#meeting humans “so which one of you can escape the bonds of your planet's gravity?”

[rudywiser]

9. Cybertronian pronouns for airborne alt-modes and ground-based alt-modes (i.e. fly/drive)

If Transformers are genderless, but only two pronouns are an option for whatever reason

Then I want to see:

Transformers being baffled by pronouns

Transformers who are friendly with humans asking the humans which pronouns to use because they have no idea what is going on

Transformers picking pronouns based on what seems cool to them

Transformers picking their pronouns at random

Transformers changing pronouns randomly because this whole thing is a weird quirk of human language

Transformers studying human culture to determine what gender they match most closely with

Transformers who do this noticing visibly gender-nonconforming people, relating to them, and copying their pronouns

Human-friendly Transformers noticing that some humans don’t seem to like the aforementioned gender-nonconforming people, being baffled about why, and saying “but I’m more like him/her than anyone else”

[familyofpaladins]

This post contains season 3 and season 4 spoilers.

@mateushonrado  That’s okay, not everyone agrees with the clone theory. I might very well be wrong, and this is the real Shiro. However, for me personally, I feel like there are too many clues pointing to this not being the real Shiro. Some people like the idea of Shiro being a clone because it adds drama to the story, and a lot of others like the theory because they too feel like there is a lot of evidence pointing at Shiro not being quite himself. And some people just like to bandwagon onto theories or headcanons that may or may not be close to what is actually happening. 

I’ve talked about my reasons why in many different posts, or reblogged posts that I agreed with (I think the best meta posts in favor of clone Shiro are done by @ptw30 and @smolsarcasticraspberry )(Some other good blogs who, I don’t think forgive me if i’m wrong, are NOT in favor of the clone theory are @radioactivesupersonic and @i-love-voltron-stuff) . I’ll try to sum up my reasons why I don’t think he’s Shiro here though. 

First off, the entire time I was watching The Journey, I felt like it was off. I honestly kept expecting Shiro to wake up still in galra captivity, because there was all those little clips of his more recent time with the Galra, and they’re all talking about operation Kuron. I thought he was going to wake up and operation Kuron was some kind of test in Shiro’s mind to see how if they could brainwash him or something. But then Keith and the Black lion found him at the end of the episode. 

After I had watched the season, I went on tumblr and saw that people had the similar thoughts and pointed out some things that I had initially missed. Such as the fact that when “Shiro’s” eyes were responding to stimuli, they made a carmera zoom/focusing sound. And then there’s the fact that in The Journey he was refered to as a “subject” with a long number after it, whereas back in season 1 he was referred to as a prisoner. People also pointed out the fact that Kuron means clone in Japanese. (I actually don’t think that he’s an actual clone. I think he is some kind of very realistic android, programmed with Shiro’s memories/to think like Shiro given the mechanical eyes. The “clone” for the name is a tiny red herring/just a hint that this isn’t really Shiro.)

Also, the circumstances of Shiro’s escape are pretty suspicious. He wakes up on a table, completely unrestrained and alone. He’s pretty out of it walking through the halls too, and yet he doesn’t really meet any opposition. You’d think that if you had the Black Paladin of Voltron, or the very least an already escaped once  prisoner, there would be more guards in the area. But no, he gets quite a ways before he runs into the sentries. And then all by himself he’s able to get in a pod and make it to the planet. When he escaped the Galra the first time around, he was restrained and in a room full of people, and the only reason he was really able to escape was because Ulaz helped get him out of there. Ulaz had helped take out some of the other people and used a bomb as a distraction for Shiro to get away. But now apparently he’s able to just escape easily all by himself with no other help. I just found his escape to be too easy, honestly. 

The next episode is really where I thought to myself that this wasn’t Shiro. The first scene we get of Shiro back with the paladins, is really kinda gloomy. It’s dark in the room, and it’s just Keith and Shiro having a gloomy conversation. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk about this part because if this is the real Shiro, it���s pretty understandable for them to be like this. Shiro did just go through a pretty harrowing experience being back with the galra and trying to get off the planet back to Voltron, and then being alone for 7 days with no food or water (more evidence for Not Shiro, a human being can’t survive 7 days without water, if I remember correctly, you can go that time without food but you can only go like maybe a couple days without water. Shiro should be dead at this point honestly. ANDROID) can put a damper on a reunion. But still, a lot of people (including me) were expecting a very happy reunion when Shiro returned and we didn’t get that. (Granted there were a lot of things throughout the seasons that the fandom wanted and didn’t get. See: The team’s reaction to Galra Keith) So maybe that scene isn’t evidence for Not Shiro, but it also doesn’t really make me feel like it IS Shiro.

