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harukamitsuki · 4 months

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Okay... I am currently back on my Voltron bullshit and continuing my rewrite of Voltron. And I'm constantly reminding of HOW MUCH I HATE LANCE.

Don't get me wrong. I am still treating Lance fairly in my fic, making sure he gets screen-time and a proper character acr and stuff.

But by GODS. This man pisses me off so much and that's only made worse by his stans. I was scrolling through Keith's tag here on tumblr. I also have Kl@nce filtered out. I cannot see a single post without at least three pages of scrolling and then it's only ONE POST. AND IT'S STILL KLANCE BECAUSE IT HASN'T BEEN TAGGED CORRECTLY.

Anyway. Onto the actual things I hate about Lance and not just his fandom.

Lance is a fucking asshole. I mean that on the deepest level. Let's go through it chronologically because I cannot rank it from least to most assholery, because some things are on the same level.

1 - Allura wakes up from the cryopod and Lances catches her. She's confused and dazed and the first thing you should do is ask if she's alright. Oh, but Lance is above that. Instead, he flirts with her. Karma given immediately as she calls his ears hideous and puts him in a submission hold, which is why I kept that scene in my fic, but that was still wrong. I know it was played for comedic effect, but that doesn't make it not canon. It's canonically accurate that if you've awoken from a coma, Lance's first instinct is to flirt with you if you're pretty.

2 - Literally throws Hunk into the middle of a battle. I get that Hunk was supposed to leave the Lion anyway, but just shoving him out when there are lasers everywhere and Hunk has no protection? Yeah. So much for 'best friend'. Add on the fact that Lance never really treats Hunk like a friend. At all.

3 - Okay. Season 1 Lance isn't bad outside of those two examples, even if he has his dumb moments, so let's jump to Season 2. Starting shit with Keith for no reason. People can go 'oh, Keith obviously did something to him at the Garrison' but he DIDN'T. The writers themselves confirmed that Keith did nothing to Lance, he just started shit with Keith all the fucking time. Like accussing Keith of wanting Blue and cutting him off when he tried to explain what was actually happening, even though Lance is the one who was outraged initially that Keith had Red. Or how about Lance getting up in Shiro's face and screaming his head off about how Keith would rather kill people than listen to them, as if he knew Keith at all after bullying him the entire time.

4 - Okay. This one pissed me off the most and is the biggest reason I'm making this post. The fact that Lance used Shiro's death/disappearance against Keith. Keith outwardly expresses his lack of desire to become the leader and accidentally let it slip that Shiro wanted him to do it. To which Lance is all 'convenient that you say that when Shiro's gone'. What. What the fuck. Stans really say that Lance is precious but how the hell are you justifying that? A blind man could see how much Keith loves Shiro, and Lance has the fucking gall the say that Keith is USING his death/disappearance for a position he doesn't want? He didn't even apologise for it. He just told Keith to suck it up later on. This is one of the reasons I hated Lance as the Red Paladin, the others being explained in an earlier post of mine.

5 - Oh, yeah. We're not done. Because after Keith, it's Allura. Allur@nce is probably the worst ship that could have happened, apart from Kl@nce. If you wanted a straight ship, how about what was canon for the past Voltron series? Kallura? Anyway. Yeah, Lance treats Allura like a prize instead of a person. He's posessive in a way that he has no right to be because they were not together. He glares at Matt for flirting with Allura, something he only does once. He gets mad at Lotor and tries to stop them from spending time together, EVEN THOUGH LOTOR IS HELPING ALLURA AND BONDING THROUGH ALTEAN THINGS. HELPING HER KEEP IN TOUCH WITH ALTEAN CULTURE. In Season 8, he literally yells that it should be Lance and Allura?? What a fucking weirdo?? You can't claim that you're destined to be with someone without being together. That's not how healthy relationships work. That's how a stalker's mind works. Lance is constantly flirting with Allura throughout all of Voltron and she never once reciprocated until Season 8 where it's so obvious that Lance is just a rebound but the writers wanna make it so that it's 'true love' and they want Lance to be happier than anyone so they just gift her to him like some sort of trophy. Lance didn't care about loving Allura, he cared about winning her. At least Lotor actually cared for and respected her. I still don't like canon Lotor, but that's mostly because the writers didn't want to deal with gray morality. Cowards.

