#voltron character study

We know relatively little of Lotor besides that he’s considerably withdrawn from the empire, preferring the near-exclusive company of his mixed race generals. While we have yet to see him and Zarkon actually interacting with each other, Haggar comparing him to Zarkon once, even in a rather offhanded manner, made him immediately angry- and Haggar also seems to see fit to follow him.

It is incredibly likely that Lotor is half-Altean given he was able to activate the beacon on the ship stuck between realities, as well as his overall appearance.

Other than that, it seems rather clear Lotor’s trying to work behind the empire’s back.

Fight Smarter, Not Harder

What definitely can be said about Lotor is that so far, the empire has operated exhaustively in terms of “when all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” Which makes sense- the galra empire has the biggest hammer in the known universe for the last ten thousand years. Their only real issue is that an even bigger hammer has turned up- Voltron itself- and no less, in the hands of people who have the good sense to not try and solve all their problems by smashy smash.

Zarkon’s defeat, however temporary, is the ultimate failure of that hammer thinking, and Lotor, in one of his very first spoken onscreen lines, outlines it perfectly in his opposition to Throk:

“Your technique is flawless, I’ll grant you that. But you must realize your repetitive attacks are getting you nowhere.”

“And in the end, your aggression is your own undoing.”

Lotor, eloquently and very mockingly, tears into his father’s strategy, while, more subtly, outlining his own.

“You must realize your repetitive attacks are getting you nowhere” is the first part: Lotor is someone who constantly reevaluates opponents and situations. If the response is not exactly what you thought it was, then you need to adjust your models, whether or not it works out in your favor. 

Lotor takes nothing for granted- when Voltron seems out of commission his immediate response is to set a trap and prod them until all five Lions come out. If he prevails too easily, that’s evidence something is afoot here- because these are the soldiers that defeated his father, and Lotor hates his father, but he knows that Zarkon is too dangerous to get shown up by a bunch of chumps.

So that’s one of the central tenants of Lotor’s philosophy- pay constant, excruciating attention to your surroundings and adjust or replace anything that doesn’t work or doesn’t get you there fast enough.

The other side of it is: the whole ‘victory or death, we are a Culture Of Warriors’ schtick ain’t your friend according to Lotor.

Merciful

Lotor is plenty outspoken in his challenging of the empire’s regard of any kind of compassion as proof of weakness. He’s keenly aware of the empire’s culture and attitudes, and yet- despite being a talented orator, to Lotor, this seems to be his hill to die on. We see Lotor pushing this attitude of mercy in audiences that it will not remotely endear him to.

Lotor’s first act onscreen is to betray his own cunning strategic edge and the incredible teamwork and precision he and his generals share. Without anyone even knowing he was on the fleet, Lotor identified Throk’s plot, had the generals surround him, and then arranged a public challenge that Throk, by the very culture of the empire that Lotor is so aware of and so willing to challenge, really could not have backed down.

Lotor basically crucifies Throk as a warning to the empire at large that despite his unorthodox policies, he’s not to be trifled with- but at the same time, he spares Throk in the public eye, something that serves both practical and moralistic purposes. Practically, killing Throk on the spot would create a martyr in the eyes of his followers. Sparing Throk appeased most of them. And when Throk is ultimately taken out- it’s certainly not anything that can be traced back to Lotor himself.

But from a moralistic perspective, that Lotor so utterly disarms a potential opponent and then spares him is a very bold challenge to Zarkon’s assertion- and one that the empire operates on- that mercy is weakness. Lotor’s devastating outfoxing of Throk is supposed to shake up the audience, many of whom were potentially supporting Throk in a bid for the throne.

Lotor basically walked in, said “I can take one of the highest-ranking and most powerfully interconnected people here out of the picture that quickly, like I’m not even trying. Do you really want to call me a weakling?”

Pragmatism

And this is something really interesting about Lotor- an awful lot of what he does cannot really be chalked so easily to purely self-serving or purely altruistic. It’s usually some of both. Even Lotor’s stance on mercy seems to have two components to it.

On the one hand, Lotor keenly understands the machinations that drive rebellions. To Lotor, it’s not a coincidence so many people are crawling out of the woodwork to fight the empire- because those people were always there. Zarkon has created an environment that people just plain can’t tolerate. They’re in deplorable conditions dying like animals and being killed for the amusement of an upper class of imperial soldiers who are themselves sticking to their caste because they’re aware that their position is not that much more secure than the people below them.

Lotor knows that tearing people down builds resentment. And more importantly, he knows that Zarkon has given him a golden advantage in that Lotor doesn’t really have to be the best person or an ideal person- he can be the lesser evil and people will go for that. Because their other option is Zarkon- and once again, Zarkon is unlivable.

Playing the nice guy card even when it doesn’t in the short term get him what he wants- continuing to spare the people of Puig even when their leader doesn’t choose to join him- is going to pay off. Because Voltron right now is desperately trying to coax in allies and a lot of these planetary leaders are scared for the sake of their people. They’ve been living in awful situations (“I’m so glad I put on my best tarp”, anyone?) and it stands that not all of them are going to be feeling brave and heroic and ready to fight the empire.

Some of them would just rather the empire was a little more agreeable, and a little bit less of a boot on their windpipe. If maybe they didn’t have to fight- if they had a shot at negotiation.

Word is going to spread that Lotor is reasonable in a way Zarkon isn’t. And just that- being reasonable- suddenly changes the game. I think there’s an incredible thematic parallel to this with Lotor stealing the second comet and seeming to build... basically, an anti-Voltron.

Charisma

Because Voltron isn’t just a weapon, the way Zarkon sees it. Lotor understands the other side of Voltron- it’s the beacon of hope to a downtrodden and enslaved universe. It’s a symbol- an incredibly powerful symbol.

And Lotor’s fighting Voltron not just on the military front, but the symbolic and interpersonal front.

Lotor doesn’t attack Puig to show them that resisting the empire is futile. Lotor’s spiel to the leader of Puig is basically making a point that Voltron won’t protect them the way they’ve promised- but Lotor, with his superior reach and resources, is making the claim that he can.

Lotor is challenging Voltron on who’s the real defender of the universe.

The fact that he’s so attentive and focused on small details in his environment stands out because Zarkon basically threw away everything that wasn’t direct military supremacy. We do not see Zarkon as a diplomat. We don’t really even see Zarkon addressing his populace. Civilians look up to Zarkon because he’s a symbol- but at the same time Varkon betrays a fundamental understanding of what Zarkon actually stands for.

Zarkon is basically passed into public awareness as a generic everyman that the empire supports because they assume his priorities are theirs. He’s like an Uncle Sam figure- treated as an abstract of the empire, when, in actuality, he is a person with specific policies and actually someone whose specific policies are very easy to disagree with. Despite the size and weight of his authority, he’s fundamentally on shaky ground because he’s not really, in practice, the person he was revered as.

Lotor, on the other hand- Lotor is actually a politician. He’s a diplomat first- and when he attacks something, that’s just one tool in his arsenal. Lotor ultimately is someone who makes a plan, identifies an end goal, and will then take whatever route actually works for him, and much more than combat, Lotor knows people.

Even his actual fighting style, both in a craft and on foot, has a distinctly psychological angle. He isn’t just talking off his own morals when he says Throk’s aggression was his downfall- Throk repeatedly trying to hammer at Lotor’s defenses wore him down because Lotor’s style of evasion and parrying is very minimal energy- Lotor dodges by inches at best and parries strikes juuust far enough to not get stabbed.

And the dismissive air to that style just further angers an opponent like Throk, the same way having the Lions of Voltron get shown up by a single, puny fighter waves a big red flag in front of Keith’s face. Even a more levelheaded adversary gets mad, because- it’s right there! One shot and he’s dead! You just have to get that one shot in.

There are a lot of layers to how Lotor operates and what he does because Lotor is keenly aware that everything he does makes a statement- that any engagement with a potential enemy, rival, peer, or even ally sends messages and other people will read them.

The authentic side

But how, exactly, is Lotor so keenly in tune with the plight of downtrodden people? Because something repeatedly asserted with Lotor is he has clear preference of company and it is not the empire at all. Towards Haggar, towards Throk, towards even the idea of Zarkon, Lotor is dismissive and manipulative at best, and far more often, outright scornful.

The generals- seemingly the only people Lotor really completely trusts- are all mixed-race galra looked down upon by the main empire, and in the eyes of said empire, Lotor fraternizes with them to a truly improper degree- fighting alongside them.

The standoff with Haggar over the fate of the galra general Haggar sent after him, Raht, illustrates I think a significant side of Lotor:

He is not as free, or as happy, as he pretends to be.

Lotor is ostensibly a member of the imperial elite, but in practice, he’s an exiled son and it seems until very recently, Haggar has been quite content to keep him on as short of a leash as she can afford. Which is about what we could expect: he’s Zarkon’s son, and with Haggar as the sole exception, all of Zarkon’s close interpersonal relations seem viciously possessive in nature.

And even if the general public doesn’t know it, Lotor is very likely an “unacceptable” mixed-race galra himself, and Lotor’s clear proclivity and interest towards Altean technology would suggest he knows it quite well.

Lotor has not been raised as an elite or groomed as a legitimate heir to the throne. He has been, in some regards, a prisoner of his father’s empire, very likely for most of his life.

