#I think I might binge Voltron again

[alphaofdarkness]

Okay Dany, convince me to ship Kidge. What is the appeal of this ship? (genuinely asking because I've only watched season 1 and I'm curious)

⁉️👀⁉️

Not gonna lie anon, your question caught me off guard at 2am on a Sunday,, I was like 😳

“Oh shit someone's asking me?? About a ship?!” The intimidating question was so real and all I could do was literally go on a feral tirade on why I love Kidge so much and legit made no sense and just kept wondering in between moments of clarity on how I can properly defend myself on why I like the ship 😩 (not that I need to or have too, enough time has passed where I can say,,, just let me ship and be blissfully happy UwU, I do not car e anymore lol)

I will say that I want to keep this brief (as best I can, because heck I went feral just talking to myself on why I like the ship), I’m not the best at explaining things like some other amazing people might in the ship tag. But take what I say with a grain of salt and hope I don’t scare you off with whatever I do type.

**Note: This is not entirely brief liike how I wanted and I hate myself,, feck,,, I failed step one immediately**

Imma do bullet points, thoughts and prayers y'all cause I did my best to explain my chaotic thoughts lol ;;w;;

First and foremost! I definitely recommend that you watch the show in the general scope of a viewer and not just focusing on a ship. I think everyone should and would be aware of that~ but much like my initial watch I wasn’t paying much attention to the show and lore and story because I was distracted~. It wasn’t with Kidge at the time, but it definitely impeded my watch in the beginning as well as me falling off the fandom for a while into season 3-5. Plus, me rushing through those seasons when season 7 was coming around like, blood hell Alpha.

I think it goes without saying because the show is really good and love the found family aspect of it most importantly 👏🏼👏🏼 I am a sob and a fecking mess about this trope and I will forever cry over it.

I highly recommend watching the show in increments too instead of just binging it because you will lose information much faster 😭 and also it is just so fun to look forward to watch it the next day. I had so much fun this month just rewatching the show and am kind of depressed that it’s over lol 😔

Don’t cry because it’s over be happy for the journey (and all the fanfics you can reread again with full, understanding knowledge 😌)

Additionally, it is fun to reflect on the episodes re-watched, to better retain the info, at least for me, I can be slow with digesting new information (especially after so long), but it also made me giddy just talking to myself about the silly or serious shenanigans happening in the episode.

Second of all! I don’t want to convince you to ship Kidge 😩 I want you to convince yourself on why they would be good and cute together from your perspective! 👏🏼👏🏼

I personally think that they just work so well together, and while their initial interactions are short and brief, I love seeing them just standing next to each other or sharing panels during the fight sequences through much of the early seasons! I will say liike season 7 (even season 8) is like a holy grail for Kidge shippers because— 😩👏🏼 AH, took a while to get there, but we made it besties!!

Considering you’ve only seen season 1, I won’t dive into too many spoilers! To the best of my ability, I will say, I tended to focus on where the two stood by one another a lot and how they interacted in their lions and as Voltron and outside of it! ~

1. They both have family members/familial others on the trip to the Kerberos mission and just the whole concept of them looking for their respective familial figures.

Like that’s is the first part of the whole “WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL 😩” the way the two of them are shown to fight tooth and nail to save and go out of their way to figure out where their family members are is just 🤧✨ I truly believe if there was an opportunity to grow and develop them together it would have been over this.

I also find it incredibly fascinating that they are two of the most prominent characters that dive into their backstories in flashback sequences through the seasons ahead (we got a glimpse of Pidge's backstory in season 1 with a few more down the line). And how similar the two are in some of their experiences like school and being bullied and how their familial figures guide them (Shiro to Keith and Matt, and her father, to Pidge).

Hell, all of this could have been played as platonic all the way through or something more. Like I was there for it 👏🏼 I feel like this is a strong cemented stone on why I ship them a lot and keep me going on the potential their relationship could have been if they knew one another before the pilot episode. I just think it would have been cool, two conspiracy theorist bypassing the government to search for the truth!

2. They are literally the right and left arms of Voltron; the sword and shield ✨

I sincerely wish so much that again their relationship could have been developed more in the early seasons with this aspect, especially since we see how developed both Lance and Hunk are with each other (I mean they are literally best friends at the Garrison, I needed most of that with Kidge especially since they would be the opposite to them so it would have great to see them develop together as the arms of Voltron 🤧).

I just think it would have been nice to see it play out on how well they work together on the field and off it. I will say! It isn't all lost, especially into season 3 and like late season 6 and onwards! I say the dynamic of Shiro and Pidge in their lions and as Voltron currently is what kind of develops in Keith and Pidge later! I hope you can make sense of that later on as you keep watching 👀!

3. Other general things about their tropes and personalities just give me more fuel to ship them, such as:

Them both being introverted to heck in their respective ways; the techie nerd and the emo loner like,,, sillies!

I am always someone who loves looking at character color palettes and how they mesh well together; so believe me I lost my mind when Kidge shippers literally came up with Kidgemas cause of their red and green colors and I just *screams* 🌿🔥

I love both their personalities and how similar, yet different, they are to one another in that respect; they both have a drive and fire in them, their sarcasm and jibs to the others is so funny.

I'm not over season 1 episode,,, 2? Of the team training together and like,,, first of all, the two's small spat because Pidge couldn't concentrate during the mental exercise, but literally leaping to her defense when Allura threw food goo at her like,, Ah I just love her sarcasm to Allura then "The princess of what, your not ours--" and i just like go off queen, but also please no fighting 😩 y’all are going to be family ah,,, i love my dysfunctional family so much ya'll

Keith making a face at the action and immediately "Go loose, Pidge" LIKE AH! 👏🏼👏🏼😩😩

But they also have their calm moments of serene clarity and peace that is heighted with their interactions with the other characters as well!

I also noticed how they both tend to be the mature ones in some cases and some situations when around the other or a shared mature figure like Shiro; Keith by like a lot, clearly, but I was increasingly surprised by how Pidge maintained some serious temperament during missions, especially when around Hunk and most definitely around Lance lol (It is funny tho how serious and mildly annoyed she gets to his flirtatious ways, but can also immediately just let her guard down and have giddy fun with him when something catches her interest, it's so cute and hilarious 😌).

I also just love their development through the show of just letting their guard down around the others overtime! Especially with Keith and how his lone wolf personality melts away (believe me I lost my mind at how many sweet moments were between him and Hunk and IM just here crying at how Keith was able to smile and have fun around him 😭 💛❤️ got me all emotional i fecking criED). As well as Pidge with the others, especially after she told them about her true identity and how she wants to be able to work with them better without any secrets (On a side note, I wish there was more moments with Allura and Pidge earlier on ;;;o;;; SHE LEARNED ALTEAN FOR HER AND CORAN AND IM JUST,,, sweetie I love you! YOUR HONOR THEY ARE SISTERS! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼).

Ah shit, is that season 1 or 2? ;;w;; well, she learns it a nice fact! My girl is such a genius like how did she not like,,, move up grades in school, she is so intelligent , i could never. Not gonna lie, I feel like the team wouldn't be as successful with intel if they didn't have her and her tech wizard skills because DAMN.

Also how Keith was so up and arms when Pidge wanted to leave initially like!? Please ;;w;; sir has abandonment issues, please don't leave sweetie (´°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀); but also a similar scene occurs, very briefly, later on in reverse :) so take that as you will! It is very small, almost negligible if you aren't paying attention to it.

It is made better by a concluding panel that Kidge shippers just lose their minds over ! (Me, I am kidge shippers and I lost my mind over and over because they are just — *cries and sobs* perfecto!)

Very minor thing, but the height difference (in general im weak in the knees for this) always gets me crying, screaming, throwing up, going feral on the ground. My dearest Pidge, she may gain some legs later in life, but like she is definitely still tiny and I sob, give us short queens some representation because it is so hard out here, and we will kill you (not Allura bending down to her height in that episode she was planning to leave; how NOT to talk to a short person Allura lol 😩)

I think it goes without saying that the whole team, including Keith, are protective of Pidge like as they should be and I just *grins mischievously* can say with confidence that he do 😌

Definitely more of a personal headcanon, and there is a Kidge art of it floating around somewhere in the tag, if they actually had more moments and trained together, but I love Pidge being taught on how to defend herself, especially one on one and like her managing to take down Keith in training and he's just like "⁉️⁉️😳⁉️⁉️” God, I love a woman that can kick my ass trope *chokes*.

I am a sucker for hearing their voices and tone and emotions, so you know for damn well I am listening to them just say the others name in a soft or sarcastic tone lol (I love Steven Yeun's voice, my Glenn 😭, I am a mess for not appreciating Keith before in my initial watch of the show).

Ah, I can go on and off about them, especially about the later seasons but like you're just going to have to take a look of it yourself as you go into it 😌

Once again, I definitely recommend you watch the show for what it is in its storytelling and lore and character development; you can keep a close eyed view of Kidge in the background, but definitely rewind for the moments or stop and pause or rewind for the information given in story.

I hope you enjoyed my nonsense speak and take something away from it or ignore it altogether. I don't mind, I want you, overall, to convince yourself on why you would like to ship Kidge as you watch the show, if at all! We are all here for a fun and good time after the show's initial debut 😌🌿🔥

Have a small doodle of Kidge! My first time drawing them after like 4 1/2 years and I am just,,, yelling at my growth in art and how cute I made them look; mild spoiler, I suppose, of their older selves appearances~ Hope you like! 😌✌🏼

Enjoy your day anon!

[minitean]

Okay I swear I’m back fr now

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

Is it just me or... was vld.... like, addictive? I consume tons of anime, comics, books, series, movies etc ANYTHING and the last time i felt is was when i was around 14-5 yo with naturo 🤨 2-3(?) years later im still....... holy fuck dare i say UPSET and EMPTY about vld. Is it just me???

Hi, anon, thanks for the note! I’d never interacted with Voltron franchise prior to VLD, but this show really pulled me in too. I had some favorite episodes I would rewatch when I could, and even after all this time, I’m still here writing fanfic for the VLD universe and exploring older Voltron iterations!

I doubt I have an objective perspective to explain “why” VLD was addictive, but I have some personal assumptions:

I think the ATLA-type animation and visual direction was probably the best the franchise has enjoyed so far, and that it represents above-average quality for American-based cartoons. From what I’ve gathered of older iterations, Voltron’s visual quality has been questionable for many years. So it seems like having ATLA-levels of animation and visual design really opened up this old franchise and drew in a much larger fandom per its stronger attention to aesthetics—which ultimately feeds the fanart and fanfic machine. The fact that VLD also injected some visible representation helped to draw in larger crowds. So I really think there’s something important about the visual quality and diversity in cartoons that helps to pull us in and connect with them.

It was a very accessible show in that it was rated Y7 and available to stream, and also was 78 episodes released over the course of a few years. So from 2016-2018, a large potential audience (from young to old) experienced fairly rapid injections of fully animated content to binge. 

Between those rapid binge injections, we also had members of the production team creating content and feeding fandom with art, teases, tweets, conventions. VLD also had books and comics published. This created even more of a consistent hype for the show and fed the larger circuit of fandom interactions, theories, other posts, etc. And there’s definitely an addictive, dopamine kick in finding like-minded fans to enjoy a community with.

I think the voice actors significantly enhanced the accessibility of the characters, making memorable characters even more memorable and lovable too. 

The sheer expanse of the VLD universe and character cast offered different possibilities and focuses. Voltron franchise isn’t as much of a fandom content generator like Marvel, for example, but VLD universe definitely hit a sweet spot that brought a lot of people together for different reasons, in a pretty short amount of time. We can explore quite a few things in Voltron universe because of just how big it is! Not every franchise has such a breadth of topics and content.

So maybe some of these elements could be things to look for when searching for a new show or story to get lost in? And the VLD show itself, with its mix of space and magic and several possible outcomes, on top of its humor and angst, had a lot of potential. I think the potential of VLD haunts and feeds the fandom, even to this today. Maybe its unrealized potential is why many feel there is a lack of closure too with this show. I know I lean heavily on writing fic to get to ideas or concepts that provide closure for me personally.

With the way the show ended back in 2018, VLD fandom experienced a mass exodus. So it’s possible that it’s not just the show that has left us feeling a bit empty, but simply the realization that the fandom environment changed pretty drastically pretty quickly too.  

The good news is that Voltron is a legacy franchise! Many fans remain still, and it’s likely that we’ll see Voltron rise again in some shape or form in the future. Over the course of decades, the Voltron franchise has never truly died. 

It’s possible too that maybe a new franchise might still catch your attention in a way you never expect! While VLD is over, I do think it’s good to keep having some optimism for the future—that something will enamor you just as Naruto and VLD did, or that you might at least find peace with your relation to VLD.

Also, there’s nothing wrong with continuing to favor something from the past over something running in the present. I’m still a big Transformers fan even though I’m not active in the fandom for it and have had some disappointments with the franchise. I often rewatch older Transformer shows over quite a few shows running today, lol. That’s the nice thing about fictional content. It lives and stays with you for as long as you want it to.

And who knows? Maybe you’ll even come up with the idea for the next great, addicting franchise!

[wizardcorez]

soothe me daily

*trigger warning: eating disorder. do not read this to trigger yourself*

Keith slips into some bad eating habits but everyone helps him get better. Klance happens towards the end. Also available on ao3 (@idiottwizard)

It had started innocently enough. 

Keith had put on a little weight, maybe he had been eating too much or maybe it had been muscle mass but it still showed up on the scale as 10 more pounds on the monthly check-ins they were made to do, and that gave him a weird sick feeling in his stomach. That sick feeling lasted into the night, skipping dinner with the other paladins entirely.

The next day he trained harder than he usually did, until he could feel his muscles burning. He didn’t stop until he thought he might collapse, knowing that would just cause the team to worry.

Today he showed up to dinner, at least, but when his eyes landed on the food he got that sick feeling again and he wanted to gag. He mostly played with the food, just telling the team he felt sick again, taking at least a few bites to ease their worries. Even if the food stuck in his throat and he struggled to swallow he told himself and the others that he must have just caught the space flu or something similar.

After dinner, he left to train again, fighting the sparring robot until very atom of his bing felt like lead weights. Even then, when he thought he couldn’t push himself any further he did, despite feeling lightheaded from whatever made him sick.

Keith weighed himself on his own the next morning, staring in shock as he was already several pounds down. That couldn’t be healthy, he thought, but he didn’t question it, just happy to be on his way to his normal and healthy weight.

A week passed. The sick feeling didn’t go away.

The other paladins were worried, he was more fatigued during training and they feared that he may slip up in battle. They also noticed how little he was eating, never fully missing a meal but never eating more than three bites and then claiming he was full. They didn’t say anything, not to Keith’s face, at least, but he could hear the hushed whispers as he left the dining hall to train every day.

He didn’t understand why they were so worried, honestly. He could keep it under control.

At the next weigh-in, Keith was underweight by a decent amount. Keith brushed it off. Shiro didn’t let it go. Shiro told Keith he needed to eat. Keith told him he had been, and he had, he wasn’t lying, but the light snacking and few bites at dinner weren’t enough, Keith worked that off within a half-hour of his training and would always train for several hours more after that.

Keith insisted he was fine, but everyone was obviously worried about him. He would yell when he saw them giving him those pitying looks. He was a paladin of Voltron, he didn’t need their empathy.

A few days later Keith was flat on his back in the training room, his breathing ragged. He stood on shaky legs, his vision going black for a solid thirty seconds but he just pretended he could see. Another round with the sparring robot and he was on his back again, coughing into his hand. He tasted blood but kept going.

When he stood after that, he fainted. Hunk and Lance found him, he wasn’t sure if it was minutes or hours after he fainted but he assured them he had just stood up too fast.

They didn’t believe him. Worry was evident on both of their faces but this time he didn’t yell, he just let them carry him to the infirmary. In the back of his mind, he knew he wasn’t okay but he put on a brave face, mostly for the sake of his team. Hunk left to find Shiro and the rest of the team, leaving Keith with lance in a heavy silence.

“You know we care about you, right?’ Lance said softly.

“I know,” Keith hummed, staring at the ceiling as he laid back on the Altean hospital bed.

They sat in silence for another few moments before Lance spoke again.

“Do you know I care about you, Keith?” Lance’s voice was quiet.

“I just said I know you guys care,” Keith rested his hands over his chest as he spoke.

“No, Keith,” Lance sighed “I care about you. Not just as a teammate, not just as a paladin of Voltron.”

Keith just raised an eyebrow at that, not saying anything or taking his eyes off the ceiling.

“I care about you as a person,” Lance said finally, his voice cracking, which made Keith sit straight up, feeling his heart shatter seeing Lance crying.

