Voltron S3 Liveblog

Alright, y'all
I'm awake and I'm gonna be liveblogging
Let's do this
"There's nothing out here, Coran. I'm comin' home."
bye my gay little heart is breaking
Hey, I would die for Kolivan
I'm just gonna say it, the Blade of Marmora have cooler and more interesting action scenes than the paladins do in their lions
Hunk, light of my life, sun in my sky, finally got a semi-badass moment
Let's hope those aren't far and few in between
Fuck me running, this was too good not to screencap
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/342873537574600704/343000315005763585/NO.png
"We don't have Voltron anymore."
"We don't have Shiro anymore, either. Everyone seems to have forgotten that."
THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT MY BIGGEST ISSUE
IT FEELS LIKE EVERYBODY JUST STOOD AROUND LOOKING SAD FOR A SEC BEFORE GOING, "WELP, HE'S DEAD, NO CHANCE OF THAT COMING BACK, GUESS WE BETTER FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE INSTEAD OF SPLITTING OUR EFFORTS BETWEEN FENDING OFF GALRA AND SEARCHING FOR OUR LEADER."
It really feels like this was an excuse to have the old lion distribution caused by Shirogane's death (not to mention his twin brother) in the original series, without actually... Killing him off, just putting him on a bus to the astral plane for a while, and it feels really cheap to me
Throwing in old callbacks to the original is good, it's expected, but this just feels about as subtle as a brick wall through your window with "LOOK AT US PANDERING TO YOUR NOSTALGIA" written on it with some pretty flimsy justification for why the switch had to happen at all
Anyway thank you Keith for actually being affected by the loss of your friend and not just shoving him off into a corner of forgotten props and plot devices
"Would it be possible to speak to Emperor Zarkon today?"
"He's in a FUCKING COMA, my dude, what do you want me to do????"
So Red Galra Girl has the power to turn invisible, that's neat, and I love her, and I will defend her with my life
Keith: [nudging Shiro at 3am] Pretty fucked up that we assume Voltron is male. It's a robot. Shiro? Wake up, Shiro. Listen. It's sexless.
AHHHH HERE WE GO THE LOTOR FIGHT
"And now we're passed onto this exiled brat?"
"I've heard rumors he fights alongside his enlisted men like a lowly private."
"Worse than that, his top generals aren't even pure Galra. They're half-breeds at best. He has no honor."
MMMMMFUCK I'm really pleased with my boy
CAT
I can tell the Galra lady with the cat will be my new favorite
Auxia is wife material, I'll say it right now
"Allura's the decision-maker" YET SHE ISN'T LEADER MATERIAL???????
ALL OF THIS SWITCHEROO COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED IF SHE WERE ABLE TO PILOT THE BLACK LION
THERE'S NO NEED TO CRAM THESE PEOPLE INTO ROLES THAT DON'T FIT JUST FOR THE SAKE OF PANDERING TO THE CLASSIC SERIES AUDIENCE
THE ORIGINAL SERIES LIONS DIDN'T HAVE CONCRETE, DEFINABLE TRAITS THEY LOOKED FOR IN A PILOT
THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY DISTINGUISHING FEATURES AT ALL APART FROM THEIR COLOR, BUT IT'S DIFFERENT NOW
YOU CAN'T JUST SAY, "THE CONNECTION BETWEEN A LION AND ITS PALADIN IS A MYSTICAL BOND THAT CANNOT BE FORCED" AND THEN TURN RIGHT AROUND AND FORCE IT OUT OF NECESSITY
I REBUKE THEE, VOLTRON
Now they're fighting over who gets to be the leader and I'm so tired. Keith LITERALLY SAYS that he doesn't want to pilot the Black Lion and Lance is accusing him of scheming to take the position anyway???
What the fuck
"I know you wanted this for me, Shiro, but I'm not you. I can't lead them like you."
Fuck me in the ass
Red Paladin Alfor confirmed???
"Wait... Do you hate me now?"
Can I just say it, can I just, I fucking hate Lance, he's my least favorite paladin
I don't know, maybe it's because the fandom has soured me on him already, but I'm not all too pleased with his behavior in canon either
Granted, maybe that changes in the next five episodes but
Unless they pull out some REALLY stellar character development, I doubt it will make me change my mind about him
He's Just So Selfish(!!!!)
(No offense to people who like him, he's just not my cup of tea whatsoever)
THE LIONS ARE GIRLS... BUT THE BIG STRONG ONE IS A BOY.................. BECAUSE ASSIGNING GENDER TO ROBOTS BASED ON ARBITRARY METRICS IS COOL, EVERYBODY
Red Paladin Alfor confirmed but the reasoning for this switch is still, mm, how do you say... Ridiculous and half-baked. "You value a strong team over your own personal glory and that's why you get the Red Lion even though ALL OF US want there to be a strong team and who you have a mystical, UNBREAKABLE bond with shouldn't change unless there was a DRAMATIC shift in your mindset or personality." Learning to step back and let Keith lead does not feel, to me, like it warrants the complete upheaval of the lion that was supposedly MEANT for Lance.
"I want to stay with you, but sometimes what we want isn't necessarily what we get." This is the staff talking directly to me through the screen. Jeremy might as well be saying, "Listen, Alex, I know you're upset, but suck it up and deal with it."
So pink is the Altean mourning color. That's actually really interesting, and brings a new interpretation to having Allura's outfit accented with pink. Uuuunless it was a tasteless asspull to make it feel less like they were relegating her to the role of femme girly girl, but pssshhh, when would THAT ever happen? But hang on, "I wear it to honor the paladins of old. ... And Shiro." SHUT UP HE'S NOT DEAD!!!
