#volton meta

[livornopress]

Zona Repubblica: Arrestato clandestino, aveva 37 involucri di cocaina

 Livorno 30 luglio 2022 La centrale piazza della Repubblica conosciuta per il suo voltone e meta del turismo in battello lungo i canali medicei; nonostante le migliorie di illuminazione apportate dal Comune e l’incremento dei controlli, continua ad essere (con le sue zone limitrofe) il Bronx di Livorno, una zona terra di nessuno regno dello spaccio, delinquenza e illegalità Alle h.2.00 di questa…

[claireclaymore]

Galra Empire issue and the problematic "evil civilization" trope

A evil intergalactic empire is a popular trope of the space opera genre. And how the fantasy dialogue with the ordinary world, those empires were usually portrayed with European elements, with the caracters using European names (usually german) and a militar culture similar of the totalitarianism regime. This characterization reflects the period when the space opera, sci-fi and spacial adventures become popular in western (pos World War), and gradually take part in pop-culture. 

But the thing is: nowadays, in a time that supposed value the respect for diversity and with a better notion the social complexity of morality, is it valide show a hole society as "evil"?

The problem in Voltron case is in answer of the follow question: 

What means be a galra?

When this question implicit appears it focus in a style of life. Galras are strong, violent and proud creatures that were raise to conquer and explore other civilizations. But in Daibazaal's times seems to be a galra wasnt so barbaric. Pre- quintessence Zarkon was perfect diplomatic and friendly in his alliance with alteans rulers.

He even got marry with a altean. So galras didn't have prejudices with other races since they were totally okay with let a foreign be their Empress and introduce a altean blood in the royal bloodline. 

So we can conclude there was a time when galras knew soft feelings. What is distinguishes them from the zentraedi from Macross ( a civilization that never ever experience another thing than violence). The example of Macross is relevant, cause this anime play well the problem of communication between two civilizations completely different. The whole conflict start because a disastrous encounter with miscommunication that start a war and it end with the help of the music affecting emotionally the cold zentraedi people. It seems silly but a with careful look the resolution make sense, the conflict is solved with an alternative way that the enemy couldn't prevent or emulate. The power of emotions. 

Poor antagonist is confusing/disgusting because of this demonstration of affection, this gesture and caring in general doesn't exist in his planet. 

But modern galras and current enemies of Voltron are presenting as rude people and, unfortunately, the audience just see the military force.

They have a serie of codes that translate their brutal and warrior way of life like "Victory or Death". What shows they dont value the life in general and prefer die to surrender.

BoM seems to appear as the only resistance force that prove not all galras are adepts of "Victory or Death" style of life. But, unfortunately BoM was used in the narrative more to comfort Keith and show that he belongs and come from the "good galras" than to portray, at least, a little of complexity in be part of a oppressive culture where values are distorted and the collectivity guilty seems a very problematic issue. 

Lotor and his generals could have been a good element to the debate, since they were excluded thanks their mix genes but the whole discussion die where the narrative tried to channel this institutional hate in a single person. Axca and Zentrad blamed Lotor for all wrong they did, while no one of them seems to feel Lotor himself suffered with galra prejudice. 

And then we have Lotor parents blame his genetic (again)

So...be a galra is bad cause it is like... a disguise? Is it acceptable, even in a alien context, say someone race is a problem? What part of this isn't problematic? 

But then we think, it is a villain discourse. They gonna be called out of this. But no. Actually, even heroes repeat this reasoning. It was completely out of the place put Allura to have prejudice against galras "but they destroyed Altea!" Wrong! It was Zarkon! And who started all the catastrophe was a altean named Hoverna. Altean wasnt colonized by galras to her picture all galras are oppressors or it is galra nature destroy things. The way they wrote her behavior just reflect how the writers are ignorants about serious issues as racism, genocide and PSTD.  They should have make her have issue with Zarkon only not galras at all.

