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heyyyharry · 4 years

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Chapter 9: To The Grave

(from ‘The Winter and The Crown’)

…in which Harry remembers something.

Word count: 5.3k

AU: queen!y/n, commander!harry

Description: Y/N and Harry set off on a new adventure to find ‘the cure’ for an ancient curse, meanwhile, the enemies are plotting to take her kingdom.

Wattpad link (Reyna as Y/N)

Jo lit a lantern in the corner, shut the window, and started changing out of her heavy dress into her nightgown. She could feel Mary's intrusive gaze burning holes on her naked back. She tried to ignore it. She tried to ignore Mary. She didn't know how long she'd have to share a room with this witch. Probably until Y/N returned.

If Y/N returned.

Unfortunately, she couldn't even worry about that in peace with the witch stalking her like her own shadow.

"Don't you have better things to do than watch me change?" she asked, wrapping a thin coat around herself as she padded straight to her bed. She wasn't looking at Mary, yet she could feel a smile in the witch's voice.

"You're very pretty."

Jo thought about saying thanks. But she didn't. Mary didn't deserve her thanks. "Go to sleep," she said. "There's a lot to do tomorrow."

As Jo lay down on her back, pulled the covers up to her chest and placed her hands on her stomach, Mary was still sitting crossed-legged on the bed beside her, watching.

"I'm serious. Go to sleep."

"I can't."

"Lie down and close your eyes."

There was only silence. Mary still wasn't moving. Jo let out a harsh sigh then turned over, facing away from the witch. "Stay up then. I don't care."

"Thank you for today."

Jo hadn't expected that, so she was speechless for a moment. "What do you mean?"

Mary giggled softly. "I thought you hated me after what I'd said the other day."

Jo scoffed and shook her head. "All I did today was let you help the maids. It didn't change how I felt about you."

"Oh," Mary replied quietly. She sounded so sad that Jo almost apologised. But then Jo remembered that the whole reason Y/N was out there on her own on this cold winter night was because of Mary, and she immediately stopped feeling guilty.

"Thank you anyway," Mary whispered as Jo didn't speak. Jo heard the sound of sheets ruffling, and the candle beside Mary's bed was blown out. Darkness engulfed the room. Jo shut her eyes and listened to the crackling sound of wood logs burning in the fireplace. The Northwind was whistling outside her window. She let her mind wander, wondering what Y/N might be doing right now, if Harry was still alive, if Lance was still awake.

Those thoughts turned to worry, and worry kept her alert. She ended up lying there, staring at the window. Moonlight left a white square on the carpet. She could see the snowflakes twirling slowly as they fell. Her heartbeats slowed and her breathing became in sync with Mary's. She suddenly wondered if Mary had already nodded off. Why would she care, though? It didn't matter if Mary was awake or not.

"You can't sleep, either?"

The voice startled her even though it was the softest she'd ever heard. She looked over her shoulder to see Mary with her eyes wide open, gazing at the ceiling. Mary turned slowly, and their eyes locked in the semi-darkness. A smile messed up her already scarred face as she spoke, "You know what my sisters and I used to do when we couldn't sleep?"

Jo hated herself for wanting to continue this conversation. "What?" she asked with a sigh.

Mary excitedly sat up on the bed like a happy child. "We braid each other's hair! Distraction and concentration will get us sleepy."

"I'm not braiding your hair, witch."

"Oh, I'd do yours. You don't have to do mine. You have really pretty hair."

Jo squeezed her eyes shut as she exhaled sharply. "Fine."

"Yes!"

Jo pushed herself up. Mary got out of her bed. Instead of sitting down, she stood there, waiting for permission. Jo was probably too exhausted to think straight because, for a second, she thought it was so nice of her.

She scooted over and patted down on the mattress. Mary sat down crossed-legged as Jo turned her back to the witch, letting her luscious blonde hair fall to her lower back. She and Y/N used to do this all the time. Y/N wasn't good at lady-like things. Mary, on the other hand, was rather skilful.

"You were telling the truth. You've done this a lot," Jo remarked.

"What do you mean?" Mary giggled. "Why would I lie about braiding my sisters' hair?"

"I'm sorry. Trust issues," Jo said, making Mary giggle again. It was then that Jo realized that she liked the sound of it.

"I used to braid Y/N's hair. Not since she was crowned Queen, though."

"Because the King was always here?"

"Yeah," Jo said, trying not to sound sad or disappointed. She waited for Mary's intrusive questions, knowing she had plenty of those piling on her tongue. But there was only silence. "Go on. Say it."

"What?"

"I know you want to say something."

"Oh." Mary let out a snort, her fingers frozen in Jo's hair. "I just wanted to say that...the Queen is so lucky to be adored by so many people."

Jo curved her lips. "Well, I wouldn't say 'lucky'. Too much of something is never a good thing. Even if it's love."

"I wouldn't know."

"What do you mean?"

"I've never been loved. Never would be," Mary said, sounding more amused than upset and resumed working on the braid. "I was beautiful, you know."

"Yes. Y/N told me."

"Harry thought I looked like her."

"I could imagine."

"And I used to think that looks were all that mattered, but that's not true."

Jo swallowed as her shoulders slumped. She had thought beauty was a weapon, too. Using it so freely had been the biggest mistake she'd ever made. Sometimes she thought if it hadn't been for her, maybe Harry and Y/N never would have met. It wouldn't mean Y/N would love her, but maybe they would have run away together and have a new life in a cottage somewhere in the forest, far away from here, safe. Even so, she knew this was Y/N's destiny, and she was just a boring side character in it.

"Done," Mary said. Her cold fingers rested on Jo's bare shoulders, making her flinch. Jo thought about pulling away, but Mary gave her shoulders a squeeze and it was so comforting that Jo didn't even want to move.

"You're right," she said, staring at the moonlight on the floor. "I'm getting quite sleepy now."

"So am I," Mary said, yawning. Her fingers slipped right off Jo's skin, and Jo could finally let go of the breath she didn't know she'd been holding.

"Good night, Josephine," Mary said.

"Good night," Jo said, lying back down with her back facing Mary.

"Your Majesty! The emissary from Theros is waiting for you in the throne room."

All eyes skipped to Lance, who was sitting at the end of the meeting table. The announcement had struck him like lightning. He wasn't expecting any emissary, especially one from Theros.

"What's his name?" Lance asked, leaning back in his high chair.

"Lord Wallace, Your Grace."

George Wallace. Lance had met him once at one of Lance's father's annual balls. If Lance remembered correctly, Wallace was a short fat man with a kind face. He used to be King Edgar's most trusted advisor. The fact that he'd travelled all the way here on Calanthe's command was rather suspicious, yet it was unbelievable that he could be a part of Calanthe's evil scheme.

"Would you like to see him now or should I–"

"I'll see him now," Lance said, rising from his chair. The ministers all rose and bowed their heads as Lance made his way to the door and followed the guard into the corridor.

Did George Wallace know that Y/N was absent? Would he still speak to Lance without the Queen's presence? Should Lance be concerned already? There hadn't been any news on what Calanthe was up to, so this could be as bad as he feared.

Lance told the guards to make sure the gates leading in and out of the castle were secure, then he entered the throne room with only two escorts, not wanting to alert the emissary.

As expected, George Wallace didn't look shocked to see Lance instead of the Queen. His nonchalance made Lance's stomach shrivel. It seemed like Wallace already knew that the Queen wouldn't be here. But how could he know that when nothing from Isolde could cross the border to Theros?

"Sir Wallace," Lance said from the high throne. "What a pleasure to meet you again."

"It's my pleasure, Your Majesty," said Wallace with a hand on his chest. "I travelled all the way here to see Her Majesty. Is she not here?"

Even with that question, the look on his face revealed that he already knew the answer.

"No, my Queen is away for two weeks," Lance said, "but whatever you're here to discuss, you could discuss with me."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Wallace said with a scornful smirk.

Lance gathered his fingers into fists. If he could lock this man up for giving an attitude, he would do it without a second thought.

"Queen Calanthe of the high and low courts of Theros sent me here to discuss the matter of war and peace between the two kingdoms."

"War and peace?" Lance tried his best not to scoff as he rested his chin on his knuckles, drumming the fingers of his other hand on the armrest of the throne. "So your Queen admitted to wanting to start a war with Isolde."

"Well, Your Majesty, my Queen has always loved peace–"

"Surely," Lance muttered. If Wallace had heard him, it didn't show.

"But there has been some tension between the two kingdoms since King Egon sent an assassin to murder his own uncle, our beloved King Edgar."

"Has there been a trial?"

"Pardon, Your Majesty?"

"A trial for King Egon," Lance said breezily. "You called my betrothed's late brother a murderer in front of my face in her court, so I'm just wondering if I missed a trial or anything that proved that King Egon had been behind the murder."

Wallace worked his jaw for a second and soon managed to regain his composure. "No, Your Majesty."

"Then I advise you to watch your words, Sir Wallace."

"My apology, Your Majesty. May I say it again? There has been some tension between the North and the South since King Egon supposedly sent an assassin to murder King Edgar."

The corner's of Lance's lips arched in contempt as he chuckled. "Let's just get straight to the point, my lord. What does your Queen propose?"

"Our Queen has enough power to win this war if it's to happen, so she wants to give Queen Y/N a chance to keep Isolde. She wants to have power over twenty low courts in the North."

"You're joking."

"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty."

Lance narrowed his eyes as he sucked in a breath. "Bold of you to come in here and say these words to my face," he said slowly yet angrily.

Wallace, on the other hand, looked as calm as ever. "Those aren't my words, Your Majesty," he said. "I'm only the Queen's messenger."

Lance held the man's gaze for a long moment. He knew Wallace wasn't forced to be here. He was proud to be here and to witness Lance's reaction to this insulting offer to report back to his Queen.

"I'll have to wait for my Queen to return to discuss with her," Lance said coldly. Of course, he knew Y/N would never agree. He would never agree. Calanthe probably already knew it and had only sent Wallace here to taunt him. Whatever her motives were, it was better to have Wallace here and keep an eye on him than let him go back to that snake.

Wallace didn't look at all disappointed in Lance's response as he happily said, "I'd also love to stay to meet the Queen, Your Grace."

"Good," Lance breathed and waved for one of his guards. "I assume you must be tired after that long journey, Lord Wallace. You'll be escorted to your room and treated as our guest."

Wallace gave a bow before he followed the guards to the door where he stopped and turned around. "What a beautiful ring you have, Your Majesty."

Lance tried his best to look unbothered as he peered at the red stone on his finger. "It's one of a kind."

"It must be," Wallace said. "It's...glowing."

Lance mustered a single smile as he tightened his fists. With caution, he watched the guard escort the emissary out of the room.

Y/N knew Harry felt bad about what had happened because he would keep initiating conversations with her. She wanted to laugh and smile and act like nothing was wrong so he'd know she wasn't mad at him. Sadly, she hadn't felt good since she put the knife into that man's throat. It wasn't easy to kill someone and walk away like nothing had happened. She'd thrown up as soon as she'd woken up. Thankfully, Harry wasn't there to see it.

The old Harry wouldn't have judged her without knowing the reasons behind her actions. What was worse than the feeling of guilt she had to carry after killing that man, was the way Harry had looked at her before and after. He didn't trust her, so how could he expect her to trust him?

If she told him that her marriage with Lance was fake, and that she and Lance had been putting on a show and acting like they were in love to win the people's sympathy – the star-crossed lovers who could not live happily ever after because Calanthe was out for their blood – what could guarantee that he wouldn't run around spreading the words? He didn't have to tell every single soul he knew. Just one and the rest would hear it the next day. She could not risk that.

However, she should have told him about the deer, the moon lady, and the shadow man. She hadn't thought that she should, because it wouldn't have made any difference. She was the only one who could see the lady and the man, and only she could hear the deer talk. He wouldn't be able to help. Still, she'd need to tell him everything from now on. They were stuck in these woods together, and the only way for them to survive was to not keep secrets like that. She guessed she'd been at fault, too. They both had been wrong.

"Are you tired?" he asked.

She nodded even though she was holding onto the reins for her dear life. Harry stopped his horse, hopped onto the ground and helped her dismount Thunder. She felt like fainting, probably because she hadn't eaten since yesterday's afternoon. He gave her some water and bread and they sat by a tree, eating and watching the clouds roll by as if this was completely normal.

"We don't know where we're going," she said, hating the silence. "We could be walking in circles this whole time."

Harry blew out his cheeks as he rested both arms on his knees. "Well, if we can't find the lake, at least we could hope that we'd be able to find our way back."

Y/N said nothing. She could not tell him that the kind of magic that had erased his memory had taken away many years of his life. For all she knew, he could die tomorrow. If she told him that, would he be more determined to find the lake? Or would he want to give up for her own sake? Knowing Harry, she believed it would be the latter. He'd tell her that he didn't have anything to lose while she had too much to lose.

"You're not still mad at me, are you?" he asked, quietly.

When she looked up, he was giving her a speculative kind of look.

"No," she said flatly.

"Are you telling the truth?"

"See? You still don't trust me."

To her surprise, he burst out laughing. "See?" he mimicked her tone, shaking his head. "You're still mad at me."

She didn't reply, only sneered at him.

"Ask me anything," he said.

She blinked. "What?"

"Ask me anything and I'll answer honestly. To prove that I trust you."

"I know a lot about you, you know."

"I know." He grinned. "You could ask me something you don't know or something you already know to test me."

Y/N wetted her lips as she glanced skyward. She took a moment to sort out her thoughts. "Tell me...the most memorable day of your childhood."

Harry pursed his lips, thinking. "Well, I was seven or so. Kenny and I chased after this rabbit into the forest and found a rabbit family. We brought two little ones back home and were very excited to take care of them. The next day, they both ended up being cooked for dinner. Kenny and I cried so hard. I probably cried more than she did because I really loved my bunny."

He buried his face into his palms and burst out laughing as he finished his story. Meanwhile, Y/N sat there, gawking at him with a stone-cold expression. As soon as Harry saw it, his laughter died down at once.

"I'm sorry," he said, clearing his throat. "I should not have laughed. Poor bunnies."

Y/N shook her head as she mustered a smile. "No...it's just..."

"Just what?"

It's not the right answer, she wanted to say. She'd ask him this question before, and every single time, his answer would be the night he was working in the kitchen at her uncle's dinner party. Maybe that night didn't exist in his mind anymore. Because all the memories relating to her had been erased.

"Have I told you that story before?" he asked.

"Yeah," she lied.

He groaned in disappointment but was quick to smile again. "See? I trust you."

"I suppose," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "All right. Now you get to ask me a question."

"Really?"

"Yes. I just gave you permission."

Harry rubbed his palms together mischievously, making Y/N laugh.

"Oh, I was going to ask you something embarrassing," he said, "but I have a more important question that I've been wanting to ask."

"And that would be?"

Harry looked oddly reluctant, so Y/N was slightly worried about what he wanted to know. "I...um..." he began to stutter. "Well...the night in the cave...um...after I'd saved you from the river."

The fact that his face reddened as soon as he brought it up was too hilarious. Y/N was trying her best not to crack up and interrupt him.

"I tried to keep you conscious by asking you a question," he said. "I asked you to tell me your most precious memory. And you said...sunset. That was it."

"Oh."

"What does it mean?"

Y/N knew exactly what it meant. She could picture the scene in her head. Wind in his hair. Tears in her eyes. And she could still hear his voice telling her, "I fell in love with you at sunset."

"I don't know," she lied again, peeling her eyes off his in fear that he might notice her dishonesty. "I forgot. Maybe I just...didn't know what you were asking."

"Oh, that makes sense," he said, sounding unbothered.

And so she told herself that he believed her only so she could stop thinking about it. "We should get going. It gets dark quickly."

"We really should," Harry agreed, stood up and gave her a hand. Y/N got back to her feet then released him as fast as she could. And as she got onto Thunder's back, she could feel that his eyes were still watching her.

They kept on moving. It wasn't too long until the last daylight had faded and darkness took over the forest. Having spent over a week on this mountain, the dark shapes of trees had become familiar yet unusually comforting to Y/N. She still missed the palace, her soft warm bed, and sleeping in somebody's arms and not having to wake up crying over a nightmare.

But it didn't matter anymore, because she was now familiar with the cold and darkness; she was no longer afraid. Loneliness, however, was something she could never get used to. And the fact that Harry was with her this whole time, yet it felt like she was on her own, made her think that things could never go back to the way they'd been before she'd lost him. Sometimes, like earlier, he would look at her like the part that loved her was still fighting for its freedom. Sadly, most of the time, he felt like a stranger.

Maybe she should just give up, let him go like she'd said she would. One would always be happier without the burden of the past. It was easier for her to say otherwise because she had never been in his shoes. But it was human nature to choose the easy way out. So if the same thing had happened to her, she might have also chosen to forget.

It didn't have to hurt. They could still be happy. Just not together. She already had someone who loved her back home, someone she would marry, someone that would be by her side as she ruled a kingdom, someone whom her people would accept. And she knew she loved Lance; she just wasn't sure if it was the same way that she loved Harry, but feelings could grow, given time. As for Harry, he could travel the world, be whoever he wanted to be, or he could go back to his family, and he'd meet new people, fall in love and have children. She would get over him eventually. She'd lost so many people and moved on. She could do it again...

"Your Majesty."

Y/N blinked fast and caught Harry staring at her with an unreadable expression.

"You seemed distracted."

"Sorry." She cleared her throat, hurrying around the trees to catch up with him and the horses. The moon was bright tonight and the air was cold, so they'd decided to get off their horses and walk to keep themselves warm. "You were saying?"

Harry thinned his lips. "I said I remembered something."

"Yeah, what is it?"

"No...I mean...I had this vision just now...I remember something."

Y/N felt a hard quick pulse in her throat as shock froze her to the spot. She gaped at him as he looked skyward as if trying to keep that memory from slipping away. Her heart beat faster, pounding against her ribcage so hard it hurt.

"We were setting off on a journey," he started, his eyes pinched shut as he kneaded his temple. "You, me, the King and many others."

"And?" she prompted, impatiently.

"You...you told me to stay alive."

"It was the day of the attack," Y/N said quickly, her voice quavering. "What-what else do you remember?"

He swallowed, the look in his eyes softened as they met hers. "I-I wanted to hug you, but I think I wasn't allowed to. That...that was also the last thing on my mind before I lost consciousness...I wished I'd held you one last time."

Y/N could not utter a single word. She threw both arms around his neck and together they ended up in a heap on the snow-covered ground. She was laughing uncontrollably and he was, too, even though she could tell how confused he was.

"You remember..." she whispered, arms tightened around his neck.

Carefully, he placed his hands on her back and pressed her closer against him. "Well, not a lot, but–" she sensed a smile in his voice, "you do give great hugs."

She pulled back and cupped his face. "This is good. This is very good. Believe me. You will remember everything."

Was it the cold or had his cheeks turned a bit red? Well, it didn't matter. She was already too happy. The first memory of her that had returned had been the last one he'd had of her. Maybe he'd start remembering backwards. If so, it wouldn't be too long until he remembered how much he'd loved her.

It took Y/N a moment to realize that she was still on top of him, so she hurriedly apologized and pushed herself up off the ground.

He chuckled as she adjusted her clothes and asked him if he was all right.

"Your hugs are as violent as I expected," he teased, head tilted to the side. "But it's all right. I liked that." There was a quiet moment before he went on, "I think some of the things in my dreams were real memories, too."

"Yeah?" She hated how elated she sounded even though he didn't seem to notice as he gave a nod.

"I just can't tell them apart. I think I need more time."

Y/N swallowed, keeping her voice calm and steady. "I understand."

She hated it, though. Time. But she didn't mind waiting as long as Harry wasn't giving up.

"Please be patient with me."

At first, Y/N thought that those words were her own. When she realized they were his, she looked at him with her eyes wide and mouth open, wondering if he'd hit his head when she'd knocked him to the ground.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

He suddenly seemed reluctant and shy. "I thought about what you said, and...also...that memory of you made me think...you meant a lot to me in the past." He looked up and their eyes met. "So I want to remember."

She pressed her lips together, trying to compose herself before saying, "Good," with a single nod. Her heart blossomed as she watched dimples appear on his pink cheeks. There was a look of wonder in his eyes as he cocked his head to the side and said, "There's something in your hair."

She froze as he outstretched his arm, and his fingers brushed gently over a strand of her hair. A tiny bit of light dashed up over her head, startling them both.

"A firefly!" Y/N exclaimed.

There wasn't just one.

All around them, fireflies, thousands of them, appeared from the trees and the grass. It felt like they were walking through stars.

"I've never seen so many fireflies before," Y/N said.

"Maybe they're not really fireflies. Maybe they're the spirits of the forest trying to tell us something."

"I hope they won't kill us."

"What are you talking about?" Harry scoffed, waving away a swarm of light by his head. "They're harmless."

Y/N let out a nervous laugh as the fireflies danced around her feet. "This reminds me of the ballroom on my tenth birthday," she said. "They put up decorations that looked like a thousand fireflies!" Then she threw her arms over her head, got on her tiptoes and did a twirl. Harry chuckled as she offered him a hand. "Would you like to dance?"

He shook his head fast, hands clasped together behind him. "Oh no, I don't dance."

"Yes, you do," she said, giggling. "You're just not good at it."

"I'd rather not embarrass myself in front of you, Your Majesty," he made a face and glanced around, "or our new friends."

Y/N scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "Oh, please, come on. Don't kill the joy. I'll guide you." Without waiting for him to say yes, she grabbed him by the hand and pulled him in. He let out a surprised gasp. The startled look on his face was soon replaced by a nervous grin. "Put this hand on my waist. Now hold my other hand. That's right. Don't think. Just follow my lead."

And so they started to dance without music in a sea of fireflies. Harry was careless and kept stepping on her foot and apologising for it only to do it again. It took him a moment to finally relax and realize that she wasn't going to murder him for not being able to dance. Then it didn't matter who was taking the lead anymore; they were just dancing like they were the only two living creatures in these woods, like time had stood still, and this moment was all that they had.

If they died in the morning and this was the last memory they shared, Y/N would be happy to take it with her to the grave.

"There you are. What took you so long?"

"I had to wait for the Lady-in-waiting to sleep."

The tiny figure pulled the hood over his head, revealing his round face under the dim firelight from the lantern Mary was holding. They were in the courtyard. Mary had been in the castle long enough to know that the guard, who was supposed to be watching this area, would always give himself a long break at this hour.

"She killed one of our men," George Wallace said, glancing nervously around to make sure no one was here but the two of them.

"What?"

"That bitch," he hissed. "Soon Queen Calanthe will rule over one hundred kingdoms and I cannot wait to see what she'd do to the brat."

Mary wanted to say that Calanthe was around the same age as Queen Y/N, but she wasn't going to have a debate with Wallace right here right now.

"The Queen wants me to check on you."

"I'm fine," she said, putting an arm around herself guardedly. "They treat me well." Too well. Sometimes she allowed herself to forget that she was here as a spy, not a guest.

"The Queen doesn't care how they treat you, idiot," Wallace said coldly. "She wants to make sure that you didn't lie to her about the lake. It seemed like Y/N didn't know where she was going."

"The lake does exist," Mary said. "Believe me. Y/N is the only way for us to find it. Blood calls to blood."

She wasn't sure if her words had pacified Wallace. It was hard to tell as he always seemed harmless yet he was one of the most calculated men in the Theros court.

"I must go now," he said, securing his robe. But instead of leaving right away, he eyed her up and down and lowered his voice. "They have been treating you well, haven't they?"

"Yes."

"Mmmm." He lifted his non-existent chin. "If you betray the Queen, the Monks will know about it." Mary swallowed at the thoughts. "They'll make sure to put up your ugly head at the gate after we've won the war."

Just like that, he turned and walked away. Mary clenched her teeth and her fists as she waited until his tiny figure was out of sight to return to her room. She had wanted nothing more than to break Wallace's neck, but it didn't mean what he'd said wasn't true.

No matter how well these people had been treating her, it was either her or them. And she didn't survive this long to continue putting other people's lives above her own.

#harry styles #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles series #harry styles writing #harry styles x you #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x reader #tctm series

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ultraglittercat · 4 years

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Drabble 136

Christmas Plans

The year was almost over, and everyone was excited for what changes the new year would bring. In Rapunzel and Eugene's case, the new year would see them become parents, as Rapunzel was about 7 months pregnant now and looking forward to seeing their beautiful baby be born. For Kiera and Catalina, a new year meant mastering new skills, as they were showing great improvement in ballet class (along with Varian, who was still bemused at how he'd ended up joining their lessons.) For Varian, a new year meant refining old inventions and creating new ones as the Royal Engineer. For Quirin a new year meant new crops to harvest and new livestock to raise. And for Lance, a new year meant passing on the parenting tips he'd learned and showering his daughters with love and praise.

They were all bundled up and wandering around town, looking at the winter decorations. Even Eugene had been persuaded to come see the sights. He was grumbling, but not as much as usual, as every so often he would look at Rapunzel and smile. Rapunzel was absolutely in awe of everything she saw. Growing up, Mothel Gothel had never celebrated the holidays, even Rapunzel's birthday was just another day where she made hazelnut soup and Rapunzel did chores and sang her healing song to rejuvenate Gothel. Rapunzel hadn't realized how much she'd missed, until she left her tower. And even now, 3 years later she was still amazed.

“Look at Monty's! It's so festive!” she squealed. Monty had placed gingerbread houses and peppermint sticks in a window display. Attila had hung a wreath on the door and some garland. The other shops were similarly decked out in red and green, and several stores had Christmas trees still out.

“I hope we find a good present for Dad.” Catalina said as they walked. She and Kiera had pooled their allowance, and had a good amount of gold and silver pieces saved. They excused themselves to go into Monty's Sweet Shoppe. Rapunzel smiled, thinking how much the girls had grown since they'd first met them as cautious and bitter thieves, to selfless and loving young ladies who wanted to surprise their Dad with something nice. Lance even teared up a bit, hearing they were going to get him a gift.

“I bet the girls find something great. Corona's a good place to shop.” Varian noted. He looked longingly at a cucurbit in a shop, a rounded container meant to hold a substance being distilled.

“You know Varian, if there's something you need for your engineering or alchemy work, you can request money from the Royal Treasury.” Rapunzel told him.

“I know, but I feel guilty about asking, like I still owe everyone in Corona an apology for what I've done in the past, and I don't deserve to take their money. I'll find another way to get what I need.” Varian explained.

“Varian, you're a good kid. But I understand if you don't feel like asking now. Just remember the offer always stands.” Rapunzel said. Varian nodded and continued to walk around town with the group.

Eugene spotted a canvas painting bag in an arts and crafts store and knew he'd have to come back later to buy it for Rapunzel. Picturing her happy expression on Christmas Day was worth being outside in the chilly winter weather.

“We'll see you all tomorrow for the Christmas party, right?” Rapunzel asked as the girls came running back, holding a medium-sized wrapped present.

“Of course, there's no way we'd miss it.” Lance assured her.

“Dad and me have a lot of work to do on the farm in the next few weeks, but we won't start until after the party.” Varian said.

“That's right. Christmas is a time for visiting friends and family.” added Quirin. For nearly 14 years, it had been just him and Varian, but now he counted Rapunzel, Eugene, Lance, Kiera, and Catalina as friends of the family and he looked forward to baking an apple pie for all of them. It was good that Varian had made so many friends, back in Old Corona he only really got along with Katie the seamstress and Pamela the jeweler (and it was a bit hard to tell in Pamela's case.)

“I'm so excited, you're all going to be there! Mom and I had a blast setting up the ballroom for the party. All that's left is the Christmas tree, because I wanted us to put on the ornaments together. I even painted a few myself. And of course, it wouldn't be a Christmas tree without a star on top, which Eugene is gonna place this year.” Rapunzel detailed.

“Really? But that's the most important part! Shouldn't your father do it?” Eugene was taken aback.

“Dad wants you to, he's really warmed up to you Eugene. He's been in a great mood all December, I think he's really looking forward to being a grandparent.” Rapunzel smiled.

