#voltron season 5 observations

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 3

welcome the the third (late sorry) fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

1. Immortal by @admiralcanthackett (sorry this is the last one for a while probably)

Lance gets impaled and Keith catches him in the bathroom later, blindedsided by the massive scar on his chest. Now Lance has to explain it and the many others he’s managed to collect along the way. But who would believe Lance is suddenly immortal?

This is up there with Blast Zone in terms of fics I’ve reread so many times I could probably recite it. I have made friends read this. I talk about this fic to people who aren’t in the fandom. This is a BAMF Lance fic, of course, but honestly it’s more Keith/Lance feels than anything. There’s no one who knows how capable Lance is like Keith does. 

2. Hell in High Heels by @azapofinspiration

To gain some information for the final assault on Zarkon, the Blade has asked Team Voltron to get it using some... feminine wiles. Seeing as Allura would be recognized in an instant and Pidge is uncomfortable, Lance easily steps up to the plate.

And Keith was not expecting this.

This fic is also up there with Blast Zone! Lance? Kicking ass in a skirt and stilettos? Yes ma’am! Side note but the first time this author reblogged one of my fics I freaked out lol I was so excited. I love this fic, it’s fun and flirty and the Garrison Trio dynamics are awesome. 

3. Birthday Surprises by @azapofinspiration

On a certain day, each of Team Voltron finds themselves the recipient of a package. It doesn't take them too much to figure out who's leaving them anonymous birthday presents.

Pretty much a 5+1 fic of the times members of Team Voltron are given a birthday present and the time they decided to return the favor.

Lance is such a sweetheart, I love him. This is a really sweet fic with Lance and the team just loving each other, basically. I’m always a sucker for a five plus one, and this one is a fun and quick read. 

4. Useless Talents by @admiralcanthackett

Lance has some "useless" talents that come in handy. Keith is impressed.

I’ll be real, a lot of these are going to be BAMF Lance. He’s just so cool. This one in particular, though, is pretty much just BAMF Lance with a side of whipped Keith, which is always fun. Contortionist Lance? Check. Archer Lance? Check. Observant Lance? Check. Literally everything you could want in a one-shot.

5. Only a Crack in this Castle of Glass by @icypantherwrites

Something strange is going on with Lance. The wincing and shivering and worried, scared glances in Allura’s direction mean something and Hunk is going to get to the bottom of it. But nothing could have prepared him for what he found. / “Allura was in trouble. And I… I shielded her. Me and Red. And… and we got hit. And…” Lance audibly swallowed again, voice even quieter and Hunk felt faint. “And I… I died.”

Or; the missing scene fic where Hunk (and the rest of Team Voltron) discover Lance died at Omega Shield and what this now means for them all.

There are not enough Omega Shield fics. Seriously. But this almost makes up for it! This fic, as is on par for icy panther, is a work of art. Expertly crafted, lengthy, and angsty as hell. Highly recommended if you’re mad about the later seasons. 

that’s it for today!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!

[chibi-chaos]

Voltron Season 5 Theorizing

Right so I’m just putting this all out there - and man! I cannot wait to see the new season!!!!!

I’ll add imaged to this later when I have time ^^”

THEORY ONE: TWO LEADERS

Basically for those you saw the season trailer you guys might have noticed that Lance has commanding or ‘proactive’ lines. I am not saying he’s gonna be Black Paladin, cause I doubt it would be on the books this season.

BUT

There may be a split or even schism.

Firstly look at the trailer. For one there’s two clear groups forming for fights. You have one lead by ‘Shiro’ with Matt and Pidge making the team. And then you have the second team lead by Lance with Hunk and Allura as part of it (leg buddies?). Shiro remains the leader, but in some ways I’d say Lance is becoming a ‘shadow leader’

For one they both have equal amounts of proactive comments:

Lance:

‘Everyone get to your lions, we’re going in’ - in this on we see Lance, Allura and Hunk followed by a quick scene of their lions

'3, 2, 1.’ Going by the loudness of it, this is during the climax - a battle and Lance in this is calling the shots, presumably on a maneuver. .

‘Shiro’:

‘Stay in formation, and don’t touch the sides’ - this one we see all of the members and their lions

‘It may be time to consider taking the next step’ - This one shows Allura and Pidge, followed by all the lions.

In a way it makes sense that these two are going to be diverging. First in the last season Lance made orders to get out of dangerous before investigating, which ‘Shiro’ over-ruled. And look where that got them? On a planet being pushed into the ground by gravity increasing, before only just escaping an explosion.

On top of that look at the video called ‘Lance’s Upgrade’ - in Lance comments about Shiro not taking him serious - ‘I don’t think Shiro has noticed’. In a way it make sense with these two. Lance was Keith’s right hand man, not Shiro’s. Shiro always turned to Keith. And with Shiro not looking at Lance as his new right hand, it is causing tensions. Same as like with last season his actions are causing more with Allura’s comment - ‘we seem to be constantly at odds’.

Add on: If you go by ‘Lance’s Upgrade’ it’s safe to say that he still supports Shiro - he’s not trying to over take Shiro or assume control, in fact he has worked to smooth the worries Allura has with Shiro. ie. ‘you both have the coalitions best interesting at heart, don’t forget that.’

Another add on: The ‘Operation Lava Base’ just emphasizes how Lance in this is not taking over or trying to overpower Shiro’s control. He’s following Shiro’s instructions just as everyone else is. So in the end Lance is the ‘shadow leader’ or ‘right-hand man’ who’ll support Shiro unless he feels like there’s a better alternative and would voice it. It’s possible to argue he’s working on trying to get Shiro to take him more seriously/understand that he is the right hand now. After all, Lance is shown to be training by himself in ‘Lance’s Upgrade’ - it something that isn’t really shown except with Keith and that was because of how seriously he took his role.

THEORY (MORE LIKE COMMENTARY) TWO: LANCE IS NOT KEITH

Okay so this comment has been floating around a little, and I would like to basically prove otherwise. In the first season Iverson compares Lance to Keith, but that doesn’t mean he is being compared to or becoming Keith now.

In fact Lance has been for the past two seasons compared to someone else.

Alfor.

When Red called, Allura points out that like with Alfor with Zarkon, Lance accepted Keith as the better leader and settled for supporting.

And then with Lance’s Bayard changing, Allura comments about it being the same type of sword that Alfor wielded.

Similarly their personalities echo, Alfor goes from being young going head first in fights and having a joking tone to him, to maturing to become an ideal king and paladin. Similar is happening with Lance as he goes from being a jokester to a form of support for the others. They both accept being the right hand man, and are not afraid to call out then leader if need (ie. Alfor with Zarkon’s obsession of studying and experimenting with the quintessence - ‘This is madness’, and Lance when Keith was still adjusted to the role and was still focused on get Lotor when the other members were lost - ‘Keith, you’re splitting up the team.)

On top of that - the introduction of the sword is something to be expected. So far every red paladin has used a sword, and it links to how the Red Lion controls the sword for Voltron. By having Lance receive the third form of the bayard, it not only demonstrates that Lance is developing to fit his role more (hence why he didn’t instantly get the sword), but also shows how Lance will need to develop an understanding of the sword to help him with using one with Voltron formed. Also the fact that it’s his third bayard point out how he isn’t Keith, he’s main form is a gun, and with adding the sword it’s demonstrates him as a jack-of-all-trades.

Lance isn’t becoming Keith, he is adapting to the role of the Red Paladin. Just like how he adapted to become the right hand man for Keith, and how he adapted to save Plaxum and her people from the Baku with not much support from his team (since it was only him and Hunk, and Hunk was brainwashed for a bit).

OBSERVATIONS (Basically things I am still working on):

1. Keith is definitely having more time and development.Looking at it this way, for one he has unlocked his blade properly and is using it in battle. It means that he has figured out something that potentially was holding him back, and that might take a bit to illustrate. Some of the images also kinda reflects on this, for instance, the isolated Keith in the wide expanse is a style shot that usually reflect journeys.

2. Sendak returns with a larger arm... what this means... I am not too sure. I have a small hunch that Lotor’s gonna fight him, if you go by the fact they both had scene that are set at night in a galra base.

3. Shiro, Pidge and Matt seem to be hearing out Zarkon’s deal. What is interesting is what could convince them to hear him out, which would be something they have in common, or they all can agree is important. It potentially though could turn south, especially considering these three may all be in the scene which Kimiko Glenn (Ezor’s voice actress) leaked - Shiro and Matt shown and there’s a hint of green as well that could be Pidge. Even more so with the background of Pidge fighting in the trailer might match the leaked image. It makes sense that the leak is at that point, because on top of all that we know it will have Shiro, Matt and Ezor, and Ezor is seen behind Zarkon (Lotor’s generals having turned to Zarkon for the time being)

4. There’s a big ol’ fight on Olkari, it’s probably here where the ‘new age of warfare’ is being introduced full time. Considering Olkari is one of the main contributors to Voltron’s side of the battle - having helped made the teleduv which badly injured Zarkon - it makes sense.

5. The hints of a sixth lion in the previous season with the cave drawings seems to be correct, as the White lion is introduced. And it seems that Allura was have some form of tie to it. It could be to sort out the 6 paladin, 5 lions thing - BUT the white lion has turned up before, and in the original Voltron... It wasn’t anything good.

6. Shiro’s a clone - really I’m just putting it in cause why not. But by this point I think pretty much everyone had concluded that, and it’s only just reinforced more with ‘Lance’s Upgrade’ where Allura comments about Shiro being different.

7. ...okay there’s no seven... I really wanted to put something in for Hunk. But literally there’s not much given about him for this season. So I’ll say this. We have some people’s opinions on Lotor, I’l explain Hunk’s probable reaction. He won’t trust Lotor, he is a cinnamon roll BUT with new characters he has always been cautious. In a way it goes to his anxiety, where he is cautious with new environments/situations. He made a point to say he didn’t trust Rolo and Nyma, so naturally with everything he knows on Lotor he won’t trust him as far as he can throw him (which is pretty far). He’ll be suspicious, and will be the voice of reason, which often enough he has been shown to be (think first ep where he questions sneaking out, or with Nyma and Rolo, and several other moments). So he’ll approach Lotor with cautious, treating him with a great amount of suspicion but won’t shake the boat if it seems to be contained enough. But the moment the warning bell sounds too much, Hunk will upgrade from commenting about his distrust to trying to point out and convince people what he sees is happening.

[violethowler]

My VLD Meta Masterpost

Last Update: 07/14/2024

I’ve written a lot of Voltron analysis over the last few years but some of them are old enough that it’s getting harder for me to search for them whenever I want to either share them with others or go back and re-read what I wrote myself.

So I decided to put together a masterpost of links collecting every piece of analysis I’ve written about Voltron: Legendary Defender up to this point, both here on my main blog, and my sideblog @fandomoverflow​. This will contain links to both the posts I’ve written myself, as well as posts that I’ve reblogged and added my own commentary to. Some of the observations made in order analysis change as I learned new information or refined by interpretation of existing info, but I’ve left the original essays as is to preserve my thoughts at the time.

I’ll update this list whenever I post a new meta in the future, so for the sake of keeping this post easily organized, the links to my previous metas will be divided based on main topics, and then listed in the order I posted each one. 

Also, I didn’t really understand the importance of preserving fandom history until after Tumblr’s porn ban happened, so unfortunately almost all the meta I posted before Season 8 has been lost because I had a thing about deleting pre-season theories/meta after that season dropped, so anything I wrote before December 14, 2018 unfortunately only exists in people’s reblogs. But if any of my followers have any of my analysis/theories not on this list in their archives as a reblog, please feel free to DM me because I would love to add those to the list if I can find them. 

Every meta I’ve written that I still have a link to can be read under the cut, and the post will be updated when I have more links to add:

Character Analysis: Posts analyzing character arcs, parallels, and backstories based on the details canon gives us, and extrapolating how certain arcs were supposed to end based on the last minute edits to Season 8. 

Lotor Was the Reason for Everything: Analyzing Haggar’s motivations and why she’s so fixated on keeping Lotor under her thumb. (December 25, 2018)

Misdirection and Manipulation: Looking at Haggar’s methods as an antagonist and why she wasn’t directly involved in the invasion of Earth. (archived on AO3 on January 01, 2019)

A Speculative Analysis of Shiro, Haggar, and the Rift: my attempt to piece together what Haggar’s plan for Shiro as the Empire’s “greatest weapon” was based on the information the show gave us about her goals. (February 21, 2019)

My analysis of the parallels Lotor’s story has with Rosiu from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. (February 28, 2019)

The People’s Champion: Figuring out what happened to Shiro during his year in captivity based on the details the show gives us. (March 26, 2019)

Reblogged with further evidence found on rewatch (December 14, 2022)

My contributions to a conversation about the two Dayaks and their relationships with Lotor. (May 2, 2019)

Exiled Brat: Figuring out the details of what Lotor’s banishment looked like when he clearly still had power in the empire even before Season 3. (June 12, 2019)

Reasons Why Lotor Fans Continue to Defend Him: why I and other Lotor fans don’t believe he’s guilty of the things Romelle accuses him of. (July 1, 2019)

This Isn’t a Zero-Sum Game: An explanation of why the Paladins were willing to believe Romelle without question, and why their treatment of Lotor in Season 5 was not the heartless and inhumane torture that I saw many people post-Season 6 making it out to be. (July 2, 2019)

In Control at All Times: a comparison of how the leaders of different teams at various points in the series embody the stated attributes of a Black Paladin. (July 4, 2019)

The Winding Detour: an explanation of Shiro’s character arc over the course of the first 7 seasons. (July 13, 2019)

Highlands Poppy: An in-depth look at what the merging of the two Shiros represents. (August 22, 2020)

My take on the merging of the two Shiros from the perspective of a Kingdom Hearts fan. (September 15, 2020)

False Perception: Why Lance is not Sokka, and what his arc should have been had S8 not suffered from executive meddling. (February 27, 2021)

Inverted Mirror: My thoughts on Shiro and Sendak’s final fight in Season 7 and why Keith being the one to kill Sendak was narratively and thematically fitting (Originally written on tumblr pre-s8, then deleted. Rewritten from scratch on March 29, 2023).