And then we have Keith and Allura issue, that could have be better written (just like it was with Judy and Nick in Zootopia). But no. They had to make Allura be wrong cause, you know, they dont care for her. Even so, Allura learned her lesson: galras aren't bad. Or at least not all galras are bad. However, what make me sad is the narrative never care in ask "why the galras are bad?" No one asked it. Worse, they make mixed race characters feel angry, upset and ashamed for their own race. I am not saying they should be proud, galras were real destroyers, but shame someone because of their blood is sick! And it is even more repulsive hear from the own creators there is a good and a bad representation of mixed race. And it is intriguing how in the ending it is more about luck than atitute, Keith had luck for be kid of Krolia instead Zarkon and had a nice parental figure in Shiro and had human appereance.

[cinnamondocool]

So I watched all of Voltron Force, and it was mentioned in it that Keith’s dad’s name was Kenneth. Kenneth Kogane. I might start calling him Kenneth instead of Texas or Billy Ray. 🤔

[tragedy-machine]

i think that ship might be the altean ship that keith would have had to take to leave the castle in the first place, when he left in season 4. we don't really have any reason to believe that the other blades were just hanging around waiting for him when he showed up: that was very sudden and i honestly got the impression that he decided to leave on the spot when it became apparent that they didn't need him anymore and were completely pissed besides that.

That’s very good thinking! Would honestly make total sense.

This could just also be the easiest way to dock into the castle? They send a little ship and then you change ships like you do buses lol

But the question is, if that’s the first time he visits the team after so long, where is Krolia?

We want to think that the very first time Keith comes back to the castle, he brings Krolia with him, but would he though?

Krolia probably has to report to Kolivan, (maybe even get scolded by him for being just like her son and letting emotions win over her sense of duty), fix how she left things on that planet, go on new missions etc

It should be Keith’s initial thought to want to introduce his mother to his friends but let’s not forget how distant he’s become from them.

At this point he might even see the team more as colleagues than friends, just like the Blades are probably treating him and the others. Comrades in battle yes. But we’ve seen Kolivan try to teach Keith to see the mission as the most important over and over again, and personal relationship can cloud that very easily.

He seems to be going more and more into “constant work mode” aka he might think that there’s not enough time for anything like friendly meetings so when he has something urgent to discuss with Shiro/Allura, that’s his top priority, they can meet his mom later.

Alternatively, she’s just sitting in the back of that ship, waiting for Keith to announce her so she can make a grand entrance

[paladin-pile]

I adore your pilot personality post! It hit close to home as my dad was a helicopter pilot in the military for close to 45 years. It was fun trying to decide where he best fit. Your comment in Allura's section about fixed-wing and helicopter pilots being two different breeds has me wondering if you see differences in personalities between the two or if the difference is solely in where their loyalties lie?

aw thanks! So glad to hear it, I’ve met so many pilots and people with pilots close to them just from this post and I love it! I should have clarified that I’m sure there’s more types of pilots, and pilots that are combinations of types, but the ones I listed are the most common stereotypical ones I’ve seen, and the ones the voltron peeps fit best. 

As far as chopper vs fixed wing people, that’s a really good question. It’s not one I can really answer because I, being in the fixed-wing group, didn’t know a lot of chopper pilots that well. Flying helicopters is harder, more complicated, more dangerous, and more expensive that flying airplanes, so fixed-wings tend to see those pilots as a little more on the crazy end. From what i’ve seen they’re very tough people with nerves of steel, but that could be more reflective of how aircraft pilots view chopper pilots than anything. Don’t have a whole lot of experience in that area though. 

Thanks for the message and have a great day!

[spacebi-lance]

that season was intense I don't even know what to feel. i think it may be my favorite one so far.

[s-cornelius]

Congratulations, You Played Yourself

OR Why we shouldn’t be having this conversation about Adam

I’ve seen a lot written in the past few days about Voltron not deserving the hype it got for revealing that Shiro is queer, both on this platform and Twitter, and on geek news/opinion sites. Most arguments revolve around Shiro’s ex-boyfriend, Adam--both Adam’s brief screentime and his death--or the conversation between Shiro and Adam in the flashback in 7x01, and it not being explicit enough.

I am of the opinion that the conversation between Shiro and Adam was explicit confirmation of Shiro’s sexuality, and I treat it as such in this meta. I also won’t deal with the widely circulating idea that because Adam and Shiro don’t reconcile, the representation is bad. This just reinforces the idea that queer people are defined by their relationships (and sexual activity), rather than all of the other parts of their personality. As a queer person, seeing these criticisms is very frustrating.

