space loser giant kitty committee (voltron)

plus it would explain their near-identical expressions

 

i'm hoping for enemy-mine 'we have to work together or (something bad)' team up vs haggar and zarkon. lotor and whoever's in Black (or Allura) can snipe at each other over tactical decisions, we can get more of the generals acting like a team (or a family pls), awkward sibling time with Acxa and Keith, the other generals trying to make heads or tails of their sharpshooter SiC's weird pinkish littlermate...

 

so I don't know how much this matters regarding the show, but today I learned that Kerberos is actually a real thing. It's a key-based software security network authentication protocol.

 

It's a different Romanization of Κέρβερος, more often called "Cerberus" in English, so I'd imagine there might be a few things named that. Sensible name for a theoretical second moon of Pluto, though.

 

Oh my god Pluto and Cerberus

 

Since Lance couldn't get into Blue, I suspect that once you've changed enough to meet the qualifications for a different lion than the one you've been working with prior to now, you don't get to go "cool, but I need to work with my old partner for this one fight"; Blue was not letting Lance in, he had to go work with Red - even though there was a battle going on right outside. Allura's dad designed and built the lions, apparently, and either the lions' selection criteria and ability to pick whether they work at all is something that developed organically (and he had little to no control over) or he was working from an assumption that Voltron's paladins would never have to play musical chairs in the middle of wartime; either way, no one in the original implementation of this seems to have considered that it might be a good thing for the pilots to be able to use each other's lions without needing to do a voodoo chicken dance and pray it works.

The problem was, Keith's still not good at teamwork without someone else to smack him upside the head and keep him focused on the real objective - so he led Voltron into a mission they weren't ready for. They could've managed playing tag with Lotor's ship, but once he fucked off, Keith should've called it there and they should've focused on getting everyone used to the new team configuration. Failing that, he should have called it when they realized that the planet Lotor had gone to was messing with their sensors. (My housemates were surprised it messed with the radios too, but I wasn't; you need a receiver to pick up radio transmissions, and if the primary issue is magnetic interference, the radio waves would probably be just as messed-with as everything else.) I'm really annoyed that Keith seems to have zeroed in on "we gotta take out Lotor" as the solution, since that's...not actually a solution? It just leaves a brand-new power vacuum and it's an empire, it's not like the rest of the Galra elite are going to shuffle their feet and go "oh, we can't possibly" - Lotor was already having to deal with people considering challenging him! If nothing else, Haggar would step up to the plate!

(I mean, yeah, creating a brand-new power vacuum would make it easier to keep disrupting things, because it'll reduce the amount of attention that can be given to rebelling colonies, but it doesn't actually solve the problem when a new emperor will pop up every week.)

I mean, the good news is that this mission ended without anyone getting seriously hurt, and they managed to all synch enough to form Voltron. But they didn't need to do a trial-by-fire like that, and they've still got the same problem they went in with: three of the five pilots need to learn how their lions work. Keith's used to Red, which is the fastest and most maneuverable; Black is, if I remember right, the least maneuverable (it might be more maneuverable than Yellow, but I'm not sure) and it is more heavily armored to compensate for that weakness. Lance is used to Blue, which is about mid-range - it's speedy and maneuverable, but Red's obviously faster and the controls seem a lot more responsive than Blue's - Lance is used to being able to turn on a dime, not a pin-head. And Allura's used to piloting the Castle, but she's only got theoretical knowledge of how to pilot a lion - she doesn't have any practical experience with it, and she's not used to having to work like a Paladin does; there's a serious difference between being a war leader or a diplomat and being a Paladin, and while she can work with people? She needs to learn how to pull together with her lion.

(Yeah, she figured it out by the end of the episode - but she needs to be able to do it all the time, not just when things are the worst. If it's not reliable, she isn't combat-ready.)

Haven't watched Episode 4 yet, but they absolutely should not be running after Lotor again when he was clearly messing with them that whole fight. Even if he finds the tracker Keith slapped on his ship before they're ready to take him, it's still better to take the victory they managed to snatch from the jaws of defeat and go somewhere to train and practice working as a team again. It's not like there's no chance they'll ever see Lotor again.

