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violethowler · 1 year

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An Updated Guide to the Timeline of VLD

Last Edit: 07/23/2023

After reviewing my timeline notes in more detail, I decided I wasn’t happy with editing my original VLD timeline guide, but I didn’t want to just delete the earlier meta outright. So I decided to start over and make a brand new meta that reflected my current research notes without me having to constantly go back and edit the old one every time I realized I had missed something.

And boy am I glad I did because in the process I noticed details that I completely overlooked when I made the last timeline guide that trying to edit the original post would’ve led to redoing the whole thing anyway.

So now I present to you my most complete and up-to-date notes on the timeline of Voltron Legendary Defender as of April 2023. Under the cut because this is going to get long.

Part I: The Time Period of the Show

While the show never gives exact dates on when major events in the series take place, we can narrow down when the Paladins left Earth by examining context clues and supplemental material. From there, we can use that to determine a rough idea of the show’s timeline.

Pidge’s flashbacks in S1E05 Tears of the Balmera and the fact that Iverson doesn’t mention her, Lance, and Hunk’s bickering being a pattern when he berates their failure in the simulator during S1E01 The Rise of Voltron indicate that the day of Shiro’s return to Earth was the trio’s first time in the simulator together, and that this was fairly early in the school year.

From a Watsonian perspective, it’s not out of the question that a future Earth might follow a different school calendar. But from a Doylist perspective, since the show never says otherwise, we can take it as a given that since VLD is an American cartoon, the Garrison follows the same academic schedule as American schools. Which start the school year in late summer/early fall and end in late spring/early summer.

At the start of Lance, Pidge, and Hunk’s simulation run in S1E01 The Rise of Voltron, Lance calls out “Galaxy Garrison flight log 5-11-14.”

And Matt’s tombstone in S4E02 Reunion confirms that these numbers represent a date:

Pidge confirms that the 0010.05.25 represents a birth date, since looking at it is how she determines that Matt’s birthday is wrong. Because this is obviously a tombstone, we can logically conclude that 0014.04.28 represents a death date.

Lance’s 5-11-14 flight log number in S1E01 is most likely a reference to the fact that the show started production between April and June of 2014.[1][2]

And when Keith shows the other paladins his notes that he’s compiled on his search for the Blue Lion, a page-a-day calendar can be seen on the back wall showing that the paladins left Earth on the second of whichever month it was.

Meanwhile in S1E02 Some Assembly Required, Hunk refers to Shiro’s rescue from quarantine as Monday night. This would put the paladins’ departure from Earth on Tuesday afternoon, as Iverson confirms in S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 2 that the Paladins left Earth the day after rescuing Shiro.

So, if we look at the months in 2014 near the start of the American school year where the 2nd day of the month was a Tuesday, we can narrow down when the Paladins left Earth.

And the only option that meets all of those criteria is September 2nd, 2014.

Obviously the show doesn’t take place in 2014 because the technology the characters use in their daily lives on Earth is significantly more advanced than what we have in real life even in the 2020s. Not to mention Veronica name dropping World War III in S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 2 as a historical event.

However, it’s also obviously can’t be too far into the future, because other than having more advanced technology, much of what we see of Earth civilization looks fundamentally similar to our present day in terms of things like clothing and architecture, just with some futuristic flourishes here and there:

The fact that the years on Matt’s tombstone in S4E02 both begin with 00 as the first two digits raises the possibility that Earth decided to create a new calendar that started 14 years before the paladins left Earth.

However, it’s more likely that the production staff simply wished to leave it ambiguous how many centuries into the future the show takes place, as from a Doylist perspective there is no purpose to having Earth be on a different calendar system unless it’s relevant to the story.

Not to mention that it doesn’t make sense from a Watsonian perspective, since a change as widespread as the mass-adoption of a new calendar system would have to be in response to a major event that deeply changed society on such a widespread level that the society decided to define it’s calendar by how many years have passed since that event.

And the known event in the history of VLD’s Earth that might have this level of significance is World War III, which the showrunners have said in interviews resulted in “everyone on the planet realizing war sucks. We’re one Earth.”[3]

However, none of the characters act like it’s a recent event that happened within their lifetimes. The one time it’s mentioned in S7E08 The Last Stand: Part 2, Veronica speaks of the conflict as if it was a long time ago. Long enough that she has to preemptively clarify that the underground tunnels used to reach the Garrison’s supply depot are still structurally sound.

On top of the logistics not working out for World War III to have been the cause of a dramatic change in Earth’s calendars, Matt being Pidge’s older brother means that he would’ve been born before the hypothetical calendar change would’ve been adopted.

Yet S4E02 only shows Pidge’s attention being drawn to the year on Matt’s birth date being wrong when her tear slides over to the 10, when the lack of anything before it would’ve stood out first if he was born before the calendar reset to Year 0.

So we can safely take it as a given that the extra zeroes in the years on Matt’s tombstone are there to maintain a sense of ambiguity over what century VLD takes place in.

Which fits with how showrunner Joaquim Dos Santos described how the writers kept the history of VLD’s Earth “nice and nebulous” rather than going into detail on the logistics of World War III.

However since we know that the dates we do have used the 2014 calendar as a basis, and that the Paladins left Earth on Tuesday, September 2nd, all we have to do is find a year ending in 14 where September 2nd is on a Tuesday that’s far enough into the future that there’s enough time for all the advancements of VLD’s earth, but not so far ahead that it’s completely unrecognizable to the 21st century audience.

Which works out well because the next year ending in 14 with September 2nd on a Tuesday is 2414.

Part II: Known Character Birth Years

If we treat it as a given that Season 1 of VLD starts in the year 2414, then we can use that to narrow down the exact birth years of the human Paladins, as well as Allura, Lotor, Matt Holt, and Kova.

Kova is the oldest character whose birth year is known to us, as Haggar states he is 28 deca-phoebs old shortly before the destruction of Daibazaal and Altea.

Allura and Coran were in cryo-sleep for 10,000 Earth years, and Coran’s pedantic comment in S1E01 about the castle being 10,600 years old and built by his grandfather indicates that this number is exact.

This would put the destruction of Altea and Daibazaal in 7586 B.C.E., as Coran’s narration in S3E07 The Legend Begins indicates that the other planets in their solar system were conquered quickly after Zarkon and Haggar woke up from their Rift baths, meaning that both the Altean and Galran homeworlds were destroyed within a very short window of time.

Since Kova was 28 when Daibazaal was destroyed, he would’ve been born in 7614 B.C.E.

Meanwhile, S8E02 Shadows showed that Haggar only became coherent again after she gave birth, and flashbacks in S8E10 Knights of Light: Part 2 depict her participating in the conquest of the system. Which indicates that Lotor was born in between the destruction of both his parents’ home worlds.

In an interview recorded at WonderCon 2017, Lauren Montgomery and Joaqim Dos Santos talked about how despite initially having more knowledge and experience than the other paladins she was “just as young as anyone else”, and that she was handling overcoming her prejudice against the Galra “like any teenager would.” [4]

This indicates that Allura is still a teenager herself in the first 2 seasons.

Something which is supported by the fact that Allura was born less than 28 years before the fall of Altea yet looks to be around Keith, Lance, and Hunk’s age. Which indicates that while Alteans can live for hundreds of years as evidenced by Coran helping his grandfather build the Castle of Lions 600 years before the war against Zarkon, they age at roughly the same rate as normal humans until they reach adulthood.

Since she’s visibly older than Pidge, the showrunners’ remarks about her acting like “any teenager” put her age before being put into cryo-sleep somewhere between 17 and 18, the ages listed for Lance, Hunk, and Keith in the Paladin’s Handbook.

And we can presume that the ages listed in the Handbook are mostly accurate given that Colleen Holt confirms in S8E01 Launch Date that Pidge was 15 when the paladins left Earth, which is the same age that the Paladin’s Handbook gave for Pidge as of the end of Season 2.

So, if Allura is the same age as Keith, Lance, and Hunk, then she would’ve been born between 7603 and 7604 B.C.E.

As for the human characters, the cast and crew of Voltron have consistently said that Shiro was the oldest of the paladins, and that his age was somewhere in his early twenties. The only time a specific number was given was in the context of providing a maximum limit to his age range. Saying that while he was at least 20, he wasn’t older than 25.

However, the fact that his official birthday is February 29th means that it’s impossible for him to actually be 25 as the Voltron Paladins’ Handbook claimed.

Because leap years only happen once every 4 years, in years that are divisible by 4 into a whole number (The only exceptions are years that are by 100 but not 400).

It’s not possible for Shiro to be 25 in Season 1 because that would require the year of the Kerberos mission to be a leap year, since Shiro’s 24th birthday would mark the 6th time that February 29th occurred on the calendar since his birth.

The year before 2414 would be 2413, which cannot be divided by 4 into a whole number (trying gets you 603.25). However the year before Kerberis, 2412, is divisible by 4 into a whole number (603), meaning that 2414 is in between two leap years.

With all of this in mind, the only way for Shiro to be older than 20 but younger than 25 in 2414, is if he turned 20 in 2412, as his 20th birthday would mark the 5th time since he was born that February 29th occurred on the calendar. This puts the year of his birth in 2392, making him 22 years old when he returns to Earth in Season 1.

Meanwhile, Pidge being 15 when the Paladins left Earth in 2414 would mean that she was born in 2399.

Meanwhile, the Coalition Handbook, which is written from the perspective of 1 deca-phoeb after the Paladins left Earth, talks about Krolia’s arrival on Earth being “about 19 Earth years ago,” indicating that Keith’s parents met in 2396.

The Handbook’s indication of a 1-year timespan from Season 1 to Season 5 is confirmed by Sam’s debrief during the flashback portions of S7E07 The Last Stand: Part 1. Commander Iverson mentions that Sam’s return to Earth in S5E05 Bloodlines happened a month before the meeting and says that the Keberos mission was two years ago.

Krolia’s arrival being about 19 years ago appears to reinforce the Paladin’s Handbook listing Keith as being 18 by the end of Season 2. Pidge’s age means that S2E13 Blackout can’t happen any later than April 2, 2415, meaning that Keith – whose birthday is October 23rd according to the show’s official social media accounts – turns 18 at some point during the first 2 seasons of the show. This puts his birth year in 2396 and indicates that his parents had to have met sometime that January, as we’ve seen little evidence to suggest that Galra pregnancies are any longer than human ones.

So, if Pidge and Keith’s ages in the Paladins’ handbook are accurate, then we can assume Hunk and Lance’s ages are too.

Lance’s birthday is listed by the show’s official social media accounts as July 28, so the timeframe of Seasons 1-2 means he would’ve already been 17 by the time the Paladins left Earth. This means that he would have been born in 2397.

Hunk is a little tricky since his birthday is January 13th, as neither the show nor the handbooks give any details to definitively confirm whether he turned 17 during the first 2 seasons, or if he was already 17 when they left Earth.

However, some context clues regarding the nature of the Garrison’s Cadet Program and the glimpses of his backstory that we got in S7E01 A Little Adventure can help make some educated assumptions.

In her goodbye to Matt at the Kerberos launchpad in S4E02, Pidge says “I can’t believe I have to go through middle school without you.”

Since Pidge makes no mention of attempting to enroll at the Garrison while Matt and her father are in space, this logically indicates that Pidge is entering 8th grade and that the Galaxy Garrison cadet program is for students at the high school level (Grades 9-12).

The fact that the MFE pilots had graduated by the time Sam returns in 2415 supports this, as their presence as background cameos in S1E01 and in the flashbacks of Keith and Shiro’s past from S7E01 indicate that they, Lance, Keith, and Hunk all enrolled in the cadet program the same year. This means that when the Paladins left Earth, Lance and Hunk were starting their senior year of high school

Keith and Lance being 17 and 18 during Season 1 is consistent with that, as 17 and 18 are the typical ages at which most American teenagers graduate from high school [5].

In the United States, many schools in grades K-12 use students’ birthdays to determine grade placement, with students who are born before a certain cutoff date (usually around the beginning of the school year) being placed in a higher grade level than students born after the cutoff [6].

For example, Lance and Keith are shown to both be in the same class at the Garrison in S7E01 even though Keith being born a year earlier means he’d theoretically be in the grade above Lance. But Lance’s birthday is in July, and Keith’s is in October.

So, if Lance’s July birthday is before the cutoff for enrollment for their grade level, then logically the same is true for Hunk’s January birthday, meaning that Hunk is already 17 during Season 1, putting his birth in the same year as Lance’s.

And knowing how the Garrison’s Cadet Program functions as an equivalent to high school means that we can figure out how old Matt is.

In the Shiro’s Story Ready-to-Read book, Shiro describes how he and Matt were selected for the Kerberos mission after they finished school:

Since Keith is still wearing his cadet uniform when he confronts Shiro about his disease, this means that Sam and Sanda’s argument about Shiro being on the mission had to have happened during a period when classes were in session, as the flashback of their hoverbike racing in S7E01 and the lack of comments from Hunk about being caught out of uniform in S1E01 indicate that students are permitted to wear casual attire outside of school hours.

This means that Shiro and Matt had to have graduated the year before the Kerberos Mission, and then spent the following year training and preparing.

From this, we can conclude that Matt’s senior year at the Garrison corresponded to Keith, Lance, and Hunk’s freshmen year, putting Matt in the cadet program’s graduating class of 2412.

This would mean that Matt started classes at the Garrison in the fall of 2408.

And when Pidge says that his birthday is wrong in S4E02, she only does so after the camera draws viewers’ attention to the year. Which indicates that the month and date are correct, putting Matt’s birthday on May 25th. Based on what we’ve established about cutoff dates for grade placement, this would mean that Matt was 14 years old when he started classes at the Garrison, putting his birth year in 2394.

Part III: The Main Narrative

Knowing that Season 1 begins in September 2414 allows us to use the date of the Paladins’ departure from Earth as a baseline from which to determine a timeline of the show’s main storyline.

As previously established, the meta references and context clues within the first season place the paladins’ departure from Earth in S1E01 on Tuesday, September 2nd, 2414.

Since this is “1 year later” from Shiro’s capture on Kerberos, this puts the crew’s abduction in September 2413.

Since the Paladins’ Handbook reflects events up to the end of Season 2 and refers to Shiro’s capture as being “about a year ago,” we can safely assume that entirety of Seasons 1 – 2 take place before the end of 2414 in order for the character ages in the guidebook to be accurate by the end of S2E13 Blackout.

And for the first several episodes of Season 1, we’re given enough information to pinpoint exact dates for when much of the first season takes place.

Arus’ environment is shown to be nearly indistinguishable from Earths’ so we can assume that days on Arus last for about the same amount of time as days on Earth.

Coran states indicates in S1E01 that the search for the lions took about 2 hours, immediately after which the paladins had their first battle with Sendak.

The beginning of S1E02 Some Assembly Required is confirmed to take place the following morning, as Allura refers to the battle against Sendak in S10E1 as “yesterday”. Coran then tells Pidge that the prisoners they rescued need to remain in the cryo pods to heal “until tomorrow,” putting the events of S1E03 Return of the Gladiator on Thursday, September 4th.

S1E04 Fall of the Castle of Lions takes place entirely at night, with the Arusian’s re-enactment of Voltron’s battle with the Myzax robeast and Coran’s comment about letting the Arusians see the inside of the castle indicating from context that this is still on Thursday the 4th. This puts the daytime events of S1E05 on Friday, September 5th.

S1E06 Taking Flight takes place on the 6th, as Allura states at the end of S1E05 that Lance should be fully healed from his injuries after a day in the cryo pods.

Shay’s Belmera was close enough that Hunk and Coran could fly there from Arus in a small shuttle pod, have dinner with Shay’s family, fix their shuttle pod, wander around in the tunnel looking for the crystal, get captured, get rescued by Shay, and then get back to Arus all in less than a day.

So even if they spent several hours talking to Rolo and Nyma in S1E06, they still would’ve reached the Balmera in S1E07 Return to Balmera the same day.

Since S1E08 Rebirth ends with Hunk showing Shay her first sunrise after the Balmera is liberated, this brings the paladins to Sunday, September 7th.

The first volume of the tie in comics is stated to take place right after this, as the paladins are leaving the Balmera in Issue #1. The bulk of the action happens over the course of the following day, as Issue #1 states that the Paladins’ battle against the guardian monster took place the day after they left Allura at the Castle, and the sky on Krell shifts from morning to afternoon colors over the course of the Paladins’ time there, along with the fact that the sky outside the Fripping Bolgogian is in sunset colors in both Issue #1 and Issue #5.

So the first 8 episodes of Season 1 and the first volume of the comics all take place from September 1st to September 8th.

From here, the timeframes indicated become murkier, as while many events seem to take place very close together, the fact that the guidebooks put Keith as 18 by the end of Season 2 means that S2E12 Best Laid Plans cannot take place any earlier than October 23rd, 2414.

There are a few instances where we can estimate the time between certain episodes, however, we don’t have enough concrete information to confirm an exact time frame by Earth’s calendar for anything after the first volume of the comics.

However, the fact that the Voltron Coalition Handbook refers to the Lion Shuffle as “many quintants ago”, even if that’s an understatement, indicates that since the second handbook is written from the perspective of Fall 2415, we can assume that Season 3 took place in 2415 as well.

Meanwhile, context clues in S3E01 Changing of the Guard and the 2 subsequent episodes indicate that only a short time passes between the end of Season 2 and the beginning of Season 3.

S3E01 shows that the Paladins have been splitting off to pursue their own objectives during the timeskip between Seasons 2 and 3, with Hunk and Lance liberating planets with the Blade of Marmora while Pidge looks for clues to her brother’s whereabouts while Keith searches for Shiro. Acxa’s reports in S3E02 Red Paladin on where they’ve been spotted by the empire only indicate a handful of sightings, suggesting that it hasn’t been that long since the end of Season 2. This is supported by the fact that Lance and Hunk brought the leaders of the planets they had liberated since S2E13 to the Castle to talk about joining the Coalition, and only 5 planetary leaders were present for the meeting.

Furthermore, as S3E05 The Journey depicted with Shiro, a human can survive up to 7 days without food or water. So in addition to Keith’s grief over Shiro’s disappearance still being fresh, the fact that he’s still looking for Shiro among the wreckage from S2E13 suggests that the start of S3E01 is within that 7-day window.

On top of that, Throk indicates to his friend when they’re sitting in the arena that he’s been trying to speak to Zarkon for several days without success.

But on the other hand, enough time needs to pass that planets like Puig will have heard of Voltron’s defeat of Zarkon before the paladins arrive

All of these details indicate that the time between the end of S2E13 and the beginning of S3E01 wasn’t more than 2 or 3 weeks.

So if the end of Season 2 was still in 2414 and the first 3 episodes of Season 3 were in 2415, that means that the final battle of Season 2 took place in December 2414, and the opening arc of Season 3 took place in January 2415.

Meanwhile, S3E05 shows that Shiro travelled in a stolen Galra fighter for 7 days after Thayserix before Keith found him at the end of the episode. Even if there’s some time dilation involved, the fact that the Paladins are surprised Lotor was able to construct the first Sincline ship so quickly in S3E06 Tailing a Comet indicates that it hasn’t been that long since Lotor stole it in S3E04 Hole in the Sky, meaning that all of Season 3 took place in January.

S7E07 indicates that Sam’s debriefing happened a year after the Paladins left in Season 1, putting the meeting scene in September 2415. This would be consistent with Iverson’s introduction of the MFE pilots indicating that they’ve graduated from the Cadet Program.

The next time-skip jumps to 1 year after Sam’s debriefing, indicating that Matt contacted Earth in September 2416.

Matt tells his parents that Voltron hasn’t been seen in 6 months, putting the last 4 episodes of Season 6 in March of 2416.

He also mentions that the Coalition and Blade of Marmora memories are being hunted, and that their army had been “all but wiped out”, indicating that the Druids’ counterattack had clearly been going on for some time before Matt contacted his parents. However in S8E02, Macidus tells Haggar that “it has been phoebs since Emperor Lotor disappeared,” and that “the Blade of Marmora still challenges,” indicating that the purge of the Coalition and BoM had not yet begun as of two months after Voltron’s battle with Lotor, putting the beginning of the attacks on the Blade and Coalition somewhere between May and August of 2416.

Meanwhile, because of the 3-year time jump, this means that the Paladins began their voyage back to Earth in March 2419.

Near the beginning of S7E06, Shiro indicates that it’s only been a few weeks since he woke up in the clone body at the end of S6E07, and when Lance asks how long they’ve been out there, Romelle says “going on four movements” before he then asks how much longer it’ll take to reach Earth.

Coran’s comment in S1E02 about his Paladin lunch helping the team form Voltron “six times a movement” is said in the same manner that we’d say “seven days a week” in real life, suggesting that one movement is 6 quintants.

Which means that by the beginning of S7E06, the Paladins have spent more than 18 days flying back to Earth, but less than 24.

Meanwhile, the Paladins mention in S7E03 The Way Forward that, from their perspective, their battle with Lotor was “a few weeks” ago, indicating that at least two movements had passed since the end of S6E07 Defender of All Universes by the time they encounter Ezor and Zethrid’s pirate crew at the end of S7E02 The Road Home. However, it’s ambiguous whether all of those movements were spent on travelling or if it took the Paladins a few days to finish the preparations for their voyage before leaving the Dalterion belt.

And Pidge’s insistence in S7E06 that they still have one and a half Earth years of travel time left gives me the impression that we’re still in the same calendar month.

From all of this, we can conclude that the entire first half of Season 7 up until the Paladins fly out of that energy burst and reach Earth takes place within the month of March 2419.

Depending on how long the Paladins spent repairing the lions and preparing for the voyage between the end of S7E01 and the beginning of S7E02, this means that their landing on the Dalterion Belt and Shiro being merged with his clone had to have occurred somewhere between March 1st and March 8th, which would also apply to the timing of the Paladins’ battle with Lotor in S6E07.

With Sam’s debriefing being a month after he landed, and him being released from quarantine after about a week, he would’ve had to have landed and been released in August 2415 in order for September 2416 to still be “just over a year” after he started working to upgrade Earth’s defensive capabilities.

With the debriefing scene being “four years ago” from the beginning of S7E07, this would put the Paladins’ return to Earth in August 2419.

The liberation of Earth appears to only take a couple of days at most, and according to Shiro in S8E01 Launch Date, rebuilding took “several months” before the Paladins were ready to return to space.

This puts the beginning of Season 8 in early 2420, and a line from Rizavi in S8E01 helps to narrow things down.

When Pidge sees the Killbot Phantasm game, Rizavi mentions that it came out just before Sendak invaded, and that because of that there hadn’t been enough time for any players to reach the final level. She then tells the shopkeeper that she waited 3 years to get to the end of the game.

Meanwhile, Macidus tells the Paladins in S7E05 The Ruins that he has been marooned on the planet they found him at for “the last two decaphoebs,” and that the Druids’ purge against the Blade of Marmora was them “carrying out her final orders.”

Since the Paladins would have encountered him in March 2419, this would put the fall of the Blade of Marmora and Kolivan’s capture in March 2417, 7-10 months after the beginning of the counterattack against the Coalition that Matt spoke of in S7E07.

S8E02 Shadows confirms that Sendak invaded Earth on Honerva’s orders in the hopes of drawing out Voltron. Given, the potential narrative symmetry, it’s likely that Sendak’s invasion of Earth took place around the same time.

Which would be consistent with how the MFE pilots are referred to by Admiral Sanda as cadets in S7E07 when they had already graduated from the cadet program the previous year because they, like Shiro appear to be in a post-graduate program to continue their education after high school:

At WonderCon 2016, showrunner Lauren Montgomery referred to Shiro as a “slightly older student.”

Meanwhile in S7E01 he appears to be assisting Iverson and other Garrison instructors with classes, but is not treated by other characters as if he’s a full-time teacher himself.

During the briefing scene in S7E7, Commander Iverson gives Shiro’s rank as Lieutenant, reflecting the tradition of fictional military organizations in science fiction to utilize the ranking systems of real world militaries, particularly with naval ranks such as Commander and Admiral which are exclusively used for naval officers.

During his visit to Keith’s school and his time overseeing simulator drills with Keith’s class, Shiro’s uniform only has two stripes on the shoulders of his uniform, and he’s never addressed by any specific rank.

However in the scene where Sanda and Sam Holt are arguing about Shiro’s inclusion on the Kerberos mission, his uniform now has three stripes on the shoulder, which he has been consistently shown to have in Pidge’s flashback to the crew’s disappearance being announced in S1E05, which show photos of Shiro, Sam, and Matt that would’ve been taken specifically for the mission’s publicity. And when Sam is debriefed in S7E07, Iverson identifies Shiro as a Lieutenant.

In our world, it takes an average of 4 years after enlisting in the navy for a person to be promoted to lieutenant. However, if someone enlists before or while in college, promotion to Lieutenant can be achieved with the completion of a Master’s Degree.