Me, My Self, and I: An analysis of the Operation Kuron storyline, the lore surrounding Clone Shiro’s existence, and what it represents for Shiro’s character arc. (March 30, 2023)

Continuation in response to comments on the original post. (March 31, 2023)

Worldbuilding: Posts where I analyze the world of the series and what the show tells us about things like the structure of the Garrison or how Zarkon justified the Galra Empire’s constant expansion.

My observations/additions to a reblog chain analyzing the implications of modern vs ancient Galra designs. (October 7, 2018)

A new addition regarding how this could explain one of the show’s “Galra Keith” moments. (April 16, 2023)

The Keystone Army and the Cult of Personality: my observations on the Galra empire’s stability in terms of both leadership and infrastructure. (January 5, 2019)

My additions to a post and reblog about potential family relations among the command structure of the Galra Empire, where I speculate what this could mean regarding the two Dayaks in Seasons 6 and 8. (March 2, 2019)

Symbol of Hope: Voltron’s relationship with the Coalition and why the latter fell out of focus after Season 4. (originally written on tumblr pre-S8, then deleted. then remade from scratch and archived on AO3 April 3, 2019)

No News is Good News: Figuring out the timeline of when the Second Colony was shut down. (June 4, 2019)

An Updated Guide to the Timeline of VLD: My notes on the timeline of the show’s events (April 21, 2023

False Analogy: An analysis of why treating the Galra Empire as Space!Fire Nation does not work because the circumstances of how their respective wars began are completely different. (June 14, 2021)

A Guide to the Galaxy Garrison: A detailed breakdown of everything we know about the Garrison and what it tells us about how the organization operates. (June 20, 2021)

Timekeeping in the Voltron Universe: A breakdown of all known information on time measurements in the series relative to Earth. (July 14, 2024)

FreeVLDS8: Posts aimed at specifically analyzing the evidence of executive meddling in Season 8 (and Season 7) to determine what the original pre-meddled version would likely have looked like (largely inspired by the works of Team Purple Lion)

An explanation of the evidence that Lotor’s survival was cut from Season 8 for someone asking about how he died in a reblog of an AU comic. (March 11, 2019)

Alchemist’s and Paladins: my take on a blank spot in @leakinghate​‘s breakdown of the exec-ordered changes made to Season 8 where we know what was supposed to happen but not how it would’ve happened. (March 29, 2019)

Dea ex Machina: analysis of how the Paladins were supposed to have caught up to Honerva based on visual clues in previous seasons (May 27, 2019).

My summary of the patterns in how the words and behavior of cast/crew members in interviews points toward Season 8 being the disappointment it was because the IP owner forced the crew to change the story to sell toys and set up his ideas for a sequel, in which I get a little salty at the fact that much of the fandom refuses to believe it in favor of scapegoating the showrunners. (July 1st, 2019)

Cutting and Padding: analysis of how the changes to season 7 mentioned in leakinghate’s breakdown affected S7′s pacing (July 4, 2019)

Audience Surrogage: a theory about what role Romelle was supposed to play in Seasons 7-8 (July 6, 2019)

Patchwork Quilt: A sequel to Cutting & Padding where I specifically focus on the obvious visual signs of last-minute story changes in Season 7′s earth arc, and how it would have originally looked. (December 29, 2019)

A VLD Production Timeline: An outline of the show’s production process and when in that process the changes to Season 8 were made. (July 23, 2020)

[frenchcirce]

Tagged by @shesailsships and @seoulsborne123, thanks! I love blabbering about my favorite characters :D

Name your top 10 fav characters from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people.

So, my favs, order not relevant:

1- Lina Inverse, Slayers. A flawed (thus relatable) and badass character. Quirky and strong, but sometimes wins just by sheer luck instead of the ‘conveniently levels up’ crap. Will Always have a special place in my heart since it’s the first character/anime was the Reason of my first incursion into fandom.

2- Lin Koujo, Ghost Hunt. I am very fond of tall, dark, sildent and mysterious characters who are actually very soft :)

3- Shoto Todoroki, BNHA. Tragic backstory, deadpan humour and sarcasm, somehow both very observant and completely oblivious: I love! (But to be perfectly honest I love Aizawa quite as much. Darn, it’s hard to chose)

4- Miss Parker, The Pretender. Did I say I love emotionally damaged and badass characters? Here we are!

5- Lance McLain, Voltron Legendary Defender. I also have a soft spot for funny, flirtatious characters (I’m still mad he was so OOC in the 8th season of the show, thanks fanfiction for fixing this)

6- Harmon Rabb Jr, JAG. Well, I totally had a crush on him when I was younger. I am not immune to a hot guy wearing a uniform ;) I’m sure @shesailsships understands lol

7- Raven, Tales of Vesperia. See the love for funny characters with a darker, damaged side cited above :)

8- Sophie Hatter, Howl’s Moving Castle (book version). Cool, strong-minded, and manages to handle a drama-queen like Howl. Respect, girl, respect.

9- Josephine March, Little Women. Ah, Jo, I identified so much with her when I was a kiddo. I’m still salty she didn’t have a life full of adventures in canon but well, still a fav of mine.

10- Adrien Agreste, Miraculous Ladybug. He’s just...too adorable. If I ever have a son I want him to be as cute as Adrien (minus the emotional scars, that is)

Mmm, I can’t remember who’s been already tagged of who hasn’t so if you see it it’s up to you to do it.

[ptw30]

so I'm listening to a podcast talking about character agency and it's helping me realize what made vld steadily lose engagement after season 2, was the characters steadily lost their agency until they did nothing to affect the direction of the plot. The characters stopped informing the plot, and the plot started informing the characters.

Absolutely. Great observation!

But you’re doing something all professionals do - further their learning.

The EPs - and even DreamWorks - acted unprofessionally when creating/executing the plot of VLD. The EPs are amazing artists. There is no doubt that Voltron wasn’t visually compelling.

But there is also no indiction that either EP ever cracked open a book on plot, and even though I know someone did - a writer doesn’t switch character arc endings by accident— a simple reading of the first three “books” of The Screenwriter’s Bible would have helped the EPs avoid many of their plotting mistakes. (Honestly? It’s like they read the book and decided to do the exact opposite.)

But a lack of plotting expertise and knowledge in and of itself is not an issue - as long as the EPs rely heavily upon a competent head of story, which they didn’t.

Most writing books will tell you - storytelling is instinctive. Structure in the usual format - intro, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion - one can do just by watching/reading, but actual plot takes experience and continued learning (where you learn nuances, like plot twists, the art of dialogue, and character agency). That really separates the true storytellers from the amateurs. (Again, kudos to you for studying your craft!)

Voltron’s story was an absolute mess after Season 2 in every sense of the word, and it was clear how inexperienced the writers were. Whether the loss of May Chan was that great, Tim Hedrick wasn’t as skilled as he appeared or he got tired of fighting the EPs - leading to his ultimate departure from the series, along with some directors - or the EPs were really that incompetent - or maybe it was just the Perfect Storm - DreamWorks needed to act to save the story and their one-time good name.

LOUD SIGH. I mean, let’s go back to a basic principle in writing plot - the narrative question.

According to Jane K. Cleland in Mastering Plot Twists, “Much as a company’s brand represents a promise to a consumer, so too does a narrative question represent a promise to your readers. It sets out the primary conflict that supplies impetus for readers to read on. It provides enough information so that readers can make educated decisions about your story is to their their taste. If your readers’ interest is not captured, so be it. If it is, they’re likely to finish the story because they want to learn the answers implicit to the narrative question.”

At the beginning, Voltron raises the query, “They brought another one.”

That’s actually the series’ question, the one we wait to be answered. Shiro is the “other one.” So who is the first? You can make the assumption that there was someone else in the prison - whom we never meet but who was inferred in Season 5, Episode 1 when Matt was late to the shuttle after searching for his dad.

Ready for the mind-blowing part? The narrative answer to “They brought another one ” is actually Zarkon. He was the first Black Paladin. Shiro is “another one,” the new Black Paladin. But then the narrative breaks apart when Keith becomes a third - and isn’t a Black Paladin. The narrative makes that clear over and over again - going insofar as forming the Blazing Sword with Shiro or Zarkon only.

And if Shiro is actually “the other one,” then we needed see to be that as the narrative promised - wielding the Black Bayard and embracing his role fully as the Black Paladin - which is not what happened. It is what would have happened if the narrative question had been answered. Instead it was abandoned and forgotten by the EPs. And that’s one of the many reasons the lion swap didn’t work - cuz it isn’t true to the narrative question - and that’s also why so many disheartened fans watched to the end. They waited to see Shiro - who was established as the new Black Paladin in the very first sequence of the series - once more fly Black.

(It also would have fulfilled the narrative promise - that Shiro was the other one and no one else in the story.)

Instead, Shiro is killed and returns but not included in plot other than window dressing. In fact, Voltron itself doesn’t do better than the first Paladins - that “dark history.” The original Paladins lost their leader, Zarkon. And the new Paladins? Though Allura didn’t end the story as the “leader,” she was head of the coalition at one point. So the new Paladins didn’t save their leader, either. (Or Shiro, really. Or Kuron.)

So...why did we watch Voltron Legendary Defender - to see history repeat itself? We’re all doomed to fail...? Is that the answer to the narrative question? “There is another one - maybe - but he, too, will die, and so will his commander. And they won’t be able to save each other, either.”

Thus, ultimately, I feel Voltron was not so much a disaster in plotting, though it was. I feel it‘s true failure was in its humanity - or lack thereof. In a story that was to show and celebrate all races, genders, sexualities, and people with disabilities coming together to create the greatest weapon against evil - our trust and love in each other - Voltron Legendary Defender showed evil triumphing over good.

...and I’m running out of ways to express this point or my level of disgust. But I will say this - that ending was an epic reversal. Terrible messaging, terrible delivery and terrible implications - but you don’t get a more epic reversal than the most powerful weapon in the universe on the supposed side of good, being defeated by the forces of evil.

Of course, in a kids’ show where viewers expect the heroes to win - no level of reversal is going to satisfy viewers as they watch the strong-willed heroine walk off to her death, especially the WOC heroine.

[captainharunanase]

Sigh...

I had Allurance for a moment only for vld to make it a ghost ship with Lance now forever pining after Allura's death.

Shiro was finally able to be the "White Paladin" of the team but he barely interacted with them or even looked at Keith.

Hunk and Pidge had amazing screentime but Matt and a few others got sidelined and forgotten.

And Keith? He apparently wasn't even in Shiro's "wedding" with that rando--Curtis--even though he pretty much has been implying since s1 that Shiro is his family and his guiding light so therefore someone he would always be there for especially in his ups and downs of life.

Sheith held on all this time only to act like coworkers in the finale but not anything more like they have forgotten how to be best friends until it was convenient for the plot.

And Allura? The girl who lost everything? She ended up being almost like Honerva--sacrificing everything that is her to help her new family get their happy endings even though she could never attain hers.

I loved the fighting, the mecha transformations, the development of the MFEs, the plot, and the final showdown against Haggar but--

--To give Lance and Allura happiness and hint on giving her a new belonging only to stripe it away as a "price" all while "subtlety" diminishing Keith and Shiro's importance to each other to make their disjointed individual endings "make sense" outside of their s1-s7 buildup and somehow mesh both ships to fail in the end as a "this was the only way to save the universe" ploy-----

--Despite the damn show constantly paralleling the lesson on how Zaggar's love turned to a twisted hate that destroyed the universe and it was up to literally Allurance and even Sheith's love that actually saved the galaxy throughout the series--

----Only to rip both ships off as a sacrifice to satisfy the plot just enough to "justify" their demise as a means to an end. That metaphorical 'smoking gun' we expected to go off at the end? Over Allurance and Sheith? Was nothing but an illusion and wasn't even loaded to begin with apparently.

It is aggravating and disappointing.

I really loved this whole season but that last episode completely went against it's own theme.

They wouldn't have let Allura sake herself let alone let her do it alone--even with Honerva.

Lance wouldn't have even accepted the thought of Allura with that dark entity in her for long or even allow her to die or even worse be forced to love her ghost for the rest of his human life.

Allura wouldn't have wanted Lance to pine after her and not move on from her. She wouldn't have asked that of him by giving him her marks as a way of keeping a part of her quintessence in him.

Keith wouldn't just estrange himself from the one person that made up his whole universe especially after his oath to Shiro of always being there. He, at least, should have been the best man in the wedding if he was the selfless type to watch the canonical love of his life get with someone else.

And Shiro? He wouldn't have remained sidelined til the very end when they only needed him for his Atlas to only help boost Voltron and he clearly, while became a pseudo-Paladin for a moment, did not make any direct change or impact on the 6-man team. He especially should have had a direct moment of any form of romantic attraction with someone in the show and not as a damn fucking footnote of a "One Year Later" offscreen and unwritten romance with a character we didn't even know the name of at first nor should Shiro's final arc be seen as a "oh btw he got married and retired? Idk we keeping it vague so we give you lgbt rep!"

Despite the clearly, already written in the show, deeper bond he has had with Keith since even before s1 and that now makes his supposed bond with Keith a moot point and now unnecessary since it did not deliver in any way or reach a pinnacle in the climax nor did it have any proper closure to even indicate whether it could have or couldn't have been in the first place.

I have a lot of amazing points I would have shared earlier if I hadn't watched the last episode but that last scene completely turned the whole s8 around it's own head and practically told it to go fuck itself.

They try to amend it with a cheap superficial "Praise Allura Day" and despite a few of the team indeed having some form of ending--the main cast which consists of Keith, Shiro, Allura and yes Lance too by his association with her as her boyfriend--was literally given the short end of the stick.

