#(while still being not as great as shiro. so it could’ve been Yes! Shiro’s Back! with errybody back in s1 lions and breathing again)

[sillysparklyspaghettios]

Firstly, I want to say I agree SO MUCH especially with that second part because Lance was such a good character and person. He’s silly, loyal, charming (maybe I’m biased), passionate and quick thinking amongst other things. While I love the show a lot I feel a lot of the characters get side lined and even if they do ‘develop’ it’s not really shown with as much care as Keith and Shiro’s character arcs. Pidge is still respected more than Lance or Hunk. To be honest, I don’t remember exactly how Hunk’s development was treated since it’s been a few years since I watched Voltron and I’m only at the beginning of s2 in my rewatch right now. Although, I do remember that Lance was definitely treated as the butt of the joke far too often.

I like characters that aren’t always so serious and I don’t understand why not being super serious all the time is treated as some kind of inferior personality trait. Don’t get me wrong, I love Keith and Shiro but I really get bothered by the treatment of the other characters who are more ‘happy’ or ‘fun’ than those two- like the other Paladins are as important of characters as Keith and Shiro.

Back to what you said at the beginning (I apologise for my incoherent rant, I love yapping too much) so I agree but also that isn’t what happened in this episode. Rolo doesn’t pilot the blue lion to steal it- he just puts it in his ship and flies away. Yes, Lance was still pretty naive and over trusting there but I think it still works because this is right at the beginning of the show when they’ve all been Paladins for hardly a week.

In Season 2 Episode 1, when Keith and Shiro are stranded on that random planet, they have to find each other and Keith somehow pilots the Black Lion to rescue Shiro from some creatures. I know that was probably to serve as foreshadowing that Keith will one day be the pilot of the Black Lion but it just was so rushed and sudden that it feels weird. Like he just puts his hand on the Lion, says please, gets no response, then it cuts to Shiro and a second later we see the Black Lion being piloted by Keith, rescuing Shiro. The Lions have moved by themselves to their pilots so I don’t understand why Keith had to pilot it. There could’ve been different foreshadowing that would’ve made more sense, I feel.

Back to the stuff about characterisation, it does bother me how rushed the character arcs were for some of the Paladins but I do think a lot of it was to do with not being given enough episodes to finish the story because no way did the creators want 4 6-7 episode seasons after staring off with 11 in s1 and 13 in s2. It doesn’t take away from the fact that a lot of character related stuff got a bit butchered but I’m glad that at least the show was great overall and there’s an overactive fandom 🔥

Yap over :3

I started rewatching Voltron a few days ago and it is bringing my obsession back HARD. Lance was always my favourite character and I really remember why now that I’m rewatching it. Anyway, here’s a random Lance thing I thought was funny 😭

In Season 1 Episode 8, the Paladins are all helping out the people who are stranded on that moon and Lance gets enamoured by Nyma, one of the stranded people. Lance is a little dumb so I can’t blame him for not seeing that Nyma was being pretty fishy but what I love is that he literally doesn’t realise that Nyma is tricking him even when she handcuffs him to the tree 😭😭😭 LIKE HE ONLY REALISES WHEN THE BLUE LION GETS TAKEN LMFAO

He BLUSHES and says ‘Woah… this is kinda-’

What was going through his mind at that point 😭

Anyway this is why I love Lance McClain with all my heart

Also I did NOT pick up on that joke when I first watched Voltron LMAO I love this show

[void-tiger]

Even if!! they did “black paladin Keith” well I’d still hate it because:

-Shiro is so intrinsic to the Plot and Themes, and Black Lion/Black Paladinship to Shiro

-Red Lion/Red Paladinship suits Keith so well

-ALL the initial Lions&Paladins suited the characters well while still having plenty of room for these characters to grow and have their initial roles continue to suit them Better

And no. No I won’t ever be “over it.”

[just-my-fandom]

Voltron Headcannons

Date set to post; July 25th, 2020

Date posted; August 6th, 2020

Request; Basically Headcannons where the reader gets hurt and the paladins take care of her!

Style; Headcannons

Note; I went in dept with this. Stay home and stay safe, guys!

Masterlist

Shiro

You scared yourself awake

After the paladins and their lions were thrown into the ports to different areas of space, you, Shiro, and Keith landed on the same planet

Not that you knew that

You had passed out during the fall out of fear, and when you woke up, it hurt to move because of the purple marks on your side,

Your helmet glitched as you tried to look around, noting how your lion, the white lion, had shut down

You heard your name being called through your ear piece, but you couldn’t tell which paladin it is, or if it was Allura or Coran

The back door to your lion hissed open and it startled you enough to jump in your seat, which caused you to hiss when the wound pulled,

“Easy. Try not to move,”

You lifted your head, and behold, your knight in shining armor

Not really, but Shiro was close enough

His brows were pinched with worry as he squatted down in front of your chair, and tried to help you stand without touching your burning side,

After three attempts and a thousand “ows,” Shiro settled on keeping you in your seat and trying to get in contact with Keith

Cue the weird creature things that had spotted the lion and the door that Shiro left open (stupid fuck), and Shiro ended up having to defend you with his glowing hand,

Sure he got a few scratches, but what’s a few more scars to match the rest

Keith eventually found your lion, and Shiro had you laying down because the position you were sitting in made the wound ten times worse

Keith and Shiro tried to patch up your side with what you have in your lions, but eventually they decided that they have to wait for the others to find them so you can be put in a healing pod

That night even after you’re healed Shiro still wouldn’t let you get out of bed even for a cup of water-

Keith

You were just training when it happened

Swinging a few at the training bot with your sword, out of breath, before it got knocked out of your hand and you were left throwing punches

You didn’t catch the arm of the bot pulling back (it had somehow caught your sword), before it lunged forward,

The sudden problem you had to breathe caused your movements to stop, and you finally looked down at where the sword had pierced just under your left breast

A wheezed “oh my God” escaped your lips in horror, the bot pulling the blade out to step back, announcing you had lost before it vanished,

You mentally prepared yourself to scream, only getting out a, “Keith!!” before you dropped to the metal floor,

Keith and Lance were both making their way down the hall to the training deck when they heard your shout, so naturally they both took off towards your voice,

Keith saw you first, cursing out loud when Lance rammed into him due to not stopping fast enough,

They both saw you on your back, one arm sprawled to the side as the other held your workout shirt, that was once a light (favorite/color) and was then stained red,

Keith demanded Lance to go get Allura as he fully stepped into the deck, using the towel he was going to use for sweat to press it to your wound, squatting down to fully look at your face,

“The bot,” You wheezed, eyes wide in a panic, “It stabbed me. I didn’t know it could do that,”

“Don’t talk,” Keith’s voice came out tougher than he had liked. You had gotten stabbed, you didn’t need a lecture,

You instead tilted your head back and whined, and Keith racked his brain to figure out what he could do to stop the bleeding until the other teammates got there,

“Holy Quiznack!” Keith had rolled his eyes at Corans shout, then when he looked up three of the paladins- plus Coran- had surrounded you

When they got to the medic bay and you were put in a healing pod, Coran was able to bring up security cameras that revealed how you had gotten injured,

“What level did you have that thing on? Death?”

That earned Lance a punch in the shoulder.

Keith did scold you when you were healed and out of the pod,

Pidge, Hunk and Coran took time to tweak the training bots so they couldn’t go as far as causing fatal injuries like yours,

You were low key scared to use the training bot again

Keith will do.

Hunk

So you and Hunk were sent on your own mission.

You had to sneak into a part of a Galra ship and steal a piece of tech that Pidge needed for an important part of the castle

Everything was fine and dandy until an alarm was set of- a Galra soldier had spotted you

Galra soldiers ended up raiding the halls that you and Hunk were in

While Hunk was able to to defend himself your bay yard had been shot from your hands so you were only given hand-to-hand combat

You were fine holding your end of the grudge until a Galra Solider had snuck up behind you and Hunk

He must have knew you would be more effected if you were shot, so just as you were about to pin another soldier, a hot wave of pain had hit your shoulder and caused you to release the soldier

You didn’t realize that it actually hurt until you turned to face the soldier who shot you, then black began to spot your vision and you were unable to keep yourself up

Hunk noticed that you’d suddenly just stopped fighting and that’s when he saw the blood on your uniform

Hunk was able to shoot down the remaining guards, then he was left to catch you, but he was freaking out so much he couldn’t bring himself to run, instead he just sunk to his knees and began yelling into his mic,

This led you to laughing despite literally fading in and out of consciousness and telling Hunk he needed to get you to the ship

Which he did, but running back to the ship even with more Galra soldiers chasing him wasn’t easy because he couldn’t just pull out his weapon and shoot with you in his arms

You may or may not had done a badass thing of pulling your gun from your thigh pocket and hazily shooting at the soldiers,

You luckily shot all of them so when you patted the back of Hunks head and dropped your gun, he stopped running to look back and realize he didn’t have to run anymore,

“Babe, I love you more than usual sometimes,”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not so I’m gonna take it as one,”

Hunk then reminds himself that you’re barely there with them so he starts sprinting again and yelling for Coran to power a healing pod

You healed pretty quickly but Hunk had to give you a run down and scolded you as to why you didn’t use your thigh gun during battle instead of just using your fists,

All is good tho dw

Pidge (Short)

Believe it or not, it was Matt who had hurt you

You and Pidge had found a room with a map and locations and realized it was a spy facility

A figure suddenly snuck up on you and Pidge, and while Pidge was able to duck and roll to the side, you were hit upside the head with the strangers staff

And since you had taken your helmet off, it caused more damage to where you had to lay on the floor just to gain your vision back

Pidge is pissed, running at the figure with her weapon and they ended up fighting, and sure enough, low and behold, Matt’s identity was revealed

Pidge almost forgot about you when she hugged Matt, and she turned and called out for you in a panic, having not seen you move to show you were okay,

Which you were, just in pain from the force your head and face took and your head had began to throb,

“I did not mean to hit you that hard,” Matt said, when Pidge ran to your side and helped you sit up, her hand at your jaw giving Matt the go that you weren’t just a friend,

It ended up bruising, so there was just this big line going across your cheek and jaw that was an ugly purple and green color

Matt still apologizes to this day even tho it’s been weeks since it happened

You and Pidge sometimes laugh at him for it

Lance

So what had happened was-

You and Keith had to sneak on Zarkons ship

Yes, you and Keith

Lance wasn’t happy about that but

And right before you reached the area you had to get to, Keith was jumped and you were pulled into a side room, pinned to a wall with a hand at your throat

You easily passed out and when Keith turned around, you were no longer in his sight

Lance was livid

You woke up like three hours later in a cell

It was dark, clammy, and your throat was hurting from the pressure your capturer had put on it

Zarkon had his men chain you up and started electrocuting you for answers on Voltron

Of course as a valid member of the team you weren’t telling him shit

Which ended with you having a broken nose cause you had spit in Zarkons face and told him to “go to hell”

The one time Zarkon left you alone Lance and Keith rescued you, and the whole time Lance was reminding Keith that he should have gone on the mission with you instead of him

You ended up collapsing halfway through Zarkons ship, and it only freaked Lance out more because an alarm had gone off to alert that you had escaped

Cue Lance swooping you up and shooing Keith to run

Again you woke up a couple hours later in your bed at the castle and Lance was all sobby about it because “You could’ve died”

“But I didn’t,”

“Let me have my emotional moment, dammit. I could have left you behind,”

“Keith would’ve rescued me,”

Great, you made Lance mad and pout.

“I’m your knight in shining armor, not Keith,”

“Yes you are. Thank you, Lance,”

[raziroo]

Chapter Four | I Take A Liking To Lilac All Of A Sudden

Pairing: Lotor x Reader (There you go)

Genre: Angst? I don't knowww

Warnings: Mentions of cancer, mild swearing

Word Count: 1,676

Author’s Note: This is kind of a filler? I can't write long shit in one sitting, so. It's important to reader and lotor's relationship, tho.

‘Good luck. Come back alive, all of you, alright?’ I asked, my eyes roving over the three people standing before me – Matt, Pidge, and Shiro. ‘It’s, like, one of the simplest things you could do. You give Lotor, you get Mr. Holt. Simple. Very simple and easily doable. Right?’ My gaze dragged over all of them once more as I picked at my nails nervously. As much as I was aware of the fact that this trade wasn’t simple and easily doable, I knew that I would legitimately have a nervous breakdown if I didn’t spew lies through my teeth.

Shiro smiled at me lightly. ‘Of course. I’ll make sure nothing goes wrong. You guys take care too.’

‘If, however, anything happens,’ Allura chided, ‘the other lions will arrive as soon as possible.’

‘Yeah,’ Pidge said with a wry smirk, ‘so try not to pass out.’

‘Okay,’ I nodded my head rapidly, ‘yeah, okay, I – I can do that.’

‘Good. Well, we’ll get going then,’ Shiro announced, and turned around, the others following him.

Hopefully, all would go well.

. . . . .

You know what? Everything actually went relatively well. Yes, my hunch turned out to be correct and Zarkon chose to go through with the ‘I was lying all along! Bwahahaha!’ route and ended up getting himself killed at the hands of his son, but overall, I’d say it was a win-win, seeing that we got Pidge’s father back (thank God, who knows what havoc she’d wreak if we ended up not getting Sam back) and the evil maniacal tyrant who’d been ruling over the universe for ten thousand years died.

The one downside was that now there needed to be a new Emperor, because following Zarkon’s death, not only the Galra empire, but simultaneously the entire universe had gone into a state of chaos too. There was no doubt that underlings and generals would try to take over smaller parts of the empire, and once that happened, Voltron being able to do anything would be a stretch.

And, according to Lotor, a ceremony to crown the new emperor, the Kral Zera, would now be taking place. Once he said that, he really didn’t need to say more – it was obvious what his implications were. A new emperor was to be crowned, and if Voltron was to achieve peace, Lotor would have to go and secure the throne. It was a sensible thought to be had, no problem. The thing was, to reach the Kral Zera, which was taking place in two days, in itself was a decision to be taken with utmost thought. The Paladins just didn’t have enough time to decide.

On the one hand, Shiro and Lotor were adamant that the latter be crowned emperor; the other Paladins, however, were justifiably hesitant. I had been standing there listening to them going back and forth, not saying a word myself, like always.

To be honest, I just wanted to go sleep. For some reason, I’d been feeling overly anxious these past few days. White was still not responding to me, I was having regular dreams about the day I woke up here. It was always that one day, that first conversation I had with Shiro. It was as if my subconsciousness too wanted me to reach out to Shiro because there was clearly something weird going on with him.

My suspicions only solidified when I heard Shiro’s voice boom through the room. My head snapped up. Lance with a look of shock and the slightest bit of fear on his face, Shiro’s visage twisted with uncharacteristic anger.

‘Shiro. I think you should just relax a little.’ The man turned to me, brows pinched.

‘I am relaxed -’

‘No, I really think you aren’t… so, like… take it easy, yeah?’ I asked, jumping my eyebrows, arms still folded in front of me, maintaining a calm yet defensive posture. I could feel the entire room’s gazes on me. After all, I almost never spoke in such discussions, or any discussions, really, and indirectly opposing Shiro, of all people, was way too brave a thing for me to do.

Shiro looked at me with slight disbelief, a glint in his eye challenging me to speak up. ‘You want me to take it easy? Take it easy? The fate of the universe depends on this, taking it easy is really not an option right now. I’ve put my foot down – as the Leader of Voltron, I’ve taken this decision. You aren’t someone befitted to oppose me.’

Ok, wow. Everyone shared the same opinion apparently, as now the silence seemed piercing. Clicking my tongue, I tilted my head. ‘Well, maybe not as a Paladin, which I’m not, or a member of the coalition. But as a friend, Shiro, you’ve been acting strange. Everyone realises this. You realise this. … Maybe, I don’t know… maybe all this reflecting on you’ve been doing, maybe the role of leader is taking a toll on you? I, heh,’ I chuckle, ‘I really am not sure. But you’re not relaxed, and you’re not acting yourself.’

‘Could you please not tell me how to be a Paladin?’

‘While you all waste time squabbling, sinister forces are conspiring to fill the Galra power void. If I don’t return to claim the throne, there’s no telling who will.’

Does being royalty instantly make you a hundred times more dramatic? Sinister forces? Deadass?

I walked out.

. . . . .

Shiro went behind our back.

Yeah.

Acting like a complete bitch, he took Lotor to the Kral Zera, where, for your information, he could’ve been blown up. By Keith.

I wanted to deck Shiro. Instead, I visited White. I had hopes she’d respond to me, since I’d been brave and spoken my mind. I prayed on all the Gods and Deities above that my expectations became reality.

Yeah, they didn’t. She didn’t budge. The whole entire two goddamned hours I sat in front of White, she ignored me. Frustrated, I ended up punching her, resulting in bleeding knuckles. Lotor saw that, by the way. He seemed to always be keeping an eye on White, regardless of me being there or not, which I admit is a little strange, but I wasn’t judging. These aliens seemed to worship the Lions.

Lotor also invited us to the Galra headquarters, and lord oh my lord, was it fancy. Allura had gone off to do research with Lotor (I’d been about to make a joke about what “research” those two were really about to do, if you catch my drift, but then I saw Lance looking at the pair glumly, and thought better of it. I’d lightly punched Lance on the shoulder, and raised my eyebrows so as to say ‘They’re gorgeous aliens who could give Bella Hadid and Harry Styles a run for their money, it can’t be helped.’ He laughed.) I accompanied Hunk, Lance and Pidge in their shenanigans for a while, but ended up wandering around the place.

Space was beautiful. Even through a window, I wanted to just stare at it for as long as I could, enjoying a show more realistic than ever before. It was really similar to all the Marvel movies I’d watched; I felt a weird sense of pride at that realization. I remembered how I’d cried at the end of Infinity War, my friends clinging to me and bawling as well; how loud I’d squealed at an absolutely steamy piece of Kakashi fanart Cory had drawn; how happy I’d been when Sasha, my neighbour and childhood friend, had come out victorious after battling cancer for years.

I hadn’t realized when the tears had started slipping down my cheeks. I wiped at them, but they wouldn’t go. Sniffling and wiping so furiously my skin would get burned when I heard footsteps, I turned to see Lotor approaching me.

‘Hey -’ shit, my voice was so thick. Clearing my throat obnoxiously loud, I greeted him again. ‘Hey, uh… what… how’s yours and Allura’s research going?’

‘The research has been going quite smoothly.’

‘Hmm. Nice.’

Lotor was staring – no, correction - scrutinising me. I could feel it, his intense as hell eyes burning into the side of my face. I wasn’t going to give up, though. I stared at the window with as much concentration as he me.

He was the first to speak up. Ha.

‘You’re not of the Paladins.’

‘Really? I didn’t know, thanks,’ I still wasn’t looking at him.

‘Deepest apologies if I offended you -’

‘You didn’t, it’s okay.’

‘…’

‘…’

‘…If you wish to answer, why do you appear… distant, compared to the other Paladins? You say they are your friends, but there’s such scarce interaction… you seem acquaintances at best.’

‘… They are my friends. I like to think so, because, well… because I don’t have anyone to go back home to.’

‘Oh. My apologies, I didn’t mean to pry.’

‘You didn’t pry, chill. It’s not that my family’s dead or anything, it’s just that… no, well, my family is dead, but… like, they’ve been dead for around three hundred or so years…?’ I turned to Lotor, brows furrowed. He looked less confused than me.

‘Sorry, no, that’s – that’s shit explanation, um… you could say… I… I’ve lived past my time. I’m alive when I’m not supposed to be.’

I didn’t explicitly mention, as you can see, that I was a time traveller, because I wasn’t really one with that fact yet. I’d accepted it, yes, but that didn’t mean I was comfortable with it. It was still a foreign truth, something I didn’t take great joy in talking or thinking about.

When I turned to Lotor, I felt like he’d understood what he needed to already.

It was bizarre. A lilac alien was the last person I would expect to understand me so easily, but it was what it was.

[riskeith]

happy weekend dearest!

other than the snow angels, i haven’t done much.,, just been cozying it up with coffee and blankets at home hehe. 30 degrees... amazing. ideal feeling like a rotisserie chicken weather. 😌 bc of global warming we’ve been having some great summers these past few years. it even gets to 30 degrees as well which was unheard of tbh.

you’re so cute for caring ilysm <3 and aaa! a walk! do you have any perticular place you enjoy walking to or does the winds guide you, hehe? EDITING A FIC... 👀 i’m looking respectfully...... 👀 wait did the event open up for you already? i tried to play it earlier today but it wasn’t there yet... the lost riches one right?

bennett is best boy i still can’t believe it either!!! he’s seriously the cutest he just makes me so happy. when i need to explore and run around i always run with him bc i love his lines so much. what a bebie. you should go for it there are still some days left! + he’s a four star so he’s easier to get. GUOBA IS SO FUNNY he’s just.... a little fucking bear i can’t stop laughing... tbh the little creatures like amber’s bunny too just 😭 have you seen those yt clips of them dancing? obsession..

i need to ask you this bc when i found out i lost my mind: did you know that the japanese va for razor is also the va for tsukishima (haikyuu) and shigaraki (bnha)???? insane!!! it made me consider switch to japanese dub tbh.. which dub do you use?

maybe i’ll send you a little part and you can read or something shdkdhskdjdjf help 😳 it’s not edited or anything so it might take a while plus i’m super into writing bnha these days so.... but hey if You have any prompts you want to read maybe i’ll write a drabble for you. i don’t mind at all! <33333 ask for anything!!

(FIC-COLLAB!!:!/$:)!:&//&/!$:’sidnd HELP.... omg what kind of fic would we write....?)

exactly! i think when you realize that there’s nothing keeping you there anymore that brings you joy, that’s when you need to step back. social media is a bit fucked up that way imo. like you want to be there to be informed and to have fun but it takes so much.. hm. also you always tell me this but i wanna tell you to that YOU are the reason i enjoy social media these days so.. thank you <3

you relate to bakugou and lance? that’s super hot of you.. 🥵 my wifey is a self assured, super intense and talented person.. couldn’t ask for better tbh. i think out of them both i’m pretty much like todoroki.. we’re super similar in so many ways now that i think about it shsjdhdhdj.. how about we just stay c.r and m.a our dynamic is perfect as is LMAO

DOUBLE VENTI! I’D LOOOOVE THAT FOR US. bow users are difficult indeed but venti is one of the easier bow users it feels like... idk watching others game play he doesn’t have as much pushback as say amber for example. 12K PRIMOGEMS..... babe you’re getting your xiao!!!!!! how long have you been saving? also i seriously don’t mind if it comes down to it hakshddkhd i can be your genshin sugar mommy... ;) imagine a c6 venti though that seems insane. literal insanity.

SPEAKING OF SHIPPING.... THE POST YOU POSTED... THEY STOLE OUR IDEA AND IT LOOKS SO CUTE AND ITS CHONGYUN AND XINGYUN WHICH IS EVEN BETTER... THEY LOOK SOOOOO CUTE TOGETHER I’M OBSESSEDDDDD!!!! <3333 dude idk how but we are doing that co-op date somehow i’m super inspired i want that for us so badly... (also i need to say smth... my love language is when people say ‘i thought of you when i...’ and the fact that you said that just hsjdfhjdjdksk shit)

actually you’re right.. the only way we’d get a sequel is if they did something with the mfe fighters.. like kinkade james veronica nadia and ina. idk how attractive that would be tho...

i’m a lady, my dearest *dips* no but my pronouns are she/her!! sorry i didn’t mention it before i thought i made it clear shsjsjdkdj. ty for asking tho ♥️ super sweet!

AAA!!!!!!!!!! EEE!! i’m super super excited. if it’s like,, too public and you don’t just wanna post it i might think about exposing myself or smth... if that would make you more comfy. no matter what you do i’m just gonna be here buzzing, *hinata voice* one more one more one more.

oh!! i listen to everything but kpop sjdjdkdhdk i did have a semi-phase around like 2014-19 ish but dropped it pretty hard . now i have no clue what goes on there anymore i mostly enjoy rnb indie n rap/hip.. my gay ass was considering making a little playlist or smth for u but i want to make it with songs You’d like so i might pull up my old kpop faves hehe..

guess chilling is out of the question then, heh. hope you slept well!! i’m gonna try to wake up earlier so we’ll have a chance to send more messages during the weekend perhaps... mwah!!

