#the altea podcast

[violethowler]

Timekeeping in the Voltron Universe

This post is a guide of all the information that I’ve discovered or calculated over the course of writing my various analysis posts about the VLD story on how the intergalactic timekeeping units that are used throughout the series compare to those of Earth. I've been putting this together for a while as a resource for me and anyone else who intends to write VLD fics so that those who plan on incorporating the differences in time measurements into their stories can have a baseline to build off of.

(I'm aware that others in the fandom have made similar posts, but I haven't seen any that have done the math on some of the time comparisons)

Ticks

Ticks are established early in the show as the equivalent of seconds, and the Let’s Voltron podcast actually timed the team’s little ticks vs seconds comparison from S1E06 Taking Flight and found that a tick is 1.399 seconds.

Dobashes

Dobashes are the equivalent of minutes. How many ticks there are in one dobash is not something than any official sources have provided any indication of.

Vargas

Vargas are the equivalent of hours, and S3E03 The Hunted implies that they are very close in length. When the paladins are pursuing Lotor’s ship at the start of the episode, Pidge says “At our current rate of speed, we’ll be in attack range in an hour.” When we cut to Lotor’s ship barely a minute later, Acxa says “the lions will be on us in one Varga.”

While the number of dobashes in one varga is unknown, it at least gives us an indication that the amount of time elapsed is still about sixty minutes in Earth time.

Quintants

Quintants are the equivalent of days, and the show actually tells us how many Vargas are in one day. In S2E08 The Blade of Marmora, the path to the Blade of Marmora’s base is said to close for two Quintants once Keith and Shiro reach it. When we cut back to the Castle of Lions in the middle of Keith’s trials, it’s been “roughly ten Vargas” according to Coran, and when Allura asks how much longer they have to wait, Lance correctly estimates “thirty more Vargas.”

This means that 2 Quintants is the equivalent of 40 Vargas, meaning that one Quintant is 20 Vargas long.

In Earth time, this means that a Quintant is only about 20 hours compared to the 24-hour days of Earth. Dividing 20 by 24 to find the percentage establishes that 1 Quintant = 0.833 Days

Movements

Movements are the equivalent of weeks, and while it’s never explicitly confirmed, Coran’s mention of the paladins forming Voltron “six times a movement” in S1E02 Some Assembly Required implies that there are 6 Quintants in a Movement.

Since Quintants are only 20 hours, six of them would be the equivalent of five 24-hour Earth days.

Phoebs and Deca-Phoebs

Phoebs are the equivalent of months and Deca-Phoebs are the equivalent of years. The Deca indicates that there are 10 Phoebs in a year, and I actually managed to figure out the comparison to Earth years while crafting my second VLD timeline guide.

When Shiro and Allura are detected during their infiltration of a Galra cruiser in S1E10 Collection and Extraction, the computer identifies Shiro as “Fugitive prisoner 117-9875.”

The format of his prisoner ID number indicates the year on the empire’s calendar that Shiro was captured, meaning that the Galran calendar places the beginning of Season 1 in imperial year 9876, since the discovery of Voltron occurs a year after Shiro’s capture.

Initially, I thought this meant that the references to Altea being destroyed “10,000 years ago” were a generalization and that it wasn’t exactly 10,000 years.

However, Coran’s insistence on correcting Hunk that the Castle of Lions is 10,600 years old in S1E01 indicates that it was indeed exactly 10,000 years between Altea’s destruction and the return of the Blue Lion.

So, dividing 10,000 by 9876 to compare gives me the math of 1 Deca-Phoeb = 0.9876 Years.

Since 1 year on Earth is 365 days, 365 times 0.9876 gives me 360 days in a sincle Deca-Phoeb.

And since there are 10 Phoebs in a Deca-Phoeb, 360 divided by 10 gives us approximately 36 days in 1 Phoeb. Since 1 Quintant is 0.833 days, 1 day is the equivalent of 1.2 Quintants. 1.2 times 36 gives me approximately 43 Quintants in a Phoeb.

This means that there are a total of 7 full Movements (or 5 7-day Earth weeks) in a Phoeb with one extra Quintant at the end, and 1 Deca-Phoeb is approximately 430 Quintants.