Spoiler

He's not an expert, no - but he does seem to be working from a position where he doesn't actually know much about what's going on, especially about the Lions. So considering that, his moves so far make a lot of sense and are pretty good: he made it clear that trying to challenge him the traditional route isn't viable, but also that he won't kill someone for thinking they've got what it takes to be Good Enough to lead (but the exile will make it clear that he's still not going to tolerate challenges to his leadership, so it doesn't get taken as a weakness). He's also having to fix the massive problems of PR and morale that Zarkon has left him with; the lore-chunks we got from the guys who were plotting a challenge/coup are pretty interesting: the Galra are supposed to be elite, with 'pure' Galra supposed to be better, and a commander isn't supposed to be down in the ranks fighting alongside his men - and the Galra Empire is very micromanage-y with its conquered planets as a rule.

Which means that doing what he's been shown doing so far - making it clear that anyone competent has a chance, not just anyone who can pass as a pureblood Galra; and making the conquered planets feel like they're allies of the Empire and not slaves - is going to make it much harder for Voltron to get a rebellion strong enough that it'll overthrow the Empire. Competent people are going to start getting put into place, and it's going to be harder to convince the planetary populace that they've got more to gain than they'd lose by rebelling. Plus, what he did on Puigh, the planet they'd convinced to join the rebellion most recently? Was very clever, because that's going to spread: "Voltron can only be in so many places at once. They left Puigh with no way to defend itself when the Empire came back. What can Voltron do to keep the Empire from sweeping in behind them and taking back each planet that they 'free' - and what do we gain by siding with Voltron now, when the Empire is changing?"

He was definitely playing with the Lions, yeah. But it was a purposeful sort of playing. He was investigating and testing the waters, to see what the Lions and their pilots were capable of, and he seemed hopeful that he might manage to capture the Lions. (I think he definitely wants to capture them and put his own pilots in place, because that'd be a massive PR boost for him: "even the Lions of Voltron stand with the new Galra Empire".) And he came away with some pretty useful information: whatever happened during the battle between Zarkon and Voltron, it messed the Voltron team up just as badly as it did Zarkon; if they were working the way they had been before that battle, he wouldn't have been able to juke them into each other and get so much friendly fire going. He wouldn't have been able to lead them to a planet that was an obvious trap. And at least two of the pilots were not used to working with the Lions.

Plus, he's shown that he's not obsessed with the Lions, the way Zarkon was; he'd like to have them, sure - but he's not going to fixate on them and stick around when his plans are better served by ollying out and doing something else.

Well, we have had it implied that at least parts of Altea were pretty death-worldish. (Or at least, the wildlife was similarly dangerous to Terran wildlife. Which doesn't rule out the whole "death world" thing.) Since this seems to have been a module for people who're coming from a different planet entirely, I can see the designers placing a priority on making sure they'll learn the words for "big thing that wants to eat you" before they get into a situation where they might encounter the man-eating monsters. Like how we'd want to make sure people don't try to ride a moose or pet a bear.

 

actually since my first watch i've come around a lot more on a) the lion switcheroo and b) lotor as a character?

I think that the thing with Blue shutting out Lance is basically - you have three lions in the field, two spare lions, and two pilot. And Red and Blue looked at each other, looked at Lance and Allura, and went 'ok well Lance can manage ok in Red but if we move Allura from the slow, steady, massive castle to All Speed All The Time she's gonna die, so Lance needs to jump to Red and Allura needs to go to Blue.' Not a personality shift or invalidating the bond between the lions, just - two somewhat poorly-matched Lions is better than 1 really great pair and 1 dead princess. And no ill will from Blue towards Lance, or Blue not considering their old bond valid, just 'ok ilu but pls go to red for a temporary thing.'

I've also come around a lot more on Lotor since reading some meta about how, well, he's clearly pretty young - he definitely wasn't around when the empire was getting started so... by the time he was born, Zarkon and Haggar were planning on living forever. They had no need for an heir, so he'd be... well. an experiment of some kind. who then got exiled far enough away and for long enough that high-ranking Galra officers don't recognize him by stature or fighting style or highly personalized custom armor. so probably when he was a kid, right?

and in the meantime, he made his core team out of 4 mixed-race ladies, and decided to work on building a trump card that WORKS on the power of friendship, and he continues to at least allow his worlds some kind of autonomy.

