The Sabotage of Voltron Legendary Defender

Dear Reader,

 

Thank you for clicking on the link and reading this giant essay. I started this analysis with the goal of only talking about Black Paladin Lance, the evidence to support that this was an arc that was building up from the very beginning as well as discussing when it would have kicked off. But as I dug deeper and deeper into the many edits of this show (here, here, here, here, here and here) and as I wrote more and more about tropes, archetypes etc. I realized that I can't talk about Black Paladin Lance without also talking about all of the other arcs that were erased/abandoned from the show. So, I am going to talk about it all here. Every single theory, analysis and evidence I have. It will probably also be my last for a while (until I am possessed by the hauntings of this show again, that is).

 

So, let's start at the very beginning. The very central arc and narrative that was arguably the biggest erasure this show faced.

 

Happy birthday, Lance. 

BLACK PALADIN LANCE EVIDENCE

In my main analysis, I discovered that Lance's foreshadowing in becoming the ultimate Black Paladin was surprisingly consistent all the way until season 6. I didn't include all the instances of Lance's foreshadowing, but here I will, just to cement that it was very consistent all up until the end of Season 6, but was abandoned soon after that when they brought Shiro back from the dead (again) at the end of season 6 and made Keith the main character.

Episode 1 Foreshadowing

As I said in Voltron is a Love Story, Episode 1 of VLD has the most foreshadowing for Lance ascending to the Black Lion. As in so much it's insane.

 

First of all, he is introduced literally leading his team through a simulated rescue mission.

 [02:41-03:25]

As I said in Voltron is a Love Story, the characters each are all introduced with their arcs. For Pidge it's finding her family, especially her brother Matt, when we see her correct Iverson; for Hunk it's his fear and nervousness and here for Lance it's clearly his ability to lead a team. The reason they failed the simulator is (among other things) because Lance crashed the simulator, wanting to show off his flight skills and copying Keith, as I say here and here.

 

When they rescue Shiro, it is further foreshadowed by this frame:

 

[10:48]

Keith is known to become the Black Paladin in the future, inheriting Shiro's legacy. So, why is Lance here? We've just been told through Keith's reaction that Keith knows Shiro, but again Shiro was introduced through Lance as Lance's hero. When Lance says "Nope, no you don't, I'm saving Shiro." It is meant to be foreshadowing to how Lance is the ultimate inheritor of his legacy rather than Keith.

This is emphasised here:

[13:45]

A very clear lingering shot on their hands clasping together. In Voltron is a Love Story, I refuted the notion that this was foreshadowing to the Kuron arc, because Episode 1 is one of the first episodes they ever made and at this point in production, they hadn't planned on bringing Shiro back for season 3 as Kuron, so it isn't foreshadowing for that, but I forgot to mention what it was actually foreshadowing for, lol. It is very clearly foreshadowing Lance inheriting Shiro's legacy as the leader of Voltron and Shiro passing the baton onto Lance. Shiro singles Lance out and even knows his name, separating him from the others. As I mentioned in Voltron is a Love Story, Lance doesn't introduce himself, like Pidge does, so Shiro knows his name somehow (unclear how) and only his name.

 Next we have the following sequence:

[17:04]

Look closely. What do you see as we transition from Lance's eyes to the lions? As they zoom in on his eyes, the first lion that we see is the Black Lion, not the Blue Lion. And when they show Voltron, they show the head. If Lance was the ultimate Blue Paladin, why wouldn't they show the Blue Lion first and then the Blue Lion's role in Voltron as the leg?

And directly after that, look at these frames:

[17:13]

They are in the exact positions of Voltron, but with Shiro and Lance swapped! That has to mean something, it is not just a coincidence. Directly after seeing the formation of Voltron, they zoom out to show them all, linking them to Voltron, and standing in the exact spots that they are meant to pilot, except for Lance and Shiro. That is not an accident. It is very clear foreshadowing for Lance's eventual role as the Black Paladin.

 

And look at this sequence as it cuts back to them:

[17:15]

 

They zoom in on the head and zoom out from Lance's eyes, just like when they zoomed in on Lance's eyes at the beginning of the vision. This is very clearly meant to link the head (the Black Lion) to Lance, and this exact sequence is why Lance and Shiro's places being swapped is so significant. If they wanted to parallel Voltron properly with them, they would have put Shiro in the middle and the vision zoomet out from Shiro's eyes. But they didn't. They chose to put Lance in the middle, and to have the vision zoomed out from Lance's eyes.

 

Here's another frame of them, a little bit before, as they're actively looking for Voltron, to show you that this isn't a coincidence:

[15:14]

[15:57]

Lance and Shiro swapped again from their symmetrical positions...

 

And again here, when they land in the Blue Lion's cave, paired with Pidge asking "is this Voltron?" to which we know the answer is yes... but again... Lance and Shiro's positions are swapped... 

[16:18]

In fact, their positions in the first episode are very consistent. They are almost always standing exactly like this, with Lance in the middle. And when Shiro is in the middle, Lance is directly behind/next to him, as opposed to on the other side of Keith, which would mirror him to Hunk's position as the leg:

 

[25:14]

 

[31:53]

 

 [48:30]

 

 [49:11]

 

Lance is very frequently lumped together with Keith and Shiro in this episode, the two characters who are canonically the pilots of the Black Lion. 

 

The only time they ever stand in their proper positions in the first episode is when Allura assigns them each their role within Voltron, and when they have just finished their first battle together as Voltron:

 

 [32:27]

 

 [01:06:41]

 

Remember, this is the literal introduction of Voltron, the very first episode, and just as in real life, first impressions are incredibly important in animation. character placements and scene transitions are all carefully chosen. Thus, they are incredibly important indicators of what the creators are trying to convey. 

 

 

 

This simple zoom out from Lance in the gif is definitely meant to be a very subtle foreshadowing of his eventual ascension to the Black Lion. They want you to remember this, because they were going to pay this off with Lance ascending to the Black Lion. 

Next, we have these interesting frames, in which Pidge looks to Lance, asking where the wormhole is going that just opened, and then Lance looking to Shiro, asking what they should do.

 

[21:46]

 

This makes sense, since as Lance says, Shiro is the senior officer here with more experience, he's the one who's interacted with aliens more than they have, so it's fair to assume that Shiro would know what to do in this situation better than anyone else. But what I find incredibly interesting is that Pidge looks surprised when Lance does this, almost as if she's surprised that Lance didn't make the decision himself. She's probably used to Lance giving orders at this point, so he's surprised when Lance relinquishes that role to someone else, but why? Wouldn't it be a given for her that Shiro, the one with more experience, should be the one to decide? Why does this surprise her? I have an inkling that Pidge believes in Lance's leadership skills more than she lets on. Because remember when he said this:

 

[06:49]

 

Well, Pidge says almost the exact same thing when she tells them all that she's a girl a few episodes later, after their found family arc.

 

[Season 1, Episode 6: Taking flight, 03:35]

So, she's internalised what he said about being a good team, and it shows, because after she's accepted them as her team and decided to stay, this is how she shows her effort, by echoing Lance's words. That's certainly interesting... could this have been foreshadowing for Pidge being the first to accept Lance as the Black Paladin? That certainly would be a surprise, considering her usual short fuse with him, and that's why it also would carry a lot of weight. Pidge is the brain. If she accepts Lance as her leader, then everyone else doesn't really have an excuse not to. She is also the one who calls Lance a goofball, implying that he can't be leader-material because he is too unserious, but she also listens to him and finds him to be the biggest threat when she has to fight against him in this comic issue...

[00:23]

"Lance's range makes him a top priority."

In fact, there's a bit more foreshadowing for this here:

 [Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 10:24]

This is both foreshadowing to season 3, where Lance is able to get Keith to listen to him, and also that Lance will in fact become a paragon of leadership. Pidge saying this sarcastically is meant to be used as poetic irony, when she is the one who ultimately accepts Lance as their leader, and the Black Paladin.

Anyway, this next part of the first episode is what really interests me. Shiro says they're a team now, and that they should all decide together. Everyone is looking at Shiro, but Shiro looks directly at Lance.