Keith’s feelings towards Lance were complicated, to say the least. Lance had always pissed him off and annoyed him, sure, but he had an undeniable charm and he brought joy to any room he walked in, even Keith could admit that. Keith could even admit that Lance was handsome, without the shit-eating grin on his face at least. He had thought about Lance when he was alone, eyes slammed shut and breathing heavy, even, but he felt gross about it afterward. At times a brief thought of Lance kissing him crossed his mind but it was always pushed away before he could really think about it.

Keith hadn’t laughed much in the past few months but Lance could usually manage to make him crack a smile for at least a moment, even if he forced into a scowl before anyone could notice. 

So maybe Keith had a soft spot for Lance, despite their rivalry. It hurt Keith to see Lance crying, especially over something like worrying about Keith. He almost wiped away Lance’s tear but caught himself before his hand reached his face, pulling him into a hug instead.

Lance cried harder and Keith squeezed him close, not really caring if he got tears or snot on him.

“I’m okay, Lance, shh,” he whispered, rubbing circles on Lance’s back, fighting back tears himself.

Seeing Lance like this made him realize how much he genuinely was cared about and it hit him like a truck, feeling guilty for yelling when anyone gave him those looks filled with pitty. The team really had just cared about him.

Keith broke, sobbing into Lance’s shoulder and taking fistfuls of his shirt. He isn’t sure how long they stay like that, clinging to each other and crying pathetically, but by the time Shiro and the others came in neither of them were crying anymore, though it had been evident that they were.

What happened next had basically been an intervention. Keith explained what happened, promising that he would try harder to eat more, not arguing when Shiro told him he couldn’t train anymore until he got his weight back up, knowing that Shiro knew what was best for him.

That night Keith ate a little more at dinner, wanting to get better for the sake of his team, and he could tell they were grateful for it.

When Keith was about to go to sleep there was a soft knock at his door, he opened it to reveal Lance, armed with a sheepish smile and some pillows and blankets.

“Can I sleep on your floor?” Lance asked quietly, to which Keith tilted his head.

“Sure, but why?” Keith asked

“It feels safer...I know you’re safe if I’m here.”

Keith didn’t say anything else but he opened the door more for Lance, letting him in and closing him behind him. He made sure Lance had a comfortable space on the floor, piling several layers of blankets so his back wouldn’t hurt before climbing into his own bed, staying close to the edge.

Both of them stared at the ceiling, not speaking even if they were both awake, and when Keith’s hand drooped off the bed Lance slowly intertwined their fingers. It didn’t take them long to fall asleep after that, and when they woke up their hands were still loosely holding each other.

Keith knew he was going to be alright.

It was hard, of course, but Keith got better. He still had his bad days, he still trained too hard sometimes, but everyone supported him through it all.

Lance kept sleeping on Keith’s floor, he kept holding his hand at night. At some point, he stopped sleeping on the floor, he complained just once about his back hurting and Keith started making him sleep on the bed with him, and Lance was okay with that. 

After some time, they started holding hands during the day, under the table when Keith was struggling to get a meal down or when they were walking together and Lance would intertwine their hands.

They started kissing too, Keith made the first move but Lance swore it was the other way around.They made it official not too long after that. None of the paladins were surprised, and they were genuinely happy for the two of them.

Keith was proud of how healthy he was now, physically and mentally, and Lance was proud of him too. And knowing Lance was proud of him? That was the best feeling in the world for Keith.

[angels17324]

The Violet Paladin (Keith x Reader) Ch. 15

Hows quarantine treating everyone? I know I don’t have to explain myself on not posting but guys I want you to know I am a health care worker I’ve been at work for almost 10 hours a day everyday for the last two weeks on both days and nights. So I love you all I know I am trying to keep writing but its hard. Guys if you don’t need to go out please don’t stay home find some new fics to binge read or shows to obsess over I don’t want to lose anyone to this virus.  Word Count:   Update Schedule: Unknown (Im gonna try and set myself a goal of updating on  Wednesdays call me out if I forget guys!!) [Masterlist] [Prev] 

When I got back on the castle I learned that Shiro would be in one of the healing pods for a while. I still hadn’t told them anything about what happened, but I’d rather tell them at the same time then one by one. We were all in the healing bay watching Shiro.

“Is he okay?” Hunk asked when we heard Shiro groaning. 

“Sometimes the healing process causes involuntary brain waves,” Allura explained. 

“It looks like he’s having a bad dream,” Hunk mumbled. 

“He just got blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards, what dream could be worse than that?” Keith asked. We all waited for a short while longer before he started to wake up. We had all gathered closer and smiled at him when he opened his eyes. He told us about having a dream of a Galra soldier helping him and some coordinates in his arm. 

We waited for Shiro to get dressed before walking down to the green lions hanger. Lance was filling Shiro in on what had happened with him and Hunk and Mermaids? I wasn’t really sure, I was just thankful the attention wasn’t on me, I don’t even know how I’m going to tell them. 

“(Y/n)?” I heard Hunk called out. 

“Huh?” I looked to see everyone was staring at me. 

“You were kind of zoned out there,” Lance looked me. 

“Oh…” I breathed. 

“You know you’ve been acting really weird since you got back, you’re the only person who never shared what happened while we were all separated,” Pidge crossed her arms. 

I sighed, I was going to have to tell them sooner or later and I might as well just get it over with, “I don’t really even know where to start,” I stated. “A lot happened honestly,” I guess I should just ease the information in. “Well, I guess I can start with I crashed onto this planet where I was met by a girl who ended up being the planets princess,” I said I wasn’t trying to be vague but I’m still not sure how they will take it. “She ended up taking me to the queen, where I found out I was on the home of the original Violet Paladin, and at first the queen wasn’t very happy learning that I was the new paladin,”

I explained a bit of what I learned like how they had closed of all communication with the rest of the universe, and how the only reason I think they hadn’t been attacked is because in the Archives I learned that they never shared the location of their planet with anyone. Coran shared that not even Alfor or any of the other original paladins had been to the planet and that I was the first ‘outsider’ I bite my tongue to hold back from correcting him at least yet. “Okay but none of that explains why you’ve been acting weird,” Pidge said ever observant she is. 

“It might just be easier to show you then tell you.” I pulled out my phone I had snapped a photo of the picture that the Queen showed me and I showed it to the group. 

“It looks like you, but it’s not,” Pidge state. 

“Is this some creepy twin in space thing?” Lance asked. 

“No, how do I put this… it’s true it’s not me, but it’s also not a twin thing… I mean, except the actual picture in this is over 28 years old.” I explained, I could almost see the wheels turning in their heads. “It’s my mom!” I exclaimed not really being able to take it anymore. 

“How!” Pidge was the first to speak up since she was the only person here to ever meet my mom. 

“Wait what?” Lance was the next one to speak up. I explained to them as much as I knew which still wasn’t much other then the fact that she was the queen’s little sister. It felt so much better to have this off my chest. We continued to the hanger to find out what if anything was in Shiro’s arm. The whole way down Lance kept questioning me about everything, I was kind of annoyed but I just ignored him. 

While we were waiting for Pidge to find the coordinates I just kept thinking about everything that's happened. I wonder if my mother would have ever told me about this? And if that was why she was mad that I had joined the garrison.

 Eventually Pidge found the coordinates, but Allura didn’t seem too happy about trusting something from the Galra but we went ahead and used a  wormhole to get to the base. In front of us were these large crystals they were kinda cool. 

“Well this is it. No signs of life, living or otherwise.” Coran said. “I don’t want to bring the castle any closer those xanthorium chucks contain highly unstable nitrate salts even bumping one can blow us straight to Wozblay,” Okay slightly less cool. 

“Are you sure this is right?” Shiro asked. 

“These are the coordinates Number Six gave me.” Coran said.

“Hey! My decryption is solid,” Pidge defended glaring at Coran. 

“We’ve gotta be missing something,” Shiro said. We ended up waiting a few minutes before alarms began blaring. 

“There’s an intruder in the Castle!” Coran shouted. Allura found him on level five. We all suited up and went down. We each began running through the halls to find this guy. Lance was the first to find him. I began to head back towards Lance listening to Corans commentary. Next they ran by Pidge. I soon found him dragging Pidge and being followed by Lance, and I joined following them. 

Then Hunk who somewhat blasted at us. We all chased him but kinda lost him as he ran towards Keith. That was the only good part of Coran’s commentary is we knew where this guy was. By the time Hunk, Lance and I caught up with Keith was quite literally hurled at us knocking the four of us down. 

We watched as Shiro and the guy were at each other’s throats before they both backed down. And that’s when Allura slammed him into the wall. When Shiro explained that the guy was the Galra soldier he’d remembered. 

We eventually had him chained up in our common room. Ulaz was apparently a Galra soldier in this secret underground revolution called the Blade of Marmora. The coordinates we had were actually corrected its just the base was hidden in a space fold. Honestly you could feel the tension between everyone from Allura’s mistrust of Ulaz, to the rest of us kinda being on the same side as her, except Shiro. 

Everyone except Lance, Allura, and Coran took the Red Lion to the base. We learned that they had several members in the ranks of Zarkon’s army including his main ship which is why we got away last time. Pidge asked about her family, which Ulaz agreed to transfer prison data to the castle of lions. 

“What’s that weapon you carry?” Keith asked. 

“It’s a ceremonial blade that each of our members carry,” Ulaz explained. “Oh, nice,” Keith said. Alarms began blaring again. We opened a screen to see another one of those stupid robeasts, but how did it find us this time? Before we left, Ulaz gave Shiro coordinates. Allura blamed Ulaz for us being found, but this time I think I agree with Shiro I don’t think Ulaz told Zarkon we were here. 

We waited in our lions but soon the fight was on. But this thing was nearly impossible to beat, it sucked in the crystals before blasting us, or it tried to suck us in. Ulaz left after the base was revealed… maybe he’s not one of the good guys. No time for that though as the beast tried to suck in the castle. We managed to stop that, but our plan to blow it up after didn’t work. It tried to suck us in again. 

“I’m going to take this down from the inside!” We heard Ulaz call. 

“No let us handle this!” Shiro tried. 

“Voltron is too important,” was the last thing he said to us before he flew into the beasts mouth, just as we thought it didn’t work it started to fold in on itself. He opened a space pocket inside the beast.

When we returned to the castle no one seemed in too high of spirits. I decided to walk around for a bit too maybe clear my head. So much has happened in the last couple of days its been a lot to process. Honestly, how long had it been since we’d left earth? It didn’t seem like that long but there was no day in night in space, we had a schedule but it was more like we slept for a few hours and we stayed up until we were ready to pass out. 

I finally decided maybe going to bed would be the best option right now to clear my mind. I slowly walked down the hall being quiet because I’m sure everyone else is probably trying to sleep now. I was almost to my room when I noticed Keith in front of my door. 

“You need something?” I asked. 

“Oh yeah, I just wanted to talk,” He said.

“About?” I wondered what he wanted to talk about. 

“A few things actually,” He said. “Would you mind if we went in my room for a minute?” I blushed a bit at the request but nodded I did tell him we could talk if he ever needed to. We went to his room. We both sat on his bed. 

“Alright what’s up? I’m not the only one who’s been acting kind of weird lately you’ve gotten more reckless,” I said noting his behavior from the last few days? Weeks? But it was more than that almost like he was also being protective. “Remember that sword Ulaz had?” He asked.

“Yeah, you seemed pretty interested in it,” 

“Well it’s because of this,” Keith pulled out a dagger from under his pillow, it had a weird marking, kinda like Ulaz. 

“Where or how’d you get it if you don’t mind my asking?” I looked at him. “I’ve kind of always had it, I thought it was weird but now it's even weirder because the marking is similar to Ulaz,” Keith explained. “That means the Galra were on earth at some point,” 

“But Ulaz also did say that only the Blades of Marmora had them,” I said. “And I’d reason that if my mom and possibly my dad made it to earth without being detected by the garrison then who’s to say someone else couldn’t? And for all we know, maybe it was imbedded in a meteorite or something and your parents found it and thought it was cool,” 

“You might be right,” He smiled a bit. 

“What else do you want to talk about?” I asked. I could tell there was something else, we didn’t know about the Blades until today so he hasn’t been acting weird because of that. 

“Oh, well, how do I put this…” He said looking down. 

“Keith-” I was cut off, I was so shocked Keith was kissing me! 

[Next]

Tag list~ (if you’re not tagged please check your settings!) 

@somebodytouchedmysaeran @ittie-bittie-tittie @izabellah816 @zanysouleggstudent @rickxreader1shots @chewymoustachio

[takahasheesh]

Sorry if I’m late ^-^; 7: Have you ever watched an entire anime in one sitting? 13: What is your favorite comedy anime? 22: You get to have a harem of [6] anime characters of your choice, who do you choose? 29: Has an anime’s fanbase ever made you hesitant to watch an anime? 34: Have you ever watched an anime only because you liked a specific character?

You're not late! Thanks a lot for sending these! <3 

(Also, I have no idea why but I answered each of these and then Tumblr just decided not to post the answers ;u; so I’m reposting it)

7. Have you watched an entire anime in one sitting? 

Yeah! My friends and I binge watch shorter shows from time to time. I recall watching, Sukisho, Love Stage!, and Yuri on Ice in one sitting. 

13. What is your favorite comedy anime? 

Either Osomatsu-San or The Daily Lives of Highschool Boys. I’m a sucker for gag anime sometimes. 

22. You get to have a harem of [6] anime characters of your choice, who do you choose?

This is harder to answer because I could never be in a harem anime. Can we make it like a friendship harem? If so then, 

1. All Might (My Hero Academia)

2. Onodera Ritsu (Sekaiichi Hatsukoi)

3. Matoi Ryuko (Kill la Kill)

4. Arataka Reigen (Mob Pyscho 100)

5. Miyazono Kaori (Your Lie in April)

6. Lance (Voltron-which isn’t really an anime but I’d want him in this)

29. Has an anime’s fanbase ever made you hesitant to watch an anime? 

I can’t say that a fanbase has veered me away from a show, but in high school, my friends were obsessed with Durarara and Soul Eater. I found it so obnoxious that I never watched either series. In hindsight, I should have just watched the shows to see what they were always gushing about, but I wasn’t strong enough back then lol

34.  Have you ever watched an anime only because you liked a specific character?

I think that I started watching Neon Genesis Evangelion because I thought that Kaworu Nagisa was cool, which was a mistake on my part. 

Thanks again for asking!!

[velkynkarma]

Alright so I just restarted my Voltron binge and where else but from the beginning? Season 1, Episode 1. 

Some idle thoughts that passed through my mind while viewing:

I feel sorry for the poor bastards that need to go in that simulator after Hunk threw up all inside it

Also presumably all of these kids are now dead since we never did see them again. Or maybe they graduated. Y’know what, let’s say they graduated. It’s nicer.

Where did Keith get the explosives, like for real though

Keith is able to rescue Shiro to begin with (remember—not knowing he was rescuing Shiro, specifically, because that surprised him) because the Blue Lion carvings/pictures depicted an event happening at that time. 

That would suggest that at the very least the Blue Lion has precognitive abilities, which are never actually used. 

However, we also see these symbols appear around the Yellow and Green Lions as well, and in the case of the Green Lion, the sloth-thing seemed to be expecting them. 

Does Voltron have precognition in general? Why is it never used again?

Allura in her flashback wants to form Voltron to fight against Zarkon. Of course…this requires the Black Lion…which Zarkon is at the time the only paladin of. This would imply Allura figured they had a decent stand-in to pilot the Black Lion. I wonder who that might have been.

Why DID the Alteans design their super-important-for-defense particle barrier crystal alignment chamber to be too small for Alteans to reach into for correcting, fixing or replacing crystals? Surely not everyone had a telepathic connection to a small rodent?

Why did Sendak have the Red Lion on his ship? And also a small handful of prisoners? Prisoners who apparently are the exact same prisoners that were initially in the gladiator arenas with Shiro, enough to recognize him exactly? How did Shiro specifically recognize this, exact ship, when presumably all the Galra ships are built the same? Is this also a gladiator arena ship? Did Sendak run a gladiator arena ship? I have so many questions.

RIP Arusians living on that one mountain that Voltron allowed Sendak to blow up

RIP other Arusians that Voltron dropped an ion cannon on

It’s an honest to god wonder they survived even this first fight. Literally the only reason they do is because they caught Sendak by surprise with Voltron. They’re so bad at this. They’re all so bad at this. 

I fucking missed Keith’s and Lance’s stupid bickering. So much. 

“I don’t know. But I bet it’s Keith’s fault.” 

“I’ll stick you in a wormhole!”

“That’s...times ten.” “Whatever, dropout.” 

“Here’s an idea, shut your quiznak.” “I don’t think you’re using that word correctly.” Keith honey please what the fuck kind of response is that. 

There were so many good quotes in the first episode alone

From the serious: “Go. Be great.”

To the goofball. “Now what if the Yellow Lion doesn’t work? What if I....what If I can’t get into mine? What if I start crying it’s too late I’m already crying”

“What the cheese...”

