Voltron Analysis - Tumblr Posts

So, um, here’s a thought. Lance is a great fucking pilot. Change my mind. Of course, he doesn’t hold a candle to Shiro and Keith, but that’s an unfair comparison, seeing as Shiro was literally the youngest person to go to space, officially, and Keith was literally a piloting prodigy. 

We first see Lances piloting skills in episode one, where he crashes the ship after a very risky manoeuvre. But that’s not all. Hunk was unable to fix a hydraulic stabiliser, which is very important for a ship or plane to have, and have fixed. The pilot will lose control of the airplane to turn right or left in the case of a total hydraulic failure. Which means that Lance’s stunt was doomed the moment those hydraulic stabiliser legs were out. 

That’s not all. We’re told that the only reason Lance moved up was because Keith being expelled opened up a space in the class. This might seem like it’s not in Lance’s favour, but it definitely is, especially with some rewording. The only reason Lance couldn’t move up before, was because the class was full, not because of incompetency. 

In the case of freeing up space in a higher class, what do you think the staff does to decide who moves up? Take the worst pilot from a lower class? No. They pick the best one with the ambition to move up. So, they pick Lance. Lance, who was previously a cargo pilot. 

That’s very important as it shows why he’s great at flying the Lions, but not so great at fighter jets. The dimensions and weight of cargo planes are vastly different from fighter jets. For one, cargo planes are built either to drop bombs, or the carry a vast amount of people and storage. Fighter jets are made specifically for aerodynamics and, well fighting. Cargo planes are just more bulky, wide and longer than fighter jets. 

Lance has spent most of his school years, thus far, as a cargo pilot. He only becomes fighter class, presumably around the start of a new school year, seeing as he’s found this out through a sheet of paper on the wall, and not through an email. From the date log Lance says at the start of episode one (”5-11-14″), and Hunk stating that he remembers his last night of Earth being a Monday, I’ve worked out that the year must be 2314, which is already a theory, as I’ll find out later. This isn’t important, I just wanted to throw that in, and I get distracted very easily.

Anyway, by this point Lance has been in that class for nine months. This might seem like a lot of time, but remember that Lance has been a cargo pilot since his first year, at fifteen years old. By this point, he’s seventeen. He’s had to work with roughly the same dimensions for two years, and that doesn’t just leave in less than a year. What’s more than that: it’s not as if he’s always in the simulator. Practical lessons are never that frequent, especially in high school. He’s probably spent most of his year working though textbooks about physics and astronomical studies. Plus, as we see in episode one, he’d much rather do things like sneak out and hit on some girls than get permission to use the simulator. Hunk even remarks that all of Lance’s ‘adventures’ get them stuck in the Principle’s office. 

Which is why Lance is more suited to flying the Blue and Red Lion than actual fighter jets. It’s why his lack of ability isn’t a detriment to the team. He’s more adjusted to those wider and larger dimensions than that of a fighter jet. Of course, he doesn’t automatically become a great pilot, as shown by how instable his flying was. But, it doesn’t take him long to get used to these more familiar dimensions. By the end of the episode, he’s perfectly capable of piloting - Keith doesn’t even mock his piloting after that point, despite doing so early into episode one. 

Lance is a great pilot and you can’t convince me otherwise.

I don't think Lance should have swapped to the Red Lion.

TL;DR at the end.

Lance's connection to Blue was the first connection shown in the series, which makes it all the more meaningful, and it made no sense to the series own rules. Red is temperamental and difficult to control, which is why Keith was her paladin. I have defended Lance's piloting skills in a previous post, but he is not as good as Keith and does not suit the Red Lion. His affinity is water - as emphasised by the start of season 2. Red is aligned with water.

Plus, if he stayed in Blue he would have gotten a proper character arc by living by his own rules and standards and not in Keith's shadow. I know it was supposed to be symbolism - him accepting Keith as leader and not being selfish about it made him qualify as the right-hand man, but the others accepted him as well, despite ribbing Keith about it earlier.

If anyone should have gotten the role as the Red Paladin, it should have been Allura.

Allura as the Red Paladin would, not only make sense narratively, but would also seem right. Colour-wise, she's closer to Red's hue than Blue's, but honestly, I didn't really care about the colour match-up. What is important, is that it would seem like a much bigger deal than Lance accepting Keith as the leader. Lance hates Keith, but that's probably due to being constantly in his shadow and being compared to him, consistently reminded at the Garrison that he was only moved up because Keith was expelled.

Allura, however, has a deeper reason. (Lance's reason is still valid, btw, just not as big as Allura's). She hated Keith for a good portion of Season 2 because he is half-Galra. Obviously, to us, this is a shitty reason to hate someone. It's racism and the show doesn't handle this well. It doesn't handle a lot of stuff well, but whatever. She gives Keith the cold shoulder and Keith knows she hates him. He says so himself to Hunk and doesn't listen to his reassurances. Then again, Hunk was making jokes about something Keith was clearly sensitive about, so that may have had a hand in it too.