So, I’m not going to focus on those things, because I think that they are more subjective. Instead, I am going to talk about the major complaints I’ve seen regarding Adam’s brief appearances in the show, as well as Adam’s role in the wider story Voltron is telling. 

The major complaints I’ve seen are that Adam is an example of queerbaiting, and/or the Bury Your Gays trope (see #VoltronLegendaryQueerbait on Twitter, for example). These complaints seem to stem from an expectation that after 7x01, Adam would play a larger role in the story, and even might be the endgame romantic partner for Shiro. Then, when that expectation was not met (because Adam barely appears in the season), the complaints of bad representation began.

In this meta, I discuss queerbaiting and the Bury Your Gays trope, and show that Adam is not a good example of either of these issues, through examining his character and his role in the story. Also, this is my take (after long conversations with @messier51) as a bisexual woman and as someone who thinks a lot about how stories are structured/executed.

What is ‘queerbaiting’?

Queerbaiting, as I’ve always understood it, is the practice of ‘promising’ LGBT+ content, but not following through on that promise. The ‘promising’ part is usually nods and winks from the show, but then the characters end up in relationships with members of the opposite gender, etc. The important assumption behind the idea of queerbaiting is that showrunners and production companies want to cash in on LGBT viewership, but don’t want to alienate the majority straight audience. Therefore, the showrunners get as close as possible to a same gender relationship, but never intend to follow through.

I’ve always been skeptical of the whole notion of queerbaiting, to be honest. I think in order to make an argument about queerbaiting, you have to know the motivations and intentions by the showrunners/writers/directors/cast. You also have to assume bad faith; the showrunners are thinking more about ‘tricking’ their fanbase, than trying to tell a coherent story. (sidenote: I think the bigger issue at hand is that queerness is still not normalized in fiction, and consequently, characters are straight until proven otherwise. Therefore, close same gender relationships that never become romantic are more of an issue of lack of imagination, than an willing attempt to hurt people.)

So, let’s think logically for a moment: If queerbaiting is hinting at a relationship between same gender characters, but never intending to follow through, Voltron does not qualify as queerbaiting. If the showrunners of Voltron intended to queerbait, they would not have fought for the dialogue between Shiro and Adam that makes their romantic relationship explicit. Similarly, Bex Taylor-Klaus, a queer person themself, championed explicit, in-text confirmation that Shiro was in said relationship, and then was proud of the fact that that confirmation was included.  Are those things not the opposite of queerbaiting?

Voltron promised, metatexually (i.e. showrunners in interviews, at conventions, etc.), to include LGBT+ representation. In 7x01, Shiro was revealed to be mlm, and had a mlm boyfriend. Therefore, Voltron is not an example of queerbaiting.

What about ‘Bury Your Gays’?

Bury Your Gays is a trope in fiction where queer characters are not allowed to have happy endings. Historically, this trope has referred to the practice of killing of wlw (which is why it was called Dean Lesbian Syndrome before Bury Your Gays gained prominence) going back to pulp wlw novels in the mid-twentieth century. Bury Your Gays was a staple of stories about queer people because homosexuality was (and still is by some) considered to be immoral; characters cannot be rewarded with a happy ending, because in doing so, queerness is being rewarded.

This trope has been in the zeitgeist in recent years, following the death of the wlw character Lexa on the show The 100. The anger and frustration in 2016 stemmed from the deaths of queer female characters. GLAAD notes in its annual Where We Are on TV Report:

“Since the beginning of 2016, more than 25 queer female characters have died on scripted television and streaming series. Most of these deaths served no other purpose than to further the narrative of a more central (and often straight, cisgender) character.”

This is not to say that the death of queer male character can’t be an example of Bury Your Gays, but that this trope historically refers to dead wlw in books and film, and in recent years, outrage with the this trope has concerned dead wlw on television. 

So, where does Adam from Voltron fit in? Well, he is a dead queer character, but whether or not he qualifies as an example of Bury Your Gays is questionable. He didn’t die to further the narrative of a more central cis, straight character. He also wasn’t a well-established character, and he died in a scene where many other characters also died. For these reasons, I’m hesitant to claim that Adam is an instance of Bury Your Gays.

