#to me its like if vld never got past s1-2 and it was just everyone going 'omg what fun thing wouldve happened next!!'

[bleh1bleh2]

You know, Voltron Force is actually a fun show. I finished it almost a week ago and am still thinking about it. Its only one season and never got renewed, but it has fairly satisfying character arcs and a very slight cliffhanger ending that is so intriguing to think about

I didnt think i would like it that much, especially when they introduced three new characters to be cadets in the voltron team. But Vince, especially, is such a charming character (i think Larmina is essentially Gwen Tennyson, but thats neither here or there. Shes fun overall) (i dont have any particular thoughts on Daniel. Hes fine)

I just think (spoilers) that the telepathic connection between daniel and vince is so fun. Does it have something to do with me immediately going "omg what if this were vld klance"? Whos to say. But then daniel is implied to become evil in s2, which combined with telepethy??? Literally in the mind of the enemy. Im obsessed.

[the-lightning-strikes-again]

I was curious if I was the only one who kinda enjoyed the battle between the paladins and Lotor in s6? Well at least at first I did until it was never further explored in later seasons. I honestly thought for sure Lotor would come back after s6 and there'd be more to the colony. But it's all kind of just forgotten about so they can move on to the next thing. Anyway hope I'm not bothering you. Sorry for my rambling. haha

Hi, anon! Thanks for the note! And no, you’re not bothering me at all; I appreciate the chance to chat! For the record, I know you’re not the only one who genuinely enjoyed s6. I even know people who enjoyed s1-s8 entirely, lol. As for myself, the animation and acting involved in the s6 battle was really great, and I loved the Sincline mecha. It is honestly one of my favorite designed mechas out of all the mecha shows I’ve seen. So s6 wasn’t a total loss for me. And I actually would not at all have minded a genuine villain!Lotor if they’d properly set up for that. As it is, though, the reason for the battle in s6 is what bothers me and sours my enjoyment. Ultimately, I think the show had to compromise very important story components to result in this battle, and that kills my enjoyment.

I can try to explain what story components I felt got compromised in s6, if you’re interested. But this could get a lil salty, haha. I’ll put it under a Keep Reading line:

The show had a subtle through-line of showing a duplicitous, distrustful Lotor go from hunting down the paladins and throwing several people under the bus for a personal gain (s3-s4), to being actually scared in s5 when he thought Zarkon was going to kill the paladins, to being willing to share his entire intelligence network and information of unfathomable power with his new allies (s5), to allowing the paladins to actually order him around and actively change his moral priorities (s6, ep1)—which is very, very different than the relationship he had with his own generals. So the show had Lotor on a development arc regarding his distrust—and even a redemption arc regarding a fault in his morals, even though the show very plainly stated (multiple times throughout s3-s5) that he longed to get to the quintessence field to stop the Galran empire’s feasting on planets.

That’s part of what bothers me with s6—it reverses this subtle through-line of development and then punishes Lotor for an understandably disturbing de-valuing of life that…1) likely wasn’t even his worst or most extensive crime, 2) was something he was actively learning to overcome and get away from in the present time, and 3) was based on a moral problem paladins had seen within him and previously still accepted their alliance.

Lotor wasn’t a saint to start in this show, and he had a perspective where it didn’t bother him for some people to die if it meant his larger goal of peace was obtained. The weird thing about s6 is we saw the paladins experience that with him already, well before the s6 colony twist. In S6, Lotor places the value of obtaining unlimited quintessence over the safety of an entire Galran planet, and Allura admonishes him and reminds him of his innocent subjects. In s6 ep1, Lotor is very directly challenged by the morality of Allura, who despite being a victim of Galrans, desires that no one should die. That these innocent subjects and Galran soldiers are still just as valuable as everyone else.

So by this moment in s6, Lotor has identified the paladins as valuable enough to risk his life for them…but he hasn’t assigned that same value to the average Galran soldier or citizen he’s still deemed expendable/not worthy of saving compared to his grand agenda of peace. If he had assigned them such value, he would not have initially tried to argue with Allura on going to save them. It’s the one time that Allura gets huffy with him post-alliance and directly contradicts him. And Lotor looks…almost mournful or ashamed? He submits to her, regardless, allowing for his personal missions to go on hold for the first time in interest of other people.

