#the balmeran arc is here !!!

[askmeanjudge]

[aspenmissing]

𝚃𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙱𝚊𝚕𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚊 (𝙿𝚝 𝟷)

In the Bridge of the Castle of Lions, Shiro awakens to Sendak ordering Haxus to find the saboteur who is thwarting their plans.

"Haxus! I want whoever's in this ship found and terminated!" Sendak orders.

"Commander Sendak, I've received a transmission generating from somewhere inside" Haxus says. He plays Team Voltron's communication channel out loud. Allura and Pidge are heard speaking,

"There's not much time before they get the ship running again. You must shut off the particle barrier so we can get in" Y/N shuffles as her eyes open a bit.

"A-Allu-ra?" She mutters. Shiro, hearing her, looks down at her. 

"You got it. Tell me what to do" 

"P-pid-ge?"

"The particle barrier generator is beneath the main hull" Allura says. Y/N tries to move, but groans in pain.

"Y/N? Y/N open your eyes. Come on" He whispers, Y/N opens her eyes and looks up at her brother staring down at her "Oh. Thank god" He sighs in relief.

 "What happened? What's going on?"

"You and Lance were in an explosion. The two of you got knocked out. Lance hasn't woke up yet." Shiro explains as she slowly gets onto her knees. She turns her head to see Lance, gasping.

 "Lance" She gently shakes him "Lance. Your gonna be alright, buddy" 

"Find that room. Kill the Paladin!" Sendak orders. The Galra sentries leave "Repair the engine. Emperor has commanded us to bring him . This ship will rise before day's end" Sendak looks to Y/N "Well. Well. Well, I see the little earthling girl has woken up" Sendak says, smirking at her "How was your sleep?"  

"This is all your fault" Y/N grits her teeth. Sendak chuckles before turning back to the controls. Y/N hears a slight noise and looks up at the vent to see Soul "Soul? Go and get help" She mouths. Soul runs off as Y/N holds Lance closer.

"We're gonna be all right" Shiro mutters. 

==

In the bottom of the mine on the Balmera, two aliens approach Hunk and Coran from the darkness. Hunk raises his cannon Bayard in defence.

"Okay, don't come any closer! I don't know how to use this very well" The aliens step into the lights, they are two local Balmerans. "Wait a minute. You're not Galra." Hunk said when they came into the light. 

"Nor are you" The female Balmeran says. A Galra fighter yet slowly descends the mine.

"A patrol! Shay, we must take leave from these ones, now" The male says, placing his hand on Shay's shoulder.

"Wait, please! We need your help. If the Galra find us, they'll kill us" Coran says.

"Or torture us." Hunk adds

"Or keep us as some sort of creepy pet to play with how they please"

"Not our problem, Hairy Lip. Galra see us near you and they kill both you and us. Shay, exeunt!" 

"No! These many years only Galra have been seen here. I will not turn my back on the skylings." She says,

"...Vex!" Shay and Rax approach the Altean flight pod "Grab a side. In here. Hurry!" Shay and Ray push the flight pod out of sight; Hunk and Coran follow. The Galra patrol passes by without detecting them.

"Thanks for saving us. I'm Hunk"

"Shay. And this one, my brother Rax. How did you fall to us?" 

 "Well, we came looking for something. And you guys might be the right people to help us find it"

==

Pidge is inside the Castle of Lions at the Generator Room: a long hall of energy arcs. Pidge speaks to Allura through the team's communication channel.

"Pidge, have you made it to the generator room?" Allura asks.

 "I'm in. This technology is so advanced, I don't know if I can figure it out"

"Yes, you can. The lives of your fellow paladins are at stake. You can't give up." Allura says. Pidge reflects on her past. 

==Flashback==

In the past, she sat with her family at dinner.

"Hope you enjoy this home-cooked meal, Matt. After our launch to Kerberos tomorrow, we'll be eating freeze-dried peas for the next two months." Sam says.

"Don't lie. I know you love those peas, Dad. Matt jokes.

"It's true. Those Garrison chefs really know how to genetically manufacture a delicious vegetable" Katie sighs.

"I wish I was going up with you guys"

"Just you wait, kiddo. Something tells me that you're going to have your own crew someday. You're going to fly with them to worlds so far away, we can't even imagine. I bet my bottom dollar you're going to be part of something that makes the whole universe sit up and take notice" Holt says. Katie smiles. 

==

Later, she witnesses the news broadcast of the Kerberos Mission Disaster along with her mother.

"The Galaxy Garrison mission to the distant moon of Kerberos is missing, and all crew members are believed to be dead. The Galaxy Garrison has said the crash was presumably caused by pilot error. It is, indeed, a sad day for all humanity." The news anchor woman says.

==

Katie became enraged and hacked into the computers at the Galaxy Garrison. Iverson finds her in his office.

" You again? Get off my computer! How did you get past the guards?" Iverson demands.

"You said the spacecraft went down due to pilot error. I saw the video feeds from your probes. There's no evidence of a crash anywhere on Kerberos!" 

"Those feeds are classified! I could charge you with treason for hacking into them." Iverson says. He grabs Katie and drags her into the hall to a guard.

"Escort Miss Holt off the premises and make sure every guard knows she's never allowed on Garrison property ever again" The guard restrained Katie. 

"You can't keep me out! I'll find the truth! I'll never stop!" Pidge shouts. The Guard escorted her out and throws her onto the ground; walking away, leaving Katie on the ground. 

"Your Katie right? Holts kid" A soft voice says. Katie looks up to see a brown-haired girl, with cognac brown eyes "Sorry. Where are my manners" The girl smiles "Y/N Shirogane, my brother is Takashi Shirogane. He went up with your brother and father" She smiles "Now, let's get you off the ground" Y/N holds out her hand. Katie hesitates before taking her hand. Starting the unbreakable friendship between the two.

==Flashback End==

Pidge speaks to Allura through the communication channel.

"Okay. Talk me through it, Allura" 

"Shutting down the barrier from this room can be dangerous. Remember, the barrier is also a weapon. So, stay away from the energy arcs" Allura warns,

"Don't touch the giant lightning bolts. Got it." A blast was shot at me but rover quickly reacted and pushed me out the way. 

"Now, what I'm going to need you to do is—" Rover shoved Pidge aside just as a Galra Sentry fires lasers at her.

"Pidge! Hello? Are you there?" Pidge flees from the sentries

==

"A Pidge, what's going on?... Wait... the mice. Maybe they can help" Allura focuses and telepathically speaks to the Altean Mice "Friends, I need your help" The Mice are sleeping in Allura's room. They wake up to her talking and scurry off.

==

Pidge is trapped behind a structure in the Generator Room under laser fire; her map shows an exit shaft above her

"My only way out is two floors up? Seriously?" Pidge yells and avoid being shot. She generates a hologram of herself from her armour "Let's try this" The hologram of Pidge runs towards the energy arc.

"There!" A Sentry fires at the hologram, destroying it and hitting the energy arc, causing it to explode and takes out a Sentry. Pidge runs for the exit shaft above, using her grappling hook to reach it.

"Whoa! Can't believe that worked!" The Sentries fire lasers at Pidge; she flees with Rover. One Sentry instruct the others.

"You stay and guard the generator" One Sentry stays behind as two pursue Pidge. Pidge exits the shaft at the Training Deck. The two Sentries attack but Pidge defends with her shield and accesses the invisible maze

"The invisible maze. Let's see them get through this" The Sentries are trapped by the maze; one is destroyed by the maze's shocks. Pidge escapes through another shaft and the remaining Sentry pursues her. Pidge is hit by laser fire and falls down a shaft; she stops herself and drags the Sentry into the shaft with her Bayard. The Sentry falls and explodes, producing shock waves that make Pidge lose her footing. Rover stops Pidge from falling to her death

"Rover! Nice save, buddy" I said.

==

Hunk and Coran sit with Shay and Rax and their Balmeran family around a fire.

"Thank for the delicious soup. Are these potatoes in here?" Hunk asks. Hunk and Coran sip at bowls of soup.

"Grandma's special dish for special visitors" Shay says "Cave-root for the skin. Cave bugs for the soul"

"Oh!" Hunk and Coran retch. Coran tries to remain polite.

"Eheh...Thank you for the bugs" Shay's Grandmother gives Coran more soup. "O-okay, I think that's too many" 

"So, how many of you are down here?" I asked.

 "There are thousands here on Balmera. We worked and live In these mines" Shay's father says.

"We harvest crystals for Zarkon" Shay says.

. "Zarkon... That's so.. sad that he's enslaved an entire planet" 

"Zarkon may rule, but we still have family. That's where true happiness comes from" Rax stands.

"Galra would tear our family asunder if they found these ones. Everyone comes to Balmera and takes, but gives nothing in return" Rax says.

"In the past, those who took the Balmera's crystals would replenish her with energy. It was an equal exchange. But the Galra only take" Shay places her hand on the ground; it glows, and the Balmera is heard "It is no wonder we can feel her suffering" 

"I'm sorry that we put everyone in this situation, but the faster we get the crystal and get out, and the faster everyone is out of danger"

"We're looking for a battleship-class crystal." I said. 

"Battleship-class crystal? Those are most rare. Galra soldiers guard them ceaselessly until their harvest. Your quest is in vain" Shay's father says.

"There is one, found only weeks ago. It is almost excavated" Shay said. 

"Quite! Even if they could steal the crystal from the Galra, battle patrols wait to take down their ship. These ones have no chance of getting out of here alive, with crystal or without" He said. Coran has his arms crossed.

"Okay, so this crystal we need it basically the hardest thing in the universe to get" Hunk says, looking at Coran.

 "I don't know about the hardest. There is the scaultrite mineral found only  in the stomachs of giant weblums. Collecting that stuff's no picnic" Coran says, elbowing Hunk. Hunk looks unamused "Uh- but, yes, this seems very difficult" 

"You may stay here until the Balmera gives another crystal. One that is hidden frim Galra eyes" 

"We don't have that kind of time. I got two injured friends who need to get into a magic healing machine, stat"

"Hunk, you fix the pod" Coran stands "I'm going to do some reconnaissance and see if I can come up with another plan" Coran leaves Hunk with the Balmerans.

==

Pidge exits the shaft into an empty hallway of the Castle of Lions, taking off her helmet and recalls the day she took on the identity as Pidge. 

==Flashback==

In the past, Katie Holt stood before a mirror in a Garrison cadet uniform.

"First day of school. Time for a haircut" Katie took a pair of scissors and cuts off her hair.

==

At the Galaxy Garrison, Lance and Hunk stood before a list of names.

"I made it! I'm a fighter pilot" Lance dances in celebration "Hasta la later, Keith" Lance says"And look, you're my engineer!"

"Cool. Uh, can I do that from the ground?" Hunk asks. Lance frowns.

"And our communications officer is... Who the heck is Pidge Gunderson?" 

"Right here" Lance and Hunk turn to see Pidge.

"Welcome to the team, Gunderson. I'm Lance, your fighter pilot" 

"Hey, I'm hunk" Hunk said and stuck out his hand for me to shake. "

"We got a lot of great times ahead, so we should probably start bonding now. What do say we sneak off campus—"  Pidge overhears Iverson talking to another Garrison officer.

"--just a minute. Security for the Galaxy Garrison's mainframe is our first priority. It's been breached once. And by a little girl, no less. It can not happen again!" Iverson orders. Iverson turns and walks towards Lance, Hunk, and Pidge. Pidge saluts with her left arm to hide her face.

"Wrong arm, cadet" Pidge saluted correctly; Lance and Hunk were startled and salute as well. Iverson walks by without noticing anything amiss. Pidge sighed in relief

"Hello? Pizza? Girls? Astronauts?"

"Sorry, I don't have time to mess around with you guys. See you in the simulator." Pidge walks away.

"What's his problem?" Lance asks. The two leave. Pidge turn to watch them before leaving. She rounds the corner and bumps into someone.

"Woah, you okay kid?!" A voice says.

"Sorry" Pidge continues to look down and walks past the person, only for a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Wait, Katie?" Pidge turns and looks up to see Y/N "Wha- What have you done with your hair?"

"It was the only way to get in without them recognizing me" Katie explains "I'm going by Pidge" Y/N bends down to Pidge.

"Your secret is safe with me" She says, smiling "I better head off to see my team. Talk to you later?" 

"Yeah, sure" Katie says and walks away, leaving a frowning Y/N. 

==Flashback End==

The Flashback ends'; Pidge is frowning.

"You know, Rover, I haven't always been there for my team" Pidge puts on her helmet "But this time, I will be. Come on" Pidge runs off with Rover. The Altean Mice are also infiltrating the Castle

==

Hunk is repairing the Altean flight pod as Shay watches.

"Tell me, what is the sky like?" Shay asks.