The Voltron Assemble sequence was just filler by the end of the series but man that first transformation still has a gut-punching impact

Black. Paladin. Shiro. 

Everyone’s in their right Lion combinations and I love it

[bionicdragonguardian1]

Voltron Rewritten Defender (1/8)

Also known as My Almost Raging Bitch List for this Goddamn Disastrous Disappointment of a Show

I binged all 8 seasons in under a week, so believe me when I say almost nothing was forgotten between seasons/episodes and I do tend to note that.

If it’s not obvious by the title, I’m planning an entire show AU. I am extremely open to people’s opinions on what I’m currently thinking and when I finally post this I’ll be open to criticism there too. If you would like to avoid seeing anything in regards to this feel free to blacklist #voltron_rewritten_defender because that’s what I’ll be using for this whole thing.

Enjoy, I guess.

Fair warning I am a multishipper, but for this show I leaned towards Klance, so if that bothers you that’s okay, I’m not going to be bashing any other ships (mainly just Dreamworks’ forced Allurance). If you think I missed something for any other ship lemme know! If you wanna have a ship discussion that’s cool too. The only other thing I can think of is that Allura’s attitude in S8 really stuck with me to the point that she bothered me throughout the entire rewatch (I was admittedly one of the people who thought she could be very Mary Sue ish when I first watched this) so that’ll show up now and again.

If you want to look at the Google Doc for the whole show, click the link, if not you can expand this post to see Season 1. I’ll be doing these in chunks, but as some of you know I do a FicRecList on one of my other accounts here @sorcerusdragonbionics​ so I’m gonna be alternating between that and these for the next couple days.

If you do the Google Route it’ll have you ask me for permission, this is normal and if you request it I’ll give you commenting abilities.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t30IRJonrBFh0qvs8recf3ayGoQ0rx02y0Tg1e4NTaI/edit?usp=sharing

Key

Things I kinda wanna bitch about

Things I did genuinely enjoy and like 

Rewatch Thoughts (basically what I remember from further forward and how I feel like it reflects back on earlier seasons)

Ship Talk (behold my multishipping insanity)

Things I think I’ll do in the Rewrite

Writing Notes (mainly for me or as explanation for what I’m planning)

VA and Closed Captioning Things

Other Fic Thoughts

This ended up being music commentary in S8

Season One

Problems with the Season overall:

To be honest if I hated this season I wouldn’t’ve kept watching because by the time I started S3 had just dropped

Episode 1

Here’s the deal, WHY ARE YOU SO LONG BUT SO EMPTY?!?

Yeah, nope, that’s mostly it

Fix the problem of telling instead of showing about the other Lions and remove Allura’s explanation of the Lions if possible (thank you Kross for explaining why it felt so empty- this vid is actually where I started getting the idea to actually go through with a full series AU)

DON'T RUSH THE LION INTROS

Also let the 5 introduce themselves to Allura and Coran

Also Character Drive to Complete Mission Should Be A Thing

Flesh out Paladin Personalities so that the Aris Arrival is End of Part One (making it closer to the length of E1)

Flesh out Lion intros so part 2+3 are more like full Eps without Sendak

Episode 2

75 degrees… that’s definitely in Fahrenheit, which why?

How does no one have a watch with a date on them?

“A man can be driven to do anything if a beautiful woman is just really really mean to him”

More inbetween scenes bc I can

I will accept the transformation sequence here, I’m just not going to write it

Episode 3

Please watch the use of Earth Time Slices please, because it’s confusing

I love the portrayal of PTSD in this show and I would die before I change it

Bye bye transformation sequence

Pidge’s talk with Shiro can please change

Episode 4

“I say Vol, you say Tron” will come up again if it kills me

Lance, how do you know what hotdog water and feet taste like?

I love how Coran is completely nonchalant about the fact that he’s drinking a hair tonic

Shiro, don’t bring down the mood

Goddammit Sendak, you could stay for this arc, but god I want you GONE!

Keith, having an emotion? Really?

The Pidge plot DID NOT NEED TO HAPPEN LIKE THAT!

Fight me I will change it

Or minimally change the fact that their selfish motivations are revealed to BAD and should be changed

Oh yeah, let’s not give the ONE GUY with notable homesickness a character arc around that

That moment when you realize Allura is like ‘wtf is a peanut’

Allura, don’t push it, some people don’t want to talk about it

You will have something to talk about, BIOLOGY

Decryption happens here, and next attempt to find family occurs… when?

Poor Coran, if there is anyone who was more forgotten than Lance it was him

Keith isn’t wrong, but he also doesn’t know how to say it without getting mad, which mood

Just pointing out Lance is not only smart, but selfless, tell me how he’s not the main character

My inner Shance/Klance shipper is sobbing

“Bomb fuel” mentioned here, occurs… actually it’s ok

Timelines need to be a thing!

Can I make the fight scenes more intense? Yes, I write them for my YJ Scripts. Will I? Almost definitely.

Keith with that much fire your mask should be closed because smoke inhalation is bad

Can we explain Vrepit Sa before s6?

It feels like Coran forgets that 10k years have passed under an evil empire and part of me likes it, but it hurts me

Episode 5

The Katie flashback is hurts me

I want to add Gender Identity

Can we talk about how Shiro is a nickname for Takashi Shirogane?

That’s not how an EMP works

The Coran sitting on Hunk’s shoulders with a machine gun is everything

I know the back x-ray was a joke, but I still don’t like it

Rax is an idiot, just saying

Bonding Moment!!!

Episode 6

“Intergalactic time measuring competition.”

“We had a bonding moment!”

Where is Sendak’s arm?

Fight me, Pidge’s ‘gender speech’

It will be a gender speech if it kills me

Lance, why are you acting the way you are?

“I figured” and “We were supposed to think you were a boy” ARE NOT PROPER REACTIONS!

Rolo, sometimes I want to punch you in the teeth

Lance’s boner is going to get someone killed

Lance had 4sec of logic and then Nyma brings up Keith, which ofc does him in

Let’s expand on the Komar, yeah?

Quiznack means fuck and NO ONE can tell me otherwise

Keith’s ability to fly is impressive and it’s awesome

Friendly reminder that Lance acknowledged the bonding moment

Episode 7

I LOVE the laser gun sound effects!!!

I just realized that Allura has no clue what an Acronym is

We… literally just talked about this and YOU didn’t know that Shiro, I understand the point, but seriously?

LIONS are TELEPATHIC Shiro DID NOT need to say that aloud!

I do actually like the fact that Kieth gets excited before realizing what he did

FIRE and ICE PEOPLE come on! What the hell?! You barely had to try

“Yes sir?” Keith to Shiro, what?

I love them and their cute little arguments

Left vs Right, thank you Zamber

We be lovin’ Hunay bc it’s pure as hell

Thank you Shiro for validating Hunk’s concerns

You could check  a little faster, Allura

I LIVE for this scene

Was it actually Rolo?

Do they have teleporters?

Keith being weird is my favorite thing

I love good big bros who argue tradition to save their baby sis

Zarkon is a bit of a moron

THEIR LIVES ARE IN DANGER ALLURA!

They all came through different doors… how?

What if the answer was no?

I’m ok with Lance embarrassing himself when he’s cocky, some people seem to forget that

Bye transformation sequence, I explained you ONCE and that’s it

Prorock… why are you familiar?

Episode 8

I admittedly forgot that they didn’t know these things would be different

Flying fight scenes I can do, teleporting not so much

Poor Shiro he thought he had an idea and he was wrong

I love Coran’s reaction

Also NO SHIT Allura

UHHHH Pidge said that not and of the other three so how did He know?

Allura may piss me off, but I do love this speech

“Your Altean Energy”??? Coran, you’re an Altean, I’m confused.

The “Sacred Altean” thing I get, but you must be more specific cuz it makes Coran sound like he thinks he’s not a proper Altean.

Oof, angsty

Also, I  know we can’t kill Allura yet, but... 

I love that Hunk forgot they hadn’t formed Voltron

Bye bye transformation sequence

Ummm, they NEED to explain the Bayard Equip bc that’s… two very different things that occurred between Hunk and Keith’s Bayard Weapons

Why is this a scene? It’s not a dog. So, yeah, I’m with Keith here

Episode 9

THIS IS NOT HEALTHY ALLURA!

I just realized that this doesn’t come back until S..7? 8? Whatever, WAY too long

I can’t unhear “Training Dick”

Did they have homework on Altea?

Be still my Punk shipper heart

WHY is he SO pretty?!

Y’know, the glowing red eye is usually a bad sign

I could SO mean and hurt Keith here

That moment when you’re like 90% sure Shiro heard that somewhere

Not what haunted means Coran, but accurate

Why could Lance see Alfor for a second?

I too would like the answer to “where was the Red Lion?”

PTSD IS AMAZINGLY WRITTEN!

It’s a shame this is NEVER treated properly again

Thank you for NOT making the swimming thing a thing

You didn’t need to TRY Voltron, what the hell?!

Here’s the deal,  Altea not being Obliterated-obliterated is actually a really interesting idea

Lance still wins, for the record

If she was infected in any way this wouldn’t drive me crazier than a bot on Halloween

But she’s not so this is BULL

Shallura confuses me SO much…

Ok, admittedly the scene with Allura and Alfor is beautifully heartbreaking

Episode 10

The fact that Zarkon was a close friend to Alfor should be addressed

Also Shiro calling himself “an inexperienced Pilot” hurts

Allura’s a MORON!

YES! MASSIVE ISSUE WITH YOU COMING

Nice puppetry Hunk

What happened to THIS Allura?! She’s reckless but not INSANE (or so boring I might cry)!

Is this the same Druid from Season 8? Pretty sure it’s 8… I forget which, but the one Keith fought

“Don’t walk through that door!” / Keith does/ “I think I told him” // “You are a paragon of leadership, Lance”

Hehheh I love Hunk teasing Lance about Allura

I do actually the fact that I can’t tell what size the purple container is until Keith grabs it

Heheh the Allura interacting with the Galra soldier

The computer sounds like Lance

Also Shiro had that “holy shit” moment

I HATE WRITING TELELPORTING FIGHTS

I’m 99% sure that the ONLY reason I didn’t fall into the Galra Keith rabbit hole was the fact that I binge watched

This scene confuses me… so much now that I know Shallura was apparently never going to be a thing

So confused

Episode 11

That hair flip though...

Coran, I get it, but calm down

Okay, but Keith has a point. Seriously, he’s not wrong. 

For the record, Haggar scares me

So much makes so much more sense now that we know Zarkon is the Original Black Paladin

That… makes no sense… “enough essence to open a wormhole”

Why are you transforming? More pieces to shoot at is usually a smart idea…

Hey hey, THACE!

Why can’t you have two active at once? I’m honestly serious.

I mean too OP, got it, but you can maneuver around that for temporary stuff

Shiro, use your words, yeah?

“Thinking” uh huh you mean “telepathy” right?

I genuinely forgot that Shiro got booted from Black

Damn! Yes Shiro! Kick some ass!

Ok, here’s the deal, Keith’s not listening to Coran, but he doesn’t have all the info (LIKE THE FUCKING BAYARD), Zarkon’s the OG Paladin, and he’s in distress

I HATE TELEPORTERS!

“Could have been” … uh Kuron exists ?? 

Also, Shiro with yellow eyes is fucking terrifying

We ain’t ficking stupid VLD

Zarkon’s a fucking idiot

Written properly his power-hungry attitude works even with him destroying his own ship

But it wasn’t so it’s null

You aren’t even subtle about Galra Keith

How can Allura see through Illusions?

Nobody knows!

Shiro, you have no jetpack, how are you so fast?

“Who cares, wormhole!” mood

I… uh… I want to do SO many things with this idea

Preferably not what they actually do...

[sarasanddollar]

SARA'S VAGUE SENSE OF HOW CARTOONS PROGRESSED:

as requested by @chintastic and @whatdoesthefauxsay, and specifically requested by @lunagalemaster to be posted to Tumblr!

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh early 1900's animation becomes a thing in the West? Merrie Melodies, early Looney Tunes, that kind of thing. Black and white stuff, view in theater only, it's not "adult" but it's really for adults going to the theater and sort of "look at our technical skill!" sort of show (and as a form of escapism from the war, then the Depression, then the war again)

skip on down, Snow White happens, Disney is a phenomenon, we're not really looking at cartoons in the film circuit here tho so I won't be talking abt like Disney movies and Pixar et al. because that's a whole other animal

television gets invented !

"adult cartoons" that are like funny/sexy happen, stuff like Betty Boop, we're still figuring out what animation is for but plot starts to show up esp with the now popular Mickey/Bugs Bunny stuff

It's the mid 1900's, we're out of the war, I don't know what happens in this period, I know the Hays Law becomes a thing so censorship happens pretty fast, and Saturday morning cartoons directed solely for kids are officially a thing, so Inspector Gadget, Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones + the Jetsons, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Tom & Jerry, more Looney Tunes and Mickey Mouse cartoons. A lot of these toe that line between "cartoons for kids" and "cartoons for adults" by including little things that make it fun for parents too

It's the eighties!!! The Industry has figured out that they can make cartoons that [gasp] Sell Merchandise!!! to kids. So toy cartoons come out, that's all stuff like TMNT, My Little Pony, Transformers, X-Men, He-Man/She-Ra, Voltron, Rainbow Brite, Care Bears, and Strawberry Shortcake. The quality of storytelling goes DOWN down down down down and everything is just factory-churned out with the purpose of Selling Toys (tho we still hold a lot of these things pretty near and dear)

The nineties happen. Nickelodeon figures out that cartoons are good and kids like them! And starts airing those instead of live action and puppet shows. They realize, hey, what if... We had cartoons. ALL DAY. Instead of just on Saturdays, for an hour in the morning. They instate an all-day all-cartoon channel that is ONLY their original content (they borrowed stuff like Tom & Jerry up until then), and they follow a brand guideline to make sure it's... The kind of stuff kids like. It's funny, it's interesting, it's creator-driven, and it's not just to sell toys or just churned out to fill a time slot. Quality picks up! This is why 90s cartoons are still a classic today. But also TLDR Nickelodeon killed the Saturday morning timeslot

Cartoon Network follows suit. We get good stuff well into the early 2000s, and then Disney decides to throw in as well - they'd already had shows in the 80s based on their existing brand properties (Little Mermaid, Hercules, Aladdin, and ofc Micky Mouse, Chip+Dale, and DuckTales!) but we start getting original channel-only stuff like, well, American Dragon. More on that later.

The Simpsons. We start to get adults for cartoon that also have heart and morals, instead of just. Sex jokes (Simpsons has quite a few of those too though!). The Simpsons is a cultural icon and influences pretty much every kids cartoon you can imagine, from SpongeBob to Fairly OddParents.

Anime. Anime was beginning to become VERY popular in the States sometime in the seventies (backtracking a bit here) and popular stuff like, AstroBoy, Akira, Speed Racer, started getting ported to kids channels later on (with really bad dubs.) That got a greater and greater influence ESPECIALLY among adult weebs that weren't really as huge a group as they are now demanding Better Quality English-accessible stuff (there's a whole thing on the history of this that I don't have enough internet time to get into) and that started to happen, esp when Ghibli became a huge success, people started going crazy for it, and Disney was like hey ! a market ! and made Good Dubs with A-list guest star voice actors that started the anime revolution overseas

Speeding back up, we start getting things with overarching plots. Avatar happens. Avatar ... Is revolutionary, and that starts making people realize that hey :pikagasp: we can have things that are Complete. Instead of you know axing them halfway or keeping them static status quo for every episode. This is due to the influence of anime on the industry! Remember we're well into the early 2000s and anime is now more mainstream than ever. Naruto, FMA, Black Butler, OHSHC, Death Note, all that good stuff is happening at this point in time.

Avatar doesn't do anything though. It's just, different. Different enough that people remember. (And enough that everyone who worked on it worked on the aforementioned American Dragon - a lot of the same writers and actors, giving it a pretty good internal plot of its own!)

Stuff like Totally Spies happens! That's also anime influenced. Later we'll get stuff like the new Voltron, the new She-Ra, the return of Avatar with Korra, slowly but surely everyone is deciding that Japan is the good trend. Even Winx Club or Angel's Friends over in Italy gets the anime influence! Everyone knows what's up.

It's the early 2010 and cartoon quality goes... Down for a bit, around these points, we get stuff like Fanboy and Chum Chum, Fish Hooks, just, the so random xD rawr humor is what kids are into and the industry doesn't know what to do except gross out humor and barfing rainbows and it's just... Not memorable.

Except Adventure Time nails it and it's a PHENOMENON. I don't know what happened there but something about the childlike wonder and good humor being connected to the (you guessed it!) overarching plot causes a sensation like never before.

Gravity Falls.