“I know how he feels, being a Dad feels like it's going to be the biggest and best change in my life, after marrying you of course.” Eugene replied.

“Parenthood's a big step but I know you're ready, just as I was ready to adopt my girls.” Lance spoke up.

“I don't know if any father's really ready for all the challenges parenting brings.” Quirin chuckled. “But it's worth any trouble your kid causes.”

Varian looked a little sheepish. Even at 17, he could still feel called out. Still, he knew his father loved him, and Varian loved Quirin in return.

“It's great that we had this talk. But don't you guys think it's getting cold out here? We really should go back inside.” Eugene wouldn't be Eugene if he didn't complain about the winter weather at least once a day.

“Yeah, we should start heading home. But we'll come back tomorrow for the party. See you guys soon.” Varian said. Quirin nodded as he and Varian said goodbye.

“See you tomorrow! Let's go home, girls and maybe take a peek at that present?” Lance suggested.

“No peeking, Dad!” laughed the girls. They were determined to have their gift be a surprise. Lance sighed, he knew when he was outmatched, so he picked up Angry and carried her on his shoulders, while he held Catalina's hand as they walked together.

Rapunzel grinned. “We have the best friends, don't we?” she mused.

“And we have the best castle, where it's nice and warm.” Eugene said pointedly. Rapunzel laughed. Eugene had his quirks, but she truly loved him, and would do whatever it took to make him happy. And right now, that meant going back to the castle, where she would kiss him under the mistletoe.

The End

Christmas is really coming! We have all the holiday books on display at the library now, and the WalMart I go to has their Christmas food and decorations in store. It's still pretty warm where I live, but there are other signs of Christmas everywhere I look.

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pandoraseevee · 5 years

Text

Voltron Season 8 Rewrite

Full disclosure: This was inspired by @lotor-and-his-generals rewrite of Season 6. Go give it a read its 100% better than the real Season 6. As the title suggests, this is a complete rewrite of Season 8. Some of the plot points here were inspired by the metas of #TeamPurpleLion (@felixazrael, @voltronisruiningmylife, @leakinghate, @dragonofyang, and @crystal-rebellion), @kcwcommentary commentaries, and @ptw30 regarding Shiro’s character arc.

This will cover the first 6 episodes of the season (Launch Date to Genesis in case you forgot) Please note, there are a thousand ways to rewrite this egregious finale, this is just my idea (one of many floating in my brain lol) of how I think everything should of gone down.

Warning: Very, very, very long post ahead because I tend to ramble-write. Especially if it’s a scene I really enjoyed planning.

~A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER IN THIS REWRITE~

1) Lance’s sexuality will be addressed; it’ll be one of the most important arcs he’ll have in this rewrite. I don’t mean to rag on what is canon, but you can’t suddenly thrust two characters into relationship when one of them has been harassing the other for 6 seasons and the other just went through one of the worst breakups in fiction ever. (Also that whole deal of Lance holding the LGBT sign with Shiro, like that had to mean something) Shiro will be one of the key players in his arc because he’s Space Dad and speaking of Space Dad...

2) ADAM. IS. ALIVE. Because if Hunk, Pidge, and Lance’s families were able to stay alive during Sendak’s Invasion, Adam can too! Instead of dying, it’s a fake-out death like Veronica’s. A very long fake-out death. His ship isn’t blasted head on, but one of the wings is severely damaged and he falls dead stick into the dessert. Because MIA doesn’t seem exist in the Galaxy Garrison, they report him as deceased. In this rewrite, he’s actually in one of the concentration camps, the same one Hunk’s family was in. He suffers from a painful leg burn that leads to his leg being amputated and staying on Space Crutches until Team Voltron defeats Sendak and Honerva’s Robeast. He and Shiro were reunited when he arrived at the Garrison Hospital for proper treatment and it was filled with angst, tears, and then a happy mutual understanding between them.

3) Allura’s Altean alchemy is continuously growing throughout this season. She thought that she had exhausted all the lessons she learned from Oriande between the Sincline fight and reviving Shiro. Upon learning this, she along with Sam Holt and the Garrison were able to develop new weapons for the entirety of the Atlas, including a few new MFE Fighters. This culminates in the first episode of this rewrite and going off of that...

5) Lion Swap is undone this season. I thought it made sense when I first watched it but then I realized it was purely done for nostalgia points. I highly recommend you go read @janestrider meta The Wolf, The Atlas, and The Bayard about how Black Paladin Shiro was supposed to come back in Season 7 until the the studios were forced to keep Black Paladin Keith. In reality Black Paladin Keith only lasted for one episode in Season 3, and at least 2 and a half episodes in Season 6. The rest of the time he’s either with the Blade, on his own, or gets the team in deeper trouble. (I still love him tho) So Allura gets the leadership position she deserves, Shiro gets to lead Voltron again, and Keith isn’t as much of a loner anymore!

6) (My thoughts/commentaries will be formatted like this) (I’ll provide some extra commentary throughout the rewrites.)

7) If you want to read these rewrites individually you can start here: Launch Date - Shadows - The Prisoner’s Dillema - Battle Scars - The Grudge - Genesis

Now, are you ready? Here we go!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Episode 1: Launch Date~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(The image above should change so that Allura is in Shiro’s place, Shiro is in Keith’s place, and Keith is in Allura’s place)

The opening of this episode is relatively the same with Pidge and Bebe watching 80′s!Voltron, Allura and Romelle talking about Luca while she’s resting in the medical wing, and finally Hunk and his family and Lance in the cafeteria. Unlike in the original episode, Lance isn’t creepily obsessive over Allura in this scene when Hunk brings up 80′s!Keith and Allura’s relationship (bleh). Instead, because he also watches the show, laughs and says “They made Keith and Allura’s story of running away from the Castle so romantic. It was Romeo and Juliet but in space!” He laughs again. Suddenly Lance gets uncomfortable and awkwardly coughs, remembering that Allura did fall in love with a half-Galra, just not Keith. Hunk notices this and tries to change the subject to cheer him up.

Hunk: It’s our last day on Earth. Boy, I thought I would never say those words but here we are.

Lance: Yeah, crazy...

Hunk: So, how’re you gonna spend these last 24 hours? Besides getting the proper 7-8 hours of sleep?

Lance (who begins to smile again): Well, my family’s having a huge dinner. Ma and Pa want to savor every minute with Veronica and I. And Nadia and Silvio wanna hear about our adventures one more time even though they hear it every night before bed.

Hunk then suggests that maybe he should ask Allura out. Lance blushes and tries to evade the subject of a date. When questioned by Hunk, he falls back to the same excuse that she’s too busy with Romelle and the Altean pilot. Hunk’s siblings (cousins?) overhear the conversation, deciding that Lance’s lovelife was more interesting then whatever they were playing. They pester and pressure Lance into asking the pretty princess out on a date. Chanting “Ask her! Ask her! Ask her!” until he finally gives in and agrees to just to get them to shut up. They cheer and return to their game. Lance sighs a mushroom cloud.

The Voltron Coalition meeting proceeds as usual but one major change: Allura is the one standing beside Shiro, not Veronica. Princess Allura is the leader of the Voltron Coalition so she should be held in the same position as Shiro if not higher. Everyone in the Coalition still defer to her even though she doesn’t have her crown yet. But because they’re on Earth, she allows Shiro to take charge of the meetings in this episode. Shiro goes through the mandatory “Is the Atlas fully prepared?” questions before he makes his biggest announcement: He will not be commanding the ATLAS during this mission.

The Garrison and the Coalition are in shock. Iverson asks who would be commanding the ATLAS if not Shiro. Shiro says that it’ll be commanded by Allura. Even she is shocked at the development. Shiro admits that while the crew would be more comfortable with Shiro as the leader, Allura knows more about space then he does. And the Castle crystal being its main power source essentially makes it hers. Hunk then asks where Shiro will go if he’s not in the ATLAS. Keith answers the Black Lion. Team Voltron realizes that meant that Keith would go back to Red and Lance would go back to Blue, undoing the Lion Swap. Lance isn’t as agitated with this Lion (Un) Swap unlike in Season 3. He almost seems relieved that Keith is taking back Red. “Red misses you. A lot.” Is his response.

Shiro moves aside and allows Allura to step forward. She clears her throat to settle the commotion and asks one of the medics for an update on Luca’s condition. They say that she’s sleeping and expect her to wake up in a few hours. Without missing a beat, she asks Matt, Rolo, and Nyma how many weapons they have in storage, they say they have enough to give everyone on the ATLAS one blaster for protection thanks to her alchemy. Smiling, she then asks Kolivan and Krolia if their mission of restoring the Blade has made progress. They say that while they have recruited a few before their arrival on Earth, they’ll have a better chance once the ATLAS takes flight. She moves her gaze over to Slav, who’s as fidgety as ever, and asks if they’re doing anything wrong. Slav says that there’s a 65.4% chance that something big is going to happen to them in this reality. She asks if it’s something good or something bad. Slav says he can’t make a precise calculation until again, the ATLAS takes flight. This makes the boardroom even more uneasy.

Allura once again tells everyone to settle down, saying that they’re last day on Earth shouldn’t be filled with fear, but with remembrance and happiness. “Spend the day with the ones you love.” As she says that, Shiro’s gaze not-so-subtly slides to Adam, who can’t keep a straight face and blushes. With that, Allura dismisses the meeting. Allura and Romelle exit together, Lance following very, very far behind them. Hunk, irritated, pushes Lance towards Allura. Lance apologizes profusely, Allura reassures him its alright and asks if he needed something. Lance, hesitantly and stuttering, asks Allura if she wanted to have dinner with him and his family. Allura gently rejects the invite, repeating what Lance told Hunk, and that she wants to be there when Luca wakes up. Romelle, not liking how Allura isn’t following her own advice, tells her that she’ll watch over Luca and update her if something happens. Allura thanks her but she still isn’t sure, since they have that sleepover planned with the MFE girls and are going to the mall. Romelle insists that she has fun on her last day on Earth.

Lance silently watches them go back and forth, he sees Hunk give him a thumbs up. He also notices Keith, Shiro, and Adam (the latter two holding hands) exiting the boardroom. Keith is snorting into his hand at what might’ve been a really bad joke Adam told Shiro. Lance stares blankly, he had never seen Keith’s face twist that way before. He decides he really likes it. He watches the trio disappear around a corner before he’s brought back to the present by Allura calling his name. He hopes no one saw him staring at Keith’s suddenly pretty face.

Lance (blushing): Y-Yeah Allura?

Allura: I said that I can’t join you and your family for dinner.

Lance (hurt by the rejection but doesn’t show it): Really? Is that your final answer? You can still change your mind...

Allura (nods): Yes, that is my final answer. I’m sorry

Lance (he smiles so much that his cheeks hurt): Oh, that’s fine! No harm done!

Allura (nods again, smiling): That’s wonderful to hear.

Lance tells her he’ll see her later and lets the Altean girls walk past him. He waits until they round the opposite corner before he sighs, disappointed. Hunk pats his back, saying he’s sorry he pushed him into doing that. Lance chuckles, saying that he kinda expected the rejection. He hears snuffling and sees Kosmo watching them, he blinks and teleports. Lance and Hunk shrug it off and walk away.

(HAHA Bait and Switch!) (Biggest change in this episode is that it’s not an Allurance Date Episode, it’s an Adashi Date Episode)

The shopping scene is too great to remove tho. So, instead of shopping for a date outfit, the MFE girls help the Altean girls buy Earth clothing because it can get kinda boring to wear their Garrison uniforms all the time. Some extra girl-bonding between all of them (minus Pidge cause she’s grounded but she can drop by every few min). Maybe Rizavi can introduce the Altean girls to those soft mall pretzels. (The wait would be a pain tho cause they’d have to do it one at time lmao)

Allura’s Earth outfit would have a few revisions to it: it would have a fuller skirt (Maybe those full circle swing skirts from the 1950′s) because she’s a princess. Maybe a light blue shawl too. Romelle’s outfit would totally be a modern version of her hot pink dress from 80′s!Voltron. Pidge still gives the Unilu shopkeeper her game. The girls leave and Unilu shopkeeper sees Pidge holding another game. He feels cheated but it’s revealed that Pidge and Rizavi each bought one game for themselves. Pidge’s copy of the game is the one she gave him. Rizavi and Pidge agree to take one player slot and play the game separately, No spoilers, or bust. They shake on it and all head back to the Garrison.

Keith and Kosmo aren’t chilling on the Black Lion, they’re just on one of the Garrison rooftops. Team Dad Shiro and Adam are with him too. Probably cuddling. (What good maybe-boyfriends uwu) Keith isn’t jealous of how easy-going their relationship is. Lance greets them like he did in the original episode. Adam jokes that he looked like he ran a marathon, Lance responds that he probably did.

Shiro: Coran?

Lance: Coran

The trio nods in understanding. Keith fondly asks what crazy antics he did this time. Lance explains the whole ‘Not a Date, it’s Dinner, Ok it might be a Date’ situation with Allura. Keith congrats Lance although Team Dad notices he’s saying it weirdly. Lance corrects him saying that Allura rejected him.

However, while they were doing something he eventually forgot about Allura accidentally let it slip and Coran started his patriarchal bs we see in the original episode. Lance absolutely noped out of there but said that he would like to learn about Altean vestments another time. Keith and Lance have their Sunset Conversation. Shiro and Adam observe, not wanting to intrude.

Suddenly, Lance asks how they (Adam and Shiro) realized they liked men. Shiro chuckles and says that it took a while for them both to realize it. They’ve lived different lives. Shiro’s father died during World War III and Adam’s parents were not as accepting of his sexuality as Shiro’s mother. He had to stay with a friend before he got into the Garrison. Adam says it’s normal for someone to deny their sexuality. “But if you think that it’s part of you then embrace it. Because it makes you you.” Adam says, Shiro lays his head on his shoulder. Keith fake gags. Lance remembers that. And then he also remembers what he was doing earlier. He tells the group that Allura needed Shiro and Keith for something. It’s about the Lions and Kosmo teleports all of them there.

Allura, Hunk, Pidge, and Coran are with the Lions. Black, Red, and Blue have their shields up. Allura says that Shiro, Keith, and Lance have to reestablish the bonds with their Lions. For Shiro, that’s pretty easy. All the time in Black’s consciousness did nothing but strengthen their bond even more. He places his human hand on the shield and whispers, “Trust me.” The shield goes down and Black rests its head against his hand, it’s eyes glowing. He smiles.

Keith clenches his fist, staring up at Red. Lance gently bumps his shoulder, “Where’s Voltron without its right hand Lion?” Everyone laughs lightly at the joke. Keith gives Lance that soft look he always gives him. Lance decides he likes that face on Keith too and hands him back the Red Bayard. Keith approaches the shield. “Red, are you there?” No response.

Keith (sighing): Look, I know you’re mad at me. I left you to lead Voltron when Shiro disappeared. He wanted me to take his place if anything happened to him. He believed in me, he’s always believed in me, and I’m so grateful that he still does. But...I never wanted to lead Voltron. Black and I bonded out of necessity. I learned to open myself to the team when I piloted you. And then I understood the responsibility of holding a position like this when piloting Black. And I now want keep learning about this, this bond that’s beyond myself, with you.

It takes a few minutes but Red’s shield goes down. Keith smirks, welcoming Red’s attitude again. He looks over to Lance, “Your turn.” Lance stretches his arms, “Ok, here we go.” And approaches the Blue Lion.

Lance: Blue? Heeyyy, girl~ I’ve missed you.

Like Red, Blue doesn’t respond. Lance brushes it off, he hasn’t bonded with Blue in a while it’s alright. He tries again. When Blue still doesn’t respond, he places his hands on his hips. “Do I have to use my particle barrier line on you again?” Still nothing. Lance huffs. “Then what do you want!? I’m sorry! I had to pilot Red! You know that! You were the one that shut me out first remember!?”

Allura: The Blue Lion is the most versatile of the Lions, its attacks cover a wide range on the battlefield and its flexibility is what makes it the most accepting of new Paladins. However that makes them incredibly devoted and sensitive to their Paladins. They must be flexible themselves as well as powerful to steer the Blue Lion on task.

Lance: Flexible and powerful huh? Well, the Blue Lion is a leg of Voltron. So it’s a support Lion right? Not to the same degree as Red’s support to Black but you know what I mean. When I left Blue for Red, I did it because I accepted Keith as the Black Paladin. Keith needed a right hand man the same way Shiro needed him. And then when you became a Paladin...I was willing to step away so that you, Shiro, and Keith could have spots on the team. So...I still have what it takes to pilot Blue! Because everything I did was to keep the Team together! Even if it meant leaving Blue.

Allura: Exactly Lonce!

Blue’s shield goes down, everybody cheers. Pidge says that the ‘6 Paladins, 5 Lions’ situation shouldn’t be a problem. If Shiro’s down Keith can take over, if Keith is down Lance can take over, and Allura can take over for any of them since she’s connected to all of them. Allura agrees and gives the Blue Bayard back to Lance.

Hunk tries to imagine how crazy the team dynamic would’ve been if he and Pidge were in the Lion Swap too. Pidge jokes that they wouldn’t make it. Everyone laughs. No one notices that the Lions eyes are glowing, communicating with each other.

Dinner at the McClain’s goes smoothly. When Veronica asks Lance about Keith, she calmly watches Lance flip his lid while exchanging smug glances with Ma McClain. Ma McClain shakes her head, smiling. Nadia and Silvio want to hear about how Lance saved Allura during the Omega Shield mission. Lance corrects them and says, “She technically saved me too. It was a double save!” He laughs along with the rest of the McClains. Nadia comments that Allura really is a Princess, she has a crown, a carriage (Blue), and magical powers. She just needs a Prince. Silvio says that Uncle Lance is already her Prince. Lance grows tense, but no one notices.

The two children ask if Lance really has to leave them so soon. Ma and Pa McClain voice their concerns as well. Lance says that its his duty as the Blue Paladin. The McClain’s are confused cause they remember him piloting Red. Veronica tells them about the Lion (un) Swap. Lance then repeats what Allura told the Paladins about Blue. The McClains are very impressed with Lance’s maturity. Veronica then proposes a toast, to Lance, to the Voltron Lions, to ATLAS, and last but most importantly, family. Everyone joins the toast.

A short montage plays of how Team Voltron is spending their last day. Starting off with the McClain family toast and transitioning Hunk and his family playing Stack-A-Ton (Voltron’s version of Janga lmao). Shay asks if she can join and is actually pretty good at it, Hunk is a proud boyfriend. Pidge and her family are making last preparations on the ATLAS, Beezer wheeling around to give them food and drinks. He then darts away when Bebe tries to jump him. The MFE and Altean girls singing along to a digital speaker in one of their bunkers. And then it ends with biggest change of the episode: dinner at the Shirogane household.

Shiro is in his room, adjusting his clothing. He goes to move the right sleeve of his button up down, then realizes the rest of his arm is floating. He laughs to himself, watching his loose sleeve flop around as he walks around. “Need help with that?” Shiro turns and finds Adam leaning against the door-frame. “Please.” He says and Adam does the rest the buttons for him. He rolls up the loose sleeve and makes sure it doesn’t move when they realize how close they are. (UST, UST, UST, baby~) They both look like they want to say something but then they hear someone knocking on the door.

Shiro, Adam, and Shiro’s mother, Mizuki Shirogane, welcome Keith and his family. Mizuki embraces Keith like a second child and they are seated. She doesn’t bat an eye when Kolivan and Krolia apply the Galra custom of placing their weapon in front of their plates to an Earth household. (Kolivan is courting Krolia at the end of Season 7, that’s why he’s with them) Mizuki and Krolia get along exceptionally well; being two hard-working single mothers, they bond over many things. Krolia thanks Mizuki for raising Keith alongside Shiro. Mizuki says that it wasn’t easy.

Mizuki: I felt like I was raising two sons when Shiro took Keith under his wing.

Shiro (laughing): Okaa-san!

Mizuki: You knew what you were getting into, Takashi!

Adam: Oh, he definitely did.

Shiro (jokingly pushes him): Hey! Nobody asked you!

They all have a good laugh. Kolivan is slightly miffed that the Shirogane family cat, Marble, has decided his lap was a nice place to roll around, Keith tries not to snort the orange juice out of his nose at the sight. Kosmo eats the table scrapes, cause he’s not a normal wolf and he can eat almost anything. “Dang, that wolf eats more than the MFE’s!” Adam wonders how big he’s going to grow, Keith can’t answer that and (jokingly) realizes he made a mistake bringing him back with him. Kosmo whimpers and Keith offers him his grilled salmon as an apology.

While Adam and Shiro are cleaning the dishes, Mizuki offers their guests some homemade dorayaki in the living room. Keith greedily chomps down on them. Krolia and Kolivan look at the new food strangely, Kosmo. Keith offers one to his mom, “They’re a sweet...bread...sort of. Ms. Shirogane made them all the time for us. She has a secret recipe that makes them extra tasty.” Krolia takes a bite and also chomps them down. She tries to apologize to Mizuki in between bites but she remarks that she’s always cooked for big eaters. “Why do you think Takashi is as big as he is today?” Shiro blushes bright red and flicks bubbles at Adam when he laughs.

The lights in the Shirogane household flicker. Krolia, Kolivan, and Keith are ready for an attack. Marble jumps and scurries to Mizuki. She calms them down and says that its just maintenance in the Plaht city. “They must’ve gotten the city lights to finally work.” Adam gasps and takes Shiro’s hand and they run out of the kitchen. Mizuki and Keith’s family are left wide-eyed, Keith winks at them. Shiro asks where they’re going, Adam shushes him and brings his hands over his eyes. “It’s a surprise~” Shiro laughs, carefree and joyful. Adam suddenly stops and slowly removes his hands.

“Okay, you can open them now.” Shiro opens his eyes and sees that they’re on the balcony, in the distance Plaht City is engulfed in warm, golden light. He’s in awe, slowly walking to the balcony’s edge to take in the view. “Wow...” (I imagined the Shirogane household to be house that looked over the city)

(And for extra feels listen to either of these tracks: Track 1 or Track 2)

Adam: I know the re-entry caused you some memory loss, but I thought this might bring some of them back. It was always your favorite sight. Even when you stayed at the Garrison.

Shiro: Of course I remember this. Okaa-san always brought me here whenever I had a nightmare, or a bad day, or even on a good day. When I was imprisoned...I did things that I swore I would never do. But, it was Zarkon...for him it was all or nothing. The same with Honerva. When they threw me back into the cells after every battle, this view was one of the things I always thought about. It helped me get through so much pain.

Adam:...What else did you think about?

Shiro: Sunrises and sunsets at the Garrison, Marble, Okaa-san, Keith and...(he turns around, the lights of the city illuminating his white hair) you. The very idea of seeing any of you again.

Adam (Mentally: Baby, you’re my aaaaannnnggellll~ hehehe): Takashi...

Shiro: Adam I---

Adam: I’m sorry.

Shiro: What?

Adam (looks down): I’m sorry, Takashi. I didn’t want our relationship to end like every cliche romcom with a sick character. But it did. I wanted to support you--I did support you. I stood by you throughout our entire lives at the Garrison. But I was just so worried about you. My parents left me a long, long time ago. It took me a while to realize that...that I was alone. I didn’t want you to leave me too. I didn’t want left behind again.

Shiro: (he looks down, recollecting his thoughts) I’m sorry too.

Adam: What? No, T-Takashi. You didn’t do anything wrong---

Shiro: Yes, I did. I-I...The disease that I had, everyone was doubting me. Sanda, Iverson, Keith...you. A small part of me continued with the mission to prove all of you wrong. Another part wanted to take this chance to see the stars. What I thought was my last chance to ever do something this important to me...I know I made you really, really upset. And please know that I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you. But also know that I’m not staying here this time. Not when my family, our family is going up against what might be the biggest threat to the universe.

Adam (nods): I know that. I’ve always known that. You love the stars, Takashi, you would always stare at them, as if waiting for a sign. Now they’re calling out to you and I’ll be right there beside you when you meet them. And after that...if you want...I’ll be beside you wherever you go.

Shiro (soft soft boi): Really? Do you mean that?

Adam (taking his mechanical hand): With all my heart.

Aaaannnddddd they kiss!

Adam: Do you remember what you said to me before you took off all those years ago?

Shiro (chuckles): I said a lot of things that day. It was pretty hectic. Maybe be more specific?

Adam: You said that you had a surprise for me. That you were going to show me after Kerberos.

Shiro (slowly remembers, eyes wide): Wait---did you...?

Adam pulls something out of his pocket. “Your mom gave it to me after you disappeared. She said that it’s the least that she could do to help with the pain.” He opens his hand and reveals a golden ring. Shiro stares at it in awe. He covers his mouth with his hands as Adam gets down on one knee.

Adam: When I said I wanted to be beside you wherever you went...I meant it. Takashi Shirogane...will you do me the honor of being my husband? To be together as we travel to the stars and beyond?

Shiro (eyes shining, a tear falls down his face): What kind of question is that? YES!

Adam puts the ring on his other hand and they kiss again. (Cause they’re gay Dreamworks, go all the way or don’t do it at all) Kosmo teleports in front of them, barking and wagging his tail for attention. They both look at their makeshift audience. Mizuki is smiling through her tears, Krolia has a comforting arm around her, Kolivan does an attempt at a thumbs up. Keith gestures them to look at the camera. They smile and Keith snaps a pic. “That’s definitely a keeper.”

Nothing really new with Luca and Romelle’s argument. I felt that it was a tension driven argument between two misguided people. (Which would have been some serious foreshadowing if Lotor was still alive) Unfortunately, Luca is still killed by Honerva. However, it’s like a sling shot effect and Allura hears a voice calling out to her when she’s alone.

She’s alarmed and, when the MFE girls are sleeping, goes to the medical bay. There she sees Romelle crying and Coran comforting her. She puts two and two together and puts on a steely expression.

The next day, the conversation between Allura and Shiro would have the rest of the Paladins present too. Shiro officially gives Allura command over the ATLAS. Allura asks if he’s really sure about this. Shiro says that he’s sure. The ATLAS belongs to her, she was the one that truly gave it power, not him. Adam stands behind him, hand on his shoulder. Shiro squeezes his hand. He says that his bond with the Black Lion is stronger then ever thanks to her, from the beginning they (Shiro and Black) understood each other in ways that seemed impossible. “We all need to be at our best when we face Honerva. And I’m at my best when I’m a Paladin, not a Commander.” He finishes by saying that he’s ready to lead Voltron again. Allura smiles and deactivates Shiro’s new arm to replace it with something more efficient; the Black Bayard.

Allura removes her crystal from his arm and puts her tiara back on. Everyone in the room bows before Princess Allura of Altea.

Shiro uses his new-new hand to interlock fingers with Adam. Everyone sees their matching rings, pauses, and looks at the two for confirmation. Shiro nods and everybody cheers. Adam tells them to calm down and presents them with their colored uniforms. Instead of two gold bars, they have three. Allura will have four now that she’s commanding the ATLAS. Lance wonders how mad Griffin will be when he sees them.

Last rewrite of this episode is the grand speech given at the end. Instead of Shiro, Sam, Allura, and Keith, Allura fills Sam’s spot, giving her more speaking time. Again, she’s the leader of the Voltron Coalition and the ATLAS’ commander so she ranks higher. Her part of the speech is her commending the Earth for their strength against the Galra and promising that she and the rest of the Coalition will do everything they can to help them. “You have accepted us with open arms and allowed us to help you recover from this war. Now we will continue the fight in your honor, and for the honor of those who have fallen.” (This is why Allura still wears pink, she now wears it in honor of the humans)

The episode ends with the ATLAS taking off and our heroes posing for dramatic effect (lmao). The screen fades to black and you suddenly hear everybody laugh when Pidge does her cartoon impression again. “I’m descended from a clan of ninjaaaazzzz!” And then the credits roll.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kicking off this final season with a bang! Let’s go! So a lot of things happen. It’s the first episode of the final season, I thought that the writers would’ve hit the ground running because we’re in the home stretch. We don’t need to re-introduce everyone. We have all our players in the places they need to be, this season should make the best use of those places in character development to complete their character arcs.

