#Secrets beyond an Empire that controls an entire populations world view? why yes yes there are 😌

[marztheincredible]

Question!

And possibly a fun one but I was rewatching some bits of season 2 waiting for “Thanks to Them” to release and got reminded of a question I had earlier but never asked but seeing Salty reminded me and here we are.

So. Sea Shanties. And Ol’ Navy/Sailor superstations. Since the Boiling Seas are much more dangerous than our own waters (debatably but probably true). They must have also seen the corpses of other Titans or had contact with other inhabitants (you can’t tell me the “Emperor’s” Navy weren’t there to keep the witches and demons on the boiling isles and have a record of everyone Capable of Leaving) and I can only imagine what strange things they must have seen out there and what stories they would tell about other possible Titans remains out there.

So I suppose my question is what kinda stories or truths sneaked onto the main island? Do you think there were old sea shanties that were actually forgotten bits of bard magic? Any secrets Belos destroyed specific to the seas? Sailors were often looked down upon if I remember my history correctly (the navy enlisted men not the officers) and were considered…undesirable (rowdy, unpleasant, troublemakers which makes sense if you consider they spend months at sea making money and have a lot to spend when they get back to shore and only a little time to spend it before it’s back on the boats)

I’m rambling. Belos and his “Navy” seem interesting to me since he must be at least a little familiar with sea travel considering that they are from the “New World”

The Captain peers down at his newest recruit with caution. He’s young, perhaps only twenty summers old, he’s also naive.

They haven’t even left the port yet and he’s already stumbling around the deck like a fish out of water. Then again, his circumstances aren’t nothing to laugh at. He is just another runaway.

“Boy!” He snaps, the young man jolts to attention, body stiff and eyes forward. “You’ve made the decision to board my ship and become a part of my crew. Do you know what that means?”

Silver eyes glance up warily and the boy stammers out an answer. It’s jumbled and incoherent, and he’s sure he hears something along the lines of serving the Emperor and his Will across dangerous seas and strange lands.

The Captain scoffs. “We don’t work for the Emperor, boy. First rule in my ship, forget all that hogwash they taught you in that sore eye of a castle. The seas teach you and the stars listen.” He points to the night sky. “Secondly, this will be the last time you see your Titan for a long time. So it’s now or never if you want to leave with us.”

There’s hesitation in the boy’s eyes, one of his hands rubs the reddened skin of his right wrist where an coven mark lies. When he hissed at the touch the hesitation turns into determination. The Captain knows he’s made his decision.

“Good,” The Captain grunts. “Lastly, we are quiet when we leave this port or any instance where we are near the Emperor’s waters. Only when we are under the gaze of the Others we are able to sail freely. Understood?”

The last rule is met with confusion, the Captain can’t blame the boy. He’ll figure it out soon enough.

There is a sharp two toned whistle from a tower along the docks, an all clear. It’s time to leave, hopefully ten years from now this fallen Titan will be free from the Emperor’s grasp. Then again he said the very same thing ten years ago.

His crew minus the boy work efficiently in the dead of night with very little light. A well oiled machine they are, the boy looks on. Wary, as he moves to help before the Captain places a hand in his shoulder and shakes his head.

It takes almost an hour to leave the occupied waters. That hour is the most stressful for the Captain and his crew. They know they’ve left once a foreboding and heavy weight lifts from the air and the fallen Titan is but a speck in the distance.

“Ho!” The Captain yells, startling the boy beside him. “Full sails and set course!”

“Aye!” His crew responds.

His First Mate approaches him and nods her head in acknowledgement. “Full Speed, Captain?”

The Captain nods. “Aye, shall you start or should I?”

The woman laughs. “You flatter me sir, but it’s you whose always had such a lovely voice.”

He scoffs and shakes his head, pointing to the boy he tells her to watch him and marches his way down the ship. Each step is rhythmic and begins a cadence. His crew has caught on and whilst performing their tasks a slow melodic hum emits from them.

The Captain takes a deep breath and bellows: “I’ve seen the seas for all they’re worth, with bones lying beneath! For each and every skull, there lies a shining set of teeth! And when the sea has had enough, I look for new afar! But the only sea worth searching, is the sea full of stars!”

“Others take me from the sea! Others take us now! For we have seen what all is worth, so take us stern to bow!” His crew responds in tune, in sync with one another. The wind picks up and the boat jolts forward, steaming waves crashing again the hull.

“And when the Others take me there, what treasure would I find? A life anew and worth to share, or Titans left behind? No matter how fast or hard we sail, we’d never reach the end! So Others take me to the skies and show me ‘round the bend!”

“Others take me from the Sea! Others take us now! For we have seen what all is worth, so take us stern to bow!”

The Captain lets his First Mate pick up the rest and walks back up to the helm. His helmsman as taken his spot at the rune inscribed wheel, humming along to the shanty being bellowed out into the night.

“Jenkins.” The Captain speaks.

“Sir.” Jenkins replies.

“Status?”