Final Time Comparison Chart

1 Tick = 1.399 Seconds

1 Varga = 1 Hour

1 Quintant = 20 Vargas = 20 Hours = 0.833 Days

1 Movement = 6 Quintants = 5 Days

1 Phoeb = 43 Quintants = 7.167 Movements = 36 Days = 5.14 Weeks

1 DecaPhoeb = 430 Quintants = 71.67 Movements = 360 days = 51.4 Weeks

[toastess-with-the-mostess]

Voltron: The Series

Last stop folks! One I'm sure you already know well This was my introduction into Voltron, fell in love with it, led me to its predecessors, then had a rocky relationship with it, and still do Thanks for joining me so far! I love Voltrons history because there's so much to be inspired from Dotu/VV - V3D - VF - VLD (here)

Word vomit under the cut <3

Oh boy 2016, nothing can go wrong here Frankly this is the better looking Voltron out of all of them, I'm glad to see what 2D and 3D can really do together since VF had a rocky time with that itself. Like I said in the Dotu/VV post, this show is a hard reboot, at most it takes the names and basic legend of the original show and just runs with it. Though it does take inspiration from the previous shows, again with Pidge being a genius, the lions being mystical, and this time I'm fairly sure the bayards were directly inspired from the voltcoms from VF That's the main reason why I don't find it fair to compare Voltron Legendary Defender (VLD) to the other Voltrons because it's not the same story at all, it's its own thing and is pretty well isolated. It has major changes to the story beats, like Lotor not automatically being a villain, the pilots aren't trained soldiers and instead cadets themselves, for a while the team aren't even friends, Allura's planet is renamed (to be fair it's back to the original anime name) and also destroyed, and Pidge is a girl now, which I don't mind but from what I've learned its a joke between older fans since many of them thought dotu Pidge was a girl at first due to his headband. The gist of VLD is vaguely similar to the rest of them, a team of five lands on Altea (Arus) and discovers Voltron which is then used to defend the universe. Like I mentioned though, the team isn't made up of soldiers, most of them are cadets with only one (1) seasoned soldier on the team who has been missing for years until the group found him. They have an Indiana Jones moment and find blue lion hidden away on Earth which abducts the entire team to Arus, a planet unrelated to Altea, where the castle of lions sits locked up. The rest of the show is them learning to work together and the best way to handle dangerous situations when more than just easily ignored lives are on the line. In total, it had 8 seasons in 2 years (yikes), the most of the shows (probably ran too long in retrospect), spawned 3 volumes of comics (15 in total), and brought the return of the toy line. This iteration brought in the most viewers because of the original fans who were still kicking, the animation, the story (in the beginning), and it was on Netflix which many people had at that point so it was easily accessible. It also spawned an incredibly large fandom which could be amazing at some points and down right radioactive at others. Either way though, it created avenues for merchandise, podcasts, fan interactions, and furthering the legacy of Voltron itself! As of this post, there's information slowly coming out about a live action movie for Voltron (probably not VLD related, that ship has sailed lads) which has many fans excited for what's to come

[lamilanomagazine]

La stand-up dei comici italo-stranieri e il concorso per comici emergenti “La Cicala d’Oro”: gli appuntamenti della rassegna bolognese “Cuor Leggero”

La stand-up dei comici italo-stranieri e il concorso per comici emergenti “La Cicala d’Oro”: gli appuntamenti della rassegna bolognese “Cuor Leggero”. Nuove comicità nel Parco dei Pini per “Cuor Leggero”, la rassegna di stand-up di Teatri di Vita: 4 spettacoli con i rappresentanti della risata italo-straniera Nathan Kiboba, Horea Sas, Xhuliano Dule e John Modupe, e 16 concorrenti da tutta la penisola, da Torino a Catania, dai 27 ai 58 anni (selezionati tra oltre 60 partecipanti), che si sfideranno nella seconda edizione del concorso “La Cicala d’Oro” per stand-up comedian emergenti, presentata da Alessio Genchi e Innocenzo Capriuoli. L’appuntamento è dall’11 al 15 agosto a Teatri di Vita (via Emilia Ponente, 485, Bologna; tel. 333.4666333; teatridivita.it), nell’ambito di “Bologna Estate 2023”, il cartellone di attività promosso e coordinato dal Comune di Bologna e dalla Città metropolitana di Bologna - Territorio Turistico Bologna-Modena, con il sostegno della Regione Emilia Romagna e il contributo della Fondazione del Monte. Gran finale il giorno di Ferragosto, che inizia con il pranzo delle Cucine Popolari, prosegue tutto il pomeriggio con le esibizioni dei concorrenti, per concludersi la sera con i 5 super-finalisti. La stand-up comedy di “Cuor Leggero” passa attraverso la comicità degli artisti italo-stranieri, che sollecitano con le loro battute non solo la risata, ma anche l’invito a uno sguardo diverso sui migranti, sugli stranieri e sugli italiani stessi. Si inizia venerdì 11 agosto con “Black Friday” di e con Nathan Kiboba, originario della Repubblica popolare del Congo, e attuale amatissimo volto de “Le Iene” su Italia 1: uno spettacolo che il comico definisce “in nero, come la maggior parte del lavoro in questo Paese”. Sabato 12, tocca a Horea Sas, originario della Romania, che è comparso su “Comedy Central” fin dal 2020, e che in “Stand-up” coinvolge il pubblico in un viaggio alla scoperta della sua vita privata, tra storie di droghe leggere e aneddoti sull’Europa dell’Est. Domenica 13 è la volta di Xhuliano Dule, drammaturgo e sceneggiatore, ma soprattutto, come dice il titolo del suo spettacolo, “Un albanese asintomatico”, che attraversa le tappe dell’integrazione e si sofferma sulla... disintegrazione che ne deriva. E infine lunedì 14 si esibirà John Modupe, di origine nigeriana, e autore di irresistibili podcast sui social: a Teatri di Vita presenterà “Il cugino di Carlo Magno”: un travolgente gioco di rovesciamenti di prospettive. Ogni giorno, dall’11 al 14 agosto, si svolgerà una tappa del concorso “La Cicala d’Oro”, giunta alla sua seconda edizione (la prima, nel 2022, fu vinta da John Vincent): 4 concorrenti a sera, da cui ogni volta uscirà un finalista votato dal pubblico. Nel pomeriggio di Ferragosto, dopo il grande pranzo solidale all’aperto, predisposto dalle Cucine Popolari, si esibiranno nuovamente i 12 non finalisti, tra cui il pubblico potrà ripescarne uno. La super-finale con i 5 comici si svolgerà la sera di Ferragosto, questa volta di fronte a una giuria qualificata, con la proclamazione del vincitore. Maestri di cerimonie: Alessio Genchi e Innocenzo Capriuoli. I 16 concorrenti di quest’anno sono Stefano Campagnolo “Virgigno”, Marco Passarello, Altea Bonatesta, Silvio Perfetti, Alberto Grezzani, Carlo Alberto Montori, Matteo Picardi, Giulia Trippetta, Silvia Priscilla Bruni, Annalisa Dianti Cordone, Alessandra Ricotta “Ale Tonda”, Serena Bongiovanni, Michele Breda, Filippo Rizzo, Valentina Medda, Graziana Allegra.... #notizie #news #breakingnews #cronaca #politica #eventi #sport #moda Read the full article