Honestly I hope he and his team all end up being friends with the Paladins! and then he can take some control from the empire and make it more like a democracy or meritocracy and argue with Allura over budgetary decisions all day long.

 

Voltron crew and Lotor crew teaming up is my jam
They just merge piles.

 

Plus, the characteristics each Lion is selecting for seem to be...somewhat incompatible? In terms of being able to hop back and forth between Lions, at least. Black is looking for someone who's able to be a good leader and who's willing to acknowledge they can't be a copy of the previous Black Paladin; Keith didn't connect with Black until he admitted out loud that he can't be a replacement for Shiro. Red is looking for someone who's fierce and determined, and willing to step back and let someone else lead the way (and be capable of tapping the leader on the shoulder and go "uh, are you sure?"). Blue's looking for someone who needs to fight, and who has a core need to prove themselves; that's...not exactly compatible with being a good second-in-command.

Lance doesn't need to prove himself any more. Not really. He stopped needing to when he accepted the Black Lion's choice (and now it's just a matter of getting rid of old habits). But Allura does have something to prove, at least to herself.

(I also suspect that Black, Red, and Blue all change pilots more frequently than Green or Yellow do. Green seems to pick for someone who's got a strong sense of intellectual curiosity, and who's at least reasonably interested in the natural world and caring for it. Yellow seems to select for someone who's a good den parent. Neither of those are traits that will easily shift.)

Voltron crew and Lotor crew joining forces would be really awesome, yeah. I think Allura could get along with Lotor, too? He clearly has a more benign outlook on things than Zarkon, and is willing to do proper diplomacy (or at least closer to it than the Galra Empire's been doing so far).

 

I mean I think that the traits that make lance a good pilot for blue and Keith a good pilot for red are still in play - it's just that as long as whatever the block is that keeps Shiro out of black exists, they all have to settle for second best pilots because it's that or nothing. And once that's over they'll all swap back, having gained valuable character development knowledge and probably unlocking new weapons or w/e.

Plus also they're all still wearing their original colors and Shiro is still in the opening credits as the black paladin.

 

First four episodes of season 4 are up.

Spoiler

Turns out being part of two full-time organizations with different methods and ideals less to conflict with both. Rip.

Still attached to the clone theory but it's not looking likely. Shiro is in the black again. Sorta sadface, esp since hope of that was what got me in here in the first place. I don't care about ships, not even lion ships, I care about the fun of identity confusion. At least Keith can be happy roaming around again.

They named the cow after one of the shows major people, funny.

Dead Matt seems unlikely in this show... But maybe it's just a final message, how did you go direct to actually alive, kiddo you're very optimistic... And right I guess?

Holy technobabble batman. Thank you for Hunk smart while continuing stupid food jokes. Matt is a lot more Lance-like that I ever suspected. Funny, especially gives context to how Pidge shrugs Lance's shenanigans off so easily.

As an ATLA fan, I appreciate when a show can roast itself and its own flaws like this. Like, damn.

 

OK! i got spoilered on 1 thing so that sucks. but. maybe the rest of the season can make up for something i hoped didn't happen, happening.

Spoiler: ep1

hi galra!
submarine? docking with what?
hi marmora! you're being subtle!
oh hi tailguy!
is that keith
yeap.
shiro you clearly haven't given up on leadering
lotor's ships are super distinctive looking, can't you tell by looking at it if it's lotor?
and here's the reason for keith not being a good leader.
coran didn't modify his speech for this... did no one tell him...
and no one knows that zarkon is in a coma, or that lotor and haggar are like 5 inches from a schism...
you think a decoy ship'd have useful information, dude?
nice transition, good job animators.
haha you're fucked bro. better hope Black can feel a paladin sense tingling
keith buddy
coran. buddy. come on. you couldn't get the lions to do a combo attack?
oh man that's some nice visual contrast
keith why did you even come by there
Lotor?
hi!
....hm, so... more support for 'lotor doesn't care about epansionism'?
come ON black
;-;
FINALLY
that said it's not surprising keith has trouble prioritizing between his team and, really, the only community he's probably known in a while, maybe forever.
keith have you been rehearsing this.
o...k so keith KNEw he's unsuited for command and as hoping - trying to do a good job, because they're at war, but hoping - something would show up so he didn't have to.
keith. why you in particular?
;-;
HUG
GROUP HUG
REMEMBER TO sPACE sKYPE

