#because the thing is I’ve removed the altean colony as a whole and I’ve removed olkarion

[sockdooe]

Me: ok ive just about fleshed everyone’s character, all the paladins, alteans (including romelle and her brother), zarkon, Alfor, melanor, honerva/haggar, Voltron, the lions, quintessence, the universe, altea, galra, diabazall, and overall world building in my universe

Brain: alright awesome, how about Lotor

Me: who?

[leakinghate]

Chasing the Ghosts of Season 8

Let’s skip the flowery intros and get to the point, because this is important.

Lotor’s vindication and reunion with Allura were originally part of VLD s8 and I can prove it. Most animation relating to this plot was excised, while other clips were re-purposed to make it look like he was dead all along: but some are still in there.

The removal of this plot line was one of the major factors in completely messing up season 8, and it was a change that was made very recently; no earlier than August in fact. There is a significant, non-zero chance that an unedited version of Season 8 exists in its entirety; completely finished.

The evidence is below the cut.

Trigger Warnings: Gore - that image and discussion of it, body horror, sexism, and major character death.

There’s something rotten in the house of Voltron, and by that I mean Dreamworks animation, because for reasons yet unknown the season 8 we got was not the one the writers had planned to give us.

The people involved likely can't talk about it due to NDAs, but I follow *most* of the cast and crew on social media, and from the way many of them were talking prior to the drop it’s obvious that whatever they'd recorded had led them to expect a very different season.

The almost total radio silence afterward is also telling.

So far as I can tell, AJ (Lotor’s VA) is the only one actively posting about it, and his posts have been expressing his distress over what happened to Lotor - a stark contrast to his excitement about the season prior to its airing. It’s very apparent that he thought Lotor would have a very different fate than he appears to. At the moment of the season drop he tweeted out “Lotor was framed”, and later didn’t seem to realize that ‘Allura’ was trending because she’d died.

Some of the other VA’s scarce posts lead me to believe that they’re having similar reactions: a now deleted post from Bex (Pidge’s VA) about having watched up to episode 6 consisted of an image of DOTU Lance captioned with “[internal screaming]”. Bex has since removed all references to VLD from her bio.

I’m certain that the VLD s8 we got was NOT the s8 that was originally planned. Or the one the writers and VAs had been alluding to in various interviews up until recently.

We know there were some very last minute changes to season 8. I guarantee you that Ezor was actually dead before the backlash over Adam in August, and you're kidding yourselves if you think that epilogue existed before then either.

Kihyun Ryu's 'last Shiro' tweet - that we now know to be from the wedding epilogue - was posted on September 13th, 2018. Less than two months ago these changes were still in progress. Less than a month before the first trailer premiered at NYCC these changes were still being made.

And those was absolutely not the only things which were changed. It was hinted we should pay attention to the s7 episode "the Feud" to spot some foreshadowing. Well? I've seen both that episode and s8 and I sure as heck can't find it.

This was beyond last minute.

JDS and LM were still talking in ways that would lead us to expect Lotor’s redemption roughly up to s7 in August; so whatever happened, it went down between August and November. Which is probably why s8 is so shitty; with such a terribly compressed timeline to make edits.

And edits they were, because with those time frames season 8 was either completely finished or very near to it when someone decided that things had to change.

I can prove it.

Do you know how?

Because the animation was recycled and altered to fit the new story, with only small parts made new for it. And because it was something else first, it’s still possible to partially reconstruct the original Season 8 from it.

Lets start with the big one, the one I’m sure you’re here to read: Lotor’s redemption and reunion with Allura.

One of the most frustrating things about season 8 is that it leaves the colony unexplained. The big question, the thing that results in Lotor’s murder at the hands of people he calls friends, and leads to a power vacuum that causes the deaths of untold billions of people. What was Lotor doing at the colony?

It’s never addressed or given an answer.

At least in the version of season 8 that we got.

Or is it?

Because they might have removed the conclusion to that plot thread, but they couldn’t get rid of it entirely.

In e8 ‘Clear Day’. Allura's suffers from several nightmares/dream sequences. They don't make any sense in context, and it’s never explained what caused them. Except, they make perfect sense, if you watch them as the first step towards understanding The Colony. 

Allura sees herself standing in a Juniberry field on Altea. Her mother greets her and proclaims that Allura has arrived just in time, and that only she can save them, “Only you can protect us.”

A Galra fleet passes over head, raining down laser fire.

Allura suddenly finds herself the pilot of one of the white mechs. She plunges her spear into the ground, draining the quintessence, and then fires on the fleet; obliterating it.

But as she grins in victory she realizes that the quintessence she siphoned from the planet has turned her immediate landscape to ash, including her mother. Allura is horrified, but as her mother crumbles away her voice echoes, telling Allura she is so proud of her.

In case me describing it wasn’t clear enough: what just happened to her was that Allura was literally put in Lotor’s position, operating one of his mechs. The places and the people were those that Allura cherished deeply, so that she could understand how terrible Lotor felt about what he had to do. It literally puts Allura in Lotor's place: having to take the responsibility of destroying parts of something she loves in order to protect the whole. 

And her mother? The Altean who was ‘sacrificed’ in this scenario? Praised her for taking the actions she did, because Allura was the only one able to do it. And the only choice was to save most of Altea, or none of it.

When Allura eventually does take the entity into herself we see the lights of Honerva’s mech’s faceplate lighting, then flash to a scene of Lotor in Sincline. He’s laughing, grinning as he did during s6′s finale, and as the camera zooms in on his face he shouts “Follow me!”

Briefly we see Voltron in front of the planets of Earth’s solar system, which is drowned out by a peculiar scene transition: an intense white light that appears to obliterate everything as though in an explosion.

None of these scenes are ever explained, but it’s reasonably comparable to the flash of images that Haggar sees in season 3 when she is first confronted with Zarkon’s memories. We’re left with the impression that we’re about to be enlightened, and the end of the episode reveals that Allura has passed out on the floor unconscious.

In this version of season 8, we never are told what exactly caused Allura to experience those visions. We can guess: was it perhaps the entity tempting her with its dark magic? Honerva attempting to place her under a spell?

But is the entity really dark magic? It’s different from the types of magic we’re used to, and the colors of it are certainly dark, but it in itself never actually causes Allura harm. Any harm she suffers after taking it into herself is caused by Honerva exploiting it.

Could it be a spell by Honerva? Unlikely. It took her almost two whole episodes of the paladins fooling around inside her mind for her to notice they were even there. If Allura had never taken the entity none of Honerva’s plans would have ever been found out. Yes, she did steal all the energy from the Atlas’ crystal, but she did that primarily to combat the Atlas and disable it. She didn’t need to get it from there, the energy her Komars were able to provide was all she needed.

So what caused those visions?

Lotor did.

Once he was free of the rift he was able to connect with Allura somehow and reach out to her. That was really him. Where he is now, trapped under Haggar’s control, he has no means to combat the witch. But Allura does. Everything he says to her? Is true.

The next episode, s8e9 “Knights of Light: Part 1″ begins with Allura awaking, Coran and Lance by her bedside. She’s been asleep for two quintants (days). She has apparently come up with a plan to infiltrate Honerva’s mind, but from whence she gets this plan is never explained. That’s because we’re missing an entire episode between these two. This is where Lotor’s redemption happens, where he and Allura finally reunite. God knows what else was in that episode, what else was happening while the paladins were waiting for Allura to wake. Lotor bids Allura to follow him, to finally allow him to tell his side of the story, and for some reason we weren’t allowed to hear it.

But from what we did get to see? It all but confirms @crystal-rebellion‘s Colony Theory. Albeit, the white mechs were built by Honerva, but Lotor was attempting to keep the colony safe in the only way he knew how. The Alteans who died did so willingly; to preserve the lives of all the others.

There’s a repeated narrative that the only person who encourages Allura to take action, to strive and push forward, is Lotor. Sometimes others accept it, but they never encourage her. Everyone else seems to consider her too fragile, or not capable of making her own decisions. They want to protect her and coddle her, don’t believe she should be taking any risks. They are supportive emotionally, but want to limit her physically. They care about her, but don’t truly trust her judgement or want her to be making her own choices.

With Lotor though, it’s different. He truly sees her as an equal, respects her judgement in her areas of expertise. This plot line revolving around the entity is a prime example. Lotor provides Allura with the information, that she has everything she needs to take down Honerva right in front of her; she just needs to utilize it. But from the moment Allura wakes the people closest to her doubt her decisions and choices.

And yes, those choices lead to painful consequences, but in the end they are proven to be the right ones, to have been necessary. Allura took a calculated risk, and it pays off - if she hadn’t they’d have never caught Honerva in time to stop her from destroying everything. They wouldn’t even have discovered her plan in the first place.

If Allura hadn’t made the choice to listen to and trust Lotor, by her own judgement, reality itself would have ceased to exist.

