#it also makes zero sense to have the only person who can create a wormhole and PILOT THE ENTIRE CASTLESHIP be

[swagging-back-to]

naur seriously can we talk about how allura was even like 'the lions were made to be piloted by you and you alone'referring to the fact they are the only five people in the entire multiverse to have pure quintessence corresponding to the colors oftheir lions....

if one paladin is MIA then that lion should be inactive, benched. you dont simply play musical chairs with the lions. if it waa that easy then ANYONE could be the paladins at ANY time and theres no reason for the human paladins to be there at all especially if they dont want to be. but no the human paladins are NEEDED or else keith and allura would have no problem with pidge leaving in the first two episodes. nor would they mind if lance went home. but they DO mind. they PREVENT pidge from leaving and they make lance believe going back to earth isnt an option at all--that it isnt even on their iternary.

So no. i refuse to acknowledge the lion switching as canon.

[ladychandraofthemoone]

My star ⭐️ 🌟  💫 child. Her name is Astera as why did they give her that name with the unfortunate implications. In my pokemon au, she is the gym leader of Anistar City(yes her outfit is totally inspired by Olympia but she has that three star necklace on her shirt but I tried not to make it skin tight.. cause Ml has a tendency to give the heroes these ridiculously skintight suits that r shiny and showcases them… they’re children!!) Her rings r akin to Hoopa’s and can use them to travel, she can see the past and future, levitation,   teleportation  mind reading including talking to her pokemon just with mere signals and eye contact and much more of her psychic powers 

Also she’s a human who lost her entire left arm and eye 👁 plus some body parts having to replaced due to a childhood incident in a lab. Cause why is the darkest skin girl a white washed robot who’s purpose is to serve others and getter swatted around for 😢 sadrien moments 😮‍💨😖 like Aeon is a absolutely precious cinnamon roll and deserves better.

Slight tw as it does get dark so keep reading down below

🪐Aeon(her name is Astera) is depicted as an informative and helpful person. She is willing to give advice to people to encourage them, also due to her psychic powers she is extremely wise and intelligent. She seems to have a good relationship with her adoptive mother Majestia, taking her advice on board whenever she needs it. Despite her happy and kind nature, she is a quick to forgive anyone who has hunted her or her family/friends as a result of her powers being able to tell whenever or not they are truly apologetic but not many take her seriously as a result of her being straight faced, her expressionless smile (think like the pokemon MC that tends to freak people out even though she doesn’t mean to, it just means she’s deep in thought 💭 

🪐 She had a family but they died due to scientists wanting to use people who are born with these powers, though are very rare and when her family refused, they ““eliminated” them and took her(which they nicknamed her Aeon in honor of the Eon Duo, Latios and Latias but also to demean her in order to control her) their were other kids older or younger but she never got to properly meet them if they weren’t battling each other even though they could ‘sense’ each other

🪐When Olympia finds her, it took all her will power to not punish those who have been apart of the lab after finding papers, those who weren’t working or have managed to escaped and illegally experimenting on children and pokemon So she adopts Aeon, asking her if she wanted to keep that name due to her past but after some heavy thinking and desicion, decided to rename herself Astera due to some aster flower symbolism and sounds similar to astronomy 🔭 her favorite subject. As a result she keep rings she made to control her powers and  states that the inside of her cloak is a galaxy pattern, creating zero gravity that increases psychic power

🪐 One day, the lab she was being raised in captivity exploded, maybe it was due to another gifted student being unable to handle all the emotions due to being an empath and feels their cries and screams and couldn’t take being left alll alone in the dark. Maybe a legendary…Astera is the sole survivor, her psychic powers keeping her alive and her blood pumping but it resulted in her whole left arm being sliced and missing her left eye (deep down Astera wonders if it’s was her who did it adding a layer of guilt, she uses her rings to travel and visit the graves 

🪐 Astera’s is pure-hearted and deeply empathetic. She holds a great deal of responsibility, foretelling her psychic predictions in a precise manner as to avoid any confusion. She often receives vivid visions of the past and future, causing her to flux in and out of a psychic state. The Anistar Gym also serves as a school for other Psychics, training them to reach their full potential. Not wanting them to suffer want she went through the s to her mum’s permission she has a third eye she can open but only when she’s really upset or overwhelmed but it causes her a lot of pain so she doesn’y use it unless the situation calls it but she is always very calm and rational under pressure 

🪐she’s on the spectrum but combined with her lack of socializing skill due to being isolated from a young age not really being around kids her age and parts of body being removed, people began to call her a robot freak, cold, heartless and inhuman when she’s the complete and total opposite of that, most of the time her classmates attempt to antagonize her to get a reaction out of her and avoid her despite her hard attempts to make friends (most people wanted her to do the work as she’s the smartest and can’t say no) until the day Jess comes by and threatens to punch and fight anyone who harms her stepsister 

🪐She is obsessed with space and loves talking about it for hours and her gym is also a giant telescope 🔭 Jessica is willing to listen to her rant for hours cause it makes her happy she would bond with Mewtwo from the Unova series In Pokemon Masters after reading his mind and understanding a lot of his heart due to being treated as an experiment and someone with no emotion, mewtwo would frighten anyone who tries to hurt her as even though she’s very attuned to emotions and sweet, nice, she still quite naive on certain things as a result of her upbringing but is working on 

☄☄ She can open portals to other regions, akin to Hoopa but it takes  a lot out of her, the same goes with Ultra Wormholes and furture sites but it the future is very finicky a seen when Felix is called by Astera as she predicts something terrible will happen as  a result  she reamians calm and composed and is very regal and poised with her battling skills. Because of her tendency to speak in a robotic like tone, Olympia comes off as rather strange and perhaps psychologically deep or complex even though she enjoys talking and is very extorverted plus anybody who places their wrist into Astera's bracelet will allow her to be able to see everything in their future.

☄☄She is very pure-hearted and deeply empathetic and holds a great deal of responsibility, foretelling her psychic predictions in a precise manner as to avoid any confusion. She often receives vivid visions of the past and future, causing her to flux in and out of a psychic state equally precise. She respects others in a noble tone and sometimes also has visions of the past and the future and explains it to others as best as she can and is a responsible gym leader, who uses her psychic powers to assist her allies. .

[megaguardain]

Name: Harold ‘Hal’ Jordan

Nickname/Alias’: Green Lantern, Parallax, Spectre

Species: Human (formerly), Ghost (formerly)

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Eye Color: Brown, White (when GL)

Hair Color: Brown (formerly), Brown with grey streaks in temples (currently)

Height: 5’ 6” (1950s), 5’ 11” (currently)

Weight: 180 lbs

Gender: Male

Orientation: Heterosexual

Birthday: February 20th, 1937

Timeline

1937- Hal Jordan is born to Martin and Jessica Jordan

1955- Hal Jordan joins the US Air Force

1959- Abin Sur, attempting to figure the Blackest Night prophecy, takes Atrocitus to Earth. Atrocitus fatally injures Abin on entry and they crash. A dying Abin sends out his ring to find a replacement. It chooses Hal Jordan. First public sighting of Green Lantern II

1960- Hal Jordan teams up with other heroes in stopping the Appellaxians from invading Earth. He forms the Justice League with the other heroes.

1961- Hal Jordan discovers Thaal Sinestro, his mentor, abusing his status and power as a Green Lantern to rule as a dictator over his sector, in particular his homeworld of Korugar. He is able to bring Sinestro to justice before the Guardians.

1962- Hal Jordan battles Star Sapphire, who is Carol Ferris possessed by a Star Sapphire Gem.

1968- Hal Jordan discovers Guy Gardner, the other potential replacement for Abin Sur, and the two become fast friends.

1971- Hal Jordan meets John Stewart, his new backup after Guy is injured while rescuing one of his students.