1 - Honestly the worst example of a leader. It's shown from episode one. Now, there is the argument of learning to become one, but Lance just never learns? He's never facing the consequences of his actions and, if he is lectured, he ignores it. Keith actually takes lessons to heart and tries to improve and he does. If Lance became the Black Paladin, the universe would have been doomed because he can't get over himself for a single moment to even bother listening to anyone else's advice.

So. Yeah. Those are the main reasons why Lance is an asshole. Now to make the Lance stans really pissed.

Reasons why Lance would have been a terrible leader and could never have been the Black Paladin.

Remember episode one? Remember how the hydraulic stabiliser was out in the simulator and Lance still tried to push on, even though Pidge and Hunk advised him not to? Totally great leadership qualities there. There's nothing better than a leader that refuses to listen to you. 'Oh, but Keith is stubborn and didn't listen--' yes he did. He's stubborn and unrelenting at first, but he eventually realises that they're right.

Remember episode three? Remember when Lance bragged about kicking, which made Voltron fall, then proceeded to try it again and failed again even when Keith advised him not to? Yeah. Lance does not make good decisions and does not listen to any advise. Even from the leader's right hand man.

Remember Season 1 Episode 12? Remember how they were waiting for Shiro and Allura to get back and then Keith saw someone taking quintessence so he decided to follow them? Remember how Lance said no and was ignored but did nothing more to stop Keith? He has no authority and no charisma to keep anyone at bay. Pidge herself mocks Lance for being the pinnacle for leadership. Sarcastically. Because he's far from it.

Pidge doesn't respect Lance as a leader, Keith never would considering Lance treats him like shit, Allura can't take Lance seriously with him hitting on her every ten seconds, and Hunk is always questioning Lance's decisions. If nobody respects you, you cannot be a good leader.

2 - Easily distracted. Yes, it's a very popular headcanon that Lance has ADHD, and I agree with that, but that doesn't make it okay. And he's distracted in the easiest ways. Just shove a pretty girl and he'll instantly get distracted and lead the entire team to doom. Remember Nyma and how easy it was for her to steal the Blue Lion? How he didn't even warn anyone that he was taking her out for a ride because he didn't want anyone contesting his conquest? Yeah.

Don't get me wrong. It's fine to have ADHD or get distracted easily. Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece is a great example of a leader who gets easily distracted, but the second he sets his mind on something, he blocks everything out. Lance just doesn't have the capability to do that, nor do I think he'd be able to learn how to.

3 - Gets jealous really easily. As in. Really fucking easily. He's jealous of Keith from the get-go, starting a one-sided rivalry that he's constantly on the losing side of because Keith doesn't care. He gets jealous of Matt when he flirts a bit with Allura. He gets extremely jealous of Lotor for having actual chemistry with Allura. He's constantly jealous and a good leader is only ever in competition with himself. A good leader will only strive to become better for the sake of the team, not to say that they're better than someone else, much less if they're someone that you are in charge of. It's a horrible trait to have.

Jealousy in and of itself is not a bad thing. It's when that jealousy overrides your logic and controls you, instead of you controlling your jealousy: which Lance struggles with a lot. And getting jealous over anyone who even looks at your crush is a very bad thing to do because you do not own your crush. It's okay to be jealous, but not posessively like Lance is. Not to the extent of trying to scare off any potential suitors.

4 - Nowhere near as skilled as Keith or Shiro. Sure, the writers may claim that he is better, but the proof is in the pudding. Keith and Shiro are fucking unmatched. I've defended Lance's skills in a previous post, but I also said in that post that, while he is skilled, he is nowhere near Shiro or Keith's level. I mean, Shiro was the golden child of the Garrison and set so many records. He was known as the best pilot. Keith beat those records and his flying capabilities are always, always noted. I haven't heard a single character comment on Lance's skills, other than to point out how bad they are. Keith was the only one who could have flew through the astroid field, he was the only one who could fly into the Marmora base which was in a blue star surrounded by two black holes, he was able to fly a Galra jet just by pushing the right buttons and knowing what the do, and he's the one who unlocks the warping abilities of the Black Lion. Shiro was able to connect with the Black Lion far before anyone else, able to see through Black and connect with Black to the point of his soul being saved by her.

