered could save billions of lives.

[Cut back to the present.]

Pidge: It was a wormhole. That’s how they travel.

Hunk: Pidge, Allura! I’m sorry, but you’ve gotta get out of there immediately!

Pidge: I need more time.

Allura: I’m coming up to help.

[Cut to Keith, Lance, and Hunk in space with the weblum.]

Lance: Over here! This way! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Too close! How’d you guys beat this thing the first time?

Keith: We never beat it. Trying to get it to alter its course is an entirely different thing than collecting its scaultrite.

Hunk: Alright, that’s it. I’m calling Coran. Coran, come in!

Coran: Hunk! Hello there.

Hunk: Coran! You’re there! Okay. Um, I’m sorry to make this quick, but we need to stop a weblum from eating a planet, like, right now! Any chance you know how to do that?

Coran: Well, it’s definitely been a while, but in my younger days, me and my cohorts would have a little weblum fun.

Hunk: Coran! We’re kind of in a rush here!

Coran: Right. Let’s see, if I remember correctly, all you need to do--[static hissing]--on the trilo-mutarth, which you’ll find under its dorsal--[static hissing]

Hunk: Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no! Not this again! Our connection is breaking up!

Coran: --resulting in face boils, a runny nose, and cosmic light radiation poisoning. And if you don’t do this, you’ll expand to twice your size and pop like a balvax.

Hunk: Okay, that conversation took a lot longer than I expected, and I learned nothing. Allura, thank you!

Allura: Please hurry, Pidge.

[Cut back to the fall of Olkarion.]

Ryner: Hurry! Everyone on board. It came for something. Find out what.

Pidge: It came for the cubes. Why? Ryner, can you hear me? Do you know why the beast wanted the cubes? Please, talk to me!

Ryner: Hurry! Everyone on!

Pidge: Ryner, please! Ryner!

Olkari Girl: I’m scared. I don’t want to leave!

Ryner: You mustn’t cling too tightly to the past. The Olkari have always been able to adapt and move forward. It is our greatest strength. And it will live on in you.

Olkari Girl: But, our home…

Ryner: The old must give way to the new. It’s the way of the universe. Now please, go.

[Flashback fades away and Pidge becomes aware of the present again.]

Allura: Pidge! Pidge, are you there? We can’t hold this thing off any longer. You need to get out of there!

[Cut to Hunk in Yellow Lion.]

Hunk: There she is! The planet is clear!

Keith: Everyone, fall back away from the weblum!

Lance: It’s… it’s all gone.

Allura: I’m sorry, Pidge.

Keith: I wish we could’ve done more.

Pidge: Thanks, everyone.

Hunk: If you think about it, this isn’t really the end of Olkarion. Weblums eating dead planets is just the first step in a process that leads to the growth of new stars, planets, and galaxies.

Pidge: The old gives way to the new. We need to contact the Atlas.

Allura: Why?

Pidge: Because it turns out the Olkari weren’t done teaching us a few things. They showed me a way to track the robeasts. Their information is going to save billions of lives.

End.

[pan-xichen]

VLD AU where Shiro didn't die and as a result of that change the outcome is wildly different:

- Basically Shiro was actually teleported somewhere by Black in S2 instead of dying.

- I love Kuron so he's still in this I promise.

- Keith finds the real Shiro in S3.

- Keith also still leaves the team for a while and Shiro is the black paladin again.

- Keith foresees his fight with Shiro in the quantum abyss like in canon except it's the real Shiro this time (this plays off the idea that I think? one of the cast members mentioned? that OG Shiro could've turned on the team as well because he had the arm?)

- Keith and his posse arrive in time to stop Honerva taking control of Shiro.

- As an added bonus, Lotor isn't really killing Alteans for their quintessence because that plot point was STUPID so it's actually Honerva using a clone of Lotor.

- While I love TBP with my whole ass heart and wouldn't change anything that happens in that episode at all, in this AU the team knocks out Shiro before Honerva assumes control and removes the arm, and the fight at the clone facility is Keith and Shiro teaming up against Honerva.

- It's not so much a "fix it" AU because I actually like S7 the way it is as it is an AU where things happen differently because why not.

- So Keith and Shiro fight Honerva and the clone facility is destroyed, the dramatic moment where Keith and Shiro fall to their deaths still happens but the astral plain sequence is different; Shiro and Keith both enter Black's astral plain and Shiro shows Keith how to see with the lion's eyes, their souls merge and their combined power yeets the black lion back to their team in time to help them battle the generals.

- Honerva escapes the fight obviously she has to be the big bad again later.

- Keith and Shiro rescue the one clone that survives the destruction of the facility and that's how Kuron still exists except he calls himself Ryou instead.

- It's mildly weird for everyone at first but Shiro and Ryou are kinda like twins now (also they remove the galra arm from the clone too but give him a different looking one from Shiro's).

- Did I mention Lotor is innocent already because he's innocent in this AU, they find out it was a clone of him all along and the real Lotor would Never kill people for their quintessence (I have a lot of problems with what happened to Lotor I just don't talk about them a lot lmao).

- Keith gets permanent clairvoyance from extended time in the abyss except he can't control it and everything he sees is out of context, yaaaay.

- They still fight in the rift but Lotor and the generals are fighting alongside the paladins and they trap a robeast in there instead so no one dies horrifically, also I miss the robeasts.

- The castle of lions doesn't get destroyed and the robeast was big enough to seal the rift, yaaay.

- You'd think that the soul merging thing would mean that Keith and Shiro are co-pilots but you thought wrong sorry I love Captain Shirogane.

- Except this time Atlas is a single lion that can turn into a smaller mecha and Shiro is the white paladin (I'm thinking his hair turns white still somehow like when he and Keith merge to control the black lion or something).

- Atlas still merges with Voltron so Keith and Shiro aren't co-pilots but they are co-leaders.

- The events on earth happen pretty much the same barring a few differences like Shiro already having a new arm, (that actually has a bicep lmao), Shiro becomes the admiral of the Garrison too because it's what he deserves.

- I didn't watch S8 and never will so I don't know exactly how this change in events would affect that except:

Shiro actually contributes more to the story and doesn't just carry that tiny pistol as a weapon, he has a white bayard.

He actually saves Keith in That Episode.

Keith and Shiro spend some time together and address shit they honestly should have talked about on-screen in the carnival episode.

Allura doesn't die because FUCK that.

Kuron/Ryou is a separate person from Shiro and is still alive.

Keith's quintessence sensitivity is explained at some point because I am not content with the implication that it's just because he's an alien and there isn't a deeper explanation.

Keith isn't a good leader just because he's Galra because that was STUPID and took away his agency and accomplishments.

Honerva gets what she fucking deserved because she did shitty things and hurt a lot of people regardless of her reasons and I hate her (death?? Death.).

Lotor becomes the new emperor of the Galra and with the help of Voltron, the Garrison and the Blade of Marmora the empire becomes a place of peace.

The lions don't just yeet off into the night never to be seen again because the Galra problem might be solved but Voltron was never created exclusively to fight the Galra and the universe definitely still needs them.

Keith spends some time with the Blade of Marmora but isn't away all the time because he still needs to lead Voltron, they still do relief work but also campaign against other evils in the universe as well (and if he can't make it in time for a battle Shiro can always lead the team in his stead because they're co-leaders anyway).

Keith and Shiro don't get married but are in a happy relationship. In their free time they travel around the universe and explore new planets.

Allurance wedding because my heart aches for them. They become the leaders of New Altea together along with Coran.

The team does not go their separate ways so much as they go spend time with their families and do some other stuff in between expeditions with Voltron.

I've seen Zero episodes of S8 aside from gifsets and mentions of it but I think the important negative points have been negated now?

If someone wants to write something for this go ahead please do I would but I don't have the time so here are my notes in case anyone is interested in seeing them. This idea just came to me one day and I had to jot it down lmao.

[sasuhinasno1fan]

My starlight- Shallura Week Day 1

I’ve been a big shallura shipper since the start and when it came out that Shiro was gay, it didn’t change as I headcannoned him as pan anyway. I was a bit worried when a lot of people changed their stance and had asked if anyone, his charaecter, creators, anyone had said he was exclusively into guys. If he was, I’d put my ship to rest but still love their very good chemistry as great friends. No one said there was and then I found out through @breezycheezyart​ blog, when I was looking for her Juniberry art to use as inspo for this space related quest I’m doing that’s gonna be a Sailor Moon au, that @shalluraweek​ is still happening. Back in like, maybe the first year, maybe after s2 came out, I saw shallura week but didn’t do it because of writers block, so I’m really happy that I can do this and celebrate one of my fav vld ships. When I was looking for insporation on tumblr, I found a lot of Star Wars art so I decided to go with it. I’ll be honest, I found the Star Wars movies kinda boring growing up but Clone Wars was the only thing I’d willingly sit through, so my info might not be totally correct. Probably cause I love Ashoka so much. Anyway, please enjoy. Star/Sky

Shiro moved quietly across the room, heading for the door when he heard someone call his name.

“Shiro? Where are you going?”

he turned to look at his Padawan who’d only come back an hour ago from hanging out with Senator Lance, the two the same age and equally good at fighting and breaking rules. He needed the distraction after coming back from their last war effort. They’d lost a lot of good men and going up against Sendak, who’d run off again, was never fun. Keith had collapsed into bed once he got back and Shiro waited until he knew for sure he was knocked out before getting up to leave, but it seemed Keith wasn’t as knocked out as he thought.

“The Chancalor asked me to do something for him.”

A lie. Not for a second did he trust Chancellor Zarkon, who always seemed to find a way to insert himself into Jedi issues, but also seemed way too interested in him.

Keith thankfully thought the same. “We’re not that guy’s errand boys.”

“I know, but he does hold the power. I’m sure we’ll eventually find a way to get away from his grip and end the war too. I’ll be back soon. We have shore leave and you don’t have classes, why don’t you join Senator Lance for breakfast tomorrow? You can take Pidge with you.” he said, mentioning one of the other Padawans Keith was friends with.

“Alright. Be safe ok?” Keith said before disappearing back into his room.

Shiro didn’t like lying to Keith, he really didn’t. The kid was a special case, being raised by a Sith Lord who didn’t care much about Keith, willing to turn him into an assassin. He was older than most Younglings but as a newly knighted Jedi himself, Shiro insisted Keith could be trained and offered up his own job if he was wrong. So far, he had the Council eating their words that Keith was untrainable. Break rules? Yes, but only the rules he thought didn’t make much sense to him within the code. Keith might be a special case but he was Shiro’s family. It made it so much harder to keep the secret he had.

He took a speeder to the more costly apartments of Coruscant, where a lot of Senators tended to home themselves when not at their home planets. He easily made his way to one apartment, home of someone who was more than just a Senator. He easily typed in the passcode and walked to the balcony when the door opened. Standing outside on it, was a woman. Her long white hair seemed to shine in the city lights, like it was made of the stars he’d fallen in love with.

“Hey.” he called.

The woman turned, her blue purple eyes widening when she saw him.

“Takashi!” she ran over and he swept her up in his arms. “I missed you. Are you ok? I heard what happened.”

“Everything is fine now. I’m with you.”

Poster boy for the Jedi Takashi Shirogane in a secret relationship to Senator Allura Fara? The scandal, but Shiro could care less. He’d still been a Padawan himself when he and his master had gone to Allura’s planet to try and help them stop in invasion from happening. He was instructed to look after the girl, who was practically royalty, but he quickly learned she didn’t like being protected. While they could argue whether or not she was putting herself in danger, in the quieter moments, they grew closer. Even after they grew older, the invasion stopped and their meeting few, the feelings they’d gained never faded. When they could meet again, it was like they hit unpause and doubled up the feelings. He broke the rules of forming attachments and formed the ultimate one, he fell in love. They were going to marry in secret when the war broke out. They wanted to, badly, but they knew a connection that intense would put them both in danger. For now, only sweet kisses and secret meetings could happen. But once this was over, once he was sure Keith was taken care of and a Knight, he’d leave. He’d leave to Order for her. He didn’t even have to think about it. Unless they changed their views on a few things, he would leave to be happy then force to give up something he couldn’t.

When he could, he’d sneak out of the Temple and come to Allura’s apartment. To most, the two were good friends. The only one privy to their relationship was Allura’s Protocol Droid and Shiro’s former master, who he could never lie to. Here, he could relax away from the rules of the Order and just be Takashi.