His submission here shows another switch had been flipped in his character, for the better. Prior to Allura and the paladins, he had no difficulty assassinating Narti or leaving his generals for dead after they realized they were in fact expendable. S6 ep1 shows Lotor submitting to save even Galran soldiers that he likely knew were not Emperor Lotor fans.

So going back to the big colony twist, the paladins actively should have known that Lotor had a slightly bent perspective about the expendability of people, because they’d seen it before in season 6 episode 1 and even back in season 3. Clearly, he’s done not good things in the past at the expense of others “for a greater good,” so I don’t know why it’s such a shocker that he would apply the same perspective to Alteans. They literally saw him de-value his own people before, in real-time.

It gets weird too because we see that Lotor had very quickly changed his tactics for obtaining pure quintessence after he realizes Allura and team Voltron are the path of least resistance and least collateral damage. We see him relenting to protect all of his innocent subjects. So ultimately, he ends up being punished for having a problematic perspective that he was slowly beginning to decouple from at the time of his accusation, which the paladins were also witnessing. As it is, the show punishes Lotor for his past crimes precisely after the paladins had already seen this behavior in him, and also after his perspective had started to change for the better. The narrative then pushes him back down into a behavior where he instead expands the list of people and things he accepts as expendable.

I feel that the subliminal messaging behind this particular construction is a little screwy and disheartening. The colony twist would have been better if the show had presented Lotor in s5 and s6 episode 1 as not being ashamed—not submitting—and even getting irritated that Voltron cared about one labor planet in the face of what Lotor felt was a higher calling for peace. It would have been interesting to show Lotor as inherently unconcerned or even approving that the paladins almost died while he and Allura were out in Oriande. There needed to be a more solid through-line of a very troubling, uncontrollable fault that would undermine the alliance and peace itself.

Next, to even get Lotor to go insane or to have him reliant on harvesting Altean quintessence, the show had to contradict its own worldbuilding in early seasons. Lotor was fully infused with massive amounts of quintessence prior to birth that EPs once stated put him on pretty much the same level as Allura, and that he was immune to quintessence. So…s6 heavily contradicts Lotor’s incredibly dynamic behavior and even his moral interest in not killing planets by making him go insane to nearly kill the entire universe. And canon accomplishes this in a way that canonically shouldn’t have been possible, per his in-utero quintessence exposure.

And then I’m bothered that if all he wanted was pure quintessence, there were canonically several other ways to obtain it, including for example that Balmera planets were known for harboring pure quintessence, even pure quintessence offered by living beings like Alteans, and that Balmeras were capable of offering up such power willingly in exchange for a slight token from the asker—or that Weblums happened to be concentrated quintessence manufacturers just floating around…

And I’m bothered that in various places, the show uplifts Alteans as inherently different in their life force/quintessence from all other living things. It contradicts the basic worldbuilding around what quintessence even is according to earlier seasons and creates some…idk, really squicky master race vibes, in ways that other fantasy space shows like Star Wars desperately have tried to avoid by showing diversity among the Jedi and Sith ranks. In VLD, it’s as if to say that Lotor couldn’t have possibly accomplished his goal without specifically sacrificing the life force of one particular race.  

And while what Lotor did doesn’t by definition count as genocide (he still preserved the race and its culture), this messaging in later seasons about inherent racial reasons to sacrifice people is the same problematic thinking people use to perpetuate genocides in real life. And I just…I have a real problem with that. According to the later seasons, the colony Alteans are victims of Lotor’s experiments for specifically being born Altean. It’s even more squicky that the show could have rejected the bad message of “we must sacrifice a race because of their inherent properties” and fleshed out the minimal cues that other races could be just as powerful and helpful—but didn’t.

