Fridge / Voltron: Legendary Defender

Fridge Brilliance:

Season 1

• The other members of Shiro's team keep their helmets on after being captured, even though Shiro's was removed. This prevents the audience from recognizing Pidge's family resemblance, and by extension that the boy in Pidge's picture isn't Pidge.
• If you look at Team Voltron's bios on the official website... Pidge's specifically avoids using any gendered terms.
  • Pidge's irises are the largest out of the Voltron group. The only other character whose irises are as big is Allura. As it turns out, Pidge is Katie Holt, daughter of the Kerberos mission commander.
• Hunk, Lance, and Pidge's disastrous simulation flight and its errors simplify the barriers that they must overcome to become Paladins of Voltron: Hunk's uneasiness with taking action, Lance's arrogance and impulsivity, and Pidge's tendency to go off on her own.
• Likewise, in the opening sequence, we see the Black Bayard being used in the Black Lion's console, but the perspective is behind the pilot's seat so we don't see the pilot, since the last being to use the Black Bayard inside its Lion was Zarkon.
  • It could also be a nod to the fact that, so far, Black Lion has changed hands more than any other Lion we've seen. First, it went to Zarkon, then Shiro, then Keith, back to Shiro again, and then finally back to Keith.
  • And that sequence from the opening titles is the exact shot where Shiro plugs in his Bayard for the first time, foreshadowing the formation of the Blazing Sword all the way from the beginning.
• Also, the Black Lion was located deep within the Castle of the Lions, and could only be retrieved with the use of the other four Lions. This was probably intended as a measure to keep the Black Lion away from Zarkon.
• Why the famous "And I'll Form the Head!" sequence is missing, aside from a funny shoutout in Episode 2. In the original, the combination was done through pilot control and machinery. The sequence was literally Keith giving orders to his team about who does what when. In Legendary Defender, the combination is not done by machinery or piloting (Hunk flat out states that there is no "Combine into giant robot button".). Instead it is done through the mystical bond that the pilots have with their Lions, and with each other. There is no need for Shiro to tell everyone what to do, and when.
• Why was Shiro the first to realize about Pidge's gender? Having spent time with the Holts, they likely mentioned having a daughter/sister back home. Once Pidge mentioned that Prof. Holt was her dad, he put 2 and 2 together. Never mind that she does look strikingly similar to her brother.
  • This ties into why Lance is the only one to be caught by surprise that Pidge is a girl: Coran is noted to be smarter than he acts and so most likely figured it out in episode one; Keith is friends with Shiro, so he had to have at least encountered Matt or heard about the Holts; Hunk went through Pidge's bag and confessed to reading her diary, which means something in there probably tipped him off; and Allura got told by the space mice. The one who had no chance to find out before — especially since he ended up unconscious for some time — is Lance. ... And Lance is kind of thick sometimes.
• The Red Lion serves as Voltron's sword arm. Keith is always around Shiro and serves as his protector/protege. In other words, Keith is literally and figuratively Shiro's right hand man. Made even more genius by the fact that Keith is part Galra, as is Shiro's prosthetic right arm.
  • Season 3 makes this explicit, with Allura saying that her father piloted the Red Lion as Zarkon's Right Hand. Lance accepting Keith's place as leader is what causes the Red and Blue Lions to switch on him (and respectively Allura). The Red Lion is explicitly the position of The Lancer.
• Sendak having the Red Lion aboard his space ship in the first episode seems like a complete cop out in order to get all the Lions in one place. Why have one of your commanders hauling around your greatest weapon? Why put the ship in danger by having it go after the Blue Lion? Zarkon originally intended to take control of Voltron, not just the Black Lion. To do this, he needs four other pilots to operate the remaining Lions. Zarkon calls Sendak one of his best men and the Galra certainly proves it in Season 1. Sendak was supposed to pilot the Red Lion for the Galra Empire. Zarkon sent him after the Blue Lion under the impression that Sendak would be able to use the Red Lion against it.
• During the maze training sequence, Lance keeps getting zapped by the walls and thinks Keith is shocking him on purpose, while Keith believes Lance isn't listening to his directions. If you look closely at Keith's map, if Lance did take two steps forward and then turn right he wouldn't be touching any walls, but Keith's map is actually different from what Lance is interacting with. The point of the exercise was probably for the two to be in communication with one another and realize that the mazes are different and then work with each other on that information. However, due to their hot-headed competitiveness during the tests and their "rivalry", this completely blindsides them.
