#S4 tried to do arcs for the OG team but in the end i think most of the arcs were pretty bad especially zatannas

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Young Justice stans really do not like it being pointed out on twitter that their show in the end did more time skips then character development and when they did do character development, it was in tie in stuff like comics and a video game, huh?

[literalite]

I remember you saying you liked young justice so I wanted to know who's your favourite character or the one you think is most like you? I've been attached by the hip to this show since I was 13 so I'm a little... not normal about it lol.

also opinions on s3?

YES oh my god it was like formative media for me genuinely and i still love yj dearly i was rewatching it like last month actually along with yaboyroshi's reactions to it 😅 we are both a little not normal about this show dw 🤝🏼 im putting the rest of this under a cut because i start Yapping

my fave characters were dick, artemis, jaime, bart, and zatanna! dick i was Obsessed with from the moment i laid eyes on him in hindsight for gender reasons, probably but artemis always meant a huge deal to me as a kid because she was like the only vietnamese character (and with a skintone like mine!) that i'd ever seen on a screen. i loved everything about jaime's character and personality and arc and i had a really soft spot for bart because characters who are very outwardly upbeat and fun but are going through a lot of shit and hiding it are my favourites ever usually 😅. i also liked rlly them as a duo. zatanna's sort of cool-girl sass was always really fun to see and i think especially in s4 where her sort of less-rigid morality had more room to shine, really made me appreciate her character more. OH also when they introduced cassandra wu-san/orphan in s3 i like literally cheered out loud 😭 shes one of my fave characters from dc comics in general, so i was already biased towards her and i really liked her depiction and the room they made for her arc

i'm actually not sure which character is the most like me... i think because i watched it so young a lot of the characters kind of made their way into my personality in one way or another. i think irl im most like dick but it could be wishful thinking 😅 i'm not as cool as he is for sure

season three.... i'm kind of on the fence about it? i will say though i think it was a little rough with the dialogue especially, and i definitely didn't bond as well with the outsiders as i did with the original team and then the s2 cast. violet was the most likeable of the group by far but i think i was really put off by the fact that they kept killing them 💀 like i get that you guys can do this now with the higher rating but there are better ways to show off your newfound creative freedom than repeatedly brutally killing them. it was offset with the majority of the other characters suffering from basically no visible injuries too- if they'd been hit with bruises or scrapes or broken bones or ANYTHING and reduced the harm dealt to vi then i would've been less urgh by it.

i also wish they'd introduced victor a bit earlier into the season instead of spending sooo much time with brion because cyborg's story felt a little tacked on at the end, and um i was annoyed by brion from the jump 😭😭 tried so hard to sympathise with him because to be fair he went through a Lot but he just kept being such an aggressive ass to like everyone. which i guess was the point.. didn't make it any more fun to watch though.

i do like that they kept with the huge mass of entangled threads of the plot that were to me the hallmarks of the earlier seasons, picking apart scenes to try and work out how things interconnect was always my favourite part. i think the cast of the show at this point for what they were trying to do and focus on may have exceeded the show's bounds though- it was still a compelling narrative but i imagine for a casual watcher who isnt as meticulously invested in who is who and can recognise adaptations of arcs from the comics it can get very confusing or frustrating. its hard because i Love the og cast too but i think with s3 they couldn't decide on letting them go or letting their new characters shine and it ended up muddying the waters a bit, with the outsiders suffering the most from it due to no nostalgia or prior narrative heft to keep them from looking secondary to the original members of the team.

with s4 they chose to throw their lot behind the old team, which i appreciated and it neatened the rough edges of the show more, but i do still miss the s2 cast quite badly so i actually kind of wish they'd kept expanding the cast but just narrowed focus onto the new characters for every season. the title of the show is young justice, so i personally would've liked to keep seeing a focus on the newer and rising heroes of each successive generation as opposed to returning again and again to the originals

sorry that this is such a wall of text 😅 but i think this is one of the shows that i could genuinely just like sit and talk about for ages and ages... even the characters i dont like at all have a fair amount of gravity and heft to them that i love. wally is still alive btw i will never stop believing 😤 get that man out of the speed force!

[shrinkthisviolet]

Talk Shop Tuesday: Do you have an episode you've been especially excited to add a Morgan to?

YESSSS I love this question!! Here’s some off the top of my head:

1x17 (Barry tries to bench Morgan because of [redacted for spoilers], but Morgan ofc doesn’t listen because Iris and Henry are both in danger and Barry can’t focus on both of them. Results in some tension between them too, esp on Barry’s end (and tbh I get why))

1x19 (I’ve discussed why here :D ✨Bates-induced angst/whump✨)

1x23 (the Morgan vs Eowells confrontation in the finale…oooh it’s gonna be SO GOOD)

2x13-2x14 (I’ve been more and more tempted lately to have Morgan tag along to rescue Jesse, and!! I’m so excited!! Especially because she and E2 Barry would hit it off, and that’s so fun to think about)

Not a specific episode count, but…Morgan & Jesse’s roommates arc. I know it’s post-2x16, but beyond that, the details are currently fuzzy 😅

2x16 (the Trajectory episode!! Still nailing down some details, but I’m excited 💞 Eliza survives this episode ofc, and she even gets to chew Tina out a little. And Morgan shows her first big sister compassion 🥺 also also, a little backstory modification for Eliza regarding how she got her powers, sticking closer to the comics, and no split personality (and I’ve mentioned before that like the comics, she’s a WOC in my AU!))

2x17 (Barry travels back to 1x11!! So excited to write him interacting with s1 Team Flash…and especially s1 Morgan. Oh the dramatic irony. Oh the fury he’d feel, and the helplessness—the red flags are neon signs to him now, and it’s pissing him off that he can’t act on his impulse to protect her from Eowells. But Barry also knows that as unhinged as Eowells is…he’ll do anything to save/protect Morgan (for selfish reasons ofc, but still). And Morgan happens to be in danger back home…)

2x18 (the episode where Barry almost catches Zoom, but then Zoom gets Barry to give up his speed…hmm I see some ✨interesting✨ potential here)

2x20 (Barry dying (sorta)?? Morgan having to watch?? Morgan getting pissed at Harry, but also at herself because she and Barry were fighting for a little while before this and never got to resolve things?? And the catharsis is gonna be so sweet and intense too, y’all aren’t ready 🥰)

2x22 (Morgan does something that Barry cherishes forever 💞 also…someone’s powers are sparked 👀)

s3 (in general. I have a whole grand plan for how I’m rewriting s3…and especially how I’m rewriting Savitar. And his dynamic with Morgan…I’m so excited to write it :D)

s4, Crisis X, I forget the episode number (so…listen, I still have to figure out what fixes I’m making to this disaster of a Crisis (Stein won’t be dying, but that’s all I’m sure of rn). What I do know, though, is that Barry and Morgan, and Wally and Iris, will have a brother-sister dance at the Westallen wedding (Wallinda will probably dance at least once there too), and it’ll be great 🥰 and possibly a Morgan and Jesse power swap that happens an episode prior and lasts throughout this crossover, though I still have to iron out those details 😅)

5x18 (this is the s5 backstory episode and…really this is just my way of saying I have a storyline planned out for this future version of Morgan that I’m very excited to share 👀 tho it’ll be revealed in a different way than the show. Events of s5 will be shuffled around a bit)

s6 Crisis (will involve Thawne ofc, and parts of the og 2024 Crisis. It’ll be a fusion of sorts. May also involve the return of someone unexpected…👀 and it’ll also be…quite the emotional rollercoaster for poor Morgan. Also, this is roughly where the AU’s finale is gonna be, so ofc I’m excited for this!)

talk shop tuesday!

Taglist (send an ask or DM to be added or removed):

@arrthurpendragon @ocappreciationtag @raith-way @vexic929 @ironverseocs

@thechaoticfanartist @goldheartedchaoticdisaster @negative-speedforce @starstruckpurpledragon @angst-is-love-angst-is-life

[winderlylandchime]

1/2 Finally 4x01!!! The new intro started playing and he got up so fucking fast as if he was watching a game ‘WAIT WHAT?! THIS IS DIFFERENT! OH MY GOD THIS IS COOL AS FUCK! I like this more!! *tries to sing along while not knowing the song* ..cue…BEGIN…pulse..YEAH i fuck with this. And of course the intro ends on Brian walking away. He is the moment!’ ‘Ohhhh Drag Queen moment! I fuck with this. Hi BRIAN! Look at them just hanging out in THEIR loft, damn he is broke as fuck, huh? *said in an affectionate aww type of voice* THEY ARE PARTNERS! He really hates accepting any type of help, huh? Brian maybe you should listen to your own advice from two seasons ago about a man knowing when to accept help. Wait shit, i just remembered the nothing noble about being poor thing. Well fuck Brian’ It briefly showed Mel and Linds and he was so disappointed until Britin popped up again ‘this is what I want every episode, Brian and Justin. And that’s it’ ‘I am genuinely surprised that Hunter and Mike haven’t killed each other. Proud of them’ ‘Brian having lunch with Ben and Linds AND mel? Is he okay? Aw Brian and Justin being sarcastic is one of my favorite things in the world. (Deb says Mikey and her talk 3x a day) Okay, three times a day is…yeah. I mean even I don’t..actually never mind. OH HE IS GONNA KILL EVERYONE IF THEY DONT STOP PITYING HIM. But Bri Bri you are broke as a jok- HA he is gonna steal Bald dudes clients’ ‘i like this drag queen singing in between moments. Its been a while since I went to a drag show. I wonder if they miss me back home..i mean i did tell them I was leaving but still, i hope they miss me- oh ted. I was trying to forget that horrible party-BLAKEY! I’m so happy that he’s good now. EMMETT! Im glad he came to visit but I rea- Ted what the hell is wrong with you? He didn’t do shit wrong to you, why are you being bitchy? No Emy no, blakey didnt do anything wrong. But damn it i get Emy is hurt but fucking hell this isnt it. GIVE ME BRIAN BACK’ brian shows up on screen with Vance ‘HA WHAT DID I SAY? I CAN FEEL WHEN MY BOY IS UP! Wait that..sounds..weird. Of course he looks great, he always does. Oh so now you love him, fuck you baldy, Brian youre better than this. I like his hair. *does jazz hands* spikey. Oh baldy knows that Brian could destroy him if he pulls a Justin Timberlake and goes solo. DO IT BRI BRI! I didnt plan on him having his own company but DO IT!!!!’ ‘How did Mike already lose Hunte- HES HUSTLING AGAIN? *randomly starts laughing* It’s really funny hearing Mike call him little asshole when they’re the same height.’ Ted and Blake are on right now where he’s cleaning the floor ‘ohhhh i think this is gonna be bad. I hope im wrong because i like Blakey but this is looking like you know that thing where you get a crush on your savior or your therapist or something like that? I know my shit..i think’ ‘OH MY GOD WHAT DID THEY DO TO BRIANS CAR? Id rip their head off? I mean the car sucks but damn. Wait i forgot to focus on the important stuff: Brian looks good as fuck! CAN HE STOP KISSING HIM?’ ‘ITS BRIAN AGAIN!(Brian says ‘because no ones close friendship means more to me than yours’) aww Bri Bri, i feel the same way. Im glad you can agree that we have a deep connectio- OH HE IS GONNA GO SOLO! HES PULLING A BEYONCÉ! YOU GO GIRL! I really like the drag queen moments.. i miss my girls back home, i gotta call them.’ ‘AW JUSTIN CAME UP WITH THE COMPANY NAME!! KINNETIK! I fuck with that. I think i need a new shirt (i said No at this point) *looks at me and does jazz hands* merch. Of course Blondie is the one to help him come up with the name. LOOK AT THEM ALL HAPPY AND IN LOVE! Aw they wanna hang out with Emy! I NEEDED THIS TRIO! Make them hang out like when they danced together. The new dream team!’

The new intro! It really reminds me of the OG intro to the OG Beverly Hills 90210 (not to date myself).

It is so hard to watch Emmett and Ted during this arc.

Brian looks sooooooo good in S4.

OH HE IS GONNA GO SOLO! HES PULLING A BEYONCÉ! Truly, I looked it up and she went solo in 2003 right as this was being filmed (if I've got my timelines correct).

AND YES JUSTIN CAME UP WITH KINNETIK. He's named both Gus and Kinnetik (swoon).

The new dream team - I wish!

[mdverse]

Do you like Tina?

