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kydrakinetic · 2 years

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Why hello there, it seems we are both feeling bitter about Voltron today/tonight/whenever. SO. If you were tasked to rewrite Voltron, what would you change?

I would like to preface this by saying that I spent way too much time and far too many words on this. You have been warned

1. The theming holy crud

The more I think about it, the more I realize just how big the difference is between what should be the emotional effects of the canon events and actual canon (this is more egregious imo with events not shown and only told, although I have a bit more stake in off-screen events, see #4). Beyond that, they strayed really far from the original themes of friendship and family. I would instead try to work the show around the idea of Becoming An Effective Team And Family Whilst Being Mostly Minors In A Hellish Space WarTM. Not only would that give enough room to make it still (debatably) family-friendly, it would also provide a good avenue through which to explore darker arcs and more emotional issues.

2. Discussion of trauma and PTSD

I fully agree with you with what you said Shiro's PTSD. First they forget about it, then they put him through more hell, then he gets shoved aside, geez louise give the man a break or therapy. Better yet, both. There's also everything the rest of the cast goes through which uhhh

3. The clone thing

I watched the show relatively late, so to speak, in the summer of 2020. I had heard through the grapevine that it wasn't good, but I also wanted to know why and no one could give me a straight answer so I watched it. Seeing as I hadn't gone farther than that, I had no idea that the Clone Shiro/Kuron theories existed so when it popped up I was crazy confused. Also I don't like it because it destabilizes the structural integrity of the show in the middle seasons and it seemed to be an easy way for the writers to absolve weak writing while incorporating a popular theory. If it was planned from the beginning, more power to them but I still don't like it sorry.

Instead, I would cut down the length it all and have Shiro simply go missing. Cue paladin mix-up. Eventually the Black Lion reveals to Keith that Shiro's consciousness is up there, but she doesn't know where his body is, sending the team on a search find his actual body/whatever body is out there. This is when they find the clone, quintessence bullshit happens, yadda yadda, Shiro is back in his body but not really by the end of s3 to help the paladins out and reclaim his place for the Big Epic Fight. He also keeps his original design because I said so

This also means that the team is fairly operational by the end of season 3, which means there's enough emotional room to get in a good bit of angst for...

4. Matt Holt

It's just like the classic (/j) saying goes; one does not simply watch voltron without gaining a blorbo. Matt Holt happens to be mine. Yes, it's just as terrible as you'd expect.

My qualm with the way he was written is that he's very underused considering he's the primary core of Pidge's character arc. Coincidentally, due to the nature of his experiences in space and Holt family's tendency to fake their deaths (whether accidental or intentional), you can also get a lot of angst mileage out of this guy.

He's in a weird position too in terms of timeline, because we know where he was at the start of the series obviously and in seasons 4, 5, and 8 (not counting 7 because he only had like 3 frames and a dust bunny), but we don't know how he got there or how he's changed. There's a few events scattered in there but other than that there's a collective, what? 5 years' worth of timeline that's fair game?

So I say up the intensity of space war hell in his timeline a little, or leave it be but follow through on the mental consequences of what happened to the Kerberos guys, and then deal with that. A good starting point would be through his connections to the paladins. Maybe throw in something about the way Pidge and Shiro (even Keith if you're feeling fancy) remember the pre-Kerberos days and the comparison to how he and by extension they have changed, which would be a nice tie-in to the theme as stated in point 1.

I've got more to say about this little guy but I'll cut it here for everyone's sanity. God this man gives me brainworms I hate it

5. Season 7

There are definitely better things to talk about than this one but this is my askbox and I make the rules.

See the I think trouble with season 7 is that there's too many characters. They're struggling to make everyone fit and yet contribute their piece to the story. First part of fixing this in a way I like is either A) cutting the MFE pilots and making Veronica the ultimate girlboss as is her right, thereby allowing her more time to develop and actually get fleshed out or B) giving more time to the Earth cast instead. Unpopular opinion maybe, but I like the MFE pilots so I'm going with that one.

I'll admit it's been a bit since I've actually watched the show so sorry if none of this makes sense but I would open s7 with the Earth cast upon Sam Holt's arrival. Instead of doing flashback episodes we start with a 4-6 episode mini-arc from MFE pilots' pov about their training and behind-the-scenes Garrison drama. This gives enough time to focus on the pilots' personalities and ability to work together as an effective team with a different structure and dynamic than the paladins, making them stand out more.

Maybe frame it like a conspiracy theory (because it is actually the aliens), with the pilots trying to figure out what's going on and why a dead guy is training them. Maybe get Adam in on it, because like you said, he lives, obviously. The Garrison's been shown to cover their asses no matter what, so it's not too much of a stretch to say that they would do it again and not tell anyone jack.

Once the mini-arc is complete (at the beginning of the invasion) we cut back to the paladins with their journey home and their side quests. Except now the suspense is up as you wait to find out what happened when the invasion started. They get home, both the audience and the paladins are shocked at what happened, Adam or a Holt gives the team a very fast version of the events of the invasion.

The rest of the season proceeds the same expect for Adam lives and the Atlas doesn't exist anymore. (As a mecha with Thic Thighs. I have no idea what I would do about s8 here because I've blocked it from my memory, but if she was needed, she would be like. A carrier ship with a nice particle barrier. Or she still wouldn't exist if the Castle was around. Dunno) Tbh, I forgot what happens in the rest of s7. Gonna put a nice large question mark there. But I really like the idea of Earth becoming an interplanetary embassy community of sorts. Culture shock could be an interesting subject to tackle, but it wouldn't be an out of place one here. It might be nice to have some time devoted to that and everyone's recovery. Give them a bit of fluff, as a treat.

6. The transformation cutscene

It's now skippable

#asks #kydra screams #vld #thanks for the ask! i uh. had thoughts apparently #ALSO before anyone asks. yes i am seeking mental help #the vast majority of this was typed in a haze at 2 am

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chibi-pix · 5 years

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Ghost Tales in Space

Well, I actually wrote something in terms of Voltron: Legendary Defender fanfics. Thankfully it’s not multi-chapter, those never seem to get finished when I attempt to write them. And hopefully I did okay. It wasn’t originally written because it’s October, but rather because it came to my mind when trying to sleep the previous night.

It’s canon-divergent, keeping Ulaz, Thace, Antok, and Regris all alive. Thank you very much, we need to keep our lovely Galra safe.

Now, if things work out, it should be in the “keep reading” thing below. Hopefully I did okay.

----------------------------------------

Kolivan walked into the common room, watching the paladins, one blade, and a rebel set up cushions and what looked like a technological imitation of a campfire. Hunk had gathered snacks while Keith and Matt assisted Lance in setting up what looked like a mock-shelter over the sunken pit, the couches retracted to give more room to sit on the cushions around the mock-fire. Shiro was setting up the cushions, making the floor comfortable. Pidge was working with the mock-fire, getting it to properly flicker with life-like flames of oranges, yellows, and reds. He was curious as to what the others were up to.

Then Hunk spoke up.

“I mean, do we really need to tell ghost stories?” Hunk inquired, finishing up with the snacks and helping Shiro with the cushions.

“Oh, good heavens, no.” Pidge assured. “Any scary story will do.”

“That doesn’t help, Pidge!” Hunk whined.

“Well, you don’t have to tell any; if you’d like, you can even opt out of listening.” Matt reminded.

“Well… we’re trying to gather everyone around...” Hunk mumbled.

“Maybe have Hunk be our scare-detector?” Keith suggested.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Lance questioned.

“Well, Hunk’s the most afraid, that’s no question.” Keith stated. “And that’s not a bad thing, Hunk, don’t pout.” Hunk nodded. “With that being said, if you do decide to listen in, you can help us gauge who has the scariest story.”

“Yeah, because like hell Pidge could tell anyone how scary their story is.” Matt snickered, Pidge getting that cheeky gremlin grin, the expression Kolivan knew never to trust. Hell, he was always on guard around her, she was too sneaky and calculating

“You’re telling ghost tales?” Kolivan asked. Most of the others were startled, having not noticed the blade leader. Most of the group jumped, Hunk squealed, and Pidge? Well, she simply grinned.

“Hey, Kolivan!” Pidge greeted. “Yeah! We’re getting things set up. We should be ready in about thirty doboshes or less. You and the blades gonna join? The invite is extended to you.”

“Are we permitted to tell tales as well?” Kolivan inquired.

“Hell yeah!” Pidge cheered. “I bet you guys have some good ones!”

“Aw man...” Hunk whined, Shiro chuckling a bit as he sympathetically patted his fellow paladin’s shoulder.

Pidge snickered, definitely not as sympathetic as the black paladin. “I think hearing what you guys can tell is good. It’d be...” The light dimmed in the room, her mock-fire flickering to life. “Culturally enriching.”

“Um… guys...” Hunk scooted away from Pidge.

“Holy crow… that’s...” Lance was on edge. He let out an audible sound of relief when the lights returned to normal.

“Sorry about that, guys.” came Coran’s voice over the comm system. “I was trying to get the lighting settings changed for the common for Pidge’s spook party, didn’t mean to turn off the lights.”

“It’s fine, Coran, just… unnerving timing.” Shiro called back. He looked to Pidge. “That was just… timing, right? Not you… doing something?”

“Me? Do something?” Pidge asked, looking almost appalled. The way she played it, though, no one knew what to think of her except for Kolivan. Never. Trust. The. Gremlin. She then perked up when another blade, this one being a tailed male named Regris, entered the common. “Hey, Regris!” she greeted happily. Since they met, the two hit it off well, working on tech and decoding intel together. Another thing Kolivan knew, always be on guard if they were left alone for too long and things were too quiet.

“Wow, it’s coming along well.” Regris complimented. “I finished the projector like you requested. But… why you specified certain star charts...”

“They’re to look like constellations seen from parts of our planet.” Pidge explained, smiling happily. She left her completed mock-campfire and went to help Regris set up the projector.

“Ah, Kolivan, are you planning on joining the telling of stories?” Regris inquired, finally paying attention to his leader and commander.

“I plan on it.” Kolivan nodded. “Do the others know?”

“I believe the princess is seeing to it.” Regris nodded.

“Man, this is going to be so fun.” Matt chuckled.

“Heh, not like you can come up with a good story.” Shiro teased. “I’ve listened to your stories in those months it took us to get to Kerberos...”

“Hey, I never said I was going to tell a story.” Matt smirked. “But I know a certain Holt who’s got some tales to tell.”

“Including that one?” Pidge asked.

“Pull out all the stops, Pidge.” Matt grinned.

“They’re bluffing, right?” Keith asked.

“Siblings getting suspicious?” Lance pondered. “Totally bluffing.”

“No offense, but I don’t think tech lover tales are going to scare any of us.” Shiro declared, rather certain that the siblings were bluffing.

While the others doubted Pidge and Matt with a story, Kolivan knew better. He knew he should never trust the gremlin.

-+-+-+-

“Ladies, gentlemen, and those in between.” Pidge greeted those sitting around her mock fire. It was quite a setting and the green paladin was looking forward to listening to the various stories others had to tell. Even better, Allura was excited to sit through and listen to the story, a few of the blades themselves were even eager to listen. “I welcome you to the telling of stories. Ghosts. Monsters. Superstitions. Urban legends. Personal… experiences.” The way the smallest paladin said that was eerie. “All alike, we have stories to tell. Here and now is where we tell them. While this is no true competition, but, if Hunk would listen and determine the fight level?”

“I can try.” Hunk nodded.

“Grazie.” Pidge nodded. “Now, be patient, we have… all night.” The lights dimmed as she spoke it, a remote in her hand to let her do that this time. When the lights dimmed, her artificial stars showed up on the covering Keith, Lance, and Matt put up and her fire flickered to life. “So we have time for every person who wishes to tell a story to regale their tale.” She offered a grin, one no one should or could ever trust. “So, who of our lovely guests shall tell the first story?”

“If possible, I’d like to be the one.” Coran spoke up. Pidge nodded and sat down, going to sit between Regris’ legs as he put his tail around her. “It’s quite a true tale, in fact. One in my younger days… when the Castle of Lions had just been finished being built by my grandfather.”

Coran was but a youth, perhaps no older than Keith was. He had walked around the castle, checking out his grandfather’s work. Pop-Pop Wimbleton was truly a master of the craft, able to build such a beauty. And Coran loved walking around the many halls, marveling at the genius’ work. As he walked, though, he felt a chill down his spine. He felt like he was being watched.

Every time Coran turned around, no one was there. Every time he looked around a corner, thinking someone was there, no one was. This kept up for many vargas and worried the young man. Then eventually he turned around, catching an apparition just before it disappeared.

“Turned out, though, it was just the holographic projectors malfunctioning. Well, the castle was still in it’s infancy and Pop-Pop Wimbleton had been working out the kinks.” Coran mused, messing with his mustache.

“Coran… that was an eerie story and all, I’d have been terrified had I been you, but I think you miss the purpose of a scary story.” Hunk admitted.

“Part of a scary story is to not rationalize what happened, leave the mystery and suspense to unnerve your audience.” Pidge sighed. “But good try.”

“Oh, really? Well, perhaps next time we do this I can do better.” Coran stated with a nod.

“If you have a different story to tell next time, sure thing!” Pidge nodded. “Okay, who would be next? Who thinks they can give us a few scares?”

“Perhaps, if no one minds, I can tell a story.” Kolivan poke up. He dared to smirk a bit when some of his blades mumbled, the group sure that he would definitely get the others scared. “I’ve seen many planets… many battlefields in my time.” Kolivan admitted. “But one in particular...”

A Galran soldier wandering the dead lands of an abandoned planetoid. Long ago, after Zarkon’s beginning efforts of his tyranny, many planets had been attacked. Many species across the galaxies had been enslaved… or eradicated. In the loss of lives of those species, the Galra had lost their own as well.

The soldier in question was looking over an old battlefield, remembering the grief felt once before. Families torn apart. Land blown apart. And the fall of a grand general, one of the finest. The nameless warrior. No one anymore who they fought for. For Zarkon? For freedom? Only that they had fought many battles before their time came to an end, ended by their own kind. Friendly fire? Someone attacking a traitor? A traitor attacking town own? The tales had no more answers to that.

The soldier stood in the emptiness of the old battlefield. He looked out across the vastness of the land. His focus changed and he found himself staring into a set of eyes. He staggered back for he knew those eyes had not been there before. Weathered from war. Weathered from violence. Weathered from the years.

The fallen general had died long before, but their eyes were always remembered. Their eyes were seen on many battlefields. And the soldier knew those eyes meant impending doom. The soldier knew to never confront those eyes. It was always best to turn round and leave.

“But what that soldier did not know was that day was different. Those eyes followed him through to his next battle. Then, during a battle, he saw those eyes again. They were the last thing he had seen.” Kolivan said, ending his tale.

Hunk was unnerved and hiding behind Shiro. Unsurprisingly, Kolivan’s story spooked him. Even Lance was on edge. “Dude, that’s like… old European spooks.” Lance stated, holding onto Keith’s arm, the former paladin unaffected.

“Ooh, classic cursed spirit tale, love it!” Pidge cooed, looking eager.

“You would.” Matt chuckled.

“That didn’t bother you?” Regris inquired.

“Are you kidding? Not at all!” Pidge looked happy before grabbing one of the snacks brought in. “Okay, who’s next?”

“Perhaps I could go next.” Shiro commented.

“Oh, this is gonna be good.” Keith declared, sounding hopeful.

Shiro smiled as he looked to Pidge. The gremlin nodded and her mock-fire dimmed more and Shiro’s arm gave an ominous purple glow, even more eerie compared to that of the usual purple glow in the Galran ships and bases. “Am I beautiful?” he asked, in an eerie tone. “A line spoken to many… and sometimes the last.”

Many people had walked through the streets of many cities in Shiro’s home country of Japan. As they would, some would see this woman walking around, average at first glance. Her hair down, a surgical mask over her mouth; she seemed to protect others from a cold she may have had… or she was wary of catching a cold from another.

People would see her and she would approach them. “Am I beautiful?” she would ask. Innocent. Sweet. A sign of insecurity. Perhaps an old lover telling her that she was not.

“Of course you are.” many would respond. “You’ve very beautiful.”

A smile behind her mask, her eyes lit up. Her dark eyes aglow. Then the mask would be removed. An ugly, jagged line from ear to ear. Her mouth wide, gaping. Too much smile for too little of a face. “Am I still beautiful?”

A scream. A call of distress. It is the last strangers hear before they investigate, finding the fallen victims in the alleys they ventured into… their mouths slit open.

“Never scream when you face Kuchisake-onna.” Shiro ended the tale, his arm dimming and Pidge’s mock-fire coming back to life. “To survive, do not scream, but tell her she is still beautiful. That will please or confuse her, giving you time to escape.”

“Dude!” Hunk whined, now hiding behind Kolivan. “That’s just… dude!”

“Whoa! Is that… a real story?” Keith asked, looking a little startled, but not as scared as Hunk or Lance.

“It would account for mysterious deaths.” Pidge snickered.

“Someone find duct tape or something… Pidge liking these stories is scary...” Lance mumbled.

“Well done, Shiro, I’d say yours had surpassed Kolivan’s tale.” Pidge applauded. “Now then, who else has a tale to tell?”

“Okay, you know what, I should just tell my story before I get too… wound up to tell it later.” Lance responded, refusing to admit he was afraid. “It was a story told by my mom. La dama de blanco.”

La dama de blanco was supposed to get married. She was excited when the met the man of her dreams. He was everything she wanted. Smart. Funny. Charming. Hard working. And, as a bonus, he was very handsome. El apuesto extanjero. He came from afar, a fine family and he had fallen in love in the land of beauty and sun. The family of the bride-to-be adored him and felt he was perfect for her. She would get ahead in life with their marriage.

Before they wed, the foreigner went up to the waterfalls with his bride-to-be. It was where they first met, where he first laid eyes upon her. He went up to shout his love for her to the world. He wanted to sing out her name with her on the top of those waterfalls before the wedding.

The bride-to-be loved this. She smiled and hummed to her lover’s voice. But then there was a gust of wind and her veil blew off. Panicked, she reached for it. And slipped.

“As la dama de blanco fell, she saw her lover reaching for her… and behind him another woman in white, the sky visible behind her sheer figure.” Lance told his tale.

“Wait… was it the figure she saw who pushed her? Or the lover?” Hunk asked, looking terrified.

“No one knows. The stories only tell of how her lover reported that she slipped when she reached for her veil.” Lance said. “So, how was that, Pidge?”

Pidge yawned. “Classic, nice, but not scary.” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“She doesn’t budge, does she?” Ulaz asked.

“Maybe it is time for your story?” Thace inquired.

“Oh, Ulaz has one?” Pidge perked up, like the eager gremlin she was.

“You know what, fine, let’s get this story started.” Hunk said.

“You’re not afraid anymore?” Allura inquired, looking like she was enjoying the sensation of being frightened.

“I’m so terrified right now, I don’t know how to be scared.” Hunk admitted. He then felt Antok sit down behind him, pulling him over a bit.

“They’re just stories, they won’t get you.” Antok assured gently, running his fingers through Hunk’s hair in a reassuring way.

“Yeah… unless Pidge decides to pull out all the stops for the ultimate scare like she did for Halloween at the Garrison with Risavi’s help.” Hunk whined.

“Oh mean, I remember that.” Lance said. “Scared even Iverson!”

Pidge cackled and waved it off. “Anyway, Ulaz, let’s see what you’ve got.”

“I had been a medical officer for many deca-phoebs, working for the Blade of Marmora a long time… and blending in to keep my eye on the empire.” Ulaz started to say.

Ulaz was hard at work, tending to patients. It was grueling work at times and not exactly rewarding. He had been undercover for a fair amount of deca-phoebs, no one none the wiser as to who he was. With his position, he had to treat the empire’s soldiers, this helped in keeping people ignorant of who he truly was. What his cause was.

He was working with one patient in particular, a soldier who had been badly injured in a fight with rebels. They got the best of her, but she never pulled back. Victory. Or death. And to honour her strength and bravery, Zarkon had promoted her to commander. If she died from her wounds, she would die with great honour. If she survived, she would be given command of her own fleet.

Ulaz worked to try to stabilize his patient. She would need prosthetic limbs if she survived. If.

As he worked, a shadow was caught in his peripheral vision. A druid. It had to be.

“I’m busy with my work.” Ulaz grumbled. He had worked too many quintants without proper rest to want to deal with the cloaked bastards. “Unless you’re here to help my patient survive, get your ass out of my...” He turned. No one. He looked around. No one. “Infirmary?” He scowled and stepped outside the room, knowing his patient would be fine without him for a few doboshes; all he really had to do was keep an eye on the monitors alerting him to her health.

“You there,” Ulaz snapped at a guard who stood outside the room, “has anyone entered this room?”

