#Just think about that Ezor and Zethrid scene

[silentwillowwhisperer]

Okay do you agree with me that we were severely deprived of Ezor, Zethrid, Axca, and Veronica content? Because they would be the ultimate lesbian squad like

Do not even. Get. Me. Started.

Too late.

(warning: this is a loooooong post.)

My poor girls, they were so perfect! And don't forget Narti (blind lizard gal) because as much as I think Lotor's whole villain arc thingy was dumb, I will NEVER forgive him for killing her. Never ever ever.

I do refer to them as Lotor and the Lesbians in my head, so I think it's pretty clear what I think about them. (Small note: If they were a band that would be their name.)

And Veronica! She was so cool! You know she steals all the girls her brothers bring home. Like, 'Oh you met someone cool at work? I'm just gonna take her off your hands...' Let's be real, if Veronica was not a fictional character, she would be a notorious lady charmer.

And COME ON. Ezor and Zethrid were LITERALLY DATING. I will take NO ARGUEMENTS. Do we not remember that whole episode where Zethrid went berserk on the paladins cuz she thought Ezor was dead?? And how they looked lovingly into each other's eyes? They had an END SCENE together! Well, it wasn't about them, it was that thing about Keith taking over command of the blade but WHAT-EVER. They were 2 feet away from each other because they were inseparable and in. love.

look at them.

Wait I can do better:

I'm gonna scream.

And, yeah, they were technically canon but this doesn't count. If Shiro and the dude he married (..Curtis?) get a canon kiss then so do Ezor and Zethrid.

Before I start my little spiel and Veronica and Acxa, I'm just gonna leave a picture of Narti here for those of you who don't remember her.

She was the one without eyes who could see through the eyes of her cat (honestly so real in a fictional way, love that for her).

Ringing any bells? Yeah, I cried when she died. (I made a rhyme!)

NOW.

Veronica and Acxa. They would have been SO CUTE together. And even if they didn't get together, at the very least they should have been best friends. Like the kind of best friends where Acxa is adopted into the McClain family to the point at which she can always be found there just chilling in their house like she owns the place. The kind of best friends that finish each other's sentences and know EVERYTHING about each other. GUYS. This was the VISION.

And you know what? I gonna put a picture of them here in just a sec, but you ALL know what I'm talking about when I say that they had a klance-style bonding moment.

Do not even try to tell me that they did not have potential. They're making awkward love eyes at each other.

(Also, the limited fanart that exists of them is SO. CUTE.)

Honestly, if the show really wanted to show representation that bad, then why couldn't these ships be real? Adam is great and all that, but if we're going to introduce a queer relationship in the name of representation, then maybe don't kill him off for the sake of drama after only about 5 minutes total screentime.

In fact, Shiro's whole thing was messed up. Yes, I get that he's a queer icon, but why are these things being forced on him? Instead of putting him with another character that also only got 5 minutes of screentime, maybe his end scene could be something like, 'Shiro went and finally got the therapy he deserved' or 'Shiro and Keith spent quality time together now that they were no longer separated' or even, 'Shiro retired from military business and built a comfortable life for himself as a coffee shop owner.'

He. Does. Not. Need. No. Man.

Based on the fact that he still has that Garrison-issued arm, he is still in relations with them in some way. And maybe he quit and just got to keep the arm, but that needed to be specified. Are we forgetting his previous trauma? His periodic flashbacks? The fact that his body was taken over by alien life and used to INJURE HIS YOUNGER BROTHER? The very same brother that he was a role model to?

And maybe we could have kicked Lance's scene out and instead shown him with his family? That would have been a great place to insert Veronica and show them actually bonding like family. Did anyone else find it weird that we got basically no scenes of them interacting in space? With their personalities, they should have been gossiping and having spa days left and right, but there was nothing of the sort.

Wait, I'm sorry, I got off topic.

Where was I? Oh yeah.

The most talked about example of queerbaiting is always Klance because as main characters, they're in the spotlight, but these closeted lesbians do in fact exist.

Why did we get Allurance but not Ezor and Zethrid? They were SO CLEARLY compatible and they weren't toxic to each other like Allura and Lance. My main argument against that ship is because of Klance, it's because Allura had just lost someone important and rebounded to Lance, and Lance constantly tried to be the rock for her that she wasn't ready to lean on. He finally had what he wanted from day 1, and realized that if he really wanted it to continue, he would have to change in ways he wasn't ready for.

If that kind of relationship gets a kiss, then Ezor and Zethrid should get one too. They spent their whole time on the show supporting and relying on each other.

[swagging-back-to]

besties just hear me out.. hear me out for a second.

Voltron x attack titan cross over aus. Mainly the voltron cast thrown into the plot of attack titan.

Just hear me out! this is mostly just me figuring out the au so it's rambly as all hell. there's TWO versions of this i want to explore. both are klance btw because DUH.

It wouldnt be a 1:1 crossover because obv. and It'd be lance centric obv cause he's my boy. So Lance --> eren.

Hunk fits armin's role almost perfectly. hunk is a relatively curious type of guy, takes punches with grace and doesnt hit back out of kindness--not out of weakness.

Pidge is hanji reimagined, basically. Although she's technically younger than lance and hunk, this au would make her slightly older than them. I'd lessen the age gap between senior officers and new recruits by a couple years so the difference isnt so intense. Coran would also occupy some aspects of hanji's character, but very loosely. He's like a bridge between hanji and erwin--silly but also holds more authority than the paladins.

Erwin could be occupied by allura. I dont think this one requires much elaboration.

Shiro would be Levi's character (even tho im canon ereri, im willing to change my preferred dynamics for the au.) this is mainly because Shiro is always tired, and responsible for a bunch of kids, and i know having to beat the shit out of any of his kids would tear him apart (referencing the court scene.)

so who would occupy misas actual role??? keith, of course. "BUT WAIT, MISA AND EREN DONT GET TOGETHER IN CANON?" i hear you saying, but luckily this isnt a 1:1 au. Misa and eren butt heads (LITERALLY) multiple times, misa is a badass killing machine, misa is an orphan, misa admires eren and eren is envious of misa. It literally just works for this au.

Moblit's character can be filled by coran and hunk collectively and at the same time that the two are occupying other character roles.

The galrans would probably be molded to fit into the marleyans, but i dont really care who becomes who. I feel like Lotor being Zeke just kinda makes sense, though. Zethrid would be reiner, ezor would fill berthold's shoes simply because of how close she is with zethrid. Axca is DEFINITELY 100% annie. that leaves narti as pieck. IDK about the war hammer and jaw titans, though. Not even a single clue. Maybe Haggar could have the war hammer, seeing as she never actually joins the fight if she has any chance of losing (like a coward) and always fights from far off the battlefield. genuinely no clue for ymir though.

Alternate idea; Pidge could also fit armin's role, simply because of both their intelligences. I debated having pidge fill misa's role because her familys death would drive her to become a badass fighting machine, but i feel like she doesnt fit the role as perfectly as i'd like...

So, although pidge technically embodies some aspects of misa's character, and hunk represents armin's character, i think the living situations could be reversed. On one hand it would be funny if lance and pidge squabbled like misa and eren do in canon, but i genuinely cant see pidge fretting over lance like a mother hen. That's why i think hunk should be the one taken in by the ''jaegers'' instead of pidge. Pidge's father and maybe matt would occupy the role that armin's grandfather had.

[fandom-trash-17]

LISTEN THE FUCK UP BECAUSE ITS IMPORTANT AND ITS FUCKING 4 AM AND I SHOULD BE ASLEEP

I tried my best to avoid this situation

But it’s everywhere

All over my dash. And I need to let out how I feel and why everyone should calm. Down.

So s7 of Voltron Legendary Defenders came out about, a week or two ago with a promise of LGBT Rep. And if you’ve been on Tumblr or the VLD tags long enough, you know how most people reacted.

But the people who are fresh out of the womb to this situation, I’ll explain. Like I’ve stated before VLD had promised LGBT rep in s7 and introduced the character Adam, Shiro’s boyfriend. They also included a scene with them together but not the “having a romantic time” together. It was basically a break up scene.

I understand why you’re mad.

You wanted rep but you didn’t get exactly what you’d thought would happen. The scene of when Adam was telling Shiro why he shouldn’t go just seems like a regular convo between two bros looking out for each other. I understand why you maybe dissatisfied. I understand that killing off Adam was upsetting. I honestly wished he was still alive.

But is it really worth going apeshit over it?

Like come on people we’re better than that! More mature! Is it worth insulting the whole team, who worked hard on making VLD happen???? Like for the millionth time I get why you’re upset but it’s not the end of the world!

I see and understand why people are upset, but that doesn’t mean you should attack the creators. They work hard to make this show, and they have to deal with shit just to get a season out. Harassment, people threatening to post leaks and having the show CANCELLED just to have their ship or HC canon, so many goddamn violent threats being thrown at the crew to the point where Bex Taylor (I probably spelt her name wrong) does not feel safe at all going to Cons BECAUSE of the s7 backlash.

You got to keep in mind that this TV show is about teens who got shot into fucking space by a space cat because they were chosen to protect the world. The reason why it was so short and brief is because they didn’t want to get too sidetracked from the story. And either way they probably couldn’t win. It was either get hate and threats from homophobes complaining or the LGBT. I honestly do think they could’ve done a little better with the scene, and I wish they didn’t kill him, but things were limited. Just except our gay Shiro dad because he does not need a boyfriend to prove he’s gay. Hell we might learn more about Adam in season 8 so get off your high horses, do something else and wait.

Oh, if you suddenly hate Voltron because of one little thing then leave. Just leave the creators out of it because you’re just adding wood to this forest fire and it ain’t doin shit.

TL;DR

You can be upset but don’t be a jackass to the crew. Maybe give your thoughts in a calm manner instead of a ballistic Goose on drugs.

s7 obviously had its flaws but s8 will be better. All we have to do is wait and be patient

But if you can’t do that, you might aswell leave.

Sidenote: sorry if this seems rushed. I don’t want my mom to catch me up at this time again and I’m really tired, I just couldn’t wait till morning. I’m just, tired in general

Just take this video and these tweets

https://youtu.be/_O9xfp89QI0

Goodnight

[the-ferocious-kittyrose]

What I would’ve done w/ Lotor’s character

It’s not exactly a secret to anyone who’s been following me for a while that I’m not the biggest fan of canon Lotor. I had high hopes for the character from his 80s counterpart and intro in season 3 but I was really let down by the direction the writers went with him in canon.

When he was introduced, I was so hoping for him to be this cocky manipulative asshole that’s only out for himself. I love that character archetype so goddamn much.

But in canon he was just kinda boring to me. His personality was bland and his motivations never really made sense. He’s introduced using empty promises of peace and comradery to manipulate people, then its revealed that he actually does want peace and comradery and wants to lead a peaceful empire, then that turns into draining Alteans and wanting to kill all Galra...

I also didn’t like how the writers decide to tack on this whole child abuse plot to explain why he was the way he was. As if that’s the only way to make a villain sympathetic. Yeah other versions of Voltron have touched on Lotor’s childhood before and it was never pleasant, but VLD really leaned into that shit, to the point where it felt like the writers were just shoving angst down our throats thinking that equals good writing.

It takes more than a tragic backstory to make a character compelling. It takes an interesting personally and motivations that make sense. And you can make a character tragic/sympathetic in more subtle ways.

For me personally, I wanted Lotor to be a sorta fusion of Loki and Littlefinger in space.

Loki is a sly trickster who grew up feeling like an outcast, unaware of his true heritage. He grew up believing he could be king but when his shity father handed it to his perfect brother he felt he had been robbed and decided to take the throne by force.

Littlefinger is a small man from a small house with no power, and after getting the shit beat out of him trying to win the hand of the girl he loved, he decided he would use his intelligence and skills in manipulation to screw over all these noble lords and weasel his way into the throne. And when he did he would finally get vengeance on all those who had looked down on him.

I feel like this fits Lotor well. Lotor is a prince, so he isn’t small in that regard, but he is not respected in the way a prince should be.

He is a lot smaller than the average Galra. And even though Lotor is still quite strong, developing a fighting style that suits his small form and uses his opponents size against them, in a society so heavily based on physical strength that’s still a big blow to your rep.

He employs half breeds, which we know are looked down on in the empire. And there are definitely rumors about Lotor himself being a half breed. I think after 10,000 years Zarkon would’ve done a pretty good job at hiding Lotor’s heritage from the public but just looking at him compared to the average Galra there’s going to be some suspicion there. On that note Lotor is probably considered butt ugly by the Galra.

And Lotor works in the shadows and achieves his goals through lies and trickery, which Lotor himself says are things the empire looks down on.

So yeah, the people in the empire hate Lotor. Even Sendak who’s all ‘Gung ho empire’ has no respect for Lotor. And because of this it would probably be up in the air whether or not Lotor would even be allowed to take the throne if his father were to pass, even though it’s his birthright.

And in the face of all this rampant disrespect, Lotor decides that he is going to overthrow his father and take the throne. And when he does he will take vengeance on everyone who had ever undermined him and expand the empire beyond anything his father could’ve dreamed of.

And don’t try telling me, “oh that’s so out of character! Lotor would never take pleasure in the pain of others!” Because he does.

Remember Throk? Remember how Lotor sent him away to the worst station in the empire and joked about letting him, “rot with the ice worms?” Remember how Lotor later invaded his station then watched with a grin as he was tortured by Haggar?

Lotor 100% takes pleasure in hurting those who would hurt him, because it makes him feel powerful.

Now let’s talk about Lotor’s planet. The one given to him and destroyed by Zarkon. I always felt weird about this plot. Obviously it’s a very sad thing to have happen, but I always liked the idea of Lotor’s promises of peace to be empty, a means of manipulating people. So this whole situation being genuine feels weird to me.