Depending on the field, a Masters’ degree would require an additional four years after completing a Bachelor’s degree. However, some universities that specialize in specific subjects (like mine did) offer a Master’s program that only takes an additional 1-2 years after receiving a Bachelor’s degree to complete.

Since the Garrison’s cadet program is teaching what 21st century viewers would consider advanced college-level science to high school students, it’s plausible that the Garrison has an advanced program for graduates of the cadet program to continue taking classes. Which makes sense because the Garrison’s cadet program is clearly an example of a vocational school, which focuses education at the secondary (high-school) and/or post-secondary (college) level on teaching students the skills and knowledge required for a specific career path, as opposed to a more general education.

It explains why tie-in books indicate that Shiro and Matt graduated from the Garrison at the same time. While Matt was completing his regular education in the cadet program, Shiro was finishing up his advanced education track.

Because Shiro makes multiple comments that imply an in-depth knowledge of physics and astronomy: From knowing enough constellations to recognize in S1E01 that the Blue Lion’s wormhole has left them in unfamiliar space, to being able to calculate the approximate speed of the black lion’s fall at the start of S2E01 Across the Universe in his head despite the pain of a glowing magic wound in his side and the general exhaustion of the battle they’d just come out of.

It even explains why S7E01 has Shiro was helping with classes and Adam mentioning having a class to teach, because many high schools and colleges offer work-study programs to where students can work part-time jobs at the school in exchange for financial assistance, as well as to get hands on work experience in a particular field so that they can transition from school to working more easily. Which also explains why Sam and Adam both mention Shiro having gone on multiple space flights and missions by the time he’s selected for the Kerberos mission even though the timeline indicates he’d only be 20 by the time he was chosen for Kerberos.

And since my analysis of Garrison lore indicates that the grey/green uniform that Shiro wears when visiting Keith’s school is reserved for those whose work in administrative roles and other capacities in the day-to-day running of the Garrison, this would indicate that he graduated from the cadet program at least a year or two before, and received the new uniform as part of the work-study program when classes started up the following school year.

So, the MFE pilots continuing their education after completing the cadet program would explain why Sanda would still refer to them as cadets even if they’ve already graduated from the cadet program: because even if they’re not in the cadet program anymore, they’re still students.

The pattern we’ve established regarding the human characters’ birthdates and grade levels means that Shiro would’ve graduated from the regular cadet program in 2410 (meaning he would’ve enrolled in 2406) and finished his advanced studies in 2412, making the Garrisons’ post-graduation education options a 2-year program.

This means that the amount of time that Sendak’s invasion of Earth had to have been before May of 2417. So, a March 2417 invasion around the same time the Druids and the Blades wiped each other out fits within that window.

And if that is the case, then Rizavi’s “three years” comment would put S8E01 in March 2420.

From the perspective of the crew of the Atlas, the first half of the season takes place over the course of about 48 Earth days. S8E08 Clear Day appears to take place within a couple days after the end of S8E07 Day Forty-Seven, as Hunk introduced the Altean robeast Pilots to Allura and Coran near the end of the day, and the following episode opens with Tavo agreeing to speak with Allura due to Hunk’s efforts at reaching out to the Alteans with food.

However, the leader of planet Drazan indicates that thanks to time dilation, the Atlas’ internal clocks are about 24 days behind the rest of the universe by the beginning of S8E08, as Coran notes that according to their calendars, Clear Day shouldn’t be for another four movements.

Depending on when in March the Atlas left Earth, this put the Clear Day celebration somewhere between May 12th and June 10th, 2420.

Based on how quickly events move following the events of S8E08, this would put the final confrontation with Honerva somewhere between the middle of May and the middle of June, which would put the epilogue in May or June of 2421.

Given that the fact the timeframe of the show was determined based on a meta gag about the show’s production, my instinct leans towards the second half of Season 8 all taking place in May, as it would mean that the entire main plot of the show – which was contracted for 78 episodes (the hour-long pilot being 3 episodes stitched together) – took place over approximately 7 years and 8 months.

Part IV: Backstory Dates & Other Timeline Trivia

Now that we’ve hammered out the timeline for the main events of the story, we can start filling in dates for elements of the characters’ backstories and other areas of the timeline not covered by the previous sections.

The First Kral Zera:

In S5E04 Kral Zera, the Archivist states in 2415 that the Kral Zera has been burning for “over thirteen millennia,” putting the first Kral Zera and the official founding of the Galra Empire as a political entity sometime before 10,585 BCE. Since he said thirteen, rather than fourteen, we can logically assume that it couldn’t be any earlier than 13,999 years before 2415, which would be 11,584 BCE.

The Daibazaal Rift:

Kova appears to be fully grown when Zarkon first meets him in Honerva’s lab in S3E07 after the discovery of the Rift on Daibazaal. Using Earth cat development as a basis for comparison, this would indicate that Kova is at least 1 year old by this point, meaning the earliest that the Trans-reality comet could have crashed was 7613 B.C.E.

However, it cannot have happened any later than 2 years before Allura’s birth. When Honerva shows Alfor that their Quintessence experiment is running after he thanks her for the gift celebrating Allura’s birth, he notes that the experiment has been running for a full year by that point. But despite the experiment being positioned right next to her workstation, it was nowhere to be seen when she and Zarkon were having their first meeting before the timeskip.

Meanwhile, before the episode transitioned from Honerva and Zarkon’s first meeting to Alfor showing his daughter off to Zarkon, Coran’s narration refers to Alfor visiting often “as the years passed,” indicating that more than one year passes between the discovery of the rift and Allura’s birth.

This means that since the experiment would’ve begun in 6704 or 7605 B.C.E., the Rift cannot have been opened any later than 7605 or 7606 B.C.E.

The Difference Between 1 Year & 1 Deca-Phoeb:

When Shiro and Allura are detected during their infiltration of a Galra cruiser in S1E10 Collection and Extraction, the computer identifies Shiro as "Fugitive prisoner 117-9875."

The format of his prisoner ID number indicates the year on the empire's calendar that Shiro was captured, meaning that the Galran calendar lists Earth year 2414 as imperial year 9876.

Initially, I thought this meant that the references to Altea being destroyed "10,000 years ago" were a generalization and that it wasn't exactly 10,000 years.

However, Coran's insistence on correcting Hunk that the Castle of Lions is 10,600 years old in S1E01 indicates that it was indeed exactly 10,000 years between Altea's destruction and the return of the Blue Lion.

Which left me with a bit of a conundrum of how to reconcile the two timescales. Then I remembered that S1E06 established that Earth and intergalactic time measurements weren't exactly 1:1, with Pidge and Coran's comparison showing that ticks were slightly bigger than seconds.

So I decided to do the math and see if how 9876 decaphoebs would compare to 10,000 years. And dividing both numbers by 9876 gives me 1 Deca-Phoeb = 0.9876 Years.

Meaning that Shiro's prisoner ID and the references to Altea's destruction being 10,000 years ago are both correct.

Shiro and Keith’s First Meeting:

Since the Galaxy Garrison’s cadet program is shown to be for high school students, and that Keith, Lance, and Hunk were meant to graduate in 2415, we can deduce that Shiro and Keith first met in the spring of 2411. Most high school enrollment is done in the spring, so it makes the most sense for the Garrison to send Shiro to local schools to convince students who will be freshmen at the start of the next school year to enroll, as opposed to trying to persuade kids to transfer in the middle of the year.

Based on the fact that Lance was in 9th grade as a 14-year-old, the Garrison likely starts classes in August, which is consistent with the fact that Keith’s map of his search for the Blue Lion places the Garrison near the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.

Where, according to my own research and the experience of friends who live there, the school year typically begins in late July or early August and ends in May.

This would mean that Shiro just only a month or two past his 19th birthday when he and Keith first met, while Keith was around 14 and a half.

Pidge’s Grade Level:

Though we don’t know exactly when it happened, the fact that Pidge is still in 8th Grade when she turns 15 means that somewhere along the line she had to repeat a grade during middle or elementary school.

Details and Aftermath of the Kerberos Mission:

In S4E02, Matt mentions planning to use their family code to keep in touch with Pidge during his mission, so the fact that Pidge never mentions receiving any message with the code letting her know that they landed safely indicates that Matt, Sam, and Shiro were abducted shortly after arriving on Kerberos.

The news broadcast announcing their disappearance is dated five months after the launch, and earlier in the flashback, Sam mentions that he and Matt “will be eating freeze-dried peas for the next two months.”

Since their abduction happened in September 2413, this puts the mission’s launch in July of 2413. From a logistics standpoint, a summer launch makes sense for the Garrison so that they won’t have to worry about disrupting classes, or cadets sneaking around to watch the launch and getting hurt.

This would mean that the crew’s disappearance was announced in December 2413.

Pidge’s confrontation with Iverson during S1E05 indicates that she was not aware of the involvement of aliens prior to her enrolling at the Garrison, as she only mentions that the Garrison’s probes show no sign of a crash on Kerberos and doesn’t bring up the transmission from the Galra warship to Zarkon’s central command that S7E07 reveals the Garrison had managed to record.

The Paladin Handbook states that a rescue mission to Kerberos recovered the remaining equipment, so the fact that Pidge doesn’t mention finding reports from the rescue team on Iverson’s computer in S1E05 indicates that the rescue mission hadn’t left yet when the disappearance was made public.

Since S7E07 shows video footage of Shiro, Matt, and Sam on Kerberos getting cut off as the Galra cruiser approaches, the probes were presumably destroyed by the cruiser as it arrived on Kerberos, and the Garrison sent new probes to try and reestablish contact before making the crew’s disappearance public.

A further piece of evidence for the Garrison beginning classes in August is that Pidge’s comments in S1E01 indicate that she’s been listening to Galra radio chatter for several nights now and can recognize that the level of activity on the night of Shiro’s return to Earth is higher than normal. A month would give her a decent amount of data to work with to identify patterns of activity.

The VR Game and The Zel:

In the opening of that one VR game Voltron: VR Chronicles, Zarkon and Haggar discuss a technologically advanced species known as the Zel, whose population was decimated by the empire a millennia ago, but whose homeworld remains hidden from the empire.

The game features Shiro still piloting the black lion, and Haggar indicates in the first cutscene that they’re still able to track the Castle of Lions through Zarkon’s bond with the Black Lion, which puts the game before the events of S2E04 Greening the Cube. However, the paladins don’t give any indication that they’re aware that Zarkon can track them like that, meaning that it has to take place before Allura gets captured in S1E10 Collection and Extraction.

Given the timeline established for the first 2/3 of Season 1, the only places the events of the VR game could fit is between volume 1 of the comics and the beginning of S1E09 Crystal Venom, or during the travel montage in S1E10. However, the lack of any mention of getting back to their journey to the coordinates of the hidden Quintessence refinery in S1E10 means it has to take place between S1E08 and S1E09, particularly since Lance notes the game’s robeast boss fight - a recolor of the same one that attacked the Balmera - is giving him deja vu.

In the VR game, Hunk also indicates that travelling via wormhole is still a relatively new experience for him, so it’s most likelt that this game still takes place sometime in September 2414 after the events of the comic.

All of which means that the empire’s battle with the Zel that Zarkon and Haggar talk about would have occurred somewhere in the year 1414.

Timeframe of Seasons 4 – 5:

S4E01 Code of Honor opens with Keith indicating that Lotor hasn’t been seen in months. Since their last encounter with Lotor’s forces was in early January 2415, and Keith says months – as in plural – the earliest the beginning of the episode could take place is some time in March 2415. However, based on the timeframe of Season 8’s Clear Day, it can’t be any later than the end of April.

S4E04 The Voltron Show! establishes that the planet Drazan has a 721-day year and only 1 of those days ever gets clear skies, with Team Voltron missing that year’s Clear day due to Coran’s miscalculations.

However, in S8E08, Drazan is celebrating another Clear Day and explicitly states that this is the first one after the one that Voltron missed in Season 4. Which means that a day on planet Drazan is longer than an Earth day or standard quintant.

We’ve already narrowed down that Season 8’s clear day took place somewhere between May 12th and May 24th 2420, so if we assume that the paladins missing the previous Clear Day happened within the same window of time in 2415, this would put the beginning of S4E04 sometime in May 2415.

(Which, incidentally, means that a year on Drazon would be equivalent to about 5 years on Earth, while a day on Drazan is approximately 60 hours or 2.5 Earth days).

Meanwhile, Coran indicates in S4E04 that Keith’s departure from the team has not spread very far yet, indicating that the episode begins a short time after the end of S4E01 since Keith no longer piloting the Black Lion is not common knowledge yet. This means that Keith leaving the team would have also taken place in May 2415.

S4E01 shows a montage of time passing while Keith works with the Blades, indicating that a notable amount of time passed between the beginning and the end of the episode. Furthermore, Allura’s comment about how Keith keeps saying he’s sorry for not being there, but his actions say otherwise indicate a consistent pattern of Keith being too busy on Blade Missions to perform his duties as the Black Paladin. This indicates that Keith was flaking on them for at least a couple weeks before the crisis where Shiro had to reconnect with the Black Lion.

Meanwhile, the fact that Coran states that Keith’s departure from the team at the start of the season is not common knowledge yet in S4E04 indicates that S4E04 actually takes place before S4E02. This is reinforced by the fact that Lotor’s urgency to access the Quintessence field in S4E05 Begin the Blitz indicates that very little time has passed since the end of S4E03 Black Site, which contrasts how S4E04 clearly took place over the course of several days, if not multiple weeks.

The timeframe for Sam’s return to Earth that I identified in the previous section puts all of Season 5 in August 2415, as events are indicated to happen fairly quickly:

S5E03 Postmortem clearly starts the morning after Zarkon is killed, and Lotor states that the Kral Zera will be held sometime in the next two days.

The hostage exchange in S5E02 Blood Duel likely only took a couple days at most of back-and-forth communication to negotiate the terms and details after the end of S5E01 The Prisoner.

S5E04 shows that Sam was making the final preparations to leave for Earth when Shiro and Lotor went to the Kral Zera, meaning that both Sam’s departure and the Paladins’ arrival at Central Command would’ve taken place a day or two later.

Pidge, Lance, and Hunk are shown spending most of a day goofing around on Central Command with their reprogrammed Sentry while Lotor and Allura are looking through Haggar’s lair.

After Allura finds the compass stone, they appear to head to Oriande if not that day then the following day, and when the castle loses power thanks to the White Lion, we’re told that the Castle only has another quintant of air left.

Assuming they spent a night recovering from oxygen deprivation like Shiro did in Season 3, then they would’ve returned to central command the following day. Right when they got back, Lotor had to receive a briefing on the state of the empire. A few hours later, he did his speech, following which Voltron went to help protect the Omega Shield

While it’s unclear exactly how many days passed between the end of S5E04 and Keith’s half of S5E05, Hunk indicates in S80E3 The Prisoner’s Dilemma that Keith and Krolia had already started their trip through the Quantum Abyss by the time the Paladins came to the aid of the Omega Shield.

So we can confirm that the entirety of Season 5 takes place in August 2415.

From there, we can narrow down a rough idea of when the rest of Season 4 takes place.

While it’s not stated exactly how much time passes between S4E06 A New Defender and S5E01, it’s implied to not be that long. In S5E01, Nyma thanks Pidge and Matt for helping with repairs on the Coalition’s fleet, saying the ships were “pretty banged up after the invasion.” This implicitly indicates that the attack on Naxzela and the rest of the Galra forces in that section of the universe was recent enough that repairs to the rebel ships that survived the battle were only just now being finished.

However, enough time needs to have passed that Lotor has been able to give them several locations for Galra bases to attack that were low-risk before he runs out of easy targets to give them.

So, it’s likely only been a couple of weeks at most since the end of Season 4. Since S4E02 and S4E03 happen only a day or two together, and S4E05 is implied to take place just a day or so after that, this puts the remainder of Season 4 sometime in late July, since Sam would’ve had to land on Earth in mid August in order for both his debriefing and Matt contacting Earth “just over a year” after said debriefing to be in September.

Which means that the third volume of the comics most likely also takes place in July, since the first issue of this arc depicts the Paladins attempting to drive a Galra fleet out of the Coalition’s new territory without letting them fly in the direction of the planets that were already liberated in S4E06 A New Defender, and the central conflict of the arc revolved around the paladins attempting to test if the information Lotor was providing them with was accurate.

Meanwhile, the scenes of Haggar gazing into Zarkon’s mind and remembering her past in S3E07 are implied to take place concurrently with S4E02.

S3E07 ends with Haggar waking Zarkon up, yet we don’t see him up and around until S4E02, which takes place several months after the end of Season 3.

Now, which sounds more logical?

Haggar wakes Zarkon up in October 2414 and he spends the next eight months or so sitting on his ass doing nothing while his empire keeps crumbling under rebel uprising?

Or Lotor’s lack of involvement in the empire for months as seen in S4E01 Code of Honor making Haggar desperate enough to tap into Zarkon’s mind, at which point he immediately gets out of his bed and takes the throne back from Lotor in S4E03 Black Site?

The latter would certainly be a logical sequence of events. And it would better explain why she’s suddenly looking at her old appearance as Honerva at the beginning of S4E03 if her recollection of her past was just yesterday than if she remembered months ago and is only now deciding to look at her old face.

Warlord Lahn Raiding Ranveig’s Base:

The Paladins visiting Drazan’s Clear Day festival appears to take place only a day or two after the end of S8E07. In that episode, the Altean robeast pilot the Atlas picks up is noted to be the 6th one they’ve brought aboard since leaving Oriande. Assuming they picked up one robeast pilot per day, this means that at least 6 days passed for the Atlas since the end of S8E06 Gensis.

Given that time dilation has only come up in the series when characters are travelling without using wormholes, we can probably assume that more than 6 days passed for the rest of the universe.

Since S8E08 appears to take place on Day 48 and is 24 quintants behind Planet Drazan thanks to time dilation, my best estimate would be that at least 12 days pass between the battle in Oriande and Clear Day.

Depending on when in May the Atlas visited Drazan for Clear Day, this would put the attack on Oriande somewhere between the end of April and the beginning of May.

S8E06 is indicated to take place only a day or so after the events of S8E05 The Grudge, which itself takes place only a short time after S8E04 Battle Scars, as the episode opens with the Paladins informing the Atlas of Olkarion’s fate.

Meanwhile S8E04 indicates it’s been only a few days for them since they left the Atlas at the end of S8E03, as Pidge notes that they’ve checked 11 star systems for signs of Robeasts in the last 3 days. Assuming that further time dilation occurred during S8E04 and S8E05, this would put the Atlas’ invasion of Warlord Lahn’s base on planet Ryker some time in April 2420.

When Lahn receives the transmission from the lost ship Klytax V-3, he mentions that he sent it and 14 other cruisers to scout Warlord Ranveig’s base from S5E05 for weapons six phoebs ago, which would be in October 2419.

Section V: The Complete Timeline

When you add everything together, the timeline of the VLD universe looks like this:

10,585-11,584 B.C.E.: The Galra Empire is formally established on the planet Feyiv with the coronation of Emperor Brodar in the first Kral Zera.

8186 B.C.E.: Coran’s grandfather builds the Castle of Lions. Coran accompanies him to a Balmera during the construction.

7614 B.C.E.: Kova is born

7606-7613 B.C.E.: A Trans-Reality Comet crash lands on the planet Daibazaal and a rift between realities is discovered at the crash site.

7604-7605 B.C.E.: 1 year before Allura’s birth, Honerva and Alfor initiate their first Quintessence experiment.

7603-7604 B.C.E.: Princess Allura is born, and Voltron makes its debut defending Daibazaal from the Rift Creatures.

7586 B.C.E.: Daibazzal and Altea are destroyed. Lotor is born

1414: The Galra Empire battles a technologically advanced species known as the Zel and decimates their population, but are unable to locate the Zelthronian homeworld.

2392, February 29: Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane is born

2394, May 25: Matt Holt is born

2396, January: Krolia crash lands on Earth

2396, October 23: Keith is born

2397, January 13: Hunk is born

2397, July 28: Lance is born

2398, April 03: Katie “Pidge” Holt is born

2406, August: Shiro begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison.

2408, August: Matt begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison.

2410, May: Shiro graduates from Galaxy Garrison’s cadet program

2410, August: Shiro continues his education at the Garrison

2411, March-May: Shiro visits Keith’s middle school as a recruiter for the Garrison sometime in the spring

2411, August: Keith, Lance, Hunk, James Griffin, Nadia Rizavi, Ryan Kinkade, and Ina Leifsdottir begin taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison

2412, May: Matt and Shiro graduate from their respective programs at the Galaxy Garrison.

2412, August: Shiro and Matt are selected to be part of the Garrison’s mission to Kerberos.

2413, July: The Garrison’s mission to Kerberos launches

2413, September: Sam Holt, Matt, and Shiro reach Kerberos and are captured by the Galra Empire.

2413, December: Galaxy Garrison publicly announces the disappearance of the Kerberos mission.

2414, April 28: Rebel forces battle the Galra Empire on the planet Marchanda, resulting in 127,098 rebel casualties while the planet is reduced to a barren wasteland. Matt uses this battle to fake his death and go into hiding in a hidden rebel listening post.

2414, May 11: A rescue mission from Galaxy Garrison arrives on Kerberos to retrieve the equipment left behind after the original mission’s disappearance.

2414, August: Katie Holt begins taking classes at the Galaxy Garrison under the name of Pidge Gunderson in order to find information about what happened to her father and brother.

2414, September 01: Shiro lands on Earth and is rescued from quarantine by Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge.

2414, September 02: Shiro, Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge find the Blue Lion and leave Earth.

2414, September 03: The Paladins train to figure out how to form Voltron outside of combat.

2414, September 04: The Paladins meet the Arusian natives and defeat the Myzax Robeast. Sendak attacks the Castle of Lions that night.

2414, September 05: Pidge and the paladins retake the Castle of Lions from Sendak while Hunk and Coran retrieve a new Balmeran crystal.

2414, September 06: The Castle of Lions takes off from Arus and liberates Shay’s Balmera later that day following an encounter with Rollo and Nyma en route.

2414, September 07: Hunk takes Shay to watch her first sunrise. After leaving the Balmera, Coran takes the Paladins to the Karthulian system for a training exercise.

2414, September 08: The Paladins travel to the planet Krell to retrieve a Yalexian Pearl to trade for Coran’s safety.

2414, September 09-30: Sometime in September, Team Voltron investigates a Zelthronian distress signal.

2414, December: The Paladins coordinate with the Blade of Marmora to attack Central Command, grievously wounding Zarkon in the process. Shiro disappears and Lotor is summoned from exile to lead the empire while his father recovers.

2415, January:

Keith becomes the new pilot of the Black Lion and leads the team in their first battles against Lotor on Puig and Thayersix.

The Paladins find an Altean exploration ship caught in a rift between realities and recover the trans-reality comet stored in its cargo hold after visiting the Altean Empire reality.

Shiro makes his way back to the team after awakening aboard a Galran research vessel.

In the process of searching for the trans-reality comet, the Paladins come upon Lotor’s generals attacking a Galran outpost in the Ulippa system to steal a fragment of their Teludav.

Coran tells the Paladins the story of Voltron's origins and Zarkon's descent into tyranny.

2415, March-April: Keith and Kolivan discover a new strain of Quintessence being shipped across the Galra empire through a network of secret supply routes.

2415, May:

Keith leaves the team in order to focus on his work with the Blade of Marmora.

Voltron misses performing their air show at the planet Drazan’s Clear Day celebration, leading Coran to ingest a brain worm to help him do a better job coming up with ideas for their propaganda shows.

2415, July:

Pidge finally tracks down Matt and brings him back to the Castle of Lions.

Haggar uses her magic to reawaken Zarkon, in the process regaining some of her memories of her life as Honerva.

Zarkon learns that Lotor is building ships from a trans-reality comet and declares his son a fugutive.

Voltron launches an attack on Naxzella and other key planets to seize control of 1/3 of the Galra Empire’s territory in a single strike.

The Paladins finish liberating planet Pintos Sentos.

Voltron dismantles the Galra shipbuilding facility known as SPRAWL using intel provided by Lotor.

2415, August:

Voltron rescues Sam, and Zarkon is killed by Lotor in the process.

Lotor becomes the new emperor of the Galra in the thirty-fourth Kral Zera.

Sam returns to Earth and is placed under quarantine at Galaxy Garrison’s main base in Arizona.

Keith extracts Krolia from Ranveig’s base and they enter the Quantum Abyss in search of the origins of the new mystery Quintessence.

Lotor, and Allura enter Oriande, where Allura passes the trials of the White Lion and gains further knowledge of Altean Alchemy.

Team Voltron assist Commander Bogh and Lieutenant Lahn when their planet is attacked by Sendak’s Fire of Purification.

Sam is released from quarantine and reunited with his wife Colleen.

2415, September: Sam is debriefed by Galaxy Garrison’s Joint Chiefs regarding his experiences in space.