“Um, sir?” the soldier, young and hopeful for his future on Zarkon’s ship, questioned, confusion crossing the lower half of his face, the upper covered by his helmet.

“Are you deaf?” Ulaz inquired. “Has anyone aside from me and my patient entered this room?”

“No sir, you’re the only one.”

“Not even a druid?”

“The druids are busy, sir; they have not been in this wing since Commander Lerzi was brought in.” the soldier reported, trying not to stutter. “Is something… the matter?”

“I thought someone was in the room…” Ulaz sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Shall I call for someone to take your shift?”

“No. Just… be diligent.” Ulaz waved the situation off and returned to his work. He went back to monitoring his patient, a sigh leaving his lips. He didn’t think she would survive, even with the help of High Priestess Hagar. As he stood watch, he detected movement again. “I’ve had enough of thi-” He turned. He stared into the face of a lieutenant. A lieutenant who had been part of the same fleet that Lerzi served in. He knew the face of the lieutenant well; she had come in with severe injuries and died after being brought back to the main fleet.

“Lieutenant Ryl...” Ulaz gasped out. He stepped to the side as the lieutenant walked over to Lerzi, reaching and gently touching her face.

“I will see you soon.” Ryl whispered softly, leaning over and gently kissing Lerzi.

“It took me several doboshes to come out of my stupor, I hadn’t even realized the monitor had been telling me that Lerzi passed on.” Ulaz said. “It wasn’t until that soldier standing guard heard it and entered the room.”

The others were on edge or terrified. A close encounter told in a calm voice. The only one unbothered by it was unsurprisingly Pidge. She didn’t cackle this time, instead she was patting Regris’ tail in a comforting way as he hugged her like a child hugging their plush toy. While Kolivan wasn’t exactly terrified, he certainly was a little unnerved.

“My, that was quite the experience.” Coran said, huddling on one side of Shiro while Allura was on the other.

“Dude, I’d have screamed had that been me!” Hunk whined, glad that Antok was holding onto him closely, though part of that was for the larger Galra’s own peace of mind.

“Holy crow...” Lance whimpered.

“Be brave, Lance, he was probably just exhausted.” Keith tried to rationalize, but even he couldn’t keep the seeping fear back.

“Did… did you ever see her again?” Allura questioned, her voice wavering.

“No, after Lerzi passed on, I never saw Ryl again.” Ulaz admitted. “There had been other cases of shadows on the edge of my vision, but never as full on as Ryl had been.”

“Ah, the story of two lovers, one passed on and knowing the other would soon follow, waiting for her so they could go one together.” Pidge spoke up in a mellow and even endearing voice.

“Are there… other stories to tell?” Shiro questioned, holding onto one of the cushions around him.

“I don’t think I can take much more...” Hunk whimpered.

Pidge looked around. No volunteers. She eyed Matt who nodded.

“Ladies, gentlemen, and those in between, we bring to you the final tale of this evening.” Matt declared, standing up. “Our final tale is by none other than by Katie Pidge Holt. A tale of being lost, being alone… and being afraid.” That last word was said with an ominous tone as the fake stars disappeared and the mock-fire turned green. Several of the others, mainly the humans and Alteans, jumped at the sudden change, though Thace, Antok, and Regris were startled as well.

Pidge was silent, her head down. Then in the most eerie, child-like voice, she spoke. “Mommy? Daddy? Where are you?”

“Why do I have to attend? It’s just a bunch of adults talking about space travel and their kids make fun of me.” Pidge sighed, sitting in her mother’s lap as Colleen had pulled her hair up in the cutest pigtails tied off with green ribbons.

“You can always talk about space travel with them.” Colleen assured.

“Um, hello? Their kids make fun of me and since when did grown ups listen to a seven-year-old kid with the intellect of a sixteen-year-old? They just look at me and tell me that I’ll learn this stuff when I’m older.” Pidge reminded. “I’d much rather just sit in my room and read those flight manuals Dad brought home to study.”

“Now now, sweetie,” Colleen chuckled, “try to grin and bear it. Think of it as… training.”

“Training?” Pidge looked confused.

“One day you’ll go to space… and you may need to put up with a crew who isn’t used to someone so young being so much smarter than them.” Colleen smiled and kissed her daughter’s cheek. “Now then, your hair is fixed up, you’re wearing the dress Daddy picked out for you, are you ready to come out? I need to go out and get to grilling.”

Pidge sighed. “I guess...”

“Then up. Up. Up. Up.” Colleen got her daughter up and took her hand. “If after an hour and you’re not happy, you can come back inside and study.” She smirked. “Or, if you can bear the rest of the evening until bed time, I’ll get you that video game you wanted.”

“Oh, now you’re talking my language, Mommy!” Pidge grinned brightly, making Colleen laugh.

And so Pidge did her best, sitting through everything. She sat around the adults more, listening to her father talk with other scientists and pilots. She occasionally asked questions, but they either dismissed her or tried to give her too-simple-to-really-work responses. She sighed after a few hours and got up.

“Honey? Giving up already?” Colleen asked.

“Going to the bathroom, then getting enough peanut butter cookies to put me in a sugar coma tonight.” Pidge responded.

“Get some fruit or vegetable, too. Apples or celery go well with peanut butter.” Colleen reminded.

“That sounds good.” Pidge nodded and went inside. She didn’t notice anything until after she finished washing her hands and went to get her choice of food. By then, though, she realized just how quiet things had gotten.

Pidge didn’t think that was normal. When she had been outside, there was plenty of talking going on, jovial sounds as people talked about space exploration. She stepped outside and blinked. Nothing. No one was there and it was as quiet as could be. “Mommy? Daddy?” Pidge called. “Matt? Where are you?”

Pidge walked out into the yard and looked around. No one. No family. No guests. No one. She couldn’t even smell the scents that were previously there. She went over and neared the grill. Even a couple feet away, she knew she should have smelled the food cooking; she should have been able to feel the heat, even if it turned off in the few short minutes she was inside. She dared to touch the grill, cautious at first, but then her hand flat against it. Cold to the touch.

“Mommy? Daddy! Where are you guys?” Pidge called. She went back inside to check around. Upstairs. Downstairs. The basement. She checked everywhere, but there was no sign of anyone being there. “This isn’t funny! Where are you? Matt, if this is your idea of a joke, I don’t like it!”

She kept looking, but no one was there. No one was talking or calling out for her. She was getting to be afraid. “Where… where are you guys… where...” She started crying. Seven years old, sometimes too smart for her age, but she most certainly was not ready for a situation like this.

“Shush now, don’t cry.” came a gentle and unfamiliar voice. “You’ll be fine, you’re not alone.”

“I want my mommy and daddy!” Pidge whined. “I want Matt! I can’t find them!”

“It’s okay, sweetie, it’s okay. You’re not hurt, and we’ll find them.” Pidge felt a careful touch on her back, a hand rubbing soothing circles on her back. It felt… relaxing. Then that hand moved and took her own, careful fingers lacing around her little fingers. She looked up, shock filling her at first as she just saw a shadow, no distinguishable features to be found. “Let’s get you back home, okay?” the shadow assured, the voice still sweet and sincere.

Pidge found herself relaxing. She didn’t know who she was, only that she was nice and helpful. She walked through the house again, heading for the back door and holding onto her new friend’s hand. “I already checked out back.” Pidge said.

“Check again. They’re there.” the shadow said. It, she Pidge assumed, knelt down beside the girl, gently running those slender fingers through her pigtails before moving to fix the ribbons. “Now, Pidge, wipe your face, you’re not hurt.” Pidge nodded and did so. “And go to them before they wonder where you are.”

“Okay.” Pidge nodded. “Thank you.” She then went out the door, stepping back out on the back porch, the sounds, sights, and scents right back where they belonged.

“Huh? Oh, Katie, what took you so long?” Colleen asked. “Did you get what you wanted?”

“Mommy...”

“Hmm? What’s wrong?” Colleen was surprised when Pidge suddenly hugged her. “What’s the matter, sweetie? Hmm?” She hugged her daughter in return, confused but still wanting to comfort her.

“Mom? What’s wrong with Pidge?” Matt asked. “Is she okay?”

“Well, she seems fine.” Colleen assured. “Right?”

“Yeah, now that I found you guys.” Pidge hummed.

“Found us?” Colleen asked. But Pidge didn’t answer and just went to sit down on the bench she had been sitting on earlier, humming to herself. “I wonder what that’s about...”

“Knowing Pidge? Probably something important.” Matt chuckled.

Pidge got the lights all back on. She looked around to see the others startled and staring at her. Ulaz’s close encounter? Startling. Pidge’s? What. The. Quiznak? Even though Matt knew the story, Pidge telling him that incident when she was thirteen, he was spooked by how Pidge told the tale, huddled in close to Regris who had backed off from the gremlin.

“Part of a good telling of tales is the environment and tone.” Pidge stated.

“So… it was made up, right? Or a legend?” Keith asked.

Pidge shook her head. “No, even now, I don’t know how to explain what happened.” she admitted. “Science has failed me in terms of rational reasoning.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Oh well. I got back safely in the end.”

“Can… can we all just agree that… Pidge’s story is quiznaking terrifying?” Allura asked, huddling even closer to Shiro. “Just… what the quiznak? How did you manage the situation?”

“Well, I had been terrified at the time.” Pidge brushed it off. She then looked around to the others. Hah! She even managed to scare Kolivan more as his fur was more bristled than usual and his eyes wide.

“Pidge,” Shiro spoke up, his voice soft until he cleared his throat to correct it, “never tell that story again. Hell, never tell any scary story.”

“At least until the next scary story night.” Pidge cackled.

“Nope. Not happening again.” Thace whined, snuggling in against Ulaz. “If you’re going to tell a story, I’m not going through another horror story night...”

“I agree.” Lance nodded.

“Save those for if someone is foolish enough to capture you and hold you prisoner.” Kolivan suggested. “Just you. None of us.”

Pidge let out a hysterical laugh. “Man, I love telling stories with others.” she declared. She then got up and stretched. “Well! I dunno about you guys, but I’m exhausted! I’m gonna hit the hay. Ciao!” She then walked off.

“Yeah… I don’t think I can sleep tonight...” Hunk admitted.

“Um… stay up later telling happy stories?” Lance suggested. The others put their hands up, voting positive on that idea.

---------------------------------

Well, I hope I did okay and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Sorry if things seem OOC or not well written, I did what I could.

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spiftynifty · 6 years

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How come it seems like lm and jds can talk more candidly about their intentions regarding other ships like allurance and even k/l but not sheith? I don't understand why they can clarify things like allurance and how it was there from the beginning or flat out state that they never intended for k/l to be a thing, but when it comes to the topic of shiro and keith they won't just clarify what they did or did not intend/want their relationship to be? I'm confused by it. :(

Ooof this is an excellent question and I suspect a complicated one.

First off, they can be candid about Allurance because 1) it’s a hetero couple (and therefore “acceptable” to executives and conservative parents) and 2) it was strongly implied and built up for almost the entirety of the series before they officially, canonically, became a couple. There’s no ambiguity there. They can be candid about kl because Allurance technically “kills” the ship by virtue of existing, but more importantly kl is the fanship that they have been directly asked about on more than one occasion and probably straight up badgered about it more times than we’re aware of. When your production studio gets blackmailed in the hopes of making k/l canon, that ship is being brought to your attention.

Also, Afterbuzz is run by kl fans who have anti-like tendencies. They angle kl questions in nearly every interview, and I was pretty miffed by the way in this interview they heavily, heavily implied that only Sheith fans hated s8 “because their ship didn’t become canon” and yet in the same breath talked about how Allurance wasn’t good and came out of nowhere (something JDS delightfully shut down). In the live chat for the recent interview, people from all ship alignments kept begging the hosts to ask about why SK’s friendship wasn’t included in the final season. In the saltiest tone you can imagine, one of the more vocal kl hosts decided to answer the question (”they helped each other grow and evolve and since they’ve done that, we don’t need to see their friendship anymore, it got lots of screentime in other seasons”) and never let the showrunners actually speak on it, instead moving swiftly to another topic that aligned more with the hosts’ own interests. It was almost like she was afraid of what the answer would be. Was she afraid they’d say “well actually, on the matter of that, Sheith was our intended endgame” or was she trying to save them from having to talk about something NDAs prevented them from talking about?

So why CAN’T they talk Sheith? I have a few theories. This gets long and a little rambly, so I’ve thrown it under a cut.

1) Don’t ask, don’t tell. Except for post-s7, the showrunners themselves have never been asked about Sheith’s relationship in an interview. I think most Sheiths were afraid of rocking the boat and potentially upending a SK endgame by drawing too much attention to it. We were/are definitely the quieter side of the primary vld ships and honestly most of us were not expecting our ship to be canon.

But vld ships and the ship wars are notorious across geekdom for vitriol and death threats, and the creators didn’t want to add any fodder to either side. In the middle of production it would have benefited no one for the EPs to say, “yeah sheith is meant to be viewed romantically” or “no, we can’t go back and change the story to make that true”. Either one would have resulted in an uptick of harassment from antis towards them, towards other fans. And nevermind the production side where DW/WEP weren’t ready for even a hint of m/m until right before s7 dropped. It was only AFTER they got the greenlight on gay Shiro that showrunners could finally be vague and say “some people will interpret [sk] as brothers, others will say it’s 100% confirmed they’re in a relationship”. Which is, in my opinion, a pretty interesting way to respond to that question. But again, if that interviewer hadn’t been brave enough to ask it, I highly doubt it’s something that the showrunners themselves would have ever brought up.

2) Sheith was actually intended to be romantic, but was blocked. We know now that Adam being greenlit as Shiro’s boyfriend happened right before (like a week or less) before s7 dropped. This was a show that had been in production for almost 4 years by this point, and the showrunners stated they picked Shiro to be their rep early on in the process. When they planted that idea in executive’s heads is anyone’s guess, as is when the proper fight for it began. I suspect their immediate team of directors, writers, and in-house producers were well aware and supportive, but kicking that up the chain was another story. I also have a suspicion that it wasn’t until season 6 was complete that the matter was brought up because greenlighting everything we got in s6 knowing Shiro was gay the whole time puts a lot of eyes on Keith.

And really, it was Keith who was the problem all along.

In every version of Voltron, Keith is the main protagonist. He’s the leader of the team, the primary “image” of Voltron, and thus, certain things about him need to be maintained. I’m not sure if this is sheer coincidence or not, but he is the only person on the team who stayed visually the same to his OG counterpart. All of the other paladins have gone from white dudes (and a white lady) to POC, or have had a genderswap. There is much debate about Keith’s race with people creating their own headcanons but ultimately Keith can pass as white. While the handbook states Lance is Cuban, Hunk is half black-half Samoan, Shiro is Japanese and even Pidge gets “Italian”, Keith is just listed as... human. Which is a surefire way to not upset fans who have HC’d him as POC while also not-NOT saying he’s white. Everybody “wins”.

In addition I’m confident a major stipulation of the OG Voltron owners (the “gatekeepers”, as a few of the VAs and the showrunners themselves have darkly alluded to) was that Keith could not be LGBT. We know now he was meant to end up with Acxa, a fact that was already obvious to many of us from their Weblum meetcute. But that relationship was never scripted.

Setting aside the fact that the OG Voltron owners (WEP) didn’t want Keith to be LGBT, I’m sure executives at Dreamworks would have struggled with the idea as well. Shiro stans can come at me all they like about this but Keith was always meant to be the primary protagonist of the show, of every version of Voltron, and making the main, masculine hero of a well-trodden, oft-rebooted franchise gay/bi would have been an ENORMOUS move for animation. Making him end up with the other main, masculine hero would have honestly broken the internet and the minds of countless conservative executives, and been a major benchmark not just for cartoons, but ALL media. Animation often trails behind TV and movies in terms of social progress because something something “protect the chillllldrennn”. And right now I’m struggling to think of a popular live action TV show, or movie, with an older audience, where the main masculine hero is lgbt, and in a relationship with the other main masculine hero. Feel free to offer me examples in replies but the fact that I’m struggling to think of anything is pretty telling. In short, if this revolutionary move still isn’t happening for the live action 13+ audience, asking for it to happen on a cartoon with a 7-11yo boy demographic is like asking for the moon. Keith couldn’t be gay, because immediately it would have been obvious to anyone that he was already very much in love with the other LGBT character on the show. Hell, it’s already pretty obvious in canon that this is the case, and dodging the question about his sexuality is dodging the confirmation that he’s in love with Shiro.

I’d like to believe that one of the solutions to the Adam Problem that was proposed was that KEITH ends up with Shiro, but they were laughed out of the office. The pair’s incredibly close bond aside, it would have been the absolute easiest fix production-wise. They already have their shared history doing most of the legwork, all that’d have to be changed is:

-adding Shiro to the L/K scene in 8x01, just sitting there as Keith encouraged Lance.-Re-recording a couple of Shiro’s lines in 8x05 to make him seem at least somewhat upset that Keith was kidnapped-Showing Keith and Shiro hanging out in the video episode. You could just use the shot of Keith and Pidge but replace Pidge with Shiro.

And the best part is, you could change just one or two of these and then do the wedding epilogue you always intended (but write something that doesn’t insist Shiro retired) but with Keith instead of Rando. Not to mention, there is a slight, slight possibility there was a S/K scene (or two) cut along the way. I strongly disagree with the theories that have floated around about the “massive edits” done to s8, but I think there could be truth to the idea that a Sheith scene was cut to make room for Crew Member, or an effort made to downplay the Sheith friendship that comes off way more intimate than any interaction Shiro has with [man]. It’s more likely that SK scenes never existed at all in this season as the showrunners had to cave to pressures to “have more action”, had no idea what to do with Shiro besides relegate him to a stiff cardboard general, and perhaps had to follow strict instructions about the kind of friendliness an out & proud gay man could show to the men he’d enjoyed good interactions with before.

All this to say, the Sheith battle is messy. It’s fine for the showrunners to say “getting the greenlight for Shiro was a battle” because it’s a battle they won that makes everyone look pretty good. It makes Dreamworks look like they Learned Something and are going to be more open to LGBT content in future properties. It makes WEP look not-terrible because they can add “allowed a character who wasn’t really an OG Voltron character to be gay” to their list of “generous” things they allowed for this re-envisioning of their property. It’s self-congrats all around.

Blocking Sheith has the opposite effect. It reveals that WEP is homophobic because they could allow Pidge to be a girl and Allura to be black but making the hero a non-straight man? That’s TOO FAR. It reveals that Dreamworks higherups are homophobic because they weren’t ready for two LGBT protagonists, just one plus a background character with 3 lines who is literally never named. No one wins, and to be asked about Shiro and Keith and be honest about it could potentially be the showrunners saying, “god, we wanted to, but we were blocked at every single turn”. And thus DW and WEP are the outed villains of the story.

3) Shiro and Keith were never meant to be read as romantic. The showrunners don’t say anything because there’s simply nothing to say. Sometimes the most incredible ships are happy accidents. Sometimes people genuinely don’t realize what they’re doing. I felt a little disheartened watching the AB interview because the way they talked about wanting to include more [man], or how they “hoped viewers would read between the lines” re:Shiro/Curtains, was so casual and flippant it was like they genuinely thought most people would be fine with Shirando if only there had been more scenes between them, as though completely severing Shiro’s relationship with Keith and instead only showing scenes of Shiro bonding with a new character would come off as a good move rather than a baffling (and somewhat hurtful) one.

I do believe that certain directors were absolutely fans of the pair and angled in what they could. Chris Palmer is behind the famous “shiro loves you baby” art and responsible for the eps that include Shiro’s gay panic, the Sheith hug, “As many times as it takes”, Shiro falling into Keith’s arms, and “We have to stop, Shiro’s out there!!” among others. Steve Ahn was the director behind 2x01, 3x01 with heavily grieving Keith, Blade of Marmora, and the episode where Keith screams Shiro’s name so loud he astral projects and then Shiro holds his hands over the controls. He also got really soft when he talked about the pair in an episode of Form Podcast (before JDS kinda hastily shut him down). And even Eugene Lee, he directed The Black Paladins which is an episode so Sheith I still can’t believe it’s real, and 7x01, the other episode so Sheith I can’t believe it’s real. All three of these guys were the original series directors, which is pretty inchresting.

But that doesn’t mean the showrunners were necessarily onboard. Maybe it was really important to them to show a positive male friendship since that never happens in media, just as they felt having Allura sacrifice herself was a powerful feminist move. However the thing I keep circling back to is JDS’ early interview about The Winter Soldier and how if he ever got the chance to do that, he hoped it would be in the future when things could be more progressive, hinting that he wanted to throw more overt romantic undertones if he himself ever got a fight like that to write or direct. It’s pretty interesting that he wrote the Black Paladins, which mirrors the Stucky fight in Winter Soldier so much that it actually rotoscopes one of Bucky’s moves. I’d also point out that JDS’ favorite characters are Shiro and Keith, and I find it impossible to be a fan of both and not also be a fan of how much they love each other, and how much that love straddles the line between romantic love and friendship.