1979- Hal Jordan discovers Guy Gardner is alive in the Phantom Zone, and rescues him with Superman. Guy Gardner is rendered comatose after being rescued.

1981- Hal Jordan meets Arisia Rrab. They develop a big brother/little sister dynamic.

1983- Hal Jordan travels with Oliver Queen across America.

1984- Hal Jordan quits the Green Lantern Corps, choosing Carol Ferris over the Corps.

1985- Hal Jordan is recruited back into the Corps after the Crisis.

1993- Returning from a mission in space, Hal Jordan finds Coast City has been destroyed.

1994- Hal Jordan is chastized by the Guardians of the Universe to attempting to revive Coast City. He goes mad with grief and slaughters his way to Oa. Hal Jordan kills Kilowag and Sinestro before absorbing the Central Power Battery. Hal Jordan dubs himself Parallax before leaving the ruined Oa. The Zero Hour Arrives. First public sighting of Parallax.

1996- Hal Jordan heals John Stewart’s paralysis. Hal Jordan gives his life to reignite the Sun.

1999- The Spectre bonds with the soul of Hal Jordan with the pretense of it being a punishment. Hal Jordan’s old friend, Tom Kalmaku, helps rebuild Oa.

2004- Kyle Rayner discovers Hal was influenced by the Emotional Entity known as Parallax, a being of Fear. He, Jon and Guy purge Parallax from Hal’s soul and he separates from the Spectre, passing into the afterlife.

2010- The Blackest Night falls from the sky.

Powers and Abilities

Aviation: Hal Jordan is a natural and highly skilled pilot, able to fly a wide variety of planes and jets due to his job as a test pilot for Ferris Air.

Amateur Martial Artist: Hal was trained in martial arts during his days in the Justice League. Though he isn’t particularly skilled, he can defend himself without using his ring.

Indomitable Will: Hal is incredibly willful, which made him a candidate to be a Green Lantern. He is highly resistant to mind manipulation and control, though he isn’t completely immune.

Equipment

Spectre Enchantment (formerly): Hal was once possessed by the Spectre, God’s Vengeance. This gave Hal powerful abilities to strike vengeance on sinners. Although, Hal attempted to turn the power into acts of Redemption on sinners.

Immortality: The Spectre makes its host immortal, they cannot be killed by conventional means. Even most technology and magic cannot kill them.

Nigh-Omnipotence: The Spectre is one of the most powerful beings in the Universe. It has seemingly limitless power.

Reality Alteration: The Spectre can change reality itself on a whim, enabling it to punish people appropriately.

Nigh-Omniscience: The Spectre is always aware of what is transpiring in the Universe, enabling it to know if it is needed.

Divine Law: The Spectre is bound by the Laws set by God and Heaven. The Spectre is bound and limited by God if it needs to be. This can also extend to those who carry God’s Word.

Weakness to the Spear of Destiny: The Spectre is weak to the Spear of Destiny, due to it being used to kill Jesus, God’s Forgiveness.

Green Lantern Ring (Pre-Ion) (formerly): The User has the ability to overcome great fear. This has earned them a Green Lantern Ring:

Green Energy Constructs: Users of a Green Lantern Ring can create energy constructs by willing them into existence. The User’s constructs are influenced by the User’s personality and mental state, an artistic User will have more stylized constructs while a soldier would have more militaristic constructs. Constructs are limited by the willpower and imagination of the User. Constructs can be manipulated to allow certain people or objects to pass through them, become transparent or opaque, or radiate certain wavelengths like Kryptonite. 

Kryptonite Generation: Green Lanterns can have their constructs generate Kryptonite if they know the proper wavelength.

Force Field Generation: A Green Lantern Ring can generate a force field around the User to protect them from harmful environments.

Energy Blasts: A Green Lantern Ring can fire blasts of energy. The energy are typically lasers or plasma in nature. The Energy blasts can be attuned to different wavelengths.

Phasing: A User can phasing through objects they normally cannot pass through, this takes considerable effort and energy from the Ring’s battery.

Universal Translator: Green Lantern Rings will automatically translate spoken word into language the User can understand and translate the words of the User.

Energy Absorption: The Green Lantern Ring can absorb a variety of energies; from technological, magical and alien.

Scanning/Playback: The Green Lantern Ring can scan the environment in a variety of ways and playback recent events as energy constructs.

Wormhole Generation: The Green Lantern Ring can allow the User to enter hyperspace to travel great distances in little time, this takes concentration to maintain the wormhole and emerge unscathed. If multiple Users use the same wormhole it becomes easier to maintain.

Limited Cellular Regeneration: The Green Lantern Ring will automatically attempt to heal it’s User if they are damaged. However, it can only do so much.

Pocket Dimension: Green Lanterns can access a pocket dimension inside their rings to store items. Living beings cannot be stored here.

Yellow Impurity: Users of this Green Lantern Ring cannot affect the color yellow, save for dire circumstances where their will is strong enough.

Recharge Protocol: A requirement of this Green Lantern Ring is charging it every planetary rotation. On Earth, this means charging it once every 24 hours.

Earth-96 Story

Hal Jordan. He is considered by most to be THE Green Lantern. Mostly because whenever there’s a new Green Lantern thing, it’s more than likely Hal taking the lead role. Granted, it’s not farfetched. Hal is the one who introduced us to the Green Lantern Corps, he is the one who helped founded the Justice League with Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman and Black Canary (and maybe Batman and Superman too. Retcons are weird).

In MY OPINION, Hal is kinda oversaturated. And too cocky nowadays. At least for a main character. I will admit, him descending into madness and becoming a supervillain was a nice change of pace. Better than completely killing him off for a year and then reviving him. This is what I want to focus on for Earth-96. 

Rather than having the blame shifted from Hal because of a retcon saying Parallax possessed (which doesn’t really make sense if you think about it), Hal is definitely the one who came up with and attempted the Zero Hour. Now, this doesn’t mean he can’t have a redemption arc, that’s kinda what Final Night and him bonding with the Spectre was for. 

Now, you may be wondering, ‘why do you think Parallax possessing Hal doesn’t make sense?’ The reason I think that is because it’s not consistent with how we’ve seen the Emotional Entities use hosts. Yes, Parallax has possessed Kyle during the Sinestro Corps War and Ganthet in Green Lantern: Rebirth, but Sinestro was Parallax’s host for a time and still could control his actions. Why can’t Hal? It makes more sense if Parallax simply influenced Hal, whispered in his ear about what to do and how do things. Like remaking the Universe?

Parallax would remain bound to Hal even in death, having latched onto his very soul. This would forbid Hal from entering any afterlife, he would be stuck in Limbo until he is needed to be the Spectre’s new host. This would allow him for a redemption arc as the Spectre would attempt to purge Parallax from Hal’s soul. After Parallax is sealed back in the Green Lantern Central Power Battery on Oa, the Spectre’s job is done and he leaves. Hal would get a moment to say good-bye to his friends and loved ones before going to the afterlife, due to my ‘Characters Stay Dead, Mostly’ rule.

[homestuck-session-analysis]

hi! i was just wondering about a session between a couple of my friends and myself, knight of mind, heir of blood, prince of space and mage of life. thanks if you do! :)

I feel that Heirs of Blood are underrated!  (Actually, Blood players in general are underrated).  I actually somewhat identify as an Heir of Blood, not as a charismatic chad, but as someone who somewhat depends on his friends and family to feel safe and secure.

Knight of Mind

Personality: Knights are a very insecure lot, typically using their aspect to attempt to create a facade that makes them seem more impressive.  As a Mind player, they try to appear purposeful, calculating, and responsible (if that wants to manifest itself as a random skateboarder-persona, it ain’t my business), but in reality they are rational and responsible in a less extreme way.  To develop as a person, they should learn to trust others and lower her walls.

Abilities: The Knight of Mind would be able to wield Mind by strategizing, using their understanding of consequences and free will to assist them on the battlefield.