Just because a queer character dies does not mean that it is an example of Bury Your Gays. In an article from SYFYwire, the author argues that: “as the criticism moves forward, consistently reducing our stories into binary tallies of whether we live or die does a complete disservice to the potential for three-dimensional, nuanced characters within genre storytelling that we yearn to see more of ourselves in. “

I understand that the death of any queer character on TV is upsetting to some fans, because there are so few queer characters overall. However, as we get more queer characters (and GLAAD has shown increasing numbers of queer characters in the past few years--up to 6.4% of regular characters in 2017), it’s important to question whether good representation is just a matter of a living or dead character, and if the death of an LGBT+ character is just that character’s demise, or part of a bigger trend (see 2016 and wlw deaths). 

Therefore, I think we have to evaluate whether or not the trope is in effect depends on the context of the death. I think to really decide whether or not a death of a queer character is Bury Your Gays or not, it’s important to answer the following questions: What is the purpose of this character’s death? What are the genre conventions? Are there other queer characters and what happens to them? Are queer characters dying on other shows in large numbers?

In the next section, I will discuss Adam’s role in the story, and try to answer these questions.

Adam, the character?

Before addressing these questions, I think it’s important to discuss who Adam is as a character, and his role in the overall story.

All told, Adam appears in two short scenes, totaling no more than a few minutes of screentime. While on screen, we learn that a) he was Shiro’s boyfriend, b) he broke up with Shiro due to a culmination of issues in their relationship, c) he was a pilot, and d) he died in a Galra attack. As far as characterizations go, it’s pretty skimpy, but ultimately who he was as a character is unimportant. Adam does not exist on the show to explore any big ideas about gender and sexuality; Adam is a plot device, and he serves two purposes:

Adam confirms that Shiro is mlm. By showing Adam and Shiro’s breakup in a flashback, the show is telling us that Shiro is mlm, without having Shiro say “I am gay.” (sidenote: This is called good storytelling, by the way. Shiro’s story is not a coming out story, so if everyone in canon knows that he’s gay, why would Shiro tell anyone his orientation? Since we have no reason to think that other characters don’t know he’s gay, introducing Adam does the work of confirming Shiro’s sexuality to the audience in lieu of Shiro stating his orientation in dialogue.)

Adam puts a face on the casualties of war during the first attack by the Galra. By killing off Adam in this scene, the stakes have been raised. Volton (both the show and the robot) kills faceless, nameless characters in space battles. I know that the paladins mow down robots all the time, but when Voltron destroys a Galra cruiser or the like, I find it hard to believe that there are only robots on board. But since we, the audience, and they, the paladins of Voltron, don’t know who those people are on board those ships, it’s hard to get emotionally attached to their deaths. The same is true when we see the Galra attack Earth: there is no emotional attachment when the Galra raze major cities, but there is narrative weight to Adam’s death. Now, it’s not just the case that the Galra have killed humans, but that they have specifically killed a human that was important to one of the main characters. The same effect is achieved with Hunk’s family in the work camp.

Ok, so back to those questions: What is the purpose of this character’s death? What are the genre conventions? Are there other queer characters and what happens to them? Are queer characters dying on other shows in large numbers?

To answer the first question: Adam’s death is representative of the end of an era. Adam represents the past: both Shiro’s past with the end of a relationship, and the Garrison’s past with his death as the result of old Garrison defense tactics. His death marks the end of that time in Shiro’s life, and for Earth pre-Galra attack. As mentioned above, Adam’s death also raises the stakes of the Galra attack. Once a character the audience knows dies, that signals that other characters could die too. After Veronica doesn’t get back on the train, the audience genuinely thinks she died. This doesn’t work if the only characters who have died so far are faces on a screen or in background explosions.

To address the second question: Voltron’s genre is part action-adventure comedy, and part war story. The second half of this season feels more like a war story than any part of the previous seasons, despite the fact that Voltron (and the Coalition) has been at war against the Galra since the first episode. In a war story, anyone can die, so it’s not terribly surprising that characters we know end up dying. For example, the Blades of Marmora have had four named characters die (before the timeskip): Ulaz, Thace, Antok, and Regris.

