#Vlds three stooges

[blood-starved-beast]

Yeah, Keith would probably leave Romelle with the generals and Acxa would take it upon herself to watch after Romelle and protect her from Zethzor, because Acxa's a good friend. She's totally not trying to impress Keith.

I feel like post show Acxa wouldn't be trying to impress Keith as much as she did with Lotor. Like part of the character development she had was essentially coming to terms with her own capabilities, and also she's older now than she was in act 2. Act 2 she was likely in her late teens and trying to be the Best General. I don't get the impression she'd be like that post act 3. Her and Keith's relationship would carry the level of maturity of one between adults if that makes sense.

That being said I feel like Acxa would give Romelle a weapon, tell Ezor and Zethrid to not be a pain, and then leave them be while she's doing a task for the BOM. Zethrid and Ezor of course ignore that and then get smacked by Acxa for being too rough with Romelle.

[blood-starved-beast]

The Grudge is so wild. Zethrid is mad her wife left her so she goes and beats up her other ex's clown-to-clown co-communicator so said ex would show up. She does.

Acxa tries to win Zethrid over by saying that she (Zethrid) should come with her (Acxa) and then Ezor (the wife). Then proceeds to assert that she "refuses to give up on [her]" before bringing in the ex-wife who was Really Fucking Mad Actually that Acxa left in the first place back before she left Zethrid.

Say what you want about vld and gay rep but this wlw drama is on another level

[blood-starved-beast]

what are your thoughts on zethrid and acxa being foils in the sense that zethrid was raised more within galran society since childhood while acxa wasnt? logically speaking i dont rly see the likeliness of that but it is interesting to think abt imo 🤔 its entirely possible that zethrid was also "born and bred in war" but sort of grew from it in a different way than acxa did? similar situations couldve let to their relationship/friendship/anything but ultimately different ideologies caused a rift

i sort of wonder where ezor fits into all of this but i cant rly think of anything for her 😭

They're foils yes.

We see from early on that Zethrid and Acxa have an antagonistic relationship. This is initially cause Zethrid and Acxa have contrasting philosophies: Zethrid is all about getting what she wants immediately and fuck everything in her path she is going to get it. Acxa works behind the scenes, plans things long term, gathers intel, and acts accordingly. In the wormhole tech piece mission, Acxa was constantly telling Zethrid to back down from destroying things, to stick to the plan

This is a reoccurring argument between them, and this conflict presents itself in various times later on in the form of Acxa's opposition to Zethrid's plan to carve out their own territory in space. There is Acxa's infiltration and the explosion in Zethzor's ship, after she abandoned them to find her own path, and it boils over the Grudge. It's clear this contrast between them is something the writers had in mind and there's a sense it was always going to end up like this.

So when Acxa tries to bridge a gap between her and Zethrid, it's interest that what connects them is how they both suffer from the same anger and resent from being discriminated against.

So they share that backstory. But unlike Acxa, I don't get the sense that Zethrid is very introspective about her experiences. Zethrid is deeply galra. Her plan to carve out a space for themselves speaks to a very galran mindset. Acxa connects to her through their shared discrimination, but beyond that I don't think Zethrid knows or cares about her heritage.

Interestingly enough, I believe Zethrid might descend from Kythran desert people, who as we see with Te-Osh, have very similar appearance to Zethrid in some ways.

The Kythran people claim to be neutral with regards to the Galran Empire, or at least told Pidge that. If Zethrid is half-Kythran desert tribe, then her experience with her non-Galran side is likely less complicated then Acxa's. That, however, doesn't detract from the discrimination she received from full-blooded Galra, and probably is why she isn't as invested in Empire reform the same way Acxa is.

