#but the whole... lotor becomes emperor and then voltron allies with the new galra empire plotline was just sooo bogus to me like

[klanced]

you are so lucky to not have watched s4-8

people always ask me 'katie why did you only watch half of voltron??' and i'm just like guys i thought we all agreed that voltron was not a very good show 💀

[theevershipping]

Most Sensible Voltron End Game Ships:

Note: this doesn't mean I don't LIKE other ships, but logically, given that Voltron is a CHILDREN'S CARTOON, these ones make the most sense story-telling wise. Here's why.

Hunk/Romelle:

I start here because I think this will likely be the least controversial. They set up in the first ep of S7 that Romelle and Hunk clearly think alike. They also set up that even though Lance is attracted to Romelle initially, she soon actually annoys him. On the other hand Hunk finds Romelle's thought processes to be so like his own that he acts she's like his own personal God-send ("It's like, I think it, you say it!") Likewise, Romelle seems to rather enjoy her interactions with Hunk, and the way he supports her curiousity. For once Hunk gets to be the one "in the know", and Romelle likes and appreciates the way that he interacts with her.

I know there's a lot of talk about doing right by an LGBTQ+ rep character, but I think the "Nice guy who's really smart and awesome but happens to not be conventionally attractive" rep deserves to get an attractive girl who he really does genuinely like and connect with and who genuinely likes, connects with, and respects him.

Lance/Pidge:

Although we are all understandably wary of trusting anything the writers say at this point, they have pretty much said that they do have an end game for Lance and it's not Allura. While I'd personally love to see a Klance ending, it seems pretty clear that Lance and Keith are both being set up to be straight--Lance shows attraction to basically every conventionally attractive female, and Keith/Acxa is a thing (and a reasonable thing, which I will get to next). So..

Lance and Pidge: first off, Pidge constantly points out and makes fun of Lance's crush on Allura, and at times even seems annoyed by it. She definitely doesn't show any sign of caring about the romantic interests of any of the other characters. Although it's been subtle, as Pidge's priorities have clearly, and rightly, been elsewhere, there's been some hints from the beginning that she's certainly paying attention to Lance's love interests, and is maybe jealous and just covering it up by making fun of him--which is pretty age appropriate, and typical of girls with older brothers: She's more comfortable approaching him on guy level and expressing her annoyances (unconscious jealously) through teasing him and, in the process, attempting to dissuade him from said romantic pursuits.

The writer's stated that Lance would get what he NEEDS in a relationship, not what he WANTS. Pidge is not girly/feminine in an aesthetic sense (what Lance thinks he WANTS), but she's perfectly pretty--it's not like Lance wouldn't be attracted to her once he gets passed his old-school markers of attraction based purely on conventional outer symbols of femininity (I.e. If he saw Pidge a few years older and in a dress, he'd almost certainly have a different reaction to her). Pidge does have an abundance of qualities that Lance NEEDS in a partner.

Pidge and Lance balance and trust each other. They have from the very first episode of Voltron. If you think of the first episode as establishing our main and most relatable characters, we really enter the story through the trio of Lance, Pidge and Hunk. Keith and Shiro--who they are and how they're involved in what's happening--are mostly mysteries to us in the first ep. In the typical trio story set up you have the main male character, who represents ego, in story structure, and you have his two best friends, who represent his ID and Super-ego. Often the Super-Ego character is female, and the ID male. The function of the super-ego is to check, regulate and correct the impulses of the ego, which the ID often supports/supplies. The super-ego, basically, is the one who thinks things through, when the ego doesn't want to, and the ID can't. Pidge is the super-ego.

What Lance NEEDS is someone who he both implicitly trusts and who can be the things he isn't in such a way that it helps him to grow, while still having his partner see him as an equal and having respect for the qualities and strengths he has as an individual and that he contributes to the balance of the relationship.