(For example, the show presents Keith with Princess Leia-like quintessence sensitivity, Coran and Balmera people with the ability to interface with and accept quintessence storages, the Balmera people themselves infusing the Balmera with their quintessence, the Weblums harboring mass stores of concentrated quintessence in their bellies, the very non-Altean Druids like Macidus manipulating mass quintessence into magic, and even a sea serpent/The Baku in season 2 using quintessence to mind-control an entire species. This show could have very easily pulled a Star Wars and at least fleshed out that hey, Midi-chlorians don’t discriminate and that any species can harbor a great Jedi…or Sith.)

But no—instead of presenting a diverse front of magical capabilities coming together to save the universe, the show champions in s8 its own horrific implications in s6, by having two Alteans sacrifice their lives in the end…because of course no other race could learn or manipulate the deep secrets of the universe? No one else could help share the load so that no one would have to actually die? I get that war means sacrifice, but like...why are we always sacrificing specifically along racial lines? So actually, after that s6 morality tantrum, the show approves of Lotor’s tactics by sacrificing the few Alteans to save the many because those few are somehow inherently different? And isn’t it wild that ultimately the federal figurehead of Alteans, Princess Allura, exonerates Lotor for sacrificing Alteans for their power in the name of larger peace…shortly before pulling a Lotor and sacrificing herself in the name of peace? So even in the final moments, the show is trying to argue with me that sometimes it’s necessary to sacrifice a specific race by virtue of their inherent nature.

So…I guess I’ve rambled. I really wouldn’t have minded a villainous Lotor or a big Voltron vs. Sincline battle. There were things I genuinely did like about s6, and I applaud the animators and VAs for their performance in that season. But I think there were a million and one ways to produce that plot, and the way s6 gets to these points makes me feel disquieted. It feels contradictory to previous worldbuilding and to character arcs, it undermines the morality being argued throughout the show, and it just feels like a cheap bait-and-switch if I think about it too long. Instead of relying on an old crime and a known character fault as a justification for battle, it would have been far better if Lotor had done something to specifically betray Voltron and the newly minted alliance or proved himself incapable of submitting to moral choices. And that’s only if they wanted a truly villainous Lotor. There were ways he could betray Voltron without actually turning into a comic book villain...even ways that he could outwardly play a betrayal while still functioning as an agent for Voltron’s aims to stop a loose Haggar/Honerva...

I guess, in retrospect, s6 is a really good example of a plot-driven season. It presented some really fantastic animation and battles and angst…but what did it cost the show to get there?

I think VLD itself should have taken its own advice—that one cannot place a lesser value on one component in the name of achieving a desired end goal. The season ultimately sacrificed world building and character development to achieve a stunning, angsty, heart-stopping robot fight. And that sacrifice undermined so many other things about the show and tainted my enjoyment. Sort of like mixing poop into a cake, I guess, lol.

[sol1056]

This is what my inbox looks like, now. One ask after another, and none of them happy. Are you paying attention, @dreamworksanimation​, @voltron​? Because this is what a dedicated and loyal fandom looks like when it gets tired of its loyalty being rewarded with nothing but contempt. 

Do the EPs themselves even care about their story anymore? Because at this point it feels more like they just warped it into a personal vendetta against the higher ups after they were forced to change their original vision. Trying to reinforce that their ideas were right, instead of adapting like professionals.

And then re-litigating their position in every interview, too, along with being really noisy about their animosity for the character they were forced to keep. 

More behind the cut.

If they had time to include pointless scenes with a space wolf they could have, idk, maybe used that screentime for some character development. But then again that requires basic writing skills and not copy-pasting your series together.

In twenty years of fandom, I have honestly never seen a hatch job of a season quite like S7. It’s one for the books, certainly. 

I still find it sad how many groups from different sides of a fandom can actually give a damn about its characters, story, world, and pacing while the actual writers themselves couldn’t even give a shit.

The EPs should’ve stuck with storyboarding.  

How could they disappoint so many fans? Every corner of the fandom is disappointed at VLD. When I started reading metas, I was certain the story was getting shitty just because of nostalgia, but now? After S7? To me sounds more like spite. "We can't do what we want so we'll make it shitty because we're children that don't want to listen to our bosses."

My own boss would string me up if I were to boast about a full do-over when the product was already in the can. She’d draw and quarter me on top of that, if I also publicly specified what the clients almost got, but didn’t.  