Lance hasn't done anything spectacular. And, no. He was not 'done dirty'. He was given almost everything he wanted except the Black Lion. The writers claim he's the best pilot, but have not shown it at all. In my eyes, Keith and Shiro will always be the best.

5 - Selfish. Again. Nothing against being selfish. It's perfectly fine to be selfish, so long as it doesn't actively harm others. But for a leader? You should be as selfless as you can be. The team comes before you. And that's exactly what Lance isn't.

Lance is selfish and that's okay, but it's not leadership material. The whole reason Black rejected him is because he wanted the position out of selfish reasons. When he enters Black, he says 'Come on, Lance. You can do this'. In other words, he wants to pilot her because he wants to prove himself. He wants the acknowledgement. He wants the title of the Black Paladin and leader. Black accepted Keith, both at the start of Season 2 and Season 3, because he piloted her for purely selfless reasons. For Shiro.

Lance wants things for himself. Keith wanted things for Shiro. It was only after Shiro came back, (or so they thought), that Keith started focusing more on himself. Even then, he put everyone else before him. He distanced himself from the team so that Shiro could pilot Black again, and he was constantly risking his life for the Blades.

Lance just... isn't the type. He has put others before himself, but he expect things out of it. He expects a parade and acknowledgement. Nobody knew what Shiro went through to rid Zarkon of his connection to the Black Lion. Nobody knew what Shiro went through in his imprisonment because he doesn't want to burden anyone with that. Nobody knew what Keith went through to save Black and Shiro from Zarkon. Nobody knew what Keith went through when they were all mad at him for missing an attack. Lance doesn't withold that sort of stuff. The only thing he doesn't talk about is his insecurities, which he ends up spilling to the mice and Laika (the Yupper) anyway.

6 - Last one. Promise.

Nothing fucking happened. While Keith was gone, nothing of importance happened surrounding Voltron specifically. There was the Lion mind meld and Lotor joining, but all that served to prove was, with the mind meld, if Keith was there, he would have heard Shiro. And with Lotor joining, all it proved was how immature Lance was.

The second Keith gets back, things start happening again. Lotor gets outed as cruel and manipulative (still an ass-pull, by the way), Shiro gets outed as a clone, and so on. If Lance was leading, they all probably would have died ages ago. I'm talking Season 3 Episode 2, ages ago. Because Lance just isn't cut out for it.

So. Yeah. Those are the main reasons I hate Lance and why Black Paladin Lance is an awful idea. Screw the people who believe in it. It is awful.

Like I said, this won't affect my treatment of Lance in my rewrite, because I can fix those issues that come up. I don't have an issue with Season 1 Lance, it's later on that gets problematic. I just hate people building Lance up by bashing all the other characters, then claiming that Lance is the most traumatised, sad character when SHIRO AND KEITH ARE RIGHT THERE. NOT TO MENTION ALLURA, WHO LOST HER ENTIRE SPECIES, AND CORAN WHO LOST EVERYONE INCLUDING ALLURA AND NEVER GOT TO SAY GOODBYE TO HER.

Fuck. I hate Voltron so much but I can't help but love it.

#vld #voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron lance #vld lance #lance mcclain #anti lance #anti lance mcclain #anti klance #technically #i hate lance so much #i honestly cannot stand him or his fans #i promise i wont make him a horrible person in my rewrite just bc i hate him #i do have issues with other character but lance is the worst offender #anti black paladin lance #anti bp lance #black paladin keith truther #anti allurance

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klaissance · 6 months

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nobody asked but here is my pitch for a princess and the pauper klance au

Princess Allura of Altea generally likes her life. She lives in a palace with her father, King Alfor, her quirky tutor and longtime friend Coran, and her lady-in-waiting Romelle who she definitely is not in love with. Don't worry about it.