Keith was sidelined and not allowed to act but be an observer at the end with none of his usual prowess, Lance now forever will chase after Allura's ghost and be haunted by her, Allura, herself, died for literally no reason than to right Honerva and Zarkon's wrongs, and Shiro wasn't allowed to even be a part of his paladin family and only there to remind people--at the last 5 seconds--that he's gay and apparently not single anymore with literally a no-name guy (actually it's Curtis but I had to look that shit up) that looked too much like Adam for my liking and while completely disregarding everything he did for Keith and vise versa.

Man that last episode is like Bleach's last chapter.

A completely different almost rewritten reality from the entire series itself. It overturned all the canonization of seven seasons under one episode.

And whether it was DreamWorks or JDS & LM's doing is irrelevant.

While it was an incredibly impactful season it did it with a fucking high cost.

Not about the ships per say--except Allurance for why make it happen only to destroy them immediately later?--but rather the complete turn arounds it had to do to try and justify why they made it that way.

That is what's so aggravating and disappointing.

Not the plot.

But the writing standpoint of trying to explain plotpoint A to upside down B. In a way, they became Haggar themselves and rewrote B and inverted it to make no sense whatsoever but pretend that it was "the only way" for it to end.

I expected an open ending for Sheith or actual development of Keith with Acxa and Shiro with Curtis if need be--and it had to be extremely good--but they couldn't even do that right.

And Allurance? They planned for Lance and Allura since the beginning but apparently the price Lance had to pay for his happy ending was her life out of the blue and at the last second.

And that hurts me.

This isn't as bad as Bleach's notorious ending but this is a definite close second at how they completely turned things around to try and make the ships happen just so they can fail while preaching how the theme of vld is found family and true love saving the universe.

Too bad the main trio--plus Lance now too--weren't allowed to partake in that lesson or in true happiness.

I still love Allurance and I will always love Sheith.

But what they did to Allura and Shiro completely ruined both Lance and Keith's endings.

And that breaks my heart to see it as the price they paid for daring to love them and trying to make them happy.

Lance can't truly be happy now since he can't move on and let Allura go or rather he won't to keep her memory alive in him.

And Keith didn't even get to watch the man he loved get with someone else and is now estranged from his best friend he swore he loved so much he literally was willing to die with Shiro and allow the universe to pay for it.

And what of Pidge and Hunk? We know what they accomplished but what about their personal lives? Is Hunk with Shay? Is Pidge still single? Is Matt still with his girlfriend? What of Acxa and the others? It is so vague with no clear answer and that is also disheartening.

Ah, sorry for my ramble. I stayed up to watch it from 3am and it's now almost 9am as I finish typing this jumbled vent post.

I'm both happy it's over and saddened it ended that way. While I didn't expect Sheith to happen I never imagined it like this and while I hoped for Allurance I didn't want them to pay the price for loving each other to the point of ending them.

I'm sad but I won't take it out on the writers--idk if I trust them at the moment--but I am still grateful they gave me Shiro and so many other characters to love.

I just hope they understand what they did and how much they disappointed nearly everyone with this "twist" ending.

Imma go sleep now I still have a lot to process.

I thought we'd get to see them all get happy endings but apparently only half of them did.

And last but not least no one suffered more than Coran when he found out--I feel so broken for him the most since he couldn't keep the promise to King Alfor to keep Allura safe--which is what his whole point in life was and what defined him as both a mentor and father-uncle figure to Allura and his new family.

And I think that's the one that hurts the most.

Okay I'm tired and sleepy so I'll be sure to interact with yall later for better analysis of s8 when I'm in a better state of mind.

Peace out yall.

Edit: Keith apparently IS in the wedding but he’s literally behind Shiro the whole time that it took me a few rewinds to see his ponytail and slight show of his profile. Geez way to hide him from the camera angle DW it almost made it look like he wasn’t even there if you didn’t pay attention behind Shiro and gave us the impression he wasn't there to begin with.

[stuffingprize]

calling it now..!

We’re done with two thirds of Voltron by now and these are my endgame ship predictions: Sheith, Allurance, and Hidge (Team Punk)

Some of them took me by surprise & I can’t say I’m an avid shipper of them all. I’ve based it on each pair’s growing intimacy which has been consistent throughout all seasons. These are MY OBSERVATIONS ONLY!!

SEASON 1

SEASON 2

SEASON 3+4 (originally one season)

SEASON 5+6 (again, originally one season)

I could definitively add more moments to each one but decided to just do one screencap per season/original season.

BONUS

But you know what the CLINCHER was for me at the end? The fact that.. across all three ships... there’s been at least one (1) similarity mentioned/made in reference to the other’s parents. That can’t be a coincidence..

Keith giving Shiro his dad’s vest:

Lance obtaining the same sword used by Allura’s dad:

Pidge’s dad comparing Hunk & his daughter to himself and wife:

People often end up choosing partners with traits they’re familiar with. So it makes sense to me that they’d hint a ship in this way. But, let me reiterate again that I’m not wholly invested in all three of these ships, just that this is where I think the writers are headed based on these connections.

Regardless of your opinion on them, fanon content still exists to enjoy what could’ve otherwise been. And of course I could be completely wrong & that’s fine too. That aside, let’s enjoy the rest of Voltron~!

[itsmivalin-blog]

Is Sheith [ShiroxKeith] a problematic ship ?

Due to the misinformations and lies some Antis seem to be spreading around.

I wrote this fact-check article about sheith.

Is Sheith [ShiroxKeith] a Problematic Ship ?

[ Tw mention : Pedophilia, incest, child abuse ]

Many people [antis] went ahead and painted the ship between Shiro former leader of voltron currently captain of the Atlas and Keith the former red paladin and current black paladins and leader of voltron

A problematic  [pedophilic/incestuous] ship.

And that leads us to the question, is it really a pedophilic/incestuous  ship ?

• " Sheith is a pedophilic ship "

“ Pedophilia, or paedophilia, is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children or generally children under the age of 13.”

Considering the fact Keith's age was [18] on season 1, [19] on season 5 and currently [21] on season 6/7 while Shiro is [25] that leaves them with only a 4 years age gap.

So No, it's not and was never a pedophilic ship by any interpretation of the word as it's a ship between two legal consenting adults.

• “ Sheith normalize pedophilia cause Shiro met Keith when he was 12! while he was an adult! ”

This is a very common headcanon going around and it's both timeline inaccurate and wrong.

Shiro and Keith originally had a 6 years age gap.

And JDS described Shiro then as a young adult in his late teens/early twenties pre-kerberos mission.

Shiro met Keith when Keith was around [15/16] not [12].

Keith was as old as pidge when he enrolled into the Galaxy Garrison, a military related space academy that can be considered a military high school and it uses military cadet education it's most likely does not recruit elementary or middle school children. ( or generally children below the age of 14 ) .

While Shiro was around the age [21/22]

Their relationship pre-kreb was a purely platonic relationship and Shiro was in a full committed relationship on his way to marriage with his s/o then Adam.

• “ Sheith is harmful and homophobic cause it paints Shiro a canonically gay man as a predator

• "sheith is grooming ”

Again, Shiro was in a fully committed relationship on his way to marriage  with his significant other Adam pre-kerberos mission so he is not by any means a predator.

“Child grooming is befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes the family, to lower the child's inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse.”

Shiro's relationship with Keith pre-kreb was a purely platonic relationship with no harmful intents as Shiro simply saw a great potential in a very talented disciplinary case “Keith” who simply needed a bit of guidance.

It is by no means “grooming”.

• “ sheith is incest! They are literally brothers ”

“ Incest /ˈɪnsɛst/ is sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in a consanguineous relationship (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity, stepfamily, those related by adoption or marriage ”

It was confirmed by the creators that Keith and Shiro are not related by blood or even adoption or in anyway.

Since they are not related in anyway way.

No, it's not an incestuous ship.

• “ Shiro adopted Keith !”

• “ Shiro raised Keith ! ”

Is yet another very common headcanon going around. That was not confirmed, mentioned or even hinted on. And was dismissed by the staff.

Aside from the fact you can not adopt a brother, and need to be at least 25 and and healthy since life terminal illness could disqualify you from being an adoptive parent.

Pre-kreb Shiro an unmarried young adult [21/22] with a chronicle muscle disorder and only 3 active years left in his life that he was going to spend them on the Kerberos mission could not have adopt a 15 years old.

Befriending someone younger than you is not equivalent to raising them, Shiro did not raise Keith and they only known each other for only 2 years or so before Shiro took off for the Kerberos mission.

Approximately 2 years are by no means enough time to “raise” someone.

• “ Keith called Shiro his brother several times! It's incest”

“Shiro you are like a brother to me”

“you are my brother”

Calling someone that is not related to you “your brother” does not make them automatically your sibling.

Many people refer to their best friends as their brother/sister, and that does not mean any future relationship is labeled incest since they are not related and feelings and emotions indeed evolve and are subjected to change.

That aside, the creators never referred to them as brothers but rather as “best friends��� and on the other hand that staff said “the brother line is not literal, and not as important as the way it is being said.”

Josh Hamilton went on to state the “you’re my brother” line was equivalent to Keith saying “you’re everything to me”.

• “Sheith is problematic and unhealthy cause it's power imbalance”

“A power imbalance is the attempt by the perpetrator(s) to use observed or perceived personal or situational characteristics to exert control over the targeted youth's behavior or limit the victim's ability to respond or stop their aggression.”

Shiro has not ever harmed or pressured Keith, but rather always vouched for him and his abilities, even believed in him and wanted him to be his successor to lead voltron as the black paladin.

Shiro is currently the capital of the Atlas while Keith is the leader of voltron and the black paladin, and he displayed obvious confident leading actions and qualities  during season 7. So we can safely say they are on an equal footing.

Processing all the facts mentioned above, we can safely say Sheith is NOT a problematic ship. And it's  not and was never pedophilic or incestuous.

[blayzez]

So I recently rewatched Voltron s1e01 - The Rise of Voltron to compile screenshots of my favorite Lances of that episode, as I believe that episode animated him BEAUTIFULLY while the rest of the series tends to make him more off-model than any other character (don't deny it, you know it in your heart it's true).

Anyway, while doing that, I made a few... observations. As per the usual with pilot episodes, a lot was packed into this episode. Some of it probably seemed pretty throw-away, early season stuff that won't really make reappearances in the future. However, I am seeing some stuff that actually DID reappear -- sometimes late in the series. I am referring to these as planted seeds; these seeds were planted in the very first episode, but some of them are just late bloomers.

So I have decided to make a meta about this. I want to point out the different seeds that were planted in this episode and when they actually bloom later in the series. Keep in mind that some of these are very obvious and stuff that everyone knows, but I feel they should be here for reasons I'll explain later (and just to have these seeds in a nice compilation).

DISCLAIMER:

I have nothing against ANY ship. While I don't ship many things myself in this show, I'm not against the ships people have for this show, regardless of what those ships are. That said, my confidence in the endgame ship is Klance, and as such, other Lance- and Keith-related ships may not be shown in the best light in this post as one of the points I make in this meta is WHY I believe Klance will be endgame. I will not use the full ship names other than Klance so that this post will stay out of the tags of those ships. THAT said, know that I do not find the ships I'm trying to disprove unhealthy, wrong, or bad in any way, I just don't believe they'll be endgame. Please go into this with an open mind.

All that said, let's get this show on the road!

I am starting with the most obvious and well-known seed:

Okay, we all know about this one. Pidge being iffy about the Kerberos mission, eventually revealing to Shiro that the two people who accompanied him on the Kerberos mission were her father and brother, showing us that she desires ro find them in space. We all know this, the show has beaten us over the head with her arc repeatedly. Still, this seed was planted in this first episode and so it warrants mentioning. It's also noteworthy that this seed did not fully bloom until season 7 -- one season away from the finale season. This is important, but I will get to it later.

Onto the next one!

Another obvious seed. Allura's insecurities as well as her expectations of herself and the Voltron crew to carry her father's legacy. This seed is still growing and got a lot of focus in seasons 5 and 6, where it bloomed the most. This is a seed that I don't think CAN blossom until the series is complete, though, as bringing peace to the universe is how Allura and Voltron can fulfill her father's legacy. Not much to say here, just posting it for prosperity's sake and to show that, like most of the seeds on this list, this seed did not/will not fully blossom until the very end as well as the fact that it's something we see throughout the show and does not get ignored.

As for this next one:

I hesitated to add this one because it is a bit of a reach. After deliberating, I decided it was worth adding in.

So Allura was integral in Pidge's season 1 arc regarding Pidge's identity. I've noticed that Pidge seems to be reciprocating come season 7 -- Allura helped Pidge by trying to get her to admit to her true self but also keeping it a secret and letting Pidge be to one to reveal it, and now Pidge is Allura's MVP in getting back the castleship.

Allura is impressed by Pidge in this scene. This is actually Allura's first impression of Pidge, as Pidge didn't say much before now. And her first impression of her is that Pidge is extremely intelligent and has a mind that can be relied on. I think it's possible this is a seed that is sprouting now in season 7, when Allura is relying on the intellect of Pidge and Pidge's family get back a piece of Alfor's legacy -- the Castle of Lions. Allura even eluded to this in The Feud, when she chose Pidge to leave the game show and said it was because Pidge and her family have the best chance of finishing what Alfor started. And that started right here in this scene, I think.

So, next seed:

This is a small seed, and an unexpected one. I've always viewed Iverson as a jerk and thought this scene no different. Fresh off the heels of season 7, I rewatch this scene and realize how... honestly concerned Iverson sounds. He doesn't sound angry or too business-like or gruff, he sounds concerned and confused and seems to actually have Shiro's well-being in mind when he requests they put Shiro under. His voice, especially when compared to how he spoke to the Garrison Trio, is softer and hints that he really isn't as bad a guy as we've all pegged him to be. Come season 7 and we see how right that actually is. He ISN'T a bad guy; he's a strict guy, yes, but he has everyone's best interests at heart and honestly feels gutted when that entire crew is wiped out.

