#zarkon: can you... stop them?

[discordiansamba]

@a-deadly-lullaby replied to your post “spitballing some more ideas for the oops! all...”:

First odd, I LOVE the sibling vibes between Keith and Allura. They need more solidarity. Second, I saw the "big sister" Allura, now all I can imagine is Keith and Allura taking one look at Lotor and approaching him like a little brother. That whole situation with Lotor could go in any direction though.

​Lotor would definitely be interesting in this AU!

Both Keith and Allura would have known Zarkon and Honerva pre-corruption. That goes without saying, really. They both would have known that Honerva was pregnant, and it's easy to imagine it catching both of their interest. They were both excited to meet the child- particularly Keith, who was also half-Galra, half-Altean.

They both assumed the child died with Honerva.

Lotor would naturally have an interest in them both, given that they're both old Alteans. Allura's alchemical abilities would still catch his eye the most like in canon, but he can't deny that he's curious about the only other half-Galra, half-Altean he's ever met. But he's also... disappointed in Keith. He clearly leans more towards his Galra half, which Lotor cannot understand. He was raised on Altea. Yet if it were not for his markings and colored pupils, he might assume he was just like any other Galra.

To someone who hold's his mother's people to such an impossibly high standard, it would be baffling to Lotor.

[voltronisanobsession]

I know this has already been done but I want YOUR take on this…can I pretty plz get headcanons of the paladins (or just Keith Pidge and Lance) accidentally hurting their s/o bad enough to send them to the healing pods…? How would they spend their time while waiting for them to wake up? Angsty with a fluffy ending…? THANK YOU ILYSM 🥹❤️‍🔥

Paladins Accidentally Injuring Reader

STOP CUZ IM A SUCKER FOR ANGSTY STUFF LIKE THIS💀💀💀 I decided to do ALL of them cuz why not💯💯 also sorry for taking so long to answer, this was sitting in my drafts for awhile, procrastination is not fun😔🙏💔💔 another also, I didn’t proofread this yet but I promise I will💔

Keith

It all happened so quickly Keith had no idea what had happened

He remembered he was fighting one of Zarkon’s men, relentlessly attacking him with his sword when all of a sudden you came into the picture

While he was on overdrive, the Galra general had taken ahold of you when you tried attacking him from his side, swinging you in front of him

In front of Keith’s brutal attacks…

Using you as a human shield, Keith had no time to stop his sword from swinging down on you

While you did try to stop his attack with your dagger, his force was too strong, resulting in his sword slicing into your shoulder all the way down to your stomach

Keith could never forget the piercing scream you let out

Frozen is shock and horror, he was kicked backwards by the Galra, hearing his footsteps quickly fading from both of you

“Y/N!”

He is a MESS when he gets to you

His hands shake as he tries to apply pressure to your wound, but it’s just too large

His vision just zeros on your face as tears stain your cheeks. Despite whimpering in pain, you want to reassure him that you’re fine, but he doesn’t let you move an inch

By the time the rest of the group gets to him, Keith is too frantic and a bit unstable for him to think correctly

“GET AWAY!”

The group has no idea how to handle this situation as they watch him cradle your now passed-out body, his body shaking from the adrenaline of needing to protect you from anything else

“Keith, listen to me. We need to take Y/N to the castle now if we want them to survive. We can’t do that if you won’t let us help you.”

Shiro is literally the only person who can bring Keith back to earth, words hitting him like a train as he looks down at your body, watching as you take shallow breathes

Keith does not let anyone near you, not in your fragile state. He carries you all the to the castle, whispering apologies as your face twists in pain from every move

Once getting you to the pod room, he only allows Allura and Pidge in the room to help him set up your body and change you into a bodysuit

While you’re in the healing pod, he’s always sitting nearby, waiting in silence for you, hating himself for hurting you so badly

Despite you being out of commission, Voltron still needed to continue its mission

During this time, Keith pushes himself to the absolute MAX

Purposely puts himself in danger, not caring how hurt he gets because nothing can compare to what you had to go through

In a way, this is his own way of punishing himself for hurting the person he cared for

Keith won’t even listen to Shiro, brushing him off whenever the man offered to help patch him up after a more brutal mission

The team definitely gets worried when he begins straying from missions entirely, almost purposely trying to find danger at every corner

So once he finds out you’re out of the healing pod, he is extremely hesitant to see you

But he practically runs to you when Allura tells him you wanted to see him

Seeing him all bruised up upsets you once you find out what he’s been doing

He doesn’t care though, he’s immediately groveling at your feet, apologizing as his eyes slowly filled with unshed tears

“I’m sorry Y/N. I’m so sorry, I hurt you, worse than anyone else I-“

You pull him into a crushing hug, feeling him tense up but slowly relax in your embrace

“None of this was your fault, ok Keith? You may not forgive yourself but I never blamed you for anything.”

You need to comfort Keith so much because this boy almost lost the last familiar person he loved

It takes some time for him to feel secure with you again but the progress you make is enough to set him back in motion

Lots of physical contact occurs now since Keith needs to know that you’re actually with him

He is 100% more protective over you now, always keeping an eye on you when out on missions and protectively standing in front of you during battles

Lance

Lance felt like he was going to throw up

He watched as you quickly were thrown down to the ground, breath caught in his lungs as you laid there unmoving

He was trying to aim for one of the guards that was originally standing in your place, but they had moved last second once they saw him aiming at them

He had no idea that you were right behind the guard, so all he could do was watch in horror as his blast hit your chest, knocking you out in one swift moment

Oh,how he hoped it only knocked you out

Shiro had quickly ran over to your body, checking your neck for a pulse before he abruptly got up, attacking one of the sentries who was aiming at you

Lance was already running to you, sliding over and immediately clutching onto your body

His eyes watered, not able to focus on anything else except your short, shallow breaths

“LANCE YOU NEED TO TAKE THEM BACK TO THE CASTLE! QUICK, I’LL COVER YOU!”

Shiro’s voice brought him back to reality as he picked your body up bridal style and made a dash for his lion

Lance would be so worried over you once they put you in one of the healing pods

He would distance himself from the group immediately afterwards, almost running to his room to just let out the emotions

Oh god, he almost killed you

Lance would be inconsolable during all this, he wouldn’t eat any of Hunk’s food, ignore Keith’s comments that would normally set him over the end, and just not focus on Shiro’s attempts in comforting him

He would spend the days you spend in the pod wandering and moping around the halls of the castle, feeling absolutely terrible for what he did to you

He would sit quietly as your pod door opened, watching from afar as Pidge helped you from falling over

You would notice how everyone around you seemed relieve you see but the one person you really wanted to see stood by the entrance of the room

Lance would not be able to look you in the eyes

“Lance…”

Now he’s a crying mess💔💔

“Y/N! I’m-I’m sorry! If you had actually-“

He just feels awful for what he had done, accident or not

You would stumble over to him, hugging him and feeling as he clutched onto you

His sobs sound throughout the room, the group looking with remorseful eyes, seeing how much this had actually affected him

“You didn’t know Lance. No one could have known that would happen.”

Lance would not be able to leave your side for a few days afterwards

He would still be quiet, but he would slowly begin going back to his usual self

Though during the night, he would get nightmares on the event, only your sweet whisperings could lull him back to a peaceful sleep

After the near death experience, he feels much more aware of his surroundings and how he used his gun

He just cares so much for you, he doesn’t know what he would do if you got hurt like that again

Pidge

Things were going rough for the paladins during their mission, they were slowly losing control on the battle

Seeing an opportunity in front of her, Pidge noticed an electric column near her, already devising a plan

She would wrap her bayards cord around the column, making it an electric extension and have it thrown to their large enemy

It was perfect, until it wasn’t

Not getting the timing right, Pidge quickly threw her bayard to the column, watching the electricity travel through the cord and flying straight to the beast

Except you had jump in front of the beast, hoping to get a hit in, not even realizing the electric cord heading your way

All Pidge could do was yell out your name in horror

“Y/N NO!”

You quickly turned around, eyes wide when you saw what was heading towards you and unable to dodge the electrified weapon

The group could only watch with shocked faces as you screamed out in pain, watching the electricity course through your body

Being the one near a control panel, Keith slashed the entire system, hoping that would at least turn off the electricity

“TEAM FALL BACK!”

Shiro ran towards you, picking up your limp body from the ground and pushing Pidge to run out of the room and into their lions

Her hands shook with fear

She didn’t mean for this to happen. She thought she would be helping everyone. But all she could envision was your body twitching from the last of the electricity leaving your body

Tears formed in her eyes as she let out sobs, ignoring everything else around her, even the concerned words of her paladins

She would be the first one out of her lion, watching with puffy eyes as Shiro quickly took you to the healing pods, not bothering in changing you into a body suit

She would do anything Allura and him asked her to do regarding you

She would ask if there’s anything she can do

She just feels awful like this poor girl :(

Once hearing how long you’d have to stay in the healing pod, she definitely shuts down

It’s almost like she’s a robot, choosing to lock herself away in her room not wanting to see anyone

To distract herself from her guilt and remorse, she buries herself in any new and old projects

Despite clicking away at her laptop, she wouldn’t be able to stay away from you.

Sits out of your pod staring off into space

No matter how many times the group asks, she never tells them how she truly feels

No, they shouldn’t be asking her if she was ok

This was her fault. It was her fault that you had to stay in there, hopefully no longer in pain

Pidge would be the first to know that you’re out since she’s been waiting this entire time

Doesn’t speak a word to you as she helps you out and settles you on one of the stairs

Both of you would sit in silence before you decide to take her hand

“That wasn’t your fault Pidge. It was a smart idea, I was just there at the wrong time.”

Tears would down her face as she would lean her body against yours

“I’m sorry…”

Pidge would lose some confidence in herself, needing your help in building it back up

She would linger behind you now, not wanting to make the same mistakes

Would hold your hand to help her calm down, to know that you’re ok now

Give her lots of hugs man, she needs the support cuz her brain is not the best place to be when she still blames herself for hurting you :((((

Hunk

The Galra took the entire team by surprise while they were busy helping the residents of the planet they were on

Chaos fell throughout the area, the paladins rushing towards the lions to protect the innocent civilians

Despite you being sent to help shelter civilians, Hunk couldn’t help but worry over your safety

Normally you two would be hip to hip next to each other, so not having you near him really put him on edge

While attacking Galra fleets, the yellow paladin wouldn’t be conscious of the small figure running by a cliff nearby

It would be too late for Hunk to react to the rocks that were blasted by his lions beams as they came crashing down on you

His eyes widen in horror as he saw the pieces of rock fall around, watching as you held your shield up in a pathetic way of protecting yourself, only to lose sight of you when a particularly large rock fell over you

“NO!”

His panic would be through the roof as he would leave the rest of the paladins to fight off the galra

Shaky breaths from him are louder than the voices he hears from the comms of his helmet

“Hunk where are you going?!”

“Hunk we need you here now!”

“Guys I need some backup!”

This poor boy would be so overwhelmed with the others voices and trying to find you under all the rubble he unknowingly blasted on you

Yanking his helmet off and tossing it, he would instead focus on digging you out, sighing in relief once he finds you battered up, yet still breathing

Silent tears would travel his face as the yellow lion gently takes you in its mouth, making the difficult decision to leave behind his friends

He could only hope they would forgive him as he hears the panicked and furious yells coming from his helmet

Once at the castle, he would run through the halls to the healing pods, being careful to not hurt you any further

Hunk would fully blame himself

He just feels awful about the condition you’re in, babbling out what had happened as Coran propped you in a pod

“There was nothing you could have done, Hunk.” Coran’s reassuring hand on his shoulder wouldn’t help with his inner turmoil, especially once the rest of the team barges in

“Hunk! You just totally left us out there!” Lance hadn’t a clue what had happened

Overwhelmed, the team could only watch as tears and sniffles came from Hunk

After the event, Hunk would definitely be distant from the team

While the others would try to cheer him up, nothing could really bring him out of his head

The team would notice how he almost resembled a zombie during meetings and missions, on autopilot since that fateful day

In order to distract himself from his own feelings, Hunk would spend most of his free time cooking and baking

Though no matter how much dishes he cooks, everyone notices how each meal seems to be a bit off, never really tasting or looking right

He would also spend a lot of his time sitting in front of you, kinda having mini conversations with you (even though you can’t respond💔)

Hunk can’t sleep at night either since he gets waken up by his nightmares, constantly seeing your fragile body hiding underneath all the rubble in his dreams

I feel so bad for him because literally no one could have expected you to be caught in the crossfire of the battle

Shiro would try to talk to him, but his words would go in one ear and out the other, resulting in Hunk staring off into the distance with a reminiscent look im his eyes

One particular night though, his nightmare would scare him too much, not allowing him to go to sleep anymore

Rubbing his eyes in exhaustion, Hunk walks to the kitchen in the dead of night, needing to snack on something to distract himself from his pounding heart

Hearing footsteps, he would look over his shoulder from the fridge to see who else needed something to eat only to widen his eyes

“Y/N?”

Leaning on the entrance, your tired eyes met with his tired ones, and you would stumble towards him

Hunk puts down his food to quickly run over to you, helping you to a seat as his eyes shined with unshed tears

“What’s wrong Hunk? Did something happen?”

The way your hands rubbed under his eyes did not stop even when he closed his eyes, allowing his tears to finally fall

The room, lit only by the open fridge, filled with the sounds of Hunks sniffling as you drew him into a hug from your seat

“I thought that I had k-killed-“

“Hey. Don’t say that. I’m here, I’m alive, and that’s all that should matter.”

Taking a shaky breath, Hunk would pull away, bringing your hands back to his face as his head leaned into them

“I know. I’m just really, really sorry. I should have payed more attention.”

“It’s ok Hunk. If anything, I should be sorry, I shouldn’t have run into a clear danger zone.”

Hunk preps you a quick meal before taking you to bed, insisting you need as much rest as possible

He sleeps peacefully at last once he has you in his arms💔💔💔

Expect lots of hand-holding and hugs from this dude

He needs a lot of reassurance from you to remind him that you’re actually there next to him

Cooks you so much food, putting so much effort into each meals and making everything beyond your standards

(The team is definitely happy over this, now that they don’t have to eat any more space goo💀)

Would be protective of you the first few days since you’ve woken up, he’s just really paranoid of you getting injured like that again :(

Since that event, Hunk would be extremely cautious of his surroundings, making sure to avoid any more preventable injuries to those around him

Shiro

He has no idea what had happened

One minute he’s fighting alongside you against the sentries shooting at the two of you and the next he’s slammed you against a wall

He tries fighting himself from hurting you any further but the loud whisperings in his head seem to take control of his body

In that moment, you don’t recognize the man standing in front of you

Ducking and stumbling away, you quickly evade Shiro’s glowing hand, watching in horror as it goes through the wall

“SHIRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

His crazed eyes makes contact with yours, once again rushing towards you

In the corner of your eye you see a figure vanishing in thin air, realizing it might have been the witch Allura had told you all about

Distracted, Shiro manages to land a blow on your side causing you to grunt in pain and go tumbling towards the ground

You barely roll away before his fist meets the spot you once were at

“SHIRO PLEASE! THIS ISN’T YOU!”

You’re words don’t seem to have any affect on him as he’s up once again and heading straight towards you

As much as you hate the thought, you know you have to protect yourself from him as he’s too dangerous in the state he’s in

You’re dagger clashes against his metal arm, his strength slowly over powering you because of your injured arm

Kicking your side, Shiro’s narrowed eyes meet yours before he’s picking you up the ground

You grip his metal hand as it tightens around your neck, your breathing becoming shallow as he cuts off your airway

“Shiro… I forgive you…” You knew this wasn’t you’re Shiro, the man you knew coming out for a moment when you saw his eyes widen in surprise before going straight back to the dull black ones that stared straight through you

It was only when Lance began shooting at him out of no where did he throw you against a wall, officially knocking you out

Keith slammed his body against Shiro’s causing the two of them to crash on the ground, trying to over power the other

Then that’s when his head was finally able to clear up and stop fighting against Keith

“What’s going on? Why are we fighting?”

Everyone would stare in disbelief before quickly explaining what happened, Hunk already carrying your body towards the group, shielding you from the eyes of Shiro

He would stare in shock at the state of your body though, flashes of what might’ve happened going through his mind

Heading back to the castle, everyone would still be on edge around him

Seeing what he had done to you, this man does some serious evaluations on himself

How could he possibly hurt you, someone he cared for, this much?

Seeing the bruises forming on your neck scares him

If he did this to you, Shiro can’t imagine how far he would’ve gone if he wasn’t stopped in time

During your time in the healing pod, Shiro would distance himself from the team as he doesn’t fully trust himself enough around them, fearing he might hurt them all as well

He visits you daily, but once one of the other paladins enters the room he’s quickly excusing himself and walking away

He feels EXTREMELY guilty over what he did, going through many sleepless nights

He had almost killed you

He is harsher on the team during missions as well since he doesn’t want a repeat of what had happened with you

He is way harsher on himself too

Spends his time in the training room, tiring himself out with the gladiator, pushing his body past its limit

Still remembers what you said to him, so while you said you forgave him, I don’t think he would ever be able to forgive himself for hurting you

The team would notice the strain on them when Shiro began distancing himself from them

He was the one who put them all together so it really hurt them to see him struggle with the recent event

Once you finally awake from the pods, Shiro is the last one to greet you

You notice how he stands at a distance which causes you to narrow your eyes

“What’s wrong Shiro?”

The way you immediately notice his coldness causes his fake smile to strain

It never ceased to amaze him how you could see past him

He would explain his concerned to you once everyone decided to give you both privacy, how he was afraid of losing control again, how he had almost killed you

What had happened made him uncomfortable, knowing the power he held with his arm

You smile sadly as him reaching for his metal hand, faltering when he slightly moved it away from you

Sadness filled his eyes as he glanced to his arm before letting you take his hand

“I don’t blame you for anything Shiro. I know that wasn’t you, I know the real you. You would rather sacrifice your own life to save one of us, so please don’t be so harsh on yourself. You couldn’t control what happened.”

“Exactly. I couldn’t control what happened, I couldn’t control my own body.”

Your reunion was bittersweet to say the least

He is much more cautious around you

Keeps his distance for a few days before ultimately choosing to stay by your side

He wants to do anything to make up for your injuries

Much more softer around you and the others now that he knows you’re ok💔

Allura

“Allura what are you doing?!”

The mission the team was on was extremely crucial since, if successful, they would be able to retrieve valuable intel on Zarkons plans (ooo so original)

And it involved taking down his witch, Haggar

Allura was all for the plan and took it very serious

She believed this was one of their most important missions yet

So while it did surprise the group on how brutal the princess was in fighting her way to Haggar, no one really tried to stop her, knowing just how much it meant for them to get this information

Yet you could see the danger her aggressive behavior was dragging her in

You’d jump in front of her, trying to stop her from pushing herself too far

“Y/N what are you doing?! We must stop that witch from getting away!”

Allura was on a one track kind, take down Haggar and get any useful info from her, but you were making it extremely difficult to do so

Blinded by her own needs, she didn’t take into account of how hard she had thrown you to the ground away from her when she managed to wrap her bayard around you

Running from your injured self to Haggard, she was yanked to the ground

“Allura watch out!”

She could only watch in shock as you dashed in front of her from the ground to protect her from the blast Haggard sent

Her hands shook as she watched your body hit the ground

Haggar was getting ready to blast you both again, forcing Allura to attempt to drag you away before a searing pain filled her body, causing her to crumble down to the ground beside you

Tears filled her eyes as she watched in pain as your breathing became ragged

You both were in this situation because of her

Allura was forced to watch as the witch made her escape, the mission resulting in a failure

After getting help from the paladins and returning to the house of lions, Allura would immediately distance herself from everyone

She’s not only disappointed in herself for costing the team their mission, but she feels terrible for putting your life at such a high risk, all because she didn’t know when to stop

She would mostly lock herself up in her room while you spend your time in the healing pods

Whenever someone tried to approach her door, they would only be met with the sound of her soft sobs

When she isn’t in her room though, Allura is extremely harsh and temperamental with the others

She doesn’t know how to properly release her emotions which causes her to lash out often to those around her

She would be too afraid to visit you in the healing bay

She feels too ashamed to face you, even if you aren’t really conscious

I also think she would brush aside any concern the team may show for her, instead, trying to keep up her image as a strong leader

(Which isn’t working out, everyone can see she’s basically a ticking time bomb)

Allura pushes herself even harder now during missions and battles, which is lowkey kinda hypocritical of her since that’s what got her in that position in the first place

After briefly talking with Keith, Allura would find herself in the training deck, hoping to relieve some of her pent up emotions with the gladiator

Maxing out to the highest possible level, the princess managed to tire herself out, not having enough energy to beat the machine

Grunting in pain, she waited for the gladiator to land a hit on her before she heard the voice of the person she was dreading to see

“End training sequence!”

