#kodart

The actual show kinda contends with this in the later seasons too! Without the castle the paladins are stuck in their lions, separated from one another. But the castle is way, way, way to clean and gaudy for any kind of rebel story, at least not as a staple location.

So here's my pitch: Make the lions small.

Hear me out! They don't stay small forever.... instead of having speeders that are used like twice and then never again, the lions kinda... contract, when they're not in use. They're not tiny or anything, but I did shrink them down a liiiiittle more than I would've in order to get them to speeder-size.

Imagine this: Hunk is away from his lion on an alien planet. The galra are after him, he's shouting into his comms for Lance to give him a lift but Lance is occupied down the canyon with a barrage of fighter ships! He's trapped on the edge, the ground gives way under his feet, he's falling, and then-- BAM! Speeder-size Yellow catches him, and FORMS THE COCKPIT AROUND HIM!! Just before hitting the ground they sweep into the air and he's back in the fight!

Not to mention Keith would absolutely go wild over having another speeder vehicle like the one he had on earth, I refuse to believe he wouldn't have taken that thing out for a spin on multiple occasions in series.

This would also make way more opportunities for the paladins to INTERACT with their lions!! For sure red would not let Keith ride her speeder-version on the first go, she's gotta manifest those controls and she would NOT trust him with that off the bat.

I know it's supposed to be kinda iffy on how sentient the lions are, but we get like 10% sentient-teasing in the first season and then they're just like, robots for the rest of the series. If the scale was more equal between the paladins and the lions there'd be way more opportunities for character building between them :3 and maybe even lion interactions!!

(he/him for both)