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ganymedesclock · 6 years

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Clockie unpacks: Team Sincline

Well, okay, here it is, it’s time to talk about it.

So, I went through a lot of emotions with season 8. Some of them were disappointment. Some of them were anger. Some of them were happiness, and, some of them were a kind of relief.

The first is the realization that I’ve been kind of putting the show on an idealized pedestal. At first, that was easy- a lot of its issues were minor and easily overlooked in the face of what was overwhelmingly a lot of good. And even in its ending, it did a lot of good.

But it also did some not so good, and some genuinely frustrating.

And that’s okay. I think ultimately, the verdict is I still like Legendary Defender. It’s been the kicking-off point to get me heavily into the other Voltron continuities and I think out of the continuities I’ve encountered it’s still by far leader of the pack. It did its job getting me to care heavily about all of these characters and a total clown show with no redeeming qualities would not have done that.

That said, it definitely has lobbed the ball right into that particular intense alley where with enough to make me love it, it also has enough to frustrate me and get my little rewriting goblin fingers trembling up a storm, which is about what I’ve been doing in private with my friends since s8 dropped- lots and lots and lots of AUs.

I’m going to be titling and tagging all of these “Clockie Unpacks S8″- specifically referring to me unpacking my thoughts and emotions on the show. This is obviously not meant to be taken as an unbiased judgment from on high, just a dude in his kitty pjs and at some point, other clothes, blogging about cartoons. Also, fair warning, this is gonna have some undertones of bitterness to it; again, I still love the show, but there’s quite a few things they did I am really not wild about.

With that introduction, let’s kick things off. The first topic I’m picking is really, really predictable, because it’s my favorite goshdang characters.

Team Sincline: Ezor, Axca, Lotor, Narti, and Zethrid. Admittedly, this is going to be looking at them from s3 to the end of the show, so, it’s gonna have a lot more than just s8 in it, but, with the show concluding, I want to talk about what I loved and what I didn’t.

The frustrating thing about Team Sincline is that I can go back all the way to s3 and tell that these guys were not intended to make it.

The Lack of Curiosity

Even when we were clearly given the screentime and focus to relate to them, to want them to win, to want them to do well, a certain amount of onscreen attention is not given to how they’re obviously struggling. We know they’re struggling. Their entire thing is they’re a group of disenfranchised minorities within the empire. They act like people who are all quietly used to being desperate, to making cutthroat decisions, from Acxa stonefaced gunning down Lotor (which, sorry, that, was not an act,) to Lotor ultimately getting frustrated at the paladins because he knows it was bad to hurt the colony Alteans, the morality of the action is besides the point, the point is if you didn’t want the cutthroat solution to the problem you shouldn’t have left him in charge, and don’t you show up passing judgment with all of your better resources and actual support after he’s already done the hard work the brutal way-

But as long as they’re Sincline, we just see them in sharp uniforms. We never see Lotor outside of his nice uniform, actually, except when he’s a child.

Lotor has a crew besides the generals, but, we never hear who they are. We just assume a significant part of the empire followed him into exile, even when in practice, we can assume the two fleets Acxa dismissively sets up to be bait for Voltron in s3e3 weren’t any of theirs. Are these more half-galra? Why would they wear standard imperial uniforms? There’s so many questions about how Lotor got half the resources he did, and where he got them, considering he was so obviously cut off from support and holding colonies. If he did obtain other territories for fiscal support, why didn’t he or the generals run to any of them when things went downhill?

The generals themselves have no backstory. Sure, there are implications- all the parallels drawn between Acxa and Keith-

(though Krolia’s comment in s6e2 that Keith was the most important thing to her would seem a bit condemning to the idea she had another child, unless she somehow assumes her daughter is dead, and is thus excluding her on those grounds, much like she would exclude her husband who she knows is dead- likewise, Keith never sees a second child, unless Acxa was born afterwards, meaning Krolia was pregnant when she left and was unaware, which might explain why she didn’t return to Earth to leave Acxa behind, if her pregnancy was only discovered once she was already undercover and there wasn’t an easy way to make the baby disappear back to Earth where she’d be safe)

-there’s Kythra which is brought up as a setting and Te-Osh openly shoved in our faces so we can see how obvious it is Zethrid is galra-kythran, a connection that never appears to go anywhere, not with Te-Osh, and not with Kythra as a planet. We don’t even seem to have any more Kythrans in the coalition even though they help Pidge in her search in s4e2.

There’s Ranveig’s superweapon, which, especially in the technopathy it manifests, strongly resembles Narti and makes it pretty likely where she came from.

And there’s one of the pirates in s7 and s8 who’s seemingly the same galra-unknown that Ezor is, possibly a relative of hers.

But these stories aren’t explored. I’m not saying we needed full backstory episodes from all of them- runtime is limited (although, frankly, why would you introduce these characters and never go into who they are)- but we needed something. Hell, if nothing else, it would’ve been nice to mention and acknowledge Narti’s existence sometime after s4. She became something to condemn Lotor over, and, then, everyone forgot about her, evidently; the paladins never ask about that one with no eyes that gave them so much trouble, they never even have to face or deal with her incredible power.

And especially when we discover Kova was basically Lotor’s only childhood friend, this should have massively recontextualized his relationship with Narti that he would give Kova to her as her attendant. It should’ve meant something serious and concerning that he would just leave Kova behind without a second thought even if we somehow have assumed that Lotor wouldn’t grieve Narti.

Frankly, it should have meant something serious that he’d cut Narti down in the first place, but we have so little answers on how Haggar was able to affect Narti. Yes, we can speculate, especially about the riftbugs and Ranveig’s superweapon, but the thing is, this plot hole shouldn’t be here where we as an audience need to fill it. Did Lotor assume Narti was a willing traitor? Has Haggar done this to him before? Could she have killed Narti on her own?

These questions aren’t answered. And, as a result, the dissolution of Team Sincline feels kind of contrived.

Why did they fall apart?

In s3, it’s clear the Generals are completely trusting of Lotor. Even when that’s called into question, they clearly miss him and want him back. Before s4e3, it seems like nothing’s taboo or uncomfortable for them; and four for four, these are cautious, smart, calculating people. They do not trust blindly. As far as VLD’s own rules about solidarity, trust, and open emotional exchange, Team Sincline does everything right in its first season.

Lotor is emotionally transparent to the generals. Not just in the sense of which plans he tells them about in detail and involves them in the formation of (the majority of them) but that he makes his entire thought process clear to them, to the point that in many ways, they’re comfortable and confident in their ability to read Lotor.

The times that they’re unable to read him, and are shocked by his behavior, frankly doesn’t even work as a contrast to this- because when Lotor surprises them, it’s because these sentiments genuinely are coming out of left field.

The Lotor that screams he’s going to get rid of all of the galra is not talking about a long-term plan, and this is pretty obvious given how earlier in the exact same season, he pulls this face when Allura talks about how they need to protect occupied galra planets. Keep in mind this is Allura- someone who Lotor unambiguously admires and adores.

Keep in mind Allura’s heroic and compassionate nature is pretty clearly one of the things Lotor admires about her.

This is a guilty reaction. This is someone who’s agreeing with Allura’s assessment that they morally have to respond to the Omega Shield- whose objection against it was not that he didn’t want to, but that he suspected it was a trap.

If Lotor’s endgame goal was to make the Alteans into an army and use them to kill the galra, none of his behavior makes any sense. However, if that was never Lotor’s endgame goal but something he landed on in a combination of desperation and power high because he’s been kicked so many times in his ability to trust that frankly the idea that just getting rid of everyone so he can finally, finally stop feeling personally betrayed by everything he gets close to starts to look like an appealing option- makes total sense to his behavior.

And I can’t fault Ezor for being scared of that side of him once it rears its head. Lotor’s breakdown at the end of s6 is not pretty at all, and after Narti’s fate, the generals are all unsure whether or not the Lotor they know is real (though we as an audience have all the evidence it is) or if he’s just been a very successful conman. They’re all, as much as he is, vulnerable people in a bad bargaining position. They’re all going to be anxiously hypervigilant that they weren’t just suckered by someone they felt like they could trust for years.

I can’t blame Acxa and Allura for talking about him the way they do.

I can blame the narrative, however, for giving them those words, for giving them those situations, that response, and never challenging it.

In s8, we do a lot of mooning over Lotor’s fate. In s8 we’re given the most sympathetic flashbacks to Lotor’s lifetime of abuse, neglect, and how many times his legs were basically cut out from under him, how many times he lost everything and had to start over from scratch at Zarkon’s whim, and all the scar tissue that built up psychologically for him.

However, all that s8 mooning is exclusively for Honerva’s benefit. Lotor’s long gone, and they went out of their way to show us, grotesquely, exactly how far gone and not coming back he is. The generals aren’t there. The main time Lotor talks is as a puppet for the riftbug playing on Allura’s lingering guilt and lost love.

This is pretty significant considering Sincline- the symbol of this team, the unity of what they could accomplish together- is stolen by Honerva, puppeted, and then assimilated into her machine.

The feeling is these people were conceived in s3 specifically to be disposed of. They were born to die. Their downfall was planned from the start, and that is the explanation for the lack of curiosity.

I’ve seen the argument raised that they’re supposed to contrast Voltron in terms of their dissolution but if you want to explore a failed team in contrast to our heroes... we already have that, perfectly tailored to the role in a way that Sincline is not remotely. A team whose failure is written in the stars from the moment we clap eyes on them, and whose downfall moves enormous pieces of the plot:

The paladins of old.

If we really wanted to write a drama about the dissolution of Team Voltron, they were right there. We know before we meet Gyrgan, Trigel, and Blaytz that all of these people are dead. We even get to see them in the finale. And they’re, of the three groups of paladins we see, the ones who aren’t underdogs. They were sovereigns of occupied planets. They were confident, bold, enthusiastic about the future and they had very little to fear.

There’s stories to tell there, but, ultimately, they’re the least compelling- what makes them interesting is that sense of a forgotten golden age, the way they were lost to time, and lost to Zarkon’s ambition.

Conversely, Team Sincline is basically a group of vulnerable minorities holding onto each other in the dark. Even when they’re introduced confidently and dramatically...

...We see them stealing around central command like thieves. When they move publicly, they move together; when they talk, it’s lurking around in darkened corners, privately discussing how their duplicity of the larger empire is going well.

These are vulnerable people. Even at the top of their game, they cannot afford making their sentiments open publicly. And even in public, Lotor’s speech to the empire is all about its maltreatment of minorities. It’s all about the underside of their boot, and the people ground into dust beneath it, because it’s a defining characteristic of Lotor, and of the generals, that they are the people who’ve been under the empire’s boot this entire time. They contrast the paladins and Allura as people who’ve been heavily affected by the empire’s cruelty, but largely, distantly, or in ways that did not define their life from the cradle. Even Shiro, who was actually brought into the empire’s hierarchy, only endured that hell for a single year before Ulaz rescued him and got him out of there, and he had a stable childhood and supportive environment to get him through it.

Team Sincline has nothing but each other. And then, starting with s4e3, we see them lose that. Peeled away, layer by layer by layer, as they get more miserable, more desperate, and continue stealing, continue bartering, losing more and more as they keep trying to find some way to make it work because these are people who’ve learned a long time ago their tears are meaningless and the only comfort they have is what they can find in the cracks.