This got long, but I hope it was helpful. The likely final-ever showrunner interview will be on Let’s Voltron sometime this month, and I do hope that now that the series is over someone is brave enough to ask them, “so... what was going on between Shiro and Keith? In a perfect world, what would have happened there?”. In a way it doesn’t matter though. There is always the risk of them saying “nothing was going on there” and us agonizing over whether that was a lie to protect their careers or bald-faced honesty in the face of an NDA or fucks-given that might have expired with their contracts.

But I think the best we can hope for is the same situation that happened with the Avatar creators and that live action movie: 3 years from now when the NDAs are well and truly expired, JDS & LM may come out and say, “SO, on the matter of Shiro and Keith, it’s time to come clean.”

#sheith #vld meta #voltron #askspifty #it's still wild to me that people say they're brothers #like really i have questions about your siblings if that's the case #Anonymous

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rainforestgeek · 5 years

Text

If you lose your strength to stand (I’m gonna reach for your hand) pt. 14 “Punching Empty Space”

Part 13

AO3 link

Two Lions swept into the Castle and landed with twin vibrating thuds. Pidge planted herself in front of the Black Lion, ready to give Keith a piece of her mind for running off. Again. Red was the one who bowed and opened her mouth first, though, revealing her paladin.

“LANCE!” Hunk scooped up the figure who appeared from the Red cockpit in a giant hug, very clearly without thinking because the gasping, skinny teenage boy in his arms was definitely Keith.

“Actually, it’s me.”

“Wha - Keith!” Hunk released his hold for a split second then drew him in again for an even tighter hug. “I’m so glad to see you, too! Just, uh, where is Lance?”

A sharp but playful whistle sounded behind to Pidge’s left. “Over here, buddy.” Pidge and Hunk turned to see Lance in his blue armor, leaning cockily against the wall at the top of the Black Lion’s gangplank.

Hunk looked between Lance and Keith, the Black Lion and the Red Lion, jaw on the floor and arms gesticulating. “What - did you - when - are you - ? ” Allura meanwhile stood rooted to the spot, equally dumbfounded. Pidge was vaguely worried the princess’s eyeballs would fall out of their sockets, but was mostly preoccupied with the source of her own shock.

“ Holy shit, Lance, are you the Black Paladin now?” she blurted out.

He smirked at her. He pushed himself off the wall and walked toward them. His eyes stayed locked on hers, until Hunk broke the connection by intercepting Lance with a high five and a bro hug. “That is AWESOME man! Congrats!”

“Thanks Hunk!” Pidge wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen Lance this happy before.

Allura walked up to stand beside her. She murmured, “Honestly, I...did not expect this.”

Pidge shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m surprised, but also I’m not surprised, you know?”

“No. That was a contradiction of terms and the universal translators don’t seem to be helpful right now.”

“I guess computers are fallible sometimes,” Pidge sighed.

Suddenly she was face-to-face with Lance. He put a hand on her shoulder. “Are you doing okay?”

Why??? She wondered. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He opened his mouth. Closed it again. Tightened his grip for a second then suddenly let go. He cleared his throat and turned to Allura. “Allura, I…”

Pidge didn’t want to be here for this. Instead she stalked to where Keith stood with Hunk and Matt. She threw her arms around him with the force of a well-aimed punch. “You’re a stupid hypocrite.”

“Uhh. What?”

“Last year you got all pissy when I tried to leave to look for my family, and here you did the exact same quiznacking thing,” she growled. “Stop vanishing. We need you, you dumbass.”

Keith hesitantly returned the hug. “No more. I promise. And I’m sorry.”

Pidge gritted her teeth against the tears threatening to well up in her throat. Now was not the time. She let go and glared at him with crossed arms. “Good. The universe needs Voltron.”

It hurt when Lance felt Pidge walk away but he also kind of appreciated it. “Allura, I...I’m so, so sorry for losing my temper with you.”

The princess folded her hands in front of her. She was surrounded by a semi-calm sadness like an invisible blue mist. “So am I. I should have listened to you, Lance. I’ve just felt so overworked lately and.” Allura paused. “And I miss having you as my friend. I hate that I broke your heart Lance, I truly do. Everything has been so odd between us.”

Lance’s throat stuffed up. He missed his friend, too. She looked vulnerable right now, stressed out and overwhelmed. She looked so human.

( Okay, we really need an alien-inclusive word for “human,” Lance thought.)

It hit him that he loved the girl in front of him but it was the same way he loved Hunk. Lingering butterflies still scraped the insides of his stomach for the imaginary goddess he’d fallen for last year because Allura looked just like her. But that girl wasn’t real. Allura, his friend, was real.

He took her hand and squeezed. “Hey. We’re all under tons of pressure and we both lashed out. It’s okay; take it from somebody who messes up all the time. I’m not going anywhere. We’re Voltron and nothing can break that.”

She smiled at him. “Congratulations on being chosen by the Black Lion.”

“Oh, man, that reminds me. Guys!” Lance called everyone’s attention. “Now that we have all five of us again, let’s get to why I dragged Keith back here in the first place. It’s time to find Shiro.”

Hope warred with dread while Keith sat in Red’s cockpit. Her little rumbling growl that pervaded the ship steadied his nerves.

Hunk’s face blinked onto his viewscreen. “Am I the only one worried that we won’t even be able to form Voltron?”

“Not to be a pessimist, but last time we had a Lion shake up we couldn’t,” Pidge agreed.

Then don’t be a pessimist , Keith thought.

“Last time most of the team got moved,” he said instead. He didn’t want this getting into Lance’s head. “This change isn’t as big. This has to work.”

“Keith’s right,” Lance said. “The five of us have worked together before. We all know our Lions and we all have a common goal. We can handle a new formation, especially if it means finishing this war and getting Shiro back. I know this is new but we’ve gotta trust each other now more than ever. Who’s with me?”

“ Yeah!” The team chorused. If anyone had told Keith last year that Lance would be leading the universe’s most elite team of warriors he would’ve scoffed at them and walked away. Now Lance seemed more comfortable in the Black cockpit than Keith had ever been.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t waiting with trepidation for the bad jokes to start.

“FORM VOLTRON!”

He and Red spun naturally into position as though he’d never left the right arm. Green locked into position beside him and Blue below him. All four other Lions and all four other paladins flashed into his mind as they attached cleanly together as Voltron. He felt a surge of giddiness from Lance. He opened a private channel.

“Keep it together, Lance.”

“ Oh screw you, mullet. ” Keith was 90% sure that was supposed to be a friendly insult. But now wasn’t the time to rile up the admittedly easy-to-rile Black paladin. He needed to focus on making contact with his first Black paladin.

“Okay, guys,” Lance said. “Shiro is still bonded to Voltron, and that means we can contact him. We’re all connected. We just have to focus.”

Keith closed his eyes for good measure. He could feel all his teammates, minds working in tandem with their Lions, Lions working in tandem with each other. Hunk’s blunt, steady strength. Lance’s force of nature of an attitude. Allura’s elegant precision. Pidge’s bright and sharp vision. He let his energy flow into Voltron with theirs, the team’s collective power melding into one great superweapon.

With all their strength combined, Keith felt something else - some one else - there with them like an echo in a cave. The tension coming from his teammates told him they felt it, too. Time ceased to exist and he could almost hear a voice.

Getting an arm chopped off with a laser sword would have been less jarring than the alarm that tore their concentration apart. Keith jolted upright, eyes flying open, and the feeling slipped through his fingers.

“OH COME ON! What the fuck?” Pidge yelled.

“Sorry, Paladins.” Coran’s face dominated the viewscreen. “Our tense situation has been dialed up to an emergency! The Blade of Marmora agents have located Haggar’s fleet headed straight for the Quantum Abyss!”

“We have to intercept her!” Lance called out. “Coran, tell Kolivan to prepare as many reinforcements as he can spare and follow us! While you’re at it, get Lotor to chip in some troops, too.”

“Lance,” Allura said. “I forgot to tell you, Lotor isn’t here.”

“Well where the heck is he?”

“A major battle and multiple skirmishes broke out between the rebel forces and rogue Generals on the other side of the galaxy. He left to quell it.”

Lance muttered under his breath. Keith wondered if he’s ever cursed a day in his life or if “hot belgian waffles” was the worst he could physically manage.

“We’ll have to do this on our own, then. Let’s go, guys!” Voltron took off, hopefully with the Castle and a bunch of heavily armed Galra on their heels.

Part 15

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calligraphist-artemisia · 5 years

Text

Across Time and Space (Chapter 7)

Summary: Sequel to I’ll Take Her Place. Slav is showing off a piece of experimental equipment, when it malfunctions and blasts Katie and Keithir to another universe. At the same time, it drags Pidge and Keith over into theirs, effectively swapping places. With their fate resting in the hands of Slav, will they be able to get back home? Or are they stuck to live the rest of their lives in the wrong universe?

Also posted on AO3 and fanfiction.net under the username “kishirokitsune”.

Chapter 7

ALTEA – CASTLE OF LIONS

“We leave you all alone for one week and come back to find you've lost two paladins!”

“Welcome back, Lance,” Allura said without looking up. “Did you two have a good time in Nalquod?”

Lance crossed his arms over his chest, staring down Allura while Hunk caught up after his long sprint through the castle. Hunk looked a little winded as he came to a stop next to his husband, his brows furrowed in concern as he noted the lack of people on the bright. It was just the two of them, Allura, and Coran.

“Nalquod was great, but that's not what we're talking about right now. What's going on, Allura? You sent that message about an accident with Katie and Keithir and them being missing and something about another reality and then nothing else!” Lance barely paused for breath, and as he talked his anger drained from his voice, leaving behind frustration and fear.

Allura stepped away from the console, leaving Coran to continue without her. “I am sorry we had to call you back like that. I will admit, we've been a bit panicked and were not thinking clearly. The situation is... complicated and we're trying to keep it as quiet as we can. It wasn't something we could fully explain through a message.”

Allura took a deep breath and began to tell them everything that had transpired over the past three days, starting with the malfunction of the trans-reality extrapolator and ending with moving Pidge and Keith to one of the unused rooms so that, while they were still sharing a room, they could each have their own bed and space.

“We told Emperor Zarkon and Honerva, of course, as well as Katie's family and Travis. Everyone who has the knowledge to help is pitching in,” Allura said. “Hunk, once you've settled back in, I'll take you down where they're working. Another set of eyes will certainly be of value.”

“Anything I can do?” Lance asked.

“I could use a hand with coordinating everyone from here!” Coran piped up.

Lance looked a little discouraged.

“Pidge and Keith could use a friendly face. Someone they'll be comfortable with. I've been afraid of saying names to them, in case I mention someone who they are not on friendly terms with,” Allura said.

It was far from ideal, but Lance could admit that it sounded better than standing around on the bridge, waiting for video calls. It still rang of busywork to him. Something for him to do for the sake of having something to do, while everyone else worked on the really important stuff.

He shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Sure. I can do that.”

“Shiro will join you once Koichi is down for his nap. I think he plans on taking Keith to the training deck today. We're hoping that since it was one of Keithir's favorite places, Keith will be the same.” Allura sighed, glancing back at Coran before shaking her head and walking towards Lance and Hunk. “Pidge may want to join them, but if not, just make sure she doesn't stray out of the paladin wing. The fewer people who know about this, the better?”

“Shiro's not helping Slav?” Hunk asked, not in a manner that indicated confusion, but instead amusement.

Allura laughed gently. “No, he says that it's a matter a bit beyond his expertise, though he's willing to listen whenever I talk about it.” There was a pause as she grinned at them mischievously. “And also if he has to be in Slav's presence, he's afraid he may throw something at him.”

Lance laughed, feeling better about his role in everything, and patted Hunk on the shoulder. “Have fun talking science with Slav. I think I'm going to enjoy a nice, relaxing day with Pidge.”

Hunk made a disgruntled sound. “Are you sure you don't want to trade?”

“Sorry, babe. Not a chance.”

Lance playfully leaned in and kissed Hunk on the cheek, dancing away when his husband tried to grab him and retaliate. Allura covered her mouth to hide her giggling.

“How about I go ahead and get things back to our room, so you can get to work,” Lance suggested.

Hunk blanched. “You don't have to do that. It wouldn't be fair to make you do all of the heavy lifting. I'll help you first. Like Allura said, I should get settled in first and then I can go help.”

“It's four bags and they hover. Unless you think I'm too weak to pull them along with me?”

“No, of course not, but-!”

“Great!” Lance clapped his hands together and gave Hunk a bright smile. “Have fun, babe!”

He took off before Hunk could get in another word, mentally vowing to make it up to him later. Maybe with his free time, he could plan the Best Honeymoon Ever, since theirs had been interrupted. He could even pester Pidge for ideas! Sure, she wasn't the same as Katie, but he bet she'd have some interesting thoughts on it, all the same.

Unless she wanted to go to the training deck too. Then he was absolutely taking the chance to show off his superior shooting skills and impress them with his bayard's secondary form.

After that he could plan all he wanted.

OLKARION – CASTLE OF LIONS

Keithir had tried everything he could think of to communicate with the Red Lion. Meditation didn't work. The special headsets designed to heighten mental concentration didn't work. Begging the Red Lion for any sign that she could hear him didn't work. Sleeping in the cockpit didn't work.

He was at the end of his rope. He had been so sure that the Lions had the answers, but neither Red nor Green were willing to open up to them. Keithir was starting to think they weren't able to. Maybe the Lion-Paladin bond was completely different in that reality. After all, the others all looked confused when he and Katie tried to explain it to them.

Still, Keithir couldn't give up. He refused to. There was one last thing he could try.

He took a deep breath and knocked on Shiro's door. It slid open a moment later and Shiro greeted him, his voice coated with surprise.

“Is everything alright?”

“Nothings wrong, but I had a thought and I need your help to do it.” Keithir waited a moment to give Shiro time to respond. When he nodded, Keithir continued. “I started to think, if your Keith can pilot the Black Lion, maybe that's why Red won't respond to me. She's Lance's Lion here, not mine. If I try to communicate with the Black Lion, maybe she'll listen.”

“Are you asking for permission?” Shiro asked. “Because you don't need to. If you think that's what you need to do, then go for it.”

Keithir shook his head. “I'm asking for your help. If both of us go to her and try to make the connection, maybe that will work. I would ask Lance, but I get the impression he doesn't like me all that much.”

Shiro chuckled. “He does butt heads with Keith a lot. Sometimes to the detriment of the team, but there's still trust between them. If you asked for help, he wouldn't turn you away.”

“He'd just lord it over me,” Keithir guessed. It was what his Lance would do – had done, on the rare occasion Keithir asked for his help. And of course, the reverse was true.

“Only for a few months,” Shiro joked with an easy grin. “Hopefully you'll be home before then. Keith would have to bear the brunt of it instead.”

Keithir snorted in amusement. “I'd hate to be the cause of that.”

“Do you want to do this now? I have time,” Shiro said.

Keithir shook his head. “Kolivan asked to see me, so I shouldn't keep him waiting for much longer. Would later today be alright with you?”

“Any time you're ready.”

Keithir thanked him and walked away with a lightness to his step. Even if it didn't work, at least he knew he was trying everything he could think of. Trying was better than sitting around and listening to Slav babble on about things that didn't make sense to him.

He met up with Kolivan in one of the smaller meeting chambers, where he also found Katie waiting for him. She greeted him with a smile and a kiss.

“What's going on?” Keithir asked curiously.

“There is a mission. One which I hoped to send Keith on, but you are equally as well equipped for this. I would trust no one else,” Kolivan said.

Keithir frowned and looked to Katie in confusion. “You know about this?”

“I do,” Katie confirmed. “You should listen to what he has to say before you decide.”

What was so important that Katie thought the risk was worth it? Because it was a risk. A mission in the middle of a war. There was so much that could go wrong; too much that could go wrong.

“We have a spy stationed under Warlord Ranveig, who has reported the finding of a vial of highly unusual quintessence. Unfortunately, she no longer has access to it and says that Ranveig has used it to create a dangerous weapon. With the way things are going lately, I believe her position there is no longer safe. Your mission will be to get to her and convince her to return with you.”

“Why me? There have to be other members of the Blade who could do this,” Keithir said.

“You are the only one she will listen to.” Kolivan didn't go into a deeper explanation than that and turned to the podium next to him, passing his hand over the top to bring up a holographic image of a Galra woman with short hair and markings on her face.

For a moment, Keithir stopped breathing.

She was someone he'd only ever seen in the pictures his dad kept, neat and tidy in a small photo album. There weren't many of them – Travis said that he worried what would happen if anyone else saw them, but the few he had were cherished by them both.

Keithir swallowed and reminded himself to take a breath. “Mom's alive?” He barely heard Kolivan's response. All he could focus on was how close he was to seeing her. For the first time, he could have a conversation with her; it was a chance to get to know her and learn more about his Galra lineage.

He wouldn't have another chance.

He glanced to Katie and her understanding gaze gave him the strength he needed.

“I'll do it, but first I need to know everything you have on this base and Ranveig. The fewer surprises I face, the better,” Keithir said.

Kolivan nodded in agreement and got to work detailing all of the data he had, thanks to Krolia. Katie stayed by Keithir's side, asking questions of her own in support of her husband's choice.

It wouldn't be easy by any stretch, but Kolivan was certain they could draw Ranveig's attention elsewhere, which would leave Krolia in charge and alone in the base. It would be Keithir's best shot at getting in and out without detection. The real challenge would be convincing Krolia it was best for her to leave.

“When do I leave?” Keithir asked.

“Tonight.”

Katie wished she could go along with him. If she could pilot the Green Lion, she was sure she could have tagged along using the active camouflage, just to provide backup in case of an emergency. She was sure Green could keep her and the baby safe.

She smiled and placed her hand over her belly.

While the delivery of the news had been far from what she had planned, she was glad Keithir knew. Intentionally hiding her pregnancy from him would have taken a toll on her, and probably would have made him worry about her more than if she'd told the truth.

“No secrets,” she reminded herself of their old promise.

Katie took a deep breath and went on her way, hoping to find Hunk or Lance so she would be too distracted to constantly wonder where Keithir was or if he was in trouble. Her best bet was to start with the kitchen and broaden her search from there.

Surprisingly, neither of them were there. They also weren't in what Lance dubbed the “super cool hangout space” or in their rooms. She was sure they weren't out on a mission, but just in case, she headed towards the bridge.

“...like this.”

“I don't you don't,” Allura said, sounding tired. “But so far, all of the information he has given us has proven to be correct. I don't see why this should be any different.”

Katie stopped in her tracks just before the turn to the bridge, listening to Allura and Lance talk. She frowned, quietly moving to stand against the wall and get as close as she could without being discovered.

“But why? Why tell us any of this after he tried to kill us in the past! There has to be something we're not seeing,” Lance said persistently. “We can't trust him, Allura!”

“I don't trust him, but if Lotor is willing to give us information, then it is my duty to accept that and use it to our advantage,” Allura said, her voice calm.

“Lotor!” Katie hissed under her breath, unable to stop herself. She covered her mouth with her hand, praying they hadn't heard her, but as footsteps came towards her she knew she was busted. Katie stepped away from the wall as they turned the corner and saw her.

“Can I help you with anything, Katie?” Allura asked politely.

Cursing herself for revealing her location, Katie shook her head. “I was just looking for Lance, but it's not important if you two need to talk.”

“No. We're done here.”

Lance frowned and opened his mouth to protest, but Katie beat him to it.

“You can't trust Lotor.” She faltered slightly when Allura raised an eyebrow, recognizing a warning when she saw it. But she couldn't let it go. “I don't know what he's like here, in this reality, but if he's even a fraction similar to the Lotor I know, you can't trust him. He twists the truth to his advantage and manipulates everyone, making it hard to pin the blame solely on him. He makes you think he's helping, but it's only because he has something to gain from it.”

“He's giving us information on how to defeat the Galra. How would that be of benefit to him?” Allura asked.

“It's hard to know with him. We didn't know, right up until we were caught up in his trap,” Katie said. “He hid the Red Lion from us, and when Keithir and I got in the way of his plans, he plotted to kill us and destroy the Red Lion in one go. He didn't count on Keithir being her paladin. If not for that, I don't think we would have survived.”

Allura had nothing to say in defense of Lotor after that. “I am glad you both survived. We will be cautious and continue to double check anything he tells us, but that doesn't mean I can ignore tactical information.”

Katie bowed her head in understanding.

She hated it. Knowing that Lotor was being held somewhere in the castle. So much could go wrong with that, especially if the others were as divided as Allura and Lance on how to handle it.

Katie would have to investigate for herself.