[thealteapodcast]

Episode #7 - Artists Edition 2.0

There’s a sequel! Wow! More artists, more art, more arting (and yes, Urban Dictionary says arting is a word). However, unlike most sequels, we have an entirely new—and just as fantastic—cast for this episode: @henreyettah and @tzkshuu (like a sneeze)! Listen in as we discuss a variety of fancy art stuff, like drawing with your own style, favorite tropes, technical backgrounds, interacting with other fans around your art, and the dreaded reposting issue.

Link

Soundcloud: x

We’ll see you next episode!

[firelxdykatara]

whats crazy is that allura was likely going to end up with keith based on some of the let's voltron podcasts (which makes sense since allura has always ended up with keith in previous iterations and the ships was mildly hinted at) but the popularity of klance had them cutting that whole thing out. people were screaming that keith was "gay coded" and that keith was her "oppressor" so you couldn't ship allura with keith lmao.

......there is so much to unpack here oh my god, i’m dying

first of all, shiro wasn’t even gay coded, and he’s the only character we’re supposed to believe is canonically queer by the end of the show. (well, and curtis i guess, but he barely counts as a cardboard stand-in for a character, so.) so i am almost curious enough to ask what the fuck the fandom thought was so ‘gay coded’ about keith (and, incidentally, i really wish that fandoms would just stop talking about coding until they learn what the fuck it actually means jfc), but i recognize that discretion is the better part of valor, so i’m just gonna be... over here, chuckling in befuddled amusement.

i will note, though, that it has always been terribly interesting to me that allura, in previous incarnations, typically survived the end of the series, was in a romantic relationship with keith who was the leader of voltron, and was very very white..... but in vld, the only version of voltron where allura is not white, she is killed at the end of the series for no real reason, and her romantic relationship is with lance, someone who kept pursuing her despite her marked disinterest for the first six seasons, only for her to turn around and suddenly reciprocate feelings she’d shown no sign of prior, and who was not the leader of voltron (and was, in fact, consistently sidelined because he was off-brand sokka without the good writing to support a half-way decent character arc),

allura was also consistently tormented and demeaned by the narrative (was it really necessary to show her begging the red lion to accept her, sobbing after being rejected, and then being shoved into blue like it was some kinda consolation prize for not being good enough to lead the team??? anyway, my kingdom for black paladin allura [especially because, given the qualities we’re supposed to believe black prized, she absolutely should have been the one to take over in shiro’s absence]), so the fact that she had no agency in her own romantic narrative (kind of like another favorite character of mine after whom my blog is named >.>) is really insult added to injury.

as far as keith being allura’s ‘oppressor’.........what???? i mean, i ship lotura (vld is one of the rare occasions where i multiship, mostly because i wish allura had gotten the love she deserves, and ironically the only person i don’t like her with is lance lmao), so that argument already doesn’t cut it with me (ask me sometime about how beautiful it could have been to see lotor and allura healing the destruction their parents had caused in the universe, the heir to altea and the product of an altean/galran union which caused so much harm coming together in love and peace to make things right and end ten thousand years of pain and suffering) but.... keith??? he didn’t even know he was part-galra. and don’t even get me started on how clumsy allura’s on prejudice arc was handled, because yikes.

but the fact is, keith was not at all part of what happened to allura’s people. nor was his mother! he had no idea he was anything other than human until he found out during the show, and it wasn’t even like their relationship would have had any comparable power imbalance, like. ugh. i don’t get that argument and i probably never will.

anyway, my bottom line is, allura deserved better. and kallura, lotura, or even shallura would have been more fitting relationships that would have meshed better with her overall character arc and given her a happier, healthier ending than what she had in canon, even if she hadn’t been killed off for no damn reason.

