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rubymoon-snape · 3 months

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Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron Defender of the Universe, but I do own Ruby. I don't own Rachel. She belongs to Queenscene2.

Summary: Keith and Lance switch bodies.

Author Note: This is Keith/Ruby and Lance/Rachel.

Warning! There is a gratuitous amount of swearing (courtesy of Lance).

"Body Swap"

Keith and Lance trudged back into the castle, both trailing after the rest of the team. It had been a rough battle, both Red and Black having taken a lot of damage. It wasn't physical damage or even electrical damage, but the Red and Black Lions had been hit with a strange weapon before they were able to form Voltron.

Allura, Hunk, and Pidge walked into the lounge, but before Keith followed them, Lance pulled him aside. He could tell the battle was rough on his Commander and best friend. They clasped hands, and Lance pulled Keith in for a quick hug. Keith relished in the comfort his best friend was giving him and returned the hug with a gentle ferocity that initially startled Lance.

"Why don't you retire for the night? I know your girlfriend wouldn't mind."

Keith released Lance. "You know what? That sounds like a good idea, especially after the battle we had. Thanks, Lance."

"No problem, buddy. Good night."

"Good night." Keith passed the lounge and entered his room to see his girlfriend digging stuff out of a box and putting the item up or away. Apparently, she had used the battle as a chance to move the last of her stuff into their room and was officially moved into the room they shared.

She looked up when the door opened, pausing in putting a picture of her with the Masako family (taken before she was hired at the castle), and smiled when she saw Keith. "Hi, sweetheart."

Keith smiled back. "Hello, darling."

Ruby finished unpacking the box and dropped the box in the corner, ready for the trash. She approached Keith and hugged him, feeling the tension in his shoulders. She released him, grabbed his hands, and led him to the bed. She removed the top of his jumpsuit and tossed it aside. She knelt on the bed and patted the spot in front of her. Keith sat down, and Ruby started massaging his shoulders, working the tension out. Keith sighed in relief. "That feels so good, darling."

"Good. I'm glad." Ruby moved her hands from his shoulders to his hair, playing with it a little until Keith shifted slightly. He stood up and offered his hand to her, helping her off the bed when she accepted it. They both changed into their pajamas before climbing into the bed, Keith resting his head against his girlfriend's chest as they fell asleep.

%%%

The next morning dawned bright and warm, the light spilling into Lance's and Rachel's room. The light roused Rachel, whose eyes landed on her boyfriend, who was still holding her in a protective, swetheart cradle. The previous night's activity resulted in them sleeping sans clothes.

Rachel smiled as "Lance" was waking up. "Hey baby...come here." She leaned up and gave him a kiss. He responded back until his hands landed on bare skin. His eyes popped open and landed on Rachel. He scooted back away from her in shock. "R-Rachel?"

"What's wrong, baby?"

"Why am I here?"

Rachel didn't know why he was asking her such a weird question, let alone why he was acting so weird.

%%%

In the next room, "Keith" felt lips against his head for a second before soft hands massaged his scalp. "Mmmmm....Rachel."

Ruby's hands halted in their movement when her best friend's name left her boyfriend's lips. Was he cheating on her? "What the hell, Keith?!"

"Keith" woke up and screamed, seeing he wasn't with his girlfriend. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

A few thumps were heard from the next room before the door opened, revealing Rachel and "Lance." Both were dressed now.

Keith (in Lance's body) saw his girlfriend with tears in her eyes. "Darling."

Her head whipped around, hearing the pet name Keith used for her, but she saw Lance. "Sweetheart?"

Lance (in Keith's body) moved towards Rachel. "Doll?"

Rachel moved back slightly. "What's going on?"

Keith and Lance looked at each other before Lance (in Keith's body) answered. "Somehow, Keith and I switched bodies."

"How? When?" Ruby asked, her tears drying up. Her Keith wasn't cheating on her.

"It must have been during the battle, but it took effect last night," Keith (in Lance's body) replied. He moved towards Ruby, wanting to hug her but couldn't because he was in his best friend's body.

