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lieutenant-wake-up-blog · 7 years ago

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VLD SEASON THREE SPOILERS?? AHEAD!

Okay, one, I’m nutting that shit was sO GOOD. I have a lot to say about this season (so short! But so good! And so… Weird!) But. I’m gonna take this one thing at a time. So let’s start with Shiro:

-TheY MANAGED YO USE HIS DOTU NAME AND I’M JUST B L E S T (HIS OTHER REALITY SELF WORKING WITH OTHER REALITY SLAV- WHO, MIGHT I MENTION WAS BADASS- WAS JUST THE CHERRY ON TOP OF THE CAKE TO BE FRANK. THAT TEAM WORK. THAT BADASSERY. SNEEK SNEEK. AND ALL THAT GOOD SHIT) whoo. Let me take breath. All those caps are very agressive. Got too excited. -That hair … Flowing… Beautiful. Suspicious. Let me elaborate on that. Not that much time has really passed. So how exactly did that happen? Well these are just theories. And maybe huuuuge reaches at that. But listen.

Theory.

1- The experiments they did on him this time around somehow effected his cell growth/aging process? 2- Shiro is a clone.

Now wait wait wait. You’re probably thinking “But Mack that’s preposterous! Why would Shiro be a clone??? He’s Shiro!”

So let’s start with that one because a friend and I were briefly discussing it. I’m a little skeptical too. In fact, I have more doubts than beliefs in this theory. I’ll explain what I mean later. Just. For now, humour my little crack theory, huh?

So let’s go over that little bit in ep 5 before we hop in:

We see Shiro wake up in a Galra ship on some sort of operating table. That’s… Not unheard of for Shiro, unfortunately for him. But things are slightly off. His hair is really long. Weirdly long for the amount of time he was actually gone. (Even if he was gone months, though I’d bet a week or two at best, hair grows half an inch, 1.25 cm if that’s your thing, a month. It would take roughly two years for it to grow that long and we can probably deduce that there is no way that much time passed, especially given nobody else has aged. Though that may just play into the first theory.) And although it’s a given that he would be shaky on his legs, he suffers from hallucinations the moment he sits up. Flashbacks? Probably. I mean he sees Ulaz, who, obviously couldn’t possibly be there. But the one that bothers me most is the flashback in the hallway. Shiro seeing himself writhing on a table, his eyes tiny little unfocused pinpricks, while presumeably being injected with something or another. Then him being submerged in a strange purple liquid. The important thing to catch here is the voice saying “Operation Kuron stage one successful, begin stage two.”

Now let’s focus on this for a second. The hair thing is interesting because of this fact.

So it’s possible they could have created a clone and sped up it’s natural aging process through some weird alien technology. The thing I learned about hair while in school for cosmetology is this: Hair has three phases. Anagen, catagen and telogen. (Anagen is the growing phase, catagen is a transitional phase and telogen is the resting phase in which the hair ‘dies’ and stops growing). Your hair stops growing naturally at a certain point and then is pushed out by a new hair strand. Which is why hair falls out on its own without being pulled out. I’m telling you this because if the clone was made and aged rapidly, they wouldn’t exactly stop to cut it’s hair during that process. So you must be thinking, “Well then if that were the case wouldn’t this ‘Shiro’s’ hair be longer???”

Not necessarily. Because of the way the hair growth cycle works, his hair might not be able to get any longer than that (think about how one person can grow their hair for years and barely have it reach their shoulders, meanwhile the person next to them has hair like Rapunzel. The length of the anagen/growth phase differs in each person, so it’s possible Shiro’s hair doesn’t grow past that length at all, and thus, neither would his clone’s) Aaaaaannnnyywaayyy. So the other thing. His flashback in the hallway (possibly not a flashback?) kinda caught my attention. Him being submerged in that weird substance made me recall countless sifi movies and games where the main characters find sketchy creatures floating in pods in some unnatural...Preservatives. Similar to the situation we see here. And a lot of times in these movies and games, the body of the creature is dormant, but what isn't? The mind. So what could be going on here is this. The real Shiro is still in that weird ass pod. We never see phase two of the operation so it is quite possible that that could have been the process of cloning Shiro and connecting his mind/his memories to said clone. Why would they want to clone him? Well that's easy. To get closer to team Voltron. Either by implanting a copy of Shiro's memories, or by directly connecting his mind to the clone. Because how else to get close to the team then their beloved leader, idol and friend whom they miss and rely on dearly? One, the galra have already dealt with Shiro in the past so they already have knowledge about him; two, he is connected to the Black Lion - yknow the one Zarkon went into a coma trying to capture and the head of Voltron? A key component to the Empire's biggest enemy??? - and three, he's Shiro. The team would never doubt him. They have too much faith in him to be suspicious of his return. Plus they would be distracted by their relief to have him back. So it would be the perfect opportunity to exploit their vulnerabilities using a familiar face. How? Well think of this. If the clone just has his memories, it will act the way he would because it would have all the same experiences he did in it's mind. It would fully believe it was the "real" Shiro because nothing has proven otherwise. The same goes with if it is just a weird telepathic link with his clone. It would be an empty vessel that they would fill with Shiro's consciousness. Why would they do this, you ask? What's the point? Here's my guess. By allowing the clone/Shiro to think it is really him/his body, the interactions with the team and the reactions it has not only in the prescence of the others but alone would be entirely genuine. There would be no margin for error in his behaviour such as there’d be if they just programmed an AI to do it, because he isn’t actively trying to fool them. He just thinks he’s back. To get to the point, if they did this, unbeknownst to everyone, even Shiro himself, he would be allowing the Galra Empire insight into the inner workings/dynamic of Voltron and get them closer to... something. What, I have no clue. But by using a clone, they could allow for Shiro to work his way back into the team, regain his position, and then shut “him” off and take full control when they finally get what they want.