I personally really like Tina because she's this girl who sits in the back and sway and raise her hand but I know she could do more. Too bad they f-ed up her character around season 3(?)

oh they never even tried with tina... which is unfortunate, because she had so much potential. say it with me now: fuck the glee writers.

i really like her too tho anon! she's a sweetheart and a real team player and a lil dork, it's very endearing. not to mention she is insanely talented! we only get to see glimpses of it here and there in her duets/trios with other people until she finally gets a whole good solo in diva (i'm not counting the one in props as a Tina™️ moment because she is supposed to be rachel there but jenna really nailed that impression of rachel, nor am i counting gangnam style) and that's season 4. season 4. tina was one of the og glee club members and she didn't get a solid, uninterrupted, solo that wasn't played off for laughs until season four. and even after that she is just forced into the background again, but tina genuinely is so talented and i wish we had gotten to see more of it. i loved seeing her interact with kurtcedes in the early seasons, and then the brainiacs(? is that what they were called) and uht in s2, the s4 newbies, etc. she had some really lovely moments! now imagine if she had gotten storylines that actually revolved around her instead of storylines about her bfs/romantic interests/doing so much for her friends and getting so little in return...

i don't think she has ever made it close to my top 5 characters, but that's only because the writers screwed her over repeatedly and could not decide what to do with her, and never gave her a meaningful character arc. i think she's one of those characters who ends up being a lot more interesting in fanon than in canon because she was rarely ever given a chance to shine, but even then tina isn't talked about that much as far as i know

[copperpieceharlot]

Bud I’m sorry to swing into your inbox uninvited like this but my soul is having an OOTS renaissance thanks to your content in the tag and did you say Leverage AU

haha holy SHIT this got Long. but yes. i’ve been. Thinking. (also literally Never feel like you have to apologize for sending me messages. i was Hoping someone would ask me about this. now i have an Excuse to share EVERYTHING ive written abt it :3)

Obviously, Roy is the leader/brains of the outfit. He grew up having some Strong Opinions abt what’s Legal versus what’s Right due to tragic backstory involving the death of his little brother which was definitely SOMEONE’S fault for negligence but since there technically wasn’t any illegal behavior, there were no consequences for it. Also he’s still angry at his dad bc he thinks his dad is also partly culpable (and also also just a dick). He’s the Moral Backbone of the team (alongside Durkon, more on that later) in basically the same way Nate was in og Leverage. He’s actually not the best at figuring out what people want (that’s Haley and, shockingly, occasionally Elan), but once he has that info, he is the absolute best at figuring out the ideal plan of attack to use in any given case.

Haley is still a thief. I mean she maps to Parker almost PERFECTLY. Her dad was a thief & a conman, her mom wasn’t but knew about it and mostly accepted it, but she died tragically in a mugging gone wrong or smth, which made Ian crank the paranoia WAY up and taught Haley to do the same in the name of “safety”. Let’s keep the “Ian is in Trouble and Haley needs money, Fast” which is why she signs on to the first job in the first place. She’s less acrobatic than Parker, tending towards finding (or making) weak spots in security, but she can still make a tumble check when she needs to.

Elan is the grifter who is somehow an Idiot but also not???? It baffles everyone. When he’s playing a part for a con, he’s FLAWLESS, but then the rest of the time he’s just. No Thoughts Head Empty. He probably gets lured in initially because he’s decided to try his hand at being part of a full team, rather than the two-man cons he’s been running that invariably end w his partner conning him as well and stealing half of his take. Also he likes the idea of being Crime Friends. He’s that tweet where it’s like, Roy: “after the heist is over, we split up and never communicate again” / Elan: [about to unveil his Crime Buddies Forever Friendship Quilt Puppets]: “never?”

Vaarsuvius is the hacker/gadget person. They have a Vaguely Snobby Yet Unidentifiable accent, dyed(?) purple hair (nobody has ever seen their roots) and nobody knows who they “really” are or where they came from, but they’re good at what they do so everyone just accepts the mystery. They probably got suckered into the team by their initial employer (who I’ll get to Eventually, lol) framing it as a challenge to their intellect, like, “oh, I see, you’re not smart enough to make this team work for you...” to which they were like Fucking Watch Me and also melted his computer. Anyways. They are joined (digitally) by their Intrepid Friend And Co-Conspirator (his words, not theirs), a fellow hacker known only as Blackwing, or, on certain forums, Blackwing_Bird. (In the first season, V only occasionally references him when saying they’re “calling in extra help” or smth for a particularly complex hack job. He starts showing up a little more in s2 and eventually by the start of s4 is a regular & established presence, but only appears as actions in a computer interface or output.) Elan is convinced he’s an AI, Belkar doesn’t think he actually exists, Haley pretends she doesn’t think he exists, and Durkon and Roy try not to think about it too hard, as long as B and V still get the job done.

Belkar is the hitter. He is on the team bc their initial employer got him out of jail for it. He doesn’t have a tragic backstory, he just likes doing violent crimes. As the series progresses, he grows some empathy & stuff, but really only for people who actually deserve it. Assholes still get decked. It’s all very touching. (Also he has dwarfism caused by achondroplasia. It doesn’t actually bother him and is useful in fights bc his opponents frequently have no fucking clue how to approach him, but he likes Pretending to take offense at stupid things just to see how far he can go with it.)

Aaaand last but not least, Durkon is the least involved member of the team. He’s actually a career criminal and Roy’s mentor, and wasn’t a member of the initial team that [redacted, I’ll tell you later, PROMISE] put together for a couple of reasons, the main one being that he’s Officially retired in order to spend more time with his family, which consists of his mom, his friend (not girlfriend) Hilgya, baby Kudzu, and a truly stunning number of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Roy frequently calls or visits him for advice and he Occasionally shows up to help out on local jobs, but generally he avoids doing crime if he can (as part of a deal with Hilgya, who is also a career criminal; basically, they’ve both cut back on the crime in order to provide a more stable home environment for Kudzu. But sometimes, you gotta do a little crime, and in those cases, Sigdi enjoys spending time w her grandson.)

NOW. THE BIG REVEAL YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR. Who got the team together in the first place?!

The answer: Lord Shojo (or whatever Normal Person Name you want to assign him). Now this is where it gets tricky: he had them do a thing that they thought was good, THEN they thought it was BAD, but then when they confronted him he revealed that it Appearing to be bad was actually a test of character and would they consider working as basically internal investigators for him? But then he had a heart attack, so, rip. But THEN it turned out that he’d left them a bunch of money anyway and they were all feeling kind of Inspired so they formed the Order of the Stick, LLC (which, no, i am not coming up with a new name, actually, because I just don’t care. someone else can come up w a justification for that name, tho, i’m sure it’s possible). Also Miko was there and was unhappy abt their actions, and also their general existence.

Moving on. Villains!

Redcloak is the Sterling replacement, because that DEEPLY amuses me.

Xykon is a season-long main villain, probably one that Redcloak finds himself working for but then “teams up with” (read: blackmails) the Order to bring him down bc even Redcloak finds Xykon distasteful. That’s season 3, let’s say.

Tarquin is another season villain, say season 2. Nale probably shows up pretty early in s1, actually, as another recurring antagonist like Sterling but uh. Less good at it. Anyways the s2 final 3 eps deal with them (accidentally) discovering that Tarquin runs some Evil Empire Company, then trying to outplay him and take him down. Idk if Nale still dies in this version tbh.

Tsukiko is a one-off s1 villain who returns briefly in s4 alongside Miko, who has gone well and truly off the rails.

Season 1 finale has to do w Roy finally getting Vengeance for his little brother.

The vampire squad is the s4 finale villain who do smth terrible to Durkon and then get the Mother Of All Revenge served up to them by the Order.

I envision the show as being 5 seasons (like og Leverage) but I’m not going to sketch out s5 because I think it should be based off whatever happens in the current story arc, possibly involving some legacy of the OotSquiggle.

Other stuff!

The Order of the Squiggle is a legendary criminal team from the 60s who stole a BUNCH of famous shit & then proceeded to legendarily implode. This has no bearing on the plot I’ve sketched out, I just think it’s fun.

The Sapphire Guard members should probably be reworked as FBI. I don’t care about most of them but I do think that Lien and O-Chul could be like, FBI agents who Choose to look the other way while the Order does their very-much-not-legal-but-still-fair Justice Crime, and maybe even help them out on occasion.

So, the Final season-by-season outline, based on everything I’ve written so far:

s1 e1: getting the team together, doing a con for Shojo, then at the end he dies and the gang is like “dang what now?" and intend to split up except then they Don’t.

mid-s1: Nale shows up and tries to trick the Order, but then gets beat like a drum.

late s1: Tsukiko is an underling of the Villain Of The Week, winds up in police custody. But She’ll Be Back.

s1 finale: Roy’s Vengeance: The Vengeaning. also we meet Redcloak as an antagonist.

s2 e1: the truth abt Haley’s father comes out

early s2: The Two Live Crews Job but it’s the Order vs the Linear Guild and the Linear Guild ARE all bad guys.

mid-s2: Redcloak returns. ugh.

late s2: the sapphire guard FBI makes its first appearance, hello O-Chul and Lien.

s2 pre-finale: once again they’re in conflict w Nale over smth, he spends the whole episodes making Cryptic Remarks, they basically beat him (like a drum!) but then the stinger at the end is that Tarquin reveals himself and Elan is like “Dad?!”, roll credits.

s2 finale, part 1: Elan is hanging out w Tarquin bc he’s DEEP in Denial, the Rest of the team tries to take Tarquin down, but it doesn’t work.

s2 finale, part 2: Elan finally gets a clue and they manage to beat Tarquin. still haven’t decided if Nale dies or not, but I’m leaning towards yes. also they rescue Haley’s dad.

s3 e1: fuck dude idk.

early s3: Redcloak shows up, AGAIN, everyone groans. he has blackmail on them, he wants them to take Xykon down.

mid s3: The Rashomon Job but it’s about stealing the Talisman of Dorukan and it turns out that Nale was there too (“oh!” Elan says. “I was wondering why I looked so weird in all those mirrors! But it wasn’t my reflection, it was Nale’s!” “Sweetie, that wasn’t Nale’s reflection,” says Haley. “Huh,” says Elan, “so the mirrors were broken?”, cue eye rolling from everyone else.), and the Successful thief was Hilgya, who’d nabbed it from the owner before it even went on display.

s3 finale: they beat Xykon, actually factually, because he deserves to get his ass Thoroughly kicked, even if only in AU form. Lien and O-Chul are there, so are some other less helpful FBI people. There’s a bit where O-Chul Exact Wordses his way out of telling his superiors about the Order’s less legal activities without technically lying. King shit.

s4 e1: doesn’t really matter. maybe smth to do w some legacy of Tarquin’s company to set up the drama w Malack & Durkon later.

early s4: Durkon gets SENT TO PRISON. Malack approaches the Order abt this because sure they have Different Ethics but they’re still Friends. (Roy is surprised and a little hurt that he’s never heard of Malack, but he ignores that in favor of Let’s Get Whatever Fuckers Did This To Our Friend.)

immediately after that: Miko and Tsukiko return as a Team, preventing the Order from working on the Durkon situation

mid s4: Redcloak makes another unexpected & unwelcome appearance but he’s maybe a little less of a dick? the Order collaborates with Malack & his Crime Buddies (hello, Vector Legion) to pull one over on him tho, because “less of a dick” does not mean “a pleasant or decent person”, and also he was mean abt Durkon being in jail, so he totally deserved it. he still gets whatever he wanted tho, just takes a blow to his pride. also prevents the Order from helping Durkon. they’re having a LOT of setbacks wonder why that could be, not to make sure the season fills its whole length or anything, no sirree

s4 finale: something something taking down the organization, headed by Hel (yes that’s her real name), which framed Durkon for their Big Crime. Durkon goes free and Extra Firmly retires, For Good, He Swears, but says he “met someone new” who might be an asset.

s5 e1: minrah joins the team! and the episode is set in like, somewhere really snowy. that’s all i got.

the rest of s5: don’t know, don’t care, it’s open-ended until the comic finishes up.

[spiftynifty]

VLD Rewatch: Season 3

For a half-of-a-half season, season 3 packs quite a bit in and sets up a lot of plot. This shouldn't be surprising; Voltron was laid out as three 26-ep seasons, with each season bringing a new big bad and new theme. Season 3 is our beginning of the Lotor arc and there's a lot of setup and... a lot to unpack here.

For those who are still in "can't do it" mode about rewatching the series (which is fair), here's a quick summary to catch you up:

Shiro has been missing for (it's kind of implied) months. Without Shiro, Voltron and the group are fractured, especially with Keith's deep grief over losing Shiro preventing the recruitment a new Paladin.

Ultimately, Keith takes up the mantle of the Black Lion, Lance moves to Red, and Allura gets Blue. The group is clumsy and outmatched by Lotor and his generals who are definitely Up to Something. Keith tries to play leader and it's a bad look when he's making decisions via grief escapism. The team gets briefly trapped on a foggy wifi-less planet, discovers a bizarro alt-reality where Alteans rule the universe and Shiro is Swedish and doesn't mind Slav, and trails after Lotor and Co who have made off with the reality-breaking comet from Svavland.

Meanwhile Shiro escapes the Galra again, catches up with Voltron, shares a couple lowlit intimate moments with Keith while also awkwardly undermining his authority and jeopardizing the safety of the team, but no one suspects a thing.

Oh and there's a flashback episode about the OG paladins that I'll be honest I skipped since it turns out literally nothing that happened in the past is relevant to the present day and our only major revelations are that we (and Haggar) learn that she was once Honerva, Zarkon her husband was once kinda adorable, and turning evil swaps out your voice actor. Oh and Honerva had a cat who may or may not be as old as Haggar and potentially still kicking around.