"This is so weird," Rachel murmured. Ruby took Rachel into her arms. Keith and Lance came over and attempted to hug the correct girlfriend.

After a couple of minutes, Keith and Lance stepped back, leaving their girls in each other's arms. Keith (in Lance's body) said, "We should tell the team before there's an attack."

The group of four made their way to the empty control room. Keith (in Lance's body) pushed the alarm button to summon the team. While they waited for the team to arrive, Ruby and Rachel moved to the opposite side of the control room.

Lance (in Keith's body) turned to face his best friend. "Hang on. Did you see my girlfriend naked?!?!"

Keith (in Lance's body) blushed at the reminder of that morning. "Well, yeah, but-"

Lance (in Keith's body) took a menacing step towards Keith like he was about to fight him but was stopped by the arrival of Allura, Pidge, and Hunk.

"What's the big idea sounding the alarm? There's no attack!" Pidge groused.

"Well, there's an issue that arose this morning," Keith (in Lance's body) started. He was about to continue, but the alarm sounded again, and the view screen popped on, showing that an attack had just occurred.

"We need the lions!" Allura announced, and she pushed the button to raise the platform. Keith (in Lance's body) started heading for portal #1 at the same time Lance (in Keith's body) was heading for #2, but they realized the issue and switched mid run. Everyone was shuttled off to their lions. (Lance (in Keith's body) was in Black while Keith (in Lance's body) was in Red).

Lance (in Keith's body) couldn't help but grin at the thought of being leader. "FUCK YES! I GET TO LEAD! Put the keys in, bitches!"

"Oh, dear lord," Keith (in Lance's body) muttered under his breath. "Just launch."

The lions started taking out the Doom fighters. Even though the fighters were taken out, the Red and Black Lions' moves weren't as polished as they usually were.

Just then, a robeast coffin was beamed down to the planet, catching the team's attention.

"Oh, shit, a robeast! What do we do, Keith?!" Lance (in Keith's body) exclaimed.

"Uhhh, you are Keith!" Pidge shot back.

"We need Voltron!" Keith (in Lance's body) replied.

"Uh, right. Activate interlocks! Dynotherms connected! Infracells up! Megathrusters are go!"

"Let's go, Voltron Force!"

"Form feet and legs! Form arms and body! And I'll form the head!" Lance (in Keith's body) took a deep breath as Voltron was formed. He did it. Now, he needed to keep it going. As excited as he was to lead for once, it was a bit overwhelming, so he decided to end it easily. "Form blazing sword!"

Dispatching the robeast with the sword was surprisingly easy, and chasing away Lotor was as easy as firing a missile at his ship. He allowed Allura to do the honors as she had as much right as anyone to do it (considering how much the creep came after her).

Once the Drule threat was taken care of, the lions broke apart and retreated to their dens, and the team met back up in the control room. Keith and Lance were cornered by the other three pilots, but it was mostly Allura questioning Lance (in Keith's body).

"Are you all right, Keith? You seemed a little off today," Allura mentioned.

"I'll be okay, Princess," Lance (in Keith's body) replied, trying to respond like Keith would.

"Maybe turning in early would be a good idea," Allura suggested.

"And relaxing before that!" Pidge piped in.

"And I can make sure he does," Keith (in Lance's body) chimed in, sliding an arm around his friend's shoulders, just like Lance would do.

Lance (in Keith's body) nodded at the group as a whole. "We'll be in the lounge unless there's another attack."

Lance and Keith entered the lounge and were surprised to see their girlfriends in their comfortable clothes. Ruby was shuffling a deck of colorful cards, and Rachel was putting the finishing touches on the mass of pillows and blankets on the floor.

Keith (in Lance's body) stepped a bit closer to his girlfriend. "Darling, what's this?"

"You guys need something to take your minds off what happened, so Rachel and I figured playing some games might help." Ruby shrugged. "It'll at least pass the time."

"And we can have a sleepover here in the lounge," Rachel added, sitting down across from her best friend.

The two switched pilots sat down opposite each other on the two open sides of the low table that the girls had set up. Ruby dealt seven cards to each player before flipping over the top card of the deck, thus starting the game.