He pulled away to look at her, the woman who took his heart. “What about you? Any senators who’s heads you want to rip off?”

“The list is ever growing, but let’s forget about that for now.” she said hugging him close again, hiding her face in his chest, where she always felt safe.

Shiro pulled her close, easily hiding his face in her hair. When he’d first seen Allura, he asked if her hair was made from stars. She’d gone red, redder even when he started calling her Starlight. It was a soft as a cloud inn the sky and smelled like the flowers that grew in this special garden they had always gone to on her home planet. She told him that while they looked pretty, they could also be used to make a powerful parallelizing agent. They were Allura in a flower, beautiful with looks and a warrior with her electric whip and blaster. She might be able to quell rising wars with her powerful speeches, but if there was ever a time she needed to fight, you only needed to point her in the direction. She never felt like she needed protecting, even when every part of Shiro screamed to.

This woman, someone he was willing to turn his back on his teaching for, his Starlight, made him feel like a better person. She was his drive to end the war that affected their whole galaxy. And when it was finally over, he would get on his knee and ask for her to finally be his.

[leakinghate]

Chasing the Ghosts of Season 8

Let’s skip the flowery intros and get to the point, because this is important.

Lotor’s vindication and reunion with Allura were originally part of VLD s8 and I can prove it. Most animation relating to this plot was excised, while other clips were re-purposed to make it look like he was dead all along: but some are still in there.

The removal of this plot line was one of the major factors in completely messing up season 8, and it was a change that was made very recently; no earlier than August in fact. There is a significant, non-zero chance that an unedited version of Season 8 exists in its entirety; completely finished.

The evidence is below the cut.

Trigger Warnings: Gore - that image and discussion of it, body horror, sexism, and major character death.

There’s something rotten in the house of Voltron, and by that I mean Dreamworks animation, because for reasons yet unknown the season 8 we got was not the one the writers had planned to give us.

The people involved likely can't talk about it due to NDAs, but I follow *most* of the cast and crew on social media, and from the way many of them were talking prior to the drop it’s obvious that whatever they'd recorded had led them to expect a very different season.

The almost total radio silence afterward is also telling.

So far as I can tell, AJ (Lotor’s VA) is the only one actively posting about it, and his posts have been expressing his distress over what happened to Lotor - a stark contrast to his excitement about the season prior to its airing. It’s very apparent that he thought Lotor would have a very different fate than he appears to. At the moment of the season drop he tweeted out “Lotor was framed”, and later didn’t seem to realize that ‘Allura’ was trending because she’d died.

Some of the other VA’s scarce posts lead me to believe that they’re having similar reactions: a now deleted post from Bex (Pidge’s VA) about having watched up to episode 6 consisted of an image of DOTU Lance captioned with “[internal screaming]”. Bex has since removed all references to VLD from her bio.

I’m certain that the VLD s8 we got was NOT the s8 that was originally planned. Or the one the writers and VAs had been alluding to in various interviews up until recently.

We know there were some very last minute changes to season 8. I guarantee you that Ezor was actually dead before the backlash over Adam in August, and you're kidding yourselves if you think that epilogue existed before then either.

Kihyun Ryu's 'last Shiro' tweet - that we now know to be from the wedding epilogue - was posted on September 13th, 2018. Less than two months ago these changes were still in progress. Less than a month before the first trailer premiered at NYCC these changes were still being made.

And those was absolutely not the only things which were changed. It was hinted we should pay attention to the s7 episode "the Feud" to spot some foreshadowing. Well? I've seen both that episode and s8 and I sure as heck can't find it.

This was beyond last minute.

JDS and LM were still talking in ways that would lead us to expect Lotor’s redemption roughly up to s7 in August; so whatever happened, it went down between August and November. Which is probably why s8 is so shitty; with such a terribly compressed timeline to make edits.

And edits they were, because with those time frames season 8 was either completely finished or very near to it when someone decided that things had to change.

I can prove it.

Do you know how?

Because the animation was recycled and altered to fit the new story, with only small parts made new for it. And because it was something else first, it’s still possible to partially reconstruct the original Season 8 from it.

Lets start with the big one, the one I’m sure you’re here to read: Lotor’s redemption and reunion with Allura.

One of the most frustrating things about season 8 is that it leaves the colony unexplained. The big question, the thing that results in Lotor’s murder at the hands of people he calls friends, and leads to a power vacuum that causes the deaths of untold billions of people. What was Lotor doing at the colony?

It’s never addressed or given an answer.

At least in the version of season 8 that we got.

Or is it?

Because they might have removed the conclusion to that plot thread, but they couldn’t get rid of it entirely.

In e8 ‘Clear Day’. Allura's suffers from several nightmares/dream sequences. They don't make any sense in context, and it’s never explained what caused them. Except, they make perfect sense, if you watch them as the first step towards understanding The Colony. 

Allura sees herself standing in a Juniberry field on Altea. Her mother greets her and proclaims that Allura has arrived just in time, and that only she can save them, “Only you can protect us.”

A Galra fleet passes over head, raining down laser fire.

Allura suddenly finds herself the pilot of one of the white mechs. She plunges her spear into the ground, draining the quintessence, and then fires on the fleet; obliterating it.

But as she grins in victory she realizes that the quintessence she siphoned from the planet has turned her immediate landscape to ash, including her mother. Allura is horrified, but as her mother crumbles away her voice echoes, telling Allura she is so proud of her.

In case me describing it wasn’t clear enough: what just happened to her was that Allura was literally put in Lotor’s position, operating one of his mechs. The places and the people were those that Allura cherished deeply, so that she could understand how terrible Lotor felt about what he had to do. It literally puts Allura in Lotor's place: having to take the responsibility of destroying parts of something she loves in order to protect the whole. 

And her mother? The Altean who was ‘sacrificed’ in this scenario? Praised her for taking the actions she did, because Allura was the only one able to do it. And the only choice was to save most of Altea, or none of it.

When Allura eventually does take the entity into herself we see the lights of Honerva’s mech’s faceplate lighting, then flash to a scene of Lotor in Sincline. He’s laughing, grinning as he did during s6′s finale, and as the camera zooms in on his face he shouts “Follow me!”

Briefly we see Voltron in front of the planets of Earth’s solar system, which is drowned out by a peculiar scene transition: an intense white light that appears to obliterate everything as though in an explosion.

None of these scenes are ever explained, but it’s reasonably comparable to the flash of images that Haggar sees in season 3 when she is first confronted with Zarkon’s memories. We’re left with the impression that we’re about to be enlightened, and the end of the episode reveals that Allura has passed out on the floor unconscious.

In this version of season 8, we never are told what exactly caused Allura to experience those visions. We can guess: was it perhaps the entity tempting her with its dark magic? Honerva attempting to place her under a spell?

But is the entity really dark magic? It’s different from the types of magic we’re used to, and the colors of it are certainly dark, but it in itself never actually causes Allura harm. Any harm she suffers after taking it into herself is caused by Honerva exploiting it.

Could it be a spell by Honerva? Unlikely. It took her almost two whole episodes of the paladins fooling around inside her mind for her to notice they were even there. If Allura had never taken the entity none of Honerva’s plans would have ever been found out. Yes, she did steal all the energy from the Atlas’ crystal, but she did that primarily to combat the Atlas and disable it. She didn’t need to get it from there, the energy her Komars were able to provide was all she needed.

So what caused those visions?

Lotor did.

Once he was free of the rift he was able to connect with Allura somehow and reach out to her. That was really him. Where he is now, trapped under Haggar’s control, he has no means to combat the witch. But Allura does. Everything he says to her? Is true.

The next episode, s8e9 “Knights of Light: Part 1″ begins with Allura awaking, Coran and Lance by her bedside. She’s been asleep for two quintants (days). She has apparently come up with a plan to infiltrate Honerva’s mind, but from whence she gets this plan is never explained. That’s because we’re missing an entire episode between these two. This is where Lotor’s redemption happens, where he and Allura finally reunite. God knows what else was in that episode, what else was happening while the paladins were waiting for Allura to wake. Lotor bids Allura to follow him, to finally allow him to tell his side of the story, and for some reason we weren’t allowed to hear it.

But from what we did get to see? It all but confirms @crystal-rebellion‘s Colony Theory. Albeit, the white mechs were built by Honerva, but Lotor was attempting to keep the colony safe in the only way he knew how. The Alteans who died did so willingly; to preserve the lives of all the others.

There’s a repeated narrative that the only person who encourages Allura to take action, to strive and push forward, is Lotor. Sometimes others accept it, but they never encourage her. Everyone else seems to consider her too fragile, or not capable of making her own decisions. They want to protect her and coddle her, don’t believe she should be taking any risks. They are supportive emotionally, but want to limit her physically. They care about her, but don’t truly trust her judgement or want her to be making her own choices.

With Lotor though, it’s different. He truly sees her as an equal, respects her judgement in her areas of expertise. This plot line revolving around the entity is a prime example. Lotor provides Allura with the information, that she has everything she needs to take down Honerva right in front of her; she just needs to utilize it. But from the moment Allura wakes the people closest to her doubt her decisions and choices.

And yes, those choices lead to painful consequences, but in the end they are proven to be the right ones, to have been necessary. Allura took a calculated risk, and it pays off - if she hadn’t they’d have never caught Honerva in time to stop her from destroying everything. They wouldn’t even have discovered her plan in the first place.

If Allura hadn’t made the choice to listen to and trust Lotor, by her own judgement, reality itself would have ceased to exist.

Both Coran and Alfor are given specific scenes this season where they judge and approve of Lance in his pursuit of Allura. But key, neither of them ever ask - or even mention - Allura’s feelings on the matter. The s8 we got, rather disgustingly, portrays this as the right thing. I believe the original s8 was meant to subvert this. Because Lance is everyone else’s choice for Allura, but when Allura was allowed to make her own choice? She chose Lotor.

Allura once again ends s8e10 ‘Knights of Light: Part 2′ unconscious. I firmly believe we are missing more moments  - if not an entire episode - with Lotor here, in s8e11 ‘Uncharted Regions’ - probably explaining somewhere along the way how exactly he is able to contact her in this manner.

Which, uh... as to my personal theory on how that is, well... what did Lotor and Allura do together that might have crafted a unique spiritual bond between them?

What did you two experience in the quintessence field Lotor?

But, those were happier times...

I also think this is the episode, this missing one, that that particular image properly belongs to. We now see it in the previous episode, as one of Honerva’s memories. But the reason we see it is that the paladins apparently see it too. The only problem is, they don’t react to it at all. They literally have a stronger reaction to finding out they can see Honerva’s memories in the first place. There’s no possible way that Allura saw the melted corpse of the man she loved and had no discernible reaction. We see her reactions to Lotor’s presence multiple times over the course of s7 and s8, and they’re always intensely emotional ones.

But speaking of that image, since we’re on the topic. That’s a very detailed image.

There’s details there you don’t immediately spot, because you’re too distracted by the horrific imagery of the corpse of a main character. A character who’s tragic, abusive childhood was the focus of almost an entire episode earlier in the season.

Details such as the motes of light floating up from his body.

Motes of light we’ve seen in exactly two instances before: from Zarkon and Honerva’s eyes immediately after they were restored back to life by the rift.

And from Zarkon’s body: vanishing after he died.

Yeah guys, I’m about to make that image much worse.

That’s not Lotor’s corpse, because he’s not dead.

He’s still in there, in that state, and he’s been in there for over three years.

Melded, physically and mentally, with Sincline by his time spent in the quintessence field.

What. The. Fuck.

As the season progresses it becomes much more difficult to tell what was supposed to be happening because of how badly it’s been chopped up, re-arranged, and edited.

But there is a very distinct difference between Sincline’s two appearances in action - that is, it’s only in the first one that it actually is in action.

The last time we see Sincline move of it’s own accord is e6 ‘Genesis’. From the moment he reappears Lotor is on the attack; he is stopped only two times, once of his own accord and once by Haggar’s mind control.

And that one time he stops himself? Is when he takes aim at Allura. She’s running across the ground, about to strike Honerva with her bayard, when he raises his right arm and takes aim. We see her in his sights, through his eyes. And the view zooms in on Allura’s face.

Lance sees what’s happening and dives in Red to stop him, but is blocked by one of the white mechs.

Yet. He lowers his arm and doesn’t take the shot.

