#please enjoy some bom keith

[stratos-ane]

hey, everybody, keith’s back!

[association-of-ideas]

I don't know how it happened, but I'm somehow back in my Voltron phase, so have a stupid conspiracy theory that I enjoy thinking about.

Okay, so we all know how Keith is half Galra and looks nothing like it? Well, he's a spitting image of his mother, minus the actual Galra traits. And yes, I know genetics are Hell's lottery, but bare with me here!

Keith looks entirely human; from his skin tone to his size. The most we really get is that split second of his eyes going yellow. Yes, he's only half Galra, but all of the other half Galra characters are noticeably, well, Galra! From the looks of it, Galra genes seem to be pretty dominant, so by all means, Keith should have some physical traits, right? But he doesn't!

The thing is, Keith grew up on Earth, where looking like that could have been dangerous. He'd need to look human in order to survive, which brings me to the crack-headcannon itself:

What if Krolia was part Altean and passed that down to Keith as well?

Alteans are capable of changing their skin color and height in order to blend in, "Sacred Alteans" having even more control over their appearance. (I checked the wiki to clarify this.)

Krolia was a spy for the BoM, meaning she had to be good at acting and being the alien equivalent of a chameleon would definitely help with that.

Also, I just think it'd be really neat to see Allura so conflicted over this, because on one hand, Keith's part Galra, the race that destroyed her planet and took away everything she'd ever known and loved. On the other, he's also part Altean, potentially one of the only remaining Alteans, if only fractionally so, aside from herself and Coran (I'm setting this before Lotor shows up.)

I just think it'd be really cool to have some Allura-centric angst where she debates Keith's loyalty and whether blood defines a person.

I spend so much time thinking up random AUs and trying to rationalize them, so please be nice.

[linipik]

Please feed me all your headcannons, I'm hungry.

OKAY

So let me tell you about my Keith (there is a lot about some post-war Keith bc im in a mood)

FIRST OF ALL , I love the headcanon that he does martial arts and I am gonna jump and say it is taekwondo (his dad insisted when he was very little and he ended up getting used to it) BECAUSE a)kick (s) b)highly competitive c)sparring when stressed?? pretty much tkd d)it is good for artists because you are not using your arms that much….

THAT goes with my other favorite hc: artist Keith. And I am going to say he is NOT the best drawer or painter, but he loves feeling absorved by 

doing something. And he would actually enjoy going to art classes but never really considered it.

He is edgy okay? he is that edgy teenager that wears black and is broody by nature and carries a knife, it is part of who he is….which is even funnier when he is not a teenager anymore, because keith is still an edgy adult.

SO, Keith lets his hair grow but it isn’t until he spends time with Lance that he starts to really take care of it. 

 he knows he doesn’t laugh as much as others and letting go a bit is a nice feeling he got when he started to be around the paladins

we all know he spoils kosmo to a painful degree: he sleeps with him, jogs with him, cooks for him and even arranges space in every spacecraft for kosmo, always. So when kosmo is not there keith pouts a little too much and the entire bom, the paladins, and half the atlas crew know it

Keith’s favourite colour IS red, there is a lot of discussion about it, but the kid has red everything including his bandanna and was watching the sunset, and how pleased he looks when he started piloting the red lion and he is half relieved when they changed lions because he was still the red paladin…(but also he is half disappointed because he wanted to know if red suited Lance too, you feel me?)

he is not a fan of snow

going back to long hair keith, he considered cutting his hair at that point when it’s not long enough and not short enough, but he really couldn’t do it so he let it grow to properly tie it in a ponytail. Lance was devastated when keith didn’t had a mullet anymore.

for someone who has travelled a big part of the universe he never got to travel earth and the rest of the paladins mostly Lance bc time start inviting him to different places whenever he visits

After the Voltron show other planets dont really know about him from the show but he was the red paladin of voltron who piloted the black lion so everything is a bit messy because he is not a loverboy Lance who people saw with the red lion in the shows and he is not this hero type people saw with shiro and the black lion. When keith tells them they laugh for ages (and teach him some of the fun poses at the end)

Keith is shred, right? but not like shiro who is BIG and Shred and puts everyone else to shame, but like, Keith is heavy muscles and never figures the change until his clothes doesn’t fit anymore because space clothes just adapt to different body types easier.

When he got a tattoo he thought he was the first paladin to get one but hunk had beaten him in that long time ago and he didnt know it

keith regards his dad as a hero and whenever he does something impulsive afterwards he has this bittersweet realisation that reminds him of his dad and how he passed away.

also… and just thinking about things…

it just hit me that in the sunset scene before lance arrived, it is clear that Keith had no loved ones on earth to spend his last day with, much like Allura who also felt alone. I’m angry again about s8 >:( 

Anyway! thank you for asking, I tried to keep it really Keith-focused  \o/

and take this taekwondo keith doodle

[uraraaaaaaan]

Can you please please please PLEASE draw Keith and Pidge, both Galra? And maybe kiss😘 Lol, I just want to see them in some romantic moment.

OK, then ...

Keith is a member of BoM. And Pidge is a scientist at Garla base. Keith meets her during his infiltration mission. Pidge quickly realized that Keith was a spy. She believes that her ability at work can not be leveraged. So instead of keeping the secret, she asks Keith to recommend her to BoM.

……How about this?😘

I'm sorry they are not so romantic! But I enjoyed it.

[tangyss]

do you mayhaps have any,,,, fic recs,,,,,,,,

mayhaps i do.......... this week’s theme is.....:

🔥💪🤩 lance centric fics written better than the actual gd show with a side helping of klance 💪🤩🔥

back with a madness (champion) by mytay

lance gets roped into a weeks worth of illegal underground cage fighting in order to protect some alien kids and their wounded mother, while trying to do this behind his suspcious teammates backsOH MAN OH FUCKIE DUDE...... ive wanted to rec this fic for SO FUCKING LONG bc when i started reading this i genuinely got so hooked...... bamf lance who is written SO WELL??? we STAN??? like idk but the fact that lance’s drive throughout the whole thing is to keep the family safe, like he could totally back out, he could totally get someone else to help, yet he keeps going with pride and determination bc he wants to make sure this lil family of alien gets to the end of this safely makes my heart MELT...... if u like badass lance w the team being supportive as well as extremely concerned for him then u should 10000% read this fic(tw: injuries and fighting, tho if u can watch the rocky movies u’ll be fine w this, pining keith more than actual klance, matt/shiro, tho for the most part it’s somewhat easy to view as platonic)

lance’s guide to picking up hitchhikers by bwyn

modern au where lance gets a new car, and first thing he thinks of doing with it is going on five day long roadtrip while picking up hitchhikers and befriending them

wow i cant believe people online who create fics for fun can write lance and the team as really good, really close friends who care for and genuinely love lance PROPERLY, unlike some “professional” show i know!!!! wild!!!!!! this fic is basically lance becoming friends w the team, it’s super cheerful and heartwarming to read and this fic’ll make u want to take an impromptu roadtrip bc it’s SO FUN!!! everything about it is so good man...... also everyone is GAY and im p sure lance has adhd which made my heart SOAR

(tw: allura/shiro.... like im not 100% but i remember there being more sh/al than there was actual kl and i didnt dig that, but the fic does mainly focus on the friendship elements than the romances..... also (spoiler) the kl is open ended in this fic too but if u want team bonding and fun times u should read this!!)

5 + 1 times: lance and the search for keith’s boyfriend by haikquu

lance and keith are really..... really close friends, yet somehow lance starts finding clues that keith might have a boyfriend, which is weird, bc keith never told him that he had boyfriend, yet everyone else seems to know.... HUH.....

man i was giggling the whole way through this fic just read it please sdiguhsdiugsjguisjgsidugj it’s hhhhhhhhhh HEARTWARMING AND DORKY

+ an extra one if ur feeling a lil angsty......... and by lil i mean this fic feels like a horror action thriller which i read at 1am when only the first chapter was out and ended up not sleeping that night bc i was too busy not crying

echo a spark by usernicole

a s4 rewrite...... and tbh if voltron wasnt a kids show, this is how it SHOULD have gone.... shiro is not his usual supportive and open self around lance and is acting a lot colder to lance than he normally would. after coming to the conclusion that that’s not shiro, lance makes a plan to find the real shiro

also, it’s part 2 of this long distant s4 klance fic but basically if u dont read that one first, the context is that keith and lance are dating, keith’s still w the bom, and shiro is a fucken CLONE.. also broganes yay! and a lil bit of established klance conflict but it’s all good they cuddle uwu

(tw: lance has an anxiety attack in ch1, there’s a FUCK TON of fighting in ch2 and like seriously..... the descriptions for stuff that happens in ch2 shouldnt be read by someone who isnt good w body horror/gore n shit like that... it’s an intense fic, but im a fan of horror thrillers so i enjoyed this when i wasnt on the verge of tears lol)

[creativekrissy]

IF Klance is canon~

I’m ready for subtle Klance development. I don’t think it would do injustice or be rushed in the last season, in fact it would not just answer my hopes but give me natural slow burn insight that would deeply satisfy my observations through out the series. Meaning those interactions weren’t for nothing and that’s satisfying enough for me. Plus it would be unique, some relationships don’t need a clear detailed explanation of romantic interest it’s like one of those unnamed romances without calling it to be love.