In my version, Lotor didn’t get banished for being too kind. He got banished because Zarkon caught him in a plot to betray him.

When Lotor was put in charge of the planet, he seduced and married the princess Ventar. He filled her head with promises that her people would be free and they would rule the universe together and convinced her to secretly round up her armies and send word to her ally planets to do the same, so they could start planning a way to overthrow Zarkon.

It’s left ambiguous whether or not he was being genuine and whether he really loved Ventar and intended to keep his promises to her or if she was just a tool to get the throne. But either way, it ends the same. Zarkon finds out, destroys the planet, kills Ventar, and exiles Lotor.

Still sad/humiliating thing for Lotor, and definitely a story that could gain sympathy from Allura.

Speaking of Allura and Ventar, let’s talk about Lotor’s relationship with the women in his life.

(Trigger Warning: Brief mention of of a rape scene in GoLion)

In the 80s Lotor was incredibly misogynistic. He walked around with a harem of half naked women, tried repeatedly to kidnap and marry Allura against her will, and in GoLion it’s heavily implied that he raped Romelle because she looked like Allura.

It’s a common joke in the fandom that he went from this to drinking respect women juice in VLD but I don’t know if I’d go that far.

He’s definitely better in VLD than he was in the 80s, but even in VLD he manipulates, uses, and hurts most of the women in his life.

Allura is the obvious example, but you also have his generals. Acxa talks to the paladins, Allura in particular, about how persuasive Lotor could be. Implying that she and the other general were manipulated the same way Allura was.

Well not EXACTLY the same way Allura was, romantically I mean. Though there are people who believe that Acxa was also in love with Lotor and he used that to his advantage, which I can see.

But I feel like it was more about giving them a place in an empire that didn’t care about or accept them.

I hate The Last Jedi but I really feel like the line, “you’re nothing, but not to me,” fits really well. They were outsiders with no place to go until Lotor swooped in and gave them a purpose.

Do I think that there was a part of Lotor that genuinely wanted to help them because he saw a kindred spirit in them? Yeah. But I also think that at the end of the day, they were more tools than real friends. And he had no qualms about killing them if they betrayed him.

The situation with Narti proves that. As well as the fact that Ezor and Zethrid seemed very scared of the prospect of Lotor being alive and coming for them.

And then you have Allura. Lotor’s lust for Allura has always been a very important part of his character. In the 80s the reason behind his obsession with her was that he had a lot of baggage about his mother and had a thing for women that looked like her. Also the fact that he just didn’t like not getting something he wanted.

There was never any love. He didn’t want to be with her, he wanted to own her.

In VLD, his want for Allura seems to stem more from the fact that she’s Altean than an Oedipus complex. As well as the fact that she’s powerful and skilled in Altean alchemy, which makes her rather useful.

I don’t personally believe that Lotor ever really Loved Allura. I think he liked the idea of her and what she could do for him, but the end of the day she was more a means to an end than anything else.

Allura’s been trough a lot. Zarkon betrayed her family and destroyed her entire planet only about a year ago from her point of view, and she appears to have a pretty bad case of survivors guilt and PTSD. And to make matters worse, while Lotor was on the ship she was fighting with Shiro, someone she clearly cared about. The idea of loosing him after already losing so much must’ve been really painful.

She was hurting, conflicted, and lonely. Which made her all the more vulnerable to Lotor’s manipulation.

He took advantage of her loneliness and insecurities, making her believe she had found someone who understood her and could help her avenge her family and planet. She trusted him, let herself be vulnerable around him, which made it hurt even more when it was revealed to all be a ruse.

And then you have his relationship with his mother Honerva/Haggar.

I talked a lot about this in my whole rewrite/rant about Honerva, but I’m not a fan of how they made their relationship 100% negative. I feel like it robs the show of a lot of interesting character interaction.

It’s sad. The whole relationship is really tragic. Shit like this is literally my worst nightmare. The thought of looking my mom in the face and have her not recognize me as her daughter keeps me up at night.

But the thing is, in canon the relationship kinda falls flat because Lotor and Haggar/Honerva have no connection. Haggar was awful to Lotor and Lotor hates Haggar. What reason do I have to be invested in their relationship?

So If you haven’t read my Honerva rant, here’s how I would’ve done the Honerva Lotor relationship.

10,000 years ago, when Alfor came to Dibazzal to convince Zarkon to close the rift, Honerva went into labor. Alfor and many Galran doctors tried there best to save her and the baby, but the quintessence had damaged her body so much that she couldn’t be saved and died in childbirth.

Zarkon went ballistic and Alfor had the doctors take baby Lotor somewhere safe, fearing Zarkon would take his grief and anger out on the child.

After Honerva was resurrected as Haggar and throughout Lotor’s childhood, they had a strange sort of relationship. Lotor was an inquisitive child and was always curious about Haggar and her work, making a habit of following her around like a little shadow and watching as she worked. And there was also the fact that, while his father was never friendly, he was calmer when she was around.

Haggar had no idea what to make of this weird child following her around all the time. All these big strong Galra were terrified of her but this tiny child showed no fear as he tugged on her robes and excitedly asked questions about her work. And she never minded. She didn’t know why or how to explain it, but she cared for the child. As much as a soulless undead witch could care for something anyway.

But as time went on there relationship became more and more strained. Lotor was a smart kid he was gonna find out about his mother and deduce what happened to her.

He resented Haggar. Resented her for not remembering him. Resented her for the fact that he had to go through life without a mother while she was right there. And he resented her for being loyal to Zarkon, who had been making his life hell for thousands of years.

Every time she showed him something resembling kindness he’s conflicted. He knows he should feel happy that she cares, but at the same time, why does she care? It’s not like she sees him as her son.

He turned to denial, insisting that Haggar couldn’t possibly be his mother, even though he new the truth deep down, and a part of him always secretly longed for her to remember who she was, who he was, and embrace him as her son. He hates that part of himself.

And when he does meet Honerva for the first time, it’s... tense... to say the least. Having his mother reach out to him and acknowledge him as her son is something he thought would bring him joy, but in that moment all the pain he went through rises back to the surface and he lashes out. He draws his sword and is about to cut her down but he hesitates. He’s trembling with tears in his eyes. He can’t forgive her, but he also can’t bring himself to kill her.

Then you have his relationship with his father.

It’s no secret that Zarkon is an awful man and a shity father, always has been.

The explanation as to why is kinda shaky. All we get is Zarkon saying Lotor is his greatest shame because he’s Altean but I don’t know about that. Zarkon may hate Alteans but he loved Honerva and I don’t think he would be ashamed of his relationship with her.

He definitely did his best Lotor’s heritage from the public. But I don’t think that’s the reason he hates him.

In my version of the story, Zarkon hates Lotor because Honerva died giving birth to him and Zarkon blames him for her death. He lost his beloved wife and was forced to watch the son that killed her waltz around wearing her face.

It didn’t help that Lotor was a snarky rebellious kid that liked to show off. He did things his own way, didn’t care much for rules, and had a real knack for finding loopholes. All things that made his strict father very angry. He was an embarrassment. Small and rebellious. That’s why Zarkon began training Sendak.

I personally believe the reason Zarkon was so trusting of Sendak and had so much faith in him was because Zarkon had been grooming him to be his “true heir.” Sendak is the epitome of what a Galra should be. Strong, loyal, and brave. He would be the son Zarkon wished he had. The favorite child.

Lotor obviously hates Zarkon, and rightfully so. Zarkon hates him for something he had no control over and constantly disrespects him.

Lotor may not follow the rules, but he passes every trial. He excels at everything he does but Zarkon refuses to see that all because he blames him for Honerva’s death.

Lotor sees Zarkon as an old fool. He knows that he could do a far better job at running the empire.

Lotor dedicated thousands of years of his life to overthrowing Zarkon. His hatred for his father was his motivation, what got him out of bed every morning, so when the deed is done and Zarkon was finally defeated, in the moments after he felt empty.

But he didn’t have time to dwell on that feeling for long. He still had to deal with his father’s men and take the throne that was rightfully his.

Then you have his plan.

Lotor’s plan in VLD is really weird and over complicated. There was no real reason for the whole draining Alteans thing. Just a lazy way of making him 100% evil.

The plot could’ve been a lot simpler. He gains the paladins trust, gets them to help him build his ships and overthrow Zarkon, and then once he has the throne he pulls an Uno reverse card and is like, “yeah, nothing personal but this was all a trick and imma lock you and your lions up now.”

Obviously more complicated than that but that’s the basic idea.

One of my main problems with VLD is that they had a bad habit of over complicating the plot. People don’t care about VLD because of the plot, they care about the characters and their relationships, the actual plot doesn’t have to be anything spectacular.

It’s strange to say but I feel like the writes tried too hard with Lotor. He had the potential to be an amazing villain but the writers were too focused on tricking the audience and making him angsty that they forgot to make him compelling.

[aprxl-showers]

klance x pirates of the caribbean

bc apparently when i'm upset i listen to newsies live and think up weird klance aus

in my head this could go one of two ways:

keith and lance as will and elizabeth

keith and lance as jack and will (i'll explain later)

a lot more under the cut bc i got a bit carried away...

if it follows the canon love story i picture lance as will and keith as elizabeth. (i could see it the other way around bc keith could be the orphan pirate boy but i’ve written too much to go back now).

when they were young, keith was on a ship with his father and he spots lance on a piece of driftwood. they save him ofc and keith spots a jewel necklace around lance's neck. he takes it and later has it fused in the hilt of his mother's knife that is now his.

keith hates being the governor's son with a passion. he hates the formality of it and how restrictive it is. lance is the weaponsmaster's apprentice (that's how he gets good with a gun) and he is always under appreciated! give this guy some recignition!

anyway, he has been silently pining for keith for ages. little does he know, keith kind of likes him too. a lot of mutual pining has been going on for longer than either can recall.

anyhoo, pirates invade the town and kidnap keith. he puts up a fight but in the end he's outnumbered and taken aboard the ship as leverage. he says his surname is mcclain bc it's on his mind. wink wonk. captain of the evil pirates is zarkon and when the pirates who kidnapped keith hand him the knife he realises it is the jewel that can break their spell. since keith uses lance's surname, he also thinks it is keith's blood they need to finish the ritual since lance's family are the one's who sent the jewel away with lance. but it's not. obvs.

lance, after saving a baby, watches keith get taken in horror and tries to call out but is knocked out before he can act. once he's awake he hears that there's a pirate who was caught in the dungeon. that's allura. yes, eccentric captain allura is a choice i am making.

lance manages to break her out of jail, thinking she is one of the evil pirates and he can persuade her to help him. she is not but decides to help him anyway in an attempt to retrieve her ship 'the voltron' from zarkon. the two of them go off on a quest to save keith.

meanwhile, hunk and pidge are guarding keith. they are new recruits to zarkon's crew after their other crew threw pidge out when they discovered she was a girl (silly pirate superstitions). hunk went with her. they are easily persuaded to help keith bc zarkon's a meanie and promise that they'll help him out when they make it to land.

lance and allura arrive on an island and find coran who is allura's closest friend and ally. shiro is also there. he has a peg arm (is that a thing? idk it's a weird mechanism but it does the trick). coran explains that the ship keith is on is cursed and they will be going to the mysterious isle of daibazaal to break the curse.

they get there and watch zarkon attempt to break the curse using the jewel (which he pried out of the blade) and keith's blood. nah, it don't work. they still turn into creepy looking skeletons in the moonlight. damn. he threatens keith and then all hell breaks loose bc lance shoots him. it would have definitely killed zarkon but he can't die bc... the whole undead thing, and in doing so all lance does is reveal their position. they fight a bit, as you do. keith gets hold of a sword and kills three evil pirates in about five seconds. lance falls a little bit in love with him.

in the midst of the battle, lance makes a deal with zarkon that he will stay if keith and the others can go (this now includes hunk and pidge bc they helped keith get free). lance is stripped of visible weapons and zarkon agrees to break the curse immediately. lance cuts his hand and drops the jewel into the chest.

then he grabs keith's jewel-less knife from where it lies beside the chest. zarkon, distracted, doesn't notice until the blade is buried in his gut. he dies. keith and the rest act immediately and kill any other pirates who don't surrender. keith kills an evil pirate about to shoot lance.

they return keith in exchange for allura, coran, shiro, pidge, hunk and lance's pardon. keith expresses his wish not to be governor in the future and allura invites them on 'the voltron' ship with her since she reclaimed it from zarkon. keith and lance then have a moment where they thank each other for saving each other's life. keith thanks lance for coming after him and lance confesses. it's all very sappy and they kiss for ages.