The quartet played game after game, only pausing when one of the girls left to get food and drink (dinnertime). After eating dinner, the games resumed, and they played until Rachel yawned. Once the brunette yawned, they finished the round they were currently on.

Ruby put away the cards before joining Rachel in the mass of pillows and blankets. The girls were cuddled up together on one side, while the guys were sleeping alone on the other sides. None of them fell asleep easily, but eventually, they did.

Early the next morning, before dawn, Lance woke up. He rubbed his eyes and looked around. He saw Keith to his left, and his eyes widened before he looked down. He was back in his own body! He grinned and carefully made his way over to the girls. He saw Ruby curled around Rachel. He smiled as he gently moved Ruby's arm off his girlfriend's side. He cupped Rachel's cheek and whispered, "Doll."

Rachel stirred and opened her eyes, blinking slowly. She registered that Lance was kneeling in front of her. "Lance?"

"It's me, Doll."

Rachel reached out to him, and he scooped her up into his arms. She buried her face into his neck, inhaling his cologne scent. He carried her out of the lounge and back to their room.

A few minutes later, Ruby woke up, noticing that both Rachel and Lance were gone. At least she hoped it was Lance. She carefully crawled over to where Keith was. "Keith?"

Keith roused slightly. "Darling?"

Ruby's eyes filled with tears. She snuggled into his arms. "I missed you so much!"

Keith realized at this point that he was back in his own body and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. "I don't want to go through that again. It hurt to not be able to comfort you through this."

When there was no response, Keith craned his neck to look at his girlfriend and realized that she had fallen back asleep in his arms. He gently laid his head down on hers and closed his eyes, falling back asleep as well.

Fin

#voltron defender of the universe #voltron dotu #80s voltron #keith kogane #lance mcclain #voltron keith #voltron lance #oc ruby #oc rachel #rance rance revolution #rance #Keith/Ruby #body switch

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arinaco · 1 year

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Romelle: her story in the past and in the present. Part II

Translated and edited by @ Nadezhda932

Link to the part I.

IV. Heroine of the New Age

Before proceeding to the analysis of the biography and personality of Romelle today, I’ll clarify one point. Subsequent assumptions have emerged based on data from the VLD. They already existed when I started researching the plot of GoLion and DOTU, and before writing this article, I had never watched the old series.

That is, the plot of the old series served for me as additional(!) proof of the correctness of my theory, but wasn’t the reason why I came to such conclusions.

Where do we start? With Lotor, of course - Romelle is tightly attached to him in the plot, and when the writers decided to turn his personality inside out, she followed him.

If you compare VLD with the old series, you can see that Lotor hasn’t only changed as a character - he has become a completely different person. Neither Sincline nor his dimwitted counterpart had ever looked like scheming or tempting snakes. Yes, Sincline clearly could and knew how to make cunning plans, but nothing more. He didn’t possess the gift of oratory, and didn’t feel any need to have it. Sincline supported his father until he blamed him for the defeat of the Galra Empire, beat his own subordinates, and killed and raped the victims without a shred of remorse.

In GoLion in particular, Sincline never set up colonies to deceive the civilian population. Why invent something if you can openly let slaves in experiments? Sincline had no reason to do something secretly from his father, and even more so to take care of his moral character, and therefore he calmly used the resources of the empire.

That is, “Lotor creating colonies” is, to some extent, an invention of VLD. And if you’ve read my previous articles, then you know that in my opinion, the second colony was the home of Luca and Merla, not the first. And that the first colony, where the millions of Alteans declared by Lotor live, never appeared on screen.

If you think about it, Romelle's story looks like complete absurdity. Even in the initial episodes of the first season, it was explained to us that virtual reality technology only imitates form without content - people can see objects, touch them, but nothing more. Coran pulled Allura out of her half-sleep when he pointed out the lack of smell in the flower. And if it had occurred to Allura to chew this flower, then, most likely, she wouldn’t have felt any taste.

