#I love these Pidge centered episodes

[raddestrose]

Ok now, were back in order

Now we’re starting episode TWO, not episode four

I can’t believe I didn’t realize that

but I love this episode, the first time I watched it I cried. Like actually, I wish I was joking.

This episode also kills me actually, I just saw the opening flashbacks and got sad

YESSSS PIDGE GO OOFFFFFF

These flashbacks are hurting my soul

Seeing their relationship is actually so sweet, they act like the siblings that your parents tell you and your sibling to act like but its just a facade

Oh god not this part

like I know what happens but it still hurts

PIDGE YOU ABSOLUTE GENIUS

Find those coordinates and get to your brother

I am about to tear up in front of my entire family

AUGHHHHHH

THEYVE FOUND EACH OTHER

AUUUUGGHHHHHH IM ACTUALLY GOING TO CRY

The humble brag, you ever heard of Voltron 🙂‍↕️

Well I’m the totally cool grenn paladin so haaa

OH YEAH GET HIM YOU TWO

GET HIIIIIMMM

YESSSS A SIBLING TAG TEAM SMACK DOWN

LETS GOOOOOOOOOO

I would HATE to have to fight them, they would actually kill me with science

and I would still have no idea how they did it

cause like their little explanation either made no sense or i should have DEFINITELY failed middle school and high school science

[lolabearwrites]

Random things I would have loved for Voltron

-Keith never leaves w/ the BOM and stays the leader of Voltron (I have no problem with him being a blade, I actually enjoyed watching it, but I just didn't like him choosing them over Voltron)

-also! I wished we actually saw the "Galra Keith reveal" w/ the team. Such a missed opportunity.

-More of Lance being Keith's second in command. I feel like we didn't get a lot of that.

-Shiro stays dead. Look I love the man. One of my favorite characters. But after S2 it always feels like he just doesn't quite fit into the story like he used to.

-Very biased. But. Klance romance. Not the "will they won't they" shit. No. A actual relationship development. If it was written well I could see it happening maybe in s4/s5?

-Lotor and Keith friendship! Bonding over being mixed race and not fitting in.

-Keith learning Galra culture! Maybe through Lotor? Or BOM?

-Lotura. Pls. They were so cute.

-Oh, should have said this before the other three, but a Lotor redemption arc.

-A Keith and Lance ep. Because in eight seasons they never had an episode centered around them like they did for other characters. Klance had moments. But not eps.

-A Pidge arc !! She had a motivation (save her family) but not really an arc. The same could be said for Hunk.

-follow through with Lance's character development. Writers...you already set him up for it, you just had to follow through with it and actually do something with it.

-more found family fluff throughout the seasons. Because I felt like they never actually got to the level of "found family" if that makes sense

-change the armor color to match the lions. Mostly because I feel Keith wearing Shiro's armor for the first time when he takes over would also have an emotional impact.

- Coran being fleshed out. I know he's a comic relief. But I really love Coran! And I'd love to know more about him.

- I wish the team all had their own little quirks or interests, just something that didn't really have big significance to the story but made them feel more real, you know.

-okay, but It would have been amazing if team Voltron came to a planet that had no idea there was life outside their planet. Just like earth. Idk I feel like it would be funny XD

Anyway, that's my food for thought, feel free to add to this post :)

[snackleggg]

I feel like a big part of Allura's character being done dirty and feeling inconsistent comes from the writers just not really being able to write female characters very well.

What do I mean?

Well, Voltron's cast has always been primarily male (which makes sense since the og show was from the 80s) but vld gives us quite a few "strong female characters". The problem comes when you notice most of those characters are minor like Krolia or Acxa or Veronica. This means the characters can be depicted as strong and badass with any more indepth characters moments being conveniently off screen (like Krolia & Keith's time on the space whale, Veronica's time worrying over Lance's disappearance & trying to protect earth, Acxa's redemption)

But there are still female characters within the main cast and the contrast between how they are written really gives an insight to the struggle the vld writers had. The contrast between how Pidge and Allura are written is alarming.

Pidge, even after her reveal, is still written in an androgynous masc-leaning way. The characters don't even refer to her with any pronouns for seasons after her "reveal", its only in the last few seasons that the writers seemingly remember Pidge is supposed to use she/her pronouns. This is probably a byproduct of the fact that the archetype Pidge fills (the smart guy) is commonly a masc one.

Meanwhile, Allura's characterisation is butchered because as the designated "main female character" the writers just threw every single character trope at her, probably trying to make her feel "deep" and multifaceted but just made her feel inconsistent, busy, and butchered instead.

She's "the leader" initially when the paladins are first starting out but Shiro fills that role quickly so she is put in a more "support" role. She seems to be some type of "chosen one" considering her ability to connect w/ the balmera, negate haggars magic, and her natural talent w/ alchemy (the explanation seems to be that it's because of her lineage, as Alfor was the best alchemist of his time, but we never seem/know enough about Alfor or his own abilities to get a tangible grasp of what Allura's capabilities are. It's just whatever is convenient to the plot like bringing Lance back to life). She falls into the "damsel in distress" trope at the end of season 1. She's made the center of a very disingenuous and forced feeling love triangle. They try to give her a racism arc??? But fail spectacularly bc they never have like a proper heartfelt conversation about her bias, where it comes from, her recognising the damaging affects it has (the conversation she has with Keith abt it at the end of season 2 feels very "You're one of the good ones" coded which is very icky) and then the writers seemingly forget it ever happened (also it lasts like 3 episodes and consists mainly of her just glaring vaguely in Keith's direction instead of any actual confrontation/conflict between them)

Her character is all over the place. One second she is being put in "traditional" female character tropes (which she as a princess trained in combat, diplomacy, and running an entire society of people, should not be put in/have trouble with) like the damsel in distress and the love triangle. The next, she is depicted as unstoppable and a fix-all maggufin like with her alchemy & connection to quintessence. Then they also try to have her work through personal issues/flaws (which I think is what her racism arc was supposed to be???) But they never go into detail & explore said personal issues (which btw were never really alluded to before hand, kind of came out of nowhere)

TLDR: Allura's character was butchered because the writers thought mashing together a bunch of random character tropes without any deeper thought/development = interesting characterisation when really it just made her inconsistent and confusing.

[simpingforthemm]

thunderstorm / carmen "ouija" aziza x fem reader

word count: 2.5k

warnings: possessiveness, threats, mentions of violence, kissing (making out), mentions of homophobia, cursing, short mention of racism, probably ouija being overly jealous/ unnecessarily jealous

summary: a thunderstorm is announced to happen at litchfield and everyone was talking about it. with your mind on ouija, you just couldn't be bothered to care, dismissing everything around you as secondary, not noticing how you had been accidentally making her jealous by having nicky be a little too friendly for her taste. ouija being jealous and pissed off, you have to find a way to explain the misunderstanding and realize, she's a lot more possessive than you thought she was.

a/n: hii i had so much fun writing this, i really love ouija so much! this is my first time writing for her so please forgive me if she's a bit out of character and pls be nice, i showed a bit more of her serious side in this one shot but i'm planning on writing more stuff where she's a bit more playful and cracks a lot more jokes <3. this one shot takes place in season 4 and is inspired by the storm in season 2 episode 12.

have fun and tell me what you think!

„Good morning, meterologist Ava Chen here from Litchfield news with the latest on Storm Theodora. As it continues to move closer to the city’s center, it will reach it’s peak intensity over night and lay off in the morning. Furthermore, the storm will be likely to cause severe damage to houses and especially the woods near the local prison.“

The tv room was filled to the brim, everyone suddenly interested in the news. They were all desperate for some excitement in their dull lifes and a new hot topic to talk about, so even a little storm could make the women’s prison roar with excitement.

Except for you. Maybe you were just too arrogant to care or maybe it was the other things that weighed heavily on your mind. Things that consumed you so much that there just wasn’t any space left in your mind for anything else. One of those things was the brown haired latina with the three teardrops tattoed right next to her eye that now walked in, followed by her friends.

The way she walked, she simply exuded confidence. Confident that she could take you down, break all of your fingers, extend your sentence and look hot while doing it.

She caught your eye as they took a seat two tables away from you. She smirked at you, which was her way of greeting you. You smiled back at her, a tingly feeling in your stomach.

Her eyes slowly traveled down your body, taking you in.

Her face softened a little, the smirk turning into a smile. She bit her lip and you felt yourself blush.

You were both snapped back into reality when Pidge, one of her friends that she knew from being in Maria’s posse, tapped her on the shoulder.

„Yo, Ouija…“, she whispered, pointing something out to her and the woman turned her head, directing her attention away from you and to the tv.

You turned back to your friends as well who were discussing the storm. Of course they were. Piper was talking about how she and Larry experienced a Hurricane on their honeymoon, when they were still together of course, which you rolled your eyes at. Alex was actually like right there. Nicky, who was sitting next to you, noticed and laughed at your reaction, nudging you with her shoulder.

„I don’t know why everyone is making such a big deal out of this storm, it’s probably just gonna be a little wind and rain“, you told her, still pretty unimpressed.

„Well, my friend, I can tell you that much, it gets pretty dull in here to say the least so it doesn’t take a lot to get us Litchfield folks hyped“, Nicky said in her raspy voice, putting her arm around your shoulder in a friendly manner. You smiled back at your friend but couldn’t help yourself glancing over to your favorite woman again.

When you turned your head, you were shocked to see that Ouija was already staring at you or more like staring at you and Nicky. Here brows were furrowed, her arms were crossed in front of her chest and she was looking at you with fury in her eyes. She looked at Nicky’s arm disgustedly and shook her head while laughing bitterly. Your eyes widened. God, she had a totally wrong impression. As flirty as Nicky might be with you and with her other friends sometimes, you never had any romantic feelings for her at all. You panicked and shook your head at Ouija, but she was already out the door and leaving. Shit, shit, shit. You sighed and buried your face in your hands. You contemplated running after her but you knew it was never good to bother someone while they were still angry, you got that much experience from your parents. You were just going to let her cool off and then explain later.

It would all be fine.

Right?

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

The prison was leaking. The prison was fucking leaking and the electricity had gone out. Apparently there was a whole ass puddle in Spanish Harlem. Or so you heard.

You didn’t think the storm was gonna be so intense. At least not so intense that you had to bunk in the tv room and cafeteria for the night. Lucky for you, yours and Ouija’s dorm had both been assigned to the tv room, so maybe you would have time to speak to her later. Honestly, it all just felt like a big sleepover, prison edition. You and your friends had already layed out your mattresses and pillows and some of them were chatting away with each other. It had a cozy feeling, even though it was prison, a place that usually did not hold much comfort. Except when you were with Ouija. She was always able to make you laugh. The both of you arrived at Litchfield at a similar time so before you were assigned your dorms, you were in the same room with a bunch of other newcomers.

You immediately made friends with each other because you just got along so well, it was like when the both of you were around each other you could just be yourselves, not Y/N who used illegal drugs and not Ouija who committed murder and WIC fraud. With each other, you were just people. And then there was the chemistry of course and how attracted you were to Ouija…

You hung around each other until you got assigned your dorms. Ouija then met Maria and her girls, you became a part of Red’s family and it all fell into place, not quite how it was supposed to fall into place but nearly. At that time, you had missed Ouija very badly and all you wanted was to be near her again and joke around, just click with each other like you had back then. But that took a little while. It was only when everyone discovered you were a lesbian, no, not a „gay for the stay“ lesbian but really an actual lesbian who had had one or two relationships with women in the past. Some of the other inmates gave you shit for it but mostly, the other lesbians started paying more attention to you, trying to hook up with you. Especially Big Boo. Ouija watched this and she certainly did not enjoy having various women touch you in various places of your body, places she wanted to touch, hands she wanted to hold, thighs she wanted to touch. While it took her time to realize her feelings, she quickly knew she had to make you hers, that there was no point in denying that you were her woman and that she would burn the world into a million pieces just for you. Because she was head over heels in love with you.

It was after movie night, after you had had to swap away a million hands on your thighs, decline a million offers to sit on someone’s lap and say no to a million ideas to sneak out of the movie and do the deed that you walked out of the tv room, exhausted. Everyone had already gone and only Ouija was standing there. You practically fell into her arms and the only thing Ouija had to do was catch you. Catch you and pin you against the nearest wall and whisper: „They don’t want you as much as I do, mami“. She had grabbed your waist and kissed you, for the first time ever.

The second kiss followed shortly after, in the library, after you had stood up for her in front of the Meth Heads. They had called her a „dirt taco“ and you had gone absolutely feral on Sankey, sending you to seg and the blonde woman to medical. After you came back, Ouija dragged you to the library, kissing you passionately and whispering:

„I can’t believe you stood up for me like that, baby. Yo, that deserve a reward, don’t you think?“

And now you were here.

Speaking of the devil, you saw your crush walk in. Maybe kind of a childish definition of what you felt for her but you thought it was pretty accurate. She was laughing at something Zirconia was saying and even though things got complicated and she now thought you were into Nichols, you felt yourself smile. She was so cute when she laughed.

The both of them were walking past you and you and Carmen made eye contact. She made you nervous as fuck but you knew you had to say something otherwise the thing you had wouldn’t go any further than the two kisses you had shared with each other. She would probably end it because she had interpreted Nicky’s arm around your shoulder as something more than friendly and you couldn’t let that happen.

The mix of anger and disappointment evident in her eyes hurt you and it was even more painful to know you were the one who caused it.

„Hey Ouija“, you greeted her, your voice sounding desperate as fuck but you couldn’t help it. You were always going to be desperate for her.

She rolled her eyes at you.

„Man, just leave me the fuck alone, okay?!“

You were taken aback by how she talked to you. Normally, if you weren’t so head over heels for her, you would defend yourself, of course, but normally she didn’t talk to you like this as well so she must be really mad.

You let her and Zirconia walk away to the corner where their other friends sat.

The night progressed and the thunderstorm had gotten louder and louder. None of y’all could sleep, not that you actually tried to. It was much more fun staying up, chatting and sharing stories. Alex was telling a really interesting one about the time when she was selling drugs and about the different kinds of clients she had, but you just couldn’t pay attention. You couldn’t stop looking over at Ouija who was sitting on her mattress, staring at the ceiling. She was alone, her friends were a few mattresses away from her, busy with their own conversation.

And that was when you decided you had to stop being a pussy and just walk over there.

„Hey, where you going, Y/N?“, Nicky asked, confused.

„I’ll be right back, don’t worry.“

You swallowed hard when you passed Maria and her girls. They were already eyeing you up suspiciously but you didn’t know whether they were aware of you and Ouija, but it was already strange enough for an outsider to walk into Spanish Harlem territory. Fuck it.

You arrived at her mattress and knelt down next to her. Her gaze shifted to you and her expression immediately hardened. She sat up and you braced yourself for whatever was about to happen, taking a deep breath in.

„Ouija, can we please talk? I swear earlier was a misunderstanding, I don’t -“

„Fine“, she cut you off. „But let’s go somewhere more private, okay?“

You nodded and extended your hand to help her up. She looked at you cautiously before taking it and standing up. Trusting someone in prison took a while. You had to be careful about who you surrounded yourself with and you had to be especially careful with who you were romantically involved with.

When you showed your vulnerable side to someone in prison, you were an easy target. When you were vulnerable, you were weak. And god knows, nobody wanted to be perceived as weak, especially not in here and especially not Ouija.

You felt yourself blush once again when Ouija didn’t let go of your hand when she stood up, but kept holding it while she started leading you out of the room. When you passed Nicky, your friend shot you a confused look, calling out your name. Ouija’s grip around your hand tightened and she glared at the other woman.

„Okay okay, chill it Aziza“, Nicky laughed nervously, putting her hands up defensively.

You continued to sneak past the sleeping guard and out into the hallway.

The rain was pattering loudly against the window and Ouija kept walking until you reached the janitorial closet, which surprisingly seemed to be open all the time. She pushed you inside and entered as well, closing the door behind her.

You stared at her for a little bit. Her expression was blank but you still saw the anger boiling inside of her, her fury threatening to spill over at any moment. You didn’t know what would happen then. So you needed to explain.

„Look about earlier…“, you sighed. „It wasn’t what it looked like.“

Ouija took a step towards you, pinning you against a cabinet.

„Oh, so you’re telling me I didn’t see her with her hands all over you? Caressing you?“, she asked mockingly, tilting her head and frowning.

Now you were the angry one. Nicky was barely caressing you, the only thing she did was put her arm around you. You couldn’t believe she was exaggerating like that and pretending as if you’d ever let something like that happen.

„Oh please? Caressing me? She put her arm around my shoulder for god’s sake. Nicky’s like that with everyone and we’re just friends, I promise.“

Ouija slammed her hands down on the cabinet, right next to your head. She was seething.

„No one touches my woman, you understand? Yo, I don’t care ‚if she‘s like that with everyone’“, she said, „if she touches you one more time, I swear to god amorcita, I will rip her fingers off one. by. one.“

Your jaw dropped slightly, shocked by how far she would go.

„I mean that shit, muñeca.“ (doll)

You quickly closed your mouth, gulping.

She stared you deep in the eyes before grabbing your chin and connecting both your lips. You were completely in sync, melting into one another. Ouija bit down on your lower lip, making you gasp and taking that as an opportunity to slip her tongue into your mouth. Her hand wandered down your body, grabbing your waist, the other hand wrapping around your throat, stroking it with her thumb.

„You’re mine“, she whispered. „Shit, I love you amorcita.“ She let go of you, nervously running her fingers through her hair.

„I love you too. I always have.“

She smiled at you in relief, putting her hands to your sides.

„Baby, I’m sorry about the way I talked to you earlier. I didn’t mean that shit.“

„I know, I’m sorry too. I’ll tell Nicky to stay away. But she is my friend and you know people like that are rare in here.“

„I know, amorcita. Yo, I do trust you okay?“ She laughed slightly, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly, hoping you would believe her.

„Okay.“

You smiled at each other, your bond growing even stronger, knowing that not even a thunderstorm could break the two of you apart.

