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vultruntrash · 3 months

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The Plan

Hey, yo, been a hot minute eh?

Me? Hyperfixations and work. Not Voltron related.

What IS Voltron related, however, is some ideas I've been having.

I still have all of my research notes from back during the binge sessions, as well as the timeline and canon event logs. Still waiting on the dvd release for seasons 7 and 8, but at this point, I'm just assuming that's not going to happen; which makes me sad because dvd releases would have more goodies to look through (And I like my dvd goodies)

So, what's The Plan?

I haven't gotten anything in a document yet, they're all still disjointed scenes floating around in my head. It's essentially a rewrite. A script, moreover, honouring the showrunner's ultimate decisions in the series and justifying them with character growth and development. With some notable changes. And some expanded explanations of included elements.

Zarkon still dies. The first time. The Robo-version is a corpse puppet.

Allura and Lance still end up together. And it's believable.

Shiro still retires. And gets together with whatshisbucket, but doesn't marry yet.

Keith still comes into his own as a leader.

Lance grows as a Second, and starts taking others, and himself, more seriously.

Pidge is still a gremlin and Hunk is still a cinnamon roll.

Some of the more notable changes I'm planning out are actually some of the more important instances of the series that I feel could have been handled much better than they had been.

Allura's apology, for one, is an actual apology; and is moved to much later in the series to after Shiro's disappearance. It's a quiet moment, with nothing on the line, and most importantly it's something she does on her own.

Keith's decision to leave Voltron to work with the Blades of Marmora is related to how weird Kuron is acting. Keith knows something is up, but he doesn't know what, but he DOES know that he's more likely to find out working with the Blades. The private conversation with Lance is still originally Lance wanting to give up being a Paladin, but becomes Keith revealing his suspicions and asking Lance to watch over everyone and keep them safe while he's gone.

The Zarkon Fight at the end of season one has more thematic appropriateness, added to later when the team is attempting to get back to earth as soon as possible and go one that "vision quest" to unlock ftl travel. The 'fight your predecessor' scenes are going to be added in as the Paladins are being submitted to a final trial before officially achieving full control of their lions.

Adding on to that, the fight at the end with Haggar is not a multiverse-traversing mess, but a "battle in the center of the mind" that ultimately ends with Allura sealing herself and Haggar together until one of them is defeated. This is done with the knowledge that, regardless of who wins, there's not really a way to escape.

Spoiler alert: Allura wins. And escapes. And finds her way to the Paladins somehow. How? Something something Altean Magic, idk.

The final change I wanted to talk about is at the very end of the series. When the Lions reactivate and leave the planet, the Paladins are piloting this time. This is to symbolize that, though the conflict is over, their job is still not done. They've earned their place as the Paladins of Voltron, and in doing so have vowed to defend the universe from any that wish to harm it's inhabitants.

So, it's a lot, right? It's a lot.

I make no promises if or when anything will be written, but after seeing the reblog about how quickly it came and went, it makes a little more sense why things were the way they were and it continues to leave a bad taste in my mouth to know that. So I wanted to share the plans I've been very slowly chipping away at for a while now. I've got enough on my plate between work, my comic, my other fics, and commissions, that Voltron hasn't really been a priority.

I'll try to start writing things down and post snippets now and then, but do bear in mind that this isn't a full fic, or a narrative, or a webcomic. It's a script. Written with the full intention of taking pre-existing clips and rearranging them to match. Complete with scene calls, expression and read notations, and a sound track.

So forgive me for being reluctant to want to dive right in

#vultrun #writing is hard #i'm bad at writing #vldas

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cacophony-eg · 4 years

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What if Haggar had no control over Kuron (Kuro)?

This one question started many other questions like What if Shiro didn’t Die? What if Lotor passed the White Lion Test? What if Lotor’s Colony of Altean’s didn’t exist? How all these things could happen in (mostly) the same universe?

First Lets Start with “what if Haggar had no control over Kuron?”

Kuron’s escape was an accident, also Kuron wouldn’t have any memories past his time as a gladiator.

(Cause sorry the fact that his memories were up to date made no sense to me. Because going by the show’s canon Shiro was gone, he died there was nothing left of him. Then given this as fact, how would they have gotten all of Shiro’s memories?

Haggar had shown no ability to see through or control the original Shiro, so there would be no way to have Kuron’s memories or the other clones memories up to date after original Shiro’s escape.)

Kuron would have no idea he was part of Voltron, have no memory of piloting the black lion.

During his escape, he still runs into Varkala and Remdax, whom Kuron has to convince that he is not a spy, that he’s just escaped from one of their labs. Once Kuron helps the two not so coordinative rebels against a Galra attack there wholeheartedly trust Kuron, though they keep saying they’re going to keep an eye on him.

Eventually, Varkala and Remdax catch an old broadcast from the Olkari looking for a male human. The two are like ‘hey we got one of those’ and they have to convince Shiro that it’s okay to contact the Okari about him and tell Shiro about Voltron. Explain how Voltron is fighting the oppression of the Galra, and how Voltron’s a force for good. They explain that most of the Voltron lions are piloted by humans. (and make a side note that it used to be piloted by all humans but something happened to one of them, though neither could remember what happened.)

Vakala gets in contact with the Olkari saying they have a human male on at their station, but their connection is so static and weak that the only thing the Olkari can confirm is that their’s a human male with them, and relay that information to the Voltron crew.

Pidge is the one to go investigate thinking it might be Matt, and to her shock she finds Shiro. Kuron introducing himself to the green paladin as if they have never met before. This confuses Pidge a great deal.

“Shiro don’t you recognize me?” Pidge asks taking off her helmet and Shiro nearly has a panic attack thinking she was Matt for a moment before he realizes the height and her voice is completely wrong.

“Katie?” Shiro says shocked, and they both tightly hug each other, both almost crying as Kuron starts apologizing for not being able to protect her brother and Father. As she assures him it’s alright that she knows.

Vakala asks Remdax if he thinks that little person was Shiro’s family or if all humans greet each other this way? Remdax can only shrug as they watch the emotional reunion.

Kuron than starts asking her a bunch of questions about how she became a paladin and how in the world do metal Lions fly. Pidge’s blood goes cold realizing Shiro has no memories of being a paladin or finding the blue lion on earth and is only calling her Katie never Pidge.

And when she tries telling Shiro that he used to be Voltron’s leader and the pilot of the black lion he doesn’t believe her.

Pidge gets in contact with Keith telling him she found Shiro but that he’s missing some of his memories and that she’s headed back with Shiro to the ship. Keith is so relieved and concerned about hearing the news about Shiro. Keith relays this information to the other paladins, Allura suggesting that the healing pods could help resort his memories as they did help restore some of his memories last time.

When Pidge and Kuron get back to the castle of lions, Shiro and Keith have a touching reunion. Kuron telling Keith that he always knew Keith was destined for greatness, then have a somewhat awkward reunion with Hunk, Lance, Allura and Coran. (one involving the confusion over who has what loin based on their colours) Shiro recognizes Hunk and Lance as Garrison cadets but not much else.

When Pidge tries to guild Kuron to the healing pods, he freakouts thinking they’re the same pods that the Galra had him trapped in. This surprised the group, Keith and Pidge manage to calm Kuron down assuring him he doesn’t have to go in it, they try asking him about what he remembered from being in the Galra pod and he does his best to tell them all he remembers though it’s not a lot.

Hunk and Allura use more traditional medical supplies to fix some of Shiro’s injuries. Lance offering to give Shiro a haircut, and Kuron agrees. Of course, Lance talks as he’s cutting Kuron’s hair, saying he gets why going into an alien pod is pretty freaking, but Lance explains why he’s pretty grateful for them as he probably wouldn’t have survived an explosion without them. This catches Kuron’s attention, as he starts viewing Lance more like a real soldier than a cadet and they talk about Lance’s experience in the pod and Kuron feels a little more comfortable about the pobs but admits he’s still not ready to go in one. Lance is very understanding and tells Kuron it’s okay for him to take his time.

While Kuron rests, the team starts talking and making theories as to what could have happened and how he lost his memory. (you know to begin the mystory of if this is really their Shiro or not.)

Since Kuron isn’t being controlled by Haggar and has no memory of being a paladin or piloting the black lion he’s not particularly bothered that the Black lion doesn’t respond to him. (The Black lion even goes as far and putting up its shield when Kuron approaches.) So there’s no tension between Keith and Shiro over that, though that doesn’t stop Kuron from getting easily irritated by Coran or argue with Allura and the others. Lance usually the one to step in between Allura and Shiro to settle them down and find a middle ground, cause Keith keeps falling into the habit of fallowing Shiro that it feels like Keith forgets he’s now the leader. Lance feels like Allura and Shiro can’t find compromises and is now the one doing his best to build a bridge between the two of them as now theirs a constant rift between the black paladin and the Princess.

Part 2: What if Shiro didn’t Die?

Keith is continually surprised by how Shiro’s reacting and even when Keith tries talking to Shiro about it the black paladin is unusually aggressive. Pidge ever the suspicious one asks to do a check-up on his cybernetic arm and Kuron wholeheartedly agrees, still calling Pidge, Katie more often than not. Pidge discovering that even though Kuron’s arm appears the same as Shiro’s old one it’s actually a new one made to look like Shiro’s old one.

Pidge takes Keith to the side and shows him this evidence, Keith says the galra could have just outfitted him with a new one to put him back in the gladiator rings or something like that. Pidge counters that logic; if the galra were going to do that they would have upgraded his arm not replaced it with a near replica. She also points out Shiro’s different behaviour and how the Black Lion treated this Shiro as if he was a complete stranger or as if an enemy was trying to pilot him. As if this Shiro wasn’t their Shiro.

Keith at first doesn’t want to believe Pidge, he desperately wants to believe that this is their Shiro, but as the team spends more time around this Shiro the more different he feels to Keith. Eventually, he comes back to Pidge and admits that this might not be their Shiro and if that’s the case they needed to find the real Shiro. Pidge glad he’s finally on the same page as her and shows all that she has found so far.

That point forward Keith and Pidge team up to find the real Shiro, under the guise that Keith is helping her to find Matt. Since her persistence is what leads them to find ‘Shiro’, Keith says it’s the least he can do. This in turn causes Lance to spend more time around Kuron since the other two people Kuron feels most comfortable with are constantly busy.

This eventually leads to Kuron falling for Lance and kissing the blue paladin. Lance goes through all the stages of Bisexual denial, before finally admitting to himself after a long talk with Hunk that yeah Lance likes Shiro and that he wanted to try and build a relationship with Shiro.

(Adds montage of fluffy Shlance or Kuance moments along with snippets of fluffy Kidge moments between hunting for the real Shiro.)

It takes some time but team wildfire eventually finds hints about a human male working with a vigilant team along the far outskirts of the known universe. To Keith’s and Pidge’s relief and surprise, they find both Shiro and Matt.

Apparently, the black lion teleported him to Matt when the male holt sibling was in desperate trouble. (flashback episode that also explains why Shiro’s hair is now completely white now maybe for the simple reason that the two-tone hair was driving Matt nuts. Matt thinking all silver hair looked better on Shiro then trying to turn it all black. Along with some other cute Shatt moments)

When Pidge and Keith come back with the real Shiro and Matt, Kuron of course has an identity crisis stating ‘he’s the real Shiro he had to be’. But to prove to the others who the real Shiro was Keith and Pidge have their Shiro go into the Black Lion, and the real Shiro is able to pilot the black lion with no resistance from said lion.

Kuron feels confused and betrayed the two people he remembered the most ( Memories of Katie and Keith were nothing but fakes.) But like always Lance is there assuring him what they have wasn’t fake that their relationship only started with him, not the other Shiro. Kuron finding comfort in knowing what he and Lance have is real and tightly holds onto Lance.

Lance chooses to step down as the pilot of the red lion, saying Kuron really needed him right now and knows Keith can handle red no problem. Lance comes up with Kuron’s new name to be Kuro.

Then the episode where the team almost gets destroyed by Haggar, Kuron’s the one that almost sacrifices himself before Lotor steps in to save everyone. There’s also hints of Lotor and Lance bonding since Lance is the only paladin not going on missions he’s the one that often tends to the locked up Lotor and gives him something to do besides being board all the time. Which also causes some jealousy from Kuro and Lance needing to reassure his boyfriend that he’s being nice to Lotor because he was the one to save Kuro’s life and that his greatest interest towards Lotor is figuring out what he uses for his hair to be so silky and shiny.

They defeat Zarkon in a very similar way to the show, (expect that Keith is also there this time around) though Pidge never fully trust Lotor since he kept information about her Dad a secret. Later on Keith is given a speical mission from the Blades that involves his mom but this time Pidge is there as well. Krolia silently impressed with how good of a hacker her son’s compion is, and approves of how close the two seem to be.

Part 3 What if Lotor passed the White Lion Test?

Lotor finds his own way of passing the final Oriande test against the White Lion. Doing it differently than Allura had but still passes. This leads to Lotor and Allura developing the White lion, by far the largest of all the lions.

The White Lion is so big that it splits into two smaller lions for movability and can fuse back together for massive attacks. Needing pilots that can completely trust eachother and work together, Lance and Kuro are chosen by the white lion, both of them being gifted with a bayard and Kuro becomes the white paladin.

High jinx ensues as Lance and Kuro figure out how to pilot the white lion as both one unite and two separate units. Lance taking on the teacher role as he tries to help Kuro understand how to pilot a lion. (as again Kuro has no memory or knowledge of how to pilot any of the lions.) And after going between Blue to Red lion and now to White, Lance feels like he’s getting pretty used to handling all different types of lions. (giving Lance a nice character arch about adaptability.)

Lotor learns to be the new pilot of the castle of lions though still feels guilty over killing Narti and it takes time to reconcile with his old team. With Coran and Krolia there to help, now that she’s found her son she is sticking around.

(Tough without the two years on the time whale, Keith and his mom’s reconciliation is slow going.) Eventually Keith, Pidge and his mom all go on a mission together and they discover a puppy space wolf. Keith feeling sorry for the pup that just lost his parents and Pidge encourages him to keep him. Though he says he has to give him a name and Keith is very confused why he can’t just call the pup wolf.

The team all do their part to try and have Keith and his mom have some bonding time. through they both seem to really enjoy the digital training sessions that Pidge makes for them. The first time Keith ever calls Krolia mom is when she strongly suggest that Keith should date Pidge while standing right infront of Pidge and the rest of the team. Getting a very embarrassed ‘MOM!’ out of Keith. Lance coeing off to the side going ‘awe their officially family now’.

And Lastly: What if Lotor’s Colony of Altean’s never happened?

The Altean Colony thing doesn’t happen, Lotor never created it. Lotor has a whole new level of self-respect as he now not only proved his abilities as a warrior when he became emperor he also proved himself as an alchemist by helping to create the White lion. So now their main enemy is Sendak and the Galra who follow him and refuse to become peaceful and still want to follow Zarkon’s original plans of galactic domination.

Even Sendak eventually brushes Haggar (or Honerva) aside which leads to his downfall and Haggar’s heightened desperation. So just as the enemy Galra seems defeated (after sacrificing the castle ship in the last battle against Sendak) They all try heading to Earth, as without the castle all their lions are low on power and having trouble connecting to anyone, and Earth according to their maps is the next friendless planet.

They get to earth but have to deal with being treated like an enemies before they manage to get people to listen to them. Thanks to Sam Holt vouching for the Voltron team. All the Paladins get their family reunion. Lance introduces Kuro as his family saying he’s Shiro’s twin brother, Kuro surprised and grateful for the warm welcome.