"The sky? You seriously have never even seen the sky?"

"No... but, at night, I sneak up as high as I dare" Shay climbs on top of the flight pod "trying to imagine what it is like. Oh, lucky are you to fly in this machine to worlds far from here" 

"Well, it doesn't have to be like this. You can be free, too" Hunk says.

"Free?" Shay asks, jumping down.

"Yeah, free. It means you can go where you want, be what you want, do what you want. No Galra masters to tell you what to do"

"It makes no sense. Zarkon controls everything." I said. 

"Nope. No, things are changing. Have you heard of Voltron?" Hunk asks. 

"A child's tale" 

"It's real. I'm one of the paladins, and Voltron is going to defeat Zarkon"

"You are?" Rax appears.

"Stop filling this one's head with your shadow show! The cavern is our home. This will never change. Come" Shay reluctantly leaves with her brother. Hunk frowns as they leave.

[aro-paladin-pidge]

Some vague guidelines for the lore changes I’ve made to my No/Yes Blue AUs (yeah I’m calling them that, I can’t find better names ok)

Voltron is definitely older than it is in canon. I really hated that there were only two generations of paladins and Voltron still had this giant legend as the ‘defenders of the universe’. So Alfor didn’t create the Lions, some super-ancient alien species did or smth

Speaking of the Lions, I really want to redesign them-they’re supposed to be the guardian spirits of the elements and beings of pure quintessence, right? (I’m only like 70% sure about that last one, but I think it’s canon) But they just look like robot lions?? No cool glowy quintessence or elements or anything. I think the red Lion should have like a mane of fire or something.

Also I feel like the Black Paladin shouldn’t always be the leader. Each of the paladins could have been (and we actually saw this for Allura, Keith, and Hunk) good leaders, depending on the circumstances. This also allows for Keith to become a leader and Shiro to take a different position as a commander, without the stupid Lion-swap plotline. I’m sorry, but I hated it. So, depending on who was acting as Voltron’s leader/battlefield commander, any of the Lions/paladins could’ve been the head.

Lot less aliens. I hate hate HATE how there’s a few billion different species and they all look the exact same and there’s no exploration of any of their cultures in the slightest. They go to a new planet every episode, meet a new species that looks like humans but slightly to the left, they join the coalition, and then they’re never mentioned again. I want there to be a couple of species, like the Galra, Olkari, and the Balmerans spread out on various planets across the universe, so we actually have room to explore their cultures and histories.

This one’s not really a problem with VLD but I like it so I’m putting it here: The Altean Colony arc we get in canon is scrapped. Instead, there’s a small colony of surviving Alteans on Arus who’ve protected the Castle for millennia, since it doesn’t seem like the Castle can be opened without a Lion. We get Romelle earlier, and Allura and Coran don’t think they’re the last Alteans.

[loveafterthefact]

Love After the Fact Chapter 34: Gold Threads

Lance learns a bit more about Keith's past and Shiro observes his littermate in a new element.

First  Previous  Next

“I just remembered,” Keith mutters as Lance’s hand finds his waist, pulls them close together on the dance floor. “I hate this.”

Lance laughs, kisses the tip of Keith’s nose, laughing harder as said nose scrunches up at the contact. “I really like dancing, actually.”

Keith grimaces as he steps on Lance’s toes. “Do you like bruised toes?”

“No,” Lance admits. “But… I like you, so none of it's really that bad.”

Keith’s ears flutter. He wants to kiss Lance, wants it for himself, but people are clearly watching them; he doesn’t have the courage.

“Do you really hate it?” Lance asks, face expressing some twist of smile and sadness.

“No. I just don’t like it.” Keith sighs, ears drooping just a bit. “It’s not the worst thing I’ve done for royalty.”

“What’s the worst?” Lance asks, gliding along.

“Part of my training to join Shiro’s elite guard was to spend a movement in the Virmir Swamp. That was the worst. By the time it was over, I was basically one gigantic insect bite. They bit me through my clothes and managed to get under my armor. I just had to let them drink their fill and leave on their own.”

Lance laughs, spinning Keith out and back in. “That sounds awful!”

“To be fair, it was partially my fault. I was told not to take my helmet off while I slept but I was uncomfortable so…”

“So you took off your helmet and invited a swarm of insects into your armor?” Lance grins; they both fall into quiet laughter.

“Yes. I was anemic for a while. Shiro found it very funny.”

“You two seem very close.”

“Of course we’re close,” Keith argues, frowning slightly. “You’re close with your littermate.”

“Allura and I grew up together. You and Shiro didn’t. What is that like? Did it just happen, or…”

“Oh.” Keith hesitates, staring down at their moving feet. Lance pulls them a little closer together. “I was found by accident. Zarkon sent men to find my father, and they found me instead. Shiro led the search team.”

“And you just hit it off?” Lance whispers.

“He’s rather old not to have a mate. I think he was lonely. But he took me in as his charge for my first decaphoeb at the imperial compound, helping me adjust to society. It did cause a bit of gossip, but he’s only ever been my littermate.”

“Well I should hope so,” Lance says, keeping them in time. “You were even more of a kit then.”

“It’s not unusual to find a mate before adulthood. You just don’t actually mate with them. But Shiro and I were never like that. He’s my littermate, not my lifemate."

“I see.” Lance frowned, brows crinkling. “Why would they assume you were Shiro’s baby mate or- Wow that’s so gross. I am so. Gross.”

Keith laughs. “You’re not gross. You’re a different species. Galra are a lot more communal than Alteans. Kits sleep with their mother or older littermates. Daibazaal is dangerous-”

“Yeah, the thing that turns things inside out, I remember.”

“Yes, among others. They all sleep in dens together.”

“So wait. You just picked Shiro to snuggle up to?”

“He was the biggest. It was instinct. Before that, I usually slept for a few vargas a couple times a day. I was entirely alone.”

“So you survived all alone as just a little kit?” Lance asks, squeezing Keith’s hand.

“Yeah… My kittenhood’s been a bit of a mess.”

The song ends and Lance pulls Keith close just long enough to kiss his cheek. “I’m sorry, beloved.”

“It’s fine. I have my mother now, sort of, and my littermate. And you. That part’s pretty great. Hey, Shiro.”

Lance’s cheeks burn beneath his scales, heat creeping up to the tips of his ears, capped with gold. He gently keeps an arm around Keith’s waist as he greets the Captain. To his surprise, Shiro's changed out of his customary armor into some sort of linen attire: a loose-fitting shirt with a sigil on the chest and loose, black pants tied at the waist. They look practical and comfortable, and Keith looks jealous. Lance is a little jealous, too.

“Hey, Shiro! Some of our friends are here! Do you wanna meet them?” Keith grins, bouncing a little on his toes, jealousy over in a second. His tail swings in wide arcs. Lance’s own smile is fond as Keith shows off for his brother.

“Lanval and Gloriana? I already met them. They seem lovely. Came over to greet me themselves, actually.”

“No, no. Not them. Pidge and Hunk.” Keith grins, tugging on Lance’s hand to where Pidge, Hunk, and another Balmera -presumably Shay, given her rounded belly- are standing, enjoying the festivities. Lance turns back to the captain with a grin before following after his spouse. Shiro smiles.

“Hey, guys. How’s it going?” Keith asks as Lance rushes past to hug their friends.

“I am tired of standing, but one does not turn down an invitation from King Alfor,” a female Balmeran says. “Hello, your Majesty. I am Shay, wife of Hunk. Forgive me if I do not bow.”

Keith smiles. “Hi. And don’t worry about it. Do you want me to find you a chair?” Keith waves over a servant before the woman can protest. “Could you please bring this poor woman a chair-”

“Kitty!” Keith waves off the servant, eyes the small child in Hunk’s arms, making grabby hands at him. “Kitty!”

Pidge cackles as Hunk tries to get his daughter to lower her arms. “Rosie we talked about this. Prince Yorak is not a kitty. He’s like Prince Lancel. You have to be respectful and-”

“KITTY!”

Keith tenses, feeling the eyes of several dozen people now focused on him. There are only a few options he can choose, and he knows ‘curl into Lance’s side to avoid noise’ is what he’s expected to do, what Adam’s trained him to do. But also? Fuck it. Lance said he could be himself.

“You know what? Come here. I’m Kitty now.” Keith cautiously takes the child from Hunk, balances her on his hip as he chats with Pidge about her experiments with Balmeran crystals while Shiro chats with Hunk. Rosetta contents herself tugging on his braid, counting the gold threads in each section.

“Five! See, Kitty! Five!”

“I do see. Look at them all. Oh, how many are in this one?” Keith indicates a different section. Rosetta goes back to her counting.

Lance watches with only increasing fondness; Shiro watches Lance. He’d never expected to like the crown prince as much as he does. He’d left Altea with the belief that Lance wouldn’t do anything to harm his kit littermate, but now he believes Lance will love Keith as much as Keith loves him.

Which he does. Even if he doesn’t know it. Keith’s too young, too inexperienced to understand his own feelings. But Lance clearly does, blue-and-pink eyes brimming with warmth as his spouse places his circlet in the little kit’s reaching hands.

“Oh, no! You don’t wanna-” Hunk winces as the gold crumples like foil in the Balmeran child’s hands. “-do that. I am so sorry!”

Keith watches, violet eyes wide with surprise as the kit molds the wad of crumpled gold, the ruby triangle gem partially obscured as she pulls the metal this way and that.

“She’s begun experimenting with her metalworking abilities,” Hunk explains, clearly terrified.

Keith just watches. He doesn’t really care, even as Pidge grumbles about having to forge him a new circlet.

Well, he doesn’t care until Rosetta holds the ball of metal out to him, presenting as a gift. “For Kitty! Like it?”

“It-” Keith’s hopelessly endeared to you little girl. He hasn't been given many gifts in his life. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

He takes the ruined circlet turned treasured gift from the kit, cradling it to his chest with one hand while he squeezes her close with the other. “I’ll love it for always.”

“Keith, you’re a sucker,” Pidge declares, leaning forward to run their feelers over the metal. “Wow, her abilities are impressive. The integrity hasn’t been compromised at all! Where can I get one of these?”

“...A baby?” Keith asks, cocking his head. “I mean, give me a decaphoeb or two and you can borrow mine.”

“Like your baby would be good for anything,” Pidge scoffs. “They’d be cute, but useless. I need a little metalworker.”

Keith stares, cautiously holding the girl a little closer. “I honestly can’t tell if you're joking or not.”

Shiro laughs, watching the bantering get louder, Shay laughing from her chair as Pidge and Keith argue over whether or not his kits will be useful. He leans down to Lance, who is also being uncharacteristically quiet. “He seems happy.”

“He’s happy when he can be himself. That’s all he wants.”

“Thank you for giving him that. I'm glad he's happy with you.”

Lance smiles, steps in as Keith begins to get defensive regarding their future children. Shiro settles back to continue watching, leaning up against a pillar.

He has a task to complete tonight, but for now, he’ll enjoy the sight of his littermate having fun with other people.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Alfor slip away from the festivities.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD8x12 – “The Zenith” (part 2)

8x12 – “The Zenith”

Because of how long this commentary is, I decided to post it as two parts. Here’s a link to the first part.

Picking up halfway through the episode, Voltron moves through the second rift.

Coran, Sam, and Slav are on the pyramid. Coran touches the two pillars of the pedestal. Only Allura and Honerva have ever been able to operate pedestals like this, but somehow, Coran can now use the pedestal too. Slav says, “If we hit [the rift] with enough energy, it should seal.”

Coran asks, “Are the Alteans in place.” I have no idea who actually answers Coran. Some ethereal, disembodied female voice says, “They’re set.” Is the Balmera talking to Coran? This is so absurd that I am literally laughing out loud.

Voltron arrives in another reality and there is yet another rift there. So, Pidge’s comment a minute ago that “the rift must lead directly to the reality Honerva’s been looking for” is now conclusively untrue. The show gives literally no explanation for why Honerva tore through all these other realities. I have never seen a story treat alternate realities like rooms of a building where you have to go through multiple rooms to get to the room you want to be in. This show treating alternate realities this way makes the whole premise simplistic and silly.

Allura gives us some sophomoric foreshadowing: “I fear [Honerva] has started a chain reaction that can never be undone.” Voltron flies through the next new rift.

The Balmeras send their energy into the pyramid, which redirects it to the rift, and Coran says, “It’s working […] holding the rift together.” Coran’s earlier stated goal wasn’t to hold the rift together but to keep the universe from collapsing. The presence of the rift was supposedly what would cause the universe to collapse, but now he’s trying to hold the rift together? Wouldn’t they want the rift to cease being open because it being open is what’s causing the universe to collapse? Also, the other realities Honerva has tore through are deteriorating rapidly, so why isn’t this main universe in a worse state of collapse than the other realities we’ve now seen since the rift has been tearing through reality here longer than the rifts in the other realities have existed?