Now, I am not condoning her actions. She made Keith feel unwelcome in a team - a family - while he already has abandonment issues, (not that they knew that), and hated him for something he cannot control. Keith probably hated himself for being born. Both of them disregarded the fact that he is still a person with feeling and blood doesn't change that. Hunk too, as much as I love him, was also wrong in his 'Galra Keith' jokes, as if Keith was someone else entirely, when nothing changed apart from their knowledge.

However, what I am saying, is that Allura's reaction was, somewhat, believable and had a genuine reason - and a good one. The Galra Empire completely annihilated her species (as far as she's aware), betrayed the people she loved, and has monopolized entire planets and controlled them - forced them to work and even fight to the death for their entertainment. Apart from Ulaz, she hadn't a single good interaction with the Galra. One good person is not enough to change your opinion about entire races. I know people who are racist, proper racist, to their own race, no joke.

Allura's reaction was actually rather tame, especially compared to how extreme racism can be in the world, even now. She never rose a hand to Keith and kept it passive-aggressive. She gave him the cold shoulder and genuinely hated him, but she never hit him and she never deliberately sent him on a death mission. The Weblum mission was dangerous, but it was also a requirement and she didn't send him in alone. She may have refused to acknowledge his achievements, but she didn't blame him or accuse him of anything. It's likely that, when she saw him, all she saw was Galra. That being said, she wasn't a bad person, simply badly written. There are many people who hurt others for no reason - people who haven't been wronged in any way, but rate a community simply because they exist or they think they're lower than them or less human, which is wrong on so many levels. Allura, at least, had a good reason, though it should have been built on and written better.

In the end, Allura acknowledged her toxic attitude and apologised to Keith. This in and of itself does not make everything okay, but it's more than what Lance did, (virtually nothing except telling Keith that he has to be the leader). Allura knows she was wrong and sets out to make it right, and this development would have been solidified by her becoming the Red Paladin. Like, let's be honest. Lance does not treat Keith right and it's never explained why, in and outside of the show. He's the one antagonising Keith, even during their first proper meeting, and he's the only starting all the arguments, especially in season 2. Keith has been volatile too, I will admit, but he stops his behaviour in the second season. Lance is the one starting everything. Allura, however, stops her behaviour before it takes extreme lengths and becomes a better person and a better friend as a result. It's then that she calls Keith family for the first time, and becoming his right-hand would have shown how serious she was and how far they've come.

Seeing Allura, who, just the season prior, hated Keith's guts, accept Keith as her leader, the Black Paladin, become his right-hand, would have meant so much more. The symbolism goes even deeper. Red's first paladin was Altean and Black's was Galran. Need I say more? (No, but I will). Many of us were incredibly disappointed with the ending of Voltron, especially with Allura dying. The reason she died was to complete the circle, so to speak. The war against the Galra Empire truly started with the death of Allura's father, Alfor, and the entire species of Altea, and the war is finally ending with Allura and Honerva's death. That being said, it was just so insulting and pointless and nobody was happy. Instead of dying to complete the circle, Allura should have survived and broken the chain, for both herself and Red's own paladin tragedy. It was just a huge slap in the face for people who actually powered through seasons 7 and 8 and trusted the show to pull through and get its head together. I know that Shiro was supposed to get Black back, Keith goes back to Red and Allura controls the Atlas, but if that wasn't the plan, then Allura in Red would have made much more sense.

Additionally, the fight in that realm would have been more emotional if Allura was forced to fight her father and bring him back. Lance had no emotional attachment to Alfor, and I know that was the case with Hunk and Pidge, and Allura had attachment to all of the previous paladins, but still. Think about how heart wrenching it would have been for her to face her father, whom she loves dearly. he wouldn't have even recognised her and would have fought her with the intent to kill after his soul was trapped for 10,003 decapheobs/years. (I know they're different, but Allura says 10,000 years even when she didn't know what years were, so I didn't know if that was a mistake or not). Allura would not have been able to fight as well as she did against the Blue Paladin of Old.

Let's not forget that Allura was the one to convince Keith to take up the role of the Black Paladin. Of all the paladins, it was Allura who knew what to say; who knew why Keith was acting the way he was in season 3. Lance saw Shiro as his idol, Pidge as a legend, and Hunk as a mentor. Keith's relationship with Shiro is so much deeper than that. Shiro wasn't the youngest man to be sent into space. He wasn't someone to look up to. He didn't go to the Garrison because Shiro went there - he went there because Shiro convinced him. He doesn't see Takashi Shirogane, piloting prodigy, idol for all. He sees Takashi Shirogane, his best friend and brother, a man he can trust and how can trust him. Nobody else realises how deep this goes. Nobody but Allura. She's the only one to see how much Shiro meant to Keith. She's the one to call him 'irreplaceable' and she's the only one even by the end of the series, who isn't Keith, who has sacrificed something for him. Allura gave up her freedom for him by allowing herself to be captured, and then she gave up the crystal for his arm. Keith has saved Shiro many times, even his clone, and literally gave up his place in Voltron for Shiro. Allura trusts Keith and Keith allowed himself to trust her. She understands his pain when nobody else saw it.

