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xochitai · 2 years

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I find it kind of odd that there isn’t more disabled [VLD] Lotor content. Mostly because he’s a pretty popular character who’s been analyzed a lot and there are so many works about his childhood and life pre-events of the show so you’d think it might come up a lil bit more than it does. While the answer is probably the obvious “the show itself doesn’t handle it’s canonically disabled characters very well” + “in fandom disabled creators are usually the majority of the people making that kind of stuff,” I feel like the way he’s presented, while not enough to say its canon 100%, could still make for a headcanon that could be backed up.

[okie so two things before we get to your irregularly scheduled ramble: 1 there will be a paragraph or two where ableism within Galran society is discussed. It’s not the entirety of the post so I’m not going to tag it, but I leave this here as a content warning instead. And 2 this was originally written about potentially hypermobile/HSD Lotor, but has been expanded to include chronic pain & fatigue so if it seems like this is skewing a bit in a certain direction, that’s why]

Okie so both appearing to be and physically being strong are pretty important in Galran society (specifically among nobility and the military; we only see ~2 civilians so it’s hard to come to any conclusions on that side). It’s visible in things like the Kral Zera, where the strongest wins regardless of faction or bloodline, and the type of armor we see some of the higher ranking Galra wear: large and bulky, with some having what looks like false eyes decorating their breastplates.

And this sort of mindset even translates to prosthetics. The prosthetic limbs we see on Galra all double as weapons. Even Shiro, who was a prisoner, is given a prosthetic with a “danger” hand, even when he seemed to be getting by well enough in the arena with a regular weapon.

For any physical disabilities, just get an upgrade. Lose an arm? You can get a new arm with a laser cannon and big grabby claw. Lose an eye? Get a new eye that can measure distance and read heat signatures. The loss of body parts isn’t something viewed as inherently bad for those who have access to high tech replacements. That’s not to say negative attitudes or discrimination don’t exist, but within the bubble of military personnel, it would probably be more of the “oh, I see you still have last year’s model” or “I see you couldn’t get an appointment with the druids, what a shame” type stuff. Like how when Sendak invades the castle and says to Shiro something along the lines of “I see you’ve been to the druids, so have I, but my arm is better.”

Which leaves some implications for how disabilities you can’t see are viewed. It’s not like you could just buy a new nervous system or replace all the tendons in your body with new ones. You can’t just “train harder” to get rid of a chronic condition.

So here’s the part y’all came here for: ways Lotor could be viewed as a stealth spoonie.

Armor

Lotor is always in armor. Most of the prominent characters get at least one alternate outfit at some point, yet we see from flashbacks that he’s apparently been wearing the same thing for thousands of years. But if he designed it himself, who’s to say he couldn’t add some joint support while he’s at it?

flight suit - things like compression gloves, hip support, shoulder support could be integrated into the design pretty easily, with any external straps being hidden under his breastplate or waist cape

knee caps - pretty standard for armor, but could also serve double duty in preventing the knee from bending too far forward

vambraces - these are pretty thick, covering the wrist and extending up the hand. It seems kind of impractical to have armor that obstructs your hand’s range of motion unless that’s the point.

The shoulder thing

is it just being double jointed? - the wiki says yes, but it doesn’t provide a source

when I first wrote this down, I was looking for a clip of this scene because I couldn’t remember and found a video where someone who was double jointed recreated the movement. I can’t find it now to link it so this is a bit of a “trust me” point but I made some notes. In terms of cracking noises, both had about the same, with the person having a little less. However, it was in a comment replying to someone where they stated that it didn’t hurt. Meanwhile, Lotor seems to be in pain, albeit handling it pretty well, which makes this seem like more than just flexibility.

with arms bound like that, most people would try to go for pulling their arms under their body. But if Lotor was used to his joints dislocating, it makes sense why he wouldn’t see doing that as a big deal. They do that all the time, he knows how much pain it will be, and he knows how to put them back

Rest, disguised

Wasn’t sure what to call this bit, but I almost titled it “siting” so it could be worse. prompted by this image from season 2 episode 3:

Lotor rests/conserves energy in ways that don’t look like it from the outside. He doesn’t pace his cell on the castle, he sits, presenting a calm yet contemplative image. In this screencap, he is the only one sitting despite all of them coming back from invading a planet. From the outside, it just looks like a reminder of authority.