Voltron makes it into the next reality, and Honerva’s mecha is floating there, waiting for them. She hits them with a wing-blade. Keith yells, “Countermeasures,” but I don’t know what he means by that because Voltron doesn’t do anything in response to him saying it. Then there’s a dark bubble around Voltron that Honerva created, but I don’t know what precisely it does beyond make Keith briefly grunt because she stops creating the bubble so that she can tuck her mecha into a ball and roll herself into Voltron, sending Voltron slamming into the ground. She then throws a ball of wispy black energy at Voltron. Keith yells, “Form sword” and volleys the ball back at her like they’re playing tennis. Honerva dodges out of the way. There’s a really, really large arch or some kind of structure above them that the ball hits and it explodes.

The combined form of Voltron and the Atlas does actually look cool.

Sam says, “Our current power level isn’t enough to maintain the rift.” I don’t understand why they’re holding the rift open if the existence of the rift is the problem. It feels like something is missing. Again, Coran coming here was supposed to be him working a plan to solve the collapse of the universe. But now that he’s here, his goal is holding open the rift.

Now, Coran says, “Then we’ll hold it as long as we can. Every tick gives Voltron a chance.” Something is definitely missing, or this episode is made out of different stories spliced together. What their goals are now are not the goals the episode had them speak about and act toward earlier. This is the first time that anyone has said anything about the goal being holding the rift open for Voltron. Coran’s actions are supposed to be about closing the rift, not keeping it open.

In warps several Galra ships. Krolia, who would have no idea Coran is leading this effort, calls out to him, asking what they can do to help. Remember the big war meeting at the beginning of last episode? Remember what Krolia said she was going to do? She specifically said that she was going to go get a zaiforge cannon to use in the fight against Honerva. Guess what the show has forgotten about: the zaiforge cannon. Just like the weapons’ upgrade and the needed Balmeran crystal to power it, the zaiforge cannon is now completely forgotten.

Coran tells her that they need more energy. How can Galra ships generate enough energy above what nine Balmera can? Coran says that they’re trying to “prevent the rift from expanding further.” But just a few seconds ago, they were trying to hold the rift open, not keep it from expanding. Sam had said that they didn’t have enough power “to maintain the rift” now they’re back to trying to “prevent the rift from expanding.”

This episode cannot make up its mind what is actually happening. What are these characters trying to do?

Krolia orders the Galra fleet to shoot their ion cannons at the pyramids. So, no zaiforge cannon.

Honerva flies up in the sky, spreads her wing-blades, and the tips of the wings shoot many energy blasts at Voltron. The multitude of new weapons and attacks being used in this episode is overwhelming. It makes me want to give up trying to follow the combat because there’s always going to be some new, random thing that they can do that has no set-up. Voltron again slams into the ground.

Voltron swooshes away from where Honerva’s blasts are targeted and then blasts at her in return with Voltron’s chest. They don’t hit. Honerva hits Voltron with another ball of black energy and then slams Voltron into the ground with her tail. She pins Voltron down with a couple of wing-blades and then draws energy out of Voltron.

This reality starts to disappear starting around the horizon and moving upward through the sky toward a rift in the sky that has not been there until right now. If Honerva had made it to this reality but ran out of energy and thus had to drain Voltron and use that energy to create another rift, then maybe that would explain why she was just waiting here to fight Voltron. But, Honerva is not shown creating this new rift. So, either this new rift comes out of nowhere without her having to create it, or the rift has existed the whole time but somehow was never shown and she had no reason to wait here to attack Voltron.

Honerva moves up through the rift. Voltron remains on the ground. Voltron is given time to pretend that this is the end of the heroes, the villain’s won, Voltron can’t move, the Paladins themselves are weak, and this reality has nearly disappeared. Nearly everyone – Lance, Hunk, Shiro, Allura, and Pidge – makes a statement of failure or doom, but then Keith gives the rallying speech. Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery wanted Keith to be the main character, and here he is being the main character. It will always just emphasize for me how much Shiro and Allura were the leaders of this team in seasons one and two, and then both of them were demoted so that Keith could ascend to be the main character. There is nothing about Keith’s story arc though that makes this plot and this battle have anything to do with him. Plot and character in this series is, or at least has become, completely disconnected from each other.

The big rallying speech should produce an uplifting feeling in the audience, but it actually makes me feel even more exhausted.

Voltron gets up, its wings open up, and Keith orders “fire boosters” and they fly upward.

Meanwhile in the main reality. The Galra and the Balmeras have run out of energy. The pyramid starts exploding. Sam says they can’t “contain the rift,” so their goal in this moment is not to hold the rift open. Coran’s plan fails. Regardless of if his goal was to contain the rift or to keep the rift open, they’re not now able to do either. So, what was the point in all this time spent doing whatever they were doing if it’s achieved nothing? There’s a bit explosion and everything goes white, and the main reality seems to have been destroyed.

Voltron is flying toward the rift in the reality they’re in. Reality is disappearing faster than Voltron is moving, so there is no way at the depicted rate of movement that Voltron could get through the rift before reality is gone. Also, what exactly is Voltron supposed to be in as it flies toward the rift if the only part of this reality that’s remaining is the area of the rift itself? How is there still space between Voltron and the rift for Voltron to be flying through?

Everything goes black before Voltron can go through the rift.

Cut to somewhere in space. Honerva is calmly, quietly flying to somewhere. She is eventually shown to be heading toward this reality’s Daibazaal. How did she select this reality? Why didn’t she just directly go from the main reality into this reality. Why does this reality look stable even though she would have had to tear a rift into this reality to be able to get in. If the existence of a rift causes a reality to disintegrate, then why isn’t this one disintegrating? Also, why is she going to Daibazaal? She had specifically gone to the location where Altea had been in the main reality to tear out of reality into the others there. All the other realities she’s been to, she’s been at Altea. But now, in the reality she wants to go to, she’s not at Altea. If she’s been headed to a version of Daibazaal this whole time, then why didn’t she go to where Daibazaal had been in the main reality? Why hasn’t she been at other Daibazaals as she went from one reality to the next?

There is nearly no logic to anything that has happened in this episode.

On the surface of Daibazaal, Zarkon and some other Galra are sparring. Honerva arrives. She teleports out of her mecha and onto the ground outside and walks toward Zarkon. Zarkon points his sword at her and tells her to identify herself.

Honerva says, “You don’t recognize me?” Uh, she’s wearing a weird outfit that covers up her chin, jaw, forehead, and part of her nose, and she’s some distance away from him, so I’m not surprised that it’s hard for him to tell who she is. “I’ve searched beyond the stars to be here, to be with you—” and she is shown walking out of a shadow cast by the setting sun being directly behind her, obscuring her face in the glare, so there’s even more reason for him to not recognize her, making her having said “you don’t recognize me” seem silly. She finishes, “—and to be with my son.”

Zarkon now recognizes her as Honerva. I don’t know if she is delusional here and thinks this is her Zarkon and that this reality will have her Lotor, or if she’s lying to them in hoping that they’ll think that she’s their Honerva.

Cut to inside a space ship. They’re heading to Altea. It just seems so weird to have presented this whole episode like Honerva was trying to get to alternate Alteas, only to then, when she finally gets to the reality that she’s chosen, go to Daibazaal, but then now they’re going to Altea. It makes this episode feel like it’s running around in circles. Zarkon says, “I vowed to raise our son as you would have wanted. He excels in his Altean studies. Lotor has his mother’s intellect.” Of course, this is meant to contrast with how the main Lotor was subject to brutal Galra studies, as seen in 8x02 “Shadows.” It just reminds me of how Lotor was abused by his parents.

On Altea, Alfor and his wife welcome Honerva. Allura steps forward to speak, and Honerva glares at her like she wants to attack her. If an alternate reality has an alternate Zarkon and an alternate Lotor, and an alternate Alfor, why would she be surprised that there’s an alternate Allura? Allura escorts Honerva to Lotor. Here, Lotor is a little kid. He runs toward Honerva but stops short. Honerva asks him to come to her. Lotor says, “No.” Zarkon tries to tell Lotor that his mother has returned, but Lotor says, “She’s not my mother.”

I really like little Lotor. He’s something I can say that I like about this episode.

Honerva tries to convince him that “her love for [him] is that of a mother for her child.” She then turns to the same old Honerva that she’s always been, that she was long before she was poisoned by quintessence and possessed by a rift entity.

Speaking of rift entities, notice how the one in Allura is now completely ignored.

Honerva grows a bit angry, “Come to me!” Lotor stares her down and firmly says, “She is not my mother.” Zarkon tells him, “Don’t speak like that.” It’s amazing that this Zarkon just trusts a woman who shows up and says she’s his long-lost wife. In a well written story (I’m thinking of a specific one in particular that I love), if a long-lost wife showed up out of nowhere, the husband would insist on a lot of tests to figure out who she is and what happened to her. Zarkon does nothing like that because this show doesn’t have people behave rationally.

Honerva says, “Please,” and holds out her hand. Lotor rejects her, “No! My mother is dead, and you cannot replace her.” Zarkon tries to say that Lotor is just overwhelmed. Honerva glares at Lotor. Little Lotor is clearly scared since he’s holding onto Zarkon’s leg for protection. Zarkon kind of pleads with Honerva and says, “If we had some time.”

That’s not acceptable to Honerva. I guess she thought this would be instant satisfaction for some reason. This show has acted like she looked through a lot of different realities to find her perfect one, but this one doesn’t work for her. Did she only just look no further than to find a reality in which that reality’s Honerva was dead? This falling apart so quickly makes it feel like she didn’t bother really looking at all.

She says, “Time? You speak to me of time? I’ve spent lifetimes trying to get back.” What is she talking about? She hasn’t spent lifetimes trying to get here. At most, she’s spent four years. How am I supposed to take her character seriously when her dialog and actions are written in such defiance of what the show has already showed? Just because this Honerva has lived for 10,000 years doesn’t mean she’s spent that time “trying to get back.”

Also, if she didn’t mind having an alternate reality version of Zarkon and Lotor, then she shouldn’t have minded having a clone of them either. So, why did she decide on the much more difficult tearing through other realities until she got here instead of the comparatively much simpler cloning method?

She continues, “Countless worlds have fallen in the wake of my efforts to return to you. And this is how you welcome me.” She creates a ball of black energy in her hand. Maybe this is supposed to be some kind of depiction of her getting what she wants only to have it not be what she wants, but this doesn’t work like that. For that kind of development to happen in a story, the thing that the character wants has to actually be acquired. She hasn’t actually gotten what she came here for. That kind of development is born out of showing how a character has changed internally between when they set the goal for themselves and when they achieved it. But Honerva hasn’t changed. She’s still the same, mean, brutal dictator that she’s always been.

“My own child, my own husband question who I am. I have sacrificed more than you will ever know.” No, she has not! The way she’s speaking right now is exactly how an abusive spouse and/or parent talks. (Trust me, I know.) It is so frustrating that this episode is reaffirming how abusive Honerva is only to come to the end next episode and absolve her of her behavior.

There’s a sound. Surprise!twist Voltron made it through the rift. So, the depiction of the rift closing and everything going black before they could go through was all just really transparent fakery. It makes that fake moment of them not getting through absurd because of course the conflict isn’t finished yet. Voltron’s arrival does not have a sense of a new surge toward victory for the protagonists. It’s more that it leaves me wondering what took them so long to get here.

Honerva’s eyes go wide. “No! It cannot be!” Why not? They’ve followed you through other realities before this, why is their coming through one more so impossible? I mean, I guess she thought she left them absolutely powerless in the previous reality, but really. They were chasing her before now, it shouldn’t seem weird that the chase isn’t finished.

Also, given the other realities disintegrated quickly, why hasn’t this reality disintegrated? It’s not even showing any signs of disintegration. Of course, the entire premise of realities disintegrating because someone tore into them is contrived and fluctuates depending on whatever the creative team wants to be happening at any given moment.

Zarkon yells at Honerva, “You brought this abomination upon us!?” Why would he think Voltron is an abomination? He yells some more, “You are not the Empress! You are not my wife!” He yells for the guards.

Honerva scowls, “If there is no place in this universe for me, then there will be no universe at all!” She teleports away. That’s cliché. Whatever complexity the writers thought they have been adding to Honerva’s character, this scorched-earth simplicity erases all of that. She’s back to being nothing but the uninteresting 80s cartoon villain she was as Haggar in the beginning of the series. She hasn’t actually developed as a character whatsoever.

