#shiro vs clone of shiro

[nerdytoafaultline]

[kismetconstellations]

There are so many ways that Voltron: Legendary Defender failed its characters. From the unfathomably idiotic decision to kill Allura off in the finale, to putting Coran through the pain of losing his family twice over, to all of the "jokes" at the expense of Hunk's anxiety, weight, and stomach problems.

But, to me, the most egregious example of this will forever be the numerous ways that Shiro was mistreated, even though I fully believe that most of them were unintentional and the fault of incompetence, rather than maliciousness.

I never expected a show with a TV-Y7 rating that was made to sell toys to children to address this character's extensive trauma in any meaningful way. And, perhaps there was a push behind the scenes to sideline him in order to bring Keith to the forefront, due to Keith being the head of Voltron in previous incarnations, and Shiro essentially being a Canon Foreigner created exclusively for this series.

But, when you have: - A poorly executed attempt to recreate Shiro's fight with Zarkon in the Astral Plane, void of the stunning visuals, impressively fluid fight choreography, and emotional and narrative stakes.

(Shiro fighting the show's main villain and his predecessor hand-to-hand for control of one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, vs the Paladins fighting shadowy, faceless foes that none of them- aside from Allura- have any personal connections to or conflict with, even once their identities are revealed, with long-range weapons, inside of Honerva's head.)

- Shiro, the previously "undefeated" Champion of Zarkon's gladiatorial arena and a highly trained and skilled martial artist, being slapped across the bridge of his own ship.

-Shiro's personal abuser telling him that the arm that was forcibly grafted onto his body in an attempt to turn him into a weapon for the Galra Empire is "the strongest part" of him,

Slav, an ally, echoing the sentiment and arguing that Shiro would be "even stronger with two robotic arms", and the first half of Season Seven confirming as much by depicting Shiro standing, often completely mute, on the sidelines

until he's outfitted with a new prosthetic arm. Only then is he actively allowed to participate in combat, again, and promoted to Captain of the Atlas.

-Shiro winning an intergalactic arm wrestling tournament to prove that he isn't a washed-up retiree (at the ripe old age of twenty-six), with that prosthetic.

-Said prosthetic being a mirror of his abuser's.

-No acknowledgement of Shiro's essence being transferred into the body of his clone that is down an arm. Or, how he's coping with not only not having a right arm at all, but also having been dead for a huge chunk of time, trapped inside the consciousness of the Black Lion and watching on helplessly as someone wearing his face tried to kill everyone he loves, and then resurrected to be suddenly "retired" through no choice of his own.

-Aside, of course, from an all-too lighthearted and chipper comment on routine helping him get through "being in the infinite void of the Black Lion", and a throwaway quip about how "having my consciousness transplanted from the infinity of Voltron's inner quintessence into the dead body of an evil clone of myself" has left him "a little out of sorts".

-And, Shiro not getting to kill his abuser, or even best him in combat.

Instead, he lies beaten and helpless, once again, as Keith, his replacement, takes Sendak out.

It crosses the line from clumsy writing to infuriating negligence and ineptitude.

The repeated violations of Shiro's autonomy, and what seems by all rights to be unintended ableism, even though it borders on outright disrespectful, went above and beyond any terrible writing and direction that I anticipated gritting my teeth and slogging through when I decided to finally bite the bullet and watch this show. It's utterly baffling to me that no one seemed to stop and realize that, "Hey, maybe introducing and then reinforcing the sentiment that a disabled man's prosthetic is the 'strongest part' of him, and he's effectively weak and useless without it, is a bad idea", at any point in the creative process before these episodes made it to air.

I wholeheartedly believe that as much as other characters were wronged, Voltron: Legendary Defender and its notoriously hellish fanbase that was more concerned with who these characters were having sex with than the actual plot, did not deserve Takashi Shirogane.

Shiro; a gay man, ace pilot, ambitious space explorer, and scarred trauma survivor who was abducted and forced to kill for the entertainment of his captors, subjected to unimaginable torture, and had his body modified without his knowledge or consent twice, yet never let any of his experiences, no matter how grueling or dehumanizing, stop him from being gentle, compassionate, noble, brave, self-sacrificing, and everything that epitomizes a True Hero, right to the bitter end.

[ang-900]

The Original Voltron Adaptations Vs Their Original Japanese Counterparts.

Beast King Go-Lion:

Go-Lion/Voltron's backstory is that he got split due to his hubris after thinking he could take on the space goddess.

Voltron is a sentient being who lived long before time.

Voltron's title is king of the beasts.

All the pilots, save Fala/Allura, are from Earth.

All the boys are effectively in the same boat as VLD Shiro and have the gladiator backstory.

Earth is dead and gone, consumed by World War 3 by the start of the show.

Allura is canonically 16.

Raible/Coran's a strategist.

Altea/Arus's people were assumed to all be destroyed (especially the royal family), but they're all hiding out.

Allura's parents and siblings are executed by Daibazaal/Zarkon's hand while she was a year old baby. Zarkon didn't know she existed.

Hiroshi Suzuishi/Pidge is descended from Ninja.

There's so much blood and gore. People get cut in half vertically and horizontally. We get the privilege of watching people drop dead on screen with these horrifying faces and screams. Zarkon and Sincline/Lotor drink blood, too.

Honerva/Haggar has this bs called occult science.

Akira Kogane/Keith and Allura are so slowburn to the point it might not exist between them.

King Raimon/Alfor's ghost comes back from the grave to tell the paladins how much they suck.

Pidge threatens to eat the space mice twice.

Shirogane Takashi/Sven dies and and a later episode introduces his younger brother, Ryou/Sven, who was captured as a slave among others before Earth was fully destroyed.

Cannibalism

A tragic side character commits suicide at the end of an episode

Amue/Romelle's older brother is willingly turned into a robeast. Her older brother and father are both murdered by the Galra during a battle with Voltron.

Earth is completely destroyed and uninhabitable. The boys become honorary citizens of Arus.

A scene depicting Pidge's mother shows her seeing him off his mission. It's the last time he sees her.

Lotor has a dream about his mother where it suggests Zarkon had a hand in her disappearance. A flashback occurs showing us she was a good person and was killed for moral differences.

Coran's son, Saint/Garret, died as an infant while he and his mother were escaping from the castle. They are buried by a local group of people. The Galra dig up this grave to clone him.

Hys/Nanny is shot by Garret and dies.

A father-daughter bond is implied between Coran and Allura when the latter comforts the former after the Garret incident.

The Galran foot soldiers are living beings.

Romelle almost died via firing squad.

One notable robeast involved a snake like being who survived a civil massacre amongst her people and was introduced burying her deceased child. She adopts Pidge within the same episode. She dies at the end from blood loss.

