#(it's not a Lion or a Sincline ship; just a normal one)

[sage-nebula]

Hmmm... "tfw ur evil mom doesnt like ur bf"

Despite the glib file name I gave it, this one is actually pretty serious.

This one takes place in my Paradigm Shift AU, which is an AU in which not only was Keith raised in space, and not only did he join Team Lotor, but he and the rest of Team Lotor (or Team Revolutionary as I call this version of them) became the Paladins of Voltron and are fighting a revolution against the Empire. More specifically, this WIP was an AU of my AU, and more specifically still it's a, "what if Haggar controlled Narti in Paradigm Shift the same way she did in canon? What if the Narti Incident still happened?" After I considered the question I couldn't get it out of my head, so I had to write it down—or at least start to write it down, before I got distracted by other things.

TL;DR: Haggar uses Narti to spy (against Narti's will), and Lotor (in a moment of trauma-induced panic) tries to kill her as in canon, only to be stopped by Keith . . . and things get worse from there. Narti does end up escaping (nothing but unrefrigerated women in my AU), but Team Revolutionary is pretty badly fractured as a result of what Haggar makes her do after Keith intervenes, how Lotor reacts to what she does, how Ezor reacts to how Lotor reacts to what she does, and all the emotional fallout that comes with it.

I actually had quite a bit written, so I'll give multiple snippets:

So one Sincline ship was necessary, absolutely, but Lotor had ordered the construction of four more with the remainder of the comet they had secured from an alternate reality. At first, Acxa hadn’t understood why. They had their Lions, and while she couldn’t speak for Zethrid, Ezor, or Narti, Acxa herself was pretty attached to Red. She didn’t want to trade for a Sincline ship. But Lotor had, when she had questioned him, pointed out the fact that they would not be able to pilot Voltron forever. Eventually, they would die or move on to other things. And when they did, and Voltron passed into other hands, it may be necessary to have a check on its power, just in case.

“At present, the Sincline ships are the only ships in the known universe with a hope of meeting Voltron in a fair fight,” he had said. “They will only be five ships, one per Lion, when completed, but that is still five more ships than the universe had before.”

“But we have them,” Ezor had said, “so aren’t we just making a check on ourselves?”

“We have them now,” Lotor had said, a little smile playing at his lips, “but we need not have them forever. Nothing is eternal, Ezor.”

With that decided, construction had progressed on the remaining four. Acxa had to say, they were impressive. While she still felt a strong attachment to Red that she wasn’t willing to break, the Sincline ships gleamed in the light of their hangar, and their cockpits had a soft scent that was comforting and welcoming at once (“New ship smell,” Keith had called it, and Acxa wasn’t so sure about that, but she also couldn’t think of anything to counter it). The third ship was about halfway complete; between the mechanics they had recruited and the droids they had built for this purpose, construction was coming along at a brisk pace, and so Lotor’s smile as the six of them watched its progress from the doorway of the hangar was (in Acxa’s opinion) completely warranted.

“At this rate, we should be able to begin testing on the third ship within the next few months,” Lotor said, his voice raised a little to be heard over the sound of the ore being soldered. “Acxa, have you checked the calibration and pilot test results from the second ship?”

“Yes,” Acxa said. “Calibration of the second ship is complete, and it passed all other tests with no errors. It’s in perfect form.”

“Excellent.”

Lotor cast one last satisfied look at the half-completed third ship before he turned and left the hangar, the rest of them turning to follow suit. Well, most of the rest of them; Keith alone lingered for just a moment more, smiling a little as he looked back at the ship, but when he turned and caught Acxa watching him, his smile fell.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Acxa said, and though she resisted the urge to roll her eyes, she couldn’t keep a little smile off her own lips as she followed after Lotor, Ezor, Narti, and Zethrid down the corridor. “Attached already, are you?”

“I like ships,” Keith said, a little defensively as he fell into step beside her. “That’s all.”

“I know,” Acxa said. But though it was childish of her, and though there was no reason to rile him over being excited at the construction of the Sincline ships, she still couldn’t stop herself from adding, “Nerd,” under her breath.

She glanced at him in time to see him roll his eyes, but he was smiling a little again as he stepped to the side to knock his shoulder against hers in a playful bump, and that made her own smile grow.

[. . .]

It had been six weeks since an agent of the Blade named Ulaz had infiltrated the castleship looking for someone named Shiro—six weeks since Keith saw a symbol on Ulaz’s weapon that he thought looked vaguely familiar, and six weeks since Ulaz had looked at Keith with an expression caught somewhere between joy and heartache, like he knew him, somehow, but couldn’t acknowledge that even to himself. Ulaz had given them the coordinates to one of the Blade of Marmora’s bases, and had urged them to go there as soon as possible. Keith wanted to; it was obvious that was what he wanted without him having to say it. But he had said it after Ulaz had left them, his jaw set and his eyes burning holes into the floor as he spoke privately to Acxa and Lotor.

“I think I . . . there was something kind of . . . familiar about him. Like I knew him, maybe. And he—there was something he said, before he died, that made it seem like maybe he knew me, too. And I don’t know how, or why, but . . . maybe if I meet with the Blade like he said, I’ll figure it out.”

The logic was sound. It made sense. And it was something, Acxa knew, that Keith was fixated on, even if he didn’t bring it up regularly. But though Ulaz had infiltrated the castle six weeks ago, they had yet to trace the coordinates he had given them to visit the Blade of Marmora’s hidden base. Their delay was justified; there was always more work to be done. But all things considered, Acxa felt there was a good chance Lotor was delaying their visit on purpose.

Acxa glanced sidelong at the frown Keith was sending Zethrid’s way before she faced forward again.

It was selfish of Lotor if that was the case, but if she was honest with herself, Acxa couldn’t say she didn’t understand.

[. . .]

By now they had reached the base of the stairs leading up to another floor (there being too many of them to all cram into the elevator), and whatever had hit the castle did so with enough force to tilt it briefly up on its side. Ezor flailed and grabbed the banister, while Acxa was thrown sideways into Keith, who stumbled and barely kept his balance as she was thrown into him. Narti spread her arms and straightened her tail to keep her balance, Kova digging his claws into her shoulder, while Zethrid grabbed the other banister and Lotor was nearly thrown back off the stairs he had just started climbing. The attack (because Acxa didn’t know what else it could be) was powerful enough to cause the castleship to tremble with aftershocks even after the blow ceased; and as they all stood up, Ezor looked at the rest of them with wide eyes.

“What was—?”

The security alarms blared to life, drowning out Ezor’s voice and causing Kova to leap off Narti’s shoulder with a startled, angry yowl. In lieu of answering Ezor, Lotor tapped the communicator on his wrist, and as soon as the hologram screen flared to life above it, snapped, “Bridge, report! What’s happening?!”

“We’re being attacked by Empire fleets!” Dune, a member of Auxiliary Team One, cried. “Two, three—at least three of them, from different ang—!”

Another attack crashed into the ship, this time from the opposite side. Acxa caught herself against the wall, and held out her other hand to brace Keith was he was nearly thrown into her. Ezor and Zethrid were gripping the stairway banisters for dear life.

“Use Keith’s console to raise the particle barrier,” Lotor ordered. “We’ll be there momentarily.”

“On it!”

Dune’s voice had already been a crackle through Lotor’s communicator, but her response was even more clipped than normal as Lotor cut the communication in a sharp snap before he turned to head up the stairs again. Acxa and the others immediately hastened to follow suit, Kova climbing up Narti’s back to cling to her shoulder again, yet even as the lot of them sprinted up the staircase, Keith took the stairs two at a time to match Lotor’s strides.

“Lions?” he asked, and before Lotor had time to answer, added, “It’d be faster if we doubled back instead of going all the way to the bridge. We can get to the Lions through the Sincline hangar.”

“No,” Lotor said, and perhaps sensing the rebuttal in Keith’s frown, explained, “If we’re being attacked by this many fleets it wouldn’t be wise to counter. We’re better served using a wormhole to relocate until we can better plan our next move.”

“But how did they find us?” Acxa demanded. “Even if we leave, if we don’t know how they found us in the first place—”

“We had to have been tracked,” Zethrid said, and though Acxa agreed, that didn’t ease the knot in her throat, or the fists her fingers instinctively curled in.

“But how?” Ezor asked, a nervous frown on her lips. “Last time we were tracked by those other reality Paladins, right? By their Lions?”

“But they left a while ago,” Keith said, “and Dune didn’t say Zarkon was here. She would have mentioned it if he was.”

“If she knows what’s good for her, anyway,” Zethrid said.

“Then how did the Empire find us now?” Ezor asked. “If it wasn’t the other reality Paladins and their Lions, then what? How were we tracked?”

Lotor hadn’t broken stride the entire time they climbed the staircase. He hadn’t offered his own input, nor had he shown any indication that he heard their conversation at all. Yet as he reached the second floor he slowed, and finally came to a full stop just as Narti made it to the top of the stairs. Ezor and Zethrid, who had managed to pull ahead of him in the mad sprint up the staircase, noticed and stopped as well, both turning to look back.

“What is it?” Acxa asked.

Lotor didn’t answer her. He gave no indication to show that he even registered that she was talking to him. She was near enough to him so that she could see his profile, and while she couldn’t say why, exactly, what she saw was enough to make ice take up root in her chest. Lotor was staring at the floor, his jaw clenched. His hand was resting on the hilt of his sword. Acxa opened her mouth to call out to him again, yet thought better of it in the next tick. She looked over to Keith instead.

But for once, Keith didn’t return her glance. Instead, he was watching Lotor. His eyes were narrowed, his lips tugged in a sharp frown. And slowly—so slowly that Acxa almost didn’t catch it—he palmed and raised the Black Bayard so it was level with his waist.

Acxa restrained the impulse to reach for her Bayard in turn.

The moment, which felt like hours even though it could have only been a few seconds, ended with the ferocity of a lightning strike. Lotor whipped around as though a bolt had gone through him, his eyes wild, bright, and locked on Narti. In the next tick he threw himself forward, his sword clearing its scabbard as he brought it up in a high arc—

And a ring of steel upon rift ore echoed in the corridor as his blade clashed against Keith’s, Keith having thrown himself between Lotor and Narti like a living shield.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Keith demanded. He pushed back, knocking Lotor’s sword up and away, yet though Lotor took a step back, the wild look in his eyes didn’t fade.

“Keith,” Lotor said through a clenched jaw, “move.”

“No. We’re supposed to be under attack from the Empire, not each other,” Keith snapped. “What’s your problem?”

Lotor was gripping his sword so hard his arm was shaking. “You don’t understand—”

“I don’t think anyone could understand why you wou—” Keith froze mid-sentence, and glanced back over his shoulder. “What—?”

Keith’s voice broke, not in a yelp, but in a gasp as his spine arched and he jerked forward.

“Keith!” Acxa said, as both Ezor and Zethrid came closer. “What—?”

Her question died in her throat.

Narti had grabbed Keith. She had grabbed his arm for support, Acxa thought—had thought. She had grabbed him to give him support through whatever spasm had suddenly seized him. But the spasm wasn’t caused by anything to do with him. Three long, claw-like blades crafted from rift ore protruded through the front of Keith’s Paladin armor, dripping with his blood. They had been driven straight through, and Acxa recognized them. They all did. They were Narti’s blades, from her Bayard, as it took the same shape it always did for her. She had run them straight through Keith’s back, pushing them through until they cut open his stomach with three, evenly spaced wounds.

The one prolonged, solitary moment in which everything seemed frozen while they all processed what happened broke. Narti pushed Keith forward, and in the same moment pulled her blades out of his back. They retracted back into her Bayard with their customary shing-click as Keith—his eyes glazed even as they fluttered shut—collapsed. Lotor lurched forward, knees bent in a crouch, to catch him; his arm looped around Keith’s waist to support him as Keith sagged, limp and unresponsive, against his chest. The Black Bayard fell from Keith’s now slack grip and hit the floor with a clatter, but Lotor did not release his own weapon even as he wrapped his other arm across Keith’s back in a secure, though gentle, embrace.

Lotor’s expression was stricken, his voice strangled as he choked out, “Keith—”

The castle gave another lurch as something rammed against—it, Acxa supposed, or against the particle barrier—and though it was sudden, disruptive, and violent enough to cause them all to stumble once again, it was also enough of a shock to break through the lock her mind had slammed down in an effort to reject what had just happened. She didn’t—she didn’t want to accept it, but there Keith was, bleeding out—bleeding out in Lotor’s arms, and—

The shock, the reminder that they were under attack—it was all Lotor needed, too.

Acxa was only awarded a glimpse of his face—one tick to see not the rage, but the hatred in his eyes—before he jumped over Keith and threw himself at Narti, bringing his sword down in a vicious arc. He missed; Narti leaped backwards and hit the center of the staircase in a back handspring that allowed her to flip the rest of the way down.

Lotor wasn’t deterred. He didn’t hesitate for a heartbeat as he tore down the staircase after her. And Ezor, her eyes wide as she realized everything that was happening—

“No . . . Lotor, no!”

—she, too, sprinted right by Keith and took off after.

Ezor was chasing Lotor, who was chasing Narti, who was trying to escape, but Acxa had no time for any of them. She didn’t register when she hit her knees by Keith’s side, or even what she was going to do as she grasped Keith’s shoulders to try to pull him up, but the moment she realized what she was doing—as the reality of the situation kicked in, and she fought against the urge to kick herself for not taking command of the situation sooner, before it reached this point—she said, “Zethrid!”

“Yup.”

Acxa stood and stumbled backward as Zethrid swept forward and easily hauled Keith up off the floor.

[voltron-s7-8-rewrite]

The End is The Beginning

This is part of my Voltron Season 7 & 8 re-write. If you are interested start HERE PREVIOUS

Here it is, the final story. Thank you to everyone who has read this. I truly hope that you enjoy this ending. I'm sorry it took so long to post. I meant to have this up earlier, but then the Holidays got in the way. It all works out though, as I started writing this last January.

Without further ado~

              _______________________________________________

The End is The Beginning

In a vast, white, void each of the Paladins slowly opens their eyes and look around. Standing side by side, there is nothing to be seen but an endless plane.

Pidge questions where they are, and a bitter voice from behind says they are at the end of all existence.

The Paladins all turn to find Honerva sitting in the distance, cradling Lotor's dying body in her arms. They slowly approach her and Allura asks her why she did what she did, why did she destroy everything.

Honerva ignores the question, focusing on Lotor's battered face. She gently says that all she ever wanted was to have her family living peacefully, allowed all the joys and love that life offers. Her voice turning bitter she says that wasn't to be as over and over others robbed them of every chance of happiness they could have.

Allura quickly cuts though her tirade and says that what she says is not true, Honerva was offered all that and more, but rather than accepting that sometimes life comes with hardship and disappointment. She and Zarkon meddled with powers and abilities that were unnatural and corruptive. They chose to force their will upon the universe, no matter the cost; unfortunately that cost turned out to be theirs and their son's lives. No one robbed them; they made the choices and willfully squandered what they had.

As she speaks, more people start appearing in the void behind the Paladins; Shiro, Krolia, Kolivan, Matt and his parents, Axca, Ezor, Zethrid, Romelle and Sven, the MFE's, and the rest of the Voltron Coalition.

Honerva sees them appear, and knowing them to be the Paladin's loved ones she rages once more. She spits that they couldn't possibly understand, they are all allowed happiness. They get to stand there with all who they love, strong and healthy, while her son, who was never even given a chance at a life free from darkness, is dying broken and abused in her arms. She finally answers Allura's question saying that if she and her son weren't allowed to be happy, she ensured no one was.

Lance speaks up and gently says she's wrong, they do understand. Hunk says they have faced sorrows in their life, and Pidge says that they've been through hardships, Shiro says they've suffered through trauma and terror, Keith says that they have lost loved ones, and Allura says that they have all faced trials and pain that seemed insurmountable, but still, they faced and overcame it without taking it out on others.

Allura watches Honerva, who sneers dismissively, unmoved by their words, and sees that the woman can't comprehend anyone else having pain. She says that Honerva's heart is so rotted, that all she sees is her own suffering. It's then that Allura comes to a realization; she closes her eyes reaches out with her senses and feels the last traces of the corrupted Guardian still festering inside both Honerva and Lotor.

Opening her eyes, Allura steps towards them. The Paladins become alarmed, but Allura turns and gives them a comforting smile, motioning them to stay; she knows what she's doing.

Approaching Honerva, the woman warns the Princess not to come near her or her son, but Allura gently says she is not going to harm them; she's going to free them. She slowly bends down in front of them and lays a hand on each of their heads. Glowing, her Alchemy flows through her and into them.

Gently and painlessly, she removes and purifies the last bit of the White Lion that had corrupted mother and son so many years ago.

Honerva, free of its poison for the first time in over 10,000 years, slowly opens her eyes and clearly sees all those who are standing before her. For the first time in those thousands of years she is whole.

Then, realization sets in as she is bombarded with the knowledge of all the evil she and her family committed. Finally able to know and understand her vile actions and crimes, she lets out a mournful scream of terror and anguish that strikes all those there to their cores.

Weeping bitterly, Honerva realizes that she was wrong; she says she does deserve this, that everything that has brought her to this moment was her own doing. She lets out another cry, unable to do anything else.

It's then that a hand touches her cheek, gently brushing away her tears. She opens her eyes to find Lotor looking up at her, for the first time in their lives, his gaze is filled with love for her. Honerva gasps as he calls her 'mother' and slowly sits up from her arms.

In shock, Honerva can't believe what she's seeing. Lotor gently embraces her, saying he's free of the entity and like her he can see everything so clearly now.

A new voice says they all do.

Everyone looks up and is stunned to find Zarkon appearing behind his wife and son, but this isn't the Zarkon that ruled as a Tyrant for 10,000 years. This is Zarkon, the Paladin of the Black Lion, whole and free of the corruption of the Guardian.

He bends down to be on level with his wife and son, and Honerva asks how he can be here. He explains that when Lotor ended his body, his soul was finally freed from the corrupted White Lion; his restored soul was able to come here to join with all those who had passed. As he speaks Alfor, Trigel, Gyrgan, and Blaytz appear behind him.

The Paladins and the Voltron coalition stand in disbelief. Keith asks how this is possible, and a new voice with a familiar twang responds that just like how their mortal bodies are made out of the same cosmic dust, their souls are made of the same Quintessence. Here, within the Connected Consciousness of all Existence, they live. With that, Keith's father appears, smiling to his stunned son and wife.

After that, others begin appearing as well; Melenor, Adam, Bandor and his parents, Marco and his father, Hunk's Aunt and Uncle, Rhyner and the Olkari, Antok, Regris, Thace, Ulaz, Rolo, Admiral Sanda, Te-osh, Ozar, Ven'tar, Narti, and countless others. All have smiles and joyous tears, being reunited with their loved ones.

After the shock wears off, Honerva turns to her husband and says that it's too late, there is nothing they can do now that she destroyed everything, but he says that's not true. Now that she is no longer corrupted, she can power the Sincline with true Alchemy, a life-giving force, and restore everything back to what it was.

Allura hears this and realizes Honerva does not have the power to do that alone. Solemnly she steps forward and says that if she helped, they could do it together.

The Paladins are shocked to hear her say this, and tell her that she can't; but Allura says it is the only way and she knows that they would all do the same thing in her place. Honerva doesn't have the power to do it alone, and this is the only way to restore everything.

The Paladins know her words are true, they all would offer to this if they were in her place. Still, they won't let her go this alone, each steps up and says that they will go with her then.

Allura argues that they can't, they are still needed, Voltron is needed. They ask her what good Voltron is if it's missing its heart? They know there are others that can take up the mantle of Paladin; they will not leave Allura to this fate alone.

Quietly watching this, Lotor says that they are all correct; Honerva doesn't have the power to do this alone, but Allura is still needed in the universe. That is why he will assist his mother with restoring the Universe.

He looks at Romelle and the other Alteans, then Axca, Ezor, Zethrid, and Narti and says that he can never right all his wrongs he's committed, he then looks to Allura and says that at least he can do is ensure that the universe still has her as a guiding light. He owes it not only to both of his people -Alteans and Galra- but to the universe as a whole. He asks Allura to allow him to do this for her, and everyone else he has wronged.

Allura and Lotor look at each other and there is an understanding between them. She agrees and steps back towards the Paladins.

Lotor smiles and thanks her, then turns and takes his mother's hand; they turn and walk together towards a light as Zarkon smiles on.

Those still living, and those who have passed share one more moment together, all at peace knowing one day they will all be reunited once and forever more in the Connected Consciousness of all Existence.

              _______________________________________________

                                                         .

                                                         .

                                                         .

A light bursts forth and with it, all of reality comes back into being. The Coalition ships and Voltron drift silently above Oriande. All traces of the Rift, Sincline, and Komar Mechs are gone.

The Paladins slowly open their eyes and look around. Keith asks if everyone is alright and they call back that they are. Lance asks if they think everything is back to normal. Pidge starts scanning the system and says she can't find anything out of place. Allura closes her eyes and reaches out with her senses. She gently smiles and says everything is as it should be.

The Paladins look at the spot where the Rift had been with mixed emotions.

They are then hailed by The Atlas, and Shiro's voice comes through, asking them if they are alright. Keith confirms that they are, and asks him the same. Shiro says everyone has reported in and that all is well.

Allura suddenly speaks up in awed disbelief, saying that it's over, it's really over. The Paladins listen to her as she continues to repeat that it's over, the war is over, and they won. Each time she says it, it settles in more and more. Realization sinks in and the Paladins break out into tears and cheers as voices across the Coalition join them in a chorus of victorious cries.

Shiro smiles tearfully and tells the Paladins to come home.

              _______________________________________________

 Following this, we see a montage as the Universe regains its balance now that it's completely freed.

              _______________________________________________

 The Paladins arrive back in The Atlas' hanger where everyone is there to greet them, including Romelle and Sven. Overwhelmed at seeing them alive, the Paladins rush and embrace them.

Reunions happen all around as Keith shares hugs with his mother and Shiro as Kolivan stands by smiling with Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid.

Pidge, Matt, and their parents embrace as a family never to be torn apart again, and Veronica hugs both Lance and Hunk.

the MFE's and the Paladins all shake each other's hands and gives hugs, and Pidge reunites with the freed Olkari.

Tavo and Luca introduce the rescued Alteans to Allura, their Princess. The Alteans embrace her as their own, bowing down to her in respect for all she's done.

.

From there the Voltron Coalition returns to Earth, The Atlas leading the way.

On earth, Hunk, Lance, and Veronica are reunited with their families as the world celebrates the return of the Defenders of the Universe.

.

Over time Voltron, BOM, and Rebels work to take down the remaining warlords –most of which surrender without a fight thanks to former Warlords like Lahn aiding the Coalition, and Keith being there as the Black Paladin helps to bridge their trust, the Black Lion once more being a symbol of hope for the Galra.

.

The remaining Warlords and Altean Acolytes, as well as the surviving Alteans from the alternate universe are judged for their crimes; with Allura and Keith helping to see that they are justly dealt with.

.

Voltron takes time to revisit old worlds, from Arus, Puig, and Reiphod, to the Frozen Planet of the Mer, and everyone in between. Reconnecting with all their old friends and ensuring all planets and people have a voice in the new, freed universe.

.

During this time, Matt and the Rebels help to move Galra off the formerly occupied planets while Keith, Kolivan, and Krolia guide them to a new life.

.

Allura and the Alteans, along with Keith and the Galra, and the Olkari all work with the Coalition to find new home worlds for their people.

.

The Olkari are the first to settle peacefully on a world brimming with beautiful forests. The now Hoktrill-free Moxilous joins them, happily living a new life with the Olkari.

.

Sven joins the garrison, and works alongside Shiro, Veronica, and Slav, fitting into The Atlas crew perfectly.

.

Hunk and Pidge are approached by Shiro and the Garrison. Hunk is asked to become an Ambassador and voice for Earth. And Pidge is approached with the idea of creating a new defense program for Earth: Vehicle Voltron. Both eagerly accept.

.

As Keith and Allura's focus turns more to their people, and Pidge and Hunk's focus becomes that of working with the Garrison in different ways, Lance happily continues to work with the MFE's, taking command in the Red Lion and going on missions with them, helping the Rebels, and aiding anyone in need.

.

Allura and Keith finally find home worlds for their people, two uninhabited planets that circle the same sun and rely on one another. Believing the planets to be perfect, as they rely on each other to keep balance in the system, they feel that's how the Alteans and Galra must learn to see the Universe; all are needed in the balance of life.

.

With this their new home found, the Alteans approach Allura with a gift: a new crown. They bow and offer the crown to Allura, asking her to officially lead them. Honored by their request, Allura accepts this duty.

.

The montage ends with a ceremony attended by species from all over the universe, Allura is crowned Queen of the Alteans.

All the races cry out in joy for the Queen who helped save their universe.

              _______________________________________________

 In the engine room onboard the Atlas; Sam and Matt are looking over the systems while Shiro assists them. The father and son finish their final check up, and Shiro puts one of the panels back into place. Sam says that everything looks to be in perfect condition and ready for the upcoming launch.

Matt playfully teases his father about how he's being overprotective of the ship, and that he's got to let his baby fly on its own now. Sam grumbles while Shiro chuckles.

Shiro says that they are going to really miss having Sam with them, and says that if he and Colleen ever want to come back, there will always be a place for them. Sam thanks him and says that even though they loved being a part of The Atlas, they both agreed that it's time for them to settle back down on Earth and reclaim the life they lost. They are both looking forward to going back to teaching, especially now that they have students from all over the universe coming to Earth to learn. He then playfully points to his son and adds that the universe has enough on its plate dealing with one Holt in space now that he's living with the former Rebels as they continue to keep peace.

It's Matt's turn to grumble as Sam and Shiro laugh at his expense. Shiro says he's sure when Pidge eventually heads back out to space she'll be able to clean up any mess that Matt makes. Matt raises his hands in surrender and says they can lay off now, and the three men share a laugh.

The playful jibes over, Matt asks Shiro if he's totally ready to leave Earth. Shiro says he is, and though living on New Altea will take some getting used to, he'll have friends and family with him there. Besides, with Altean tech everyone is just a wormhole away.

He says that being out in space, learning about the universe, and everything that's out there has always been his dream. Now he'll be able to learn more than he ever thought possible without the worry of any illness to hold him back, or a universal war to wear him down. Matt smiles and says he understands exactly what he means.

Sam places a hand on both of the young men's shoulders and says that he's proud and excited for them both, but they both better make it back for Holidays, or else Colleen will personally hunt them down and drag them back to Earth.

The two men laugh and say they will.