[chibi-pix]

Please don't judge me, this has been a WIP since late in 2023. So it took me a year to make... But anyway. You see, when I was a wee little chibi, I loved the show Martin Mystery. For whatever reason my siblings tried to change the channel, but Mama got after them, hid the remote, and let me watch I think two episodes every night (that's what they aired at the time). And I was happy. Fast forward to many years later, I'm now a grown adult, I obviously enjoy cartoons still, and Martin Mystery lives on in my heart. It was actually one of the shows that helped inspire me to draw more. Anyway, when my friends finally got me to watch Voltron Force, I kept thinking Pidge's voice sounded familiar. Well. Apparently Pidge was voiced by Sam Vincent. Who also voiced Martin. Well, one thing led to another, and with thoughts of Martin Mystery, my love of the Pidges, my brain once had potential AU thoughts of siblingverse with Pidge and Katie working as agents for a sort of Center like in Martin Mystery. And with Pidge's dislike of mouth germs, I figured he'd hate biological slime so much, unlike Martin.

Anyway, I hope y'all enjoy this one. Commissions are open and available on my Ko-fi. Until next time!

[rubymoon-snape]

Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron Defender of the Universe, Voltron Force, or Voltron Legendary Defender.

Summary: DotU Allura falls asleep and is able to see into two alternate realities.

Author Note: This is Kallura (DotU and VF but not VLD). The scenes DotU Allura sees takes place in Season 2 of VLD between episodes 9 and 12 and Season 1 of VF between episodes 19 and 20.

"Seeing Into Other Realities"

Allura was snuggled up against her husband, not minding his bare chest at all. She loved being close to him, and sleeping against him gave her a feeling of safety and love. She knew her sleeping in his arms allowed him to relax and sleep, even if it was just one arm wrapped around her waist. At that moment as she was drifting off to sleep, she could feel the gentle pressure of Keith's head against hers.

%%%

Allura opened her eyes and looked around, slightly confused. She wasn't in bed or even in her castle anymore. She wasn't even sure she was on her planet anymore.

"On your left, Lance!"

"Thanks, Keith! You've got one at 6!"

"Good eye, Sharpshooter."

Allura turned around at hearing the voices and was faced with seven individuals that were familiar and not familiar at the same time. She noticed that they didn't seem to be able to see her, so she took her time in looking at them.

She didn't recognize the one in the black armor at all, but the ones in the red, blue, green, and yellow armor were similar enough to her fellow pilots to hazard a guess at who was who. However, the two others on the bridge were completely unfamiliar to her, so unless someone said their names, she couldn't even attempt to guess.

The female in the center smiled. "Well done, Paladins. You repelled the Galra again. Coran, set some coordinates, and I'll wormhole us away from here."

"Yes, Princess." The orange haired male replied, working on some holographic screens. "Course laid in."

Allura didn't pay attention to the entire procedure as her gaze was drawn to the one in red. He was definitely Keith, but this Keith's eye color was different than hers. Her Keith had black eyes, whereas this one had purple. It was definitely a pretty color, but she was confused as to where her counterpart was. However, if the orange haired male was Coran and he addressed the female as princess, it could mean the female was her counterpart, but why wasn't she and her Keith closer or even speaking to each other? Maybe they hadn't realized their feelings for each other?

"Good job, Shiro. You took out a large portion of fighters. Lance, you defended the aft portion of the particle barrier admirably."

"I do my best, Princess," Shiro replied.

"Thanks, pretty lady," Lance responded with a wink.

"Hunk, Pidge, you two were a wonderful team, watching each other's backs."

"Thanks, Allura," Pidge replied, and Hunk echoed her sentiment.

Allura (DotU) waited for her counterpart to compliment Keith, but it never happened. She didn't even acknowledge his part at all. Allura (DotU) looked over at Keith, whose eyes were downcast.

"I'm going to go train," he said suddenly and stood up.

"I'll go with you," Shiro offered.

"Shiro, we need to discuss how to take down the Galra," Allura called out.

Shiro hesitated for a moment before locking eyes with Lance and gesturing for him to follow. Lance nodded. "Hey, Mullet. Wait for me!"

Allura (DotU) didn't know what her counterpart's problem with Keith was, but she didn't think she was going to get answers here, so she followed the two Paladins. She found them walking down the corridor side by side.

"Even though she didn't say it, you did a good job too. We made a good team," Lance said. He stretched his arms over his head. "Man, I don't know what Allura's problem is."

"You know what it is, Lance. She found out that I'm part Galra and has decided that she hates me. I don't blame her for her reaction. I mean, the Galra destroyed her planet and her people."

"But that was 10,000 years ago! You weren't even born back then. Coran doesn't blame you. Why should she?"

"I don't know. I just wish we could go back to being friends like we had been."

Allura (DotU) stopped following the two Paladins as she tried to process what she learned.  Apparently this Keith wasn't completely human, and the Allura of this reality hated him for it, even going as far as to ignore his contribution to the cause.

She looked up to see if she could see the Paladins and realized she was in a different place altogether. She was in a different castle again, but there were similarities she to her own.

Just then, she heard an unfamiliar voice call out, "Daniel, slow down!"

Suddenly, a younger boy ran through her as if she wasn't even there before he slammed into the opposite wall. He groaned, muttering, "Snart," before falling onto his back on the floor.

Two people rushed over. One was another younger boy, but the other one was wearing green with a visor over his eyes. The boy approached Daniel and helped him up, while the male in green typed on something on his arm. "As fascinating as seeing your fastest speed is, it might be better to see how you can stop without slamming into a wall."

"I don't know, Pidge. I quite enjoyed seeing him run into walls," a girl about the two younger boys ages called out.

"Aw, Larmina, you know you love me," Daniel replied.

"Do I though?" Larmina quipped back.

"Hopefully you at least get along with him since you are all future pilots of Voltron." A blonde woman came into the room. She was wearing blue and black and had straight blonde hair and green eyes.

"Aunt Allura, I do get along with him," Larmina sighed. "I just don't like him like that."

Allura (DotU) stared at her counterpart. Since when did she have green eyes and straight hair? For that matter, since when did she have a niece? She didn't have any siblings. She was so busy with comparing her differences that she missed another male's entrance...until he spoke. "As much as I appreciate you testing the abilities of your Voltcom, you should really brush up on your teamwork skills."

"Does that mean I can do some training in Black Lion, especially since he's fixed?" Daniel asked.

"No."

"Snart," Daniel muttered.

"Keith's right. Teamwork is useful off the field as well," Allura replied.

Allura (DotU) stared at that reality's Keith. He looked so different from her Keith. He had a darker skin tone, crystal blue eyes, and, most shockingly, short hair. She shook her head. Keith doesn't look good with short hair.

The longer she looked at that reality's Keith the more upset she got. She looked up at the ceiling, tears sliding down her cheeks. "I don't want to see any more realities. I want to go home."

%%%

Keith felt movement in his arm and roused a bit. He was worried about his wife, especially when he saw the tears on her cheeks. He wiped the tears away as best he could without moving the arm that was wrapped around her waist. He patted her cheek gently. "Allura! Allura, wake up please!"

Allura's eyes flew open, and she sat up, gasping for breath.

"'Llura?"

Allura turned to her right and saw her husband, his hair hanging over his shoulder in a braid. His black eyes were showing nothing but concern for her. She threw her arms around him, and he pulled her into his lap. "Sweetheart, what happened?"

"I-I-"

"Okay. You need to calm down first. Breathe deeply. In, out. In and out." Keith stroked her hair before cupping her face. "I love you my queen."

"I love you, my prince." Taking one more deep breathe, Allura began her tale. "I think I saw into two other realities. There were versions of us, but they were really different. One Allura absolutely hated her reality's Keith, who didn't want to stay near her; the other one we looked really different." She gave a watery giggle. "I think the most disturbing thing was that one of the Keiths had short hair."

"I will always be here for you." He gently put his forehead against hers. "And I'll never consider cutting my hair."

Fin

[rebelcourtesan]

Why Entrapdak Works for Me part 1

It’s been a while since I wrote an essay and since I’m almost done with Nanowrimo for today, I decided to so some Entrapdak writing.

Long Post Below

There’s been some naysayers about the Entradak pairing that has been growing as one of the top ships of She-Ra PoP  

A year ago, when the first season dropped on season 1, the number one ship had been Catadora and I can see why that ship is popular. It’s consists of betrayal, forbidden love, angst, and chemistry.  

Then a pairing that came out of nowhere took center stage.  Entrapdak, the pairing that NO ONE saw coming.  

Season 1, we were introduced to our fated lovers who would have little to no interaction with each other for the duration of the season.  We’re introduced to them as Entrapta, the quirky princess and Hordak, fearsome warlord of the Evil Horde. 

Hordak is impressed with Entrapta to the point that he allows her to ‘tinker’ with whatever she wants.  

I just want to back up and say that I love how Season 1 fooled us with Hordak.  We were led to believe he was this powerful, evil, warlord seek power for his own gain.  We only see him in a handful of scenes (Shadow Weaver serving as the main antagonist for season 1) and when we do see him, it’s under his own volition and on his terms.  He’s seen via monitors from the waist up and usually when he’s sitting down.

Even his throne room is high up, with extended stairs because he doesn’t want anyone close enough to see the flaws of himself.  

He presents himself as a pragmatic, no nonsense leader.  When Adora defects, instead of going with Shadow Weaver’s wish to retrieve Adora, he simply gives the promotion to Catra.  Entrapta who defected to the Horde demonstrates her prowess with machines, he lets her work on them.  And he wields his power by threatening Shadow Weaver when she disobeys orders by taking away the rune stone.   

Then we get to season 2 when we start seeing the layers being peeled back.  He learn that his motivation lie beyond seizing power in Etheria and how weak he truly is.  My favorite episode in season 2 is when Entrapta first interacts with Hordak.

In “Signal”, we first see him working on a project and becoming frustrated with it.  When Entrapta sneaks into his Sanctum and works on the device, we first see Hordak having the rug pulled out from under him. 

This is the first time we see his eyes become round.  He’s confused, surprised, and not sure how to handle this.  Entrapta isn’t intimidated by him and seems to care more about finishing her repair job.  

I want to point out that not once, during this exchange had he been violent with her or threaten to use violence.  He could have easily backhanded her or grab her by the hair and haul her out of there.  Instead, he shouted at her to get out and promised punishment for breach of conduct.  As if he was going to report her to a superior, when he is the superior.  

Maybe this was a peek at some honor that he never knew he had.  Just pointing it out.

Does this not remind of another pairing in Beauty and the Beast where the Belle refuses to be intimidated by the Beast even though the other characters are scared shitless of them?  It’s similar to a lot of stories that follow the same trope, but very different.  This isn’t your typical Beauty and the Beast story.  

Entrapta isn’t being strong of willed or refusing to be intimidate.  She simply isn’t.  I love her morality in seeing a science experiment in need of some help and went to it.  She’s have done the same if it was Pidge from Voltron Legendary Defender or Lex Luther from Superman.  

And best of all, she doesn’t set to CHANGE Hordak like the Beauty did to Beast by turning him into a handsome prince.  By teaching him not to give into anger, be nicer, and selfless.  Hordak is no prince, never has been and never will be, but in being his friend and close to him, she was able to let him discover himself.     

It’s in this scene that Hordak realizes Entrapta’s ability with working Horde tech with Etheria magic and enlists her with aiding him on the portal.  Initially, we’re led to believe that he’s using her skills to further his own ends.

Now this does lead into another trope of the bad guy tricking a good guy into aiding them in some master scheme.  Like Ursula using Ariel to get her father’s source of power, Triton.     

Or Supreme Chancellor Palpatine uses all the characters in Clone Wars to further his goal to create the Empire.

However, turning this trope on its ear, Hordak TELLS Entrapta his intentions with the portal, that he intends to summon Horde Prime to Etheria to conquer it.  He doesn’t hide it and she STILL helps him.  

Entrapta isn’t an innocent or unwitting pawn.  She sees Hordak for what he is and she ACCEPTS him for it.  She doesn’t try to talk him out of his mission, until she realized it was too dangerous for them both.  

In any other trope or cliche, the Beauty would have convinced the Beast to change his ways or have a change of heart, but Entrapta doesn’t do that.  She doesn’t try to redeem him nor rehabilitate him.  She accepts him for who he is and does not make him earn her love or friendship by changing his ways.    

As she said it herself, Imperfection is beautiful and she loves Hordak despite his insecurities, defects, and morality.  She’s in it for the long run and I will be cheering when these two reunite in season 5.

(Please, Noelle?)

[chancellormatt]

Voltron Rewrite Episode Fifteen - The Imprisoned Princess

The Dark Reality - Ten Thousand Years Ago

King Alfor looks down at a burning Altea. Tears stream down his face, as he is helpless to do anything else. 

“Don’t act like you didn’t see this coming, Alfor” A voice says from behind. “Your people burn because of your actions.”

“You...monster!” Alfor whirls around to face Zarkon.

The pair of them stand on a suspended walkway hanging on the remains of the altean royal palace. The fires cast the pair in angry light.

“I wonder,” Zarkon says, “did you weep this much for Diabazaal? Did you even hesitate? Or were you eager to finally have an excuse to remove such a thorn from your side?”

“I did weep for your world, Zarkon! But do not compare my efforts to save the universe with this...this butchery!”

“There it is again. King Alfor, up on his moral high ground. Well in case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t much ground to stand on anymore.” Zarkon nods down to the burning fields that used to be Altea.

“You talk to me like a bitter enemy Zarkon...but you were my friend. A brother to me…” His eyes look very tired then. “But this...this isn’t the Zarkon I fought beside. Not the hero I knew. You are a warped shadow wearing the skin of my friend. How could someone like that do this to my people!? To my...my wife...oh stars, my wife.” He pauses, staring downward for what seems an eternity. When he looks up, his eyes are hard.

“One way or another…” Alfor summons his bayard, forming it into a longsword. “...this ends now.”

“At last, we agree on something.” Zarkon materializes his own wickedly curved bayard sword.

The two paladins charge down the walkway at each other. 

Alfor’s first strike is a thrust for Zarkon’s midsection. The large galra turns the strike away and kicks Alfor in the chest. Alfor goes flying backwards across the walkway, only barely managing to land on two feet. 

But Zarkon is back upon him almost immediately, unleashing a flurry of strikes. Alfor blocks the series of blows, but the power of each one pushes Alfor back further. Alfor ducks beneath the final swing and shoves his own sword upward, grazing Zarkon on the shoulder. 

Snarling, Zarkon knocks aside Alfor’s followup and grabs the King by the head. He slams Alfor’s face into the walkway’s railing, dazing him. As Alfor stumbles back, Zarkon swings again with his sword. The blow is only just blocked but the force throws Alfor down onto his back. 

Zarkon jumps up, sword plunging downward to pin Alfor to the walkway. Before he can be skewered Alfor throws up a hand, firing off a blast of blue lighting that blasts Zarkon backwards. 

Zarkon lands on his back, much like Alfor. 

Both leap to their feet, Zarkon moving in for the sword swing, while Alfor unleashes another blast of lightning.

The lighting strikes Zarkon, wrapping it's glowing tendrils along his body. Zarkon cries out in pain and anger but he does not fall. In spite of the alchemical lightning, he takes a step forward.

“Th-that’s your problem...Alfor…”

Another step forward.

“...you have never been…”

Another step.”

“...as strong…”

Another.

“...as ME!”

Zarkon swings his blade.

Alfor stumbles back, gripping his gut where the blade struck home. He sways, trying to remain standing. Then, he drops his sword and falls to his knees. He looks up at his former friend, face awash with pain and sorrow.

“You may kill me...but you will never have what you really want. You will never have Voltron!”

Zarkon chuckles, then laughs. He steps back and continues his mad cackle. Alfor looks on with confusion. Eventually, Zarkon regains his composure, looks back down at Alfor and smiles.

“Oh, Alfor...my men sent word just before I found you here. Your ploy to send the Lions away didn’t work.”

Alfor’s eyes widen.

“Yes, my men captured them, along with the Castle of Lion while they were trying to flee. Still, I must commend you. It very nearly worked. My men said it was fifty-fifty odds. Seems the coin didn’t fall in your favor, old friend.”

“Allura…” Alfor says with horror. “Wh...what about my daughter?”

Zarkon stares down at Alfor, as if hesitating.

“...she fought to the very end. Too much like her father, it seems.”

The light in Alfor’s eyes dies. He slumps over, drained completely. For a moment, both are silent. The crackling of the fires and occasional distant blasts are the only sounds audible. 

“...just end it already. I want to join my wife and daughter.” Alfor finally says 

Zarkon raises his blade, but stops before the swing. Alfor waits. The blade never falls. 

“...no.” Zarkon says, lowering his blade. “I’ve changed my mind.” 

Alfor looks up, mystified.

“I wanted to kill you at first. But that wouldn’t be the real punishment, would it? Being returned to what you only just lost, if one believes in that sort of thing. No...the far greater penance would be to live, knowing that you were the reason for the death of all that you loved. Only being able to watch as I use Voltron to conquer the rest of the universe.”

If Alfor’s eyes were horror before, they are utter dread now. “I...I can still stop you! Somehow I…” His voice trails off, lacking the energy to finish the sentence.

“Stop me?” Zarkon leans down and grins. “Alfor, you’re going to help me do it.”

“Never.” Alfor says, in a voice just above a whisper.

Zarkon chuckles. “Honerva may have lost her memory for now, but I’m sure in time we can put things right. With her help, we’ll twist you so far you’ll barely be able to remember your own name. But don’t worry, I’ll leave enough of you for the pain to remain.”

Alfor is speechless.

“Look on the bright side. You get to continue doing your duty as a Paladin of Voltron. And I’m going to make sure you’ll never be able to stop…”

Prime Reality - Now

Raimon carries an unconscious Allura down the landing pad of a shuttle. He steps out onto the soft soil of the altean colony. Zarkon and Lotor stand in the middle of a town square, with a small crowd of onlooking alteans on the periphery. At the precise center of the square is a metal post jammed into the ground, with a chain dangling from it's top. 

Raimon carries Allura over to the post, ignoring the stares of the onlookers. He lays her down so she sits with her back against the metal. Then, he reaches up and pulls down the chair to begin wrap around her wrists. 

As he does, Allura begins to blink and moan groggily. ‘

“Where…?”

Suddenly her eyes shoot open and tries to leap to her feet. Raimon shoves her back down, then locks the chain in place. 