Let's talk about season 3.

There's good and bad to be had with this season. Originally when I began my rewatch of the show I wanted to do it as though I were watching the season for the first time. Season 1 and 2 made that astonishingly easy; of all the seasons they seem the most confident about what the show is and what it's going for. Season 1 is for the mild setup and world building, season 2 is for the character building, relationship building, lion building, and problem resolving. Season 2 is arguably the show's strongest season overall so it's a tough act to follow. Season 3... makes an effort.

The good of this season is really good. Keith's grief over losing Shiro surprised and moved me the first time I saw the season and I was impressed with how long they held onto it given the show's habit of moving on pretty quick. Keith's grief holds the team back and endangers it; his early insistence on going after Lotor felt like a way to channel his anguish and maybe get a little revenge for his loss. Keith got one of his most significant character boosts in season 2, and following it through in this season sets up a complicated Keith that we will see for seasons to come.

The other good is Lotor. Lotor is handsome and charismatic and devastatingly cunning and is a polar opposite to his Saturday-morning-cartoon-villain dad. Zarkon was threatening, but Lotor is INTERESTING and his "wait and see" approach makes us the audience want to wait and see what he's up to. His band of generals are intriguing and colorful and I love the variation of their designs and personalities.

And of course, we can't talk about the good stuff in season 3 without discussing Shiro and Keith's relationship. Season 2 gave us some really fantastic growth and moments and entire episodes between them, but Season 3 brought a new level of intimacy that definitely bumped it up a notch. From the slow-moving reunion and closeups of only Shiro and Keith's faces, to their quiet moments alone in dimly lit rooms. This season gave us "as many times as it takes", which remains one of the most beautiful little exchanges between the pair in the whole series. The jury is still out on whether or not Sheith was a hopeful intention by the creatives on this show or just an incredibly happy accident, but looking at some of the decisions made in 3x05 and 3x06 especially lean more to the former. These scenes are more bittersweet now knowing how it all ends up.

There is a lot of setup for future things in general, and this is where it becomes difficult to separate what is in s3 with what will be by the end of s6 (and beyond) because some things we just can't unknow. It was really interesting to see how things that made me very hyped after this season now take on a bit of a disappointing and even bitter flavor because some roads really don't go anywhere. Lotor's mysterious plans for instance, only seem to get more mysterious, as do his allegiances. He spends most of this season clearly toying with the Paladins, clearly prepared to destroy them or let them destroy themselves, but later he sides with them and the Paladins seem pretty quick to forgive this and assume he's a good guy now. Lotor's "side" is never clearly established since his goals never are. The Lotor in s3 is interesting by virtue of the assumption that we will eventually learn all his secrets. But we never do, and that definitely for me taints him as a character.

Speaking of some mixed character motivations, s4 reveals that Narti was either a spy for Haggar the whole time or that Kova was, or both, and yet in season 3 Haggar sends a goon off to spy on Lotor. Even in Haggar's private moments she seems unsure of what Lotor is up to so this later reveal that she was aware the whole time is an odd one and still left very vague.

Similarly, major problems arise with Shiro in s3 but only via the hindsight of s4-6. Everything about the way Shiro is brought back into the fold in season 3 is highly suspicious. From a narrative standpoint I want to say it begins with Sven as foreshadowing, an alternate-reality Shiro who looks JUST LIKE SHIRO but is NOT SHIRO. Unfortunately I think this was less of an audience wink and more of an excuse to nod to the original Sven. But Shiro's Journey opens with scientists doing tests on him, Shiro's pupils dilating to the sound of camera lens adjustments, and Shiro literally seeing a dead-eyed copy of himself on a slab. The words "Operation Kuron" are repeated at least three times as the Galra let him escape. When Shiro meets the two aliens on the ice planet and they accuse him of being a traitor, Shiro protests, "I'm not a--" and never finishes. He does pilot logs into a Galra Cruiser as he tails Voltron. And that's just in one episode.

The next episode has him repeatedly undermining Keith's newfound leadership position (a position Shiro repeatedly encouraged Keith into in s1/2 to Keith's great reluctance), to the point of talking over him and shouting at him. He dismisses the safety of the team for the sake of the mission; something that goes expressly against the team Voltron way of doing things (Kolivan details this in s4) and is completely against Shiro's nature. It felt manipulative to me the first time and it still feels off when at the end of this he privately tells Keith "I'm sorry I had to step in back there", referring to Keith's failure (which was not a failure) and then in the next breath "you're good at this." This was the topic of many a heated debate when the episode came out but from my end there is just no way to see that the man presented here is Shiro and not an insidious clone.

There's a term for this that I forget where the storyteller essentially gaslights the audience for no real reason. Ultimately we will come to know that this is Shiro. A little more short-tempered but ultimately a good boy and not the potentially fully aware evil clone that season 3 hints at. It's bad writing; and the reason that it's bad writing is that the audience is privy to very little more than the characters are when it comes to Kuron and yet the characters are not in the slightest bit suspicious about the behaviour that we the audience sees as suspect. We end up gaslighting ourselves because of bad writing, only to learn that we were right the whole time. And genuinely, speaking as someone who loves all Shiros dearly, Kuron is a whole walking writing disaster. But more on that as we get further into the season.

I don't love the episode, but the Comet episode is a surprisingly adult-oriented one and presents an interesting flip to things and an intriguing hypothesis that I wish had been explored better, or longer, or something. As I've said 100x before, Galra aren't an inherently evil race; they're the result of a 10,000 yr universe takeover. This episode suggests that Alteans are no better, and the broader implications of this are massive and should have offered a much bigger fundamental shift in the characters and the way they viewed this war. In particular Allura, who previously immediately turned against Keith the moment his heritage was revealed, despite having become good friends with him. Her learning that her own people aren't immune to "absolute power corrupts absolutely" is a moment that is not given any real weight or consequence . This is a letdown especially since this potentially weightier-themed episode was self-aware enough of that weight to be the only episode outside of the Voldemort season to show imagery maybe a little too old for its younger audience (the repeated shot of the mummified Altean scientist).

From a production standpoint I noticed a lot of little things. There were a number of hookup issues; some hilariously drawn bg characters, some compositing that worked and some that decidedly didn't. Some of the editing was a little rough in places and some of the timing of things felt very off. There were some jokes that ran long and didn't land and threw the pacing off or stole time from other things. The editing on the Comet episode was particularly off and the characters were visually difficult to track at times. Also, there is definitely a different/longer version of the "As many times as it takes" scene even if it only exists in script or maybe board form. All of the Shiros in that scene were drawn by Ryu, who was often tapped for revisions (particularly for Shiro and Lotor). But the Keith in that scene is not a Ryu Keith; and Keith's "Well--" in "If you're feeling up to it" sounds like two lines spliced together. Ryu's fingerprints are all over 3x06 in interesting places; I definitely spotted his artwork in at least one shot of the Galra post leader and I think a Zethrid. He drew a few of the short haired Shiros as well. I think this episode underwent a number of changes; I remember too that Lance exclaiming "you're looking better" was originally Keith's line. At the same time we get little nice superfluous animations like the foreground gecko. Just a lot of inconsistencies.

Overall it's still an alright season but knowing what's coming means I just don't love this season the way I used to. The little moments that rock still rock but a lot of plot pawns were pushed forward that were ultimately just discarded. I can't wait to see if finishing the next 3 seasons will retroactively bump this season back up to where it once was in my heart. 

[shiroallura]

why shiro and allura’s relationship was crucial for vld to function :: a meta

Warning: saltiest and longest meta I’ve written. But I think every point stands well on its own, and I tried to touch on as much as I could. Enjoy, I suppose.

To start, just a quick clarification: when I say relationship, I do not mean a necessarily romantic one. While I am a Shallura shipper, this meta will be the examination of Shiro and Allura’s relationship within the team, narrative, with each other (so it may get bit shippy) but first and foremost about why their co-leadership relationship, and the destruction of it, is what has led to VLD becoming the clusterfuck of a show it is now.

So, let’s go by this step by step, shall we? The first one I want to look at may seem a little strange, but bear with me: it’ll make sense as we get further into it. So, without further ado, let’s look at

The Black Lion and Broken Symmetry

By the end of s4, I had a list of certainties that I believed VLD would always come through on. While one of them was Shiro being Black Paladin, the second was that something related to the Black Lion, whether Shiro or the Bayard, would be affected by / affect Allura. This was an idea I’d been nursing since s1, as one of Shiro and Allura’s early scenes in 1x01 and where Allura uses his name for the first time, to tell him that his Bayard was lost along with its paladin. Shiro responds cheerily with, “I guess I’ll just have to make do,” and we see him do so for the next two seasons. 

But by the time s4 had rolled around and put Shiro (who was mostly speculated to be Kuron by that point, although I always believed the clone theory) in the Black Lion again, I had come to understand that Shiro being in the Black Lion would always be relevant for the arc of Shiro and Allura’s relationship.

S1: Shiro becomes the Black Paladin. He and Allura are co-leaders. He then goes to rescue Allura from Zarkon’s central command and finds out Zarkon was the OG paladin.

S2: Allura regrets not telling Shiro the truth about Zarkon. Shiro then beats Zarkon and gains the Black Bayard. Shiro defeats Zarkon battle and disappears.

S3: Allura mourns him and becomes a paladin in his stead. She wears pink to honour him. Keith becomes Black Paladin and Shiro/Kuron is found by Black at the end of the season. 

S4: Shiro/Kuron becomes Black Paladin again. He and Allura are re-established as leaders.

S5: Shiro/Kuron and Allura argue over him giving Lotor the Black Bayard, which is what allows him to kill Zarkon. Allura begins trusting Lotor because of his patricide. Kuron flies Lotor to the Kral Zera in the Black Lion, which leads to a stronger alliance between Voltron / Allura and Lotor.

S6: When Haggar takes over Kuron, he attacks Allura with the Black Bayard before leaving with Lotor. Allura later draws Shiro’s soul of the Black Lion and carries him in her own body.

Shiro and Allura and their relationship with each other, the Black Lion, the position of Black Paladin, and with the Black Bayard, perpetually affect each other and propel the plot forwards. Not only that, but it’s consistent. It was one of the first things, once I got over my initial reaction of s7, that also felt wrong coming away from that season. It had broken the pattern I’d been paying attention to for the first time in VLD’s entire run. 

But, as I’ve gone over the show’s structure time and time again, and think back to the first time I nearly dropped canon, the issues actually started in s3. So, let’s go from there:

Why Allura Should Have Been Black Paladin (or How the Lion Switch Ruined Everything)

First and foremost, the precedent that Keith has to be the Black Paladin of Voltron is incorrect. The team’s armour of 80s voltron and subsequent incarnations referred to Asian and Japanese colour coding (in which red meant leader, for one) and the no Lion-pilot bonds actually existed. Furthermore, Keith in 80s Voltron was far more like Shiro, even tempered and a born leader, and in the Black Lion throughout the entire run in the show. Sven, who is the character Shiro is technically based upon, flew the Blue Lion, died six episodes in, and then Allura came to pilot it. So, just to reiterate, in the original show, there is no Lion switching. Everyone is in the same Lions for more than 90% of the show, and it’s a show that doesn’t even create a premise based on a paladin’s relationship with their Lion has being one that’s central to being a paladin at all. So, check off a very basic ass failure for VLD right off the bat.

Secondly, there is precedent for Allura taking over Shiro’s Lion in 80s Voltron. As I’ve already stated, Allura took over Sven’s Lion after he died/disappeared. When VLD is presented the same opportunity, they staunchly refuse it. I’ve spoken before about why, from a standpoint of the Lions actually having agency in choosing their pilots the way the show says they do in s1/2, it would have made the most sense for Black to pick Allura, but let me reaffirm it here as well:

“Shiro’s wishes are not more important than the survival of voltron and the team. As the black lion, and leader of the lions, the black lion must surely know this. As much as she loves Shiro, she knows ultimately the good of the team must come before any individual member’s wishes. And who knows this better than anyone? Allura.

Allura is, as stated by Pidge, the “decision maker” of the team. her father created voltron. She, unlike Keith, has made great sacrifices for the good and the survival of the team, three times alone in the first season off the top of my head. She helped train the paladins how to BE paladins. She and Shiro are co-leaders and simultaneously give and follow orders from one another. They trust each other, even when they disagree. Allura is the most like Shiro out of the whole team. She’s already a leader. Why wouldn’t she be the most natural fit for black paladin? The black lion is smart. She was there in the castle during the cryosleep too. She had 10,000 years to familiarize herself with Allura’s quintessence. Not to mention, it would mean no more lion switching, which would mean the most stable team possible in the wake of Shiro’s absence.” [X] 

Allura as the Black Paladin in the wake of Shiro’s absence also would have felt right for her character for a number of reasons. A) all the adjustment that would come with her being a paladin would still happen, with B) added pressure now that she is the sole leader of the team whereas before Shiro could be a buffer between her and the paladins C) her dealing with being in both Shiro and Zarkon’s former Lion, D) It’s still not the Lion she necessarily wanted (ie. not Alfor’s) and E) the Black Lion has been linked to her from the beginning. 