2416, March 01-08: After spending at least 2 years in the Quantum Abyss, Keith and Krolia return to the Castle of Lions with Romelle. The Paladins battle Lotor and are forced to sacrifice the Castle of Lions to seal off the Quintessence Field and save their entire reality.

2416, May-August: The Druids and other factions of the Galra Empire begin a campaign of retaliation against the Blade of Marmora and the Voltron Coalition.

2416, September: Matt contacts his parents on Earth to inform them of Voltron’s disappearance and warn them of the rebellion’s losses.

2417, March:

The Blade of Marmora make their last stand against the Druids. Both factions suffer heavy casualties, and Kolivan is taken captive by Macidus.

Sendak invades Earth.

2419, March:

Allura merges Shiro with his clone and the Paladins gather Fonatonium to help recharge their lions.

The Paladins set off for Earth and are captured by Zethrid and Ezor’s pirate crew while investigating an abandoned Blade of Marmora outpost.

The Paladins encounter Macidus and rescue Kolivan. Krolia leaves with Kolivan to search for other surviving Blades.

The Paladins attempt to recharge their lions.

2419, August: The Paladins reach Earth and quickly liberate the planet from Sendak’s occupation.

2419, October: Warlord Lahn sends Klytax V-3 and 14 other cruisers to salvage weapons from one of Warlord Ranveig’s bases.

2420, March:

The Paladins enjoy their last day on Earth before returning to space.

The IGF Atlas launches from Earth to liberate planets that remain under Galra rule.

2420, April: The Atlas attacks Warlord Lahn’s base on the planet Ryker.

2420, May 12-31:

Voltron and the crew of the Atlas attend planet Drazan’s Clear Day festival.

The Paladins confront Honerva at the source of all realities.

2421, May: The lions fly away to parts unknown.

Note: This timeline will be updated whenever I uncover further information.

Sources:

[1] Creating Voltron: Legendary Defender; June 10, 2016. https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/creating-voltron-legendary-defender/

[2] Tweet by Joaquim Dos Santos; October 12, 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20200723131054/https://twitter.com/JDS_247/status/1050905860728213506

[3] The Ending of 'Voltron' Season 7, Explained by the Showrunners; Eric Francisco; August 10, 2018. https://www.inverse.com/article/47977-voltron-legendary-defender-season-7-netflix-ending-explained-by-showrunners-interview

[4] Joaquim Dos Santos & Lauren Montgomery Talk Voltron at Wondercon '17; When Nerds Attack; April 2, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZW1V2dYHgs

[5] High School in the United States - wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_school_in_the_United_States

[6] K-12 Education in the United States - Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-12_education_in_the_United_States

#voltron legendary defender #voltron meta #vld timeline #vld meta #long post #voltron timeline

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artsyjesseblue · 1 year

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I feel sorry for the poor soul at DW who had to draw over Lotor in this scene. Studio Mir's style is not as easy as it looks, LOL.

Who has the pointier chin?

I’ll let the pics do the talk.

(OK, giving u some hints- no 1: in VLD there are different degrees of pointiness for each visage. There's a certain angle to their V-shaped chins, and it varies from one character to another - Allura, Pidge, Lance, Lotor, Keith etc.)

(Hint no 2: Compare the pink and the blue outlines)

In conclusion...

If anything, mommy here probably says "You deserved better".

#lotor deserved better #lotor #allura #voltron #lotura meta #vld meta #vld gifs #forget about the messed-up perspective #that's the cherry on the pie #thanks Bob now I know how to make Gifs in Photoshop #All portraits are screencaps from VLD #whoever drew over Lotor was either tired / sloppy / or did it on purpose #LOL I wouldn’t be surprised if it was on purpose #the frustration omg I can only imagine to have to butcher an amazing story #the writers were done so wrong #the truth will eventually come out #jesseblue writes

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hollowwhisperings · 10 months

Text

VLD Retrospective: My POV as a Queer Biracial Asian Aspie

I don't generally enjoy listing my demographics in public spaces but for a Voltron Retrospective, I find it Quite Necessary to better convey how much VLD meant to me personally. This is one fan reconciling with a work I enjoyed for years, remain saddened for, and felt betrayed by. lf I'm good for anything, it's my being a Living Statistical Outlier.

VLD gave me explicit representation within its main cast: it gave me Shiro, who I clocked as chronically ill well before it was confirmed (Like Knows Like) & struggled with mental illness too (I'm not a war vet but Shiro's implicit Medical Trauma was Also There). Shiro is also, very obviously, an Asian &, as later revealed, a Queer Asian. There are few Queer Asians in western media who are Actual Characters: Shiro was (& remains) fun to have on board. It was, primarily, his struggles with his physical & mental health that most resonated with me.

Pidge is someone a lot of fans identified with, being a quirky genderbender maligned for her relative youth: I'm an autistic female who is gender "meh" so Pidge was "Representation" but she wasn't New nor Almost Unprecedented like Shiro or, as I'll elaborate further on, Keith. Every AFAB, every youth has felt undermined by their assumed gender & their youth: this is Not New. Pidge is fun but she wasn't Groundbreaking, not to me.

Keith and, to a lesser degree (as in assocoation with him), the "Half-Galra" Misfits were who I most identified with. Even before Keith was having Existential Crises over being Half-Galra, Keith read as someone biracial: his name, "Keith Kogane", makes him a white-passing Asian . I think current consensus is that Keith's Dad was "Mixed Asian*" but Keith's "orphan" (& secret alien) status prevented him from engaging with his heritage.

I am Not Galran (so far as I know) but I am a white-passing Asian & someone of "Two Worlds" (half white, half east asian). Star Trek's Spock established how most subsequent works of the sci-fi genre depicts half-human aliens: all the vibes of being Biracial, existential crises about Passing & feeling Disconnected ("rejected") by either/both halves of one's identity. Keith checks those boxes and Lotor's Halfsie Squad are similarly Coded (to lesser degrees).

Aliens, half-human ones especially, are very easily read as Neurodivergent as in "has ADHD &/or ASD": Keith continued this tradition & it further isolated him from his peers, especially because (like many of us on The Spectrum) he grew up "Undiagnosed". Keith knew he was Different but no one had the correct Context for his "Difference": this lead him to feeling Wrong, Rejected and Alien. This is an experience Familiar to anyone belatedly recognised as having ASD and also to Literally Any Queer Person.

To summarize the above: Shiro meant A Lot to me because he struggled with his health in silence (& was Asian); Keith meant a lot because his Human Demographics & Coding match almost entirely with my own. Shiro became "more" Important to me through his being Keith's Most Important Person (KH fans: you see where this is going): I was already Attached to Shiro, Keith made me invested in him.

KH fans knew from my invoking of "Taihetsu no Hito" [JP for "Most Important Person"] that, through being Invested in Keith & thus Shiro, I quickly Recognised that Keith? Desperately in love with Shiro. I did not, however, consider Shiro likely to Act on any Reciprocating of such feelings (which he did show signs of developing, as early on as that Stranded From Everyone Else and "when I die, you be Black Paladin" episode) due to the implied age gap between them. I knew Shiro was Younger Than Assumed (very early 20's at oldest, I figured from Contextual Clues), that Lance & Hunk were about 17 & that Keith was Older than Lance (so, 18). The age gap between Shiro & Keith was never that much of an issue: it was their difference in Rank & the ages they were at their First Meeting that were the "real" obstscles, to my mind. Season 6 or 7 did a Flashback that made Keith 14 when he first met Shiro: that very much explains why Shiro was reluctant to acknowledge attraction to Keith & unlikely to act on it. Keith did, however, read as Crushing On Shiro pretty much from their first encounter (Keith stealing Shiro's car was a very obvious effort to gain Shiro's attention & respect: something Keith was unlikely to recognise as Crush Evidence but Shiro definitely did).

And then Shiro lost 3 years to Time Dilation while Keith gained 2: their Reunion post-Space Whale was very telling. For the first time, Sheith actually seemed genuinely plausible to me. Keith had had a Glow Up that allowed Shiro to stop thinking of Keith as the kid he'd been when they first met & actually admit that his excuses to not act on any attraction had stopped holding weight. I remain completely convinced that "Kuron" had fallen, equally & just as desperately, in love with Keith over the series and that the Aggression Kuron exhibited toward Keith was as much caused by That (Gay Pining he refused to act on, even as Keith ran around in his Infamous Blades Uniform) as it was by Haggar (& Kuron's growing suspicions on his "true" nature).

Then there was the "You're my brother... I love you!" scene. Initially, given The Current Events of the time, I was irritated by the Abrupt Brother-Zoning from the Very Obviously Pining Keith to Shiro.

Then I noticed the order of these sentences: first, "you're my brother" (neither Shiro nor Keith have any siblings: in asia, there's MLM equivalent to "they were Roommates" in "they're sword/sworn brothers") and THEN, more desperately and while at the cusp of death... "I love you".

VERY ON BRAND, KEITH. It's also the "I love you" that gets through Kuron's programming enough for Keith to save them both. From my observations of VLD, the sole remaining obstacles to Sheith sailing were "will Shiro retain Kuron's memories and, if so, will he accept Kuron as being another Him" and "will the writers be able to get the execs to sign off on TWO queer paladins being queer with EACH OTHER"?

and then... the love confession was never addressed & Shiro stopped interacting with any of the Paladins beyond a professional setting.

By then, a lot of the show was looking Off and I actually looked at the online Voltron fandom to see if other people were Connecting Dots: some Meddling had happened, Shiro was being OOC as all heck, Allura and Keith seemed pretty miserable, Romelle was Sus as Heck, why was Allurance happening, where the heck is Lotor (etc)....

I was, like everyone else, greatly upset by Allura's needlessly being Killed Off and by Shiro's Stock Photo husband. I was also Not Impressed by the alleged "happiness" found by any of the Paladins: Shiro retiring his greatest dream, of flying and exploring the galaxy when he had just found out he Wasn't Going To Die from his Chronic Illness? Jim Kirk, another charismatic spaceship captain who loved to explore the universe, had a similar "retirement" ending for its Heroic Captain.

The first Star Trek film, set post-series, conveyed exactly how Shiro's "happy" ending played out for a character Shiro was almost certainly inspred by: Captain James "Jim" Tiberius Kirk.

Captain Kirk's "happy ending" was introduced in TMP as being: a promotion/retirement, marriage, & settling on Earth. Sound familiar, Shiro? TMP then shows how that "happy ending" plays out for someone like Jim (or Shiro): barely a handful of years later, Jim is miserable in his "retirement" (he was Promoted to a desk job); his Very Sudden marriage to a Previously Unknown Character is crumbling (& is even implied as being arranged by Starfleet's Brass to keep their Poster Boy on earth!); he clearly misses his Team (his Found Family) & at his first "valid" opportunity to get his Team together to fly into space again? That's exactly what Jim does.

Star Trek: TMP also, incidentally, features Jim living out some kind of Space Divorce Drama with his Right-Hand Man, the Half-Human Alien Spock. The two had apparently spent all those years apart and Spocks's "logical response" to [everything post-TOS] was... becoming a Vulcan Monk in order to Purge All His Emotions. (Krolia, please tell me that the Galra do not have an Equivalent to Vulcan's kolinahr & that, if it DOES, you Forbade Keith From Doing It).

Jim & Kirk saved each other, often very impossibly, in every other episode of TOS. They were also so widely shipped by fans that the "founding" of modern fandom cukture is often attributed to those first K/S shippers.

The easy Parallels between Spock/Kirk to Keith/Shiro were something that seemed to increase as VLD continued, likely as its creative team started recognising how naturally Keith & Shiro played out that epic space romance. The relationship between the Black Paladins was consistently emphasized within the series (until it abruptly Wasn't) and their bond was considered the strongest shared by any two paladins. A Sheith required very little effort from VLD's creative team and, given the Time Dilation plot point, that effort WAS made: Keith shows up Older & Blade-ier, Shiro Visibly Reacts and seems perfectly set up to Reevaluate his relationship with Keith, both of them visibly Adult and already established as "Equals".

Reading the research done by Team Purple Lion helped me understand the many degrees of unpleasantness caused by the Forced Removal of Lotor from VLD's endgame: the series' overall plot, key themes and multiple character arcs were contingent to the ugly consequences of Voltron's [murdering] him, the emotional effects Lotor had on Allura, the ways Lotor was integral to the show's themes of Redemption & Recovery & Love (of all forms). Just about every main character (and the imexplicable presence of several other characters) had their Arc underminded by Lotor's staying [murdered]: Lotor (obvs), Allura (VLD's Actual Main Character), Lance (who suddenly became Every Creepy "Nice" Guy), Pidge, Axca, Romelle, Merla, Yzor & her girlfriend, Honnerva...

I was invested in the plot, characters and themes of VLD: its ending wasn't just upsetting, it was contradictory to its own story. Though I am not invested in any VLD ships other than Sheith (for the way the characters are individually Important to me, the ways Shiro is important to Keith, the ways their relationship parallels K/S down to the syllables), the series had set certain ships up through its Themes and within its plot: Allura/Lotor, a reclamation of Allura's agency & a thematic resolution to the major conflicts of the series; Shiro/Keith, a love story the series spent 7 seasons telling; the tentative beginnings of Lance/Pidge, a Chekhov's Gun that would round their individual character development through better understanding each other; Hunk & Recognition of his Ingenuity, Bravery, Compassion (which would, incidentally, feature Hunk/Shay and Hunk's central role in the intergalactic Recovery proces). All of these ships serve a Purpose within VLD's plot, aid individual character development, reinforce the series' overarching themes, and have a solid basis within the text of VLD (as well as outside of it, in interviews and statements from the creative team).

I was able to "recover" from the betrayal of how VLD ended, largely through the detective work of fans like Team Purple Lion and reading many "fix-fic" wherein Allura Lives and Shiro is not OOC as all heck. VLD was one of many series, at the time, whose Betrayal of its themes & characters made Waves all over Fandom. It was, however, one of the Betrayals that hurt me more "personally". It was also a fantastic example of Creatives having horrid working conditions, Corporate Interests actively Hurting their consumers, of Fans being forced to Play Detective due to the modern Media Landscape: the culture of creatives being under strict NDAs, of their being without Unions, of how abruptly Projects can be undermined by the Whims of singular entities (creating additional work on an already overworked labour force, often in ways that betray their own work).

So, uh, surprise: this was a Retrospective inspired by the current Writers Strike & growing awareness (that we have known & ignored for years) of how unethical the working standards of animators are. There are Actual Americans and Actual Artists who can speak on these issues more specifically, as well as the best ways to help the affected: this was a more individual Take, from One Fan, and the ways that media has affected That Fan emotionally (though, being an Aspie, i'm pretty distanced from articulating any Specifics beyond "upset" because "this is narratively inconsistent"). The purpose of writing this was personal catharsis, a means of discovering how I feel about VLD all these years later, and perhaps as an act of microcosm within a greater fandom macrosm RE: engagement with media & correctly identifying how the faults of its business structure sabotage excellent works of fiction from staying "excellent" or becoming "magnificent".

*"Korean-Japanese" seems to ne the current consensus but as Sourced outside the text of the series. It is not his "exact amounts of Asian" that Keith is "relevant" to me but his being both Mixed & disconnected from his asian Heritage.

#hollow whispers #vld meta #sheith meta #asian representation #queer asian representation #aspie things #half-human aliens #spirk meta #vld retrospective #go check out the purple lion project #i have not the spoons to do hyperlinks today #fandom things

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shiros · 2 years

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As I do my bimonthly scroll through the tag of vld meta posts to stroke my justified hate boner for this show I find that peoples bewildering sympathies towards Lotor is hilariously indicative of this fandoms' media literacy or lack thereof.

#as if lance stans existing wasnt already an indicator of that #vld meta

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maiz-of-light · 1 year

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Thinking about how in VLD Lotor kills his abuser. The guy who tormented and shamed him his whole life. Not for revenge, but out of sheer necessity, taking no visible pleasure in the act. Then afterwards, rather than triumphant, he appears morose. Like he’s mourning the father/son relationship they never had, and can never be.

#VLD #lotor #prince lotor #lotor meta #gods this show

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californiannostalgia · 5 months

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Regarding the Blue Lion (More Lion Meta)

It's never explicitly stated what the requirement is to pilot the Blue Lion. But I have my own theory about the lions, based on how much we've seen of the six paladins.

Green and Yellow are pretty straightforward. Green is the keen mind, the flexible strategist, the unflinching heart. Green will keep you on task without losing sight of the consequences.

Yellow is the voice of caution and empathetic connections. Yellow will usually be the first to warn the team away from a threat, and the first to befriend a local. Yellow is often the best diplomat.

Black and Red are a balancing act. Black paladins have a tremendous force of will, and they refuse to give up. But Black can't be without the team, and the team can't be without Black. Black is the indestructible core of Voltron. No matter how fucked up they get, they will not die.

Red is the action-oriented defender. Red is responsible for counterbalancing Black (Alfor & Zarkon, Keith & Shiro, Lance & Keith). If Black is level-headed, Red will be the risk-taker. If Black is impulsive, Red will be the voice of reason. If Black turns dangerous, it's Red's job to take them down.

So what does that make Blue? Blue isn't as fast as Red or Green. Nor does Blue have the heavy armor like Yellow, or the sheer power of Black. So what makes Blue unique?

Blue chooses the hero with a sense of inadequacy. The Blue paladin is the one who thought they'd never get a chance to fly, or fight, but who really wanted to. Blue is the first chance, the first believer.

Blue is also the last goodbye.

Blue isn't built to take hits and survive them, which is ironic because the Blue paladin's way of defense is through life-threatening sacrifice. No matter how many risks Black or Red take, they don't come so close to death as Blue does.

I think Blue takes the loneliest, the most homesick as paladins. For Black, Red, and Green, their anchor is the people they love, and that's all they need. For Yellow, every planet they touch down on has their own beauty. But Blue preserves the memory of a home planet. Blue is the water-logged origin of life (Earth and Altea, both blue).

The Blue Lion picks the unlikely hero who will, one day, have to leave it. Blue is literally the beginning and end of Voltron. But really, that's just how the cycle of water works. Endings, beginnings--this will not be the last story told.

Blue is home.

#voltron #lance mcclain #allura #takashi shirogane #keith kogane #pidge gunderson #hunk garrett #katie holt #my thoughts #it's robot limb meta time #voltron legendary defender #vld

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minamorsart · 1 month

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What , And how did you start pairing lotura, And Plance .?

Ooooh boy am I excited to answer this!!! This is going to be a long answer, hope you don't mind! Because I have some specific memories about these two ships, particularly lotura, that I would absolutely love to share with you!

Prepare for a long read! Hehe

Starting with lotura, when season 3 came out and Lotor made his debut, of course I was all 👀👀👀 Because that day something awoke in 19 year old me that I didn't realize could ever be awoken lol. And I wish I could remember exactly what my reaction was to his cat-and-mouse chase with Allura in the episode "The Hunted", but at the time I must not have considered the idea of them ever going in the direction of a romance. Looking back now though, how could I have been so blind??! That chase scene is HOT. I mean just look at them!!! Look at Lotor especially woah mama 😳

Season 4 was mediocre to me at the time, I will confess, for a lot of different reasons. But then season 5, man... SEASON 5!!!! I remember it was March 3rd, 2018. I wasn't keeping up with the show anymore, but I just so happened to see an article online that said season 5 had been released the day before on Netflix. I told my sister and we decided, "eh, let's watch at least the first episode."

And we watched the first episode, alright. And then another, and then another and another until we watched all six episodes in one sitting. We were both blown away! Lotor... Allura... together???? 😲

Their adventures, their chemistry, their clear attraction to one another... I was OBSESSED!!! I shipped them hardcore after that. They were and are still my #1 OTP, and it's because of them that I really tried to work hard and improve my art! I wanted to draw them all the time, making mini comics and AUs, and while their tragic ending actually left me in tears and I was upset for a really long time, I can now say that I have been able to heal and move on from it--eh, mostly anyway, haha.

It still hurts, but 5 years later I feel that I've matured and come to a greater understanding and acceptance. I have come to really appreciate how perfect they are for each other, both aesthetically of course (cuz lookit that sexual dimorphism babeyyy) as well as the many, many things they have in common. I have also come to appreciate their flaws, their imperfections, and the mistakes they made regarding each other and their relationship. They may have gotten a sad ending, but they were still truly equals in every way. It's just beautiful, and my love for them now is stronger than ever :')

For Lance and Pidge on the other hand, it's not quite as clear as when I started shipping them! I remember rolling my eyes at Lance and Allura's first meeting, like "okay Lance is one of THESE guys, here we go 🙄"

Other than that I didn't really ship Lance or Pidge with anyone! If I'm recalling correctly, I don't think it wasn't until after season 6 that I started shipping them together. I remember reading metas and analyses of their relationship that people were making in anticipation for season 7's release, and the more I thought about it, the more I started to really like the idea of Lance and Pidge getting together! And there are definitely subtle hints throughout the earlier seasons of Pidge's feelings for Lance, as well as their fun chemistry with one another, like the episode "Space Mall"!

The hints are not so subtle to me now, but back then it wasn't until I watched season 7 that I actually became hopeful that they could be a couple! I especially loved the moments when Pidge indirectly called Lance "cute, in a creepy, hideous sort of way" lol, and when Lance become very protective over Pidge in such a way that I don't think we ever saw him react before! I was honestly taken aback by that moment!

And again, their ending was definitely less than satisfactory, particularly Lance's ending (still hate it with a passion), but just like with Lotura's relationship, I have also come to appreciate many things about Plance's relationship today. While Lotor and Allura have so much in common and are able to reach an understanding with each other that they can't with anyone else, it would seem at first that Pidge and Lance are far too different to be compatible. And it is true that they are very different, but for one, that can be a good thing! The foundations of some relationships are built off of their differences. It can make someone more compassionate and more open-minded when they have a willingness to accept and appreciate the differences they have with their partner, and a willingness to take a genuine interest in the things that their partner is passionate about, even if they don't completely understand.

And two, at the same time, Pidge and Lance DO have things in common! They both love their families, both have a stronger connection to Earth compared to the other paladins, and they are able to bond with one another over fun pastimes such as video games! How cute is that??!

And just like with Lotor and Allura, I also love Pidge and Lance for their flaws. It did take me a while to come around to Lance, because while he has his funny moments and one-liners, I also found him very annoying at times lol. But I think the fact that he can be really annoying honestly makes him the most realistic character in Voltron. Not necessarily the most relatable, at least not for me, but definitely the most human! Because there are people in our real lives that we love and cherish deeply, but they absolutely have their moments where you go, "ugh, you're so annoying and it really frustrates me when you act this way" but we still wouldn't trade them for the world 🥰

And just to draw one last comparison between Lotura and Plance, I especially LOVE how incredibly different the two pairings are even from each other! To me, Lotor and Allura are sexy and passionate, while Pidge and Lance are pure and fun! They're all so unique and special in their own ways, and they bring so much to the table, both for their characters and for their relationships.

I can't help but write essays every time I get asks, I'm so sorry lol 😭 There's so much more I could say about these guys, but I think I'd better stop here haha! I had a lot of fun writing about Lotura and Plance, and I hope you had just as much fun reading this! I really love these characters a lot. I'm so incredibly grateful that they exist, even if in the form of fiction, and I'm even MORE grateful that my love for them has continued to grow over the years. Thank you so much for the ask!!!! 💖💜💙💚

Oh and one last thing: we were robbed of a lot of different potential interactions with a lot of different characters, but I have to say it would have been fun to see more of Lotor and Lance interacting with each other! Lance was always acting out due to his jealousy, while Lotor on the other hand mostly just ignored him lol.

#asks #lotura #plance #lotor #allura #vld lance #pidge gunderson #katie holt #voltron #voltron legendary defender #meta #voltron meta

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fangxin-guoshi · 7 months

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I watched voltron recently (ikik it's 2023 voltron's dead etc) so I've become one of the many klance victims who've been sucked into the queerbaiting whirlpool.

Something interesting I've noticed is that klance is regarded as a prime example of queerbaiting and while I'm not disagreeing, ( they had insane chemistry in the first few seasons) it actually wasn't as overt as I thought it would be.

It might be bc a lot of vld fans don't dabble in anime/danmei, so the standards for queer rep in media tend to be lower (you guys deserve better bless). Like how everyone went insane over heartstopper when yoi, given, devilman crybaby, sasaki and miyano, MDZS, TGCF, etc. have been around for a while now, and don't even get me started on bl manga and manhwas. Most Asian shows tend to have a lot of queer coding and rep in general (since fans are more desperate bc of stricter laws y'know) I mean, banana fish, arguably one of the best mlm anime/manga, has been around since the 80's.

I'm used to the "rivals to friends with lots of gay undertones" trope bc I also am a sns victim. Honestly voltron fans got off easy bc if they watched Naruto I think they would foam at the mouth. Sasuke and Naruto definitely had way more development and tension than Keith and Lance, so I had prior preparation for the ultimate sheer disappointment I would inevitably have when watching vld.