Hunk, the voice of reason, pointing out that attacking when most of the team is still adjusting to new lions is NOT A GOOD IDEA.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM I LOVE LOTOR, that's the ONE thing this season is giving me, my good good pragmatic asshole. His approach is so wholly different from Zarkon's that it's SO REFRESHING to see somebody with intelligence, confidence, and good old-fashioned strategy oppose the team rather than just straight-up trying to brute force. He SPECIFICALLY ORDERS not to permanently damage the lions and when he could have had the opportunity to attack with heavy firepower and be done with it, chose to go out on his own to see what the Paladins can do. He wants to LEARN about Voltron and USE it, not just destroy it for the sake of having one less rival in the universe. I'm honestly genuinely pleased that this is what they're giving us instead of a whiny brat or Zarkon 2.0. (His tiny baby fangs... So cute.)
"Hey, I already told her yelling at her lion wouldn't work. Didn't go over well. She yelled at me, too." Allura, honey, come on.
So the Paladins are playing right into Lotor's hands but rather than recognizing that they're being toyed with and falling back to look for another opportunity once they've gotten adjusted to their new positions, Keith is so obsessed with results that he's actively ignoring when the others are in trouble. While his one-track mind obviously isn't a good thing, I do appreciate that they go out of their way to show that he's not going to fit into place as a leader immediately and that Shiro was the force that tempered his recklessness. (I also recognize that appreciating Keith's flaws and condemning Lance's is unfair and biased on my part, but you know what, who cares.)
"Look, I'm glad we're all making fun of Lance, but we need to find a way out of here." Keith knows my heart.
I forgot how fucking long the transformation sequence is, this is just torturous.
"They can form Voltron, after all. Will that be a problem?" "No. An opportunity." This right here perfectly sums up Lotor's character AND I LOVE IT!
"We may not be the last Alteans left alive" feels like a cheap attention-grab and that's DEFINITELY not what's going to happen this episode.
Oh, so THAT'S what Coran was screaming "NO" about in the trailer.
YO WHAT THE FUCK
AU SHIRO??????
NANI??? QUOI???????
OHHHH MY GODDDDDDDDD IT'S SVEN!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
SlavShiro is real
I DON'T KNOW WHO HIRA IS BUT SHE'S MY NEW WIFE
Oh boy, AU Alteans are gonna be the fascists this time, huh
YEP SAW IT COMING
Space Kuvira has got it going on
"Oh, no, no, no. They're not slaves because they don't have will."
The GUNS OF GAMARA. THAT'S SO FUCKING STUPID, HOLY SHIT.
Allura's density toward what she thinks is harmless peace talk is SO FRUSTRATING LMAO
Jesus fucking christ the color dissonance from the bayards is BUGGING THE SHIT OUT OF ME
RIGHT, OKAY, WELL, WE FINALLY GET TO SEE SHIRO AND I'M JUST, "PUT IT BACK"
I DON'T WANT TO SEE THIS SHIT
"Operation Kuron" BITCH YOU DID NOT
Motherfucker just used his Galra arm to CAUTERIZE HIS OWN WOUND, WHAT A FUCKING BADASS
NOT THAT THIS STILL ISN'T STUPID
OKAY. OKAY. OKAY. I STILL HATE THIS. BUT I'M LEGIT EMOTIONAL.
God, fuck, Sheith is real, I can't believe it
JESUS FUCK HE'S EVEN BUFFER THAN BEFORE
PRISON MAKES YOU SWOLE CONFIRMED
"Weird headache" Sure, Jan. ARE WE FINALLY GETTING THE SLEEPER AGENT SHIRO PLOT I'VE BEEN HOPING FOR???
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/241689148182757377/343054001681596417/NO.png
I SAW A MAN SO BEAUTIFUL I STARTED CRYING????
I appreciate that they didn't immediately try to go for, "WELP, TIME TO GET BACK TO BUSINESS AS USUAL, NOTHING HAS CHANGED." Lance is worried about his place in the team and thinks Allura is progressing a lot faster with Blue, concluding that it's better for him to step aside even when that's obviously not going to happen.
They're talking over each other in an attempt to get the team moving fhdksdjfgh
"The Black Lion isn't responding to me. It looks like you're its true Paladin now." HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHURGH, FOR FUCK'S SAKE.
Thinking about it now, there's so much of this that seems really... Off, and I'm not sure I like it. This doesn't feel like Shiro and I'm not sure if it's because he's been brainwashed or what, but I.
Don't like it.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK ME AUXIA IS THE WEBLUM GALRA FUCK YES HELL YEAH DAMN RIGHT DAMN FUCKIN RIGHT
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/241689148182757377/343066030882553856/NO.png
This is the most tender I have ever seen Shiro look in my entire life and it's FOR MY BOY
#He is looking at Keith
Hey holy fuck
HEY HOLY FUCK
IT'S LOTOR'S MOM
IT'S HIS MOM
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Lord God in heaven please don't tell me that's Haggar
ALLURA LOOKS JUST LIKE HER MOTHER OH MY GOD
Boy, Zarkon REALLY took a level in asshole once the whole war thing started, huh?
GOD DAMNIT, IT WAS HAGGAR AND THEY'RE ZOMBIES AND I HATE THIS
Is that Lotor's plan? Is that REALLY Lotor's plan? Are you SURE that's Lotor's plan? No, shut up.
WELL, THAT WAS DUMB