As for the third question: Adam was not the only queer character on Voltron. In explicit text, we have Shiro, one of the main characters, is an Asian mlm with mental and physical disabilities. In less explicit text, we have Pidge, who at the very least could be considered gender non-conforming, and Zethrid and Ezor, who’s relationship appeared to lean romantic.

And the fourth question: LGBT+ representation is really making strides in shows aimed at children and teens. However, there is definitely still a place for questioning whether TV more broadly has a Bury Your Gays problem. In this respect alone--that deaths of queer characters is a trend--could Adam’s death be considered problematic. It’s unfortunate that a queer character was killed in a general media landscape full of dead queer characters, but in the next section, I discuss why I am not so upset by his death.

So what?

What conclusions can be drawn from the context of Adam’s role and his death? Adam is a emotional connection to the toll of the war, both for the audience, and for our mlm main character, Shiro. I do not consider Adam’s death an example of Bury Your Gays, and I don’t think we’d be having this conversation if a heterosexual character had filled Adam’s role in the story. Ultimately, Adam is not the LGBT+ representation fans have been clamoring for, and the showrunners promised to provide--Shiro is.

So, why doesn’t Adam get a happy ending? Because it does not matter if he gets a happy ending or not; it has no impact on main characters or overall storyline. The showrunners could have introduced a different character from the Garrison that we (the audience) cared about, and then kill them in that first battle, but using Adam streamlines this process.

I know a lot of people wanted Adam and Shiro to reunite, and they’d be each other’s happy ending, but this would be Bad Storytelling. Shiro and Adam’s break up is at least 2 years in the past for Shiro. During those years, he has not pined for Adam, regretted his decision, etc. that would indicate that their relationship is not 100% over. In the lead up to season 7, Lauren Montgomery said: “until Shiro made the unfortunate decision [to leave], and they drifted apart and that was the end … for their relationship.”

As I mentioned before, Adam represents the past for Shiro. Shiro has been through so much since their break up, and we have no idea how Adam would have even reacted to the Shiro that makes it back to Earth. If Shiro does get a happy ending in the form of a romantic relationship, it does not make any narrative sense that he would go back to his old boyfriend. Shiro has grown and changed and matured, so a satisfying end to that arc is not going back to where he came from, but forging ahead with a partner who has witnessed that growth and change (if Shiro does get a love interest).

At the end of the show, it will matter if Shiro lives or dies, and whether his ending is happy or not, because he is our explicit LGBT+ representation, the one that was promised to us. But I honestly have complete faith in Voltron. Time and time again, the showrunners, writers, directors, VAs, etc. have shown their commitment to a diverse cast of characters, and representing diverse experiences. There has never been any indication of bad faith on the part of TPTB; they want to make the best possible show for us, and give us representation not found in other television shows.

So, Who Should We be Talking About?

Shiro.

I do think it is important to discuss how harmful tropes manifest in media and why queer characters keep ending up dead. However, I don’t think the solution to this problem is immortal, flawless gay characters who get happy endings just because they’re gay. The best thing we can do is normalize queer characters, and normalizing means creating characters who show the full gamut human experiences. Queer characters can be good and bad people, and have good and bad relationships, so (as long as we don’t get one version of queer people), I think there’s room for a wide variety of queer characters, who have a wide variety of ends to their stories.

So, then there’s Shiro, a heroic leading character the likes of which we haven’t seen before. Shiro is a main character on a non-queer-focused show Asian mlm with mental and physical disabilities, and his presence is normalizing queer characters for a whole new generation of fans.

Shiro is groundbreaking representation, and not just on a show aimed at younger audiences. As GLAAD notes in their report:

“The LGBTQ characters who make it to TV screens tend to be white gay men, who outnumber all other parts of our community in representation on screen ... It’s long past time for television to introduce more diverse LGBTQ characters on multiple levels: more queer people of color (who have long been and remain underrepresented), characters living with disabilities, stories of lesbians and bisexual women, trans characters, characters of various religious backgrounds, and characters who are shaped by existing at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.”