ALTEA – CASTLE OF LIONS

They were still restrained to one room.

Well, that wasn't quite true. Allura told them they could go anywhere in the paladin wing of the castle, but all that consisted of was the kitchen, their bedrooms, and the lounge. It was nice to be able to get food on their own, but other than that there was nothing for them to do. Staying in their room felt like the safer choice.

Pidge ached to have something productive to do. To get her fingers on a keyboard or any piece of tech to tinker with. All of the visits were nice, but there was only so much company either of them could handle. Lance and Shiro dropped by around noon, and while it'd been fun to see what her friend would look like in another ten years, Pidge found herself struggling to make conversation with him. She was grateful that Lance came to see her and that he didn't take offense to her lack of desire to talk, and he'd even promised to bring a game to play the next time.

Keith's dad came by again, bringing with him a giant blue wolf, and after he was gone, Pidge's family arrived. She spent most of that hour crying from seeing them all together again, which started a chain reaction for all of them.

By the time it was just her and Keith again, all Pidge could feel was relief.

She flopped down onto her own bed with a groan and decided that moving was overrated.

“I've been thinking about something.”

Pidge mumbled into her bedding.

“Are the Lions here made from the ore of one of those comets? The whatever-reality-bending one?” Keith asked.

Pidge frowned and pushed herself up into a sitting position. “The trans-reality comet? I guess they could be. We know that at least two of them existed, so why not more?”

“What if that's our key to getting home? I mean, Voltron is the whole reason we were able to cross over into another reality and get home the last time, so can't we just do that again?”

Pidge paused to think about it. “That's more of an idea than any I've had, but last time we had to know the exact point we breached through. You and I were in two separate places when we crossed over and there's also the machine to consider.”

Keith didn't looked surprised or disappointed by what she was saying. “We'd have to form Voltron too.”

That brought up a good point. Would they be recognized by the Lions? It was something worth looking into.

“Think we can convince Shiro to let us see the Lions?” she asked.

Keith grinned at her for the first time since their arrival. “I think I can manage that.”

It wasn't much of a plan, but it was more than what they had before. Pidge thought they finally had something she could work with, and it was all thanks to Keith.

#voltron #fanfiction #kidgemas #kidge #reality swap au

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yellowmechanicalcat · 6 years

Text

emotionally colorblind: plance in season 8

(part three of three)

In part one, I suggested Pidge and Lance had an arc cut from Season 8. Part two covered Season 8′s narrative parallels and how Pidge and Lance challenge Allura and Lance’s relationship. This time, I’ll be discussing Pidge and Lance’s bizarre dynamics in Season 8 and putting forward my best theory of what their arc was intended to be.

A tale of two friendships

Pidge and Allura interact more this season than they ever have, possibly because someone realized that Season 7 was the first time they’d actually had a conversation since, roughly, Season 1. Even though Pidge and Allura never really talked after Pidge rejected Allura’s invitation to bond over being the only girls on the team, Pidge had always acted friendly towards her and was excited when Allura became a Paladin. Season 8 confirms that the girls’ friendship is genuine; Pidge helps Allura get ready for her date and later wins her a carnival prize; they’re partnered up on a mission in The Prisoner’s Dilemma before exploring a Robeast-devastated Olkarion together in Battle Scars; Allura makes sure to cover Pidge in The Grudge. They’re supportive of each other and sympathize with each other’s pain - Pidge’s loss of Olkarion, the challenges Allura faces with the Altean Colony. Their friendship isn’t affected by Allura and Lance dating - but Pidge and Lance’s friendship isn’t so lucky.

In Season 8, Pidge is often seen with Hunk, her family and Slav, with Day Forty-Seven implying she also hangs out with Keith. However, she exchanges barely a handful of words with Lance the entire season, and almost all of them are on missions - this is a far cry from the Pidge of Season 1 who responded to Lance more than any other Paladin. As for Lance, while he’s always been a hands-on kind of guy, comfortable draping himself over Hunk and Pidge to watch what they’re doing or putting himself in Pidge’s personal space to inspect whatever she’s geeking out about, this season sees him keep his distance from almost everyone - especially Pidge. When they lived on the Castle of Lions, he’d have shown up just to see what she was doing (or what she and Hunk were working on) and hang out. On the Atlas, he seems to be focused only on Allura; when Allura is busy, Lance is nowhere to be seen, even though he has the rest of his team and his sister on board. He has a few friendly exchanges with Keith, interacts normally with Hunk and about as much as the others do with Shiro (which is to say, basically not at all), but Pidge is a different story.

I talked about Launch Date last time, so let’s take a look at the next few episodes of Season 8.

The Prisoner’s Dilemma

This episode has no obvious parallels with previous seasons, although it does bring back Lahn from Omega Shield and the experiment from Bloodlines. It also has a few hard-to-explain moments, such as Keith forming a blaster with the Black Bayard despite never having been seen using one before (while Lance is the team’s go-to gun guy, it’s notable that Shiro uses a blaster a number of times this season and his counterpart Sven also used a blaster). This is the Atlas’ first mission - or one of their first - since leaving Earth.

The other hard-to-explain thing about this episode is how Lance acts around Pidge - it’s typical for Lance in previous seasons, but not so typical for this one. While Pidge and Matt work on restoring the occupied base’s communications system, Lance hovers behind them to watch, rather than joining the others in talking to Lahn or staying by Allura’s side. When the paladins enter Klytax V-3 to respond to their distress call, Lance is in formation next to Pidge and looking away from her. The camera zooms in to show Lance looking over at Pidge, whose eyes are trained straight in front of her. Lance then looks straight ahead, focusing on the mission. Later, when Pidge scans for life signs on the base, Lance is once again next to her, watching her work - Allura, who had led them inside, is opposite them, meaning that Lance purposely landed next to Pidge instead of next to Allura.

Despite being trapped on a Galra ship with a literal monster who has already massacred the entire crew, Lance doesn’t go out of his way to try to protect Allura, nor does he seem to worry about her particular safety. He’s fine teaming up with Hunk and fine with Allura and Pidge splitting up to keep an eye on Lahn.

At the end of the episode, Lance is once again standing beside Allura, where he will typically be seen for the rest of the season. Once back on board the Atlas, he doesn’t try to look over Pidge’s shoulder to see what she’s working on or stand as close as he had earlier on Lahn’s base. Instead, he’s standing the farthest away from her.

For the rest of the season, he continues to keep his distance from Pidge on missions.

Battle Scars

In the next episode, Voltron is fruitlessly searching for Honerva’s Robeasts, although Pidge points out that the quadrant they’re looking for them in is enormous. Hunk questions exactly what she means, and Pidge explains in decidedly non-scientific terms, comparing it to searching for a flea on a dog.

Lance asks why she and Hunk can’t just cobble together a Robeast tracker - Pidge doesn’t respond. But when Allura suggests they could go find the Altean colony, Pidge does respond to her. Allura becomes frustrated over how little she can do for the Alteans under Honerva’s control and lashes out at Lance when he tries to comfort her and tells her that he at least knows what it’s like to see someone you care about hurting; Allura apologizes.

When the team decides to head for Olkarion, Pidge excitedly wonders whether they’ve made any recent technological advances, babbling away. Lance interjects that he only understood a few words of what she said. Pidge ignores him.

Olkarion doesn’t respond to Pidge’s hails. Lance jokes that they’re probably too busy with their technological advances by mangling Pidge’s words - but pauses to ask if he’s using them correctly. Once again, Pidge ignores him, so Hunk answers instead. Pidge only replies to Lance’s mission-specific question when he asks whether the Olkari had responded yet. Voltron lands to find the planet in ruins and we see Lance standing next to Allura as Hunk puts a comforting hand on Pidge’s shoulder; ultimately, Allura heads out with Pidge to investigate what happened.

By the end of the episode, Pidge watches the Olkari evacuate the planet and listens to Ryner comfort a crying child by telling her they’ll adapt, as they always have, and that the old must give way to the new.

Between the previous episode and this one, it looks like Pidge has been ignoring Lance, even though he’s going out of his way to talk to her and engage on her terms. The only time she responds to him is to a mission-specific inquiry, while she obviously has no trouble talking to all of the other paladins.

One of the weirder moments here is Pidge’s flea example. Hunk may be exhausted, but it’s strange that he would respond to Pidge’s comment about the size of the quadrant they’re in, especially with something like “I can’t even process what that means” - while seconds later, he’s back to understanding Pidge’s technobabble. It’s even stranger that Pidge responds to him with a jargon-free layman’s explanation, the kind she would ordinarily give Lance once he demanded she explain something in English. It feels like a line that was written for Lance but given to Hunk later on.

Finally, Pidge has tears in her eyes as they watch Olkarion be eaten by the weblum, repeating Ryner’s words that “the old gives way to the new”. Is she really only thinking of the planet? Or is it possible she’s thinking of something else?

The Grudge

Pidge is only slightly more responsive to Lance in this episode. Lance asks whether she can get an enemy drone off their trail and she tries her best as Hunk and Allura cover her. Keith ultimately knocks the drone down for Pidge to analyze and Lance praises Keith’s effort. Lance keeps his distance as the rest of the group hovers over Pidge’s shoulder while she works on the drone, and continues to keep quiet as Hunk and Pidge briefly argue over modulation.

By the time the paladins head back to find their Lions, Lance turns out to be the only one who knows what direction to go in without having to rely on tech. When Pidge is suspicious of his skills, he points out he’d simply read the terrain. Lance preens as Allura calls him a genius and Hunk congratulates him; Pidge sulks, unimpressed, which offends Lance. Hunk and Allura both seem more surprised by her lack of enthusiasm than by Lance’s irritated response. It’s the most antagonistic Pidge has seemed towards Lance since their early Garrison days.

Pidge’s refusal to acknowledge that Lance actually knew something the rest of them didn’t clearly bothers him, and it’s enough to distract him from Allura’s earnest admiration, which is something he’s craved for years. We’ve seen Lance react poorly to having his intelligence questioned before - he’s never claimed to be a genius, but it’s something he’s obviously sensitive about.

Throughout the series, Lance has consistently been the most rankled by not having Pidge’s validation. Escape from Beta Traz sees him venting after Pidge questions his sharpshooting, then doubt his purpose on the team. He’s annoyed when others question his intelligence, even if they’re just teasing. He mopes when Allura doesn’t notice him. But for some reason, Pidge’s opinion of him seems to matter more, whether she’s not recognizing his abilities or his intelligence, calling him a goofball, or sort of comparing him to a yelmor.

Zethrid’s grudge against Voltron may be the inspiration for the episode title, but Lance also seems to develop a grudge again Pidge that continues throughout the season. Lance and Pidge don’t really interact again until Pidge takes the initiative to approach him in Clear Day. She compliments how considerate he is to bring Allura a souvenir, but he never actually responds to her offer to help find one, nor does he respond when she proudly shows off the helmet she won.

The longest exchange they have for the rest of the season is in Knights of Light, as Lance asks Pidge whether Honerva knows they’re in her mind but curtly interrupts her scientific explanation to tell her to get to the point.

And yet, after all of that, The End is the Beginning has Lance smiling as he watches Pidge arrive on Altea. How could they possibly have gotten to that point?

The case of the missing plot

Did the writers really intend for Lance and Pidge to be ignoring each other so much this season? I genuinely doubt it. It doesn’t make sense. Why strain the team in the final season?

Based on the gaps in Season 8, I’d guess Pidge and Lance’s narrative was originally set up as something like this:  

Pidge is uncomfortable that Allura and Lance are dating but deals with it because she wants them to be happy.

Lance notices something is off with Pidge and tries to figure it out. 

Despite finally being with Allura, which should make him unquestionably happy, something doesn’t seem to be right. Allura isn’t totally at ease but tries her best. Lance keeps ending up in situations where he has fun with Pidge.

Something happens that causes Pidge to acknowledge her crush. Lance is taken aback, but it doesn’t change that he has feelings for Allura. 

Allura dies. Pidge continues to have feelings for Lance. She waits for him, and it’s hinted that he eventually moves on with her, although Lance will always love Allura.  

But the season was edited and scenes were changed or removed, which left us with something more along these lines:

Pidge is uncomfortable that Allura and Lance are dating but deals with it because she wants them to be happy.

Lance notices something is off with Pidge and tries to figure it out. 

Something happens that causes Pidge to acknowledge her crush. Lance is taken aback, but it doesn’t change that he has feelings for Allura. 

Allura dies. Pidge continues to have feelings for Lance. She waits for him, and it’s hinted that he eventually moves on with her, although Lance will always love Allura.  

Technically, none of those changes would have affected the overall plot. A teenage crush doesn’t help defeat Honerva, it doesn’t impact Voltron or Atlas’ weapons or erase Allura’s sacrifice. But it would explain why so many of Pidge and Lance’s scenes ended up feeling emotionally colorblind. It would explain why there were parallels set up that didn’t really pan out.

Ultimately, Plance or no Plance, Season 8 is a little like the ride Hunk and Keith were stuck on in Clear Day. You get a glimpse of what’s in store, and then you’re stopped, hoping you’ll eventually find out what you’re missing. We may never know what was ahead on Season 8′s crazy ride; we might find out when it’s re-edited or turns up as a comic book.

But right now, I kind of just feel like Hunk:

#theory: the clear day ride is actually something like splash mountain so it's probably better hunk didn't get to see the end #sarah forms voltron opinions #voltron critical #vld meta #plance meta #plance #flirtyrobot #pidgance #vld s8 #THIS IS THE END thank you for reading #if you had a different interpretation i'd love to discuss it #part of me was like 'hmm i could fix it fic this' and the other part was all 'no! meta!!' and guess which part won

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sage-nebula · 6 years

Note

Keith and/or Lotor for the character ask meme

Keith:

First impression:

“That’s him. I found him. I found The Boy™.” instant attachment to him. He didn’t even have to breathe a word for me to know that he was The One.

Impression now:

He easily ties as the best character on the show (with the other best character being Lotor), and is still too good to have to put up with Team Voltron.

Favorite moment:

It’s really hard to pick just one, but I think it’s a tie between him inspiring the team and forming Voltron for the first time in 3x03, him swinging Voltron out of the way of Acxa’s attack by instinct and intuition alone in 3x06, or the way he tackled Lotor (arms around Lotor’s waist) to knock him out of the way of the explosion in 5x04.

Idea for a story:

My WIPs folder currently includes:

- A Paradigm Shift fic where Acxa bonds with the Red Lion for the first time. (This is an Acxa-centric story, but Keith is there.)

- A Paradigm Shift fic where Lotor tries to pull the “that witch is not my mother” bit and Keith doesn’t let him get away with it, because the harder Lotor denies it now, the more it’ll hurt later when he’s forced to accept it, and Keith believes in ripping the bandaid off fast and sooner rather than later. (The document name for this one is “an unstoppable force meets another unstoppable force who has decided to act like an immovable object.”)

- A Dual Blades fic where Kolivan sends Lotor and Keith on a “mission” that’s actually just an excuse to let them have fun on Lotor’s birthday (though Keith never figures this out and thinks the mission is real, but Lotor recognizes it for what it is).

- A Paradigm Shift AU that shows how The Narti Incident™ would be adapted in that reality (hint: Narti actually gets to retain full agency and doesn’t die because, shocker, it is possible to treat her like a character and not just a plot device whatever LM and JDS think). Again, this isn’t really Keith-centric, but he’s there.

- What was meant to be my Big Bang fic, but is now going to be posted whenever it’s finished.

- A Keitor soulmate AU where people feel warmer and warmer the closer they get to their soulmate.

- A Dual Blades fic where Lotor trolls Kolivan about the “rumors” of his “relationship” with Sendak. Again, not Keith centric, but he is there.

- Keith’s first origin story in Paradigm Shift (he has two).

- A Dual Blades fic (which I came up with before season five) where Acxa, Zethrid, and Ezor are sentenced to death for treason when they turn themselves over to the Empire, and Lotor and Keith decide to go by themselves to Empire Central Command to rescue them.

- A There’s No Better Team (a.k.a. my Pokémon AU) fic where Keith first meets Lotor by investigating the Quintessence Foundation, which was founded by Lotor’s mother, Honerva.

- Ezor’s origin story in Paradigm Shift. Again, not Keith-centric, but he’s there and actually plays a very important role.

- An origin story I began writing for Keith before canon came and ruined everything.

- Chapter two of To Burn, to Shine.

- A modern Keitor AU I’m writing for my best friend and that I personally think is hilarious and hope everyone else will, too.

- A Paradigm Shift fic where Keith decides to do something for Lotor shortly after their relationship becomes romantic.

As you can see, I’m pretty busy.

The rest of these (and my answers for Lotor) are going under a cut because this is long enough as it is, haha.

Unpopular opinion:

Oh boy. Well, let’s see:

- I think Keith is the Once and Future Black Paladin, that it makes perfect sense that he was able to bond with the Black Lion, that he exhibited the desired qualities from Day One, that he worked hard for what he has and that he deserves it all. He’s an excellent leader.

- I think his ending—that he’s leading the Blade of Marmora as a relief organization, and that he’s working with the half-galra girls at that—is a great one. Keith’s doing what matters to him, he’s clearly happy, and people need to stop letting shipping biases cloud their view of that.

- I think people who scream about him “stealing screentime” didn’t watch the same show I did (for six seasons at least), because Keith was almost completely out of the picture from seasons four through six. We didn’t get to actually see him develop because of that, and that’s a goddamn shame.

- I think he’s demiromantic asexual.

- I don’t think he deserves nearly the amount of hate he gets.

- I hate how so many people only care about using him as a support prop for their fave, usually in the form of making him a trophy boyfriend.

- I still think he exhibits symptoms of C-PTSD from some sort of past childhood trauma.

- I hate that so many people in the fandom seem to want to accept the opinion / headcanon that Keith’s human heritage is white just so they can have a “reason” to hate him, instead of recognizing that JDS and LM possibly whitewashing a historically East Asian character is super problematic and that we should refuse to let them do that and see him as East Asian anyway. (And for the record, even if his human heritage was white, he’s still biracial because he’s half-galra. But nonetheless, IMO his human heritage is Japanese, because I’m not letting JDS and LM whitewash him like the cretins they are, and certainly not letting them get away with doing so by weaseling. They can either come out and admit they were racist in this way too, or it’s not getting recognized.)

Favorite relationship:

If we’re talking canon, then probably his relationship with Kolivan. I hate that we got to see so little of it, but I love Uncle Wolf Kolivan and the way that Kolivan watched out and tried to guide Keith within the Blade.

If I’m allowed to talk Paradigm Shift, though, then it’s a hard tie between his relationship with Acxa and his relationship with Lotor. Acxa and Keith are siblings in bond though not in blood; they’ve got a fire-forged relationship and trust in and care for one another implicitly. On the other hand, Keith and Lotor are true loves that built those feelings up over decaphoebs of friendship, camaraderie, and support, so there’s that, too.

Favorite headcanon:

As mentioned, I see Keith’s father as Japanese-American and I’m never letting that go. I think that in canon, Keith has C-PTSD from childhood trauma experienced in his foster homes. (In Paradigm Shift, he has it from his time on Revender.) He loves spacecrafts of all types, but for the longest time just doesn’t know the technical terms and thus makes up terms for them, and in Paradigm Shift ends up pretending for the longest time that he just hasn’t learned them to annoy Zethrid (it’s friendly teasing).

Lotor:

First impression:

I honestly felt my heart stop and fill with love the second I heard the words, “Throk! You wish to challenge me?” and everything that came after just cemented that fact. I was cheering, “Lotor! Lotor! Lotor!” with the rest of the arena by the end of that very first clip.

Impression now:

He is the prince and emperor of my heart, and he deserved so, so, so much better than what this trash show and trashier fandom gave him. (Because while he does have his fans in the fandom, fandom at large just treats him so terribly. It makes me so sad.)

Favorite moment:

Oh, any number of things. The speech in the stadium, the way he easily outwitted Team Voltron in 3x04, the way he flew alongside the surface of a sun to escape Empire hounds, the entire fight against Zarkon, the moment he was crowned emperor … Lotor’s amazing in every scene he’s in.

Idea for a story:

See this section in Keith’s above, haha. Lotor features in like … all of those.

Unpopular opinion:

Probably that I don’t think he’s evil, I don’t think he’s deserving of hate, and honestly I think that the Paladins (sans Keith, because he was not involved in this mess) deserved to get their asses handed to him the moment they decided to commit war crimes in 5x02 and treat him like an object to be traded over to his abusive dictator father for execution for their own personal gain. Pidge and Lance especially are far more selfish and vile than Lotor ever was in his entire run on the show. Yes, I know about the colony (and I still think that was massively OoC and done purely to create a “justified reason” for Team Voltron to turn against him—i.e. that plot point wasn’t written to serve Lotor’s character, but rather was written to serve the plot the EPs wanted to write), but even so, that doesn’t change the fact that Lance wanted Lotor put to death due to feelings of jealousy and possessiveness over Allura, and Pidge wanted Lotor put to death just to get her dad back, and outright stated that “we have Voltron, we can do anything” is a pretty dangerous mindset for someone in possession of a highly dangerous weapon. And trust me, Shireplica, Allura, and Hunk didn’t come out looking much better in that episode.

