vldunchartedregions

[vldunchartedregions]

Ah… Bob.

Isn’t it interesting, considering what we know.

(Thank you for the tag!! 🏷️)

Just noticed Bob in the audience at Shiro's arm wrestling competition in the "Clear Day" episode...

[vldunchartedregions]

I'm shaking in my boots, why does your new post have a bullet point that says: ...character art file book?!?!?!?!

...heh.

All in due time, friends.

[vldunchartedregions]

When we do our weekly team check ins, and we ask for a glossary update:

[vldunchartedregions]

What qualities do you think made Keith fall for Lance? And vice versa?

WHAT MADE KEITH AND LANCE FALL FOR EACH OTHER?

Let's start with Keith.

What does Keith seem to like about Lance? From what I can glean from his reactions, he responds best to him when Lance is being a goofball:

[Season 2, Episode 4: Greening the Cube, 02:38]

Lance was being a goofball here, 'cause he's starting a snowball fight, while Shiro was being all serious, like "okay guys. We've trained for this. We're prepared" lol. Clearly, Shiro likes it, too.

[Season 2, Episode 9: Belly of the Weblum, 02:35]

Yes! he is smiling here!

[Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin, 05:39]

(responding to Lance saying he isn't a goofball, which we all know that he is, including Keith, but that's what we like about him, including Keith).

And I found more evidence of this here from the later seasons.

He also likes it when Lance is being a capable paladin.

[Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 19:43]

This is after they worked together as a team for the first time.

[Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 21:54]

this is after they formed Voltron for the first time (on purpose).

[Season 1, Episode 7: Return of the Balmera, 07:48]

and this is after Lance comes up with a good idea (that Keith actually admits out loud is a better idea than his was).

[Season 3, Episode 6: Tailing a Comet, 15:09]

Keith also likes it when Lance approaches him and talks to him/teases him. He's spotted multiple times smiling when he talks to/teases Lance first (and mirroring his facial expressions too...).

[Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 21:54]

(Lance was seen multiple times wearing this face with both Keith and Allura while he was flirting in the first episode, and here Keith is the very next episode, wearing the exact same face...)

[Season 1, Episode 6: Taking Flight, 21:48]

(Lance was literally wearing this face the episode before, when he called them a good team....)

[Season 1, Episode 6: Taking Flight, 21:53]

[Season 2, Episode 4: Greening the Cube, 02:34]

[Season 3, Episode 6: Tailing a Comet, 05:30]

Here we have confirmation that Keith likes it when Lance approaches him and confides in him.

Keith also likes it when Lance is being jealous... lol

[Season 2, Episode 6: The Ark of Taujeer, 19:26]

As for Lance, we’ve already established multiple times that Lance admires Keith a lot (here and here). He thinks he’s cool, and calls him such multiple times throughout the series.

[Season 2, Episode 10: Escape From Beta Traz, 13:50]

[Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony, 06:04]

He also finds him attractive, commenting on his appearance more than once throughout the show as well:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 10:13]

[Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony, 05:05]

[Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony, 06:05]

(and Lance has ONLY commented on Keith’s appearance throughout the whole show… he does call Allura “pretty lady” in the first episode, but he never says anything like that after the first episode, and he hasn’t gone out of his way to comment on her appearance the same way he has with Keith. ever.). So he finds Keith very attractive.

All in all, I think it’s just everything about them that they like about each other. Keith likes all the different facets of Lance and he likes being approached by Lance, and Lance admires Keith, thinks he's cool and finds him attractive.

As for when it really started developing into romantic feelings? well, it was kinda building up from the start, but the point of no return for the both of them is here:

[Season 1, Episode 5: Tears of the Balmera, 21:25]

[vldunchartedregions]

Roadmap of Contents!

Hello from the Uncharted Regions Meta Team!

💛💚🖤❤️💙💜🩷

Firstly, Happy 9 years of VLD!

Season 1 dropped today, June 10th, 2016, and it seemed fitting to start delivering the official meta posts on the anniversary of the show's launch date.

🧭 This is our ✨ navigation ✨ post, so we will be updating this post with links to other posts as we progress.

Thank you for your patience.

On that note: Please see our Roadmap of Contents™ below.

Please note, this is still in development and is continuously being updated, so some posts may be renamed, shifted into different sections, etc.

Friendly reminder that this is all alleged, all for fun, and please treat the team with kindness and care as we navigate through the uncharted regions of Voltron: Legendary Defender, Season 8.

Compass Points || Introducing the Meta

Welcome to Uncharted Regions 

Establishing the Ground Work

Production Lore

External / Influential Media

Glossary

Character Art File Book

Reference Appendix (Shows + Existing Metas)

Inbox Q&As from Tumblr

Uncharted Memes

Charted Territory || Breaking Down Season 8

Thematics

Source Material - Oriande’s Messages

The Feud + Tim’s Departure

Episode Breakdowns

S8E1 – Launch Date

S8E2 – Shadows 

S8E3 – The Prisoner’s Dilemma 

S8E4 – Battle Scars

S8E5 - The Grudge

S8E6 – Genesis

S8E7 – Day 47

S8E8 - Clear Day

S8E9&10 – Knights of Light

S8E11 – Uncharted Regions

S8E12 – Zenith

S8E13 – The End is the Beginning

Uncharted Regions || What's Missing?