Shiro is that intersection of multiple marginalized identities, and a main character. By showing experiences of queerness and disability and the intersection of the two, and not relegating him to a supporting role, Voltron is telling Shiro’s story, not someone else’s story with Shiro along for the ride. 

We should be asking of our media “whose stories get to be told?” On most shows, the answer is white cis-men and women, and maybe a token minority, if you’re lucky. Voltron is telling the stories of people who usually don’t get their stories told--women of all kinds, people of different ethnic backgrounds, queer characters, and intersections of these categories. Voltron has not settled for tokenization, but rather given us multi-faceted representation, crossing these intersecting issues.

[puppetmaster55]

Thoughts on S6

So. Season 6. I want to say that this won’t have my own biases, that I won’t go off on salty tangents or let my emotions get the better of me. I really want to say that this is my unbiased thoughts on the season (and on how it connects with s5, and how it acts as the conclusion of the narrative arc begun in s3).

But I can’t.

Anyone who’s followed me for the last… nine months, I think, knows how I feel about clone theory. I’m sure I’ve been vocal enough, especially in the months between s5 and s6.

And I still don’t like it.

And I really don’t like how it was handled.

See, any clone storyline has to feature an in-universe reason for there being a clone of a specific person. You can look at Young Justice as a major example of how to handle a clone storyline (Superboy is, naturally, a clone of Superman and it’s explained why he was cloned—for the day that Superman starts to move away from “the big, blue boy scout”—alongside the other clones all having a reason why they were created). There has to be an in-universe explanation for why the clone exists.

Which is what upsets me the most about s6, and Operation Kuron, is that… there isn’t one. There is never once given an in-universe explanation of why Shiro was cloned, or what purpose the clone was made for.

Well, that last part isn’t true. The purpose a clone was made, from a meta perspective, was purely to act as a new host body for Shiro’s disembodied spirit. That’s it. That is entirely why Kuron existed.

Which, since that’s the only reason Kuron existed, means… Naxzela wasn’t Haggar using Kuron to lure everyone into a death trap as means of revenge from the s2 finale, or to infiltrate Volton and deliver it to the empire, or to infiltrate the rebels and act as a spy. Kuron amounted to a total net loss for Haggar, and for the Galra Empire.

Kuron ultimately amounted to giving Voltron back their Black Paladin for the better part of a year, completely losing an entire one-third of the empire because of it and resulting in Zarkon’s death and the dissolution of the Galra Empire.

Kuron did more for Voltron than he ever did for the Galra Empire.

Not even to mention the absurdity that this is what Haggar was referring to back in s1, saying Shiro “could have been the empire’s greatest weapon.” What? Him? Him, the original, specifically? When you’ve already got like a hundred copies of him in cold storage?

No. Just… no.

And perhaps the worst part of it all is… now we’ll never know. We killed all the clones, every single one, destroyed the lab where they were created so all the data there is gone, and Honerva looks to be done with that and moved on to better things. The clone, in the meta narrative, did exactly what it was created to do: be a new host body for Shiro.

Wait. No. I just realized the actual worst part of it all.

Kuron ended up a braindead body for Shiro to inhabit, basically. That’s the worst part of it all. Because not only have we gotten rid of an interesting dynamic in having Shiro interact with a clone of himself, but that all that development Kuron had with the team in s4 and especially in how he opened up and trusted Lance in s5?

All of that is now gone. It’s dust in the wind as we return to Shiro and Lance’s relationship circa s2 (AKA, workplace colleagues who have never shared a tender moment opening up to one another or built up trust to share their worries about themselves)

As much as I would love to believe that Shiro inherited Kuron’s memories, I’m not holding out hope that Shiro will ever remember his bonding moment with Lance. The creators themselves called Kuron a “Shiro husk” in an interview, which doesn’t lend itself to meaning Shiro has or will have any of those memories that Kuron built up over the last 4 seasons.

MOVING BEYOND THAT.

I liked this season. It was nicely plotted, very tense over multiple episodes, and despite my having no emotional attachment to Keith, his battle with Shiro-Husk in the clone lab was wonderfully animated and really drew me in. Lotor too was great this season, being pushed and pulled so hard that he finally snapped. Romelle is really lovely, and I am surprised that she no longer looks so much like Allura or is related. Krolia too, was incredible, her love story with Texas Dad (which, I’m really sad that we never got a name for him and now I am forced to forever refer to him as Texas Dad) really tugging at my heart.