Her being totally not in love with Romelle is something to not worry about at all because actually, as of fairly recently, Allura is engaged! To a man (ew) she's never met (double ew): Prince Keith of Marmora. Their matrimony is to solidify an alliance between Altea and Marmora which, if everyone's being honest, is mostly to haul Altea out of its recent troubles. The kingdom is floundering and its people have been suffering for too long; this alliance with Marmora offers a fresh start and a royal wedding promotes economic stimulation, etc etc politics politics

Allura loves her people and her father so she's gonna suck it up and do this. But she can't and won't be jazzed about it all the time. Sometimes she wishes she could be anyone but herself, with the freedom to make selfish choices.

Anyway down in the town there is this boy named Lance McClain and he just so happens to have a vaguely similar facial structure to Altea's princess (rip this has to be a blue-eyed Lance story to work, huh) and he works at the dress emporium under Monsieur Iverson who is, frankly, an abusive boss. But Iverson is funding Lance's sister's education. The McClains need this, and so Lance pricks his fingers and works every waking hour for pennies that he never even gets to see. Lance loves his family so he's gonna do it but he can't and won't be jazzed about it all the time. Sometimes he wishes he could be anyone but himself, with the freedom to make selfish choices.

do u feel me on this guys

also Allura has five cats named Onyx, Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, and Topaz and she loves them very much. But Sapphire has been acting strange recently...

Lance has this cat that he calls Blue that he doesn't actually have but she shows up night after night at his window and he feeds her and she lays on his lap while he works and he loves her very much

......it's the same cat *hold for applause*

anyway Romelle takes Allura into town to "run errands" or something but really it's just a date and one of Allura's last tastes of freedom before she gets hitched to whoever this Keith dude is

and Sapphire slips away and dashes through the streets and Allura chases her down and finds her perched on a windowsill in an alley being fed by a stranger who looks a little familiar and oh--

Lance and Allura finally meet and look at each other and are like woah we could definitely be siblings genetics are so weird

Bonded by their shared cat they get along splendidly and have a nice and surprisingly deep talk about their respective plights, and Allura promises to call on Lance soon

The next morning Coran and Romelle go to the princess only to find her bed empty save for a note that says she's taken the cats and run away...

The note is sus and then Sapphire shows up (from spending the night at Lance's.) Coran and Romelle know Allura would never leave just Sapphire behind, so they're immediately Not Buying It but they don't know who they can trust, and also this is a disaster because Prince Keith and his entourage are literally coming to visit today so they need to fix this asap

Romelle remembers the boy from the village who looked weirdly like Allura and she has the best/worst idea of all time...

Cue "To Be A Princess" as performed by Coran and Romelle at Lance, who by the end of the song is unclockable he's so good at princess cosplay

When "Allura" appears at dinner as scheduled, Alfor's advisor Zarkon and his shitty son Lotor are shook but they stay quiet

you guys lotor as preminger is so funny pLEASE

AND THEN KEITH SHOWS UP

Keith and his diplomat friends, The Holts, and his captain of the guard Shiro, pull up to dinner to meet Keith's future wife

Keith's a gay man he's not thrilled about this. She's certainly a handsome woman, if her portraits are to be believed, but there's nothing to be done about it. Lifelong bummer for Keith. Such is princedom.

So Keith and co. show up in Altea and they meet the princess and Keith swears she's a little broader in the shoulders and sharper in the jaw than he'd expected but chalks it up to shitty portraiture. He'll hire the court painter from Marmora when they're married.

Lance in his princess costume is like "oh lord he's fine" but then they go on a bunch of weird dates and mostly bicker a bunch because Keith hates that he's forced to be here and Lance is just sort of like that

meanwhile Allura's like busting her own ass out of the mines and lotor sings how can i refuse *hold for standing ovation*

and since Sapphire didn't get kidnapped with the other cats she's still around and Lance talks to her in the bath and is generally just being silly goofy and Keith happens to walk by and hear Lance talking in his normal tone to somebody named "Blue" and the door happens to be a little open and Keith happens to peek--he doesn't even know why he literally doesn't even like women--and wait just a fucking second that is a boy and a wig on the floor and Keith to himself is like 'um should i complain about being lied to, something wack is going on here' and then he's like 'wait I'm gay and he's hot let's see how this plays out' and says nothing LMAO

but then their little dates get way more interesting because Keith is trying to tease out this secret and also is like,, actually interested

maybe they do a horseback riding date where Lance gets to wear pants and have the big platinum wig tied back and he feels a little more like himself and he and Keith hardly even bicker anymore they just sort of have a great time together and Lance feels a little insane for this whole thing but he really likes him but he has to tell him the truth and he's literally about to admit it

but then Lotor comes back from checking on Allura in the mines and knows the princess at the palace is a fake so he calls Lance out and rips the wig off, the whole thing, and Lance is thrown in the dungeon when moments ago he was literally a hair's breadth away from kissing Keith on the mouth UGH life is so cruel