The only way I would watch a VLD spinoff is if JDS & LM were not producing it. I know that there would probably be lots of logistical complications that would come with that, but personally I just cannot sit through another show where the plot development is as nonsensical as VLD's currently is. I don't see how new writers could do worse tbh. If Netflix does a spinoff I hope they keep the same art team and animation studio but get new EPs, writers, and directors.

Agreed, but at this point, DW’s lost a lot of good faith from me. She-Ra’s been knocked right off my to-watch list. If this is how DW execs manage their projects, I’m not willing to risk falling down this rabbit-hole again.  

I felt uncomfortable when the season came out, and they started patting themselves on the back for choosing not to give Shiro a happy ending. I hope these EPs never get another show.

I’ll be keeping a careful eye on IMDB in the future. From other conversations, I know I’m not alone. I see those two names pop up, and it’s an immediate and flat no. Once was enough. More than enough. 

Petition to fire the EPs and everyone responsible for changing the story 2/3 parts in and violating everything it stood for and disrespecting the characters and the audience, and hire a new capable and respectful staff to rewrite the series from the point where everything was changed. An (actual) apology from DW and the story rewritten to be what it was supposed to. They owe us that.

Or find whomever did S1/S2, and put them back in charge. I’d be willing to forgo a formal apology, if DW just made clear they were fixing things -- whether that’s the staff or the story. Just do something.  

I wanna know the part DW played in this. That interview cleared up that DW didn't object and the EPs didn't have to fight. So did they go to DW with THIS specific storyline? 4 dead gays, 1 resurrected just to suffer, 2 evil ones? And that's what they were OK with & greenlighted? Or did the EPs go with 'just Shiro is gay & there's 3 more queer characters' and they got the OK and wrote and animated the rest themselves and showed that? Because "DW didn't find anything wrong morally" (as they said) is very different between these two cases.

That’s the statement I’d like to hear from DW: just where do they stand on that? Because you’re right, there’s a huge difference. Did the execs think they were okaying mild LGBT representation, or did they know and approve a double whammy of Bury Your Gays? Or did they know and figure controversy was better than silence? It’s a matter of degree.

Who's really to blame for how VLD is handled story-wise? The EP's or the higher ups at DW? Assuming that the DW execs get the final say, then they're the ones that okay'd the clone storyline and making Keith the BP for good while Shiro is turned into a side character.

I have no idea, but we’re three weeks out, now, and no one’s getting any happier. The longer it goes on, the more it’s all going to be associated not with this one production staff, but the entirety of DW’s TV brand. 

If DW has their shit together (not allowing the EPs to kill Shiro which was smart), it looks like DW trusted the EPs but the EPs failed. If DW apologizes to us and fires the EPs for the many things they did wrong in VLD, and announces a sequel with competent and decent creators who will fix the series to respect the S1/S2 premise, I'd watch it.

I might, but I’d need to see the new staff’s IMDB credits, first. DW has lost the benefit of the doubt from me, after this utter destruction of a childhood favorite. And even then, the very first sign of a multiple-minority character being treated as the series’ punching bag? Outta there. 

[paladinspride]

Hopefully this is my last VLD S7 discourse post.

I usually try to stay out of the drama but LGBTQ rep is near and dear to me and I have spent the last few days totally caught up in the discourse surrounding S7, despite my best intentions. Can I blame myself though? It is every where!  

So I am hoping if I just put all my thoughts in an under the cut post, maybe I can move on and go back to enjoying the show for what it is and creating and assuming the fanon content I enjoy. I really do like the show. I just have feelings about some decisions.

Warning, there is an essay under here:

I’ll start by reminding people, I am in my 30s and I came out as bi in the 90s so I grew up in a totally different stage of society than most of the fandom. I mention this because it is important to keep in mind that the western world was not as open and accepting as it is now and my generation did a lot to make progress happen. There is still a lot to be done, but that is another matter.

I grew up in an age where LGBTQ characters, if present, were usually evil, tortured or killed off. At best, they were a comedic side kick. When we started to get LGBTQ content, shows like Queer as Folk, were given late night time slots and considered adult and taboo.  

