Red and Blue make Purple

[leakinghate]

I’ve been awake for 24 hours

And I’ve made a conspiracy theory.

There were… a lot of moments this season where our theories could have paid off. It was like the plot walked right up to the line, peered across, and then leapt backwards again.

It didn’t escape my notice that we managed to predict damn near all of the negative moments, but none of our positive predictions panned out. (Hell, I even called the mechs fusing for goodness sake!)

Did you notice it too?

A friend said to me:

“It’s interesting, nearly ALL of the episodes had a moment or two in them where Lotor COULD have reappeared, and didn’t.  Do you think he was written in to be the savior all along, and it was the higher ups that said no, good boy Lance? It seems like, given the narrative, and even given this season, it should have been Lotura, and all that wasn’t just feels… off.  And not as a Lotura stan, I mean in general.”

Yeah. I spotted that too.

I could almost brush it off as wishful thinking, but for one thing.

Lotor, when robeast-ed into Sincline, doesn’t fire on Allura. He takes aim - Lance rushes to stop him but is blocked - but then he stops. For no outside reason. That unambiguously showed that he was both in there and at least somewhat aware of himself.

And with that mind control by Honerva? I was positive they were going to pull a DOTU reference; “My love is stronger than your mind control.”

Imagine that.

Imagine if Honerva tried to force Lotor to kill Allura, and he resisted her, because he loved Allura. And then that would be the moment Allura could save him.

It was…. There was just so many little moments where it seemed like it was about to flip. But didn’t, and played it all straight…

We were so close. SO goddamn close.

…and I keep coming back to The Depths. Because that whole episode is foreshadowing… but why is it foreshadowing if it doesn’t pay off…? The parallels are there they just… don’t complete.

Like… ‘Merla’ realizes there’s something wrong with Lotor. And she tells her buddy not to go near him… and he gets killed. But but it’s never followed up on. Take episode 6, and it just… it feels like it fits into a different plot!

There was so much we were picking up on. So much that would have played out fantastically. Good writing, which would have fit into the s1-6 stuff. But something happened with s7 and 8, something forced some major rewrites… Because every single plot line changed and diverted. The trajectories that they were going down, it just doesn’t make sense where they ended up…like…

Those inconsistencies with Romelle’s story, they’re still there!

Lotor’s speech at the end of s6, it still sounds so much like he’s talking about something different from the paladins….

And Axca’s narrative just straight up doesn’t make sense.

And maybe we still weren’t going to get Lotura endgame…. But I’m convinced the last two seasons were supposed to play out differently

I knew 7 was rewritten on really short notice. But I’d assumed it was to include the MFEs. And maybe it was… But the third arc of Voltron doesn’t flow the same way that arcs 1 and 2 do. The major notable thing, is that it doesn’t utilize the paired plotlines in the same ways the earlier seasons do; making the pacing seem much slower as a result.

It doesn’t make any sense to relegate Honerva to s8 when she’s the arc big bad.

If I had to guess? I think parts of s8 were supposed to be in s7. I think those two non-paladin episodes in s7 were supposed to be paired plots with the first half of the season, so that it didn’t feel so long. It was probably supposed to seem like they were happening at the same time, until you suddenly found out it’d been 3 years and you realized all the garrison stuff was flashback. Boom! Big shock!

It was probably re-shuffled in the early stages of animation. I know there’s a s7 meta or two out there about how Shiro’s role was re-written. But something they point out that interests me: Shiro in s7 is drawn in several shots by a different animator. There’s a really obvious one where Shiro in the foreground is done by Kihyun Ryu and Pidge in the bg is done by someone else. So he obviously wasn’t supposed to be there when that shot was originally animated.

The thing is. Changing one thing can have a domino effect. We know, because they’ve talked about it, that there was supposed to be a sub-plot with Keith and Lotor that got axed in favour of having Shiro back as Black’s paladin.

Would have been cool, eh? That arc was probably why they decided to make Keith half-Galra in the first place. If something that fundamental got canned…

Well.

But that means they had to re-shuffle Keith into more major scenes later to get his growth.

What did his scenes replace? What did the MFEs replace? Something big enough that they had a whole episode length they had to fill with filler.

So if a subplot gets canned…. what goes? Is it the leadership arc? Or is it the romance?

If Lance was supposed to be a rebound…. and we were supposed to get the twist we expected. If you suddenly have to cut out something major… The easiest thing to do is make that rebound permanent - unfortunately, thus sacrificing two characters entirely and a third character’s, well, character.