#anime #anime and manga #naruto #vld #voltron #klance #voltron legendary disappointment #sns #narusasu #meta

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aroaceleovaldez · 7 months

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i need to know everything about your pjo voltron au

okay so basic plot premise: Thalia, Luke, Jason, Percy, Maria di Angelo, and Bianca all work at the Garrison and get sent on 3 separate missions (Thalia & Luke, Jason & ??? or maybe he's just by himself, then Percy & Maria & Bianca) which are all "lost" and they're declared dead by the Garrison.

Of course they were actually all abducted by aliens. Maria probably dies pretty early on in that whole situation. Thalia gets separated from Luke and ends up escaping and becoming a rebel. Luke, Jason, and Percy & Bianca all separately (except for Percy & Bianca) end up gladiators. Luke becomes The Champion and basically ends up a Kuron/Sendak-type character situation. Is he being mind-controlled? Unclear. He has a giant alien scythe-sword though. Bianca probably dies buying Percy time in the arena. At some point Percy and Jason find each other and decide to try and stick together.

Hazel is a human raised by her galra dad in space with the Blade of Marmora. She knows she has a half-brother through her dad out there somewhere but not anything else about him. She ends up running into Jason and Percy on a mission and helps them escape cause they're humans too.

Back on Earth, Piper, Leo, and Annabeth are all Garrison students. Or Annabeth is possibly in a Keith-type situation where she used to be a student but got Kinda Pissed Off about all her loved ones disappearing into space and ended up getting kicked out. Nico is in a Pidge-type situation where he snuck in as a student under a false name to figure out what happened to his family's mission. Percy and Jason crash on earth, the gang finds them, they find the Blue Lion, and Percy pilots it to the Altean castleship where they meet Reyna and Frank. Reyna is the Altean Princess, because her sister Hylla was queen. Frank is the son of a high-ranking general or something and he and Reyna are a duo.

Rest going under a cut cause this got long -

Lion adventures happen - Annabeth pilots the Green Lion, Jason pilots the Black Lion. Nico finds the Red Lion and meets Hazel when he does and brings her back to the castle. Hazel pilots the Yellow Lion. Nico very quickly realizes he's half-Galra and Hazel's brother and joins the Blade of Marmora. Percy swaps from Blue to the Red Lion. Piper starts piloting the Blue Lion. Leo, Frank, Reyna, and Nico end up the home-base support team. Percy probably keeps the blue paladin armor and Piper gets the spare pink armor for color association reasons and also cause that's usually the format for every iteration of Voltron anyways. It works out nicely. Everybody has extra lion compatibilities too/every Lion has a back-up basically cause I'm still mad vld canon dropped the lion lore/sentience plotlines and we never got cool dynamic lion swapping instead of just the usual single switch. We're having fun here.

Then everything else I don't have much for other than Annabeth and Nico basically swap Keith and Pidge roles once they join Voltron so Nico goes and has his galra identity crisis adventures and Annabeth reunites with Thalia at some point, who is basically in a Matt-type role. And Luke functions as the Sendak-level antagonist who Annabeth probably gets to fight with a swap back to Keith's role in a whole Keith & Kuron emotional situation. Kronos and Gaea are probably analogous to Zarkon and Haggar/Honerva here but not necessarily in that order, and obviously it's more of an either "Emperor and his advisor mom" or "Empress and her prince son" but in either one somebody's doing magic and people are probably getting possessed. Hades, Persephone, Iaepatus/Bob, and Damasen are all with the BoM. The Titans/Giants are probably all Empire generals. Who's Lotor? Octavian? Calypso? I don't know. Who are all the gods? I dunno. We'll workshop it.

#pjo #riordanverse #ask #dreamyzworldlove #vld pjo au #long post //#i think a normal about about the BoM and galra lore okay #i am a simple being. i like worldbuilding. show me funky fluffy purple aliens and i will be invested #i made a whole translation of their alphabet so i could write with it #as for the rest -#Annabeth & Luke with the "You're like a brother to me - I love you'' probably constitutes as psychological violence on a meta level #it maps hilariously well though in terms of both narrative function in the au canon #AND meta level comparisons of fandom reactions re: Luke's death / the Kuron fight and relevant quotes in both. the bloodshed...#anyways its too perfect though and im amused by the parallels of meta baggage there so it stays #i am also now rapidly rotating all lotor options in my brain #also Nico joing the BoM is essentially analogous to him running away in TTC #except he's not 10 here so he probably does it with a bit more grace #he probably finds out about his mom and sister. gets real sad. then meets Hazel #and finds out she's his sister and their dad is around and he goes ''...okay. im okay now.''

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fire-of-the-sun · 1 year

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Lotor: The Man Behind the Mask

AKA The Many Faces of Lotor and Which is His True Face?

To say that Prince Lotor is a multi-faceted character would be an understatement. Born into a life of tragedy, the many masks he comes to wear are borne of his circumstances to not only further his own agendas undetected but most notably to aid in his own self-preservation both physically and emotionally. A proverbial sword and shield to protect himself. These false faces allow him to do and say what’s necessary to keep himself alive to fight another day - a practice that’s unfortunately hard-wired into him from centuries of abuse.

The character we're first introduced to is probably what the audience expected: an antagonist (albeit a more complex one than expected) that leaves the audience questioning his true motivations. An aspect that makes him more intriguing but also works against him with many fans using it as evidence to validate their worst perceptions of him. But, as we see more of Lotor throughout the series, we begin to explore the depths of him and uncover evidence to the contrary.

So, which is his truest face?

THE MASSES

We don’t get to see Lotor interact with the masses many times in the show, but the most notable occurrences are his introductory scene in the arena and the Kral Zera - both occasions in which he presents himself as a powerful, capable warrior, a persuasive public speaker and a leader worthy of the Galra’s loyalty.

In the first occasion, Lotor almost immediately undermines his previous show of good will towards the assembled Galra by confessing to his generals in private that “the masses are easily manipulated.” This statement would, understandably, leave audience members to believe Lotor is nothing more than a liar and manipulator as a key attribute used to define all of his subsequent actions.

At first glance, this looks pretty damning. Alone, with people we can easily infer he’s closer to, he seemingly reveals that all the magnanimity of his previous words and actions were false and showcase to us a key element of his character to watch out for: an effortless duplicity that is utilized to hide more malicious intentions. At the time, it seems to scream to the audience: ‘don’t trust him’. However, as we learn on his journey, there is more to him that meets the eye, and this line should not be taken at face value.

Before we take this as unwavering proof that he’s a villain and everything that follows should be looked at through the lens of presumed deceit, I think we have to consider the context and audience here. This line was in response to a stadium full of Galra warriors who dutifully and unquestioningly serve his father - someone he’s trying to stop. Swaying the minds of the Galra is a necessary step in his quest to ultimately improve their way of life but he also doesn’t think very highly of them. His regard of them is different than that he holds towards other people and cultures as we see later. I also believe he says this to benefit the generals, but I'll get to them later.

Unfortunately, we don’t get to see him spend time with the members of either of the peoples he looks after, but we do know that he deeply loved his time on the mining planet and there’s no doubt he cared for the Alteans just as much if not more as they were his own people. It’s also not hard to imagine that both groups of people appreciated him just as much. We don’t know how close he truly got to them, but it’s safe to surmise that Lotor is a person that respects others enough to treat them with equality, enjoy working beside them and genuinely wants to improve their lives. Though we later learn that he was ultimately lying to the Alteans, it’s clear that’s definitely not something he enjoys doing.

Among the average civilian or disenfranchised person, we can infer Lotor is more than likely very cordial and respectable based on how he speaks of them and how they perceive him in return. Despite his status as a prince, he’s clearly not preoccupied with maintaining an air of authority among the common folk in any way meant to remind them of his status above them, even allowing himself to bond with people on such an equal level that Zarkon saw it as unfit for his station.

Basically, though we know he has a turbulent relationship with the Galra as a whole, we can also see that he fights for the rights of other half-breeds such as himself and treats people in his care with respect and equality.

ZARKON

As a child, Lotor had to present himself as the perfect prince in an attempt to earn Zarkon’s love, and it produced a facade he probably maintained most of his life despite it getting him nowhere. Of course, as a child desperately seeking their parent’s affection, this behavior - though tailored specifically to appeal to his father - wasn’t inherently disingenuous and it’s only later in life that he learns to use it as a weapon.

Knowing that Lotor has tried to portray himself as respectable and eager to please thus far, his outburst of anger in retaliation of his father’s demands in 8x02 may have possibly been the first time he’d spoken out against him in such a way as, up to this point, Lotor still seemed to genuinely believe his father would listen to him and is surprised by his decision to destroy the planet. The mask finally slipped but, I might add, only in an attempt to help others. This speaks volumes about the kind of person he is and what his deepest motivations are as it shows he cares more about protecting the mining planet than he does for his own safety as he knowingly incurs the wrath of his violent father. Of course, upon realizing that his interjection would punish them too, he immediately tries to submit himself before Zarkon once more to keep them safe.

Despite his efforts, Lotor unfortunately fails to protect the people and this tragic situation no doubt led him to reinforce the old facade of the obedient son who would never dare act out against his father again - a mask he uses to his advantage in 4x03. After their conversation, we see Lotor smirk suspiciously upon taking his leave, clueing to the audience that his behavior with Zarkon was entirely an act to keep his father from suspecting him of any wrongdoing.

After Zarkon uncovers his ruse, Lotor’s submissive mask drops once more and, upon meeting again, Lotor no longer holds back from sharing every ounce of disdain he bears for his father before fighting him to the death.

HAGGAR

Unlike his father, where he hides his emotions under a guise of respect and servility initially, Lotor shows no restraint in sharing his unbridled anger and contempt for his mother, Honerva. These feelings never waver, in fact, they only seem to intensify, punctuating a heated final confrontation where Lotor vehemently renounces her as an abomination that he will never accept as family. This distaste seems to have evolved over his life as her role to him changed. As a child, she was nothing more than his father’s witch and not someone he needed to please. Their relationship was never a good one so there’s no need to pretend otherwise.

I believe his anger towards her comes, not only from rebelling against the fact that his mother was essentially stolen from him by Haggar (which shatters his dreams of having a loving mother) but also her mistreatment of him throughout his life and even fundamentally disagreeing with and despising the kind of person she (and Zarkon) are: selfish, power-hungry and uncaring of the lives of others. He denounces them for their behavior because he knows it’s wrong and doesn’t wish to fall prey to it as well - which is a great indicator of the kind of person he is and what values he agrees with and doesn’t.

In a way, this is a true face to Lotor as well. His feelings of unfettered rage towards Honerva are not censored by any mask he’d wish to portray. There is no part to play here as there’s nothing that will keep him safe from her scrutinizing eyes on him at all times. Nothing to hide because there’s nothing to gain from it. So, instead, to keep her off his trail, he goes to great lengths to evade her detection through calculated action rather than any false pretenses.

THE GENERALS

Though they’re the closest thing he has to friends for a time, I still don’t personally believe Lotor was close enough to his generals to reveal his true self (though he obviously reveals more to Axca as he trusts her the most). Overall, he still maintains an air of authority with them, seeking to portray himself as the calculating and confident leader clearly stationed above them though he still treats them with respect. Though it’s clear he cares for them, and they hold some degree of respect for him in return, he’s still very much their leader more than their friend. They may believe in him and his mission for a time, but they don’t follow him solely out of admiration and are willing to sell him out if it benefits them - which they do.

They’re, for the most part, his loyal allies, but not anyone he’d confide in or show vulnerability with as demonstrated by his lack of explanation regarding his actions towards Narti and his refusal to share his full plans with them. They respect him for a lot of reasons but don’t entirely understand him or what he truly wants which is why they often seem perplexed by his decisions. With them I think he maintains, to a degree, how he would present himself to the general masses. He has to remain collected and in charge to preserve their loyalty to him and can’t sully that depiction with the perceived weakness that comes from showing vulnerability.

Jumping off my earlier statement about the “masses are easily manipulated” line, it ties into the perpetuation of the persona he’s trying to evoke to them and which they whole heartedly support. He’s telling them what he thinks they want to hear. We also know he doesn’t tell them the full truth, so why should we believe this is somehow some deep reveal into the center of his character when we also know that he doesn’t showcase side of himself with them? It’s another piece of a persona, nothing more.

This mask was not created in an attempt to manipulate but in a desire to achieve and preserve some degree of companionship and loyalty from his generals. Lotor has no one but them and he can’t afford to lose their fealty, so he tries to keep it in the best way he knows how: by being a successful leader worthy of being followed.

Bottom line, beyond Lotor’s genuine affection for his generals - which is very much an extension of the compassion he’s capable of - he does not show his true self with them.

THE PALADINS

Lotor sustains his typical air of confidence upon meeting the paladins face to face in a continuous effort to portray himself as a worthy asset to them (not too dissimilar from his interactions with his generals). Though he shares vital intel with them to prove his loyalty to their shared goals for peace, he doesn’t go out of his way to ingratiate himself to them. He’s cordial and honest, as is generally his nature, but not afraid to share his opinions even if they’re opposing or adversarial.

For example, in their first scene together Lotor has no trouble calling out Allura for voicing her discrimination towards his race and generally seems tired of waiting for the paladins to truly listen to his advice and start making real strides in the war. He's interested in action, not being liked. If he truly wanted to manipulate them, I imagine he would have been far more sycophantic to worm his way into their good graces - an act he’s familiar with due to his father whom he was trying to lie to. We know what a groveling Lotor looks like and this is not it. Of course, there's also no need to lie to them to get what he wants when they have the same goal.

There’s frustration there between both parties at times and definite growing pains as he finds a place for himself in their group, but certainly not anger or resentment of any kind on his part. That being said, when the paladins do come to trust him and there’s no disagreements in their way, Lotor defaults to his natural state: dignified, helpful and amiable. I’m not sure how much affection Lotor truly manages to garner for the paladins by the end of their time together, but he does refer to them as ‘friends’ at one point and though that doesn’t mean they’re people he would necessarily pour his heart out to, I’d say they definitely count as favored allies that he’d support and protect just like anyone else he cares even remotely about.

However, similar to his generals, whatever degree of fondness he may have developed for the paladins is still ultimately moderated to keep them at arm’s length though, I believe that given the proper time and trust, this could have changed.

ALLURA

With Allura, we see a new, softer side to Lotor. I could write an entire meta solely about their interactions and how they’re not manipulative, but I’ll be brief here. As I said with the paladins, there’s no real evidence to suggest Lotor was just saying and doing everything he did solely to appeal to Allura and ultimately seduce her to his side. Instead, what we see is both of them slowly and organically becoming more comfortable and trusting with each other, enough so that they begin to reveal deeper sides of themselves. Just as Allura is willing to share her insecurities with Lotor, he too divulges the innermost parts of himself that he doesn’t reveal to anyone else.

If a mask is meant to hide the deepest parts of oneself, Lotor being so openly vulnerable, honest and trusting with Allura is enough to tell us that what he shares with her isn’t an act - he’s just finally comfortable enough to show his true face and the hidden parts of himself he hasn’t with anyone else. For a man who is all about survival and whom trust doesn’t come easy, this would be counterproductive and a potential liability he normally wouldn’t risk. So why does he risk it for her?

Relationships are built on trust and that takes time and true understanding to achieve. It takes a great deal of trust to reveal your true self to someone and Lotor simply isn’t at that level with the generals or paladins. He hasn’t really had anyone to share his true self with until Allura. He’s never met anyone else like her and their shared history and desires facilitates a swift journey from enemies to friends and even to something greater - an emergence of emotional vulnerability and affection that Lotor has never experienced before: love.

This is an aspect of his identity he’s no doubt unfamiliar with unfortunately or, perhaps, has never truly experienced before in his countless years of being whatever he had to be to survive. As we’re discovering this version of Lotor, he may also be discovering himself too.

There’s so much I could say about their relationship and how it brings out the best in both of them, but I won’t go off on a tangent here. Needless to say, the reason Lotor feels so different in S5-6 is because interacting with Allura is finally giving us the opportunity to see new aspects of his identity that’s open and unguarded. He’s finally put down his sword and shield... which leaves him vulnerable to attack.

QUINTESSENCE POISONING

I want to address this specifically in its own meta but, for now, I’ll say that I found this depiction of Lotor a betrayal of the character and purposefully over-exaggerated to compensate for and push a narrative the writers failed to achieve organically. Essentially, I believe they made him so villainous - so vile despite how out of character it feels - simply to validate this new agenda that he is and always was, in fact, that very villain and, if that was always their intention for the character, they did not succeed.

Though we know that quintessence can corrupt and see that firsthand in how it turned his parents into beings acting without remorse and motivated purely by evil-intentions, even they have never been shown in such a negative and manic light, making Lotor look even more deleterious here by comparison which is an... interesting choice.

That being said, the turbulent emotions presented here do stem from underlying trauma, namely the pain of being betrayed by the one person he trusted more than anyone. The one person he showed his true face to. The person he loved. Having his true feelings be rejected and touted as nothing but more lies and deception as someone who doesn’t share them idly would be beyond devastating. Now, having put down his shield for Allura, she’s struck at the very heart of him. The pain of it unleashes a tidal wave of emotion and, like a wounded, cornered animal, he lashes out. This creates a situation which we see a side of Lotor we haven’t before. One that, though borne of genuine emotional suffering, does not actually reflect who he truly is.

Exacerbated by his exposure to the quintessence field and perhaps even that which already resides in his blood, Lotor reveals intentions of great evil - last minute motivations stemming from deeply rooted fears and insecurities that, unfortunately, are pulled to the surface here in the worst way possible but are not necessarily indicative of him having harbored and planned to enact these darker motives all along. Recoiling from the pain, it makes sense that his natural defense mechanism would be another mask - the ultimate mask.

If this was the true him, he would have truly fooled us all despite the extensive evidence to the contrary, as there is nothing to support his sudden dark desires here but plenty of prior evidence that refutes it despite the writer’s efforts to show otherwise. To say that all of this is the true, final reveal of who he is after all is insulting not only to the character but to fans.

ALONE

To best know who someone truly is, we have to look at who they are when they’re alone. A great example of this is when we see Lotor alone in 4x06 as he overhears a message that there is an on-going attack that will result in mass casualties. Lotor doesn’t hesitate to potentially sacrifice his hard-won freedom to head straight back into Galra territory to try and stop his mother’s heinous plans. This is yet another scenario that showcases that, at the end of the day, Lotor is a character who simply wants to help people no matter the cost to himself.

We also see Lotor alone during his trial on Oriande where upon repeatedly being attacked by the White Lion, he understandably goes on the offensive and fights back to protect himself. After failing this test, Lotor is devastated. Rather than revealing any clues to potential villainy, this interaction instead simply shows that Lotor still has things to unlearn and is aware of that and capable of change. His anger here comes from his desperation and desires for self-preservation upon being attacked, not from a place of genuine malice.

I think it’s also worth noting Lotor’s expressions when he’s in his cockpit throughout the show but especially during his fight with Allura right before his ‘turn’. No one else can see his face but the audience so there’s no one to appeal to. No act to put on. We can clearly see he’s upset and remorseful and it feels like a sudden reversal from his previous scene with the generals because it is - not because his pleading with Allura is an act - but because his talk with his generals was. They are understandably confused here because his recent speech to them would have them believe he didn’t truly care about Allura and was just using her the whole time. This display says otherwise.

To further emphasize this point, his words and expressions here are consistent with his attempts to appeal to Allura in 6x04. The fact that his interaction with her is the same - whether he’s alone or in public - also shows us that it’s genuine. He doesn’t hesitate to share his true feelings to her when he’s trying to defend himself, nor does he bar his words in front of the paladins and generals when he’s trying to talk her down later. They might as well be speaking in private because it wouldn’t change his reaction. He’s completely focused on her and unconcerned with his unencumbered feelings being on public display - something he’s never done before and obviously wouldn’t be comfortable with. All of this continues to prove that, when it comes to Allura, he is his authentic self and his feelings for her are indeed true.

There may be more significant instances of seeing Lotor alone that I can’t recall, but, in summary, if Lotor was truly an evil, selfish person, we’d see hints of that most clearly in the instances where he has nothing to hide.

CONCLUSION

So, what is Lotor’s true face then?

As I’ve stated, Lotor is a man who has had to adopt different personas to survive, and we get to see the multi-faceted nature of his character on full display throughout the series depending on who he’s with and in what context. Regardless of some blunders in writing, overall, I think the show did a decent job portraying the different sides of him that would have logically emerged given his unique life and circumstances.

Of course, seeing the ease and skill in which Lotor can slip on these masks would naturally leave audiences to continually question him and his true intentions. As the show reveals more and more of his true self however, the answer becomes increasingly clear that, despite the resulting duplicity of his nature, there is no evidence to support that he's anyone other than someone who wanted to do exactly what he said he did and whose goals are ultimately to help and protect others - a desire which was shown through his words and actions on multiple occasions. For all his faults, Lotor does have genuinely heroic traits despite being raised in an environment that didn’t cultivate them. A flower struggling to bloom in spite of the aridity of the soil in which he was born.

Despite the intended desire to hide his true self for his own protection, these fabricated facades do inadvertently reflect shades of his inner self too - a kernel of truth buried in each even as he has to transform to become what he thinks he needs to be to survive. By default, he tends to hide his true emotions underneath a facade of control and confidence - most notably seen in his interaction with the generals, the paladins initially and the masses (mostly Galrans). This portrayal of the proud and cunning man however is just a front to hide someone underneath who is more concerned with knowledge than power and protection rather than violence and it’s his bond with Allura that reveals the truest face of all: someone who is genuinely capable of kindness, vulnerability and even love. Given the right time and treatment, the inherent goodness in him could have been allowed to flourish and win and his true face could have been the last one we saw him with...

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boyprinzessin · 1 month

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thinking abt how after the war dissolving the team stuff for voltron feels so weird and how the after is always going to be somewhat of a problem for stories where a group of people are brought together by an experience so intense and life consuming.

it's like how some heroes and vigilantes could never retire. the only way out for them is death or severe permanent injury. the idea they'd just.. stop one day feels absurd. especially because the fight is endless.

you could technically consider the conflict resolved by defeating Zarkon. the big bad is defeated, Earth is protected from invasion, etc etc. BUT there's still the lasting effects of the empire. the environmental destruction, the military occupation of planets, the millions of people who still need to be liberated and rebuild their society; just because the leader dies it doesn't mean there aren't still factions that remain.

then there's the fact that voltron was a team. like yeah yeah sure they don't need the giant robot anymore, but how do you go back to living without these people who share an incredibly unique experience with you?? how do you become a civilian again after such a great conflict that you were integral to? it would take time to get used to living among people who weren't there. who you didn't fight with and you don't know them in the specific context of watching your back.

I know the paladins were so young and never really wanted to fight a war but idk I feel like even if it wasn't the guilt that kept them from fighting when they knew the good they could do, I think it would be incredibly difficult to escape the "fighting for my life and the sake of the universe" mindset. it carried a strong sense of duty.

they'll return home but they'll never be the people they were before.. as much as I'd love to imagine them going on to a peaceful life on Earth it will always be strange because they'll always be a paladin a part of them is always going to live in the universe beyond.

#vld #voltron legendary defender #meta

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violethowler · 2 years

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My VLD Meta Masterpost

Last Update: 05/27/2023

I’ve written a lot of Voltron analysis over the last few years but some of them are old enough that it’s getting harder for me to search for them whenever I want to either share them with others or go back and re-read what I wrote myself.

So I decided to put together a masterpost of links collecting every piece of analysis I’ve written about Voltron: Legendary Defender up to this point, both here on my main blog, and my sideblog @fandomoverflow. This will contain links to both the posts I’ve written myself, as well as posts that I’ve reblogged and added my own commentary to. Some of the observations made in order analysis change as I learned new information or refined by interpretation of existing info, but I’ve left the original essays as is to preserve my thoughts at the time.

I’ll update this list whenever I post a new meta in the future, so for the sake of keeping this post easily organized, the links to my previous metas will be divided based on main topics, and then listed in the order I posted each one.

Also, I didn’t really understand the importance of preserving fandom history until after Tumblr’s porn ban happened, so unfortunately almost all the meta I posted before Season 8 has been lost because I had a thing about deleting pre-season theories/meta after that season dropped, so anything I wrote before December 14, 2018 unfortunately only exists in people’s reblogs. But if any of my followers have any of my analysis/theories not on this list in their archives as a reblog, please feel free to DM me because I would love to add those to the list if I can find them.

Every meta I’ve written that I still have a link to can be read under the cut, and the post will be updated when I have more links to add:

Character Analysis: Posts analyzing character arcs, parallels, and backstories based on the details canon gives us, and extrapolating how certain arcs were supposed to end based on the last minute edits to Season 8.