 

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 22:00]

I have to gif the following to properly show you what happens next:

 [22:00]

Shiro looks directly at Lance. and right after this, Hunk seeing Shiro looking at Lance looks at Lance, too. Keith looks from Shiro to the wormhole to Lance and Pidge looks from Shiro to Lance, putting her hand on his shoulder, ultimately conveying that the decision lies with Lance. And then, he does decide.

Bro, when I saw this on my rewatch round, I lost my mind. I never noticed this on my first watch, nor even my second or third. But here, it is so incredibly clear foreshadowing Shiro passing the baton on to Lance, it's insane how I ever missed it. It also shows that Lance's leader position is going to be gradual, with some hesitation in the mix, probably due to Lance's more immature behaviour thoughout the first two seasons. But it's going to be there. They are all going to accept Lance taking charge eventually, including Keith. 

Look, if Keith was meant to inherit Shiro's legacy, why didn't Shiro look at him? Keith is the one who's arguably done the most research about aliens and weird energy in the desert, so why didn't Shiro ask Keith if he's heard about any of this, or what Keith thinks they should do? Why did he look directly at Lance? It all has a meaning.

Next we have this iconic frame, used in many previous analyses, which very very clearly foreshadows Lance's connection to the Black Lion:

[33:07]

 I also found this part interesting:

[33:07]

As Allura talks about the qualities of the Black Paladin, the image of the Black Lion moves from Lance to directly in front of Shiro.

And we furthermore have this:

 

[48:40]

When they show the Black Paladin's suit armour, they show Lance, Keith and Shiro before panning the camera to Hunk. But what's most interesting is that your eye is draw to Lance, as he takes up most of the frame...

 

[48:46]

All of these things combined clearly indicate Lance's future position within Voltron, but the foreshadowing doesn't just stop there.

 Shiro & Lance Parallels

In Voltron is a Love Story, I argue that Shiro has one of the strongest bonds of all the paladins with his lion, making him the Black Lion's true paladin. And we know that Lance wasn't meant to be the Blue Lion's true paladin, because he moves on to the Red Lion and ends there, right? But I also argue in Voltron is a Love Story that the Red Lion's true paladin is Keith, because Keith is the one who matches the qualities of the Red Lion the most. Lance is very adaptable, and seems to get adjusted to the Red Lion very quickly, but he is not the Red Lion's true paladin the same way Keith is, because he doesn't match any of the qualities of the Red Lion, in fact he is much the opposite of them (he doesn't rely on instinct as much as Keith does, and he is also not the fastest or most agile fighter; Keith is). And we know he's meant to stay a paladin, unlike Allura, who is meant for a "higher purpose" so to speak, because it's part of his arc, finding his place in the world and within Voltron. So, if Lance isn't the Blue Lion's true paladin, nor the Red Lion's true paladin, then whose true paladin is he?

 

Well... all the foreshadowing above gives us a hint but... to investigate further...

 

Let's see what qualities he shares with the paladins who have flown the Blue Lion. After Lance is Allura. But as I have discussed here and here, Allura shares a lot of qualities with Shiro, she is one of the most mature characters in the series in the first two seasons, and she matches the description of the Black Lion almost exactly. So, does that mean that Lance shares similar qualities with Shiro, too?

 

Let's have a look.

 

What makes Shiro a good leader? Well, he makes sure that everyone works together as a team:

 [21:55]

 

[31:40]

(Side note: Interesting that he looks directly at Keith when he says that part about working as a team...)

 [Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Galdiator, 15:19]

Does Lance do that? Well...

When he decides to look for Pidge and encourages her to open up to them, he does so because he knows it will make them a better team:

 

[05:20]

[06:50]

So clearly, he understands that teamwork is important, and he even knows how a team should work, because he consistently argues against splitting the team throughout the show:

 

[Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 10:15]

 

[Season 1, Episode 11: The Black Paladin, 13:29] 

[Season 3, Episode 3: The Hunted, 10:20 ; 10:37]

So Lance makes everyone work together as a team, just like Shiro (but unlike Keith...). What else? Shiro is also usually the one who comes up with a plan, and tells everyone what to do to succeed:

 

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 50:24]

[Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 03:34] 

 [Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Galdiator, 14:10]

Does Lance do that? Yes. In fact, Lance is the one most frequently coming up with a plan or asking for a plan:

[09:47]

[45:23]

 [51:26]

And not just in the first episode...

[Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 14:04 ; 17:36 ; 19:08]

[Season 1, episode 6: Taking Flight, 02:59]

[Season 1, Episode 7: Return to the Balmera, 07:39]

Very, very consistently... Even as far as season 6...

[Season 6, Episode 4: The Colony, 18:51]

[Season 6, Episode 6: All Good Things, 10:45]

 

These are not every instance, but if I had to include every time Lance does this, this analysis would never end.

 

Another quality Shiro has which makes him a good leader is that he expresses caution, and values the safety of his team over completing the mission and thinking things through before going in to battle:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 24:21]

 [Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 11:12] 

(ummm side note: during this scene they pasted Keith's face onto Pidge for some reason???

[11:16]

Like. that is quite literally Keith's hair and face, but with Pidge's coloring ToT. here's a poorly edited version of that screenshot where I only changed the color of her hair, eyes and her armour.

like. That Is Keith. In fact, this whole scene, Pidge is wearing Keith's face, which is interesting... most likely the original scene was supposed to be with Shiro and Keith (or even Pidge and Keith), and Keith gets the Galra tech to work the same way we see in episode 7, but they didn't want to reveal Keith's Galra heritage too early, so they swapped him with Pidge. Anyway--)

 

[Season 1, Episode 4: Fall of the Castle of Lions, 02:47]

[Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 02:01]

Does Lance do that? Despite popular belief, he does, in fact, express caution and thinking things through!

[Season 1, Episode 4: Fall of the Castle of Lions, 10:53]

 [Season 1, Episode 6: Taking Flight, 13:18]

 

  [Season 1, Episode 7: Return of the Balmera, 07:26]

 [Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 10:11]

And Lance is also usually the one most protective of his team, always being in the front of the group and being the last to put away his weapon, also pointed out by this post by blanceyblance on tumblr.

 

[Season 3, Episode 4: Hole in the Sky, 19:01]

 

This is further presented when, like Shiro, Lance is one of the last people left in the protect-your-teammate-exercise along with Shiro, in episode 2:

 [Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 11:07]

 

Well... after he started goading Keith and got distracted... Just like in the nosedive exercise... but anyway.

 

Moreover, Shiro isn't skilled in one thing, like the others are, but is very flexible and adapts quickly to his circumstances:

 [Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 49:50]

 [Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 13:53]

 [Season 1, Episode 8: Rebirth, 02:55]

 [Season 2, Episode 1: Across the Universe, 12:05]

just like Lance... who has the most varied weaponry of the whole team...

literally adapting his weapon to the situation...

Besides that, they also seem alike in their personality. Despite being very serious most of the time, Shiro does have a sense of humor! He joins in on the sound effects joke (which Lance started):

[Season 1, Episode 7: Return of the Balmera, 01:16]

And he jokes multiple times, even though he's injured and in a very serious situation! Which we've seen Lance do multiple times until now:

[Season 2, Episode 1: Across the Universe, 07:37]

[14:37]

[20:48]

Vs Lance:

[Season 1, Episode 6: Taking Flight, 07:16]

[Season 2, Episode 4: Greening the Cube, 02:29]

Shiro is also revealed to have wanted to prove himself when he was younger:

 

[Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure, 17:38]

Just like Lance...

 

[Season 3, Episode 2: The Red Paladin, 08:21]

 

So, Lance shares a lot of similarities with Shiro, in terms of personality, and also in terms of leadership qualities, showing many of the same behaviours that makes Shiro a good leader.

But other than that, Lance and Shiro also share a lot of parallels in their reactions and things they say. As in a lot. So much in fact I was shocked myself by just how much they frequently say almost the exact same thing.

Shiro saying this here:

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 46:14]

Parallels what Lance said just before they went into the wormhole 20 minutes ago...

 [21:48]

Here, in season 2, they react the exact same way:

[Season 2, Episode 4: Greening the Cube, 14:14]

And what Shiro says parallels with what Lance said here:

[Season 1, Episode 7: Return of the Balmera, 07:26]

They are furthermore paralleled again here:

[Season 1, Episode 11: The Black Paladin, 20:54]

[Season 3, Episode 6: Tailing a Comet, 15:09]

And here:

[Season 2, Episode 9: Belly of the Weblum, 01:46]

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 07:08]

And here...