They were two valuable things Alfor sealed away in the castleship (not that Coran isn’t a gem, but narratively, he’s never given the same weight as Allura is, so moving on): Allura, whose connected to all the Lions and can find them, and the Black Lion, who cannot be unsealed unless all the other Lions are there. Allura is literally the key to the Black Lion. She’s called a leader, a decision maker, etc. numerous times. Shiro, the actual Black Paladin, also follows her without question. 

So S3 presents one of the first times that VLD prioritizes plot and nostalgia over actual characterization and what makes actual, logical sense, and the rest of the show has paid dearly for it. And while there are many, many other ways it has that we could discuss, I’m trying to keep this meta brief while also covering as much ground as possible.

Basically: Keith does not make for a stable team leader, and him as permanent BP was never going to be fulfilling for him anyway, because not only did he not want it, but the narrative was never going to be able to make it seem like he’d earned it, because Shiro was the one who had literally fought Zarkon for the Black Lion, won and used the bayard, and then died for it. There is nothing Keith can do to compare to that.

Allura, while she should not have been BP either, would have made for a much better leader. She’s more level headed, still would have had to bond with the paladins, but would have been the one actually honouring Shiro in more than just armour and without kicking and screaming about it. She was trying to keep up the war effort, form a coalition (whereas Keith is there ruining her diplomatic dinners in 3x01 and never apologizing) in addition to everything else. Having her in the Black Lion and everyone else be in their OG Lion would have made for the most stable team possible, which is what you want in war, regardless.

So yeah, there’s a reason why after s3 I nearly dropped canon, flat out, because it was already making major, nonsensical choices that while plot was being prioritized over character, the plot also wasn’t making sense. But we will, again, touch on that later. It’s also demeaning, because in the lineup we have now, Allura is fourth in command of Voltron, with Shiro, Keith, and Lance all above her now. She used to lead all of them, and we’re expected now to not view her as having been downgraded? 

And now having mentioned the latter two, I want to close off the discussion as to why Allura being in Black would have been beneficial for the two other characters fans were constantly vying for to be BP as well. Without further ado, let’s look at:

Keith and Lance: An impasse

Keith and Lance are complicated characters for me—not necessarily due to their development (they largely have none) or emotional complexity (hardly any) but because of the way the general VLD fandom has coddled them since day one. I’ve talked about my heavy dislike of the Black Paladin Lance fan theory before, so I’ll let this post do the talking—and yes, watching everything I hated about BP!Lance happen in canon but with BP Keith was beyond painful, thank you for asking. 

But what I want to talk about here, actually, for any Klancers out there, is why either of them being Black Paladin is basically fundamentally detrimental to their relationship, in particular if Keith (like in canon) is. I’ve spoken before about how widespread fanon Klance post-s2/s3 is basically just discount canon Shallura, but the main issue with either boy as Black Paladin is that it forces them into an unfulfilling character arc. 

I’ve already touched on what it would do  / has done to Keith, but for Lance, it would reaffirm his ‘hero fantasy’ from s1. The show’s doing that by having him being rewarded with Allura, anyway, and him being beaten down and just told that Keith will always be better than him, but not only would Lance, who’s best at support, struggle in a long term leadership role, he would never come to the realization that he has to define what he thinks is worthwhile about himself, independently of what other people say is typical heroic behaviour. It also reinforces fanon’s bizarre fascination with turning Lance into a younger Shiro, while not caring about Shiro as a character at all either, so. It’s bad folks.

What’s more, either of them being BP is also bad for Keith and Lance’s relationship—romantic, platonic, however you wanna spin it—with each other. Namely, for one reason only: him and keith get to be actual equals, which can’t happen if Keith is BP and commandeering him as a leader. It’s not possible, neither of their leadership styles demonstrated in show are collaborative, and no matter how much work s3 tried to do for them, they still had a long way to go to be over their rivalry (however one-sided) to even get to a point where one of them being the leader of the other was going to have any positive inflection on their relationship. S3 certainly was not it.

Without them as purely fellow teammates, their relationship is at an impasse, and it can never progress to anything other than, perhaps, friends, and probably not even close.

Team Dynamics As A Whole

Lance and Allura

I want to make it clear that it’s not that there’s no way Lance and Allura could have worked as a couple. I don’t think they’re well suited for each other regardless, but the show’s pacing / relationship development really screwed each of them over in numerous ways, and I talk a bit more on that here, as well.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that a romance with Allura, who Lance indisputably thought of as a prize in s1, is detrimental to Lance’s character arc. And it’s detrimental to Allura’s too, but let’s be real here—Allur@nce has always been about Lance’s feelings. They’re the only ones that existed or mattered to him for a whole third of the show after all, as he didn’t care how annoyed or irritated she got with his advances and flirting.

And this is still tied to Shiro, as well, because of the way the show structures itself. The first is that one of the first things we learn about Shiro is that he is, in Lance’s own words, “his hero.” The second is that Lance only steps up to begin to support Allura in s3 once Shiro is gone. It sends a message, however subconscious, as we don’t see Allura bond with any of the paladins in s1 other than Shiro (and Coran as always, of course) that Shiro was her pillar of support.

If Lance sees Shiro as the ideal Hero, and Allura as what the Hero Gets, then doesn’t it follow that the perfect way for him to see his thinking is flawed, and for him to value himself for what he’s already good at, is by having them get together and him have to move on and let go and learn how to genuinely happy for them? And possibly end up with someone else, as well, or also have an arc about how romantic love isn’t the most important thing. Instead we’re getting a Lance who is possessively jealous for six seasons, barely interacts with Allura in s7, and then she’s blushing at him, and it makes any time I could believe Allura having affection for him even as a friend A) tainted and B) clunky at absolute best. Instead we’re getting a Lance who’s never been called out for any of his behaviour either by other characters (actually, Shiro was the only character to, back in 1x01) or by himself.

Plus, there’s an oddly long list of Allura and Lance interactions that either revolve around Shiro, or he’s relevant for, either way.

Kuron

Ah, Kuron. Where do I even start with Kuron beyond the fact that he deserved infinitely better? But also just let me say that Kuron, as an extension of Shiro, is a perfect example of why conflict within Shiro and Allura’s relationship is compelling. Their fights, in any season, are rare, but when they do, they have an immense impact on plot (meanwhile Keith’s fights with everyone hardly ever do) and give weight to whatever perspective each are offering.

But more on that: our primary emotional connection to Kuron is through Allura. I’ve written extensively on the way Allura and Kuron’s relationship is, as an extenion of Shiro and Allura’s, defined in s5. [X, X] The fact of the matter is the development between them actually goes back to S3. I’ve looked, and Allura is the only character shown to mourn Shiro in any way beyond Keith, and beyond the group ‘talking about Shiro’ scene at the end of 3x01. She is also the teammate who makes one of the biggest changes to honour Shiro, not only becoming a paladin, but wearing armour to honour him alongside the other paladins of old (including her father) who we know she holds in very high esteem. And this not the first time Allura’s emotional reaction to something regarding Shiro is placed on par with Keith’s, even if she has none of the year long history or familial defined bond with Shiro that Keith does. So really, what gives?

Namely: Allura is the teammate who knows on a certain level that something is wrong, because they don’t argue with each other like this. This goes back to an earlier point of mine, that Shiro and Allura’s arguments are always interesting because as co-leaders, they have a crucial affect on the plot and the team as a whole (think of how 1x10 and 1x11 went, respectively, in the team’s reactions/discussions to Shiro and Allura’s choices, specifically in regards to each other).

Shiro and Allura know they cannot individually fall apart, nor collectively, lest everything else will too. 5x03 shows that, in seasons one and two, they were very close and worked extremely well together, because Allura comments on how much things have changed and makes it clear how much it has unsettled her: “Shiro has been quite difficult lately. I’m not sure what to do. We seem to constantly be at odds.” It’s not that they don’t have disagreements, it’s that, since Lotor has come around, that the man she believes to be Shiro suddenly feels like someone she’s constantly fighting against, when it was never that way before. She relies on him and trusts him, and he’s been her steady ground, her eye of the storm, and now that he’s back and things are still wrong, Allura, who is always coming up with a plan and doing her best to look towards the future with an optimistic lens, doesn’t know what to do.

[X]

What this means is that Allura is placed, however momentarily, firmly where the audience is: we know something isn’t quite right, but we don’t know what, exactly. Lance, while he has a strong emotional tether to Kuron as well, is never disconcerted or doubtful, which puts a wall between him and the audience. And while Allura and Kuron are at odds in the beginning of season five, they are routinely on each other’s side throughout the rest of the arc. 

They both support Lotor and Kuron always supports Allura’s ideas; Coran and mostly Lance are the ones who try to shout her down from doing what she wants (even when it was objectively logical and the best solution in the situation at hand, in 5x06 with Oriande, for example.) Kuron, by giving Lotor the Black Bayard, is also the whole reason why Allura ever trusts Lotor at all. Kuron is always very mature towards him even when he does disagree, and Kuron and Allura are the two newcomers to Monsters and Mana shown to have a lot of fun playing throughout (whereas Lance is a bit more cajoled because he wants to impress Allura).

There’s also the fact that Kuron and Allura fit the pattern of narrative foils established by Shallura and Zarkon/Haggar. Namely, Kuron is corrupted by Haggar, similarly to how Zarkon turned on the other paladins to save her (to a degree) and Allura is the purifier to fix Haggar’s corruption. Kuron represents a version of Shiro’s Black Paladin that technically, fulfilled Zarkon’s previous role. But Shiro, who is the antithesis of Zarkon the same way Allura is the antithesis of Haggar, cannot be corrupted. I’ll talk more about it once we get to narrative, but yeah, it’s there.

There’s also an interesting consistency of Kuron and Lance having similar expressions/responses to Allura, and Lotor and Allura’s relationship, in S5/6. 

Lotor

Just as a quick precursor, all the parallels between Lotor/Allura as an unhealthy romantic relationship (yes, even in s5, especially) and Shiro/Allura as a healthy romantic relationship: [X] [X]

all of this but especially:

“You’ve done much today, Princess. You need your rest. We’ll continue tomorrow.” // “What are you doing here? You should be resting. […] I know how you feel, but you have to step away for awhile. It’s what’s best for everyone.” 

allura talks to lance about her fractured relationships and feelings with both of them

some meta about similar, and contrasting scenes (focuses on s5, written pre s6) including, being alone on the bridge, comfort (or lack of), and what makes allura smile at them

lotor and shiro both fighting in the galra arena, both winning, and both battling zarkon and technically killing him with the black bayard. shiro and allura going to the black and white lions’ astral planes with a galra emperor in tow, who lose, while shiro and allura get new abilities and bonds with their lions

some episode similarities between 1x11 and 6x06

for that matter, similarities in body language and framing of shiro losing allura in 1x10, and lotor’s betrayal

matching white hair

allura never regretting ‘shiro’ even when she didn’t know how or why he had turned on the team and tried to kill them, but she did regret trusting lotor.

All on the same page? Good. Then, there’s the fact that the narrative put Shiro in a good place to be everything Lotor wasn’t. Slave to the Galra VS the Galra prince, for starters, both leaders, both with a similar work ethic to Allura and can match her. But where Lotor only values Allura for what she can do for him, Shiro values her as a person and proves that time and time again (1x10, 1x11, 2x05, 2x11, 2x12). There’s the symmetry of Lotor appearing in the story when Shiro disappears, both of them using the Black Bayard to take down Voltron, as previously stated. She’s betrayed by both Lotor, and Kuron who she thinks is Shiro, in a matter of minutes. Then, once she’s fully given up on Lotor, she gets to bring Shiro back home. 

The weird thing is though, that despite how much of a shitshow s7 was, it continued this trend. Shiro helps Allura down from a truck, much in the same way Lotor helped Allura down from a ship. Lotor builds his own Voltron using Allura’s magic. Shiro creates the ATLAS, a Voltron-like mecha, using Allura’s crystal. So they literally each have their own Voltron through Allura’s magic, and yet the show expects us not to pay attention to it. 

There’s also the way Allura’s magic becomes framed through her relationships with both of them. Lotor abuses her magic by lying to her, and then trying to kill her. Then, Allura gets to reclaim her magic by bringing home a friend she loves, Shiro, in an act of purification and healing. Shiro’s hair then, like Lotor’s already was, becomes white, linking all three of them together.

It goes even further with the parallels of Shiro, Allura, and a Galra emperor earning their respective Lions, while the Galra emperor loses. Allura gains the White Lion, and Shiro earns the Black Lion’s trust. Lotor and Zarkon do not, and are subsequently defeated by the end of their arc. 

And unlike Lance, Kuron removes the possibility of Allura’s actual feelings towards Shiro being marred through everything. Shiro not being there while Lotor and Allura were romancing removes him as being a second choice because during that time, he wasn’t actually an option at all. Meanwhile Lance was, and we see Allura pick Lotor over Lance (as she had every right to, honestly) every time throughout all of s5 and s6. Hence why Lance will now always feel like a rebound to the audience rather than something fresh that already had grounds to be romantic before Lotor came in (ie. Shallura’s s1 and s2 development when Allur@nce consisted of only flirting and invasion of boundaries that annoyed Allura greatly and repeatedly).