Lotor and Zarkon convince Alfor that Allura is dead and they plot to strike and stage their coup during her funeral or something idk

But meanwhile Romelle and Allura and the cats are power-lesbianing their way out of the mines, and meanwhile meanwhile Keith busts Lance out of jail and they go also to the mines to try to save Allura

just four gays and their cats standing at the mines like ok what now

they bust into the funeral proceedings and wreck Lotor's shit, Allura definitely throws him over her shoulder and skips him like a rock and they explain everything to Alfor

Lotor and Zarkon go to jail and Altea is saved even without the marriage alliance because Allura and Romelle found extra stores of quintessence locked in the geodes in the mines or whatever

Lance is now so thoroughly sponsored by not one but two royal families that his family will want for nothing ever again--his siblings are put on royal scholarship to any school of their choosing in either Altea or Marmora. Lance himself has always wanted to travel, so he does, and he writes letters to Keith the whole time and when he returns Keith is waiting for him and they do a big gay double wedding with Allura and Romelle just like in the Barbie movie <3

the end

#THIS ONE GOT AWAY FROM ME YALL #i think i cooked #somebody tell me this isnt perfect #oh wait u cant #klance #klance ficlet #sort of #my writing #princess and the pauper au #like am i nuts for this #maybe #vld au #i just think this has all the pieces #lance and allura as besties #allura and keith as disaster gays #klance spiced with mistaken identities #chefs kiss

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littlesapphicraccoonguy · 4 months

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Bitches will listen to Lana Del Rey one time and become a chainsmoker 🤦

#tails noir #howard lotor #furry art #backbone #i am obsessed with this fucking game #he’s 100% a lana fan #messy sketch #idk #the anatomy in this is actual dookie #my mom used to smoke how tf can i not draw cigarette smoke properly #i hate the background #bricks fucking suck

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trivial-writing · 4 months

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The Lotor and Diax interaction is so funny

I mean:

Look at that face.

C’mon. This is comedy gold.

(Had to get screen shots off of Youtube ‘cause I refuse to watch Netflix not on my tv and I suck at taking pictures far away. And I’m just uncomfortable taking pics of my tv)

#vld lotor #prince lotor #humor #lotor #comedy

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tokidraws · 6 months

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Im'a stir the pot a bit and bring up Voltron (legendary defender) again, and talk about why the last few seasons sucked ass (in my humble and completely correct opinion).

Relationships: Now, I'm not here to debate whether Klance should be cannon or not (even tho they had more going for them than Lance and Allura), I'm going to talk about why Lance and Allura fell flat. A.) She was using him as a rebound off of Lotor. B.) There wasn't enough build up for it, in the in between season when there traveling back to earth, there should have been more build up, a genuine connection, because until after Lotor, she was repulsed by the idea of dating Lance, there just, needed to be more interaction between them, where they talk shit out.

Lotor shouldn't have died: I love redemption arcs, and like, I loved Lotor, and yes, he made a great villain, but he was going kinda crazy because of quintessence exposure, just like Zarkon and sorta like Enerva (she was already a little scrambled up there.). I also liked Allura x Lotor way more than her and Lance, they just, had more going for them.

Enerva(or however u spell her name.) shouldn't have gotten a redemption arc: I wanted Lotor to have one more, yes, but season 8 just, made no sense really, like, come on, cant we just leave it with them finally back on earth? With there peaceful lives undisturbed? And then MAYBE, JUST MAYBE Lance and Allura could have gotten more screen time?

Allura shouldn't have died: I dont think I need to explain that one.

Also, I want more space wolf.