I mean we were shown the close relationship between Lance and Keith, the improvements of Lance not having an equal and seeing Allura in hopes of romantic development in S4-S6 seems to have a purpose. Allura is in romance with Lotor, Lance develops a new doubt on himself. Considering this as a mirror to Lance and Keith’s previous team partnership, Lance wasn’t just going to ignore his teammate. Especially when she was having low self esteem about trusting Lotor. It’s possible he accepted it was never going to be more than what he thought it would be. Between each other. It’s interesting he attempted to see Allura as his equal though, kind of a same process he developed with Keith over S1-S3.

So Keith returns and is leader again, it’s obvious to assume Lance believes they are back to where things left off. However what’s even so more interesting is that his outlook on Allura and Keith has increased~

He sees them both as his equals and as people unreachable. With Keith being leader, Lance continues to look out for Allura which is what he did while Keith was gone, kinda like fallen into Keith’s footsteps (you know, looking out for each other). At the same time, undoubtedly Keith’s immediate righthand man. So he’s on a balance~ but! They wouldn’t focus on the outlook of these 3 in The Journey Within for nothing or even have it as a focus in where their frustrations and anger fuel from in between each other. Lance sees the feud between two people that are important to him, one is Keith not understanding Allura’s own issues of S4-S6, so he hit him where it hurts with the fact Keith had done just as worse and was in no position to point out Allura the way he did. He kept him in check but with some salt. The fact Lance even brings up Keith being alone or running away twice is an obvious statement he took it personal. (I still hope we find out why)

If I get the chance of Klance in S8, I’m going to understand why it’s slow burn and maybe last minute because there seems to be a build up for Lance balancing the importantance of two characters. One point being, Lance was never looking for a relationship to begin with but he gain some development over time towards Keith and Allura. This means that Keith and Allura come at Lance with romantic intentions. I mean we are shown how important Lance is to Keith and Allura in S7. Those are mainly the two who are desperately calling to him and having each other’s back.

Here’s a speculation:

Keith attempts to rebuilding his friendship with Lance just to be interacting again, I mean that’s how they were before he left so it would make sense.

Allura wanting to be closer with Lance more than before, possibly romantic because she’s seen the side of him she could love, or admire.

So with these speculations, you could imagine there being a conflict. Lance becoming confused of the two or Lance still feeling they are unreachable due to Allura’s helping with the Atlas and focus on alteans with Honerva, and then Keith working with BOM and possibly Acxa as well. Even though Kacxa was disconfirmed, she could give Lance a reason to believe he and Keith aren’t as close anymore.

OR

Keith notices the connection between Lance and Allura, chooses not to do anything about it but hints of some jealousy comes out. Mainly because it always happens throughout the series, it shows he’s annoyed every time Lance flirts with Allura. Allura could be trying to connect with Lance but he may not allow this due to self respect in not wanting to be a rebound. He’s not that dumb.

Plus, if Lotor does return this could bring him to remind Allura why they never trusted him in the first place and what he did to the team. This could be a conflict between him and Allura causing a confession that he likes her but it goes in a terrible result or adds fuel to the fire. Then there is Keith who would probably try to be there for Lance but even that goes all bad due to Lance still being upset over the fact he left, so how could Keith understand what he’s going through? Then we get a development of trying to reconcile between Lance and Keith, maybe Keith does understand, maybe he has seen Lance in a new way he never needed to figure out. Thus a miscommunication but now that he’s grown, he won’t leave Lance behind ever again~ so maybe this is the confusion he develops and seeks advice from Shiro about. Trying to figure out where he stands with Allura and Keith, since it’s very confusing and bothering him.

This could give the conclusion where Lance figures out exactly what he needed over what he wanted. Unconditional love. By choosing Keith, he could come to terms with accepting and respecting Allura’s choice in romance. Or the platonic result, Lance let’s go of Allura but Keith is there to console him as his friend. Then life goes on~

🤔 damn. I should write a fanfic about this 😂

Anyways, with my speculations about Klance I believe it to be subtle and not a main focus, but a build up for maybe a moment in one of the series final moments. I’m okay with that. In fact it would be essential because they would be a unique animated couple in history, not just because of lgbt rep but because it did not need a detailed explanation of their romantic development, it was natural and practically pure. Something unpredictable and one we can cherish for a long time because it was so different.

The outlook on story development and character buildup affects viewers in many different ways, ways beyond the writer or creators intended it to be. So don’t be frustrated with those who can’t see Klance happening or can see it happening. Just enjoy what we’re given and if we are given Klance, please just be satisfied with the outcome. If any creator built a story on what the viewers wanted, it would be predictable and boring knowing what’s to come. Many would love that because it’s nothing done before in western animation, I beg to differ because it has been done. With Voltron, I admire their own storytelling style with their characters because that’s what brought me to enjoy the entire series. Heck I’ll be sad because there is nothing like Voltron out there and that’s why it’s unique. Also, the way they developed a relationship like Klance is one to remember and cherish.

So there’s my rant for today. KICK everyone~

[dent-de-leon]

i know that a lot of negative opinions on s6 come from antis, l@nce stans or from people who wanted Good Boy lotor. personally i never expected vld to be very deep or to deliver any complex story lines so i wasn't hugely disappointed by it (i kinda always go into things with low expectations; worked well for me so far). still, the fact remains that some of the writing is not great and i'd like to read your opinion on the things you believe vld is handling badly (characters, plots, etc.)

Unpopularest Unpopular Opinion:

I don’t think Lotor’s arc ended badly and I think his thing with Allura was always going to briefly lived and end in Disaster. I like him as a character, I really do. But the boy led with “The masses are easily manipulated” in his intro episode, and then proceeded to hunt down and personally try to destroy Allura in his first meeting with her, not to mention how he knew he could manipulate her using her love for Altea (the distress signal in A Hole in the Sky.) I’m literally not surprised he turned on the team, and we were already given every indication that he would. 

Even when things between him and Allura were going “Good,” he never had her best interests at heart. When Allura is horrified by Haggar’s lab, “I shouldn’t be here,” when she’s clearly deeply uncomfortable and hurt, Lotor grabs her hand and acts like he cares. Please, Allura. I can’t do this without you, Allura. But it’s never, “Okay, I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.” He never really takes her own feelings into consideration, and guilt trips her by appealling to her empathy and intellect rather than actually comforting her or taking her into discomfort into account. 

Lotor doesn’t console her when she cries about her father and her own insecurities either, he doesn’t show support until after the map activates and he gets what he wanted from her. The thing about Lotor’s “love” for Allura is that it has always been conditional. Allura unlocks the secrets to Oriande, and he’s enamored by her skill and brilliance. Allura is deemed a worthy Altean, and he praises her for it. Allura makes entering the quinessence field possible–something he sacrificed literally hundreds of Alteans for–and he thinks she’s the light of his life. As soon as Allura is no longer willing to be used by him, he turns violent. Their relationship was a direct antithesis to what allurance had become, wherein both were mutually supportive and cared for each other before themselves and their own ambitions. 

Anyway, as for some of my other opinions–I honestly think a lot of the writing in VLD is amazing, especially for what it is. There’s not any western cartoon I can just turn to on TV right now that would give me this level of depth and cinematic storytelling. So, with that said, just some things I wish were different:

Hunk’s arc with the Balmera happened very early on, and there’s not much solo focused content for him between that and the diplomacy arc he’s easing into now. The fact that the episodes were chopped into shorter seasons only makes this absence of content seem even lengthier, which is unfortunate.

I wish Keith could have gotten to say goodbye to Red the way that Lance got his farewell to Blue. I would have also loved an explaination for why Red seemed so personally invested in Keith alone but then was fine with Lance–despite never demonstrating the same degree of autonomy with him that she did with Keith. 

A lot of the alternate universe stuff in season 3 felt like it hit out of nowhere, and I feel a bit similarly about Oriande. I wish those two things were hinted at earlier on. Even just Allura absentmindedly recalling a fairytale about Oriande she used to love when she was little–that would have made such a difference I think, and would have really emphasized Oriande’s importance. I wish when Lotor dropped that name it’d be like,, oH SHIT!! THAT’S REAL!! Like this was a very real concept with lore built up to back it in the story so you were Hyped for the reveal. 

The BOM story with Keith feels a bit disjointed–again, because we have seasons chopped into lesser episodes, but also, because the decison didn’t seem to have much buildup. I wish there was an episode where he considered training with the BOM first before we were just hit with that story arc. Overall, I think there are some off transitional things with VLD, but that strikes me as more that they were pressed for time than anything else. Which also explains why certain scenes that you would think would get touched on more are just cut, but still. 

