#this blog is going to be Voltron heavy today as I prepare for S4's release

[kingofthewilderwest]

I think why I’m intrigued about VLD’s current storytelling direction between Shiro and Keith as respective leaders... is because it’s a direction I myself wouldn’t take as a writer.

I respect the writers completely and believe they’ve already proved that they know what they’re doing in this series. Long-term story arcs have been beautifully laid out and paced; individual episodes nicely formatted; foreshadowing has been cleverly built up for instances like Keith’s Galra heritage and Operation Kuron; parallels and divergences from Defender of the Universe make for intentional work. So I am quite sure they know what they’re doing here, too.

Yet what I see in the story are two fascinating conflicting directions for character growth occurring simultaneously. How one would most logically take Keith from this point... and how one would most logically take Shiro from this point... sort of conflict.

On one side, we have Shiro. He’s a character who started in the Black Lion as the leader of the team. While he is a natural leader, he also contains his fair share of weaknesses and needed growth to be a leader. His greatest challenges thus far - especially in S1-2 - have been handling his PTSD, and struggling to have a strong bond the Black Lion. I feel that neither of these arcs have come to completion. He’s still struggling through trauma and hasn’t dealt with it. 

And as far as the Black Lion and a strong bond are concerned... I don’t feel like the story is done with that either. I’ve seen great analyses discussing how Shiro’s bond with the Black Lion might not be meant to be... how the Black Lion shows preference to Keith even as of S2... and how the growth in the story is the Black Lion moving increasingly decidedly away from Shiro. There’s a lot of merit to this idea, in which case Shiro’s arc would be about him moving away from a Paladin. 

But I feel that doesn’t completely take into account we have seen multiple episodes dedicated to Shiro building a bond with Black even in S2. And the takeaway from those episodes is not that Shiro is becoming increasingly incompatible with Black, that he’d be a better fit elsewhere. “Space Mall” shows Shiro spending a lot of time to build a stronger bond with Black... and that works. Black doesn’t get tempted by Zarkon again after this point because Shiro demonstrates an ability to trust rather than command the Black Lion. Shiro leaves the exercise feeling his bond with Black has deepened. And then there’s the S2 finale. Shiro demonstrates growth with Black again... by unlocking teleportation abilities in Black and retrieving the black bayard. The black bayard he’s seen using in the show opening, in fact! He’s had growth in his bond with Black, even while Black has currently moved from Shiro to Keith.

I as a writer would therefore feel like the logical progression forward in Shiro’s arc is that he continues this growth. Take Shiro a step back away from Black so that he can handle the personal issues debilitating him. Have him finally quit instinctively hiding his PTSD, open up about it, work through it best he can. Have him quit taking on everyone else’s burdens as a leader without seeing to his own problems. Have him take up a support role that helps him act as a more well-rounded member of the team rather than the single leadership head every other Paladin reveres. Then have him return to Black with all the more power to his character.

For dropping Shiro as a leader would be an odd step back for his character growth. It’s not that being a Paladin is an automatic “upgrade”, and it’s not that he can’t do great works outside of being a Paladin, and it’s not that a broken bond with Black means he can’t move forward, either... but the focus of his character arc thus far almost seems to necessitate he returns to Black at some point. To have that continued character growth where he gets over his own inner demons. To have that continued character growth where he can, in fact, build that bond with Black. To have Shiro never return to Black is of course possible, and his bond can be talked away as “Keith fits Black better, I realize now I can’t be the best fit,” but it would be very hard to have a satisfying character growth arc that way. It would be very hard to build a satisfying character arc with growth and development that way. It’s hard to build Shiro and have him develop increasingly powerfully as a character without some building with Black.

I can't easily see his character arc feeling satisfactory without giving him back Black. Not with all the time they’ve spent on Shiro having positive growth with Black throughout S1-2. The trajectory he’s been on thus far has been building up with Black... not learning to step aside from Black.

Now on the other side, there’s Keith. Let’s also not forget Lance and Allura and their respective character growths, too, but I’m focusing mostly on Keith right now. The whole “two leaders” concept, as it were. Keith’s obviously being built up as a leader - first Shiro tells him to be successor, then Keith does take on the role of Black Paladin, and now he’s in the stage where he’s learning what it takes to be a good leader. He’s still not making the right decisions, but we see that kernel of good leadership ability in him. 

Of course it’d only make sense to develop that! Write that story of a character coming into his own as a leader. Write that story of how he builds and becomes a powerful head to Voltron. Write that story where Keith Kogane becomes the leader we are so familiar with in DotU and VF and all the other past Voltron materials out there.

To not write Keith into that firm leadership role doesn’t make sense. It’s clear where his trajectory is headed: become a leader to the team. To completely abandon the central concept of Keith always being a leader in DotU and VF would be bizarre. Keith’s always been leader. Keith always will be leader.  You can’t peel him back into the Red Lion now.

I as a writer wouldn’t make this plot tangle myself. We have two characters, Keith and Shiro, who seem that they would best develop forward by being in Black and leading Voltron. To not give Shiro back Black feels unsatisfactory. To have Keith lose Black feels unsatisfactory. And I think that’s why the fandom is so much in debate about what the state of the Lion switch will be. Everyone sees different angles on how different trajectories work, based upon what storytelling momentums work. 

I would have taken the less complicated route. Give Shiro a solid character arc in S1-2 where he learns how to bond with the Black Lion. Make it feel even more decidedly like he and Black have a lasting bond by the end of S2 rather than one that’s just been unlocked to a new stage. Either that, or have him just about to start to make headway. Perhaps still have him going through PTSD struggles, and just starting to make headway... and then have him die at the S2 climax. Build in that parallel between VLD Shiro and Shirogane Takashi of Golion. Create that logical transition point in which Keith must step into the role of the Black Lion’s Paladin. Build Keith from there into the leader we always knew.

That sort of story arc would be satisfying because the story would start with an unexpected Black Paladin... and then explain how Keith came to fill that role. It’d have enough of an arc to Shiro that it wouldn’t feel like the writers are dropping a character arc (or either that, they’re intentionally severing one for emotional effect), and of course it’d allow Keith to have a great arc without another character mingling in the same area as team leader. It’d be a great stepping stone for Lance and Allura, too. It’d be a great, sad moment of emotional impact and demonstrate the risk the Paladins must take in their duties. And it’d have a lot of evocation to the original content from which the Voltron series came.

Honestly, from S1 E1 I thought Shiro was slotted to die.

That can never happen in VLD now. Everyone’s realized Shiro can’t have a death mid-story, that he probably can’t die at all and have a logical story be told. The writers have introduced too many new, complex tangles regarding Shiro in S3. You wouldn’t throw in a whole story of a clone without wanting to do much more with the character! The start of Operation Kuron signifies a huge launch point into much more development with Shiro.

So there’s part of me that’s nervous some character won’t get the development they need. Another part of me is selfishly nervous that Shiro won’t get the development I want. There’s another part of me that feels I have The Narrative Plan for future seasons with Shiro and Keith all figured out. Another part of me that has No Idea What The Writers Are Planning. And a whole bunch of me is very intrigued about how this will all play out.

The writers know what they’re doing. We all see they’re clearly setting up character growth arcs. They’ve already proven they can execute great writing. It’s just a matter of us as audience members watching that writing unfold.