Fuck Team Voltron. I’m Team Sincline all the way.

Favorite relationship:

To be entirely honest, they barely gave Lotor a chance to have enjoyable relationships on-screen. I felt that his relationship with Allura was too rushed to feel natural, and also I didn’t like how he was constantly worshiping the shared altean heritage while treating his galra heritage like something to be ashamed of, so that kind of soured it for me as well. And while I LOVE Team Sincline, we barely got to see him with his girls before Team Sincline was ripped apart for a nonsense reason (i.e. killing off Narti without a second thought). So in canon it’s hard to say.

In Paradigm Shift, I obviously adore his relationship with Keith, but I also really enjoy his relationships with Acxa and Narti. Lotor met Acxa at the same time he met Keith, and though it took Acxa a little longer to trust him (you’ll see why when I write Keith’s second origin story—they discuss it), ultimately she’s a confidant as well, and she’s the one he trusts most to not be biased when it comes to matters concerning him. (For instance, if ever there was a situation where Lotor was going to do something that could possibly strip him of his identity or corrupt him somehow, Acxa is the one he’d go to and say, “If this fails, you’ll have to kill me,” because he knows she would do it if he asked and there was no other way, whereas Keith would outright refuse. They’ve got kind of a platonic Roy and Riza thing going on.) As for Narti, Lotor and she commiserate over what it’s like to have a shitty, abusive father (Narti smiles for what’s possibly the first time in her life when Lotor makes a joke about how “you could say [he] has just a bit of experience with the subject” and then denies it when Lotor asks if that’s a smile he sees), and Lotor is the one who gave Narti the ability to see constantly by giving her Kova. Additionally, it’s fun to write moments like in To Burn, To Shine where Narti teases him in her own way, by insisting on calling him by his title instead of just his name. They’ve got a soft relationship in that sense.

Favorite headcanon:

I don’t know about favorite, but here’s a selection: Lotor really enjoys playing games—all sorts of games, really, all sorts of types, but especially strategy games. He has a scar on his lower lip from his own fang from when he was biting down on his lip to prevent himself crying out during one of Dayak’s “lessons” and accidentally bit right through it. He was born with a quintessence addiction due to Honerva overdosing on it when he was in the womb, and went through severe withdrawals as an newborn as a result. He’s also been affected in the sense that he’s far more sensitive to quintessence now, at higher risk for addiction and thus painful withdrawals, and so he’s very averse to ingesting any of it now (especially since Dayak did used to make him drink some as a child, no matter how much he insisted he didn’t want to, because Zarkon ordered it). I’m also very attached to Erebus, the baby vrensyr (dragon-esque alien creature) I give him in Paradigm Shift. They’re good companions.

#character ask meme #deaths-main-bitch #a blade of storm and fire #a prince of rift and lightning

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chibichocopaws · 6 years

Text

Visions of a Dark Star

A theory by chibichocopaws!

(Note: This is stupid long. There are no actual facts backing my theory up, it is, after all a theory. I am open to friendly discussion or debate on the topic as well. Apologies for any grammatical errors. I may or may not have written parts while enjoying some prescribed pain relievers. And....

SEASON 6 VLD SPOILERS AHEAD!

K.thanks!)

Krolia: “Time collapses this close to dark stars. Going through the light triggers glimpses of the past and the future.” (Season 6, Episode 2: Razor’s Edge)

We are starting with Kieth's return to the Castle of Lions in Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony. He seems very accepting of what's happening with Shiro, and even slightly pulled back when he sees Shiro at first.

What I mean by this, is the first time Keith speaks to Shiro is over a com when he's on the Altean space pod. He seems slightly frantic, given the information about Lotor. He quickly identifies himself, saying "Shiro it's Keith." Then instantly asks where Lotor is. Granted, this isn't very unlike a Leader of Voltron to do. "It's me. Don't fire. Friend not foe. Now here's the important part."

But even when he lands the Altean pod, and steps out, there's little interaction between the two. Now, Sheith fans jump on the look Shiro gives Keith. It's a big "Holy shit, you look hotter." Look. As a Sheith fan, I'm not going to argue that look, but I am trying to be unbiased here. Soooo, how about we take that look as something different. Where is the hug? Where is the hand shake? Some sort of physical contact. We know Keith and Shiro share physical contact frequently. A hand on the shoulder, an arm around the shoulder, etc. It's uncommon for them to not be near each other, or exchanging a touch. We know Keith doesn't do this with many others. “He's not exactly handing out love hearts to anyone.” Whether that be as a friend or more. Again, different topic. So, we know Keith is reserved to begin with during this reunion, so perhaps that's really what the look is for. Keith barely acknowledges Shiro here. Sure, he's matured, but he's holding back. There's only one point he's smiling at Shiro when he's returned. Otherwise, he's rarely interacting with him. He's brushing off Shiro’s questions, and focusing on other people's questions. If you watch the episode closely, he rarely even looks at Shiro.

To touch on the “one time he is smiling” was when Haggar was looking through Shiro’s eyes. Of course she was. Why would she not be. The universe really hates Keith sometimes. Poor guy. Anyways, it's after the introduction of Krolia, when she thanks Shiro for raising him to be the man he is today. So, even if we dissect this, it can still stand to reason, that he's simply smiling because of his mother's words. If they had the visions, and Krolia too saw what was bound to happen, why would she do this? It's a funny thing, mothers. They do things that their kids don't always understand, but it's for the best. Krolia understands that Shiro has been and is a huge part of Keith’s life. She's had 2 years and countless past and future visions to discover this, nevermind if Keith opens up to her verbally (which is likely considering 2 years with only one other person, not including cosmic wolf because I'm left to assume it cannot communicate, is a long time to sit in complete silence, especially with all their dirty secrets being shown in visions to each other). So perhaps, Krolia does and says this more for Keith than Shiro. Krolia is difficult to read though, she's naturally obscure with her facial expressions, most likely due to her being Galra and a member of the Blade of Mamora.

So let me throw this out there. Based on what we know from Episode 2, every time that time collapses, Keith and Krolia fell victim to visions of the past and the future. Yet, Episode 2 only showed one vision from the future, then proceeded to only show visions of the past. Yet, this makes no sense, unless of course, the visions of the future were obscured by the creators to "not give anything away" (such as the small snippet of battle between Shiro/Kuron and Keith. As viewers we only knew it was going to happen, though we didn't know to what extent or why at the time of episode 2).

They were on that space whale for 2 years. I'm not sure what the frequency of time collapses was, but they occurred on the space whale as well. It seemed the trip to the space whale from the destruction of their ship, could not have lasted more than a couple of days to a maximum of a week. I say this based on Keith being human, because he mentions they won't survive much longer without food or water. Some humans can train their bodies to go longer periods without sustenance, and sadly, I imagine Keith has had to do just that based on his history as a child. Ok, so supposedly the average human can last without food for about three weeks. I, personally don't believe that. (Backstory: I went an entire week without any food as a cleansing exercise and by day 6 I was about ready to pass out, day 7 found me literally blacking out randomly. Keeping in mind, I only drank water, and continued to work at a grueling physically laboring job). So I’m assuming this 3 weeks statement is for those that can basically veg out without much, if any, physical labor. Now, water is a different story. The human body cannot survive very long without it (a matter of days really). Days under normal circumstances, not extreme labor, like pushing from space rock to space rock, sweating from exertion, etc. But, if we take into consideration that Keith is also half Galra, that may extend the amount of time he needs liquid. I am not familiar with how frequently Galra need sustenance to survive.

Back on topic though... In that time we were given three time collapses. So, let's say we go with the maximum of a week they were jumping from space rock to space rock before encountering the whale. (This time frame is important because we need to figure out how often the time collapses were occurring and we need a point of reference, which would be prior to the space whale) That's 3x52 (52 weeks in a year) which is 156 time collapses in a year. Now that's 156 times 2 for 2 years that they were gone, and that's 312.

Obviously that's not including any changes. So yes, there's a possibility that maybe the whale has blocked some of the collapses, or that the collapses happen less frequently the closer or farther away the whale gets to or from the star. Or even if the collapse is blocked from hitting them by something. But even if it were only 100 visions of the past and future, that's still A LOT!

So here's my theory. Keith knows. He knows the entire time what's going to happen. I'm basing this on a linear future, meaning it cannot be altered.

There is a time in episode 4 where Keith tries to reach out to Shiro (right after Shiro steals a pod and Lotor and flies off, Keith calls him through vocal com) desperately. He tried to keep his voice calm, telling Shiro it will be alright. Without my theory, it's something Keith would maybe do. I mean, if he doesn't know what's happening, why would he speak calmly to Shiro. Why wouldn't he yell and be like "Shiro what are you doing!?" Sure, he's matured in two years, but it seems like something more of a last hope reach out. I truly believe, at this point, he knows already. He knows that Shiro is a clone. He knows that they are going to battle, but that doesn't mean he can't try to stop it still.

But, 2 years is a long time to come to terms with the inevitable. It by no means makes it any easier, but it can be accepted. He's also had 2 years to discuss this with his mother. Now, looking at Krolia, she is very cool headed. She seems to know herself and her limits very well. She has seemed to since before having Keith. Krolia very well could have been the voice of reason he needed to accept that he may have to kill Shiro/Kuron, or at the very least, fight him.

Now, because it's not released, it's impossible to know how much was revealed in the future visions. The past visions seemed to be weird intervals, some long, some very short. So I'm not sure what was shown for future visions or the lengths of them. Though 2 years is a long time to get the entire fight and what brought Shiro to that place. So, I honestly have little doubt.

Ok, this finally wraps around to “The Battle”. Ugh. My heart hurts rewatching this episode, but I didn't feel I could full circle my theory without doing it.

Season 6, Episode 5: The Black Paladins.

The cracking sound you're hearing? Oh, just my heart shattering. I'll find some glue or something later.

Anyways. They rush out as Voltron to fight Haggar’s goonies. I really want to call them the switchers. It's hard to keep up who's side they're on. Point is, they do their battle, get flung into a rock and Haggar opens up a wormhole. So at this point he says “We have to make sure we get Shiro back.” (Well there's this little conversation prior to this line, but it doesn't pertain to my point.)

Hunk: “But Shiro isn't Shiro anymore.”

Keith says he knows, but it's almost exasperated. Like, sure he could have taken that tone because it was obvious, or he could have taken the tone because he knew well before they did. He says “But something is wrong with him, the Galra or Lotor have to be behind it.” Weird right? Because if he had visions for two years, he should have been able to piece things together, right? Maybe not because there's two bad guys right now. Lotor and Haggar (which would currently be classified under as Galra). So sure, he's had visions, but it's like being handed 5 different ingredients to a meal and telling someone “cook whatever with just this”. If you hand those same 5 ingredients to someone else, there's a good chance they won't come up with the same menu. So, maybe Keith was able to piece together most of it, but pinpointing which bad guy was responsible for which scene (ingredient) could be trickier for him.

So after their little chit chat, Keith goes on to say: “We all know he wouldn't give up on us, we can't give up on him.” Yet, he doesn't say this immediately. He stops, closes his eyes, takes a breath then says it. Why? We know the creators of VLD don't ever put anything in the show without meaning. So why have Keith pause? This action, the looking down, closing your eyes, breathing. It's a way to center our thoughts. He's trying to remain focused, but why? Is it because he feels himself slipping, becoming emotional? I mean, he doesn't look emotional. Or is it because he's trying to re-center himself within the timeline of the visions he remembers?

Why does he have to recenter himself within the timeline of visions? Maybe something is missing! Maybe he was unable to piece together why the other Paladins weren't by his side during his battle with Shiro. Maybe he thought they gave up on Shiro. Maybe this part of the timeline wasn't revealed to him (this part being the fact that only Keith gets through the wormhole), so he felt that he needed to reassure them that Shiro was worth saving.

Now, look at Keith’s shift when he yells disband. All that coolness from earlier, the calm collectedness he had is gone, and he legitimately looks like something has clicked. He gets it. He understands why they aren't there during the battle, because the only one who can make it through the wormhole is him. He goes from calm to confident in a second. And although his facial features change when the speed is intense, he doesn't look scared or nervous. Just in pain. Like he legit knows he's going to make it, it's just taking a lot of exertion on his body to do so, but he has no doubt he will get through. Why? There should be a glimmer of doubt unless he knew otherwise.

Except of course when he comes out the other side of the wormhole and is met with a fleet of Galra battle cruisers. Oops. Guess that part wasn't in the vision. Oooor maybe it was. He literally effortlessly glides through that. The Black Lion isn't at full capacity with its broken thruster, and yet he GLIDES through the line of fire, almost as if he's done it before. So why the face of surprise? Let's be honest. Someone could tell you “oh, there's like a thousand bees over there. Look I took a picture even.” But then you go over there and seeing a thousand bees can be intimidating face to face. Or, maybe he's surprised because he recognizes it instantly. Like “Oh, right. Seen this part before.” This would also make sense, if he didn't know why the other Paladins weren't around for the fight. As in, he missed a vision from two seconds earlier, but now it's one of his visions again.

Even Ezor turns around and is like “Wow, I can't believe he made it through that.” Maybe she's talking about the wormhole, or maybe she's talking about the fleet of Galra battle cruisers.

His mini battle with Acxa kind of proves my point further. He has been Lion-less for over 2 years. Sure, it could be like riding a bike, but his moves are so precise, you know, almost like he knows what's going to happen!

Also, he flies right to the ship and to the area where Shiro, Lotor, Ezor and Zethrid are. How did he know where they went in the middle of a fleet of ships, while distracted by Acxa? (As a side note…. I love Ezor’s line of “Is it broken?” *poke* *poke*. She's so damn cute I can't take it.)

Now, I personally think Keith does not believe this is a linear timeline. I think he truly believes he can alter what he saw somehow. So at this point Acxa has grabbed his attention again. He says “Think. Think. How are we going to get in?” If he truly believes he can change this timeline, at this point he could really be trying to avoid the next part from happening.

Now things are going to get intense and I'm going to cry… again.

“Shiro…. Shiro come in! I don't know what's wrong, but I know we can fix this.” Listen to that desperation! Still stuck on him not knowing? Him just being more mature? Spent so much time with his mother he adapted her calmness in moments of crisis? I disagree. He's begging. Keith is legitimately begging. He knows where this is leading, and he's pulling a last call to try to stop it before it goes there. We know he saw a part of the fight in a vision. We know that much. He has to know where this is going. “Let me help you.”

But wait…. Acxa has locked his position. He knows she's on his tail. Why isn't he moving out of the way? He's given her a clear line on his position. Keith is an ace pilot. He can maneuver and have a conversation. Why isn't he? Because Shiro is more important? Sure we could go with that, or because he knows she won't fire. He saw she doesn't fire.

At this point he turns his attention towards Black. Look at his face. Listen to the sound of his tone. He's accepted this is going to happen. His facial expression is bitter acceptance. Bitter acceptance in the manner that he knows it's going to happen, but it doesn't mean he has to be happy about it. “I know you're hurting. We just need to keep it together a little longer.” He said we. We need to keep it together a little longer. He's hurting too. He knows what's about to happen. How could he not. He's not only telling Black, he's telling himself.

At this point we have a focus shift. The virus shuts down the Castle of Lions, it's panic, but let's focus on what little amount of Krolia we can see. When Pidge gets the systems fixed for all of like 3 seconds, Krolia remains rigid. As if she knows it's not going to last. This could be a stretch, sure. I mean, maybe she's just rigid from the panic, but when the systems fail again, you can see her face. It's detailed. She's worried, but distant. She's not worried about herself or the crew. Distant look implores us to believe she's worried about someone or something that's not present. Keith. Shiro. Their battle. If Keith saw Krolia’s past, it's safe to assume Krolia was able to see Keith’s future. At first, I wondered if this was only when they were touching, but it appears not. If we go back and look at Episode 2 again, there is a point, on the space whale, where Krolia sees a young Keith over his father’s gravestone. At this point Krolia is not touching Keith. She's across the way sitting next to the fire with Keith on the other side sleeping, or at least laying down. So it's easy to assume the memories and future visions are shared between the two of them every time the time collapses.

Ok, skipping over the Lotor/Honerva and switchers (Yup. Doing it. Zethrid, Acxa and Ezor shall now be known as the switchers) scene, it's unrelated (though… woah Lotor you sneaky bastard).

Next we see Keith has found an abandoned shuttle pod. He tracks the footsteps. And his face. It says it all. “This is it. It's time.” The pure definition of determination. He's ready. It's happening. There's nothing he can do or say at this point. The time has come.

He even walks with purpose. But here's another thought. When he no longer has footprints to follow, how does he know where to go? He takes a lift and goes exactly where Shiro is. How did he know unless he saw it?

There's a lot of facial expressions talk for the next few scenes. So first he enters the room with a surprised look on his face. This could be from a “where am I?” in a sense of visions showed him nothing, or with my theory this could be a “Wow, it's exactly as the vision showed me.”

The next facial expression is back to determination, which leads me to believe the surprised look was more of a “Wow, exactly as my vision.” If he were lost or unsure of himself he wouldn't have switched to determination so quickly and suddenly.

Now, the determination expression could also be confusion. If he's confused, it could really just be him thinking “Ok, I'm here, but where is Shiro? This is where I'm supposed to be, but I don't see him.”

Next he seems genuinely surprised. He places a hand on the clone pod, and one by one they all light up. This very well could have not been part of a vision based on his reaction. Sure, the pods were there during the battle, therefore there during his vision, but it could have been background, and he could have been far more focused on the battle with Shiro as opposed to what was around him.

But, “Hello Keith” is in his vision. If we go back to Episode 2, those words are in it. At this point Keith turns. He kind of looks surprised but I interpret the look more as a “Oh no.” So at this point, we know for a fact Keith has seen this. We don't know how much of this he has seen. The entire thing? Just parts? We don't know. We do know he's seen from this point and at least part of the battle based on what was shown to us from episode 2.

In the vision from episode 2 we hear the following words. “Hello Keith.” “Yes. I know.”

“It's going to be ok, we just have to get back to the castle.” “Shiro!!!!!”

and “....are not going anywhere.”

Which, if we're following it in sequence, means he saw the entire before-the-fight-sequence, but also more. The beginning of the fight Keith does not yell Shiro. The words were all spoken before Shiro goes in for attack.

Next scene, Pidge to the rescue in the worst way. Also not pertinent to this, but something I would like to touch base on some other time.

Battle ensues between Keith and Shiro, but Keith isn't fighting. At least not at first. Keith is strictly defending. At least until his helmet comes off. The punch hits him hard, maybe he whacks his head on the way down. His Galra is showing. (kek). It isn't until his Galra side comes out that he starts fighting back. This could be because he doesn't want to hurt Shiro, or because he's still holding out hope that the timeline isn't linear.

“That's the Keith I remember.” Seems to spark something in Keith and bring back his human side, and once again he starts avoiding attacks and defending. No longer on the offense.

When Shiro knocks down a tower, and Keith starts talking to him by saying “Shiro.” Is this the Shiro from Episode 2? It's hard to tell. This Shiro call sounds more raw vocally, than the vision. So, let's move on, pretty sure this is not it.

Now, I know this was touched upon by someone else, but here’s another take, Keith’s lack of reaction to Shiro’s hurtful words. “And I should have abandoned you, just like your parents did. They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should have seen it too.” If Keith had been able to hear these words in any of the visions, he could have already dealt with the pain they caused. He could have already spoken with Krolia about it. She has already told him he was the most important thing to her. So I believe he's already dealt with that pain, and been reassured of its falseness by Krolia herself.

Ooh, another time Keith yells Shiro. At this point Shiro is… well I'm not really sure what's happening. His hand is connecting with the Galra tech and turning into a giant laser? Well, whatever the case may be, this sounds more like the Shiro yelled in ep 2. So, this implies Keith’s first and only on screen vision was from before the battle to this point. Keep in mind, the creators would not include an in depth vision in episode 2, but leave hints. They didn't want to give away the fight entirely.

Now, the next set of scenes depicts Shiro destroying the base. There are times where Keith seems surprised, but ironically, he knows when to jump out of the way of a falling piece without looking up to see it. How would he know to jump out of the way? He's already seen this all happen. He's pretty banged up, sure, but just because he knows what's happening before it happens, doesn't mean it's less painful either physically or mentally. Remember, we are basing this on a linear timeline. So regardless, certain things are going to occur.