Speaking of character, notice how this episode is concluding without any connectivity of this series’ plot connecting to any of the main characters. Literally everything in this plot now is driven by Honerva and her desires. None of the main characters have any desires beyond stop-the-villain. This is a huge part of why this show has fallen apart. The executive producers and the writers absolutely lost sight of the show’s main characters. This story has become the Honerva Show. She is not compelling enough to carry the show, especially since she’s not the protagonist.

Everyone in the Altean city seems to be freaking out over Voltron landing. There’s a twinkle in the sky above Voltron. It’s Honerva’s mecha, which lands near Voltron. She can apparently call her mecha to her from millions of miles away. She teleports into her seat in her mecha. There’s an awkward split-screen stare-down between Honerva on one side and the Paladins and Shiro on the other. The lighting of the various images used for Team Voltron and the different facial expressions don’t create a sense of unity of emotion among the six of them. It again looks like they just took six random pieces of animation and used it here. The episode ends.

This episode is a disaster. It is so hard to follow what’s happening, why it’s happening, what characters are trying to do. Characters’ goals fluctuate from one scene to the next. The entire inner story of the episode is given to Honerva, making the actual protagonists kind of superfluous. This episode could have the protagonists in this episode be literally anyone, and the story would not change.

Given how much of a mess this episode is, I can totally see how people think there has to be a late-production re-edit. I definitely get a feeling that this episode is made out of parts. I don’t know if that’s necessarily a sign that there was a concentrated re-edit effort. But there are definitely times in this episode where it feels like two separate versions of a script or multiple different episodes are being stitched together. There is a severe dissonance in how things some dialog doesn’t match other dialog, how events have a discontinuity with other events.

Something went wrong with this episode’s production. 

[awinterborn]

voltron survey meme

@sithisis​ tagged me so y’all get to hear about how much i love shiro voltron

How did you discover the show? kept seeing it on my dash around, i wanna say, 2017? thought i’d check it out since some of my online friends watched it too and they recced it

Was it love at first sight or did it take you a while to get into the show? ngl, it opened with some hot dude getting his ass kicked and that was it for me

Do you have a favorite Paladin? do i even need to say shiro at this point

Do you have a favorite Lion? (If it’s different from your fav paladin, why?) red is big on agility and has a god damn sword so

Do you have a favorite Villain? my poor son lotor

Do you have a favorite Alien Race? (recurring and/or minor) tbh i really wanted to see more about the balmerans, i really liked the idea of the balmera and how the balmerans interacted with them

Favorite side / other character(s)- Rebels, General, Blade of Marmora Garrison, etc? i actually really liked narti, krolia, and cosmo

How/Why did you join the fandom? i saw my friends having fun on the fandom so i thought why not? half the reason i watch shows is so i can enjoy the fandom lmao

Care to share a favorite headcanon? gimme those god damn ‘keith with galran features/tendencies/behaviours’ headcanons oh my gOD

What do you think is the best part of the show? character arcs and development

Any hopes and wishes for future episodes / seasons? i think,,,, it won’t be that surprising to say i wish the last few seasons especially the last one had been better. had a lot of problems ofc, but i guess my biggest pet peeve was shiro seemingly taking a more minor role at the end

Do you think you’ll stick it out until the end of the show? kind of just skimmed the last episode tbh. they got less enjoyable for me and didn’t really make that much thematic sense. i’m mostly still here for the fandom at this point

Tag your friends or someone you want to get to know better oh man i’m actually really bad at this, big anxiety time, so if anyone sees this and wants to do it, just tag me and fill it out!! <3

[tarotofbadkitties]

Kishotenketsu meta

I’ve been giving Voltron: Legendary Defender a fair amount of thought since it aired because the end of it was simply perplexing. One thing I was particularly struggling with was the fact that there was something familiar in its construction, but it felt off. After settling down from the more...inflammatory statements in the interviews from the executive producers, there was one thing that really stuck in my head, and that was the amount of inspiration they drew from Beast King: Golion. I couldn’t help but feel like something was off with the ending of that, so I decided to look into eastern story structure to see if it made any more sense from the perspective of its intended audience, and it turns out it did. I’m going to posit that Voltron: Legendary Defender lifted a similar story structure and the way the EPs intended to end the show makes a lot more sense when you consider it from that perspective. What I found was a common structure in Chinese, Japanese and Korean narratives called kishotenketsu.

To start with, I need to explain a bit how kishotenketsu works. Kishotenketsu is a four act structure. The first act (ki) is the introduction. Next the next act (sho) furthers the development of the introduction without introducing any major twists or turns. The third act (ten) is the twist or complication. Finally (ketsu) is the resolution, and what happens here is that the connection between the ki and the ten is made clear.

To a western observer, the ten can appear to come out of nowhere until the ketsu makes it clear how it ties in, but someone familiar with this story structure will be expecting this twist to come and aware that there will be reconciliation. For a show to have 8 seasons, it makes a lot of sense for it to have four acts, with every two seasons, representing one of its four acts, so I’m going to take us through Voltron: Legendary Defender in that way.

The first two seasons of Voltron: Legendary Defender are the Ki. We meet the characters, the setting is established, the players are put on the board and we find that there is a war. Right from the outset of the show it’s made clear that things look very different inside the empire than how they look from outside. Altough from the paladin’s perspective, the Galra are all power-mad conquestors, we see behind the scenes that the general on Arus, Prorok, has very little interest in taking over anything and is pretty chill. Zarkon becomes furious with his failure, and threatens him with being turned into a robeast if he fails, eventually making good on that threat. We’re also introduced to the Blade of Marmora, finding out they rescued Shiro and that Keith is half Galra, providing more shades of gray to the Galra as a people. In regards to providing ambiguity about Allura, we have the situation when the native Arusians presume that Allura is a goddess of some sort and she doesn’t correct them and allows them to worship her, and secondarily we have Allura saying that their first attempt should be diplomacy not attack, but following that up with generally not engaging in diplomacy . We also have this act’s bottle episode, the Depths. This episode has the mermaids, and it presents us with a strange situation where we have a brainwashed queen who sacrifices some of her citizens to keep the rest of them safe, at the behest of an evil creature that is also controlling her.

Next up, seasons 3 and 4 make up Sho, which is kicked off with the aftermath of Zarkon’s defeat in the season 2 finale. Sho accomplishes its stated purpose of furthering our knowledge of the paladins and the world without throwing in any substantial twists. Lotor is described differently than Zarkon when we meet him in the arena, but when the paladins encounter him he’s an antagonist all the same. Like they fought Zarkin and tried to dismantle his plans, the paladins do the same with Lotor. They try to liberate planets, Lotor takes them back, he tries to carry out plans, they try to stop him, it’s business as usual. The same sorts of themes we were introduced in seasons 1 and 2 are deepened here. Voltron continues their attempts to establish, they continue to fight against the Galra empire and we continue to be shown ambiguity within the empire behind the scenes. In earlier seasons, this ambiguity in relation to the Galra took the form of the Blade, in this case the ambiguity is Lotor and his generals. They are half Galra, like Keith, and we see that Lotor orders them not to kill anyone on Puig, and we’re informed that he consistently lets people he has ‘conquered’ rule themselves. It becomes clear with his conflicts with Throk, his conflict with Zarkon, and the secrets he keeps with Haggar that the Galra empire is by no means a monolithic entity, and that there are different points of view, methods of interacting with other beings and moral systems at play within it. The bottle episode for this arc also presents an ambiguity in relation to Allura. The bottle episode is Hole in the Sky, and in this episode, in an alternate reality we encounter the society created by Allura’s counterpart, a despotic empress. When we’re presented with this woman’s very ethically challenged solution to the war, which is brainwashing and enslaving enemies, we’re shown that our version of Allura is not quite as different as we might hope when she’s only fully opposed when they’re attempting to do this to her friends, not so much by the idea itself. Another significant ambiguity in regards to Allura that we’re introduced to is that she has kept from the paladins that Zarkon is the former black paladin and that she knew him personally. The ending to this arc, and thus beginning of the next one, is Lotor shocking the hell out of everyone by firing an ion cannon at central command to save everyone at Naxzela and asking for permission to board the Castle of Lions.

And now, here comes the part where we appropriately get lost, Ketsu. The twist. I’ve established so far that the main things each arc establishes is that the Galra are not all evil, that Allura is not all good, and that by extention the paladins are not always right. Seasons 5 and 6 did a very effective job of making quite a few people in the fandom upset because it takes everything we thought we understood and turns it on its head. An interesting thing when I was mapping this out for this meta, was finding that it wasn’t so much one bit twist (well there is one,) but also throughout this arc there are a string of significant escalating twists. The first one is that, rather than having a diplomatic interaction with Lotor, as early seasons would lead you to expect, they immediately take him prisoner and leave him in a cell for an undetermined amount of time. The second is the decision to cuff Lotor and trade him for Sam. Yet another twist, Shiro secretly arms Lotor. And another, Lotor can activate the fucking black bayard. And another, he defeats Zarkon singlehandedly. It’s also shocking when they refuse to take him to the Kral Zera. It’s shocking yet again when Shiro absconds with the black lion and does so himself. It’s shocking when the Blade plans to bomb the whole thing. It’s shocking to see Sendak return as a puppet of Haggar’s. It’s shocking when Keith meets his mother in the Blade. It’s shocking that they actually team up with Lotor and find Oriande. It’s shocking Lotor has marks of the chosen. It’s an unexpected twist when Lotor and Allura build a super weapon together, also that they become romantically involved. It’s shocking to find out there’s a colony of living Alteans that Lotor has assembled. It’s shocking the show pretends Shiro wouldn’t turn Keith into pudding within twenty seconds of them starting a duel. It’s shocking when Keith tells Shiro that he loves him. It’s shocking there’s eleventy Shiro clones (and I wasn’t even allowed to marry one of them). It’s shocking when Romelle claims that he was sacrificing Alteans for power, and shocking that Allura doesn’t even attempt to discuss the matter. It’s shocking that Honerva beat up Oriande and kidnaps Lotor. Then it’s shocking that when he makes it back to her she compares him to his father and does her damnedest to murder him and leave him in the rift.

I would argue that everything that happens in this arc twists what came before it, with the major one occurring in the season 6 finale, when they defeat Lotor. Up until that point, they hadn’t really killed anyone. They fought a lot of people, destroyed a lot of monsters and sentries, and maybe did or maybe didn’t kill an unknown number of foot soldiers. The choice to dress Galra foot soldiers and sentries identically down to the helmets makes it impossible to get any sense of how many soldiers they’ve killed, if any. Every situation where it looks like they’re going to have to, like the mermaid queen or the king of Olkarion, it turns out they’re not really going to have to kill a person. Even in regards to Zarkon, they thought they killed him at the end of season 2, but they hadn’t actually, and when he is killed it’s Lotor that does so, not one of the paladins. They’ve also been coming into situations where people were dealing with ongoing oppression or were under attack, and they were rescuing them and being considered heroes. There are always hints that maybe it’s not all it seems, it felt a little weird when Allura didn’t tell the Arusians that she was not their lion goddess, her comfort with the society in the alternate Altea was uncomfortable, Lotor’s points about her bigotry felt pretty salient and it was hard to tell if they made things better or worse for the Balmerans and Puigians.

Sure the first two arcs showed some contradictions or moral ambiguities in Allura, but they were nothing compared to the venality we start to see in seasons 5 and 6. It felt like a stranger when she was locking up someone who asked for asylum, offering up an ally for execution by a sworn enemy, refusing the chance to put an ally on the Galra throne and end the war, going along with someone she just said was untrustworthy to build a weapon to use to access unlimited energy. That behavior was suspicious enough that she was causing conflict with the team and there was active dissention. Keith was peacing out to (avoid her) stay with the blade, Shiro was fully insubordinating on more than one occasion and she and Shiro were arguing in a way they never had before. In particular, it’s important that Shiro stops listening to her to show that she’s showing another side, because Shiro is presented as being a consummate professional soldier. A common argument made is that the reason for his unusual behavior is Haggar’s control, but I would argue that it’s his own choices up until the point when she takes him over at the end of the season. We know Shiro cares about doing the right thing, and has a strong belief in the potential goodness of members of the Galra race that comes from Ulaz rescuing him from Haggar. It’s a different side to his behavior, but I would argue that there isn’t an actual twist until he’s fully taken over and we get the clone reveal.