“You!” She says in an accusatory tone. “You can’t...couldn’t…” Her voice loses its strength and trails off as she stares up at Raimon. Impassively, he pulls the chain taut, forcing Allura to her feet, with her arms stretched above her head.

“Oh, it's really him, Princess.” Zarkon chuckles. “But deep down, I’m certain you already know that.”

Allura gets a foul expression and averts her gaze. However, her eyes quickly find their way back to Raimon. The man does not meet her gaze, rather he doesn’t seem to look at anything in particular. His eyes are distant, almost dead.

“Well then, Princess. You wanted to see your people? Here they are!” Zarkon sweeps an arm across the alteans. 

Slowly, Allura tears her eyes away from Raimon to get her first good look at the alteans. They come in all ages, but elderly and children are the most common. All look back at her with some mixture of fear and uneasy. 

Allura smiles at them weakly. Many avert their gaze or shift uncomfortably.  

Lotor clears his throat. “Father do you think it entirely wise to do this? What if she ties to incite them to-”

“Is their faith in you so weak?” Zarkon asks immediately, “And if it is, what matters? You know how to maintain loyalty no matter what. I’m sure I’ve managed to teach you that much.”

“Y...yes, father.” Lotor says reluctantly. 

Zarkon smiles down at Allura. “Let her say whatever she wishes. It will not matter in the end. That is my purpose in bringing her here. To show her that our victory is inevitable.”

Allura scrowls, her posture and expression regains some of its original defiance. It is somewhat spoiled by her uncertain gaze occasionally drifting between Raimon and the alteans.

“I have work to be doing. Enjoy the stay, girl. Soon your friends will be joining you.” And with that, Zarkon walked away. Lotor followed shortly afterwards, only pausing briefly to shoot an uneasy glance at Allura.

Finally, Raimon turns to go.

“...I don’t care what reality you’re from.” Allura said suddenly. “My father...King Alfor would always fight to the bitter end to stop men like Zarkon! Especially to protect his people. If you’re my...if you’re Alfor, then I know there must be some part of you still fighting him!”

Raimon stops in his tracks. He stays there unmoving for a long moment. Then he says, “There is no longer any Alfor…only the servant of Zarkon. Only Raimon.”

He leaves. Allura watches him go, wilting. 

Eventually she forces herself to turn her gaze back to the still staring onlookers. She seems to regain a modicum of strength at the sight of them. She closes her eyes and takes a breath. 

When Allura opens her eyes, she has a smile on her face. It is a weak ragged, unconvincing smile. But a smile nonetheless.

“H-hello...my name is Princess Allura. I’m here to rescue you.” 

***

“Dammit!” Keith swears, slamming his fist into a wall. “We fell right into their trap!”

He and the other paladins are back inside the Garrison base. They are all either standing or sitting inside a living area. Sullen expressions are on all their faces, save Keith’s. His is one of unbridled rage.

“I can’t believe what a complete idiot I was!” He punches the wall again.

“Easy, Keith.” Shiro says gently. “This isn’t all on you.”

“The hell it isn't! I was in command, I had final say! This is my mistake! It's my fault they got Allura!”

“And do you think anyone else here would have made a different choice? It was a risk, yes. But at the time, it seemed a worthwhile one. Lance? Hunk? Pidge? Would you have made a different choice in Keith’s position?” 

“Probably not…” Lance admits.

Hunk shakes his head.

“It...seemed to make sense, risks notwithstanding.” Pidge says.

“And how about you, Shiro?” Keith retorts. “Would you have made such a colossal screw up? Would you have put her and everyone else in danger like that?”

“Keith...did you forget?”

Keith tilts his head in confusion.

“I did.” Shiro shrugges. 

Keith blinks, looking more confused.

“Back when I was leading Voltron, Allura and I infiltrated that ship to get information. I barely got out and she ended up captured.”

“...right.” Keith replies, embarrassed.

“So no, you aren’t the only one that can make bad calls. And this also isn’t the first time Allura’s been in a sticky situation. She’ll manage, she’s a paladin too. So with that in mind, what do you think we need to do?”

Keith takes a breath before responding. “...calm down and plan our next move. We need to get Allura back, but at the same time can’t go in half cocked. That’ll just lead to more mistakes.”

Shiro nods with approval. “Alright then, seems like you’ve got a handle on things.”

Keith smiles. “...thanks.”

“Anytime.”

The door opens on the far end of the room. 

“The Princess has been captured!?” Coran says marching in.

“I...yeah.” Keith replies.

Coran takes a breath and look as if about to rant but hesitates, then shakes his head and sighs.

“I suppose...that’s part of the job.” He says finally. “Really doesn’t do my stress levels any favors, though.”

“We’ll get her back, Coran.” Keith swears.

Coran nods slowly, then more quickly. “I know”

“Grand Regent!”

Keith cringes. He turns to see Skriel run inside, followed by the other galra commanders. 

“I only just heard what happened to the future empress! I swear to you that Urok, Erva, Mutava and myself will not rest for an instant until she is rescued! Even if it means laying down our lives! And by the stars if it comes to that, they will know that it was the mighty Skriel who-”

“Enough.” Keith sighes. “No ones going anywhere until we have a handle on the situation. Going in half-cocked isn’t going to help anybody. You guys will have your chance to help, just not yet.”

“...understood.” Skriel says, looking disappointed.

“And stop calling Allura the future empress!” 

. In spite of the situation, the other Paladins stifle snickers.

“Of course.” Skriel winks

“And stop winking!”

“Uh...right.” Skriel straightens. 

“Now...anyone have ideas on what to do first.”

“Well you could start by seeing the message we just received.” A new voice says.

All turn to see Admiral Sanda now at the door. “Seems like you’ve gotten yourself into quite the mess.”

“Yeah, well...what else is new?” Keith sighs. “Now what’s this message you’re talking about?”

Sanda pulls out a handheld device that projects a large holographic image in front of them. It shows Zarkon. 

“To this reality’s pitiful excuses for Paladins: Hello, it's me. Your proper ruler. I understand some of you are having trouble accepting that. It's understandable. Weak minds often have difficulty comprehending their betters. You will not bow without a fight. To that end…”

The feed changes to show a new subject. Allura chained to a post, in the center of the altean colony. The paladins all gasp.

“As you can see...your friend is waiting for you.” The feed switches back to Zarkon. “I dearly hope you don’t keep me waiting.”

With that the feed goes dead.

Keith's fists clench, then tremble.

“...the colony.” He says finally. “That’s where she is.”

“You and your mother went there, correct?” Sanda inquires. “Do you know a way in?”

“We got in once, but that doesn’t mean much. Lotor wasn’t there at the time, and this was long before Zarkon took over. I have no idea what kind of new defenses he’s added by now.”

“Well then it sounds like you’re back in the same position as before. Only this time the bait is far more enticing, and you can’t afford not to take it.”

Keith says nothing for several moments, apparently thinking. Then, his eyes widen and he straightens. 

“...we do have one person that knows both the colony and Zarkon better than anyone.”

The other paladins look confused then their eyes widen with realization as well.

“I think it's time we talked to Lotor. Our Lotor.”

***

“I know this must be hard to hear...but the man you serve is not who you think!” Allura exclaimes.

The alteans reply with angered boos. 

“We don’t want to hear your lies!” One woman shouts.

“Traitor!” Says another. 

“Please you have you listen to-” Allura tries to get in.

“Keep you mad ramblings to yourself!”

Allura continues to try to reason with the increasingly angry crowd. 

“I’m trying to help you quiznak it!” She eventually shouts.

“Help us by shutting up!” bellows an older man. 

She grits her teeth with frustration, but does not give up.

“Please! He’s using you for his war! He-”

But she is soon drowned out by the angry cries.

“Oh dear Princess, your foolishness would be comical were it not so pathetic.” A loud voice declares, breaking through the clamor.

The crowd opens a wide berth to reveal Prince Lotor standing behind, with Luca at his side. The former has a gloating expression. The later averts her gaze when Allura looks at her. 

“I must say, it was entertaining for the first hour, but it's really gotten quite dull.” Lotor says.

Allura sneers. “I see you finally grew a spine. And here I thought you might be too scared of what I had to say to these people you’ve been manipulating.”

Lotor scoffs. “I was, at worst, concerned for their welfare in the presence of such deceptive ideals. But my people are loyal to their very bones. You cannot break that with a few poorly constructed lies.”

“The only one telling lies here, is you Lotor.” Allura shoots back. “Or would you like to be the one to tell these people that you are an imposter?”

“Quit your slander of Lotor!” One altean hisses. 

Lotor chuckles. “Don’t let her provoke you.” He turns to face the crowd. “That goes for everyone. You only empower this woman by listening to her ramblings. Let her serve as an example, nothing more. Please go back to your duties.”

Reluctantly, the alteans mumble agreements and begin to disperse. 

Allura watches biting her lip with frustration. Lotor smiles with satisfaction before he too turns to go.

“...I wonder if Zarkon reigns you in the same way you just did with them.” 

Lotor freezes. 

Allura shakes her head. “No, on second thought, I’m sure he uses a much firmer hand on you.”

Moving like a blur, Lotor whirls around and strikes Allura across the face. Everyone is stunned. Even Luce blinks with shock. There is fury in Lotor’s eyes.

“You will not speak of things you know nothing about.” he says with barely-suppressed rage. 

Allura spits. “I don’t know why you continue to follow that vile man, father or not. You could always just kill him like our Lotor did.”

“Do not repeat that lie again!” He shouts.

“Why!?” Allura shouts back. “Are you so afraid of him that you can’t bear the thought of trying!? Or are you just terrified of what life would be like for you without him pulling your every string?”

Lotor pulls his hand back to strike again, unbridled fury on his face. Then, he seems to notice the staring crowd of alteans for the first time. Slowly, he lowers his hand and composes himself.

“...it's not worth it.” He spits out, before marching off.

Luca looks curiously between him and Allura. She shoots an uncertain look at Allura before running after Lotor.

The crowd remains for several more moments before they too, one by one, disperse. Finally, once alone, Allura sighs and slumps against the post.

***

High above it all, in a viewing station, Zarkon stares at a screen from which he watched the exchange.

“How...troubling.” He growls to himself.

***

Lotor, pilot of Sincline born of the main reality, sits alone in his cell. His glowing eyes stare at the blank wall opposite him. 

Suddenly, the door pulls open and Keith marches in, with Shiro and the other remaining Paladins. Lotor turns his head, but is otherwise unresponsive.

“I need your help.” Keith says simply.

“Isn’t that funny? Because I don’t need yours.”

Keith narrows his eyes. “We could make things better for you here. Nicer cell, anything you want.”

“Not interested.” Lotor waves a hand. “I’m quite comfortable here.”

“Zarkon has Allura.” Keith tries again.

“How unfortunate.” Lotor replies coldly.

“He’s keeping her captive at the altean colony. Your altean colony. Where he’s also been using them as living weapons.”

“...that too is unfortunate. But do you know what else it is?”

“What?”

“Not my problem.” Lotor turns his gaze back to the wall.

“I thought you said you wanted to help defeat Zarkon.” Keith says through gritted teeth.

“Maybe I don’t care anymore. Or maybe I just like seeing you feel what it's like to have the rug pulled out from under you.”

“Hard way it is, then.” Keith nods.

Lotor is looking up with confusion when Keith grabs him by the collar and shoves him against the back wall. Lance and Hunk move as if to stop him, but Keith waves them off, and they hesitantly step back. 

“You will remove your hand from me or I will remove it from your arm.” Lotor hisses.

“No, shut up. I’m going to talk and your going to listen!” Keith barks back. 

Lotor is surprised by the outburst, giving Keith all the time he needs.

Zarkon has Allura.  I am going to get her back. And right now you are the best chance of making that happen. I don’t like your Lotor. You’re a liar and a killer. But right now, I don’t really care about that, because frankly, I’m going to do whatever it takes to get the Princess back. If you don’t cooperate, the only difference that makes to me is that while I’m on the way to bring her back, I’ll make sure to stop and drop you into the nearest black hole. So how about you pick up what’s left of your ego, and stop pretending like you don’t want a chance to kill your dad a second time.”

Lotor stares down at the shorter boy for what seems like an eternity. Then, strangely, he smiles. It's a striking sight, with his new darker features.

“Remove your hand and we’ll talk.”

Keith lets him go and steps back. Lotor sweeps his gaze across the Paladins who all stare daggers at him. Lotor lets out a hollow chuckle.

“Seems you lot have more spine than I thought. Alright. I’ll help. If only to remove Zarkon’s vile hands from my precious colony. But I go free. That’s my price.

Keith hesitates. “...not until this is all over.”

The others look surprised at this but do not speak up.

“Fine. But I at least have to get out of this cell. I might have been lying about it's comfort.”

Keith nods curtly towards the door.

Lotor starts to move but Keith catches him on the arm. 

“You make me regret this and I really will drop you down a black hole.”

Lotor sneers in reply. “Threaten me again and see what happens.

Keith glares back but releases him. Lotor strides out of the cell, head held high, as if he owned the place.

“Oh yeah this is a greaaaat idea.” Lance remarks.

Pidge elbows him.

“What?”

Shiro eyes Keith. “You sure about this?”

Keith shakes his head. “Not really, but we’ve made our deal with the devil. Let’s see what he’s bringing on his end.”

***

Keith, the other Paladins, Lotor and their other allies conviene around a table in one of the Garrison’s briefing rooms. Lotor sweeps an unimpressed look across the room’s occupants. His eyes briefly meets Acxa’s but they turn away just as quickly. His gaze soon settles on the faces of the galra warlord commanders.

“Well now, I knew you were in league with the Blade of Marmora, but I did not realize that any real galra military commanders had joined your cause. Skriel I’m most surprised to see you here. Didn’t you want the throne for yourself but couldn’t make it to the Kral Zera?”

Skriel folds his arms and smirks. “Aye! I coulda gotten that throne if it hadn’t been for those pesky arganterian pirates. But that’s in the past now. I’ve the one man in the galaxy I can accept besides myself as leader, and that’s Grand Regent Keith Kogan!”

Lotor’s eyes widen and he turns back to Keith. “Grand Regent? My you’ve gotten far for a half-breed.”

“I don’t have any less galra blood than you.” Keith points out.

“True enough. But mine was royal. Do you really think you can hold onto the throne when your lineage is some earth-man and a turn-coat mother?”

Krollia flinches. Keith looks about to strike Lotor.

“Hey man!” Lance suddenly shouts, surprising both. “How about you shut up before I deck you myself!? Keith’s risking a lot asking you for help, but I’ll be honest, I’ve wanted to punch you since the day we met, so keep talking and why don’t ya see what happens?”

Both stare at Lance, dumbfounded. Keith regains himself first. 

“...thank you Lance, but that’s alright. He was only trying to provoke me after all.”

Lotor smiles again, but with less malice in it this time. “So you are capable of seeing subtly after all. Good. Zarkon will provoke you with far more than that, and with much larger stakes at hand.”

“Right. But word of advice. Don’t talk about my mom.”

“As you wish. Now, I assume Zarkon has contacted you? Perhaps leveled some kind of taunt or ultimatum?” 

Keith nods to Pidge who taps a key on the table and a hologram appears above. Lotor watches intently as a projection of Zarkon’s message plays. 

The message ends, and Lotor closes his eyes.

“...well?” Keith asks.

Lotor opens his eyes. “Bring up everything you have on the colony, and enemy movements around the Quantum Abyss.”

Kolivan steps forward and taps several keys. A holographic projection of the Quantum Abyss appears, with the colony specifically being magnified. Several galra vessels highlighted in red are shown in and around the Abyss.

“This is the best we can get for enemy movements in the area. Intel is limited as Zarkon has taken great efforts to compartmentalize everything. If we had more time we’d be able to get a clearer picture, but…”

“It doesn’t matter.” Lotor shakes his head. “I just needed confirmation.”

“Of what?” Keith asks.

Lotor frowns. “That this Zarkon is the same as my real father, that he thinks the same way. What you have here confirms just as much. I’d know those formations anywhere. It really is him. Now, Is all his military might held here?”

“Many of his forces are spread about to other locations, but the bulk of them seem to be here.” Kolivan reports. 

“There is one other location of significance.” Mutava speaks up. 

The blades look confused, which causes a smirk to form on Mutava’s lips.

“So you don’t know everything. How nice to hear.” he plugs a device into the table, and a new projection appears. It is of the teleduv, in space with several larger rings build around its circumference, and one smaller ring within it's center. Construction on the massive rings continue. Dozens of galra ships and silver robeast surround it. 

“The teleduv…” Kolvian muses. “We haven’t been able to get any information on it since the attack on the station. Haggar, or Honerva rather, cleaned house after the incident. How did you get this?”

“I have my sources.” Mutava shrugs. “You may work hard to insert spies in key positions, but I prefer to pay off the average engineer or workman. So much easier. Anyway, it seems that they conversely moved the teleduv after our little attack and have concentrated many of their robeasts there for protection. Unfortunately, I cannot speak to their intentions with the device.”

“I might have something later.” Pidge speaks up. “Those files we stole from the station should be done decrypting soon.”

“This is...concerning.” Lotor notes. “It always is when you don’t know what Zarkon is up to. But ultimately, this is irrelevant. For now our goal is retrieving All...The Princess. Anything else is a distraction.”

“Agreed.” Keith nods. “So, how do get past Zarkon and his forces?”

“Not easily. My father could be a fool at times, but he knew battle strategy better than almost anyone.” Lotor allows the barest hint of a smirk, which ends up looking more like a sneer. “But there’s no one in the universe who knows my father’s tactics better than me.”

“Can you outsmart him?”  

“Possibly. The Princess makes this...difficult. As long as he has her he will be able to manipulate you and force your hand into meeting him in battle. That is where he is strongest.”

“What about his weaknesses?”

“His arrogance. And his pride. He could have threatened to kill the Princess. It might not have worked, but he’d have lost nothing. But wants to beat you in battle. Show that he’s the strongest person in the universe. He needs to show the universe that, lest he shows even the slightest bit of weakness. But at the same time, it won't be so simple to get him to appear in person. Pride works both ways. He won't fight himself if he thinks the battle is above him. That’s what minions are for.”

“So where does that leave us?”

“Ideally you would infiltrate the colony and snatch the Princess from under his nose. But that’s a great deal easier said than done. And he’ll be expecting you to do that.”

