UNFORTUNATELY I FOUND MORE EDITS

THE EDITS OF SEASON 6

Okay, so remember when I posted this? Well... here we are again I guess.

I told myself I wasn't gonna do another edits post because watching each episode very closely for edits is very draining and has a tendency to burn me out. but... when I was rewatching season 6 for the recent Lance analysis I did, I noticed that they used a voice recording from Keith twice, once in episode 4 and once in episode 5 and... i just couldn't leave it alone, even though I tried being in denial. I told myself "surely, surely the edits aren't there earlier than episode 5. Surely that's the earliest edit they've done... surely there isn't more..."

boy. I was soooo wrong.

Let's start from the beginning.

EPISODE 1: OMEGA SHIELD

Look, I hate to say it as much as you hate to read it... but season 6 was edited from the very beginning. and it involves, yet again, Lance:

 [01:26]

This shot of Lance being jealous was added. How do I know? because of his belt, of all things:

their armour belts do not look like this. They always look like this:

[Season 5, Episode 6: White Lion, 09:14]

 and also his hand looks hella weird:

 

Sorry but what the hell is going on here. is that his thumb or his pinky??? Rushed animation...

So... they added this shot of Lance looking pissed/jealous, meaning it wasn't supposed to be here. 

Okay, next one is kinda crazy but I DO have evidence for this... I have a feeling they cut something out from Lance's "death" scene... Most likely a scene of Shiro trying to reach out to Lance again through the Astral Plane. Okay, considering what's happening in this moment, it's not entirely out of left field. So, at this point in time, Kuron is struggling because Haggar is going through the Oriande trials, possibly weakening his "grip" on the connection with the Black Lion. What if Shiro tried to reach out to Lance again while Lance was being healed by Allura, since he's in that in-between between life and death, where Shiro is? Also considering how Lance's Black Paladin arc was coming to a head in this season, AND his role in the Kuron arc, a scene with that would establish Lance's connection to the Black Lion and start the culmination of his arc.

 Well, I actually have evidence of something being cut. Look here:

[20:23]

 

Look at the transition between these two cuts. The screen fades to white, indicating we will fade in to another scene, possibly somewhere ethereal. But the next shot we get is a hard cut to the Red Lion. This is a very jarring cut considering the previous shot was building up to a transition. A transition, possibly, to the Astral Plane, just as we saw in Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem.

 

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 18:06]

THAT was the purpose of Lance "dying" in this scene. Remember how everyone was so confused with how this was never brought up again. EVER? It never seemed to have a purpose. Well, it's because they cut out the meaning of this scene. Lance was meant to connect to Shiro somehow while he was in the "in-between", establishing his connection also to the Black Lion and kickstarting not only the Kuron arc, but Lance's Black Paladin arc. This is the episode RIGHT AFTER Kuron told Lance that he doesn't feel like himself. This is also why they linger on a shot of Kuron at the end of the episode, because Lance was going to get a hint that Kuron isn't the real Shiro. But they CUT IT, because it tied in too much with his Black Paladin arc. That is why Lance had a large role in the Kuron arc in the last season, because they were building up to his role in THIS season, FURTHER building up his ascension in season 7.

EPISODE 2: RAZOR'S EDGE

This one's crazy. Like this one's actuallyyyy crazy. Like I felt crazy when I pointed these out the first time, but I WILL NO LONGER CALL MYSELF CRAZY OR DELUSIONAL EVER AGAIN 'CAUSE THIS IS WHERE I FOUND EXTERNAL PROOF OF EDITS. FROM A MEMBER OF THE CREW AT THE TIME.

 

Let's begin.

 

First edit I spotted was this:

 

[01:36]

 

The way Keith is animated here is inconsistent with Voltron's usual animation style. They animated his shoulders shaking too, whereas Voltron's usual animation would have just animated his eyebrows shaking to show him gritting his teeth and holding back. Furthermore, when he opens his eyes again, they are smaller than they usually are.

 

[01:42]

He is also out of style here. That means this whole scene with Krolia was added/edited.
 

 [02:55]

 

Out of style shot of Lotor here...

 

 [02:56]

 

and of Allura here...

 

[03:04]

 and here

 

[03:27]

AND HERE. I hate to say this... but that means this scene was added/edited too... I am so sorry Lotura fans ToT

 

 And it doesn't end there.

 

[03:43]

You know the drill. Out of style. Both Hunk and Lance. In fact, this whole scene is drawn out of style, including Lotor and Allura, suggesting that it was added...

 

And Lance doesn't look like himself here at all... Compare to this frame from season 3 where he is also insecure:

 

[Season 3, Episode 2: Red Paladin, 16:52]

 

 And the Lance confessing to the mice scene?? also edited/added... from this point on:

[13:09]

Compare again to the frame above from season 3. It looks very different from that, doesn't it? Even from THIS frame in the same episode it looks wayyyy different:

[08:07]

Here Lance looks exactly like he does in season 3. But it's inconsistent with the very next scene we see him in... bruh. At least we know this scene was a part of the original storyline... which I analysed here to be about Keith, NOT Allura....

 

Here's the craziest shit of all.

Guys.... Keith was never supposed to be on the whale for 2 years... ToT They added that whole thing to mature him... and make him ready to take over the Black Paladin role when he got back... I can't believe it

[19:42]

Keith's facial proportions and hair are out of style and Krolia's eyes are two different sizes ToT indicating rushed animation.... cause again, a high budget production like this does NOT make these kinds of mistakes... unless it was rushed...

[Season 6, Episode 2: Razor's Edge, 19:54]

And Keith has the same kind of weird baby face here that he does in episode 4...

Furthermore...

[20:04]

this shot of Krolia is out of style as well... and inconsistent with previous shots of her, both from season 5 but also like just this whole scene ToT Clearly this shot specifically was drawn by a whole other person with a different style and they didn't have time to streamline it to the VLD style.