 [Season 3, Episode 3: The Hunted, 10:18]

[Season 3, Episode 6: Tailing a Comet, 14:09]

AND HERE:

 [Season 2, Episode 5: Eye of the Storm, 14:57]

[Season 3, Episode 3: The Hunted, 14:48] 

This is very consistent throughout the show, and I don't even think I got all of it this time. All of these parallels to Shiro are clearly intentional. There are too many of them for them all to be accidents, mistakes or coincidences. To believe such would be bad-faith analysis of the writers' capabilities. Furthermore, I don't believe in any of those things in animation, because not only is everything drawn by hand, but frames, scripts and sequences are looked over multiple times before they are released, as stated by fellow VLD veteran @Linipikk on tumblr, who is a professional storyboard artist and has worked on multiple animation projects over the years.

The margin of error within animation is very small. The crew wanted us to compare Lance to Shiro and recognise that he shares a lot of qualities and similarities with him.

Shiro is a more mature version of Lance. He shares a lot of similarities with him in terms of personality, as well as leadership behaviours. Shiro is who Lance has to become in order to ascend to the Black Lion, which is why Shiro is introduced as Lance's hero, and not as Keith's friend, because Lance was meant to be the ultimate inheritor of his legacy.

And Keith knows it too, because he says this very confidently in season 4: 

[Season 4, Episode 1: Code of Honor, 21:06]

"I'm not meant to pilot the Black Lion." He doesn't say, "I'm not good enough," or "I can't pilot the Black Lion." or whatever, because as we know, Keith doesn't lack confidence in being a leader, he just knows that's not where he belongs. Keith is very self-assured in his own abilities and what he can bring to the team, which is why he's so good at lifting Lance up when he's down about himself. Just as we saw in our analysis of the bedroom scene in season 3, Keith knows that he doesn't have any of the qualities of a true Black Paladin, because he doesn't refute Lance when Lance assumes that he will go back to the Red Lion. And that's what he's confirming here, in season 4. This isn't an instance of self-doubt, because self-doubt is not in Keith's vocabulary and would be incredibly out of character for him (in the doylist sense). This is an instance of Keith recognising where he belongs, and it is not in the Black Lion.

Now, remember when I said this, in Voltron is a Love Story?:

"There's a reason people shipped [Allura] with Shiro in the first two seasons, because they were co-leaders."

Well, remember this gif?

[Season 1, Episode 4: Fall of the Castle of Lions, 17:55]

Notice how they're paired. Lance and Shiro vs. Keith and Allura. We've just established that Lance shares a lot of qualities with Shiro, and in Voltron is a Love Story, I establish that Allura and Keith are foiled against each other, also with a lot of parallels. Well... this gif kinda proves it even more, doesn't it? I think this sequence was meant to foreshadow that, from the show's inception, Keith was ultimately supposed to be to Lance what Allura is to Shiro, in terms of their work relationship. Keith was supposed to co-lead with Lance from the start, but not from the position of the Black Lion. It's so clearly foreshadowed here, it's kind of crazy.

The foreshadowing doesn't just stop in their parallels. We also have massive indicators from scenes in the Astral Plane throughout the show, which consistently feature two red and blue stars. This has been pointed out many times before, and I am pointing it out here, again:

 

[Season 2, Episode 7: Space Mall, 15:57]

 

 [Season 6, Episode 6: All Good Things, 01:21]

 

These are all shots of Blue and Red stars consistently animated in the Astral Plane across seasons and production eras. Both of these scenes involved a fight/standoff between two Black Paladins (Zarkon vs. Shiro and Shiro vs. Keith). This not only foreshadows a fight between Keith and Lance, but it further implies, based on the pattern, that Lance would be a Black Paladin for their fight/standoff in the Astral Plane.

Lance and Kuron

Lance's ascension to the Black Lion is furthermore implied through his role in the Kuron arc and the acceleration of his arc progression during the development of Kuron's plot. Since the fight between Keith and Kuron was clearly edited and reanimated, someone else might have been involved in that fight. It might have been Lance, but I cannot say that for sure, since I don't have much physical evidence. All I can do is examine the Kuron arc up until this point as well as Lance's involvement in it, and examine where and what it all leads to.

So let's begin:

We already see a pattern of Kuron dismissing Lance in the season 4 finale, here:

[Season 4, Episode 6: A New Defender, 09:21]

Here, Kuron is ignoring Lance's intuition and advice, because getting out of there would ruin Haggar's plan of trapping them on the planet and killing them in the explosion. And a couple of episodes later, Lance is again the first one to argue against putting his team in danger, which is what Shiro would usually do in season 1-2 as we've just examined:

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 03:24]

So, Kuron sees here that Lance is very perceptive and in general is the one to argue against plans that puts his team in danger, which is again non-conducive to both Lotor and Haggar's plans, and expresses caution, which Shiro used to do in the first two seasons.

He also sees here that Lance has a strong voice with the team, as evidenced when Allura listens to him:

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 03:29]

which is why he snaps at him twice:

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 03:50]

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 04:30]

Kuron sees that Lance is most frequently the obstacle to Haggar and Lotor's plans. This whole episode is about Lance and his relationship to Kuron. Lance upgrading his weapon to a broadsword directly after being yelled at by Kuron effectively intertwines his self-worth arc with his relationship with Kuron, in some way. Kuron is not the mentor Lance thought he would be to him, because he isn't Shiro. And part of his arc in figuring this out is by finding out that Kuron is a puppet of Haggar's and not the real Shiro.

Lance is furthermore shown in this episode stepping up when Shiro doesn't. When Pidge suggests that they tap into the quantum energy that bonds them all to Voltron, Lance is the one who tells them to do it, while Shiro says absolutely nothing.

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 17:02]

He is also the one providing the countdown, which would usually be Shiro since he's the leader:

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 18:02] 

Kuron staying silent, though, is in line with Kuron's motive for Voltron to get captured, again, because it would benefit the Galra, but it also shows us Lance stepping in as the leader, when Shiro doesn't, something that we see very frequently (and have seen frequently until now) for the rest of the season.

The scene following this is where he gets the first clue that Kuron is not the real Shiro:

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 18:09]

And we know that this moment sits with Lance, because when he asks Kuron about it later, he isn't satisfied with his answer, and he stares at Shiro, worried and sad...

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 22:09]

He is not suspicious of him yet, but he is worried. He knows that something is going on with "Shiro", but he doesn't know what.

In the following episode, Lance again looks at Shiro worriedly after he storms off, and Hunk asks what's going on with him:

 [Season 5, Episode 4: Kral Zera, 05:36]

He is definitely thinking about what he saw in the previous episode... The next episode, Kuron/Shiro is weirdly very absent. He (and Coran...) is literally nowhere to be seen once they all split up, which I discussed here.

But then in the next episode after that, Episode 6: The White Lion, Lance and Shiro are paired AGAIN, again establishing Lance's very important role in the Kuron arc, because Kuron literally confesses to Lance that he doesn't feel like himself:

[13:42]

Again, Lance is the only one who is focused on like this with Kuron multiple times in this season. This kind of confrontation only happens with Lance, meaning Lance was supposed to have a (more) significant role in the Kuron arc, because he was supposed to be revealed as the ultimate inheritor of his legacy at the end of the Kuron arc, when Kuron dies and the Black Lion is left empty once again.

Lance's archetypes and the subversions of them

Lance's character archetypes further support the direction of his arc in relation to Kuron. 

 

Lance follows the underdog archetype.

 

 

According to this website, common traits seen in the underdog character are, among other things: Adaptable, Cautious, Centered, Curious, Efficient, Focused, Just, Resourceful, Responsible, Spunky, all of which we have just established Lance exhibits throughout the whole show.