Session Contribution: Knights are called to sessions with a lack of their aspect, which means that there will not be much logic or accountability taken in this session.  It is up to the Knight to make up for this by utilizing what they have as efficiently as possible.Heir of Blood

Personality: Heirs tend to come off as very dumb, but a more accurate term would be happy-go-lucky.  They are very much a representation of “ignorance is bliss,” for they tend to grow up very sheltered and secure, especially under by aspect.  As a Blood player, they would gain their sense of security from relationships, especially their friends and family.  They are extremely comfortable when surrounded with people they care about, sometimes to the point of dependence.  Heirs tend to struggle with change, as they tend to get comfortable with where they are.

Abilities: The Heir of Blood would naturally be highly charismatic, and they could potentially charm others into becoming their ally, though this would not necessarily be on purpose at first.

Session Contribution: No one’s gonna wanna hurt this player, they are just too darn pulchritudinous.Prince of Space

Personality: Princes have fairly destructive personalities and resent others, mostly because they strongly resent themselves.  Their self-hatred often lead to them harming others, either intentionally or unintentionally.  As a Space player, they would reject creation and isolation.  They would be the kind of person who doesn’t seem to understand personal space, or is very clingy to others.  They would also ignore their innovative ideas and decide to do things the way they always have been done.  This Prince needs to learn how to accept themself for who they truly are and follow their creative passions.

Abilities: The Prince of Space would be able to destroy the fabric of space, creating wormholes in their stead.  They would also be able to remove entire locations from existence, shortening travel time.

Session Contribution: Princes are called to sessions with a large surplus of their aspect, so it is their job to destroy the useless space in your session.  Also, Space players are required to breed the Genesis Frog, but I’m not sure if the Prince would be the best at that.Mage of Life

Personality: Mages tend to be very intelligent and bright, but also tend to be jaded and cynical.  However, they gain their knowledge through experiences, often painful ones.  As a Life player, this Mage would likely be forced to grow up at a very young age, likely to raise a sibling, save a life, or something of that nature.  Though this will have lasting psychological effects, this will give the Mage the experience needed to use their powers.

Abilities: They’d have a great sense of what is needed to protect their teammates, manifesting as healing powers.  They might also have some low level form of phytokinesis.

Session Contribution: This player is the closest thing you have to a healer.  They are very important to your survivability, as they will also be good at keeping people alive independent of their powers.

Interpersonal Dynamics

The Knight is 90% of the Prince’s impulse control.

Everyone loves the Heir.  This is probably what the Knight’s appearance is heralding: no one can think straight with this Heir.

The Heir probably doesn’t care too much if the Prince has zero boundaries.

The Mage and the Heir have a sibling dynamic between them.

The Mage is basically the Knight’s therapist at this point.

Session Overview

Leader: Everyone will listen to the Heir of Blood, but the one who should be pulling the strings is the Knight of Mind.

Offense: The Knight and the Prince would be a great fighting duo.

Survivability: The Mage is a very good healer once they get their shit together.  Pray you don’t need to scratch, though.

Planning: The Mage and the Knight is gonna need to work hand in hand.

Loyalty: The Heir is going to stomp out any rebellion by accident.

Frog Breeding: Be thankful that you have a Knight of Mind, because without them, there is no way your Prince is going to be a good frog breeder.  Also, the Mage should definitely help out, too!

Overall: There are only four members of your session, and they all work very well together to make a smooth ride!  If you’re in the camp that you need a Time player to win, then you still have a good thing going here.

]>>Maso

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x03 – “The Prisoner’s Dilemma”

8x03 – “The Prisoner’s Dilemma”

One thing this episode has going for it is that it’s not difficult to follow the plot. There are so many episodes this season (last episode being one of them) that are incredibly convoluted and confusing. This episode is not one of them.

One of my biggest criticisms about this episode is that it doesn’t feel necessary. Given how much the confusing plot of this season could have benefited from the confusing episodes slowing down and telling the story more clearly, having okay but unnecessary episodes like this one contribute to the season as a whole being confusing. My second main criticism results mostly because of the episode’s title. I don’t think this episode properly depicts a prisoner’s dilemma story, and I would never have compared this episode to the prisoner’s dilemma if the episode had not been named that. It makes me question whether the writer of this episode, assuming he named the episode, actually understands the prisoner’s dilemma. My third main criticism is that Keith presents information about the Ranveig’s superweapon creature that he wouldn’t know based on what we saw of this creature and Keith’s involvement with it in 5x05 “Bloodlines.”

A Galra base detects “six hostile ships,” the five Lions and the Atlas, and almost instantly open fire on them. The Atlas takes out the Galra ground cannons. I guess the Rebels’ ships were being stored on the Atlas because, despite the initial Galra statement that there were “six hostile ships,” the Rebels are here, and Matt and two others dive down to the base. They somehow are able to shut down the base’s power. So, the Galra switch to using some weapons satellites. The show lampshades by having Hunk say, “How did we miss those?” This is the kind of lampshading that I less of a problem with because it’s relatively minor. The show also gives two layers of explanation for how they could have missed them: Allura says the satellites are cloaked and Pidge says that they wormholed past them. Voltron forms to deal with the satellites. I do not know why Voltron needed to use its giant wings upgrade to destroy the satellites; it makes the use of the wings less important when they’re used for what comparatively is a mundane, unemotional task like this.

There’s a montage of Garrison personnel detaining Galra, tending to some wounds, now that the Voltron Coalition controls the base. In command of the base is Lahn, previously seen as a lieutenant of the base in 6x01 “Omega Shield” that the Paladins worked to protect from radiation when the base’s shielding system is damaged. In that episode, Lahn initially turned against his base commander because the base commander recognized Lotor as the Emperor and the base commander worked with Voltron to repair the shield. Lahn got over himself when Hunk yelled at him in that episode. So now, Hunk greets Lahn, but Lahn is back to disliking Voltron. He now identifies, not with the rank of Lieutenant, but as a warlord. This episode doesn’t avoid acknowledging Hunk’s past interaction with Lahn, but I don’t get why Lahn is anti-Voltron now. The way “Omega Shield” ended, Lahn seemed to appreciate Voltron.

Lahn says, “Sendak only attacked the Omega Shield after we pledged loyalty to Voltron.” Uh, no he didn’t. Sendak attacked because they pledged loyalty to Lotor, not because they pledged loyalty to Voltron. I can understand the three-year absence of Voltron could lead to Lahn becoming a warlord, but it feels regressive that he’d be so instantly antagonistic toward Voltron now. It’s like the development of “Omega Shield” is, while acknowledged in this episode, also kind of being ignored by this episode.

Shiro says that they’re there to ask him “to join the Voltron Coalition, to help provide stability to the universe.” Unless I’m misremembering, this is the first time (aside from working with Lotor) that the Voltron Coalition has actively solicited Galra membership in the Coalition. I like that idea a lot because it suggests and symbolizes a new stage of development in the Coalition. Who would have thought back at 3x01 “Changing of the Guard” when building the Voltron Coalition became a major element of the protagonists’ goals that they would eventually be trying to talk Galra into joining?

Lahn asks, “What’s the alternative?” and Shiro replies, “If you want peace, if you want to end this war, there can be no alternative.” Is this supposed to be where the episode’s title is relevant? Is this supposed to be the decision that Lahn, as the titular prisoner, is faced with making? The prisoner’s dilemma is a game theory thought experiment about cooperation, but it’s about two prisoners and whether they’ll cooperate with one another to remain silent, whether one will defect to turn on the other, or whether they both will defect out of thinking the other will defect. The prisoner’s dilemma says that while the most beneficial option is if both prisoners cooperate with each other and remain silent, because both will know the other is offered a benefit to defect and speak against the other, that each will most likely speak out against the other to blunt the effect of the other speaking out against them. So, Lahn is a prisoner here being offered a deal, and he’s debating whether he should take it or not, but who’s the other prisoner the existence of which creates the dilemma? It’s a very specific episode title, and the episode doesn’t really match that specificity.