Last but not least, there’s the fact that in 6x06, Allura blames herself for trusting Lotor, but even when ‘Shiro’ has tried to kill them all and she has no idea why, Allura point blank refuses to blame Kuron.

L: You didn’t put us in this situation. It was Shiro who went rogue and released the virus in the castle— A: No. this is my fault.

(X)  #can u believe even when she knows 'shiro' tried to kill them and attacked her with the black bayard and she watched him walk out with lotor #and was the one to warn the team and say he's lost his mind and  she had no explanation or real proof as to what had happened #even when lance 'that guy's my hero' blamed shiro for the terrible situation they were in  #even when allura was heartbroken and so full of regret for trusting lotor  #she never blamed shiro  #she never regretted trusting shiro #she wouldn't even consider it and just  #god she loves him SO MUCH 

Allura’s relationship with Lotor just proves that Shiro is everything that Lotor is not, and was the best candidate to unbreak Allura’s heart in a way that would’ve been narratively satisfying. But with s8 on the horizon, it doesn’t seem like it’ll go that route. But Allura’s love life is not the only thing that’s been ruined by a lack of Shallura.

And with that, let’s go back to the paladins.

Coran, Pidge, and Hunk

Shiro and Allura, together, unite the team. Not necessarily in an inspirational speeches type of way, although there is that too, but they’re the ones who have relationships with each member. In s1, Allura is close to Coran and brings him into the fold, Shiro is close with Pidge and Keith. He’s a legend to Lance, and both Shiro and Allura have some moments with Hunk here and there (although Hunk doesn’t have very well developed relationships with anyone other than Pidge in canon, in all honesty). 

But the thing is, Team Voltron desperately needs unifiers. When Shiro was gone in s3, the team stopped feeling like a team, and it hasn’t felt like one since. There’s hardly any scenes post-s2 where the entire team is together (either Shiro or Keith is gone, more than one character is ever allowed to miss someone if a character is allowed to at all, Kuron, who we spent four seasons with, is completely discarded, etc.) Worse is that Pidge, Hunk, and Coran are stagnant characters following s1. Now, this is more of an issue of the writers just not caring to give them arcs than how Shiro and Allura were mistreated, however, keeping their co-leadership in tact would have helped a few things.

I don’t think there’s any dispute in saying that, overall, s1 is the most balanced season. Shiro, Allura, Pidge, Hunk, Keith, and Lance, are all given arcs (even if the latter two is mostly focused on how their relationship with each other changes). Coran was mostly comedic relief, but he got his moments to be serious and useful and an emotional support to Hunk, and to Shiro, and Lance. You felt like this straggling team of strangers were learning how to rely on each other. And then s2 weighed too heavily on Keith and focused on inter-team conflict as a whole (Shiro and Allura over the Blades, Allura and Keith with the bullshit ‘not all Galra’ plotline) and everyone else got sidelined for it. And even then, the successes that Shiro made in s2 ultimately mean nothing because Keith got the Black Lion and Bayard Zarkon free without a lift of the finger. But we’ll save more salt about Keith for the next header.

But what would have happened if Allura had become Black Paladin while Shiro was gone, and Shiro would have taken back the role once he returned? For starters, there would have been no ‘Right Hand of Voltron’ asspull, and all the Lions would have been seen as equally important, rather than VLD creating a Lion hierarchy that completely undermines everything the Lions are supposed to represent. So Pidge and Hunk would not have suddenly been put behind Keith or Lance in importance, or leadership. Furthermore, it would have forced the writers to focus on team dynamics in order to create growth and conflict without having the new Lion switch being a pseudo-“Look at all this great character development!” as a deflect.

There’s a reason that following the Lion switch, Pidge and Hunk get no arcs where they make important changes for themselves (personality or goal wise, etc.) and feel doubly stagnant in the show’s narrative, because the show has said that the Blue is the starter Lion, Red is 2nd best but good enough, and that the Black Lion is a prize. No wonder Pidge and Hunk feel regulated to a whole lot of Nothing, because the dynamic s3 onwards was setting up was never supposed to have screentime for them. 

Basically, Shiro and Allura’s dynamic kept the team balanced, reactive, and at least two or more characters always on equal grounds with each other (ie. when Shiro and Allura did argue, Allura always had the final say, but she would often trust Shiro despite everyone being on her side regardless, such as in 2x03, “Shiro’s Escape”). 

The Lion switch and Keith becoming Black Paladin undid all of that. And well, let’s circle back to Keith now, shall we?

Keith (Again)

Many metas have been written about why Keith was not a good fit for Black Paladin - and he still isn’t, no matter what VLD tries to sell us. Part of is personality, but the main reasons why Keith is an unsuitable character to be BP is because of narrative (which we are always circling our way back to) and simply the lore created by VLD for VLD in s1/2, that they then shit over to justify something that only the EPs clearly wanted. I’ve spent many a time musing about why, above everyone, Shallura stans were the only ones who cared about Shiro being Black Paladin. We surely weren’t the only Shiro stans (although that being said, if you thought s7 was good for Shiro, particularly if you ship sh3ith, I’ll fight you in a fucking pit), and lots of people wanted Allura to temporarily be BP.

It’s because we cared about the dynamic of co-leadership. And when Keith ‘became’ the Black Paladin, it threw all semblance of co-leadership completely out the door. If you go back and watch s3, Lance is specifically called Keith’s ‘right hand’ AKA his second in command. Not his equal. So Keith went from being a loner to... being a leader without a co-leader, meaning that he’s narratively and realistically more isolated than even very reserved characters like Shiro and Allura ever will. 

There’s also the fact that Keith’s relationships with Shiro and Allura impact both of them negatively. Keith is constantly saving Shiro, and it’s hardly ever paid back because the narrative won’t let it be. Meanwhile, and this was largely an issue in seasons 1-4 and 6, Keith is always shown to be right / is supposed to have audience sympathy, while Allura is always wrong. That, and Keith repeatedly shows a strong disregard for Allura’s physical well-being, which is... concerning, to say the least.

Then there’s the fact that throughout the seasons when Keith is in charge, Allura suddenly isn’t acting like a leader, ie. she’s not allowed to be competent because then it would be obvious that she should be the leader instead. 3x01 is a perfect example of how VLD shows Keith being far less mature than her in leadership, and yet him still being magically picked for a leadership role by the creators, for whatever bullshit reason they can use to justify it. The only time in season seven that Allura is allowed to act like a leader is when Shiro is too (namely 7x09). 

Season seven does present an interesting, and shitty, conundrum, however. It places Shiro as the Commander of the paladins, where before that had been Allura’s job (teaching the paladins about the Lions, etc. sound familiar?). However, Keith still listens to Shiro and seems to defer to him in some way. But never to Allura, ignoring the fact that Shiro was the one who always deferred to Allura, and far more so than the other way around. The inconsistent characterization is because the show is trying to fit square pegs into round holes of the opposite place from where they’ve started. You cannot have characters be the exact opposite of where they started: something, anything, has to have stayed the same (ie. for ATLA fans, before his banishment, Zuko loved his country. Afterwards, when he’s gone through all his development and has become Firelord, Zuko still loves his country. Character development has to happen, but you cannot make a character a completely different one). And when it comes to your characters largely being defined in the role they fill on a team, switching those roles around probably isn’t a good idea.

There’s also some interesting consistency in how much Shiro/Kuron and Allura ‘parent’ Keith in a way, most notably shown in 4x01. Meta here. But that’s a side note, so let’s get to the big guns. Last but not least: 

The Narrative

First, a little run down as to what I define as Narrative. Narrative is the all encompassing scope of the story: every chapter/episode, every book/season, every character and the roles they fill in the story. It’s what allows us to make predictions, because Narrative is supposed to be consistent and build trust with the audience. This trust stems from the stories we’ve learned all our lives (especially with something that has mythological roots, and nearly everything does) that typically hit the same beats in order for us to feel satisfied with that story. That’s not to say that plot twists can’t happen, because they do, but it should always fit within the character or show’s Narrative. Narrative is especially important in something that is plot heavy—and famously important in sci-fi and fantasy works, and as VLD falls into both categories, Narrative is doubly important in a work like VLD. 

So let’s take a look at VLD’s Narrative.

1) Honerva and Zarkon are wed. When Honerva falls sick after years of disagreements with Alfor, Zarkon betrays the team and brings her to the Rift. 

Already, this should sound familiar: think Anakin and Padme in Star Wars, or plenty of stories from Greek myth and the Bible. Man betrays friends/etc on account / in an attempt to save the person he loves.

2) In the Rift, Zarkon and Honerva are corrupted by dark quintessence creatures. They are thought to be dead, and closing the Rift destroys the Galra homeplanet. They are resurrected as dark shadows of themselves. Zarkon wages genocide and Honerva changes her name to Haggar.

As even this early on in VLD, quintessence and Haggar’s abilities were treated like magic (she was called the witch by numerous Galra) corruption from magic is again, very well known. There are many sorceresses from Greek mythology who meet tragic ends: Medea comes to mind, as does Circe, and Morgana from Arthurian lore. Haggar changing her name is also, with something so relevant in pop culture, a nod to Star Wars or even Harry Potter. The consumption and use of quintessence and the deeds that Zarkon and Haggar take part in are evil and have thrown the galaxy fundamentally out of balance. 

It is a very, VERY old structure of a story, for the previous generation / parents of the current hero(es) to have plunged the world into chaos, and now the current generation has to right the wrongs and fix the world. Harry Potter does it (marauders are tragedy, Harry’s generation gets to be happy). Star Wars does it (very obvious). ATLA does it (Sozin and Roku, compared to Zuko and Aang). The origin myth of Greek mythology does it two times (Uranus to Kronos, and then Kronos to Zeus, respectively).

Narrative also includes bookends. It sustains that the place where the story began should also be where the story ends, even if much has changed.

Therefore, here’s what the Narrative structure of VLD should have been (and somewhat was) for seasons 1—6:

the Rift is not opened again until it is time for the final conflict of the entire show. If everything began with the Rift and the comet, it should end that way too. Not have the Rift be opened and then have nothing threatening inside it in the middle of season six.

Allura is Haggar’s foil, as an Altean alchemist. Shiro is Zarkon’s, as an uncorrupted Black Paladin. They remain in those roles. This is already supported very heavily by every ounce of canon that has consistent continuation of any sort of narrative.

Even down to minute details, such as Zarkon and Shiro’s first conversations with their respective love interest being so similar in its intent: “I will provide any support you require,” (Zarkon, 3x07) and “Why don’t you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help,” (Shiro, 1x01).

It also means that Keith is then Alfor’s generational foil: Red Paladin whose close to the Black Paladin, but there is no betrayal, only brotherly love. The fact that Keith is Galra, and also demonstrates a side of Zarkon through it, is just a bonus.

the Narrative stated in s1 that the Voltron Lions had to have the paladins, as well, Paladins, because each pilot’s quintessence mirrored their Lion’s. AKA the equivalent of being star soulmates. That bond cannot be broken except in Zarkon’s case, where Shiro had to fight him for it, and didn’t even win: the Black Lion made the choice, and Zarkon only wanted her for abusive reasons. Thus, the OG Lion lineup is the One True Lineup, all the way through. This is non-negotiable. 

Therefore, Shiro and Allura’s love/relationship (again, can conceivably be platonic, but then is communicating the message that platonic love is less fallible than romantic love, which, not true) is the key to ending the conflict that Zarkon and Haggar’s love

Narrative parallels between Shallura and Zarkon/Haggar, that I’d spotted since s2, were how I suspected that Allura would bring Shiro back following his battle with Zarkon, and how I banked on the fact from s3 onwards that if the show followed its narrative, Allura would be the one to bring Shiro back to life the same way Haggar did for her husband, an entire year and a half. And oh look, I was right.

On that note, it was also how I knew that Haggar would be the final big bad, and now that we’ve gotten to that point, let’s delve into it shall we?

Big Bad Haggar

There was never any doubt in my mind that Haggar was the endgame big bad (or at least, I desperately hoped she would be, as she was / still is my favourite antagonist in the series). It was clear from s1 that she was the personal threat to the heroes, rather than Zarkon, who was more distant. She sent the robeasts, she was the one who experimented on Shiro, she was Altean so her betrayal stung more, she was the one who Allura saved Shiro from, the one who used her magic on Allura, the one who contributed to both their personal demons, and who was obviously more powerful than Zarkon, and yet served him anyway. When it was revealed that they were married, I wasn’t surprised. They had the exact sort of relationship I’d seen in Shallura: unspoken, loyal, mutual, and with many parallels to Shallura in early s1-2.