Here's where it gets crazy. Multiple shots of the ones I spotted that were added are called "retakes" by Kihyun Ryu on his instagram, including this shot of Krolia:

If you don't know, Kihyun Ryu is credited throughout the whole show to be their supervising producer:

He is always credited at the start of each episode, right before JDS and LM, meaning his role is up there in hierarchy so-to-speak. He is as important as an executive producer, he has a hand in everything. This is the description of a supervising producer from this article:

 and this is the description by Wikipedia:

So we have a very senior member of the Voltron team here on instagram, literally confirming that they edited these scenes! Not only that, but look at all the other frames he's included in these posts:

Literally all the frames and scenes I pointed out in Season 6 as edited in my Black Paladins and All Good Things analysis!!! Are you guys seeing this??? holy shit.

That means this:

[20:28]

was added too. In fact, their whole montage on the whale was added. They were never supposed to be there for 2 years, if at all !!! And they were never supposed to find Romelle....

[21:17]

And this !!!! WAS ADDED TOO !!! Allura's eyes are drawn out of style and kinda wonkily, being almost two different sizes. Rushed again...

and in this shot, her eyes are too big and too close together. So this whole scene was added, too.

Bruh, almost the entire episode was edited to some degree. Curious that an episode that centers around Lance and Keith should be this heavily edited... where did I see this again? Oh, yes. In the season 8 edits (here and here)...

 

So, the added shots of Lance being jealous in episode 2 makes me believe he wasn't supposed to actually be jealous and feel insecure about Allura and Lotor getting closer together in the original story. Furthermore, Lance's confession scene being reanimated/edited makes me believe that what Lance says/does was changed. Most likely, he was either going to talk about Keith here, possibly saying that he misses him, or he wonders what he's doing, or he was still going to talk about his romantic feelings, but more ambiguously (so not specifically about either Allura or Keith, leaving it up to interpretation... just like every other time...). 

 

Those would be my guesses purely off of the scene where he's thinking about Keith. The title is called "Razor's Edge" as I also talked about in his analysis, which refers both to Keith navigating a dangerous landscape, but also Lance navigating his feelings. He knows Allura and Lotor getting closer together makes him feel some type of way, but for some reason he's not thinking about that as much as he's thinking about Keith. This episode was going to build up to Episode 6, where Lance realizes that his feelings for Allura aren't as deep as they are for Keith, as I found here. Here in episode 2 he hasn't realized it yet, though, but he is on the very precipice of realizing, on the razor's edge. Just like the title says.

 

Well... the thing is, if that was the case, then Lance joining the game in the next episode would continue the pattern of Lance flirting with girls to mask his feelings for Keith... as I found here... since Lance joined the game to spend time with Allura...

 

[Season 6, Episode 3: Monsters and Mana, 22:16]

 

Although, Allura looks kinda out of style here, so this shot was probably added too, along with Lance's line.

EPISODE 4: THE COLONY

[05:55]

This shot of Keith is out of style, which I can tell, because of his face. Also Krolia, Romelle and Kosmo are nowhere to be seen in the pod behind him.

Even here, they are nowhere to be seen. 

Furthermore, here:

[06:09]

 Lance's face is inconsistent with his expression in the following shot, where he looks much happier to see Keith, and also his arms are raised higher, indicating more clearly waiting for a hug.

[06:09]

That means that whole shot of Lance approaching Keith was edited to change Lance's expression as well as the way he approaches Keith (which is with open arms). It also wouldn't surprise me if they changed his line, somehow. Keith also looks much more like his normal self in that shot compared to the shot when he comes down from the pod.

Then we have this:

[06:38]

Most likely this shot was edited/added too, based off of Keith's jaw shape and Lance's eyebrows. But this shot is edited very well, so it's a bit hard to tell. However, considering this shot specifically is in line with the new story they implemented (Lance confessing to the mice and Keith seeing it in the quantum abyss), most likely they added this shot not only to include Lance worrying about Allura, but also Keith's reaction to Lance talking about Allura.

The following shot is out of style as well...

[07:21]

especially Krolia's face is inconsistent with the way she is usually drawn...

[07:35]

out of style and inconsistent again...

[07:37]

Romelle is missing her Altean markings here...

And as I said in this post... Keith saying here, "it's gonna be okay"

[21:07]

is a duplicated voice recording taken from the following episode...

[Episode 5: The Black Paladins, 14:36]

Meaning he wasn't supposed to say that... he was most likely gonna ask Shiro what the hell he was doing, if he was going to say anything at all. I also have a suspicion that Keith saying "Shiro, it's Keith!" was added as well, because again, he says the exact same thing earlier this episode when he hails the castle, just with a different inflection. They most likely used one of Steven Yeun's other takes of this line and put it here (voice actors take multiple takes of voice recordings to get the right tone for the scene, just like regular actors).

EPISODE 5: THE BLACK PALADINS

I never actually talked about the first half of his episode, which I also suspect to be edited, because of what Keith says here (and also he is drawn out of style and his eyes don't match his usual proportions):

[03:23]

Now, my question is, how does he know that??? Well, the added explanation that we get is that Keith saw their fight in the Quantum Abyss and that's how he knows. But as we've just discussed that whole sequence was ADDED. It was never supposed to be there. Just like how Keith was never supposed to say "it's gonna be okay" in the last episode... Because it was going to be LANCE.

That is Lance's line that they gave to Keith once they were told to make Keith the leader and the main character, because what Hunk says that Keith is responding to, is a direct reference to what Kuron said in season 5 to LANCE:

 [03:19]

[Season 5, Episode 6: White Lion, 13:42]

How does Keith know that??? He doesn't, because he's been gone for two seasons and hasn't seen these suspicious behaviours from him like the others have, especially Lance who got the brunt of it. Lance is the only one who has been involved in the Kuron arc, because again they were building up Lance's ascension to the Black Lion. LANCE was the one who was supposed to try and get through to Shiro because LANCE is the one who has been talking to him the most and getting the most clues about what the hell is going on with him and LANCE was supposed to be revealed to be the true inheritor of Shiro's legacy!