Saving Lotor, Romelle, the Altean Colony

The Love Triangle™

Completing Lance’s Arc

Astral Plane / Time Rift Scenes

(Alleged) 60 Minute Finale

From Dusk Until Dawn: The Original Endings

X Marks the Plot || Conclusions 

Wouldn’t You Like to Know, Weatherboy?

Bonus Treasures

TBA

Our team thank you for your patience once again.

We're so excited to share what we've found with you. Hop in your lions, and join us on the Clear Day ride!

"Keep your hands and feet in the mouth at all times. You use ‘em, you lose ‘em. Have a blissfully burrowful time."

Sincerely, The Uncharted Regions Meta Team

[vldunchartedregions]

OH HI HELLO.

What was Hunk and Lance's families' role in season 8?

This is something I've been wondering since I found out that both Hunk and Lance's families were removed from season 7 and season 8 (here and here), based on the NYCC 2018 promotional poster, which shows us characters from season 6 to season 8 in a huge formation.

Well, I used this same poster to infer to their possible role in the season, and based on some interviews with the cast.

Firstly, let's look at their placements on the poster. As I've stated multiple times, character placements are NOT RANDOM. For example, the MFEs are all placed together, because they are most related to each other and they were introduced together. They were meant to make up the cast of their spin-off show,

the Alteans are all grouped together with Honerva and Sendak, since they were the antagonists of season 7 and 8,

Krolia and Kolivan are grouped together, since they are the leaders of the Blade of Marmora,

Veronica and Acxa are placed together as a nod to their bonding in Season 8 episode 4: The Grudge (and their romance...).

And to give you another example just to drive this home, look at the way the paladins are placed:

Hunk's position overlaps the old Yellow Paladin, Pidge's position overlaps the old Green Paladin, Shiro overlaps Zarkon's position as the Black Paladin, Keith's position overlaps both Zarkon and Alfor's position, signifying his roles as both the Black Paladin and the Red Paladin. Likewise Lance's position only overlaps Alfor, but he is looking back towards Allura, the current Blue Paladin, who overlaps Blaytz, the old Blue paladin, signifying that he has moved on completely from his old role as the Blue Paladin (and Allura...).

So, now that we've established that character placements on this poster are purposeful and have a meaning that directly reference arcs in the show, let's look at where Hunk and Lance's families are placed.

They are placed together. And as I pointed out here and here, we see a few details at odds with what we saw in season 8.

Firstly, Rachel has a haircut at odds with the last time we saw her in season 8:

but the last time we ever see her is in Season 8, Episode 1: Launch date, where she still has long hair!

[Season 8, Episode 1: Launch Date, 22:08]

which means we were supposed to see her again with her new haircut.

Secondly, this character is a member of Hunk's family (possibly his sister's husband based on the flashbacks from Season 7, but they are ultimately unnamed and untitled):

The only time we see him in the present is in Season 7, Episode 13:

[Season 7, Episode 13: Lion's Pride Pt. II, 09:14]

We never see him again from here, and we definitely never see him wearing those clothes.

Same with these characters:

The boy we do see in the screencap above from season 7, wearing the clothes he wears here. But we never see the woman nor the girl wearing those clothes, which means we were supposed to see them in season 8 with those clothes on.

Now, all of Hunk's family being placed and intertwined with Lance's family suggests that they were supposed to be linked in some way, and be involved. But how?

Well... based on this interview with Neil Kaplan in which he describes the noises and sounds that he recorded as Lance's dad... whom we never hear speak even once after we meet him... because it was cut... perhaps there were other things from Lance's dad which was cut. Maybe that has something to do with it. But that's Lance's dad. What does Hunk's family have to do with it?

Well... let's zoom out a little bit from the above place of the poster:

What are the children sitting in?? Oh, this is interesting... because I know exactly what that is. It is the ride from Clear Day:

[Season 8, Episode 8: Clear Day, 12:27]

Huh... why are all of the children placed in the ride, when the ride was about Hunk and Keith, not Hunk and Lance???

Well @vldunchartedregions say that they found evidence of a line being cut of Keith outing his feelings for Lance in the Clear Day ride with Hunk here.

And well... Hunk was already kind of linked to the love triangle between Keith, Lance and Allura when he "launches" the love triangle in Season 8, Episode 1: Launch Date:

[Season 8, Episode 1: Launch Date, 03:05]

Perhaps... the children were all going to play a role in Lance and Keith's romance plot... possibly by driving them together, but the plot involved the rest of Hunk's family too much... so they cut them out completely, along with Lance's family.

[vldunchartedregions]

This is a long post, I'm so sorry. Something I’ve always struggled to wrap my head around is Voltron’s timeline — especially the widespread fan assumption that Keith spent a year in the desert. As far as I can tell, there’s zero canon support for that.

For example:

We know from Sam Holt that it takes two months to reach Kerberos. In Pidge’s flashback, the mission is officially declared a failure five months after launch. That implies the crew was kidnapped at the three-month mark, and the rescue team didn’t find them on arrival.

Let’s assume the Kerberos mission launched around April or May — Pidge is still 14 and in middle school, which supports a mid-year start. That puts the crew’s disappearance around August, with the mission declared a failure around September or October (which is also… peak Keith angst season, if it was October).