Keith tries to say that despite “victory or death” being the Galra tradition, that things can be different. Lahn yells, “What do you know of the Galra?” Keith states his being part-Galra and being a Blade of Marmora. Lahn does not have a high opinion of the Blades, calling them “mutinous.” Lahn tried to commit mutiny against his base commander and against Emperor Lotor in “Omega Shield.” Lahn really is hypocritical, applying his traditionalism only when it’s convenient; his supposed preference for Galra tradition was something he rejected in his argument with his base commander, while his base commander cited Galra tradition as proving Lotor’s legitimacy. Of course, here, Lahn expresses racist negative opinions of anyone who’s only part-Galra.

The base receives an odd, repeating communication, which Lahn identifies as a distress beacon from a Galra sentry. Pidge has trouble processing the communication to learn the location it was sent from because apparently Team Voltron used EMPs during their attack, but their usage was never actually shown as part of the attack sequence earlier, so this narratively comes out of nowhere. She does eventually identify the communication source as a Galra cruiser. Lahn identifies the ship as one of several he sent on an assignment sometime prior.

The story feels a bit contrived in removing the Atlas from the upcoming action by having Shiro say it will take them hours still to process all the Galra. So, Voltron alone is going. Lahn reacts incredulously by saying, “Voltron is going to save the Galra?” They literally saved him in “Omega Shield,” so it makes no sense that he would think it absurd that Voltron would save Galra.

Keith takes Lahn with them. Lahn tells them that the ship was “out gathering munitions.” Allura’s reaction is odd, she asks him, “Were they buying them or stealing them?” They’re the Galra, why would she think they were stealing weapons from someone else? For that matter, why would she think they were buying them? The Galra produce their own weapons. Just because the Galra Empire is fractured does not mean that their production facilities have all ceased functioning. Her comment makes no sense. Lahn says, “If you must know, they were salvaging them from an abandoned Galra base.”

They arrive at the cruiser, the one is intact, the others that had been part of the same mission are mostly debris. Keith and Lahn teleport into the cruiser with Cosmo and open an airlock so the other Paladins can jetpack in. Artificial gravity is off. Keith assigns tasks to everyone, and Lahn grumps about being given orders. Hunk and Lance and Keith are looking for survivors in different parts of the ship, while Allura, Pidge, and Lahn are to examine the ship’s security logs to try to figure out what happened to the ship.

Given the problems this series has with its story across its seasons, this really is comparatively minor, but I noticed it and it personally gets to me, so I’m going to talk about it. Allura, Pidge, and Lahn are on the bridge, looking at records. Lahn uses jetpack-like thrusters in his boots to ascend to look out a high window. When he gets to what position he wants to be in, his boot thrusters turn off, and he stops ascending. But they’re in (very near) zero gravity right now. There is no counter force to stop his movement. His boot thrusters just turn off, there is no counter thrust to null his inertia. So, he should keep moving upward instead of becoming stationary. This is a show set in space, so I’m going to often pay attention to how accurate a show depicts physics. This show was inaccurate in this depiction. Again, I totally recognize this as comparatively minor. If my problems with this series was limited to stuff like this, then this show would have been amazing. But I can’t help that I do still notice errors like this.

Lahn says, “Everything I’ve spent years fighting for taken away in an instant!” What instant is he referencing? The Galra Empire didn’t fracture into a civil war “in an instant.” It happened over time. Allura tries to sympathize with Lahn by talking about how she lost her planet and her family; from her perspective, she did lose them in an instant because they were in a state of existence, then she was knocked unconscious, then when she regained consciousness they were gone and it was 10,000 years later. So, in an instant for her, yes, for him, no. Lahn ridiculously (as in I think the director’s decision to have him react this way is ridiculous) suddenly erupts in anger, “You’ve never had to earn power, it’s always been given to you.” Not true, of course; Allura has totally had to struggle to put together a force capable of pushing back against the Galra (not that I necessarily expect Lahn to know this). “You’re looking for something you once had,” uh, Lahn literally just a few seconds ago said he was too. “Security, peace, happiness. Those things have never been part of a Galra soldier’s life.” His rant suggests that he wants those things despite his seeming to also condemn those things. It’s spastic and weird. Allura says that there is a way other than through force to get something one can call one’s own. The show heavy-handedly has a shadow pass from over Lahn’s face as she says this to him.

Again, is this supposed to be the prisoner’s dilemma he’s supposedly in? But also again, the prisoner’s dilemma requires a second prisoner that he would have to be considering acting against. Is the Galra Empire as a whole supposed to somehow be the other prisoner? The concept of the prisoner’s dilemma is that it actually would be best for both prisoners if they cooperated with each other and neither of them accepted the offer from the people imprisoning them. If Lahn is one prisoner and the Galra Empire as a whole is serving as the other prisoner, then is the show actually trying to say that Lahn would be better off not accepting the Voltron Coalition’s offer? I really cannot think that the show is intending to say that, but since they, through the episode’s title, is applying the prisoner’s dilemma to this story they are effectively saying so, that is if the Galra Empire is supposed to be functioning as the other prisoner. Also, part of what makes it a dilemma for the two prisoners is that they think the other prisoner will turn against them out of self-interest, but the Galra Empire, if it’s supposed to function as the other prisoner, is not capable of accepting an offer identical to what is being offered to Lahn. The Empire cannot join with the Coalition against Lahn. So, that’s a huge part of the premise of the prisoner’s dilemma that just does not make it applicable to Lahn’s situation.

Pidge does her thing and determines from its shadow the shape of a creature that seems to have attacked a guard in a security video. Lance and Hunk then discover that creature draining energy from the ship’s energy crystal, the process of doing so causes the creature’s shape to alter. Somehow the creature hears the radio communications from Pidge and Allura coming through Hunk and Lance’s helmets. The audio is played as if their communication is being broadcast externally into the room, but it should only be in their helmet, so the creature hearing it feels contrived. Also, everyone having helmets on suggests that there is no air in the ship, so sound wouldn’t carry whatsoever, so the creature shouldn’t have been able to hear the communication. It seemingly attacks Lance and Hunk but is revealed to have only run past them.

The creature uses the ship’s still active security system to see Keith and Cosmo on a camera. A Galra sentry seemingly asks Keith, “Who are you?” Keith identifies himself, and the sentry seems to ask, “Where are the rest of the Galra,” and Keith states which planet they’re on. Then it’s revealed that it was the creature technologically manipulating the sentry to be able to ask its questions of Keith. It then attacks. The creature, like too many on this show, has an energy blast from its mouth.

Pidge says, “Keith and I were in communication just before we got disconnected.” That is such a tautology, and I have to imagine that writing it to be a tautology was unintentional.

The ship starts moving, heading toward the Galra base. Keith arrives on the bridge to join the rest of the Paladins and Lahn. Lahn confirms that this ship was sent to get supplies from Ranveig’s base, which we last saw in 5x05 “Bloodlines,” in which this creature was revealed as Ranveig’s rumored superweapon. Keith says that the creature was created “to destroy Galra and only Galra.” Keith continues, “Ranveig found the creature in the quantum abyss and experimented on it with Lotor’s quintessence. He trained it to take out his Galra enemies, but he couldn’t control it. The beast couldn’t differentiate between adversaries and allies.” There is nothing in “Bloodlines” about the creature being created to destroy only Galra, nothing about the creature being found in the quantum abyss, nothing about Ranveig being unable to control the creature. “Bloodlines” has Kolivan say, “We’re not sure of the weapon’s specs,” and that episode doesn’t even reveal that the weapon is a creature until the very end when Krolia uses it to kill the Galra commander who attacked the base. What Keith is saying now in this episode sounds like he’s supposed to have gotten this information from “Bloodlines,” but there’s nothing in “Bloodlines” to suggest he did. Keith isn’t even shown in “Bloodlines” to explicitly learn that the weapon was a creature. So, the new details about the creature in Keith’s exposition in this episode and his even having that information is a retcon.