JUST,, EVERYTHING WITH ACXA AND THE GENERALS,, LMAO,, like…I’m so sorry but…I’m still laughing about the fact that they switched sides 5 times. Went from Lotor to Zarkon, Zarkon to Haggar, Haggar back to Lotor, then went off on their own, like!! There’s keeping your options open, and then there’s just…flipflopping whenever you feel like, to the point where any sense of loyalty loses all credibility. I just hope the next thing that happens is they stumble upon Kolivan and he’s just like, “hELLO,, YES,, WE ARE HIRING!! ALWAYS HIRING!!” 

I mean, clearly Acxa also has this thing for Lotor, but we don’t even know why, so it’s all very vague?? I would just like an episode set aside to explain to me what the generals are trying to do here exactly, because at this point, I’m very lost. They feel more like loyaless mercinaries that are some kind of running joke. With Acxa there’s something deeper there, you can feel it, but it’s never actually touched on. I hope we get some development with just…whatever it is their entire deal is,, 

Again, these are just my own personal opinions. But overall I think VLD’s story is just so fun and engaging and compelling to me and like,, honestly I wish people would more so just sit back and enjoy it than claim the writing has somehow gone extremely downhill every time something happens that they personally don’t agree with. 

[poor-sickies]

If you have time, 12. “Back off", with injured Keith either when he's with the paladins or at the bom base?

Here it is! I wanted to write Kolivan as caretaker for a while so this was great fun! Thanks for sending the prompt, and I hope you enjoy!

“He’s okay, Krolia,” he says, with a tired voice, “just sore and irritable. He’ll heal.”

“Good,” she sighs, before her face twists up in worry, “please take care of him.”

“I will.” Kolivan promises, and turns off the communication. One of his best agents is laid up in bed with forty eight stitches across his chest, two broken fingers and a concussion, and the other was on one of the most important long term missions he had ever coordinated, worrying about her injured son.

It’s been a complicated day.

Keith had only told him about the long gash across his chest when the blood was seeping through the suit, painting onto his hands. Kolivan didn’t waste any time picking him up, piloting back to the base, and rushing him to the infirmary.

Fortunately, Keith had passed out when they were stitching him up. Unfortunately, it was because of a concussion.

He had been stabbed and thrown across a room, which wasn’t exactly out of the job description for the blades of Marmora, but they didn’t have the luxury of cryopods.

And ever since Kolivan had told Krolia about Keith, she made him promise to update her at least every week on how he was doing. He understood her motivations, but he still feared she would get too caught up in her feelings. A mother was a mother after all.

But even Kolivan can’t hide his worry for the young blade. He had come close to death today, more than ever this time, and if he hadn’t made it on time…

Let’s not think about that. Kolivan has lost too much already.

He doesn’t get much into Keith’s condition when he contacts Krolia. “A few broken bones and stitches, but he’s strong and will heal well,” he had said.

He didn’t mention how scared Keith looked when he caught sight of his own blood over his hands. Or how he flinched at the first few stitches, his pale face twisting in pain, before passing out. How he woke up, with a pained groan escaping his lips, one hand making his way to his chest, and the look of shock when he realized how many stitches were threaded across his skin, too many.

Kolivan goes to his room first to help him settle in, again to bandage his chest - a slow and painful process, especially while he tries to push Keith’s pained noises to the back of his mind, and with the constant worry of bandaging well but not too tight - and twice more to bring him water and ask how he’s feeling.

Keith is sick of it.

It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate Kolivan’s concern. His head hurts so bad, and the stitches in his chest are uncomfortable and itchy, and his fingers ache where the splinter touches them. But he’s angry at himself. The mission could have been successful if it wasn’t for him. Kolivan always says the mission before the individual, but today he had compromised it for Keith. Today’s job wasn’t very major, just a small Galra outpost nearby, but Kolivan had to go back to one of the rooms to get Keith and they hadn’t managed to hack it.

Keith wants to be alone.

Kolivan knocks twice before entering, and Keith stares at him with a weird kind of annoyance in his face. He lays, his chest bandaged, good arm across his stomach and the other laying aside awkwardly, two fingers splintered and bandaged. He squints, the purple lights from the hallways hurting his eyes. It makes him look angrier.

“Did you come here to lecture me this time?” Keith says, and looks down at his lap, brow furrowed.

Kolivan closes the door and stands on front of the bed, a glass of water and a small plate with two pills in it.

“No,” he deadpans. “I came to know how you were feeling.”

Keith grits his teeth and balls his good fist. “Could you back off?!Just because I’m hurt doesn’t mean I need you hovering over me all the time!” 

The words sting, but Kolivan doesn’t let it show. He knows what it feels like to be young, restless, and bedridden at the same time. He tries to be considerate, and keeps his voice neutral.

“You’re one of my agents. It’s my job to look out for you.” Keith sighs.

“Why did you go back to get me? Aren’t you always saying it’s the mission before the individual?”

Kolivan can’t say he wasn’t expecting this question. He always preaches “the mission before the individual”, and with the situation as it was with the Galra empire and the war, the Blades’ motto wasn’t unnecessary.

But Kolivan had known the mission was lost when they threw Keith into a wall. Their cover had been blown. And there was absolutely no way he would sacrifice another blade for nothing.

“The mission before the individual,” Kolivan repeats, “but my men are spread thin. You all know the variety of risks of joining the Blade of Marmora, and you live with them everyday.” He pauses. His heart aches for Antok and all of his friends’ lives who could have been spared. “But today the mission was lost. I can’t afford to lose more men.”

Keith looks down. “I understand. But I’m know the risks and I’m prepared to deal with them if I have to.” He finally looks up, decided, doing his best to not look as frail as the bed made him seem. “I’m not some child that you have keep saving.”

“No, you’re a soldier,” Kolivan states. “But would you not have done the same for me in the same situation, if the mission had failed?”

“Of course I would,” Keith says, curling his good fist, because he obviously would. He would always try to save everyone.

“Then there’s no reason for you to be tormenting yourself over that.”

Keith doesn’t say anything, but seems to accept Kolivan’s reasoning with a small sigh. He’s tired.

“Take these,” Kolivan gives him the pills and the glass, “you will feel better.” Keith does, and looks down again. He isn’t very sure if Kolivan was this protective of the other members of the Blade, but then again, he’s the youngest.

“Thanks,” he murmurs, fidgeting with the bandages on his fingers.

Kolivan nods. “Rest.”

[sohotthateveryonedied]

Hey I saw you support trans keith! Right on you, mate! Got any headcanons for us?

bOY DO I HAVE HEADCANONS (though disclaimer: I myself am cis, so if anything I say is wrong please tell me; I really don’t want to offend anyone so don’t be afraid to speak out if I say something wrong okay? okay now let’s go)(also I apologize in advance this is way longer than I thought it would be)

•When Keith was at the Garrison and then living alone in the desert, he would act as masculine as possible because when he was in foster care his families always insisted on him taking part in more “feminine” activities, so you can bet Keith did stuff like work on his bike and get all grimy and let it stain his clothes and later buy ten different colognes and wear all of them at once. Why do you think he loves swords and sword fighting so much? It makes him feel masculine!! Honestly any stereotypical ‘manly’ activities make him feel so much better, he just enjoys them so much

•People ask him sometimes why the long hair but guess what!! He doesn’t need to have short hair to be a man, he’s already a man and he likes his greasy mullet so stay in your own lane dude he’s happy with his long hair and having it doesn’t make him any less manly

•When he started hormones, every day he would practice talking as deeply as he could. Once he found a lizard sitting on a rock and recited the entire Bee Movie script to it in his deepest voice possible

•For most of the time during his time at the Garrison he’d just wear two sports bras instead of a binder because he didn’t really know how to get one and was too scared to ask. Plus he had like four dollars at most on a good day so how could he possibly buy a binder? He started resorting to ace bandages which oh no Keithy boy that’s not how you bind you’re gonna mess up your ribcage sTOP

• But don’t worry, Shiro the Hero™️ is here to help. Back at the Garrison, Shiro was the only person besides the teachers who knew Keith was a trans boy. And lemme just say Shiro is the most supportive human, he did as much research as he could and always stood by Keith whenever people were being jerks (and beat them up when he had to because Keith gets into enough fights as it is, he’s already gotten too many strikes so he’s not allowed to get into more fights or else risk getting expelled and it kills him when he can’t punch someone out for bullying him but guess what Shiro has no problem with that he’s the teacher’s pet anyway he’s not worried about getting in trouble) So when he found out Keith was binding with ace bandages he was like “okay first of all no, I don’t know much but I know for a fact that’s gonna destroy your ribs come on man I’ll go with you we need to buy you some binders”

• When Keith first got to space, one of the things he worried about the most was the fact that he only had the binder he was wearing and that was all, and he was terrified because what if something happened to it and he couldn’t find anything else to bind with oh no

•But never fear, Coran is here!! He asked Coran about it one night because he trusts him and turns out that plenty of Alteans are trans too!! However, they didn’t exactly use binders because they could simply shapeshift to fit their ideal body expectations, but Coran is amazing so he used Keith’s binder as a reference and made a ton of new binders out of this great alien material that stretches in a way that makes them safe to fight in too!! So hooray for Keith not having to worry about breaking a rib during a fight anymore

•And the hormone situation turned out to be easily remedied as well. When Keith realized he couldn’t go much longer without his hormone treatments he worked up the courage to ask Pidge for help, who managed to come up with an alien substitute that worked about the same as his regular hormones from earth so yay!! Now he can get his hormones without any trouble!!