Another notable side character was a sand person. Allura befriends this one by giving it her bracelet. The sand person is turned into a robeast. It's implied the sand person dies at the end, though it is unclear why.

During the final battle, Lotor sends out trapped prisoners in bubbles as bombs so Voltron can't move without killing them. Lotor also shoots them as missles. Haggar also shoots at the prisoners so Voltron can move and end Lotor's career.

Haggar's motive in helping Voltron lies in that Lotor killed Zarkon.

Haggar is Zarkon's mother.

Ryou dies fighting Lotor.

Honerva dies. Zarkon dies. Lotor dies.

Voltron: Defender of the Universe:

"We don't need clothes." Keith, 1984.

Arus is still alive, they just get attacked.

Voltron's backstory is that Haggar disguised herself as said space goddess and wrecked Voltron into five pieces.

Coran's a diplomat.

Voltron's title is King of the Robots

Galaxy Garrison exists here.

Allura grew up an only child and seldom saw her parents because they were busy.

Sven is severely injured and is, instead, sent to another planet to recuperate, but gets captured as a slave on planet Doom and thinks he's crazy.

Zarkon disrespects Haggar likes it's nobody's business.

King Alfor built Voltron.

Zarkon has a nephew

Pidge has a sister who's stated to be training as a pilot.

That same tragic side character is said to have returned to her home planet offscreen

Romelle's older brother is willingly turned into a robeast. He swims out to see in the middle of a battle with Voltron. Romelle's father in consequence goes mad and is implied to have died as a result.

Balto is ravaged by Lotor's forces. Pidge becomes an honourary citizen of Arus.

Pidge is an orphan and the scene of his mother depicts his adoption

Lotor has a dream about Allura instead. Allura's nightmare shows us she's afraid of Zarkon.

"Lotor, my beloved son, you're a nitwit." -Zarkon, 1984

Doom/Drule council.

Coran's son, Garret, and his wife are said to be alive in another dimension they were beamed to when the Galra attacked them. The clone is robotic like.

Allura when comforting Coran after the Garret incident, calls him a good man.

Lance is a country boy.

The Doom foot soldiers are robots.

Romelle was sentenced to be shot by a firing squad with stun guns.

Lotor and Haggar look for a new robeast victim among the Medusans. Audibly noting that they're all in a deep rest. That Medusan lady chooses to adopt Pidge. She also gets hurt, but it's implied she lives.

The episode about the sand people goes relatively the same way. However, the sand person is stated to be exhausted, but alive.

Sven is injured and sent back to planet Pollux to heal.

During the final battle, Lotor sends out robots in bubbles to trap Voltron. Keith can't move him because the bombs would blow up in their face. Lotor shoots them as missiles. Haggar shoots them down so Voltron can end Lotor's career.

Zarkon lives. Haggar lives. Lotor lives.

Pidge has a brother, Chip.

The same:

The Robeasts sometimes have unique tits (long, metallic, and spiky).

Lotor has three different kinds of chins and noses he alternates between.

Allura's only living relative is her aunt.

Armoured Fleet Dairugger XV:

The show begins with a strong theme linked to the lifestyle and aspirations of young sailors staking their life on the sea.

The Galaxy Alliance's goal is to create a star map of the universe, explore planets, and potentially colonize one.

Shinji Ise/Commander Hawkins is unsure if there are any lifeforms other than the three species in the Galaxy Alliance.

There are three planets in the Galaxy Alliance: Earth, Mira, and Sala.

Miranda Keats/Krik has telepathy.

Barros Karateya/Zandee is possibly from New York.

The cook can sing and cook.

Krik and Moya Kirigas/Cinda are Mirans.

Shota Kreutz/Wolo and Saruka Katz/Tangor are Salans.

The main fleet has spent 7 months in space.

Manabu Aki/Jeff hates spicy food.

Tatsuo Izumo/Shannon has no deeper reason to hate the Galveston/Drule other than they've been fighting one another recently.

Sim/Sandu dies as a pilot with his ship.

Wolo's brother dies.

Haruka Kaga/Lisa's singing when the force is stalled on the weather planet.

Murder

Captain Barataria/Brak kills himself.

Walter Jack/Cliff's brother's name is Jimmy.

Cliff has a magic hobby. He wants to be a member of the Magic Castle in Hollywood.

The Dairugger crew/Vehicle force sing the theme song when sending off Captain Dick Asimov/Stanley.

The planet Hawkins saw blow up was a consequence of the Galra not wanting a base to be built on that planet - Planet Apollo.

Krik on his shift as commander simply orders the teams to head to their vehicles.

The Vehicle Force are observing the artifact they collected in a previous episode with hopes and doubts the civilization survived.

Commander Hagi/Kernel Klaus dies.

Director Wakasa/Marshal Graham is peeved the people aren't taking Drule threat seriously.

Drake/Mongo dies. Teles/Hazar has a devastating reaction to it.

Graves

Krik is implied to be a prince.

Sirk/Dorma has no biological relation to Hazar and instead is his adjutant.

Hazar's father is a Homeworld secretary socrat and he's immediately dismissed from this position when Hazar returns to Galveston.

Planet Mira has flowers similar to purple orange-spotted flowers.

The Vehicle team learned space combat at the space fortress.

The queen of Eldora states the Galran frontline base is east of the planet Eldora, in the area where the blue light shines.

Earth gets attacked, and are fending off the Galra.

Yasuo Mutsu/Chip trained really hard at the space fortress' juvenile school in terms of science.

The pendant Lisa gives Jeff is what her mother gave her before Dairugger's departure from Earth. Lisa considers this a souvenir.

Commander Date/Kernel Kerbert* and crew die due to how damaged the ship is.

Patty Ellington/Ginger planted a seed she found in her room. She compares the growth of the plant to their perseverance.

A sunset reminds Cliff of his hometown.

Hazar gets promoted to commander of the attack fleet.

Pidge dreams of driving his mother to Mt. Fuji. We see her physically in the back seat.

Krik's letter is from his father who states harvest is good on Mira. Cliff's letter's from his father who sends his greetings to Ginger.

The photo of the baby is Jeff's newborn nephew. He has at least one sibling.

Chip is a lonely single child.

Lisa and Chip are childhood friends. They were in the same class in juvenile school, and they trained together at the space fortress.

Kazuto Nagato/Hutch and Tasuku Izu/Marvin insult the three girls. They're mad because Kai Shinobu/Rocky previously talked about Emma/Twyla continuously, whilst Hutch says he grows tired of the three. Ginger trips Hutch and he cries.

Commander Twyla dies.

The crew of the Space Explorer play rugby with a squad of Galra soldiers. They all die.

Both the buck and the fawn die.