YOURS, m.a. <3

happy weekend!!!! hope you can ease up a bit since there’s no school hehe

“feeling like a rotisserie chicken weather” FHSKFHKSDF yes!! but it honestly sucks when it gets any hotter bc we don’t have central cooling in our house so rip... and my laptop fan goes crazy ahaha. 30 degrees being unheard of.. can’t relate! fsdfjs. have you guys had to adjust to those changing temperatures? rip climate change tho :’(

<333 i do!! i usually walk to the local park and then the streets around that.. omg speaking of... do you play pokemon go? DHAFKHSDKFHSKDFHKSDH i got back into it again recently ahaha. it’s for a free bakudeku zine!! hehehe it’s out at the end of jan so 👀

i just checked and the event is open !!!!!!!!! good luck hehe !

yup lost riches!! and the event opens at 4am server time, so since i’m in asia i get it earlier hehe which colour seelie are you gonna go for tho omg i was debating it with my friend last night.. i’m gonna pick gold!!

baby bennett!! that’s true but i can’t risk getting a 5 star otherwise my pity will reset for xiao fhdskfhskjfhkjshkfj next time :(((( but albedo /is/ super pretty and i see a lot of people saying they like him... NO !!! xiao only >:( no omg i don’t think i’ve seen those clips ? is it mmd where they like dance to other songs and stuff ahah

yes i did!!!! and the VA for diluc is giorno from jjba and kuroko from knb!! omg wait and venti’s VA is hinata did you know that? fun fact i guessed it was him when i first heard his voice LOL that’s my secret talent 😩 and i use japanese dub!! i’ve considered using chinese too bc i can understand it but i just like the japanese voice actors tbh and also i can excuse it as “listening practice” AHAH

yes pls!! sending something bnha is fine too, or legit anything else lmao i’m open arms over here~~ 🤗👐 and ooft... it’s hard thinking of prompts that’s why i always ask others HSDKFJHSDKFHSD but i’ll let you know if i think of something!!!

(no clue!!!! but we could each write from a character’s POV so hopefully it’s more consistent 🤪🤪 idk i have no clue how fic collabs work AHAHA)

yeahhh one of my mutuals said “social media is a curse” and honestly hard agree.. we’re all kinda trapped in a way LMAO. and no pls don’t thank me.. you’re the one who found me first 😩💘 ily..

FSDHKJFS pls you’re making me blush come on 😳😳 but yes i love that for us... m.a. x c.r. the only valid ship 😩

woooo!!!! yeah you’re probably right, like given the fact he’s a 5 star his mechanics are probably different.. i know that diluc’s charged attack is different to the other claymore users so! IM GETTING MY XIAO!!!! and hm i’ve been saving since the middle of zhongli banner! so december 10 ish around then? dragonspine was a blessing tbh i reckon i got sooo many primogems from that. FGJKSHFKJSDHFKSDHSHKJFH my genshin sugar mummy 🥵🥵 c6 venti unstoppable..

AHAHAHA YEAH THEY LOOK /SO/ CUTE TOGETHER!!! i wonder how they got so many of the images tho like they must’ve been so in sync?!?!? ugh that could be us but no cross-server co-op be playin’.. (fhdskjfhdskjfhs um!! noted for future reference 🤪)

omg them.. i always forget about them LMAOOOOOOOOO ugh. actually i wouldn’t be mad if we got a prequel of like when keith was in the garrison... or even when shiro was with adam... ugh so much they could’ve given us and they chose not to

*waggles eyebrows* well hello there, m’lady ;) and it’s fine fhdskjf i had some inklings but didn’t wanna assume ya know? ahah :p

no!! it’s all g, i’ve thought about posting it before anyway. like, just releasing all of my WIPs and letting people do what they want with them HAAHA. (i could also just put the link under a read more and less people would see it, so it’s no biggie!) fkdshfkjs the hinata impression omg precious <33

FJHFDSKJ awks ahah which groups were you into tho! if it’s not like scarring for you to think back to LOL. and oooo i like indie too! i think.. or is it alt? honestly i don’t even know, tbh my music taste is pretty diverse and a mess, i can usually listen to a lot of things. except slow songs i don’t really like those hfdskj. and i don’t like rap too much either FHSDKJS whenever my friend gives me a rec i’m just like “oh i liked the singing parts in that” FDSKJF. a playlist tho huh 😳🥺

and pls!! if the weekend is your only chance to sleep in then do it.. for me 😩 i’ve been legit waking up at 12pm these past few days FKJHSKDF idek why like i’m sleeping 10 hours?? yikes. but as always i shall be waiting for your response <3 💌

[mermaider00]

The Black Lion’s Choice

(An AU fic)

“I can’t believe it. I just can’t! Can you guys?” 

In the hangar of the Black Lion inside the Castle of Lions, Lance spun around to his teammates and friends. He had his paladin’s helmet under one arm and a brightness in his eyes as he looked at everyone who was left waiting with him. Keith, Shiro, and Allura only stared back at him. 

Lance’s armor was freshly polished and his face held a gleam from a sheet mask applied that very morning. 

Keith, with his arms crossed over his own red and white armor, gave a shrug from Lance’s excited outburst. “I don’t know. Nothing’s happening.” 

“It’s gonna happen,” Lance argued with a determined nod. “Shiro said so.” 

Shiro held up his hands in defense. “I didn't exactly say what you think I said, Lance.” 

“I think we all heard you loud and clear, buddy. Today, Black is getting herself a new paladin.” He turned back to the Black Lion, sitting quietly and majestically and gigantically. His chest puffed up and he set a fist on his skinny hip. “And that paladin is gonna be Lancey Lance.” 

“I’m... honestly in awe by this news,” Allura muttered. Unlike the other two boys, she wasn’t dressed in her armor, choosing instead to wear her flight suit for comfort. Shiro was without his too, she realized, glancing over at him and frowning some. He was back in his civilian clothes, and seeing his usual vest zipped up against his chest was somehow a disheartening thing to her eyes. A vest he’d needed help to zip up, she thought sadly, considering he was without his prosthetic arm that had been destroyed, and a new one had yet to be built for him. 

After the battle with the clone of their Black Paladin made by the witch Haggar, Keith had told her that the spirit of Shiro was trapped inside the Black Lion, kept safe there by the beast machine after his body had been incinerated by quintessence. With the great power of magical Altean Alchemy, she had extracted that spirit and replaced it inside the body of his clone. The time waiting for that body to accept a foreign soul had been tense and painful, but they’d managed it. 

In doing so, his bond with the Black Lion had been destroyed, and Shiro could no longer pilot her. 

An end of a great era, Allura thought with sorrow. But perhaps it would make way for something new? 

Would the choosing of Lance as Black Paladin begin a great and glorious new era for Voltron and the Coalition? 

“I think we should go over it one more time,” Allura suggested, coming to stand next to Shiro. His new pure white hair would take some getting used to. “In case we’ve missed something?” 

“Good idea, Allura,” Lance said happily. 

“Yeah good idea,” Keith muttered with an unconvinced lift of his brow. “Because I’m having a hard time understanding it.” 

“What’s not to understand? Shiro said I’m gonna be Black Paladin.” 

“That’s not what I said,” Shiro grumbled out, sighing deeply and rubbing his temples with his one hand for a few moments before he went through all he knew yet again. “Let’s go through the timeline. All of your written and oral reports tell me there was an altercation with Lotor that resulted in a big misunderstanding between Team Voltron and the Galra Empire, which could've threatened our alliance with the greatest faction in the known universe. During this altercation, Keith takes out my clone, and Allura ultimately saves my life.” 

“You mentioned the Black Lion speaking to you,” Allura added, staring up the great head of Voltron before them. “When she was keeping your soul safely inside her. Would she speak to you in the same way the bond works between Lion and paladin?” 

“It was... something like that.” Shiro sighed again, softer this time. “The bond is like a voice in your head that isn’t a voice at all. The Lion gifts you with new abilities to unlock when the bond is strong enough, and they can sense you as if you were one being. Black has also been known to show me events of the past during an astral projection, but it isn’t a voice. None of those things are a voice, it’s all just deep emotional and spiritual connection. My experience with Black while she housed my soul was something else entirely.” 

“Still not understanding,” Keith cut in. “If she cared about you so much and had that kind of connection with you, why is your bond broken now?” 

“I don’t know,” Shiro admitted, finding the yellow eyes of the Black Lion and once again trying to feel something. He felt mostly nothing. “The whole time I was in there, it felt like she was waiting for someone. She took me, my clone, and even Keith to fly her, but the choosing of Keith to take my place only happened because I influenced it, and she temporarily agreed. I don’t know exactly why she’s not accepting you anymore, Keith, but I think it has something to do with her waiting.” 

Keith went quiet as he tried to think. Apparently, the only reason he was able to pilot Black was because Shiro made it all happen after he’d died and been absorbed by the beast machine. Black would not take him at her controls anymore. 

But the Red Lion had welcomed him back home. 

Allura crossed her arms over her chest. “This was all so much easier to manage when I just assigned you all to your Lions. Now you all have history with more than one of them that makes this predicament entirely too complicated.” 

“Black won’t take me or Shiro,” Keith began, seeming to speak his thoughts out loud now. “But Red took me back and won’t take Lance. I thought maybe the Lions wanted our original lineup but that’s obviously not the case, even more so since Blue still wants Allura.” 

“She’s waiting for someone,” Shiro said again. “It’s why she won’t let me fly her. I think she’s been waiting a long time, and she’s finally standing firm and getting what she wants. When I was with her, it wasn’t like the bond when you’re a paladin. I heard her voice. I heard her speak to me.” 

“What did her voice sound like?” Lance asked. 

“It’s... hard to describe. I felt it everywhere, in my ears, in my head, in my heart and even in my blood. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced with her before. She told me her paladin was a boy she knew. One who longed to fly her, who was part of the team, and one who was as quick and sharp as the Altean blade he wielded. All of those things describe Keith,” Shiro continued, giving a rueful smile to his longtime friend. “But apparently Keith is not the one. And the only other person who meets all those requirements... is Lance.” 

“Yes!” Lance cheered, pumping a fist into the air. Not only had he polished his armor for the occasion, he had polished the armor of the Black Paladin, and was wearing it proudly. “I mean, it’s sad to leave Red. I’m definitely gonna miss that speed, and Blue has bonded pretty hard with Allura. Hunk doesn’t fight with a sword and in his heart we all know he prefers being with Yellow. I’m the only other guy left. And I’m a guy without a Lion now.” 

“It does make sense,” Allura said. “What doesn’t make sense is how the Black Lion is responding at the moment.” 

“I know, what’s up with her?” Lance murmured as he stared up at Black again. 

The Black Lion looked anything but receptive to a new pilot at the moment. With two former Black Paladins and one possible new one in the hangar, her safety shield was up around her body positioned in a sitting pose. A waiting pose, Shiro thought again, but the waiting should end any moment. When they had originally found Blue in that cave back on earth, Blue’s shields had been up as well even though her next paladin had entered the space with her. 

It had taken a little time for Lance to break through the shields, and carry them all off to their destiny. 

Keith then suggested, “Maybe Black doesn’t like the fact that you’re wearing the Black Paladin armor before she even lets you fly her.” 

Lance looked down at his chest and the black symbol of Voltron painted there. “That can’t be. I think I look kinda dashing. It just means I’m ready for her.” 

“Girls don’t like it when you’re presumptuous.” 

“Okay, stop before this turns into a thing,” Shiro interrupted before a spitting match between the boys could begin. “Lance, you’re the only one of us who makes sense based on what I know. Black has been waiting for you. Maybe it was solving the altercation with Lotor peacefully instead of resorting to emotional violence that couldn’t be taken back, or maybe it was you mastering the skills of two other Lions, I don’t know. But you will be Voltron’s next Black Paladin.” 

“You’re quiznaking right!” Lance said excitedly, setting his black and white helmet down onto the floor and approaching the safety shields around the Black Lion. “C’mon, girl, loverboy Lance will treat you like a lady.” 

Allura heard the entrance doors to the hangar whoosh open. Someone was entering. Probably Coran or Pidge. 

“Maybe...” Lance continued softly, narrowing his eyes in thought. “Maybe I’ll just do the same thing I did with Blue, huh? Maybe I’ll just knock.” The boy lifted a hand, fisted it before knocking with the exact same pressure he’d once used to knock on Blue’s shields. 

And just like that... the shields went down. Lance grinned in victory. 

“Princess.” 

Allura and all three men spun around at the sound of a familiar voice. Through the doors entered Emperor Lotor, the sound of his boots clicking along the floor and his hands placed gracefully behind his back. His eyes held no desire or appreciation for a quick break with Team Voltron and his mouth held no friendly smile. He entered the hangar with what felt like regret and obligation oozing from his skin, and he was quick to be rid of it. 

“Our meeting, Allura. Shiro,” Lotor added, nodding to the one man in the room that didn’t make his heart clench inside his chest. “I’ve anchored my flagship to the Castle of Lions, as you’ve requested. I don’t have much time to give you or your comrades. My Empire needs me.” 

After a woman named Romelle had been brought back from the Altean colony beyond the Quantum Abyss, she had accused Lotor of unspeakable crimes that ultimately turned out to be proven false, and nowhere near as heinous as she’d believed. It was a misunderstanding that had cost Team Voltron a lot, the biggest loss being the Emperor of the Galra’s trust in them. Blooming friendships had ended and Voltron was to return to Princess Allura’s castle instead of being given another home aboard the Galran Central Command. 

Not only had friendships and camaraderie been ruined... but any possible romances as well. 

Allura tried not to frown. The biggest mistake of her life had been made when she’d chosen the word of a stranger over their most important ally. 

The alliance between Voltron and the Empire, however, had survived the devastating fallout. 

Protecting the innocents of the universe from being threatened by another Zarkon was far too important to all of them. 

“We will be right with you and your subordinates, Emperor Lotor,” she said softly, folding her hands in front of herself and setting her shoulders back instead of slouching forward. “There is a quick matter we’re addressing at the moment.” 

Lotor’s eyes studied the scene before him. So much was different, he realized, staring at the new appearance of Shiro and the new armor the boy with the high-pitched voice and pointy chin was now wearing. The armor of the Black Paladin, he saw, his white brows lifting in surprise and maybe a little amusement as well. The armor of his father, and standing before the Lion his father flew too. Shiro, the only one aboard the castle Lotor did not carry any resentment for, was not in uniform at all, and held a very masked disappointment inside him. He would no longer be Black Paladin, Lotor realized. 

Without Shiro, Team Voltron had all but collapsed before the earthling solider had returned in the form of a clone. 

What would happen to them now? 

“You will fly the Black Lion?” Lotor asked Lance out of curiosity. He wanted to leave the Castle as soon as possible, but this was a very interesting thing to behold. 

“Damn skippy,” Lance answered proudly. He’d always known his day would come. “Look, she even dropped her shields for me, what a good girl. Hey, Allura, I might even be the first guy in intergalactic history to fly three Lions, huh? We should be writing this all down.” 

“Yes, Lance,” she uttered, trying to sound cheerful but it certainly wasn’t showing on her face. “Ah... Lotor, I think you should be here for this moment. Lance will soon be Black Paladin and the head of Voltron, though Shiro and myself will still lead. I think it’s best for you to be aware of any new developments within our group.” 

Lotor didn’t answer her. Instead, he stared up at the Black Lion. A spectacular beast machine, he thought, and one that came with an emitting warmth within her hangar. Could the others feel the warmth too? 

Deep inside his head, he heard a very soft calling that was somehow both familiar and unknown. 

“Well, it’s time to boot up my girl,” Lance declared, picking his helmet up from the ground and setting it over his head in preparation. “Once I get the hang of her controls, I think we should fly out in formation, just to see how it feels. And I’ll form the head!” he shouted with a dramatic deepened voice, doing a little jig before taking a few steps closer to the Black Lion. 

Lance then yelped when Black’s shields shot back down, sending him back a few inches before it could slice off his toes. 

Allura gasped, and Keith and Shiro straightened up in shock. 

“Hey,” Lance groaned, pushing himself up from lying on his back. “What gives! First you let me in then you throw me out? What’s wrong with her, Shiro?” 

“I... I don’t know,” Shiro said softly, his eyes quickly traveling all over Black for some foreign intrusion that had spooked her. “I don’t know what happened.” 

“Maybe she doesn’t like you,” Keith said. 

“Oh shut up, Keith!” Lance barked. “She likes me just fine.” 

“Something isn’t right,” Allura murmured. “What could have gone wrong?” 

“Shiro, you said she wanted me.” 

“That’s not what I said!” Shiro all but yelled, then stopped to take a breath. “I only told you what she told me and we’re coming to these conclusions ourselves with machinery we still don’t really know or understand. I could be wrong, and she’s waiting for someone else.” 

“But...” Lance lifted himself back to his feet, bowing his head a bit before shaking it and turning to them all. There was a slight redness in his cheeks right under his eyes. “I don’t have a Lion anymore. If I can’t fly Black then I don’t fly at all. It makes sense. You said it makes sense, Allura.” 

“These are magical machines, Lance,” Allura calmly told him. “I can’t possibly know what they want at all times. Perhaps my father could, but I cannot.” 

“This is the Black Lion,” Lotor then interrupted, taking a few steps closer to the beast machine, and quietly marveling over it. “The Lion that is the most skilled in combat and the one who takes the most energy from her paladin. Perhaps you do not hold enough energy to her liking, young man.” 

Lance scoffed at him. “That’s ridiculous, I have more energy than everyone in this room. Back on earth, I could go to school at the Garrison all day and then party with the ladies all night.” 

Nearby, Keith rolled his eyes. 

Lotor stared up at the Lion, continuing to feel that warmth. He’d once been inside it with Shiro, what felt like an eternity ago. Even then he’d been aware of its power and the great toll it took from her paladin. The Blue Lion was friendly and the Red Lion was picky, but the Black Lion took only the great leaders who could carry the burden and form Voltron. 

“There’s something,” Lotor murmured, looking straight ahead at the safety shields, the light reflecting in his blue eyes that were still shadowed from the fallout he’d experienced with those he’d once considered his friends, and more. He lifted a hand, claws pointed up. Warm, so warm. “She is... waiting.” 

All four paladins went still behind him. 

And when Lotor placed his hand on the shields of the Black Lion, they instantly went down again. 

Not only did they go down... but Black moved, and gave a great roar that rocked the Castle of Lions. 

Before, Shiro had felt nothing from Black. He’d tried, again and again, sitting in front of her or touching her or even climbing into the cockpit to take hold of her controls, hoping something would happen, that she would communicate to him again, or wisp him away to the astral plane for more answers about what she wanted and who she was waiting for. 

Now, the very last and dying embers of his connection to the Black Lion flared to life like a great inferno, and the knowledge he’d been craving crashed into him like a raging storm. 

I’ve been waiting... for the baby. 

Her voice, he was hearing it yet again. Shiro’s eyes widened, went as white as the hair on his head and as bright as Black’s as she celebrated the return of the baby she’d been waiting for. He saw it all before him, saw the past as it was instead of a simple story Coran could only repeat from memory. He saw the paladins of old, including Allura’s father and Zarkon before corruption. He saw Haggar, smiling and glowing as a younger woman. 

No, not Haggar, Shiro thought as he watched closely. Honerva. She’d once been called Honerva. 

And inside her was... a baby. 

A baby the Black Lion had waited patiently for. 

I felt his heart beat. I felt his heart stop. His tiny, tiny heart. I tried to save them all. 

Shiro watched as Zarkon offered Honerva to the rift out of desperation, his eyes zeroing in on her swollen middle covered by the baggy cloaks she wore to conceal her belly. Zarkon and Honerva had tried to keep their pregnancy a secret, knowing they would not be received kindly by anyone because of Honerva’s deteriorating condition in the pursuit of science that had come before her own unborn child. 

And they’d all died. All three of them. 

I have been waiting centuries for the child of Zarkon. I know him. I see him. I want him. 

Together, he and I will fly. 

Shiro suddenly gasped loudly, clutching his chest when the images were sucked away and the last of those embers fizzled out to nothing. The only hand he had left clutched his chest and only then did he realize he was being held. Keith had his shoulders, that worried line between his dark brows. Allura had a hand on his cheek and kept repeating his name, and Lance stood nearby for support. 

Lotor only stared back at him. 

“I’m fine,” Shiro breathed, rubbing back his white hair. “I’m fine.” 

“What did you see?” Allura asked him, taking a step back to give him some space. “Your eyes were glowing, and so were the Black Lion’s.” 

“She wants Lotor,” Shiro announced, knowing it to be true now without a doubt. “That’s who she’s been waiting for. She wants you,” he said to Lotor. “She wants to fly with you.” 

“What!” Lance exclaimed, even stomping a foot down. That slight redness on his cheeks turned into a frustrated blush. “But... I’m supposed to fly her. I changed my armor and everything. You said...” 

“I know what I said,” Shiro told him sternly. “This time, I know. Her paladin will be a boy she knew, and Black has known Lotor since before he was born. One who longed to fly her, who was part of the team, and one who was as quick and sharp as the Altean blade he wielded, that’s what she said. There must have been a part of you that wanted to fly the Black Lion of Voltron,” he then said straight to Lotor. “Every boy at some point wants to be like his father, to earn his father’s respect, even if that feeling is fleeting and he doesn’t deserve it. You’re also part of our team, whether you’re happy about it or not, and you’re an Altean swordsman. You meet all the criteria. You, Lotor, are the next Black Paladin.” 

What a thing to hear, Lotor thought as he looked at Shiro, ignoring the others staring open-mouthed at him now. Following in his father’s footsteps, just like Zarkon, he thought, feeling the pain in his chest as he heard the ugly comments in his head all over again. This is how he would follow in his father’s footsteps. This is how he was just like Zarkon. 

The Black Paladin, Lotor mused, glancing up at the great beast machine. She had been calling to him all his life, and he hadn’t known her voice or her warmth. 

The Black Lion then leaned down to him. He wasn’t afraid though she was a gigantic being, and the hangar was filled with the unmistakable sound... of mighty purring. Black gently set her snout against Lotor, and the purring increased. 

You are my cub now. 

He heard her, Lotor thought with wonder. He heard her clearly, as if she’d opened her mouth and said the words. 

Without thinking of the others, Lotor couldn’t help but place his hands on the Black Lion, his cheek against her metal, and close his eyes to feel that all-encompassing warmth he’d been without all his life. That intense love he’d never been properly given. 

And during these quiet and meaningful moments, he shared his thoughts with her, his emotions, his deepest of feelings. She had to understand. She had to know. 

The Black Lion accepted it, and would wait again. 

“Oh, so now she’s purring,” Lance spat out, ripping his helmet off and wanting to chuck it in great disappointment. “Blue or Red never purred at me.” 

“Lotor,” Allura began, needing to forget Lance’s feelings for now. There were more important things to discuss. “You must fly her. You must become Voltron’s next Black Paladin.” 

It would be hard to voice his decision, Lotor knew, caressing Black one last time before she eased away, and sat up straight. It would be so very hard, but his heart could only take so much in one lifetime. It had been one tragedy after the next, and now he was finally able to change this universe for the better and live without others constantly hurting him. 

Now, he would live without great hurt. 

“I appreciate the offer, Princess Allura,” Lotor began, then turned to them with the poise and calm of an Emperor. “But I would not join this team as is even if you all dropped to your knees and begged me.” 

Lance’s mouth fell open, Keith winced, Allura paled some. 

Shiro... couldn’t say he was surprised. Not even a little. 

Lotor gave the Black Lion one last look before gracefully making his way to the exit of the hangar. 

I will come back for you he told her, and knew she heard him through their bond. One day, we will fly together. 

I will be waiting, my cub. 