And this episode should keep the audience engaged so that they’re eager to roll over to the next episode. Undoing the Lion Swap, giving Allura the ATLAS, and the Adashi moments would do just that besides giving our cast of characters more development. I guess I’ll explain my reasons for doing those three things. Besides them being obviously what we need after that horrible ending.

Undoing the Lion Swap: Again, I thought it made sense when I first watched it. But then re-watching it again along with taking in other people’s perspectives on it, I realized that it was just so that JDS and LM could recreate the 80′s!Voltron lineup. Which is fine but it shouldn’t have lasted the entire series. Shiro, Keith, Lance, and Allura were all wonderful characters the way they were. They’re not exactly like their 80′s counterparts. Shiro and Allura are definitely not like their 80′s counterparts. Shiro and Black bonded over a common trauma, Keith allowed himself to accept other people besides Shiro, Lance became better focused on the group instead of channeling his other persona, and Allura was a powerful WOC and commander of the team.

Everyone and their mother and dog knows that JDS and LM wanted to kill off Shiro but couldn’t because Dreamworks correctly predicted that he would be popular with the audiences. So instead of writing a new story about how Keith didn’t need to be a leader to be a valued member of the team, they pushed their Black Paladin Keith storyline ahead and fridged 2 characters in the process. Undoing the Lion Swap allows Keith and Lance to mature once again and further evolve into their roles as Paladins.

This primarily shown when they reestablish the bonds with their Lions. Keith is not that great of a leader...controversial opinion but agree-to-disagree. He’s a good leader when a specific situation calls for it but he’s not the leader type. He still has the ability to lead when he continue this rewrite don’t worry lol. Same with Lance, sure he and Red seem to be better suited with Lance desiring to be better than Keith because they’re rivals, but ultimately his closest Lion bond is with Blue. Lance and Red should already have a deep bond by Season 7 but Red doesn’t come for him until the last min so that doesn’t make sense. Also the other Lions not fully respond to their Paladins is foreshadowing~

And giving Allura the ATLAS: Really, the proof is in Season 7. It was her crystal that powered the ATLAS, it was her alchemy that allowed it to transform, it’s white like the Castle of Lions and ATLAS’ mech form is more feminine looking with gigantic hips that don’t lie. Allura’s role as the Blue Paladin let her bond closer with the rest of the team. However, after Season 6, where she used her alchemy to build Sincline, enter/exit the Rift, and revive Shiro, it felt like a demotion. So her being in ATLAS returns her to the position of power she had in Season 1.

For the Adashi moments: we finally have a family for Shiro! Because he didn’t come from and egg JDS and LM! Switching The Date from Allurance to Adashi:

1) Re-establishes Shiro’s validity as a main character

2) Adds more depth to Adam West, yes that’s his last name in this rewrite, besides being ‘Shiro’s boyfriend that almost died’

3) Doesn’t make his only close relationship between Black and Keith

This episode should also set the tone for the rest of the season. With the combination of Luca’s sudden death, Honerva’s threat looming over them, the Allurance dinner throwing an overload of negative emotions towards Allura, and a romantic relationship with little to no development until the last minute, the viewers rightfully feel like something is off about this season. At least that’s how I felt when I started watching it. The best example showcasing the tone is at the end: when Shiro officially becomes the Black Paladin again and the Leader Trio (Shiro, Keith, and Allura) give their speeches give it the epic, robot blasting tone they desperately wanted constantly. But when they’re all posing dramatically, they almost break character when Pidge does her 80′s impression. So the tone in this rewrite is like a superhero movie, there’s funny moments, there’s serious moments, there’s romance, there’s falling outs.

And, yes this is a show primarily geared towards children, but because of how diverse the fanbase is in age, sexuality, race etc. I’ll be sneaking in some more mature themes. And, I mean, the Voltron writers kinda backed themselves into a corner when they made Keith half-Galran and did that poorly written plotline. And then that just escalated when they introduced Lotor and his Generals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Episode 2: Shadows~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first new scene added was just a pure Easter Egg to 80′s!Voltron. When Zarkon and Honerva are discussing baby names, the idea of the baby’s gender comes up. Zarkon and Honerva still have their conversation about combining Lotarius and Koltor’s names to form Lotor. Afterwards, Honerva then asks what their baby’s name should be if it’s a girl, Zarkon warmly suggests another name from Galra mythology: Merla, Koltor’s sister and was just as much a warrior as he was a conqueror. The flashback fades away with Honerva agreeing, smile as radiant as the sun. I would like also put some world-building with Galra culture so during this Zarkon would call Honvera his ‘Empress’ and their unborn child as ‘Kral Mir Tavaar’ (The Spark of the Empire).

Trying to be as chronologically as possible (at least for this episode cause you can’t really tell between present day and flashbacks until the end >->), because Merla is now (and forever will be!) a Galran name, VLD!Merla needs a new name. From now on VLD!Merla will be referred to as Hira. She might not exactly look like General Hira the way Sven looks like Shiro but they both have pinkish hair and follow a white haired Altean ruler so close enough lol. Also there’s not ‘sister colony’ where Romelle supposedly was. There’s only one colony on Pollux and it’s the one Honerva convinces to join her mission to retrieve Lotor.

Before, Honerva gets to the Colony, she flies to the station where Project Kuron was being built. She closes her eyes and sees Keith’s fight with Kuron, then, through Kuron’s eyes sees that Allura brought Shiro back to life through him. Still no sign of Lotor. She clenches her fists. If the Altean Princess can bring life into her puppets, she’s sadly mistaken. She thought that Project Kuron would be her perfect army. No, she needed an army completely devoted to her. It’s then she thinks about the colony Lotor built. Eyes glowing yellow, she unleashes a wave black magic to destroy the station and every stray clone that floats away. When she’s done, her corrupted Altean marks become cracks on her face, quintessence motes floating out of them. When she touches them, she winces and uses more of her black magic to seal them. On her ship, Kova looks down at his master.

Kova doesn’t die. Nope. Can’t kill the cat. Kova’s not with Honerva actually. Another flashback reveals that Kova willing left her. Honerva is concentrating on finding Lotor, incidentally neglecting Kova. She stops when realizes that Kova’s quintessence is moving away from her, and chases after him. A Galra ship that she recently sent out is carrying him away. Instead of ordering the ship and taking him back, she doesn’t take another second to think about him and goes back to her work. She offered her pet a thousand years of life with quintessence and this is how he repays her? Clearly he’s not loyal pet he once was.

The second new scene will happen shortly after Ven’tar’s planet was destroyed and Lotor is banished from the Empire. After Lotor yells at Haggar, she too leaves him in the room to suffer in silence. As she follows Zarkon down the hall she notices Kova prowling in the shadows, slipping into the room before the doors slide shut. She stares at the door intently but thinks nothing of it as she continues walking. Inside the room, Kova rubs his head against Lotor’s arm, sensing his sorrow. Tears freely fall from his face, his one chance of changing the ways of the Galra gone forever. Lotor wonder’s if that’s how Altea was destroyed, because they refused to surrender to his monster of a father. Suddenly he stops crying and looks directly at the planet, the fire lining up with his pupils, symbolizing a new fire lighting inside him. If Altea never bent the knee to Zarkon, neither would he. He allows Kova to hop onto his shoudler as he stands up, stronger. “We have a mission, Kova.” Kova meows, as if questioning him. Lotor smiles, “Don’t worry, we won’t be alone.”

And instead of sacrificing Kova, Honerva uses the Rift Entity inside her to find Lotor. She discovers the Sincline is still active, eyes glowing, swimming around, like it was a lost child.

A few days after she sent Luca to Earth to kill Voltron, she tries again. Closing the cracks that formed in her skin, she sees Sincline still swimming in the Rift. She then hears a faint but steady heartbeat from the cockpit. Honerva suddenly has flashbacks of her pregnancy, the heartbeat almost the same but even fainter than the one she’s hearing. It eventually stops. She gasps and falls to her knees.

Once again, Allura feels it too on the ATLAS bridge. Someone calls out to her again, she looks over her shoulder, terrified but curious, “It can’t be...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was probably the shortest and the easiest rewrite out of the 6 episodes (and maybe the whole season’s rewrite). It’s probably because it was the least edited out of the original season. This episode is relatively kept the same with the exception of a name change and a couple of new scenes added in the flashbacks. One thing I felt uncomfortable with in this episode was the attempt at humanizing Zarkon and Honerva. Really? Humanizing them this far into the series was a red flag to me. Come Knights of Light Part 2 through The End is The Beginning and lo’ and behold they rushed their redemption arcs. Zarkon’s redemption arc was like a flip of a switch in one episode and it took Allura mind-raping him! No, no, no, I have something very different in mind for both of these characters.

I also added a few more scenes in so that the audience would remain torn about Lotor. Is he dead or alive? is the first question. Honerva makes repeated statements that Lotor’s dead but refers to him as the Emperor who pierced the veil aka to discover something beyond death. But Sincline still being active and Allura sensing something on the ATLAS contradicts that statement entirely.

And renaming Merla to Hira. That’s right! That one episode in Season 3 with the morally ambiguous Alteans from the alternate reality was actually foreshadowing the villain’s of the final season. Hole in the Sky was probably my favorite episode in Season 3 because we got these morally ambiguous characters that we’ve previously associated with goodness and hope and everything shiny.

Another change is Honerva’s condition. She might be a Chosen Altean but that doesn’t mean she’s going to use all that black magic and quintessence cartels/supplements for free. Her condition will continue to deteriorate throughout the series as she continues to use her black magic/corrupted alchemy. So, yeah, metaphor for doing drugs don’t do it kids it’s bad for you.

Kova’s scene where he leaves Honerva is supposed to represent how he’s gotten smarter over the years. Living for more then 10,000 years on quintessence can do that to you. He’s fully aware of the toxic relationship he now has with Honerva, how she seems to be using him to recover pieces of her own memory. As he leaves, the new scene after Ven’tar’s planet is destroyed plays out. He’s thinking about Lotor. And how could he not? He practically raised the poor guy alongside the Dayaks. Since Lotor in the flashback was starting to plan the Altean colony and recruit his future half-Galra generals, this now paints him firmly as a good guy. Or is he? Didn’t he drain them in his second colony? Whose side is he really on? This should be a recurring question until we reach a certain episode.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Episode 3: The Prisoner’s Dilemma~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok this is where one of the major plot lines is introduced: Team Voltron atoning for what they did in Season 6. It’s always been on my mind about how Seasons 7-8 could’ve been more dynamic and emotionally charged if it was revealed that some factions of the galaxy blame Voltron for what happened during the time dilation explosion. Because let’s face it: if you throw someone into the Rift to die and said person had already publicly made plans to subdue the main antagonistic force and change it to a force for good...it’s not the best moral decision. They already redeemed themselves in Earth’s eyes but that’s only one planet in the whole universe.

Warlord Lahn’s situation in this episode is a perquisite for their conflict Lotor. (As the #TeamPurpleLion calls it microcosm to macrocosm) His What the Hell, Heroes? talk doesn’t mean anything in the Season 8 we got because we never see our heroes fix their mistakes concerning Lotor. His words ultimately ring hollow because Team Voltron are our heroes right? And heroes NEVER make mistakes right? >-> (This makes me very bitter can you tell?)

When battling Lahn’s forces, Shiro is (sunglasses) Back in Black (hehehehehehehehe, puns), Allura commands the ATLAS. Thanks to their previous positions as Commander and Paladin, they can better communicate with their respective teams. Shiro’s more focused than ever and Allura calls the strategic shoots like the (boss) leader she is. Same with Keith and Lance. Keith is more understanding and in control with Red and Lance is more straightforward with Blue rather then being a glory-seeker.

Shiro doesn’t ask Lahn to join the Voltron Coalition, Allura does. “Warlord Lahn, if you would do us the honor of joining the Voltron Coalition. We could provide stability to the universe.” When asked if there is an alternative, Allura ponders and says that if Lahn rejects the offer, the Coalition will still provide them with any support they need. Lahn rejects that too. Setting the example for his troops, he won’t accept any help from the likes of Voltron. Not after they caused the Galra Empire to fall apart.

He pounds Team Voltron with an armor-piercing question: “If you really are the Defenders of the Universe, why is the galaxy as afraid of you as much as they worship you?”

Lahn set the example for his troops in the pior scene so they also refuse any medical attention from the ATLAS. Romelle thinks it’s typical Galra behavior and carries on. Colleen is curious and asks why as she passes out blankets. A high-ranking Galra (Let’s call him...Hazar, yay Vehicle Voltron references!) says they won’t accept the help from the traitorous Voltron. She’s confused by this and the Hazar tells her that Voltron promised to help Emperor Lotor provide Quintessence to the Empire. But then one day they Voltron attacked their Emperor in front of the Rift and were never seen again until today. Colleen turns her gaze from Hazar to the Lions, suspicious. She asks Hazar to tell her more, he demands why and she responds that she’s the mother of the Green Paladin, “And I would like to know why my daughter disappeared for 3 years.”

When Lahn lambastes Keith for being a half-breed, Team Voltron is all over him.

Lance: You better back off, buddy!

Shiro: Your views on half-breeds are unimportant and unnecessary.

Hunk: No one talks about our pal like that!

Pidge: Keep in mind that I’m around technology. I can shock you just by plugging two cables together.

Allura: Keith and the Blades of Marmora are one of the strongest warriors I’ve ever met. They sacrificed everything to save the universe. They were the ones who opened my eyes to what true Galra is!

Because one of the major themes of this show is Found Family and goddammit if a Found Family didn’t defend each other against racists. Lahn sees this protectiveness and asks another armor-piercing question, “Do you truly have the loyalty and faith of your allies? Or are they merely following you to extract revenge on all Galra?”

Team Voltron can’t answer that question. Adam, Kinkade, and Griffin are troubled. For their war against Sendak, it really was about defeating the Galra. But now...now (At least for Kinkade and Griffin, Adam knows everything since it comes with the package of being Shiro’s SO), they know that this whole situation became much more complex. This is important for the next episode.

Another rewrite is in relation to the title. For an episode called Prisoner’s Dilemma there’s no prisoner present in the episode. I mean you could reach and say it’s the Creature or that it’s Lahn but that’s a very far reach. So, Lahn will be holding a single prisoner on his ship. And that prisoner is (drumroll) Narti. Yeah, don’t murder your blind and deaf Galra General writers. Especially when your audience could have children with those same disabilities. She was captured and brought to Sendak’s service after the Kral Zera, stealing a ship and escaping just before he invaded Earth. Lahn found her and kept her prisoner until Team Voltron and the ATLAS showed up. They found Kova a few days after Sendak’s invasion, he came to her, hopping from ship to ship until he found her again.

Hunk immediately recognizes her as the General that choke held him with her tail. He asks Lahn why she’s being kept here. Narti speaks in a series of growls and hisses, Keith thinks that she’s being hostile to them because some Blades behaved similarly towards him. Lahn corrects him and says that’s just how her people speak and that he could translate for them. He translates Narti, who switches to Space Sign Language. She reveals that reason why she stays his prisoner is because she still believes Lotor is alive. Team Voltron tries to tell her that she’s wrong, careful to not reveal too many details about what happened before. (Yeah there’s a thing called guilt that exists) Narti argues back that she was the first General Lotor recruited, he believed in her when even her Galra mother didn’t. To the point where he even gave her Kova as an animal familiar to help her see. He never gave up on her, so why should she give up on him?

Kova sees Team Voltron and hisses before crawling up on Narti’s shoulders. They both end up joining Team Voltron and Lahn on the rescue mission, hoping a ride in the Green Lion. Pidge actually finds the swish swish of their tails relaxing. Allura doesn’t accuse Lahn of stealing the weapons because she’s a Commander and commanders don’t blindly accuse people because of their race.

When the teams split up, she goes with Keith and Kosmo, more comfortable with a fellow half-Galra like herself. Similar to the conversation/argument that Lahn has with Allura, Keith denies that he and Narti are anything alike besides their mixed heritage. He can’t be friends, not even allies, with someone like her. Not when she supported someone as sick and twisted as Lotor. Narti signs in confusion, Keith demands that she speaks normally (Because even though he’s the leader, he’s still a bit hotheaded). Narti then penetrates his mind, telepathically saying she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. "You know exactly what I’m talking about.” No, I really don’t... Kova hisses, Kosmo growls. The conversation ends and they refuse to talk to each other.

When they find the Creature, Kosmo and Keith nyoom! away from it at first. Narti uses her tail to smack debris in its way. They still teleport away but Narti doesn’t grab onto Kosmo. She simply stares at them when they approach her. The Creature is confused, opening its mouth to roar at her. Narti doesn’t react. The Creature leans down to sniff at her, sensing a strange connection between them, Narti reaches a clawed hand to its face. It growls before she starts stroking it, Kova butts his head against it’s tough forehead. The Creature slowly calms down. That is until Kosmo teleports beside her, scaring the Creature into attacking. Kosmo scratches the Creature’s nose and brings her back to Lahn and Team Voltron. Extremely pissed, Narti opens her mouth and reveals her two forked tongues as she hisses. Kosmo tries to swipe at her face too. Kova nearly pounces on him but Narti snares him with her tail.

By the time Kosmo teleported Narti to the cockpit, Team Voltron and Lahn had already formed the plan of turning the ship into a bomb and destroying the Creature. Narti then telepathically invades all their minds, causing all of them to yell in pain. She reprimands them for seeing something unusual and immediately deciding to destroy it. Keith tells her that it’s Ranveig’s creature from the Quantum Abyss and was experimented on by Lotor’s vats of pure Quintessence, it’s a monster who can’t tell friend from foe. Narti says she already knew that. It’s why she’s even more pissed at them.

She says that the monster is always attacking is because they (Voltron and the Galra) always decide to shoot first. To her, ‘Victory or Death’ applies to both sides. She says that it’s pattern that she noticed with her limited interactions; they lack patience and are hilariously short-sighted.

When she skimmed the Creatures thoughts, she sensed erratic confusion and fear from them. The Creature is tired, they’re hungry, they want to rest. they wants to get off the ship. Their intrusion only added to their stress/anxiety. Even if they appear monstrous, the Creature has their own life to live. Ashamed, Keith repeats again that its his fault, Lance tries to convince him its not, but Narti agrees and he can still atone for it. Lahn snaps and asks what a bunch of half breeds and traitors to the Empire could do to fix this ‘mistake’. “It seems to me that Voltron should be known as the Legendary Failure then the Legendary Defender.” After being a semi-optimistic doormat for so long, Narti finally snaps, “Shut. Your. Quiznak. Or I’ll use my tail to strangle you over the Creatures jaw and let it devour you!”

Everyone stares at her. Lahn smirks, baring his teeth.

Lahn: You are definitely Galra with that temper.

Narti (flicking her tail): I don’t need you approval to be a true Galra. It’s in my blood and it’s who I am. And I might be the only one who can stop them. I only ask you to be patient with me. Let me subdue them. If you truly are the heroic Paladins you claim to be, then give me this chance. If I’m wrong, then you can set off the bomb.

Everyone agrees with the plan. Keith and Kosmo teleport to where the Creature is. When the Creature seems them he recognizes Kosmo and charges. They teleport away but only a few inches from where they were. The Creature charges and they teleport again. They continue this pattern until they reach the bridge.

Shiro’s second bayard upgrade is a shield cause he’s totally the Captain America of the group. Lahn is behind Hunk while Narti stays with Pidge. When the Creature is in the center of the room, Keith stands in front of the door and puts his shield up. Everyone is tense. The Creature realizes there is no way of escaping the circle and panics. It roars and thrashes around the bridge. Its extra limbs glow and tries to blast it’s way out of the circle. Lance hesitantly activates his bayard. Narti smacks it with her tail, he squawks indignantly, she reveals her two tongues to him and he shuts up. The magenta pulses of its blast is suddenly subdued by a pale-blue almost white glow. The particles of light seem to distract the Creature, who’s staring at them in curiosity. (Take a guess who did that lol)

Narti floats over Pidge’s shield and reaches a hand towards the Creature again. The Creature fears its a trap and tries to scare her again. Narti strokes its face again. The reason why the Creature is so calm towards her is because Narti was soothing him with her telepathy. To truly defeat a monster, one needs to have the courage to understand. Unlike the other passengers, Narti understands what it’s like to be in a foreign environment where everyone’s against you. She’s felt that way for hundreds of years because of her half-breed status. The Creature is completely calm, but it will only listen to Narti.

Shiro: I guess that means we’re taking him with us.

Hunk: I wonder if we can teach him to play fetch...

They all jetpack out of the Ranveig’s ship and into the Lions. Pidge feels nervous comparing the Creatures size and mass to her Lions but Narti reassures her that the Creature won’t cause them to slow down. She then notices that the Lion’s are further away then where they stopped them but chalks it up to the lack of gravity. (It wasn’t cause of the gravity Pidge) They make their way back to Planet Ryker.

Lahn swears his allegiance to the Voltron Coalition. He calls for Narti to step forward, shocking Acxa in the audience. While he is grateful for Team Voltron’s assistance, he wants to honor Narti especially. Like all Galra, he thought that half-breeds did nothing but bring shame upon the Empire. Her patience and abilities as well as Keith accepting that he was at fault allowed him to see them in a new light. He bows before them and says “Vrepit Sa.” Narti and Keith repeat the action.

Narti catches Acxa calling her name in her head and runs to her. The two half Galra women embrace. Narti tries to tell her what really happened when Lotor struck her but they’re both too overwhelmed by emotions to keep talking. Team Voltron smiles at the sight. There is small scene where Krolia embraces Keith too, Kolivan pats him on the back. The Creature, thanks to Narti, now is slowly starting to open up to the Galra. They offer them fresh food goo that they happily devour.

Allura welcomes Warlord Lahn to the ATLAS, he offers them any assistance in their search. (Because the Galra are really pushed to the background once Honerva became the main antagonist) Allura points out that those that have been liberated by Voltron are now back under Galran control after the Empire collapsed. Lahn admits that freeing all of them will take a while.

Shiro doesn’t like where the conversation is going. He voices that really doesn’t want to split up the team. Especially with a threat like Honerva out there. The Paladins don’t want to be separated from Allura either considering what happened before. Unfortunately, it’s a sacrifice they have to make. Allura tells the bridge that she’ll stay with the Paladins, her alchemy might be needed if anyone is injured. They all embrace Coran and Adam and promise to keep communications open as much as possible.

But...one more night on the ATLAS couldn’t hurt anyone. Allura has yet another dream, this time it’s the dream from the episode Clear Day. Instead of being separate visions from the entity, they’re all combined into one. The vision of Melenor in the juniberry field and where she eventually ashes away is where the dream transitions to Lotor in Sincline saying “Follow me!” and shows Voltron standing with the colony planets. She wakes with a cold sweat. The Space Mice ask her if she’s alright and she smiles tiredly and tells them to go back to sleep. (A soft rendition of Sincline’s theme should play here)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Guys, I turned the foreshadowing with Lotor all the up to 3000 in this episode with the monster and Lahn. The half-breed conflict should not only reflect Keith and Narti but the rest of the lady Generals and Lotor as well, further splitting the audience of where his allegiance was. Because there’s no such thing as a bad person or good person when it comes to being biracial.

Hazar was a character in Vehicle Voltron that served as the main person in power on the villains side, although they weren’t villains cause they were looking for a new planet to colonize. Thematic hmmmmmmm maybe

Narti being alive was something I always secretly wanted. I mean they make some deaths in this series really graphic *cough*LOTOR*cough* but Narti got off pretty light. It only showed Haggar’s vision through her eyes disappear and then cut back to her laying on the floor. If played right, the writers can simply have her be, like in this rewrite, knocked out to come back to at a later time. And she was my favorite out of the Generals sorry not sorry. Her powers were so cool!

With her still kicking ass, Lotor’s goal of preserving life is brought back. It adds more conflict to the audience about Lotor. “He spared her life so that makes him a good person right?” “But he drained hundreds of Alteans remember?” “Oh yeah, but I don’t know about that anymore...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Episode 4: Battle Scar~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We open with Team Voltron in space. Pidge is trying to track a Komar and it leads them to Olkarion. However, it’s completely drained of Quintessence and there’s a Weblum already devouring it. Pidge is horrified at the sight and immediately tries to shoot the Weblum down. Keith and Hunk, using their experience from collecting scultrite, convince her to fall back. The Weblum completely envelops Olkarion and flies away afterwards. Thinking Ryner and the rest of the Olkari are gone, Team Voltron is devastated. They fly closer to Green.

Keith: We’re here for you, Pidge. It’s okay.

(I think it’s very important that Keith is the first to say something. He knows a thing a two from losing someone important to you. Plus, it shows how much he’s matured since being The Loner of the group)

Pidge thanks them for their support. She says that they should continue looking for Honerva. Allura then senses something close by, she calls out to them. There’s no response. She tries to use Blue’s sonic cannon to amplify her call. But...Blue doesn’t respond. Lance jokingly says that Blue prefers him over her now and tries to activate her sonic cannon. No response. The two are confused.

Lance: Is anyone else having trouble with their Lions? Blue’s not responding.

Hunk: I thought I was the only one! Yellow hasn’t responded since we touched down on Planet Ryker.

Keith: Red’s been having technical difficulties but we still get the job done.

Pidge: Same with Green. I have keep manually inputting information that I know is stored in her database.

Shiro’s the only one who doesn’t experience any problems. However, they can’t call further attention to it because a familiar squishy asteroid splashes against Blue. Lance alerts the other Paladins, hopeful. The Paladins remember their first encounter with the Olkarion so they know that the asteroid carries a coded message. Pidge quickly deciphers it and the message is revealed: That the citizens of Olkarion managed to successfully escape the Komar. (pretty sure there were other aliens with them because it was the Coalitions base of operations) and are currently in need of fuel. Hunk and Pidge quickly punch in the coordinates the message carried and discover that they’re not as far away as they initially thought.

The Lions eventually find the Olkarion ships using cloaking devices and give them an escort back to Planet Ryker. The Olkarion are hesitant to be on the same base occupied by the Galra. Allura does her diplomatic thing and comes up with a compromise between everyone: the Olkarion can use their interfaces to build more shelters for the Galra and the Galra will help with more of the manual labor because of the limited flora. However, she and the other Paladins notice that some of the citizens are acting more colder towards them then Lahn’s forces. Some of them are even glaring at the Lions. One in particular could destroy the Lions with his murderous gaze alone. He’s the same Olkari that King Lubos kept as a servant during Commander Branko’s reign. (uh oh...)

When the Paladins are abruptly called to a boardroom meeting, they bring Ryner with her because she’s the Olkari’s leader. But when they enter the boardroom, they immediately feel the tension. Everyone’s eyes are on them. Commander Iverson tells them to take a seat, Allura asks why the sudden meeting. He says that Commander Hazar has some information that he would like to share with the rest of the council. He’s sitting at the table alongside Lahn.

Hazar tells them that he worked closely with Lotor after he was crowned Emperor. He tells them that Lotor revealed to him his plan, which was offering pure Quintessence to placate the Empire. While it’s not a shock to Team Voltron, it is to the Coalition. Hazar demands why Voltron, after forming an alliance with Lotor and helping him light his fire at the Kral Zera, would betray and potentially murdered him. A murder of an Emperor by an opposing force is considered the most heinous crime. If they really are heroes, why did they do it?

Keith tells the abridged version of the story he told the team in Season 6. Romelle takes over halfway through.

Romelle: You might not believe me because I’m Altean, but understand. You’ve hunted down my people for 10,000 years. (Team Voltron cringes at that) We thought Lotor was better than you but...he was much, much worse. He committed atrocious acts towards my family. My mother, father, brother, friends...they were all destroyed by him.

Lahn: That doesn’t make sense. Did you not say that he saved you?

Romelle: No. He doomed us all. The second colony was draining Alteans of their quintessence.