Shiro and Adam get to have their reunion though it’s bitter sweet. Adam pretty much stated that they would never work, that there was a bigger gap between them, then before and that too much they didn’t understand about each other. That Adam can’t be the one by Shiro’s side, but points out that there’s clearly someone who understands what Shiro’s been through and gets Shiro in ways he never could. Adam glances over at Matt who keeps looking at the reunited ex-boyfriends and shyly blushes and looks away when Shiro and Adam look at him.

Honerva does find a way to split between relatives, entering the reality the team had been in during the Hole in the Sky. And not only does she recruit the Alteans in that reality, but she also becomes their empress. Bringing an army of Alteans that have had 10,000 years to advance their technology and when they take prisoners they turn those prisoners into mindless allies increasing their numbers with each victory.

This pushes the teams skills and abilities to the max, because they can’t just destroy their enemy when many of them are allies turned against them against their will. It makes the whole team have to ask hard questions and this also gives the Galra a way to make up for past sins as they fight these intruding Alteans from another reality and since these Alteans have never fought Galra before as they were wiped out thousands of years ago. They are completely thrown off by Galra’s way of victory or death. Altean’s not used to alien creatures risking their life for victory.

Lotor and Allura have to come to grips with their views on altean culture and how all of it is not perfect. Lotor becomes a great leader for the Galra and Allura eventually becomes a leader to those Alteans that wish for a different way of life who don’t wish to conquer others and want true peace with compromises not forced servitude.

This then causes the Altean rebels and Lotor’s Galra to team up, uniting the two races in a way that hasn’t happened in 10,000 years. (Giving greater purpose to Allura and Lotor having feelings for each other and becoming co-leaders to their united people.)

And that’s how all these things could happen in one universe.

(Sorry there was quite a few other plot points I didn’t touch on such as Lotor’s generals, Rombelle and many others but this is long enough as it is.)

#SHANCE #kidge #shatt #lotura #Voltron legendary defender #Kuron #Voltron #white lion #white paladin

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dent-de-leon · 6 years

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Because I’ve gotten countless asks and shitty replies on all my posts about this, I’m addressing it right here and now--why I still ship sheith and it’s not “dead,” here we go:

So, let’s get started with the dreaded ages thing that always comes up, just get that out of the way. According to the guidebook, they were 18 and 25 respectively at the start of the series. Shiro hasn’t aged in the astral plane. Since, you know he’s been dead. And it's more or less implied that Shiro has been gone for months, and then they meet Lotor and there's the whole time that conflict plays out, then we fastforward to after he lays low and keith says "Lotor hasn’t been seen for months.” We can infer that more or less a year has elapsed since Shiro’s death/disappearance. Adding in the two year time skip, that puts them at about 21 and 25 respectively. You know, a completely reasonable age difference.

There’s literally nothing indicating Keith was adopted by Shiro period. You realize the guy was probably like 19/20 around that time, right? No 20 year old is out here going to college and thinking ‘hey, why don’t I adopt a teenager?’ I should know--I sure as hell aren’t. You barely feel like you can take care of yourself and a houseplant at that point, let alone a whole other person.

People claim that Shiro had the “power” to send Keith back to the home because he was his guardian?? That’s not the case. He vouched for Keith, which is how he ended up in the garrison in the first place. When Keith tells Shiro to just throw him back in the home, he’s referencing something said by the other officer only moments before--the only reason he’s here is because of Shiro. One word from Shiro, and literally the whole thing’s off. Keith has very limited options here, and he knows it.

Shiro seemed to be a recruitment officer sent to Keith’s school to look for new cadets. We can tell because Keith isn’t in the cadet uniform in that shot--he’s in a school setting in plain civilian clothes. Shiro is standing at the front of the room in his officer uniform, and it seems that the teacher is introducing him as a kind of guest speaker. Then there’s the flashback where he and Keith are standing beside Kogane’s hoverbike, implying that Shiro saw his skill as a pilot firsthand and was determined to get him in the garrison--to secure him a better future. Krolia’s thanks to Shiro is in relation to what we already know--that Shiro was there for Keith when he had no one, that he led him down the right path and changed his life for the better. His “guiding light,” as the show runners have said.

But then they got older, and it’s very clear their relationship changed. The two are equals from the start of season 1, that much is obvious. Now that Keith is older, he’s able to protect Shiro in turn. In fact, more often than not, he’s shown to be the one caring for Shiro instead of the other way around. He’s the one always running to Shiro’s rescue and saving him from certain doom. Some people are so stuck on the flashback, but it’s painfully obvious that he’s no longer a child--after the time skip, he’s been explicitly referred to as a man. I think Keith looked up to Shiro a lot when he was younger, but now that he’s so much older and they’re closer in age, now that he’s had all this time to ruminate on it--there’s clearly something else there.

And Shiro sees Keith in a whole new light in turn, which is clear when he’s so thrown off by seeing older Keith. “Lance is right. You have changed.” I don’t understand how people can acknowlege two characters can change without their relationship evolving in turn--these have always been dynamic characters, nothing is static. It’s like how people claimed Allura was still annoyed by Lance and wanted nothing to do with him after she explicitly said she enjoyed his company. You can acknowledge that characters’ relationships are subject to change, that they can grow and develop and be organic, and move on.

People latch onto the brother line and insist I can’t read, but then promptly ignore the fact that Kuron was completely unmoved by it. The thing that actually breaks through to him, that yields a very gutting, visceral reaction--that’s Keith’s breathless admission of, “I love you.” He also looks completely shocked by it, which doesn’t make any sense if this was coming from a familial love context that he was familiar with.

In this season, sheith also covered a number of timeless romantic tropes reserved for a character’s love interest. The same exact tropes that fans praised as High Romance when they presumed it would be in relation to k/l, but then immediately backtracked to “oh,, it’s just familiar!!” as soon as those plot points were given to sheith instead. Shiro and Keith’s relationship is also shown to directly parallel Kogane and Krolia, as well as Zaggar--both canon romantic relationships. Not to mention the very noticeable korrasami parallel. You know, as if their relationship was designed to be interpreted as romantic.

This is also literally the one and only declaration of I love you in the entire series, something not even explicitly romantic couples like Keith’s parents or Zaggar have shared. It’s completely unique to Shiro and Keith’s relationship, and holds just so much gravity to it. This isn’t even taking into account that distinctly romantic variations of “love” were used in other dubs, such as the Japanese aishteru.

Nevermind that it’s common for someone that’s gay to refer to a close friend of the same gender as being “like a brother/sister” to avoid confessing their true feelings. Hell, I’ve done it before. And I’ve seen so many other LGBT people express relating to that aspect of Shiro and Keith’s relationship, that it’s a struck a cord with many other fans like me.

When you’re talking about wanting LGBT rep--rep that Lauren and Joaquim mentioned they have been working towards and fighting for since the beginning--but then you willfully ignore and tear down the one relationship that’s been built up like that, when you understand that they might not have been able to get the explicit rep they wanted but still demonize the subtle hints of it, when you make actual LGBT fans feel like shit for identifying with this sort of narrative--you’re really missing the point.

You know what else is very telling? That this was the one episode Joaquim directed himself--he cared so much about Keith and Shiro’s dynamic, he wanted to just go all out and really made the episode his. That’s how much this episode--this dynamic between Keith and Shiro--mattered to him. Here’s some commentary on it:

Marc: “Speaking of credits we’re not used to seeing—Joaquim, you wrote an episode!”

Joaquim: “I did!…Super excited. You know, it’s one of those things that I wanted to do for many, many years now, and finally got to an EP position. I said, ‘Guys, I’m just gonna write one of these things. And, you know—I’m emotionally attached to both Keith and Shiro, and had some ideas on how that episode could play out.”

Marc: “So you’re the one that has to decide how the battle between Keith and Shiro pans out.”

Joaquim: “Somewhat. Along with a consortium of awesome writers, and Lauren, board artists—yeah.”

Lauren: “Everything in animation is teamwork, but it was definitely Joaquim’s brain child.

Joaquim: “…when you’ve gotta go back and do painful story edits on scenes that you wrote, it feels like somebody’s limbs are getting cut off.” (source)

Let’s also not forget the brother line has been used for a number of relationships that still became canon--Aang and Katara, Ed and Winry, Ginny and Harry, ect. And lastly, before you still want to call me a monster, let’s not forget that the staff supports sheith in a romantic context, and has since the beginning. They also are more than happy to talk about their intimate relationship. But I mean, of course,, the staff must hate us for this, right? Surely, they never intended for this relationship

to be interpreted as

potentially romantic,,

And sure, it could be that sheith will never be canon--or that it will to some degree, but not explicitly--either way, there’s literally no reason to demonize other fans for shipping it. Especially when the staff themselves have always supported it. If you think you need to take the time to comment on every single sheith post that “they’re only brothers!! You’re disgusting!!!” ect, don’t expect the staff to ever support or even tolerate you, becuase you are the reason both they and the fans are feeling alienated, you are the ones continually harassing the staff for just wanting to have fun. Besides, Shiro and Keith already have “the closest relationship” in canon--Joaquim’s words, not mine--and they love one another. Literally nothing can take that away from them, and if LGBT fans see themselves in these characters, who are you to lash out at them for it?

#sheith #voltron spoilers #shiro #keith #voltron

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justheretobreakthings · 5 years

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Reach Out, I’ll Be There - Chapter 5

(First Chapter) (Previous Chapter) (Next Chapter)

Word Count: 3,248 (Total Word Count: 14,069) Read on AO3

Story Summary:

After so long trapped in the astral plane, Shiro is finally back in the world of the living, back with his team, his family. But there are downsides to fusing into the body of his clone. Downsides to having to share its memory.

When Haggar took over, Keith wasn’t the only one who came out of that fight with scars.

Chapter Preview:

His grip on the chair tightened, and Shiro was uncomfortably aware of just how close he was to Keith’s scarred face, how close his hand was to being able to take Keith by the throat of its own accord before Shiro would even fully realize what was happening, or grab him by a fistful of his hair and slam him into the dashboard, or -

He shoved those thoughts aside. This was his human arm. Haggar was gone. Kuron was gone. He was in control.

He wouldn’t hurt Keith. Would never hurt Keith.

Kuron was gone.

“As best we can tell, there are no remaining life forces on any of the bases within the complex,” Allura said, swiping her hand over the hologram of the photo footage Pidge and Matt had gathered during their scouting to display for the gathered group. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be on your guard when down there. The chances of any remaining soldiers on any of the bases who may have cloaked themselves against Green’s sensors are slim, to say the least, but there’s still a chance. Additionally, keep your eyes out for any sentries or other security that may still be active.”

She stepped back and let the hologram dissipate, and Keith took over the speaking. “We’re going to split into groups and search the three largest bases that the Holts were able to locate. Be on the lookout for anything that we could use: records, rations, fuel. Light weaponry if you find any.”

“Coran and Krolia will remain here to man the ship while we take the Lions down to the bases,” Allura said. “Shiro, if you want to - ”

“I’m coming down with you guys,” Shiro said firmly. At the hesitant look on Allura’s face, he continued, “This is an easy mission, right? Salvaging won’t exactly take a lot out of me. It’s just the sort of mission I need to get back into the game.”

“Well, if Shiro says he’s ready, he’s ready,” Keith said with a shrug. He wasn’t looking at Shiro, his gaze instead focused on bringing a hologram back up to a map of the base complex. “Group assignments. Pidge said she was picking up a electrical readings at this base here at the far end.” He pointed to a glowing green figure on the map. “Not many, but moreso than any of the other bases. So we’re probably going to be looking at tech salvaging here, and it’s also the most likely to have working security still in place. Pidge and Matt can take this one, and I’ll join to work the Galra tech.”

“This base here,” Allura continued, pointing to another, “Seems to have undergone the most structural damage of the three, which could make navigability inside it a bit of a challenge. So Keith agreed to let his wolf along to that base for teleportation. Hunk, Romelle, since you to are the best besides Keith at working with the wolf, you’ll take this one. That leaves myself, Lance, and Shiro for base number three, over here closest to our current docking point. It’s the largest, so it may end up taking longest. We’ll use this base as our point to reconvene. Coran, maintain the ship’s course on the outskirts here. Any questions?”

Matt raised his hand. “Just one. Can I switch groups?”

Keith and Allura glanced toward each other, brows raised. “Um, why?” Keith asked.

“Well, way I figure it, you don’t really need me for the tech stuff since you’ve already got Pidge, and what if you guys run into something that’s blocked because of damage to the building or something in the way, something that you can’t hack into with programming or Galra DNA? All the other groups have someone around with brute strength; you two need some muscle with you.”

“I have muscles,” Keith said, crossing his arms.

Matt rolled his eyes. “I meant, like, muscle-muscle.”

“What is that supposed to - ?”

“All right, Matt, that’s fine,” Allura interrupted. “I suppose you could trade places with Hunk or Romelle, if either of you would - ”

“Nah, I don’t think Kosmo’s particularly fond of me,” Matt said. “Tell you what, I’ll just swap with Shiro.”

Keith froze, his eyes slowly drifting over to Shiro for the first time since the group had gathered. Shiro, for his part, stiffened under the younger man’s gaze. “I… uh…” Keith said. He swallowed. “I guess that would - that would be fine. So, uh, Shiro, you go ahead and ride down with Pi- ”

“You ride down with Keith,” Pidge cut him off. “And you two can start exploring the base while I hack into the security network. Sounds good.”

Shiro narrowed his eyes at Pidge. It seemed Matt had recruited his sister into his proposal to try to get Shiro and Keith hanging around each other again. And it wasn’t as if Shiro didn’t want to start making an effort to bridge that space between himself and his brother, or as if he hadn’t agreed to it when Matt had first brought it up, it was just…

He wasn’t sure if he was ready or able.

It would be one thing if this had been a more standard form of post-traumatic stress disorder. It still would have been hell, but at least Shiro would have some idea of how to handle it. He’d been getting better before that battle with Zarkon, acquiring coping strategies and working at getting himself to a better state of mind.

This situation now, though, was far from standard. It was magic gone wrong in his head, his own mind and memories fused with someone who -

No, no, now was not the time to indulge himself in flashbacks. The point was, this was new. He was exploring an uncharted sky and had no idea what might be waiting to come out to greet him from the void.

And he couldn’t help but worry that spending time with Keith again might help draw out whatever may be lurking.

This wasn’t exactly an opportune time to voice concerns like that, though, not when he needed desperately to be getting back into action, back into missions. And for all he knew, it could be completely unfounded paranoia, just his own anxiety holding him back.

So he nodded. “All right,” he said. “Works for me.”

Allura cleared her throat. “Okay then. If we’re all ready to head out?”

The others agreed and the group headed out to the hangar. Shiro had to admit, he missed their old ziplines, and it also was trickier to get all of the Lions out when they all in the same hangar, having to leave in turns. They were extremely fortunate that all five Lions even managed to fit into this ship’s hangar. No one was complaining though; it was no Castle of Lions, but this was still the best and biggest ship that the coalition’s rebel forces could have procured for their trip back to Earth.

Shiro followed Keith into Black’s cockpit and hung back as Keith waited his turn to exit the hangar, and they were silent as they took off, tailing Pidge to the base. Shiro fidgeted where he stood, his arm against the wall of the cockpit for balance. Normally, when he was a passenger in one of the other Lions, he held steady by keeping a grip on the pilot’s chair. This time, though…

He took a deep breath. No doubt Keith had noticed the space he had left between them, and he didn’t know how the other felt about it. He may very well have been relieved; after all, Keith hadn’t exactly been going out of his way to be around Shiro any more than Shiro had him. Then again, Keith had never been the sort to take the initiative in closing distance between himself and another. If he had his walls up, he wasn’t going to knock them down.