Allura and Hunk furthermore are drawn out of style in their shots, which we can tell by their eyes. Allura's eye shape is completely different, and Hunk's eyes are much smaller than usual. This whole sequence of them fighting in Voltron against Lotor's generals was added/reanimated.

I already talked extensively about the edits to Keith and Shiro's fight here, as well as their Astral Plane scene in the following episode, but what I didn't touch upon was the other paladins' scenes in this episode... which is all drawn in another animation style...

[08:30]

Allura doesn't usually look like that from that angle.

 [08:32]

Lance looks weird here.. his chin is longer than usual, and his chest broader than usual.

 [08:49]

Pidge's face (and Hunk's face for that matter) here is weird etc etc. Almost all the shots of them are drawn out of style in some way.

until we get here:

[14:15]

The styles between shots is much more consistent with each other, but the animation as a whole is inconsistent with Voltron's usual color and drawing style.

The style in these scenes are much more anime like, and the coloring is also much flatter, darker and more saturated/contrasted compared to their usual animation style. Their lineart is also inconsistent in terms of lineart thickness, being more of an inky pen-style, which is a style choice used mostly in Japanese anime. Their faces are also drawn much more Japanese anime-like in several instances:

[14:13]

Here Pidge looks more anime-like compared to earlier close-up shots of her. Her lineart is also thinner/more sparse than Voltron's usual animation style.

 [15:25]

Here again, lineart is thinner/more sparse than usual, you can tell by Allura hair. Lance in the background is also drawn out of style.

 [15:39]

Allura's tiara is also not colored in this shot... and they are all drawn in a different style (esp Lance)...

 [16:12]

Anime-like face...

 [16:16]

Hunk and Lance especially drawn out of style...

[16:22]

Here the lineart thickness varies. For example, the lines of her nose and eyes are thicker than everything else. This is usually a Japanese anime style-choice, but Voltron almost never uses this when it's streamlined into their animation style. In fact, this resembles Kihyun Ryu's style much more than Voltron as a project.

Their roles and all the scenes with them were all changed, which means this whole episode is edited as well to a large degree...

Most likely, the whole team was supposed to be involved in the fight against Shiro, especially Lance, possibly still on the castle, but then Keith gets separated from them, ending up in the astral plane where Shiro reveals that he's been dead this whole time and they say their final goodbyes.

EPISODE 6: ALL GOOD THINGS

Again, I already talked about the start of this episode being edited at the same time as they edited Season 7, Episode 1 here, but I will point out them cutting Shiro off in the middle of his line again:

 

 [02:32]

 

Coloring of Keith waking up in the Black Lion with Kuron also doesn't match their usual coloring style on the show:

[02:50]

There's a purple undertone to the coloring here, which complements nicely with the turqoise glow of the Black Lion's machinery, but Voltron is almost notorious for having a very undynamic coloring. Compare to this frame from Season 5 Episode 6: White Lion, of Lance while he's talking with Shiro while the castle is out of power:

 

[Season 5, Episode 3: Postmortem, 13:44]

here, the turqoise of their suits doesn't stand out nearly as much as the ones with Keith, and the undertone of this frame is green rather than purple, which isn't as complimentary. I don't have fancy words to describe this type of style, so I'll call it factory setting. Voltron usually has a factory setting coloring style, meaning the colors are usually static, like in the Lance shot above, rather than dynamic like in the Keith shot above. 

 

Comapre also their grayscales:

 

There is more contrast inn Keith's shot than in Lance's.
 

Someone more well-versed in art terms can probably explain this better, but the coloring in Keith's shot is inconsistent with Voltron's usual coloring style. That means Keith wasn't supposed to wake up in the Black Lion, and Keith saying "you saved us" was most likely meant for someone else (possibly Lance, considering he would have been involved in the fight... but it could also have been the Red Lion, considering what Keith says in Season 7).

 

Lance and Allura's scene is not out of style as far as I can tell, in fact it is one of the most in style scenes that I've seen all season. BUT, they possibly changed Allura's lines here considering how they added/reanimated all of her and Lotor's romantic scenes in earlier episodes.

 

But this shot of Allura and Lance

 

[06:28]

is out of style though, which you can tell especially by allura's facial proportions and eye shape...

 

[06:31]

this shot of Keith is also out of style...

 

Okay, then we see something odd. So here, Lance is hesitating, while Allura is very sure about this decision,

[08:05]

and we even see her thrust her controls forward, signifying that she's firing. 

 

[08:06]

 

But in the next cut, the first lion we see firing is the Red Lion.

[08:08]

This is a very weird inconsistency. Again, Voltron is usually very meticulous when it comes to continuity between shots, so this continuity error tells me this sequence was edited too. Either, their lines were changed or the shot of Allura thrusting forwards was reanimated... or both.

 

[08:35]

out of style Allura, again. this shot of her was reanimated.

 

And here....

[08:57]

this shot of Allura? retraced. That is Lance's face and Lance's facial expression. Meaning Lance was the one who was supposed to tell everyone their options when Pidge was asking for the plan, not Allura. That is also why the following shot after Allura gives them their options contains all three of them, Hunk, Pidge and Lance, even though Lance doesn't speak at all during that shot:

 

[08:44]

Lance giving them their options would have been in line with Lance firing first at the inter-reality gate, and Lance giving orders when Lotor arrives. But the idea of destroying the inter-reality gate AND summarising the team's options was given to Allura instead, to diffuse the leadership between them, and making Lance seem less like a leader. Again, removing Leader Lance as much as possible... That means Lance's line admonishing Hunk's pessimism was also added...

 

and... sorry but this looks like Lance ToT

 [10:51]

 Her shoulders are too broad and her facial proportions look to be those of Lance's rather than Allura. Lance is also the one who was seen leaning forward right before this. So, here Allura was retraced over Lance again...

 

[11:14]

Out of style shot of Lotor...

[11:37]

Out of style shot of Allura... indicating their whole conversation was added...

 

[12:10]

Out of style shot of Lotor again...
 