Second shock to the Coalition. Hazar asks if they have proof of their claim. Romelle says that Keith and Krolia were there with her. Keith confirms this. But Hazar asks if Lotor admitted to draining their quintessence. Romelle doesn’t answer that, only repeating that they saw their bodies in the pods. Lance admits that they didn’t let him talk and cornered him after he and Allura returned from the Rift. Then ashamedly mentions Allura fired the Blue on him when he tried to subdue the conflict. They fought with him in the Rift and had no choice but to leave him there. Then they had to sacrifice the original Castle of Lions to close the rifts in the realities Lotor opened. Pidge guesses that’s when the time dilation probably happened. After they dealt with him, the Voltron Coalition was weakened and Earth was invaded. Allura speaks on behalf of Team Voltron admits that this was their mistake and apologizes to the Coalition for leaving them vulnerable.

However, Romelle refuses to admit that she might be in the wrong. Hazar pokes holes in her accusation; “If you only saw the bodies and Emperor Lotor didn’t say that he drained them, then is he truly guilty?”

Romelle: Yes! We don’t need to hear his side of the story! He would spin lie after lie to save himself! If it weren’t for us, he would’ve drained the rest of my colony! And then drained the rest of us!

Lahn: You don’t know that because you did not subjugate him to a fair trial. While we Galra do believe in ‘Victory or Death’ we also believe that if the choice was death, it must be earned. Either in battle or by trial. You did none of that. You forced the choice of death upon him!

Romelle: It’s what he deserves after destroying so many lives!

Narti signs that Lotor always put preserving life above everything else. When they invaded Puig to draw out the Paladins they only left injuries, never bodies. The same with every planet he conquered. ‘Your accusation doesn’t make sense.’ Romelle demands to know why she’s defending him. Narti says she’s not defending him, she’s doubting her claim. Acxa remains silent throughout the meeting, clenching her fist. Veronica and Keith notice but neither call her out.

Romelle: Why is this even a discussion? What we do about Lotor doesn’t matter. He’s gone forever. We can all rest easy knowing that another threat to the galaxy has been slain by the hero Voltron.

Allura slams her hands against the table, causing it to dent, her hands softly glowing. Everyone stares at her, concerned at the display of power. “This meeting is adjourned. Everyone leave now.”

Team Voltron is left alone in the boardroom (Probably regretting everything because regret seems to be another thing our heroes don’t have in the series) No one speaks as the rest of them file out. Iverson stares at Allura, Veronica is concerned, Colleen and Sam are heartbroken, Hazar remains blank-faced as he leaves, Ryner is a bit more uneasy. The MFE’s feel awkward, uncomfortable, and bounce. Adam and Shiro have a little moment.

Shiro: Do you still trust me?

Adam: Of course I do...but I think this is something you six have to talk about.

Shiro: Wait for me?

Adam nods and walks out.

Acxa and Narti have a disagreement in the halls concerning the Paladins confession. The revelation of Lotor’s secret weighs heavy on them. Acxa wants to completely move on from her past and cut out Lotor for good, telling her that he’s not the noble prince he claimed to be. She feels betrayed because she had looked up to him. And now that there were things he even kept from them...Narti tells her she’s wrong. She’s read his mind. She knows that everything he’s said to them had been true. Acxa tells her if Lotor lied to them about the colony. Narti admits that he has lied a few times, but it’s so that its existence wouldn’t reach Zarkon and Haggar.

Acxa: Maybe Lotor knew that you found out. Did you read his mind when he attacked you? Did he really mean to knock you unconscious? Or is this one of the rare occasions he swings and misses?

(Because two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead) Narti is insulted that a close friend would insinuate such a thing and walks away. Acxa realizes her mistake and pulls her back, saying she didn’t mean it. Narti tells her she knows. They rest their foreheads against each other, a Galra gesture of friendship, and go back to their bunker to talk more.

Back to Team Voltron. Lance rubs his face with his hands, “Is anyone gonna say it? Anyone? No one? Okay, guess I’ll do the honors: It’s our fault the universe is this way.”

The Paladins have their typical dispute about who’s fault it really is. Keith blames himself. Just like with Ranvieg’s monster, he was acting impulsively and jumped to conclusions. If he had let Lotor talk instead of just barging in at the Castle of Lions, the conflict would’ve been resolved much more quickly and peacefully. He suddenly realizes that with all his argument against Lahn that he was still Galra, he didn’t give Lotor the same treatment. The only other person he could relate to, another half-Galra. The person he thwarted the Blades plans for, the person he rescued during the Kral Zera, the Empire’s newest hope for peace...he’s gone. He clenches his fists together again. “Quiznak...”

Pidge thinks that Lotor’s still at fault. She’s 15 and she’s been through a lot of things. However, this time, she knows that there must be another side of the story. If they were going off the theory that Lotor was doing something other than draining their quintessence, he still should’ve come clean. This is a call back to the episode in the first season ‘Return of the Gladiator’ when she first accuses Shiro of hurting her brother when she only had a single prisoner recounting his experiences as proof. “This is just like when I accused Shiro of hurting Matt. Except a thousand times worse...”

Lance still blames Lotor, but his perspective changes the longer he thinks. Most would think that the blame is still stemming from his jealousy but it’s more on the fact that Lotor broke Allura’s heart. Even if his own heart was rejected by Allura, he can still care for her when she’s hurt. He thinks about how they all agreed to offer Lotor to Zarkon in exchange for Sam Holt. While he was thinking on instinct, he realizes what a horrible decision that was. He also has an epiphany that he was never Allura’s choice to begin with. If it had been between him and Lotor, Allura would’ve definitely picked Lotor. He feels really, really bad for advocating to leave him in the Rift. “Guys, we really messed up.”

Hunk blames Romelle, to everyone’s shock. When asked why, Hunk explains that to the rest of the team (besides Keith and Krolia), Romelle was a total and complete stranger. They didn’t know anything about her besides that she was Altean. Even if she did claim to know Lotor, they shouldn’t have taken her word so quickly over his. He supports Hazar’s argument, remembering more of his lessons with Dayak at Central Command. “Galra trials and interrogations have always been successful, it’s one of the reasons why the managed to take over as much territory as they did. IF we were gonna accuse him of draining those Alteans. We should have honored Galra tradition brought him there and gave him a fair trial. It’s the least we owed him after we treated him so badly at the Castle.”

Shiro fairly points out that this is a rare occasion where all parties are to blame. Keith only had Romelle to back up his story and even she admitted she didn’t know the entire story. The rest of the Paladins still had the choice to not believe them. It left the team vulnerable, emotional state, which led them to act on instinct instead of taking a step back to see what’s wrong. Keith points out that Shiro had nothing to do with it, it was his clone that present and then attacked them. Shiro says Kuron was being controlled by Honerva, forcing him to do all the things that he did. He says he still has Kuron’s memories and experiences, which is how he learned about Project Kuron. And it also means he saw and heard everything that occurred during their ambush on Lotor. “Look, I’m not mad at any of you. I’m disappointed. In you and in myself. If we had thought of other options besides point your bayards at him, the conflict would’ve gone over much smoother.

Allura’s significantly quiet during the whole thing. She harbor’s the most guilt out of all of them. If she had behaved more rationally, more like a leader, when Romelle accused him, he wouldn’t have been left in the Rift. However, she was so used to being alone. Coran was her only connection to Altea. When Lotor showed up, she refused to even look at him. After he killed Zarkon and ascended to the Galra throne during the Kral Zera, she felt like things might change if someone like him was at the helm. His Altean heritage didn’t matter to her, although it did pique her interest to his possible alchemic abilities. And then during their construction of the Sincline, she fell in love with him. Which is why the betrayal hurt more. Not Lotor’s betrayal. Her betrayal of him. She can’t accept any other story because they’re just excuses for them to feel better.

Swap over to the hostile Olkarion outside. Some of them are packing their things, some of them are already boarding the Olkarion ships. The most shocking sight is them aiming their plant blasters at everyone else. Ryner runs to them and demands to know what’s going on. The Olkarion that was glaring at the Lions tells her that they’re leaving to find a real home. One that isn’t tainted by the Galra. Ryner says their enemy is not the Galra. The Olkarion (Let’s call him...Luben) retorts that she’s right: the Galra are not their enemy. Voltron is.

Ryner: What are you saying, Luben!?

La-sai: Voltron gave the galaxy hope 10,000 years ago. And then they disappeared. We suffered, our children were never gifted a galaxy at peace. And when they reemerged we finally had hope again. But then they too abandoned the galaxy. Abandoned us. They led that...abomination to destroy our home. They’re no better than the Galra!

Hazar approaches him, clawed hands up in surrender. He asks La-sai to put his weapon down. Seeing a Galra, he angrily fires his rifle, grazing Hazar’s shoulder and starts spamming shots at him. Lahn tries to shot him unconscious. The rogue Olkari + other aliens start openly firing on Lahn’s troops and the Garrison staff. Some of the Olkarion ships take off. The Galra try to get into their fighters but Lahn tells them to stand down. They can’t waste their resources or risk the lives of citizens. La-sai scoffs.

Iverson reports hostile activity to the boardroom. Allura asks if its another Komar, Iverson says no and that the hostile activity is coming from the Olkarion. Shiro tells the Paladins to get to their Lions. Iverson says that he has the MFE’s ready to launch. Allura tells him not to do that, explaining that this is Voltron’s problem. "This is our fault. We have to face the consequences or we’ll never fulfill Voltron’s purpose.” She says she’ll meet him at the bridge when she’s ready.

The Paladins get into their Lions and Black is the first to take off. The other Lions are slower but the eventually catch up. They chase after the ships, but they don’t fire on them because of the citizens on board. And also cause the Lions are not completely following their Paladins. Instead they try to box them in and force them to land. The rogue Olkarions form canons on their ships and fire on the Lion’s. Vines entangle the Lions but they persevere. Red suddenly turns up its body temperature and uses its rail gun to burn them off, scaring the other Paladins. Keith says that wasn’t him. They have no choice but to keep them in the air, preventing as many casualties as they can. The Paladins try to talk the rogue Olkari down while simultaneously trying to get back in rhythm with their Lions. La-sai beats it in their heads that it’s their fault that their people suffered.

Shiro tries to get the team to form Voltron, but the Lions don’t respond. “Uh, I’m not the only one not feeling that Voltron feeling am I?” Hunk asks. The Lions are no longer responding to their Paladins but they’re still boxing the rogue Olkari ships. They’re functioning on their own now. Hunk then wonders if the Lions are mad at them for what they did to Lotor. Lance dejectedly says that’s probably it. They both barely miss a shot from La-sai’s ship, Blue and Yellow hitting a hard reverse and forcing Hunk and Lance. Red and Green abandon formation, Keith and Pidge shouting at the sudden unnatural actions.

La-sai then breaks the Olkari formation and fires on the Lions separately. They’re overwhelmed. The only Paladin keeping a close bond with their Lion, Shiro is forced to go after Luben alone while the others try close in on the other ships. Luben taunts him.

La-sai: Oh, I remember you, Champion. The Galra Empire’s prized gladiator. I should’ve known you would run back to them.

Shiro (winces at the flashbacks): I’m not their Champion anymore! I’m not Honerva’s toy! I am the Black Paladin of Voltron! I am their leader! And I won’t let you hurt them or anyone else!

La-sai: You think you’re such a noble Paladin. You’re a monster! I saw every gladiator fight broadcast, King Lubos’ always watched them to entertain himself while I was forced to watch you. I saw you slay every opponent you faced. Galra, Balmera, Puigans, even Olkarion! My people! As if we didn’t lose enough to this war! You’re not worthy of commanding Voltron anymore than your friends down there!

The rest of the Paladins interrupts them through the comms while the Lions dodge the plant lasers, trying to defend him. Shiro realizes they’re doing the same thing they did in the boardroom, trying to find some other explanation to feel better. He can’t really fault them cause they’re kids but with things like the entire universe weighing on their decisions, they can’t afford to do that anymore. So instead of supporting them and further ignoring his trauma, Shiro accepts it.

Shiro: You’re right! (the Paladins quiet) I did what I did in those gladiator matches! And not a day goes by that I don’t regret every. single. strike. I’ve hurt people trying to survive. I really did. My team might defend me until their last breath, but it won’t change that I’m guilty. B-But...I know things have changed. I’ve changed. I’ve become a better person. Voltron, the Black Lion, this team...they gave me a chance to redeem myself for everything I’ve done. They became my rock throughout our journey. Even when I died, they held out hope that I would come back. And I would do everything I can to make sure they’re safe. Whatever it takes. Because I love all of them.

La-sai (scoffs): We loved you, the universe loved you. Loved Voltron. We welcomed you with open arms. You fought against the Galra. You were freeing the galaxy, protecting those who were once enslaved. And then you abandoned us! How many planets, how many families, how many lives, were destroyed because of your selfishness!?

Shiro: How many lives will you destroy today? If you hurt anyone on this base, then you’ll become just like Commander Branko. He hurt thousands of your people just so he could have a weapon to enforce Zarkon’s rule further. If you destroy this base, you destroy our chance at rebuilding a better universe.

La-sai: Voltron was supposed to rebuild the universe. You were supposed to save us from the Galra! You were supposed to end all of this!

Allura (over the ATLAS’ comms): Voltron is many things, but it cannot destroy the war itself. It is but a beacon, a symbol, powered by an ancient magic. Voltron can fight all the battles it wants to in this war, but it is ultimately the people’s decision to truly end it. Do you remember when we first arrived on your planet? You had all retreated to the woods, calling out for a savior with your asteroids. Voltron might’ve answered the call, but it was yours and Ryner’s decision to finally step out of the shadows and take back what was stolen from you. The Olkari knew when they learned of King Lubos’ betrayal that they deserved better than what he could offer. It was the combined efforts of them and Voltron that set the Olkari free from their chains. That is why the Voltron Coalition was formed. Because we can’t save the universe alone. We need help. We need allies. We need friends who are willing to risk everything to stop Honerva!

La-sai: Allies? Friends!? You would put your trust in the Galra!? After all they’ve done to you? To your people? I remembered how hostile you were towards the Galra. One might say even hateful. What changed? Did they implant a device in you like they did to the Champion?

The Lions stop moving, the Paladins tense. They know that Allura’s been through more pain from the Galra then any of them. Her planet, her people, her culture lost. She hasn’t been kind to them either. From her xenophobic attitude towards Ulaz and the Blades, to her blatant disregard of Keith when he was revealed to be part Galra, and then when she thought she finally had someone to connect with in Lotor, he supposedly betrayed her. And then after all of that, Sendak invaded Earth, a result of their actions against Lotor. Everyone on the bridge looks at Allura. She closes her eyes, inhales deeply, and speaks.

Allura: I understand your frustration upon learning my new perspectives. I too was aghast that there were Galra fighting against Zarkon. But I was so blinded by my rage, by my loss, that I couldn’t truly appreciate their efforts. Now, after spending many battles fighting by their side...I see them for who they truly are. The Red Paladin, Keith Kogane, is half-Galra and one of my closest friends, who I treasure as my family along with the rest of the Paladins. Kolivan, Krolia, Regris, Thace, Antok, Ulaz, and the Blades of Marmora, they all believed in a better universe. And they took it into their hands to make that a possibility. This war has also taken things from them as well. Homes, families, this war started with the destruction of Planet Daibazaal... Warlord Lahn was once against our cause, but then he saw first hand how we all banded together as one, and he too saw that possibility. I urge you to look past your anger, past your hate, and understand that there are Galra who want this to end as much as you do.

(Damn, Allura just went full Daenerys Targaryen there)

The crowd beneath the Lions are listening to Allura’ speech, understanding why Shiro gave her command of the ATLAS. Some of the rogue Olkarion regain their senses and slowly land. La-sai is disgusted by their supposed betrayal and arms his ship with more plant cannons. He fires on the Lions. Yellow’s armor activates and leaps in front of the blasts. The Olkarion use their interfaces to form shields with the unused ships. Some of the Galra group together to protect the other aliens. Meanwhile, Green tries to fire its plant canon at La-sai’s ship and barely grazes the wing.

Hearing the words of from the head and heart of Voltron, the Lions open their connection to their Paladins again. Hunk nearly cries with joy. They form Voltron and follow La-sai. He steeply flies up and into the upper atmosphere.

The Paladins continue to chase La-saibut Pidge tells them to stop when she realizes he’s too far gone. They fly back to the base. For the second time, Team Voltron is heartbroken, realizing that even though they have the most powerful weapon in the universe, they can’t save everyone they care about. What hurts more is that La-sai is right. They land and the ATLAS crew is there to provide support. A short time-skip happens after La-sai’s abandonment, nights falls on Planet Ryker. A small bustle of activity happens underneath the ATLAS, the numerous aliens and humans discussing housing arrangements between Lahn’s base and the ATLAS.

Looking over the courtyard, Team Voltron discusses what happened today with the Lions. Keith says that he can feel the bond between him and Red is slowly starting up. The other Paladins tell similar stories. Shiro hugs and congratulates them for their accomplishment. Allura voices her relief as well and asked what changed. “I guess finally admitting we were wrong helped.” Keith says. His eyes drift over to Romelle, who’s starting to pull away from the activities. Her eyes narrow at Lahn and Hazar going over schematics of their base. Keith looks at her with a worried expression, Lance rests his hand over his shoulder.

Lance is in awe that they’re all working together so seamlessly, directing attention to them. Keith questions his words. Lance clarifies that while the Voltron Coalition was a united front against the Galra, he still noticed some prejudices. “Now...now, they’re working as well as we do.”

Ryner: Loss can bring even the greatest of foes together.

She approaches Team Voltron. Pidge is the first to speak, tears in her eyes, “I’m so, so, so sorry, Ryner. This is all our fault.” Bebe rubs his head against her side.

Ryner: It’s alright, Pidge. This is how life works. Some plants flourish, others wither. Sometimes we’re in control, other times it spirals out of our hands. It’s how we learn and do better. Become better than what we were. We will learn from our mistakes and grow stronger.

Team Voltron agrees and goes down to help. The episode ends the Galra lighting little lanterns and releasing them into the sky. Keith asks his mother why they’re doing that. “It’s a Galra gesture of peace.To light a lantern means to light a new flame for oneself, to start over with.” Keith gets an idea and convinces the rest of the team to light lanterns too. The Lions look over at the sight, growling softly in approval.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seems the theme of making up for your mistakes is making itself known in the season. Every story has it’s ups and downs. When The Prisoner’s Dilemma was a more positive ending, this episode has a more negative conclusion to contrast and to keep the characters and audience more alert.

This was actually the hardest episode to rewrite, between cutting down the Olkarion plot and inserting a brand new one to fill in the remaining time. While some of the people who worked on Avatar also worked on this show, VLD deals with a lot more mature themes for its young audience. ie. genocide, mass death tolls in Season 4, racism, torture, PTSD, possible metaphors for drug addiction the list could go on. With an episode titled Battle Scars, I wanted to show how the endless cycle of battles from both Voltron and the Galra are affecting the citizens. I tried to make this episode a commentary on the cycle of war.

Naturally, I went for the Olkari. Another thing that bothered me with this episode and with VLD as a whole was this is yet another Pidge centric episode. Not to hate on her, I love my Pidgeon, but I know the executives are extremely biased towards her. So instead on focusing on her sole relationship with the Olkari, I expanded it to the rest of Team Voltron. They’re one of Team Voltron’s closest allies and one of the main players against Zarkon in Season 2. Now, after three-four years of running, with their planet destroyed, and their trust broken a second time, they’ve become disillusioned with Voltron and grow in their hate towards the Galra. They want revenge on their own terms, Luben especially because of his previous imprisonment. This also echos Honerva’s manipulations of the Alteans.

The title Battle Scars also represents what those scars are to a person. Making them stronger. This is the case with Team Voltron’s apology to the Coalition, the following discussion, and Shiro and Allura’s speeches to Luben. The Galra took everything from her, yet she learned to not fault all of them. She became the leader she is now because she moved on from those scars. She accepts the Blade and Keith as her family now. Shiro has a different lesson, he accepts that he has scars. He’s not proud of them but he accepts the trauma. To truly recover, you have to first admit that it happened to you. Doing so helped his relationship with Adam and strengthened his relationship with the Paladins.

And this is even more apparent with the Lions, the Lions aren’t mad at the Paladins, they’re mad at themselves. It’s why they still follow their plan of boxing in the rogue Olkari but not connecting to their Paladins. They were created to bring peace to war-torn universe, instead they made it worse. Seeing them learn their lesson from Shiro and Allura helped them regain confidence to form Voltron again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Episode 5: The Grudge~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lahn’s troops are slowly warming up to the ATLAS crew. To the point where they are challenging each other to friendly competitions in the gym. Iverson is currently competing in a push up contest with Hazar’s sister, Dorma (More Vehicle Voltron!). Adam and Curtis are keeping score. Veronica was cheering for Iverson but switches sides when she sees Dorma pull some cool moves. It ends with Iverson tapping out and lying on the mat, exhausted. Dorma commends him on his stamina before walking away to join some other Galra. Some Olkarion are in the gym too, dissecting the gym equipment and wondering what they could do to make them more effective.

The conversation about pets still happens with the addition of Adam. Adam admits that he never had any pets before, the closest thing was Marble. He says that that wasn’t really her name but Shiro always called her that because she was a calico and her coat reminded him of the marble pillars in New Kyoto and it sort of stuck. Curtis and Veronica awe over the story.

Curtis sees Acxa alone doing the same sick push ups Dorma did and in an attempt to know her better asks if she had any pets. Acxa instead explains Narti’s bond with Kova in the typical intense Galra fashion, scaring Curtis. Somewhere in the gym the Garrison Quartet hear someone growling, agreeing with Acxa. Turns out it’s Narti, hanging from the ceiling by her tail. She lands in the middle of the pseudo-circle they’ve formed, her tail swishing around, Kova on her shoulder. She tucks it away after accidentally knocking Iverson down.

“Keep that tail of yours under control!” Narti does the Galra salute as an apology. Kova hisses. She signs (Acxa translating) that she was grateful that Lotor gave her Kova. Kova has been there for him since childhood and yet he decided that she needed it more than him. Kova purrs as Narti scratches his ears.

Veronica asks if this is the same Emperor Lotor that attacked her. Narti says that he really didn’t. Before she could clarify, Coran calls everyone to the bridge to receive the Paladin’s latest transmission.

The Paladin’s say that they have a possible lead on Honerva and they’re going to check it out. (The decoy messages are still kept but our ATLAS crew is smarter in this rewrite lol)

The lunch conversation is kept the same with the addition of Narti + Kova. Kova hisses at the MFE’s when there isn’t a seat for Narti. She assures him that its fine and props herself on her tail. When Leifsdottir points out that it’s their Galra lineage makes everyone’s uncomfortable, Kova hisses again. Narti then signs that it’s not their lineage but everyone’s reaction to it that makes everyone uncomfortable. Acxa further explains that their status wasn’t...appreciated by the rest of the Empire.

Narti (snarkily signing): I don’t think we’re appreciated at this table either

Acxa: You’re right, Narti. We’ll take our leave now.

They do and the MFE’s look down in embarrassment. Veronica rightly scolds them and goes to find them.

Team Voltron recognizes that they’ve been tricked when Pidge points out the low oxygen levels. Shiro immediately tells them to get airborne. Hunk catches a glimpse of the hologram ATLAS and yells that they’re close. Unfortunately, the Lions still get caught in the ships traction beam.

Pidge doesn’t tell Hunk to shut up because they’re all friends and friends don’t let things like single-modulation piss them off that badly. (Bex’s line delivery in this scene bothered me. It sounded less jokey and more ‘shut the fuck up’) When she tells them they need to remove their armor and bayards to prevent being detected, everyone points out that Shiro needs his bayard. It’s his literal right arm. Pidge realizes her mistake but can’t find another way with the time they have. Hunk proposes the idea that maybe Allura can use her alchemy to hide them. Allura says she can’t do that.

Allura: Altean alchemy connects us to living beings, as you can see, this planet does not hold any life. If I use my alchemy to hide us, it will restore the life of the planet and reveal our location.

Shiro says he’ll just have to last long enough to get his bayard back. He removes it and places it on the pile, fully preventing any detection and capture from the pirates. “Your safety is more important than my arm.”

Acxa and Veronica’s talk is same because its perfect.

Narti bonds with the MFE pilots when she notices them playing a card game in one of the recreational rooms. They might not fully understand Space Sign Language, but they know what she means when she points to the cards and then to herself. Kova doesn’t hiss but he moves away when the MFE’s try to pet him. Narti writes on a spare tablet that it’s normal for him. While they do have a familiar connection, Kova still acts out on his own, her emotions don’t dictate his actions and vice versa.

Griffin asks if it’s true she can read minds. ‘Yes it’s true.’ Her voice echos in there heads. Her people are well-developed telepaths, it’s what made them such formidable opponents. They can prevent nearly any disaster just by skimming their thoughts. As eveident with Throk, she can also control someone for a short period of time. At the MFE’s horrified expressions, she chitters and says she won’t do that to any of them.

Narti: Although, I can’t promise not peeking at your cards...

Griffin: Oh, it’s on!

Swap back to Team Voltron and, oh yeah, Allura can still find the Lions. But because they left their armor and bayards, they can’t successfully break in or out of the ship that’s carrying them. They’re bombarded by lasers and they’re separated into pairs. Shiro and Lance, Keith and Hunk, Pidge and Allura.

Meanwhile on the bridge, Ryner manages to fully decipher the decoy messages and deduces that the person producing them is an Olkarion, correctly guessing that it’s La-sai. She takes a few seconds to pinpoint the location of the real Paladins. Coran tells Lahn to gather his troops, Lahn’s way ahead of him.

Switch back to the pairs. Lance talks about his feelings, Shiro understands and starts to suspect something. Lance says that he thought that Allura really did like him back during Sendak’s invasion. He doesn’t just feel insecure, he feels like he’s unworthy of the positions he’s held. He’s the youngest in his family, he feels like has to stand out to some people. But lately, he feels less and less comfortable slipping into ‘Loverboy Lance’. He doesn’t want to put up the act of being a ladies man anymore. Not after being rejected by Allura as both his loverboy persona (constantly) and his genuine nice guy persona back on Earth. Shiro comforts him like the amazing Space Dad he is. “You are Lance McClain, the Blue Paladin, once the right hand of Voltron. You’re our sharpshooter. Don’t think for a second you’re not worthy of a spot on this team.”

Lance: I knew that name would catch on.

Shiro: You insisted you were one. And look at you now.

They smile. When the pirates come for them, Shiro gets caught first. Lance uses his physicality to hide in a tree trunk. He takes down a pirate and uses the vacant rifle to free Shiro. When charging head-first backfires on Lance, Shiro uses his left arm to dive for the pirates legs and knocks him off his feet.

Hunk tells Keith that it might be too late but he’s really sorry for what he said during the Weblum mission (since he never does...). He didn’t know how to cope with everything happening to them and kinda took it out on Keith when his heritage was revealed. Keith thanks Hunk for his words and they hug. Keith hugging Hunk freely shows that Keith can open up to more than just his immediate family. It’s also a sweet reprise of Hunk hugging Keith. (I really liked their little bonding moment hehe in Season 7 and I wanted to showcase that a bit more) He tells him that they’ve really come a long way since driving his hoverbike away from the Garrison. “Yeah, and now we’re saving the universe with them!” They’re surrounded by pirates, Hunk hurls rocks at them and tackles them when they’re distracted. Keith uses his Galra strength + a fighting maneuver Kolivan taught him to take down a particularly big pirate.

Hunk: Dude! That was amazing! You gotta teach me some of those moves!

Keith: Only if you teach me how to play Stack-A-Ton!

Hunk: Deal!

Yay! More girl bonding! Allura tells Pidge about the voice she heard at the Garrison. Pidge says that it’s normal for people to think they’re hearing someone after life-threatening events. She asks if she can identify who was speaking, saying that it might help the voice disappear. Allura says she has a good idea but she doesn’t want to tell them yet. Not until she’s absolutely sure. Pidge says its okay and to take all the time she needs. They take down the pirates using Allura’s shape-shifting and Pidge’s craftiness. Allura changing herself to a bigger size and Pidge using their superior weight and height against them. “I love being small!”

The ATLAS shows up. Everyone cheers. “CORAN RESCUE!”