Both Coran and Alfor are given specific scenes this season where they judge and approve of Lance in his pursuit of Allura. But key, neither of them ever ask - or even mention - Allura’s feelings on the matter. The s8 we got, rather disgustingly, portrays this as the right thing. I believe the original s8 was meant to subvert this. Because Lance is everyone else’s choice for Allura, but when Allura was allowed to make her own choice? She chose Lotor.

Allura once again ends s8e10 ‘Knights of Light: Part 2′ unconscious. I firmly believe we are missing more moments  - if not an entire episode - with Lotor here, in s8e11 ‘Uncharted Regions’ - probably explaining somewhere along the way how exactly he is able to contact her in this manner.

Which, uh... as to my personal theory on how that is, well... what did Lotor and Allura do together that might have crafted a unique spiritual bond between them?

What did you two experience in the quintessence field Lotor?

But, those were happier times...

I also think this is the episode, this missing one, that that particular image properly belongs to. We now see it in the previous episode, as one of Honerva’s memories. But the reason we see it is that the paladins apparently see it too. The only problem is, they don’t react to it at all. They literally have a stronger reaction to finding out they can see Honerva’s memories in the first place. There’s no possible way that Allura saw the melted corpse of the man she loved and had no discernible reaction. We see her reactions to Lotor’s presence multiple times over the course of s7 and s8, and they’re always intensely emotional ones.

But speaking of that image, since we’re on the topic. That’s a very detailed image.

There’s details there you don’t immediately spot, because you’re too distracted by the horrific imagery of the corpse of a main character. A character who’s tragic, abusive childhood was the focus of almost an entire episode earlier in the season.

Details such as the motes of light floating up from his body.

Motes of light we’ve seen in exactly two instances before: from Zarkon and Honerva’s eyes immediately after they were restored back to life by the rift.

And from Zarkon’s body: vanishing after he died.

Yeah guys, I’m about to make that image much worse.

That’s not Lotor’s corpse, because he’s not dead.

He’s still in there, in that state, and he’s been in there for over three years.

Melded, physically and mentally, with Sincline by his time spent in the quintessence field.

What. The. Fuck.

As the season progresses it becomes much more difficult to tell what was supposed to be happening because of how badly it’s been chopped up, re-arranged, and edited.

But there is a very distinct difference between Sincline’s two appearances in action - that is, it’s only in the first one that it actually is in action.

The last time we see Sincline move of it’s own accord is e6 ‘Genesis’. From the moment he reappears Lotor is on the attack; he is stopped only two times, once of his own accord and once by Haggar’s mind control.

And that one time he stops himself? Is when he takes aim at Allura. She’s running across the ground, about to strike Honerva with her bayard, when he raises his right arm and takes aim. We see her in his sights, through his eyes. And the view zooms in on Allura’s face.

Lance sees what’s happening and dives in Red to stop him, but is blocked by one of the white mechs.

Yet. He lowers his arm and doesn’t take the shot.

Lotor never fires.

But immediately afterwards the white mech lingers too close and Sincline impales it with it’s tail. It’s not an aversion to killing that stayed his hand.

It’s that it was Allura.

This scene unambiguously shows that Lotor is both alive inside that mech and somewhat aware of himself. He’s become a robeast.

Yet after that episode the mech never moves again. It hangs lifeless in space during the battle at the pyramid; the white mechs having to do the fighting. The lights on it’s chest have gone out, only relighting when it is charged with quintessence from the Komar. For all intents and purposes, Sincline is empty.

Oh, and speaking of Sincline, up until s8e9 it’s only ever referred to as “Lotor’s mech,” but suddenly, in e11 ‘Uncharted Regions’ they’ve learned its name and Allura calls it “Lotor’s Sincline���.

I think that at some point between ‘Knights of Light’ and the second half of e11 ‘Uncharted Regions’ Lotor was to have been rescued. 'Uncharted Regions’ is one of the worst episodes this season for flow: it’s extremely choppy and hard to follow - flicking back and forth between scenes without anything really happening in them.

But the most telling thing?

‘Uncharted Regions’ begins with Honerva in her haloed mech searching Alternate realities for her ‘perfect’ one. We see several clips of her doing this, the mech floating in front of the pyramid, alone, with the spinning disk of its wings as a viewport.

Suddenly, almost exactly halfway through the episode, we get an image of Honerva kneeling inside the pyramid, in her Altean commander uniform, one uniformed Altean to either side. She says “The princess has awakened,” and then the scene changes.

When next we see Honerva she’s floating above the pyramid, the silent and immobile Sincline by her side.

The entire time this is happening there is combat going on around the pyramid, first with the coalition fighters and then with the Atlas itself. This sequence appears in episode as though it all happens successively in a very short period of time. But it doesn’t make sense like that. Why should Honerva stop what she’s doing, and exit her mech just to check if Allura is awake?

In this scenario why does Honerva even care if Allura is awake? By this point she’s apparently found her perfect reality and is prepared to move on to it? She doesn’t need Allura for anything, none of her plans require Allura. Why should she even bother to announce that Allura is awake, as though this is something she’s been waiting for?

This entire episode, including the fight scenes, has been chopped into little pieces and rearranged. Other scenes have had edits to their animation, or were re-done entirely. What we have in ‘Uncharted Regions’ is a frankenstein’s monster of an episode constructed of the tiny remnants of of at least two, possibly three, original episodes.

If you watch this episode carefully you’ll notice that there’s a clip out of order. The lights on Sincline’s chest are dark until it’s charged with the quintessence from the Alteans on the Atlas. But. The close up shot of Sincline the paladins see immediately upon exiting the wormhole in front of the pyramid has the lights lit up. This clip clearly is part of the sequence we see later in the episode just before the mechs combine. So when the crew on the bridge of the Atlas is shown reacting in horror, whatever they’re actually reacting to has been cut out.

These original missing episodes would have contained what I’m fairly certain was our big Alchemist vs Alchemist reprisal fight between Honerva and Allura; something we’ve been waiting for since season 2′s finale.

Why was such an anticipated fight removed?

I think it’s because the fight was over Lotor, and ultimately Allura would have rescued him.

Every time Allura uses the powers she obtained in Oriande it’s mentioned where she got them, and often that she has them because of Lotor.

She’s shown again and again restoring life and health.

What happened, what we’re missing, is her using the abilities she has thanks to Lotor, to save him.

Allura is supposed to storm that pyramid, infiltrate it, and rescue Lotor from the evil witch holding him captive. She’s supposed to find him in that horrible state we saw him in, and she’s going to heal him. She’s going to fight for him, to protect him, when no one else in his life ever has.

There’s also a clear switch. When Sincline is active and alight Honerva several times refers to it as ‘my son’ but afterwards, she stops and uses Sincline as a tool for her to reach an Alternate Reality and obtain a ‘new’ version of Lotor. With the exception of one shot, where, since we can’t actually see her speaking it seems that the audio and animation are sourced from different original scenes, Honerva ceases treating Sincline as Lotor after the lights go out.

The line that causes Honerva to snap s8e12 ‘The Zenith’ is when the little alt Lotor says “My mother is dead”. It’s framed like a deliberate callback, like it should be echoing something. But it’s a line we’ve never heard. I’d hazard that this final rejection, this line was spoken by *our* Lotor as Allura is rescuing him.

Lotor was not dead in there, he was alive, and he was saved.

There is a really good theory going around, my friend @tsunemori told me about it. I don't know who first came up with it, but I fully support it, because I noticed the scene in question was really off too.

But the theory is that that hospital bed scene? Was originally Lotor in the bed after they rescued him, and Allura was in Lance's place. Which makes total sense, because after that scene, when Lance takes Allura to the bridge? His height is all wrong, and he is hanging onto her for support instead of the other way around: it should be Lotor there.

Do I have any concrete proof of this one? No. But there is something off about that scene. It just doesn’t feel right.

So yeah, if I ask myself, “Is this a scene that might have been re-animated, the characters traced over and re-drawn as different ones?” I can absolutely see that. When looking for places where actual edits to the animation have been made you have to factor in several things: the complexity of the animation - how many characters, how many settings, how much movement, who is the focus/moving/talking.

This is both a pivotal scene, and an incredibly easy one to alter, comparatively. Two characters, one laying still in a bed and only getting a single one-syllable line - the other character’s name, which might have been taken from anywhere. Lance has a long string of dialogue, but he’s sitting beside the bed the entire time, and he moves very little.

I strongly believe this scene was either altered significantly or created whole-cloth for this edited version of s8.

Things that are much harder to alter, because they’d be much more expensive, are the fight scenes. It’s where I started looking once I suspected what had happened with season 8, and it’s where I started finding things.

S8e12 ‘The Zenith’ is one of the best episodes in terms of flow, and I believe that’s because it suffers some of the least editing.