There’s really nothing interesting about their downfall. It’s just sad. And frankly the reason why I was so sure this was going to turn around was the sense that they can’t just leave it like this. They wouldn’t just kill Narti with no saving grace and leave her body there in a way that doesn’t affect the plot at all, even to the end that they want it to- that she could easily have just been there with the other generals and parted ways with Lotor when they did. They wouldn’t just have Lotor lose all his friends one more time. They wouldn’t just take all of this amazing room to grow and explore these characters and flush it down the toilet to achieve basically nothing.

And? If I’m honest? They did.

3/5ths of a happy afterthought

I initially thought people were kidding when they said The Grudge looked like they planned for Ezor to have died in s7e3 and Zethrid perish in an attempt at revenge but oh boy howdy. Sure there could be innocent reasons they didn’t have Kimiko Glenn there in s8- it’s not like all the times they’ve changed Acxa’s VA mean they were planning to off her- but everything about that episode makes what I dismissed as a conspiracy theory sound a lot more plausible.

Zethrid is not a vengeful person. We see from as early as her first appearance that she has a soft spot for small animals and children. She can be talked down from killing people very easily, she likes to fight but talks up fighting worthy opponents- she’s happiest cutting her teeth against something big and strong like her that can hold its own.

Her motivation is also, overwhelmingly, that of a Yellow Paladin. There’s a reason she’s so clearly Hunk’s counterpart. “I will always protect you, Ezor.” We can actively see in s7e3 that when the blast goes off, Zethrid tries to shield Ezor with her own body.

The heartbroken Zethrid we see in The Grudge, not quite taking care of herself, full of anger and bitterness and down to just wanting to make someone else hurt as much as she is- really could only have happened logically if Ezor had died. If Zethrid had felt like she’d failed as a protector for the last time, and was hitting a similar wall to Lotor himself- where after so many people dying or otherwise being lost she just couldn’t take it any more and gave up on trying.

In her post- grudge negotiations with the team, Zethrid is levelheaded and calm. Before being reunited with Ezor, she just looks empty and tired.

The person who’s always been the vindictive one is Ezor, and I don’t say that to demonize Ezor and depict Zethrid as saintly.

Ezor has an obvious edge to her, and, out of Team Sincline, she’s also the one who voices the most doubts and fears. She talks about the fun in torturing someone, and, behind the scenes, she also talks about being personally terrified that they’re going to be hunted down. She’s the one basically panicking as soon as Narti’s body hits the floor, she’s the one who’s anxious at Acxa shooting Haggar (“did you kill her?”)

Ezor is a brittle person- a lot of broken edges and anxiety. This is why The Grudge seems like an odd reversal in roles. If anyone would get overly preoccupied with getting even to the point of losing sight of themselves, it’d be Ezor. If anyone would be the person willing to bargain with enemies because this has gone too far and they’re scared of something going wrong and happening to hurt the other person, it’d be Zethrid. Zethrid who’s always defined herself as Ezor’s protector.

Now, again, being fair, it really does seem like they were backing off from a version of The Grudge that featured a dead Ezor and Zethrid either going to die or simply give up and remain in custody afterwards. But again, it comes back to this sense that Team Sincline suffers a huge amount in a way that doesn’t seem to narratively accomplish much or be particularly meaningful.

When the timeskip happens, Acxa and Matt grow their hair out. Earth builds its way up to a superpower on the footing with other planets and fights Sendak for survival.

Zethrid loses an eye and Ezor an entire leg, which s8 chases with a disfiguring scar for Zethrid and a missing eye for Ezor, too.

Now, I’m all for disability representation. Thing is, if that’s the angle they were going for, they could have started Team Sincline out with these grievous injuries. Hell, you could argue there’s potential evidence Ezor’s had a prosthetic leg all along- after all, in s5e2, she’s able to parry Shiro’s laser prosthetic with her leg and it would contextualize a lot of her fearful attitude and that she’s both romantically and in other ways drawn to Zethrid, who’s probably the warmest and most protective person out of Team Sincline.

As far as an “afterthought”.... Acxa sort of fades into the background in many ways after she starts working with the paladins. Someone who has been incredibly driven, who most clearly seems to follow Lotor out of a sense of higher purpose and something to believe in became a drifter who shows up to help the paladins and then wanders off to the coalition. She doesn’t even accompany them to Earth to help with the journey.

And then there’s their scene in the aftermath. Ultimately, the three surviving members of Team Sincline take their scars and injuries and join the Blade. They become Keith’s subordinates. Is this satisfying for them? Unsatisfying? Hard to say, since we know very little about their past and motivations. Zethrid probably likes taking care of people, but, is this the way she’d want to do that?

Narti stays dead. Maybe she somehow picked herself up, made an Altean suit, cut her tail off and became Matt’s helmeted girlfriend, but, considering how much of a ridiculous speculative long shot that is, I’m not going to cite that to canon’s credit.

Lotor stays dead, and, much like Narti’s death- so much of what led up to Lotor’s demise is rather poorly explained. We don’t know why Lotor harvested the colony, or what his intentions were, or if he planned to heal the podded Alteans, or even how Bandor escaped. With so many unknowns on the table, and so many things left open, we’re left feeling unsatisfied- like, maybe this whole thing could have been avoided, maybe the response was reasonable, we just get the shock- either of Lotor killing Narti or the sight of the lab- and then we’re urgently bustled forwards without analyzing the situation.

Not only that, but his afterlife ghost passed up Allura- his love- and Alfor- his personal hero- to have a loving heart to heart with both of his abusers.

Here’s the thing. Honerva never apologized. She said ‘he deserved better’ after having spent centuries watching him suffer and not just sitting on her hands but actively making it worse. Honerva, the one who has so much to say about her own suffering, has no possible way she could’ve been unaware of Lotor’s misery and the effect she was having on it. No matter what Being Haggar did to her, which seems largely a factor of disorientation and amnesia, you shouldn’t need to remember that baby came out of your body before you care at all that the person it grew up into has just lost everything while you sit there and watch, having more than enough power to stop this.

Zarkon never apologized to Lotor.

Neither of them made amends. Neither of them did anything that warranted Lotor being kind to them.

Neither of them even needed him for their happy ending. He was frankly just a possession to them. Honerva only ever even seems to consider Lotor’s own feelings at a point when Allura forcibly shows them to her. If we wanted Honerva to be welcomed warmly when she steps into the light, you could easily have had Zarkon waiting for her- because Zarkon loved her, because it would give her life a cyclic sense of closure from how we see in s3e7, that Zarkon and Haggar began what happened to them hand in hand, together, and they could end the same way.

We know for a fact Zarkon would be happy to see her. This is even further vindicated in the “happy family” alternate reality- Zarkon’s the one who’s ready to take this woman in as his lost wife with open arms, while Lotor is the one holding back, wary, anxious, “that’s not my mother.”

The only reason that’s unacceptable to Honerva is because Honerva doesn’t want to respect Lotor’s feelings, she wants Lotor to flatter hers. She has major entitlement problems to Lotor, and the finale makes him a prop for her welfare.

That ‘walk into the light’ scene could have been a lot more palatable if they’d simply put Lotor on Alfor’s other side, and had Zarkon alone doing the sweet hand clasp with Haggar.

But that’s our last note on Lotor- the idea that he’s going to be spending whatever afterlife they have here with his abusers. Lotor didn’t get anything he wanted.

And Narti? We don’t even know what she wanted, just that she trusted Lotor, and that somehow, when Team Sincline does trust, it leads to their total dissolution. Sincline itself is gone, having never once actualized. Lotor’s dead, Narti’s dead, and Haggar went ahead and murdered Kova.

The three survivors firmly set that chapter of their life behind them, discarded the Sincline uniforms, became Blades, and, evidently, spent the rest of their lives handing out relief packages to war-torn planets.

I don’t want to take a dump on relief workers here. Humanitarian work is beautiful and important and heroic. But in practice, how they framed it in that show is an afterthought. They’re not suffering but what they’re doing doesn’t really have a sense it’s personally meaningful to them.

I might be unsatisfied with some of the endings VLD did for its main characters, but at least they’re recognized as heroes and get to stay together, or, in the one area that’s not the case, say goodbye and be remembered fondly. But I think Team Sincline absolutely got the rawest deal here, and that’s on a list that includes Alfor, Gyrgan, Trigel, and Blaytz being frozen as corrupted mindscape ghosts for ten thousand years.

Additional Notes: Sincline-Adjacent Figures

I mentioned Lotor’s crew earlier, and, the thing is, there’s a perfect answer within canon for who Lotor’s crew beneath the generals could have been.

What highly diverse group of people,

(because Lotor would put his money where his mouth is in more ways than just with the generals)

Would Lotor logically find at the edge of the universe,

(because he had to have built these forces in exile and without imperial support, since he has them at his disposal at the beginning of s3)

Who would be immediately ready and willing to double-cross and otherwise raise merry hell on the empire, to the point of building rift gates and comet ships behind their back,

(because a single person willing to barter what they knew for a pardon could have fucked up Lotor’s entire operation spectacularly)

Who would also be a pool of talent untapped by the empire so Lotor feasibly could get at least some of the best pickings,

(because you don’t want an uneducated clown putting your interreality gate together)

Who would be an interesting and colorful cast of characters to play off of, and loud and rambunctious because they’re not career soldiers, even if they are career fighters-

(thematically contrasting the regimented and heavily classist, stratified empire)

Who would also thematically lend themselves very well to Lotor’s hit-and-run, evasive, deceptive, adaptive underdog tactics?

A group of people who have traditionally been the enemies of the entrenched government and who have often been minorities?

Pirates.

Pirates exactly like the ones who without any explanation for where they came from, were working for Ezor and Zethrid after the timeskip. Pirates who had their own custom uniforms as if they had some reason to have a sense of decorum. Pirates who are already full of interesting and memorable characters like the nosering pirate, Blofar, the armored giant Coran faced, and the smart-aleck Olkari technician.

Lotor literally talks about desegregating the imperial fleet and recruiting people based on the merit of their skills and not how galra they are back in s3e1. And yes, as a half-galra himself employing four other half-galra, it’s not like he’s a hypocrite about that- but it feels like a serious oversight to just give him the standard imperial-armored subordinates and drones.

The pirates should have been Lotor’s crew. They should have been there from the start playing off the generals and off of Lotor, and that would have helped us flesh out Lotor and the generals so much more. Yes, you’d have to make some adjustments to scenes like s3e2′s fighter ship battle to make it clear they were drones and not imply the paladins just massacred a likable bunch of rag-tag pirate antiheroes but all that would take is some acknowledgement that Sincline, like the empire, uses drone-piloted fighter ships.

Hell, it’d give a sense in s3 besides Zethrid’s offhanded reference of pilots going into the rift in s3e4 (presumably also drones since Lotor has no reason to waste manpower and try loyalties making them throw themselves fatally at a rift) that Lotor and the Generals aren’t just doing what they do in an empty ship.

And you know who else could’ve been there?

Ven’tar.

Sure, her people were massacred and her planet burnt to pieces by Zarkon and that was significant to Lotor character-wise- it marked the decisive, keening death of his intention to appease his parents and try to work with them- but Ven’tar could’ve also have taken significance and motivation from that going forwards. it’s her planet, her people, and, it would make it feel a lot less dismissively killed off.

There was someone Lotor trusted leading the “secret team” constructing the inter reality gate. Someone who’d know things about Quintessence, who would again have a grudge on the empire.

I’m saying, rather than a lost lenore, you could make Ven’tar Lotor’s bitter chief engineer. Sure you’d need some explanation for how she’s still alive but this setting has been basically handing out immortality like candy to a bunch of its secondary cast but I feel like they could narratively find a reason for Ven’tar to be alive.