This has fueled a far greater understanding of, and empathy towards, victims of the empire- the people of Puig, other mixed-race galra who were rejected or overlooked- over the soldiers themselves.

Bitterness

Unfortunately, as it stands, being able to empathize viscerally with people’s suffering because you’ve spent most of your life being trapped, frustrated, and upset yourself does not usually make for an enlightened soul. And this is where the real twist comes in with Lotor’s character.

Because Lotor would really love to be nothing like his father- in another time, another situation, he’d probably love to be a perfectly altruistic figure and a pure diplomat.

But he can’t afford that... because he is also terrified, desperate, and embittered.

All of Lotor’s generals, when we see them, are very bitter. Ezor’s ebullient personality often waxes very facetious indeed- she acts bubbly but she enjoys tripping people up, hurting them, having power over them. Zethrid wants to prove herself powerful and dangerous and thrives for being able to strike back and dominate people who themselves try and dominate her, first. Narti’s power bodes absolutely no negotiation. Acxa, the most inhibited, still has her coldness and haughty anger.

And Lotor fits in perfectly in that regard. His smooth charisma only hides so much. When cornered, when confronted, when caught off-guard, what slips is gritted teeth and raised hackles. When Haggar sends people to follow him he lashes out, hard, fast, and very harshly and snarls at her for insinuating he’s anything like his father.

Lotor’s whole strategy betrays a distinctly cynical worldview. He has an exquisite understanding of unhappiness, pride, vindictiveness and cruelty, but also, in contrast to Zarkon who was self-assured to a degree of pure hubris, Lotor tends to turn tail and run as soon as the situation isn’t in his favor. He fights and plans like someone whose victory is never given unless he can think of a way to profit off of any of the most likely scenarios.

He’s smug, but never actually smug enough to not worry. Because he worries constantly. We really only see Lotor acting safe and satisfied when he feels like everything is accounted for and as soon as he can’t track a variable then he isn’t happy.

And Lotor’s fighting style often hinges on multiple opponents attacking him- tripping them up and making them hurt each other. He gets rid of Throk by playing Haggar, another enemy, against him. It’s brilliant, but a style and worldview that only really makes sense by someone who feels that most of the time, they are surrounded by enemies and in an environment that wants to hurt them.

It’s a strategy we see echoes of in Shiro and Slav both- but on Lotor, he’s had his entire lifetime to perfect it.

Because ultimately Lotor isn’t playing this game because of altruism. He’s playing this game because like so many other people in the universe- he can’t live like this any more. He’s been about as controlled, restrained, forced down, as he can tolerate.

Lotor wants power, and he’s much more dangerous than Zarkon, because Lotor doesn’t want power because he thinks he’s entitled to it or some other elitist posturing.

Lotor wants power because he sees this as his only conceivable way out of an abusive environment. He doesn’t have Zarkon’s laid-back certainty, and he’s not content to play the slow inexorable villain. He’s the type to set up forks where he wins either way because he can’t afford a single loss at that juncture. 

He negotiates, but negotiates at swordpoint because he’s ultimately, not in a position to think beyond what his life experience and almost certain abuse has taught him: that with the exception of a tiny cluster of safe people, anyone he gives the opportunity to will try and hurt him.

Ultimately, Lotor is desperate- and right now, Voltron is something standing between him, and escaping his abuse- and that’s a nasty place to be in, because Lotor isn’t going to hold anything back.

In Summary

Lotor is a highly intelligent and perceptive individual whose behavior is intensely multifaceted, and part of it very deliberate because he’s very much a politician and diplomat trying to send specific messages with his behavior.

We actually have a fair amount of information on Lance’s background, but, specific details are something that needs to be intuited. When he’s missing Earth, he names Varadero Beach, in Cuba, specifically- and, as we see in the mind-melding exercise in s1e2 we see that he has a large family. Considering the presence of very young children, it’s likely that he’s a middle child in his family, though he could be the eldest or youngest (with the children being cousins, or possibly even nieces/nephews)

Lance’s recollection of his family is also very warm. He talks about his mom’s hugs, and seems to worry or think about them a lot. This suggests that his family is very close-knit and loving, and that Lance’s childhood has overwhelmingly, been kind. It established a precedent of closeness that he seeks to repeat with the teams he finds himself part of. 

As the Garrison is in the US, this would suggest that either Lance’s family immigrated, or Lance attended the Garrison with a student visa. (Also possible in Voltron’s hypothetical future, political lines have shifted).

We also see that Lance, at the beginning of the show, is in a very small class. There are not many simulator teams at all. This suggests, even though Lance seems to struggle (he mentions always crashing the simulator) he’s in rather prestigious company- even if Keith wasn’t aware of him, Lance wasn’t kidding when he claimed to be neck-and-neck with Keith. The fact that Lance was bumped to the fighter class in Keith’s absence would tell us that Lance was, possibly by an impressive margin, the best pilot in the cargo class. 

And seemingly, without much outstanding “natural” talent.

Overshadowed

The scene in s2e10 where Lance frets that he’s a fifth wheel for team Voltron shook up a lot of people but it’s not really out of left field. As early as s1e1, a lot of what’s presented to us on Lance is how, for all his achievement- the class he’s in- it’s still held over his head that he can’t be Keith. Iverson’s harsh comments suggests he doesn’t want to lose Lance to a discipline issue- but it also suggests, in effect, that he’s bothering with Lance because Keith is inaccessible. Lance is just a replacement.

It feels like Lance has spent a lot of his life being outshined by other people. Lance interacts closely with people who are considered prodigies one way or another- Shiro is his idol, and he butts heads with Keith in a way that tells us more than anger, Lance is envious of Keith, big time- but he’s not a prodigy himself, and that stings a lot.

Because Lance is good. Lance is very good- but he gets there by effort. He doesn’t have the instinctual talent Keith does, and that’s not something that can be developed. His obvious accomplishment- making fighter class- is framed as replacing Keith.

I think this is the significance of Allura not mentioning the Blue Paladin’s virtues. Because Lance’s biggest problem is, he’s struggling to define his own unique talents, separate from what others contribute. And at least where he starts out- at his core, he’s afraid that his contributions are actually worthless, and around that he’s built up a layer of defensive hostility and jealousy that tends to stab outwards when he feels threatened. 

It seems the main thing that really sets off his temper tends to be feeling like people are mocking him, but he can also get angry at situations or decisions seem unfair. His particular hostility towards Keith seems to be an intersection of a person he’s already envious of, who is on his level and thus more “accessible” to argue against, and exacerbated by how Keith was used as kind of a symbol of everything he couldn’t be. We see this hostility start to deteriorate as Lance gets a better sense of Keith outside of his reputation as the Garrison’s golden boy.

As the show progresses, we see that Lance is starting to actively work on this on his own. Trying to define marksmanship as “his thing”- and he’s quite likely onto something there, considering one has to be pretty familiar with a gun to stop their hands from shaking. It’s very likely that Lance has been practicing with his bayard on his own time, if he didn’t have any familiarity with firearms before leaving Earth. 

But it’s rather significant that Lance’s overtures are tentative, and more or less isolated, as quickly as Shiro picks up on it. Because it tells us that a lot of this is more or less a game of cognitive solitaire.

Sincerity and misdirection

A very interesting and somewhat contradictory facet of Lance’s character is that Lance is a very good actor. As insecure as he is, he can very easily come across as cocky- though part of this is another element of his personality entirely.

Lance is very attentive of other people, and very good at reading them. He’s also very motivated by understanding people. This is something we see big time in Lance’s initial interactions with Pidge at the Garrison- Pidge puts up a very cold shoulder, but Lance is basically undeterred, and more interested in what it is that’s eating Pidge and making her snap that much.

And part of this attentiveness is that Lance tends to choose what he lets people see.

In contrast to many characters who are a little deceptive, Lance’s dial is tipped very heavily towards sincerity. It’s his general inclination to open up to people- even when this potentially leaves him hurt, as it does in his interactions with Nyma. Lance actively wants to believe the best in people, to connect with them. It takes relatively little concern or prompting from other people to get Lance to open his heart, even about his insecurities or loneliness.

This ties back to what Lance is used to- a big, loving family. Considering some of the defensive or even fearful ways Lance responds sometimes (“Is this a game? I hate games!”) and how quickly he accepts that Nyma tricked him and calls for help, it suggests that Lance’s sincerity has gotten him burned more than a few times before- but the majority of his experiences, or at least those that were the most formative on him, have been positive, and that drives Lance to keep putting himself out there.

While Lance can seem fearless or even a little gullible with people- this is contrasted by how terrifyingly perceptive he can be, as he noticed the bomb drone in a matter of seconds. It suggests that rather than someone who doesn’t see warning flags, Lance is someone who acknowledges them- but wants to try and believe the best because hopefully it’ll work out.

And a surprising amount of the time, it really does.

Go with the flow

I think there’s something very meaningful to the fact that Lance was the one to get his Lion first. Because the Lions are large, daunting mechanical creatures- they’re alien war machines, as Keith points out. Furthermore, unlike any craft the team would be used to, the Lions have a will of their own, and one of the first things Blue does is waltz right into Lance’s mind and then take them all on a wild, breakneck joyride.