We are however missing at least two scenes: a farewell between Allura and Coran - presumably as Allura boards the Blue Lion - and an explanation as to how Voltron followed Honerva into her destination reality after the rift closed on them. I believe both of these scenes were edited out because Lotor was key in them; several scenes in the following episode s8e13 ‘The End is the Beginning’ lead me to believe that he spent the final battle in the Blue Lion with Allura.

Two scenes during the fight stand out to me: the first, a split screen where Keith is mysteriously given a double width section as compared to the others. It’s especially noticeable, because he’s not even centrally placed and he’s scaled to a different size than his fellow paladins. In the entirety of the series we have never before seen a split screen cut among an even number of characters where one of them is given odd prominence like this. The screen is arranged so the characters appear in a color gradient, Keith is red-black and immediately to his left is Allura who is blue. If there was a missing section here, the color space would correspond to indigo/purple - and those are Lotor’s colors.

The second is a moment when Allura is speaking facing forwards and very clearly looks to the side and makes eye contact with someone. Now, VLD does have moments when the paladins will react in their own lions as though they can see each other, but this isn’t like that. It’s the way her eyes move, and look, she’s talking to someone who’s point of view we’re seeing her from. And that person is Lotor.

There’s also a peculiar moment in this episode where the same split screen is used twice; another thing which has never before happened in the series. It appears first about a quarter of the way through the episode as the paladins enter the stage for the final showdown and then again as they push Honerva into the glowing whiteness at its center. I believe that the second one of these is its proper place, and that the one that originally went in the first instance had Lotor included in it.

Finally, and this is going to take several images, so be warned. When the paladins appear before Honerva in the heart of it all, fading into view, they’re spaced very strangely.

There’s six of them, so you’d expect they’d be spaced something like this:

But they’re actually spaced like this:

(yes, I know Honerva would be blocking someone there. She moves. I just picked this cap so you could see all the shadows; there’s no point showing you the empty space)

It rather looks like there’s someone missing.

The last half of the final episode is so heavily manipulated that it’s difficult to say what actually happened. But we have two very strong clues from which we can reconstruct it.

Remember the leaks?

Now that we know the leaks were real, it begs the question, why was this scene one of them. Unlike the others, which were all from the epilogue, this scene is from roughly halfway through the episode.

Well, I believe we have the answer now: whoever leaked them chose those because they were the scenes they had on hand. These were the scenes that were not originally part of VLD s8, and were added only in the last minute edit.

This one in particular is another where I think it’s taken an actual scene and traced over it to make it into something else. Lance is far too tall here, and doesn’t look like himself hardly at all.

It’s also very clear from the framing of the shot where Allura is going down the line of paladins and hugging them that Lance should be getting a send off in sequence to the others, not apart like this.

No, I think Lance was animated over Lotor here, and the audio was spliced in parts from Lance’s actual goodbye scene and Allura’s “I will always love you” comes from somewhere else. That portion of the line is said in a distinctly different tone of voice than Lance’s name beforehand. There’s different emotions to it than the rest of their conversation, and I’d guarantee we’re hearing it out of it’s original context.

I don’t know what else changes in the ending, but I’m very certain that it was not supposed to be read as Allura dying.

The reason we now read it that way is that Allura and Honerva are seen greeting the spirits of people we know that are dead. I’m fairly certain this scene is either new, or it was only Honerva going to meet them, and of course, that Lotor wasn’t among them.

And I think it was Allura and Lotor who stayed behind to do the work of restoring all realities. My proof of this is one of the very best and strongest among my evidence: the very last closing shot of Voltron: Legendary Defender, after the credits.

The lions of Voltron take off to rejoin their new Cosmic Entities; Allura and Lotor. Whoever was responsible for editing Lotor out of this picture only actually slightly blurred him.

Thanks to @articianne for the outline!

If you play around with the image contrast and brightness it’s even more obvious that the both of them are there, back to back.

It only looks like Allura dies because the spirits but without them there? It looks like they ascended to a higher plane of existence or something.

They haven’t died at all. They’ve become, of all things, like Bob, the gameshow host from s7e4 ‘The Feud’. An ‘all-powerful, all-knowing interdimensional being’.

And y’know? Bob was perfectly able to interact with the paladins no problem.

I don’t understand why these changes were made. To me? This looks like a perfectly happy ending.

What else was cut I don’t know. But I found all this evidence by looking for the things that weren’t there, that a competently structured plot would lead me to expect would be. Chasing ghosts, as it were.

A short list of additional things I strongly suspect were cut?

Several scenes between Keith and Shiro.

A pivotal scene between Allura and Coran.

A follow up event with Pidge referencing her sacrificing her videogame to get Allura a dress.

A scene between Lance and Pidge, possibly referencing said videogame.

A resolution to Lance and Pidge competing to get Allura the best present.

A conclusion to Axca’s sub plot.

A Hunk and Shay scene, to explain how and why the Balmeras all show up in s8e12 ‘The Zenith’.

An additional scene with the blade for the same reasons.

Actually, y’know what? I’m not just going to leave this, because I have a strong suspicion what one of the other cut subplots was about.

You see, the other half of ‘Clear Day’ isn’t entirely filler - it’s specifically a callback to the season 2 episode ‘Space Mall’, and it’s not the only one in this season. The little shopping trip from s8e1 ‘Launch Date’ is also one. Specifically they’re part of a plot for Pidge about her feelings for Lance.

In ‘Space Mall’ Pidge and Lance spend their time scrounging up change to buy a videogame console. The game that they purchase is part of a series that Pidge later trades the only copy of the latest version of to get Allura a dress. During ‘Clear Day’ Pidge and Lance both spend their time trying to get the best present for Allura (hint hint, Pidge is the one who actually got the ‘”something sparkly”).

Now, as I’ve already covered, there’s missing content between ‘Clear Day’ and the next episode. Part of that content should have been what the other paladins were doing while Allura was unconscious. And in series, we never actually see Allura receive either of those presents that were bought for her. So where did they go?

I think Pidge and Lance spent the time waiting for Allura to wake up together, and they got to talking about how Lance has once again failed to acquire the sparkly thing Allura would like. Perhaps Pidge trades her mining helmet for Lance’s signed Blue Lion, and then it comes up how both times Lance went to get a present for Allura he ended up getting one for Pidge.

And that first time was the video game wasn’t it? A perfect place for Lance to find out what happened with the video game in s8e1.

So why did Pidge trade that game? To make Allura happy, yes, but also to make Lance happy. Because Lance likes Allura and Pidge wants them to have a good time, because Pidge likes Lance. Like, check e1 when Allura tells her she's going on a date with Lance, Pidge's reaction... isn't really a happy one.

I think this should have been the turning point for Lance, where he learns the difference between infatuation and sincere affection. I think very soon after this his relationship with Allura would end, and he would naturally progress into a different sort of relationship with Pidge.

As much as I love s8e7 ‘Day Forty-Seven’ I don’t think it was originally part of season 8. I also get the feeling that s7e2 ‘Shadows’ may be composed of scenes we were supposed to have gotten throughout the later half of season seven - though I expect that this change was made in a much earlier spate of edits, likely when s7 was re-done. It’s been confirmed that this happened, and that s7e4 ‘The Feud’ was made to ease the pressure on the exhausted animators who’d been working overtime to get the other episodes done in time. It’s never been confirmed what exactly was changed about season 7 or why, but I highly suspect it was to include more content with the MFE fighters, who the higher ups at Dreamworks might have been hoping to spin off into a sequel.

I suspect that the episodes were shifted forwards, because the first half of the season has no 'event' episode. s8e6 ‘Genesis’ should have been that, and what we're missing is the mid-season event. Which was where they would have saved Lotor. They excised an entire climactic fight between Allura and Honerva, reprising their battle from season 2. The alchemist vs alchemist fight that was repeatedly alluded to being inevitable, yet we never got.

It was animated and voiced to be Lotura and Lotor's vindication.

But someone wanted that changed.

We know when and why ‘The Feud’ was created, and because we were teased in several interviews to pay attention to it so that we might spot some foreshadowing, we can definitively say that the mucking around that was done to season 8 happened at a much later date.

In fact, the animation portion was likely completed all the way back in June. These are two bumper images that were used to advertise Season 6, which released on June 15th.

We haven’t yet seen this image of Lotor appear in the show (for what it matters, the full color one is the correct way around; Lotor’s hair always curls up over his right shoulder, the left can go either way), we have scoured every frame of him to find it, but it’s just not there (yes I know it looks like it should be from s5e4 ‘Kral Zera’, but trust me it’s not). Every other image that’s ever been used in these promotional bumpers has been from somewhere in the show, but this one is so far absent. Therefore it’s from a piece of animation yet to appear, and one which was made by the time these images showed up in June.