Steven Universe.

Star vs. the Forces of Evil.

In Canada, Detentionaire.

A Scooby-Doo reboot during this time called Mystery Incorporated.

Suddenly this is the trend. Starting with ATLA but leading to AT, big scary mystery, big scary villain, episodes that CAN be viewed stand-alone but also super connect? THIS is the industry trend now and we are LOVING it. We love a story that... Progresses. Characters that grow and change. 80s kids are now older and want cartoons that are good, not just. Toys selling machines.

Streaming services killed the television star. It's a LOT easier to do the overarching plot thing now that you can sit and binge something in one sitting instead of waiting once a week/month to see one ep of a thing you already forgot what happened in last time.

My Little Pony!! Gets rebooted. It's 2013 and for SOME reason this has a huge following? A huge following of adult men, where it's a show for little girls. The brony movement was so huge it's often compared to how Star Trek became a big hit among female viewers way back when. This doesn't influence other shows in storytelling terms but it does change marketing - now your only audience might not be what you think it is. Everyone tries to follow suit by selling their shows to "adult fans," it doesn't always work but boy howdy! And well, MLP follows the trend of overarching plot too, best as it can.

It's the late 2010s and we're in the nostalgia age. Now 90s kids are older and they run the market - we're not trying to make new stuff or support new creators, we're trying to salvage what was and make money off what people loved before. Reboot after reboot after reboot, Disney with its big movies and Nickelodeon doing (a great job, admittedly!) with their Rocko, Zim, and Arnold movies. It's working out fine, but it's a pretty big indicator that there are no new ideas - or rather, new ideas are being snuffed out in favor of bad PowerPuff Girls reboots (Cartoon Network not doing so hot, SU is what saved it!)

this is probably not well written I kept backtracking and adding other stuff pff I hope it's coherent ;; ENJOY

[carriagelamp]

For the fandom asks: hijk

Thank you!

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., tv shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)

Hmm... I’d say it really depends, because I’m into all of those things and I have fandoms related to all of them. My favourite is probably from books - novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, etc. It gives more material than a single movie, and I have a hard time sitting still long enough to get invested in TV shows. Video games can also be fun if I manage to get into it because there’s so much gameplay potential and you can really live the source material.

I - Has tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why

Ha ha ha, oh yeah babey. Voltron springs the most readily to mind. I still mourn that one because my experience with it was pretty limited. I joined really late, binged it, loved it to pieces, had so much fun with the characters and the world, and then made the mistake of trying to get involved in the fandom. Sucked literally all the joy out of it and I didn’t ever even bother finishing the show. Still don’t like going back to watch it cause the experience was so miserable. That was a weird couple months...

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr

Again, lots! I’ve definitely gotten into series solely because tumblr made me notice them. Best example? Dragon Age 2... and indirectly every other video game fandom I’ve ever been involved of since! I resolutely Did Not Play Video Games before that (because I was bad at it, and people make fun of “girl gamers” who aren’t good at video games, and I was way too young and insecure to deal with that at that point). But someone I followed posted tons of DA2 stuff and was super supportive of new gamers so I bought a copy and my brother helped me get started and I have been gaming ever since ^^ I don’t even need my brother to beat the hard fights for me any more ;) It really is amazing how cool supportive people make all the difference when it comes to fandom.

K -Say something nice about someone in any of your fandoms

@nekosammsi and @yarrayora are both fucking amazing people to have in your fandom, because they will fall in love with weird, small, niche things and then pursue them with their entire hearts. You need a lot of gumption to keep making content for a very small fandom and these two will pick the entire thing up in their arms and run with it. Even when I’m not involved in a fandom they might be a part of, it’s still fun to sit on the sidelines and watch these funky little content creators do their thing

[fleetofshippyships-archive]

Fanfic Author Meme

Tagged by @diligent-thunder and @rockmarina​ =)

Okay, so I’m me, and I talked way too much, so I’m putting this under a cut to save your dashes. You’re welcome 😘

Please do not reblog this post.

Author Name: 

Fleetofshippyships + Knowyourincantations + Legendaryroar

Fandoms You Write For: 

(in order of decreasing # of fics) Harry Potter, Voltron, Merlin, Yuri on Ice, Star Trek, Star Wars and then a few one-offs that aren’t really worth mentioning.

Where You Post: 

AO3 primarily, Tumblr, trying to post more on Pillowfort, I also post on a couple of sites for knowyourincantations

Most Popular One-Shot: 

Fleetofshippyships: Potter’s Insatiable Cock (Drarry, Explicit (duh XD), 20k (viewable only for logged-in AO3 users)).

Knowyourincantations: A Decent Start to Things (Pansmione, Teen, 7k)

Legendaryroar: Finding Time for Rest (Sheith (Voltron), Teen, 3k)

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: 

RestraintNone of my old multi-chapter fics are available to read at this time and I don’t really write multi-chapter fics anymore.

If oneshot/drabble collections or two-shots count, then:

Fleetofshippyships: Vanilla and Sweet Spices (Drarry, Explicit, 2 chapters, 20k)

and this really doesn’t count, but technically it has multiple ‘chapters’ soooooooooo

Legendaryroar: Kinktober 2018 (Multiple ships (Voltron), Explicit (duh), 31 ‘chapters’, 26k)

Favourite Story You Wrote: 

I don’t think I ever have a static favourite, I’ve just written too many things, I too quickly move on to the next (and frequently forget some of my own fics exist XD), but recently I re-read In Pursuit of Red Wine (Dreville, Teen, 29k) and really enjoyed that again, and I am really attached to it cos it was my first longish rarepair fic, kind of proving to myself that I can write longer rarepair stuff. 

I also recently re-read Unburdened (Merthur (BBC Merlin), Explicit, 2k) and really enjoyed that too, had a total disconnect from having written it since it’s been so long, so I was able to read it without self-judging, and oh boy that was nice. 

I’m also quite proud of Healing What’s Left (Parkgrass, Teen, 2k) for some reason, I dunno, maybe the dark political backdrop of the fic, or maybe just cos it’s the first time I’ve written Daphne as the main character and I’m happy with the result and now have some headcanons about her rather than her being an unknown blank character to me. 

I also binge read a lot of my Voltron stuff recently and had big feels over that so....I also specifically enjoyed re-reading The Perks of Skincare (Klance (Voltron), Explicit, 3k) again cos I dunno, I like how I wrote Lance XD and also the Sheith fic I linked earlier is a fav for sure. Shiro/Rest is the ultimate OTP.

It really depends how soon after I write something or when I go back to re-read it as to what my fav is at any given time (or people commenting on it and hyping me up for it again).

Story You Were Nervous to Post: 

Everything. But most recently I was terrified out of my mind before posting: 

Friday Night by the Fire (Harry/Neville, Teen, 583 words) because I have a lot of fears about screwing up trying to write ace characters and somehow not even making that a focal point of the drabble made it even more terrifying,  No More Waiting (TianShan (19 Days), Teen, 2k) because it was a new fandom to write in, Harry Potter and the Maudlin Merman series (Drarry, Teen+ Mature, 3k +6k) due to my feelings of inadequacy because it would be better as long fic but I struggle too much with writing these days to write long fics and can only manage short things. I’d rather write this as a long fic, but then I’d never finish it so connected oneshots are the best I can do right now, but I still feel it’s not good enough and have a meltdown whenever I post one. And speaking of which, I’ve been sitting on the next one for months and should probably just fucking post it already.

Actually, most recently: Minding One’s Limits (Cho/Ginny, G rated, 1.5k), because I gave Cho a disability modeled off my fibromyalgia and wrote a scenario similar to something I’d dealt with myself, it was incredibly uncomfortable to write in the first place, and then terrifying to post, even though it’s so short. But in the end I’m proud I finally wrote about it a bit? I dunno, might take me a while to work up the nerve again though XD (also was my first time writing that ship, so there was a lot of nervousness over that too)

Oh, and I was a super ball of anxiety posting  Kinktober 2018 (Multiple ships, Explicit, 31 ‘chapters’, 26k) because for almost all of those it was the first time I was writing those kinks (and some were kind of squicks for me but I wanted to see if I could write them anyway cos I’m dumb like that) and in a lot of cases those ships were completely new for me to write too, in addition to trying to write and post 1 a day, so...yeah. Also that was my first time writing tentacle and human/werewolf smut so...yeah. I was an absolute mess that month and not in a fun way. But I’m still really glad I did it, it was fun =D

In summary, I’m always an anxious mess posting anything, but most especially if it’s something I’ve not written before or is personal to me XD

How Do You Choose Your Titles: 

Most of the time I’m staring down the empty title field in AO3 cursing like a fucking sailor when I choose titles XD Sometimes it’s a line/theme/feeling from the fic. Sometimes it’s totally random and just comes to me. Sometimes I just grasp the first thing that I can no matter how stupid it sounds cos it’s been three days and I still don’t have a title and I’m over it and ready to post before I lose my nerve.

And tbh, it’s only getting harder to think of titles as my number of fics increases, and I’ve now started thinking of the perfect titles only to realise I already have a published fic by that title so....TITLES CAN DIE A FIERY DEATH

Sometimes, not so much anymore, it would turn out that I would give a wip doc a name just so I’d know what it was, sometimes as a joke with whoever was reading it and cheerleading while I wrote it, and then I would refer to it by that and think of it as that so much that when it came time to actually give the fic a title, it was too late and I could not think past that stupid file name, and that’s how Potter’s Insatiable Cock happened, and how I very nearly called a Merthur fic Arthur’s Wanking Tower (saved that one at the last moment thank god cos the tone of that fic is actually really serious and emotional and wtf was I even thinking with that file name and actually I linked to that fic above XD it ended up being called Unburdened). 

Potter’s Insatiable Cock slipped through cos it’s actually relevant to the fic content and I could live with it.

But needless to say, I don’t give my wip docs joke names anymore XD

Do You Outline: 

Only if I never want to actually write the idea...once I outline, it’s over. I can’t write to a detailed plan. It stifles me. I’ll always get stuck having to try and think ahead to the plan, and then I lose the flow and nothing works because I’m a pantser/intuitive/instinctive writer not a planner. Sometimes I jot down ideas but in like, the vaguest of ways, usually more focused on emotional development than actual scenes or events or anything because then I won’t be able to write it (and I rarely stick to those vague ideas anyway). 

I can really only write when I’m staring down a blank doc with no idea where it’s going and discover it as I go (which is why writing is so fun for me). I can only finish a fic if I don’t think too hard about what’s going to happen next and just let it happen as I write. 

This of course means that editing is a fucking bitch when I finish anything, beginnings often get totally re-written, but if I plan, it just doesn't happen at all, so I’ll take the extra editing if it means I manage to write something.

I do have a lot of detailed plotty fic idea outlines...and I mourn them cos I’m never going to write them now, but they’re so goooooooooood XD

Complete: 

Online (across all 3 accounts): 381 (incl. my hidden drarry fics as they are technically online just hidden, not incl. individual oneshots/drabbles in collection ‘fics’, of which there are ridiculously many). Offline: 20 (I have the worst habit of just sitting on completed fics and I really need to stop)

In-Progress: 

Too many to name, last time I counted it was ~60 but that wasn’t even including my vld wips so...I don’t actually know. I hoard wips and just switch up what I work on all the time depending on mood/interest levels/effort required. 

Current main focuses are a 50k+ plotty Drarry (*fingerscrossed* cos this is my first time seriously attempting something long (will probably reach 80k at least) in a very long time and I put it down for a few months and thought that was it but then I picked it up again recently, yay!), and re-writing some hidden fics I can’t put them back up in the quality they’re in, I just can’t guys, they’re awful.

I’ve been thinking a lot about working on the longish 8th year Pansmione fic I started for the wlw big bang before I had to pull out of cos stupid life stuff. I might pick that up again for a bit too, couldn’t be more different from the Drarry one so it’d make a nice focus break =)

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: 

I don’t even plan fics I’m writing, I sure don’t plan ahead to stuff I haven’t even started XD The only think I can think of for this category would be me re-writing my hidden long Drarry fics.

Oh, and there will be a Merthur oneshot coming (hopefully) soon, because @april-thelightfury115​ won my custom fic giveaway with a merthur idea. Just waiting for my brain to cooperate so I can start that and not suck XD but I’m so fucking excited to write some Merthur again, you have no idea.

Oh, and lots more Sapphic September drabbles coming too, I’m way behind and only just posted day 11 cos this month is literal hell for me, but I am still planning on finishing the prompt list, no matter how long it takes, but no plan for those, not even which ships, I just sit down with the next prompt and a blank doc and see what happens.

Do You Accept Prompts: 

Yes, I love writing to prompts, I’m take them via google form here, but I’m in such a bad space with my health I’ve been really struggling with writing lately, managed to do a bit of editing (fuck knows how), but writing new stuff is so hard, so there’s a long wait while I wait for my fibro fog to ease off to the point I can write new stuff with more regularity (and less stupid errors I have to edit out later).

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: 

Again, I so don’t plan. But I really want to be making more progress on the long plotty drarry wip I’m trying to write. I’m still not sure I’ll have the guts to post it even if I do finish it, given its subject matter (it would make a great careers or consent fest fic tbh), but damn I’m really excited by it. Not sure I can maintain it being plotty and not revert to focusing on the relationship (which is easier for me), but I can only try and see what happens. (trying to write a non-relationship plot without planning is a nightmare but I don’t have a choice if I want to write it at all XD)

I’m also now excited for my longish pansmione wip too actually, just because it’s already longer than my Dreville long-ish fic and it’s exciting and scary to do longer rarepair stuff. I’m way out of my comfort zone with the fic itself, but I dunno, I re-read some recently and fell in love with it all over again, like, flustered lesbian-awakening, disaster for Pansy (but sure she still hates her) Hermione? YES PLEASE! and also, I am guilty of not writing female characters as much as I should because, well, canonically, they don’t have much depth and I’m very meh about them, but in this there’s a huge focus on them because they’re all determined to band together for 8th year and Hermione is making friends with them (Parvati is like, dragging her along all the time XD) where she once dismissed them so it’s scary but exciting =D I’m getting more practice with all the sapphic I do over on knowyourincantations, so I feel more confident working on this wip now =D

I’m also kind of excited about re-writing my old long fics, because they’re all 3 years old now, and my writing tastes (and skill, yikes) have totally changed, so it’s like I’m writing the story again but how I would write it now while maintaining the overall same plot, so it’s really interesting, like discovering the story all over again. Like in one (Making Malfoy Blush) I’ve gone as far as introducing a new side character to replace another’s parts because I no longer feel those parts are in character for them. It’s super terrifying, but it’s fun at the same time =) it’ll take me forever to do these though, so I dunno about ‘upcoming’ really, I only chip away every now and then when I’m unable to write new stuff but am still coherent enough to do something.

Eh, it is what it is, I can’t write like I used to, hence me being inactive more than active these days, but I’m trying to work within my new limitations instead of getting frustrated with them and just giving up entirely =)

---

Now, who to tag....I think anyone I would tag has already done it, and if not..I blame the fog if I’m forgetting someone obvious, if you wanna do it just say I tagged you so I can be nosy and take a look =)

Again, please do not reblog this post

[naruwitch]

Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron Chapter 12: Taking Flight

"Sire, if capturing Voltron is the Empire's number-one priority, then I suggest we begin moving the main fleet toward its last known location posthaste." The Galran commander said as he knelt boldly before his leader. It was Prorok, a proud Galra that was currently stationed at the Galra's main fleet. Ambitious and loyal to the bone, he did everything in the name of Zarkon for his best interests, even if it meant taking matters into his own hands.

To Prorok's disgust, though, the witch turned to the Emperor and presented her own course of action. "Lord, after many years, the Komar Experiment is finally ready. Soon, we could have more quintessence at our fingertips than ever imagined. We must test it before moving the fleet."

Prorok rose in defiance, "We don't have time for any more of your magic. We must move our ships now." The Emperor must see that this was the perfect opportunity to take Voltron.

"Voltron is the most powerful weapon ever created," Haggar argued, "His puny ships will never be up to the task. We must be well prepared for our next encounter."

Zarkon slammed his hands against the arms of his throne, and Prorok took a step back in surprise before immediately kneeling again.

"I know better than anyone the power of Voltron. Haggar has my trust. We will perform her test," he decided.

Seeing that there was no more point in arguing, Prorok rose to his feet and stormed out of the room. He met up with one of the Galra officers he was over, Thace, a quiet but loyal Galra, in the hall away from the throne room.

"The witch has his ear. Keep sending our offer out to any scum between Planet Arus and Balmera X-95-Vox. I'll capture Voltron on my own."

o~o

"Okay. So, when we get there, what do you think? Do we just roll up and like, start blasting? Or do we land and have some kind of... public address system, like, 'Attention, Galras. This is Voltron. Turn yourselves in!' No, nevermind. Blasting, right?" Shirley asked as she paced anxiously with the rest of the Paladins sitting on the steps below her. She had no idea how a rescue mission was supposed to go. Not to mention this would be Voltron's first official mission, several things could go wrong. She was almost having an anxiety attack when Kallen gently interrupted her.