OR

lance is still will. i stand by everything i said about him in the previous version. his parents caused the curse to endure and sent him off. but instead of keith finding him, it's allura. she's the governor's (in this case, alfor's) daughter. she takes the jewel and keeps it as a necklace. lance and allura are more like besties but they're not really allowed to see each other because of their differing classes.

keith arrives and escapes the navy. hides in weaponsmaster’s shop. lance tries to fight him but he’s not as good with a sword as he is with a gun. lots of sassy banter where lance is tryna be noble and keith doesn’t care for it.

anyway, we sort of know what happens. allura gets kidnapped and uses lance's surname bc they had a conversation beforehand. lance stresses, hears about a pirate they captured, assumes it's one of the evil ones he can persuade to help him.

but instead he gets keith who he met earlier. in the time they’ve been apart he’s got himself landed in the dungeon. and he’s notoriously one of the most stubborn, grumy pirate captains in all the seven seas.

he's overall unimpressed with lance as a person and with his plan, only agreeing when he realises he might be able to get his ship, this time called 'the red lion', back. lance decides he's going to prove himself to keith. he doesn't know why he's so offended by a pirate's opinion but he just is. hmmm...

they pick up shiro and coran, pidge and hunk promise to help allura out yada yada yada and they start making their way towards the island.

they run into lotor and his crew (acxa, ezor, zethrid etc) who are unrelated to zarkon and that whole... thing but they're your typical pirates and they want their stuff. which is annoying af bc allura is missing and they have somewhere to be thank you very much.

they put up a good fight. lance has plenty of opportunities to impress keith with his pistol skills. consider keith very impressed and mildly enamoured. but he doesn't do feelings so he stuffs them down inside him as you do. they win and move on. afterwards keith asks lance where he learned those moves and lance tells him stories of his time in the weaponsmaster's workshop. they bond.

they get to the island and find allura. they fight and keith and lance save each other's backs too many times to count. lance has a revelation (inconveniently mid battle) that he actually really likes this. this is fun. this is exciting.

then keith fucks up. he says that he'll hand lance over if zarkon gives him his ship back. lance is fucking fuming and feeling very betrayed and hurt bc he actually felt like he was getting somewhere with keith. keith gets what he deserves though bc zarkon dumps him and allura on an island and takes lance away.

while they're on the island allura knocks some sense into him regarding his life generally and lance specifically. she tells him loads of cute lance-as-a-teenager stories and keith feels awful. he helps her light a signal fire using some rum he has on his person.

they spot the ship alfor sent to find allura. they persuade them to go to where lance and the rest of the crew is. keith tries to act like he's on zarkon's side when they get back to the cave and then he takes one of the cursed jewels so he's now immortal. aha! while this is happening allura has infiltrated zarkon's ship, 'the red lion', so shiro, coran, pidge and hunk can be freed.

allura then frees lance from where they were keeping him in the hull. lance runs to where keith is. they share a look. keith cuts his hand and throws the jewel to lance who does the same and drops it into the water. the curse is broken. keith goes to grab zarkon's sword so he can kill him but zarkon grabs him by the throat. lance shoots zarkon in the side before keith can pass out. he runs to keith who has collapsed. keith apologises and thanks him and promises not to betray him again. lance laughs, says he better not and helps him up.

they return allura safely in exchange for their pardon. keith asks lance to join the crew of 'the red lion' and gives him loads of reasons that are really just disguised compliments. safe to say lance kisses him senseless and they run away together, sailing off into the sunset. bc. klance. there's got to be a sunset somewhere.

hope you liked my what-were-meant-to-be-headcanons-but-just-became-plot-summaries!! i promise i’ll post some general pirate voltron headcanons unrelated to this au at some point. i wrote a pirate au piece for klance au month on my ao3 so some might be related to that?

if you want to send asks or whatever that would be cool - even if they're just random ideas for the au or changes/additions to the plot. i also might write little snippets for this at some point (i’ll tag them under ‘kl potc au’ like this post) bc i'm suddenly crazy invested so if you have any scenes from this you want (from version 1 or 2 or any scene in the plethora of potc movies) send a message and i'll probably get around to it :))

[fureliselost]

VLD REWATCH s8e4-7

these

don't look like they're fading, don't look like they'r ever going away, they ain't ever gonna change

ok, i'm done, let's go

- what happened to olkarion?

- oh no, weblum

- hunk and keith talking rhymes go brrrrrr

- tf

- and pidge can bond w dead olkarion

- kl shots

- tech probs again lol

- go.... pidge?

ep 5

- iverson>loving doggos

- I LOVE ONE INA LEIFSDOTTIR

]- OH MY GOD I KNOW WHAT EPISODE THIS IS

- and it's a trapppppp

- veracxa go brrrrrrr

- ezpr and zethridddddd

- GIVE LANCE CREDIT PIDGE

- Veronica...... do you actually know lance? I mean, a minute ago we were shown that lance is actually better than most of the paladins at navigation and then you're........ what are they trying to say really?

- yay, space lesbians ig

- the purpose of this episode was just to have the lesbians reunited and the paladins in their skintight suit

ep 6

- ok, so roabeast that's what is happening, it's hard to keep track

- i don't think it's a good idea to attack oriande, but ok, allura

- why tf did they parallel honerva to allura wtf

- in s8 they started putting allura and lance beside each other in scenes where previously keith and lance would be needlessly beside each other but, like, when it's allura beside lance there's just this... void? it's hard to explain that but one of the reasons is that she and lance don't engage with each other as much as keith and lance. And allura, since she is now dating lance, is expected to engage with lance, that's the entire reason why I started collecting every frame where keith and lance are together -- keith and lance weren't expected to interact or be near each other because they claimed to hate each other but they did, constantly, and just the first season had more screenshots than it had episodes (meaning that there was more than 1 needless interaction or closeness per episode).

- the atlas being a robot was...... i didn't like it

- this ep is confusinfg, what's happening w matt?

- honerva what the absolute fuck are you doing

- wait, hadn't luca died? who that

- yay zethrid, ezor and th eone olkari

- honerva wtf

- hoe is tearing apart reality

- slav will go crazy with this non-believer

- is that sincline WHAT THE FUCK

- lotor really said yeet

- go berserker allura

- ohhh, lancey lance woke up to stop allura from going nuts

- ok so allura went for honerva and lotor went for allura, so lance went for lotor and honerva's evangelions went for lance, which caused lotor to go for the evangelions and then lance and then, as allura is going for honerva and lotor is going for lance, honerva stops lotor from killing lance so allura doesn't kill her? is that right?

- nope, that is not right because honerva wasn't even worried about allura, so when allura gets close honerva does madic mumbo jumbo

- are we gonna talk about the fact that allura was using a spear? or, dare i say, a lance

- damn, this moment is v emotional

- heavy

ep8

- i love kinkade

- dude, all 4 MFEs share a room, i loveeee

- james and romelle being curious at the camera is cute

- LET HIM BE EXCITED ABOUT YEAST DAMMIT

- Rizavi is the life of the party (derogatory)

- Interviewing pidge and keith dfgdfg i don't remember this, but it might be fun

- hunkkkk i love you

- they took baybay to space lol (do y'all think they brought kaltenecker too?)

- oh god i remember him

- they intervievwed kolivan lol

- corannnnnnnnnn

- YES KALTENECKER IS ON THE SHIP

- "just so much great recycled poop!"

- i love coleen holt

- lance is so stressedddddddddd

- ok, allura getting lance to relax is pretty cute

- i actually really wanna ship kallurance because, well, that's the best way to end a love triangle! but I just..... can't seem to get into kallura. maybe i should search some art and AUs to see if I can get into it

- rizavi u rebel

- more altean pilotsssssssssssss

- that allurance scene was soooooo stiff wtf

- :((((( poor allura

- YES HUNK CONNECT PEOPLE THROUGH THEIR BELLIES THAT SOUNDED WEIRD

- Cute

ok i'm stopping here because i hate the next ep

[voltrontranscript]

VLD S6E5: The Black Paladins

Season 6 Episode 5: The Black Paladins

Transcript by @dragonofyang

Summary: With Lotor kidnapped and Shiro seemingly turned traitor, the Castle of Lions is undergoing critical failure of the controls, and the team has Lotor’s generals to contend with on top of it all.

[Google Doc]

Coran: I’m headed your way!

Keith: Coran, no! The Castle of Lions barely survived the first time we fought one of those ships. You’ll only--

Allura: Keith is right, Coran, the ship’s defenses will never hold!

Pidge: Guys, we can’t take this much longer!

Lance: Do you guys have any ideas?

Keith: Coran, fire just below our position!

Coran: What?

Keith: Destroy the rock we’re pinned against. Now! Lance! Pidge! I need you to get us some cover.

Lance: Right!

Pidge: On it!

Keith: Who’s got eyes on Shiro?

Pidge: What just happened? Is that…?

Lance: A wormhole?

Keith: They’re trying to escape.

Allura: Haggar. It has to be Haggar. She must have gained the ability. But how?

Keith: We can’t worry about that now. We have to make sure we get Shiro back.

Hunk: But Shiro’s not Shiro anymore.

Keith: I know, but something is wrong with him. The Galra or Lotor have to be behind it. You all know he would never give up on us. We can’t give up on him. Guys, one of my thrusters is down. Can you compensate?

Pidge: Those beams torched our power core. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Hunk: We’ve got maybe thirty seconds of over-clocked burn time.

Keith: Hit it!

Hunk: We’re halfway through our burn! Twenty-five percent! Fifteen percent! Eight percent! 

Lance: We’re not going to make it!

Pidge: We’re too heavy!

Keith: Disband!

All: What?

Keith: The energy from disconnecting might create enough thrust to propel me through the wormhole.

Allura: You’ll be the only one on the other side!

Keith: Do it!

[Scene change as Keith enters the wormhole where a massive Galra fleet awaits.]

Keith: Alright, gotta play this smart.

Ezor: Wow. I can’t believe he made it.

Zethrid:  I’ll take him out.

Acxa: No. You two escort the package back to Honerva. I’ll take care of this one.

[Scene change to inside the hangar of one of the Galra cruisers.]

Lotor: Zethrid. Ezor.

Zethrid: We’ll take it from here.

Ezor: Um… is it broken?

Zethrid: Just leave it. We’ve got orders. Ezor!

Ezor: Coming!

Honerva: You are to lead the Black Lion away from the fleet. Is that understood?

Shiro: Yes. But how am I to lure them away?

Honerva: The Red Paladin’s connection to you runs deep. Deeper than the others. He still believes there is good left inside you, which leaves him vulnerable to persuasion. You will exploit this weakness.

Shiro: I understand.

[Cut to Black Lion attacking the fleet.]

Keith: Think. Think. How are we gonna get in there? Shiro! Shiro, come in. I know you’re there! I don’t know what’s wrong, but I know we can fix this. Let me help you.

Male Galra Officer: All ships, dock immediately, and prepare for hyper-jump.

Keith: I know you’re hurting. We just need to keep it together a little longer.

[Scene change to the Castle of Lions at Daibazaal.]

Pidge: Okay, all the Lions are in their hangars and their power cores appear to be recharging.

Hunk: Structurally speaking, the Lions are at about sixty percent. Whatever those ships hit them with really did some damage.

Lance: Any luck yet, Princess?

Allura: No. I’m afraid not. I fear that the wormhole may have deposited them beyond my ability’s reach.

Coran: I’ll try to contact some coalition forces to provide assistance. Hm?

Lance: Whoa.

Allura: Coran, what’s happening?

Coran: It appears the castle’s systems are shutting down one by one. It looks as though someone hacked into the ship and let loose a kill protocol of some sort.

Pidge: Have you tried an override?

Hunk: Or maybe counteracting it with a live protocol? Is that a thing?

Coran: The virus is moving too fast.

Pidge: Okay, I’m in the system. Subroutines eight through nineteen have me completely locked out. But if I can just skip ahead... Come on, come on, come on.

Coran: Spectra generator down. Stabilizers are down. Main turbine also down. Crystal matrix offline! Particle barrier generator down!

Pidge: There! I’ve got it isolated. Now I just have to lock it down with a multi-layered tri-tetragonal quarantine. And… Almost… Ha! Yes!

Coran: Well done, Pidge.

Pidge: What? How? The virus has countermeasures that specifically targeted my quarantine! It’s like… it knew.

Coran: If this shuts down the teludav’s mass regulator, the ship, along with everything in the neighboring subsystem, will be destroyed.

Hunk: Uh, where are you going?

Pidge: No time!

[Scene change to the Galra fleet.]

Honerva: Prince Lotor. My son. The anger you feel toward me is to be expected. But understand that the events that transformed me into the witch Haggar also shrouded any glimmer of maternal instinct I may have had for my one and only child. However, you’ve continued the work I started all that time ago and have indeed seen it through to heights I could have only imagined. Your never-ending pursuit of knowledge is truly--

Lotor: Enough. My mother ceased to exist when Honerva drew her last breath. Do not believe for a moment that I would ever accept you as kin. You are an abomination. A twisted perversion of what was once so pure and beautiful. The end is near, witch. I know you can sense it. If you beg for your life now, maybe I will take pity on you when the time comes.

Honerva: Take him away.

Ezor: Did you just kill her?

Zethrid: Are you working with Lotor?

Lotor: I can explain everything, but I assure you she is not dead. If you’re with me, we need to get to the Sincline ships and leave now.

Ezor: Um, sure?

Zethrid: We’re good.

Lotor: Right, then. We’re headed for the Castle of Lions’ last known location.

Acxa: Sir, the wormhole deposited us on the far side of the Thizonian system. We’ll need to make multiple hyperspace jumps and even then, it will take some time.

Lotor: Then what are we waiting for?

[Scene change to Black Lion flying to a grayscale planet.]

Shiro: Hello, Keith.

Keith: Huh?

[Cut to the Castle of Lions.]

Coran: Pidge, what have you discovered?

Pidge: Protocol’s countermeasure. I recognized it.

Lance: Recognized it? How?

Pidge: From the code I scanned from Shiro’s arm while we were looking for Galra installations.

Allura: Wait, are you saying Shiro is responsible for this?

Pidge: Yes.

[Cut to Keith and Shiro on the base of Project Kuron.]

Keith: Shiro, it’s gonna be okay.

Shiro: Yes, I know.

Keith: We just have to get back to the castle.

Shiro: We are not going anywhere!

[Cut back to the Castle of Lions.]

Allura: The teludav, it’s reaching critical mass. Pidge!

Pidge: I know, I know!

Lance: This thing’s about to blow any second.

Hunk: Uh, Pidge, how did you do that?

Pidge: When I was scanning Shiro’s arm, I also made a copy of its programming. I created a virus that could terminate all its command prompts, in case something like this ever happened. I never thought I’d have to use it.