He lands on a ledge, catches his breath for a moment and immediately looks in the direction of his blade, like he already knew where it had landed. He's determined. He knows he has to get to it. He knows it's the only way to end the battle, but his body is exhausted. Far too much exertion.

He doesn't make it till the last second, but does manage to grab it before Shiro’s killing blow. Next we fans all die a little. We all know the line. “Shiro, please. You're my brother. I love you.” That's a whole different subject for a different time. (Can't even describe how difficult it is to not touch on this right now, but it's not pertinent to my point.) So Shiro proceeds to tell Keith that the castle and Paladins are gone. Why doesn't Keith react? Sure he's using all his strength to hold off Shiro from cutting his head clean off, but he should have had some sort of reaction unless he knew it wasn't true! He saw it wasn't true.

Now, there's a chance that he does react. That the news is what wakes up his Galra side, but I don't really think so. It's several moments after Shiro’s words that Keith reacts. If we look at just moments before when Keith was punched, we can use this as a safe assumption of what causes his Galra side to wake up. Pain. He's being burned by Shiro’s blade. Boom. Galra side is awake.

So, with the Galra power awakening, Keith gains strength and cuts off Shiro’s arm. The camera pans to his face. Oh gosh. The feels are too strong. Keith is the definition of regret right now, but is it just regret that he's hurt Shiro, or is it regret for more. Regret he couldn't stop this before it got to this point. It's a horrible thing.

They fall, but his face. Oh that agonizing face. What's this tell us? He didn't want it to be like this, but he's not giving up. He could be not giving up because it was a promise Shiro made that he needs to reciprocate, or maybe he already knows Shiro will come back to him.

Flashbacks. End episode 5. Aaaah.

Nope. Not done yet. Hah. You thought that was it?

Season 6, Episode 6: All Good Things

This episode starts off strong. And confusing for my theory, but things still work, I promise. The visions from Episode 2 are never inclusive of thoughts that we can see. They tend to be themselves during the visions/memories. So why does Keith look surprised and sound surprised by Shiro’s words in the black lion? Because, technically, that never actually happens. It's in Keith’s mind (well actually Black’s mind). So because it doesn't occur on a physical plane, it is not shown in his visions, thus he is surprised by Shiro.

This also relates back to my theory of Keith having known. He seems unsure now. Out of nowhere. He's reacting how we would expect Keith to react when Shiro stole Lotor. He's angry, scared, nervous, anxious. What happened to our calm, collected and determined Keith? Where'd he go? Could it be because Keith never had a vision of this. He wasn't prepared for this? I really believe so.

But what about when he says “The others. You said… you…” And then glowy Shiro appears behind him and Keith turns, interrupting himself. This leads us to believe that Keith didn't know the others were going to be ok after all, right? I disagree. So far, Keith has been very aware of every moment. Things have been very linear, but he's done everything he can to try to change it. This was never in his visions, and now he's doubting them. Now he's wondering if he did change things, and that fear that maybe things aren't linear anymore is taking hold, and Keith is Keith once more. Sporadic. Moody. Easily angered Keith.

“I died Keith.” Surprise! Keith didn't know this either, even with my theory. Because again, he was only being shown things that happened on a physical plane. So if we take this scene out entirely, and pretend it didn't happen, it would still be difficult for Keith to piece that information together unless specifically told so on the physical realm.

Back to calm and collected Keith now. Things are back to normal, visions are back in sync? Notice how he doesn't tell any of the crew that Shiro died. He just says that the other Shiro is a clone. So if he had a vision of this part, he still wouldn't have known Shiro was really dead, thus the shock when he found out.

Almost half an episode not pertaining to this post later, and we have Krolia asking Coran if setting a bomb off in the main turbine is a good idea. Keep in mind, if Krolia and Keith had experienced future visions, she could be nervous at this point that this is where the Castle of Lions gets destroyed. If the visions were not shown to them in a linear fashion, but random fragments, there's the possibility that she doesn't really know exactly when or how the Castle of Lions is destroyed. But if you also notice, she doesn't seem too surprised that his theory worked, just relieved.

Back to Keith. After unlocking the Black Lion’s thruster wings and making it back to the team. Keith says “Now hurry, we don't have much time. Form Voltron.” I mean, this could be an educated guess. Maybe he just assumes that Lotor will be up and moving quickly, but look at his face. Again. Self assurance. Self confidence. He knows.

Season 6, Episode 7: Defender of All Universes

The battle with Lotor. Ok, trying to make this a quick synapses as opposed to going attack per attack, otherwise this will result in another Episode 5 length segment lol. So, Keith is making some great calls during this battle, quick on defense, quick on the offense calls, but what really struck me was when he yells “move”. Is that Shiro telling him? Or is that him remembering? Or is his reaction time (after two years of peaceful waiting) that good?

Ok, what about when Lotor teleports (for the first time)? Well, if we look at Kieth’s face here, he's the only one that isn't showing an expression. He's blank. Completely blank. Almost like he's trying to recall what happens next. He looks over right before the portal appears though, why before if he didn't know?

Next scene shows Krolia staring at the pod that Shiro is being put in by Coran. Her face. It's of betrayal, pain and yet relief. She knows too.

Voltron and quintessence scene was next, yanno, after Voltron got the snot kicked out of him. I mean, there's only so much they could have done, even with Keith knowing what was going to happen. Voltron was infinitely slower than Lotor’s suit. But anyways, on topic here. Keith says it's the only way, they have to try to enter the quintessence field to win. Everyone else has trepidation or nerves, but not Keith. He knows.

In the quintessence field Keith seems surprised once more, but only after his “we did it look.” This could be because maybe, the quintessence field isn't exactly a physical plane of existence. I mean it is the plane between existences, so perhaps it falls into the same category as Black’s consciousness. Or maybe it is considered a physical plane, and he's just caught up by its intensity. I mean, a infinite space full of power? Who wouldn't get caught up in the moment?

So after the battle, and the Castle of Lions is destroyed Keith says “We need to find somewhere to land to see if we can help Shiro.” He seems calm, but not necessarily knowing. It's hard to tell with this scene. I feel it would be easier if they showed his facial expression, but they simply showed Shiro.

Now Keith admits that Shiro’s soul is in Black, but heard out of context there's a good possibility that, if Keith had seen this as a vision on the space whale, that it was misinterpreted. Maybe he thought that somehow they transferred his spirit there to save him because the clone body was barely alive. We have to think about those ingredients again. They've been handed to Keith randomly, and he can't be entirely certain what he's required to make. What order he's supposed to put them in.

I must point out here, that this scene focuses a lot on Lance’s grief, panning away from Keith, so it's difficult to really tell what Keith is thinking or what he looks like at the point Allura walked up to the Black Lion to rescue Shiro’s soul.

At some point the scene pans to the Paladins watching Allura. Everyone has their eyes wide and their mouth hung… except for Keith. His mouth is open, but his eyes are not wide. We know wide eyes is an expression Keith takes often. So it's not like a shocked expression would be out of place on his face either. So why aren't his eyes wide in shock. He knows what's happening. His eyes are squinted slightly, as if expressing a relieved “finally”.

Keith does look surprised and hopeful when it works, but if we look at Krolia, she's smiling and doesn't even flinch a single bit (unlike Romelle) when the Green Lion roars behind her.

And to testify for my cause more, Keith looking surprised and hopeful, keep in mind what Keith has experienced in life. Things can being going perfectly for him and suddenly everything is in pieces. It's a mindset he's used to expecting, why would this be any different. Sure, based on my theory, he's seen the outcome, and thus far everything has been true, but Keith is the universe’s punching bag. He's privy to this, he always expects the worst, and I'm not surprised he would wait with bated breath for the validity of this part of his visions.

While we've spoken about his facial expression. The ending. (Wait... is that my heart glue!?) Look at Keith's face now. Totally different. Relief. Happiness. He's back to looking at Shiro how he used to. How he hasn't since before the space whale. He knew. He had to have known.

Aaaand end! Well of my points from the episodes.

In summary, I truly believe Keith and Krolia have seen every moment on the physical plane of both their pasts and their futures up until this point. I can't quite tell how much farther past the end of Season 6 they have seen, but with the grin on Kieth’s face at the end of the episode, he definitely knows something we don't know. I can't wait to see if this theory is true, and I would love to hear what others think of my theory. If you totally disagree please share with me! I would love to hear other people's theories, or even examples on why my theory is bogus. Bring it on!

And, if you've made it this far. OMG I love you. I love you. I love you. Special kudos and Web cookies for you.

Thanks for reading! :D

#vld #vld thesis #vld spoilers #vld keith #vld shiro #vld krolia

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beanymachine · 6 years

Text

Voltron Season 6 Review

Hello, welcome to my Review! I hope what I say makes you think and see a different perspective on the show. If you want to say what you think I’d love to hear it!

Anyways I’m going to list a lot of stuff I thought was well executed. The episodes did a good progression of an eerie feeling grow more and more. The first episode helps start this tone with Shiro getting headaches from Haggar, Lance dying and being revived, and Hunk learning more about the Galra’s history and culture. This and other parts of the episode help set up some important stuff throughout the season:

-What’s up with Shiro?

-Lance and Allura’s relationship and well as Allura and Lotor

-Culture

-And power (quintencess or however you spell it)

The second episode of the series then talks about Keith and his past, to start finishing the development of his character and the problems he had. Keith’s journey is also important as it leads to Lotor’s backstory and motives. Another thing the episode does is bring in a major theme of the season: Love.

Throughout the season we see how Lance deals with the fact that he IS in love with Allura and how Allura and Lotor are getting closer and closer. And we see how love can hurt when it doesn’t work out between two people, or when it isn’t reciprocated.

You know, like how Allura called out Lotor and made him flip his lid.

But we also deal with familial love. In Keith’s past we see how he was when he had a whole family and how they all loved each other (Keith was a baby so he’s really just goo goo ga ga). And how Krolia loves Keith and at one point hugged him to try to shield him from a wave of whatever.

There is also the very big and impactful scene where Keith and Shiro are battling and he tells Shiro to please stop because he’s his brother and that he loves him. It made the Possessed Clone Shiro twitch and hesitate, and then tried telling Keith to give up on him. And Keith even decides to die with him because he won’t leave him alone or give up on him, just like he did for Keith. And luckily the original Shiro and Keith are able to reunite.

Back to the tone of dread, the season does well building up to multiple climax points, like how Lotor’s dirty secret is found out, Clone Shiro being discovered as a clone and him and Keith fighting, the big battle with Voltron vs Lotor and how Lotor losing his mind, and him eventually being left to supposedly die in the quintencess realm.

The Animation was stellar (Haha get it? I’ll go now) with the fight scene of Clone Shiro vs. Keith, Lotor going mad, and the big Voltron fight.

Also it was a good choice to put Monsters and Mana for a breather episode right before things start going downhill.

Lotor’s fall into madness was excellent too along with his animation and expressions.

I’m also glad Hunk got a bit of spotlight. I know people say he doesn’t get much of a chance to rise and shine, but honestly do you really want to see him go through possibly a lot of emotional or physical pain? Plus it seemed like he was developed basically in the first season and pretty much fully developed I think. I can understand if people want more chances for him to shine. He did use his canon a lot in the last battle of this season so hopefully that will be enough for some. It’s enough for me at least.

With this being said, I’m now going to point out some things that I think could’ve been improved.

1. Keith’s abandonment issues and the two year timeskip, as well as the message sends.

Keith I’m sure is almost done developing and is almost whole like Pidge and Hunk. But the way it was done was good but left some stuff out.

First, the last season left off Keith’s relationship with his mom to be a startling new one that most would expect to be in anger and why Krolia left and the demand for answers. And we get that at the beginning of Razor’s Edge. However Keith doesn’t freak out as much as I’d suspect he would when he sees visions of his past. But what I do not like most is the two year time skip.

Keith apparently spends two years with Krolia on that space whale. That leaves many questions as to how he and Krolia talked about Keith’s issues. How did he deal with his fear that he’ll be abandoned or he’s not wanted, or that he thinks he has to prove himself useful and fast in fear of not being wanted? How did Krolia react and try to parent Keith in their strained relationship? Was their relationship even strained for long? If I found my space mom I never met before and she left me as a baby, and didn’t tell me immediately why she left, I’d be really upset and demand answers as fast as I could get it.

Also in this time Keith matured and grew. He became less hasty and when he case back to the team he immediately took the Black Lion without being scared of being a good leader or replacing Shiro. He grew that much! He went from point A to point B, but we never saw it. It’s a vital thing to see how he learned and healed from whatever he was dealing with, not just for viewers, but to perhaps reflect real life as well. I think we should’ve seen it in case anyone was dealing with the same problems as Keith and understood him as well as his thinking from the help of his mom to grow, live, and move on.

Instead we get a timeskip and miss out two years of Keith’s life. And we STILL don’t know his relationship with his mom! Are the cool now? Does he understand and forgive her? Is he at least comfortable being around her or are they at least friendly? Or are they on good terms and on the path to having a good mother and son relationship?

Also, WHAT’S THE DOG’S NAME??? Keith basically took a two year vacation with his mom and had a dog of his own. Like he got to live a little bit of the childhood that he lost without his mother. And I think that’s pretty important. It is a nice thought of how Keith got to be happy, heal, and relax with a dog he got to have and probably loves, while spending time with his mom. But we don’t know if it’s really that or he just was stuck on a whale with his unknown mom and his dog as his closest thing to a friend in a very awkward situation.

Not only that but there’s another message I don’t like as well. Maybe I interpreted wrong. It also may be a situation where one message can be sent or the other and both are equally important.

The idea that you need to know your past, who was in it, to find out who you are. Sure, the past crafts us into the person we are today, and anyone who is an orphan has the right to find out their past. But what you do in the present, and how you move on from you or others’ past mistakes to move forward is what makes you who you are. If you are trying to become a better person from mistakes you made, then you’ll slowly change into the person that you want to be.

It is good to know what runs in your blood and what race you are- Galra or Altean. But it matters to you as a living being what you do, what you want to do, how you need to get there, and if you are going to change or need to.

I thought Keith would learn about his past and see that his real family was with Shiro and the Voltron team. They were with him in a lot of life and death battles. I thought he was going to see more of how important they are to him. But it’s also the fact that no one stopped him or mentioned they missed Keith. I mean I’m sure they did but no one vocalized. Either meaning that they thought it was something they thought that wasn’t needed to be said, or that he wasn’t that important. Which is a lie since many of them hug him goodbye and some tear up when Keith is leaving for the Blade of Momora.

Hopefully they’ll tell us what he did during the two year timeskip for Keith in the next season or in the future and this is all part of their plan for the show. If not... I don’t know what to say yet.

2. The Altean Lady

The Altean Lady, or Romelle is the one that tells us of what Lotor did for the remaining Alteans and what he did with them. I would be fine if she was just introduced to bring his backstory and not be another in depth side character. But the thing is, I’m not sure if the writers were trying to chracterize her by giving her her side of the past or not.

Romelle is supposed to be a survivor and tell the crew what’s up with Lotor. She does this while telling of how her brother was caught up in it and how she reacted to it. And if this is her backstory or another one then it’s fine. But the way Keith introduced her to team Voltron made me think she was going to be a kinda important or at least a vocalized side character for the rest of the season. She takes the light for one episode, but then is just in the background later on. She reacts the same with the paladins when Shiro is on the ground in the last episode, but they way she is shown makes it seem like she is reacting strongly. Why should she? She doesn’t know these people. And yes I’d be sad or upset at seeing someone die, but it made her seem like she knew him when she didn’t.

And she’s still in the background and looks a bit plain but has enough detail on her for you to think “oh, her design makes her seem like she’ll be important this season as not just a reason for Lotor’s motivation and crimes, but as a person too) but that doesn’t happen. Maybe I’m confused on all this and maybe they’ll do something with her next season and characterize her. I hope they don’t think by giving her backstory will be enough characterization.

3. I want friendship darn it!

I wanted to see more friendship between Keith and Lance. I honestly thought these two would reunite and join together to somehow find the real Shiro. Maybe this is my own fault.

It’s just there were that red and blue star in the astral plane and I thought “oh hey, it’s foreshadowing that they are the only two that will be able to save Shiro”. I also thought that because they were both having issues about their place on the team and whether they think they are valued as not just teammates but as people and friends too. I thought the two would become closer as friends and be there to support each other and figure the puzzle pieces out as to why Shiro is acting weird and be the main characters or this season. That’s what I predicted anyway.

Also maybe I interpreted the trailer for Season 6 wrong because it made it seem like Keith and Lance’s reunion would be significant to the plot of the season. And maybe the trailer was going for that. Either way I don’t think it would’ve been the writers and animators fault but maybe the people who edited the trailer instead. But it’s not a big deal.

But now after this season, perhaps the red and blue star forshadowed the candidates closest to contacting Shiro and finding out about the Clone stuff. Or maybe it was foreshadowing Allura and Lances relationship to possible become romantic since they pilot the Red and Blue lions (I saw someone say something about this, I don’t know who said it but if you know please tell me. Just know I didn’t think that up myself or got inspired from it!)

But the stars appeared during season 2 right? So maybe it was referencing the red and blue lion switching pilots. Or the thing it’s foreshadowing still hasn’t come yet and it’s still possibly about Keith and Lance since those are their basic trademark colors.

To add to this I wish I could’ve seen more on how Pidge and Hunk reacted when they saw Keith’s return and change, as well as his family and some random Altean. It seemed only Lance really noticed which now makES ME FURTHER THINK THEIR RELATIONSHIP WILL DEVELOP MORE! ARE THEY FRIENDS OR WHAT?! SEASON 3 MADE IT SEEM LIKE THEY WERE BECOMING CLOSE FRIENDS AT LEAST AND NOT DUMB CLICHÉ RIVALRY!!!

I don’t know we’ll have to wait and see... again.

One last subject I want to note is how people are fearing Lance will be a rebound to Allura’s fast relationship and breakup with Lotor.

I know I don’t discuss ships on here, but if it’s strongly implied one character loves another one, then I’ll probably talk about it or do art on it.

Anyways, there’s no evidence Lance will be used like that from Allura of the creators yet. Allura knows Lance loves her, and knew he really, really does (or maybe did?). Not a crush but a love that can blossom into a romantic relationship. She knows this but still goes after Lotor. And I’m okay with that.

She chose Lotor because she had stronger feelings for him at that time. She didn’t feel the same way about Lance, but during Monsters and Mana, I think she saw Lance in a different light. And she didn’t really try to create feelings just because she knew Lance has some for her since those wouldn’t be true feelings and just pity, at least that’s how I saw it. After the whole thing with Lotor, perhaps she’ll think more about what to do about the two of them later.

The thing is now there are two paths. Down one, Allura deals with her breakup at a normal time and moves on, so that if she does have a romantic relationship with Lance, it will have a hopefully healthy start and actually grow to be a strong healthy one.

One another path, is the one where she tries to get over Lotor immediately and some time passes and grows to fall for Lance, but it can possibly lead to issues as to whether or not she does love Lance or had strong feelings for him, or is still confused and not completely over Lotor, or has some feelings for Lance but it hasn’t let them grown enough yet to let her possibly be in love with him and they try to date but it ends when the her feelings haven’t grown strong enough and the chances of them being together die out.

Or, there’s the third out-of-no where path where it’s nothing we guessed and we are all wrong and it’s something maybe we should’ve seen coming, or it’s an out of no where development.

Either way, we’ll probably know next season if Lance and Allura’s relationship will be endgame or stay friends, or happen but won’t work out and hopefully stay as friends.

Well, that’s my review of the season. It was my first time waiting for a new season of the show, and I guess now I’m more attached to the characters and the show. At first I really wanted to watch it just to know what’s going on and see people’s reaction to the season. It’s still that and I’m happy and laughing at some reactions because they resonate a bit with me and let me feed on their emotion (mwahahaha) but it’s also that I wanted to see if I would like the show more when getting hyped about it or people’s reactions and the payoff it would give. And I’d say it was pretty good!

So, uh... yeah! Thanks for reading! If you want to talk about stuff you can comment on this post! I’d love to hear what you have to say about the season and what you think is in store or what to expect.

Well now I hope we get the release date for the next season soon! But that’s probably wishful thinking. I just heard that they did that after the last season was realeased immediately. But that’s okay. The crew deserves a break after their hard work. And there’s so much art, comics, memes, and more we can make from this new season, so we’ll live for now. Heheh.

Thanks for reading! Bye! Have a nice day!

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ganymedesclock · 7 years

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what do you think of the general assumption by fans that lotor is a genocidal fascist? it's so beyond me, honestly. this is a man who actively opposes the empire and its ways, kills elites within it, despises his father, and was (likely) exiled BECAUSE of this opposition. the same people who lump him in with the empire's ways are always the ones who think he wants zarkon's love or don't understand his plans (ie, him attacking a galra base, etc) i am just. tired.