On arrival, Lahn’s forces take down the Space Pirates with ease, taking down the ships and freeing the Lions. The Lions find the 2 out of the three 3 pairs so they can put their armor back on. Allura carries Hunk and Keith’s bayards. Yellow opens its mouth and briefly allows Allura to pilot.

When they bring La-sai to the ATLAS, he hurriedly tells that their leader wants to destroy Voltron Paladin by Paladin. When Adam asks why, La-sai says that their leader had a ‘score to settle with them’. He thought that they carried the same vendetta he did, to take revenge on those who wronged them. That’s why he gave them information about the ATLAS. But he didn’t realize that the leader wanted to destroy them for good. Acxa immediately knows who the leaders are. Narti telepathically asks her if she’s sure. Acxa says she’s sure and she asks for her help to subdue them. Adam tells them that the need to move quickly if they want to do that, and also calls dibs piloting an MFE Athena Fighter.

Everyone hears the Red Lion roar louder then ever before. “That can’t be good!” Lance shouts in the Blue Lion. Panic is evident on his face, but he knows that Keith and Hunk will hold out until they provide backup.

Our trio at the Garrison follows the Red Lion to the volcano where Ezor and Keith are fighting. Zethrid and Hunk are duking it out nearby. Allura calls out his name and chucks the Yellow Bayard at him. He catches it and starts firing on Zethrid. But Zethrid’s a tank, so those lasers do jack squat on her. She pins Hunk to the ground, his deactivated bayard the only thing between her foot and his chest. “Looks like you’re finished, Yellow Paladin.” She snarls. Hunk then remembers how his family was trapped by the Galra during Sendak’s invasion and how desperately he wanted to save them. He sees the Paladins, the ATLAS, and the Lions standing over him, his own crazy family he formed over the years.

He roars, “NO. I’M. NOT!” He gains a second heroic wind and his bayard transforms into a gigantic battle ax. Zethrid is startled and jumps back before Hunk can cut her face into green slices.

She sees Keith slowly getting the upper hand on Ezor and bull-charges at him. Keith has Krolia’s blade and Red Bayard (Allura threw it to him during the second wind) to deflect their blows. Lance wants to use Blue’s freeze ray on them but Pidge points out that the tremors of the blast might cause the three of them to fall into the lava. In fact, the structure that they’re fighting on is too delicate for the Lions to land on. They’re stuck. Lance feels Red at the back of his mind, growing angrier. “Red, please...” Keith manages to hold the two half Galra back but Ezor kicks his feet and knocks the two weapons out of his hands. Zethrid pulls out a blaster and places it near his head, a ginormous arm around his throat.

Adam goes to immediately shoot them down but Shiro tells him to wait. Acxa and Narti reveal themselves to the couple. Zethrid and Ezor shocked that Narti’s still alive. Acxa tries to talk them down from hurting Keith. “Why?” Ezor snarls, “Because you’re in love with him?” Acxa finally tells them that no, she’s not in love with Keith. Over there battles, she came to respect him as an equal, in the battlefield as well as a half-Galra. She tells them that Keith never lost faith in her. And she’s extending that same unwavering faith to them.

Acxa: Hear my words. Remember how we first met. We were all so full of hate and rage, half-breeds rejected by the Galra.

Zethrid: Lotor used us! Used our anger to fulfill his own needs!

Ezor: He only cared about having power! Quintessence this and quintessence that!

Narti (signing and telepathically): NO! He cared about changing the Galra ways. No more conquering. No more needless violence.

Zethrid: Needless violence!? Didn’t Lotor cut you down?

Narti: No, he saved me.

Ezor: Huh?

Narti: The witch was controlling me. I couldn’t fight back. When she saw Lotor had the trans-reality comet, she and Zarkon ordered the attack on us. Lotor knocked me out to release me from her control. He was going to come back for me after he defeated Haggar!

Zethrid: But...Lotor’s gone! (She places the gun closer to Keith’s head) They told us that. Lotor’s gone and we can’t get him back!

Narti: Maybe, but don’t make the same mistakes he did. Don’t turn to your anger.

Acxa: You’re not angry at Keith because he hurt you and Ezor...you’re hurting him because he reminds you of him. And it hurts to think about him. To think about Lotor.

(Seriously no one brings up any of their similarities in the series...) (I refuse to acknowledge JDS and LM’s comparisons of Lotor and Keith)

Zethrid and Ezor deny it. But as Narti approaches them, Ezor slowly breaks. She admits even though she hates Lotor after what happened at the Rift, she still misses him. As a leader and as her friend. And she hates it. She thought they might get closure once Voltron returned but with Lotor dead, they couldn’t get that.

Keith starts to black out, Red roars in agitation, its rail gun forming, amplified by the volcano. The rest of the Paladins try to subdue it but it fires, stunning Zethrid and grazing her shoulder. The three of them hold on as the cliff collapses beneath them. “KEITH NO!” Lance yells, the other Paladins horrified. They almost fall into the lava but Acxa and Narti grab on to them. Red quickly realizes what it’s done and dives into the lava underneath the rocks. Everything’s quiet. No one moves.

Then Red slowly rises and props the rest of the cliff up so they can get to safety. The lady Generals all embrace, finally getting emotionally support they needed. Allura gently orders them to be detained. Keith is unconscious, Red butts its head against his side, wanting him to wake up. Lance jets out of Blue to prop Keith up for the stretcher.

We next see Keith lying awake on the hospital bed, a nurse checking his vitals. The doctor gently asks if he can speak. “B-B-B-” He coughs into his bandaged fist. “B-Ba-arely-y...” The doctor takes a few notes and puts a tray of rations in front of him, “Eat these before you take the painkillers. It’ll drown out the taste.” Keith thanks the doctor and slowly starts to chew on a ration. He looks down at the ration, surprised that it tastes as good as it does.

While Keith eating his rations, Lance paces outside of his room with Shiro. Krolia and Kolivan are scolding Acxa and Narti like the protective parents they are. Shiro blankly tells him he’s not helping. Lance says he knows but he still has a right to worry about Keith. Shiro agrees but admits that’s he’s never seen Lance so worried about someone. Not even for Allura. Lance confesses that when he saw Keith in Zethrid’s, grasp he was completely willing to kill her. He remembers when they were trapped on their ship and that Keith left him in charge of the team while he fought Zethrid and Ezor. Then, Shiro begins to recount how many times Keith threw his life away for the sake of the mission and how worried Lance always becomes when he does. He also tells Lance that when he and Veronica were knocked out on Earth, Keith comm calls were the loudest.

Lance doesn’t know how to feel about Keith now. He thinks that there might be something for Keith but he doesn’t believe Keith likes him back. He feels like he’s just starting to know the real Keith. Not Lone Wolf Keith he forced a rivalry on (Foreshadowing~). The Keith that knows who he is: “He’s half-Galra with a sword that can double in size, a teleporting cosmic wolf, who’s such a good pilot he can pilot two Lions, and who has my back like I have his.” He doesn’t want to ruin any that. And he’s still getting over Allura, and he knows from experience that no one wants to be a rebound. Shiro says it’s all on him and he’ll always be there lend an ear to listen to his struggles. Lance says that he always lent an ear during their missions. That’s why he’s such a dad, Lance laughs. Shiro hopes that name doesn’t stick.

Allura shows up the same time a nurse exits Keith’s room. Allura asks about Keith’s condition. The nurse says that he might have a sore throat for a few days but his mixed blood should speed up the healing process. “He’s healthy enough to see visitors.” The three Paladins sigh in relief. Shiro says that they should call the rest of their family to see him. Allura agrees but Lance rests his hand on her shoulder, out of breath, “Man, who knew pacing around the same spot a bazillion times would be so tiring?” They all laugh lightly.

The last shot of the episode is the lady Generals and La-sai in a cell together. Narti is teaching them the card game she and the MFE’s played. Kova rolls around the prison floor, finally at ease with the company around him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, hey look! More people blaming Team Voltron! This time it’s the Space Pirates. A lot of things have been rewritten in this episode. Namely, Ezor’s role. Ezor didn’t die or abandon Zethrid in this rewrite, she only lost her eye in the explosion. Because she’s still alive and kicking ass, Zethrid has no motive to take down Keith personally.

And, yeah, we’ve have 2 canon LGBT couples in this season now. Cause apparently Dreamworks can’t afford two. Lady Generals have been reunited yay! Even tho Zethrid and Ezor were brought back to Acxa in the original season, they too had poorly timed redemption arcs. They only appear in two episodes and then are revealed to be Blades during the tacked-on epilogue slideshow. Nope, they’re getting even more screen-time after this. And hopefully I do both of them justice!

Also more Klance development yay! And also more foreshadowing when Keith fights Ezor. Every lady General is a parallel to one of the Paladins. Three guesses as to which Paladin Ezor parallels.

Also, with Red finally diving into a volcano, we officially checked off all the Lions for being in their respective elements and getting a power boost. Blue’s happens in The Depths when it’s revealed it can still move underwater, Green’s happens in Greening the Cub with its plant gun, Yellow’s happens in The Ark of Taujeer with the ground crumbling beneath them, and Black’s happens in Blackout with its second pair of wings/teleportation powers. Coincidentally all those happened in Season 2...

Speaking of, Lance and Allura are slowly evolving into a true BROTP and not a one-sided creepy crush.Thanks to Shiro and Adam helping Lance wade his way into the LGBT Pool, Lance can healthy express his feelings and can see the line between 'Just Friends’ and ‘Something More’. There’s a short time-skip between The Grudge and Genesis so assume that Lance visited Keith more than the rest of the group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Episode 6: Genesis~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Final episode in this rewrite and oh man, is this one a game changer! Strap in palda-dudes it’s going down!

Some major rewrites of this episode are about the White Lion. The first is that it’s essentially backed into a corner. Since it only allows Chosen Alteans to pass through, Honerva abused her status as one to force her army passage and to use its home as their base of operations. It disapproves of everything Honerva is doing. However, it can’t fight back. When it does Honerva uses her black magic/Altean alchemy and some of the Olkarion Cubes to drain its quintessence.

Which brings us to the second rewrite concerning the White Lion; it’s the most powerful of all the Lions period. It’s the equivalent to the Phoenix Force...but, you know, a white lion and not a flaming bird lol. While I appreciate the high stakes its death would continue to establish, it also means another part of Altea is lost to Allura, Honerva, and the other Alteans. I like to think that the White Lion is another Life Giver ascended into another form, one to actually watch over Oriande and give the final test to the Chosen Alteans. Now that Honerva’s plan is in motion, she’s continuously draining the White Lion. The white hole progressively becomes more unstable as she does, which allows the Komars to pass through no problem.

Okay, so the first rewrite of this episode is that, again, Allura is the one in charge of the meeting. She’s dealt with Honerva first hand so all the information concerning the search for her is given to her first. They’re the same reports as in the original episode: four Komars have landed on four different planets and are planning to drain its quintessence to power a machine that could destroy the galaxy. Allura says that the predicted paths of the quintessence surges all lead to one place: Oriande. When asked by Adam what Oriande is, she simply says it’s the genesis of Altean alchemy and that only Chosen Alteans can enter. Coran insists that Honerva must be a Chosen Altean if she can get into Oriande. Allura darkly agrees and they proceed with the plan as the original episode does. Allura gives command of the bridge to Coran as she once again rides the Blue Lion with Lance.

Allura: The universe is facing the gravest threat it has ever seen. Honerva has exploited a vulnerable people, my people, and bent them to her will. She convinced them to pilot her abominations and commit heinous acts. And now she has built a weapon that can destroy an entire galaxy. Today, we risk our lives for the greater good. We are the only thing that can stop her and defend the universe. It is time to end this war.

(Yes, I put Allura’s speech here because I love Kimberly Brooks’ delivery so much)

When our heroes approach the white hole and the Komars fly out to take them down, the White Lion roars and tries to blast them out of the way, but then it flickers before roaring again. It’s more strangled because Honerva continues to drain more of its Quintessence, effectively stopping its attack. Allura’s Altean marks glow and she panics when she sees the White Lion disappear. Team Voltron jets out of the ATLAS (Adam tells them to kick that witches head straight) and heads into the white hole. The White Lion reappears and although it’s weak, it recognizes Allura as a Chosen Altean and allows Voltron to pass. (Lance or Hunk could remark how now it finally lets them through to lighten the mood)

With the quintessence of the White Lion amplifying her magic, Honerva uses the teleduv to break into the Rift and retrieve Lotor. The visage of the White Lion flickers in pain again. Hira and her partner (Let’s call him...Raimon. WHOO Go Lion reference!) use their Komar’s to “defend their goddess” from Voltron. This fight happens a little differently. While the original episode had Voltron simply engaging in a typical mech fight with them, this time since Allura’s backseat (not really) piloting, she will occasionally tap into the power of one Lion to use its signature powers and upgrades to attack.

This allows Team Voltron to regroup and think of strategies while also slowing down the Komars. The Blue Lion uses its attacks first cause Allura’s in it. First it uses its Freeze Ray to stop them in their tracks. Then it uses it’s Sonic Canon (which forms in its mouth since it’s a leg) to stun them. Yellow uses its armor for extra weight in kicks and to stabilize the formation when they’re knocked around. Green uses its plant gun to tie down the Komar. Red uses its rail gun to blind the pilots. Black uses its teleporting powers to better perform attack combos.

Meanwhile on the ATLAS, Zethrid, Ezor, and La-sai decide to break out and help. Narti overhears this in her head, opens their cell, and leads them to the bridge. Iverson, Veronica, and the rest of the crew have their blasters pointed at them. La-sai desperately pleads for forgiveness, he was just so angry, he didn’t know who to turn to. Iverson tells them to get back to their cells or they’ll fire. However, Ryner says they need as much Olkarian as they can to support the ATLAS. Allura agrees through the comms and cautiously allows La-sai to help the Olkarion boost their defenses and gives all the lady Generals access to the MFE Athena Fighters. Adam volunteers to fly too cause he’s a badass. Zethrid ends up saving Rizavi from the Komars chest beam. During the rest of the battle, the MFE pilots (and Adam) are in awe at the lady Generals reaction time and shot accuracy. Griffin even asks them to show him a couple tricks. Ezor flirtatiously says only if he shows them his own. Zethrid growls playfully at her girlfriend while firing at the Komars. Narti’s tail swishes comfortably in the cockpit while Acxa calls out battle formations with ease.

A brand new scene in this rewrite will take place in the Rift. The Sincline is still swimming around the quintessence, it swims from one spot to another. Thanks to the 3-4 years in the Rift it’s now hyper-aware and has developed new abilities. It received a signal in the form of Honerva’s attempt to open the Rift. It’s now trying to find where specifically its coming from so it could escape. Its hand twitches, unused to the feeling before it clenches into a fist. It moves forward and senses the signal is coming from Oriande. It could practically see it, and it also sees the White Lion suffering. Sincline puts maximum power on the thrusters and surges forward.

Now, back at the ATLAS, we’re with Slav and Sam this time, right after the time spillage. As Slav yells at Sam to take off his socks, another massive wave of energy comes from the white hole and knocks everybody over again. Slav massively panics and does more calculations. Sam asks why now he’s panicking.

Slav: BECAUSE THIS IS IT!

Sam: What’s it?

Slav (pressing buttons as fast as he can with his multiple arms): Remember I said something big was going to happen to us when the ATLAS took flight!?

Sam: Wait, that’s happening now!?

Slav: YeS ItS HaPpEnInG NoW! AcCoRdInG tO My CaLcUlAtIOsS tHeReS A 99.6% ChAnCE ThAT WhAtEvER ThIs iS, It WiLl ChAnGE EVeRyThInG!

Sam asks what they can do to lower those odds. Slav still insists that he needs to take off his socks. Sam finally relents but says he’ll do it after they restart the ATLAS’ functions. Slav shouts it’ll do for the time being.

Back at Oriande, Honerva screams in determination, sucking even more Quintessence out of the White Lion. Her corruption marks crack open again. The White Lion roars again, Allura tells the rest of the team to ignore the Komar’s and just charge at Honerva head on. She then uses her magic to amplify Voltron’s quintessence, the blue lines of her alchemy outlining each of the lions. They have a clear shot but before they can fire, the two Komar’s slam themselves against the Red and Green Lions, stopping them in their tracks. Allura closes her eyes and the two Lions roar, blasting the two Komar’s with their respective elements (Fire and Nature). “We have to attack now!” She screams.

It’s too late. Sincline emerges from the hole Honerva ripped through the space-time-reality thing (???) (#Voltron Science I guess). Honerva falls in exhaustion, stopping the drainage from the White Lion, who also falls on its paws. Sincline is launched into the air and slams into Voltron. Team Voltron screams, the two mechs tumbling freely. Hira and Raimon are ecstatic: their savior is alive, and he’s going to help them defeat Voltron once and for all! “Lotor! He has returned!” “Our goddess has done it!”

Cut back to Team Voltron, recovering from the blow and are in shock at the sight. The Sincline was back, and that meant Lotor was back. Allura feels his return and the glow in her Altean marks grow brighter, baffled by the connection she still has with him and his ship. She ignores it. Right now they have to stop him. Lance asks Shiro what they should do.

Shiro: Stopping Lotor is our priority right now! Form swords!

Pidge and Keith use their bayards to form Voltron’s swords, rippling with more Altean magic. They charge at Sincline. Sincline looks up and on instinct, forms its own swords and charges at Voltron. They clash for a good while. Voltron occasionally gains the upper hand thanks to the individual lions powers. But Sincline evens out the odds with the enormous amounts of quintessence it’s collected from the Rift. It strikes with extreme brutality, the quintessence increasing the force of impact. The opposing mech can even manipulate that same quintessence, throwing blasts of pure energy at them. “What the quiznak!?” Oriande’s landscape starts glowing blue and purple. Eventually, Sincline strikes hard enough for Voltron to split into the five Lions like in the original episode. They all fall and form massive crates, dazed and exhausted from the previous fights.

But before Sincline can strike any of them down, something changes. Not only does it pull back from attacking, it disengages its swords. It stands there like its waiting for something. Hira and Raimon are heard cheering again, flanking Sincline’s sides. Lotor defeated Voltron!

They’re brought to attention when Honerva stands and raises a hand towards the three ships. She praises her children for their service and asks for them to bring Lotor to her, for she desires to embrace him as a mother should. Hira and Raimon happily (and blindly) follow the commands of their Empress and take each of the Sincline’s arms. Sincline panics and fights against them. The Komars apply more strength as the push Sincline towards Honerva while it continues to struggle. At this point, everyone is (tired and) confused. Sincline wanted to fight Voltron but then it didn’t, now it resists the Komars and refuses to go near Honerva.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” Allura says to herself. Her Altean marks glow even brighter, enough to be seen through her helmet. Somehow, she can hear the ATLAS fighting against the other Komars, then she hears the White Lion roaring in despair, finally, she hears a soft, familiar voice coming from the cockpit of the Sincline. The same one that spoke to her throughout their search.

The Sincline suddenly goes still and the voice dies down. Allura’s suspicions have been confirmed, “Lotor.” The Komars finally overpower the Sincline and place it in front of Honerva, kneeling. Honerva reaches both hands to Sincline’s head, “Come back to me.”

The door of the cockpit forcibly opens to reveal Prince Lotor. The Galtean Emperor, Child of the Void, Savior of the Altean Colony, and her son. She calls out to him. There’s no response. He lays limp against his seat, white hair longer than before, and his Altean marks glowing with the same intensity as Allura’s. Allura gasps while Honerva slowly twists her hands. Lotor is removed from his seat, descending from the cockpit and into her arms. Haggar presses her face against his neck and runs her claws through his hair, her son has returned to her. The glow on his cheeks never fades away. Honvera doesn’t notice the cracks in her hands.

Allura tries to wake the rest of the Paladins but they’re out cold. She tries to shake Lance awake but there’s no response from him. She can’t contact the ATLAS either because of interference. Seeing Honerva distracted by holding Lotor, she realizes only she can stop her. "Time to end this.” Gritting her teeth she jets out of the Blue Lion. (These next scenes should be imagined in slow mo) Sincline notices her, a single glowing eye making eye contact with her. She briefly panics, thinking that it might fire on him even without Lotor piloting but instead it continues to stare.

However, Raimon notices and aims his chest beam at her. Keith and Red intercept the attack, drawing fire to him instead. Raimon easily gets the upper-hand but before he could destroy them (and to everyone’s shock) Sincline intercepts the attack. “What is this!?” “Lotor NO!” Sincline fights the Komar. No one knows whats happening anymore. Keith stares at the Sincline in shock and tries to wake up the other Paladins. He flies to Black first, Shiro slowly comes to. (after this we’re back in real time)

Allura leaps into the air and screams, using the Altean broadsword she created. Before the blade could reach Honerva, her eyes glow purple and she surrounds Allura in darkness. There conversation carries similar beats to the original, however Honerva questions Allura’s legitimacy as an Altean.

Honerva: I knew Alfor well. He was one of the most powerful alchemists of our generation. Melenor on the other hand...

Allura: Don’t you dare mention my mother! She would be horrified at what you are doing, what the last Alteans are doing!

Honerva: How would you know? You’ve never met her. She was not a normal Altean. No, she was not Altean at all. She might not even be considered a living being. She had a power that even Alfor couldn’t measure up to. She could’ve destroyed me if she’d survived Altea’s destruction. But I know she wouldn’t. Because she would understand why I do these things. As a mothers...(Lotor appears in her arms, she cradles him like an infant) we would do anything for our children...

Those words combined with the emotional weight of seeing the man she once (and still might) love stops her attack. She falls, tears are falling onto his visor. Even her tears can’t dim the glow on her cheeks. Now the tables have turned: Honerva can destroy the Blue Paladin now that he’s vulnerable. She stands and (still holding Lotor) stretches her free hand toward the Sincline...

Honerva: Destroy the Blue Lion.

Allura’s head snaps up, horrified. Sincline doesn’t listen and continues to fight Raimon. Honerva stretches her hand further, black and purple lightning freezing Allura. Sincline struggles to resist her command, and rips the Komars head off. Raimon thinks it’s the end for him. However, Sincline places the Komars head on a separate rock. Now it turns its attention to Honerva. She repeats her command, “Destroy the Blue Lion.”

When Lance’s eyes open, Sincline is staring down at him. Keith eyes turn Galran again, screams “LANCE!” and charges at Sincline. Sincline’s cannon loads and Lance braces for the worst... but instead of firing at Lance, it turns and fires at Honerva.

The blast knocks her back and forces her to release Lotor. Instead of falling, he levitates, a soft purple glow forming a sphere around him. Altean alchemy, Allura realizes. When he opens his eyes, his stare is blank. He waves a hand, gently pushing Allura to the Blue Lion. Purple spheres surround it and the remaining Lions. The remaining Paladins have recovered by now. Hunk panics, Pidge is suspicious, Keith thinks that Lotor’s capturing them for Honerva, Lance is in awe (The ‘cool arc’ between Lance and Lotor begins). Shiro tries to think of an escape plan. Allura’s in shock.

All of a sudden the Lions are thrown upward, right where they entered Oriande. The spheres are guiding them back to the ATLAS. Honerva, enraged by Sincline’s disobedience and Lotor aiding Voltron’s escape, uses the Olkarion cubes inside and outside of Oriande to absorb the White Lion. Her Komars are fast enough to avoid the shock-wave and escape but the Lions would be left stunned and be destroyed by the resulting explosion. Hira picks up Raimon and zooms pass the Voltron Lions, ordering the remaining Komars to pull back. They do so as the energy from the Olkarion cubes and Honerva’s alchemy drains the White Lion further. Allura jets off to the ATLAS and Kosmo teleports her to the bridge. She hears the White Lion’s roar again and she orders the ATLAS to fly closer.

Honerva raises Oriande’s pyramids with her alchemy, dragging the White Lion with them. Lotor lifts himself into Sincline and flies after her. The giant visage of the White Lion disappears as Honerva forces it out of the white hole. Sincline emerges soon after, glowing purple. It extends an arm and the White Lion stops moving, the sphere of black magic Honerva trapped it with slowly turns purple. The spheres around the Voltron Lions disappear, giving Sincline and Lotor more power.

Allura tells the Paladins they need to form Voltron again. The ATLAS crew protest but she tells them if the White Lion dies, Oriande will collapse and the explosion will destroy all of them. The White Lion struggles, torn between two powerful Alchemists. It’s tail slowly gains black cracks from Honerva’s power, slowly pull it towards her. Sincline is struggling. Honerva uses one of her hands to hurl chunks of ship debris at them. A gigantic piece of rock manages to knock Sincline off balance. Voltron forms their blazing sword and slices through the parts and charges at Honerva. She uses her black magic to zap Voltron, shocking the Paladins again and draining their quintessence.

Hearing the screams of her family, Allura channels her alchemy again, marks glowing brighter than ever. The jewel in her tiara, her eyes, and hair start glowing white too. An ancient power courses through her, amplified by her proximity to Oriande. She lets out a ferocious, echoing roar, startling everyone on the ship. A massive ring of blue Altean magic forms around the ATLAS as it magically transforms again, (She does the thing that never happens in the series in the opening when all the lasers shoot out of the Castle of Lions) dozens of lasers shoot out and strike the Komars. A ripple effect happens when a laser hits Voltron and the mech glows blue and white. The Lions all open their mouths (Yes, even the Black Lion), roar, and fire five lasers. They merge into one and hit Honerva, Oriande’s pyramids black out.

The White Lion breaks free and pounces. The Paladins brace themselves for the worst. Sincline/Lotor leap in front of them and form a shield of purple quintessence. “NO!” Allura throws her hands in front of her and stops the White Lion. She gently turns her hands towards her, enormous yellow eyes turning to her, “You’re not safe here. Honerva will destroy you. Let us help you.” The White Lion seems to understand and disappears into nebula of white and blue. This allows Allura to merge it with the ATLAS. The explosions caused by the White Lions drainage are also absorbed into the ship. The ATLAS glows blue and white, bubbles and streaks of quintessence merging with its mechanics. Everyone inside the ship is floating (Slav is definitely flipping out lol), and then are gently dropped onto the floor as the glow recedes. No one pays attention to how the bridge has changed.

Honerva stares at the sight in disbelief. She was right: the Princess is clearly no ordinary Altean. She’s too powerful to even be a Chosen Altean of Oriande.

She winces at the sudden pain in her chest. She looks at her hand. She’s wide-eyed as her hand is almost completely vanished. Her veins slowly turning into cracks in the skin, pure quintessence from the White Lion leaking out. Feeling her marks coming apart too, she uses black magic to seal them, pain coursing through her. She then wormholes the pyramids and her army away from the white hole. Although the pyramids are no longer present, the White Lion still lives within the ATLAS. Oriande lives another day.

Sincline and Voltron are floating, quintessence swirling around them and healing any injuries they had had. Everyone watches the scene in silence. Ryner informs them that the white hole has stabilized, the lights on the ATLAS flicker light blue. No one moves.

Sincline regains consciousness first and flies over to Lotor to gently hold him in its claws. It places him back in the cockpit. Voltron recovers and flies in front of the ATLAS, holding steady as it approaches. To the disbelief of the Paladins and everyone on the ATLAS, Allura asks Sincline why it didn’t destroy them when it had the chance. Continuing to shock everyone, Sincline responds, speaking like an AI, “Pilot unconscious. Requires immediate medical attention.”

Tentatively, they allow Sincline on board the ATLAS. Sincline kneels in front of Allura and opens its cockpit. Lotor is gently removed from his seat, falling into Allura’s arms. Allura slowly shakes him, whispering his name. “Lotor? Lotor? Are you okay?” The Paladins, MFE pilots, and the lady Generals surround her, waiting with baited breath. Romelle looks at them in disgust. Lotor’s Altean marks are still glowing, Allura’s too. She holds her hand, allowing it to glow white-blue before resting it against his forehead. His eyes barely open when he speaks, “--lura?”

Allura: Lotor?

Lotor (gasping): A-Allura...O-Orian...the Whit-te L-Lion...

Allura: Shhhhhh, it’s okay...they’re safe. We’re safe.