This technology was intended to create scenery and couldn’t fully replace the real planet in conditions where people literally lived next to the forest and (most importantly) were engaged in farming. Just think about it: according to Romelle, for ten thousand years the Alteans have been planting illusory potatoes in illusory soil not noticing any trick. They didn’t notice that the flowers don’t smell, the berries have no taste, and the forest rests against the wall.

Only a very emotional and impulsive person could believe in the stupidity of the poor, unfortunate Alteans, who for a hundred centuries haven’t been able to distinguish real nature from the local analogue of Stardew Valley.

For example, such as the red paladin. Keith... or Allura.

What about Krolia? Krolia had no idea how this technology worked, she had never come across it...

So neither the Romelle’s base nor the pod space base were real colonies. We can only guess about their true purpose. The space base looks like a stand-alone laboratory/medical unit, but the Romelle’s dwelling is more like a staging post - hastily built according to the standard Galran template and abandoned long ago by the Alteans as unnecessary.

But where’s the truth buried here, Holmes?

The idea that the planet of Luca and Merla isn’t the first colony occurred to me when I began to correlate Lotor's words about millions with what we’re shown. Honerva apparently landed at the point where she could attract the most attention, but she came out to meet almost no one. Moreover, water meadows with low houses stretched around, obviously not designed for a large population. This place couldn’t be the capital of a multi-million advanced race. For ten thousand years, the Alteans had to not only multiply, but also build normal modern buildings for their own comfort.

But if we assume that this place is a secret second colony, then it’s easy to conclude that all the important buildings were simply hidden for security purposes, leaving a few insignificant and inconspicuous houses on the surface. So insignificant and imperceptible that when the BoM arrived at the coordinates of Keith, they didn’t notice any signs of life on the neighboring green planet.

Lotor has always been a paranoid and overcautious person, and he must have put a lot of effort into keeping his hidden colony a secret. So he would never leave the pod base undisguised and protected if he wanted to hide it from the Alteans.

What’s also interesting is the presence in the colony of a huge number of well-trained specialists.

Alteans of Honerva:

managed to create white mechas;

Which means, at the very least, smelters to work with heavy-duty materials and skilled workers who know how to organize the production process. While the Earthlings spent several years perfecting four fighters, the isolated farmers showed unexpectedly deep knowledge in the field of metallurgy.

What wonderful building elevators are there in the background. Is there a second floor? Or is this smelter located underground?

What's more, the white mechas had a striking resemblance to Sincline mecha, suggesting they were designed by the same people. More specifically, Alteans.

And it turns out that in addition to professional metallurgical engineers, they also had design engineers who were versed in modern technologies.

professionally used these mechas in battles;

The white mechas weren’t animated creatures like the Lions and didn’t help their pilots with training, but the Alteans fought well, competing with the Voltron team. The preparation of such personnel requires many years of practice under the supervision of good trainers - but Honerva couldn’t provide anything of that. She flew in alone and had no idea how to pilot combat vehicles. That’s why her personal mecha was equipped with teludav, and as we remember from Allura's ordeals, the control of combat and conventional spaceships was significantly different.

From which it follows that Romelle's statement that the Alteans can’t pilot spaceships smacks of brazen lies. The colony maintained and trained its own small army.

What conclusions can we draw from this?

Lotor built a second colony because he knew that Zarkon's appetites were insatiable, and sooner or later the Galra empire would reach the Quantum Abyss. There lived not just abstract Alteans, but qualified pilots, scientists and engineers. Lotor conducted research in the field of quintessence, designed war machines, and generally increased the combat potential of the Altean people.

“Just remember, we suffer this isolation so the next generation may not have to”.

In particular, Lotor tried to build his own Voltron, as he understood that this was the only weapon capable of fully resisting the Ghalra armadas, and in particular the monsters of his mother.

And here, to complete the picture, I turn to the plot of GoLion.

To the sister planets: Altea and Hercules.

Altea is an unfortunate planet. When Golion was defeated, Altea didn’t have enough combat power left to protect itself from enemy attack, and the population had to hide undeground for many years until the Lions again found pilots for themselves. Apparently, the inhabitants of Altea relied too much on the power of Golion, and therefore didn’t develop their army.