[12:19]

out of style shot of Allura again... the lines of her eyebrows and hair aren't as straight as they usually are

[12:44]

out of style shot again...

 Okay, then we have this shot:

 

 [18:24]

Here we clearly see two lines, the purple line which is the Sincline, and a turquoise line, which usually means Voltron. But we know that they can't form Voltron here, because Keith hasn't arrived in the Black Lion yet. So WHO is that line?? and why is there only one, when they are four lions?? and why is it turquoise ?? most likely, this is a shot they reused either from earlier seasons or this is a shot from the original cut, but they just copy-pasted it here.

 

 [19:46]

out of style shot again (his chin is... SO big)... and we also know this is edited because the whole sequence with Shiro in the Astral Plane was edited as I pointed out here.

 

[22:06]

aaand Lance is out of style in this shot. Everyone is actually... Compare to this shot from season 5:

 

EPISODE 7: DEFENDER OF ALL UNIVERSES 

First inconsistency we see is this:

[02:33]

This is the shot we get right after Lotor pushes Voltron away with his double swords. We see Voltron floating in empty space. But then in the next shot, we get a very quick shot of Keith saying "Move!" and we cut to Voltron standing in front of a meteor all of a sudden:

[02:35]

 

Continuity error that we don't usually see in high-production projects like Voltron, which means this was rushed... which further implies that it was done last minute... which further begs the question, why would it be done last minute unless they changed something about the story. So already here, we have pretty clear indications that follow those of the ones we've already spotted, mainly that Keith wasn't supposed to lead Voltron, because Lance was. Lance was the one who was supposed to lead in the whole last half of Season 6, NOT Keith. But they cut it out and replaced it with what we see on screen.

 

[04:16]

Out of style shot of Keith...

 

 Lance's skintone also looks extremely weird here, his skin looking almost grey:

[05:46]

 and here,

[07:25]

 

Lance and Keith's coloring look very dark and almost like they cranked the contrast and the darkness filter to the max.

 

[08:12]

out of style shot of Allura... meaning she wasn't supposed to say "form sword", if she was gonna say anything at all...

 

The entire episode is also very weirdly focused on Keith. In instances when we should see the other teammates step in and perform attacks, we see Keith instead. For example, here:

 

[04:20]

Hunk suggested that to get an attack in, they had to corner Lotor and lure him in. They hide inside of a meteor and wait for Lotor to build up speed before they move. Above we see Keith give the command, but we also see him move his control, suggesting that he is the one performing the action, since we cut directly to Voltron moving away in the last second, right after this shot. To move Voltron, the legs had to be activated, so we should have gotten a shot of Allura and Hunk moving their controls, not Keith. Another example is here:

 

[04:28]

We cut directly from Keith thrusting his control to both of the arms firing an attack, even though this is usually an action performed by the actual arms, which should have been Lance and Pidge. So we should have gotten a shot of Lance and Pidge activating the arms and attacking Lotor, not Keith, since it would cement the actual teamwork that Voltron is all about.

 

Same thing happens again here:

 

[04:53]

 and here:

[05:41]

 

I'm pointing this out because the whole episode uses these sorts of shots and sequences to establish that Keith is Voltron, that Keith is the embodiment of Voltron, to further emphasise the importance of his leadership role. But this is a direct contrast to how Voltron has been portrayed throughout the whole show. Even when Shiro was the leader, we never saw him control other aspects of Voltron like this. Whenever we saw arms or legs moving, we always saw or heard their respective paladin. But not here. Even when Keith is the leader, he is not leading the team. He is performing a one-man-show, with the others serving as supporters of his glory. This is what he was reprimanded for in Season 3. Here, he is portrayed as literally forcing everyone to stay out of his way, while he does all the work himself:

 

[Season 3, Episode 3: The Hunted, 05:05]

I am not saying that this is a faithful protrayal of him, actually I'm arguing the opposite. This is not a faithful portrayal of Keith, because it completely erases the growth he went through not only in season 3 as a leader, but also the supposed "growth" he went through in season 6 in the Quantum Abyss. The purpose of ageing him 2 years was to mature him enough to take on the role of Leader of Voltron properly when he comes back, since, by the time he leaves Voltron in season 4, he still hasn't overcome many of his issues, and he still struggles with working in a team, specifically leading a team. We don't see enough of him once he leaves Voltron to really gauge how he has changed in his absence, and the times we do see him, it is never related to his personal growth. So when we get here, in season 6, his position in the head is not only incredibly unjustified and unearned, but it's as if he is still that person from season 3. Yes, he listens to his teammates' advice and he has a lot more patience with the shortcomings of his team, both of which are simply a product of his age. But he doesn't allow the others to work with him. Again, the shots above of him controlling both the legs and the arms signal that he is doing everything by himself, forcing everyone else to stay out of his way.

 

I am not reprimanding Keith's character here, I am arguing that this unfaithful, inconsistent portrayal of his character is a sign of the purpose of this episode as well as an indication of its change from its original form. Just as Lance was erased as the leader from the previous episodes, in this episode Keith is emphasised as the leader, to an extreme extent, and this is an indication of the desire of the person who commissioned it to be so. Bob Koplar didn't just want Keith to be the leader the same way Shiro was. He wanted Keith to be "better", wanted him to be the star. Keith is the main character now, and Bob Koplar got his wishes, but it was at the cost and the erasure of everyone else on the team.

 

This episode is also the only episode where we get extremely cartoonishly evil depictions of Lotor:

[12:02]

His face is gaunt, his expression contorted and twisted, his teeth and ears sharpened. In some shots, it even looks like his nose is more hooked, like Haggars, which is a notorious facial feature often depicted in evil characters in cartoons.

 

Not only does this episode reveal to us what Bob Koplar truly wanted out of Voltron, that is, for Keith to be the true star of the team, essentially leading it all by himself, but it also reveals to us how he sees Lotor and how he wants him to be depicted. Someone who falls prey to "his own evil instincts" as Kuron said a few episodes earlier.