[ptw30]

hey dev! what can you tell about the comics? have you seen any announcements about another one coming this year? since iverson and hedrick moved to F&F series, do you think they'd continue the voltron comics? as far as i'm concerned, vol 3. was set after s4, so the last arcs should have volumes already written but since s7-s8 was a mess and prolly had some fixes here and there, how could the comics connect to it? do you think they'd continue the series there? i know lok did

Anyone can write the next volume of VLD comics. It doesn’t have to a writer on the show. In fact, while it can be, it shouldn’t be unless the writer has comic book writing experience. Writing comics is a different beast from writing TV scripts. Yes, plot points might be the same, but the timing is a bit different.

According to Tim Hedrick and Mitch Iverson in the Let’s Voltron podcast, they’d been asked to write the comics and said, “Okay, sure!” when it should have been handed to someone with comic writing experience. 

(And you can tell - the comics don’t add anything to the story. They are just stories to fill up space and say, “Look, Voltron went on more adventures than we saw in the show!”)

Comic tie-ins should give insight into the character and add depth to the story. Example - give us some Kolivan and Keith bonding, where Keith learns about his Galran heritage. Or show Allura teaching Lance about Altea and the different foods or language. I bet he could pick up the language easily. Then have Allura and Lance talk in Altean on the show, and say funny things that the other paladins don’t know. 

EDIT: The third volume was written completely by Iverson and was the best one. It gave us Lance and Kuron bonding, and it had set-up Allura using her bayard for the first time. The moment was then switched to Hunk, which...not sure why, since Allura didn’t get to use her bayard in Voltron in the Netflix series. So why not at least show us in the comics?

…I digress. 

I haven’t seen any announcements, though I did see a comic script under the Voltron tag before Season 8′s release. I didn’t reblog it because it was part of someone’s portfolio, and they just did it to show they could write comics. But essentially, it showed why Shiro ended up with Pidge in Green, which I thought would fit well in a currently non-existent Volume 4. 

Tbh, if Voltron didn’t reboot or doesn’t want to reboot, they could do what the aforementioned script did - fill in the spaces and fix some things - or provide further explanation. 

DreamWorks is nothing if not persistent with their franchises, so do I think there could be a comic continuation? Yeah. Do I think it will happen without a show attached to it? No, since DreamWorks hasn’t done that before, but you never know. 

[91939art]

Hello, dear anons!

TL DR: We’re still shipping Lotura, as strongly as ever, and are feeling fine about it (jic, no hatefuck or whatever; yes, Lotor now is mad and Allura feels herself used, but before they were fine, and after that they just might be OK).

To us it works like that: Lovers — Foils — Lovers (?)

Longer version is under cut.

Many people are in need of comfort after having witnessed the sixth season, tbh, we're as much. Like, it was horrendously intense. Frigg, we never expected the show to go that far. Stuff of nightmares were Kuron and Lotor…

1. AS TO LOTURA…

We're still totally on board with Lotura. Even if it won’t be an endgame and Lance still “gets the girl” out of her sudden recognition of how saaaad he is if she has another guy. Not to pick on Allurance here, ship all you want, we love you too, guys, but to choose a guy just because he turns sad when you don’t? Allura so far has shown clear preference: pointy ears, teeth, and claws, long hair… shared heritage?

Our take, though? We blame Allura. Stay with us, it’s not blind Allura-hate, we still love the character. We just think she’s wrong. Why? Lotor did what he did to secure future for surviving alteans, modern galra, AND rest of the universe by taking away the need for galra to go lengths for quintessence. He acknowledges it’s bad (but not wrong, because it isn’t) and he’s completely against unnecessary killing, might we add

She hit him with "You're like your father!" on purpose, she felt hurt and used. But then again, if Lotor were not genuine all this time, and it all was a play, he could’ve easily done all that without romantic tension added. Also, he’s not of trophy kind, he doesn’t even show-off with actual skill of masterful wielding of altean broadsword to an altean whom he might’ve tried to impress.

Also, now having Lotor disappeared (though executives stated during podcast that overexposure is no threat to Lotor, ‘cause he was affected by quintessence before he was born), what will Coalition do now with all generals who pledged loyalty to Lotor? After Voltron attacked him? New Kral Zera? Now with Sendak taking the throne and wallowing universe in blood in attempt to subdue it? He wouldn’t fight Voltron, he knows where it’s weak. He would kill whole planets.

