#that last one is pure self-indulgence but I don’t want Allura and Coran to be sad ok

[aro-paladin-pidge]

Some vague guidelines for the lore changes I’ve made to my No/Yes Blue AUs (yeah I’m calling them that, I can’t find better names ok)

Voltron is definitely older than it is in canon. I really hated that there were only two generations of paladins and Voltron still had this giant legend as the ‘defenders of the universe’. So Alfor didn’t create the Lions, some super-ancient alien species did or smth

Speaking of the Lions, I really want to redesign them-they’re supposed to be the guardian spirits of the elements and beings of pure quintessence, right? (I’m only like 70% sure about that last one, but I think it’s canon) But they just look like robot lions?? No cool glowy quintessence or elements or anything. I think the red Lion should have like a mane of fire or something.

Also I feel like the Black Paladin shouldn’t always be the leader. Each of the paladins could have been (and we actually saw this for Allura, Keith, and Hunk) good leaders, depending on the circumstances. This also allows for Keith to become a leader and Shiro to take a different position as a commander, without the stupid Lion-swap plotline. I’m sorry, but I hated it. So, depending on who was acting as Voltron’s leader/battlefield commander, any of the Lions/paladins could’ve been the head.

Lot less aliens. I hate hate HATE how there’s a few billion different species and they all look the exact same and there’s no exploration of any of their cultures in the slightest. They go to a new planet every episode, meet a new species that looks like humans but slightly to the left, they join the coalition, and then they’re never mentioned again. I want there to be a couple of species, like the Galra, Olkari, and the Balmerans spread out on various planets across the universe, so we actually have room to explore their cultures and histories.

This one’s not really a problem with VLD but I like it so I’m putting it here: The Altean Colony arc we get in canon is scrapped. Instead, there’s a small colony of surviving Alteans on Arus who’ve protected the Castle for millennia, since it doesn’t seem like the Castle can be opened without a Lion. We get Romelle earlier, and Allura and Coran don’t think they’re the last Alteans.

[leonawriter]

Last night I read a Voltron reincarnation AU - basically, they had vague memories of having been in this situation, flown these lions, before. There was a lot of hinting toward DotU compliant ships, too.

I went in thinking ‘hey, this could be really interesting if done well’, and I came out thinking ‘I would have done it differently’.

[cut for length]

The main thing I was unsure of was... well, not the shipping at all (which was only in hints, so that could even have been expanded upon) but the feeling like their ‘past’ selves were pushing them into becoming or wanting to fit into those past roles again, which made them having different roles feel awkward and stilted, sometimes creating tension in the team where in either canon, there isn't any.

There was not enough distinction between the past and present. Or, at times, too much distinction, enough that things were confusing for them.

In a purely self-indulgent version, I’d write it that perhaps DotU happened in an alternate universe - perhaps something like a Beta reality - meaning that we aren’t left wondering when, exactly, this previous set of Voltron pilots flew the lions, if the lions in VLD were only created during Alfor’s reign (as shown in S2 ep Space Mall). 

Not to mention, in VLD? Zarkon has been reigning for ten thousand years, during none of which have there been any other Voltron pilots. No alternate Allura. And also in VLD, Earth has only just started developing space travel to the edge of our solar system. It’s unlikely we had space travel over ten thousand years ago, let’s be real here.

So. With that, we’ve got a starting place.

Going with the idea that if they are reincarnations then they’re the result of, essentially, a doomed timeline - possibly one where they failed somehow like in one of the comics, but with more widespread repercussions. 

Next thing is understanding that the DotU characters and the VLD characters are different people. Sometimes, they might seem very similar! They’re supposed to. The VLD ones are based on the original DotU/GoLion/VF versions. But they are not the same. This is important, because although in the previous series Lance might have flown Red straight from the beginning and Keith was always the leader, here they are not best suited for those roles at the beginning, they’re kids, and if they are going to end up in different Lions (like in S3) then it’s because they’ve grown as people, and they’re better suited to those roles at that time.

Memories and deja vu would still happen, but... not in a way that would have Lance longing for Red, or Keith thinking up plans in way as though he’s the leader! 

Lance is clearly happy and best suited to Blue, and yes, I can see him having moments of jealousy over Red, but it’s more the kind of thing where he’s seeing Keith as getting the most attention again, picked out for the ‘best’ things - ‘hey, I can fly a speedy Lion! I can rely on my instincts and prove myself! I can do this too!’, with a mix in of feeling like he’d done this before. 

And as for Keith... I’m sorry, but I really can’t imagine him strategising competently in the first couple of seasons. I just can’t. We even see what happens when he tries (no, Keith, don’t rush the guards, we need to not hurt the Balmera). Maybe, though, he might look back on things they’ve done, and once the mission is over, be able to see what went wrong, and how he’d do it better next time, and sometimes have a sense of frustration that his mind isn't working like it somehow should, he should be able to do this, to think like this, why can’t he.