I really don’t like the idea that the creature was created to only kill Galra. I think it would have been more interesting if the actions of the creature in this episode came from the creature trying to avenge itself against the Galra for the suffering that they subjected it to. It’s been shown in this episode to be able to manipulate computer systems, so it is clearly intelligent. It would have been nice to have seen the Paladins sympathizing with this abused, intelligent creature rather than blowing it up.

Keith claims fault for what’s happening now, but I don’t understand how he could feel fault for this. He did not release this creature, his mother did. Again, he never knew what the weapon was during that episode, and he had no idea that Krolia planned to release the weapon on the Galra as part of an escape plan. This is absolutely contrived in order to create justification for Lahn’s distrust of the Paladins. Lahn now says, “It’s what you’ve wanted from the beginning: something to get rid of the Galra for you.”

Keith wants to use the self-destruct of the ship to kill the creature. The creature shows up on the bridge and attacks. The group tries to make it through a door, but get separated, Keith and Lahn on the side with the creature, everyone else safely through. The creature tries to mouth-blast Lahn, and Keith knocks him aside and shields the blast. The creature comes again for Lahn, who screams, “Victory or death,” but Keith uses his bayard to create a large rifle cannon and shoots the creature. The creature touches a wall and melts the wall away, which is not an ability it has ever been shown to have. The spot in the wall that the creature is at when it melts through does not match with the spot it’s shown to have melted through after it’s done so. This spot afterward is in holographic display, yet the display keeps functioning; something is wrong with the animation there.

Keith asks Lahn, “Do you trust me yet?” and then blasts through the door to get out. The creature comes at them again, Keith blasts a hole in the side of the ship so that they can be blown out into space. The ship explodes. The Lions come for their respective Paladins.

Back at the base, Lahn gives a big speech to a bunch of Galra about how they’re needed to try to create stability, about how Voltron has twice helped him out.

I know that Axca came to Earth at the very end of last season, so it would make sense that she hooked up with Voltron and the Atlas after that. But it feels weird to have her just randomly standing in a group shot listening to Lahn. Also, it’s weird that she came seemingly unexpectedly to Keith’s father’s grave, but we haven’t gotten any conversation between them about her doing so.

Pidge later informs the group that information she gained from the Galra cruiser suggests there’s another mecha from Honerva, and Allura again suggests to Shiro that they need to adjust their mission to account for knowing Honerva is out there. Shiro’s obstinance does not match his character whatsoever. He says, “Thousands of innocent souls are waiting to be liberated from what remains of the Galra Empire, we can’t just change course.” Of everyone, Shiro in the past has seemed the most willing to modify the group’s plans to accommodate new information. But I guess that can be handwaved by saying that wasn’t the real Shiro but the clone. Keith suggests that the group split up, that Shiro and the Atlas continue doing what they’re doing, while Voltron goes and looks for information about Honerva. This is totally contrived to keep Atlas from being able to help Voltron.

Then Keith infamously says, “Voltron is stronger now, more than ever.” And it’s an absolute insult to those who’re offended by the show’s unceremoniously booting Shiro out of the position of Black Paladin so that Keith can have the spot and the resulting revised Paladin roster.

The episode ends at the pyramid on Oriande. Honerva creates a wormhole with the pyramid and one of her mechas goes through it.

So, unlike many episodes this season, this one is not a disaster. It’s not a great episode either. It’s just okay. I still think that titling it “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” creates a lot of problems since using that title invites analyzing the episode compared to the elements of the prisoner’s dilemma concept. This episode does not successfully represent that concept. I personally find it annoying that Lahn is back to disliking Voltron despite their previously having saved his life, his base, and all the Galra stationed on that base. I find it annoying that Keith has a lot of information that he’s never shown receiving about the creature. I find it annoying that the episode is separating Voltron and the Atlas because doing so totally feels contrived. These criticisms are small compared to the major criticisms I have about the much of the rest of the season, so that results in this episode not being bad, but again, just okay.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S2 Ep 28: Marik Ishtar Canonically Only Weighs 121 lbs

Yo, I got hella sick this week and slept for what felt like 3 straight days, so because I’m still not fully functional (like I just found french fries in my front pocket of my sweatshirt and I have no idea when over the past three days I put that in there), in celebration of finally being awake, lets watch a lucid dream put to the screen, that’s right, it’s time for Yugioh.

Last we left off, Yugi has decided to throw this heavy chain and anchor over Joey’s neck--referring of course to the golden cursed necklace and not the actual chain and anchor that is hanging above them and about to kill them (but probably weighs the same but we’ll get to that realization later). I was really hoping that we’d get to see Pharaoh pull up in the corner like a little shoulder angel and just start shouting at Joey, but apparently you can’t catch the Pharaoh Dad curse that easily.

So apparently I missed THIS the last two episodes--but there’s a huge ass Death Clock above the anchor? Seriously, there’s been a time limit this whole time!?

I would be jumping into the ocean the moment I saw this clock, I just cannot even fathom the thought of playing a 20 minute card game. Like once my older brother--a different bro than my younger bro who edits this blog, this is my Chaotic Neutral bro--decided to shove 5 different Uno decks together to create an ultimate deck that was almost entirely wilds and draw 4′s and it was such an excruciating experience, that my Mother secretly threw the game away. Forever scarred.

Anyway, now that he’s strapped with Pharaoh in a Box, finally things got weird enough that Joey snapped out of it. First time he snapped out of it was because of a dragon...second time was the puzzle...he has yet to even kind of recognize Tea strapped in a bondage chair with a giant storage unit threatening to crush her--that one doesn’t seem to bother him.

Joey has a very selective memory, but he only seems to come to for about 10 seconds at a time and mostly just sweats a lot whenever he does.

(read more under the cut)

And as Joey pulls out the same piece he once threw out a school window and into a really fancy fountain, he has a very quick flashback to Season One. Or Season Zero, depending on which version you like better. (What school has a fountain, PS? Was that a quick donation from the Kaibas so the principal could shrug off some demerits?)

And so Joey puts the puzzle back together and back over his neck.

It’s fine. Go back to throwing fireballs at your best friend, but if you litter, then that’s just way too far. I mean the show has to stretch this out four episodes anyway, so despite their endless friendship love--Joey is still possessed and we have nothing left to give him unless Yugi just starts unloading belts.

Really confused at how this magic even works or operates when the puzzle is so far away from Yugi, but maybe Pharaoh has a battery life like a wacom tablet.

Man, so there really is no way to have any privacy when that guy’s in your head huh? Like can’t even hang up the puzzle when you’re on the toilet--no--he’s just...always around. This is the worst curse.

Back on the boat, the story boarding team realized that Marik is an underage teenager and cannot drink alcohol on TV.

I mean he didn’t even have a bottle of whatever he’d drink to fill that glass (milk, I’m assuming. Marik seems like the type of person that’d put ice in his milk.) But all that was drawn next to him was just one bucket of ice. Marik’s just back here stress chewing ice like a pregnant woman.

PS I just looked up Marik’s age with a quick Google Search and can we talk about something real fast--just real fast--JK I’m gonna talk about it a lot.

+++++RATHER LONG WIKIA WORMHOLE WEIGHT DISCUSSION FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++++++++

Age‎: ‎16 <---which seems a little young, but OK, it’s an anime

Weight‎: ‎121.254 lb <------- EXCUSE ME, WIKIA!?

Height‎: ‎1.8 m ; 5.906 ft 

He is nearly 6 ft feet tall and 120 lbs!?

Y’all.

Marik HAS NO BONES.