I think it’s a combination of things?

I think that one of the big things that I’ve seen to seem is that Lotor is characterized as deceptive and a liar. His first scene, him seeming to court the empire’s elite and his father’s viewpoint, is a complete farce as we see him sort of joking about as soon as their back is turned.

The feeling I get is that sometimes viewers felt like Lotor was also maliciously lying to them, by putting up this noble front and then turning out to be a manipulator. Which, when we see Lotor misleading one audience, it’s fair to question what we see him telling other people. But that does seem to be a fundamental misunderstanding of Lotor’s… well, just about everything about him.

With that in mind, this turned into an analysis of Changing Of The Guard/S3e1, Lotor’s debut episode and how it characterized him. It’s gonna get long, partially because I’m putting some direct transcripts in there.

I’m going to spend a lot of this looking at Throk. Throk and his friend discussing Lotor tells us something very major. It establishes, from the start, that Lotor is considered completely unacceptable by the commanding elite. After all, Throk isn’t just idly discussing this, he’s trying to recruit his friend to a movement that according to him, already has a lot of momentum within the commanding elite. Throk was just the figurehead of what most of the commanders intended for Lotor.

Lotor is introduced, and characterized, heavily by his first confrontation with Throk. So with that in mind, I’m gonna go over s3e1 for a bit and talk about Lotor and Throk, how Throk is characterized and how he and Lotor play off each other.

Throk first appears in s3e1, established by name and as an imperial commander in his brief conversation with Haggar. We see that he’s lurking in a hallway, having seemingly waited for her to leave Zarkon’s bedchamber before he approached.

Throk and Haggar’s exact dialogue- Throk is bold, Haggar is italicized.

Excuse me.

What is it, Commander Throk?

Would it be possible to speak to Zarkon today? Another planet was lost to rebellion and I feel he must be informed.

Zarkon is fully briefed on all imperial matters. He certainly doesn’t need your input.

*Of course. It is just that I fear if we do not take decisive action soon, the Empire will crumble completely. Rebel activity should be crushed with our full might before more planets are inspired to fight against us.

This is the first sign we’ve seen that the paladins’ exploits in the first two seasons are actually starting to turn the tide. Their rebellion is growing in size, a genuine threat, and aristocrats like Throk whose power and affluence is built on this conquest are starting to sweat.

Throk sees the rebellion as an eyesore and a problem, and he wants to eradicate it entirely. Implicitly, by making a bloody display out of planets like Puig, these early coalition planets, he intends to strike terror into any who might be yet on the fence. His concern isn’t so obviously on the absence of Zarkon as much as the absence of leadership around which the empire can rally to act.

This is noteworthy, because despite being about average rank for an elite (Commander, not General) Throk is a networker. His later conversation with his friend establishes that he’s dangerously fond of the buddy system and his preferred method of operation is uniting individual commanders into large and deadly fleets- incidentally something his DotU incarnation was also fond of given his hand in the Fleet of Doom.

Haggar snaps back, and this is the first time that Lotor is brought up after Haggar sent for him in s2:

Lotor has arrived at headquarters at Zarkon’s request to take command of the empire. Under Zarkon’s guidance, of course.

Lotor? Why is he not at his father’s bedside?

Zarkon needs no one at his bedside, least of all you.

So this tells us some very interesting things about Lotor, if we don’t look at all at his prior continuities, and just take this as our new introduction to a character.

The first thing we hear is that while Haggar sent for the prince to put him in power, she doesn’t intend to actually give him free reign. “Under Zarkon’s guidance, of course”, when we know that Zarkon would be one hell of a backseat driver. Lotor functionally wouldn’t be in power with Zarkon breathing over his shoulder, or Haggar acting in that alleged advising role.

Throk’s reply is also surprising because the empire’s been established as very warlike, conquering, and… sort of fantastical space-orc to our sensibilities. But this one question is something actually… reasonable.

It implies first and foremost that Lotor is young, not expected to take up the mantle as a soldier, much less a leader of soldiers, yet. Instead, the social expectation to galran sensibility is that Lotor should be tending to his ailing father.

Which Haggar practically snarls at, before pulling what, for her, is the equivalent of storming out of the conversation. Throk glares at her retreating back, then departs himself.

The camera pulls back from both of them leaving, towards an empty corner that it directed itself towards earlier- the corner was featured heavily when Throk began with “of course”- I put an asterisk there for convenience.

But here, returning to the corner, we’re revealed why it was given camera focus earlier: it’s not empty, but occupied by an orange-complected individual in blue and black armor, who was concealing herself. She drops her cloaking, watches Throk go, and then smiles, offering a succinct, thoughtful “hmm” before disappearing once again.

An astute observer will recognize a lot of the cut of Ezor’s armor here at first glance, because of its obvious similarity to that of the mysterious galra gunner in s2e9. Acxa in that episode was characterized heavily as something new and distinct from the empire’s usual tactics and personnel- Acxa wasn’t friendly to Voltron, but had no real animosity towards them, she worked with Keith and Hunk only to rob them at the last minute, making as she did an ambiguous gesture that she could shoot Keith, but was abstaining, even after she’d gotten what she wanted.

The “Weblum Galra” fascinated me personally back in s2, because of this being established as not quite friend or foe, but somewhere in between, and someone who smacks very powerfully of an obvious agenda. This first glance at Ezor is a very similar setup. She’s watching, observing, eavesdropping, and immediately pegs as a little dangerous- if she has the ability to sneak past Haggar unobserved, what if our heroes have to fight her? And what’s that knowing expression, what’s she up to? We get no answers, and the scene keeps rolling.

The next time we get back to Throk, it’s the arena. Focus is given to the large, sort of lion-like warrior fighting, and we see very little of his masked, sword-wielding opponent, just small glimpses while Throk and his friend discuss. However, we do see him casually spinning his sword in one-hand before the camera moves to Throk.

Once again, Throk is in bold, and I’ve put asterisks where we catch glimpses of the anonymous gladiator.

I tried to speak with Lord Zarkon today, but the witch stopped me again.

I fear the emperor’s condition may be worse than she is telling us. *I’m not sure he will ever return to the throne.

Some context for Haggar’s testiness in the prior scene, and also, this gentleman Throk is speaking to- he is clearly a likeminded conspirator. Again, already we see Throk is not acting alone, but in empathy with other commanders.

In the arena, we see the large warrior making swipes and strikes while Lotor tumbles around and behind them.

Agreed. And now Prince Lotor is taking over? We’ve fought by Zarkon’s side forever, and now we are passed over by this exiled brat.

This is gonna get its own observation, since it tells us a lot. Throk is old guard, he’s had a long tenure of duty, and he prides himself on his closeness to Zarkon, his ideals. The people that he is allied with and representing, speaking for, feel the same way. He boldly and confidently uses “we”, assuming that his friend will feel the same, and assuming correctly.

Lotor is conversely, not in good graces- clearly why Haggar intends to have someone look over his shoulder. He’s also younger, and seemingly has had a much shorter term of duty than Throk (interesting as we later discover Lotor has knowledge of ten thousand years ago, but, he is very much not treated as a constant to the empire the way Zarkon is)

Lotor is absent this line and the next few, but we can hear blades ringing off each other, reminding us of the fight that they’re watching. And now we get into the really interesting exchange:

I’ve heard rumors he fights alongside his enlisted men like a lowly private.

Worse than that, his top generals aren’t even pure Galra. They’re half-breeds at best. He has no honor.

Some say * he allows the planets he conquers to continue to rule themselves. Can you imagine?

Clearly he’s a dangerous lunatic.

This is the moneymaker. And fittingly, this is our clearest shot at Lotor before we know that’s who he is- he actively jumps into the foreground, retreating from his unseen enemy.

Lotor is unacceptable to the empire’s elite, and here we see why they seem to hate him, and probably why he’s in Zarkon’s poor graces. This is also the point where someone watching carefully might pick up a suspicion- the very unusual but somewhat galra-looking woman we saw eavesdropping on Throk earlier, and how much her armor resembles the gladiator in the ring- and Lotor, who allegedly already arrived but is nowhere to be seen, with his half-galra top generals.

But let’s look at the things Throk and his friend are exchanging looks of revulsion and horror over the very idea of:

Lotor wants to work with colonized planets and keep local leaders in power. This would seem part of a larger lack of disdain for non-galra sentient races, since he employs, and promotes to high positions, mixed race galra. The language Throk and his friend uses, “half-breeds”, tells us that’s not a small thing- even if we haven’t explicitly heard it before, the empire clearly has a pretty major hangup on perceived racial superiority. It explains the vicious inhumanity so many of them direct prisoners and slaves.

But we as an audience are perking our ears up. Because if these are the core mechanisms behind the empire’s inhumanity, Lotor is sounding very… humane. Empathetic. Reasonable. He sounds kind, in a context where we’ve seen Zarkon spurn and violently punish kindness since s1e1. Directing his opponents, and his own subordinates, a kind of camaraderie and respect. What we would call an honorable warrior- what Throk and his friend call disgusting.

Lotor is a pariah for his worldview and attitudes, a worldview surprisingly close to our heroes. And this is when Throk decides to drop that he doesn’t intend to merely sit by and complain about how “improper” Lotor is.

I’ve already spoken with the other officers in my sector. They’ve all agreed to back me if I fight for the throne. Normally I would never think of such a thing, but…

What choice do we have?

Then you’ll support me?

Yes.

It’s worth noting some very interesting body language here, and us not seeing any glimpse of Lotor or the arena. Throk, for this entire part of the exchange, stares straight ahead with an impassive face, speaking calmly. His friend, when he realizes what Throk is suggesting, stiffens, and looks around, before lowering his head to deliver his answer.

Throk is a networker and we’re beginning to realize a dangerous one. This wasn’t just idle bellyaching, he’s been actively planning a coup. The “we” he speaks for has decided Lotor is going to be disposed of, most likely killed- he’s unacceptable.

And this is reflected by his friend- “What choice do we have?” as if Lotor, by his inclination for negotiation and empathy, is going to personally bring the plague upon their houses. Further telling us this elite is built on the backbone of cruelty, that they’re threatened by falling under leadership that won’t encourage dominating and subjugating.

Throk flashes the camera a very threatening toothy grin, and this is when his friend’s attention turns to the figure in the arena- the one we’ve been ignoring.

Who’s this little fellow?

I don’t know, I’ve never seen him before.

Important business is done, let’s talk about the bloodsports. Implicitly, they recognize or don’t care about the larger figure- the smaller one catches their eye, because, well, he’s small. And new. How unusual. The camera zooms in on him, and we see what we’ve been seeing before.

He’s agile, fleet-footed, evasive, making precise dodges of his opponent’s weapon and has been this entire time. Some of the moves are rather flashy, suggesting confidence rather than a fearful prisoner. His opponent loses track of him, and then we see him sweep in and launch a single attack, sending his opponent’s weapon flying and his opponent to the ground. It’s unclear if fatally or not. The crowd goes wild.

And then he plants his sword in the ground, to his audience’s confusion, and… takes his helmet off.

Lotor!

Here is our first characterization of Lotor speaking for himself, and holy shit is it a departure from Zarkon. Our “little fellow” actively exploited the commanders’ expectations and in returning to the headquarters, rather than any bold or dramatic entrance he could have made to try and catch people’s attention and support, he functionally snuck on board and into the ring as a silent gladiator.

And for good reason- rumors of his behavior and ethics got ahead of him, and Throk and twenty of his closest friends are already planning to reenact Julius Caesar.

Lotor’s dramatic face-revealing turn is pointed directly at Throk, who, a second later, he picks up his sword and points it directly at.

Throk. You wish to challenge me? Then come down and claim your crown. True galra do not take the throne by stirring up insurrection in darkened chambers. They rise through honorable rite of combat. Defeat me here, and the throne is yours.

This is the second brilliant fuck-you Lotor pulls in many regards. First: it’s never a good thing for your covert movement if your intended target calls you out in front of a live audience before you’ve even made a move.

Second, considering everything that motivates Throk and his conspirators to act against Lotor is his being culturally unacceptable, he’s manipulated Throk, using his own allies, into a very nasty bind.

Victory By Conquest is a VERY fundamental galra attitude, one we saw given lip service all the way back in s1e1 by Sendak. Throk knows better than to rely exclusively on direct conflict- he works with allies and plans things out ahead of time.

Lotor, however, is pretty much doing the social equivalent of dragging Throk into the ring by the scruff of his neck. All of Throk’s allies, everyone backing him, want to see their guy kick this smug little brat’s teeth in on live television. And it’s going to look really bad if Throk does the good tactical thing and refuses Lotor’s challenge- because Lotor’s tiny and pathetic-looking so he can’t possibly pose a threat to Throk, was Throk’s coup just talk?

So Lotor is both unacceptable to the empire, and not obliviously. He knows perfectly well exactly what the empire values, and how to play it to his advantage. However, he doesn’t use this to curry favor- rather, he uses it to hobble Throk.

In these scenes, we see Lotor’s expression- completely smug- and Throk’s- angry and uncomfortable- but a lot of the crowd, whispering, cheering. Lotor, as a pariah to the empire that most of them wanted to see taken down, nonetheless was able to masterfully leverage widespread social pressure to get Throk to proceed in a certain manner.

Throk has really only one answer he can give, and he knows it.

However, before he gives it- we see something else.

The Generals take the stage.

See this I think is a pretty underrated piece of psychological warfare. You have to consider these are patently obviously Lotor’s half-galra generals- the ones Throk was speaking poorly of seconds ago. The ones that Lotor is out of his mind for employing. The ones who, disdainful sniff, could never possibly measure up to real galra.

They heard everything he said about him. And now he’s surrounded by them.

They don’t have to do anything, and they don’t really. The takeaway is still incredible. This is akin to a white supremacist mouthing off in his favorite bar over a football game only to have the new bartender lean over and go “Oh, really?” and then he’s suddenly surrounded by surly, armed, black hijabi women.

The message is clear. Lotor’s taken control of this context. Throk isn’t safe hanging back or hiding behind anybody. Not only do they have him, they have evidence on him. Throk isn’t the only one with friends, and with how dramatically Lotor stepped up on Throk, none of Throk’s buddies are going to step up to support him.

Throk’s been had, and his expression tells us he knows that.

I gladly accept your offer. Now all will see who is the rightful leader.

Lotor, conversely, is untroubled, serene, cheerful. Throk is trying to threaten him, but stepping right to the beat of his drum.

When Throk steps into the arena, he does so with a large weapon, and bragging once again, about his age and superior experience.

I have fought thousands of battles, and left many enemies much more fearsome than you wasting on the battlefields.

Again, we’re reminded of what Throk takes pride in. Victory or Death. The good old galra way, violence and subjugation. He has murdered, he has destroyed, and he is proud of it. He wants to strike fear into Lotor’s heart. That Lotor is “a brat” to him and not someone who should be a soldier at all is no concern because Lotor’s a political rival. This is the very same attitude Haxus set about trying to murder the fifteen-year-old Pidge with, and it’s likely Lotor’s maybe two or three years older- pocket change to someone like Throk who is probably in his forties or fifties.

And Throk’s opening attack is a leaping swing from the top down, intending to, if it had not been parried, split Lotor’s head open. He makes a very violent flurry of strikes, while Lotor hangs back. Once again, as he did with his initial opponent, Lotor almost doesn’t attack at all, parrying and retreating and maneuvering.

This is something big here- Lotor is characterized heavily through these opening fights as not the person who attacks first. He could easily have seemed that way if we didn’t follow Throk the entire time initially, if we didn’t hear Throk launch an absolute rain of dismissal and insult on how pathetic and inferior he sees Lotor.

At one point, Lotor stops parrying, and instead simply maneuvers past Throk. One of their clashes clips a few strands of Lotor’s hair. But he’s never concerned.

You have flawless technique, that I’ll grant you. Still, you must realize at some point that your repetitive attacks are getting you nowhere.

And this is another big line to me. Because it continues the established trend here: that Lotor’s breaking with basically every single pattern set by the empire.

Because what has the empire done, for the past two seasons? Attack, attack, attack. Victory or death. If your enemy is evading you hit them harder. And at this point, they’re starting to lose.

Lotor isn’t concerned by this. He doesn’t care that the empire’s crumbling. This is the start of an ongoing thread with his character that he pretty much refuses to play this game- he doesn’t attack the rebel planets outside of the one time he has a reason to- the next episode after this, at Puig- and even then, he leaves Puig pristine, untouched, with a couple of bruises to remember him by but nothing else, and still actively a coalition planet.

None of what Lotor’s talking up, what Throk accuses him of, at this point, is act. It is quintessentially Lotor’s character to go “Look at this. None of this is getting you results. None of this is doing you good. It’s useless, so you should stop. Change tactics.”

It’s something a warrior like Throk, who has been culturally indoctrinated from the cradle to never retreat, never surrender, never compromise, but continue pushing until you destroy your perceived enemies, finds infuriating.

And once again- once Throk rushes a second time, burnt out from his first flurry, Lotor launches his own attack. Four strikes, locking blades with Throk on the last strike, and then he uses his free hand to punch Throk in the stomach, making him flinch- and in that instant outmaneuvers Throk and disarms him with the fifth strike, hacking his weapon in half and dropping him to the ground.

Just like his fight against the larger gladiator, Lotor waits until the perfect window to go for the kill. He lets his opponent exhaust themselves fighting someone else, and then springs on them.

Then, Lotor spares Throk, and drops this line:

Your tactics are stale. And in the end, your own aggression is your undoing.

This is an ideological clash as much as, if not more than, it is a physical one. And Lotor here is clarifying something that will heavily color his ensuing speech.

Lotor brings change. A departure from every antagonist before him in this show. The very episode title, Changing of the Guard, and the conflict it’s mirroring in the paladins- the struggle of adapting to a very new situation without Shiro, potentially with Keith leading- tells us that.

And here, he’s making a pretty unambiguous threat.

“If you don’t change your tactics, galra empire? You’re going to die.” And what he sees as the poisons that are killing them are their refusing to adapt- thus, to negotiate with the situation- and their violent disposition.

The fact that he delivers this not as an observer, but as someone who’s holding the figurehead of Zarkon’s military elite at swordpoint, gives it another potential read.

“If you don’t change your tactics, galra empire, I’m going to kill you.”

So I think this is the point where despite Lotor being talked up as such a merciful, diplomatic person that the main empire finds him actively revolting, parts of the audience get, confused about the idea of reading him as a hero. Because Lotor’s a cheap shot artist. He doesn’t really read as an honorable soldier- he gives credit where it’s due but a moment later suckerpunches Throk in the ribs to get an advantage.

He very much has a vision of what the future is and should be, but, well... let’s get into that speech of his, shall we?

Lotor is poised to execute Throk. The crowd is chanting his name. In this instant, Lotor could conform to expectations. He could prove himself what the empire wants out of him- a strong leader, like Zarkon, who punishes insubordination violently and decisively. Follow him or be destroyed.

And it’s at this point that Lotor withdraws his weapon. The cheering dies down. Even Throk looks up in confusion. And he drops this:

My father built our empire on the bones of his enemies. But the time has come to change the old ways, and inspire not fear from those we rule, but loyalty.

We must not waste our energy fighting to keep our subjects down, but rather multiply it, by allowing those worthy to rise and join our ranks.

The universe can no longer doubt our strength.

Each ally gained only makes us stronger.

While those who stand against us, will be crushed.

So here, I think, is Lotor’s active con, singular, during this thing.

What he suggests by sparing Throk, by extending that hand to him, is that the “we” he speaks of is the empire, is the old guard, is these dissatisfied aristocrats. He’s pretending that he’s a man of the people, and by ‘the people’ he means the empire’s bluebloods who were threatened by him and his rebellious policies.

However, his earlier comment to Throk raises a lot of questions, before we ever see him leave the ring and basically react to that whole event with the “Get-a-load-of-this-guy cam”.

Again, Lotor standing there, over Throk, telling him that his attitudes are garbage and put him here at the point of Lotor’s sword? That gives a lot of context to his little speech.

“I’m bringing a revolution. I’m changing the old ways. I’m not going to follow Zarkon’s example, and I think that doing so is stupid. It’s a waste.”

“You have an opportunity to work with me. I’m giving you a taste of that now- see this guy, the guy I was fighting? The one you were all rooting for? Watch me be nice to him. We can be friends, galra empire. You can have a seat at the table with the revolution, too.”

“Or I can slit your throat. Your choice.”

That threat is veiled, subdued under the much more obvious and dramatic show of sparing Throk, because what Lotor frankly wants from these people is to get them off his back. He has an agenda and he would like some modicum of their cooperation, but he has no intention of giving them anything he wants. Ultimately, he has no intention of humoring bigots like Throk whose criticisms boil down to “I don’t like that you listen to non-galra leaders or the way that you employ half-galra”. Pleasing Throk would require throwing the Generals- the core of Lotor’s power- under the bus, and diminishing most if not all of his own values.