While we’re at it, you could also have had Dayak there (the one from s6, not the slightly inexplicable other one from s8 given the entire way Lotor introduces s6 Dayak never once implies that the word “Dayak” is not a name, which, the best explanation I’ve heard for that one is that “Dayak” is a surname and the s8 one is the s6 one’s sister) since she’s so obviously enthusiastic about Lotor taking the throne and standing by him, there’s not really a reason she’d hide out until it was safe and then fair-weather return to Lotor’s side when she’s such an aggressive and forwards person about her opinions and what she stands for.

There’s so much to work with, here. We could have explored so much of this. They put this tantalizing information on the table, and, then, just sort of pushed it to the floor without considering it.

#voltron legendary defender #vld #season 8 #Clockie Unpacks S8 #readmore #long post

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envy555 · 6 years

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Lotor’s Plans: An Unlikely Theory

There’s no way this theory will end up being legitimate, but because Lotor’s proven time and time again that all of his actions have a purpose, even if the true purpose is masked, it seems like a theory worth considering. So, bear with me (despite the length).

Regarding Lotor’s plans, we only really know the basics. He’s seeking a method to enter the rift to obtain quintessence, likely for the good of the universe. Lotor is also ancient (and maybe possessed), so we can assume that he’s probably been working on this particular plan for centuries and revising it constantly to fit his circumstances.

At some point, however, Lotor would have realized that he couldn’t open the rift without material from the other reality, ie. the comet. He couldn’t obtain the trans-reality comet without Voltron, but if he could get his hands on Voltron, even for a short period of time, he wouldn’t necessarily need the comet.

So, Lotor ultimately needs Voltron for the success of his plan, but he doesn’t need to be the one to find the lions––Zarkon has already invested all of his time and resources in that project. Lotor just needs to patiently wait and prepare to form Voltron (and also plot out how he’ll double-cross his dad and steal the lions––an unfortunate inevitability).

Now, here the theory really begins. If you had to prepare to form Voltron, what would be the first step? To find pilots for each of the lions. And if you were Lotor and didn’t necessarily know that the lions were picky about their paladins and select them based on consistent personality traits, how would you reasonably assume paladins were chosen?

Genetics.

Furthermore, if you were the son of the original black paladin and felt confident in your ability to lead Voltron and realize your dreams, wouldn’t that reinforce your logic?

So, my unlikely theory is that Lotor selected each of his (ex-)generals not because they were female or because they were Galra half-breeds like himself, but because they were the descendants of the original paladins.

Sounds crazy? Let’s break it down: first, by appearance as an indicator of potential genetic match, and second, by overlapping personality features.

Red paladin: Alfor & Acxa

I highly doubt that Acxa is Alfor’s direct descendant, because Alfor doesn’t mess around with the ladies and Allura, obviously, never had any children. However, if Lotor believed that the Altean royal line had ended at his father’s hands, perhaps he decided that a distant offshoot would suffice. So, imagine that Axca is actually a descendant of (or is) Romelle (Allura’s cousin in DotU). This is a nice concept because it could lend a hand to explaining the weird archer Allura preview, and it doesn’t eliminate the possibility of Acxa and Keith being related. In fact, it makes it cooler, because it would also suggest that Keith and Allura are distant cousins.

Appearance-wise, look at Acxa next to Alfor. They have the exact same ear shape. They have similar bangs and jawlines. Even their posture is similar (and not just in these screenshots). Mix a little Galra into Alfor’s family line and Acxa is a totally reasonable outcome.

Personality-wise, Alfor was Zarkon’s right hand paladin and loyal friend, even when given great reason to doubt. Acxa was Lotor’s top general and his most loyal follower, even after he killed Narti. Both Alfor and Acxa are capable of acting independently, but prefer to follow a more qualified leader. Both of them are also capable “scientists” and are shown to have a good understanding of the power of the comet and the value/ risks of the other reality. Alfor and Acxa also act as the straight man stock character, at least in comparison to their teammates.

Green paladin: Trigel & Narti

Appearance-wise, Narti and Trigel have very similar mouth and nose shapes––in fact, their noses are identical and Narti’s mouth is just a scarier upgrade of Trigel’s. Beneath her hood Narti’s “hairline” of sorts creates a nearly identical widow’s peak to Trigel’s. They also share similar physical builds, and both lack eyebrows.

Personality-wise, Trigel, as the green lion, would have served as Zarkon’s “left hand,” and would have been third in the chain of command, after Alfor. Despite killing her in a moment of fear, Lotor uses Narti almost as often as Acxa and more visibly than his other two generals. He sends her on independent missions and selects her specifically to accompany him to Zarkon’s ship when he’s been called in, leaving Acxa in charge in his stead.

Blue paladin: Blaytz & Ezor

Appearance-wise, the “V” like facial marks on Ezor’s forehead mirror the shape of Blaytz’s, and they both have a form of antennae––the former’s is her one, long, ponytail-esque feature and the latter’s are his two swoopy, moth-like protrusions. Though their physical similarities seem to end here, we do see Blaytz flirting with a Galra servant in this very screencapped scene. If you take a second to consider the Galra’s appearance, you’ll notice that their ears are the exact same shape as Ezor’s. I ship Blaytz’s forbidden Galra love.

Personality-wise, both Blaytz and Ezor act as comic relief stock characters in roughly the same vein that Lance does, and they both push boundaries when it comes to interacting with others. Their personalities lend themselves to a flirtatious nature, and it seems they both enjoy toying with the emotions and reactions of other, though likely only to stroke their own egos.

Yellow paladin: Gyrgan & Zethrid

Appearance-wise, Gyrgan and Zethrid are extremely similar. Consider their physical stature as a starting point, but then look at their eyes. They have a glossier, rounder eye shape than most alien races we’ve seen. Furthermore, both of their facial marks consistently appear in symmetrical pairs and are focused around their eyes and cheeks. In fact, it seems they both have marks above their eyes in lieu of eyebrows.

Personality-wise, Gyrgan and Zethrid also act as comic relief stock characters, like the oft-unfairly depicted “Humorous Hunk.” Gyrgan has a blatant and absurd appetite for food and Zethrid has a blatant and absurd appetite for violence. Both of them also share a slightly wry sense of humor, and both are consistently genuine in the simplicity of their emotions. They also both stick to their beliefs––Gyrgan’s religion and Zethrid’s aggression.

So, I’m sure this theory sounds absurd at first, but just take a minute to mull it over. The original paladins in VLD all have obvious similarities to the modern paladins and intentionally so, but both groups of paladins share similarities with another group too––Lotor and his (ex-)generals––and understanding any one group helps us better understand the others.

Finally, I like this theory because it fits Lotor’s behavior, which often can’t be explained but is rarely happenstance. He’s gathered his potential paladins but he’s also helped them become great generals, so they serve a purpose either way. The discovery of and bonding with the lions by the new paladins would have definitely thrown a wrench in Lotor’s original plans, but we see him shift to manipulating the proper paladins almost immediately––if he can’t have Voltron, he’ll get the comet. His murder of Narti feels foolish if he needed her to pilot a lion, but less so when you consider that he’s already got (in theory), a way to enter the rift without Voltron. Plus, what does Lotor immediately do when his rift theories have been disproven and his team betrays him? He swoops in to win over Voltron, and returns to a version of his original plan.

What makes it all worse (assuming this theory is legit)? Lotor probably never told his generals who they were. He probably found them, in desperate need of guidance and purpose, and convinced them to aid him without fully revealing his intentions. His ex-generals probably still haven’t realized that they’re the descendants of the original defenders of the universe.

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nikfehu · 6 years

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Season 7 Thoughts

Hey there y’all. Bought time I shared what I thought of the new season now that I’ve been able to think through everything. Remember, these are my opinions, so of course y’all don’t have to agree with me. And go ahead and send me whatever you feel like you gotta because of what I said, hate, agreement, whatever. Also, this will not be spoiler free. Let’s goooooooo (Also, apology ahead of time because this is going to be loooooong)

So I personally thought this season was actually really good. I liked the fact that it was split into two different sections - the space trip arc and the saving Earth arc - with a two episode connection between them. To me, it made it a lot easier to follow what was going on while the Voltron crew was making their way back to Earth.

There was a lot of action happening in just the trip back. Having the game show in there definitely broke up the trip, keeping us interested in what was going on. The part where they were left adrift in space got really real, letting us see what the Paladins thought about each other and about being Paladins.

I’ve seen a lot of posts about how Keith and Lance spoke, and the way I see it is that Lance had finally snapped about how Keith had left them for the Blade. It was said that Lance had a void from where Keith had left. Keith was frustrated with everything, and snapped too. I don’t think they were trying to be mean to each other. I think it’s that they got overwhelmed with everything and snapped.

The part where they were captured by Ezor and Zethrid was super interesting! I viewed it as our first canonically LGBTQ+ couple in the show, and it made me really happy to see it. I really loved how as soon as they decided they were going to torture Pidge, Lance shot up to protect her, even if he knew he probably wouldn’t be able to do much. The fact that his first instinct was to charge them makes me really happy.

Axca coming back against Ezor and Zethrid was really shocking. I hadn’t thought she would ever turn against them. I don’t remember if it ever explained why she did, but I really want to know. I know people are freaking out about Keith and Axca now being written as a couple. But honestly? I don’t see that happening. But I guess we’ll see in the next season.

The saving Earth arc was so action packed and so emotional for everyone. I’m glad that James got his chance to redeem himself from the Garrison for Keith (though we only saw him being a jerk at the very beginning of the season, so he may have fixed things with him before hand). The Garrison working with Voltron was literally the coolest thing ever.

Lance and Pidge reuniting with their families got me in the feels. I almost cried during those scenes. The Holt family reunion was so precious, cause Colleen finally got her family back. Lance’s family, oh my god, that was such an amazing reunion. Lance’s niece and nephew calling him Uncle Lance made me smile so much. I got really sad when Hunk couldn’t find his family, but I was proud of him for being so determined to find them that he was able to override his fear.

I was really happy to see Keith making up with Iverson, and then later coming to Hunk to talk to him about his family and offering to help him find them. Keith himself said he was bad at this stuff, but the fact that he was willing to help means that he’s making an attempt to open up (I’m assuming it was because of what had happened while they were stranded in space). I also think this was his way of trying to make up with Hunk about the things he had said earlier on in the season.

I’m really happy we got to see Lance acting like a brother with Veronica. We always knew how important his family was. But it wasn’t until he was willing to die to protect her that we realized just how far he was willing to go to keep them safe. That part had me on the edge of my seat because Red wasn’t responding to him and I was so scared that something bad was going to happen.

I definitely wasn’t ready for Admiral Sanda to betray the Paladins to protect Earth. I know she was doing what she thought was best, but I think if she had listened to what everyone was saying about the Galra, she would’ve realized that the Galra can’t be trusted to keep up their end of deals. And even though this made me hate her, I definitely did not want to see her die. I wanted to see her get a chance to make things right with everyone back on Earth for betraying them.

Psychic connections with the lions?? What?? I knew that the Paladins had to capable of some amazing things in order to gain the trust of them. But I didn’t know they could essentially project their spirits into the and pilot them! Even Shiro didn’t, and he was stuck inside Black for 4 season! I’m so proud of them for being able to do something so amazing!

Okey, but the Atlas essentially turning into Earth’s Voltron because of Shiro? How freaking cool is that!! It makes me wonder if that means that if Voltron goes back into space if Shiro is going to stay on Earth (along with if Hunk, Pidge, and Lance will). Shiro was able to do so much without having a lion this season, it was so amazing. I will admit I thought Sendak was going to kill him if the crystal lightening didn’t, but I’m so glad Keith was able to save him. I was also sobbing during Shiro’s speech because the Paladins were no where to be found and they had been hit with something that should’ve killed them. I thought they had died and I was so heart broken.