 

All in all, I have very little to say about this episode, except that this is a glimpse into the show that the Koplars actually wanted when they agreed to reboot the series. Keith as the star of Voltron, in need of no one else but his own skills to win a battle, and Lotor as the irredeemable, evil-natured villain defeated by him.

THE EDITS OF SEASON 5

I wish I could end it there. But the thing is that while I was investigating the edits of Season 6, I discovered a lot more edits in all of Season 5.

Season 5 is by far the most edited season I've ever seen, rivalling season 8. I rewatched season 5 to compare to season 6, because I thought to myself: "surely it was all in style in season 5?? and I can compare safely to show how out of style season 6 is??". Turns out I couldn't compare to a single frame, cause literally EVERYTHING was out-of-style or inconsistent in season 5. Let's get into it.

 Lotura fans... you are not going to like this one...

EPISODE 1: THE PRISONER

[06:44]

Added... already within the first five minutes of the episode, we see an edited scene. This shot of Allura is inconsistent and out of style with how she is usually drawn. Compare to this screenshot from Season 1.

[Season 1, Episode 10: Collection and Extraction, 07:16]

 

Notice how she also looks older here in season 1...

 

Moving on.

 

Shot of Allura and Shiro used twice [06:30] and [07:00]

 

like... this is the exact same shot, used twice.

And here,

 [06:54]

 Here Lotor's head is smaller proportionally to his body.

 

[07:08] 

varying lineart thickness...

[07:23]

reused shot of Lotor from [06:54]...

[07:30]

Allura looks weird in the background and Shiro's shadows are inconsistent with the last time we had a shot like this: 

[06:48]

 Next,

[07:37] 

Lotor looks weird here...

 head shape doesn't match his usual head shape...

[08:00]

Animation out of style... more stilted and unrefined and just in general inconsistent with Voltron's usual smooth animation.

 

[08:42]

Reused shot again... from 07:45

 [07:45]

 

[09:01] 

 Lance (and Allura) is out of style here... his eyes are bigger than usual

 

[09:04] 

And here his nose is bigger than usual.
 

[10:20]

Lance looking weird in the background again...

[10:31] 

both Shiro and Lance out of style here:

 

[10:43] 

this animation of Lotor turning and talking was added as well, because it is unrefined... just as when he stood up in the first scene... linart thickness also varies... this is much more reminiscent of a first draft animation, not a streamlined final product of a professional animation studio.

 

[10:53]

Lotor's face inconsistent with previous shot here...

  

[13:40]

 

In this shot of Pidge in the Green Lion, everyone of her passengers are missing (Rolo, Nyma, Beezer and Matt). Either this is a reused shot from an earlier scene from previous episodes, or none of the passengers were supposed to be here. Most likely a reused shot though.

 

[20:30] 

lineart thickness varies here as well... indicating again that it wasn't streamlined into the show's usual style...

 

[21:38] 

same with this shot...
 

bro.. this was just the first episode ToT The next episode is even worse

 

EPISODE 2: BLOOD DUEL

[02:15] 

Pidge's mouth animation has varying line thickness, meaning the animation of her saying dad was added...

 

[02:38]

out of style shot of Pidge...

[02:47]

 

inconsistent shot of both Matt and Pidge...

[03:05]

and here Pidge's face shape is weird, and Shiro looks almost exactly like he did in the added scenes of the black paladins fight...

 

[04:20] 

out of style shot of Lotor...

 

[04:29]

inconsistent shot of Pidge...

 

[06:07]

 inconsistent shot of Lotor as well...

[08:29] 

unrefined animation and out of style Lotor... which follows Kihyun Ryu's style as shown on his instagram...

 

 

 

[09:03] 

Pidge is cross-eyed here... 

 

and Lotor is only a little bit taller than Matt, even though he's Galra and usually towers over even Shiro???

 

[10:40]

Here we see Kihyun Ryu's Lotor in the background again..

 

We know that this shot: 

[10:44] 

Was edited, again, thanks to Kihyun Ryu's instagram post:

 

[10:58]

out of style...

[11:06]

Here Coran's mustache moves while he speaks, which it usually doesn't...

 

And here, Allura's line was edited/amended:

[11:14]

Because what she says is inconsistent with Hunk's reaction and her own expression right before she says it.

 

Her expression turns more determined as Hunk asks "what do we do." which means she got an idea, most likely involving herself, or something else risky, that is actually an action plan, and isn't just "hold our positions." Because again, if they were just going to hold their positions, Hunk wouldn't have reacted that way.

So, they changed Allura's line here.

 

[11:57]

Added as well.. Pidge's position is inconsistent with where she was before, which was right in the middle between their ships... since that's how she found out her dad's a hologram... so like why is Matt holding her back here ??? it doesn't make any sense. She and Matt are also drawn out of style and her animation is rushed.

 

[12:02]

Here, Shiro is also inconsistent with the style of the two other characters... and just in general... looking exactly like how Kihyun Ryu draws him...

Next,

[12:09]

Lotor's lineart has varying thickness, like an ink pen... inconsistent with Voltron's usual animation style... but again matches Kihyun Ryu's style... which he posted on instagram...

[12:15]

Out of style Lotor again...
 

[12:29] 

Kihyun Ryu's Lotor again...

 

You get the point. The whole fight between Lotor and Zarkon was added/edited, just like the whole rest of the episode.

 

 [13:59]

Out of style Sam here... 

[15:25]

out of style shot of Lotor here...

[15:47]

Out of style again...

 

And as I pointed out in the mistakes in animation section of Inconsistencies Found in Voltron, before Zarkon kicks Lotor away here:

 

[15:54]

 Lotor is holding his grappling hook thingy. But in the next frame when he lands...

[15:54]

He is holding his sword form... And as I also pointed out in Inconsistencies Found in Voltron, Lotor being able to activate the Black Bayard at all is inconsistent with the very next episode, where the Red Bayard deactivates in Allura's hands.