Spoiler: ep2

reunion?
!!!!!! BABY KATIE
is that the olkari lady's VA.
autistic pidge baby
KIDDOs!!!
dude you think this is a good plan? i love that pidge is 'really u sure bud'
he? people think pidge is a he? alien gender or a trans thing?
man the galra cannot prioritize targets. if they didn't fight on multiple fronts they'd probably have less trouble.
'auspicious'?
pidge: i saw someone die in front of me tonight.
though, pidge probably has a body count in the hundreds by now. certainly the team as a whole does, at minimum. are they ever gonna deal with that?
i did hope that the 'matt is on a secret engineer team funded by lotor' would happen, but it was a long shot
no one gave matt some new clothes for his profile pic?
book code! those're fun
and i miss my big brother all of a sudden
'it can never be hacked' haggar and narti beg to differ
uhhh. huh
wait. clearly that memorial has to be hella old. matt was taken in the last - two years?
idk how it survived if the rest of everything DIDN'T but. no one'd come back and build this enormous thing that must've taken years to carve.
also...
oh MAN.
that is a visual
but... more than 100 thousand i think....
oh pidge baby
buuut that doesn't make sense
wHO CAME BACK TO BURY THE DEAD. AND BUILD A FUCKOFF HUGE sTATUE IN THE MIDDLE OF A wAR
clever girl pidge
did he hack some other poor guy's headstone?
orange?
oh buddy
is that matt or.
pink skin?
yeppp
oh hey he's got a scar too!
'bro! i brought u your glasses!'
HUG MORE
good question matt
smart kiddos
also pidge hit him with her BLADED TAZER
'here can you see anything right no did you get contacts or'
pidge: 'fuck i can't see shit in these. matt's eyes are so bad'

Spoiler: ep3

oh boy torture
uhhhhhhh
what is happen.
ohhh.altean shapeshifting, ok.
oh, throk, buddy. you're not doing too hot.
also as long as you're on olkarion. can there be more biotech.
uh. shiro. refugees != soldiers. a lot are gonna be children or elderly or sick
FIND sHIRO
dammit. matt y you likely this.
lance: MURDERMODE
HUGs FOR EVERYONE
pidge he's your bro he's gonna want to see the olkari gardens too
robeasts? haven't seen those in a long time
uhhhh
that don't sound like zarkon
'this is our cow.'
LOTOR AND FRIENDs
hi comet ship!
lotor you're gonna need to hurry
'onto us' oooh
FRIENDs!
i do love an evil found family
exactly here on the castle... are you...
do alteans not have domesticated food-animals?
lotor you may have wanted to bring more backup than narti and the team mascot
'lord' oh that's a great sign
lotor you DO NOT want that.
ohhhh boy.
you don't need him! you got your friends.
...though without an heir position, they have as much protection from you as you personally can provide.
narti: HEY FUCK YOU
uhhhhh
uhoh.
come on don't make narti be evil. i love her.
'what are we, animals?' pfff
'we went to another reality! shiro as swedish.'
lance got altean clothes!
lance. when did you learn to milk a cow.
pasteurize your milk lance.
'are you fired' pfff
i love that they can joke around about things.
nooooooo come on no evil narti. free her.
FREE HER
oh fuck.
come on pls let this lead to 'oh hey so... zarkon disowned me wanna team up?'
'there's... nobody there who are they fighting'
if this turns into 'lotor and company on a space road trip vs everyone' i'll be delighted.
....sINCLINE ships? Lotor's name originally?
so... ok they have a headship. an armship. and the rest of the ore, loaded into the flagship that zethrid is flying
ohno.
:(
nartiiiiii
PLEasE No
COME ON. DON'T BE DEAD.
pls don't be dead
;-;