You would run to her and cradle her body, concern written all over your face

Despite putting you in danger and managing to hurt you in the process, you still cared for her well-being

Tears well up in the princesses eyes before she gave you a crushing hug

Feeling her body shake against yours, you gently wrap your arms around her, whispering soothing words

“I almost got you killed…”

“I’m still here, are’t I?”

Allura would definitely learn a lot through that experience

She would stop pushing herself so hard and begin relying on her team to assist her during missions

She would also linger around you more often than not

She still feels incredibly guilty for what she put you through, but doesn’t tell you (you know though💔)

I also think that she MIGHT be more open to physical affection in front of the others since she needs to confirm that you’re still alive and popping

Holding your hand is something that she does a lot now since it soothes her heart knowing you’re still with her

Expect her to be a little more protective of you though, she does not want you to be in such a critical state again

She doesn’t want to lose you too :(

[frostyblustar]

Self-Indulgent Klance Fluff I wrote on a whim:

Keith had never really understood what was going on in his own head. People would ask him how he was feeling, and he never knew how to respond. Most of the time a ‘I don’t know’ would pass from his lips and that would be the end of it.

One of the worst unidentifiable emotions was around Lance. The man never failed to make Keith feel confused, and he didn’t even know why.

The castle ship was cold, and so was Keith. Despite his temper, which he was well aware of, he usually felt colder than most. During the night, the blankets he had didn’t actually do much to stave off the temperatures, and his own body heat didn’t do much.

When he did fall asleep, he would be greeted with nightmares. Fire, Galra, the amazing time that was his childhood. It pissed him off. Why couldn’t he just sleep like the others? Lance, for example, slept like a rock all the time!

He needed to redirect his anger, so to the training deck he went. It was sleeping time in the castle, but not for him or the machines that operated training. He gutted training bots and sparred like he was meant for it. Maybe he was, he had found out he was galra recently, after all.

Keith was just about to slice through another bot when Lance came into the deck, dressed in a plain white t-shirt and blue shorts. Lance seemed surprised, “I heard banging but I assumed it was Pidge working on something late again. Why are you training this early??”

Panting a little, Keith swapped his sword to his other hand. “End training sequence!” The bot powered down just as it was about to take a swing at Keith. “Just uh- Couldn’t sleep.” He wanted to be honest. Lance and him were part of a team, being on the same page was important. If Lance asked, Keith would likely tell him anything. With some reluctance of course, and maybe lacking in details.

“Uh huh… Okay so you’re going back to bed.” Lance said simply as he yawned and took Keith’s wrist. Shock caused him to drop his sword, which turned into a bayard as it fell from his grip.

Keith wrinkled his nose, agitation was likely evident on his face. He hoped it was. “You can’t tell me what to do, Lance.”

His protests went unheard it seems, because Lance just proceeded to start dragging him out of the training deck. Excuse him for this, but Keith did not expect Lance to be as strong as he was. He had to gather up a lot of strength just to wretch away, and even then Lance caught onto his shirt and pulled him forwards again.

Maybe it was from lack of sleep that Lance was able to pull him into the hallway, but Keith kept protesting. “Dude! If we’re going to defeat Zarkon I need to train!”

“You can do that in the morning with us. You need sleep Keith, I notice how tired you can be in the mornings. I never knew you did-“ Lance gestured over at the training deck’s doors. “-This.”

Keith rolled his eyes, “I don’t control my sleep. It’s too difficult and this palace is so fucking cold.” He attempted to cross his arms but his fellow paladin had a firm grip on one.

Lance went quiet for a moment, “Wait, what blankets are you using?” He looked puzzled, which just confused Keith too.

His gaze went to the floor. Lance was wearing Sonic slippers, classic. “Uhh, the ones I was given? What else?”

“Holy crow- Did you not ask for more?? Keith- Just c’mon, you’re about to see what a dumbass you are.”

He was guided down the hallway, towards their rooms. Keith expected them to stop at his door, but they kept going. “Wait- Where are we going??”

“Patience, Keith.” They stopped in front of Lance’s room, and Lance unlocked it silently. Inside was a room very similar to his, but a few key differences were there. There was a gaming system in the corner, and multiple pillows on the bed. Alongside the pillows was a thick blue blanket.

“You didn’t even ask, man! I asked after like, two nights! They got me one of these!” Lance dramatically thumped a hand on the blanket like a car salesman. “I would tell you to go ask, but everyone’s asleep. I could give you mine..?”

Keith shook his head no, though a warm pleasant feeling stirred inside of him. “No. It’s yours.” He had an eyebrow raised at him before his arm was grabbed again and he was tugged to the bed. His feet tripped and he landed face first on the bed with a small omph.

He picked up his face from the bed and glared up at Lance. “What the hell?”

Lance flung a pillow at Keith’s front, and Keith caught it. Damn instincts. The man smiled down at him, “You can sleep here.” Keith fake-gagged.

“I didn’t want to take your blanket, and I ain’t taking your bed.” He wasn’t fond of invading other people’s spaces like that, it was part of his moral code not to. That applied to beds, especially. Lance’s bed felt cursed to be on, it was giving him complex emotions he couldn’t comprehend.

The bed’s owner rolled his eyes and sat down on the bed, taking his Sonic slippers off. “You aren’t taking. If you’re so bothered by that, we could share.” Keith’s face flushed as Lance laughed, “C’mon man, you got socks on. It’s not that intimate to sleep on the same bed.”

“Lance. If I wasn’t so tired right now, I’d be beating you up.”

Lance picked up the blanket, pulling at it while Keith rolled off. He was about to express his annoyance when the blanket was thrown over him, and Lance slid in underneath it too. “Body heat probably helps too, right?”

Keith stayed quiet, trying to comprehend what the fuck just happened. Keith had been dragged to this bed, no, Lance’s bed, and now they were laying next to each other. Lance seemed to be taking this very casually though, picking under his nails and then turning on his side to train his gaze on Keith.

“Hey, if you’re uncomfortable the blanket offer is still on the table. I just know for a fact you are struggling to sleep, and I need you ready for training tomorrow. We have a bet going on who will survive the longest during practice and I betted on you lasting the longest.”

Of course. This wasn’t an intimate thing, this was Lance worrying about Keith being tired during training! What else could he think? Keith felt so stupid. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Hey Keith?”

“Yeah, Lance? Did you bring me here to sleep or talk?”

He was starting to get annoyed, who gave Lance the right to toy with his feelings like this? There was already enough on his plate with the war without relationship drama coming in to stir things up. One-sided relationship drama, he believed.

“Sleep but… I need to tell you something.”

Keith didn’t know what to expect, and he was curious on what Lance could possibly tell him about. Maybe it was another bet or something. “Shoot.”

“I think you’re really amazing.” If THAT was a bet, he would kill whoever set it up. He pulled the thick blue blanket that was over them up to his face, covering half of it.

“..What?” Lance hummed and then chuckled, bringing a hand up to touch Keith’s cheek. His blue eyes were sleepy, and his eyelids were fluttering a little.

Keith tried to find anything else to say, but his mind couldn’t work with Lance’s hand on his cheek like this. When the hand was lowered, he felt like he could finally speak. Then Lance opened his mouth again, and he shut his own mouth down.

“I said you’re amazing, that’s all. I’m so glad you’re with me in space..” Then he was asleep, like a rock. A very lovable, pretty rock.

[autisticlancemcclain]

The first time Lance defends him, he’s shocked.

He’s not actually sure it’s the first time, actually. Lance is so practiced. The words come so easily. He’s silver-tongued and ruthless, systematic in the way he shuts the man down, proud and prideful in the set of his shoulders.

“But he’s Galra,” the man hisses, snarl twisting his features, fists clenched around Lance’s right hand and the fabric of his jacket, locked in a dance. Neither of them have noticed Keith, at the edge of the ballroom, half-hidden in the balcony, gaping.

“The Galran Empire is a plague that has monopolized three quarters of the universe,” Lance replies, steely. “If you think the billions of children it has sired and abandoned are the enemy, then you are a fool.”

“Those children carry that violence in their blood.”

Lance does not flinch, even as spittle flies onto the corner of his mouth, dripping with the man’s vitriol. “Ten thousand years,” he reiterates, “of conquering without any value of the people they are colonising. You can trace the lineage of almost any person on any planet that has been under the Empire’s rule for longer than they can remember, and you will find Galran blood. How do you think the Empire rebuilds planets for workforces after they slaughter their armies? Do you think it’s left to natural restoration?”

For the first time the man does not speak, stunned. Both of them have stopped moving, much to the annoyance of other dancers in the gala. Lance delicately pulls himself out of the man’s hold but still stands in front of him, looking him in the eye, defiant set to his chin.

“The Empire is your enemy,” he says. “Not a race of people. I cannot count for you the amount of people who have gleefully joined the Empire in desperation of power, regardless of their race, the cost to their planet. Zarkon and his forces need to be stopped. If you stand stubbornly where you are, demanding blood tests of every ally to determine that they meet your puritan standards, you will have no allies left to stand with you.” He takes a step back and finally the blankness of his expression gives way to real fury, brown eyes flashing and jaw set with a rage Keith has never seen in him before. “I will not stand with you. Keith has earned my trust. I know my black paladin will lead this war to an end. If you stand in his way — in our way — I will cut you down before he has the chance to see your block in the road.”

[galraluver]

Royal Greetings my love,

Your fics are a work of art, love it!! May I request something for Kolivan?

I think most galrans believe in love at first sight (like Zarkons brain was drowned in pink glitter when he saw Honerva for the first time) and what if Kolivan had this moment as well with (Female) Blade!Reader when he saw her the fist time without her mask on a mission (aka. the best time to fall in love with someone)?

If you're finding some time to write that scenario/headcanon: Take all the time you need honey, i know it's tough writing requests for others (and yours are so good and nice to read on top of that!)

You're doing great, thank you for everything!

- Fürstin Lya

I'm glad that you like my fics so much 🥰 I only wish that I had more time to write. Of course I can; this is a super cute idea 💖

I appreciate you being so patient with me. Without further ado, here it is 💕

_________________________________________

(Y/n) was just the average Marmoran operative; she was trained by Krolia and Antok made her an official member after her trials because Kolivan had been away at the time, so Kolivan had never seen her face before. She'd been out on missions with Kolivan many times and over time she developed a little crush on her leader, unfortunately as far as she was aware he wasn't interested in a romantic relationship with anyone. The only people who knew about her crush on Kolivan were her close friends and Ulaz; Ulaz had a knack for knowing when someone was in love with someone else, even when they never actually told him. (Y/n) did her best to prove herself to Kolivan by taking only the most dangerous missions when they came up and she was successful with all of them, luckily the worst that happened to her during one mission in particular was that she almost lost her left arm.

Kolivan was aware of who (Y/n) was despite having never seen her face and he was very impressed by her success rate; he would eventually like to personally meet her on a more casual level. When he, Antok and (Y/n) went with Allura to galra central command it was (Y/n) who saved Antok’s life, putting herself in danger so that he wouldn't be killed. It was then that Kolivan made up his mind that he wanted to meet (Y/n) face to face as soon as they had time. After the battle at central command, Antok, (Y/n) and Thace had to stay in three of the castle's healing pods, although since (Y/n) wasn't too badly injured she was only asleep for about a day. Kolivan and Ulaz remained at the castle, waiting for their comrades to finish healing; right before (Y/n) was deemed healed Kolivan was in the lounge with the paladins.

“Wait, so you've never even seen (Y/n's) face? And you like her?” Lance asked Kolivan after he explained how he knew the young galran woman, dumbfounded that the Marmoran leader liked someone despite never actually seeing her face before.

“I never said that I held affection for her.” Kolivan corrected the blue paladin, feeling a little flustered.

“You didn't have to, I can tell when someone really likes someone else. That's why they call me the doctor of love.” Lance responded, bragging about his special gift.

“Lance, no one calls you that.” Keith responded flatly, hoping that Kolivan wouldn't take Lance seriously.

Lance gawked at Keith, immediately getting into an argument with the slightly older boy who always had to ruin his fun. Keith didn't see it as ruining Lance's fun, he just preferred to be realistic. Kolivan couldn't believe that mere children were able to fight in a ten-thousand year war and have some degree of success; Shiro had originally whipped them into shape, but without him around then Kolivan feared that team Voltron would fall apart. In the meantime, (Y/n) had come out of the healing pod she'd been staying in and Ulaz decided to go get Kolivan after he gave her a check-up just to make sure she was alright. Keith and Lance stopped arguing when Ulaz entered the lounge, listening as he told Kolivan that (Y/n) was ready.

“Go get her!” Lance said as he cheered Kolivan on, hoping that the older man would finally meet the woman of his dreams.

“Lance!” The other three paladins chided their friend in sync, each of them feeling a little embarrassed from the way he acted around Kolivan.

Kolivan wasn't expecting Lance to cheer him on when he didn't even have romantic tendencies towards (Y/n), he viewed her as his subordinate and nothing more because they were at war and there was no time for romance. Subconsciously he'd taken a slight interest in her, but consciously he'd convinced himself that he didn't see (Y/n) as a potential romantic partner. On the way to the infirmary Ulaz could tell that his leader was anxious and a little excited, and after talking to (Y/n) he knew she was really excited to finally have a little one-on-one time with Kolivan. When they arrived at their destination Ulaz left so he could give them some privacy, knowing that everything would go well between his friend and his leader. As soon as the door slid open and Kolivan saw (Y/n's) face he was awestruck; he just stood there for a moment, taking in her beauty while she looked at him with confusion, he wasn't expecting one of his most talented operatives to look so beautiful.

“You must be (Y/n).” Kolivan managed to choke out, feeling dizzy and lightheaded as he walked over to her; he felt embarrassed for not being able to speak clearly, it was the first time it happened and he wasn't sure how to handle being in the presence of such a fine young woman.

“That's me. Leader, are you feeling alright?” (Y/n) answered professionally prior to voicing her concern for him; she never thought that she would see the day when Kolivan got flustered, she thought it was really cute.

Before he saw (Y/n) without her mask Kolivan convinced himself that he could never fall in love with her, that changed as soon as he saw her without the hood and the mask of her uniform in the way. All he could do was stand there with his mouth slightly agape, staring at her face; if he was in one of those memes Regris had shown him, then he was sure that there would have been tiny beating hearts all around him. (Y/n) was a patient woman and she knew that Kolivan needed a moment to regain his composure; she didn't necessarily believe she was beautiful, but after breathing in his pheromones she could easily tell that he really liked what he saw.

“I just wanted to tell you that you did well yesterday, not everyone would save their superior in such a dangerous situation.” Kolivan said once his brain started working again, feeling the need to say something.

“I had to, he's one of us. Now that we have some time to recover from the mission, I would like to sit next to you during dinner this evening, if that's alright with you.” (Y/n) responded shyly, hoping to finally get to know her leader better, perhaps on a more personal level if he were to allow it.

“I would like that very much. But if you'll temporarily pardon me, I have something important to go discuss with Ulaz. I look forward to seeing you later.” Kolivan said before he excused himself, briefly smiling at (Y/n) on his way out of the infirmary.

(Y/n) reciprocated the smile and felt giddy; she assumed that he wanted to discuss Antok and Thace's health with Ulaz, although she felt giddy about sitting next to him at dinner. Since she felt better she decided to go to her temporary bedroom so that she could rest and get herself ready; there were a few hours left before dinner, and the young woman decided to wash up before dinnertime. While (Y/n) got herself ready for dinner, Kolivan went to go talk to Ulaz who was a known hopeless romantic, if anyone could give him love advice then it would be Ulaz. Just thinking about (Y/n) made him feel nervous because he'd never truly been in love before, but he wanted to get to know her better and with the possibility of a safer universe he was ready to open himself up to her and give love a chance. Until dinnertime, he and (Y/n) would get themselves ready for what would be the start to the rest of their lives together.

[artsyjesseblue]

Slowly Going Mad - Part III - Lotor

This is the third installment of my meta series discussing three essential characters of Voltron:Legendary Defender (Zarkon, Honerva and Lotor) and their gradual mental state transitions throughout the show. After writing the first two parts, I’ve debated whether to publish Lotor’s segment or not, due to the emotional triggers this analysis might raise. I decided to go ahead and post it, because I’d love to create a coherent, complete set of essays, but…

We will descend into some sensitive issues (trauma, mental illness) regarding a controversial character, so if you would prefer to steer clear of it, please do so, for your own peace of mind. I know it has been almost five years since the show ended and many of us prefer to leave certain subjects behind. So, if you consider best to scroll past, do so. Hopefully, the warning tags will also provide a firewall around it.

Alright, if you clicked past the stop sign, hop along! And thank you for reading!

The purpose of this analysis is to demonstrate that Lotor’s trajectory towards Season 6 follows a mental illness arc, slowly built up, although the reveal of his backstory arrives to us pretty much… backwards. I will enter into subjects such as developmental psychology, coping mechanisms, transactional analysis (TA) and what it means to reach the dam breaking moment.

His sudden, shocking descent into madness in S6 is achieved through subtle context throughout S3-S6. Couple that context with the backstory dropped in S8 and a larger picture will form. This analysis intends to get granular at times, because the psychology of his path lies in the sum of many details.

Here are a few highlights that define a madness arc:

the originating point of the mental affliction: it can be a defeat, a failure, a loss, grief, a dark influence.

recurrent traumas and/or abuse throughout the character’s life, slowly building up.

the traumas and losses of the past haunt the character.

deterioration of connections with family, friends, community, and finally self. Broken connections lead to paranoia and isolation, which feed the vicious cycle.

as the story progresses, the character’s arc reaches a boiling point.

at this critical point, the individual faces a moment of agency and in a tragic mental breakdown, chooses madness. Whatever breaks the dam is a world-shattering event: extreme grief, total loss of loved ones, closest allies and friends, the breach of trust towards the world, or a combination of these. The character will try to fix the world and/or revenge against the ones who did this.

I’ll approach Lotor’s story the same way I did with the other two: chronologically, which means I’ll jump back and forth among episodes, because Lotor’s backstory is also scrambled across the seasons.

Similar mention as with Honerva and Zarkon’s metas:

1) The distinction between the entity and quintessence. The entity is a creature capable of magical stuff, whereas quintessence is a substance (highest known potency in the universe).

2) Shiro’s statement: “Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts. The quintessence field didn’t create them, it revealed them.” - it basically casts the responsibility on the character, not on external factors.

BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD

We’ll begin with the days of Honerva’s pregnancy. I already analyzed these parts in Honerva’s meta, so I’ll summarize. Pregnant Honerva shows distorted cheek marks and visible changing of her appearance: gray, unkempt hair, aged countenance, sagging shoulders. Parallel that to Kova, whose appearance changed after the rift entities attacked, and we deduce that Honerva’s metamorphosis might be due to the same kind of illness.

When Honerva falls ill and starts having what seem to be withdrawal symptoms, she demands to go into the rift to get quintessence, because “we must have it” / [we must] “get back into the rift”. The deduction I made was that the entity was actually the one speaking, because - other than the entity - nobody had ever been into the rift before, so “going back” into the rift is something that only the entity could have asked for. Logically, that means Honerva was possessed/infected with the entity.

—————————————————

And this turns our attention to… baby Lotor:

S8E2 “Shadows”: “Sire, the birth was difficult, but successful. Your son is healthy and in good shape, though we seem to be getting some strange readings coming from him directly. Similar to those that, well… Similar to those of the empress and… yourself.”

And voila, I think that makes quite a strong argument that Lotor was born with the entity, which gives him a unique position among other characters. In the same scene, the doctor talks about Honerva’s state: “She only seems to become aware when we administer her quintessence. I’m hopeful her condition will improve with time, but… Sire, we’re gonna have to face the fact that our quintessence supplies are finite. The empire cannot continue to run on what we have. And you, and the Empress, without it… you’ll—”

I’m circling back to Kova, which was also revived only after administering him quintessence, and now it’s clear that these “space vampires” cannot survive without the Q life juice.

Which leads me to an interesting question: did Lotor also need quintessence to survive? The answer seems to lead to a no. For the extended period of time when he stayed in Allura’s castle, either as a prisoner or working together with the Paladins, he did not show any signs of… quintessence withdrawal. As the EPs described him, quintessence is part of his DNA. Without divulging anything about the entity, since this interview took place right after S5, here’s their description (Source: AfterBuzz TV S5 interview - link in comments, since external links here seem to affect the visibility of the post):

JDS: It’s pretty safe to say that Lotor’s got that Daywalker kind of thing going on.