Finally, Allura would have been inheriting Red from her father. Coran has explicitly said that Allura wanted to pilot Red due to her father piloting her. The Lions clearly have some amount of sentience, Red and Black especially. Black only opens themselves to Keith because he of Shiro. The first time, it's to save Shiro from death. The second, it's because Shiro wanted him to become the leader. Red only accepted Keith because he proved himself to her and has saved Keith many times while he's floating in space. She's described as temperamental, which suggest levels of sentience. Obviously, Red would have more of a soft spot for Allura, the daughter of her previous paladin, than she would for Lance, whom she only opens up to well into season 3 and is someone antagonised and even bullied Keith, her current/transitioning paladin. Allura also shows that she's fiercely loyal and is willing to give one up for the team.

Allura has sacrificed her only contact to her father, she has allowed herself to be kidnapped for Shiro, she has constantly exhausted herself for both her friends and strangers such as the Balmerans, she has given up the crystal in her crown for Shiro without hesitation, and she even dated Lance despite not showing any form of romantic attraction previously. (That last one was joke, obviously).

TL;DR - Lance has literally no reason to have become the Red Paladin outside of a rubbish character arc, and Allura has all the reasons. It would have marked an excellent character arc mid-point and would have set up a great ending, if handled well.

I have nothing but respect for the writers of Voltron for their work, especially after all the intervening of their higher-ups that caused many issues, especially regarding Shiro, Keith, Lance and Allura, who were all robbed of excellent character arcs. That doesn't mean I can't hate what came of it.

Keith does not have anger issues.

I have anger issues, though it's nowhere near as bad as my brothers' or my mum's or my dad's anger issues. Everyone in my family has anger issues - I handle it the best. And I can say with confidence that Keith does not have anger issues.

Unless Keith throws something across the room.

Unless Keith slams the table.

Unless Keith screams his head off.

Unless Keith hits someone or something.

I will always say that he does not have anger issues.

Plus, when you actually watch Voltron, you'll see that Pidge and Lance are far more volatile than Keith. Being reckless does not mean that you have anger issues. Being stubborn does not mean you have anger issues. Breaking and hitting people and things does.

Keith does not have anger issues. It's very concerning that so many people misdiagnose anger issues. If you think Keith has anger issues, you've clearly never seen anyone who does have anger issues.

If he had anger issues, he would have done much more than just argue back whenever Lance started some shit. He would be yelling and telling him to fuck off without really explaining why he's gotten so mad.

To summarise:

Lance: I hate you.

Keith: Okay, whatever.

--

Lance: I hate you.

Keith, if he had anger issues: Shut the fuck up! I hope you fucking die you asshole. Piss off!

That last post actually reminded me of something...

Why is it that Pidge can do one thing and get no backlash, but as soon as Keith does it, it's suddenly unforgivable? Like, Pidge tries to leave the team, and Keith is the only one who wants them to stay while everyone else lets them leave. Keith leaves and everyone hates him for it. Nobody even tried to stop him. What is this?

Sometimes, it's worse, in that people put down Keith's achievements, which are much more commendable than anyone else's, but build Pidge up so much that it makes me grimace. Pidge flies Green perfectly fine even though they only read manuals, and the fandom builds them up to be an absolute genius who can do anything. Keith flies a Galra jet with no manual and just pure instinct and the ability to adapt to any flight craft? Oh, it's just his Galra genes. Never mind the fact that he also does this with an ancient Altean pod and shows an affinity for flying basically anything. Keith is only good because he's Galra.

Fuck off.

Also, why is it that Pidge can be as angry as they want, but the moment Keith disagrees with a character, he's the worst person ever? This is why I hate this fandom. Because everyone has somehow tricked themselves into believing that Keith is the favourite of the fandom, when he isn't. Lance is. And even Klancers hate Keith. They hate Keith but they ship him with Lance because that's the dynamic that people want, never mind how toxic it would be.

Even Pidge is distorted so heavily by fanon. It makes me wonder if I watched the same Voltron as everyone else. Pidge is rude and self-centred. They aren't just 'feisty' or 'girl/non-binary/trans boss'. They're mean, okay. Especially in season 3. Fuck. Everyone but Allura and Keith were mean in season 3. Don't pretend like they weren't.