 

 Furthermore, these are the associated actions, behaviours and tendencies found in the underdog archetype:

Which Lance follows a lot of. Lance starts out at a disadvantage (he is called a failure by Iverson), he displays a lot of determination and grit (he is determined to be better by rallying his team together to bond and be a better team), he adapts to new situations quickly (already discussed), he finds creative solutions to problems (his good idea(s) from Season 1, Episode 7: Return to the Balmera), he sticks to his principles (he asks Lotor if him ending the Galra's imperialism is gonna start with them freeing planets in season 5, Episode 5), he stands up for what he believes is right and he has empathy for others who are misunderstood (he defends Kuron in Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem when he talks to Allura, even though he was just yelled at by him). That means Lance checks most of the boxes of being an underdog character archetype.

 

The underdog archetype usually comes out on top, achieving their goals or winning a match where the odds were stacked against them. This is what was supposed to happen to Lance. Lance ascending to the Black Lion was meant to fulfil his underdog archetype and complete his self-worth arc, because he ends up "winning the match" for the seat in the Black Lion, to put it in more crude terms.

However, Lance also follows the Fool archetype:

 

 

 

This is almost exactly what JDS said back in 2017 (literally the day before the release of Season 3) about Lance's overarching growth and development:

 

"Joaquim: Lance, he’s my personal favorite, and I think what’s really cool about him is that he got pigeonholed really, really early on as the goofball, and there’s so many more layers to that character. I think he’s been playing the longest of all the characters."

 

Lance's "ineptitude" here is his unseriousness (that I establish here to be mostly his flirting). Lance is underestimated because he's a bit of a goofball; he makes light of the situation, either by firing off jokes, flirting, or engaging in playful acts, such as snowball fights or dancing. Pidge even calls him the goofball in Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin:

 

[Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin, 05:22]

 

For Lance and Keith specifically, this was of course meant to foreshadow what they each have to overcome/grow out of. Keith was meant to overcome his "loner" status by accepting Team Voltron as his new family and Lance was meant to subvert the expectations placed upon him by becoming the Black Paladin.

 

Lance also follows the Unchosen One archetype/trope:

 

Lance is not the Chosen One. Keith is. Keith is the one who is chosen by Shiro to succeed him in VLD. That makes Lance the Unchosen One. Lance ascending to the Black Lion would fulfill this archetype, because Lance would then step up to the role, not because anyone chose him, but because he knows that's what's right and he has a very strong sense of morals (just like Shiro). "A Chosen One who chooses themselves" is a perfect description for where Lance's arc was heading. Lance has never been "chosen" by anyone at any point in the story, so Lance choosing himself, being comfortable with himself, growing into himself and stepping up to the Black Paladin role is Lance choosing himself.

 

Keith being the Chosen One is meant to be a misdirect. As JDS says, Lance is pigeonholed very early on as the "goofball", so even we, the audience, would never expect him to be the ultimate leader of Voltron. It would be a very clever subversion of the Chosen One trope that is very often seen in stories, since Lance seems to be the unlikeliest member to step up to the task, because everyone underestimates him (fulfilling the Fool archetype). Keith is chosen one, but he doesn't want to be. Lance is the unchosen one and steps up to do what's right, again, furthering their contrasts to each other that I discuss at length here and here.

 The Symbolism of the Lions 2.0

And that's not all. In Voltron is a Love Story, I've already talked extensively about each of the Lions and their symbolic importance and role in the love story between Lance and Keith. I won't rehash everything I said there, since that would make this analysis even longer than it needs to be, but the main takeaways is that the Blue Lion is meant to symbolise Lance's attraction to Allura/women and the Red Lion is meant to symbolise Lance's attraction to Keith/men. What I didn't discuss there, though, is the progression of this symbolism. It further supports Lance ascending to the Black Lion, because it is the natural progression and end of his growth. 

 

As I said, the Blue Lion is a starter spot for both Lance and Allura, it doesn't have a true paladin, because both of its paladins were meant to grow out of or ascend from that position. It is a starter spot for Lance because Lance already knows that he is attracted to women, he is already comfortable in his attraction towards women. He says very early on that he is very confident in his bond with the Blue Lion:

 

[Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 12:06]

 

Which is of course his bravado talking. But we are also seeing Lance's flirting face on him when he says this. I'm not saying Lance is flirting here, but I am saying that his flirting is a part of his bravado, this image that he wants to project to hide his insecurities. So, he also doesn't take this exercise very seriously, because during the exercise he goads Keith into going faster, which Keith participates in, resulting in them both failing. This is much like the "protect-your-teammate" exercise, where Keith and Lance both failed, because Lance goaded Keith and antagonised him. This is meant to show that Lance can't reach his full potential until he changes his relationship with Keith, (as I've stated here and here).

 

So, while he is in the Blue Lion, he is pretty confident and he doesn't take it too seriously, flirting with female aliens any chance he gets, right? But at the same time, Lance's feelings for Keith are growing, and they are growing fast (discussed here). Lance's feelings for Keith are much more serious than anything he's felt before, and it is a bit more uncertain. He's never felt like this before, it's completely new territory. And wouldn't you know it, this is exemplified when Lance ascends to the Red Lion in season 3. He spends a few episodes unused to his new lion, trying to chart this new territory, but unlike Keith, he is not frustrated by it, he is excited:

 

[Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin, 20:26]

 

Remember that Lance always wanted to pilot the Red Lion from the start:

 

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 34:09]

 

Lance has always admired the Red Lion and he is envious when Keith is the one who is chosen. 

 

So, we spend the first two seasons with Lance in the Blue Lion, seen mostly (explicitly) flirting with women and especially Allura, right? That is the strongest impression we get from his character in seasons 1-2. But then we spend the next two seasons with Lance in the Red Lion (season 3&4 were supposed to be one season and so were season 5&6). These seasons are also when Lance is starting to and (was supposed to) grow closer to Keith. When Lance is chosen by the Red Lion, it is first after their relationship changes, when Lance puts his own ego aside to support Keith. Lance catalysed a change in their relationship, and he is rewarded by being called by the Red Lion, allowing him to pilot it and stay within the team.

 

Lance being in the Red Lion is supposed to provide a contrast for him for the way he feels about Allura vs. how he feels about Keith. I mean, this is clearly planned all the way down to their character designs. 

 

Keith has black hair, Allura has white hair. Keith has light skin, Allura has dark skin. Keith's clothes are dark and demure, Allura clothes are light and airy. Keith's eyes are dark, Allura's eyes are bright. Even their character designs are a physical contrast to each other.

 

So, Lance's ascension to the Red Lion is meant to incite Lance's realization that his feelings for Keith are very serious and very deep in contrast to his attraction to Allura. Even though Keith left the team, Lance still has this realization at the end of season 6 (OG season 4) as I found here. Lance realizing this and accepting it ties into his self-worth in the way that once he accepts all the facets of his sexuality, he can finally ascend to the Black Lion and he can finally be the person he was always meant to be. The Black Lion isn't just black. It is Blue and Red together. It is Purple.

 

VLD follows a very neat structure in this way. The first two seasons (season 1 if we follow the 23-episode structure) involve Lance flirting a lot with women, especially Allura (Blue). The next two seasons (Season 2) we see Lance grow a lot closer to Keith and he isn't seen flirting at all, meaning he is also growing much more serious as a character (Red); and finally we were meant to see Lance as the person who has accepted all of this in the final two seasons (season 3), having completely grown into himself, a person who has realized who he is and what he wants and what he can bring to the team (Purple). And since Lance's story is a love story, it was all supposed to end with Lance expressing this growth explicitly, by confessing his love to Keith in the show's finale, completing his journey and growth.

WHEN WOULD LANCE HAVE ASCENDED?

Lance ascended in the original cut of the Season 6 finale or in the first episode of season 7. Here I present evidence for Episode 5: Black Paladins and Episode 6: All Good Things having been edited to a large degree, and here I have found evidence of edits as early as episode 1: Omega Shield... so all of season 6 was edited to a large degree, including the final episodes. The last three episodes of season 6 is also where we see Lance take charge the most, even though some of his lines were given to other characters, such as Keith or Allura. Still, despite that, he has never taken charge this much, not even in season 3. They were clearly amping up for his ascension at the end of the season/start of season 7. It also would have made a great cliffhanger.