Or Honerva, whose reasoning is not yet clear even? Though, she definitely isn’t interested in rule. Otherwise she’d already be Empress.

Anyway, bloodshed! Yaaaaay!

And now Voltron doesn’t have a candidate.

2. COULD LOTOR AND ALLURA BE STILL TOGETHER?

Well, it depends on two things.

1. Obviously, Lotor snaps out of his psycho mode (down our blog there's a marvelous explanation as to how he got this way). Not easy, yes. Now, how could he do that? Well, for example if Allura threw herself to protect comrade from Lotor’s attack (not to counterattack, though), our bet is, he’d recognize in himself father’s lust for altean blood he saw quite often from the side. And he hates even to be compared with his father.

2. Allura. DROPS. Her hate towards galra. Again, not easy, yes. And she needs to start to percept her own race as the one that, actually, came up with, you know, greatest weapon in the universe, having which first paladins wedged war spread peace across the universe … We mean, Altea wasn't "all-pure". People tend to forget that Altea was Empire, too.

And more than that, Alfor had shown his short-sightedness in regards to battle operations

So Lotor, who usually plots carefully was right to accuse him of being bad warlord.

Allura utterly discards her father’s mistakes, thinks alteans to have been right about everything all along, and so far time to time this her belief gets tested, most notably while retrieving the trans-reality comet.

While Lotor completely embraces his father’s mistakes and works on not being associated with Zarkon. But hence coming from both aggressor’s and victim’s side, he gets disregarded in both camps: one deem him weak, others — compare with Zarkon.

In fact, this conflict between Lotor and Allura might eventually resolve their personal issues now that we think about it. And when they do, who knows? Maybe the universe in both parts — galra and coalition — will be united again *suggestive brows-wiggling*

AS A CONCLUSION

In the end of the day, with these two done, Lotor still preserved altean culture and absolute majority of survived population, and heavily leant towards peace; and Allura still helped prince Lotor to become an Emperor.

Can you imagine, dear anons, how strong their bond could get and how protective of each other they could get, if they grew past this conflict? They still have a very strong common ground :> :>

[terraaurea]

A note on Keith’s Galra Heritage: a Galrapological analysis nobody asked for

This is my excuse not to work on writing a syllabus. 

I do hope that Voltron someday elaborates even further, either on screen or in interviews/podcasts/comics/etc., about the pre-destruction cultures of Daibazaal. I also REALLY hope the VLD writers do not cop-out and incapacitate Keith by claiming that his Galra genes make him inherently evil or malicious. A few notes from your friendly neighborhood Anthropologist (we’ll see if my knowledge of humans can connect anywhere with alien sci-fi nonsense...)!

1a. I am sure a ton of people have already talked about this, so I won’t go into it too deeply. The main important part is that Galra genes are in fact probably incredibly recessive or at least highly compatible with other species. The Galra species at the time of VLD has an extremely wide range of characteristics, though they tend to share their purplish color scheme. Their body size can range from small, to broad and tall. Sometimes they have tails, furry ears, sharp canines, and eyes with or without irises/pupils. It is difficult to tell whether this is reminiscent of the intergalactic expansion of their Empire over more than 10,000 years, but I would think that has a huge part in it. Lotor shed a lot of light on the subject, since he advocated originally for the fair treatment of Galra with mixed heritage. 

Arguably, however, the Galra phenotypes were far more gracile before Daibazaal’s destruction. There was variation of course, but in general even the broadest of Galra maintained a sleeker facial structure with minimal fur, and no tails. For example, one may be able to see so-called ‘pure’ (scare-quotes) Galra phenotypes in Zarkon by comparing his characteristics to Galra from 10,000 years ago. It is for this reason (in addition to other propaganda) that nobody questions Lotor gracile face, despite his mother being Altean. He appears as a visionary for mixed heritage Galra then in the way that he pretends to be the ‘pure’-blooded savior of the oppressed. Remember, too, that thousands of years of history have been excluded from our knowledge, so there is likely no way to really know for sure what the original phenotypes of the so-called “Galra nation-tribe” were (according to Dayak’s teachings). Dayak does believe though that gracile facial features are signs of more dignified Galra (to Hunk: “That doughy face of yours is very un-Galra”). Cf. these lovely folks to a younger Zarkon pre-Quintessence exposure: 

(To be honest, I still cannot decide whether his supra-cranial ridges are biological/organic, or part of his armor. It does not help that we cannot see his ears)

1b. With all of this said, we learned that in the modern-day Galra Empire there are several shared cultural norms. As a student of cultural change and impact, I have to stress something which I believe is applicable (hopefully, please) to our world and this sci-fi universe: culture and genetics are not explicitly linked, and culture is an acquired characteristic, not an inherited one.