Shows like Modern Family were an amazing win for LGBTQ rep but animation still had/has a lot of ground work to do.

Dreamworks got flack for Gobber saying, “And that’s why I never married,” in HTTYD 2 and that was super vague.

Conservative groups were adamant that children’s content be free of “discussions of sexuality.” Gosh forbid, someone be gay so any references had to be vague and nearly undetectable. LGBTQ content was heavily censored and often out right forbidden.

Legend of Korra’s Korrasami pushed the envelope and broke ground but it’s rep was still at the very end of the series and quiet enough to sneak by censors.

Right before I watched VLD, I watched Yuri on Ice and was so moved that there was a well written animated series that depicted a same sex relationship where it wasn’t played for comedic effect, tokenism or tragedy.

When I finished YOI, I got sucked into VLD by the fan art. When I watched the show, Keith and Lance’s relationship intrigued me and I had fun imagining scenarios where they could end up together and live in domestic bliss.

The fandom ate it up. There was so much K/lance content to create and consume and so much positive response to it, that I fell in love. They became an OTP and I have dedicated my blog to them ever since.

However, this whole time I have been cautiously optimistic about the likelihood that K/lance could become canon because I imagined the crew would have a fight on their hands to make it happen. My experience with representation in media made it hard for me to let myself hope.  

But I let myself believe because of LOK, Disney having a gay character come out on one of its youth series, and shows like One Day At A Time.

Shipping meta didn’t help.          

But I tried very hard to keep my hopes in check and remind myself that fanon isn’t canon and that I am hear for the fanon. Canon would be nice but it is not the end all be all. I had to repeat this to myself a lot.

The last little while I have found myself growing exceptionally tired of “KICK” and shipper’s insistence that K/lance will be canon because I knew the fandom was getting their hopes up and that fanon and canon are separate things and I didn’t want people to get their hearts broken when fanon wasn’t represented in canon.

Also, I wanted people to focus on creating and consuming fanon content rather than scouring the canon for proof and engaging in petty ship wars, but that is some people’s idea of fun, and I can’t judge them for enjoying the show differently than me.

Anyways, despite my reservations, I let myself hope.

Then we had Shiro’s reveal. I was so excited that we were getting a strong persevering leader and POC as LGBTQ rep in a children’s animation that I didn’t even care that the likelihood of K/lance was diminished for me because there was no way I could let my self believe that we could have three characters in canon m/m relationships.

But then I watched S7 and the rep fell a little flat for me, but I was still happy there was enough insinuation that m/m youth could see themselves in Shiro.

But then they gave Ezor and Zethrid a coded scene and killed them and Adam.

I don’t think the show runners did this with any ill intent. I think they were clueless to the fact that they were committing a dangerous trope.

The show is about war, yes, and people are lost in war, but we need to have enough LGBTQ characters in animation, media in general really, that the loss of one is not such a blow.  They should have predicted the fandom outrage, but I don’t think they did, and now they are on the defensive, seemingly making things worse.  

I also felt queer baited. And I don’t use that term lightly. I have defended them against queer baiting in the past because 99% of the time, the feeling is the result of the fandom building hype by reading into things and spinning things the showrunners and Vas said and not actually baiting.

And that happened again here.

But I feel like the showrunners contributed to it this time.

But I also am not sure how they could have shut it down.

I kind of wish they would not have said anything about Shiro at SDCC and just let the viewers interpret the scene for themselves. LM and JDS saying Adam and Shiro were engaged doesn’t mean anything if they don’t show it in the show. That was their mistake.

If they were not sure they would be able to give explicit rep, they should not have said anything about it. I don’t think people would have cared as much that there was not LGBTQ rep if we were not expecting it.

I get wanting to make everyone happy and being inclusive and not wanting to spoil anything or shut down ships but ugh it made an ugly situation. I  don’t know how they could have been more honest without spoiling things though.  