Here I investigated Season 7 edits, since JDS and LM tell us in this podcast that it was edited. They only admit to Shiro and Adam's story being edited, but I found evidence of other edits, most of them (if not all...) involving Lance to some extent. In that analysis, I especially observed Shiro's time in the coffin in the first episode: A Little Adventure, to be very weird and inconsistent with the last episode of season 6. I take a guess there at the original plot of the episode, given everything I know about the changes, to be about the team, and especially Keith, coming to terms with Shiro's death, and the flashbacks to play intermittently throughout the episode. Based on the massive foreshadowing I have found here, and all the edits I found in Season 7, I further believe that this episode was originally going to be about Lance ascending to the Black Lion and becoming the Black Paladin.

And although it was all edited, we still see remnants of this in the show, especially in their positions.

 [Season 6, Episode 7: Defender of the Universe, 07:47]

I've pointed this frame out before (here) but WHY is Lance in the middle here, and not Keith? Lance being on the other side of Keith would have mirrored his position with Pidge as the arm to Allura's leg, just as Pidge is the arm to Hunk's leg. VLD is very meticulous and intentional with the positions of their characters, so this was intentional in the original cut. Lance is in the middle here, because at this point he would have been the leader.

And we see Lance being in the middle again in season 7, just like he consistently was in Season 1:

 [Season 7, Episode 4: The Feud!, 01:36]

Lance being in the middle here is a double entendre in the visual form, just as his ascension to the Black Lion is symbolic. He is not only in the middle because he has to choose between Keith and Allura, but also because he is the head of Voltron. Lance is literally standing exactly where Shiro used to stand in seasons 1-2, right between the arms and the legs. Lance has ascended, but he hasn't confessed yet. This episode is one big foreshadowing not only for their endings, but also for several plot points that we were going to see in Season 8. Lance choosing Keith at the end of the episode was meant to foreshadow his eventual confession during their fight in season 8 that they cut out, because they cut Black Paladin Lance.

But that's not all. 

Remember when I talked about this shot?

 

[Season 7, Episode 10: Heart of the Lion, 03:13 ; 03:35]

And how weird it was that Lance was sitting on the Garrison side instead of on the Voltron side? How weird it was that he's switched seats with his sister, Veronica? At first I thought that this had something to do with his proximity to Keith, and I do think that's part of it, but based on everything we've seen here, I believe the true reason is something else. If they hadn't switched Lance and Veronica, Lance would have sat at the head of the table... which is usually where the leader sits, as we also see in the next meeting scene, when Keith heads the table, because they made Keith the leader instead of Lance, just as they were told to do:

[Season 7, Episode 10: Heart of the Lion, 10:57]

In season 7, we would have seen Lance be the Black Paladin. A lot of plot points, shots and dialogue would have belonged to Lance, such as Iverson apologizing, Lance finally seeing through his lion's eyes as well as Lance waking up first and taking out the zaiforge cannons (which they kept but he would have been in the Black Lion at that point).

But, as I said here, at this point in the story, Keith becomes the new main character of VLD, even though he was never supposed to be. Just as they were told to bring Shiro back to life, the writers were also told to abandon Black Paladin Lance, because it interfered with Keith's legacy of being the Black Paladin and inheriting Shiro's legacy in the endgame (as all other iterations also included). That's why Lance and his arcs that have been steadily building up until now are weirdly absent from most of season 7, with only his love arc being included (in the end, when they had decided to move forward with the Macross Love Triangle after Tim Hedrick left, but reconfigured). It's the only storyline Lance has left at this point, but this was also sabotaged once the IP holders knew who his endgame was supposed to be, as I found here and here.

Furthermore, in this interview, the interviewer starts off with asking about Black Paladin Lance, and there's a loooong second where nobody reacts and then everyone starts panicking. LM jumps in immediately and lies awfully saying she's never heard about it... c'mon now. I'll give it to the interviewer, that was a really bold question to start off with. Everyone also seem very excited about the question with Jeremy (Shada, voice of Lance) of course passing off his answer as being biased, but again.... at this point he already knows where Lance is headed.... and he starts looking around for someone else to answer when he says, "it's not completely out of his realm of possibility", probably terrified he's gonna accidentally spoil something again. And then Josh Keaton (voice of Shiro) talks about how they know how the story and their characters are gonna go, they just can't talk about it (in relation to another question of course but... like ofc that's how promotions works, you can't spoil your own show). Well, that's what's happening to Jeremy Shada (and everyone else for that matter) in this interview. Interestingly, they also don't talk a lot about Shiro at all, most likely because he was supposed to die in season 6. They do mention Keith and "Keith's arc" several times though, possibly referring to his letting go arc of the end of season 6, since we don't see Keith much in this season.

Anyway, based on their answers to that question, and the general interview, I don't believe they'd gotten the order to revive Shiro at the end of season 6 just yet, nor been told to remove Black Paladin Lance. It might have been shortly after this, though. Based on the extensive edits to season 6, I'd say it wasn't much later than this interview, if not because of this interview. Based on the edits I found from season 5 here, though, I do believe that they were told something, because they edited Lance activating Voltron's sword out of the episode in Season 5, Episode 3, and changed it to a normal cannon shot. Probably here they were just told to keep Keith as the only one who can activate the sword... but admittedly the timeline is a bit confused here.

Okay, so I have to make a few amendments to the timeline I established here, based on the edits I found for both season 5 and 6. Considering Season 5 is heavily edited to the extent that it is, they must have started it a few months before the release of season 5 in March 2018 (which is when I still believe they were told to remove Black Paladin Lance). When that would have been I can't say. At least 3-4 months before release, considering the scale of edits. The edits of the first half of Season 6 they added along with the edits of season 5, but the edits of the last half they added when they edited Season 7.

Barlee was right. 

 

The story is incomplete, because this is Lance's story. But Lance was effectively written/edited out of his own story, replaced by Keith (and Allura...) and given nothing, when he was meant to have everything.

VOLTRON LEGENDARY DEFENDER AS ONE BIG SUBVERSION STORY

I've stated multiple times that VLD is one big subversion story. They have subverted multiple archetypes, story conventions, expectations, gender roles etc, etc. 

 

For example, Keith and Lance getting together are a subversion of previous instalments putting Keith and Allura together. Old fans or people who are familiar with the franchise would not have expected Keith and Lance as a pairing, since the history of the franchise has always put Keith and Allura together. This is even referenced in season 8 by Hunk:

 

[Season 8, Episode 1: Launch Date, 02:58]

 

Lance's response to this is of course a result of them regressing his character for the sake of the Macross Love Triangle as I said here, but this episode very clearly shows us VLD's true endgame pairing both in the sunset scene where Keith and Lance give each other heart eyes and when Lance reveals the true object of his jealousy during the dinner scene. Furthermore, a romantic relationship between two men is very unusual for a cartoon series, especially between two of the main characters of the show. The show frequently plays on society's heteronormativity to subvert and subtextualise Keith and Lance's love story, which I talked extensively about here.

Another example is Allura being a subversion of the Goddess of the Universe lore that I mentioned briefly here. The Goddess of the Universe is a separate entity in the DotU franchise, and she is hardly mentioned at all in VLD. But that is because Allura is the Goddess of the Universe, foreshadowed in Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator. 

 

[Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 05:21]

 

Allura is furthermore a subversion of her previous characterisation from the previous instalment:

 

 

VLD's Allura is the complete opposite of this. Allura keeps her resourcefulness and tenacity, but she is arguably also the strongest member of Team Voltron and the one most skilled in combat, evidenced multiple times in seasons 1-2. Fans picked this up subconsciously while watching the show and proceeded to portray her as training the other paladins personally in combat in fanfiction in the early fandom days (2016-2017).

Furthermore, Pidge is also a subversion of her previous instalment, being a girl rather than a boy, and so is Keith being half-Galra. Moreover, as mentioned before, Keith (and by extension Lance) is a subversion of the Chosen One trope, already discussed above. Keith overcoming his lone wolf archetype is a further subversion of that archetype.

Keith's abandoned arc:

Lance isn't the only one who had an arc that the writers were forced to abandon. Actually, the first arc that was abandoned in the whole show is Keith's found family arc that I've mentioned a few times (here and here). This was abandoned when Shiro was revived in season 3 as Kuron. When Keith is introduced he is giving the impression that he follows the Lone Wolf Archetype:

 

Keith seems to follow this archetype when we meet him, because he is introduced as someone who was kicked out of the Garrison due to "disciplinary issues". This follows the "struggle against societal constraints" trope associated with the Lone Wolf. He seems to be a bit of an outlaw, because he seems to live in the middle of the desert alone after being kicked out of the Garrison. However, the more we get to know Keith, the more we see his desire to break out of this archetype.