I know that was a small seed, but it still counts. Next seed, ahoy:

This explains a lot regarding Allura's connections to the lions, but we don't really see the fruits of this until season 6. In season 6, Allura was able to use her powers from Oriande to take Shiro's soul from the Black Lion's consciousness and place it into Clone Shiro's body. Yes, she has powers from Oriande -- that's how she was able to mess with Shiro's soul like that -- but it was her connection to the lions that allowed her to connect to Black Lion's consciousness in the first place. Oriande didn't do that -- Alfor did, and this scene proves it.

This next seed is... wow:

This one caught me by surprise because holy crap how did I miss this???

Okay, so I made a post talking about that Lauren Montgomery art and how it's playing into the show in unexpected ways. Please go read that to understand this to the fullest extent.

This scene? This scene foreshadows Lance's inclusion in Shiro's arc. Shiro offers a hand -- his Galra hand -- to Lance for shaking (Lance being the only person in the room aside from Keith whose name he knew). Lance looks at the arm trepidatiously for a split second before smiling and reciprocating the handshake.

This moment is focused on for a reason and I can't believe I missed it. Because isn't it interesting that Shiro offers his GALRA arm despite it being a symbol of his trauma and not something he'd be eager to flaunt? Isn't it interesting that the episode puts so much focus on his handshake with LANCE, but his handshake with Pidge is barely given any thought?

It IS interesting, and here's why.

Lance was much more important to Shiro's arc than we thought. While Keith brought Clone Shiro to an end, and Allura brought the real Shiro back to life, Lance was the support he needed. Clone Shiro wasn't doing so well. I mean, he's a Galra-created clone being controled by Haggar, of course he's not doing well. The ones who suffered the most from this were Allura and Lance. Allura stood up for herself and refused to be pushed around and sometimes managed to get her way. Lance, however, respected Shiro too much to do more than try and keep the peace. He didn't stand up for himself, didn't call Shiro out on his bullcrap, just tried to keep him calm and keep the peace among the team. It's no wonder that Lance is the one Clone Shiro goes to about how he's actually feeling. And what does Lance do? He supports him. Comforts him. Promises him they'll figure it out together. He's worried at first, much like how he showed worry before accepting Shiro's hand in s1e01, but he ultimately puts that aside and accepts Shiro.

This scene was the planted seed. It was subtle, so subtle I completely missed it, but here it is. And it took a while to bloom, BOY did it take a while! Took until season 5 before we got to see it blossom. But it did and Lance was the support Clone Shiro needed to stay sane until Keith could come in and fix the situation.

Speaking of Lance:

This seed came to fruition in season 3 -- it was definitely foreshadowing. Most of the other paladins get are shown alone when shown their lions. There are two exceptions to that (one of which I will get to later).

This seed is the first exception. Lance and Keith are both shown with the Red Lion here, rather than Keith alone. Come season 3, Lance becomes the Red Lion's new pilot.

With this next seed:

This was planted in this first episode and didn't really see the light for day for AGES. We were told from the very beginning that Hunk is the one who is meant to help keep the team together, but we don't actually see that happen.

Until season 7.

Hunk's arc in season 7 seems like it came out of nowhere (his family arc kinda did), but it was foreshadowed from the very beginning. There was always going to come a time when the team seemed like it was falling apart and it'd be up to Hunk to keep them together. And in season 7, that's EXACTLY what happened. This seed actually sprouted in season 6, when Hunk got their Galra allies to stop arguing during a crucial moment. It stagnated then, until season 7 came along and this seed finally bloomed in full.

I love this next seed:

This seed is one of my favorites, because the principle of its existence helps prove a point I will make later in this post.

It's Leifsdotter! This is a seed that didn't begin blooming until season 7. I know, the showrunners could have just needed a design for an mfe pilot and pulled hers out of the episode, but there are two things that make me disagree with that notion:

1. Her design is so much more... detailed and not standard-background-character-ish than the rest of the students in that scene. She's not the focus of the scene and doesn't even speak, yet her design makes her stand out. The showrunners WANT us to see her.

2. Hers is the only mfe pilot design pulled from that episode. That group had multiple different character designs and all of them could have easily suited the mfe pilots. But the showrunners didn't do that, which makes me think this was very deliberate and planned out.

I will be getting to these points soon.

Now for the seeds that have been growing throughout the series but have not reached full bloom. First off, we have...

Okay, this one is super subtle. Shiro actually has had a hand in Lance's romance arc since this first episode. We have a very tiny hint of Shiro's sexuality with this shot:

Color theory is often used in media to portray subtle clues to the audience about something happening in the background or as foreshadowing. This scene is the latter; it foreshadows Shiro's arc by using a rainbow in the background, right above his head, and the lemur-sloth-thing that's guiding them blocks the rainbow off from extending to Pidge as well, keeping the rainbow strictly to Shiro. So we had a subtle hint in this very first episode about Shiro's sexuality.

And I think that alludes to the expectation we all have of Shiro helping Lance with a sexuality arc. It makes sense, and it's interesting seeing that Shiro has kinda of been involved in Lance's romantic arc this whole time! Right from the first episode!

We see it continue throughout the series; the people that are most annoyed with Lance's flirtations are Shiro, Keith (who isn't really verbal about it but almost always looks disgruntled), and Allura (who is often on the receiving end of said flirtations). Shiro interrupts flirtations on multiple occasions and has shown a lot of annoyance with it.

This... kind of continues in season 7 with the reveal of Shiro being gay. He doesn't have much interaction with Lance, but I think his sexuality being revealed here (however... too subtle it may have been) is paving the way for the climax of Lance's romance arc in season 8.

The next seed is not nearly as subtle:

Black Paladin Lance! This is the second exception to the paladins + their lions scene I mentioned earlier.

I know a lot of people lost hope in this, but not me. There has been way too much set up for this, and as I will talk about soon, almost everything that has been set up has come to fruition.

So let’s look at this scene.

The Green and Yellow Lions have scenes with their paladins alone -- no other paladin is in the shot. For the Red Lion, both Keith and Lance are in the shot, which foreshadowed Lance eventually taking over the Red Lion -- which happened in season 3. Then we have the Black Lion. Three people are in that shot -- Shiro, Keith, and Lance. Shiro is, of course, the original Black Paladin. Keith took the helm in season 3 and then again in season 6 - present. So this shot foreshadows that. This leaves Lance.

I want to point out how this shot is set up. Shiro is the largest, which makes sense as he was the Black Paladin for the longest -- seasons 1, 2, 4, 5, and half of 6. Keith is the second largest. Again, this makes sense as he's been the Black Lion's pilot for seasons 3, half of 6, and all of 7. So he has been the pilot for the second longest. Lance being the smallest makes sense if he's only to be the Black Lion's pilot for a short while. So theory time!

I believe something will happen to Keith in season 8 -- he'll be captured or perhaps Honerva mind-controls him. The Black Lion then enlists Lance to be its pilot long enough to get Keith back, who will then take over as the Black Lion's pilot and Lance goes back to Red.

And it makes sense, considering how this shot is set up, for it to have taken this long for Lance to be the Black Lion's pilot. He's the smallest in the shot, smaller than Keith, and Keith had only just gotten back to piloting the Black Lion. With the way the series is set up, it wouldn't have made sense for Lance to pilot the Black Lion sooner; seasons 4 and 5 (keeping in mind that seasons 3 and 4 and seasons 5 and 6 were meant to be single seasons each and were split up last minute), while not featuring Lance -- although Lance has always been developing in the background, it's just slowly done and not at the forefront -- do show the changes he goes through in losing Keith to the Blade of Marmora. We see him become isolated, ignored, and any confidence he had built up being Keith's right-hand was shot. Season 6 was about resolving the overall problem of which Lance's issues were a side effect. Season 7, meanwhile, allows us to see Keith coming back into action with a clearer mind while also showing us how much he relies on Lance despite being a much better leader. You can see the difference in Lance's actions in the show between seasons 4 and 5 and seasons 6 and 7; in season 7 especially, he's much more in-action, plays a much bigger part, and shows how necessary he really is. This was all needed for Lance's arc -- getting rid of this flow (even if season 4 was not the best by any stretch of the means) would have weakened Lance's arc and made him less able to be the Black Lion's pilot.

Another point I want to bring up is the "following in his [Keith's] footsteps" thing. This is something that has also been a constant in the show -- not the phrase, but the action. Because Lance is ALWAYS following in Keith's footsteps. ALWAYS. He literally followed Keith's footsteps in this episode to save Shiro. The series shows how often he follows Keith -- they're constantly next to each other, Lance often wants Keith's glory, and in more serious points, he takes over Keith's lion, takes Keith's role as right-hand man to Shiro, gets a sword like Keith gets.

Quick diversion, on the subject of the sword, Lance has yet to use it despite having it for three seasons. In my opinion, this was to show us how alike he is to Keith and serves little purpose beyond that (perhaps will have a plot point sometime in season 8).

Back to the point, Lance has always followed Keith. "Don't follow in his footsteps," was something that was a focal point of the scene it was said in. It was that scene's finale line, a line that we were supposed to pay attention to and remember, and then the episode shows Lance disobeying that repeatedly and constantly following Keith's footsteps. This seed was planted -- a whole scene gave us focus of it being planted -- and it has slowly grown and blossomed over the course of the series. It hasn't fully bloomed yet, but season 7 did not ignore it like some might think. There was a bump in the road, but we saw him really slide into the role of right-hand man to Keith, showing himself reliable and actually being better as a right-hand than Keith was. He's followed in Keith's footsteps and, in some ways, has surpassed him. We also saw his relationship with the Red Lion and how similar it is to the relationship the Red Lion had with Keith. He's been following Keith's footsteps throughout the show and that hasn't stopped -- season 7 made sure to showcase that.

One last point I want to make is Lance's progression. His main issue in leading the team in this episode was his ego. Season 7 is such a huge jump because Keith leaves the team in Lance's hands and we see how responsible and logical Lance is in doing so, making keeping the team safe his number one priority and not even caring about the glory. When Keith put his, Pidge's, and Kosmo's lives in Lance's sniping hands, Lance had a chance to brag to his sister and the mfe sniper that was with them. He didn't. He explained what his gun does in a no-nonsense manner and left it at that. There was no ego, not talk of the glory he'd get for his skills, no showboating. He stayed on the task and his only concern was getting his job done right and keeping his teammates alive and safe. That seed was planted in the first episode -- that was his starting point, and much like his leadership seed, he has grown and bloomed into something much bigger and better than what he started out as.

And there's my point here: His leadership skills have grown. This seed is the seed of his leadership, and it has slowly grown as the show has gone on. It sprouted in season 3 and now season 7 is showing how beautifully it's blossoming. A seed planted in this episode didn't really start to blossom until the second-to-last season! As mentioned before, yes I will come back to that particular point soon (we're almost to the culmination of these "soons" and "laters", I promise).

I swear this next seed is important please bear with me:

I know the A//urance in season 7 scared a lot of people off, but PLEASE bear with me, I swear I have a point. Also, I promised Klance would be a big part of this meta and I was not lying so just... be patient. This is important.

Lance's arc has always been romance and that became the most obvious here. I want to say that out of all the un-bloomed seeds on this list, this is the one that is nearest to completion because his arc with Allura will conclude -- I predict -- early on in season 8.

Allura is important to Lance's arc, we can't deny that. His crush on her is superficial at first. This is proven later in the season; when Allura sacrifices herself so Shiro can escape the Galra ship, Lance is no more worried about her than the other paladins. Honestly, Coran and Shiro are more worried about Allura than Lance is. And that's saying something considering how much he worries about her later in the series.

The A//urance seed -- which I believe is mostly platonic and only dips into romance a little bit but will go right back to platonic -- was planted in this episode. It doesn't really grow much until season 5. That's not to say Lance's thing for Allura is not mentioned or focused on until then. No, what I mean is it is not DEVELOPED until season 5.

In the first two seasons, it's basically a running gag, there's not real seriousness behind it. Season 3, after Lance supports Keith's leadership, shows a turn in their relationship from running gag to actual friendship. However, season 3 doesn't show us much of this -- we only get focus on it in episode 2. After that, their relationship is sidelined for Lance and Keith's development.

We got a scene or two in season 4 of their friendship, but relationships aside from Pidge's and Matt's are not really explored or focused on in this season.

That's where season 5 comes in, because that's when we see them have serious scenes together that are akin to their scenes in s3e02. It's also where we see that Lance's crush on her is no longer a gag. In fact, until season 6, it's practically non-existent. Season 5 instead focuses on their friendship. Season 6 focuses on his one-sided crush.

And season 7...

Here's the thing: Season 7 isn't as A//urance-friendly as is believed. Sure, they get two nice scenes together, one including mutual blushing, and both including teasing from Lance's sister. However, there's something much, much different about their interactions here than in the previous seasons, and that is Lance's attitude.

Because Lance doesn't seem that terribly happy that Allura might be reciprocating his crush. He smiles, yes, but he only really blushes because of his sister's teasing, and he denies that Allura could possibly have any feelings for him. While, yes, that could be due to his insecurities, but if season 7 showed us anything about Lance, it's that his insecurities are finally lifting and he's finally gaining confidence in himself and his abilities.

If season 7 showed us anything about their relationship, it's that Allura initiated both of their scenes. Aside from that? Lance... actually kinda of ignored Allura for most of the season. His attention was more focused on his family and, well, Keith.

And that's something I've noticed has been consistent throughout the series since season 3.

In season 3, once Lance became Keith's right-hand man, his flirtations stopped COMPLETELY. He not only stopped flirting with girls in general, he even stopped flirting with ALLURA. And this stuck throughout the rest of season 3.