That was Shiro’s duty. He’d done it before, when first they’d met and when they’d been reunited after Kerberos. And after everything with the clone… Shiro owed it to him to face down those walls one more time.

So he moved, slowly, to grip the headrest of Keith’s chair, and convinced himself that the stiffening of Keith’s spine when he did so was his imagination. And if it wasn’t, well, Keith had every right to be nervous, to need time, and he’d been jumpy when they’d first met too, it was just how Keith was.

He shoved those thoughts aside. This was his human arm. Haggar was gone. Kuron was gone. He was in control.

He wouldn’t hurt Keith. Would never hurt Keith.

Kuron was gone.

Shiro mentally repeated that comforting fact to himself all the way to the base, barely bringing himself back to attention when Pidge’s voice came on over the comms to start directing Keith to his docking site and entry point.

Keith made the landing smoothly, as was always to be expected of him, and they followed Pidge’s directions into the compound. “What all should we be on the lookout for?” Keith asked into his comm as he and Shiro started down a hall. Shiro could hear the hum of wiring and airflow and pipes in the walls even through his helmet, or that may have just been his imagination. Nerves tended to surround him with sounds that weren’t there sometimes.

“I’ll take charge of records once I’ve gotten into the local network,” Pidge answered. “You and Shiro keep an eye out for fuel sources and scrap metal.”

“The entire building is metal,” Keith pointed out. “And so is pretty much everything in every base. We can’t salvage all of it.”

“Right, right, well, look for computer cables if you need specifics. There’s a metal that the Galra use as a conductor in them that would come in handy for - huh.”

“What is it?” Keith asked. He pressed his hand up to a scanner at a nearby door and he and Shiro glanced inside. An armory, stocked with protective gear in Galra sizes. They moved on.

“There’s - I cannot believe it. I don’t think there’s a local network.”

“Huh?”

“I’m in what should be a control room,” Pidge answered. “But there’s no - like, there’s a camera feed going on this monitor, but I think they’re all for cameras that are directly wired to the computer that’s displaying them. Doesn’t look like the signals are being sent to any other location. There another computer here, hang on, let me see if I can… God, there are so many wires…”

“Well, that’s good for getting that metal you wanted, right?” Keith asked. Another door, this one a storeroom that, to his and Shiro’s surprise, was lined with shelves that looked to be containing actual paper files. Keith let out a low whistle. “Damn, this place is… old school.”

“This one’s not connected to anything either,” Pidge said. “I guess we figured out why this base complex is abandoned. And why it was out in the middle of nowhere. This place is obsolete as hell. It was probably thrown together as a temporary base and just left to decay when it wasn’t needed any more. And that must have been a hell of a long time ago.”

“It still held up well,” Shiro commented, knocking a hand against the wall. “Solid.”

“Yeah. I’m kinda surprised, actually. Considering what a shitty job they did with their tech installation, I wouldn’t have counted on them to do much better with the building itself. You and Shiro just be careful.”

“I don’t think the building is gonna be coming down any time - ”

“No, but something’s still powering this place. If it wasn’t, these monitors wouldn’t be working at all. So until we figure out whether the power source is stable, just, you know, don’t turn on any giant machines you find or anything.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Keith grunted.

“And if there’s any security thing that you guys encounter, you’re gonna have to handle it on your own. Looks like if I’m gonna be hacking any tech in this base, I’ll have to go to each piece individually. Whoever was the head contractor here was a lunatic.”

“Is it even still worth salvaging here?” Shiro asked. “If everything in this base is such junk…”

“Yeah, it is, I’ve still gotta figure out the power source and all,” Pidge answered. “And considering that were running low on pretty much everything, Coran would have our heads if we don’t at least make the effort to scrounge up any supplies we can find. You and Shiro keep up your search, I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“Right,” Keith said with a nod. He continued leading the way, Shiro following behind him. The next door he opened contained another paper records room, though only half as filled as the one before. Around a corner, then three rooms in a row that appeared to be living quarters. At the end of the hall, Keith opened a door to another storeroom, this one with boxes and bottles and jars. “Think these are rations?” Keith asked, squinting at the label on one of the boxes.

“Maybe,” Shiro said. “But if they are, they probably went bad thousands of years ago.”

“Can’t say that for sure,” Keith muttered. “Most of the rations back in the Castle were still good after ten thousand years. Earth’s pretty behind when it comes to food preservation.”

“I guess,” Shiro said with a shrug. Keith took a bottle down from a shelf and raised his visor to sniff at it, while Shiro lifted his own visor and turned to the shelf beside him to examine its contents. The labels were all in Galra writing, so Shiro couldn’t make heads or tails out of any of them, but he squinted at some of the substances in what transparent containers he could find, trying to decide whether they looked edible.

Keith opened a jar behind him, and Shiro caught a whiff of the contents and was struck by a hint of familiarity. It took a moment for him to place it: Coran had used something with that exact same odor on a bite wound Shiro had gotten from a particular disgusting looking arachnid-slash-amphibian they had come across on a swampy planet.

Maybe everything in this storeroom was medicinal. Shiro turned to tell Keith as much, and he tapped on the younger man’s shoulder to get his attention. The instant his finger brushed against the armor, though, Keith jolted, jumping out of his skin with a strangled yelp and knocking into a shelf, sending its contents rattling and two bottles crashing to the floor.

“Keith?” Shiro said as Keith whipped around. His eyes fell to where Keith’s hand had flown to his hip, where his bayard was holstered, and shakily he took a step back. “Keith?” he repeated, softer this time. “You all right?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, letting his hand fall to his side. “Yeah, I’m - yeah, sorry. You kinda snuck up on me.”

A lump formed in Shiro’s throat. “I didn’t - ” he started, but he was cut off by Pidge’s voice over the comms. “Keith? Guys? You okay?”

“We’re fine,” Keith answered firmly. “How’re things on your end?”

“Well, I figured out where the power generators were,” Pidge said. “And I don’t think we should stick around any longer than we need to.”

“What? Why?”

“Set-up here isn’t stable, is the long and short of it. Look, basically, whatever they’ve got powering the base hasn’t known what to do with itself since the place was abandoned, and now that we’ve started actively needing power again to open those doors, it’s… let’s call it excitable. I don’t think the wiring here was prepared to hold up this long, and there’s a possibility of a power surge if we’re not careful.”

Keith sucked in a breath. “Oh. Right, okay. Um, we’ll head out, then.”

“Got your location up. Think there should be a close exit point just northeast of you, if I recall correctly.”

“On our way out,” Keith said, stepping past Shiro to exit the room.

“Wait, Keith,” Shiro started. “Really, are you - ?”

“Come on, this way,” Keith said, not even glancing back, just motioning for Shiro to follow.

He did so, biting on his lip as he trailed behind Keith. The first door Keith came to after turning a corner, he pressed his hand to the scanner in the wall beside it. It opened to yet another storeroom. Keith swore beneath his breath. “Pidge, where’s the exit?”

“I don’t have a map or schematics or anything,” Pidge said. “It’s somewhere nearby. Be careful, you don’t want to overload the - ”

“Never mind, I’ll find it,” Keith grunted, moving to the next door. The room it opened to looked to be some sort of office.

“Keith,” Pidge said. “I told you earlier, the electricity in this base isn’t stable.”

“It’s been fine so far, hasn’t it?” Keith asked, moving toward the next door.

“Yeah, but - ”

“Keith, what are you doing?” Shiro demanded.

“I’m looking for the exit.” He opened another door to some kind of garage.

“You can go back the other way to the entry point you came through.”

“It’s not necessary, I can - ”

“Keith, Pidge told us to be careful with the - ” Shiro started.

“I’m just trying to leave,” Keith grunted. “I know what I’m - ”

“Keith, just go back to the - ”

“Keith, stop!” Shiro said firmly, snatching him by the wrist before he could lay his hand on the scanner.

Immediately, immediately, Keith’s face paled, and he froze in Shiro’s grip. He looked up, finally looked at Shiro, and when their eyes met, Keith’s were wide, intense, boring a hole right through Shiro. As if Keith’s wrist had suddenly become white-hot Shiro released his grasp, stumbling back away from him.

He knew it, he knew it had been too soon for them to be off on a mission together again, alone. Keith was scared. Shiro knew that face - that was beyond uncomfortable, that was scared -

“Shiro! Keith! You guys need to get moving!”

Shiro shook his head to clear it. “We - what?”

“Something’s overheating where you are, you need to move!”

“Right,” Shiro said. “Right.” He glanced down the hall, then toward the last door Keith had opened. He spotted it then: another glowing scanner, at the opposite end of the room. Pidge had been right, there was an exit over here, just with another room between them. “Keith,” he said, moving toward it and gesturing with his hand. “Keith, come on, this way.”

Keith swallowed. “Yeah. I’m - yeah.” He followed Shiro, slowly, eyes down.

“We’re on our way out, Pidge,” Shiro said into the comm.

“I don’t see you moving back to the entry point,” Pidge remarked.

“Found the exit you’d mentioned,” Shiro said as he strode across the room. He looked back to make sure Keith was following, and was relieved to see him entering the room behind him. “On our way out. We’ll be at Black within a couple of - ”

The blast took him by surprise. One moment he was waiting in the dark garage for Keith to catch up, the next, he was plunged into a blinding white light that threw him off his feet. He was slammed bodily into a wall before the deafening sound of the explosion had even registered in his ears.

Then, as quickly as the world around him had turned to light, it went dark.

#vld shiro #vld keith #vldgen #shiro #keith #my writing #fic: reach out i'll be there

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welcometoyournewhell · 5 years

Text

The End Was Only the Start of a New Beginning Chapter 1

A/N: So this is my third attempt at a “fix it AU” series for Voltron. Ships are involved, their are two offspring so far... but they are babies. Please enjoy!

----

The former captain of the Atlas couldn’t believe his eyes. How was this possible? He felt the soft skin of a loved one’s face softly as he watched for a reaction. A slight twitch and warm flesh indicated their was life... but how?

Gray met blue as Coran wept with joy. His baby was alive, Allura! He had been seated in a chair as his legs shook and head spun. He held her hand, feeling such joy. “My baby,” he sighed softly.

Curtis stood by his husband as they looked over the princess. He placed a hand on Shiro’s lower back as he observed his expression. “You okay?” The shorter gripped onto the table edge a bit as his head also began to spin. “Need a chair.” Matt was quick to move one under him as Adam and Curtis helped him down.

“How is this even possible?” Adam turned to face Sam who shrugged. “We took the kids on a field trip into the blue lion’s cave and... we found her. Due to Keith’s calculations from years ago... I’d say it was the same spot Blue was found.“

Shiro peered up a bit. “Has Blue been showing any... emotions? Has she been active or flying off without a pilot?” The eldest Holt shook his head. “No... she’s been practically lifeless since Allura disappeared..” That was three years ago.

Curtis furrowed his brow a bit as he looked over the girl again. “Did you look for injury before changing her outfit?” It was a dumb question but... he was confused on how she could just appear out of no where... under ground.

“We found her like this,” Coran stated. It didn’t make sense to the other. “So she died in space, reappeared, fully dressed in something completely different, underground?” Matt nodded. “I know.. it sounds odd. We have teams searching for traces of anything as we speak. Pidge is leading them as her and mom look for more advanced things.

“Iverson has reached out to the blades and any other group we’re allied with in fear someone else may have just reappeared.” It appears they’d already taken into consideration the shared paranoia. Another ten thousand year war was not one they wanted to deal with.

“Have you contacted the paladins,” Adam asked as he handed Shiro a water. “Not yet, Iverson wanted orders from Shiro before moving on.” The veteran looked up in confusion. “Why me?”

Matt shrugged before Sam butted in. “You lead an army though space Shiro, he was hoping you could give him a judgement call based on the information we have... which so far is close to nothing.”

The veteran looked back down at his friend before looking to Adam. “It’ll take Hunk a while to get here... even with the yellow lion. If your going to call him.. I would now. Keith and Lance could crash in Keith’s old room until we figure out if there may be a bigger threat than what were seeing.”

Looking from Adam, the captain looked to the others who nodded. “I can call Keith,” Curtis said softly as he pulled out his phone. Shiro frowned a bit as he looked back down at Allura. If she wasn’t the only one to survive... history seemed doomed to repeat it’s self.

And that was a history Shiro was ready to re-live.

“So she was found in the cave,” Adam asked. He was talking to Coran. The man nodded slowly. “One girl.... this small Galran girl didn’t want to go in there. She said it... it was giving off a strange feeling. We reassured her it was nothing but..... she was right. Somehow.”

The red head shook his head slightly as he covered his mouth with a free hand. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes. “Are we sure this is... actually Allura?” He didn’t mean to upset the older man. As Coran looked up to yell at him, he watched as Adam nodded to Shiro.

Frowning he bit his lip. “I.... I hope so.” They all did. Sam shrugged. “Everything seems to be in order, but that’s not saying much. It just means she’s alive with natural body functions.” White hair pressed into the other’s sleep shirt as he spoke. Shiro knew what Adam was getting at.

“Well it’s not like we can really compare. Even in a new clone body, Kuron and Shiro are more genetically matched than identical twins. The only difference is their memories and personalities.” Yes, their likes and dislikes too and things like that, but from appearance and tests.... they were the same person.

Matt sighed before looking to his father. “So.... how are we supposed to know?” The older looked to the others. “They didn’t realize it wasn’t me until... after Haggar took control. Even then... it’s... it’s hard to tell I guess?” No one spoke of the unprofessional stand point.

Adam was cradling his husband’s head into his abdomen, trying to calm him down. “I mean... we could question her, like a memory test... but I don’t want to just interrogate her when she gets up. We need someone with no basis of her to spend time with her and see how she acts. The paladins and Coran’s interpretation and feelings would be blinded by their love for her.”

A hand gripped Adam’s arm. “You okay?” Sam grumbled as he called the main staff again. It was seven in the morning! They should have been here hours ago. Shiro nodded. “Room’s spinning.” It was... a lot to take in. It didn’t help his brain was taking him through his personal experience that was much too similar.

“I’m here. Your okay, your safe.” Matt had gotten another chair for Adam. Sitting down he held his husband close as he continued to whisper soothing things into his ear. Coran looked at them before frowning. What if the professor was right? What if this wasn’t his baby?

“Coran,” Sam smiled at the gorgeous man. “I promise we’ll et her up soon. For now... we need to figure out the basic questions. Why don’t you rest?” The older Altean looked over the princess before shaking his head. “I’d feel better if I stayed here.”

The father understood when he was coming from. He placed a hand on Coran’s back. “She’ll be okay... I promise.” Curtis had entered the room once more, Iverson close behind. “No one has seen anything, but they’ll all report if they do.” He rubbed Shiro’s back a bit as he spoke. “Krolia brought something to my attention, it’s far fetched but it’s better than saying she just appeared underground.

“Quintessence is almost like.... magic isn’t it? Could it have been used to some how make a worm hole like portal that would allow Allura back?” Coran shook his head. “Not from the after life... quintessence, I don’t believe, can be used for worm holes either. We have no magic strong enough. That’s something not even Haggar could do.”

The other’s frowned a bit before Adam looked up to his other husband. “How’d that go?” Curtis nodded a bit. “Their brining Kas and Kosmo but their on their way. I hope we won’t need Red though.” Coran looked up in confusion. “Why is that?” Adam frowned a bit. “Lance nearly fainted?”