Did I hate this season? No, not at all.

Did I love this season? Hardly.

I liked it. It’s ranked either third or fourth on my list of “most to least favorite seasons” after s5 and s1. It’s a very “upper middle” ranked season for me.

But I did not love it. Mostly because of how it handled Operation Kuron, and also because of how it handled Lance.

…..I did say that I wished I could keep my biases out of this.

Lance… felt like a regression. Like we had him be so built up as a person, that s6ep1 then had it all get reversed. How, you ask?

Well, Lance had a near-death experience and Allura brought him back to life. Along with his life, Allura seemed to have resurrected Lance’s old romantic feelings for her, which is what I hope happened, otherwise it horribly colors a good deal of Lance’s distrust of Lotor in s5 and relies on tropes I don’t think any of us want to see (just visibly moon over the girl for long enough and she’ll eventually grow those same feelings for you! What a surefire romance this is!)

Not that I have anything against any ship, but that Allura might run into Lance’s arms because of her failed love story with Lotor just… rubs me the wrong way.

Outside of that, I’m not surprised with the lotura becoming (for like twenty minutes in-universe) canon. They shared a number of moments growing closer and closer and both showed some romantic interest in the other.

But back to Lance. Season 5 built him up as the only one who took notice of something going on with Shiro, and even had a number of scenes focused on Lance, and had all the narrative build-up that Lance was going to play a major part (he even came across worried about Shiro in s6ep1, asking over the comms about Shiro’s well-being).

But then, as I said above, Lance had his feelings for Allura rekindled and that took over his entire purpose in s6.

I knew, ever since we were shown the promo poster at the end of s5, that Keith “as many times as it takes” Kogane returning to Voltron meant that Lance would get the short end of the stick re: Operation Kuron. I just didn’t know that it meant that Lance wouldn’t even get the stick at all. I should have, though. Lance always gets shown up by Keith dropping in five steps ahead of him, after all.

I could craft a meta on how Lance’s reaction to seeing Kuron’s braindead body means that he’ll take it as reason for him to step down for good when they reach Earth but… nah. Not now.

I think I’ll just conclude this section by expressing what little shred of hope I still have that Lance finally has time in the spotlight in the coming seasons.

And now… Keith. I feel no emotional attachment to Keith, and this has been something slow going ever since s2 happened. His character archetype doesn’t appeal to me, and I felt whatever lingering interest in him die off when he failed to in the s4 finale. Because that was the perfect set-up for someone to die, someone like a major character, but… he didn’t. So when his life seemed in danger in s5 I didn’t believe it, and when he nearly got hit by spaghettification in s5ep2, I didn’t believe it. Keith, out of every character, is the one who will never be put in real life-threatening danger. Even when he is (s4 finale), Keith still makes it out unscathed.

So… about the only emotional connection I had when watching the Keith vs Kuron fight, was with Kuron. And even then it was tenuous because of how the clone thing was handled.

I dunno what to say about the whole 2-year age-up thing, beyond… that sure was a quick way to mature Keith away from his impulsive nature.

I am not emotionally attached to Keith, or interested in him enough to weigh in on that.

….I do like space wolf though.

I didn’t like that Keith is set up now as The Black Paladin, unlocking Black’s wings in a mirror of both the s2 finale where Shiro did it, and the s4 starter where Kuron awakens Black. That whole sequence very obviously was Shiro letting go of his place as a paladin and Keith stepping up to the plate in full, after the symbolic return by summoning the Black Bayard. I’m not going to get into how I feel about Shiro stepping down as the Black Paladin, because it’s been better said by others (notably, zilla I think said it all best), but I am saddened that he’s no longer the Black Paladin and that Keith now is in full.

Keith being the Black Paladin is still not something I’m on board with, but if the writers can pull it off without making the show all about him again then I can live with it.

If there’s one major plot issue, outside of the clone and Lance, that I have to take up it’s… Acxa. Apparently she’s been on Lotor’s side this whole time, and been leading Ezor and Zethrid to the other side because… Lotor wanted her to? IDK, that felt like a messy retcon done so that Lotor could have all three Sincline ships together.