 

It's actually already foreshadowed here:

 

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 52:34]

 Look at his expression when Shiro says he's coming with Pidge:

 

He's a little bit hurt and worried. Keith doesn't want to do this alone. And this is true for his character throughout the whole show.

 

 [Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 01:02:46]

 

Keith says this after only having known the team for a day. So Keith values his time with them, even if it is very brief. He is furthermore seen connecting with the others in the team, and starting to approach them, especially Lance:

 

 [Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 21:54]

 

 [Season 1, Episode 2: Some Assembly Required, 22:06]

 

 [Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 03:52]
 

 

 [Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 10:16]

 

  [Season 1, Episode 4: Fall of the Castle of the Lion, 02:17]

 

   [Season 1, Episode 4: Fall of the Castle of the Lion, 04:06]

 

Keith doesn't want to be alone. He doesn't prefer solitude, in fact, he seeks company very consistently throughout the seasons and is continually hurt when people abandon him.

 

   [Season 1, Episode 4: Fall of the Castle of the Lion, 10:06]

 

I talked extensively about this episode being a metaphor for a found family here. Keith's characterisation, and his desire to connect to other people is consistent through season 2:

 

[Season 2, Episode 4: Greening the cube, 22:03]

 All the way to season 3:

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 01:57]

 

So clearly, Keith really wants to connect with others. He doesn't want to be the Loner that Pidge dubs him as in Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin:

 

[Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin, 05:22]

 

This clearly affects him, because when he is chosen by the Black Lion, he rejects the role by saying that they were right:

 

 [Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin, 10:14]

 

Here, he is trying to push them away by getting ahead of it, so to speak. What Pidge said about him really affected him, because he realizes that they haven't seen his efforts to connect with them and he is scared that they are rejecting him, following the behaviour he talks about in his vlog. He tries to push them away and himself away from them, by denying his place in the team. But Lance doesn't let him:

[Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin, 10:21]

Lance helps Keith accept his place within Voltron, even if it means letting go of his mentor, Shiro. Keith was meant to overcome his "loner" status by letting go of Shiro and accepting Team Voltron as his new found family and the Castle of the Lions as his new home, while he was piloting the Black Lion. Lance here being the one who helps him accept it is not a coincidence. We see throughout the whole season that they grow closer and closer, and we were only going to see much more of that in the following seasons. Keith accepting Team Voltron as his family starts with Lance and builds towards the others over the course of the show. This is why we see him listening mostly (only) to Lance throughout this season (discussed here and here). He was supposed to grow from this over the following seasons.

 

BUT Keith completing his found family arc requires him to stay with them, and he was meant to, had Shiro stayed dead. But shortly after they screened the second season for approval, the creative team received a feedback that would change the course of the rest of the whole show: Bring Shiro back to life. As I mentioned here, this is because Shiro was a fan favorite character, and they wanted to sell more toys with him. They can't sell toys of a character that is dead (well, they can, but they won't sell as much as if he is alive and in the show). So the writer's were told to bring him back, and they did, but not completely. They brought back his clone, Kuron, and tried to kill him again at the end of season 6, which they again weren't allowed to do, as I discussed here and here.

 

But bringing Shiro back is devastating to Keith's found family arc, because now they are a paladin too many, as Lance says in the bedroom scene in season 3, and as we know, Keith sacrifices his place on the team in order to keep both Shiro and Lance there, and leaves to join the Blade of Marmora:

 

[Season 4, Episode 1: Code of Honor, 22:42]

 

Which he is very sad about. When they brought Shiro back to life, they had to completely change the story and especially Keith's arc. Instead of connecting with Voltron as his new found family, he is given his biological mother, Krolia, and connects with her instead, as I found here, and he is given a literal Lone Wolf as his companion, signifying how Keith failed to overcome his status as a lone wolf archetype. When they brought Shiro back in season 7 again, they furthermore had to abandon Keith's letting go arc (for the second time) and establishing Krolia as Keith's new mentor, replacing Shiro.

 

His original ending was actually already foreshadowed in season 2, as was everybody else's, much like how their new ending was foreshadowed in the Feud! episode in season 7:

 

[Season 2, Episode 11: Stayin' Alive, 22:08]

Keith wasn't supposed to find his mother in the show at all, possibly only starting to look for her after the show is over. Possibly they were thinking of maybe exploring this in a future comic issue after the show ended, much like they did with Zuko. But of course, once they changed the story, they couldn't do that anymore. Maybe that's the real reason they stopped doing the comics... 

VLD’s True Hero

In Voltron is a Love Story, I talked a lot about red-herrings because VLD utilizes them a LOT in their writing. A major example is Allura being a red-herring for Lance’s true love interest (Keith) and Lotor (and Zarkon for that matter) being a red herring for the true final villain (Haggar).

Another example is Keith being a red-herring for Shiro’s true inheritor of his legacy, namely Lance (already discussed). But Shiro himself is also a red-herring, namely the red-herring of the true hero of VLD. At first glance, Shiro seems to be the archetype of a hero. 

 

Shiro follows this almost to a T. He is the moral compass of the team, being their leader, and he is elevated above the rest of the team because he has more experience than them and is the most mature one of them all. But the subversion starts when he dies at the end of season 2. How can a hero vanish from his own story? Well, because it's not his story, as I've already said. VLD is Lance's story. But that makes Lance a further red-herring for the true Hero, because as I argued in Voltron is a Love Story, Lance’s story is not a hero’s story, it is a love story. Well, so is Shiro's story. Lance inheriting Shiro’s legacy applies to his personal life more so than his heroic feats. Shiro’s story resembles Lance a lot in this way, because Shiro doesn’t achieve peace in the universe, that was not his purpose. Shiro's story is a tragic love story.

 

[Season 7, Episode 1: A Little Adventure, 17:18] 

 

This is the real reason they wanted to introduce Adam already in season 2, because they wanted to reveal Shiro's true legacy before either Keith or Lance inherit it. That actually Shiro is punished for choosing glory over love. Adam leaves him, he is kidnapped by the Galra and eventually he dies. Shiro didn't fail at being a leader, and he didn't fail at saving the universe, because his punishment started way before that. It started already when he chose to go on the Kerberos mission. He failed at choosing what was most important: love. Inheriting a legacy for a character usually also means righting the wrongs of the past. Lance was meant to inherit Shiro’s legacy, because he was meant to right his wrong. He was meant to choose love over glory, when he confesses his feelings for Keith. He is not meant to be the hero, or save the world, he is meant to find love and choose love, which Shiro failed at.

So, who is VLD’s true hero? Well, I already kinda hinted to it in Voltron is a Love Story, but to truly cement it, let's first answer the question: what makes a hero? How does this team write heroes? In Voltron is a Love Story, we examined how this team would present and communicate who their main character is. But the main character doesn't always have to be the hero, as I've already discussed. Lance is undeniably (meant to be) the main character of VLD, but as I've already established, his story is not a hero's story, it is a love story. Therefore we still have an investigation to make, just as we examined how they present the main character, we also need to examine how they write their heroes. What do each of their heroes have in common?

VLD vs. LOK vs. ATLA

Undoubtedly, Aang and Korra are both the heroes of their respective stories, because they follow the Hero archetype to a T. They are both forces of good and are elevated above those around them by being the literal avatar, the bringer of peace. Both Aang and Korra had an "ascension" arc, which helped them save the people around them, those weaker than themselves. Aang ascends when he refuses to give up his culture's values for the sake of war, being rewarded with the power of energy bending:

[Season 3, Episode 19: Sozin's Comet Part II: The Old Masters, 22:16]

 

And Korra ascends when she finally unlocks her airbending, connecting spiritually to her past lives which she has struggled with throughout the whole season, and is also rewarded not only with all of her other bending powers, but also the energy bending that Aang learned at the height of his arc (I am only including season 1 arc, since Korra was originally conceptualized as a standalone movie):

 

[Season 1, Episode 12: Endgame, 21:29]

 

 This allows her to save everyone else, who lost their bending due to Aman's blood bending:

 

[Season 1, Episode 12: Endgame, 22:43]

 

They both fulfill the hero archetype.