There were two other things that supported this theory to me.

-Shiro’s escape

His escape the first time around was because a spy from the BoM was on the inside and helped free him. But this time? It was quite obviously an act. He had no gaurds, a suspicious lack of droids fought him in the hall, and then obviously the officer saying “Operation Kuron, stage three underway.” Implies that they only shot him down as an act, not because they didn’t want him to escape. No, they want him out. It’s part of their plan.

In Episode 6:

- [You’re looking better. How are ya feeling?] “Good. Just trying to get rid of this weird headache.”

Y’all probably wanna shout at me “Of course he’d have a headache!!!11!!1!!!” But hm. Even he thought it was kinda strange. He’s definitely been through worse, and he wasn’t even gone a whole year like the first time and this one definitely took more of a toll on him. Perhaps it’s finally catching up to him. Or maybe it’s because of this weird clone thing fucking with his head. I could imagine a clone having complications after rapid aging or because of a sustained, long distance telepathic link with it’s original (alternative theory to him being a clone is that he just has a chip in his head/some kind of implant that gives them access to his body, also very plausible. Perhaps even more plausible. Think of the other reality alteans with the implants that made other creatures compliant. That’s believeable. Still.)

- Black wouldn’t let him pilot her.

Okay, so maybe the writers did it for the Angst™, y’know; Allura finally gets to pilot a lion and improves extremely rapidly only to be kicked out so soon or so Lance can have his self doubt moment (I love him so much and I am so glad he got some kind of reassurance because it sucks being actually insecure and then have people joke at your expense because they are so used to you being a goof-off that they forget you have real emotions and doubts that are going unaddressed. All how.) But I doubt they would make such a fuss about Shiro’s bond, make it a huge plot point throughout and during the season finales of both previously released seasons, only to have all that effort dashed out because, what? He was gone for two weeks and Keith took over while he was gone? Granted, we see Keith growing a lot. And that is so so so good for him. But Shiro and Black had the strongest of bonds. And as we see from her interaction with Zarkon in season two, Black forms really tight bonds with her paladin. She still had some residual connection to Zarkon that, unresolved, made her vunerable to his advances.

But Black straight up denies Shiro entirely. And as much as I love Keith and how despite his reluctance, this new position is forcing him to mature, I just can’t see how Keith is her “true paladin now” as Shiro claims. No. Black, like Shiro, is traumatized by Zarkon. And so if her second paladin had something wrong with him, she would pick up on that immediately, because she knows the signs from the changes in Zarkon when he started to go kinda uh. Bat shit crazy. So I don’t think it’s necessarily that she is rejecting him as a paladin. Their bond is way too strong for that.

No no no. She’s rejecting him because she can sense something is off with him. That either it isn’t him (just a clone), or he has been modified in some sort of way that seems malicious (some sort of chip that uses quintessence to manipulate his body)

And I don’t think any of this is Lotor’s plan either. Because as we see, he has to figure out that the black paladin is missing, and then realizes through his own deduction that the paladins have had a loss as big as the Empire’s own. So that means either this is a plan of Haggar’s (Honerva!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Or we are finally seeing what Zarkon meant when he said he had plans beyond his officer’s comprehension, now taking place even whilst he is in a coma.

So I might add to this later if other ideas pop up, but this is about it for now. It was quite a lot. Honestly, kudos to you if you have stuck it out and read my lunatic ravings. I’m so proud of you.

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