Lotor never fires.

But immediately afterwards the white mech lingers too close and Sincline impales it with it’s tail. It’s not an aversion to killing that stayed his hand.

It’s that it was Allura.

This scene unambiguously shows that Lotor is both alive inside that mech and somewhat aware of himself. He’s become a robeast.

Yet after that episode the mech never moves again. It hangs lifeless in space during the battle at the pyramid; the white mechs having to do the fighting. The lights on it’s chest have gone out, only relighting when it is charged with quintessence from the Komar. For all intents and purposes, Sincline is empty.

Oh, and speaking of Sincline, up until s8e9 it’s only ever referred to as “Lotor’s mech,” but suddenly, in e11 ‘Uncharted Regions’ they’ve learned its name and Allura calls it “Lotor’s Sincline”.

I think that at some point between ‘Knights of Light’ and the second half of e11 ‘Uncharted Regions’ Lotor was to have been rescued. 'Uncharted Regions’ is one of the worst episodes this season for flow: it’s extremely choppy and hard to follow - flicking back and forth between scenes without anything really happening in them.

But the most telling thing?

‘Uncharted Regions’ begins with Honerva in her haloed mech searching Alternate realities for her ‘perfect’ one. We see several clips of her doing this, the mech floating in front of the pyramid, alone, with the spinning disk of its wings as a viewport.

Suddenly, almost exactly halfway through the episode, we get an image of Honerva kneeling inside the pyramid, in her Altean commander uniform, one uniformed Altean to either side. She says “The princess has awakened,” and then the scene changes.

When next we see Honerva she’s floating above the pyramid, the silent and immobile Sincline by her side.

The entire time this is happening there is combat going on around the pyramid, first with the coalition fighters and then with the Atlas itself. This sequence appears in episode as though it all happens successively in a very short period of time. But it doesn’t make sense like that. Why should Honerva stop what she’s doing, and exit her mech just to check if Allura is awake?

In this scenario why does Honerva even care if Allura is awake? By this point she’s apparently found her perfect reality and is prepared to move on to it? She doesn’t need Allura for anything, none of her plans require Allura. Why should she even bother to announce that Allura is awake, as though this is something she’s been waiting for?

This entire episode, including the fight scenes, has been chopped into little pieces and rearranged. Other scenes have had edits to their animation, or were re-done entirely. What we have in ‘Uncharted Regions’ is a frankenstein’s monster of an episode constructed of the tiny remnants of of at least two, possibly three, original episodes.

If you watch this episode carefully you’ll notice that there’s a clip out of order. The lights on Sincline’s chest are dark until it’s charged with the quintessence from the Alteans on the Atlas. But. The close up shot of Sincline the paladins see immediately upon exiting the wormhole in front of the pyramid has the lights lit up. This clip clearly is part of the sequence we see later in the episode just before the mechs combine. So when the crew on the bridge of the Atlas is shown reacting in horror, whatever they’re actually reacting to has been cut out.

These original missing episodes would have contained what I’m fairly certain was our big Alchemist vs Alchemist reprisal fight between Honerva and Allura; something we’ve been waiting for since season 2′s finale.

Why was such an anticipated fight removed?

I think it’s because the fight was over Lotor, and ultimately Allura would have rescued him.

Every time Allura uses the powers she obtained in Oriande it’s mentioned where she got them, and often that she has them because of Lotor.

She’s shown again and again restoring life and health.

What happened, what we’re missing, is her using the abilities she has thanks to Lotor, to save him.

Allura is supposed to storm that pyramid, infiltrate it, and rescue Lotor from the evil witch holding him captive. She’s supposed to find him in that horrible state we saw him in, and she’s going to heal him. She’s going to fight for him, to protect him, when no one else in his life ever has.

There’s also a clear switch. When Sincline is active and alight Honerva several times refers to it as ‘my son’ but afterwards, she stops and uses Sincline as a tool for her to reach an Alternate Reality and obtain a ‘new’ version of Lotor. With the exception of one shot, where, since we can’t actually see her speaking it seems that the audio and animation are sourced from different original scenes, Honerva ceases treating Sincline as Lotor after the lights go out.

The line that causes Honerva to snap s8e12 ‘The Zenith’ is when the little alt Lotor says “My mother is dead”. It’s framed like a deliberate callback, like it should be echoing something. But it’s a line we’ve never heard. I’d hazard that this final rejection, this line was spoken by *our* Lotor as Allura is rescuing him.

Lotor was not dead in there, he was alive, and he was saved.

There is a really good theory going around, my friend @tsunemori told me about it. I don't know who first came up with it, but I fully support it, because I noticed the scene in question was really off too.

But the theory is that that hospital bed scene? Was originally Lotor in the bed after they rescued him, and Allura was in Lance's place. Which makes total sense, because after that scene, when Lance takes Allura to the bridge? His height is all wrong, and he is hanging onto her for support instead of the other way around: it should be Lotor there.

Do I have any concrete proof of this one? No. But there is something off about that scene. It just doesn’t feel right.

So yeah, if I ask myself, “Is this a scene that might have been re-animated, the characters traced over and re-drawn as different ones?” I can absolutely see that. When looking for places where actual edits to the animation have been made you have to factor in several things: the complexity of the animation - how many characters, how many settings, how much movement, who is the focus/moving/talking.

This is both a pivotal scene, and an incredibly easy one to alter, comparatively. Two characters, one laying still in a bed and only getting a single one-syllable line - the other character’s name, which might have been taken from anywhere. Lance has a long string of dialogue, but he’s sitting beside the bed the entire time, and he moves very little.

I strongly believe this scene was either altered significantly or created whole-cloth for this edited version of s8.

Things that are much harder to alter, because they’d be much more expensive, are the fight scenes. It’s where I started looking once I suspected what had happened with season 8, and it’s where I started finding things.

S8e12 ‘The Zenith’ is one of the best episodes in terms of flow, and I believe that’s because it suffers some of the least editing.

We are however missing at least two scenes: a farewell between Allura and Coran - presumably as Allura boards the Blue Lion - and an explanation as to how Voltron followed Honerva into her destination reality after the rift closed on them. I believe both of these scenes were edited out because Lotor was key in them; several scenes in the following episode s8e13 ‘The End is the Beginning’ lead me to believe that he spent the final battle in the Blue Lion with Allura.

Two scenes during the fight stand out to me: the first, a split screen where Keith is mysteriously given a double width section as compared to the others. It’s especially noticeable, because he’s not even centrally placed and he’s scaled to a different size than his fellow paladins. In the entirety of the series we have never before seen a split screen cut among an even number of characters where one of them is given odd prominence like this. The screen is arranged so the characters appear in a color gradient, Keith is red-black and immediately to his left is Allura who is blue. If there was a missing section here, the color space would correspond to indigo/purple - and those are Lotor’s colors.

The second is a moment when Allura is speaking facing forwards and very clearly looks to the side and makes eye contact with someone. Now, VLD does have moments when the paladins will react in their own lions as though they can see each other, but this isn’t like that. It’s the way her eyes move, and look, she’s talking to someone who’s point of view we’re seeing her from. And that person is Lotor.

There’s also a peculiar moment in this episode where the same split screen is used twice; another thing which has never before happened in the series. It appears first about a quarter of the way through the episode as the paladins enter the stage for the final showdown and then again as they push Honerva into the glowing whiteness at its center. I believe that the second one of these is its proper place, and that the one that originally went in the first instance had Lotor included in it.

Finally, and this is going to take several images, so be warned. When the paladins appear before Honerva in the heart of it all, fading into view, they’re spaced very strangely.

There’s six of them, so you’d expect they’d be spaced something like this:

But they’re actually spaced like this:

(yes, I know Honerva would be blocking someone there. She moves. I just picked this cap so you could see all the shadows; there’s no point showing you the empty space)

It rather looks like there’s someone missing.

The last half of the final episode is so heavily manipulated that it’s difficult to say what actually happened. But we have two very strong clues from which we can reconstruct it.

Remember the leaks?

Now that we know the leaks were real, it begs the question, why was this scene one of them. Unlike the others, which were all from the epilogue, this scene is from roughly halfway through the episode.

Well, I believe we have the answer now: whoever leaked them chose those because they were the scenes they had on hand. These were the scenes that were not originally part of VLD s8, and were added only in the last minute edit.

This one in particular is another where I think it’s taken an actual scene and traced over it to make it into something else. Lance is far too tall here, and doesn’t look like himself hardly at all.

It’s also very clear from the framing of the shot where Allura is going down the line of paladins and hugging them that Lance should be getting a send off in sequence to the others, not apart like this.

No, I think Lance was animated over Lotor here, and the audio was spliced in parts from Lance’s actual goodbye scene and Allura’s “I will always love you” comes from somewhere else. That portion of the line is said in a distinctly different tone of voice than Lance’s name beforehand. There’s different emotions to it than the rest of their conversation, and I’d guarantee we’re hearing it out of it’s original context.

I don’t know what else changes in the ending, but I’m very certain that it was not supposed to be read as Allura dying.

The reason we now read it that way is that Allura and Honerva are seen greeting the spirits of people we know that are dead. I’m fairly certain this scene is either new, or it was only Honerva going to meet them, and of course, that Lotor wasn’t among them.

And I think it was Allura and Lotor who stayed behind to do the work of restoring all realities. My proof of this is one of the very best and strongest among my evidence: the very last closing shot of Voltron: Legendary Defender, after the credits.

The lions of Voltron take off to rejoin their new Cosmic Entities; Allura and Lotor. Whoever was responsible for editing Lotor out of this picture only actually slightly blurred him.

Thanks to @articianne for the outline!

If you play around with the image contrast and brightness it’s even more obvious that the both of them are there, back to back.

It only looks like Allura dies because the spirits but without them there? It looks like they ascended to a higher plane of existence or something.

They haven’t died at all. They’ve become, of all things, like Bob, the gameshow host from s7e4 ‘The Feud’. An ‘all-powerful, all-knowing interdimensional being’.

And y’know? Bob was perfectly able to interact with the paladins no problem.

I don’t understand why these changes were made. To me? This looks like a perfectly happy ending.

What else was cut I don’t know. But I found all this evidence by looking for the things that weren’t there, that a competently structured plot would lead me to expect would be. Chasing ghosts, as it were.

A short list of additional things I strongly suspect were cut?

Several scenes between Keith and Shiro.

A pivotal scene between Allura and Coran.

A follow up event with Pidge referencing her sacrificing her videogame to get Allura a dress.

A scene between Lance and Pidge, possibly referencing said videogame.

A resolution to Lance and Pidge competing to get Allura the best present.

A conclusion to Axca’s sub plot.

A Hunk and Shay scene, to explain how and why the Balmeras all show up in s8e12 ‘The Zenith’.

An additional scene with the blade for the same reasons.

Actually, y’know what? I’m not just going to leave this, because I have a strong suspicion what one of the other cut subplots was about.

You see, the other half of ‘Clear Day’ isn’t entirely filler - it’s specifically a callback to the season 2 episode ‘Space Mall’, and it’s not the only one in this season. The little shopping trip from s8e1 ‘Launch Date’ is also one. Specifically they’re part of a plot for Pidge about her feelings for Lance.

In ‘Space Mall’ Pidge and Lance spend their time scrounging up change to buy a videogame console. The game that they purchase is part of a series that Pidge later trades the only copy of the latest version of to get Allura a dress. During ‘Clear Day’ Pidge and Lance both spend their time trying to get the best present for Allura (hint hint, Pidge is the one who actually got the ‘”something sparkly”).

Now, as I’ve already covered, there’s missing content between ‘Clear Day’ and the next episode. Part of that content should have been what the other paladins were doing while Allura was unconscious. And in series, we never actually see Allura receive either of those presents that were bought for her. So where did they go?

I think Pidge and Lance spent the time waiting for Allura to wake up together, and they got to talking about how Lance has once again failed to acquire the sparkly thing Allura would like. Perhaps Pidge trades her mining helmet for Lance’s signed Blue Lion, and then it comes up how both times Lance went to get a present for Allura he ended up getting one for Pidge.

And that first time was the video game wasn’t it? A perfect place for Lance to find out what happened with the video game in s8e1.

So why did Pidge trade that game? To make Allura happy, yes, but also to make Lance happy. Because Lance likes Allura and Pidge wants them to have a good time, because Pidge likes Lance. Like, check e1 when Allura tells her she's going on a date with Lance, Pidge's reaction... isn't really a happy one.