Curtis thought for a moment. “Not really? Keith’s just afraid he’s too distracted to pilot. He went quiet and just... starred at the wall when he told him.” The room went quiet as the girl on the table twitched a bit. She was becoming a bit more animated.

She twitched a bit harsher, as if she was having a nightmare. Coran was quick to comfort her as he pulled her close. “It’s alright Allura, your among family.” He stroked her hair a bit as he held his daughter. Sam was quick to record the reaction as they waited for the medical staff to arrive. She hadn’t moved this much yet. Perhaps she truly was just... asleep?

She was showing more movement as she brought her hand up. Coran was standing at this point, she gripped onto him as if she was in pain. Her other hand held her chest, tears starting to fall from closed eyes. Iverson got on to the com, screaming for medical attention.

Adam watched the heart monitor.... she wasn’t having a heart attack. It was something he’d learn to examine after a few years of scares with Shiro. “It’s a nightmare... maybe inflammation but.... it just looks like a nightmare.” Iverson paused his insults to observe.

Adam seemed to be correct. He was a bit calmer as he spoke now. Coran hummed a soft tune by the princess’s ear. It sounded like a lullaby... and seemed to help. Allura relaxed some and curled into the body more, as a child would their parent.

The older Altean frowned softly as he closed his eyes, still humming the tune. The girl whined softly before snuggling closer to the comfort. Shiro was trying to focus in on the singing as well... but it wasn’t working. “Adam,” he hummed softly. The other looked down before frowning. Shiro was so pale. “We’re going to wait in the car until Keith and Lance get here. Matt, can you contact Hunk?”

The other nodded quickly as Curtis got a wheel chair for Shiro. He shook his head. “I can stay here.” He couldn't. It was all hitting him at onece, he wanted to forget so badly. He wrapped his arms around Adam as he and Iverson moved him into the chair.

He didn’t want to let go of Adam, he’d always clung to him as if he could take away all the pain, all the fear. ‘Kashi your going to be okay.” That’s what he always said. Kisses, snuggles, reassuring words. When the night terrors hit, the PTSD attacks..... only Adam could bring him out of it.

He felt weak for it, and awful as he knew it upset Curtis that he couldn’t help. But today... he felt awful because it wasn’t about him. They’d found Allura, they were trying to help Allura... and here he was... head stuck up his own thoughts.

When he came back to focus he was laying down in the back seat of the car, Adam on top of him. The doors were open as to give the man air and not trigger anything. Curtis sat in the passenger seat, rubbing over the human arm with a soft smile.

“You alright captain?” Gray eyes rolled before Shiro nodded. “Sorry just... seeing her like that. I... I couldn’t help it.” Adam moved up more, protectively holding his lover. “They understand. We’ll go back in later. Maybe seeing the small demon will distract you.”

“Should have brought Dilly,” Curtis hummed. “She’s not a certified support dog,” Adam reminded before glaring at Shiro. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it! She was too cute, I can’t put her on a schedule. I just want to cuddle her and snuggle.”

The professor rolled his eyes before kissing around his husband’s face. “That was the point of adopting her,” he huffed. Shiro just smiled softly while giggling. Curtis slowly moved his hand in to tickle under the shortest chin. He was rewarded with a quick snort and playful glare.

He felt much better. As the three calmed down in the car, medical staff was finally entering the rom. As Allura calmed down they began to run more specific tests, one standing by ready to put her out if she woke up.

The thought scared Coran as she’d been out for so long now. He... he didn’t want them to be here. She was okay. She just needed to wake up! He watched nervously as they worked. Sam stood by him as they waited. Matt had to run, his mother needed him, as well as N-7 who had been watching their child during the time of the emergency.

It was going to be a long day... or it was going to be a long few weeks.

Later A/N: Okay so the story got over 10 notes, sweet! Here’s chapter 2 if you’d like!

#fix it au #voltron #shuram #dad squad #matt x robot #pidge #hunay #klance #holt family #shirogane family #coran #allura #kuron #2019

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mizu-writes-kumo · 5 years

Note

For that lion king 2 au: lotor gets killed trying to help in ambush against shiro and allura. Haggar pissed blames kuron for not helping in the attack( he was trying to stop it for lance's sake) and scratches him against his face using her claws and giving him another scar across his eye. Kuron runs away and meets up with lance in their secret place bleeding.

I’m not going to fic this, I’m not going to fic this, I’m not going to…shit

–

No.

No, no no no no no.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

It was all wrong.

He never wanted anything like this.

But he always got what he never wanted. It was always thrust upon him with no regard…no sense to it all. All for the sake of useless, pointless cycle of…revenge. That was just to keep turning and turning, and crushing and crushing. On and on until there was nothing left.

And now…

Lotor was gone.

Kuron saw him…

He tried to…

But he had been forced to run away.

Dragged off, was more like it, by Acxa firmly as she hissed out that is was useless. They can’t be found by the Voltron pride. Especially him, not after their attack on it’s two leaders. Because they were going to fix the blame on him firmly. His panther wouldn’t save him from their wrath, the mission was over.

But Kuron had done nothing at all. He knew nothing about the attack, just saw it forming before his very eyes. And he did his best to alert everyone…without really alerting everyone. Which had thankfully marginally worked. But only just. And Kuron did he best to just stay out of everything.

Only that kind of failed.

When he saw Lotor get…

He tried to help, because well, while he didn’t like Lotor the most, they had still grown up together. They were like brothers…sort of. Kuron knew they weren’t related by blood, but…still. Lotor wasn’t the worst to him…at times, they got along.

And now he was…gone.

Kuron hugged himself tighter as he walked slowly up the hill towards the hidden spot.

It was the only place he could think to go.

The one safe place he felt was left in the world.

Hagger had kicked him out of the pride. With cruel words and angry hisses of his betrayal against their pride. The pride that had raised him, nurtured and cared him. The only pride he belonged in, that would accept him. He turned his back on them, when they had a chance to end Voltron for good, and return to the land that was so rightfully theirs. Now their heir was gone, and it was all his fault.

Her claws still stung where they cut over his left eye in her rage, before she cast him out.

To beg and crawl at the heels of someone else.

There was a study drip of something wet on his arms. He doesn’t know what it is, he hasn’t looked down. Tears, blood, or both.

He really doesn’t care at this point anymore, as he moved to sit down on the grass and curl up into a tight ball. It was all worthless.

He doesn’t know what to do.

He never liked doing the things he was raised to do. He never wanted anything everyone else in his pride as wanted. And when he tried doing the right thing, it never worked out. It always failed. Good intentions just exploding in his face.

There was nothing for him.

“Kuron?” Lance’s suddenly sounded behind him.

It made him freeze for a moment, and caused his grip to tighten. Because of course, Lance would be come to their spot after everything. Kuron didn’t know if he wanted that or not. He just curled more into himself.

He could hear Lance move closer.

“Kuron, what was that?” Lance asked with some bite in his voice.

Kuron just curled up tighter on himself.

Because of course, Lance is angry about what just happened. And, of course, he is looking for answers about what happened form the source.

Lance sighed behind him. “Look, I am more than aware of what everyone is saying. I am more than aware of how it looks, I’ve gotten an earful from Allura already about it.” Lance snapped sharply. “But I want to you hear it from you, Kuron. Before I decide how I should feel about…all this.”

Kuron flinched at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder.

But he didn’t say anything.

“Kuron…please.” Lance pleaded gently as Kuron heard him shift to kneel beside him. “I don’t want to assume the worst.”

“I didn’t know.” Kuron admitted weakly.

“What?”

“I didn’t know they were going to attack.” Kuron stated hurriedly as he looked up and turned to Lance. Who fell back with a wide expression on his face. “I had no idea they were planning anything like that. I wouldn’t have gone in if I’d known. Or I would have said something, I swear.”

Lance stayed where he fell on the ground, still looking at Kuron with a wide shocked expression. Frozen it seemed as he just started at Kuron.

Which didn’t help Kuron feel any bit better.

“I didn’t know, Lance.” Kuron repeated in a plea. “I…I tried to warn everyone about what was happening, in a way that was them noticing. But it barely worked…and I…I don’t know…I froze up. I didn’t know what to do.” Kuron stated desperately as he turned more towards Lance, hoping it would make him stop looking at him like I did. “The Garla…they’re…they were still my pride, but I didn’t want to betray you, Lance. I never want to do that, ever. Please, Lance, you have to believe me. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t k–”

“Kuron, your eye.” Lance said suddenly.

Suddenly moving forward to reach for Kuron’s left eye gently.

The feeling of his finger tips stung a bit at the wounds.

Kuron hissed a bit at the feeling Trying to pull back and away, so he could cover it up with his hand. The wounds weren’t any of Lance’s concern, they were reminders for Kuron of how he betrayed his pride. Forever marked for others to see A wound for him to lick clean on his own, far from the first one, hardly the last.

However, Lance gripped him tightly to prevent him from moving away.

“No, let me look at it.” Lance snapped, a growl from his panther rolling out of his throat in warning. But his fingers are gentle against Kuron’s forehead and cheek. “I just want to make sure it’s not too deep.”

Kuron knew it’s not.

He would have lost his eye if it was. But he also knew that will still scar over and remain visible for the rest of his days.

He doesn’t say anything though.

Not wanting to ruin the silence that settled over them.

“I believe you, Kuron.” Lance said after a moment of looking at the wound carefully. His voice gentle, with a hint of happiness in his voice. “I believe you, and I know you did you best. You always do.”

And something in Kuron broke.

He dove into Lance’s shoulder. Holding on to the other tightly. Burying his face in crock of Lance’s neck, ignoring the sting of everything against his wounds. Maybe only caring slightly that he was getting blood all over Lance’s shirt. But the sobs were all ready pouring out of him, and mutters of apologize and jumbled confessions of…everything, were spilling out of his mouth.

None of this was supposed to happen.

Kuron didn’t know what he thought was to happen.

But he knew it just wasn’t what it was as he sobbed into Lance.

Lance hushed him gently. His arms moving to wrap around Kuron’s shaking form. Holding him simply. Quietly assuring him that everything would be okay, it would all work out somehow, as he rubbed at his back. Somehow they’ve convince everyone, and he’d help them rid Haggar of her control. So they could unite the two prides in peace after.

Just being there for Kuron.

In the moment, Kuron felt safe.

He clung to it tightly for a long as he could.

Until Shiro, Allura, and a handful of Voltron’s guards found them.

–

AN: I don’w know, but it’s angst and I am hurt now. Are you happy anon! Kuron is just a soft boy that cares okay!

#kurance #lion king 2 au #romeo juliet au #crying #angst #kurangst #kuron angst #he a soft boy that cares #even about people he doesn't really like #Lance loves him #opening ending #it's open for more angst

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sol1056 · 6 years

Text

My ask box continues to fill up, and I have no answers for any of this. I’ve gotten comments that @dreamworksanimation is good about things like fair representation in other shows when it comes to disability, queer relationships, racial diversity, and just plain solid storytelling. Why was @voltron the exception?

Or you can just have the questions from my asks:

I really, really wanted [Dreamworks execs] to address the situation, to tell us why VLD took that enormous shitty turn and to apologize and do us better. But I'm guessing we already know the answer (arrogant inexperienced EPs) and I think they won't do anything about it, just try to fade Voltron to the background as it's ending and focus on She-ra, if they ever decide to apologize, they're just gonna focus on the LGBT rep as if its the worst problem of their story.

You know what, I hope someone makes an extensive list of all the morally questionable messages Voltron has sent with all its characters (Shiro & Kuron everything, and Lotor as abuse victim in particular), all in detail and shove them in their faces saying, but to you it's 2 guys in love and in a healthy relationship that is wrong, instead of ableism, racism, homophobia, etc. When I think of what the kids will take from Voltron I feel sick. But queer love is the problem here, right. I’m disgusted.

Us: can we get a happy ending too like the het people and couples in the show?

VLD: no, not a happy or even semi-happy ending, you'll get a miserable ending but get this, we're going to write the last survivor of the 4 queer characters we killed off to be totally on board with this. We'll write him and animate him as if he's happy and got resolution, growth, and catharsis and not as if he got demoted, sidelined, isolated, discarded by his family, worst of all by Keith. We'll say a monster like him can’t be a paladin.

Let’s also go back to talking about how they not only made Lotor, a victim of child abuse not to mention biracial character who grew up with everything against him: suddenly evil, be the same as his abusive "father" and "mother" (who even after remembering who he is pulled the same crap as before), took every happiness away from him and had the nerve to mock his abuse in S7?! As a child abuse survivor I'M HORRIFIED.

The messages in the Shiro/Adam scene is disgusting, this is such a difficult subject, even for adults show with plenty time to explore and be fair to both characters while being explicit about it all. I was worried: in a kids’ show? how can they write this in a way they'll get it? With barely time for it? but look what they wrote, Adam gave an ultimatum instead of support and died, then they blamed the disabled guy for everything. Message: you’re gay so your relationship and your life are worthless, you'll be miserable and alone.

For a team that is all about working together, voltron members after 7 seasons still don't feel like a family and more like colleagues from work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It feels odd knowing that they weren't actually battling homophobic higher ups. It feels more tactical and greedy for social justice points than out of genuine desire to showcase diversity. Is it coincidence that the character they dislike the most is the one selected for this honor? As a lesbian fan i'm skeptical and angry and refuse to watch anything else by these two.

People keep trying to excuse this stuff with "Voltron is a kids' show", but you know what? There are gay kids out there. There are disabled kids out there. Much as we may wish it otherwise, there are kids out there experiencing trauma. Do we REALLY want to teach those little kids that they are broken and tainted forever and nothing good is waiting for them in the world from here on out? People need to know how damaging it is to have ZERO stories in media showing realistic healing of trauma.

The lady who betrayed them got a proper send off scene even tho she send Adam & the others like pigs to slaughter & betrayed them & caused them all to almost lose and die. Got screentime & some characterization. But sure why respect Adam that way too. I will never forget the dread I had for him when I saw he was with the fighters who were sent to die, then watched them one by one lose their lives until he too, was killed. I still feel sick thinking about it. We never even learned his last name.

I know it's been a while but I'm not over how they treated Lotor in s6. I'm from a broken and dysfunctional home and this show I watch for escapism told me I'm doomed to repeat the same mistakes of my parents, end up just like them. ... Are they even aware of the messages they send to their audience? Not all of us had good childhood like Allura.

From a chronically ill perspective, I felt downright insulted by the choice they made to give Shiro a degenerative illness. The idea of a chronically ill hero is cool but they pull the cure narrative, they don't give him a real illness, and it's just used for cheap irrelevant drama. Plus the whole "Has to choose between loved ones and goals" thing was pretty insensitive, we're already expected to sacrifice so much as ill people so the reinforcement of that was unpleasant to watch and read meta on.

Even if everyone was white cishet abled guy the messages sent to kids were awful: One who fought to carve his own path was forced to become someone else, one who suffered and fought till the end was told he’s a monster that can’t be a paladin, the insecure one will never be worthy as himself and he'll always be someone else’s replacement, one who survived genocide and suffered loss upon loss until reduced to nothing, one who suffered by his parents’ hand became like them, the whole Kuron thing. You cant brush off all THAT.

going into the new semester with the horrible messages of s7 on my mind...i’m lethargic. i have been since the “retired paladin” interview. it was bad for me to balance my mental health on the state of a fictional character, but it was really effective. Until that awful message that disabled people are helpless in controlling their own lives. I’m trying to disconnect and thrive anyway, out of spite against ableism if nothing else.