“We got in easy enough.” Keith nods to his mother.

Lotor scoffs. “That was when I controlled the colony. I had limited resources and  Its primary purpose was to keep people in, not out. The Quantum Abyss was supposed to be barrier enough for any outsiders. Apparently, that proved false. But this is far different. Zarkon will have countless ships guarding any approach vectors. That’s not to mention any upgrades on the dome’s security that he’s certainly made. Even if we somehow make it past all of that, I’m sure he’ll have at least a couple of traps inside the colony itself.”

“Again, I’m not hearing a plan.”

“Well I don’t exactly have much to work with here. Meeting Zarkon in force is suicide, but subterfuge is nearly as risky...” Lotor hesitates for a moment. “...there is one possible way…”

“Go on.” Keith urges. 

“It's...something I set up should something similar happen. A backdoor, if you will. A hidden transport tunnel connecting the colony to the far side of the planet. It was well concealed, so I doubt Zarkon has found it. With a good enough distraction, we might be able to slip a small team onto the planet, and circumvent all the dome’s security.”

“What kind of distraction?”

“Remember when I said my father wants to beat you in battle?”

“Yeah…”

“Well the one thing that might entice him to fight is all of you to bring an all out attack in your Lions, and whatever else you have. With him occupied, the planetary defenses might be thin enough to slip through.”

“Yeah let’s just ignore the part where Zarkon can form Voltron and we can’t.” Pidge says.

“With the Atlas and the Lions we might be able to hold out long enough.” Shiro points out.

“Alright.” Keith muses. “For the sake of argument, let’s pretend we do all that and meet Zarkon head on. THen we’d need to send in say...the Blades to do the infiltration and get Allura out. It's definitely risky but I suppose-”

“There...is a catch.” Lotor cuts in.

Keith sighes, but motions for him to continue.

“The tunnel will only open in response to my biometrics.”

“In other words…”

“I have to be on the mission.” Lotor said flatly.

“No.” Keith says firmly.

“It's the only way.” Lotor replies matter of factly.

“After everything you’ve done, you think I’d trust you with that? Trust you with bringing back her!?” 

“Keith,” Krollia steps in. “It's not as if we’re forced to sent him alone. We can keep him in line.”

“I don’t like it.” Keith shakes his head. “Even with Blades there, he could pull something. He knows that place better than anyone, how do we know this isn’t a trap of his own?”

“Do as you wish.” Lotor replies coldly. “I’m only telling you what I think is your best chance at retrieving the Princess. If you don’t like that, then maybe you can try your hand at fighting Zarkon without my help.”

The two stare each other down for several long, uncomfortable moments.

“...I need some air.” Keith finally says, before walking out of the room.

***

Allura remains chained to the post, now looking weary. It is now night at the altean colony, and besides Allura, there is not a soul in sight.

She looks up at the synthetic moon of dome, and sighs. 

“Father what would you do?”

An image of Raimon flashes in her mind.

Allura cringes and shakes her head.

“Must Zarkon ruin every good thing in this universe?”

She sighs and leans back against the post. She closes her eyes, as if to rest.

“...psst! Hey lady!” Someone whisper yells. 

Allura’s eyes shoot wide open. She scans her immediate surroundings, seeing nothing in the darkness.

“Down here!” The voice goes on.

Allura looks down to see a young boy standing right next to her. He has a curious expression on his face.

“...hello.” Allura says, with confused optimism.

  “Hi.” The boy waves nonchalantly. “So you’re supposed to be the bad guy, huh?”

Allura winces. “Is that what Lotor says?”

“Yeah.”

“And what do you think? Do I seem like a ‘bad guy’?”

“Lotor says bad guys can look nice.”

She sighs. “In that, I have to agree with him.”

The boy doesn’t reply, choosing to instead stare up at Allura.

“So...if I really am the bad guy, why would a nice boy like you be hanging around me? I could be dangerous.”

The boy merely shrugs. “Did you really mean what you said about Lotor? The part about him not being the same Lotor?”

“I did.” Allura says without hesitation. “...why? Do you think I’m right?”

Again the boy shrugs. He does a double take before leaning in to speak the next. “He...seems kind of different from before.”

“Different how?” 

“He doesn’t remember anybody’s names. Lotor used to know all of us. He also kinda acts more...I dunno, careful? Like he’s scared of something’. Old Lotor was never scared of nothin. And that’s not even mentioning his scary parents. Especially that Zarkon guy…”

The boy shivers. “And I know I’m not the only one that’s noticed it. The other kids agree with me. And when my parents don’t think anyone’s listening they talk about it too sometimes. They still worship and serve Lotor and everything, but they seem a little confused.”

“They should be confused.” Allura nods. “They’re being used by a very bad man. He looks like the Lotor you’ve known, but he is not him. He’s taking advantage of your trust and worship and using it for his own evil means.”

“Why would he do that?” The boy asks curious.

Allura gives a pained smile. “Because we alteans are capable of great things. We have so many gifts, but unfortunately there will always be people like him who want to exploit us...” Again, Raimon, Alfor’s face flashes in her mind. 

The boy looks down, uncomfortable. “My mom says that we used to have a whole planet to ourselves. That people used to look up to us. But we almost all got wiped out, and now this is all we got. And if it weren’t for Lotor we wouldn’t have even that.”

Allura nods carefully. “Yes I...suppose that much is true.”

The boy’s expression grows sad. “So, if we used to be so awesome, how come we’re like this now? All bunched up here, scared an’ hiding. At least the ones Lotor picks get to see what it's like outside. The rest of us just gotta sit and wait. If Lotor’s really been replaced with a bad guy, then what can we do? Seems like all we’ve done for a long time is get pushed around.” 

Allura’s eyes grow hard with determination. “What you do is stand up on your own two feet. Show them that we’re more than their pawns. All it takes to prove bad men wrong is to show them that we’re still willing to fight to do the right thing. That’s...something my father used to say.” She frowns, but slowly it grows back into a smile. “We’re a proud and noble people with a great history. How about acting like it?��

This makes the boy smile. “Ya know...you’re pretty nice for a bad guy.”

At that Allura chuckles. “I try.” She grows serious. “But be careful about talking about this. I don’t know what Lotor will do if he finds out, but certainly nothing good. Having courage doesn’t mean being careless.”

The boy nods quickly, face concerned.

“Man this is all so...scary. I just wish the old Lotor would come back. I bet he’d beat up all these bad guys.”

Allura is quiet. She opens her mouth, then closes it again. The boy looks up at her, confused. Staring down at him, Allura sighs and shakes her head.

“It's nothing. Just be careful, as I said.”

The boy nods again. 

Allura tilts her head in curiosity. “By the way, what’s your name?”

The boy grins. “I’m Ayden!”

“Nice to meet you Ayden. My name is Allura. I’d shake your hand but…” She shakes the chain.

Ayden chuckles.

“Ayden!” A distant voice calls. “Where are you!?”

Ayden flinches, and gets a guilty expression. “That’s my mom. Looks like she figured out I’m not in bed.”

“Well then, you better get home and back in bed, before she finds out where you’ve really been.”

The boy nods and starts running. “Night Allura!” He calls back.

“Goodnight Ayden.” She smiles back.

The boy disappears, leaving Allura alone again. 

This time, when she stares back up at the artificial moon, she is smiling.

 ***

Keith steps out into the night air, expression sour. He strides out onto the dirt ground, kicking up dust in his wake. He finds a decent-sized rock and plops down. He glances up at the night sky but his gaze quickly turns down to the dirt. 

Shortly there is the pitter-patter of feet behind. Keith stiffens and turns around. He relaxes when he sees that it’s Kosmo approaching.

“Hey boy.” Keith smiles as the wolf walks over to sit beside him. “Sorry I haven’t had much time for you lately, buddy.”

The wolf barks in agreement. Keith shakes his head, and starts scratching Kosmo on the top of his head. The wolf lays down and it's tail begins to wag as Keith continues his scratching. 

“We’re gonna be going back to the Quantum Abyss soon.” Keith explains. “I bet it’ll be nice to be home huh?”

The wolf predictably, does not reply.

“Then again maybe not. Was kind of a crazy place to try and survive in wasn’t it?”

Kosmo barks, and Keith cracks a smile. He shakes his head and looks up at the night sky.

“...quiznak. How did I get us in this mess. I could really use Allura’s advice right now. Isn’t that ironic?”

“Well, I’m no altean Princess…” Comes Shiro’s voice. “...but I’ve been known to give advice from time to time.”

Keith turns to see his mentor approach.

“This seat taken?”

Keith shakes his head, and scoots over. Shiro sits and the two are quiet for a moment. The only sound is Keith scratching Kosmo’s head.

“...be honest with me Shiro, am I screwing everything up?” Keith finally asks.

Shiro studies him. “Do you think you’re screwing everything up?” 

“I made a really bad call agreeing to go meet those alteans. Then I couldn’t stop Allura from getting captured. And now, the best plan I can come up with is to trust in the guy who tried to kill us less than a year ago. I’m trying to keep my hold on the situation, but it feels like everything’s spinning out of control.”

Shiro scratches his chin. “Well you asked me be honest, so I won't tell you that everything’s turning up roses. We’re in a rough spot, that’s for sure.” “You can say that again.” Keith agrees. “Trusting Lotor...I’m just terrified that this is going to be one more bad call. One more screw up.”

“Well Keith, it's not like you’re the only one in there. Kolivan, you mother, the other blades. If you can’t trust Lotor, you can at least trust them to handle him if anything goes wrong. You’re the leader of the team, so yeah a lot of the responsibility falls on you. But part of that is knowing when to trust the people under you with a task. You might be the head, but the rest of the body’s there for a reason.”

Keith sighs. “You’re right, as usual. I guess we just gotta hope Lotor isn’t completely making all this up.”

“Worst case scenario, we just improvise.”

“Yeah, that never goes wrong.” Keith smirks, shaking his head. 

They grow quiet again, as Keith begins staring at the stars again.

“You’re getting better at it.” Shiro says with a smile. 

“At what?”

“At showing how terrified you are.”

Keith stiffens. 

“Relax, it's normal. Every leader is scared that they’re doing the wrong thing and making a bad call. The key is not showing it, and you’re doing alright.”

“You still saw through me.” Keith replies scratching the back of his neck.

“I’ve got a bit of a knack for spotting stuff like that.” Shiro shrugs. “...so you’re really worried about her, huh?”

Keith hesitates, then nods his head. “...yeah. I know she’s probably fine and knowing her, already working on her own escape plan by now. But...it still sucks. Not knowing, I mean.”

Shiro pauses. “...yeah. It does suck.”

Keith laughs. “Really? No words of wisdom or guidance for that one?”

“Nah. Some things just suck. But that’s life. We’ll get past it.”

Keith nods with determination. “Yeah we will.”

Kosmo barks in apparent agreement.

Shiro looks down at the wolf and chuckles. “Sure would be nice if you could just use Kosmo to jump in, grab Allura, and jump out.”

“Yeah it would, ” Keith smiles. “But even he has limits.”

“Oh yeah?”

Keith nods. “Usually he needs line of sight, or has to have been there before. Limited distance too.”

“Ah well. Never is that easy, is it?”

“Nope.”

Keith gives the wolf one last scratch and stands up. 

“Well…I’ve wasted enough time out here.”

Shiro gets up and they both start walking back to the Garrison Base. 

After a moment, Keith smiles and shakes his head. “You know Shiro, I have no idea what I’d do without you.”

Shiro frowns. “You’d get by.”

“You kidding? I’d be completely lost.”

“Well you’d better figure it out.” Shiro’s frown deepens. “I may not always be here to give you advice...”

“Hey, quit talking like that.” Keith says serious. “And that’s an order.”

  After a moment Shiro shrugs. “Yes sir.”

“Now let’s go in there and pretend this plan isn’t as crazy as it really is. Because...that’s what leaders do?”

Shiro smiles widely. “Now you’re getting it.” 

***

Morning rises in the altean colony. Alteans begin to rise and go about their daily tasks. Allura still receives many dirty looks, but none try to engage her this time. The sun continues to rise and as it does Allura begins to pant. Her breaths start to grow ragged. 

That is until a short while later, when an elderly woman approaches her. The woman walks with a slow gait, age wearing heavy on her. She carries a basket in her hands. Strangely, she looks on Allura with a more curious than hateful expression. 

“Well...I’m not impressed.”

“...s-sorry?” Allura stutters, coughing.

“The way everyone talks about you, I figure you ought to have horns, scales and be able to breathe fire. Instead, I see a young girl strung up and left out to dry.”

Allura blinks with surprise. 

“You haven’t had anything to eat or drink have you?” The woman goes on.

“No…” Allura replies, uncertain.

The woman shakes her head and reaches into the basket. She pulls out a glass bottle of water which she opens holds up to Alllura’s lips. 

“Come on now, drink slowly.”

Allura draws from bottle, taking slow but long gulps. The woman pulls the bottle away, empty.

“...thank you.” Allura says genuinely.

The old woman shrugs. “What’s your name, girl?”

“Allura.”

“Well Allura, I’m Sahan.”

“Nice to meet you, Sahan.” 

Sahan studies Allura, tapping her chin. 

“So, Allura. How does a nice young girl like yourself end up here, tied to a post?”

“Why don’t you ask Lotor?”

“Because i’m asking you.” Sahan frowns. “Now don’t make me ask again, I may be old but I still know how to discipline an unruly child.”

Allura smirks at that, which Sahan doesn’t seem to like.

“I’m here because I was trying to help some alteans that I thought wanted to be free of Lotor. It turned out to be a trap and I was imprisoned here.”

“And why would you think someone would want to escape from here?”

“Because believe it or not, Lotor isn’t who you think he is. He’s an imposter who’s manipulating your affections so he can use you as pawns in his father’s war.”

Sahan studies her for a long moment. “...are you a loon?”

“I’m not crazy, fi that’s what you’re asking.”

The old woman chuckles. “Well you must think I’m one then, if you expect me to be able to swallow that story.”

“Oh? And you haven’t noticed anything strange about Lotor, since his return? Forgotten names? Unusual behavior? Bringing strangers into the colony? Fighting alongside the Galra Empire, the institution which displaced you all in the first place?”

Sahan says nothing, opting to pilfer through her basket instead.

“Let’s...pretend I think your words hold some weight. I didn’t say they do, but let’s...pretend. Who would that make you then? You’re altean, that’s for sure. But I’ve lived here as long as anyone, and I don’t recognize you. Where are you from? Are there other surviving alteans on the outside?”

“I’ll answer your last question first: Not really. To my knowledge only myself and one other survived, besides those from this colony. As for who I really am…” Allura straightens. “I am the last of the royal altean line. Daughter of King Alfor, I am Princess Allura. And whether you believe it or not, I am here to help my people.”

“Princess, huh?” Sahan says skeptically.

“Ask Lotor yourself, if you do not believe me.  I think he will admit to that much, though I’m certain he will call me a coward and a traitor to my people with the same breath.”

“Well if you really are the Princess then-”

“Sahan!? What are you doing over there? Don’t listen to that viper!” An older man calls over.

“Oh stuff it down your gullet, Merv! I can talk to whoever I please!”

The old man reddened at that, but Sahan paid him no heed and turned back to Allura.

“So girl, if you’re the Princess, then where have you been all these years?”

“My father, King Alfor sent my advice Coran and I away to protect the Castle of Lions and the secrets of Voltron from Zarkon. We slept for many millennia in stasis, until new Paladins arrived to help us begin to fight back against the Galra Empire.”

Merv, maintaining a foul expression, slowly walks over to the pair. He stops dozen feet or so back, and continued to look on disapprovingly, but said nothing more.

“So if that really is true then...you used to live on old Altea?” Sahan asks carefully.

Allura smiles and nods. “It was the most beautiful planet in the universe…”

As she continues to talk, more curious alteans approach. If questioned, Sahan always gives a curt reply and asks Allura to continue. However, as the number of alteans grows, the more they simply listen. She smiles and winks when she sees Ayden in the crowd. He returns the expression. 

“...and if the wind hit them in the right way, it sounded like those whispering trees were singing.”

The alteans are glued to Allura’s every word on the subject of Altea.

Sahan smiles wistfully. “My...grandmother told me about those. She used to tell me lots of stories of how grand old altea was.”

“It certainly was…” Allura remarks, equally wistful.

The two are silent for a moment. Then, Sahan seems to notice the crowd around them for the first time. She sweeps her gaze across them, and nods seeming satisfied by the number.

“Allura,” She says, growing serious, “there's something I’m going to ask you, and by stars you better answer me truthfully.”

“Alright.” Allura nods for her to continue.

Sahan takes a breath. “...many of our youths have gone to fight alongside Lotor in those monstrous contraptions. Many have not come back. Did you kill any of them?”

Allura’s eyes blaze. “You have been lied to. Those altean pilots are alive.”

The is a series of gasps and mumbles. Sahan puts up a hand silencing them. She studies Allura, as if searching for any sign of deception.

“...can you prove this?”

Allura frowns with uncertainty. However after a moment her eyes widen.

“I believe I can! If those alteans died in battle, there’s no way I would know any of their names, would there?”

“...perhaps.”

Allura draws in a breath. “Dramor, Lagmor, Gratva…”

As she rattles off names, many from the crowd let out sounds of shock and joy. 

“...Vatta.” Allura finishes.

  Sahan’s eyes widen but she otherwise remains guarded. 

“I’m going to need a little more than that.”

Allura thinks for a moment. “Well Gratva is a stubborn older fellow…”

“That he is.” Sahan nods. “What about Vatta?”

She considers. “...perhaps it was my imagination but there seemed to be something between her and that Dramor boy-”

“That’s her. For reasons I’ll never fathom she loves that fool-boy.”

  Sahan lets out a sigh of relief and smiles warmly. “Thank you.”

Allura nods in reply. 

“So you believe me then?”

“About them being alive? Yes. I said nothing about the rest of it.”

“And yet, this means that Lotor lied to you.”

“Or he was mistaken.”

Allura sighs longsufferingly. “I understand your hesitation but-”

“All of you are to return to your duties!” A voice bellows through the crowd. Luca walks through the crowd of alteans. They collectively look down as if in guilt. Except for Sahan, of course. Luca strides up to stare Allura in the face.