Interviewer: Little Vampire.

LM: Being in…in her womb, as [Honerva] was being exposed to all of this quintessence - it’s part of his DNA. It almost puts him on a level with Allura, pretty much how her quintessence is a part of her DNA. So it’s interesting to see.

Armed with this information, let’s move through the buildup of events that show us Lotor’s backstory, before we see him for the first time in Season 3.

In S8E2, which I’ll quote for a while, because it holds the bulk of Lotor’s early years, we first see baby Lotor right after his birth, rejected by Honerva. Similarly, Zarkon’s paternal instincts are almost abolished. He abruptly orders the doctor: “Take him away.”

The complete lack of empathy for the little nugget gives us just a hint into what this child will go through as he grows up.

——————————————

The next time we meet him, he’s an adorable, tiny school boy, whose stature is below Galra lineage expectations, but as a counterbalance, Dayak points out his remarkable skills and intelligence: he completed the Agotian trials successfully, even though they were advanced for his age. Also, his tactical scores are they highest they’ve ever measured. (Tactical scores, hehe. We know he’s going to become a good tactician later in life; it’s his natural inclination, clearly.)

As Dayak proudly finishes the short account of her pupil, little Lotor speaks up: “All I do, I do in the name of Galra.” I found this little statement quite significant, especially in the context of his education. It comes to show how deep the Galra values are ingrained in his character. It is his pledge of allegiance, something that he must have repeated over and over along his school years. Repetitio est mater studiorum.

It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see the innocent boy with big, amethyst eyes and a burning desire to connect to his family be coldly dismissed by his own father - an expressionless, emotionless parent who wants to remove his “impurities”, simply because the little boy desires to know more about his mixed race genealogy and he dares to “speak out of his place”. The dynamic between father and son is revelatory not only for the brutality with which the little boy is treated by his own family, but, in contrast, we also get to see the enthusiasm and positive energy exuding from little Lotor, who, despite his father’s lack of empathy and mercy, still holds hope that he can somehow reason with him.

Dayak’s last reply to Zarkon feels painful on many levels: “He will be punished accordingly. We will sear him down to his inner fire so that he may burn the universe.” Whether she wants it or not, Dayak’s crop must inflict pain, lest she loses her job and probably her life.

Let’s shortly bring into focus the apparently hilarious moments between Dayak and Hunk.

The training is about pain, and what pain teaches an individual. “For the mind to learn, the body must be broken.” Palen-bol, meaning “the enlightening pain”, is the Galran way of learning. “The Galra believe combat is the searing light that burns imperfections of every level, from personal to societal.”

Now, imagine Lotor going through the “enlightening pain”, day by day, year after year, palen-bol after palen-bol. My smile upon seeing Hunk’s comedy soon fades away into a desolate expression. What Hunk basically learns is to contort himself into various unnatural poses, to avoid the painful whips of Dayak. When he finally gets it, she congratulates him: “very good”. In order to avoid the searing pain, he must find creative solutions out, solutions that are not always straight paths. Like a tree that grows distorted shapes in a hostile environment, so does one who lives in constant fear and pain.

TEEN LOTOR

The next significant moment in Lotor’s evolution is somewhere during his early teenage years.

Pay attention to certain verbal repetitions, as Lotor borrows from his father’s language. Also, the Kova scene leads to some interesting conclusions. I’m quoting the entire scene, for better understanding.

Officer: “Sire, your audience is requested in the Kandar wing.”

Lotor: “Father, may I accompany you?”

Zarkon: “You will stay here.”

Lotor: “But I want to join you. I have learned much of our—”

Zarkon: “You are an insolent boy. You may be the prince, but I am your emperor.”

Lotor silently yields, saluting solemnly, but casting a contemptuous look in his wake. After Zarkon has cleared the room, Lotor refocuses on Kova and instantly cheers up. As the boy is leaning over to pet the cat, Haggar suddenly speaks:

“Do not touch him. He will hurt you.”

With a sneer, the boy ignores her. After petting the cat, he asks: “What is his name?”

Haggar: “He has no name.”

Lotor: “Then I shall name it. Your name will be…”

Haggar: “Kova. His name is Kova.”

Lotor, giggling, watching Kova climb over his shoulders: “This creature pleases me. It will be mine.”

Haggar, attempting to protest: “My lord…”

Lotor: “You may be the high priestess, but I am your prince, and you will do as I say. Isn’t that right, Kova?”

Haggar acquiesces: “Yes, my lord.”

So, although years have passed since the scene with Dayak, Lotor is still speaking “out of his place”, which earns him the title of an “insolent boy”.

Despite (most likely) repeated physical punishments along the years, notice how his enthusiasm for life and learning new things is still there, brightly sparkling in his eyes, as he offers to go with his father at important meetings. He is jovial towards his father, as if expecting him to - one day - reciprocate that cordiality, perhaps? This little soul harbors a lot of love and forgiveness, that is for sure!

Despite Zarkon’s stony-hearted reaction towards him, he pouts only as an immediate reflex, but then he cheers himself up by petting Kova.

His impish pout and little frown behind his father’s back foreshadow a future scene - when Zarkon will return to the throne, sending Lotor away. A more refined smirk will cross his face as he’ll depart, hiding behind it a more complex scheme than a teenager’s little mischief, but that scene shall be discussed further when I’ll get to it.

This little detail in child-Lotor’s life is an interesting inflection point that shows us how he learns to conceal his inner thoughts and his ploys from Zarkon, and by extension, from the world (remember the comparison with a distorted tree?). We know that adult Lotor is a master at scheming behind people’s back, working from the shadows, hiding himself - something that even Haggar reproaches him: “You say you rule, yet you stay hidden.” It’s something that he learned over and over again as a kid.

“You may be the high priestess, but I am your prince…” Didn’t Zarkon just utter the same thing? “You may be a prince, but I am your emperor…” Little Lotor learns very fast, his mind is a sponge absorbing everything from his father. With this you can pretty much tell how in awe he still is with him, imitating his vocabulary and trying to emulate his demeanor. The attitude is there: he’s proud of what he’s learned so far, he’s self-confident, and begins to have leadership traits: “you will do as I say.” All he does, he does in the name of Galra…

As for the interaction with Kova, here’s how I see it:

When Haggar says, “Do not touch him. He will hurt you,” I believe the meaning is more than just “Kova will scratch you.” Since Kova and Haggar both are infected with the entity, what are the chances that Kova might possess the same potential of sucking out the life of other living beings?

So in this context, I think that witch Haggar presumes that the prince might get injured. She’s unaware that Kova will not cause him any harm, because… what do you know? Lotor also has a little entity; he was born with it. And Haggar has no clue.

The bond they will form for the next ten thousand years perhaps goes deeper than we think. We know from S8 that Haggar was able to get into the minds of her Altean followers, because she infected them with the entity. There is a telepathic communication that forms, and maybe Lotor and Kova form a similar… mental bond? I’m inclined to believe this theory for several reasons: 1) in S8, Honerva is able to find out Lotor’s location only after probing into Kova’s mind. 2) Narti was also mentally bonded with Kova, and she could see through the cat’s eyes (which stirs the question: did Narti have the entity as well?)

Deep breath.

Are you ready for one of the hardest scenes in VLD?

YOUNG ADULT LOTOR

“Are you nervous?” asks Ven’tar.

Lotor replies with a confident, affected voice, looking up and proudly surveying the grand plaza, filled with thousands of people cheering him. “No, Ven’tar. This is my chance to finally make a difference. To show my father what we are capable of.”

Besides the fact that he nonchalantly displays his cat at the edge of his balcony, for the masses to see, notice the expression on his face, his eyebrows. He is pleased with himself, proud of his achievements, proud of the people in front of him.

What he says is also very significant, because it comes to show that Lotor, despite a lifetime of abuse and trauma from his father (and neglect from his mother), still believes there is good in him. He wants to “show” him what he’s capable of.

Oof. The need for validation. Why do people seek validation from others (especially from their family)? You guessed it: mainly because during their childhood, they did not receive enough praise or encouragement.

Overachievers are, oftentimes, love-seeking people who try to compensate for the lack of approval by trying to reach even higher goals, in the hopes of getting the love they need. In that note, here’s what Lotor tells his father:

“Our quintessence yields are some of the highest in the empire, and we’ve been more efficient than any other. By working alongside the denizens of this planet, like Ven’tar here, we’ve outsourced—”

“We’ve outpaced even the most generous projections.”

Poor Lotor!

The most horrific introduction into adulthood is about to drop. The hopeful, optimistic, love-seeking prince will see the true face of his father, and it is not a beautiful one.

We don’t know the details of Lotor’s relationship with Ven’tar, but from the fact that she addresses him without any royal titles, we can infer that they are at least friends. He loves the people of this planet, and he enjoys having her around him, so much so that he actually brings her with him to his father. Meet the parents?

Tragically, his father is utterly offended by Lotor’s introduction to such friends. “You dare work with this pitiful race as if they are your equals? […] The heir to the Galra throne should not sully our honor by working with his subjects!”

Yet Lotor has not learned his lesson yet. He raises his voice at him, like an outraged child that believes there is a way to reason with Zarkon.

Transactional Analysis psychology at its best, this scene provides us with a “game” between the critical, persecuting Parent ego and the rebellious Child ego. Enraged that things are not going his way, but hoping there is still a chance to shake his father from his insensitive state, Lotor takes it up a notch (in a game of “I’ll show him, he’ll see!”):

“It is the way my mother’s people would have done things.”

Lotor knows exactly how sensitive this subject is. All his childhood, he has been banned from researching anything about Honerva. Yet here he is, openly and rebelliously admitting it:

“You thought I couldn’t find out about my own mother? About her people? You thought you destroyed every remnant of Altea, but you cannot unless you destroy your own son as well!”

Lotor is now playing a very dangerous game. What he still does not realize is that his father’s reason is gone, his madness is pushed all the way to the dark side of the spectrum. He bargains with his own life, betting that Zarkon won’t harm him or his subjects. What’s worse, he unwittingly bets an entire planet against his self-assured comments (“unless you destroy your own son as well”). Actually, Zarkon will destroy him too, alongside Ven’tar’s planet. Not physically, but psychologically, he sure does.

“Enough!” Zarkon roars back at him.

Yes, enough, because it’s unbearable for Zarkon to even go there. The madness that clouds his mind has abolished any rational Adult from the picture. There is only the Tyrant, and he’s made up his mind.

“You are to crush this planet beneath your heel!”

The rebel child fights back: “Never!!”

Zarkon’s answer completely takes Lotor aback: “Then I will!”

Lotor is still in denial. The most cruel, dark, ugly face of his father is finally revealed to him and he cannot fathom it out. His father is truly capable of the most abominable acts.

Incredulity and desperation drips from his lips: “You wouldn’t. You can’t! Father, wait!”

Father, wait… Maybe, maybe he can fix this… Maybe he can soften his heart with one last plea, maybe he can twist himself one more time to his father’s will, if only he could to save his beloved planet:

“No, please do not do this, Father. Do not make these people suffer for my actions.”

The rebellious child shrinks into a penitent little being who bends to his abusive parent. How can he save them, now, in the last moment?

Alas… “It is already done.”

“I will do as you ask. The people will serve the Galra.” He will bend, he will bow to his father’s will, he will endure once more the whipping and palen-bols, he would do anything to save them! (Isn’t just this scene enough to reveal Lotor’s true character?) Utterly desperate, he runs after him, begging.

But we all know how it all went down...

Waking up to face the image of utter destruction, the fire outside reflects the scorching pain and horror inside him.

“You are hereby banished from the empire. Forced to live out the remainder of your days remembering your failure here.”

Indeed he will remember it for his entire life. After thousands of years, it will be his first and only confession to Allura, spoken, of all places, at Oriande, the most beautiful, celestial site in the universe.

“Have you nothing to say, witch? Surely even you can see the folly of your master’s actions,” utters Lotor through gnashing teeth, back at Haggar, who watches him impassively.

After a tragedy of this magnitude, I’m quite sure many would lose their mind. How did Lotor find the strength to go on after this? How did he preserve his sanity? Or maybe he actually… didn’t?

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We know a little bit about Lotor’s life in between this event and the first time we actually meet him, in S3E1, in the gladiator arena. From what he told Allura, after the harrowing event on Ven’tar’s planet, he spent the next few centuries searching for clues about his Altean heritage. We also assume it was within that time frame when he gathered the Alteans scattered across the corners of the empire, and brought them to the hidden colony in the Quantum Abyss.

But why his Altean heritage, you ask? He could have simply tried to find his inner peace in other ways… like, I don’t know, let’s say meditating, getting mental treatment, finding an occupation that would give him a different purpose. No, he spent centuries diving into the lost history of Altea, “another culture destroyed by Zarkon.” This was the only occupation that could give meaning and purpose to his life.

Why Altea?

Because it was the culture of his mother, whom he idolized. So much so that he defied his father’s interdictions and followed the Altean customs when ruling Ven’tar’s planet. So much so that when Allura dares to suggest that Haggar might be his mother, he snaps at her.

A child rejected by his father, mistreated, beaten, abused, tries to find refuge and comfort at the bosom of his… mother.

After Zarkon destroyed his heart, Lotor ran straight into the arms of Mother Altea. I believe that as much as the lost Alteans needed him to provide them a safe refuge, he needed them even more. He needed them as a child would need a mother to turn to, a safe place where he could heal his wounds.

I think herein lies the key to understanding Lotor’s mental trajectory and giving a true meaning to his mental breakdown and to the words he utters during the S6 tragic events, as I’ll discuss when we’ll arrive there.

Take a few deep breaths. Stretch your legs.

ADULT LOTOR BEFORE ALLYING WITH VOLTRON

Let’s see what he’s up to, thousands of years after all is said and done, during the new Paladins’ era. Haggar summons him to return as pro tem, and we first meet him in the gladiator arena.

We learn a bit about him from the little gossip murmured between Throk and his crony, watching the show. The “exiled brat”, how they call him, likes to “fight alongside his enlisted men, like a lowly private.”

“Worse than that, his top generals aren’t even pure Galra. They’re half-breeds at best. He has no honor,” Throk continues.

“Some say he allows the planets he conquers to continue to rule themselves. Can you imagine?”

“Clearly he’s a dangerous lunatic.”

This is the general atmosphere in which Lotor enters as emperor pro-tem, but now we know what kind of “lunatic” we are meeting.

His combat skills show his great talent for evasive maneuvers, using the opponent’s size to his advantage. He has adapted perfectly to the hostile environment in which he grew up. Like Hunk learned to avoid Dayak’s stinging crop, Lotor masters the art of evasive maneuvers to the tiniest detail. He easily defeats the big guy, then, with a theatrical gesture, reveals Throk’s hidden agenda to the public (courtesy of Ezor spying around - so we also know he’s got some good tactics to stay ahead of the game).

During his fight with Throk, Lotor makes some interesting remarks:

“You have flawless technique, that I’ll grant you. Still, you must realize at some point, that your repetitive attacks are getting you nowhere.”

“Your tactics are stale. And in the end, your own aggression is your undoing.”

The easy win that Throk provides, along with the dramatic effect it has for the audience, gives Lotor the perfect opportunity to win the public’s heart, by sparing Throk’s life. A novel approach.

“My father built our Empire on the bones of his enemies. But the time has come to change the old ways, and inspire not fear from those we rule, but loyalty. We must not waste our energy fighting to keep our subjects down, but rather multiply it, by allowing those worthy to rise and join our ranks. The Universe can no longer doubt our strength. Each ally gained only makes us stronger, while those who continue to stand against us… will be crushed.”

Wise words of a visionary man with a progressive agenda, he seeks to dislodge the old ways of the regime.

“The masses are easily manipulated,” he tells his generals as he returns victorious. “Have Throk transferred out to the Ulippa system immediately. Let him rot with the ice worms,” he beams a wicked smile.

So where’s the “each ally gained makes us stronger” promise?

Well, Lotor is intelligent enough to weigh the quality of his so-called “allies”. Would Throk really be someone “worthy to rise and join his ranks”, after he just plotted against him? There is a Latin proverb - “viperam sub ala nutricare”, or “to nurse a viper under your wing” - a caveat that you may not want to keep vipers too close to you. And Lotor’s survival instinct keeps him far away from such vipers. Actually, he is constantly on the watch for vipers - a trait that I shall repeatedly point out, because it reveals his paranoid tendencies, born of his turbulent and traumatic past.

From this episode we learn that he is a calculated man, who sends spies ahead of him to assess the territory, who knows how to win the public’s heart through inspiring speeches and amazing warrior skills, and who has a keen eye for discerning friends from foes. Bottomline: a very guarded man. Does he seem duplicitous and a bit suspicious? He sure does, but does he really hide evil intents? As a first-time watcher of the show, that would be the instinct. But reading the story backwards - meaning, starting in the true chronological order, from his childhood - we begin to comprehend the true reasons behind his exploits.

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The following episodes reveal his brilliant tactics (of course, he practiced since he was a kid):

He easily lures the Paladins into multiple traps (Planet Puig, Thayserix), manipulating the battles in order to learn more about his opponents, all while enjoying himself. Not even looking to take them down, he simply wants to test their aptitudes and capture them if possible.

Ignoring his more impetuous generals, he knows when to retreat. “A leader must know when to leave the field of battle.” Something that Keith, as the new leader of Voltron, learns just now, for the first time. In many ways, the Paladins are learning new things via Lotor, and they’ll continue to learn from him throughout the seasons. As the EP’s also mentioned in multiple interviews, at their core, Lotor’s intentions are good, but his methods are not always as clean as Voltron may desire. He is operating not only from how he was raised, but also from the experience of his traumas, and we are given plenty of examples throughout the following seasons.

Lotor learns form every occasion, turning it to his advantage. The fact that the Lions can still form Voltron is “an opportunity”, which he fully wields, in S3E4 “Hole in the Sky”. Another trap for the Paladins, he effectively uses them to ‘pull his chestnuts out of the fire’. As he states, “If Voltron disappears from our world, then we win. If they make it out with the comet, we’ll take it from them. It’s a win either way.” Put that against his more tame clarification given to the Paladins, and you can see why it’s really a gray area where this man actually operates: “I’m afraid I had to be a bit duplicitous in effecting its retrieval. […] It was a calculated risk, I admit that. But I knew they’d come through without a scratch.” The high purpose he pursues (entering the rift) is worth the risks and the prices he’s willing to pay.

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In S3E5 “The Journey”, we learn something extremely valuable about him - how he has trained himself to be on constant alert about spies (remember the vipers mentioned earlier?). Swiftly apprehending general Raht, Haggar’s assigned secret agent, he decides to pay the witch a visit and confront her directly.

Haggar makes no gesture to deny the allegations, rather twisting the knife in his wound: “I know many ideas float through your head, just like your father, but the Galra Empire needs your leadership in these troubling times.” It almost resembles a domestic scene (I honestly chuckled), as if without realizing it, Haggar talks to him like a mother scolding her child. I find his reply equally entertaining (yet tragic), even his expression taking after that of a child desperately trying to rebel against his family: “I am the leader, but I am not my father!” It won’t be the first time when Haggar reproaches him that he’s not getting involved in imperial matters, only hiding in the shadows. That is his modus operandi - and we’re just beginning to understand why.

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The next episode, “Tailing a Comet” holds some keys about what Lotor is up to, but also carries some mysteries which have not been unlocked to this day. We learn that he already used some of the comet ore to manufacture a ship, but we also learn that he attacks a Galra base, in order to retrieve a teludav lens. Again, he’s operating from the shadows. As Pidge rightfully points out… “I thought Lotor took over for Zarkon. Why is he attacking a Galra base?” Because - Haggar, that’s why. We know she’s tailing him constantly and she is the last person in the universe that he’d team up with. In fact, if I get to think of it, Haggar stalking Lotor is the underlying thread of the entire show.

But what of the teludav lens? Clearly, a link must exist between that and the fact that Acxa was sent to retrieve scaultrite from the belly of the weblum, where Keith found her in the first place. Allura rightfully infers that an Altean must be employed to operate it, but she guesses Haggar wrong. Yes, Haggar is Altean, as Allura discovered in direct combat with her, but it’s clear that Lotor does not want anything to do with the witch.

That leaves us with only one alternative: someone in his hidden Altean colony. (Lotor himself seems to not possess Altean alchemy powers to operate a teludav, at least none that we’ve seen). This loose thread has never been elucidated. To spread even more mystery around Lotor’s aura, even his generals have no clue about the true purpose of all these shenanigans. As Shiro says, “something strange is going on here, and we need to figure it out.” Um, actually, we never fully figured it out, courtesy of the garfle-warfled S8.