“Now that I have defeated the Fires of Purification, now that I am supplying the Galra with unlimited quintessence extracted humanely and have the last living population of Alteans under my protection and loyal to me after saving them from extinction, I must say that I do not need to form Voltron to defend this universe. Everything I have worked and bled for, everything I almost died for,” Lotor added, staring at each and every one of them, “is now well within my grasp. I will be awaiting you, Allura, and Shiro aboard my ship for our meeting,” he said, the doors whooshing open for him. But before he left, he turned to them one last time. 

“When it comes time to choose the next generation of Voltron paladins, I will answer the call to fly the Black Lion and lead them. She is waiting patently for me and I will not disappoint her. But I will not fly alongside this team who so quickly called for my death.” 

Lotor walked through the exit, held their gazes as the doors began to close. 

“Perhaps you should ask Romelle,” Lotor told them, and grinned as the doors closed. 

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

Happy Lotor Appreciation Day! 

[breeeliss]

.honeymooning

allurance

canon? i don’t know her 

ao3 + masterpost 

// 

Lance and Allura’s wedding was one of the most attended social events on this side of the universe. 

At a certain point, Allura lost control of the guest list as Lance and Coran kept thinking of more people to invite, so eventually they became solely responsible for all of the table settings. They ended up having to change venues three times over until they decided a large ceremony at the palace in New Altea was the most obvious choice. Thanks to Colleen Holt, the juniberry flower gardens in the palace were more beautiful than Allura could’ve ever imagined, and it ended up being a beautiful ceremony. 

They both agreed to a marriage of Earth and Altean customs. Romelle and Nadia  helped Allura design a darling wedding dress in Altean colors but cut to a human style. Meanwhile, Shiro and Coran butted heads for close to two weeks before they decided on an outfit for Lance that was a perfect mix of Altean and Earth formal wear. They exchanged rings, recited traditional Altean weddings vows that Lance had spent weeks learning just for her, and kissed to a thunderous applause. 

After three days of partying, Allura’s coronation ceremony was held so that she would be officially known as the Queen of the New Altea. Allura took Lance to a private room in the royal palace and held an intimate ceremony with just the two of them where he kneeled before her and swore to uphold his duties as her Prince Consort. 

It was a flurry of excitement, and once all of the guests had finally gone home, Allura had decided she needed peace and quiet. Away from everyone. Immediately. 

“Are queens allowed to take vacations?” Keith joked 

“I’m the Queen who decides if queens are allowed to take vacations so yes they’re allowed to take vacations because I need one.” Allura threw her communicator across the table after writing her one hundred and seventy fifth personalized thank you note. “Lance and I haven’t gotten a moment alone together since we got married.” 

"Alright, I think you’re exaggerating.” 

“No Keith. Alone time. You know...” 

Keith groaned and pushed his breakfast away. “Oh come on Allura, I didn’t need to know that.” 

“Listen, back in my day, there was an entire pomp and circumstance around making sure the King and Queen consummated their marriage before the wedding guests went home. Granted it’s an outdated custom at this point, but maybe they were onto something. They wanted to make sure needs were fulfilled. And I have a plethora of needs. Just so many needs, Keith.” 

“Allura, stop talking to me.” 

“He was so handsome, wasn’t he?” Allura sighed. “Just breathtaking. Hair all slicked back, suit tailored perfectly. If the two of us weren’t so tired that night after everything that had happened I would’ve -- ”

“Okay!” Keith threw up his hands. “Okay, I get it. The Queen needs a vacation. Crystal clear. Message received. Why are you telling me this?” 

“I have a surprise for Lance, but I need someone to cover for us. You and Shiro are staying in New Altea for a bit, aren’t you?” 

Keith blinked. “You want us to hold down the fort for you two while you’re off doing who the quiznack knows what?” 

Allura whined and reached for Keith’s hands across the breakfast table. “Pleeaaasse! You two are more than capable and Coran will be here to help you. Just for half an Earth month. Make sure nothing burns down, and if it’s urgent Lance and I will just be a call away.” 

“Does Shiro know about this?” 

“Shiro was actually very supportive of the plan,” Allura said. “I promised him that he and you could use our royal bed chambers while we were away. You know. So long as you change the bedding before we get back.” 

This time, Keith started blushing. “A-Allura, shut up!” 

She grinned. “So will you do it?” 

Keith rolled his eyes. “As much as I hate agreeing to anything that involves me helping Lance get laid, yeah. I’ll do it. But you guys have to actually spend the entire two weeks relaxing. We won’t call to bother you.”

Allura got up from her seat to press kisses to Keith’s cheek. “Oh, I owe you so much Keith, thank you. I’ll go tell Lance to start packing.” 

“Don’t have too much fun. Actually come back, huh?” 

“Huh? Oh! Of course. I mean, we’ll see, won’t we?” 

“Allura!” 

“I’ll see you in a month Keith!” 

“You literally said two weeks!” 

Surprisingly enough, it took a lot of effort to convince Lance onto the Blue Lion without clueing him onto what Allura had planned. He’d thrown himself fully into his royal duties and was actually reluctant to have to put them on hold, especially since one of the first things he’d committed himself to was getting to know all the new Alteans and immersing himself in Allura’s culture as much as he could. When she’d come to whisk him away, a gaggle of Altean children were clinging to his legs and begging him not to go so that they could hear more stories about Earth and his travels. 

“You’ll be back soon, I promise,” she said, piloting the lion while Lance sat on one of the arm rests. “But I thought this would be good for us. What did you say humans called it? Sweetmooning?” 

“Honeymooning,” Lance gently corrected. “And I guess you’re right. I didn’t really appreciate how busy the two of us would be after the wedding.” 

“You wanted to be a prince,” Allura smirked. “Here you are.” 

“I thought watching the Princess Diaries would be enough to prepare me, but I guess not.” 

“Listen, you’re a natural. The hardest part for a lot of people is learning humility and how to listen to their people, and you do that wonderfully. All the political and diplomatic logistics will come with experience. And I’ll be there the entire time to help you out.” 

Lance kissed the top of her head. “I just want to do a good job. I want to make everyone proud.” 

“And you will,” she smiled at him. “But don’t think about that now. I think the two of us deserve to just exist for a little bit.” 

“Yeah, about that,” Lance smirked. “You’re still not going to tell me where we’re going, are you?” 

“Nope!” Allura announced. “And stop staring at the star charts, that’s cheating.” 

“Give me a hint.” 

“It’s a place you’ve been to before.” 

“Well that’s not specific at all!” 

“Too bad. That’s all you’ll be getting.” 

They flew for a full day before Lance gasped from behind her as he looked upon the display in front of him. It must have been quite a shock to see how different Earth looked to him now. Even Allura was surprised when she was shown before and after pictures of the planet. But it was always nice to see the love Lance held for his home reflected in his eyes whenever he got to return back to it to visit his family. But Allura wasn’t planning on taking him back to his family home. No, she did a lot of research with the rest of the paladins’ help in order to make arrangements for their honeymoon. She only hoped that Lance liked it. 

She steered the lion away from the US mainland and, to Lance’s confusion, headed straight for the Caribbean sea. It took him a moment to realize just where they were going, but the moment the Blue Lion landed on a familiar sandy beach, Lance was practically jumping out of Blue’s mouth and flinging his shoes off so that he could race onto the stretch of sand plucked straight from his childhood memories. 

Allura laughed as he ran to the water and looked up at the beautiful, private sea side villa that Veronica and helped Allura purchase when she originally asked her for help. “I thought you’d like to know that Varadero hasn’t changed much,” she told him. “And I believe that this entire section of the beach comes with the house. So it’s all ours.” 

Lance’s hands were buried in his hair as he turned his body around in disbelief. “Are you serious? We own this?” 

“Indeed.” 

He giggled like a little boy before he ran up to her, pulled her into his arms, and spun her around in circles while he pressed kisses to her face. “I love you, I love you, I love you!” 

“Admit it,” she teased. “I’m a pretty great wife, aren’t I?” 

“You are my favorite person in the entire universe,” he swore as he kissed her hair. “I just look at you and I feel like I’m going to explode. This is the best thing anyone has ever done for me.” 

“Well, I love you,” she said, as if it were the most simple explanation in the world. “I’m always wishing I could do more and more for you. But I hoped we could enjoy ourselves here for a couple of weeks. No one else. Just us. Lots of alone time.” 

Lance raised a brow. “Alone time, huh? Are you saying what I think you’re saying.” 

She bit her lip. “There are more surprises inside if you want to come and take a peek with me. The bedroom happens to be my favorite part of the entire arrangement.” 

“What did you do?” 

“Nothing! At least nothing bad...” She jumped down and started to pull him up the hill towards the villa. “Come on. I’ll give you a nice reward if you beat me there.” 

“Babe, you’re going to kill me.” 

“Well, don’t die yet. We’re here for the next two weeks and I have a lot planned.” 

Lance didn’t need to be told twice. He splashed her with sea water before racing through the sand and up into the house. Allura managed to catch up to him and jump on his back just before he reached for the knob and crashed into the house. It was truly beautiful -- a beautiful balcony opening up to the sea, sheer curtains fluttering in the sea breeze, rustic hardwood floors, new furnishings accented with pinks and blues -- but the two of them ignored everything for the time being. Lance was too busy carrying Allura to their bedroom, slipping her out of her dress, and collapsing onto the bed with her in a flurry of kisses and sighs. 

“You’re so perfect,” he laughed. “You keep making me fall for you all over again.” 

Allura kissed the tip of his nose. “I hope it’s always like this. Us constantly surprising each other. And, lucky us, we have a whole lifetime for it.” 

“I love being married to you.” 

“I love being married to you more.” 

“Is this a competition?” 

“I don’t know. How much time do we have before dinner?” 

Lance stared at the clock on the bedside table. “Three hours. Plenty of time for us to have fun.” 

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him back down to her. “Then let’s not waste a moment.” 

[kaiayame]

post s8 thoughts

the good, the bad, the mixed. 

the good

the marketplace at the garrison in ep 1! i’m a sucker for a marketplace. and allura got to go shopping!!

romelle was back! her hair was cute. 

i think the tone of the first episode was actually a really smart one to start the season on. i’m glad they jumped a few months (or was it a year?) since the end of last season. 

pidge and allura got some good bonding time in general this season. pidge giving up her game for allura was cute. and then when they were together on that planet where the olkari had lived, that was strong. 

pidge being upset about the loss of the olkari, lamenting over “how much more they had to offer us” was solid. i think they spent too much time on it, but the sentiment of mourning all the good that a people could’ve given the universe if they hadn’t been lost was solid. 

omg listen. keith and lance. literally sat together. just the two of them. watching a FREAKING sunset. and keith, in my opinion, basically said the nicest things anyone has ever said about lance to his face, and it felt like a confession of feelings from keith’s end tbh. the writers did that. they know that they did that. and it happened. it was real and so, so soft. i had to stand up in front of the tv while i was watching, clutching a pillow and screaming a bit. 

i think the amount shiro and coran were utilized throughout the story felt balanced. shiro especially has dominated so much of the story over the seasons, and even tho i love him, it felt nice to kind of have him become somewhat less of a focus. 

i think the episode where they got trapped in the ship with the monster was fun! did you see how crazy lance went when keith got stuck in that room with it?? 

the carnival episode!!! I love a good carnival setting :) i like that they all wanted to get something for allura.

the day 47 episode was also cute, imo. I thought it was clever. I loved kinkade! the overall concept could’ve gone really badly but it felt creative enough to me. I wish it had focused more on just the paladins, but still.

all of the MFE pilots actually didn’t annoy me this season, yay. 

veronica and axca had super gay vibes.

keith and axca didn’t happen! *throws confetti*

lance got called a genius by his fellow paladins! and they meant it! 

we got to see them all in their under suits and out of their paladin armor!

that short bit where Hunk made the recovered alteans food from their home world? I think that was actually more powerful and potent than the writers even intended. I thought that was really well handled and not heavy handed and had a lot of weight to it. 

the bit before the final battle with keith and lance alone at the war room table...................... prime, prime content. THEY HELD. HANDS. there was a CLOSE UP. i’m still living off of it. another “lost my shit” moment. favorite scene of the entire season. 

there was some genuinely good moments of humor. keith had some especially funny moments, i laughed out loud a few times, tho i can’t name anything super specific atm.....

it was nice that they tried to really work in the idea that unity is what’s important, and the best unity is built through love, and differences shouldn’t tear us apart and we are always stronger together, etc etc.... i think that was obviously the writers referencing our society’s current climate to some extent, so i appreciated them at least trying to touch on that, however generic and vague it was. 

they had some good new outfits this season?? it was nice to see the paladins in so many different clothes. and a lot of the garments were really cute!!

i like how often keith urged them to not give up. I think that’s another strong theme that’s existed throughout the series. it just strikes a personal note with me. i like how far keith has come as a character in general.

pidge’s mom making that flower for allura?? very sweet. 

i liked all of lance’s reactions to anyone mentioning someone having an interest in keith, haha. Obviously, i’m projecting, but still. 

i think the concept of ALL realities being threatened was actually great, because otherwise idk why they would’ve brought up there being other realities in the first place. the significant level of what was at stake with that being what the paladins were dealing with was a good choice. 

keith turning down becoming the new head of the galra. phew, thank you @god.

as always, studio mir is the lord’s animation studio and so much of the visuals were so excellent. can’t wait to see their future projects.

and honestly, it’s been fun. it’s been a fun show. it’s had a ton of problems but i cannot deny that i have seriously enjoyed watching a lot of it as a whole. 

i guess technically they did end the show on a gay kiss. 

the bad 

i’m not even that personally upset but it just goes to show how important an ending is. how a story leaves you makes such a significant impression. it’s probably the most important part of a narrative and OMG THESE WRITERS DO NOT KNOW HOW TO WRAP THINGS UP AT ALL, IT’S SO FUNNYYYYY.

so anyway, yeah........ episode 13.......................... what. 

like wtf was ep 13. 

what.

what even WAS THAT. PEOPLE got PAID to write THAT. 

lance became... altean? can that.... happen? also........... why???

and a farmer?? a simple life?? where did that even come from??? like sure, lance was homesick and missed rain one time. that doesn’t.... it just..... that doesn’t mean he should just be a random farmer?????? whose gf died, i guess??

speaking of that, OMG they fucking KILLED ALLURA. I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT. WHAT A DUMB CHOICE. I’M STILL LAUGHING. I HAD NO EXPECTATION THAT THAT WOULD HAPPEN. WOULD NEVER HAVE EXPECTED THAT. AND YET IT DID. WTF. HOW CAN YOU MAKE SUCH A DUMB WRITING CHOICE. HOW???

and the fact that they didn’t even EXPLAIN why honerva & allura had to do whatever it is they did????? criminal. ridiculous. 

and all that aside, allura and coran’s relationship was so important and so special and the fact the she and him didn’t get a goodbye? garbage. unbelievable. 

and to add to that, all of her goodbyes were underwhelming. shiro being like “you don’t have to thank me for anything” umm, what. yes she does. you did a lot. wtf, what was with that?

like i love allura, but also, why was the ending SO FOCUSED on just her?? And by that, i mean including the choice to kill her off. VLD has always been about the group. It just was a weird vibe to end on for many, many reasons. The ending should’ve been about her and the rest of them recognizing how they were more than just friends or paladins. They were family... like ALL THE WRITERS HAD TO DO was have them all together at the end?? I’m not even joking. That needed to be the ending, point blank...... AND THEY COULDN’T EVEN DO THAT. WHYYYY

ok moving on but still related, I HATE slideshow endings like that, in pretty much anything that isn’t a documentary or historical drama. I feel like it’s such a cop out. Writers should find confidence and end their story on a specific note. Not a series of slides.

as i was watching ep 13, tbh, the title got me excited. “the end is the beginning” made me feel like they were somehow going to get thrust back in time for a brief second to the moment they all met at the garrison, or met allura and coran, and somehow that was going to get pulled into the finale as a way they could re-establish all the destroyed realities.... so i guess this is my own fault for just hoping for something that wasn’t there, but whatever.

i think lotor and zarkon also got some really undeserved positive recognition. like, they both killed a LOT of people... some things are just too little too late. 

lotor coming “back” was also like, half assed. it was weird. it would’ve made more sense for honerva to start jumping through different realities earlier in the season “looking” for a version of her son and husband that she could be with. 

too many big robots. like..... so many different kinds of big robots. i couldn’t care less. 

as always, a lot of the fight scenes were repetitive as hell. I wish they’d been more creative and written them taking on different approaches rather than just charging at the bad guys.  

WHERE IS MY FORMAL WEAR EPISODE

sorry to hate on allurance, but like, neither lance or allura felt like their actual selves whenever they were together or trying to be a couple... it was weird and sad. Lance barely ever acted like himself this season. 

I thought they threw krolia around a bit too casually. Like she barely pops up and when she did it almost felt like the writers were like “oh yeah, i guess we should include her every now and then”

i thought allura being like “i don’t have a family” to lance was bullshit. like, hello, coran and romelle are right freaking there. more alteans are showing up every day. girl, what tf do you mean???

allura was also kind of excessively mean on multiple occasions?? she was cutting people off, being unreasonable, reckless, and kind of dark..... i didn’t really understand the sudden downfall of her character when she’d started out as this sort of insecure victim, but season after season became stronger and stronger and an awesome member of voltron. idk, it just felt out of place to make her a part of the problem for the final act. 

i wish i had......... cried. i wish they’d written at least one moment well enough that i actually got to experience at least a little bit of a tear.

adam didn’t magically come back from the dead. 

OMG and the kiss between shiro and random dude???? IT WAS SO SLOPPY, I WAS SO EMBARRASSED. it was obviously thrown in at the very last possible moment because they were trying to cover their own asses about the adam thing. like, what was with that bad animation....

epilogues in general are just........ so bad. no one should do them. stop.

omg they never explained the altean colonies... 

honestly, as we kept getting closer and closer to the last episode, i was like....... they do know this is the LAST season, right??? they’re kind of running out of time??

that black entity thing should’ve been fleshed out more and had more of an actual purpose, especially because they touched on it before with the paladins of old. 

i feel like the writers just threw so many things out there over 8 seasons and didn’t actually.... resolve most of them. like, they needed to edit down sooooo much of what they were trying to do. it would’ve been such a stronger series overall if they’d just FOCUSED on the actual compelling parts of this story and its characters.

i feel zero closure tbh, lol. whatever.

the mixed

overall, i was pretty engaged for the most part from episode to episode, but i did get pretty damn bored a few times.

oh god, the leaks were real. it’s good and bad. 

lance and allura still felt SOOOO forced and awkward but at least they tried to give them some actual substance.

like I said before, yay romelle was back! but boo, she wasn’t as quirky or funny anymore :(

Slav bothering everyone was still quite enjoyable to me. i wish shiro had gotten roped into that more, tho. Missed opportunity.

Atlas didn’t feel quite as dumb... but it was still kind of dumb.

i thought honerva honestly held up as a villain. Maybe not a FINAL season villain, but meh. her motivation seemed legit enough and the lengths she was willing to go after 10k years of pain seemed real. I just..... ugh, i wish they’d stuck to her just being evil. Or revengeful. Lok tried to do the same thing with kuvira right at the end. there just... wasn’t enough time to actually do that right, in either case. Or if they were going to do it, Honerva should’ve sacrificed just herself and allura should’ve left with all the other paladins, and that could’ve redeemed her character if that’s what they were going for.

the 2nd episode that focused just on honerva was... fine i guess, but i thought they didn’t define the mixing of timelines very well. it would jump from one clip to another and i didn’t realize fully that we’d gone back in time, or returned to the present, or were seeing this important thing before moving on to another. idk, the order just didn’t work for me. 

i’m glad allura got so much more focus but i feel like keith had so many important story points throughout every season and it felt weird that he was kind of just in the background for the most part of every episode.... like if vld had a “main” character, i always kind of felt that it was slightly keith.... so i’m sad that he didn’t really get much of an ending.

and that being said, i guess this is just a negative, but i feel like keith and shiro’s relationship just didn’t matter anymore??? that was so weird to me?? it was such a focus for SO LONG, it didn’t feel good to just never address them ever. 

there was this really awesome momentum going in the first half of season 8 for this theme of “not holding on to the past / letting the old give way to the new” and they just….. totally lost it. Like, it just never came up again by the end, lol. But i liked it a lot while it was initially there. Just.... wish these writers knew how to stick a landing, jesus. 

like, that older olkari woman that pidge was trying to call out to? she probably had one of the best speeches of the season when she was telling that little olkari girl to go on and be a part of the future. that’s what i’m saying. it had good momentum. they just didn’t fully realize it :/

i think where they started to lose the narrative was in the two part episode, the knights of light ones. going into honerva’s mind seemed cool and i appreciated them trying to do a few interesting things with it, but bringing back the old paladins didn’t feel right. For some reason, I didn’t enjoy allura reconnecting with like, the spirit of her father. I felt like it was a loss that should’ve remained a loss. and yeah, just in general, having them bring up the idea of the benefits and power behind “the old making way for the new” just wasn’t supported by bringing the old paladins BACK... it felt counterproductive. i didn’t like it.

Anyway. I feel like i’m still forgetting stuff and I’ll probably go back and edit this post but yeah. Enjoyed a decent chunk of the final season. Cannot..... even believe how dumb some of the writing choices were. Will forever be slightly confused. Canon is whatever. I’ve still enjoyed this show and its characters and a lot of the amazing content fans have created for it, and it is what it is and at least it’s over and done with :]

[sol1056]

three contagonists in one

another two-parter anon:

...while many people [note] Lotor's lack of a relationship with Keith, I find infinite wasted potential in what could've been an interesting arc with Shiro. Both leaders, explorers, abused by the empire, and --- this was stressed for some reason in the Kral Zera episode --- both being a special object of Sendak's hatred.

You just knocked right on one of the few truly fascinating aspects of S3-S6, and one VLD seems to have completely overlooked: Lotor’s positioning as a mirror contagonist.

There’s something you’ll find in a lot of the Gundam series that I haven’t seen too many other series do, and it’s become my favorite way to flesh out a cast. Although most Gundam series have a nominal protagonist, there’s usually a core group of pilots. Each will step into the main spot for a few episodes, and each has a secondary character who acts as their foil. This is their mirror contagonist. 

I first noticed the pattern in Gundam Wing, where it was most stark. Heero had Relena, whose innocence balanced his brutal backstory yet whose political savvy balanced his ignorance of the bigger picture. Duo had Hilde, who’d become a traditional soldier while Duo acted alone. Trowa had Cathy, whose compassion and extroversion matched his detachment and isolation; Quatre had Dorothy, whose ruthlessness and game-playing echoed Quatre’s darker side. And Wufei had Sally, who refused to mope, but grabbed the bull by the horns. Even the antagonists had mirror characters.

A mirror contagonist is also an impact character: they’re the only one the protagonist can’t ignore, even when no one else can get through. Done right, it’s an intriguing way to highlight a character’s internal conflict. But boy, do mirror contagonists take a lot of planning. 

First, they must have a goal of their own, or they’re just a plot device to artificially force the protagonist into plot-movement. Some walk-on just happens to say the right thing to make the hard-headed protagonist think twice? Gee, how convenient. Nope, the mirror character must have their own trajectory, or it won’t be believable that their words/actions could shove the protagonist’s trajectory onto a new course. 

Second, as a contagonist, their trajectory may run parallel to the protagonist’s, but it must differ in the details, whether means or ends. The contagonist is a makeshift ally (as much as they align with the protagonist), but there must also be conflict, and that’s where the quasi-antagonist role comes into play.  

Third, the contagonist personifies either the lie the protagonist believes, or the truth they must accept. Since that points back to the protagonist, you really have to nail down exactly what wound lives in the protagonist’s backstory, what their self-protective lie is, and what truth they need to recognize. Otherwise you end up with a mirror character who’s more like a broken funhouse than a solid reflection. 

Really, you’re creating a secondary character who is tailored to be the only one who can force the protagonist to face the truth. If a secondary character works as a mirror/impact for multiple protagonists in your story... your protagonists need some serious switching-up in their lies, their truths, or their goals. Or all three. 