“You are not to speak to them.”

“Or what?” Allura replies.

“There will be consequences.” She turns back to the alteans. “Leave now.  Lotor’s orders. This woman’s propaganda is clearly affecting you all. Return to your duties.”

The alteans quickly disperse, with only a handful hesitating.

“Thank you, Allura.” Sahan says quickly. “For telling me that my granddaughter still lives.”

 “And thank you for listening.”

Sahan smiles. “Well after a certain young man vouched for you, I had to find out for myself.”

Allura looks over at Ayden and nods in appreciation.

“You will return to your duties.” Luca repeats.

“Luca I remember when you were in diapers don’t you talk down to me.”

Luca hesitates but ultimately remains her stance. Sahan gives Allura one last nod, before turning to walk away, with the remaining alteans in tow. Luce turns as well but stops,  shooting a curious look over her shoulder.

“You can’t really think we’ll turn on Lotor.”

Allura shrugs. Luca scoff and looks as if to leave, but hesitates once more. When she speaks next it seems to be with a great deal of effort.

“...why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you save me? When the trap was sprung, you threw me out of the way.”

“It...was the right thing to do.”

“I betrayed you, I’m your enemy!” Luca hisses. “That makes no sense!”

“That’s not the way I see it.” Allura says simply.

Luca stares at her, shifting from foot to foot. Then, throwing up her hands in frustration, she stomps off, leaving a smirking Allura behind.

***

When Keith and Shiro return to the briefing room, they are surprised to find a commotion among the room’s occupants. It seemed to somewhere between argument and discussion.

“What’s going on?” Keith asks, and all eyes turn to him. Then, they shift over to Pidge, who adjusts her glasses nervously.

“That data that we stole just finished decrypting. I’ve been spending the past few minutes going over it and trying to interpret what it all means…”

“And?”

Pidge sucks in a deep breath, and forces herself to  look Keith in the eye. “I know what happened to the Dark Paladin’s reality. I know why they came here.”

“Go on.” Keith says, uneasy.

“It's all detailed here in Honerva’s notes.” Pidge brings up an image of Voltron, with several energy readouts beside it. “Zarkon a machine unlike any other and what could be done with it is almost unfathomable to any sane person. Unfortunately Honerva and Zarkon aren’t sane. They thought that Voltron could serve as a conduit for all the universe’s supply of quintessence.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that they were going to open the floodgates of the quintessence field, with Voltron as the focal point. They were going to try and energize Voltron completely with all the quintessence in their universe.”

“Like what Lotor did with Scincline?” 

“No.” Lotor shakes his head. “What I did only soaked up a tiny portion of that sea of energy. Zarkon was trying to draw in the whole space-damned ocean.”

“But isn’t that...infinite?”

“Pretty much.” Pidge nods. “The amount of energy that would be funnelled into Voltron would effectively be endless. If Zarkon were to be inside Voltron when that happened assuming he survived...well he’d basically become all powerful. All the universe’s energy at his disposal. The notes say that Zarkon wanted to reshape the universe to his will, to make a reality where no one could ever resist his rule again.”

There is a collective shiver among the rooms inhabitants.

“Well...what happened?” Keith finally ask.

“Their calculations were wrong.” Pidge explains. “Nothing, not even Voltron could accept all of that energy at once. Voltron survived but the strain that trying to funnel all of that energy put on the fabric of space-time was unbearable. It actually frayed the fabric of their entire universe. They didn’t have much time after that. They used all the energy they were able to draw in to bore a hole into our reality, and the rest of it is history. The Darktron reality is just...dead. Torn to pieces.” 

The room grows silent. Keith swallows hard, and forces himself to ask the question on everyone’s mind.

“...do you know what they’re going to do next.”

Pidge looks sick. “Some of the notes were more recent. The reports there indicate that...they’re going to try again. ”

“They...they’d really risk destroying a second universe? After what happened the first time?”

“Yes, but they have a resource they didn’t have before: the alteans. They have a unique relationship with quintessence and the colony was pretty much a gold-mine for them. Honerva plans  open another breach to the quintessence field with the modified teleduv, and then use alteans in robeasts to filter the flow of quintessence, before in turn passing it off to their Voltron. With enough of the alteans she thinks she manage the massive flow of quintessence this time.”

“Is she right?”

“Honestly? I have no idea. The amount of math here...I could spend years going through it all.”

“So in other words, we have two nightmare scenarios. We just don’t know which one is most likely.”

“That’s pretty much it.”

Keith closes his eyes and sighs. When he opens his eyes, they are hard as stone.

“Then I don’t think I need to tell anyone in this room that failure is not an option. We will not let this happen to our reality. We’re going to stop Zarkon, and that starts with getting Allura back. We’re gonna need her to form Voltron and kick Zarkon and his cronies back down the hole they crawled into our reality from.”

He turns to Lotor. “We’ll do it your way. What do you need?”

“A ship. Fast one, with stealth.” 

“Done.”

“And, whether I like it or not, I suspect I’ll have some company.” Lotor’s eyes flicker over to the blades, Acxa in particular.

“That’s right.”

“Then the only other thing I need is form you, is to distract Zarkon.”

“I think we can manage that.” Keith nods, he sweeps his gaze across the allied leaders of the Coalition. “Any question.”

There are none.

“Good.” His eyes narrow. “Let’s go get our Princess back.”

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x01 – “Launch Date”

8x01 – “Launch Date”

First episode of the last season. This is probably the most romance-centered episode this show has ever done. And, this is the only episode solely written by Lauren Montgomery. The episode is clearly intended to be funny, but I didn’t laugh at much.

There are a lot of issues that can be discussed about this episode, about its own contents, especially the Allura-Lance romance, and about the episode’s relationship to the rest of the series. There’s a lot in this episode that bothers me.

The episode begins with some kind of meta commentary from this show about the original Voltron. I can understand VLD doing something like this as an homage to the original, but I, having not watched much of the original, don’t know if this particular homage works or not. Pidge is watching a cartoon that is, in-story, a production that has been made in wake of humanity learning about the existence of and being saved by Voltron last season. The show Pidge is watching is a short clip from the original Voltron animation.

In a medical bay, faceless medical personnel (I thought their faceless visual design last season was creepy then too) are tending to the Altean found in the wreckage of the mecha from the end of last season. Allura is watching from outside the room, and Romelle steps up to her, saying, “You know, back on the Colony, Luca and I didn’t always get along.” So, Romelle knows who this Altean is. Romelle gives us an expositional assessment of what Luca’s supposed qualities were, “inner strength,” “a desire to be a part of something greater than herself.”

The show presented the culture of the Colony to be very much a cult, but the show hasn’t really followed up with that and examined Romelle from that perspective. She’s just now become another regular Altean without really having to do anything to change. Even if she was the least cultish of the Colony Alteans, she still would most likely have to wrestle with the effects of growing up in a cult. This show has never demonstrated itself to be capable of dealing with big, heavy topics like that, so I don’t know why I would expect them to do so.

Allura responds to Romelle, “If she was so desperate for something to believe in, it may have made her susceptible to being manipulated.” The show has never given us any conversation between Allura and Romelle for the two of them to discuss what the Colony was like. Does Allura even realize that the Colony was a cult? Romelle’s characterization of Luca almost has a propagandistic quality to it. That description very much can apply to someone who has always been a zealot, then and now.

Hunk and his parents (and Sal from Vrepit Sal’s in the background) are in what looks like a mess hall. It’s a short, overly saccharine moment. “Your father and I are just so proud of you, saving the universe and all,” his mother says. That line feels so unnatural.

Hunk sits down with Lance, who’s clearly mentally elsewhere. Hunk expositions that the following day is the titular launch date. Launch Date also serves as a pun referencing the date that Lance and Allura go on in this episode. It’s more thought than most of this show’s episode titles get, and I kind of like it. At first, I thought Hunk could tell Lance was upset and was trying to distract him. Hunk riffs on the difference between the characters in VLD and the characters in the in-story TV show that Pidge was watching. But then when Hunk talks about the TV show hinting a romance between Keith and Allura, Lance reacts with instant, angry jealousy. Is Hunk really that oblivious and unable (or unwilling) to recognize his supposed friend Lance’s emotional state?

Hunk eventually realizes that Lance is talking about something real, “Oh, that’s right, you said you were going to ask Allura on a date. You asked her, didn’t you? Oh, and she said, no. And here I am rubbing your face in it.” Lance says she didn’t say no because he never asked her. Is this supposed to be demonstrating character growth for Lance? The guy who literally flirted with Allura the first time he ever spoke to her is too unwilling to ask her out now? It feels out of character for him. He’s been super open and publicly demonstrative of his interest in Allura before now.

Shiro is leading a “final briefing” before the launch tomorrow. At the end of the meeting, Shiro says, “It’s our last night on Earth, and we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us. We may not be back home for years, so I’m ordering you to take some time for yourselves. Be with the ones you love. You’ve earned it.” Of course, what he says makes sense. What bothers me is that this show wrote him to say it, but we don’t get to see him doing it. The only person Shiro has that could count as a loved one is Keith with their previously depicted but now ignored friendship. And it’s not like Keith was busy with someone else this night because the show eventually reveals he’s just sitting alone on top of the Black Lion with Cosmo. Why in the world did Shiro and Keith not hang out together? It makes it feel like the EPs and writers of this show, because they revealed Shiro to be gay, became too afraid to have Shiro have any friendships, including ones that had already been established.

Lance goes to ask Allura out, and he’s uncharacteristically shy and dorky around her. If this had been how Lance behaved for most of the show, his interest in Allura throughout the show might not have been so obnoxious. But because he so specifically was overbearing in his flirtation and aggressive in his jealousy, the way he’s behaving now does not feel consistent with how he’s been written before. Lance is so casual that Allura says she has to get back to what she’s busy with, and Lance lets it be until Hunk literally kicks him into Allura. Lance then finally, with a tremendous amount of hesitancy, asks her out. He asks her to come have dinner with his family. Allura says she can’t, but Romelle pushes her to do it. The instant that Romelle starts to talk Allura into it, Lance seems to return to his regular overly aggressive self. What happened to him so fast?

Especially with this season added to the show, it really feels like the creative team never really could settle on how they wanted to depict Lance. They had the one-characteristic bullet-point that they’ve used to describe him in-show before and do so again here: “Loverboy.” They knew they wanted him to fit under that label, but they couldn’t elaborate on what that would mean for him specifically, so he’s written inconsistently throughout the show because of the creative team’s inability to unify behind any detailed description of who he is. It’s disappointing because Lance could have been such an amazing character. There were definitely times where he could have been used to examine some big issues, particularly if the show had ever had him grow out of his insecurities to a place of confidence. But aside from this episode and once with Keith in 3x06 “Tailing a Comet,” Lance hasn’t really made his insecurities public. And in having him get with Allura, the show kind of feels like it’s discarding his insecurities entirely. That sends a dangerous message: that it’s a woman’s responsibility to make a man feel secure in himself.

That’s one of the biggest issues with the show writing Lance and Allura ending up together. Throughout the show Lance has expressed interest in Allura, while she has repeatedly demonstrated no interest in him. There has been a little bit of movement on Allura’s part toward interest in Lance: 6x01 “Omega Shield” when Allura left her Lion to go to Lance’s and use her magic to heal him (though some viewers think so, I am not of the opinion that Lance died in that episode), and then in 7x10 “Heart of the Lion” when Allura initiates a brief conversation with Lance before going on a mission. There hasn’t been any movement on Lance’s part to consciously recognize his prior overbearing behavior to have been inappropriate and him changing the way he behaves toward Allura as a result. Because of this, the show effectively gave validity to the argument behind the Nice Guy trope. That all guys have to do to receive the attention of a girl they’re interested in is keep at her until eventually she realizes he is what she’s wanted all along. This show never criticizes Lance for this behavior, and instead rewards him for it. It’s a dangerous message for this show to send its younger male audience because it teaches them to not respect when a girl/woman tells them no. I’m not against the premise of an Allura-Lance relationship, but it really needed to address Lance’s overbearing flirtatiousness and jealousy (or better yet, not have written Lance to have been so jealous in the first place).

Pidge is working with Beezer in a hydroponics room. Allura and Romelle come in to ask for help preparing for Allura’s date with Lance. Romelle specifically asks about clothes. Pidge reacts, “A date? With Lance? Weird.” What’s weird is that line. Why would Pidge think it was weird? The show never actually explains Pidge’s reaction here. Allura asks Pidge to help her get a date outfit, and that’s when Pidge’s mother speaks to mock Pidge’s clothing. Pidge suggests the mall, but she says she can’t go because she’s grounded.

Colleen says, “She’s grounded because apparently my daughter thinks that running away from home and galivanting off into space without her mother’s permission is an acceptable activity for a 15-year-old.” The show thinks Colleen’s statement is funny. It’s not funny at all. One, who is Colleen to speak, considering that she should be in prison along with Sam for breaking the law in 7x07 “The Last Stand Part 1.” Two, how are we viewers supposed to think Colleen has any credibility when she says Pidge has been “galivanting off into space?” Does Colleen not remember Earth being invaded and occupied by aliens for three years? Does she not realize the danger her daughter has been in while trying to fight this war against the Galra? Does she not realize that without Pidge’s actions, Matt and Sam wouldn’t have ever come home? “Galivanting off into space,” why in the world did they think it was okay to write Colleen like this? I think this demonstrates a big part of what has been wrong with the writing for most of this show: This show has been more interested in writing particular moments without any concern with how those moments clash and conflict with previous writing. There is no way that a mother would react upon learning their child had been fighting a war by acting like that child was running around having fun the way Colleen does here.

Pidge rants and screams at her mom. There is a justification to Pidge’s reaction, but the scene plays her anger for humor. And then the scene, again, thinking it’s funny, has Colleen’s eyes and voice affected evilly as she says, “Not on your life, young lady.” Colleen scares Beezer in the process. It’s disturbing that the creative team for this show thought this was funny.

Allura asks Colleen to please let Pidge help her, and Colleen instantly switches, saying, “Alright, but only because I know how much Katie hates shopping for clothing.” Ugh.

The show could have had a really good moment, had they chosen to do so, in having Colleen and Pidge talk about Pidge’s experience and Colleen’s worry over her whole family being missing. There is emotionally significant content to what this family has gone through. But the show never had the skill to deal with any content like that. Instead, they have a weird, jarring “humor” scene like this instead. It just does not work.

Sam is told that Luca is conscious. And it’s a really short scene.

In addition to Pidge, Allura and Romelle have the female MFE pilots join them shopping too. I can’t help but feel that this episode is totally reinforcing stereotypical female behavior. The girls are going shopping for clothes for a date. This episode is a severe reinforcement of traditionalized gender norms, and it feels like the show wanted to write and depict the stereotype, like they thought actively including the stereotype was somehow interesting. It’s not. It’s actually kind of cliché.

Rizavi says that she “loves shopping.” This is the closest thing to being a characteristic that this show has given Rizavi so far. Leifsdottir replies, “It’s a primal urge from when collecting and gathering was a means of survival.” Well, that’s a hypothesis, but it is still gender reductive.

Pidge sees a video game some street vender has on display. Rizavi is also interested. The vender wants to barter, and Pidge and Rizavi are seemingly baffled by the idea. Did they not come prepared to shop? Is it specifically that this guy wants to barter? No one offers him money though, so it’s like they have no way to shop at all. Rizavi tries to guilt the guy into giving it to Pidge because of Pidge being a Paladin. I didn’t realize abusing a position of power like Rizavi is trying to do here, was a heroic way to behave. The vender only knows of the Paladins through the TV show. It was only a few months ago that Voltron helped liberate Earth, and the Paladins’ involvement was very publicly referenced, so his only thinking of the Paladins as a TV show is unrealistic. The vender offers her the game because his daughter loves the TV show and he’d like an autograph. Pidge then starts affecting her voice like the character in the TV show. It’s so weird. Rather than actually sign an autograph, Pidge draws her face. She then continues to use this method to acquire things throughout their shopping. She’s using people thinking of her as the actor on the show rather than as herself, so this is all fraud. Is the entire Holt family made up of criminals?

The show clearly thinks this is all funny. I’m not even slightly laughing. It’s just weird.

Meanwhile, Lance goes to talk to Coran. Lance tells Coran that he’s going on a date with Allura, and Coran is instantly aggressive, dismissing Lance for not being royalty nor Altean. Who knew Coran was both classist and racist. Lance says that he doesn’t think Allura thinks like that, and Coran responds, “It’s not just about Allura. Did you even acquire permission from her primary guardian?” Ugh! This episode really is putting a lot of effort into not just reinforcing traditionalized gender norms but into those norms being fundamentally patriarchal. The idea that a boy has to ask an older male who controls a young woman if he’s okay with the boy dating the girl is absolutely patriarchal. And this episode was written by Lauren Montgomery. The show can’t even hide behind saying it was some ignorant straight, white guy who wrote this. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that Lauren Montgomery has said that killing Allura was a feminist act of writing if this episode is what she wrote in her one, solo writing credit for the show.

The only thing that’s even slightly interesting to me about this scene is that Coran redressed his room to include a giant portrait of himself and Alfor above the mantle. During the time before season seven when I would let myself dream about the idea that this show might include a character who wasn’t straight, I actually thought they might could do so by having Coran having been attracted to Alfor but never acting on it. It would be a way for this show, like other shows have done, to claim inclusion without actually having to do any real inclusion by depicting any non-straight character interaction. It would have been cheap and the bare minimum of inclusion, but I’ve lived in a homophobic world so long that it’s about as much as I expect from straight writers who pretend they care about inclusion. But then Shiro was revealed as gay, as poorly as that whole element of the show was handled, and the show proved that there are other ways to claim inclusion without really actually depicting it.

But now this leaves me questioning. Is this portrait supposed to be some subtle way the show was trying to hint at Coran being gay? Or is it just supposed to be funny without an actual thought about what it actually means? It’s like the portrait is saying that Alfor and Coran were Allura’s fathers. As much as I would have loved for Allura to canonically have had two fathers, not just one biological father and one close friend of the family who serves as a surrogate father after the real one dies, this does emphasize how this show has totally neglected to include Allura’s mother in her life. We’re in the eighth season of this show, and it’s almost like she didn’t have a mother. I know there’s a bit of illusory dream sequence in a later episode, but Allura has never spoken about her mother, so it’s like they didn’t have much of a relationship. But if they didn’t have a relationship, I still would want that detailed. As for this portrait, it feels like the show is using queer identity here as a joke gimmick. If this portrait was revealed to have a bigger, more respectful meaning, I would like it more. I like the portrait but only because of what potential I can see in how it could have been used in the show. How it actually is used, though, seems to be nothing but as a joke.