Still, Zethrid is still very Galra, which if she wasn't rejected by her non-Galran side, speaks to her likely being raised by her Galran parent, if only to explain that experience. Which, given the Galra, likely raised in the military setting that led her to become the soldier we know. I don't think she grew up in a war zone either way, but was immersed in war culture none-the-less. This is why she doesn't see any other option than to become a warlord herself - that's the only way the Galra become strong and protect their own in her eyes. Maybe something happened to her possibly Kythran parent? And perhaps she sees it as a weakness of their blood, thus why she values strength so strong. Zethrid is very protective of Ezor, and assumes the role of the protector in their relationship as well.

Ezor is the "mediator/middle ground" of the group. She's the most empathetic of the team*, when she makes a blind joke she automatically apologizes to her, cause she's conscientious of Narti's feelings. She clocks that Acxa has something going on with Keith, cause unlike her Acxa is not very empathetic by nature, she needed a whole ass arc to realize that people have the capacity to change etc. Ezor was the one to point out to Acxa how dangerous Lotor is, the one to mourn Narti most overtly after Lotor killed her etc. She obviously is not a perfect mediator (she enjoys violence and cruelty too much to be effective at it) but still.

While Acxa and Zethrid are both spitfires in opposite directions (or more accurately, Acxa burns like how touching something very very cold burns), Ezor doesn't have the same level of ambition as either Zethrid or Acxa. She's Acxa's friend, Zethrid's wife, a part of their shared family. When she's out of the picture, the whole thing falls apart.

That being said - Ezor's backstory. Ezor develops a strong and present fear of Lotor after he raves about killing the Galra. I say that moment specifically is the key of the change, cause while she disliked him before for Narti, she willingly teams up with him to escape Honerva, even for a moment. She, out of all the generals, picks out that Lotor is dangerous, points it out to Acxa. She fears Lotor's return, even though she herself is now a warlord and could probably take him easily now, Sincline aside. After Acxa and Keith bomb them, she is the first to leave that life, further suggesting that being a Warlord for her doesn't provide in her eyes, the security she craves. Even then, we know she delights in punishment and torment, and it makes her feel better about her own fears, like a bully. This suggests that Ezor grew up in an environment where fear was rampant, and I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that she, like many bullies, was terrorized by the galra growing up.

She is least Galra-passing of all the generals: it's possible she's less than half galra, but Galran enough to use the tech. I headcanon she was raised non-Galran, hence why she's more empathetic than the rest of team Sincline, but her trauma made her vindicative. She craves security, and knowing the Galra have power, is likely why she teams up with Lotor initially, and goes along with Zethrid's plan. Acxa, who is assertive in her own right, was another option, and why she listened to her after they left Lotor, and after she left Zethrid. Her empathy led her to change on her own in a way that took longer for Acxa, and was difficult for it to click for Zethrid.

This is a long way to say - I think Zethrid grew up in Galran culture in a similar but different experience from Acxa. Whereas I headcanon Acxa to have a bad relationship with her non-Galran side, leading to her rejecting it, Zethrid has at best neutral relationship with it. She wasn't raised in the culture, but amongst Galra, leading to a very Galran mindset and point-of-view. I believe their shared experience of being rejected by the Galra led them to become close - or close as their anger would let them - and respect for each strength allowed them to work together, but their respective ideologies caused friction between them. Zethrid seems to like aggressive smaller women (Ezor, even Allura in that one scene), so I can see her being drawn to Acxa in a way. Ezor is more Zethrid's type, being someone Zethrid can protect, which is something that is nearly impossible to do with Acxa (like Keith, Acxa is unhinged about her plans and will stop at nothing to complete them). Ezor, with her empathy, is able to mediate both personalities but her trauma made it so she sought someone who was strong and she could feel safe around.

*which makes her cruel side all the more apparent see: when she tries to blow up Keith and Krolia with the Sincline ship in s6.

[blood-starved-beast]

What would the generals' Tumblrs look like? Lol

Would the generals have tumblr?

Off the top of my head, I can see Ezor having one, if only cause she wants to have an account on every social media possible. She balances preppy, girly girl stuff with hardcore messed up shit. Like gore. She finds it funny. As one can imagine hellsite would mark her blog as nsfw. She also has tiktok where she vlogs and also has weird offputtingly violent things on it.