Now, Keith is impulsive, sure — but he’s not an idiot. He wouldn’t immediately drop out of the Garrison the second Shiro disappeared. If anything, he’d double down, knowing the Garrison was his best shot at figuring out what happened. It’s likely he held on at least until Shiro’s birthday or the end of the school year before he was either expelled or quit.

Canon says Shiro was held captive for about a year, which would mean he crash-lands back on Earth in July or August of the following year, at the beginning of the month. That lines up with the calendar we see in Keith’s shack.

And based on the U.S. school year (especially in Arizona — which the show seems to suggest based on the Blue Lion’s map trajectory and desert geography), the academic year starts in early August. Also, it wouldn’t make sense for Lance to be promoted mid-year. He’d logically start the Fighter Pilot course at the beginning of the school year. Another key detail that supports this timeline is Iverson’s dig at Lance in the very first episode — comparing him to Keith and saying, “You’re only here because the best pilot dropped out.” That line only lands if Keith’s absence is still fresh. If Lance had held the Fighter Pilot position for a full year, proving himself day in and day out, Iverson’s insult wouldn’t carry the same sting — because clearly, Lance would have earned his place by then, and Iverson's dig would fall flat. The fact that it hits so hard suggests the promotion is still new, the wound is still raw, and Lance is still trying to prove he deserves the spot.

Also, Pidge not recognising Keith further supports this timeline. If she started or transferred into the Garrison at the beginning of the new academic year, it makes total sense that she wouldn’t know who Keith is, especially since he’d already been expelled by then. These small character beats only make sense if we assume the simulation takes place at the start of a new term.

So basically: if we line everything up — the Kerberos launch, Shiro’s disappearance and return, the academic calendar, and Lance’s promotion — the evidence points to the opening simulation in Episode 1 being the first time the Garrison Trio works together. Lance and Hunk are clearly trying to bond with Pidge, which makes sense if they just met her. And the timeline doesn’t leave room for Keith to have been out in the desert for an entire year — more like a few months, max.

What are your thoughts?

hmmm that's very interesting... I'm gonna be honest and say I've never really thought about it before, but reading this made me very curious so I tried to find everything you're talking about here.

How long did Keith live in the shack for?

First,

We know from Sam Holt that it takes two months to reach Kerberos.

Well... Pidge says this in Episode 1:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 21:32]

and Sam says this in Pidge's flashback:

[Season 1, Episode 5: Tears of the Balmera, 03:20]

What I find curious though is that what Sam says implies that they will be eating peas for only two months, kind of implying that they'll be back to Earth after that and eat other stuff. Either that, or there is other food on Kerberos, but I don't know. Anyway, yes you're correct.

Next,

In Pidge’s flashback, the mission is officially declared a failure five months after launch.

[Season 1, Episode 5: Tears of the Balmera, 03:51]

Yup.

That implies the crew was kidnapped at the three-month mark

Well, to be fair, we don't know how long they were on Kerberos for when they were kidnapped. They could have just arrived or they could have been there for longer (not more than five months though). But alright, let's assume that they were kidnapped 3 months after launch.

and the rescue team didn’t find them on arrival.

Well, based on what Lance says here:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 02:17]

and what Pidge says here:

[Season 1, Episode 5: Tears of the Balmera, 04:21]

I don't think they actually sent a rescue mission, but rather declared them dead when their probes couldn't find anything. Lance's class training in the simulator for a rescue mission on Kerberos makes me think that they never sent a team, but rather trained the next generation to do it. They were going to send one eventually I think.

Canon says Shiro was held captive for about a year, which would mean he crash-lands back on Earth in July or August of the following year, at the beginning of the month. That lines up with the calendar we see in Keith’s shack.

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 13:02]

Yup.

Also, it wouldn’t make sense for Lance to be promoted mid-year. He’d logically start the Fighter Pilot course at the beginning of the school year.

Yeah, I think you're right about that, because it also makes sense with what Pidge says here:

[Season 1, Episode 5: Tears of the Balmera, 09:49]

Let’s assume the Kerberos mission launched around April or May — Pidge is still 14 and in middle school, which supports a mid-year start. That puts the crew’s disappearance around August, with the mission declared a failure around September or October (which is also… peak Keith angst season, if it was October).

At first I thought it might have been a bit earlier than that, but yes, if Pidge, Lance and Hunk's training in the simulator is supposed to take place one year after their kidnapping not the declaration of failure, that would make sense.

Now, Keith is impulsive, sure — but he’s not an idiot. He wouldn’t immediately drop out of the Garrison the second Shiro disappeared. If anything, he’d double down, knowing the Garrison was his best shot at figuring out what happened. It’s likely he held on at least until Shiro’s birthday or the end of the school year before he was either expelled or quit.

I'm very sure Keith did not quit, because it is heavily implied that he was expelled due to "disciplinary issues" when Iverson says this:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 04:58]

and thanks to the flashbacks in season 7, we know that Keith is likely to start fights, because he starts a fight after they call him a "discipline case", implying that his discipline issue is mostly his temper:

[Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure, 03:26]

[Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure, 10:54]

Keith himself also says he was "booted" which means thrown out, and not "left" or anything like that:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 13:09]

So, Keith was most likely expelled due to a fight. Whether that was with Iverson or with some kid who was talking shit, I can't say, cause we never saw it. It's also likely he had a large disagreement with Iverson and he was told to leave the Garrison. But again, idk, cause we never get this clarified.