•And at this point Shiro, Coran, and Pidge all know, so Keith figures that he might as well come out to the rest of the team since half of them know already and he may as well get it over with now, since telling them is easier than them all finding out through some accident. And it goes roughly the same way it had when Pidge revealed she was a girl.

•Keith walks into the dining hall one day where everyone is eating breakfast and he kind of just announces “hey by the way I’m trans, guys” and plops down to eat his food goo. (Shiro doesn’t even look up from his book and says “hi Trans, I’m Shiro”) and Hunk is like “oh rad, dude. I mean I kind of suspected but I wasn’t sure and didn’t know how to ask but this is awesome! So what pronouns are you okay with then?” “He/him, thanks” “Okay, cool cool cool” *goes back to eating* And after they explain what the term “transgender” means, Allura says “Oh, we have that on Altea too. For a moment there I thought trans was another alien species and you were admitting you were more than just galra but this is much better” “Thanks..? I guess?”

•And then you have Lance. It takes him a little longer to catch up to speed, but once it sinks in he’s like “but wait what about that time I called you Dolly Parton because of your mullet and when you said y’all oH MY GOD I MISGENDERED YOU IM SO SORRY” “seriously dude it’s fine, chill” “AHHH BUT WHAT IF ITS NOT” It takes him a long time to stop walking on eggshells, and pretty soon Keith being trans is just another fact of life, same as Pidge being a girl and Keith being galra and Shiro being a closeted Taylor Swift fan

•Keith: “I’m trans” Lotor: “I thought you were galra”

•When Keith starts growing facial hair oh my gosh he gets so excited. He starts strutting around so proudly, showing off the hair on his chin and when he walks into a room Hunk is like “heyyy nice beard dude, super manly” *thumbs up* Though the first time Keith tried to shave he cut himself like five times because he did it with his BOM knife, so that didn’t work out too well. Luckily, Lance decided to take pity on him and educate this poor boy on face management and helped him shave properly to avoid future fiascos

•Shiro: “Keith you can’t bind while you’re training, stop ignoring me you’re gonna kill yourself” Keith, firing up his bayard and already turning on the training bot: “What was that I can’t hear you” Shiro: *disapproving Dad Glare™️*

•Keith is an irresponsible boy so he leaves his binder on for like ten hours at a time (which!! please don’t ever do!! this will kill your ribcage please bind safely don’t be like keith!!) After so long of this routine of reminding Keith over and over again to take a break with his binder off and him blatantly ignoring it, Pidge modified the training deck so whenever Keith is in there training for hours at a time he will get alerts to take his binder off which thank god for that because he always either forgets or doesn’t care enough to

•Because he’s not fully transitioned, Keith still gets periods which really sucks. That’s usually when the dysphoria is at its worst so not only does he have to deal with stupid cramps but now he also has dang dysphoria to make him feel even crappier. When that happens, everyone on the ship makes an effort to take every opportunity to use masculine pronouns when talking to him and comfort him when he’s feeling Bad. (It’s a good thing Keith has his awesome boyfriend Lance who is so sweet and always supportive and will cuddle on the couch with him for hours as they eat snacks and watch earth movies for hours on end)

•Once he breaks three ribs during a fight and Allura tells him that he can’t wear his binder for a while otherwise it’ll just make the injury worse but like. Keith is so scared to go around without binding, he doesn’t want anyone to see him so he stays in his room for most of the time but on the occasions in which he does leave his room, he gets so worked up because “shit shit sHIT they’re gonna see me without my binder oh no I can’t do this” but. Nobody really notices? At all? It’s like there’s nothing different. He meets up with everyone for dinner and he’s sweating bullets he’s so nervous but it’s like no one even sees he’s not wearing a binder. So that was quite the experience, and after that Keith gets more comfortable with wearing his binder less often because the reason he always wore it too long was because he didn’t want anyone to see and judge him, but turns out it doesn’t matter in the least to them whether he’s binding or not, so he’s more confident being around them without a binder on days when he’s feeling comfortable enough to go without it.

•Keith has definitely taken an Axe Body Spray shower before this isn’t even a debate

•Shiro takes every opportunity to call Keith his brother not only because wow gotta love that wonderful honorary siblings broganes bond, but also hell yeah calling Keith masculine names.

•Shiro, introducing the paladins: “—and this guy over here is my brother Keith” Keith: *beams*

•Keith: “Zarkon is transphobic” Lance: “why” Keith: “Because I’m trans and he annoys me”

[panda-noosh]

Can I please ask for hc’s of Keith with a BoM girlfriend (like how they met, how/when either of them confessed, etc.)? Can you also make her half Galra and another alien closely related to Alteans (extra points if you make her slightly taller than Keith ;))? Take all the time you need and thank you ❤️❤️!!!

Here you go! x

---

Keith:

Keith and you met on Keith’s very first day with the Blade.

Keith was already nervous enough as it was with this being his first day truly embracing who he was, but seeing you just made him even more nervous.

he did well, though. he’s still Keith. whenever he wants to do well at something, literally nothing is going to be able to distract him from doing his absolute best.

but still - you were a mild distraction. even as Keith was busy training with the other Blade members, his attention would flick over to you every few minutes, just to see what you were doing.

and Keith would never admit to himself that maybe - just maybe - he was looking at you for more than just pointers on how to stand, or just to innocently see what it was you were doing for your own training.

you two didn’t actually speak until a few months in to Keith’s training, when you had simply asked him if you could borrow one of the weapons he had been storing in his corner.

Keith let you borrow one, of course, and you had went on your way.

but Keith knew he shouldn’t let his chance go - you had spoken to him. he now knew you didn’t see him as weird or intimidating just because he didn’t particularly look like a Galra, so he was going to take his chance when he could. 

and so, he sauntered his way over to you and started up an innocent conversation.

an innocent conversation that lasted for about an hour, and ended only whenever you and Keith were being scolded for slacking off during training.

from then on, these little conversations were happening all the time, until you two were genuinely seen as the giddy teenagers of the group. every chance you got, you were sneaking off to be with one another, to share stories of the day you had had and made fun of the grouchy older Blade Galrans who were enjoying spoiling your fun.

this was so against Keith’s character, but he loved hearing you laugh as he made fun of his elders. it was all he wanted to hear, and so he continued to make the jokes that made you laugh, even if he found himself sounding slightly obnoxious and immature.

the confession takes a long, long time to eventually creep up on the two of you, though.

you’re both so busy, and Keith isn’t even entirely sure if he is going to confess. first of all, you’re half Galran, half Altean. you have the blood of very, very strong people in your veins, whilst Keith is half human - it’s not that significant, and he truly thinks you’ll see him as a weakling in comparison to your strong-willed roots.

and secondly, he’s a bit nervous. as i said, the two of you are extremely busy being members of the Blade, and there’s barely any time to talk, let alone start a proper relationship.

despite all this, the other members of the Blade basically see you and Keith as boyfriend and girlfriend anyway, and they enjoy teasing you two about it every chance they get. any time Keith sits beside you, you’ll hear one of them go “oooooh,” from the back, which immediately starts up an uproar of laughter from the others.

you and Keith have learned to ignore it, but Keith can’t help but admit that it does make his stomach erupt into butterflies every time it happens.

but the confession does come eventually, don’t worry.

it’s entirely an accident, which just makes it even more fun.

Keith and you are sparring with one another, and Keith hits you. he hits you, and this time, you genuinely lurch to the side and hiss out in pain.

Keith hasn’t been paying much attention to the physical improvements his body has been making, meaning he thought he was only swinging at you with little force - but his muscles have grown in the past few months, and his strength is a lot harsher than what it was when he started.

so he’s just swung for you, like he always does, but the blow was a lot more harsh than he was used to.

you fall to the floor, gripping your arm, and Keith is immediately sliding to your side and taking your arm in his hands, inspecting the damage.

i don’t think his confession would be an outright confession. he isn’t going to slide to the side of you and all of a sudden confess his undying love for you. no. it’ll be more subtle, something you have to kind of figure out on your own.

the way you figure it out is through the panic he is holding in this moment.

his voice is wavering and he is apologising over and over again, running his fingers over the damage he has done.

and you just kind of have to look at him. you’re not self-centred, and you very rarely admit this kind of thing, but Keith is no longer making his feelings subtle, and you’d be a fool to deny the truth any longer; Keith Kogane likes you.

you ask him about it then and there, and Keith is immediately freezing. his voice disappears, and he just looks up at you with those violet eyes, completely in shock.

but then he’s shrugging nervously and saying, “would it be so bad if I did like you?”

 and that’s the start of it all.

he never formally asks you out, but it’s pretty obvious you two are a couple after that moment.

Keith gets jealous whenever other members of the Blade are talking to you. Keith holds your hand whenever he can sense you’re getting worked up or nervous. 