Summary - kinda idk

Lotor chooses his actions and how he presents himself carefully. He wears a mask most of the time, even to the point where his generals, which are arguably the closest people to him, barely know him. It’s better that way.

Even being a prince doesn’t protect him from what others were already saying about him. He’s heard every way he’s “weak” since he was a child, and he can’t let them have anything else that could be used against him.

So he adapts, and hides it. Supports mixed with armor, resting without anyone knowing. He is strong, but he is always aware of how much energy things take. He’s tried doing things the Galra way, but brute force isn’t sustainable for him. His father might not approve of his methods, but it works.

Flying is freeing; one of the rare times he doesn’t have to adapt or pretend.

Final notes

Hope the way I explained things didn’t get too confusing near the end. My rambles are all over the place and even when I try to organize them it can be tricky. I’m aware most of this stuff isn’t that deep, mostly details that weren’t meant to be looked into that much.

I guess my point with this is that it surprises me that with how much people look into this character, this interpretation doesn’t really come around a lot. [basically what I said in the very first paragraph]

It’s probably for the best that canon chronically ill Lotor isn’t canon though, because with the way the show treated both him and it’s disabled characters it probably wouldn’t have gone very well.

I have read a few fics with disabled Lotor post getting-fished-out-of-the-rift but I haven’t been able to find much outside of that [though it is possible I missed them as there are many fics and not everyone tags things the same way]

I am getting incoherent I need to call it quits. If I had to make this post one sentence it would be: there should be more spoonie Lotor imo.

Probs could have just said that from the start but I found a screencap for one of my points and was very excited to use it.

#look i'm tired and didn't proofread the bottom half so if something doesn't make sense feel free to ask #and i will respond when i'm not tired #does this count as meta or is it too rambly for that?#voltron: legendary defender #vld #vld lotor

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victorie552onepiecespeedrun · 4 years

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WATCHING One Piece/Emergency G-8 Arc part 1: My Ramblings

Episodes: None (0 out of 11)

Thoughts:

- I’m watching One Piece anime! Surprised?

- So, I hear that G-8 filler arc is kinda better than current, canon arc. Well, I don’t know about that because I didn’t even started it for good but if people say that fillers are Great, something is afoot. I just got curious, plain and simple. I’m sorry that I’m getting to it AFTER I started Long Island Arc but what can I do, I knew nothing.

I could delete my last 3 posts, do “Watching One Piece” recap and add them again in correct order later but I’m too lazy to remember and add my old tags (and I appreciate your comments, not gonna lie, it would be a waste). A mess it is! After that arc I’ll come back to irregularly scheduled manga recapping we all know and tolerate :)

- Ok, last thing before I actually start watching, I’m super excited because I’ll finally get to know which Opening is currently playing for this arc! I watched, like, 20 of them, I think? (comments on Youtube indicated not all openings were included in the compilation but how would I know, it was like an one hour long already). I watched a compilation some time ago and I don’t remember much of it BUT recently I watched first 4 of them carefully, and the next 2 (5 and 6 OP) with, like, my eyes half closed (don’t ask what I wanted to accomplish by that, I don’t know). The music slaps by the way

THE POINT IS, I’m 300 chapters in and I’m relatively sure I’m barely on OP 3 or 4? HOW. There’s apparently 23 OPs to 900-something episodes in One Piece at the moment, where do you even put them??? Does opening change every 20 episodes now? Guys, I’m new, and confused, and excited, and I don’t even know what else

(on the other hand, Naruto has 500 episodes, 20-something openings and ocean of fillers. Judging by that, One Piece is very scarce with its OPs, I understand that. But, BUT! So many things have Happened HOW are we barely on OP 3 or 4???? How??? I assume there was more fillers in the anime so How??? My brain understands but my heart just cannot comprehend)

- I also recently read Oda said One Piece should still run for the next 4-5 years (is it from a valid source? Who knows, not me) and I kinda want to lie face down on the floor right now. Not fully sure why (it was the same way with Naruto ;_;) I barely started true but 4-5 years is a long time COME ON

- Ok, I got everything off my chest, so let’s go! Onto the first episode!

Ha, I fooled you! Buahahaha! I’ll start watching in part 2, It’s pretty long already, I kinda couldn’t stop rambling here :D

rOP 85 wOP 2

#watching one piece #g8 arc #I want to do all 11 episodes today #we'll sea how it goes #spoiler #spoilers #have a nice day #wOP 1 #wOP

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