Coran makes Lance argue his qualification to be allowed to date Allura. Reinforcing the patriarchy is so much fun. Sigh.

The girls meanwhile have gotten a lot of stuff in their shopping. The clothing options they try for Allura are supposed to be funny, but it just seems like a cliché trying-on-clothing scene to me. The shopkeeper seems to be the Unilu that Coran dealt with in both 2x07 “Space Mall” and 4x04 “The Voltron Show!” Pidge tries her autograph fraud, but the guy says no. Allura says she could give him a “royal decree of service from the crowned princess of Altea,” but then seems instantly dejected, like she doesn’t see herself as the Princess of Altea anymore. There is something meta interesting about how this show has let Allura’s status of being a princess no longer have any meaning.

The Unilu sees Pidge’s game and offers the outfit for the game. Pidge gives it up for the outfit, and Allura hugs her and thanks her. I love Allura’s reaction. I don’t understand why Pidge did it though. Yeah, yeah, friendship and all that, but the episode doesn’t do anything to show this plot as being Pidge and Allura bonding with each other. Maybe if it had just been the two of them shopping, it might read like that, but with the whole group it doesn’t. It’s clear that Pidge feels she’s giving up something, but the episode fails to explain why she’s willing to do it.

Sam asks Coran if Romelle could help speak to Luca. Coran says, “I’ll see if I can find her.” This is not Coran’s voice actor speaking. I don’t have the best ear to spot moments like this when a character’s voice does not match their normal voice actor, but I know that some within the fandom have suggested there are quite a few moments like this in season eight. This is definitely one such moment. This line is not Rhys Darby’s voice. (Anyone reading this, please feel free to point out other instances this season where the voice of a character doesn’t sound like their voice actor.)

Cut to a sunset scene. The music for this sunset scene is the same as the music from 7x01 “A Little Adventure” during the flashback with Keith and Shiro watching the sunset. This is another part of why it offends me that this show didn’t have Shiro and Keith hanging out together. Shiro had told everyone to spend time with people they cared about. Here Keith is by himself when he could have been hanging out with Shiro. They’re supposed to be super close, after all. And the show has the audacity to use the music of a scene that was part of the exploration of why and how Shiro and Keith were so close, and instead now have Keith alone and joined by Lance. Maybe the reuse of the music is just more evidence of how badly produced this season was that they didn’t bother getting new music, that they didn’t think through reusing old music, ignoring how repeating themes has an explicit effect on the interpretation of a scene? I mean, after watching this show enough, analyzing what I have, reading the analysis others have written, I can’t help but to question the competence of the executive producers and their creative team. Maybe they really were ignorant of the use of music in film and video series. Or maybe in reusing this music, they were making a statement about no longer caring about the relationship between Shiro and Keith. We know that the EPs always had a preference for Keith and only ever saw Shiro as a something to have Keith narratively step on in his ascendance to the position of main character of the show. Maybe to them, this music is only Keith’s music, and they don’t recognize the music as an expression of Shiro and Keith’s relationship. Maybe using the music again here, unassociated with Shiro, was a homophobic action on part of the EPs and their creative team in trying to distance Keith from Shiro now that they had written Shiro as gay. Or maybe they just didn’t put much thought into the implications of using this music in this scene. They haven’t demonstrated themselves to be all that willing (or capable) of thinking through the implications of their creative decisions, after all.

In short, I really, really do not like this scene.

Lance is wearing pots and pans all over his body. He says Coran is making him wear it for his date with Allura. It’s supposed to be funny, but it’s not. Keith reacts, “A date? With Allura? Well done, Lance.” I’m sorry, what? The show seems to consider a guy getting a girl to say yes to him is an achievement on the guy’s part. He’s done something well by finally getting her to say yes. “Well done.” Ugh. Allura is a person, not an achievement.

Keith tries to reassure Lance that if Allura’s dating him that it’s because she likes him. This development between Lance and Allura just does not feel natural to me. It could have, but the show was too lazy to do the work to deal with the baggage that comes with having spent so long writing Lance to be hyper flirtatious and instantaneously jealous.

Keith says, “That’s why we’ve got to end this war. And we’re going to do it with the Lance who’s the Paladin of the Red Lion, the Lance that’s always got my back, and the Lance who knows exactly who he is and what he’s got to offer.” There really hasn’t been anything to explain a change in Lance no longer having a problem with Keith. It’s like once 7x06 “The Journey Within” was done, the show decided to pretend that that plot solved whatever contention there was between Lance and Keith. Part of the problem is that the show never actually explained where that contention came from. They were supposedly rivals, but why? I think their being rivals was more bullet-point characterization. The creative team never bothered to develop an explanation for themselves, so there was never anything to include in the show to explain it. Their rivalry extended no further than just saying that they were rivals. Keith says that Lance now “knows exactly who he is and what he’s got to offer,” and this sounds like they intend this to reference Lance’s insecurities, but the show has not actually resolved those insecurities. It’s just more of this show having important character stuff all occur off-screen.

The scene clearly was meant to be interpreted as emotional and demonstrating friendship between Keith and Lance, but there are too many holes in the scene for it to actually feel like that to me.

Allura arrives at Lance’s family’s house. I actually really do like the clothes Lance is wearing for this date. Allura is reduced to her appearance by both Lance’s mother and Lance himself by how energetically they comment on her appearance as she walks through the door. Their reactions to Allura are just too forceful.

Lance has on-screen identified himself as being from Cuba. I found it odd that back in 7x05 “The Ruins,” Lance calls his grandmother “meemaw” instead of abuela or abuelita. Here, he calls his grandfather “Pop Pop,” which does not seem like what a Cuban boy would call his grandfather. Veronica also calls their grandfather “Pop Pop.” I don’t know Cuban culture well at all, but even still it seems off to me. It makes it feel like Lance has only ever been Cuban in name only.

During dinner, Lance’s family spends a lot of time mocking him. This could very much be an origin for most of Lance’s insecurities. He’s clearly upset as they laugh at him. We’re told by one of Lance’s relatives that the only reason Lance is being allowed to sit at “the adult table” during this meal is because Lance invited Allura. It really doesn’t feel like Lance’s family values him. This scene is supposed to be showing to us the big love Lance felt was missing all the times throughout earlier seasons he expressed sadness over being so far apart from his family. But this doesn’t feel like a loving family to me, and Lance is not reacting in any way right now like he’s okay with how they’re behaving. His arms are crossed, and he’s scowling. They’re clearly making him feel bad. And I get the impression that we’re to interpret this as how they normally treat him. So then, if his family picks on him so much, why would he miss them so badly earlier in the show. It does not feel consistently written whatsoever.

Veronica hints to Lance that she’s interested in Keith, and Lance very loudly and animatedly objects to the idea, and it’s really weird. Did the show not just immediately prior to dinner give us a scene in which we’re supposed to interpret the rift between Lance and Keith as resolved? Where is this spastic reversal coming from?

As an aside, Lance’s mother tells Allura, “Lance never brings girls home. You must really mean something to him.” Allura says, “That’s strange. He always gave off the impression of being rather popular with women.” His mother replies, “He gets that from his father. It’s all talk. But if you can get past that, you’ll find a good boy with a big heart.” Wow. So, Lance’s father is hyper flirtatious and aggressively jealous too? That is not a healthy mentality for this show to be normalizing like it is. And to have Lance’s mother excuse that behavior like it’s okay for a man to behave that way is appalling. The line, “if you can get past that, you’ll find a good boy with a big heart,” is the show saying that it’s a woman’s responsibility to make herself not have a problem with a guy who flirts with nearly every woman he sees and gets aggressively jealous over her. This is just so wrong. And that this was written by a female writer makes it even more disturbing.

Veronica leads a toast “to family,” and even Lance, despite having been picked on, is happy about the toast. Allura, however, is saddened by it, and Lance notices.

Meanwhile, Romelle talks to Luca. This is the one scene of Romelle’s in the entire series that I actually really like. This scene hints to me at what Romelle could have been to this show had she been written well. The scene first reestablishes that Romelle knows Luca personally as she starts the conversation. Romelle says, “I’m so glad to see you’re alright Luca. We can help. What happened to you, where’s the Colony?” Luca rejects Romelle, saying, “So you can betray them yet again? You abandoned us, Romelle. And for the Paladins of Voltron! The very ones who killed our savior, Lotor!” Romelle is shocked at Luca’s reaction. Luca continues, “You’ve sided with the Great Destroyers! She told us of their lies! She’s going to fix it all! She’ll reunite us with Lotor! With Altea! You don’t stand a chance against Honerva!”

And then Luca gasps, there’s a flash, an outlined shot of Honerva’s face, and Luca falls over dead. Seems like Honerva killed Luca from a distance with her space magic to keep her from talking anymore. There’s a shot of Honerva, like so much of this show, still weirdly standing in the middle of an empty room. So now, the episode has confirmed where Luca came from, that her attack on Earth at the end of last season had at least something to do with Honerva, thereby setting Honerva up as the final big villain of the show. I have never really found Honerva/Haggar interesting. But, I guess, at least the final main villain being Honerva does sort of stage the conflict as Honerva versus Allura, space witch versus space witch. Honerva as a foil for Allura is a good structure for the show. I don’t think the show does well exploring that foil parallel though because none of what Honerva does is related to any of Allura’s character motivations. The best villains in stories are ones who are directly connected to the protagonist’s goals. This show doesn’t give Allura any goals other than stop the Galra though. The protagonist-antagonist contention for this season, and really most of the show as a whole, is barely existent. The story would have been far stronger if the protagonists had had clear goals.

Lance and Allura go for a walk to a park. They look at leafless trees. Lance says, “This place used to be so beautiful,” and Allura responds, “It’s my fault the Galra did this to your home.” We’re not told where in the world they are nor what time of year it is. Given this bit of dialog, I think we’re supposed to interpret these trees as dead. But my first thought was that it was autumn, and the trees had lost their leaves. Lance tries to reassure Allura that it’s not her fault and that he’s glad to have met her. Allura touches the tree and does a hand-glowing thing. The tree glows, grows, and all the plants around the park gain leaves. So, again, we were supposed to interpret the trees of this park as having somehow died, right? And she just brought them back to life? Or did she just make them gain leaves in the middle or depth of autumn?

Allura says that while Team Voltron was out in the universe fighting the Galra, “I somehow felt like we were a family.” Of course, the show never really depicted them as being a loving family. Most of the characters always were angrily yelling at each other. “Each of us was alone, but we were alone together,” she says. Clearly, the writer thinks this is a poignant line, but, while it does have a certain truth to it, it’s not a flattering one. Being “alone, but […] alone together,” isn’t being a family. It isn’t being friends. It isn’t a close bond. It’s a statement that though they had to work together, they never actually were close to each other.

“But now, here on Earth, I see that everyone already has a family.” Well, Shiro doesn’t. Not that this show cared about addressing that because that would require the EPs and the writers to care about Shiro. It’s also really weird to have Allura talking like she doesn’t have a family, when the show very explicitly visually juxtaposed Allura being visited by Coran and Romelle in the hospital at the end of 7x13 “Lions’ Pride Part 2” with Hunk and his family, Pidge and her family, Lance and his family, and even Keith with Krolia and Kolivan. Why is this show suddenly having Allura discard Coran as part of her sense of family? This very episode had Coran acting as if he were Allura’s father. Having Allura act this way now is so out of place.

She continues that they have “a home to return to once the war is over. Everyone except me.” I can totally understand her being sad over Altea being gone. That is totally reasonable to bring up. It has an unfortunate dimension given what happens at the end of this season though. The season opens with Allura lamenting not having a family and a home to return to after the war is over, and then ends the show by having her give up her life, rebooting all existence, restoring Altea to existence, but she doesn’t get to benefit from her work. She doesn’t get to go home.

Allura’s story this entire season is hugely depressing, and I remember the first time I watched this season feeling that Allura herself was deeply depressed the whole time. That’s not a good message for the show to send either: If you’re depressed, then the only way out is dying.

“It’s silly,” she continues, “but I used to think that the team relied on me.” It once did, back in seasons one and two. But then the EPs wanted Keith as Black Paladin more than anything, and that put Allura in the Blue Lion, and ever since, her position of leadership has been eliminated. She just follows orders from Keith now. It makes me mourn for what Allura could have been if she been written with respect and a desire to show a strong female character in a position of leadership instead of reduced to a magical person of color who has to give up her life to magically fix everyone’s problems. In past commentaries, I have referred to Allura’s previous position of leadership on the Castle of Lions as being like she was an admiral overseeing the fleet. Imagine what it would be like if she was in command of the Atlas, not as Captain, but as an Admiral. Imagine how she could have been written such that Sanda was another foil to Allura, and with Sanda gone, Allura filling that void in fleet leadership.

Allura says that she gains strength from the Paladins. I mean, sure, that should be blatantly true by this point in a story with a found family theme, and it should be true for everyone about everyone in that found family. I don’t think that it is anywhere near fully realized though.

Lance tries to assure her, telling her that she’s not alone. “I don’t care that this is only our first date, Allura, I love you.” Really? This show went there, having Lance say “I love you” on the first date, and the creative team of this show didn’t think there was anything wrong with that? It’s at least notably immature of him to have done so. That the solution to a woman having complex emotions and thoughts about something is to just tell her “I love you” and everything is solved?

In response to Allura’s asking, “You truly feel that way,” Lance takes Allura’s hand and makes her touch his chest and says, “With all my heart.” It’s a little cliché, but it’s still way too soon. Against a glowing background, Lance and Allura, in silhouette, kiss. I wonder if this kiss was added late into the production because the animation is stiff and a little jerky and feels really different to most of the show’s animation.

So yeah, their first date and Lance has said “I love you” and they’ve kissed. On the first date. Now, I know this show doesn’t have the patience to build up a story over time, the show has taken so many narrative short-cuts, but this is just too damn fast. It just feels like there’s something missing to get to this point.

Beezer arrives for some reason. He takes a picture and gives it to them. Why is Beezer in the park? There definitely feels like there’s something missing.

Allura arrives at her room, and Coran and Romelle are waiting for her. Cut to the meeting room, where the three of them are talking to Shiro. Allura says, “If Honerva sent that beast, then our mission must change.” Shiro says, “No, we have a plan and we need to stick to it. If Honerva is behind this, then I’m sure we’ll find her along the way.” Allura follows up, “Or she’ll find us.” It is interesting that Allura’s instincts were very much right here. I wonder how much difficulty they could have spared the universe (and other realities) if they had altered their mission to actively looking for Honerva.

The time has come for the team to leave, Voltron and the Atlas. I like getting another shot of the scale of the Lions next to the Atlas for comparison. I do very much like the design of the Atlas ship. A huge crowd is there to see them off.

I’ve seen people point out this animation error before, and I want to point it out again because it’s odd. In the first shot behind the Paladins and crew on the stage, from center stage outward, the Paladins are standing Keith, Lance, Allura, Pidge, and Hunk. Then in the next shot, a reverse shot, from center stage outward, it’s Keith, Allura, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk. It’s odd that Lance and Allura are flipped from one shot to the next.

Sam starts a speech, and then Keith takes over. Allura then takes over from Keith. There’s a montage of Hunk hugging his family and Lance hugging his. One of Lance’s family hugs Allura such that he lifts her off the ground.

Then Shiro takes over from Allura. “Each of you have given something to this fight. Many have been lost, but not in vain because through their sacrifice, many more will live on.” The memorial wall of the dead of the Garrison is shown, and then a close up of Sanda’s placard. Why in the freaking world would they chose to juxtapose Shiro’s statement with Sanda’s picture instead of Adam’s? That’s really offensive and shows how little this creative team actually cared about Shiro and Adam and the inclusion of a queer relationship on the show.

The Atlas launches. I have to agree with others who’ve pointed it out, the way Shiro is standing in the shot of the camera looking over Team Voltron from behind on the bridge of the Atlas does not look like Shiro’s posture, it looks very much like how we’ve seen Allura stand many times before.

The music during the launch is nice.

So, that’s the first episode of the final season. It’s very much a different kind of story than most episodes of the show. There is a lot of focus on relationships of various kinds. The Allura-Lance romance is most prominent, and it’s really uncomfortable. It just amazes me that a story that so strongly reinforces traditional gender norms, patriarchal family structures, and rewards a male character with success through the nice guy trope was written by a female writer.

[magicalratboy]

Time to spill the tea sis...

I feel like I'm the only one that really enjoyed the ending?

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Like...yall. If you enjoyed this season please hmu because I really don't want to be alone in this. EVERYONE IS FREAKING OVER THE ENDING, WHEN THERE WERE SO MANY GOOD THINGS.

I mean, I kinda skipped through the episodes to finish them before school, but I thought it was such a good season. Well, not the best [cough cough season 3 was the best cough], but as a salty klance shipper, I accept it!

The only way to really get past the hate is to forget about the ships. Don't see it defined by it's lgbt rep. See it as a kid's show that are filled with amazing characters!

But if you were to see it as for its ships...nothing was endgame! [Well, besides Shiro and that one guy, but hell, while y'all are complaining, we literally got a m|m kiss on screen. But of course people salty cus you don't know who it is.]

Lance could grow to love Keith or Pidge

Hunk possibly started a life with Shay

Lance could live out the rest of his life loving Allura,

It's all up to you, and I think that's what they intended.

Yes, the creators and cast had lied A LOT about things, and that a pretty low ass move, but just forget about them.

I'll name some things I really liked about this season

- The Sunset Scene [ft. Lance and Keith]

-HAGGAR'S STORY. LIKE JFC.

-How bad Haggar wanted to be a family, like, that made me tear up

-Lance

- SHIRO GOT MARRIED TO A MAN AND THERE WAS A REAL M|M KISS ON SCREEN.