I found an interesting parallel, and again, a lesson that Keith indirectly learns from his interaction with Lotor: the advice that Shiro gives Keith at the end of this episode: “You need to pick your battles. Sometimes you have to make hard choices.” Similarly, every choice that Lotor makes throughout his life is a battle he has to pick - behind Haggar’s back, as we learn right at the end of this episode, when the witch attempts to pry relevant memories about the teludav theft out of Throk’s mind, while Lotor eavesdrops, behind the corner.

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In S4E3 “Black Site” we get a multitude of new details about Lotor’s relationship with his family. When he is called to the imperial court to have his pro tem title dissolved, the first person he encounters as the doors hiss open is Haggar. For a very short moment, Lotor looks startled, and he casts a glance at the witch. Premonition?

As Lotor relinquishes imperial reigns back to his father, the interaction gives a quite fascinating subject of analysis. Lotor is no longer the naive youngling; he has completely abandoned the sincere vocabulary, instead glib words rolling off his tongue. He knows very well that Zarkon and him are never going to see eye to eye, but he did not come there to seek a fight. He’s not (yet) powerful enough to take him down, so the smooth-tongued approach has to be the way. He theatrically attempts an ingratiating offer to stay by Zarkon’s side and “learn” from him, knowing full-well that it will never happen. As expected, Zarkon dismisses him disdainfully.

And here’s the smirk I was talking about earlier:

It’s a rehearsed attitude, it’s the grown-up Lotor, like the tree grown under harsh weather, the prince whose childhood innocence and optimism have been replaced by a cynical, calculated demeanor, carrying out ploys behind his father’s back because the front door was closed a long time ago.

What a confident smirk.

He worked for so long on this plan.

He’s getting closer and closer to achieving his dream. He snatched the comet ore and he’s making his own Voltron. Soon he will be able to enter the rift and get as much quintessence as he needs, for his grand plans.

Unfortunately, his confidence becomes his blindspot, as Haggar taps into the mind connection with Kova.

The sad irony is that he thinks he has Haggar all sorted out, when, upon his departure, he runs a thorough scan of his ship for trackers. The scene screams “paranoia”, except this paranoia is indubitably justified. When you’ve been stalked for millennia by a family who seeks to destroy you, all your senses are sharpened, survival instinct ready to spring in action at any second, adrenalin ready to kick in.

Killing Narti, a huge blow for the team, does not ensue as a mindless knee-jerk reaction. It is a hard choice he makes, for their own survival. He learned throughout his life to decide on the run, and you can see it on his face that he takes no pleasure in killing. Narti falls victim, just like he later admits that he had to sacrifice a few Alteans to preserve the future for millions.

We do not know the circumstances in which he had to sacrifice “the few”, but if they resemble in any way the tough spot he found himself when slaying Narti, we begin to see the trail of tragedies that haunt his life.

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In S4, Ep3&5 we witness the growing mistrust of the generals towards Lotor. Ezor tells Acxa: “What about Narti? She trusted him. You saw where that got her.”

Notice that Lotor didn’t share some essential knowledge with his generals. The reason why he slayed Narti was because of the connection with Haggar via the entity inside Kova.

I believe none of the generals (except maybe Narti?) knows about the entity, his Quantum Abyss colony and his secret team building the inter-reality gate, based on their behavior along the show. Yes, Acxa might have a stronger loyalty, switching back to siding with him just from a few glance exchanges, but eventually she also renounces him.

In S8E5 “The Grudge”, Acxa explains to her friends in the gym room that “…we had to abandon the animal [Kova] on our destroyed ship so we could escape without being tracked.” This simply implies that she knew about Haggar controlling the cat, but not exactly how she controls the cat.

The rift gate scene also proves that Lotor runs secret operations that he obscures even from his generals (NB: when he deems appropriate, he discloses them). This is his dynamic way of existence: juggling with secrets among people who put their trust in him, in order to protect himself and those dear to him from his corrupt family. The trauma that he endures for millennia force him into wearing these many masks.

After his attempt to enter the rift between realities fails, his generals betray him. Most likely not the first time when people double-crossed him. The difference is that stakes are getting higher and higher, now that he has his own comet ore ships, and will continue to get higher as he’ll discover Oriande, all the more reasons for him to be extremely cautious.

But he’s used to traitors. As a matter of fact, when he wakes up, he says, with a bitter expression, “You plan to give me up. I understand, Zethrid. You do what you must, and I’ll do what I must.” This scene also foreshadows the larger breach of trust, between him and the Voltron team in S6.

Is he justified in keeping secrets from his team? Hell yes. The risk of losing Altea is so great that he has to.

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When Lotor flies too close to the sun (literally), his comet ore ship proves to be more resilient than Zarkon’s cruisers. As he dives deeper into the plasma, his expression - of desperate survival, of hate against his assailants - borders madness, resembling his turn in S6

Trauma and disintegration of his social connections, two major factors in describing a madness arc, converge right in this chapter.

If trauma from the past is not enough, being hunted by his own father is another straw atop the camel’s back. Not the last one, though. Not yet. More potent factors need to converge, to throw him off the cliff, as we’ll see.

By witnessing him completely alone, we also get a glimpse into his true character.

The moment he learns about the imminent explosion of the Naxzela planet, Lotor heads right into the heart of danger. Why would someone who, all this life, fought for his own survival, fly directly into the range of a galactic ticking bomb?

Because this is how we learn who he truly is. Alone, no external influence or circumstance, no pretend smiles or smirks behind one’s back, he takes decisions based on his true moral compass. If he were the monster the story would seemingly lead us to believe in S6 and beyond, he’d run to cover his own skin. Instead, the worry across his expression reveals just that: genuine concern.

The same genuine concern sits atop his brows as he enters the battle scene, effectively disabling Haggar’s weapon. Finally, after a long string of tragic mishaps, he secures a win. A win which he wittily and swiftly takes advantage of: “Attention, Paladins of Voltron and rebel fighters, I know we’ve had our differences in the past, but… I think it is time we had a discussion.”

BECOMING VOLTRON’S FRIEND

With S5 come Lotor’s brightest and most glorious moments, and along with them, the complexity of his character further augments.

Before I begin, I can’t help posting a side-by-side Loki-Lotor screencap, because Lotor’s prison cell screams the same design concept and I love it, for many reasons.

Also, let’s not forget this sassy first portrait of Lotor as he begins his adventure alongside the Paladins:

His discussions with Allura and the Paladins while serving prison time in the castle provide us with new details about him, but also lead the viewer into a skewed picture of the events.

#LotorWasFramed, shared by many on social media at the time of S6 and beyond, including by some of the VLD cast members, hints precisely at this skewed view of Lotor:

Allura says to her friends, in S5E1 “The Prisoner”, “I’m still not comfortable with this. It just doesn’t feel right.”

Later in the episode, she reiterates, “I can’t stop thinking that we might be an unwitting part of a much larger ulterior motive.”

Yes, her intuition is right, there is a much larger ulterior motive, but what is the ulterior motive? Is it truly an evil plot?

Well, take Allura’s final words about Lotor, in S8E13 and there you have it, canon-compliant: “Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately, he wanted to preserve life. Honor your son...”

Highly frowned upon by fans as a meager redemption, truly lacking the complexity that should have reflected the richness of his character, it is, nevertheless, an exoneration, stating in clear that his ultimate goal was to preserve life - and to be more precise, Altean life, the Altean colony. We have to honor his work, because, ultimately, even though his methods didn’t feel right to Allura, even if his methods obscured ulterior motives, those motives were righteous. And Allura’s final statement is canon - one cannot deny that. The end justified the means - it truly fits into how he operated, and we can see why he had to operate that way - not only because he didn’t know of another method, but because the social and political circumstances forced him to.

So, armed with this information, we begin to see how his “ulterior motive” is plotted. He reveals to the Voltron team that his goal is to enter the rift to get quintessence, to flood the empire with a fuel currently deemed a luxury, to effectively “drop the price of oil”. A paradigm shift, a new dawn for the old empire. No more need for blood in order to obtain quintessence. A peaceful era for everyone. And he doesn’t lie. This is his intention. But not a complete picture of it.

What he doesn’t reveal is his precious Altean colony, the one that he hopes to finally be able to release from hiding, once peace has been established within the empire. In a future dialogue, he will state precisely that: “I’ve dedicated my life to preserving Altean culture. Now that we’ve unlocked the quintessence field, all of your people, who would have been hunted long ago, had it not been for my intervention, can live in peace.” Can we blame him for not revealing this to the team? Absolutely not. Knowing that Haggar can plant spies in the most inconspicuous locations, Lotor is constantly on the watch, protecting at all cost what is dearest to him - Mother Altea. And wasn’t he right? There was a mole in the Voltron team: Shiro’s clone.

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Returning to the scenes with imprisoned Lotor, let’s tap into some subtle psychological hints at his traumatic past.

When Allura calls him “the leader of the most bloodthirsty race of murderers this universe has ever known,” his reply does not arrive in anger, but with a surprisingly calm and pacifying tone, as he continues to sit down: “Can people not change? Is it so hard to believe that I wish to return the Galra empire to a bygone era of peace?” This is not the first time his mixed lineage has been the subject of spiteful remarks. For ten thousand years, he must have constantly heard the “half-breed” denigratory comments. Why would an Altean comment about his Galran blood strike him differently? He surely has grown thick skin by now.

But if these words don’t pierce the thick skin, this comment surely does: “Sounds like you are your father’s son,” says Allura with enmity, after he explains that his sole purpose has been to enter the rift.

This. This hurts. His weak spot. To have him compared with the tyrant who terrorized him for his entire life, what a blasphemy! He snapped at Haggar when she dared utter such words, and he snaps again now.

He stands up, aggravation in his expression, tone raised at Allura, attacking her with a similar family comparison: “It was your father who led the scientific exploration that discovered quintessence. An exploration, I might add, that resulted in the creation of Voltron. This isn’t a zero-sum game. Meeting the needs of the Galra empire means bringing peace to the universe. That is the future enlightenment brings us, one of prosperity for all. […] All I ask is to be judged by my actions, rather than your preconceptions of my race. If that is beyond you, then perhaps you should just finish me and get it over with. Clearly, Princess, you are not ready to end this war.”

This is obviously a subject of deep pain for him, and we don’t need any clarification as to why.

How painful?

World-shattering painful.

Maddeningly hurtful.

At this point Allura is someone he just met. He takes it personally when she compares him with Zarkon. What will happen when he’ll fall in love with her and then she’ll… revisit the same comparison?

Let’s refocus on his conversations with Allura and the Paladins:

Notice how skilled he is in dodging their questions regarding his ploys.

He admits to being “a bit duplicitous”, framing it as a means to a higher purpose - which is not a lie.

He’s not afraid to defend his political beliefs, and even fight back, ending his speech with a comment that emphasizes the maturity of his agenda, while pointing out her inexperience: “Clearly, Princess, you are not ready to end this war.” He does have a ten thousand year advantage over her, that’s a fact. (I also found it quite amusing that the very next scene depicts Allura being nervous about her lines when addressing the Coalition, while Lance advises her to… jot notes down on her palm, because… he does it all the time. Talk about inexperience!)

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While the plot revolving around saving Commander Holt still holds a degree of uncertainty whether Lotor and Acxa were working together, it does seem plausible that Acxa acted in line with his interests, offering Holt to Zarkon, so that Lotor could have his one-on-one battle with his father.

Lotor attempting to convince the Paladins not to hand him over to Zarkon shows once more his tactical skills. He plants the idea of a “royal alliance” into Allura’s head (to Lance’s vocal dismay), and, perhaps due to his attraction to her, or simply as an intent to charm her, he goes as far as saying “You and I”. There is clearly chemistry between them from the start, and it’s savory to watch it unfold. Even as enemies, Allura watches him speak with mesmerized attention, absorbing his every word, and I believe it does not go unnoticed by him, which explains why he brings his focus on the unity aspect, stroking her ego with comments about their parents’ glorious past. His speech is so convincing that Allura already ponders on the “royal alliance” possibility.

The fight between Zarkon and his son is another source of precious details about Lotor. Now is the time for Lotor to speak his mind. When Zarkon calls him “weak” and “darkest shame”, Lotor doesn’t flinch. He’s grown thick skin for such insults. No longer the helpless child, Lotor sees the corrupt Zarkon exactly for who he is, and in this final moment between them, he points out all his weaknesses, especially his obsession for getting back the Black Lion.

The fight, spectacular (and magnificently rendered through animation), displays Lotor’s talent in evading direct blows and his keen eye for his opponent’s weak spots.

I found it so significant that Lotor kills his father not with a bayard, not with a sword, but with a shard of metal lying around on the ground. His desperate yell - “No!” - seeing as Zarkon points his deadly weapon at the Lions, proves once more his genuine concern for the Paladins. He kills his father to protect his allies.

His immediate facial expression is not of joy, not of jubilation, but of deep grief. I’m reiterating this: he does not take pleasure in killing, even his worst enemies. A positive trait that seems to contradict his portrayal after S6, which ties back to the #LotorWasFramed point that I made earlier.

The symbolism of the post-battle imagery conveys the suffering on his expression. As the light, emblematic of the new era that is to come for Lotor, crosses his face, we see the traumatic burden of his past, a burden he carries forward. Even if he killed his own father, the act itself does not erase the multi-millennial painful past.

And we continue to see that trauma etched into his expression on many occasions, including this scene, in the “Postmortem” episode.

When Allura asks him, “Are you alright?” his dry answer reflects the emptiness inside him, “I’ll be fine.” Someone who wants to bury their pain would resort to similar affirmations. I’m fine. Or… Everything is fine. Or… I’ll be fine.

No, sir, you’re not fine, you won’t be fine until you address that deep level of trauma.

Instead, Lotor pushes forward, because his work is not done. In fact, he’s just beginning.

First, he must take the throne as legitimate emperor.

Then, all his attention will focus on finding a way to obtain quintessence from the rift.

And lastly, his dream of freeing Altea would come to life.

Only after that, he can, maybe, maybe, relax (does an emperor of such a vast and violent empire ever relax?).

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So let’s begin with Kral Zera. Firstly, Lotor has to convince the Paladins to fly him into the danger zone, and the only one who stands by his side is Shiro, whose tactical experience aligns with his. The tension that ensues among the Paladins makes Shiro walk out of the room, while Lotor casts a regretful look in his trail. He clearly doesn’t enjoy being a source of discord among the Paladins.

So here it is: his genuine desire for peace and amity. Which lines up with his statements about bringing peace to the empire. And we see it once more as he comments about the Galra forces fighting amongst each other at Kral Zera: “This is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I knew they would all turn on each other.”

This is the true Lotor, underneath the many layers and facades he wears around everyone.

But he is also the wily prince who sneaks out of the castle behind Allura’s back, along with Shiro and the Black Lion. Also, the way he spins the narrative in front of the Galra, boasting about returning the Black Lion to the empire? Genius.

When Haggar insults him about his Altean lineage, he dismisses her with a few words, but we can see the aggravation in his narrowing eyes. Drop by drop, all these upsets and tribulations add up to his already heavy mental anguish that he carried across the eons.

The clash between him and Sendak puts emphasis once more on his fearlessness and deft swordsmanship.

The lighting of the flame carries a solemn, uplifting, yet tragic air to it.

He ascends the battered, collapsing steps of the Kral Zera, perhaps the steps of his destiny, while explosions flare up the skies. He takes the throne of an empire in complete disarray. While he lights the flame, he harbors a stark, but also angry expression, because… why should he be joyful? He’s taking reign over a civilization that has perpetuated his traumas for so long.

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S5E5 “Bloodlines” provides a respite from all the anguish we’ve seen so far. He spends time with Allura, searching for Altean clues in Haggar’s lair, and we see the growing attraction between them bloom.

But watch for hints about his past traumas.

When Allura discovers that he is half-Altean, we get Lotor’s direct depiction of his status in the eyes of Galra, as well as his self-confidence in regards to his mixed genes: “It was something the Galra considered a weakness, but I considered it a strength.”

Also, his next words reveal his deep admiration for his mother. He venerates her, and he adores the Altean culture. As much as I want to emphasize the level of trauma that this man has gone through, I also want to bring under spotlight his awe for the mother he never knew, and by extension, of the entire Altean race. Pay attention: “The union between Zarkon and Honerva sparked a technological revolution within the empire. Even back then, Altean culture was remarkably advanced. The kinds of experiments she was conducting… she advanced science by eons.”

Something that always caught my eye was Honerva’s science log itself. Lotor scrolls through her research and we can clearly see the comet ore in one of them, a sphere in another and… the entity inside the tube in a third slider. It’s clearly the entity, compare it with the original image from S3E7:

The fact that Lotor casts a long look at the slides makes me think that he might be aware of the entity. Perhaps this science log will make him understand even more about it?

When Lotor makes a few comments, frowning while inspecting his mother’s science logs, we conclude a few aspects about him and his mother. “By the end of these logs, it’s like they’re written by a different person. She’s frantic, paranoid, erratic. Her reason and intellect are gone, replaced by fear and paranoia.”

This confirms exactly what happened to Honerva (and foreshadows what will happen to him as well). Due to her obsession for power and knowledge and enhanced by excessive quintessence demanded by the entity inside her, Honerva lost her reason, became… a different person. Does that not resonate with how Lotor underwent an apparent abrupt change in S6? The comparison might come across as superficial, but I promise I’ll go deeper when discussing the S6 scenes.

Also, this reveals a much deeper truth about Lotor. He is in denial about what happened to his mother. Pay attention to the scene where Allura suggests that Honerva might have turned into Haggar.

“That witch is not my mother!” snaps Lotor, taking Allura by surprise. Not only he raises his voice at the princess, but he instantly turns his back on her, leading to an awkward moment. I found this instance extremely telling. Suggesting to Lotor that his mother turned into a witch?? Unconceivable!

I’m reiterating this: he ADORES his mother, and he adores Altea. He wants to protect his mother’s image as much as he wants to protect his Altean colony, at all cost. Even if that means keeping the colony a secret from Allura - the princess of ancient Altea - who slowly conquers his heart. Was there a conflict inside him about this? I’m absolutely sure there was.

Another relevant aspect about Lotor is that he’s an Altean culture nerd. Especially the alchemy part. He’s been hunting high and low for Oriande, because his sharp intelligence guided him in the right direction. And with a bit of persistence, he guides Allura in the right direction, too. Together, they unlock the compass stone, and, despite the Paladins’ and Coran’s doubts, Lotor convinces them to “navigate by cave poetry”, eventually discovering Oriande.

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Lotor has Altean marks? The Marks of the Chosen, no less. I love the attention to the shape of the marks, too. Uncorrupted Alteans display half-moon marks, while Haggar’s look completely distorted, like scars dragging across her face. In between them is… Lotor. His marks are neither half-moons, nor disfigured shapes. Daywalker?

In any case, the fact that he is accepted in the realm of Oriande clearly means that he has potential for alchemic powers.

Even in the celestial beauty of such a place, his mind flies into dark corners, recalling the destruction of Ven’tar’s planet. This should tell you how deep his wounds go, and how desperately they need healing. With such unspeakable beauty around him, his miserable expression only underscores the level of internal trauma.

“You know, I envy you growing up with King Alfor. I always wanted to be an explorer and learn about the universe. My father was only interested in conquering it. He once put me in charge of a planet for a year, running the quintessence mining and getting to know the local population. Rather than employ the usual Galran methods of subjugation, I worked alongside the leadership of the planet, learning their customs. We would only extract as much quintessence as could be replenished. And I enjoyed my time there quite a bit. When my father found out what was happening, he ordered me to destroy the planet. I refused, and he sent me away.”

“At least you stood up for those people,” replies Allura.

“He destroyed them all. I was powerless to stop him. I spent the following centuries searching for clues about my Altean heritage, another culture destroyed by Zarkon.”

“I���m glad you’re here to help me now. I never would’ve gotten here without you,” Allura smiles back.

Notice how Allura brings lightheartedness into the conversation, always aiming his attention to the full side of the glass. When he turns around to face her, this is one of his most iconic, beautiful, gentle, hopeful, yet heartbreaking expression in the entire series:

Allura infuses him with optimism, like no one else did before. She is the soothing salve over his old wounds, arriving into his life to open up a bright future. Oriande awaits them, the future awaits them. Hope and love bloom in his heart, and you can read it on his face, overlayed with the fatigue lines etched under his eyes. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m absolutely in love with Studio Mir’s clean drawing style, yet capable of rendering a vast array of emotions with just a few pen strokes.

Inside the pyramid, Lotor makes a few remarks, which reflect his curiosity but also his relative lack of instincts about what to do next. He relies on logic and educated guesses.