Season 4 had Keith leaving the team, yet Lance's flirting didn't pick back up. I believe this was because he really missed Keith and wasn't quite ready to fall back into his old habits. Season 5 is much the same.

Now his sudden flirtations with Allura (he only flirts with her on two occasions, I must point out) in season 6 seem out of nowhere. However, there was some build-up to it, what with his development with her in the previous season and the fact that he was jealous of Lotor's closeness with Allura. Not a lot of build-up and was still kind of sudden, but there was some.

However, I want to point something out: He started flirting again in the same season that has Keith's return. I believe this was deliberate and will play an important role later on.

Season 6 is also when we find out the depth of Lance's feelings -- it's not love, but it's a much deeper crush than he used to have.

This seed was planted in the first episode and was focused on quite a lot throughout its introductory episode and the episodes through the rest of the season. It took a while to grow, but it finally is and it is nearing it's blossoming. Like I said, I believe this seed will reach its full bloom early in season 8.

The last seed, however, will not reach its own full bloom until the end of season 8.

And the very last seed is-- oh come on, you know exactly what it is.

Yes, it's Klance. Of course it is.

Okay, so Lance's and Keith's relationship was one of the focal points of the episode. The seed that is their relationship was planted here and it's been growing this entire series. We've watched it grow and bloom, its growth being a focal point of the series, and season 7 did not ignore this. Actually, season 7 showcased their growth. It showed how much their relationship, which was once built on jabs and competition, is now built completely on mutual trust and respect and devotion. For God's sake, Lance called Keith the future! Compare that to how he interacted with Keith in the first episode and you see how much their seed has bloomed and how much season 7 did not only NOT ignore this growth, but actually made it one of the season's main themes.

I want to bring up these screenshots:

This might be a reach, but I find it interesting that Lance is standing in between Allura and Keith in this shot. Like, right smack dab in between them. Meanwhile, he isn't even looking at them. He's looking at Coran's pod, his face being in neutral territory. To me, this screams a subtle hint of Lance and his two love interests.

His front is facing Allura, his back to Keith. This seems like a visual to Lauren Montgomery's "He knows what he wants but not what he needs" thing. He wants Allura, is facing her, and he has his back to what he actually needs because what he wants and what he needs to not align. His face is in looking in neutral grounds, showing that while he prefers one side to the other, both sides are options.

It's also interesting to note that Allura is above him because of the pod. Later in the series, we find out he believes that Allura is above him, that he is beneath her, inferior to her.

Keith is below him but is stepping up to reach Lance's spot. He stays on the steps for a bit, but...

He obviously makes those final steps and a few minutes into the scene, he is standing beside Lance (something that happens a lot throughout the series). This is interesting because while Lance always secretly viewed Keith as being above him (i.e. better than him), him and Keith have always been on level ground with neither of them being superior to the other -- they just have different strengths and weaknesses and it takes Lance time to realize that just because he and Keith don't have the same strengths doesn't mean Keith is better than him because there are things that Lance is better at Keith in (shooting, being stealthy, strategies, etc.). They were always on level ground. Lance and Keith, neck-and-neck.

We have this shot:

In this one, everyone is looking at Shiro, and everyone's faces has the expression of excitement (and trepidation for Hunk because he's concerned about the bodysuit's size in proportion to him). Everyone is looking at Shi- no wait, Lance is definitely looking at Keith.

See? His line of sight is pointed directly at Keith. Someone pointed out that he supposed to be looking at Shiro, that his line of sight, if continued, points to Shiro. This is what I had to say to that:

"See I thought that, too, which is why I didn’t catch it until now. Lance’s line of sight COULD be leading to Shiro, but instead of looking at his face like everyone else, he’d be looking at Shiro’s man-titties. And while they are very nice, I doubt Lance was actually looking at them. If he was supposed to be looking at Shiro like the rest of the team, his irises would have to be right in between the top and bottom lines of his eye outlines. That’s how everyone elses shes are animated – even Keith’s irises are positioned upward to properly look at Shiro. Hunks irises are more down, yes, but that’s because hes taller than Shiro. But Shiro is slightly taller than Lance, so the position of Lance’s irises if hes looking at Shiro doesnt make sense as his irises would have to right in between the top and bottom lines of his eye outlines. Instead, they’re pointed down, at Keith."

Here's a quick edit I did to show where Lance's irises would have to be to be pointing to Shiro:

NOW he's looking directly at Shiro. But that's not the official animation we got. No, what we got was this:

While this could boil down to Lance having small irises, making it difficult to animate exactly where they need to be, I don't buy that. Hunk's irises are small in this shot and were animated fine, and s1e01 has some of the best animation the series has seen (I'd say only The Black Paladins tops it). The animators knew what they were doing. This was deliberate.

Then there's this screenshot:

I just think this one is pretty.

I also want to show just how often Lance and Keith end up standing next to each other. Here's a link to a compilation someone made of all the times Lance and Keith stood next to each other in just the first episode.

This? All deliberate. There is no way this was done accidentally, considering how often it happened in just this one episode and how often it happens in the series henceforth. One post would not be enough to showcase all the times they stood next to each other throughout the series. They're next to each other more often than any other character -- they always gravitate to each other, are constantly and consistently animated next to each other, even in season 7.

A lot of people assumed that A//urance and Ka/cxa was now set up for the endgame ships, but I think those people are jumping to conclusions waaaaaay too quickly.

You see, here's the thing about endgame ships.

They happen at the end.

Any ships being set up in season 7 are going to be rushed because they are not endgame. Josh Keaton keeps repeating that this is being written as a slow burn -- he wants us to remember that, so he's constantly saying it. Only Klance fits that term.

I want to bring in the Legend of Korra for just a second to prove my point.

LoK did not start off with Korrasami. One of the creators (Bryan, I think) really liked the idea of Korra and Asami being together, but they were operating under the assumption that they only had one season and Makorra was considered the easier relationship to develop. So Korra and Asami started out somewhat as rivals -- what with both girls liking the same guy, and Korra being suspicious of Asami's father and allies. Then they got greenlit for more seasons. What's the first thing they do? Season 2 dismantles Makorra and the season finale makes sure we know that these two are NOT getting back together and will not be endgame. Seasons 3 and 4 then go on to develop Korra's and Asami's relationship, but it was done subtly, to the point where there were many fans that thought the romance in their relationship came out of nowhere. They were wrong -- the friendship between these two was probably the most developed one of the series. Asami ended up back with Mako in season 2 after he and Korra broke up, but their relationship was shown to have ended season 2-3, where Asami began developing with Korra more. Both Asami and Korra had romantic relationships before ending up as each others endgame, and their relationship didn't take its real dramatic turn until season 4 -- the series' finale season.

Keith and Lance's relationship share a LOT of similarities -- which makes sense considering how many of Voltron's showrunners worked on Avatar and LoK. Klance is practically genderbended Korrasami IN S P A C E. A lot of what I mentioned up above about Korrasami fits Klance a lot -- both relationships started out rocky, turned into a friendship of mutual trust and respect, and are the most developed relationships of their respective series. The difference is that Voltron's showrunners knew how much time they had and didn't have to divert the relationship's endgame like LoK had to do with Makorra/Asamako/Korrasami. Klance's relationship development ended up much slower but much smoother because of it.

I actually regret judging season 7 as harshly as I had, because there was a lot of goodness in there and it really didn't kill Klance (a conclusion everyone, myself included, jumped to). A//urance and Ka/cxa? Yeah, it's there. But they're so tacked on that they're practically afterthoughts. The relationship that actually got focus this season? Klance. We saw the inherent trust Keith has in Lance in almost every episode, and we saw the high opinion Lance has of Keith as well as how much Keith leaving hurt Lance more than anybody else. Their relationship was a focus in season 7, one that I feel a lot of people overlooked because of a few tacked-on scenes featuring the other aforementioned ships. Honestly? I'd say that while this season isn't as Klance-centric as season 3, it probably fits in the number two spot. Don't believe me? Go watch it again, like, REALLY watch it and see how much Klance meat is in this season. Because there's a LOT.

Their relationship has always been a focal point of the series, and while some seasons didn't focus on it as much as others (compare seasons 1, 3, and 7 with 2, 4, 5, and 6 -- keeping in mind that seasons 4 and 5 hardly had Keith in it and seasons 2, 4, and 6 still had some noteworthy Klance moments), it has still been the most focused-on and developed relationship.

And that started with the very first episode.

The very first episode planted their seed and that seed's growth has not been ignored, contrary to popular belief. And that's where the "laters" and "soons" come in.

Because see the finished seeds list? All of those seeds were planted in the very first episode. And how long did it take for them to blossom? A LONG TIME. The earliest one we got was the Lance and Shiro seed, and that took until SEASON 3 to bloom. Another took until SEASON 5 to even SPROUT. The rest? Took until season 7. SEASON 7. That, to me, is proof that the showrunners have not thrown out the seeds they've planted in the beginning; it's just taking a long while for them to sprout and blossom. The fact that most of them took until the second-to-last season to fully come to fruition is absolute proof that early-planted seeds are not suddenly being ignored. We just need to be patient. Just because these seeds aren't blooming fast enough for our liking doesn't mean they're not blooming at all. It's not over until it's over. We still have another season for those seeds to blossom, so let's look to the future with hope and confidence!

[myth-and-mischief]

Light, Dark, and Inbetween:  Visual Symbolism in the Fight between Zarkon and Lotor

Ok, so I’m a total sucker for symbolism, whether it be visual or something an author has included in their work for their reader to discover.  I’ve done it myself in some of my works.  But I’m a little bit surprised that no one has really addressed or pointed out the specific lighting that goes on in the Zarkon vs. Lotor fight in S5e2.  (Or maybe someone did, I did come into the series between seasons 5 and 6).  

I think the lighting is supposed to symbolize Lotor as a grey character.  Or a character that has light in him.  

I haven’t found a video yet that includes the entirety of the fight, but this one is close.  

Nearly the entire fight is done in shadow.  We're given a specific shot where the sun is covered, and doesn’t return until Zarkon dies.  But another cue is that every shot of Lotor has light or highlight of light somewhere, usually the background.  The only time this doesn’t hold true is when the background is clearly reused.  

I’ll put the specific shots between a read more since it’ll get image heavy.  

The sun (source of light) being overcome with clouds, shadowing the entire duel.

Zarkon before and after the light is covered.  In particular, the cliffs behind him are entirely dark and only become darker.  

In contrast, the cliffs behind Lotor are much brighter, with clear areas where the light hits them.  These still remain even after the sun is covered.

There is a short conversation between Zarkon and Lotor.  Zarkon is entirely in shadow and the scenery is dark.  When Lotor speaks (not pictured) the angle is zoomed in to just his face.  But then the angle pulls back so show the two of them on the field.  Zarkon’s side is entirely in shadow (maybe some super faint highlights) and its actually hard at first to see where Zarkon is standing.

In contrast, Lotor’s side of the field has two different lightings.  The ground where he is standing is dark but the cliffs nearby are still bright.  It’s also much easier to spot Lotor between his hair and his sword.  When the angle again shifts to Lotor’s face, the cliffs behind his left shoulder are dark while the cliffs behind his right shoulder are bright.  

The fight between Lotor and Zarkon then starts.

Zarkon powers up (not pictured) and entirely in shadow.  Lotor steels himself and crouches, the angle following.  Although a bit hard to see, the cliffs behind him are highlighted (arrow).  Zarkon charges Lotor, and the cliffs behind Lotor are still shadowed (left shoulder) and bright (right shadow).  Zarkon kicks Lotor and the low hills behind Lotor are shadowed (left side of screen) and bright (right side of screen, arrow) 

Lotor then strikes at Zarkon with the Black Bayard, and two interesting things happen in the scene.   First is the light and shadow happening in the scene:  the shadowed cliffs are behind Zarkon, the bright cliffs are behind Lotor, and where the light-shadow meet is exactly where Zarkon and Lotor are in the scene.  

Secondly, the blast, which I take as an aura of quintessence.  Half of it is pale blue, the other half is violet.  I can think of only one other time off the top of my head we’ve seen this, and that’s the Voltron vs. Zarkon mech fight in the finale of s2 (bit hard to screenshot).  I think the quin-aura in the mech fight is what is surrounding the mechs (Z-mech side is purple, Voltron side is blue), but in the physical fight is traveling in the direction they are striking (blue from Lotor towards Zarkon, violet from Zarkon towards Lotor).  (OR the effect is copy-pasted from the earlier episode and they forgot to flip it).  

Finally, Lotor and the audience realizes that Zarkon caught the sword, and uses it to throw Lotor across the field.  The cliffs behind Zarkon are still dark, while Lotor are still bright.  

Later on in the fight is the only time in the entire fight this observation of “dark and Zarkon” and “bright or bright/dark in tandem near Lotor” appears not to hold true.  Lotor strikes and breaks the quintessence container on Zarkon’s back and he stumbles forward.  Here we can see for a moment dark cliffs on the left and bright cliffs on the right.  However, this is obviously a reused background, as the appearance and lighting exactly matches the where Zarkon and Lotor’s conversation right before the fight took place.  

Furthermore, Zarkon continues to stumble to the left and the camera follows him, so that the bright cliffs are quickly no longer on screen.  

When Lotor slams into a rock on the upper half that is bright with light, then falls towards the ground that is darker.  The lighting continues when the camera pulls back as Zarkon picks up the Black Bayard, and continues into the side view.  The brighter area is still visible towards Lotor’s head when he speaks. 

The lighting continues when Lotor rushes to pick up the scrap metal (not pictured) and makes his final leap at Zarkon. 

Then, of course, the ending moments of the episode.

The fight is over.  But Lotor doesn’t express this as a moment of victory.  He genuinely looks overcome and sad.  Perhaps not something he wished to do, but something that he had to do.  He then looks away, and light shines on him.