(But if they really didn’t want to shut down ships, why write Lance and Keith in any romantic arcs at all? They knew how popular the ships were to make some changes? I suppose the verdict is still out on whether A/llurance and K/acxa are gonna be cannon though so I really shouldn’t assume and get upset about that yet)

The fandom is partly to blame for the hype and perceived queer baiting in the past. If people didn’t ask questions that put show runners and VAs in awkward spots or spinning things said, the hype might not be so extreme.  

But this time it feels like the show runners went with it?

Did marketers encourage the hype for ratings though? Definitely. I don’t trust marketers. There goal is to get people talking about the show, be it good or bad. It’s important to remember the show runners and the marketers are separate. Netflix pulled some shady moves with the posters and that whole folding picture thing.

And that brings me back to K/lance.  

For awhile now I am have been thinking they pulled a Zutara with K/lance and S/hallura, (Zutara is the pairing of Zuko and Katara from Avatar the Last Airbender, and the plan was for them to be canon but studio pressure suggested the audience related to Aang more so they shifted gears and made Kaang the canon romance in the last season instead).

S/hallura could have been such a beautifully written loves story of two fierce leaders and no one can tell me they don’t have chemistry and corresponding arcs.

So I was surprised when it was revealed that Shiro was the LGBTQ rep.

This made me think maybe Shiro and Adam were to be just friends and K/lance was meant to be canon after all, which is why so many of us saw canon potential in S1-3) but then it got shut down for any numbers of reasons and they decided to make Shiro the rep instead.

Barlee recently tweeted that Shiro was always meant to be the LGBTQ rep and they had to fight for what they showed though.

So this combined with the fact that they had to fight to show what little they did and the insistence that Shiro “is the rep,” makes me think K/lance isn’t happening for sure.

And I am sad about that. And that is ok. I am allowed to be sad about it. My sadness that my ship won’t be canon should not dismiss my concerns about the bury your gays trope though. They are two different issues and I am sick that people are undermining the argument because of who people ship.

I am also sad, that Barlee’s tweet suggested that LM and JDS did not get to tell the story they wanted to tell because of studio meddling. I’d really love to know what that story was.  

But I will get over it and go back to creating and consuming content for K/lance and VLD because the world that VLD created is rich and inspiring to me. I love exploring the what ifs and alternate story lines the VLD universe has to offer because that is the part of fandom I enjoy.

I enjoy the canon too, but it is just one story in a list of endless possibilities.

[zillabean]

Sorry for the dumb question, but does this mean Shiro can never pilot the Black Lion again? And if that's true, why can't he?

Under a cut for spoilers! It’s LONG, so be prepared.

I’m not exactly sure what exactly you’re alluding to, so I’ll just address why I think this is the sad, sad, horrible case.

With the way the show is going, with the way everything has been set up, the interviews with the showrunners, etc. I just don’t see them reversing course and placing Shiro back in his rightful place as Black Paladin, and this breaks my heart.

-- Shiro (and the show) has been grooming Keith for the Black Paladin role since the beginning. Shiro has told him he has to be leader. Shiro vanishes, forcing Keith into the role. Keith himself takes the role, but then leaves, and needs to go on his own personal journey to grow into himself before he can actually TAKE the role. Kuron’s purpose was purely to give the team a shake-up to force them to move on without Shiro’s guidance. To give Keith the time to grow up so he could become leader.  There would be no point in taking Shiro away from the leadership role if they actually wanted to keep him as Black Paladin.

-- Keith has historically always been the Black Paladin in every single incarnation of Voltron. He’s never NOT been. It was expected that, while I believe VLD has swayed enough away from the old story to do their own thing, they will adhere to that story beat.  I disagree with this development, but there it is. Nostalgia and ‘honoring’ the old show’s lineup. Why do you think Allura and Lance had to get into Blue and Red? There was nothing wrong with Lance’s connection to the Blue Lion, they were FRIENDS basically. But to cater to nostalgia, they had to be forced into those lions. Keith was always meant to take Black.  Shiro was just a stepping stone.

-- Take a look at Keith’s clothing. Animation never designs characters without purpose. All of Keith’s colors reflect the Black Lion’s colors. Black, white, red, yellow. There’s a reason for that.