I have one thing to say about this. Wrong. The only reason Keith didn't want to lead is because he was forced into it. Because him taking over the Black Lion would be like admitting that Shiro really is gine, and Keith didn't want to think that.

Lance wanted the Black Lion for himself. Not for the team. That's why Black rejected him.

'He was already teammates with Pidge and Hunk,' yeah and he sucked. Episode One showed that with no filters. They crashed the simulator and, from Lance's own words later on, they always crash.

'Without him, the Blue Lion would have never went to space.' Um. Without Keith, he wouldn't have found the Blue Lion anyway? Without Pidge, he wouldn't have even gone to Shiro's crash site? Lance is not that pivotal. Keith and Shiro set things in motion.

And Lance making sure everyone got along well? He isolated Keith. He always started shit with him, even when Keith was obviously greiving Shiro. Yeah, for one scene, he set his jealousy aside, which somehow made him the Red Paladin (should have been Allura). But, if I were in any of their shoes, I would not be willing to follow someone who's already had their Lion stolen from them, constantly flirts with any pretty girl, gets jealous over the smallest of things, and has an ego bigger than the teleduv. Yeah, he's insecure, but it's not what he expresses to everyone else. To others, he's egotistical.

Also.

The Black Lion chose Keith specifically because Keith did not want the position for himself. Shiro didn't want Keith to lead because he's his brother and he wants the best for him. If that was the case, he wouldn't be encouraging him to lead them in a war. He chose Keith because Keith proved himself to have the potential to be a better leader than Shiro.

What do I mean by that? Well, I'm talking about how Keith is constantly the first one to issue orders when Shiro's not around or able to and it always works. He's constantly telling the guys what to do when Shiro can't. I'm talking about how Keith advised not going to get Allura. Because, as much as people give him shit for that scene, he was right.

If Thace hadn't been there, Voltron would have been taken and the mission would have been a collosal failure. Allura herself said that they should not have come. Shiro, right then, was not thinking clearly. There were others ways to get Allura back. They should have come up with an actual plan, as Keith suggested though with poorly-chosen words, instead of rushing back in.

Lance showed no affinity for leadership. As far as I'm aware, Lance stans think he should be the Balck Paladin because...? Why? Because you think it'd give him a good character arc? Because he's the everyday man and it makes you feel good about youself? You're sacrificing a well-written character arc for meaningless titles.

Lance did not have to be the Black Paladin to have his own character arc. That's just lazy writing and fans wishing he was Shiro.

I don't know why, but I'm on an angry V:LD rant. But Keith should NOT have been the black paladin. No matter what Shiro said.

Keith was hot-headed, he got frustrated easily, he held anger in. None of those are things that make a good leader. Those are all detrimental to both the functionality of a team, and if let simmer and stew it could even hurt the teammates.

The only reason Shiro said it was because of his relationship with Keith. They were brothers.. He loved him and wanted him to finish what he'd started. Their bond was too close and it clouded his judgement. Hell, Keith didnt even WANT to lead.

A leader is someone who looks out for their team. Makes sure their in the right headspace and are getting along nicely. Someone who holds the team together. A leader should be someone that eases tension between the group. Who did all of those things?

Lance McClain. He did all of those things and he wanted to lead. He literally set the whole plot into motion. Without him the blue lion would have never went to space. Without him The group of humans wouldve never met the Alteans. Hell, Hunk and Pidge wouldn't have even snuck out had it not been for lance. He brought the team together. He was already teammates with Hunk and Pidge. It's arguable, but Lance was Coran's favorite paladin. Once he set aside his crush he and Allura were good friends. He respected Shiro. He and Keith even became good friends. He did that. Lance did.

Lance deserved to lead, and I want to say that the only reason Black opened up to Keith was because of Shiro. He put that out there and as a last wish, and Black fulfilled it. But Lance should've become the Black paladin after Shiro.

I'm procrastinating writing at the moment, so I decided to create a list of the things I hate about Voltron, a show I can't help but love and rewatch 200+ times. I mean. I've been pretty damn vocal about one thing in particular, but I should probably remind people I hate other things too so...

This list will be long, so read more under the cut!

1 - Okay, let's just get the obvious one out of the way: Lance. Reasons why can be seen here, here and here. The first link really goes into the details, the second one is more confusion as to why people think Lance is treated the worst, and the last is more why Lance would be horrible as Black Paladin. MOVING ON TO NEW POINTS!

2 - The ships. Specifically... ahem... Klance, Sheith, Allurance, Lotorance (Lotor/Lance), Shidge (Shiro/Pidge), Shance (Shiro/Lance). Those, in my opinion, are the top offenders. I've explained my grievances with Sheith in a post here. It's not that it's paedophillia, it's the bond. As for the rest, while I dabbled a bit in Klance and Allurance in the aforementioned posts against Lance, I've yet to actually explain.