The next thing is the Haircut. (Also granted I might be a bit biased against this because I just don’t like it, but anyway) Shiro’s hair got really long, and so he cut it. But he didn’t cut it back to what it was before. He made the white bangs shorter and didn’t give himself the undercut. He also put on an outfit that is similar but still different than the one before. It’s a new look. Most of the time in shows that are animated, and the characters have a default outfits, the only time they get new outfits is either when something dramatic happens in their story arc or pretty much everyone in the show gets a new look or update. We can even look back to the very first episode for this. When Shiro was on the Kerberos Mission he had no scar or white hair. But after the his year as a Galra captive, which is a HUGE part of his story arc, he comes back with a scar on his face and part of his hair is white. (Some people would also point out that he also got the undercut after the year with the Galra, because when they were on Kerberos he didn’t have the undercut. But if you see the photo of Shiro that the Garrison puts out after their disappearance, you see that he did already have the under cut. The undercut probably just grew out on the way to Kerberos. Because I bet you don’t want to be shaving tiny hairs off your head when you’re in no gravity. So he did have the undercut before.) But this becomes his character design at the same time we establish the rest of the characters designs. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge all change out of their garrison uniforms to their current outfits, which they stick with as the arc of them going off into space begins with them sneaking out of the garrison. Then they all get the paladin armor once they reach the castle and are told they are going to be the paladins of voltron, which is another big part of all their arcs obviously. It even happens with Allura. When we first meet her she is established as a princess and the daughter of a great leader, and she has an outfit that meets that description. But then after she talks with her father's AI she comes to terms with her own new leadership role and enters the room with her own fight suit(i Don't know what to call it, forgive me). Even later once she becomes a pilot of the blue lion, she gets her own armor, again it's a turning point in her arc as she moves from being in charge of the castle to fighting as a part of voltron. So far everything for the characters designs and changes have been outfit changes, which isn't a huge change, but can be for a big change for an animated show where the characters wear the same clothes all the time. Now with Shiro, he comes back and not only gets a new outfit(which is similar to his old one but still very different.) But also a new haircut. Now he did just end up back witb the garla and escaped again to return, but there doesn't really seem to be a point (that I can find anyway) for his arc here that merits a new look. Because he's been captured before and this new captivity doesn't really seem to have added anything to his own arc. UNLESS this isn't really Shiro and is actually a clone/android. The new look would also help to distinguish the real Shiro from the fake Shiro once the real Shiro comes back. (The other reason characters might change there looks are because the shows creators felt the need to add some new elements, but usually everyone, or at least the main characters, get new looks at the same time. But only Shiro got a new look at this time, which also makes it strange.)

Then there's the fact that Shiro can't pilot black. I don't see a good reason why Black wouldn't let Shiro pilot them if he was the real Shiro. They had just spent both season 1 and a lot of season 2 building the bond between, and Shiro was able to unlock Black’s wings, WHICH IS A PRETTY BIG DEAL. And for that bond to just be dismissed for no apparent reason is weird. I suppose it could be the writers just wanting Keith to pilot Black a little bit longer, but even that's a bad reason, because it's only that episode(S3E6) and part of S4E1 that Keith still pilots Black. And by the end of S4E1 Shiro is back piloting Black. So if this is the real Shiro why the three episodes of him not being able to do it (really only two episodes as S3E7 was just a flashback story)?? It just doesn't make sense to me if he were the real Shiro. However I feel like it does make sense if he's not the real Shiro. Because Black doesn't want someone who isn't Shiro, even if they look and act like him. But then why did black go to him at the end of The Journey you ask? Well lots of people have said it before, but I'll say it too. I think that when "Shiro was thinking about the other paladins and Black, he was accessing the real memories that they put into this fake Shiro, and Black recognized that and, probably really hoping that their paladin had returned, rushed to him. Then later upon closer inspection was able to sense that this was indeed not the real Shiro, and decided to stick with Keith until the real Shiro returned. So why did Black accept him in season 4 you ask? Well, as I mentioned in the post you commented on, when Black accepted him, the rest of the team was getting their butts kicked by bad guys and very close to losing, and Keith wasn't there to pilot Black. And "Shiro” went in and asked Black to trust him, and Black did decide to trust him, as he does think that he IS the real Shiro, he acts like Shiro and still wants to protect the team for the most part. And if Black hadn't accepted him, the rest of the team might very well have died or been captured, and I don't think Black would just sit there and let that happen. So Black accepts this Shiro, but pretty reluctantly. And again why wait so long to accept him if he really was the real Shiro? 