The two dolphins die. One was a calf. The mother swims head on to a bomb.

Ginger is grievously injured, and is piloting her machine while fighting off sleep medication. She is dedicated to fighting by her team.

Hazar hesitates to land a killing blow and his gun is shot from his hand. Dorma shoots the body guard and in pain he shoots about wildly, accidentally striking Emperor Corsair/Zeppo - who dies.

The date by the time of the Drule evacuation is Feb 9 in the space year 2203.

Commander Newley agrees the Drules should have the third planet of the 26 system as they have nowhere to go.

Commander Hazar is assassinated by three Galveston soldiers. One of whom is Sandu's younger brother.

Jeff gives Lisa's necklace to Hazar's corpse.

Voltron: Defender of The Universe - Vehicle:

The Galaxy Garrison's motive is to find a second planet because Earth is suffering overpopulation.

It's implied the Vehicle Team and crew already encountered Hazar. He is described as a pirate.

The Vehicle Force call themselves the Voltron Force.

The Vehicle Force can only stay combined for five minutes.

Lisa is implied go be an alien.

Wolo's planet has seven moons.

There is a spy aboard the Galaxy Cruiser for the Drules. This is never touched upon again.

The food is crap.

Krik's from a water planet and it was at one point saved by Voltron.

Krik has ESP abilities.

The Drule have a confirmed child soldier among their ranks.

Shannon's brother was taken prisoner and is currently being held on Planet Doom.

Commander Hawkins pours hot chocolate from kettles.

Wolo's brother is implied to have survived the encounter with the beast.

Lisa talks about past African civilization when the Force is stalled on the weather planet.

Commander Brak says he'll move to another planet if the Galra choose to be peaceful.

Cliff is a country boy. Has a confirmed younger brother named Ginny* and two other brothers.

The Voltron Force are singing "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" for Captain Newley's farewell party.

Commander Hawkins saw a planet, Orus*, get blown up. The reason for its destruction is unknown.

Krik on his round as commander gives orders with great enthusiasm which is noted by his teammates.

The chef paints as a hobby and the Vehicle Force spend an entire scene roasting his painting.

Kernel Klaus lives and wants to continue building bases.

Marshal Graham is down in the dumps when people joke about him and other high ranking personnel.

Mongo took an experimental time travel ship 😭 and left the empire for good because he no longer wanted to be a part of war.

Hazar drops the photo of him and Mongo because he's clumsy. He looks at it and wishes the latter luck.

The Drule are searching for a new planet due to a transient sun while the Galaxy Garrison are searching due to overpopulation.

Commander Hawkins and Jeff's relationship is funnier than it needs to be.

Ginger got run over twice by joggers.

Lisa invented a carrot and cabbage cocktail she calls 'C & C'.

Pidge and Chip are twins.

Jeff's favourite food is spaghetti.

Jeff has been intentionally skipping Professor Page's plant seminars.

We see Krik's family photo.

Hazar and Dorma are brother sister and he has a good relationship with her.

Commander Nerok escapes in an escape shuttle.

The crew drinks hot chocolate in their downtime.

Earth gets attacked and wins against the Drule.

Ginger brought an unknown plant seed aboard ship and is growing a small plant.

Jeff explains a learned philosophical viewpoint to Commander Hawkins, and the latter's answer is that Jeff would make a great politician.

Lisa bought a good luck charm from a wizard on Planet Korb*. Jeff doesn't believe in that, but he wears the necklace the following episode.

"There is a good chance the lieutenant could be damaged." & "You're a brave fool." -Krik, 1985

Pidge and Chip studied solar energy as a hobby.

Kernel Kerbert* and his crew survive by fleeing in escape ships.

Jeff has a dog named Rover. He named a planet after said dog, an idea Commander Hawkins shoots down.

Krik's father bought another hydro bionic farm that he will inherit one day.

It's implied Cliff writes about Ginger to his brother as they want to meet 'that smashing Ginger'.

Jeff's family sent his baby photo. He thinks he's still cute.

Lisa and Chip are close enough she recognizes his hand writing.

Chip dreams about Pidge. He worries greatly about his brother after the lack of a letter.

Hutch insults the three girls based on their looks implying Twyla is hotter. Ginger trips Hutch after he, Marvin, and Rocky insult all three female members of the Voltron Force and he cries.

Commander Twyla escapes in an escape shuttle.

The Voltron Force play football with the Drule. Jeff finds Lieutenant Antor seriously hurt under rubble, but they heal him and he lives.

The buck dies but the fawn lives.

The dolphin is a single dolphin who somehow managed to disable a missile and survive.

"We just signed an important peace treaty right at this table. I've agreed to let Ginger slurp up her spaghetti, and she's agreed to let me slurp up my soup." -Cliff to Jeff, (Ginger present).

"Well I didn't sign and I want my own table away from you." -Krik to Cliff and possibly Jeff, (Ginger present).

Episode 45. Episode 45 is way too funny. Krik and Cinda crave coconuts out of the blue, ask Commander Hawkins if they can stop at a planet for some, and Krik salutes to his commander that it was a 'dumb idea'.

Ginger has PTSD from an experience as a child where she survived a ship blowing up.

The Drule home-world had destructive material buried under the surface.

Hazar spares Zeppo, but the latter's body is slumped on the throne.

Captain Newley relocates the Drule to a planet in the fourth quadrant in the far galaxy.

Hazar lives.

Krik is passive-aggressive.

The Drule blow up perfectly good planets they can't have.

The Same:

Krik has ESP abilities.

Krik can possibly play an instrument. He holds it the entire time, however.

Jeff, when he takes the first shift as Commander, is disgusted and reluctant to sit beside Commander Hawkins much to the amusement of the man.

Commander Hawkins is passive aggressive.

The Drule homeworld is getting hotter. All the residents have moved below ground, and starvation is prominent.

Krik pilots Voltron when Jeff is out of commission.

Krik shoves a whole gun into Jeff's pants.

The Sky Team ft. Krik drive a tank/enemy patrol car.

Dorma is kidnapped and asked to join the resistance which she steadily accepts.

Original Japanese:

All the foot soldiers are organic.

Consequences. Consequences everywhere.

A good portion of one note characters die.

Adapted Shows:

Stun guns. Stun guns everywhere.

All the foot soldiers are robots.

Bonus Voltron season 3:

King Alfor's ghost can bend the fabric of space. He can also shoot lasers without a gun.

Nanny lives.

Pidge has formed murderous intent towards the castle mice.

Fifth castle mouse.

Commander Cossack a.k.a. Cossack the Terrible.

Lotor drinks something called a mean potion that increases his meanness.

Queen Merla.

King Deus Ex Machina Alfor.

Lotor gets put in jail and has his allowance revoked.