And that brings me to Lotor. 

He’s a match with Allura, by virtue of his Altean obsession, and their respective parents. He’s also clearly set up as an impact character, with his words changing Allura’s trajectory like no other character manages. He also seeks peace, with similar means (a sentient mecha) but differing goals (taking over the empire rather than dismantling it). 

Although Keith and Lotor never actually meet except for two short scenes, Lotor’s also rife with parallels to Keith. Their respective backstories are shot through with implied neglect, abandonment, distrust, and isolation; Keith’s near-obsession with Lotor underscores that parallel, of like calling to like. 

And yeah, you’re right: there’s a third set of parallels with Shiro. In terms of leadership styles, they’re both inclusive of their teams, fond to a point but always with an edge of distance. They’re strategic thinkers, rather than tactical, and they tend to take the long-range view over short-term gains. And yes, it is rather odd that Sendak seems to have especial contempt for both of them.

This is actually where my original thesis -- that Lotor would make a great mirror contagonist -- falls apart. Because it makes no sense for him to be the mirror for three separate characters. As a contagonist, yes, but to mirror each of these? I mean, we’re supposed to see Allura, Keith, and Shiro as separate entities, so creating someone so well-rounded they can mirror all three...

Lotor is actually a protagonist. 

I’ve alluded to this before, and others have come right out and said it, but this also presents somewhat of a problem. First is that this is too late in the game to be introducing major repeating characters (let alone a seventh protagonist). He should’ve been introduced --- even in passing --- no later than S2. And he should’ve at least been mentioned in S1, so we were aware of the chance he’d enter the fray. 

The second (and larger) problem is that despite being characterized as fully as a protagonist, he swings in and out of being a plot device. Frankly, it’s like the story has no idea what to do with him; he takes up too much room. (Honestly, he would’ve been an amazing protagonist by himself, but I guess that’s too much of a complete reboot to flip the tables like that.)

In S3, Lotor isn’t aligned as a true antagonist; the resulting interactions end up more like protagonists from overlapping stories. Lotor needs a goal that either opposes the team (ie, attack vs defend the empire) or competes with it (both racing to capture the same comet). 

Instead, the team is focused on defeating the empire and Lotor is like, well, whatever. The entire reason they meet is because Lotor manipulates them for his own ends, but these aren’t ends that (at that point) seem to impact the team beyond annoying them. Putting Lotor front-and-center thereby shifts the story to him, which makes the sudden swerve away from him around S4 just as jarring as the original shift to him. 

By S5, Lotor hasn’t lost that layered characterization... and the story still isn’t sure how to balance him with the paladins. He shows flashes of being a true contagonist, in that his objectives are loosely parallel to the team’s, but their ends (overthrow Zarkon) are his means, not his ends (take command of the empire). 

This is where Lotor’s positioning as a quasi-protagonist reveals some major story problems: mainly, that the core team has never expressed what will happen after. The entire coalition storyline --- from the end of S2 to the end of S4 --- drops out of sight, and in the gap, Lotor’s goals become the team’s goals. That’s not a mirror contagonist; that’s a protagonist taking over the story. 

Only one scene ever veers close to doing what it should with a contagonist, or even a mirror: have a discussion. Instead, we get Lotor saying, “this is what we need to do,” the team argues yes or no (but not why), Shiro snaps at Lance, and the debate is over. 

That closed the door on Lotor ever being more than an exposition fairy and plot device. The purpose of a contagonist is to poke holes in the heroes’ plans. Shiro and Lotor (or, in the non-clone version, Keith and Lotor) should’ve gone head-to-head over the (expected) divergence in their respective goals. 

When the story doesn’t go there, it’s a sign the team has no end-goal. There’s nothing, at that point in S5, to indicate what any of the paladins consider criteria for success. What must happen, or be in place, for the team to say the war has ended and been won? Who knows; it’s never discussed or even implied.

Without a goal on the paladins’ part, Lotor has to be stepped back: no meeting with Keith, no exploration of the parallels with Shiro. He’s limited to a plot device that enables Allura’s power-up, provokes conflict for Lance, and provides a ready-made Next Step for the paladins. That is, ‘support Lotor in reforming the empire.’ Which actually just boils down to ‘become the empire’s lackey,’ including vrepit-sa’ing people. (Ugh.) 

This, I suspect, is also the reason Lotor had to be stripped of his generals before the story let him meet the paladins; the generals would’ve been four more contagonists (one for each paladin) and the story could barely handle Lotor. It wasn’t up to interrogating each paladin’s individual reasons for being in the story, especially when 3/5ths didn’t seem to have explicit goals. 

There’s no doubt Lotor was a compelling character, with damn good personal reasons for wanting his parents overthrown. He was far more interesting, too, when he had little inclination to rule, as this implied some larger scheme separate from simply gaining power. But that also made him an awkward character for contagonist or mirror purposes. Compared to his strong motivations, the paladins became cardboard in their own story: no goals, no tensions pulling at them (other than Lance’s jealousy), no outside pressures forcing them to act, no internal needs pushing them to choose.  

The very nature of Lotor’s personal vendetta revealed, in comparison, the paladins’ complete lack of personal motivation. For that reason, he had to be reduced first to an exposition fairy, then to a plot device, and then to a pawn tossed one way then the other and finally to a villain shrieking madly. Letting him retain the strength and depth of a protagonist only made clear how little the true protagonists filled that same role. 

I should add: Shiro is the one exception to this, as anon points out. Of the team, barring possibly Allura, Shiro is the only one with a personal connection to all three major antagonists (Sendak, Zarkon, Haggar), and the only one with a personal reason to make the empire pay. Contrasting Lotor and Shiro would’ve made sense, as respective leaders, and would’ve been a strong argument with no right answer and serious emotional beats.

The story veered away, I think, because that would’ve returned Shiro’s motivations to the forefront. By S5, I suspect the EPs were already trying to downgrade Shiro and minimize his personal stakes. With Lotor’s parallels to Shiro, the easiest way for the story to dismiss Shiro’s unanswered questions was to diminish the one character whose presence could raise those questions again.

[kurara-black-blog]

[Third Player] Chapter Four: Not Lance

Date: 06/01/19

Words: 1953

Warnings: Langst, Kangst, Klangst, half Galra Keith finding about his Galra heritage, Keith being a gay disaster.

Tag: @moonsworllld ; @xarphay ; @skydisneylover ; @fangirlinguntildawn ;  @mutantgurls ; @spooky-the-owl ; @hauntedfreakdeputyhero ; @goldengaytime404

A/N: I’ll tag you on future chapters if you ask! If you ask!

Previous: Clones

Next: SOON?

THIS FIC HAS A ROLEPLAY BLOG!! Go talk with 3P!Lance!

For a lone wolf, Keith hated loneliness. With a passion.

He learned how to deal with it, yes, he spent quite a long time in exile that he forced himself into. Didn’t mean he had to like it.

News flash: He didn’t.

Not one bit.

News flash: He also had no idea how to solve that.

Childhood? He had no idea how to be social.

Teenager years? He had no idea how to be social.

There was a time he truly believed he would have no idea how to be social in adulthood too.

And he had been okay with that. He was fine with being, as Adam used to say, a “social-weirdo”. He could deal with the loneliness. He had Shiro and Shiro’s weird ass friend and Shiro’s cool fiancée. Keith could deal with it all. He was fine, truly.

Then a boy with blue eyes, loud voice and louder personality appeared. And suddenly Keith wanted to be social.

Only with the boy, but still.

Keith wanted to be social.

(Let that sink in.)

Adam had laughed enough for an entire year the day Keith told him that.

The he gave Keith the very helpful advice of “Take your time, but don’t wait too much. I know that boy; he won’t disregard someone trying to be friendly”, which Keith was glad because he really didn’t want to hear the “just tell him” bullshit he was sure he would’ve gotten with Shiro… Or Shiro’s weird ass friend.

Keith could take his time just fine. The problem was the “not too much” part.

The problem was the glow the blue-eyed boy emitted.

The problem was the shine of his bluest blue eyes.

The problem was the brightness of his smile.

The boy was made of light.

And Keith was a “shadow gremlin”, as Shiro’s weird ass friend used to call him.

Light made him run.

And run he did.

Until they met again. Until the boy—Lance, his name was Lance—shone brightly in front of him once more. And he brought with him the chance of belonging.

Belonging somewhere.

Having a family to call his.

And Keith would be forever grateful for that, no matter how much he would deny if someone asked. He would be forever grateful for Lance.

Falling in love with Lance only made that feeling ten times stronger.

If before he wanted to be social, after he fell—hard, I might add—, he wanted to be a constant in Lance’s life.

And, yes, that maybe sounded a tad creepy, but he couldn’t help himself.

He wanted to be part of Lance’s life just as much as he wanted Lance to be part of his life.

Then Adam’s advice came to bit his butt. “Take your time, but not too much”. He took too long, go figure, and when he was finally ready to confess to Lance those feelings of his, Lance was taken away.

Now, Keith wasn’t a religious person.

(If God existed, Keith wasn’t sure They liked him very much, and the feeling was mutual.)

But if that was how Hell felt like, he could understand why people ran from it their entire lives.

That was something he wished to no one… Other than Haggar. And Zarkon too, but mostly Haggar.

When they found Lance, he was happy, more than happy, he was ecstatic!

Except something screamed at him, something deep within him. And it was screaming “wrong, wrong, wrong” at max volume.

And that something didn’t stop, no, it stayed and it screamed and he was going crazy. It seemed to have a particular dislike for Lance, which was weird… Unless something really was wrong with Lance, which wasn’t the case for Lance had been acting like himself. Sometimes he got that pained look in his eyes, talked aloud with himself, or would lose himself inside his mind for hours to no end, but, hey, you try to survive being kidnapped and experimented on by Haggar and come back without at least some weird mannerisms.

Thankfully, and maybe a bit creepily, Coran noticed how bothered Keith was.

Coran had been acting weirdly around Lance. Still treated him with kindness, but he seemed to keep some distance. It was very, very odd, as Coran saw Lance as his son—there was a debate if Coran saw every one of them as his children and, in Keith’s opinion, Coran saw them more as nieces and nephews than his own kids like he did with Lance and Allura—and would usually be the first to jump in an opportunity to get Lance alone so they could clean the Castle—again—and talk. After they rescued Lance, Coran was hesitant in approaching the boy. And the oddest part is that Lance looked alright with it?

Like he expected and respected Coran’s uneasiness?

Nonetheless, Coran gave Keith help in the form of a book. A book about Galra biology.

Keith had the feeling the man was trying to tell him something.

News flesh: He was right.

Coran gave him a book with a marked page. A marked page about senses and mating.

To say Keith took some time to muster enough courage to read that page is an understatement.

(You can’t just give a book like that to a disaster child, Coran, the quiznack?)

Keith would never admit it, but the book was of great help. Closing it, the Red Paladin sighed. Thinking back to everything that happened, Coran’s question after they told him how they rescued Lance.

“Is that so?” The uneasiness in the man’s voice was subtle, but there. Coran was staring at the Blue Paladin sandwiched between Pidge and Hunk with a faraway look in his face, one hand nervously fidgeting with his mustache.

Keith left the book on his bed, finally understanding that subtlety was not his forte and if he wanted some answers, he would have to ask. With determined steps, he left his room, doing a beeline to Lance’s room. Pieces of the book echoing inside his mind.

“Once a Galra finds a suitable mate, they will develop a sensitivity towards said mate. Their senses will attune with the mate, so the Galra can provide the chosen one with whatever is needed. While it is more common for that to happen to only one or two of their senses, it is not impossible for all five of them to suffer the change. Some Galra have reported some sort of sixth sense, the ability of feeling the energy of their mate, but it’s unclear if it’s something on its own or a result of the mating bond, as it is a mental connection.”

He didn’t need to be a Pidge to understand what that meant. He had recognized Lance as a suitable mate—another thing he wouldn’t admit any time soon—and his senses had attuned with Lance. All five of them, by what he could understand. That said, for his senses to respond to Lance that way, he could think of only two possibilities. One was that there was something very wrong with Lance, wrong enough to bother Keith’s senses and distance Coran. The other was… That Lance, the Lance they had with them, wasn’t their Lance.

Keith didn’t knew which one was scarier. Each brought their own set of problems and their own headache.

With a deep intake of air, Keith knocked on the Blue Paladin’s door.

“Come in.”

Time for the truth.

“Keith?”

“Who are you and where is Lance?”

Okay, maybe he could’ve said something—anything—else, preferably something that didn’t make him sound like a suspicious lunatic, but Keith was well aware of his non-existent people skills, as discussed before. Usually he would let Lance do the talking, seeing as the Cuban boy could easily control a conversation and had a better understanding of people, emotions and social cues.

Anyways, Keith already expected Lance to react strongly to his curiosity, even more after how he worded it, but he didn’t expect for the boy to sigh silently and close his eyes.

Wait, did it mean he was right and that boy wasn’t his Lance?

“Galra senses, he did alert me about them.” Lance looked at him with hollow eyes. “Shit down, Keith—”he gestured to the bed he’d been sitting on even before the Red Paladin came in—“I’ll explain everything.”

“So, you’re a clone made by Haggar from Lance’s hand that she cut off?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re connected to him because of that?”

“Somewhat.”

“Lance is with Haggar, who thinks he’s her son and is training him to be a weapon for the Empire?”

“Yes, well. She used the whole “son” thing to make Lance loyal to her, but by what he told me, she’s being swallowed by her own lie.”

“He’s planning on bringing the Empire down from the inside by gaining Haggar’s loyalty, killing Zarkon and taking his place so there won’t be a lack of power that could bring someone just as bad?”

“Yes.”

“And he told you to stay here with us?”

“Yes. I was supposed to be programmed by Haggar to destroy Voltron, but the danger of making a perfect clone is that it will act the way the original would.”

“You’re not acting like Lance.”

“I am not Lance.”

Silence, heavy and deafening.

“I will understand if you feel the need to beat me, Keith. In fact, please, go ahead.”

Keith choked on the air going to his lungs. How could that boy—that thing ask that?! Didn’t it have instincts or something? Was it out of its mind?

“It’s hard, you know. Because I’m not him, and you guys love me as if I was and I want the love, I truly do, but… But I’m not him. I want the be loved for me. I want the laughs and the smiles and the affection to be directed at me, not at Lance.”

Tears were running on its cheeks. Keith’s heart clenched. No matter what it was, that face was still Lance’s and wasn’t suited for anything that wasn’t satisfaction and happiness. Don’t get him wrong, it was still beautiful with the trails left by the salty water and the dark blue of bluest blue, but it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel right.

It wasn’t right.

“But Lance promised me, he promised me I would be free to be. To be whoever and whatever I wanted. And I’ll do anything for that to happen. So please, Keith, please don’t tell them!” Begging, it was begging. “Please, let Lance work his plans! Please let me keep this hope!”

The clone startled when Keith’s fist hit the mattress near it.

Damn it, Keith wanted to punch something.

Getting up hastily, the Red Paladin hurried to leave the room, but stopped at the entrance. If the situation was different, if things were different, he would’ve stayed and dried the tears, hugged the fears, soothed the pain. He would’ve done everything and then some more for his Lance, but that wasn’t his Lance.

“I won’t tell them yet because I trust Lance and his plans.” In and out, slow calming breaths. “But if you do anything that I don’t like, I won’t hesitate to throw you into an airlock.”

“Understood.” Too soft, its—his voice was too soft. Too damn soft.

But it wasn’t his Lance’s voice. It didn’t make his heart go crazy or a whole zoo run a marathon inside his chest.

“You’re not the one I’m going to beat up.”

With that he left, promising himself to punch Lance—his Lance, the real Lance, the one his heart adored—as soon as possible.

And maybe kiss the Cuban while he was at it.

[appynation]

Sacrifice

Since the @the-heith-zine is out now, I can post my fic from it!! I had such an amazing time throughout this process of this zine’s creation and I want to personally thank @mikuridaigo for being the best zine mod ever!

“Come on, Hunk! I need your help. You can keep making googly-eyes at mullet later, let’s go!” Lance beckoned from the doorway to the lounge, eliciting a glare from Keith as a blush spread over he cheeks. Crossing his arms, Keith huffed at the thought of Hunk leaving-- he’d just gotten finished with a massive project, and Keith had just finished his afternoon training. This was the first time all day they’d even seen each other.

“Alright alright, I’m coming! Yeesh.” Hunk turned back to Keith, a fond smile on his lips and a chuckle on his tongue, “I’ll be back soon, okay? Promise.” He reached over to put a gloved hand against Keith’s back, giving his skin two taps before letting his hand fall to catch up with Lance. As innocuous and simple as it was, it caused Keith’s heart to flutter as he watched his boyfriend run down the hallway. Words of affection never came easily to Keith. His childhood had been a slow laying brick wall of disappointment and hardship, burying those three little words along the way. But Hunk? Hunk was the wrecking ball he never knew he needed, smashing his way through every wall Keith had ever built. And even better, he understood. He never pressured Keith to return the words, and had begun foregoing them entirely for something else. A gesture. A touch. Hunk had come up with it a few months prior, and each time Hunk used it his heart soared.

Two taps on his back… that was it.

But the significance floored Keith. He’d asked Hunk what it meant in the beginning. “Two taps: one for you and one for me. One after the other to remind that I’m always here for you, that I’ll always by your side, that you can count on me… and that I’ll always love you.” Hunk had explained, a bashful smile on his lips as he played with Keith’s hands while they sprawled out in the yellow paladin’s bed one night. Keith had just stared at him in quiet shock. He couldn’t believe someone had cared enough to put so much meaning into something so simple. They could spend a thousand lives together and Hunk would never truly realize how much those two simple taps meant to him.

----

“You know, just once I’d like to have a mission that goes smoothly!” Lance yelled from behind his shield before firing a few shots at the encroaching Galra. Hunk grunted as he took a few steps back into their ever slowly closing defenses; “What would one of our missions be if it actually went according to plan?” He retorted with a dry chuckle, glancing around as the countless sentries kept backing them up into the corner. They were trapped. “Anytime you wanna get that door open would be great, Pidge!” “You pressuring me won’t make the process go any faster!” Pidge shot back, her frantic fingers shaking slightly as she typed in countless codes to try and get the door of the Galra ship open behind them. It was their only hope of getting out of this mess, and she just had to pray that the others could hold the sentries off while she hacked into the system. The Galra had begun getting smart to Pidge’s tricks-- triple encrypting the codes to their interfacing, delaying her progress much to everyone’s nerves. Keith growled under his breath, wincing as blast after blast knocked into his shield like hammers against his forearm. Hiding behind his shield wasn’t going to keep the Galra at bay. He couldn’t just rely on Hunk and Lance to force them back-- he had to do something. Keith wouldn’t necessarily call himself the king of calm, rational thinking-- which was what made his next move not all that surprising; In a blind rage Keith broke out of the defensive semi-circle of paladins as he aimed at attacking a sentry that had dared to get a bit too close for his comfort.

“Keith, no! Get back in formation!” Shiro ordered, taking a step out to assist the red paladin only to once again get battered by gunfire. Keith grunted as he dropped one of the sentries, ducking instinctively from the swing of an enemy sword before slicing through a couple more. It had given Pidge a bit more time, yes, but there were just too many-- they could all see that. Even Keith finally had to retreat a few steps, realizing the predicament he’d gotten himself into. He didn’t have the stamina to keep this up, but by then it was too late. Sentries had surrounded him despite Hunk and Lance’s attempts to keep them off his back.He should have listened to Shiro. “Pidge, come on!!” Keith growled as he swung to keep at least a sword length distance apart from the enemy. What he didn’t see was the sentry coming from behind, he didn’t see the way it rose it’s blade to strike, didn’t see the way the other sentries were already turning their attention away from the red paladin and back to the others because they knew it would be over in a second.

But Hunk did.

Without the slightest hesitation Hunk was barreling forward, panicked eyes trained on his boyfriend. His lover. The light of his life. He would do anything to keep him from harm… and so he did.

----

It had happened in a flash. One moment Keith was trying to fight off the swarm of Galra surrounding him, next he was being shoved to the floor. He’d thought it had been an enemy trying to get the upper hand on him, but it wasn’t until Lance cried out Hunk’s name that he turned his head to see what had happened. Hunk was crouched over him, trying to hide the wince on his face with a slight smile. “I made it in time.” He whispered before grunting and falling to his knees. Staring wide-eyed up at Hunk, the entire universe halted. The Galra, their team, the fight… nothing else mattered, not right now. Hunk had pushed him, Hunk had saved him. And as the space around him began to move again, he realized the look on Hunk’s face was one of pure agony. He pulled Hunk into his chest with one arm and brandished his shield with the other, eliciting a moan from the wounded man as the briefly stunned sentries began their attack once again. Thankfully, they finally seemed to have a stroke of luck.

“GOT IT!” Pidge shrieked as the doors slid open, “Get inside!” Lance and Shiro wasted no time, running forward and grabbing the two off the ground-- using their collective shields as a large barrier as they pulled Hunk’s form into the other room. Shiro was immediately radioing the castle for an emergency evac, and Keith was hovering over Hunk before the doors had even fully closed. “Where are you hurt? Hey, look at me, where does it hurt??” Keith hadn’t seen where the blade had cut, but it only took a moment for him to see the damage: a clean slice right on his shoulder, between the chest plate and shoulder pad. He could already see the redness darkening the sliver of black suit. Much like the red that was pulsing behind Keith’s eyes. “Are you crazy!?” Keith screamed, “You could’ve gotten killed! I was handling it on my own-- I had it under control! You-- you didn’t need to--” he hadn’t realized how much he was shaking, or that the threat of tears were beginning to glisten in his eyes. So he shut them tight to hopefully stop what was inevitable.  “I’ve lost too many people in my life, Hunk! I can’t… I can’t…” His voice trailed, breath shuddering to a halt as he felt a hand on his back-- trembling slightly, but firm.

Tap. Tap.

A swell of emotions made him open his eyes, focusing on Hunk’s who was staring at him with a strangely calm smile for someone who was heavily bleeding. “I-I’ll always be there for you. You can count on me.” He muttered. Even injured, Hunk was striving to comfort him. Ground him. Calm him down. He felt those tears begin to prick his eyes again, and this time he didn’t try to hide it. “I love you.” Keith choked out a shocked laugh at his own words before shaking his head, “I love you, Hunk.” The look on Hunk’s face gave Keith a pang of pride for his sudden confession, he’d never seen him so surprised… or content. He still had a smile on his face as his hand slipped from Keith’s back and his body went limp. “Hunk…? Hunk!” ----

The next thing Hunk felt after the numbing tiredness that overtook his body was cold. He had only begun coming to when he heard a releasing hiss and was stumbling on shaky legs out of a pod. Before he could steady himself, arms were wrapping around him. He let out a sigh at the warmth, his body begging for more as he leaned more into the body before he let himself really grasp who was holding him… though it wasn’t much of a question. “Keith… hn- what happened?” “You were an idiot and took a sword for me.” Although the words held some spite-- or guilt?-- his breath trailed over Hunk’s chilled shoulder like a warm summer breeze. Opening his eyes he looked around, the dimly lit cryopod room suggested it was late. That, and the fact that they were the only ones here. He may have expected Lance to be here too, so everyone else must’ve been asleep. “And I’d do it a thousand times more.”

Keith pulled away slightly, enough that he was able to see Hunk’s face and study those beautiful brown eyes for a moment. He knew Hunk meant every word he said, and there was a part of him that wanted to scold for saying something so rash… but the reality was, he would too.

[slashtakemylife]

Just finished the last episodes and I need to rant about Adam because boi, if they had actually given the importance to Adam they said he had, Voltron would've been very different, in a better way

When S7 aired and I learned of Adam's death I felt upset and shocked but I never raged, I was just disappointed, I nosedived to every interview to see if the general media talked about it, and they did! However in the interviews I read things about Adam like, "since Shiro is gone, Adam is the next best pilot there is" (as to why it was Adam on the first unsuccesful wave), "he didn't hesitate" " he was made of the same cloth as Shiro" "His importance to Voltron is very big", I got massive warning signs of they doing what I personally call "sugarcoating" specially after reading the apology were JDS said they never intended to make Adam a recurring character, but alas, I waited to finish the season and properly make an opinion, well the warning signs were true and now I AM RANTING!!