“We’ll be at full speed by the next lyric and the wards have been applied.”

The Captain nods, satisfied and looks back down at the boy, whose gazing upon his crew in awe.

“I-I’ve never seen such magic! The instant increase in speed without an engine? The ward that was applied without a Healer or Oracle present? The singing! Is everyone on this ship a Bard?”

The Captain barks out a laugh and shakes his head. “What was my first rule lad?”

The boy stops rambling mid sentence and furrows his brow. “Forget everything the Empire has taught me…but I just can’t!–”

“It’s alright,” the Captain reassures. “It’ll take time and we have plenty of it.”

#Secrets beyond an Empire that controls an entire populations world view? why yes yes there are 😌 #sea shanties and all included in this snippet #I went uhhh overboard on this ask #magical sea shanties that enchance the ships speed among other things my beloved #the owl house #toh #toh fanfic #titan’s blessing #fic #fanfic

[afishtrap]

I have questions.

These have been bugging me. Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone (koff @caramelcheese koff) has an explanation.

1. Shiro’s in prison for a year. Yet he doesn’t end up with a beard to his chest, and his hair is still neatly cut. The leaked shots from S3 of Matt look like Matt’s hair has grown, though. How could Shiro stay neatly pressed (at least from the shoulders up) while Matt’s the one who can’t find scissors?

2a. Why are none of the paladins ever strapped in? It’s like the animators are thinking the cats are just big cars, and everything’s operating on a linear, horizontal plane. When the five first find the blue lion and it proceeds to scamper in mid-air (including twists), all of them should’ve ended up splattered across the interior. Including Lance. (I’ve been in a van that rolled off the road and over a 30′ drop. Think frog in a mixer and you’re pretty close to the results.)

(okay so yeah I come from the Gundam and Macross worlds for mecha, and I’ve done my time in Yukikaze and Sidonia no Kishi which are more real-world jet-pilot SF influenced than super-mecha, but still, strapping in is pretty much mandatory. If the animators didn’t want belts, they could still have gone with the pilot getting suctioned in, like S2 Gundam 00 or Escaflowne. but really, all five floating out of their seats? and no additional seats/straps for passengers? this isn’t a mini-van, people, it’s a big box that can go in any direction at any time and this bugs the crap out of me)

2b. Clearly none of the animators have actually done anything that requires wearing a helmet. Like, say, riding a motorcycle (or piloting a plane). Shiro’s helmet coming off ‘cause he’s rolling down a hill... that could happen with a bike helmet, but if it happens with a full helmet style like the paladin’s, then something is seriously wrong. I can’t watch that bit w/out wincing. A helmet that style coming off is bad news. Really bad. Like, not possibly not making it out alive and/or brain-crushed bad.

3a. Am I the only one giving the side-eye every time Allura protests (mostly in S1) about how the Alteans were a great and wonderful people, her father was a great man and a great father, etc etc? Zarkon can’t have always been pure evil if Alfor worked with him, which raises the question of whether Alfor was so pristine and perfect, too. Plus, Alfor agreeing that he’d made a mistake (in sending the lions away) squeaks the door open, at least for me, to the chance that Alfor made a few other mistakes, too.

3b. I mean, people just don’t up and go to war for no reason, unless the motivations here are so flat and boring as to be that Zarkon just woke up one morning pure evil. This is fiction: it’s supposed to make sense, so there must be another side to this story we’re not getting told. Something makes me wonder if “the dark history of the Paladins” isn’t just the fact that Zarkon was one of them.

4a. Yes, Zarkon is apparently an imperialist -- expanding his military borders constantly -- and definitely participating in some old-school colonialism (ie the Balmora). But there also seems to be an extended part of his empire that’s going about its business, ie the space mall. If he held supreme power, why go to all the effort to build super-secret galaxy stations that only his military can find? He’d just hand out some reason for that military base, people would shrug, call it the cost of peace, and carry on. The only reason to hide that would be if he has someone to hide it from. Which might just be ‘to make it more difficult for our main characters to find’ plotholey, or it might be a signal of greater powers beyond Zarkon.

4b. Zarkon’s destructive power seems to have escalated exactly as Voltron shows up. From the way Haggar talks, it’s been a long time of R&D and she’s only just achieved robeast technology. The planet-sucking energy thing is also a new development. Granted, the bigger an empire grows (hello, America) the larger its military force must be, to police both its country and its colonies, so the scope of Zarkon’s military force doesn’t surprise me. But it does seem like those forces (other than the few conquering new worlds/colonies) must’ve mostly been in relatively peaceful backwaters, doing little but patrolling.

4c. If Zarkon’s forces are so immensely advanced, why only advance to the edge of Earth’s solar system, to the farthest outside planet, and take three people? Why stop there? From Allura’s comments about Zarkon’s advance across the universe, Earth may be a backwater but there’s nothing indicating a reason Zarkon wouldn’t be as interested in it as he is anywhere else. So why show up only long enough to kidnap three people, and then take off? But I guess that ties into @smolsarcasticraspberry‘s theories about Shiro having Altaen abilities or history, if he’s the real reason the Galra swung through.

