#there are consequecnes for ur actions buddy pal

[starfaring-princelotor]

Do you think the only reason why people aren’t critical of VLD Allura is because she doesn’t look like eighties Allura? Because if people are critical of PD from SU then they most certainly should be that way with VLD Allura

I do not know about other people’s reasoning when it comes to being critical of Allura vs 80′s Allura, but I would like to remind people that both PD and Allura are aliens. Anyways, I can tell you my guess about Allura vs PD in this essay. Given, I have not kept up with SU for a while, so most of my knowledge about PD’s actions are based off of the series. I did not see the movie nor anything after that. Consider this a full disclosure that, yes, I am making assumptions from posts I see here.

But here is one reason why I PD gets scrutinized while Allura does not: aftermath. 

When SU started, the war was over, and everyone lives except the martyr. Everything seems fine and dandy, Earth is saved, people are saved, and there is a sort of...post-war catharsis feeling the viewers get when watching the first few episodes. Sure, the gang are doing their duties out of loyalty and honor, even after their leader has died, but it is not until the later episodes where you see the true aftermath of PD’s death rise to surface. And I definitely give props to all the writers and designers who included this tidbit that happily ever after still has its very unhappy moments. 

Honestly? That is more realistic than Voltron’s ending, even though both series had a self-sacrificing martyr at the end.

It has been said many times before, and people even see it in shows like FMA, where being a hero does not always have heroic consequences for others. When people say, “One must fight so that all could be free” they mean ALL and not some. And yet, Voltron tends to push aside how catastrophically bad life would be for the “losing” side while fluffing up everyone else’s life in a utopia-esque “See? Things are better now! No more bad ever happened again. :)” haze. 

But of course. Yes, you see blips of the good, but where is the real good? By this, I mean what about the “bad” guys’ ending? 

The SU series showed the Diamonds that what they did was wrong and has heavily affected others. Not only that, but they are also brought to Earth to see for themselves how bad it was and how their willingness to change and understand and help is a progressive step to save people. If the Diamonds were killed at the end of the series, well, how can they help people they hurt? Simple: they can not. 

Versus Allura, who dies at the very end with Honerva, they go to space heaven where everything is peachy for them and they no longer have to do anything about the mess they left behind because, guess what? They are dead. Their worries are over. Their last moments of life was a self-delusion that they did the right thing, especially Allura. She fought and sacrificed more than anyone else, so she knows deep in her heart that her last act of heroism is the key to peace in the universe and that anything afterwards, well, there will not be anymore problems.

In reality, that is not true, as you can see with PD’s death and how the CG are all very much flawed and suffering and lost on what to do next. 

Again, just because Voltron’s ending had clips of a better life for a selective few (I still have big fat fucking issues with Keith doing Peace Corps with an Empire he has no understanding over) does not mean that is how it turned out for everyone. 

And that is what SU did well where Voltron dropped the ball. SU started as 

>post-war

> well, things are not actually as good as it should be 

> fix those problems through personal struggles and coming to terms that martyrdom does not equate a perfect ending 

> let us help those who suffered, are still suffering, and will most likely keep suffering because of war 

> visually see the aftermath and never sugar-coat the solution as “See? All I needed to do was die!”

SU took the wheel and actually showed the reality of stress post-war, more real than Voltron could ever amount up to. Shiro got married, the Paladins are still friends, and a nearly extinct species came back flourishing. All great, but what about Those Evil Galran? Did they all get locked up or did they just instantly turn good? What about the quintessence issue? Did Allura’s death suddenly give everyone in the universe enough of it to live together happily? And what about the truth behind my execution over a silly little assumption? Was that justified or did I suffer from an incompetent leader’s ability to, well, lead.

I can spit out parallels where heroes follow orders blindly versus heroes who know between right and wrong all day between Voltron and SU. Lapis being stuck in the mirror and imprisoned when “You three knew I was in there!” is one instance I remember that really showed the heroes’ flaw. I believe when Lapis was revealed to be in the mirror, all three of them wanted to keep her locked away from Steven (”It shouldn’t be talking, it should only be taking orders”, “Yeah, let’s bubble it!”, “It’s just a tool! It can’t want anything!”) 

Which, if I vaguely recall, Lapis was seen as the enemy way back then? So, the CG just assumed so and kept her out of sight until she could be useful again without properly doing their research AKA just talking to her. 

Reminds me of when the Paladin’s imprisoned Sendak, used him for untested experimental memory-probing, then jettisoned him into space after he supposedly mind-fucked with them back. But, yes, he did bad things, he killed under Zarkon’s regime, and was actually one of the main villains at the beginning of the series. And because of this, it only makes sense that Allura and the Paladins get to choose what to do with him. 

Wrong. That is very, very wrong.

Sure, Lapis was innocent whereas Sendak has committed crimes (though, based on what I have seen, I am more likely to think Sendak was groomed to be a dog of war, which does not excuse him from imprisonment, but it does excuse improper treatment during imprisonment), yet SU showed that the CG did Lapis wrong whereas Allura and the Paladins are praised for their actions against Sendak after he was pretty much forced into a coma. 

SU judged Lapis, then learned that they were wrong in doing so when shown more information about the truth. Voltron judged Sendak wrong without any information other than one personal experience and a spiteful princess, then they give themselves a pat on the back for it while mistreating their captive. You can even compare Sendak to Jasper if you really want to go into it, but even Jasper was treated better by the CG than Sendak was by Allura and the Paladins.

And this is why I am critical of PD and Allura. Both of them died, both of them left unresolved problems and even bigger future issues on other people’s shoulders, and yet Allura is the only one who gets a pass for it? No. She fucked up just as bad, maybe even worse, than PD, but being critical of Allura is less common because viewers are shown a happy ending at the end of the war. SU does not and SU really had more balls than Voltron in that sense. 

TLDR; SU series shows the heroes face the consequences of their actions and their deceased leader’s actions. Voltron series sweeps it all under the rug and glorifies the careless martyr in an unfulfilling 2 minute montage.