Lance’s response? Is to hold on for dear life and see where Blue is going with this. If Blue says she’s “going home”, Lance doesn’t really ask where that is- he trusts Blue, trusts that it’s important, and relays that information to the team.

This is a bit of the metaphor present in Lance’s role as a leg. The legs of the body have a twofold purpose- they hold the body up, but they also carry the body forwards. Lance, I think, leans heavily on the latter purpose- he is not simply an open person himself, but someone who opens the whole team to new possibilities.

And part of that is, Lance is the best suited to jarring and unorthodox developments. This is something we can see in the aftermath of s2e8- when the addition of the Marmorans and their plan to take down Zarkon, and the simultaneous reveal of Keith’s heritage, shakes the foundation of the group, Lance is the one who is actually excited by this situation, explaining the plan to Hunk and talking up a storm about how this is the “best plan ever!”

We can actually see this factoring into how Lance fights a brainwashed Hunk in s2e2- Lance can’t overpower Hunk or outrun him, nor does he really want to hurt him- so he ends up hooking the antidote fish with his foot and kicking it backwards into Hunk’s air bubble.

This also touches a bit on the fact that Lance is a support role in the team. While Lance can strategize on his own, he also fits rather easily into following someone else’s lead. He’s the first one to defer to Shiro, and this seems to suggest he has a bit of discomfort making big decisions for a group- he didn’t want to just toss Blue into the wormhole on his own faith without knowing if everyone else on board the Lion was okay with it.

Inter-connectivity and curiosity

So why is Lance so heavily motivated to figure people out? After all, his general defensiveness would suggest that he’s had a fair amount of people just go throw it right back in his face, to the point that Pidge being hostile towards him doesn’t even really faze him.

Lance is more or less intrinsically motivated to understand people along two avenues- the pursuit of understanding, and the pursuit of closeness. He actively seeks, and creates, situations to get people to open up and show themselves more (“Oops, sorry Shiro, I was trying to hit Keith,” says Lance, who is an excellent shot and Shiro was nowhere near Keith) and while part of it is a kind of detached desire to know- this is actively tangled together with a desire to feel close to people.

As seen with Laika, it’s more important for Lance to feel connected with people than it is for him to practically know things about them. Combined with his tendency to go with the flow and hope for the best of a situation, we see how his first response towards Klaizap the Arusian was that he wanted to make Klaizap a sweater.

Lance is something of a diplomat, but an unorthodox one- he’s the type of person who can more or less waltz into situations and make friends easily.

Of course, Lance also has the capacity to raise some hell when he wants to. New experiences and people are a much stronger motivation to him than the letter of the law, and especially in the presence of authority that seems unyielding (Iverson and the Garrison, mostly) a lot of how Lance copes by feeling trapped is to push out and do something on his own, and his ability to read people and adapt to situations makes him quite inventive at breaking rules (how many people can attest to sneaking out of their military-run astronaut school?) or subverting them (distracting Iverson’s attention off of Pidge).

Ironically I would say that it’s a measure of respect that when Lance disagrees with Shiro, he confronts him directly on it- it suggests that unlike with Iverson, Lance trusts Shiro as someone who will actually hear him out. 

Desire to help

There is an inherent motivation that holds Lance to Voltron, even as much as Earth and his family means to him. While Shiro operates more according to justice and responsibility, I think that Lance’s motivation has more to do with his sense of compassion.

Lance doesn’t want people to suffer. As seen with the mermaid civilization, even if Lance may not have a lot of faith in his abilities alone, he’s committed to try if he feels like he can help. His desire to connect with people does lead him to sympathize with their problems.

It is, in some ways, a very pure and simple motivation. Pain is bad, loneliness is bad- if there’s something he can do he wants to try and he’ll see where that takes him. It takes very little time for him to think of someone as a friend, and once they are- he wants to protect them. Sometimes this can come out as endearing, heartfelt statements, and sometimes it’s more things like the way he snaps at Pidge to buckle her seatbelt when she falls out of her chair. 

In the mermaid civilization he talks about people being grateful and thanking him- but that’s not something he actually demands to happen and is actually caught off guard when Plaxum does kiss him. It suggests Lance does fantasize of himself as someone widely adored, but it isn’t a driving motivation that he actually demands of people.

Flirting

So the thing about Lance and flirting with people seems to be a joint function of his insecurity and desire for validation, and his natural curiosity for people. What we see is interesting is when it seems to be reciprocated positively, Lance doesn’t really try to leap on it and turn it into a longstanding relationship.

It feels basically like Lance wants people to find him charming and likable, and also wants to use it as an avenue to connect casually with the person.

In Summary

Lance is a somewhat insecure and defensive person stemming from self-worth issues, but also someone who is highly motivated to connect with people. He is very interpersonally perceptive, good at adapting to unorthodox situations and driven by a basic desire to help. He hides his issues to a degree, but can be motivated to open up fairly quickly as long as it seems like someone cares.

So Zarkon’s a big old enigma to us in some regards, even after s1e11′s big revelation that he’s the prior Black Paladin. I was hesitant to really crank out a post like this, with so much of Zarkon’s significant backstory still ambiguous to us.

One thing would seem to be pretty clear, however: at some point, between his tenure as Black Paladin and becoming Emperor of the Known Universe, Zarkon survived some grievous, traumatic event.

A lot of things point to this. The scar on his face, his counterpart on Team Voltron’s side being Shiro (also defined as a survivor, also bearing physical and psychological scars from a traumatic incident), and, most damningly, Black’s recollection of the destroyed and ruined planet that both Zarkon and his former Lion called home. Also, when Zarkon speaks to Alfor in Allura’s flashback in the first episode, we see that long before he would have any reason to use quintessence to avoid aging, he has the telltale glowing violet eyes.

This would suggest that Zarkon’s initial ventures in quintessence weren’t to prolong his life against any natural factors- but rather, quite possibly to preserve him in the face of mortal injury.

This is significant, because it would seem to offer part of what Allura considers the dark history of the paladins- at some point, Zarkon was heavily injured, possibly at the same time his home planet was ravaged, and the other members of the team, for some reason, were not there for him. Haggar, seemingly, was- her presence being suggested by the fact that Zarkon was infused with quintessence when he abundantly does not know how to utilize it himself- relying on Haggar’s guidance, and her subordinate druids, to use it.

However, despite an Altean being there for him, Zarkon came away utterly despising Altea, and Alfor in particular. If Olkarion was the original planet of the Green Lion as seems to be implied, then it’s noteworthy that Olkarion was seemingly ignored by the galra for many years before a relatively recent takeover (Lubos does not seem particularly old) and, in general, that Olkarion was intact- when Zarkon obliterated not only Altea but every planet in its system. It would suggest more than the other paladins, Zarkon carried a grudge almost exclusively towards Alfor, the Yellow Paladin. Considering the domain of the Yellow Lion is support, protection, and a “caretaker” role heavily emphasized by Hunk- this would further suggest that Zarkon was heavily injured, and that regardless of the actual situation, he came away with the impression that Alfor abandoned him.

Something also caused Black to completely reject Zarkon, seemingly to the point that she experiences pain at his trying to use their connection, and that she would empathize with Shiro, who experienced his trauma as a prisoner of Zarkon’s.

Many questions remain. And there’s much of Zarkon’s early life, before becoming a paladin, that is unknown. He seems to have been close enough to Alfor that when Black arrived on his planet, Alfor was who he called for help. He was the king of the galra seemingly by birthright before he was a conqueror, and seemingly, a good king once, considering the profile of the Black Paladin. This would suggest he’s been royalty his entire life, but under what circumstances is unclear.

Remnants of a Paladin

As far as Zarkon has come from his seemingly noble past self, it’s worth noting that he has not been able to break with his history to the point that it is not very obvious where he came from.

The Black Paladin is stated as a sure and decisive leader, one who is followed without question and trusted for guidance. Simply- someone who others look to in a point of crisis, rather than someone who is followed only when named as leader. And it is worth noting that, while Zarkon can often seem horribly abrasive, this is not the relationship many of his people have with him.

To those who only engage with Zarkon at a distance, he’s viewed as an ideal. Varkon, a very duty-bound individual who prides himself in, and prioritizes his work, seems to look to Zarkon as his personal hero. Ulaz states that the galra believed, for a long time, that Zarkon would bring them peace and stability.

At a distance, Zarkon is inspiring, uplifting, a cultural and social icon to the galra. He is their beacon of hope and certainty. Very likely, this kind of force of personality, and charisma, has been a fixture of Zarkon since the very beginning.

During the forging of the Black Lion, we see Alfor as dedicated, focused on his work, but also looking up at Zarkon optimistically. He has no misgivings or doubts with the Black Lion bonding to Zarkon. Even after the fact, Allura describes the Black Paladin in glowing, admirable terms- and Zarkon, the first Black Paladin, would be the one to codify those traits.

Zarkon in the past seems to have been very much like Shiro. Born under high expectations, as royalty- quiet, noble, and trustworthy. Someone looked up to as a guiding light. And while he’s fallen, now, much of that reputation remains- in the people that view him from afar.

Trauma and control

During the astral plane fight, Shiro states that Zarkon is no paladin any more, and specifically accuses him in lacking trust. This statement rings pretty dang true if we look at the pattern of how and when Zarkon attacks people, or marks them for immediate removal and destruction.