Spoiler: ep4

ok no i need to see team lotor deal with this.
they've known narti for YEARs right?
coran did you not give them lines
oh come on. don't do drugs.
it gets you high.
shop nothing he's a drug dealer
ok this is funny and all but i need to see team lotor deal with the fact that one of them got mind controlled and then fucking murdered
fuck it's animorphs
not that 'coran gets high' isn't a fun episode premise but
there is a THING TO DEAL ITH
does shiro not have the black bayard for some reason.
the bibohs are speaking english instead of their native language?
so are they just taking the piss out of all the executives they've ever had
man when did lance learn aerial silks.
coran.
i can't believe that after lotor murdered one of his friends there's an entire episode about coran getting high off his ass
god bless bibobi
somehow this thing is more durable than a galra fighter ship.

Spoiler: ep5

man the galra are bad at civil governance. like. apparently every conquered planet is allowed to maintain its on government so as soon as troops are kicked off planet they can step right back in. there's no galran colonies, it's all occupation forces.
lotor bad timing.
ezor. you're half-galra. you're his honor guard. i see your point but do you think you have any options besides sticking with him? unless you steal the ships and head to the coalition, you don't have anywhere to go. the galra'll definitely kill you,if you go back to them.
'protect us' ohh :(
though like. acxa is no down a copilot. his plan is... what, exactly?
i really hope that lotor's character arc isn't 'alienates his only friends, dies, becomes zombied that'd suck.
robo!
lady galra!
;-;
ezor they never would.
holy shit
did you just
girls no
also did. did lotor not tell them that narti betrayed them. communication is important.
please let him convince them.
holy shit bro.
.....are you guys gonna ping the coalition

Spoiler: ep6

yeah ok so ezor narti and zethrid are gonna join the coalition. i mean i'm hype for them being friends but. i'd hoped they'd bring lotor with them.
maybe eventually in s5 they can convince him to join them.
lotor kid. your plan is... to do what?
uhoh. that's bad.
just to fly out as far as possible?
oh buddy no. did you actually fall asleep?
man he is doing great.
but against a cruiser it's... not gonna help.
lotor are you planning on dying?
if narti's a zombie i'm gonna break something
DEsTROYED?
??????????
ummmmm
oh shit
lotor are you going to arn them.
pls.
if so i hope that the other generals show up too.
orrrr not
keith you are forbidden from suicide
holy shit
LOTOR
or
yep
'differences in the past'
pffff. ok dude i love this i just wish he had the others with him

 

guys i'm really fucked up over this

 

like. it half-works?

Spoiler

i can totally buy - most of what happens, in the fallout. i guess. if lotor didn't communicate to his team and killed narti, it makes some kind of sense that it'd shake out like this, though i don't especially buy that the girls thought the empire'd give them the time of day

but i can't believe those base conditions! the team is a TEAM and lotor seems fond of all of them, to really have a bond. and we see that he's also messed up over doing it! it seems like he's exhausted and in shock! but i can't tell why he wouldn't try and KO Narti, take her and figure out a way to help her! and i can't see him not immediately telling them 'narti had been mind controlled by haggar, this is a mercy, there's no fixing it' because it seems like he's good with people! the only excuse is if he's so fucked up over killing an old friend that he didn't think to explain it, but that's HARD to reconcile with his character thus far!

and the fallout about it is good and heartbreaking, but narti herself - is barely fleshed out, i mostly cared because she's odd, she's alien and she's blind and mute and loves her cat, she's not only an oddly colored humanoid. but her personality is only sketched out, so - did she try and fight off haggar? did she betray him on purpose? a death needs to be FELT.

 

Spoiler: s4e2

If you ugly cried when Pidge found the grave and you know it, clap your hands

*clap clap*

If you ugly cried even more and also laughed like a loon while Matt and Pidge fucked up a bounty hunter with Science and you know it, clap your hands

*hysterical seal clapping*

Spoiler: s4e3, about 4 minutes in

MATT. NO. WHAT ARE YOU DOING. MATT. STAHP.

Spoiler: edit: moar e3

1. TECH NERD HUNK. YES. YES. GOOD. PERFECT. MORE LIKE THIS. I still say Vrepit Sal needs to catch up to the Castle and throw himself at Hunk's feet and be like "TEACH ME MORE MASTER CHEF" and end up taking over full time as the Castle cook but anyway.