For that matter, we get twists in this arc for the other paladins as well. Previously Hunk has been seen as easily scared and cowed, but here we get Hunk being the one to take on Dayak’s teachings and getting enough of a backbone that Galra soldiers Vrepit Sa him. Pidge had seemed nice enough, if distracted by concern about her family members, but we see Pidge willing to be outright cruel and selfish over it in her willingness to have Lotor executed on even the off-chance it could get back her father, not even being willing to come up with a backup plan besides having Lotor killed when Shiro points out the high likelihood of a double cross. She made it clear there was more at play than her father being a priority when she established that it wasn’t just that Sam’s life mattered more to her than Lotor, but that she would still consider it worthwhile for Lotor to die even if it was a trick and she didn’t get Sam back. Lance also showed a twist in which we saw that his insecurity could become a lethal thing when it was an excuse to act controlling towards Allura, cause confusion by running off, or antagonize Lotor. Being a jerk towards Lotor was all well and good (not really it was toxic masculine bullshit but whatever) until Lotor was the one thing between them and the indefinite continuation of the war with the Galra, starting off with a civil war within the largest military force the universe has ever known. Though one would hope that Lance’s insecure jealousy didn’t run that deep, when push came to shove he didn’t speak up and egged on the conflict preferring to continue the war in exchange of being rid of romantic competition. So with Shiro taken off of the board, Hunk being overruled, Keith’s impulsiveness careening them towards disaster, Pidge’s tribalism precluding her caring about anyone she doesn’t already know and love, Lance’s jealousy all for being rid of a rival, and finally Allura’s racism ruling the day, they make the impulsive decision to kill Lotor and leave him in the rift.

Now where that is supposed to take us is Ketsu, the reconciliation. Here’s where we have problems. The ending to Voltron: Legendary Defender was confounding, and on top of that it was clear there were very heavy changes made to it last minute, some at the behest of the EPs, but others at the behest of the Powers that Be. I have a pretty good idea of what was supposed to happen, and by extension, why it didn’t. The logical conclusion to the the three arcs set before us is that the paladins are the villains. Specifically, Allura is the big bad, and they are her henchmen just following orders. Now wait? WHAT? Now you’re throwing us a twist, Kitty? But I’m not. What do seasons 1-6 establish about Allura?

We get a really strange lack of anyone saying anything about Lotor’s execution after it happens. Several characters make vague charges of betrayal or untrustworthiness, but nobody expresses any regret or misgivings or mourns him or grieves at all. Nobody acknowledges that they created a power vacuum and directly caused the civil war that wiped out nearly all of their allies. When they’re confronted by Zethrid and Ezor, rather than answering for what they did, Acxa comes out of nowhere to attack them before the paladins can answer what happened to Lotor in a very strange moment that they weren’t in direct danger. I think that what was removed was characters directly confronting the paladins with their complicity in the events that befell everyone. I also agree with other meta that though they think they might have killed Lotor at this point, in the original version it became clear that they hadn’t and he joined with them to take on Honerva. There was plenty of playing god to be had on the show outside his actions, so he was just as deserving of a chance to try to redeem himself as the paladins, if not more so. I think the reason that was cut because putting them on an even level and establishing the paladins were wrong sends them inexorably towards sharing his fate of redemption by death and the Powers that Be were not having it with the paladins being placed in the position of villain who must be defeated to end the story.

They establish that she has good intentions, of ending the war and uniting people under her reign. They establish that she is blinded by prejudice, with several clear examples of Galra not aligned with the goals of Zarkon and those who align with his evil presented to her, none of which fundamentally change her opinion of them as a group. They establish she is blinded by prejudice in the other direction in regards to Alteans, whether we’re talking about her father, the alternate universe Alteans or Lotor himself once she finds that out about him. There are also very heavy parallels drawn to another Altean alchemist, Honerva. They both fall in love with Galra emperors, they both seek and obtain the secrets of Oriande, they both are attempting to make the world a better place by way of quintessence when a moral compromise leads to a personal downfall, and they are both presented as having versions that are kind and versions that are despotic empresses. What is Haggar’s big twist in the third arc? Why she becomes Honerva again. When Allura is revealed to have a much more cruel side willing to sacrifice others for her aims, Honerva is revealed to have a side that is not monstrous and is emotionally connected to her family and in a larger sense to her Altean identity. Those parallel tracks suggest parallel fates.

And the reconciliation gives us the parallel fates for Allura and Honerva, but what it fails to do is reconcile Lotor or the rest of the team. Without even having to look this bit up, one thing I know from watching a lot of Chinese cinema is there is a very strong belief in the villain getting theirs in the end. And by getting theirs, I mean death. Not metaphorical or theoretical or emotional death, but bleed out and stop breathing very literal death. What I would like to posit to you all was that what reconciles the first three acts was indeed intended to be the deaths of all of the paladins. Not just because Monsantos wanted to be super edgy, but structurally because it made sense with them being the villains. The sin they were guilty of, above all else, was pride. These paladins and Lotor, like the paladins of old and Honerva were prideful enough to think that, in spite of the risk to the other inhabitants of the universe they were warned about, they still sought that forbidden power in order to use it to enact their vision of peace and prosperity on the universe.

Honerva knew about the rift creatures, Lotor knew about the risk to the lives of the Alteans in his research, and Allura was aware of the potential of Voltron (and Sincline) as tools of conquest, but they all carried on with these projects nonetheless. None of the three described their goals in those terms, but like the alternate universe Alteans, it still ultimately came down to being about their own personal visions and ambitions, and using this destructive power to obtain that. Quintessence is power that exists to give life and it’s natural. It was never intended to be sucked out of things, and that’s apparent in what’s left of a planet when a Komar gets done with it. I think what season 8 was intending to do was clarify the similarity in the goals of the characters, and the folly in the execution of these goals. Every single one of the characters ultimately gave in to their worst tendencies in the third arc. Hunk’s timidity kept him for standing up for what’s right when it most counted and people around him were acting irrationally. Pidge’s tribalist ‘as long as my family is okay I could care less what happens to anyone else’ attitude kept her from caring enough about Lotor’s welfare to protest his execution either time the issue was before her. Lance’s toxic romantic obsession with Allura kept him from thinking logically about the situation and insisting they slow down and get all the facts. Keith’s impulsiveness and quickness to anger kept him from making sure Romelle was correct and using his leadership position to demand everyone halt and make a decision for the coalition that is for the greater good. Ultimately Allura was put in a battle between choosing love or war and she fell back on her prejudices and chose to plunge the universe into war.

It was the combined, not separate actions of the paladins that caused the Galra civil war that destroyed the Blade of Marmora, nearly the entire coalition, decimated the Galra empire, and ended trillions of lives. Ultimately the only fitting redemption for that would be the deaths of all of them for the purpose of restoring life and balance to the universe, with the chance to reincarnate with that karma cleansed. Structurally and thematically it fits, I don’t think they were bullshitting about it on Afterbuzz. Honestly, I didn’t when I first heard it, because they mentioned specific plans for the timing of it. Also, the comparisons to Sailor Moon. It was not an uncommon ending to a season of Sailor Moon at all for all of the senshi to heroically sacrifice their lives to give their princess the power she needed to cleanse the hearts of the evil the faced and save the universe. And I agree (partially) with the meta already in the fandom on the season 8 changes that the images we saw of the paladins After The War were part of larger sequences of the paladins living their lives after all of this. Where my opinion differs is that I think those were new incarnations of the paladins.

[braincoins]

*reads post* 1. I suggest making Krolia half-Galra, which would make Keith a quarter Galra at most. This way, you can have Krolia and stay true to your intended storyline 2. Krolia's appearances can be in flashback, she may have died before the story starts and her memory lays the foundation for the final part of Keith's arc. 3. Rename the cow, but have Lance suggest Kaltenecker, until someone points out the cow's a girl.

Krolia being ½ Galra does make a lot more sense. @claudysummer on that same wavelength!

I’m still not sure if I want her to be Keith’s mom though, just because of the focus on found family as opposed to literally finding your biological family. I do want to keep her in V:LotD, just maybe not as related to Keith.

Also, that’s an excellent suggestion about cow naming!! I think I’ll go with that! :D Thank you!

Thinking about this though, I realized that, if Keith’s not ½ Galra, where’d he get the BoM blade? So I’ve been running this through, see what y’all think of this:

Keith just has a knife, not a BoM blade. When they go to the BoM HQ to meet Kolivan after Ulaz’s sacrifice, there are blades hanging on the wall. These are the blades of fallen BoM members. Blade members earn an existing blade through their actions: the blade will call to them when they’re ready. (They can’t make more blades; as we find out in Space Mall, the planet where luxite comes from was destroyed. Well, okay, the guy just says it hasn’t existed in deca-phoebs but we’ll go with destroyed because it’s quicker. ANYWAY)

A blade calls to Keith. At first he thinks he’s just imagining it, then he thinks one of the BoM are messing with him and he picks a fight. (This is in lieu of what happens in canon where they find the blade on him when he shows up.) He says he’s feeling something weird, from this area over here, and accuses them of messing with him as an excuse to start the fight. 

Kolivan says to let the boy up and tells him to close his eyes and follow that feeling. Keith follows it to one of the blades on the wall. Kolivan shares a look with the others and they decide to put Keith through their test because they can’t believe the blade called to him. 

The test goes as we’ve always seen, but when Keith awakens the blade, it’s not because he’s part Galra at all - Keith can just be entirely 100% human in this version - but because this specific blade responded to him. And the BoM are shocked, most of them confused, because all the Blades are Galra. They’ve always all been Galra.

And Kolivan points out that well, yeah, they’ve always been Galra because they started this secret society in response to their own people’s misdeeds. But there’s nothing in the history of the Blades - or the blades (the knives themselves) - to say that a non-Galra couldn’t be one. 

So, basically Keith bonds with the BoM in the same way that Pidge bonds with the Olkari, that Lance bonds with the mermaids, that Hunk bonds with the Balmerans. (That Shiro bonds with the Alteans… or at least Allura… *cough*) It’s not because he’s Galra to any degree - he just has a similar mindset, a similar outlook, that same passionate dedication to the cause.

The only other problem with Keith not being any part Galra is that one scene in season 1 where he puts his hand on the panel and it works - a scene that, frankly, still doesn’t make sense in canon because he’s wearing a glove. He and Lance dropped in RIGHT ON TOP of a sentry bot; they can just use its hand.

@iskaen this next part’s for you

And, frankly, I’m kind of thinking that Pidge can use a severed sentry hand to sort of reverse-engineer how to get into Galra computer systems. She can sort of program it into Shiro’s prosthetic so that it “mimics” the sentry bot hand. 

Thus in “Collection and Extraction”, Shiro’s hand mimics a sentry hand and that’s why he - and, through him, Pidge - can get into the system, but it’s a two-way street: the system is collecting data through Shiro’s arm. Pidge accounted for that, up to a point, but she’s busy trying to get through the security wall they encountered. Eventually, the Galra system gets past the “mask” and correctly identifies Shiro, thus triggering the alarm.

[rainforestgeek]

If you lose your strength to stand (I’m gonna reach for your hand)

I got chapter 5 written! Ao3 link here

Part 1  Part 2 Part 3  Part 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, Part 6

Sneaking onto the ship was the easy part. Pidge landed her undetectable lion on the hull close to the wide-open bay doors of one of the many hangars. The cavernous room was bustling with drones, low-level galra soldiers, and ­­damaged space fighters being repaired, so with all the activity Pidge had little trouble getting past them.

Actually finding the engine room was the hard part. With little knowledge of this particular class of battleship and no way to scan it without the Blue Lion, she was left to take an educated guess of its location. But after half a varga of running around the empty corridors with no results and a handful of close calls almost being discovered, Pidge was about ready to scream in frustration. She hadn’t found any primary access panels, either. The locked doors she hacked easily enough but gave her no access to the central computer. She kicked the wall and was considering risking having her comms intercepted by calling Hunk for help when she heard the steady clanking of a sentry’s footsteps coming toward her from around the corner. She dove for cover in an alcove in the wall and waited, crouching at the ready.

Thankfully, the big metal biped clanked right by without noticing her. Seizing the opportunity, Pidge leapt onto its back and deactivated it with a few swift keystrokes on the control panel below its neck. It slumped to the floor, taking her with it, and she landed painfully on her hip. She bit back a curse then quickly synced her gauntlet to the sentry’s control panel. She uploaded a virus that she’d written based on the data she got from that first sentry she hacked at the Galactic Hub.

If it worked, the virus would hijack the robot’s artificial brain, rerouting the stored and incoming data and the command controls, to her armor. It took several doboshes to complete and Pidge kept a wary eye out for any more patrols coming her way. The robot the way too heavy for her to try and drag it into the alcove she’d hidden herself in before.

The holographic screen from the gauntlet flashed and the sentry’s head-lights glowed red. Yes! I have a minion. It stood up. She pulled up a map of the frigate from her sentry’s data core.

Fucking hell. The engine room was on the other side of the ship.

Pidge followed her robotic minion as it led her to the engine room. She walked backwards at the ready with her bayard out, keeping an eye out on their six while Minion would alert her of anything ahead. It took her in a circuitous route, avoiding the more bustling sectors of the ship. It was a smart precaution but with every tick that passed Pidge cursed her slow progress. She hoped Lance and Hunk had a handle on the situation outside.