[Cut to Keith and Shiro at the Project Kuron site.]

Shiro: That’s the Keith I remember.

Keith: Shiro, I know you’re in there. You made a promise once. You told me you’d never give up on me.

Shiro: And I should have abandoned you just like your parents did. They saw that you were broken. Worthless. I should’ve seen it, too.

Keith: I’m not leaving here without you.

Shiro: Actually, neither of us are leaving.

Keith: Shiro! Shiro, please. You’re my brother. I love you.

Shiro: Just let go, Keith. You don’t have to fight anymore. By now, the team’s already gone. I saw to it myself. Keith…

[Transition through several flashbacks before settling on one of Keith in the garrison.]

Woman: The only reason this kid is here is because you vouched for him. You need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

Shiro: Understood. I’ll handle it. Hey.

Keith: Look, I know I messed up. You should just send me back to the home already. This place isn’t for me.

Shiro: Keith, you can do this. I will never give up on you. But more importantly, you can’t give up on yourself.

End.

[dammitadolfnomorecake]

Once Bitten, Twice Stupid prt 129

129

Gearing up, Keith’s body shook as he strapped his gun into place. They had a lead. They finally had a lead worth chasing. Coran had been working hard behind the scenes, trying to match the trace elements found on the clothing Matt, Sam, and Shiro had, but it was a pissed off vampire that’d given them their lead. The fucking opera was a set up. An auction held for the rights to hand over Lance and Lotor to Sendak. Attending the opera had provided the evidence that Lotor was cooperating with VOLTRON, a move seen as going against Zarkon. The winning bid had the rights to present Lance and Curtis to Sendak, with the promise of some kind of riches from Zarkon over the return of his son to his side and the breeder for experimentation. Lotor had no clue there was a joint bounty on his head. His stupid ego probably thought no one would dare turn against him or sell him out. Lance’s existence had become the source of rumours in the vampire community. Keith felt sick at the way they spoke of his boyfriend like he was some kind of trophy.

Betrayed by the continual fail of payment, then removal and death of half their group, they couldn’t confirm the location where Lance would be being held, they’d given the address of the vampires they’d been betrayed by. They had no evidence Lance was alive, or what had happened to him since they’d been double crossed before they could personally make the apprehension. All they had were their damaged egos... and their heads seeing Keith hadn’t set eyes upon them personally. With confirmation of the intention of removing Lance and Lotor on private jet.

Pidge was a gremlin channeling her scary talents into tracking down the lead with such determination Keith felt compelled to find something. He couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t start hunting on his own if this didn’t pan out. He’d tried so hard to be the man Lance would want him to be. But it was harder by the day. 10 fucking days was too long.

Placing her hand on his shoulder, Krolia gripped it hard

“Keep your head in the game. If you mess up, I will drop you”

Like he’d mess this up. Their first real lead. Lance’s health and safety, alone with Curtis’s, took priority

“I know”

“If he’s there, we’re getting him out”

“I know”

“And if he’s not, you need to be prepared for it”

“I know!”

He knew all too well. The information was out of date and provided by angry vampires that could simply be looking to take advantage of the situation

“Good. You’ll be with me. Shiro will be leading the wolf squad”

Why were they being separated? Shiro was an exemplary agent, not... oh. Ohhh... They thought both of them too emotionally compromised to complete the mission without going off script. The wolves would stop Shiro, with Krolia stopping him if she felt he was acting out. Yeah. Keith might not be able to stop himself if the moment presented itself... but he and Shiro had earned the right to be there when their boyfriends were found

“Am I understood?”

“Yes, ma’am”

““Mum” is fine. I want him back too. I won’t fail you, Keith. If you think about it, he’s my son too. My family, too. That’s why you’re coming with me”

So his mother was saying if he interferes with her getting Lance out, he’d be expected to provide cover for the both of them. It wasn’t that she thought him inept. It was that she lost the love of her life and didn’t want him going through it too...

“I... mum... what do if he isn’t there?”

“Then we follow the evidence, even if we have to go it alone. I’m sick of this game. I’m sick of knowing you’re going through hell. I’m going to do whatever I can to bring him back to all of us. Him and Curtis... thank god these rooms are sound proof”

Keith found himself chuckling, almost immediately feeling guilty for the sound, sobering sadly

“I didn’t think I’d see the day you’d sideline the mission”

“I didn’t think I’d see the day when I did either. I think I spent too many years as a hunter and not nearly enough as a mum”

“To be fair, I wasn’t ready to let you in”

“And to be fair, I tried too hard. I love you, Keith. I won’t let you down”

Krolia was surprised as Keith threw his arms around his mother. Keith also kind of surprised. He could feel his mother’s warmth. Feel the way her body tensed, then instantly relaxed. She’d worked so hard. The bags beneath her eyes were next level. Not only was she working, she’d been there for everyone in their group. She’d even been out running errands for Miriam, then providing a buffer when Luis came to scream at Coran over his mother being apprehended. A lot of things had happened over the last ten days, but it was finally coming to an end. All those times he’d sworn to get Lance back were finally going to become reality.

As he was getting ready to leave, Pidge came rushing into the room, throwing her arms around his waist. Hunk hovering, but when Keith extended his arm, the big teddy bear came in for a group hug

“Be safe out there. I can’t lose another brother”

“I will be”

“Don’t be reckless. And don’t get hurt... and ...”

“Pidge, I can’t rescue Lance if I’m too reckless”

“I know... I wish I was coming with you. I want to see these bastards pay for what they did to us”

Hunk nodded

“Be careful, bud. We don’t want to lose you”

Hugs were such a strange thing. Keith felt almost invincible, or at least a hundred times more ready to face what was coming with a simple hug from his two friends. He’d been such an arsehole worrying about Lance. He’d barely been able to contribute. Pidge was a tech wizard, bullying her way into getting access to everything. Hunk was just as bad as her. Put the two of them together with Sam and all things tech related were at their mercy. Breaking the hug, Pidge pulled something out her pocket

“I have this. I know we can’t come, but if you need support you can reach us on this one. It’s the same as what the blades us, but I’ve keyed in a seperate channel for just us. It’ll also tell me your location...”

Just in case something happened. He got it. This time he was the one wrapping arms around Pidge. She was brilliant. Completely and utterly brilliant

“We’re going to get answers and we’re going to get him back...”

“And then I’m going to punch him in the dick for being kidnapped”

Keith snorted

“Not before I do. Okay. You guys should head back. It might be a while before you hear anything and Mami is going to need your support”

“We’ve got this handled. Take care of yourself”

“I will...”

*

Lance had seen enough movies to know when something was up. Lotor had been moved into the same room as him. Chained on the other side of the bed. Acxa, Zethrid and Ezor were chained together, with Curtis in seperate chains. Curtis had the most mobility of them, he could “waddle” around, waddling from where he’d been thrown into the room across to sit beside Lance. There were bruises across Curtis’s face. His horn seemed longer too, but his friend still smiled at him. Out of everyone, Lance was most relieved to see Curtis was okay. Tangling their chains together they clung to each other. After being silent for so long, Lance couldn’t find the words to tell Curtis how relieved he was. That and both he and Lotor had been gagged. The ball gag in his mouth was made from some kind of spiked metal. His lips taped over, with extra tape over the side straps of the muzzle device they’d forced him to put on. Curtis couldn’t get the tape off properly, the pain leaving Lance in tears... then again, he’d already been crying with happiness over seeing Curtis again.

Lotor’s gag was worse than his, as were his chains. Metal spikes dug into the vampires face leaving weeping wounds. His chains must have had a higher concentration of lead or mercury as the wounds around his wrists were no joke. Lance had had a lot of time to really break things down, he now believed beyond a doubt that Lotor had tried to trade himself to Sendak in order to secure their release, only to be betrayed by Narti and her own ambition. Him getting Shiro, Matt, and Sam out was the best he could do... and maybe he thought like Lance did that together they’d be stronger than what they turned out to be. He still didn’t like Lotor as a person. His ego made him want to smack the fellow vampires head into the closest wall until he learned humility.

When they finally came for them, Zethrid nearly had Lance laughing. He maybe, definitely, kind of liked her. She seemed kind of freer to be herself when Lotor was gagged. She had a joke for every occasion, including being led off into the unknown. Thanking the room for being “drab”, “filled with terrible company”, and “an experience she wouldn’t recommend”, she actually waved as she was led away. Lotor had seemed bored of her commentary, but Lance hadn’t been. She’d laughed a lot. Compared him to Keith with both of them being helpless and cute, and needing them to show up and rescue them. She’d made Ezor jealous as she complained about Lance not turning into a cute little bat. Ezor promised Zethrid could have a hundred pet bats if she just stopped wanting Lance for a pet. Zethrid pointing out that those bars didn’t have a cute human form that looked cuddly. Lance really was glad she hadn’t been gagged, though Keith would have pissed enough to gag her himself.

Between the three witches being taken and returning for them, hours must have passed in the matter of minutes. When they undid his chains from the bed, Lance held onto Curtis so fiercely that the vampire on chain duty couldn’t pry him off his friend, even with the threat of the cattle-prod. Spitting in his face, the two of them were let together, snarky remarks made about him being a “slut of a breeder and a mistake”, thrown around like leaves in a breeze. This was their final chance to escape, but now he’d gone and bonded with the others, he wasn’t okay with leaving anyone behind. Captive bonds and all that aside, it was true that Zethrid and Ezor had helped Keith at the shipping yard on his birthday. He at least owed them for that. Acxa didn’t say much, though Zethrid did tease her a hell of a lot about her possibly liking Keith. Alas for Acxa, Keith was his and he’d never willingly give him up, though Acxa did say that it more like kinship that love... Yeah. No. She’d not be left alone with his boyfriend when he finally got back to Keith.

Not moving fast enough, Lance was smacked over the head with the handle of the cattle prod, stumbling and nearly taking Curtis down with him. Both of them were already leaning against each other in an attempt to remain upright. How Curtis could stand being so close to him when he was a mess Lance wasn’t sure. He’d been too docile. He should have been louder. He should have screamed the house down and made things harder for his captors. Meeting Curtis’s eyes, Curtis smiled softly at him. It seemed as if he’d already accepted they wouldn’t be getting out of this. Well fuck that. If he had the chance he’d be taking it.

Seeing they were being moved, Lance got a good look at the place they were being held. Another set of stairs confirmed there were two stories underground, practically purpose built for housing vampires. The hallways dimly lit, wallpaper peeling in places. He tried to absolutely memorise everything down to the smallest detail. Depending on the outcome he wanted to have enough information to provide an airtight statement that couldn’t be rebuked by even the best lawyer. So everything was memorised. The size. The layout. The mould in the air. The creek of the floorboards. This place didn’t have much love poured into it. Not like his house. He always had sunlight streaming into every room. Warmth and love filled his home. He wanted to avoid the sensation of being trapped underground and everything stereotypical vampire trope.

Led through to a darkened living area. Lance’s knees went weak. Standing before them, in all his unholiness was Sendak. Disgusted by his surrounds, blood was splattered across the floor. Death hanging in the air. Narti’s body hadn’t been moved. The witch’s features still held the same almost surprised look, despite the decay of her body. The stench was as shocking as the senseless waste of life. As Lance’s body broke out in goosebumps, Sendak strode across the room, cloak billowing as if there was some kind of supernatural wind behind him. Taking Curtis by the horn, his friend was cast aside, Lance’s nails scraping his arms as he tried his hardest to ignore the urge to submit to the vampire in front of him. Taking him by the chin, Sendak’s eyes met Lance’s. Lance paralysed by the feeling of terror coursing through every fibre of him. Sendak’s ego was every bad thing that lurked in the night. Every bad thing in every depiction of hell. His touch felt scolding, as if a red hot poker had been driven through up his chin and into the core of his brain. This was a true vampire. An old vampire. A vampire that’d been reborn by the monster inside. No humanity remained in those eyes as black as charred flesh.

Tilting his chin, Sendak examined him. Lance knew very well he didn’t look presentable. Even in the days he’d let himself go with depression over his cursed state, he’d never let himself fall this far. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had some kind of facial hair messing up his handsome face

“So this is it? This is the thing all the fuss is over. Remove these chains. He’s hardly fit for much more than lying on his back, and that’s already been seen to. A full belly of human filth”

Keith was not filth. Their children were not filth. His body was screaming to submit, but he knew he could push past an ego now. He’d done it to Lotor. Lotor had tried to make his mind go all dreamy, but he’d fought it. He needed to fight past Sendak’s ego. He couldn’t even spit in the man’s face. The best he could do was sloppily take a swing when his chains were being removed. Sendak catching his fist and twisting his arm as he turned him, pushing up so hard something snapped and Lance screamed around his gag. How fucking dare Sendak touch him?!

“Do not think you can fight me. You’re valuable, even without those things inside of you. Accidents do happen. Load them up. I want them out within the half hour”

When Sendak released him, Lance dropped, cradling his very broken arm to his chest as he dragged himself over to Curtis. Curtis was awake, semi-dazed, and his horn ripped clean in half. The half showing a sick dark red, almost crystalline mess. He tried to say Curtis’s name, but all that came out was whimper in pain. Curtis was tough but this was cruel. Cruel like burning ants with a magnifying glass. He was only human. Letting go of his arm, he took Curtis by the hand, squeezing to let him know he wasn’t alone. Grunting in pain, the hunter returned the gesture. Curtis knew full well that Lance couldn’t go against Sendak. He knew all the shameful feelings being in the vampire’s presence brought up. If Curtis could have, Lance knew he would have tried to protect him from him. He couldn’t even lie and fake a smile. He couldn’t pretend he wasn’t exhausted to the bone or that he didn’t have a glaringly obvious compound fracture. He wanted to. He wanted so badly to crack a joke and show Curtis he was trying. If he could just get his mouth free... He could get his mouth free. His hands were free. He was the freest he’d been in days. If he could... if Curtis could give him some blood... he might... he might be able to finally be useful.