              _______________________________________________

 Inside the Garrison's kitchen, Hunk and Shay hand Romelle a small box. Hunk says it's a going away present for her, all of his mother's recipes. Pidge helped him translate them into Altean so she can practice her cooking. Shay adds that her grandmother's soup recipe is also in there, since she liked it so much.

Romelle is touched by the presents and asks them to visit often. Hunk says his and Shay's training to become Ambassadors for their peoples will keep them tied up for a while, but as soon as they become fully fledged diplomats, they will all be able to see each other more often. Romelle says that if they need any off planet training, they are more than welcomed to come to New Altea. Hunk and Shay agree and thank her.

Lance and Pidge appear in the kitchen and greet the two ladies as they approach Hunk. Lance complements Romelle's crown; officially adopted into Allura's family, she is now the crowned princess to the Altean people.

Romelle readjusts the crown -Allura's old tiara, now bearing a new stone- and says it's still taking some getting used to. Lance and Pidge say that it suits her. She warmly thanks them, saying that their support gives her courage.

              _______________________________________________

 Later, Hunk, Pidge, and Lance walk down the Garrison halls, catching up with each other as they have all been so busy with their work. Pidge talks about how the creation of Vehicle Voltron is going well, and the wonderful multi-planetary team they have assembled to work on it.

Lance shares all the work he and the MFE's have been doing together, and how even though it's been hard work, it's been so good to see worlds and races really recover from the war. The two are happy for him, and he points out that it's not the same though. He misses flying with Hunk and Pidge and says if they want to come back to Voltron he's sure they could; the Lions still haven't found replacements for them yet.

The former Yellow and Green Paladins thank him, but say that it's just as the Lions once said, their time as Paladins came to an end. They, like Shiro felt they had other things that they needed to do, and Yellow and Green encouraged them to move on.

Lance sighs wistfully, but says he understands, he just misses Hunk, Pidge, and Allura on the team. Hunk and Pidge encourage him, saying that they are certain that the lions will find new Paladins soon.

Lance grumbles that it will only happen if Keith settles down for one moment so they can actually focus on it; he's been so busy helping the Galra that he's hardly around to do anything Voltron related.

It's then that they see Keith coming out of a meeting with the Blade and a number of other Galra diplomats.

Lance says speak of the Mullet, and the three approach him. They see a solemn look on his face and greet him, asking what's wrong. Keith, deep in thought says that he was asked to be one of the leaders of New Daibazaal's government.

The Garrison trio are surprised to hear this, and Lance guesses that he turned the offer down, but Keith reveals he actually said yes. He's not sure how long he will hold the position, but he's accepted the role for now. The others are shocked at first, but quickly congratulate him, pulling him into a group hug. All three know he'll do great as one of the leaders of his people.

They then realize what this means, Keith is leaving Earth.

Hunk cries that everyone is leaving and Lance and Pidge agree, saying that it's not fair. Keith smiles at them, warmed that they will miss him. He says that at one point in his youth, he had nothing on this planet that would have kept him here, he would have left without a second thought; but now he has so many friends and loved ones that he had to stop and think hard about this choice.

However, he never felt that Earth was where he belonged, he feels called to the stars and even if New Daibazaal isn't where he permanently settles, he knows he needs to be with his mother and their people right now.

He looks to the three of them and says that they have helped change his life for the better and that he will miss them so much. The three get teary-eyed and hug him once more, telling him that their doors will always be open to him.

Once they break out of the hug, Keith asks Lance if they can talk privately for a minute, and they break off from the other two.

              _______________________________________________

 Keith and Lance walk for a bit and Keith explains that with him leaving Earth, he's stepping down from being the Black Paladin. Lance is shocked and deeply upset, first Allura stepped down to rule as Queen, then Hunk and Pidge due to their duties at the Garrison, and now Keith? He says the original Paladins were able to fulfill their roles despite being on different planets, why can't they?

Keith acknowledges that, but says times were different back then. The universe is still very unstable at the moment, and planets can't afford to have leaders and vital people constantly run off to fight elsewhere. Besides, he says he's now come to the same realization that Shiro, Allura, Hunk, and Pidge had before him; there's a new purpose out there for him.

The two walk into the Lion's hanger where they look up to Black. Lance wonders who will lead Voltron now, and Keith says Black has already chosen its next Paladin. Lance asks who, and Keith looks at him and says "you". Lance looks from Keith to the Black Lion in disbelief.

Lance is stunned into silence, when he finds his words he says he is honored, but he's not sure if he's ready for that. Keith smiles and says that he knows Lance is. He's seen how Lance has grown from a playful showman, to a focused leader. He says he believes in Lance's ability and knows that he will make a great Black Paladin. Lance says that means the world to him, coming from a leader he truly respects.

Lance looks up to the Black Lion and asks it if it's ready for this new partnership. The Black Lion's eyes flash and it stands and roars in answer.

The two look up to the Lion, with humbled pride. Lance says it will be difficult finding and learning to work with a new team. Keith smiles knowingly just as the hangar doors open and says he doubts that. Lance turns to see the MFE Pilots walk in, not noticing the two Paladins.

Lance looks from Keith to the MFE Pilots and back and asks if he really thinks they could be the new Paladins. Keith asks him what he and Black feel.

Lance closes his eyes, testing the new bond he has with the Black Lion, and realizes it's true, the other Lions have already chosen the MFE Pilots as their Paladins.

He opens his eyes and looks to Keith with a smile. Keith pats him on the shoulder and tells him to go talk to his new team. Lance laughs and runs over to the group.

              _______________________________________________

 Night before the Atlas is prepared to launch the five former Paladins, Lance, and Coran sit and have a private dinner together on the roof of the Garrison. They talk and laugh, reminiscing over their adventures while sharing their plans and hopes for the future, just enjoying each other's company.

As the sun starts to go down, they realize how late it's gotten. Lance calls for one final photo, and everyone gathers together and takes the picture. They look the photo over and all approve of it. They sit there, knowing they should head off to get some sleep before the launch, but none want to leave yet.

Coran sees this and smiles. He coughs to get their attention and points out that they never finished their last Monsters and Mana campaign. Allura says that it will be a little while before they see each other again; they may forget the nuances of the story if they don't finish.

The others smile, and agree that that has to be finished. Coran pulls out the game and they play together under the stars.

               _______________________________________________

 The next day people from all over the place come to the Garrison to witness The Atlas' launch.

Pidge, her family, Hunk and his family, along with many of the other Coalition members and former-rebels watch and wave from the ground as the mighty ship begins to take off.

A loud roar is heard and Pidge and Hunk cheer as the Lions of Voltron fly overhead. The Lions move to follow behind The Atlas, escorting it to its new home.

Lance, flying the Black Lion, now wearing new Black Paladin armor asks if the others are alright. Griffin in Red, Rizavi in Blue, Leasdottir in Green, and Kincade in Yellow all call in positives.

Lance smiles and makes a call to form Voltron.

              _______________________________________________

 In the Atlas, Shiro and Sven arrive on the bridge where some of the new Galra leadership, including Krolia and Kolivan, as well as Queen Allura's Altean council of Coran, Romelle, Luca, and Tavo stand.

Shiro sees Keith in his new Galran armor is standing with Allura near the view screen. He approaches and tells them they will be arriving to New Diabazaal soon to drop the Galra off, before taking The Atlas to their home on New Altea.

Allura and Keith smile to him, and the three watch the screen as they approach the two Planets.

Shiro asks if they are nervous. Keith says no, he feels confident and hopeful. Allura agrees, smiling brightly she says "after all, this is the beginning of a new story."

              _______________________________________________

                                                          .

                                                        .

                                                        .

                                                  The End

                                                        .

                                                        .

                                                        .

              _______________________________________________

 Notes:

I am so sorry this took so long to post. I did not mean for it to take this ling, but I just had a rather off holiday season (not bad by any means, just off), so it's been harder for me to get back into the swing of things.

It does kind of work out though, as I created my first draft of this rewrite pretty much one year ago.

But anyhow, let's get into talking about this ending.

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So, my biggest problem (and I think most people's problem) with the ending of the series was what happened to the main characters, especially with the end cards. I heard they were supposedly tacked on at the last minute, and it sure seems like it. While Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk had somewhat 'happy' endings they were only happy in a very sterile way.

What do I mean by "sterile", well, there was nothing deep or meaningful to their look at their end cards:

"Shiro found his happiness and finally left the battlefield behind" Ok, that sounds good and all, but there was no development to this 'happiness'. What even makes him happy? I though his passion was space exploration, did he get to return to that? We don't know. He's just happy.

"The Holt Family established the next generation of Legendary Defenders." It's nice that the family stuck together, but that doesn't give us anything about Pidge specifically. Plus not everyone would get the Vehicle Voltron cameos that give weight to what they are doing.

"Hunk created a culinary empire, bringing the universe together, one meal at a time." Hunk's is the best and as we at least know he's doing things he enjoys, cooking and bringing people together. We can assume it's like what was shown earlier in the episode, where he cooks for leaders during a delegation, but the image presented looks more like he's the owner of a galactic restaurant chain more so then anything else.

The summaries to their lives just feel so hollow, and those were only the 'happy' ones, it only gets worse from there.

Coran didn't even get a title card, but let's talk about him for a minute. He was left completely alone without any close friends or loved ones nearby. Even though Merla was shown speaking to him, showing he talks to people, they had no relationship. What were we supposed to get from that scene? I was left with the feeling that he would forever be alone, his life dedicated to nothing but ensuring that Altea flourished in Allura's name, never stopping to rest, least the ghosts of the ones he lost haunt him.

Even though I hate Allura dying (and I'll get to that in a moment), if they had Romelle there with him at the end instead, his story would have ended on a more positive note. Since they had an established friendship in the show we could have seen it as him having lost one daughter only to gain another. We would know he would be able to have a new family with her.

Speaking of Romelle, all she got was a cameo relegated to the background of Hunk's ending where she wore a chef's outfit. Such a great ending for this important Voltron legacy character! [/sarcasm]

Back to the main Paladins;

"Lance continued to spread Allura's message while surrounding himself with the things he loved." It sounds like he become an Altean missionary who shared the gospel of Allura, even though the picture just shows him working on his family's farm. I know many others, and myself felt that he would forever pine after Allura, living his life out in a way that forever left him longing for something more. How is that a good place to leave a character?

What about his dreams, his goals in life? He was the most ambitious of the Paladins, and while his ambitions at the beginning of the series might not have had the best reasoning (going to prove how good he is by being better then Keith and stuff like that), his reason should have grown and changed though the series, not his whole existence. He should have still been determined to become a Pilot and do great things, not to prove his worth, but because he had the passion, drive, and determination to go out and do them.

"Keith helped transition The Blade of Marmora to a humanitarian relief organization." Keith working for a humanitarian relief organization, that's a good idea. Fits with his caring and how he shows his love through acts of service. However, him transitioning The Blade of Marmora into a humanitarian relief organization is such a stupid concept. That would be like something tossing out the idea of turning the Navy Seals into a humanitarian relief organization. These people are specifically trained to fight. While they can offer aid, and work with humanitarian relief organizations, they are completely different things!

On top of all that, due to how the last two seasons went with his supposed friendships with the Paladins, I was depressingly left feeling Keith's story ended exactly where we met him at the beginning of the series: A loner with few friends and connections. Yes, I know he now had his mother, but she was to be shown busy as a leader of the Galra without Keith. While Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid were in the background of his title card, when were we shown them becoming close? We weren't. The golden rule of visual storytelling is "Show, don't tell". Because we weren't shown, we can't say it happened.

Heck, I don't even remember if Keith spoke to Axca at all after "The Way Forward", and she was the one he had the most positive interactions with.

With all the Paladins spread out back on Earth, Keith seems to have once more gone down a path of solitude. The character who needed friends and family the most ended up alone.

And Allura's ending was the worst ending of them all. I've talked many times throughout these rewrites of the many horrible things I felt was done to her character throughout the last two seasons. Killing her was the moldy cherry on top of that spoiled and rancid cake. Allura, who lost and sacrificed so much; whose character should have been raised up and allowed to flourish into a leader better than those who came before her, instead her ending was the same fate as the final villain, and there was no rightful justification for it.

As Allura and Honerva walk to their deaths, Honerva smiles, happy over the outcome as she gets to be reunited with her husband and son, while Allura looks sorrowful, her promising life ending too soon.

What an insulting and reprehensible ending for this character.

I wanted to rectify all these things with this final rewrite, and give them the happy and satisfying endings they deserved. I hope even if you aren't one hundred percent satisfied with my endings for the characters, they are at least more palatable then canon.

.

Now that I've spoken about the heroes, not onto the Villains.

So, I know Honerva's ending here has shades of her original ending, but I really hope the differences stand out in what I wrote. I'm sure many would want to see her just outright killed/defeated, but since I really play up the 'The Zarkon family is possessed and unable to control themselves' I went with her having a redemptive ending.

The difference between my version and canon, is that canon showed Honerva's issues to be her thinking she was never happy. After Allura made her remember the good times, and that was it. No acknowledgement or apologies for all the evil she committed. Just "Huh, your right. Ok, let's bring the universe back." Nothing was even done with the Rift Creature that was still in her, Allura, and the other Alteans. That was all forgotten along with every other interesting plot thread.

With the chance of repeating myself from other chapters; my version of the 'Rift Creature' -actually the corrupted White Lion- literally warped how she, Zarkon, and Lotor saw everything. They could not truly see right from wrong, only their own desires and how things affected them. So, once freed from that corruption they regained their true selves and instantly knew all the evil they committed. Honerva wanted to make things right. I emphasize 'wanting" cause that's the key to redeeming a character, the desire to make things right.

Her and Lotor sacrificing themselves to fix the universe they helped tear apart was their way of making right all their wrongs and redeeming themselves.

And while I'm sure many would have liked Lotor to live, I see this as the better way; only because if he lived he would have been held accountable for his crimes just like the other Galran Warlords and Altean Acolytes. At least now he can unite with his uncorrupted parents and friends in the Connected Consciousness of all Existence, and one day reunite with the Paladins and experience a true friendship with them.

.

Speaking of the Connected Consciousness of all Existence.

So, my version of this realm is clearly some sort of Well of Allsparks/Heaven-esk place. I know that idea might be a bit corny, but like I have Keith's dad point out, in S2E4 "Greening the Cube", Pidge says that she was told everyone was made up from the same star dust. Keith was so heartened by that idea, that I thought in this place called "Connected Consciousness of all Existence" it could be the same for people's Souls/Quintessence.

Plus, I thought it lead to one of my favorite parts of this chapter, the return of all the dead characters. I truly wanted this final story to be a celebration of everything that we loved about the series, and this allowed me the opportunity to bring back all the characters we grew to love. Even the minor ones that meant more to the fandom then they did the writers.

It also leaves us with the satisfaction and peace knowing that even though the Paladins are all going their own ways in life, no matter what, one day they will all be reunited not only with each other, but with all their loved ones here.

.

One more thing I wanted to point out is that Keith does not rule all of New Daibazaal. He is one leader amongst many. I have seen "Emperor Keith" AUs and not only do I feel that role doesn't fit Keith; I don't think that role should exist on New Daibazaal at all.

The Galra just got through living under the thumb of one ruler for the past 10,000 years. There are going to be changes with their new world and that starts with how their leadership is set up. Rather than one person who has all the power, they have multiple leaders who come together and govern for the people. They are not permanent positions and can be voted out.

Keith is certainly an important voice, and one who was actually asked to take a role of leadership by the people (there's a lot of half-breeds who look up to him), but he is not the final say. One day his time as leader will be up, and he will move on.

I actually do envision his future much like the ending of the show where he ends up working with a humanitarian organization. But this time around he, Axca, Ezor, and Zethrid would team up with Allura, Shiro, and the Garrison to create a multi-species group that would then go and work with Voltron and Vehicle Voltron to help those in need.

See? Despite living some time away from each other, all the characters can end up continuing their lives together after all!

.

Here’s a bonus gallery of a bunch of the designs I tried to recreate/come up with for how the characters look at the end.

First, I forgot to post this back with my version of S8E5. This was what they wore to the Paladin’s game night. As you can see I changed the colors of Rizavi and Leifsdottir’s outfits. I gave Griffin the clothing Lance wore on his date in S8E1. Since he didn’t use the outfit in this version I thought it would work here, especially since I gave Griffin a ‘well thought of’ family, I though his casual wear would be a bit more fancy. For Kincade, I had my friend who really liked him help me design his clothing. We thought this fit him.

This is the clothing the characters wear after the final montage. Of course the Paladin’s outfits are based off the canon outfits shown in the final group picture in the show. I didn’t have much to go on, so I made a lot of it up.

Allura’s dress is the one shown in the alternate universe Honerva went to (Coran at this time would be wearing the outfit he there too).

I completely changed Lance’s hair. I don’t know why the creators wanted to give him such an unkempt look in the last design, but I saw someone do an edit where they gave him Matt’s hairdo from the ‘Chip’ scene at the end. I thought that looked so good on him I opted to give that to him. Plus, now Matt can keep his long hair!

So these are the outfits the characters are wearing in the final scene when they leave for New Altea/New Daibazaal. I gave each Altean a bit of pink in their clothing. Since Pink was the color of remembrance, I figured many, especially the leadership would wear it not only in remembrance of all the Alteans that were lost, but for everyone who had been lost not only at the hands of the Galra, but at the hands of the Alteans as well. It’s a reminder to never let it happen again.

I forgot to put a new stone in Romelle’s crown. Woopsie!

I tried to blend Armor the Galra of old wore with the BoM uniforms. Showing that they are not completely leaving everything that once was behind. Instead they are taking what had been good and bringing it back.

\Keith’s outfit I blended not only with the BoM and ancient Galra armor, but also added some of the Paladin style as well. His armor is black instead of blue as a symbol of his time as Black paladin. I’m not complety satisfied with his design, bit this is where I settled for now.

I opted to give the new line of Plaldins completely new Armor. Since Voltron is currently set up on Earth, their armor is a blend of Altean armor and the MFE flight suits.

I also wanted to do some other pictures like Sven in the Garrison, and some others, but I never got to it. Maybe in the future.

.

So that’s all for now.

I do have an idea for a short story that would be a continuation of the actual canon story; a way to fix the blunders of the ending and wrap things up on a better note, and be connected to this post of mine. But no promises to when that will be made.

So, for the time being this is where it all ends. Thank you so much for reading all this. I truly hope you enjoyed it.

Have a wonderful day!

[some-cookie-crumbz]

End of an Era

End of an Era - Kidge Month Day 9 Prompt Fill Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Pairing: Kidge Summary: A sort of “What If” scenario after S6E5, in which Keith takes longer to regroup with the rest of Team Voltron and the consequences are greater than he anticipated. TW: Grievous Injury to Multiple Characters, Disfigurement, Mutilation of Mechanical, Sentient Felines, Angst. Standard Disclaimer: If you read and enjoy this, please give it a like/ reblog so I know if I should write more.

Battling Shiro had been one of the worst experiences of his life, but he was grateful he’d been able to save him.

He was exhausted, but he knew he couldn’t let up. He had left the rest of the team to fight Lotor, and while he had faith in their fighting capabilities, he’d known they’d need Voltron. Black Lion seemed to struggle with creating a wormhole for them, though. He couldn’t get an exact answer from her outside of her being unable to reach the other Lion’s through the shared bond. He tried to reach out to the other Paladins’ but received no answer. That sent a red flag up for him but he reminded himself that he knew the others, that they could handle themselves and that it was probably just a matter of him being too far from them.

His first concern was getting Shiro to the Castle Ship safely, and then he and the team could deal with Lotor.

When they finally arrived to where the other Paladins were at, something felt… Off. It wasn’t far from where the battle had been held, but the only sign he had that the other’s had been there were bits of floating debris. Lotor and the Lions were nowhere out in the open and he was only able to locate the others because he ran a scan for signs of life. The Castle was settled on a sizeable asteroid but seemed to be powered down, given the bright blue lights along the exterior were out.

The inside of the Castle was also cast in a low glow, barely able to see anything. He wondered if the Castle was running on reserve power. Black settled into her usual perch in the hanger and he walked out with Shiro, spotting three shadowy figures converged at the other end. He hollered for help and was approached by a disheveled-looking Coran after a moment. Judging by height comparisons, he deduced that the other two figures he’d been talking to were Pidge and Allura. Coran exchanged a glance with the other two before heading over to take Shiro, barely even acknowledging Keith as he did. Reassured that the other man would be fine, he headed over to the two figures, squaring his shoulders in preparation for a briefing.

 His heart plummet when he saw the state the two female Paladin’s were in.

"What... What happened to you two?" He gasped, eyes shifting from one to the other. The two had clearly been in the healing pods recently, but there were scars left. Along the left side of Allura’s face, at the very corner of her mouth and disappearing down the collar of her bodysuit was the star-like scar he’d come to recognize from an explosion. Additionally, her Paladin armor was scuffed and soiled with scorch marks and blood stains. Pidge’s armor was in a similar state, but what got him was the damage done to her face. Pidge was without her glasses and was spotting a long, jagged scar across her right eye. He wasn’t sure if she could still see out of that eye but she was certainly still able to glare him down something fierce.

"What do you think happened? We got our asses kicked every which way to Sunday!" Pidge snarled, taking a step towards him.

"But... You had the Lions, and Lotor only had three ships," He argued weakly, looking between the two frantically.

Allura seemed a bit more composed than Pidge, but her own eyes were narrowed in a glare at him. "Lotor's ship is made of the same material as the Voltron Lions, and also has the ability to combine. He had all three parts necessary to form his Robeast, Sincline. We had four of the Lions; without the Black Lion, however, we could not form Voltron," She explained, her fists clenching at her side. "We barely managed to weaken him enough to gain us some time to escape. He will need time to recover as well, but how long is still a huge uncertainty."

Keith nodded slowly, letting his mind slip away from everything with Shiro and focus on the matter at hand. "So then we can try and get the jump on him while he's weak. What we need to do is regroup, form Voltron and go after him. That's fine, we can do that,"

"No, we can't," Pidge growled, "because we're down two teammates!"

"You mean Hunk and Lance? They’re just tending to business in the Castle, right?”

"They are in the healing pods now, but... We are unsure how long it will be before they are in piloting shape," Allura chimed in, eyes falling to look at the ground. "They took the brunt of it, given Red's speed and Yellow's defenses."

"Then... Then while we wait for them, we can get things in order. We can send word to the rebellion to be on high alert in case-!"

Pidge scoffed. "We already did,"

He stared at her for a moment before letting out a quiet breath. "Right. Of course you two thought of that already," He said. He should have known that in a dire situation like this, these two would have the best sense of prioritizing what needed to be handled first. "Let's jump ahead to repairing the other Lions then."

Another frustrated snarl came from the Green Paladin. "We can't! Lotor did a number on the Lions to the point I don't know how or where to even start with fixing them! Assuming that I even can!"

Keith flinched at her words, looking back at the darkened hanger. He could see the silhouettes of the Lions, but he realized that he hadn’t actually gotten a look at them. “What… What do you mean?”

Pidge looked over at Allura before nodding. With a sad sigh, the other clapped her hands and the hanger lights flickered on, though a bit dimmer than usual, affirming his suspicion that the Castle was running on reserve powers. In this silhouette, however, he could see the four other Lions, battered and broken. There were huge, gaping wounds on all of them, their eyes completely vacant. Even the parts of them that included exposed wires were no longer sparking.

He swallowed around a lump growing in his throat at the sight before him. "Then... Then we need-!"

Pidge surged forward again and shoved him, causing him to stumble back and turn to face her. "No! What we need is to have a leader who actually cares about what's at stake here! It's your fault all of this has happened!"

"What... How the Hell is it my fault?" He snapped back. There was a bit of anger in him, but it felt somehow false.

She squared her shoulders and met his gaze, sparking like a live wire of fury. "We needed Voltron but we couldn't form it without the head! You knew Lotor was a threat! Hell, you had more of an idea of what was going on than the rest of us, considering you found the Altean colony! And even knowing that, knowing how much of a struggle it would be for us even with Voltron, you took Black Lion and disappeared! Because you just had to go blasting through space to chase after Shiro, huh? No regard for the rest of us or how we'd handle! For fuck's sake, Hunk and Lance could fucking die, but do you care? No! Your first order of business was making sure we knew you brought Shiro back! You didn’t give a damn about what happened to the rest of us!" Her words cut deep, but her tone remained a subdued howl. A part of him wished she would scream and shout at him. He knew how to handle her when she was like that. But this? When she was cutting to the heart of the matter with cold, hard facts? It hurt. "A long time ago, you told me the lives of two people weren't more important than the rest of the universe. But that was a lie, right? The universe wasn't worth risking for the lives of those two people! But if it's for Shiro? The universe can burn the fuck up if it's to save Takashi Shirogane!"

"Pidge," Allura said, voice soft but urgent as she rushed over, settling a hand on the other’s shoulder.

She wretched free, not letting her eyes leave him. "No, it's the truth! Because he couldn't put his personal feelings aside to deal with a threat, the universe is doomed!" She gestured around her wildly at the mangled remains of the other four Lions all around them, lifeless eyes watching on like decaying corpses. "Do you see this? What Lotor was able to do to us without Voltron?"

He squeezed his eyes shut tightly. “This… This isn’t my fault,” He whispered.

Allura shook her head. "You are right. While your actions have contributed, there was more happening with this situation. Lotor had access to information about Voltron that is normally reserved for Paladins only. Thanks to Shiro," She said, a touch of bitterness in her voice, "and myself believing he was genuine in his desire for peace. We each had a hand to play in this as well, but to say you are blameless is naive"

Pidge stared him down before looking back at the Lion’s, gaze fixing on Green. "We'd need another comet to fix this amount of damage. Coran is making an attempt to see if we can track one down, but the likelihood of finding one is slim. Because you, as our leader, made the wrong call,"

His eyes snapped open and he wheeled around to look at Black Lion, still poised behind him. "We... We still have the Black Lion. We can figure something out in the meantime," He insisted, taking a cautious step towards her. "Right, Black?"

Through the bond between the two of them, he felt a swirl of emotion. She was focused in on the unresponsive four Lions, yowling and pleading for them to respond, to call back at her. However, she received nothing, and he could feel it swelling into an immense pain deep inside of her. Her attention shifted over to him and suddenly her form lifted, roaring at him before he was forced out of her mind, away from her thoughts and emotions.

He stumbled back and took in a sharp, pained breath, the force with which she was pushed him away from her feeling like a stabbing jolt to his ribcage. "B-Black...?" He stammered out, trying to reach out to her again but receiving nothing in return.

"Sounds like you've fallen out of her favor," Pidge commented, her tone extremely casual. She walked a bit closer and swiping the black bayard from him. "If you aren’t seen as a Paladin of Voltron, you won't be needing this, then."