“The mysteries we seek are hidden somewhere deep inside.”

“We may yet to prove that we’re worthy to be here.”

“There must be a clue. Something a trained Altean would recognize.”

Similarly, when the Sages attack, his training guides him to apply known and well-rehearsed battle tactics - he’s ducking away from their spears. Allura has the presence of mind to pull out the compass stone, addressing them reverently, and Lotor - behind her - instantly mimics her gestures. Yes, he’s a fast learner, but it’s a bit too late for learning. The trial time is near.

The trial itself provides us with a head-to-head comparison between his tactics and Allura’s. They each apply themselves according to their upbringing, and therein lies the tragedy of his failure.

When he finds himself alone in the celestial domain, what do we see first, glowing in his enlarged eyes?

Fear.

He gasps as he opens his eyes, looks around warily, then calls for her, “Allura?” Without her, he is insecure, because he is not prepared for this; it’s a kind of trial he’d never attended before. (He aced the Galran Agotian trials, yet he clearly struggles here).

Of course calling out for her suggests he might also be worried about her, but I believe - from the hints given so far from their adventure inside the pyramid - that he is genuinely lacking confidence. He even stated so, as they began their journey: “None of my research or travels have prepared me for this. From here, we are on our own.”

And what do Galrans do when faced with their own fears?

Victory or death.

“I will never yield! I will gain your secrets!”

Here, I read pride, anger, determination, unwillingness to give in.

He doesn’t even consider another method; the emotional domino of fear-aggression is ingrained into who he is, from a young age. And in the end… his own aggression is his undoing.

If you take a look at Allura’s demeanor, she does not gasp in fear as she takes in her surroundings. She does not call for Lotor.

“I do not wish to fight. I come here seeking knowledge,” she addresses the White Lion.

“What can I do?” she continues, humbly.

“No. This isn’t the way. I seek the secret of life. I give my own.”

Notice the requirements of an Altean trial:

humbleness in the face of unknown;

non-aggression;

willingness for self-sacrifice.

Lotor, unfortunately, does not display any of these.

In the meditation practice, there is one particular method that helps ease anxiety, worries and fear of unknown. It involves staying with your own emotions, allowing them to unfold, simply noticing and embracing them. Fear becomes a friend which does not need to be battled, but acknowledged.

What Allura did was to basically embrace her fear of the White Lion, to allow the fear to manifest, and in doing so, she conquered it.

Conversely, by fighting with your own emotions, you only prolong your agony.

When the Life Giver tells Allura, “You are home, and the secret is already within you,” we finally understand why Allura passed this trial, and why Lotor failed. If the secret is already within her, she instinctively directs her actions according to the ancient practices and wisdom of Altea, where she grew up. At Oriande she is home.

On the other hand, Lotor is hard-wired into the victory or death philosophy, which guides fear in the opposite direction, that of aggression. At this time, Oriande is not his home, unfortunately. He yells, “No. No!” realizing his failure. It’s a cry of desperation, he’s angry with himself for his defeat.

It’s ironic though: he knows that aggression is not the way, yet he himself cannot overcome it. It’s also paradoxical, because he is searching for ways to bring peace to the universe. He preaches peace and prosperity, but he lacks the deeper understanding of how to fully achieve it. Living in such a hostile environment for millennia, we cannot but recognize that this is the way the environment shaped him. Nature versus nurture, exactly the words of one of the EP’s. Also, from the same interview: “It was a very bad hand. That deck was stacked against him in every way in his upbringing. If he had this amazing accepting family that Allura had, he probably would have been a magnificent person. He had to live his life the only way he could, and a lot of that was through manipulation and doing things the only way he could get them done. It’s tragic.” (Source: Den of Geek - The Ultimate Downfall of Lotor, June 28, 2018 - link in comments)

Despite his defeat, I found it admirable that he does not bear jealousy on Allura, honestly acknowledging her magical powers: “You are a true Altean alchemist. Oriande was for you, not for me.”

One thing I’m wondering though: did Lotor ever learn anything from his defeat? He is a fast learner, so how did he internalize this event? I’m sure Allura recounted to him how she came to pass the trial, so did he ever put the pieces together, to figure out where he went wrong?

————————————

After Oriande, Season 6 warms us up to his character even more. The encounter with Dayak in S6E1 provides us with precious comic moments that further humanize his character. Suddenly, he is not the stiff emperor with a royal demeanor and parlance, but the teenager who’s embarrassed about his mom, while trying to look cool around his buddies, which subsequently suggests that he cares about his relationship with the Paladins, also proven by the way he introduces them to Dayak: “These are my colleagues. They have more than my permission to speak.”

In addition, their dynamic gives us a moment to ponder on the type of Galran education he received. Now that we are fresh from the Oriande experience, learning how Lotor grew up - under the constant threat of the whipping pain - provides a better perspective into the kind of cards life handed him.

In the same time, let’s not vilify all his upbringing. As a prince, Dayak offered him the highest kind of education one could receive: “The history of our conquests, our customs, battle philosophy, the art of war.” Yes, they are all veered towards war-related matters, but those are subjects of vital importance to any nation, even in times of peace. The end of S8 will have Allura basically learn to navigate this dark side, guided by ghost!Lotor and the entity. As much as Lotor needs to learn from Allura, she also needs to understand and absorb his wisdom.

If one needs a summary of Lotor’s past, find it right within Lotor’s speech, broadcast across his empire: “Slayer of a tyrant, child raised in the void and taught on the battlefield.”

From the conversation between Lt. Lahn and Commander Bogh, it’s clear that Lotor’s dream of peace is too abstract for his subjects. There are prejudices against him that are hard to tame. Lotor is well aware of them; even his empyreal address reflects this issue.

But one particular conversation raised a red flag to me. At the news of Sendak’s attack on a mining planet, the Paladins offer their immediate assistance. Lotor says, “Sendak would have me respond to his attack and neglect my empire.”

Allura replies with determination, “Voltron can handle this, while you continue to rule.”

Lotor insists, “But Princess, I need you here. Without you—”

“Your plan has waited this long. It can wait a tick longer. We must protect your innocent subjects,” says Allura.

“Of course. You’re right,” Lotor acquiesces in Allura’s decision.

This, right here, introduces a major hint at a future reveal. Is Lotor going to allow an entire mining colony to perish under Sendak’s attack? (“sacrifice a few…” - rings any bell?) When Allura emphasizes “innocent subjects”, I read frustration, impatience… and something more on his expression. He’s obviously annoyed that his plans are being delayed. As he told Allura, “it is paramount” that they focus all their energy on infusing his ships with alchemy. He’s getting so close to his dream, and now Sendak comes to derail him.

This askance look suggests he is hiding something. And we read a conflict within him, in the way he presses his eyelids closed under a slight frown, then reopens them into a forced-amiable expression.

There are many ways to interpret his internal conflict:

which innocent subjects should he focus on first? The Alteans - his most precious people - with whom he hasn’t been in contact for a while, or the mining colony attacked by Sendak? What if the Altean colony is in danger of peril as well, and he’s tied up with empyreal matters?

maybe he is simply embarrassed that he let a “little” mischief slip past his mask? He’s never been put in a situation like this, working alongside honest, compassionate people, who care for the lives of others. Not that he doesn’t care overall - on the contrary, all he does is because he desperately wants to pacify the empire and ultimately free his Altean colony, but the way he goes about it requires cutting some… corners; translation - sacrifices.

maybe time is of essence; perhaps he knows things we don’t know about his colonies (there are many unresolved things about the Altean colony plot, so here I can only speculate).

all of the above?

In any case, this little detail adds an extra tint of gray to his character.

—————-------

S6E2 and E3 elevate the relationship between Lotor and Allura to a level of trust and fondness for each other that we haven’t seen them develop for others. Lotor genuinely loves Allura, something confirmed in interviews with EP’s. He is not simply using her for his secret agenda. What is blooming between them is real, and you can see it in the way he behaves around her, the gentle hand touches, the almost-kiss interrupted by the Paladins, their discussions while working on his ships, his excitement to share the “grand news” about the progress he makes on his Sincline. Allura is beginning to be the soul-healer of his past traumas; his optimism is soaring. He is able to relax more around her, as he truly trusts her.

————------------

S6E4 (“The Colony”) begins with Lotor, facing his Sincline ship, ready for the trip to the rift, telling Allura: “I’ve waited an eternity for this. […] It means so much to me to share this with you.”

The moment of his life. He’s waited for this for thousands of years. Thousands. Not decades, not centuries. The anticipation, the emotion, it must be like nothing he ever felt.

I loved the reference to the DotU little technical terms, as they prepare for the trip of a lifetime: “Infracells up. Dynotherms connected. Mega-thrusters are go.” It gives their relationship even more meaning and legitimacy in the audience’s eyes.

Pay attention to the comments the Paladins make, as Lotor and Allura enter the rift:

Lance: “Last time anyone got in there, it turned Zarkon evil.”

Shiro: “Zarkon fell prey to his own evil instincts. The quintessence field didn’t create them. It revealed them.”

I’ve used Shiro’s comment in the analysis of Honerva and Zarkon’s arcs as well, but the fact that the writers chose to insert it right before Lotor’s trip to the rift is a clear enough hint (albeit “evil” and “instincts” have nuances, just like Lotor’s numerous character shades).

When they enter the rift, there is a moment where Lotor’s eyes narrow a bit…

That, right there, is Lotor’s cunning expression he often displayed in the episodes before befriending the Paladins. It clearly points out to us that there is more going on in his mind.

An evil plot? This would be the immediate thought, right? Especially immediately after Shiro mentioning “evil instincts”.

Or maybe it isn’t an evil plot, but its execution is… less clean (“Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately, he wanted to preserve life”). Hence, the evil-looking smirk. #LotorWasFramed?

“What we do here today will change the course of the universe forever,” says Lotor, while measuring the energy readings inside the rift.

Allura ponders over the quintessence effects, “In the hands of the wrong person, this power could easily corrupt.”

“Together, we’ll see it never does and continue the work your father started so long ago,” Lotor replies.

Two things:

Another warning: Quintessence in the hands of the wrong person…

“Together”: Yes, if they split up, things will go sideways.

“I can feel the quintessence coursing through me,” says Lotor euphorically, as they travel through the rift.

Allura, ecstatically sighing, replies, “It’s like my spirit, my whole being, is more alive.”

Quintessence is the space-drug of the series, it’s no doubt about that, even the EP’s have made the comparison. A double-edged sword, capable of conferring supernatural abilities and sensations, yet destructive enough to turn you into a Zarkon.

Not only Lotor is feeling its effects, Allura does too. Keep this in mind as I’ll discuss upcoming events.

For the first time in eons, his stars are aligned in the best possible way. They “accomplished something amazing” - entering the rift and collecting quintessence. He has the most powerful princess in the universe by his side, the gifted alchemist he so sorely needed for millennia. His plan is coming along fabulously.

But I think the most amazing accomplishment is that they finally confirm their feelings. The kiss happens. The bond that forms in their hearts is a potential catalyst for extraordinary changes, within themselves and to the universe around them. Double, triple euphoria for him.

-------------------------

Can this man’s life turn any more tragic?

The moment of… (alleged) truth happens. The moment we find out, through Romelle’s story, that Lotor has been harvesting Alteans for their quintessence, for generations. The conclusion of her accusations is that he has been draining the Alteans for his own power and glory.

(Notice the general expression of guilt: self-hugging, chin dropped to the chest, peeking from underneath his frowned eyebrows)

DESCENT INTO MADNESS

Let’s see, from Lotor’s perspective, what shocking events he goes through, to understand the underlying cause of his mental breakdown in S6E6.

1. Physical rejection by the woman he fell in love with.

Right after the high of their kiss and their rift breakthrough, he finds himself at gunpoint, accused of mass murder.

In reply to their accusations, Lotor says, “You know nothing about what you speak. […] Allura, listen to me. I’ve dedicated my life to preserving Altean culture. Now that we’ve unlocked the quintessence field, all of your people, who would have been hunted down long ago had it not been for my intervention, can live in peace. Were some lives lost in the process? Yes. But they were martyrs to a noble cause. I sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions. Allura, do not let this ruin everything we’ve worked for. Think of what we experienced in the quintessence field.”

From what he says, we can deduce exactly what I’ve pieced together so far: that he was deeply preoccupied with preserving the Altean life and culture - he “dedicated” his life to it. This was his purpose in life, it was what he cared most about, and every action, every little or grand mischief that we’ve seen so far along the seasons, they all point to one sole purpose: pacifying the universe so he could bring his Alteans out of their hideout, so they can “live in peace”. They were his Mother Altea - metaphorically, the mother he never had.

His explanation is vague enough that we don’t understand some essential aspects about the “martyrs”, but also, his approach to Allura, right after such horrifying news, touching her hand while reminding her of what they “experienced” in the rift, obviously rubs her the wrong way.

Fresh from the rift with a dose of ultra-pure emotional enhancer called quintessence, Allura reacts violently, without seeking more answers. From here, things quickly roll downhill.

2. Being taken hostage.

3. Facing the truth about his mother, Haggar/Honerva.

For some reason, this event in his life never seems to be a subject of much discussion. I believe this holds a large role in his traumatic rollercoaster before the battle with Allura. The discussion with Honerva reveals the fact that he is still in denial about his mother’s downfall. His fists tremble in anger - another sign of emotional gravity.

According to him, his mother “ceased to exist when Honerva drew her last breath”, while Haggar represents an “abomination”, “a twisted perversion of what was once so pure and beautiful”. If you want a little Transactional Analysis (TA) parallel, this is exactly Child-Lotor from the other reality, saying: “No. My mother is dead. And you cannot replace her!”

What I find even more dramatic is that his entire life he’s been compensating for his lack of maternal love by completely immersing himself into the Altean culture, while his biological mother did everything to thwart his efforts to connect with his maternal legacy.

This is a huge blow to his internal set of values, and the fact that he reacts with total denial suggests (again, applying TA) that, with his fears confirmed, Child-Lotor feels cornered, afraid, trapped, thus his reaction of rejection towards her.

Bear this in mind, because I believe at the core of Lotor’s tragic turn in this episode resides a wounded Child.

4. Attempting to fix it, under pressure.

He is being punched from ALL directions.

Yet he persists.

His urgent priority? Finding Allura.

Even though Acxa explains that it will take a while to get back to the castle of Lions, he replies: “Then what are we waiting for?” I read desperation, a rush to try to fix things.

Although Allura tossed him to the ground, he holds no grudge against her.

Why does he return to her?

Why not the colony?

After all, it was his most precious planet in the universe! Oh, but this is not a tactical decision… It clearly stems from his emotions - he will soon confess it as well - because he truly loves Allura.

The fear of losing her is greater than his fear for the colony. Now that the secret is out, now that he knows that clone-Shiro was Haggar’s spy, it must be clear to him that his colony is completely exposed. The Altean civilization that he worked so hard to protect from the evils of his parents is inches away from being overtaken by Haggar, yet he flies right back to Allura! How telling!

Oh, but the way the story frames it leads us to believe that he wants to get back to the rift due to his greed for more power, because that was Allura’s conclusion about why he was returning: “He needs to get back into the quintessence field.”

No he does not. His Sincline can jump in and out of the rift at his own will, so he can access the rift from anywhere. He explicitly said to his generals that, “We’re headed to the Castle of Lions’ last known location.” (S6E5) He’s not headed to the rift, he is headed towards ALLURA.

“Accessing the quintessence field has been Lotor’s singular drive for millennia. He wants to harness the power for himself, but we cannot let him,” says Allura in S6E6. Wrong. What did he just explain to her earlier? “Now that we’ve unlocked the quintessence field, all of your people, who would have been hunted down long ago had it not been for my intervention, can live in peace.” Accessing the quintessence field does not reflect his final goal, it is a means to a higher purpose: freeing the Alteans.

5. The fallout. The dam-breaking moment.

Let me start by saying that Lotor is generally a calm and composed character - a mask he has built into his persona and practiced it for millennia, because he needs to display confidence, not weakness, around both his subjects and his enemies. It is the way of the Galra. Also, the attribute of a leader.

That doesn’t mean he does not show moments of panic or outbursts of anger. On the contrary, we witnessed them along the episodes: when killing Narti, when flying into the solar flares, the moment he kills Zarkon, when snapping at Allura… These little slips hint at the true emotions roiling underneath his mask. Most of us understand this mechanism; think of school exams and how anxious we felt inside, despite displaying a relatively calm expression while entering the test room.

Given the extraordinary tension of the negative events that befall right after his most triumphant moments, what are the odds that behind this façade, Lotor’s anxiety is at an all-time high? The fact that he does not show it yet doesn’t mean it’s not there. But we’ll begin to see it, as soon as he starts talking to Allura.

En route to Allura, Lotor tells his generals: “Zethrid, Ezor, my deepest apologies for lying to you both, but in order to gain the princess’ trust, and make the Paladins of Voltron believe we were truly at odds, it had to be done. […] Today we will gain access to unlimited quintessence, and together, we usher in a new era of power.”

Did he just slip back under another one of his facades? Did he truly trick Allura and the Paladins? Perhaps yes, but not in the way we are led to believe.

What he says is true - he did have to pretend to be at odds with Zethrid and Ezor in order to gain the Paladins’ trust. Imagine the chaos (not that we wouldn’t have enjoyed it) these ladies would have brought to team Voltron. Would Lotor risk his reputation with such “scoundrels” around the innocent Paladins? I mean… Zethrid replies, “As long as I get to blow something up, I’m good.” That wouldn’t fly with Allura.

Lotor basically gave each side what they expected to hear, while he pushed forward with his agenda. In order to gain Ezor and Zethrid’s trust again, he had to explain himself, and he doesn’t really lie, does he?

But what’s up with ushering “a new era of power”? Hehe, this is where we all get tricked into thinking he wants all the power of the quintessence for his own glory, thus we’re mentally confirming what Allura just said: “He wants to harness the power for himself.” Wrong again, and I’ll link this up to his next statements.

After the Paladins destroy the inter-reality gate, they ready themselves for a confrontation. They expect Lotor to come with guns blazing. Hunk even calculates the odds of three Sincline ships to four Lions. Lance, the team lead in Keith’s absence, orders: “Hold your positions. Let Lotor make the first move.”

Well, Lotor’s first move, even after seeing the gate destroyed, is to seek peace. He does not lie in any of his statements; these all tie in together with what he’s been saying so far. “We need not fight today. We are all on the same side. I know what you all must think of me now that you know my past. It doesn’t have to change our future together. The truth is, I want to harness the power of the quintessence field to better the universe, just like I said. Nothing has changed.”

Allura, raising her voice, replies, “You enslaved countless Alteans. Harnessed their life source for your own personal gain. How many innocent lives did you destroy?”

Lotor calmly attempts to explain: “Allura, I—”

“How many?” she roars back, without allowing him to finish.

(What was he going to say? He was clearly going to divulge exactly the key detail we are missing from the colony story, but Allura, whose temper is out of control, diverts the subject.)

After a deep breath under closed eyes, Lotor replies, “It’s true. Many Alteans perished in my quest to unlock the mysteries of quintessence. But I protected thousands more, and I rescued their culture, our culture.”

Comparing Allura and Lotor’s demeanor, it’s clear that Allura is the fire-starter. Not without reason though; from her perspective, one of a victim of mass-destruction, she has every right to be mad, and we, the viewers, sympathize with her.

On the other hand, Lotor seems to keep it together. He truly loves her, otherwise he wouldn’t try so hard for a peaceful solution. Even Zethrid asks, confused: “Why is he pleading with the Paladins? Why are we not opening fire?”

Ezor says, cynically, “I stopped trying to figure out Lotor’s master plan long ago. Too complicated!”

The only one who seems to comprehend what’s going on in Lotor’s heart is Acxa, who casts a worried glance towards him. Worrisome indeed, because heartbreaks are most terrifying, if things go out of control.

“Allura, you must understand I’ve given everything I have to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge, to unlock the mysteries of Oriande. Please, Allura, we’ve come too far together. Surely, you can see the greatness we’ve already accomplished. There’s still more to come. Join me. We’re on the same side.”

“No, we’re not!!” Allura screams at the top of her lungs, blasting her Lion’s canon at him.

Notice, Allura fires the first shot. Lotor, in response, yells at his generals: “Hold your fire! Hold your fire!” Acxa is sweating in tension - because she intuits how bad this could go. Zethrid is frustrated, while Ezor looks completely confused.

Lotor, keeping it together with his last emotional energy, is desperately trying to reach Allura. His voice trembles from the emotion, from the utter despair and anguish. His pupils have narrowed, eyes wide open. He sees his most precious relationship falling apart, he’s clinging to a last thread of hope. Allura is the one true love he met after ten thousand years of traumas and the most gifted alchemist. He has given everything he had to arrive here.