Allurance shippers will say "Allura can be those things too!" But she can't, because she is not and never will be his equal. She is a 10,000 year old Princess from a race of people that are vastly more evolved than humans. She was raised to rule a planet and take on the burden of the universe. No matter how much she might LIKE Lance and trusts him as an ally and a friend, that quality of equality and challenge that actually attracts confident and capable women to men does not exist between Allura and Lance--which is why she was attracted to Lotor.

The contrast between how Allura reacts to Lotor and how she reacts to Lance is a great representation of what creates actual romantic attraction vs. friendship compatibility: Lotor is her equal in his own right and can challenge her to see and grow beyond her pre-conceived notions, while having enough similarities that he understands and fits into the world she comes from and will return to (that of Galatic leadership and responsibility). Allura and Lance do not have that kind of shared reality and the ability to build together as equals that comes with it.

Pidge and Lance, on the other hand, start from the same place--they're kids who were smart and capable and followed a dream, and who have taken on the unanticipated responsibilities and adventures that came as a consequence of following that dream. They constantly demonstrate that their gut instincts are aligned. They do not have fundemental differences in terms of values and unconscious life expectations, and those things matter when you're talking endgame, because endgame means when two people are grown ups and they have kids and grow old together--that real life stuff.

Allura and Lance might have a minor romantic arch, in fact I suspect they will, because they will need to in order for all both Allura and Lance to fully realize they're not compatible. This will also force Pidge to become conscious of her feelings for Lance. From there we can from there spring board into Pidge/Lance and back into...

Lotor/Allura:

So, I'm not at all surprised we didn't see Lotor or Haggar in Season 7. It would have been too easy. We needed the stakes to be much higher, and the only way to do that was to bring the Galra threat to Earth, which couldn't have happened with Lotor as Emporer, or even with Haggar in charge--she's a much bigger schemer than just blindly chasing those lions across the galaxy like all those dumb male Galra meatheads want to do. Also, it gives her time to realisticly retrieve Lotor, fix him physically, and in the process develop some sort of relationship that would lead to them trusting each other enough to come back (allegedly) on the same side in S8.

I don't want to speculate on the plot of S8, and I won't. But I think that plot stuff aside, Lotor has to come back for the sake of Allura's character development.

ALLURA IS A RACIST. She is not malicious (just like most racists aren't malicious). But she seriously discriminates against the Galra just for them being Galra. She has a reason, no one can deny that--Just like someone who gets beat up by a gang of white guys has a reason to be wary of groups of white men, and they might take the trauma of the experience to the degree that they unconsciously start to demonize white men as a group... The trauma creates predudice because the brain is looking for a way to protect you from the trauma that just occurred. So it notes visual markers associated with the trauma, and when it later sees those markers it gets triggered into a state of flight/fight in order to (ideally) prevent you from reexperiencing the trauma associated with those physical markers. It's an evolutionary imperative--it's why we all jump across the room when we see a spider. But this primal imperative does lead to discrimination against groups of people. In my example, being fearful of groups of white men after being the victim of a gang beating is understandable, but is still a PREJUDICE based on their physical likeness to individuals who committed terrible acts, when in reality those physical traits have nothing to do with the terrible act.

It seemed like Allura was making progress with her predudices because of her relationship with Lotor, but Lotor is half Altean. He had to prove to her several times that he was "civilized" and even more knowledgeable about aspects of Altea than her. She fell in love with the Altean part of him. The literal second that she was given reason (by an ALTEAN stranger) to believe that he'd done something terrible and “GALRAN”, she instantly jumped to betraying him without even listening to his side of the story. This act proves that she didn't ever actually consciously see and acknowledge her predjudice and the irrational assumptions it causes her to make, she just was able to temporarily over look the Galran in Lotor for the Altean. So, Allura still has some major self realization to do in this department.