Zethrid would not have a tumblr, but instead an instagram. She posts workout stuff and advice about getting fit. It is physically impossible for any human to see any success from her methods.

Acxa would have a tumblr but only cause Ezor told her to make one. It is the default wallpaper + icon with no posts. Anyone would assume she is a bot. It is never opened. She is active on one (1) social media site and that is bird app, where she makes real bizarre tweets, not unlike something dril or some other ironic account would make only she tweets unironically. She goes viral cause Pidge, who has a large following cause of voltron fame, and also the MFEs (Nadia especially), frequently retweet and share her most bizarre tweets.

This is only tangently related but I had a headcanon that she is also internet famous for a series of equally bizarre space pilot safety PSAs. This headcanon comes from a really unusual driving PSA the official vld bird app account made with her in the focus some years back. Which I cannot find, unfortunately. Someone eventually ties her tweets to the PSAs and she becomes a meme celebrity on Earth. Acxa herself does nothing with her online fame and actively avoids being included in any of Ezor's (or the MFEs for that matter) tiktoks.

[blood-starved-beast]

sometimes I wonder what happened to Romelle in the end. I like to think she started hanging out with the Galra Girls (Zethrid, Ezor, and Acxa)

That would be cute but I imagine Romelle would be peeved off hanging out with the Three Stooges cause they're in very different social circles. Not that she couldn't necessarily handle them but it takes a certain character to handle the way Zethzor are with their petty humor and the whole group's ingrained dysfunctionality, which I don't see necessarily easily translating to Romelle. But I can see Romelle trying to strike a conversation with Ezor or Acxa (emphasis on "trying" on the latter - Acxa would likely derail the conversation with her weird brooding shit).

[blood-starved-beast]

OK WAIT BUT THE WAY THE GRUDGE EPISODE BECOMES SO MUCH BETTER IF U PRETEND ACXA HAS A CRUSH ON ZETHRID LIKE IT ADDS DEPTH AND LAYERS AND OMG ZETHCXA>>>ACZOR (unrequited love <333333333333)

YOU!!!! YOU GET ME

It's insane how vld has Acxa put herself before Ezor in trying to win Zethrid over in the faceoff. Even more so when you remember that Ezor was supposed to die in the original script, meaning that Acxa either way, was putting herself up as a reason for Zethrid to join the Coalition.

That's wild. like this woman's thing is all about focusing single-mindedly on the mission and abstract goals and only that everything else be damned. She just got back from a talk with Veronica over her self worth as a person and the first thing she does? Is that. Then this:

And judging by what Zethrid says prior to this, this isn't the only time she goes tries to goad Zethrid over either. Only this time she brings Ezor along who Zethrid is actually in love with. You know she's done inside:

And that's not including all the other micro-tension between her and Zethrid throughout act 2. Acxa's all polite and stuff relatively with Ezor and such when Ezor's got a question or misspeaks, but when it's Zethrid? Acxa puts her whole ass into getting into correcting Zethrid.

Don't forget these:

When you can't have her so you vague her pissly as she goes on dates with and is interested in your mutual friend and co-worker:

Just saying

[blood-starved-beast]

what do u mean by rancid!acxa? she sounds kinda fun tbh

When I say "rancid!Acxa" I mean more her vibes than her actually being dirty or unkept (though I imagine her to be a lot dirtier in act 3 than act 2).

And by vibes, I mean that she, at least in act 2, is a pretty gosh darn awful nerd. At best, she is misled by Lotor to put her friends (who also unofficially function as her subordinates as Zethrid and Ezor defer to her mostly in decision-making) in danger and harm's way. At worst, she is agreeing with and contributing to misleading said co-workers/friends to do Lotor's awful bidding (manipulating Allura) while also putting said friends in the aforementioned dangerous situations. While also backstabbing Lotor several times to boot lmao. Lotor's comfort is of no interest to me, but what she did to Zethrid and Ezor was pretty shitty, considering that they did trust her to lead them right. And depending on your interpretation of her expression in s4ep5, she could have known about Narti being set up. which makes everything worse. It's possible that she didn't know and the show leaves it intentionally vague but still.