 

[Episode 3: Postmortem, 10:24]

 

This is because the bayard is only able to activate in its paladin's hands, just like the Lions themselves. But here, Lotor is able to activate it somehow lol.

 

Next we have another inconsistency:

[19:17]

Lance what the hell do you mean !! What Lance says here makes NO sense, the sky is literally STILL littering with Galra, and Coran is STILL firing at them as you speak ToT. They clearly changed his line here, or they spliced his audio and put it in this frame. 

Lotor's generals fall to their deaths in this frame:

 

[20:17]

But in the next frame, they added little lights against their shadows to signify "noooo, guys, don't worry haha they didn't die, they just jetpacked away !!!"

 

[20:18]

 

but like... why didn't we see them activate them, if that's the case? well, because they added that shit once they realized they were too high up to survive that fall. it was all rushed and they cut corners where they could. 'cause when we cut to them again, they are all sitting on the ground as if they fell, and not just jetpacked to safety...

[20:31]

ALSO if the sky really WAS clear of the Galra, why didn't Lance, Hunk and Allura intervene with the shuttle SOONER??? why did they wait until AFTER Shiro says they're clear to go to them??

[21:03]

 Also, Lance is out of style in this shot lol

[21:10]

And so is the last scene between Zarkon and Lotor...

[22:28]

Like... guys ToT this whole episode was fucking edited I'm losing my minddddd. Like everyone being up in arms about Lotor's fight with Zarkon back then when it was released were justified, 'cause all that shit was improvised and added to the episode after they removed whatever it was actually going to be about. Which I really have no guess for. I assume it was probably going to be something from the ORIGINAL original storyline (as in the storyline established in seasons 1-3), meaning it was also going to involve Keith; which is the real reason we don't see or hear from Keith a lot in these two (4 & 5) seasons specifically, because Steven Yeun had already recorded all of his lines that they were going to use in the original story, and he didn't have time to rerecord new lines for the new story, as LM also says in this interview. He only had time for a couple of episodes, which is why we see him in Episode 4: Kral Zera and in Episode 5: Bloodlines but not in any of the other episodes.

 

I am so tired man... but it doesn't end here ToT

EPISODE 3: POSTMORTEM 

[02:30]

Allura out of style here...

 

[02:49]

 

Out of style again....

 

[03:10]

 Lotor looking hella wonky here ToT

 

 Like... c'mon. He is also much more blurry than the others in this scene for some reason ??? Possibly, they took this animation sequence of his from another scene, enlargened it and pasted it here.

 

[03:19]

Shot of Lotor out of style. He looks a bit younger than he usually does.

 

[04:01]

Allura and Lotor both drawn out of style, and Allura's eye line overlaps her nose, an animation error we don't usually see on Voltron.... 

 

 meaning this shot was reanimated/added.... to show that Allura is listening to Kuron and considering his words... perhaps even starting to trust Lotor.

 

[04:43]

Kihyun Ryu's Lotor again... matching his instagram post:

Also notice how they never mention that Lotor is the one who killed Zarkon in this whole episode. They just mention that he "died" and "removed".

 

[04:21]

[05:46]

 Well, as we know, their whole fight was edited/added. Zarkon most likely died some other way, or he was never supposed to be there in the first place. The whole plot with rescuing Pidge's dad was added, which is in line with the edits I've found in those episodes. Both of these lines were either edited/added. Shiro and Allura were supposed to be at odds with each other, but it wasn't supposed to be about Shiro giving his bayard to Lotor, because that was all added. Lotor also wasn't supposed to be in this scene. This Allura is also more consistent with what we've seen of her in season 1-2. She is suspicious and expresses caution, something she hasn't done for almost two seasons. that, coupled with the added shot of her looking at Lotor after Kuron says they should trust him, means that Allura was never supposed to trust Lotor in the original story.

 

[06:02]

 out of style shots of Acxa and Ezor..

 

[06:10]

out of style shot again...
 

Then we have this...

 

[20:42]

This is very strange to me. As I've said here, this whole episode is about Lance, and especially Lance unlocking the sword form of his bayard. Everyone else is incapacitated in this scene, except for Lance. When we see Lance power up his lion, we see it in this style:

[20:41]

Which is always used in a bayard moment, not a regular thrusting controls moment. Here's Keith activating Voltron's sword for the first time in season 1:

 [Season 1, Episode 3: Return of the Gladiator, 19:50]

 

And Lance and Pidge activating Dual Swords in season 7:

[Season 7, Episode 13: Lion's Pride, PT II]
 

So Lance's scene in season 5 was a bayard moment. Lance was supposed to save the day unlocking Voltron's sword, which they haven't used since Keith left, because it's Keith's weapon. That is the significance of Lance unlocking the broadsword in the earlier scene, and Allura telling him that he has greatness within, but they changed his bayard to his control, and has him save the day with a cannon shot rather than Voltron's sword. Directly after Lance saves the day, they show a shot of the ocean, which is the element associated with Lance, meaning Lance saving the day was supposed to be very significant. This moment was supposed to be about Lance, and Lance powering up, unlocking Voltron's sword, but they changed it to make it seem less significant.

 

[21:16]

This shot of them is also out of style, especially Lance's face.

 

[22:49]

I'm positive this is a reused shot of Sendak from season 1, I just can't find it right now. I will though, eventually. I always find out. Anyway, that means Sendak was never supposed to return, because as was implied by him literally being ejected into the cold vacuum of space in a tube, he died. Not anymore though!

EPISODE 4: KRAL ZERA

First weird thing I saw was this:

[03:58]

Shiro here is wearing an expression very unlike him. I've never seen him wear this face, not even on Kuron. This is a face we often see on the younger paladins, like Keith, Lance or Pidge. But not Shiro. His hand also looks daintier and smaller than it usually does, and he's not wearing his glove...

 

[04:08]

Here Allura is missing her crown and Shiro is still not wearing his glove:

meaning this shot was animated in a rush...

 

[04:35]

Here we have a reappearance of Kihyun Ryu's Lotor... meaning this whole scene was most likely edited/added.