But yes, it is very likely that this didn't happen immediately. I can't say for how long though. Until they declared it after the kidnapping, it's already less than a year (3 months if we take your assumption), so max. if Keith was expelled immediately after they announced it, he would have only lived in the shack for 9 months. I do think it's more like mid-school-year though, since then Lance would have time to apply for the Fighter Pilot position and basically work his way up, but this is a bit unclear.

If Lance had held the Fighter Pilot position for a full year, proving himself day in and day out, Iverson’s insult wouldn’t carry the same sting — because clearly, Lance would have earned his place by then, and Iverson's dig would fall flat. The fact that it hits so hard suggests the promotion is still new, the wound is still raw, and Lance is still trying to prove he deserves the spot.

yes I agree.

Also, Pidge not recognising Keith further supports this timeline. If she started or transferred into the Garrison at the beginning of the new academic year, it makes total sense that she wouldn’t know who Keith is, especially since he’d already been expelled by then.

Keith definitely was expelled by the time Pidge starts at the Garrison.

All in all, your logic is solid, and so is your evidence! Keith most likely only spent a few months at the shack after being booted from the Garrison, not a whole year! I think the reason people say it's a year, is that the show tells us a year has passed since Shiro's kidnapping, and it's sort of the only time-frame we have. But yeah, this was fun!

[vldunchartedregions]

As someone who works on our meta team said,

“I find it interesting that the same entity that made poor decisions with their own IP and TV show project with DW, meddled executively to have such a subpar ending, is now farming for views with one of those removal decisions and with queer baiting comments in the lead up to said movie.

Not the social team’s fault especially if they don’t know and have just been told to do it probably, but it is still very irresponsible and messy.”

(Allegedly)

Anyway.

[vldunchartedregions]

Thinking about Keith’s flashbacks with the context of him becoming leader again and knowing the MFE focused scenes were added in… could it be possible that Keith actually punched Lance, not James? Or the punch replaced a Klance fight? I have no proof of this, but it could explain odd placement and missing cadets if they changed the lineup to add James. (+ James face in the split screen looks different than the others. it's more detailed than even Keith and way bigger? it just stands out so much) 

We never learned how the rivalry started, only Lance saying they were neck and neck, and the flashback shows Keith knocking Lance’s plane out of formation, not James. Other than everyone getting scolded I’m not sure what James would single Keith out for? Also a lot of stuff Lance said about Keith in s1 was just assuming the worst / that he would choose violence first. 

If it was the case that Keith punched/fought Lance (and forgot lol), that would have set the precedent for him assuming Keith would shoot first ask questions later. (Honestly I don’t see Lance saying the same line as James, I doubt he would throw dead parents in Keith’s face just because he rammed his plane but idk)

Using s7 to establish how they started vs where they ended up in s8 (sunset scene/endgame) would have been interesting. We’d finally have context for how much the lion switch era meant to both of them too. Idk what i’m saying, this may as well be a headcanon, but it crossed my mind and I’d love to know if you had any thoughts 

Thanks for your ask anon! It’s easiest for me to answer this by breaking it down point by point so bare with me for a sec haha

“Knowing the MFE focused scenes were added in… [...] (+ James face in the split screen looks different than the others. it's more detailed than even Keith and way bigger? it just stands out so much)”

I don’t think the MFE scenes were added in post/mid-production because all of their scenes are in style and they flow pretty well with the storyline. This podcast with Zehra Fezal (the voice actor for Rizavi) also tells us that they already did the voice casting for the MFEs a little bit after the release of season 2 (05:03, she says Spring 2017 specifically, which also confirms my timeline in the analysis) and she stated that she thought she was going to be in season 3 (which would just be crazy I mean season three released a couple months after the casting call like they would NOT have had enough time to produce that properly if that was the case as we’ve already seen).

So, the MFEs were always going to be a part of season 7, however, their presence was probably increased because the executives saw this as an opportunity to create a spin-off show with them. Typically in animation, the design of a character comes first along with their story and it is first AFTER their character is developed as well as their role in the story that they start casting (see the art of ATLA for a lot of details in producing an animated show). So the MFEs have been a part of the project for a long time, but I think the feedback they received for approvals included that they should use the MFEs as an opportunity for a spin-off show (again, this was wayyyy before the reception for all the rest of the seasons; I think they had a lot of high hopes), and it was most likely an early enough feedback for them to develop scenes for them. Again, I haven’t found any of the MFE scenes to be out of style or suspected of being added in last minute. I think James’ split view in s7e1 is bigger because they wanted to emphasize him as an important character.

“Could it be possible that Keith actually punched Lance, not James? Or the punch replaced a Klance fight?”

No, I don’t think so. Speaking just generally, when you write a convincing romance between two love interests you don’t want to associate violence with them. Keith punching Lance would speak massively against any potential romance they would have (which we know they aimed for).

Keith was always supposed to punch James, because it was meant to emphasise the contrast between their dynamics. In Voltron is a Love Story, I establish that Keith and Allura are foiled against each other to emphasise points of contrasts in their dynamic with Lance. Allura always rejects Lance but Keith is always receptive of him. Allura doesn't love Lance but Keith does. Well, that was when Lance was the main character, but in season 7, Keith is the main character, and Lance is the one who gets a foil (again, switching their roles as I said here and here).