In act 3, she again is going up against Zethrid and Ezor (who aren't particularly surprised by this, I mean, I wouldn't be either all things considering) and fights them in support of team voltron. Now, they've been presumably out of contact by a while then and likely at odds, but still??? No sense of loyalty to that past? No regrets? She literally blows them up. It's insane to me. And doesn't even bother to apologize to them about causing actual physical disfigurement for it in the Grudge. Yet, she has the audacity to come up and tell Zethrid to switch sides and puts herself before Ezor.

Unbelievable. The most character of all time. Her rancid energy is unmatched.

All of that plus she is an obnoxious nerd who corrects ppl on extremely minor details

Love this obnoxious, rancid nerd and her troglodyte bad vibes so much. And I mean that with the most genuine of affections.

[blood-starved-beast]

Talked about this on the bird app but I can’t get over the relationship between Acxa+Ezor+Zethrid in the show.

It says so much that in the confrontation after being separated for three years Ezor drags Acxa for a perceived romantic interest in a dude than bringing up the fact that Acxa led them on a lie for Lotor after he killed Narti only to rejoin him later (and they get abandoned afterwards). And we know Lotor’s a huge trigger for Ezor (heck she discusses it over with Zethrid earlier the same ep) so it’s not even that. What it tells me is that Ezor understood -

a) how Acxa put Lotor on a pedestal and how that put her at a risk of manipulation

b) Acxa was in fact manipulated by Lotor, and actually thought he had the best interests at heart so she didn’t hold all that against her.

c) Acxa’s deal with Keith is different than that with Lotor

No what grinds Ezor’s gears was the perception that Acxa prioritized Keith (and possibly his ideological influence) over them and thus Acxa splitting from them and that was reprehensible to her. 

And even when at odds with each other they get each other and even with the amount of violence/betrayal inflected on each other (to a level that absolutely would be a deal breaker had this been any other relationship) they still seek each other out/help each other in the end says so much. Despite her betrayal to Lotor Ezor still seeks out Acxa since Acxa knew where to look for her in the Grudge and knew that she left Zethrid. 

And even then instead of taking out her anger on Acxa who betrayed them a second time with a literal bomb Zethrid takes out her anger on Keith, whom Ezor identified as the corrupting influence (and Zethrid trusts Ezor’s judgement) and decides to take him out and not Acxa herself. And the fact that Zethrid, while destructively angry, doesn’t take her anger at Ezor herself for leaving her but instead goes on a self-destructive charade never expecting Ezor to take her back nor intending to coerce her to says a lot about where how she sees them both. 

And despite being brutally physically assaulted and the guy she admired/maybe has a not-crush on almost killed Acxa still tries to reason with Zethrid and get her to change and citing that both she and Ezor will be with her. And even after Zethrid’s apprehended she makes a repeated effort to convince Zethrid to switch sides despite seeing no outward indication that Zethrid’s behavior was changing. The fact that she chose reuniting her and Ezor and reconciling their relationship says it all.

And all that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Acxa educating Ezor on Thayserix in a calm voice without condescension, Ezor knowing that she doesn’t have to toggle Acxa after she cuts communications with Lotor in s4ep5 cause Acxa would immediately jump on her for it (while simultaneously trusting her to not rat her out to Lotor directly), Zethrid never really taking issue with Acxa snapping at her ever (even when it’s after she interrupts her talk about her long term plans), a ton of little things. It speaks to a deep care and understanding of one another that we really don’t see much of in the rest of the show or heck even in other shows. 

It’s a great found family dynamic and I would trade them for anything else in the world.