"You don't know Zarkon like I do." -Lance, 1985.

Bonus Bonus Fleet of Doom:

Chip is taller than Pidge.

Hunk is buddies with Modac.

Wolo and Lance used to lightly "bully" Cliff.

Keith and Jeff are competitive with each other.

6 year-old Keith got lost in a forest.

Haggar has two wolves within her (not literal wolves).

*Not sure what the confirmed spelling is but I did my best to spell it like it sounds.

[crypticbeliever123]

Lance and Keith fanart. Not sure if I ship them or not. I recently started rewatching the show and while I don't see the chemistry in that I like the fan content of them and that's the same rabbit hole that led to me shipping Steve x Tony in Marvel so we'll see where this goes.

I already started getting ideas for a reboot fic where they like each other. It takes inspiration from the popular Dads of Marmora AU concept so Keith and Lance don't know each other prior to the series and Keith is this super cool and mysterious space ninja that Lance starts crushing on and Keith is like one of the only people who notices that Lance isn't a total dumbass and is actually capable in his own right. Keith is also not as cool as Lance thinks because he's not an actual Blade member and is more their ward whose codename is "Cub". He is super embarrassed by that codename while Lance thinks it's adorable. There's other stuff in this fic idea like the Shiro clone being the one to return to Earth in the first place, fully aware he's a clone and a spy for the Galra who has Haggar in his head at all times. Allura is Black Paladin. Shiro clone who eventually goes by Sven is Red Paladin and instead of being chosen because Red=hotheaded it's because the Red Lion seeks out those with self doubt and a fire to prove themselves. Sven has a massive inferiority complex and absolutely hates OG Shiro who was saved from death by the Blades and sees Sven as a grumpy twin. They are golden retriever vs black cat energy.

[bosstoaster]

Sorry if this is unwarranted, but has your writing process been affected by the switch from a large fandom (voltron) to a smaller fandom (mgs)? I imagine that though you'll get less feedback it is nice to be known by most readers in a smaller fandom?

Not unwarranted at all! By all means, ask away.

Well, for me, the switch wasn't so dramatic because I was already in a pretty niche part of the Voltron fan space. My Shiro focus (and later, my focus on specifically his clone) meant I was never doing crazy numbers compared to the size of the fandom. Which, to be frank, was something I was glad for. In that fandom I didn't want crazy attention because it meant I was going to be harassed for the crime of -checks notes- not following along with the moving goalpost of whatever made the big ship the only one that was allowed. So.

I think there's also a degree of 'I'm one of a crowd of people, therefore I don't have to comment, someone else will' in bigger fandoms too. Ratio wise, I technically get more comments-per-hit in MGS. I did the math, and I compared A Secret I Will Keep (originally standalone, first fic in a fandom) vs Your Grace is Wasted (originally standalone, first fic in a fandom).

Secret has 81 comment threads to 4,250 hits, which is about 1.9% comments to hits. Grace has 178 comment threads to 24,960 hits, which is .7%.

This is all mostly academic, though, because at the end of the day it does come down to how it feels. And I will say that I feel deeps in response from MGS much more than I did in Voltron. If I don't get comments within 24-48 hours, I know it means that the couple of people who consistently review might just be busy, but also it feels really bad, actually! It makes me worried if I seriously fucked something up and people are bailing on me.

I also don't really get 'big fish in a small pond' vibes too much? Once in a while I'll be in a more public Discord group and get 'oh hey I know your fics' responses, or someone new will join one of my regular areas and they'll know my work ahead of time. That does feel pretty sweet. Not gunna lie. But 90% of the time I'm with friends and then, ya know, I'm just part of the gang. And that's really how I prefer my fandom experience.

I wish I was building up to some greater conclusion, but I guess I'm not. End of the day, I'm some weirdo who has too many feelings about clone boys, and I do really, really appreciate the feedback I get for them.

But let's be real, you don't get author BNFs these days, or at least really rarely. So... shrug emojis all around on this one, folks. I'm rambling.

I have no idea if this answered what you wanted to find.

[daniarts19]

Characters in my LGBT headcanons

I just putting this because I can’t open my old account because of my google account being hacked,

Lesbian: Catra (She-Ra), Namaari, (Raya and the Last Dragon), Ivy (Carmen Sandiego 2019), Amity (The Owl House), Spinel (Steven Universe), Cassandra (Tangled), Andrea (The Ghost and Molly McGee), Mary (Total Drama), Apple White (Ever After High), Sammy (Camp Cretaceous), Alex (Dragons the Nine Realms) , Julia (Total Drama)

Gay: Ryan Akagi (Infinity Train), Shiro (Voltron), Benson (Kipo), Ryan (The Wild; my version of Ryan), Logs (Dead End), Bia Zao (Kung Fu Panda legend of Awesome; rewritten), Raj (Total Drama), Aristotle (Billie Bust Up), Diazo (Strange World), Bowie (Total Drama)

Bi: Frey Holland (Forspoken), Lapis (Steven Universe), Owen (Total Drama), Min-Gi (Infinity Train), Carmen Sandiego, Marcy (Amphibia) Luz (The Owl House), Alberto (Luca), Bodi (Rock Dog), Mirabel (Encantó), Jun (Dragons and the Nine Realms), Luisa (Encanto), Krel (3 Below), Edric (The Owl House), Moxxie (Helluva Boss), Tulip Olsen (Infinity Train), Lance McClain (Voltron), Raya (Raya and the Last Dragon), Naomi (Elena of Avalor), Lena (Ducktales), Savannah (Ron’s Gone Wrong), Viper (Kung Fu Panda), Mr. Snake (The Bad Guys), Priya (Turning Red), Eda (The Owl House), Tyler (Turning Red), Lil'Foxy/Francine (Rock Dog), Chizu (Samurai Rabbit), Kitsune (Samurai Rabbit) , Sasha (Amphibia), Ethan (Strange World; respect that opinion), Norma (Dead End), Priya (Total Drama), Hunter (The Owl House), Naida (Lego Elves), Lucy Santana (Daniel Spellbound), Peng (Kung Fu Panda Legend of Awesome; rewriten), Wakko (Animaniacs), Yaz (Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous), Millie (Total Drama), Star (Star vs the Forces of Evil), Ellody (Total Drama), Mermista (She-Ra), Lily Lightly (MLP G3 My version), Raven Queen (EAH), Abe (Clone High), Soleil (Fright Krewe), Hal (Wish), Starlight Glimmer (MLP), Axel (Total Drama), Frida (Clone High), Marianne (Strange Magic; my version ), Floyd (Trolls), Connor (Ruby Gillman Teenage Kraken)