I think this should have been the turning point for Lance, where he learns the difference between infatuation and sincere affection. I think very soon after this his relationship with Allura would end, and he would naturally progress into a different sort of relationship with Pidge.

As much as I love s8e7 ‘Day Forty-Seven’ I don’t think it was originally part of season 8. I also get the feeling that s7e2 ‘Shadows’ may be composed of scenes we were supposed to have gotten throughout the later half of season seven - though I expect that this change was made in a much earlier spate of edits, likely when s7 was re-done. It’s been confirmed that this happened, and that s7e4 ‘The Feud’ was made to ease the pressure on the exhausted animators who’d been working overtime to get the other episodes done in time. It’s never been confirmed what exactly was changed about season 7 or why, but I highly suspect it was to include more content with the MFE fighters, who the higher ups at Dreamworks might have been hoping to spin off into a sequel.

I suspect that the episodes were shifted forwards, because the first half of the season has no 'event' episode. s8e6 ‘Genesis’ should have been that, and what we're missing is the mid-season event. Which was where they would have saved Lotor. They excised an entire climactic fight between Allura and Honerva, reprising their battle from season 2. The alchemist vs alchemist fight that was repeatedly alluded to being inevitable, yet we never got.

It was animated and voiced to be Lotura and Lotor's vindication.

But someone wanted that changed.

We know when and why ‘The Feud’ was created, and because we were teased in several interviews to pay attention to it so that we might spot some foreshadowing, we can definitively say that the mucking around that was done to season 8 happened at a much later date.

In fact, the animation portion was likely completed all the way back in June. These are two bumper images that were used to advertise Season 6, which released on June 15th.

We haven’t yet seen this image of Lotor appear in the show (for what it matters, the full color one is the correct way around; Lotor’s hair always curls up over his right shoulder, the left can go either way), we have scoured every frame of him to find it, but it’s just not there (yes I know it looks like it should be from s5e4 ‘Kral Zera’, but trust me it’s not). Every other image that’s ever been used in these promotional bumpers has been from somewhere in the show, but this one is so far absent. Therefore it’s from a piece of animation yet to appear, and one which was made by the time these images showed up in June.

Now that we know what the truth is, I am sure we will get the full story eventually. It's only a matter of time before it filters out.

But right now is the key time if we want to convince Dreamworks to release the original season 8. Tweet at them, email them, snail mail if you have the time! Sign that petition!

The fandom response now will determine if we find out what really happened sooner rather than later - and later could mean years.

We are the only people who can make this happen. The cast and crew are all bound by NDAs, and publicly reacting negatively towards a show you worked on is practically career suicide.

It has historically been fans who’ve made a difference when companies interfere with their favorite shows. Fans have been able to effect change in the past, and they will again in the future; lets make sure this is one of those times. We need to fight to get the VLD we should have gotten in the first place.

Just remember to apply your energies in the right places. JDS and LM aren’t perfect people (no one is!), but this isn’t their doing. This is someone above them responsible for the mess that was s8. Dreamworks Animation is the culprit. There is a very real chance that the original season 8 is completely finished and able to be released, and we just might get it if we’re persistent enough. 

Be polite, be reasonable, but be firm. Take this proof and use it. Show them that we know they changed things and that they can give us the original if they so choose.

The messages they inadvertently pushed with this slap-dash edit are vile and toxic, and people far more knowledgeable than I in those areas are speaking out about them. This needs to be fixed.

They need to say something. They need to tell us why they changed it. They need to give us the original Season 8.

Click here for Part 2: Seek Truth in Darkness

I, and any of you who enjoyed this meta, owe @nomadicism a huge thank you. She reminded me of that strange "Follow me!" scene, which prompted me to crack open 'Clear Day' for another watch... and I realized that Allura's dreams weren't nonsensical at all.

As always, thank you to my many friends in the Lotura Discord. You give me the strength and encouragement to keep going. I couldn’t have done this without you.

[somekindoftuber]

vld youtuber AU (klance, part 6)

Note: The city where Shiro and Keith live is called Springdale. I’d pictured both of these towns being in the Carolinas. Again, there are tense changes everywhere (sorry) but I plan to fix them later.

Thank you for all the great feedback!!

part one | part two | part three | part four | part five

.

Lance woke up surprisingly early on Saturday. Today they were headed to the fair. He brewed coffee and made a tentative battle plan for the day: walk around, see stalls, a few rides, some games, lunch, maybe renting a scooter to drive up to lookout hill to watch the sunset. It was the perfect opportunity for Lance to stop dancing around the issue and just tell Keith he’s in to him already.

Pidge pokes fun at him through breakfast as Lance makes a group text thread with everyone. They agree to meet up at the south entrance of the fairgrounds at 10:30.

Lance ends up making them late by spending too much time picking out his clothes. Keith and Shiro are both sporting a little pink on their noses and cheekbones from the sun on the beach the day before, but they’re all smiles as they pay for their wrist bands and head into the fair. It’s a typical American county fair ordeal, with rickety rented rides, badly rigged carnival games, and endless booths of cheap nick-nacks and fried foods. But there was always something about the Harborville fair that set it apart. There was an energy here, like the last bang of summer before cool autumn weather swept down the coast.

They buy tokens and move as a group at first, taking a lap around the fair before splitting up. Pidge and Hunk stick together as always, Allura drags Shiro off at a rather brisk pace, and that left Lance and Keith.

“Anything you wanna do?” Lance asks him.

Keith shrugs and smiles. “Anything’s good.”

They walk around for a while, stopping at booths here and there. They run into other members of their group from time to time, and Lance uses his phone to film bits of a vlog for later editing, catching Shiro and Keith in a few bits (“I’m here with my good friends Shiro and Keith! Say hi guys!”). Lance buys an inaugural funnel cake to split with Keith before hitting the prize games. Keith rolls his eyes as Lance goes for the ring toss, a game he swears up and down he’s mastered despite it being horribly rigged.

“Just you watch,” Lance tells Keith as he lines up a ring. “I’m gonna win you the biggest stuffed animal they have, and then you’ll understand my prowess.”

He swears Keith’s cheeks go red as he smiles. “Well, have fun. I’m gonna grab a soda.”

Lance is half disappointed and half relieved that Keith is no longer watching. So of course, when the guy he’s trying to impress leaves, Lance lands all three rings on a pole. He’s carefully eyeing the selection of stuffed prizes when Shiro appears at his left, seemingly out of thin air.

“You know,” he leans in a speaks close to Lance’s ear. “Hippos are Keith’s favorite animal.”

Lance turns to look up at him, confused, before Shiro gives him a knowing smile and walks away. Hippos? Okay, weird, but also kind of cute. When Lance re-examines the prizes, he spots a large pastel blue hippo near the back, with big button eyes, exaggerated stitching, and a white bow around its neck.

“That one,” he tells the game attendant, pointing.

Keith comes trotting back with a soda in each hand a few minutes later. He stops short when Lance comes up to him with the prize hippo in his arms, easily the size of a dog. Keith’s eyes go wide.

“Told you I’d win,” Lance beams, then holds out the stuffed animal. “Here you go.”

There’s an awkward shuffle as Lance takes the sodas so Keith can take the hippo, and Lance absolutely notices how Keith hugs it to his chest.

“Thanks,” Keith tells him, and his cheeks are pink in a way that has nothing to do with his sunburn.

Keith keeps holding the stuffed animal as they walk around, earning him a few stares. Lance has to admit he looks adorable - all sharp and intense, holding a giant fluffy toy like it’s precious treasure. They find the Racho Alegre food truck and Lance buys enough food for five people, setting the trays of empanadas, pork tamales, fried yucca fruit, papas rellenas and fried green plantains. He films a little, too, Keith protesting with a “don’t film me eating!” Lance passes Keith a mate soda and instructs him on how to properly enjoy Cuban food, and is pleased when Keith seems to enjoy all of it.

He might like the guy, a lot, but if Keith had ended up hating the food he grew up with? It might have been a deal breaker.

They chat at the picnic table for a good half hour as they digested, then walk around some more, Lance filming on his phone here and there. He spots the scooter rental place nearby, and eagerly points at it. But when they get closer, he frowns.

“Aw man,” Lance bemoans. “I was thinking it’d be cool to drive up to the hill to watch the air show, but all the scooters are rented out.”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “They’re not? There’s a whole bunch lined up.”

Lance shrugs. “Yeah, but those are the 50cc engine ones. You need a motorcycle license for those.”

“Yeah?” Keith looks unruffled. “I have one.”

Lance hears a record scratch in his brain. “You do?”

With a chuckle, Keith motions him towards the rental desk. “Who do you think test drives the bikes when Shiro’s done with them?”

Lance held the hippo, which he’d dubbed Blue, while Keith filled out paperwork, showing his motorcycle ID and insurance card. Lance caught a glimpse of it, and cooed.

“Aww, short hair!” He smiled at the photo of a younger Keith, scowling at the camera, and noticed two things: first, Keith didn’t have a middle name, and second, there were little tufts of what might be considered a mullet sticking out from behind his neck.

Keith shoved his ID back into his wallet. “Is your photo any better?”

“Actually,” Lance pulled his wallet from his back pocket and produced his driver’s license. “It is.”

Lance was proud of that picture - he was one of the only people he knew that actually took good ID photos. It was like a superpower. Keith was staring at his ID, his eyebrows raised.

“Leandro Sebastian McClain?” He asked.

“Uh.” Lance’s face flushed hot. “Old family name. Lance is kind of a nickname.”

Keith’s smile as he handed the ID back was magical. “Cool.”

Helmets secured, Lance climbed on the back of the dinged-up rental bike behind Keith as he started up the engine, giving him quick directions to the hill that overlooked the bay. Then, with Blue shoved between them, Lance wrapped his arms around Keith’s middle. They took off, and Lance felt a surge of adrenaline as they rode. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d been on a real motorcycle, and it was as scary as it was exhilarating. It was also cold, even the warmth of the sun unable compete with the wind that whipped past them. Lance hugged Keith tighter, wishing there wasn’t a stuffed animal between them.

It took a good ten minutes to drive up to the hill, and by the time they arrived, the wind had all but chilled Lance to the bone. The weather was beautiful that day, but it was a different story when you were going 45 miles an hour. His t-shirt and loose button up had done nothing to protect him, and as they reached the hill and stepped off the bike and took off their helmets, Lance set Blue on the bike seat and rubbed at his frozen, goosebump covered arms.

“You okay?” Keith asked.

“Yeah,” Lance laughed a little. “Just kinda cold. Wind’s kinda brutal at that speed.”

Keith blinked at him. “Oh.” Then, like they were in a movie, he removed his leather jacket and deftly swung it around Lance’s shoulders, patting it against his arms. “There, that better?”

Lance willed himself not to melt, because holy shit. That was the most suave thing he’d ever seen. Keith was one seriously smooth bastard. He caught of whiff of the scent coming off the warm leather and blushed hard. It smelled so good.

“Y-yeah,” he stuttered, letting his fingers grip the edge of the jacket and pull it close.

They sat on a patch of grass nearby just as the air show was beginning. Keith watched with rapt attention as the jets performed aerial acrobatics, leaving bright trails of colored smoke that twisted through the sky. When it was over, Keith sighed beside him.

“I wanted to be a pilot,” he said, his gaze fixed on the sky where the sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon.

Lance bumped his shoulder. “You still can be,” he said. “A pilot’s license can’t be that hard to get.”

Keith looked at the ground, shaking his head with a wry smile. “No, I mean… I wanted to be a fighter pilot. In the navy, or the air force.” He picked at a blade of grass. “But I wasn’t exactly cut out for it.”

“What do you mean?” Lance asked carefully.

Keith shrugged and leaned back on his hands. “I’m a high school dropout with a juvenile record,” he explained. “I’ve gotten my shit straightened out since then, but… that stuff sticks.”

Lance frowned. He was starting to realize just how little he knew about Keith - they talked a lot, but it was all superficial information. He didn’t know anything about Keith’s past, or his ambitions.

“It’s fine,” Keith said, interrupting Lance’s train of thought. “I can’t really complain about my life. I’ve got Shiro, I like working on bikes, and I enjoy my job. I’ve got it pretty good.”