• After the Balmera takes down the second Ro-Beast for good, it begins to grow new crystals on its surface, showing the surprising (to the characters) extent of its rejuvenation. The viewers know that the Ro-Beast was created by infusing an ordinary creature with a huge amount of Quintessence — and when the Balmera attacks it, the crystals noticeably grow up through its body (even erupting out of one of its eyes), a detail that's both creepy-awesome and may suggest that the Balmera's able to consume that infused power.
• Discounting the Blue Lion and Red Lion, the other Lions are found in the respective locations for their element — in a forest and underground respectively. Black is a borderline example, but the castle is located very high up and it's also a spaceship which suits the Sky/Space element. The Red Lion was found by the Galra before Keith got there so we don't know where it was before, but most likely in a suitable environment (which would have also tested a potential pilot). The Blue Lion is found underneath a desert though... but here comes more fridge brilliance: a lot of deserts have water creature fossils. It's very likely that 10,000 years ago, when the Blue Lion was hidden on Earth, there was a lot of water there. There is even the remnants of water there, which the future Paladins fall into.
  • It also pays tribute to the dens of the Lions from the original series. Black Lion was kept in the castle, Green Lion's den was in a forest, within a giant tree stump, and Yellow Lion was in a desert cave. Blue Lion, in addition to being kept underwater, was found in the moat around the castle. It was the closest of the other four to the Black Lion's location. In this version, the Blue Lion's den may have dried up over time, but it's the first Lion to return to the castle where the Black Lion awaits, perhaps reflecting the original den's proximity. Based on this it seems logical to conclude that, like the original, the Red Lion's den would have been some sort of volcano.
  • Moreover, the other Lions were found on a Single-Biome Planet fitting their Lion. Earth is covered in 70% water, so from an outsider's view, it could easily be considered an aquatic planet.
  • If the intro is to be believed, as well as their particular abilities, it's blue/water, red/fire, yellow/earth, and green/nature. There IS a manner of the elements where nature is part of it: the five Chinese elements. Water, Fire, Earth, Wood and Metal. And indeed, the Black Lion is shown in the intro slicing up metal spaceships.
• Why do all the Paladin uniforms fit everyone perfectly, even though when they are first introduced they all look to fit Lance and Keith best, while Shiro is significantly taller, with a slightly broader frame, Pidge is significantly smaller with a more delicate frame, and Hunk is, well, chunky? Because as Allura proves, Alteans can easily shift sizes at a whim, bulking up when extra force is needed, and slimming down when sneaking around. Of course, they'd make the suits and helmets out of a material that can change to fit the wearer!
• How come Zarkon fights Keith during the Season 1 finale, with no helmet or breathing apparatus? He's basically a zombie, and probably doesn't need things like air anymore.
  • Also, amongst the weapons he uses from his Bayard (a cannon, a sword and a whip), each of them seem to represent the weapons of the current Paladins. In Season 3, when Allura becomes the new Blue Paladin, her whip looks a little similar to Zarkon's.
• Combined with Fridge Horror and maybe Harsher in Hindsight: Keith's outburst towards Pidge when she's about to leave to find her family seems like a typical hot-headed thing he'd do. But Word of God recently confirmed that his father was a firefighter. So it's possible that he's been told or told himself something similar about his father, especially if that's how he died.
• Distance and travel:
  • At first, the castle jumping multiple galaxies in one hop sounds like Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale. But if the series takes place over the Local Group, that's 54 galaxies, most of them smaller than the Milky Way — and would explain why observations of other stars in the Milky Way has shown no signs of alien intelligence, if most of the action is in the other galaxies.
  • Alternatively, seeing as the Blue Lion can travel across the solar system in 5 seconds without a wormhole, space travel in this universe actually is that fast. And given that there have only been two dozen or so races shown in the whole universe, it may be that wormhole jumps have to be that far in order to get anywhere important.
  • Or perhaps it's just that the Lions themselves are capable of super-fast space travel. They are made out of a special material, after all. Getting across a galaxy in 5 seconds might just be one of the many powers they have.
• While maybe not all that important, while Lance's cursing could just be a funny way to get around cursing on a show meant for young children, we come to find out he's an uncle, and most likely had to learn to watch his language around his niece and nephew. Hence, him using Gosh Dang It to Heck! whenever he's frustrated.