Lotor Was the Reason for Everything: Analyzing Haggar’s motivations and why she’s so fixated on keeping Lotor under her thumb. (December 25, 2018)

Misdirection and Manipulation: Looking at Haggar’s methods as an antagonist and why she wasn’t directly involved in the invasion of Earth. (archived on AO3 on January 01, 2019)

A Speculative Analysis of Shiro, Haggar, and the Rift: my attempt to piece together what Haggar’s plan for Shiro as the Empire’s “greatest weapon” was based on the information the show gave us about her goals. (February 21, 2019)

My analysis of the parallels Lotor’s story has with Rosiu from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. (February 28, 2019)

The People’s Champion: Figuring out what happened to Shiro during his year in captivity based on the details the show gives us. (March 26, 2019)

Reblogged with further evidence found on rewatch (December 14, 2022)

My contributions to a conversation about the two Dayaks and their relationships with Lotor. (May 2, 2019)

Exiled Brat: Figuring out the details of what Lotor’s banishment looked like when he clearly still had power in the empire even before Season 3. (June 12, 2019)

Reasons Why Lotor Fans Continue to Defend Him: why I and other Lotor fans don’t believe he’s guilty of the things Romelle accuses him of. (July 1, 2019)

This Isn’t a Zero-Sum Game: An explanation of why the Paladins were willing to believe Romelle without question, and why their treatment of Lotor in Season 5 was not the heartless and inhumane torture that I saw many people post-Season 6 making it out to be. (July 2, 2019)

In Control at All Times: a comparison of how the leaders of different teams at various points in the series embody the stated attributes of a Black Paladin. (July 4, 2019)

The Winding Detour: an explanation of Shiro’s character arc over the course of the first 7 seasons. (July 13, 2019)

Highlands Poppy: An in-depth look at what the merging of the two Shiros represents. (August 22, 2020)

My take on the merging of the two Shiros from the perspective of a Kingdom Hearts fan. (September 15, 2020)

False Perception: Why Lance is not Sokka, and what his arc should have been had S8 not suffered from executive meddling. (February 27, 2021)

Inverted Mirror: My thoughts on Shiro and Sendak’s final fight in Season 7 and why Keith being the one to kill Sendak was narratively and thematically fitting (Originally written on tumblr pre-s8, then deleted. Rewritten from scratch on March 29, 2023).

Me, My Self, and I: An analysis of the Operation Kuron storyline, the lore surrounding Clone Shiro’s existence, and what it represents for Shiro’s character arc. (March 30, 2023)

Continuation in response to comments on the original post. (March 31, 2023)

Worldbuilding: Posts where I analyze the world of the series and what the show tells us about things like the structure of the Garrison or how Zarkon justified the Galra Empire’s constant expansion.

My observations/additions to a reblog chain analyzing the implications of modern vs ancient Galra designs. (October 7, 2018)

A new addition regarding how this could explain one of the show’s “Galra Keith” moments. (April 16, 2023)

The Keystone Army and the Cult of Personality: my observations on the Galra empire’s stability in terms of both leadership and infrastructure. (January 5, 2019)

My additions to a post and reblog about potential family relations among the command structure of the Galra Empire, where I speculate what this could mean regarding the two Dayaks in Seasons 6 and 8. (March 2, 2019)

Symbol of Hope: Voltron’s relationship with the Coalition and why the latter fell out of focus after Season 4. (originally written on tumblr pre-S8, then deleted. then remade from scratch and archived on AO3 April 3, 2019)

No News is Good News: Figuring out the timeline of when the Second Colony was shut down. (June 4, 2019)

An Updated Guide to the Timeline of VLD: My notes on the timeline of the show’s events (April 21, 2023

False Analogy: An analysis of why treating the Galra Empire as Space!Fire Nation does not work because the circumstances of how their respective wars began are completely different. (June 14, 2021)

A Guide to the Galaxy Garrison: A detailed breakdown of everything we know about the Garrison and what it tells us about how the organization operates. (June 20, 2021)

FreeVLDS8: Posts aimed at specifically analyzing the evidence of executive meddling in Season 8 (and Season 7) to determine what the original pre-meddled version would likely have looked like (largely inspired by the works of Team Purple Lion)

An explanation of the evidence that Lotor’s survival was cut from Season 8 for someone asking about how he died in a reblog of an AU comic. (March 11, 2019)

Alchemist’s and Paladins: my take on a blank spot in @leakinghate‘s breakdown of the exec-ordered changes made to Season 8 where we know what was supposed to happen but not how it would’ve happened. (March 29, 2019)

Dea ex Machina: analysis of how the Paladins were supposed to have caught up to Honerva based on visual clues in previous seasons (May 27, 2019).

My summary of the patterns in how the words and behavior of cast/crew members in interviews points toward Season 8 being the disappointment it was because the IP owner forced the crew to change the story to sell toys and set up his ideas for a sequel, in which I get a little salty at the fact that much of the fandom refuses to believe it in favor of scapegoating the showrunners. (July 1st, 2019)

Cutting and Padding: analysis of how the changes to season 7 mentioned in leakinghate’s breakdown affected S7′s pacing (July 4, 2019)

Audience Surrogage: a theory about what role Romelle was supposed to play in Seasons 7-8 (July 6, 2019)

Patchwork Quilt: A sequel to Cutting & Padding where I specifically focus on the obvious visual signs of last-minute story changes in Season 7′s earth arc, and how it would have originally looked. (December 29, 2019)

A VLD Production Timeline: An outline of the show’s production process and when in that process the changes to Season 8 were made. (July 23, 2020)

#voltron legendary defender #vld meta #masterpost #personal masterpost #voltron meta

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artsyjesseblue · 2 years

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Decoding Voltron’s Rosetta Stone

Paladins, I think it is time we had a discussion

For some time, I’ve had this theory about VLD floating in my mind (it has to do with Lotor’s story arc) and I’ve been itching to write it out. I noticed some recurring themes (I’ll refer to them as leitmotifs) that are sprinkled around strategically, both in the TV show and in the VLD comics, and they always made me think that they mean more than just entertaining, silly subjects for cute kids’ stories.

Disclaimer: this theory I am proposing does not claim to hold the absolute truth and I might be proven otherwise if some day we’ll get the #realVLDS8, but it’s nevertheless fun to explore. It comes out of a place of love for Voltron and its talented creators. It explores the complexity of the scripts, the amazing creativity that lies within them, and touches on what could have been, if these allegorical stories were allowed to fully manifest in S8.

Also, some parts of what I am about to present have been discussed either in the general fandom, or written as metas, and I will quote and attach links to each of the sources. If I might have missed any references, please let me know and I will add them.

Buckle up, as this is not short, but it is FULL of symbol reveals. If you’re not ready to read the full article, bookmark it for later, but don’t skip parts, as they are all related to each other.

—> In the TV series, we are blessed with a few of what you would consider… filler episodes. Think “Monsters and Mana”, “The Depths” (yes, that one with the mermaids), “The Voltron Show” (the one where Coran-the-showman gets a brain worm)”, “The Feud” (the Garfle-Warfle Snick show).

—> The VLD comics are basically fillers in their own right, in that they do not affect the main plot in any way. I’ll briefly go over the symbolism from the main show episodes and then dive into a deep analysis of the comics.

There are several types of leitmotifs floating around in these ‘filler’ parts and they are tied to specific (and symbolic) entities. In no particular order, here are a few that stood out to me:

- the show-runner

- the dragon / monster enemy

- the witch

- the food source for the monster

- the oppressed people of a certain planet / realm / village

- the brain-controlling beings (brain worms, mushrooms, mind-swishing aquatic plants)

- certain colors and color schemes.

(You might wonder by now why I don’t use the word “trope” instead of “leitmotif”, which seems a bit academic and antiquated. Trope also refers to a recurring theme, but, imo, it’s a more recognizable topic, it makes you quickly understand where it comes from and what it hints at, whereas these leitmotifs I’ll be discussing are embedded into the story in a very subtle way. Surely, you can say that the Dragon is a trope for the Big Bad Guys, but peel off that layer and you’re entering into a whole new level of meta. “It’s super meta, it’s like inverse meta” - is something that one of the Voltron Executive Producers mentioned in an interview, referring to certain episodes of S8. I’d say there are many other places where they apply the “super meta”, as I’ll further analyze. Layer upon layer of meta. Especially the dragons and monsters. Just like snakes shed their skin, these dragons will start shedding their scales meta-layers and… reveal to us something else.)

These mysterious repeating themes make me seriously think about the foreshadowing role they play. Because moving around the same idea, so many times, embedded in various story formulas, gives me the impression that someone is trying to say “shhh, watch out, there’s more than meets the eye.”

And to quote Pidge in one of the comics… “Stupid symbolism!!” (in the same scene, she also remarks: “The whole place is a map”). Hmmm… Are these ‘filler episodes’ some sort of actual clues, ‘stupid’ symbols for something that was to be revealed? (but we never fully got, and that’s another story). The irony of the word ‘stupid’ is not lost on me and I’ll circle back at some point to the subject of Socratic irony in VLD, because I think it’s also really important and intimately linked to these subtle leitmotifs.

Before I begin, one more thing I’d like to point out about comics illustration and animation, in general. Almost nothing that is used in the process of animation is random. It is calculated within the resources given: you have a certain amount of airtime and a certain budget, so you have to use them wisely. A full team of story writers, producers, concept artists won’t make a character say something that has little meaning, and pay a team of animators to work for an entire week, just for a useless piece of conversation. Sure, there are parts that are meant just with small roles, of tying together different scenes, for creating a comic moment, etc, but when a character says something that sounds out of the ordinary, do pay attention to that. With that in mind, let’s focus on the following adventures of our Paladins: MONSTERS AND MANA So I’ll start with the easiest and most obvious one, because this was discussed and analyzed already: S6E3 “Monsters and Mana”. This is a slam-dunk, as you can probably already imagine.

And since I’m lazy enough to not start talking again about something that has already been dissected in great detail, here’s the most relevant stuff from the Voltron wiki page:

“This entire episode uses the trope of having a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons-like game predict future events in the real world. Key elements include:

The Innkeeper (Dakin) to whom Pidge and Hunk bring their crystal represents Lotor and his use of the trans-reality comet. The Innkeeper's betrayal foretells that of Lotor, as also his using of the heroes' energy represents his harvesting of Altean's quintessence. Shiro's dying and being reborn as an identical Paladin foretells the revelation that he himself is one of many clones. The Innkeeper's transformation from fast-moving sorcerer into Coranic Dragon foreshadows the forming of the Sincline Beast which has a similar appearance complete with tail. Use of the Blazing Sword foreshadows the reappearance of Voltron's flaming sword, just as its destroying the Coranic Dragon by fire foreshadows Sincline’s being defeated by quintessence overload.”

Adding my own note to the above:

At the end of the episode, Coran tells Shiro: “The game isn’t over yet. Wait until you find out who Dakin was working for. Maybe you’ll finally be able to avenge your master.”

So the game is not over yet, after they destroyed the Coranic Dragon (the Sincline). Just like in the real story, where even after defeating Lotor, they still had one more enemy - Honerva. Wait until you find out who Dakin (Lotor) was working for (i.e. who had power over him/what he was really up to/what were his real intentions, etc).

Something that intrigued me is the fact that the Coranic Dragon monster has a sort of bathelm similar to Honerva’s (including the color scheme). We might not see only a battle with the Sincline, but this might suggest another layer of meta: the final battle with Honerva.

You might think I’m seeing too much in this, but another intriguing part is the flying unicorn that Shiro Gyro rides in the end, which, yeah, has the color scheme of Atlas, a purple horn (uh-oh!), purple hooves (oops) and an orange mustache on its chest. A Coranic unicorn?

THE DEPTHS

Another good example of foreshadowing is S2E2 “The Depths”, which was thoroughly analyzed by @leakinghate, in this article.

To summarize the episode: Lance and Hunk find themselves in the underwater world of a very friendly Queen Mermaid, called Luxia (symbolic for Lotor), who invites them to eat food from the Baku gardens.

After watching some mermaid dances, Hunk and Lance fall into some sort of hypnosis. Lance is later abducted by a secret group of mermaids who claim they have a theory about how Luxia is able to control people’s minds - they think it’s through her voice and eyes and by training her people to use hypnotic dances (which sounds quite credible, since Lance remembers a dancer that apparently caused him to fall under the spell). This secret mermaid group is symbolic of Romelle, Keith and Krolia and their conjectures about Lotor.

We (the watchers) find out that the queen indeed brainwashed mind-swished her people and she is secretly killing some of her subjects by sending them to “take a swim in the gardens.” (parallel to how we find out from Romelle that Lotor has been ‘harvesting innocent Alteans’). Florona is one of the victims, and, as explained in detail in the aforementioned meta, she bears resemblance to Bandor: red-haired and with a similar color scheme of her clothes. Another similarity is between Plaxum (the lead mermaid from the secret group) and Romelle (same color scheme of clothes and also wearing two ponytail-like projections similar to Romelle’s hairstyle).

Ultimately, we find out that the real enemy was not Luxia (Lotor), but a sort of sea dragon (note that it resembles a dragon) that lives in the Baku gardens, using the food as a mind-control weapon to lure people into its gardens to eat them. As Luxia explains in the end, “The Baku has been harvesting us all. We are its food source”. And according to Lance, “the queen was the first one to be mind-controlled.”

Which leads us to the conclusion: are we (the watchers) really seeing the truth through Romelle’s eyes, or are we being deceived? Because it turns out that Plaxum’s theory about Luxia using voice hypnosis was false, which Plaxum actually acknowledges: “Well, I did say they were theories. Mer-science isn’t always about getting the right answer.” So then, it stands to reason that Lotor was not the bad guy after all, as we were lead to think, but there’s something more dark and devious lurking out there - which there was, indeed, it was Honerva and the Dark Entity she was possessed by. Unfortunately, the part where Lotor (Luxia) gets redeemed was blatantly skipped in Lotor’s case. Also, to this day, the Altean Colony is still a mystery (“an empty facility”, according to Kolivan); but we could infer parts of the truth from all these foreshadowings).

—> The really interesting detail in Hate’s meta was the “red herring” theory - which was actually the spark that turned my attention back to the comics.

As quoted from Wikipedia, “A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion.” Florona is… a fish mermaid with red hair. Both Bandor and Florona have red hair… and we, the readers, are led to believe what Bandor has said: “Lotor… the other colony… It’s all a lie.” And, wait, I just remembered. Guess who brings Romelle to Allura’s castle: Keith… the Red Paladin. (OK, I’ll probably get side-eyed for this one, but I’m just saying: what if red herring Keith was wrong about Lotor, and through him, we were all deceived?).

And this is where I started to see more… red in a purple world.

Every time I got to see a red-colored character, I had to question it a little bit and dig deeper. (including Coran - well, his hair is not red-red, it’s more orangey, but you could traditionally call him a red-haired guy if you saw him on the street, right?). And guess what Coran said at the end of “Monsters and Mana”: “I also made it all up, Shiro. That’s the magic of Monsters and Mana.” Well, so Coran acknowledges (to us, the public?) that he’s a bit of a fabricator… “I’m Coran-Coran, the non-truth telling man”, says the little Coranic head popping out of the Whac-a-mole console, in the “Clear Day” episode. And now go back to the flying unicorn and see that it has a red mane.

“The Voltron Show” and “The Feud” don’t really pertain to the subject of this article, except there is a detail that falls into the category of the mind-controlling leitmotif: the brain worm that infects Coran, enslaving him to the will of that tiny creature. Which proves that the writers had a clear inclination towards this dear subject: something small that can take over your mind and incapacitate you, against your will (so far we’ve had the food in the Baku gardens and the brain worm. But there’s more to come.)

Let’s just have a little pause and look back at what I presented so far: the general conclusion I got from all these episodes is that not everything we see at a first glance turns out to be true.

THE COMICS

Alright, now that I discussed the subject of the VLD episodes, I’ll move on to the less evident pieces of the puzzle: the comics. Weeee!!!

Written by show head writers Tim Hedrick and Mitch Iverson, the comics are part of the canon (some bits and pieces from the comics are actually mentioned in certain episodes, like the Yalexian pearl and some other stuff I can’t remember now).

Although the comics seem to be created as entertaining adventure stories with lots of monsters, so that kids can get a little more action kick out of the show, I see more than that. I see leitmotif after leitmotif, singing a long song about foreshadowing.

There are going to be monsters and dragons, princesses, brain-infecting entities (again), witches, food sources, populations that are oppressed by certain monsters, and I think I pretty much enumerated the most important recurrent themes. And red. Lots of red. (I am adding orange to this category, because… you’ll see).

The story plots in the comics do not seem to parallel the main storyline as neatly as they metaphorically did in “Monsters and Mana” or “The Depths”. Nevertheless, the recurring themes are there, scrambled in no apparent order. And the big, final conclusions will be the same: nothing is what it seems, watch out for red herrings.

So let’s start with Volume One of the VLD comics. Spoiler alert: I’ll loosely describe the plot at times, to better understand the succession of events.

The Paladins and Coran head off to some training grounds (I won’t enter into details with alien names and such, unless I’ll find it significant). Coran meets this guy who takes him hostage due to unpaid debt, and in order to free him, the Paladins must bring him the “Yalexian pearl”.

First adventure is on a planet where they find a bug-looking monster - which they assume is the Yalex - and by forming Voltron, they rush to kill it...

… only to find out that the monster was actually protecting the inhabitants of the planet from another monster, called Abomination…

How ironic - what kind of monsters are the Paladins?

This is where it becomes interesting. In order to get protected, the planet dwellers explained that they would feed the Guardian monster a giant bowl of their food and a few of their people. (“sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions” sounds familiar?). But now that the Guardian monster was gone, they were left without protection in the face of the Abomination.

Wait. Time out. So… who exactly did Lotor call an “abomination” in S6? Oh, that’s right, Honerva!

In the main story, Honerva simply walks into an Altean colony of peaceful, naive people, without any opposition, deceiving them into following her plans. So they were basically left unprotected, because their defender (*cough* Lotor-the-bug-monster) was gone. (Also, remember what Romelle said about him: “Lotor is a monster.” Um… a Guardian monster?)

And let’s take a closer look at the Abomination creature from the comic, then look at the rift monster, and Honerva’s mecha:

What did Lotor whisper in Allura’s ear, in her vision from “Clear Day”?… “If you can become one with the Entity…” So, yes, it’s canonically established that “becoming one” with that rift entity is a thing. Not only that, but they also show us that robots can fuse with each other: Honerva’s mech with the Sincline, Atlas with Votron. Honerva/Haggar and the Rift Monster (aka The Dark Entity) are melded into One entity, the Abomination.

The rift entity craves for more Quintessence. It is its food, its life source (it hails from the Quinessence field, right?). “Quintessence is life” whispers a very sick Honerva, before she became Haggar. Both Zarkon and Haggar become obsessed with obtaining more Quintessence, after they fall prey to (become one with) the rift creatures.

How did Voltron defeat the Abomination monster in the comics? By feeding it with some good food that Hunk prepared. It becomes docile if it’s being fed. Food//Quintessence is life. Little unsettling detail: they added the dead Guardian monster to the pot of food.

Wasn’t Honerva ‘eating away’ the life of other beings by dissolving them in her dark magic spells? Remember how she went to Kral Zera and killed all the Galra generals:

(My theory about why Kolivan didn’t find anything at the second Colony - yet with no hard evidence - is that Haggar melted everything and everyone in that purple magic mandala of spells, to gain their power and knowledge. We know from canon she did that also to the old paladins. She also did it to the Sages of Oriande! (she basically cheated her way through the lessons in Altean alchemy). If the Alteans on the second colony had some sort of knowledge or power, she would surely want to gain it. Plus, they're not NAIVE, like the main colony. They know who she is and what she's capable of, as I will later discuss, so they WOULDN'T HAVE FREELY GIVEN HER THEIR SECRETS. She FORCEFULLY took them. If Kolivan said he found an empty facility… that would make sense. She does not… leave traces.)

*********

Back to the comic book analysis: we’re on to a new adventure. They’re still after that Yalexian pearl, but now they have to ask princess Malocoti where they could find it. But the princess is held captive by a dragon… Here comes the dragon metaphor again, and it’s very very red, and orange.

And the princess appears to be trapped inside the castle:

But wait, what do you know? The Paladins figure out that the real princess is not the purple lady in the castle, because she’s actually a witch, casting spells and controlling the red herring dragon.

Look who also controls a certain prince trapped inside a "dragon":

Finally defeating the witch, the red dragon transforms into a beautiful princess Malocoti, who has the same red-orange (vermilion) hair color, with orange and yellow clothes. And she says this: "But somehow, even though I was just an enraged, screaming monster, you could see who I really was, deep down inside."

Mmmmkayyy… So princess Malocoti, while under the witch’s spell, was an “enraged, screaming monster.” Let’s see how the Sincline faired, while under Honerva’s spell... Talk about an enraged monster! (and… about the screaming part… go back to the rift battle from S6)

And Merla actually figured it out, too, because she realized Lotor’s extreme violence was very uncharacteristic to him. She yells at her fellow acolyte to “get out of there, now!” The real Lotor is there, inside that beastly dragon, underneath the layers of spells cast by the Entity/Honerva, and you can see the dark magic glowing in Sincline’s purple eyes.

But wait, you might say:

- That dragon is very vermilion. The Sincline is blue-violet. Colors that are at the opposite sides of the color wheel - the first one is on the hottest side of the spectrum, the other on the coolest (shh, complementary colors)!

- Also, the dragon turns into a lady. The Sincline hosts a guy. Opposites again.

- Well, look closer at the Sincline, around the neckline and elbow lines. And take any picture of Lotor, in his intricately designed suit. Look at the collar. And around his elbows, where the vambraces end. What color do you see? Orange. The kind of orange that sometimes turns vermilion, sometimes looks more yellow, depending on the scene, the lights… Anyway, it’s the color of Malocoti, isn’t it?…

I’m about to make an outrageous statement, haha, but I propose the theory (don’t hate me, I might be wrong) that Lotor’s body garment, underneath the main suit, is actually orange (or red-orange, vermilion, however you want to call it - the complementary color of his purple-and-blue suit). What if that collar is not decorative or some kind of detachable neck band, but it’s actually a hint at what he’s wearing underneath? I mean, the paladins’ suits feature dark gray turtlenecks, and guess what color their body garments are?

Wait, did I just say that Lotor is a vermilion herring? (Grape boi with orange peel omg what…) Haha, well, he did distract us from the ultimate enemy - Honerva. Add to that the fact that Dakin from “Monsters and Mana” is also red-haired. Oh. Boy.

- Also, because in the comic book, Lance couldn’t save a prince from a castle, they had to use the trope of saving the princess (moreover, it was all written with a lot of humor (and irony) at Lance’s pick-up artistry).

Plus, allegories are not supposed to be too evident. Being too literal would spoil it.

Another way you could look at this is that Malocoti’s vermilion is a complementary color to Lotor’s blue-violet color palette, just as Allura and Lotor complement each other. The colors have been flipped, just like the roles were supposed to be flipped in the VLD story: the princess was to save the prince; exactly the opposite of Lance’s dream of saving the princess - both in the comic story and in the TV show (which were treated, by the way, with quite a lot of irony). Again - flipping the story… Did I say that too many times? Here it is, one more time, from Hunk breaking the fourth wall at the audience (S3E3):

As a matter of fact, in the comic story, Pidge is the one who makes the final blow, defeating the witch, while Lance… is just screaming. (Although my suspicion is that (in the unaltered S8) Lance actually played a big role in helping Allura save Lotor - and I won’t go into details because I’d lose myself into a whole new meta.)

The bad news is… we never got to see Lotor’s ‘metamorphosis’ back into a good guy, as foretold in the comic, due to inter-dimensional meddling. At least I know now, from these precious foreshadowing parts, what we should have gotten:

A prince that wanted to save his dear people by dedicating his life to protect them from the Abomination. A prince that fell under the spell of an Entity, later controlled by a Witch. A prince that was (supposed to be) saved by a princess and her Voltron team, restored to his original physical state, and who ultimately helped the Paladins defeat the common enemy (foreshadowed by Malocoti helping Voltron in its next adventure). Also, let’s remember what he tells Allura in her vision: “You and I desire the same thing. We both seek to destroy Haggar.”

*****

The next adventure in this first comic book is an interesting mixture of leitmotifs: it brings us the story of a Sphinx that transforms out of a ziggurat pyramid, testing the Paladins through mind controlling mushroom spores (I told you there’s going to be more mind-swishing stuff), chess games and riddles. This part of the book is evocative of the Oriande pyramid and the trials of the White Lion (Coran calls the Sphinx a “a Lion thingy” - the Sphinx is part lion, according to mythology.)

Sphinxes are mythical creatures regarded as guardians; also, stemming from the Greek myth of Oedipus, we have the story of the Riddle of the Sphinx.

The Sphinx/Pyramid says: “I am a repository for great research.” That’s what Allura and Lotor did at Oriande - they researched ancient Altean alchemy. This time it’s Pidge who has to go through the trials.

Here are the brain-controlling mushrooms.