[stephen9260]

I may be really late to the end of season 8 party (and by party I mean funeral) but here I am to tell everyone how Voltron ruined my life permanently

So... There were some good and some bad things, mostly bad things, but some were good.

It's true, we gotta consider the nice things we got...

Pidge in pigtails doing a commentary of the 80's voltron

Hunk making people get along via food (which, yes, sticks to the general idea of Hunk which makes him look just like some poorly developed side character, but I loved those scenes so much It was so cute)

Hunay reunion!!

Those nice Romelle moments

RYAN KINKADE

Veracxa

Slav and the socks thing

Finally a major villan that was moved not by the want of power, but by the love they had for their family (still not cool, Honerva, not cool, but at some point I kinda wanted her to sucseed, screw the universe)

The sunset scene

Ezor and Zethrid having their happy ending

Chip

Yes...

But we also got a lot of reeeeeeally messed up things... the ending sounded like it was made only to make us depressed and there were some things that destoyed me on a permanent level...

Like, not for nothing, but HOW, in the FlIpPiTy FlApPiTy FUCK, Is showing us Lotor melted in his robot a good thing for our mental health??

I'm not gonna complain about kick not being ck, but, are we gonna talk about the mess they did with Allurance??

I mean, don't kill me Allurance shippers, but it felt reaally forced.

Making it a thing like that felt wrong, but never as wrong as this other paring:

Shiro and Curtis.

It makes no sense!!! Shiro deserves happiness? Yes. Should it come from some random dude from the Atlas crew that had a lot more screen time than Adam but is NOT the right person according to at least rest of the fandom (+ me)? NO.

I really don't know why I hate Curtis being the One, maybe because I ship Shadam, maybe because "if Lance has to cry all day long over a relationship that romantically apealing lasted like 3 days then why shouldn't Shiro cry over Adam".

This is not what we meant when we asked for queer rep!!

But this si not the worst part, because the first place for the biggest screw up goes to...

Killing Allura!!

We all know that to write a good ending you have to kill at least one of the main character (or at least that's what writers think) (killing ocs is fun), but the reason why she died, I will never get it...

Your reality is still intact, Allura

You saved it

You did good

Go home

Take a nap

Really, who actually cared about those other realities, I would have made totally sense for the plot of they just let their reality be the only one

So, as a summary to all this:

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Goretober Day 14: Detox

Prompt: Poison Fandom: Voltron Summary: Acxa hadn’t meant to kill anyone. She doesn’t even know how it happened. But now they have her confined and they poke and they prod her.

Acxa  tries to tell them to stay back. To stay away from her because every single one of them had withered and died. They have her lying on her back and cornered. She let them do it, they wouldn’t have been able if she hadn’t. She can tear them to ribbons with little effort if she pleases. But that isn’t what she wants. She just wants to live in peace, to observe them afar. To learn. To assimilate. Yet they treat the Galra differently. Others, the Puigans, Balmerans, the Krellians, all of them are mostly accepted. They fascinate the humans. In contrast, the Galra are wieldy feared.

Being half-Galra is more than enough to elicit and garner the same fear. From that fear comes the hatred. And that hatred drives them to violence. They probably see themselves as heroes, as noble vigilantes when they kick her and punch her.

She lets them do it and they do it because she lets them. She lets them because she is aware of her own strength. Aware that she can accidentally kill them if she lashes out. For it, she takes another beating.

Her own people will mock her for it. It is fine, better to be known as weak then as a savage or a murder. Evidently, she finds herself with both reputations; a weak and savage murderer. To her people she is weak. To the people of Earth she is a killer.

When she tells the group surrounding her to back off, when she pleads with them to stop, that take it as her begging for her own safety and not there. Perhaps she should tell them to throw objects at her instead of fists if they must throw something. From a distance, they’ll be fine.

But the tallest and most muscular of the boys stomps right up and yanks her up by her collar. Her lip is already split and bleeding. She isn’t sure if it will be her nose that gets bloodied next or her eye that will be blackened. Rather, she isn’t sure were the attempt is intended. She knows that he will shrink back in horror before he can land either strike.

He lets her go abruptly with an alarmed cry. His hand begins to purple. It always starts like that. Always at the hand. “Wh-what the fu-fuck did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything.” She sputters. “I-I didn’t mean to do anything. It just happens.”

His whole arm goes stiff and his veins pulse with that strange magenta light. It reaches his neck and his lips blacken. His eyes follow. And then a purple sludge spills out of his mouth where it plops and glows at his feet. He falls to the floor racked by twitching spasms as his body breaks down. The poison flows through him like acid and eats him away like acid.

Flesh mixes with blood and purple until there is only a puddle and a pile of smoldering bones. The rest of his clique onlookers with shock and horror, with rage and hatred. One of them snarls and balls her fist.

“I tried to tell him.” Acxa begins as they all close in around. “I tried to warn him.” The girl steps forward, closer than the rest of them. “I’m trying to warn you too. Don’t touch me.”

The girl responds by beating on her, punch after punch until she goes purple . They are all kicking and punching now. All but one boy, the smallest of them, who screeches and flees. All around her are steaming purple puddles, slightly bubbling, and disintegrating bones.

Beaten, bloodied, and horrified, Acxa lets her head drop and stares at the sky. It is the last that she might see of them. They take her away the next morning.

She doesn’t blame them, the boy had gone for help and the scene that he leads them to looks terrible, as though she has taken some sort of sick vengeance. She thinks that the only indication otherwise is that she is crying and slowly rocking herself back and forth. Keith and the other paladins try to vouch for her.

Hunk, caring and sympathetic as ever, reaches out to comfort her. She flinches away and practically screams at him to stay back. Only explaining herself when they are a safe distance from her.

She thinks that this is why she is in a lab and not in a prison cell or on her way to an execution.

People surround her. She doesn’t know any of them but they make her uncomfortable with their hazmat suits. They aren’t particularly cruel to her but they are weary. Whether they mean it or not, they are treating her like she is a dangerous criminal. They are only half right; she is dangerous but she isn’t a criminal. She hadn’t set out to hurt anyone. She doesn’t even know how or why it keeps happening.

She wants to trace it back to her prolonged exposure to subtle quantities of quintessence while working with Lotor and Haggar. That the stuff as gotten inside of her and has rendered her toxic after failing to break her down and melt her away like everyone else.

She is afraid and the scientists are not helping. Even when they bring in other Galra to help with their studies. They grow more deeply weary when one particularly brazen Galra refuses to heed her warning to stay back.

“I’m no human, Acxa.” She’d given a smug sneer and took her arm.

The only difference that had made was that the poison worked slower. Instead of liquifying on the spot, it happened over a series of several days. Her skin had the appearance of fire working over old paper. Rings of black, rimmed with luminescent magenta plagued the Galra woman’s skin until there was nothing left to burn away.

Acxa is isolated they draw her blood and bone marrow. They take skin samples and hair samples and they do it from a distance. She grows to hate the needles, her skin at the injections sites are swollen and blotchy. She wraps her arms around herself, she hates being alone.

A few days later one of the scientists, a human man strikes up conversation. Nothing of her toxicity, just a simple inquiry about what life is like in space and about the Galra culture. She is thankful for this man. He must have put in a good word because they treat her better now.

She feels less imprisoned and more quarantined. It isn’t much better, but it is a step up. They bring her books and from afar teach her how to read human writing. She is happy for the stimulation. They allow the Paladins and Ezor and Zethrid to visit her.

She asks them not to talk about the weather or about the outside world. It only leaves her with a sense of depressive longing. She spends months there and no one gets any closer to figuring out why she is so poisonous to touch or how she came to be that way.

What they do tell her is that its potency is decreasing and that she can probably have her freedom back by the end of the month. They have few answers for her but they do confess that they have been mistaken in treating her so harshly. They inform her that they think she is both poisonous and poisoned. That she is poisonous because she has been poisoned herself. That something in her blood or genetics has kept the poison from destroying her but that same thing has been keeping it trapped within her.

She is in some bizarre and hazardous state of detox.

The last week of it is the worst. She thinks that it will kill her after all. But it doesn’t. With one searing headache and several bouts of throat burning vomiting, it is out of her system. She is curled up in the corner clutching her stomach by the end of it, but it is over.

They leave her in the room for a few days extra, a cautionary measure. They test her toxicity by putting her in close contact with a death row inmate; he lives.

And because he lives, she gets to live. Truly live. They open the door to the facility a brighter and harsher light replaces fluorescent light. Keith walks her out of the compound. Her heart flutters, it is more than a relief to have comforting contact again. She leans into him. And not just into him. She has never had what they call a group hug before. But she enjoys the concept.

[crazy-fangirl1245]

My one-shot fanfic @plancesecretsanta for @numbah34!  They requested a “surprise me” fic, so I decided to do a scene rewrite of Season 7 Episode 3 “The Way Forward”.  You know...the one with our favorite Plance moment (”Don’t you touch her!”).  I did not realize Pidge and Lance were going to be so difficult to write, so here’s hoping that I kept them in-character well enough! <3

Well, this certainly hadn’t been part of the plan.

Why did it seem like every time something went right, five other things went horribly wrong?

The Voltron paladins, Allura, and Krolia had been captured and now sat trapped in a small and cramped cell on a Galra pirate ship. They were handcuffed, their lions were out of commission, and there was currently no way of getting out of the cell without someone manually opening it on the other side.

And their fate rested in Coran’s hands who had somehow managed to evade capture.

To put it plainly, they were quite screwed.

As they all sat around contemplating what was in store for them if they didn’t escape soon, the door opened and two Galran soldiers walked in followed by their old enemies, Ezor and Zethrid, who looked a little too happy for the prisoners’ comfort.

“Look who’s here,” Ezor smirked.  “It’s Voltron.”

Zethrid slammed her huge fist into her palm. “We’re going to have a little talk.”

“Hey, you’re the guys that Lotor shot into space,” Lance remarked.

“And the ones that were trying to kill us,” Pidge added.

Hunk smiled nervously.  “Yeah, sure, but we’re all friends now, right?  I, for one, am glad you survived.”

“I’m glad you survived, too,” Ezor smiled. “It’s not fun torturing a dead person.”

“Oh.  So maybe not?”

“Where have you been all this time?” Zethrid demanded. “And what happened to Lotor?”

“What are you talking about?” Shiro asked.

Ezor frowned.  “We’re talking about your little disappearing act.”

“Answer the question!” Zethrid said.  “How did you survive that explosion?

“Don’t you know?” Hunk asked.  “You were there.”

“I think there’s a little confusion about how the ‘we ask questions, you give us answers’ scenario works,” Ezor told him.

“Enough questions,” Zethrid growled.  “Where is Lotor?”

Keith glared at them.  “Lotor’s dead.  We left him in the Quintessence Field.”

Ezor rolled her eyes.  “Yeah, that doesn’t really add up.  Why aren’t you dead?”

“Because of…the power of teamwork?” Hunk offered.

“I’m going to ask you one more time,” Zethrid said, glaring at the Paladins.  “And then we’re going to have to take a more extreme approach.”

“The fun part,” Ezor smiled eerily.

“What happened to Lotor and where have you been all this time?”

None of the paladins could answer her.  They had told her the truth, and it wasn’t their fault that she didn’t believe them.

“If you insist on maintaining this charade of ignorance, you leave us no choice but to apply pressure.”

“Finally.  Who’s our first victim?”

Zethrid’s eyes scanned the paladins and she smiled as she landed on the green paladin.  “You. I’d bet half my fleet this group of heroes has a soft spot for the small one.”

Ezor started walking towards Pidge.

“Don’t you touch her!” Lance yelled.

He attempted to attack Ezor, but the red alien had much more fighting experience and it didn’t help that he was still handcuffed.  Ezor dodged his hit and then kicked him into the far wall.  He sat up and prepared to try again, but one of the Galra soldiers aimed his gun at him.

Zethrid smirked.  “Your defiance is adorable and so very misguided.”

“Leave us alone!” Pidge demanded.

Ezor used her ‘hair’ to grab Pidge and yank her forward into her arm.  She smirked as she hoisted her well above the ground.

“Pidge!” Hunk exclaimed.

“Let her go!” Keith ordered.

“No, please!” Lance begged.  “You take me instead, do you hear me?!  Give her back and take me instead!”

Pidge spared a glance in Lance’s direction full of fear and confusion.  She wasn’t sure she had ever been more scared than she was at that moment.  Not just for her, but for the rest of her team as well. For him.

Ezor grabbed Pidge by the neck and slammed her against the cell wall.  Lance took a step forward, but she held up a finger.  “Take one more step, and I snap her pretty little neck.”

“We told you everything you want to know! Hurting her won’t change the fact that Lotor is dead!  Please! Just let her go.  Do whatever you want to me, just please don’t touch her!”

Ezor and Zethrid exchanged knowing glances.

The red alien smirked again and held up the hand that wasn’t holding Pidge up against the cell wall.  Her fingers sharpened into talons, and Lance thought for sure that his heart stopped beating.  She slowly inched the claw closer to Pidge’s neck.

“Answers. Where is Lotor?”

“He’s…dead,” Pidge choked out, her oxygen supply cut off by Ezor’s hand.  “It’s…the truth.”

Ezor used one of her talons to slice Pidge’s cheek, leaving behind three deep cuts.

“No, stop it!” Lance cried.

Small lines of blood began to make their way down Pidge’s face, the dark liquid standing out against her pale skin that was beginning to turn blue.