Season 2

• The Blue Lion getting a sonic weapon in Season 2 seems odd when its element is water. But remember sound travels better in water. Sonar is also used for detecting objects underwater.
• In the flashback of Shiro being sent back to Earth by Ulaz, he's told "The blade of Marmora is with you." Re-watching episode 1, Keith uses his dagger to cut Shiro free when he rescues him. Meaning it's true — a blade of Marmora is with Shiro the entire time.
• Pidge talking about Alan Turing and saying he was a shining light in the world of science when "far too many people were-", before Keith cuts her off to get back to what the code in the spores. Alan Turing was known for being a gay man something not tolerated well during his lifetime, and it's possible the next thing Pidge was going to say was "far too many people were homophobic."
• Why Thace was able to lie to Haggar: He wasn't afraid. The idea is that Haggar would have known if she was being lied to because the person in the seat would be afraid of getting hurt, because they were lying to her. Someone who wasn't lying wouldn't be scared because there was no reason for Haggar to shoot them. Thace wasn't scared though, either because he knew what she was doing or didn't and was just willing to die to keep the information a secret, thus she had no reason to believe he was lying to her.
• In the first episode on Lance's comment on the Blue Lion's eyes following him, they were. His personality is similar to the Lion's. That's why the force field opened up to Lance with a simple knock compared to Keith, who placed both of his hands on the force field trying to open it.
  • One could say Blue instantly pegged Lance as her pilot; Lance comments that the Blue Lion is on some kind of autopilot while flying like a manic. In other news, Lance is the best thing to happen to her in 10,000 years.
• As the second season goes on, Zarkon slowly grows more obsessed with obtaining the Black Lion, culminating in a full Villainous Breakdown by the end of the season. This may actually contribute to his weakening link with the Black Lion. Black is said to like calm, level-headed leader types, whom others follow willingly and without question. As the season goes on, his personality is changing. He grows less calm and rational, and even ends up intimidating some of his druids into obeying by killing one who objects in front of others. His desperation to get what he wants is helping drive the Black Lion away. As for why he goes from calm and rational to slowly breaking down? The Season 1 finale was the closest he'd come to the Black Lion for the first time in 10,000 years. The first time he's been reminded what that bond feels like. The whole thing almost gives a vibe of one whom has quit a drug cold-turkey and then falls off the wagon, reawakening the addiction.
• Hunk's status as being genuinely fearful yet stepping up to the plate when he needs to becomes rather amusing when one realizes that he's the Yellow Paladin.
• A small one, but in the opening the Lions appear in the order their respective Paladins find them: Blue (Lance), Yellow (Hunk), Green (Pidge), Red (Keith), and Black (Shiro)
• In the intro, the Black Lion comes from a Galra spaceship, which the Black Lion destroys. From "Space Mall," the Black Lion is revealed to be from Zarkon's Galra home planet, which got destroyed. As bonuses, Shiro and Keith, who are connected to the Galra, have piloted the Black Lion.
• The Blade of Marmora test has quite a bit of fridge brilliance. Namely? The test is a LATERAL THINKING PUZZLE, combined with a test of sheer willpower. The trainee is forced to face unbeatable foes, until they are defeated, at which point they are told to surrender. When the door opens, they are told "you are not meant to go through this door"... the trick is to do something else! In Keith's case? Going through the trapdoor. At which point, the next phase of the test begins (Keith even says as much). That said, it is likely that falling unconscious and having a vision...or surrendering the blade, possibly works.