Next, the rash actions of the Paladins destroyed what could have been peace in the universe. Lotor gave them the option pretty much up until the end to stop and think things through even after they betrayed and attacked him. But at the end of S6 it's pretty clear it's Allura calling the shots on whether or not the team listens to Lotor or fights him. And we all know what happens:

She lets her emotions win. She prioritizes her anger--at herself for trusting a Galra--and she completely fails to care about (and likely think through) the bigger picture. Rather than realizing that the new emperor of a civilization that has been systematically enslaving the Galaxy for 10,000 years is trying to give agency back to planets, to create peace, harmony and a universe that works together to fulfill the needs of the whole, she doesn't even listen to him, she just attacks. With Lotor gone, of course the empire will fall and divide to the various generals of power. If Team Voltron had stopped and thought for 5 seconds about that they maybe would have realized that leaving Lotor in that rift was the most selfish and childish thing they ever could have done, humanitarian principles aside even. How many more worlds besides Earth suffered and will suffer for ALLURA'S emotional reactions that stem most deeply from PREJUDICE?

To be clear:

ALLURA believed the word of an ALTEAN she did not know, over the HALF-GALRAN she had fallen in love with, all because she FEARED she was wrong to trust someone with GALRAN blood: "You're more like Zarkon than I could ever have imagined," she tells Lotor. NOT "You're more like Honerva (AN ALTEAN) who began this whole mess by experimenting on quintessence and what happened when one combines it with their own life force and then became so addicted to it that she went crazy and enabled terrible things to happen to innocent peoples and planets." Nope. Even though in all honesty that comparison would have been more accurate, it didn't occur to Allura to accuse Lotor of being corrupt like his ALTEAN mother. What she says to him is essentially, "You're corrupt (and thus more) like your GALRAN father."

So, in order for Allura to grow into someone who is actually mature and responsible enough to lead the Voltron Colition and bring peace to the Galaxy, she's going to have to see the serious error in her actions, and the root prejudice that actually lead to them. And Lotor will be the one to make her see it.

From the moment the Paladins take Lotor prisoner he points out that Allura is discriminating against him based on species and parentage. It's pretty clear that this is set up to be their arch--Both of them are deeply flawed and magnificently gifted individuals who were born and raised to rule worlds, if not whole galaxies. They both have let their personal fears and flaws get in the way of what they could achieve together. In Allura's case the fatal flaw is predudice. In Lotor's it is lack of trust. He should have told her about the Altean colonies, but, rationally feared that he couldn't trust her to hear him out--irony being, if he'd brought it up privately and volunteered the info she probably would have reacted differently. However, Lotor has never had anyone he's trusted or who has trusted him, so he doesn't know that is how trust works. 😢

These two are designed to point out each other's flaws, and help them to correct them (not to make up for them, but to truly help each other change as people by, essentially, calling each other on their shit.) When they do that--Allura facing her racism; Lotor facing his lack of knowing how to actually trust someone fully--then the fatal flaws that lead to the ending of S6 (and the subsequent inter-galactic crisis that the simultaneous betrayal of these two baby-rulers, has caused) will be obliterated, the fatal flaws cured. Allura and Lotor will then be capable of resuming creating the new era of peace they were attempting before, but this time they will succeed because they will have learned to have real transparency/trust, rather than letting their unconscious fears be reasons to mistrust each other when they need to trust each other the most.

Lotura is a ship that is about real equality combined with real consciousness of self and other in relationships. Neither will be able to mature as characters until they see the flaws in Self that their initial (immature) love brought out in each other; the completion of the circle is then conscious change from seeing these flaws, and then forgiving themselves and each other for them. Only then can they can move into a mature love, which will allow them to bring out the best in each other without being blind to the flaws in each other and themselves.

Real love is seeing and dealing with both the good and bad, not ignoring one in favor of the other (this always backfires, as Lotura's first arch demonstrates). And that is a super valuable relationship lesson, that, in a show for kids, is profound and important. Love is seeing and accepting all of your partner and working together to change the things that need to be changed--not getting mad at each other, refusing to listen to what your partner has to say, deflecting with things like "your just like your dad," and subsequent retaliations that take the couple further away from the real issue, like Lotor does when Allura finally hits his weak spot and his basic response is "oh yeah, well your dad sucked too!" And from there it's all just them both being so hurt that reason is lost. That is the state of immature love.