5a. That is one seriously massive castle for only three people. No one else ever appears in Allura’s memories. She has no pictures (mental or otherwise) of anyone. She mourns her father, but no one else. No mother or mother-substitute, no friends, no peers, no siblings, no extended family, not even people she must’ve known and seen every day who also lived in the castle. Unless it really was just she, Coran, and her father? Just one big empty castle where three people rattled around in miles of empty halls and rooms. Kinda depressing. 

5b. It feels almost like Altea is this vast gap, where no one ever resided. And it makes it really hard for me to sympathize with any loss of Altea, because the only loss Allura mourns is her father, and anything else is kind of abstract. It’s like Altea itself was just a construct, one big empty field with flowers.

5c. Semi-related to that, in S2 Allura says her people were diplomats and travellers, so in hindsight it’s weird that she woke up, learned Altea’s been destroyed, and that’s that. Why assume that all Alteans were on Altea and were killed when the planet was destroyed? She makes no attempt to look for anyone; there’s no mention of Altean communities that might have survived elsewhere. Immigrants tend to cluster together, often for generations, just like you can still find a preponderance of Swedish or Norwegian surnames in parts of the American upper midwest. Yet neither she nor Coran even raise that chance, let alone chase it. Why not?

6a. The Altaen cuisine is unbelievably stupid. Food goo? Raise your hands if you’d eat the equivalent of anything, day in, day out, with no variation, and not find yourself sick of it. (If you do raise your hand, you’re like .01% of the human population because humans do not do well on unchanging diets; it’s why NASA and the military work hard to make a variety of packaged meals.) No matter how much protein a single food substance might provide, it being the only sustenance is just incomprehensible. Cuisine is a huge part of culture, and conveys so much about our history, our people, our beliefs, and our rituals. If in every other significant way the non-human cultures reflect this human value system (even the Balmorans seem to have some variety in their food), how can the Altaens possibly see green food goo (and that single bad-tasting alternate) as adequate?

6b. Okay so maybe the writers were just thinking it’s funny that the only Altaen alcoholic beverage tastes like old athletic socks (or however Lance put it), but it’s that they know it tastes horrible. What kind of people would subject themselves to bland food and foul-tasting drinks when they supposedly have the entire universe at their fingertips? Every diplomatic and military family I’ve known brings back bits and pieces of the cuisines from lands where they’ve been stationed. You sit down at their table, and it’s often an incredible mix of different cultures. So the complete lack of non-Atlean cultural elements in food and drink strikes me as just plain bizarre.

7. At some point, someone’s got to point out to Hunk that it’s time to stop calling everyone else ‘aliens’, right? It’s like being American, travelling to France, and calling every French person a foreigner. Hunk et al are the aliens, now. It just strikes me as a very human-centric view of things, and a rather myopic one, too, given other ways the writers do so well.

8. On that note, once or twice from Lance of flirting with Allura should’ve been enough. And fine, some guys are jerks, unwilling to take a girl’s disinterest for what it is. But not only does he keep doing it, no one else calls him out on it. Kieth, Hunk and Coran seem to ignore it; Shiro reels Lance in once or twice, but that’s not the same as hauling Lance aside and telling him to quit that, full stop. It’s disrespectful, it’s rude, and it’s attention Allura doesn’t like, and treating Lance’s insistent flirtation like a joke is rape culture hallmark, and quietly undermining any of the good done in letting Allura be her own character. 

(If you’re thinking to yourself that Lance being pushy is just Lance being Lance, and you’ve found it funny despite Allura’s clearly irritated reactions, that’s 'cause rape culture has taught you that Lance’s behavior is okay. newsflash: it’s not.)

9a. Coming back around to Shiro: rewatching the point where Allura talks about the different lions, and her line about the Black Lion: “a pilot who is in control at all times”. I’ve rewatched a few times now, and every time, that line feels like a kick to the gut. Shiro hears those instructions at a point where he’s only just returned (and is almost immediately whisked away again), and has barely had a chance to process his escape, let alone the entirety of his trauma. And now he’s being told that he must take up a role where the requirement is ‘being in control at all times’?

9b. @i-love-voltron-stuff​ has a meta about Shiro planning his departure, but my suspicion is that this seemingly throwaway line could be the cause. From Sendak, to Haggar, to the Black Lion, to dealing with Slav, Shiro is cracking at all the seams. If Allura’s words felt like an edict, then it’s possible Shiro is certain that he cannot pilot, nor be the leader, so long as he can’t stay in control, and by the end of S2, he’s got to be aware his headspace is pretty bad. My guess is that while he wasn’t planning on disappearing from the cockpit quite like that, he was probably expecting a short shelf life, mentally. Too many cracks, no more control, and thus no longer fit to be the Black Lion’s pilot.

to be continued (of course)

#voltron meta #voltron legendary defender #analysis is my chocolate cake