Keith and you sneak off still, but no longer to just talk. a lot more happens whenever you two finally get time to be alone.

Keith sits in your room for hours and hours after his training is done. in the past, he used to just go back to the castle ship, or go back to his own room in the Blade headquarters, but now you and him are always found laughing and talking in his room after training is finished.

everybody in the blade is just kind of like, “yeah, we knew this was going to happen.”

but Keith still acts as if it’s the biggest news of the damn century.

“this may surprise some of you, but she’s actually my girlfriend.”

“keith for the love of God, we know.” 

[itsallaboutsheith]

Alright, I finished it, I did skip the fighting scenes though, cause I generally don’t find them very interesting. (so that means you can watch through it pretty fast this season, defintely not the case every season) The season has some good moments like the first episode, or the reveal of the BOM members and Kollivan episode, But overall S6 was much better in my opinion.  It’s pretty obvious Allurance will be canon, as the crush gets pointed out several times and seems very much mutual at this point, another crush that seems pointed out is from Acxa on Keith, it’s hinted at and I must say I much prefer the headcanons where they are related one way or the other.  I’m not a big fan of Shiro’s new arm personally since it just looks weird to me, he’s got a hole and then a lower arm, it’s just not a very pretty thing to look at and I don’t see it working in merchandise. Similar I have conflicting feelings about the Atlas robot. Which might be what the reviewers were talking about.  But over all, I missed Shiro with the rest of them, as much as I am happy he played a crucial part still. It’s just not the same and I hope that the white lion really is something that will happen. I know Keith cannot be a leader if Shiro is there to some people, but I honestly don’t see why not. Shiro’s ptsd was never mentioned or shown but this was something that could have played a part in Keith leading, Shiro needing to not feel the pressure of being in charge for a while and learning to enjoy it while healing from his traumas.  I’m also surprised, though much more disappointed that nothing was addressed much. Shiro basically went on as if nothing happened. No talk with Keith about their fight or anything, which I would gladly have seen instead of the game show episode or 2 flashback episodes that could have easily been one if they weren’t so busy building up this new generation pilots, which might be the spin off crew.  I love Romelle and Cosmo, Cosmo is easily the real MVP of this season and I’m glad we got see everyone reunite with their families.  Obviously Adam is dead, we guessed as much from the review. I’m not surprised a whole lot of people died, but I do have to say that I’m not pleased with his dead, where he died just like 90% of the garrison, at the same time he died where everyone else with ties to the paladins survives. Everyone had their family returned to them safely, but Shiro his one person is dead (whether ex or not, that is irrelevant here). In that way it’s definitely part of the kill your gay problem. If the show had killed one of Lance’s siblings or Pidge’s dad, it would have evened it out, now it stands on it’s own.  Obviously it’s the irony of being healthy and dying versus Shiro’s illness and somehow surviving everything. 

I do think Keith has grown a lot and it showed in everything this, I also loved how the season treated Hunk. 

So where does this season leave Sheith, personally I’d say pretty much in the same place as before this season started, we just know a lot about their background now, that Shiro is canonically gay (though if you want to not see this revelation the show made that possible, so I’m not sure he’s as canonically gay as I was hoping for) They also made it very obvious that Keith is the juxtapose for Adam. 

I’m not sure what to expect for S8, I would think it’s about saving the atleans from wherever they come from as it turns out they are used to make weapons. Earth has been saved, so now it’s time for Atlean and the end of the galra empire. Plus voltron has yet to go up against the many druids, but will Shiro be actively there or sidelined on earth/ fighting with atlas.... That has to be seen. I don’t think I’’m going to expect this season to ever dive into thing, as it seems to prefer to gloss over things. I get it it’s a kids show, but why put serious problems in a kids show only to pretend they don’t exist 10 seconds later?.....

[sol1056]

Just to make sure I watched the same season as everyone else, in sort of order but not really. 

1. Wow, Lotor’s upbringing was all-around abusive. His parents are neglectful and his so-called governess believes that physical violence is a necessary part of education. And her approach is valorized when Hunk declares that he must’ve learned something after all. 

2. Did it really take this series forty-six episodes to suggest it might be a good thing to learn about the enemy’s culture? Like, at this point, why even bother. Hunk little history lesson might as well have been about why broccoli is green for all it made any difference or carried any narrative weight. 

3. As much as I enjoyed seeing Lance told to pipe the fsck down, I could’ve done without the violence. You wanna know what has the impact on children, in a show like this? It isn’t people saying ‘I love you,’ it’s when violence like this is trivialized and treated as funny. 

4. Sendak shows up, makes trailer-level threats that... aren’t all that threatening. Aha, I know your weakness! I shall now shoot at those people over there and, uh, run away, I guess. Not sure. He literally showed up, didn’t try and take Voltron out, just shot at a station that I could’ve sworn was one he was trying to make one of his own? idk, he disappeared so fast, no chance to ask him. 

5. Disabled ship, no supplies, this seems like a great time to do a two-person adventure to the heart of some anomaly that’s destroyed every probe. Really? Shit’s not going anywhere. At least radio for backup. 

-- minor aside: the use of an anomly that warps space and time was an interesting way to introduce flashbacks, except for the too-chronological aspect. then again, if it’d been out of order, that might’ve forced the two characters to talk, and we could’ve gotten half those scenes summarized in like two sentences. 

6. Thousands of trackers checking every planet and in 10,000 years the only thing they found was a lead on the Blue Lion? that was it? Zarkon’s organizational skills are even more pathetic than I realized. 

7. Now let us pause for an interlude so we can artificially age up a character for no apparent reason. What was the point of that? So Keith could bond with a space puppy? Plenty of time spent on that, and end with a cliffhanger where we don’t get to see an actual meeting.

-- PLEASE OMG THAT ACCENT IS HOLLYWOOD JUST STOP TALKING PLEASE JUST STAAAAAAAHP PLEASE 

8. Submitting minor change to Hypable’s comment: “The Dungeons and Dragons themed episode? It might just be one of my favorite episodes* that they’ve ever put to screen. Shiro fans will, especially, be delighted by it.” No. Shiro fans will not be delighted. Josh Keaton fans will be, because he’s in the episode, But Shiro is not. 

9. Speaking of which, I skipped S6E3. I got better things to do with my time. 

10. I yawned through Romelle's story. No, I don’t care about her or her family or her brother. She’s a plot device who exists to deliver exposition on cue. 

11. Speaking of which, Lotor’s motivation is to get immense power for the Galra... so he can revive the Altean culture and get rid of the Galran people? We’re talking about the culture that his neglectful abusive power-mad cruel mother came from, right? Just checking. 

12. Romelle talks like the quintessence/colony thing’s been going on forever, but first sign of it back in S4 was shipments large enough that it’s a pretty substantial supply chain. Except the Galra themselves found one cargo ghost-ship with only one piece of it left. How exactly did the Blades stumble over it regularly while the Galra barely knew it existed? 

13. So Lotor’s goal was to use one-person komars on Alteans to collect quintessence to do... what? What was the point of all that? Was it powering the Altean’s own colony? Building stuff? Warping things with its strange effects, and oh, guess that monster let loose may end up another dropped plot thread.

...Let us pause and have a moment of silence for all those dropped plot threads.

14. Okay, that was some serious retconning going on in Keith’s flashbacks. There’s the little shack, which from the beginning was clearly not enough for one person to live in. And look, a two-story farmhouse next to it, gone without explanation. Could we at least see a house fire? Something? 

15. Am I the only one who finds the BoM episode now really kinda creepy in hindsight? Even in a vision, if you see your parent, oh, ten years or so after they died, wouldn’t your reaction be something like, “Dad! You’re alive!” or possibly “Dad! You’re a zombie GAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH”. No, really: “Dad, you’re home,” only makes sense if you truly believed that Dad could still be alive. Seeing a tombstone kinda deep-sixes that one, so to speak. 

ugh. more later.  

[kallura-icedcoffee]

158

For the prompt “This is awkward” Enjoy

Keith realized in that moment, as he zoomed through space atdamn near the speed of light in a small fighter jet, that perhaps…justmaybe…he’d gotten himself a little worked up.

But it was too late to back down now and he was almostthere, and better safe than sorry.

You know what? This is Lance’s fault for filling his headwith all sorts of conspiracies. And it’s Shiro’s fault too because if Shirowasn’t acting so damn weird lately then he wouldn’t have been forced to talk toLance. And dammit this is Allura’s fault too because if she’d just picked upwhen he called then he wouldn’t have had to avoid Shiro resulting in turning toLance.

It started as a simple check-in, just to see how everyonewas doing. Certainly not to keep tabs on a certain princess in particular nowthat a certain prince was staying there. No, certainly not that. Next thing heknew Lance was filling his head with all sorts of rantings about how Allura andLotor are spending WAY too much time together and they have this matching cheekglowy thing and they ran off together somewhere and how they have chemistry (…orwas it alchemy?) and how Lotor keeps incessantly going on and on about theglory days of their families and how nice it would be to come together likethey should have ten thousand years ago.