The resemblance with the Dark Entity is fascinating:

Other than this vague parallel with the Oriande trials, there isn’t much of a resemblance with anything I can think of, that we haven’t already seen in VLD. And that’s because, in my opinion, this part foreshadows something that was completely cut out. I might be wrong, I’m entering into a speculative area, but I think this might be related to one of the most overlooked parts of the show’s finale, in S8E12, “The Zenith”: the one where the Voltron-Atlas mecha chases Honerva through collapsing realities, while Coran, Slav and Holt (the three scientists) pilot the Oriande pyramid left behind by Honerva, trying to maintain the rift stability. Both are accompanied by footages of Coran’s and Keith’s shocked expressions, as they realize they won’t make it.

From what we see, it’s clear as daylight that both parties find their tragic end, while Honerva continues her journey through realities. She finally finds her son, who rejects her (again). And then, behold, Voltron-Atlas reappears in the skies, coming from, um… out of nowhere. Where exactly did they come from? How did that happen? Why did they waste animation time to have Voltron-Atlas get annihilated, and then miraculously show up again?? They could have saved weeks of animation work by not creating that scene, because it makes zero sense in this context. Well, it would have made sense if we’d seen what happened to them in the zone beyond realities. After all, there are three scientists piloting a pyramid that used to hold the ancient knowledge of Altea. And there used to be a White Lion, that looked like a Sphinx. Pidge is the scientist of the Paladins, and the comics put her through three distinct trials:

First is to test her body fitness by fighting against mind-controlled Paladins.

Next is to test her intelligence against herself in a game of chess with her own mind.

Last test is about finding the answer to a riddle: “What can be totally broken apart and yet reform stronger than ever?” - and the answer is not Voltron, it is HOPE.

Perhaps the three scientists also go through some trials.

And looking at the tests, I believe each test is actually fit to hit exactly the Achilles’ heel of the three men:

Coran: never good at body combat. Actually, feeble would be an appropriate word for him.

Holt: smart, but how smart compared to his own offspring, Pidge?

Slav: obsessed with calculating probabilities, but HOPE beats ALL odds.

Well, hope, my friends, is what makes the team of Paladins get up and try to continue their fight. In the actual VLD episode, before they lose to the collapsing reality, Keith gives a moving speech … “we need to get up”… and the message he gives everyone is to keep trying, keep going. That implies they need to have hope. In the end, the Sphinx is forced to admit that both answers are correct. Voltron was totally broken apart by falling into nothingness, yet the hope of the Paladins will resurrect it (and most likely some extra help from the three science men). I believe the three men in the Pyramid play a really big role in helping the Paladins survive and continue their chase across realities. Besides, that would be the last time we see Coran and Allura in the same life dimension, before she dies/transcends. He never had a chance to say goodbye to her, like the Paladins did. And he is basically her adoptive father, her custodian. Why would he not deserve a proper goodbye? And there is a symbolic meaning to it, as well: three scientists, number “three”, a powerful number, as we'll see towards the end of my meta.

Taking a little break from the foreshadowing analysis, I just want to emphasize how awesome this part is in describing the real Pidge, who: keeps a dossier on each of her friends; knows each of their strengths and weaknesses; figures out even how to defeat herself at a chess game. And she genuinely admits: “It’s my nature.” Through Pidge’s dossier, we also get a very nice insight into each Paladin’s character. In a way, this comic issue is the reader’s private research repository for the Voltron show, opening a window into their personalities.

While I don’t see a flow of events in the comics that would mirror the exact succession of episodes in the show, the pieces of repeating themes and stories are there, in a scrambled order. Some of them clearly foreshadow things to come, while others, in my opinion, foreshadow things that were supposed to come, but they were later deleted (remember, this comic book was released in 2016, while the last episode of VLD aired at the end of 2018).

********

The last issue of this book sends us to the most secret place of all, the final destination in their adventure, where they are to recover the Yalexian Pearl…

Grab yourself a drink; we’re about to get into some very, very interesting territories.

They land on a moon… (oh, a moon, how interesting!)

…and they meet a camel-like alien wearing steampunk Burning Man goggles, a gas mask (for harsh desert conditions on a moon with methane atmosphere) and a red skirt-cape; he speaks in pompous, cryptic phrases, which Lance dismisses as “looney-tooney”.

As a High Priest, he brings them to the “temple of the Yalex”, which is a sort of a grain processing facility, where other camel-looking creatures sit around the room, ruminating.

Since I think this contains too much symbolism, I’ll type out the most relevant portion of the dialogue, below. The bolded words are the ones I consider to bear most metaphorical weight:

Camel Priest: “This is the Temple of the Yalex.”

Shiro: “There don’t seem to be enough of you here to grow all this grain.”

Camel Priest: “Oh, we did not do it alone. The rest of our people left the moon and returned to Krell after the growing season [Krell is the main planet - where princess Malocoti and the Sphinx live]. Only the High Priests remain. We will stay here and devote our remaining days to bring about the Yalex.

Keith: “Why are they chewing up the grain and spitting it in those jars?”

Camel Priest: “Here we dry the grain, then masticate it and preserve it in the cuspidors[a cuspidor is a spittoon - a receptacle for spitting into] . When they are full, we carry them to the Eye of the Evershadow and pour them in.

Hunk: “Ewww. Why?”

Camel Priest: “To feed the Spirit of the Moon. To strengthen him.

Lance: “Okay, this guy is looney-tooney.”

Pidge: “Wait! Is that the Pearl?”

Camel Priest: “Yes…”

Pidge: “I knew it! The whole place is a map. Score one for Pidge!”

Camel Priest: “…the Pearl, the Moon, the Eye, Time, Life, all are the circle. Never ending, never broken.”

Pidge: “Aw. Stupid symbolism.”

Lance: “OK, this guy is definitely looney-tooney. Let’s go look for the Yalex.”

Camel Priest: “You do not need to look for it. Can you not see the calendar? The Yalex comes soon.”

Shiro: “Who told you this?”

Keith: “How do you know when it’s coming?”

Camel Priest: “We follow the ways of the Haruspex” [a haruspex in ancient Rome was a person trained in reading the omens from the entrails of sacrificed animals - see more details here] “She tells us of the end times. Come, let us feed the Moon Spirit.”

Shiro: “So, this Yalex, what is it?”

Camel Priest: “None living have seen the Yalex. Seeing the Yalex means death. The Yalex is the end of days.”

Hunk: “That doesn’t sound good.”

Camel Priest: “Of course it is good. Our lives here are lived in ignorance. When we die, all is revealed, and we continue our journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”

Lance: “But what about the Pearl?”

Camel Priest: “The Yalex is the Pearl.”

Lance: “It is?”

Camel Priest: “The Pearl of Wisdom that comes at the end of time. The Yalex is Creator and Destroyer, Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner, One is All, the Fire in the Dark, the eye that is blind is most prized!”

Lance: “Looney. Tooney.”

Hunk: “Are you sure the Moon Spirit likes camel spit?”

Shiro: “Your Holiness, we mean no disrespect to your customs, but we have a friend who is going to die unless we can find a Yalexian Pearl, and…”

Rummmble…

Camel Priest: “At last! The birth that is death has begun!”

[the Yalex beast hatches out of the shell of the moon, destroying it and blowing everyone into space, as confirmed by Hunk: “I’m alive, but “Okay” got blown up with that moon.”]

The following exposition will probably put me in the looney-tooney category as well, yet I insist on displaying my crazy crack theory to the world. So, here we go.

Some of you might have inferred already. It is indeed time we had a discussion about the second Altean colony.

My theory is that here lies the truth about what exactly the Alteans on the second colony (the moon colony) were doing, and with what purpose.

Overall, this story seems to revolve around the leitmotif of preparing food for the Spirit of the Moon. Food that is made of grains, chewed (ruminated) by camels and spat into collecting cuspidors.

—-> What are camels in our real world? They are special animals in the pseudo-ruminant category (cattle are ruminants - with four-chambered stomachs; camels are pseudo, because they have three-chambered stomachs). Without entering into a million anatomical details about camels (which you can find out quickly by doing a wiki search - it’s actually fascinating, truly!), I can say with much astonishment that camels are a wonder of nature, adapted to the very harsh conditions of the desert, travelers capable of resisting without water for a week; their bodies are designed to avoid overheating through some truly amazing (almost magical) internal adaptations.

Top that information with a bit of symbolism about camels, collected from various cultures. This animal is emblematic for endurance, sacrifice, forbearance, toughness. These resilient guys can tolerate a lot of crap and sacrifice themselves for their masters.

Now let’s go back to the book narrative and what the Camel Priest says about the other people in the Temple: “Only the High Priests remain. We will stay here and devote our remaining days to bring about the Yalex.” Only the High Priests… Devote…

—> Who exactly did Lotor allow to go to the second colony? According to Romelle, they were “viable candidates”, who were given a “series of tests”. “Those who were fit for the journey were loaded onto a cargo ship and taken to the second colony. It was considered the highest honor.” From what we infer from her story, the chosen ones were quite freely and happily choosing to go. Again, citing Romelle, they had an “unquestioning devotion”.

“…devote our remaining days” - here, I sense that it’s implied they’ll die after completing their task - correct me if I’m wrong. I initially thought it might also mean “our remaining days on this moon”, but I don’t think so.

“…to bring about the Yalex.” - to cause the Yalex happen, to create the Yalex - I’ll get back to this one in a bit.

In the comic, the story explains that “the rest of the people”, who are not high priests, returned to Krell.

—> In the Altean story, there were these sentries that Lotor used, mainly as support personnel, and who had access to both colonies. Lotor “travels there all the time”, Romelle tells us. Surely, he travels there with his sentries. Could these be the non-magical guys that return to the mother planet when not needed? They might even travel outside of the Quantum Abyss - most likely they are the ones transporting those mysterious cargoes with pure Quintessence. Across the show, they seem to appear to be some sort of scientists, or even medics, as they pop up in various episodes. @violethowler has a thought-provoking meta regarding the timing of events around the Altean Colony and neatly postulates the role of these medics/sentries:

Alright, moving on to the weird part where the Priest explains what they are doing there… They masticate the grains and mix them with their saliva (ewww), and then they collect the yucky product (some sort of cud) into these spittoons that look like camel humps, carrying them to the Eye of the Evershadow, to feed the Spirit of the Moon. Welcome to a very spitty description of what Altean alchemy looks like - metaphorically speaking, of course. The very product of their bodies (their saliva) is mixed in with the harvest of that season (the dried grains), collected in cuspidors, and then it is used as a food source for the Spirit of the Moon.

Where did we see something similar? In S1E10 (Collection and Extraction), where a Druid stands in front of a giant sphere. A coiled tube passes inside the sphere, and raw (yellow) Quintessence flows inside the tube. The Druid then spews out these flashing purple energies out of their body, mixing their energy with the yellow raw material. The result is collected into a small vat underneath, and it looks like bright purple Quintessence, which is the refined result from the raw material.

We also have a verbal explanation from a very nice robot sentry hacked by Pidge:

“The material is quintessence, the substance with the highest known energy per unit volume in the universe. […] Raw quintessence material is transported here from throughout the galaxy and refined into standardized Galra fuel requirements.”

So let’s demystify the puzzle. This is how I see it:

— The dried grains are the raw quintessence (accidentally or not, grains also have a yellow tint).

— The camel spit is the Altean energy - basically a product / a secretion of their body, right?

— The mix of the spit with the grains is the refined Quintessence (light purple glow in the case of the Druidic product, but on the Altean side it would have a light blue glow).

— The refined Quintessence is poured into those cuspidors and then all the vessels are poured into a larger container of some sort, to feed the ‘Spirit of the Moon’ -later hatching out of the moon as Yalex. As far as I can tell, these High Priest Camels don’t seem to be incapacitated, or chained, or tied up and forced to work, or placed in energy-syphoning pods. It looks like a very liberal environment. Nobody watching them, no one pointing weapons at them.

—> Which brings up a statement that Hunk makes in “Monsters and Mana”: “maybe those villagers liked being turned into stone?“ - and again, remember, in animation they usually don’t waste airtime pointlessly.

Traditionally, the pearl is a symbol of wisdom, especially gained through experience. (A pearl is produced by adding layer upon layer of secretions produced by an oyster - umm… or camel spit, anyone?) And guess what the Priest says: “The Yalex is the Pearl. The Pearl of Wisdom that comes at the end of time.”

Ta-daa.

OK, still confused?

—> Let’s take a look at what Lotor tells Allura before their tragic battle in S6: “Many Alteans perished in my quest to unlock the mysteries of Quintessence.” “Allura, you must understand I’ve given everything I have to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge, to unlock the mysteries of Oriande.” Umm… wisdom… knowledge… unlock mysteries… It pretty much looks to me like the Camel Temple is the equivalent of a Research Facility, a secret military operation, where Alteans were giving, willingly, freely, out of devotion to their master, everything they had, to unlock the mysteries of the… Pearl of Wisdom. Which resembles a vat of pure Quintessence, doesn’t it? Same milky opalescent white.

I know this would contradict a previous theory, that the Alteans were not producing pure Quintessence, and that the mysterious vats of pure Quintessence traveling through unmarked ships were actually coming from Voltron (from when the Komar weapon extracted it). I cannot deny or confirm either theory at this point, I’m simply following what I’m finding, as I try to be as unbiased as I can.

In any case, what I am seeing here is not comparable to what Keith, Krolia and Romelle saw. I don’t see Alteans suspended in pods, life being sucked out of them without consent, but I see active people freely giving their energy away. Like the Alteans on Atlas, gathered around the ship’s crystal, in S8E11, or the Alteans and Balmerans gathered on the Balmera asteroids.

And here comes Lance’s first teasing at the apparently incredible scene from inside the Temple: “Looney-tooney.”

In contrast to Lance’s ignorance (which is actually inserted not just to simply show off the comedic side of Lance, and I’ll circle back to that in a minute), Pidge figures out that the Pearl is hanging from the ceiling of the Temple and she also adds: “The whole place is a map. Score one for Pidge!”

Whoops! A map is a guide. It plots, it outlines the directions to a place, a story… Is this little story THE MAP to Voltron’s secret treasures??

Wait, I’m not done.

There’s waaay more looney-tooney stuff to explore, and it will blow your mind. I went into this analysis with a general idea based on little clues I observed, but as I peeled off more and more layers, I discovered really unexpected things.

Notice again how even Pidge becomes disgruntled as she doesn’t understand all the cryptic language and she remarks: “Stupid symbolism!”, while Lance goes on and on about the Priest being batshit crazy.

Well, VLD is notorious for using this kind of technique that tricks the audience into taking the information with a pinch of humor or even dismissing it as unimportant. If we laugh at it, it must be of lesser value, right? Let’s take a look at an example from the TV series, and watch how Lotor’s words are met with derision by Lance and Hunk:

S5E6: Standing in front of the white hole at Oriande, Lotor recites a poem:

Lotor: “The wise stand back from the fire,/ fools are burned on the pyre./ The mystic becomes one with the flame,/ the embers and he are the same.”

Lance: “Is that, like, a song you’re working on? ‘Cause it sucks.”

Lotor: “It’s a poem by an ancient Altean alchemist. I discovered it carved next to a cave painting of a fiery sphere. I never realized until now that it describes the route to Oriande. We must go into the white hole.”

Hunk [raising his hand, goofy soundtrack in the background]: “Are you guys serious? Are we navigating by cave poetry?”

We found out quite quickly that Lotor was right. And this is not the only place where he was right. Coran was sure Oriande was a fairy tale for kids; Lance agreed with Coran…

I could give countless other examples in the show where characters laugh at, or scorn others, only to be proven wrong later.

From a writers’ perspective, this is called Socratic irony. Quoting The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, a Socratic irony is "Socrates's irritating tendency to praise his hearers while undermining them, or to disparage his own superior abilities while manifesting them." In a very subtle, ironic way, the writers are addressing the audience’s intelligence. They’re using the characters to ridicule a scene, only to later prove otherwise. So… when Lance repeatedly says “looney-tooney” about someone, then rest assured… his intended target is quite the opposite, my friends. And if Pidge says… “stupid symbolism”, awww… how smart that stupid part must be! Not only that, but she actually hands out the word “symbolism” freely, as if to say: ‘Here, take it. This comic book is all symbols. Now get your lazy brain cells moving and decode it.’

Which brings me to the most weird parts of the conversation with the Camel Priest, that really, really sound incomprehensible, at a first glance.

Alright, here comes the heavy stuff. We’re about to get philosophical:

“…the Pearl, the Moon, the Eye, Time, Life, all are the circle. Never ending, never broken.”

“The Yalex is Creator and Destroyer, Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner, One is All, the Fire in the Dark, the eye that is blind is most prized!”

Gosh, I feel like decrypting a David Lynch movie. Have you guys watched the latest (2017) Twin Peaks? Omg, what a trip.

Let’s start with the easiest ones:

The circle - a simple geometric shape. A pearl, a moon, an eye, they all have circular (spherical) shapes. Duh.

Expand that to the concept of Life and Time. When time goes in circles, well… it means it’s… cyclical. Does that make sense? Never ending, never broken. History repeats itself. Or… multiple realities, where history repeats within its own iteration. Oh man, heavy stuff. Was this show for 7-year old kids?

What else looks like a circle/rosetta and can pierce through time and realities? Is there an eye shape in the middle?

Does the Yalex ⬆️ have similar ‘rosetta wings’? Is there an ‘eye’ in the middle? - the most prized (confirmed by Shiro, in the comic, who figured out that specific part of the riddle). The Pearl of Wisdom? Btw, the eye is also a symbol of wisdom, in various religions.

This… this… is also round-shaped, and has… four spidery legs - and as you’ll see below, this is the key to understanding the whole VLD vocabulary:

“Creator and Destroyer” —> remember Allura’s words to Honerva at the end of the show? “I can change the Quintessence within your vessel. Your son helped me learn how to transform it from a destructive force to a life-giving force.”

“Treasure and Terror, Redeemer and Annihilator, Savior and Executioner” —> two sides of the same coin: quintessence can be used peacefully, as Alfor (and later Lotor) intended to, providing unlimited clean energy for the Universe; or it can be employed as a violent, horrid form of terror, as demonstrated by Zarkon and Honerva. They annihilated entire planets, executing innocent people. In contrast, Allura redeemed/saved Zarkon and Honerva, also through the power of the Quintessence.

It all depends on who uses it. Hard to believe? Listen carefully to some voices from the show, which send us direct, unfiltered messages:

S6E4:

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

[later on, after Allura and Lotor enter the rift] Allura: “In the hands of the wrong person, this power could easily corrupt.”

Lotor: “Together, we’ll see it never does.”

Aside from Shiro and Allura’s statements, notice that Lotor says “together” (and he says it again, some time later: “Allura, we were meant to be together.” Also, from a previous conversation: “I cannot do this without you.”) When they were apart, they both fell prey to their raging instincts, as demonstrated in the dramatic ending of S6. That is one big reason why I believe, in the end (in the #realS8), Allura and Lotor made the final cut of the show, together. As a standing proof that unity provides power against losing yourself to your worse side. They help and lift each other, rising above the flaws of their parents. It is the central moral of the story. Defeating the evil through unity. That’s the ultimate spirit of Voltron. Unity. Sure, it is about family, as Coran says in his final toast, but above that, it’s about Unity. And… “True unity can only be born of love,” says one of the old paladins to Hunk, while inside Honerva’s mind.

Moving on to more looney-tooneys:

“One is All” —> Again, here comes the idea of Unity. This one’s got a slightly different angle, and I’ve discussed it partially before (scroll up to where I talk about the “becoming one with the Entity.”) The way I see it, the rift monster is One, but it is also a sum of its parts, All the small Entities. I believe this whole string of descriptors (one is all, creator and destroyer, bla-bla) is pointing not only to the properties of Quintessence, but to the Entity as well.

Whew, this last one is a really philosophical concept, intersecting with theology, as well. Again, not for 7-year old boys and dads that want toys. Just for the fun of it, look up “unity” in your preferred search engine and dive into an extremely complex and abstract realm of Greek philosophy, leading up to the most modern interpretations.

How I like to think of it is that once the Entity enters one’s body, a symbiotic relationship is formed.

So then, the question rises: is the Yalex…

- the Quintessence energy

- the Rift Entity

- or a Mecha that can pierce through space and time?

I believe it can be all in the same time.

As confirmed by the Camel High Priest, the Yalex itself is the Pearl (Quintessence), but I propose it is actually more than that. It is the carrier of the Pearl - the Vessel, and together, they become One. You might think Allura said “vessel” just in reference to Honerva’s space-ship. That is one meaning, according to the Oxford Dictionary (“a ship or a large boat”). But vessel also means “a hollow container, especially one used to hold liquid, such as a bowl or cask.” In addition, in religious terms, a vessel is one’s own body.

Here’s a detail from one of the official VLD posters. Notice how Honerva’s acolytes carry… vessels with some sort of offerings, food of some sort. Um… Quintessence in a vessel?

For example, Honerva’s body is the Vessel, the receptacle for the Entity, along with the Quintessence she accumulated (she does accumulate a LOT of it, in the final season - from Oriande, the Alteans, the Balmerans, etc). Her own body then goes inside the mecha, and she almost becomes a robeast, One with the machine. The machine is then, the Vessel. And depending on how she decides to manipulate it, it can be destructive or life-giving. (Allura also let herself be possessed by the Entity, yet she did not turn evil. On the contrary, she became a vector of good.)

Want more proof of this concept? The Yalex itself is a receptacle for the Pearl - refer back to the image of the Yalex hatching out of the moon. The Pearl sits inside the Yalex, nested in the middle of that whole wing-eye contraption.

“Fire in the Dark” —> didn’t we just have Lotor give us a some cave poetry lessons earlier? “The wise stand back from the fire,/ fools are burned on the pyre./ The mystic becomes one with the flame,/ the embers and he are the same.” I invite you to apply some of your school skills on literary analysis and scoop out some precious, meaningful embers from this one. Note again the repeating theme of “becoming one” with something. Also, the motif of the sphere: Lotor “discovered it carved next to a cave painting of a fiery sphere”. The fire can be both a destructive force and a useful, powerful tool, in the right hands.

King Alfor says, in S8E10: “Allura, please listen to me. Alteans are life-givers. The entity you possess is a dark, ancient evil. It’s not the key to winning this war.” Meeeeep - Wrong!! King Alfor was a great alchemist, but he got some stuff completely wrong, and it’s proven by Allura, in her reply to him:

“I understand your concern. But the entity granted us access to Honerva’s mind. Without it, your spirit would still be cursed.” Yeee, big applause, Allura, you’ve done it! The Entity, under Allura’s alchemic prowess, becomes a tool for good.

I could search for more proof that the Entity can also be good, for example in Allura’s hallucinations, when she hears Lance saying: “It won’t do you any harm. The entity will help you. It will save all of us.” And so on and so forth. It’s all sprinkled throughout the series, and we can scoop it all out, once we know what to look for. Once we learn the vocabulary.

Is this too much? It is a complex show, first of all. This is not the kind of 80’s show where, in each episode, they fight another robot/monster and save the day. The plot is sinuous and full of unexpected. Things mentioned in S3 resurface in S8 (like the Dark Entity), and so on and so forth. That is one reason why, in my view, this show was not for little kids.

I’m still not done with the analysis. Don’t fall under the game table, please, like when Shiro wanted to be a Paladin again!

Let’s talk about the Calendar and the Haruspex.

A calendar speaks of something that is cyclical… There are seasons that repeat, which means this process of producing Quintessence to feed the Yalex is a seasonal activity. The whole ceiling of the temple looks like an ancient celestial map (concentrical circles), or some sort of astrological chart, and the High Priest says: “Can you not see the calendar? […] We follow the ways of the Haruspex.” and then… this thing:

Initially, I didn’t notice it. But then… I saw the the Haruspex. And it looks exactly like… Haggar, holding the sphere of dark energy in her hands. In ancient Rome, the Haruspex was a diviner who interpreted the future based on the entrails of sacrificial animals. A sort of a magical person. Borderline witchcraft. Definitely capital punishment under medieval Inquisition.

If they had a Haruspex, that means they also had… sacrificial animals (camels/Alteans?). That would confirm that some Alteans indeed were martyred.

Maybe there were autopsies performed? By some sort of medics? I might be completely wrong. I’m entering some dark territories here.

Anyways, they definitely “follow the ways of the Haruspex”, which might mean that, in some way or another, whatever they are doing there is being dictated by some instructions from the Haggarspex. What are they doing? Refining Quintessence. Who else is doing that? The Druids in the Empire. And Haggar has… omg… Haggar has the specs!! Haggarspex! I kid you not, I just discovered this right now, as I am writing and playing with words. Talk about puns in Voltron!!