 "W-Wait!" He stammered, reaching to try and swipe it back from her again. She growled and moved to block him with the hand holding his bayard.

And then, in a flicker of movement, the black bayard took the shape of her hookshot, pointed right at him.

[b-kitsune]

Many ways to say I love you: Day Five.

Kidge-a-palooza 2019 Prompt: Execution. Pairing: Kidge (VLD) Universe: Canon-divergence Status: Complete.

The rumble around them enveloped them in a loud explosion as they had passed through space into the main nave, where the witch Honerva had decided to take shelter from the calamity that occurred as a result of Voltron's attacks. The debris around the space made a hit difficult, but the Lions were able to detect heat signals where their opponents were located.

They would have to hurry before they started a fire with the ion cannon. Or they would tear down the castle of the lions where thousands of refugees were trying to protect themselves from the damage caused by the battle.

They had wiped out almost all the fleets of the universe through the years, without resting at any time until their mission was accomplished. End against the empire that the witch tried in vain to hold with Zarcon lying in his last strength inside the ship. And Lotor murdered many years ago, there was no legitimate heir who took power soon.

Keith shuddered when the black lion suffered a deep blow to the side of his armor, destabilizing him for a moment. However, Lance helped him in time and stayed in alignment as they formed the colossus who would deliver the victory that night.

For all the fallen from that damn war, Keith would cut off Zarcon's head once and for all.

...

''So, you're a galra.''

Keith was frozen as soon as he heard her voice in the central barracks of the training room. He ended up giving the final blow to one of the droids while he was recomposing himself heavily, sweat running down his face at the constant exercise.

He looked towards the window where Pidge would surely be sitting, with a look that Keith was indecipherable, if there was someone more reserved beside him on that ship, it was definitely Shiro's favorite.

''I am. Apparently, my mother was part of Blades of Marmora, that's why I had one.''

He sighed with regret, he had already been judged by Allura and Coran about his genetic inheritance of which he had no idea before he met Kolivan. The sooner he finished listening to Pidge's contempt, the quicker he could go to the showers and rest deservedly.

''It must be incredible to know where you come from.'' Keith blinked many times before reacting to what the girl had said.

''Sorry?''

''No, I mean ... I don't want you to take it the wrong way, okay? But come on, you've been going crazy with that blade since we met Ulaz. Now that you know the truth, even if it's terrifying, it should give you some relief, right?''

''I don't know how it could give me relief to know that I have an inheritance from a genocidal race, Pidge.'' He snorted furiously, not understanding if she was kidding or just trying to make fun of him in the opposite direction, with how little they had interacted, surely it would be both. Pidge, however, just buzzed selflessly.

''Yeah, well, I'm Italian, born in Rome. So, it would be very hypocritical of me to judge you for that. Without justifying anything, the galra at least kill other races. We have been killed for thousands of years and we are on the same planet.''

Keith looked at one of the doors once heard a noise, watching as that little girl was heading towards him with nothing but a bottle of water. When she offered it to him, her smile made his chest hurt briefly.

Like a strong heartbeat.

He didn't reject it. But something inside him told him that Pidge had other intentions, besides just bringing him water.

...

After several hours, Voltron began to see a decrease in the armament of the empire, which had destroyed much of their ships, reduced to mere space junk that floated through space. Bodies burned around began to freeze at a critical level then be projected by their own admirals before escaping to the mother ship.

For Keith, it was simple, the honor wasn't written in the code of their genes.

For a second, a strong flash blinded them from a part of the universe. A ship of considerable magnitude was at their side so quickly that they barely had time to activate the Voltron shield. When observing carefully, it was Hunk who had discovered who it was.

Sendak was still alive, and he was doing everything possible to protect his dying emperor.

''Paladins, be careful. That ship is created in base with an Interdimensional comet!''

A vague memory of Lotor claiming that he still had some pieces of the comet he had used for the Sincline ships came to everyone's mind at the words of Coran. They had to leave carefully, or they would be easily annihilated at the slightest error.

''Coran, go to the nearest quadrant to take the refugees to a safe area.''

''Affirmative!''

Keith turned off the communicator as fast as he saw Coran turning around with the new directions. After that, he hoped they were the last refugees they had to save at the hands of the empire.

Already with the small number of planets defended by the galra at that time, perhaps his desire wouldn't be so far from reality.

Sword and shield were activated without hesitation once saw Sendak approach to give the first blow. Keith positioned himself to dodge the attack once he was at an adequate distance.

He took a deep breath as he squeezed the controls with an uncontrollable rage. A new battle would begin.

...

Keith was angry with his mates, with the alteans, with the universe in general. They had forgotten Shiro so quickly when he disappeared that part of him had found him a terrible offense. It was the third time this week that he was searching for a trace of his whereabouts completely alone.

Nobody was helping him. No one was interested in knowing what had happened to Shiro after the last battle with Zarcon.

He stopped as soon as he reached the door of his room, with a painful feeling of frustration rising on his chest. Keith didn't want to accept that he had died, he definitely had to see something more about what happened. Keith didn't understand much about extraterrestrial anatomies, but humans were unable to disappear at any moment.

Before turning on his feet to go to his room and try to rest something before the next mission, Keith could hear a noise, slight and fleeting, coming from the room.

Were the mice playing with Shiro's stuff again?

When he opened the door and turned on the lights, the mice weren't found, but Pidge, sitting on the corner of the bed with Shiro's jacket on her lap.

With a strong expression of annoyance at being interrupted, and tears around her eyes.

Was she crying for Shiro?

''What are you doing here?'' It was the only thing that Keith was able to ask. Pidge stared at him incredulously for a few seconds before grimacing in disgust.

''I'm not exactly coding messages from the fleets at this time, idiot.''

''Yes, yes, I know, but ...'' Keith swallowed deeply, her eyes were really red. Surely, she was crying for hours before he found her. ''I thought you didn't miss Shiro...''

''Why wouldn't? He was practically the only one I respected in this place ... And now he's gone ... Like everyone else.''

Keith didn't remember very well what had happened after that conversation. If he had embraced her before or after seeing her cry again for the net loss of a loved one.

Or when they had fallen asleep trying to give themselves some peace and body warmth.

The only thing Keith knew later when they both woke up and left the room in silence was a warm fire in his chest and a slight smile on his lips, he wasn't so alone in the world.

 ...

 Lance was guided by instinct and went through the armor of Sendak's ship with the sword activated by his Bayard at the last moment before the ion cannon went through the armor delivered by the green lion.

Once they stopped for a few moments, Keith could see Sendak fly towards the main ship in a vain attempt to save his life.

They separated when he gave the order and thanks to the black lion's impulse, he left his mouth to cross the stomach of his enemy before entering the ship. The last tremor gave him to understand that Sendak had died at last.

''Well done Keith, now let's arm Voltron to finally end the tyranny of Zarcon.''

''No Allura.'' Keith opened the hatch to enter the ship on his own, defeating the sentinels within seconds. ''Activate the protocol to hack the defenses of this ship. We will blow it to pieces once and for all.''

''But Keith-''

''Do it!''

No one wanted to contradict the words of the black paladin at that time, the anger and pain had changed too much to reason.

Lance nodded and went along with the green lion to comply with his orders, not caring much as Keith would do to get out alive once the ship started its countdown. Really, he didn't even care if he would get it on time.

Only the vestiges of what one could call his friend remained.

...

''We have to do something!''

''Keith calms down, first, we must think carefully about the situation before taking any action.''

''It's been too many days, Shiro!''

''Keith is right, we don't know what the witch could do...''

''I know!'' Shiro ran one of his hands through his hair, stopping Hunk's words abruptly. ''I know ... But we cannot put ourselves at risk unnecessarily, we must plan their rescue in detail.''

Everyone knew that Shiro's words pointed to the rational, even if he intended to go to Zarcon's ship to save Pidge himself. He took a deep breath and sat down beside Lance to calm down, the last mission had gone worse than he expected.

Keith couldn't afford to lose another part of his family, his heart clenched painfully at the thought of Pidge might be suffering because of the Galra.

Because of him not being there to protect her.

The appearance of Kolivan caught the attention of everyone in the room. Keith knew that Blade of Marmora didn't skimp on risks when it came to vital information, but his presence didn't give him a good feeling. He looked oddly dismayed and much paler than his skin could consider normal.

A knot stuck in Keith's stomach.

''We have found a record on the status of the green paladin on the main ship.''

''Thanks, Kolivan, place it on the main screen, it will give us a better perspective on what we have to prepare once we go there.'' He nodded and sent the data to the central command in a few seconds, then went to Keith's side while he was loading the copy of the security camera record, placing a hand on his shoulder.

''Kolivan?''

When the video started, the knot in his stomach rose to the point of vomiting.

Pidge was chained, dying and barely breathing before a possible respiratory infection.

After a few seconds, the video advanced on its own, with meaningless words and several noises around her.

Until stopping at the last record, where Pidge smiled at causing the wrath of the galra who tortured her surely by a malicious comment. Keith smiled faintly, but when they heard the sound of a bullet through the screen and the poor girl's wailing after a few seconds, her body fell to the floor, and a pool of blood stained the room completely.

Keith stopped breathing.

The last record was dated two days ago.

 ...

 An accurate hit on Zarcon's throat was the last thing Keith needed to end the battle. He had found it in his room, alone, abandoned by his fleet and the witch who accompanied him.

He wiped his sword with a quick movement of his hand, and headed for the darker rooms of the ship, in search of his main objective. The witch was on the floor, with a deep cut around her stomach and agitated breathing. Surely one of Voltron's shots had given her in the battle.

''Black Paladin ... Are you coming to finish with the last vestiges of this great empire?''

He didn't listen to her and ran towards her to deliver the final blow. Keith took her by the cloak and pierced his blade deep in his chest, pressing hard at the last moment to take the sword away brutally. The witch wasn't bleeding, but the pain in her features showed that it had been a deadly cut.

They began to hear the explosions around the fleet. The cut on his back because of the battle against Sendak was beginning to numb his senses.

''Illusive child, you will not be able to come out alive from this place, we will take your life as revenge for your actions ...''

Keith smiled wistfully as the ground began to warm. The witch was so wrong.

He had died when he saw how a bullet had pierced Pidge's heart in his younger days, on Haggar's orders to end his threat.

After that day, without realizing it, he had made the decision to murder Lotor, losing the respect of his friends and Shiro's trust. The Blades had considered that the best option wasn't to return to its battle lines. Because he was capable of endangering the mission cause of his lack of discipline.

The black lion was his only ally in that dark battle.

He coughed a little as soon as he saw flashes through the corridors. Thinking a little, he had lost his way many years ago. Since he had seen the execution of his beloved, Keith had lost the will to live many years ago.

This moment, I had expected it since then.

When he closed his eyes as his strength waned from the loss of blood, for a brief moment, he could feel a familiar warmth around his chest, as short, slender arms took him sweetly. And a soft voice that welcomed his eternal rest.

Keith accepted the ship's flames, with a smile on his lips.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x02 – “Shadows”

8x02 – “Shadows”

This is one of the most offensive, infuriating episodes of this show.

This story is fundamentally a retcon of Honerva. We’re supposed to ignore how Honerva has been depicted in the past and think of her as a good person to whom bad things happened. The reality – because we know what Honerva has done in her life – is that she has always been a power-hungry, emotionless, brutal person. The show wants us to view her sympathetically, but I don’t know how the executive producers and writers of this show had the audacity to expect the audience to view an abusive parent and genocidal dictator sympathetically.

In some ways, how this show treats Honerva is the opposite of how it treated Lotor. The EPs have talked in interviews about how they manipulated the audience by purposefully writing to seem like a Lotor was a sympathetic character who was the victim of his circumstances, only to throw that away in their surprise plot twist that he was a maniacal villain the whole time. Now, they’re taking a character who has been a maniacal villain the whole time and telling us that we’re supposed to view her as a sympathetic character who was the victim of her circumstances. Yes, Lotor did some very bad things, particularly killing Narti and harvesting quintessence from select Alteans at the Colony, but those are nowhere near as bad as the use of torture and repeated acts of genocide that Honerva has inflicted on the universe. I imagine that the show’s creative team thought that they were adding a humanizing element to Honerva’s character, thought that they were making her a more complex antagonist, but the way they did so is reliant upon an expectation that the audience ignore everything we’ve seen of this character before now. I refuse to do so.

I don’t know which member or members of the creative team deserve the most blame for this retched story, but this is not successful storytelling. This is just more audience manipulation. I think one reason that this show’s audience reacted so strongly to this season is because the audience had had enough. The show had had severe problems with its storytelling in seasons three through six, but I think enough of the fandom watched through those seasons thinking that the show was having a middle-third slump in its story. When stories are structured in thirds, it isn’t uncommon for the middle-third to be the weakest of the three parts. But then season seven happened, and that disaster infuriated the audience. I think that after that, the audience was just done giving this show the benefit of the doubt.

The episode starts with a flashback to 6x05 “The Black Paladins” when Axca tried to shoot Haggar, and Haggar teleported away. In that scene, Honerva had had Axca, Zethrid, Ezor, and a dark magic controlled clone of Shiro bring Lotor to her. Honerva thought she could convince Lotor that the millennia she had spent abusing him alongside Zarkon and committing genocide wasn’t her fault because she had been poisoned by quintessence. She told him that the quintessence poisoning “shrouded any glimmer of maternal instincts I may have had for my one and only child.” Of course, we saw her long before she was taken into the rift, poisoned, and became Haggar: She never demonstrated a personality that included any maternal instincts in 3x07 “The Legend Begins.” For example, in response to Alfor thanking Honerva for the gift for newborn baby Allura, Honerva’s response was monotone dismissal of the act, saying that she was following through on social expectation and custom, nothing more. Honerva was never a warm person. She was always emotionally cold, hyper focused, and driven. She became obsessed with quintessence because of the potential to use it to gain power. This show tries to say that Honerva wouldn’t have become the power-seeking abusive dictator if she hadn’t been influenced by an outside source (the quintessence poisoning), but she was always a power-seeking abusive dictatorial person, and the show explicitly showed us that. So, Honerva made her comment to Lotor, he rejected her, she orders Lotor, who she still had in handcuffs, to be taken away, and Axca tries to shoot her.

Now we see what happened after she finished her teleport. She put her hood back up and changed her skin color to be Haggar again. The idea that she should be absolved for her actions because she was affected by an outside source is absurd. She, after having acted like she wanted to set aside the persona of Haggar, chooses to become Haggar again. Honerva and the Haggar persona are not different mental states. Haggar has always been Honerva manipulating everyone, Haggar has always been Honerva embracing her desire for power. She is not nor ever has been wrestling with her identity.

She contacts a Galra named Commander Mar and tells him that “The Emperor has been taken. The Voltron Paladins have betrayed him. Track him down and return him to me.” Does literally any of these three sentences make sense for her to have said? I guess maybe we’re supposed to interpret it as Haggar is just lying to Mar? Lotor wasn’t taken, he rejected her. She wants to force Lotor to come back to her, but when he rejected her, she ordered him to be taken away from her. So, does she want him or not? It can be so confusing trying to track her motivations.

Cut to sometime; the show does not give an indication of when. Haggar is back to looking like Honerva. She’s standing in the middle of a room, like she does. She seems to be using some kind of clairvoyance to look through space and at planets. Some time passes, and she hasn’t been able to find Lotor, and no one knows where he is.

Then there’s seemingly another cut to sometime later. This scene is so confusing!! There’s a shot from behind of Honerva in her Haggar clothing looking at a display while at a window with a greenish nebula outside. The shot has a subtle transition to a purplish nebula outside, then a transition to a blue nebula outside, then to Daibazaal outside. It reads to me like time passing, but is it supposed to be a transition into a flashback? Honerva, looking out the window at Daibazaal, gasps, though I don’t know why.

Outside among asteroids is what looks like one of the Sincline ships, broken. Cut to Kova sitting on an asteroid. I guess quintessence magic blah blah blah, but how is Kova alive when there’s no air for the cat to breathe? Also, am I forgetting something? How is Kova even here? The last I can remember of Kova was him sitting beside Narti’s dead body in 4x03 “Black Site.”

There’s a standard cut from Kova on that asteroid looking at Honerva’s ship to inside a ship with Kova watching Honerva and Zarkon. Since the transition is into a scene that’s a flashback, the fact that it’s a standard cut makes it incredibly confusing to watch. It feels like just a normal cut because it is a normal cut, but it shouldn’t be because it’s a cut into a flashback. There’s no visual cue to alert the audience that this is a flashback other than Zarkon standing there. So, it feels like Honerva’s ship arriving at Daibazaal, her gasping, the shot of the broken ship, and Kova on the asteroid and then this scene of Kova, Honerva, and Zarkon are all part of the same moment in time. It doesn’t feel like you’re entering a flashback whatsoever.

Honerva is showing Zarkon that she’s pregnant. This retcon infuriates me. Look at them, they’re so happy to be a normal couple who’re going to have a baby, please ignore earlier episodes of the show in which they were shown to always be brutal people. Please ignore Honerva’s pre-quintessence poisoning depiction of being a cold, emotionless person. Please ignore Zarkon’s previous pre-quintessence poisoning depiction of being a Galra-supremacist and classist dictator. Ignore what the show has already established about these characters. It’s seems that the creative team of the show decided part-way through this series that they wanted these characters to be different, so we’re all supposed to ignore what’s come before and pretend that this depiction of the normal happy couple who’re going to have a baby isn’t totally out of character for them.

This really, really infuriates me. I feel like the show is actively lying to me. I feel like the show is gaslighting the audience by having this retcon. The EPs might have wanted us to ignore the past and pretend this is how these characters have always been, but I refuse to pretend this retcon is valid. I refuse to forgive this show, to forgive the writers, to forgive the executive producers for how offensive they made this story.

Now, we get an actual, proper transition to indicate the difference between a scene being a flashback and a scene being in the now of the story. Honerva is back on her ship. She looks so distressed, do you, audience, sympathize with her plight? I don’t because I remember this character from all her time in the show prior to this. She is not a good person.

Now, Honerva is standing there with Kova beside her. (Again, am I forgetting how Kova ended up here at Daibazaal?) Honerva says, “I will find you, my son.” Find him so that she can throw him in prison like she wanted to do the last time she spoke to him?

When does this scene even take place? Because the episode opens with the immediate aftermath of Lotor rejecting Honerva in “The Black Paladins,” her coming here to Daibazaal would seem to have to take place after that. Lotor had been brought to Honerva in “The Black Paladins” from Daibazaal, and the Castle Ship and the Paladins were there at Daibazaal from “The Black Paladins” until the end of the season, going elsewhere only at the end of 6x07 “Defender of All Universes” after leaving Lotor to die in the quintessence field and blowing up the expanding rifts with the Castle of Lions. So, Honerva coming here to Daibazaal, if it’s happening after Lotor rejected her in “The Black Paladins,” would have to be happening after Lotor’s death and after the Castle closed the rift. So, how is Daibazaal still here? Daibazaal was destroyed by the rift and the explosion used to close the rift.

Did the people writing and directing this episode, did the executive producers in charge of this whole project, even remember their own show? Did they write and animate this scene to have it take place after Lotor’s death but forget that Daibazaal was obliterated by either the rifts expanding or by the Castle’s explosion that sealed the rift? I guess since they’re writing this giant retcon of Honerva’s character that it shouldn’t surprise me so much that they wouldn’t care to make sure this episode is consistent with the show’s past story. It still bothers me though. It makes this creative team’s inability to tell a cohesive story so blatant.

I would really like to know the behind the scenes of this season’s production. I would like to know precisely who within the creative team actually thought their work on this season was good. I would like to know who actually thinks this season’s story works. I would like to know who is incapable of recognizing the severe discontinuities in this season. I would like to know who, if anyone, was desperately trying to keep this season from falling apart, only to watch the production crash and burn around them versus who actually thought they successfully landed the metaphorical plane. I would like for the executive producers to be honest with us about how this season demonstrates how badly they managed this project.

Haggar is back to standing weirdly in the center of a room. A Druid comes to speak to her, telling her that they haven’t been able to get any information about Lotor, Commander Mar, or Voltron. The Druid tells Haggar that they’re looking to her for leadership, what with the Galra Empire falling apart. Haggar responds, “Tell them to look elsewhere. The Druids are but ash in the winds of infinity. Let them be led by someone of equal esteem. Depart my presence.” So, we see precisely how Haggar forsake the Druids as Macidus referenced in 7x05 “The Ruins.” This is context that really would have helped that scene in “The Ruins.” She does just tell the Druids off. I do like the specific wording of her dialog here. Despite this show trying to retcon Honerva as a good person deep down, this is really who she is. We saw in “The Legend Begins” that she was never concerned with any risks her experimentation with quintessence had. She did not care about consequences of her behavior that affected other people. She only cared about being allowed to continue to study quintessence, and thus increase her personal power. In how she speaks to the Druid, we see that mentality again. She never cared about the Druids, she only ever used them, and now she’s discarded them as no longer useful. That is precisely how she has always treated people, having been that way long before she was poisoned by quintessence. This is not a sympathetic antagonist.

The transition from the scene with the Druid to another flashback is better this time at not seeming like just a regular cut to the next chronological moment. Zarkon and Honerva are discussing what they’ll name Lotor. Again, we’re supposed to watch this and think that they’re just a normal couple who’re happy to be having a child. This is in absolute defiance of everything this show has ever shown about these two characters. I am not interested in seeing this retconned, genocidal, dictatorial couple discuss baby names. We learn that Lotor’s name is a combination of names. Lotarius, an Altean mytho-historical figure who was “believed to have established much of the foundation of the engineering that built our world.” I don’t know how an advanced technological society like Altea has lost so much of the history of the beginnings of their technology that that foundation is “believed” rather than historical record. Zarkon likes the name Koltor, a mythological Galra figure known for being a conqueror. We’re supposed to view these two as just a normal couple, but even here we’re being shown that Zarkon is a dictator through his admiration for a mythological figure known for being a conqueror, and we’re shown that Honerva is totally comfortable with dictatorial power because she’s willing to embrace Zarkon’s wanting to name his son after a conqueror. Honerva is not a good person to whom bad things happen, even this scene shows her to be a terrible person.

A Galra tells Haggar that Commander Mar has returned. He’s on a table, hooked up to some medical system. Another Galra tells Haggar that she found Mar near death. Haggar is only interested in what Mar knows, not his health, so she uses her magic. Mar tells Haggar that he located Lotor’s generals, who attacked him and took over his ship (matching what we learned about them in 7x03 “The Way Forward”). Haggar asks Mar about Lotor, and she tortures him when he doesn’t answer. He convulses and screams. Mar says, “The generals said Emperor Lotor accessed the quintessence field.” They told him this in the middle of their taking over his ship? He continues to tell her that Voltron attacked, that there was an explosion, that Lotor and Voltron perished. Haggar kills Mar. She still wants to find Lotor. Haggar exits the room and calls for a Kral Zera.

The flash transition between scenes helps indicate that we’re moving into another flashback. As previously seen at the end of “The Legend Begins,” Zarkon is covered as if dead on a table on a Galra ship, and he regains consciousness. There is an animation error in this. The wide shot shows only one table, Zarkon’s. Then, after he sits up, there’s a second table beside him where Honerva would be laying, but she’s sitting on the floor beside her table. Neither Honerva’s table nor Honerva sitting beside it are shown in the wide shot. The beginning of this scene is the same animation from “The Legend Begins,” but I didn’t notice the animation error then (I went back and looked just now, and the error is in that episode too). The scene in “The Legend Begins” ends on a shot of Honerva sitting on the floor without any dialog. The scene continues in this episode, with Honerva saying to Zarkon, “Who are you? […] Who am I?” We’re supposed to feel sympathetic toward her because she doesn’t remember who she is. We’re supposed to forgive her for being an abusive parent and genocidal dictator because she doesn’t remember who she is. I refuse to do so.

A doctor is ordered to tend to Honerva, and when she goes to scan her, Honerva grabs the doctor’s wrist, electrocutes her with black electricity. The doctor screams and decays like a corpse in just a few of seconds. Another Galra comes running in and sees to the doctor, who’s named Haggar. We’re supposed to think this is some interesting development, we’re learning where Honerva got the name Haggar from. Because I’m so over this character, I don’t care where she got the name Haggar. It’s yet another act of brutality that this show expects us to forgive Honerva for.

Cut to some time later, Honerva has successfully given birth. I guess we’re supposed to assume that when the Galra thought Zarkon and Honerva were dead that they thought the fetus was dead too? The quintessence that brought Zarkon and Honerva back to life brought baby Lotor back to life too? It could have been interesting if the show had ever examined the effects on Lotor of his having been a fetus in the quintessence field, his assumed death and his being brought back to life alongside Zarkon and Honerva. However, this implication of the story is never brought up.

An attendant brings baby Lotor to Haggar, and she turns from him. We’re supposed to see this transition from Honerva to Haggar through this death and rebirth as being when she lost her maternal instinct, but again, we’ve seen her be callous toward babies before with baby Allura. This is not new. We’ve seen her not caring about the safety of others, how she views others to be used and discarded. It’s not new just because now it’s her son that she wants to discard.

Despite what reaction this episode wants me to have, I am not sympathetic toward Honerva. If anything, it makes me even more sympathetic toward Lotor.

The attendant shows baby Lotor to Zarkon, who responds, “Take him away.” These parents abusing their child begins on the day of his birth. It is irresponsible and offensive of Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery to have created a story that demands the audience forgive parental abuse while condemning the abused child, especially to those of us who have been abused by a parent.

After Zarkon yells a second time, “I said, take him away!” he asks about Honerva. The doctor tells him that she only responds when they give her quintessence but that their quintessence supply is limited. Once alone, Zarkon asks Haggar if she knows who he is. She knows he’s the Emperor. She identifies herself as Haggar. He asks her if she knows of quintessence and if she can find it for him. She says yes.

At the Kral Zera, various miscellaneous Galra rant at each other. One says she has Haggar’s approval. The Archivist appears and is killed by Honerva. She has completely abandoned the Haggar persona. She says, “This flame represents Lotor, son of Zarkon, prince turned emperor, emperor that pierced the veil. And my Altean blood coursed through his veins. But the Galra Empire failed him. It was the Galra blood, deeply boiled in traditions of evil, that tainted him. Your ways weakened a god. The Empire is weak, and now, I will end it.”

The show expects us to have sympathy for this character, but she is an absolutely horrible person. What she says here is horrible. Honerva is absolutely racist. Before, in her Haggar persona, she was shown as racist against anyone who was not fully Galra. At the last Kral Zera in 5x04 “Kral Zera,” she explicitly rejected Lotor, saying to him then, “The blood that so bolsters your claim is also what quells it. You are not full Galra. You are a half-breed.” We’re supposed to think that she’s now abandoned that deeply expressed rejection of him being not pure Galra just because she’s since realized he was her son?