As a reviewer, it’s not my job to go around saying if drawing Marik way too skinny for a normal human being is right or wrong, because that’s a discussion that you can find plenty of info on. I’m pretty sure the people who made this show never expected when they first drew Yugi’s crazy eyes and horrible hair that we’d have a generation that would point to it and say “that’s hot”

And I’m not saying any of these characters have eating problems either, because we’ve seen all of them eat healthy meals. The shocking thing is that they gave these fake characters--remember these aren’t real people, they are cartoons--a specific numeric weight.

Blood type I expect, other random anime tidbits I expect--but weight seems super duper random and so awkward. Like, why do we have this information? Was it on a card or something? Like did the intern who came up with this weight number even research like...how much a normal human weighs??? Did they pull this number out of their ass???? None of these numbers make any sense, and they have these for apparently every single person who has appeared on the show. It’s incredible.

Man, Marik’s still wearing Baby Gap over there. Which...that explains the very small hoodie.

...one sec, let me look at the stats on Yugi.

Weight‎: ‎92.594 lb Height‎: ‎1.53 m ; 5.02 ft

OH NO. Who did this!?

He can’t even ride a roller coaster yet! Well, that explains a lot of the need for so many belts on this show. Yugi hasn’t hit the big triple digits yet.

Oh, Yugi.

And since we’re talking about numbers, lets talk about that puzzle now that we’ve talked about Yugi’s body weight. And like, lets be real--this is a cartoon and so of course it weighs magically nothing in the physics of the show...but lets just see, using math, how much this is if a 7 inch isosceles pyramid were made of solid gold (assuming that there is no gap in the middle, because that’s the way I’ve personally interpreted it.)

Now I’m gonna throw out a number and if you disagree, that’s cool beans and I don’t care, I was an art major, leave your math in the comments. But my math: It’s roughly 60 lbs. Some people online say it would only be 2 kilo’s but I don’t know what planet they’re from. Gold is .7 lbs a volumetric inch

Of course this weight also depends on how heavy the chain is, but I mean...the chain is stronger than Joey Wheeler and Tristan combined hitting it repeatedly with a pipe. It’s gotta be a car-towing/superlock chain.

a 20 inch heavy duty tow/lock chain is like 15 lbs, from what I see on Ebay.

So that pyramid necklace, indeed, is 75 lbs--4/5 of Yugi’s weight.

Now lets say you think there’s a gap in the middle and each piece has about a half-inch thickness, we’ll subtract about 43 lbs.

That’s still a 32 lb necklace guys, it’s about a third his weight!

Now lets say this was gold plated--first off, it’s not. But, lets say it’s entirely copper AND it’s hollow. That necklace is still 7 lbs with a 15 lb chain which is 23 lbs.

So, in all, Yugi actually weighs more than most people on this show--but it’s only because of the necklace, meaning the strongest thing in Yugioh, other than the endearing power of friendship between Joey and Yugi, is Yugi’s neck.

I also looked up Seto Kaiba and it didn’t say his weight right away but it did say this

Favorite Food‎: ‎Filet Mignon with Foie Gras Sauce

Damn.

Why does Seto Kaiba crave freakin ducks? Someone please give this poor child some candy. Give the whole cast candy.

+++++++END RANT OF EVERYONE’S WEIGHT ACCORDING TO WIKIA. I’M NOT EVEN SURE WHY WE KNOW THIS?+++++++

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, the boys are still babysitting Serenity, who has the pure muscle mass of 108 lbs, which is nearly 20 lbs more than Yugi Muto and only about 10 lbs less than Marik Ishtar.

She could probably lift Marik Ishtar. TBH with OP buff Wheeler stats like that, Serenity could probably punch out half the cast and does not need babysitting.

Duke Devlin is still following them around. I don’t really know why. No thugs are after Duke. Duke can just leave whenever he wants to, but he’s either so fascinated by Tristan’s predicament, or so enamored by Serenity’s soft hair and beautiful bandages, that he’s decided to follow along like Bakura in Season 1.

Except Bakura in Season 1 followed along because he wanted to screw them all, I’m pretty sure Duke won’t be doing that because I’m fairly positive that dice earring he got off of Etsy isn’t a millennium earring. I’m fairly positive he isn’t going to randomly kill everybody. I don’t know if this show could handle yet another villain dead set on destroying the world.

This love triangle between Tristan, and a girl who I didn’t think was real in S1, and Duke Devlin, the guy who was in a one-off at the end of S1 when the season should have already ended. So this is happening now. Interesting choice, show.

Serenity is like 12, right? Like her brother’s 14-16 and she’s like 11-13?

This show has a cast mostly full of people who are all the same age yet they keep shipping the few people that are either too young or waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too old. (except for Yugi and Joey, of course, who are the same age)

Duke Devlin, with this newly found responsibility, immediately walks a blind person into the street.

Anyways, speaking of ships that are way too old for this show, look who’s here and driving the dumbest convertible I’ve ever seen drawn.

And on the other side of town, the show edited out most of this violent nonsense for me.

Mai’s car, straight from fisher-price. I can’t stop looking at it.

So um...in the time it took to get Tristan, pick him up, turn around, and then drive here it was like...a 2 minute drive?

But, youknow, consider the Kaiba’s perspective. You’re watching this effed up duel straight from the bowels of Satan, and you hear a car pull up, and you’re like “oh finally, someone’s come to help us” and you turn around, and it’s a blue clown car full of Mai Valentine, Tristan, that random horny kid from the class across the hall, and some blind woman?

So Mokuba, who weighs less than one millennium puzzle at 61 lbs, actually makes an attempt to explain everything as quickly as possible and this is like the fourth time this kid has had to explain to someone else what the hell is going on.

Ah, and now everyone’s a bystander.

Almost the entire cast is here now, right? At least Yugi will die with an audience.

Bandit Keith weighs 187 lbs, PS. He is, so far, the only character I’ve checked who weighs more than Yugi with the necklace on.

Anyway, their weights are all awkwardly available online and I’ll probably go back to forgetting that this random info exists (much like I consistently forget that Seto is only 6′1″ although he’s drawn like he’s 8 ft tall)

Next week on Yugioh:

So how much does Yugi’s hair weigh when all that product is on there? Does Seto ever eat that Filet Mignon he craves so bad? Is Mai in fact renting that car and does it get busted here in the Abandoned Warehouse neighborhood?

[ladyvialana]

Down the Wormhole: Paladin Character Arcs post-Season 4

Welcome to the second of my posts about season 4 of Voltron. Unlike the first more general post, this one is specifically about characters and how season 4 gives more of an insight into character development and arcs than at first glance. I’ll be discussing the paladin characters only in this post. I wanted to talk character arcs over the whole series and how season 4 might give an indication as to how things could play out in the future. Potentially. Maybe. I hope. (I make zero promises here, this is all pure speculation based on my personal analysis.)

Also, there will be a third post that deals with some more speculative inter-related character analysis that I initially wanted to put at the end of this post but both sections got far too long for that. (This post is like 4k long! I’m so sorry again!)

So look out for my third post also soon.

Let’s get started!

I want to talk about the individual major character arcs for each paladin (so far) over the series and what may lie in store for them in the future.

Again, no promises: this is just what makes sense to me after watching the whole series.

Hunk

Okay, so, Hunk’s character is pretty stable and very unlikely to change significantly. I definitely think there will be development (as I will discuss in a moment) but no major character change. Mostly because his first major character arc happened in season 1 with the Balmera arc. What’s really important to note about that arc, and Hunk’s role in particular, is that it signified a huge change in team Voltron (and the plot) as a whole.

Hunk’s initial character arc revolved around accepting his role as a paladin and his desire to help people in need. After meeting Shay, he is fully committed to the cause of taking down the Galra Empire and liberating planets. This is something that carries through the rest of the series. The result of this arc is a power-up for Voltron, their first liberated “planet” and gaining their first allies in the rebellion.