 

 

But what about VLD? Who fulfills the hero archetype from VLD? 

 

Who is a force for the greater good, who defends those weaker than themselves? 

 

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 

[Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 16:26]

  

To the point of self-sacrifice? 

 

[Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 21:30]

 

Who is elevated above those around them in some way? 

 

[Season 1, Episode 8: Rebirth, 14:32; 15:41]

 

Who shows great courage and compassion?

 

[Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 06:05]

[Season 1, Episode 8: Rebirth, 07:56]

[Season 2, Episode 13: Blackout, 10:53]

VLD’s true hero is Allura. 

Allura's inheritance of Alfor's legacy and her ascension to godhood.

In Voltron is a Love Story, I talked extensively about Allura's parallels with Aang, the hero of ATLA. I will quote here what I said there:

 

"Allura’s arc is very similar to Aang’s, and she shares a lot of other similarities with him as well. They are both the lone survivor of their people, they are both awoken after a long period of time to fight in a war, which was a legacy left for both of them, they both possess a power that no one else does and both of [them] glow when they use it. [...] Allura has also felt a great loss. But her acceptance and her love for her found family is what drives her to grow, and to succeed against her antagonist, Haggar, who doesn’t have any of those things."

 

Aang starts his hero's journey by inheriting a legacy, the duty of an Avatar to bring peace between nations. In season 3, Roku tells Aang that he inherited his mistakes:

 

[Season 3, Episode 1: The Awakening, 21:12] 

 

but he also tells him that he is destined to save the world.

 

Like Keith and Lance, Allura also inherits a legacy in VLD, namely her father’s legacy.

 

[Season 1, Episode 1: The Rise of Voltron, 48:02]

 "I scattered the Lions of Voltron to keep them out of Zarkon's hands. You urged me to keep them and fight, but, for the greater good of protecting the universe, I chose to hide them. [...] you were right. I made a terrible mistake, one that cost the universe countless lives. Forming Voltron is the only way to stop Zarkon. You must be willing to sacrifice everything to assemble the lions and correct my error."

 

And as I said, like Lance, like Aang, with Alfor’s legacy, she is meant to right the wrongs of the past. Alfor split Voltron apart and he failed to save the universe from the Galra. This is very typical of the legacy inherited by the Hero, saving the world, unlike Shiro’s (true) legacy, which was about love. Allura is meant to right the wrongs of the past, by converging Voltron once again (fulfilled already in the first episode and subverting her role as the Goddess of the Universe) and saving the universe. When she is introduced, she seems to be pigeon-holed as a love interest, because she falls into the arms of our red-herring “hero” Lance, but her story is not a love story, it is a hero’s story, a war story, like Aang. 

 

The true hero is revealed when Allura saves the world with her “self-sacrifice” in the show's finale, the very last episode. She fulfills her father’s final legacy, she rights the wrongs of the past, and she is rewarded with the ascension to godhood. Aang receiving the reward of energy bending is analogous to Allura receiving the reward of the secrets of Altean Alchemy from Oriande in season 5, an arc she was supposed to go through alone, and use to save the world, just like Aang, and just like Korra, as I found here. Allura being the true hero of VLD is a complete subversion of the gender roles of the Hero archetype, since the hero is almost always a male character, especially in shows with the intended audience of young boys that VLD was (see the shounen genre in manga for example).

 

But her story was reduced to a love story once they changed Lotor to be her love interest (for some reason I STILL can’t discern) and she was reduced to a static character who never grows, learns or earns her ascension. Her ascension gets muddled and confused. What does she ascend in exactly? What does she gain? What decision did she make? It is unclear because it was replaced with her love story with Lotor. She was supposed to ascend in season 5, gaining some kind of connection with her people and Altea; she was supposed to finally overcome something she had struggled with throughout the series. But what that was originally, I can't say, because they changed her story completely for the sake of Lotor, already in season 3, and she becomes completely unrecognisable by the time we get to seasons 7-8.

 

Allura was the first victim of changes to the story, regressing her maturity to progress Lotor's plot, as I discussed here, and regressing her growth again and again to progress Lotor's "redemption", as I discussed here. But that means that Lotor's story was also changed twice.

 

LOTOR'S EVER-CHANGING STORY

It is a bit unclear what exactly the showrunners had intended with Lotor originally, since the first change of his story was already in his introduction in season 3:

 

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 18:14]

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 19:43]

These are Kihyun Ryu's style of animation. As I have discussed before, we can usually tell when an animation sequence has been edited, due to either the characters looking out of style, or the animation being stilted and unrefined. For more examples of this, especially Kihyun Ryu's style of animation, see my essay on the edits of season 5 & 6 here.

 

 

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 18:53 ; 19:25]

 

Here we have two more shots which were drawn in Kihyun Ryu's style. As I said in the above link, this is mostly characterised by the varying thickness of the lineart, especially around his nose and mouth. Compare to how he looks in the VLD style:

 

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 18:00]

 

In fact, the above frame of him is a further confirmation that his introduction was edited, because it matches Kihyun Ryu's instagram post that calls it a "retake":

 

That means they changed something about Lotor's introduction from the original cut of the episode, although his introduction is much better streamlined than later edits from for example Season 5 or season 8. His very first introduction, when he is mentioned at the end of Season 2 right before the cliffhanger, as Zarkon is on his death bed, gives us little information about him:

 

[Season 2, Episode 13: Blackout, 22:46]

 

So we have quite frankly nothing to compare his story to. I suspect the cause of this change of his character/story is much the same as for all of the other major changes in the story: Shiro was brought back from the dead in season 3.

 

So, Lotor's introduction was edited/reanimated; and then his story was changed AGAIN in season 5, as I found here, when he becomes Allura's love interest rather than whatever he was originally meant to be.

 

Lotor's character is a topic I frequently like to avoid talking about, because it is very elusive and often doesn't make any sense. Of course, now I know that it is due to the many changes they had to make of his storyline, but it is a topic that I still like to avoid, because I know he has a lot of devoted fans, and I don't want to say anything that will unnecessarily hurt anyone. However, in order to fulfill this as my last essay, putting down everything I've ever thought about this show, I can't avoid it any longer. I have to talk about him now. So, let's start.

Lotor's role as the deuteragonist and his lackluster redemption arc

I have a slight suspicion that Lotor was never meant to be a part of VLD. I suspect that Haggar saying at the end to "summon Prince Lotor" was a changed line that they included once they had decided to include him from season 3 onward. I base this on the inconsistency of his character, and the fact that he is never mentioned at all until that one line at the end of season 2.

 

Let's start with his lack of presence in the show prior to his introduction. I'd like to compare him here to another character from ATLA, who was also introduced at the end of season 1 and appears at the start of season 2: Azula.

 

Azula is mentioned multiple times and makes an appearance multiple times even before her introduction in the finale of season 1.

 

The first time is in Episode 12: The Storm, where we see Azula smiling when Zuko gets burned by his father in Iroh's retelling of the event:

 

[ATLA, Book 1: Water, Episode 12: The Storm, 17:44]

And the next time, she's mentioned by Zuko after he captures Aang in episode 20: The Siege of the North Part 2:

 

[ATLA, Book 1: Water, Episode 20: The Siege of the North Part 2, 04:20]

 

But there is no mention or foreshadowing of Lotor in VLD at all. He's not even in the opening title sequence of the show. Isn't it odd that they never refer to a character who is supposedly a part of the story and always has been and supposedly always will be until the very end?? that they never foreshadow him?? never even talk about him? VLD is a master at foreshadowing, clearly, as we have been examining in this whole essay. So WHERE is Lotor in the text of the show?? Well, he's nowhere, because he wasn't a part of the story at this point. They hadn't included him in the original conceptualization of the show, and I doubt he was ever intended to be included in the first place. Lotor must have been commissioned by the IP holders, who wanted him to be the villain in the story, but the writers had a different idea. Not a full-fledged villain, but most likely a more morally-grey anti-hero.

 

I know what you're thinking. "But Taro, they foreshadowed Acxa in Season 2! She made an appearance!!"