In my very first analysis I pointed out how Keith’s dynamic with James is weirdly similar to his dynamic with Lance. At the time I thought that this was the creators' attempt at a do-over, because I thought they didn’t like Lance, but that’s not true as it turns out, since both LM AND JDS have spoken out to say that Lance is their favorite character (here, here and here). And if I’m going to do this in good faith, I need to not assume anything in bad faith. All I can do is observe and draw conclusions based on what I see. And what I see is a character who is very like Lance in many ways: 

Both want to be (fighter) pilots:

both are jealous of Keith’s skills (though even their jealousy is contrasted. James denies Keith's skills, but Lance doesn't, rather he wants to live up to it)

both get crushes on girls…

both look up a lot to Shiro

both have short brown hair and similar appearance, 

both had conflicts with Keith (though Keith never got violent with Lance… and Lance never insulted Keith’s parents) 

and like Lance, the rest of James' MFE crew is introduced through him. 

James is introduced first, then everyone else is introduced after him, named by Iverson, as members of his squadron:

James is a direct foil to Lance to emphasise the contrast between their dynamics. James looks down on Keith, but Lance admires him (which I also established in Voltron is a Love Story). James doesn't love Keith, but Lance does.

"We never learned how the rivalry started, only Lance saying they were neck and neck"

We do learn how the rivalry started. It started here:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 04:55]

As I said in Voltron is a Love Story, Iverson is breeding Lance's animosity towards Keith and fueling his already present insecurities by comparing him directly to Keith and calling him a failure. We all know that the "rivalry" was one-sided, which means that Lance wants to paint this picture that he was somehow on equal footing with Keith this entire time. But we know this isn't true, because they weren't even on the same track until Keith gets booted. That is why Keith doesn't remember him, because he was never competition for Keith. Lance saying that they were "neck and neck" is purely his bravado talking, because he wants it to be true.

"and the flashback shows Keith knocking Lance’s plane out of formation, not James. Other than everyone getting scolded I’m not sure what James would single Keith out for?"

James singles Keith out because he doesn't think Keith deserves the spot in the program. James is an overachiever, and seems to want to succeed very badly, putting a lot of effort in his skills. He is very jealous by all of the attention that Keith gets based on his raw talent, because he feels that it is a slight against all of his hard work, which is emphasised by this:

[Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure, 10:44]

Basically he's saying that Keith never would have made it if Shiro hadn't called in a favor and gotten him in, implying that he doesn't think Keith is good enough to be there.

But Lance doesn't think this. He's never thought badly about Keith's skills, again because he admires Keith a lot, which is why he emulates Keith's flying style after the incident that you're talking about

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron ; Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure]

and he calls him cool in season 2:

[Season 2, Episode 10: Escape From Beta Traz, 13:49]

"Also a lot of stuff Lance said about Keith in s1 was just assuming the worst / that he would choose violence first. If it was the case that Keith punched/fought Lance (and forgot lol), that would have set the precedent for him assuming Keith would shoot first ask questions later."

well... the only time he actually says anything like that is here:

[Season 2, Episode 8: The Blade of Marmora, 03:53]

but he says this after having witnessed Keith in battle, where he is impulsive and doesn't think things through:

[Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 05:03]

[Season 1, Episode 7: Return of the Balmera, 07:26]

[Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 10:17]

Lance's point with that wasn't that Keith is violent, it was that Keith is impulsive and a bit of a hothead. When they're trying to build an alliance, he's not the one you'd want to speak for your case, because his temper easily rises. Lance is making a very good point, to the point that even Keith is kinda looking like, "uhhh, he's right."

Lance doesn't assume the worst of him, he's merely pointing out a pattern of behaviour that they have all witnessed at this point. Again, Lance admires Keith a lot and two episodes after this he calls him cool with a very fond look on his face, so he definitely doesn't think the worst of him.

"Using s7 to establish how they started vs where they ended up in s8 (sunset scene/endgame) would have been interesting. We’d finally have context for how much the lion switch era meant to both of them too."

I think we were definitely meant to see more of Lance’s dynamic with Keith back then, to further emphasize the contrast between him and James, but as I found in my last analysis, Lance was cut out of a lot of flashbacks (not just Keith’s). That’s why he’s missing in the flashback from episode one, cause it was most likely meant to further inform on their dynamic now, as you say. My best guess would be that either he tells James to knock it off or he reacts to their fight in a way that was meant to be explored in the other flashbacks as well, but I can't say that for sure.

As for the lion swap, we already have context from the first two seasons. The first two seasons are meant to build up to that moment in season 3. We see several times that Lance struggles with his confidence, and we also see several times Keith's struggle to work in a team and connecting with other people besides Shiro. Season 3 was meant to be the start of Lance and Keith's relationship changing exponentially (for the better), had Shiro stayed dead.

I hope I've clarified some things!<3

[vldunchartedregions]

I’ve been thinking about something and wanted your take—

In the fandom, there’s this ongoing hate towards Lance where people really criticise or even villainise him for flirting too much. But on rewatch, I actually noticed… he doesn’t flirt nearly as much as people make it out to be?

Curious what your thoughts are. Do you think that reputation is deserved?

Well… first of all, what’s so wrong with flirting ?? It’s not like he’s touching anyone inappropriately… the only reason Shiro keeps telling him off for flirting is because he's being unserious in a serious situation. But it’s not like he’s harming anyone…

Okay, well, to determine that, let’s have a look at the times Lance actually does flirt.