Lotor and Allura are the only two characters who are each other's equals. They are the only two who can call each other on their shit effectively and who can help the other to change and grow. Their arch is about learning how to do that consciously and maturely. How to trust instead of doubt. How to see through the limitations of ego fears (Allura's prejudice, Lotor's not knowing how to trust) and to consciously choose loyalty to each other and to a fully shared vision. Without doing so, neither of these characters can transform from being in their immature Prince/Princess state to being ready for the mature King/Queen state.

Okay, Next...

Keith/Acxa:

I keep seeing posts where people are saying that this came out of nowhere... frankly, you all need to go back and rewatch the series. Keith and Acxa first meet in season 2 inside the guts of a Weblum. Even though it's clear to them from the start that they're on opposite sides of a war (thank you space suits) they still work together to survive and don't abandon each other even when it might benefit them to do so--they demonstrate immediately that they have a similar honor code/value system.

Every time these two encounter each other, despite remaining on opposite sides, they always help each other in this way that shows they both are in wonder about it--they don't know why, but something, some sort of "I owe you" that can't ever seem to be repaid no matter how often they help each other, is just in affect between them. Obviously, this continues to mount in S7.

So, why can't they just be friends? Well maybe they can, but I don't think that's where this is going...

For one thing, Keith is clearly drawn to his Galran side. He wants to be with the Blades of Mamora more than Team Voltron for a long stretch of time. Then he meets his Galran mom. Keith never got along well with other humans, as is established all over S7. He does get along with all these Galrans.

Those of you who know psychology know, we pretty much always marry some variation of our parents. Keith has a Galran mom who he likes and loves a lot. Acxa fits his mommy archetype. And, she's a half-breed like him--she knows what it's like to not fully belong to any one people.

Plus, as stated and well established in canon, these two just can't help but constantly save each other. I think more than ANY ship possibility, this one is obvious, and would totally make end-game sense.

So...

Shiro/???:

On the one hand, I'd love to see everyone all happy and paired up living happily ever after, but think it completely fits all of Shiro's character development to end up alone.

S7 firmly establishes that as a person, Shiro's ambitions/dreams matter more to him than the emotional needs of his partner, Adam. That's okay, there's nothing wrong with that, but, as a personality trait, it's not going to make for a happy long term relationship. In relationships you need to be willing to sacrifice things for your partner--not everything, not all the time--but you don't have the right to make serious decisions that affect you both without giving weight to the other person's needs. Shiro makes it clear that Adam's feelings don't matter to his decision to go on the Kerberos mission. That's not good partnering.

Adam, on the other hand, demonstrates a much more partner-oriented approach. He knows this is Shiro's dream, and because he loves him, he put his own wants/fears aside to support Shiro going on his first mission. He doesn't want to stop Shiro from being happy, but, when he tells Shiro that if Shiro goes AGAIN, Adam won't be here when he gets back, he's realizing that he's got to let Shiro understand that he can't be the only one in their relationship caring about the other's feelings. Adam needs a partner who will give the relationship serious weight in serious life decisions. Shiro demonstrates through his actions that he does not value the relationship more than his ambitions.

Shiro is a great team leader, but that doesn't necessarily make him a good life partner.

So, if Shiro ends up realizing this about himself and choosing to not have a romantic partnership, there is a really valuable lesson and story line there:

In American culture there is a lot of pressure to pair up. We are taught from childhood that real happiness hinges upon being partnered--at the end of every Disney movie the princess and prince finally get to be together forever and this is how we know they will "live happily every after". But not everyone is suited to relationships--and that has nothing to do with sexuality.

Shiro is gay, but that doesn't make him intrinsically more suited to long-term relationships than being straight makes anyone suited to long term relationships.

The LGBTQ+ community seems to be offended that Shiro isn't being represented in a relationship, but honestly I think they're being done a great service--Shiro is being understood as human rather than as his sexuality. His sexuality doesn't make him who he is. Being honest with himself about whether or not long-term relationships are actually something he is built for, is important for everyone to think about, and it's maybe especially important for LGBTQ+ kids to have a role model who does think about this.