Hunk’s training with Lotor’s childhood governess Dayak tells us a lot. Bless this beautiful boy, realizing that knowing about one another’s culture is important for understanding each other! Up until the destruction of Altea, the Alteans were skilled in this, and even used their ability to shape-shift to work with others when appropriate.

For one, the concept of a ‘blood emperor’ has existed since before the Galra “were a star-faring race.” Lotor appears annoyed by Dayak’s use of the term, but it is clear that her belief in its solidarity remains, and can be seen elsewhere in the discrimination shown to Galra of mixed heritage. Lotor obviously wants to come off as progressive to the paladins, here. From her lessons, which she is pleased to give Hunk, we learn that historic Galra customs held strong weight in: defeating your enemies, absolutes (”victory or death”; alt. Blade of Marmora “knowledge or death”), enlightening pain (palen-bol), and the belief in a singular “killing thrust” (vrepit sa) that put the Galra above all other tribes on Daibazaal. If anyone has studied history before, it becomes clear that this singular event was likely instead a series of hundreds, or thousands, of years of combat, diplomacy, and the like (cf. ancient Mediterranean/Mesopotamian/Indian flood myths, fictive kings [like the original monarchy of Rome/Romulus and Remus], etc.). This belief in a singular event reinforces the modern Galra preference for absolutes. This is also why there is no error in violence, as it is the “searing light” that “burns away all imperfections” on both societal, and personal levels. There is no in between. Regardless, the most important takeaway is that Hunk learns these tenets from Dayak and is then able to apply them when working with Galra. Young Galra, like Lotor, were not born with these ideologies, but instead learned them (acquired them) from their ancestors, teachers, and families. 

Now that we have addressed basic Galra phenotypology (for funsies), and that culture and genetics are not inexplicably linked, we can cover the reason why it is in VLD’s best interest not to cop-out and give Keith a specific weakness on behalf of his blood heritage. (Also, where there are small links at the most basic level between the human propensity for culture/social interaction on a genetic level is impossible to address here and would be far too anthropo-centric for our purposes, are highly contested, and ultimately inconsequential. Nobody DM me quoting Richard Dawkins and the ‘selfish gene,’ please I beg you). 

2a. I can already sense this possibility: Keith loses control because his ‘Galra-side’ takes over. He cannot help it, becomes openly violent, and regrets his parents having met. He regrets his mother being Galra, and wishes he could either be human or not exist at all. I SINCERELY HOPE THAT VLD DOES ITSELF A FAVOR AND AVOIDS THIS ROUTE. I have faith, because VLD has expressed a decent amount of intuitiveness when it comes to cultural race vs biological species. There are far better ways to go about this, both for the sake of narrative and accuracy! 

At the very most, Keith’s Galra genetics should provide him with a few unique attributes: physical strength and acuity, and at the very most a different level of hormonal sensitivity, leading to increased or decreased moodiness or impulsiveness. Ultimately, the Galra across the Empire are not violent on account of their genes, though. Moody? Perhaps. Bloodthirsty? No. They are violent because of their upbringing. Keith’s impulsiveness is almost certainly more rooted in his difficult childhood, and his discipline issues are mirrored in other human children and adults who have faced similar losses (absent parental figures due to death, bullying, etc.). There is a reason why Shiro appearing in Keith’s life has lead him to slowly improve his self-control. There is a reason why Keith’s experiences with the Blade of Marmora (and likely his mother, Krolia) have had similar effects on his self-control. These situations have provided him with teachers who guide him. Human or Galra, he would have the same issues if he was left unattended for his entire life.

What, then, could give Keith troubles on account of his genes? Simple answer: power.

2b. We saw in the fight between the Black Paladins that in times of intense stress, Keith’s Galra phenotypes show through, making his face purplish and his sclera yellowish. This is interesting because it reminds me more of Altean shapeshifting abilities. Whether this happens in other mixed heritage Galra is hard to discern, and it is equally viable that Krolia is of mixed heritage in the first place. Keith in general has heightened strength and visual acuity, which can already be attributed to his hard work. But, the two years with his mother may have contributed to his growth spurt: Galra lifespans are longer, so he may not have reached physical maturity yet. Being with a parental figure of Galra descent for an extended period of time may also have helped this on some hormonal level.

Keith has worked hard to tame his impulsiveness. Patience yields focus! But, once one has been patient, has grown, and can focus--there are still mistakes to be made. Humans are physically weaker than Alteans and Galra. Should one give the strength of an Altean or Galra to someone like Lance, Hulk, or Pidge, they surely would struggle to reconcile their strength with their ability to overcome enemies, or manipulate others. All suffered in the Quintessence Field while fighting Lotor, because power flowed through them, and their inhibitions were severely lowered. Not because they are bad people, but because it was a physical feeling of something different, imbuing them with pure energy, which Quintessence is. One of the only examples we have of someone successfully doing this is Shiro, whose Galra-tech arm renders him incredibly strong. But, we also now see from the Black Paladins battle that, if not for Shiro’s mind, he would be difficult to beat as an enemy, and could even become cruel on power. When he exclaims, “Now that’s the Keith I remember!” he refers to the boy before he learned control, and whose recklessness paired with his acuity (see his piloting skills at the garrison) made for dangerous situations for himself and others. These are weaknesses not of the body, but of the mind. The body is strong, and the mind falls victim to greed if it has not trained properly to handle it.