As if on instinct, she rests her forehead against his, sensing his life force stabilizing. The Garrison medics put him on a stretcher and wheel him to the medical bay. Allura’s eyes follow them, filled with worry, both of their Altean marks stop glowing. The Paladins don’t know what to do, neither do the MFE’s, the lady Generals are in shock. The last shot of the episode is in Lotor’s point of view, vision blurry and barely making out the dozens of people rushing around the launch bay. His gaze is focused on Allura before he blacks out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Game changers amiright? This episode is tied with Battle Scars for the amount of rewrites but it was also one of the easiest cause I knew what I wanted. Genesis is a good episode by itself but it’s anti-climatic when put in context with the rest of the season. The fights have more tension because Allura’s powers are given a major boost in Oriande, Lotor is still alive and saved Team Voltron again and now has alchemist abilities, Sincline is in control of its own actions, and the mystery of Allura’s mother is introduced.

The MFE Ares Fighters are named after the Greek God of War, likewise the IGF Atlas is named after the Greek myth of a man named Atlas who carried the world on his shoulders. I found it fitting to name the new MFE Fighters after Athena. Athena is the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and Strategic Warfare. This symbolizes how Team Voltron will wise-up as they have been in this rewrite. More on that later *wink* It’s doubly fitting because the pilots are the lady Generals and Adam.

Raimon was King Alfor’s Japanese name in GO!Lion. I’m just dropping all the Voltron references in this rewrite lmao.

Allura’s preservation of the White Lion by absorbing it into the ATLAS has a similar feeling to Princess Serenity revealing herself in the Sailor Moon anime's. It leaves the characters witnessing the event in awe. Oh yeah, the laser that struck Voltron did something to it besides give it a major power boost. More on that later *wink*

Altean alchemy doesn’t have a solid definition in the series, neither does anything outside of the Garrison tech. Pidge and Hunk bluntly describe it as ‘magic’ while in Season 3 Alfor said he built the Voltron Lions with his alchemy, which implies there’s a technological aspect to it. Altean alchemy is also directly tied to quintessence, evident by anything Haggar/Honerva does during the series. In Season 7 Sam says that quintessence is an energy generated by living beings while in Season 4 Lotor says there’s pure quintessence in the space between realities. So with all of that stray information, my definition of Altean alchemy is that it’s the more benevolent cousin of blood bending and metal bending from Avatar:

It allows the alchemist to siphon energy to connect deeper with the universe and create their own unique technologies they can infuse different abilities too. Amplified by quintessence, the lifeblood of the VLD Universe. To pull a quote from the Dark Phoenix movie, “You can turn dust to water, water into life.”

This is how Allura is able to control the Lions even tho she’s not present in any of the cockpits. Besides the fact that Alfor connected them to her life force. However, there is an even more powerful magic inside her, and it’s directly tied to her mother. Even more on that later *wink*

(Phew! You guys made it through Part 1 of this rewrite. Brownie points for persisting with my rambling and inconsistencies with writing hehehe. Thank you for joining me on this adventure. Stay tuned for part 2!)

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aetherstitchold · 5 years

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@sword-and-lance , @ren-roelanberry laughs omg do y’all think I’m gonna go through the roof?

WELL YOU’RE RIGHT SO STRAP IN FOLKS.

There are a lot of things about this fandom I dislike (and many more that I do like, don’t get me wrong!), but I think the biggest problem I have with it is the call-out culture. I have no problem with call-outs if there’s a person who is legitimately dangerous, i.e. this person is a predator and you need to be careful, but I’ve seen that once for maybe every ten call-outs I’ve seen go by on my dash. The majority of what I’ve seen has been absolute petty, childish bullshit because someone had a falling out with someone else, people jumped in and took sides, and it got really fucking ugly when it didn’t have to.

Here’s the thing, when people are involved shit is sometimes going to go sideways. Not everyone is compatible and there are some people who really should be nowhere near each other because they mix like a gas tanker and a Zippo. There is NOTHING wrong with that. What’s wrong is when people begin to share chat logs/screenshots, point fingers, place blame, and get everyone all stirred up over a personal disagreement. In general I have a big problem with sharing private conversations, namely because when things get heated, nobody is at their best. When the anger fades, a lot of the time people will feel bad about what was said and will want to apologize for it, or at least recognize to themselves that they really did a poor job of it and need to try to do better should they find themselves in that situation again- and then to turn around and find the log of that argument posted for everyone to gawk at... wouldn’t that really suck? It’s hard to learn from your mistakes and improve as a person when people you don’t even know are forming opinions of you based on how you were at your worst.

Now, then, if you’re consistently not improving and you’re finding the same scenario repeating over and over? It’s not them, honey, it’s you. Take a step back, take a breath, and take a hard look as to why that is. That said, however, does that sort of repetitive behavior always deserve a public shaming? There’s a thin line between “these people don’t get along” and labeling someone as abusive, and that’s where my problem tends to be. Disagreeing with someone and speaking your mind is not automatically emotional abuse. Slapping that label on someone just because you don’t like their opinions or because you argued with them is a shitty thing to do.

Don’t even get me started on crossing the IC/OOC line. That might be another question on the list, idk, but hoo NELLY I could write a novel about that topic. :|

#:: ooc #spicy hot takes #that got longer than I expected LAUGHS #can you tell that's something that really crisps my cookies?

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dammitadolfnomorecake · 5 years

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CSUAVS prt 3... I'm tired of world building already

Returning to his ship in an angry daze, Kosmo had tried to climb into his lap feeling dejected from Lance's lack of attention. Keith... he just couldn't understand. Sitting on his thin bed, he glared down at Lance's communicator in annoyance as replayed their conversation in his mind. Maybe entering Lance's room had been a touch too far, but the anger he'd shown was way out of proportion. And what did he even mean that Earth wasn't his home anymore. From the moment they first reached the castle, Lance had been dying to return to his family... And what did he mean Shiro had already retired to be with Curtis? None of it made any sense. He'd wanted to see his best friend again, but said best friend seemed to genuinely hate him... And what was with his lack of marks? Was it make up? The more he thought about it, the more his mood worsened, the communicator in his hands threatened to break if he applied any more pressure to thin device. Fuck it. Fuck Lance. It wasn't like he didn't have enough on his mind as it was. He still had no leads over Guile. He'd found his best friend and long time crush living in a fucking brothel, getting up to gods know what and he has the nerve to get mad when Keith makes the effort?! Not caring he was invading Lance's privacy, Keith thumbed over the communicators surface. If Lance wasn't going to tell him what the quiznak was going on, he'd have to investigate himself. He had to know... he had to know if it was personal, or if Lance had snubbed the rest of the team in the same manner as he'd done him. Opening his call logs, he scrolled through the list. Each Earth Sunday, he called Veronica. In fact, Veronica seemed to be the most called person on his phone. Next was his mother, listed under "Mama", presumably a blanket name for his family, phone calls home seemed to happen once every two movements lasting for at least a varga each time, though they were also the most missed calls on the device. If Lance was phoning home, then why was his parents so worried? It didn't make sense. Closing his call log, he opened Lance's messages. Veronica's name popping up first, marked with 5 unread messages. Next was his mother again... then Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro, but the dates on these messages were far older, three or so phoebs ago. Frowning, this wasn't the Lance he knew. Lance always liked to check in. He always liked to know everyone was alright. Opening Shiro's message thread, his heart fell when he read what was there. Four times Lance had tried to reach out to Shiro, each time asking "how he was" or "what he'd been up to", only for Shiro to reply each time that he was "sorry, but couldn't talk at the moment". Growling slightly, he closed the thread to open Pidge's, only to find it reading more or less the same thing. The cherry on the top was Hunk's thread. Lance had been encouraging him and Shay, telling Hunk to "go for it", and that he was "an amazing catch anyone would be lucky to have", only, the messages had tapered off to exactly the same thing as what had happened with Shiro and Pidge. Closing out of the thread, he scrolled down further to find he hadn't messaged Lance, or replied to his messages either in over four phoebs. They'd spoken via calls, but the messages thing... He honestly hadn't realised it'd been so long. Flicking back to the call log, he felt sick when he did the maths, Lance had hardly been involved in any of the teams movemently calls. By trying to give Lance space, he'd inadvertently shut the man out completely. If he was Lance, he'd be pretty pissed too, especially when they'd gone through all of this before on their return journey back to Earth. None of them meant it maliciously. People simply got busy with life, but for Lance, Voltron had always been a cruel test of self worth when the Red Paladin had absolutely nothing to prove to any of them. He was the one Keith trusted to watch his back. To question his judgement and to pull him back into line when he fucked up as leader of the group. He'd thought he was doing better. He knew he was doing better. He'd been able to work through so many things when stranded on the space whale with his mother, but the one person who deserved his attention, who'd always tried to make him feel welcome in his own stupid ways, had slipped right through the cracks. It was a bitter pill to swallow. He had to see Lance again. He had to let him know he was quiznakking idiot and that he was sorry. That... even if Lance didn't have those kinds of feelings for him, he still wanted him in his life. Flopping back on his bed, Kosmo crawled up to drop his head down Keith's chest with a sad whine "Sorry, boy. It's me he's mad at. He's been out here for months, and none of seem to care. He didn't want to come back out here. He was happy back on Earth and I thought I could live with that... but he's not ok... I know I'm supposed to be concentrating on Guile... but how do I leave him like this? How do I leave him when he's hurting? He goes above and beyond for all of us, and what do we do? We don't even bother to reply to his messages. I must have seemed like the biggest arsehole in the universe turning up out of nowhere and asking his help like I haven't been ignoring him" Whining at him, he took it to mean Kosmo agreed "We should go apologise. I need to return his communicator too... He's going to be pissed when he realises I have it... Maybe I should return it before he comes back from work? That way he won't know... Why wouldn't he talk to me?" A drunken unremembered night wasn't enough to ruin the bond they'd formed was it? Or was something else weighing on Lance's mind? When his own communicator started ringing, he jumped violently enough for Kosmo to teleport away in fear. Pulling up his mother's call, he sighed as she saw right through his unhappy expression "What happened?" "Erathus" "Hold on a tick" Catching sight of Axca and Kolivan, the last thing he wanted was an audience to his stupidity. Leaving the control room, his mother was soon back with the same concerned look on her face "Is something wrong?" "I fucked up" "Language" "Fine. I stuffed up so quiznakking royally, I don't know how to fix it" "Explain" "None of have been talking to Lance. I didn't even realise how much time had passed and he wasn't exactly happy to see me" "Did he say so?" "Pretty much. I don't think he meant to force his communicator on me, but he tried talking to all of us, only for us to brush him off. Each time. Finally, he stopped and none of us realised" "Keith, there's still so much to clean up. Ten thousand years of tyrant cannot be fixed in a few short years" "But... this is Lance. He literally got himself blown up like the first day he met Coran protecting him. He'd do the same for any of us, and we... Especially with Allura. Now I've shown up asking for a favour. No wonder he's so mad" "Did you try explaining how busy you've been?" "I didn't get the chance, he was on his way to work and I don't think he appreciated me letting myself into his room" "Keith" "It wasn't my fault. Kosmo had to sniff him out because he wasn't listed on the guest registry of the..." He couldn't say brothel, that'd only make things worse "... hotel he's been staying at. The door opened before I could knock, and when I called I got no answer" Sighing heavily, his mother shook her head "Alright. What about Guile?" "Nothing. Nothing on Thatus. Nothing from the rebel camps, or the planets I stopped by" "I'll speak to Kolivan over how he wants to proceed. I can already tell what you want to do next" "Even if it's just for a quintant, I want to talk to him. Make sure he's doing better than it seems" "I know you care deeply for him, but you need to be prepared to accept that he might not feel the same way about you, as you do about him" Keith's face reddened "Mum!" "I'm just saying..." "I know exactly what you're saying. I've already accepted it, I just want to know he's ok and apologise for ignoring him without intending to" "Alright. Call me. You might be worried about him, but I'm worried about you" "I know, mum. I'll check in tomorrow" "Be safe" "Yeah, yeah. I love you too" Ending the call, Keith closed his eyes. This wasn't how his vacation was supposed to be going at all. * Leaving Kosmo in his ship Keith found something more appropriate to wear back to the club in the form of a plain black shirt, black skinny jeans, and his black boots. Highly unoriginal, yet enough that looked more touristy than he had previously. With Lance's communicator in his pocket, Keith was armed with an apology and the hope Lance would let him get everything off his chest without yelling again. He'd had feelings for Lance so long that it'd been honestly painful to give his best friend the support and push he'd needed to pursue Allura, despite how she'd treated his best friend. Lance had worshipped the ground the princess had walked on. He'd been brushed aside over and over again, forced to watch her fall in love with Lotor, the forced to watch as Lotor tore her heart out. He wasn't naive enough to believe that Allura was incapable of getting over her feelings for him, it was just... on Earth all she'd been preoccupied with was spending every waking moment waiting for the robeast pilot to awaken, then suddenly she was as keen on Lance as he'd been on her since day one. Lance had worried himself sick over their date, coming to him of all people for reassurance. Watching the sunset, he'd desperately wanted to tell Lance not to go through with it all, lying to himself that as long as Lance was happy he could be too. Making his way back to the club, the never ending tide of people streaming through the streets hadn't seemed to abated in the slightest, even 12 vargas later. The city illuminated in every colour rainbow as adverts played on massive screens for things he'd never even heard of. Small walkways he'd never noticed that morning now lit up, advertising casinos or clubs, and all manner of entertainment. A person really could find something here to satisfy that itch of perversion each tourist seemed to carry silently on their shoulders. He hated it all. Clubbing wasn't his scene, or maybe clubbing alone wasn't his scene. He hadn't had the most practical of childhoods, or atypical teenager life. The years most spent experimenting were lost to him on the space whale, yet he couldn't bring himself to regret a single moment of the time spent getting to know his mother. The time has softened his sharp edges, giving him a whole new perspective on life. Letting himself into the club, he skipped the front desk as he headed for the main dance floor, aliens of every race all dancing and mingling as unidentifiable music played over the speaker system. Whatever it was, the atmosphere was soaked with sex in the air. Ordering himself a drink really didn't seem worth it, yet without Kosmo to teleport him up to the second level, he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. The building clearly had more than two levels, the roof not visible from street height at all, yet if he did attempt to enter at higher level it might eventuate in him causing a scene that could cost Lance his precious job. Positioning himself at the end of the counter, he ignored the way his drink glowed a soft green as he opened his communicator to pull up the buildings security data. "Is this seat taken?" In his own world, Keith didn't realise he was being talked to. He'd found the schematics to the buildings air duct system, the main turbines on the 95th floor... There were smaller outlet shafts at ground level around the back of the building, but they tapered down to a size that he'd have to be a mouse to get through, completely ruining all chances of using the ducts to reach Lance's room. For someone who loved space and the starts, he was surprised Lance didn't want to be closer to them. Feeling a tug on his arm, he was pulled back reality. A young female alien with four arms and far too much make up was staring down at him "Sorry?" "I asked if this seat was taken?" "No?" Turning back to his communicator, his arm was tugged on again "You're not very good at flirting, are you?" He was being flirted with? "Sorry, I'm..." "What? You think you're going to sit there and act like you're too good for me?!" "No, it's..." "It's what? Is there something wrong with me?" Other than the fact she wasn't Lance? Or the fact she looked as if she'd bathed in her makeup before leaving her room? "No. I..." Yelling something at him in something that must have been her native tongue, Keith sat there in shock as stormed off. He hadn't even done anything, and it wasn't like he'd asked for any of that to happen. Fuck it. He was on a mission to find a way up to Lance's room while bypassing the bouncers that guarded the second floor. It was time for diversionary tactics. If he couldn't awkwardly people his way through this, then he'd have to Blade of Marmora his way through instead. Pulling up the building schematics again, he pulled up the power grid, thanking Pidge yet again that her program made everything far too easy. With a few taps, there was a smirk on his lips as the lighting behind the bar went out, the bar tenders visibly confused as customers grew angry over their inability to drink themselves even stupider. The first punch thrown under up with the offender hurled over the bar, from the way the staff simply sidestepped the commotion Keith was left wondering how many times brawls had resulted in the same thing happening. As the two bouncers moved to break up the fight, he restored power to the bar before draining his drink and slipping through the warm bodies on the dance floor. He hadn't intended on a brawl, but damn it'd been effective. The second floor was illuminated differently as Keith walked the passage. Some doors lit with an aqua light above sensor strips to the right of them, some lit with red. Given he didn't know what the aqua or red lights were about he wasn't even going to speculate what the yellow or light green ones meant, despite the fact the light above the sensor strip to Lance's room was glowing yellow. Lifting his hand, he waited like he had that morning, hoping that when the door opened Lance wouldn't be there and he'd be able to return the communicator without him noticing. After that, he'd slip back down into the club and message Lance over catching up. It wasn't like he didn't have time to waste now that his mother had Kolivan preoccupied. Taking a few moments, the door slid open silently to reveal the brightly lit interior of Lance's room. The lights from the street spilling in to cast patterns across the ceiling which were pretty in their own way, yet left him with a kind of hollow feeling in his chest. All this life was going on around Lance, so why was his room so devoid of it all? Shaking his head, he scolded himself. He'd already snooped enough by going through Lance's phone. Anything else he wanted to know had to come from Lance himself. It was only right, and he wasn't hearing the full story with the sideways stalking of him. Striding across the room he fished out lance's communicator from his pocket, so he could carefully place it back down from where Lance had retrieved it earlier. Turning back towards the door he knew he had to leave, but... if he did, would Lance answer him when he messaged? In all likelihood, he probably wouldn't. They'd moved past that in their relationship. But maybe he would? It'd been vargas since he'd turned up on Lance's doorstep, enough time for Lance to process that he was there and wanted to talk... Quiznak. Why was it that Lance turned him into such a bundle of uncertainty? Crossing back towards the door, there was a solid thud against it from the otherside, followed by a soft laugh that could have only been Lance's. Keith's heart leapt at the sound, only for it to fall when a gruff voice joined it. Lance was laughing with someone else... and he was about to be sprung in Lance's room all over again. Slightly panicked, he did the only thing he could and threw himself at the bathroom door, it sliding back with a soft whoosh as he drew his blade and darted inside, hitting the door panel to close it as the main door to the apartment opened, wedging his blade between the door and the frame, his stalkerish ways hitting a whole new level as he watched through the gap. Laughing and giggling, Lance had his legs wrapped around a Galra, a second one crowding from behind, the mood between the three of them flirtatious enough for Keith to step back. He didn't want to see this, but he couldn't look away. "Slow down... mmm, just like that" Watching both Galra mouth at lance's neck, Lance moaned for more, the one behind him ripping off the man's shirt causing Lance to giggle even more "Did no ever teach you patience?" "No" Laughing like it was the most hilarious thing he'd ever heard, Lance was cut short as he carried over to his bed and dropped down. Crawling up the covers he soon disappeared from view, yet his voice carried well "Come here, papi. I haven't had a Galra in a while..." Lance was... he was... no... "We're going to fuck you until you can't walk" "Just the way I like it" He could hear the wink in Lance's voice, followed by a rustling of cloth. Moving out of the way to undo their pants, Lance was down to his boxer briefs, long caramel legs spread as he reached out for both Galra... "That's right... come here... I'm going to make you both feel so good..." Covering his mouth to stifle his breathing, Keith was murderous. Lance shouldn't be... not with... it was stupidly romantic, just like Lance was, but Lance should only be having sex with the person he loved. Someone to treasure him. Someone who wouldn't pay him and leave him. Closing his eyes, he willed his breathing to calm, opening them as Lance let out a particularly loud moan. He was going to die right here. Lance would causally walk into he bathroom and find him dead right there. Keith. Killed by his embarrassment caused by stalkerish ways because he couldn't simply grow a pair and ask Lance out properly. What a way to die. "Slow down, papi... we have all night and this little pup is going to be such a good boy for you both" Drawing both Galra close, Lance traded kisses between the pair, before reaching under his pillow with both hands. The pair of Galra growling as he did "It's ok. We humans need a little help to loosen up down there..." The next moment brought a flurry of action on Lance's end. One moment he was moaning, the next he was tearing two black tranquilliser guns out from under his pillows, both finding their marks against the necks of the two Galra hovering over Lance. It was only a tick before the purple liquid in both had been depressed into the Galra's necks and the pair were scrambling backwards off him Lance, holding the wound site as they glared down at him "Have a nice nap boys" Collapsing down the bigger of the pair cursed "Leandro", promising to "tear his throat out of if he ever saw him again". Lance wasn't phased at all. Climbing from his bed, he made his way to his kitchen where he opened the top draw to withdraw another communicator. This one black in comparison to the orange one Keith had snooped through before "LEA. 2D. NMTN. NCN. RTN. PHNPHS. TS" What was that supposed to mean? Why was Lance listing off a bunch of weird letters and looking so bored about it all as he did. Whatever it meant, that was all there was to the call. Pausing to retrieve a gown from his walk-in-robe, Lance moved to his bedside table where he retrieved two pairs of cuffs. Cuffing both Galra with a sigh, he gave each of them a kick to the side for good measure before dropping back down on the side of his bed. There were plenty of times in Keith's life where he couldn't find the words to say what he wanted, but right now, he wasn't even sure he knew what words were. Through the crack in the door he was forced to watch as Lance pulled the tranquilliser vial from the gun, then slid a softly glowing yellow one into place and held it to his thigh, openly injecting himself with whatever was in there. Placing the gun back down, he then rose to walk over to the kitchen. Keith couldn't... Sinking down onto the toilet, Keith buried his face in his hands. None of this made any sense in any way, shape or form. Lance didn't do drugs. He didn't go around luring Galra back to his bed only to drug them. And who was on the other end of that call? Left to stew a few doboshes passed before there was knock at lance's door and he found himself back on his feet spying all over again. Nodding at Lance, the man in charge of what seemed to be five aliens of the same species as the bouncers downstairs passed Lance a package silently while his goons gathered up the two unconscious Galra. The exchange silent. The group walking out the room like it was an everyday occurrence... "You're welcome! Jodido policia..." Policia... was police. He enough Spanish to know that. That was the police? They didn't look terribly police like, and with all the run ins he had, he really well and truly knew what police officers looked like. The police wanted those two Galra and what... Lance was working with them? Hadn't he been working as a bodyguard? Or had Hunk got it all wrong and assumed a job in security had meant bodyguard? Absolutely every single of one his questions could be answered if he simply burst from the bathroom right now to ask. Instead he sank back down on the toilet. What the Quiznak was all of this?! * Still trapped in the bathroom, Keith waited with bated breath. Lance was grumbling over something, drawing his attention back to sliver in the door. Obviously oblivious to the fact he was being watched, Lance went about getting changed into an outfit that could barely be called an outfit. He was covered, but that was about it. His outfit skintight leaving nothing to imagination. Settling down on his sofa, he tapped away on his black communicator, pulling up a holocall with someone he didn't recognise, talking for a few ticks, Lance was all smiles, grabbing his jacket and making for the door as he promised "he'd be right down". Now would have been the time to say something, Lance passing within millimetres of the bathroom door before disappearing out the main door like he hadn't just assisted in the capture of two over handsy Galra that Keith wouldn't mind spending 5 minutes unsupervised and alone with. Now that the apartment was cleared of Lance's presence, he was going to get some damn answers. Starting in the bathroom, he didn't like what he saw. Bloodied bandages. Bottles of red and blue pills. A small black box filled with those same yellow vials. If he was going to stalk Lance, he might as well go all out. He couldn't help Lance if he didn't understand what he was looking at, and what was a little stealing between friends? Popping the covers on both bottles of pills, he shook two of each out, then replaced them carefully. A quick check of the draw beneath revealed another one of those black boxes, this one half empty making it easier to steal a few tubes without Lance noticing. Pausing as he slipped the "borrowed" items into his pocket, he took a deep breath. Was he really going to do this? And was it really... what if he... what if whatever this was, was exactly what he was thinking it was? The drugs. Throwing himself at random strangers? Drugging them? Living in a club... that was actually a brothel... Did Veronica know? No. Veronica couldn't. She would have dragged Lance out of here the moment she'd heard. Something he too should be doing... But with all Lance had been through, he deserved the benefit of the doubt. Slipping out of Lance's room, the man in question was walking back along the hall with a male he didn't recognise. Attempting to appear casual, Keith went to lean on the door, only to remember at the last moment that the doors here opened automatically, leaving him cringing internally as his shoulder his the wall. Whatever Lance was saying was broken off when he realised Keith was standing there, a frown passing over his lips before being replaced with a clearly fake smile. The "friend" he was with didn't look too happy that whatever had been about to happen had no been waylaid "Keith? What are you doing in front of my room?" The weight of the pills in his pocket seemed to grow exponentially "Hey, man..." His internal flinching growing at the slighter higher pitch of his voice "... I just came by to... uh... apologise about earlier. It came across wrong. I mean, I do need your help, but that was secondary" Lance brightened up. His posture taller and his smile less fake "It's fine. It wasn't a good time, work and all that..." "Yeah?" "Yeah, man. It's all good. I'm actually in the middle of something... but we should talk?" "That would be nice. I'm heading off again tonight, but I'll call you?" Lance nodded, though that tinge of real smile was gone again "Sounds good. If you remember to send me those files, I'll take a look" "Are you sure?" "Can't let my down the former leader of Voltron, can I?" If it was Hunk, Lance would have been joking how he couldn't let down his "best bud" "Yeah. I'll let you get back to it" "Thanks. I'll be waiting for that call" "I've actually got some time off, so I promise not to forget" Forcing himself off the wall and to walk past Lance, the sweet scent of flowers met his nose in the moment their shoulders brushed. Lance had always taken care of himself, so no doubt he was reading everything wrong.

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sage-nebula · 5 years

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27, 26, 21, 13 (the generals), 10, 5, 4, 2, and 1 for Voltron? For The salty meme thing? (Also apologies if these were answered previously)

I’m just glad that you said what meme this was for, because this was long enough ago that I completely forgot, haha.

27.) Least shippable character?

Answered.

26.) Most shippable character?

I honestly have no idea. Maybe characters like Regris or Matt, since they have barely any personality and thus could be paired up with almost anyone if written well.

21.) What are your thoughts on crack ships?

They’re fine, and have been around in every fandom for the dawn of time. I strongly disapprove of anyone attacking anyone for whatever fictional ships they have no matter the reason, because as squicky as you might find someone else’s ships, that’s absolutely NO justification for sending death and/or rape threats, doxing, or otherwise harassing and engaging in nasty behavior. But that said, the idea of people doing this just because someone ships two characters who have never met before is especially ludicrous. It’s unacceptable in general, but when people come down on the ideas of someone writing an AU where two characters who didn’t meet in canon meet and fall in love, it’s pretty obvious that the only reason why they take issue is because this is “competition” for their ship, a concept which is especially asinine when you remember that fanworks have no bearing on canon, and as such ships can’t really be in competition anyway.

So my thoughts are: Everyone needs to stay in their own lanes. No one has to like every ship out there—god knows I have some NOTPs of my own—but that’s no excuse for harassing, attacking, threatening, and otherwise being nasty to others. Tumblr Savior and the block feature exist for a reason. What other people ship doesn’t affect me, and the same goes for everyone else.

13.) Unpopular opinion about the generals?

Acxa: While I personally only ship Acxa and Keith platonically and do not read or write romance into their relationship at all, I don’t think it would have been horrible or the end of the world had she and Keith ended up as endgame. I do think that more work should have gone into their relationship if that was to be the case, but I think that the vitriol and hatred that was spewed Acxa’s way for “getting in the way” of other potential relationship options for Keith was pretty gross and misogynistic. Acxa deserved better, full stop.

Narti: Literally the only reason why the majority of the fandom cared that she died was so that they could use her death as a reason to vilify and demonize Lotor. They never actually cared about her, and it makes me angry whenever I see her name leave any of their fingers. They don’t deserve to talk about her, tbqh.

Ezor: She’s as cruel as she is bubbly and energetic. She’s kind and loving toward those she likes, yes, but she was the one smirking when Lotor commanded Throk to be sent to rot with the ice worms, and she had no problem tossing helpless village leaders around and getting threatening when one of them disrespected Lotor. Ezor is genuinely outgoing, but she also purposefully allows people to underestimate her and let their guards down around her so she can make them pay for it later. In some ways this makes her crueler than even Zethrid.