Then he mentioned something about how they were going tomake a “big announcement” together in front of everyone and Allura had pickedout an extra fancy dress for the occasion and Lotor had been rehearsing somesort of speech.

It didn’t take much to put two and two together and now thathe thought about it they were getting pretty chummy. He’d just been so busywith the BoM and reuniting with Krolia that he hadn’t had time to process it.But now he had time and any sort of possible romantic shenanigans were notgoing down on his watch so he was off to Olkarion to shut that shitdown…respectfully of course.

He parked his ship, quickly changed out of his BoM uniform intoregular civilian clothes (because Kolivan would murder him if he revealed hisidentity as a member in front of a bunch of strangers) and dashed to thepalace. Despite breaking the light barrier getting there he was already latebecause as soon as he threw open the double doors to the main hall rows ofseated leaders and diplomats all turned to him in unison, faces plastered withshock and confusion. If there had been a record player in the room it wouldhave scratched on a dime.

Lotor and Allura were standing on a podium at the front ofthe room hand in hand. She looked stunning in a shimmering gray gown withintricate beading on the bust, but that was beside the point and he’d have tofawn over that later.

“Keith?” Allura looked baffled. “What are you doi-”

“I can’t let you go through with this!”

He marched down the aisle fueled on adrenaline and three hoursof sleep and very strong feelings.

“What?!” Lotor blurted out.

“I can’t let you and Lotor get married! You barely knowanything about him! He probably doesn’t even love you like I do! He’s not goingto laugh at your attempts at earth humor, or watch the mice perform theirroutines with you or nearly get arrested trying to buy you something sparkly atthe space mall for fucks sake!”

There was a silence in the crowd save for the occasionalgasp or hushed whisperings. Allura stood there, face as pink as a juniberry inspring while Lotor looked like he wanted to strangle Keith with his bare hands.

“I don’t know what you think is happening here but you aregravely misinformed paladin!” Lotor growled through gritted teeth.

“Huh? So, wait, you’renot getting engaged?” Keith’s brows furrowed.

“No! Why in the heavens would yo-…”

“You’re in love with me?” Allura interrupted forclarification.

“Princess please focus.”

“But Lance said you had some grand announcement!”

“Yes, we’re going to officially announce the alliancebetween the Princess of Altea, Voltron and the Galra Empire to the Coalition!”Lotor corrected.

“Then why are you holding hands?”

“Because that’s part of the presentation you twit! Weannounce the alliance, we hold up our hands like this as a symbol of unity,everyone claps, the end!”

Everything clicked and suddenly Keith wanted to hop out thenearest window.

“Oh…well this is awkward…”

“Yes indeed it is now would you mind taking your leave? Thisis being broadcast live across the galaxy!” Lotor hissed.

Keith turned and looked at the crowd, noticed the camerasand winced.

“Shit.”

Keith smiled weakly at Allura then began to back away slowly,waving halfheartedly at the audience and giving a knowing nod to Ryner before turningon his heel and walking as briskly as his legs could carry him from the room.

“Did he really just…?” Hunk asked, mouth agape as thepaladins watched from large monitors on the castle’s bridge.

“How humiliating.” Pidge shook her head, thankful she hadbeen recording the footage.

“Oh quiznack” Coran uttered, burying his face in his hand.

“That son of a bitch!” Lance snapped.

Keith meanwhile feeling too embarrassed to stick around wascurrently coasting in space on his way back to the BoM when he started toreceive an incoming transmission from Olkarion.

“Great” he muttered and pushed a button.

Allura’s familiar smiling face popped on screen.

“Leaving without saying goodbye?”

“Allura I acted like a complete ass I’m so sorry” he hunghis head.

“It’s all right, we were able to get back on track andsuccessfully announce the alliance after you left. To be honest it’s actuallyquite funny in retrospect. I’ve never had a suitor admit his love for me infront of the entire galaxy before.”

“About that…”

“We have much to discuss.”

“Yeah.”

“I would like to do so in person if you have time” she said sweetly.

Allura batted those baby blues and that was all it took to turnthe ship around. At least now he could get his thoughts in order to confess toher properly.

And tell her how absolutely beautiful she looked in thatdress.

[inkerii]

So I actually liked vld season 7

Some of it anyway. I still have some beef with it. Normally I don’t really post my thoughts but I wanna get it out of my chest c: gonna stick just to the Good Things on this post since it got out of hand!

Warning: LONG POST and since I’m on mobile idk how to put it under a read more!

*** [Good Things]

So many good things honestly.

• FIRST OF ALL: THE MUSIC! THE ANIMATION! THE BACKGROUNDS! THE CHOREOGRAPHY!! More than any plot these workers deserve so much credit <333

• Everything about episode 1. From learning of the beginning of Keith’s and Shiro’s friendship to the shenanigans with the yelmore. As a med student though, I wish they would explain a bit more about this mysterious disease he had and why is it apparently “gone” now.

• Cosmo. Everything about this space pupper. I love that he’s being included far more than the other pets because it was always pretty clear to me he’s very protective of keith and doesn’t appear to like leaving his owner’s side. ALSO I LOVE HOW BIG HE IS. HE’S BIGGER THAN PIDGE IN SOME SHOTS.

• I’m digging the Generals’ new outfits. Noice.

• LANCE DEFENDING PIDGE. Yes yes yes. I love how much he cares for her. I really wish she had become his love interest instead of Allura. Still! They had quite a few sweet moments c:

• Space mice are back to helping the team too heck yes

• “The Feud” is both kinda endearing but also my least favorite episode of the series. Since this part is about the good things: Everything about Lotor. Zarkon calling Lotor names. It was so DOTU I loved it so much

• THE DRUID IS BACK!! I loved that the druid was back. I really really wish they had expanded on WHY the druids are like that and HOW do they get their powers. They appear Galra. Are they a breed Haggar experimented on? They seem to almost idolize her. Gimme more info on the quiznaking Druids season 8 plEASE

• KEITHS WEIRD QUINTESSENCE POWERS VOLTRON PLEASE -PLEASE- EXPLAIN - as a side note I 110% believe the purple quintessence coming from Keith’s hands in when he unlocks Black’s wings in season 6 is that very power of his, not Shiro’s spirit or whatever

• Keith’s and Krolia’s goodbye. It was so emotional. I love that Keith has the maturity to understand that she has to leave- not because of a “mission” but because so many Blades she was shown to CARE FOR were gone. For all the “greater good” the Blades were about, they did seem to care. I love how gentle Krolia was with Kolivan too. I wonder if Kolivan is the Shiro to Krolia’s Keith.

• I originally had mixed feelings about the Floating In Space episode because both Keith and Allura felt OOC at first. But y'know what? I’ve come to like it. Keith had been acting like the Perfect Leader™ since he came back, as if his issues had all faded away when he and Black really became a team. But truth is, they weren’t. Keith was responsible for his team now, and they were floating in space, nearly dying, and the paladins were talking about QUITTING. Keith didn’t do his job well enough. Keith failed, failed them and FAILED as a leader, or so he felt: he let them down JUST LIKE IN SEASON 4 and now they’d all die. He was tired and not thinking properly so OF COURSE his basic instinct flared up: “leave them so they wont kick me out first”. As someone who likes the idea of keith and allura together, I really didn’t get Keith’s sudden outburst against Alfor, but… He might have done it to push Allura’s buttons. He KNOWS her, he KNOWS she’s the one who would argue the most (like in s4), so he instinctively tries to get her off him already- and because he knows her so well he goes for something that he knows is a low blow. Thing is, that made Allura’s own hurt feelings flare up (and the rest of the team’s). Allura might have understood where he was coming from in s4, but she was clearly sad that he still chose the Marmora over them. Even if she GETS it, it still HURTS. The whole team HURT. And now Keith was trying to push them away AGAIN. They were PISSED. They had trusted him 100% even though he abandoned them and now he was leaving again?!

BUT THEN!! DEVELOPMENT!! This time team Voltron WILL NOT let Keith go. Will NOT kick him out no matter how hard Keith tries to make them do it (thanks Hunk!!). And that helps Keith to FINALLY admit how much he cares and allows him to put them right up there with Shiro and Krolia when it comes to people HE wont give up on, people he now KNOWS wont give up on him. He may have called them “friends” but.. Keith isn’t that good with expressing how much he cares. He’s always a little hesitant when it comes to sharing his feelings (you’re LIKE a brother to me vs you’re MY BROTHER). He does mean family. He’s just being Keith :)

• I actually genuinely liked the Earth two-parter. I never thought Sam could carry an episode like that but damn. U go babe. I loved Colleen too. AND VERONICA YEA GIRL

• Kincaid and Griffin OWN MY HEART I SWEAR-

• Bless non-evil-Galra-Prince AJ LoCascio. Even though I got whiplash in some scenes like “wait he sounds like Lotor wtq” most of the times I didn’t even notice. So glad they decided to keep him around! He has a superb voice.