What has atrophied in Zarkon is his ability to trust others. An essential skill for the Black Paladin- considering the inherent vulnerability in forming the head and body of Voltron. The head and torso carry the brain and all other vital organs. However, it is incredibly difficult for the head and body to protect itself without limbs. With the most to lose, the Black Paladin is arguably the most reliant on the team. After all, someone whose primary quality is a leader is someone whose qualities only shine in a group. When isolated, one of their main strengths is completely inaccessible.

And Zarkon... can’t do that. He really can’t. As loathe as he is to micromanage- we see that he lashes out with incredible force at anyone who seems to act in a way he can’t control. Even his strong, noteworthy faith in Haggar is conditional- it’s set to the fact that in direct confrontations, Haggar will back down before she argues with Zarkon.

Zarkon only feels safe when anything he doesn’t like, anything he disagrees with, can be shot down. Facing his enemies, Zarkon is unnervingly calm, even sort of grand-paternally affable in his battle against Keith- as long as he feels like his victory is assured, and that his superior force and skills will destroy his foes. As soon as he feels that control threatened, his patience and composure go out the window. 

If this sounds familiar, it should, for good reason. Zarkon and Shiro effectively have the same trigger, in loss of control, and they both tend to respond by tensing up and getting hostile. Shiro’s response to Sendak triggering him is to flush Sendak out of the Castle.

As I have mentioned in Shiro’s analysis (under “Balance and the Black Paladin”) Shiro and Zarkon share a conflict between control and openness. While Shiro actively tends to fight his need for control, making specific statements and decisions to put the group first, even to the extent that he can be too selfless- Zarkon has spiraled so deeply into his need for control that it is almost impossible to spend time in Zarkon’s presence without setting him off.

Consider Haggar, and her comment of “...Clearly, I’ve overstepped myself.” Haggar and Zarkon appear to be very close. Lotor, Zarkon’s son, has not only many Altean traits but also closely resembling Haggar, suggesting their relationship might even be intimate enough that they’ve borne children together.

Haggar is also easily powerful enough to be Zarkon’s equal in every conceivable way. The empire may only acknowledge Zarkon as their emperor, but Haggar is the hidden empress. Without Haggar, Zarkon would die- and even with Zarkon injured, the empire is not remotely dissolving with Haggar still in power. However, in practice- Haggar remains without a title. In practice, she obsequiously observes his title, frames herself as an advisor rather than another ruler.

That Haggar has as much power as Zarkon does, if not more through her having direct power over his life, is an elephant in the room, because the only way Haggar and Zarkon can continue to comfortably coexist is that Zarkon is convinced she is firmly under his power.

Zarkon is traumatized to an extreme that he cannot tolerate an equal, and so the one equal he still has is one that has mastered the art of playing subordinate. Of carefully preserving that deferential distance- and withdrawing, remorseful, when she asserts the reality of their closeness.

The Limbless Tyrant

So Zarkon can only feel safe and comfortable if he feels in control. And it seems, leaving his trauma to fester, Zarkon has spent the last ten thousand years feeding that control to the exclusion, and detriment, of all else. Altea, the initial wound in his eyes, is ground into dust under his heel- but what of the others? After all, he once sided with Altea against a greater enemy.

Zarkon knowing Voltron’s strength, and knowing how it felt to have four other people who always had his back, his team- being a Black Paladin in his prime- after having taken down Alfor and the other three Paladins of old, Zarkon’s fear of lack of control would suddenly set in.

What if he needed them? That power he once had, not the Lions, but, those allies?

That’s unacceptable. He can’t doubt himself. If he does, if he expresses guilt- that would require coming to a point of helplessness, that he cannot bring them back from what he’s done to them. Even if he could, he could never make them trust him once again.

And yet, he also cannot let go of his own history, of what once was his. He keeps the Black Bayard. The design of his armor has changed relatively little from his pre-Paladin days, with Alfor, to his tenure as ruler of the known universe. He can’t turn back, but he can’t let go of that desire for closeness. Quite possibly, wounded and traumatized, part of him wants to confide in others and be able to let down his guard, but, irrationally, he cannot bring himself to open that vulnerability- something he considers “weakness”, and weakness is wholly unacceptable.

So Zarkon digs further and further into aggressive military buildup. He creates his empire, trains it, pushes himself against others. Rather than remaining a single specialized entity whose weaknesses are checked and accommodated by other members of his team, Zarkon overspecializes. It has been pointed out several of Zarkon’s bayard forms resemble the bayards used by the other paladins- suggesting, quite possibly, Zarkon wields the bayard forms of his own, fallen team.

As the conqueror, as the victor- he takes their weapons for his own use, insisting as he does that he doesn’t need the other people there to use those weapons.

It’s an ultimately self-destructive path, in stark contrast to the morals pushed by Voltron itself, interconnection and trust. Zarkon has stocked everything in making himself virtually unstoppable on his own, digging deeper and deeper into dangerous, risky procedures to make himself stronger. In practice, in the Astral Plane battle between him and Shiro, he utterly decimates the latter rather quickly.

However, Zarkon still loses without saving grace, even if he’s able to seize Shiro by the throat and strangle him one-handed.

Because Shiro, a proper Black Paladin- doesn’t fight alone. Because someone has Shiro’s back.

Because even as much as Haggar still cares for Zarkon, and wants to protect him- ordering the druids to limit Zarkon’s exposure and protesting against his overuse of the ritual when it clearly takes a toll on him, not wanting to give him the armor until she knows it won’t kill him- remaining by his side when he’s injured and even risking her own life on his behalf- that doesn’t matter. Zarkon is still completely alone, because putting Haggar in his blind spot and actually fighting with her would acknowledge her as an equal, and it would also acknowledge he has a blind spot in the first place.

Quite possibly, Zarkon could not tolerate such a thing because the last time someone was watching his back, they let him fall, and his staunch refusal to ever try that again has prevented him from having any meaningful counter-experience. Admitting he needs Haggar is admitting that he’d be in danger without her- that she’s in a place to potentially betray him.

The absence of the Dark Paladins

While Zarkon and Shiro are clear echoes of one another, and Haggar and Allura appear to be emerging as another set of villain-and-hero counterparts, it would seem, at a glance, very odd that a show so focused on the team dynamic of the main heroes would not put forth any other villainous counterparts.

However, season 3 promises the arrival of Lotor- a charismatic, scrawny underdog character who seems to be a total unknown in the empire. That Haggar sends for him at the end of season 2 tells us she knew exactly where he has been this entire time.

Lotor is almost certainly an echo of one of the four remaining paladins. Personally, I see him as very likely Lance’s counterpart- a “dark” Blue Paladin. And it’s quite possible other counterparts are going to come out of the woodwork as time goes on, especially if I’m right in my guess of Lotor- because the Blue and Yellow paladins are those whose focus is heavily within the team, and Lotor promises new allies for the empire. 

But I don’t think it’s a coincidence this happens while Zarkon is bedridden, and seemingly removed from decision making.

Once again- Zarkon is suffering from the loss of the other paladins. The build of the Black Paladin is vulnerable without the team, but as much as Zarkon wants to retake Voltron, it’s ultimately a futile dream even outside of if he does kill the current paladins and take the Lions.

Black can’t work for him because he can’t trust her. And he could never put up four other paladins. There almost certainly already is four worthy rivals to the paladins within the empire. But Zarkon would never choose them, and if anything, he would probably try to drive them away from him as fast as possible.

That one of them would appear to be his own son- the son Zarkon has never acknowledged onscreen- is significant to me.

In Summary

Official bios state that Keith was orphaned at a young age, but as of season 2, there are a lot of mysteries about his early life. What we do have, is that he was at least old enough to clearly remember his father when that individual left, and use of language in Keith’s dream in s2e9 would tell us that this person would seem to have disappeared, not that he died.

The rest of Keith’s history before the Garrison can be inferred from what is not mentioned, rather than what is- logically as a child without parents or guardians, Keith would be placed in the foster care system. However, he wouldn’t continue to be an orphan if he were simply adopted to a family and stayed there.

Family is something very meaningful to Keith. Seemingly, the closest thing to a familial presence he has right now is the team- mostly Shiro, who he’s had the most experience with. If there were other people at the Garrison that Keith connected with- it would seem that Commander Iverson thought very highly of him- he lost contact with them upon being expelled.

It’s very likely that Keith thus moved around the system fairly frequently. Possibly, moving around the US itself- while Keith’s father has a noticeable southern accent, this is not a trait Keith obviously shares- even though he presumably learned how to speak from his father. This might suggest he’s lived in many places, and over time the accent he might’ve inherited from his father would’ve faded away.

Connect and disconnect

The implications of Keith’s history and his living situation at the beginning of the series point heavily to someone for whom isolation has been a major piece of his life. Not being alone in the sense of bereft of people, but bereft of meaningful connections. And in fact, when Voltron is confronted by the idea of losing one of their number- Pidge threatening to leave the team- it is Keith who is outraged by the very idea, and- considering how he folds in afterwards- very hurt by it.