I’ve seen a lot of pushing, with s8 only a week away, that Allura must be the one to defeat Haggar. And yes, that is partially true. They’ve both gotten Oriande upgrades and are still foils of each other. However, I think that seeing Haggar as Allura’s fight alone leaves out that it belongs to Shiro just as much. Not only was he supposed to be Haggar’s “greatest weapon,” what happened to Kuron only reinforced it. Shiro/Kuron’s connections to Lotor and Allura strengthen it as well. Then, there is the fact that Allura has already triumphed over Haggar. She defeated her in the s2 finale, and Allura also technically beat Zarkon by bringing Shiro back from the death that Zarkon sent him to.

Shiro, comparatively, has not triumphed over either of them, at least not in the same way. He didn’t defeat Haggar in the s1 finale, and while he won the Bayard from Zarkon, that was with Black’s help, and he died shortly afterwards. He also wasn’t the one to deliver the final blow to Zarkon either, and has never had a rematch with Haggar. The witch is his and Allura’s fight. Given the state s7 left Narrative in, however (which is to say: completely broken) I doubt that we, or any of these three characters, will get the resolution they deserve.

(There’s also a strange continuum between the s1 and s6 finale in regards to Shiro and Allura coming back to each other, and Allura saving him from Haggar’s corruption, on bigger scales each time. So interesting, and again, one of the reasons why while s6 was far from perfect, it at least was somewhat coherent from a storytelling perspective.)

Above all else though, Narrative is important because it is built by and builds

Emotional Continuity

It goes without saying that Voltron has emotional continuity. Emotional continuity, as this article explains, is important because “Writers must be conscious of every character’s moment before, especially in a story with multiple points of view where one or more scenes might fall between a character’s entrance and his previous appearance. It is easy to lose track of where their moment before left them. If we don’t go back and check, we may end up with jarring emotional transitions that don’t make sense.” Can you say every season of Voltron ever?

For example, let’s see all the emotional continuity VLD skipped:

Shiro choosing to risk everything to go back and save Allura, which early got them all captured (had Thace, a completely unknown variable, not intervened) never being addressed. Ever.

None of the team except Keith mourning Shiro (beyond a two line mention from Allura, and even then, she’s the only one).

None of the team missing / having no mention of Keith while he was with the Blades.

No one mourning Kuron.

Shiro’s bond with the Black Lion being completely removed and not even remarked upon once in s7, even in some bullshit attempt to explain it away.

Voltron’s lack of emotional continuity comes, mostly, from the choices to break away from the narrative and to service Keith’s singular leadership arc that had no chance of being well written, unless all of seasons one and two were as well. Kuron was a loophole, and not a person. Keith needs to be Black Paladin and we don’t have time to address it properly. The team is shown to be more upset about Keith willingly leaving them, a season after it happened, then Shiro being dead and then a clone attacking them immediately beforehand. 

VLD, after s1, never gives characters chances to breathe or bond, particularly as a group, or to confide heavily in more than one person at any given time. They aren’t allowed to have support systems, they aren’t allowed to actually process things, ever. 

That being said, in seasons one and two when Shiro and Allura were leaders, we had the most group bonding scenes (by default) and the team felt more like, well, a team. After Allura sacrifices Alfor’s A.I., the entire team stays with her as support, even if Shiro is the one who steps up. In 2x13, when Allura is hit, and when Shiro goes missing, the whole team rallies behind Shiro in determination against Zarkon, or alongside Allura in stunned grief. But they were together, and impacting decisions, and plot, and the scenes where the team tends to talk the most to each other and actually work through issues is when Shiro and Allura disagree, because they can be questioned and listen to their team (unlike a certain B “shut up and trust me” P). That allows for discussion, disagreement, and reconciliation. Not a team haphazardly strung together who are constantly following each other and trying to clean up everyone else’s messes.

Then, there’s also the fact that the two characters with the greatest potential for emotional continuity are Shiro and Allura. They’ve lost the most to the Galra, and their losses and drive to save the galaxy aren’t going to go away (indeed, they never do). Pidge’s emotional arc is finished when she finds her family. Keith and Lance’s got shafted, and Hunk and Coran never got one at all past s1 (once Shay was rescued). 

That’s not to say all those things would be immediately remedied, but if Shallura had been kept as co-leaders, Lance and Keith’s arcs wouldn’t have been in such separate directions, and both boys, Lance in particular, could have worked on getting what they need from each other (ie. a wider support system for Keith, and overcoming insecurities/internalized comparison making for Lance). Hunk and Pidge would have kept each other and Keith and Lance in the loop, just as Allura would have kept Coran.

What I mean by Shiro and Allura having the highest capacity for well done and powerful emotional continuity is, not only are we made aware of their losses in the first few seconds we meet them, but also that their losses are the ones that plague the galaxy. They are the enslaved and the oppressed people of the galaxy, those who had their planets burned and destroyed. Them overcoming the Galra, in particular, is an empowering story that says those who are beaten down are not beaten, those who have experienced loss are not lost, that you can rise up and make a difference and help people and end suffering. Theirs is the story the galaxy needs (that we arguably all need) in its fullest capacity.

And yet we get none of it and watch them lose endlessly and gain nothing back. It’s clear that instead of emotional continuity, VLD chose to prioritize emotional cruelty for its two most progressive characters with the greatest capacity to have an incredibly meaningful relationship not only with each other, but the wider narrative at large.

And since VLD did that, well, now it’s finally time to look at:

What Happens When You Try to Undo Shallura

Frankly? The clusterfuck that was season seven. The creators had to backtrack and retcon their own lore and relationship development hard. They had to toss important character/emotional/plot points completely out the window and let the fandom do all the work to piece everything together into some semblance of

ATLAS and Allura, Shiro and Black

Let’s get the obvious out of the way: season seven’s biggest problem (and it has many) is that Shiro does not regain his position of Black Paladin now that he has returned to his team. If the thought of Shiro not knowing the last time he’d pilot Black, the Lion he loved, would be moments before he died doesn’t upset you, I honestly don’t know what to say.

Then, once Shiro had been Black Paladin, Allura could regain her position as the Commander of Voltron, and eventual commander for the Atlas. FFS, her crown jewel is what allowed the Atlas to exist in the first place as a mecha, and is the perfect representation of what her ‘family’ (again, if we can call the paladins her family) has become: half human, and half Altean.

More than that, it means Allura doesn’t lose her last piece of her home and gets the respect she deserves. It means Shiro gets to defeat one of his abusers with Sendak instead of being the damsel rescued by Keith yet again. 

Right there, half the problems of season seven (again, there would still be issues, but it would make Narrative sense) are solved. Immediately. However, there’s still one loose end:

Adam

I don’t think there’s many people who would dispute that Adam deserved better, and I definitely believe that he did. (Does?) It’s another missed opportunity of emotional continuity for Shiro and Allura to be mourning / commiserating about their former lovers (although Adam and Lotor are not the same at all) and speaking plainly, there is no universe I would be comfortable with Shallura being endgame if Adam was still dead. Regardless of if there was another happy mlm relationship or not, if Adam is dead and he and Shiro do not reach some form of reconciliation, then Shallura doesn’t work and VLD’s queer rep is even worse off, in a way.

Furthermore, Adam and Shiro’s failed relationship (because they wouldn’t have a happy, all issues resolved reunion had Adam lived whatsoever; they were bitterly broken up for months before Shiro actually went on the mission, people) highlights why Shiro and Allura’s would work.

For starters, it’s made clear both in canon and by the Josh and Kimberly that Shiro and Allura have always had the same goals, just different manners of getting them. Adam and Shiro’s relationship had reached an impasse where they both wanted very different things, and there was no way of reconciling them. In addition, the things that made Adam and Shiro’s relationship work (devoted partnership, hardworking) also exist in Shiro and Allura’s relationship.

As to how Shallura functions versus Adam/Shiro when it comes to disagreements, I think this graphic and comparison speaks for itself.

Adam deserved to be happy and alive, regardless of whether he and Shiro were right for each other. And by having Shiro be revealed as queer/bi in the reverse order of what usually happens in media (ie. a bi character is revealed to be bi when they start dating someone of the same sex) be not only refreshing, but if VLD cared an ounce for their audience, it would let Adam live as well. He was never supposed to be part of grand galaxy saving destinies, and he and Shiro were never given the screentime to have their relationship as well developed as one that, I’m not kidding, was given some form of development every single season of VLD.

Adam deserved to live and love again. And, to tie it back to Allura’s failed relationship with Lotor, Shallura would have provided the perfect opportunity for two very broken hearted people to find love with someone who understood and matched them from day one, who had the same goals and work ethics and morals, and who cared for each other deeply throughout. 

And with that said, let’s explicitly look at Shallura as a romance.

Romance

I’ve said before that narratively, Shallura is easy. Not only do they have parallels to every single canon romantic couple of VLD, but they provide the perfect sort of slowburn VLD claimed it was going for. VLD doesn’t want to focus on romance? Have a strong bond built on mutual respect, admiration, trust, and a devoted partnership edge its way towards being romantic in the final scene with a nice kiss or handhold. The romantic coding of VLD is very loose, but what it usually boils down to is: two characters from two different worlds, with aligned clothing and goals, working closely together on a longterm project as partners, and eventually fall in love. The above has described Shallura, Zarkon/Haggar, Krolia and Keith’s father, Lotor/Allura, and hints of Adam/Shiro. (Allur@nce doesn’t count bc of how long basic decency and respect from Lance towards Allura took.)

VLD made romance be the pitfall of the galaxy, and so therefore, as I’ve previously said, romance also has to help save it. This is helped by the fact that both L0tura and Z@ggar act as dark foils of Shallura:

zarkon and haggar are the complete fall, because they encompass both shiro and allura, and lotor and allura. zarkon is the black paladin (like shiro) and the galra emperor (that lotor eventually becomes). haggar is an altean alchemist, and it’s her madness that causes the fall. zarkon does whatever he has to in order to save her, but she’s also the one who makes him go that far in the first place, in terms of motivation. and if zarkon had just been the black paladin, but not also the emperor, his world wouldn’t have fallen to such disarray because he wouldn’t have had the authority to allow haggar’s work to continue; another ruler may have stepped in and stopped it. so both aspects of zarkon’s power and identity are part of his, his love’s, and the universe’s downfall.

and then you have lotor and allura, who’s a galra emperor and an altean alchemist. and while lotor follows in his mother’s footsteps in many ways, through going mad over the search for quintessence, it also goes to show the fundamental difference between lotor’s relationship with the woman he ‘loves,’ as opposed to zaggar and shallura’s more genuine love. because allura is a secondary motivation for lotor. he chooses his obsession and madness over her. and allura isn’t like haggar or zarkon; she doesn’t follow her lover into the madness, and instead leaves and gets out and turns on him as she rightfully should.

so what does allura, and the universe, actually need? shiro. he’s the black paladin, an invert of zarkon, who believes in peace first and always strives to do the right thing. allura again, is the altean alchemist, but she’s made it clear that she’s not like haggar, and shiro has made it clear he’s not like zarkon. of course he’ll still risk voltron for her, but he’ll never give into the madness despite it occasionally tormenting him. he’ll always come back to himself, he’ll never make her choose, and he will always choose her, who won’t lead him into the madness either. they’re the completion of this circle, of breaking the cycle. they love each other wholeheartedly but also love the universe to not lead it into ruin the way lotor and his parents would have, or did. they’ll heal it, instead. they’re the best of each of their foils, and none of their brutality, and that’s what makes the difference – and makes them perfect for each other, narratively at the very least, but that’s another post, for another day.

And that Shiro and Allura both fulfill what the other needs most: [X]

allura needs devotion, and loyalty. it’s loyalty to her father and what voltron could be that inspires her to work. it’s loyalty to ideals and it’s loyalty that causes the paladins to follow her. it’s loyalty she needs from the coalition and the blade, in order to win the war. and shiro is as loyal as they come. he’s the first to follow her out of rooms, hangs back in battles to make sure she’s okay, he risks voltron to rescue her, he refuses to leave her on numerous occasions. people tell him the flat out risks of death and personal destruction that could come from rescuing or staying with her and each time he says that it just doesn’t matter, only she does. he’s right beside her all throughout the latter half of 1x09. he’s right beside her through everything. he never willingly leaves her (outside of a mission, and even then, it’s always with her permission) and when kuron did, that’s how i knew that something really wasn’t right. and while kuron isn’t quite as loyal, he still overall does a pretty good job. allura needs people to want to follow her to the ends of the galaxy, and shiro has never once faltered since day one with, “we’re with you princess.”

and then you have shiro, who i think above all else, needs to be believed in. in s1 he’s terrified that the galra really have turned him a monster, but allura chose and believed in him as black paladin even with what she knew about zarkon, and what shiro himself didn’t. he told her he could make do without a bayard and she believed him. he told her he’d timed the sentry patterns in prison and she believed him. in s2 he doubts his connection to the black lion and wants to choose a successor, just in case. but allura never stops believing and reaffirming as the black paladin. she believes and trusts him about ulaz, even when keith and the rest of the team doesn’t. keith doubts shiro’s pick of him as a successor and allura never does even when the rest of the team is surprised or against it (mostly lance) and immediately congratulates him because it’s what shiro wanted, isn’t it? we only see allura doubt shiro once when it isn’t even shiro and we see how much it troubles her, and when kuron turns and attacks the team allura still doesn’t blame him and believes that there’s another explanation, that she’s all fault.