[kcwcommentary]

VLD2x03 – “Shiro’s Escape”

2x03 – “Shiro’s Escape”

Shiro’s in a healing pod recovering from being “blasted by a space witch and mauled by giant lizards.” As he does so, we get a flashback to when he was captured by the Galra. “You took my hand, what more do you want?” he asks. That suggests that his amputation wasn’t a necessary medical procedure but a direct violation. It would have been nice (and necessary writing) if the show had fully explained the situation that led to Shiro’s amputation. Someone having to have an amputation is a traumatic event; you don’t do that to a character just because you think it would look cool.

A Galra named Ulaz in the room attacks the others and helps Shiro escape and get back to Earth, telling him that the Blade of Marmora is with him. Ulaz is clearly very different, and far more interesting, than other Galra we’ve seen before.

Haggar converts Prorok, against his will, into a Robeast. Haggar can definitely be creepy and cruel, but I don’t find her compelling at all. I know VLD is a sort of reincarnation of DotU from the 80s, but this is now, not then. Haggar and Zarkon behaving like 80s cartoon villains in VLD gets old after a while.

Shiro calls Allura out on her proclaiming one cannot trust any Galra. Her distrust is understandable, but I’m glad the show is trying to not make Galra monolithically villainous. It seems, of the Paladins, only Shiro and Keith at this point have realized that Zarkon was the original Black Paladin. I guess this is the first time the team has had since the battle at the end of season one to decompress and think about what happened then. I love that Keith refers explicitly to the black bayard as “Shiro’s bayard.” (Too bad the show decides to take it away from Shiro because the EPs wanted Shiro gone and Keith as Black Paladin. It would have been nice if the EPs had believed in Shiro as much as Keith does in these early seasons.)

“I wanted to protect you from the dark history of the Paladins so that you would have a chance to bond with the Lions on your own,” Allura says. Good characters have character flaws, and this is showing some of Allura’s. She knew the huge responsibility that was being asked of Shiro and crew, but by withholding information like this, she wasn’t giving them everything they need to become who they would have to be as Paladins. They can’t find their place in this struggle, understand their relationships with their Lions, without knowing the history of what has come before.

“The Black Lion might have a different take on the matter,” Shiro says in response to Allura proclaiming him to absolutely be the Black Paladin now. There’s so much long-term tension in the doubts Shiro expresses right then. It makes that Shiro’s character arc and story is about being the Black Paladin. I hate that this show eventually takes that away from him.

I love that Coran still calls Pidge “Number 5,” reflecting back to his ranking the Paladins by height in early season one. It feels like he’s using it kind of like a term of endearment, and it makes me wish there had been some notable character bonding between the two of them. He could have become a supportive uncle type character for her or an unexpected science bud type character. A cross-generational friendship, which is a dynamic that I don’t think gets explored enough in fiction, could have been really nice to add to the show.

Haggar can make Zarkon magically able to know where in the universe Team Voltron is, and the process to gain that knowledge takes very little time. This feels way overpowered to me. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be able to find Voltron, but just that gaining that knowledge is too easy and convenient here.

The Castle of Lions has an intruder who is able to evade/handle the Paladins easily. It’s Ulaz, and he only stops when Shiro takes him on. Because we viewers have seen Ulaz help Shiro and specifically how he talked about Shiro being a source of hope, it makes it hard to continue to see Allura being so aggressively against the idea that some Galra are against Zarkon, even if it’s understandable where her anger comes from.

“I’m not trying to win your trust,” Ulaz retorts to Allura, “I’m trying to win a war.” Boom.

That some of them, particularly Allura, are acting like if the base isn’t easily observable then it can’t exist is a bit annoying since they’ve already dealt with Galra bases that they initially had trouble observing. At least they do eventually follow through on Shiro’s urging to trust Ulaz and go into the pocket of space to the base.

Did they really have to have Hunk compare the pocket of space to food? Why does this show so often reduce him to nothing more than the fat guy who likes food? Ugh.

Allura doesn’t want to go with Shiro and Ulaz (and anyone else who wants to go) to the base. I can respect that. I don’t in any way respect Lance’s response that he’s going to stay with Allura to “protect the Princess.” Allura herself responds to him saying that with an “ugh.” I’m right there with you, Allura. If this show was going to have Allura and Lance end up together by the end of the show, then the show really needed to do a lot of work of character development on Lance to show he learned this behavior of his is rude and insulting. I never felt the show did much of any such character work with him though.

Slav is namedropped, here as the person responsible for the technology that allows the base to hide in a pocket of space.

Ulaz gives voice to the reasoning behind the Galra who are opposed to Zarkon, saying that the initial idea of expanding the Empire was in thinking it would provide stability, but that a tyrant like Zarkon only seeks power, not stability. This is doing some really nice world-building work for the show. Ulaz proposes the Blade of Marmora work with Team Voltron in coordinated actions. He also lets them know that they would not have been able to escape at the end of season one if a member of the Blade hadn’t acted to bring down the Galra shield. He also offers Pidge some information on other prisoners the Galra have taken to help her in finding her family.

The Robeast shows up. Ulaz gives Shiro information about how to get to the Blade’s headquarters, but he cautions that Shiro needs to figure out how Zarkon has been able to track him to this location before going to the headquarters so he won’t lead Zarkon there.

Once the pocket in space is pierced by the Robeast, the facility generating the pocket is either damaged and loses power, or by the pocket being discovered ceases to be a safe location, so Ulaz jets away while Voltron is fighting. I get that Voltron wants to avoid being blasted by the Robeast, but they spend a lot of time not doing much to attack. The Castle Ship doesn’t do anything to attack either. I don’t get why so much of the battle is them just sort of being there and nothing else. They do eventually try to block the Robeast’s blast with Voltron’s shield and try to use the magic space crystals to blow it up in one action after their big period of no action, but it’s not successful.

Ulaz swoops back in to sacrifice himself by plunging his craft into the blaster/mouth of the Robeast and turning on his spacial rending system to destroy the Robeast. I had thought that system was part of the base, not his ship though. The narrative head-fake of him leaving only to return makes his leaving pointless; it’s not like his return was the result of him undergoing any character development. He might as well have just remained there with them during the fight and then sacrifice himself to win the battle. It makes it seem like the writing was trying to make us think Allura could have been right in not trusting Ulaz, but we’ve seen too much of him being genuine to think that.

Pidge, Hunk, and Lance smile at Ulaz’s death. This isn’t a happy victory, so their smiling annoys me. Keith’s surprised, but at least isn’t smiling. Only Shiro seems to truly respect the loss of Ulaz’s sacrifice. Ulaz was such an interesting character. I really don’t like that he’s killed off in the same episode he’s introduced. He could have added so much more to this show.

I really like that Keith has a tender moment with Shiro after this battle. Characters need quiet moments to reflect on the events of a story so that the narrative can create meaning for those events. Allura’s continued distrust and aggression still annoys me, but, again, I think it’s a reasonable application of character flaws for her to act this way. She’s not being badly written here. I’m glad that Shiro explicitly states that the Blade of Marmora are their allies. The episode ends with Keith reflecting on having seen Ulaz’s blade and then revealing a mark on his own knife/shortsword, setting up the eventual reveal of Keith being half-Galra.

I can’t help but feel let down that the show introduced a character as interesting as Ulaz only to kill him off so soon, while characters that are far less interesting get way too much screen time while adding far less to the show.

[lanceinblack]

OK, guys!

Apparently we will get a new character named “Luca” in the upcoming seasons!

This is a german website that lists the german voice actors for Voltron and it lists a new character named “Luca”, the voice actress is named “Luisa Casper.” I don’t know about america but in german Luca is mostly used as a male name (mostly, not necessarily though). The voice actress is female but that also doesn’t have to mean anything. So we don’t really know anything about this possible new character.

This site can be totally unreliable but I gotta tell you that prior to season 5 I already knew that we will see Keith’s mother at some point as she was already listed as “Keith’s Mutter” on this site before. NO GUARANTEE THAT I’M RIGHT ABOUT THIS, JUST AN INTERESTING OBSERVATION! Edit: WHY DOES THIS PICTURE SUCK SO MUCH, HERE IS ANOTHER ONE

[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.

[violethowler]

The Greater Your Shadow Becomes

A recurring pattern in the Kingdom Hearts series is how often it misleads and misdirects us. We are told that Nobodies do not have hearts only to learn several games later that this was a lie. Our knowledge of Xehanort’s backstory has changed from one game to the next. The series itself even acknowledges its dishonesty, with the Master of Masters telling Young Xehanort that “the truth is what you see with your eyes, not what you hear[1],” while explaining that anything he says about his motivation and identity should not be trusted. 

So despite Kingdom Hearts III, Back Cover, and Union X appearing to position the Master of Masters as the next main antagonist, I remain suspicious that the role the series seems to be setting him up for will ultimately be filled by another. A big part of this has to do with the patterns I have noticed among stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey. 

In a Heroine’s Journey where there is a direct antagonist whose actions must be overcome in order to resolve the story’s conflict, that antagonist has commonly been presented as a narrative foil to either the protagonist or their Animus. In storytelling, a Foil is one character who is contrasted with another in order to highlight the other’s traits[2]. Most stories will emphasize the protagonist’s noble qualities by contrasting them with a character with similar personality traits or a similar backstory but who lacks the qualities that make the protagonist heroic. More often than not, these literary foils function as Shadow figures to the protagonist, and in many cases embody the negative elements of the story’s main themes.

For example, Gaston is put on a pedestal by the people around him as a paragon of what their society considers desirable. He’s handsome, skilled, and charismatic. Yet he constantly disrespects Belle’s agency and intelligence, not caring whether she’s willing to marry him or not. This positions him as a foil to the Beast, who is rude, monstrous, and has to learn how to perform basic tasks like eating with silverware. Despite his gruff exterior, he respects Belle’s intelligence and agency, holding her to the terms of their deal while also growing to prioritize her happiness above his own desires. 

Something that the overarching antagonists of every Heroine’s Journey I know of all have in common is that the audience is made aware of their existence very early on in the story. Their motivations may change over the course of the story, and when we learn about their goals can vary, but we generally learn of their existence before the end of the first act. 

We meet Gaston in the opening musical number of Beauty and the Beast. 

Dr. Facilier from The Princess and the Frog also makes his first appearance in the opening musical number of his film. 

President Snow gets at least a mention in the background in the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy even if Katniss doesn’t meet him face to face until the second one. 

High Priestess Haggar is introduced in the first (technically second) episode of Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 1. 

Meanwhile, the Master of Masters was only introduced near the end of Act II in the overarching narrative of Kingdom Hearts. Likewise, his goals are still unclear, in contrast to other Heroine’s Journey antagonists whose objectives are given to the audience at some point during the second act. So unless he turns out to be a familiar face under the hood, I find it unlikely that the Master of Masters will be the main antagonist of the next act. He’ll certainly play an antagonistic role, and definitely a major one, but everything I know about story structure is telling me that the “Big Bad” of the next arc is ultimately going to be someone else. 

The repeated emphasis on prophecy, fate, and destiny in Act II of the series creates a strong undercurrent of defying fate being a major theme of the final arc of the Kingdom Hearts story. Sora’s ability to connect with others has enabled him to pull off feats that should be considered impossible up to the point of rewriting the fated defeat of the Guardians of Light at the Keyblade Graveyard in Kingdom Hearts III. So it stands to reason that the main antagonist of the final act will be a character who either tries to defy fate in a negative way, or a character who does things because fate dictates it be done. 

So the major antagonist of Act III will most likely be someone who expresses the themes of fate and whether to defy or accept it in a negative way. Someone who serves as a foil to Sora. And someone who was introduced to the audience during Act I - meaning the original game, Chain of Memories, or Kingdom Hearts II. Given the amount of focus he has received since his introduction and how important Kingdom Hearts III revealed him to be in the lore of the series, there’s really only one person who qualifies: 

[Image Description: Luxu stares at the camera after taking off his hood in front of the Foretellers, revealing the face of Xigbar. End Description.]

As someone noted after the release of KH3, there are many similarities between Luxu and Sora when you sit down and think about it[3]:

Back Cover portrays Luxu as a young teen curious about the world, just like Sora. 

Much like how wanting to be with his friends is shown to be one of Sora’s major motivations, Luxu’s Secret Reports in Kingdom Hearts III portray him as wanting nothing more than to be with the people he cares about[4].

Both of them take up these cosmically significant roles with no idea of what lies ahead for them - all the pain, separation, and loss. But they cannot stop or rest and go home until they finish their task because people are counting on them. 

Where the two diverge is in their circumstances and how they reacted:

While Sora stumbled onto the mantle of a Keyblade wielder by accident and chose the responsibilities that came with his mission on his own, Luxu was given his by the Master as part of a greater purpose, and he carried out that role at his mentor’s instruction. 

Both of them hide their pain and weariness under a playful façade. 

Sora has spent his journey in the company of his friends and has relied on their support. Luxu has always been alone, relying only on himself. 

Sora holds onto his connections with others even at significant cost to himself, while Luxu casts aside his bonds and puts his mission above all else.

In addition to his narrative connections to Sora, there is also his connection to Riku as well. 

The scene where he reveals his face to the audience for the first time in Kingdom Hearts II begins with Sora initially mistaking him for Riku. 

In Kingdom Hearts III, he’s paired with Dark Riku at the Skein of Severance, a combination that stands out in contrast to the obvious narrative meanings behind the choices of the other boss groupings in the Keyblade Graveyard. 

Series producer Shinji Hasmimoto has said that Sora and Riku are the core of the story[5], so it would make sense, then, if the primary antagonist of the final act is someone with already established narrative connections to both characters. 