One of the dangers of being LGBTQ+ is that people unconsciously reduce you to being a label--and you are so so much more than that label. Your sexuality is just one facet of Self, just like being straight is just one facet of Self for straight people. The pressure to be in a relationship as "proof" of your "identity" is very real for young LGBTQ+ kids, and the fear of leaving a relationship once you find one is far more intense because you fear your options are limited and you might not find someone else of your sexuality/who accepts your sexual-identity. So, LGBTQ+ kids are more vulnerable to staying in relationships that they've outgrown as a result of semi-conscious societal pressure to both pair up and to "prove" their "identity", and to fear that they might not ever find another relationship.

Shiro being the rep for the LBGTQ+ community teaches kids that you can be any sexuality/sexual-identity, and it doesn't change anything else about you--it doesn't change that you're smart and skilled and capable of being a space pilot, it doesn't change that it's perfectly possible and okay for a relationship (or even long term relationships in general) to not be right for you, it doesn't change your ability to be a good team leader... it doesn't change or mean anything else about you any more than a straight person being straight does. It's a facet of Self, to be weighed against many many other facets of Self.

...All that said, if they do somehow make it canon that Adam miraculously survived and he and Shiro are end game, that could be a great character development arch too, as long as it involves Shiro acknowledging that if he's going to resume being in a relationship with Adam he has to make decisions WITH Adam, and respect that Adam's emotions and needs matter equally to his own. If Shiro isn't willing to chose the truly rational emotional well-being of his partner (I mean Adam was reasonably scared that Shiro would die in space) over his own ambitions, he's not compatible with Adam. And that's okay too.

And, lastly:

Zethrid/Ezor:

Here's another rep for the LGBTQ+ community. In contrast to Shiro's story line, which may end up with him consciously deciding that committed relationships aren't as important to him as other parts of life and is happy being alone, we are now being introduced to a relationship in which two women who have worked together for a long time are discovering happiness through exploring their romantic connection. From what we've seen in S7, it looks like Zethrid and Ezor are experiencing a deeper trust and intimacy as a result of their new relationship.

I think it's great for two characters who are largely portrayed as villains/secondary shades-of-gray characters to demonstrate to people how relationships can change your priorities. Zethrid and Ezor seem to have made each other the first priority, rather than the ever-convoluted mission. They're still in the middle of this war, but now they care most about looking out for each other, rather than prioritizing the Galra Empire or Lotor. They are finding meaning in what they've fought for through their love for each other. I think they will be taken on an arch that is the opposite of Shiro's, in which they increasingly discover that their relationship and love for each other matters more to them than the military ambitions that may have once fueled them as individuals. ❤️

In conclusion:

While I think this is clear, in case it isn't, I am not bashing on ANY ship in this post, I'm just explaining why I think these ships are the logical end game ships for good story telling.

If you are so inclined, I'd love to hear your thoughts presented in a respectful and legible manner. ❤️

Thanks for reading, I know it's a long one. 😅

[violethowler]

The Keystone Army and the Cult of Personality: A Meta on the Galra Empire

While viewers and even a few characters in-universe point to the fight with Lotor in Season 6 as the cause of the empire’s collapse and the near destruction of the Coalition in Season 7. But looking back at the previous seasons, it’s not that clear cut. Leaving aside the variables in the Season 6 battle itself, there’s a lot of issues that point to the Galra Empire being structurally unstable and only really holding together this long because Zarkon was in charge. Although the show relies on show-don’t-tell a little too much, the details are usually still there even when the narrative and the script don’t call attention to them. It was never remarked upon, but Season 1 gave us everything we needed to know about the infrastructure of the Galra Empire:

The Galra Empire invades, conquers, and colonizes planets.

They mine a planet to extract its Quintessence.

The raw Quintessence is taken to secret bases like the one seen in Collection and Extraction

Druids use a bastardized version of Altean alchemy taught to them by Haggar to process the raw Quintessence into fuel.

What made the Komar so revolutionary to the empire (and horrifying to everyone else), was that it circumvented the entire process and allowed the Druids to harvest the Quintessence of a planet all at once and refine it on site rather than drain the planet over the course of years and shuttle the results to hidden fueling stations across the empire’s territory for refinement.

