interaction between acxa and allura would have been interesting. they only interact directly once afaik, but allura’s actions throughout the series had a major impact on the trajectory of acxa’s life. not to mention they both had a complex relationship to lotor (albeit in different ways).
on a separate note and maybe this deserves its own ask but how do you view the post-canon timeline, what with the generals joining the BoM and all?
Thanks for the ask, anon. I'm going to hijack the first half to talk about Acxa and Allura. As you say, they both had a complex relationship with Lotor,
and Allura goes out of her way to recognise and sympathise with this aspect. Of course, the form of relationship differed: with Allura, it was romantic, with Acxa, it was professional; with Allura, it was Altean, with Acxa, it was Galra; Lotor referred to Allura as 'Princess', Acxa referred to Lotor as 'Prince'; Lotor manipulated Allura's heritage, Lotor manipulated Acxa's militarism -- ETC. Perhaps my reach-iest claim is that Acxa takes on the subverted role of the honour-bound, militaristic Dayak (Lotor's present mother figure) while Allura takes on the subverted role of the idealised Honerva (Lotor's absent mother figure). In turn the subverted 'present' figure is filed away, while the subverted 'absent' figure is hyperfocused on. Ironically, it's Lotor's hyperfocus on Allura that causes him to forget the conditions of Acxa's loyalty to him (Acxa leaves him because, in an attempt to force a rise out of Allura, he starts yelling about how he's going to 'wipe the universe clean of [his] enemies: Voltron, Haggar and the rest of the Galra!'), and in the process of losing one he loses both.
Yeah, like you said, Allura had a huge impact on the trajectory of Acxa's life. In s3-7 Lotor was essentially flip-flopping between the two: Acxa betrayed him, he went to Allura, Allura broke up with him, he went to Acxa. In the end, without intending to, Allura upended Acxa's entire worldview. Not that Acxa didn't impact Allura either -- she *was* partially to blame for Haggar's transformation to Honerva, having piloted the aforementioned's ship into Oriande, and it's not impossible that she had knowledge of the Altean colony (though not the second colony, of course). And then, you know, the Kral Zera, the hostage exchange, and other things that were less personal for Allura. One thing Allura might hold against her -- or, well, not *her* exactly, and not 'hold' -- is this, though:
This is followed by Zethrid violently tossing Allura across the room. Now, look, Voltron is a cartoon and all, but when you apply appropriate racial context to Zethrid's statement (Allura is a (black) Altean, the supposed last survivor of her (Galra-)genocided populace, whose remnants Zethrid is aligned with destroying), it becomes more sinister. Knowing that Acxa worked alongside with & re-befriended somebody who said these things (and tbc whether she consciously aligned with this aspect or not, second arc Acxa *was* genocidal too, it's just that Allura might not have instinctively recognised this fact given that she wasn't faced with it outright) might have (justifiably) soured Allura's perception of her for a time.
I do think an Acxa-Allura friendship is not impossible. Somewhere in the future, where Allura is totally alive and well. Acxa readily owns up to her past, unlike many who would -- in her place -- obfuscate it (as Lotor did). She is also young and misguided, and while that does not excuse anything, Allura sees that, and sympathises with it in canon.
On a lighter note: remember Allura's excitement when it was revealed to her that Pidge was a girl? You CANNOT tell me she wouldn't try to take Acxa out on a girls' night.
Hmmm, as for the post-canon timeline, my thoughts are a bit jumbled on account of my not actually finishing s8 as of yet (the ending makes me extraordinarily depressed), but I'll do my best to formulate them. So, I don't like the Blades of Marmora. I really don't. Their insistence on their membership's proof of Galra blood, their 10,000 year static nothingprogress, their implication
that Zarkon, the individual, was what bent the hand of imperialism to tyranny, rather than the nature of the system itself, their attitude towards Allura, their willingness to let Keith -- a Paladin of Voltron -- die in a pointless quest for 'knowledge' (or death, a play on 'Victory or Death'), operating under the assumption that he was *not* Galra, etc. The last one is especially ridiculous, considering that even if he was not Galra, Keith was an extremely valuable ally on account of his being a Paladin of Voltron. No Keith, no Voltron. His death would have been a shot in the foot.
Now, post-canon the nature of the Blades' organisation changed. Secrecy was no longer a requirement, and the nature of the work shifted from cautious liberation to open humanitarianism. It's even possible that non-Galra were allowed to join. So, my distaste for the canon Blades aside: what do I think of them dedicating themselves to providing humanitarian aid for their (Empire's) victims? I guess, I think well of it. It's very open-ended, and I do like 'redemption' (I don't really think such a state of being is possible, I prefer to refer to it as 'growth') arcs wherein the redeemed actively atone for their wrongdoings in a way that isn't, like, tragiquely dying. For Ezor and Zethrid and maybe even Acxa, it would also do them some good to get proper perspective on the war. And it makes me glad to know that despite it all, they are somewhat-friends-turned-actual-friends, and that they tighten into a unit that (unlike, for instance, the core group) cannot be separated even by the subpar finale. Perhaps my only gripe is that it is under Keith that they operate. Narratively it makes sense but Keith is... really not leadership material. It's not much of a gripe, though.