• Katie reuniting with her family!! LANCE reuniting with his family!! “uncle lance” yes pls ;w;

• Hunk’s flashbacks ;-; I feel so bad for the baby I’m so glad his family is safe now. I loved seeing how cooking isn’t really just for food when it comes to Hunk, I love that his mom and aunt (i’m assuming??) actually let us viewers understand that every time hunk cooks he’s more interested in sharing company and spending time together. Just. Yes <3

• Iverson apologizing to Keith + petting Cosmo heck yea. Griffin and Keith ignoring their differences, nice.

• KEITH COMFORTING HUNK. He might not be as comfortable saying emotional words like “love” or “family” to the team as he is around Shiro and Krolia (understandably), but you can see he cares just as much. Also YES let him be hugged more. He clearly loves it.

• All those conformations of paladins!! Keith/Pidge/Allura -> Pidge and Keith. Yes!! Keith and Hunk! Lance and Hunk!! A+ hell yea

• All the shoutouts to previous seasons!! The reflective shields from S6ep1. Keith understanding sign language this time!! Pidge distracting the guards by being silly (but in a very Pidge way) while Keith goes around like in season 1!!!

• Really nice touch of having Allura give up the crystal in her tiara to save Shiro. Their friendship is so precious <3 Also bonus points since this was likely what allowed Shiro to sense Atlas’ quintessence- the new arm still DOES have a connection to his brain so, like, so does the crystal :’D

• Speaking of Atlas, I’m neutral on it? So long as it doesn’t keep showing up as a robot I’m good. I just don’t get why it gets defense upgrade when it turns into a robot? Regardless though, it seems wayyy too big and clumsy. So hopefully it’ll remain just a ship in most eps.

• I did love the smaller earth fighters tho! Blonde + Freckles Whose Name I Can’t Spell Sorry grew on me. Also, ships’ designs are awesome. Honestly so long as Earth Team doesn’t end up in the LIONS I’d be happy. I feel like they might though. Oh well.

• LANCE. JUST HOW MUCH LANCE MATURED. THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THIS SEASON. He barely joked around this time!! He really showed how he supports the team. I LOVE to see Keith depending on and trusting Lance to be his second in command. THAT’S what I always wanted for the two of them. - Bonus: I loved how Keith fell back for a second on his old habits by going all “don’t miss the shot” or whatever cause really that’s exactly what their rivalry was about. Early Series Lance would get back at him without batting an eye. But he remained focused and alert! Lance’s development is more subtle but this is EXACTLY the same point Keith was when Kuron started calling him worthless. Keith had GROWN, and those things didn’t bother him anymore. Likewise, Lance has GROWN. He’s an adult who takes things seriously now and doesn’t waste time with silly bickering. Just. Yes. While lowkey, this is just as satisfying to me because unlike Keith we actually SAW all the stages of Lance’s growth. (We didn’t see all the conversations Keith and Krolia had on the space whale). Just. Lance. Bless him.

• I still prefer Sendak’s season 1 design. That said, he was a marvelous villain- more than any other he really represented all that was evil in the Galra Empire so I enjoyed him. Zarkon was into the lions for personal reasons, Haggar is more about the Altean thing, Lotor didn’t really care for Voltron since he built Sincline. So yea. I didn’t expect him to be the main villain but I don’t mind.

• Speaking of which, loved the Sendak/Shiro fight! It really felt like all that encompassed the Paladins vs all that encompassed the Galra. And even though I actually didn’t like that Keith was the one to deal the final blow, Keith IS a mix of Galra/Paladin who has good intentions. So… like Lance said early in the season. He’s the future.

• not so sure what to think of the final EP and that weird robot but eh. Assuming it’s from Honerva, I DID like how it showed that Honerva IS different than Haggar… And more dangerous. This was literally a Haggar Robeast but upgraded, because YEA Honerva is much better than her quintessence-cursed counterpart.

• THE FAMILIES!! Shay!! Y'know I’m not usually a multishipper - actually I’ve never done it before - but I love both hunay and hunelle. I’m totally ok with hunelle in an AU and hunay in voltron canon (Hunk clearly cares for her so much that even though I prefer Romelle I can’t go against that precious bean teary smile when Shay showed up.). Besides!! Platonic hunelle is really precious too. ALSO ALSO KOLIVAN AND KROLIA and Krolia is wearing a Leader's version of the BoM suit?? NICE

• Matt is back and looks more handsome than ever! I love the ponytail. I love his design. And his colors. And his new girlfriend?? If I remember correctly from the Naxzela episode the helmeted alien sounded like a girl. ALSO ARE THOSE PUPS BESIDES OLIA HER KIDS?? PRECIOUS PUPPERS

• ROMELLE. we need more of her gdi-

• IS THE ALTEAN MERLA OH GOD LET IT BE MERLA I’M BEGGING YOU-

• Lastly, another of my favorite bits: Piloting the Lions through their bond. It just goes so well with my headcanon that the quintessence of the pilot actually MERGES with the quintessence of the pilot, so much that when they’re connected like that even if the body dies the mind still goes on. The difference for me between this season and what Shiro went through is that the paladins still have their bodies to ground them and help them keep control, while Shiro was just… Lost in the astral plane, barely able to separate his consciousness from the Lion’s (so much that this only happened twice when the paladins were purposely trying to connect with his quintessence/spirit in the astral plane). It’s not as “romantic” as the whole ‘black SAVED SHIRO’ but I really think his time in the Black Lion was really unsettling: not being Shiro and not being Black, but some weird mix of the two (his sarcastic confusion towards lance early in the season also supports this: he wasn’t HIMSELF anymore. Thinking like a normal person and not like a robot is WEIRD for him). It’s a headcanon though but it’s mine and I will fight you on this (actually no pls don’t fight me).

*** Overall!! While not my favorite season (that’s 2 and 6), season 7 wasn’t BAD. Maybe I just had lower expectations since I spoiled myself out of anxiety. It wont be like s2 and s6 where I’ll binge watch the eps over and over again, but it’s pretty comfortable with s1 and s3 in “eh it was fine, ok, I like it”.

[That said, there WERE quite a few things that pissed me off about this season, but everyone is so negative rn and quite a few people already covered part of those reasons, so I wanted to post about good things!! I’ll probably do another post on the Bad Things of this season.]

[ursae-minoris-world]

Fans tend to forget that most Voltron viewers are casual viewers who don’t notice all the foreshadowing

I think a lot of people get frustrated with Voltron’s writing because sometimes it feels like we’re waiting for so long between the moment when we suspected something due to foreshadowing and the big reveal. What makes it worse is that in the meantime we keep projecting how we would like it to happen. And with fanfiction writers, comic artists and so on, we also see how others see it and we get excited about it, and sometimes are a bit disappointed when what happens in the show is not how we expected.

For instance, one of the first things that lets you suspect that Keith might have galra blood is in “return to the Balmera” when he interacts with Galra technology with his hand and it works. At least it’s the first thing I’ve personally noticed (I know he had his knife since episode one, but you couldn’t conclude much about it aside that it seemed important to him). And then evidence piles up, and the wait is kind of agonizing specially considering how we see Keith getting anxious about it...until the actual reveal in “Blade of Marmora”, 12 episodes later, right ?

Well yes, if you noticed this. Thing is... I’m pretty sure most viewers don’t.

Look, I’ve got 3 irl friends who are watching Voltron. They’re all adults, and I wouldn’t even call them “casual watchers” because they can be quite analytical in the media they consume, and some of them are actually storytellers themselves (in one case in a professional way as the person is a comic artist). At least two of them had realized Pidge’s identity from the photo in the pilot episode (which I had missed hahaha), so they’re definitely not blind.

None of them had caught that anything was weird with Shiro after his return. They all were REALLY surprised and not entirely convinced when I talked to them about clone theory and possible brainwashing.

In my case, when Shiro (or Kuron) escaped in “the Journey”, I was already wary at how easy his escape was, and was wondering if it was set up. When he saw that operation room with that other Shiro strapped to the table... for me it was such a punch in the gut that I literally had to pause the episode while cursing like a sailor and trying to catch my breath. Seriously.

Well... None of my friends had noticed anything. They just thought it was part of Shiro / Kuron’s flashback, and they hadn’t thought that usually his flashbacks are triggered by something...

So I asked one of my friends when she had started noticing about Keith’s origins. She told me “well given he looks entirely human, I hadn’t suspected anything at all until the Blade of Marmora episode.”

I’m putting the rest behind a "read more” because as usual this got really long.

Same with Keith becoming a Blade. I think a clever viewer realizes as soon as he sees the BOM episode that it looks kind of like an initiation. I personally only realized it in “Best laid plans” when Kolivan stepped in when Keith wanted to go on what he called a “suicide mission”. I thought something along the lines of “wait Kolivan why are you stepping in here he’s not one of your... oh sh!t he is one of your Blades now, isn’t he ?!” and Thace calling Keith a fellow Blade cemented it. So I got excited : are we going to see Keith join the Blades next season ? But, it was not addressed at all in s3, so I thought the show wasn’t going that route and that I had gotten excited over nothing. And then season 4 , 13 episodes after the BOM episode ? Keith joins the Blades. I was super excited first and then when he left Voltron I thought  “nooo I wanted it BUT NOT LIKE THAT !!!” lol.