You’ll notice that while the empire can do the first three on their own regardless of who’s in charge, the last step of the process, along with the Komar itself, cannot be replicated without Haggar and her Druids, or else an Altean alchemist who knows how to refine Quintessence from its raw form into the fuel used by the empire. And given that Lotor and Allura don’t mention finding anything when they search her lab in “Bloodlines”, it’s unlikely that Haggar would just leave her notes on the refinement process lying around Central Command when she abandoned the place. So, while Allura did get all kinds of alchemic knowledge from Oriande, how to process Quintessence into imperial fuel does not appear to be part of that package.

Lotor had grand ideas of solving the empire’s energy problems (the waste of resources on crushing rebellions, the inefficiency of gutting every planet in sight and moving on, etc.), but aside from “gain access to the rift”, he didn’t appear to have any specifics planned long-term. He talked about harvesting Quintessence from the Rift, but he made no mention of how he was going to do it so that the empire’s infrastructure wouldn’t collapse when he eliminated Haggar and the Druids. That’s another way in which he parallels Keith: they both have big goals (stopping Lotor, in Keith’s case, though that goes away while Lotor is allied with Voltron) that they attempt to pursue with single-minded determination to the exclusion of all else.

But even if the events of Season 6 hadn’t happened the way they did and Lotor had remained on the throne, the result would have been the same. With the Druids gone, the empire’s infrastructure crumbles. Lotor hasn’t set up a new system of harvesting and distributing Quintessence, so the Galra now have large quantities of raw Quintessence and no one with the skills to refine it into fuel, and the empire’s fuel supply has now been cut off. Lotor can get Quintessence from the Rift, but without a way to harvest it in large quantities, he can only get as much from the Rift as the two Sincline ships he has can hold. And even if he and Voltron were still on good terms, neither Allura’s wormholes nor the empire’s shipping routes can supply Rift Quintessence to fleets and territories loyal to Lotor fast enough to meet the urgent demand.

Meaning that the fleet commanders and territorial warlords still waiting in line for their shipments of Rift Quintessence start arguing about who deserves to get their supply first, who needs more Quintessence then the other, etc. Commanders start raiding and fighting each other over whatever Druid-processed Quintessence is left. The situation snowballs, and we get the same scenario in Seasons 7 & 8, the only real difference being that Voltron and Lotor are still around and spread way too thin as they scramble to put out all the fires while the empire collapses in on itself, and the Coalition is too busy fending off reprisals from vengeful warlords to assist. By the time Lotor and Voltron figure out a solution, the empire would be a shattered remnant of what it used to be.

We’ve seen throughout the show that even if Lotor had lit the flame of the Kral Zera without the interference of Keith and the Blade, there would still have been sizable factions of the empire that would rebel in protest at a “half-breed” on the throne. An energy crisis driven by the absence of the Druids just made the existing infighting worse by adding a desperate fight for resources on top of arrogant power grabs.

And it’s really Zarkon’s death that kickstarts the whole chain of events. It’s a sharp contrast in how the Galra reacted to the death of their leader 10,000 years ago compared to now: Even aside from the grief of their destroyed planet, the first time Zarkon died his people mourned him. He and Honerva were given respectful funerals (we presume), and his body was returned to his people for whatever burial customs the Galra had. The second time he died, no one really cared.

Within less than a day of his permanent demise, his underlings were scrambling and jockeying to take the throne for themselves. The only person to really treat his death with anything approaching “hey, our sovereign just died, could we maybe have a day of mourning before we start arguing over who’s next in line for the throne?” was the Archivist. We don’t even get to see what happened to his body, but given what Season 8 showed happens to the souls of people Haggar drains of Quintessence, it’s clear that even his own wife had no qualms about defiling his corpse.