It’s made even more obvious in s6 when it is proven that Shiro is everything Lotor is not, and values Allura as a person and a friend, not just for what she can do for him or bring to his cause.

VLD gets its slowburn romance, the narrative is fulfilled, Shiro and Allura need only a few nudges of development with other after the foundation of s1 and s2 (but also season one to six) were set down, and get to be the rightful power couple of the universe, everyone else’s development on some basic level by default follows suit, and bam, everyone is happy.

That, of course, is the opposite of what VLD s7 has done, however.

So Where do we go from here? (aka can vld be fixed?)

Simply put? Nowhere. 

No matter what season eight does (even if it makes Shiro permanent BP) it will not be enough to rectify all of the damage done by season seven. S7 broke the story largely beyond repair in just about every way, and with everything else that needs to be resolved in season eight, there is no way they’d had enough time to do everything that should have been done over an entire third (or twenty-six episodes) of the show. The remaining thirteen are already going to have to put up with a lot of bullshit, and I know there are still ways the final season, while I’m not watching it, can piss me off (Allura staying on Earth with Lance, Allura dying, Shiro staying on Earth, canon Allur@nce, etc). The fact that three of those four things have to do with Allura shows the damage done to Shiro in season seven: he was very little further down he can fall than what he was already stripped of over the course of thirteen episodes, and the immense ableism and racism that came to a head in the worst way, in addition to VLD contributing to a very homophobic trope.

What we can do is look at VLD through as critical an eye as possible to ensure that not only bad, but harmful storytelling, doesn’t happen in the future.

All we can do is write and support Shiros and Alluras who do get what they deserve. And I believe that somehow, that’ll be enough.

But yeah: here’s (most of the reasons) why a Shallura was the necessary thread that kept VLD from unravelling completely. If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this, thank you. If you’re interested in seeing a well written VLD that treats Shallura and its characters right, check out my sideblog over at @voltron-fix-it-fic. All the issues here are fixed and addressed because a focus on Shallura, whether romantic or platonic (but lbr, it’s strongest romantically) is the key to the success of anything related to VLD.

To those who still love these characters, and are finding joy in their own fanon and ideas, I salute you. It’s what we all need.

And, at last, Dragons out.

[welcometoteamz]

I’ve ranted about what I didn’t like in iZombie S4 and what I would do differently, but tbh, I would go back and apply a lil bit in S3 tbh as well.Most of it involves my trash boi Blaine.

I had multiple verses set during the year long hiatus between S2 and S3 where I wrote Blaine’s amnesia as being legitimate. That said, I’ve made my peace with the fact it became a lie. It honestly makes more sense for him to try to turn his life around, but get caught in a lie and fuck it up for himself due to his own insecurities and fear of rejection. I’ll stand firm on that.

Which is why the reveal of having him be the one steal the cure irritates me.It’d honestly would have more tragic if he still tried to behave himself even after his lie was exposed, and it was the hit from Angus that dragged him back into his old life after he got his retribution.The fact he was with Peyton while lying is no doubt problematic and I’m mad at them for getting me on board with that and then pulling the rug out from under me... but in my mind?He was still going to try and start anew even if she chose Ravi. If Ravi hadn’t slept with Katty Kupps, and Pavi sailed in S3, and Blaine continued to be a lounge singer while working at Shady Plots…I think he would have been content.

Which goes into ways he could have gotten out of his lie, which someone as cunning as Blaine should have thought about.Like. Why not get out of the lie, with another lie? Say that Ravi’s memory serum works? That way Major is injected with both at the same time, and no one suspects anything is afoot when his memories came back? Then they do the same thing to all the other zombies when it is possible to mass produce the cure.Blaine gets his fresh start, a new job, and to be happy with Peyton.

Sure, he loses the brain business, but I think he’d give all that up for being actually truly content and happy. Let’s not forget, that was the same episode Angus took his inheritance back. Had that not happened, would that be something Blaine would have done? Knowing that even if he didn’t have the business, he had those millions to fall back on? I think so.Going back to his stealing the cure, though… and why that doesn’t entirely work for me…

Let’s be honest. There was a lot of inconsistency. At the end of episode six Blaine apparently is cooking up blue brain juice, and you may think ok, he is still thinking about the brain business. It may be possible he stole the cures after all.

The very next episode, though. He was in a depressed funk. He had caring about the business when he was in his depressed funk. Candy had to get on him about the orders. When Don E. and Dino show up at Shady Plots to tell him they’re taking his brain supply and customers, he’s visibly angry, but also looks defeated before Dino shoots him. Like he’s just so broken down at that point that he’s just accepted it. Would that guy even have bothered to steal the cures, if he didn’t care about the business?

Hell, if you hadn’t seen the prior episode, would you have thought that Blaine bothered to cook up blue brain juice before going to drunkenly sing at his lounge gig?It’s not until his sense of self preservation kicks in when he’s shot, that he has a sense of what to do with himself. First things first, that’s revenge.

Then he discovers Angus’ plan to team up with Fillmore-Graves (WHICH DOESN’T EVEN COME INTO PLAY AT ALL IN S4 WHEN FUCKFACE RETURNS. NO ONE CALLS HIM OUT ON HATING FILLMORE-GRAVES, REMINDING HIM OF HIS PLAN. HOW AWESOME WOULD IT HAVE BEEN IF THIS WAS EXPOSED TO HIS CHURCH AND THEY TORE HIM APART LIKE THE HYENAS DID SCAR IN THE LION KING) and that’s what reinvigorates him.

Now there are two tangents I could go into here. So I will.

The first is how Blaine’s storyline in the back half of S3 may have suffered due to Andrea Savage leaving the show for her own series, I’m Sorry. It’s possible we would have seen her and Blaine face off if she learned he presumably killed her husband Harrison.Which. Is an issue I have with S4 as well. Chase is Harrison’s brother. He works with Blaine.

Upon meeting him, he would be smart enough and would easily be able to figure out that Blaine was the OG brain supplier and would have been the one to kill his brother.Once he no longer needed Blaine, i.e. was done with his blackmail? He would have put him in the guillotine. I expected this, honestly. I expected Blaine to pull the same card he pulled on Liv in S1. That without him, they have a zombie apocalypse on their hands. There was a brain shortage prior to the outbreak when Blaine approached him in the S3 finale. In S4 it’s even worse than it was then. There’s even a plot about Major tracking down watered down brain tube dealers.

Chase is a proud man, he wouldn’t have gone back to Blaine automatically… but after the US Government cuts off the brain supply in the finale, Major enlists Blaine to increase his operations.You don’t think that in the middle of the brain shortage crisis, Chase would have bitten the bullet and remembered Blaine’s proposal? Ok, at this point, you’re probably asking yourself. “Mmhm, okay, so maybe that’s a better plot for Blaine… but then who did steal the cures?”

Osborn Oates.

Don’t remember him? Yeah, neither do any of the characters, apparently.He was the guy who was Natalie’s captor. Who apparently had the the influence to bribe Max Rager guards under Vaughn Du Clark’s nose. He was described by Ravi as being like a Bond villain.Natalie warns Major that wherever he goes, he’ll find her, but then… he doesn’t. She travels the world. He doesn’t track her down. Even when she herself would have been vulnerable and amnesiac.He doesn’t even try to track down Major and find out what he knows, or if he was responsible for her escape. We know he is aware of Major. Major and Ravi followed he and his body guard.His body guard even checked Ravi’s morgue ID, and would have known where the cures were kept had he known about the cures.

Which… I think, Natalie might have told him about, in an effort to barter her freedom.Remember when we first met her? She said that since she was paid in brains by Blaine, who had become her pimp after turning her, that she ran through her savings and was broke.Yet… when she returns in S3, she tells Major that she traveled the world and had a place in Italy that she got thanks to her savings earned as sex worker.So… what is the truth?

I don’t want to speculate about a villainous lying Natalie. I actually liked her character, and she was certainly victimized and I don’t want to take away from that at all. Given her desperate situation though, might she have made some choices out of self preservation? Her own best interest?I think there was more to the Natalie situation than we got. I think it suffered because they went from 19 episodes in season 2 back to a 13 episode order. I don’t know if her exit had more to do with propelling Major’s character’s decisions, or if because Natalie’s actress Brooke Lyons had gotten work as a series regular on the show Life Sentence. Maybe a bit of both?

Maybe they did plan to kill her at the end of the arc, but the arc happened sooner than anticipated due to the shortened season? Knowing that they’d be losing her, they couldn’t carry that thread over to S4? So instead they just dropped Osborn Oates, and over the summer Rob Thomas decided to change it to Blaine in S4 because no one would question it?

Sorry Rob, I question it. You said in post S3 interviews that you planned to reveal who stole the cures in the finale, but there was no time so you’d get to it in S4.Really? That’s why? No time? If you had the time, how would it have come into play? The way it did come into play was Blaine seeking out Mama Leone, because Chase was blackmailing him. Are you telling me Chase would have done so in the S3 finale? That you would have seeded Renegade as a plotline even then?

I’m calling bullshit.I think it’s far more likely that your plans fell through, and you needed the time over the hiatus to do a rewrite.Even if Natalie had nothing to do with the cures being stolen, if it was planned to be Blaine all along…

You kill her off, and she doesn’t even get to confront Blaine? They never have a scene together? He’s responsible for her being a zombie, which led to her being kidnapped, and then held hostage.Yet he helped Major find her when he could have pleaded ignorance. He gave him Oates’ address and let him know when he was back in town.

He didn’t have to do that. He could have said that it’s not the address on record, said “I guess Oates is thorough and has someone else handle his pickups” and Major wouldn’t have questioned him.

He could have elected not to tip Major off that he was back in town. To stay out of it. Had he done so? Major wouldn’t have been able to find Natalie and give her the cure when he did.I’m not saying this excuses Blaine of what he did to her at all, or that the two would have been “even” or made peace. Not at all. There is no retribution for what he did to her.It does however, go back to my belief he was legit trying to change.

As for why Chase never mentions or figures out Blaine killed his brother? Why wasn’t that a thing? Why didn’t we get more time to know Chase and see his conflict, rather than having it rushed to him buckling under the pressure of the job?

In hindsight, knowing what we do about the actor who played Blaine’s father… I kind of wish Chase had gotten that series regular promotion instead. What did the Angus stuff really add to the season, at the end of the day? Blaine would have taken Major’s deal regardless, whether or not he was in debt. He would have done it just if it meant he wouldn’t be put in prison, and because he’d get a kick out of having Major at his mercy.

Which… he shouldn’t be in debt right now either... because now Angus is dead for real and he should have those millions. Or did he spend those millions, when he came back, to feed his flock? I imagine someone else took over his business, but he still had all his personal accounts.

At the end of the day, all the Brother Love stuff was just a bunch of filler. You know what would have been interesting? If Brother Love used Enzo to reach out to those remaining dissenting Fillmore-Graves employees that Carey Gold told us existed but we never saw in S4. We saw corruption in S4 with Russ Roche, but the only real zombie supremacist within the organization was Enzo himself.

Speaking of which, what happened to Enzo? Did he die along with Angus’ flock? It seemed like they were building to a big finale that was going to be Angus’ church throwing a revolution against Fillmore-Graves, with Liv and her Renegade folks stuck in the middle.By the filming of the last episode, did they just decide they didn’t want to give Angus’ actor any more screentime than it would take to organically write him out? Cause his exit was anticlimactic. I mean, the actor didn’t deserve any more screentime. I wouldn’t want to see him on my screen, but...

It happened in a news report.Thing is though, I don’t know if that was why. I mean, they made Angus a regular, and he only interacted with each series regular save Blaine once. He interacted with Peyton in 3x03, before he was even a regular. His only conscious interaction with Major was when he and his squad checked out the church. He interacted with Liv when she and Levon went there seeing if he could help them get more brains. Another thing which is never touched upon after that episode.His only interaction with Ravi and Clive took place at the same time in the interrogation room

.Yet we had that whole subplot of that kid Tucker who was a zombie hater who became a Brother Love devotee after being kicked out of the Romero’s basement by Blaine? Okay, what happened to that kid? Did he die with the flock as well? We never saw him. We spent all that time with him, and why? Just so he could kill someone and Enzo could let him go, and pass word on to Angus?

…Enzo couldn’t have just approached Angus himself, after attending his sermon? Or did he feel like he needed to prove himself, considering Angus’ distrust of Fillmore-Graves? Ok, but then...

Again, Angus himself wanted to partner up with them in S3. Inconsistent. Yes, you could say he changed his mind after seeing their regime and how Chase led them. That he lost his mind in the well, which he did.…but in hindsight… given what they did with him, and the fact he was played by a man accused of multiple accounts of sexual assault?

I wish we hadn’t seen him come back at all. He should have been left in the well to turn into a Romero. Blaine should have just not fed him. All that extra screentime, we could have gotten Blaine vs Chase (in the wake of Vivian) with Liv caught in the middle and just trying to help people. Instead we got… a mess…

In my personal opinion.