Finally, finally Minion stopped at a set of important-looking doors and pressed its palm against the entrance pad to open them. They went inside – and Pidge immediately ducked behind a huge support beam because the engine room was teeming with galra. Sentries, floating drones, soldiers, and even an officer or two milled about the cavernous and noisy chamber. At its center was a glowing engine straight out of a cyberpunk novel that would make Hunk shit his pants.

Quiznaking fucksticks. Okay, Minion. Let’s see how much we can get away with.

Pidge crawled toward a vent at the bottom of the nearest wall, carefully opened it, and slid inside feet first. Her visibility wasn’t great, but it was better than nothing and it would at least help her guide Minion where she needed it. She pulled up a holographic screen that streamed what the robot was “seeing.”

Let’s see if you know the engine schematics. Turns out Minion did. She supposed that made sense – the droids were probably programed to be all-purpose. Pidge studied the mechanisms of the ships energy source.

Oh, holy hell. It uses xanthorium crystals to enhance the power of the weapons and the hyperdrive. Like most of these huge ships, it used a balmeran crystal as it’s primary power source. She was no engineer, but Pidge was sure she found bastardized elements of Altean technology that must have been integrated into Galran designs in the empire’s early decaphoebes.

Minion approached a station (quietly deactivating the sentry manning it) that appeared to direct the current of quintessence-enriched electricity to various parts of the ship. Much of the xanthorium was used in the engine room, but there were also strategically placed chambers of the crystals close to each weapons station. Pidge smirked as she realized she could use this. This whole place was littered with weapons stations. Keeping the explosions at the exact right magnitude required meticulous control over the energy flow throughout the ship’s guts. She had Minion get to work.

The principle behind her plan was simple: blow the ship up using its own power boosters. It was easy to think of each weapon station as a primitive firearm, with the current acting as the spark and the xanthorium as gunpowder. The xanthorium had been cut into uniform sizes that would explode at the brief contact of a tightly-controlled current and direct the resulting energy into the weapons’ mechanisms, giving the galra a nice boost of power behind their attacks. Once a piece had been used and disintegrated, the next one slotted into place to be exploded next. But if the chambers overloaded, all the crystals in the chambers would explode uncontrollable at once. It would completely cripple their weapons and breach the hull in a dozen critical places.

Minion reprogrammed the algorithm that controlled the paths of primary power into secondary channels. She needed at least seventy-five percent of the xanthorium chambers to overload at exactly the same time. It was tedious work, but I thankfully took less time than Pidge had anticipated.

Pidge breathed a quiet sigh of relief. She had fifteen doboshes to get back to Green before her DIY bombs went off. She slowly crawled out of the vent to sneak to the door and make a swift, painless escape.

If only.

She wasn’t as annoyed at getting caught so much as that it was a stupid way to get caught. She didn’t epically fuck up, didn’t trip a hidden alarm, didn’t run headfirst into an enemy that popped up out of nowhere. Nope. All those missions when she had perfect timing, only to now just get spotted for being a split second too slow.

Pidge charged at the nearest sentry – which was not-so-coincidentally her own minion. It blocked her attack easily and bent her arms behind her back, metal hands clamping her wrists together. Discreetly, she whispered instructions to her robot through her helmet comms. Her escape wasn’t totally busted yet.

What appeared to be the ranking officer approached her. He was average-sized for a galra, just under seven feet, and the fuzz covering him erred on the blue side of purple. “What is this? Wearing the armor of the Green Paladin?” He gave her a critical once-over. “This tiny thing?”

Pidge growled at him and struggled against the robot holding her. “Tiny, huh? You wanna fucking go, assface?”

She couldn’t tell if the officer rolled his eyes – given the lack of pupils – but his expression grew irritated and just over it. But she swore his tone was smug, though, when he said, “Escort the whelp to General Sendak. From what I’ve heard, he’ll want to deal with this one himself.” He then turned around like he had better things to do than worry about Pidge – good. Meant he wasn’t suspicious of any meddling. The sentry marched her out the door and through the cold corridor. A squad of other sentries followed, much to her chagrin.

They passed right by the hangar outside of which she’d left Green, but the sentries surrounding her meant she couldn’t make a break for it. Pidge suppressed a frustrated growl. Guess we’re going to see Overlord Fur Face after all, she thought. She’d anticipated that; but why couldn’t things go the easy way for her just once?

Pidge and her entourage of robots walked through corridor after corridor, took multiple elevator-lift-things, and she was getting nervous. She counted the ticks in her head: time was running out before everything blew up, and this escort was taking forever.

Finally a set of double doors swooshed open to reveal they’d reached the bridge. It was a spacious room with a raised command podium in the center and floor-to-ceiling windows (no doubt made from space-grade reinforced glass). Apparently the galra were less fond of view screens than humans. Standing on the island, Sendak turned toward Pidge with a sneer.

“How did you get uglier?” Pidge blurted out.

“Petulant child for a Paladin of Voltron.” Ugh, that voice was terrible on her senses. Somehow like oily gravel and sunburn. Sendak walked closer to her. “You’ve been a nuisance, whelp. I will take great pleasure in killing you.”

“I kicked your ass once. I’ll just do it again.” Pidge’s internal clock told her she only had two doboshes left.

Sendak leaned down, his meaty breath stinking too close to her face. Was it possible for something to smell like flies? “As I recall, it took all of the paladins to even trap me. This time, you’re the one on my ship. You’re the one all alone.

Fifty ticks left. Pidge’s heart pounded with anxiety and excitement. She’d have to be quick for any hope of escape. And the dumbass didn’t have his helmet on.

Sendak straightened. “Initiate a full sweep,” he barked. The attention of everyone on the deck snapped onto his orders. “The girl probably brought aboard accomplices; only two lions –”

Twenty ticks. Minion released her hands. Quick as lightning, Pidge summoned her bayard and shot its electrified blade into the exposed spot between his neck and jaw. The shocks arcing through the warlord jerked about his massive body. He hit the floor with all the grace of a boulder falling off a cliff.

Ten ticks. Pidge wrenched her weapon out of the furry carcass. Behind her, loyal Minion started beating up as many enemies as it could. She took advantage of the crew’s moment of paralyzed shock to sprint for the nearest window, activating her energy shield. She heard blows land, metal creak violently, felt shots collide with her shield.

She raised her bayard. Three ticks. Shot straight ahead. Two. Leapt through the nebula of glittering, shattering glass and into empty space. One.

Obviously, she didn’t hear an explosion. Sound can’t travel in a vacuum. But Pidge sure as hell felt a storm of heat and shrapnel shoot her even deeper into space.

She called for Green desperately in her mind. Everything hurt, and made it hard to think. She was quickly recompensed by the sight of her beautiful glowing lion rapidly approaching. She scooped Pidge up in her mouth, and Pidge landed hard on the cockpit’s floor with a sideways roll. Groaning, she hauled herself into the pilot’s chair.

“Mission accomplished, guys.”

Loud whoops and cheers blasted through her helmet’s speakers. She flinched.

“Pidge, you beautiful, miracle Wonder Woman! That was amazing!”

Adrenaline aready had her heartbeat drumming up a storm. But hearing Lance say that made her cheeks feel even hotter and her very blood vessels jitter.

“Captain Olia? Sergeant Bark? How we lookin’?” Lance called out.

“The remainder of the fleet on this side is retreating,” the seargeant reported.

“We’ve picked off a few dozen squads over here,” Matt chimed in. Pidge felt relieved to hear his voice. “Anyone else are also turning tail.”

“We won? We won!” Hunk celebrated. “Great job, Pidge! You really hit them where it hurts!”

“And you thought it was too dangerous. Hey Pidge, high five!”

“We’re in our lions, Lance.”

“Oh, right. High giant mechanical paw!”

Pidge was so high on adrenaline adrenaline that she enthusiastically acquiesced. Red and Green flew at each other and crashed their right paws with an enormous clang. The impact reverberated violently through the cockpit and gave Pidge a throbbing headache.

“My skull is vibrating,” Lance said. “So worth it.”

The chatter radio chatter in Pidge’s ears began to fade to the background, as she slowly exited fight/flight/freeze mode and weariness set into her bones. “Guys, I’m completely beat. I’ve gotta go back to the Castle.”

“See you down there, Pidge. Go take care of yourself,” Hunk replied.

“Yeah, sure.” Pidge deactivated her microphone and shot towards Olkarion’s surface. With every kilometer she grew more and more tired. The adrenaline drained from her body, leaving behind the deep soreness of whatever injuries undoubtedly littered her body. She broke the atmosphere and her hands started shaking. The Castle came into view and a wave of exhaustion crashed over her. She landed the Green Lion in her hangar and tried to get up; but her body felt made of molten lead. Pidge gave up struggling against the darkness tugging at her consciousness. She submitted to the respite pulling at her brain and her vision went black.

[fuvkklanxe]

Alright here we go

So I mentioned before that I liked season 8, and I did, but here's the thing.

It should have been longer.

It felt to me, like they were trying to wrap up the series and wash their hands of all the discourse. And who could blame them?

But what struck me about season 8 in particular was the fast dealing of new things, and the lack of explanation of why those new things occurred.

Example: all the balmeras showing up out of nowhere.

They do the barest minimum of establishing that there are other balmerans, and no establishing that the balmeras can even travel across space at spaceship level speeds.

So when they show up, last minute, with no prior warning, it feels like a cheap opportunity for voltron to get a power boost.

Balmera ex machina.

Not only was the plot rushed and jammed into a short timeframe, but character development as well. We see like, no interaction between the characters that has any weight beyond the first episode. And even that doesn't feel fleshed out.

Allura and Lance's relationship could have benefitted way more from one or two more episodes of build up. We know Lance is in love with her, bit on Alluras part if feels like a pity date followed by a very short relationship, followed by her dying. Which cheapens her character and softens any emotional blow to Lance beyond them being the same level of friends as the rest of the paladins.

I'm all for using another's characters death for a characters arc to grow, but when it means maybe an ounce more than it did to the rest of the cast, it throws off the emotional focus.

Which makes Lance getting all that emotional focus seem forced. And a lot of you were upset about him not getting character development over the past few seasons, and I think they wanted to fix that, but they did so in a lazy way.

Other instances of characters that got no attention placed on their development include

Keith and Shiro getting little to no screen time together despite their well established connection. (I'm not a sheith shipperbut still they have history and there's a lot of good character moments in the season that could have drawn from that.)

Romelle being basically tossed into the category of background characterafter the first episode. "Oh yeah she works for Hunk now. Why? Who cares? Next!"

Pidgeand her family. They get a few moments but nothing that isn't played off as a joke. "Nevermind the fact that Colleen hasn't gotten to really interact with her family at all for several years, she's just a strict mom for shits and giggles. Next!"

Shiro marrying some rando that only shows up in the background. "Who is he? Where did he and Takeshi meet? What's their relationship like? What's he like? Who cares? Next!" Except it wasn't next. It was what they chose to leave on.

The season was hurt so badly by the fact that it was only 13 episodes. It they had done a longer season, it would have been fine. It would have been a bit more to produce and be an unprecedented length, but they would have had time to really finish the season right. And not piss off a massive chunk of their fanbase.

[seeasweetsmile]

Voltron season 8 was GREAT

Yeah, you heard me, the season was great. Of course there was somes default there and there but honestly ? It’s not THAT bad.

As usual, music background were beautiful. Can’t wait to relistened to them)

I’m glad that Matt’s death wasn’t happen. And that Chip is just a robot with Matt’s glasses, not Matt’s soul in the robot like th theory (even though I greet this marvelous theory)

The super wink at the original voltron series and Pidge cosplayed as her was so surprising and amazing !! (Also, Pidge with pigtails guys !!) I loved seeing Iverson, Veronica and the others atlas crew training and talking, especially about animals ! <3

Coran Coran the gorgeous man

The “DAY 47″ episode was soo amazing ! I laughed so hard through the episode ! It so good to see a day from a camera perspective and to learn more about Kinkade ! Rizavi was really funny ! She killed me when she lol ! Bae Bae is such a good dog omg (plus, it’s a female !!) ! Colleen loved and cultivated PLANTS !! <3

The carnaval episode was really fun too ! I loved it ! Poor Hunk and Keith, Shiro the hero, Coran and his Yalmore screechs ahah wtf, Pidge going to his dad for moneys and Colleen start to negociate with her to doing family photo so funny !, and the holt family picture with Matt girlfriend being the part of the family ahh <3

Olkarion’s episode was HEARTBREAKING.

I loved when they didn’t forget the creature that Krolia and Keith let it escaped at the end of season 5 !