First of all, the fans are awful. Tip: If you keep trying to force people to like your ship instead of letting them get to their own conclusions, they're just going to hate that ship even more. This isn't a Voltron-specific thing, but it's still rampant.

Second of all, Lance doesn't treat either of them well. He's constantly antagonising Keith, even when Keith stops biting back in season two. The closest he gets to respecting Keith is telling him to suck it up when he's upset that the Black Lion chose him. Keith does try to be amicable to Lance, but it doesn't work because Lance is always picking a fight.

And Allura. Lance is constantly ignoring her boundaries and invading them. There isn't a single moment where they're alone together and they feel like friends, much less pining, before season seven. The only time is when Allura encourages Lance to take up Red, and he didn't even notice she was upset that Red rejected her. In fact, Lance just keeps talking about himself and how he was rejected, ignoring how Allura was rejected twice, and by the Lion her father piloted. Allura also never reacts well to Lance's flirting, always ignoring him and frowning when he does. If Allura, at least, used to laugh at his terrible attempts at flirting, maybe I could try to believe it.

Third, general grievances with these ships.

Lotorance. Lance hated Lotor from the get-go. They barely have a scene together without Lance glaring at him. If they shared some sort of chemistry outside of Lance hating him from afar, and if the writers didn't make Lotor a twist villain for no reason, then maybe. As of now, I only like it as a complete crack ship.

Shidge. Pidge is fifteen. Shiro is twenty-five. You do the damn math.

Shance. I can definitely see Shiro being Lance's bi awakening, if I believed canon Lance was bi. (Canon Lance was straighter than a chopping board, but fanon Lance is a walking bi flag). But them being together? Ignoring that Lance is 17 and Shiro is 25, if you can do that, it wouldn't feel like a healthy relationship. Lance is blinded by hero worship and, from his canon personality, he likely wouldn't realise if Shiro isn't faring well or would just constantly pile his troubles onto him without thinking about if Shiro could handle it. So, yeah, don't like this ship.

So, yeah. I don't like any of the popular ships, which is surprising. I don't hate all of them. I do like Kallura, (should have been canon), and Shallura, (surprising, because I really do like gay!Shiro), and Shunk, (who doesn't, honestly?). But I tend to prefer the nicher ones. Katt (Keith/Matt), Heith (Hunk/Keith), Hance (Hunk/Lance)...

3 - The writing. Usually, I would respect the writers because it's hard as fuck to plan and write an entire series, but they just kept missing. They would set up so many interesting plots and ideas, only to do absolutely nothing with them. This, in and of itself, is not enough to make me lose respect, but that's not all. Plot holes, terrible escalations, too slow pacing, (slow burns are good - great, even - but not when things are supposed to be happening), horrible romances... It's to the point where, for a long while, I avoided the show and only read the fanfiction. There are so many people who don't watch the show, only exposed through fanfiction and social media posts, because the writing just isn't good.

The writers get things right few times. I'm sorry, but if your entire job is to write a coherent, well-thought out story, why did they do such a bag job at it? I'll tell you why - they let the fans control what they did. Shiro was never supposed to come back. He was supposed to die at the end of season two and never come back, but the fans wanted him back so guess what? The writers brought him back! In doing so, they cut right into Keith's character arc and made him go through it off-screen. The fans built Lance up as the main character and fan-favourite? Well, the writers just decide to hand him everything. Reward him for being the fan-favourite and then ruin his character by never making him work for what he got.

The writers decide to pull a J.K.Rowling and went 'aw, yeah, Lance is bisexual!' despite him never showing an interest in a guy throughout the entire show, other than being a big fan of Shiro. They throw in gay!Shiro at the literal last minute with some background character who only ever had one line. Thanks, DreamWorks. It's not like you could've just let Adam live so Shiro could be going home to SOMEONE.

Unexpected things always happen. An actor being unavailable, a sudden irl event making it so the episode you planned would appear tone-deaf, the joke you wrote was less funny and more offensive... So on and so forth. Sometimes you have no choice but to change what you have planned because delaying it would just make the studio and the fans mad. Just... TRY to make it make sense. And don't fold to the fans, dammit. Shiro should have stayed dead because he just doesn't do anything when Allura and Keith saved him. The main character should have stayed as an ensemble, rather than pushing Lance as the central focus, because it would have left less reasons for me to hate Lance and give other, specifically Hunk, the development they deserved.