But not every disappearance is equal to Keith. There’s a very specific context Keith reacts to, and the trial of marmora unabashedly frames this as his greatest fear: 

Keith is afraid of people choosing to leave him. Of no longer wanting him around. And what’s especially noticeable about it is that as much as the idea terrifies him, and as diligent as Keith can otherwise be in the pursuit of his goals- when faced with rejection, Keith is often very resigned in response. He’s terrified of it, he’ll fight it if he thinks that he can- but if that doesn’t work or he doesn’t feel like he can fight the situation in the first place- an ordinarily very driven individual will often just sort of roll over and take it.

This doesn’t just tell us that Keith is afraid of losing people. It tells us that in his experience, he has often been completely helpless to stop people from walking out of his life- to the point that confronted with a novel situation, there’s something of a pall of futility over his responses. That Keith’s first obvious loss (his father) is stated to have happened when he was very young, and may have been preceded by losing his mother even younger, would tell us that this was a very formative context.

Especially because Keith’s memory of his father is an incredibly gentle person- seeming to genuinely care about Keith and want to keep him safe, to the point that during the dream, there is the implication that Keith’s father is trying to personally protect him from the oncoming juggernaut of the Empire. What Keith remembers of his father is soft and reassuring, which suggests that his disappearance was one keenly felt.

The fact that this has repeated throughout Keith’s life is a particular misfortune in that it seems the main explanation Keith believes about why people leave him is that it’s his fault. This is the main difference between when he responds with fury (towards Pidge) and passive surrender (towards Allura)- Pidge’s reason for leaving has nothing to do with Keith and everything to do with finding her family- which she prioritizes over Voltron. Allura’s reason for turning a cold shoulder- a much more subdued reaction- has to do with Keith, specifically, and Keith’s response is basically to fold up into a ball and refuse to engage the subject.

This is also rather painfully illustrated in Ark of Taujeer. While both Keith and Allura prepare to leave the team when they suspect they’re endangering everyone- Allura doesn’t pack her bags. Keith does. Clearly suggesting that unlike Allura, who wants to test if the fleet comes after her and is confident in her ability to escape if it’s true- Keith fully expected to leave the team permanently. He even suggests as much when they’re talking about what they’re going to do if the fleet does come: Keith asks if they could really go back knowing Zarkon is tracking them.

A very likely history of being shuffled from house to house, and losing the chance to have any kind of stable foundation- has left Keith with a deep held idea that if he is a burden on the team they will leave him. As seen in practice, comparing Keith’s vision of Shiro during the trial to how Shiro actually responds- this is not a fear built by the team. It’s a fear that predates them.

The survivalist’s instinct

Another thing that Keith’s unsteady relationship with stability has done is that it has allowed for the cultivation of one of his main virtues as the Red Paladin- the concept of “fly by feel”. Effectively, thrown into any situation, Keith shuts his horizons to a kind of tunnel vision- feet to the ground, goal in front of him- run for it. He is excellent at reacting quickly and staying focused- but, as can be observed by his interactions with Lance in the Balmera, complex strategy is not Keith’s forte in the heat of the moment.

Conversely, in a situation where there are only seconds to spare and you have to respond now or lose everything, Keith excels. This is why, for example, he’s the one to send in if you have to navigate a chaotic asteroid field with hair-trigger reflexes. When he sets his attention on chasing a single goal, he can be very effective at identifying what he needs and pulling it off very specifically, and when in a situation where he does have time to strategize, we can see that he’s actually on par with Lance (creating a diversion to distract the Garrison guards by rigging explosives and detonating them when Lance reached the same conclusion that a distraction was what they’d need to sneak in)

Another, noteworthy side of this is, since Keith has a very do-or-die attitude about how he makes decisions, his solutions tend to not be the most finessed. Or necessarily noble. “We’re facing a bunch of guns and there is no quick way out of this situation but we have a hostage.” He’s inclined to suggesting- and sometimes acting on- what’s the pragmatic approach over what’s the ideal approach. 

What we see from Keith in his shack is that even at his worst, he has what can be summarized as a stubborn determination to keep going, and has cultivated a lot of small skills in general categories (s2e2, Shiro and Keith are at a kind of roughly established campsite with a fire, and considering the extent of Shiro’s injuries at the time, it’s safe to say Keith did the vast majority of that). Living in a shed in the desert without running water was relatively easy for Keith- to the point that he reflects on it as a peaceful, comfortable time.

It tells us that in terms of surroundings, Keith is easy to please- but also that as much as isolation has colored his history, he’s used to being his own line of defense. It’s very easy to mistake Keith as the stereotypical hotshot “lancer” character in an ensemble piece who’s too cool for friendship and teamwork but gets by on natural talent- when in fact Keith welcomes the opportunity to work with people. He’s just overwhelmingly used to being alone- to not having other people he can rely on, and so his reflex is to respond to problems as best as he can on his own.

Effectively- Keith is out of practice with teamwork and having other people around him, and this has been an adjustment for him- though not a joyless one.

Oh god how do I people skills

The other other side to Keith’s personal history of isolation, and I think simply a degree of how Keith is, is that when Keith really opens up to someone, he’s very clumsy about it. Particularly with unexpected intimacy or warm sentiments from other people, he tends to freeze up or get a kind of deer-in-the-headlights look.

On the one hand, this is something he’s been yearning for basically his entire life. We can see that when he’s not caught off-guard by them, such gestures mean the world to him. On the other, when, say, suddenly swiped into a hug by Hunk, as much as Keith enjoys it, his initial response is to go stiff and sort of cautiously joke about it afterwards. 

I think that Keith is very aware that he’s not the best at socializing, and a little defensive about it. He is, sometimes, reluctant to engage for fear of how it will be received- we can see that if he isn’t sure how to proceed with a particularly uncomfortable conversation, as I mentioned before- he tends to fold inwards.

So it creates this very contradictory picture of Keith. At his most comfortable, Keith is sentimental, cares deeply about the people who’ve established to him- a little clingy, even, but someone who can even lighten up and be fun, crack jokes and carry a conversation.

Other times, he can come across very standoffish, partially out of awkwardness, but partially because he’s so used to being in his own space that much of his idea of how to be close to others is to hover in the general area- do whatever you’d do alone, but with other people there. There’s also the fact that Keith is fairly introverted- it’s easy for him to get sucked into and spend a long time caught up in his own thoughts.

(It’s telling that Shiro, who knows Keith the best at this point, has learned to identify Keith being unusually quiet as a sign that it’s time to check on him)

At the same time, Keith is smart. He’s not oblivious. He knows that it’s hard for him to get nuances of socialization- that he really hasn’t had a lot of friends in his time and it’s very obvious, and that despite having quite a sense of his own sarcasm he can miss others’ inflections, and that furthers, I think, a kind of defensive attitude. Rejection is a very sensitive topic to Keith and a bit like Pidge, he’s kind of shored up his defenses against the idea even when it isn’t exactly forthcoming.

Hidden sides

Both of the arm pilots arguably have a relationship with hiding. With Pidge, it’s a matter of deliberate obfuscation- she will use her own illusions, consciously and actively, to penetrate others. You can’t hide anything from her, but she can hide from you.

What’s interesting about Keith is that there’s a lot of hidden things for Keith- but these things are hidden from him about himself.

It’s made very clear in s1e1, and seems to be at play again in s1e10, that Keith is personally tuned into some kind of esoteric awareness that the rest of the team does not have. He was able to know Shiro was coming before the pod arrived, and during his year in the desert, he was “called” to the location of the Blue Lion. We also actively see him intuit the location of Red.

However... when Keith tries to explain what he’s found, what he knows, which has yielded a lot of accurate information, one of the first things he can say about something he’s clearly sunk a huge amount of effort into trying to understand is “I can’t explain it, really.”

Keith and Pidge both, to a degree, have a narrative about looking for family, and looking for answers. But unlike Pidge, who’s so certain of herself and her tools, Keith doesn’t really know what his tools are. He doesn’t even know what questions to ask. All he has is this powerful, insistent sense something is out there or going to happen.

And part of this is the other lasting effect of Keith’s separation from his own history- the part that doesn’t really have anything to do with isolation. It’s that Keith is missing huge pieces of context integral to understanding who he is.

Weapons in the series are used, heavily, to inform about the character. The bayard literally takes a shape tailored to the wielder. And the most tangible piece of Keith’s history that he has, besides himself- is a weapon that until very recently has been dormant, not in its true form- and even that dormant form has its main identifying mark hidden from view.

This is a reflection of Keith’s relationship with himself. On the one hand- his pragmatism has made him utilize everything he has with him, because nothing else will be forthcoming. He knows it’s there- it always has been. But he doesn’t understand it, and that context is holding him back from his potential. He can be more, and do more- but only with an understanding that he’s been cheated of.

And this, I think, reflects one of Keith’s struggles. Because the arm pilots are both the side of Voltron that engages with the world- the active, information-gathering. But Pidge’s tools are specific, external, and unbiased in every regard except what direction she points them in and how she sets her net.

Keith’s are all internal, nebulous, and incredibly undefined, to the point that Keith doesn’t realize they’re there or know to utilize them. If he could reliably tap into the same source that let him know Shiro was headed towards Earth, then team Voltron could find Shiro now. If he doesn’t need specific contact with that individual, he might even be able to help Pidge find the Holts. This is a tremendous potential resource.

But he’s held back, because no one has been there to explain this to him. Because Keith, arguably- is still in the state of the wrapped-up knife. He doesn’t know his true form and true potential. Hints of it maybe. 