SLAV AND SAM’S SOCKS lmao ! Plus the “THE WEIRD WRITING THAT YOU CALLED NUMBERS” ahah

SPACE LEBSIANS (aka, Zethrid and Ezor) !! This episode was sooo damn good !

The whole Honevra setting-up for the battles, her flashbacks, the way she deeply wanted to be a family again, her battle with the Paladins... all of this were glorious, horrific/terrific and touching.

ASTRAL PLANE !! Original Paladins interacts with Team Voltron was so damn good ! I didn’t expected too much about that but woaw ! I was so welcomed !

VOICE ACTING (IN FRENCH FOR ME) WAS SO MARVELOUS !! Keith’s french voice while he talked motivation speech was beautiful ! And I totally got chills when Shiro firmly vocal his “FINE” to respond at Zethrid and she went for help them.

Same for the final Voltron at the end, I was like “What the -, they freaking fusioned ?!” That’s so badass !! Plus, all the reality flashing in their minds whilde Honerva cut the tie of other universe...! I think I spotted Arus right before Shiro’s showing but I’m not sure.

ALSO I’M THE ONLY ONE WHO SAW THE WINK AT GURREN LAGANN WITH THE DRILL ARM ??

BALMERAS AND BALMERANS !!! SHAY SAVED THE DAY Y’ALL !

About A//urance scenes, I appreciate what we got, their moments were really sweet but I can’t stop thinking that they could did better. Maybe to made the things a little less faster ? Because even if A//urance was canon, it still bugged me that things happened faster in romantic way at the first date, that Allura kept cutting Lance off several times when he was trying to talk to her to make her understand his concern about situations (or maybe it was because she had the creatures rift inside her who corrupted her senses ?), and that freaking tragic end about them relationship.

(I don’t know, guys, I don’t know how to feels about them. I’m maybe a little biased ‘cause I’m a Plance shipper and of course, I’m sad that my ship didn’t become canon, but as the episodes passed and they focused the relationship between Allura and Lance, it when the Alfor’s praise happen that I became resigned. At first, I started to believe that Plance still had a chance, but no. And even if they became canonical at the end, I don’t think I would have been satisfied if things will be rushed. I prefer way more like they ended in open way. But hey, we still have fanfiction and fanart to keep watering your plance, gardeners !

Also, to the Lance’s defense about his relationship with Allura, you see that as season of Voltron passes, Lance’s feelings were constantaly here, grow-up in a deep and serious love. In regard to watchers’s point of view, if A//urance doesn’t happen, peoples probably will be like “WTF, he loved her since day one, it’s not make sense to develop his feelings to reach to nothing at the end”, you know ?)

The Allura’s departure at the end was so sad, nearly moved at tears when Hunk started to cry !

Also, Altean!Lance dang it ! I cleary didn’t expected to that but wow I kinda like it ! And to be honest with you guys, I don’t think Lance actually became altean. I think he just has the marks for aesthetic. Even if I don’t really understand how ?? Like, did Allura give a little bit of her powers or something to him ?? and what’s the point about it ? Maybe to remind him that he has greatness inside him like a altean ?

About the time skip, when I saw Keith talking about his speechs at the Kral Zera, I totally freaking out ‘cause I thought he’ll be emperor but nah. xD

About the ending ; guess the leaks were real after all ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ? lol Nah but seriously, I’m pretty satisating about the ending. It show that everyone kept doing what they love. If another ship in team voltron was showed, it coulded by even worst about fans reactions. With this ending, fans can still imagine things happened between their favorite ship. I still can’t believe that these damn leaks were real omg.

Oh, also ; I was the only one to not recognize Matt with his haircut ?? I was like "who the heck is that nerd guy ??" and after that, I noticed the scar lol.

They changed Chip’s name into “Andro” in french OTL (but maybe to going with the pun “android” ? I don’t know)

I REWATCHED THE EXTRA SCENE AT THE END AND JUST NOTICED THE LIONS WERE GOING AT AN ALLURA’S SHAPED NEBULA I’M DEAD Y’ALL !! Ahhh I want to cry now !!

About negative things, I’m a little bit sad that we didn’t get to see :

- Lance using his altean broadsword.

- Pidge’s and Lance’s eyes glow individual moment with their lions.

- Lance’s character developpment arc that involving his insecurity (even if all small moments were spreaded throughts all seasons) and not having him focused ONLY to Allura

- More Pallura bonding (I was too hopeful for that unfortunately).

- More Rebels.

- Keith and James talk or apologizes to each other about their battle in the past

As I say at first, sure Voltron has his flaws, but I’ll repeat it ; VOLTRON SEASON 8 WAS GREAT

[wicoppi]

it seems like because allura is interpreted as black, she universally has a liberal activist ideology projected onto her despite her being a conservative by the classical definition. she is very, very conservative, and no amount of empathy she displays for those who suffer is going to negate that. her society was run by the divine right of kings, which was clearly reality, so she has no reason to question ideas like birthright or inherent superiority or autocracy. it's demonstrably true for her.

This ask was prompted by my reblog / tags of this post. 

And I’m going to shamelessly link this meta I wrote pre-season 5 because the latter half of it talks pretty in depth about the ways Altea and Allura are white coded, it’s very relevant to this ask, and I still consider it to be one of my best posts. 

That said, here’s a [very] abbreviated commentary on Allura and Altea- 

If you pay attention to pre-war Altea and Alfor’s storyline, ignoring skin color, it is apparent Altea has strong calls to European (white) imperialism seen in ideology/practices ranging from “divine right of kings” to sourcing vital materials from places other than their homeland to linking their race directly to a Greater Power. 

Allura was born into the top tier of this society and is still very on board with Altean ideology in large part because Alfor was a great leader. Their civilization under his rule was regarded as an unprecedented success across the universe for bringing stability and peace to many. They were on the cutting edge of technology and sought to spread their wealth to other worlds. Allura is still practicing this today and is even continuing legacies her father built such as Voltron and the Coalition. 

The reason Lotor has appealed so successfully to Allura is because he’s speaking to her in her own terms, terms she grew up with. It’s not surprising Lotor was able to sway Allura into helping the Galra Empire because he talks about improving his empire in ways that will make it more like the Altean Empire was. 

In regards to other civilizations, the Balmerans are an important consideration. Allura’s people had a long established connection with Balmerans because the Balmera possesses a vital resource. a resource required to keep the Balmera and it’s people alive. And while Alteans were considerate in their transactions, they still did little to actually understand the culture inherent to these people, only interested in what the Altean culture could do for others. Further, when Allura urges the Balmerans to leave their dying homeworld, she does little to understand why they would want to stay, does not consider the possibility of trying to heal their land, and instead pushes them to preserve themselves. 

But the reason fans overlook all of this is because Allura is dark skinned, because her race was struck from the universe with crushing force, and because she is leading a rebellion. Allura’s character design is incredible and so needed in this overly white-washed society; so many young POC kids watching this show will benefit from how amazing Allura is as a dark-skinned woman. 

But that doesn’t negate the fact Allura has many Bad Tendencies. And a large part of her arc is about learning to see even great things (her culture) can have very bad aspects (racism, elitism, imperialism) that need to be purged in order for everyone to succeed and benefit. 

In short, Allura is visually and superficially coded POC, but her ideology, her core values, and white coded. Before you @ me, please consider that in earlier incarnations of Voltron, Allura was also visually white coded- 

[blueskyheadleft010]

A few stray thoughts [Wrapping up watching Voltron S7]

But okay, first off I want to say this is obviously spoilery so don’t like, don’t read.

Also, my opinion will probs be a bit contradictory to most of the tumblr voltron fans, but bare with me here, I just wanted to point out some interesting things...

Okay so first, I just wanted to say the the ‘Family Feud’ rip off ep made me want to gag, and the only thing I liked about it was Pidge being smart enough to fool ‘Bob the host’ into letting his guard down so she could attack him.

Also, why? was it even needed? at all???? Honestly, the whole ep was like an animated bad work of fiction, and I seriously cannot believe the writers would pull this kinda crap so late in the series.

Moving on, there were points in the show that had me excited but there was also low points were I just wanted the story to move on and I felt like they were trying too hard to connect crucial moments and ended up adding in random junk because they had no idea what to fill in.

For example, the druid fight and finding Kolivan could’ve been shortened way down and honestly nothing would’ve changed.

Also, can we just talk about how Kolivan was being held? And (possibly) waterboarded?!? When I first saw that I was like, ‘woah, holy shit guys. That’s not okay. That’s not an okay thing to do/show’. That was fucking terrifying to watch, and even if he wasn’t being treated that way, the fact alone that he was being held in the air by rope in a very painful position is very scary and if Kolivan was real I would’ve been seriously concerned how tf he lasted so long without losing circulation to at least his extremities.

‘The Last Stand’ was where I began regaining my interest in the story as finally we got to see Sam back on Earth, and hot damn did he ever deliver the justice that the Garrison deserved. 

I also liked Iverson not ending up being a jerk, and was honestly just trying to keep the peace and do the right thing. It was a huge improvement, and whether or not he deserved this change in character, he reminded the audience that people can change and become better, which is something I can get behind 100%. :)

(Lol, tho I totally predicted the lady commander being evil. She had her head too far up her butt to see the light of day. Doesn’t mean I agree with her dying tho :U)

Anyways, I love how Sam just ends up taking the reigns, being an overall wonderful/kind man, and laying down the law just flat out instead of trying to play nice and let Earth be mowed over by the Galra. (Would’ve liked to have heard from other global powers about what their thoughts were on this whole plan, but meh I guess that would’ve been too crazy to write with everything else going on.)

What I didn’t expect was how long they were going to focus on the Garrison arc, and like, all the people inside. Like, that’s fine I guess? but it made me worry that we were going to be seeing something like Go!Lion or have another voltron team or something, and really the only 2 people on the fighter team we knew were Keith’s rival? and Lance’s sister, but the other people might as well have just been random civilians because idk what their background was other than they were good pilots. 

(also was the blond chick autistic or something? idk she just seemed a little less socially adept and more like a calculating computer, and god would I have loved it if they said she was and showed more about her and the other people because I can just sense a story behind them...)

It was cool seeing Earth tech and Altean tech work to make the Atlas, but seriously? SERIOUSLY?!?!? You just HAD to make another voltron toy to sell didn’t you Dreamworks? V_V

Why did you make Shiro be the pilot? Why did the Atlas have to become the new Castle of the Lions? How come Coran couldn’t help with anything aboard it? HOW COME THE SHIP DIDN’T FREAKING BLOW UP AFTER THAT FIRST SPACE SHOT?!?

All of this felt weird and odd, and like now that it is the new CotL, idk what to think. It’s just odd to have a bunch of military/space cadets running about on a ship and listening to young adults/teenaged voltron pilots tell them what to do to help in a war.

Also, how come we didn’t see anything about the humans as slaves in Galra encampments? Like, is humanity screwed now? The galara did blow up their satellites, how will Earth work the same?

This was literally 9/11-WWIV to them. Which is so bizarre.

The paladins literally came back to an Earth that, for all they knew, was completely obliterated, and they were just walking over corpses. (There had to be some. There was no way every human on that planet evacuated in time.) That thought alone is weird to think about in a Y7 kids production.

Not to mention the fact that this even happened at all?? Like, I get the fear of Earth being destroyed is a terrifying thing, but the writers just kept dangling it over our heads so much that for a bit I genuinely believed that the amount of bs going on against the heroes would just pile up and the Earth was just going to be fucking obliterated by how many holes were in their plans. The only thing keeping me from that was the fact that there would be no show if they did that, but that’s not a very comforting thought, nor does it make me want to root for everyone. What’s the point when you know how it’s going to end?

Idk, it was so out of place I felt like I was watching an entirely different show. Since when did the paladins ever fight like military pilots? Why and how were there random pockets of human resistance that could somehow communicate to each other? How tf did the Garrison come up with tech to stop the drones from sending out signals to each other? Why didn’t they use that to stop Sendak’s ships???

Granted, there was some solid planning (mostly from Sam) that was genuinely smart (like the mini satellites they used that were too tiny and so many that the Galra couldn’t shoot at them); but most of everything after ‘The Last Stand’ episodes became a giant martyr after giant martyr of the team defying the odds but not having time to catch their breath. And that last robeast? I get why they needed to show off where the Altean colony went to, but the fight was lackluster compared to fighting Sendak’s whole fucking army and winning. (Even Allura complains about this, showing how self aware this show actually is when they put their thinking hats on).

The fact that the robeast was even that fucking powerful in the first place was insanity and why would you even have an impossible to beat villain take down the most hard to kill heroic team anyways? Aren’t we trying to show how friendship saves the day? Why give Shiro that credit? What the hell does he have that the paladins don't?