Zethrid: According to galra beauty standards, Zethrid is widely considered the hottest and most attractive of the group. Additionally, while she has no qualms about smashing skulls and actually does like explosions and fighting, she’s also protective of those close to her and does her best to look out for them. She’s the most group-oriented member of the team.

10.) Most disliked arc? Why?

Seasons five and six. Season six in particular was so bad that it’s what caused me to drop the show. If I list out all the reasons why I hated these seasons we’ll be here all day, but suffice to say that season five did a good job of making me despise pretty much every member of Team Voltron (and the protagonist-centered morality of the show became unbearable), and season six pushed the idea that a child abuse survivor without a good parental figure will end up evil like their parents. As a child abuse survivor myself, I didn’t take kindly to that.

5.) Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

I never shipped them romantically, but I stopped being able to enjoy Keith and Shiro’s platonic, familial relationship due to all of the wank and nastiness in the fandom. It’s sad, because when I first started watching their familial relationship was my favorite relationship in the show, but between the Shiro stans who bashed Keith because they felt he only had value when he was an accessory to prop Shiro up, to the antis who used Shiro and Keith’s platonic relationship to further their romantic ship(s) of choice, it just got to the point where I couldn’t enjoy it anymore and no longer wanted anything to do with it. It’s sad, but what can you do.

Oh, and while I never shipped Keith/Lance, fandom antis made me go from neutral on that one to full on cringing whenever I see it. So there’s that, too.

4.) Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

Romantic Keith/Shiro has always squicked me out, because I always saw Shiro as an older brother, promoted-to-parent figure for Keith, like Guy to Luke in Tales of the Abyss, or Nani to Lilo in Lilo and Stitch, et cetera. That was the vibe I always got from their relationship in canon as early as season two, and while I tried to see where the shippers were coming from in rewatches (I really, really tried), it just squicked me whenever I thought of them romantically because of how Shiro acted like a guardian figure for Keith. Given that season six confirmed that Shiro did in fact play a part in raising Keith and that Shiro and Keith met when Shiro was an adult and Keith was a foster orphan, I can at least say that my feelings were right on the money with that one. In any case, this is one of the fandom juggernaut ships and it’s a NOTP for me, so yeah.

That said, Keith/Lance is also a NOTP for me. Aside from never seeing any chemistry in canon because Lance would barely allow Keith to even be his teammate, much less his friend (much less his boyfriend), the fandom ruined it for me as mentioned before. It’s unfair to those who ship it without being nasty, I know, but Keith/Lance became the flagship for a group of people in fandom who behaved very nastily even to people who weren’t in the fandom at all. It’s the biggest ship in the fandom and I also can’t stand it, so. There’s that.

2.) Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

Shiro and Keith, but as mentioned the fandom ruined it for me after all the Shiro stans I saw bashing Keith, and all the antis that made platonic content only to turn around and either a.) use it to further their ship (usually Keith/Lance), or b.) behave atrociously toward other fans / voice actors / staff members / etc. Like I’d want to go look at platonic Shiro and Keith content and have a nice time, but I’d have to worry that OP was a terrible person the entire time I did, and it was just … no fictional relationship is worth that kind of stress. So yes, I’d still see them as a brotp, but it’s not one I can have fun with anymore.

Acxa and Ezor is another one, though mainly as I write them in Paradigm Shift. Here’s another cup of unpopular tea: Acxa and Ezor’s canon dynamic is basically Keith and Lance but with girls. The only reason it became as popular as it did is because both Acxa and Ezor are pretty by our human beauty standards (although I guess the personality dynamic of “Keith and Lance but as girls” didn’t hurt among the antis). That said, while I keep their differences and the way they grate on each other in my writing (in that Acxa sees Ezor as immature, Ezor sees Acxa as a nag), they have an older sister - younger sister dynamic going on. They really do love each other, it’s just beneath a lot of arguing because one is so responsible (Acxa) and the other is … not (Ezor).

1.) What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

If it’s a popular ship in the Voltron fandom, you can pretty much bet I don’t ship it, lmao. Romantic Keith/Shiro, Keith/Lance, Allura/Lance, Acxa/Ezor … if it’s big, odds are I don’t like it. Only rare pairs are shipped in this house.

Note to Everyone: DO NOT reblog this to start discourse or wank or so help me god, I will block you immediately, no warnings and no regrets. Thank you.

#anonymous #salty ask meme #let me know if this needs other tags #like negativity tags and such

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gdwessel · 5 years

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Wrestle Kingdom 13 - 1/4/2019; Ibushi Concussed; G1 Climax 29 Begins in Dallas, WK14 Will Be 2 Nights

Today is The Day. Wrestle Kingdom 13. You can watch it on NJPWWorld in Japanese or English. You can pay $35 on FITE TV for the same. You can wait until later tonight and watch a 2-hour version (continued the next 2 weeks) on AXS TV. Whatever the case, you can see it.

Wrestle Kingdom 13 - January 4, 2019, Tokyo Dome (NJPWWorld, FITE TV, AXS TV on tape delay)

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders Gauntlet Match: Togi Makabe, Toru Yano [CHAOS] & Ryusuke Taguchi d. Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb [FREE] & David Finlay Jr. and Hirooki Goto, Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor [CHAOS] and Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. [SZKG] and Adam Page, Yujiro Takahashi & Marty Scurll [The Elite] Order of Eliminations - Finlay > Yujiro, Schoolboy, 4:39 - Finlay > Taylor, Schoolboy, 7:30 - KES > Finlay, Killer Bomb, 2:44 - Yano > Smith, Schoolboy, 8:09

NEVER Openweight Championship: Will Ospreay [CHAOS] d. Kota Ibushi [FREE] © (Stormbreaker, 18:13) - Ibushi fails his 1st defense - Ospreay is the 23rd champion

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship 3-Way Match: BUSHI & Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado [SZKG] © and SHO & YOH [CHAOS] (Takagi > SHO, Last of the Dragon, 6:50) - Kanemaru/Desperado fail their 5th defense - BUSHI/Takagi are the 58th champions

RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] d. Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS] © (Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than The Last; The Inexorable March Of Progress Will Lead Us All To Happiness, 11:53) - Ishii fails his ? defense - Sabre is the 21st champion

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship 3-Way Match: EVIL & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] © and Matt & Nick Jackson [The Elite] (SANADA > Matt, Rounding Body Press, 10:15) - GOD fail their 1st defense - EVIL/SANADA are the 82nd champions

IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Juice Robinson d. Cody Rhodes [The Elite] © (Pulp Friction, 9:02) - Cody fails his 1st defense - Juice is the 5th champion

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] d. KUSHIDA © (Bloody Cross, 11:17) - KUSHIDA fails his 1st defense - Ishimori is the 83rd champion

Jay White [Bullet Club] d. Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] (Blade Runner, 14:18)

IWGP Intercontinental Championship No-DQ Match: Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] d. Chris Jericho [FREE] © (Destino, 22:35) - Jericho fails his 2nd defense - Naito is the 20th champion

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Kenny Omega [The Elite] © (High Fly Flow, 39:13) - Omega fails his 4th defense - Tanahashi is the 67th champion

Hoo boy, a lot to break down here.

Every single title changed hands during this show, including the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The last time that belt changed hands at a January 4 Tokyo Dome show was Wrestle Kingdom V on 1/4/2011, by, how about that, Hiroshi Tanahashi, beating Satoshi Kojima. Eight years since then, including last year's controversial retaining by Kazuchika Okada over Tetsuya Naito that some people are still salty about. So, essentially, the entire Bushiroad era. The (frankly piss-poor) reign of Kenny Omega as IWGP champion is at an end, and the rest of the Elite (including Kota Ibushi) are title-less as well. So let the speculation about Omega and All Elite Wrestling begin in full force. It will be interesting to see which direction he goes in either way. For his part, Tanahashi is now an 8-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, cementing himself with the record number of reigns. (The next closest is Tatsumi Fujinami at 6.)

Los Ingobernables all hold titles now as well, barring Hiromu, of course, being out injured and all. CHAOS holds one title, as does Bullet Club, who lost one and gained one. The Seikigun hold two, after Tanahashi and Juice won their matches, however lost one with KUSHIDA.

Tetsuya Naito regains the title he hates over Jericho in a brutal brawl, taking full advantage of the No-DQ stipulation,and with it, begins his redemption story, having to come to terms with the IC belt to finally truly move beyond it. Really interested in seeing how his 2019 will go.

Jay White winning over Okada is interesting. It redeems White for having a poor re-debut at WK12 last year, and sets up a continuing feud with the two. Kazuchika Okada having his redemption arc is going to be a major part of 2019 creatively, I think, as will Naito as stated above, and eventually the two will collide. Okada does not take a hit here. It only sets him up to be stronger in the end. And hey, the Longboys are gone, so we have the Rainmaker back!

Shock of shocks, neither of the three-way tag matches ended with the reigning champions being pinned. The junior tag match was REAL short. (So were many of the matches today) Three-ways are stupid and are there to a) not make the champions do the job b) cover up for a bloated roster. Perhaps with the Elite moving away from NJPW this will be minimized in future. But let's face it, now we'll get rematches with the previous champions v. the current ones coming up real soon.

Juice regains the US belt, and writes Cody Rhodes out of NJPW. Trent Beretta challenged Juice post-show. That'll be good. Hopefully they can do right by Juice this time. They made him look like an absolute star at G1 Special in San Francisco, and then proceeded to squander and ruin that the rest of 2018. ZSJ regaining the RevPro title is about what I expected. Now he can take the belt home to England. Yes, that is the na.me of that finisher

That... was a nasty looking elbow Kota took. Ibushi has been reported as being concussed, and that stretcher job was legit. NJPW says the concussion is not severe. Will Ospreay is trying to be in characer gloating about it, because he is a dipshit. Who knows what Ibushi's future is in this AEW era. He's been a freelancer this entire time, so if he too were to leave NJPW (again) so be it. I really think he has the potential to be a drawing IWGP champion, but that's up to him. He did decline a WWE contract after all (as did Sabre). His is the bigger question mark looming than Omega's, if I'm honest.

The mixed Seikigun/CHAOS team of Makabe/Yano/Taguchi won the pre-show gauntlet match, so will most likely challenge for the NEVER Openweight Comedy 6-Man Tag Team titles tomorrow at New Year Dash!!. Yuji Nagata filled in for the injured *spits* Michael Elgin, and made the match actually watchable now, because fuck Michael Elgin. The Most Violent Players still being a thing makes me think there really is going to be a unit shakeup coming soon. We already saw it with Jay White and Gedo earlier in 2018, and the continued CHAOS/Seikigun teamups point that way too.

All in all, a really good show that was weak on paper but in practice did really well. The attendance was announced as 38,162, up from 34,995 for last year's, but not as much of a jump (Nearly +10K last year from WK11). It's also the highest attendance listed since Bushiroad started using actual numbers rather than papered, which was 36,000 in 2015 for WK9. So as critical as I've been of Kenny Omega as champion, using the Meltzer Standard for attendance, it looks like Kenny was, in fact, a decent draw as champion, even if creative and match quality was the shits. Online, it seems that there were some issues during the show on NJPWWorld, for which apologies have been doled out.

The attendance is an interesting issue. Bushiroad owner Takaaki Kidani has said for years that he wanted Wrestle Kingdom 14 to be the sell-out show at the Dome, as it falls on a Saturday...

As part of today's show, upcoming big events were announced for the coming year, and the biggest one of these was the announcement that WK14 will be, in fact, a 2-day event, on 1/4 and 1/5/2020, both Saturday and Sunday. Not sure how that is going to work out for selling out the Dome in 2020. In fact it might dilute the attendance by splitting it. It's an interesting conundrum, and we'll see if NJPW has the momentum to sell out just one, if not both, of those dates this time next year.

Other major show dates were announced, some we already knew (if you look at the Upcoming NJPW Events post from 2 days ago). There is a mega-card announced for 4/20/2019 at Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, without a name given, but no word on Sakura Genesis, so I'm wondering if there will even be one this year. Wrestling Dontaku 2019 is a two-day event in Fukuoka, much like last year's edition.

This year's Best of the Super Juniors 26 Final will be held on 6/5/2019 at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, which is great, finally giving the Final the prestige it deserves with such a massive venue to hold it in. A mere 4 days later, we go back to Osaka-Jo Hall for Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-Jo Hall on, oddly enough, 6/9/2019.

G1 Climax 29 will begin and end in interesting fashion. This year's tournament will actually begin in the USA, on 7/6/2019 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX, making this the only time G1 Climax matches have been held outside of Japan. As for the ending, following the success of last year's Finals at Tokyo Nippon Budokan, which was due to necessity of renovations happening at Ryogoku, they are going back this year from 8/10 - 8/12/2019 for this year's G1 Finals as well.

The last one to be announced is a solo date in London, on 8/31/2019 at The Copper Box, located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick. This is the place where feuding YouTubers Joe Weller and KSI held a boxing match. I am sure there will be RevPro involvement in this show.

That's it. That's all I got. New Year Dash!! is tomorrow but they never announce the card for it ahead of time. Hope everyone enjoyed WK13, and we start a good year in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

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keeloves · 5 years

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Top 10 Characters that deserved better.

10 Alexis Glenn from Famous in Love

Despite my problems with this character I wasn’t very pleased with her treatment on the show Famous in Love. Yes I know she was a snob and behaved like a jealous bitch but I felt she had some redeeming qualities about her. For one thing I would have her accept the fact she was bisexual and not have those run of the mill lame excuses as in “I don’t like labels” bisexual isn’t a bad word. I also would have her apologize to Paige for how she treated her and maybe they can get along but they don’t have to be besties. Another thing I didn’t like was her being used by Jake and then being dropped like a hat just because things didn’t work out in his favor. No one deserves that. I also felt she deserved better than to be used by Ida. I would love to give Lexi a redemption arc.

9. Milah from Once Upon a Time.

Even though I didn’t really care for Milah, I felt she deserved better than to be killed by Rumple twice. The first time having her heart ripped out and crushed literally and then being thrown into the lake of lost souls. I felt she had remorse for leaving Baelfire/Neal behind. I honestly felt she could have given Belle advice on how to leave Rumple and they could have become friends or something. Anyways she deserved to move on from the under world not be thrown in a lake of lost souls.

8.Belle French Once Upon a Time

I am convinced that Adam and Eddie hated Belle. First off why did they keep her in a relationship with a man who lies to her, manipulates her and has told her multiple times he won’t change. Yet here she is going back to this man again and again. She kept going back to Rumple and even enabled him. She was once so scared of him that she felt that her child would be better off away from the father. Not only does she get lied to and manipulated she gets mind raped, raped if Belle and Rumple had sex in the fantasy world where Rumple was the Bright One. He even went so far as to stalk her and put a tracking bracelet on her to know where she was at all times. Belle always looked scared of Rumple and was always backing away from him. That relationship should have ended when Belle banned Rumple from Storybrooke. Nope she gets forced back in a toxic relationship and even Emilie De Raven said that she wouldn’t give Rumple as many chances. I know I have said this before but I am going to say it again. Belle should have been bisexual and go be happy with Ruby or OUAT should have introduced Prince Adam. Any one of those relationships would have been better than Rumbelle.

7 Logan Huntzberger

I thought Logan was one of the most well developed characters on Gilmore Girls as in the original series. When we first meet him he was promiscuous and slept around. However, he was fully willing to commit to Rory and become the boyfriend she needed and wanted. He was allowed to grow and develop. All was going great with his character until the revival. He and Rory are both cheating with each other on their significant others and Amy seem to make Logan resort to his fuck boy ways. I am sorry to Matt Czuchry who had to play a digressed character and props to you for making Logan likable despite the way he was written.

6. Angela Moore Boy/Girl Meets World (Using the Collage because I loved the Versatility Angela had on Boy Meets World I did not make this Collage BTW)

I know I keep bringing her up but I can’t help it. I am so bitter that Girl Meets World committed defamation of a black female character. They bent and twisted the narrative to make Angela look like a villain and they also made her look like one more person that mindlessly abandon Shawn when that is not the case. She left to Europe with her father and she was going to come back and be with Shawn. Now in Girl Meets World she was just another person who abandon Shawn? No that is so disrespectful and this completely racist how she got treated. Also I don’t want anyone to come at me and tell me the treatment she got wasn’t racially related. Seriously look how the other characters got treated as in the white characters got treated then look at how Michael Jacobs treated his only black female character from Boy Meets World. She was the only main black character period and all she got was paid dust. So yeah her treatment whether or not it was unintended was absolutely racist.

5. Hazel Alden Degrassi

Degrassi literally had no idea what to do with this character. She was on the show for six seasons and only got one single story line about her Muslim back ground and we didn’t get that story line until season 2. She was there as a “main character” so Degrassi could pat themselves on the back for diversity brownie points. Andrea Lewis (Actress for Hazel) did the best with what she had tow work with but it wasn’t much. She was there to be Paige’s side kick and to help aid white character’s story lines. She honestly felt like the Christie to Paige’s Barbie. In fact here is a a link to an article on what Andrea had to say about her time on Degrassi read and enjoy. https://missandrealewis.com/2013/03/28/new-post-a-real-conversation-about-degrassi-tbt/

4. Audery from Descendants

I know she is a classist snob and I know she wasn’t the nicest but she didn’t deserve to have her boyfriend stolen from her be dumped in front of the entire school. She deserved to be a more fleshed out character. I mean I wouldn’t really like someone who put a love drug on my boyfriend stole him from me and then he broke up with me in front of the entire school. Anyways Audery deserved better and didn’t deserve to be humiliated.

3. Graham from Once Upon a Time

I am so bitter how Once Upon a Time treated him. He was used abused and then killed off. Adam and Eddie still this day deny that he was raped by Regina.He had his heart ripped out literally as punishment for not killing Snow White. Regina’s ultimatum was basically “Do what I say or you die” and he literally has no choice because his heart in is Regina’s possession and now he is under a curse without his heart so he really has to do what Regina says without even being aware of the “Why” of the situation. This all changes when Emma comes to town and when he kisses Emma he starts to remember he is actually the Huntsmen. The moment he starts to take back control from Regina she kills him by crushing his heart. To me that is not even the worst thing about this situation its the fact that this issue is never addressed and Regina is never called out for raping Graham.

2 Mulan From Once Upon a Time

I used this picture because my heart breaks for this gorgeous character. Mulan a bisexual Asian woman is paid dust and yes it is confirmed she is bisexual by the writers and it honestly feels like Adam and Eddie want to pat themselves on the back for the so called “representation.” Mulan arguably the biggest bad ass of the Disney Princesses was reduced to being an aid for white character story lines. She wasn’t allowed to have a love interest despite everyone around her got to have a love interest and she just kept getting screwed over. I am forever bitter about Sleeping Warrior. That ship had the best chemistry the best build up only for the writers to go the hetro normative route with Aurora. Then we had have been with Ruby and we could have gotten Mulan Rouge. That didn’t happen either. She deserved much better than to be a token character of color to only aid in white character story lines. The treatment of Mulan on Once Upon a Time and the treatment of Angela on Girl Meets World will forever leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

Finally Number 1 Dinah Laurel Lance’/ Black Canary/Black Siren

I am forever bitter on how Arrow treated their most iconic female super hero character. In the comics Dinah Lance was her own hero, was a member of the Justice League and she helped co-find her own hero team called Birds of Prey. She helped people like Sin Lance (Asian character later white washed by Arrow) Helped Roy Harper through his drug addiction and morally centered and is one of the best hand to hand combat fighters. She is up on Batman’s level of hand to hand fighting. However in Arrow she is treated like shit, had a boyfriend who serial cheated on her with her sister, and now he is a dad a child where the baby momma is another woman he cheated with while he was with Laurel. The show had people gas light her and when she finally exploded all of a sudden it was her fault because god forbid she responds like a normal human to being treated like shit for no reason. Sara never apologized to Laurel she just went back to fucking Oliver again despite the fact that is why the Lance family fell apart. Laurel was told she was never good enough to be the Black Canary despite she is the damn Black Canary in the comics. She has helped out Sara and Oliver multiple times despite the fact they are the reason she had to deal with her family falling a part. The people on the show continued to miss treat her. Not once did she get an apology by Oliver or Sara she had to call them out first. Then after the horrible treatment, the gas lighting and mental abuse they show runners decide to kill her off for Olicity. Her dying words are about how Olicity and propping up Oliver and his relationship with Felicity. First off “HOW FUCKING DARE YOU GUYS DO THAT TO LAUREL’ 2 You damn well know how Oliver treated Laurel so you have some damn nerve to do that! Then you have Black Siren get knocked out by Felicity despite the fact she could get up after getting hit by a car on the Flash. Then you weaken her Canary cry when on the Flash it took out a whole building but on Arrow it barely makes the room shake. Then on the Flash great hand to hand combat skills only for her to be easily taken down by team Arrow. The thing that makes me most angry and bitter about this is that I know Katie Cassidy Rodgers actually did her homework on the character she was playing, I know KCR worked out for this role and she was so excited to be in this role. She even had costume design ideas for her Black Canary Suit and you kill her character off for shock value and you wait two episodes before to tell her that Laurel will be the one in the grave. This absolutely disrespectful to the actress and this proves how lazy these writers are.

Anyways this was my rant on characters who deserved better. I would love to know your thoughts.

#top 10 list #once upon a time #arrow #descendants #famous in love #degrassi next generation

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why-am-i-up-at-4am · 6 years

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Full Review of Voltron Season 7

Hey! So people are very, VERY angry at this season of Voltron saying that it was definitely the worst season yet. I’m not so sure. I certainly had mixed feelings about this season, so I’ve decided to scientifically (kinda) figure out if I liked this season!

WARNING: The post ahead is LONG (seriously, 6355 words) and PACKED with Spoilers. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Each episode will get a point (or points depending on how strongly I felt about it) for a pro and lose a point for a con. The points will go towards the total of the season. I’ll also give each episode a personal rating out of 10 (Just based on how much I enjoyed it :))

ANIMATION (+13)

Voice-Acting (+13)

Points: 26

Episode 1: A Little Adventure

Pros: Younger Shiro accomplishing his dreams (+1) Keith kicking ass instinctively on the simulator (+1) “That emo kid’s doing it!” (+1) Shiro stands up for Keith immediately to his teacher (+1) Keith steals Shiro’s car (+1) Shiro gives Keith a second chance because he sees his potential (+1) Everyone is super concerned and willing to help Shiro (+1) Romelle is adorable, an outsider’s realism and her cute poses (+2) Keith is a tiny space nerd (+1) Shiro sees Keith’s potential and gives him CHOICES (+1) Pidge teasing Lance softly (+1) Lance being friendly to the thing that shrunk them (+1) Romelle mispronouncing “quiznak” (+1) TINY PEANUT LANCE AND HUNK (+2) Shiro is never willing to give up on Keith (+1) Romelle and Hunk are besties in agreement (+1) Lance is a quick thinker and a good shot and it saves the team (+1) Keith and Shiro on hover bikes (+1) Shiro teaches Keith the leap of faith from the first episode! (+1) Keith calling Shiro old timer (+1) Keith LISTENS to Shiro’s advice, but is allowed to make his own decisions (+1) Keith’s dad’s backstory (+1) their similarity (+1) and Keith’s admiration of him (+1) Early introduction of a secondary villain this season (+1) Sam Holt standing up for Shiro (+1) Adam is introduced (+1) Gay representation (+1) Teamwork (+1) Call back to Season 1 “linked at the ears like a pack of Yelmors” (+1) Paladin pile (+1) Keith saves Shiro because their BROTHERS and they LOVE EACH OTHER (+3) “We saved each other” (+1) Lance’s explanation of events (+1)

Cons: The lions, all powerful ships that run on LIFE FORCE, need to be charged? (-1) Lance interrupting Coran’s explanation (-1) Why is it ALWAYS Lance’s fault (-1) Keith is kind of a dick to the other cadets (-1) Voltron makes us automatically strongly dislike Griffin, but they expect us to cheer for him later in the season with no apology or acknowledgement (-1) We still don’t know Keith’s dad’s name (-1) Shiro’s disease is introduced, but never explained or brought up again after this episode (-1) No explicit gay representation (-1) Using Hunk as bait “because he’s the biggest” (-1)

Points: 29

Rating: 10/10 Honestly one of my favorite episodes this season

Episode 2: The Road Home

Pros: Pidge reacting realistically as a child her age to not being about to contact her family (+1) The young paladins are so excited to go home (+1) “I hope I’m not grounded” (+1) Lance’s little ghost (+1) Enthusiasm (+1) Lance’s description of elephants (+1) Allura and Coran’s reaction to elephants (+1) Allura is terrible at drawing (+1) Arguing like a real family over who gets to sit with whom (+1) Learning the Altean alphabet (+1) Romelle wanting to save the day (+1) Literally the worst arrangement possible (+1) Pidge ignoring everyone to play video games (+1) “He’s super drool-y” (+1) Early indicators of the time skip (+1) The wolf teleports between lions and everyone is amazed (+1) Lance using quiznak wrong again (+1) New weapons and formations show something is wrong, namely the pirates and time skip(+1) “It’s super dangerous…it’s perfect” (+1) Keith trusting Lance to help them (+1) “Rodger that, Team Leader!” (+1) Krolia taking care of Shiro (+1) Coran gets trapped which helps in the next episode, thinking ahead (+1) Krolia is a badass (+2) Hunk flipping out of his lion (+1) getting a bayard upgrade (+1) TURRETS (+1) Allura is a badass (+1) Romelle is fearless and also a badass (+1) Pidge talking to the wolf (+1) Wolfie saves Pidge and Lance (+1) Paladins are captured! I love angst (+1)

Cons: The power cores of the lions become a writing crutch (-1) 18 MONTHS (-1) Why is everything ALWAYS Lance’s fault? (-1) Coran being more annoying (immature?) than previous seasons (-1) Power core’s mean the lions can’t fight. It completely negates all their experience (-1) the Lions can’t form Voltron (of course) (-1) Everyone except Pidge and Lance get to have their awesome moment (-2) The wolf is injured saving Pidge and Lance (-1)

Points: 24

Rating: 8/10 I adored the first half of this episode. I struggled to maintain my focus on the second half. There are too many characters moving around the battlefield, and it makes it slightly more difficult to care because I only REALLY care about our originals.

Episode 3: A Way Forward

Pros: Zethrid and Ezor are back (+2) Lance is a dork (+1) Coran’s memoir (+1) The mice to the rescue (+1) The wolf can’t teleport Coran because he’s hurt, thinking ahead (+1) Coran knocked a guy out with his crotch (+1) Getting in disguise (+1) “I will always take care of you Ezor” (+1) They’re gay? Gay?? Are they Gay? (+1) Torture! I LOVE ANGST (+1) Coran tries so hard come up with a story (+1) Acxa is back (+1) Hunk making friends (+1) The power of teamwork (+1) Team Voltron does, in fact, have a soft spot for the small one (+1) LANCE immediately defending Pidge and rushing to her aid despite being handcuffed (+3) Shape shifting Coran (+1) Mice to the rescue AGAIN (+1) Lance taking care of Coran (+1) Coran calling Lance Allura (+1) Keith has flippity hair (+1) Keith summoning his bayard from across the room (+2) “Lance lead the team” (+1) Lance being concerned for Keith (+1) “Can’t we just fight?!” (+1) Paladin campfire (+1)

Cons: Why is Lance always written so stupid! (-1) “Will someone shut him up?!” (-1) No faith in Coran (-1) Zethrid doesn’t listen (-1) Why couldn’t Coran do this alone? (-1) Why couldn’t they show Coran as capable? (-1) Why couldn’t Coran put up a better fight? Let him have a MOMENT (-2) Forced romance between Acxa and Keith (-5) Identifying explosives based on two seconds of observation (-1) Time skip (-10)

*ten points might seem like a lot, but time skips are incredibly lazy writing. An author writes a world and a time period, but suddenly they decide they want something else, so they skip ahead. It undermines all the relationships and events from the first six seasons. The explanation isn’t bad; inter-dimensional travel would certainly cause time dilation, but it leaves the rules of the universe in a float-y and ambiguous. Anything can happen, and at this stage of the show they should really be wrapping up plot lines, not telling us the universe has been thrown BACK into turmoil after SIX SEASONS with only 13 episodes left. This episode also loses the points for it because this is where it is confirmed*

Points: 6

Rating: 6/10 I didn’t dislike this episode. I was glad to see the return of the generals, but I was fairly upset by the demonstration of Coran as this completely bumbling, failing fool. We know Coran is wise, kind, strong, and capable. He deserves better.