2. HOLY SHIT NARTI NO D: Jesus. I... understand why Lotor had to shank her. I do. But... shit son that was cold

Spoiler: edit 2 electric boogaloo: e4

Well. That production sure was, uh... something. I'm not sure what it was, but it was definitely something.

oooooooer Coran honey no. space drugs are bad m'kay

...okay, who is the VA of this angry alien whose planet got stood up on the one clear day of the year? He sounds very familiar but I can't place him.

...Coran has a portrait of Alfor in his room ;_; ...and there's his action suit, lol ...AND HIS TEDDY ...klanmuirl? HAS A MUSTACHE

The thingy hatched. Oh. Oh no. Oh no no no no this is not good OH NO NO NO NOT THE BRAIN CHOMPING

HELL YES THE SPACE MALL! Yes! YES! VREPIT SAL PLEASE LEAVE THIS FOOD COURT BEHIND AND COME LIVE ON THE CASTLE. Also PLEASE MORE VARKON BLART: SPACE MALL COP

Okay. Well. Brainchomperslugified Coran seems to be onto something here but oh god, that accent, that is not right, that is not natural, and it is scaring me

eye twitch and strange high pitched noises yeah this is definitely not good

...did he say "on ice?" oh shit. ...Lance is going to ace this, isn't he

......Lance is loving the shit out of ALL of this, isn't he

...uh. UH. Coran. Coran. My dude. My guy. My friend. My buddy. My bromigo. You are really not looking good right now.

...........Okay! Yep! Definitely imminent brainchomperslug meltdown!

....CORAN NO

You go, Bi-boh-bi or whatever your name is!

...OK so angry alien was Dave Coulier, and--Paul Reubens? PEE WEE HERMAN WAS IN THIS ONE!?

Spoiler: son of edit: e5

yes thank you for bringing that up, Ezor, we really need to talk about--shit. Acxa come on we need to process this okay welp maybe not the best time, sure

...okay, where are they--oh SHIT

ohhhhhh shit this is bad hey Lotor maybe consider not fucking around with interdimensional cosmic horrors?

NYMA AND ROLO HEY GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN YOU ASSHOLES

HUNK WITH THE PEOPLE'S ELBOW FTW

Ooo? Another rare lady Galra!

Those three dudes noping out when Voltron bodyslams a Galra destroyer in front of them are without a doubt the three smartest Galra in the universe.

oh this is really not looking good for Matt & Co

I love the Galra cruisers just waiting patiently while Allura freezes the mines. Very sporting of them.

Ezor and Zethrid have a point there, Acxa. They really do. Okay? ...oh. you're going to go talk to him, aren't you, have a little heart to heaOH SHIT!!!

...oh, he's just stunned? huh. They got plans for him though, don't they...

Keith goddammit do NOT miss OKAY THANK YOU~

omg the Taujeerian with a mustache

HOLY JESUS LOTOR WHAT THE FUCK GAAAAAAAAAAH

Acxa has A Plan, does she? ... ooo please let it involve teaming up with Team Voltron

uh. Haggar? What do you mean "good?" ...fuck

Spoiler: night of the living edit: e6

More lady Galra! Yes. I like this trend, please continue.

God, I love Lotor's ship.

...wtf is Haggar up to?

...oh shit. Oh shit, the whole ass planet is a Robeast isn't it

"Hold on, we need to see what these things are" WELL ARE YOU HAPPY NOW SHIRO YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO LANCE for once

Ah shit, more Altean Tech Gone Bad.

Hunk, WTF is heximi--THANK YOU, LANCE

...Robeast, bomb, whatever

Keith? Are you... mayhap... starting to lrn2leader? That's probably a good idea seeing as how we've still got this looming elephant by the name of Kuron in the room

Lady Galra on radio: hey no don't go there, shit's about to blow up
Lotor: ! *goes there*
...yeah, that's about right

...Lance, where the fuck are you even getting this? Never mind, continue

YES!

YES GO GET HAGGAR! FUCK! HER! UP!