Also, also, Allura x Romelle is way better, lets go lesbians.

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #klance #lance x allura

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the-lightning-strikes-again · 2 days

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Lotura Week 2024, Day 2: Sci-Fi Fusion

The Woman in Red

Rated: T

Pidge holds out a small, ear-wrapping device to Allura, babbling along. “Yeah, so it’s called the DC Mini. It helps you enter someone else’s dreams so you can extract information.” Her voice rises with scientific interest. “Which in this case means obtaining the security codes for Zarkon’s command ship.”

The princess grabs on without hesitance. “Did you make this yourself, Pidge?”

“With a little help from Hunk,” she admits, jerking her thumb to the side. On the other side of the lab, a man stands in an orange coat, humming to himself happily as he types away on a laptop before dripping a strange, glowing liquid into a test tube. “But you have to be careful, alright? This’ll make dreams feel like real life, and I’ve heard stories about this guy you wanna interrogate with it. It took twenty robot soldiers to hold Prince Lotor down, and that was after he made both Lance and Hunk cry with some psychobabble stuff.”

Hunk looked up with a pout. “Hey, I did not cry.”

Pidge crosses her arms and quirks an eyebrow. “He told you that your modulation techniques sucked, and you sobbed for three hours.”

“Uh, it was two-and-a-half hours, not three.” Hunk raises up his goggles and points to his bloodshot, brown eyes, which gleam with hurt. “And the man doesn’t have taste when it comes to modulation. That’s what hurts most of all.”

Allura quirks an eyebrow, spinning the strange device in her hand before fitting it over her elfin ear. The smooth, cold metal streaks against her cheek and brow. “Modulation tastes or not, Lotor’s our only successful enemy capture. We have to make this count if we want to defeat Zarkon.”

Pidge hesitates. “Are you sure you want to be the one to go inside his mind? I mean, given you’re a princess and all?”

She huffs, straightening her shoulders. “I am a princess of Altea,” she declares. “I am a descendent of the Life Givers. And I am incredibly, utterly pissed off in the name of my people and all the other planets decimated by Galran rule—yes, I want to do this, even if it means traversing the polluted thoughts of Prince Lotor.”

-------

The mentioned Prince of the Galra Empire rests in a deep sleep upon a heavily secured infirmary bed, nodes streaming from his purple temples and white locks of hair. Like this, the hellion of a man seems peaceful, his face slack. If she did not know his long list of crimes, Allura would dare to think he was almost handsome, from the strong features of his face to his lithe form—so oddly silent in sleep.

So strangely familiar.

Allura sits down in the chair next to the bed apprehensively, adjusting the DC Mini. “You’re certain his restraints will hold true?”

His long, clawed fingers occasionally tick against the bed.

Pidge flutters around Allura, sticking a node to her forehead. “He’s also being kept under with some pretty heavy drugs right now, so he won’t be waking up anytime soon.”

“What control will I have inside of his mind?”

“Ah, I think you’ll be able to manipulate space, but the more you change things inside his mind, the more it could raise attention. You know, like his defenses. So you’ll want to try blending in.”

“Right.” Allura inhales and closes her eyes, leaning back into the chair and settling in for the long nap. “Do you think the codes will be something I must manipulate him to obtain, or could they be some physical object to find in the landscape?”

Pidge makes a face, pulling back. “Honestly, Allura? I have no idea what you’re gonna find in there. But given that he’s, you know, Zarkon’s kid—I’d expect it’s probably gonna be weird. Maybe a lot of blood.”

Just as the DC Mini activates, Hunk calls out, “Rumor says he’s a big nunvill fan. Manipulate him with nunvill!”

-------

The landscape of Prince Lotor’s mind fizzles into view as a stark, gladiatorial training court, with the swirling of blades and the rousing cheer of crowds. Allura looks down at herself in surprise, noting the odd way that her own subconscious has altered her paladin armor to the red of a Galran soldier’s—blending into the new environment, just as Pidge had recommended.

As she walks along the fencing, she spots an active Prince Lotor fighting against a great beast. His tall shadow looms as he raises the Black Lion’s bayard.

It is a glowing purple sword.