Also, we’re supposed to view Honerva sympathetically despite her here being absolutely racist against the Galra? She not rejecting brutal Galra culture, in which she personally participated for 10,000 years. There’s nothing that shows her being disgusted with herself for her own past behavior, there’s just her changing with the flip of a switch into being anti-Galra now. And the form of her rejection of the Galra is specifically, in her own words, genetic. While she once said his Altean blood made Lotor a bad person, she’s now saying it makes him a good person. She attaches having “Galra blood” with being “evil.” This is not a sympathetic character. Honerva is still, as she always has been, a brutal, horrible person.

I am only halfway through this episode, and it’s making me feel sick.

By having Honerva blame what happened to Lotor on his having “Galra blood,” the show is refusing to have Honerva face the fact that she is responsible for what happened to Lotor. Her and Zarkon’s abuse of Lotor created the toxic environment that Lotor grew up in. It had nothing to do with this racist declaration she’s making now. Despite the creative team of this show writing a story that expects its audience to have sympathy for Honerva, they never write Honerva to have to actually face her own bad behavior. Redemptive plotlines do not work if the character the story is trying to redeem does not have to confront themselves, recognize their bad behavior, and accept the responsibility for their behavior. That’s a huge part of why this show’s attempt to redeem Honerva is so offensive.

Honerva uses her magic to kill all the Galra present.

Flashback. Zarkon on his throne. Haggar standing beside him. Dayak, Lotor’s governess first seen in 6x01 “Omega Shield,” is by his side. Lotor is a really little kid. She does not look like nor sound like Dayak from “Omega Shield,” though. She’s animated as shorter and wider than in Omega Shield, and she is not voiced by the same actor here as she was then. Dayak tells Zarkon that Lotor has been successful at recent trials he was subjected to even though he’s younger than other people are when they are subject to these trials. Dayak talks about Lotor being physically smaller than royal Galra normally are, but that he has the highest ever scores in tactical tests.

Young Lotor says, “All I do, I do in the name of Galra.” Zarkon just stares at him. Lotor continues, “Father, there’s a question I’ve been wanting to ask you.” Zarkon continues to glare, and Dayak apologizes to Zarkon for Lotor “speaking out of place.” Zarkon tells Lotor, “Proceed,” and Lotor says, “I would like to know about my mother. Please, father, what happened to her?” With Haggar standing there, Zarkon says, “I will tell you this and no more: She was my only weakness, but now she is gone.” Lotor asks, “What was her name? What was she like?” Zarkon yells, “Enough!” and Lotor says, “Please father, I must know who I come from.” Zarkon yells, “I said, Enough!”

Zarkon then speaks to Dayak, “If you do not remove his impurities, then I will find a Dayak that can.” So, this show is retconning Dayak. This explains why she looks different and has a different voice actor. In “Omega Shield,” Dayak was her name. Here, given how Zarkon says “I will find a Dayak that can,” Dayak is a title. This is explicitly a retcon.

This Dayak says, “He will be punished accordingly. We will sear him down to his inner fire so that he may burn the universe.”

So, Zarkon, Haggar, and many other adults in Lotor’s life abused him severely.

Back to now, and Honerva has returned again to Daibazaal, which, again, should not exist because it was destroyed by the explosion that sealed the rift. Honerva has a torch that I assume has Lotor’s flame from the Kral Zera burning on it. She sets Kova on a rug in front of the flame. Light starts glowing around them. Honerva’s eyes glow yellow, she gasps, and space imagery swirls. We see Sincline still floating inside the rift. Then we see the pyramid on Oriande, see Lotor slash with his sword at the White Lion. (Remember, Honerva has already killed the White Lion at this point, as seen during “Omega Shield.”) We see Lotor at the Colony, see his statue there, see Sincline fighting Voltron, see Lotor screaming as he dies in the rift. Back in her room, Honerva’s eyes return to normal, and she gasps, “My son!” I guess we’re supposed to feel how much she cares for hi, but it’s offensive that this show expects us to buy into this. Kova is gone. The torch with the flame is gone. As a scene later will suggest, Honerva had to kill Kova for this because Lotor played with Kova when he was young.

The show uses another normal cut to a flashback instead of using a transition that indicates a flashback. It’s a weird choice for the director of this episode, Rie Koga, to have now made twice in this episode.

Now, Lotor is a bit older, standing beside Zarkon, who’s still sitting on his throne. A miscellaneous Galra is informing Zarkon of a request for his presence elsewhere, and Lotor asks to join him. Since in interviews Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery said that they were purposefully trying to make Lotor seem like Zuko until they revealed him to be maniacal like Azula, I guess this is continuing that attempt to copy Avatar The Last Airbender by having Lotor want to attend a meeting with Zarkon the way Zuko wanted to attend a meeting with Ozai. It just reinforces for me that JDS and LM did not understand Zuko and Azula’s characters. It also makes it a lot easier to compare how AtLA tells the story of Zuko’s being abused by a parent and how in VLD Lotor is abused by his parents. It makes JDS’s and LM’s disrespect for what people who’ve been abused go through even more noticeable.

Zarkon says, “You will stay here.” Lotor says, “But I want to join you,” and Zarkon yells, “You are an insolent boy! You may be the prince, but I am your emperor.” Lotor salutes, and Zarkon walks off.

The show had begun its attempt to retcon Zarkon and Honerva long before this episode, but this episode is the first time that the show so fully attempts to manipulate the audience into viewing Honerva and Zarkon sympathetically. But by showing us them abusing Lotor, the show undermines its own attempt to redeem Honerva and Zarkon. This episode makes me hate Honerva and Zarkon even more than I already did.

Kova is suddenly standing in front of Lotor, purring at him. Lotor kneels to pet Kova, and Haggar yells at him, “Do not touch him. He will hurt you.” Lotor pets Kova anyway and asks what Kova’s name is. Haggar says that Kova has no name, but as Lotor goes to name him, Haggar remembers his name is Kova. We’re supposed to think of this as a demonstration of how the quintessence poisoning has warped Honerva’s mind. This moment is trying to reinforce the show’s demand that we view Honerva sympathetically. She remembered her cat’s name, quick everyone, let’s forgive her for abusing her son! Let’s forgive her for letting her husband abuse her son! Let’s forgive her for committing genocide for 10,000 years!

Lotor likes the cat, and Haggar starts to object, and Lotor says, “You may be the High Priestess, but I am your prince, and you will do as I say.” Haggar just meekly says, “Yes, My Lord,” the same way she does to Zarkon. While the show wants us to forgive Honerva for abusing Lotor, it wants us in this scene to feel sympathy for her being bossed around by both her husband and her son. It’s like the scene is blaming Lotor while absolving Honerva.

Honerva arrives at the Colony. She ascends the steps to Lotor’s statue. An Altean (Merla) steps forward from the crowd and demands to know, “What are you doing here? Answer me!”

Honerva tells them her name and that she’s from Altea. Merla says, “That is impossible. Altea was destroyed over 10,000 years ago.” Honerva responds, “A powerful portent that is shared with the birth of my son, Lotor.” I really don’t think that the writer knows what the word “portent” means. A portent is a sign that something calamitous is going to happen. Altea being destroyed is a calamitous event, not a sign that one will happen in the future. Also, the way Honerva says this about the destruction of Altea is like Altea just happened to be destroyed, like it was a natural disaster. But Honerva, as Haggar by Zarkon’s side, is a participant in the destruction of Altea. This is more of this show refusing to have Honerva face responsibility for her own behavior.

Honerva tells them, “Lotor is gone,” and everyone gasps. Merla asks how he died, and Honerva says, “Voltron.”

“To all of you who believed in my son so justly,” she says, while not telling them that she spent most of her life not believing in him justly, “your faith will be rewarded. I have come here today to continue my son’s mission.” Well, since Lotor in earlier seasons repeatedly told us his mission was to find a source of quintessence that would not require the death of living beings so that he could use that source to provide energy to the Galra Empire and then lead them away from being brutal conquerors, we know that Honerva is not here to continue his mission. “And for that, I need you all.”

I think it’s Luca who says, “We are your humble servants.” It’s amazing how quickly this group of people trust someone who only a few seconds ago they didn’t trust. They don’t feel the need for any form of verification about Honerva’s claims. I guess this is being handwaved by their being in a cult that worships Lotor? It just feels like the show once again narratively cheating and not having characters behave realistically. As members of a cult, these people would be even more insular than people normally are, so they would be more likely to distrust Honerva without actual proof. 57 words is all it takes. I counted them. Honerva only speaks 57 words before everyone is ready to do whatever she tells them to do.

Luca asks about the other colony, and Honerva says, “They have also fallen to the evils of Voltron.” Of course, we know they’re dead because Lotor was draining quintessence out of them. So, is Honerva just lying? Or does she actually think that Voltron did what Lotor did to them?

She proclaims, “Voltron and the Galra will pay for what they have done. With your help, I will resurrect my son’s dream.” She doesn’t even know what his dream was. How can I take this character seriously when they just have her saying what effectually feels like random statements?

Merla pledges herself and everyone else (because she is authorized to speak for everyone?) to Honerva. Aside from Allura and Coran, this show really does not impress me with how it depicts Alteans.  Everyone bows to Honerva because it takes so unrealistically very little to sway them.

Cut to Honerva arriving at the white hole of Oriande. Her ship enters the white hole. I guess with the White Lion destroyed, anyone can enter the white hole now? Allura and Lotor were only able to enter the white hole because their facial markings glowed as indication that the two of them were “chosen.” When Honerva arrives at the white hole in “Omega Shield,” her facial markings glowed too. Why was she “chosen?” Why did the show not realize it really needed to explain that? Why did this show think it was okay to have their magical system be so undefined all the time? Also, I still have no idea why the clone of Shiro was affected in “Omega Shield” by Honerva’s assault of Oriande. It makes me wonder if there had been some other story plan and that the clone’s reaction in that episode was setting up something that the show never paid off.

Merla stands beside Honerva on Oriande, pledging to “do anything to bring Lotor back.” I think the Colony Alteans are shown building a building on Oriande? They then also melt down the stone statues that “Omega Shield” suggested Honerva destroyed during her assault on Oriande. Also, given the sound design of Allura and Lotor’s confrontation with these statues in 5x06 “White Lion,” these statues are stone. So why are they being melted now as if they’re metal? I guess, it’s more of the show being inconsistently written and unable (or unwilling) to keep track of its own lore.

Cut from the melting formerly stone but now metal statues to the giant mecha from the battle of 7x13 “Lions’ Pride Part 2.”

Cut to the old command ship/base for the Emperor of the Galra. Lotor is standing on a planet below it, looking up at it. Kova is with him. He’s also with some alien who has a watery voice. She asks him if he’s nervous. He replies, “No [whatever the alien’s name is], this is my chance to finally make a difference, to show my father what we are capable of.” There is a large crowd gathered on the fields in front of the building.

Cut to Lotor and the alien meeting with Zarkon. He tells his father, “Our quintessence yields are some of the highest in the Empire, and we’ve been more efficient than any other. By working along side the denizens of this planet like [the alien’s name] here, we’ve outsourced—” Zarkon turns and screams at Lotor, “You dare work with this pitiful race as if they are your equals?” Lotor calmly says, “It is working. We have out-paced even the most generous projections.” Zarkon yells, “The heir to the Galra throne should not sully our honor by working with his subjects.”

Zarkon has always been a Galra-supremacist, he has always been dictatorial. He is not behaving this way now because of quintessence poisoning. While this episode is part of the show’s effort to absolve Zarkon and Honerva for their behavior, it has the opposite effect for me. It reaffirms for me how horrible the two of them are.

Lotor counters, “It is the way my mother’s people would have done things.” Zarkon is incensed. Lotor continues, “You thought I couldn’t find out about my own mother, about her people? You thought you destroyed every remnant of Altea, but you cannot unless you destroy your own son as well!”

Zarkon yells, “Enough! You are to crush this planet beneath your heel!” Lotor yells back, “Never!” Zarkon continues, “Then I will!”

Lotor starts to beg, “Wait! You can’t!” Honerva just watches. “Father, wait! No. Please do not do this, father. Do not make these people suffer for my actions.”

Zarkon says, “It is already done.”

Lotor says, “I will do as you ask. The people will serve the Galra.” And Haggar hits Lotor with lightning, causing him to scream and fall unconscious.” Lotor regains consciousness to see the planet on fire. Haggar and Zarkon are behind him. Zarkon says, “You are hereby banished from the Empire, forced to live out the remainder of your days remembering your failure here.” Zarkon walks away.

Lotor had previously told Allura about this event when they were making their way to the pyramid on Oriande in “White Lion.”

Haggar remains, and Lotor says, “Have you nothing to say, witch? Surely even you can see the folly of your master’s actions.” She glares at him.

Again, this episode is having the opposite effect that the show wants this story to have. I have absolutely zero sympathy for Honerva. I have zero sympathy for Zarkon. And yet the series ends with the show demanding the audience to forgive them. I have more sympathy than ever for Lotor, and the show assassinated his character for three episodes and killed him in condemnation of his character, only to now return to showing how he was not an evil person but one who was abused by his parents, whom he was desperate to please, but who also was desperate to find a way out of the toxicity of Galra culture. This show is so offensive that they took a character fighting to make things better like Lotor did, apply a cheap surprise twist to declare him to be evil all along, and now show that he wasn’t evil, that those three episodes in which he was retconned to be evil are completely out of character for him.

That the creative team behind this show thinks that Lotor is worse than his parents really says something unflattering about those members of the show’s creative team.

Then cut to Haggar talking to Sendak, who tells her that Voltron has arrived at Earth. She tells him to destroy the Lions. She then shifts into Honerva and tells Merla that with Voltron found, “it is time to test our first Altean acolyte.” Cut to Honerva giving a speech to all the Colony Alteans. The numbers in the crowd beneath her are orders of magnitude larger than the population ever shown on the Colony. There are six mechas along the walls.

Honerva says, “Today, the light of the universe shines inside our most brave. The dream of life is realized through her actions. For Luca, the first acolyte, we shine in Lotor’s bright luminescence.” She tells Luca to “avenge my son.” Luca is put inside the mecha, the mecha powers up, and she travels to Earth.

The episode ends, and I severely hate this episode.

[starfaring-princelotor]

Fourth Taste

Summary: Emperor Lotor finally achieves his life-long goal.

★ Disclaimer: I do not ship Lotura and I respectfully ask that this story to not be tagged as Lotura. This is a Lotor x Reader/Self-Insert OC story which is in no way related to Allura at all. Please be respectful of my chosen pairing.  ★

Warnings: N/A.

A/N: In light of S8, I am making my own canon interpretations.

Touch Series: Part One___Part Two___Part Three___Part Four___Part Five

Taste Series: Part One___Part Two___Part Three___Part Four___Part Five

Sight Series: Part One___Part Two___Part Three___Part Four

Allura was never one for sitting idly when there was work to be done. She supposed that was another thing she had in common with Lotor. With their advancements on the Sincline ships thanks to her knowledge gained from Oriande, it would only be a matter of time before her - their goal of peace can be achieved. So, why then, was she here of all places?

“Hm,” you removed the stethoscope from her back then unplugged them from your ears, “When was the last time you had a good night's rest?”

“Oh, I...A few days ago, just after we planned to bring in leaders from neighboring planets for a diplomatic - “ she paused, noticing you staring unblinkingly and rather sternly at her, “Ah, yes, well, I suppose it has been quite some time.”

“You may feel fine, Allura, but the overexertion is taking a bigger toll on you than you think.” Arms crossed, you glanced down at your screen, “The reason why you fainted earlier could be due to stress.” “Doctor, I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine, really. Coran has been making sure I eat my meals and Lotor even suggested I get myself checked out. That’s why I am here. I assure you, I’ve never felt better.”

Silence. If there was one thing she found unnerving, it was that you were always the quiet, unflinching type. Your eyes never left hers, but Allura stood firm and smiled softly to show that, really, this was unnecessary. Alteans and humans have different bodies and tolerance levels for stress, so the Princess was unsure why you were intent on keeping her here any longer when she could be helping Lotor.

“Your blood pressure is a little high and I noticed an odd heart palpitation during the examination. Allura, both of these combined can be the cause of your fainting spell. Are you aware of any heart conditions or possible illnesses that would otherwise affect your daily activities?”

She was an alchemist. These body issues are something she doesn’t understand. She opened her mouth to answer, but found that she didn’t actually have one.

“How long has this been going on? The stress.”

Allura shook her head, knowing that denying won’t help, “Aren’t we all stressed from this war? I must do everything I can to help, surely you understand.”

“I do understand - “

Part of her really doubted that and much of that doubt came from her distrust in you.

“-but Allura, you are more helpful alive than stuck in a coma.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have been with you since Shiro located me. I have made sure you’re all in top fighting form, both in body and mind,” a pause as you gathered your thoughts carefully, “I know of your sacrifices, your many sacrifices, and as a doctor, I would like to make sure you are fine mentally. It may not be obvious, but mental health can have direct consequences on the body if left untreated over a long period of time.”

“Doctor, I assure you, I am not mentally ill,” a tone of finality, of we will speak of this no more.

Allura shifted off the table to fully stand, the conversation making her slightly uncomfortable. She was a PRINCESS. She was fine, she knows her limits, why weren’t you listening to her? No matter, there were more important things to do at hand. She was not crazy or whatever you were hinting at. She was NOT. She was just...tired. Yes. She needed rest.

You thought otherwise based on your expertise, but there was nothing you could do to make her see that maybe, just maybe, the life and death sacrifices, the times she survived, the fighting, supporting Voltron, all of it, were red flags at a crumbling mentality. Yes, this is war. No one you knew came out the same or even sane. You knew that all too well.

“Alright. The quintessence in your body is being drained at an exceedingly fast rate, which I can only assume is because of the Sincline ships being created.” Turning to the cabinet, you read over the labels carefully, “Ah. Here. This medicinal powder is made from Balmeran herbs. Mix it in your drink in the morning and it should rejuvenate your body from over straining your quintessence levels. Do not forget to rest more.”

If there was one thing you would need time adjusting to, it was technology. Not so much the weapons or the ships. You were familiar with the medical tools at your disposal, but the simple things like this tended to really bring home the fact that you were in space. You were far from the planet you were born in, even if it looked exactly the same last time you were there.

The sand. The ocean. The clouds and the palm trees and the little crabs scuttling away from you. And yet...

Lotor’s footsteps echoing the room was the only thing reminding you this was not real. You turned to face his approaching form, the door behind blending perfectly with the technological mirage. You won’t lie, he stuck out like a sore thumb. Full body armor in an otherwise peaceful paradise - well, a paradise to others - wasn’t exactly fun in the sun wear.

“A beach?” he stated, taking a few seconds to observe the details around him. “You know, good doctor, you are by no means tethered here with ball and chain. If you wish to take a personal leave, I can provide you with an escort to the nearest aquatic planet.”

The Emperor crouched and sat besides you as the imitation waves lapped at both of your covered feet, then after a few seconds, you spoke up, “That’s not necessary. I was just curious to see if this room worked as well as I heard. The Castle of Lions has the same simulator chambers, but it isn’t suited for any other species except Alteans.”

This was such a peaceful scene. The sun was setting, throwing the sky under a spill of angry red and fiery orange rays. Birds were skimming across the horizon. The glow, oh, the glow was just as you remembered it. The sound of rustling trees tingled your ears despite the fact that there was no wind brushing against your skin. No spray of the ocean, no chill of an oncoming night. No wetness from the water.

Fake, but real enough.

“Hunk helped re-calibrate some of the more...technical settings. I was just the guinea pig,” fingers raked through the sand, but you felt none of the grainy texture, “You may change it, if you want.”

“On the contrary, I would like to see more,” Lotor suggested, but you refused him with a shake of your head, “No? Then may I ask about this place?”

You nodded.

“This is Earth, I presume? Your home?”

“No, not mine. My father’s home. This is where he was born,” short answer, but it was detailed enough for him, “...I visited after he died, when I was honorably discharged. This was my first time seeing it.”

Now, Lotor was no blind man. He was no fool. For every moment you shared with him, he took with an ounce of gratitude. Expecting any more than you were willing to give would only make his itch unbearably annoying to hold back. Tempering himself to not push so hard, not yet, the act of discovery is only half the fun, was difficult. So, he liked to work with what he got.

“The ocean swallowed his home island the year after. It doesn’t exist anymore.”

“You miss it,” Lotor stated based on the far-away glaze in your eyes.

“I miss what I could’ve experienced growing up there. But miss it? No, not particularly,” perhaps the disconnect should have worried you after all this time, “Do you have something like that, my Emperor?”

Somewhere he missed, somewhere he could have experienced great things growing up there? Yes, but the simulator works off memories and how could he possibly have memories of extinct planets? Lotor closed his eyes, letting the computer change the room from soothing sunsets to complete darkness, then slowly rebuilt from the ground up. White water, a pinkened sky, ancient buildings of Altean knowledge.

“Where is this?” your curious voice asked, clearly interested in this somewhat heaven-esque world.

“Oriande. Beautiful, is it not?”

You said nothing, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. Pretty? Yes, but what truly made a place special was the context behind it and you were interested in what story he had to share, what piece of himself he gave in return for your vulnerability. A fair exchange of sorts, one you both agreed to long ago.

“I always wanted to be an explorer when I was younger and finding Oriande was the pinnacle of my discovery,” he started with a bit of a bitter undertone, “An honorably revered homage to the Alteans of old and the secrets they keep there. Truly, it was an experience I would never forget.”

Yes, he did not gain the knowledge of alchemy, but just finding the place was good enough. Just one of his childhood dreams achieved, to retain a piece of his lost heritage. You two soaked in the ambiance of the view. Him, reflecting on his actions and his choices. You, committing that his lost Altean history is what pushed him to strive for the urge of discovery in the first place.

Soon enough, the imagery faded and the lights revealed an empty, blank room, “Shall we, good doctor? I believe I have an appointment with you soon.”

Lotor stood to his full height, a hand held out in offering. You accepted with little hesitation on your end.

“Emperor Lotor, I have a request.”

Both of them paused their work to face you, Allura from the ship and Lotor from the screen. Normally, it would be ideal to take whatever proper procedures you needed to formally ask for access, but by now you figured that you were somewhat in the Emperor’s good graces. You approached him just as the Princess grouped up, as well.

“What is it, good doctor? Did you need more of my blood samples?”

“No, I have enough,” you pulled out the black vial and Allura’s brows rose, “I’d like to have access to the quintessence stock in order for me to experiment with combining its properties with this.”

Ah, yes. The miracle drug that saved your life. He was able to break down the components with the sample you gave him, but was otherwise unable to explore its properties any further. Perhaps this would be the perfect opportunity for you to carry on his work while he continued with -

“Absolutely not,” Allura spoke, making both heads turn, “Certain quintessence can lead to harmful effects if used improperly.” “I am aware. I have read about it and this is why I believe it can help completely bypass the after effects when administering this drug,” you argued back, perhaps a little offended she thought so careless of you, “If it works, then I can mass produce this and aid those who need it. Like the Coalition forces. I know they lack medical supplies for refugees- “

“We can not risk over exposure of quintessence to those who are sensitive to it,” the Princess interrupted, your lip twitched, “Perhaps after the ships are made, I can lend a hand with your research. This is too dangerous work with alone.”

You kept your lips sealed in a firm line, completely unsatisfied with her answer. Yes, you read Honerva’s research. Yes, you finished reading upon Galra biology down to a molecular level. Yes, you knew what you were doing. Using the drug on yourself proved it worked with humans, but other species? Galras? Taujereens? Olkarions? You must perfect it before introducing it to other scientists for aid.

Lotor placed a hand on her shoulders, “Allura, I think this is an excellent opportunity at hand. Doctor, I will give you access to certain strains of quintessence that our own medical officers have used before. There are some notes on file when I started my own experiments with the Witigue drug. They are yours.”

“Thank you, my Emperor,” you gave him a curt nod, “When the both of you have the time, I would appreciate it if you overlooked my work. It would help to have pairs of fresh eyes to collaborate with me and make sure the quintessence is as useful as weapons as it is for healing.”

Allura’s concerned expression only grew more worried. Infusing quintessence and medicine? Nothing of the sort has been done before since quintessence on its own was already useful, though she knew not every unique body would accept it without harmful after effects. Perhaps Lotor was right. The sooner you cracked the code, created a drug every species can use, then the sooner the people can start healing from the war.

You stared holes into her back as she walked away. This was why you willingly joined Lotor. She held you back whereas he encouraged your freedom. And yet, it still did not get through to her that she may be a Princess, but you were not her subject. And you swore you would never blindly take orders from higher ups again.

“Anything else I can help you with, doctor?”

“Not now. We shall discuss more...later.”

Lotor was a man of luxury. Did he have it in his life? During his exiled years, no, he did not. He struggled some nights to survive the cold and there were days he was ever so grateful to have a roof over his head. Now, as Emperor, it took awhile for him to adjust to the lush lifestyle. Imagine his surprise when he found you sitting on the edge of his bed, patiently waiting for him.

“Are the rooms not up to your standards, darling?”

“No, they are fine, my Emperor.”

His ears twitched at that title leaving your lips.

“Then, pardon my assumption, do you wish to sleep here tonight?” he boldly suggested with an easy, welcoming smile on his lips.

“Perhaps, but that’s not why I am here,” you said, “I wanted to give you an update on my research. If you have the time, that is.”

“Allura has decided to call it a night and there is not much I can do without her alchemic powers. Come, may I join you?”

What an odd thing to hear. Lotor asking permission to be in his own bed. An Emperor, nonetheless. Either way, you nodded, and he headed to his closet to begin undressing. You turned away to give him some modesty while he stripped his armor off. Since when did it bother you to look at him? You’ve seen his body in the office. This...this was a different setting.

“I managed to isolate the compound that triggers the residual pain - “

Out of the corner of your eye, you could see him starting to peel his body suit down to his hips before slipping on a modest shirt.

“- and the medical officers were able to greatly help speed up the process. We have not yet tested it - “

Lotor tugged the rest of his suit down, letting it fall as he stepped out of it. The dark room did well to shadow his chiseled body and make his sharp features look even more prominent. His toned legs and smooth thighs soon became covered by silken fabric, fingers deftly tying the string in place.

“ - and...that is why I am here. Although I have completed step one faster than I expected, we have not been able to proceed to step two. Experimentation.”

Though, you highly doubted space mice were an available option to choose from, especially since you were sure Allura would straight up drain your life force with a blink of an eye. No, you needed to find an animal that had the same biological properties like an Altean or a Galra, but you were unaware if such creatures even exist anymore.