Now that we know what the truth is, I am sure we will get the full story eventually. It's only a matter of time before it filters out.

But right now is the key time if we want to convince Dreamworks to release the original season 8. Tweet at them, email them, snail mail if you have the time! Sign that petition!

The fandom response now will determine if we find out what really happened sooner rather than later - and later could mean years.

We are the only people who can make this happen. The cast and crew are all bound by NDAs, and publicly reacting negatively towards a show you worked on is practically career suicide.

It has historically been fans who’ve made a difference when companies interfere with their favorite shows. Fans have been able to effect change in the past, and they will again in the future; lets make sure this is one of those times. We need to fight to get the VLD we should have gotten in the first place.

Just remember to apply your energies in the right places. JDS and LM aren’t perfect people (no one is!), but this isn’t their doing. This is someone above them responsible for the mess that was s8. Dreamworks Animation is the culprit. There is a very real chance that the original season 8 is completely finished and able to be released, and we just might get it if we’re persistent enough. 

Be polite, be reasonable, but be firm. Take this proof and use it. Show them that we know they changed things and that they can give us the original if they so choose.

The messages they inadvertently pushed with this slap-dash edit are vile and toxic, and people far more knowledgeable than I in those areas are speaking out about them. This needs to be fixed.

They need to say something. They need to tell us why they changed it. They need to give us the original Season 8.

Click here for Part 2: Seek Truth in Darkness

I, and any of you who enjoyed this meta, owe @nomadicism a huge thank you. She reminded me of that strange "Follow me!" scene, which prompted me to crack open 'Clear Day' for another watch... and I realized that Allura's dreams weren't nonsensical at all.

As always, thank you to my many friends in the Lotura Discord. You give me the strength and encouragement to keep going. I couldn’t have done this without you.

[chibiarmygeneral]

The Case of Lotor

I’m trying to do a fix-it fic and have been thinking about a lot of different plot points, keeping a lot of what happened in canon but differing certain situations. When it comes to Lotor, I toss back and forth with him. I liked Lotor and it would be easy for me to just erase the second colony storyline all together and move on. A lot of people enjoyed Lotor because he was abused and still tried for the better. People felt represented and it was understandable they were upset when he was killed as he was deemed ‘just like his father’, his abuser. But I also know people wanted him as a villain and could just write it off as me trying to ignore his wrongdoings by erasing them. Therefore, I’m trying to come up with a middle ground.

The big ‘issue’ is the second colony, where we learn Lotor had siphoned off the remaining Alteans of their quintessence. Now here is the question: why? Why would Lotor do this? To be honest, we are never given an explanation at all about it. In the entire show, quintessence is this mysterious thing that’s supposed to be the soul of all living things, but it’s turned into a power source. In Season 2, Haggar makes the Komar that absorbs a planet’s quintessence, killing the planet of any life. When Lotor is held captive with Voltron and questioned by Allura and Kuron in season 5, he says he didn’t want to destroy planets. If he isn’t getting this energy from planets, where else is he going to get it from? This is where the colony comes in.

Here is my reasoning: destroying planets means the destruction of entire ecosystems and viable living space for people. We are shown a lot of habitable planets but I’m doubting all planets are livable or if it is, it’s to a specific set of aliens that are adapted to it. Where are they supposed to go now? People will eventually get overcrowded in the remaining planets and who knows if they’ll adapt to their new environment. Now when it comes to people, by taking a small set of people and spreading it out over generations, you allow the population to reproduce and grow constantly. You can still get the energy you need by removing a small portion and keep a continuous flow rather than a one and done deal where there is lost of lots of valuable resources and the reformation of planets can take hundreds of thousands of years, plus however many more to make it a suitable place to live.

Now before saying “Cool motive, still murder” and leaving, let me finish. I’ve watched Madoka Magica and small spoilers from that anime because this is where I got the idea from.

Entropy is described in Madoka Magica as the loss of energy. That we consume more than we create and because of this the entire universe is slowly dying out. To combat this, Kyubey, an alien comes to earth to grant wishes of young girls who are candidates and by turning their souls into their powers, it releases a great amount of energy that defies entropy, creating more energy than what is used.

I always viewed Lotor’s second colony as Kyubey taking the energy from the magical girls for the survival of the universe. However, where Lotor differs is where Kyubey is from an alien race that can’t comprehend emotions and view it as a mental disorder of sorts, Lotor we know is a very emotional person. His emotions are part of his drives to make change, he was ostracized for being a half-galra so he employed half-galra, his father tried to hide his Altean heritage, he gathers all that he can about the Alteans. Since it happens so quickly, we never get to see how Lotor felt about the colony and that’s where I think his potential for redemption still lies. If he felt nothing and saw this as purely a way to gain power then that’s that. But I think it stands to reason that he did feel guilty about it. We are given a flashback of when Zarkon destroyed the planet that Lotor, instead of conquering it like he was ordered to, chose to work along side the people. He showed absolute devastation to it and he subsequently got punished further by being banished. How could this person who put himself on the same footing as the inhabitants of this planet that he had no connection to be able to sacrifice his own people? People that he has shown to have a lot of respect and admiration for, considering how he always praised Allura and felt envious of her about being Altean. Why would the staff show us that Lotor felt this way if there wasn’t some sympathy to be gained from it and show that Lotor does feel for the lives that were lost.

Now some may argue that this was them pandering to the fans, but this story was brought up when Allura and Lotor were going to Oriande, seasons prior. Not to mention that there was a short break between seasons and that animation is done months in advance by the time it released to the public, I doubt the crew changed much regarding the fans, if they changed anything. If there is someone on staff saying “we changed x,y, and z for the fans” then feel free to add that but I’d say for the most part that what we were given is what they wanted and decided to show us.

Let’s look at what else Lotor does. He fights Throk who wanted to overthrow him and beats him claiming that they should allow others to join the empire and those that don’t “will be crushed” and the Galra cheer for him. Immediately after, he says to his generals how “the masses are easily swayed” this can come off as him being dishonest to the people but he’s right as he knows what the people want, what they have been doing for thousands of years, if he wants them on his side, he needs to say the things they want to hear. What matters is his actions and the only reference point we have is on Puig. When the generals come in, Lotor specifically ordered that they were contained and not killed, that’s what they do. They talk to the leader of Puig and he says how he doesn’t want his people to be enslaved again and Lotor claims they won’t but be part of the empire.

Now what does that mean? What does being part of the empire entail? Does it mean you support their cause and send in resources when they need it? Do you set up a system of trade between their different aligned factions? If that’s the case, isn’t that the same as being part of the Voltron Alliance/Coalition? We have talks of people joining them and we know from the battle of Naxzela that we had these same people fighting for them. So, what exactly is different other than the name? We are never given any indication from Team Voltron when they work with Lotor that they disagree with his politics. Granted, we aren’t given anything about that in general but if they wanted to show that Lotor was different from them then why not show conflict here? We never see them argue about how Lotor should run the empire, so it stands to reason that his ideas aren’t “bad” or at least our heroes approve of his methods.

We don’t see the Puigs again, so I have no clue if they are with the empire or Voltron or whatever happened to them. We might have seen them in the background in some scenes, but it’s never covered on what they chose, empire or not, and how Lotor reacted to it.

Lotor kills Narti but we know that Haggar was using her to spy on them and Lotor managed to figure out that Narti was a spy. I’ll be honest, I’m still a little miffed how he managed to put 2 and 2 together as he didn’t see Narti look towards Haggar (and I’m not sure how Haggar got control in the first place. Like could she always do that from a distance just by looking at someone? Why not do this on everyone? Can we get an explanation please!). Regardless, he realizes she’s the leak and as far as he knows, she can no longer be trusted and in order to protect himself and his other generals, he had to kill her. We once again aren’t given the time to see his reaction and he clearly doesn’t explain anything as that’s the whole premise on the generals betraying him but I’d like to think that while in the moment there was no hesitation because of fight or flight, he likely did feel remorse for killing what he thought was a comrade or at the very least felt hurt by her betrayal. (No clue if Narti was aware of it happening but given Kuron had no clue, I think it’s safe to say she didn’t and it’s unfortunate it had to happen to her.)

He was willing to allow Voltron to be sucked into that vortex that had the Altean ship stuck in it and that caused them to go to a different reality. We know that people had died trying to pass through, as Zethrid talks about them exploding like fireworks, but Lotor is positive that Voltron, being made from the transreality comet will make it. For him, it’s a win-win. If Voltron gets the comet, he can take it, if they get stuck in the other reality then no more opposition from them. Now, why would Lotor want them gone if they want essentially the same thing? Why hadn’t Lotor simply contact them and say how he wanted to make peace throughout the universe? Well, as far as Lotor knows, Voltron wants to get rid of the Galra empire, regardless of who is in control. He could have tried to extend the olive branch, but he has no clue if they are going to accept or not. To him, they are still an obstacle because who knows if they will listen to his reasoning or not, they could be no better than Zarkon for all he knows. We aren’t given any indication he knows what they do to liberated planets and the only one we see him go to is Puig and he says how Voltron couldn’t save them (they are just one group versus the entirety of an empire that can stretch out it’s resources unlike Voltron).