It would make total sense that they follow exactly the same technical principles that Haggar uses, because Lotor, even before becoming emperor, must have had access to some of her stuff (or stolen them - it’s not like he hadn’t stolen stuff from the empire before, see the teludav episode -S3E6). He’s using all the resources he has (and he’s got lots of Galra tech at his disposal), in search of the Pearl of Wisdom, aka the secrets of King Alfor. Alas, he’s going the wrong way about it, because he lacks the Oriande knowledge.

OK, maybe we’ll scratch the part about autopsies, but sacrifices were made. It is, after all, confirmed by Lotor…: “Were some lives lost in the process? Yes. But they were martyrs to a noble cause. I sacrificed a few to preserve the future for millions.”

Where exactly were the sacrifices made? I don’t know yet. I have some suspicions, but let’s keep going.

“She tells us of the end times. […] None living have seen the Yalex. Seeing the Yalex means death. The Yalex is the end of days.”

Wow, so once you see the Yalex, you’re out of the game. And because you’re toast, there’s no one left to tell how the Yalex looks like. It is the end of days for you.

That means the Yalex is a really dangerous and powerful being. Well, it’s represented as a sort of a giant spider that hatches out of the moon, fed and grown with pure Quintessence from the camels.

Then Hunk says: “That doesn’t sound good.”

And the Camel Priest replies: “Of course it is good. Our lives here are lived in ignorance. When we die, all is revealed, and we continue our journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”

What kind of nutty stuff is this?

First of all, let’s turn upside down what Hunk is saying, for the sake of the reversed irony: That sounds very good - exactly what the priest said. Why is it good? Because they believe that through death, they finally achieve the ultimate wisdom. They are so willing to learn the mysteries of Quintessence, that they consider death the ultimate honor. Isn’t that a martyr’s belief system? Self-sacrifice is the ultimate enlightenment, for the sake of a noble cause. And you can tell that the priest feels confident about his convictions, in the way he formulates it: “of course it is good.”

And then he says something that lit up a lot of light bulbs in my humble brain cells: “Our lives here are lived in ignorance.” Oh boy. Where should I start with this one? Firstly, isn’t this what scientists quietly profess? The more you learn, the less you feel like you know. We are all ignorants in the face of the vastness of the science. Then, what is ignorance if not the opposite of… enlightenment? Merriam-Webster says enlightened means: “freed from ignorance and misinformation”.

“That is the future enlightenment brings us.” - guess who said that - guess some more —> Lotor (when talking about his ultimate plans - to get into the rift and extract unlimited Quintessence for the empire).

There’s one more Easter egg in this paragraph. “the watchful eye of the Conqueror.”

Who is the Conqueror? You might think initially it is Zarkon or the Galra Empire. But this is about a so-called afterlife, another dimension, a higher plane. I theorize it is, again, about the Entity.

“This Entity holds the power you seek. It is an ancient form of energy that predates time itself. It hails from the Quintessence Field. Entities like this gave Haggar the ability to conquer worlds and control the universe for then thousand years.”

This Entity is able to bypass time and space at its own will, and gives someone the ability to conquer worlds. In my opinion, this is the true, transcendental Conqueror and, probably, the Second Colony Alteans and Lotor believed they could reach the ultimate enlightenment by trying to manipulate it… just like Haggar did.

Sounds weird? Lotor himself had the entity - confirmed by the Galra doctors that detected the strange readings in him when newly born. Why wouldn’t he try to use its powers against Haggar? And I strongly believe that this is true, also supported by the EP’s statements about Lotor, in an AfterBuzz interview about S5:

Interviewer: “And then we have weird Quintessence necromancy happening. So how did that affect [baby] Lotor?”

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

Interviewer: Little Vampire.

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

[…]

LM: I think all Galra are kinda space vampires.

JDS: They’re kinda space vampires, yeah. Safe to say. You’re getting instead of blood, you’re getting like…planet juice."

Well, ain’t that something… Lotor is a Daywalker.

What is a Daywalker? It’s a vampire that can go out in the sunlight, part human - part vampire. I find the comparison with vampire Princess Miyu a little unsettling (quoted from Wikipedia):

“This is because she is technically a Daywalker, having one human parent and one vampire. She needs to drink blood to survive and she chooses her 'victims' carefully since she apparently cannot take blood from others unless they actually give it to her willingly. So, Miyu picks people whom she believes to be "lovely" (either in looks or personality) who have usually suffered a tragic loss, and offers them their greatest wish – to be with their lost loved ones, at least in their dreams – in exchange for their blood. These people live in an endless dream state.”

Lotor doesn’t lie about any of the things he tells Allura and the Paladins. So he does walk into the light of truth, indeed. LM and JDS confirm it, too, in the same aforementioned interview:

LM: I think… when we discussed Lotor, we wanted to make sure that everything he said had an element of like, genuine quality to it—”

JDS: “Like genuine nature to it, yeah. I mean, he hasn’t really done anything to make you believe he wanted to continue on the path of Zarkon. Even in the time before. He just has his own way about, you know, about these things. So yeah, I think the bigger sort of Lotor story point, or character point was that, you know - one - he means things genuinely, whether he’s playing somebody or not, he sort of follows up with everything that he does. So there’s no real… lie to it, I guess?

LM: I think when all is said and done we’ll be able to look back and realize that he’s been telling the truth this whole time. It’s just a matter of - where does it go from here?

JDS: Where does the truth go from here?

Well, all is said and done. The show has been over for so many years, and yet we’re still looking back and digging for the truth, because the truth about Lotor was, unfortunately, buried.

So let’s dig deeper, haha.

The Camel Priest ultimately says: “At last! The birth that is death has begun!”

I think this ties pretty neatly with what happened to Zarkon and Honerva, who, under the influence of the Entity, transfigured into something else. And here’s another snippet from the interview, where LM points to that:

Interviewer: I was just wondering if maybe that’s why Zarkon was so intent on saving Honerva, not only because he loved her but because she was pregnant.”

LM: Yeah, I think…

JDS: Combination, maybe?

LM: Yeah, I think there’s also a little bit of him that’s… was maybe… had other motives as well. The dude’s kind of dead inside…”

We saw them resurrect after dying in the rift, didn’t we? With purple evil glowing eyes. Yet they were, apparently, dead inside.

So what that means is that when the Camel Priest announces that the birth-death thingy is going to happen, and the Yalex emerges from the moon, they are all going to be possessed by the Yalex, the All is One, Fire in the Dark, the Eye. They ‘die’ inside by letting the Entity take a part of their soul and instead give them the Enlightenment. They continue their journey under the watchful eye of the Conqueror. Oh man…! Heavy stuff.

So the Alteans… willingly let themselves be possessed by the Entity, following Lotor’s demi-vampire plans to save the universe and defeat Haggar (or at least, DEFEND from Haggar - especially defend the Main Colony). You don’t think so?? We have a precedent! (Though I wouldn’t say it happened before, time-wise speaking. It actually happened after - when Honerva went to the Altean colony and created her mechs and her acolytes.) Were they not infected with the Entity?? Did Allura not scoop one out from Tavo?? Were their eyes not glowy-glowy? And they were all on board with Honerva’s plans from the get-go, so I would logically assume they also agreed with being infected with the Entity.

I’d say at this point Lotor is a good vampire, with good and transparently laid out intentions but still with vampire methods, because that’s the only way he knows how to operate - victory or death - although he is desperate to find out the true path, the Oriande path. He’s given all he had to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge.

“Lotor may have been misguided, but ultimately, he wanted to preserve life.” As much as I don’t like this sentence from Allura’s final speech to Honerva, I think it has heavy relevance to what I just unfolded here. I honestly was not expecting to reveal this. My initial impressions were going towards a slightly different direction. That’s why I never rely only on initial impressions.

The final image in this comic book is Voltron carrying the Yalexian pearl, through a solar system that looks very similar to the Quantum Abyss solar system. The top image is a screen-cap from the episode “Clear Day”, where Allura has a vision of the red planet from the Quantum Abyss, surrounded by the moons. The bottom image is from the comics, with the red planet being planet Krell.

And guess where Voltron is bringing the Pearl? To rescue Coran from a guy who keeps him hostage. But we soon find out that Coran was lying this whole time!! He was not really hostage, he was just friends with the big guy, and he made Voltron retrieve the Pearl just like Lotor had them retrieve the trans-reality comet. Well-well… Maybe Lotor 'retreived' some ‘Pearls’ (Quintessence) from Voltron as well? (maybe from the Komar weapon?)

And there’s still more to discuss.

**rolling up sleeves**

One specific property that the Entity possesses is the ability to make sudden jumps and appear/disappear.

Very… jittery. Remember how it bounces inside that tube?

Who else could appear and disappear at will? Haggar and the Druids. Also… Kosmo (that wolf is, btw, such a mystery. I posit that he’s a result of some colony experiments on animals, using the Entity.)

—-> But, more importantly, there’s a fairly obscure group of characters that only show up in one episode… and they can also teleport (it all happens so fast that it’s so easy to miss, but watch S6E2 “Razor’s Edge” when Keith and Krolia enter the Abyss and get attacked). They weren’t given any name, but they seem to be quite powerful and they are part of the big mystery of the Quantum Abyss.

I present you the four-legged white creatures that attack Keith and Krolia’s ship.

Does it not have a ‘pearl’ that looks just like an ‘eye’ in the middle? Also, look closely at the shape of the creature, and compare it with the Entity… Why do they look so similar? Those four legs… copy and paste, change color to white…

And go back and look again at the Yalex hatching out of the moon - four-legged, spider legs, as well.

Do they all have an Eye in the middle?

And, because I like to watch things in slow-motion sometimes, I just discovered an amazing detail about the white-legged creature: after it teleported inside the cockpit, there is a light blue glow coming out of it, turning into motes of light-blue energy. Altean Quintesseeence!!!

In the pictures above, the Yalex seems to have grown an additional two legs. Well, I’ll be damned if the Dark Entity doesn’t sometimes have six legs (see above). This seems to be the aggressive pose.

What if… the white-legged creatures in the Quantum Abyss are the Yalexes? They are the Pearls, the white Entities, the ‘positive’ side of the Entity (the saviors), fed by righteous Altean energy. They are the defenders of the Abyss. There are many of them, and the many create One. And they all protect the Quantum from Haggar or any other intruders, including Keith and Krolia, Ranveig, etc…

We are led to believe that these creatures are also responsible for tearing apart the unmarked ships transporting the pure quintessence through the Abyss, but if my predictions are correct, that would actually not be true, because it wouldn’t make sense narratively for Lotor’s own defenders to attack ships containing his own Quintessence transports. I believe the creature that attacked and ravaged those unmarked ships was Ranveig’s superweapon, which actually has a name we know, and I have multiple reasons to prove my theory. I will come back to this subject - keep a pin in it.

These Yalexes (I’ll start calling them Yalexes, alright?) protect Lotor’s research facility and the main Colony. He hopes to unlock the mysteries of the Entity and of the Quintessence. We know, canonically, that Haggar stalked Lotor around the universe and he was always cautious about getting rid of trackers and spies. It’s logical he would want to protect the Quantum Abyss, and we know for sure that there is a history of attempted intrusions - like Ranveig, who’s probes had been destroyed and never recovered, as recounted by Krolia. Maybe these white guys are Lotor’s own ‘druids’. They definitely showed up right at the beginning of Keith and Krolia’s journey in the Abyss, so they were standing at the gates, ready to filter out intruders.

And if we want to talk about defending, let’s go to Allura’s mystifying vision in S8E8 - “Clear Day”, where she sees her mother telling her she’s arrived just in time to save them (to save Altea, implied by the Altean castle in the background). She then goes on to say “Only you can protect us.”

“In time” - ah, maybe I’m interpreting too much - but time is a word that is used as a symbol in the Camel Priest’s dialogue. Also, Krolia tells Keith that the Quantum Abyss is a place where “unusual effects” happen to “space-time itself”. So maybe her mother is actually telling her “you’ve arrived just at the right place, in the Quantum Abyss.”

Also, in Allura’s dream, she is to save them, protect them… Only she can protect them, because of the powers she gained through the Entity = the Savior.

Allura then pilots a Komar mecha, extracting the Quintessence from Altean soil and channeling it towards Galra ships, destroying them. But, in the process, she also destroys the planet, leaving it barren, dry, lifeless, and her mother turns from a living being into a dissipating stone statue, who’s last words are: “I’m so proud of you”. As if she would say: I sacrifice myself, proudly, gladly, so that you can defend Altea.

Why a stone statue? Similar to the villagers that ‘liked’ being turned into stone, in Monsters and Mana?

The way I see this, it’s an insight into how the Quantum Abyss defense system worked. Everyone (represented in the dream by the Altean soil itself, the juniberries, the statue) put their energy together to feed these Yalexes, to defend themselves from intruders. In the end, they were all drained of their vitality, because they did not have the Oriande alchemy knowledge of how to properly infuse an ore (and the ore was not from a comet). So they would wither and die, or almost die…

Remember how exhausted the Alteans on Atlas were, after channeling their energy into the Atlas crystal? Honerva tells them to give her all their energy, because “their lives will be sacrificed for their savior.” Merla knows the consequences and interrupts the process, in order to rescue them.

And this ⬆️ is where I turn my eyes to the emaciated, scarred Alteans floating in the so-called Quintessence draining pods from the Second Colony, as described by Romelle and Keith in S6E4.

In my opinion, they were not being sucked of their energy in those pods. They were actually exhausted after working their butts off to feed Yalexes with refined Quintessence through a process learned from Haggar’s specs (the unrefined Q was, as described in the comic, a crop, a grain harvest, so raw energy either directly from them or extracted from another source, even from the native natural environment or maybe even brought from the empire. Allura sees juniberries and grass being pulverized in her vision, so it is possible that they used every energy source available - and that would explain also why there’s a wolf that has alchemic powers in the Abyss, just like I mentioned earlier - due to the experiments they applied on everything available in their environment).

And then, in the stasis chambers facility, they were actually being refueled with whatever they had available, and that was the inexpensive, easily available, purple Galra Quintessence. Here are the reasons why I believe that:

1) Because Altean energy is not purple, it is blue. Whatever would come out of their bodies would be blue. I know, I know, the Alteans in the Komar mechas exuded purple energy, but that’s because Haggar infused them with her evil magic and the corrupted Dark Entity, which she manipulated as she wished. I doubt Lotor’s Alteans were giving off purple energy.

2) As seen in S1E10 “Collection and Extraction”, the purple Quintessence is a refined form of fuel, obtained from yellow Quintessence. One would not directly extract purple quintessence from a living being.

3) We’ve been presented so many times with regeneration pods in the show… First Allura and Coran were in stasis pods, then Lance, Keith… It’s like a repeating song - regeneration pods, regeneration pods… Foreshadowing?

4) There are no tubes coming in and out of the pod itself, just a vat on top of the pod, filled with purple Quintessence, similar to how Zarkon wore his canisters on the back of his suit.

5) The foreshadowings from the comic do not speak about incapacitated donors, but about free-willing, dedicated, sentient beings.

6) Lotor says he doesn’t want to resort to the barbarism of the Komar, which was basically extracting Quintessence out of every living being without their accord. Well, if those people were indeed forcefully drained of energy in those pods, it would have been barbaric.

7) And in the spirit of what the Executive Producers said about Lotor, that he actually tells THE TRUTH every damn time, let’s revisit what he replies to Pidge, in S6E4, when she accuses him of being a murderer: “You know nothing about what you speak!” Sorry, I had to highlight this one. It is the ultimate truth, because he Does. Not. Lie. And to tell Pidge something like this… Pidge, who is THE SMARTEST, the most rational, the most inquisitive, the one who solves all the puzzles and mysteries, defeats her own self at chess, hacks into any Galra tech… Wow, that is the ultimate insult. Do not think for a minute that they chose Pidge randomly for this one. They could have picked Keith, Shiro, Lance, anyone else. No, the writers chose HER. Pidge, you’re an ignorant (sorry, Pidge stans), and with her, we ALL are, because she ultimately is the voice of all of us who might have believed what the story appeared to tell us. We RUSHED to conclusions. And Allura rushed to yeet him, believing Romelle. Keith jumped the gun on making judgements right away, although Shiro had taught him better, to never rush, because patience yields focus. That quote, my friends, has a very clear role in this show.

Look again at the Alteans in the pods. Look at their bodies, their faces. Those wider lines on the skin might actually be battle scars. Because Keith and Krolia, after working with the Blades, and fighting in many battles, seem to have similar markings on their faces. Another possibility is that those are burn scars, similar to when an electrical discharge burns through an object, because from that we have seen, the Druid and the Altean energies look like an electric arc. One thing that makes me think so is the fact that the scars are symmetrical.

Some of them might have been energy donors for feeding the Yalexes, others - pilots.

Pilots of what? - you might ask.

Of Yalexes.

But you might say… those white-legged creatures are too small to accommodate an Altean inside. At least from how they look in the show, they’re pretty small. Maybe, but remember the Alteans are chameleonic people that can change size and color. If Allura was able to grow in size, why not shrink as well?

The reason why I think those Yalexes were piloted, is because the working principle for all these mechas (including Voltron, Sincline, the Komar mechas, the robeasts) is to have a pilot inside. You can’t have the Entity simply inhabit a machine - it needs a living being to operate. (That’s one good reason to believe that Lotor was not completely dead inside Sincline in S8, because that robot was moving, damn it! He was the Malocoti dragon, under the spell of the evil witch, but he was moving. Through what turn of events did he end up dead - like afterlife-dead - at the end of the show? Can someone explain it to me?).

These Yalexes look like machines to me, honestly. Not some sort of organic or energy-based creature. Infused with Altean energy. And I bet they suck out a crap-ton of Altean energy in order to efficiently defend the Quantum Abyss. I don’t think they are unmanned. Because, again, the Camel Priest also says that they ‘die’ / ‘are being reborn’ through the Yalex, so there must be some sort of symbiosis going on there.

Being a Quantum Abyss defender is no easy task, in a place where all the shearing forces are tearing apart the fabric of space-time. Some of them fall into the neutron star gravity, like the ones Keith and Krolia shook off. How many of them must have been lost in the fights with the Galra?

Returning to the pin about Ranveig’s super-weapon. Remember that creature? Oh, it’s a good-looking beast, one that Keith and Krolia were after (that’s how Keith met his mom, while on a mission to destroy the super-weapon). Here are some quotes from the show, to refresh your memory:

S5E5: “Warlord Ranveig intercepted an undocumented shipment of quintessence traveling through his territory. He took it for his own and began experimenting with it. It’s more powerful than any quintessence we’ve received from the empire, and it has some very unexpected effects.”

S6E2: Krolia: “I was with Ranveig when an unmarked cargo ship passed into his region. When we checked it out, there was no crew aboard. The ship had been nearly torn to pieces, but inside, a single vat of quintessence remained. It was unlike any other quintessence we’d seen.”

Keith: “Were there navigation records aboard?”

Krolia: “No, but I analyzed the ship personally. The radiation signature indicated it had passed through the quantum abyss.”

S8E3: Keith: “Ranveig found the creature in the Quantum Abyss and experimented on it with Lotor’s quintessence. He trained it to take out his Galra enemies, but he couldn’t control it. The beast couldn’t differentiate between adversaries and allies.”

And this is the lovely beast:

They never gave a name to that super-weapon creature (I wonder why), but I’m gonna call it… Narti. The reason why I call it Narti can be found here.

I have some reasons, as well, to believe that:

- Narti uses mind-control by touching someone’s back of their head with her palm. The creature speaks to Keith by holding the head of a robot sentry in its hand.

- body similarities (as described in the linked article as well)

- The creature is highly intelligent, understands language, is capable of operating computers and… and… wait for it… capable of ERASING MEMORIES.

And here lies my biggest proof, and it’s connected to the entire story about the clandestine vats of Quintessence, as I will expand below:

My theory is that the injured Narti ended up somewhere just beyond the entrance of the Quantum Abyss (where Ranveig later found her), because Lotor most likely ordered his trusted Galra sentries to rescue her and take her to a “black site” (to mirror the title of the episode, because I believe it wasn’t only about the interrogation of Throk).

Think of it: they were all hunted down by Zarkon. Lotor was the main target, but the other sentries were not spared of animosity. Where would be the best place to run and hide, that they knew well? Hm? Wasn’t the Quantum Abyss part of their routine routes, as they worked under Lotor? And they would be protected by the all-powerful Yalexes and by the intrinsically dangerous environment of the place. Who knew well the paths that were relatively unaffected by the space-time distortions? Yes, that’s right, Lotor’s dear Galra fellows, secret workers, the ones that show up everywhere around him when he’s at the colonies. The guys that operate the moon facilities, the unmarked cargo ships, the cruisers, the ones that also built his Sincline ships!

The way Haggar operated on Narti and spied on Lotor was through the dark entity inside Kova (that cat, in my opinion, definitely had the entity inside; it’s been implied since when Alfor asked Honerva how old the cat was).

You don’t believe Kova was the actual tracker? Here’s what Acxa told the Atlas crew, in S8E5 “The Grudge”:

“I never had a creature companion, but one of my partners, Narti, was bonded to an immortal cat named Kova. That cat gave her the ability to experience the world. […] Until Lotor killed Narti and we had to abandon the animal on our destroyed ship so we could escape without being tracked.” (You think that whole discussion about pets, among Atlas crew members, was a useless scene? I honestly completely forgot about that part, it was complete fluff. )

But Lotor, instead of slaying Kova, went for Narti. There are several possible reasons why. Maybe because he would have released the dark entity from the cat and possibly risked infecting someone else? Or maybe he would have released a ginormous amount of energy and it would have ended up being a suicide move? Or maybe sentimental attachment to the cat? Or maybe the cat was too fast/ too small? Anyway, he got Narti. I’m sure it was a very hard decision to make, but he had to save everyone else. It was either that or continue to be tracked by Haggar. But I believe he didn’t want to let her die.

So, while Lotor was on the run along with his remaining, frightened generals, he secretly ordered his scuttling Galra squadrons to take Narti to a “black site”, to somehow try to heal her and, maybe, interrogate her to find out how this could have happened. Maybe the wound was bad enough that it needed a desperate measure, and they resorted to the pure Quintessence they had at hand. Maybe Narti was already dead and the Entity resurrected her, just like it did with Zarkon and Honerva. We don’t know all the details, but the canon definitely tells us that the beast got indiscriminately violent after exposure to pure quintessence.

As we know, pure quintessence causes all sorts of terrible problems, it’s basically like an overdose of meds, and, as Krolia stated, it had some unexpected results. Narti’s deepest resentment against the Galra became her ultimate obsession of killing Galra-only. We don’t know her backstory, but from what Acxa told Veronica in S8, they were all treated as pariah in the empire: “I was an outcast, born and bred in war. The only way I survived was to become worse than my enemies.” I’m sure Narti had a lot of vexation against the Galra, since she was a ‘half-breed’ as well, so turning into a beast that wanted to kill Galra-only makes total sense. It also explains why the beast totally ignored Lance and Hunk and went after Keith and Lahn.

The one thing that solidified my belief that Narti was the one who ravaged the unmarked cargo ship (the one that had passed through the Quantum Abyss, where Krolia said she found that single vat of quintessence, and there was no crew aboard) was the fact that there were no navigation records left on it. And, again, I’m reminding everyone that in animation they don’t waste airtime. Why would they make Keith ask Krolia if there were any navigation records left? Just to waste some airtime budget?

What is one of Narti’s famous talents? Erasing memories!! Manipulating minds. Isn’t that why Haggar was frustrated about being incapable of probing Throk’s mind? Oh, how satisfied Lotor was! Remember his smirk? Again, that was not a pointless scene. They even made Haggar say “no one can completely wipe a memory away” while they torture Throk, just to prove that she was baffled by the situation. Yup, someone CAN, actually, wipe a memory away. And that is Narti. Here’s Lotor enjoying himself while Haggar tortures Throk. Narti also mind-controls the king of planet Puig, remember that?

To put a bigger stamp on my proof, here’s Pidge, in S8E3, “The Prisonner’s Dilemma”, when trying to access the ship’s file directory, while the creature was roaming freely through the corridors. Pidge says, regarding the file: “It appears to be corrupted.” Minutes later, we see the creature operating the computer terminal with her palm fully touching the panel, (see one of previous screen-caps) interrupting Pidge’s transmission to Keith, in which she tries to warn him that there is something out there. During the fight with the creature, Pidge attempts to open some doors, only to scream seconds later: “That thing overrode my protocol!”

The creature also had a plan of how to attract more Galra into her trap: she set up a distress beacon (yordam bering exus). She’s not dumb at all!!

That is Narti, my friends.

She is basically the living PROOF of what pure Quintessence can do to someone. It literally turns you into a monster. And that was supposed to be a LEARNING POINT for the teens watching the show, that TOO MUCH of anything can make you lose your mind, your soul, your body. Parallel that to how BOTH Allura and Lotor lost their minds fighting each other, after accessing the rift, and now you get the bigger picture. There is also a bigger role that she carries in closing the arcs of Lotor’s generals, discussed in the TPL article that I linked.