“Ah, yes. How can one check the efficiency of an experiment without a test subject?” Lotor mused, stepping to the other side of the bed before taking a seat, his weight leaving an indentation, “No space bunnies available, hm?”

Lotor leisurely laid on his side, arm propping up his head, then stared at you. Or rather, observed. Shoulders were lax, expression calm, the gears in your mind turning as you gazed right back at him. Of course, he himself was the epitome of relaxed right now. He gets to keep his brain occupied with another little experiment in his claws. You.

“I...suppose I can work with them. It may take weeks or months to finalize a firm result, though.”

“How about me?”

“What about you?”

You tilted your head a bit with your brows lowered in suspicion. Was he insinuating what you think he was? And why did he look so...willing to do it? His lids were hooded and you could see that there were shadows under his eyes. Overworked? You wouldn’t be surprised. Both Allura and Lotor didn’t know their limits. It will get them killed one day. Or maybe, they weren’t aware of their body’s limits?

“Why not try experimenting on me? After Sincline is finished, of course,” Lotor’s voice was steady, yet strangely flippant as if he wasn’t suggesting live experimentation on PEOPLE.

“I do not think...that would be wise, Emperor Lotor.”

“What is your second choice?”

Second choice? Second choice was...using it on yourself. It isn’t like you haven’t injected Witigue within your body before and you were confident in your knowledge of chemistry and molecular biology. You could handle it, you’ve done it plenty of time to ensure your own survival. Now, though, it would be in the name of science.

“Myself.” “Hm. Me, or you,” he played with those few words, knowing that now your blurred morality line would be almost impossible to differentiate, “I swore I would let you explore my body. This is part of it and in the name of science, I am willing to do it. We need not smear protocol for this, good doctor.”

I am doing this to keep my end of the deal.

Judging by your silence, you were honestly considering it.

“I will...try to find alternatives before taking your options as a last resort.”

He had expected you to promptly leave after that final word, but imagine his surprise when instead, you casually laid in his bed. Interesting, but not at all unwanted. Lotor opened the blankets in offering, thinking that perhaps you would not mind another night of his arms securing you while you slept.

In all honesty, he wasn’t tired at all. The thrill of being so close to his goal, reaching peace within the empire, unlimited quintessence -

“What are your next plans after this?”

Lotor leisurely slid his arm around your waist, not tugging, but you weren’t pulling away either. In fact, his eyes dilated when he felt the tips of your fingers skim over his covered hip in an almost teasing adventure. Once your palm fully rested on the dip of his waist, you sidled up to his chest as you kept your gaze firm with his. The question. What do you plan on doing?

“Planets whose resources are critically strained due to my father’s unsustainable practices will be tended to first. A little humanitarian services is long overdue, no? We will need the Olkari’s help on this. Having their engineering knowledge may further aid in siphoning and transporting quintessence across the universe.”

A noble choice after ending the war. Unlike Lance, you knew that just releasing enslaved planets when their resources were otherwise drained to near unreparable would only end up sentencing them to starvation and death. Ten thousands years made societies rely on the Empire for survival, even if the decision was ultimately out of their hands.

“With Voltron and Sincline, I can begin work to restore the Empire as a whole. Those who claimed disloyalty and wrought destruction in the wake of my crowning will be stopped,” Lotor paused, only because he hadn’t noticed your hand had made its way up to his cheek, “Times are changing for the better. And those who do not change with it, will…”

You cupped his jaw, stroked his cheekbones softly, and he unceremoniously let out a big yawn with his fangs glinting in the night. A content groan escaped his chest, now realizing how comfortable he was. How his mind seemed to have calmed down from the days’ rushing thoughts. Did this pillow always feel so good? Or the comforter so warm? Ah, the luxuries. It made him weak.

“Do you plan on staying?”

Lotor’s eyes slid closed.

“Staying with…”

Me.

“Doctor, you checked them out for flight, yes?”

“Yes, Coran. Physically, they are fit. I saw no problems with their body’s health and I did make sure they had a full days rest before today’s launch.”

Coran’s concerns were coming from a good place, you knew. He was practically Allura’s father at this point, watching over her and giving advice when needed. Even sharing the same pain and comforting each other in the face of a daunting reality that they were both the last living Alteans in the universe. You understood their connection. Perhaps not relating to it, but you understood it.

“Shouldn’t we be a little more concerned about this? I mean, last time anyone went in the quintessence field, Zarkon turned evil,” Lance piped in, clearly disgruntled by the entire plan.

“Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts,” your attention switched to Shiro, “The quintessence field didn’t create them. It revealed them.”

No. That wasn’t right. You read Honerva’s research, handled quintessence yourself, and there was nothing that supported his claim. Then again, Shiro faced Zarkon himself. He battled him for the lion, but just based on your own findings, it felt like something was...missing. A major component about the Rift and the quintessence. If what he said was true, then either you were immune to it or you were unaware of the effects.

But you felt fine. Nothing out of the ordinary, except perhaps feeling a little more...light around Lotor. You were more inclined to believe that was just the friendship between you two. The growing something between you two. Something you only saw as respect for him. Lotor only solidified that respect when you told him no a week ago.

Of course you expected him to listen as anyone should, but you noticed he did more than that.

“We’re prepared just in case there is an accident,” you explained to the group, “If the quintessence does anything to their bodies, I will be the first to know. The second they are heading back, I assure you, I'll run a full physical on the both of them. Right now, I have their vitals up on my screen.”

Part of you was also...excited about this discovery. Was quintessence the true reason why the universe fell into 10,000 years of suffering and loss?

So far, nothing strange. Perhaps their hearts picked up the closer they got to the ruined Daibazaal remains, perhaps your own was beating loudly in your chest as Coran counted down until the ship would reach the gate. You didn’t care for war. You didn’t. You cared that there was something left afterwards, something that would show you there was a future for all.

The chart readings went blank the second the ship disappeared in a blinding light.

“You know, Shiro, I never did like waiting,” you told him out of the blue as seconds turned to minutes, “That’s what I like about you. The soldiers get jobs done, the medics wait for the inevitable.”

He placed a reassuring hand on your shoulder, understanding your message that would have been odd or offensive to any other person in the room. War does that to people. They force strangers to connect in a bond no other could experience. You couldn't say this to Coran or Hunk and expect them to know what nonsense you were spouting without giving you some form of pity. Giving you distance with a cautious gaze. Isolating you.

Shiro took a deep breath. He knows what you’re asking.

Is this the end of it all?

“Don’t worry, doctor. You know what I always say. Patience yields - “

The blaring red screen cut him off suddenly, announcing that there was something wrong. No, not wrong, just an incoming ship? Your brows furrowed in confusion. They couldn’t be back already. Your screen didn't pick up their returning vitals. Everyone’s eyes focused on the large screen showing a very much different ship than they expected. Wasn’t that...an Altean pod?

“Shiro, it’s Keith.”

“Keith! A-Are you okay?”

“Where’s Lotor?”

And just like that, the air in the room became cold. Frigid.

“Emperor Lotor is with Allura in the quintessence field. They managed to get through and should be returning shortly with their results,” you explained, to which Keith only replied with two words.

“Oh, no.”

Everyone went down to the docking station, you included. Keith sounded grim, you could even go as far to say a bit scared. The sound of the ship opening was unsettling and when he finally approached you all, that’s when you noticed he looked different. Vastly different from the last time you saw him at the coalition headquarters. He was more...stern. Unmoving. Resolute in his eyes.

“We need to stop Lotor. He’s been lying to all of us!”

“Wh-Lying? About what?” Shiro asked, hesitated in asking, and it was rare he was ever caught off guard.

“Everything!”

The sound of a new voice demanding attention left everyone shocked in surprise. And, ashamed to say, even you. Two women and a wolf? A Galra who wore the same suit as Keith and an Altean, an actual Altean, revealed themselves. The group began bombarding the newcomers with questions, Keith too, but the only thing you could focus on was the little girl.

Another Altean. A living Altean. Something...something was not right. Something was missing.

Your mind reverted back to your old habits. Everything you thought of, from meeting Lotor up until now, nothing seemed out of place. You had every information available at your beck and call. Everything about him you discovered on your own. Everything about Lotor and his motives for a better future. This...this life long experiment couldn’t be a mistake. It couldn’t.

You both entered this with a mutual agreement of respect in mind. The evidence was clear as day. So then, why the accusations against him? Why was the mere presence of this Altean setting your mind on edge? Why did that seething tone in her voice send a familiar chill down your spine? And why was it hard to breath?

“This is Romelle. And I think she should tell her own story.”

[ganymedesclock]

I’ve made bitter sort of posts in the past comparing Ulaz and Regris to Narti in terms of fandom reception and I guess what it boils down to, is, every time I go into Narti’s tag I find at least one post that says “she deserved better!” but has very little substance or thought into her character.

And the thing about Ulaz and Regris is both of them were alive for only one episode and in Regris’s case, said very little. He was a guy who got rescued by Keith and then got blown up in an exploding ship. But they’re given a lot more substantial fanwork, people develop entire complex relationships and backstory for them.

I’m not saying you should feel bad if you’re interested in Ulaz or Regris. Rather, my feelings are... it just feels like there’s this very passive acceptance of if Narti’s gone we’ll never see her again, we can’t think of her any more.

This is an incredible inventive fandom full of creative energy and a lot of really talented people. I refuse to believe that we can just give up on a character so easily, especially when we’ve made more out of characters we’ve known so much less about.

Who was Narti? What was her history with Kova, with Haggar, with Lotor, with the other three generals? We don’t even know the other side of her heritage or if her powers are normal for them. There’s so much to explore, and so much we were given. With that in mind, this post turned into a sort of, looking over Narti’s canon because there’s actually a fair bit there.

Of her own team, Narti seems the closest to Ezor- Ezor thinks about how Narti might feel about something even when Narti is not seemingly in the conversation or paying attention. This is noteworthy since Ezor can be rather cruel with others (her pulling the face of the Puigian leader) which suggests Ezor cares about Narti’s feelings quite a bit.

Her comment about “no offense” after she says the Lions on Thayserix would be blind and Narti’s casual body language would also suggest that Narti is not very upset about being blind- if anything, Ezor thinks she might be offended by the idea that being blind makes it easier to take advantage of someone.

Narti is very fond of Kova, as she can be seen stroking him in s3e1 and often carries him on her shoulders. It’s very clear that Kova is not merely a seeing asset to Narti, but a friend and companion. This would suggest Narti is, at least on occasion, sentimental and affectionate towards people she considers closely attached to.

At the same time, this is contrasted by the very obviously callous way that she lets go of both of the Puigian leader and Throk once she’s done controlling them- she basically throws both of them onto the floor.

So Narti is very fond of certain people, and operates on strong emotional bonds- Ezor states that Narti trusted Lotor, not merely worked for him or with him, and this is reinforced that Narti pointedly does not defend herself when he rushes towards her in s4e3.

This lines Narti up neatly with her Voltron counterpart, Pidge, who is a prickly and distant person towards people she doesn’t like or isn’t comfortable with, ranging from irritable and snappy to sardonically amused at their misfortune (as she is in s4e2 with the bomb merchant). 

It’s very likely that however Narti chooses to communicate, she only does so with people that she trusts very closely. Given the information-based operating style of Team Sincline, it’s clear that Narti’s associates have no problem understanding her or knowing her feelings, but to others, she can be quite an enigma.

When it comes to expression, Narti does not flex her features to emote. However, she can be noted to on many occasions turn her face to point at people. As Narti’s upper face is smooth, without any scarring or leftover eyelids, it’s an easy assumption that Narti’s blindness is congenital in nature- whether or not this is normal or common for her non-galra lineage, her body did not develop eyes when she was first growing. Thus, she would have been blind her entire life except through the eyes of others.

This would tell us that for Narti, pointing her physical face at others is either a learned behavior for social reciprocity.

This is also seemingly sometimes an indication of interest from Narti, such as during her fight with Pidge and Hunk, when she attacks Hunk, she points her face at Pidge’s position, suggesting her focus is on Pidge.

Narti is both quite strong and incredibly fast, and doesn’t appear to have shown obvious fear or hesitation so far. If anything, there are a few times in both s3e2 and s3e6 where, when fighting an opponent, she moves slowly and languidly or waits for them to ready their defenses before attacking. 

This might suggest Narti, like Ezor, has a playful streak and sometimes toys with opponents. Again, as she’s set up thematically as Pidge’s counterpart, for Narti this could be motivated specifically by curiosity- that Narti is more encouraged to play with those who strike her as interesting, or who pose some sort of a challenge- with her main targets for “toying” being the rooftop snipers and Pidge, while with other opponents she is very efficient and does not hesitate.

On several occasions she can be observed to swish her tail without any particular objective, suggesting that she uses it to express herself.

Narti is a competent pilot, and along with Acxa, piloted the comet ship against Voltron, making her one of very few characters that has engaged Voltron directly in mecha-vs-mecha conflict and survived the encounter. Both her tail, and seemingly her toes, are prehensile, and in s3e6, Narti ambushes Throk by dropping down on him from above showing that she is able to climb across ceilings, and, presumably, walls.

Underneath her hood she has small, high-set ears.

Narti’s tactics as an ambusher who often strikes opponents suddenly from behind and the fact that she seemingly does not commonly offer opinions through the avenues available to her would suggest Narti has a tendency towards patience and industriousness- she doesn’t always feel the need to directly intervene or commentate on situations, even though in her setting, it’s clear her voicelessness does not hold her back.

When Narti appears to speak through the Puigian Leader and Throk, she does so in a fairly dispassionate and concise manner. While the Puigian leader adopts a more tense, concerned tone to Throk’s dreamlike indifference, the word choice is similar- both conversations consist basically entirely of matter-of-fact statements that, at least on the surface, appear to lack opinions.

This suggests Narti has a rather analytical mind and tends to evaluate situations, and to speculate a bit, I suspect would voice her emotions, if she does at all, in a very indirect sort of manner, making observations that are tinted with particular feelings.

[inke-ri]

So I actually liked vld season 7

Some of it anyway. I still have some beef with it. Normally I don’t really post my thoughts but I wanna get it out of my chest c: gonna stick just to the Good Things on this post since it got out of hand!

Warning: LONG POST and since I’m on mobile idk how to put it under a read more!

*** [Good Things]

So many good things honestly.

• FIRST OF ALL: THE MUSIC! THE ANIMATION! THE BACKGROUNDS! THE CHOREOGRAPHY!! More than any plot these workers deserve so much credit <333

• Everything about episode 1. From learning of the beginning of Keith’s and Shiro’s friendship to the shenanigans with the yelmore. As a med student though, I wish they would explain a bit more about this mysterious disease he had and why is it apparently “gone” now.

• Cosmo. Everything about this space pupper. I love that he’s being included far more than the other pets because it was always pretty clear to me he’s very protective of keith and doesn’t appear to like leaving his owner’s side. ALSO I LOVE HOW BIG HE IS. HE’S BIGGER THAN PIDGE IN SOME SHOTS.

• I’m digging the Generals’ new outfits. Noice.

• LANCE DEFENDING PIDGE. Yes yes yes. I love how much he cares for her. I really wish she had become his love interest instead of Allura. Still! They had quite a few sweet moments c:

• Space mice are back to helping the team too heck yes

• “The Feud” is both kinda endearing but also my least favorite episode of the series. Since this part is about the good things: Everything about Lotor. Zarkon calling Lotor names. It was so DOTU I loved it so much

• THE DRUID IS BACK!! I loved that the druid was back. I really really wish they had expanded on WHY the druids are like that and HOW do they get their powers. They appear Galra. Are they a breed Haggar experimented on? They seem to almost idolize her. Gimme more info on the quiznaking Druids season 8 plEASE

• KEITHS WEIRD QUINTESSENCE POWERS VOLTRON PLEASE -PLEASE- EXPLAIN - as a side note I 110% believe the purple quintessence coming from Keith’s hands in when he unlocks Black’s wings in season 6 is that very power of his, not Shiro’s spirit or whatever

• Keith’s and Krolia’s goodbye. It was so emotional. I love that Keith has the maturity to understand that she has to leave- not because of a “mission” but because so many Blades she was shown to CARE FOR were gone. For all the “greater good” the Blades were about, they did seem to care. I love how gentle Krolia was with Kolivan too. I wonder if Kolivan is the Shiro to Krolia’s Keith.

• I originally had mixed feelings about the Floating In Space episode because both Keith and Allura felt OOC at first. But y'know what? I’ve come to like it. Keith had been acting like the Perfect Leader™ since he came back, as if his issues had all faded away when he and Black really became a team. But truth is, they weren’t. Keith was responsible for his team now, and they were floating in space, nearly dying, and the paladins were talking about QUITTING. Keith didn’t do his job well enough. Keith failed, failed them and FAILED as a leader, or so he felt: he let them down JUST LIKE IN SEASON 4 and now they’d all die. He was tired and not thinking properly so OF COURSE his basic instinct flared up: “leave them so they wont kick me out first”. As someone who likes the idea of keith and allura together, I really didn’t get Keith’s sudden outburst against Alfor, but… He might have done it to push Allura’s buttons. He KNOWS her, he KNOWS she’s the one who would argue the most (like in s4), so he instinctively tries to get her off him already- and because he knows her so well he goes for something that he knows is a low blow. Thing is, that made Allura’s own hurt feelings flare up (and the rest of the team’s). Allura might have understood where he was coming from in s4, but she was clearly sad that he still chose the Marmora over them. Even if she GETS it, it still HURTS. The whole team HURT. And now Keith was trying to push them away AGAIN. They were PISSED. They had trusted him 100% even though he abandoned them and now he was leaving again?!

BUT THEN!! DEVELOPMENT!! This time team Voltron WILL NOT let Keith go. Will NOT kick him out no matter how hard Keith tries to make them do it (thanks Hunk!!). And that helps Keith to FINALLY admit how much he cares and allows him to put them right up there with Shiro and Krolia when it comes to people HE wont give up on, people he now KNOWS wont give up on him. He may have called them “friends” but.. Keith isn’t that good with expressing how much he cares. He’s always a little hesitant when it comes to sharing his feelings (you’re LIKE a brother to me vs you’re MY BROTHER). He does mean family. He’s just being Keith :)

• I actually genuinely liked the Earth two-parter. I never thought Sam could carry an episode like that but damn. U go babe. I loved Colleen too. AND VERONICA YEA GIRL

• Kincaid and Griffin OWN MY HEART I SWEAR-

• Bless non-evil-Galra-Prince AJ LoCascio. Even though I got whiplash in some scenes like “wait he sounds like Lotor wtq” most of the times I didn’t even notice. So glad they decided to keep him around! He has a superb voice.

• Katie reuniting with her family!! LANCE reuniting with his family!! “uncle lance” yes pls ;w;

• Hunk’s flashbacks ;-; I feel so bad for the baby I’m so glad his family is safe now. I loved seeing how cooking isn’t really just for food when it comes to Hunk, I love that his mom and aunt (i’m assuming??) actually let us viewers understand that every time hunk cooks he’s more interested in sharing company and spending time together. Just. Yes <3

• Iverson apologizing to Keith + petting Cosmo heck yea. Griffin and Keith ignoring their differences, nice.

• KEITH COMFORTING HUNK. He might not be as comfortable saying emotional words like “love” or “family” to the team as he is around Shiro and Krolia (understandably), but you can see he cares just as much. Also YES let him be hugged more. He clearly loves it.

• All those conformations of paladins!! Keith/Pidge/Allura -> Pidge and Keith. Yes!! Keith and Hunk! Lance and Hunk!! A+ hell yea

• All the shoutouts to previous seasons!! The reflective shields from S6ep1. Keith understanding sign language this time!! Pidge distracting the guards by being silly (but in a very Pidge way) while Keith goes around like in season 1!!!

• Really nice touch of having Allura give up the crystal in her tiara to save Shiro. Their friendship is so precious <3 Also bonus points since this was likely what allowed Shiro to sense Atlas’ quintessence- the new arm still DOES have a connection to his brain so, like, so does the crystal :’D

• Speaking of Atlas, I’m neutral on it? So long as it doesn’t keep showing up as a robot I’m good. I just don’t get why it gets defense upgrade when it turns into a robot? Regardless though, it seems wayyy too big and clumsy. So hopefully it’ll remain just a ship in most eps.

• I did love the smaller earth fighters tho! Blonde + Freckles Whose Name I Can’t Spell Sorry grew on me. Also, ships’ designs are awesome. Honestly so long as Earth Team doesn’t end up in the LIONS I’d be happy. I feel like they might though. Oh well.

• LANCE. JUST HOW MUCH LANCE MATURED. THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THIS SEASON. He barely joked around this time!! He really showed how he supports the team. I LOVE to see Keith depending on and trusting Lance to be his second in command. THAT’S what I always wanted for the two of them. - Bonus: I loved how Keith fell back for a second on his old habits by going all “don’t miss the shot” or whatever cause really that’s exactly what their rivalry was about. Early Series Lance would get back at him without batting an eye. But he remained focused and alert! Lance’s development is more subtle but this is EXACTLY the same point Keith was when Kuron started calling him worthless. Keith had GROWN, and those things didn’t bother him anymore. Likewise, Lance has GROWN. He’s an adult who takes things seriously now and doesn’t waste time with silly bickering. Just. Yes. While lowkey, this is just as satisfying to me because unlike Keith we actually SAW all the stages of Lance’s growth. (We didn’t see all the conversations Keith and Krolia had on the space whale). Just. Lance. Bless him.

• I still prefer Sendak’s season 1 design. That said, he was a marvelous villain- more than any other he really represented all that was evil in the Galra Empire so I enjoyed him. Zarkon was into the lions for personal reasons, Haggar is more about the Altean thing, Lotor didn’t really care for Voltron since he built Sincline. So yea. I didn’t expect him to be the main villain but I don’t mind.

• Speaking of which, loved the Sendak/Shiro fight! It really felt like all that encompassed the Paladins vs all that encompassed the Galra. And even though I actually didn’t like that Keith was the one to deal the final blow, Keith IS a mix of Galra/Paladin who has good intentions. So… like Lance said early in the season. He’s the future.

• not so sure what to think of the final EP and that weird robot but eh. Assuming it’s from Honerva, I DID like how it showed that Honerva IS different than Haggar… And more dangerous. This was literally a Haggar Robeast but upgraded, because YEA Honerva is much better than her quintessence-cursed counterpart.

• THE FAMILIES!! Shay!! Y'know I’m not usually a multishipper - actually I’ve never done it before - but I love both hunay and hunelle. I’m totally ok with hunelle in an AU and hunay in voltron canon (Hunk clearly cares for her so much that even though I prefer Romelle I can’t go against that precious bean teary smile when Shay showed up.). Besides!! Platonic hunelle is really precious too. ALSO ALSO KOLIVAN AND KROLIA and Krolia is wearing a Leader's version of the BoM suit?? NICE

• Matt is back and looks more handsome than ever! I love the ponytail. I love his design. And his colors. And his new girlfriend?? If I remember correctly from the Naxzela episode the helmeted alien sounded like a girl. ALSO ARE THOSE PUPS BESIDES OLIA HER KIDS?? PRECIOUS PUPPERS

• ROMELLE. we need more of her gdi-

• IS THE ALTEAN MERLA OH GOD LET IT BE MERLA I’M BEGGING YOU-

• Lastly, another of my favorite bits: Piloting the Lions through their bond. It just goes so well with my headcanon that the quintessence of the pilot actually MERGES with the quintessence of the pilot, so much that when they’re connected like that even if the body dies the mind still goes on. The difference for me between this season and what Shiro went through is that the paladins still have their bodies to ground them and help them keep control, while Shiro was just… Lost in the astral plane, barely able to separate his consciousness from the Lion’s (so much that this only happened twice when the paladins were purposely trying to connect with his quintessence/spirit in the astral plane). It’s not as “romantic” as the whole ‘black SAVED SHIRO’ but I really think his time in the Black Lion was really unsettling: not being Shiro and not being Black, but some weird mix of the two (his sarcastic confusion towards lance early in the season also supports this: he wasn’t HIMSELF anymore. Thinking like a normal person and not like a robot is WEIRD for him). It’s a headcanon though but it’s mine and I will fight you on this (actually no pls don’t fight me).

*** Overall!! While not my favorite season (that’s 2 and 6), season 7 wasn’t BAD. Maybe I just had lower expectations since I spoiled myself out of anxiety. It wont be like s2 and s6 where I’ll binge watch the eps over and over again, but it’s pretty comfortable with s1 and s3 in “eh it was fine, ok, I like it”.

[That said, there WERE quite a few things that pissed me off about this season, but everyone is so negative rn and quite a few people already covered part of those reasons, so I wanted to post about good things!! I’ll probably do another post on the Bad Things of this season.]

[darkspellmaster]

Going back to the Voltron squeal ask, what types of characters can you see in a series like that if you made it? Can you see Hazar being that "Villain becoming a paladin" that you described?

Actually Hazar was the person I was thinking of. He fits the bill to a T and would be an interesting character given his standings in the Empire. I would love to see maybe different species involved. Sort of like how in Vehicle Voltron you had the Teams, but in this case maybe smaller groups. 

Like one group uses the original Lions. In this case, since I can’t see them pushing this too far in the future, either it’s the original Paladin’s as adults, or their kids, or someone that has some sort of similar connection to them in some way. Like how Jaden had the connection to Yugi for example. I’d also like to have who’s in the ship switched up. Like for example, if I got to do some sort of weird, all bets are off and it could be anything even out of cannon. Then I would love for it to be like…Black Lion a girl and she’s either the protege of Keith or maybe Allura’s daughter. Blue I think could be Hazar, and if you really want to throw it out on a limb, make him related to Merla and Lotor if possible. If not that’s okay, maybe he embodies a lot of what Lotor was like but also unlike Lotor his past isn’t his weakness and he’s turning it into his strength. I would assume whoever took on red would have to be a spitfire, and if Hazar was the new enemy type, maybe make the red lion a half galra. For green I would see either one of the aliens from the nature planet or from Shays kind. Then for yellow, maybe go for human but have them be the other girl in the group and be, really strong but very girly (like go hog wild with it and have them like frilly things). I would say for the other two teams, have one be based on earth based designs. This one could have a team that’s a bit more by the book and probably based off the Galaxy garrison. I would think that the team would more than likely have Shiro (and if we’re going with what I’d love to see) and Romelle’s kid as the leader of the group here, and have them trying to deal with balancing being the leader to people who may be older than her. I’d like to see a Roy Folker from Macross type as one of the pilots who is trying to deal with being back in part of a team as he lost his in maybe a fight with the new enemy or during the fighting with the Galra that’s probably going to happen in the next few seasons. Kind of a showboat but also someone that really has some serious issues. Not sure about the others in this team, but again, its one where the members are all coming to together as a military unit rather then cadets who are still sort of learning and you don’t need Altean magic on this one. The other one I would say make the rag tag group. This is the group of people that don’t normally get along. I think the last one would be built from the remains of the Sincline ships and this one runs on Galra tech rather than Altean magic. The group for this one is probably lead by a team that formed who didn’t know one another at all. Unlike where Keith and Shiro knew each other and Pidge, Hunk and Lance, also knew each other, and Lance and Pidge knew who Shiro and Keith were, have it be where none of them know each other at all. Make at least two of them be sort of like the Romulans vs the Volcans, where the two sides can’t stand one another but they have to work together. And just for the fun of it, have at least one member of the team on that team be an Alt Altean that fell through a rift. That’s all I got at the moment. 