Her mouth drops open in surprise, and she flinches as the beast collapses to the floor, nearly cut in two. “What in the—?” she whispers to herself in panic at the sight of her father’s technology in Lotor’s hands. “How did he—?”

Prince Lotor steps atop the beast’s belly with a graceful flair of his white hair, raising the sword.

The crowds roar with approval, chanting, “Emperor! Emperor!”

And it is then that Allura realizes she is witnessing a day dream.

A wish.

“Oh, right, because you are not the emperor,” she remembers, scratching her cheek in curiosity at how fuzzy the real world is compared to the realism of Lotor’s dream world. “You are a prince only, and likely covet my father's weapons as well."

The moment she whispers it aloud, Lotor’s sharp, blue eyes land upon her. His expression is that of an alert predator’s, and she freezes in his gaze.

He lowers his blade, the metal manifesting back into a smooth, rounded bayard. “You there,” he calls, his voice petulant and decadent all at the same time. “In red.”

Before she can react, Lotor blurs in front of her.

She squeaks and steps back in surprise, her back hitting a barrier wall.

He steps forward, curiously inspecting her. This close, the sweat upon his brow gleams beneath the lights, and his slit pupils expand to intake more of her. “What a curious thing you are, appearing here,” he murmurs. “After all this time, and without wounds.”

Allura makes another noise as his hot fingers circle hard around her throat, pressing her back against the wall.

She instinctively grabs onto his vambraces before reaching for a dagger on her belt.

“Ah, ah,” he admonishes her. With a jerk of his chin, her own weapon clatters to the floor. “What fangs you have this time.” Something flickers unsteadily in his face the more he inspects her. “I thought I eradicated all images of Princess Allura of Altea from my memory—you should not still be the woman in red disturbing my thoughts.”

As she rasps for air, Allura manages to wrench breathing space from his fingers.

He allows it.

Lotor’s breath puffs against her face softly. “Why are you here?” he demands, searching her face. “What more could you possibly want from me now?”

Her voice strangles. “What do you mean? I’ve never even spoken to you before this moment.”

He releases her, and in the silence, he glances down at his own hand as if it does not belong to him.

All the spectators of the gladiator courts have disappeared.

It is only them now, along with a strange silence.

Prince Lotor’s voice breaks with a frustrated huff. “I watched you die all those years ago. And you have haunted my every dream, traversing these fences at least once a movement until my father’s witch suppressed you. What have these paladins of Voltron done to me in the waking world, that you would return to haunt me now?”

Allura holds onto her throat, which burns from the tightness of his hand. She eyes him warily, mind racing. “I don’t understand,” she says hoarsely.

With increasing trepidation, Lotor backs away from her, his white hair and armored cape swinging. “You died three years ago.” Something in his face breaks harder, a strange vulnerability and panic pulling the line of his mouth. “The witch said she could cure me of your ghost.”

It is then that Allura realizes the DC Mini is still attached to her ear. Another voice crackles in, as if from a dozen galaxies away. It is Pidge. “—llura? Can you hear me?”

She presses a shaking hand to the device, calling out, “Yes, I hear you. and it is very strange in here.”

“—hurting you?”

Allura’s breath hitches as she stares at the broken man before her. Within the landscape of Lotor’s mind, his own emotions are an oppressive weight in the air, burning tears in her own eyes. “No,” she whispers. “No, it’s much worse than that. It’s very confusing.”

Lotor reaches out to the device, yanking it from her ear. “Paladins,” he hisses, voice breaking. His own eyes brighten with tears. “You absolute bastards. You have clearly undone the witch’s great work—at least kill me with honor before you raise the image of Allura of Altea to me."

She reaches for the device, only for him to pull it away.

“I’m not dead at all, you silly fool,” she argues, but for the first time, a strange uncertainty arises within her. "I'm not dead."

He gnashes a sharp, white fang into his bottom lip, eyeing her hard before he presses, “Allura, do you even remember what you were doing before these paladins of Voltron spoke to you? Where you were?”

Allura tilts her head, face tight. “Of course I do! I was, um…and you were—” Words fail in her throat. “Um.”

Her mind is oddly silent, all her memories gone besides murky impressions.