"Shirley, calm down. And yes, blasting."

"Shirley, it's okay for you to be nervous," Rai reassured her, "it's our first big mission, a rescue mission even. Everything's going to be alright."

"Nervous? I think she's more excited," Rivalz grinned.

"Excited to see her new BFF!" Milly sang as she tipped her head to wink at the Orange Paladin.

Shirley looked like she wanted to protest when unusual alarms started going off in the ship. They didn't sound like the emergency ones, though.

"What's happening? Are we under attack?" Lelouch asked urgently.

"No, it seems to be a distress beacon," Coran informed them as a small red triangle appeared on his and Allura's screens.

"It's coming from a nearby moon," Allura confirmed, "Apparently, a ship has lost power."

"I wonder who it is?" Suzaku wondered.

"Okay, well, whoever it is will have to wait," Shirley insisted, "The Balmerans have first priority. We can check back on them when we're done."

"The Paladin Code states that we must help all those in need," Allura chastised.

"Wow! This is so cool," Rivalz exclaimed, "It's like we're space cops on space patrol. Coran, do we have a siren we can turn on?"

"Uh, no, we don't," Coran admitted.

"Well, we could record you making a siren noise and broadcast that to them if you'd like," C.C. suggested with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Perfect!" The Blue Paladin started to make some pretty lousy siren noises before Lelouch pinched Rivalz lips shut.

"Nope, not doing that!"

o~o

It didn't take long for the Castleship to approach the moon in question. Seated around a small bond-fire were two aliens, a little robot, supplies, and a decent-sized ship that looked like it had been worn out through many battles.

"Attention, damaged craft, this is Princess Allura. We are coming to assist you." The six towers folded in on themselves, and the castle turned upright with more fluidity than any Knightmare or aircraft on Earth could ever achieve. It slowly and gracefully lowered to the ground next to the crew.

One of the aliens, a humanoid alien, with four fingers instead of five. He was tall with muscular arms, mauve skin, and purple spots. He had lank white hair and some pre-pubescent facial scruff. He also had downturned eyes and a cartoonishly straight nose.

"Whoa. Nice ship."

o~o

"Stay aboard and try to get as many of our systems clear of that Galra crystal energy as you can. We'll see who hailed us," Allura informed Coran and C.C. as she and the Paladins all prepared to meet the lost aliens.

"Yes, Princess," Coran nodded while C.C. shrugged. She might as well learn how a few of the things worked on the castle. Two pairs of hands were better than one after all.

o~o

They didn't take any of the Lions down to greet the strangers. Instead, the team descended to the ground in a small elevator shuttle. The doors opened to reveal the Princess and the entirety of Team Voltron as a whole. As they exited and approached the stranded party, the purple skin leader grinned, holding a wrench-like device in his hands.

"You don't know how glad we are to see some friendly faces. Most folks don't want to get tangled up with anyone who's on the run from the Galra."

"So, you're fighting the Galra as well?" Milly asked. However, almost immediately upon exiting the pod, her student council president senses perked up. Something felt wrong to the Yellow Paladin. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was off.

"Well, I don't think Zarkon is exactly quaking in his boots at the three of us," he gestured to the robot and his female comrade, "but we do what we can. I'm Rolo. This is Nyma, and our cyber-unit, Beezer."

"Hi," Nyma smiled. She was a tall alien with pointy ears, cream and yellow skin, and blonde hair with two brown stripes at her forehead. Her eyes were light purple with darker purple pupils and sclera. Her lower arms were slightly larger than her upper arms, and she had three fingers on each hand.

Rai's eyes nearly bugged out of his head at the sight of the robot. That was probably one of the coolest pieces of machinery he'd ever seen! "Cool robot!"

Rivalz was wholly enraptured with Nyma as he immediately shook her hand and introduced himself, "Hi! Name's Rivalz!"

"Was your ship damaged in a fight?" Suzaku asked Rolo.

"Yeah, we've really been through it with the Galra. Parts are hard to come by," the purple alien explained as he looked back at the ship, "Luckily, we were able to limp to this moon about a week ago. If you didn't pick up our distress signal, I didn—"

"We're happy to help," Allura interrupted him, "I am Princess Allura of Altea, and from now on, you won't be alone fighting the Galra. You'll have the Paladins of Voltron by your side."

Rolo rubbed his chin and looked back and forth between the two groups. Lelouch, Suzaku, Milly, and Kallen were standing next to Allura at the ready. A hint of light even shined off Lelouch's helmet. On the other hand, behind Rolo, Rai was still examining Beezer with Shirley crouched next to the robot with a small smile. Meanwhile, Rivalz was again flirting with Nyma, who giggled at a remark the Blue Paladin made.

"...Okay," Rolo replied dryly, not really sounding impressed.

"I don't believe they've heard of us," Lelouch said.

"Well, it has been 10,000 years," Kallen muttered the remark.

"Voltron? Seven robot Lions that combine into this big robot... person?" Shirley tried to explain.

"Sounds impressive," Rolo said, "I'd love to see it. Or—Or him. Them?"

"Alright, enough chit-chat!" Milly proclaimed, clapping her hands twice, "Let's get to work on your ship. We all have places to go and people to see."

"You know how to fix spaceships, Milly?" Suzaku asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, my family does own the Ganymede, and therefore I know it's maintenance and function. This should at least be a little similar, at least the basics anyway." Milly didn't mention that she'd also binged, with the help of a translator, a couple of manuals she'd found on the ship while they were waiting for Rivalz to wake up from cryo-sleep.

"I can help too," Kallen said, "I've had to repair Knightmares from scratch before. Two sets of eyes are better than one too." Milly nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, sure," Rolo agreed as he leads the two of them to the ship.

"Pretty much our whole flaxum assembly is shot," he explained as he opened one of the hatches, "I don't know what kind of extra parts you carry in this rig of yours. I've never seen anything quite like it."

"I'm sure we can get you back up and running," Allura smiled. In the background, Rivalz was attempting to flex his muscles for Nyma, who giggled at his efforts. Milly was watching the pair very suspiciously.

"Give Kallen and Milly a list of what you need. Coran can show you where to find it." Allura told Rolo then gestured to the two women.

"Okay," Kallen shrugged.

"We'll go with you," Rolo said, "Don't want you ladies carrying all that yourselves. Come on, guys."

Rolo started walking towards the Castle when Milly planted herself right in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"Uh, yeah, I don't think so. You can just wait out here."

"Milly, don't be rude!" Allura said sternly.

"Yeah, mind your manners," Rivalz said, "you're giving a bad impression!" He grinned apologetically at Nyma.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, but does anyone remember the last time we let our defenses down?" Milly asked, with a frown and narrowed eyes, "Someone kind of set off a bomb. Remember, Rivalz? You were almost killed."

"Oh… yeah," Rivalz wilted a little at the memory.

"Milly's right," Lelouch nodded, "apologies, but we must exercise caution. This is our first meeting, after all."

"Hey, I don't take it personal," Rolo said with a smile. Beezer rolled forward and printed off a list of materials, which Rolo handed to Milly and Kallen, "That's how it is out here. You've got to look out for your own. You're doing a good job."

"Yeah, thanks," Milly frowned as she looked between the list and the alien.

o~o

"My planet was destroyed by the Galra, and I was taken captive," Rolo explained as he, Lelouch, Suzaku, Shirley, and Allura, as they all sat around the fire. "I managed to escape, but not before I lost something," he pulled up his pant leg to reveal a metal prosthetic leg.

"I'm so sorry," Shirley murmured. She glanced back behind Rolo to see that Rai was still playing with and examining Beezer. She wondered, even though most of his memories were gone, whether the Green Paladin felt the same way.

"Well," Kallen called out as she and Milly lugged a large storage box out, "I hope there are some parts in here that will fit."

Rolo glanced back but made no move to join them.

Milly scowled, "...You know, to get your ship moving?"

Rolo smiled and waved back, "Great! Thanks!"

"So, what can you tell us about Zarkon's forces?" Allura asked, drawing Rolo's attention again, "Where are they concentrated?"

"Well, his Command Ship sits right in the center of the Empire. He mostly calls the shots from there and has his minions do the work, depending on who's closest. This is the territory of a real nasty bugger named Sendak."

"Oh, trust us, we've met," Suzaku frowned.

"How far are we from the center?" Lelouch asked, leaning forward.

"We're way out on the fringes," Rolo said. Before he could say anything else, Milly roughly cleared her throat and walked to the group, with her arms crossed.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt, but I think you guys are kind of keeping Rolo from working. Didn't you remember we're supposed to be in a hurry? Shirley kind of has a promise she needs to keep."

"Yeah," the Orange Paladin nodded, standing up, "someone named Shay saved my life, and I told her I'd come back to help her and her people. You understand, don't you?"

"Sure. Sorry," Rolo said, as he passed Milly by. The Yellow Paladin pursed her lips and glared after him. Yup, these people were up to something all right.

As Rolo started looking through the parts, Lelouch walked up to Milly, "You've noticed too, huh?" he said lowly.

"Yeah. Sorry for the attitude Lulu, but I don't trust these people at all," Milly whispered back.

"Neither do I, but we can still use this opportunity to gain valuable intelligence on the enemy. Just keep your guard up."

"Got it," she nodded before glancing at Rolo again. She turned back to the prince. "Honestly Lulu, I think we should just leave the parts here and let him take care of-"

"Hey ma'am," Rolo called over to Milly, "Sorry, but do you think you could hunt down a length of thermal pipe, about yay long?" he held out his hands to show the measurement.

"I can do it," Kallen said as she ran back to the castle for the part, "be right back!"

As Kallen went to get the part, Lelouch walked up to Rolo again, "So are there more freedom fighters? Any kind of organized resistance to the Galra?"

"Only folks who haven't been colonized yet, or the lucky few, like us, who managed to escape somehow," the alien said.

"Well, we're going to change all that, very soon," Suzaku informed him as he walked up to them with Allura, Shirley, and Milly.

"That's good to hear," Rolo smiled, "but I've got to warn you, it's pretty bad out there. You don't know what you're up against."

o~o

"I mean, there are only seven of us in the entire universe, so…" Rivalz said as he kept talking the Nyma, "I guess you could say it's kind of a big deal."

"I don't understand," Nyma confessed, "The Lions are ships? Are they, like, flying statues that you ride on?"

"Oh, no, no, no. They're magic, but also super scientific and advanced," Rivalz explained, "And they fly crazy fast and have all these incredible weapons. Really, the entire castle is just insane! I wish you could see it."

"Yes, it's too bad we're not allowed inside. I would love a tour from one of the knights," Nyma said with a small smile, "But I guess the yellow one is in charge, huh? You have to obey her orders?"

"Who, Milly? Pfft, maybe at school I do, but not out here!" he grabbed Nyma's arm and enthusiastically led her inside the castle.

The two arrived at the command deck with no problem. "This place is incredible!" Nyma gasped.

"Yeah, I guess," Rivalz shrugged casually, "You get used to it."

"But it's so gigantic. It must take you forever to get to your Lion," Nyma said.

Rivalz just smirked, "Oh, you'd be surprised."

Soon the two of them were laughing gleefully as they slid down the zip line. Rivalz blushed the entire time as Nyma gripped his chest tightly. It didn't take long for the two to be in the Blue Lion's cockpit. Nyma looked around as the interior lit to life.

"Pretty slick, right?" Rivalz grinned.

"Unbelievable!" Nyma exclaimed, before turning to the Paladin, "Take me on a ride around the moon?"

Though Rivalz was flattered with the offer, he knew that Lelouch probably wouldn't approve of it, "Uh—We should probably get back to the others."

"Yeah, you're right," Nyma sighed, "Maybe Rai will give me a ride."

Upon hearing this, Rivalz completely changed his mind, "No! Whoa, whoa, hold on a second!" Rivalz stretched out and pressed a few buttons, activating the engines, "I mean what's the point of having the Lion if you can't enjoy it, right? Giddy-up, girl!" he exclaimed as the Lion zoomed out of its bay and rocketed into the sky.

Back down below, Kallen, Milly, and Rolo looked up just in time to see the Lion vanish.

"Ugh! Rivalz!" Kallen exclaimed in frustration.

"Ah, let them have their fun," Rolo said with a small smile, "Thanks to you two, this thing is just about ready, so we're going to be on our way soon. Too many light-years on that guy, I guess."

As Rolo returned to examining the ship, Milly couldn't help but narrow her eyes suspiciously at the part they just replaced. For some reason, it didn't look like it needed to be replaced entirely. Several other parts of the ship looked the same too, but Rolo had insistent on replacing them.

"Yeah... sure."

o~o

The Galra central command was hovering above a giant planet that looked to be flooded with beautiful trees and plants. But the Galra weren't here for that. No, what they sought was much more sinister.

From aboard the ship, the witch, Haggar, and her druids were floating on large platforms above. Haggar was positioned in the middle, with the other four druids surrounding her. Their platforms each had a Galran crystal underneath that began glowing a dark purple. Below them was a device merged in the center, right underneath Haggar.

"Begin the ritual," Haggar commanded, as a magic circle began to glow underneath her feet. Identical circles appeared under the others as well, "Druids of the Four Directions, join us!"

Pillars of purple energy hit Haggar's crystal, and the witch slowly guided it down past her in a vile form of dark magic. Upon being absorbed in her crystal, the energy hit the point where the merged device met, coloring it a wicked shade of black. The dark energy traveled up the pillars of the device until it hit the sides of the wall that supported it. They lit up in bright purple colors, creeping down towards the bottom where it sharpened to a point. Finally, the very bottom of Galra HQ erupted with a sphere of dark, black energy, almost the size of the base itself.

Down below on the planet, many animals minded their own business, nibbling at the plants and flowers for food. Suddenly, the flowers began to wither and die, streams of blue energy being sucked from them into the sky. The animals looked up in confusion but saw no cause for this phenomenon.

It didn't take long for the Komar to suck the planet completely dry of all of its bounteous quintessence, storing it within a large storage unit. The planet below them, once bright and vibrant, darkened until there was no sign of life left.

It was dead.

Haggar's platform rose above the others to meet the Emperor that had been watching from the deck above. The witch smiled triumphantly.

"The Komar Experiment was a success. We have gained an entire planet's quintessence, a feat that would have normally taken us years."

"Most impressive," Zarkon commented as he turned to face the storage unit holding the energy. "This will revolutionize the way we advance throughout the galaxy. Mining and colonizing planets is a thing of the past. With this much power available at our whim, we can now spend all of our time hunting down and capturing Voltron."

o~o

"Look! A kinetic spring!" Nyma pointed as the Blue Lion descended back to the water, "Let's land over there. The minerals reflect off the water, making a rainbow," the Blue Lion's back paws trailed within it, kicking up a mist that sparkled into a rainbow above.

"Wow. Is there anything you don't know?" Rivalz asked as he gazed at the beautiful sight.

However, while Rivalz wasn't looking, Nyma looking down at a band that she had around her wrist and clicked the button on it. It began to flash red rapidly.

o~o

Back with the rest of the Paladins, Rolo's band also began to glow red. The alien smirked rolled out from underneath the engine.

"I think this thing is just about ready for a test flight," he said as he closed the hatch, "Beezer, come co-pilot for me. Be back in a tick." the two of them rapidly disappeared inside, leaving most of the Paladins confused.

The ship's thrusters activated and easily lifted off the ground. It soared off towards its destination. The Blue Lion.

o~o

"So, ah, you want to see how fast I can climb this tree?" Rivalz asked with a smirk, leaning against the said tree.

Nyma giggled again, "Aw, you are cute. Let me show you something. Give me your hand."

Blushing, Rivalz held his hand out to the alien, only to suddenly be jerked forward and have something clasped over his wrists. He grunted as he was then slammed against the tree, as the cuffs around his hands emitted an energy beam that wrapped around the tree, effectively trapping the Blue Paladins.

As Nyma took a step back with a smile, Rivalz tried to move his hands, but they wouldn't budge a bit.

"Um… this is… kind of…" Rivalz said, an uneasy feeling suddenly rising in his gut. The rest of what he was going to say was interrupted as Nyma, and Rolo's ship appeared from above. Rivalz watched in horror as it sucked the Blue Lion inside. Rivalz could already hear her roaring and lecturing him for falling for such an obvious ploy as she disappeared inside.

"Nyma, what're doing?!" he asked desperately.

"Sorry, Rivalz. Maybe we'll meet again," she said as she was hoisted into the ship with a wire that extended down.

Rivalz only watched in terror as the ship turned and fired off into the sky and out of sight.

