#not anti-lotor fyi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theforgottendaydreamer · 4 years

Text

in defense of Allura

Disclaimer: I do not accept any kind of hatred under this post. I expect all readers to act politely toward those who don’t share their opinion, and I expect you to expose your own ideas respectfully. Toxicity is forbidden on my blog. I don't hate any character, and this is just an analysis. Anything that stimulates a mature debate is welcomed, as long as you do it politely. Thank you!

The time has come. Long enough I’ve dwelled upon the choices that the writers of VLD have made, especially in the last seasons: in this post, I’ll focus on the decisions concerning Princess Allura.

We were introduced to Allura in the pilot of the show, and it only took a few minutes- should I say doboshes?- to understand her overall personality. The Princess stumbled out of the pod, disoriented and confused, and only an instant later- the time necessary to snap out of her groggy state- she defended herself against a possible threat, being Lance in this case: she physically overwhelmed him with only a few rapid moves, her grip on him steady. Everything about her body language and verbal language screamed “strength”, in the following scenes as well. As she remembered about her father’s death, and about her homeplanet Altea being destroyed, the initial shock faded rather rapidly, and in a few instant she recovered from it. This doesn’t mean that if she hadn’t done it she would have been weak, not at all; it means that Allura, being a leader, knew how to put her feelings aside for a better situation, in order to better focus on the mission at hand.

It’s immediately clear to us that she wasn’t minimally interested in Lance’s advances: she considered him as a teammate, and later as a dear friend, but nothing more than that was shown in the first seasons. When Lance got badly injured, she didn’t seem too worried- though she immediately jumped into action to secure the perimeter. A couple of episodes later, when Lance exited from the healing pod, she spoke to the teen kindly, relieved that he was alright. Yet, this is not a sign of being in love: all of us would be happy if a friend of ours who was at risk was said to be finally out of the woods.

Allura was very practical, focused on her mission: she wanted to save the universe at all cost. At the beginning, her continuous arguments with the paladins may have given the impression that she was annoying and too strict, but she was simply driven by passion and desire to prove to everyone, herself included, that she could do the right thing for the universe. Though she never made it explicit, it was obvious that Allura cared about the opinion that the others had about her (even when she simply insisted on thanking the Arusians) because she tried to overcome her own insecurities by making herself as useful as possible to the cause. Even when she “just” flew the Castleship, she always offered her support and ideas to improve training, strategies and team bonding.

Throughout the seasons, we learnt that Allura had the tendency to blame herself, like when she thought that the Galra were tracking the team through her, for example. Allura also threw herself into battle if it meant saving the others, like when she pushed Shiro out of the way and ended up prisoner, or when she saved the Balmera and risked her own health, pushing herself too far to do the right thing and help the innocents that she couldn’t protect during the 10’000 years of absence. So, according to the evidence we had collected in the first seasons, Allura was selfless and caring, despite everything.

And then, just when we thought we’d seen it all, Allura became the paladin of the Blue Lion of Voltron (I’ll talk about this event in Lance’s p.o.v. in a different post, don’t worry). She was uncertain at first, but ready to dive head-first into the battle, willing to learn and improve her skills. Being an Altean, she immediately connected with Blue, and everything seemed rather easy; though at the beginning her piloting skills weren’t the best, she learnt in the matter of a single episode, and if you don’t consider it quick learning, then I don’t know what it was. Added to that, Allura was also talented, “progressing a lot faster than any of [the other paladins]”, as Lance said some time later.

When Keith confessed his Galra lineage, her attitude towards him was childish, but it was how someone would have normally reacted in a similar situation. People often have a hard time accepting someone that is unwillingly part of a group whose members caused them any harm; it’s one of the principles of racism, and that’s a synonym of ignorance as well. Human minds work like that, because we all tend to associate trauma with a certain group of people, or day, or any other input: it’s despicable, and sadly most people think like that. Luckily for all the Allura stans (me included, though I stan all the main characters of this show) she overcame this issue quickly. What I like about it was that she didn’t brush it off, but she apologised to Keith in person, evidently mortified for her behaviour, and after that she moved past it, accepting her friend and overcoming their differences happily. Mature people apologise, while childish ones pretend that their mistakes didn’t happen: by making amends for her mistake, Allura showed us just how mature she is for a 18/22 year-old (we do not have an official age, so my guess is as good as yours).

Things seemed to be going well for her: she learnt how to better manipulate quintessence, she gave Keith space when he needed to find Shiro after his mysterious disappearance, she learnt how to better pilot her Lion and so on and so forth. It was all going well, until Lotor’s arrival: then, it all started to go downhill.