-Pidge using her earthy telepathic powers

-OUR FAVORITE LESBIAN ALIENS ARE ALIVE

-Lance

-No Keith centered episodes

-LANCE LITTERALLY GOT FUCKING ALTEAN MARKINGS AND YOU ALL ARE SLEEPING ON THAT. LIKE, REALLY??

-No real endgames

-Lance

- The shopping trip [most importantly Veronica and Pidge]

-Lance's family [Btw where the hell is Abuelita]

-I actually really loved the ending scenes under Allura's statue.

- someone died [Shiro died in the original, so I had a feeling someone was gonna die, whether it be Shiro, or someone else]

-PIDGE WATCHING THE OLD VERSION OF VOLTRON, AND HER DRESSING UP AND ACTING LIKE THE OLD PIDGE.

[I'll add more as I think]

[dent-de-leon]

don’t you think lance getting so much of the spotlight in the first 3 episodes was misleading and a little unfair? like, they made people think he was the MC for no reason

Sorry but I’ve just never seen it that way at all personally! I didn’t feel he was the protagonist honestly–and I think that’s clear right from the second episode. A number of reasons for this. Some Assembly Required completely cements this, particualry through the following:

In this episode, Lance doesn’t demonstrate a level of inherent skill that stands out clearly above the rest of the team. Shiro is the only thing who exhibits this; that scene where he seamlessly “sees through the Lion’s eyes” is a Protagonist Moment if I ever saw it lmao,, 

He doesn’t have a noticeablely serious moment where he completely shuts down, closes off, has a panic attack, ect. We see him clash with Keith more, but the tone of that conflict is completely different from Shiro’s panic attack and Pidge throwing down her headset in the mind meld excercise. Both of those instances are indicateve of more deeply rooted trauma, whereas Lance instigating Keith is played for comedic effect. Again, here, we see Shiro–and Pidge–painted in more of a Main Characer light. 

We go right into Shiro and Pidge’s character arcs for the next set of episodes. The early episodes are very much their arcs–which, of course, also interrealte through their shared history with Kerberos. 

We actually get a lot of info on these characters in episode 2, right down to how they prepare for a supposed alarm. Again, Lance had got the comedy scene here. He’s playing up the lighthearted everyman role right from the start. We actually get a lot of info on these characters just 2 episodes in, and already, it’s clear Lance is not a solo lead–as much as he may seem to think he is at first, lmao. 

Not for anything, but Lance actually doesn’t get a whole lot of development in season 1, certainly not anything that would make me believe he’s meant to be the “Main Character”?? Like, he’s even taken out of comission for like two episodes?? And then, as soon as he’s conscious, that very same episode he’s tricked into getting his Lion stolen so?? It’s also important to remember that, early on, Lance has very little stake in this game. Right now, his family hasn’t been directly hurt by the Galra like Pidge’s. He hasn’t lost a loved one for a year and battled depression over it like Keith. He hasn’t been tortured and irrevocably changed like Shiro. His whole planet wasn’t destroyed like Allura and Coran. His parents aren’t dead.

He does cry because he misses home, which is certainly an understandable reaction that hints at more depth. But relatively speaking, he’s one of the happiest and most well adjusted individiuals. Early on, he chooses to focus on a lot of these very trivial concerns; ie, popularity, girls, his one-sided rivalry with Keith, whether there’s going to be a parade in his honor, ect. I dunno, I guess I just always saw him as a member of an esemble cast, the lighthearted everyman who needed to mature and grow. That was the vibe I got from him early on. 

People might get a little hung up on the pilot cause it’s such a long period of time and Lance seems to be the catalyst, but again, it’s clear he’s the one the audenience is meant to identify wih most rather than someone who is tied to the main source of intrigue. Right from the beginning, that’s Shiro. And I’d argue that, from the very start, there was also a similar aura of mystery completely surrounding Keith that basically cemented his role as a Big Player in the plot. He’s kicked out of the Garrison, but it’s never explained why. He’s got that wrapped up knife?? He’s got a mysterious past with Shiro?? He’s “like a Galra” and takes on Zarkon one-on-one?? Season 1 makes it clear Keith’s gonna have huge development later down the line, he just exudes that aura of someone who’s got a tragic past and is fated to go through hell–he’s written pretty similar to Shiro in that respect.

That’s not saying Lance isn’t also an important character, but I don’t think eveyone needs to have a deep dark past rooted in the enemy’s latest machinations and have their character arcs directly lead the plot, it’s cool to have outside motivations and development. And hey, not everyone’s character conflicts are always going to be life or death. Again, Lance is the everyman, his role is different from Shiro’s, Keith’s, ect. And he does get to stand center stage in later seasons. He recieves tons of development and it’s pretty amazingly executed. But I just can’t buy this whole “Lance was supposed to lead/take the Black Lion/be the Main Character/I was led on” thing. I just can’t see it at all.

[hgthephoenix]

the Heart of Voltron

i’m probably reading into it way too much, but i was talking with @kalinspace about this and IT SURE SEEMS LIKE this is yet another metaphor for Lance’s romantic endgame...

ahem. the heart, you say?

oh man.

Lance describes Allura’s role on the team right before this line. he says, “There’s a reason the Blue Lion chose you. You’re the one who brought everyone together.” 

so calling her the heart makes sense: Lance believed that she was the one who brought them all together, like a heart holds a body together, in a way. Allura and Blue are the figurative heart of Voltron, according to Lance.

but Keith and Black, as the handbook says, are the literal heart of Voltron. Black is the lion that literally takes up the head and body portion of Voltron, which includes the space where the heart would be if Voltron was a living being jsjskdlsdjs.

the thing is, this is all and well, but it doesn’t explain why that exact term was used for both of them. Keith and Allura were both referred to as the heart of Voltron. not the center, not the body, no. the heart. which brings us to the important fact that:

hearts are synonymous with love and romance.

and when Lance said this in season 4, he thought he loved Allura. telling her that she and Blue are the heart of Voltron is strange, because if you remember way back to the first episode of the show, Allura never got to describe the Blue Lion; Lance insisted on talking over her.

um, yeah, sorry Lance, that’s not why the Blue Lion chose you. Coran and the paladins didn’t “write” the handbook until after season 6, so unless Lance went up and asked Coran or Allura about the characteristics of the Blue Lion by season 4, what he said during the battle on Naxzela was not factually accurate. Lance thought that Blue/Allura was the heart of Voltron at the time. no one told him that, he came to that conclusion all by himself. 

Lance thought Allura was the heart, but then by this scene in season 6,

he accepted that she wasn’t for him.

and he didn’t know that Keith was the true heart of Voltron, just as he hasn’t quite yet realized he has feelings for Keith.

Lance still liked Allura throughout season 7, but he was actively trying to get over her. he knew she didn’t feel the same way. she had chosen Lotor over him, several times.

yet somehow, Allura suddenly started to return his feelings, towards the end of season 7.

and as Kal ever so kindly pointed out to me earlier, this episode is called THE HEART OF THE LION jkdksldkl and it was chock full of both klance and allurance moments.

i mean, in addition to that one, there’s:

flaming bi colors, Lance focusing on Keith despite Pidge being right there.

trying to deny his obvious attraction to Allura when Veronica brings it up.

and (my personal favorite) Keith yelling out for him more loudly and desperately than the others when he almost died, and this being enough motivation for Lance to come to his senses and keep fighting.

so yes, this episode is full of romantically coded moments, and is called The Heart of the Lion. i don’t know about you folks, but it seems obvious to me that the lion in the title is Red, specifically, since the episode mostly revolves around Lance and his feelings for the people he cares about. they could have called the episode anything they wanted, but they chose to connect Lance and Red to love, and they used the word ‘heart,’ yet again, to describe a member of Team Voltron.

but by this episode, Lance was trying to get over Allura, he had accepted that he had to move on. and as of the end of season 7, i don’t think Lance truly knows who he wants to be with.

he wanted Allura, but he will soon realize (along with his bisexual crisis) that the person he needs is Keith. Lance has shown that he loves both of them, whether he sees it himself or not.

the three of them have been connected to hearts and love, and there’s no way that’s a coincidence. Lance is the heart of the Red Lion. he cares for many people and has lots of love to give, but he still needs someone who loves him back. 

and Allura, he did love her, but he’s realized that she isn’t for him. he thought she was the heart of Voltron, but she isn’t.

It’s not Allura, it’s Keith. 

it’s actually Keith, he loves Keith, it’s been Keith the whole time.

[sp4c3-0ddity]

Do I think plance is still one-sided in canon?

Short answer:  No

Long answer:

I think season seven - mostly the front half - gave us a lot of evidence to support that Lance feels something for Pidge. But first, a disclaimer:

whether you see it as romantic or not is your prerogative but I’m arguing in favor of romantic so if you disagree this post isn’t for you

(also i got tired of seeing “plance” meta that mostly argues against a//urance - although admittedly this has a bit of that too... - rather than for plance so here this is, in all its “someone’s probably already said it better” glory this is why i don’t usually write meta)

I know Lance’s livid and notable “Don’t you touch her!” stands out in a lot of minds, but I have a confession to make:  that line made me sit up, but initially it didn’t scream PLANCE at me (but i’ll still address it later), so first I want to talk about the other bit of specific Lance dialogue that caught my attention:

“Yeah, Pidge loved that robot.”

Here’s the thing about this line:  it’s totally irrelevant to the issue at hand. Bob is forcing Lance to play a life-endangering version of Guess Who, and when he gets to Rolo and Bob tries to jog his memory with traveled with Nyma and Beezer, what does Lance remember first? That Pidge loved that robot.

He could’ve thought of almost anything else to do with that incident, so why didn’t he say “yeah, Nyma handcuffed me to a tree” or “Hunk never trusted them”? And it’s not like he mulled over his statement of something Pidge loved before he said it; it was easily and most likely the first thing to pop into his head almost like Pidge is often on his mind or something right

Lance has always taken notice of Pidge. The fact that he noticed her issue with the Kerberos mission and confronted her about it is literally what kick-started the plot (see this meta/theory by @anchoredtether). But this line in season seven? It’s different, because it’s almost completely irrelevant to what’s going on, not to mention the kicker:

What was Lance doing when Pidge showed that she loved that robot?

He was flirting with and trying to charm Nyma. And yet, Pidge caught his attention in some subtle way that allowed him to notice that she was charmed by Beezer. It’s nothing like the incident after the simulator crash, when Pidge tried to harangue Iverson for “slandering” the Kerberos pilot; that outburst was front and center so of course Lance would’ve noticed it. But Pidge latching onto Beezer wasn’t so overt, and Lance somehow noticed it despite being distracted the entire time

seriously though how did he remember the fake distress signal before he recalled that they stole the Blue Lion which was his at the time

so now we can talk about the other Revealing bit of dialogue and what it holds...including how it contrasts to other similar instances for Lance:

“Don’t you touch her!”

i know this has been dissected or biopsied to death a lot but i’m fishing it out of the formaldehyde again because i think it’s Interesting how Lance’s protectiveness of Pidge here is just...different

(And also, is it just me, or is this some roundabout indication that Lance actually thinks of Pidge as a “girl”? Because i personally don’t share the headcanon that Lance is bi so if he’s taken notice of that...but anyway that was a tangent we’ll move on now)

In context, Lance acts as soon as Zethrid and Ezor single out Pidge. His voice - and the look on his face - as he charges is angrier than we’ve ever seen him i think?. And i mean, legitimately angry, because the only times (again, i think; memory might fail me) we’ve seen him anywhere close to this angry were (1) at Keith out of “rivalry”/petty jealousy and (2) at Lotor (also out of jealousy and before he showed any indication that he was hiding something).

(There was also at Keith in “The Journey Within”, and while to an extent I think that was legitimate anger, it doesn’t have the same impetus, at least in my interpretation, since he was angry on his own behalf rather than on someone else’s)

Of course, you can say that Lance’s anger and quick action come purely from a place of platonic/familial protectiveness because he’s put himself in the line of fire for other characters before, most notably Coran (season one), Allura (season six), and Veronica (season seven). But here are a few crucial differences:

I’ll start with the scene where he puts himself between Allura and a blast, since i see this get cropped up as Evidence for them as an endgame romantic pairing. Because Lance does undoubtedly have feelings for her (at least in season six), but his protection of her here doesn’t strike me as evidence for them, exactly, because he’s done the same thing for Coran

(unless you want to make the argument that he’s into Coran too, which, uh, i’m pretty sure that’s one thing the whole fandom can agree is not the case)

But there is one thing here that’s different, and that is that Lance (probably) dies and Allura revives him. But Allura’s revival serves another purpose, and that is to foreshadow her revival of Shiro at the very end of the season

(Now you might say but Reem did you see how Allura looked at him!! And i’ll say i’ve seen way too many “meta” posts comparing that Look(TM) to ones exchanged between Shiro and Keith, and if i was a betting woman i’d put money on sh/eith not being canon so that’s hardly what i consider “proof”)

and then, more than that difference, there’s Lance’s reaction. He wasn’t angry here - he’s not angry while defending Coran or Veronica either - not like he was while uselessly throwing himself at someone that threatened Pidge

And that’s another thing that’s worth mentioning:  the enemy threatening Pidge posed a very personal threat in that moment, whereas the enemy threatening Coran, Allura, and Veronica was depersonalized and faceless. could that then be the source of Lance’s anger? That the Enemy was in his face and he thought he could do something about them then?

All right, then what about...Shiro vs. Sendak? Sendak was a very personal enemy to Shiro, and he was very close to killing him before Keith swooped in to off him (which i have Thoughts about but won’t get into in this post). Keith wasn’t angry that Shiro was in danger in that moment, not really. although maybe you can write it off as Keith being “more mature” but i honestly don’t think that’s it because Shiro’s always been a sore spot for him and Keith still gets angry and protective. and i’ve already mentioned what i think about canon romantic sh/eith...

And then there’s the obvious comparison, about how the other members of Team Voltron reacted to Pidge being in very obvious danger during that scene, and the fact is that while they’re all protective of her, they were all much more composed than Lance was. Heck, even Lance was composed before Pidge was singled out

Lance is temperamental, it’s true, but he’s not exactly “volatile”, not in the way Keith was, so this feels especially notable and more than mere protectiveness over a friend or “sister figure”

i know there’s lots more to be said about Lance and Pidge and their relationship from season seven, but i’m more familiar with the front half of the season (i’m never binge-watching thirteen episodes ever again that was a bad idea), so i’ll leave you with a quick comment on their behavior in “The Journey Within”:

they were holding onto each other for most of the episode and did you see the way Pidge clutched Lance’s arm with both of hers also has your otp held hands in canon no i didn’t think so. then there’s this blessed screenshot (thank you @lions-in-hats for it):

tl;dr the writers gave us some indication that Lance has feelings for Pidge, even if they’re not explicit. whether that was intentional on their part remains to be seen, and it’s up to them to do something about it

[papersynth]

The Feud breakdown theory

TLDR: Its basically one big Klance-centric episode, this whole theory’s probably a reach but its nice lol. Reposted from my twitter. More under the cut!

Lets start off this thread by pointing out one of the glaring things that immediately hit me once I started watching this episode when it aired: the title sequence. I'm not particularly old but my parents have always loved gameshows and reality television.

They would watch it in the living room and so one of the things that stuck out to me the most was how the logo for Garfle Warfle Snick is visually similar to "The Dating Game" which was a 60's TV show centered around a bachelorette picking out a guy to take out on a date.

Even the dang flowers.....

It was at this moment I thought "well, after being basically deprived of any Klance scenes for 3 seasons, you'd think S7 would bring you some of that and boy oh boy I've been fed so well. I think its strange for them to visually replicate a DATING GAMESHOW logo. We know for a fact that they were going for a family feud esque style, so why didn't they just replicate the Family feud logo instead? The vibe of the entire episode would change because it'll be a glaring reference.

Going back to Kaplan's tweet about how things aren't what they seem, the Feud really, like, obviously lets you know, that things really aren't what they seem. The story shifts in focus and tone and so do the characters.

My theory is that this episode foreshadows events to come that even the paladins never knew were even challenges themselves.

I believe this sort of aids the Klance fight theory (graciously written by Ca HERE) because that altean colony which they believe was a win for them to discover, could possibly be their next challenge (their garfle, becomes a warfle)

We also know that it isn't new for Voltron to use the "it was an altean all along!" as shock value for their enemies but at this point, I think Allura's starting to learn that her race is equally capable of evil.

This adds to the idea that during the 3 year gap, there's a possibility that the altean colony and Haggar/Galra have been working together to develop new technology (Hunk: I've never seen the Galra use weapons like these before) because clearly it isn’t the olkari helping them.

Time for my biggest reach yet, how the fuck is that a chopstick lance. You can recognise a mullet for a hundred feet away but you can't recognise a sword at point blank. Strange considering Keith drew out the sword pretty quickly, so there's no way Lance saw chopsticks.

NOTHING in this image screams chopsticks. I even went and printed out this god forsaken screencap and tilted it to see if it looked like chopsticks from a far angle and nope, still looks like a blade. This one's a reach but, chopsticks are insinuate a "yin-yang" dynamic.

Chopsticks is a strange pick because it doesn't LOOK anything like a chopstick. It would have made more sense to call it a shovel, paper fan, knife, surfboard etc. Go off. Chopsticks have always been used as a pair, one cannot exist without the other, which brings me to voltron's wings. I like the idea of Voltron being similar to Darling in the Franxx because of their mecha designs kinda taking reference from Evangelion. This is a reach definitely, but its cute whatever, eat this up. There's a mythical bird called "Jian" and it only has one wing.

The bird can only exist with another of its kind, where together, they can fly and soar. Wings and duality are symbols that have ALWAYS gone hand in hand, simply because there are two. Chopsticks being Lance's stupid fucking word choice is so damn specific its hurting me.

HERE'S ANOTHER REACH Y'ALL, the reason why chopsticks are thicker and circular at the top but thinner and squared at the bottom is because they represent the heaven and the earth. WHERE'D THEY COME FROM Y'ALL. WHERE DID THE PALADINS GO? UH? BACK TO EARTH YEA?

And once again, Keith draws this one very quickly so it does show that Lance can make a good guess immediately. I can see why he would say Dog here. SO WHY COULDN'T YOU SEE A BLADE AT FIRST LANCE? EXPLAIN YOURSELF. MOVING ON FROM THE DAMN DRAWING GAME.