What about Hercules?

Hercules was a former colony of Altea and was considered a militarized and very dangerous state. Even Daibazaal (aka Zarkon) recognized the power of the Heraclians and therefore didn’t try to attack them in the same way as Altea.

Only the beasts of Honerva were considered by the Heraclians to be serious opponents.

Also distinctive features of the Heraclians:

martial arts as an inseparable part of culture;

selfless service to their people and royalty;

fearlessness in the face of death;

And… it actually looks a lot like the Altean VLD civilization.

Yes, Allura said that the Alteans are a peaceful people, but in fact we see that they, just like the Galra, used edged weapons in the space age, and the standard education of the princess included martial arts. Why was the princess staying in the palace was taught to handle edged weapons? Because it was part of their culture.

In addition, the VLD Alteans had a cult of selflessness, and testing for loyalty to this cult was a major part of the trials on Oriande. Willingness to give up personal benefits for the sake of a higher goal. And this is also similar to the behavior of the Heraclians.

As a result, if outwardly the Alteans of the VLD really looked like the inhabitants of peaceful Arus/Altea, then inside they looked like people from Hercules, ready to attack armed Galra with sticks so that their princess could escape.

And this is a very interesting approach of the scriptwriters, if we remember that the Alteans and Heraclians are one and the same people, they just went in different ways of development.

Alteans in VLD are like a tiger raised at home. It’s sweet and kind ... while well-fed and no one offends it.

In addition, when Voltron fell into a trap, the Heraclians themselves made the decision to take over the defense of Altea. Hercules came to the defense of its sister planet, and really saved it when developed a weapon in time that could change the flight path of a dangerous planetoid.

And this already looks like a prototype of the relationship between the second and the first colony. The second colony existed to protect the first.

By the way, do you remember why the Heraclians decided to cooperate with the Galra? To build their counterpart to Golion, which they were going to use not only against Altea, but also against the Galra themselves.

Moreover, if we compare Samson and Sincline...

Don't feel it yet? What if we compare them like this?

You know, Sincline was the first mecha which main weapon was dual blades. Voltron learned it only at the very end of the series in order to defend himself against Luca's attacks.

And for some reason, I think that it wasn’t just that Sincline was painted in the colors of Samson - in a gray color of a bluish tint. And even red inserts, with due imagination, can be considered a reference to the hair of the elder prince of Hercules.

Why did I describe all this? In order to clarify the conditions in which Romelle was born and lived.

Romelle didn't quite lie - she was born and raised in a colony with her brother. Only not in the first colony, but in the second. For her, the second colony was the only homeland, as the planet Hercules was the only homeland for Princess Amue.

Where everyone worked for a common cause under the leadership of Lotor, to create weapons together to protect the Altean civilization. The colony was founded not just by settlers, but by people who came to live there for a specific purpose, and their children were growing up in this reality and with varying degrees of enthusiasm joined the common work.

I’d like to ask one interesting question: how will a person whose enthusiasm is equal to zero feel in such a society?

Who was born in a second - specialized - colony, where everyone works on one project, and no one asks new members of the society if they want to do the same. Where the cult of sacrifice was considered the norm...

...and where Romelle didn’t fit. Let's remember everything that Romelle said about her people.

First of all, she presented them as people who don’t see the true nature of things and don’t notice that they live in a cage from which it’s impossible to get out.

“My brother Bandor was always faithful, but I had questions”.

The colony really looked like a cage in the eyes of Romelle, but not for all Alteans, for her personally. Of course, no one kept her there by force, but she couldn’t just leave, and her brother wouldn’t agree to fly away.

And where to fly away when there’s an almost uninhabited Quantum Abyss around? It was impossible to enter the first colony - its inhabitants believed that traveling to the second colony was a one-way road, and no one would let her into the explored universe, and even more so, they wouldn’t give a spaceship capable of flying there for personal use.

So, if for Princess Amue, Sincline was a literal jailer, then for VLD Romelle Lotor became a mental jailer. She blamed Lotor for creating a society where she felt like she was in prison and didn't understand why others felt differently.