I haven’t asked any of my friends about that. But I bet the casual watcher’s reaction is... to not think about this at all until they see Keith being a Blade in “Code of Honnor” and go “Oh ! Cool ! Keith’s a Blade, now !”

From the 2 more in depth conversations I had, my friends hadn’t noticed anything about Keith and Shiro’s backstory either, aside from “they knew each other”. They hadn’t realized at all that Keith got expelled from the garrison around the time where the Kerberos mission failed, and that those facts could be linked. We’re all here, trying to imagine it, writing / reading I don’t know how many “pre-kerberos” metas, fanfictions, fancomics, edits, etc. The average viewer probably just realizes they knew each other and seemed to be friends (and some even miss that). Even if they are curious about the back-story in the moment, when they don’t get it they don’t think much about it.

And look at Allura’s space magic ark : there are 17 episodes between Allura using magic to heal the Balmera, and her using it again against Haggar in “Blackout” ; then 13 episodes again before she uses it in “a New Defender”, and then 6 before the “White Lion”. Frustrating ? Yes. I bet the average, casual viewer, doesn’t think much about it and goes “oh, right, she does have space magic, that’s cool !” when she does use it.

And 23 episodes between Keith’s dad explaining that Keith’s mom gave him the BOM knife in “Blade of Marmora” and Keith finally finding Krolia in “Bloodlines”. But not every watcher expected Keith to find his mom. I know I hoped he’s find some answers, but I didn’t expect him to actually find her.

So here we are, waiting for season 6, and being impatient that “project Kuron” ark to finally come to an end, because we have been worried about it since season 3. Well, if, like me, the foreshadowing about Shiro’s arm being used to alter his memories in “Shiro’s escape” (s2) made you worry, then you’ve been anxious about it quite some time now.

After all, it’s been 14 episodes since “the Journey” so it feels about time for this to come to an end... Which is not that much longer than for Keith’s galra reveal (13 episodes) or Keith becoming a Blade (13 episodes). I admit it’s a particularly distressing ark : for “Kuron” who is in a dreadful situation ; for Shiro, if there is a double, because if that’s not Shiro... where is Shiro ? Is he ok ? Is he even alive ?! (oh please let him be alive). For the rest of the team, because of the way Haggar uses Kuron to spy on them. For Keith because he will be impacted by anything that affected Shiro, and because it really seems to me that his departure from Voltron was at least in part due to feeling rejected by Shiro (and the team).

But the casual viewer ? The casual viewer has only realized something was wrong in season 5 when he saw Haggar actually watch through Kuron’s eyes, and with the mindscape incident. He’s certainly hooked now on what will happen next, but not nearly as worried as the viewer who has suspicions since s3 (or even before).

And those viewers ? The viewers who catch the foreshadowing, and who try to see what’s coming ? They are a very little part of the general viewership of the show. And I’m just talking about the engaged viewer who notices stuff. The fans who discuss all that online, listen to every interview, dissect the show image by image, write long metas, or fanfictions or create art around it ? A very very small fraction of the viewership. We’re immersed in it; because well... we interact, and because we see those who interact (for the best and the worse) with the various creators of the show but... a lot of the viewers just enjoy their episodes, don’t dwell on them, and move on until the next season.

Voltron is written in layers so that different kinds of viewers can enjoy it !

Don’t forget that the most important target are young children who might want to play with the toys. Most of them will enjoy the fight sequences, the action, the funny stuff. Later, they’ll remember something like “oh I watched this show, the transformation sequence was cool, my fav lion was the red one and my fav character was Pidge !” and maybe a few of the most significant plot events. Maybe.

Older children might catch a bit more of the story, character arks, and themes. And start to enjoy the more emotional scenes.

The casual teenage or adult viewer will just... go with the flow and enjoy the plot twists when they happen.

The fans of the 80′s Voltron (another target, specially considering that they can have children in the age of watching too)  will mostly either enjoy the changes, or be frustrated about them. They will enjoy shout outs like Sven in “Hole in the Sky” or Allura’s pink armor, and so on. Other than that, their level of involvement can vary from “casual viewer” to “fan”.

Attentive viewers will notice some foreshadowing. They’ll probably be more engaged than the casual watcher because they’ll be more curious about how things will get solved. They might get frustrated when it takes to long to unfold, but mostly they should enjoy the story. (That was me while watching the first 2 seaons). I think attentive watchers are already a minority in the viewership. Honestly, most people I know are not that analytic about what they watch, and are casual watchers, whatever they’re watching.

And then, fans who are attentive watchers but also discuss and exchange theories on internet, and as such, miss even less of the clues ? They are the most engaged, but obviously also the most frustrated. We notice the most, we get more excited about it, we have more expectations because, as we’ve seen the signs, we start thinking about how we would like the story ark to be solved. Even if it feels there are many fans because we see a lot of them in our online experience... they are a very small part of the general viewership.

So when people get frustrated that we don’t have the answers for everything yet, and say it’s bad writing that it takes so long, or that some stuff isn’t addressed immediately... I’d like them to consider that the show isn’t written only for them. It’s actually quite impressive that this cartoons provides enough depth for us to be involved that much, to make crazy theories because foreshadowing, to make big character analysis because they are that well developed. In many tv shows, even ones for adults, you just can’t analyze that far. Because there’s just not that much to analyze !

But at the same time, it is still targeted towards kids. And it is still meant mainly as, well... commercials for robot toys.

Also, Voltron is clearly written as one, long, story. The seasons are only chapters. It doesn’t work like, say... Doctor Who, where every season is a story ark on its own that reaches a conclusion. It is normal to still have questions at the end of a new season. When we will have all the answers... the story will have reached it’s ending !

-----

So yeah, just my take on this, and I might be wrong but... really, I keep seeing fans being frustrated and considering that every watcher experiences the cartoon as they do but... I know that they don’t. A lot of people don’t.

And yes, people, it’s a cartoon for children. Stop comparing it to stuff written only for adults. Here the writers have to juggle so that children stay engaged and that adult viewers still have fun. And they managed to have a part of the viewers who have become deeply engaged fans. Honestly, I find it quite amazing.

[wicoppi]

Are you expecting a backlash if Keith does become Black Paladin or just a quiet, but disappointed acceptance?

Listen, I don’t know how you gained access to my private conversations because literally I received this ask while I was talking about fandom perceptions of Keith with a friend, but since you have access to my phone now, please just know I do not photograph the underside of every chair I come in contact with.. just a lot of them.. for educational purposes. 

I’m anticipating the fandom to split into 3 major houses if/when Keith becomes Black Paladin again- 

Pro Black Paladin Keith - Yaaassss finally it’s what he deserves!!! - This house will mostly consist of Keith stans, those who have been sippin’ that Keith loving juice from Day 1. The ones who have consistently enjoyed Keith’s character and arc and are genuinely happy to see him develop. And hopefully some new people will be welcomed into this fold- new because they’re just joining the fandom or because they previously didn’t like Black Paladin Keith but have grown to love him as his story unfolds.  

Anti Black Paladin Keith - This still makes no sense and is such a waste of story why are the creators of this show so stupid?? - This is where the people who don’t like and never will like Black Paladin Keith will camp. The ones who prefer Keith in Red, find the BoM arc unnecessary, and/or probably think another character is more suited to Keith’s leadership arc. The ones who have their own narrative for the show that they’ve convinced themselves could still be canon. While I really don’t agree with these people, I respect them for sticking by their opinions (Own your shit, but I just wish they’d be more open to new ideas). Some of these people may be quietly disappointed, but I’m anticipating most of them to grab their megaphones again and take to the streets. 

Performative Black Paladin Keith - OHMYGASH I literally love everything about Keith, look at how hot he is!!! - This is where the in-it-for-the-aesthetic fans will hang out, the ones who claim they’re fully invested in Keith but all they ever seem to talk about is how hot he is. Full tea, this house is going to be filled with a bunch of Shiro and Lotor stans. These are going to be people who either didn’t like or were indifferent to pre-tiddy Keith. But now that he’s a snacc they’re going to be all aboard for anything that means Keith gets more screen time. Not saying there’s anything wrong with appreciating Keith’s ..physical.. development, but there’s something to be said about the fact someone only wants to be invested in a character if they’re hot enough. 

Obviously there will be outliers that don’t fit in any of these houses and this isn’t a thorough description of any of these groups, but you get the idea. 

Bottom line, I’m expecting the usual level of bitching and hate to continue in regards to Black Paladin Keith. I don’t think enough people are going to suddenly change their minds for there to be a noticeable change in the fandom. But I’m also anticipating Keith stans to become more vocal and for more art to crop up which portrays Keith as masculine. (Less fem!Keith, more dom!Keith) 

In my ideal world, everyone would keep an open mind enough to enjoy the show for what it is without forcing their personal preferences in everyone’s faces. I wold love nothing more for people to pause their preconceptions and enjoy the wonder that is Voltron: Legendary Defender, but I’m realistic enough to know a lot of people in fandom joined for the ships and really only care about the aesthetic and the surface level canon content.