Lance thought he might throw up.  He had never felt so powerless in his entire life.  He couldn’t do anything to stop this.  None of them could.  They just didn’t have enough strength.  Not like this.

“Pidge, I’m sorry,” he whispered as he collapsed to his knees.  He tried to fight the tears welling in his eyes, afraid that it would make him appear weak in front of both the enemy and his teammates, but it felt as if Ezor was strangling him too and he couldn’t breathe.

Pidge kicked against the steel behind her and clawed at Ezor’s hand, desperately trying to draw in a breath.

Her vision began to go dark from the lack of oxygen.

Ezor’s smirk widened at her pain as she tightened her grip.

Suddenly, red lights and alarms began flashing and blaring exclaiming that there was a hull breach.

Zethrid angrily left the cell to deal with the problem followed by the other Galran soldiers.  Ezor looked at Pidge with disappointment before dropping her onto the cell floor.

Pidge inhaled sharply and began coughing and taking deep gulps of air.

Lance was at her side in a second.  “Pidge! Come on, come on, breathe!”

He put his handcuffed hands to her back and shoulder to help her sit up while she focused on reclaiming all of her stolen oxygen.

Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, but Lance couldn’t tell if it was from the pain or the fear.  It was most likely a combination of both.

He was furious that he hadn’t been able to prevent this.

If anything worse had happened, he never would’ve been able to forgive himself.

He already couldn’t forgive himself.

“Lance…” she wheezed.

“I’m right here,” he said quietly.  “I’m here. I’m so sorry, Pidge…”

The girl’s eyes closed and she slumped over into his arms.  When he saw the dark bruises on her neck and the blood running down her cheek, he wanted to pummel Ezor and Zethrid into the next deca-phoeb.

“Pidge? Pidge!”  He looked up at the others.  “We’ve gotta get out of here now.”

Krolia walked over to the door and peeked out of the small opening.  “This is it.  The next time that door opens, overwhelm the guard.”

However, before they could do anything, they heard the guard crying out in pain and a loud thump.

Then the door opened.  To their surprise, the space mice sat on the unconscious guard’s stomach smiling proudly.

“Hello, little friends!” Allura smiled as she knelt in front of them.  They squeaked at her.   “What?”  More squeaking.  “Where?”

“Where?” Hunk repeated.  “What are they saying?”

“Coran’s trying to rescue us.  And he’s got help.  Acxa.”

“What?” Keith said in surprise.

The space mice helped everyone undo their handcuffs.

“Pidge?” Lance said urgently, lightly shaking her.  “Pidge, come on, you gotta wake up!”

Nothing.

“She’s barely moving!”

“We gotta get out of here,” Keith said firmly.  “Can you carry her?”

Lance quickly scooped Pidge up into his arms, and they began making their way through the ship so they could find Coran, retrieve their bayards, and get to the lions.

Lance always knew that Pidge was the smallest one of their team, but holding her broken, damaged form in his arms made him realize just how small she really was. She didn’t get enough credit for being this small and still managing to be a defender of the universe.

He made a mental note to tell her that when she woke up.

If she woke up.

Lance shook his head.  No.  When she woke up.

Holding her close and feeling that she would be okay as long as he held her, Lance followed the others towards their lions.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

The Voltron team found solace on an abandoned planet and made camp inside a small cave.

Allura bandaged Pidge’s wounds on her cheek and neck while the others made a fire and tried to find something to eat.

Lance refused to leave Pidge’s side.  Even though Allura and Acxa insisted that she would be okay, he couldn’t believe it until he saw it himself.

He couldn’t stop blaming himself for her injuries and what might’ve happened if the alarms hadn’t gone off.

After what felt like hours, Pidge’s eyes slowly opened.

Lance was pretty sure he hadn’t ever seen Pidge without her glasses on, fake or not, but without them on, he realized just how pretty her eyes were.

“Lance?” she croaked out, her voice hoarse after the beating her windpipe had taken.

“Hey, don’t talk,” he said gently.  “We got you off the ship and we’re on another planet to get our bearings and figure out our next step.”

“My throat hurts.”

“Here, Acxa managed to make this.”  He handed her a glass of amber liquid.

“Acxa?”

“Yeah, turns out she’s on our side.  We wouldn’t have made it off that ship without her.”

Pidge sipped the liquid and made a face.

“Uh, yeah, she mentioned it wouldn’t taste good.  But it will help you get your voice back.”  Lance sighed heavily and put his hand on hers.  “I thought I had lost you, Pidge.”

“You…you tried to get them to take you instead.”

“Come on, any one of us would’ve done the same.”

“Maybe…but it was you.”

“I would die before I let anything happen to you.  I hope you know that.”

“I do now.”

“I’m so sorry.  For everything.  That should never have happened to you.  It should’ve been me.”

Pidge slowly put the back of her hand to his cheek.  “It’s okay.  Comes with being a Paladin, right?”

Lance put his hand against hers.  “Still…seeing you like that…it made me realize just how important you are to Voltron, to the universe…to me.”

Pidge smiled a little, feeling her heart throb.  She wasn’t sure she had ever truly seen Lance in a romantic light. Not consciously anyway.  But him looking at her like that made her realize that she wanted him to like her that way.

She fingered the bandage on her cheek.  “Think it’ll leave behind a scar?”

Lance knew Pidge wasn’t really a self-concious person (maybe with the exception of her height), but hearing her sound so scared about the possibility of three scars on her face made his heart ache.

He gave her a charming smile.  “Well, if it does, no one will ever think twice about crossing you again.”

Pidge couldn’t help but lightly smile.  She supposed she hadn’t thought of it like that.

“You amaze me, Pidge,” Lance continued.  “Even though your skills lay in your incredible tech abilities, you still fight with everything you’ve got.  You have more courage and bravery than anyone I’ve ever known.”

Pidge’s throat began to tighten, and not because of the injury she had sustained. “Lance, I…”

“Pidge…”

Lance stood up and leaned over her.

“What are you doing?”

“I really want to kiss you.  Is that okay?”

Pidge’s face turned several shades of scarlet.  Then she barely nodded.

The kiss could barely even be called a kiss.  It was more like a brush.  Lance didn’t want to hurt her even more, and Pidge wasn’t sure how much she could take.

But it had to have been the most beautiful thing either of them had ever experienced in their entire lives.

[violethowler]

Cutting and Padding: An Analysis of Season 7′s Pacing and Story Structure

Earlier this week, Team Purple Lion’s official website went live, along with their latest project – a video reconstruction of what S7E7 The Last Stand: Part 1 would have looked like before the creation of the MFE pilots late in production. This got me thinking about some of Team Purple Lion’s previous analyses and what the original Season 7 looked like, so I went back through the episode and took notes on how much screen time the MFEs have from S7E7 The Last Stand: Part 1 to S7E13 Lion’s Pride: Part 2.

To be clear, when I say “original season” or “unedited season” I’m not talking about some hypothetical unicorn of a season where Shiro’s the Black Paladin again while Allura flies the Atlas and there is no wolf because Shiro is the one with the cool teleporting powers. I’m talking about if you took out The Feud, removed or condensed every scene that featured or focused on the MFE pilots, and swapped back in the three Season 8 episodes that Team Purple Lion maintains were originally part of Season 7, how would Season 7 look in terms of pacing and story structure?

@leakinghate postulated in her Seek Truth in Darkness meta that the unedited version of Season 8 would have been 17 episodes long due to the prior editing of Season 7: The MFE pilots were added in after production of Season 7 was already close to being finished, and we know from interviews that the animators needed to do a lot of extra work animating scenes for them, resulting in the creation of The Feud as a filler episode to give them a break. Hate theorized that the episodes Battle Scars, The Grudge, and Shadows were originally written for Season 7 before they had to be pushed into Season 8 in order to make room for the MFE pilots.

There are four things that support this conclusion: storyline payoff, narrative consistency, redundancy, and pacing:

Story Payoff: A frequent complain I saw in Season 8 was that after we see the Olkari evacuating their planet from the robeast attack, we never see them again. There’s no payoff to Olkari evacuating their planet. But Olkari are visible in the background of the Rebuilding Earth montage in S7E13 Lion’s Pride: Part 2. Which would have been the perfect payoff if Battle Scars had been in Season 7: we find out Olkarion’s destruction early in the season, and at the end of the season, the survivors come to help rebuild Earth.

Narrative consistency: the reverse tractor beam Zethrid’s crew uses to pin down the Paldins in The Grudge is the same one they used at the end of The Road Home. But it only worked that first time because we were told that the lions were at low power and couldn’t break free. In Season 8, they had access to the Atlas and had spent the last few episodes operating at full power. So how could the tractor beam work now?

Redundancy: With its current placement in Season 8, Shadows doesn’t offer any new information to the audience, only spelling out what everyone had already figured out four months ago – that Honerva had taken command of the Altean colony using their loyalty to Lotor to get them to fight for her and had assembled an army of Robeasts piloted by Alteans. In Season 8, it’s a waste of time to spend an entire episode repeating what the audience already knows.

But if this was originally supposed to be part of Season 7, it would fit: the flashbacks of Honerva would fill in where she had gone after Acxa tried to shoot her in “The Black Paladins”. The last seven minutes of what is now “Shadows” would have made an excellent cliffhanger for Lion’s Pride: Part 2 – after Allura says “an Altean” we could have cut to Honerva’s arrival at the colony and the montage of assembling her army of mechs, ending the season with Luka flying off to destroy Voltron and bring the events of the Robeast fight full circle.

Pacing: One of the most frequent criticisms of Season 7 was that the space arc of the season rushed by too fast and the Earth arc felt like it dragged on too long. The first half of Season 8 received similar complaints regarding dragged out pacing, as Honerva is identified as a threat early on but they don’t go to Oriande to face her until Episode 6. Shadows is a redundant episode that spins its wheels repeating what we already know.

But if you were to imagine what things would look like without the MFE pilots, things would be a lot different. Having Battle Scars and The Grudge take place in the first half of Season 7 stretches out the space road trip arc and helps it to feel less rushed. If you took away The Feud and the scenes in the second half of the season focusing on the MFEs, the Earth arc would be shortened by one episode and helps tighten up the pacing of the episodes.

Battle Scars and The Grudge, in my opinion work best between The Way Forward and The Ruins. Reason number one being that it would give weight to the three-year time skip if the Paladins learned in the following episode that one of their closest allies had been attacked while they were gone. It would also fill in what happened to Acxa after the end of The Way Forward, as many of us were wondering why the Paladins just left her on the planet where she was holed up. If she accompanied them, possibly in her own ship, it would provide the opportunity for some more callbacks to Belly of the Weblum by having Acxa there for the Olkarion trip.

One possible explanation I’ve seen suggested that makes sense for why Shiro wouldn’t have been in this episode much is if he was injured during the escape in The Way Forward and needed a stint in the cryopod. Speaking of the cryopod, in the edited version of Season 7, it just disappears after A Little Adventure. But if we would have seen Shiro using it in Battle Scars before it was given away to save Ezor in The Grudge (because she’d still be alive), that would neatly explain why they don’t have it in The Ruins or The Journey Within.

The Ruins and The Journey Within would have been unaffected by the editing of Season 7 and thus would be unchanged.

The Last Stand Parts 1 and 2 are largely the same in terms of the Earth flashbacks, but in addition to the absence of the MFEs and the condensing of any montages they feature in, this would be the most appropriate place to have the scenes of Honerva from shadows intercut with the flashbacks on Earth. Aside from being set only a few months apart (Matt contacts Earth a year after Sam returns and says Voltron has been missing for six months, ergo Honerva’s flashbacks in Part 1 take place six months after Sam’s do), these scenes would visually and narratively contrast the warm, loving, and healthy dynamic of the Holt family with the Galra royal couple’s cold, controlling, and abusive relationship with their son.

With the MFE scenes swapped out and condensed to make room for Honerva’s flashbacks, the episode would still end right at the same place it did in the edited version of the season: with Sendak’s fleet surrounding Earth. But Part 2 would not have the same endpoint if you removed the MFEs. Without the MFE pilots, the scene of the MFE Ares fighters doing damage against Sendak’s fleet would be cut, along with the entire sequence of preparing to and then doing the raid on the supply depot that the MFE pilots and Veronica undertake. Without the raid on the supply depot, the circumstances of Veronica’s resitance network delivering refugees to the garrison change and would be condensed.

This would leave 8 minutes’ worth of space. The middle third of Shadows – the Kral Zera, the flashbacks to Lotor’s childhood, and Honerva using Kova to try and scry Lotor’s location – only take up about five minutes. The remaining three minutes, I believe would have consisted of the first three minutes of what is now Know Your Enemy. The music as the paladins climb out of the stolen Galra fighter to stare in horror at the ruined city feels like it’s building to an episode-ending wham moment. The cut off point would be around the 4:09 mark in Know Your Enemy (since the opening credits take up a minute, they don’t count, obviously).

Pictured above: the probable original ending of The Last Stand: Part 2

The original version of Know Your Enemy would pick up at what is now the 4:31 mark in the edited version of the episode (pictured below). It feels appropriate as ending an episode with a shot of a destroyed locale before the next episode opens with the protagonist walking among the rubble is a formula I have seen used in countless tv shows over the years.

There is another three minutes’ worth of exclusively MFE-focused content that wouldn’t be there in the unedited S7. When added with the missing three minutes now added to the end of The Last: Stand Part 2, we get a six-minute block in which we can pull content from the next episode.

I’m confident that that space would be filled with a condensed version of the reconnaissance mission to the Galran military installation, ending at the 9:43 mark of what is now Heart of the Lion and the reveal of the Zaiforge cannons. This sequence is seven minutes long in the edited version of S7 due to the inclusion of the MFE pilots, but without them, this sequence would be short enough to squeeze into roughly six minutes.