“...but I also knew that no one would believe me without proof”.

But why (!) she began to break out of the general system is a topic for speculation.

As we already know, it was extremely difficult to build a second Voltron. Lotor was unable to do this, even using the material of a unique comet. Something didn't work, something was missing. And this something, most likely, was the knowledge of alchemy, lost along with the old Altea.

Moreover, the main problem was not the lack of a soul capable of turning a machine into something more - white mechas weren’t animated mechanisms, like Voltron or Sincline. But on the other hand, the white mechas were finalized by Honerva, the greatest alchemist of her time.

The mechas ran on the quintessence of their pilots. Voltron had an extremely high efficiency, and the process of return was exclusively voluntary - as much as the pilot was ready to give to their Lion. Shiro gave everything during the battle with Zarkon, and therefore not even a corpse was left of him - for the sake of victory, Lion dried him.

But what if some mecha isn’t (!) intelligent and simply draws energy from its pilot in the amount it needs? What if the efficiency of this mecha is much lower than we would like, because knowledge about alchemy is critically lacking?

Then attempts begin to understand how to increase the efficiency of the mechanism. And then comes testing on the most enduring volunteers to find out how long the pilot can last in this mech. And not always the pilot had time to return to the hangar and get out of the mecha before it turned them into a mummy.

Finding volunteers among the Alteans was the easiest thing to do, but that doesn't mean their families didn't mourn their loss. The names of the dead were engraved on the monument to forever remember their sacrifice.

As we remember, pink was considered a symbol of military sacrifice. Honoring the dead, not the living.

Romelle said that by the time her brother agreed to the “great honor”, her parents had already “gone”. In her story - to the base with capsules, but in reality, most likely, they died during the testing of the prototype.

The entire Romelle’s family were professional pilots who took part in the tests. And, having lost both parents, she thought about how justified this sacrifice was, and Bandor's desire to repeat this feat completely plunged her into despair.

Most likely, she didn’t believe that the Galra really posed a threat - the colonies had quietly existed for ten thousand years, and no one had attacked them. The Alteans had no idea what was happening in the explored universe, and Lotor was in no hurry to back up his words with some evidence.

And Romelle began to get angry. To be angry from hopelessness, because she couldn’t influence the decision of her younger brother in any way. She hated Lotor for the idea of building a new Voltron and the dedication with which her relatives reacted to this project.

After all, she almost directly called Luca a fanatic. The best pilot of the colony an example to follow for everyone else. Who calmly activated the bomb on her mecha when she realized she couldn't defeat Voltron.

True, Romelle tried to be polite when she was alone with Luca. She didn’t yet know that Honerva had told the Alteans about everything, and, apparently, before this event, her relationship with Luca was at a relatively sane level.

Seeing no other way out, Romelle strove to at least outwardly fit into the society around her. She copied the behavior of others, adjusted, hypocritically. She didn’t want to become an outcast, and therefore she had to lie to others about her attitude to what was happening.

And she learned to lie masterfully.

She was sincere only with her brother, and - like her prototype from the old series - spoke out against the preparations for war and convinced Bandor that Lotor didn’t deserve such blind admiration.

But Bandor… what about Bandor? Even though he was the younger brother of Romelle and the namesake of the little boy from DOTU, but… what colors were his clothes dyed? In the colors of Samson. The same Samson who decided to sacrifice himself for the victory of his homeland in the war with Altea and the Galra. And for some reason, I think that VLD Bandor wasn’t a defenseless naive child, because they didn’t take random Alteans to the test.

And when the moment X came, and Bandor was injured during the next test, he, like other pilots in such cases, was taken to the space base. What exactly was done with them is unknown, but most likely they were kept on artificial life support until they returned to a stable state.

And Romelle decided that this was her chance to forcibly take her brother to a safe place. Perhaps to that same abandoned base, or perhaps she planned to get to the first colony and start a new life there.

But she failed to bring Bandor alive. He died on the way, because it was absolutely impossible to take him out of the pod. And that's why when Lotor was chasing them, he was doing it in the company of medical robots. Not because he was afraid of a lonely woman with an unconscious guy in her arms, but because he took a team with him for urgent resuscitation of a dying person.