 

[04:52]

Allura in this shot looks like she's been copy pasted and enlargened. Her animation lines are blurrier than they normally would be this close to the "camera".

 

 [05:14]

out of style Lotor... 

[05:26]

out of style Lotor again... 

[09:12]

Out of style shot of Acxa and the other generals...

 

[09:16]

 

Sendak drawn in Kihyun Ryu's style, which is inconsistent from the previous shot we saw of him in the previous episode. His hair is longer, and his face is more gaunt, indicating that some time has passed. but again... it doesn't match what we saw in the last episode...

 

His uniform also doesn't match... And Kihyun Ryu posted this very shot on instagram...

 

Again... because Sendak wasn't supposed to be revived... because he died in season 1, when Shiro sent him to the deep vacuum of space in only a tube.

 

 [09:53]

inconsistent again with the shot we JUST saw of him. Here ihs hair is again just as short as it was in season 1.

 

[11:46]

Out of style shot of Allura...

[14:37]

Out of style shot of Lotor

[14:40]

out of style again...

[15:34]

Kihyun Ryu's Lotor again... and his mouth animation also doesn't match Voltron's usual mouth animation...

His running forward is also out of style...

It is kinda stilted and unrefined... like we've seen a couple of times until now.

 

[17:24]

out of style Lotor...

Here:

[18:32]

Lotor's jaw starts moving BEFORE he speaks... so they either reused his animation from somewhere else or they changed his line.... or both.

[18:36]

Out of style Lotor again... 

[18:51]

Keith's hair here is much longer than usual...

[19:25]

and here his hair is again longer than usual again and he has a line in the middle of his face for some reason ??

[19:31]

Out of style shot of the Generals...

[22:14]

out of style shot of Allura...

[22:32]

aaaand Kihyun Ryu's Lotor again...

In conclusion, whole episode was edited... just like all the previous episodes...

EPISODE 5: BLOODLINES

The first scene with Sam bidding Voltron goodbye is the only in-style scene of the whole episode. There isn't a single moment that is out of style, that I could discern, meaning this is part of the original storyline, and the original cut of the episode.

 

Considering we open with Sam bidding his kids goodbye, as well as a significant close-up of Lance getting teary-eyed thinking about his family, and Hunk sending a message to his, I deduce that the episode was originally going to be about Team Voltron's family, especially Lance's, echoing the episode's title.

 

[02:50]

However, this is never brought up again in this episode.

 

This is because the entire rest of the episode has been edited and replaced with three whole new plots. The A-plot with Lotor and Allura finding the Oriande Stone in Haggar's study chamber, the B-plot with Keith working with Krolia and the C-plot with the Garrison trio and the robot.

 

To touch on the C-plot first, in Voltron, there is no plot that isn't significant in some way. EXCEPT for this plot with the three of them and the robot. There is literally no discernable meaning to this plot except for filling out run-time. The plot doesn't have any consequence on the future episodes, it doesn't inform us of anything new with the characters and it is never brought up ever again. This is highly unusual for Voltron, a show where every single scene has a meaning.

 

Another unusual component of this episode is that neither Shiro/Kuron nor Coran make any appearance in this whole episode, which is very unusual. Voltron always makes use of every character in its ensemble, especially their main characters. Until now, neither Shiro, nor Coran, have been this absent from the screen.

 

This is incredibly unusual. The only reason Keith has been absent for two seasons is because they changed the story from season 3 onwards, and Steven Yeun didn't have time to record new lines for two half-seasons (1 whole season), otherwise, they absolutely would have included Keith more on screen, even if he isn't part of Voltron, because Keith is part of the ensemble cast. We would have seen him as frequently as we see him in season 6 (which again tells us that season 6 was in a different production era from season 4 & 5, most likely, as I argued here, produced in the same era as seasons 7 & 8.)

 

So, we have an episode where neither Shiro nor Coran make much of an appearance, and a C-plot that has no relevance to the show whatsoever, being mostly just filler to pad the run-time.

 

Moreover, all of the A-plot, B-plot and C-plot are animated out of style suggesting they were all added/reanimated. 

 

Let's start with the A-plot:

 

[04:43]

 

What Allura says here is completely inconsistent with her suspicion and caution from episode 3 as well as episode 4. As I said, the shot of her looking at Lotor as Kuron says to trust him was added, and so was this shot of her. Her design in this shot is much younger than she usually appears, especially from the last scene.

 

 

or even season 4 (episode 1: Code of Honor)

 

 

this scene was also added, Allura's profile doesn't match her profile from season 4:

[05:16]

Lotor drawn out of style here as well...

[05:28]

everyone drawn out of style here...
 

[05:48]

Allura here matching the shot from the castle... meaning this was added too....

 

[11:27]

Out of style Lotor...

 

[11:33]

Both Lotor and Allura looking out of style (and a bit wonky ngl...)

 

[11:41]

and here too...

[11:42]

and here..

[11:50]

out of style again.. lineart thickness varies. compare again to season 4:

 

you can clearly see the difference here. Her hair is drawn differently, she doesn't have shadows under her bangs or anywhere on her face, her eyes are longer horizontally, her eyelashes and eye shape are different, the lineart thickness varies significantly, especially on her nose, her earrings don't have sparkle etc etc.

[11:55]

Lotor drawn out of style here again... 

 

[12:06]

And Allura again here...

[12:12]

and here... 

 

[15:23]

 

and here...

[15:56]

and here 

[18:37]

AND HERE...you get the gist. 

 

This entire plotline was added and the crew didn't have enough time to streamline it into the usual Voltron art style and fix these kinds of mistakes, because they changed it last minute. That means Lotor and Allura were never meant to connect emotionally like this through Altean alchemy in the original storyline (which is consistent with the frankly zero setup they've had thus far...) and Allura was never meant to find the Oriande stone with Lotor in Haggar's study.

 

Then we have the B-plot of Keith meeting Krolia.