When Lotor fights Voltron in Season 6, he snaps and claims he’d destroy all the Galra, which causes his generals to bounce again. But as I stated before, he is driven by his emotions to do things and it’s likely that after he was called no better than his father that he was driven to that point because he’s spent his life being degraded by the Galra and in no way has any (shown) close ties to his Galra heritage other than Dayak. But here’s the thing, if he truly was just like Zarkon wanted to destroy everything then what was the entire point of the conflict they had? If he really was just meant to be Zarkon 2.0 then they would have had no reason to fight each other. Sure, Lotor might be ‘pretending’ to be better but if that’s the case, why didn’t he enslave the planet he was meant to conquer after he gained their trust? Why still try and reason with team Voltron if the ‘gig is up’? Lotor’s actions don’t add up to him just being a ruthless killer. I don’t think he was ever meant to be this way. I think it was just the staff trying to up his ‘evil’ factor.

He builds the sincline ships in the hopes of going between realities where there is unlimited quintessence. Why is this needed? Because quintessence is used to power their tech and if it’s like Madoka Magica, it powers the very universe. If he succeeds in doing this, he won’t have to drain anymore Alteans because it won’t be necessary anymore. So his ultimate goal is good in the long run because we are given unlimited energy without any consequences of taking planets or lives away.

His main goal was to obtain the energy needed to power the universe, but I have a question. What were they using before? If they always used quintessence then how did the obtain it? What happened to other resources if they had them and why couldn’t they keep using it? Why use quintessence? We know it’s a pure source of energy as in the flashback in Season 3 with Honerva researching the rift. They had an experiment that this little bit of energy was able to power a device for over a year without any degrade in quality. So we know it’s powerful and Honerva wanted to continue searching for more of this energy while Alfor wanted to look elsewhere.

So was the universe decaying due to the lack of energy or not? Was the search for quintessence necessary or not? I always viewed the universe slowly dying due to entropy as stated in Madoka Magica and that’s why they needed the quintessence (aside from Zarkon and Haggar supposedly using it to stay alive, that’s never really explained on how that works either). If the universe needed more energy, then how did Voltron solve this problem after the fact? They never explain in the final episode when all realities are restored about how they dealt with this lack of energy source because that seems to be the sole reason for Lotor doing what he did with the second colony and getting the sincline ships to be able to move through realities. Was it a problem or not? Because if there was never an issue then there is no reason for Lotor to have set up the second colony because energy was never in need. The sole thing that made him ‘evil’ is called into question because of this inconsistency. The Galra empire used quintessence so what were they using after the war ended? Did their tech just stop working after a while? What did they do to combat this? What exactly happened to the empire anyways? Who knows!

Anyways, I just wanted to get this out there and try to organize my thoughts. I tried my best to explain my reasoning for his actions and while I don’t approve of the second colony (He should have came clean about his intentions but he would have severely depleted his resource if he had done that so he likely felt there was no other choice but to lie about it) I can see why it happened and sort of the idea that was probably intended for it but it just doesn’t make overall sense due to it coming out of nowhere at the end, even though the staff intended him to be a villain all along, they didn’t bother adding in potential conflicts with him amongst team Voltron all for the surprise turn around at the end. Then the entire point for needing the energy, what should be the entire point of the second colony, is never brought up and now uncertain if it was important or not. This destroys the entire ‘reason’ they had him being ‘evil’ for. All I can see he was basically a ‘good guy’ with a heel-face turn all for a ‘gotcha’ moment.

[ganymedesclock]

Okay so... I’ve gotten so distracted talking about the Atlas that I didn’t make a post about this beauty! Which is a crying shame. Because when it comes to the Hammerhead Robeast, as I call her, I have two major contentions:

1. Haggar has likely retrieved Sincline and is using Lotor’s designs and research for her own purposes, and the Hammerhead is merely a prototype for what’s to come

and

2. I don’t think the podded Altean removed from Hammerhead’s body was only a battery.

For point number one, well.. if you look at Hammerhead and you look at Sincline:

Look at the shoulder plates, look at the prongs on the feet, the lateral ‘fins’ on the head, the spines protruding from the center of the hips and the overall “hourglass figure” build of it. The “cuffs” on the wrists with fully articulated hands. The glowing ‘panes’ on the upper biceps.

Furthermore, you can compare Sincline’s favored two blade weapons:

to what the Hammerhead splits its scythe into:

Several of those pieces- the specific way the foot prongs are set up- are allusions to the generals’ armor, not something Haggar would put on a structure on her own. While other pieces of it highly resemble the upgraded sentries (its overall color scheme and face plate in particular) I can’t help but feel the Hammerhead was designed by Haggar looking at Sincline. Which she wouldn’t have seen back in s6 because Sincline was only assembled in full after she’d tapped her sleeper agent spy- Shiro- and he was in a totally different galaxy trying to kill Keith.

Haggar has retrieved Lotor from the rift. Collected him, as she collected the colony Alteans, and that’s most likely what she’s been so busy with while AWOL for four years with the druids and Sendak keeping all her enemies busy. With the Hammerhead being the fruit of her labors.

The Hammerhead has Haggar’s handiwork all over it. Its chest laser uses her unique black-on-purple energy scheme that we’ve never seen even other druids use, it’s explicitly compared to the Komar, her previous opus, and I was thinking about how much s1e3 and s7e13 mirror each other. Sendak is set up against the paladins and fails, his ship crashes... and Haggar rapidly retaliates by sending down a Robeast.

But it’s using Lotor’s designs, Lotor’s work, Lotor’s research. And, given the revelation of the Altean inside of it, the people Lotor wanted to protect- which was his goal, as he repeatedly says- he earnestly believed sacrificing a proportionately small number of the colony Alteans was his only means to stay in power to protect the rest of them.

That’s significant, because it raises the implication that Haggar’s use of Lotor’s work is likely against Lotor’s own wishes... but Haggar made it clear she was going to move ahead with this back in s6e5.

Remember:

Haggar’s primary objective with tapping Shiro as her spy was to bring Lotor to her. That’s why she started watching in s5e2, after her flashback about Lotor. In s6e5 she had Shiro leave a trap for the paladins but focus overwhelmingly on bringing Lotor and the Sincline ships to her. She didn’t have him stay behind and kill any of the people he took out.

Haggar put an awful lot of effort into that whole dramatic Honerva reveal and trying to talk Lotor to her side. As soon as he didn’t go for it, she got angry, and demanded the generals take him away from her, which makes two things clear: she wants Lotor, and she doesn’t care how Lotor feels about it- if he won’t walk into her arms as her son, he’ll stay as her prisoner.

She also outright commends Lotor for “continuing my work” which in and of itself suggests she’s got interest in what Lotor was doing on the colony and with Sincline- since she did want those ships.

It’s unlike Haggar to just passively give up on something she sunk that much effort and resources into. It’s unlike Haggar to give up on anything, unless she’s got a bigger fish to fry that will get her the same result. So I really doubt Acxa threatening her once with a shot that she effortlessly dodged was enough to make her give up on Lotor, who she’s been scheming after for a while.

And Haggar has a marked habit of attacking right at the end of a battle. As soon as her enemies are exhausted or don’t have any fight left in them.

Let’s think about how nicely s6 worked out for Haggar.

Lotor rejects her, sneers in her face, he’s adamantly her enemy, he doesn’t want her approval, and the last thing he’s gonna do is share his work and the people who he at least has mixed sentiments about wanting to protect with her. He actively challenges her that the end is near and he only might spare her.

And then Lotor rushes off, urgently, trying to reconnect with Allura, the generals, the rift, and three for three, they all fall through on him. Sincline has its defenses torn down by Voltron, who’s unable to stay in the area to secure it, Lotor’s alone, and very likely injured himself.

He’s in no state to fight a second drawn out battle against Haggar, who we caught only the faintest glimpse how vast Haggar’s forces are in s6e5.

Haggar could just pluck him out of the rift like an apple off the tree. She’s got Sincline, and she’s had enough time to study it. She may have even had Lotor’s “help” constructing Hammerhead, because it’s established that when the empire (both Slav and Sam Holt’s cases) or Haggar (the many allusions that druids can search people’s minds) really wants someone to design for them, they don’t take no for an answer.

So I would expect Lotor is alive and out of the rift, but, in one way or another, he’s either Haggar’s prisoner or her thrall.