The show also never adresses traumatising shit, (*cough cough* Keith's sacrifice attempt *cough cough*), but that can be forgiven because it was aimed at children. I do, however, like that LM corrected an interviewer when they asked about Keith 'attempting to kill himself'. It was quickly corrected to 'sacrificing himself' because that's what it was! I'm sick of people acting like he was suicidal because he wasn't. He was actively scared of what he was going to do, i.e. sacrifice his life for everyone's sake. He tried to do it for the greater good. Would you call one of the many who died during wars suicidal? No. You would call them noble and heroic for their sacrifice, because that's what they are. That is what Keith was trying to do. He saw the only way out and decided one life in exchange for the many is a damn good deal and took it. Saying he was depressed and suicidal is undermining the actions he took.

So, yeah. In my eyes, the writers did two good things. Correcting the mistake belief that Keith was suicidal, and creating this shit-fest of a show. (God, I love/hate Voltron).

4 - How Pidge is treated by the fandom. Pidge is so mean. She's rude and callous and selfish and that's okay. What's not okay is acting like these traits make her a queen. She's rude, fine. She's callous, fine. She's selfish, fine. She's incredible for this? Um, no? Stop treating her like she's just sassy. She's mean. I mean, not long after Shiro's death/disappearance, she calls Keith, who is mourning Shiro so deeply, a 'loner'. Without even getting to know him. She just deems him a loner, even though Keith is just so genuinely kind?

Don't get me wrong. I love Pidge. She's great and she's an absolute joy to write. I admire her tenacity in trying to find her missing family members while also able to put the universe before them. Watching her break down about Matt when she thinks he's dead is so utterly heartbreaking because I really did like her.

But acting as if she's perfect because of this? No way.

(Also, I refer to Pidge as 'she/her' only in these posts. I much prefer gender neutral or trans Pidge.)

5 - Hunk's treatment. He deserved SO MUCH BETTER! This sweet, precious boy. He's the only one who reacted approppriately to becoming a child solider. He's an anxious, terrified kid and he's still able to swallow that fear and fight on because there are people, people like Shay, who have no idea what freedom means and if the sky is blue.

He's the only one who has to find and fight for his family when they get back to Earth, which makes me sad. Very sad. He cares so much about his friends. Even if he's scared, he'll still put himself in danger for them.

But the narrative treats him like garbage, reducing him to the comedic, fat joke, while Lance never treats him like a best friend. He deserved so much more than what he was given.

6 - The people in charge were so obsessed with doing every character dirty. They wanted to keep Shiro death, wanted to kill Keith after admitting to not knowing where they were going with him, tried to kill Hunk who did nothing wrong to deserve this, and actually killed Allura off when they realised Allurance would not work in the long-term because Lance would not be able to part from Earth for so long while Allura would not be able to stay confined to Earth at all.

7 - Lance fans would hate him if he was white.

i really resonate with your opinions about lance and the fandom surrounding him, but you really kill it any time you say some shit like "i wonder if people would treat him the same if he was white"

they 100% would. this is tumblr, bro. most blorbos are white. just look at the previous main three shows, superwholock. lance being cuban has nothing to do with him being treated the way fandom treats him. he is just, like you said, an everyday man who's easy to project on.

another critique i personally have of voltron is that while everyone's skin tone and background is varied, they all have always felt white to me. they have no cultural identity in the show. was hunk's samoan background ever even named or did we just get that from a book or a tweet? i feel like viewers shouldn't have to use outside material to complete the story in front of them.

the fact that we never got that in the actual writing of the show really pissed me off. and this is as someone who's latino. lance has always felt incredibly white to me because the writers spent no fucking time adding any cultural elements into is character. even if he was a no sabo kid incredibly distant from his culture due to growing up at a boarding school, that would still be something. idk if we ever got anything about him being cuban in the show.

part of the writer's inability to write complex characters is also their inability to write poc.

i think this is also why lance works as an everyday man.

my point is that lance would still be very loved if he was white. he's not getting any extra love bc he's cuban. honestly, i feel like his cuban identity just means fanfic writers get to use google translate for shitty spanish lines that make no sense for the story and to occasionally fetishize him. they put no actual effort into understanding his cuban background. and why would they? the writers of voltron never bothered to.

Yeah, no, I get that. Lance is very white, but because his skin isn't and he's canonically Cuban, people tend to forget that? Luz from the Owl House is 100% latina and it feels like she is. Because she speaks spanish and her mother speaks spanish to her. It doesn't have to be in-your-face, but it would have been nice to hear the POC characters mumble their home language under their breaths, or to speak idioms the other don't know because it's not a universal thing.

For example, everyone knows 'don't bite off more than you can chew', but it's 'the one that embrace a lot, cannot keep it together'. They mean the same thing, but it would have been nice for Lance to just come out with that and everyone is confused until he explains.

Or Hunk calling his parents 'tina' and 'tama', meaning mom and dad respectively. It would have been nice if he made dishes inspired by Samoan culture, such as koko alaisa, or something.

If there was just one scene where one of them struggled to find a word in English, I would have been a lot more convinced that they're POC. Just one scene where someone is all 'oh, what was the word. you know? that thing! the thing, you know!'. Just one short scene.