Honerva being cleansed of the rift corruption from Oriande was interesting, I admit. Really interesting. And even more so that Acxa mentioned that it was Honerva who sent the generals to retrieve Kuron and Lotor. Which makes Honerva (who Lotor said, like two weeks before in the s4 finale, was his mother) doing that “I am your mother” reveal and them being shocked so… off-putting. But Honerva seeming to have no love left for her son in the wake of learning about what he did to the Altean colony is… fascinating. She sees the worst of Haggar and Evil Emperor Zarkon in Lotor.

Romelle was really interesting too, as was the colony. I liked that it was addressed that the Alteans who were off-world survived and went into hiding. I liked that we’ve got a source of meta to look into with the colony, and with the source of Lotor’s refined quintessence. And it doesn’t come out of nowhere, not entirely, because Lotor has always admitted to being the kind of person who would willingly sacrifice a few if it meant a great reward (he was fine with Voltron being potentially destroyed or lost in another reality when they were collecting the Sincline Comet, and didn’t care about the loss of systems to the coalition and Voltron, and willingly threw Throk into the lion’s maw, so to speak, just for the reward).

This whole season felt like the second half of what was set up in s3, felt like the endgame that those seven episodes were building up to.

But… it didn’t feel like it connected back to s4 or s5 all that much. The coalition isn’t featured at all after we spent all of s4 building it up and bringing it back up in s5 as being firmly against the empire.

Which brings me to the conclusion of a 26-episode arc. It didn’t feel like one, unless the arc was “Lotor’s arc”. I expected Sendak to play a part, but he only appeared once and then vanished entirely to raze the empire and build up his “Fires of Purification” group.

And where we left off with Acxa, Ezor, and Zethrid was… disappointing, almost. I’m not sure if I should expect them to return, considering the likelihood that they were pulled into one of the rifts, and even if they managed to avoid all that they have no ship to get away on, since they abandoned Honerva’s ship (which left to go to the colony of Alteans, I suspect).

I LOVED the DND episode, so so much. That is exactly the kind of filler we’ve been crying for. I laughed, I cried, I didn’t cringe away in second-hand embarrassment, and I had so much fun. The best episode of the season, and one of the best of the series.

I loved Hunk in the opener. He’s getting better at taking charge (compare that moment with when he sat in Black’s cockpit in s3ep2) and growing into both a fine diplomat and a courageous paladin.

I loved Coran, and Pidge, and Allura this season.

And I still love Lotor. He’s such an incredible villain, right up there with Azula. I fully expect both him and the Sincline to make a return in the future, considering that he’s now left behind in the place where the Rift Creature exists and the Sincline is just… there waiting for it to take possession.

I dunno. I liked the season, despite how Keith returned and was reaffirmed as The Main Character We Should Care About Above Everyone Else (yes, yes, this is a salt mine I need to get out of, I know that). It was a good season. Not great, not hardly the best season, but good as ever. It connects well with s5, and continues parts of the set-up we got there, that I can almost see how they would’ve existed as a 13-episode season. Where the series goes from here, I can only guess at bits and pieces.

What would I have changed? I’d remove the clone plotline entirely, for starter. I’d keep it as Haggar using Shiro’s arm and that nanovirus from s5ep3 to mindswish Shiro into the perfect soldier. I’d have had Lance realize Shiro’s been mindswished and do everything he can to break Shiro out of it. I’d have removed that whole “Acxa was really on Lotor’s side all along” thing, because it changes her actions in s5 and sours the “For Narti” moment. Instead I would have had Ezor learn about Operation Kuron and realize that Lotor slaying Narti was because of this, and the generals leaving Honerva all alone while they take their Sincline and run. I’d have featured the coalition’s reaction to Voltron siding with Emperor Lotor, and how that strained and blurred the moral lines even further. I… am not sure I would change much with Lotor’s arc, beyond having increased his paranoia both bc of Haggar and Sendak but also bc of the rift affecting him. Push him with that paranoia, so that when Allura says that he’s just like Zarkon it really causes him to go full Azula and say all that.

So that’s it. That’s just about everything I wanted to say about s6.