Onto point number two:

Hammerhead doesn’t merely stand out compared to the other robeasts for her sheer power, but the versatility of her armaments and strategic cunning. Because the robeasts as we’ve seen them are one-trick ponies; Prorok as a galra comes up with rather ingenious tactics like we see in s1e7, while as a beast in s2e3, he operates exclusively by vacuum, laser, rinse and repeat. Drazil’s one trick is lasers. Myzax’s one trick is catching people between his own attacks and the energy ball.

They lack much imagination, and we never see them obviously take in and reconsider their environment.

But Mecha Zarkon, and Sincline have an edge in that category because the person inside hasn’t been turned into a monster, they’re still awake. They’re driving.

And Hammerhead is more like Sincline than Drazil in this regard. She obviously strategizes- uses very different tactics vs. Voltron and vs. Atlas. When Atlas first takes the battlefield in its combat form, Hammerhead backs far off and stays away from its blasts, then changes to hit and run moves using that bigger energy form sparingly and trying to hit Atlas in its blind spots, use its size and relative slowness against it.

Hammerhead has a broad diversity of weapons and makes use of all of them. With the implication being...

This person is not merely the beating heart of the Hammerhead beast... she was likely its mind as well. Voltron and Atlas weren’t fighting a robeast with a hostage... they were fighting her.

Which puts a whole new concerning edge on this stinger, and what’s going to happen in s8 when she wakes up. How conscious she was, how deliberate her attacks were... that she’s at least in some sense a victim is obvious to me because an exploitative, abusive person like Haggar doesn’t change her stripes, but if the Hammerhead fight is an indication of this lady’s personality, I’d expect her to be tenacious, clever, and aggressive by her own merits.

Especially because while I know I’ve been enthusiastically looking for a certain DotU Queen of Darkness in every mystery female character that shows up...

This is a pale-skinned redhead with “horns” positioned up and wide on her forehead with distinctive blue shoulder pads, pointed ears (since she is an Altean) and... just compare the line on Merla’s metal headpiece to the “shadow” on the pod Altean’s helmet, and the red, diamond-shaped “brooch” both of them have in the exact same place.

Which, incidentally, if this is correct, would be another thread pointing towards Lotor’s survival- since Merla mostly worked with Lotor. And it could also be very interesting since, if I recall correctly, there genuinely was a scene where Merla appealed to the paladins to try and get them to help Lotor (she questions them being defenders who are supposed to help anyone in need, no matter who it is, to which Lance fires back a “Lotor’s not a who, he’s a what” which IIRC Jeremy Shada actually recreated in his modern Lance voice once at fan request)

[kurara-black-blog]

Alexander Hamilton

Date: 01/12/18

Warnings: Langst, song fic, Hamilton lyrics, stranded Lance, lots of OCs, winged Lance (mentioned).

Tag: @moonsworllld ; @xarphay ; @skydisneylover ; @mutantgurls ; @spooky-the-owl

A/N: So, there's some things I love very much: Lance, Hamilton, hope and FREEDOM! Guess what's this all about? I dunno if I’ll do the whole soundtrack, but this project is going to be big!

ALSO! The characters wil change roles, so, for example, Lance won’t always be Alexander, sometimes playing the role of Aaron Burr and some others.

ALSO ALSO! I plan on using songs from other musicals for some special chapters.

The song used for this chapter is (obviously) Alexander Hamilton.

NEXT: Aaron Burr, Sir

“What are you mumbling over there?”

“Hamilton.”

Lance didn’t even bother to remember that the Balmeran had no idea what Hamilton was. No, at that moment he didn’t have enough strength to explain to a sentient space rock what Broadway was and the absolute genius of musicals, Hamilton in particular. He was too tired from fighting Death to do that.

It was supposed to be a simple journey. Just go to a planet, talk to the King of a relatively peaceful race. Get some nice plants for Mama and some trinkets for his nephew and niece.

Simple.

Easy.

Right?

It was supposed to be a simple travel. But no, life couldn’t be easy for Lance even for a bit. He really glued a nasty piece of gum in God’s beard to have such bad luck.

It started weird enough, with the Fortress of Lions—cheesy, yes, but the Captain Al-Lan was a cheesy alien with a fascination for Voltron—refusing to go near the very system the planet—named Phanet, by the way—was localized, no matter how much it’s captain pushed and huffed in frustration. It was like the spaceship had suddenly acquired a mind of it’s on, to the point it turned off all the lights when the princess tried to go forwards again. The plan then changed, they’d try to go around it and send scientists there as soon as they were back in the safe, known universe.

He should’ve guessed something was wrong by the ship’s reaction. He should’ve known something was wrong by how it seemly wouldn’t move, forcing them to get on the escape pods in hopes of leaving.

There definitely was something wrong when his communicators suddenly stopped working.

There definitely was something wrong when he got out of the pod—he had been “lucky” to be alone in one pod—and found himself in a jungle forgotten by God.

There definitely was something wrong when he was attacked and kidnapped by Galra after a few hours walking in said jungle.

There definitely wasn’t anything right when he got shoved in a cell with a Balmerian.

Boy, don’t let him get started on the experimentations.

A few more lyrics went past his once soft lips.

“Seriously, talk-a-lot, what are you mumbling over there? Also, you should eat something.”

“I told you, rock buddy, it’s Hamilton.”

“My name’s Vak and I have no idea what Hamilton is.”

“Name’s Lance and Hamilton is a musical about Hamilton.”

“What?”

With a sigh, Lance willed his tired limbs to move him from the cold and hard floor to the cold and hard sheets the Galra dared to call beds. He grabbed the bowl from Vak’s hands, silently thanking him, before filling his stomach with food goo that wasn’t much different from what he had back in his days in the Castle.

Coran would love to hear his food was considered prison food.

With a sigh, Lance stared at his cellmate. The idea of telling Vak about one of his passions was weird. Not because Lance didn’t want to—God knows how much he would love to ramble away his pain—, but because he wasn’t used to the level of attention the alien was giving him.

Vak reminded him of Hunk. Tall and large. Probably could carry the Red Paladin for some time without tiring out. Yellow eyes filled with kindness, although he did a better job at hiding it behind a wall of salty annoyance than the Yellow Paladin could ever do. He was dressed the same way Shay and the other Balmerans dressed, a bit more ragged here and there, but what to expect from a prisoner? Besides, it wasn’t as if Lance was in a better situation, his armor had been removed with no hopes of knowing where it was and his under suit could very well be called a colander.

Lance noticed that, in truth, he was used to being tuned out by Hunk, his best friend, his best bro, the man he swore friendship for eternity. It stopped aching too much after a year with almost no contact.

Maybe that was the reason why, after swallowing spit—and hopefully the upsetting thought—, he started talking.

“A musical is, like, a play, but with songs.”

“A play?”

“Yeah, man, a play. You know what plays are, right?”

“Of course I do. I’m just wondering why anyone would put singing in it.”

“Why wouldn’t anyone put singing in it?”

“Point for you… man.”

A smile crept on Lance’s face. Oh, he liked his cellblock buddy more and more. A sentinel passed the cell door without giving them a glance. The Galra in that place must’ve been really confident to not worry about the prisoners. Well, better for him.

“Ok, you told me what a musical is, but what about Hamilton?”

“It’s a musical.”

“Ha. Ha. Very funny.”

Lance let out a small chuckle, relaxing more where he was laying.

“So, there’s this country in my planet called United States of America—”

“Wait, your planet has different civilizations?”

“Yeah, with different languages and cultures.”

Vak looked awestruck, like he couldn’t even fathom the mere idea of having more than one civilization in a planet. The boy could understand his surprise, considering how most planets he had visited only had one civilization. He wondered if humans just liked to be more complicated. He let his new buddy take some time to mull over the information by softly continuing the song.

“So, this country, America for short, started as a colony. Of England, the most powerful kingdom of that time.”

“Like the Galra?”

“Along those lines, yes. England started asking more than America was able or willing to give. And, well, if there’s a certainty about human nature is that when you push a human, they’ll push back eventually.”

“Let me guess, a rebellion?”

“A revolution, my friend. America didn’t want to just give less, America wanted to be free.”

“And that… musical, Hamilton, is about that?”

“Yes, but it focuses more in the life of one guy.”

“Was he the leader of the revolution?”

“Nah, he was one of the men that helped shape America. He worked directly with the leader. That’s why he’s a Founding Father.”

“There are others, then. So, how come he gets a musical?”

“He was almost forgotten by the country, never as famous as the others until the musical came out.”

Lance looks at Vak just in time to see the man wince. Yeah, being forgotten didn’t sound good no matter the reality. No wonder Lance was so afraid of it happening to him.

Already happened with his team.

“So? What’s the guy’s name?”

 “Alexander Hamilton

My name is Alexander Hamilton

And there's a million things I haven't done

But just you wait, just you wait...”

 “… You were waiting for me to ask that just so you could sing that bit.”