I had this horrible realization: you know how Shiro is a victim of abuse and him getting the Black Lion was him regaining the control the lack of he suffered in his capture? I think they gave him the illness and handwaved it with the clone, so as to argue for his removal from the Black Lion. They claim that the reason he wanted control was the illness and not the victimization in the Galra hands. They're essentially erasing his trauma.

Writers: so we'll write endearing multidimensional characters with many layers, we'll have them subvert stereotypes, especially those that characters like them usually are written with, ie. Keith isn't a loner nor is he angry just 'cause, but a lonely abandoned kid with trust issues due to his mom leaving him, thus has poor emotional control and anger management, struggles to connect and open up, he is the one whose arc embodies the found family theme more than anyone.

EPs: nah we want stereotypes loool

We talk about Shiro and all the ableism in his story but we don't talk nearly enough about how horrifying the message is that Keith is the one to take it all from him and kick him aside. Keith chose to discard Shiro because he's broken and useless, so he can take his place. I've been through things they both have and I find all that horrifying. S7 sent terrible messages to kids watching.

They had the chance to let Shiro overcome and be a hero. To defeat his own abuser (Sendak) except Keith takes over everything and fixes everything for him while he lies helpless on the ground without a new arm yet. They had the budget. The animation. They could have empowered Shiro. They saw how many people saw themselves in Shiro's struggle. They must have seen the concerns. And they actively chose to go against that.

The Bury Your Gays trope is even worse this season when you consider the heavy lesbian subtext with Lotor's former generals who get blown up on screen. And naturally, it's the one with a crush on Keith who turns good and survives.

Was there a minority that hasn't been screwed over? Bury Your gays was merely the last shocking straw, because the whole season was chockful of terrible messages and proved they would never treat their characters right and address stuff from before. Homophobia, racism, ableism, sexism, mocking of abuse, excusing abandonment & so on.

I’m adding my voice because I'm so, so tired. None of the characters i see on screen are the characters we got to know in s1/2. The character i most related to was beaten down out of spite for 4 seasons and now may as well be a cardboard cutout. DW and the EPs don't seem to give a single shit about how badly this season has affected people. i don't know whether to jump ship or spit fire over everything. i'm just... exhausted.

I want a transparent statement & apology from DreamWorks. I want to know THEIR stance & role in this, ALL the events that ended up with us getting a show that is not only homophobic but also ableist, racist, mocks child abuse and so much more. I want them to acknowledge & explain why they allowed the marketing team to bait fans with ship content in their videos, thumbnails and even that EP interview about shipping. I want to know who and why allowed the show to to take a worse direction in recent seasons.

I have no answers for any of this, @dreamworksanimation. If there are any explanations, any reassurances that you’ll work hard to prevent any repeat, you need to say so. The longer you’re silent, the more it looks like you’re fine with the story and all its horrific messages. Are you?

#vld #voltron #representation

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nomadicism · 6 years

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Double Standard Setting

Regardless of antagonist or protagonist, villain or hero, and the tropes used to characterize them: it doesn't sit well with me for a story to present a character whose goals (which we are told are noble/good) are impossibly high given the setting and challenges that face them, and then for that character to be held to an incredibly high standard (relative to the setting) by other characters that the narrative has expressly given the easy path to by virtue of possessing the one thing that makes this impossible goal obtainable while those characters also benefit from the work of the one being held to the high standard (again relative to the setting) who is also paying the price.

Within the confines of VLD’s setting—a hellscape where there are no good options to change things for the better unless one has ultimate power—Lotor pays a heavy karmic price for a setting-imposed “no good options” decision; while also paying the price of a future lost with the one that we are being told outside of the story that he genuinely loved (while the show itself both tells us that he was using Allura and also implying love), in addition to failing to realize his impossible goal of peace.

Meanwhile, the protagonists (excluding Keith and Shiro to an extent) have been coasting through on easy mode while reaping the rewards of Lotor's work without paying the karmic price that he did in order to reach the point where his work could make the impact that it did. Additionally, Lotor’s work was centuries (thousands of years even) in the making, and Allura and Voltron slept right through it.

Examples of Lotor’s work: (1) put the Empire in a heavily weakened position by preventing the destruction of Naxcela which could have destroyed Voltron in the process; (2) killed Zarkon; (3) was right about Kral Zera, and beating Sendak kept Haggar away from the power of the Empire; (4) took Allura to Oriande (she would not have been able to save Lance or Shiro without her new powers). One could extend this list further, but these are the highlights.

Voltron and the Coalition would likely be at a stalemate (or potentially worse) if Lotor hadn’t taken action against Zarkon. Lotor didn’t have to do any of that. He didn’t have to return from exile. He could have set up some additional defense for his Altean Harvesting Utopia and remain hidden there, never leaving, and been worshipped until the end of the time (pretty sure that Zarkon would have given no fucks about that). It actually cost Lotor more (and in the end, everything) to pursue the impossible goal of bringing peace to the universe.

Easy Mode:

Voltron shows up, 10k years after the fact, with game-changing power in hand, and their victory really isn’t all that unassured. Their victory was a matter of when (and how many more lives are lost in the process) and not if. Strategy, diplomacy, and team-work are necessary to use Voltron’s power wisely. So yes, it’s not just a matter of Voltron itself, but who is in command of it. But they are still moving through the setting on easy mode because having Voltron means that they do not have to make terrible choices by having enough power to nearly always avoid being placed in a no-win/no-good options situation.

The few hard challenges (nearly no-win situations) that the protagonists have faced where death (for themselves) was imminent, were either avoided by another character’s in-the-nick-of-time action or sacrifice (Thace, Ulaz, Lotor, etc), or were remedied by Allura’s magic (healing the Balmera, trapped on Naxcela, healing Lance, healing Shiro). Thus, “easy mode” still applies.

Keith and Shiro are the only ones who have had to make some hard choices imposed by the setting and circumstances, but even then, neither were put into a situation where the only choices where “sacrifice these hundreds to save these millions—and no—self-sacrifice is not an option”. The closest we get is during Keith's work with the BoM, we see him (thanks plot armor) skirt a version of this kind of choice when he runs back for Regress and manages to save both Regress and the data they were after. While the fight between Keith and Kuron amidst the all the clones definitely counts as “welcome to the hellscape!”, Keith’s options were to either leave or try to save Kuron at risk to his own life. That’s a hard choice, but still not on the level that I’m talking about here.

Choices Have Consequences For Thee But Not For Me:

By destroying the gate, and then attacking Lotor, and then leaving him in the Quintessence Field; Voltron has lost the chance for peace, plunged the universe into even deeper uncertainty, and without the Castleship they cannot protect those who depended upon them (e.g. the Coalition).

Surely some aspect of this is going to come up?

Can't have it both ways and be convincing.

Now that Lotor is gone…what is going to prevent Sendak and/or Honerva (now that she is no longer Haggar) from taking control of the Empire and putting things nearly right back where everyone started before Lotor showed up?

No Castleship equals no zipping around the universe to aid the Coalition or prevent the Empire from rebuilding itself under the rule of someone just as bad (or worse) as Zarkon.

Destroying the Castleship was a choice: close the reality tears, or maintain possession of a vital weapon and mobility resource.

In a setting that applies logic evenly (e.g. realistic outcomes/consequences and challenges for BOTH antagonists and protagonists), the destruction of the Castleship should have serious consequences for Voltron, as—logically—the war or other events regarding the Empire and the Coalition should continue without them being available. Hypothetically, Voltron's return trip to Earth is going to take a lot of time.

The following questions are raised:

How is the Coalition supposed to defend against Sendak or Honerva without Voltron?

Who from the Empire is going to take that Coalition intel that was synced by Kuron at Galra HQ and make use of it?

Is Sendak going to wait around to make good on his threat (in S1) to go after Earth?

Will the protagonists finally have to make a hard decision to protect one planet that is under attack versus another?

And when they make that choice, surely, the other planet will be a smoldering wasteland when they arrive too late?

Will it be Earth or Olkarion?

Without the Castleship, Voltron can’t arrive at the last minute to save more than one planet. The fact that this hasn’t even come up yet (b/c even with the Castleship Voltron still can’t be in more than one place at one time) has bothered me, but it’s going to be an even bigger problem if this kind of challenge (one that is logically demanded of the setting) isn’t set before the protagonists while they do not have access to wormhole transport (Castleship-generated or otherwise).

And while the protagonists do not have access to wormhole transport, Honerva does.

Is she really going to wait around till Voltron catches back up to challenge her?

10k Years of Consequences:

Assuming that Honerva doesn’t get there first…what happens when the protagonists go to The Colony?

Will Allura and Voltron be welcomed and celebrated?

Will the Alteans care (or even know) that Voltron attacked their god-king-savior and left him for dead in the Quintessence Field?

In a setting that applies logic evenly, those Alteans should be angry when the protagonists arrive. From their sheltered/socially-engineered perspective, it seems highly incongruous that the protagonists would be seen as heroes or saviors as they are seen when liberating planets from the Galra. The Alteans should be angry either from the death/disappearance of Lotor (their god-king-savior), or just the simple fact that Allura (and thus Voltron) slept for 10k years while the Alteans were hunted and had to be hidden away while the rest of the universe was conquered by Zarkon.

In a setting that applies logic evenly, are the Alteans really going to be ready to throw a parade for the daughter of the king who may as well have abandoned them?

Within this context, Alfor’s decision to divide and hide Voltron (and his daughter) doesn’t reflect well on him. Presumably he must have ordered some evacuation of Altea, but he still made the decision to prioritize his daughter, friend, and Voltron by dividing and sending them far away and put them in stasis indefinitely. If the right people hadn’t chanced upon the Blue Lion then how much longer would Allura and Coran have been asleep? The Galra found the Red Lion and nearly got the Blue Lion, great plan Alfor.

Alfor had the power—the ultimate power that allows the protagonists to coast through the Hellscape of No Good Choices—to do something and he didn’t use it. He made a choice that left his people defenseless, and still ended up creating a risk that the power would fall into the hands of Zarkon (or even someone worse). There is also the ethics of binding Allura’s quintessence to Voltron to consider.

If anything, that sets up Alfor's decision to be similar to Lotor’s decision, in that sacrifices had to be made for what either perceived as the greater good.

To recap: why is there this dark and terrible setting that left Lotor with no good options for bringing peace but somehow that setting never forces the protagonists into a corner where they have to make a legitimately terrible choice with no better options?

Especially with antagonists like Sendak and Honerva who—by any reasonable logic—would be in a position and mindset to create situations in which there are no options other than terrible ones that carry a karmic/moral price.

We’ve already gotten a hint of this with what Honerva did with Kuron and Keith, and with what Sendak did with the Arusians.

Clearly, the reason that this setting is inherently more punishing for the antagonists (and anyone who isn’t the protagonists) comes down to who has Voltron in their possession (regardless of strategy and team work). And that’s believable to a point.

In a setting that applies logic evenly, if the difference between Lotor not being able to make a better choice within the confines of the setting really boils down to Lotor not being Allura (with her magic) nor having Voltron at his disposal then…it seems like that choice was already made by Alfor, and the consequences of that choice have been felt by the universe for 10k years, and someone should call that out in-story.

So will the writing continue to gloss over consequences and/or never place the protagonists into a moral choice trap?

I’m not holding my breath. The plot armor within this double-standard setting is very heavy, and should that continue, it's going to kill what little desire I have to finish out the series.

#voltron #voltron meta #lotor #lotor discourse #voltron critical #vld s6 critical #voltron: legendary defender

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ganymedesclock · 6 years

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I don't understand the permanent lion switch theory. Why do the characters need to grow into roles other teammates can already fullfill perfectly? and why are Pidge and Hunk excluded from such "important development"?

Honestly I’m not surprised Pidge and Hunk are left out?

Again, I feel like it’s less a support of the first switch formation and more this sort of… elevating Shiro’s importance to the team, but also not accepting that Shiro is also if anything ludicrously overqualified to be Black Paladin.

With regards to Keith: people want him to be black paladin because they want to view him as “the main hero”, and the idea is that Black is the “most special”

I feel like there’s some irony to the mentality because it basically frames Shiro and Black the same way- their actual qualities don’t matter. What matters is that Keith (or Lance) are good, have good qualities, and deserve recognition, and that recognition should be given to them no matter how Black or Shiro would feel about it, or even what Keith / Lance are shown in-universe to want.

With Lance, and Blue, there’s a particular angle to it that tangles in with Blue’s role as the Heart. Even within Voltron itself as a franchise, most continuities put Allura in the Blue Lion. And as much as I’ve heard many people complain that Lance “deserves better” than the Blue Lion, it’s comparatively almost unheard of for people to gripe about Allura being “shackled” to the Blue Lion even though they frame Lance deserving better as Blue being dead-end worthless drudgery.

Because the Heart- characters similar to VLD Lance- are often sorted into two categories. Both are looked down upon- emotional labor, empathy, and supporting the team are not seen as valuable heroic exertions, and they’re virtually always framed as coming at the cost of the person themselves- because obviously you’d never want to support other people if you could put your all-important self first, even when that self is being adequately tended to.

A female character in the role of the Heart is just seen as this is where she ought to be. It’s effectively considered a pink-collar job, and you can look at in the real world what’s considered “women’s work”. Of course she’s tirelessly going to tend to her team, of course she’s never going to pursue anything important for herself (when that sacrifice of self is not actually remotely necessary) of course she’s going to be the doe-eyed loving supportive figure, she’s a girl, that’s what girls do, live for all of the men around them, right?

Conversely a male character in the role of the Heart? Is seen as an absolute joke for the most part. Isn’t it funny he’s so weak-willed and sympathetic, isn’t it funny he’s not aggressive and macho, god he’s so pathetic. But don’t worry, though, since he’s supposed to want better than this lame old Heart job, he’ll inevitably “grow up” to be tough in a stereotypically macho way, even if this character development is completely at odds with everything else about who he is as a person.

At best, getting the character development that actually befits him as the Heart, you can count on him to be unaccepted until he proves he gained something from it in a sufficiently “manly” proactive manner.

The thing is, a lot of the tropes around the Heart aren’t remotely actually necessary to the role, and a well-written Heart character either deconstructs them or simply does entirely without them. There is no rule that emotional labor is the level that people stoop to when they aren’t man enough to chase their personal objectives. The role of the Heart is where we, as a society, dump our garbage- all of the hangups about this womanish kind of heroism- and the misogyny that says “well if WOMEN do it, it can’t be valuable!” and “real men don’t cry, what are you, a GIRL?”

It’s worth noting that the cry to take Lance away from the Blue Lion is probably the loudest and most passionate- Shiro, Pidge and Hunk are completely ignored for this (there’s basically no discussion where Shiro should go except “not in the Black Lion, because we need that for Lance!”) because their roles are very standard.

Here’s the brainy one, here’s the brawny one, here’s the Leader, and there’s his Right Hand, we don’t complain about these things. Because we’ve already been conditioned through just about any five-man team show to consider those four the important ones, and Shiro the most important of all. When canon already can be viewed as “tempting” us with the possibility of Keith “surpassing” Shiro and stealing his important leader spotlight, it’s just understandable people salivate over that possibility- because we all know only the Leader will actually get the biggest slice of heroism at the end.

But the heart? There’s a reason TVTropes dismissively calls that role “The Chick”. Just look at that name for it- “oh, the designated girl, they threw her in there just because they had to have a girl so people wouldn’t complain about their sexism, so she can, y’know, stand out of the way and look pretty. Maybe we can give her a dainty little weapon and let her do some fighting but not that much. When the Leader is having his real, manly problems she’ll drop all of her petty girl issues to run over and support him.”