Lance was glad to hear that, but it made him frown for a different reason. “Sounds like you’ve got it figured out. I have no idea what I’m gonna do.”

Keith hummed in questioning, and Lance let go of where he was clutching the jacket to wave his hand. “I’ve just been sort of… coasting for the last two years. I have no idea what I’m doing.” he chewed his lip. “YouTube is fun and all, but my dad keeps asking me what my career plans are, and I have no clue. I can’t just work cafe jobs forever, and Pidge is probably leaving after she graduates in a few months. I don’t even know where I’m gonna end up living.” He rubbed at his eyes.

Keith was quiet for a long time. “What about music?” he offered. Lance shrugged.

“Dunno if I want to go down that road,” he answered. “Being a musician is really unpredictable, unreliable. I doubt I could swing it.”

If Lance wasn’t spiraling into a pity-party, he would have appreciated how adorable Keith’s little pout was. “Well,” Keith offered. “What about teaching music?”

Lance blinked owlishly at him. “Say what?”

“I mean,” Keith started fidgeting. “You’ve said before that you like working with kids, and you play like four instruments, and you can read music…” He looked at Lance. “Why not combine them?”

Lance heard a record scratch for the second time that day. Holy crap. Holy crap. He’d never even considered it, but a career as a music teacher? That sounded… okay. That sounded good.

“I’d--” he swallowed, feeling his pulse quicken with excitement. “I’d probably need to get a degree in music education. But it’s doable.”

Keith beamed at him. “Yeah! Plus…” His face went pink as he looked to the side. “I was thinking, um. Since Pidge will be leaving and all, and there’s a good school in Springdale, you could..” Keith bit at his lower lip. “You could move there. With m-- with us.”

Lance inhaled softly as he looked at Keith. The sun had turned golden, lighting his face and making him glow, and it took Lance’s breath away.

“Also,” Keith put his hand over Lance’s where it rested on the grass. His fingers were shaking. “I, uh.” His voice dropped, so quiet Lance could barely hear. “I really like you.”

Lance gasped. Keith’s confession was so sincere and scared and it made his heart thump against his ribs, a wide smile cracking his face. Oh god, it was happening. He’d fantasized about this moment more times than he could count and it was happening, up on the hill overlooking the bay, with the beautiful sunset and Keith’s jacket around his shoulders. He had to be dreaming.

“I really like you,” Lance told him, turning his hand to thread their fingers together. “A lot.”

Keith huffed a little laugh and oh, he was so gorgeous, his hold on Lance’s hand tightening. Lance wants so badly to kiss him.

“Go out with me?” Lance asked.

Keith’s face fell, shock replacing the gentle smile he’d been wearing. “Oh. Um.”

It was like a bucket of cold water was dumped on Lance’s head as Keith pulled his hand away. Had he misread everything anyway? Was that too forward?

“I was thinking,” Keith began, his voice shaking a little. “That we could just… get to know each other more first?” He began clasping and unclasping his hands. “I’ve never really been in a relationship, plus we live five hours apart, and…” He pouted. “I mean, I didn’t even know your name wasn’t Lance until twenty minutes ago.”

“Oh.” Oh. Keith… had a point. Lance didn’t even know he had a motorcycle license until today. It was probably a good idea to get to know Keith better before attempting to dive headfirst into romance. Lance felt the relief like a physical weight. “You... wanna take it slow?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

Lance could barely believe this was real. He leaned forward until his forehead rested against Keith’s and laughed softly.

“Sounds good to me.”

He thought this would be a good time to kiss, but they didn’t, eventually pulling apart to drive the bike back to the rental shop by the fairgrounds. Lance kept Keith’s jacket, slipping his arms through the sleeves and pressing his chest as close to Keith’s back as he could for the ride.

.

They made a trip to Lance’s car to stash Blue in the trunk for safe keeping, and as the sun was setting, grabbed a couple of beers and headed to the meeting point they’d arranged with everyone to watch the fireworks. Allura and Shiro had already spread a blanket out on the grass and were chatting. Keith and Lance took a seat near them, sitting close together.

Allura laughed, then Lance remembered his promise to Romelle. He whipped out his phone.

(+328) hey ‘melle you wanna come watch the fireworks at the fair??

(+396) Lance I just finished a 10 hour shift, that’s a hell no

He frowned, then discreetly aimed his camera at Allura and snapped a photo just as she was laughing, then sent it.

(+328) but cute girl looks lonely

There’s a long pause.

(+396) BE THERE IN 15

Pidge and Hunk eventually joined them, just as the grassy field was becoming crammed with people wanting the best seat for the fireworks. Beside Lance, Shiro looked a little odd, swaying slightly, his eyes dilated.

“Shiro?” Lance asked, keeping his voice down. “Are… are you high?”

Then Shiro laughed loud, threw his head back and really laughed. “Nah, no. Well, okay, yeah. Kinda.” He shrugs. “Fireworks kinda freak me out, after - y’know. So I took a xanax. They make me loopy as fuck, but I didn’t want to miss this.”

Lance blinked. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Shiro cuss before.

Romelle arrived twenty minutes later, just before the fireworks were scheduled to start. Lance did introductions and was pleased to see Romelle take a seat next to Allura, the two of them immediately striking up a conversation about coffee. Mission accomplished.

When the fireworks started, Lance leaned into Keith, feeling Keith return the motion. It was nice to not have to hide his affection anymore, or stay on guard. And if Lance watched the fireworks from the reflection in Keith’s eyes? Well, that was no one’s business but his.

After the fair, they retreat to Lance’s apartment to hang out and chat. Shiro is coming off his xanax and is having trouble staying awake, perking up only when Keith hands him a glass of water. Romelle and Allura trade social media handles and Lance feels a little smug about getting to play matchmaker for them. But mostly, he’s happy about Keith, who sits so close to him, who let Lance keep wearing his jacket.

It’s late and Allura decides they need to go, so everyone piles out of Lance’s apartment at once. Keith is the last one out, and Lance shyly lets the jacket slip off his shoulders and hands it back.

“Thanks,” He says. Keith grins.

“Anytime. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

Once the door closes, Lance leans his head against it, grinning wide. He gets about sixty seconds of peace before Pidge and Hunk lay into him.

“Please,” Pidge groans, “Please tell me you two are dating now.”

“Nope,” Lance grins wolfishly at her as Pidge flings her body backwards onto the sofa with a howl of frustration. Hunk just smiles knowingly at him.

“But you’re going to. Right?”

Lance toes off his shoes and goes for his room. “Eventually.” From the couch, Pidge yells that she hates him.

.

The next morning they have an early brunch at Lance’s favorite diner on the marina, trading stories of their adventures at the fair. Pidge and Hunk show videos on their phones of the rides and games they played. Lance films again, and takes a group photo of all of them with their mimosas and fancy biscuits.

When Lance sees them off for their drive back to Springdale, Keith pulls him into hug. It’s soft and nice and Keith is so warm, Lance taking a deep breath and inhaling his smell. When they pull apart, Keith’s eyes are glittering.

Lance waves at the car as his three friends drive off, feeling happy and light.

.

Continued in part seven!

[violethowler]

This Isn’t A Zero Sum Game: An Analysis of Lotor’s Interactions With The Paladins as a Whole Across Seasons 5 and 6

Every once in a while I’ll think about some “hot take” I saw in the VLD fandom more than a year ago and just think about how canon... just did not support those  conclusions... And since that’s how most of my meta get started, I churned out a new one: 

In the wake of Seasons 5 and 6 dropping I saw a lot of posts, particularly from Lotor stans, bashing the Paladins for the way they treated him in the first two episodes of Season 5, how cruel they were to just give him over to his father without a second thought. I even saw a few arguing over how humane his treatment was in S5E1. 

While I do believe that Lotor’s desire for peace was genuine (as we would have seen in Season 8 before the executive meddling cut the payoff), I think that it’s a little extreme to argue that the Paladins treatment of him in S5E1 The Prisoner was unethical, or that they were just throwing him to the wolves in S5E2.

To quote one of my favorite video game characters, “Let’s hit these plot points in order.”

What exactly were people expecting the Paladins to do after Lotor saved the day in “A New Defender”? Immediately welcome him into the fold with open arms and a fresh batch of cookies that Hunk made just for the occasion? They’re forgetting that just a few episodes ago, Lotor was still in charge of the Galra Empire. He wasn’t a fringe third party with a checkered past who showed up to help when the chips were down like Rolo and Nyma. For all of Season 3 and most of Season 4, he’s been an enemy combatant, and they treated him as such. While he may currently be at odds with his father after S4E3, the Paladins have no way to know whether he genuinely wants peace or is just telling them what they want to here so he can take advantage of them. Because he’s done it before.

In S3E2 Red Paladin, Lotor has Narti use her mind control powers to have the leader of Puig send a distress signal asking Voltron for help. When they arrive, he ambushes them and sends multiple waves of fighters to gauge their skill and whether they would be able to retrieve the trans reality comet. When he gets what he wants, he leaves.

Two episodes later, in S3E4 Hole in the Sky, Lotor attaches a distress beacon to the ship with the comet inside that mimics an Altean distress signal. When Voltron arrives, he waits for them to retrieve the comet, then attacks them, steals the comet for himself, and flies off.

That’s two times now that Lotor has faked a distress signal and then used Voltron’s desire to help to further his own agenda before flying off with the fruits of his labor. He may not have done anything to them since then, but they are understandably wary of being used like that a third time. You know how the old saying goes. “Fooled me once, shame on you. Fooled me twice, shame on me.”

So, when he slides up to the Coalition saying “hey, I know we’ve fought in the past but let’s see if we can come to an agreement”, he’s looked at with suspicion, and understandably so. The Paladins aren’t going to just give free reign of the Castle of Lions to someone they know very little about, who was an enemy combatant less than a month ago (by all indications S4E2-6 take place within a very short period of time), and who has a history of using their desire to help people to advance his own agenda. So, they put him in the cell as a probationary measure. If he proves trustworthy, they give him access to more of the castle. If it turns out that he’s using them for his own ends like they fear, well, they’ve already locked him up, and at least he wouldn’t have been able to access any sensitive information. We see that bear out in S5E3 Postmortem. The Paladins aren’t bothered that Lotor’s out of his cell. He’s proven his intentions by killing his father. Their main reaction is surprise that they’re giving him access to the bridge already.

[EDIT]: Some posts following the release of Season 5 pointed out that if the lights on Lotor’s prison deck were kept on 24/7, it would constitute a form of torture. While that is a valid point to make, I saw quite a few blogs that took that possibility and exaggerated it, not even considering the “if” part of the original discussion, declaring it as fact, and rushing to label the Paladins’ actions as war crimes because we never saw Lotor’s cell with the lights off. It should be noted that all of these scenes took place in the daytime, and while we never see that specific room at night, Season 2 already showed that the castle’s lights are turned off during the night cycle, and there’s nothing to suggest they didn’t do the same with Lotor’s cell. 

And there’s also another angle that isn’t really talked about – that not everyone we saw in the Coalition in previous seasons was willing to work alongside Galra like the Blade of Marmora. While the rebels we see in Begin the Blitz and A New Defender are just fine working with the Blades, it’s not out of the question that some Coalition members might resent the Coalition’s Galra allies. And if Lotor’s on the Castle of Lions, that would make him a target. The cell could also have been just as much to keep trigger happy Coalition members out as it was to keep him in.

Then I hear people arguing that they were just going to hand him over to Zarkon with no strings attached, that they were just going to give Lotor up and trust that Zarkon would stay true to his word. It sometimes sounded like some people want so badly for Lotor to be a bigger victim than he already is that they twisted canon to make the Paladins out to be thoughtless jerks. Because S5E2 Blood Duel shows us that everything that happened was all according to plan.

For those who are unfamiliar, the Unspoken Plan Guarantee trope refers to the pattern that the more the audience knows the details of the plan beforehand, the greater the chances the plan will fail, and the fewer details the audience knows in advance, the greater the chances the plan will succeed. Explaining the details of the plan after it’s been successfully carried out is optional.  

After Zarkon pulls the hologram trick, the phrase “Hold our position until the time is right.” Is repeated by both Shiro and Lance (albeit without the “until the time is right” part for Lance). And the show tells us that the moment when “the time is right” is when Lotor attacks Zarkon and leads him away from the shuttle.