The Blue Paladin frantically looked around for something to either call for help or to get him out of his bonds, but all he found was his helmet that was sitting a couple of feet away.

"Oh, quiznack..."

o~o

Back with the rest of the group, they were still waiting for Rolo to return from his 'test flight,' perched on the supply and part crates they'd brought down. The longer it was, though, the more Lelouch got suspicious of something else happening.

"How many ticks have they been gone?" Rai asked.

"I don't know. I hope they didn't break down again," Allura said.

"Something's not right," Milly declared, her arms tightly folded.

o~o

Rivalz managed to slide his body almost entirely to the ground, and he strained with his foot to kick his helmet over to him. He wouldn't be able to put it on, but he knew that the others would still be able to hear him. He had to warn them, and the sooner they knew, the sooner they could go after the thieves.

It took him a couple of tries, but he finally managed to hook his toes under the glass visor and swing it over to his head.

Panting he called out into it the best he could, praying they could hear him, "Guys! Hello? Little help?"

o~o

Upon hearing the distressed call, all the Paladins put their helmets back on to listen to him properly.

"Rivalz? Rivalz! Are you all right? What's going on?" Lelouch asked urgently.

"Well, I'm kind of chained to a... a tree." they heard him say.

"I knew it!" Milly yelled, an angry scowl on her face.

"And I think Nyma and Rolo just stole the Blue Lion."

"I knew it!" Milly shrieked, throwing her arms down.

"Where are they?" Lelouch demanded, gritting his teeth in anger and frustration. He knew they shouldn't have trusted them! Now they had another problem on their platters.

"Uh… space?" Rivalz said helpfully.

"Oh! I never trusted those guys, right from the beginning!" Milly ranted. And she continued to do so all the way through the castle and to her Lion's bay.

"I mean, y'know, at first, it was just like a feeling in my gut, you know? But when Kallen and I were replacing that thermal pipe, the pipe was cracked, but none of the hardware around it was damaged."

"Okay! We get it!" Shirley shouted through the comms.

"I mean, if the thermal pipe is cracked, then, obviously, hello, the entire assembly should be totally roasted," Milly was on a roll in rants and showed no sign of stopping. At the same time, the other Paladins just meekly listened to her explanation. At the same time, though, they were all mildly impressed that she knew so much about machinery interiors.

"Okay, we get it!" Suzaku exclaimed through the comms.

"We should've had to replace the entire undercarriage of that reactor. So, right then, I was, like, positive. Foul play."

"Okay, we get it!" everyone, even Lelouch, shouted at her.

The six remaining Lions soon launched from the castle and took off in hot pursuit of their stolen sister.

o~o

"Commander Prorok, my name is Rolo," he said to the Galran on the screen, "I understand you're offering a reward to anyone helping capture the Voltron Lions."

"That's correct," the commander said, "do you know where they are?"

"I know where the blue one is. It's in my ship."

"Excellent," Prorok intoned, "Bring it to me, and you'll have your reward immediately."

"Just a tick. You see, my friends and I have a bit of a checkered past," the bounty hunter added. "Some stolen merchandise from the Galra Empire may have fallen into our possession without us knowing about it."

"Well, I'm sure that a full pardon can be arranged for the brave souls who bring Emperor Zarkon a Voltron Lion. Is that all?" he asked, somewhat impatiently.

"We'll take the reward too," Nyma confirmed.

"Of course," the commander nodded.

"All right, we're on our way," Rolo confirmed as the commander's face disappeared as the screen closed up.

Rolo stretched and cracked his knuckles as he leaned back in his chair, "I almost feel sorry for those Voltron folks. Seemed like a nice bunch."

"If you're feeling guilty, you can turn yourself in," Nyma frowned. "Stealing from Zarkon carries a life sentence."

"They don't seem… that nice," Rolo amends.

o~o

Onboard the command ship, Prorok turned to Thace again, having just finished his conversation with Rolo, "Send the nearest fighter squadron to the area of the transmission. I'm not trusting some bounty hunter with our prize."

o~o

Alarms started blaring in Rolo's ship as it continued to it's meet up point. Pulling up the feed, Rolo was shocked to see the other six Lions in hot pursuit of them. The Blue Paladin must've warned them somehow. It suddenly wasn't looking suitable for any of them.

"No way!" he gasped. He pulled up the stirring system and pressed a few more buttons. They had to shake them and fast!

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Nyma asked, "There's no way we can outrun those Lions."

"Not in the open. Good thing the Zorlar Asteroid Belt is right up here. I know that like the back of my hand," Rolo smirked as he zoomed towards the asteroid belt. They could quickly lose them in here… right?

o~o

The Lions screeched to a halt at the entrance of the belt. They could barely make out Rolo's ship as it moved farther away from them.

"We'll never get through his asteroid belt!" Rai exclaimed, flabbergasted.

"Maybe I can just bust through!" Shirley suggested.

"No, Shirley! Wait!" Suzaku called out in warning, but it fell on deaf ears. She and the Orange Lion raced forward, head lowered to charge through.

She did hit the asteroid. However, all it did was lazily bounce off another one behind it, causing it to bounce off another, and another, and another.

"Nope. That was wrong. That was a bad idea," she quickly deduced.

"Kallen, you're the only one who could possibly fly through this," Lelouch said, "We need you. Get in there and flush him out."

"Understood. See you on the other side!" the Red Paladin exclaimed.

As the other five Lions pulled out to go around, Kallen and the Red Lion zipped into the field, hunting for its prize. She smoothly spun around asteroids and debris as if she did it daily. They hopped from rock to rock fluently like a jungle cat, growing ever closer to the cargo ship.

The other Paladins could only watch in awe at Kallen's skill.

"I still can't believe that that's Kallen out there!" Shirley said.

"I know! It's like she's been flying all her life!" Rai agreed.

Lelouch from inside the Black Lion smirked, "Well, in the Black Knights, she's our number one ace pilot. In combat, she can easily use a Glasgow to take down several Sutherlands at once. She's a formidable foe and valuable member."

"Maybe a little too valuable?" Milly giggled with raised eyebrows.

Lelouch scowled and blushed, 'Damn you, she-devil!'

"You guys realize I can hear you, right?" Kallen asked through the comms, though she was blushing for an entirely different reason as she heard the praise that Zero gave her as she and the Red Lion ran along a rather long, narrow asteroid. A shadow fell overhead of them, and Kallen gritted her teeth as she drove her Lion to move faster to avoid the other asteroid about to collide with them. "Come on, Aka! We've got this!" With one final thrust of her controls, Aka shot out in between the rocks just as they crashed.

She smirked as she saw that she was now practically right on top of Rolo and his crew. They seriously didn't think they'd get away, did they?

o~o

"No way!" Rolo exclaimed as the camera showed the Red Lion, "Get on the blasters! Take her down!"

"Copy," Nyma said as she pulled up the controls with Beezer.

o~o

From on top of the ship, two blaster cannons elevated above. They started rapidly shooting in Kallen and Aka's direction.

Kallen saw them and gritted her teeth as she pulled up behind another asteroid. In retaliation, she had Aka shoot out some energy blasts of her own, each of them barely missing the cruiser.

From inside his ship, Rolo, despite the situation, couldn't help but smirk, "This chick can flat-out fly!"

Despite the multiple blasts, though, Kallen quickly began to close in on them.

"She's gaining on you!" Nyma shouted.

Rolo instinctively yanked the controls to the left. As the ship swerved out of the way, Kallen barely had time to stop herself as she narrowly avoided hitting another asteroid.

She gritted her teeth and pulled back on the lever, allowing Aka to activate her leg thrusters just in time. They leaped out from the rock, and with a smash of a button, Kallen activated Aka's jaw blade. With a swift swing of her head, the knife flew at the ship, burying itself in and destroying the two blaster cannons on Rolo's ship.

o~o

"Blasters are offline!" Nyma reported as the three crew members braced themselves with the turbulence.

"We gotta get out of here!" Rolo said as he fired the thrusters one last time, hoping for a last-ditch escape.

o~o

"Oh no, you don't!" Kallen yelled as Aka fired an on-point shot at one of the engines. It exploded, and the ship was soon spinning out of control. Red lights and alarms blazed as the crew inside held on for dear life. It began descending towards the planet just outside the asteroid belt. But before they could crash, Aka's claws gripped onto the ship. With a pull of the thrusters, the Lion and Paladin brought the crew to a stop in the middle of space.

Kallen grinned triumphantly as the five other Lions surrounded the ship.

"Yeah!" Kallen laughed, "Hey, Rivalz, I got your Lion back!"

"Thank you, Kallen," Rivalz said through the helmet, "Now, can you come and unchain me?"

"What's that? I, uh... Y-You're cutting out. I can't—I can't hear you," Kallen teased, even going as far as to make some static noises.

"Oh, come on!" The Blue Paladin exclaimed, "I thought we all bonded!"

o~o

With Kallen and Suzaku dragging the crew and their ship back to the moon, and Milly making a trip to rescue Rivalz, the Paladins and Allura now faced the thieves.

"Since your ship really doesn't work now, you'll have to wait here for a rescue," Suzaku said, disappointment in his tone.

"Thanks… for sparing our lives," Rolo said sincerely.

"You're welcome," Lelouch said, narrowing his eyes, "But… should we catch you doing something like this again, you won't be so lucky…" Lelouch understood why they did what they did, but that didn't mean he was happy about it.

Rolo gulped and nodded.

"Now that these guys are dealt with, can we go now?" Milly asked impatiently.

"Yeah, Shay and her family are still waiting for us," Shirley agreed.

"You may not believe this, but I hope you do stop Zarkon," Rolo confessed. "It's a lifetime of fighting the Galra that led me to where I am today."

At this statement, Lelouch's eyes lightened a little. He could only think of how many other rebels or criminals were thinking the same thing. What they needed more than ever was hope… and he knew just how to give it to them.

As the ship left the moon and the wayward thieves behind, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hey, Kallen, was that that you called the Red Lion?" Rai asked.

"Oh!" Kallen blushed a little, "'Aka,' it means 'Red' in Japanese."

"You named your Lion?" Suzaku asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well… not really! I mean, it's just the color in a different language, I mean…" she stopped when she saw all the amused faces of the other Paladins, "Okay! Yes! I named her! Is that a problem?!"

"No, no!" Shirley shook her head with a giggle, "I think it's cute! Honest!"

"Hey! Maybe we all do that? Have the other Paladins done that Allura?" asked Milly.

"Well, no," Allura said but smiled, "but there's no rule saying that you can't."

"I think it's a good idea," C.C. spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "You keep talking about them building bonds with their Lions. By having names for them, it proves that they are being treated as equals, not just machines."

"I agree as well," Lelouch nodded, "having a name gives identity. You're not much without it."

"Great! Lion naming party!" Rivalz shouted.

"After we save the Balmera," Lelouch emphasized.

"Right, right!" Rivalz quickly agreed, leaving everyone laughing all over again.

o~o

Haggar held the container of quintessence in her palm as she and her druids surrounded the test subject. After the last one failed, she was more determined to make good on her promise to her Emperor and make a weapon that not even Voltron could stand up against, and she believed that she found the perfect subject.

"All this Quintessence will turn you into the strongest, most horrifying fighter ever created. One that even Voltron will not be able to defeat."

o~o

Omake:

Lelouch and Kallen were tasked to clean and fix the damage that was caused during Sendak's invasion. It was a dirty job but, someone had to do it.

Rover was there to help with schematics and which parts needed repairs.

"Why we got to do this?" Kallen grumbled, patching a hole, "A highly advanced castle without any droids or robots to fix the problems. I can't imagine how we're going to fly this thing during battle."

"That I don't know, Kallen," Lelouch answered with a sigh, "This is something Coran probably knows since he knows this castle up and down."

Both of them continued in silence. It was awkward, leaving the two of them together. Ever since Kallen found out Lelouch was the leader of the Black Knights, Zero, she felt a tingling of betrayal inside her. Finding out the man you admired and respected turned out to be an exiled Britannian prince.

However, after hearing his explanation and seeing his memories, she understood why he rebelled. Like her, both of them lost someone important because of Britannia's cruelty and corruption.

She understood why he needed to hide his face. If Ohgi, the others, and the rebel forces knew, they might have tried to ransom Lelouch to free Japan. But that would have been impossible. If the Emperor was willing to abandon his children to the Lion's den, she doubted he was ready to negotiate.

Sure, during Sendak's invasion, they bonded, but knowing the truth was different, and it felt awkward for both of them. Even Lelouch could felt it.

So she decided to break the silence. "You know, Lelouch, I never actually thought in my life that we would be the first humans to meet alien life and journey into space on a giant, advanced robot Lion."

"Yeah, it's mind-boggling that there are other lifeforms farther than our Solar System. And piloting a giant, robot Lion that makes Knightmares look like small chew toys," Lelouch chuckled. Though, he would love to see the Lancelot try and go up against Voltron. They could merely crush it if he wanted to.

"I want to apologize for accusing you of lying to me earlier." Of course, she didn't speak it out loud, but she needed to get it off her chest somehow, and this was the right time and away from prying eyes, especially Milly.

"About me being Zero and an exiled prince?" It was no surprise that she distrusted him for lying to her, but like him, she wanted to get it off of her chest, like how he confessed to everyone that he was Zero.

"Yes, it's just that I never thought something that terrible happened to you and your sister. Being forced into exile to an unknown land."

"No need to apologize, I was glad she was blind. Thank the small mercies she couldn't see what I've seen," Kallen didn't need to guess what that meant.

"Still, if you have problems, don't hesitate to call for help. We all are here with you as a team, you don't have to act like Zero all the time."

"Thank you, I'm glad to have met you, Kallen, first."

The redhead blushed that Lelouch thanked her. Sure, it wasn't some kind of confession, but still, it made her heart skip a bit. Then she saw Rover who saw everything.

"Rover, you didn't record anything, did you?" the droid turned around, not looking at her and making some kind of noise that sounded like a whistle.

"Coran, how are Lelouch and Kallen doing with the repairs?" Allura was drinking some tea in the kitchen.

"They should be finished right about-"

"Get back here you droid! When I get my hands on you, I'll make you a scrap!" Kallen shouting along with Lelouch following from behind.

"I think that's a 'No.'"

[ladyemberswrites]

Request: vld Lotor get too much emocional when he is drunk. Allura have a hard time deal with his drama. (Think in this as a comedy)

After Shiro had disappeared, Allura felt that she had been keeping things held together by the strings, even when Shiro came back, he hadn’t exactly been himself either and with Keith out the picture she’s back to square one keeping everything put by the skin of her teeth. Now, with Lotor in the picture, an enemy, now ally, she thinks she's found some like-minded and no nonsensed; only to find that he might not be as calm and collected as he portrays himself to be. That under the facade, and out of the public eye, he’s a dysfunctionally mess.

~

Allura isn't sure whether it's the alcohol or perhaps because he hasn't slept in weeks, regardless of the cause, she finds herself bewildered, caught between a hard place and an equally harder one.

~

She's alone, dressed in her suit , Voltron had made a brief visit to a rebel base in Yunar, a moon south of here. The people there were ...begrudging to say the least about the newfound alliance between Voltron and Emperor Lotor. Upon returning she had made a detour from the rest of the team to inform Lotor about had transpired.

"The Emperor's in his lab" Morgil, a guard she believed, answered her queries about the new Emperor's whereabouts.

"Lab? Didn't know he had one?" 

"He's there often" he yawns, unabashedly.

"Is he busy?" 

"Don't know. I don't think I've seen him come out of it, actually" 

Allura frowned softly "What do you mean?" 

"I mean-he hasn't come out from there in days, weeks since your return from Ori-whats-it" 

"Oriande. She corrects "has no one checked on him" 

"Besides me and Dayak. Not particularly." He shakes his head " He's in one of his-moods again." He mutters flippantly.

Allura isn't sure what to say.

"If I were you, I'd leave before you see something that'll make you lose respect for him"

Wrinkling her nose, she felt offended on his behalf "is that anyway to speak of your Emperor?" She plants her hand on her hips.

"Well no." Scratching the side of his face " But, I'm talking from experience. I've seen how he gets with alcohol in his system" 

"Alcohol?" 

"To be fair he has to-like drink pounds of that stuff to send him over the edge." 

"Drinking!?" 

"Yeah, he's drunk. In fact, he's been on a drinking binge since you left" 

"I-and you've just left him to drink himself into a coma!" 

"You try getting between him and alcohol when he's completely plastered" 

Invigorated with a righteous fury, she has Mogril to lead her to his labs. He does so without qualms, but out right refuses to enter said lab no matter what she said. She sniffed, she wasn't going to ask in the first place.

Upon entering, she found herself met with a dark, dreary basement. The structure eerily reminded her of Haggar's lair, but somehow creepier, the creak of the air conditioner did little to soothe the worry gnawing at the back of her mind.