Keith may need to come to terms with the power he is awakening, and very well may accidentally hurt someone he cares about without realizing. It should not be because Galra cultural mores are violent and absolutist, though! It should instead be because he does not know his own physical strength. In this way, perfectly good intentions can end very, very badly, very quickly. With the help of mentors (there are many options!) he can overcome this. He is not evil because he is part-Galra, and his Galra genes should not incapacitate him as though he were a soulless robot. It would be an excuse, a cop-out, and low key a reason for the entire galaxy to warrant wiping the universe of Galra genes. Trust me, it would not be good.

This was my TED talk...

[ultimatehomes-spain]

Early morning walk and listening to the Happy Place podcast lfeaturing @thehappypear with an amazing #Altea sunrise - thanks to @lee_swims and @plantshack for sharing it. LISTEN TO THIS PODCAST!!! It is spot on!! (at Altea, Spain) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZtTKxLr8s5/?utm_medium=tumblr

[tomminowrites]

hey!!! (and bc i have no originality right now, i'm going to copy red for #3 haha)

1. First impression: i *also* thought you were a male Nick haha but now I laugh cause im in another server where people call me “tom” and i think of you every time2. Truth is: the most KIND AND CHARMING AND HARDWORKING and just a genuinely lovely person to hang out with, I think we could chat for days3. What Do I Think of Your Writing: okay I will never ever get over that first death!fic you sent because it tore my heart to shreds... but also, I really love the perspective you take in your writing? You always know just when to step it back and give a big scale to your emotions, or to focus in on one little detail that will capture more feeling than a paragraph of text. It’s very cool :)4. Have you ever made me laugh: on the regular.5. Have you ever made me mad: you speak so many languages it infuriates me. so jealous!!6. Best feature: Your dedication. You start a ton of projects and then commit so hard to every one of them - and I cannot tell you enough how much I admire your work on the Altea Podcast. Seriously a testament to your skill and hardworking nature, and each episode just keeps getting better!!7. Have I ever had a crush on you: no but you are welcome to visit me in the USA any time if u need a couch to surf8. You’re my: ~MultiTask Inspiration Extraordinaire~

[ao3feed-klance]

The Altea Podcast

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/2pLaru6

by nikneedsalife

Brought to you by two fans, the Altea Podcast is an unofficial podcast hosted by Red and Nick! We bring you the latest news about the Voltron fandom and discuss everything, from #notmyshiro, zines, and what exactly Jeremy spilled from his lips that week!

Words: 165, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen, Multi

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Krolia (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron)

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron)

Additional Tags: #notmyshiro, black paladin lance, The Altea Podcast, Podcast, unofficial Voltron podcast, Podcast Length: 10-20 Minutes

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/2pLaru6

[rins-rambles]

Zarkon’s Scar

  This may have been done before, but where do you guys think Zarkon got his scar from? After ten-thousand years of ruling, it’s surprising to see that someone actually managed to scar the great emperor of the Galras, but it’s never really touched upon.

  I first thought that he could have gotten it when he fought Alfor on Altea. During the scene in “The Legend Begins”, we see Zarkon fighting Alfor on a bridge, but all we get is a shot of Zarkon killing him and nothing more. It’s possible that Alfor did manage to get a blow on Zarkon before dying, but somehow I doubt that. I would think that would be something we would see to fuel Zarkon’s rage, not only loosing his planet, but also being hurt in a fight by his right hand man. Yet we saw nothing indicated that it was Alfor.

  One candidate I do have in mind is Lotor. We still have no idea of the reasons behind his exile, and I’m willing to bet that that scar Zarkon has was a result of a disagreement between the two. Neil mentioned in the Let’s Voltron podcast, that Zarkon could have thought about one day passing the throne onto Lotor, but then decided against it. In that same interview, AJ said that Lotor may have wanted his father’s approval in the past, but just like his father, he’s moved passed it and is focused on his personal goals. We still don’t have a full backstory behind Lotor, which I hope we’ll see more of now that he’s temporarily joining team Voltron and the coalition.

(For people saying Lotor is the new Zuko, Zuko had his whole backstory spread out in order to make us want him to change, and Lotor has little to none of that right now. If he’s going to turn back and help Voltron in the end, I think we need to see more of his past before that happens)

  Yet, the way the scar looks makes it seem too... curvy(?) if it was inflicted from a sword.

  I’m not really a weapons expert, but I think if Lotor cut his father using this sword, I doubt it would come out with that kind of curve in it.