I have so many questions about the final robot and the Altean that was found to be piloting it. I have a theory that it’s Haggar’s doing, that she found the Altean colony and, using the knowledge and magic she learned on Oriande, was able to convince them that she was good and that Allura and Voltron are evil. I’m pretty sure Romelle is going to be the only person who will be able to convince them that Haggar is the evil one.

So, now onto the touchy subject - LGBTQ+ Rep. I think even though we all wanted Lance to talk to Shiro about his sexuality and have Shiro and Adam reunite, having what we did is a start. Ezor and Zethrid having an entire episode is absolutely amazing. We’re all assuming they died in the explosion, but it was never confirmed that they did. So while we might think our canon lesbian couple is dead, they may not be, and they may show up in the next season. And if they don’t, the fact that we got it is so amazing.

The Shiro and Adam situation is a very touchy topic. I think killing Adam off was a bad call, but I can make some assumptions as to why they did it. Killing him meant that Shiro had a personal reason (other than saving Earth) to do everything he could to defeat Sendak. I’m really hoping they touch on it in the next season, because Shiro needs a chance to grieve for his boyfriend/fiance. Just because we didn’t get the interactions between them that we wanted doesn’t mean we didn’t get any rep. Shiro himself is our rep, whether it gets focused on or not.

Now onto the most touchy topic - Klance, Allurance, and Kaxca. People are saying that Klance is dead because Axca suddenly shows up and Ezor made a comment about her being in love with him. I really don’t see this as ever happening. I get the vibe that Axca is somehow related to him (maybe she’s Krolia and Kolivan’s child? They seem to be a thing when they’re in Keith’s room)

Allurance is also something I don’t think will happen. It’s been 7 seasons and it’s just now that we’re seeing Allura seeing Lance as more than the goofball he is. I think she’s a little desperate to feel something in her heart again after Lotor, and that she’s seeing Lance as that person who can do this. She knows that Lance has feelings for her, but I don’t think Lance has realized that Allura really isn’t the person he should be with. I think he’s scared to accept that. And then to have her being the way she is might be making him think she really is. I think the next season will let us have more insight into this.

I think Klance still has a really good chance of being a thing. It may not seem like it, but there was a lot of character growth between Keith and Lance. Keith trusts Lance enough to not only have his back during missions, but to lead the team while he went off to do something else, like helping Axca. There was clear concern on Lance’s face when he left, but he trusted Keith, and Keith trusted him.

We were told that Lance would be someone’s first choice, and he was. Remember the game show episode? Keith immediately wrote down Lance. Despite what he said, we all know that’s not the only reason he chose to write down Lance. Lance was Keith’s first choice to lead the team to the lions. He could’ve asked Shiro or Allura or even Krolia. But he chose Lance without a second thought. He called out for Lance first when they were stuck on Sendak’s ship. Lance was, and is, Keith’s first choice.

We may not have gotten Klance like we wanted, but we were far from Queer Baited like everyone seems to think. The show isn’t over. We’ve had two (2) canon queer couples in the show, and there may be more in the next season. Our Rep may not have been shown the way we wanted, but I really don’t think we were Queer Baited. We have another season. We’ll see what we get in terms of Rep.

So, parting thoughts: I actually really enjoyed this season. There was so much action, so many emotional scenes, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had me holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat during a lot of scenes. It had a lot of scenes to help us with the sadness and seriousness. This season was a season showing us what war is like, and I think the crew did a phenomenal job at this. I’m very excited to see what the next season will give us.

#heyyo here are my thoughts #if you hate me cause of this then okey #each of us have our own opinions on this season #if you feel the need to argue your points with me go ahead #send me whatever you feel you need to #ill take whatever you throw at me

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darkspellmaster · 7 years

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Voltron Theory: Who exactly is this helmeted Rebel?

I really normally wouldn’t call attention to a two episode character, but given what happened the last time we had a character that was mysterious, it seemed logical to me to point this person out.

During Episode 5 (12 if you count it as continuing Season 3) Begin the Blitz and the follow up Episode 6 (13 from Season 3) A New Defender, we’re introduced to the Rebels that work with Matt in order to take down the cannon cruiser around planet Teck. Now in the introduction scene we see some rather interesting fellows.

There’s Matt Holt, of course, and Captain Olia (the dog lady voiced by Bex), there’s a lady there with long ears who I think might be from the species as Matt’s late friend and rescuer Tiosh (or Teosh, or Teaosh –not sure how to spell it), a green gal with the four arms, one of the Olkarians, a dude that is a cross between a fish and a twilik and the Frog that could be a nod to Star Fox’s Slippy who later plays a larger role in the episode. Yet, the one character that is not seen is the female with the white helmet. But, the green lady with the four arms, Matt, and the Olkarian are clearly talking to someone across from them, we just can’t see them.

This has me wondering if that’s the lady in the mask they’re hiding from us. But why? Well when we see her later, there’s a rather interesting shape on her helmet.

You see she’s the second gunner, and she has on a full body cover. There is no skin showing. But what she has on is a bit odd for a Rebel fighter.

Normally the rebels have a uniform color scheme going. Dark blue or camo green, dark orange, and a tan color with some gray in there.

Her outfit: white helmet, with collar, a black body suit that’s loose in the arms but comes up to her neck, much like the Voltron body suit they wear under their armor, black pants, one wrapped up arm, the other has on a gauntlet, and gloves of white and black that cover her fingers. We can’t see her boots, but she has pouches, and a cape, like Matts with yellow and white shoulder pads.

Then when we see her mask it makes it weirder. Her helmet is full cover, no visor at all. We can’t see her face. And there’s this odd, I want to call it a collar, around the helmet that is white and seems to do nothing. Then there’s the V. While it’s not directly looking like Voltron’s V shape, there’s a similarity. What’s also odd about it is that it goes from light blue to gray, and odder still is the two little markings on the bottom.

Now this could be the marking of her clan, or her species. She speaks though a computer altered voice, so she may not speak basic. However, if that is so why have we not seen this before? Then there’s the fact that it’s not filtering anything as we’ve seen characters that seem to wear masks to filter the air. So what is up with this masked woman?

We see her show up for the major moments, like when the shields are brought up, we have gasps from Matt, Olia, and this woman. Her body shows she’s in shock, just as they are. Later she’s among the main group shot when the cannon fires killing a bunch of people. It makes sense for Olia, Matt, and the trio from season one (Rolo, Nyma, and Beezor), but we know nothing about her, and none of the other characters in the group that are minor make this cut, so again, why her? Also in the shot with the six they forgot the two markings making the V look very much like the Voltron logo.

Moments later we get her actually suggesting that they get the Blade to shoot the other cannon. It’s not said in a panicked way, but rather like someone giving an order who knows what she’s doing. There’s something regal to her voice and to me it sounds like Allura’s tone of voice. This is someone who knows how to give commands and knows how to stay calm in a bad situation.

What’s more the last time we see her in the show is when Keith is talking to Matt and telling them about the situation with Voltron. Here we get a good look at the outfit and its very Paladin inspired. The arm seems to have a gauntlet on it, possibly for a computer like all the paladin’s have, only to fit over looser clothing.

So who is she? Well there are two options:

I’m going to have to discount Queen Merla right now. Here’s the thing, while Merla plays a huge role in the second half of the first Voltron Series, she wasn’t part of the original series. Given though that we’ve had a Sven from another reality, it’s not hard to conceive that Merla will show up. My only reason for saying no to having the mysterious new person be a new version of Queen Merla is that I have a feeling they’re going to make her be Empress Allura’s descendent from the Alternative reality. Merla is someone who has reasons to be connected to the Galra empire. Given what we’ve seen with the Alteans, and who Merla was in the old show, it’s easier to see her as someone who would be ruling over someone who is dressed up and fighting against the Galra. Also it would be harder to introduce her vs. the other two options due to the fact that her history with Lotor is not as complicated and she has no direct ties to him other than, “I want you, and I’d like to rule with you.”

So I’m going to say a no for Merla in this case. That doesn’t mean that I don’t see her showing up at some point I just don’t see it next season.

There is also the great idea that @aquaburst07 mentioned in their post (here) about the idea that Ezor being a spy for Merla. There’s some hints of this being true, and I wouldn’t put it past the show to pull that off as well. So either she’s already around in this reality and working with Ezor, or she’s from another one and may cause issues in the future.

This leaves the other two I want to talk about Keith’s Mom and Princess Romelle.

Now both are excellent options for who this woman in white is, and why she was completely covered up. Keith’s Mom is an unknown element, and someone we want to know more about. We’ve already been given the hint that she’s possibly alive with his Vlog stating that she left. Princess Romelle is also a good choice because of what Lotor said about a secret group making the teludav that he used to try to pass between both worlds. Her people would be Altean, and having her be part of the resistance against her brother’s wishes would be something that would fit in with the narrative they are telling.

So let’s look at option 1, Keith’s Mom.

The Facts: We know that Keith’s mom was a Blade Member, as she had the blade that Keith’s dad gave to Keith when he was older. We also know that Keith’s dad was clearly monitoring sounds, and the like, given the equipment we see him playing with which probably is the same items that Keith uses to find out about the waves for the lions. We know that Keith’s Mom gave his dad the blade, and that his dad held onto the blade until a later time, although we don’t know when he got the blade from his father exactly. We also know that he remembers his Mother somewhat, as he knows that she left rather than him not knowing her at all. (Much like Zuko from Avatar, interesting that bit.) We also know that she left the Blades at some point, came to earth and had Keith.

We’ve learned that Kolivar knows of her, and that he was offering with the test to find out information, but Keith chose to save his friends. We know that she’s probably Galra, and possibly Half, given that he looks human and that he appears to be shifting to look human, and the only ones that can do that are the Alteans. There is though the chance that the Human blood in him is more dominant, so that might be why he looks human. Also, due to interviews we’ve learned that Keith has white hair, which means that his mom would have had to have given him that hair color, since his Dad has black hair like Shiro.

These are the facts that we know.

The Speculation: Now there are a number of theories about Keith’s mom. Some are speculating that Axca could be his mother, the problem with that would be that she would have to have chosen to work for Lotor for some reason and trusted him. Clearly she’s okay with the Galra empire, and she seems a bit young to be Keith’s Mom, so for this I’m avoiding that option.

So what can we speculate about Keith’s Mom. Well for one thing given the way Kolivar acted when Shiro and Keith arrived he knew something was up with Keith. In season 3 and 4 he’s been keeping an eye on him a lot and seems to be upset with some of Keith’s viewpoints. However, the way he seems to be acting makes me think he either was close to Keith’s Mother or was related.

We know know of only a few people that have white hair. Allura, King Alfor, and her Mother, Haggar (but only when she’s using her magic), Prince Lotor and Kolivar. Unless Kolivar is Keith’s father (which is an option as Keith’s Mother could be Altean and working with the Blade or a Halfling, thus giving them both white hair, and making it a dominant trait on Keith), then we can rule out Keith’s dad giving him the white hair. So we can then assume that her hair was white. Now that could indicate some tie to the Altean royal family, since only they have the white hair, but without more white haired people we can only take some guesses at that. And given Kolivar’s hair color, I’m going to assume that there could be other Galra that have white hair.