If Lotor really wanted to catch Romelle, he would have done it. She had nowhere to run, but he had zero desire to catch her. He didn’t perceive Romelle as a threat, and made a fatal mistake when she found grateful listeners in the face of paladins. And given the whole story with the advent of Keith, here again the old series is remembered.

Episode 21, where Amue tried to escape from Sincline's prison in the company of friends in misfortune.

Amue’s emergency landing on a desert planet – Romelle’s emergency landing on an abandoned base;

Amue sent a signal for help – Romelle sent a signal to the explored universe to bring the curious to her;

The paladins were met by the witch, who pretended to be a princess – Keith met Romelle, who pretended to be a defenseless Altean;

The witch forcibly took the unconscious Alor away - Romelle took the unconscious Bandor away from the space base;

Too much coincidence, don't you think?

It’s also very interesting that Amue was exchanged for Farla, who pretended to be Akira. Just like in VLD, the paladins decided to trade Lotor for Holt, who turned out to be a hologram.

And it was also for the sake of Lotor that the Alteans were ready to die, just like the Heraclians were ready to die for their princess.

And it was Lotor who came to the aid of the paralyzed Voltron by attacking Haggar, although he could simply fly away, saving his own skin. Just like how Amue turned the ship around and went to ram the Galra to save Voltron in the old series.

And the scriptwriters followed the same pattern when they wrote the death of Bandor. It wasn't his transformation into a robeast that killed Samson, but Sincline's order to shoot him. It wasn't the trials that killed Bandor, but Romelle's attempt to take him away from the base.

But since by that time she considered Lotor the reason of all her troubles, she convinced herself that it’s he who killed Bandor, ignoring her role in this tragedy.

She didn’t want to return to the colony - there she would have to answer uncomfortable questions and pretend that nothing had changed. Therefore, Romelle decided to try to get out of the Quantum Abyss into the explored universe - to the place where the "jailer" was losing his power.

Moreover, Lotor had been so conveniently absent for many months and couldn’t prevent this in any way.

Most likely, Romelle didn’t even hope to find those who would be able to kill Lotor. The chance that a real Voltron paladin would fly to her signal was well below one percent. I think she just wanted to lure someone with a capsule of quintessence, and then bargain for her way into the explored universe.

Nor had she planned for the Alteans to ever learn of their saint's murder. Romelle thought that they would continue to live in the colony in blissful ignorance, and considered these ends cut off. That’s why she was so surprised when Luca accused her of betrayal.

She was already in amazement and horror when, in the wreckage of a white mecha, they found a painfully familiar Altean woman. Alive and relatively unharmed, which provided a chance to talk to her, which Allura and the earthlings decided to use.

Allura was very worried about the fate of the Alteans, and Romelle - that the truth might come to the surface.

By that time, the universe had suffered greatly due to the loss of Lotor, and if the paladins (and most importantly Allura) found out that he didn’t use the Alteans as a source of fuel, and indeed didn’t deceive anyone, then Romelle would have been waiting for a real massacre.

Therefore, she sharply grabbed Allura and began to follow her, pretending her best friend. Firstly, she wanted to convince Allura that Luca was inadequate and her words couldn’t be trusted, and secondly, if not to drive Allura away from Luca, then at least control what they would talk about.

I think Lance and his love plans have become a real gift of fate for her. She had no idea what kind of past connected Allura and Lance, but she took the opportunity to kick Allura out of the Garrison for at least one evening.

And of course, it was on this evening that Luca came to her senses. It remained unknown how Romelle entered Luca's room unaccompanied. Maybe while Coran was looking for Allura, she hung around and offered to talk to the Altean instead of the princess. And the earthlings decided that this was a good idea, since Romelle and Luca already knew each other.

While talking to Luca, Romelle was obviously nervous and spoke ingratiatingly. She realized that the situation had gone completely in the wrong direction, although more recently she was sure that a new life was beginning for her.