The cheeky smile Lance managed to send him before the guards came to get Vak for his fight on the arena was enough answer.

Sometimes he wondered if he was singing for the sake of singing or for the sake of his sanity. He guessed both, considering how he’d repeated the first four songs of the musical for days.

“Can’t you sing a lullaby?”

“What’s the fun in that?”

How long had Lance been in that prison? He honestly didn’t knew. His biological clock would tell him it was dusk, but the minuscule hole the Galra had the courage to call a window showed him the sun announcing noon. His mind told him it had been a day, but the hole told him it had been a month.

That planet was weird, really weird, as if it played by its own rules, completely disregarding the Universe and its Laws.

 “And Alex got better but his mother went quick”

 “Well, that’s depressing.”

“I’ve been singing this for you for some time, you’re only noticing now?”

“Oh, I have noticed it all the other billion times you sang it.”

 He started retreatin' and readin' every treatise on the shelf”

 “That Alexander was smart. If there’s no one to help you walk, make your own crutches.”

The human sighed—he was doing that a lot—and moved on his “bed” so he could look at the alien, avoiding let his back touch the floor at any costs. Vak had many scars scattered around his body, and some soon to be scars still fresh, looking ready to start bleeding again. He truly looked like someone forced to fight everyday so he could survive to fight in the next.

Suddenly, the human remembered the girl in the lab. The poor girl—Altean, by the markings—whose screams made a symphony with his own. The one he had named Esperanza seeing as she couldn’t remember her name. The one that shared his pain.

The big pair of white wings attached to his bloody back shivered, and he shivered together with the feathers. He was still trying to wrap his head on the fact he had now extra limbs. Esperanza made it look so easy.

“What are you thinking about?”

“We need to get out of here. We will get out of here. You, me, the others. Soon.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Yes. Absolutely insane.”

His feathers were shivering again, but this time in anticipation. Millions of plans running wild inside his head.

He wasn’t the smartest. The fastest. The strongest. No, he had none of those unique skills his old teammates had, just a handful of random skills he picked here and there.

“It’s time to start making crutches.”

But, he found out after he started travelling around in the Universe, he didn’t need to be anything else but a survivor.

Lance liked to sing. When he was happy. When he was sad. When he was angry. When he was afraid. When he was nervous.

He liked music and he liked singing and he liked his own voice.

The only thing that maybe he liked more was to be correct. Not right, no, but correct.

Liking music came with a quite nice perk: He was a good listener.

So, in between his screams of pain and his singing, he let himself drown in someone else’s voice.

Vak’s tales of his Balmera. Esperanza’s babbling about her cellblock partner—that sounded suspiciously like Slav, but less paranoid—. The guards whispered talks. The scientists clear techno ramblings.

He learned about the Rebellion. He learned how complicated to world right outside that prison was. He learned that not everyone agreed with what was happening. He learned that some just didn’t care anymore. Most importantly, he learned his way in the place and whatever more he would need to finish his plan of escape, like the guards routine.

“You’re afraid.”

“How’d you know?”

“I’ve been your… cellmate for some time now. I picked some of your weirdness.”

“Thanks, man, real comforting.”

Vak only shrugged.

“We’re going to do the impossible tomorrow. Of course I’m afraid.”

“I still ain’t sure how this plan is going to work, but I trust you.”

“Thanks, Vak.”

Silence took over for a few minutes, Vak watching the boy mull over the plan once more. It had taken movements—phoebes?—for him to prepare everything, but the day had finally come. Not for a second Vak doubted the plan, not when Lance had so carefully plotted every possible variation and considered every possible situation.

The Balmeran had never seen eyes burning with so much raw determination.

The Balmeran had never seen eyes burning with so much raw determination.

Didn’t take long for Lance to start singing again, trying to match the trembling of his fingers with the determination in his eyes.

 “In New York you can be a new man (Just you wait)

In New York, New York

Just you wait!”

 That last line sounded less than a verse and more like a promise.

A promise Vak full-heartedly believed in.

Vak knew Lance was singing.

Even if the boy was far away, deep in the labs of that hell, Vak knew Lance was singing under his breath.

Probably Hamilton.

Vak could hear the human’s voice resonating inside his mind, calming his racing thoughts. He didn’t have time to panic. He had to keep his part of the plan going. There were people depending on him; he could hear their labored breaths as they made their way to freedom. The freedom Lance wanted to give them. The freedom Lance would give them.

Outside of the Galra base was a cold night, stars tiredly yet dutifully showing them the way together with the round moon. They were almost free. Almost. Almost. They just had to keep going forwards.

He didn’t stop when he heard people approaching.

He didn’t stop when it was confirmed it was the rest of the prisoners.

He didn’t stop to look back at his friend.

He didn’t need to.

Lance certainly was there, in the very back, making sure no one was left behind.

Singing under his breath.

 “We fought with him”

 The weird alien—Fun was his name—was wrapped around the Balmeran’s shoulders, silently watching the scene. Vak could swear he heard the creature mumble about realities and percentages, but he couldn’t be sure.

“Our chances of actually getting away are rather high.”

“You have Lance to thank for that.”

“Oh, believe me, there isn’t a reality where I don’t.”

“Me? I died for him”

 The wish to take flight was big, but Esperanza fought it with all her might. It would just jeopardize the carefully crafted plan Lance made. Soon, she promised herself, soon she would be free to fly as much as she wanted. Soon she would stretch her wings and touch the skies.

But for now, she would follow her friend, her leader, Lance.

Letting his whispered voice wash away her tiredness, she took another step towards freedom.

“Me? I trusted him”

 General Uvoid of the Rebellion had heard about the explosion in the Galra base. She had heard about the pandemonium that was caused by an unknown force.

She knew that unknown force would be of great help in the war that was to come.

So she and some of her best men went to go rescue as many survivors there were as soon as notice of the escape attempt reached her ears thanks to the spies working there. She surely didn’t expect for so many people being freed, though, and marveled about the impossible happening right in front of her eyes.

Whoever was the cause of all this, was a key to victory.

She was almost certain it was that fragile-looking alien with burning blue eyes mouthing words without sound.

“Me? I loved him”

 “Did you hear that, Khamael? I think something happened to the prison!”

“Chemie, unless it affect us directly, I don’t think that matters.”

“No, no, Lavina! Think like this: If they can get away, so can we!”

“Prince, that’s impossible.”

“It is impossible to run from the prison, yet that seems to be happening right now.”

“Whatever you say, Chems.”

“Lighten up, Lavi. We’ll get out of here, you’ll see!”

“And me? I'm the damn fool that shot him”

 Trayir Riylor. It was a very well known name in between the rebels. A pureblooded Altean with some impressive fighting and diplomatic skills. A man of grace and intelligence.

A man of pride and greed.

That night sitting on his makeshift bed in hopes of recovering quickly from his injures, Trayir felt as if something was shifting. As if a piece of a big puzzle was finally moving to take its rightful place. As if the missing link was finally found and History was rearranging to make it fit.

Trayir knew something like that would happen.

He had been waiting for it.

“There's a million things I haven’t done

But just you wait!”

 Lance surely didn’t expect to be rescued by the Rebellion, but he sure was glad. His plan went so far as to guarantee most of the prisoners would be able to flee, but where exactly they would be going was a mystery even for him. He was surprised when he saw Uvoid, the Galra General of the Rebellion herself, make her way towards him, more because of who she was than what she was. He stopped to sing just as she stood in front of him.

“You. Were you the one who came up with the plan to run away?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You did a great job.”

“Not really. Not even half of the prisoners are here, if only we had more time…”

“You could’ve ran away and let all those people behind. You didn’t. You saved them, be proud of yourself, drut.”

Lance wasn’t sure what “drut” meant, but if the soft look and proud smile in the woman’s face was anything to go by, it was a good thing. So he stood a little bit straighter and smiled a little bit brighter, thanking her.

When Uvoid asked for his name, he had bit back the next lyrics of Alexander Hamilton, feeling that it wasn’t the time to bring Broadway references, nor to explain to a Galra what Broadway was and who was Alexander Hamilton.

 What's your name, man?

 “Lance.”

[leakinghate]

You are Wrong about Lotor

The advertisements for this season promised to blur the lines between good and evil and delivered exactly that. By the conclusion of Voltron Legendary Defender season Six our paladins have apparently killed the only true hero in this show, destroyed their only access point to unlimited clean energy, and kickstarted a civil war in the Galra Empire. Team Voltron, has become the villains.

What’s that?

Doesn’t sound like we watched the same show?

Let me explain.

The writing and framing this season were truly incredible. Meticulously calculated to provide just the right information at just the right time to draw the exact wrong conclusions. It aims to provoke a violent emotional reaction in the viewer and discourage them from thinking critically about what they’re seeing. Even better, it’s a double trick, as additionally, our protagonists in the show fall into the same trap. It’s so incredibly meta, to have your audience make the same, independent conclusion as your characters.