When the Paladins are arguing with Shiro in S5E3 Postmortem, they don’t say anything to the effect of “why did you give Lotor a weapon?” They had no problem with him being armed. The issue they had was that Lotor was given the Black Bayard, his father’s signature weapon they had only just gotten back from Zarkon 14 episodes ago. One wrong move in Blood Duel, and that weapon would have been back in Zarkon’s hands. And for a moment in that episode, it was. Zarkon did get his hands on the Black Bayard and if Lotor had been a second too slow, Zarkon would have killed all five Paladins, plus Matt and Sam in a single strike.

I’ve mentioned before that VLD prefers to show things to the audience rather than explain them out loud. Sometimes it’s to the show’s detriment because the answer to viewers’ questions aren’t immediately obvious. But watching Blood Duel again, it’s clear that plan was always “make the hostage exchange. Wait for Zarkon to double cross us. Lotor attacks Zarkon and leads him on a chase across the desert. Shiro, Matt, and Pidge storm the shuttle to free Sam.” The Paladins were always going to ensure that Lotor was armed during the fight with his father. The only issue they had was Shiro’s choice of what weapon to give him.

So now that Lotor has proven they can trust him, they start to drop their guard and be more casual and friendly around him. And according to Matt during the flashbacks in S7E7 “The Last Stand: Part”, by the time Sam Holt has been on Earth for just over a year, Voltron had been missing for six months. That means that between S5E5 Bloodlines and S6E4 The Colony, Voltron and Lotor had been working together for just over six months. That’s six months of the Paladins slowly growing to trust and befriend the new Galra Emperor. But the little embers of doubt about his intentions were still there in the back of each of their minds.

That’s why it’s so easy for the Paladins to believe Keith and Romelle when they show up accusing him of murdering Alteans with no concrete evidence other than their own assumptions. Because given his behavior before Naxzela, an apparent reveal that he had been playing the long game manipulating them all along rekindled those embers of suspicion. It’s easy for them to conclude that Lotor was playing a long con since it would fit with his behavior towards them prior to Season 4. Because what non-nefarious reason could Lotor possibly have for not telling Allura and Coran that he had been sheltering the surviving Alteans after working together for six months?

We know why Lotor didn’t say anything. Because he refused to risk Haggar discovering the Colony’s existence and scouring the universe until she found it. But the Paladins have never experienced the level of privacy invasion and subsequently justified paranoia that Lotor has. So, they do not have the experience to understand that he refused to risk the security of the colony by revealing its existence where Haggar might have spies or listening devices or cloned sleeper agents to overhear.  

I agree with the theory that Lotor was telling the truth about the Altean Colony and that what was happening there was not what Keith and Romelle believed it was. I absolutely believe that the Paladins leaving Lotor in the rift was a mistake. But the attempts by certain Lotor stans to water this down to a black and white scenario of Paladins Evil, Lotor Good are not supported by canon. Canon shows us that the falling out between Lotor and the Paladins was a messy situation where everyone had understandable reasons for reacting to the reveal of the colony as they did. That doesn’t make any one person’s reactions right or justified, only that if you put the pieces together it’s understandable how they reached the conclusions they did.

TL;DR: There is no evidence in the show that suggests Lotor was treated inhumanely, the Paladins were never going to just hand him to Zarkon unarmed and hope for the best, and Lotor's paranoid refusal to tell them about the Colony gave Keith's accusations greater weight because it was in line with his behavior towards the Paladins in Season 3 enough for them to believe that he had been pulling a long con all along. 

[shirophantomvox]

What’s up y’all! Tumblr is literally fucking glitching and certain letters on my keyboard aren't working so I couldn't put in a title. The title of this is: "I Will Always Celebrate My Birthday". Here is another lovely prompt from @vld-prompts . I hope you like it! If these stories seem rushed, it’s because I am writing them before working and I go to school so I have to fit them in some time, right? Anyway, this prompt says: The Paladins learn that Alteans have no concept of birthday celebrations and promptly decide to demonstrate one for Allura, Coran (and/or Lotor.) Happy reading and follow me for more stories!

Princess Allura; the girl that has been to hell and back; took in many “aliens” and trained them to be paladins of the lions. She had experienced tragedy after tragedy but somehow managed to keep pushing. Lots of people looked up to her for hope and support and she never disappointed. It seemed like all she did was work and work and work until she passed out from exhaustion. Once she was so tired that she couldn’t even remember her own age! Wait! How old is she again? 10,000 years old right? No! She’s 10,001 years old! She reached into the drawer in her dresser and pulled out a thin, long gold box that was glistening under the light. She gently opened the box and there laid a beautiful pearl necklace and bracelet. This was a gift from the late King Alfor and Melanor of Altea; her parents. They had always mentioned the necklace as a reward for reaching such an age. You see, in Altean history, when a woman turns 10,001 years old, they take life more seriously. They know that it is time to buckle down; it is time to make money, find a partner, and parent children to follow in their footsteps. The necklace was a reward for her accomplishments. Allura often thought of her parents, wishing that they could see her now. They both would be proud.

Lance and Pidge entered the living room carrying heavy boxes that Coran gave them full of dusty trophies and small knickknacks. They were trying to clean out the 3rd floor so Hunk and Pidge could set up their virtual reality equipment. Suddenly, both tripped and dropped the boxes spilling everything all over the floor. Hey, blame the pearls. They’re THAT shiny.

“Oh! I’m sorry, Allura said running from her chair. She grabbed Pidge and Lance by their arms and pulled them up. “Let me help you pick this up.” Pidge got up, dusted herself off, and returned to pick up the items from the ground. “Lance, could you pass me the cardboard box. Lance? Lance! Are you listening to me?” To Allura’s surprise (not really), Lance was staring at her for much longer than usual. His mouth nearly dropped to the ground as he gave Allura two looks. It must have been some magic in that ol’ pearl necklace. Allura had on a light rose pink dress that exposed her shoulders. A white rose was pinned to her dress. This was apart of Altean tradition; on your special day, you just wore fancy clothes around the house and whenever you went out. “Lance! You’re drooling,” Pidge said groaning in irritation. It was bad enough Lance was slightly lazy but him drooling over Allura slowed her down. “Oh, sorry. S-sorry for staring Allura. Y-you just look prettier than usual. That necklace makes your skin glow.” “Thank you, Lance. I appreciate it.” “Great. Heh-he. Lance, can we finish this now? Hunk and I have work to do.” “R-right. Right” Still love-struck, Lance managed to help Pidge put away the boxes and the rest of the clothes laid on the couch. Lance was right about one thing, she never dressed like this before, why so sudden? “Why are you dressed liked that,” Pidge asked. “Don’t question it Pidge!” “It’s ok. Today is the day I was born 10,001 years ago.” “So, it’s your birthday?” “What?” “Your birthday. Today was the day you were born 10,001 years ago.” “Ah, yes. Right!” “Great! When do we get cake and ice cream?” “Ice cream? Cake?” “You’ve never heard of cake and ice cream?! Wow, your parties must have been lame.” “Actually...I’ve never had any of those...parties. What are they like?” “They’re fun! You have cake, ice cream, and if you’re lucky you get to have your birthday at a venue!” Lance LOVED birthday parties. It was the perfect opportunity for him to get as many phone numbers as he could and for him to talk to his friends about games and live streaming. Pidge on the other hand was an introvert; she liked staying to herself because that was the only way for her to get her work completed. The only person that could relate to her was Hunk and they had similar interests. “Lance doesn’t need any more sugar than what he is already consuming. Pidge pushed her glasses closer to her face as she placed the last box on the table. But I am willing to throw you a birthday party if Lance will help me.” “Of Course I will! Hunk will bake the cake, he can make the ice cream, and Pidge and I will make party favors. Let’s go, team! Mission Birthday Party is a-go.” Lance, being excited about this mission, was so overjoyed that he ran flat into the door. “I’m ok!” Baking a cake was the perfect task for Hunk during this time. Constantly thinking about returning to Earth can and will drive you insane. He and the other paladins have a point--they did not sign up for this mission but they were called upon to carry out a job and they were nearly finished, at last. Hunk had taken bakery classes at the nearby arts and crafts store, NaTalia’s. He had learned how to make birthdays, weddings, and just regular cakes with a quickness. His art form including basic designs and printing edible pictures on the cake. Allura’s favorite colors were pink, white, and dark grayish-blue. Although those colors were far apart from each other on the palette, he made it work. The ice-cream was already made. He decided to make mint chocolate and vanilla to ensure everyone was satisfied. The cake was great and it looked delicious too! The only downside is that the ship’s kitchen looked like a tornado ran through it. Oh well. That’s how you know you accomplished your mission. He topped the cake off with little wax figures of King Alfor and Melanor at the top near the pink rim. He thought this was the perfect finishing touch...hopefully she thinks so too. Hunk gently placed the ice cream and the cake on a pushcart and began to

wheel it to the bridge. The wax figures made Hunk think harder. He was going to remove them. He didn’t want Allura to cry on her big day, he wanted her to be happy. The doors opened as everyone stood to their feet and watched the beautiful cake be wheeled into the room. The edible sparkly pink glitter glistened underneath the room’s headlights. Allura stood to her feet, her hands over her mouth gasping in amazement. Pidge and Lance had made pink and white confetti and by some miracle found pink balloons in the closet. Just when they were going to sing “Happy Birthday” by Stevie Wonder, a few tears began to fall from Allura’s face. Hunk’s smile was instantly wiped away. He knew he should have removed the figurines. “Allura...I-I’m sorry. I thought--” “--No! It’s ok! I love it! Thank you Hunk!” Allura nearly knocked him over with her hug, but that’s ok. It was a warm bear hug; one full of love and joy. “Hey! Where’s my hug?!” “Later, Lance.” “Ooooh,” Pidge said laughing. “Ok, who’s ready to sing Happy Birthday, Keith asked already grabbing a hamburger slider. I’m hungry. “Happy Birthday to ‘ya. Happy Birthday to ‘ya. Happy Birth-day!” The team sang, off-key, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered is they successfully gave Allura the first birthday experience of her life and it is safe to say that she loved it. She was overjoyed with emotion, all happiness. Shiro gave her a few tissues to wipe her eyes with so her eye makeup wouldn’t drip. “Thank you all! I appreciate it very much! I will always celebrate my birthday for as long as I shall live!”

[b-kitsune]

Many ways to say I love you: Day Four.

Kidge-a-palooza 2019 Prompt: Fireworks. Pairing: Kidge (VLD) Universe: Supernatural! AU Status: Complete. 

''You know? Definitely green is your color.''

''Do you think?''

Pidge looked back at the mirror in front of her suspiciously, with the fabric of two kimonos around her shoulders to decide which of two choices for that night. After several hours deciding along with Shiro, that had been the only ones who had truly called her attention away from too flashy colors and extravagant designs that carried some. But at that point, she couldn't decide which of the two to use.

She wasn't good at deciding her own clothes from day to day. Many times, Pidge chose to use the first thing she found. The specialty of her work often meant that only a dress and a good suit of armor was enough to get through the day. And on special holidays, her family used to take care to dress her correctly to follow the established protocols of her maternal race.

How could she do it with a garment that wasn't even related to her culture?

But she had to do it, for Shiro. Pidge had agreed to bring something consistent to the situation, excited to Shiro as soon as she let him know she wanted to wear one of the traditional Japanese and visually comfortable outfits, to accompany him to the temple while they enjoyed what awaited them that night.

It wouldn't be fair to repent now when she had him almost all morning helping her choose a good kimono.

Damn it, even Curtis had been depressed (and somewhat jealous) as soon as Pidge got Shiro's full attention even before they got off the ship.

One of the clothes she had chosen was an Italian red with a sophisticated pattern of black sparrows around them, while a disgrace of the same color began at the beginning of the knees. Although it was stronger than the others, Shiro had considered it elegant, also, in case of encountering mud while walking through the sanctuary cause of the recent rains, the spots wouldn't be noticed as much.

The other was green, the same light green that she loved to wear in her adolescence, before meeting Shiro and her friends, when she was kept hidden under the protection of the trees and her family. The white degrades began to the middle of the torso and had lovely patterns of cherry branches stamped around it, which contrasted quite feminine.

Both were really beautiful.

When she turned around to see Shiro, she could see a slight tremor in his feet when his gaze moved towards the door, as if he were slightly nervous.

''Shiro?''