[pearlynn59]

Growth Spurt

Keith didn't expect his time in the quantum abyss to make things so complicated. Quasi-Kallura one-shot.

Hey did you know that I'm deliberately not working by writing and posting this stuff? Yeah, I don't care.

Also, I could have totally gone a different route with this but I think I need to lay off the M/E rated stories for now hahaha

"You know, Keith, you can change out of your paladin armor."

Keith looked up from the screen and blinked a few times, shocked to have missed both Hunk and Lance coming into the room. It seems he got carried away with charting their course again.

"I can always switch back into the Blades armor if that makes you more comfortable," he quipped as he looked back to the screen. There was some snickering from behind him and he turned to glare at them. "What?"

"You can't fit in your old clothes, can you?" Hunk asked with what Keith could only describe as a giggle.

He fought the flush at the spot-on observation and did his best not to confirm the suspicions of his fellow paladins. Unfortunately, his cheeks felt a little warm and he knew his eyes grew too wide to be considered normal. He was caught.

"I knew it!" Lance exclaimed as he mockingly pointed at Keith. "I knew you got bigger while you were gone!"

"It's not like I tried to get taller!" Keith exclaimed in his own defense.

"What, was your shirt like a crop top?" Lance snickered as he bounded to Keith and ruffled his hair. "Then it'll match your jacket."

"Knock it off, Lance-"

"Or maybe you couldn't tuck your pants into your boots anymore," Hunk offered. "Lance, his jeans are high-waters now."

"Matches his mullet perfectly," Lance cooed with a chuckle. At Keith's pout, he added, "We're just messing with you, bud. I'm sure there's some clothes somewhere on Olkarion that would fit you."

Keith sniffed indignantly as he stood and marched past Lance and Hunk, ignoring their claims that they were just joking, and he made his way down the hall towards his makeshift room. When they finished their battle with Lotor and the Sincline ships, the team had decided they were going to return to Earth for the first time since they left in the Blue Lion in what felt like years ago. However, Shiro's condition seemed to worsen and Keith declared they needed to get him some real medical help, no matter how much Allura claimed she could take care of him.

She had already done so much, and the team was exhausted.

So they set a course to Olkarion, where they would rest and recoup before setting out to go back to Earth. In the meantime, Coran said he would work on creating a ship that would be able to carry him, Krolia, Romelle, and Shiro as well as everyone's belongings while the paladins flew their own lions. That way it wouldn't be as cramped in the cockpits. He even hoped to create a miniature teleduv that would be able to create a wormhole strong enough to send them to the Solar System and cut their travel time down immensely.

After all, Earth was galaxies away and even though the lions were quick fliers, it would take months or even years to get there without a wormhole.

Which brought Keith back to his current situation: none of his casual clothes fit anymore and he'd have to wear his paladin armor until they got back to Earth. When he returned from his mission with Krolia, he had expected time to have flowed the same for his friends. But when he stepped out of the old Altean carrier ship and onto the dock of the Castle of Lions, he saw that the other paladins had not aged a day since he last saw them.

In fact, the only thing that seemed to change was him.

Now, instead of standing a few inches shorter than Lance, he stood eye to eye with him. In fact, now he stood barely two inches shorter than Shiro. His shoulders and chest were broader, thighs thicker, and arms larger. Because of that, the clothes he wore during their downtime were considerably smaller. Lance wasn't far off when he asked if Keith's shirt was closer to a crop top. It only showed off his belly button and pulled too tight on his chest, but it was the same.

He couldn't even pull his pants up over his thighs to confirm Hunk's "high-waters" comment.

So he stayed in his paladin armor. Luckily for him, it adjusted to his body so even after the two-year difference in his body, it still fit like a glove. It was also impeccably clean, which he figured was Hunk's doing, so he told himself to thank the yellow paladin in regards to that later. After he found some clothes that fit him.

Keith slid into his room and shut the door behind him. He pulled all of the upper body pieces of his armor off and set them on the table, then went to the mirror that took up half of the wall next to his bed. The undershirt of the armor could easily be worn, but he didn't want to risk more of Lance's and Hunk's teasing at his lack of clothes.

Unfortunately, the Olkari wore clothes that weren't quite his... style. He knew that they would be more of a fuss than anything so he declined their offer.

He was stuck, really. His eyes went to where his old jacket was draped across the chair at the table, and he sighed. That jacket had been a gift from his father, for him to grow into, and he wore it constantly when he wasn't in uniform for the Garrison or if it was too hot. Even when it was too big, he wore it. It was almost the only thing he had left from his dad. Now, it was just a bit too snug across the shoulders and he couldn't quite lower his arms comfortably without risking a tear.

It seems his favorite jacket would no longer be an option for clothes.

He sighed and roughly pulled his hair into a makeshift ponytail. It was about time he stopped feeling sorry for himself and change his circumstance. His years living alone before Shiro came along and after he was kicked out of the Garrison taught him some skills with a needle and thread, so he could easily get some fabric from the Olkari and make up something that was more to his liking.

He would just need to find some black and red...

A knock on his door tore him from his thoughts and he quickly went to open it. Outside, with her hand hovering in the air to knock again, was Princess Allura. Her eyes had widened when he revealed himself, and they darted to his armor-less body and his tied back hair. He could literally see her swallow before tucking her hands behind her back. The bashful look on her face reminded him of when they ran off together.

He had to fight his own flush at the implications and his own conflicted feelings on the matter. "What's going on, Princess?"

Allura jumped and cleared her throat, then averted her eyes as if she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. "N-nothing. Nothing at all. I was just coming to check on you. Lance said you stormed off and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Keith scoffed and replied, "I didn't storm off. I... left. Abruptly. Because they were making fun of me."

Her expression suddenly turned sympathetic. "Oh, what for?"

He fought that flush again and rolled his jaw as he looked away. "My clothes don't fit anymore. They were giving me grief about it. All harmless, but it was getting a little irritating. So I left."

Allura's face fell and she took a hesitant step forward, crossing the threshold of his room and scooting in with him. "I'm sorry to hear that. I wish we had more time before, I could have grabbed you some of the old clothes we kept in the Castle. I'm sure I would have had something that would have fit you..."

Keith couldn't help but smile. "Thank you, Allura, but I didn't think much of it until I was pulling my clothes out to change and couldn't pull my pants up all the way. There's nothing we could have done about it. I appreciate the thought, though."

Allura's eyes darted around his body, fixating on the broader chest and the larger arms, before sighing and saying, "I suppose you're right. There's no way you could have known that the time in the quantum abyss would have altered your physiology so much. After all, it feels like we just saw you a few weeks ago. It must have been much longer for you."

"Two years."

"Two years," Allura whispered with a nod. Her eyes were still on his chest. "And none of your clothes could be salvaged and worn again?"

He shook his head and reached over to grab his jacket. "Not even this and it was too big before."

Allura's fingers skimmed the material of the jacket, her face thoughtful, and she asked, "Will you throw it all away?"

A thought struck him, a crazy, out of nowhere idea, that would have made the Keith she knew before scream and run for cover. Instead, with two years of wisdom and reflection on his shoulders, Keith merely smiled and extended the jacket to her.

"Not all of it."

Allura met his eyes with an adorably curious expression. "Are you...? No, Keith, I cannot accept this. I know how important it is to you-"

"And that's why I want you to have it," he murmured. "You're important to me, too."

Her cheeks turned a beautiful shade of red and she gingerly took the jacket from him, their fingers grazing, and clutched it to her chest. "Th-thank you. I will treasure this gift."

His heart bloomed with warmth. "Great. Now, can you help me get some fabric and thread? I want to make something that I can wear until we get back to Earth. To shut up Lance and Hunk."

Allura smiled and led him out to the hallway while she pulled the jacket over her shoulders and threaded her arms into the sleeves. As her hair fell over the back of the jacket, almost obscuring it entirely, Keith felt that warmth flutter to his belly and threaten to make a wide grin spread across his cheeks.

That shade of red looked incredible on her.

[larathia]

Lotor’s Plotting

Before we begin, just look at the title again please. This post covers only what we can observe as having been said or done up through Season Five. Lotor plays his cards fairly close to his chest, so on the whole I'm going to be focusing on what he does, and where his words back up/reinforce his actions.

That is to say - I absolutely think Lotor is a lying liar that lies. But I also know that the best lies, the hardest lies to unravel, have elements of truth to them. So I give Lotor's words weight where his actions back them up, regardless of how he himself presents those words.

We do not know the whole of Lotor's plan, as of S5. We do not know why he's doing what he's doing, or whether he is in any way correct in his beliefs regarding the outcome of his actions.

But we can, with I feel reasonable levels of certainty, say that:

His goals are not as he has presented them to the Voltron Paladins, and

The Paladins are honestly not too likely to be thrilled about it when they find that out.

P.S. If you ship Lotor/Allura, you should probably stop right now, and go read something else, because my views on what Lotor's doing with Allura are neither romantic nor flattering.

Unraveling Lotor's Plotting: Stage One (Method and Means)

Lotor's opening scene in S3 is, I feel, a case of Lotor presenting the truth in a way that he knows damn well few people will believe until much, much later.

In the gladiatorial arena scene, we see several of Zarkon's generals cheering on the fights, and generally plotting. We learn that Lotor's not highly regarded, and that among the highest ranking Galra, bloodlines are hugely important. To be a 'half breed' is a bad thing, disqualifying in and of itself, an indication of unfitness for any kind of rank or command. We see the generals forming factions and plotting for control, and we see this being treated as, if not normal, then at least expected.

And into this comes Lotor, disguised as a gladiator. He humiliates a general before the crowd, and declares that the real path forward is by discarding this apparently long-held racist philosophy and by encouraging the loyalty of those lower in the heirarchy, rather than commanding it or forcing it.

Later, Lotor will discount these words before his generals. And while he has little reason to lie to them, I think he is in fact lying. This was Lotor at his most truthful and honest, and from what we see of him, the only way he can defend himself is by making sure nobody really pays attention when the truth is spoken. The reality is, this is very much the core of Lotor's approach - not just to the worlds of the Empire but to other people he deals with. Lotor is much more interested in making his allies loyal to him than he is in forcing their cooperation.

On the face of it, especially if you're used to/expecting Zarkon, Lotor's methods may seem like a breath of fresh air. I feel the reality is simply that Lotor has internalized Imperial race issues but flipped them on their head; he's as ruthless as any galra, but employing altean means to achieve his ends. (Start thinking about what would have happened if Lotor had met the alt-universe Alteans. Would he have seen anything wrong with their means or methods, or would he have proposed an alliance?)

Now, in S3, what we mainly know is that Lotor knows going in that this bout on the throne is going to be temporary, and that his father will very probably boot him back to the hinterlands once he's feeling better. So what we see in S3 is Lotor avoiding using the power of the throne, but rather continuing a plan he's apparently had for a long, long time and mainly using his new status to make sure he can get the trickier parts done without getting caught. He's very clear that he doesn't want Haggar or Zarkon aware of what he's doing. That means no record, no official orders.

What we should take away from this is that any time something comes up later that was clearly Not Usual - some ship that's not where it should be, some cargo that doesn't seem properly documented - Lotor should at least be considered a viable suspect in the "who's behind it" box. Haggar's stuff tends to just be classified. Zarkon's will be bureaucratically documented to official hell and back. Lotor's stuff will be off the books, and possibly a little out of the ordinary.

Stage Two: Testing the Waters, Gathering Materials

What Lotor does with his power in S3 is test the waters, and see if he can get some of his trickier materials without setting off any alarms. To this end, his first big thing is 'test the Paladins'. A lot of fans will be focusing on the shakeup the Paladins have suffered at this point in time; this is where Keith is backed into the Black Lion, Lance is getting the hang of Red, and Allura is learning lions from scratch in Blue. That isn't where Lotor wants the Paladins to be, and he even says so. (I count this as true as it's backed up by his actions, as you'll see.) He uses his generals to draw the lions out, making sure firstly that there are still five in action, and then goading them to form Voltron. Voltron is what Lotor wants.

Why does he want it? Because he wants something that's at least like it. He knows where there's a rift, with a trans-reality comet, and that he can't get it himself. It's Lotor that sets the fake Altean distress beacon that draws the Paladins to the rift where they meet Sven and the alt-Alteans. (He does admit as much in S5.) Lotor wants that comet, and as far as he knows only Voltron can get it for him. Which, ultimately, is exactly what happens, and Lotor makes off with it.

***** The Paladins weren't meant to know he was also after the teludav. He'd set that plan up almost the moment he took the throne, making sure he could steal the thing and that no credible report would exist blaming him for its loss. I'm going to admit that I don't know why he wanted the teludav, but given his attitude to All Things Altean in S5, I'm going to guess he wanted to study it, and see if he could figure out how to use it or make something like it, since the castleship's wormholing ability is a huge tactical asset and only Allura can make wormholes with a teludav.

What's worth noting in Stage Two is that we see he's serious about his approach as stated in the gladiatorial arena. Lotor isn't always out to make friends, but he takes steps to avoid making enemies he doesn't have to make. He does taunt and harry the paladins, but he never takes it farther than he needs to for the goal at hand. He doesn't gloat, he doesn't build himself up by knocking others down. And what's most clear as of S3 is that he is not your typical Galran general.

Stage Three: Get What You Can, While You Can

In S4 ...let's face it, we're all probably busy or at least distracted with Keith leaving the paladins and Shiro being strange and Pidge going off to find her brother. But Lotor's not twiddling his thumbs here, and S4 starts what S5 continues - Lotor is up to something and so far Keith's the only one to have seen even parts of it.

In S4, right out of the gate, we see the Blades discover a new, ultra-powerful form of quintessence. It's not at some shiny new well-developed facility, either, but somewhere well off the beaten track. The Blades manage to map out part of the supply route, but not all of it, and we find out pretty damn quick that whoever's running this show is watching and is paranoid, setting out a decoy ship full of explosives just to discourage further investigation.

S4E1, the Blades still think Lotor's somewhere behind this, and Keith tries to tell Shiro as much, but we aren't told why they think that - just that they do.

S5E5, we find out that one of those ships, probably fairly early on, entered Warlord Ranveig's territory, was intercepted, and Ranveig used the ultra-powerful quintessence to conduct experiments. So...it may well have been intel sent by Krolia that put the Blades on the trail of this new quintessence. What we learned in S5 is that this stuff isn't just rocket fuel; it has powerful and unpredictable effects on living beings. This shit ain't biodiesel. It's dangerous. And whoever's running the supply lines for it noticed a shipment going missing; Ranveig only ever got the one vessel. The supply line was rerouted afterward.

What we see Lotor doing in S4 is building his Sincline ships, and dealing with Haggar's attempts to spy on him. He doesn't get his full set of three, but only two of three. And Haggar, and Zarkon, being the paranoid people they are, immediately see "trans reality comet ships" and think "threat to the empire". It's possible they're right to think so, but it's also entirely possible that Lotor's plans for the Sincline ships are only a small part of his overall scheme.

We do, however, get confirmation that it is Lotor behind the ultra powerful quintessence - because he's the ONLY person we see who not only knows the shit exists, but making use of it. It's loaded into the Sincline ships, and used to infuse those ships for travel between realities.

Sadly for him, he just goes from Point A to Point Z. There's no 'layer of pure unlimited quintessence' for him to harvest. (I'd love to know why he thought there would be, I think it would reveal a lot.) And his generals betray him, which puts him on the run for the rest of the season, until he can intervene at a dramatic moment to save the Paladins, and thus buy enough goodwill for a chat.

Stage Four: Quintessential Quintessence

Season Five is...not about Lotor having a redemption arc. It really isn't. Lotor is absolutely continuing his plans, that he's had from the getgo, but using the Paladins instead of his own generals. Part of that is necessity (since his generals betrayed him) and part of it is simply new information. He's actually traveled between realities now, he's tested his Sincline ships. His initial plan for 'unlimited quintessence' is a bust.

He very clearly hasn't given up on the idea though, because he sells that exact idea to the paladins as his path to universal peace. Give the Galra unlimited quintessence, and there's no more reason (he says) for them to go rampaging and conquering and draining planets of life. And the paladins are, at least for now, mostly buying that theory.

I would like to point out at this stage that we see a LOT of Galra generals in S4 and S5. Not fricking one of them even mentions quintessence, or harvesting quintessence. Not. One. They're in this for power. Not just 'fuel' type power, but power-over-others, power to enslave, power to conquer. There is, based on what we've seen of the Galra High Command, no path that does not at some point involve taking out at least 90 percent of the current Imperial leadership. They're corrupt, power-mad, and frankly sadistic even among themselves. Lotor. Is. Lying. It's a lie the paladins would very much like to believe (and no wonder!) but it is a lie. Whatever Lotor wants that quintessence for, it is _not_about bringing peace.

Lotor is clearly capable of creating ultra-pure quintessence. We see his supply lines, and his use of it, in S4. But his stores of it are provably hugely limited. And for whatever reason, he is flat out driven to acquire a lot more of it.

Season Five is Lotor trying to maneuver Allura into getting him that quintessence, getting him access. It's fairly clear he never considered he himself (as a half breed) might also be a Mystic Altean; he's stunned as hell when the Mark of the Chosen appears on his cheeks. It's Allura he focuses on from the getgo, and specifically Allura as Alfor's daughter, Allura as Mystic Altean.

This is where I'm flat out shooting down any Lotor/Allura romance ideas. Lotor has zero interest in Allura as a person. He doesn't talk to her about her feelings, or who she is as a person, or what she likes or dislikes. He is very invested in having her like him, however, and every conversation they have comes back around to either getting her to like him, or sympathize with him, or a discussion of how wonderful it must be to be Altean and have magic and oh yes, quintessence. He's interested in learning Altean magic from her, and he's entirely fine if he has to first make sure she knows about Altean magic herself. Everything he does with Allura in season Five is about getting into her good graces, setting himself up as a benefactor and potential ally - and yes, at one point he does even offhandedly suggest a political marriage. (One cannot help but draw parallels between Zarkon/Honerva and Lotor's designs on Allura here; he'd clearly LOVE to have a magic witch of his very own.)

It's not about her. It's never been about her. It's about that storehouse of quintessence he badly, badly wants, and that (now that he realizes his initial plan of using the Sincline ships won't work) he thinks she can get for him. That ultra-powerful quintessence that creates monsters that eat seasoned Galra generals and their entourages in seconds. _That_stuff.

He's willing to let the other Paladins run roughshod over his home base, making messes, freaking guards out, launching robeast coffins, oh by the way Shiro here's where all our troops are, all of it, because what he wants hasn't changed and none of what the other Paladins are doing impacts that. It's only Allura, her magic, her powers, that interest him. The others? His only interest is that they not be against him.

What Isn't Yet Known

This is the frustrating bit. We don't know what Lotor's after. I mean yes, clearly he very much wants unlimited stores of his ultra powerful quintessence, but we don't know why. Army of monsters? Fuel for some new kind of ship? Rip holes in all the realities? It's anyone's guess why he wants this stuff, but it's pretty clear that it is what he's after at this stage.

We don't know for sure why he was after the teludav either. Since it's gone, there's no way to know if he just wanted to study it, or if he needed it for something (and therefore might have a lab make a new one?) or what.

Mostly, the paladins don't know this stuff. I mean yes, they were told by the Blades that Lotor was probably behind the new quintessence supply lines, but a lot's happened since then. The Paladins definitely don't know about Ranveig's beast, or that the ultra powerful quintessence is used in Sincline ships, or that Lotor has traversed realities. (Allura, and only she, might know of that last one. But only her.) They don't have the pieces of this particular puzzle. But they're there, and I think clues as to what Lotor might want all this quintessence for should be watched for when S6 comes out.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD6x07 – “Defender of All Universes”

6x07 – “Defender of All Universes”

This is a long one.

This episode starts where the previous one left off. The music even makes it feel like the episode is starting in the middle of a scene, rather than starting a new episode, which is odd. Keith tells Coran that he’s “got incoming” and we see, I think, the hover bike/craft that the show’s used a couple of times functioning here like a standard transport pod. That’s a use that hasn’t been established before and feels forced to me. The clone’s body is aboard, and the bike/craft would have to be operating on autopilot, what with Keith in the Black Lion. Honestly, this feels like an add-on to the episode to explain how the upcoming fight can happen and Keith not have to worry about having the unconscious clone’s body with him in the Black Lion, like they realized after a lot of the episode was formalized and then tacked an extra two shots on to cover themselves.

Voltron and Sincline are still fighting. After the shoulder cannon proves too slow, Voltron forms sword, and Sincline counters with two swords. “Now we will see how Alfor’s legacy stands against the new Altean defender,” Lotor says. I actually really like this line. It’s well performed, and it continues some of Lotor’s new argument from last episode that he’s done more to try to preserve the Altean culture than Allura (and in some ways, he’s not wrong about that). I wish the validity of his work in trying to keep the Altean species from going extinct wasn’t lost in the show focusing so hard on the quintessence harvesting from the colony. Yes, there is something gross about his harvesting that quintessence, but because this is the end of Lotor’s story, and to justify this conflict the show focuses on this particular reprehensible thing he’s done (without fully explaining why he did it), the good that comes from him preserving the Alteans is ignored. Because the show wanted to get to the action fight scenes, Allura went almost instantly to yelling at Lotor over harvesting quintessence that she hasn’t had any reaction to knowing that there are a bunch of Alteans still alive in this universe, that she is not alone. That is a huge realization for her to have, and it feels like the show has totally skipped it.

I am quickly tired of seeing Lotor animated to have a maniacal smile on his face. That direction choice is so disrespectful of his character. It feels like the show is trying to say we can interpret him as villainous by way of insanity, and the equation of mental illness with villains being dangerous is both antiquated storytelling and an offensive trope. It’s also reductive characterization that severs the combat from the motivation. The external, physical fight should be a symbol of the internal, psychological argument between the protagonist and the antagonist. But by making Lotor the villain by way of insanity, the show deprives the fight of its necessary weight.

After an earlier moment of Voltron, from a distance, not being able to hit Sincline with the shoulder cannon specifically because it’s too slow and Sincline is too fast, Keith orders Hunk to again attack with the shoulder cannon. The blast is even animated really slowly (ships have been animated to physically move faster than the blaster beam is moving in this shot), and Sincline is just floating there not moving. Granted, Sincline sort of kind of teleports away right before the blast would hit, but even still. Why Keith suddenly thought the shoulder cannon would be effective when he had already deemed it to be ineffective, I don’t know. Nothing has changed in the combat to allow for a differentiation of circumstances to make the cannon now be effective.

Sincline pops out of a tear in space and slam into Voltron.

Coran puts the clone in a healing pod. It’s a super short scene, and it has no dialog. It’s a weird edit because there is no narrative transition that makes having this scene occur now have any meaning. Sometimes a show might cut to a different location for a slower scene in the midst of a larger action scene, and that’s almost always to manage the action’s tension, but this doesn’t do that because this scene is really short. It’s almost instantly cut back to the action scene. I wonder if this too, like the earlier two shots of the hover bike/craft, was added at a notably later stage of development for the episode.

Voltron and Sincline continue to fight, Sincline teleporting through tears in space. Allura says that Sincline is “entering the quintessence field at will.” The show gives some characters a couple moments to display a lack of intelligence. Hunk responds, “Didn’t we blow up the gate?” The gate that was managing the exact same rift from 10,000 years ago, thus the gate was not creating the hole but supposed to manage access to it? “How is he entering without it?” Pidge asks. Because Sincline is made out of the “comet,” and that “comet” tore a hole in space all on its own. This doesn’t seem like it should be information/conclusions that they are baffled by at this point. Allura says that she gave Sincline the ability with her alchemy. Not really, but okay. Does this mean that we’re supposed to think that Allura created functional capacity and did not know she was doing it? Though if she did, that wouldn’t exactly be unheard of since Alfor apparently gave Voltron a ton of functionality that he never designed it to have, but that is a criticism I have about the show’s lore of the creation of Voltron. The idea that someone can accidentally create functionality in a system is ridiculous, but I guess at least there’s precedent.

Lotor references a “new Altean Empire,” which is an interesting choice of words that I really wish had a greater exploration within this moment. We’ve seen an Altean Empire before, one created by alternate-reality-Allura in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky.” This gets to something that I wish the show had spent more time on than it does: The setting of this story canonically has alternate realities, and we barely see any of them. The show doesn’t use the differentiation of comparison that alternate reality stories allow in order to explore the show’s main characters. Right now, because of Empress Allura in “Hole in the Sky,” our main character Allura could be hit by the realization that what she sees in Lotor that she considers evil right now is very much what she herself is capable of because of having seen that alternate reality.

Lotor enters back into the quintessence field. The Paladins start talking about how they need to go into the quintessence field and use the quintessence there to power their fight against Sincline. Since Lotor’s argument was that they need the power of the rift’s quintessence, and the Paladins fully rejected Lotor, it makes them hypocritical to now say that they need the power of the quintessence from the rift.

In response to the question of can Voltron access the rift, Allura says, “My father did it once before.” No, he did not. The show is forgetting the details of its own history. Alfor did not tear a hole through space, creating a portal into the rift. Alfor, as seen in 3x07 “The Legend Begins,” widened an existing tear in space that was created by the raw, unprocessed “comet.”

Everyone is “focus[ing their] energy,” which is nothing more than them clichédly sitting around with their eyes closed. There is a split-screen of half of Allura’s face and half of Voltron’s face, and their eyes glow. It’s very reminiscent of a similar split-screen with Shiro and the Black Lion back in season one. This split-screen moment with Allura and Voltron, because it’s so similar to Shiro and Black, unintentionally makes me think about how the show has now entered the next and final phase of taking Black away from Shiro, and it’s aggravating. Also, I can’t help but to think that this moment between Allura and Voltron would have worked so much better if she wasn’t a leg. If she were in the Black Lion, if she were the head of Voltron, it would have so much greater significance.