Would you believe me if I said that the first time he flirts its actually not with Allura??? let me show you first when he flirts with Allura:

[26:19]

He has a very consistent flirting face:

ummm but... haven't we seen this face before???

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 23:20]

huh. anyway!

When he catches Allura in his arms, he did so before he got a good look at her and found her attractive. So, it's not like he purposefully caught her in his arms 'cause he wanted to flirt with her.

[26:13]

Next time he flirts, it's again with Allura and we start to see a pattern of Shiro telling Lance off for flirting in serious situations:

I mean, Sendak just sent them a threat lmao this isn't the time to be flirting my guy.

I'm saying Shiro only does this in serious situations because when Lance wakes up in Episode 6 and flirts with Allura again, Shiro is smiling:

[Season 1, Episode 6: Taking Flight, 02:18]

The way we as the viewers would think about Lance is very much informed by the ways other characters react to him. I think most people find his flirting inappropriate because of the way especially Shiro and Allura react to him, the two most mature characters in the first two seasons. Shiro keeps telling him to stop (in serious situations) and Allura is not receptive to his advances.

[Season 1, Episode 6: Taking Flight, 02:16 ; Season 2, Episode 3: Shiro's Escape, 12:45]

So, Lance flirts with Allura a lot, and she's not receptive of it. But... she's also the only one not receptive of it.

[Season 1, Episode 6: Taking Flight, 09:40 ; Season 2, Episode 2: The Depths, 06:23 ; Season 2, Episode 7: Space Mall, 11:57 ; Season 4, Episode 4: The Voltron Show, 12:51]

So, Lance's flirting is situationally inappropriate, but otherwise harmless. And the only one who isn't receptive of his flirting is Allura, so it's not violating anyone in any way.

Lance also mostly flirts in the first two seasons, but it's not all the time. The last time he flirts, as in actual flirting as we see it above is in Season 2, Episode 7: Space Mall. In Season 2 Episode 11, Lance does have his bravado face on when he says "the sharpshooter is on the way", but considering he has just confessed his insecurities to the yupper, I think it's more Lance making up for his insecurities and the vulnerability he feels, rather than actual flirting.

And wouldn't you know it, Lance doesn't flirt with anyone at all in season 3. In Season 4, Episode 4: The Voltron Show, Lance is dubbed Loverboy Lance to which he says it's true even though we haven't seen him act like a loverboy at all since season 2. And although he's dubbed as Loverboy Lance, none of the shows actually include him flirting with anyone, he's mainly just kinda objectifying himself to the audience:

and the one time he does flirt, it's with the Red Lion...

[Season 4, Episode 4: The Voltron Show, 16:00]

which uh... okay. Anyway!

He doesn't flirt a single time in any of the rest of the seasons, either. Not even with Romelle:

[Season 7, Episode 2: The Road Home, 05:29]

He's not wearing his flirting face at all. In fact, he finds her super annoying.

So Lance hasn't flirted with anyone (except the Red Lion...) since season 2. Season 3, we saw him grow a lot, and he becomes a much more serious character from then on. To paint Lance as an overexcessive flirt is to frankly ignore canon and all the growth he's shown across the show.

[vldunchartedregions]

Ugh, I can't believe you're actually getting me to re-watch season 8 for the first time. I binged the whole season immediately at when it originally dropped, and then fell into SUCH a deep depression over the way it ended. Your meta is like a healing balm for my heart. Anyway, my question is: Are the last minute edits at all responsible for why season 8 looks so..."hazy?" Every episode has this soap opera blurry haze over it compared to the bright saturated colors of the previous seasons.

Thank you for the question!

Short answer: Yes. They use this hazy filter, lights, glow effects, and blurs to hide the roughest of edits. You can spot it from a mile away and we have many examples we can't wait to discuss.

There's one shot in launch date that literally has the filter cut on the side. It's even in the trailer:

We have an inside joke in the meta group about the benches in this episode. Truly is the bane of our existence.

By the way, funny you mentioned soap opera, because this is how it's classified on Studio Mir's website:

An Epic Space Opera!

Season 8 was part of what was meant to be the mess, the heightened drama, the love triangle, the return of Lotor, the climatic point of Honerva, Lance's arc that's been building through S1-S7, etc. so it does make sense that it's soap opera-esque story wise.

But ultimately, the reason these filters were added (and it's not in every scene, funny enough) was to hide things they've tried to edit out post-production.

And truly, if this was edited out cleanly in production, they wouldn't need a hazy filter over scenes unless it's a stylistic choice.

It's not a stylistic choice. These filters only appear in certain scenes; not throughout the entirety of the episode.

Thank you for the question!

[vldunchartedregions]

Honestly, it really makes me wonder if there's any group out there that is actually working in restoring season 8 to what it actually was supposed to originally be, as in, making actually video files with the original season 8 script, or as close to it as possible!

Hello, hello, hello!

We wonder as well. I'm 99% sure it's in a vault (that, or at least the animatics or storyboards are still on file. Hell, even the full comic con poster would suffice because we know these exist out there).

Why would we know that?

Someone on our team works in an entertainment company. These types of files do not get deleted or thrown out. It would more than likely be in a vault or locked up in encrypted files.