-- Shiro was killed off in Act 1. He says so himself in the Astral Plane as we come to learn. He spends the entirely of Act 2 essentially absent, acting as nothing more than a catalyst to allow the other characters to mature and grow without him. That’s what Kuron is, a plot device, an antagonist for the other characters to grow against. When he is finally brought back in the end of S6 (the end of Act 2), he is very changed.  He is weakened, his design has changed, he is a shadow of himself. Act 3 is going to be Shiro... but not the same Shiro we knew and loved from S1/S2, but a strange amalgam of Shiro+Kuron. Again, animation doesn’t take character design lightly and every re-design of Shiro (you’ll notice he’s the only character who gets redesigned repeatedly?) has significance. S1/S2 is the one you grow attached to. S3-S6 is designed slightly off enough to throw you and make you uncomfortable. And now, the current Shiro has been redesigned yet again. White hair, no arm.  It signifies a change for his character, it signifies that he is no longer the original Shiro, but a changed Shiro, much in the way Keith and the others have changed. But he never got any development while the others have. What this holds for his future I don’t claim to know, but there is significance in his alteration. The removal of the galra arm I think is to signify that he is now finally free of the poison, mentally and physically, which haunted him for so long. The white hair means this is a ‘new’ Shiro.  Old, yet new. So who knows there the arc will take him next, if anything.

-- Sadly, I think the change in his character may also signify a demotion in his role. It feels like he was brought back just to get sidelined in favor of Keith. You notice in the final crowd show when they say “we’re going home”, Shiro is not pictured? Keith is front and center, and Shiro is absent. You can argue that it’s because he’s lying on the ground, hurt, but I think there’s significance in the shot. Animation, again, is never designed without intent.  Keith is in the most prominent part of the frame, where Shiro USED to be. And Shiro himself is not even pictured. And based on leaked images from some time ago, I fear that Shiro will be thrown back to the Garrison as it was a design that depicted him with a new strange Altean port on his shoulder, and he was in his Garrison uniform.  So I think he is being sidelined into a Garrison role, and will potentially lose his place as Paladin. Which is DEVASTATING for his character, who has never wanted to be anything more (see: his continued selection of Paladin in the “Monsters and Mana” episode).

-- They would not give Keith the exact same Black Lion wing-unlocking and bonding sequence, beat-for-beat, that Shiro had in the climax of S2 if they were only making it a temporary role. No other Paladin has bonded with their lion like Shiro, and with such an emotional sequence.  They now gave that sequence to Keith, mirroring Shiro’s. This is a very obvious cue that Keith is heading into the role of Black Paladin. Even if not immediately, then soon. They would not waste such an emotional scene on a temporary role. Again, this breaks my heart, because it makes it feel like ALL of Shiro’s blood, sweat and tears was tossed aside only to be so easily just handed over to Keith, who didn’t have to work for the bond like Shiro did. But there it is.

-- Shiro still has never used the Black Bayard (past Kuron hurling it at the door when he was ‘possessed’). Everyone has used their bayards by now, and Shiro has never once done so.  The longest time he’s gotten to even HOLD his Bayard was when he won it from Zarkon. This is clearly on purpose for what I assume is one of two things: for a grand reveal of its form in his hands when the time comes, though this is unlikely with Keith being given Black Paladin. Or two, it’s Keith’s bayard now, so any cool reveals will happen for him. ALSO you’ll notice the Black Bayard has only ever been wielded by Galrans.  Zarkon. Lotor. Evil Shiro. Only then does the power unlock. This leads me even more to believe that Keith, of Galra blood, will be the one to unlock the Black Bayard. And it breaks my heart.

... I could go on and on about various other design set ups, etc.. but I think I’ve rambled enough. I WANT to hope that Shiro will return as the rightful true Black Paladin, but based on my understanding of animation and how stories are constructed and how Voltron has always been and how it’s going now, I don’t see it happening. I think Shiro is going to get sidelined and his entire purpose was to bolster Keith.  Which utterly breaks my heart because goddammit he is such a beautiful character who is unique, fun, and brings something to the team no one else does and SO deserves better.

(I also could be reading into things way too much and God I sure hope I’m wrong about everything. I’ve never wanted to be more wrong in my life about a series!)