Altea awaits them. Together they could bring their people out of the shadows, they could rule a New Altea, “a new era of power” as he told his generals.

“Allura, stop! You and I hold the ancient knowledge of our Altean culture. We were meant to be together. My feelings for you are true - and I know you have feelings for me as well.”

Cry as many rivers you need to, because this is the most tragic declaration of love.

Lotor, right here, wears his heart on his sleeve in front of everyone to see. Vulnerable, open-hearted, sincere - perhaps the most sincere declaration of his entire life, he opens himself up to Allura, he puts his trust in her, with all his wounds and unresolved traumas of the past.

Remember the “I’ll be fine” reply after defeating his father? No, he is not fine, his wounds have never healed.

This is why Allura’s reply falls like a guillotine on his already ravaged soul.

“You betrayed and used me. You’re more like Zarkon than I could have ever imagined!”

Comparing him with Zarkon? The one man who destroyed his life, who terrorized him for eons? We’ve seen his irked reaction to this comparison in the past, but now? Now the emotions are at all-time high. His bleeding heart is out for her to see, and she slays it, full-force.

Every trauma from his past converges here. This is the boiling point, the dam-breaking moment. This is where his hope dies. The moment of agency. (As I said in the beginning, at the critical point of the madness arc, whatever breaks the dam is a world-shattering event: extreme grief, total loss of loved ones, closest allies and friends, the breach of trust towards the world, or a combination of these. The character will try to fix the world and/or get back at the ones who hurt him.)

The shrilling noises of the soundtrack make us cringe, like we could feel the shiver that runs down his spine as his heart suddenly grows cold. He replies with a stark voice. “What about your father? He may have been a master engineer, but Alfor was too weak to defend his home world. I’m the one who had to step up and save our entire race. Who are you to question my tactics in bringing peace and prosperity to the universe?”

Remember his similar reply when he was a prisoner in her castle? It’s his gut reaction to a most sensitive subject: his father. She wants to talk family? He’s punching back with brutal opinions on Alfor, because at this point he desires nothing more but for her to feel the same kind of pain.

“Who are you…?” She’s a stranger. Someone who doesn’t have a place in his heart anymore.

“Destroy the Lions,” he orders his generals over a cold expression. He’s made his choice.

Hell breaks loose.

If you think that the negative effects of the rift trip applied only to Lotor, let me put this in perspective:

Allura is equally overloaded with adrenalin. And from the battle scene, we can see that she is the one attacking him first, her roar as loud as her Lion’s. As the fight continues, Lotor perfectly executes evasive maneuvers around her, continuing to keep a blank expression, until… he erupts, like a volcano of unresolved, under-pressure turmoil:

“Once I wipe out Voltron, I’m going to start a new Altea. An Altea that will never know of Princess Allura or King Alfor. Nor will they know of the Lions of Voltron. All they’ll know is me, their great leader! Hahaha, I’m ready to wipe the universe clean of all my enemies. Voltron, Haggar, and the rest of the Galra!”

Here’s where many of us got him wrong, thinking that this has been Lotor’s real intention from the get-go: to destroy Voltron and rule a new empire for his own glory.

The only way I can properly explain this is through the psychological mechanisms - not only what goes on in Lotor’s mind, but in our mind as well.

1. Let’s start with us. The script so far played to convince us that Lotor planned this evil plot all along. How did we get tricked? Through all the little hints dropped along the way, which I already pointed out. Our knee-jerk reaction naturally ensues as “A-ha, I told you so.” However, many of us began to have doubts.

2. Shifting the focus back on Lotor, here’s what I said right after the scene with the destruction of Ven’tar’s planet: “after Zarkon destroyed his heart, Lotor ran straight into the arms of Mother Altea”.

I remember, earliest childhood memories, that if I was mad at my dad, I would run to my mom. If I was upset on both of them, I’d cry for my grandparents. It’s only natural that the child seeks love, affection, protection, and as we grow older, that Child within us, with all its basic emotions and needs, continues to coexist underneath our Adult.

The bigger the wounds of the past, the larger the needs of the inner Child.

What happens when the Child within us loses all emotional contacts, all the love and support it sorely needs? When all our friends and allies are gone, when we lose contact with reality, when the closest friend and lover stabs us in our deepest wounds… where do we go from there?

Where did the wounded, cornered Child-Lotor escape, away from the cruel reality around him?

What was his last refuge? His last place where he he would always be received with unquestioning devotion by the masses?

ALTEA.

The Alteans praised him as a god, a messiah, their savior. His statue dominated their landscape.

Altea was his life-long project, the only heritage from his real mother, the place where he poured all his passion (“I’ve dedicated my life to preserving the Altean culture.”). Until he met Allura, that had been his only source of love and joy.

Altea was the family he never had.

Who we see here, screaming and kicking, is the wounded, cornered inner Child, irrational, filled with pure negative emotions. There is no reasonable Adult in the picture, no normative Parent, just pure madness. Fear leads to aggression (the Galra way), similar to his reaction of slaying the Lion at Oriande. He screams about becoming the great leader of a new Altea that will never know of Allura, Voltron, Alfor, etc, because ALTEA IS HIS LAST PLACE OF REFUGE, where he hopes to forget about this painful past. Child-Lotor is hurt, deeply hurt, he wants destroy all who wounded him, then run away into the arms of Mother Altea. He descends into madness with guns blazing, ready to get back at those who hurt him, and in an ultimate irrational cry, he includes the Galra in his list of mortal enemies, because they, too, hurt him when he was a child.

He bitterly comments: “Even my generals betray me!” A self-fulfilling prophecy, as he becomes disconnected from literally everyone.

Acxa yells “Lotor, don’t do this!” as he ejects them one by one from the ships. She knows what he’s about to do - form the Sincline robot, because she worked on building the ships. She knows how powerful it can become and realizes how far Lotor is gone.

Sprinkle quintessence atop the irrational, negative emotions and the cocktail for disaster is right there.

Quintessence “reveals evil instincts” indeed, because

negative emotions are evil,

and emotions are instinctual (the definition of emotion is “a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others”).

Allura recognizes it during their battle inside the rift, when the Paladins begin to drift into rage. “We have to get out of here,” she yells. “This is exactly what happened to Zarkon. Exposure to all this quintessence turned him into a monster!”

—> So, did Lotor harbor “evil instincts” all this time? Well, we all carry negative emotions. The Paladins did too, when they screamed “Let’s destroy that guy!”, “Finish him!”, except that Allura pulled the plug before they could all become corrupted (the best way to prevent drug dependence is to not get exposed in the first place).

—> Does this confirm that he’s been planning this plot all along, that he truly wanted to become the all-powerful, “great leader” of a new Altea that would obliterate Alfor’s legacy? ABSOLUTELY NOT. It only proves that what happened to Lotor was a tragic descent into madness, a resultant of unresolved mental illness accumulated along the millennia, enhanced by a series of misfortunate events and misunderstandings between him and team Voltron, and blown out of proportions by quintessence (and maybe the little entity inside him, too).

After S6 dropped, viewers were complaining that they did not recognize this Lotor, that this was a different person. Well, remember what he said about his mother, when inspecting her science log? “By the end of these logs, it’s like they’re written by a different person. She’s frantic, paranoid, erratic. Her reason and intellect are gone, replaced by fear and paranoia.”

Voilà.

So then, what did Lotor want when he was in his right mind?

Exactly what he said: to bring Altea out of the shadows, into a universe free of violence. Bonus: having Allura with him meant that together, they made sure the quintessence never got into the wrong hands (idealistic, I know, but the man had a dream). Ruling alongside Allura, the “royal alliance”, would have been his most blissful destiny.

Did he plan on destroying all the Galra? I don’t believe so, because he told Allura that he wanted to “meet the needs of the Galra”.

Maybe get rid of some inconvenient warlords? For sure, they’d all rot with the ice worms.

Maybe install an Altean leadership instead? “A new era of power?” It’s quite possible that might have been in the back of his mind. Who knows, maybe it would have turned just like the alternate reality where the Paladins traveled, where the enemies of Altea were turned into “non-cogs”. Anything is possible, we’d have to ask the writers what they had in mind.

Did he dream of becoming the “great leader”? Maybe not in a megalomaniac way, but he probably envisioned himself as a benevolent emperor, since he had a huge need for validation and love. His giant statue is a testament to that.

Did he want all the power for himself? No. All evidence points to the fact that he was willing to share it with Allura (“royal alliance”), with Voltron, with the Coalition. He even tells them, through boiling wrath: “It didn’t have to end like this.”

Some voices insist that Lotor could have told Allura (at least Allura, not the others) about his secret colonies, but because he was hiding that, it meant that he was hiding evil intents. No, he couldn’t tell anyone, his hands were tied because of Haggar stalking him. When Allura was piloting Voltron, her mind was connected with the rest of the Paladins. If Haggar had access to clone-Shiro’s mind, what would prevent her from tapping into the others’ minds?

“Now we will see how Alfor’s legacy stands against the new Altean defender!” screams Lotor during his clash against Voltron.

Altean… DEFENDER? I know this is irrational Lotor talking, but maybe this had been his plan all along? To create defenders for Altea, machines capable of fending off Galra invaders? If this is what his second colony was all about, then Allura’s visions in S8 also make sense - her mother telling her about protecting Altea against the Galra. Speculating.

As the battle heats up, Sincline jumps in and out of the quintessence field at will. Along with that, we begin to see him turn more and more rogue, as the quintessence gradually poisons him.

“Unlimited power is mine. All realities will fall to the new Altean Empire.”

A new Altea, a new Altean defender, and now… a new Altean Empire. At the peak of his madness, new delusions of grandeur emerge - yes, now he wants unlimited power - but perhaps we can also take a little peek into his secret wishes? He’d dream of replacing the Galra ruling with an Altean leadership? It would make sense, since he loved Altea so much.

These are 100% madness tantrums: if nobody loves me, I’ll destroy all of you and rebuild my own world.

It very much resembles Honerva’s peak of madness: “If I cannot experience the simple joys of life, why should anyone else?” (Translation: If nobody gives me what I want, then screw you all.)

-----------------------------

We know the rest of Lotor’s arc, or what remains of it. Left in the quintessence field, then recovered by his mother in S8E6 “Genesis”, and, for the following episodes, Sincline is dangled in front of the audience like a carrot, only to wave goodbye to his ghost in the end, with a short “he deserved better” conclusion. Oh, let’s not forget about the cOrPse.

—————————————

Earlier I talked about the “alleged truth” that Romelle brought to the story, because up to this date we don’t know exactly the entire backstory of the colony, yet…

A. We were told all along the remaining of S6, entire S7 and almost all S8 that Lotor was

“a monster” (Romelle, S6E4),

“a murderer” (Pidge, S6E4),

someone who “fooled” everyone around him for his own power (Allura, S6E6),

who harnessed the Alteans’ life source for his “own personal gain” (Allura, S6E6),

a man who “preached unity, but in the end he only sought power” (Acxa, S7E3),

who “used” his allies, leading them down “a painful path, a never-ending cycle of destruction and loss” (Acxa, S8E5)

B. Out of nowhere, Allura exonerates him in the last episode of the series, asking Honerva to “honor” her son: “Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately, he wanted to preserve life.”

So which one is it: A or B?

You don’t suddenly honor someone after you called them “murderer”, power-seeking “monster”, unless… something of extraordinary importance has been unveiled, to properly provide an exoneration of his character.

Was it ever unveiled? No.

Then, rational deduction… #LotorWasFramed?

I think so.

It started as writers’ deliberate story framing (proof provided in my above analysis), leading the audience to believe in a “he-was-evil-all-along” nature of Lotor, with the clear expectation of a much larger reveal later down the series, that would subvert the “villain” trope. In my opinion - based on logical deductions and supported by evidence of altered animation circulating in the fandom extensively, the big reveal was excised from S8, the only clues left residing in… metaphors and visions - Allura’s visions.

Reason of such excision? Just like the tragedy of Lotor’s arc, the tragedy of VLD lied in the conflict between the IP owner’s commercial target (toys for boys aged 6-12 and robot cartoons with classic, simple tropes such as good vs. evil, boy-hero gets the pretty girl, etc) and the actual execution of the story, which deployed complex characters like Lotor, Allura, Honerva, the Paladins, and so on, embraced by a different audience niche. Yet, even if the finale of S8 attempted to erase such complexity in order to realign the series with the aforementioned commercial intent, the creators nevertheless managed to insert their concluding message into the final episode - Lotor ultimately wanted to preserve life - thus, he deserved better.

———————————————

Season 8, although I consider it incomplete in regards to Lotor’s arc (and other arcs as well), does provide us with some interesting hints at what could have been, if the story hadn’t been altered, which would have further elucidated Lotor’s overall arc, because these hints contribute to showing us his true nature.

—> In S8E6 “Genesis”, Sincline has the target locked onto Allura, yet it does not open fire. We clearly see through Lotor’s eyes, as he readies his aim.

There is no doubt that a sentient soul coordinates the decision not to shoot. This reminds me of Zarkon’s singular confession to his son: “She was my only weakness.” Similarly, Allura is Lotor’s only weakness.

This scene begs a series of logical questions (*cough*, I love logic): if a sentient being operates Sincline, how can Lotor be dead? A dead man cannot operate Sincline.

If Honerva uses the entity to remote-control her living subjects and she also remote-controls Sincline, then logic would suggest that… a living subject, infected with the entity, inhabits the cockpit. Not a corpse.

Honerva tells Allura: “I am the only thing keeping my son at bay.” Um, she can’t really keep a dead son at bay, can she?

If he’s alive, then why are we shown the suggestion of a corpse, in S8E10? Or was it another altered scene? NB: static images are easy to redraw.

Also, motes of purple quintessence effuse from the “corpse”. We’ve seen these before, with Zarkon and Honerva right after coming back from the rift.

If the assumptions above are correct, then this scene would further align with what I have said in my previous metas regarding Zarkon and Honerva: the entity’s takeover happens as a gradual progression towards complete disconnect from self. At this point in the story, Lotor would be at the far end of the madness spectrum, completely possessed by the entity and overloaded with quintessence. This would create a coherent story, paralleling those of Zarkon and Honerva.

This theory about Lotor having the entity would also justify the next point:

—> Allura’s visions in S8E8 are a rich source of information.

Just like Honerva can telepathically connect with her subjects via the entity, if Lotor has the entity and he has a strong attachment to Allura, then he is telepathically causing her dream.

Since what Lotor tells Allura about the entity turns out to be true, why wouldn’t the other elements of her dream be true, too? (“nothing ever truly goes extinct” = he’s not really dead; “we both seek to destroy Haggar” = Lotor has been fighting Haggar all along; he’s showing her how to fight Haggar, because that’s how he did it in the past - and that can be seen as an explanation for his second colony, because it clearly implies that sacrifices have been made).

If Allura’s dream provides an allegory to Lotor’s second colony, it would justify the meaning of Lotor’s words: “they were martyrs to a noble cause.”

Also, this statement would provide backup: “Many Alteans perished in my quest to unlock the mysteries of quintessence. But I protected thousands more…” If he was looking for a way to use the entity and the quintessence to defend his colony against the Galra, then he was definitely on a quest to unlock their mysteries, to protect the thousands more.

In this context, the heist of the teludav lens in S3E6 has a justification, as he may have intended to use Alteans to operate it, in another one of his “quests”.

Although the origin of the clandestine, pure white vats of quintessence was never fully explained (the quintessence allegedly extracted from the second colony Alteans actually looked quite purple), the story made it clear that Lotor was using the ultra-pure variety to infuse at least his Sincline ships with it. If he calls his Sincline the new Altean Defender, perhaps he tested other vehicles as well, using that pure white quintessence?

These would all tie together his arc, and the last statement of the story would make absolute sense: “ultimately, he wanted to preserve life.”

—> Aside from these remarks, there are many other metaphorical takes to Allura’s vision.

Ghost!Lotor visiting Allura in her bedroom immediately sent my thoughts to a folklore myth that is common to many cultures, from South America to Africa, to Northern and Eastern Europe and beyond. The “incubus” is a demon or a soul that visits sleeping women, in some traditions thought to be a man who was rejected during his lifetime by a woman, seeking to get back to his lost love. A symbol of unrequited love, erotic temptations or female desires, the incubus bears many names, according to each folklore. “I thought you’d be happy to see me,” says Ghost!Lotor, perhaps reading her mind?

“The ancients believed that all of life began with a single juniberry flower.” Foreshadowing the last episode’s rebirth of the universe, perhaps Lotor was supposed to accompany her in the grand restoration?

————————————

Even without S8, my point is that Lotor’s story followed a madness arc, slowly evolving along his multi-millennial life, and subtly hinted at throughout the show. Despite arriving at the same level of insanity as his parents, the reasons for his downfall were truly tragic, and, had the last season been allowed to develop as intended by the writers, Lotor would have been vindicated through a fully-fledged arc, just like his parents - thus, he deserved better and, in my opinion, the writers deserved better. The proof is in the details, and I’ve zoomed in quite a bit during this analysis. VLD gave us an amazing show with complex characters and most inspiring animation art.

This is probably my last meta on VLD. Going forward, I’ll focus more on the bright side of things: fan art and fanfics. See you on the other side! 😘

[crimsonwolf715]

Friendly Fire

“Everyone report to the training room,” Allura says over the loudspeaker. 

Lance gets up off the floor where he was assisting Pidge and Hunk with their projects. He stretches, then heads towards the training room with them. 

“Hey, Princess,” Lance says when he sees Allura in there. 

“Hello, Lance. Pidge and Hunk.” 

Pidge waves and Hunk gives her a pleasant sounding hello. Keith walks in without his jacket on, which Lance pegs as odd, but doesn’t comment on. 

“So, what’s the training exercise?” Lance asks. 

“I spoke with Shiro and he said that it is a common training exercise on Earth.” 

“I’m almost afraid to ask, but what is it?” Hunk asks. 

Shiro over with a gun. 

“Paintball,” Shiro says, holding up the gun. “It’s been modified to shoot their version of paint. I tested it out and it hurts about as much as it does to be shot with a paintball.” 

“You do remember that you have a higher pain tolerance now, right?” Keith asks. 

Shiro nods. “Yeah, I’m gauging it based on my old standards. I may be a little off, but it’s the same difference.” 

“Just making sure.” 

Shiro nods again. “You’re being split up into teams. First round is Keith and Lance versus Pidge and Hunk. You’ll swap partners until you’ve partnered up with everyone.” 

“What about you?” Lance asks. 

“Allura and I have a different objective. Coran’s watching to see who gets the most points.” 

“We also have a tracker for it,” Allura whispers. 

Lance laughs while everyone else seems grateful because Coran is not a great referee. 

After being armed with some protective gear and “paintball guns” they separate and the walls come up. The battle starts and Lance and Keith work together to get Pidge and Hunk. There are four times that Lance gets shot in the side and Lance thinks that Keith’s shooting him when he isn’t looking. Once the buzzer goes off, Coran informs Keith and Lance that they won by a small margin. Keith and Lance high five as the walls go away, then Shiro and Allura come over to the two groups. 

“What were you and Allura doing?” Lance asks. 

“Sneaking around and shooting you guys,” Shiro answers. “Every time we got a shot off on you guys, you lost points. It’s about being aware of the people around you because you’ll never know how many people you’re up against in a real fight.” 

“I knew that and avoided Shiro,” Keith replies. 

Shiro nods. 

“How?” Lance asks Keith. 

“I’m pretty attuned to Shiro’s presence, so I can normally tell when he’s around me,” Keith says with a shrug. “Shiro’s the same way with people.” 

Shiro nods again. “Mine took training. Keith just kinda picked it up.” 

“I’m pretty sure that Keith shot me while we were doing the exercise,” Lance says. 

“Didn’t happen.” 

A shot goes off and Lance gets hit with a paintball. 

“Stop shooting me, Keith!” Lance shouts. 

“I didn’t shoot you!” Keith replies, then proceeds to openly shoot Lance. 

“You just did it again!” 

“No I didn’t.” 

“You’re the worst, Keith!” 

“Nah, that’s for sure Zarkon.” 

Lance huffs, annoyed. Keith laughs, annoying Lance further. 

“Stop it, you two,” Shiro says. “Switch partners.” 

Alarms start going off. 

“There’s a distress beacon coming from one of the planets we’ve helped,” Allura says. 

Everyone runs to Command Center and Allura pulls the beacon’s signal up. 

“I’m setting up the wormhole now. All of you need to get to your lions,” Allura says. 