Lance became inexplicably obsessed with her again, and at the same time, Lotor slowly manipulated Allura. Now, I don’t personally like Lotor since he willingly commits genocide for his own purposes, but I will not dwell further on the topic for it’s not my main discourse now.

Lotor tricked the Princess into believing him, she played into his hands, blinded by love. Mind that when I wrote “love”, my left eyebrow rose impossibly high. In fact, Allura had never shown to be interested in love; surely enough, she was romantically (and sexually, apparently) interested in people as we have witnessed, so the possibility of a love interest wasn’t odd at all. It was just sudden. Too sudden, for my personal opinion.

The problem I have with Lotura (Lotor x Allura, and I specify because I had to google the ship name) is that it’s based on nothing. The team was wholly against Lotor, except for Shiro who was not himself, quite literally. Allura never gave any impression of trusting people easily: not only when Keith said that he was half Galra, but also when Shiro begged her to trust Ulaz. She was hesitant and not happy about having someone she didn’t trust on board. Thus, her sudden burst of trust toward Lotor was odd, especially when it was quite obvious to most of the audience that the Galra prince was not telling the whole truth. I also wish that we got to see more interactions between Pidge and Allura and Hunk and Allura in s6 and beyond, since they rarely talked anymore despite being on the same team. Even Allura’s interactions with Coran were so diminished in number that they looked like complete strangers in the second half of the series, and it hurt.

I mark this point as the start of Allura’s downfall: from iconic character to mere love interest, which is not wrong at all per se, but it is when any other trait and development is purposefully ignored and forgotten by the writers “for the sake of the story”.

Thankfully, Allura seemed to recover quickly after Lotor’s betrayal (the scene when she flips him like a coin? Priceless), declaring all of her hatred towards the cruelties he’d committed and how he let her down irreparably. One good thing that Lotor did- and I have to admit that it was good- was that he made Allura discover new abilities and become stronger, powers-wise speaking. Yet, all of this was secondary to her being a love interest with no other apparent purpose. Why do I say this? Because as soon as she got rid of Lotor, she got together with Lance, and to be honest it’s not quite clear to me how or why.

I can’t deny that when I watched s1, I was an Allurance shipper; I was sixteen, a hopeless goofball who believed in all the clichés. Now, however, I do realize that Lance’s advances were annoying and obnoxious (and he’s my absolute favourite character, so this shows you just how honest I’m being, hopefully), and that I’m so grateful that Allura didn’t give in. At least, she didn’t do it at the beginning. In the last season, however, she fell in love with Lance in a single episode: when he asked her out, she seemed hesitant and only accepted because Romelle pushed her to give it a try. The dinner sequence was where Allura understood that Lance wasn’t the womanizer she thought he was, but I don’t believe that in reality that would have changed anything. You don’t simply fall in love in one evening only because your date’s family tells you that this person isn’t what they seem; in fact, that would worry me even more, personally, because it would mean that my date is a total stranger.

Lance’s “I love you” was not completely uncalled for, but simply very confusing: he seemed to be over her, but he became jealous when Lotor showed up. I tried so hard to see this as a “protective brother/friend” dynamic, but that sentence leaves no space for speculation (again, I’ll talk about Lance another time). What shocked me was Allura reaction’s to Lance’s confession.

She’d never looked at him with any kind of romantic interest, and even if some scenes may be seen as such (when she resuscitates him. And proceeds to hide it from the team. Yeah, another huge disastrous plotline), it’s undeniable that the Princess had trust-issues, and for a good reason too. That one time that she went against her team’s choice and trusted Lotor a bit too much, she got used and heartbroken. So why was she suddenly so in love with a boy that she’d always treated as nothing more than a good friend? My answer is: bad writing.

If Allura had shown any romantic interest in Lance for at least three consecutive seasons out of eight- to create a deeper connection- I would have taken it without complaining much. If Lotor hadn’t committed genocide and didn’t proceed to use Allura, I would have accepted Lotura too (friendly reminder that I don’t do ship hate unless ships involve rape, pedophilia and incest. So I’m not hating on Allurance and Lotura, though Lotor is a villain and I don’t like him, but that’s just my opinion). If Allura was allowed to be both strong and romantically interested in anyone, I would have taken it. But especially in s8, the writers erased her personality, turning a bright and iconic character into dating material. It wasn't fair to her nor to Lance, honestly.

The last straw was her sacrifice: Allura died to save the universe and since it was her main goal, I’m okay with it, though it hurt as she’s my second favourite character. What I didn’t like about it was that the villains got a happier ending than she did. Lotor, who committed genocide, got to live happily ever after with his parents, a violent conqueror and an abusive hag who ripped the universe apart to be with her son (I get it, mothers love their kids, but this is far too extreme). And furthermore, Lotor didn’t even like his parents, but still for some reason he was happy to be with them again, maybe because at least he got to spend eternity with someone that loves him despite everything.