An interesting feature this creature has is the ability to move extremely fast, almost close to teleportation skills (you can still see a trail of its movement, and that is exactly what Pidge tried to figure out, when she decrypted the video footage of the monster in the aforementioned episode). And… we’re back to the Entity and its marvelous property of being extremely fast, jittery, teleportation-capable. Which convinces me now (I wasn’t sure before) that Narti actually not only got an overdose of pure Quintessence, but also a gulp of Entity.

Which would make sense, because the Entity is capable of resurrecting people (see Zarkon and Honerva), and if she were dead or close to death, the medics must have employed some last resort methods. It also explains why the resulting beast is so enraged.

I believe Narti is the one who accidentally interrupted some important transports that were going into/out of the Quantum Abyss. When Keith, Romelle and Krolia arrived at the moon facility, it looked abandoned and full of dust. Which means those Galra sentries/scientists/medics that were supposed to get there, taking care of the operations, they did not make it. Those ravaged ships that Krolia found, with nobody on board… those were Narti’s doing.

Who was hunting Galra and only Galra? Narti, the enraged girl!

So Lotor, under the pressure of being spied by Haggar and hunted down by Zarkon, shot himself in the foot, big time. By injuring Narti, he set in motion a chain of events that cascaded down to the biggest misunderstanding of his 10k years of life.

IF there had been sentries at the moon colony, to properly operate the facility, Keith, Krolia and Romelle would have found out the truth directly from them. Not by forming an impression based on their biases.

And I just can’t hold it back, now that I have an idea about Kosmo as well. What if he was supposed to be used as a story moral that the Entity can be a tool for good, under the right handler? Kosmo can teleport, thus he must possess the Entity. Remember, he was a puppy when he fell out of the sky and became Keith’s pet. So Keith raised him, into a GOOD boy.

There are some plot holes that I’d like to discuss at this point.

1 - Bandor saying “Lotor… The other colony… It’s all a lie.”

A lie in reference to what?

What we are tempted immediately to gather from Bandor’s discombobulated phrases is that Lotor lied about the other colony. Yet he does not say exactly that. He utters the beginning of three unfinished sentences. Pay attention to the punctuation. I copied it exactly as displayed in the subtitles. Near their death, people usually are incoherent and cannot finish their words.

Let me give you an example of how I could finish these sentences and get a completely different meaning:

- Lotor never told us, but…

- The other colony holds the truth.

- It’s all a lie (here).

[and then Bandor gives his last breath]

Hm? Would this be so far away from the truth? After all, the main colony did look like a big, fake Paradise, blatantly resembling the Hobbits’ Shire on Middle-earth. Even the serene soundtrack that goes with it in every episode (S6E2, S6E2, S8E2) is meant to suggest an ethereal environment. Look at the pastel color palette of the landscapes. A cloudy frame envelops the pictures. And we know from canon it was actually a simulation inside a spaceship. A simulation is, according to the dictionary, a deception.

And we know Lotor wanted to keep them inside this big deception, because as soon as he discovers Bandor’s crashed shuttle, he tells his men: “Clean up the wreckage. Leave no evidence this ever happened.” The reason why he keeps them in a bubble is absolutely in good will, and out of compassion for them, because the’ve been hunted by the Galra for so long. He doesn’t want them to experience the horrors and terror of their ancestors. They are too precious to him to be exposed to that again. They are his pearls, carefully hidden inside the Abyss.

Notwithstanding, everything there was a big lie, because they were kept away from the scary world outside, and Bandor, who was born in that climate of eternal harmony, bucolic hills and never-ending joy, was shocked to learn that the world outside was cruel and extremely dangerous. And because he was too immature to understand Lotor’s profound reasons for doing this, he decided, with his last strands of energy, to fly back and warn the others, potentially spreading panic and destabilizing the community. To tell everyone that their world is in danger, that dark forces are lurking out there while they sit and do nothing. That some day, an evil witch might come and take their souls away.

And I invite the DotU experts here to see any similarities with the original character, for which I cannot comment since I’m not proficient in DotU.

I’m circling back to what the EP’s have said about Lotor, that he doesn’t lie. Sure, he omits to say certain things, purposefully (Lie by omission. But is it an evil lie or out of pure intentions?). Whatever he does say is true. If I were to compare who knew more about the truth - the main colony or the second colony - I’d be more confident to say that the second colony knew much more about the truth.

So… it’s all a lie, huh?

2 - Where were the unmarked shipments of pure Quintessence headed? Into the Quantum Abyss or out of it?

There are two schools of thought regarding this one.

- the pure Quintessence was coming out of the Abyss, from the second Altean colony, after being extracted from the Alteans in those purple pods. This is basically what the official canon lets us believe.That Lotor harnessed their life source for his own personal gain. And this theory was left, quietly, as the official stance, dubiously at odds with the rushed, one-phrase redemption Allura gives him at the end.

- the other theory (sorry I can’t find the reference link!) is that the pure Quintessence was actually headed towards the second colony, coming from the empire, more specifically from what was collected after Haggar used the Komar weapon on Voltron, in S1E13. Haggar even exclaims “It’s pure quintessence!”

If all these looney-tooney symbols I decoded are actually a thing, with the Yalex and Haruspex and all that batshit-crazy camel spit allegory, then I’d say neither of the above two theories is completely true. If the Alteans are actually capable of purifying Quintessence, following the specs from the Druid refinery, and obtaining close to 100% purity (gosh, let’s talk Breaking Bad), then they wouldn’t need any external shipments from the empire and Lotor could easily fuel his comet ore ships with Q coming from the Abyss. Albeit, not from Alteans in stasis pods, but from a refinery. (I feel the sudden urge to give Q an atomic number and find its spot in the periodic table).

On the other hand, it made sense narratively to have Q coming from the Komar weapon, since Lotor is a master at stealing stuff from under his parents’ nose; otherwise, what was the point of that entire story? Just to prove how badass Haggar was? One speculative solution would be to have both sources: one in the Abyss to fuel the Yalexes and one source in the empire to fuel the comet ships, although this theory is a bit too stretched.

—->>> Another option, more in line with a Breaking Bad scenario, would be that Lotor got his hands on some pure Q from the Komar - and - he stole the specs from Haggar’s refinery. Brought them to the scientists alchemists at the colony and said: “make me this pure Q, following these instructions”.

And that would explain why, in the comic, there’s already a Yalex pearl in the ceiling, because it’s the manufacturer’s ISO Quality Standard.

It would also justify having to use the word Haruspex - not just for the pun - but because Haruspex basically means someone who inspects something and analyzes it. You could say that the pure Q of Komar is an extract from Voltron, ‘the entrails’ of Voltron.

So, listen: they got the pure Q from the Komar, analyzed it, took the specs from Haggar’s refinery, followed the guidelines, and produced their own refined Q. For feeding Yalexes, for fueling Lotor’s comet ships, for medical purposes gone wild - like turning Narti into a monster… Eh? How does this sound? More like it? Did I write good fiction?

At this point, the Altean alchemists can be safely called the little Walter Whites of the show, while Lotor is both Heisenberg - the mastermind and Jesse Pinkman - the smuggler. Oh, boy, what mess did I get into?

Quintessence can be easily compared with meth. It does make someone go crazy, doesn’t it? And it gives them sooo much energy… Just google its side effects (if you don’t already know them). Ahem… first one is - a higher libido (for further enrichment about this particular Q aspect, refer to a certain rift tag in ao3); - intense feelings of pleasure; - excessive talking; - rapid heart rate; - confusion, paranoia, agitation; - aggressive behavior / sexually aggressive behavior (I wonder how Zarkon & Haggar spent their private time); - long term depression, anxiety, paranoia; - long term difficulty of feeling any pleasure. I skipped some of them here, but you get the picture.

Does any of this make any sense, Jesse??…

~~I dunno, b!tch, I’m just here for the Q~~

On a serious note though - wasn’t I talking earlier about one of the morals of the story - how too much of something can be bad for you? Addiction, anyone? And it’s already been discussed in the fandom, it’s not like I’m the first one to open this subject. Honerva and Zarkon basically fell prey to substance abuse and it’s not really hard to spot the signs from their backstories. And Lotor told Allura straight to her face: “The Galra Empire is completely reliant on quintessence.”

(I’m still thinking about making Q an element in the periodic table. Place it somewhere after the last element, so it’d have to have an atomic number above 118. Radioactive, most likely. And, unfortunately, highly unstable. Lol. Btw, there’s no known element name that starts with Q, so there you go, we’re creating it now.)

One more look back at the Camel Priest: it wears a red cape-skirt. Red, again. Red herring. And it talks in poetic, cryptic, elaborate figures of speech. And has a sort of an unconventional, victorian-punk outfit. Lance and Hunk poke fun at him.

Well who’s our closest character that sums up all of these ‘qualities’?

L.O.T.O.R.

******

The next two comic books, in my opinion, are not so heavily loaded with symbolism, with a few exceptions, which I’ll briefly discuss.

There are some really fun moments, like Lance’s guide to romance + his best pick-up lines and Hunk’s fear of getting married.

Hunk’s sensitivity and nurturing nature is being emphasized in a story about a monster that - we eventually learn - is very angry because she is missing her baby - hints at Honerva’s desperate attempts to find her son in a perfect reality.

Another parallel worthy to mention comes in the form of a “wolfie” that, honestly, looks just like the White Lion (which, imo, also looks like a wolf, but that’s another story, haha). Except this guy is blue, but he does talk about being a warden of some sacred grounds, and he fights with the only paladin that is a half-galra, Keith. According to this creature, “only the chosen may enter the sacred hunting grounds.” This foreshadows Lotor’s battle with the White Lion at Oriande, and his struggle to become “chosen”, according to Altean standards.

Eventually, the wolfie is defeated by Coran, who is sick with the Nomo virus (parallel with the Entity). By coughing into the beast’s mouth, he releases “millions, billions, trillions” of “aggressive little creatures”. Coran flying a kotka dragon is just so in character, by the way.

The third and last comics volume brings some interesting references to the leitmotif of the showman, and the idea that TV can manipulate people’s minds, clearly stated by Coran and Allura, after being guests in a green alien’s TV show:

Yup, these are from the official VLD comic, I kid you not. Recognize the leitmotif of the green guy - the showman? Look for him in S7E4 “The Feud” as well. Why green, you’d say? It’s the unofficial color of money, at least this ~$$$~ kind of currency )

Lotor also states the same thing, first episode we meet him on screen, in S3E1: “The masses are easily manipulated.” After pulling so much meta out of these innocent, lovable comics, I believe this was meant intentionally, as a direct message to us, to not trust everything that we’ll see. Example: If Bandor says “Lotor… It’s all a lie”, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Lotor lies. "That guy with the stupid show? He doesn't speak for everyone." The green guy (symbol of the TV and media deceivers) doesn’t speak for everyone. Which means there are people who will get the real message of the show, despite all the censorship.

So here’s a quick recap of the most important symbols. These were all deduced after noticing various leitmotifs spread throughout the series.

Lotor is:

-Dakin; the Coranic dragon.

-Queen Luxia.

-The green Guardian monster.

-The red dragon; Princess Malocoti.

-The red-caped Camel Priest.

The Alteans with alchemic powers (the martyrs) are:

-The villagers turned into stone.

-Florona and other sacrificial mermaids.

-A select number of ant-looking aliens who were offered as sacrifice to the green monster

-The camels who willingly give themselves to the rebirth through the Yalex

The Entity is:

-(skipped in Monsters and Mana, only mentioned by Coran as “wait to see who Dakin was working for)

-The underwater dragon / the mind-swishing aquatic food

-The brain-worm

-The Abomination

-The mushrooms

-The Yalex monster

Anyone who becomes One with the entity: Honerva, Lotor, Zarkon, the possessed Alteans, even Allura. Remember, the Entity can be good, or bad, depending on who uses it.

As you noticed, everything I’ve analyzed has been collected and put together from all throughout VLD, including the comics. I actually stated this in the beginning, too: “the recurring themes are there, scrambled in no apparent order.” And look at what the EP’s have said in a Syfy interview:

LM: We’ve chosen to kind of selectively release little bits about our villains, like - along the way. We didn’t really have one episode where you expose everything there is to know. A lot of it is kind of underlying, for people to kind of - if they’re willing to look for it - they’ll find it. […]

JDS: I think that - in our minds, and in the writers’ room - you know, there’s a full, fleshed-out backstory that goes back to… who-knows-when. Um, yeah, it’s all there, it’s all a matter of…, the viewers are gonna, like, find it, and… [motioning his fingers to suggest keyboard typing]

Interviewer: …sift through it.

JDS: Yeah.

Are you still there? Just a little bit left. One more sip of coffee.

At this final point, I’d like to recap Lotor’s arc, from his inception to what was supposed to be his redemption.

So he’s born from two parents who were ‘dead inside’, high on Quintessence and infected with the Entity. He himself has the Entity and (most likely) learns how to deal with it from a young age, or his body naturally creates a symbiotic relationship with it (as opposed to the parasitic relation it has with Honerva and Zarkon’s bodies). He grows up basically raised by another mother, Dayak. He tries to get close to his father, but he constantly gets pushed away, marginalized, because he has “impurities”.

His inquisitive spirit starts digging up the truth about Altea. He starts to track down the survivors and establishes a secret colony for them in the Quantum Abyss.

After Zarkon destroys the planet where he worked along the denizens, he finds refuge in researching his Altean heritage, its ancient history and traditions.The colony he’d secretly established in the Quantum Abyss is thriving.

Somewhere along the many millennia of his life, due to constant harassment from Haggar, who lurks around him at every corner, he decides to step up the Colony protection. He realizes that nothing can keep the witch at bay, except something equally powerful: the Entity itself. Haggar has been, for millennia, quite frustrated that she couldn’t control his mind the same way she influenced Zarkon, through the Entity. (Remember, Lotor tells Zarkon this “You’ve become nothing more than one of the witch’s monsters. Does she control you as well?”) It never worked with Lotor - as we find out, when she remembers Lotor is her son, in S5E2. In her vision, she sees him first as a child, then adolescent, then adult, with glowing eyes, just like her. The adolescent Lotor turns and runs away from her, and she can’t keep up with him - a clear hint at the fact that he managed to escape her spells.

The second colony is established. He tells them the truth about the dangers they face, how Haggar and Zarkon conquer world after world using the Entity, and if they don’t do something, their society would also be on the line. The Alteans are fully on board with his plans, they establish a military base and a research facility to study the Entity and the Quintessence. They most likely run into numerous failed attempts to figure out how to create a defense system against Haggar. Probably many Alteans perish during experiments. Martyrs. Quite a different word than “killed”, as stated by Romelle, or “murdered”, as in Pidge.

Lotor continues his archeology research around the Universe, discovering scattered information about Voltron, King Alfor, alchemy, Oriande. He tries to put it all together, to figure out the secrets of Voltron. That’s why he says he gave all he had to plumb the depths of King Alfor’s knowledge. He most likely needs that, desperately, to defend the Colony.

Knowing historical facts about the existence of a rift, he develops his own political convictions and agenda, about bringing unlimited Quintessence to the Universe, in order to stop the Galra madness. He believes that by feeding that monster that is lurking in the dark corners of the Universe, and by making Q a cheap fuel for the Empire, the greed for it will vanish and peace will be restored again - “a complete paradigm shift, a new dawn for the old empire.” Maybe somewhere in the back of his mind, he is rooting for an Altean ruling, somewhere in the future, through the power of rift Quintessence fueling his unbeatable weapons (The blown out of proportions version of this dream is seen when he loses his mind at the rift battle: “Once I wipe out Voltron, I’m going to start a new Altea. An Altea that will never know of Princess Allura or King Alfor.”)

When Voltron gets drained of energy from the Komar, Lotor makes his first contact with the real deal: pure Quintessence. He’d never seen anything like that before. Only Haggar and Zarkon knew about it, because they’d been in the rift.

He manages to get his hands on some pure Quintessence and steals (or he’d already stolen) Haggar’s specs for Quintessence purification, and begins creating his own pure Q in the second colony. It is used to feed Entity-possessed Alteans piloting Yalexes. The white mechs are not made out of a comet ore, so they suck a lot of energy from the alchemists. It is also, possibly, used to carry out his experiments at the Rift, as discussed below.

Though not established well in time, somewhere recently probably, he also starts the construction of the Rift Gate (most likely with undercover Altean workforce, due to its blue glow and juniberry-shaped entrance). He might need a lot of pure Quintessence for the construction. He hides it in that underwater, very old Galra station, where Kolivan and Keith first discover its existence. Lotor wants to go into the rift to get pure Quintessence. Much easier than having to exhaust Altean alchemists to purify it from raw materials.

Haggar continues to harass him and stalk him. Galra generals that rule over the territories surrounding the Quantum Abyss try sending probes in there. The Yalexes effectively defend against intruders.

And then he figures out that Voltron was made out of a comet ore. He discovers one comet stuck between realities, he attempts to retrieve it, but fails miserably (as stated by Ezor, who recalls how unhappy his pilots were). Eventually, he uses Voltron to get it, which adds up to the already established mistrust.

He’s now almost 100% positive that by infusing his comet ships with pure Quintessence, he’ll be able to pierce the reality barrier. “According to his calculations”, they should be successful.

Zarkon and Honerva figure out he’s got his hands on a trans-reality comet and start hunting him. Left without his main cruiser, having to kill one of his generals, he attempts his masterful plan, of entering the rift. He fails lamentably, realizing he’s missing a piece of information. The generals betray him, but he escapes; he gets chased by Zarkon through solar flares, he escapes him too; then jumps right in the middle of the action to save the Paladins and the Coalition at Naxzela.

After being a prisoner for a while in Allura’s castle, feeding them intel to gain their trust, he finally makes a breakthrough, by killing Zarkon and lighting the flame at Kral Zera. He becomes the Emperor and things are good for him for a while. Together with Allura, he makes revolutionary discoveries; they visit Oriande and Allura helps him by infusing his ships with Quintessence, the right way, as she learned from Oriande. During this time spent together with her, something unexpected happens to him. He falls in love. And then the painful part of the Voltron story unfolds. Romelle shows up and things go sideways completely. Even though the mind-controlled Shiro clone delivers him to Haggar, she still has no power over him. While she basically tries to excuse herself for not being a good mother, he completely rejects her - a big blow in her newly-awakened motherly instincts.

Returning to the rift to try to talk to Allura, he finds her in a deep state of rage against him (most likely fueled by the big dose of Q received in the rift). There is basically no way to reason with her, although he tries. He really does. He even orders his generals to hold their fire. Acxa is worried about him. Most likely because she figured out that he’s in love with her, and she sees that as his weak spot. The spark that lights up the evil flame of the Entity inside him is Allura’s spiteful, unreasoned comparison with Zarkon. The one thing he hated most, his weakest spot - being compared to his father - coming from the lips of the woman he loves. That completely ruins him inside. He ends up exactly as the Malocoti dragon. He loses his reason as well, uttering threats about a new Altea that will never know about Princess Allura and King Alfor. And then he loses the battle in the rift, and remains trapped there until Honerva pulls him out.

And this is where S8 left us with lots of question marks. What we got is basically nothing. We only see a suggestion of a melted corpse (but with motes of Quintessence coming out of his body). And then, a quick redemption sentence from Allura and a bitter “he deserved better” from his mother.

But the comics tell us something else. The first comic book was released in 2016, just at the beginning of the show. And that was the map, the Rosetta Stone of Voltron.

The comics tell us that Lotor was saved from the spell of the witch.

This is what I think really happened: Honerva pulls him from the rift. At this point, his body is pretty much done for, but I assume his consciousness is trapped inside the Sincline (in a similar fashion to how Shiro’s mind was trapped inside the Black Lion). Honerva knows a trick or two of how to ‘resurrect' people, and she infuses him with high doses of her evil Entity powers and with Quintessence (that’s why we see motes of purple Quintessence coming out of his body). He’s become a full vampire robeast. Being basically “dead inside”, the high-on-Q, full-vampire Lotor behaves extremely violent, killing indiscriminately everyone around him (foreshadowed by the Narti monster, who cannot distinguish enemies from allies). The only thing that seemed to make the Sincline pause and not shoot was… Allura -oops. Otherwise, he is Honerva’s puppet, just like the Malocoti dragon.

Allura has a vision where she sees Lotor explaining what the Entity is, and that she should become One with it in order to defeat Honerva. We don’t know exactly who encouraged that Entity to come visit her. It might be the Entity itself, or it might be Lotor’s own telepathic work, channeled through the mycelial network of Entities - the final station being the Entity trapped inside that vacuum tube. We don’t know for sure. All we know is that it seems to be a force for good.

Eventually giving in and taking the Entity inside herself, Allura travels through Honerva’s mind along with her friends and they free the Old Paladins. After exiting Honerva’s mind, the Paladins wake up, except Allura, who is fallen into some sort of deep sleep or coma. This trip is something she needs to see through on her own.

There are missing parts here, as I analyzed in this meta. I believe one full episode just for this adventure.

Allura travels out of Honerva’s mind, guided by the Entity, and she arrives inside the Sincline’s memory space, where she meets Lotor’s consciousness. The Old Paladins might be with her as well (because Lotor needs to reconcile with his father, too). There are two possibilities here: either Lotor is already a peaceful ghost (like Shiro), who will reveal to her, in a nice conversation, the whole truth about the Alteans, Honerva, bla-bla. Or… Lotor’s ghost is as dark and violent as the Old Paladins were, because Honerva’s spell reaches even inside Sincline’s memory space. This would make the encounter more dramatic, probably a fight with him ensues, the Old Paladins help Allura restrain him, and eventually she releases him from the spell. The whole nine yards. And then he tells his side of the story, makes peace with his father, the Old Paladins say their farewell, and Allura is left to decide with him the next steps.

After waking up, she has a discussion with Lance, who finally understands Allura’s heart belongs somewhere else. A mature Lance vows to help her retrieve Lotor from Honerva.

There are some episodes that are completely missing, but I believe they would mirror the story of Princess Malocoti being freed from the ‘dragon’ (Sincline). Allura would retrieve his soul from the mecha and put it back inside his body, just like she did with Shiro. She would resurrect his body the Altean way, not Honerva’s pitiful way. Like the old oak tree that blooms again, bursting with Quintessence under Lance’s eyes, we would see Lotor’s shriveled body regain its beauty and vitality. And Lance might be there to witness it.

Following the leads from the now famous article Seek Truth in Darkness by @leakinghate, it’s clear that the last few episodes edited Lotor out. He is there, helping the Paladins defeat Honerva. There are now seven Paladins, just as Kolivan predicted in his weird ‘interview’ in S8E7 (which totally looks like wasted airtime if you don’t understand the symbolism). The bringing back to life of all realities comes in the form of a juniberry flower - three petals - three almighty powers: Honerva, Allura and Lotor. He did say that “all life began with a single juniberry flower”, in case anyone wondered why he spoke again in looney-tooney ‘cave poetry’. It wasn’t just Allura and Honerva. Lotor was there as well, because, as Leakinghate mentioned, this is his path to understanding his Altean side, which is Sacrifice (martyrdom, if we want to be more specific), the path to passing the Oriande trials.

If the martyred villagers were turned into stone, the saviors that sacrificed themselves also get their own stone statues. We get to see Allura’s, but Lotor had a statue as well, in the colony, and it might find its final spot either on Altea, or on Daibazaal, we don’t know. We might see one for Honerva, as well. The Great Restoration of all realities is accomplished by a flipped-gender Trinity, challenging stereotypes: The Mother, The Daughter and The Son (just like the princess saving the prince is a flipped script). They most likely become higher beings in an upper plane, guiding, watching over, and probably, also making contact with the mortals, from time to time. This kind of story with the ascension of the main character into the skies, into a higher dimension is not uncommon, actually, in the classic Japanese animated series from the 80’s, and it would be the Grande Finale’s nod to that tradition.

You see, my friends, there are so many threads that were left loose in this show. They were meant to close into beautiful arcs, monumental teaching points for children, teens and adults as well. The writers and EP’s intended to finish these arcs. But… “this is show business”, no matter what the “right thing to do” is.

This analysis is based on comparisons, symbolic interpretation, semantics and speculations. As I stated in the beginning, I might have gotten some things wrong, but overall, I believe this is what we should have seen.

If some of these might prove incorrect at a later date, I always welcome improvements.

Thank you to all the good people of the Lotura Discord, who constantly inspire me through thought-provoking discussions and awesome sources of knowledge!

To conclude my very, very long peroration, I believe Lotor is the type of character that stands right on the edge of black and white, good and evil. He lives on the Razor’s Edge, just like the episode title suggests (a Sanskrit concept that passing over a sharp edge is difficult, thus the path to salvation is hard). He wants nothing but to be the good leader his parents never were, yet his environment and upbringing constantly try to push him off the edge. Like an acrobat that walks on a tightrope, he needs to make it to the other side.

Did he ever make it?

#lotor #voltron #lotor deserved better #vld meta #vld comics meta #lotura

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