A point of light distant in space sparks, why, I have no idea. This does not match what Sincline was doing, which occurred locally, directly around it. Allura orders Voltron to form sword, which is how Alfor widened the rift in “The Legend Begins,” but again, that was an already existing rift. Allura/Voltron just created a rift by doing nothing but looking off into space, and the rift opened a significant distance from them. And the sword Voltron forms is the blazing sword, which is normally formed with an accompanying emotional beat showing the Paladins making it with their bayards, but not here. They zoom the distance to the hole in space and stab it with the sword. Everything glows.

They open their eyes to see themselves in the endless light of the rift, though now there is some dark bits of dust or cloud to help give visual texture to the environment. Pidge and Hunk ooo and aah over the energy of the quintessence. Keith says, “It’s more than that; can you hear your Lions talking to you? Voltron is capable of more than we’ve ever imagined.” Since the Paladins are supposed to be bonded to their Lions, they don’t need this quintessence in order to hear their Lions. They really are proving Zarkon’s, Honerva’s, and Lotor’s point about the rift. For all the previous rejection the show has had the protagonists make about sourcing the quintessence in the rift, they sure are fine with it now. I can’t help but be bothered by their hypocrisy.

Voltron and Sincline continue to fight. The music during this moment is some of my absolute favorite music from this show.

The Paladins screaming as they fight is kind of disturbing, which I suppose is the point. Pidge yells, “See if you can dodge this,” and has the Green Lion detach its head and shoot off at Sincline. Since when can the Lions separate their heads from their bodies? Is this functionality ever seen again in this show because I don’t remember it whatsoever? Pidge is in the head, right? So, does that make the left arm of Voltron unable to function? It seems like it would be a dangerous thing for her to go off on her own and abandon the rest of the team like this. Lance yells, “Come and get some,” and blasts Sincline with energy from the sword.

Allura, gritting her teeth and breathing heavily, is angry, and she hears how the other Paladins are speaking angrily too. She then realizes that the quintessence is causing them to behave this way, and she says, “We have to get out of here.” I really wish the show had an explanation for this, but it doesn’t: Why does this quintessence cause people to react this way but the quintessence Allura uses all the time to power the Castle Ship, to revitalize the Balmera, to perform alchemy, to restore Lance’s health in 6x01 “Omega Shield,” none of that causes this aggressive behavior. The quintessence of each Paladin is what bonds them to their respective Lion, but it doesn’t cause them to turn hyper aggressive like this. If quintessence is life energy, then how does it cause a person to behave like this? Quintessence is just miscellaneously whatever the show wants it to be at any given time, even if different instances of quintessence contradict one another. And, as I’ve complained about before, if quintessence is life energy, where is it coming from in this rift? The only things that are shown to live in the rift are the weird blob creatures. What are they? What makes them so special beyond being, like quintessence itself, a nebulous whatever that the show writes them to be in any given moment?

Allura says, “This is exactly what happened to Zarkon. Exposure to all this quintessence turned him into a monster.” No, he was a monster before. He was always a horrible person. As I’ve said before, I do not accept the show’s attempt to absolve Zarkon and Honerva of their behavior by blaming it on an external influence, especially when we’ve seen what kind of people they were before they were poisoned by quintessence.

Lotor takes off his helmet, and the show has him become even more ridiculously maniacal. This is not an interesting antagonist! This is uninteresting 80s cliché villainy. And it’s a total disservice to how interesting Lotor’s character has been throughout most of his time in the show.

Hunk asks, “How do we stop this,” and Allura responds, “We give Lotor all the power he wants.” That’s another cliché. It also means the battle continues here in the rift, which they just finished saying that they cannot stay in because they were all becoming uncontrollably angry. Now, their uncontrollable anger is gone because the plot has moved on. They’re apparently not affected by the quintessence like they were just a few seconds earlier for no actual reason. It’s frustrating that the show will have a development like that – their recognition that they are being negatively affected by the quintessence – and act like it’s a big development only to immediately ignore it as the scene moves on to the next stage of the action sequence. Allura earlier said, “We have to get out of here,” but now they don’t. Rather than having Voltron work to leave the rift, the narrative just has them return to fighting.

So, Allura closes her eyes and the V-like shape on Voltron’s chest glows. Voltron blasts Sincline from its chest, with the ring of a wormhole circling the blast. Lotor continues to be depicted as ridiculously maniacal, and every time they have him scream, it offends me that they did this with his character. He tries to get Sincline to Voltron to attack, and just as he gets there, everything turns bright white. Afterward, Sincline is adrift.

Keith says, “Let’s grab Lotor and get out of here.” Pidge responds, “No, we can’t. We have to leave now” with a vocal quality that makes me think of every arrogant moment Pidge has ever had. The idea that they had to leave was introduced earlier, but then ignored, now it’s back again. It’s all just storytelling by whatever is convenient from moment to moment, not anything based on logic. Allura affirms Keith’s position, but Hunk concurs with Pidge. For some reason, Voltron is now in danger of being destroyed by all the quintessence, I guess. Whatever.

It’s so weird to see Allura act like she cares about Lotor here when she’s already declared him to be a “monster.” Voltron flies out of the rift, leaving Lotor inside. Outside, Allura says, “If we had stayed in the quintessence field, we would have kept fighting until we destroyed ourselves.” What additional fighting could they have done? Her comment sounds like one that would have been made if, the instant she first says they have to leave when they were all super angry, they then immediately left. But how would they have destroyed themselves by continuing to fight when they totally won the fight against Sincline/Lotor?

Coran reports that “all of Lotor’s jumping in and out of the quintessence field has created multiple growing rifts in the fabric of time and space.” Why? The previous rifts – the one in 3x04 “Hole in the Sky” and the one on Daibazaal from 3x07 “The Legend Begins” all the way up until now – have not continued to expand. The one in “Hole in the Sky” actually closed all on its own. The one on Daibazaal remained as it was for 10,000 years. This sudden threat of expanding rifts is totally inconsistent with how this show has portrayed these entrances into the rift before. This is more of the show just doing whatever at any given moment without care about keeping its lore consistent. This doesn’t feel like a threat because the show hasn’t built it up as one. This being a threat is a negation of what the show has previously depicted and established about how this all works.

Pidge says, “Unless we do something fast, those tears will continue to expand until all existence as we know it has been destroyed.” That is not how these tears have ever behaved before.

“Scanning the rift for any strand refabrication possibilities,” Pidge says. What is “strand refabrication?” Meaningless words. Hunk adds, “I’m running a few different models now to see if there’s any chance it could close on its own.” One, if the show was consistent with how these rifts have been depicted in the past, yes, it should either close on its own or stay as is for ten millennia. Two, the ability to construct a computer model to conduct any of this “running a few different models” that Hunk speaks of would take time to set up, but the show just has it be instantaneous.

Allura was apparently taught on Oriande how to tear open rifts, but not to close them. “I just don’t possess that level of alchemic knowledge,” she says.

Pidge says that the only thing that could close the rift is “a source of gravity more powerful than a supermassive black hole.” Small black holes are differentiated from supermassive black holes solely by their mass, not by their gravity. Once you get past the event horizon of any blackhole, regardless of size, it’s all the same gravity. That’s kind of the point. A black hole is gravity that has reached a level that causes the center to mathematically become a singularity, a point of infinite density. Also, there is nothing conceptually that can be more gravity than literally so much gravity that everything becomes a singularity, becomes infinity. This show just can’t help itself but to get science fundamentally wrong.

Coran says the teludav will work because it “creates a brief flash of infinite mass.” Uh, why? It would require a huge amount of energy to create just a tiny amount of mass, so if they have access to the infinite energy that would be necessary to create “infinite mass,” then just use the energy. Also, if they have the infinite energy needed to create infinite mass, then they had all the energy they needed to give to Lotor for him to use to stop the Galra Empire from taking quintessence from living creatures.

Coran’s proposal will result in the destruction of the Castle. Hunk refers to it as their “home,” and that makes me wish we had gotten more moments of regular life aboard the Castle Ship to help it feel more like a home. For me, there has always been a kind of sterility to the interior of the Castle.

Coran speaks about the Castle, indicating how it is for him a connection to his grandfather and how it is “the last piece of the real Altea.” This is where the emotion for this moment is strongest. While the others have lived on the Castle for this series, this is the last bit of the past that Allura and Coran have of their destroyed world. Once again, Allura and Coran have to give up a part of their lives. Allura orders Coran to set things up and for everyone else to load everything they can into the Lions.

The music of the evacuation montage is really good. Krolia takes care of the clone’s healing pod. Pidge gets as much from her room as she can carry and a couple of floating fluff creatures from 2x01 “Across the Universe,” which I didn’t even remember they had because they’re a total non-entity in this show. Allura gets the mice and a small holographic display of her parents, which makes me whish this show had given us as much of her mother as it has of her father. It feels really patriarchal for Allura to have this big relationship with her father but none with her mother. Lance deals with Kaltenecker. Hunk loads up some boxes that I imagine are food, since it’s Hunk. Romelle is riding with Allura.

Coran says, “Goodbye, old friend,” to the Castle. The show almost exclusively gives humor to Coran, so this is a big difference for the performance of the character. The voice actor makes Coran’s voice sound really sad in this line, and it’s truly making me tear up as I watch it.

Everyone leaves the Castle as it enters into the giant light at the center of a swirling cloud. Even though Lotor created multiple tears, I guess they’ve expanded such that they’re all just one really big tear now.

The music continues to be amazing.

Coran stands beside Allura in her Lion.

The animation sequence of the various rooms we’ve seen of the Castle over the past six seasons is emotional.

Light explodes then shrinks then explodes again then shrinks again.

The rift is gone. Left behind though is a small crystal. Hunk says, “It’s a diamond. The pressure crushed the Castle of Lions into this little diamond.” Why “diamond?” A diamond is made out of carbon, which I doubt the Castle was made out of. Also, we today have the ability to synthesize diamonds, so it’s not exactly a difficult thing to do. Something as fantastically huge as this explosion creating a diamond is not awe-inducing. Also, how did this Castle-turned-diamond survive when it entered the rift? This is all totally contrived. Also, just in case anyone was curious, despite what a lot of people think, diamonds are not actually rare. We only think they are due to successful marketing campaigns and a really small number of suppliers controlling almost all of the diamond mines here on Earth. Those suppliers use artificial scarcity to affect the market-price for diamonds, which is commonly misinterpreted as high prices resulting from rarity. But no, diamonds are not rare.

“Well, we saved all realities everywhere,” Lance says. Say what now? This episode did not establish that the rift from this reality into the quintessence field threatened all realities. The tear in space being between this reality and the quintessence field would have nothing to do with other realities because they’re fully closed off from our reality. There are no tears in the space of the other realities into the quintessence field. So, if this reality can be safely sealed off from the quintessence field, then the other realities would remain safely sealed off from the quintessence field even if the tear between this reality and the field caused this reality to be consumed by the field. This is more of the show just making stuff up without thinking through what they’re actually saying.

Keith says they need to find somewhere to land so they can help Shiro. The Lions fly off toward a galaxy. Since this battle took place at Daibazaal, when did they leave the galaxy that Daibazaal was in in order to now be flying toward a galaxy?

The music again is wonderful.

Keith says, “This body’s barely living, but Shiro’s spirit is alive. It’s inside the Black Lion.” And here the show infuriates me by not wrestling with the reality that our heroes are taking the body of someone and giving it to another person. If all life has quintessence, then so too does this clone. It is unique. It is not empty. The clone has had his own, unique experiences that no one else has ever had. He is a person. And our supposed heroes only see him as a thing they can use.

It is my understanding that once confronted with this criticism, Joaquim Dos Santos and/or Lauren Montgomery tried to say that the spirits of the clone and Shiro combine here. Of course, the show does not depict that. Had the show shown that, maybe this wouldn’t feel so cruel. Just because the EPs made an extratextual proclamation doesn’t mean that it’s in the text. Keith’s specific phrasing – that the body is “barely living, but Shiro’s spirit is alive” – makes it such that their actions here are killing the clone so that Shiro can have his body. Keith is totally dismissive of the clone, “barely living” is still living. And the body has the chance to recover if they hadn’t taken it out of the healing pod.

Lance starts crying because he realizes now that Shiro’s spirit tried to talk to him in 5x03 “Postmortem.”

Allura walks over to the Black Lion, does the hand-touch-and-glow thing, taking Shiro’s spirit from Black. She walks over to the clone’s body, touches his head, and puts Shiro’s spirit in the clone’s body. This means that Shiro’s spirit was temporarily in Allura’s body. There is never any exploration of the significance of that, and there really, really should have been. That’s a huge deal. It would have been a story that could have allowed Allura and Shiro to have grown a lot closer as friends. They could have come to understand one another in a way that no one else ever could. But because Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery hated Shiro so much, hereafter, Shiro is more and more sidelined in the story. They didn’t want to explore Shiro’s character anymore, and they only brought him back because they had to.

Shiro’s hair turns all white (quintessence makes your hair white?). He opens his eyes and sits up but then slumps against Keith. The Lions all roar. I love the voice acting of Shiro saying to Keith, “You found me.” There’s an ache in his voice. Shiro looks at Keith the whole time as he closes his eyes. Their relationship is one of the best things in this show, whether you want to term it friendship or surrogate brothers (I would say potential romantic, but I don’t think the EPs and writers ever even remotely considered romantic to be a possibility between these two characters; I think they were oblivious to any potential romantic undertones the show has for Shiro and Keith). That is why it’s infuriating that in the last two seasons of the show, Shiro and Keith barely ever talk to each other. This relationship that is fundamentally important to both of them is mostly ignored for the rest of the show.

The characters now start wondering what they are going to do next. Out of nowhere, Pidge says that Coran gave Sam Holt a copy of the plans of the Castle of Lions. The show visually composes a group shot of Coran, Hunk, Lance, Pidge, Allura, and Keith looking toward the camera, the camera pulling back away from them. Shiro is not included in this shot, nor is he visible in the reverse shot that includes Krolia and Romelle. I can’t help but feel like this is purposefully cutting Shiro out of the composition. His laying on the ground doesn’t matter: the camera could have tilted at an angle as it pulled away to have included him. The composition of the shot reveals a directorial decision that suggests a lack of inclusion of Shiro in the group.

The music the episode ends with is again excellent.

Thus, season six ends. It has been a frustrating season, a frustrating past four seasons. The specifics and implications of everything that has happened with Lotor and Shiro over how this middle third of the show is concluded are in so many ways hurtful. This show makes me ache for the storytelling to have been better than it is in a way that no other show has made me feel.  

[kcwcommentary]

VLD4x05 – “Begin the Blitz”

4x05 – “Begin the Blitz”

The Paladins are back on Olkarion. I really don’t understand why the show this season has spent so much time sitting around on Olkarion. Even when the story goes to a different location, they keep coming back here. They aren’t doing anything that would require them to be on Olkarion though, so I don’t know why they’re here. Everyone is currently standing around having a conversation through transmission with Kolivan and Keith. Kolivan reports that Zarkon seems fixated on Lotor, and Shiro wants to use that as a distraction to attack. He identifies some “line of planets” in which only one planet remains under Galra control: Naxzela. It’s in instances like this where the show confuses me so much. The Galra are supposed to be a universe-wide dominating force. But for a line of planets to be even remotely relevant, we would have to, at most, be dealing with a single galaxy here. One galaxy is tiny compared to the universe.

“If we capture Naxzela and solidify that line, we can cut off all the Galra troops behind it from central command and use our position to defeat them,” Shiro says. It really bothers me when people write space-based stories and don’t understand the scale of space. Here, they’re talking about a line. Space is three-dimensional. It would not be difficult for the Galra to simply go above or below the line to get around it.

“Wow, we could take back a third of the Galra Empire in one, fell swoop,” Pidge says. Again, this show confuses me with its scale. What Pidge says here would require the Galra Empire be located in only one galaxy, not the universe-wide force the show has depicted it as before and will again. This is just more of VLD’s infamous inconsistency.

Their plan is to attack several locations at once: a communication hub and two zaiforge cannons. These cannons can apparently shoot things that are very distant. I didn’t get the impression that these three locations are all in the same solar system that Naxzela is, so that would mean these cannons can shoot across lightyears. That is absolutely absurd. The rebels will attack one of the zaiforge cannons, and the Blades of Marmora attack the second cannon. The goal is to seize the cannons and use them against the Galra. Voltron will be attacking the Galra on Naxzela, which thankfully looks like an actual planet.

Kolivan reaffirms what Pidge said earlier: this plan will put a third of Galra territory in Coalition control. Sigh. The entire time this scene is going on, Keith is standing beside Kolivan. Keith never speaks. Why did they not give Kolivan’s dialog in this scene to Keith? There’s nothing that Kolivan says that explicitly needed to come from him. Keith’s the main character, not Kolivan, yet Keith just stands there, motionless, silent, like an afterthought.

Lotor and his remaining generals are heading somewhere and he won’t tell them where, only giving them coordinates. Ezor wearing her helmet feels strange since the giant sock that hangs off her head would have to be wrapped up and stuffed inside the helmet. Ezor debates with Axca about Zarkon’s order against Lotor, but Axca says they have to trust him. Finally, we’re getting fallout from Lotor killing Narti: Ezor wrestles with the idea of trusting Lotor now. Given Axca’s facial expressions, Ezor’s comment does get to her, but she ultimately dismisses the idea that they can’t trust Lotor. This is the kind of scene that this show needed more of.

Team Voltron “gathers the coalition.” This montage makes the Coalition look smaller than it’s been described in previous episodes. Paladins go and directly talk to small groups of Coalition members, maybe a few dozen people per meeting. Shiro describes the Coalition as “friends and allies from across the universe.” Ugh, this show can’t even be consistent on the scale of the setting even within a single episode. Now, we’re back to everything being universe-wide. So that then brings me back to the fact that a line of planets in one galaxy is tiny. A line of planets in one galaxy would not portion off a third of the universe. (The idea of a line drawn with planets in different galaxies is nonsensical, so they have to be within the same galaxy.)

I guess the Paladins return to the Castle Ship on Olkarion after going and talking with a few dozen members of the Coalition at various locations because we get another shot of them standing around, Kolivan and Keith still on the display screen, but now there are also rebels standing around with the Paladins. I don’t know.

Lotor and the generals arrive at the location he’s directed them to. Zethrid says that her “scanners don’t detect anything.” Lotor says, “they’re not supposed to.” And then, after they move through a thick dust cloud, they come to Daibazaal.

Are you kidding me? Lotor’s generals are so unfamiliar with Daibazaal, the destroyed homeworld of the Galra, that they didn’t immediately recognize they were going to it when Lotor gave them the coordinates of their destination? Ezor doesn’t even recognize it when she sees it, asking Lotor what this place is. I do not whatsoever buy the idea that elite generals of the Galra Empire are so unfamiliar with the homeworld of the Galra that they don’t know this location. Also, it might be a significantly destroyed planet, but it’s still enough mass that made up a planet, so how did Zethrid’s scanners not detect it?

Lotor reveals that Alfor’s plan to destroy the rift by blowing up the planet failed. Lotor has had a team construct an “inter-reality gate on the rift.” His goal is to use his Sincline ship to enter the rift and “harvest the unlimited quintessence that exists in the layer between realities.” This somehow instantly reassures Axca, who reaffirms her faith in Lotor. I still don’t understand that if quintessence is life energy, then why is there so much of it in the rift. Lotor tries to fly into the rift but then seemingly just flies through his gate.

Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer have joined the rebels and have been working with Matt and coalition forces. This is a huge change in their characters that occurs offscreen. It sure would be nice to be allowed to see character growth when it happens.

Allura gives some big speech to the whole of the Coalition. She announces their “full scale attack on the Galra Empire.”

The Galra communication hub passes through some “dark zone” periodically, and that’s when Pidge and Hunk infiltrate it. It literally goes dark during this time, so this “dark zone” is just when a moon of a planet passes between the hub and the local sun? There really is not reason a communication hub would be placed in orbit between a planet and that planet’s moon. I would think a hub would be positioned in an unabstructed location. Orbiting a planet would always make communication blocked by the planet too.

Pidge and Hunk successfully take out the base commander, Pidge hacks the hub’s computers with only a couple button presses and puts in place some program that will make the Galra Empire think their communication hub is functioning normally for eight hours before they can figure it out. Okay. Hunk says, “Until then, no calls get in or out.” If none of the Galra Empire’s communications will get in or out from their communications hub, I think someone would notice long before eight hours have elapsed.

Matt and the rebels attack their assigned zaiforge cannon. The Rebels have what looks like a dozen ships, and they’re fighting a larger number of Galra fighters. The show has shown a single Lion having trouble with even fewer fighters, and the Lions are supposed to be the most advanced battleships ever. That makes it hard to believe these rebel ships could handle the Galra, although the scale of this battle feels more real to me.

The Galra fire the zaiforge cannon, and hit all of the rebel ships except for the one(s?) Matt, Rolo, Nyma, Beezer, Olia (aka the dog person who hasn’t been properly introduced despite apparently being the leader of this mission), and some woman in armor (or possibly an android?) with a facemask that completely covers her face (or is it her face if she’s an android?). How convenient that all the characters with speaking parts, except for the literal frog-man who ribbitted once, survive while the rest get blown up.

A Galra reports that “a third of the rebel forces have been decimated.” Oh, the unintended irony of that line. I know we now use the word “decimate” without any numerical definition attached to it, but the word does technically mean to kill one-tenth of a group of people. So, killing a third is a lot larger than a decimation. But again, our modern/colloquial usage of the word “decimate” has been separated from its historical meaning. I’m a word-nerd, so I can’t help but to notice these things.

We’re shown the cannon blasting nine ships, and before this we’ve only seen twelve ships at most, but here the dialog says only a third of them apparently were destroyed. I guess it’s just an inconsistency between the script and the animation?

The Blades of Marmora are on a planet trying to seize their assigned zaiforge cannon. Once again, this show has a non-planet planet, and this one looks like a tooth. Keith is finally given some dialog. Somehow, the Galra staffing this cannon on whatever planet this is can “detect a large mass entering planet Naxzela’s atmosphere,” but they lack communications to report it. Is this cannon supposed to be in the same solar system as Naxzela? I had the impression that these are supposed to be notably distant places. Again, the scale of where all these events are taking place is so undefined that I don’t know. The Blades seize control of the cannon.

Voltron attacks Naxzela.

Back with the rebels, there are nine ships hiding behind an asteroid. The android? suggests the Blades use their cannon to knock out the shields protecting this one. The zaiforge cannon is fired at the asteroid. It makes a long, sustained blast, but it’s taking a long time to break through the asteroid. Remind me how the zaiforge cannon is a threat across astronomical distances when it takes a lot of time to destroy a nearby asteroid?

Voltron easily destroys huge portions of the Galra forces and base on Naxzela. Something that none of them can “see” keeps blasting them. Apparently, there’s previously undetected, cloaked mines that only now start exploding. Pidge can detect them now though, even though all she did was touch a few buttons, so it doesn’t seem like they shouldn’t have been unable to detect them before. Pidge says that “there’s just too many to maneuver through them.” They got through them just fine to get to where they are now though, so I don’t know why they can’t move through them just as easily as they did before they started exploding. Allura uses Blue’s ice cannon to freeze the mines so they can maneuver through them before they explode. Ugh. That really seems nonsensical to me.

So, Voltron separates just long enough for Blue to freeze them, then they fly out of the mines (the distance between the mines look like they could have flown out, especially when separated into their respective Lions without freezing them) and then reform into Voltron. At this point in the show, I’m really tired of the Voltron forming animation.

Lotor stands on a chunk of rock, looking at his gate. Ezor, Zethrid, and Axca stand distant from him talking about their situation. Ezor comments that Lotor’s plans have failed. Zethrid says, “He’s going to turn on us as soon as it’s in his best interest.” She and Ezor keep going back and forth about how, for their own sake, they need to “take him down” first. Axca says nothing but walks over to Lotor. She draws her weapon, says, “For Narti,” and then shoots Lotor. Apparently, their weapons have a stun setting, so Lotor’s unconscious.

Keith has his cannon shoot across distant space at the other cannon. His blast easily takes out the other cannon’s shield. So, high tech forcefield defensive systems are easy to take out with a zaiforge cannon blast, but the rock of an asteroid takes a long time to get through? The rebels are shown as almost instantly capturing their assigned cannon. There’s a montage of Coalition forces attacking miscellaneous wherevers.

Lotor has been bound, and they’re all in their ships. He realizes they’re going to turn him over to the Galra, so he dislocates his shoulders so that he can access the ship’s controls, and he ejects Zethrid into space. He takes the one ship and jets off, while Zethrid is picked up by the other ship. Axca says, “There’s still one option left.”

The communication hub comes back online.

A Druid tells Haggar, who’s kneeling in the middle of an open room overtop some glowing glyphs on the floor that Voltron has reclaimed a big portion of the Empire. Haggar responds, “Good.”

Huh?

Haggar, who earlier this season was condemning Lotor for his having lost control of some minor outposts on the edge of the Galra Empire, is now okay with losing, according to what was said by multiple characters in this episode, one third of the Empire’s territory?

I’m so divided on this episode. It has beautiful animation. And it finally spends some time dealing with consequences of behavior in the interpersonal relationships between Lotor and his generals resulting from his having killed Narti. Of the story told in this episode, I think these scenes with Lotor are the most interesting. Despite the details of the Coalition’s attacks bothering me, I like the general idea of this plot. This season spent so much time having our heroes not really doing anything that it’s nice to finally have some movement.

But I’m baffled by the scale of the setting. Here, in one episode, in some scenes they talk as if they’re dealing on galactic scale, but then in other scenes (and in a lot of previous episodes) the scale is universal. The show just can’t be consistent on this because I don’t think the writers for this show understand the magnitudes of scale that are relevant in space.

And then this weird ending with Haggar acting like she’s fine with everything. I know she’s got her magic plan to counter next episode, but the way this episode has her react feels so inconsistent with how she was angry at Lotor. I think the fact that I enjoyed the scenes with Lotor this episode, and then to have this annoying ending with Haggar just reaffirms how boring Haggar is for me. I know the episode wants me to end going, Oh no!, Haggar the villain has some diabolical plan! But the effect her ending scene had on me was to remind me of how much I did not miss her during the rest of the episode.

[ganymedesclock]

( watched fictional crystal's new lotor meta vid ) oooooooo shots fired!!!!!!

So I have absolutely no idea what this means but if your intention was to baffle me into watching someone else’s meta video, by all means you succeeded.

And I think this is a decent video, all things considered. Fictional Crystals doesn’t do too bad of a job and I’m fond of her pointing out that Lotor is not on the empire or Voltron’s side.