The Zaiforge recon sequence fits better as the final act of Know Your Enemy because it calls back to the main piece of the episode: the interrogation of Sendak’s A.I. Sendak’s A.I. says that if a planet refuses to surrender, then the Galra Empire destroys it. And that fate has only ever been dealt to Altea. Revealing the Zaiforge cannons at the end of “Know Your Enemy” (pictured below) should convey to the audience that because Earth refused to surrender, he plans to destroy Earth just as Altea was destroyed.

Heart of the Lion would still open with Shiro awakening from the surgery to attach his new arm. Not only does it preserve the intentional call back to show the differences between how the Garrison treated him after surgery compared to how the Galra Empire did, but it also neatly explains why Shiro wouldn’t be involved in the reconnaissance mission. From there, we would transition into the briefing scene where they work out the plan to summon the lions from Saturn. In the edited version of the episode, this happens around the 11-minute mark, and the scene for Shiro’s arm only takes the first two minutes, leaving a nine-minute window to pull material from the next episode. The scene of the paladins summoning their lions would be condensed without the MFE pilots there, expanding the gap.

The shot at the end of the edited version of the episode feels like there should be more after the Garrison’s reaction, and the opening two shots of what is now Trial by Fire are repeated from the ending of Heart of the Lion. The show has only ever reused a shot from the immediately previous episode three times up to that point, and in very specific contexts (following up from a season-ending cliffhanger, and to indicate episodes that are taking place simultaneously) so these two shots were most likely used as padding.

(Pictured above: one of the two shots re-used between Heart of the Lion and Trial by Fire) 

From there, we would have all of the scenes from Trial by Fire focused on the Paladins learning to pilot their lions remotely. Because this episode is called Heart of the Lion, after all. Why wouldn’t you expect an episode with a title like that to have the Paladins unlock a cool new ability. We would also have the Atlas launch during this episode, as the Atlas’s power problems were an excuse to have the MFE pilots get some action in while the Paladins were incapacitated. Without the MFE pilots, they would have gotten the crystalized Castle of Lions in there a lot faster. The ending of Heart of the Lion would be the ending for Trial by Fire, with Admiral Sanda’s death before the Paladins escape the ship.

You’ll notice that with the ending of Trial by Fire moved to be the ending of Heart of the Lion, there’s nothing actually left in Trial by Fire itself. This is because Trial by Fire didn’t exist before the creation of the MFE pilots. Of the three episodes nestled between The Last Stand and Lion’s Pride, only two titles are applicable to anything that happens in these episodes. “Know Your Enemy” refers to understanding how Sendak thinks and figuring out what his plans for Earth are. Heart of the Lion refers to the Paladins’ ability to call their lions from deep space and pilot them remotely.

But just like Hate pointed out about Uncharted Regions in Season 8, there is nothing in the Earth arc of Season 7 that can be accurately described as a trial by fire. The phrase trial by fire refers to someone performing well for the first time under intense pressure. However this is typically preceded by a previous attempt at achieving their goal that fails the first time (or first few times). This isn’t the first time that the Paladins have given the Lions directions remotely. They just did it in Heart of the Lion on a smaller scale. The MFE pilots aren’t piloting their fighters for the first time, they’ve been doing it since before the invasion. It could be referring to the Atlas, but this is the first time it’s being powered up, and the Atlas’ full capabilities won’t be tested until Lion’s Pride: Part 1 and Part 2. When you tally up the amount of screen-time the MFE pilots got in the back half of Season 7, it adds up to one episode’s worth of content. Therefore, before the MFE pilots were created late in production, Trial by Fire didn’t exist. 

Lion’s Pride: Part 1 would start exactly where it did in the edited Season 7, minus the transformation sequence. Roughly six minutes of the episode is focused on the MFE pilots and wouldn’t have been there during the original season. This means that the first six minutes of Lion’s Pride: Part 2 were originally the ending of Part 1. The most organic stopping point would be around 6:48 of the edited Lion’s Pride: Part 2, just after Pidge uses her Bayard to drive the Robeast off of Voltron when it’s using its Komar blades to drain their Quintessence. Part 2 would pick up with Shiro asking if the Paladins are okay, and Hunk responding that the blades had sapped their energy.

There’s about a minute of MFE pilot action in this episode, which adds up to a seven-minute space at the end that would be the prefect spot for the last seven minutes of Shadows, where just after we see the Altean pilot, we flash back to Honerva’s arrival on the colony and find out what happened to the missing Alteans.

The Earth arc dragged on for so long because having to make room for the MFE pilots so late in the pipeline forced the production team to rearrange scenes and create an entirely new episode to make sure they had room, throwing off the content of the other episodes from where everything was supposed to be, such that the title of each episode no longer matched its content. 

Even though each episode of Voltron is a piece of the larger narrative, every episode still has an arc within the episode itself. Every individual episode still has a clear beginning, middle, and end. But with the content in the second half of Season 7 rearranged to give the MFE pilots the spotlight, the ending of one episode became the middle of another. And instead of two tightly paced episodes that each had a clear beginning, middle, and end, we got three episodes that were just one hour-long middle.

Doesn’t what I just outlined above flow much better? With two additional episodes, the front half of Season 7 gets some more room to breathe instead of skipping through so much, and the Earth arc doesn’t feel like it drags on for so long. Plus, having Honerva’s flashbacks here makes for a better fit in terms of contrast and in what it reveals to the audience than when it’s repeating what we already figured out months ago.

TL; DR: Before the executive meddling that resulted in the creation of the MFE pilots, Season 7 would have looked like this:

A Little Adventure

The Road Home

The Way Forward

Battle Scars

The Grudge

The Ruins

The Journey Within

The Last Stand: Part 1

The Last Stand: Part 2

Know Your Enemy

Heart of the Lions

Lion’s Pride: Part 1

Lion’s Pride: Part 2

And after the creation of the MFE pilots, they were given enough screen time that a new episode Trial by Fire had to be commissioned to spread out the content that would have originally been two episodes. As a consequence, Battle Scars, The Grudge, and the content that would become Shadows had to be moved into Season 8 to compensate, with The Feud being made to fill the gap created in the first half of the season.

I’d like to thank the members of Team Purple Lion (@leakinghate @felixazrael @crystal-rebellion @dragonofyang and @voltronisruiningmylife) for all the hard work they’ve done reverse engineering what everything looked like before the executive meddling happened. I wouldn’t be able to write meta like this without their thoroughly research analyses to build on. 

[witchy-writes]

I’ve been thinking about that time Noelle Stevenson said that the gay relationships in her show are so interwoven into it that it can't be extracted and it made me think of something. If someone was to completely edit or erase a canon gay relationship from a show, would they succeed? 

Let’s see if someone could do that to voltron, she-ra and the dragon prince.

1. Voltron

Adam and Shiro relationship, sadly, can be completely erased and it won’t be noticeable or affect the plot. 

All someone would have to do was take away the scene where Adam and Shiro break up, and when Shiro tells Keith about his disease and the Garrison not wanting him to go on the mission, erase the line where he mentions Adam not wanting him to go to Kerberos (”Neither does Adam.”).

Then when Adam is shown piloting and trying to fight the galra, this is his first appearance and he is reduced to a nameless character who has no relation to Shiro. 

Remove this scene as well and the one in the last episode during Shiro’s speech, and there...Adam and Shiro relationship is completely erased. 

And it doesn’t affect the plot or make the audience wonder if something is missing because Adam is never brought up again and Shiro is never shown dealing with his grief and loss. 

Same with Shiro and Curtis. It’s easy to cut away their wedding in the epilogue and just go to the credits.

If someone was to erase the few moments the show addressed Shiro being gay, it would be the easiest thing for them to do. 

Now with Ezor and Zethrid. 

To erase their canon relationship, someone could take away this scene. It would leave out such a good moment where we learn more about these two and that they aren't just evil, but if it was taken out, I don’t think it would be too noticeable for someone watching the episode for the first time. 

The Grudge would have to resort to re-dubbing or cutting some lines to make it seem like Ezor and Zethrid were just best-friends and not lovers. If someone was to completely censor their relationship, it could go as far as actually not showing or airing The Grudge since the plot of the episode is not related to the Honerva’s plot (aside from a quick mention at the start about how Honerva could be at Oriande), and could be skipped and someone unaware of this episode’s existence would probably not realize they were missing an episode. 

Blaytz short scene where he flirts with the male galra servant can also be removed, though it would involve cutting the dialogue that follows after. 

2. She-ra

Netossa and Spinnerella being a couple has been confirmed both by the show and the crew, and while these two can’t be erased from the story, their relationship can. 

Imagine that a channel doesn't want to show these two ladies in love and resorts to making them just look like two friends. These would be the only scenes they would need to take away. 

Cut all of these away and their relationship is completely gone and the audience most likely won’t know what is missing. The story (at least in s1 and s2) won’t be affected by the removal of their relationship.

Erasing Scorpia’s crush on Catra would be harder because unless they have a dub where they make Scorpia just wanting to be Catra’s friend and nothing more, they can’t take away those moments where Scorpia talks to others about how much she wants Catra to like her because it will take away a lot of important moments for Scorpia’s character and will end up with episodes full of missing scenes.

George and Lance cannot be removed from the story. At all. You can’t skip this episode because of how important it is for Bow’s character and the first glimpse we get of his backstory as well as in the end of this episode we find out about  the Crimson Waste, that most likely will be important in s3. The only way would be for a  dub to change them to Bow’s uncles or older brothers and cut away all those cute and loving moments between them. 

3. The Dragon Prince

Note: I’m not including Runaan and his possible elf boyfriend in this because we haven’t seen their relationship yet in the show. 

And now to end this, the Queens of Duren, Annika and Neha. 

Just like with George and Lance, you can’t erase them from the show and you can’t skip the episodes they are in because of how important they are for the story. 

To erase their relationship, someone would have to change all those lines where they are referred to as Aanya’s parents, remove their kiss scene and change the dub to make them out to be, for example, Aanya’s older sisters. 

---

And that’s it. That’s all the examples I could think off. 

[ptw30]

The Grudge Critique

Continuing “the definitive nitpick post” critiques from Voltron Legendary Defender Season 8 -

Episode begins with a talk about pets that doesn’t include Cosmo, and I guess it’s supposed to make us like the Atlas crew...? All it did was remind the audience that Lotor killed his disabled general. In fact, Acxa even makes a point of telling us Narti couldn’t see without Kova.

Curtis speaks during this scene, and I would say his inclusion was to get the viewers acquainted with Shiro’s would-be hubby. (And despite my shipping preferences, I will say - the guy is adorable.) However, we learn nothing about Curtis’ history in this scene. Heck, I know what event made Iverson’s shoulder click! Give me something about Curtis! 

Shiro calls the team to the bridge to take a message from the paladins. He couldn’t have done that himself? Plus, Coran was also on the bridge with him, and Coran is the only other person who speaks to the paladins. Ergo, there was no reason for Shiro to pull the bridge crew away from their workout routine. 

Huh. Keith’s hair really grew here, and he’s super extra pretty. 

Coran brings up Honerva not having the Mark of the Chosen. Does she? Or did Kuron? That was never explained. (Makes so much more sense if Honerva had piggy-backed on Allura or Lotor’s worthiness to get into Oriande, but VLD never cared about making sense past Season 2, as we know.)

“We need to rendezvous to come up with a plan.” - Oh, sure. Now you need the Atlas after Olkarion was destroyed for no reason, but I went in to that last critique. But I thought Voltron didn’t need the Atlas or Shiro.

Acxa talks about scaultrite, but when did Lotor actually use it? I’m assuming the gate, but it’s funny how Acxa won’t discuss the particulars. Why? Cuz she doesn’t know them. Neither do the viewers or the EPs, it seems. 

“It would appear the mood at the table has become rather awkward. Most likely due to your Galra heritage.” No. The pilots’ reactions make the mood awkward, not the fact of Acxa’s heritage. 

Shiro is alone again - on the bridge - and a communication came in from the paladins. How was he able to take it himself since the opening scene of the episode established he can’t? He literally has to call the bridge crew. Also, I’m pretty sure that’s JDS’ Shiro above. 

Hm. Black is between Yellow and Blue. That’s a unique line-up. It might not mean anything, but I just thought it was interesting. 

The beam holds down the lions but not the paladins? They can move freely? And thanks for pointing out the obvious redo in the plotting, Hunk. 

Allura uses “whom!” Yay! I love when the paladins’ use whom!

During the fleeing scene, we lost Keith. He doesn’t speak. Lance gives all the orders, and we don’t see Keith again until after Pidge disarmed the drone (which looks a lot like the Dark Elves’ ships in Thor: The Dark World).

Hunk’s bayard shifts in the same blue as Keith does in Season 8.

Keith has a bayard that can shift, but instead of shooting the drone, he chucks his sword. Lance said he was about to do the same, yet Lance has never used in sword in battle. And Keith should have used his gun for the long-range attack, but...who cares about making sense? All together now, “Not Voltron.”

I’ve done this before, but Keith as Keith - 

Kuron as Keith - 

Lance as Keith - 

Also, here’s a post about how Allura is posed like Lance. And though Hunk is slouched, Keith looks taller than him in this shot. And there is only one paladin taller than Hunk. (Hint: It’s not Keith.)

“Anyone read about the atmosphere?” Yes, Pidge did. Hunk responded it the comment, and it was on Keith’s screen. So writers, no need to ask if “anyone” read about the atmosphere because everyone did. And if you were just reminding us, the line should have been, “Hey, remember the atmosphere issues?” (I said this was a nitpick post.)