Stability and loyalty

Another point of similarity between Keith and Pidge is that they are not driven by purely academic pursuits. For both of them, their real driving quest is comfort. Pidge’s family has been the center of her world, and she wants that back. Keith- arguably has never really had a stable center bigger than himself. Even Shiro, seemingly one of the most powerful stabilizing presences in Keith’s life since the loss of his father (since those are the two figures the trial picks to challenge him)- Shiro’s presence has been inconsistent by no fault of his own.

(thanks, Galra empire)

So at present- I think that Keith is very conflicted. On the one hand, part of him really wants to hope that Voltron is an enduring thing. That maybe he’s finally got somewhere to think of as home, something like a family. And on the other hand- that’s terrifying, because they’re in the middle of a war zone and an entire intergalactic space empire and the gaping unknowns in his own history seem to be actively trying to tear that away from him.

This incredibly conflicting sentiment can lead to some even more contradictory behavior out of Keith- how he’s the one who didn’t want to go after Allura, but also was the one who personally bull-rushed Zarkon to try and protect the rest of the team and repeatedly refused to listen to Coran telling him how outmatched he was.

I’ve talked before about Zarkon’s comment that Keith “fights like a galra”, especially considering s2e6 and Morvok’s men who resolutely set themselves to die for the cause and are executed by the imperfect Blazing Sword.

Zarkon isn’t praising Keith for being vicious, he’s praising the fact that to a degree- Keith is committing to being a sacrifice. It doesn’t matter if he’s safe, it doesn’t matter if he has no chance of beating Zarkon- what matters is that as long as they’re fighting Zarkon can’t get to the downed Black Lion.

Keith is also, as people have pointed out, the one person who insistently repeats that the Black Bayard is Shiro’s every time he brings it up. And that solo brawl between him and Zarkon is a much louder declaration of that- you have no business going anywhere near the Black Lion.

As rocky as it is for Keith to connect with people, once he does, he is nothing if not incredibly tenacious on that person’s behalf.

Prodigy or problem

Interestingly, despite how much Keith is talked up as the best pilot of the class, I’ve mentioned his prodigy status very little here. While I think it does affect him to some degree...

Mostly, he knows he’s smart, but at the same time is confronted with knowing that some things (such as socialization) that others consider “obvious” are completely in the dark to him, and he’s kind of defensive about that

...to a large degree I don’t know if Keith really registers himself as someone who is talented in the way that Shiro and Pidge do- with high expectations being a strong element of their background. Because again, with Keith’s history of being often shuffled around, it’s very likely that rather than “prodigy, full of potential” what he’s been most likely getting is “problem child, probably not going to amount to much”

Keith is not especially temperamental- but his desire to cut to a working solution as quickly as possible, combined with a general difficulty expressing himself, means that his frustrations are usually not answered. What basically boils down to a moderately short temper is exacerbated by a stormy internal landscape and a tendency to be stewing in one uncomfortable thought or another.

Basically, Keith seems super explosive, but overwhelmingly, this is an artificially induced state and is usually a testament to the fact that if something is bothering him, he will almost never speak up about it directly on his own. (Because he’s very scared of being “too needy” and alienating people). But it’s very likely, in a context where people have rarely been in touch with him for a long period of time, that Keith comes across as an emotional hurricane.

Effectively, Keith’s is a fire that tends to smolder in the underbrush a long time before it ever burns the forest down- and in the past, it seems like Shiro was the main person to actually check under the surface and see what’s burning in the depths.

But the image Keith has most likely internalized of himself is not the awesome pilot that Lance and Iverson both seem to look to him as- but the “discipline issue”. And that builds another level of frustration, because if he explodes, he’s just proving everyone right, and he seems to disappoint people a lot from his perspective. Even the awareness that he is talented, that he does have things to be good at- those high expectations that Pidge and Shiro have both matched most of their lives would seem very out of reach for Keith, much more so after he lost Shiro and then was expelled from the Garrison, probably the only people that have ever told him that.

Because when confronted with the idea that someone was jealous of him, Keith’s response is pretty much utter bafflement. And when Keith and Lance are actually interacting in close quarters- Keith picks up the rivalry in about as much earnestness as Lance does, which would suggest that Keith might well see Lance as someone to be jealous of just as much as Lance envies Keith.

And why wouldn’t he? People like Lance. Lance is the person who plants himself in the middle of social environments and makes five friends in the time Keith is still sort of hovering hopefully in someone’s general vicinity. Lance, who has a huge family and a really clear idea of home as a specific place and people to come back to.

This, I think, is a very significant angle to Keith realizing he has galra heritage that is often not explored- is the idea that this is not a transformation narrative, it’s a narrative of self-discovery. It’s Keith putting a name to a problem he’s already been dealing with, and this fits with what I said before- that when Allura was angry with him, Keith’s whole reaction suggested that he felt like he deserved it.

Because the revelation that Keith has alien heritage and history basically would just cement a lot of Keith’s fears all along. That maybe the reason why he’s never had a good lasting connection is because he doesn’t even belong here, because he’s fundamentally unlike the people around him- and that difference carries with it a very bad impression. As much as the series is showing us a more multifaceted view of the galra as a species, their first and strongest impression is Zarkon and his empire.

This is why Keith hasn’t immediately jumped on the chance for those answers Kolivan promised if he succeeded the trial- is so far, the first one that’s come forwards has offered him no reassurance or comfort. 

No Subterfuge At All

It’s worth mentioning, as much as I talked about how Keith and Pidge are similar, that in contrast to Pidge who was able to fabricate her own identity, Keith is a bad liar.

Keith is an awful liar.

Thematically this ties very much into the fact that Keith has an incredibly intuitive sense of truth. When his channels are open he can just know something is going to happen or that something is important. But this relationship is so visceral, and he has no real sense of knowing how people hide something- that basically the only way Keith can hide something is if he actively and entirely removes himself from a situation, or just manages to avoid anyone asking about it.

Because as soon as someone does... well, look at how fast Allura was able to unravel why he was around the pods in s2e6.

That scene in particular actually shows us entirely outside of not having a poker face, Keith is someone who if he is trying to bluff about something he will in fact progressively shoot himself in the foot the longer he’s still talking.

In summary

Having been isolated most of his life, Keith is deeply insecure of, but also needy about interpersonal relationships. He’s very introverted, which can make him self-sufficient, but it also can cause him to stew over time in worries or doubts until something sets that off. Unlike Shiro and Pidge, he likely does not see himself nearly so much as promising or a prodigy.

Pidge’s life story is fairly known to us- we actually know both of her parents by name and that she has an older brother (and a dog). Overwhelmingly, it would seem that the Holts are a very smart family, and at least Matt and Sam are confirmed to be connected to the Garrison, with a clear expectation that Pidge is going to follow in those footsteps. An expectation Pidge takes to happily.

The image we have of the Holts is very comfortable and domestic- them eating dinner together. This would suggest they are a quite close family, especially on the eve of half of the family leaving for probably close to a month- if it takes “weeks” for human ships in this setting to reach Kerberos as Lance says in s1e1. Not only do they care, but that relationship is enduring enough that they trust each other, and maintain those links- when the others are venturing very far afield.

Considering how groundbreaking the mission is, this would suggest that they were looking for the best of the best- Shiro the decorated pilot, and the Holts. Shiro says unabashedly that Commander Holt is one of the smartest people he’s ever met, and Pidge finds the advice Shiro quotes as incredibly comforting and reassuring. Again, this is a loving family.  

That Matt wears a cadet uniform, suggesting this is very likely his first mission ever (further reinforced by how a picture was taken to seemingly commemorate Matt specifically setting off, of him and Pidge together) would further suggest that the Holt siblings are both viewed as brilliant and full of promise, by the Garrison and by their family. And this expectation seems to be fairly comfortable.

At age fourteen, Pidge is the youngest member of the team, putting her roughly 2-3 years younger than Lance, Hunk, and Keith. This is significant, as she met Lance and Hunk in their same class at the Garrison- thus suggesting that Pidge either falsified her age to infiltrate the Garrison, or that Pidge, as a prodigy, is two grades ahead of where she “should” be.

I suspect the latter, personally- as it ties to what I just mentioned. But as comfortable as our view of the Holts and how they interrelate is, it would seem that Pidge’s life hasn’t been all sunshine.

Putting out brambles

In contrast to how small, soft-featured and, let’s face it, cute Pidge is compared to the rest of the team, she has a very sharp temper and a tendency to put out a “I’m not here to make friends, I’m on a mission.” In fact, the first impression she ever leaves on Lance is how snappy she is. She doesn’t want you touching her equipment, she doesn’t think you’re going to believe her, and if you impede her personal mission in any way, she will fight you with everything she has.

I really doubt Pidge developed this temperament dealing with her family. Again- from what we see, her family is very close-knit and supportive. But if Pidge has spent most of her life being several grades ahead, that would mean that she’s been placed in something of a double bind- she has a very different context from most people her age, but her immediate peer group is all older than her. It’s also unfortunately likely people would challenge her right to be here.

Pidge has a chip on her shoulder and a defensive streak, and I would bet this is something that has been with her personality for a long time. However, it would certainly be exacerbated by the Garrison hiding information from her- as mentioned, the Holts are a Garrison family. The Garrison is where Pidge has always more or less been expected to end up working. She would have had a pretty strong tie to these people, her father’s coworkers and possibly her mother’s as well- and so her anger and resolve flare up because in her eyes, this isn’t obstructive bureaucracy- this is tacit betrayal from her own people.