  So my final guess, would be that Haggar gave him the scar. Not intentionally, mind you, but perhaps during one of her experiments something went wrong and a magic blast arched at a certain angle and struck Zarkon. Next to a blade wound, magic seems to be the most likely outcome. After Honerva woke up from her death and was renamed as Haggar, I would think she’d have a few problems moving around or working for a bit before settling back into her research.

  Still, these are just my thoughts, what do you guys think? I’m leaning more towards Lotor, if it would give him more backstory and the relationship with his father, but until season 5, anything’s up in the air.

[legiongamerrd]

#Gamefemerides Hace 11 años fue lanzado Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. Un RPG táctico desarrollado por Intelligent Systems y publicado por @nintendo para el Nintendo DS. Es el 11ro de la serie Fire Emblem, y el primero para NDS. Es un remake del juego de 1990, Fire Emblem: Shadow and the Blade of Light para Famicom (NES). Shadow Dragon cuenta los eventos por nueva ocasión de Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. Sucede en continente de Archanea, con la historia siguiendo a Marth, príncipe del reino de Altea, y es forzado al exilio de sus tierras cuando el malvado mago Gharnef y el resucitado Dragón Oscuro Medeus, los cuales inician su conquista por el continente. Formando nuevas alianzas con reinos vecinos, Marth debe formar un nuevo ejército para conseguir la espada mística Falchion y el escudo Fire Emblem para vencer tanto a Gharnef como a Medeus. El gameplay sigue las batallas estándar por turnos en mapas cuadriculados. Regresan aspectos como un sistema de clases el cual evoluciona con el uso de personajes, y la muerte permanente para unidades derrotadas en combate. El desarrollo inició en 2007, cruzando con los meses finales del desarrollo de Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn. Muchos del staff de entradas anteriores regresaron, incluyendo al director Tohru Narihiro, y la compositora original Yuka Tsujiyoko, quien manejó el remezcla y extendió la banda sonora junto a Saki Kasuga. El trabajo de diseño de personajes fue re-dibujado por Daisuke Izuka, con contribuciones especiales de Masamune Shirow. Anunciado a finales de 2007, fue lanzado internacionalmente, localizado por la compañía externa 8-4. Tuvo buena recepción de la crítica, y tuvo buenas ventas, con muchos coincidiendo en que es un port de alta calidad, a pesar de la carencia de originalidad. #LegionGamerRD #ElGamingnosune #Videojuegos #Gaming #RetroGaming #RetroGamer #CulturaGaming #CulturaGamer #GamingHistory #HistoriaGaming #GamerDominicano #GamingPodcast #Podcast #IntelligentSystems #FireEmblem #FireEmblemShadowDragon #Nintendo #NintendoDS #NDS #NES #JRPG #RPG #SRPG https://www.instagram.com/p/CLWjBXbhTp7/?igshid=1fnlkstik6ivq

[ao3feed-lotura]

The Altea Podcast

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2pLaru6

by nikneedsalife, redyarns

Brought to you by two fans, the Altea Podcast is an unofficial podcast hosted by Red and Nick! We bring you the latest news about the Voltron fandom and discuss everything, from #notmyshiro, zines, and what exactly Jeremy spilled from his lips that week!

Words: 165, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen, Multi

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Krolia (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron)

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Allura/Lotor (Voltron)

Additional Tags: #notmyshiro, black paladin lance, The Altea Podcast, Podcast, unofficial Voltron podcast, Podcast Length: 10-20 Minutes

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2pLaru6

[thealteapodcast]

Episode #5 - Writers Edition

A big part of fandom is wonderful fanfic, which is a train driven by a whole lot of imaginatve writers. In this episode, we cover a whole bunch of stuff that comes with writing for a show such as Voltron, like the angst/whump/fluff/crack genres, comments and getting inspired by your readers. Not to mention just the general joy of torturing your favorite characters to their phsycological limit. Yeah, that comment is directed at our super-smart co-hosts this episode, @tomminowrites and @finwritesthings. It's terrifying.

Link

Soundcloud: x

We’ll see you next episode!

[ao3feed-safeklance]

USS Altea

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2EsNbYv

by bluphacelia

"Now," the voice was back, low and deep, straight into the microphone. "It is time for the next segment of—" there is a pregnant pause,"Voltron."

An airy space tune fills the room, and Keith watches the radio, mesmerized. Is this what it feels like to be pulled into a cheesy mid-century War of the Worlds-style radio drama?

"It is day one-hundred and fifty nine of the Voltron mission, hosted by yours truly—The Tailor. I am speaking to you from the comms room of the USS Altea. We are still safely orbiting around the good Balmera. Ground crews landed on the planet safely yesterday and were able to converse with the natives. Still no sign of the Red Lion. ---aka. Keith happens upon a late-night radio podcast

Words: 3752, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt

Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Additional Tags: Fluff, Meet-Cute, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, podcast au, liminal space

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2EsNbYv