''Yes?'' He put his attention on Pidge as soon as she called his name, somewhat disoriented. ''Sorry, what did you say?''

''I didn't say anything ... Is everything all right?'' Asked worried, it wasn't normal (nor good) to see Shiro anxious about an issue, especially if he remained silent. ''You look altered.''

''It's not that ...'' Shiro stopped a few minutes to think while covering his mouth with one of his hands. After a few seconds, he sighed loudly. ''It's been many years since I've been here ... It's just, weird.''

''Do you feel okay?''

''Something like that.'' He shrugged, grieved. ''It's just ... I never expected to return to my native country, not after a war that took us so long to stop it. I have forgotten my own language a bit. It just feels weird, see all this.''

Pidge smiled in sympathy for his words when she saw Shiro's metal hand take one of the embroideries of the kimonos that were scattered around the room, with a look of nostalgia over his eyes. She could understand what he was referring to.

They had been fighting a war for many years and reestablishing the balance of magic in the world, which took, perhaps, the best years of them with them.

Returning to normality has been an odyssey for everyone. Maybe even more for Shiro, who has trained all his life as a warrior in the face of what was coming, losing his right arm.

Everyone's future would have been different if things hadn't become so dark over the years.

Allura would surely have married Lotor in different circumstances before he became corrupt and perished in the power of quintessence.

Lance would have continued to flirt with girls around him while making great fortunes with the search for unknown treasures.

Hunk and Romelle might never have met. And surely, they would have led normal lives around their villages and families.

Shiro may have inherited the title of kami as it was predestined from birth, protecting and guiding young souls from fatal fates.

And Keith ... Surely, he hadn't even known his supernatural heritage, or her.

But everything was finally over, even at the cost of many sacrifices in the process.

Like her own wings, for example.

It was a strange feeling, a sense of belonging faded by the passage of time and multiple experiences beyond comprehension. And for Shiro, it could be even worse considering that he had no family to return to the place he had called home. They had all perished before they sent him away to foreign lands to save his life.

But he had wanted to show them a habit that he remembered with longing in his childhood days, and go back to reliving his forgotten roots. For that reason, everyone had decided to accompany him to Kyoto and see the Tanabata festival, together as a family.

''We'll have a good time, isn't it?'' Pidge said, at last, Shiro smiled affirmatively after a few minutes of reflection. Rising from the ground to stand in front of her. Pidge looked at him expectantly, his kimono had opened slightly, showing part of his chest. Although Shiro didn't seem to mind.

''Yeah, everything will be fine. Although ...'' He touched her neck uncomfortably. ''I hope that Lance and Keith get to behave like adults who are, and not cause problems.''

''Well, they haven't been fighting as they did in the castle of the lions if that's what you mean. It is rather a friendly competition.''

''I wouldn't trust so much in them. Besides ... "He turned her back so Pidge could see herself in the mirror again, placing the red kimono on his shoulders and ordered it with his hands. ''Keith has been especially active in recent months as if he was demonstrating something ... Or for someone. Can you know the reason, Katie?'' The mention of her name caused a bad feeling to travel on her back, Shiro was insinuating something.

''Keith is weird, I thought you were the one who knew him better than all of us.'' She looked away nervously, without letting go of Shiro's inquisitive tone. Nor his penetrating gaze that could feel her even through her reflection.

''Speaking of which, Krolia told me that dragons usually have quite interesting rituals about the courtship of a couple.''

''Oh yeah?'' Pidge tried to look casual while Shiro approached one of the furniture to take a cloth that worked as a belt. Deciding on the black that matched her kimono. ''Like which?''

''Call attention through fighting, obviously.'' Shiro laughed lightly. She would have, too, if she weren't so nervous, remembering the last controversies Keith had been having with any male entity that was in his way. Especially, around her. ''She also said that it usually happens in later stages of adolescence. Because of course, they are very busy demonstrating how impressive their first years of life are.''

''That would explain why Keith didn't court any nymph when he was young.''

''You're all still young Pidge, you're under twenty-five.'' This time, it was her turn to laugh. Shiro sighed with regret. ''Out of games, don't think I haven't seen what you two are playing since the war ended. You can cheat the coalition, Lance or Hunk, even your parents with some care and a few charms of altering reality ... But I would like you to be truly honest with me.'' Pidge swallowed lasted for the sincerity of his words. ''Keith and you ...''

''I don't know, Shiro.'' She vomited, finally, rolling the kimono with her fingers, she felt a little nervous about the situation. Pidge didn't expect to be talking about that kind of thing with him, for Pidge, Shiro was like an older brother. ''I ... Sometimes it seems like yes, we go out, we spend time and all that. He is kind to me and always lets me go behind his back to have the feeling of flying again, but ... He always ends up going for months on a humanitarian aid mission across the continent. And he returns as if nothing had happened between us.''

''I don't understand ... You two didn't fuck when I was missing?''

''Who told you that!?'' Pidge's face achieved a furious red, similar to the folds of her kimono. Shiro snorted funny.

''Allura told me, she always knows everything.''

''Of course, she always knows everything ... Meddling Elf ...'' Shiro smiled faintly when he saw the frustration on her face. It was understandable, Allura was always very irrelevant to personal space. And the hereditary side of Colleen came to light in Pidge of being extremely reserved with her private life.

''You don't have to worry about that, although I'm a bit funny that you're doing things the other way around. You know, usually you know the person, talk about your interests, then start a relationship. And after that, you start-

''We were in a war, he had lost his only remaining family, and I had lost my wings to save him from Zarcon's attack.''

Pidge stopped for a moment, touching one of her shoulder blades subtly, where the unmistakable characteristic of her father's inheritance was supposed to be. But she knew that if she took off her clothes, there would be nothing there except for big scars that sometimes resented the cold.

She had sacrificed her identity for the greater good at a time of which Shiro's voice had sounded so loud in her head that she doesn't doubt at any time.

She hadn't blamed Shiro for ordering something so risky. If she went back to that moment, would have done it again without hesitation. Pidge would have returned to save Keith from devastating death.

''After you disappeared for months ... Keith and I were broken in different ways. We simply complement each other without thinking too much about it. We needed to keep going at all costs, looking for you in the process.''

''I see ...'' Responded Shiro reflexively. It sounded like something Keith would do.

''With respect to his attitude as adolescent emo reinvented, I don't know where it came from, honestly.''

''Don't worry about that, it's possible that it's because he has spent too much time with Lance and something ... In his genetics, it could start to take sides in his decisions, it may happen over time. You may not even be aware of it. A few years ago, he knew where he came from, who his mother was and who he really was. Give him some time, I'm sure you're important to him Katie, even long before you could imagine.''

''I hope so…''

Pidge looked up once she heard Shiro sigh contentedly for his work. The kimono had been placed on top of her clothes, but he felt a strange sense of pride as it shone on her body. The Asian females were naturally thin and without pronounced curves, so the traditional clothes fulfilled the function of not accentuating anything, but hiding and giving an elegant harmony to the female body.

For the first time in many years, she felt pretty with herself. She turned to see Shiro who was as happy as she was.

''The red will be then.''

''It's good that you say it, do you know what is another of the courtship traditions that Krolia told me?''

''Which one?''

''That the dragons add the color of their scales to their suitors as a sign of acceptance.''

 ...

 Keith was somewhat anxious about that night. Rather, quite anxious, enough to keep moving while Lance gave a few touches to his hair before heading to the event that night. So much so that Lance grumbled in frustration when Keith looked up at his hand clock, completely ruining his work in a few seconds.

''You know what? I'm done with you; I don't want to continue with this if you're going to squirming all the time.''

''Sorry, Lance ...'' He answered tired, reaching before he got up and left the room. Keith looked down at the ground, saddened by his behavior. ''It's just, it's kind of hard to keep quiet tonight.''

''Is it cause of the people? Keith, nobody in this country knows us, everything will be fine. Also, there are more rare things than a fire dragon around the streets. They will not try to hunt you down.''

'What? No, it isn't that.'' Keith snorted when Lance returned to his place and again felt his hands in his hair. ''I want ... Ask Pidge to be my partner.''

''Cool! For what?'' Keith watched him confused through the mirror for his relaxed attitude to his open statement. Usually, Lance was extremely protective of Pidge, treating her almost like a younger sister. ''Will you go on a distant trip? Or are you in a kind of scientific research that requires some nymph?''

''Lance, I want to marry her, not to accompany me somewhere.''

''You what!? Who told you could do that !?''

''Oh, there it is.''

''This it's serious Keith! If it's just another one of your transient dragon things, I'm going to-''

''It is not.'' Responded determined, stopping Lance's verbiage. ''I've been thinking about it for many years, and I know it's the right thing to do. I ... I want to be with her, I'm sorry. Pidge is the only one I need on my way.''

''Wow, you're serious.''

''Of course, I'm serious, it's Pidge!'' He shouted frustrated, but Lance didn't allow him to turn to face him.

''Really? I never saw you as a romantic couple, when we were together, it seemed rather that you took care of her by Shiro's orders.''

''At first, if it was like this ... But when I started talking with her, I felt strangely understood. She is a hybrid, just like me. And when I found out who my mother was, Pidge was the one who supported me most to accept me.'' Keith smiled wistfully; it had been many years since then.

''Well in that case ...'' He took his hair again, handling it in a different way while he was taking out small ornaments through the drawers of his shelf. ''I want you to know, that, although this is all very strange for me, I love you both, and I know from Allura that you have been shooting each other since the war ended.''

''Meddling Elf ...'' Whispered with annoyance, and found it strange that the mice came to them every time they were alone. Lance tugged at his hair when he heard it, but he smiled quickly.

''Do the best you can Keith. I will be supporting you in the shadows.''

When he looked at himself in the mirror, Keith could see something curiously interesting. His hair had been collected in a simple braid, which fell on her right shoulder. He could see small rows of smaller braids coming together across the road, and silver ornaments that shone beautifully around him.

It was a flashy hairstyle, but simple in turn, that reminded him momentarily of the one used by the fairies in ascension rituals, and it looked vaguely like Matt's when they first met him.

Something of the heritage that Pidge so longed to connect with.

Keith smirked, giving Lance a big hug for the gesture and moral support. He really needed it. After that, they decided to go with Shiro to choose the ideal kimono for that night.

 ...

 The night quickly fell in the foreign sky, with a magical air around it that enchanted everyone when they descended the stairs of Shiro's house. The roads were full of people who wandered from the temple and back, looking for snacks that the stores had to offer and one or another daily game for the moment.

Keith and Pidge were at a safe distance while the others came forward talking about the news they were watching. Pidge was leaning with Keith's arm at the difficulty of walking in sandals that she didn't use, and Keith was trying to do everything possible not to die of a shame since he saw her leave Shiro's room.

She wore a beautiful kimono of sparrows taking flight to the surroundings, which were lost in the sleeves, which accentuated wonderfully to her body giving her a much more elegant image, and her hair taken in a simple hairstyle with a hairpin at her side, gave to Pidge the maturity that used to be lost in its fine features most of the time.

But what caught his attention was the color so gloomily similar to his scales that she wore with pride. Wondering if maybe it had been Shiro's work since he was the only one who knew about the courtship rituals of his race.

He tried to take a deep breath as he followed the path his friends led as soon as they entered a much more agglomerated sector while attending to what Pidge used to tell him when something caught her attention.

Everything would be fine; Lance had assured him before leaving.

''Hey Shiro, why are there papers in the trees?''

Pidge took a few moments away from Keith to touch the papers that hung on the top of the bamboo at the main entrance to the temple. Giving them a pretty colorful appearance. They could see more than one person that they were hanging while away with some happiness on their faces. For what Shiro decided to explain.

''These are desires that people hang for them to come true, written in the tanzaku, the small papers they see there. Whatever you want, you hang it here, and after the festival, they are burned to reach the gods.''

''What a curious tradition.'' Coran approached while he saw other ornaments that accompany the wishes around the branches.

''Can we try?''

When Allura asked a little excited about the idea, Shiro nodded amused and guided them where they could find some tanzaku to start writing what they wanted in the bamboo. When they finished, they went to the highest part of the temple to wait for the fireworks that would appear in a few minutes more.

In the bustle of conversation while Hunk and Coran tasted some candy they bought on the way, Keith took Pidge's hand and asked her to follow him to a desolate part of the forest that surrounded the temple, quietly so that no one would notice at the time. She nodded curiously, holding his hand tightly, it's not as if it was the first time Keith had acted so mysteriously. Her heart beat with anticipation.