Files will only be truly lost if they're transitioning over to new portals, or drives, or whatever platform they use to store data. Sometimes hard copies are saved on discs too.

Speaking to your message, we won't have videos... but we have artists on board who are going to edit some screenshots to what they would originally would've looked like.

Case in point, since @honeyspeeches has already done some of the work and pointed out the Pidge might have been Lance in Knight of Lights Part 1:

They were correct! (allegedly, of course)

See how obvious it is that it's Lance now when we just recoloured the hand armour?

Inch resting, my friends. Honestly, we've had a gut feeling that this year something's going to drop. We think it'll be something that'll truly blow all of us out the water.

UPDATE: We aim to post our table of contents and glossary outline (which will be pinned for easy access to readers) by June 10th.

We appreciate your patience!

[vldunchartedregions]

save me tumblr user honeyspeeches meta save me

As you wish.

LANCE'S ERASURE FROM SEASON 7

I've made a few observations while I wrote Voltron Is a Love Story and Keith's Soft Spot that made me go hmm... Lance is weirdly absent from this scene and/or switched position with another character...

For example, the first thing I found was this scene in Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure where Lance straight up just disappears from the scene despite being in the lineup of cadets in the previous shot:

[Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure, 10:10] 

ummmm where the hell is Lance??? Where are the last two cadets in the lineup ???? Where did he go… Lance is just straight up erased from this scene, which makes me think he was supposed to have a bigger role in the conflict between James and Keith. Otherwise, why was he erased if he was just meant to react like Hunk does??

And then I found THIS inconsistency, that places Lance on the Garrison side of the table rather than the Voltron side, that I also posted a while ago on tumblr:

[Season 7, Episode 10: Heart of the Lion, 03:13 ; 03:35]

Here we see the Garrison Officers all on one side with the MFEs behind them, and on the other side we have Team Voltron, just like the last time they had a meeting. But what I find strange is that... Lance is sitting on the side of the Garrison and Veronica is sitting on the side of Team Voltron... I found this very odd, because wouldn't it make more sense to have Lance and Veronica switch places?? Why is Lance sitting next to Sam on the Garrison side instead of on the Team Voltron side??

I started growing very suspicious, because, given what I found of edits in Knights of Light that frequently placed Lance away from Keith, this felt very much like they put him on the Garrison side to avoid placing him next to Keith... usually Voltron is very purposeful with the placement of characters. Why would they go so far to avoid placing Lance next to Keith?? unless it had a deeper meaning ???

And it's even more suspicious, because the next time they're in a meeting in the same episode, Lance is on Team Voltron's side as usual, but this time he's placed next to Allura...

[Season 7, Episode 10: Heart of the Lion, 10:57]

Actually... several characters look like they're downright copy pasted from the first frame... such as the MFE's and Romelle and Iverson and General Sanda and Hunk.... So their positions around the table are pretty much set, are meant to be consistent to the point that the animators can just copy paste the characters every time they have a meeting, so it's even more strange that Lance would deviate from this in the previous scene. That the animators would go through that extra effort to draw him sitting somewhere else.

and look where Veronica is sitting:

[Season 7, Episode 10: Heart of the Lion, 11:28]

Right next to Sam, where Lance sat in the last meeting scene.

We know that Season 7 was edited, because of this podcast, where the showrunners JDS and LM talk about having to amend a few things to Shiro and Adam's story to create plausible deniability. They had to change their apartment to the Garrison's common lounge as well as some of their dialogue to be more general and platonic. But we still see remnants of the original scene, for example here:

[Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure, 16:52]

When Shiro enters the common lounge area, the camera zooms in on all of his trophies and medals, as well as a picture of him and Adam, all because it relates to his and Adam's dialogue. But why would Shiro's personal belongings, such as his achievements and personal pictures, be in the common lounge of his workplace, instead of his private home?? if it was his office, I'd understand (even though Shiro's rank isn't high enough to constitute having his own office)... but a common area?? Well, because this common area was originally supposed to be the kitchen of his and Adam's shared apartment, just as JDS and LM said in the podcast. This is also why we don't see any other characters around the "common area" during their conversation, because it was supposed to be in the privacy of their own home.

This example is an instance where the original story kinda seeps through the attempts at covering it up, due to orders from "higher up", and it tells us that there may be more attempts throughout the season. Well, as I said, I already found two instances, the ones above with Lance. These are two instances now that Lance is removed from Keith's proximity in season 7 alone, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. So, I started wondering if there were other instances of this, other inconsistencies that either remove Lance from the scene or place him away from Keith.

Well...

READ MORE

[vldunchartedregions]

Jesus. CHRIST.

theory that Keith really was in love with Lance makes season 7 and 8 almost comedic at times. Keith letting Lance get away with shit because “anything you say gorgeous.” only early season 7 but him letting Lance pick the lion arrangements and trusting him to lead the team the next episode. moral of Voltron (2016): gay people will be your boss and make that everyone else’s problem

I love this ask because it's so funny, and at first I was only going to respond with my agreement that Keith is really just outing himself as in love with Lance any time he has to interact with him, but then I started wondering... does he out himself?? is it visible through his actions after season 6? Which led to the question,

Does Keith have a soft spot for Lance after his return?