 

Did she? You're thinking of this:

 

[VLD, Season 2, Episode 9: Belly of the Weblum, 15:46]

 

But tell me dear reader, do you know for sure this is Acxa? I know that this is what they tell us in season 3, when Keith fights against her again. But... I don't think so. At least, not originally. Because of the promotional posters. 

 

As we all know, all of the posters connect, and they were released for their comic con panels over the years to promote the show. The posters always feature characters who have made an appearance on the show until that moment and it frequently references arcs and moments from the show as well. Below is a combination of all of the posters put together into one long poster:

 

 It's a bit hard to see from that far away, so let's zoom in, shall we?

 

This is approximately the poster for season 2, and we do see the mysterious ranger in the right bottom corner of the poster. And in the next poster for (OG) season 3, we see Lotor and his generals.

 

And at first glance, this mysterious ranger and Acxa seem to match. But... if we go to left a little bit, we actually get a very rare glimpse of the space between the posters converging, and we see something very fascinating...

 

We see the mysterious ranger in front of Lotor, kind of matching Acxa's suit right? yes... but WHY is she suddenly SMALLER in the season 3-4 (OG Season 3) poster? If that really is Acxa, and they really planned all along for her to be revealed like this, HOW could they have gotten her height wrong across posters ??? They had her character sheet ready, didn't they know how tall she is??? No. Because that isn't Acxa. At least, not the Acxa we see. They retconned this mysterious ranger to be Acxa once they added Lotor. Her armour also doesn't match completely. There are a few details out of line, like her elbow wing, the glowing dot on her hand and the size of her shoulder pad. These are literally side by side. It is incredibly easy to spot these differences, compare them to her character sheet and correct them... unless they didn't HAVE her character sheet ready when they made the poster for season 2. Because it wasn't meant to be HER. Because Lotor wasn't meant to be included in the story!

 

There's another retconning moment which confirms this to me. I mentioned this in Inconsistencies I Found in Voltron and I will quote myself here:

 

"In Season 3, Episode 7: The Legend Begins, Coran narrates the building of Voltron and the origin of the war. Here we find out that Zarkon married an Altean alchemist, Honerva, who became very ill and delirious from prolonged exposure to quintessence through her work. Then, in trying to save her, Zarkon takes her to the rift and exposes the both of them to raw quintessence. Both Zarkon and Honerva die from overexposure to quintessence and then are revived by the dark rift creatures. Zarkon wakes up as pure evil, and Honerva wakes up as Haggar.

But, if Coran knows that Honerva is Haggar, then why was Allura surprised by Haggar being Altean, in season 2? 

[Season 2, Episode 13: Blackout, 18:08]

Allura doesn’t seem to know that Haggar was Honerva, but she also doesn’t act surprised when Coran retells the story?? 

And also… Allura was a grown up by the time Zarkon and Honerva died, were resurrected and attacked Altea, so she must have known about Honerva by that time… especially if she was a friend of her father’s… who gave her a gift for her birth…

So why didn’t she know that Honerva is Haggar?

[Season 5, Episode 5: Bloodlines]

Besides that, here Coran says that the reason Zarkon wanted Voltron was because he wanted to create another rift

But… I don’t know if that’s the case, because in the first two seasons, Allura and Coran both say that it’s because he knows it’s the only weapon that can defeat him. 

His motivations in seasons 1-2 imply more ATLA’s reason for the war, which is imperialism. He wanted Voltron to help him conquer planets and gain more power. With Voltron he would be unstoppable, but this new reason implies that Voltron is only a means to an end. That imperialism isn’t the goal. The reason from the first two seasons align better with his motivations, and I don’t know if this new reason does. It kinda seems like retconning Zarkon’s goal to inform Lotor’s motivations, rather than a continuous, consistent drive."

Even back then, I caught on to the fact that VLD retconned information we had already gotten to inform on Lotor's motivations. And well... on top of everything else I found, it all kind of paints the same picture. That Lotor was an addition to the story rather than an integral part of it from its conception.

 

And well, Lotor's inconsistency is further evidence of that. By inconsistency, I don't necessarily mean his behaviour, but rather his role in the story. When Lotor is introduced, I mentioned here that he is introduced as a red-herring antagonist to Keith, being introduced at the same time as Keith was meant to "ascend" to the Black Lion. But he is a red-herring antagonist, because he and Keith never interact/fight one-on-one with each other, like Shiro does with Zarkon or Allura does with Haggar, so I cocnlude that he is meant to be the deuteragnoist to Allura, since their arcs seem to intertwine. In the link above, I also compare him a lot to Zuko from ATLA, who is a very famous example of a deuteragonist. However, while I discussed their similarities, I never discussed Lotor's shortcomings as an actual deuteragonist.

 

Unlike Zuko, Lotor doesn't have an antagonist in all of VLD. When he is revealed to be the deuteragonist to Allura, his true antagonist is never revealed like Zuko's is. Some say that his antagonist is/was meant to be Haggar/Honerva, but we know that this isn't the case, because Haggar is Allura's antagonist, and has been since the very start. His antagonist is also not Zarkon because defeating ones antagonist comes at the very end of the story, at the very end of ones arc (again see Zuko vs. Azula and Aang vs. Ozai in ATLA), whereas Lotor already killed Zarkon in season 5. Zarkon was furthermore conceptualised as Shiro's antagonist, and was meant to die at the same time Shiro did, at the end of season 2, as I discussed here. Haggar was always meant to be the true villain, just as Allura was always meant to be the true hero. So, where exactly does Lotor fit into this? Well, he doesn't, because he never had a role in the story when the show was being conceptualised, in the same way all the other characters did.

 

Furthermore, unlike Zuko, Lotor also never embarks on a "redemption" journey, as in, Lotor never starts in one place of ignorance and compliance with the empire, but rather he starts already in his introduction to be opposed to his empire's ways, seen by his speech of "changing the old ways".

 

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 19:33]

 

So, Lotor is already aware of the shortcomings of the Galra Empire and he already knows which side he stands on. When he joins team Voltron in season 5, this is never a part of his "redemption", because he never came to them from a genuine place, unlike Zuko, instead having gone into his partnership with them from a place of manipulation, as I discussed here.

[Season 6, Episode 6: All Good Things, 07:34]

Even if Lotor was brought back in Season 8, his redemption arc wouldn't have entailed any internal change within him. From the edits that I saw, his return consisted mainly of being rescued by Allura and then joining Team Voltron as the new Blue Paladin, and the marks Lance receives in the final episode were meant for Lotor. But this is entirely unearned, because he's been "dead" for two seasons and hasn't had time to learn anything, like Zuko does in ATLA. He hasn't realized the error of his ways, because he simply hasn't embarked on that journey, and his goal never changed. His goal was very consistent all the way until his death at the end of season 6. Lotor's goal was always to manipulate Team Voltron into helping him, his feelings for Allura were just an unfortunate (forced) byproduct of that.

 

So, to summarise, I don't think Lotor was part of the VLD story from its inception during the production of seasons 1-2, because Lotor doesn't fulfill any of the criteria of either a deuteragonist or an antagonist, his role in the story is very confused and inconsistent and I furthermore don't believe a redemption was ever part of his story once they included him, because his story doesn't follow a "redemption" story at all. What his story was actually going to look like once they included him, I have no idea! Maybe he was going to become an ally or he was going to be a brief misdirect villain. I don't know, I can't say.

 

Voltron Legendary Defender has many victims of sabotage, it's first being Allura, her character being sacrificed again and again to make room for a new character, Lotor, who originally had no place in the story. Keith was the second victim of meddling, the writers having to abandon several of his arcs by being forced to revive Shiro again and again. The biggest victim is Lance, though, since they had to abandon everything about his character and he was reduced to a mournful love interest by the end.

 

If you've read this far, and if you've read all of my other analyses, thank you. I have put a lot of work into these essays, and I hope that I can bring some closure to the confusion that Season 8 left us with after its release. Even though this essay will be my last for a while, you are still more than welcome to message me or send me asks on tumblr with any questions or points or thoughts you may have made. I'd love to hear what you think. And don't worry, I will still talk extensively about this show, but I think I'm gonna focus on my art for a while. 

 

Thank you again for reading<33