They walked many minutes in silence, observing the wonderful fauna of the place so different from their own home, and similar at the same time. The noise of the festival could still be heard from above, along with the lights that adorned the streets warmly. Their clothes gave them an air of comfort that they appreciated enough when moving around the earth.

They were far enough away until Pidge stopped to sit on a wooden chair at the end of the road. Keith approached her worriedly.

''Something happens?''

''No, it's just the sandals. I'm not handled using something like this for a long time.'' Pidge put them aside while massaging the contour of the instep. ''Still a lot to where you want to take me?''

''No, I think that's fine here.''

Keith approached her to remove the strange sock on her feet. The skin looked slightly red and somewhat swollen by the use of sandals. So, he continued to do a light massage to calm the pain of the area. Pidge complained weakly but didn't move away from his touch.

''Fairies shouldn't bring that kind of stuff on their feet.'' Keith said sympathetically, making Pidge grumble with a crooked smile.

''Well, I also have nymph blood thanks to my mother, and we wear shoes even inside the house.''

''But you're not used to this, besides ...'' He kissed one of her fingers as soon as he stopped, making her jump by surprise. Pidge was embarrassed when she felt his lips on her bare skin. ''Your kimono looks better with bare feet''

''Oh yeah?'' Pidge replied with some coquettishness in her tone of voice, taking the foot that Keith had in his hands to his chin, making him look up at her. His eyes seemed to pierce her soul. ''I can read your thoughts, Keith. You know I would look much more beautiful without the kimono.''

''Pidge ...''

Keith's tone warned her that she had lit the fire inside him, approaching her like a hunter on his prey, feeling his breath close to her lips, expectant. Pidge had a big smile on her face, she had pressed the right button.

''Why did you bring me here, away from all our friends?'' It surrounded the neck of Keith to approach it towards her in a slow movement. His lips resting on the outline of her neck. ''Are you trying to stain the precious and innocent date that Shiro organized for all of us? What a cruel dragon you are ...''

''Just me?''

He said funny, walking away from her before he couldn't think correctly. Pidge could be seen as someone completely oblivious to worldly desires, which was a complete lie. The lust of that petite nymph competed with his. He gave her a soft kiss on her lips, demonstrating all the sincere love he had for her. Pidge looked at him expectantly, reflecting the stars on her beautiful golden eyes, that red color highlighted her beauty in a way that Keith’s heart beat wildly, like a teenager in full swing.

Any questions he might have before while talking with Lance had disappeared. He was completely sure that he loved that woman.

He didn't know at that moment, or in what second, they heard an explosion so strong that both turned their eyes to the sky. There they could see the fire consumed in multiple colors that painted everything in its path.

So that's what Shiro meant with the fireworks.

It was truly a wonderful image.

While Pidge was distracted watching the explosions, Keith whispered those important words in her ear. To be sure that she heard it the first time.

Pidge looked away slowly, forgetting the spectacle, then nodding frantically as she hugged him with a smile he had never seen since he met her in that war.

The heart of both couldn't feel warmer that night while watching the fireworks explode over the sky and their hearts were filled with intense love. They didn't need the tanzaku, their wishes had come true.

[arinaco]

Pidge - the heroine with Schrödinger problems

Translated and edited by @Nadezhda932

I think it's worth saying a few words about Pidge, because as far as it seems no one ever spoke about the problems of her character. Actually, even her creator, Lauren Montgomery, after the release of S8 with greatly changed original script began to insist that Pidge was fine and had no flaws. Although Pidge's problems were voiced by Keith in the first episodes of the series. This is absolute indifference to everyone who is beyond her personal circle of people, everyone she doesn't like or cares. “You can’t leave everyone to the mercy of fate for the sake of personal desires!” - says Keith, who, with all his teenage issues and egoism, is a very responsible guy (that very trait which will help him grow to the Black Paladin over time). “I really can!” - Pidge answers confidently.

Pidge is a supporting character, but her problem was announced almost immediately. Why? Because she is the favorite character of the main screenwriter, Lauren Montgomery. A good screenwriter knows that a hero without flaws and problems is of no interest to anyone. You know, there is an interesting point in that Lions (with the exception of White and Black) are in many respects opposed to each other. And if the first and most obvious coupling is Red and Blue, then the coupling of Yellow and Green is in the background and remains invisible, although it was also shown quite early. The Yellow Lion is a self-confident rock, a support for others. The strongest and most massive of all. If Blue is the one who consoles and wipes away tears (healer in game terminology), then Yellow, as a powerful shield, will take all the fire upon himself (tank). Do you need to be reminded of what happens if a healer or a tank falls in a game during a raid on Boss? It’s shitty, despite the fact that they have the lowest attack in the group.

The first appearance of Yellow is marked by the fact that he stands between the Blue and the enemy as a shield.

The Green Lion is ... an extravagant scientist, shallow and fidgety. This one will not protect anyone, but will crawl anywhere and achieve her goal. She doesn't have a powerful attack, but she has a trick. In game terminology, she would be called an assassin-horn, the most insidious class (that's who exactly from the ninja clan ...). He is an even greater loner than Red - who, although selfish, is held by Black, as his right hand. The Green Lion is on her mind, her motives are not always understood by others, but she doesn't want to be understood. 

It's funny that the paladins always used Green to sneak past the Galra imperceptibly

Paladins reflect their Lions. Hunk, despite his fears, immediately stood up for the inhabitants of Balmera, simply because if not him, then who? He is the person who is ready to stand up for the first comers if he sees that they need his help. It doesn’t matter: Galra, humans or some new unknown race. Hunk is a born negotiator, he knows how to understand people and is always ready to make contact. And Pidge is... his exact opposite. She was ready to abandon everyone who depend on her, for the sake of saving her father. What about establishing contact with strangers... it's not something that she can't do, she simply doesn't want to. She always says what she thinks, not caring how much it hurts others. Do you remember how she said to Allura something like: "Your father is dead, but my one is alive"? Can you imagine how painful it was for Allura to hear this?

Allura couldn't have done that. And it’s a pity, in S6 it would be very useful to her.  

And this is her problem. This is a problem for many children spoiled by their parents. After all, these are the roots of Pidge's behavior. Let's recall her childhood. Katie is a special girl from a special family: brilliant scientists, not like everyone else. Because of this, she had conflicts with her classmates - but on the other hand, the family itself nurtured and cherished her, assuring that it was good to be special. “You are exceptional and that’s wonderful" - they said. Forgetting that there's nothing remarkable in the inability to communicate with peers in a normal way. And that surely the conflict was not only one-sided - sorry, but Pidge isn't made of sugar. No wonder her entire company in the Garrison consisted of Lance and Hunk - VERY flexible and patient ones in communicating with other people. Blue and Yellow paladins, remember. But the problem was ignored, it was solved by stroking the daughter on the head. The girl was cherished, the girl was spoiled. The girl is a genius, which means that everything is excusable to her. The girl abandoned her mother without hesitation and fled, for the sake of the mythical opportunity to save her father and brother. Think about it: what it was like for this unfortunate woman? The husband and son went missing, and the daughter followed them. And not for a day, not for a week. For months and years.

Pidge didn't think about it. Pige didn't want to think about it. And this is a problem that remained unresolved. You know, a person’s character is revealed when he or she doesn't need to hold the face. When he or she isn't obliged to establish good relations, when this person is the master of the situation. And the authors directly showed us how deplorable the situation is with Pidge. Do you understand what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the very scene when the issue of giving of Lotor to Zarkon was being decided.

Stop the planet, I’ll come off... quiznak, it's all the same in the entire universe.

There is something very significant in that Lotor then stood in front of the paladins without a helmet, face to face. More precisely - eye to eye. Since this is very important. Stormtroopers in Star Wars, Galra soldiers in VLD series, and even quite real death row in modern China - they all have their heads covered. At least the eyes. Because it depersonalizes a person. No personality - no empathy. You can abstract from it, you can stop considering this man alive. He's not the same person as you, which means that there's nothing wrong with his murder. That's why the scene where an inanimate robot takes off his helmet and turns into a person with eyes - windows into the soul - is always very important in any motion or animated picture. He is now a person. He is alive. You need to step over yourself to raise your hand on him, and his death is no longer something insignificant for the plot. And now a little girl of 14 y.o. screams almost with foam at her mouth, demanding that this living person - completely dependent on the decisions of the paladins - must be put to death.

I need to say, the rest of the team was slightly shocked too.

Didn’t you have a jump in your soul? No thoughts about Christian values, psychological barriers to killing a person. Well, you know, about things that should seem to matter in our culture. I understand that Pidge wanted to save her father. But I absolutely can't accept how easily she was ready to kill Lotor, who completely depended on the mercy of the paladins and didn't show any aggression towards her. Like, "if I didn’t shoot him myself, but through third parties, everything is normal"? The hands ard clean and conscience too. After all, the latter snores sweetly. Of course, you can say about the enemy, and that there's no place for compassion, but you're the paladins, not unprincipled Galra. You're the good guys. Or not so good anymore? Even from a position of profit and simple logic, the Galra prince could bring much more benefit in war than a scientist with an industrially backward (from the point of view of the universe) Earth. But what benefit, what compassion we're talking about. "Give me dad back!" and that’s it. As a result, the paladins didn't even think of giving Lotor at least some (!) chance for the rescue. They didn't come up with at least some plan. They stupidly decided to give him to Zarkon, knowing that for Lotor this was a one-way ticket, and knowing that with a high probability Zarkon would deceive them - that is, Lotor's death could be in vain. Bayard was given to Lotor by Kuron, after Haggar ordered to activate the third phase. Haggar didn't want Lotor's death. And this is a big problem, actually. Because Haggar-Honerva herself showed how dangerous a brilliant, but unprincipled scientist is. But if Honerva became so because of quintessence, then Pidge is a direct result of improper upbringing. Alas, in this series this problem wasn't solved. Because the entire story arc of Pidge in S8 was cut out. What was this arc? The realization that not the whole world revolves around you. That not only your interests matter. That you can objectively be wrong with others, and you must be able to admit your wrong. Simply put, the Pidge's arc must be connected to two figures: The first figure is a figure embodying one-sided attachment for Pidge. Love without bestowal, as it often happened with the love of parents to Pidge herself. The second figure is an absolutely alien person for Pidge who is not in the circle of loved ones. Pidge was often rude with such people, and she must realize how wrong this behavior was. Who are these figures? I think the answer to this question is not difficult: Lance and Lotor. Pidge got used to the fact that all the people who are not indifferent to her revolve around her. In particular, Lance and Hunk. But in his chase for Allura, Lance began to move more and more away from his friends. They ceased to be Garrison Trio from the first seasons, who used to do everything together.

Nothing unites people like a joint escape from the cops... at least it used to unite.

For Pidge, this was very unusual. And very hard. Especially the moment when Lance, with the help of his "retinue", invited Allura on a date. Now they're not a company of friends - Hunk, Pidge and Lance. Now Lance is with Allura, and they're somewhere on the side. Pidge feels that for an important person she is now in second place. And she really has a hard time feeling it. She's used to take care of loved ones, and she continues to take care of Lance. But she has to personally face what you feel when your care isn't appreciated and remains unnoticed. When your love is taken for granted and never comes back. She's in the place of her own mother, whom she so easily abandoned, ignoring the fact that her mother might worry about her.

Does it hurt? Yes. But it's necessary. Alas, this part of the plot was never developed. There's nothing to talk about Lotor, remembering the events that I described above. Do you remember the paladins apologizing to him? No, you don't, because it never happened. And Lotor - oh, such a bad guy - forgave them and pretended that everything was fine, just an everyday matter. Lotor is used to the fact that people around him treat him like a piece if crap. He forgave the generals, forgave the paladins. He forgives everyone, what a vile bastard he is. But since the entire arc of justification or redemption - no matter - of Lotor was cut out, the whole arc of Pidge was cut out too, the arc where she realizes her wrong. There's no awareness of wrong - there's no rethinking of oneself as a person. No growth, no development. Pidge remained convinced that everything she had done was right. And it's just awful, because the children see it. They see and find something close to themselves in Pidge. And they see the message - yes, that’s right, that’s okay. Then these children will grow up and some of them will become not a small Pidge, but a big Haggar. And it won't be funny at all.