Shiro, I can see not having too many issues, though mainly because his memories/echoes from Sven are so similar to his own issues of dying/nearly dying/being imprisoned.

Pidge, I think, would probably try and ignore it all? She’s a scientific mind, down to earth and all, not one to put stock in the idea of reincarnation. Although, I do think she’d maybe have some gender issues here more than in VLD canon, where she really is some form of genderqueer due to DotU Pidge being male - but I think her preferred pronouns would still be female. And because I think it may even have been as early as DotU that introduced the idea that Pidge was from another planet (confirmed, by the wiki! Although in DotU Pidge wasn’t born on Balto, and I don’t know if it’s confirmed whether or not he was in Force), Pidge ends up going to Keith in the aftermath of him finding out he’s actually part Galra, to have some time bonding over being a different species, or remembering you were once - such as how Katie got teased and encouraged by her family for talking about Balto when she was little and it was all awesome.

Hunk might even have his echoes of having been a hotheaded ‘let’s rush straight in’ kind of guy make his anxieties even worse, being like, ‘er, guys, I have a funny feeling if I just rushed into that something bad would happen. Let’s not.’ 

Allura - now her, I can see taking all of her memories and listening to them. She’s attuned to the Lions and the castle, too. I could see her looking back at the castle on Arus and seeing the DotU castle, and hearing/seeing the word ‘Arus’ and thinking ‘I feel like this is safe/home’, and being sad to leave. I can see her becoming more at ease when she hears the new Paladins’ names, because those names feel familiar. I can see her feeling uneasy about Zarkon when she’s growing up, because he’s in her nightmares, but she doesn’t understand why - because he’s also her father’s good friend. She’d also feel a sort of kinship with Blue, which might be part of why she doesn’t just continue after Lance cuts in on her explanations, but she’s so involved in making sure she’s in control of everything that up until it’s needed, the idea of flying Blue is just a flight of fancy. 

And... Coran? Coran I can see having feelings of wanting to keep holding onto everyone as long as possible, not wanting his princess to go into dangerous situations but, at the same time, understanding better than previous versions that you can’t stop her if that’s what she’s got her mind set on. 

The bit I’d call this ‘self-indulgent’ for, though, is my ideas on shipping. 

Like... the VLD characters aren’t just blank slates? You can’t just say that they’re always going to end up with the same people, even in a reincarnation AU. Some of them might even have dated before they find themselves with Voltron, and liked their partners, and split up for reasons entirely separate from ‘I have this feeling in my head that I’m not supposed to be with you and I’m waiting for That Special One In My Dreams’. And they might meet the one they were in love with in a past/other life and just... that’s not who they are now.

Sometimes reincarnation shipping works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes it just takes a lot of good writing to make it work. Simple as that.

My own personal take would be that... every so often, Keith gets certain feelings whenever he looks at Allura, and it’s, well, weird? Because it’s really more like he’s seeing someone else, not the Allura he knows. And when the moment is gone, so are the feelings, and it leaves him disoriented. 

Allura even gets something similar, where she’ll sometimes look at Keith and expect him to say or do something other than what he ends up saying or doing, and again - she might have moments where it feels like there’s a crush going on, but then the moment will pass, or she’ll actually look at him, and she’ll go, that’s not the same person. Again, confusion.

I can see after a while, Keith actually asks to have a word with her, after they’ve all agreed that something is going on, and asks if she’s getting this as well. He awkwardly apologises, but explains that he’s, uh, it’s not going to happen. There’s a reason it’s particularly weird on his end. Maybe this other Keith and Allura were involved, but... this Keith? He’s kinda not into girls like that.

He ends up red in the face from having to say this in such a way for such a reason, but even though Allura stares at him for a few moments, she starts to laugh, and then they’re laughing together, because - let’s be honest, the situation is ridiculous. 

After that, they end up as good friends, accepting that although their relationship isn’t the same as before, there’s clearly still some sort of understanding there. 

Partially because of this, Keith is the one Pidge goes to with her gender issues after Keith accidentally admits his ‘other’ self was in a relationship with Allura to the team (and a jealous Lance, possibly in a similar situation to Arc of the Taujeer in S2). They’ve both got memories or echoes of being some sort of identity that they’re not that isn’t just down to where they were born. 

(Lance picked up English far faster than any of his family expected him to, for someone with an often short attention span and some kind of learning disability.  Same with Shiro, whose first language is Japanese, where he picked up English quite well, but also ends up translating Swedish in his head whenever he’s not paying any attention.)