...yawn. Sorry. Dozed off there during the Veronica-Acxa scene. I want to like these characters, but I just feel that the Altas crew moments showcase characters from a different show. 

Excuse me for one moment as I freak out - 

Allura can’t find the lions on the planet?! Are you freakin’ kidding me? She could find the lions across the universe in the Very First Episode. She reached out to find Black in “The Black Paladins,” and the only justification for her not being able to find the lion was because it was “out of range.” Now - in the last season - Allura can’t find the lions. COME ON, WRITERS! GET IT TOGETHER!

...alright. I’m not back, but I’ll continue on...

Keith is leading the pirates away in his suit, and the paladins look like they are just talking a leisurely stroll through the park. 

Lance knows where the lions are. Okay, this is officially the Lance Episode, and it should have been more called out. He was really great here.

Veronica says, “Lance? Right. The navigational genius.” I guess that’s supposed to be funny since Lance did locate the lions, but it just shows how little Veronica knows her brother now. And that’s - again - sad. 

Distress signals - and now Shiro and the Atlas Crew have to come to the rescue. “Voltron is stronger than ever,” my ass, Keith. 

“You think I forgot about you, Tiny Paladin? I’ll make you pay for what you did to me!” ...dude, I don’t even remember. Oh, thanks for the line about her brother, Bounty Hunter. I did need the refresher. What were you going after Matt for again? Oh, right. We never found out.  

Allura needs to stop for a breather. Really? Allura? She’s an amazing fighter and totally in shape. But sure. Make her take the breather. 

And look - Atlas to the rescue - cuz Voltron is so strong, it doesn’t need its former head. 

Keith has his blade again. Hm. Did Krolia give it back to him? Think I missed that. (I didn’t.)

Keith went off alone - and his suit didn’t even lure the entire pirate crew, so there was literally no reason for him to go off alone. Great teamwork and found family, Writers. You’re really knocking it out of the park in this episode. 

Oh, look. Shiro has a gun and doesn’t use it. 

I’m going to skip over the Ezor-Zethird-Acxa discussion. It made no sense in the context of the story, but since it was altered to bring Ezor back, I’m not going to critique that. It was necessary. 

The visually impaired version says Zethrid pointed the gun at Shiro, but I didn’t see that at all. I really thought that Zethrid pointed it at Acxa, and y’know - Shiro doesn’t speak at all in this part. Neither does Keith after the team arrives. Reminds me of “Lions’ Pride Part One” where Shiro says nothing to Sendak. 

How did Veronica hit Zethrid in that shoulder? She’s positioned on the opposite side of Zethrid, so none of the MFE pilots had a shot - but Veronica did...shooting Zethrid in the arm she’s holding Keith with - not the arm in which she held the gun. The far arm. 

...wait. Where is the gun? Never mind. 

Oh, and when Ezor comes back, she’s still in pirate uniform. So I guess she’s still a pirate? Guess she didn’t let the rage go far. 

Launch Date | Shadows | Prisoner’s Dilemma | Battle Scars | The Grudge | Genesis | Day Forty-Seven | Clear Day | Knights of Light Part 1 | Knights of Light Part 2 | Uncharted Regions | The Zenith | The End is the Beginning

[spiftynifty]

On Let’s Voltron, the showrunners, and fandom

On Thursday an interview came out on Let’s Voltron, the ostensibly final interview with the showrunners of this now-completed show. Within an hour a few tweet threads appeared and incited a new wave of hatred and anger towards the showrunners, mostly by people relying on these tweet threads rather than listening to the interview themselves.

I don’t like secondhand info that sparks outrage; and having watched both AB interviews and seen how outraged people got over them, without having seen either, I strongly suspected that this interview was nowhere near as incendiary as the tweet threads suggested.

And lo and behold, I was right. Much of what was reported in tweets was misconstrued, or lacking the additional information that listening to someone’s tone provides. I didn’t hear two snarky showrunners smugly enjoying the chaos that their truly lacklustre season provided. I heard two people who were exhausted and beaten down by both the expectations of the fandom and the limitations placed on them by people with more money and power. They didn’t call Shiro “boring”, they referred to their initial vision of him as boring. They didn’t say he was repetitive, they said his backstory was repetitive of other characters’ in the series and was cut. There was one salty comment from JDS about how Voltron and Atlas merging was cool but everyone was too bummed about s8 to appreciate it, but there’s a dark humor to it that reads to me like a man struggling to joke about something neutral and positive in a season that was poorly received by fans and many critics alike. The vast majority of the interview is not much we haven’t already heard, though there is a very telling segment that lasts about 5-10 minutes where they discuss the heavy limitations on representation in cartoons. Ezor and Zethrid were allowed to exist, they say, because they were secondary characters. And female. The words “main heroes” with an S, are repeated several times by LM when describing who was and was not allowed to be LGBT. She explicitly states that wlw is one thing, but mlm is a whole other battle.

As disappointed as I am in the mistakes JDS and LM made, I find myself feeling very defensive of them as I see the people who once defended them from ants now begin to exhibit ant-like behavior themselves. “They should never be allowed to work in animation again” says one tweet. “They never gave a shit about this show” says another. “S8 was their explicit revenge on fans.”

It makes me unbelievably sad to read this. JDS and LM made mistakes. S8 was objectively terrible. Their attempt to shoehorn in “bonus” representation backfired terribly. They’ve been upfront about Voltron never having been planned with a happy ending in mind, and buckle down hard when confronted with the notion that killing Allura was a bad move.

But as they’ve said many, many times, this show was a labor of love for them. They worked their asses off to pitch something grand to Dreamworks because they were fans of the original and wanted to do it justice. But then they got the show and proceeded to get buffeted around for 4 yrs by dreamworks and the rules of a pre-existing IP and half the story ideas they come up with get shot down by execs for any number of reasons. People have latched onto the fact that the last third of the series wasn’t properly planned from the beginning, but I’d like to remind people that the plan they had for s3-6 was completely upended by one (1) executive call. The showrunners have said that they purposefully left things out of the bible to make it harder for execs to say NO to something well in advance. They were, as my director frequently calls it, “playing the game”, the careful balance of trying to tell a good story while also pleasing the client demands for a robot toy show. It’s a fight. Part of playing the game is leaving decisions so late that it becomes far too late to be changed by executives. But the downside of this is sometimes running out of time to do the things you want to do.

I’d like to point out too that in the interview at one point they actually say, “we knew who our audience was. They [the marketing people and higher ups] didn't.” So for 4 yrs they struggled to make the story they wanted to tell, they lost directors and writers, because the demands were way too high and people were burning out and leaving in an industry where being overworked is so par for the course that burnout is just a constant state of being. In other words, it takes extreme amounts of stress for people to burn out, and there is a certain mentality in this industry of burning out being a sign of weakness. When 2/3 directors left (one of them without the safety net of another offer) they put a bit of their reputation on the line-- and left anyway. And through it all JDS and LM, like any creators, were just trying to tell the story they wanted to see, scrambling to manage executive demands, working on multiple episodes at once and trying to maintain the storyline through them, losing people to burnout, having to rewrite entire scenes when voice actors weren’t available, and fighting for the show to be better than it was. 

I'm not absolving the showrunners of guilt, I'm just feeling bad that this is where they ended up because at the end of the day they genuinely were coming from a place of good intentions and a desire to tell, from their perspective a good story. And they did fight for rep, to the point that when initially Shiro was not allowed to be gay, they considered getting up and walking away and ending the project but they stayed because of the crew who would have been summarily put out of work. They weighed the importance of having that representation vs the jobs of 100s of people. That’s how important it was to them. 

Obvious, they didn't stick the landing, and it’s fair to say they outright screwed it up in a massive way that’s going to be remembered for a very long time. On the Shiro front they didn't have time to, in a way that would have felt genuine and agreeable for everyone. Keith was never ever going to be allowed. Maybe if Shiro and Keith had both been women, it would have been, which is a sad thought on the state of this industry and the kind of gendered homophobia that still exists in media both animation and otherwise. JDS and LM didn’t think far enough ahead on this, didn’t think outside of their pool of internal knowledge as non-LGBT people. As terrible as it is, it’s important to note they did this not out of a place of malice or vengeance, but an earnest, if misguided attempt to try and diversify the landscape. It did a lot of damage and they should not be rewarded for this move; but they also shouldn’t be being painted as the mustache-twirling villains so much of the fandom tries to make them out to be.

I hope this has been a huge lesson for them on the importance of stepping outside of your own situation when creating minority characters and properly discussing these characters with multiple people in real life who fall into those categories. No one LGBT person can or should speak for the entire community, as we’ve well seen with certain crewmembers.

Killing Allura is a much harder act to forgive because that was something they had time to think about and plan for and it should have been the more obvious lesson. There was ROOM to ask someone outside of themselves, “does this work”. There was room to be educated on why this was a terrible move both socially and narratively. There is room and time now, and dozens of articles about this very issue, that both showrunners should be reading and absorbing especially as their next projects involve a host of diverse characters. Their insistence to buckle down on the Allura Issue to me reads as; they haven’t learned anything from this, or taken the time to understand people’s pain about it. This is something that desperately needs to change especially as they continue to make movies and presumably TV shows. I do hope it’s something that will.

All this to say, please listen to the interview yourself before adding to the hate mob. If you’re still angry after listening to the interview yourself, that is your prerogative but I encourage you not to transform that anger into venomous hatred against the showrunners. The show is over; as fans we can transform this space into whatever we want it to be since Voltron is effectively ours now. Is attacking the showrunners, as ant1s have famously done for years, the image we really want to hold onto going forward?

[ganymedesclock]

And not to be excessively VLD salty here; I have a more fun ask that I’m going to answer with headcanons but part of the reason I continue to be really mad about Sincline is because there’s two major events that basically were collectively the Sinking of Sincline.

Narti’s murder,

and the harvesting of the Altean colony,

Here’s my beef with both of them: both of them are very vague situations. Things happen that we don’t know how they work, for reasons we don’t really understand, Lotor’s thought process is never illuminated, and for all of how it’s rightfully regarded as a huge travesty in the moment, quite shortly afterwards everybody seems to forget about it.

After s4 everyone just kind of stops talking about Narti. The colony remains relevant, but, only because of what Honerva’s doing to it in s8.

And the vagueness itself is a huge problem. There’s a lot of questions that are left unanswered and they’re not idle questions, but ones that majorly affect how we would feel about Lotor’s actions. 

With Narti, what exactly did Haggar do to her? Did Lotor realize what was happening? Did he just think Narti betrayed him? What was he thinking? This not to mention we don’t know Narti’s own powers or history or much of her relationship with Lotor besides after the fact Ezor saying she trusted Narti.

With the colony, was Lotor using the quintessence to sustain the colony itself? He says it went to his research but Lotor’s an incredibly cautious and frugal person with relatively few resources; Zethrid reacts like him draining a single tank is wild and crazy in s4e5 and that single tank is apparently all that the Sincline ships were carrying. The one time he’s really caution-to-the-winds “oh we can get more” is that scene, and he’s explicitly talking about getting it from the rift.

Which, in that case, all evidence points to the idea Lotor was desperate and something terrible would happen if he couldn’t cough up the quintessence to pay for it, but, we... never hear what that is. Just that it was part of his obsession with the Rift.

And that... kinda gives me a bad taste in my mouth about the whole thing, is it feels like we weren’t supposed to look deeply into those. We weren’t supposed to think too hard about the fact that Lotor’s setup with Ven’tar was explicitly more efficient than the empire’s practices, which would seemingly set him up to be extremely unwilling to consider more predatory measures, especially with people whose lives he clearly cares about since he went out of the way to turn his statue on the colony into a memorial for them.

And, hell, with Narti, Lotor killed one of his trusted generals (if he didn’t trust Narti he’d never ask her to watch his back) and abandoned his childhood companion but, again, he never seems to look back onscreen so there’s this contrasting evidence that it didn’t mean enough to him but it also meant the world to him.

And this isn’t a thing where you can just be like “you were supposed to take this at face value” because the face value is just as contradictory as the bits further down! 

Face value, Haggar did the same thing to Narti she later did to clone Shiro which implies that Narti was a victim of Haggar’s experiments and maybe could’ve been saved because, after all, clone Shiro was saved, and if that’s because Shiro had something that Narti didn’t, that’s not writing I want to defend in a meta sense.

Face value, again, the biggest warning sign we have that the fate of the ‘second colony’ isn’t good is because there’s literally a memorial listing their names that someone has encouraged the colony Alteans to leave flowers for, even though Lotor would have every reason to not want them to think their loved ones are dead.

So it kind of feels like this.... “don’t think about it too hard just be mad at Lotor that’s all we need out of this” which is aggravating not because it’s an atrocity on Lotor’s hands, but because it’s something that doesn’t line up with his earlier behavior. Comparatively, the things that are fairly consistent and also kinda bad that he does, for example his raid of Puig or cheerfully setting Throk up to be tortured by Haggar by having Narti cloud his memory, don’t get brought up.

Like the character flaws I guess they’re trying to play on here is Lotor’s paranoia and desperation but both of those aren’t actually... character flaws. They’re a reaction to the fact that he’s been trapped in a situation with Zarkon and Haggar trying to get him endangered or killed for ten thousand years, which is not his fault.

And it just furthers the frustration that, as best as I can tell, every incarnation of Lotor throughout Voltron has been an abuse survivor in a terrible situation. People talk about 80s Lotor being a misogynistic creep but 80s Voltron was rife with misogyny from multiple characters, and 80s Lotor also had Zarkon break a wineglass against his face once just for being mad at him. There’s really no good reason to keep looking at this character and saying his situation can’t improve but he’s never allowed to be a good guy or actually make it away from his abusers.