Ace: Twilight Sparkle (My Little Pony; Biromantic), Mantis (Kung Fu Panda; panromantic), Mr. Peabody (heteroromantic), Hans (Frozen; heteromantic), Libby (The Ghost and Molly McGee; biromantic), Ms. Tarantula (The Bad Guys; panromantic), Anne (Amphibia; panromantic), Ezekiel (Total Drama; heteromantic), Luca (heteromantic), Lilith Clawthorne (The Owl House House; Aroace), Po (KFP), Abby (Turning Red; Panromantic), Angus (Rock Dog; Heteroromantic) Lauren/Scary Girl (Total Drama; Aroace), Peridot (SU; Aroace), Sierra (TD; Aroace), Douxie (Tales of Acardia; Biromantic), Byx (Endling; Panromantic), Jay Snake (Descendants; Demiromantic), Octavia (Helluva Boss; Biromantic), Elian (Spellbound; Biromantic)

Pan: Adora (She-Ra), Kipo (Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeast), Sam (Green Eggs and Ham), Jo (Kid Cosmic), M.T/Lake (Infinity Train), Wander (Wander Over Yonder), Camilo (Encanto), Molly McGee (The Ghost and Molly McGee), Val Little (Monsters at Work), Blitzo (Helluva Boss), BeetleJuice, Emira (The Owl House), Rider (Centaurworld), Nooshy (Sing 2), Yuichi Usagi (Samurai Rabbit), Zack (Carmen Sandiego), Willow (The Owl House), Casey (Moongirl and Devil Dinosaur), Kitty (Total Drama), Wandering Blade (The Dragon Knight), Valor (Bravelands; my version), Briar Beauty (EAH; my version), Cheng Lonnie (Descendants; my version), Tom (SVTFOE), MK (Total Drama), Ruby Gillman

Queer: Katie (The Mitchells vs the Machines), Stolas (Helluva Boss), Honeymaren (Frozen), Vi (Arcane; into being lesbian) Caitlyn (Arcane; possibly Bi)

Trans: Barney (Deadend; also gay)

Non-Binary: Thunder (Nine Realms; Pronouns as He/Him), Nari (Tales of Acardia: Pronouns as She/Her), Raine Whispers (THO), The Collector (THO; Pronouns as He/Him), Asher (Kipo), Billie (Billie Bust Up; pronouns as she/they and her/them)

Demi:, Tin Tin (Heteromantic) Doom (The Bad Guys Books; biromantic), Vee (Panromantic) Aira (Lego Elves; biromantic), DJ (Total Drama; heteromantic)

Well I hope you like this. (Please don’t send rude comments, just respect this).

[wifeswarmacademy]

Welcome to the Clamp Ship Mega Poll Round 1.

This is partially seeded. i picked some ships that i thought were popular in the top 10 and some that i personally dislike in the bottom, the rest are placed arbitrarily into the seed because jesus christ 64 ships is too many.

I would like to apologize for any ships I may have missed, especially from any of the anime adaptations I havent seen, Kobato (which i havent finished), or gate 7 (which i havent started). i asked in a small clamp discord for any i missed and i just added some.

Matchups Links

Syaoran/Sakura vs Rika/Terada Fujitaka/Nadeshiko vs Nadeshiko/Sonomi Hisui/Kokuyo vs Watanuki/Zashiki-Warashi Magic Knights Polycule vs Watanuki/Haruka Subaru/Kamui (X) vs Yuna D Kaito/Akiho Chiharu/Yamazaki vs Kotaro/Tamayo Hikaru/Lantis/Eagle vs Kamui's Bisexuality Kero/Spinel vs Hideki/Chii

Seishiro/Subaru (TB/X) vs Hina/Shiro Yuzuhira/Kusanagi vs Sakura/Tomoyo Eri/Sukiyabashi vs Subaru/Kamui (TRC) Jotaro/Kakyoin vs Yuuko/Clow Touya/Yukito vs Kohane/Doumeki Miyuki's Lesbianism vs Kotaro/Misaki Kentaro/Takeshi vs Kobato/Kiyokazu Watanuki/Himawari vs Kakei/Saiga

Doumeki/Watanuki vs Mizuki/Eriol Touya/Yue vs Sue/Kazuhiko Meiling/Tomoyo vs Tsubasa/Tsubasa Akira/Utako vs Dita/Zima Syaoran/Sakura (Clone) vs Chitose/Icchan Seiichiro/Karen vs Misaki/Ohjiro Doumeki/Watanuki/Himawari vs Princess Hinoto's Halves Shuichiro/Kohaku vs Hiroyasu/Yumi

Kurogane/Fai vs Taishakuten/Ashura-O Fuu/Ferio vs Umi/Clef Sorata/Arashi vs Seishiro/Subaru (TRC) Emeraude/Zagato vs Yuuko/Himawari Fuuma/Kamui (X) vs Minoru/Yuzuki Umi/Ascot vs Clow/Yue Souma/Kendappa vs Tachibana/Sakura Kazuhiko/Oruha vs Kazahaya/Rikuo

[astralscrivener]

for the fic ask game! ★✎ϟ (for this one, in my case it's gotta be every angsty moment you write, especially every time keith cries or has a breakdown in soopits lmao <3<33)

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in [fic]? what was the hardest scene to write?

gonna use SOOPITS for this question as well! in terms of chapters that are already posted, for what i wanted to write:

keith's almost assassination. i had been sitting on that for YEARS. that chapter started as a oneshot idea shortly after s3 aired (and the fandom put together in like 5 minutes that "shiro" was a clone). the oneshot never came to fruition, and then when i started SOOPITS i realized i needed to use it. desperately. the broganes angst. the klance angst. the chaos of "oh okay so we just have a secret assassin on our ship drifting in space. cool cool cool". very among us. i tried to write an among us oneshot a few years later during late 2020 and then realized that was essentially the entire s5-6 arc

the s6 finale (6.06 & 6.07). i had the ending of s6 planned FOREVERRRR i had the scene of lance in the black lion in my mind for YEEAAARSSSSS i had the keith & lance vs kuron + shiro vs sendak fights in my head FOREVERRRR i would constantly make music videos in my head to those chapters on my walks to class for a good 2 or 3 years. i dearly miss walking across the quad with starset or the score or hidden citizens blasting in my head.

the KEITH BREAKDOWN in OPERATION KURON (6.05). another chapter i had rattling around in my mind for years. like hey it sure is fucked up that your older brother is actually a clone who tried to kill you! you know all those walls you had up? it is NOT going to be enough to hold this breakdown off. MAN. MAN

hardest scene? the goddamn TRIAL. before the current chapter which is giving me grief (gameshow rewrite), the trial chapter took me AGES. i started it in like september 2019. by the time i updated it, it was ten months later. july 2020. covid had started. everyone's lives were in shambles. i rewrote it dozens of times. i watched judge judy as "research." i had extensive talks with nicole. i hated writing that chapter so bad but i feel like the ending was rewarding enough

✎ how do you think readers would guess a fic was yours if you posted anonymously?

so i actually do have a reliable answer for this. keith and lance almost always have a very "us against the world" kind of mindset in my fics, and i guess someone reading one of my fics one time didn't look at the author that closely and realized it was me when they did their whole "you and me" "us against the world" shtick so. devoted klance ig! disgustingly in love dumbasses!