Plus - Luca died without having time to give out some important information, minus - she said that the Alteans know about the murder of Lotor, they’re angry and thirsty for revenge.

As it turned out, the ends weren’t cut off at all, but were dragged along from behind, having managed to catch on a huge fragment along the way, which became a heavy burden and almost a stone around the neck.

We don’t kbow what Romelle was doing on the Atlas while the whole company dealt with current problems. It’s quite possible that she not only portrayed ballast, but also thought about how she should behave in the new realities. So far, the Alteans haven't looked like people to sit down at the negotiating table with, but that doesn't mean the paladins and Allura won't try to do so.

And then Honerva managed to pull Sincline out of the Rift and showed Allura that she was in complete control of him...

And after all, the Alteans also saw this, and were unlikely to be delighted with what was happening. They didn’t help Honerva at all so that she would turn their prince into her obedient slave. Such behavior wasn’t very similar to the joyful meeting of mother and son.

This was the moment when their trust in Honerva gave the first crack.

However, not so big as to feel the desire to communicate with a traitor.

In fact, the Day 47 episode, although it seems filler, is of great importance to Romelle's plot. It very clearly shows how she reacted that not one, but a whole bunch of Alteans were dragged into the Atlas. It was already much more difficult to expose a whole group of people as inadequate fanatics, especially since Tavo didn’t make such an impression. He was calm, polite and much older than Luca.

And... Romelle was freaking out.

She appears near Allura, portraying her best friend, exactly when she wants to chat with the pilots, and then immediately disappears, leaving the princess alone with the deepest stress.

When the earthlings try to question her about the Alteans, she says that she has no idea why they’re attacking, breaks into a scream and is clearly worried, with her lies getting more and more rude, such as claiming that the Alteans are scared.

...the same ones that built white mechas and flew to smash the universe...

“But you must understand: my people were haunted nearly to extinction”.

And it’s very curious that in the next episode, Clear Day, she isn’t among the vacationers, and in subsequent episodes she did appear only in edited scenes.

Why did she suddenly disappear? Where’s she?

Romelle constantly pretended to be a cheerful fool, and couldn’t help but go to the festival with the rest of the paladins. Unless, of course, she was doing something else at that time.

For example, running away.

Yes, I believe that while all the earthlings were resting during the Clear Day, Romelle escaped from the Atlas. It was the most logical decision in her situation. She could easily hijack a ship (and even turn off some of the cameras), because in fact she was very good at piloting spaceships.

After all, what happened at the very beginning of the Clear Day episode? Tavo decided to talk to Allura. Personally, without a company. Perhaps Romelle's absence was discussed separately, but that doesn't matter.

The important thing is that Tavo, unlike Luca, survived, and Allura realized that he was ready to share information. It was foolish to wait for them to raise the topic of Lotor in a conversation, but then there was such a great opportunity to run away while the entire Atlas team was walking at the holiday.

What happened next? Here begins guessing without an evidence base.

Theoretically, this story could have ended in an instructive style, where the villain went unpunished, and the only thing left for the heroes is to fully feel their stupidity and pay for their mistakes. But I don’t think that such endings are VLD-style - so, most likely, the fugitive should have been caught and returned to the main characters for a heart-to-heart conversation. Or rather, for a public conversation with Lotor, since such a meeting was required by the symbolism of the plot.

And despite the fact that many Lotor fans quite naturally dream of punishing Romelle in various inhumane ways, I think... that Lotor would forgive her.

Firstly, because he’s not a vindictive person. Throughout history, Lotor never took revenge on anyone, and if he got rid of someone, it was only because he considered this person a threat. Lotor never considered Romelle a threat - for him she was just an offended woman.

Secondly, Lotor really felt guilty for the death of the pilots during the tests. He called them martyrs, and didn’t deny that they suffered because of their participation in his project. And he could sincerely sympathize with the grief of a girl who had lost her entire family.

And that would be a very powerful moment. After 7,5 seasons, where someone constantly took revenge on someone, Lotor would have forgiven his offender and lowered in peace. He could, I believe in him.

#vld #golion #voltron dotu #romelle #Allura #lotor

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