It is important to emphasize that Pidge’s temper and attitude is profoundly defensive in nature. She’s either reacting to an existing negative response, or one that she anticipates or is trying to head off. In the absence of an obvious enemy to fight or prove wrong, we see that Pidge is often much more tentative- even anxious- as she is on the Green Lion’s planet in s1e1. Official interviews have also described the Green Lion as “not a destructive creature” at its core, which reflects onto Pidge.

When Pidge feels safe around people- as can be seen readily in her interactions with the team, or just when she’s caught up in excitement about something new- she is actually a very sweet person. Her sincere- even somewhat bubbly side- is just something that she tries to protect from potential threats, and a fast way to her heart is through her sense of curiosity. 

In general, the main fixture this defensiveness leaves on Pidge’s personality is that in most contexts, she’s very stubborn. I don’t think many people would continue to struggle with the Altean language program after barely making it past the first word and then realizing what the second one is- but if Pidge sets herself to something, she has the expectation that people will second-guess her capacity to handle it and she wants to prove them wrong.

(Even if, in fact, there is an absence of actual people second-guessing her)

Intelligence, pride, and vulnerability

Pidge is a brilliant technical mind, and as I commented somewhat on Hunk’s analysis, Pidge operates very differently from Hunk. Compared to Hunk’s very accessible and hands-on, practical understandings, Pidge delves heavily into technicalities and history. It’s difficult for her to explain things without running heavily into jargon or providing way more context than is necessary, which I think reflects that her social life has been very limited.

She’s used to speaking mostly to her family, who are probably very close to her same level and manner of operating. Unlike Hunk, who is probably used to explaining things to people who don’t have astronaut-caliber comprehensive science education, Pidge wants to explain things in the way that makes the most sense to her and successfully grasps the nuances of everything.

There’s a few threads of elitism to Pidge, as one would expect of a child prodigy. And this is another thing that feeds her stubbornness regarding things like the Altean language program, and most likely why she sought it out in the first place- Pidge has her pride on the line when it comes to understanding things. She’s the whiz kid, if she can’t get it, then all those people who think she’s just a punk brat with an ego are practically right, and she can’t stand that.

 If Pidge runs into a problem- if she tries something and it hits a major setback, or she’s faced with trying something new that seems daunting (an example of each- when the satellite seems to fail in s2e1, and again in s1e1 when she starts panicking at the prospect of piloting the Green Lion) we can actually see a fear of failure that creeps in. Because faced with the contrasting influences of her family’s warm rapport and other people who question or resent her right to be there- it’s a very scary prospect to prove her naysayers were right, but it’s even scarier to potentially let down everyone who believes in her.

And I think a lot of Pidge’s warm feelings towards her supportive, safe family are things that she comes rapidly to project onto Team Voltron and her relationship with them. Even though Shiro would seem to be a relative unknown- she doesn’t expect him to recognize her, and has no hesitation introducing herself like they haven’t met- she takes to him very quickly.

But with that warmness- there’s also a side of loneliness to Pidge. As mentioned, her relationship with her family seems to be very good, but we don’t see much evidence of a strong social group before the team outside of that. When she does connect with the team, she projects familial sentiments onto them- the team is another family to her. This would suggest that, for support and belonging, Pidge has been basically reliant on the other Holts.

This is the hurt at the core of Pidge’s furious determination to find them again. Because her beloved core of support was just ripped apart with no warning, and then, in her determination to fix this, fight it (she’s the smart one, she’s here to solve problems, her dad always said she’d do something great and what could be more important than this) she left behind her mom. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about how Colleen Holt is now alone, but surprisingly few people talk about what that separation also is probably doing to Pidge.

Because in s2e1, despite claiming she’s going to have some “me-time” and enjoy it- Pidge is the one who ends up stranded alone while Hunk, Lance, Keith and Shiro each land with one other person- and this is rapidly deeply uncomfortable. When her satellite doesn’t seem to work, Pidge actually has a breakdown.

Pidge is a fourteen-year-old who finds herself partially alone in what is turning out to be a very large and scary universe, and as determined as she is to not let anyone know she’s struggling- that’s a very precarious situation.

Uncertainty of Identity

Each of the Lions is connected to an element. Each Lion also fits itself to the paladin as a function of personality. Basically, Shiro is a sky personality, Hunk is an earth personality, Keith is a fire personality.

Pidge’s element is wood- nature and growth. And while we see other paladins more or less thriving in their environment (Keith takes easily to the heat of the desert, Lance’s beloved home is an island, Hunk really operates better with a firm footing, Shiro was an astronaut) Pidge in s2e4 specifically expresses active disdain for her element. She would much rather see Olkarion’s metal city than she would its lush, verdant forest.

Pidge has to grow to enjoy her element. She has to learn, and realize, how this actually is an aspect of her, and is something she can relate to and understand- her love of patterns and systems, “mathematical elegance”.

And I think this reflects a bit of Pidge’s relative inexperience compared to the rest of the team. Sure, none of the other Garrison cadets are soldiers, and even Shiro, Allura, and Coran, the more experienced members, were abundantly not ready for what was thrown at them- but for Pidge in particular, there’s an element of inexperience with who she is, at her core.

Part of this might also be another connection to Pidge’s relationship with her family. She’s another brilliant mind, another person headed straight for the Garrison- all basically taken for granted. She’s a Holt, isn’t she? It’s not something she’s really thought through in a lot of detail. And because of this, we see Pidge often describing herself in a way that really contradicts who she actually is shown to be.

“No one to annoy me,” says the person who only likes being alone on her own terms, who despite incredible risks opens up to people very quickly if they just consistently and in a nonthreatening manner try to connect with her. “I don’t need friends” she tells herself, when as soon as she’s put on her own and it doesn’t seem like she can be with her friends, all of her vulnerability comes to the surface.

We can also see this in interplay with some of the virtues that she has- for example, her determination to chase a goal no matter what almost led her to fork from the team before she realized that she was aiming it in the wrong direction and basically letting it destroy the support network that she had. Pidge is in the process of realizing her own assets and how to utilize them- and that’s something of a case of trial and error.

Curiosity

As inquisitiveness is one of Pidge’s stated paladin virtues, I feel a little obligated to bring it up- and I think it’s one of Pidge’s most charming qualities. Pidge wants to know how things work. Probably the most out of the team, she’s driven by a profound sense of satisfaction at knowing how things work. If she sees something exciting, or interesting, she’s charmed by it- she wants to understand it, and, to a degree, she wants to connect with it.

As Pidge’s relations with people have been kind of hit-or-miss, it seems, it’s not surprising that when it comes to machines, something Pidge considers familiar, intuitive, and trustworthy, that’s when we see Pidge as really gregarious. She has been introduced to the galra empire with their absolute worst foot forwards but with Rover and the galra drone afterwards, the way she talks to and about them suggests an immediate rapport.

I would not be surprised at all if Pidge is someone who, despite her relative disdain for the great outdoors, has gotten along very well with animals. She opens up to the space caterpillars in a very similar manner and probably has a good relationship with the Holt family dog.

Tenacity

I touched a bit that I think Pidge is driven to succeed and afraid of failure, a kind of “prodigy pressure” that I think has some similarities with Shiro- but on a whole other level, even a little unsure of herself as she is, Pidge is a force of will. She’s very self-driven and motivated, and as much as she struggles emotionally without the support and validation of other people, there’s an element of self-sufficiency to Pidge that cannot be understated.

This is likely because, at very least, Sam Holt has probably been disappearing for long stretches for a fair amount of her life. Always predictable, he always came back- but nonetheless, that’s time where Dad can’t be there. And with her pride in particular, it’s quite possible Pidge has a long track record of trying to tackle problems herself rather than going to even her loving and supportive family. She wants to make them proud. She’s smart- she’ll figure something out.

I’ve mentioned that out of the paladins, Pidge has something of a rogue’s build- I don’t think any of the other paladins could do nearly so well overwhelmingly without backup the way Pidge did on the Castle against Sendak, Haxus, and the drones. During Ulaz’s more or less one-sided rush through the paladins, Pidge refuses to let go of the tether, and uses it to slow Ulaz down at a critical point so Keith can get his strike in.

With Pidge’s intelligence and her determination, she will often cling to a seemingly hopeless situation and keep looking for points to break in- to tamper with the pattern. This philosophy of infiltrate and exploit over brute force is reflected perfectly in the vine cannon used by the Green Lion- it’s the philosophy of plant sprouts progressively forcing their way through concrete.

Because arguably, the whole message behind plants, something that has to grow from a seed initially- is potential. The potential to become something like a massive sequoia or a cactus that can survive under blistering desert heat- but for that potential to ever pay off, there has to be that tenacity.

Pidge is, as I mentioned, still growing into her element. It’s hard for her to deal with sowing a field and having it turn up barren- watching a lead go dead. But under adversity, we see the person she’s growing into- you can lay a road across her forest, but the very next day there’s cracks, and those cracks have sprouts. 