Episode 4: The Feud!

Pros: This whole concept (+3) Keith’s soft confused voice (+1) Lance’s pose as his name is called (+1) Bob is genuinely charismatic (+1) the cute boots (+1) the paladin’s cute nods (+1) Keith’s spin (+1) Pineapple Keith (+2) Artist Keith (+1) Keith breaking the pen (+1) Hunk’s cheer (+1) The Galra team (+1) “My lovely wife Haggar” (+1) Grumpy Lotor (+1) Quippy Zarkon (+2) Galra team cheer (+1) Artist Lotor (+1) Lotor smacking Movak (+1) Lance angst (+1) Terra advertisement (+1) Beautiful Lance (+1) More Galra dances (+1) The paladins spelling ROLO (+1) Bii-Boh-Bii (+1) Lance’s babbling is the only one who could have gotten Bii-Boh-Biis game (+2) Sal is still using Hunk’s recipe (+1) Pidge being brainy (+1) Mini golf (+1) Pidge tackling Bob like a badass (+1) The paladins all chose each other, selfless (+1) Each is given compliments and assurances of their importance (+5) Luxia’s kingdom and Plaxum’s bakery (+2)

Cons: WHY THE HELL IS LANCE SO BAD AT EVERYTHING (-1) He isn’t stupid! He knows what these things are! Stop writing him as a MORON (-3) “Lance would you stop talking!” (-1) ….the dumb one? (-10) He’s a social person, why wouldn’t he remember names? (-2) “You’re team is starting to lose faith in you, Lance” (-1) Lance ends up in the Garflator (-1) Lance did say “Bii” (-1) Lance, after giving Keith a GENUINE COMPLIMENT, is told he is too annoying to spend eternity with (-10) Lance is NEVER reassured that he is not stupid by ANYONE on the team (-5)

Points: 7

Rating: 7/10 I enjoyed this episode, I REALLY DID. It was a fun, softer episode after the action-packed start of the season. I LOVED the idea of a game show episode, but everyone was SO MEAN to LANCE? Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy the angst, but no one comforted him or complemented him. It was sad.

Episode 5: The Ruins

Pros: Adorable sleeping paladins (+1) Pidge’s nightmare (+1) 15 more minutes (+1) “Like mother, like son” (+1) Hunk giving up to have breakfast (+1) Keith gets out and is salty (+1) Lance making a plan that works (+1) Hunk is an excellent chef (+1) Using the wolf to deliver food (+1) KOSMO (+1) Keith waiting the dog to tell him his name (+1) Lance acknowledging Hunk is fantastic (+1) MeMaw’s cooking (+1). Knowing the Blade code (+1) Recognizing magic damage (+1) Kosmo knows what’s up (+1) Romelle trying to patch up relationships (+1) The Blade’s sacrifice (+1) Keith refers to himself as a Blade (+1) Surprise druid! (+1) Keith’s wolf saved him from the time grenade (+1) Tension of the under the bridge scene (+1) Using the wolf’s teleportation to your advantage in battle (+1) Kolivan is alive (+1) Allura saves everyone with her magic (+1) Using your Galra ears? (+1) EPIC SWORD THROW (+1) “Good job Keith” (+1) Haggar probably has the Alteans (+1) “I love you too mom” (+3)

Cons: Keith being a bit of a hard ass (-1) unbeatable simulators (-1) hundreds of Blades died (-1) how were two blades and the princess able to kill four druids, but it takes hundreds of blades to take down one druid (-1) Exposition dump (-1) Killing the Blades for almost no reason? (-1) The same druid Keith fought in season 2? (-1) Keith continuing to be a lone wolf, even in battle (-1) Allura’s magic is a plot crutch (-1) The team is free and help Keith, but apparently can’t stop stumbling over each other long enough to be more than a distraction to the druid (-3) I honestly don’t know how Keith saw him, heard him, felt him? (-1) Krolia leaves Keith (-1)

*Krolia’s death is telegraphed SO HARD and I’m glad it didn’t happen*

Points: 17

Rating: 5/10 This episode kind of bored me. We had a good solo Keith fight and some truly wonderful moments between Keith and his mother, but it just didn’t keep my attention as steady as I would have hoped.

Episode 6: The Journey Within

Pros: Shiro and Keith trying to keep the team focused (+1) Lance’s totally right, something tries to kill them (+1) Hunk’s pun (+1) “This is why no one rides with me” (+1) No one letting Allura take the blame (+1) Shiro’s right, the paladin’s have been struggling to find balance for about four seasons now (+1) “We always come back” (+1) The paladins lift each other up (+3) When Keith thought Pidge was asking what flight formations were (+1) Lance using quiznak right (+1) Keith trying to keep them together (+1) Ziplines instead of magic (+1) Hunk keeps his stomach (+1) Paladins holding hands in space (+1) “We have each other” (+1) Lance reassuring Hunk (+1) Sound offs (+3) Keith referring to his time in the quantum abyss (+1) Pidge calculates pi for fun (+1) “Hadoop” (+1) Paladins look freaking awful (+1) The paladins really do be going through it (+1) Not letting go of Keith (+1) Lance initiating sound off (+1) Hunk trying to keep everyone together (+1) Lots of angst (+1) Hunk acknowledging that the paladins are afraid to be afraid (+1) Hunk in general in this episode (+1) Not letting Keith leave (+1) “Are we really even friends?” (+1) Hunk being the voice of reason (+1) Hunk being a good shot (+1) with a MASSIVE energy blast (+1) Hunk being incredibly heroic (+1) Paladins not abandoning him (+1) KEITH APOLOGIZES (+1) The power of friendship (+1) Paladins fighting a huge monster with just their bayards (+1) Lions to the rescue (+1) Forming Voltron (+1) LANCE AND KEITH TEAM BAYARD UPGRADE (+3) “did something try to kill us?” “yup” (+1)

Cons: Four weeks of empty space (-1) Shiro being snappy at Lance (-1) No one goes after Pidge when she flies off (-1) Were the paladins actually hallucinating? Group hallucinations? (-3) Keith snapping at Hunk (-1) Hunk doesn’t want to be a paladin anymore (-1) Keith STARTED the argument (-1) Hitting where it hurts (-1) “Guess I don’t know how to be a coward” (-1) Lance and Allura do not apologize to Keith (-2) No explanation of what exactly the bayard upgrade is (-1) Timeline confusion? Due to Lance and Keith did they get there faster? Not 18 months? How long did the paladins spend in empty space? (-3)

Points: 32

*When I think about this episode after the fact it leaves a bit of a bad feeling in my stomach and a bad taste in my mouth, but that might just be because I abhor the idea of being lost in space*

Rating: 8/10 I think the reason this episode got more points was for interpersonal relationships. People don’t watch this show for the plot, they watch it for the characters. So when you put just the characters in space alone you can really reflect who they are as people. That being said, there was a ton of wasted potential this episode. Liked it, but I could have loved it

Episode 7: The Last Stand Part 1

Pros: Pidge tearing up (+1) The Galra are at EARTH (+1) Appropriate reaction (+1) Colleen Holt (+1) Realistically messy hair, her entire family was missing (+1) Collen knowing where her kids are (+1) “You’ll get me clearance” (+1) Sam Holt throwing shade (+1) Colleen with her short hair (+1) AW Garrison pictures (+1) Sam starting formal and ending with “Pidge, this is dad” (+1) More new characters (+1) Cool new Garrison ships! (+1) Colleen knowing what is best (+1) Informing the world of what’s up (+1) Messages back home (+5) Paladin families! (+3) Iverson isn’t a dick? (+1) Particle barrier that works better than the Castle of Lions’ (+2)

Cons: Evilish military (-1) Sam Holt is a prisoner (-1) More timeline confusion, two years ago? (-1) Exposition dump (-1) We really didn’t need Sam Holt to explain everything, we know, we could have skipped this part (-2) Keeping secrets from Earth (-1) Even more characters (-1) Losing the Voltron Coalition Rebels (-1) I can forgive Iverson for being a dick to Lance…I’ll forgive but I won’t forget (-1)

*Telegraphing the new squadron as the new paladins of Voltron. Don’t know if this is intentional or not, but it makes me nervous. I don’t really want a new generation of pilots, but I also want the paladins to be happy. If the paladins want to stay on Earth I don’t think I would hate the new pilots. *

Points: 16

Rating: 3/10 It was…boring. Not overtly BAD, just really boring. There was a TON of information we didn’t need to hear again. I admire that the show wanted to show that they DID tell the Garrison, but we didn’t need to hear it again. I also don’t really care about any of these new characters, I care about the paladins. This could have been done in one episode, but they stretched it out to two.

Episode 8: The Last Stand Part 2

Pros: Sendak is back (+1) Elephants (+1) Strong particle barrier (+1) Sendak’s strong battle strategy (+1) Veronica! (+1) The paladins do return (+1) Sam Holt making inspirational speeches (+1) Sam Holt using quiznak (+1) Veronica throwing shade (+1) I like her too Rizavi (+1) Veronica is a badass (+1) Self-sacrifice (+1) Leifsdotter remembering the way home (+1) Sam Holt’s unwavering faith in Voltron (+1) “Silence promotes haste” (+1) Recognizing moral (+1) Sam Holt’s ringtone is the Voltron theme (+1) Lance’s family (+1) Smart strategy to contact Voltron (+1) More Sam Holt speeches (+1)

Cons: Tons of human death??? (-5) Killing a ton of Garrison pilots (-1) Killing Adam after barely any screen time (-3) The whole supply run is COMPLETELY unnecessary. This feels so disconnected from the rest of what the show is (-2) Making us think Veronica is dead when we know it’s utter B.S. (-3) Herding up humans. It’s a bit too serious? (-1) Veronica is dead for all of two minutes (-1) The resistance doesn’t really do shit? (-1) Even more time line confusion. Has the Garrison been on its last legs for two years? (-1) Playing the same clip of Voltron 3 times (-1)

Points: 0

Rating: 2/10 The show can’t decide what it wants to be. Is it a children’s show that won’t show blood? Or is a show aimed at older audiences where thousands of people are killed and rounded up to become slaves? This episode was also mostly unnecessary. The time line is also SO HARD to work out. Did Sam send the last communication JUST as Voltron arrived at the Milky Way? Another fairly boring episode to boot.

*This episode also made people angry because of the ‘bury your gays’ trope where people who are canonically gay are usually killed off. However, there is conflicting information about whether Adam and Shiro were really in a relationship. It was just bad marketing on Voltron’s behalf to announce Shiro was gay and then disappoint fans, especially considering what Voltron’s fanbase is like*

Episode 9: Know Your Enemy

Pros: Sam correctly figuring out how Sendak works (+1) Helping the paladins cut off communication (+1) LANCE’S BAYARD UPGRADE (+1) Pidge’s plan is very smart (+1) The mice and Kaltenecker (+1) Throwback to the first episode, being cramped in the Blue Lion (+1) The paladins are home (+1) Lance leading the formation (+1) Hunk bringing up the rear (+1) Keith and Lance working together (+1) “Don’t miss” (+1) Lance nailing the shots (+4) Pidge leaping into her mom’s arms (+1) “Uncle Lance!” (+1) Lance tearing up (+1) Sliding into a family hug and being drowned in people (+3) Hunk family flashback (+1) Hunk’s spaceship noises (+1) Iverson apologizes to Shiro (+1) Coran sticking up for Shiro (+1) Iverson apologizes to Keith (+1) Keith has matured as well (+1) Coran’s explanation of Kosmo’s power (+1) Shiro mourning Adam (+1) Hunk trying to protect people (+1) Sam standing up for Hunk (+1) The Atlas is amazing (+1) Shiro standing strong against the Admiral (+1) Allura knowing her shit (+1) Sam making prosthetics for injured soldiers (+1) Hunk’s flashback to fixing cars (+1) Keith offering help (+1) Hunk opening up (+2) Keith being so impressed with how brave Hunk is (+3) Hunk and Keith hug (+3) Awkward Keith (+1) Keith going with Hunk to get his family (+1) Sendak’s memories coming back is great long term writing (+1) Altea being destroyed because it refused to give up (+1) Flashback to Hunk’s baking (+1) Hunk’s mom (+1) Allura making Shiro a new arm! (+1) Hunk’s determination! (+1)

Cons: What exactly is the bayard upgrade? It’s still unexplained (-1) Why does the Earth team know more about the Galra than the paladins (-3) Griffin is still a dick (-1) Hunk’s family is missing (-1) Weird looks between Griffin and Keith, but no resolution? (-1) Shiro getting literally 30 seconds to mourn Adam (-1) All resistances were wiped out (-1) Griffin yelling at Hunk??? What the Fuck? Are we still supposed to be rooting for this guy? (-3) The Admiral isn’t stupid, why would she think the Galra would stick to this deal (-3) Lance goes missing after the first 3 minutes of the episode, unlike every other paladin (-1) Not saving Hunk’s parents (-1)

Points: 36

Rating: 7/10 I adored the family reunions and the Hunk flashbacks. I felt so sorry that Hunk couldn’t rescue his family, but it really motivates him. Overall not a bad episode. It was another prep and build up episode with a lot of exposition, but it’s setting up for the fight with Sendak.

Episode 10: Heart of the Lion

Pros: Sam being concerned for Shiro (+1) The paladins being concerned for Shiro (+1) Allura gives up the last symbol of her being a princess, her crown, for Shiro (+5) Allura’s epic arm tackle (+1) “I feel great” (+1) Keeping in mind civilian casualties (+1) Lance being concerned for his sister (+1) Hunk making friends (+1) Throwback to the maze guiding scene with COMPLETE trust (+3) Keith trusting Lance to cover them (+1) “It’s a…cosmic wolf” (+1) Lance giving GOOD instruction (+1) Really cool paladin tech, sonar imaging? Awesome (+2) Lance and Kinkade making awesome shots and team work (+3) Sibling teasing (+1) Throwback to the distraction scene on the Balmera, but this time Keith gets it (+3) Pidge thrusting (+1) Pidge’s victory laugh (+1) Bringing back the Zaiforge canons (+1) Chaff makes the people invisible (+1) More sibling teasing (+1) Paladins connecting with their lions! (+3) Lions flying next to their paladins (+1) Lance angst (+1) Concern for Lance (+1) Lance protecting his sister (+3) Red to the rescue (+1) Deferring for Keith for leadership (+1) A traitor! (+1) Some really great music this episode (+1) FORMING VOLTRON (+1) off camera! (+1) Voltron got FUCKED (+1) Paladins are captured. I LOVE angst (+1)

Cons: Shiro’s arm isn’t attached? That’s really weird (-1) As much as I love Cosmo, he’s ANOTHER plot crutch (-1) Why did Allura and Griffin come along? They didn’t really assist (-1) What is with Shiro suddenly being the expert on paladin bonds? (-1) Romelle has been missing for several episodes (-1) Lance and Allura sudden and out of nowhere romance? (-5) Why didn’t Lance and Red connect? (-1) Was Lance connecting with Red or getting ready to die? auditory clue would have been appreciated (-1)

*I just want to make it known that I don’t hate Allurance. I’m really okay with that ship if it does become canon. I just don’t like how out of left field it is. 10 episodes ago Allura was basically in love with Lotor. She has shown no interest in Lance in other seasons at all. If you wanted to give Allura feelings for Lance you could have given her blushies when she knocked him on his ass while sword training, or when he said they were a good team in the Monsters and Mana episode, or when she revived him, or when the mice told her what he said to them. ANYTHING. But there was nothing. They didn’t even bond particularly strongly in the journey home from what we saw. *

Points: 38

Rating: 9/10 I loved the action and teamwork in this episode. The whole sequence of infiltrating the base really shows how much the paladins have grown. Lance and Veronica getting attacked and Lance protecting her really made this episode awesome for me, but we also got the paladins deepening their bonds with the lions and Shiro’s new arm!

Episode 11: Trial by Fire

Pros: The Earth team figures out who the traitor is (+1) Shiro’s concern for the paladins (+1) Keith wakes up to hear who the traitor is (+1) Nunville? (+1) Commander Iverson evacuation (+1) Commander Shirogane (+1) Good intentions, still betrayal (+1) Sendak is a smart and cautious villain (+1) Shiro’s white hair doesn’t look that bad (+1) Kinkade’s awesome maneuver (+1) Leifsdottir is adorable and analytical (+1) The castle crystal comes in handy (+1) Leif continues to be a super cute super computer (+1) Altean magic doesn’t give a damn about engineering (+1) CAPTAIN SHIRO (+1) The Atlas is AWESOME (+2) Hunk reminds the paladins to call the lions (+1) Showing the paladins and their lions from the same angles is EXCELLENT cinematography (+5) Piloting the lions remotely (+1) Admiral is a badass (+1) Shiro’s happy laugh that the Paladins are back (+1) “WAIT! We’re still on that ship!” (+1) Redemption and self-sacrifice (+1) Black Lion saves the day (+1) Hunk tackling his door (+1) Ending on a cool group shot (+1)

Cons: Why aren’t the bayards working? (-1) Again, the Admiral shouldn’t have been so stupid to negotiate with the only hope for the universe (-1) It’s unclear how strong the MFEs are in comparison with the lions (-1) The “connect with your lions thing” is also a bit of a plot crutch (-1) Cheap redemption. Having the Admiral continue to fight while injured and give her life makes her seem deserving of redemption, but it’s a manipulation of pathos. Her intentions were good, but she made the wrong choice at every turn (-2)

Points: 25

Rating: 7/10 Another decent episode. Getting the Atlas in flight was amazing, and it utilized the Chekhov’s Gun that was the Castle of Lions Crystal. The Admiral’s sacrifice was a little cheap to me, but it was a lot of learning for her. The most amazing part BY FAR was when the paladins were trying to connect with their lions. They aren’t just the pilots, they ARE the lions, intertwined with their quintessence.

Episode 12: Lions’ Pride Part 1

Pros: Forming Voltron! (+1) Brutal and cynical replacement of Lieutenant Hepta (+1) Forming sword (+1) and shoulder cannon (+1) Amazing lighting on Sam Holt (+1) They do fire on their own ships! (+1) Leif’s battle strategy (+1) Hunk coming in a clutch AGAIN (+1) Clever solutions (+1) Throwback to pushing the shield plates together in season 6 (+1) WORKING PARTICLE BARRIER (+1) Reflecting the beams works (+1) Shiro is a BADASS (+1) Atlas particle barrier to the rescue (+1) Hunk’s parents (+1) “Wouldn’t be the first time” (+1) Poor Shiro, but he saves the day (+1) Sam’s avatar, just like Pidge (+1) “Victory or death” (+1) Lance saving his sister (+1) Lance starting the counterattack (+1) BADASS LANCE (+1) Paladins using their special weapons! (+1) Shiro versus Sendak again, after all this time (+1) Shiro’s awesome new arm (+1) The lions to the rescue! (+1) minimizing casualties (+1) Keith’s awesome finishing move on Sendak (+1) Lion pride! (+1)

Cons: Sudden base cannons? (-1) Didn’t they say there could be citizens inside those bases? (-1) Couldn’t they angle the plates to make the Ziforge cannons destroy themselves? (-1) Is the cannon blowing up a result of Shiro’s work? That’s a bit confusing (-1) I don’t think Shiro could survive falling through Earth’s atmosphere without a helmet (-1) Shiro doesn’t get to beat Sendak. Keith beats Sendak, but Shiro DOESN’T NEED TO BE SAVED. LET SHIRO STOP BEING A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. Since the moment we MET Shiro he’s had to be saved, let him save HIMSELF. (-5) The season should have ended here, seriously. Or here-ish. The shoved one last battle into this season and it undermines the hard battle they just fought against Sendak (-3)

Points: 16

Rating: 8/10 Every second of this episode was wrapped in tension. Shiro commanding the Atlas is an EXCELLENT way to keep him as part of the action, and he saves the day by taking down Sendak’s ship. The paladins and lions all worked so hard to save the Earth, and the battles were well animated and engaging.

Episode 13: Lions’ Pride Part 2

Pros: Saving Shiro (+1) Yellow Lion to the rescue (+1) Epic new robot weapons (+1) Providing cover for Keith (+1) Atlas to the rescue (+1) Shiro getting back in the fight (+1) Forming Voltron (+1) off camera (+1) Pidge and Lance bayard upgrade! (+3) Sketchy animation! MY FAVORITE (+3) Dual wielding! (+1) Badass sword moves (+1) Pidge bayard upgrade! (+3) MFEs to the rescue (+1) Awesome lighting on the robot (+1) Voltron backflip! (+1) Hunk keeping the people on the ground safe (+1) Atlas mech is huge and badass (+2) Realistically show for a big machine (+1) …Atlas has thicc thighs… I DIDN’T WANT TO SAY IT (+1) Lance and Keith team bayard (+1) EPIC MUSIC (+1) Paladins working together to save the Earth (+1) Self sacrifice (+3) “It’s been an honor to fly with you all” (+3) Fading to white on the paladins, cutting the sound, and the music (+5) Lions crashing in their elements (+1) Shiro’s speech (+1) The paladins live (+1) Paladins healing (+1) with their families (+5) Shay is back! (+1) Rebuilding with help from the universe (+1) Visiting Dad Kogane’s grave (+1) Alteans are back (+1)

Cons: This episode exists! (-3) This new robot is out of nowhere. Thought it was Lotor, thought it was Haggar, was wrong both times (-2) New robot is insanely overpowered (-1) Why is the robot so much more powerful than Voltron? (-1) If Voltron is the most powerful weapon in the universe how does it continually get beaten like this? (-3) How is the Atlas not in pieces? (-1) WHAT??? (-1) How do you ACCIDENTALLY build a giant mech? (-1) I get that the castle of lions gave the ship new abilities, but WHAT??? (-1) Some of the machinery just APPEARS out of NOWHERE (-3) At least Voltron SHOWS us how it’s put together (-1) IT ALSO MAKES ME QUESTION, WHY LIONS? Lion can’t be aerodynamic, or the best armored and now that we see these super powerful humanoid ships it begs the question: why does Voltron have LIONS for HANDS (-5) Of course this robot can change size to fight the Atlas, of course it can (-1) Why didn’t it just get huge to fight Voltron (-1) Last second bomb, but it JUST exploded (-1) Making us believe the paladins are dead (-3) Matt has a girlfriend? (-1)

Points: 24

Rating: 7/10 This episode got a lot of points, but it lost a lot of points, too. I don’t think this episode should have ended the season, but only because it comes out of nowhere. It does set up the next season which I can appreciate. Lots of epic upgrades. I believed for a moment that the paladins had died, and they were setting up the earth team to take their places, but that scene was beautiful. I wish the others had said a little more to each other, just a few lines to say how much they meant to each other, not just Keith. I still think the Earth team might take over for the paladins and they stay on Earth. I REALLY hope that’s not the case.

Final Total: +296

Average: +22.77

Average Rating: 6.7/10

Overall, it seems I did enjoy this season. There are some things that I get simple joy from, like the bayard upgrades, and badass fights, but there are a lot of this that happened that could have been improved. My personal favorite episode is the Feud, despite its flaws. It was very funny and gave more character to the paladins. Plus, the scene at the end where they all chose each other, you could genuinely feel the love they had for each other (except Lance).

I think one of the best parts of this season was Hunk! He was a strong, brave, caring character and thought of his family and friends to give him the fire to fight. He really shone in the second half of the season but had some awesome moments in the first half as well! Seeing the flashbacks to his family warmed my heart, and I’m so, so glad he got to see them and Shay again! He was level-headed, and he was acknowledged for his bravery.

One of the main problems I have is with Keith. I really adore Keith, but he is starting to feel a bit like a Mary Sue to me. He’s good at EVERYTHING, and even when given help from the other paladins, still seems to be on a pedestal above them. I still love Keith as a character, but he’s gotten a bit bland as the show moves forward. One of the episodes where I felt like he had CHARACTER was the Journey Within. I’m not saying I want him to revert back to being angry and lashing out, but he felt more like Keith. I understand that as he develops he changes, but let the guy have a little fun! He felt so stiff and strict this season.

Pidge this season was pretty amazing as usual. Her smarts and tech expertise are always a major help to the paladins. I would have liked to see her succeed in combat a bit more this season. She couldn’t fight because her cannon wasn’t charged, she was pinned against the wall by Zethrid, and she was used as a distraction in the base infiltration. Reuniting her family was fantastic though, and it brings a heartwarming close to her story arc.

Shiro was a hero this season. Even with one arm he is fully willing to throw down, and you gotta admire that. I was a little bothered by Shiro suddenly becoming the encyclopedia on bonding with your lion, but it makes sense. He WAS trapped inside the mind of his lion. Even without a lion, Shiro still guides the team and captaining the Atlas was a good position for him. The biggest disappointment for Shiro is that he was announced as Gay and yet there is little to no explicit evidence. I wish he had more time to grieve Adam. As mentioned earlier, I also wished for Shiro to be his OWN savior, and maybe he will next season.

On to Allura! Allura’s best moment of the season for me was when she broke her crown to give Shiro the power source for his arm. To me, that felt like the culmination of Allura’s arc. She isn’t a PRINCESS to them anymore, she’s a paladin. She’s family. Allura doesn’t see herself as the authority over them anymore, but rather as a part of a whole. It’s also a realization of her dream to fight in the war, to be a part of it. She also showed some amazing strength when fighting for a planet that wasn’t even hers because it was important to her family.

Coran Coran the gorgeous man! They did him a bit dirty this season. Coran was always seen as a bit eccentric, but strong and capable when it came down to it. It felt like a major regression this season, even compared to just season 6! In season 6 when Coran set off the bomb in the engine, it was STILL A FUNNY MOMENT without making Coran seem like a total idiot. I wish he could have had ONE victory this season, but all his victories were given to the mice :/ That being said, he does provide the Atlas with a way to be powered, and he does an excellent job at the helm of the Atlas.

Lance…my best boy…. Speaking of doing characters dirty. Yikes! So from the very first episode, things are usually Lance’s fault. I don’t like that, but I don’t HATE it either. The team is also making fun of him from the first episode onward. And again! I don’t think I mind that, but if you’re going to have a character that is a fuck up (which Lance is, and that’s FINE) then when the character does something right you need to have it acknowledged. For example, it’s Lance’s fault they get shrunk, BUT he saves their asses by thinking fast and making an amazing shot. No one acknowledges that. Another example, when Keith kills the druid Lance says, “Good job, Keith!” When Lance shoots four moving drones within two seconds, Keith says nothing, but he DID give him a shifty look before and said, “Don’t miss”, like he didn’t believe in Lance. You can’t have a character that is exclusively mocked by those around them. In addition to that, Lance is called the dumb one over and over in the game show episode. No one on his team stands up for him. Lance couldn’t even get ONE victory that episode. When they were all complementing and validating each other, Lance was picked by his FRIEND to be the only one to leave because he could not STAND the thought of spending forever with ANNOYING, DUMB LANCE. Aside from all of that, Lance had some amazing action moments this season. He is motivated by his love for his sister and family to save her one the ground and begin the attack on the cannons. His reunion with his family was lovely and heartwarming. Again, I don’t really like the romance, but if it happens I’m okay with it.

I wanted to make this post to get what I was feeling out of my head. Usually, I would talk to my sister or brother (who usually watch the show with me), but I can tell that they are getting bored and annoyed with me. It’s helped me evaluate how I feel about the things I didn’t like and appreciate and remember all the things I did.

If you made it this far, thanks! This was really fun to write.

Additional Lol: This review was twelve pages long :)

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