And as I’ve noted in another meta about Honerva’s arc throughout the series, the more she remembers of her past, the less of a threat the empire becomes. Because it’s worth noticing that the entire chain of events that leads to her husband’s death starts when she summons Lotor to take command while Zarkon is comatose, something that Zarkon explicitly did not approve of. In other words, the entire chain of events started because Haggar started acting independently of Zarkon. It was only when Haggar started pursuing her own agenda that we began to see rival factions emerging within the empire itself. When husband and wife are operating on the same page, working in tandem as a single unit, the empire is a monolithic force. But when they start working independently of each other and pursuing separate agendas, the empire begins to fracture.

I see a lot of Season 7 and 8 meta arguing that the situation with the collapse of the empire and the Coalition is entirely the Paladins’ fault for what happened with Lotor. But looking at the infrastructure and culture of the empire itself, the state of the empire in Seasons 7 and 8 was inevitable from the moment Zarkon bites the dust for good. From the moment Zarkon breathes his last, the clock started ticking on the empire’s demise, and the Paladins’ fight with Lotor in Season 6 only shaved a few months off the countdown at most.

In a way, it reminds me of Operation Cinder from the new Star Wars Expanded Universe. To summarize: Palpatine had put contingencies in place to ensure that in the event of his death, his empire would die with him. In Palpatine’s words: “If an Empire cannot protect its Emperor then that Empire must be deemed a failure. It collapses not only because its central figure is gone, but because it must not be allowed to remain!” While Zarkon didn’t have the foresight for such vengeful contingencies, the result is the same: the empire didn’t just collapse because the emperor was gone, but because the infrastructure of the modern Galra empire was not designed to survive without its ruling couple at the helm.

When Haggar declared that “the empire has fallen” after the Kral Zera, it was not merely for dramatic effect. The Galra Empire is structurally and politically incapable of functioning in the long term without her husband’s iron will to keep power hungry commanders in line or her research and alchemy to maintain its infrastructure, and she knows it. But with Zarkon dead, maintaining the empire is no longer a priority for her. And so, she lets it wither and rot as she spies on her son, the Druids only maintaining the infrastructure because she has not yet ordered them to stop.

TL;DR: The Galra Empire’s entire infrastructure and cohesion is dependent on Zarkon and Haggar operating in tandem. It’s collapse in Season 7 is not a direct result of Lotor’s removal from power, as characters in-universe assume, but the result of a chain of dominoes triggered by the final battle of Season 2. In other words, the Paladins dealt the fatal blow to the Galra Empire when they defeated Zarkon at the end of the second season, and we’ve been watching it slowly bleed to death ever since.

[puppetmaster55]

How We Met Them: A Study in Voltron Character Introductions

Okay okay so. Characters, how they’re introduced, and why that matters.

So, character introductions, much like math, has an order of operations. Or, not like math, it’s like grammar. Or, no, it’s like…

Actually, it’s like listing the characters.

First one you meet is the main character. Now, the only exception here is when you get a prologue. That’s obvious when you get a sequence (let’s say, astronauts getting ice samples of Kerberos are then abducted by aliens and taken prisoner) that is then followed by an obviously stated timeskip to a different set of characters (say, a trio of astronauts-in-training running a simulation).

So, the first person we meet and focus on in Voltron is Shiro. But then we have the prologue timeskip so it’s assumed that Shiro was just our “Prologue Protagonist.” And what that is, is a character that we center around purely to introduce the biggest threat the series will center around (there’s evil aliens, and they have an evil emperor).

Then, we meet Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Notice I mentioned them in that order, because they receive focus in that order. Lance is who we’re centered around, the one getting things done (and is shown to be young still, with lots of maturation yet to happen). We stick with Lance the longest, at first, presenting him as our protagonist.

Hunk, we’re introduced as someone who also has growth, as he’s not assertive and is someone ill-placed in a flight school like the Galaxy Garrison (he’s prone to motion-sickness). He’s also Lance’s best friend, following alongside Lance and acting as the voice of reason to Lance.

Pidge, we meet and follow along from a semi-distance (still being centered around Lance, so we don’t center around Pidge directly) and get her story as a mystery. There’s a lot more going on with her than meets the eye, keeping all kinds of secrets, and she’s not concerning herself with her team.