Allura, however, died without saying goodbye to Coran, the man who stayed by her side for all their- but also ours- adventures, the one who believed in her the most and who did everything to protect her. She died without getting a last look at the universe she left behind, at the people who weren’t there in her final moments but that cared for her and vice versa (Shay, Romelle, even Krolia. Even the mice, Kalternecker and Cosmo, really). Each character had about a half a minute to say their goodbyes, except for Lance, whose goodbye was the longest but also the least impactful, in my opinion. The writers played too much with the dramatic idea of it and the result was sloppy- as much as I love dramatic scenes, this was purposeless.

Allura’s last act of kindness- as if saving the whole universe and every existing reality wasn’t enough- was gifting Lance with the Marks of the Chosen. Though, I’m not sure how to interpret it. In a fic I recently wrote, I theorised that “Allura gave you [Lance] these marks because she knew that you had greatness within, and they can actively remind you of it in your darkest moments [...]”. Of course, I’m far from sure that this is the real reason. My question is, was there even a real reason, or did Allura give him the Marks for dramatic purposes? If so, I’m glad that it wasn’t confirmed officially, because at least we get to make our own theories that surely are more satisfying than “we wanted fans to cry more”. Still, I see those marks as scars, and I will talk about it thoroughly in Lance’s analysis.

In conclusion, I don’t think that Allura was bad at all. I think that, in the end, she was simply badly written, which is entirely different.

s1-s5 Allura was a strong, compassionate, empowering, trustworthy, bright, lovable and fun character and for that, she deserved a better- much better- ending. She’ll always be in my heart, and I hope that future reboots will treat her right.

I will always remember Allura dearly. As Coran said in the final episode, “Just around this table I see so many lives touched by her actions. For some of us, she was a diplomat, a teacher, a leader, and a friend. But to those of us around this table, she will always be family”. Raising an imaginary glass, I just want to say... “To Allura”.

79 notes · View notes

severalbakuras · 6 years

Text

s6 liveblog episodes 1-4 (late edit: skipped 3) here we fucking gooooooo

if this seems super lotor/keith/generals focused it’s bc it is, i literally don’t care about anyone besides lotor and keith and the generals and have multiple aus to vanish off into if any of them die this season lel. (late edit: looks like a good choice me!!)

(even LATER edit: HAAHHAAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHA)

episode one: CHANGE. THE FUCKING. INTRO.

oh hey it’s diyak (idk if that’s how it’s spelt)

lotor are you setting hunk up for pain (late edit: HE WAS) so diyak totally did this to lotor too huh.

that’s what vrepit sah means? kinda lame.

IS THAT BOXY IN PROGRESS IT ISSSSS

sendak’s fop organization is going well i see

and shireplica has no reaction to sendak at all again

tf was that face lotor

ooooooo haggar what you doing

IS THIS IT IS HAGGAR GONNA FIGHT THE WHITE LION (late edit: doesn’t look like it :////////////)

netflix please include a ‘skip transformation’ button the same as you do for the intro if they don’t have the decency to change it.

mmkay skipping ahead i’m bored ooh allura can bring back the dead, dark vld give me necromancer princess allura.

oh shit it’s honerva. please still be just as evil please PLEASE

episode two:

KEITH MY BOY I’VE MISSED YOU

;A; HIS VOICE

‘you drop a bomb like this and tell me you’ll explain later?’ - vld fandom.txt

space babble space babble time travel??

random note but has allura always had those purple earrings?

uh allura were you expecting a kiss there lelelel (and she does the same leap she did with the keith catch back in s2)

‘you sure you don’t need a third wheel for help’ ugghgghgghghgh is this what lance gets to do this season beyond fighting? pine after allura who’s gaga for lotor? i don’t ship it but if allurance is getting content this season deserves better then what i think is gonna happen (bc lbr even if lotor doesn’t have the creepy shit from the original there’s way too much bad blood from the original 80s voltron for them to think making lotura canon at ALL is a good idea).

(also related i am v concerned for lotor if this is the plot line allura and lance are getting)

didn’t mention it before but once again the background artists knock it out of the fucking park. massive kudos.

AAAA

BABY

BABY KEITH

YORAK??? WAS THAT HIS GALRA NAME HDSFKSDF

EVIL SHIRO

guys they only started getting along like... five days ago like holy shit. why is this show so bad at pacing.

lmao his first thought was that krolia was after glory

aww keithdad ;A;

SPACE WHALES YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

OH MY GOD BABY KEITH I’M NOT OVER HOW CUTE YOU ARE YET

omg so keith’s hoverbike is made from parts from krolia’s ship i think!!