I'll be going a little off topic but one thing I seriously hate in movies and shows are when female characters, specially love interests, are the best of the best, the most high rank, the smartest, the strongest, the handmade creation of the gods themselves, up to a point that sometimes you go, then why is the male character the leader? Isn't she more qualified? well yeah but she isn't just because, but other than saying how awesome she is, they barely show it, in important, crucial, deciding, defining moments they are not there when by their rank they should be or they are just adorning the background barely making any opninions, or despite being shown to be badass in certain scenes they are just sitting plants in others just for the hero to rescue them

Female characters are awesome and I love many of them but there are obvious parts were they are simply pushed aside despite the amount of importance they give them, Hollywood is afraid of putting female leads but also afraid of being called mysogynist so they create secondary female characters and then they "sugarcoat" them to us with valuable aspects such as a big family conection, a big link to the plot of the movie, a rank, a skill or smth to show she is a "strong woman" but only when convinient

As a female I'm used to this sugarcoating, so when on interviews I read those things about Adam, that is what pissed me off. Listen, in my true honest opinion, the VLD crew really wanted to make this rep for us, Barlee admitted it was greenlit late, it was smashed together (and it shows) but they did their best, I accepted Adam as JDS letter clearly says, Adam was just a character meant to show Shiro's sexuality, nothing less and nothing more, it's not that he is not important, he just wasn't planned for more and I'm not mad about it, I can accept that.

Suddenly declaring Adam as a symbol of loss, regret and war; a major character that has a major impactful role in Voltron..., please, that comes straight out of nowhere, since they saw how meaningful Adam was to ppl, they decided to "sugarcoat" him by giving him more value than he actually has or was meant to have, just let the man die and let me mourn him in peace

If I really give Adam the characteristics and value they said, things would've and could've been different in a so much better way and here is my how: (remember Adam is supposed to be like Shiro, one of if not the best pilot, behind Shiro, the garrison has to offer and a brave man that doesn't hesitate to jump into action, a team leader)

(Take this as a prompt as well please because I would love a fic like this)

So Shiro wants to go to Kerberos but Admiral Sanda won't let him, Sam Holt is pushing for Shiro because he is the best, but you need to replace him so, who is the second if not also the best pilot such as Shiro? You know it, Adam, he was there for every record but he is Shiro's flight parter so there is a high chance some of those records are Adam's as well, also Sam is close to Shiro so he probably would accept Adam as a replacement (or at least that is what Sanda would think)

If Adam is a self sacrificing hero like Shiro, he would want to accept just to keep Shiro safe back on Earth, Shiro could feel betrayed by Adam and the whole drama would've been so much better, but we need Shiro on Kerberos (unless you want BlackPaladdin!Adam) so imagine Adam coming over to Shiro and saying:

"Out of our time together, out of my respect and love for you, I'm doing this last thing, I'm rejecting Admiral Sanda's proposal and promote for you to be there, so go, but don't expect me to be here when you get back"

So Shiro basically has Adam's blessing but they still break up, they still parted on rocky terms but is more bittersweet and you show how mature and deep their relationship is

Back to canon, I believe they introduced Adam in the breakup because we are supposed to like him but not get invested in him so when he does die we won't feel so bad, VLD promoted Adam as Shiro's significant other, then they sugarcoated him by saying they were close to marriage but when we finally discover Adam's fate they go like, "we'll remember he is his ex, not current, so while feelings are still there Shiro already knew it was kind of over, so don't feel sad for Adam or Shiro, just remember Shiro is gay"

Having Adam just, "how important am I to you?" let's just say I'm not surprised ppl disliked Adam because he gave Shiro that ultimatum, his character felt needy and greedy but then again, we are not supposed to get too invested in him. (Boi, that went exactly the wrong direction, the fandom imprinted on Adam like newly born ducks)

I'll be going a little off topic but I'm coming back to Adam after explaining this thing: the cadets, why you use cadets and not fully trained officers? In all shows the main characters share their audiences' age but they always explain why, the adults are evil, fate just happened to put them there, a mystical something chose them (in the paladins cases) but here? They just say they are the best of the best, and that is good but still, just cadets, you can't do test with them, they could die, ppl have died while testing things, some of the crew of the guys that went to the moon died in a test in rl, right?

I thought, ok I'll go with it, but the Why You Don't Do That pretty much slaps them in the face, when the Galra attack, why they don't want to deploy them?

They are just cadets!

THEN WHY TF TRAIN THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!????

Sam came back knowing a Galra attack is inminent, the garrison is about to make the most advanced ships and weapons and they are giving them to cadets?! WHY?!?!

(Fix it and prompt time!)

Before Sam arrives they couldn't even make the pod move, so they could've explain the cadets as this

"It will takes us Years to create a simple prototype, if we were to train older cadets, they woulb be close to or retiring so better young ones so when we finally fly something they would not only have years of training but would be at their prime"

When Sam arrives

"I know you all expected to use this years from now but the Galra won't wait and neither will we, you are already trained for this so may as well keep it up"

- (the continuation of this prompt is after we talk Adam some more)

Back to the interviews, in one they said Adam's death was inminent given the natural flow of the show, if the Galra attack then we will deploy the best we have but the best we have is Adam so tough luck.

Me after watching the show: I'm calling BS on this! They HAD a defense line, they HAD the knowledge, they just sent them because they were stupid enough to put cadets in the only advanced weapon they had and to show how shitty Sanda was, and our poor gay man was the price, also brave Adam? I don't doubt it but then again, he did what soldiers do, he followed orders, so they didn't show me how brave he was, they showed me him doing his job, he knows what those commands mean, he knows what is his job description so while yeah he is obviously brave, so is everyone, he doesn't stand out, if he had been already buckled in Before the command then yes he is great but no, he just followed orders

You want to show his bravery and leader skills? Hold my juice, (I don't drink beer, sorry) we are about to get to the next part of the prompt

- (The next part :D)

Sam:

"We will keep you cadets but since the making of the ships is about to be done with the info I brought, we need an experienced pilot to be your leader specially in battle since you are new to that"

-Quiz time!-

Who is the best pilot the garrison has to offer known and acknowledged by both Sanda and Sam?

ADAM!!!

MFE pilot and leader!Adam

When the Garla attack, Adam is no longer in his squad, he stayed in base when Sanda deploys his unit and sees them get decimated, before they all die he does this

Adam:

"Cadets, I won't force you into doing anything, but there are good man and women out there getting killed by the very threat we've been training to defeat, so I'm taking my MFE and blast them to the next moon, anyone who wants to come along is welcome"

Sanda: "don't you daaare, court martial BS!"

Adam, while in his MFE:

"Open the particle barrier or I'll see a way to blast throught it!"

Sam does open it and they cover fire enough to save the few remaining earth pilots

(End prompt)

You see?!?! This is how you show me Adam being brave and a team leader, the original paladins are 4 young ones and a space dad, they could've had the earth equivalent with the 4 cadets and their own Shiro with Adam as their leader, can I also mention how he is now VERY much alive? So yeah, Adam is dead because you chose so! Shiro is alive because you chose so too! He was supposed to die to let Keith be the leader but you found his value and made great things with him and we all love him!

WHY COULD'NT YOU DO THIS WITH ADAAAAAAM!!!!!!

And you can't tell me it wouldn't be absolute poetry to have Space Dad as Captain of the Atlas, Space Son as the Voltron leader and Earth Dad as he leader of the Earth forces, being the support to keep safe his two idiots he loves and calls family

Adam should've left Griffin in charge for a moment, go to Shiro and blast Sendak with his MFE while screaming, this is for killing the love of my life! (Ok I got over excited in that last bit but you know it would've been epic)

If you reached this far you probably think I'm just a rabbid Adashi shipper ranting about my ship, and yeah I sorta am, as I said, I'm really just venting but still my true discomfort is the whole sugarcoating thing

I accepted Adam as JDS said, as what the show is showing me he is, a background character that, while he definitely is a major someone to Shiro, it is just for him, he doesn't have so much major importance in Voltron as a whole but he was designed that way, he is still part of Shiro's backstory but he is dead now and we shall move on

Don't try to make him more than he is outside of the show canon, this whole issue is because EVERYTHING is out of canon, the show reflects NOTHING of everything you said of both Shiro's sexuality and Adam as a character, if S8 brings Adam back whether is a flashback or alive, I'll come back to this because I will judge if they will own up to what they said he is or once again leave vague things that reflect nothing and try to cover it up outside of canon, I'm mad but mostly disappointed

I'll be fine in a few days and I will see S8 with the same excitement as I have all the rest of the seasons

[songsforfelurian]

Heith Fic: Deep Pressure Sequel

Chapter 3, “Touched,” is up on AO3! This chapter is not explicit, but the story is! You can read the new chapter under the cut. Please let me know if you like it!

“Hunk.”

“Mh.”

“Hunk. Seriously. We gotta get up.”

“Five more minutes.”

“Nope. That already happened. We overslept.”

“Baaabe. You feel so good.”

“Hunk.” Keith swallowed. “Shiro was just in here.”

Hunk sat up, finally loosening his hold on Keith in the process. Keith stood up from the bed, crossing his arms over his bare chest.

“Shiro came in here?!” Hunk looked appropriately mortified, swiping his tousled hair away from his forehead.

“Yup. So… he knows, now, obviously…”

“Keith…” Hunk looked upset, now. “I must’ve turned off the alarm… I’m so sorry. I’ll talk to Shiro, or… I’ll do whatever you want-”

“Hunk-”

“Are you mad?”

“No.” Keith sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m not, okay? I just… I need to process, a little bit, and the medical officer is trying to track me down, so… maybe I can come see you later?”

Hunk stared at him for a moment, the corners of his mouth turned down in a gentle frown.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll be here.”

Keith held out his hand. Hunk picked it up and squeezed his fingers.

“Still just right?” Hunk asked, sounding hesitant.

“Yeah.” Keith squeezed back. “Still just right.”

He found the rest of his clothes in the bathroom, dressed as quickly as he could, and then headed back to the bed to leave a hurried kiss on Hunk’s forehead. Hunk stopped him before he could leave, though, taking hold of his wrist, applying firm pressure. He turned Keith’s hand over and placed three wrapped cinnamon candies in his open palm.

Keith met his eye and managed a small smile. He kissed Hunk’s forehead again - slowly, this time - before heading for the door.

“Keith?”

He stopped with his fingers on the handle.

“Yeah?”

“Um.” Hunk wasn’t looking at him; he was fidgeting with the blankets, smoothing one corner of the sheet between his thumb and forefinger. “You and Shiro…” He stopped, shook his head, met Keith’s eye. “Never mind. I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Keith told him, his stomach lurching as the incident played out in his mind on a loop, as he saw Shiro’s expression over and over again and failed, spectacularly, at guessing what it could’ve meant.

He practically collided with the medical officer when he stepped into the hallway.

“Keith!” She glared at him, exasperated. “You had an exam scheduled fifteen minutes ago. You were supposed to notify the desk before leaving your room-”

“I know,” he said, following her back into the room next door. “I’m sorry. I had to check on Hunk.”

“Did Captain Shirogane speak with you?” She gestured sharply at the bed, and he sat down on the edge of it while she took stock of some equipment on a nearby cart. He placed the cinnamon candies carefully inside his night stand drawer.

“Uh… Shiro?” he asked, as she finally approached the bed and attached a device to his wrist and finger, taking his vitals. “I… not exactly.”

Her scowl deepened. “Be sure to get in touch with him, then.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, I assumed it must be something urgent. He was here early, asking to see you. I told him you needed a full night’s rest… asked him to leave a message and come back later… he insisted on coming to your empty room, though.”

She pursed her lips, just to drive the point home, but Keith barely noticed. He was too busy wondering what could’ve possibly been so important, that Shiro would override his physician’s recommendations to try and see him in the early hours of the morning.

“…since you woke up?”

He forced himself to focus on what she was saying.

“Sorry… what?”

She frowned, concerned, now, rather than annoyed. She retrieved a pen light from her pocket and checked the dilation of his pupils.

“How have you been feeling since you woke up? Any dizziness? Disorientation?”

“No. I feel fine. I was just distracted.”

“Any pain?”

“None. Not since yesterday afternoon.”

“Hmm.” She switched on her portable imaging device, a rectangular screen with a sensor attached to the back. She moved it slowly around his head, nodding to herself. “Looks good. I’d like you to stay through lunchtime, but I’m planning to cut you loose after that.” She switched off the device and set it down on the cart. “You have permission to move freely around the floor, now, as long as you tell the desk where you’re going.”

He nodded. “I will. Thanks for your help.”

Her expression softened. “Glad to see you on your feet, Paladin.”

“Thank you.”

She started arranging her equipment back on the cart, much to his relief. He needed time to process what had happened with Shiro, and to decide how he wanted to handle it. He gave the medical officer a small wave as she exited the room, wondering what Shiro could’ve come to here to say. If it had been related to his responsibilities as a paladin, Shiro would’ve left him a video message, or called a briefing with the whole team. And if it was personal, surely it could’ve waited a couple of hours, until visitors were allowed on the floor-

“Keith?”

He looked up. Shiro was standing in the doorway.

He wound his fingers into the blankets and squeezed.

“Hey. Um. Do you want to come in?”

Shiro stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He sat down in one of the chairs next to the bed where Keith was still perched, legs hanging off of the side, ankles crossed. Keith felt that the posture was awkward, all of a sudden, so he tucked his legs underneath himself and tried to swallow the lump of anxiety that had lodged itself in his throat.

“How are you feeling?” Shiro asked.

“Better. I can get out of here after lunch.”

Shiro nodded. “I should’ve asked you, earlier. That’s why I came here in the first place.”

Keith stared for a beat.

“You came here before visiting hours… you forced the medical officer to let you in here… so you could ask me how I was doing?”

Keith could see redness climbing up Shiro’s neck from underneath the collar of his uniform.

He was anxious, too.

“Something like that,” he said. “And I was out of line, when I saw you with…” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about that. I was just… surprised.”

“Yeah. I was, too, at first.”

“So you two are… I mean, you and Hunk… was that the first time, or… how long have you been… um.” Shiro was frowning, now. Not at all in control of his expression, or the words that were coming out of his mouth. Keith didn’t offer any information – not because he was enjoying watching Shiro struggle, he really, really wasn’t – but because Shiro was speaking freely. Emotionally. He needed to know what Shiro would say next.

“Is it… more than just what I saw?” Shiro managed.

“Yeah. We’re together.”

“Oh. Good. I… that’s good.” Shiro was staring at the floor, his eyebrows drawn together, his mouth set in a hard line.

“Shiro.”

“Mm?”

“What’s wrong?”

Shiro met his eye.

“Nothing, I… I just didn’t think you were interested in… being close, like that. I mean, I didn’t think you wanted to be… touched.”

His voice fell quiet as he said the word. He made it sound like a private, intimate thing.

They had never spoken private, intimate words to each other, before.

“I…” Keith swallowed again. His mouth was so dry, he was surprised that any sound was coming out of it, at all. “I guess I’ve never known anyone else who’s acted like they wanted to get close to me.”

Shiro let out a short laugh. It was so at odds with the tone of the conversation they were having, Keith actually flinched.

“Really?” Shiro was saying, eyebrows raised. “You can’t think of anyone else who might’ve-”

He stopped. His expression went neutral. He stood up from the chair and faced the opposite wall, clearing his throat again.

Keith guessed it must be sore, by now.

“I won’t say anything to anyone,” Shiro said, his voice even, his tone conversational. “You and Hunk can figure that piece out for yourselves. I’ll have to trust you not to let this affect the mission, or the rest of the team.”

Keith’s mind spun at the sudden shift, trying to catch up with what Shiro had been implying just a moment ago.

“Shiro-”

“I’m glad for you,” Shiro said, glancing over his shoulder. “You deserve to be happy. You deserve everything.”

“Shiro, hang on-”

He was already leaving.

“Wait-”

He was already gone.

Hunk’s door was closed when Keith finally felt calm enough to head back into the hallway. He stared at it for a minute before he knocked, grateful for a little extra time to try to center himself.

“Who is it?” Hunk called from the other side.

“Uh. It’s Keith.”

There was a brief pause before Hunk opened the door, let him inside, and then shut it behind him. He was pulling the hem of his shirt down over his stomach, as if he’d just put it on. It was a yellow, long-sleeved t-shirt, paired with dark blue jeans.

“Sorry, I was just getting dressed. My parents are coming in a few minutes.”

“Oh. Okay. Are you… leaving?”

“Yep. They just discharged me.”

Worry prickled at the corners of Keith’s mind. He would’ve expected Hunk to deliver this type of news in the context of rambling, lighthearted commentary. He’d been bracing himself to be tackled into a hug.

But Hunk wasn’t even smiling.

“That’s great,” he offered. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

Hunk nodded. “Are you?”

“Yeah. All healed up. I can leave after lunch.”

“No, I meant… shit, yes, I’m really glad your head’s okay, but I meant… well, Shiro stopped by here, earlier. A couple minutes after you left.”

The sickly, squirming sensation that had been building in Keith’s stomach all morning reached a new peak. He wondered if he might actually have to excuse himself to be sick. He squeezed one of his hands into a fist and focused on the feeling of his blunt fingernails pressing into his palm.

“Um. What did he say?”

“Nothing about… us. He just asked how I was doing. He didn’t stay, he… well, I’m assuming he went to see you.”

“Yeah. He did. He was-”

Keith faltered. He’d been trying to figure out what to tell Hunk about their conversation, and he’d come up short, since he’d barely understood it, himself. He’d hoped that the calm safety of Hunk’s presence would make things easier, but he could feel that something in Hunk had shifted. Some of the warmth between them had cooled.

“Keith, I… I know you and Shiro are close,” Hunk said, cutting into the tense silence. “I told myself I wasn’t going to worry about it, because I trust you, and because… well, I mean, why would you be messing around with me if you could be with Shiro?”

The words cut. Keith winced.

“Hunk-”

“But you brought him back from the dead,” Hunk went on, gesturing vaguely, as if Keith hadn’t spoken, “so if he wasn’t thinking about it before, he has to be, now-”

“Hunk-”

“…I mean, he’d be crazy not to, he’d be insane if he didn’t love you-”

“Hunk!” Keith took hold of Hunk’s wrists and squeezed, fighting off a wave of nausea. “Stop, okay? Please. You… you are my… person. My whatever. My boyfriend.”

Hunk met his eye. “Still?”

“Yes!” Keith couldn’t keep the frustration out of his tone. “You thought I’d have one conversation with Shiro and just… what? Go back on everything I said?”

Hunk looked wounded. “Shit. No. I… no. That would’ve been… shitty, of me.”

Keith let go of his wrists.

“Hunk… I told you. You’re the first person I’ve ever even kissed. There’s never been anything like that between Shiro and me.”

“But there could be.”

Keith opened his mouth, but nothing came out. As much as he wanted to deny it, he knew Hunk’s fears weren’t entirely unjustified. He knew there was a reason Shiro had come to see him, alone, so early in the morning. He knew there was a reason Shiro had turned away from him so abruptly, cutting their conversation short, practically bolting from the room…

He knew Shiro had come here to tell him something, and then changed his mind, when he’d seen him in bed with someone.

Someone else.

“Keith?”

He swallowed, begging the tears not to fall from his eyes.

“Yeah?”

“Just… talk to him, again, okay? Hash it out. Figure out what you both want, before you and I get any further.”

“I know what I want. Talking to Shiro isn’t going to change how I feel about you.”

Hunk shook his head. “Please don’t say that until you know it’s really true.”

Keith opened his mouth to argue the point, but he didn’t get the chance. There were voices in the hallway, drawing closer. They both looked toward the door.

“Shit,” Hunk muttered. “My parents-”

“Hunk?”

There were three quick knocks at the door before it burst open. Hunk’s parents stepped into the room, and Keith inhaled slowly through his nose, trying to adjust to the abruptness of this shift, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he was about the meet his boyfriend’s parents for the first time, right now, in the midst of this emotional crisis.

Relax your face. Relax your hands. Shoulders straight. Focus on what’s right in front of you.

He blocked out the discomfort and forced himself to look at Hunk’s parents, and he was stunned to see how much Hunk resembled them both. He’d inherited his father’s broad-shouldered build and wide smile, along with his mother’s warm, brown eyes.

“Hi, guys,” Hunk said, with some measure of his usual enthusiasm. “This is-”

“Keith!” his mother blurted. She dropped the large, canvas bag she’d been carrying and took hold of his shoulders before throwing her arms around him in a crushing hug. He felt his body go rigid at the unexpected contact and took another steadying breath, trying to loosen up his arms enough to return the gesture. He managed to pat her lightly on the back while Hunk stared at him, looking mortified. He gave his head a small shake.

It’s okay. I can handle it.

“We were so worried about you,” she was saying. He breathed a sigh of relief when she let him go. “It’s so good to see you up and about!”

He smiled at her. “It’s really nice to finally meet you. I didn’t know you… knew me.”

She laughed. “Everyone on Earth knows the leader of Voltron! I’m just so happy we can finally thank you properly. Hunk told us what you did.”

Hunk’s father extended his hand. Keith shook it.

“You risked so much to try to save us, when the Garrison wouldn’t back you up,” he said.

“You saved Hunk,” his mother said, her eyes shimmering. “You saved all our lives. Everyone we’ve ever known. We’ll never be able to repay you, we know that, but we brought you some things…”

She picked up the bag she’d dropped on the floor.

“Hunk told us your sizes, so we found you some clothes and shoes. There’s some food in there, too- they let us use the kitchen at the barracks… oh!” She handed him the bag, pulled a memory stick out of her pocket, and handed that over, too. “We all recorded messages! We weren’t sure when we would get to see you in person, and we thought you should have something to keep from us, anyway, so…” She beamed at him. “I said it in the video, but… thank you for helping Hunk get home to us.”

“Oh, I…” Keith floundered, completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of kindness. “I just… I mean, Hunk didn’t need much help. He’s been incredible. He kept us all sane, out there. He’s saved my life more than once. He’s…” She was crying openly, now. He had to look away from her face, so he looked at Hunk instead, and said, “He’s amazing.”

Hunk stared, then smiled, then hugged him: firm, perfect pressure. Keith hugged him back, wondering if his parents could see what was between them as plainly as he could feel it.

He wished they were alone. He wished he had more time explain. He wished he’d been able to make Hunk believe that this – this warm, familiar, perfect embrace – was all he’d ever wanted.

“Find me later,” Hunk whispered, right before he let go.

  As much as it stung to watch Hunk walk away from him while things were so uncertain between them, Keith knew he needed some time on his own to let his mood settle. So he shut himself inside his room, plugged the memory stick into his viewscreen, and set the video to play while he went through the contents of the bag Hunk’s mother had given him.

It hadn’t occurred to him until he was unpacking it that he didn’t really own anything, anymore. It was a stark reminder of how drastically his reality had shifted because of this war, and as much as he was committed to his role in it, he felt part of himself rebelling against the burden of it, too. The only object he’d consistently carried with him in deep space had been his mother’s blade, and he’d given that back to her. He didn’t even own a pair of shoes, anymore.

Or he hadn’t, until now. There were two pairs in the bag: dark gray athletic sneakers and simple black boots, similar to pairs he’d owned in the past. There were two pairs of athletic shorts, several sets of plain, black boxers and socks, two pairs of jeans, a pair of long pajama bottoms, a soft, full-zip hoodie, and a variety of plain t-shirts in dark colors: black, gray, navy blue. He liked all of it; he could’ve easily chosen these things himself. He guessed this was entirely Hunk’s fault.

“Hi, Keith! What’s it like to fly the head of Voltron? Does the black lion go so, so fast?”