The next thing is the way that Shiro acts towards Keith. He tells Keith several times that Keith is meant to lead, but all throughout he's contradicting everything Keith says they should do. Now, granted, some of those contradictions might be stuff the real Shiro would say, like that Keith shouldn't go off by himself to find Lotor. But he tells Keith he's wrong almost every time Keith says something. Keith: We should go after Lotor to stop him now. Shiro: No we need to stop get that (comet) ship, it's too important. Later.... Keith*is going after the comet ship* Shiro: Stop going after the comet ship, you need to stop them from getting the teleduv! Keith: I thought you said the ship was the most important thing right now!?

 AND THEN, AND THEN Shiro says the thing that I KNOW the real Shiro would NEVER say. He tells the team to put down their defenses, making themselves vulnerable to the ship's weapons that took out Chunks of the Castle's Shields, and tells them to DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES. NO. I'm sorry, the real Shiro would not say that. He would never tell his team to put their lives on the line like that. If someone disagrees with me on that, I don't know what to tell you. (And really it's only thanks to Keith not really following those orders, that they were able to survive that and stop them from getting the teleduv.) Then after that Shiro and Keith are talking and Keith apologizes for not being a good leader, and Shiro apologizes for "having to step in." I'm sorry but, Shiros "stepping in" almost got them killed, while Keiths actions saved them. (Sorry that got a bit off topic, but main point was that the real Shiro wouldn't tell the team to almost kill themselves, and then acting like it was his orders that mad the mission work, when that's just not true)

 Even in the first episode of season 4, Shiro keeps pushing the leadership role on Keith, even though Keith doesn't want it, and then tells him he's not being a good leader. The rest of Season 4 didn't give a whole lot of evidence for the clone theory, other than what I've said before. But it also hasn't proved to me that it is indeed the real Shiro.

So yeah those are the main things of why I don't think Shiro is the real Shiro.

And maybe that’s all wrong and this is the real Shiro, but why would the creators go to all that effort of having those little flash scenes talking about operation Kuron and never explaining exactly what happened after that battle and still having that big mystery, to have Shiro really return? And again, why have the delay in Shiro returning to the black lion? Why not put him in his paladin armor for the coalition posters? Why make his poster say fight WITH voltron(which could be read as fighting against or fighting along side) when they could have said "Fight along side Voltron"? There just too many clues that are there for the revelation of this Shiro being a fake, for it to be the real Shiro.

And honestly the most random piece of evidence, that doesn’t really look like it’s real evidence, is what actually convinces me the most that Shiro doesn’t act the same. And it’s that after “Shiro” returned, he doesn’t make dorky faces in the background. Like if you really watch his face throughout season 3 and 4, he will smile and stuff at people and even scowl and get angry, but he has a fairly neutral or serious face the rest of the time. Where as in seasons 1 and 2 he really did make a bit more dorky faces in scenes. Now when ever there’s a scene where I think Shiro would make a dorky face of confusion or surprise, he only gives a small eyebrow raise that just looks like mild confusion instead of dorky confusion or surprise. And I think that it’s probably a very clever little thing that the animators included to set us slightly off without making it super noticeable. It’s the little things like body language and facial expressions that tune people in to what the person is like and their intentions. 

So there are the reasons why I think that the Shiro who returned in season 3 isn't the real Shiro.