It’s emotional manipulation at it’s cruelest, and this is only the first of the one-two punch that’s due to land it’s second hit next season.

Because team Voltron is wrong about Lotor, and so are you.

To cut to the chase, the story the narrative wants you to conclude, is that Lotor is keeping a group of Alteans hostage to systematically drain them of quintessence for use in his experiments.

I’m going to tell you right now, that’s not what’s happening.

Romelle is either hopelessly naive or malicious: she straight up admits to only knowing parts of the truth. Suspiciously, she is the first and only person Keith and Krolia encounter, but just so happens to be the only person privy to the ‘dark secrets’ of the colony. What luck! Of course, they must avoid interacting with the other Alteans who reside in the colony, as nobody else would believe Romelle if she told them. Convenient.  As far as I am concerned, everything she tells them that was not also directly witnessed by Krolia and Keith is suspect.

Speaking of, how is it, exactly, that we know Lotor is extracting quintessence from these people? Hmm? Do we have any concrete proof? No. Keith jumps to conclusions. Keith shoots first and asks questions later.

Upon discovering the emaciated Alteans in the pods Keith immediately declares that Lotor must be harvesting their quintessence. We see no actual quintessence in the lab, and by the accumulation of dust it appears that the facility has been unused for quite some time. Logically, the quintessence that the blade intercepted, and that Keith and Krolia have been seeking the source of, had to have come from somewhere, but that place isn’t this lab. But, this is no time for logic; Keith, Krolia and Romelle race off to the Castle of Lions to confront Lotor.

Sendak was absolutely correct when he said that the paladin’s greatest weakness was that they value the lives of others. Because just the suggestion that some innocent people may have lost their lives is enough to prompt the paladins to ambush someone, guns drawn, who has thus far proved himself a powerful and valuable ally. They ask Lotor exactly zero questions and don’t allow him the time to explain themselves. And it was the idea alone that caused them to act, because at no point did they seek out any proof whatsoever!

Allura alone I will grant some leeway in her reaction.

I 100% understand why Allura reacted the way she did, after all the shit she’s been through. She’s only just managed to feel that not all Galra are as monstrous as Zarkon. She’s fallen in love with his own son, and she’s hoping with everything she has that he’s really a good person. I’m sure there was still some residual fear there, it can’t have been more than two years from her perspective since everything she’s known and loved was taken from her. It takes so long to shake a trauma like she’s been through, and many people never fully do. And when she discovers that Lotor has been hiding the existence of other Alteans from her? That he admits to having to sacrifice a few? That fear and anger flared up.

It’s conspicuous, that circumstances conspire to both render Lotor unconscious and to remove him from the castle before he can explain himself. He doesn’t even hear half of the things that he’s been accused of doing and so wouldn’t know to deny them. No one ever, at any point, asks Lotor if he’s been harvesting quintessence from living Alteans. We’re left waiting to hear his side of things, and then, the next thing he says referencing Team Voltron is this:

“Zethrid, Ezor, my deepest apologies for lying to you both. But in order to gain the princess’s trust, and make the paladins of Voltron believe we were truly at odds, it had to be done.”

This comes at an interesting place in the narrative. Seemingly confirming that Lotor has been manipulating Team Voltron the whole time, and thus invalidating the sincerity of any of his prior actions since splitting from his generals. Because it follows immediately upon the horrific accusations he was denied the chance to refute it also tricks us into thinking he’s admitting to them. After all, if he’s been faking this entire time, what couldn’t he be capable of? Except. This apology is itself a lie.

In fact, regardless of whatever understanding Lotor and Axca have between them, it is impossible for them to have been working together at any point between Axca’s betrayal at Daibazaal and The Generals allying themselves with Haggar; after the point in which Allura and Team Voltron began extending some trust to Lotor. While it’s possible - even probable - that Lotor and Axca may have had contingency plans for faking a split between the generals and Lotor, and some of those plans may have included attempting an alliance with Voltron, there are far too many moving pieces for all that transpired between them to have been planned ahead of time. Far too many opportunities for one or all of them to have died. And, consistently, Lotor puts his own survival and that of his loyal allies above all other priorities.

Simply put, if the generals hadn’t been recruited by Haggar they would have been executed. If Axca was loyal to Lotor at this point she would have had no good reason to risk her life by returning to the empire, especially when Lotor had just killed Zarkon.

He says this when he does because he needs Ezor and Zethrid to not fight him over returning to the Castle of Lions. His words towards his generals, notably using ‘power’ instead of ‘peace’, are chosen to convince them to work with him again and to give the impression that he has control of the situation and a plan - which he absolutely does not.

We know this is a facade, because the moment Lotor comes face to face - or ship to lion - with Allura again he drops it and reverts to language and mannerisms he’s been using before with her. But he’s doing this openly in front of his generals and they’re visibly perplexed.

Lotor rushes back to the Castle of Lions to attempt to reason with Allura. He loves her, and he's willing to put aside his pride and plead with her in front of both of their teams. You can hear the panic in his voice as he tries to hold it together.

And then Allura accuses Lotor of being worse than Zarkon. Everything after that, isn't really him. He has a mental breakdown. He’s had every support ripped away, and 10,000 years worth of repressed pain and anguish come crashing down on him. He's lost everything that matters to him, had the one person he though he could trust, the woman he loves, accuse him of his own greatest fear, and he's hurting.

In meta about prior seasons I’ve seen it expressed that it’s a miracle that Lotor escaped his upbringing as apparently put together as he did. He’s paranoid, and occasionally willing to go against his own moral code if it means surviving another day, but surprisingly stable.

Well, it turns out he isn’t. Lotor fairly obviously has some degree of mental illness, and it unfortunately contributes to his decline in the season finale. At the risk of getting too personal in a fandom meta post, Lotor’s breakdown is eerily familiar to me - and I would expect many other fans with experience with mental health issues as well. I too have had crisis like that, complete with screaming, ranting and threatening to kill everyone who’s ever even so much as looked at you funny.

This whole situation went to hell because team Voltron has a history of making decisions based on emotions rather than logic. So far, it’s worked out pretty alright for them, but that’s about to change. They’ve lost their home, their best chance for stability and avoiding a civil war in the Galra Empire, and a loyal friend. Because they let their emotions get the best of them and couldn’t take fifteen minutes to sort out their facts from their fears.

The only negative thing. The only negative thing Lotor admits to, is that ‘many Alteans perished in [his] quest to unlock the mysteries of quintessence.’ He does not say how they died, he does not say he killed them, he doesn’t even say that their deaths were intentional. For all we know, they died in a lab accident. Those Alteans in pods? Among the many functions pods like those are established to have in VLD are healing and cryopreservation. We don’t even know that those people are the deceased Alteans in question. We don’t even know if they’re dead!

The one and only time we see the blue quintessence used as intended in show is when Lotor uses the last of his supply of it to energize his Sincline ship and attempts to pass through the gate for the first time. In response to Zethrid’s concern that this is the last of their concentrated quintessence Lotor states that once they get into the rift they will have access to an unlimited amount of it. Therefore, it stands to reason that the white quintessence found in the rift contains the same properties as the blue of unknown origin. But that the yellow and purple the Empire uses apparently does not.  Lotor doesn't need the quintessence in the rift for the empire: he needs it for the Alteans. He's not manipulating anyone, his goals are the same as theirs: peace and free energy for the universe. While it’s likely the blue quintessence does have some relation to the colony, whatever that is, there is currenly no evidence whatsoever that it’s being extracted from sentient beings. He’s clearly looking for a replacement source as it is. He likely wanted to tell Allura about the Altean colony, but felt he needed to secure reliable access to the quintessence field before he could do so.

So what’s this second punch that’s going to land next season?

If you haven’t guessed already, think how this is actually going to turn out. Because we know Romelle is wrong, whether on purpose or by accident. She basically conspired to kill the man who did everything in his power to save her people and her culture. And she did so by turning his friends against him.

How are the paladins going to feel when they realize this? How is Allura going to feel? She left Lotor to die in the rift. After he begged her to see reason. After he confessed his feelings for her. After she fell in love with him.

Ultimately, despite what many people expected, and indeed what many people are saying, Lotor has never intentionally manipulated the paladins and he didn’t betray Team Voltron.

Allow me to repeat myself:

Lotor didn’t betray Team Voltron

They betrayed him.

Sincere thanks to all my fandom family in the Lotura 18+ discord. Nearly all of the conclusions reached in this meta were origionally hashed out during chat sessions. Love you all, and I hope for anyone disheartened by s6 this meta can give you a bit of hope for the future.

I sincerely believe, that when all things are said and done, Voltron: Legendary Defender is going to go down as one of the best shows ever created.