Keith looked up at the screen and saw two kids – a boy and a girl – looking back at him, crowding close to the camera. The girl had been speaking conspiratorially in a hushed tone; she shared Hunk’s warm, brown eyes. Keith filed through his mental inventory of Hunk’s family members and guessed that these were his cousin’s children.

“He doesn’t FLY THE HEAD,” the boy said, elbowing the girl in the shoulder. “He flies the LION.”

“Same thing!” she insisted, swatting back at him. “Anyway, Uncle Hunk says we can’t go for a ride in the yellow lion-”

“He said MAYBE SOMEDAY,” the boy corrected, exasperated. “Could we go in the black lion instead? Uncle Hunk said you’re the best pilot in the whole universe!”

Keith found himself grinning as they were scolded by someone off-camera. They both waved at him before the video went dark.

It didn’t stay that way, though. Hunk’s face appeared on the viewscreen next.

“Hey, team leader,” Hunk’s image said. He was sitting up in his hospital bed, wearing his orange pajamas and a genuine smile. Keith guessed he’d recorded this on his tablet yesterday, before Keith had come to his room.

Before they’d spent the night together.

Before doubt and confusion had interrupted the growing closeness between them.

“I already scrapped two versions of this video,” Hunk was saying. “I know I do this rambling thing sometimes, and you’ve never given me a hard time about it before, but I’m gonna try to spare you this time around, so… yeah. Bear with me, here.” He paused, then looked directly into the camera and said, “You’re the reason I believed we were gonna make it back home, and you’re the reason we did. You’re the reason my family is safe. And you’re a part of it, now. My family. Whatever else happens, I hope that will always be true. Whatever else happens, I promise you, Keith, that you’ll always be able to count on me, like I can count on you. I’m… I’m really glad you’re awake. I’ll see you soon. And if you’re watching this video ten years from now, for whatever reason, I hope that’ll still be true. I mean… I hope I can always say I’ll see you soon.”

He smiled at the camera.

The screen went dark.

Keith sniffed and wiped at his cheek.

He changed into one of the t-shirts and zipped the hoodie over it, rubbing the smooth fabric of the sleeve against his fingertips.

He opened his night stand drawer, took out a piece of red, cinnamon candy, pulled apart the wrapper, and popped it into his mouth.

He set Hunk’s video to play again.

[ghostiedoesherbest]

Patches - II

Lotor paced in his cell, worrying over the strange looking human that looked as though he’d been in sheer agony not long ago. Princess Allura still refused to release him from his prison if only to see if the one named Mateo was alright. He seemed pleasant enough and the prince was looking forward to the chance to befriend him. He could do with a friend in such a hostile environment. He nearly gave himself whiplash when the doors slid open to reveal the Black Paladin with the human, Mateo walking behind him with his hands clasped behind his back.

“Prince Lotor, because of your cooperation, I have decided to put you on probation. You will be allowed to roam the castle so long as you’re accompanied by Mateo,” Shiro formally stated, inwardly wincing because he knew that Allura wouldn’t like this.

Lotor turned his gaze on the human who was acting like his previous episode never happened while Shiro deactivated the the barrier that prevented him from leaving. He took a couple of steps forward to stand before the piebald human. He had to look down to peer into Mateo’s eyes but he couldn’t read him. He knew that the human was guarded in the duration of his imprisonment. He never gave much away to Lotor, not much that could work in his advantage, and that intrigued the exiled prince. Sometimes Lotor could almost see the beginnings of an emotion that he might be able to recognize but almost immediately Mateo would notice and blank his face. It infuriated the prince but also made him want to figure him out even more.

“It appears that we will be spending a lot more time together,” Lotor said with a slight smirk as he held his hand out to Mateo.

The human surprised him by clasping his arm in greeting. “It seems so.” Mateo broke off the contact and began to head for the door, casually waving for Lotor to follow. “C’mon, I’ll give you a tour of the castle.”

Lotor quietly followed after the smaller human, his interest piqued. During the tour, Mateo had surprised him by the amount that he spoke during the tour. Lotor’s first impression of Mateo was that he was rather taciturn unless you were to ask him questions but the human was practically a well of knowledge about the castle. Instead of taking him to a room and simply telling him what the room was, he explained what was done in each room and sometimes the history of the room. Lotor quickly learned that Mateo was a great storyteller, giving small, entertaining anecdotes that would earn a chuckle out him. His voice was deep with a stronger accent than his cousin, and it never escaped Lotor’s notice how his spoke at a volume much lower than the paladins as if he knew how sensitive Galra hearing was.

Of course, Lotor didn’t complain because he quickly learned how loud the Paladins tended to be upon walking in on Lance and Pidge wrestling over some sort of device in the recreational room. When the tour ended, Lotor took the chance to inquire after Mateo’s wellbeing. “That was quite the tour Mateo, but I must admit that I am worried. What happened to you earlier.”

Mateo’s eyes widened a fraction, before he gave a resigned sigh, “Sorry you had to see that. I have a medical condition. I have fits every once in a while and usually I can tell when they’re coming on but this one sort of crept up on me.”

Lotor furrowed his brows, “So you are well then?”

“Yes,” Mateo nodded, “I know it’s scary for people who see it for the first time but I’m fine.”

Lotor clasped his hands behind his back as he sighed in relief, “I cannot imagine going through that once let alone multiple times.”

Mateo waved him off, turning his head so that the prince wouldn’t see him blush, “Don’t worry about me. Us McClains are made of tougher stuff than that.”

Adorable. Lotor thought to himself as he allowed Mateo to lead him to the kitchen where Hunk was. “Hey ‘Teo - Whoa whoa whoa! What’s he doing here? Isn’t he supposed to be in jail or something?”

Mateo chuckled and gestured to the tall Galra, “Hunk, meet Prince Lotor. Shiro put me in charge of his probation while he’s here since his information has been reliable so far. I thought I’d take him to try some of your famous cuisine, Executive Chef Hunk.” Hunk puffed out his chest in pride, much to Mateo’s amusement.

“As long as I’ve got my reliable Sous Chef,” Hunk retorted as he tossed Mateo an apron. The McClain chuckled as he tied the apron around the nape of his neck and at the small of his back before turning to the sink to wash his hands. Lotor took a seat at the counter as he watched Mateo and Hunk peering into an intergalactic cookbook that the Yellow Paladin had gotten from the space mall.

The Galra prince watched with eyes full of wonder  as Mateo and Hunk worked together flawlessly. Their knives were a blur on the cutting board and movements were fluid, as if they were one being. Lotor had never known what the kitchens were like on Planet Daibazaal before he was born, since his father had forbidden any knowledge he considered unnecessary, but he liked to imagine that they were much like what he was witnessing. Lotor nearly melted as a heavenly scent eventually began to waft through the room. It made him realize how little he was being fed as his stomach let out a loud, embarrassing growl.

His ears flicked up when Mateo had set a bowl full of berries down in front of him and he watched turn his back. So, like a child, he reach out to nab one of the berries only to receive the sharp sting of a spoon to the hand from Hunk. Lotor gave him a sheepish smile and Hunk gave him a stern look but he relented and allowed the prince a single berry. Lotor was honestly confused at why he was being rewarded. His Dayak never rewarded him after discipling him. Perhaps humans have a different method of discipline than the Galra.

The finished product was a three course meal consisting of a fruit salad consisting of berries and fruits from various planets, some sort of seafood pasta, and for dessert he watched Mateo pull out a strange pan that had circular molds in them which held such sweet smelling confections. “Uh...Lotor,” the prince turned to Mateo who mimed wiping his chin and Lotor’s ears burned with his embarrassment as he mirrored the action, feeling the saliva make contact with his hand. He avoided their amused gazes as they slid a plate in his direction before serving food for themselves.

Lotor eagerly began to twist a little of the pasta onto a fork and the moment it hit his taste buds, he felt as though he was in heaven. “This is absolutely divine!” he moaned in pleasure. Hunk and Mateo shared knowing smirks as they gave each other a high five. Hunk was surprised that Lotor ate just as much as Mateo, not only going for seconds, but thirds as well. “If I could I would immediately hire you both as chefs.”

Hunk blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, “Y-you, uh think so? I’m just kind of modifying recipes I already know.”

Mateo nudged his friend with his elbow, “Just take the compliment, Hunk. You’ve got a gift.”

“If he does, then you possess it as well, Mateo,” Lotor added.

“It’s just a hobby for me. Cooking with a friend is different from cooking for a living,” Mateo shrugged before taking the last bite of his cupcake. Lotor had found himself stopping in the middle of his meal to prevent the purr swelling up in his throat, unaware of the sympathetic look that Mateo had sent him. His own throat would often grow sore while trying to suppress his contented purrs. Lance had quickly learned that rubbing his ears and running his fingers through Mateo’s hair or fur would yield purrs as loud as a motorcycle. The brunette has yet to let Mateo live it down to this day.

“What is it that you all do outside of being Paladins?” Lotor asked out of genuine curiosity.

Hunk was picking up dishes but he paused when Lotor posed the question, “This is pretty much it for me, but Mat is really into the arts.”

“Arts?” Lotor parroted.

“Hunk!” Mateo hissed, feeling heat fill his cheeks as he hid his face in his hands.

“Cute,” Lotor thought as Hunk bumped the embarrassed teen with his hip.

“I’ve read some of his fanfictions and I hate him now because I’m hooked! Especially that Batman story that you haven’t finished,” the Yellow Paladin gave his friend a baleful glare. 

“I thought you got over that!”

“You left it on a cliffhanger, Mat! That’s one of the most unforgivable things you could’ve ever done!”

“It seemed like a good place to stop!”

“Well you thought wrong!”

Lotor watched the exchange with wide eyes. The pair looked like they were ready to exchange blows and the prince began to wonder if he should be trying to escape before they decided to use one of the many sharp objects in the kitchen while he possessed no weapons. “What is a cliff hanger?” Lotor spoke without thinking, surprised at himself since he usually measured his words so carefully. 

Hunk continued to glare at Mateo who had turned his attention to the Galra prince that was placed in his care. “A cliffhanger is when an author ends their story on a rather suspenseful moment that leaves the readers eager to read more,”

“I call bull on that! Readers hate them and writers put them in their stories to make us suffer!” Hunk protested heatedly.

“We’re not getting into this again Hunk!” Mateo snapped but Lotor could tell that there was no real heat behind it. 

Lotor chuckled at the amusing exchange. He was surprised with how easily he had relaxed in the presence of the two humans and he was beginning to believe that was the entire reason for Mateo bringing him there. The Yellow Paladin was obviously the most laid back of the Paladins and one couldn’t help but to relax in his presence. He never felt this relaxed around his own generals and yet the Paladins had succeeded where others had failed. All but one. 

He pushed that thought aside. He didn’t want to think about his failures at the moments. He would much rather bask in the peace that he was so rarely afforded. He honestly hoped that he could one day call these new allies his friends and that they would return the sentiment. Mateo caught his gaze while Hunk was ranting about the horror of the cliffhanger and winked conspiratorially at the Prince before saying something that outraged the Yellow Paladin even further. 

Lotor felt an uncomfortable pit in his stomach that was neither fear nor dread. It felt as though someone had set a litter of yuppers loose in his stomach. Lotor recognized this feeling and he kept his composure while he internally panicked. The prince didn’t know what exactly that meant but what he did know was that Mateo McClain would be the death of him. 

Tag List: @starfaring-princelotor @motheroflittlelions @fandomsoffeelings @done-with-your-shit-shirogane @kirahhhh @legendofcarl @lotor-for-emperor@marvelheaux @yanderemommabean @lotorrential @planet-jumping-warrior

[mothman-misato]

I don’t want to make a whole thing about how mad I am about season 7. I really don’t. There were some GREAT moments and overall I’m really happy with how the general plot has turned out. But holy shit. Something has to be said.

I’m gonna start with the easy one to tackle. Adashi. We were fucking told that we were gonna get endgame LGBT+ representation. We were shown this character as a canon gay man and they made a HUGE deal over it, saying, “hey we have a queer character for you, you will enjoy it.” And while I’ve been preaching that we already knew that they broke up and we weren’t guaranteed anything except flashbacks. I was expecting something a little more obviously queer. I mean for fucks sake, any random person watching MIGHT be able to guess that they’re dating. But not really. Even me, thought that the ONE scene we were given was a stretch. For all anyone knows, they could be just best friends or something. Like with their dynamic, if I was not specifically told they were a couple, I would never have even put two and two together and just assumed it was his best friend. Even with the scene where shiro is mourning Adam’s death, it just seems like they knew each other well and were close. There was literally nothing pointing to the fact that they were fiancées in the show, and just saying it doesn’t make it true. To me, this is just an insult. You can’t tell me you’re giving me a queer character, and then only make him queer if I happen to follow panels and discourse, etc. I respect the writers on most things, and I’m the first to defend them on most issues, but HOW DARE THEY queerbait like that. If you’re going to commit to having a character be queer then make them queer to anyone watching. You don’t need a whole coming out scene, you don’t need rainbow flags and a whole episode focusing on it, there are ways to make a character more obviously queer than just stating it outside of the show’s actual footage. I’m actually offended by this, and that’s not an easy thing to make me.

The other thing I want to talk about it Klance. Look, we were never guaranteed Klance. We were never told specifically, you are going to get Klance. We were never told that Lance or Keith individually is queer in any way. So we were owed nothing in that department. That being said, the way that Netflix has been marketing the show using Klance is obvious queerbaiting and that’s not okay. I’m not going to go into that though. We’ve always known that Netflix has some issues doing that. My real problem isn’t even with Klance as a ship. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I will respect whatever ship becomes canon, straight or not, klance or not. If it happens in canon, then that’s what’s canon. Period. That being said. The ships that are obviously coming to the forefront are just written so badly. And I was expecting there to be well-written romantic subplots because, fuck, they write just about everything else fairly well. They even wrote the Lotura mess well. Like it made sense for Allura to fall for Lotor. Even when I was yelling at her to get out because I didn’t trust him, there was a part of me that wanted to because even I fell for his tricks as a viewer. But this is just stupid. Like I’m not even gonna complain about forced heterosexuality, because like I said, we were never guaranteed anything. What this is, though, is forced romance. Like, point blank, there is no substance in any of these. And I’m not saying that I don’t ship it so it shouldn’t be. Im totally down for both of these to be canon, I can see both happening legitimately. But shit. Write it well for fucks sake. With Lance and Allura, I can see where that’s coming from. Lance has like Allura from day 1. It makes sense that she’d eventually like him back. But why? Where was the turning point? When was the moment she realized “oh hey I kinda like Lance”? There’s no substance to it. There’s nothing and then all of sudden she’s telling him to be careful and blushing? It doesn’t make sense. She hated all of his advanced up to this point. And then what happened? Someone became miniature and crawled into her body and flipped a switch or something? Like what the fuck? You have to make me want it more. And then with Keith and Acxa, I’m even more here for this ship. I can really see where it’s coming from. The whole “a life for a life” thing they had going on way back when. Makes sense. And I love her arc of becoming good, and I love that Keith goes back to save her again. And I love that. But all of a sudden there’s hints that she likes him? Not obvious ones the way Allura and Lance have been portrayed. With no other substance than “that’s the paladin she refuses to kill.” I want this to happen. Like yes, I ship klance, but if we’re not going to get klance, then I’m more than happy to give up that for this ship. It’s a great ship. But develop it more. Develop both of them more. Don’t leave me sitting here like “I don’t understand.” Make me understand, make me want these relationships, make me root for them, make me feel what they feel. Because right now there’s a disconnect. I’m not seeing where allura is coming from, I can’t connect to what she’s feeling because it doesn’t fully make sense. I’m not seeing where acxa is because she’s there for the once episode, and then the moment where she’s stalking him at his grave, and that’s it. I have more hope for keithxacxa because I see there being a chance to develop it more and there’s still room to explain it better. With allurance, I feel like I’ve just been given a bad excuse. There’s not really room to explain why she all of a sudden feels this way, and it’s already too obvious to turn back. So we’re left with an empty shell of what could’ve been a great romance. It died even before it had a chance to breathe.

I’m short, I’m kinda pissed off. Season 7 was AMAZING, absolutely stunning, and I loved it so much. But for fucks sake, learn to write romance.

I’m sorry if this made no sense, I’m delirious after staying up all night to watch.

(not gonna yah the ships because I’d rather avoid discourse but my point still stands)

[queenallura]

Form Podcast Transcript - Ep. 1

Hosted by Kyle Anderson from Nerdist

Guests: Joaquim Dos Santos (co-executive producer) and Lauren Montgomery (co-executive producer)

Episode 1x01 “The Rise of Voltron”

Kyle Anderson (KA): Hello everyone! Welcome to the inaugural episode of Form Podcast, the official Voltron commentary podcast. What does this mean? Who am I? My name is Kyle Anderson, I’m the associate editor for Nerdist.com, and I’m a massive, huge Voltron: Legendary Defender fan. What this podcast is going to be is we’re going to take you episode by episode through the episodes of Voltron that have come out already on Netflix and we’re going to do commentary over them. And it’s not just going to be me talking, you’re gonna get to hear from writers, directors, and even some of the cast and producers about making all of the episodes. And all you would have to do is, you can follow along on your own TV or tablet or whatever it is you watch Netflix on, or you can just listen to it in your car and just kind of imagine what’s going on. We’re pretty open, but we’re going to be talking about episodes directly. Thanks for joining us. We’re going to have a really great first episode because it’s the first one and there’s a lot going on. For this very first episode, which is a long one, we’re joined by two very important people, I would say the most important people maybe, who helped make this show happen. And they are:

Joaquim Dos Santos (JDS): Joaquim Dos Santos, executive producer.

Lauren Montgomery (LM): Lauren Montgomery, co-executive producer.

KA: Alright, so everyone at home, this is how this is going to work. You get your Netflix at home queued up to all zeros and we all hit play together. It’s going to be a big togetherness thing

JDS: There’s a hum in this room by the way. A mirror and hum.

KA: Just pretend it’s part of the show. We’re gonna hit play in three, two, one, play. All right.

JDS: There we go.

KA: We’re off and running.

JDS: So we’ve got the full intro here. The Netflix original series card. That was a cool thing that was sort of build after the fact.

LM: We kinda had to toss one that together pretty quick. Not having worked for anything on Netflix before, we just didn’t even realize that was part of the package. Like yeah, you gotta have that Netflix original in there, so we’re like, “Oh, what are we going to do?”

JDS: Those are all repurposed elements form the show.

LM: We had a few different ideas we were going to do. We were going to do a whole Altean writing and then it transitions and then we’re like, uh, we need to do this a lot faster.

JDS: And we didn’t want to figure out the Altean alphabet.

LM: There’s no actual Altean alphabet.

JDS: Yet. I’m sure someone’s going to make one.

KA: Sure!

LM: It’s really up to the fans, if there’s going to be an Altean alphabet. This is where fan involvement comes in. Make it happen.

KA: So I remember I came and saw this at the first press screening that was held at Dreamworks and then I talked to you guys right afterwards. I thought this was such a great cold open where you get that it’s the future but you’re not sure where it is in the world. And then this happens.

JDS: Initially we were a little worried about the fact that it is a show about such fantastical things, but trying to sell Earth as this place that - while still in the future - hadn’t had alien contact yet. So to them, this is beyond anything they could’ve ever imagined. They were taking boring ice samples. So we were trying to sell the boring nature of what their job was to contrast that with this.

LM: I can’t recall, do you remember-? I think this whole opening scene was something that we put in a little bit later. I think it originally just opened with our guys on earth. And then we’re like, we really need to introduce this alien element.

JDS: Right, as soon as possible.

LM: And then this cold open was added on.

JDS: This was at a time when we had a lot more time on our hands.

LM: This is magical.

JDS: This entire episode was boarded by Lauren, myself, Ryu, with help from others. This is probably the most involvement in actually storyboarding an episode that we have.

LM: And what Joaquim is referring to is this first portion. This actual episode is made up of three different episodes. 1x01 is what we’re seeing right now, and this carries up to where the Blue Lion approaches Arus.

JDS: This is technically three episodes jammed together.

KA: I was going to ask you about that. So you approached them each as individual episodes. I think it flows really nicely as a film, essentially.

JDS: We’re lucky that it was highly serialized.

LM: Yeah it was an interesting thing because this first three-episode arc was initially approached as, we wanted it to be a one piece big thing and it was going to be that. And then at some point there was a weird, “Netflix wants everything to be episodic, and they all have to match up and be the same length.” And so then we’re like, okay, so we have to break it apart. And then it’s like, “Oh no! We’re wrong! That doesn’t have to happen! Put them back together.” So then we got it to be one full movie, which is what it was really planned to be. We do from a production standpoint have to attack it as three separate episodes.

KA: Got it.

JDS: And when this is outside of Netflix’s jurisdiction, they all have to work. So if they’re playing in foreign markets in another country that doesn’t have Netflix, they work as individual episodes. We were all figuring out at that time. That was really early days for the studio, working with Netflix.

LM: I remember coming in and Joaquim was telling to me, “Alright, we figured out production stuff and we’re boarding the first episode.” And I was a little bit like, okay! It’s been quite a while since I boarded a full act. That’s a few year’s down the line.

JDS: A few years removed.

LM: Again, we had a lot more time on our hands. This was our first episode so we didn’t have any other episodes running at the same time.

JDS: It was a dreamier time. It was a time where I had a lot more hair and a lot less white hair.

JDS: So he says, “get out of the” uh. He says something, “get out of the cockpit donkeys!” Something donkeys, we don’t have the sound on guys, apologies.. But the usage of the word “donkey” is a reference to my gym teacher, Mr. Walters. From Walter E. Junior High. He’s a fantastic human being but he called everyone donkeys. If you were in trouble in any way you would be part of the donkey squad.

KA: Which you would be anyway if you were all donkeys.

JDS: That’s right. But when my friends heard that, and they watched this when it finally aired, they all called me up with tears in their eyes like “Mr. Walters! Long live Mr. Walters!”

LM: Yes, some people have noticed that there is a little bit of a wink wink to some of the Macross characters in the background here. We have a- funny thing, originally one of the kids raises his hand here and said “The pilot crashed!” I did the scratch for that because it was an odd on thing.

JDS: That’s right.

LM: And that was supposed to be the Max look-alike character. But I think they’re like “it’s a girl voice,” so they just made it a girl that looks creepily like me.

JDS: It does! It looks like Lauren. They were like, well Lauren did the voice, so it’s Lauren.

LM: And I was like, hey no! That’s supposed to be Max. So now you never really see Max, you just see the back of his blue head.

JDS: I don’t know who’s sitting at that lounge but he looks really cool and he might die eating a bowl of fruit and playing guitar.

LM: The pineapple-y salad type set up.

JDS: So this was part of the fun humor stuff that we were mandated to inject into the show from the higher ups here at Dreamworks. I storyboarded these sections so I’m proud of the way they look, but I remember thinking at the time, “Oh man, we’re going to turn into a slapstick show!” I think it worked out in the end. They’re teenagers, they’re goofy! And they like to hide in trash cans. I know I liked to do that when I was a kid.

KA: That sort of, as you went along, it sort of became the tone of the show.

JDS: It did.

KA: There is that over the top silliness of over the top anime stuff coupled with super serious world destroying monsters.

JDS: Oddly enough that’s how these things go sometimes. Sometimes we’ll get word from on high, “Oh, do this,” and we’re grumbly grumbly grumbly while we doing it, and we do it and we’re like, “Looks okay.” And then it goes on to create the tapestry of the show, which is alright. You gotta have fun.

KA: That’s kinda a great way to start, because we’ve seen Shiro but maybe a lot of people might not realize that’s who that was. You start with these three characters. I remember watching it like, “Lance, he’s clearly going to be the lead of the show.” And as you go along it’s like no, it’s a show made up of lead characters. When you guys were developing this as a new version of Voltron, how did you kind of want to get the characters to where they’re your version of these characters?

JDS: Sort of the starting point was looking at the original show and realizing that it was just a bunch of hero guy characters, and maybe stepping back from that a little bit and looking as to how we could individualize these guys. Really giving them, I think in Lance’s case, it’s almost like an amplified version of elements he had in the original show.