Think about when these rewrites had to have been happening. It would be sometime between say, season 4 and 5?

Who was the far and away most popular character? With the loudest fans? Demanding he have more focus, be more appreciated? Be the hero?

A big loud fandom who’d be pretty unhappy if their favorite’s crowning moment was not getting the girl.

Lotor and Allura wouldn’t even have met yet. There was no data on how that plot would be received. But there was a lot of data on Lancey-Lance.

Not saying it’s a conspiracy… But.

It’s a conspiracy.

What do you think of my new theory?

We were right. We picked up on all the strings. Unfortunately, the things they were attached to…had been excised.

[4everkawaiiii]

How many times are they going to YEET Allura?😂😂

[vrepitsamypaladudes]

Shiro: Before I fell in love with you I thought my attraction to men was purely physical.

Adam: So you were gay…. then realized you were even more gay.

[graciebunsart]

anatomy studies with lotor in alluras pink towel
full altean Lotor concept

[eilonwiiy]

I was too busy contemplating tossing my laptop or myself off the roof by the time I got to this part, but I JUST realized what Allura says to Honerva when she’s asking her for her help.

Sound familiar?

Great.  Now I’m crying again.  One more thing to add to the endless list of things I can’t comprehend actually happened in this season.  

Like.  I can’t believe they would callback to this line.  And after what was basically a freakin’ Lotura montage no less (again for the billionth time, what was the point????)  

In a world where the writers didn’t lose their minds and actually brought back Lotor properly and gave him the redemption he deserved instead of to his abusers (seriously what the ever-loving fuck??), this exchange should have been between him and Allura.

Look, obviously I did not want either of these characters to die.  While I had lost faith in the writers to do Allura/Lotor justice after season 7 and had resigned myself to suffering through an underwhelming and nonsensical Allurance relationship, I was one of those people who thought everyone worrying about Allura being killed off were crazy.  I even believed the leaks were real, and still, I had NO doubt in my mind that Allura would end up ruling the Alteans in Oriande.  I thought, “Calm down, guys.  The writers couldn’t possibly be THAT stupid to kill off their main WOC character.”  HO BOY JOKES ON ME 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 

*takes a deep breath*

However, if the overall season had been written better so that a sacrifice had some vestige of narrative and poetic integrity, I may have been able to respect it.  That being said, it should have been Allura and Lotor coming together to save and restore all the realities, not Honerva.  In her plea to Honerva, Allura literally credits Lotor for having the knowledge to do so.  Like??  HE is the reason they were even able to fix all the damage his bat-shit crazy, abusive mother was responsible for and save the universe.  He should have been there.  End of story. 

While I personally appreciated Allura’s sacrifice echoing that of her pledge to the White Lion - “I seek the secret of life.  I give my own” - the act itself within the context of what we got in season 8 was far from being done any justice to how meaningful that moment could have been.  What we got instead was something that felt empty, rushed, and ultimately unnecessary, and was further cheapened by the fact that all it took for Honerva to finally see the light and repent for her mistakes was another overwrought inspirational speech from the paladins.  Sure.  That’s believable.  Also, anyone want to explain to me why Allura and the paladins gave Honerva the time of day and not Lotor two seasons ago?  Oh right you can’t because IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE.  

Allura and Lotor were the Chosen Ones.  Seriously, romantic implications present or not, how beautiful would it have been for the finale to have harkened back to their journey into Oriande?  With Lotor getting a second chance to make the right choice and offer himself, thus adding another layer to what should have been his redemption arc.  Even in that scenario, they wouldn’t necessarily need to die.  I personally would have loved to see them walk into the spirit realm, not to their deaths, but onto the next great adventure into the unknown, using Lotor’s knowledge of Altean alchemy and Allura’s abilities to restore the alternate realities and working together to preserve all life.  

The story was right there.  A prince and princess born on opposite sides of war, who have lost everything, finding each other and working together to overcome the pain of their pasts and the prejudices built by those before them would have made for such a compelling and satisfactory ending to Voltron.  They both deserved so much better, together or apart.   

Don’t get me wrong - Honerva is a fantastic villain.  However, rewarding her with redemption, in my opinion, hurts the impact of her story.  A story that is incredibly emotional and complex and, at times, downright disturbing (dragging her son’s melted corpse all over the place?  YIKES.  I’m not even going to go into THAT scene).  And yet… we can still feel a bit of sympathy for how she got there.  It’s a story of someone who made all the wrong choices, desperate for the life they could have had had it not been for, essentially, a drug addiction, and the lengths to which a person will go to change the past.  