 

[04:14]

 already here, in this shot, Keith looks younger than he usually does.

[14:48]

 Here, he looks out of style... he's appearing cross-eyed here... and his facial proportions are weird.

 

The following shot we know is added from Kihyun Ryu's instagram post:

 

[11:01]

 

And shot of Krolia reanimated, as told by Kihyun Ryu's instagram post:

[14:46]

 

[17:17]

 here his irises are too small for his eyes... out of style... 

[18:00]

irises are too different sizes... you get the gist here too. This plot was added as well for this episode. Keith was never supposed to run into Krolia (his mother) in the original storyline...

 

And, well, I already explained how the C-plot doesn't have any significance to the stroyline/plot in any way (which is highly unusual) meaning, they made that shit up on the fly to pad the run-time. Here are a few examples of clear out-of-style shots:

 

[06:38]

Lance drawn out of style

 

[07:59]

Lance drawn out of style again...

[08:43]

All of them drawn out of style here again...

[08:56]

and again...

[13:33]

 

and AGAIN

[13:51]

AND AGAIN. they can never get my boy right when they rush him, clearly.

 

Anyway, everything combined tells us that the whole episode was replaced with three new plots, except for the very first scene where they bid Sam farewell.

 EPISODE 6: WHITE LION

[01:20]

both Coran and Lance's eyes look weird here.

 

[01:50]

Lotor is out of style here... meaning he wasn't supposed to be here... again.

 

 [02:33]

another two out of style shots of Lotor...

[02:37]

that emblem is blurry as shit, they added that post-production.

 

[04:37]

out-of-style shot of Lotor again... he still wasn't supposed to be here... lol

[05:03]

out of style shot of Allura...
 

[05:29]

Lance and Lotor both out of style here...

 

[07:31]

out of style shot of Lotor again...
 

[09:22]

and again...

 

[09:47]

 and AGAIN. Including Allura. Her eye shape is different here again.

 

Anyway, you get the gist here too, right? Just like in all the rest of the season, Lotor wasn't supposed to be here. Allura was supposed to go to Oriande on her own. I suspect the original episode 5 was about how she obtained the stone WITHOUT Lotor. Episode 5 title: Bloodlines would refer to Allura reconnecting with the sacred Alteans that Coran talked about in season 1, based on what she says here:

 

[05:39]

Which is IN-style btw. So. Team Voltron was supposed to obtain that stone somehow in the last episode without Lotor, and Allura was supposed to go to Oriande on her own. This is in line with the first scene of Team Voltron bidding Sam farewell in episode 5 AND the Goddess of the Universe foreshadowing from Arus in Season 1, when the Arusians thought Allura was the Lion Goddess:

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

 

This was supposed to be her Goddess arc, the "higher purpose" that she was always meant for, that I mentioned here. The Goddess of the Universe is part of Voltron's lore, and was subverted here, by making Allura the ultimate Goddess of the Universe, just like how they subverted everything else in this show from the previous instalments. Her and Lotor were never meant to connect and Lotor was never meant to "teach" her about Oriande or help her get there. But once they decided to put them together as a couple (for what reason I can't discern for the life of me) they gave the credit of Allura's arc to Lotor instead.

 

They also added Lance's jealousy... since if Lotor wasn't supposed to be there, Lance also wasn't supposed to be jealous... just like how they added Lance's jealousy in Season 6 Episode 1: Omega Shield.... and they added his confession... and they added all those scenes between Allura and Lotor...

 

AND they cut Lance and Shiro's conversation here short:

[13:42]

I can tell here, because Lance's expression change is cut short from its original lingering shot (which is the only thing that is actually in style this whole episode...), most likely because Lance was going to say something else than what he ends up saying:

 

[13:44]

Furthermore, the shot they cut to is reused from the shot before they zoom in on their faces:

and Lance is out of style in the frame when he turns towards us...

[13:48]

 

So, at the end here, what can we conclude? What are the running theme of edits from both season 5 and season 6?

 

Well, for Season 5, it is obviously Allura and Lotor's relationship, Lance's jealousy of it, Lotor working together with Voltron and actually, Lotor and his generals storyline in general. Allura and Lotor were never originally thought of as a couple, but they added it to the story when they rewrote season 5 (for whatever reason, most likely because of Shiro's first revival and Keith's removal from the team). But not only were they never meant to get together, but Lotor was never meant to work together with Voltron for that long. He wasn't supposed to help them in episode 1, he wasn't supposed to help them rescue Sam, and he DEFINITELY wasn't supposed to kill Zarkon. I doubt there was ever going to be a fighting for the throne episode as well. All of that was rewritten and added once they changed the story.

 

Another running theme is also Keith meeting Krolia. Keith was never originally supposed to meet Krolia and find her, because again, she is the antithesis of a found family, which was part of Keith's original arc, accepting Team Voltron as his family, which we started to see in Season 3, when he called the castle "home":

 

[Season 3, Episode 1: Changing of the Guard, 01:56]

But again, when they revived Shiro, Keith sacrificed his place with Voltron to keep both Lance and Shiro on the team, as I discussed here, and the writers had to abandon Keith's found family arc. So, Keith was never meant to find his mother. And he was never meant to be at the Kral Zera, either, for that matter, because there was never supposed to be a Kral Zera episode... Keith was supposed to come back to the team alone. That is why we don't see Krolia, Romelle OR Kosmo when he just lands for multiple shots...

 

Season 5, episode 3 and the last episode of season 5 also hint at the running theme of edits of Season 6, which is, again, Lance's role in the Kuron arc and his ascension to the Black Lion. Lance was supposed to activate Voltron's sword in Season 5, Episode 3, he was supposed to say something else to Kuron when Kuron said he doesn't feel like himself, he was supposed to see Shiro in the Astral Plane again when he was on the brink of death in season 6 and he was DEFINITELY supposed to lead Voltron from Season 6 Episode 4 onward. Lance was going to be chosen by the Black Lion in the last episode, and the season finale was going to end with that as a cliffhanger.