LM: I think we had pretty good ideas of what we wanted to do with some of the characters. Keith we kinda knew we wanted to be more quiet, more moody. Lance was kind of the cocky loud guy. Pidge was the awkward but focused girl. And then there was Hunk and Shiro, and we weren’t quite sure. We knew Shiro needed to be a leader guy. We weren’t quite sure what to do about Hunk and then the writers came in and just gave him this incredible personality that’s unique to him and fun and warm and probably one of the most relatable guys.

JDS: Yeah I think so. He’s the one that’s sort of become the voice of the show to say-

LM: The voice of reason.

JDS: This is insane. This is all complete insanity.

LM: While Pidge and Lance are just so focused on, “Let’s check this out,” but he’s like, “Are you nuts?”

JDS: If this were Scream or a horror movie, he’s the guy that says, “Don’t open the door! If you open the door, don’t go upstairs!”

LM: Pidge and Lance, they’re definitely going upstairs.

JDS: This scene also helped set up Shiro’s mythology within their group. As a viewer, you’re not really sure where this guy stands. Once you hear them talk about Shiro, you realize, oh he’s got this kind of higher stature.

LM: And we also drop a few little hints of Pidge looking for her family without flat out saying that she’s definitely interested in what happened to the other astronauts. That was something we needed to keep consistent throughout to really sell her story down the line.

LM: And Hunk, the voice of reason.

JDS: There you go.

LM: There he is. This is always a funny moment here, where he’s just like, “We just need to OH MY GOSH.”

JDS: I remember we laughed heartily at the actors acting this sequence out.

LM: For sure.

JDS: Here we go. Boom boom boom!

LM: And that was a Tyler adlib. “Oh my god, they got here so fast!” That was incredible. Tyler brings a lot to Hunk. He always kinda goes off the script, makes sure he’s getting what we need, but he gives some of that Hunk personality which is really a huge part of what makes Hunk Hunk.

JDS: A lot of the actors, we want to sort of work in the situation where they can bring themselves to the characters. A lot of the stuff that traditionally in animation people sort of say “don’t do that” because you have to animate these extra lip flaps that aren’t part of the dialogue, we encourage it because it brings so much personality to the character.

LM: We don’t encourage beating up doctors, as Keith as demonstrated.

JDS: Hey, he had to get his buddy off the table, man. These were not doctors, these were science soldier doctor men.

LM: Military doctors. Don’t beat them up kids. It’s a bad idea. Unless you’re Keith.

JDS: Unless you’re Keith. Unless you’ve got a jacket that only comes up to your ribcage.

KA: It’s a bandalero jacket or something.

JDS: Yeah? Is that thing? Where it goes a little high.

KA: Like a matador used to wear.

JDS: Oh, that’s true!

LM: Squall from Final Fantasy VIII jacket. That’s all I know.

JDS: I like that point of reference.

LM” That’s what every cropped jacket is. You’re pulling a Squall.

JDS: This was also an interesting situation where you sort of get these guys coming together organically. Obviously Keith and Lance had some awareness of each other, but Shiro’s sort of the common thread between all of these characters really. But up to this point, I think if you’re playing in a traditional storytelling sense for kids’ action adventure on TV and on Netflix - maybe not on Netflix, but definitely on more traditional TV - the guys would’ve been in the lions already and been off and Voltron-ing around. And right now, we’ve got a passed out leader of the group being held on by the smallest of the group while they all freak out on the back of a bike. It’s an interesting way to kind of get them all-

LM: And one thing that we found out sadly from MIR too late in the game.

KA: Mir is Studio MIR.

JDS: Studio MIR, yes.

LM: Yes. They do all of our animation in South Korea. Incredible partners. And they tell us, hey guys, it’s not easy to draw 2D characters on a CG object. That’s hard. And we said, “Okay, we’re not going to do that except we’ve got this one scene, five characters on the back of an object. We’re very sorry.” So we’ve gone to great lengths throughout the show to make sure we keep it sustainable for MIR and we try not to do that.

JDS: We just had to break the rule right out the gate.

KA: Yeah of course.

LM: This is a lovely scene.

JDS: You get that sort of throwback to life before they were on this big adventure together. And this is Keith’s crazy board.

LM: Yeah, crazy board. This scene was a fun one. Joaquim got to reboard this like 20 times. It  started out just with a much longer explanation that probably made a little more sense of Keith finding all these symbols and leading him to the Blue Lion, but in the interest of time and kids apparently not getting bored watching the scene, it had to get severely trimmed down. So now it's like, “Oh I’ve got a feeling.” And there’s a blue lion.

JDS: We literally had to just go with the idea of like, you get. He’s got the board. He’s been thinking about this. Now they gotta get on the adventure.

LM: They gotta move.

JDS: It did at one point have a very thorough and well thought out explanation.

LM: Apparently thought out explanations put kids to sleep.

JDS: Sleepy time.

KA: Especially with what you’re saying, traditionally they’d already be in the lion by now. This is however many minutes we’re into it and they’re just finding out about the lions, or we’re just finding out.

JDS: Yeah, it’s just these vague sort of prophetic elements that are out there. That was kind of our mandate, even seeing Voltron. We didn’t want to do the thing where Voltron shows up every episode. Once the show got going, we wanted the Voltron moments to feel special. As the show went on you sort of come to realize, Voltron’s going to show up and kick a whole bunch of butt because that’s what he’s there to do. But we wanted to really have a good balance of lion action, and paladin action, and Voltron action.

LM: We really wanted to sell that Voltron was not the only way to save the day. Ultimately it’s these pilots coming together, and whether they do it on their own or with their lions or with Voltron, it just happens.

KA: That’s right.

JDS: This was an element again, this graph lines up to this rocks. We never really go back to explain how that all work, but hot dog! It was a good transition guys.

LM: You just need that visual because apparently kids don’t want to research Fraunhofer lines. I dont know, some kids do. I’m sure there are definitely some kids out there who are like, hell yeah! Fraunhofer lines!

JDS: Was Fraunhofer like, man I’m in this desert and this rock looks really cool. Let me-

LM: Make a line for it.

JDS: Yeah, who knows. These elements tend to line up.

KA: All I have is graph paper.

LM: So here we will see one of the first appearances of the B.Jamin symbol.

JDS: Yeah the Kaltenecker symbol.

LM: Benjamin Kaltenecker, our line producer.

JDS: Is it in the lower right once everything lights up?

LM: It’s in the big truck, when things start lighting up. Pause it, you’ll see it. Oh there it is! Upper right!

JDS: Upper right. That’s the same signal you see on Kaltenecker the cow’s behind, the branding symbol. And that’s a symbol that our line producer Benjamin Kaltenecker had come up with for himself, much like Prince. When we first started working with each other, that thing was drawn on everything. Any meeting we’re in it still is.

LM: Still, today, to this day it’s still drawn on everything. If you’re in a meeting and he’s got pencil and he’s got paper, he’s usually scribbling this symbol.

JDS: So if you ever want to get in good with Benjamin Kaltenecker, give him a symbol of himself.

LM: His own symbol. He’ll love it. Or just give him a cow.

LM: So this was fun. The breakdown of this episode was, I had done essentially act one, Joaquim had done act two, and we’re into Ryu Ki-Hyun’s section. He is our supervising producer and just master of-.

JDS: Master animator, master storyboard artist.

LM: Just drawer. Good at drawer.

JDS: Master drawer.

LM: We’re about to see a little vision of Voltron, and that really was kinda what you were alluding to. “Hey, we’ve got this show, and we haven’t even seen Voltron yet.” Well, they wanted to see Voltron, and here he is! We were able to talk them down off the, “I don’t know if we can get everyone in the lions and forming Voltron in the first episode, that might feel a little rushed?” “Okay, well we need to see him somewhere.”

JDS: And they can all mentally experience Voltron at the same time, so that was our cheat.

LM: Yeah, for sure. He’ll be there. And he’ll have a sweet flaming sword.

KA: There was the logo at the front.

JDS: There is the logo at the front. You get plenty of that.

LM: That’s true, so technically, Voltron is in every episode.

KA: THat’s right.

LM: It was just a lot of fun to play with. As awesome as it is to have a crazy giant robot lion, it’s freaking frightening. And so the fact that they encounter it and it’s starts moving and they’re freaking out, to me, that’s a pretty real reaction. I’d be out of that. I wouldn’t have even gone into the cave.

JDS: Yeah, the cave would have been a non-starter for me.

LM: I’m not made or that sort of stuff. But the second that lion started moving, I would’ve gone.

JDS: Hunk, voice of reason, cat face. Classic Ryu right there. And this was us sort of trying to, again, almost level up from the previous series, where you get this sort of mental connection between the pilot and the lion. So that was the first indication that Lance was sort of experiencing something that the other guys weren’t. His bond was already beginning with the Blue Lion.

LM: Here you just get the all out lion fun sequence. It’s been underground for 10,000 years and now it’s just letting loose. It’s part Lance, but honestly I think it’s mostly lion just being happy it’s out of that cave. If we were to have gone super realistic with this show, we would’ve been like, they can’t be this good this fast. But you also have to sell the fact that it’s frigging awesome to be in one of these lions.

JDS: And the lion’s piloting it as much at this point as Lance is. But Lance is still taking credit.

LM: Yeah. Of course. That’s what Lance does.

JDS: And this was also, that sequence you just saw when they busted out of the cave and them flying, it ended right about here. But this was the sequence we used to kind of pitch the show to all the executives internally. That includes Jeffrey Katzenberg, who’s the biggest of them all at the time. I remember being in a meeting and sort of looking out the corner of my eye as this scene played. Is he reacting to this? Is he reacting to this? Please react to this. Please react to this. It seemed to all go well because show got made and that sequence stayed.

LM: Show got made.

KA: Now they’re in space.

JDS: And now they’re in space.

LM: That’s not the end folks because there’s the bad guys. Natural reaction. It’s not enough that they’re in a robot lion, but now there’s a crazy alien ship in front of them.

JDS: And again, we’re cramming a lot of information into a short amount of time, but sort of given the parameters of kids’ TV, it took a long time for them to get into a lion. Now we’re just on the ride.

LM: You gotta get that information out.

JDS: You gotta get it out there!

LM: Again, here Lance is giving it his all, but I think a lot of this is actually Blue Lion helping them out and saving their butts. But also showing that this is an incredibly maneuverable vehicle that they’re in. Crazy fast. Unlike any space ships that certainly Earth has ever seen. And even still at 10,000 years old, far more than anything that the Galra have.

JDS: That’s right. It’s using claws, it’s using beams, it’s doing it all.

LM: And it’s kind of got a brain. It’s very own sentience.

JDS: That was also the place we first came to the realization that we will never try to explain how the mechanics of the controls work, which drove our VR people absolutely insane. They were like, what does each one of the joystick moments means? We’re like, we don’t know! Because sometimes you push it forward and a laser comes out.

LM: It means go. It means shoot. It means stop. It means barrel roll.

JDS: It means whatever needs to happen or the scene looking as cool as possible.

LM: It means look cool and stuff happens.

KA: That’s another thing. For the people who make the Altean dictionary, they can figure out what each-

JDS: What each button does, exactly.

LM: Here’s the wormhole that’s going to determine the rest of their lives. There have been a lot of fan theories for where this wormhole came from. I’m going to blow them all out of the water right now and tell you.

JDS: Do it.

LM: It’s from the castle. The castle, which when it stores a decent amount of Allura’s energy, it can create wormholes. And this lion, coming back awake, finding a pilot, has sent a message back to the castle. And the castle, having access to Allura because she’s on the castle in a cryopod, has used some of her energy to create this wormhole and bring that lion straight back to it. Bring that lion home.

JDS: Bam. So yeah.

LM: Sorry, no Altean Lance, as of yet. Wink wink.

JDS: Wink wink.

JDS: So this is our sort big Altea reveal.

LM: This is actually the last shot of episode 1. This next shot begins episode 2, and that was directed by Eugene Lee, a very talented young man who we worked with for the first time on Legend of Korra and were blown away by his talent and then immediately decided we could never let him go.

JDS: Yes, he’s currently locked up with a chain to his leg to this desk, storyboarding and directing furiously.

LM: So yeah, good times. Always. More typical Keith and Lance banter.

JDS: Yeah, I think was where we really sort of, if the scene between him and Lance trying to rescue Shiro sort of kicked it off, this is where the feud continues. I think we started realizing this is going to be a theme throughout.

KA: Since we’re getting into the episode now, how did you guys come to make this show? Obviously you’re both big fans of the original show. How did this project land with you?

LM: Before we go into that, I just want to point out my favorite fart joke of the entire series. We don’t do a lot of fart jokes but we had to put one in there right up front.

JDS: The fart foley on that one was on point because it was a squeaker.

LM: And there have been some complaints about the fart joke but I stand firmly behind that fart joke because that is legit. A 17 year old dude would absolutely do that ot his friends. I believe that it is in character for Lance, 100%.

JDS: A 40 year old dude, possibly named Joaquim, might still do that to his friends.

LM: My husband would laugh. If any of his friends did that, or if he did that to his friends, he would be cracking up. He’s not 17, but he’s about that maturity level. Anyway, back to-

JDS: Yeah, so how this started. Dreamworks purchased this insane library of properties called Classic Media LIbrary. You know, Richie Rich, Lone Ranger, and all these other properties were kinda bundled up in this Classic Media Library. Voltron was right in there. Lauren and I were both working at Nickelodeon at the time. We had heard about this purchase. Dreamworks TV was just getting off the ground. We heard Voltron was potentially a part of that, and we were super excited as fans of the original series, so we had some lunches about how we could do some cool stuff with this. Just started batting around ideas.

LM: But it was kinda like a pipe dream at the time. I remember standing in your office at Korra. You just read the news thing that Dreamworks had acquired, uh.

JDS: Classic Media Library.

LM: Thats the one. And you welike, that’s Voltron. I was like, “Oh my God. We could make such a good Voltron.” And I immediately went sour and was like, “They’re just going to hire some hack and it’s going to be awful.” Like, straight from positivity to “no, nothing can ever happen well.” It just seemed so out of reach. It just so happened that Mark Taylor, from Nickelodeon, who was very familiar with Joaquim from his work on Legend of Korra and Avatar the Last Airbender, brought him over to talk.

JDS: And Lauren as well. Well familiar with Lauren’s work as well.

LM: Eh, a little bit. But yeah. Ultimately we were able to pitch ourselves for Voltron. And it seemed like they kinda had the same idea, and that’s what they were meeting with us about anyway. It lined up. We had to go through a few interview. We met with Margie, with Petere, with Ian, a number of people in the development process. We were nice so they were like, “Alright, they’re nice.”

JDS: I think they also recognized that we were actual people who grew up with this in their lives at a much younger stage of our lives.

LM: I just think they thought we were nice.

JDS: Okay, sure.

KA: Is that how it works?

JDS: If you’re just nice, you get to run a show! That’s sorta how it came to be.

LM: I’d like to point out a retake we didn’t call. Allura, the screen left side of her dress, gets cut off. Sometimes we miss them, guys.

JDS: There you go. We miss the retakes.

LM: Who knows.

JDS: We brought Tim Hedrick on board and originally, sort of internally between the three of us, had pitched around ideas. This show, originally, just so you know, our original pitch for it was it starts on Earth, post-apocalyptic Earth. The Galra have taken over, looking for the Blue Lion. So the Blue Lion was hidden somewhere on Earth, as it is in this version, but the Galra had already shown up for years and had been laying waste to the land. So it was a little different. Keith, from the get-go, we were thinking he was going to be half-Galra. Spoiler alert, sorry.

LM: I would like to point out Lance’s “Karate Kid” kick right there.

JDS: And this is the best move Coran has ever had.

LM: It’s a crew favorite, I think. Christine Bian, Christie Tseng, and Anthony the design supervisor all very much enjoy it.

KA: I’ve tried to fight somebody like that. I did.

LM: It’s really successful.

JDS: The sternum poke.

LM: Funny thing about Zarkon. We did the first couple episodes with him in a certain color scheme and then at some point had second thoughts, like “We don’t like this color scheme. Can we change it?” And MIR was like, “You can change it from this episode on.” And so I think, it was four or five-

JDS: And we just never said anything.

LM: I haven’t seen anyone bring it up. I’m sure someone has but.

JDS: I like to think it’s because when we first catch up with Zarkon he was like “I haven’t seen a lion in a really long time.” And then he was wearing his sad clothes. And then he put on his motivated clothes because the lion showed up and he was ready to go.

LM: He gets a color change somewhere in there.

KA: Zarkon has fat pants just like we all do.

JDS: Exactly.

LM: And Zarkon has pupils for one shot.

JDS: The little flashback scene. That’s non sequitur.

LM: I think that was just, because we went back and forth. “Does Zarkon have pupils? Does he not?”

JDS: That was a direct drawing taken from Ryu that Ryu had done, and Ryu was like, “Hey man, I’m putting pupils in there.” Like, cool, man. Do it.

LM: Sometimes Ryu is a bit of a wild card. But 90% of the time you get magnificence so you accept the risk.

JDS: You get the pupils.

KA: Well Zarkon certainly looks a lot different than he did in the original show.

LM: There was a funny set of circumstances that led to that. We originally had a different design for Zarkon that I think looked more like the original.

JDS: Within reason. The original, I mean, if you look at him.

LM: Not exactly like the original.

JDS: He had elements.

KA: He looks like the king of the starfish.

LM: Like Sendak harkens to Yorak, our Zarkon harkened back to the original Zarkon a little bit more. But then we ended up, a few things shifted around. We were potentially going to have Hasbro as our toy partner for a little while. And they, as you know, handle all the Marvel stuff for Disney Marvel. There was concern that he- you know what, he had the lines in the chin, which as you know Thanos has.

JDS: He had the lines in his chin. He looked a lot like Thanos.

LM: He had a lot of gold, he was purple, and he had some lines. So it was like, “He looks too much like Thanos.” And we were like, “Oh.” We had to go back and kinda-

JDS: Reorganize his color scheme.

LM: Yeah, explore him a little bit more and just rethink him. That ended up with him looking quite a bit different than the original. Just for the sake of needed to differentiate him from other properties.

JDS: And you know, it’s all good.

LM: We’ll play ball.

JDS: We didn’t take a hard line stance.

LM: “No! He has to be purple and fuzzy!”

JDS: “Or we walk.” We’re like, “No, we’ll change his colors, it’s cool.”

KA: “His entire character is based around the lines of his chin.”

JDS: Haha that’s right. So this is the first appearance of food good. Kinda looks like a weird green brain right there.

LM: It does.

JDS: Ugh. He still goes at it though. Can’t deny that.

LM: He’s lost all the contents of his stomach. I can’t blame him.

JDS: So to me that’s a good example of some good, like Eugene likes to put humor that happens in the background that you don’t really notice sometimes. So Hunk getting sick there and going back for more.

LM: He sticks his little tongue out like, “Ugh that doesn’t taste great. Well, I need the sustenance.”

LM: And the space mice. There was a lot of debate about, do you bring the space mice back, do you not from the execs. “Do we want the space mice, they’re corny.” And I was like, we’re having the space mice.

JDS: There’s no way we’re not doing the space mice.

LM: I mean we came from Avatar and Korra, where they all had little pets. As long as you handle them the right way. Maybe they’re not doing can-cans with frilly skirts-

JDS: Yet.

LM: Well I’m not taking anything off the table right now, the show is not over. But yeah, there was never an option of not having space mice.

LM: And here we go. These are classic Ryu drawings here. Funny little Hunk acting.

JDS: Here we go. The mission begins proper.

KA: So this is a question I’ve had since I started watching the show. And just looking at that shot of Shiro, does he have a scar on his face?

JDS: He does.

KA: Okay. I thought it was a sunburn...

LM: My niece asked, “Why does he have a stripe on his face?”

JDS: Because he’s part tiger man.

LM: It’s a boo boo.

KA: He hurt himself.

LM: Joaquim has his necessarily elements.

JDS: Don’t say it Lauren.

LM: The mysterious past, the facial scar, and robotic arm.

JDS: I mean, those are staples of just awesomeness.

LM: You always get the scar across the eye. That’s kind of the go to. And we’re like, we don’t want to do that. We’re doing that with every other character! Zarkon, Sendak probably has one. So what does Shiro have? The nose.

JDS: I think that was a Ryu or Christie Tseng doing that. I had done the more traditional one in one of my pieces of concept art.

LM: It was Ryu for sure.

JDS: And then Ryu did the one across the nose like, that’s pretty cool. That’s unique.

LM: He just got a sword right across the face.

JDS: That’s right. LM: Here’s Allura doing her minority report.

JDS: We also didn’t come to that realization by the way about the arm and the scar and the mysterious past.

LM: Until much later. I think it’s just embedded in you.

JDS: I was doing some Cable fanart and I was like, hmm Cable. Scar, mysterious past, robot arm. Winter Soldier. Mysterious past, robot arm. No facial scar.

LM: Give it time.

JDS: And then I was like, Solid Snake? Uh oh. Big Boss? Uh oh.

KA: All the coolest people.

LM: It’s all good. We’re not trying to say that everything here is 100% original. It’s based off an old show that we watched as a kid, so we just put everything we love in it.

JDS: And sometimes things just happen. It was the dumbest thing, but as we were pitching the characters and their origins, Shiro had the past where he was in this gladiatorial games, and I was like, hey would you give him a robot arm. There was no real character motivation, can he just have a robot arm. I wanted to give him a Nintendo power glove.

LM: That was all it was. It was purely for the looks. I mean it works with his past, of course.

KA: It shows that he’s vulnerable and yet also super badass.

JDS: And it ends up playing a bigger part because you realize that there were elements that the Galra saw as potential.

LM: Here again is Voltron. He’s in the episode. They haven’t formed him yet, but he is in the episode. I think there was a “one Voltron per episode” mandate at this point. We can’t go too long without the kids seeing Voltron!

JDS: And by the way, at this point, we’re getting some exec heart attack emails going, “Guys, where’s the robot? What’s going on”

LM: Originally we had wanted to give a solo episode to each lion. If we could get, six episodes in and then you form Voltron. And they were like what?

JDS: You are crazy.

LM: Six, so halfway through the season and you haven’t seen the robot yet? We managed to compromise and so not in the first episode but also not in the sixth. We hit it at three. We were able to tack a lot of the lions. We found one in 1, a few in 2, and then Red and Black and 3? And we were good.

JDS: That’s right. Originally each lion was going to get their own episode.  We were going to get to follow the big adventures.

LM: We had a lot of lofty ideas.

JDS:Looking back at it now, that’s a little crazy. That’s a little nuts. This show is called Voltron. It would’ve been neat at the same time.

KA: Not Lion Hunters.

JDS: That’s right.

LM: You just gotta keep your audience in mind. If it’s like, we’re making Voltron for adults, you can probably get away with that. But apparently, Voltron is for children.

JDS: But a lot of adults do watch.

LM: No, absolutely. I’m just joking.

KA: I have a bunch of friends who are well older than me who are always talking about theories.

LM: That was our goal. We knew ultimately what needed to be delivered through the show, but we know what we wanted to bring to it as well. We didn’t just want to do the fight fight fight, robots punch, keep kids entertained show. We wanted to do a show that had a legit story and was also entertaining.

JDS: And had characters that you could get behind and root for. And the sloth guy.

LM: Hey, breakaway fan favorite. And the Pokemon little cutesy things? I think there were jokes of them gettingmurder eyes, but they stayed happy and sweet. If Pidge and Shiro stayed on this planet any longer, they would’ve been devoured. That’s why the sloth is in the canoe. If he goes onto land-

JDS: Those little things turn into carnivorous crazies. So this was always funny, that Shiro and Pidge are having the most relaxed experience finding the Green Lion and then you immediately cut to Lance and Hunk and they are freaking out.

LM: That was a lot of fun Just cutting back and forth between those two situations.

JDS: I think that was Tim Hedrick sort of “yeah, we’re sort of ping ponging between madness and serenity.”