ϟ tell me what moment/scene in [fic] made you sicko in the window.jpg to read and i’ll tell you which scene made me feel that way to write

my GODDDDDDD first of all thank you. i also go bonkers over writing keith being emotional. he's very repressed in public / in front of the team and in private he is a mess and emotional. boy has walls up

scenes that made me sicko in the window to WRITE are indeed all the scenes where keith is emotional, especially those scenes in s4 (particularly 4.05) where he tells off kuron. stand UP for yourself bestie !!!

also, all of the scenes in 6.06/6.07 with keith, matt, and lotor, and then in 7.01/.02/.03 with keith, matt, and pidge. i LOVE writing keith and matt as friends/relating to each other, but also i love writing keith and pidge as besties who relate to each other. i am having a GREAT time making matt avoid his own trauma.

oh and also? the entire operation kuron chapter. actually just all of 6.05-6.07. absolutely fucking bonkers. cackling at my monitor the whole time

thank u for the asks these are fun !!

fic ask game!

[starburstdragon]

Guys Who Are Multiple Guys Tournament, Round 1

Finn

“Multivariate shenanigans, time travel and reincarnation forces him to encounter and sometimes fight other versions of himself. One version is possessed by a grass curse and has an entire arc trying to come to terms with his identity as a person in a world with a 'better' version of himself.” - User submission

Shiro

“He got cloned and it was a whole thing to get him back. He also had two AU versions of himself in the show (Sven and Giro kings)” - User submission

I didn’t watch the last two or three seasons of this show and never rewatched it. Good for him though. Or sorry that happened.

[void-tiger]

Even if!! they did “black paladin Keith” well I’d still hate it because:

-Shiro is so intrinsic to the Plot and Themes, and Black Lion/Black Paladinship to Shiro

-Red Lion/Red Paladinship suits Keith so well

-ALL the initial Lions&Paladins suited the characters well while still having plenty of room for these characters to grow and have their initial roles continue to suit them Better

And no. No I won’t ever be “over it.”

[caithyra]

Aspirations and Aspersions

Y’know, writing that ramble about the Volume 8 OP made me realize that James Ironwood gave/offered RWBY everything they wanted out of life as huntresses as per Ruby talking to Ozpin about becoming a huntress in the interrogation/entrance room and the other three in Mountain Glenn’s camp.

Ruby: “My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it! I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and really, gosh, you know!” - Volume 1: Ruby Rose

Ironwood: “Ruby, I feel it's appropriate to let you know that I think what you did last night is exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat. You took action. And you did the very best you could.” - Volume 2: Field Trip

Weiss states that she wants to fix public perception of the Schnee Dust Company by being a heroic huntress, and that her father has been bad, and we know he’s been abusive towards her now and that she specifically went to an academy in another kingdom to get away.

Ironwood publicly defends her at the gala and assures her that if she cannot stand living with her father, she can join his academy and be safe there and a huntress to boot.

Blake’s entire character is about the (botched) racism arc against faunus, and more broadly, about prejudice (since she also fights against faunus she finds “prejudiced” against humans). She states that she became a huntress to fight the good fight as part of regular society, instead of the unlawful acts she committed before and her mentor (yes, she calls Adam a mentor and partner in this episode, never boyfriend or even “guy I liked”) still does.

Ironwood, in super-racist Atlas, as the headmaster of the academy has the entire kingdom represented by a flamboyantly perky faunus who is not ashamed to show what she is, and a man from impoverished circumstances, at the most important international event in the entire world, that symbolizes friendship and harmony (it is played out in the Amity Arena for goodness’ sake!). As the general he also has a faunus on his most famous top team in the military. In short, he’s using his institutional power for good as much as he can while staying within the boundaries of societal rules so that he wont lose those powers and abilities to help.

(Also, there’s that whole “running away” thing... I wonder how Blake would have liked it if she was trapped with Adam immediately following the Fall of Beacon instead of on her way to her tropical paradise palace family home...?)

Yang just want an adventurous life where she is free to do as she wishes. After she lost her arm and fell into depression, that was threatened. And society is not built for one-handed people, so even if she pulled out of her depression without a prosthetic, she would have to face the frustration of moving about in a world made for two-handed people and her diminished fighting ability, since she would need to learn an entirely new fighting style to compensate.

Ironwood, when global communications are down and people are panicking because a kingdom has fallen on the last international broadcast, manages to get a state-of-the-art, custom-made for Yang’s semblance (or it would break), prosthetic arm to the other side of the world for her, no strings attached and for free, which means that she has a choice whether or not to go through the physical frustrations of losing an arm (have to tie a ribbon? A zipper that wont close unless you hold the edges together with another hand? There are many, many little frustrations to remind Yang of her loss in everyday life), and to keep her usual fighting style.

And yet, once they all are reunited with Ironwood, they are not happy to see him as he is to see them, they are not his allies but present themselves as if they are, and so he gives them even more gifts; upgraded tools of their trade, training by masters of their trade, clothing, gear, a place to stay and food and a job (these are things, btw, we usually only expect parents to give children and even then, if the children are adults like RWBY, many would say that it shouldn’t be an expectation, but just a nice thing to do. RWBY aren’t even citizens of his beleaguered kingdom and he goes this far for them).

And RWBY’s conclusion is that he cannot be trusted.

Here’s the thing, I could see JNR argue it because they could blame Ironwood in part for Pyrrha’s death. Especially if Weiss describes the machinery around the Winter Maiden that Winter took her to see (sharing top secret info with RWBY just because they love and support them, and Winter is loyal to Ironwood and he clearly likes her, so Winter’s trust is also reflected in Ironwood’s trust), and Jaune recognizes it as the same type of thing around Amber and Pyrrha.

But RWBYOQ? If so, they should have mistrusted everyone else as well. No suddenly thinking Robyn’s cool (unless Robyn does something more than Ironwood to personally win over Yang and Blake), and no happy smiles when they train/work with other people because they would feel tense and mistrustful.

No Clover and Qrow bonding. No Marrow babysitting the kids. No happiness at Penny being rebuilt (which should have won Ruby over alone, since it was Ironwood who enabled it) without hesitation. Weiss should have started picking fights with Winter with snide comments as she did with Whitley, as that is common when trust issues suddenly manifest in a close relationship and there’s no fear of retaliation.