But that’s the thing.  She can’t change the past.  The whole season spends the entire time telling us that.  And the cruel irony is that, in her desperate search, she feeds the cycle of pain by continuing to commit atrocities in order to get the happiness she wants and the family she lost. 

Honerva should have been the tragedy.  Not Lotor.

[tescoeverydayvalue]

so that entity was calling out to allura and making her see things in order to convince her to absorb it or whatever,,it showed her who she really wanted to see 

including him whispering in her ear 

she wanted to see lotor then is what this is saying then lol

[space--pony]

Season 8 was so awesome!!!

I can’t believe the Macross theory was actually true! 🤗🤗🤗 It was so cool seeing how it played out. Allura and Lance really weren’t meant for each other, but it’s okay because Lance ended up being someone’s first choice anyways! 😏😊 It was so nice how they ended the relationship on peaceful terms, knowing that they both cared for each other but it just wasn’t going to work out the way they though it would. I think all relationships should be like that when they end.

My favorite part of the season was when Keith was corrupted by the Quintessence and Lance had to fight him on the volcano to try and get him to snap out of it! He even used his Altean broadsword, it was AMAZING! I absolutely loved when Lance said to Keith during the fight, “Don’t you remember when we had our bonding moment? Back in the Castle of Lions when I was hurt? You helped me out back then, even though I was always so mean to you, and then I told you we made a good team. That was TRUE. I’m not even sure why I thought you were my rival anyways, because you really are the most amazing person I’ve ever met.” That very line was what made Keith snap out of it, and he and Lance even hugged! I was in shock! I loved the confirmation later on that they were a couple, when they both stuttered so hard and tried to ask each other out at the same time! It was SO perfect and Lance and Keith are such dorks. ❤💙

I also LOVED when Lotor had his redemption arc! I’m so glad that Allura and Lotor are back together now, they really did truly love each other! It’s so fitting that they’re both together, because now Lotor is helping to make his actions right by working with Allura to bring the remaining Alteans together to form a new Altea!! Honerva and Zarkon were both truly evil, and although I do feel for them after they got corrupted by the Quintessense (man those rift creatures were scary too!), in the end I’m glad they both got what was coming to them. There’s no forgiving for the 10,000 years of pain they caused.

I was also really proud of Keith when he finally got the Voltron chant right! Our baby boy has finally grown up. ❤❤❤

I thought it was so funny when those fake leaks came out, because it just didn’t seem right to me that Shiro would marry some rando so quickly after meeting them, even if they did share a few lines together at some point! So it was really a beautiful moment when he was reunited with Adam! I’m not entirely sure HOW Adam survived that blast from the galra ship and how no one knew about it for four years, but I’m not going to question it because Voltron tends to have a lot of plotholes and why would I question ADASHI? 😍 It was so cute finally seeing Adam and Shiro apologize to each other and get back together in the end. The wedding was so beautiful!! Hearing Keith make his best man speech brought tears to my eyes because Shiro and Keith’s bond is so important to Voltron and you really can’t have a season without these two being together. And Adam and Shiro’s heartfelt vows to each other before they kissed? WOW. It was SO DARN CUTE! That’s the exact kind of representation I wanted out of this season. ❤❤❤ Man, and the statue for Allura back on Earth? That is such an honor and I thought it was so cute that they all took a selfie with it to send to her while she was away doing her duties as the Empress of New Altea! Voltron did NOT disappoint! What an AMAZING SHOW!

What was your favorite part of season 8?! 😃

[minamorsart]

A super quick comic inspired by one of my favorite scenes from the movie The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society!! That movie actually gives me lotura vibes, since the two love interests come from different backgrounds and yet have so much in common with each other :) Now I gotta read the book!!

Lotura is seriously my favorite romantic pairing ever I’ll always love them!!! 💜💖

[crystal-rebellion]

I did a thing.

[incorrectloturaquotes]

*Lotor and allura are trying to heal their relationship after season 8, in which they don’t die and Lotor was purged of the quintessence.*

*Lotor and Allura talking quietly together*

Allura: There is so many interesting things on earth Lotor.

Lotor: *nodding along and listening, both being at a distance and not touching.*

Krolia: *Watching on* The sexual tension between them is worse then Keith and Lance.