[void-tiger]

Just a few VeeLaDee Fixit HCs (series title pending)

So, first things first. Both Jiro and Takashi live. Lance isn’t idle with his promise to Jiro about “we’re gonna get through this”. But instead of what most the fandom went on about, Lance doesn’t expose Jiro as a clone, but instead builds upon being his “right hand man” and gives emotional support/advice to his friend.

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Jiro’s actually the one who discovers Takashi. Which...initially doesn’t go well. It’s kinda been established that Shiro’s extremely harsh on both himself and who he views as “failed leaders”.

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...which Jiro doesn’t handle his clone-status or Shiro’s reaction well whatsoever. He’s still determined to get Shiro OUT no matter what (and refuses to say a negative word about Shiro), but, it all just adds to his depression and feeling like an imposter and just can’t see beyond “Get Shiro OUT And Back With His Team/SpaceFam” (which the others actually pick up on for once and aren’t having ANY of it.)

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But eventually both Takashi and Jiro adopt eachother as “twins”, and Jiro accepts the name “Ryou” but doesn’t use it right away, choosing to explore who HE is with the nickname HE chose for himself, vs risking falling into yet another “replacement” role.

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Eventually, yes, Keith does return with Krolia and Romelle in-tow, and they return to their OG Lions. However, Keith loses his thunder a bit for his “grand reveal”—the others already figured it out and took Lotor back into custody as they try to figure out what to do about what’s left of the Galra Empire. Not like they can risk another Kral Zera, especially with Sendak and Haggar still at large, and the Blades have proven themselves to be top-down anarchists who don’t play well with others, unfortunately. (Krolia is also characterized differently than “canon” tried to have us believe. Sorry, guys, but too many things about her character just DON’T add up. So, fair warning.)

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Pidge and Allura are the ones who figure out how to pull Takashi out of BlackLion, treating it like a “transporter accident” with Takashi just...stuck inbetween.

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BlackLion loves both Shiro her Paladin and Jiro her protem Pilot. More on that within the verse itself, but yep, I’m toying with the idea of having a rotating Pilots Roster for when for whatever reason a Paladin cannot fly with their Lion. (It also gives various characters I’m pulling in from both VeeLaDee’s side characters, and a few versions of Vehicle Voltron characters something to do besides just manning the Bridge, Engine Room, and Infirmary so that the Castle can truly regain its former glory as a fully equipped Support Ship.)

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There’s a timetravel arc planned, the end result being s3-onward being completely ignored. (Yes, that also means my “early verse” won’t exist for anyone other than my Paladin of Time, but I’ve decided it’s worth it.)

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How much Takashi retains memory-wise both in and out of BlackLion’s inner quintessence field is...sketchy. Essentially this place exists “outside of time”, so to an extremely vague degree Takashi retains memories/acts on events from both timelines, both pre and post TimeTravel Shenanigans

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The transreality meteors are essentially “eggs”. Meaning, the Sincline Ships get reforged into three new Lions, who are also compatible with the OG Lions. Jiro remains both a Paladin in his own right with his own Lion, but is also still recognized by BlackLion as an alternate Pilot as-needed.

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The ATLAS doesn’t exist. Instead, Sam builds the PROMETHEUS (and doesn’t make it so obnoxiously big that it can’t fly without the aid of a “paladin” and teledov-go-boom-diamond). That said, the Castle doesn’t get blown up, either (as...the events leading up to that in “canon” never happen.) The PROMETHEUS also serves as a writing device to explore the Garrison/gives the Garrison Characters and Holt Parents something to do. (Think badass middleaged parents/mentors still doin’ stuff. ‘Cause screw ageism.)

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The MFE Pilots aren’t cadets, but graduates/officers in their own right, with Adam probably serving as their commanding officer. (Veronica’s part of another team before eventually joining the Castle Crew fulltime.)

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Which, yep. Adam lives and gets some much-needed character development. (He doesn’t, however get to date Shiro ever again. But he does finally work through his bad attitude and become a much bette partner to someone else on the Prometheus Crew. Probably a reimagined Curtis.)

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I’m HCing nearly all of these characters as either bi/pansexual or (bi/pan)ace. So, lots of flf, mlm, and flm ships, a few of which are queerplatonic.

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I’m currently creating my own “canonical” timeline to follow, which once I’ve posted it to Ao3 (eventually) will be free to use as a general reference for anyone who wishes to do so. (I’ve been working on this darn thing since literally s4, then decided to update/continue it once I realized I not only wanted to write holiday fics, but got so pissed at s7&8 that I flatout decided to make a TimeTravel Arc for Fixit.) All my future VeeLaDee fics will be compliant with this timeline unless I specify otherwise.

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I do intend to explore a “post game” after Haggar’s finally defeated as the Galra, Alteans, and universe in general tries to transition into a stable era of peace after 10,000 years of strife. (Which...in hindsight is a bit like Vehicle Voltron. Whoops. But I’ve had this idea as a needed solution since s1...well before I started working through Vehicle Voltron with the intention of borrowing characters.)

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Yes the Black Bayard can become a prostheic for both Takashi and Jiro. However, this is mostly a stopgap until the others can create usable detatchable/NON-weaponized prosthetics for these guys to use (that they don’t have to share like the Fates’ eye). After they gain their new prosthetic arms, the Black Bayard (and Jiro’s own bayard) take on other forms...but can still be Weaponized Arms as-needed. (Personally I think these guys would be relieved to NOT have prosthetics they wouldn’t ever have to worry about accidentally slicing/burning their friends after, say, being woken up from night terrors. That, and the Lions’ controls are conduits—you don’t need to have all your limbs to fly with them. Heck, you could even fly with them blind if you had to, as established in literally s1)

[ironinkpen]

The Secret of the White Lion

Alternatively Titled: Local Girl Ignores Responsibilities in Favor of Overanalyzing Children’s TV Show

Alright so ever since we were shown this mural, which depicts Voltron fully assembled and a lion off to the side, some people have started discussing the possibility of there being a sixth lion. And since I have nothing better to do with my time (besides my midterms next week whaaaat), I thought I’d try to answer the question: if there is a White Lion, who would pilot it?

Now I don’t want to get too into the whole idea of “how likely is it that this is going to happen” because like? That’s hard to tell. But, I’d say that it at least makes narrative sense for there to be a sixth lion.

What Alfor faces throughout Zarkon’s fall is the very real possibility that the leader of their magic robot lion fighting team could easily end up crossing some sort of line and going too far. Alfor begins to doubt Zarkon’s leadership, and has several arguments with him about his judgment and his and Honerva’s hunger for power. It’s not that big a stretch for Alfor to go from “this dude could try to use Voltron for evil / go rogue / etc.” to “I need to have a back up in case he pulls some shit.”

And a hypothetical sixth lion could logically be that back up. If Alfor built one, the idea was probably for the lion to either be an alternative head for Voltron or just an alternative lion in general, in case any of the other lions were unavailable, so that they could still create Voltron even if someone went missing / ran off / turned evil. 

And there’s a pre-existing precedent for a physical white lion, too:

In one of the Voltron spinoffs / AUs / whatever (I’ll be real, I only know as much as the wiki page tells me lmao), there’s a White Lion, whose location is only known by Alfor. Alfor leads some guy named Rick Hunter to the lion and he becomes its pilot. 

And of course, in OG Voltron, there’s an episode titled “Secret of the White Lion” where Haggar makes a mirage of an actual white lion (ie not a robotic lion like the voltron lions), and sends it to Allura, who thinks it’s a reincarnation of her dad, to try and kill her or whatever. 

So the idea of a White Lion in our Voltron wouldn’t be completely out of the blue, and would solve the problem that Lance expresses in season 3: there’s six pilots and five lions, so who should be on the bench?

With a White Lion, the answer would be “no one.” But then the question becomes: who would be its pilot? And as far as I can tell, the answer is either Shiro, Allura, or Lance.

Alright, so I maintain that the Shiro that’s with the team right now is actually a clone, but, let’s say that he’s real. Or, rather, let’s say that when real Shiro comes back, Black still chooses Keith or someone else as the Black Paladin. Shiro could, in that case, fit the role of the White Lion’s paladin.

In OG Voltron (or, at least, the English dub, which combined Shiro with his twin brother), Shiro left Team Voltron and worked with the resistance, coming back in a final whammy against Lotor. While I do think that Resistance!Shiro is a completely interesting concept on its own, having Shiro be in the White Lion would allow him to not only be a fighting force for the resistance, but also be able to go back and forth between it and the team more easily, so we wouldn’t have to lose Shiro from the team dynamic. 

Having Shiro be in a lion separate from the main team would also allow more room to explore his lost memories and what happened to him during his year in captivity– he would have more mobility, and still be able to hold his own in battle, making it actually possible for him to run off on solo “let’s discover my past” adventures. And, given the original Voltron’s precedent for having Shiro outside of the main cinco, this would make sense.

Allura is another possibility for the White Lion’s paladin. One of the most compelling pieces of support in her favor is that the white lion story in OG Voltron was all about her. Her discovering the White Lion, her father’s final legacy, would be an interesting plot line. And I dunno, there's this sense that Allura has this unique place in the group that's almost separate or above Voltron itself-- giving her the White Lion would allow her to act independently but also continue to be a paladin (which is a role I love her in ahhh). She could lead without being in Black in that case, and I honestly think the mobility of being able to operate outside the main group suits her? One of my favorite scenes in season 2 was when the castle shorted out and she and the Blade ran off to fight Haggar.

On another note, having her in White and Alfor being its creator is in tune with something the cast said about why they “killed off” of the Alfor AI: he basically knew too much. What did he know? Well, maybe the existence and location of a White Lion, which his daughter would be the perfect fit for?

There’s also another neat theory that the castle could be the white lion. And think about it: only Allura can pilot it to its full potential, it’s linked to her quintessence, and is shown to have a mind of its own to an extent (seen when it actively tries to kill Lance and Keith during the Crystal Venom episode, showing an ability to reason to some extent). And, speaking of the Crystal Venom episode, it seems to mirror the events of the original “Secret of the White Lion” episode, where Allura is tricked by something she thinks is her father (in this case an AI) and almost gets killed.

Also, when Allura moves to Blue, she complains about how Blue’s controls are different from the castle’s in a similar way to how Lance complains about Red’s being different from Blue’s. The castle seems to operate pretty similarly to the lions. Coran mentioned that his grandpa built the castle but I don’t recall ever getting the exact timeline of when he finished. I don’t know, maybe Alfor could have jumped in and asked to add some aspects of the comet to it? It’s probably not all that likely lmao, but wouldn’t it be super fucking cool if the castle suddenly transformed into a magic fighting robot?

Anywhom, last possible pilot:

Lance has expressed on multiple occasions a sense of being a “seventh wheel,” or kind of separate from the team. In this scene, when talking to Keith about the whole five lions, six paladins situation, he puts up six fingers and, when he’s done, singles himself out as the one separate from the five others. And, interestingly:

The hypothetical White Lion is pictured as separate from the others as well. 

Lance seems to view Allura as Blue’s true paladin and Keith as Red’s, so he sees himself as not having a real place with the current lions. But, maybe that’s because he hasn’t found his real lion yet? 

(On that note (and this is sort of a tangent but still neat): look at the team’s color coding! Everyone else is color coded to their lions (Pidge wears a green shirt, Hunk wears a yellow shirt, Keith wears a red jacket and a black shirt, Allura’s outfit is Blue, and Shiro’s is Black) but Lance is color coded white)

Plus, if I’m right about the White Lion being an alternate head of Voltron / alternate lion in general, placing Lance in that position makes sense. The crew of the show has said before that Lance’s thing is filling spots that need filling. And, since he and Keith (if Keith is still Black Paladin after Shiro’s return) are something of a dynamic duo, having them being able to swap places would be a really interesting dynamic (and fucking hilarious).

Also, Rick Hunter, the pilot of the White Lion in the comic I mentioned earlier, seems to be a pretty similar character to Lance? Wiki says: “As a young man, Rick was good-natured, although he could be disrespectful at times… Throughout the course of the First Robotech War he went from being a relative pacifist into a full-fledged soldier, becoming a deadly ace who even the Zentraedi feared.” Good-natured, sometimes disrespectful, deadly ace… It’s food for thought.

I’d also say there’s something of a chance that Keith could be the White Paladin? I don’t have too much support for the theory yet, but his whole view of himself as the “loner” and the hanging plot line of his mother and his mysterious past would make him well-suited for the White Lion’s mobility.

Anyway, as with all of my metas this is Getting Too Long and doesn’t make sense lmao (sorry I just wanted to scribble this down before s4), so I’ll cut it off here. My point is that while I have no idea how likely it is that a White Lion exists (though again, I think it’s narratively possible and maybe even narratively probable), you could squeeze an interesting arc out of any of these possible pilots. Plus, having the White Lion (if it is an alternate lion) around would allow for a lot of mobility and give everyone possibilities for cool solo adventures that I think would be fun.