And then we get a tilt-shift.

Shiro, our “Prologue Protagonist?” Yeah, he comes back, with a whole host of mysteries and sets the plot in motion. Lance focuses on him, even says “that guy’s my hero!”

So we have to adjust our mentality, because Lance isn’t our Protagonist at all. Shiro is our Protagonist.

And lastly, we get Keith. We see him on his own, skilled at combat and flight, the guy who doesn’t connect well enough to immediately recognize his fellow classmates, and who also knows Shiro. Keith is also, notably, labeled as Lance’s rival, as the hurdle that Lance must overcome and whose shadow Lance is fighting to break out of.

And we get Shiro centering, but we stick back to Lance. There’s even an Important Moment when the two meet.

So, we have Shiro as our Protagonist, the one that everyone centers themselves around, while Lance is our POV Protagonist. What that means is that Lance is the viewpoint by which the audience is most to connect with, the secondary protagonist to Shiro whose coming-of-age is the one we will get the most out of through trials and tribulations over the course of the series.

Then, later on, we meet Allura and Coran. Allura, the magical space princess who immediately takes command over even Shiro. Allura, who Lance fancies, who is connected to the Lions and Castle through magical means and is, in the end, the tactical commander. She also is young, thrust into a command position before her time.

And Coran? Well, Coran is older than the others, he’s got a comedic tilt to him but he’s also connected to the past and has more knowledge than anyone else. When the time comes to train our group in how to fight and how to connect with their Lions, Coran is the one to teach them.

Much, much later on we get Lotor, and him? We meet him as an antihero. He works within the empire, playing by their rules, but has an honor system that his father does not abide by. He surrounds himself with those deemed as lesser—the Galra who have non-Galra heritage—and gives them equal ability to rise among the ranks as those who claim a purely Galra heritage. He doesn’t raze those planets he is placed in charge of, instead leaving them to rule over themselves and doesn’t take everything until the planet is effectively dead. He also works within the shadows, not trusting anyone with everything, but has good personal reason for that paranoia.

Lotor is… complicated, because he’s not our primary antagonist, nor is he particularly concerned in being any sort of antagonist. His storyline, therefore, is equally complicated. He is on the road to discovery, the Promised Prince who appears destined to topple his father, the evil emperor, from power and ascend to the throne to usher in an era of peace.

So, our lineup is as follows:

-Shiro, the Protagonist, who fights to earn his place as leader and overcome his own doubts and PTSD. The one who connects with everyone else over the course of the series and helps them grow as much as they help him grow.

Lance, the POV Protagonist, our everyman who grows into himself and his own skills. The one who stops comparing himself to others and stops trying to be someone else. He grows past his crush on Allura, finding a friend and ally and finding love elsewhere.

Hunk, our side character. He grows through his fear and finds bravery.

Pidge, our side character. She opens up to her team and comes to find them just as important to her as her blood family.

Keith, our Rival. He’s got anger issues, has a past that informs why he’s so closed off. He grows to open up to the others, to find a new family in his team after the one he lost. He comes close to a dark arc, a connection to the main villains that threatens to draw him away from his found family with the promise of blood family.

Allura, our Commander. She grows into leadership, being tested when she joins the field with the team, and ultimately rises into the leader. She grows beyond what her father once was, or her mother, becoming More than either of them. She sees to the restoration of

Coran, our Mentor. He knows the most about the past, and is the one best suited to teach the others how to connect with their Lions and about both the origin of Voltron and the origin of the villains. He’s got that same past too, and is reconciling it with the hopeful future.

Lotor is the Dark Prince. He’s got connections to a past that he fights not to define him, and fights to break free of that dark past and dark legacy such that he won’t be defined by it.. His past will eventually come to light, and there will be a fight between himself and the heroes because of a misunderstanding involving it, but ultimately he will explain things in full and redeem himself in their eyes. He will also see that his plans are flawed, that his view of the empire as something to be fixed is flawed, and what he needs to do is not create stability but to incite and provide change.