This is not what’s in VLD. But it’s in the cultural lens that we’ve been led to look to these kind of shows. It’s why, even in absence of canon support, people assume Shiro asserts so much more control and influence over the team- to the point of how many fanfics assume if Shiro disliked Lance, that Shiro could turn the whole team against Lance rather than the team would kick him to the curb, as we literally saw happen in motion with our secondary Voltron team, Sincline, and how Lotor vs. Narti ultimately ended. The generals gathered around the fallen Narti, and Lotor was simply cut from the team, without particular effort or fanfare. The hardest thing for the generals was feeling bad about it.

But Shiro and Lotor, they’re Leaders, so they have to be inherently stronger than their whole team, inherently in charge- except they aren’t.

People likewise assume that just pointing out Keith’s strength and intelligence mean that he should be the Leader- the idea is that he’s too competent to be a Right Hand, because every position besides the head is perceived as settling for less. (And Hunk- a fat black man, and Pidge- a young quite-possibly-written-as-trans girl with choppy hair, outside of occasional token “no, THEY should be the special one! I’m so revolutionary in praising them without thinking about them instead of insulting them without thinking about them!” largely are simply accepted that of course they’re settling, they’re lesser people)

Here’s the thing about Lance in VLD. None of that applies to him.

Lance has never been characterized as a weak-willed doormat. Nor has he been characterized as settling for less, or less thought of than his peers.

In fact, the roles that are shown to diminish Lance and leave him unhappy… are the stereotypically “manly” roles people would logically propose as a “fix” for Lance being “stuck” as the Heart.

Lance’s attempted James Bond impression is what makes Allura frustrated at him- while in s3, when, with growing confidence, Lance is his sincere, sweet self- that’s when Allura starts responding positively, starts telling him that he has “greatness” within him. That’s when he unlocks the Altean sword (sword from a planet of diplomats, awakened in a flare of blue light)

Lance taking Keith’s position at the Garrison features him being reminded he’s only here because Keith couldn’t be, and him blowing off the importance of the job, him acting at his pettiest. In contrast, in the same episode with no time for character development, Blue is framed as, from the start, choosing him first, ignoring everyone else there to stare only at Lance when nobody else is “taken” much less knowing there’s a Lion fitting for them… and Lance immediately settles comfortably into place.

Lance’s response to being chosen for Red is to first refuse it, try to pass it off to someone else, and then, when he does go for it, he comes back to grieve his connection with Blue. And Black? We see Lance uncomfortable and stiff in Black’s cockpit, trying to tell himself to feel good, because isn’t this what he wanted? Isn’t it?

People who are fitting where they were always meant to be don’t respond to it by grieving their previous niche, usually. Especially not there’s no particular ‘sweetness’ of “but I have Red now” or “but I wanted Red.” Lance wanted to give up the Red Lion back to Keith with no guarantee Blue would even be waiting for him. That’s a hell of a contrast to Lance yelling at Keith in s2e4 because Keith even said something about the Blue Lion.

Yeah, the wrong-colored armors is a continuity joke, but I can’t believe it’s just a mythology joke. VLD made a genuine commitment to base the characters off of specific colors, meaning that Lance in Red looks awkward. Our inner kindergartener goes “ha ha, no VLD, blue guy doesn’t go in red cat! Blue guy goes in BLUE cat!”

And proponents of Lance in somewhere else are aware of this- they’re very quick to change that armor color. Except canon has in every conceivable way tried to show us that’s not the case. They keep setting up material to frame it, more and more and more, as Lance belongs to Blue. Allura doesn’t have much in common with Blaytz or Ezor… but both of them have an awful lot in common with Lance.

And what are Lance’s good qualities, the things he really excels in?

Lance understands the team, and several times he’s singlehandedly pulled them back from disaster by his ability to read people’s emotions. Kuron? Going to be solved by Lance, is the framing we’ve gotten here. Team needs to connect emotionally? Everybody follow Lance’s lead. Shiro as Black Paladin? Acknowledged first by Lance before they even knew Black existed. Team needs to act out roles that aren’t theirs? Gape in awe of Lance’s absolute mastery of emotions. His nature is putty in his hands.

Compared to other incarnations of Lance that genuinely did write this character as Red Paladin, VLD Lance is noticeably more sober-minded, clearheaded and perceptive. He’ll never actually sacrifice something important for the benefit of a petty grudge. If anything, this is what we see framed as an absolutely jawdropping tactical asset for Lance- VLD is the first one to actually make Lance a sniper, with the clarity and precision of intent that make that useful. He can sweep an entire battlefield, check on all his friends, pick off targets and bottleneck enemies as needed.

Even his success with the Red Lion frames his Blue Paladin cooperation and malleability. Because Lance in Red isn’t driven really by ironclad loyalty the way Keith, Acxa, and Sendak are- Lance hooks onto Keith with “Right now, I’m in your corner, and that means I’m gonna be what you need me. If you need loyal support, I’m there, but if what you actually need is someone loudly reminding you that you left Allura behind, I’m doing that too.”

On the one hand, I’m touched by how much VLD really adores Lance, and loves depicting him as the Heart, and loves emphasizing the Heart’s importance to the team. On the other? I am frankly beyond pissed that I have to aggressively defend Lance in the Blue Lion by emphasizing that he can still do violence onto things in a fight. Yeah, it’s important to let all your characters have a piece of the pie and if your series is an action series that’s gonna mean action scenes, but rather than examine some of our deeply flawed relationship with gender and how much that serves as background radiation to anything we see as “womanish” and why, exactly, do we see Lance’s job as less valuable if it “seems feminine”, it feels too much like we’re wasting time trying to prove Lance is enough of a real man he can rock this “girly” job.

I think the whole “Lion swap should stick / they should push it further and never go back to original formation” if anything sets itself up to be breathtakingly meta because I feel like it’s ultimately rooted in not thinking through any of the roles very much. Because if you just look at them shallowly, Blue and Yellow sound the least “Cool” the way our culture frames things (again, the whole devaluing of support / prioritizing individual victory- if you’re not actively selfishly taking for yourself, you must not be doing anything for yourself).

Green sounds a little better, and Red sounds cooler (“Right Hand!” plus the self-satisfying narrative of “well, when Zarkon went bad, Alfor was the one who Defied Him” ignoring that all four paladins did, and Alfor was merely the more visible thanks to his connection with Allura and with Voltron- ignoring that it was almost definitely one of the other three, and likely Blaytz, that gave Zarkon that scar), but Black Lion, oh, that’s the best one, right?

So just grab whatever character you like best and stuff them into the Black Lion. This is how you appreciate a character! You want best character to get best lion. Now nobody can question how much you love them, even if you would be hard-pressed to actively identify what are their good qualities and how they align with Black’s explicitly stated qualities.

I’m not saying nobody who supports Black Paladin Lance thinks about it that much, but that the premise feels so congratulatory when it’s actually quite patronizing (it basically hinges on the idea that the Blue Lion can’t have recognized and mirrored any of Lance’s good qualities and the Lion that chose him first was basically putting up with him because he wasn’t her best fit and if Lance really belonged to Blue that’d make him a total loser) can help explain why its appeal is so widespread.

Especially when it feels like every time Lance says something in an authoritative tone people go “oh my gosh, Black Paladin Lance!” like… I was not aware that being Black Paladin hinged on only one virtue and that was your ability to angrily yell things. Last time I checked fandom was quite cross with Shiro’s authoritative yelling.

#voltron legendary defender #vld #Lance #Keith #Shiro #readmore #Anonymous

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ptw30 · 6 years

Text

VLD Season 7 Reactions

My inbox has been busy non-stop since Season 7 dropped, and I thought I’d share a few with you, @dreamworksanimation and @voltron, just in case you’ve missed the fandom’s reaction to the new season.

It's sad that we've gradually gone from being excited to new seasons to feeling worried and skeptical. There was a lot of dread in the fandom instead of anticipation for s7 and the interviews fueled it. People used to make intriguing theories but now it's all "how s7 would have been better" and "this is a crack theory but knowing vld it might be canon" We are supposed to be right before the grand finale of a space opera but people can't wait for it to be over. What a great way to end a series!

The grand space opera became a space tragedy in one season. We’ve waited for a payoff that will seemingly never come - including the end of the lion swap. An introduction of a new mecha should have exciting but was overshadowed the permanent demotion of Allura from commander to foot-soldier and the banishment of Shiro from Voltron and his lion, the latter with whom Shiro shared the strongest bond. This also ended Shiro’s internal struggle of “can I be worthy of the paladin mantle” with the answer, “no, you can’t be.”

Season 7 could have the fandom’s resurgence, after a strong Season 6 showing, but from the standpoint of almost everyone in my inbox - the fandom is just tired and ready to move on.

More under the cut.

I commented on a Youtube video how I didn't like the Atlas consolation prize, and someone replied saying I need to stop because they “clearly“ aren't trying to bench him or anything. It took everything I had to not respond with a rant.

Wanting to rant is understandable. I’ve had this conversation a few times - messages, on my blog - about why Shiro being in Atlas isn’t a satisfying conclusion to his character’s arc. It’s not about him being benched, per se - though he is. Shiro’s internal struggle was deciding if he was worthy to be a paladin after everything that happened to him - and what he had to do to survive. By putting him in Atlas, the show is saying he is unworthy of the Black Paladin mantle.

Sending this demoralizing message in the same season that we learn Shiro is also LGBTQ+ representative is reprehensible but perhaps ignorant. Saying that Shiro is also unworthy of the Black Paladin mantle as a multiple-minority, LGBTQ+ character with PTSD and a disability, is unconscionable.

I honestly think the dream works execs weren't told the full story on what they were planning with Shiro. The way they speak about the Atlas, the DreamWorks execs seemed to be left out of the picture as to how much distance they put between Shiro and his team - or how he goes half the season being nothing more than a background prop. The way they say “the Atlas does something really cool“ makes me think they never gave the impression Shiro was going to be next to irrelevant.

Could be! But now it’s DreamWorks’ job to correct the issue. They need to come out with a statement, say that recognize there is an issue, and that they are taking steps to correct it. However, the only communication we’ve gotten from DreamWorks was JDS’s apology (and subsequent tweets by LM), and that letter was ineffective. It addressed queerbaiting, not what the EPs did to Shiro, a LGBTQ+ character, or even to Adam, Zethrid, and Ezor.

So I’m not sure if DreamWorks’ execs have acknowledged that there are offensive and harmful messages in Voltron, especially Season 7.

My deepest wish was that after they came back from Sven's reality, they actually went to another reality, very similar to the original and never realized, and in the end of season 8 slav will tell them that and they'll go back to their own reality, and continues on s9 with Shiro being actually alive, just captured again by haggar, then rescued and he is the bp for ever and keith is back to red and allura is back to castle and lance is like blue i missed you and blue is like [expletive deleted] me too the [expletive deleted]

Duuuuude. Can we make this canon?

I know being salty helps nobody least of all myself, but I'm so irked that the EPs pat themselves on the back for making Shiro gay, when a)they don't get that Adam's death is an issue that goes way beyond OTPs, b)they did kill Shiro, c)even though Shiro eventually got back, Kuron didn't, not in any piece of actual canon, and presumably Kuron was gay too so that's 2 dead gays (4 if you count the implied lesbians), and d)apparently Shiro being Asian, mentally ill and disabled doesn't matter as rep

Being salty helps. Really. It helps DreamWorks to determine what worked well and what didn’t in their latest season.

Though I understand how some fans felt queerbaited by VLD, the fact that it is the only thing addressed in JDS letter tells me DW is waving a hand over all the other implications. DreamWorks didn’t want to address all they did to Shiro, so instead, they apologize for the least offensive issue and hope people will be satisfied. (From my ask box, they are not.)

melissa18999 said: So even the execs thought that shiro was an interesting character. I can see why. The writers wrote him to have one of the saddest backstories ever and he’s the only human on the team that has experienced the galra’s bullshit first hand. The other 4 paladins pilot voltron because they’re told to. There doesn’t seem to be the same drive that shiro had. Sure there’s Pidge but she was the one trying to quit voltron to save her family. removing shiro exposed the others lack of a call to action.

It exposed that practically none of the other characters had any stakes in Voltron. We can say that Hunk received his stake in Season 1 when fighting for the Balmera, and Keith’s stake was Shiro. Lance? Nope. Never really had one and really never got one, considering his family was safe and sound on Earth. You could make the argument that he cares for Allura and wants to be a better paladin because of her, but...we don’t actively see him trying to do it for her. We saw him trying to be a better paladin before she and he connected.

And now they’ve removed the aforementioned motivating character from Voltron. Yeah. Not cool.

The thing about the execs liking Shiro and demanding that he gets a better role... is that we always hear about creatives who want to get rep on screen but the EEEBIL executives say no. And here we have a case where the creatives saw a mentally ill disabled poc character that broke all stereotypes, and they could see no place for him in the cast, while the execs recognised his incredible potential and wanted him to shine. So I have zero sympathy for the EPs here. The execs were RIGHT, damnit!

The reason I liked VLD S1/2 so much was because it broke tropes. Shiro is strong leader but also needs help. Allura is a warrior princess and isn’t scared to go toe-to-toe with the emperor of the universe. Keith and Shiro hug. Look, no matter how you view their relationship, hugs just don’t happen in cartoons, especially between men. So I just loved that part so much. and it made Voltron progressive. (You can share and show your feelings and not be scorned for it.)

Oh, and Lance was originally the heart of the team, not Allura. She became so after moving into Voltron, but having a male character being the heart? That was groundbreaking, too.

Sure, VLD had its issues, but the show was empowering to so many marginalized groups - until Season 3.

perhaps the worst part of Shiro's placement is that he's effectively become the side character of an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT SERIES. I've started watching robotech, and CANNOT see the atlas as anything but the ship from that (down to the transformation), or the MFEs as a mix of Vehicle Voltron and the robotech fighters.

I would argue that the worst part about Shiro’s placement is that Shiro is no longer a part of the eponymous character, has no family, and is a multiple-minority character who proved that he can not only be a part of the team but also be the strongest part.

And then Voltron decided to show people who identified with Shiro - that’s not the case. In fact, you can’t even be a part of the team or win your own battles. You have to rely upon others to do so.

But you have a valid point. That part’s bad, too.

Please note: I received more asks with VLD Season 7 reactions. I’ve answered some on my blog, but I’ve also deleted a few that were too harsh to post.

#voltron #dreamworks #vld #vld season 7 #reactions #anon #answered #melissa18999

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shiros · 6 years

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lmao did you hear apparently shiro not dying is the reason why the keith vs lotor rivalry was cut and sendak clone plot was given to shiro and allura now ends up with lance instead of keith. i know the writing has always been bad but i cant believe its now THIS bad

Anon…anon…please tell me you’re lying. Please tell me you’re lying and that that stupid prolonged clone arc with an ass backwards message to the theme of voltron and an insult to its audience wasn’t the piece of shit that took away my keitorllura and Keith vs Lotor and a REAL Shiro vs. Sendak.(yknow not having Keith’s maincharacter senses tingle and steal Shiro’s kill)

I can sleep better at night knowing that the writers were just incompetent and didn’t somehow realize what type of perfect-timing-golden-chance-just-go-for-it- pussy set up they were making. But I can’t fall asleep, because it all fucking makes sense now. All of it. They don’t even have to kill Shiro for this. Or if they wanted to, kill him off then bring the fucker back because with Allura’s dues ex machina we know he could do that at anytime if she wanted to. Sendak was the one launched into space way before Shiro ever was; we were supposed to be expecting his return in season 3, meeting Lotor in 4, build up in 5, then the whole showdown begins in season 6. Then Haggar would be dealt with in 8 after the paladins return in 7 because she’d be the only one left with any type of narrative stakes and plot relevance attacking Earth. It’s the perfect set up for Haggar to be the final boss like most of us were expecting after Zarkon died. It couldn’t have been Sendak because he’s had beef with Shiro since season one so he would have to be regulated to be killed by him during their fight. For any normie watching this show, I wouldn’t blame them for forgetting who the fuck Sendak was especially if they started watching when season 1 was on netflix, waited liked the rest of us for the remainder of the seasons, and went “Who’s that guy?” when he finally popped up.