We know thanks to this analysis that Keith definitely has a soft spot for Lance in the first three seasons, before he leaves. But when he comes back, the first thing he does is yell at Lance. This is very out of character for Keith, given what we've seen from his reactions to Lance since season 1. Keith is very rarely actually angry at Lance, like he seems here in Season 6, Episode 4. And here I discuss why he reacts that way. So it seems like, after season 6, something changed, and Keith hates Lance now. But... Is that true? What does Keith's actions tell us?

Let's have a look together, shall we?

Their first interaction, despite popular belief, is not Keith yelling at Lance, but actually here:

[Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony, 05:05]

Lance commenting on Keith's appearance. Which we know Keith hears, because he reacts:

[Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony, 05:10]

His expression changes, turning more serious. Okay... that's interesting... Why was it necessary to cut to Keith while Lance is still speaking? Usually, this type of shot is used to indicate that the receiver heard the person speaking, and to show us the receivers reaction to what is being said. This is evidenced when Keith reacts to Hunk saying that Lotor is in the Quintessence field and we see Keith's expression change again and him saying "Oh, no". So, we know that Keith heard what Lance said, not just by the shot, but also because his expression changes. Keith reacts to Lance commenting on his appearance by changing the subject and asking where Lotor is. And it seems his impatience reaches a head when Keith lands and they have their second interaction here:

[Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony, 06:05]

Wanna know something interesting about this?? Keith's expression changes again when Lance says this and walks towards him, because THIS is his expression while Lance talks:

Keith is not frowning nearly as much as when he yells at Lance. That means he reacts again to Lance commenting on his looks. Again, I examined here what lies behind Keith's reaction, but as far as we've seen, this pretty much sets up the "Keith dismisses Lance because he doesn't take him seriously," impression that the casual viewer gets (and many fans when the season was released...)

In fact, Lance talks to Keith multiple times in this episode, but Keith never answers him.

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[vldunchartedregions]

Uncharted Regions & The Zenith Edits

Uncharted Regions

Continuing my quest to find edits of the last half of season 8, we start with Uncharted Regions. This might be a bit divisive based on previous analysis of these episodes but... I'm just laying down what I saw, okay. You can call me delusional, that's fine, I have called myself delusional multiple times throughout this whole thing.

Okay let's start.

First odd thing I found was this cut here, as Keith and Lance are talking on the table:

[05:45]

Notice how the shot kinda lingers on Lance after he says, "I hope so." almost as if he was going to say something more. If that was the end of his line, why not cut to the next shot of Keith that we see. Why are we lingering here?? Possibly, either a line from Lance was cut, or Keith said something here to which we would get Lance's reaction. I think that's the real reason we were lingering here, cause we were supposed to get another reaction/line from Lance. Whatever was said would have flowed better with their conversation, because it goes from talking about Allura to all of sudden being about Honerva and what they should do to stop her. It might be nothing, but I found this very odd.

Read More

[vldunchartedregions]

Do you have a set date on when you'll post the meta? No pressure!! Just want to prepare my heart, is all 🥲 also thank you for doing this! This is what pope francis would have want amen

Hello! Thank you for the question.

Apologies for my lack of responses recently, I've been pretty sick with the change of weather. 🤧

OK SO... our aim is to have a glossary ready in the next couple of weeks or so. Within that, we will have our reference points, existing metas that will be source points, and other extras in there.

Once that is done, we will start going hard on the meta posting!

The fun part is that we've got our cohesive storyline of what actually occurred (allegedly) within Season 8 COMPLETELY DONE!!

We aim to have all of the table of contents done realistically (as we all have full time jobs) pretty soon. We don't want to have to put a rough date on it but rest assured, we have timelines and goals dedicated to this project.

Also, shoutout to @honeyspeeches for their INSANE meta work!! They're not affiliated with the meta but we highly recommend you check out what they've posted as there's some crucial foundational points laying there for our Season 8 analysis.

We're all working hard behind the scenes with our investigative work so we do appreciate your patience!

Thank you very much for the question! ☕️♥︎

P.S. We absolutely cackled at your question, tyvm.

[vldunchartedregions]

Well said and well written, OP.

Standing ovation.

ALLURA’S REGRESSION IN MATURITY

I remember a rumor after season 3 came out that Allura was originally written to be Shiro’s age in the first two seasons, but her age was lowered to match the other paladins in season 3 so that she fit in more as a paladin. Well, I found some evidence of this:

Shiro and Allura as equals

Firstly, Allura is seen in season 1-2 mostly sparring intellectually and emotionally with Shiro rather than the other (younger) paladins:

[Season 1, Episode 5: Eye of the Storm, 09:09]

Here we have Allura “sparring” emotionally with Shiro, again, and also a quite sweet moment where he takes her hand. We saw everyone surrounding her when she collapsed by the controls earlier this episode, but here, she is alone with Shiro, and discussing her worries with him only. He also discusses his worries with her. 

[Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 04:15]

Her insistence here is reasonable. She used her previous knowledge of Galra supply lines as a reason, whereas in Season 3, she didn’t have much of a reason at all, only a desire to see if there were any Alteans there.

Shiro agrees to have her on the mission, because he sees her reason and can’t argue against it. I don’t think he even really wants to, recognising that her knowledge is invaluable to their mission. The only reason he looks at Coran while shrugging is because Coran looked to him for help to let her stay back, due to his overprotectiveness. Shiro enables her and respects her as a member of the team, just like the others, and he sees her as an equal.

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