I think these two screenshots speak for themselves. Earlier this morning I wrote a theory about how the Klance dynamic is all over the place because Lance has grown as a person in his absence and he's confused as to how he's supposed to behave towards "new keith".

He takes a jab at Keith throughout the start of this whole episode

"Not my fault keith can't draw!"

"I'm not a mind reader!"

So once again, its the usual bickering coming from Lance, but we see that shift later in the episode, I'll get to that later.

The next game with bii boh bi. Funny to me how the game's called "The Garflator" when we've already established that "Garfle" means to "win". The monster isn't the Garflator as they've misleaded, its the tank.

If you don't believe me, here's the subtitles literally calling the monster the "Warflator". Strange isn't it? You miss these things when you watch it the first time. Bob wasn't joking when Warfle and Garfle were interchangeable.

I don't really want to analyse how Bii Boh Bi acts throughout the whole segment mainly because I think that's reaching a little too far, and it was likely comedic the entire time, but I can't help but notice that his tone throughout suggests a "fill in the blanks" situation.

My theory is that this situation foreshadows the possibility that someone will help Lance fill in the blanks, and guess what the answer is in the GARFLator. He might even really be running out of time so again, stick it out till the last episode of S8.

Bonus: Seems like its pretty nice isn't it. Our crops are watered and his skin is cleared. Joking of course, but overall the whole Garflator/Warflator situation keeps getting mixed up together that's why I think this theory's reaching but I digress.

Time for the scene that made all of us Klancers scream into the depths of hell. We all already know that they didn't have to vote for each other if it was meaningless, but after seeing the recent surplus of Lance being hurt by Keith leaving, I've got a solid theory.

Lets look at the scene first, mainly at Hunk and Pidge's faces. We know Hunk is emotionally observant while Pidge behaves logically, so I think when we're speaking logically: Lance picking Keith seems HIGHLY illogical to pidge.

Lance "hates" Keith. Why pick him to survive? THE MATH DOESN'T ADD UP. On the other hand, Hunk's facial expression here seems more....worried? Not confused. There's been substantial evidence that Lance was hurt by Keith leaving, and if he spoke to anyone about it, it'd be hunk.

I think Pidge is surprised to hear these things come out of Lance's mouth and seeing Keith pick him. Remember when they all picked someone to help Lance? The braniest of the team? I think honestly Pidge might be the first to pick up on their possible affections towards each other.

This sort of parallels the earlier scene where Lance was the last one to figure out Pidge was a girl, but maybe that's reaching a little too hard (Curse these short arms!)

Earlier this morning I wrote a thread about how Lance picking Keith to leave here is probably the nail in the coffin that he deeply cares about Keith. Remember, this situation would probably be the third time that Keith has left Lance.

Read the linked thread, I won't reiterate it here but basically Lance grows in Keith's absence, stepping up when he needs to, but its not really what he wants. Losing Keith again might be devastating, but that only heightens why this scene is so affectionate. He makes this choice himself.

He calls Keith the future because he has faith in his skills (he's our leader) and him as a person (plus he's half galra). That Keith HAS a future. This is SIGNIFICANT because the only other person that has said that they have faith in Keith, was Shiro.

Shiro is VALUABLE to Keith, he's the most important person in his life. Having people believe in him has always been difficult and I think where Lance says (although cryptically) that he believes in Keith, is really where their new dynamic takes off.

THAT's why Keith behaves somewhat coldly in S7, because its never gonna be easy for him to suddenly accept a new person in his life. He’s not sure how he should react to another person caring for him. Both of them know their dynamic isn't what it used to be, they can't joke and jab anymore. We're back to square one, but its different this time.

One last thing about this episode (that isn't Klance related) is Luxia's kingdom, just a fun quick thought that maybe the Baku might be back, i mean he never really was defeated, just trapped. ;)

Uhhh that's it! Can't think of anything else haha. Thanks for the wild ride friends, I hope these feed your optimism for today~ Again, they're all just theories but I hope S8 is a good experience for everyone! Have a great day :)

One last thing: I would love it if Klance happens and the theories prove true, and if it doesn't its okay! Sure I'll be disappointed, but its fine if I'm wrong about a fictional TV show lol.

[chibi-pix]

Chibi watches V3D 04

Don't ask where I got the strength to watch another episode tonight. But I did. And before I get to my notes from my watch, I realized something. I realized where this animation is feeling so familiar from. It’s taking me back to Odyssey: Into the Mind’s Eye. Which apparently came out in 1996 and was part of a computer animation series in the early/mid 90s. This was my introduction as a wee little Chibi to computer animation. And it was all set to music. Watching V3D is making me think of that, which is kinda nice and nostalgic.

Okay, now without further ado, here be my notes of my watch through.

The title alone being “Lost Souls”. Already, my curiosity is piqued.

Watching now and Lotor using the castle as his sort of ship now, it has me thinking. Is this perhaps where VLD got the concept of Zarkon’s command center being mobile and the planet destroyed? Ah, gotta love watching old Voltron stuff and seeing how they may have influenced the new. I love it.

Jeez, that glorified calculator pretty much blaming failed peace talks on the Voltron force. Dude, those peace talks wouldn’t have gone well anyway. Lotor’s a Grade A bastard. He never intended to be peaceful to begin with. You would think with the tech and AI to that calculator he’d be smart enough to figure it out, but. Alas. And who gave this calculator the right to suspend the force! And having the drones pilot the lions? That doesn’t sound good. Five minutes in, I hope the lions show sentience and reject those drones.

Arus may be part of the alliance, but it feels like utter bullshit that the Garrison can dictate what happens with the lions.

About eight minutes in, and a comment on audio. Right. Now I know why I’m cautious with shows. Some shows have certain sounds and frequencies that actually hurt the ears. Thankfully the multiplying of the ships and the sound it made didn’t last too long.

“Relax Hunk, the alliance only needs big, dumb, and obedient, and you only score two out of the three. Hahaha!” Damn, Pidge, that was actually rude. Poor Hunk… c’mon, man.

That calculator controlling the drones for the lions… Voltron isn’t a one man team, dude. It’s the five people! Like Alfor said, the pilots are the souls! Now I get the title.

“Through you, I will demonstrate the robots are superior to humans.” Yeah. I watched Voltron Force and VLD. Robots aren’t exactly superior. Unless you count Beezer and Rover in VLD, because they’re adorable. But not exactly superior, but rather equal.

HAH! Fourteen minutes in and the lions can’t form Voltron. So, it’s the soul aspect of the team that lets them form Voltron. Intriguing. And perfect. It shows that you can’t just program everything to go your way.

“I fear there’s no hope.” Whose fault is that, you damn calculator.

Also, watching the top of the lion’s head open up to eject the robot is an interesting take. Gives it more of the toy feel to the lions.

I will admit, I’m not feeling the plating that covered Red’s head to make a point for an attack. It’s a little… weird. But hey, at least the team proved that they’re superior to soulless drones and could get their lions and form Voltron.

Anyway, that's it for tonight's "Chibi watches". Until next time!

[xuune]

some thoughts on s7

this ended up me kind of rambling about my thoughts and feelings on s7 that are all over the place, so please bear with me if these thoughts don’t seem too well organized or anything: 

now, before i even actually saw the season, i was just snooping around here on tumblr to see what ppl’s reactions were, and i kind of let it get to the better of me. some people were just over dramatizing what was happening in s7, and their negativity on the season made me believe that i would wholeheartedly dislike the season. i saw all the posts with people going on about how if youre still watching the show, you should immediately drop it (and it was mainly centered around few central complaints going around right now, pretty sure you can figure that out on your own on what that was). it was understandable on where the frustration was stemming from. i only got 3 hours of sleep because of what people were saying despite not even seeing the season for myself and seeing how events would ultimately play out. but like they would always say, you shouldn’t let other people’s judgement affect you, and it really shouldn’t be the determining factor on how you view things or how your opinions are formed. 

when i watched the season, my general reaction to it was that its “ok”, i didn’t think it was entirely and absolutely terrible. i already know how a lot of us didn’t like the way a few characters got treated. i mainly thought that the animation looked nicer and improved in some of the action scenes. the writing was kind of “meh” for me when it came to whatever certain plot points that got introduced or continued. watching it on my own actually removed any thoughts of me disliking/hating the season entirely. 

even though i say this, the things i mention here are mainly about some issues that kept being brought up by people and circled around ever since s7 got released. 

in terms of character development? besides what we’ve been given for hunk, which has been awesome so far (i dont really feel like i have much to go in depth with for this, its already self explanatory in the season itself), i guess its going somewhere. i’ve got some hope, but it’s not on the level where its overwhelmingly high and optimistic. everyone’s been talking about the lack of actual lance development, how he’s constantly being reduced to being the “dumb” one, but we actually see him take initiative when needed. lance has been shown to stepping up and taking his role into account when handed the opportunity to do so, and it was multiple times when lance was given the re-established position of keith’s right-hand man. despite whatever remarks keith made on lance, whether or not they were supposed to come off as teasing/joking for the audience, keith does still seem to believe in lance’s capabilities. if he didn’t, keith wouldn’t have trusted lance the task on leading their team on their mission(s). lance actually got scenes where he could shine off as being portrayed more than what he’s constantly being insulted as. there are still some scenes of them showing mutual trust and respect for each other, especially with lance voting for keith during “the feud” and the reasoning he gave. but yeah, some parts it did seem like keith was kind of ooc in certain episodes when comparing his personality back to s3. who knows why keith gave the reasoning he did when he voted for lance. EDIT: acoolemocucumber’s post makes a good note on pointing out how during the voting section, keith is actually the first one to start writing. it’s later revealed that he chose lance on first pick. lance was the second to finish. even though he was peeking over at hunk and pidge to see who they chose, he instead decides to choose keith. keith choosing lance as a first choice without pure hesitance is amazing to see, and it really shows he trusts and respects lance a lot despite the reasoning he gave. then again, actions speak louder than words and countless times keith has shown to be that kind of guy by relaying a lot of important tasks to lance throughout this season. 

i’ll do say that i enjoyed most of the scenes they shared when they had to take a leading initiative with each other though. that was pretty nice to see again, and it felt like a decade since i ever saw that kind of dynamic from those two. 

there were a lot of action packed scenes, and i watched through those entirely to see if there’s any important plot detail to know, or make note of, while watching the ep to make sure i wouldnt be lost with whats happening so far. some people found it boring, some people found the fight scenes amazing and stunning. certain scenes had me really amazed on how well it was animated, some other scenes not so much in terms of repetition, and thats kind of bound to happen if we’re provided an arc where its continuing to keep the tense vibes on the recurring events with the current situation of the season. 

this is just merely my take on it, (my memory’s not the best with how much information im recalling from those 13 episodes) but it kind of felt lackluster with how the paladins barely got any kind of break where they could seriously spend one episode on unwinding, having in-depth conversations one on one, and not be so worried about the galra all the time. sure, there’s a few scenes like that in a few episodes, but it didn’t seem enough to make it feel like it balanced out whatever conflicts or character issues were newly or constantly introduced. 

ive read posts already about how some people had liked the season a lot, loved the actions scenes and all. but to me, some conflicts that took place seemed out of place or just didn’t really align well (idk how else to phrase it) especially with adam’s death, and i had minor mixed feelings about ep “the journey within”. 

about adam, it just seemed out of place and rushed for them to introduce shiro’s s/o only for them to take him away. we don’t get to see how fleshed out adam could’ve been, and i’ve already seen the frustration/rage people had with adam being killed off when considering how the creators told the viewers that they were gonna get to see adam, but weren’t told how long we’ll see him (plus the entire thing abt lgbt rep that was promised?). the thing with adam left me on a weird note, mainly because if you were just given no other info besides the info from the season, you wouldn’t even be given too explicit information about the relationship shiro had with adam. from there, it felt like there was no point in adding adam into the story if the viewers aren’t given clear information on what kind of bond shiro and adam had besides adam saying that they’ve been through a lot together (or whatever he said, idr it too much) and the “how important am i to you” line for lgbt rep points. its just pretty vague “””representation””” thats just leaving the audience to make the most out of what they’re given. we’re only given confirmation that they used to be fiancés from what they said in panels/interviews, but never in the show. im not sure what to really think about that, my mind’s just kind of in the void when i think about it. but this part i structured kind of badly and i apologize for that, but hopefully those of you can get what im saying. 

as for “the journey within”, it was reasonable for the way characters acted; theyre all tired, frustrated, and losing hope and were floating in space waiting for nothing but at least something to happen. keith snaps, gets irritated at everyone, lance is also the one to lash back out at keith saying keith ran away, giving the audience a big sign that lance was hurt by keith’s disappearance/leave from the team. but for keith to quickly later on go take everything back in just a few minutes seemed really awkward for me. its a kids show and all, but i just kind of didn’t like how that one section of that episode was written ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ just a feeling i had with it. however, i did love how hunk took a lot of the initiative during the episode, it’s showing his growth of actually him continuing to fully accept his role as a paladin and determined to not back down regardless of his own cowardice that could prevent him from doing so at any time.  

and there’s the thing about k/acx: ive already seen a bunch of people going somewhere along the lines of disbelief, anger, frustration on how keith is getting het endgame but when i saw the episodes, his interactions with acxa didn’t even seem borderline romantic to me at all? to me, i merely saw 2 characters actually getting on better terms with each other and returning the favor. the two no longer see each other as enemies but allies now. keith only went back to save acxa because it seemed like he believed that he felt in debt to acxa for trying to save his team. ezor and zethrid merely poked fun at acxa, but if you consider previous seasons where acxa and keith interacted, the two just continued to return the favor of owing whatever debt they had for each other. it didn’t seem like there was any romantic tension intended in any of the scenes where they interacted. we already know acxa betrayed ezor and zethrid by switching sides, and if you were betrayed you’re bound to make at least a  remark on whoever betrayed you either way. in this case, ezor and zethrid found it reasonable to make a comment on acxa’s alliance with keith, hence how they teased acxa possibly crushing on keith (whether or not thats actually confirmed, its just left ambiguous and up for interpretation at that point). there’s the parallel with how they animated the shot between keith and acxa talking to each other, but neither did that one seem romantic to me? i hope im not the only one who thought that? the other scene people talked about was when acxa is in the same scene where keith was present when he visits his dad’s grave with krolia. i dont get why some people were upset about that either. even though its at the last ep of s7, there’s nothing to imply that keith invited acxa to go visit his dad’s grave with him or anything if you consider their placement in the scene. if keith did care about acxa’s presence being there when he visited the grave, wouldn’t he at least acknowledge acxa’s presence by showing obvious attention to her, or have her close to where him and krolia were? she remains distant but respectful of keith in the scene. i dont see where these scenes would imply keith automatically finds a romantic interest in acxa. acxa to keith? maybe, we don’t entirely know. keith to acxa? i dont see it being implied anywhere at all. not to mention keith’s “can’t we just fight” statement right after ezor and zethrid teased acxa about having a romantic interest in keith. again, its just my take on what’s being presented and my own thoughts on how people are viewing it. 

and with a/l, it leaves me on a bad note with how its progressing if its really getting the sealed deal endgame. like most people have been saying, it would be good for them to be endgame if they were only written better. am i entirely convinced theyre endgame? not really because there’s that small chance where vld pulls a 180 and the show creators stay true to their words on lance not being a rebound, lance being someone’s first choice, lance getting what he needs, not what he wants. what’s being given/presented so far is just bad writing with how allura suddenly reciprocates feelings for lance out of nowhere despite showing consistent disinterest in lance’s advances in previous seasons. s4 and onward we see her seeing lance more than just an annoying flirt, and the two become better friends who could genuinely talk to each other without having allura annoyed with lance’s flirtatious antics, and without lance being reduced to a constant flirt. during allura’s interest in lotor, we’re yet again presented how allura doesn’t return feelings for lance, especially during the scene when the mice told her about lance’s feelings for her back in s6. she seems rather disappointed, pitiful, or uncomfortable with knowing how lance genuinely liked her when she liked lotor during that time. later on, allura’s been out of her previous love interest with lotor, and hasn’t shown returned much of the same interest in lance. sure, she hugged lance and he returned the hug, but that only seemed necessary in the moment for when allura had felt betrayed by someone she wholeheartedly trusted and fell in love with. she needed comfort from someone and the person she spoke to was lance who was able to lend her some comforting words. but that was about it. i’d like to say that considering that this is a kids show, it does give a bad incentive for children to develop on believing that if they continue to force their feelings onto someone else, the person they’re interested in will eventually like them back out of the blue, which is the worst course of action to take despite being rejected countless times (and its kind of being shown with what a/l has right now). to take this kind of scenario and to fix/put it with good writing would to just properly depict lance accepting rejection and allura staying true to her previous feelings on not reciprocating his feelings. in a general sense, we all know that we can’t always get what we want, and that’s an important moral that always gets taught over and over again even if youre a child or an adult. rejection and acceptance of the rejection is something that can be taught here through the romantic subplot they’ve been having. just deciding that they should become endgame out of nowhere would leave the writing very dull. having allura get out of her previous love interest with lotor only to quickly move onto lance just doesn’t leave off on a good note. it just reduces lance to a rebound and that’s about it. 

the writing for me wasn’t really that breathtaking, overwhelming, or emotional or anything when it came to new plot points being presented (you know, all the fight scenes, galaxy garrison, that stuff). again, a lot of things seemed pretty rushed, i had mixed feelings for some but not all episodes. it was nice to see mostly everyone united back with their families and characters developing new motives for what they believe in doing. yet, the writing kind of just wasn’t on the level of where it actually gets me really interested and invested into the storyline like how it had back in s1 to early s3. i’ll still mention how the writing did it’s part in presenting development for hunk, though. i enjoyed that a lot.  

some parts of the writing were questionable, some parts of the season were enjoyable, but it wasn’t entirely overwhelmingly disappointing for me. the season was on the bare minimum on having the writing go “decent”, but again it felt pretty “meh” and this is just my own feelings on it. people have their own opinions, frustrations, concerns, questions, some people loved it, some people severely hated it or just felt extremely disappointed. 

the season has its peaks and lows, some pros and cons, but whatever you take from it is what you believe. 

i’ll still keep watching the show to see how it ends, that’s for sure.