Allura’s magic, I’d assume, would be a plot point that could have been built up during the time when the paladins were dicking around with Kuron with the propaganda, which could have been squished in as they were doing important things rather than having whole episodes dedicated to shit that didn’t matter. Alien planets are still under Galran control, possibly being drained of their planets resources like the Balmera, but oh sorry you’ll just have to wait until we do circus show tricks to really drive the message home that we’re here to fight for you! We have no real sense of urgency if its not up our ass and down our throat! :)

There’s just so much we could have gotten. So much. Keith’s sense of belonging on the team could have been challenged with the Lotor’s half galra team, a perfect call back to how Allura treated him after she found out about his galra heritage, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk not getting the short end of the stick when it comes to character development, seeing Shiro talk more about Adam with flashbacks so he’s not a literal who when we see him on screen. And most importantly, making it seem like the team actually gives a shit about each other outside of Shiro and Keith (slightly Hunk and Lance/Keith.) Season 7 gave us an inch, but I’m talking about the whole ruler. I never got the sense that the team gave a shit about what happens to one another outside of “If we lose a paladin this will set us back,” or just generally being concerned over another human life like a normal person.

I don’t think I wanna watch season 8. I don’t need closure, I know what’s going to happen anyway and I’m not going to like it. I’m just done.

#holy fuck.#just wow #long post #excuse my language but are they fucking retarded?

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an-intronerd · 6 years

Text

a moment in time

Keith doesn’t know how long, exactly, he’s spent by Shiro’s side.

He just knows that, since Allura had magically restored Shiro’s soul into the clone body, he hasn’t left. And if it’s up to him, he won’t be, ever again. He won’t repeat his mistakes.

As soon as Shiro had woken up, collapsing against Keith’s sturdy chest and whispering a weak you found me, he’d passed out again. Probably due to exhaustion and pain from the wounds Kuron had suffered. Wounds that I gave him, Keith sniffles, as he cradles Shiro to his chest. He brushes the now white hair away from Shiro’s face and looks up at his team again.

Allura clears her throat and behind her, Hunk dries his eyes. Somewhere in the background, he hears someone blow their noes. Probably Coran. He knows they’re all relieved and more than a little emotional at getting Shiro back.

“As much as we’d all like to rest and replenish our energy, I’m afraid we must get moving. The journey to Earth will be a long one, Paladins.”

Keith nods at Allura, “You’re right Princess. Everyone, I know we’re all exhausted, but we should hurry and load the Lions quickly. We’ll figure out a place we can stop to rest at once we’re off this planet.”

“Yeah,” Hunk agrees, “I feel like we’re sitting ducks here.”

“Alright, everyone,” says Allura as she turns to face the rest of the team, Romelle, and Krolia, “Let’s get into the Lions.”

Once the team has gotten everything packed, they split off to get into their lions.

“Romelle, you’re welcome to join Coran and me in the Blue Lion,” Allura shoots her fellow Altean a small smile, “I’m sure you’ve got a lot to tell us.”

“Hey, how come the pretty girls never ride with me?” Lance grumbles to Hunk and Pidge as they all head to their respective Lions. Keith hears them begin to bicker and smiles. It’s good to be back with the others.

Once everyone is relatively settled in, they’re off.

No one had uttered a word when Keith had gathered Shiro in his arms and made for Black.

Krolia hadn’t followed her son, either. Instead, she’d followed Hunk, who she’d grown somewhat fond of in the last few doboshes, only looking back to nod at her son with a faint smile.

“If you need me, I’m only a Lion away.”

Now, they’re flying through space at a relatively quick pace, though he doesn’t know for how long they’ve been cooped up. Keith sighs when he thinks of how quick this journey would have been if they’d still had the Castle. He still feels a pang of pain at the loss of their former home.

It doesn’t matter, he thinks as he glances at Shiro’s figure lying peacefully in the cot behind him, accompanied by Blink on the floor at his side, Shiro’s safe and that’s more than good enough for me.

To be fair, it wasn’t like anyone was diligently keeping track of time. The comms had been on for the first little while, but once Hunk and Lance had started arguing about the best pizza place back home, with Krolia inputting her own opinion, recalling her time spent on Earth, Keith had rubbed his temples and shut them off.

Then, all he’d had to keep himself occupied was the silence and his thoughts.

Now, he hears the rustling of fabric and a low groan, and Keith whips his head around to watch as Shiro shifts on the cot, his face scrunched up in pain.

He quickly moves to Shiro’s side and places his hand on his best friend’s forehead. It’s a bit warmer than normal and he sighs. He can’t wait till they’re back on Earth so that Shiro can get proper medical attention.

“You’re okay, Shiro. I got you.”

“Keith.” Shiro mumbles, eyes still closed shut. At least he’s not shifting around anymore, Keith thinks. Then, Shiro’s eyes snap open, and Keith finds himself staring into their depths.

All of a sudden, it hits him that this is Shiro, his Shiro.

Shiro, who had taken a young, impulsive Keith under his wing and taught him to be a better person, to be patient and think things through, and to learn from his mistakes and grow from them. Shiro, who’d never given up on Keith, even when he was difficult and let his anger get the best of him. Shiro, who’d brought Keith with him to the Kerberos launch in what seems like a lifetime ago, placed his hand on Keith’s shoulder, pointed at the sky and said with a proud smile, you’ll be up there with me, someday.

Shiro, who’d returned to Keith a broken man, but still had the strength to jump right into a war against the same people who’d hurt him, all with a soft smile and supportive hand on his shoulder. Shiro, who’d led their team through all their first battles, and was ready to sacrifice everything in order to save the cosmos.

Shiro, who had died in the battle with Zarkon ages ago, who’d been missing for months until someone with the same face but different aura had appeared to take his place. Shiro, who, after countless battles and even more scars, both physical and not, had finally been returned to Keith.

His Shiro, Keith finds his eyes watering at the thought. Still, he brushes a few stray strands for Shiro’s hair away from his eyes and smiles softly.

“Hey, Shiro.“

"Keith..”

Shiro blinks again, almost as if he doesn’t totally believe what his eyes are seeing, and Keith’s smile grows wider at this. I’m really here, and so are you.

“How’s your head? You passed out pretty much right after you woke up, yesterday. I was worried.”

Shiro clears his throat and it occurs to Keith that he’s probably in need of some water.

"Hold on, don’t try to speak,” and with that, Keith jogs across Black’s cockpit to retrieve a bottle of water from their supply pile. He returns to Shiro and gently lifts his head.

“Here, drink this, first."

Shiro moves to sip from the bottle in Keith’s hand, and Keith carefully tips the water into his mouth. Once Shiro’s had enough, he taps Keith’s wrist and Keith moves the bottle away. He recaps it and sets it to the side, and gently lowers Shiro's head back onto his pillow.

Shiro grimaces, “It’s.. getting there. Still a mess, if I’m being honest.”

Keith signs as he absentmindedly combs through Shiro's hair.

“Yeah, I bet..”

Keith thinks of Kuron, then. He wonders if his memories are now in Shiro's head, or if they disappeared when Allura brought Shiro back. He can't decide which would be worse if he's honest.

"Shiro, your memories.." Keith begins but then stops himself. Now's not the time, he thinks. Shiro's still healing. No point in making him worry about something that's not really relevant at the moment.

He must be easy to read, though, because Shiro answers his unasked question.

“I have them, you know. Kuron’s memories, I mean. They're all there. Blurry, mixed up, and out of order, but there. I’m still trying to–”

“Shiro, it’s okay," Keith cuts him off, "I don’t need an explanation. I just want you to heal.”

Shiro looks at him then, almost as if he's seeing him but not, and it's long enough for Keith to begin to worry.

"Shiro? Are you okay?"

Shiro snaps out of his daze and smiles, though there's something different about it now.

“…thanks, Keith.”

"Shiro.." Keith frowns, having known him long enough to know that something was off.

"I'm sorry, I'm fine. Something just.. came to me. It's nothing."

Keith sighs yet again but decides to let it go. Shiro will tell him when he's ready, Keith's sure of that. He smiles down at Shiro again, but it dims a little when he notices Shiro's eyes beginning to droop closed.

“Okay, well. You still look exhausted. We’re set on a course to earth, and for the moment, won’t be stopping anywhere. You should get some more sleep. God knows how much you need it.”

Shiro shifts his head towards Keith, eyes closed and lips turned upwards in a tender smile.

“Heh, When did you get all grown up, huh?” he murmurs as Keith continues carding his hand through Shiro's white locks.

Keith chuckles at that.

“The two years Mom and I spent on a space whale, travelling through a strange rift in space-time helped, I’m sure.”

Shiro hums, and his smile grows.

“You’ll have to tell me more, soon, yeah?” he drifts off as he leans into Keith's touch and settles into his cot.

Keith can't help the sudden surge of fondness that courses through him, and he feels the tension slip from his muscles. Shiro looks so peaceful at that moment, that Keith can't help but lean down and press a small kiss to his forehead.

“Yeah.”

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zillabean · 6 years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

#shiro #voltron #zilla's replies #zilla's fandom stuff #I-am-forever-a-fan

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gwydionae · 7 years

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When I first went through Voltron, I was not 100% convinced that Shiro was a clone. It was obvious he'd been experimented on in some way, but somehow I had missed the line about "this specimen is ready to be used" or whatever. XD After going back through the show, uh, yeah, he's totally a clone. They even use "kuron" as the name of the project - ku-ro-n, as in the Japanese pronunciation of "clone". Way ta be subtle, guys. XD

But then I started wondering what his purpose was. I mean, Team Voltron had survived with "Kuron" at the helm for months, even taken a good chunk of Galra territory. So why was he released? What was he supposed to do? So I went back through all the episodes with Kuron and... wow. I actually feel a bit stupid for not seeing it before.

Before I get into that, I want to bring up his mention of a "weird headache". Why is it “weird” and why even talk about it? If he knows he’s a clone on a mission, seems he just shouldn’t bother mentioning it at all, and since he is bringing it up, would that perhaps imply he really doesn't know what he is? Does he maybe think he's real but is susceptible to following what the Galra want him to do without realizing it? This leads me to believe that while I think he is a clone and working under Galra orders, I don't think that he knows that. I think that he believes he is truly doing what Shiro would do, because of course he is because he's Shiro! But somehow the Galra - Haggar, most likely - are controlling him, manipulating his actions to their whims in order to carry out their plans. And boy do they have big plans...

The first thing he has to do is regain control of the Black Lion, and in order to do that, he has to get rid of Keith. But he can't simply get rid of him, he has to take over properly so everyone believes he is their true leader. Seems easy enough at first when Keith hands him the job on a silver platter. Only problem is that the Black Lion isn't fooled - it knows something isn't right with “Shiro” and refuses him. And so “Kuron” has to find another way to take over. And so he does, in a truly cruel and manipulative way.

See, Kuron has already seen that Keith is willing to bow to what he wants and that the other Paladins will listen to Shiro's plans. So he just casually takes over the mission from the castle despite Keith piloting the Black Lion, telling them what to do, and when Keith protests, the other Paladins back Kuron's idea and Keith has no choice but to go along with it or risk the team turning on him. So Kuron says that they shouldn't go after Lotor - like Keith wanted - but should instead go back to their Lions and keep Lotor from getting the new comet!ship. Note that this is after he already knew about the piece of the teledove. But then they get to their Lions and Kuron changes his mind - after Keith had gotten on board the whole "ok gonna stop that ship" thing. Now Kuron says they have to keep them from getting the teledove. This frustrates Keith, especially when Allura backs Kuron, because he thought that he and Kuron had gotten on the same page but then Kuron undermines his supposed authority and leadership again. This is at least the second time in just this mission that Keith tried to make a decision only for Kuron to step in and convince the team that Keith is wrong and he is right. He is playing mind games with Keith, and Keith is losing because he just thinks it's Shiro being the natural leader that he is. And to make matters worse, when Lance straight up asks Keith what to do next, Kuron is the one that answers, not even giving Keith the chance to respond. Lastly, Keith, and even Pidge, want to follow the comet!ship after the teledove is destroyed, but Kuron tells them not to, and they listen without even questioning the fact that he just reneged on his earlier statement of "we can't let Lotor get that ship". Again he changes his tune and again it contradicts what Keith wants to do and again the rest of the team follows Kuron's orders instead of Keith's.

But the worst part of all of this? When Kuron tells Keith that he's sorry he "had to step in" and then proceeds to guilt trip Keith by saying he needs to learn to pick his battles (which is funny considering Kuron literally avoided as much confrontation as possible but was then willing to risk Voltron getting hit by the comet!ship's laser). If you don't really think about it, it sounds all nice and good when he says stuff like "you'll get there" and "the Black Lion chose you" but in reality all this does is heap more responsibility on Keith's shoulders, telling him he needs to lead but his actions saying he's not yet good enough to do so. The words are not uplifting - they are hollow, merely there to put more pressure on Keith who was struggling to deal with being a leader from the moment he took the job. Kuron is solidifying in Keith's head that he, “Shiro”, is the better leader, no matter what the Black Lion chose.

To end off season 3, we hear Keith say that his number one goal is to stop Lotor and keep him from using the comet!ship to cross realities. But the start of season 4 makes it clear that Kuron has been in charge of Voltron for months as they have done nothing of the sort, leaving those missions instead to the Blade of Marmora. Keith has kept his word and made that his top priority, but Kuron wouldn't allow him to do it with Voltron, and hence Keith joined the Blades. By this point, Kuron's plan is working near perfectly. While he continues his good standing with the other Paladins, he makes Keith look bad by chastising him for missing missions - even ones as insignificant as a show of arms - and this only proves to make Keith himself more miserable. By making Keith feel both guilty for not being there and unneeded due to Kuron being the "true" leader, Kuron is slowly pushing him out without losing any of his standing. And then comes the tipping point - while Keith is away on a mission with the Blades, some rebels are attacked. But note that as soon as the Paladins show up to help, Galra back up shows up. Awful quick, wasn't it? Why would they need to call for back up before the Lions showed up? It was cargo - they weren't exactly putting up much of a fight. It's almost as if someone tipped off the Galra that the Lions would be there...

And as if on cue, Kuron convinces the Black Lion that the other Paladins won't make it without Voltron. That they need him - there's no other way. And finally the Black Lion gives in, and Kuron gets what he wanted. Keith returns to the others ostracizing him, everyone standing firmly behind Kuron. And after being manipulated by him for months, Keith willingly gives up his Paladin status to Kuron, exactly as planned. Kuron is now a hero and great leader, and the one person that openly challenged his plans is gone.