...oh Keith. oh no. pls no

...aaaaaaaaaaaaand the Cockblock of the Century goes to... PRINCE LOTOR (ok no but thanks for not letting Keith kamikaze himself. you're still a dick tho)

Oh shit. OH SHIT

OK look on the one hand I know perfectly well this is going to be some Deal with the Devil bullshit but on the other YES LOTOR FUCK YOUR EVIL ASS QUINTESSENCE ZOMBIE PARENTS ALL THE WAY UP

 

Basically,

Spoiler: end of s4

Lotor you silly boy. yOU HAVE LOST EVERYTHING. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE ACTING AS THOUGH YOU CAN COME TO THE ENEMY AS AN EQUAL. NOW IS THE TIME TO BE ASKING FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM THEN PLAY YOUR CARDS LATER OKAY.

Seriously. This kid has watched too much Code Geass and spent too much time being a politics and philosophy major and playing soldiers when he should have been learning some fucking humility.

EDIT: ALSO HELP I HAVE A TYPE Poorly-socialised potientally damaged brainy boy with a good face? Urghhhhh. Urghhhhhhhhhhhhhh I want to dom him so bad help me

 

Spoiler

are you especially surprised though? It's almost a guarantee that he's spent most of his life learning that you Do Not ever let anyone see you even rattled or disturbed, because that's a vulnerability and people will use that against you. It's a survival strategy. He needs them to think he's valuable and capable and sharp as he ever was because if they sense weakness they will kill him.

(Or, that's what I imagine he's thinking just now. We know the Voltrons are nice people but he's been raised by freaking haggar and Zarkon. That is not an environment where openness and honesty does you any good. His problem is he's used to playing Paranoia when everyone else is in DnD. )

Eta: also,playing soldiers? Throk's buddy says that he fights alongside his troops like a normal soldier. I think he has very few illusions about what battle is like.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, I know he's been raised in the Conceal Do Not Feel school of thought, but man, I feel like it's really gonna bite him in the ass in this situation. Voltron and allies already have enough reasons not to trust his smirky cheap-quip-and-cheesy-one-liner butt, and besides - I never said he had to mean wanting political asylum, just that it would have been smarter to come out with that firsthand. He's not a very good actor beyond keeping stoneface in situations where it would have been helpful to show remorse - see Narti and the fallout from that, for example - and I feel like he's honestly out of his depth here.

(And yeah, I know he's a seasoned soldier, I was being facetious and it didn't come through very clear there, sorry ^^;;;)

(Teen-me would have been obsessed with this guy and heard no ill about him, but a couple decades later, I've dated similar disasters - just not on that scale, thank god - and am therefore deeply critical of any part of my own brain that still wants to brush his pretty hair and wrap him up in cottonwool. I'd need to dom the fuck out of him first and that would be exhausting for both of us :P)

 

Spoiler

i very much doubt he's in a good state of mind to properly think about the best approach for here, he's pretty clearly in shock and exhausted beyond belief - and anyways the most he'd know about Voltron is their recruitment shows and probably that the yellow and red ones were willing to ally with Acxa that one time. No idea how trusting they are, how merciful they might decide to be, no idea about anything.

The thing is, political asylum - even a fake request- would require that he make himself very vulnerable to them. At minimum they'd expect him to disarm and hand over his ship, and since that is the sum total of all his worldly possessions I am not surprised he's trying to avoid that and put on a show of 'Yep totally fine I definitely will not be screwed if you guys try and do anything that isn't allying with me.' Hell, he wouldn't even know if they'd honor any request he might make instead of just attacking.

Like. At this point he can bargain with them like they're on equal footing, or try to. Anything else puts all the cards in their hands, and relies a lot on their own mercy, which is a complete unknown and not something his life thus far has taught him is a reliable tack to take.

 

Please stop.

I know my initial statement was factually inaccurate, I know I'm stupid and dumb and wouldn't know anything if it kicked me in the ass. I was just trying to be funny and have fun and this is why I stopped participating in fandom in general because I'm not allowed to be wrong and I know I'm wrong and dumb and I KNOW OKAY.

I'm NOT joking when I say I just came out to have a good time and I'm feeling really attacked rn. I'm sorry, I just - I should just unwatch this thread and forget that I'm ever allowed to have opinions or feelings about characters ever again.

I'm really really sorry I'm horrible I'm sorry