Tetsuya Nomura had the end of the Dark Seeker Saga outlined since Kingdom Hearts II was finishing development[6]. This indicates that everything done with Xigbar across the entire series was planned with the Luxu reveal in mind. The fact that he chose to give Xigbar such a significant part and planned it that far in advance signals that our dear Number II has a major role in the overall narrative of the series. Between the implications of the reveal setting him up as a foil for Sora and the patterns exhibited by major antagonists of other Heroine’s Journeys, I’m confident that role will likely be that of the overall villain of Act III. 

There is always the possibility that I could be wrong and that the Master of Masters will be the primary antagonist of the story’s final act. His influence of others and his writing of the Book of Prophecies appear to set him up as the author of our characters’ fates, which satisfied the narrative pattern of the antagonist reflecting the negative side of one of the story’s themes. 

However, as I said, he was introduced much later in the narrative than is common for the overarching antagonist of a Heroine's Journey. I also have my doubts that it will be that obvious, as Kingdom Hearts has pulled that kind of bait and switch before. The first game initially sets up Maleficent as the main antagonist, only for Ansem to step out of the shadows and take the stage as the Big Bad for the remainder of the game after her defeat. Given how many parallels to the first game are found throughout Kingdom Hearts III, Xigbar being unmasked as Luxu and the information that came with it in the Secret Reports have the makings of an excellent parallel to that switch on a series-wide scale.

Sources:

[1] Kingdom Hearts III Re: Mind; Square Enix; 2020. 

[2] Foil (fiction) - Wikipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foil_(fiction)

[3] Galaxy Brain Take: Luxu and Sora Parallels; February 12, 2019. https://strangefellows.tumblr.com/post/182774246545/galaxy-brain-kh3-take-luxu-and-sora-parallels

[4] Kingdom Hearts III; Square Enix; 2019. (Secret Report #13: Observations, Excerpt 3)

[5] “How Kingdom Hearts III Will Grow Up With Its Players.” September 24, 2013 https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/25/how-kingdom-hearts-iii-will-grow-up-with-its-players.

[6] “Kingdom Hearts III Ultimania interview with Tetsuya Nomura”; March 12, 2019 https://www.khinsider.com/news/Kingdom-Hearts-3-Ultimania-Main-Nomura-Interview-Translated-14763

[sideofwritingsandramblings]

A little salt, A lot of Sheith Meta

Alright... So there’s just a lot of things that have been on my mind since the big reveal. (Updated with even more meta!)

Beware there are some s7 spoilers under the cut. (And since I wrote this instead of the prompt for sheith month today I’ll use this as my entry instead @sheithmonth​ if it is considered appropriate / next)

So as probably most everyone in this fandom knows by now, Shiro has been confirmed gay with the release of the first episode of season seven. As I explained in a previous post, Shiro being confirmed queer has made me beyond excited, simply on the basis of what incredible representation this is. 

However, once again I have heard a bunch of people (honestly... probably not actual sheith shippers) yelling “Sheith is dead” because of Shiro’s ex-boyfriend. Well, first of all, it is an ex-boyfriend according to the vld staff. And, while I will admit I have not seen the full episode nor will I seek out any more spoilers, I can still say with full confidence that Sheith is not dead. Which, honestly, I think most Sheith shippers would agree.

(Also, side point: a ship cannot even “die” like... the point of shipping is looking at two characters and thinking they would be interesting together regardless of canon.)

Anyways, I’m just going to go ahead and break down exactly why I actually believe Sheith to be closer to canon than ever before.

I usually never have hope for a canonically queer ship, mostly because I’ve learned to not expect it. Voltron, however, has amazingly made me hope again. And I even dare to hope that the canonically queer ship will also be my otp.

However, my bias aside, there is plenty of evidence pointing to canon sheith. Starting with the entirety of season 6.

Like, don’t get me wrong, I was shipping Sheith from seasons 1-5 too. Keith’s very first scene in the show is his rescuing Shiro, followed by tenderly touching his face while saying his first word of the show: “Shiro?” Following this scene we see how Shiro and Keith have the deepest bond of the group and are consistently looking out for each other. In season two we have Shiro trusting Keith to succeed him as leader and the Blade of Mamora trials with the famous “Your friend desperately wants to see you.” Since then we’ve gotten hugs, tender looks, and promises of: I’ll save you “As many times as it takes.”

Despite all of this I still doubted they would become canon, but then season 6 came along. 

First of all this post which is not mine but goes in to all of this a lot, talks about how many of the romantic scenes expected for other ships happened for Sheith instead. Things like: Sheith’s bond being the focus of the season, Keith’s mom picking out Shiro because Keith told her so much about him, backstory, sacrificing themselves for one another, and even an emotional confession of “I love you.” Honestly, if we were looking at any sort of heterosexual ship, they would already be considered a couple by now.

Additionally we have seen some incredible parallels for Sheith as well. Both with Sheith and Keith’s parents and with Zaggar. On one hand we have the very similarly animated rescue scene between Keith’s dad and Krolia vs Keith rescuing Shiro in episode one. On the other hand, we have the very telling jaw-dropped reaction of Shiro with Keith and Zarkon with Honerva.

And now, with the new information from season 7, it adds a whole other layer to Shiro’s reaction. We were joking about his stuttering and complete focus on Keith during that scene was him being a gay disaster. But the truth is he is a confirmed gay disaster. Literally, how else do you explain that scene? Plus, while I know the 2 year jump wasn’t some move by the showrunners to address the “too big of an age gap” claims, I still think it’s an important moment for Shiro. Shiro has never treated Keith like a kid in the series, and they have been shown to be best friends and reliant on each other since the beginning. But I genuinely believe that this moment was when Shiro realized that Keith really has gotten older/more mature/(hotter). “You really have changed,” Shiro said. 

And, if we take the parallels a step further (and while some people may call it a stretch, I personally really enjoy this one). We all know how Lauren and Joaquim also worked on Legend of Korra, another show that pushed for lgbt rep and that ended with canon Korrasami  The ending scene of which had a very visually similar theme repeated in Voltron. A pillar of light between the two queer characters.

But, regardless of all the observed parallels and incredibly heartfelt moments, we now have an interesting problem(?) on our hands: the introduction of Shiro’s ex-boyfriend Adam. I will reiterate that I have not actually seen the new episode in full (and correct me if I’m wrong), but a lot of the episode’s focus is on pre-Kerberos backstory.

Within this backstory we meet Adam, someone Shiro loves and cares for deeply, to the point that they were practically (if not actually?) fiances. However, as Shiro deals with a chronic illness and pursues his dream of piloting in space anyways, Adam leaves Shiro and tells Shiro that he will not wait for him.

Now, from this information alone I immediately believe that Adam is meant to foil Keith. Where Adam (for whatever reasons, good or bad) could not stand by Shiro through everything, Keith has repeatedly proven he will do anything to protect Shiro and stay by his side.

Additionally, from a narrative standpoint, it really wouldn’t make sense to make Shadam endgame. Now it is true that anything is possible in 26 episodes. It could turn out that Shiro will have his reconciliation with Adam on Earth and they will get back together. In the event that this happens, (and if it happens in a way that is healthy and is good for Shiro), I hope everyone will support the relationship regardless of ships. Because that will still be amazing representation!

However, I doubt that would happen. Simply because we have never heard of Adam before. If the vld staff was shooting for this big queer couple for a while, why only mention him in the last 26 episodes? Especially since a majority of the episodes of season 7 (I assume) will be them just trying to get to Earth, leaving very few to flesh out a Shiro/Adam story. From a story-telling standpoint Shiro should have been talking about or mentioning Adam from the start to more easily introduce this couple to the audience. However, Adam only gets brought up when Shiro has to face the reality that he is making it back to Earth and there is a chance he will see Adam again.

[Edit: Plus, just think of how much has changed since Shiro left. He has been imprisoned for a year by the Galra and forced to fight, had his arm replaced with a robotic prosthetic, been experimented on, has become part of a universe-defending team fighting in an intergalactic war, literally died, spent who knows how long as just a consciousness in a giant robot space cat, and then revived and given the memories of a cloned version of himself. He’s been through a lot. And who knows what Shiro’s gone through better than Keith?

Adam, on the other hand, has most likely had no idea what happened. If I assume this correctly, for this entire time Shiro’s been gone, Adam has believed Shiro to not only be dead, but responsible for the Kerberos mission’s failure. I would assume when the mission was called Pilot Error, Adam would have had his fears confirmed: by taking the Kerberos mission despite being ill, Shiro put his life and the crew’s lives in danger. I honestly cannot even imagine how Adam must have reacted when he heard the news. I honestly can’t wait to see how he reacts to Shiro being alive. 

After everything they’ve gone through, will they really be able to rekindle that old flame so easily?]

Additionally, we can argue that season 6 was one of the biggest Sheith seasons of the series. We got that two year age jump with Keith that has Shiro reacting like the disaster gay he is. Plus, Shiro’s reaction to Keith saying “I love you” (while not reacting to the “you’re my brother” line) still sticks with me, along with Keith refusing to let go and accepting to fall to his death with Shiro. We got Keith astral projecting himself by screaming Shiro’s name and then cradling Shiro in his arms in the last five minutes of the season. And to now immediately follow up that season (that was so focused on Shiro and Keith’s bond) with a confirmation that Shiro is gay? I really don’t think that’s a coincidence.

[Edit: Not to mention how I’ve seen multiple posts going around talking about the different dubs. One being the German dub’s ich liebe dich, which is apparently for a stronger/more profound love than ich habe dich lieb. And of course, the Japanese dub’s aishiteru which is also much deeper than the more commonly used daisuki. Like, if you’ve ever watched subbed anime, confession scenes will almost never use aishiteru. Aishiteru is rarely used because it denotes a deeper love akin to saying “I am in love with you from the bottom of my heart.” It is almost exclusively used between romantic partners, and rarely (if ever!) used between family/friends. The choice of aishiteru over suki/daisuki is honestly incredible.]

[Edit: Also, something I wanted to add before but couldn’t find a source at first: I found this article by DenofGeek from this past February very intriguing. It said that quote: 

“Montgomery adds, ‘When we set out to make this show we wanted to make one where no one character was solely defined by being in a relationship.’ She’s quick to clarify that the Avatar and Korra characters were of course incredible and fully formed characters themselves but, ‘when we really looked at what was at stake with this show (Voltron) the relationship or romance aspect of it just didn’t feel as important as the work that they were doing to save their universe.’ Both showrunners don’t rule out the possibility of it happening down the line, but only if it happens naturally within the story. ‘We’re not going to try to just put it in there for the sake of needing romance in the story,’ Montgomery explains.”

The parts I bolded were what stood out to me from this article/interview. The showrunners have never wanted the focus to be just on relationships. The focus has, and always will be, on these characters defending the universe together. However, they will include romance if it happens naturally within the story. I really believe that if we were looking for a naturally developing relationship in the show it would be Sheith, and not between Shiro and some brand new guy (or at least new to the audience). In order to truly convince us Shadam is a good ship, the showrunners would have to focus on it a lot in the remaining two seasons. Why go through that effort when they could instead develop the relationship Keith and Shiro already have in the show?]

Not to mention, despite the introduction of Adam in the episode, the episode’s main focus was still on Shiro and Keith. The new episode has yet another Sheith hug, Keith worrying over Shiro in a pod, and many pre-Kerberos scenes (without Adam) that feature Keith and Shiro’s history. (Oh and I just got spoiled this next screenshot, there is apparently a rainbow above Keith and Shiro in one scene?! Also, it’s yet another example of a sunset as a romantic backdrop between them.) In other words, I really believe that Shiro will ultimately have his reconciliation with Adam, but they won’t get back together. Shiro will probably end up having feelings for Keith instead. 

Although, I can’t know that for sure and anything could happen. But then, I can’t help but go to stuff outside of the show as well. 

The staff have repeatedly shown support for Sheith or at least the bond between them. We have the famous “Shiro Loves you Baby #he’s looking at Keith” from Chris Palmer:

Art supervising director Kihyun Ryu drew this miracle:

And Eugene Lee’s recent Keith he drew on Chris Palmer’s Shiro’s chest like some kind of romance novel:

[Edit: And I almost forgot these two gems (which, while I know voice actor’s don’t have much control of the show’s story, they’re still great): The fact that Josh Keaton (Shiro) at the very beginning of Voltron coined the ship name “Sheith” and Bex Taylor-Klaus’ (Pidge) famous snapchat and quote:]

The staff’s support of the ship, in both fanart and interviews has been incredible. This post has an entire masterlist of the support the staff has given Sheith or their strong bond.

But, anyways. Overall, regardless of where the story heads I will always ship Sheith. If the staff decides that Shadam is the way to go for positive representation I’ll happily take it, but it doesn’t end my love for Sheith.

Honestly though, I think Sheith’s chances of becoming canon are better than ever before and I’m so excited to see how these last two seasons play out.

[adorablethatsatree]

Firsts

Five times Lance shared his first with Keith, and the one time Keith shared his first with Lance.

This is day two of my Countdown to Voltron season 8. It’s Keith/Lance (Klance). Also, I had no time to edit it today, sorry. Past Shiro/Keith and James/Keith, and unnamed BOM memeber/Keith (kinda) All only in mentions.

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    5

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Lance had a nightmare of what happened last week. Keith almost died. That was the moment he realised that he fell in love with the red paladin. Lance was walking to the observation deck to watch the stars, to see if he could make out any constellations.

“Hey,” A soft voice called to him from the entrance. Lance turned around to see Keith. He smiled, but that soon vanished with the vivid image of Keith’s bloody body replaced it.

“Hey.” Lance whispered. Lance turned to face the stars again. Keith sat beside him, staring at the stars as well.

“It’s nice.” Keith said as Lance started to tear up. He can’t get the image of Keith dying out of his head. “You okay?” Lance turned to face Keith, who was staring at him. Letting a few tears fall, Lance nodded. He didn’t believe himself. Keith let the small smile fall from his lips as he wiped away the tears.