Points of contention I would raise with the video, because it was a nice watch and inspired me, so now I want to pick at it:

Firstly, while Lotor could possibly develop long term objectives for cozying to Voltron, I think that it’s far more likely that it’s the obvious short-term objective was what brought him here. Remember in s4e6 he spent a long time idling in space doing nothing but avoiding the fleet. It would’ve been far easier for him to avoid them and stay on the move if he’d had a specific goal or location to get to, but he does not.

Noticeably Lotor spends most of the episode drifting and either trying to sleep or trying to predict his enemies’ movements. He’s very reactionary- to his own exhaustion and to the attacking fleet. Lotor generally operates with an agenda in mind, yes, but the problem is he very much seems to break that pattern.

His failure to react when Acxa shot him down pretty much flat-out tells us Lotor was not prepared in any magnitude for the betrayal of the generals- while he normally makes contingencies, he makes them for things he considers possible or likely. As a result, I think Lotor’s plans heavily fell through, because they hinged on Sincline, and Sincline needs a minimum of four pilots to operate under ideal circumstances. Given the third and final ship, it’s very likely that it needed five pilots.

Sound familiar? It should, because not only do Lotor and the Generals echo the paladins heavily in terms of armor, aesthetics, M.O. and strategy, they even mirror specific paladins and those parallels only go deeper the further you look. It���s not just Keith and Acxa- the most obvious and called attention to- that are counterparts.

This is a pretty potent indicator, here that Lotor was trying to make not merely ships, but, another Voltron, and he was making his plan in the certainty that the generals would be behind him every step of the way.

This is why Lotor doesn’t get desperate when he loses the rest of his team. He’s desperate first losing Narti- because losing any of the generals sends his plans into a tailspin and he latches onto the rift gate, with its high payoff, to desperately try to avoid losing the other three survivors because maybe they can crawl out of this and replace Narti, but only holding together.

Having failed that, Lotor doesn’t have the key elements of his plan. He has the comet, but no resources to work on the third ship, he doesn’t have two more people to pilot that and the ship he does have, and he doesn’t have the ship that Zethrid, Ezor, and Acxa took with them.

Furthermore, there’s the tricky business of given how supernaturally swiftly Lotor was able to turn around and pull these ships together, it’s very likely Sincline itself is a player on the board here and has already bonded with these people- so even if Lotor could physically take the first Sincline ship from the three generals... it wouldn’t answer to him. It’s dubious how long the ship he does have, which is rightfully Ezor and Zethrid’s, is going to obey him if he comes into conflict with its true paladins. Because Lotor’s true counterpart ship is the unfinished one.

But that all gets into counterpart analysis that makes me confidently say who goes where, and I’ll save that for its own post.

Back on topic- I’m pretty sure what drove Lotor to the paladins is the realization that he can’t keep going alone with the empire hunting him. He was already on a fast track to passing out on somebody’s doorstep and kept shortening his timetable for that by the precarious, destructive stunts he was pulling in rapid succession. He’s an incredibly strong-willed person, but that’s a lot for anyone to take.

But Lotor’s too smart to just keep pushing until his exhaustion catches up with him. That’s exactly what Zarkon is waiting for- because Zarkon has the resources to stay calm and composed, and as an undead nightmare the guy probably doesn’t need to eat or sleep. He can just pursue Lotor at his walking pace until Lotor drops.

So what to do, if Lotor- mortal, alive Lotor, who needs to eat and sleep and even if he can keep himself awake, faces the very real prospect of starving because he probably doesn’t have rations saved in the Sincline ship- isn’t going to stay ahead of Zarkon forever?

He makes sure he goes to ground somewhere even Zarkon will hesitate to follow him.

So I really think at this point, that’s Lotor’s only ulterior motive- he’s sticking his head in the lion’s mouth (almost literally) because of everybody that hates him right now, Voltron’s the least likely to bite, and when pure happenstance showed him a major decisive battle he could turn in their favor, he took that shot to ingratiate himself. Even if they don’t trust him, he’s paid his fare enough that they’re going to hear him out and not gun him down where he stands.

Is that going to stay his only ulterior motive? I don’t think so. With affection for both Lotor and Voltron, I think this partnership is doomed because the only thing motivating Lotor to reconsider these guys is that he doesn’t want to die and that’s not a sound connection here. But I don’t think he already has another plan in mind- this opportunity just dropped in his lap and I think any aspirations about Voltron, about the rift, is going to have to wait until he’s been able to eat, sleep, and otherwise get himself off the point of collapse. We’re gonna see Lotor put together his new plan in real time.

My second qualm is that while Crystals artfully illustrated why Zarkon and Honerva want the rift, I feel like they failed to illustrate why Lotor would want it. This is an amusingly meta problem to run into because our heroes, the paladins, have the same problem.

They haven’t been able to figure out what Lotor’s up to and part of their big underlying problem is that they assumed, until very recently, that Lotor and Zarkon were on the same side and wanted the same things. (Not exactly faulty, given the information Lotor gave them)

But they aren’t. Not even close. Lotor hates Zarkon, and he has very little interest or patience in conquest that he can’t immediately flip into a different advantage that he prefers more. (See Puig, where, no sooner had he captured the place than he seriously angled to get them as his willing allies instead of his unwilling slaves and failing the former, abandoned the latter)

So we still don’t know what Lotor wants the rift for. His own comments in s4e5 are that he seems to want to harness the energy between realities. This is interesting because in s4e1, Kolivan was explicitly questioning where the empire is getting its energy surplus, since they destroyed the Komar. (and in s2e9 Hunk and Keith pass planets that the ever-prophetic Keith states “died an unnatural death”)- so seemingly, wherever the empire’s getting their energy, even Lotor doesn’t know, because he’s been tapping a different source.

This is reinforced because we know that energy refined by the druids seems to overwhelmingly turn purple, and it’s the purple stuff the empire uses en masse- but when we see the fuel tanks of the Sincline ships, and the glow of Lotor’s technology, it’s nearly all blue- when the Altean castleship being plugged to the corrupted crystal in s1e4 would tell us that the color technology glows generally is suggestive of the type of energy it’s using.

This tells us whoever’s refining Team Sincline’s fuel for them is turning it Altean cyan, instead of empire purple- using a different method, likely different refining stations, and probably doing so behind the empire’s back. It’d explain easily why Lotor’s fleet, compared to Zarkon’s, is so small- even if he can get the materials to build other ships, he’s likely very limited in the fuel to power them, because... I think it’s pretty likely Lotor himself could be the one refining the energy. (Or possibly Narti- she appears to have magical powers herself)

So Lotor would seem to want to tap the rift as an energy source. However, all that tells us is he wants a lot of energy, not to do what with. My personal hypothesis is always that Lotor intends to challenge Zarkon- he has a huge amount of bitterness and scorn for the empire, I can’t imagine he doesn’t want to see it burn and take his abusive parents with it.

Now, my third thought here- and this is where I’ll actually completely agree with Crystals.

I think it’s very likely Lotor’s going to unleash the rift entity.

Why do I think this is so likely? Because I think Lotor doesn’t know they exist.

We have to consider their first aggressive foray into this world, defeated by Voltron itself, happened around the same time that Allura was born. At this time, Zarkon and Honerva were newlyweds- and I’m very skeptical that they had a child at the time, mostly because neither of them seem the type to leap into that. At earliest, I’d guess they’d just conceived and galra/altean gestation probably looks pretty close to humans.

So Lotor missed that first fight. He might have heard about it growing up, but, he’d also hear that Voltron destroyed their opponent.

The second time they attacked, that revealed they were still in there, it was only within the rift itself and none of them were expecting it. The official story was Zarkon and Honerva died due to quintessence poisoning. Not that they were killed by the rift creatures.

Lotor thinks the rift is safe. But Lotor is overwhelmingly a cautious person- he was going to charge in there with one ship, himself and Zethrid, ahead of Acxa and Ezor. This tells me he has no idea what might’ve been waiting for him on the other side if he succeeded.

And it makes sense. He’s basing off Honerva’s research, and Honerva overwhelmingly dismissed the perils the rift could pose. It makes sense Lotor’s treating it as no more dangerous than a stint of deep-sea-diving; well, the environment can kill you but it’s not going to attack you, you just have to be prepared, and they are prepared so there’s no problem.

The problem is Zarkon didn’t die, he was murdered- and nobody told Lotor.

So that’s gonna be a hell of an awakening for everybody involved.

[darkspellmaster]

Two Voltron Trailers thoughts

So for the official trailer:

We start off with a ship coming at a larger space station like ship, let’s just call this the Deep Space 9 space station since I don’t know exactly what it is.

It’s clear that the focus is on the ship coming in and coming to the ship. Could this very well be the ship that is bringing Prince Lotor to meet with Haggar? I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on here since this trailer is clearly about him and all aspects seem to indicate some sort of connection to the Prince. So keeping this in mind. Let’s talk about two things here.

Firstly we see that the ship is smaller, a nonmilitary vessel. This very well could be connected to the second trailer where we see the two Galra commanders, one which is Throk (thank you @aquaburst07 for the reminder) and the other whom we don’t have a name for. (I’m going to hazard a guess and say Commander Holtis who was in charge of the outer planets defense) watching Lotor in an arena. This could very well be after those events and the duo have dragged (persuaded) Lotor to come with them back to the ship and see Haggar. I get the feeling that if she did hail him he ignored that and she had to send others to find him and get him to agree to come back.

Secondly, let’s talk about the size of this ship. While previously we’ve seen the space fortresses that Zarkon has mobilized, this is almost a cross between a station, white base from Gundam, and the Macross. 

A large city like structure that seems to be a hub for a lot of activity. This brings me back to a theory I’ve had for a while, that the Galra don’t have a home planet base, but like the Quarians from the Mass Effect franchise, they’re mobile in nature and willing to invade to find a place to live.

Which brings us to scene two, the discovery of Haggar watching over Zarkon.

This is a rather powerful scene. Haggar is set distantly for a reason, clearly she’s trying to decide how to approach Zarkon. She knows he must rest, but it also seems like she’s waiting for Lotor to come and join her there. Normally in a sequence like this the child, in this case Lotor, is sent to see their dead, or injured, parent alone and the nurse or aid, or in this case vizer of sorts, waits off to the side to give them some privacy. I have a feeling that that is what we’re seeing here. Haggar is waiting on Lotor to come and see Zarkon and say his thoughts or prayers or whatever that Galra will do.

This is probably going to be a moment where Lotor makes a pledge to take on the role as ruler, although he will probably still come in conflict with Haggar over things. This is probably going to be an emotional scene, though we have no way of knowing for sure as of yet.

Following this we have a bunch of jet fighters getting ready for a flight in the hanger area.

We see that the red lights light up as they are switched on, so there’s going to be a war going on very soon. Someone is sending in the troops, that much is clear.

So next we have a city. The architecture reminds me of a Middle Eastern, or South American village or smaller city from the desert area. There’s also roman architecture there as well, which is interesting since there’s a gate way (portcullis?) that’s leading to a walkway sort of like how they had it in Rome during the “great age.

We see a man on a roof dealing with some pots (the way they’re lined up remind me of a Zelda reference), and people walking a main road. There looks to be some larger buildings in the distance. The homes look to be a of rock nature, and there’s sand there on the ground (or at least something similar in nature).  We see a large shadow come looming over darkening the clearly bright day and the man has a look of shock and surprise on his face as he turns to look up at whatever it is that is flying overhead. My guess, one of the Galra fleets larger ships.

We also get the first words of Lotor, “My father built our empire on the back of (something, screaming gets in the way so I can't tell what he's saying there) our (his) enemies (?)”

We then get a shot of the fighter ships shooting and attacking civilians on the ground.

Take a note of the ship off to the right of the picture, that ship design will be important later because similar ships show up in a later scene that has me worried that since Zarkon lost control the Galra haven’t been so noble in their actions. Or that’s the rebellion attacking the allies of the Galra and not caring who they hit.

People are running away, there’s a woman with a baby on the right, a guy to the front of the screen. I’m not sure what the large silver things are, since they seem a bit blurred to me, but they possibly could be launch areas? Or defense stations –actually I think they are defense turrets since it looks like there’s someone on top shooting back.

The shot that follows is a cut from the ground being hit to an explosion and the city being blown up.

This is the same city that we see the man on the roof from, so we can hazard a guess that this is from the same episode. So the Galra, or someone, is blowing up this city. Possibly to get Voltron’s attention. Possibly to root out a rebellion.

Next shot is interesting because we see a ship going through a worm hole and it’s not the Castle.

What does this mean? Well there’s been a lot of speculation about the type of person Lotor is and I’ve been saying I think he’s going to be more science base then magic base like his father was. In this case this could confirm that the Weblum Galra that we saw was indeed Lotor and that he did take the scaultrite for use of creating a way to do a wormhole. The fact that it’s just this ship that goes through, also pretty much confirms that he’s doing it for his own uses rather than the Galra as a whole, which does show that he doesn’t view the whole of the Galra with the same respect that his father did.

This very well could mean that he doesn’t fully embrace that side of himself and that he’s willing to embrace part of his other side the Altean, something that his counterpart didn’t seem to want to do, and his Japanese counterpart, Sincline, didn’t known about and it drove him mad. This would be a very different take on Lotor if he’s not so unwilling to use that Altean side of himself for his own goals.

So the ship flys through the wormhole and ends up at the end in a battle area.

We see a gray moon sized planet in the distance as well as larger ships that are firing off at something. So clearly the Galra are trying to attack some planet. We can see that this ship has arrived and is heading towards the battle. It’s interesting to note that unlike Zarkon, if this is Lotor’s ship, then he’s willing to head out to fight earlier then his father and want to be involved. Making me think we’re going to see a sort of Char Aznable like character where there’s good in him but also he’s very much for his own cause and if that means killing and destroying things to get to his end goal, well then so be it. He also says during this moment, “The Universe can no longer doubt our strength.” Next shot is a bunch of purple ships, more than likely Galra, flying away from a location.

 The weird thing about the shot is that the ground area reminds me very much of the shot from the ground with the teaser trailer had where the five lions fly past some mountains. This was later the location of the Olkarion, however this might not be the same planet. It’s hard to tell as we could be looking from a view port window as the ship goes up.

There’s one thing to note here, there’s no shooting so the Galra here are not fighting with others. So when these ships were made there wasn’t a war going on, or at least there wasn’t a fight going on at this moment in time. This also seems to allude to the fact that he’s not going to go out of his way to war with others as a later line shows this.

Next shot we see a new sort of ship flying over two horned aliens (one green male, single horn, and one duel horned pink female), who are standing with each other as this giant ship flies over head. The female is hiding behind the male looking over his shoulder at the ships as they fly over, and there are strange glowing lights, could be connected to the quintessence of the planet.

What’s interesting is that the two scenes are of the same ships. The first one is of them leaving a location, the second is of them flying over another area. These ships are far bigger than the smaller fortresses we’ve seen in the main story.

Again they very much remind me of the large world ships that the Quarians live in in mass effect. 

As the fortresses 

reminded me of the fortresses used in Escaflowne, 

these seem to be settlement ships as they are large, move slower, and are probably of limited fighting capabilities. The fact that they are so big makes me again think the population of the Galra home world had to leave the planet and was forced to see the world die. We know that the Weblum was found in the ruins of a planet that was unnaturally destroyed, and that the galra was there as they knew that would be where the Weblum was to be found. What’s interesting is that Hunk noted that the area was supposed to be in one piece and that it wasn’t, Keith then noted the fact that it seemed to have died unnaturally.

Could what we be seeing in these shots is the Galra having to evacuate their home? And then of them trying to find a new one?

During the next scene we hear this line from Lotor, “Each ally gained only makes us stronger.”

We see a number of Galra stand, three in the front stand out.

The first one has a red armor piece on his fore and upper arm and only on the right side of the body. The one next to him reminds me very much of Commander Mogor who helped out Lotor, and the one before him reminds me of Cossack, Mogor’s replacement.

I think at the very least we’re seeing a new type of officer with the red armed one. Also the shot is them standing up and saluting someone. My guess either Thork or Lotor. One or the other is making a rousing speech to get them on his side. Honestly I think this is where Lotor’s speech we’re hearing is coming from and we’re seeing the end reaction to it. There’s probably a “Join me” line in there at the end because this doesn’t sound like a complete speech.

Then following this shot we have the Voltron crew looking like they’re preparing to deal with trouble.

This shot I think is rather important. It frames things in a unique way, and possibly subtle look at some conflict to come up in the series, maybe?

So to break down this frame let’s start with what we see point blank. Keith is standing clearly center front where Shiro normally is meaning that he’s starting to embrace his role as leader. Then we have Pidge to his left, who is almost standing next to him, and slightly behind her is Hunk who is right behind her. Across we have Lance who is on his own, and behind him and Keith, framed, is Allura and Coran. Allura is before Coran, and Coran is in the back of them all.

Breaking the shot down even more it’s clear that they want your eyes to wander around the page from Keith’s side to Lance’s and then back to Allura. Leaving Lance on his own could mean a number of things. It could mean that it’s a visual cue that he’s feeling left out of the group and has embraced things having Keith be the leader. It should be noted that He and Keith are almost equal in where they’re standing. Meaning that while they may not be seeing eye to eye on things, they’re probably on the same wave length about whose the real enemy here.

Also important is how Pidge and Hunk are both set up. Pidge is nearly side by side with Keith which could indicate that he’s putting more responsibility in her and her role in the team. He’s also trusting her more as his left hand man, so to speak, in this case. Hunk is right behind her, showing that he’s got her back and that of Keith’s in this case.

Then you have Allura and Coran in the back, both are standing in a refined way, Allura in the front standing like a lady of the court would with Coran seemingly having hands on hips.

Now the interesting thing here also is how they’re dressed, body language and the hands in this case. Lance and Hunk seems to be sharing a curious but not trusting look as they stare at something. Lance’s hands are less clenched meaning he’s open to what they’re seeing, but that he doesn’t trust or believe everything that is being fed to him, which is good since Lance is far more trusting then Keith is. Hunk at the same time has learned from his time with the mermaids and is clearly not willing to buy in to things at sight. In this case he looks more like he’s questioning what he’s seeing and hearing.

Pidge and Keith on the other hand are not quiet opposite each other but they convey different emotions here. Pidge looks curious, almost sad. She’s the most relaxed at this point and seems less worried then the others are. It’s like she’s trying to figure out what she should believe in this case, or is curious about this. This makes me wonder if she knows the person that they’re looking at, maybe this could be a rebel who knows where Matt is? Or it is Matt? Conversely we have Keith who is clearly not buying any of this at all, he looks very untrusting and suspect of the person that they are with and seems to be giving them side eyes. His fists are also clenched, meaning that he’s being resolute and firm about something. The fact that his thumbs aren’t tucked in means that he’s not ready for a fight but he’s not going to back down either.

Allura and Coran are showing different meanings as well. Hands folded in the front as she’s doing means that she’s trying to show respect and confidence, but really at the moment she’s feeling very vulnerable and worried. Her face, though blurred, shows something of confusion or worry as well. Coran, I can’t see his face, but it looks like his hands are behind his back and that normally means confidence and that he’s being serious. He’s trying to show an air of intimidation, or protection over the Princess and the others there.

It’s also important to note that they’re in their normal attire. This means that this is not a mission situation, but rather someone has invited them some place as this isn’t the ship, and they left their suits behind. So this is someone they’re trying to show trust in, thus the whole letting their guard down in this case, but being on edge here. Again, I’m going to guess the Rebels or some similar group.

Lotor states over this and several other scenes, “All those who (something) appear (?) choose (?) to stand against us...Will be crushed.”

Following the shot of the Voltron crew we have a ship that looks like a gun that fires out a laser blast.

We haven’t seen this before. Most of the ships that engage in battle are the smaller ones or the Robeasts, so this is new and rather frightening that the Galra are now firing lasers. To make matters worse, it looks like the next shot shows them blowing up a bunch of civilian ships.

So remember that ship from earlier I mentioned when the smaller fighters were firing on the ground? 

Yeah I think that the ships that were taking off from there were attacked and what we see in this moment is what happened to them as they were trying to flee the planet. The fact that this shot with the “Will be crushed” line tells me at the very least that Lotor isn’t playing around and that he intends to destroy anyone that gets in his way, or at least that’s what he wants the Galra to think so he can control them. What that means for the character as a whole I’m not sure.

However this very dark shot is then followed by an even darker image. We see Voltron knelling down on rocks looking defeated.

I think this might be a volcano, maybe Keith’s lion will get some much needed boost ala Pidge, Lance and Hunk last season. Not sure what’s going on, but clearly there is going to be a hard fight for the group.

As for the speech, this I think is making things clear at least in regard to how Lotor WANTS to be seen by his men. He starts off noting the accomplishments of his father, whom is well loved among the general population as shown with the various officers in the army, although the Commanders have other thoughts, this speech though isn’t for them. As you see in that one shot there is no Commanders or Generals there, only officers.

The reason he starts off this way is to call to mind who he is related to. He notes “His Father” meaning he wants that connection in the minds of the officers. He goes on to list that his father built the Galra Empire on the backs of his (or our) enemies. If it’s his, then he’s trying to invoke the accomplishments that his father achieved against those that he warred with and that he built the empire on those that fell before him. If it’s our, then he’s indicating that the Galra empire has been built with the help of the people and that they have pushed down those that would oppose them to build a great empire (very much like the Roman empire in a lot of ways).

He then goes on to say that the universe can no longer doubt how strong they are. Meaning that at some point in time the Galra came off as a weaker group and that others didn’t believe that they could achieve what they had done. This indicates that he wants them to feel pride in what they have accomplished and that others now can’t reject them and that they are the ones in power. The other cities and planets will have to know their power and strength. Again very much like a roman Emperor here.  Note too he says Universe, meaning that it’s not just one solar system, it’s the whole of the universe, and even places they have yet to go to.

Then Lotor goes on to say that each ally that they gain makes them stronger. Again this seems to very much mimic some of what the Romans did during the time that they were the Holy Roman Empire. Lotor is telling us that each time they gain someone to their side it only makes them more powerful, stronger, and more capable of achieving what they need to achieve. He’s trying to show that there is strength in numbers and that the Galra should not reject or ignore those that are allied with them, rather embrace them and move forward using their abilities. (This has me thinking that the Pollux plot will either be in this season or the next since the notion of the Galra having allies means that he’s going to go for diplomacy which could help them out in showing that the Galra are more benevolent at points.)

Then he goes on to say that those that oppose them will be crushed. This is key here. I think again they’re trying to invoke a lot of Rome into the Galra with how they operate, and in this case Lotor is trying to get his men to not only feel that they have achieved something, that they’re strong and powerful, that others are willing to stand by them, but that if those who come after them try and defeat them, they will crush them.

Note though, crush doesn’t mean destroy. Crush means to violently control or subdue something. Break the will and they will follow you then. You don’t need to eradicate them. Destroy means to wipe them out completely, and I think this shows something about Lotor. He doesn’t want to destroy others, he wants to control them. So we’re not going to get a killer Lotor in this case, we’re going to get one that uses a lot of unconventional ways of dealing with issues.

What we can tell from the speech is that clearly Lotor wants to be seen as a powerful person and one that his troops can rally around and he can hold the empire together, and it looks like his men buy this. On the other hand we can tell from his choice of words that he’s not like Zarkon. Zarkon was serious, relying a lot on Haggar and was very contemplative about his actions. He wouldn’t engage with Voltron directly, rather he would let other things go after them. Lotor seems to be more proactive on this front.

However where they differ is that Zarkon, while he wanted Voltron, he had no intention of keeping the Paladins alive. This is where I think the difference will come into play. Lotor wants to control over possessing. He probably knows that the lions have picked their Paladins and will want to get the users under his control. It’s also clear that he’s not against making allies, which means that he’s probably going to be more diplomatic and making concessions, unlike his father who seemed to just invade and take over. This I think will make things harder for the Rebels as well as allow others to come join the Galra for not only protection, but to get some political power as well as land and colonization.

Then you have the April fools trailer, which has some key notes as well.

It starts off with the fighting arena. This I think is the same place that Shiro went to.

Note the four claw finger rocks that seem to form the barrier for the fight. We see two mini people in the area and it’s clear that one has been bested. People are cheering, so this is a normal fight night.

We then cut to Throk and another commander. They are watching the fight and the larger of the two says, “Who’s this little fella.” Meaning that he doesn’t recognize the Prince that’s in the ring.

This one is leaning back meaning he’s less impressed and that he’s relaxed, not as interested in what he’s seeing. Throk though is leaning forward, clearly interested in what is about to be revealed and wants to know what’s going on. By the way his eyes go wide then narrow as he speaks meaning he’s curious but also a bit annoyed by the fact that this smaller person won.

Throk says to his fellow commander, “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.”

This indicates that Throk frequents this arena, and that this is the first time that he’s seeing the Prince there. This could also mean that Lotor hasn’t come here often or at all and that he’s testing something out in a place of battle. What that could mean, who knows. New skill or a new item that gives him an advantage in a fight. Maybe a teleporting device based on teladove tech?

Next shot is of Lotor and we see him standing there in his armor.

This is interesting as it’s very similar to the Weblum Galra, but there’s some slight diffrences. Either because this was newly animated for this piece, or a different animator group (B group) did this shot for them. In any case what’s important is that the color’s match, as does the neck ring around the collar. What’s odd is that he doesn’t have on the shoulder pads, but does have on a waist cape. So we do still have some of that “I’m hot and I know it and I want to look fine,” aspect of Lotor still in there.

We see that the waist cape has the blue markings, much like the Galra from before, and now the arms are covered at the top, meaning that he changed his outfit some but is retaining that custom look that he has. His sword is also unique. It is similar to the sword that Lotor used in DoU, but has pink on the hilt showing the same glow as Allura (hints of them being related?) and on the top as well. This energy at least tells me that he can use some form of magic, after all why have it at all if he couldn’t?

Then comes the zoom in and the hair reveal.

And we at once see he has Altean ears, meaning we can at least confirm that he’s half Altean. We also get a sense of scale on him as well, and I think possibly his fighting theme. Also that hair looks great.

Since we don’t get his face, well we do get the front of the armor and that’s where things get weird.

While the neck marking is the same as the weblum with the orange V shape, the chest marking is different. 

This is either because it’s a different set of armor, as @aquaburst07 mentioned to me, which is the most likely, or the Weblum Galra and Lotor are two different people and they work for him. Either way we can at the very least say that the armor is similar.

Outside of that, it’s a animation error and will be fixed later. 

Not much to add on this speculation at this point. Other then I think he’s gonna look great and then Throk is going to recognize him and be like “Prince Lotor!” as if shocked to see him there. Question now is, what has the Prince been doing all this time?