The paladins rush to the hangar and get ready, then hop into their lions. They fly out and Allura tells them over comms that the planet’s forces will come when they can but something’s wrong with their systems at the moment. The paladins originally don’t have an issue with splitting up and taking out the groups, but more keep coming out, making it difficult to stay separated. Lance is trying to keep up with the increase in enemies, but he’s not doing the greatest job. Neither is anyone else though. 

“We need to form Voltron!” Hunk shouts. 

“On my way!” Lance and Keith both shout at the same time. 

“Stop copying me, Keith!” 

“I’m not copying you.” 

Lance doesn’t hear the next part but Shiro immediately reprimanded Keith, which makes Lance think he called him something unkind. Lance goes to say something back to Keith when a shot goes off and Red goes falling towards the atmosphere. 

“One of the planet’s ships just shot Keith down!” Pidge shouts. 

“The planet’s army is coming. You guys assist however you can. I’m going after Keith,” Shiro says. 

“Don’t get shot too,” Lance says. 

“I’m sure it wasn’t on purpose,” Hunk replies. 

“Who cares if it was on purpose?” Lance asks. “They shot Keith out of the sky!” 

“Stop shouting, Lance,” Pidge says. “You’re undoubtedly bothering Hunk and you’re giving me a headache.” 

Shiro, not having the energy to stop them from arguing while worrying about Keith, flips his comm off. Shiro lands and quickly rushes over to Red. He goes in and Keith’s slumped over his console, a little blood coming from a cut on his forehead. 

“Keith!” Shiro shakes Keith and Keith picks his head up. 

“Shiro?” 

“Hey, are you okay?” Shiro asks. 

“Yeah, my head hurts though,” Keith answers.

The ground shudders, so Shiro flips his comm back on. “What’s going on?” 

“We beat the Galra force and the Castle landed close to you and Keith’s position,” Allura answers. “They’ve also asked to see the red paladin.” 

Shiro sighs. 

“I’m fine to go, Shiro,” Keith says, who’s listening to comms via Red. 

“Fine. We’ll meet you at the Castle,” Shiro says. “You sure you can walk, Otouto?” 

“Yeah, I’m sure.” 

Keith stands up and only wobbles a little. The two of them walk back to the Castle, Keith slightly leaning against Shiro. Shiro patches Keith’s head up, then Allura, Shiro, and Keith head to the planet’s castle. When they get there, Keith gets a lot of apologies from the king and queen, which Keith tells them that it was an accident and that it happens sometimes. Shiro smiles as Keith keeps his tone calm and steady. Once they’re heading back to the castle, Shiro lightly bumps Keith with his shoulder. 

“Very diplomatic of you,” he says with a smile. 

“Thanks,” Keith replies. “Let’s not have me do it again since my head hurts.” 

Shiro laughs. “Deal, you should get some rest.” 

“I haven’t been sleeping well lately.” 

“Well you can hang out with me for a bit and hopefully you’ll get tired.” 

Keith gives Shiro a confused look. “What do you plan on doing?” 

“Paperwork,” Shiro teases with a smile. 

“You’re right, that would put me right to sleep,” Keith says with a small smile. 

“It used to work when you were younger, so I was hoping it would still work.” 

Keith laughs, which makes Shiro smile again. They get back to the Castle and Keith spends a half-hour in the healing pod to deal with his minor concussion at Allura’s request. Once that’s done, Keith and Shiro head towards Shiro’s room. Lance is waiting by Keith’s door, so Shiro pushes Keith towards Lance. 

Keith walks over. “Hey.” 

“Hey, Allura told us that you’re fine.” 

“Yeah, I spent half of an hour in the pod because of a minor concussion. Such a pain.” 

“But you sure you’re alright, Keith?” Lance asks. 

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Keith answers. “Thanks for worrying though.” 

“I wasn’t worried.” 

“Okay, my bad then.” 

“See ya later, Keith.” 

“See ya.” 

Lance heads towards the hangar and Keith turns towards Shiro. 

“I think he was worried,” Shiro says. 

“That was literally never in question,” Keith replies. “Our friendship is weird.” 

“Yeah, reminds me of a friend I had one time. He was super weird about being friends too.” 

“Who? I don’t remember you ever making a reference to someone like that.” 

“Oh, it was while I was in the Garrison. We hadn’t talked since graduation due to busyness. A story for another time.” 

“Okay,” Keith says with a shrug. “Where’s the paperwork at?” 

Shiro laughs. “Come on.” 

They head to Shiro’s room and sit on the bed together. Shiro ends up reading aloud until Keith falls asleep leaning against Shiro.

[silentwillowwhisperer]

Krolia

Alright, I just had a thought.

I get that it's a major plot point that Krolia is part of the Blade of Marmora, but what if she was just another soldier?

What if she had been heading to Earth as a Galra soldier, and was shot down by a Blade member?

And then Keith's dad saves her!

So after that, she either decides to change after falling in love with him and realizing that destroying planets is killing innocent people like this man, oooor she continues to fight for the Galra.

If she continued with Galra, then she most likely would reunite with Keith in a battle, or at least see his picture in some battle briefing and be like, oH CRAP THAT'S MY KID.

And then if we continue on this path, then Keith would see her, and she tells him who she is, either mid-battle to throw him off, or to tell him why she won't kill him.

And if she were to do it mid-battle, Keith would be absolutely crushed and either have a character development arc in which he pushes back his feelings of betrayal and hurt and defeats her, or he gets distracted and she manages to injure him.

If Keith defeats her himself, (and this is all during fighting her) then right before she passes out/ dies they would have a moment where either Krolia apologizes, or tells Keith that he was a the best and worst mistake she's ever made, and either way she would tell him that she's proud of him.

If Keith were to get hurt by her, Lance would shoot her down and rush over to Keith. There would be one of those moments where character A is like dying, and character B places character A's head on their lap and like cries while character A is making some heartfelt speech and giving them a bunch of cliché advice, you know?

And then Keith passes out, and the team is there by then to rush him back to the castle and he makes it.

And then he breaks down when the reality of what happened with Krolia hits him.

And he has a moment with one of the paladins, BUT ONLY ONE OF THEM. More than one other paladin ruins the moment, don't ask me why, it just does.

And then if Krolia were to be still alive (This is assuming that the 'I'm proud of you' moment never happened), then she would rise up in ranks until when Zarkon dies, she's the empress. Haggar and Voltron think that she's controlling Krolia, so Haggar is targeted by Voltron and the coalition.

They CANNOT defeat her, no matter what they do, but then Krolia takes her out in order to gain full power of the Galra empire, and everyone's just SHOCKED. Krolia doesn't even do it in secret, this is like a full-on battle and she goes, "Bold of you to assume that you EVER controlled me, Witch. The only one who valued you was Zarkon, and that made him weak."

And then she straight-up stabs Haggar and leaves the battle saying to the paladins, "We've both won this battle. Now go. We all know that you are outnumbered here."

AND THEN instead of the whole Honerva thing, it's them against Krolia.

Keith would most likely be the one to kill her. Or maybe Krolia would have the same ending as Honerva! Though if that were to happen, then Allura can still sacrifice herself.

And throughout this, KLANCE exists. Allurance shippers can BACK OFF. ALLURANCE. NEVER. HAPPENS. AND NO. I am NOT adding Allurance to my computer's dictionary so that it will stop autocorrecting me, because the only ship that belongs in the dictionary is KLANCE.

*deep breaths*

Thank you for reading my Ted Ta- oh who am I kidding, thank you for reading my rant.

-

btw, does anyone else simp for Matt and that robot-masked alien girl??? Like, oh my goodness it is SO CUTE. In the clear day episode, (the one where Shiro wins the arm-wresting competition) the girl is INCLUDED IN THEIR FAMILY PICTURE. NO JOKE. LOOOOK!!!

MATT'S GOT A GIRLFRIEND!!!!

Sorry about that. I live for this kind of stuff.

-

If there's spelling errors, (at least more than usual) then feel free to correct me. I'm typing really aggressively right now, which usually leads to a WHOLE lot of mistakes. So, oops.

[localfanbaselurker]

First time watching Voltron: Legendary Defender and documenting my thoughts

This is Season 4

S1-2 | S3 | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 |

———————————————————————

<this one is going to be shorter, as I have only recently finished this season, and the grief is still fresh (lol), so the thoughts are only just starting to simmer. strap your asses in>

Pre-Season 4 Thoughts

-> Keith joining the blades is going to be a huge plot device, I feel

-> PLEASE for the love of CHRIST let that poor little girl find her brother and father. If they are dead dreamworks better be ready to catch these hands

->I’ve heard people claim this is the “last good season”, but i stay strong 💪 and will watch till the end

->wouldn’t the paladin switch not make sense now? Cus shiro is back as the black paladin and it makes no sense for Lance to be red like it originally had? If anything, he should’ve gone back to blue, and Allura to red, because Allura is very accepting/encouraging of shiro’s role as leader. I guess they didn’t wanna do it all over again. But I digress 🤷‍♀️

->im gonna miss my Pookie (🤍❤️🤍)

Post-S4

->do they do this every two seasons?? Have an epic battle where they have a big preparation and say it’ll 100% end the war but it doesn’t and something crazy happens after they win and it sets up the next season??

->FUCK YEAH PIDGE GOT HER BROTHER BACK IM SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP 💪💪🔥🔥‼️‼️‼️🙏🙏🙏🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️

->^genuinely cried so hard during this scene. would’ve cried more if I wasn’t recovering from the initial shock.

->^cried during this one too, but it was happy tears. I could actually just do a whole reaction post to this episode alone. (if you want me to js say so in the rbs/replies)

->the callback to s1! “color-coded of course, because what are we? animals?” AHHH! I’m going insane I love these siblings sooooo much

->okay I’ll stop gushing over them now

->^only valid reaction to meeting Allura. Homegirl is beauty incarnate

->I LIED. im not sorry im never shutting up about them. SHE SHOWS HIM AROUND THE CASTLE AND TELLS HIM EVERYTHING AND EVERY DETAIL AND SHES SO EXCITED CUS SHE JUST GOT HER BRO BACK AND IS JUST RAMBLING ABOUT HER NEW HOME AND ALL THE COOL STUFF SHES BEEN DOING AND HES JUST LISTENING AND IS SUPER EXCITED WITH HER AND ITS SOOOO AMAZING AND ADORABLE AND I COULD DIE

->AND THEN HE TELLS HER HOW THEIR DAD WOULD BE SO PROUD IM DYING IM LITERALLY DEAD STOP.

->AND AND AND THEY WERE ALL WORKING TOGETHER W HUNK TO MAKE THE GALRA TRACKER THING AND THEY WERE BEING SO COOL WITH EACH OTHER AND BEING NERDS TOGETHER AND AND AND AJEUWNDUWJEBEURBDGWUDKAODHD

->okay. ive calmed down. i am normal and can be trusted to simply watch a show.

->^Get his ass, Zarkon. I needed his smug ass to be humbled so bad. Only time I will agree w Zarkon fr.

->i do NOT like Lotor. Can you guys tell already??

->THE SCENE WHERE THEY TRIED TO GET MILKSHAKES AND WERE SHOCKED TO FIND OUT THAT YOU NEED TO MILK A COW STOP.✋ 😭. My high-score on the giggle-meter went up by 300%

->bro I SWEAR shiro looks different. there’s just something about him. the hair gets a pass cus how good of a haircut can you give yourself in space, yk? but that nose scar is definitely a different shade #notmyrodrickshiro

->THE VOLTRON SHOW.

->^Just. That entire episode. It’s getting a whole post actually I need to yap about it.

->^her armor is colored in a way which makes it look both pink and red while making it look like a trick of the light in a way to symbolize that she is acting as keith yet while being a paladin herself and that being unknown in the public eye and showing how they have to cover that up, any suspicion being thrown as a trick of the light. Oh vld animators ily 🫶

->on another note tho why do they always draw lance and shiro to have 30 pounds of ass. what.

->loved when those lesbians decided to take down lotor. Queen shit 💋 we stan 🙇‍♀️🙏

->Lotor is so stupid and pathetic and annoyingly smug and sus and admiral-zhao-y and I hate him but he’s SOOO FREAKING HOT and I can’t hate him completely because he’s so attractive but that just makes me wanna hate him more. He’s a walking red flag but the flag is heart-shaped and honestly idk what to do w that.

->^WHAT. stop. honestly that’s the real reason he was banned from the empire my ass would not want that fucking FREAK within a 30 light year radius of me either

-> while s3 was the klance season, s4 is apparently the allurance season, they have a lot of sweet moments. (granted all started by lance but still, you can almost see allura swooning)

->^pookie. what are you doing… pookie.. no. stop. i don’t like where this is going…

->^POOKIE NO. STOP. ✋ STOP. SAY SIKE RN.

->^oh thank fuck for Lotor.

->^^wait what. why Lotor.

->^^^heartbreaking: worst person you know doesn’t something good for once.

->he definitely wants something out of this. I don’t trust him.

These are thoughts I’ve had compiled for some time now. I will continue to post my thoughts on the tag “laura’s first vld”

I finished this season on 06/30/24. I am on S5E3 as of today (07/06/24)

[imhereformysciencefriends]

Day 6: Galra Allura

Tags: @loturaweek2024 Species swap, alien culture, Galran Empire, helping someone you dislike and hating it the whole time, deep seated propaganda/brainwashing, touch starvation

Read on AO3

Prince Lotor was an embarrassment to the Galra name and species. Everyone knew that. To even touch him was to risk being polluted by the filth that tainted his bloodline and made him soft, pathetic, vulnerable. To associate with him? Was to practically volunteer to join him at the bottom of the pecking order. He was alive only because he had half-inherited his father’s martial prowess (and how powerful was the mighty Emperor Zarkon, that even half his strength should best any Galra that challenged Lotor!) and because Galran custom forbade even Zarkon from ridding the universe of his own child.

Allura knew that.

Allura was a good, dutiful, honorable, hardworking Galra. She was proud, as all Galra were proud, she was fearsome, as all Galra were fearsome. She was cutthroat and coldhearted—and maybe that was a lie.

The smell of blood was not foreign to her. She’d spilled plenty of it, herself. His shouldn’t move her. It was good, she justified to herself, that she concerned herself with the wounds and wellbeings of other Galra, for Galra were all as one, united under their glorious emperor, and to uphold and uplift the Galra around her was to uphold the empire as a whole, she self-rationalized. But Lotor was only half Galra, his blood tainted with Altean genetics, she shouldn’t care if he bled, if he ached, if he hurt, if he gasped as he rolled himself onto his knees and hand, the other wrist too damaged to put his weight on.

Really, she would be doing him a favor just for walking by. If she just strode past him and the unconscious bodies strewn around him, hell, she should be concerned about them, not the one left standing (or, well, kneeling. Getting there).

…Maybe, since he was half Galra, it would be alright if she half-cared?

She didn’t ask or offer, simply walked up to him, got his good arm slung over her shoulders, and lifted. He growled at her, and she growled back, not exactly happy about this either (damn her soft heart! A Galra should be better!), but his anger settled into confusion when she merely pulled him to his feet.

“...To what do I owe the honor?”

“Can it,” she snarled. “Let’s just get you out of here before any of these fools wake up and try for a round two.”

Because yes, that was it, they were the fools. Everyone knew Prince Lotor inherited half the emperor’s strength, it was their fault for thinking that they could best even that.

As a group.

Against one man.

She grit her fangs. Life wasn’t fair. Of course Galra didn’t play fair. It wasn’t honorable, exactly, but she doubted this was an official challenge for anything. And how did a prince get picked on this much anyway!? It was embarrassing for him.

“I rather must admit, I had thought when you approached me you intended to finish what they’d started.”

“If you keep chatting so much, I just might,” she snapped, with less heat than she’d intended. The line of his arm across her armor was distracting (it was always distracting) (she had yet to shake off the childish need to be touched outside of battle. Shameful). It was distracting her. This was a distracting situation.

“...Thank you.”

“Please,” she muttered quietly, “don’t ever mention it.”

And, see, again, Allura was distracted, it was a distracting situation, she wasn’t thinking about where she was going, because she’d just finished her shift and had been heading back to her apartment, and in lieu of actually taking Lotor somewhere her body just. Finished the trek home.

She stopped in front of the door to her room, very clearly in one of the residential halls, very clearly embarrassed with herself, even with her downturned ears hidden by her helmet and her blush underneath her fur.

He laughed, damn him, a soft, breathy, barely-there sound. “And where, precisely, has my valiant savior taken me?” Lotor asked, teasing and very knowing and sounding quite amused, the bastard. She shoved him off of her into the wall.

“You know I’ve had about enough of your sass!” she snarled, fangs bared, and he laughed again, louder, though his eyes were sharp on her, treating her like a threat. Good. She was one.

“Forgive me,” Lotor said, still sounding amused, if cautious, “I’m afraid my mouth has played the culprit in many of my altercations. I just can’t seem to control it.”

“Perhaps you should learn.”

“Perhaps.”

She crossed her arms and huffed, then. Well. Conceded in looking away first. It bristled, to be the one to look away from Lotor, embarrassment of the Empire, but she could admit she was being just slightly ridiculous (she’d been the one to bring him here, after all), and even if he did take advantage of the deliberate show of weakness, she doubted he could do much against her, down a wrist and limping like that.

“Your breath seems caught enough,” she muttered, still turned away. “You can make your own way from here. I’m going to rest.”

She slammed her hand down on the ID pad and her door slid open for her, allowing her to storm in.

“Wait!” Lotor called, soft but urgent, and she stilled in the doorway, cocking her head to look at him and her lip lifted just enough to snarl with one fang.

“Please, at least tell me your name.”

“...Allura. Now go away.”

The door didn’t slam behind her, just neatly closed like it always did, and she found herself resenting the emotionless metal for its lack of force. Good riddance. She was supposed to be enjoying a varga or two of personal time before she slept and went back to work the next day. Not dealing with stupid princes and their stupid faces and their stupid injuries and their stupid, breathy, lilting laughs that sounded so soft and inviting and their stupid smug faces and stupid, stupid, stupid!!!

Her face burned as she stripped off her armor, flinging it roughly at the armor stand. Whatever! She hoped she never saw him again!!!

(Except she did, she did, she wanted to see him. Stupid. Pathetic. Weak Allura).

[discordiansamba]

There's also like. an even more traditional variant of the zombie apocalypse AU where they never knew each other before the start and all of the paladins + Allura and Coran are just survivors trying to make their way in the world.

Veronica was on a trip with Lance when things went south, helping him check out colleges. Their only goal is to try and find the rest of their family, since they lost communication with them within the first few days. They hope they're fine, but...

Hunk was on a school trip. It was the first time he'd ever gone on a trip by himself, so he was nervous about it. His mom promised him everything would be fine, and he had nothing to worry about. He knew she was right. It was probably just the anxiety talking... until it wasn't. He joins together with Lance and Veronica early on, since they all have the same goal. Find their family.

Sam Holt still works in aeronautics. The Holt family has been holed up at the base he works out of since the early days of the apocalypse. It's considered to be a stronghold, but no one knows how long it will last. They're working on some way to stop the zombies, but it's not like you can cure the (un)dead.

Allura was home for the a long weekend, away from her private boarding school. Her father was rich, and had a lot of land, so when things started to go bad, he opened his doors to survivors. It went well- until it didn't. Her father's friend Zarkon secretly hid the fact that his wife had been bitten, and things very quickly escalated from there. Allura escaped with her life alongside her family butler Coran, but her father was not so lucky.

Keith and Shiro are brothers. Not by blood, but family regardless. They're eccentrics, people who choose to live in the ruins of society, instead of trying to find a safe haven. They guide those lost to them, but they always strike everyone as... odd. Shiro clearly had a too close encounter if his amputated arm is anything to go off of. And Keith is... unnerving.

Keith was bitten in the early days of the apocalypse, but Shiro couldn't bring himself to kill his brother. He would wait until he succumbed to the infection... except. Keith never did. He's definitely not among the living anymore, and he has a hankering for raw meat that he definitely did not have before. But he has his mind. And that's all that matters to Shiro.

He'll stick with his brother until the end.

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Umm the usual assortment of lance allura and kuron for that ask thingy <33(can be all three or just one if you dont feel like it!!!) scurries away

Thank you for asking bestie ❤❤❤. Ngl my brain is baked these days so I'll be only one this time

Kuron-

three facts about them from my personal headcanons-

Huge ass nerd. Especially about classic lit but he's also this pic about it-

2. Enters 'Shiro look-a-like Cosplay' competition specifically to do the Worst Most Awful impression of Shiro, he also got the scar on the wrong side through makeup (its a coping mechanism leave him alone) If he and Shiro had a better relationship (and Shiro stopped being a bitch about the clone thing) they both would enter that competition and Kuron will win while Shiro will get last and Kuron doesn't know whether to laugh or cry or curl up in a corner and die

3. Fighting for his life anytime he gets a headache or a migraine. Constantly swinging between "it's just a headache! Haggar's dead! It's just a headache! Haggar's dead! It's just-" And "I am going to die"

a reason they suck-

Babygirl I know you are going Through it but you got to stop going behind your teams back and yell at them, Lotor was so not worth it.