But Lotor still means that threat in full. Because after sparing Throk, he makes sure he’s cutting off the head of that rebellious force a different way- by giving Throk a distant, isolated post.

This is some very conflicted and nuanced messaging we’re getting here.

The first is that Lotor is, in a lot of the metrics that this show has set up, a good person. He believes in teamwork. In cooperation. In diplomacy. It’s not really a surprise that Lotor is ultimately half-Altean, because he’s operating in what we’ve been told is a very stereotypical Altean mentality. Culturally his perspective is a blend of the “old”, more cooperative galra empire, the galra empire that was part of Voltron, that maintained allies, that was an enforcer of peace rather than an imperialistic nightmare- and Altea’s culture of diplomacy, negotiation- of extending the hand first, but fighting viciously when crossed.

Lotor is noble. He has these high values, genuinely means them. He wants to bring change to this rotting, foul system that’s been ruining everybody’s lives to the past ten thousand years- radical, aggressive change. He’s the last person I’d suggest is compliant with the empire’s state of affairs, and the fact that his first onscreen moment is his carefully scheduling a foremost member of Zarkon’s old guard for a spectacular political ass-kicking should tell us that.

Lotor hates Throk. Lotor hates the “classic Galra Empire values” that Throk embodies and thumps around. Throk is a bigot, Throk is cruel, Throk is proud to be a cruel bigot, and Lotor knocks him on his butt and says “Throk? You’re terrible. Everything that just happened to you happened because you’re terrible.”

But the noble, crusading Lotor, has to compromise with the Lotor who’s keenly aware he is a teenager with four friends in the middle of nowhere, who is picking a fight with literally the single largest empire in the known universe.

And this is where we see the other side of Lotor. Lotor is a survivalist. That is to say, Lotor is a cheap shot artist.

Lotor knows he can’t fight the empire. He knows, much as he’d love to, much as there’s thinly, barely-veiled scorn dripping from “Your own aggression is your undoing”, much as he has every reason to despise all of these people who find his morals and beliefs disgusting and an embarrassment... He really has no choice but to court them at least a little.

So he sugarcoats his venomous opinions of them and serves it up as a lovely little chocolate tray. So he purports to challenge Throk in “honorable rite of combat” and then suckerpunches him mid-battle after preceding it by playing head games on him. So he files all the hard edges off his real, bitter, angry feelings for all of the empire’s bullshit and he dresses it up nicely.

And alone, with the generals- with these other socially disadvantaged people who have every reason to hate the empire as much as he does- he laughs it off, mocks the empire for believing him, and makes his move to isolate Throk.

Lotor wants to live. He wants to win. And he’s the type who’s been sitting here and biting his tongue and biding his time, living off the empire like a parasite while he keeps vainly promising the empire, and Zarkon, that he really is just trying to be a good Prince like they wanted.

But being underhanded, being calculating, lying to people and then mocking them for their belief... these are villainish traits. We’re not used to seeing idealists who are nothing so much as fountains of bitterness because of the garbage world they’ve been living in. But I think that’s exactly what Lotor is. He genuinely believes in these ideas, these causes- because otherwise a shrewd and practical person like him would never waste his time defending them, dressing them up to pass by people’s defenses, expressing such genuine and utter disgust for people who disregard them.

But he’s been living in a universe built by and ruled by Zarkon. He’s been stuck there, embedded under his father’s heel, for longer than the paladins have been a thing at all. He had a front row seat to watching every good thing about the paladins of old fall apart and frankly? He’s miserable. He’s miserable the way anybody would be in that situation but that misery turned into anger and it turned into that same kind of deep simmering anger that we see flicker out of Shiro sometimes.

This is wrong. This isn’t just there are a few bad apples, this is rotten all the way back to the orchard, back to the roots of the trees that made those apples. But Lotor hasn’t been able to do anything about it. Opportunities are bubbling to the surface for him, but they’re small, and few, and he’s spent a long time building up to this.

Seeing someone so very obviously motivated by bitterness, who empathizes with bitter people, who is full of spite and largely unafraid to hack pieces out of you whether or not you deserve it if you’re between him and the door when he needs to get out of there- is not something we’re used to. And I think because of that, and because his bitterness reads so much louder than the ideals that actively drive that bitterness, makes people see him as a villain.

And seeing him as a villain, people read him as part and parcel of the empire itself, when, ironically, if Lotor really was acceptable to the empire, not only would this entire altercation with Throk never happened, a lot of Lotor’s bitterness wouldn’t have happened. He’d be living a nice, content life, probably trusted as a commander given his connection to Zarkon, have a cozy sector of space and weight to throw around.

Instead, he’s a pariah, and one who, when given the opportunity to become really acceptable to the empire, laughs it off in private because could you imagine? Him actually meaning that olive branch he extended to Throk?

#Anonymous #voltron legendary defender #vld #Lotor #Throk #galra empire #readmore #hey have you wondered why I never do tumblr liveblogs?#this is because the b-plot of one damn episode #turned into 5000+ words #this is longer than fics I've written.#holy /shit/.

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primrose-path-of-dalliance · 6 years

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Lotor?

ngl, i squealed when i saw this. i get to talk about My Boy!!!

thank you for the ask

(send me characters and i’ll give thoughts on them!)

sorry, anti-lotor half of the vld fandom, but i love this guy to pieces and nothing y’all say can change that because 1. y’all’s attempts at critically saying he’s Bad are poorly done imo lmao, 2. i’m not so preoccupied with morality and purity culture that i stick my thumbs in my ears and try to shove plugs into other ppl’s ears, and 3. opinions are subjective.

like personally, i love complex characters set up as parallels and foils to major protagonists that are inherently anti-imperialist, archaeologists, and conservationists; are representative of a not-so-palatable reality of abuse survivorship; have issues of trauma, paranoia, and interpersonal defeatism; and are clearly being set up for a future arc that will be closely intertwined with said major protagonists—as well as driven by a deep, internal conviction and strength that has persisted against absolutely ridiculous odds—

but idk. your loss, i guess.

aesthetically: gorgeous. but i am very ace.

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

don’t harangue me for not calling lotor a slytherin in case you support that side lol, but i read a really good meta on this a while ago that i agreed with here.

(gonna put the rest of this under a readmore since this gets to be A Lot.)

essentially, one of lotor’s core traits is the search for knowledge and scientific advancement for its own sake. there’s no way he doesn’t love learning—he spent centuries studying a culture that was extinct, a culture that by any imperialistic measures was worthless and weak because it opposed the empire and it was destroyed. one could hardly believe he began searching for the last remnants of altea for power or ambition. he studied them because he wanted to, for the sake of it, to connect to something that’s part of him.

in a lot of ways, he does exemplify slytherin traits—he can be exceptionally ruthless when he believes he or things/people he cares about are threatened, he is unusually preoccupied with a need for power and control, and his goals could be considered lofty and ambitious. however, much of these traits and desires can easily be linked to his trauma. one might make an argument that he’s still similar enough to honerva to qualify as a slytherin, but personally i think the story sets him up as opposing haggar without hypocrisy in too many ways to be persuaded.

(honerva wanted to continue her research despite the risks, endangering an entire planet and potentially the universe, because she saw the research as empowering. she saw her research—her own ambitions—as more important than anything else, and abandoned ethics like some burdensome shackle. but lotor is seen multiple times as unwilling to endanger people and planets for his goals without either being reasonably assured of their survival (such as voltron) or their consent. he despises cruelty and the taking away of others’ agency.)

in an ideal world, i think lotor would be an obvious ravenclaw. but his trauma has encouraged him to act like a slytherin.

best quality:

superficially: HIS NERDINESS. as soon as lotor started talking about ancient ruins, learning other cultures’ customs, and rattled off an entire poem he memorized off some old-ass cave wall he probably saw like 3 centuries before, i was absolutely done for. i had been trying to maintain my skepticism of him for skepticism’s sake, but god. you can’t just throw a goddamn archaeologist in my face and expect me to not fall deeply in love.

more seriously: i love lotor’s conviction. lotor has a strong sense of self, morality, and personal drive, especially for someone with his experiences.

he accepts and embraces both sides of his heritage as defining parts of who he is. in an empire that despises altean blood, he wields an altean broadsword, spends centuries studying what’s left of the culture, and openly admires the peace, people, and traditions of altea past. and in a castle of paladins and alteans, he demands to be judged “by [his] actions, rather than [the] preconceptions of [his] race,” knowing full well that team voltron perceives him as galra, and failing to inform them of his altean blood despite the clear benefits that would’ve come from doing so.

he has a code of conduct that’s repeatedly shown in sharp contrast to the ideals of the empire—even from his very introduction, when he stands in front of an entire arena of galran soldiers and refuses to compromise his own morals for a more rhetorically effective argument. lotor’s small, four-person team of generals (compared to the typical galran fleet) seizes an entire planet while killing no one and causing virtually no destruction.

he is also incredibly self-motivated. lotor has lived for centuries relying almost completely on himself, and he will ruthlessly protect himself and his own.

his inner strength is ridiculously admirable, and i love his self-assurance.

worst quality:

idk? usually ppl say flaws or some such here, but the problem is that flaws are more complicated than just “they do dumb things because of this adjective.”

also i love flaws. they’re born of the essence that makes a character who they are. hating their flaws is ridiculous.

with that said……..

fucking hate lotor’s hair. seriously, wtf? he can tuck all of it into his helmet and have it all fall back out nice and neatly. HOW. it’s the biggest lie of the entire show alongside allura’s bun. it’s just not possible and i hate that lotor defying reality just to look beautiful is Canon.

his butt cape. like akjhdkhgkghjgk,,, a genuine BUTT CAPE. for what purpose?? preference??? drama???????? i’ve seen comparisons to honerva’s own butt cape back when she was a normal empress-consort scientist on daibazaal, which makes sense since lotor loves making Fashion Statements, but god. a butt cape.

what on god’s heavenly green earth is up with his swordsmanship? the acrobatics and the flourishing are positively ridiculous. who the fuck actually tries killing a powerful emperor and their abuser by smashing them from above with a purple final fantasy sword like they’re the hammer and zarkon is a nail. lotor is unrealistic.

ship them with:

recovery and happiness.

brotp them with:

his generals. DUH. it’s clear that they’ve had a strong history together, and it’s impossible to have their relationship end here without any sort of resolution or confrontation about narti’s death. let them reunite under conciliatory terms. let them be friends again. (and let sincline return.)

allura for sure!!! their relationship development has been beautiful so far and i want to see that continue.

coran. they’re both Nerds. plus, one of them got to experience a full and long life on altea. let them talk.

the paladins in general. it might be difficult, slow-going, and hesitant/full of suspicion on both sides, but god—just imagine if they were friendly. (plus it would do worlds of good for lotor. he’s a lonely man, and it would even more clearly distance him from comparisons to zarkon.)

the blade of marmora (and keith). the show has said nothing so far, but i refuse to believe that in the past centuries, lotor and the blade have never interacted or crossed paths before. i can imagine why they would’ve been uninterested in alliance with each other, but i can also imagine what would make each appeal greatly to the other. let them interact. (as for keith, he and lotor have a lot of similarities. it’s real funny how similar allura, keith, and lotor all are to each other, really. hm.)

needs to stay away from:

haggar. she’s fake as hell and evil to boot. some ppl think that she’s reawakened some kind of dormant love in her for lotor after regaining more memories in s5, but that’s far from the case. someone who’s become and lived as she has for 10,000 years doesn’t suddenly care well about someone she’s abused horribly because she realizes she gave birth to them, and doesn’t suddenly become sympathetic in the good way because she’s “motherly” now. (not if the writing’s supposed to be decent, anyway.) she realizes lotor’s about to die and does absolutely nothing else except turn on the magic shiro television in her lab. she only finds out after the black bayard exchange has already happened, and she’s haggar. if she really wanted to stop what was happening, she could’ve done a lot more than just watch through shiro’s eyes. she’s a horrible person, folks, and lotor would do best to never see her again. (unfortunately, it’s much more likely that she will fuck his shit up some more next season. rip.)

zarkon. hopefully he actually stays dead this time, but i’ve seen some good points on how sketchy his ability to stay dead is. nevertheless, all memory of him deserves to be banished to the nether realms. lotor should never have to deal with that asshole’s legacy again.

misc. thoughts:

anyone who talks about lotor getting/not getting/deserving/not deserving a redemption arc makes me lose my shit because he hasn’t even done anything to warrant a redemption arc in the first place like tbfh. evil deeds whomst?? trying to kill voltron when?? where are these receipts of malice??? he’s never done an evil damn thing but y’all humoring the concept anyway. smh.

anyway, lotor needs a therapist, healing, and some good fucking friends. @dreamworks give lotor a recovery arc 2k18.

#luanna801 #ask #voltron #voltron meta #lotor #prim post #i talk a fucking lot about one of my favorite boys #in regards to the :)#i am trying to avoid siccing the tumblr shipping demons on myself #sorry

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mizulekitten · 7 years

Text

Nothing Ever Goes Bad AU

So this has been on my mind forever so... it begins

Basics

Takes place back in time with the Original Paladins, but with a few twists. Firstly, humans are alive and well and have several alliances going on with the Galra, Olkari, and Alteans. The Quintessence Monster does not exist, nor does any of the “bad” quintessence that came from the void. The OG Paladins still become paladins, and everything is good.

Where does this leave our paladins?

Keith

Keith is still a mix of Galra and Human. His mother was sent to Earth to scout it, and help decide if the Galra were going to extend a treaty to the Humans or not. There she met Keith’s dad, and when she was called back to the Empire, he was allowed to accompany her. They decided not to introduce themselves to Humans yet, and thus Keith is raised off of Earth, but with both of his parents.

At first.

Things happen, and Keith is left an orphan. His Galra traits are much more visible, his lack of head ridge and leaner build being the only real hints to his human nature -as well as his “unnatural” black hair- While in the Foster Care system he meets a young Kolivan and they become friends.

Fast forward, they both join the Empire’s Army, and quickly excel. It’s there that they meet Antok, Thace, and Ulaz. Keith eventually becomes a highly trusted general under Zarkon, and he is one of the first responders when the comet crashes onto Diabezal.

Being close to Zarkon allows him to eventually form the Blade of Marmora with Kolivan, Thace, Ulaz, and Antok; although they spend more time on base and leading than Keith does. Also, he later monitors the building of the base on Kerberos as a way to get a closer peak at Earth, the other side of his heritage.

Shiro

Shiro is human through and through, still the poster child of the Galaxy Garrison, and still chosen to go to Kerberos with Matt and Sam. Instead of being taken prisoner, their ship’s inner functions fail and they are stranded.

The Galra save Shiro, Matt, and Sam, and unwittingly become part of the Galra traditional Peace Talks. Whenever the Galra first become known to a planet, on an official scale -and seeing as Shiro and Co. represent one of Earth’s main space garrisons, its more or less official- the first individuals they meet engage in a large majority of the peace talks. Namely, bonding with one of the Galra they first met.

While the Galra are negotiating terms with the rest of humanity, Shiro and Keith spend a large amount of time awkwardly, at first, hanging out. This leads to them sparring a lot, and then entering into the Arena.

The Arena isn’t a blood sport, its more like... more dramatic wrestling? There’s rules and such, and sometimes the Galra will have people that are being put to death compete -cultural differences- but mainly its become a sport that any can enter if they are strong enough. Here, Shiro becomes the Champion.

Once the treaty is secured, Shiro becomes one of the first generals allowed to explore deeper into space. He manages to do this pretty safely a number of times. One day, his ship and crew are attacked, and it’s in this attack that Shiro is captured for a period of time and loses his arm. He is eventually saved, and Keith gets Honerva, at this point an Empress, to build Shiro a new one. From this event his PTSD arises.

Pidge / Katie Holt and the Holts

Katie never has a reason to infiltrate the Galaxy Garrison, and, thus, never has a reason to go by Pidge. It is still a common nickname that Matt will call her, but for the most part it’s Katie. She is also bullied still, sadly, and follows much the same path of ambitions that Pre-Kerberos Katie follows. When Matt and Sam discover aliens, she’s ecstatic.

As soon as the treaty is made -and maybe a bit before that because they’re impatient and curious- they’re moving their whole family off planet, and travel for a bit. It’s this way, and through a bit of help from Shiro’s friend Keith, that they find the Olkari. The Holts love it there, and their genius only grows and grows under the new environment. It’s difficult, being the only humans there, for awhile at least, but its perfect for cultivating Katie’s mind, and she adores it.

She makes a name for herself across the Universe, as does the rest of her family. She ends up meeting Trigel because of this, and they study the lions together and other sciences. Her software becomes integral to many different societies defense systems.

Living with the Olkari doesn’t cure her dislike of nature, but it does dampen it a bit -but seriously, fuck mosquitoes and their alien counterparts-

Sam and Coleen spend several more years meeting as many different aliens as they can (it was Sam’s dream after all) before they inevitably settle down for good on the Olkari.

Matt studies all sorts of biologies, and he and Coran have a field day when Katie introduces them to one another.

Lance

Lance is royalty damn it. Remember Blaytz? Well, Lance is Blaytz’s brother, and when Blatyz got married to Queen Luxia? Guess who just become nobility by association? Even before then, he was low-key nobility due to Blatyz’s high standing amongst their people, especially during the war with the Galra -before the Lions, before they made peace, way back- Lance honed several skills during that time. While Blaytz was on the front lines, Lance was handling the domestic side of the war. He was giving speeches and handling domestic matters, and when push came to shove, he’d grab his gun and go to war.

Keith’s squadron may have defeated an outpost that Lance was defending once, and that may be where the hostility started. -Granted, now their relationship is much more a “I’m going to annoy the hell out of you because my brother works with your close friend and we see each other all the time-

His childhood was shrouded a bit by war, due to the Galra and whatever race they are always being in such high tension, but he never let that bring him down much. He does suffer some insecurity from the fact that his brother is a Paladin of Voltron, and married to Queen Luxia, but he’s still managed to carve a role for himself. He often shows up in peace talks of all kinds, and does his best to calm situations -even when he’s the one who accidentally starts some of them.-

Hunk

The Balmera are a liberated people, working alongside the Alteans to cultivate and harvest Balmeran Crystals in as safe and friendly way as possible.

Hunk’s love of food still thrives, and he becomes fascinated with Altean cuisine -more so because it’s so different from the Balmeran’s food, not because any of it is... that good (sorry Coran)- He has bits of magic, due to how Balmerans give back to the Balmera, but his expertise lies in innovation. He wishes to make the lives easier for Balmerans, seeing as they aren’t as technologically advanced as all the other races they seem to be meeting, and its that drive that makes him build. Grygan has a habit of visiting the Balmera, and it’s he who gives Hunk more chances to thrive, and thus, allow the Balmera to thrive more.

Hunk grew up alongside Shay, and she was often the confidence that eased his anxiety. They were a power duo, Shay finding the problems, and Hunk fixing them. This pattern continues even when they begin making treaties with other races. When Shay starts to rise up to lead their people, Hunk is beside her, despite his fear.

Allura

Allura is a wee bab. Heck, depending on where you are -pre voltron or post voltron- she might not even be born yet xD Her story -and friends- gets a bit into what ships I’m pairing with this AU, that I’m going to get into that another time.

Notes

Everyone is aged up significantly in this AU, minus Allura.

When Hunk and Lance meet they hit it off immediately and it scares Blaytz and Shay considerably. -Shay finds good humor in it, but Blaytz is... he’s terrified-

Keith, while still socially awkward, has found a family in Kolivan, Antok, Ulaz and Thace, and is fairly close to both Honerva and Zarkon.

Pidge actually knows Thace, she helped construct the code that defends the BoM’s data. They, along with Trigel, send silly viruses to one another to try and break one another’s firewalls.

Potential Story?

AU!Keith getting somehow sent to CanonVerse. Safe to say it’s a... culture shock he does not take kindly to. AU!Shiro, Lance, Hunk, and Katie eventually follow, sent because of their skills and budding friendship to try and get them all back to the other side -and research along the way.- It’s basically Canon!Voltron trying to navigate the vastly different culture of AU!NotVoltron and vice versa

P.S.

I have a lot more than this, I have the OG Paladins and the BoM with changes a bit here and there. Then there’s Team Sincline and Allura xD

And then there’s my unconventional ships...

All of this I have planned xD

#Mizu Rambles #so yeah #that's been on my mind for a good who knows how long #and I have so much more to it #but idk if people would be interested?#especially when I include what ships I have planned xDD #regardless Blob indulged me and its because of them a lot of this got fleshed out more so like #I love you bloooob!#like if anyone is interested I'd love to know jhgasg #vld #My AU #idk what to call the au but that works for now xD #keith #shiro #pidge #lance #hunk #others #text

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