Apparently a big fucking ship named Atlas. That’s what.

And now we move onto my biggest grievance: The deaths and near-deaths of characters.

Why. Just why?

It was so poorly done, and kinda random. Adam didn’t get the screen time the writers were building up for him. All of Shiro’s problems, his degenerative disease, his near death again after the clone body tried to reject him (which ‘thank you Shiro’ we ‘totally’ need to be reminded how much shit you went through when you were talking with Lance about it. Not cool), and then his new arm trying to kill him? Dealt with in like 5 seconds. False alarm! Shiro’s totally not gonna die this time! ( ͡ಠ ͜ʖ ͡ಠ)

But I think the worst one was at the end when Shiro is giving that speech to the  humans with the lions standing behind him not online after we’d just seen them crash land on Earth in a fiery blaze, and honestly??? I thought they were dead.

Goodbye my sweet precious babies, you died protecting Earth and now the fucking Garrison is gonna end up showing those knock-off paladin cadets into the lions and things are gonna be okay again~!

No joke, that’s what I thought. 

But then suddenly they’re fine? In a hospital??? Why???? WHAT?!?!?!?

Cue music overture with a montage of everyone’s families and friends coming to say hello to them (instead of explaining wtf happened to all of them) and lots of hugging and oh yeah we forgot about Matt so here’s two frames of him with his weird android girlfriend? thing and long ponytailed head.

Cute, real heartwarmer with Shay suddenly having an entire fucking Balmeran transport her to Hunk. (omg think of how that’s affecting Earth’s gravity atm, the ocean tides r gonna b so screwed over).

Anyways, I did begrudgingly like the new season; but only barely, and I was nowhere near as excited watching this one as I was with previous seasons. There was too much testing my suspension of disbelief, not enough breathers during the last bit, and just overall confusion from all the devastation and chaos caused by Sendak. (Where the hell is Haggar?????)

Overall the story seemed to be trying too hard, and I’m not happy with that. I want Season 8 to smooth over some of this, but I don’t have the highest of hopes. I honestly just want to see my paladin children happy and not fighting a war, and I don’t want to focus on random secondary characters anymore. I want fulfillment, I want the paladins to come to some sense of self satisfaction and growth, regardless of the shipping.

Season 7 took two steps forwards and two steps back with the character development. They progressed Hunk and Sam, but regressed Lance and the others a bit. Coran has officially become the doorstop, with Shiro getting a whole army to command, and random secondary cadets acting like their the lead characters of the show.

I don’t want that. I want the normalcy the show has had up till now. I just want back regular Voltron.

[shallurable]

Voltron Ask Game

I was tagged by @rukia-g, @littlespacestars, and @ahumanintraining! Thanks so much, friends! ☺️💜

How did you discover the show?

It was June 2016 and the show had just recently came out on Netflix, and I saw some cute art over it on my dash and some positive stuff over it so I gave it a shot!

Was it love at first sight or did it take you a while to get into the show?

Love at first sight! It wasn’t a show I was completely obsessed with at first, though I became obsessed with it by...season 2? It’s been a wild ride lol.

Do you have a favorite episode?

Oh gosh, haha. That’s pretty hard. First episode that pops to mind is “Crystal Venom.” Crystal Venom always makes me cry, no matter how many times I watch it. I also have other favorites like Collection and Extraction, White Lion, Black Out, Space Mall, and Eye of the Storm.

Do you have a favorite Paladin?

It’s mainly a tie between Shiro and Allura. I lean towards Shiro more since I relate to him in some ways. :’)

Do you have a favorite Lion? (If it’s different from your fave Paladin, why?)

Black. I love the Black lion. And I’m so eager to learn more about her!

Do you have a favorite villain?

Haggar. Haggar is my favorite. :)

Do you have a favorite Alien Race (Recurring and/or minor)?

The Olkari and the Balmerans! I have a soft spot for Shay and I love her and miss her aaa!

Favorite side/other character(s) - Rebels, Generals, Blade of Marmora, Garrison, etc?

Gosh, that’s a hard one. Shay is a favorite side character. I love her a lot. ;u; I personally enjoy Lotor’s Generals, Nyma and Rolo, too! And the Paladins of Old are really cool.

How/Why did you join the fandom?

I managed to get sucked in when I began my obsession with VLD, and I even through the craziness I managed to find my little home where I feel loved and safe in (all the shaIIura fam :’)), and that’s what’s kept me here and sane, haha. All of them are super sweet and I love them all so much and would love to give them all big hugs. And interacting with people that got into the show because of me on my main blog! It’s always nice to interact with other fans that are really sweet and kind.

Care to share your favorite headcanon?

@smolsarcasticraspberry’s Altean Shiro headcanon is really nice. ;) I also like to headcanon Shiro has a pet dog from Earth (and he deserves to be surrounded by lots of fluffy doggos!!) Also that he’s sercretly into memes. That’s a favorite as well.

What do you think is the best part of the show?

The found family between the paladins, and the relationships they’ve built with each other over the course of the time they’ve been out fighting the Galra!

Any hopes and wishes for future episodes/seasons?

FOR SHIRO’S ARC TO FINISH AND CONCLUDE. I just wanna know what’s happening and just want him back safe and sound. And that he stays in the black lion since he’s the only BP for me. (Also some shaIIura would be...really nice ;u;🤞🏻)

Do you think you’ll stick it out until the end of the show?

Yeah, I hope! I plan on it, anyways. :)

And I’m not sure who has or hasn’t been tagged, so anyone that wants to do this consider yourself tagged! 💜☺️

[artswaps]

Voltron Survey Meme

I was tagged by @justheretobreakthings, thank you!! :0

How did you discover the show?

I’d seen a few stray posts about it on my dashboard, but didn’t really know what it was or take any notice. I’m laughing sm because the person who tagged me here had p much the same story, but eventually I stumbled across this video with Bob’s Burgers audio and for some reason it was what finally pushed me to go and find out what the show was. That was a month or so after season 2 had just dropped and here we are!!

Oddly enough, I’d actually binged all of Voltron Force quite a few years back when I was younger, but it wasn’t until a good while after I’d caught up on VLD and started dabbling in the fandom that I remembered that show and made the connection that it was the same franchise.

Was it love at first sight or did it take you a while to get into the show?

It was “Intrigued enough by certain elements that I’m willing to keep watching, but not totally hooked on the story,” at first sight. I really did love the characters from the get-go, and it was that and the humour + snappy dialogue that kept me around to give it a chance. 

As far as the story went and the fact that it was about giant transforming robots, it wasn’t really my thing. It was when it started getting into Pidge’s character arc- Fall of the Castle of Lions, with the flashbacks to her at the Garrison and meeting Lance and Hunk- that I became truly invested. 

Do you have a favorite Paladin?

Keeeeith!!! My son. 

Do you have a favorite Lion? (If it’s different from your fav paladin, why?)

Not really? I guess Blue, because she’s the first one they found and the one that knocked off the entire adventure. Green and Red are pretty cool, too.

Do you have a favorite Villain?

Haggar! Wonderfully creepy and sinister, and the added depth they’ve been giving her in the past few seasons- what with the OG Paladin backstory and her rediscovering her memories of being Honerva etc. etc.- have just made her so much more interesting. I’m excited to see where they take her character!!

Do you have a favorite Alien Race? (recurring and/or minor)

I actually wanna know so much about the Galra, I’m curious! The Balmerans were pretty cool guys, too.

Favorite side / other character(s)- Rebels, General, Blade of Mamora, Garrison, etc?

Kolivan is awesome and I’m sad he wasn’t in s6 and I want to know everything about his past. I also love Shay a lot!! And Matt, of course. Gotta love Matt. 

How/Why did you join the fandom?

I wish I’d known beforehand about the absolute chaos that is the VLD fandom because it’s just an automatic thing for me to seek out fandom content after I decide I like something lol. Still- I’m hyperfixated now so there’s no going back. I’m here already, so I ain’t going anywhere >8)

It’s also pretty much a given that if I’m fixated enough on something and love the characters as much as I do VLD’s, then I’m gonna end up making stuff. Gotta have people to share it with when I do, right?

Care to share a favorite headcanon?

Aro-spec Keith, hell yeah!! Unfortunately for me, his character tends to end up the centre of a lot of shipping content as we all know- so it’s an unpopular hc :(

I also really like bi Keith so I’m just great at picking all the unpopular ones I guess lmao 

What do you think is the best part of the show?

The characters, hands-down. They’re just so charming, they gel together so well. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t even be watching this show- it was when Pidge’s character arc came into focus that I became invested, and all of the character-driven moments are the ones I look forward to the most and remember more fondly. 

Also the humour. It’s snappy, witty, and charming when they do it right. A lot of that is once again down to how lovable the characters are and the chemistry they all share.  

Any hopes and wishes for future episodes / seasons?

As much as I’ve enjoyed the past 2 seasons and all that delicious drama/intense battle scenes, I really do miss the more easygoing atmosphere a lot of the first 2 seasons had. The kinds of scenes where the gang can just... stand around and argue over what a laser gun sounds like. I’ve loved what the show has given us, but I need a damn breather now lol. 

I really hope the gang gets a chance to regroup in the next season; just go back to a more casual feel, just for a bit, just a few scenes sprinkled between the plot. A chance for them to relearn how they all fit together, now everyone’s in one place again. A change of pace would be good for the show, I think.

Tying into that, I’ve seen a few people make this point already, but I would really, really love to see them start pushing that “found family” vibe the showrunners keep trying to sell. Things have been hectic with how fast the plot’s been moving, and I’m not at all unhappy with what the show’s given us, but I really do just want to see everyone.... being friends, getting to know each other, growing closer, being the family that they keep claiming they are. Maybe I’m feeling a bit salty because Keith has been left out of the mix for so long- I don’t wanna see him jump back into play, only for them to go back to their old dynamic where it was Keith & Shiro vs Everyone Else. There was always a distance there that I wanna see bridged, now that they’ve all grown a little. 

The massive Keith stan in me also just wants everyone to love and appreciate Keith for the incredible person he is and make it clear to him on no uncertain terms that they all care about him. The massive Allura stan in me just wants her to stop being so hard on herself and take a damn break. 

The part of me that’s falling more and more in love with Shiro is feeling strangely at peace after s6...... but please for the love of god let him dye his grandpa hair back to black dsfjgkhjhkhd

Do you think you’ll stick it out until the end of the show?

Well I’m kinda hyperfixated on it and that’s no easy thing to shake, so yeah. Besides, I love the characters too much to just pack it in halfway. Keith is just too special to me.

Tag your friends or someone you want to get to know better

uuh sorry if any of y’all have done this already

@sebayard, @fractalabomination, @kcgane, @starryeyedkeith, @haleykim84, @princessstaryknight, @a-sp4ce-g4y, @turtleduckfantasy

[coolspacequips]

allura?

do I like them: no, BECAUSE I LOVE HER

5 good qualities: strong willed, charismatic, extremely resourceful, kind and sweet, passionate

3 bad qualities: too beautiful, stubborn to a fault, a little reckless

favourite episode/etc: so this is hard to chose, too, but i’ve narrowed it down. ‘Rebirth’ is really good, straight out the gate characterizing allura in season one. she’s the princess and a diplomat, but she leaves the castle to go into the field and evacuate the balmerans personally, and rallies them with a heartfelt speech when they’ve given up, with so much empathy for their plight that she is brought to tears. when evacuation is no longer an option, she risks her life to revitalize the balmera and end the countless centuries of pain its probably endured. she has such kindness and power in her tbh, enough to save the universe, she is the heart of voltron for a reason!! (this ep makes me cry for her every time lmao i cried just now when i looked at the scenes wth. also cry for her every time in 'Crystal Venom’ RIGHT AFTER, FUCK) runner up here is ‘Black Out’, when she almost dies, goes into the field, engages w haggar in killer combat, and overpowers her with her own magic. bitch!!! she is so amazing!! i like both because they touch on the beginnings of her larger story arc about discovering her abilities, also!

otp: shallura!!!

brotp: allurance!!

ot3: shallurance/kallurance

notp: pidge/allura, i guess

best quote: “You will never harm another innocent planet!” this girl kicks ass and that moment was so Powerful and gives me chills!!!

head canon: allura has a competitive streak, and gets super excited when she wins. she’ll race you to the end of the hall if you ask, she’ll fill her dance card faster than you at the gala if you bet that she can’t, she’ll arm wrestle you into the ground for nothing, she’ll learn an alien language with you with all the airs of diplomacy and then challenge to recite the alphabet faster than u. when it comes to sparring, it’s ‘best two out of three, best three out of five, best...’. she will showboat when she gets really into it, before remembering to regain her composure (most of the time...)