LM: It could’ve so easily been both lions get an action sequence, but this is so much fun. And plus Pidge gets this really sweet bonding moment with Shiro, where she’s kinda remembering her dad.

JDS: And this is my favorite. This is the best.

LM: This is incredible. When Lance just shoots him out of the lion, like, “You’re going!”

JDS: This is the one time we’ve seen the eject button and we’ve never acknowledged that hatchagain.

LM: The slo-mo of him tumbling. Oh, this all makes me so happy.

JDS: The hatch served its purpose. We gotta use the hatch eventually. Someone’s gotta get ejected.

LM: It’ll be from the Blue Lion playset. Press the hatch and just shoot Hunk out.

KA: The Hunk you can fold up into a ball.

LM: Here you see some of the first workings of Hunk being a mechanical genius. Hotwires an alien elevator, just recognizes those wires, because hey, it’s intuitive.

JDS: I think he made a comment about that. “Just drop me off on the planet, etc.”

LM: No for sure. But he does it because he’s awesome, and he’s Hunk.

JDS: I remember Tyler cracking up at this. He was like, “What do you want me to say here? Ooh pretty?”

LM: So there were a lot of “whoas” in this first episode. I feel like we could have a “whoa” counter and it would go up pretty high because there’s a lot, especially with seeing a lion for the first time, seeing the castle for the first time. Just whoa. At a certain point they’re like, “You want another whoa. You want whoa again?” Poor Jeremy and Tyler probably got the worst of it, the most of the “whoa.”

JDS: At some point we just said, go full Keanu. Just whoa it up.

LM: Just accept it and love it.

JDS So this is also cool, seeing the lion do things like grab the Galra fighter in its mouth and crunch it up. That’s, I think, the fun of these robots.

LM: Lance is clearly getting better at handling the lion. Becoming a better pilot, becoming more familiar. But here’s the moment of him going, oh my god, is Hunk dead? We don’t know. Of course he’s not dead, we wouldn’t have a show.

JDS: I remember being uncomfortable with that cut at first because I was like, and then we’re just going to cut to serenity? But it totally works. And we also set up this beautiful moment here.

LM:There they are, waiting to eat them. The second you get off the canoe.

JDS: They’re just allergic to water.

LM: They can’t swim. That’s the problem. But yeah. Here’s the moment where Shiro is mentioning what his commander said. Pidge knows that that’s her dad, but we don’t necessarily know that yet.

JDS: Shiro’s not realizing it.

LM: And so it kinda warms her heart to hear him say something to her that she’s heard many times from her dad.

KA: And at this point of course, we don’t necessarily know that.

JDS: We don’t.

LM: That’s one of those “go back and look for it” things. Wink wink.

JDS: Which was sort of a benefit of being on Netflix was that they encouraged that element of storytelling.

LM: The Green Lion reveal is one of my favorites just because it looks so cool. And because I love Pidge.

JDS: And she’s genuinely enjoying the moment.

LM: This was fun in editing and in ADR, because as Pidge pulls herself up here, we had Jeff Adams, our editor, cycle her heavy breathing.

JDS: That’s right. Because it was just one at first.

LM: She’s gotta be more winded, man. She’s spent a lot of time in front of a computer!

JDS: So that was Jeff going back forward, back forward, back forward, back forward.

LM: Pidge gets winded, much like I would.

JDS: She’s not an athlete.

LM: Hey man, if I had to climb that, I’d be over.

JDS: Alien Machu Pichu.

LM: And there it is. Super awesome looking Green Lion.

JDS: And Shiro not quite looking like Shiro, but still looks pretty satisfying.

LM: We’ll accept it. It’s always interesting in the first few episodes as the animators are getting a feel for these characters. You can see some of their drawings have changed over time. As the team gets more familiar with the character, they start to draw them better. But hey! Everything’s gotta start somewhere.

JDS: The show looks obviously fantastic, but it is interesting to see specifically with TV animation, where you have so many episodes, you can watch the evolution of artists becoming comfortable with the style.

LM: Here the amazing reveal of the Yellow Lion and the belly flop. Still badass, most badass belly flop ever. But also just kind of a fun little nod. “I was just rying to get out of the way, but this has got great armor.” Just kinda differentiating some of the lions. We discussed that some lions were faster than others, some were more armor plated. Giving each of them their specialty. Yellow might be slower but can sure withstand a whole lot of hits.

JDS: This just cracks me up. He’s just spinning, like, not this again.

LM: But again, Lance has been flying his lion for a while. Hunk hasn’t, so he’s a little more shaky and is thrown off by some Galra fire.

KA: Do you guys remember, I had a hand me down Voltron toy, like the building put together lions. And I remember them being similar with the exception of the Black Lion. And you guys, I’ve always liked right away that you differentiate not only the personality of the lions but literal. The Yellow Lion is bigger and bulkier and has a different set of skills.

JDS: That was our pitch. We had to make a circuit with all the different executive levels from the company. Initially, one of our boards was comparing what each lion was to a car. So we had a board where the Blue Lion is a sports car, like a Charger or a Mustang.

LM: Was it like a pick up truck? I can’t remember.

JDS: The Blue Lion? No, because I remember, I think Yellow Lion was construction.

LM: Yellow Lion was construction. I think the Blue Lion might have been pick up truck. I think the Black Lion was a Charger. Red Lion was something super fast like a Ferrari or a Porsche. The Green Lion was a bug, it was so cute I loved it.

LM: It was a ways back, but one of my favorite Coran jokes is the good news, bad news. “Good news is, it’s right outside of Arus! Bad news is….” Well I can’t remember my own joke but it was funny.

JDS: Oh here we go.

LM: The particle barrier joke.

JDS: The particle barrier was one where we were like, wow we’re pushing the limits here.

LM: You can do it because Shiro clearly calls him on it. You can’t let him finish that joke because then you’re just a-holes.

JDS: This is what I like too, is that Hunk is literally, “Can we just bail out of this situation now? I’m still not accepting my fate as a hero just yet. This is a good idea, we can just try jamming them up together and get out of here through the wormhole.”

LM: Starting with Sendak’s transmission is where we go into episode 3. This is where Steven Ahn, director Steve Ahn takes over. You can really tell his voice in his episode. You even see some of his drawings. That whole Hunk snake arms, the little snake worm lion is all Steve. Even these Lance faces, those Allura and Coran faces-

JDS: That Lance posture, that’s Steve.

LM: It’s all super STeve Ahn and it’s incredible. He has a very unique voice and that’s why we love him.

JDS: I think that’s one of the other interesting things about working on a series. As people become more familiar with the episodes, even if were to not have the credit roll in the beginning, you’d probably be able to tell everybody’s episode, every director’s episode from the other because they bring their own unique voice. We try to make it feel cohesive but at the same time we want every directo to have their own unique take on storytelling.

LM: Here is good ol’ King Alfor. He’s also a little bit of a nod to the original with his hologram and his guiding Allura. That was definitely something I remember. I think it was in one of the VOltron episodes where she’s like, I have to go pray. And she runs down and prays to her father. Something kind of hilarious happens where he told her, I can’t even remember what he told her but he told her something super vague like “pray” and all of a sudden the whole castle turns into this massive fortress.

JDS: Is that how it works? You just pray to the hologram?

LM: It was something kinda crazy, but hey.

JDS: There was also the element here, and we address it in a later episode, I think your favorite episode Lauren, where we ran the risk of a Alfor AI or hologram being a fix all for a lot of stuff, so at some point we realized we have to do away with this guy.

LM: For sure. Tim, our story editor, he was very much like “you guys, we can’t have this guy around. He’s going to ruin our story.”

JDS: We kept going into these meetings going like, why? And he sort of broke it down. “Alright, say this happens. Why wouldn’t Alfor just give the solution to this?” We’re like, that’s pretty bad, yeah.

LM: We exited him in the most beautiful way possible, as you will see in episode I have no idea what number it is on Netflix.

JDS: That one. For us it’s a whole different series of numbers.

LM: Was it 11?

JDS: I think it was.

LM: I could be wrong.

JDS: Just because we looked at these all as individual episode, so you jammed the first three together.

LM: 11-2 is 9. Episode 9 on Netflix.

LM: So here is their amazing outfits. The thing with their outfits is, we had not yet fully designed the original paladins. And these aren’t even the same outfits, so in our heads we’re like yeah, the castleship has created new outfits for these paladins. But they’re just one size fits all. You put it on and it just adheres to you.

JDS: Just contours to your body.

LM: You get this funny size joke which could essentially work for Pidge as well, where Hunk is like,I’m not going to fit into that. Neither is Pidge, technically. But luckily it all works, everybody fits.

JDS: Coming up with concepts for the costumes was a little tough because obviously you have the iconic original series. Originally, when we first started tackling them, we were paying way more homage to them. They were pretty much in spandex.

LM: I was literally just drawing the original series. I was like, what’s wrong with this, guys? Hey, it’s classic.

JDS: As we went and pitched the visuals to the different exec tiers, they were like, “So they’re just wearing spandex?” We’re like, what’s wrong with that?

LM: Not a lot of love for spandex.

JDS: Not a ton. So we wanted to do some armor that was kinda form-fitting.

LM: The one thing that we didn’t want to do, which I think maybe some of the toy side would’ve liked us to have done more, was like a bigger armor. More of like a Halo type interpretation.

JDS: Like a power suit.

LM: But that was something that we didn’t feel comfortable with. Because they’re not out there, they’re not infantry, they’re piloting lions. We just wanted something that was a little more fitted and allowed you to see the character through it a bit more.

JDS: And fun! Oh man, I see another retake. I can’t look at it.

LM: Don’t do it.

JDS: You can see right through Lance’s helmet there, oh lord.

LM: Oh gosh. You realize it’s not the face mask, right?

JDS: No I get it. It was under his chin. That’s where it should’ve been wrapping around.

LM: Ah it’s alright. Well no, it doesn’t wrap all the way around.

JDS: I know. It was just too much, you didn’t see chin.

LM: It was a retake, guys. We’re going to debate it for the rest of this episode.

JDS: But yeah. They wanted to, I say “they,” there was discussion as you’re developing that happens where you need to explore every element, but one thing we didn’t want to do was get too aggressive looking with a lot of stuff. We wanted to keep that fun, sort of campy element from the original. As much as I love Halo, as much as I love space marines, Aliens is literally my favorite film of all time - this wasn’t the appropriate venue for that aesthetic.

LM: Those designs are great for the things that they’re in. Halo looks awesome for Halo. But putting that in this show just didn’t really work.

JDS: It didn’t fit.

LM: We looked at Stormtroopers for a light armor. Here’s some armor plating on essentially what is a spandex outfit. It was a compromise, meet in the middle. Little bit of armor, little bit of spandex. Everybody’s happen.

JDS: But definitely don’t cover your bellies with armor, because you gotta show them abs.

LM: You gotta keep cool. You gotta keep your core cool.

KA: You also got to be able to move backward and forward.

JDS: Without crunching around.

LM: I saw a Keith’s belt retake. Hey guys, we’re going to call them live.

JDS: Oh boy. We’re just going to call them now. This is how it happens.

LM: But here’s our first starting to realize. Pidge is about to reveal that it’s her family.

JDS: By the way, brutal Shiro here, saying hey, sacrifices.

LM: Hey, if anyone’s seen the most war, it’s Shiro.

JDS: That’s right. He understands the hard decisions.

LM: He isn’t wrong, but ultimately he hears her plea and he softens to it. And Commander Holt, he loved him too.

KA: We’re setting up Pidge’s whole arc. Everything we’ve seen up to this point as we’re recording, it’s all been leading toward what’’s set up right here.

JDS: And there’s sort of the first glimpse of Keith not feeling capable of doing the job and Shiro starting to reassure him saying, “You can do it, buddy.”

LM: I feel like we had more “patience yields focus” in there.

JDS: We did.

LM: We had a few earlier moments. But as we go through the episode and have to cut it down in time, certain moments have to go and I think there were a couple Shiro and Keith moments that ended up getting the axe.

JDS: There were two earlier ones.

LM: I think that was the first time he “patience yields focus”-d Keith.

JDS: Not the last.

LM: Not the last. That crazy effect, not the shield effect but the almost warping inside the shield effect, is actually a mistake but it was a happy accident. Jeff Adams has this tweener. Sometimes we want to make shots longer, and so he’ll lengthen them and then he runs this tweener which smooths everything together and almost adds in-betweens. SOmetimes some of the in-betweens don’t react well and stuff gets wonk-a-doodle.

JDS: If there’s too much complex elements, this is getting technical, but if there’s too many complex elements sort of animating over themselves, it’ll look like they’re going through a weird time distortion. But in a case like that, when the shield is supposed to get warbly, it looks awesome.

LM: Before it was just fading on and off, but now it had a crazy distortion effect where were like that looks awesome, leave it! Happy accident.

KA: He’s like, I totally meant for that.

LM: So this is interesting because you get this moment of Keith, originally he had seen this Galra symbol, and he thought it was familiar.

JDS: He did.

LM: We knew from day 1 that we wanted Keith to be half Galra and that he was going to have this knife, but what we didn’t know from day 1 was this Blade of Marmora aspect. And that was something that came about a little more organically, through the writing process and through the introduction of the Blade of Marmora, which was actually Tim and the writers’ idea, and we’re like, “That’s really awesome. Let’s do this.” And so that Galra symbol on his knife became a Blade of Marmora symbol.

JDS: Originally we were like, maybe the Galra symbol is going to be on his knife. Maybe he had some element to it, some tie to his childhood that he had kind of suppressed.

LM: Here’s Rover. Beloved, may he rest in peace. Spoilers guys, sorry I’m assuming you’ve watched the whole season at this point.

KA: It would be weird if you didn’t.

LM: I would strongly suggest.

KA: “I’m going to start with the commentaries.”

JDS: That’s right, I’m going to open up with the commentary.

LM: These are not spoiler free.

JDS: We love Paddelboard Head Alien.

LM: Oh God. I referred to him as Fraggle Rock. He reminds me of Mokey, the hippie lady Fraggle, except he has an eggy paddleboard on his head. We love a lot of those guys, a lot of these alien designs. MIR will just send their designs with crazy aliens and it’s always fun to see what they come up with.

JDS: The entire Bii-Boh-Bi lineage was created at MIR.

LM: Yeah it was just one random incidental, in the mall episode.

JDS: And we fell in love with that design. This is so outrageous and ridiculous, we can’t believe it.

LM: The writers wrote an entire episode around it.

JDS: I’ll say Steve Yeun does an amazing job of pleading with the lion. “Come on! I’m bonding with you!”

LM: That was hilarious. That was so much fun. It’s always fun. We do the records up front but when we get the animations in we always do some ADR recording, which is just doing it to picture, plussing some performances here and there, and adding a lot of the “oofs” and “ughs”.

JDS: Yeah it’s the stuff we can’t plan for ahead of time. We don’t know all the actions the characters are going to do when we go in to a script record, so the actors will do that to picture after the fact.

LM: It just so happened. None of us knew that Steven Yeun was going to be the ADR master. It makes sense.

JDS: It’s from his time on The Walking Dead, having to do all the action and zombie killing and stuff. He can literally do an entire run through multiple, multiple scenes where he’s just in real time matching the picture exactly.

LM: He’ll just watch it and he’ll do it. There are other actors where you’d have to do multiple cues all day long. He’s just like bam bam bam! He’s done. Oh my god, thank god Keith is one of the more action-y characters. It just makes it so much easier. We spend so much less time in the recording studio that way.

LM: Shiro’s freaking arm going nutty.

JDS: First time we see Shiro’s arm going crazy. One of the big gigantic inspirations for that was an animation called Mahoromatic, that has an opening sequence that’s kinda homage there where he first takes a knee and his hand starts glowing. The sequence stands totally separate from the rest of the series, but the sequence is amazing so I highly recommend it.

LM: I love that Hunk “break you stupid thing” line. Tyler’s delivery is so good. I feel like I’ve done that multiple times in my life. Like c’mon!

KA: I tried to open a bag of candy in my car yesterday, and it wouldn’t open. And I’m like, no, it’s a bag! So I get it.

LM: Pidge trying to do some com lingo with her Kitty Rose. The eagle has landed. Red Lion, Kitty Rose. That’s all it is. It’s nothing more than just Pidge being silly. For anyone who was looking for any deeper meaning, I’m sorry.

JDS: Kitty Rose is just, that’s all it is.

LM: That’s all it means.

LM: Not the greatest look for our lions there.

JDS: So we realized here that looking up at the lions often times doesn’t look the greatest because their necks are actually a little skinny by comparison. And usually, when you’re seeing them from other angles, their necks are sort of overtaken by the other elements of their body. When you see their necks kinda skinny, it’s like looking at a wet cat sometimes. You’re like, that’s what my cat looks like?

LM: Without its fur? Awesome reveal of the Black Lion. Piece by piece and then here he is. So the Black Lion, it was really fun to give him these huge wings. In the original show they just kinda folded up and were on his back. But we just thought, hey man, these aren’t earth lions by any means.

JDS: No. It’s like a gryphen kind of.

LM: Lets just make him more of a gryphen and give him legit wings, and that was awesome.

JDS: And honestly it sort of masks that he is bulkier by comparison. That was always something that didn’t sit well with me with the toys. The Black Lion, in the show, just kinda looked like a lion, and when you got the toy he had giant shoulders because he needed to become the centerpiece of everything. He still is bulkier than them but the wings help balance that out.

KA: Also it’s good for scale, because we’ve seen how big the lion is compared to the people, and then you see how big the Black Lion is compared to the other lions, and then how big Voltron is compared to everything else.

LM: And that is a completely different Sendak. Sendak jumps around a bit in his design. Sometimes he has kind of a weaker chin and sometimes he’s got the most massive Lantern chin. That guy’s crazy. But yeah, the Lions, that’s something that I don’t even think I realized when I was young, was that the lions had different sizes. I thought they were just all the same size. Going back and watching it over, it’s like, oh no. This was thought out. They had different sizes and that’s just a really cool quality that we wanted to keep, and because it just makes Voltron have better proportions. Because if they’re all the same size then that guy just looks nutty.

JDS: I gotta say I love that sort of fire effect on that wide shot as the shield gets overtaken by that blast.

LM: It’s like the snowglobe of fire.

LM: The nodding joke.

JDS: We obviously use that very anime, super sentai style split screen motif a lot. He’s sort of poking fun at the fact that nobody can see each other.

LM: It’s not like The Brady Bunch, where they’re all like looking at each other like hey, you’re up there, I’m down here!

LM: This was fun, just this idea of how do we form Voltron. We’ve seen him our visions, we saw him in the hologram. Now what? Just run in formation!

JDS: He just screams “combine” and then rams into the Red Lion. I mean, it seems like it would make sense.

LM: It’s not flawed logic, it just didn’t work.

JDS: This was just a testament to Tim and the writers’ writing, you’re taking this story element that, in a lot of other cases they would’ve just formed Voltron. They brought this whole other level of humanity and humor to it because they’re having a hard time, it’s a representation of them not working as a unit yet. But it’s also just hilarious to see them make these attempts, in the middle of a battle.

KA: That’s something I’ve always appreciated right from the get go of this show, is that they’re not good at stuff right away. When you get to when Allura takes over a lion, she’s not good at it either. I really enjoy that.

LM: This, Hunk now panicking. Legit I understand. I would panic too. I don’t know who that guy is.

JDS: That is a handsome devil right there.

KA: That’s a cat man.

LM: This Shiro speech was really cool. Josh did an amazing job delivering it. And the crazy thing was, when we ended up having to do ADR for this episode, Josh had just had that really bad laryngitis. Do you remember that?

JDS: That’s right, that’s right.

LM: So he was on vocal rest, the doctor was saying no exerting your voice. And that’s how he makes his money, that’s his profession.

JDS: For a voice actor is like-

LM: Very frightening for him, and understandable. So we were doing everything we could to make sure we were accommodating. But ultimately it comes down like, we need this big speech from Shiro. And we’re like, just don’t strain your voice, but try to give it as much importance as you can. But this moment gave us chills when we watched it.

JDS: Yeah. It’s tough, because often times Shiro has the lines that a lot of people would consider the cheesy hero lines. But Josh is so earnest. When he reads a script and then he’ll talk about it with us, I’m ready to approach it from like, I know, it’s a little - he really has a real breakdown on the character and understands where the character is coming from and appreciates Shiro’s position in the team.

LM: That transformation sequence, the first of many times that you’ll see it, that was boarded by one of our artists at MIR. Amazing talent.

JDS: You don’t realize it, maybe one of these days we can do a comparison between the storyboard and the final animation, but in a sequence like that we wanted to really sell how awesome it’s going to be so that was another one of those presentation pieces that gets sent around to all the executives and gets a whole slew of notes. But his rendering on the storyboard, you could almost air that. Because he’s an animator, so he basically animated the storyboard. It was incredible.

KA: Then it’s iconic now.

LM: Voltron wreaking havoc. This was one of those things were we just wanted to music to be, there’s the version where it’s action, action, action! But we wanted it to be almost inspirational. This is just the most amazing thing, they have so much power with this crazy robot. This ship just doesn’t stand a chance. And Joaquim Dos Santos special!

JDS: Big explosion while the guy stands in the foreground.

LM: Land in front of the explosion. But it looks awesome. And this was just a really cute wrap up. A lot of Steve Ahn drawings in here as well. And one of the, probably the most iconic shot in the show. All the paladins looking up at the camera.

JDS: This was one we called back to do extra special model drawing on by our character supervisor Christie Tseng. She really just nailed it when they all turn around and look up at the lions. That’s as on model as the show is ever going ot get.

JDS: And Coran going “again and again.”

LM: Always fun.

JDS: That always sounded like a little bit of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous kinda snuck into his-

KA: What’s his name, Robin Leach?

JDS: Robin Leach, yeah.

LM: Rhys, Rhys Darby. He was an amazing find. The character was written with him in mind. He was Tim’s first choice.

JDS: I’d never seen Flight of the Conchords.

LM: But loved it. And he’s amazing. I feel like he was the one person whose role was never in question.

JDS: That’s right.

LM: And he was just like, “And Rhys is Coran. That’s it.”

LM: Alright guys, look at these credits!

KA: We did it!

JDS: We did it.

LM: Rolling credits! We don’t get this very often.

JDS: We don’t. And you don’t get a credit that stays on screen, usually it gets thrown up to the top corner and you’re on to the next episode.

KA: That’s something we should tell you guys up front. We’re going to watch all the credits. Everyone deserves to be recognized. I always sit through the credits at a movie, so we’re going to sit through all of these credits.

LM: There’s nothing at the end though.

JDS: Appreciate that. But you also do realize just how many people it takes to make a show like this. Animation is a massive, massive undertaking.

KA: Absolutely. So going back, watching this first episode now, because since we’re so much further along in production now than what’s even been aired, so how is it watching it again? I’m sure you’ve watched it a million times now.

JDS: I mean you could hear us calling retakes still.

LM: Yeah it’s strange. I feel like even our color styling has evolved. There are some things where I’ll look at them in the lion and everything’s blue except their eyes are bright white, and I’m like, ugh hat’s weird. But that’s episode 1, baby, that’s how it goes. But yeah, I feel like we’ve gone through our paces and we’ve just kinda gotten our feet under us a little bit better.

JDS: We’ve tightened everything up.

KA: Alright. Well, thank you all for listening to our first episode. There’s going to be a lot more of these.

JDS: That’s right.

KA: How can people get a hold of you on the internet or on social media if they want to?

LM: I’m on the Twitter. I believe I am @artoflaurenm. And then I’m on Instagram at @thebestlaurenmontgomery because there’s a lot of Lauren Montgomerys and my name is always taken. But now, haha I gotcha, I’m the best.

JDS: On instagram I’m @jds_77, I believe? That’s potentially not correct information. And that’s all I have in my head at the moment.

KA: Very good. You can follow me on Twitter @FunctionalNerd and Instagram @Functional_Nerd because I hate you, and the internet hates me sometimes. So thank you guys for listening. We’ll keep plugging along at these, and hopefully you’ll listen along with them. So we’ll see you next time on Form Podcast.