Or, like, a culture clash? As in, they compare something on an alien planet with something common in their homeland and the others are just like 'what? That isn't normal.' And it just delves into a conversation about what is normal in the US but weird in their home countries.

There's just so much that Voltron could have done, but it doesn't which is a massive shame.

i love your opinons on voltron, they make me feel so seen. and 100% agree that lance would have been a terrible black paladin, i really do wish he had a better character arc than reducing him to a pretty boy who gets what he wants guy. i could rant about that forever.

anyways, I found that Voltron really struggled with giving proper screen time to characters like hunk. and i just wanted to know your opinion on hunk becoming a chef after the war ended. i thought it was a big disservice to his character.

Okay. I have ranted a lot about Lance, so I will focus on the latter half.

I. Hate. It.

The writers really just forgot about him right intil the last second, didn't they? Hunk has a passion for cooking and baking, that's obvious, but he also has a talent for engineering. You know, his entire school career?

Also, out of everyone, Hunk is the one who misses Earth the most. So why would he leave Earth to make an inter-dimensional buffet? Simple - he wouldn't! Not for that reason.

What I can see Hunk doing in the epilogue: getting married to or starting a family with Shay. Hunk is a massive family guy (and not the Peter Griffin type, thank lord). If he was going to leave Earth for anything, it would be to live with Shay on the Balmera if she wasn't able to live properly on Earth.

Just. Seeing DreamWorks reduce Hunk to a chef? The comedic part of his character that was never really taken seriously? It hurt a lot because I love Hunk. He's funny and kind and smart and-- and they tried to kill him off and ended up making him a chef.

Thanks, DreamWorks.

Hello, I’m the anon that apologized for implying that Keith was “spoiled”

I wanted to come back and talk to you because I wanted to discuss some points!

I made my Keith statements without really explaining what I meant and I wanted to try again.

I don’t want Lance to be the black paladin and I just need to state that now. However, I also didn’t want Keith to reside as the permanent black paladin.

I know that his color palate and clothing have black in them but shiro is also all black. In my opinion I would’ve preferred Keith to be the substitute black paladin.

Ryou (the clone) should’ve never been able to pilot the black lion because he’s just a copy of shiros face not him. Making Keith stay within the team and allura going to red (because I really don’t know how they thought allura in blue was a good idea, love her but what?)

(I want Keith to stay with the team and not go to the blades as I would prefer the paladins sticking together)

(Also because the plot line for the altean colony is ridiculous)

I would’ve loved to see ryou find out he’s a clone along with the paladins and not just kill him off. I think it would’ve also brought some realization into Keith about shiro and such.

The way I think of the paladins and their relationship to the lions is that the lions physically created the paladins.

The reason why it took 10,000 years is because earth doesn’t have quintestance, so the lions had to basically build their paladins from the ground up by creating generations of humans with it.

Because earth doesn’t have it, it takes a long time until there’s finally enough for the paladins now!

Which is why I don’t think Keith should continue to be the black paladin. Because he belongs with red just as Lance in blue, pidge in green, hunk in yellow, and shiro in black.

and because Shiro never gets to go back to being the black paladin his character gets reduced to cardboard.

which is the reasoning for my initial comments that I couldn’t describe clearly.

I didn’t mean to come off as a black paladin Lance supporter or that Lance was the best option. Because he isn’t.

There are things with lances character that I feel as though could’ve been worked so much better. (I saw a previous post of yours discuss lances having altean markings and your so correct, honestly they feel like fan service since the fandom goes nuts with altean Lance and honestly I can’t understand why)

I’m far more a shiro fan. In all honesty he has done a lot for me. I don’t like that he was just meant to be thrown away.

I mean the writers created an entirely new character for crying out loud!! Shiro didn’t exist in the other versions. Technically he is sven but sven was always the blue paladin.

Shiro has obvious PTSD and has a genetic disease that needs his arm forcefully removed from him. He fights so hard for his lion and his teammates.

My feelings on Keith are in fact very biased but it feels like a lot of Keith’s character completely erases all of shiros.

With ryou and the paladins finding out that shiro is in the black lion i would’ve loved to see them search desperately to find where the clones were made to see if they could bring Shiro back.

My thoughts are a little all over the place I apologize for that.

Hello again!

This is a bit awkward because I basically agree with almost everything here so there's not much for me to dissect haha.

If anyone's been reading my past, PAST, posts, you'll have probably seen my post as to why Lance never should have went to Red, and why it should have been Allura. I can understand why Allura is Blue and Lance is Red in the ORIGINAL series, but this is a rewrite where the characters are basically completely different.

Which also means that, no, I will not be using the original series to back-up my belief that Keith is a great Black Paladin.