Awkwardness

At the same time, it’s worth noting that as formidable and talented as Pidge is, she is also, seemingly, someone who has not made a lot of friends before now. And she’s kind of awkward. This is someone who, when asked to tell about herself, leads with “I like peanut butter, but I hate peanuts. Also I sweat a lot.” And the kind of person who, when attempting to convince others that she is a very serious researcher who is in fact picking up alien radio chatter, shows them a roughly scribbled drawing of a giant robot and fire.

As mentioned earlier, unlike Hunk, Pidge is not really used to talking to people who can’t understand things in complex terminology- she’s not very good at pitching her thoughts to an audience or persuasive speaking. Whether this is her tendency to mention awkward or potentially embarrassing details (“My pasty skin and allergies don’t match up well with outdoor living,”) or just her tendency to fumble conversationally when nervous (“I mean I can man up because that’s just an expression I don’t have to be a guy to man up”) it’s worth noting that Pidge can sometimes have the social graces of a rollerblading giraffe.

In Summary

Hunk is kind of an enigma in terms of background. Our earliest insight is that he’s known Lance for a long time- definitely, they were together at the Garrison. Official sources also confirm Hunk is Samoan. Other than that, we don’t know much about his family or life situation.

We do know that he’s an engineering student- and I’m willing to bet future seasons will if nothing else give us more insight into his history.

It is worth mentioning that from the design of Hunk’s arms, he’s quite athletic- seemingly, at least as muscular as Shiro, and probably more because while Shiro has every reason to have more of a “bodybuilder look” (space jail, he probably lost a lot of subdermal fat), Hunk would have a healthier musculature with more body fat reserves, so, yes, I’m fairly sure Hunk could destroy most of the team in an arm-wrestling competition. 

Cowardly lion

Hunk definitely has some problems with anxiety. This has been actively addressed at times (s2e9) but this is an element of himself that he is very aware of and is overwhelmingly used to managing. I think that many fan reads of the character often overblow his timid aspects and fail to look into the fact that this is not remotely the only side of him.

Hunk’s element is earth and his Lion is the left leg of Voltron. As the bottom left quarter, this places him at an intersection of support (leg) and defense (left side). The easiest way I can describe Hunk is that he is someone who needs a steady foundation to operate from. In contrast to Lance, who mostly embodies the “movement” element of the leg, Hunk embodies the ideal of “support”. He’s the leg that sticks on steady footing while Lance might be moving forwards to test the ground ahead.

Pulling this out of the metaphorical and more into Hunk’s personal life- Hunk’s anxiety and motion sickness are things that plague him when he doesn’t have that stable footing, figuratively or literally. He is virtually never nauseous when at the controls of his own Lion- it’s when he’s being helplessly towed along in someone else’s, or has lost control of the situation one way or another- that he starts to get sick.

Even stressed, however, it should be emphasized Hunk is no pushover- if he doesn’t like a situation he will let people know, and his willingness to let Lance tow him along into situations he doesn’t like would seem very much to be the exception, not the rule. It’s just that often said unpleasant situation is either essential, or his friends are running into it headlong anyway and more than selfishly fleeing for his own welfare, he wants to make sure they’re safe, too.

When Hunk is sure of himself, he’s not merely brave, he’s an unmovable force of willpower. This is reflected strongly in his bayard, as well- with his massive artillery piece, he probably has the greatest firepower out of any of the bayards we’ve seen, but its weight and size could probably throw even him off his feet if he wasn’t planted while using it. In general, as long as he feels pretty sure of himself- he’s not deterred by much, including things like privacy.

We have somewhat of a scenario of just how far Hunk’s fortitude can go in the story of Hunk’s predecessor, King Alfor. Because the prior team of paladins did not fall apart with the betrayal of Zarkon, their core- rather, they rallied around Alfor, who held them together. Alfor, who ultimately chose to sacrifice himself and his kingdom rather than fight a losing battle- the cautious mind of the Yellow Paladin- but also held a successful defensive line against Zarkon long enough for the Castle Ship to depart.

This would suggest by precedent alone, that Hunk with stable footing could match wills with Shiro- for whom force of personality is one of his paladin virtues- and not back down.

(Also noteworthy- Hunk’s capture during the mermaid episode appears to play into the very mechanism by which Hunk establishes his steady foundation, because the Baku’s whole trick is convincing people that it’s safe and trustworthy)

Harshness and Softness

So far with each of the paladins there are two matched and conflicting values- and Hunk is no exception.

On the one hand- Hunk is an absolute sweetheart. He enjoys taking care of others, and doesn’t want to do something that will hurt or endanger his friends. Once someone has earned his loyalty and trust, he’ll do a lot for them, even if he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, or if it puts him in a bad place- for example, he actively volunteered to go toe-to-toe with the planet-eating Weblum after knowing full well what it’s capable of. (after all, the first act of the reactivated Yellow Lion was to sling himself bodily in front of a downed Bue- this is a way that Hunk and his Lion resemble one another)

Sentimentality and compassion are big deals to Hunk. It’s no surprise that he’s a very close friend to Lance, who is also sentimental and compassionate in a lot of ways. They also have similar bayards, suited to providing cover fire for their zippy, close-range counterparts. And given a good impression, it doesn’t take very much at all for Hunk to warm up to someone, as seen by his rather ready adoption of Keith as early as s1e2. Kindness is one of his stated virtues as the Yellow Paladin, after all.

The other side of the coin is, since Hunk’s friends mean so much to him, he is easily the most skeptical of potential threats on the team. The divide between friend and foe is very stark and Hunk’s bad side is a stone wall worthy of China’s northern border.

In particular, entirely outside of slightly harsh caution- “we’ll help you but I trust you as far as I can throw you”- Hunk has a lot of enmity for people who actively betray the team, or manipulate his teammates. In particular, we see this with Hunk’s response to Rolo, Nyma, and Beezer.

(I find this very significant, concerning how Hunk is closest to Lance, and Lance’s reactions to several situations, the mermaids in particular, suggests that he’s been manipulated or tricked by people before- and Hunk has a very strong reaction to people doing just that.)

Intelligence, but simple terminology

It’s repeatedly emphasized that Hunk is every bit the technical genius Pidge is. As I mentioned on Lance’s analysis, their class was very small, and one of the first things Hunk does on an alien planet is to effortlessly hotwire a piece of mining equipment without even looking at what he’s doing most of the time. And complaining the entire time that Lance dropped him in a tense situation.

Technology is just as much of an interest to Hunk as food is, which suggests a similar pattern in Hunk- he likes things that have an element of construction and creativity, and a lot of different components to them. But compared to Pidge, who is very heavy on jargon- Hunk tends to explain things in a very accessible manner, and seems not as quick to pick up an entirely new set of technical language (see s2e4, when Hunk hesitates to try and piece together exactly what Allura and Coran are telling him, not helped that they’re arguing- while Pidge picks it up rapidly)

This would suggest that Hunk’s knowledge base, while easily as sophisticated as Pidge, tends to assert itself in a more practical manner. Hunk takes complicated topics and breaks them into simple, easily-digested components which would probably make him much better at explaining something than Pidge, who is inclined to tangents and assuming everyone knows what a Turing computer is.

It also indicates another side of why Hunk enjoys the things he does- he is probably a much bigger fan of subjects that he can engage directly, and his general inclination to get his hands all over other people’s equipment and personal belongings reflects that this is the main way he expresses his curiosity. Hunk is smart, and motivated heavily by understanding- so he intrudes, but he intrudes specifically to understand. 

When he’s not particularly interested in a subject, he’s usually not nearly so inclined to investigate- which suggests that his hassling Keith about the latter’s galra heritage is more heartwarming than one might suspect.

Unlike Lance, who is pretty much curious about people constantly, even if he doesn’t like them (much of Lance’s relationship with Keith can be summarized as “incredibly jealous of you but also seriously what is your deal”)- Hunk’s curiosity comes with a pretty firm off switch if he’s decided he doesn’t like the person first. Responding with curiosity means the situation feels safe- he’s sure of his footing.

Personal growth

I touched on the concept that Lance and Hunk embody two slightly different concepts of what it is to be a leg- movement vs. stability, but just as Lance (movement) does also offer and engage with stability, Hunk (stability) also engages with the sense of movement.

As Lance points out- for an anxious person who gets readily motion sick, Hunk is in a space exploration program at the beginning of the series. Getting into a situation where people are shooting at him and placed in mortal peril, being basically conscripted into a space war- one would expect Hunk to be the most opposed to this whole idea, and yet he was the one leading the charge to the Balmera.

Part of this is his desire to take care of others- he can’t comfortably sit by and watch Shay’s people suffer, especially when Shay herself arguably had misfortune brought upon her specifically because she helped him- but an entirely other side of this is...

Hunk, genuinely, does have a sense of adventure and curiosity. And he wants to be taken seriously on that. The fact that this is difficult and his anxiety sets him at a bit of a disadvantage is not stopping him. 

Puns

Hunk likes to make puns, this is a science fact. In general, he has quite a sense of humor and was the most enthusiastic about the squishy asteroid fight. Hunk in general is very emotional and pretty dang open about his expressions of such.

In Summary

Hunk is in some ways really the heart of the team, but his focus on protecting his allies means he’s heavily polarized in his response to allies versus perceived threats. He’s highly intelligent and wants to be respected and acknowledged, and even from his close friends, if he ever decides he’s not okay with something, he will let people know.