We can also assume that a lot of Keith’s attitude may come partly from his mother and what she and Keith’s Dad taught him. It’s clear that Keith’s dad was a pretty gentle man, given his tone in talking, more like Shiro. So I’m going to guess that Keith’s mom was more the hot head in this case, as Kolivar’s reactions to Keith’s views are making him annoyed and possibly reminding him of Keith’s mom.

So we know she left the Blade, but her reason why is all up to guess work at this point. But reasoned guess work. My thoughts are pretty simple. Keith’s Mother joined the Blade to help fight against the Galra, feeling that they were nothing but Tyrants at the time. During this time, she probably rose in ranks, but became disillusioned with the idea of dying for a cause, or maybe she was getting annoyed with the way the Blades were doing things and wanted out, or it very well could be that she was sent on a mission to deal with a Galra or was being chased by a Galra and crashed onto earth. Whatever the case she clearly decided not to go back to the Blades, as if she was there I think Kolivar would have mentioned it to Keith already.

So we can also assume that either she was already with child, that being Keith, or met Keith’s Father when she landed on earth and eventually the two of them had Keith. If it’s true what Lauren said about Keith having some magic to him, then there’s more than likely a chance that Keith’s Mom made herself look human. Clearly his father would know the truth, but she probably hid this well from others around her. She must have taught Keith at a young age to hide how he looked or did something to make it so that he covered his appearance.

Given the way his father and Keith himself talks about it, it seems like his mother left for a reason, possibly to protect her son if the Galra got wind of her being there. We assume she left when he was younger, but at what age we don’t know, but he does remember her. My guess, someone blabbed where she was and the Galra were coming to get her, so she motored out of there to protect her family and went into hiding, leaving her blade for Keith so he could find the Blade and gain allies should the Galra come after him. Clearly she was thinking ahead of things, and maybe she knew about the lions and their locations.

That’s what we can reasonably assume with the hints that we have.

Keith’s Mom as the woman in the white helmet: Now as for the connection with the mystery woman that we see flying with Olia and Matt, it’s not hard to see it possibly being her.

Firstly, we know whoever the woman is she’s a gunner, as she and Matt are the two that are flying. She’s clearly wanting to hide her identity fully since we have her in head to toe costume with gloves and a voice modulator to make it sound more robotic in nature. Why would anyone need to have that much cover, unless they were trying to hide something?

Keith’s Mother would be the sort of person that would need to hide herself from others due to her situation. Assuming that she’s wanted by the Galra and hiding from them, she probably would want to cover herself up. We’ve already seen that the Voltron Writers like to hid people in plain sight and, given that we’ve not spoken of Keith’s Mother since the reveal outside of the Vlog, it would make sense for her to show up to the party and give us some of Keith’s back story.

Secondly we know whoever this person is they want to work for the Rebels and help out. They’re a good gunner and were able to stay calm and assess the situation in regard to the cannon and realize that the other Cannon would pack enough punch to knock out the first cannon. We can also see that Matt and Olia clearly trust this person as Olia is the leader of the cell attacking and has this person as one of the two gunners on her main ship. This is not a job that would be given to anyone that she doesn’t trust. Also the fact that the woman would need to know about the way the Galra tech would work to at least figure out that the second Cannon would be strong enough to handle shutting down the shields.

Keith’s Mother could easily fit in with this as well. As a former member of the Blade she would know that they could figure out how to operate the cannon, as well as the fact that she would have to have been trained in how Galra tech works, which could explain why she’s so calm about giving the suggestion. Furthermore, if you consider her a former Blade member, she would have been someone against the Galra, and if she couldn’t go back to the Blades, going to the Rebels would be the next logical step. In addition to fighting skills, she’s older and probably knows stuff about the Galra that makes it easier to deal with them.

But how would she have known to go for that mission? Well likely she saw The Voltron Show, and realized that they were going to need some skilled people to pull off this attack. Also, when they have taken over the ship, she’s standing a lot like Keith does in his group Promotional shots.

Making me think that there is something going on there.

Now why would she use that helmet? If this is Keith’s mom I can only guess that maybe the V shape is an allusion to Voltron and possibly a nod to the unification of Galra (gray) and Altean (blue) in the color. Her outfit is designed to cover as much of her as it can so we can’t see anything. This also calls into question if this is Keith’s Mother.

The issue here is that when Acxa was shown first, we got to see at once that she was Galra with her hands. This character doesn’t have the nails that the Galra would normally have, unless this woman, like Lotor, shows emotion through her hands. But she doesn’t, or at least they don’t give us enough shots of her hands to show us anything. One could argue that Keith’s Mother wouldn’t want to show ANY part of her given that it could attract unwanted attention or out right questions from her team. It would be easy to hand wave this as “I need this helmet to breath.”

So there’s option one. It’s kind of hard to argue against this one as we don’t have enough with her to even say for sure who Keith’s Mother is, other than she was a blade, she came to earth, she had Keith at some point, and she left him.

Option two is Princess Romelle and this has a bit less backing to it then Keith’s Mom as the person but it still is a very large option due to the history of the character and how well known she is as one of the more formidable females on the show following Allura and Merla, (and Nanny if you want to add her).

While Keith’s Mom is mentioned in the Vlog and in Season 2 of the show, we don’t get more than that, and, since Keith hasn’t yet gone back to take the trails and gotten answers from Kolivar, we can’t get much about her.

On the other hand, we do have a bit more on Romelle from her past, and the fact that the Producers have mentioned before that they like her and want to have her on the show. The issue is that neither she nor her Polluxian family have been mentioned…or have they…

The Facts: We know very little if anything about this new version of Pollux or Romelle, either in or out of show. The closest thing we’ve gotten is that Lauren likes her, and that the others like her as well. We also know that she played a larger part in the story of Voltron and became half of the second most popular couple to come out of the first series (that with Sven).

We do know that Lotor had someone design those Sincline ships and that he made sure that they could run on Quintessence that is a more potent version. We also know that the blue color is associated with the Alteans, and that the Royal family is the only group that can create that color and use the Teludav properly (as per we see with Allura and Alfor and Coran can’t use the energy). This means that someone, who knew about the Altean Royal Family magic would have had to have taught Lotor about it (as Honerva was Haggar at the time) and showed him how to use it with the ships.

We also know that the gateway is an updated version of the Teludav, and clearly works the same way. Altean’s seemed to have built it as Lotor mentions it was done by a group, and he didn’t tell his generals about it, not even Acxa. This at least indicates that someone was there to help him out with this plan and believes in doing this with him.

We also know that they made clear that the broadcast that was done with the Voltron Show was seen all over the galaxy and probably even farther.

We know that Lotor clearly wasn’t raised directly by Honerva and Zarkon as he doesn’t know that Honerver and Haggar is his mother, so that means that he was taken someplace where he could learn about Honerva and her experiments. This is something that the Galra clearly are not open about after 10,000 years.

That’s about all we have on hints of the subject. Not much to go on, but as with Lotor before the reveal, at least it’s something.

Speculation: What can we take from these facts and do some guess work with logic? Well for one thing we do know that the dialogue in Season 4 heavily suggested Lotor working with outside sources away from his generals. Let’s see here:

Season 3 early on they make note that he’s coming out of exile. Clearly at this point he’s with his Generals, so we can assume this isn’t the same place. But it’s important to note about the fact that he’s done something that isn’t normal and that it got him booted from the family directly.

Given his anger at Haggar, calling her witch, and his clearly idolizing of Honerva, I suspect that he found out about his mother being an Altean and who she was, and brought it up to others and was learning about the magic that he had. Now, here’s the thing. Prior to the episode where Haggar and Zarkon’s pasts were explored we know that Haggar and Zarkon don’t know or remember who they are. So this means that Lotor would have had to have gotten notes on this information. Assuming the Blade had nothing to do with him, since they seem surprised to see him involved in anything with the Galra, this means that he had to have gotten that information from some other source.

We know that the planet Altea was wrecked, although we don’t know how badly as we haven’t seen it yet. But, if there were Alteans off world that means that they would have had to have lived elsewhere. This is confirmed by the fact that Allura says that Naxcella’s center is an Altean terraformer, which means that the Alteans changed planets to inhabit them. This pretty much points out that Pollux would be a thing, since it’s a sister Planet to Altea, and would have been around before the war broke out.

We can also assume that not everything about the Voltron project was done on Altea. Also we can assume that Honerva’s notes probably were not kept by the Galra on their home or that Alfor moved them somewhere else, and, given the situation with Zarkon and Haggar at the time, he wouldn’t want them on Altea where they could get info on the riff. The logical choice then would have been to send the notes to a location where he thought they would be safe. That would have been a colony world ruled by people he could trust, and more than likely Pollux.

So by that assumption, we can assume that Lotor has been to Pollux and probably found information on his Mother and thus began his plans on creating the giant Teludav to prove her right.

Also, we know that the Bomb Naxcella was set up by Alteans as per Allura and Shiro’s discussion. The thing is that we don’t know how old that is. We assume that it’s been there for a while, but, if that’s true then, why didn’t Allura know about it, which to me screams, it was built after the events of Altea’s destruction. After all, wouldn’t Coran or Allura have heard of Naxcella being a terraforming station before? Wouldn’t either of them have mentioned it? That tells me that this was built after they fell to sleep.

Season 3 also pointed out Lotor’s height, and that people didn’t recognize him. Meaning that he’s been a way for a long while. If as @aquaburst07 says, that Queen Merla may be the one that Acxa and the girls are going to, then this means that he wasn’t raised on the ships. Given his attitude we can tell that he’s not ashamed of his mother or his heritage, unlike the original and seems to want to embrace it in his own way. So I would think that, given his view on his mother and his view on Haggar and the other Galra, he’s probably met a few Alteans, or in this case Polluxians.

Season 4 gave us hints about certain things. First we have Lotor needing to have the ships made after they get hold of the comet. We know the ships were being put together, but the design is not anything like the Galra fleet, meaning that they were at first created by other people. He also set up the theft in a way that would cover any question of his loyalty to the Galra cause. What comes next is the fact that if you look at Lotor’s ship, you’ll see that while it’s large, like the Castle is, it’s not big enough to build a ship, but it is large enough to put it together, like puzzle pieces. This means that the ships were fabricated off site. We know that the Altean’s were the best in building ships, as per seeing the Lions get built from the first comet.

So it seems likely that the ships would be built in a place where they wouldn’t be under any suspicion and where the product would have the best of quality. Because, let’s be honest here, if any Galra base were loyal to Lotor, which given his disdain for the job he probably doesn’t have any, they would probably turn on him by this point. And, we’ve seen that Haggar would have no issue getting information on him, as there are those that are willing to go hunting him down. This leaves us with the location off world and probably a planet where people wouldn’t go looking for him.

We also know for a fact that he’s going someplace else to have the large gateway made. Now from what Allura and Coran said, Teludav’s are strictly a thing that Alteans make, and no one else. Since we know Haggar wouldn’t have been able to tell Lotor about them, we have to assume that someone else did. This leads me to think that the likelihood Lotor is in contact with Alteans, and, more than likely, was raised by them for some reason. My guess is that both the Sincline ships and the gateway were constructed, or at least designed by, Polluxians, and the Gateway was strictly their project as no one else, except for Lotor knew it existed.

This is what little we have as speculation in regard to the hints of Pollux.

Romelle as the woman in the white helmet: This one has a bit less clear evidence, unlike Keith’s Mom. However, there is some indication that this could be her.