From this point on, Kuron's real plan begins, the one that should ultimately lead to the destruction of Naxella if all goes well. Aside from the blips that are allowing Pidge to leave to find Matt and using Voltron to see what ship - Lotor's - the Galra were attacking (which are decisions he clearly didn't want to make but seemed to realize he had no choice), Kuron puts all his effort into the Voltron shows. He has the Blades and rebels liberate planets, but he keeps Voltron away from all of that, instead using it to spread hope and gain support within that section of the galaxy. Perhaps he wants to keep Voltron out of it to make sure Naxella is the last planet in the area as it's the most heavily armed and something only Voltron could handle. Or maybe he really does just want to get as many peoples' hopes up as possible so Naxella exploding will seem all the more devastating. Whatever the reason, his plan works, and suddenly Naxella is the last remaining target and they have a ton of support in the area around it.

Perfect place for a gigantic bomb to ruin everything.

The entire plan to take Naxella seems to be Kuron's and Kuron's alone. He is the one telling everybody where they will be and what they will do, making sure even the Blades and Coalition are included. He sets them up perfectly to be in range when the planet explodes. He even has Coran monitoring the Galra communications system that Pidge and Hunk disable from the castle - the same castle Kuron was in when the mysterious Galra reinforcements showed up in season 4 episode 1. Did Kuron do something to the castle? It would explain how the Galra knew when to call for back up earlier and how they now got their communications back online quickly but still after Voltron had nearly taken Naxella, allowing Kuron to brush Coran off when he informs him of Haggar’s battle cruiser because it would arrive too late anyway.

Not to mention explaining why Haggar said "good" when told of the attack. She knew this was coming. She was in on the plan. Why else would she just happen to be on a ship that has a weapon attached to the front - that hadn't been seen in four seasons - needed for the plan? And she knew to shut down both cannons the rebels had taken over as well as how to do that remotely. She had Kuron place them there and then snatched their new weapons away when it was time for the next phase of the plan. Again someone asks Kuron what to do about the stopped battle cruiser - Keith this time - and again Kuron says to leave it alone because it doesn't matter.

But this is where someone other than Keith has ideas that go against Kuron's. Lance is actually the one who, upon noticing the pillars rising from Naxella, orders Pidge to plot a course for their escape. Kuron, of course, overrules him, saying they should "find out what they are" first. Obviously this leads them to being trapped. And when they do escape Voltron and head below to see what's causing it, it is Kuron that suggests Allura try to shut it down. It seems obvious that he knew this would be too much for her, perhaps hoping it would put her out of commission. But she ends up being ok, and much to his disappointment, it is again Lance with the good ideas. He convinced Allura not to try to stop the plant but instead restart Voltron so they can escape. This works, and while I'm guessing this goes against Kuron's ultimate plan, he goes along with it. Maybe he thought they would still be blown to bits anyway. Maybe his Shiro nature kicks in. Maybe he hasn't realized this whole time that it was his actions that lead everyone here and there's a part of him that really does want to escape and stop the planet from exploding. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter, because the plan has worked perfectly and the planet will blow up before Voltron reaches Haggar.

Except, of course, that Lotor ruins it.

But there's the most interesting part. The plan would have worked if not for Lotor. Kuron played his part perfectly - getting control of the Black Lion, getting rid of the dissenter in the group, getting everyone to free all the planets around Naxella while keeping himself and Voltron safe, planning the big, final attack on Naxella itself that would lead to everyone being blown to smithereens... It all would have worked if Lotor hadn't attacked Haggar's ship. (I suppose you could argue that Keith’s kamikaze plan might have worked too, but there’s no guarantee of that.)

But all this begs the question: What now?

Now that that plan has failed, what is Kuron's purpose? Does he have one? Will he be able to conceal the fact that he's not actually Shiro if Lotor, Haggar’s son, joins up? If Keith comes back? If Lance starts to question Kuron's orders due to what happened on Naxella? I get the feeling Kuron will be exposed sooner rather than later, and I am very interested in seeing exactly how that goes down. But for now, I am mighty impressed that they were able to make every decision that Kuron made seem credible at the time and only start to come apart once you really pay attention to what he says and does. And I really love that about seasons 3 and 4.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #shiro voltron #voltron shiro #vld shiro #spoilers #gwydo's musings #...i haven't used that tag in forever XD #but i really wanted to get this out so #here ya go #i'm sorry if you actually read all this because man do i like to ramble #and i felt really stupid i didn't realize all this sooner #but to be fair i only just watched the show a week ago XD #so i'm not too far behind right?

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autisticsheith · 7 years

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Uh. I have nothing to say for myself and absolutely no idea where this thinks it’s going, but it it’s brought to you by the fact that shaggy, long-haired!Shiro/Kuron/whoever apparently makes me crave Sheith-flavored punk AUs, featuring grungy punk Shiro and beleaguered college student Keith.

I literally tossed it off in about an hour-and-a-half, so there is absolutely no plan here and I promise absolutely nothing because I don’t have a clue what I might or might not be promising in the first place. Your guess about what happens next is as good as, if not better than, mine.

Unbeta’d, but it’s really not even a complete fic anyway. Pretty tame, though it contains a few references to casual drug use.

“Okay, guys. How about let’s take it from the top again? And, uh, try to sound better this time?”

Even though he knows the people tormenting him can’t hear him, Keith groans and slams his fist against his desk. The cheap, secondhand lamp rattles, briefly threatens to fall off the edge, then settles down. Rubbing his eyes, Keith glares down at his notes on Jane Eyre, and they might as well be in Ancient Greek, with how much they’re swimming for him right now. Another yawn slips loose as he glances at the alarm clock beside him. Its red digital display reads back 04:06 AM like it gets some perverse joy out of Keith’s current misery. Knowing his luck, it probably does.

For the umpteen-thousandth time tonight, some loud, boisterous asshole in the garage below his shitty little apartment calls out, “And one! Two! One, two, three, four!”

The drums come first, banging out a rhythm that Keith couldn’t make heads or tails of, even if he had gotten a decent night’s sleep this week. Next, comes the keyboardist, who makes no sense as part of a punk band (last Keith heard, this genre was supposed to be stripped down or something), but at least they actually know how to play. If not for constantly interrupting his ability to rest, Keith could probably forgive the bassist, who only sounds garden variety inept. But the lead guitarist charges into the song like a stampede trampling an entire row of china shops. Whoever they are, they make their instrument wail like a cat that’s having its neck broken, and can’t stay on-tempo to save their life.

Keith never made it far in music lessons. His second set of foster parents had tried to make him learn, but Keith had failed to understand a lick of anything his poor teacher had thrown his way. Lessons ended after one afternoon’s practice, when his red plastic recorder had wound up mysteriously embedded in the basement wall. Still, even he can tell that it takes dedication to suck as hard as this band’s guitarist.

“Are you sure those Galaxy Garrison punks are really all that bad?” Allura asked him over lunch the other day, after she’d spent the majority of their Gothic Literary Traditions And Society lecture nudging him so he wouldn’t fall asleep. “I certainly don’t begrudge you being annoyed that they’re so disrespectful. But perhaps you might enjoy the music more under other circumstances.”

Not to be spiteful or anything, but Keith wishes that she were here right now. That’d settle the matter pretty easily. About the only redeeming feature of this alleged music, is that the singer doesn’t suck. Sure, their diction leaves a bit to be desired, and if they helped write the lyrics, then they could’ve done better than all of this derivative man, fuck the system but not in a nice way garbage. But vocally, they’re almost decent.

Still, if Keith could spare the cash, he’d literally pay them to stop singing.

He’s twisting the tab off another can of Mountain Dew as the song abruptly stops. The drums drop out first, then the keyboards, then the strings. The singer cuts short a scream that Keith guesses is supposed to sound artfully anguished. Keith almost lets himself breathe easier. But the chorus of yelling is ten times worse:

“Hey, what’s going—”

“Dammit, Lance, you missed the cue again!”

“Don’t look at me! I was following Pidge!”

“Whoa, hey, excuse you! Since when are your screw-ups suddenly my fault?!”

“Dude, you have to get the cue right or I won’t know when the tempo-shift’s supposed to happen!”

“Stow it, guys! Battle of the Bands is in two weeks, and we’re not gonna beat The Ultraviolents unless we work together and focus on the practice.”

Cringing, Keith digs his fingers into the bridge of his nose. In the back of his mind, a voice that sounds way too much like Allura’s Dad tells him not to grind his teeth, but that only makes Keith do so harder. Whatever, Coran’s not here to chastise him in person, and he doesn’t have to deal with these jack-offs for several hours every single night. He, and Allura, and her Father get to live in a nice penthouse uptown, in a swank building that Keith can’t even look at without feeling underdressed and vaguely nauseated. If anyone like Galaxy Garrison ever tried to hold their shitty band practice at this hour of the night, Alfor and Coran could call the cops and get an actual response.

Keith, on the other hand, can only rely on himself. It’s always been that way, but has gotten truer since he moved in here.

Although the singer’s attempt at a rousing speech should’ve cut this nonsense off, the other three keep shouting. Keith hears the words, but for the moment, they make no sense. Next thing he knows, he’s stomping out into the hall. He doesn’t slam the door, because it might bother Rolo and Nyma in the other flat, and unlike some people, Keith at least tries to respect his neighbors, even when they’re overly friendly and perpetually stink like weed and stale hot dogs.

But that’s about the only thing that Keith can spare a thought for, heading to the rickety stairs, practically on autopilot. He’s halfway down before he notices that he isn’t wearing shoes. God, he hopes there isn’t too much broken glass around tonight.

“Guys, listen up!” the singer cuts in again, as Keith pauses on the bottom stair to yawn. “I know we’re all tired, and I know we’ve all been working hard. But none of us is any better or worse than the others — and we’re only as strong as our ability to work together. This band can’t do well by our music, much less win anything, if we’re fighting like Lennon and McCartney all the time, okay?”

“Oh my god, fucking Beatles references? Really?” groans another one. “Dude, could you sound any more like my abuela?”

“Lance, I’ve known your abuela since we were six, and I have never heard her once talk about the Beatles, or speak anything but Spanish.”

“Totally not the point, Hunk!”

From the sound of it, this Lance one kicks a can against the nearest wall. Keith huffs, closing in on the door.

“All I’m saying is that I can’t get my cues right if Pidge keeps trying all this overly complicated bullshit and—”

“Do you assholes have ANY idea what fucking time it is?!”

It’s not until he’s spit it out that Keith realizes how loud he was. Hovering in the doorway into the garage, he almost regrets that. But he can’t show these punks any weakness or they’ll keep on doing this. So, he glares at them. First, at the big guy behind the drums (who’s cute, actually, with his floppy hair and his belly and his big, strong arms; he looks like someone Keith might not mind, under other circumstances). He wilts as Keith frowns at him, and the way he hangs his head kicks Keith in the regret again.

The petite, bedheaded keyboardist calls a glare her way next, but only because she pipes up, “Excuse me?”

Seething, Keith steps out of the doorway. “I said, ‘Do you assholes have any idea what fucking time it is’?” He folds his arms over his chest. “It’s not a hard question, thanks.”

“Well, what if we don’t want to answer it, man!” The one called Lance is tall and spindly, and looks like a guy Keith might consider going home with, if he’d had a couple drinks and felt particularly lonely. “I mean, who the Hell are you to tell us what time it is, anyway!”

“I’m the guy who lives upstairs, jackass,” Keith snaps. “I’m the guy who lives upstairs who would rather be asleep, instead of dealing with you little shits at four in the fucking morning—”

“Hey, we talked to the other two, and they didn’t mind—”

“I’m not them, though, am I? And unlike them, I can’t afford to knock myself out on cough syrup just to sleep through all your goddamn racket.”

“‘All our goddamn racket’?” Lance drawls back in a mocking tone. He even folds his arms like Keith and cocks a hip. Glancing over at the singer, he says, “Asere, come get this! He sounds even more like my abuela than you do. What’s next, man? Are you gonna tell us to get off of your lawn?”

“I don’t have a lawn, you idiot. I barely have an apartment.”

As Lance and Hunk and Pidge barely manage to hold back their laughter, it occurs to Keith that maybe he should not have taken that insult literally. His cheeks flush hot, and his ears start tingling, because of course, his entire head has to blush in situations like this. Whatever he’s doing, it makes the Pidge one snicker, and when he glares at her again, she doesn’t even try to stop.

Hugging himself tighter, Keith groans and turns toward the singer, ready to verbally eviscerate him, since as far as Keith can tell, he’s the ringleader. The other three respect him (more or less), and in the past few nights’ rehearsals, he’s the one who’s made the most decisions about what songs to go over and who was right or wrong about which dispute or other. This means that he’s the most responsible for this mess out of all of them, and the one who most deserves Keith’s outrage. But the words all die before Keith’s even spit out one of them.

The guy in front of him probably has a good six inches on Keith in height, and the body of someone who you wouldn’t want to mess with. Sure, his ripped jeans hang low on his slim hips, but his weathered Pansy Division crop top shows off a pretty toned set of abs. Even worse, the ripped sleeves highlight a really nice set of arms. There’s a gnarled, nasty-looking scar on the right one, up by the singer’s shoulder, and another one, Keith notices, that goes across his nose and cheeks. Now that he sees it, he can’t believe he’d ever miss it, but in fairness, the singer’s hair falls to his shoulders with a devil-may-care ease about it, mostly black, except for the shaggy forelock that he’s bleached white.

Keith frowns as he takes in the guy’s face. Something about it seems… familiar? But that makes no sense, or does it? Whatever it is, Keith can’t place it. He would remember a jaw like that, and definitely that scar… Maybe he has one of those faces? Or maybe he was in a local commercial? Or—

“Keith?” the singer says, his voice soft and his eyes wide. His lower lip quivers and he knots his brow…

—and realization slams into Keith, and makes him freeze. No, that can’t be right. This singer can’t be who Keith thinks he is, and that person can’t be here — this cannot be happening, because that’s bullshit — even if it weren’t, things like this don’t happen to Keith — this cannot be happening—

“…Keith, right?” he says again. “Keith Kogane?”

Hunching his shoulders, Keith whispers, “…Shiro?” — but he knows it can’t be, because that’s stupid, because Shiro’s gone and things like this don’t happen to Keith. They just do not. Ever. Never, ever in his life has anything like this happened, so why would it decide to happen now.

Except the singer beams at him, and Keith would know that smile if he were blackout drunk. He wrestles his guitar off of himself and hands it off to Lance, and before Keith knows which way is up, there’s a heavy hand on his shoulder. That lasts for maybe half a second, then he’s getting pulled into Shiro’s chest and hugged around the shoulders. Keith’s heart is going so fast, it feels like maybe it just stopped beating. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. There is no way in Hell — Keith must’ve bummed some Nyquil off of Rolo after all, and now he’s passed out upstairs, and he is dreaming some truly fucked up dreams, because this. Shit. Cannot. Be happening.

But Shiro squeezes so tight, it starts to hurt. He lets up and mumbles an apology when Keith wriggles, then tells him, “I thought I’d never see you again…”

It takes Keith a moment to nod, then another one to even think of saying anything. When he gets his mouth around the words, all he can come up with is, “I didn’t… Me neither.”

Dimly, Keith’s just glad that Shiro buries his face in his shoulder instead of asking why Keith sounds weird right now. Keith might be on the spectrum, but even he knows better than to admit that what he’s really thinking is more like, Oh, fuck my life.

#mine: fic #sheith #i don't even know what to call this #and i have absolutely nothing to say for myself #keith x shiro #punk au #au #keith #shiro #lance #hunk #pidge #allura #and stray refs to rolo and nyma + alfor/coran #fic: but boys spring infernal

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