;A;

;AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA;

who is this adorable comet wolf?

ok this doesn’t answer how keithdad died though.

WOLF WARPS???

they’ve been timey-wiming for TWO YEARS????????????????????????????????????????? i...

nah that’s pretty fucking dumb lol like it’s great that keith and krolia got to hang out for two years but like that’s a long fucking time to be stuck with one person on a space whale. and it totally feels like they wanted to deal with all keith and krolia’s emotional reconnecting and healing and stuff offscreen too.

uggghghg this is seriously how the allurance arc is gonna go.

first we don’t know keithdad’s name and i bet they won’t tell us the warp wolf’s name either.

is THAT romelle??

episode three:

mmmmmmmmmyeah skip. if i were to rewatch the series from start to finish i’d be more open to watching this much like the coran show but it’s like when a stevenbomb is 80% townie, sure it’s important but i don’t care i’m bored where is the plot.

episode four:

BOXY IS LIVE I REPEAT, BOXY IS LIVE

so this is technically the second visit of lotor’s to this place (given it’s confirmed honerva was pregnant af when she entered it) wonder if it feels familiar?

uggggh i have Foreboding Feelings about this.

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeppp. time to swing lotor back around to holding the villain ball i guess.

fjsdkgjdksagjadlfhgjfd i’m sure something tragic is going to happen to romelle’s little brother but his fucking voice i literally just choked on my drink when i heard it. it’s fucking newt pippington british hooves from friendship is witchcraft oh my gOD.

YEPPP HERE IT GOESSS.

(like this is shitty. i won’t argue against that, at all. but i’ve also stanned characters who’ve objectively done even worse. so i’m not unstanning lel. canon lotor moves from the slightly problematic box with wrathion/my skyrim main/zodd to the pretty problematic box with jasper/garrosh/yami bakura/sylvanas. not quite in the what-the-fuck-problematic box with the monster deer from ‘the ritual’/my ‘hello naughty everyone it’s murder time’ skyrim alt/slan but he’s definitely changed stan tiers)

(plus like it’s functionally identical to my warcraft main’s arcane torrent racial ability so like i can’t be too mad at lotor for doing something i do against almost all spellcasting enemy mobs and players)

(like also i’ve had my own mental lotor running around in a dozen aus for months now who’s been ignoring canon for the most part since almost... yeah since like s4. and i also have shipped (and continue to ship) keitor since s301 despite us having literally no content at all. canon has never mattered to me with this ship and it never will.)

hey @scrawlers isn’t this eerily like that horror thing lmao (only it’s not shiros and they’re not dead)

like if this is meant to be part of lotor’s ~grey morality~ did someone take lessons from the warcraft writers lol this is exactly the same shit they’re pulling with sylvanas right now.

DON’T DO THIS TO HER YOU BASTARDS. (late edit: they did.)

i’d like to quote myself from a few episodes ago: “guys they only started getting along like... five days ago like holy shit. why is this show so bad at pacing.”

allura’s super strength makes a long awaited return, lotor you deserved that lol.

OH FUCK THERE SHIREPLICA GOES

BLACK PALADIN KEITH IS BACK BABY (god i wish it were under better circumstances though.

ugh even with black paladin keith back, do i want to keep watching? not right now and definitely not for the reasons the writers probably would want me to. i mean i probably will finish it tomorrow for completionism’s sake but like. i won’t be watching for the story i’ll be watching for aj locascio’s and steve yeun’s vocal performances and the background art and the animation.

which is a damn shame but it is what it is.

just fyi if you (this is a general you) read this and think i shouldn’t think this writing is bad, regardless of your stance on lotor (anti/stan/neutral etc)? i don’t give a shit, keep it to yourself because i’m not interested and you won’t be getting a response lel.

you’re allowed to think it’s good, i’m allowed to think it’s bad.

(also if you’re thinking ‘if you think the writing is bad why do you still stan canon lotor and why are you going to keep watching the series?’ my answer is i do what i want.)

hhhhhh.

i’m dumping my self-imposed spoiler embargo, i’ve ceased all the fucks i have to give about what potential this show had and have fully shifted into ‘i’m gonna watch this trainwreck pull into the station’ mode.

#sb watches voltron #///#/////#////////#////////////////#/////////////////////////////////////#there #that should be enough so it doesn't go into the main tags i feel like so far this season is massive discourse bait and i want none of it #vld #vld spoilers

0 notes