Looking at the facts and speculation that we have gathered we could assume that Romelle would be in contact with Lotor and probably know about what he’s doing. Again, if we assume that he learned about Honerva and her experiments via other Alteans, then we can guess that Romelle knows about her too. We can also assume, given Lotor’s disdain for the Galra, his father and “the Witch” that Romelle probably shares some of those feelings. As with Allura’s own views, we know that people are not exactly friendly with the Galra, as seen with the Blade. It’s not that hard to suspect that anyone from Pollux may see the Galra as something that needs to go. So we have motivation in the form of her wanting to help the Rebels take out the Galra. Throw in the fact that having a little brother would certainly lead her to watching The Voltron Show, and getting inspired by that some what, you have a solid ground for her to want to join the rebellion, like others mentioned in the show over seeing the Voltron Stage Show.

Also, assuming that she’s the princess, the uniforms, weapons, and other items that they have, may have come from her funding in some way. It’s not that hard to believe that she’s helping to fund this operation, or has for a while now. Who else would have the cash on hand to build the monument that we see in Reunion. That’s not something that is cheap and assuming that it’s been there for a while, it could be that she’s taking up the mantle that others of wealth have had before her, being the money of the Rebellion.

If you look at the outfit the woman is wearing, you have the V on the helmet, although it has two square shapes on the lower part of the V, and it wraps around. However, the V is very much in the same style as the Voltron symbol, and, the two colors again tie into possibly the Polluxian/Altean connection, since the blue seems to be heavily associated with the magic of the Alteans the gray could be some sort of nod to Pollux.

There’s also the fact that her outfits colors and design seem to match that of Avok, Romelle’s older brother, from the original series. Both have the rounded collars, the dark green, white and yellow color scheme.

It could be invoking the leader of Pollux in that as she is the only character to not wear the traditional Rebel colors of blue, camo green, orange and gray in her outfit. She’s also the only one with a cape draped that way, as most of the other capes wrap around, this one is more like some royal cape one would wear ala King Alfor. Over the shoulders, looking more military like then anything the rebels are wearing.

Then there is the fact that the suit she’s in a set of armour that is a lot like the Paladins. Black body suit, although the sleeves are looser, white armor top with no markings on it, but the style is similar to that of the Paladins armor. She’s got some white on the top part of her pants, I think it was supposed to look like the belts that the Paladin’s wear, and her one arm is wrapped up while the other has some sort of larger gauntlet on it. The outfit does not match anything the rebels are wearing at all.

Why would someone in the rebels wear an outfit that sticks out like that and covers themselves up so completely? Unless they’re trying to hide who they are so that they don’t get into trouble. On top of that we know the person is using a voice mod to give them more of a robotic sound, and the helmet is Altean in design like Lotor’s and Allura’s. Then there’s the fact that some of the look is a lot like the Altean’s we met from the other world.

This bring us to the question of, why would Romelle, 1. Hide who she is, and 2. Join the rebels? To answer the second question first, assuming that she is angry at Zarkon and the other high members of the Galra empire for not only destroying the Altean home world, but possibly, if she and Lotor are friends, causing him such anger in the first place and making him into the man he is now. It’s not hard to see reason for her to join the rebels given what we know about the Galra, and if she’s been trying to undermine them and possibly her older brother, then it’s an interesting situation.

For number two, that’s an easy question to answer as well. Assuming that she is in the Royal Polluxian family, she would be well known, and if she’s trying to hide the fact that she’s working for the Rebels, she would need a damn good disguise. Completely covered from head to toe works in this case. After all if one is going against the wishes of her brother or father then she’s putting herself at risk. Being associated with the Rebellion at all is a bad thing as it would bring the wrath of the Galra down on her system and people. And if Lotor is keeping quiet about Altean’s being alive and well, that would mean that if she was found out that would mean that Zarkon would come to cause trouble for her people.

We also know that the woman in question is a gunner, and Romelle from the first series was a marksman, who was able to shoot with the best. She was also an excellent pilot and a good leader to her ladies in waiting when they tried to escape. Given that this woman in question also seems to be a good gunner and also knows how to deal with situations under pressure, as seen with the cannon option, it’s clear that she has some sense of power and authority, which leads me to believe that she has had some training in some way. Given that Allura clearly had training in fighting and diplomatic situations, it’s not hard to see Romelle getting some too, even if she’s not the heir.

The question now becomes if she’s covering herself up and helping the Rebels, how do they contact her and what is the name they call her. She’s prominent in all the shots with the rebels save the last assault on the main ship that Keith stages, and the very first mention of the Rebel team. Matt is clearly talking to someone we can’t see behind the frog, so are they covering up her face like they did with Acxa?

We know that the team likes to unveil people with surprise ways, and we know that they purposely gave this woman a voice so we could hear her being female with a robotic over tone to it so that we don’t go “Ah ha” when we next see this person. Also they covered her face, which means to me that they’re setting up for a revel since the last time they did that with Acxa they made sure that you could see her hand and that she was Galra. In this case, everything is covered up, and if she was some race or species that we’ve seen, or wasn’t important to the plot outside of this episode, then they would have shown her at least partly in some way. But we can’t even see her fingers, they’re gloved, which makes me think that they’re hiding as much as they can with her, and more than likely that could indicate Altean.

So that’s the idea of Romelle as the woman.

Now both characters have enough hints for it to be them, but it’s really up in the air until we see the character’s skin in some way. Which we probably won’t until next season.

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #vld #white helmet #vld white helmet #mystery woman #keith's mom #princess romelle #romelle #pollux #voltron theory #voltron theories #season 5 #who is she?

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severalbakuras · 7 years

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ok ok ok ok wow au briefly revisited.

long post--ish so if readmores don’t work sorry.

so shiro as anduin based entirely on them sharing the same VA... makes sense that shiro would be both alliance and in a position of power he really did not ask for but doesn’t really have a choice and also has strong moral convictions. both also have a shitton of ptsd mostly unexplored by the narrative after imprisonment and a traumatic injury at the hands of the enemy. dreadlords being a canonical thing that impersonate people in power to drive them to ruin could account for clone evil shiro if that’s a thing too.

anduin at his by far most interesting and likeable, to me anyway, was during MOP, where he found himself keeping company of the ‘last’ black dragon, prince wrathion. they got along pretty well considering black dragons are the source of literally all of the problems in anduin’s life - until garrosh drops a bell on him and his dad dies when the burning legion invades obvs. it was also the first time ingame we really got to see anduin interact with anyone that wasn’t the PC or his family (*i started playing in cata so idk if he has anything prior to that) and when we got to see wrathion interacting with someone he didn’t later order us to murder.

so, assuming that i keep shiro as anduin simply bc of the VAs, who should wrathion be?

i could peg wrathion as keith. i mean the black dragonflight-galra switch is easy enough and sabellian and his brood would make an easy enough exchange into the blade of marmora and make them a little more relevant to the story. keith’s shady upbringing would mirror wrathion’s even shadier upbringing too.

the biggest killer for wrathion-keith is that wrathion and keith’s personalities are just too different.

like wrathion lies to the PC’s face with his support and intentionally inflames both sides of a literal world war to further his goals and throws a massive temper tantrum when one side doesn’t annihilate the other like he wanted them to, fucking off to who knows where for two expansions with tiny cameos that ultimately mean nothing and counting yes i’m bitter as hell. he’s all about that self preservation which is probably why he’s stayed as far away from us as possible. he’ll ally himself with anyone so long as it furthers his ultimate goal. also doesn’t tip.

keith doesn’t lie to people about anything that isn’t himself. he’s brutally honest and that doesn’t really lend itself to subterfuge in his words, even if he’s good at the physical side of it (which was partially why i didn’t cast him as an outlaw rogue before) - he’s just not manipulative. he’s got his own strong sense of morals and adheres to them even at his own detriment - keith’s self-preservation and dreams and goals comes second to what he or what he thinks someone else who he trusts thinks is the right thing to do. he’d absolutely tip.

also if you think sheith age discourse is bad just fuckin’ wait until you see wranduin age discourse my friends.

literal canon fully voice acted dialogue (skip to 1:35):

youtube

yeah.

vld fandom you think you know discourse

but you don‘t

now you’re probably thinking (especially if you decided to watch the clip from 0:56) that lotor and wrathion would be a better fit. but i... don’t know.

there’s a lot of parallels, that’s for sure. they’re both sons of a tyrant out for total domination. they’re both considered abnormal by their society in some degree (wrathion is a chimera dragon regarded as an experiment by the red flight iirc, lotor is part non-galra in a galra supremacist society), they’re both considered suspicious by leading figures in their faction (last i checked alexstrasza and wrathion don’t get along and for very good reasons, while zarkon, haggar and the other elite galra would Rather Not deal with lotor), they’re both very good at getting what they want especially when it relates to their ultimate goal (defeating the legion for wrathion, ??? for lotor), and they both have fantastic voices.

but lotor is cautious in a way that wrathion isn’t, he’s analytical. wrathion is so incredibly overconfident in both his assessment of the PC and that of the two factions leaders choices in the coming siege that when it goes wrong, he doesn’t know what to do. he flounders. he yells at you. he throws a big strop and turns into his dinky true whelp form and flies away. your PC brings wrathion the heart of the thunder king and he doesn’t hesitate to eat it to see what happens. wrathion wouldn’t even exist without your PC’s intervention (so long as you did blasted lands) and he can accomplish nothing without your assistance. he’s all bark, no bite. your PC could easily kick wrathion’s ass - not that mine would. a family can be 13 mums and three dads who don’t talk to each other and would kill on sight if they ever met with PVP flags on.

lotor though... the first thing we hear about him pretty much is that he fights alongside his soldiers on the front lines. look at his first encounter with the paladins - he puts himself at personal risk to examine them. he accompanies his team to puig. ezor feels comfortable enough to squabble with axca around him and zethrid sounds like she’s on the verge of tears when telling him this is their only way out. his behaviour before and after narti’s death are radically different, both in how he speaks to the generals and his silence when he’s completely alone. but wrathion’s bodyguards are simply right and left and IIRC never speak. when lotor is shot by axca and informed that the generals are turning him over to zarkon he doesn’t lash out at them or even blame them for doing it. he escapes and flees - without harming his generals. wrathion’s plans fail and he sets fire to the inn and laments that he didn’t act more like ‘auntie onyxia’, who literally messed with anduin’s life from birth onwards. lotor’s plans fail and he’s like ‘ok how do i work with this’. he’s flexible too, he can adjust for changes in his situation on the fly and improvise like nobody’s business. fighting lotor one-on-one would be a nightmare.

so yeah no i can’t see keith or lotor as wrathion. i also think i can’t keep shiro as anduin either. while shiro and anduin do have a lot in common they also have a lot of differences.

christ putting this au together is going to take for fucking ever and this is just two of like 20+ major characters i’m not even going to do anything with it lmao.

#voltron #vld #lotor #keith #shiro #wrathion #anduin wrynn

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justifiedthehomicide · 7 years

Text

SOME THINGS I NOTICED IN SEASON 4

I’ve just watched season four and wOW I am SHOOK BEYOND BELIEF I AM SCREAMING I AM DEAD

ok now that that’s been said

Some sTUFF I nOTicED and some quESTIONS I hAD and the like

SPOIIIIILLLLLEEEERRRRRRSSSSSSS

THAT ISNT SHIRO I think the black lion only took him back because she realized how much Voltron was needed and he was the best she could get without Keith The way he acted was just so not-Shiro-like it just doesnt seem rIGHT

Matt is amazing My goodness He’s so amazing Also he’s just like the fanon version everyone came up with before we ever knew what he was like and that is epic to me

Matt/Allura is real???????