What’s really cool to note is that from this point on, Hunk is present at every important “first contact” meeting from that point on:

Mermaid planet

Olkarion

Taujeer

The space mall

Meeting Acxa in the Weblum

Poeig

The diplomatic meeting with Coalition leaders

Alternate reality Alteans

The refugees on Olkarion

The Voltron Shows (even if we and he sometimes wished he weren’t)

He was also present at the first meeting with the Arusians back before meeting Shay

Even if he didn’t always play a major role, he was always present at these first contact meetings.

Now, I don’t really like to refer to comments by creators/writers/PR for ongoing shows because a lot of the time the information released is either limited, exaggerated, or outright false because the aim of many of these press releases and convention circuits is to build suspense and intrigue, not answer any real questions. The show itself should answer your questions about major plot and character development. The creators don’t actually want spoilers out in the open as the could potentially reduce viewership.

However, there is more than enough evidence in the show so far to see that a major part of Hunk’s future role on the team (and the probable basis for future Hunk-centric plot arcs) will likely revolve around meeting/saving/understanding alien races and getting them as allies. So the PR comments made about how Hunk will likely be a diplomat for team Voltron isn’t so much a spoiler as a confirmation of his projected storyline.

In short: Hunk is the go-to guy for actually building the rebellion in terms of numbers. He’ll make sure everyone’s needs are heard and that everyone feels important to the movement. He is the solid foundation on which all of Voltron stands and losing him would be devastating on so many levels. Future arcs will probably revolve around similar sort of scenarios where is is in contact with alien races and doing what he can to help them. He will only become more confident in himself and in understanding how he fits into the universe.

(Watch me secretly hoping in the dark part of my heart for an arc that deals with them being separated again and having to realise, with him gone, how much stability Hunk actually brings to the team. Then he manages to save them all through the power of friendship and armoured beat downs.)

Pidge

Season 4 saw the conclusion of Pidge’s major character arc. Yes, she still needs to find her dad, but Matt was always the symbolic representation of her goal and, with him safe and allied with team Voltron, finding her father feels like a smaller plot-arc in the future the links back to her main arc. Emotionally, this arc has concluded, she succeeded in her goal and she’s more solidified in her role. Pidge’s arc has been about information gathering and investigating. And while that has mostly been for the sake of finding her family, it still resulted in very positive intel and activities for team Voltron.

Similar to Hunk, she’s been linked to aspects of the development of the team/alliance as a whole. She’s the one more directly connected to the rebels than anyone else on the team (Shiro is also connected but often, when he was linked to prison breaks and other rebel activities, Pidge was there too - aside from his second escape from the Galra in season 3).

With her major goal realised, the intensity and determination she showed in trying to find her family can be fully committed to the future of the coalition. And that is going to be amazing to see - look at the way she and Matt basically revolutionised how they track Galra troop movements. They’ve essentially hacked into one of the most important strategic tools the Galra have and their enemy is basically unaware of how badly they’ve been compromised.

Pidge, her intel, her smarts, and, perhaps most importantly, her heart are going to be vital to the success of the Coalition. I think finding her father is going to be another plot-arc she will see in the future and it will likely involve Matt (and possibly the rebels - and maybe Shiro too). I think she’ll also have more to do with the rebellion and connecting with them. And of course she’ll always have some awesome character moments saving team Voltron with her wits alone, as she always has.

(I’m also kind of hoping for her to maybe play a role in setting up/becoming the centre of a centralised intelligence ring for the Coalition. Pidge as an Oracle-like character. I think that would be really cool to see.)

Allura

I genuinely believe that Allura has/will have the strongest arc throughout the whole series and her arc is what will ultimately tie into the main plot of Voltron. She is the centre of the whole show and (as Lance was quite adamant and correct to insist) the heart of Voltron. Allura’s arc is about potential: her potential for magic, per potential as a paladin, her potential as a leader, her potential for bringing about healing and change. She represents the future and hope. (I will go into this a bit more in my third post.)

Externally, I believe we will see the development of her “magic”/connection to quintessence come into play now that it has been addressed again. We’ve already seen Allura be the one to formally create and guide the Coalition. We’ve seen her inspire the Balmerans to rise up and literally give her life force for the Balmera’s continued survival and future growth.

What’s interesting about Allura’s magic is that she is the only one, so far, who seems to be using it to effect positive change. Haggar and her corruption is a dark foil for Allura and, as I mentioned in my first post about season 4, I believe Haggar is going to be a huge part of the end game challenge that Voltron will face. On an individual level, Allura is the only one who has, so far, actually been able to stand toe-to-toe with Haggar, and I think that is going to be one of the big final show downs for the series. (Even if it doesn’t happen in the finale/final season, it will still have a huge impact on the plot of the whole show.)

I believe much of Allura’s character arc is about becoming a leader - the leader, in fact. While I hate speculating so specifically about something so far in the future, I believe the series will end with Allura as the leader for the freed people of the former Galra Empire. Not a ruler, but a leader and guiding light for the many leaders of the coalition who come together as equals.

I genuinely cannot wait to see how Allura continues to develop and shine ever more brightly as the series continues.

Shiro

I have to reiterate my comments from after season 3 and say that I am very worried for Shiro. Also, regardless of whether the clone theory is true or not doesn’t matter to Shiro’s character arc because it will still play out the same either way. For now, I will address this discussion as though it really is Shiro (since, considering if he is a clone, he also has all of Shiro’s memories and is essentially indistinguishable from Shiro anyway). This discussion does get a little speculative, so I don’t believe it will completely play out in canon entirely as I posit.

Shiro’s character arc is so interesting to me because it’s essentially all about dealing with the trauma of what the Galra did to him. And Shiro … is kind of not doing that? I mean, you could argue that his character arc has to do with developing as the leader of Voltron and gaining the trust of the Black Lion, but that’s not really an arc in the same way that, say, Allura’s development as a leader and her developing self-confidence is. He’s already the leader and actually doesn’t really change individually that much in the role; Voltron as a team changes, but not Shiro (unlike Hunk, whose character growth and action on the Balmera helped bring about change within the team, same with Pidge and getting her brother back).

Shiro’s arc is the only one of the paladins’ that is passive. Everyone else acts to bring about their goals/growth, but things are done to Shiro. Shiro is captured, Zarkon severs his link to the Black Lion, Ulaz saves him, he watches Keith gain the Blade’s trust, he’s removed again from Black, captured again by the Galra and experimented on, dumped on a planet, Black rejects him. Shiro is not active at all in many things about his character arc and the few times where he is forced to act he does so, not for his own sake, but for the team: he severs Zarkon’s link to Black and builds trust with the Black Lion because Zarkon is tracking them; he regains the Black bayard while fighting in Voltron to take down Zarkon for the sake of the universe; he steps back into the role as Black Paladin because Keith is not there and no one else can do it.

While all of this external action is happening to him, we still get flashbacks and implications that Shiro is not dealing with his trauma in order to heal. He’s ignoring his PTSD and pushing his feelings aside, on the surface, for the sake of the team. But I believe he’s also doing it because it’s too painful and he hates feeling weak. Again, that moment in 3x06 when he’s in bed and Keith tells him the team needs him is heartbreaking just because Shiro looks completely dead inside. Yet next scene he’s smiling and acting like he’s perfectly fine.

In season 4, Shiro is kind of cold. Yes, he’s supportive and involved, but he lacks the same humour he was starting to develop in season 1 & 2 and also the more personal bonds with members of the team. I think if he hadn’t disappeared after season 2 he could have started healing naturally with the rest of the team aiding in that process. But right now, he’s refusing to even look at his wounds, and it’s going to come to a messy head in a future season.