"Lotor?" 

No answer.

It's surprisingly cool down here as she carefully watched her step,  diving further and further into the bowels of Lotor's lab with her heart wavering the closer and closer she got the bottom.

"Emperor Lotor?" 

Still no answer. Only her voice echoing off the steel reinforced walls. Swallowing, she reaches the bottom and is led into a large room that might as well be a hanger room. She found rows of computer screens, and vacant chairs and tables filled with clutter.

"Emperor Lotor?" 

The only sound is her footsteps.

Quietly, she placed her helmet on one of the tables to only spy a large piece of grafting paper on it is a blueprint for something? She squinted her eyes, leaning closer "Delta:Project?" 

It looked like a gate. A massive one. The blueprints she realized were scribbled in a language she's never seen before, its erratic and shaky, and she can't make out the symbols or alphabet if that what it is.

"I wonder what this is for?" Knowing she probably shouldn't, she touched it, the paper smooth under the tips of her fingers. But, nothing happened, it's not like she's going to magically understand anything written on here, all she knew is that it's Lotor's handwriting.

Speaking of which she hasn't seen hair nor hide of him, and she's beginning to think he might not be down here. Moving away from the strange papers, she found the walls actually had writing on them this time mathematical formulas that she couldn't even fathom to understand, but again it's in Lotor's handwriting.

"Why would he-feet?" Allura blinked, unsure if she were seeing things again, as she rubbed both her eyes, figuring the lack of sleep might be getting to her, she found a pair of boots sticking out behind one of the metallic desks.

Far more curious than outright alarmed she crossed over cautiously to find the boots attached to the one person she had been looking for, sprawled out on the floor. She blinked again with a furrowed brow; he's not wearing his armor, and now that she brought it up realized she had never seen him without it. Layers of black and dark purple robbing with a cape attached to his shoulders and hair tied up.

When did he wear hooped earrings?

If she didn't know any better he looked as if he had been prepared for his own funeral. With his hands crossed over his stomach and eyes closed.

But, his chest is moving so he's alive.

"Um-Emperor?" She whispers.

His lips twitched.

"I'm busy, Yayamei. Leave me to my torment" he mumbled.

Her eye fidgeted.

"Yayamei? I'm not this Yayamei. Lotor, it's me, Allura!" 

Finally, he prys his eyes open "Allura? Sweetheart is that you" he lifts his head up slightly. 

The endearment, sweetheart, barely registers in her mind, the creeping flush of her cheeks went ignored.

"Y-yes" she stammered "but, the question is what on earth are you doing on the floor" his head falls back.

"Contemplating" 

"Er-contemplating? Is this about Oriande" she dared to ask knowing it had been a sore sore spot for him, since their return.

"Oriande? Oriande? Ah, yes, Oriande….." 

"Lotor, are you-are you okay?"

"Besides, my whole entire life being a carefully constructed lie? No." 

"You mean no you aren't okay, or no I am okay" 

"Neither" he supplied "Speaking of which, your back, love" the topic is dropped like a sack of hammers. Allura's sure she heard a thud somewhere.

Her lips twisted "I-I am. Remember, I told you I had to go to Yunar" 

"Ah. Yes. Yunar. Yes." He sits up, a few strands of hair fall in front of his face, as he stands to his full height, dusting off his clothing and readjusting the golden sash around his hips.

"And how was this Yunar" 

Allura grimaced. She's absolutely out of her element here. This is different, Lotor's acting very different from the man she "knows". In the short time, she's known him, Lotor had been nothing but calm and composed. Collected and unnerved by anything.

She's lost and more importantly confused by this odd display of behavior, Mogril said that had been on a drinking binge, but she hadn't seen a bottle of booze yet.

"It definitely went better than expected. Though, everyone's still wary of you and the Galra Empire, but they’re willing to put differences aside only in the heed that you'll met with the Yunar leaders."

"I see, I see" he starts wandering around the room with no destination in mind "do they have a date in mind. I have many meetings. Much to do, so little time" he rambles.

“That’s what I came here to talk to you about. When would be a good time for you to come to Yunar?” 

“Any time after this month I believe” she’s hit with a wave of relief she had been expecting something far later, but this is good. The sooner, the better “I still have generals to appoint, such...and such” he waved his hand around as he paced around the room, apparently searching for something particular.

“Which begs the question” she changed the topic “about the ships? Shouldn’t we start on a course for developing them, if we want to put most of the fighting to an end” 

He didn’t reply this time “Emperor” he stopped near a table placed in the center of the room, feeling aggravated, she huffed through her nose and approached him from behind “Emperor. Are you even listening to a thing I’m saying?”

More paper-blueprints this time of ships and ship parts and again more erratic writing in a language she doesn’t recognize. 

“Yes. The ships. I haven’t forgotten. See” he gestures towards the many blueprints.

Her previous annoyance abates “oh. Is this what you have been up to?” 

“More or less, my dear” again with the endearments. And again she tries her best to ignore them “I’ve been trying to find a way to make them efficient in every manner of the word. Not to heavy, but not light enough that the r rift will rip them apart. The alchemical process of creating them is about the least of our issues when you consider the expenses.” 

“I-” she blinked rather dumbly “I hadn’t considered that” 

“As I reform our new empire there is much to consider. Many will not be to keen on the throne mindlessly throwing money away at a single chance that might not bare fruit. Perhaps even end in catsophere. The rift is a huge blind area, little is known about it, what’s in it or what happens to one after entering said place. As evident with my father. The effects are massively unpredictable. I can’t blame my people, not after the reign of terror that my father has brought on them. My private funds might be able to hold us for a while, but not forever.”

“Your meticulously creepy sometimes.”

“When your in my position you must consider all angles.” 

“I understand. This really does set us back, doesn’t it. There is much to think about. The paladins are already wary enough about the rift, and I can only imagine what the rebels might think of this too.” it’d be all to easy to give this up, but she won’t, she’s gotten this far, there must be a way. There has to be.

“But, I won’t give-what are you doing?” it was now that she noticed that had a small device in his hand, and he's holding down a button down on it.

“Recording this conversation” 

“Why!?” 

“There’s a ninety percent chance I won’t remember this.” 

Her mouth propped open, brows pinched “I’m incredibly drunk at the moment” 

“You don’t do that often do you” 

“All the time. I have hyperthymesia, or is that an eidetic memory.” he rubbed his temple “I can’t remember”

“That would mean you’d remember everything! If that’s the case you don’t need to be recording our conversations!”

“if I were sober yes."

“Please don’t do that” which begs the question how long had he been doing that. She honestly, didn’t want to know the answer to that question, the notion of it is just undeniably creepy in a sense, but she needed to know “do you do this all the time?” 

“Only when I’m drunk, darling”

Allura frowned her eyes flickering back to the blueprints. Intricate and detailed, there’s no way he did all this plastered “did you draw all this” 

“Mh” he follows her gaze “yes.” 

“While, inebriated” 

“Yes.”

“Do you always work while drinking, that doesn’t seem very…” she searched for a nicer word than the ones that came to mind.

“Professional.” he offered “ It isn’t. But, not all the time, but most times.”

“Why?” 

“It’s better than nothing I suppose. Well, I use to use Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, but than that disaster occurred on J’aseera. Afterwards, I went clean. Mostly.” 

“What?”

“Ecstasy" Allura presses her lips together she didn't know whether to be angry, puzzled, annoyed or just simply done with this farce.

"What do mean by mostly?" 

He breaks out into laughter "How do you think I get any of this stuff done, my dear, sitting around working normal hours? I usually take a dose to keep myself going" 

"Doesn't the quintessence in your system already make it so you can forgo sleep for long periods of time." 

"Yes, and no"

"Stop be vague and answer the question" 

"Yes, it does, but only a weeks top, the ecstasy usually boosts the side effects. Plus, with only quintessence your motor skills start to diminish" 

Her brow twitched "when's the last time you've slept?" 

"Three weeks top." He paused "I think" 

"That is incredibly unhealthy and dangerous!"

"I know" 

Her mouth snapped closed and she inhaled sharply "What do you mean"I know" she mimicked his low baritone " if you knew you wouldn't be endangering your health like this! As the newly ordained Emperor of the Galra Empire your well-being should an absolute priority! You have people lead, you can't do that always drunk and drugged! Apparently."

He looks at her lazily, smirking which only fueled the anger coursing through her veins, she did not think this situation is at all something worth smirking about "you care that much about me, Allura?" He cocks a brow "and here I thought you despised me. Really, I'm quite flattered.

"I-Ugh-what makes you think I hate you? We're allies aren't we" 

"I figured our alliance is more out of reluctance than actual interest" 

"You proved yourself, didn't you. You haven't given me a reason not to trust you" 

"But, you don't trust me. I know deep down you expect me to be my father. In some ways worse than him" 

Allura's heart stilled in her chest "I-you don't put words in my mouth, Emperor" she crossed her arms over her chest, looking away pointedly.

"It's fine if you wish to feign ignorance. I don't hold it against you." Her shoulders drop before her gaze flickers back to him, still smirking that stupid smirk. He really wanted to slap it off his stupid, handsome face. 

The red flush of her cheeks returned "thinking of something, darling" he tilts his head.

"Absolutely not!" She snapped "get your bloody head out the gutter, you pervert"  out of all the things she didn't think he'd be a lech. A drunk lech nonetheless.

"I'm wounded over your accusations, Princess" 

"And I'm wounded by your tasteless behavior" she sniffed.

"Your beautiful" 

"I stink. I haven't bathed in a week. The Yunar aren't particularly well-known for their hygiene."

"Speaking of which" another change in topics. Again. It's like his mind couldn't stay focused on one thing for too long "I had something I needed to give you" 

Tried, she offered him the driest look she could give him "and that is?" 

"I left it in my private quarters." 

Lovely.

~

Thanks anon for the request!

[sol1056]

git along little nonnies

Got a whole bunch of you on related themes, so I’m just gonna do this all at once: a bunch of questions about DW, spinoffs, merchandise, business, management, support (and protest) and whatnot. In no particular order.

Ok there are petitions and peaceful boycotts directed at DW but problem is they aren’t addressing the EPs and things they, not DW, did so how are we to sign them, how to handle this when this could at best confuse the situation and not give any results and at worst, make matters even worse about what we want regarding DW addressing things? 

Here’s what companies care about: money. Everything else is gravy.

If you want a corporation to pay attention to your complaints, then you need to figure out their sources of income, and find a way to threaten that. If the social reprobation is high enough, damage to the brand can translate into lost sales, but the tempest required to make that happen must be much, much larger than anything I’ve seen the fandom manage. 

I’ve been saying this all along: voices are far more powerful than signatures. If twenty thousand people wrote or called in, and said what they liked vs what upset them, that would have a far greater impact. Certainly a lot more than a list of names with no emotion beyond a request that may not even be something DW can, or would, fulfill.  

And don’t even get me started on mailing stuff in. Cute, but hardly actionable.  

Do you know what kind of contracts DW sign, as in, are they obligated to air all seasons, can they choose not to air them, do the companies they work with (netflix, wep) have a say or more say than them? Who gets the last word? Is airing all seasons squarely on DW or more? 

As I’m not a corporate lawyer employed by any of the signatories, I can’t tell you what the contract stipulated. What I can tell you is that a contract of the magnitude of the DW-WEP-Netflix agreement probably had a dissertation worth of riders covering the different types of possible defaults or breaches, and the penalties for each. Additionally, the contract also likely covered what constituted ‘satisfactory delivery’ of the product. 

To take it down to a really simple level: you place an order at a restaurant. You expect to get it, eat it, and pay for it. You don’t expect to be told, “hey, we burnt your steak and we’re out of butter for your sweet potatoes, so have some green beans instead,” and then be told you still owe the full amount, anyway. 

Netflix wouldn’t settle for ordering (and paying for) something never delivered, anymore than you would. Sure, any corporation worth their over-inflated stock options would try --- but that’s the point of contracts, to make sure they can’t. 

Netflix paid, DW delivers, end of story.  

 ...do you think ppl in charge didn't think EPs would tell they made changes and also thought they'd manage to bury it? And then they got in trouble and DW is going thru changes for that reason? -waves at DW goings on and silence.

I got lost in all the pronouns, there. Who’s the first ‘they,’ the EPs or DW execs? Is the second ‘they’ referring to the same as the first? So... I’m not really sure what you’re positing, but if the ‘DW is going through changes’ is implying DW’s got a shakeup and/or is promoting its head-of-TV to president and that’s somehow connected to two newbie EPs screwing up?

I’d say the chances are so infinitesimal as to be nearly in the negative. (I should also note, the press release listed successful shows Cohn oversaw, yet oddly did not include VLD.) DW is not a three-person start up; it has stakeholders and a board and a C-suite to satisfy. Cohn got that promotion ‘cause she’s got a track record going back thirty years, most recently growing DW’s TV division from 8 to 800 in five years. 

Most corporations tend to announce their new CEO or President like someone woke up that morning and went, hey, I’ve got a great idea. Truth is, it’s usually in the works for at least a year, sometimes several years, or more. The only thing that has me side-eyeing the announcement is the silence around who’ll fill Cohn’s previous position. 

But that’s again less to do with a single series, and more to do with what it says about DW as a whole, business-wise. 

What meaningful changes could the new president Margie Cohn make that would be different than the last one? Also I'm sorry if your getting a bunch of Voltron/DW questions lately, you just seem to be the most knowledgeable person on this platform.

I’d be willing to bet I’m far from the most knowledgeable person; I’m just someone not bound by an NDA, and curious enough to do a bit of digging and jaded enough to talk about (most) of what I find. 

A president can have immense impact on a company’s direction; that’s kinda why they exist, to set that high-level strategy. That said, Cohn will be bound by all contracts signed by her predecessor. The TV side (barring someone filling the shoes she left) will probably continue as it was. The theatrical side (which she’s taking over) will be where we’ll probably see any major changes. 

And even those aren’t likely to be on films currently in production. Hell, given theatrical animation can take up to five years, I’m not sure that’d show much change, either. Look instead to changes in investors, new deals, and new properties. 

What do you think DW will do about a sequel if there’s really no bible? Theres tons of plot holes & abandoned storylines. VLD will never feel satisfying, and fans already argued with different interpretations based on conflicting content, without a nice satisfying explanation...

I know this is the first of a three-part ask, but I’m skipping the rest because the only answer possible is to your very first question: the bible doesn’t matter. 

Any new series --- even a continuation --- will construct its own bible. Same as we’d do in fandom: they’ll patch together what they can, fill in blanks as they need, and gloss the rest, or retcon it outright. Even if there were a bible, diligently followed, that doesn’t mean the next series is automatically beholden to it. Some franchises would care (ie Star Wars) while others might let a reboot mess with the details (ie Star Trek). 

For every continuation, there’s gradations in between, since otherwise what’s the interest for creative minds, if you’re obligated to follow someone else’s script exactly? So, no. The absence of a story bible doesn’t preclude the next iteration making its own, as it needs, to whatever extent it requires. 

I was wandering around the hot topic online store, and i noticed a shirt that raised a few flags and questions. it's the 'Voltron Location' shirt. it has all the paladins in different places in a star globe chart thing? with what might possibly be planet designations. plus Lance is the only one not inside his blue colored bubble. Keith is in Red and Shiro in Black again. it's interesting at least.

Nearly all the shirts use the same base images, just changed up. It feels a little like someone handed a designer a half-dozen images with a request for forty-something designs --- and now HT is just throwing them all at the wall to see what sticks (or sells). 

HT’s stuff has been pretty consistent, from what I’ve heard: Shiro is Black, Keith is Red, etc. Considering the t-shirts seem to be selling out regularly (along with various other sidelines), I’d say someone is savvy as to the fact that the segment of fandom spending the most money is also the segment that prefers the S1/S2 lineup. 

If that’s what customers want, it’s smart business for DW to provide.

(Yes, that applies on more than one level.)

There are VLD comic books being released by LionForge Comics, are those considered canon? Do LM and JDS have any involvement? They take place before Season 7and8 but I don't wanna support the original EPs.

Every fandom has its own stand on what counts as canon. Sometimes (especially with adaptations) you’ll find fandoms being explicit as to whether they’re book or movie (ie HP and LotR). I expect the same will eventually shake out in VLD’s fandom, too. 

From everything I’ve heard, Hedrick and Iverson were handed the comics and ran with it. I suppose that would argue for seeing the comics as canon, being they were written by people also writing the main series... but from what I can tell, it’s one-way. The show affected the comics, but nothing in the comics ever affected the series.

That said, your purchases have nothing to do with the original EPs. All you’re doing is telling DW you like the VLD-iteration of Voltron.

What are your thoughts on the final vld poster? I feel like it’s missing the end. Allura is randomly staring back into nothing.