Allura and Coran’s reactions to Kaltenecker were amazing Assuming they didn’t have some sort of Altean version of cows, though, and assuming Altean bones are made of calcium like human bones, how did they get the calcium they needed? Also Kaltenecker’s marking on his behind whAT iS IT

Remember from the vlog Keith pushes people away, right? Before they reject him? THATS WHAT HE DID HE WAS SO TERRIFIED OF NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH FOR VOLTRON THAT HE LEFT VOLTRON LIKE LANCE WANTED TO DO AS WELL AJDJDKSJDHD GIVE THEM HUGS PLZ

Pidge is a nICKNAME FROM MATT here’s the question- how did that become a nickname??????? Is it short for Pigeon????? Also she hated it at first and then because it was associated with him she loved it and that just makes me feel complete

PIDGE SAID SHE’D COME UP TO SPACE AND FIND MATT IF HE DIDNT COME BACK WELL WHADDAYA KNOW

Do Galra civilians exist?

Lotor is 100% planning something. That smile was too evil. He’s probably going to get the Paladins to trust him, and then destroy them from the inside. Maybe this is what will bring Keith back?

Speaking of which I’m very glad keith didn’t die That was a truly terrifying moment

sO Keith showed hE WAS A GOOD LEADER WHEN VOLTRON WAS INCAPACITATED WHO TOOK CHARGE? IT WASNT KOLIVAN IT WAS KEITH WHO LED THE REBELS INTO BATTLE AGAIN? KEEEITTHHHHHHHHH HE JUST NEEDS TO GET OVER HIS STUPID SELF-SACRIFICIAL CRAP

The memorial on the abandoned planet really reminded me of the Vietnam memorial and Arlington National Cemetery

Allura’s magic fiNALLY came back!!!!! Will this be a huge help in the future? Probably If she actually uSES it It’s like the Force An all powerful thing you can control and you prefer to use a weapon that if you’re untrained can cut your hand off by activating it

Hunk was so happy to see Shay and I just

the geek trio has been made matt, hunk, and pidge it is now official

Lance has better inspirational speeches than Shiro *le gasp* I know what you’re thinking “his speeches are his thing!” But hear me out: My theory? Lance’s are much more personal and heartfelt, and they reach the audience better, whoever that audience is Shiro’s are general and practiced, rehearsed in quality. They’re very good, and definitely better than Keith’s, but they’ve got this distant element to them that Lance is able to break past.

LOTOR ARE YOUR ARMS OK?????

The brainworm situation was… interesting, to say the least. What do you wanna bet they’re gonna be important later?

Don’t kill me for this, but I kind of think the Holt Father Sam might be dead 0_0 *hides from hoarde of angry holt family fangirls*

So does Keith have some sort of quintessence sensing or nOT He said he wasn’t sure how, but he knew they had to attack the ship that Haggar was on hMMMMMM????? Couple that with the rest of the instances we know of like sensing the blue lion wHAT dOES iT mEAN I nEED aNSWERS

Lance was really into the “shows of arms” I think they reminded him of Earth, and they were also a great distraction from the real fight, where people were going to get hurt

I’m still waiting for Keith backstory Just sayin

Lance and Hunk got the character development everyone wanteeeddddd Right? Right??????? Who am I kidding The fandom will never be satisfied STOP PLAYING THE HAMILTON SONG I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE ALL THINKING

Why do I have the sinking feeling that Coran/Beeboboop or whatever is going to be a ship Siiigghhhhhhhhhhh

Pidge’s room looks exactly like mine An utter diSASTER It’s a sign of creativity *hmph*

Coran has a photo of Alfor in his room and if you listen you can hear my heart shatter

Are the Galra girls going to meet up with Voltron too??? Like Lotor???? Cuz that’ll be awkward

I still think Axca’s related to Keith somehow

I also feel like Voltron is weaker without Keith Like None of them are the weak link But Keith was their push He kept them from being too cautious, because if you’re too cautious you end up like the Blade of Marmora was Now they don’t have him

The cat is gonna find her way back to Haggar/Honerva

Also

NARTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Lotor just… killed her No hesitation That’s the Galra way, the way he’s always been taught. Victory or death. But the generals were like a family, and Lotor killed their sister.

Lotor knows who his mother was But maybe not who she is now He called her Honerva, not Haggar

It also shows that Lotor was born near Allura’s time of birth, give or take a few years

What happens when Zarkon runs out of quintessence? Also he’s darth vader now

Anyone else get the impression Lotor is slowly going insane?

I’m still waiting for the Paladins to visit Earth *slides dreamworks a $10 bill*

What about everyone else’s vlogs????

Do any outside Galra even kNOW about Kuron??? Haggar and Lotor aren’t acting like it but ya never know

Why didn’t the rift give Lotor the quintessence he wanted, in some way shape or form, like how it did for Voltron? And what reality did he and Zethrid end up in? Did they alter that reality at all by arriving in it?

What is Voltron going to dO now???? Like the really big question: Where do they go from here?

That’s all folks, thanks for listening to my rant Happy existential crises and Friday the Thirteenth in the month of October! *thunder crashes*

…when do we get the next season

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mariaashby64 · 7 years

Text

Random Review (2)

Voltron season 4 review.

Overall this season was somewhat darker while still enjoyable, and it had many thoroughly hilarious moments. The visuals were amazing and the plant designs still managed to awe me. Fighting and the choreography of the battles were stunning and well planned. We also get some good moments from all the characters, some more than others of course.

Like my last review I will be covering:

Plot

Characters

Feels

Graphics and sound

Any extra points

And that’s about it for the spoiler free overview. I will be getting into the good stuff below.

Plot:

It’s an, interesting carry on from Season three. It kinda felt like some of the stuff we were working towards in season 3 got discarded this season. Example, last season we saw Keith struggle with becoming the leader but this season he backs out and Shiro can now piolet the black lion. However I thought the coalition plotline worked really well and had a good payoff in the finale. I perhaps would have liked to of seen more of the alien races and how they would have fought in that battle.

Episode 2 was fantastic, though it could have perhaps been shuffled around with the other episodes because matt didn’t seem to show up in episode 4. Either way it wouldn’t have changed the narrative because ep 2 is pretty self-contained.

I know we had a short screen time budget but I didn’t feel as rushed this season. Plenty happened in each episode and they stuck pretty straight to the main narrative whilst providing some good side moments. The only noticeable things that were cut out were: 1, The Blade of Mamora mission. I know Keith went out on his own mission but we never got any updates or anything from their point of view. I can understand this decision but it just means we don’t get to see Keith or how his time away from the paladins affected him. At the same time it does put us more into the other paladin’s shoes as they don’t know what’s going on with him. 2nd, We didn’t see much of Lotor and his plans but I would also put that down to the writers keeping Lotor’s motives in the dark. So it works in their favour.

But overall the writing was good and I am interested for the next season.

Characters:

I didn’t see this and anyone’s particular season but there were defiantly some highlights.

Pidge: Starting with Pidge because she is my fave. She has been working her butt off to find her brother and I’m so glad she finally did. I love her relationship with Matt and how they are both science nerds. (can relate). Also the scene where she gets mocked at school for being smart draws on similar feeling from me so it was a case of making my favourite character even more relatable. I love how her alias was actually the nickname her brother gave her. I didn’t know that before and it’s adorable. Her action scenes were great, and she makes a really good team with Matt whether it be in the science or combat department.

Matt: I was very interested to see how he would integrate with the team. Especially after Keith left. (My sister made a comment of, the reason they got rid of Keith was so Matt could replace him.) I thought episode 3 did a good job with that. I loved how Pidge, Matt and Hunk are now the nerd trio and that Matt gets to ride tandem with Pidge in the green lion. And how could I forget that Matt also fell head over heels for Allura,that was hilarious. But anyway from what I saw in the last episodes I think Matt will be hanging out with the rebels when he isn’t with the team.

Lance: Seems to be back to his usual self. I think the show business gave him a boost in confidence. Although he doesn’t flirt with Allura it’s funny to see that he still doesn’t want any other man with her. His speech to Allura in ep 6 was touching and really showcased why the blue lion picked him in the first place. It added to the side of him we saw in season 3. His ability to act as the heart of the team.

Shiro: Shiro comes back and the first thing we see him do is argue with Keith. But anyway it was nice to see him back in action. Whatever the writers had instore for him we didn’t get to see. Though I suspect it may come up in the future.

Allura: She fits nicely into her role and it was cool to bring up her quintessence abilities again. And she is still absolutely badass at fighting.

Keith: Yeah, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for Keith in his Mamora outfit. I can only hope our emo boy is able to re-join the team next season, he’s still one of my favourites. Despite being gone for half the season we still get a character arc from him. In the first episode we see him struggling to come to terms with the Mamora principal that the mission is more important than the individual. Then at the end Keith realises that sacrifices will have to be made in order to save the day. And that he is even willing to sacrifice himself for the effort. I mean kudos to the writers for putting that arc in there.

Hunk: My poor boy. Sidelined again. I really did like it though when Matt acknowledged Hunk’s work in the science department. I would like to see more of that trio nerding out in the future. I thought perhaps, when Hunk was made fun of in the coalition performances, that there might be a payoff where Hunk saves the day, but that didn’t really happen. But we did have that moment in ep 7 where he works out the planet is a bomb. So he does come through in small moments but it would be nice to see more episodes displaying his skill, like the first 2 seasons.

Coran: It was actually interesting to see Coran take a serious episode. It really showed another side of him that we don’t see. A less confident guy that only wanted the best for his team. However the episode still managed to be hilarious.

Lotor: Like I said earlier, we didn’t see too much of him but I think it works well with the end of the season. We don’t really know what Lotor is planning and we don’t know how Lotor will use Voltron to his advantage. We know Lotor has been exiled before and I hope we can get some good backstory next season. Also I don’t trust him, I think he will side with Voltron until he gets what he wants then break away. It quite interesting having him as a third party.

Lotor’s generals: Narti did not deserve this! But I did think her death did create and interesting dynamic in the group. Zethrid and Ezor feared for their own lives while Axca still tried to remain loyal. When Lotor’s plan failed that was the tipping point. I also noticed Azca said there was one last option for them to go, I assumed they were going to Voltron but it was Lotor who got there first. It makes me question whether she had the same plan or is talking about another party. (I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned up at the Blade of Mamora) Last of all we didn’t get to see any hand to hand combat from these girls. And that’s a shame but I guess the screen time budget couldn’t allow it.

Feels:

Boy we got the whole plate. Whether it be feeling sad, laughing at jokes, confused in shock or rallied in a powerful moment. The Voltron team did a good job in bringing out the emotion. A lot of this comes from the creator’s ability to make an atmosphere. Music and visuals played a big part. (Plus the voice acting, Bex how dare you make me cry). What scenes affected you the most probably depended which characters you cared about more.

Episode 2 was a great one for me. The Part where Pidge found Matt’s “grave” was gut wrenching even though I knew he couldn’t be dead. But it still made me get caught up in the moment. The only thing that ruined it was the overused trope of “someone died/it’s a funeral so it’s raining” cliché. It kinda dragged me out of the scene, but it was still great.

There are plenty of other scenes I enjoyed. There were heaps of moments where I laughed. Voltron likes to take the viewer on a bit of an emotional roller coaster and it works pretty well for me.

Graphics/sound:

Holly flip! Where is this improvement coming from? Like man, I thought the last season look amazing but this one took it up again. The planet had awesome designs and the space background had me awed. I always love the environments they created. Multiple times I found myself caught out just admiring how good the graphics were.

There were also some examples of animation we don’t usually see, especially in episode 3. Though I did find it strange the absolute absurdity of it just made the scene even more hilarious.