Also is just so focused on being The Leader he forgot being Team Member

a reason they are great-

He's just trying so much???!?! Like he is doomed no matter what happened and he didn't even know it but he was still trying his best and he fought and tried to survive till his very last breath 🥺🥺🥺🥺 my boy he deserved better

a reason I relate to them-

I kinda don't? Relatability of a character isn't really my priority as much as studying them in a microscope is. If I had to I guess our tendency to not communicate well and be a bit snappish when stressed? The feeling of not being in control about anything in your life? Otherwise I can't think of any

(what I consider to be) the top tier otp/ot3 for that character-

I still think about toxic yaoi Kuron/Lotor that would never work and destroy them both btw if you even care

But also like screw romance give him as many friends as he wants

five things that never happened to that character that I believe should have happened-

Him getting to live

Him getting to live as his own person

Him getting to live as his own person in his own body

Him getting to live as his own person in his own body and not treated as Evil Shiro clone but a friend

Shiro fucking apologises to him (I know there are others who have done far FAR worse things to Kuron and Shiro has his own trauma and I like Shiro! But also listening to him being mean to my son no. 1 WHILE being mean about my tragic son no. 2 and all I could think of was, "Shut the fuck up forever actually bitch")

five people that character never fell in love with and why-

Again do I really have to answer this one?? Like can't we ignore all shipping fandom? Ugh fine

Haggar (for obvious reasons)

Zarkon (stated as above and in fact these two can be interchanged)

Sendak (sure Kuron hasn't actually met Sendak but he does have Shiro's memories and he sucks in all of them)

Iverson (because fuck him)

Slav (I don't hate Slav but I have to agree with people when they say that Slav and Shiro trigger each other's anxieties and trauma and this applies to Kuron as well)

[autisticlancemcclain]

“Ooooooh, that looks interesting!”

Keith groans, as loudly and dramatically as he can. He tries to emulate Shiro every time he was finally forced to actually do his job and mark student papers after weeks of procrastinating.

(He’s pretty successful, if he does say so himself.)

“Please,” he begs the red paladin, yanking on his sleeve to dissuade him from turning into the store. It does nothing.

“C’mon,” Lance says, ignoring his agony. “One last store, okay?”

“You’re a dirty liar. You said that two hours ago.”

Lance reaches back blindly to pat Keith patronizingly on the head, missing by a mile and smacking him on the face instead. Keith has to bat his hands away. “There, there. You once tried to fight a ten thousand year old zombie dictator with your bare hands. You will survive.”

“Fistfighting Zarkon wasn’t nearly this painful,” Keith grumbles, but lets Lance pull him into the store, anyway.

God, he’s fucking whipped. He’s embarrassed of himself. Truly.

He dutifully takes the basket Lance hands him (on top of his twelve other shopping bags, full to the brim, Keith might add) and holds it out whenever Lance gasps excitedly and swipes something off a shelf or a hangar.

“Allura would look great in this skirt!”

“Wouldn’t Pidge look adorable with this hair bow?”

“Oh, Hunk has been looking for this!”

“Gasp!” (He actually says the word gasp, out loud, with his mouth.) “Hair chalk! Maybe Shiro will let me dye his floof!”

“You’re ridiculous,” Keith tells him. He sounds so fond that a random passer-by raises an amused eyebrow at him, which makes Keith want to melt into the floor. “Like an irritating wind-up toy.”

There. That should cover his tracks.

Lance pauses for a moment, turning to face Keith and squinting at him. For a brief, foolish moment, Keith feels something like hope — maybe this horrible torture will come to an end!

“Didn’t you collect wind-up toys when you were a kid?” he questions, head tilted. “You had like four boxes of them in your shack. I stole a little stegosaurus.”

Keith opens his mouth, then shuts it again. His ears burn.

“First of all, you have a kleptomania problem,” he points out, instead of stop knowing so much about me and let me live in peace. “Second of all, you are a snoop and I hate you.”

Lance snorts. “Yeah, yeah.”

Keith is about to say something else, something scathing, something to make him the clear winner of this dumbass, not-real argument, but then Lance absentmindedly links his arm through Keith’s and pulls him close as he strolls down an aisle full of puzzles and games.

Keith’s throat goes dry. Lance smells faintly of something floral, sweet.

Briefly, he squeezes his eyes shut and prays for strength. It will do nothing, because the universe likes to put Keith in horrible situations and laugh at him, but he tries anyway.

They walk in mostly silence for a the next little while, interrupted only by Lance’s quiet humming and occasional points of interest. He’s agonizingly slow to walk through the store — Keith is sure at this point that he’s doing it on purpose, no one likes shopping for this long, he’s definitely punishing Keith for drinking the last of the red juice packs — but perks up excitedly when he sees an aisle lined with jars on one side, and various tubes and pallets on the other.

“Look! Look look look! They have a skincare and makeup section!”

Keith turns his head to the sky. “Why do you despise me,” he mutters to it.

He is never getting out of this goddamn store.

“Come on, you drama queen,” Lance says, dragging him towards the first shelf of various products. “Shiro and Pidge keep stealing all my products because they are horrible people who don’t know how to ask for things. I need to replenish. Come help!”

He yanks Keith forward. Yelping, Keith stumbles after him. “I’m coming, you goober, yeesh! Ease up a bit.”

Smirking, Lance ignores him. He reaches for a shiny pink pot, unscrewing the lid and taking a sniff. He makes a face. “Blegh. Here.”

Keith indulgently smells it and almost gags. “That smells the way final exams feel.”

He trails after Lance for the next fifteen minutes, smelling weirdo products and laughing himself to tears at Lance’s various reactions. He has the pleasure of making Lance laugh, too, with all his creative descriptions; making his brown eyes light up and his bright smile making Keith’s heart do dangerous things.

He’s so fucked. He’s so fucked!

“Oh, hey, I have an idea. Close your eyes.”

It doesn’t even occur to Keith not to listen. That’s the embarrassing part. Lance tells him to close his eyes and immediately his world goes dark.

He feels something approach his face.

“Smell this,” Lance says.

Keith grimaces. “Can we be done with the nasty smells?”

“This one isn’t nasty, promise. It’s lip gloss. Guess the flavour.”

Keith hesitantly leans forward and inhales. To his surprise, the scent is pleasant, familiar.

“Mint?”

“That one was too easy,” Lance says. “Keep your eyes closed, smell this one.”

Less wary now, Keith does. This one is even better than before.

“Oh, oranges!”

Lance grumbles to himself. Keith hears rustling, like Lance is digging through something, and then a sharp intake of breath.

Keith peeks an eye open. “Everything okay?”

“Close your eyes again,” Lance orders. Keith does, hesitantly, noting that Lance’s expression is very particular, in a way he can’t place.

“Guess this one,” he says quietly.

Keith does. He frowns, tiling his head in confusion.

“D’you give up?”

Lance sounds closer. Much closer, actually. Keith’s breaths get heavier.

“No.”

Lance says nothing for a moment, and Keith is tempted to open his eyes. He feels Lance get closer, feels the heat of his breath on his cheeks. He’s still for a moment, and Keith’s heart pounds as he breathes rapidly, strangely familiar scent of the lipgloss getting closer and closer.

“…You want a hint?”

Keith nods rapidly. The smell gets even stronger, and then something warm and sticky presses against his lips.

Lance is kissing him.

He pulls back as quickly as he leaned in, but not far. The scent of the lip gloss is still cloying, intermingling with the scent of Lance, sweet and fruity.

“I don’t think I’ve ever tasted it before,” Keith rasps. He cracks open his eyes, barely, and finds them level with Lance’s nose, close to those shiny lips.

Lance hums. “It’s sweet pear.”

“Oh.” That makes sense. “It’s nice.”

Lance leans in again, and Keith does too, like a magnet drawn to Lance’s polarity. “Wanna taste again?”

As if Keith would ever say no to that.

———

based on this post

[graphx]

VOLTRON HIRAETH AU!!

(link to my page here :D) https://archiveofourown.org/users/GraphX

Basically a rundown of the plot I have planned so far! I will be writing and posting in order on AO3!

But there are some specific scenes I wanted to write because I don't have the patience or time to write everything in order(I'll be posting them here under the Hiraeth AU tag) THIS ENTIRE THING IS GEN BTW!!!

Hiraeth

(n.) a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was; the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for lost places of your past

• Allura from another reality goes quintessence crazy after defeating Haggar at the cost of the lives of the other Paladins

• She goes from universe to universe trying to gather enough quintessence to bring back her reality that she accidentally tore apart but only gets worse and worse the more quintessence she is exposed to

• In the current universe she experiments with quintessence and accidentally kills her parents along with Zarkon and Honerva. Villian!Allura turns the blame to the Galra, causing the Allura of this universe to wage war on them as the only successor to the Altean throne.

• Lotor tries to convince Allura that her other self is lying to her but she doesn't believe it, leaving Lotor to flee from the Galran commanders trying to kill him to gain the throne(he goes into hiding before organizing a resistance after meeting the other generals)

• Villian!Allura is concerned that the Paladins of this universe will try to stop her so she destroys Earth

• However prior to the Altean invasion the Kerberos mission took place with Sam and his crew consisting of Matt, Adam and Shiro(who are all 16/17 for plot reasons they were interns or something IT MAKES SENSE DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!!!)

• Sam, Matt and Shiro are kidnapped and sent to the arenas while Adam manages to steal a ship to get back to Earth, only to find it destroyed

• The Galran Empire remnants (who were already planning on attacking Earth and communicating with Sanda(who sent Sam away on Kerberos because she thought he would get in the way of her failed "negotiations" and hoped he was kidnapped) fight with the Alteans, leaving Earth in the crossfire

• The Blade of Marmora attempt a relief effort and get one billion people off Earth before it explodes, finding Adam and establishing a planet they can live on before leaving them to their own devices

• In this AU all the Paladins are kids when Earth got destroyed (around 6 to 8) and Keith's dad dies during the evacuation helping defend the transports from Alteans but Kolivan saw that Keith's dad had a Marmoran knife(that he didn't give to Keith at 8 years old)

• Kolivan takes in Keith as a Blade agent since he has no human to provide for him but he keeps his identity as a human secret from the rest of the Blades to ensure none of them snitch since the Alteans have offered a lot for humans

• Kolivan knows the knife was Krolia's but doesn't tell her since she already jeopardized the Blade of Marmora once by leaving for Earth and without the temptation of her son she won't leave again

• Keith(as you can expect) did not have a very happy childhood growing up in an organization of trained killer assassin ninjas which resulted in more ~trauma~

• On one of his missions he is captured by Galra and put in the areans with Champion!Shiro and Keith meets another human for the first time who shows him kindness and starts to question if the Blades are right

• Keith escapes from the Arena with the Blades but convinces Ulaz to go back for Shiro and he meets up with Adam in the human colony

• On another mission Keith runs into Lance, Hunk and Pidge who are searching for a supposed superweapon in an attempt to defend themselves from Alteans and Galrans that prevent them from leaving their hiding spot at the edge of the universe

• he thinks to himself "wow these guys are annoying and weird I sure do hope I never see them again" before the Blades immediately order him to find the superweapon to keep it out of human, Altean and Galran hands because they are unreliable

• Krolia helps track down information it and Keith notices that whenever she is bored she recites star charts (kinda like his dad used to do) and the constellations look eerily familar

• Keith gets hurt, Krolia finds out his identity and takes him to the human colony so he doesn't have to stay in the abusive Blade environment anymore

• When she tries to get Keith to colony they are tracked by Alteans and Krolia manages to trick the Alteans and Keith crash lands on the surface only to see the ship leaving

• now that all the paladins are in one place they protect the colony after going on a couple of missions to find the lions while Keith tries to track down the very elusive Blade of Marmora

Theres more to it than that, BUT that's all for now!

[depressocafe]

What is the real reason why Zarkon thought Lotor was weak? And why did Zarkon become power hungry after the quintessence incident?

------------------------

In this week's edition of VLD Theories I hyper fixate and overanalyze the show once again but this time I think I have something really interesting, considering the fact that we're not just talking about the inner workings of the Voltron universe but we're also discussing everyone's favorite father son duo.

-----------------------

Something that's always irked me is the cliché way Zarkon was written (and don't worry we'll get into Lotor and his relationship with Zarkon as well as childhood trauma in a moment but to get to that we have to talk about the Emperor himself). Zarkon is written as everyone's typical, immoral, emotionless, power hungry bastard and while that is essentially what a 'bad person' is it doesn't make for good writing nor does it function well with the cannonisity of the series or even its inner workings.

Let's go back to what Shiro said himself about Quintessence Corruption. Shiro stated "Zarkon fell to his own evil instincts. The quintessence field didn't create Them, it revealed them." This sentence states that the chemical itself is capable of sensing and seeping into hidden or strong desires. But here's the thing, Zarkon initially didn't desire war. He conquered planets because that's what his race had done for generations, that was until Alfor helped Zarkon to end his conquest and ally with several of his enemies (Alfor, Blaytz, Trygel, Gyrgan) then Zarkon put conquest behind him and worked on being a benevolent ruler who desired peace. Quite a switch but that still leaves the question, what changed? What made him power hungry? What ruined him? Well the answer is actually quite simple and was staring us in the face the whole time.

It was the overwhelming feeling of weakness. Weakness that came with his greatest failure, the inability to support what he loves and cares for. Namely, Honerva, Lotor, his planet, his military, his citizens, and with each day watching the things he loves grow weaker, even himself.

Zarkon watched his life grow into something spectacular and then started watching it's downfall. Even when he put stabilizers into his planet, that only slowed its collapse. He struggled to make his wife pregnant and now he was struggling to keep his son, his only child, healthy in his mother's womb. Speaking of his mother, Honerva slowly and harshly deteriorated right before Zarkon's eyes and he couldn't stop it. Because his planet was dying, he struggled to feed and support his citizens as well as provide nourishment for the soldiers whose job it was to stay healthy and protect all of Galra existence. And thusly Zarkon himself began deteriorating, His mind losing its sense of morality in favor of a stronger sense of survival. He's been weakened. Powerless to stop anything, the quintessence at this point is the only support he has. And thus the only thing he can focus on. If he can harness it, he can fix everything.

See, the quintessence didn't reveal Zarkon's evil nature, he wasn't evil to begin with. The quintessence corrupted his deepest desire. To become strong enough to support all that he cares about. To have power over all that he controls and sees. But no wish comes without a price. Power and quintessence became his biggest concerns. And turned him into what we now know as the Evil Emperor Zarkon.

------------------------

But how does this tie in with Lotor? Quite easily actually! You see a lot of what Lotor is, happens to be what Zarkon once was. Lotor had a deep seated love for existence. He indulged himself in other cultures, he respected every living being, he befriended individuals other than Galra, and he believed he could harness quintessence without destruction or disrespect to life.

But to Zarkon, that is Arrogance, Foolishness, it is Weakness beyond compare. Because he thought that way once, and it only brought Daibazaal to ruin and made him incapable of anything. But as we know, that's just Zarkon's perspective through his corrupt eyes. We, the viewers, know Lotor is right in his beliefs But his father is incapable of seeing that because of his fear, having no control over anything, no power over anything. This led Lotor and Zarkon to have an even more broken relationship than they already had, disintegrating to the point Zarkon couldn't stand his own son anymore and sent him away.

But he didn't kill Lotor. Not until 10,000 years later. Because his son was one of the things Zarkon wanted to save. Another reason why Lotor and Zarkon had an abusive relationship has to do with the Quintessence Corruption itself. Because Zarkon desired that power and control over everything, he desired it for his own son as well because if he can't control his own child then the weakness will grow again. The fear Zarkon let die along with his friends and planet will regrow and resurface. But Lotor is not the kind of person who allows himself to be forced, coerced, or manipulated so easily into obedience. Especially when it has to do with his father's sense of Value and Morality. So naturally in Zarkon's mind Lotor has become weak and as he's said before "Weakness is an infection. Better to cut it off then let it spread." We all know what happened next.

And if you need more evidence. Look no further than to Lotor's own corruption itself. Lotor was never good enough for anyone. And honestly saying that statement grossly understates Lotor's actual suffering. But it's still accurate. There are many things the prince wanted in his life. He didn't just want good parents he wanted his parents to be good. But that wasn't going to happen. He didn't just want to accept and be proud of himself he wanted people to accept and be proud of him. But that wasn't going to happen. His home quickly became nothing short of a survival situation and a place where he couldn't belong. So he decided he'd find that place himself and if he couldn't find it, then he'd create it with his own two hands. A place where he is accepted and everyone is proud of him. A place where his accomplishments and intellect matter. A place like the Altean settlement

Initially yes, I believe Lotor made this settlement to save his race. There is no denying he's always had a good heart. But sadly, he's never had a sane mind. Lotor was in Honerva's womb when she and Zarkon became corrupt and it's even stated within that show that when Galra doctors did a health read on Lotor shortly after his birth, he was giving the same quintessence readings as Zarkon and Haggar. In addition, Lotor seems to struggle with letting go of a grudge. Understandable but holding onto grudges creates emotional instability which can cause problems for your mental state. Take it from me if your angry with someone, forget the pain you felt but remember the harm that was delt. Learn it and let it hone you for further down the line in your life. Lotor, didn't do that. He wouldn't forget the rage he felt, even if he could still get revenge on his abusers if he wanted. And with his hidden desires and quintessence his parents seeped into his veins, it was only a matter of time until Lotor finally lost it.

Lotor desired a place to belong and he was going to make it happen no matter what. No matter what or who he had to sacrifice to get it. That's what the Quintessence brought out. His hidden desire for belonging. To be honest, Honerva had her desires herself. But we already understand what those are. Her desire for endless knowledge as well as control over quintessence, life itself. And we know what it made her. We've always been aware of Honerva's mind so there really wasn't a place for her in this post. This statement does exclude her actions for season 8 and that's because who she is then doesn't fit into who she once was or what were discussing.

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Zarkon became what he wanted to be but at what cost? His desire ruined everything. So did Honerva's. It tore apart the universe, it destroyed their son, it slaughtered their friends. Zarkon got the power he wanted and control over his fear, but in turn it ruined everything he built. Immoral sacrifice for absolute solace.

Post made: Feb 18, 2023

Updated: Mar 9, 2023

[scattered-winter]

🌹<33

Keith shoved Lance away with him with a growl, ignoring Lance’s indignant yelp. “I’m fine. There’s more important things to worry about.”

Lance glared at Keith. “Like?”

“Like how Allura conveniently left out the fact that Zarkon used to be the Black Paladin.”

Everyone froze.

Pidge snapped her head toward the Alteans, who both looked like someone had slapped them across the face.

“What does he mean?” Pidge didn’t even realize she’d spoken until she stepped forward, hands planted on her hips. “Zarkon used to be a fucking paladin?”

“The Black Paladin,” Keith growled again, like Pidge hadn’t heard him the first time.

Allura’s mouth opened and closed. She turned helplessly to Coran, who looked just as thrown.

“Well?” Pidge raised her eyebrows.

It was Lance who stepped in between them, pressing one hand to Pidge’s shoulder to keep her from getting too close. He leveled Allura and Coran with a serious look, dark brows tugged together.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Allura finally managed to get her voice to work. “I—it wasn’t important,” she said haltingly.

Pidge scoffed. “Like hell it wasn’t.”

“The Black Lion rejected Shiro in the middle of the fight because Zarkon was there,” Keith growled, stepping toward the Alteans on Lance’s other side. “That’s kind of fucking important.”

Hunk maneuvered himself in front of Keith to stop him from getting closer just like Lance was doing to Pidge. “Guys, now isn’t the time to talk about this.”

“Oh, do you have a scheduling conflict?” Pidge snapped. “Something better to do, maybe?”

Hunk’s shoulders straightened, and he planted himself like a mountain and calmly met Pidge’s eyes. “Now isn’t the time. We’ve just been through a risky battle, and we’re all tired and stressed. And Shiro deserves to be part of this conversation; we can wait for him to come out of the pod and get some rest, at least."

Hunk turned to the Alteans and fixed them with a severe stare. “Once we’re all recovered, we’re going to have a talk about this. And anything else you think might not have been important enough to tell us from the start.”

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