“Tears don’t look good on you.” He said as Lance froze. There was a moment of silence as they gazed into each others eyes. Everything in the ship stilled as the stars were reflected in Keith’s eyes.

Lance was the first to break the gaze as he lounged towards Keith bringing him to a hug. Keith hugged him back almost instantly. “I’m not okay.” Lance muttered. “You almost died, I can’t stop dreaming that you did die.” Almost as soon as he said that, Lance bolted up.

“I’m sorry. I know you’re straight, I didn’t mean it that way.” Lance said as he looked away from Keith. There was a sigh from Keith, that’s it, Keith’s going to leave him.

“I’m not straight. I’m just as gay as you are bi.” Keith said causing Lance to turn and face him. “If you really didn’t mean it that way, I’ll still support you like friends do.” The wording made Lance think. Did Keith feel the same way.

He voiced his question out loud, causing Keith to let out a deep laugh. “Yes I feel the same way. I have for a while. I was going to wait for you.”

“Does that mean we’re dating?” Lance asked, face feeling hot. Keith nodded as he held Lance’s hand.

“Only if that’s what you want.” Keith nodded. Lance squeezed Keith’s hand, making sure Keith was really there.

“I want it.” Lance said as he leaned into Keith. The two of them smiled. Lance yawned.

“Let me take you to your room.” Keith helped Lance stand. The two walked to Lance’s room in relative silence, still holding hands. Once they were at Lance’s door, Keith started to let go of Lance. “Night,”

“Wait!” Lance covered his mouth after being a bit too loud. He took a deep breath. “Can you stay the night? I want to know that this wasn’t just a dream when I wake up.” Lance blushed.

“Sure.” Keith smiled as Lance opened the doors. The two walked in holding hands.

 Keith’s first confession, if you could call it that, was with James after an angry kiss.

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    4

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Lance couldn’t believe he and Keith have been dating for a week. If you told Lance from a month ago, he would call you crazy. They were going slow, which Lance was grateful for. He wants to save his firsts for the one, and Keith may be them. They didn’t sleep together after the first night like Lance thought Keith might want.

It was nighttime when Lance found himself in the observation deck again. This time, instead of nightmares, in thought about Keith. The whole team was happy about them. It was nerve-racking. He wants to kiss Keith, but he doesn’t know how.

“Hey.” Keith said as he sat down beside Lance. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Lance smiled at Keith. “What’s up?” Lance closed his eyes at the question.

“I haven’t kissed anyone before.” Lance muttered as he opened his eyes to look at Keith. Keith was looking at Lance, the longing being brightened by the stars reflection. His eyes are perfect.

“That doesn’t matter to me. All I want is for your first kiss to be perfect.” Keith said as he looked towards the stars, lost in thought.

“Why do you want my first kiss to be perfect? Did you already have a first kiss?” Lance asked, needing to know about Keith’s past love life.

“It doesn’t matter right now. I’ll tell you later.” Keith frowned not looking at Lance. Lance sighed dramatically.

“Can we kiss? I don’t care if it’s traditionally perfect. If it’s with you, it’ll be perfect.” Lance smiled as Keith turned to face him. Keith smiled at Lance as they leaned into each other.

They met in the middle, electricity sparking from they’re point of contact. Their eyes closed as they try to get to a more comfortable position. They’re noses bumped into each other, but that didn’t matter. The castle was asleep. It was just them. The stars were they’re only witness. They seemed to be cheering the two on by getting brighter.

The kiss didn’t last long, only a few seconds at most. When they broke apart they were breathless. Keith smiled; Lance smiled back. The castle seemed to have woken up, the hum of the engines taking them back to reality.

“That was perfect.” Lance started to laughed. His laugh was contagious, Keith couldn’t help but laugh along. By the time they stopped, they looked at each other in the eyes. “Can we kiss again?”

Keith responded by leaning towards Lance and taking his lips into a kiss. Lance was nervous about opening his mouth. He wasn’t ready, but what if Keith wanted it? Keith didn’t, and they only had a closed mouth kiss again.

Lance closed his eyes, trying to set his worries away. There was still the electricity from the last kiss there. This time, the castle wasn’t asleep. When they broke apart from the longer kiss, they were once again breathless.

“May I have the honours of taking you to your room?” Keith asked as Lance stood up. Lance smiled and held out his hand for Keith. Keith took it, standing up.

“You may.”

 Keith’s first kiss happened during a fight with James.

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    3

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Shiro finally was found. The blade didn’t need Keith for a mission, and Voltron wasn’t needed for any mission or show. They had a moment of piece. Lance went to find Keith. It was the perfect time for their first date. It might not be as perfect as Keith was probably planning, but it’ll work for Lance.

Keith was exactly were Lance thought, pacing in his room. “Hey, I talked to Allura and she gave us the go ahead. Do you want to go on a date with me? It won’t be perfect, it’s only to the space mall, but they have a special area for dates in the food court.” Lance explained as Keith blushed.

“I didn’t know they had a special place for dates there.” Keith said as Lance hugged Keith. Keith hugged him back with a smile.

“Let’s go!” Lance stopped hugging Keith to grab his hand and run off towards one of the shuttles. When they got there, Coran was in the pilot’s seat.

“You two can sit in the back and change into some outfits the Princess and I picked for you two. We called to see what people normally wear there, and the outfits are perfect.” Coran said as Lance and Keith climbed into the back. This shuttle had a door blocking out the pilots from the passengers.

They changed into what was laid out for them. Lance in a blue suit with a red tie. When Lance turned to face Keith, he fell in love again. Keith was wearing a red suit with a black tie. The way Keith fiddled with the cuffs and tie, the way his hair fell perfectly, the way the colour suited his eyes. He looked perfect.

Once they landed, they had a special entrance to get to the date. Surrounding them were dozens of people wearing fancy clothing. It was as if they were going to a ball. Surrounding them were many paintings of many different couples dancing. Keith was Lance’s prince charming. Lance looked over to Keith to see him staring at him. This time the stars in Keith’s eyes weren’t reflections of actual stars.

Music started playing as everyone was brought to their seats. Lance and Keith were the last ones to be seated. There were only candles lighting up the table. The smell of the sea filled the air around them. They were brought food from the food court. They were only asked if they were allergic to anything, which Keith nor Lance were, and were given a surprise dish from the food court.

Once they were finished eating, they were given the option to dance. Lance really wanted to, and Keith brought him to were the others were dancing. The two of them were dancing until the mall closed. Once they left, they found Coran sleeping in the shuttle. They laughed as Coran started snoring. Their laughter woke up the altean.

“That was fun.” Keith said as he walked with Lance to his room. “We should do it again.”

“Yes, we should.” Lance replied as they got to his room.

 Keith’s first date was at the space mall food court with Shiro.

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    2

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They found the nearest planet and stopped off there. They’ve been flying for a while. Everyone needs a break. Lance noticed on the clock in red that he and Keith have been dating for a year. They landed outside a small village on a remote planet. The village chief allowed them to stay in an unused house.

Everyone fell asleep fairly quickly, but Lance went to Keith’s room after thinking about what he wanted for a while. Keith was still awake, pacing in his temporary room. “Hey,” Lance smiled to Keith who smiled back. “It’s our one year anniversary.”

“Yes it is.” Keith sat down on the bed. Lance sat down beside him. “I was trying to think of something special to do tomorrow.” Keith said as Lance laid his head in Keith’s lap.

“Why not tonight?” Lance asked, knowing exactly what he was suggesting. Keith’s breath hitched making Lance look up.

“Are you sure?” Keith asked running his fingers through Lance’s hair. Lance nodded. “I want a verbal acceptance.” Lance sat up and looked at Keith dead in the eyes.

“Yes. I want to have sex with you. I want my first time to be with you. I’ve been thinking about it all day. Please Keith?” Lance’s face was hot as he looked away.

“Okay.” Keith said as he kissed Lance. Lance kissed back. Keith pulled Lance’s PJ shirt off of him as they broke the kiss. Keith took off his shirt as he laid Lance on his back. Lance covered his face as Keith started to kiss every visible scar on his upper body. The first one he kissed was the one he got as a young kid. “I love you.” Keith said in between every kiss. Lance giggled at Keith’s ministrations.

“I love you too.” Lance smiled uncovering his face. Keith went and kissed Lance on the lips again. “My turn.” Lance smiled after he broke the kiss. The first scar he kissed was the most recent one on his cheek. He kissed all ten fingers individually.

“You’re perfect.” Lance said between kisses. “I love you.” Keith started to giggle as Lance’s kisses tickled him. Lance smiled at the laugh, and kept kissing him, making sure that it tickles. His giggles were contagious, and soon Lance was laughing with him. Lance kissed Keith to try and stop the giggles. Somehow, it worked.

Once they calmed down, and Lance was laying on his back again, Keith kissed his way down to PJ bottoms. He took of the bottoms leaving Lance only in a pair of briefs. Keith smiled as he kissed Lance again letting Lance take off his pants. The two of them were only in their underwear when Lance broke the kiss. He switched positions with Keith, taking off his briefs. Lance smiled at Keith, who smiled back. Time for the actual sex part.

The next morning they woke up in each others arms, memories of the previous night fresh in their minds. Lance cuddled closer to Keith when a knock rang through the room. It sounds like it was time to get up. Keith groaned and held Lance closer as Krolia walked into the room. This is going to be an embarrassing morning.

 Keith’s first time was with Shiro after a successful mission.

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    1

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Lance had been dating Keith for just over six years, Keith on the other hand had been dating Lance for just over eight years. Keith was the one. There was no denying it. Lance paced around his shared room. Keith was sleeping in for once. “Stop it.” Keith groaned, throwing a pillow in Lance’s direction. It landed beside him, and he smiled. Lance brought the pillow back to the bed and left to get breakfast. He needs to start planning.

When he got to the dinning area in the massive, Voltron-plus-others shared house, Veronica was there. Lance grabbed a bowl and filled it with cereal. He started to eat and gave his sister a questioning look when she looked at him. “Wow. This is the first time I’ve seen you eat without Keith since you got back to Earth.” She said causing Lance to blush.

“I’m in a bind. I want to propose to Keith, but I want it to be perfect.” Lance put his head on the table, cereal forgotten.

“The five year anniversary of Earth’s liberation is tomorrow. Maybe you can propose to him then?” Veronica suggested. Lance sat up straight.

“No, I can’t. He hates it when anything too romantic happens around people. He’ll hate it. Besides, it’s not enough time to get a ring ready.” Lance sighed out as he started to play with his cereal.

“Use a ring pop. Or just get a temporary ring for him, or just get a ring right now.” Veronica suggested. “You never know. Maybe he would like it.”

“I guess, he isn’t as bad as he once was.” Lance muttered to himself. Before Veronica or Lance could speak Lance was hugged from behind. After a second of getting ready to fight anyone, Lance relaxed recognizing the weight and breathing pattern. It was just Keith. “Hey,” Lance smiled.

“Hey.” Keith smiled in his ear.

“I’ll leave you two love birds alone. I’ll warn everyone to not enter the dining room.” Veronica teased as she left the room giving Lance a wink.

The next day Lance had a temporary ring in his armours pockets. For symbolic reasons they have to wear their armour during the speeches. They wear suits to the ball afterwards. Lance was going to propose to Keith at the ball, but he doesn’t want to loose the ring.

Shiro was the first to make a speech, mostly to welcome the Paladins of Voltron to the stage. Hunk was the first to make a speech. Pidge came on next to make a speech. Allura was the halfway mark with her speech. Lance came on next to make a speech. Keith was the last person to make the speech as leader of Voltron. Keith made his speech, that he rehearsed countless times with Lance.

“Before I finish, I have one last thing to say.” Keith said. Lance looked around. This wasn’t part of it. “As many of you may know, Lance and I have been dating for six-slash-eight years.” Keith held out a hand for Lance to take, which he did with the help of Shiro who was grinning. Does he know where this is going?

“Lance,” Keith whispered in his ear, away from the mic. “I know you love being in the centre of attention. I’m sorry if it’s too much.” Keith turned to the mic, grabbing it from the stand, getting on one knee. Lance stopped breathing. “Will you marry me?” Keith opened the box hidden in his hand, using only one hand.

Lance smiled, covering his face, which was hot. He pulled out his own ring. “I was going to ask you later.” He whispered to Keith. The two hugged and Lance cried into Keith’s shoulder. “I can’t believe it.” Lance whispered.

“Do you want to tell the audience what you said?” Keith whispered his question into Lance’s ear. Lance took the mic from Keith.

“Yes I will marry you.” He said into the mic. The crowd cheered loudly.

 Keith’s first engagement was an accidental one with a member of the Blade of Mamora.

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   +1

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Lance and Keith smiled at each other. They were in this together. After today, nothing will get between them. It was their day. It was their wedding. If you told Lance seven years ago he would be marrying his rival, he would not believe you.

Out in the group he saw Veronica reminding everyone that it’s her that got them engaged. All Lance did was look at Keith who was smiling in his direction. Lance held Keith’s hand as Shiro piped up and told everyone it was the newly weds first dance. Keith brought Lance to the dancefloor, memories of their first date in their mind as they dance.

Life was perfect. Keith is perfect.

Once the dance was finished, they kept dancing. They danced all night. Nothing is better than this night.

The next morning when they woke up with sore feet, they didn’t regret it. They were married. The realization will probably hit home soon, and he will have a freak out about marrying the most perfect man.

“Hey,” Keith whispered to Lance after he woke up. Lance smiled at Keith.

“Hey, I can’t believe we’re married. I married the most perfect man in the universe. And trust me, I’ve been out there, there’s some pretty damn good people out there.” Lance said, exaggerating his movements. Keith smiled at Lance and brought him down into a kiss.

“You’re wrong. I married the most perfect man in the universe. Trust me. I’ve been out there too.” Keith said as they broke apart. Lance couldn’t stop smiling as they cuddled in bed. He really did marry a perfect man.

 Keith’s first marriage was with Lance.