Fight scenes were great, whether they were in the lions or hand to hand, they still looked amazing to watch.

Music was also another thing I noticed. It was done really well and added nicely to certain scenes. They were also probably good enough to listen to on its own.

Extra points:

This season had a very military feel to it. The tactics of the coalition were cool and the final fight was awesome. Death seemed like a much more real threat this season. And there were plenty of moments that carried a lot more weight.

I’m also glad the Kaltenecker was included in this season after disappearing in the last one.

Just like the first 2 seasons the writers have once again ended on a cliff-hanger and I will be excited for the next season.

Thanks for reading to the end. I’ve decided this will be a bit of a thing now, writing reviews (when I can). If you don’t agree with everything I’ve said then that’s fine, you don’t have too. This is my own opinion after all.

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zoedozy · 7 years

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Thoughts and analysis about S4

This is going to be episode by episode and very long so here we go.

Episode 1: Code of Honor The Blade of Marmora is affecting Keith obviously in more ways than one, we know that Keith felt he was not meant to be the leader of Voltron and the BoM helps him ghost away from his responsibility. This causes something he feels is right, no longer being the Black Paladin, and something he fears, being pushed away by his team. From his vlog, we know he isolates himself on purpose so he won’t get hurt, instead it has the least desired effect this time. Yes, the team supports eventually his decision on going with the BoM, however, they were harsh on him in the beginning and this isn’t what Keith needs.

Despite all the things with Keith, Shiro (Kuron) gaining his trust back with the Black Lion says something, they still have their bond and the lion knew how much he needed to help the team. If we’re still on the clone theories, it’s really interesting Kuron was able to bond with the lion. But, this still throws away all the work in S3, even if Keith didn’t want it.

Episode 2: Reunion (AKA MY FAV EPISODE) Oooohh boy!!! I’ve been waiting so long for this!! Prepare for super analysis and detail because the Holts are my life.

So, the episode starts Katie staring out the classroom window, until something in the school lesson catches her interest. She gets excited and shares her own knowledge on it, it shows how much passion she has for science. Only for her to be shot down by pre-teen assholes. This affects her to the point of tears, showing she wasn’t confident about her brains, even giving up studying for a brief period.

Let’s take a break to say, because of this, I suspect Katie didn’t have many friends. It’s middle school, a really tough time for any teen and she’s struggling. The only thing that keeps her sane is her older brother, he shares his wisdom and supports his little sister. At a point later in the episode she even says something along the lines of: “I can’t believe I have to go through middle school without you.” She’s later praised and known for her brains. Nerd power!!

Also, it turns out Matt gave Katie the nickname Pidge and used it as her alias. I have my own headcanon on how she got it but that’s a post for another time.

Okay, back to the present and Pidge is out searching for him. That Pidge Jedi aesthetic? My aesthetic. Bargaining Pidge? My fav. Now, she’s got a lead and helps freedom fighters she encounters. Okay, here comes the part where I super analyze Pidge.

Pidge witnessing someone die right before her eyes, when she knew she had the chance to save them. She’s crying, frustrated and feels helpless. We know how much Pidge thinks and rambles when she’s nervous. Imagine her now. “I could have done more.” “I should have been faster.” and etc. She knows the casualties the Galra cause, but seeing it up close and alone is different.

Back to the past! Honestly, this small moment of the siblings sitting on the roof, Matt teaching her codes and frequencies, and them going past their curfew is adorable.

Now here’s where I get emotional. With Matt’s code, Pidge arrives on a destroyed planet, there resides a massive burial and cemetery honored rebels who fought in the cause. Everything about this scene screams heartbreaking: the music, scenery of the 120,000+ graves, the flashbacks, everything. I knew from the spoilers that Matt was alive and well, but the feeling of over a year’s work of finding your family, only to reach their grave, is devastating. This hit me hard and it’s the only episode I recall crying at.

Thankfully, encrypted in his grave, there are hidden coordinates. (HUGE FUCKING SIGH OF RELIEF AFTER THAT HEARTBREAK)

after small scuffle, her bayard knocks off his mask and cue a very happy and sweet reunion. Matt loves his sister and thinks she’s amazing, literally all that matters. Also a bounty hunter was looking for them since the Unilu meeting.

“Stand back, Matt.” “Stand back, Pidge.” SHOW THAT GUY WHAT THE HOLTS ARE MADE OF!!! The animation in this fight scene is awesome like I’m in awe. The siblings using their brains to weaken their opponent and BOTH KNOCK HIM OUT!!! LITERALLY EVERYTHING I COULD HAVE ASKED FOR!! Matt is a tall bamf and I love him.

Some pictures of the Holt family in front of the Garrison is shown (also pre-Kerberos Shiro and Keith in the background, I’m assuming he knew Keith at some point). Matt no longer needs his glasses and passes them on to Pidge, I’m sure they’re mostly for sentimental purposes and she wears them for that. Pidge can knock down Matt like omg. And it ends with a shot of her putting on the glasses and looking up to the sky.

Okay, honestly. This is one of my favorite episodes, it’s just great. I have no words for it. I love Pidge, I love Matt. I LOVE THEM

Episode 3: Black Site Haggar/Honerva looking at her true self, using magic to hide her her true appearance because she can’t bear to look at herself.

We get to see how Matt really is and I love this memelord. Fanon Matt is Canon Matt and it’s amazing. Honestly, he’s relatable when first seeing Allura. Like that Ouran vision is amazing AND THEN THAT SHOUNEN SHOT I’M DYING. JEALOUS LANCE!!!

Okay, here’s where I’m a little disappointed. The reunion with Shiro is a little stale and stiff, yes there’s a hug but there’s nothing about Shiro saving Matt when they were prisoners. Him calling him ‘Sir’ is a little strange, I’m sure he was higher up than him, and him being a Paladin is intimidating, but in a reunion none of that really matters.

zarkon’s going like darth vader with the suit to keep him alive. also CARRY ON MY WAYWORD SON

CUE MONTAGE OF PIDGE BEING ADORABLE AND SHOWING HER BROTHER THE CASTLE

Matt: “Hey, this is pretty goo- d.” HE MAKES FUCKING PUNS I LOVE HIM

I love Pidge’s messy little room, she kept her trash versions of the paladins and even some of the trash bugs. AND MATT JUST LOVES HIS SISTER SO MUCH AND IS VERY PROUD AND I’M SURE THEIR DAD IS TOO

Color coded or you’re an animal is the holts’ mindset. Matt calling Hunk and genius and HE’S SO SMUG ABOUT IT!! HE KNOWS HOW SMART HE IS!!

Hunk: “This one time, we went to another reality. It was pretty lame.” Matt: “Wait, you what? You were in another reality?” Pidge: “No big deal.” hovers away Matt: “My little sister.”

HE!! LOVES!! HER!!!

i’ll never get over how coran and allura talk to animals and like milkshakes. adorable!! Lance playing video games to blow off steam and jealousy. Honestly.. same. I’m so happy they got their video game set up. Lance knowing how to milk a cow. Iconic. HE CHUGS MILK LIKE DAMN SON AND DRINKS MILK BY ITSELF??

TECH TRIO!! I LOVE THEM!! THEY ARE ALL SO SMART AND I’M VERY PROUD!!

CO PILOT MATT!! CO PILOT MATT!!! I LOVE HIM!!

I’m still trying to figure out why Narti was a spy and was given Kova to begin with? What where her intentions? Haggar just wanted to keep an eye on Lotor, she knew something was up with him, and Narti was the only option. Like the death seemed to be for shock value, they could have gotten rid of the cat. Idk at this point. Ezor and Zethrid obviously begin doubting him at this point, wanting to save their own skins, while Axca is trying her best to say by his side. But we see how that plays out later.

Episode 4: The Voltron Show! Now, I’m a fan of this episode because: Coran focus and it gives us a moment to breathe. But, it has it’s iffy moments, AKA the ‘Humorous Hunk’ joke. I hated it so much, like poor Hunk I felt so bad for him. Of course, we know something was manipulating Coran but that’s just mean and humiliating. The Yuri on Ice, Jurassic Park and Star Wars references are great, plus aerial dancer Lance.

And the iconic: Coran: “Allura, you’ll be playing Keith.” Allura: “HEAAHGHG”

Shiro: “I will save the princess, even if it means taking on the Galra Empire with my bare.. hand.” i’m dyingg

literally everyone else is reading the script deadpan as possible and LANCE IS THE OVERLY EXCITED THEATER KID I LOVE IT.

“holds bayard dashingly- oH.”

hip talking coran is so bad i love it.

brief cameos of the mermaids and varkon.

i don’t have much to say on this episode.

Episode 5: Begin the Blitz Wow, we get to see Keith again!

Axca is still trying so hard not to doubt Lotor by telling herself he’ll protect them.

Hunk is accepting of Nyma and Rolo while Pidge is still unsure, that’s unexpected, but she can’t stay mad at a cute robot. I love how she loves robots it’s adorable.

ALLURA SPEECH!! I LOVE HER!!

PIDGE AND HUNK FIGHTING TOGETHER!! HUNK BEING A BAMF AND KILLING A MAN BY ELBOWING HIM IN THE FACE AFTER HE HURTS PIDGE!!

that really hot galra commander like mmm

I love the rebels so much. But like a third of them gets fucking wiped out... jfc

FInALLY MORE KEITH!!

God Lotor looks so defeated when visiting Daibazaal. I feel bad after his plan fails and his generals turn on him. They suspect after his failure he’ll just turn on them suddenly, but they don’t know about Narti being a spying and it’s frustrating. He didn’t even explain it to them, so both sides are at fault here. He wasn’t even expecting their betrayal. Like yikes.

THE WHOLE COALITION FIGHTING!! REBEL FIGHTER SHAY!!

god this scene with lotor’s bONES LIKE OMG I’M DYING LIKE DAMN SON I LOVE IT

Episode 6: A New Defender This episode is wild.. like wow

Lotor flies barely above the surface of a star and lives?? He’s desperate to complete his plans, whatever they are.

Haggar is awesome this episode like she’s crazy and i love it

This episode was tense and had my heart racing, I knew they would be okay but this situation was insane. The fact that the camera is on Lance and goes for Allura first when she’s being electrocuted, then asks if she’s okay.

ANOTHER ALLURANCE MOMENT AND I’M LIVING!! Lance cares so much for Allura and supports her in every way he can. Allura’s magic is back and it’s beautiful!! I love Princess Allura!!

Allura: “Thank you, Lance.” Lance: “That was all you.”

MY HEART

GOD KEITH’S ALMOST SACRIFICE FUCKED ME UP SO BAD

ONLY MATT AND THE REBELS WOULD HAVE SEEN HIS DEATH

FUCKING CHRIST HE DIDN’T EVEN TELL TEAM VOLTRON

AFTER LEAVING TO GO WITH THE B:ADES THERE’S THIS SAD FACE HE MAKES AND THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR HIM OK

HE ALREADY HAS ABANDONMENT ISSUES AND NOW HE’S PUSHING THEM AWAY EVEN MORE, TO THE POINT WHERE HE’S FULLY WILLING TO SACRIFICE HIMSELF. HE’S NOT SUICIDAL BUT BELIEVES THEY’D BE FINE WITHOUT HIM LIKE

I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE THANKFUL FOR LOTOR

After rewatching it, I like this season a lot more. It’s pretty good! Now I’m off to read meta posts about Keith.

#my posts #voltron #vld spoilers #voltron spoilers #voltron season 4 #vld season 4

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