(Just a quick theory on a future plot arc - if project Kuron and the clone theory are correct, then this is a much longer con than expected and the end result will be devastating. Like, I’m talking the fact that Shiro may not recover from it and - possibly, everyone on team Voltron will be irrevocably changed. Schrodinger's Shiro is like a sword of Damocles for Voltron and I can’t wait to see if it falls. And then I will likely cry my eyes out in response.)

Keith

Keith’s character arc is one of the strongest on the show and one of the easiest to identify with: his search for his identity. Like Allura, this is likely to be a series long arc (though he may reach the emotional end of it before the final season) and, like Pidge and Hunk, involves working with allies (the Blade of Marmora) to strengthen team Voltron as a whole. It also ties into other character arcs - like Allura’s and Shiro’s (and possibly Lance’s) - which makes it all the more important to the overall series. (I will also address this in my next post.)

The wonderful thing about Keith’s character is that he’s always striving for more, always reaching. He doesn’t give up and will do everything he can to find a solution. He’s not always optimistic, but he does his best. He just doesn’t always know what the best way to go about things is because he doesn’t completely trust himself. He trusts others for these decisions, because they know themselves in a way that he doesn’t. Yet.

Keith in season 4 is still searching for his place. In season 2 he declared that he knows who he is and connected to a part of himself (awakened his Marmora blade) and gained a sense of confidence in his identity. And then Shiro disappeared and shattered all of that confidence and character growth. In season 3, he was thrust into the role of leader - which he didn’t want - and his confidence and sense of self took even more of a beating, even as he did his best to fulfil the role he was given. And finally in season 4 he gave up that role to try and rediscover who he was at his core and regain some stability, so he turned to the Blade again for answers.

Unfortunately for him, they did not have all the answers he needed this time.

At the end of season 4, all of his choices seem to lead to one conclusion: the best way for the war to be won (and his team - family!) to be saved is to sacrifice himself for the sake of the mission. So, while many of his actions may have been positive and reaching for a better solution for the sake of the team throughout the series so far, emotionally as an individual, Keith has been sliding ever since Shiro’s disappearance in season 2. He has basically given up on his sense of identity for the sake of the roles he plays - that scene where Lance comes to him for advice because Keith is the leader really stings in retrospect because Keith was, at that point, really struggling with figuring out who he actually was. And in Lance’s (the team’s) eyes, he was just the leader, not Keith, the individual.

The Blade of Marmora may have offered Keith some part of who he was but it cannot be the final destination for his search for identity. By the very nature of their society, he cannot exist as an individual. Every Marmora member wears the exact same uniform and mask. All of them are replaceable. And while there may be some comfort for Keith in that sort of uncaring uniformity, if it results in him subsuming his individuality to the point that he is willing to kill himself, it cannot be that this is where his true identity lies. If this was his endpoint, then his suicide mission would have succeeded.

It’s a running (sort-of) gag that Keith is the lone wolf of the group, but that’s not a real identity and Keith has proven over and over that it’s not an identity he is happy with. He was the first to commit himself completely to team Voltron and the fight against Zarkon, questioning how anyone could think about returning to Earth in the face of such tyranny. Part of that is probably the sense of camaraderie within the group that he, likely, had never really felt to that extent. Keith craves being a part of something and I am certain his search for his identity will culminate in the realization that he wants a family - this rag-tag family - to be a part of defining who he is. He might just need a little more time and space to figure that out.

(Still, there is no way he’s not getting more teary hugs after that stupid stunt. And, after all the build up about his need to take down Lotor and Lotor having been the one to save him, there is definitely going to be some major action going down on the castle ship next season.)

Lance

So, I saved the most speculative and complicated character arc for last. You would think simply saying that Lance’s arc has to do with dealing with his insecurities and self-worth would be straightforward. But, unlike all the others, because of the nature of Lance’s character arc, it has to be more speculative than the others. Lance’s arc relies far more on subtext than the other characters and, though I will present a theory based on textual and subtextual analysis, I am not as confident in this analysis linking to future canon (even less so than with my Shiro analysis, which is still pretty textually ambiguous).

With that warning about getting hopes up out of the way, let’s dig into our self-proclaimed seventh-wheel.

First of all, the really interesting thing about Lance’s arc is that, had certain plot points not happened after Shiro’s disappearance, his arc could have been wrapped up at the end of season 2. When Lance verbally aired his insecurities about his abilities and place on team Voltron in 2x10, it was a textual affirmation of something that had been subtextually implied since the pilot episode about Lance’s feelings of self-worth. When he took the shot at the end of the episode and Shiro reassured him of not only his place on the team but that he is worthwhile by calling him a sharpshooter, Lance’s self-worth arc could have emotionally concluded. From there he could have grown in confidence as a crack-shot and the paladin of the Blue Lion in the same way that Hunk’s initial hesitation and lack of confidence as a paladin was resolved by the Balmera arc and now his character growth is about him further gaining confidence and just developing as a person and paladin.

But then Shiro vanished, Keith became the Black Paladin, and Blue rejected Lance and all of that tenuous healing of his self-worth was destroyed. Again, we get a textual affirmation of how Lance doesn’t value himself while speaking to Allura about Blue’s rejection. That fact that Red chose him is not as much of a soothing balm to his wounds as might be implied. Later we get the scene in 3x06 where, after Shiro returns, Lance essentially confesses to Keith that he believes he is the most replaceable member of the team and Keith basically brushes his worries off.

I mentioned before that Shiro’s arc is the only one of the paladins’ that is a passive one, that things are done to him and he doesn’t act for change/growth the same way the other paladins so. While it seems on the surface that Lance’s arc is the same (with the only really active part he takes is in trying to express his insecurities to others in season 3 and the final shot he takes to save Slav on Beta Traz) Lance differs from Shiro in that he is actively doing something: he’s actively denying that this is a problem he has to deal with.

I talk about this a bit further in my next post, but Lance is actually very skilled at acting. Hell, the entirety of episode 4 was amazing and devastating to watch in regards to Lance and the Voltron propaganda shows just because the outright confirmation that he has not just the inclination but the skill to present himself exactly as people need him to. If all he supposedly cares about is flirting and being the best pilot for the glory of it, then no one will suspect that his obvious exaggeration to hide how he fails at getting the girl and, while very skilled, is not the best pilot is also a distraction from his genuine belief that (while everyone else thinks he believes in his own self-worth and think’s he’s important in spite of the obnoxious bagging) he’s not even good enough to be on the team. It’s like watching a stage magician: Lance is all distraction and smoke and mirrors so you can’t tell what’s actually true about how he thinks about himself.

This isn’t to say everything about how Lance presents himself is false. In fact, Lance uses his own personality traits and actions as part of his show. Lance is loud and sometimes obnoxious and he does enjoy flirting and is actually a good pilot. It makes the exaggeration that much more sinister to be based on truth and the feelings he’s hiding that much more potent because no one else knows that they need to find them.

See what I mean about this part being way more speculative than the rest? Lance could very well be much more true to how he presents himself than I am suggesting. The writers may not want to make his storylines and characterisation that complex (it is, admittedly, a very twisty-turny kind of way to think about him).

Regardless of how complex the nature of Lance’s ability to hide his insecurities, the fact is that he will have to deal with them at some point. And that means that he needs to be confronted about the fact that his self-worth is completely shot by someone who has the ability and authority/presence to inspire some sort of change. This will probably take some time. I don’t expect Lance’s issues to be addressed and dealt with in a single episode and, like with Shiro, the plot is bound to interfere with any sort of healing/progress.

...

Okay! Whew, that was a really long one.

Like I mentioned previously, I will have another post up soon that deals with something really specific and way more speculative regarding some of the relationships on the team and how they are presented narratively and linked together to affect each other. Unlike these first two posts, it is much more subjective - though, hopefully, still interesting for some people. So, if you want to, check it out when it’s posted!

I hope you enjoyed reading this (even if it was ridiculously long for a discussion post).