Lotor reaches out again, daring to stroke her cheek with an intimacy that leaves her breathless and unsettled and wholly unable to reconcile him with the stories that the Paladins had told.

(If they had told any stories at all?)

“I hate the paladins for this,” he whispers, voice quivering. “And my heart soars at the same time. The only way they could possibly manifest you through a device such as this one is if they have you. Some—some preserved body perhaps, some active synapses.” He tilts his head, his calloused thumb stroking her pink Altean mark. “You are far too solid than all the ghostly iterations before you. And so very different. Whole and with weapons."

His touch lights something familiar within her.

Tears bubble in her eyes, and his image blurs before her. “I’m not dead,” she whispers again. “I was—I was in a lab. And…and you are an evil and cruel prince, slaying entire civilizations in the name of your wicked father.”

Lotor huffs at her brokenly, pulling back. “By the ancients,” he breathes. The landscape of his mind transforms entirely from the courts to a lovely field of juniberries. He points brokenly to the distance, where a tall vault stands. “I buried you. I carried you. And I died with you that day.” Tears slip down his cheeks. “I died with you in all the ways that mattered. Do you not remember, Allura?”

Allura stands in horror at the name upon the vault.

The prince grabs onto her hand, pulling her back. “They must have desecrated your grave,” he whispers to himself. “That is the only way you could stand here so solidly as you are, without the wounds that ended your life.”

Her armored fingers reach out to the vault, tracing the scripted A—

Lotor grabs onto her shoulders, desperate. “Wake up,” he demands. “Allura, wake up and find me in the real world. Do you understand?”

-------

Back at the lab, Pidge sits before the computers, adjusting her glasses with a flash of light before she hums. “Our evil plan is working,” she murmurs. "This is awesome."

Hunk leans over her shoulder, narrowing his eyes at the multi-level dream sequences, from the simulated lab where Allura believes herself snoozing beside the restrained body of Lotor, then over to the next level of the dream simulation, complete with juniberry fields. “Don’t you think that, like, maybe we could have given her some more information before tossing her in?”

“…Nah.” Pidge glances back at the pod behind them, where a fully regenerated Allura lay connected to a variety of nodes and health monitors. The heart indicator beats at an increasing rate. “She’s doing great.”

Her colleague huffs. “Literally three seconds in, Lotor knew she wasn’t a natural mind projection, and we don’t have codes.”

Pidge taps her fingers on the keyboard and waggles her brows. “It’s not about her finding the codes. It’s about us turning a prince by giving him the one thing that would stop his campaigns. And then we’ll get the codes, and his armies, and him too. She’s the lady in red. The distraction. You know what I mean?”

“She’s gonna wake up pissed off,” Hunk warns. “And I’ve heard stories about Altean strength, Pidge. I really think we should talk to her before she wakes up for real.”

Pidge hesitates as she watches the signs of wakening appear within the regenerated princess in the pod. “Or we could wipe her memory and try this again, and keep doing it until we get Lotor to totally break down. And then she’ll wake up without a care in the world, and Lotor will be ready to do anything we want him to.”

Hunk gives her a look. “That’s kinda putting the evil back into our evil plan.”

She argues, “We have to consider all the options. Lotor’s been on a murder bender for three years because his fiancé got assassinated. There’s a lot of planets in the balance, and I don’t wanna screw it up just because we got soft.”

It falls silent between them.

Hunk sits down, pulling off his gloves and staring at the simulations with a hard expression. “No,” he says. “We tell her the truth. We wake her up, and we do the right thing by reuniting her with Lotor. Those tears are real, man. We got proof to know this is gonna work.”

In the regenerative pod, Allura’s fingers twitch while in the simulation, and she reaches out to Lotor, flickers of her true memory bleeding through.

Hunk’s voice rises with conviction. “It’s going to work.”

@loturaweek2024

#Voltron #VLD #Lotura #loturaweek2024 #Lotor #Allura #Hunk #Pidge #Ahhh this is like Inception meets Paprika meets Source Code idk lolll #The lady in red concept also comes from The Matrix #HOW MANY SCI-FI PROPERTIES CAN WE FIT INTO ONE (1) DRABBLE lol #I will apologize in advance ahhh #VLD AU

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