SHANNON MUIR'S VOLTRON PAGES - Between the Lines
There's a lot going on for me right now, so devoting the brain power needed to complete any more Nina Season 2 analysis is more than I have right now. (This is the bulk of content currently at @shannonmuirvoltronpages which goes in-depth with my rich VOLTRON history)
But I also promised new content too, along the lines of what I did on the site I can no longer access. So I am going to give you a commentary about the VOLTRON FORCE episode that just begs and pleads for fans to try to step in and fill the gaps, and that's "Flash Forms Go!".
We know from early episodes that Lance has been the secret liaison between the Garrison and Arus. But why him over Lance or Hunk? Some of it is very likely skill. But there's a very telling scene that happens (after another telling scene, honestly).
Right before this, there is a scene that feels out of context where Lance is getting out aggressions on a holo-Lotor with an intensity we have not seen before or since. It is so out of tone with the rest of this series, yet much closer to the Lance of the 1984 series, if we presume they have similar backstories.
Soon after, Lance and Allura have a talk that is just them. Lance is still blowing off steam about Daniel. They have an exchange where Lance insists he was never that reckless, and Allura very firmly tells him he was worse. He looks at her. She smiles weakly to try and soften the blow, but doesn't back down.
This immediately begs the question: what happened in that time period he was secretly working with her and Hunk and Pidge to set up things where they are now? Obviously, his recklessness wasn't such that Allura quit working with him, but it is something she is bound and determined not to let him forget. Her continued conversation seems to imply she is trying to get him to focus his energies into the positive with Daniel and not the negative.
Since the show doesn't answer what happened, it just sits there with so many possibilities. There is so much untold about this series missing four year gap, from how Wade seemed to brainwash everyone at the opening ceremony right up to when Daniel is recruited.
I think, even going back to the 1984 show, were the moments from which fan fiction began. The need to explain between the lines to make sense of the things left in a show that an individual might otherwise like.
However, I don't think that a well-developed story necessarily takes it away the drive for fan-fiction entirely. I think that is why the VLD fandom tends to be more relationship focused with their fiction, because unlike the prior iteration, they have less unexplained plot gaps to focus on.
"Why?" is and I think will always remain my favorite question.