But we don’t get that. What we get is that Ironwood is specifically considered untrustworthy by RWBY without any of them dissenting or even raising the argument that “hey, he actually helped us out a lot in the past, and he seems happy to see us, maybe we shouldn’t outright lie to him? I’m not saying tell him everything, just the bits he needs to know right now before he wastes valuable resources and time on a fool’s errand.”.

That’s why it is so jarring, and why the villainization of Ironwood is so suspect to many of the audience; by the rules of the world before he shot Oscar, RWBY weren’t in the right to do what they did, but now when he shot Oscar and the councilman, it is supposed to show us how right they were.

Except that unless silver eyes gives Ruby the ability to look into the future, it doesn’t work that way.

And don’t get me started on how Ruby is treating Penny in Volume 8...

[grbgcn2]

Ya’ll ever wonder: What if it had been Pidge that was cloned?

Like, sure the Paladins would care for her and give her time to adjust to being part of the team. They wouldn’t question anything she did, cause, c’mon, its Pidge. They’d all think she was just working on castle repair and stuff like that. And when Haggar gets control of her, like she’d end up defeating everyone, cause, ya know, she likes to plan ahead for the possibilities that migh occur. I think they’d all end up dead, if Pidge had been the one to create the bomb. Like no one would be able to stop it.

I like think that it’d be either Shiro or Matt to find out that she was a clone and end up fighting her.

Ooh, I can just imagine everyone’s reactions.

What do you guys think?

[wicoppi]

Do you think that if Keith had stuck around instead of joining the BOM, Operation Kuron would have been discovered sooner? Also, do you think Keith was aware on some level that Shiro was "not his Shiro"?

Would Batman or Superman win in a fight?

Actually, I think there is an argument to be made for the opposite. I addressed this shortly after s5 dropped, and I think the argument still stands. Keith is the only member of Team Voltron who knew Shiro prior to his encounters with the Galra. Because of this he’s a way for Shiro to check himself and gauge how he is / should handle situations. 

Keith always wants to see the best in Shiro, wants to help him succeed. Shiro knows this and values that unwavering support. So for Shiro, if Keith is telling him something is off, then something must really be off. 

And the clone was Shiro. Memories, body, mannerisms, and connections. He believed he was Shiro up until he no longer controlled himself. 

Of course there’s also an argument to be made for the other direction. If Keith had stayed with the team, would he have continued to pilot Black? Would he have been there in that fight on Olkarion when real!Shiro reached out to the team in the astral plane? 

If Keith had been in the astral plane during that event, there’s not a doubt in my mind he would not have let that drop the way Lance did. Persistence yields friendship. 

Whoever the writer wants to win is going to win.

[irrationalbalids]

Me at literally 2 am

What if season 3 shiro is a clone. What of the team finds out. What if they try to put him in cryo-sleep. What if he fights back. What if Keith jumps in front of him to protect someone who looks too much like his brother. What if he takes a lazer for clone shiro. What if it was Lance who shot him. What if he's really badly injured. What if he goes in the crypod for days. What if Lance starts thinking he killed Keith.

Me at literally any other time

Lol Coran Coran the gorgeous man indeed

[lilflowerpot]

You know, among the many narrative parallels and contrasts between Keith and Lotor, one I've never heard anyone talk about is the obvious mirror of Lotor's situation with Narti and Keith's situation with Shiro/Kuron. And I won't ask for information about how that might (or might not, as the case may be) play out in LB, but I was rather curious about you take on the subject?

GOD don't even do this to me, I have //so many// feelings about this. Brace yourself my darlings.

So it would be really easy to sit here and say that these paralleled situations—Narti being used by Haggar to spy on & betray Lotor’s squad, and Kuron being controlled by Haggar to spy on & betray team Voltron—are virtually identical, and that the key difference comes in the form of how Lotor/Keith responded to this apparent betrayal by their close friend and confident, therefore fundamentally painting Lotor as the moral shadow to Keith's light... which I think is almost certainly what the vld writers were going for.

But personally? I believe it to be a lot more nuanced than that.

Because, yes, Lotor took the "kill first ask questions later" approach, whereas Keith fought for Shiro/Kuro to the very last, but despite how closely paralleled these scenarios were, the circumstances leading up to these two moments of revelation are simply not equal.

But let’s start with Keith.

[[ Keith: ”I don’t know what’s wrong, but I know we can fix this. Let me help you." ]]

This moment (s06ep05) in particular, taking place immediately after Haggar has instructed Kuron to lure Keith & the Black Lion away from her fleet, is crucial in highlighting the difference in circumstance for Keith vs Lotor; where Keith doesn’t know what’s happening, only that “Shiro” has seemingly betrayed Voltron—but, importantly, in a non-aggressive manner, engaging in only the minimal amount of combat necessary to liberate his quarry—Lotor rapidly and accurately assesses the situation to surmise that Narti has been (and will continue to be) used against him & his friends, and so is an active threat.

But look at this, look at Keith, look at him when faced with Shiro (who he must know isn’t quite his Shiro, by this point, considering they’re surrounded by a hundred clones), because he’s so calm and gentle and pateint and loving..

[[ Keith: “Shiro, I know you’re in there. You made a promise once. You told me you’d never give up on me.” ]]

[[ Shiro: “And I should have abandoned you just like your parents did. They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should have seen it too.” ]]

[[ Keith: “I’m not leaving here without you.” // Shiro: “Actually, neither of us are leaving.” ]]

So this brings us to the first vitally important component that distinguishes Keith’s situation from Lotor’s: where our favourite paladin has only his own life at stake (and if you’ve watched the show you should know that Keith would choose Shiro over himself a thousand times over), Lotor has other people to consider and protect—not only his life, not even just the lives of his friends, but an entire Empire’s worth of people... but we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, allow me to break Lotor’s scene down.

[[ Lotor: "Transpose the dynamics and run that protocol again." [...] "You think you can fool me, witch? Destroy the bug." ]]

Immediately upon leaving high command and being cast aside once more by Zarkon (s04ep03), Lotor orders Narti to “run the protocol to search for trackers,” and, when she doesn't find anything, to "transpose the dynamics, and run that protocol again." This clearly demonstrates for us how intimately familiar Lotor is with Haggar’s tactics: he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was not letting him walk out of High Command without something in place to spy on him and track his movements. Despite Zarkon having clearly bought his “subservient son” act, Lotor is fully aware that Haggar isn’t so easily fooled, and his conviction in this is such that even when the initial scans showed nothing was amiss he didn’t hesitate before demanding that Narti run another, because his dealings with the Empire have never been so simple.