+ BONUS: More thoughts now that I've had time to process and digest.

Clone Shiro is definitely real, there's just no way, there's NO FUCKING WAY. """Project Kuron"""??? With Japanese pronunciation, that's Project Clone, motherfuckers. Sleeper Agent Shiro is real, whatever form he takes, and shit is gonna be mad awkward once the real Shiro gets back. Sheith is as real as it gets and I'm angry that this is going to hurt Keith's trust in himself as a leader but all the signs are there that something is not right and it feels like he knows it, too.

Honorary Lesbian Lotor and his girl gang were absolutely the runaway stars of the season. I'm deeply appreciative of how his characterization was handled and I hope we get more details about him like the reason he was exiled and just WHEN exactly he was born. (I'm ready to say goodbye to childhood friends Lollura theory but I REFUSE to accept related Lollura as fact.) If he was born before the war, why wasn't he mentioned in the flashback episode? If he was born after, when would Haggar have gotten the opportunity to conceive him, if she is actually his mother? Is it even possible for her to have a child post-zombification, and has he suffered any of the ill effects of quintessence as a result if so? There's too much we don't know and I HATE IT.

Still couldn't give less of a fuck about Pidge or Hunk, which I feel is vastly due to the series itself often forgetting they exist, and my indifference to Lance in earlier seasons has shifted to active dislike, which is a really sad thing, since I want to be on the same appreciation train that everybody else seems to be, but he's making that difficult and the fans aren't helping in that regard. Too much was going on in far too short a time for me to feel happy with anybody's character development beyond Keith and Allura's.

Speaking of being short on time, I would have SUPREMELY preferred the longer wait time to get a complete 13+ episode season instead of what I feel is a rushed, half-finished chunk of it. Less episodes means less waiting, sure, but the wait is worth it if the quality is up to par, and I feel like, barring a few key moments, the vast majority of this season was a huge letdown that I have major problems with, which is really upsetting because I WANT to feel ecstatic that I have more new material to chew on. Maybe more watch-throughs now that I've seen the season in its entirety would help me make sense of the pacing now that I'm not so starstruck by how competent and beautiful Lotor is.