It’s a clever idea to do a poster for each season, but it’s not something I’ve ever paid any attention to, really. If it were drawn by the head writer? That might mean the artist had more insight than, say, a storyboarder or animator. But even then... cool picture, still not-canon. I’m only interested in canon.

Do you think that Voltron was rushed purposely by the EP's. [...] Wouldn't this effect the quality of, well, everything? I feel as if they got frustrated with the show at that point and just wanted out.

Dude. There are times I sit here and just stare into space, bewildered yet again not just at the thought of 39 episodes released in one year --- but doing that with 26 as a last-minute cut-and-paste rearrangement. All I can tell you is that what I’ve seen from animation people and aficionados (and friends) is that three full seasons in one calendar year is just bonkers. 

If DW hadn’t wanted the schedule that packed, the EPs aren’t the ones getting the say. That’s a DW-Netflix thing. I really wonder whether DW used VLD as a guinea pig. TH went a year between S1 and S2, and the numbers slumped badly. Perhaps DW wanted to know if more episodes, more often, would keep fan interest high? DW has experienced execs, but they’re all from broadcast; how you arrange and time things in the brave new world of binge-watching is a completely different beast. 

So, it’s possible it was less of a rush job to get the show out, and more from a desire to see what'd happen to release so much, so close together. 

I still think it’s a bonkers schedule, though.

"Relaunch the whole property" sounds like they won't continue expanding the whole vld universe and they'll make a new itineration. Though if they do a spin-off it'd likely be on the vld universe surrounding the new "Legendary Defenders" from the epilogue. And "especially given the response" do you think after the negative response from s8, wouldn't be better for WEP to not keep working with Dreamworks? Or maybe they need to clean their brand from vld fiasco? What can you say about all of this?

I can say you might try re-reading, because boy is that a radical interpretation of the text. Remember, Jeremy was speaking before S8, and all indication is that he was caught off-guard as much as the fans. Re-read in light of Jeremy (at the time) appearing to expect S8 to be a crowd-pleaser.   

...I'm becoming more confident in my belief that DW has something planned for Voltron. I mean they are still heavily promoting the show, LionForge is still publishing Voltron comics, and merchandise is still being made. These don't seem like the actions of a company trying to get people to forget a show. 

You’re not wrong. Up to the last few days of 2018, DW gave every indication they wanted S8 quietly buried. Nothing they’ve done since has fit that pattern --- including the anomaly of failing to announce their 2019 series. Something is going on, that’s for certain. 

Did DW really just throw the VAs to the wolves [for] three days? and there's still no official stance? One panel was enough. They had [the VAs] take the heat for them? But thankfully fans felt sorry for them? Which could also have been the goal, shut the fans up [with] the VAs of the characters who got the worst treatment and who love their characters ... Yes DW this really makes me trust you /sarcasm/

I don’t think that was the original plan. Let’s pretend DW released its 2019 schedule via press release in the first few days of January, and among those was an announcement of a VLD sequel or spinoff, coming late 2019. 

People wouldn’t be fussing over putting the VAs through three panels. They’d be complaining we didn’t get the biggest room for every panel. The majority of the fandom doesn’t trust the EPs, and is wary of DW --- really, the only ones who retain any goodwill, at this point, are the VAs. So who better than to assure a nervous fandom about the goodness of the second iteration than the VAs whose characters were most shafted by the first iteration?

What breaks this is that immediately after S8 dropped, Josh and Kimberly went silent on twitter. AJ slipped into passive-aggressive snarking; Jeremy fell off the radar and usually he’s pretty interactive with his fans. Bex pretty much wiped  VLD from her stream, possibly including deleting older tweets. Neil tried to engage and made a hash of it, bless his heart. 

Josh and Kimberly are consummate professionals who reliably promote the series after every season drop, but their radio silence continued for almost two weeks. This wasn’t the first season that came saddled with controversy; if there was a time to go quiet, it was after S7. Something else was going on. 

I have strong suspicions backed by research, but if I’m right, I’d be stepping on a major legal landmine. In the interest of not getting blown up, I’ll only say that the VAs appearing for those three panels (and their low-key and mostly diplomatic hedging around VLD’s conclusion) was a good sign that all parties involved are willing to work things out.   

[DW was] quick to handle the Season 7 backlash and have stayed mum on what is arguably a much worse reaction to the 8th and final season.

and

I believe the S8 of voltron we got was not the original ending we were supposed to get and highly edited. My question is why? What was the point of changing the original ending? [The] radio silence from DW and the cast is driving me nuts. I wish DW would make a statement.

DW is in an interesting place. Its TV side is barely five years old, but dominated by execs with long-time broadcast experience, predating vibrant interactivity afforded by platforms like twitter, tumblr, or instagram. DW’s background as a theatrical company also seems to incline it away from any ongoing engagement with the audience. It releases a movie and by the time that hits theaters, DW is onto the next thing. 

It’s a strong contrast with production studios like Zagtoon (Miraculous), who penned an open letter to their fandom about production delays. Or little studios like Wonderstorm (The Dragon Prince) whose deft use of twitter and tumblr sets their brand apart. Or Federator (Castlevania), with their witty marketing campaigns and willingness to engage with fans. Even Disney was willing to be open about its errors with Tiana, and to make clear how it was striving to do better --- so there’s no excuse that only small studios do such outreach.

My guess is that DW's core leadership is from the school of business in which admitting a mistake is tantamount to ritual suicide. Don’t blink first, or maybe the rule is never let them see you sweat, but whatever it is, DW is turning into a textbook case of how silence can damage a brand. 

Companies have multiple avenues to reach customers directly, now. Our modern technologies are a two-way street, and good companies leverage that to create not passive fandoms but active communities. It takes work, careful planning, and some level of transparency --- something old-school execs find highly uncomfortable, to be honest --- but in this day and age, those are crucial building-blocks to achieving any kind of audience loyalty.

DW isn’t going to render itself obsolete (at least not overnight), but it's on a track to end up as the studio whose work audiences only watch when there’s nothing better being offered. Unfortunately for DW, there’s a hell of a lot of other studios out there, and they're all offering something better. 

[castlestormed]

Substitute

SUMMARY:

When Keith rejects the responsibility and Allura is rejected for it, Lance steps up to the plate.

Or at least, he tries to.

(an exploration of Lance as a potential Black Lion pilot candidate.)

[ bittersweet, genfic, au, canon divergent from s3 ]

CHARACTERS:

Lance, Black Lion

w/ Allura, Keith, Pidge, Hunk

Read elsewhere: [A03] [FFnet]

---

Filling in. That’s what Lance is good at, or so he thinks.

So when Keith rejects the responsibility and Allura is rejected for it, Lance steps up, jabs a thumb to his chest and says, “I’ll do it.”

He’s being totally serious about it too. Shiro’s been missing long enough for his return to have gone from certain to uncertain to questionable bordering on indeterminable. He’s had a lot of time to sink his thoughts into this, a lot of time to think about the consequences of a missing teammate and what that meant for Voltron and their ongoing battle with the Galra empire.

It’s weird how simple it is. The team needs the Black Lion, a leader, a good pilot. He’s not sure about the other two but if there’s one thing he’s confident about, it’s that he’s a damn good pilot.

“Let me try,” he says into the silence because everyone, it seemed, was too preoccupied with staring at him.

“You’re kidding, right?” Pidge pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose and the frames catch a beam of light that momentarily obscures her squinted gaze. “You?”

That hurts a little but Lance brushes it off. Sticks and stones.

“Why not? Keith doesn’t want to step up —”

“That’s not—! It’s not that I—” Keith stutters, uncharacteristically flustered. There’s a good two seconds of him trying to push out words before he folds in on himself and bites out a stilted, “I just… can’t. Won’t. Sorry.”

Lance smothers a spurt of irritation — and pity, though he'd be loathed to admit it. Keith looks... lost. More closed up than usual. If this were about anything else, Lance would have maybe tried to muster up some sympathy. Maybe.

But this was about survival. This was about saving the world.

Keith’s name had rang out the loudest when discussions about who would take over the Black Lion began in earnest. The Red Lion was Voltron’s sword arm and literal right hand, after all. The princess pointed out that the previous Red Paladin — her father — had been something like a second-in-command, and that Keith had been filling a similar role.

Aaaaand as if the universe couldn’t be any more pointed, Keith reluctantly revealed that Shiro himself gave him his blessing (if he was to be believed).

Yet despite all the brightly-lit signs pointing his way, Keith was determined to stay out of the running because… because he didn’t want to? Because he was afraid of admitting that Shiro isn’t around anymore?

Lance doesn’t get this at all.

Thing is… yeah. Shiro isn’t around. There’s no skirting around that, and the motionless Black Lion in its hangar was the most critical sign. Keith was hot-headed, sure, but wasn’t he also sort of military-practical, to a fault?

If I were Keith, he’d said to himself when he was musing over his options, then what I need to do is obvious. The universe needs Voltron. Voltron needs a Black Lion. I can pilot the Black Lion. So ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, I pilot the Black Lion.

It wasn’t even a matter of ego anymore; it was a matter of necessity. It was a matter of the universe’s safety.

If I have a skill that can be useful, I use it.

Not using it? Kind of a dick move. And also kind of a questionable move because why wouldn’t you help people if you had the power to do so?

He didn’t always understand where Keith was coming from but he'd never pegged him as selfish, until now.

“Like I said,” Lance says, turning away from Keith with a roll of his eyes, “he doesn’t wanna do it. And our next best option couldn’t make Black budge at all today.”

The princess’s arms tighten around herself and Lance can identify with the feeling she so openly projects.

“Yes, unfortunately the Black Lion has chosen to reject me,” she says, somehow managing to sound gracefully upset. She hasn’t worn any of her usual dresses since Shiro’s disappearance. In her pink-accented spacesuit, she would have fit right into the team. If anyone truly deserved to pilot the Black Lion, it was her — not Keith.

She turns tired eyes on Lance and gives him an equally tired smile. “I don’t see why you shouldn’t try, Lance.”

Warmth bursts through his chest — until she turns that tired smile on the whole room.

“And if Lance doesn’t work out, I believe the others should attempt it as well. Just in case.”

Hunk makes a startled squeaking noise, Pidge lets out a grumbled Ugh, and just like that, his carefully considered plan of solving everyone’s problem by volunteering to be the responsible one was downsized into a group effort. Nice.

Lance is quick to pick himself up though. This is good. Even if it were Hunk or Pidge and not him, at least they would have a Black Lion again.

Pidge goes first — “To get this over with,” she says tersely — and lasts a minute before tagging out. Her dismissive attitude doesn’t bother Lance. The youngest and smallest member of their team is more useful (and safe) behind the scenes anyway.

Hunk goes next, anxious energy tensing up his shoulders. Hunk has never spoken about wanting to be a pilot but Lance compares his friend’s broad frame to the sturdy bulk of the Black Lion and thinks that maybe Hunk would be the better match if it came down to the two of them. Shiro’s absence had been a blow; maybe Hunk and his big heart was what the team needed right now to fill that void.

(Better than Lance who could get stuck in his own headspace sometimes and went overboard with the jokes when a lighter touch was more appropriate...)

But not that many minutes later, Hunk exits the Black Lion, unsuccessful and somewhat relieved.

“Guess we saved the best for last?” he says with a sheepish grin, and Lance gives him a hi-five for that before taking his turn.

 ---

 It is quiet in the cockpit, so quiet that he can hear the thrumming of the castle from outside. He takes a seat and drums his fingers on the armrests, surveying a dashboard not unlike the one in Blue.

His nerves ramp up as the silence settles around him. Blue's response to him had been instantaneous and intuitive, like picking up a new sport and making the happy discovery that you were naturally adept at it. The Black Lion's continued stillness didn’t bode well.

—but this was the Black Lion after all. The leader of the pack. Of course it wouldn't be that simple. He had to prove himself!

How though?

He coughs into the curve of a hand. “Hey, big guy. It’s Lance — you know, Blue’s pilot?”

There. Friendly but not too friendly; he figures that if this Lion was anything like its missing pilot, it probably wouldn’t appreciate an overly casual approach.

“Normally I’d try to sell you on my good points but I think I’ll just cut to the chase.” He clears his throat. “We, uh, we kind of need you out there. Think you have it in you to give me a shot?”

The silence stretches over his question. Lance swallows his unease. He reaches for the handles on either side of the chair, gingerly curling his fingers around the hand grips. He had hoped that the contact would spark something, build a connection like the one he had with Blue but… nothing. Of course.

Well, the show must go on.

“C’mon,” he says. “I’m not that bad. I can do it; and if I can’t, I’ll figure out how. Just ask Blue! She can totally vouch for what an awesome pilot I am!”

Nothing again. That last part might have been a bit much.

Okay, okay. Maybe a slightly different approach.

This time Lance closes his eyes and reaches with his mind.

Black? Uh, Black Lion. We need you, man. Look, I know I’m no Shiro but I’m here, I’m ready, and I’m… kind of all you’ve got right now. You turned down everyone else--

/ n o t  t r u e /

The response comes so quickly that, at first, Lance isn’t sure if the words come from his own doubts or from the Lion. A sequence of images seem to come into focus all at once in his mind's eye, all with an undercurrent of red and a burst of emotion that he doesn’t immediately recognize. He feels a strong  pull towards them but they move too quickly. He reaches out, grasping in vain — then vertigo clenches around his stomach, quickly replaced by pain as he trips over his own feet and crashes into the metal floor.

Lance lays on the ground for a good minute, gritting his teeth.

Also painful? What Black is trying to say.

“He doesn’t want to do it, okay?” he snaps. “He didn’t even want to try. There’s no talking to him once he’s made up his mind. That’s why I told you — it has to be me.”

His vehement declaration rings strongly (confidently, he thinks, with pride) in his own ears.

But following the pattern of this attempted conversation, it too is swallowed by the stillness of the Black Lion’s cockpit.

Lance bites down resentment as he picks himself up from the ground. It's tempting — so tempting — to kick that stupid chair. He doesn’t, though. Instead he glares at his dark surroundings, like he is staring down the great beast itself.

A guy could take a hint… but seriously?

This whole thing was stupid.

“I don’t even want to be your pilot,” he mutters, and there’s a stir in the air, like a chuckle, which gets on his nerves. “What? I don’t! And guess what, dude? Neither does Keith. But which of us is standing here right now, trying to take responsibility for it?”

(He deserves some credit for showing up and trying, right?)

(He deserves some credit for caring, right?)

“Maybe Keith really is the best guy for the job, but as I’ve told you a million times, he doesn’t want to be here. I am and I do— I mean, I know I just contradicted myself there, saying I didn’t wanna be your pilot, but...”

His gaze drops to the ground as he awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. But the quiet now is different from the stillness of before. It gives him some courage to keep going.

He clears his throat again and says, “I figured I could just... fill in, you know? ‘Cause we kinda need you. The universe needs you. And we can’t get you up and running without a pilot, right? So I can do it, until he’s ready. Okay?”

Lance is a little surprised to find that he means it, too. Like, real talk, he can’t imagine himself leading Voltron, de facto or otherwise. Keith, though… Keith could probably do it. When he finally grows a pair and learns how to put his personal shit aside, anyway.

“O-or, Allura,” he adds hastily, uncomfortably aware that he is just babbling now. “I still think it’s weird that you didn’t pick her, but I guess you have your reasons, huh? Just. Yeah. This’ll be a temporary partnership, you and me. Because we need you. And I’m your best bet right now.”

He opens his arms and tries a smile.

“So… partners?” he asks hopefully.

And he waits.

And waits.

And waits.

...it’s excruciating. It’s worse than the first time he ever confessed his feelings to a crush. At least the girl had been nice enough to put him down gently. Today he learns that giant metal lions are not nearly as kind.

Enough time passes that it’s become too tiring to keep up the smile. He drops it, shoves his hands into his pockets, and finds his way out.

 ---

 The whole team looks as tired as Allura when he drags his failure of a self over to them.

“Black’ll come around,” he says, eliciting a few wan smiles. They scatter to do their own thing not long after that.

Lance should have gone straight to his room but he finds himself slowing down and waiting till he is completely alone before retracing his steps. He stares at the Black Lion from the entrance of the hanger. It stares back with blank, dead eyes.

There’s a war going on, he wants to tell it, and you can do something about it. But here you are, sitting on your metal claws, for dumb reasons I can’t understand… kinda like Keith.

Huh. Maybe you two are meant to be.

That wasn’t the point though. He was here so that he could fill that spot — a spot that was necessary but unwanted. That’s what he’s good at, or so he thinks.

But of course it wouldn’t be that easy.

Getting into the Garrison wasn’t. Enduring as a cargo pilot wasn’t. Making it to fighter pilot wasn’t. Leaving Earth and fighting this impossible-sounding war with impossible-sounding technology certainly wasn’t...

So. Not easy? He was used to that.

He reenters the still, metal cockpit, and says, “Let’s try this again.”

[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