Like I said, I basically agree with everything you wrote, except that I didn't personally care for Ryou. I felt sorry for him and was kinda shocked when they just used his body for Shiro's soul, but I didn't care about him.

I do think it would have been interesting to see Ryou be a little stinker and try to manipulate everyone, due to him being a sleeper agent. Like, in canon, when Ryou apologised to Keith, he says "I'm sorry I had to step in there" instead of "for stepping in there". He's still putting the blame on Keith. He says sorry without truly saying it, if you get what I mean.

Then, one day, he goes a little too far. Like, I dunno, he calls Lance useless or Hunk cowardly or something, and Keith immediately goes: wait. That's not right. Suddenly, Keith's a lot less willing to take Ryou's 'advice' to heart and things pile up until he realises Ryou is a clone.

I think that kind of story line is much more interesting that what we got. Of course, if you care about Ryou and are horrified at his death, there are others ways. Ryou slowly learning he's a clone and hating himself until the paladins make him realise that it's not his fault and he can choose to be his own person. Heck, he kind of already is.

Of course, another option is just to not kill Shiro off? Like, put him in a coma or reveal that Haggar yoinked him from Black with quintessence magic and he's been captive this whole time. Keith would still have to pilot Black but, because Shiro isn't a clone, when he gets back Black opens up immediately.

The thing is, Shiro and Keith's style of leadership is different. Very different, meaning that they're suited to lead different kinds of things, with varying efficiency. What I think would have been cool to see is them changing the roster (Shiro leads, Keith in Red/Keith leads, Allura in red) depending on the mission. Which can mean that, if you decide to keep season eight for some reason, Shiro or Keith can lead them into the final battle. Shiro leading them might make more sense.

I've heard a lot of people say that Shiro is boring and it's like– why do you think that? I kind of wanted to see more of his character arc, wanted to see Keith, Coran and Allura take care of him when he's too high strung. I wanted to see him be there, actually there, when Pidge saves Matt. I wanted to see him accept that he may have been hurt, but he is not broken.

I think that those people who think Shiro is boring just weren't watching the same show, or only remeber him from season 7-8 where he does basically nothing. Season 1-2 Shiro are great. He feels so human, scared of the world but pushing himself through for the sake of others and to not seem weak. He makes bad gun noises, immediately denies Coran trying to feed him like a baby with "no. Just– no.", displays some dark humour when he's alone with Keith and bleeding out. He's terrified of being seen as broken, because that's exactly what he thinks of himself.

So. Yeah.

Either make Ryou more interesting or don't kill Shiro off. It would still let Keith become his own Black Paladin, and it would let the group change members depending on the situation, which would make it less jarring if Allura was the one to pilot the Atlus, as was originally planned.

I can understand why you believe Keith's character erases Shiro's. Because, in all honesty, it kind of does. Of course, that is mostly DreamWorks' fault because they just can't give Shiro any sort of happiness? Like, Keith has also been hurt over and over again, but at least Keith has his mother.

Shiro was supposed to gain the ability to teleport. HE WAS REPLACED BY KOSMO - HE WAS REPLACED BY A DOG. Shiro didn't even get to end Sendak! Even if I adore Keith, I was so baffled when Keith made the finish blow, because that was Shiro's fight! Shiro has nobody to go home to, only returning to find that his ex-fiancé is dead, and it's just– I know that gay characters tend to suffer the most, but come on DreamWorks! Give him SOMETHING!

From my perspective, I've always noticed the difference between Keith and Shiro's leadership styles, and just in general. But DreamWorks is so allergic to giving any of them anything, so they wrote in the Broganes bond, tore it apart, then played a darts game to decide their traits after Shiro's death. It makes it especially worse when they decide to make Keith go through development off-screen, so he comes back when he's become more mature like Shiro, but it gets no explanation so it feels like he was just given more of Shiro's traits.

Alas, we get no explanation, so it is jarring. Which is another reason why making Ryou unable to pilot Black, or Shiro still being alive, would have been much better. Keith had a point about leaving, but Shiro, the real Shiro, never would have let him leave, and Keith wouldn't leave if Ryou couldn't pilot Black.

I would still make it so that Keith stayed with BoM just for the sake of meeting Krolia, but nothing else much.

So. Yeah.

I do agree with basically all of this, only I wouldn't have Keith be just a sub for Black. I think he and Shiro should have used it interchangeably, or at least provide an explanation for why the real Shiro, the one who bonded with Black the most, couldn't pilot her.

AND SCREW KOSMO– GIVE SHIRO HE TELEPORTATION BACK! GIVE HIM HIS RELEVANCE BACK!!

(Sorry if there's any mistakes, I just woke up haha)

(Also, Keith's colour scheme fits Black more than Shiro's did, mostly because of the accent colours that Keith had. Other than that, yeah. I agree.)