[[ Matt: "I've never seen troop mobilization on this scale before. [...] Lotor: "What's happening?" / Zethrid: "A galra fleet are attacking us!" / "Return fire!" / Zethrid: "Wait, there's another fleet... and another one! We can't hold them all off!" ]]

Then we have the situation in which Lotor clocks Narti’s “betrayal”. As noted by Matt, troop mobilization of the scale ordered by Zarkon against Lotor is unheard of, and of course Lotor—as someone who not only grew up in the Empire, but briefly commanded it—will have known full-well that the sheer quantity of Imperial fleets suddenly appearing on his doorstep (so soon after he was allowed to leave Imperial command without his father batting an eye) means that something significant changed. Zarkon is a man of action, Lotor knows this, so if his father had suspected anything when he was in the same damn room, he would have dealt with him then and there, but he didn’t, which means this is a new development: one that must have occurred in the brief period since Lotor left High Command.

[[ Acxa: "How did they find us?" / Zethrid: "We must have been tracked." ]]

So then we come to the scene in which Narti actually dies, in the immediate prelude to which you can virtually see Lotor’s mind ticking. Remember, he knows his father and Haggar with horrifying intimacy, meaning he’s fully aware that only the witch could have changed the Emperor's mind so quickly, the question is: how? As Zethrid says (see. above), they must have been tracked, it’s the only explanation for such a swift exacting response, but Lotor found Haggar’s tracker, which means she must have another, undetectable method of spying on him, which means—

Look at his face. Lotor isn’t one to be outwardly emotive, so this might come across as callous or cold, but at the very least we can agree that this is not the face of a man lashing out in a rage. He certainly isn’t reacting as if he believes Narti betrayed him of her own free will—that heartbreaking moment of horrified realisation belongs to Acxa (see. below)—no, in this moment Lotor’s actions are being driven by the same thing his entire character is built around: the Greater Good. Because killing Narti isn’t about cruelty, or revenge, or some sort of innate “evil” at the core of Lotor’s very being,,, killing Narti is about protecting his friends and the universe as a whole.

Crucially, the thing Keith had that Lotor didn’t, is time. Not in the grand scheme of things, true, but where Keith (in s06ep05) is clearly established as the pursuer rather than the pursued, for Lotor it is quite the opposite.

Hear me out; Lotor is surrounded by numerous Imperial Fleets (not individual ships, entire fleets, with more appearing every second) with the four people he trusts most in the universe. They can’t fight their way out of this, the odds are impossible. He is also in possession of the only thing that can rival voltron in terms of raw power—Sincline, though unfinished, has already displayed the potential to be better than the Lions, because it has an extra 10,000 years of knowledge and technological advancement behind its creation—and Lotor absolutely cannot allow it to fall into his father’s hands. His only viable option is to run, and run now, because their battle-cruiser is being torn apart and they’re out of time and if they all die here then everything he’s ever done in the name of building a brighter future has been for nothing, but- but they’re being tracked. And he realises, it’s Narti, it must be, because she was the only one with him when he went to face his father, and she’s a telepath of all things, and if they take her with them then they’ll never outrun the Empire but if they leave her behind... will she be tortured for information? Forced to use her unique abilities against them??

There are no good options for Lotor in this moment, and worse than that there’s no time to find any, so he does the only thing he can do and mercy-kills his friend (because she was his friend, and I believe that with every fibre of my being), before she can become a prisoner of war, or get the rest of their little misfit family killed... and it’s not even just Acxa, Ezor, Zethrid, & Lotor himself at risk because, again, Sincline rivals Voltron. If Zarkon gets his hands on it, that’s it, game over, not just for Lotor but for the whole damn universe.

[[ Acxa: "For Narti." ]]

But then s04ep05 happens, and we see that despite Lotor making the hard—impossible—call of sacrificing one friend to save three others, and immediately heading to Daibazaal in a last-ditch effort to penetrate the rift and provide enough quintessence energy that the Empire might be sustained without need for bloodshed (either slave colonies, the Komar, or the use of alteans) so that he might spare literal millions of lives,,,, the very friends he saved betray him.

And I want you to look at the moment when he wakes after being betrayed by Acxa, really look at it, because Lotor is shot by one of his most trusted confidents only to wake bound and afraid, and even then in this moment of pure disorientated panic, he only shows his true feelings for a second before composing himself. That’s what I mean when I say he plays his cards close to his chest, and that’s why I think judging how much he cared for Narti based on his expression (or lack thereof) upon killing her is completely unfair: if this is all the emotion he shows when in a situation entirly outside of his control, then of course he’d be more composed when actively making a decision... even if that decision was a horrible one.

Tldr; Keith had the luxury of both time and the security of risking “only” (I say, as if the concept isn’t heartbreaking) his own life for Shiro’s, whereas Lotor has neither of these things. The circumstances in which they are each faced with the betrayal of a close (quite possibly their closest) friend are not equal, and as such cannot fairly be used to cast judgement upon their respective moral characters.

[the-coranic]

Rewrite: Black Paladin Allura

The main things I'm considering for my rewrite so far are mostly centred around Allura.

First of all, I want to nerf the capabilites of her alchemy. It was way too unclear and convenient, and seemed to come at no expense for her own wellbeing most of the time. The only time I can clearly remember it affecting her was when she healed a whole planet-sized creature from near-death and just fainted for a second. Transferring her own life energy to raise another person from the dead? That's just another Friday afternoon for her, I guess. Nothing actually feels tense with the knowledge that she can just do that.

That being said, I plan on killing off Shiro for good, as much as I love him. As the rest of the team work through their grief together and adjust to the shift in dynamic, they become closer, more open with each other, and stronger as Voltron as a result. I can already imagine a couple scenes that could stem from this, but I’ll get into those another time. I'm unsure if I want to stick with the clone idea, however, purely because the Kuron vs. Keith fight was just 😚🤌💕 bellissimo.

I also want to give Allura more of a protagonist role and ultimately have her pilot the Black Lion. She was the commander in the beginning, and proved to be a capable leader, so her being demoted to a literal foot soldier, in the lion "most accepting of new pilots", and taking orders from a very reluctant Keith has just never quite sat right with me.

Maybe Shiro had a discussion with Allura beforehand about what the team should do if something happened to one of them, so she already knew about Shiro's wish for Keith to inherit the Black Lion and what he saw in him, and insisted on piloting Red, because following in her father's footsteps was so important to her. However, Red doesn't respond to her, so she still has her emotional moment. Black doesn't respond to Keith either, because he's just not ready, so Allura tries, and it accepts her.

And finally, I want her to survive in the end. I don't watch science-fantasy space opera cartoons for the gritty realism of war. My girl deserved a happy ending with her new family, gosh darnit.