  • The blade is symbolic of the Blades and their secrets, or their quest to stop Zarkon. Faced with overwhelming odds, pain, brutality, and death, will you "surrender the Blade," or keep doing whatever it takes to complete your mission? The bulk of the test is about discovering whether or not a potential recruit is The Determinator enough to see this long, potentially impossible struggle through to the end. Yet Keith awakens the blade not by holding on to it, but by offering it up. Why? He was holding on to it for the wrong reasons, selfish reasons, because he wanted to know where he came from, who he was, what was in his past. When he offers to give it up, it's to secure an alliance between Voltron and the Marmorans, putting the mission to stop Zarkon above his own wants and desires. . . exactly what a good Blade of Marmora is supposed to do.
  • It also goes to show how the Blade of Marmora differs from the rest of their species; the Galra Creed is "Triumph, or Death." They would rather die than accept defeat out of a selfish pursuit of glory, while the Blade of Marmora instead find value in the knowledge that their efforts have contributed to the greater good, and are thus willing to sacrifice themselves for it, rather than their own sense of pride.
• Pidge, Hunk, Lance, and Shiro wear some orange on their civilian clothes, indicating their time in the Garrison. Keith has no orange on him, a pointer to him being kicked out of the Garrison.
  • When Shiro comes back and changes his outfit in "The Journey," there is no orange on him, which could be a hint at the clone Shiro theory.
  • Now that Matt's back, he also has orange on him.
• Shiro's nose scar is a reference to the blood on Takashi Shirogane's face in Beast King GoLion received when he died. Now, look at where the blood is coming from in GoLion and compare it to Legendary Defender Shiro's hair.
• This is more of the Fridge Heartwarming category but in "Blade of Marmora," when Keith faints, fake Shiro pulls Keith up with the latter's injured arm and puts space between himself and Keith. When the real Shiro arrives to Keith's aid, he uses both arms to help Keith up and stays close to him so he can be Keith's support. Fake Shiro comes from Keith's perception so Keith is not aware of how much he means to Shiro.
• In the first episode, Shiro makes a point of telling Keith that he wants him to lead Voltron if he (Shiro) dies. At the time, it's because he's wounded and provides Foreshadowing for Season 3, but with the revelation that Shiro's pre-clone body was terminally ill, it makes sense that he'd already have devoted thought to who should succeed him as leader.

Season 3

• Lotor sending Throk's post to the Ulippa System was a very calculated move. Lotor needed to find the easiest way to get the teludav lens from the Galra base in the Ulippa System with no repercussions for him. He was able to defeat Throk with ease in the arena, meaning the former's generals would be able to do the same at Throk's new base. Lotor's plan made a major shift when the teludav lens got destroyed. Lotor too changes his plan and plays victim by saying he was "trying" to get the stolen teludav lens back in the name of the Galra Empire to Haggar, leaving Throk to take all the blame.
• In real life medicine, there's a concept called the "golden hour of trauma." Patients who get treatment within the first 60 minutes after their injuries tend to have much, much better survival rates. Given the level of medical technology in this series, it's quite possible that Sven really will be okay. If he gets medical treatment soon enough.
• The Black Lion is, well, black, with purple Tron Lines, which is suspiciously similar to the Galra color scheme. And then you realize every pilot of the Black Lion has had a connection to the Galra.
• One person pointed out how when Shiro takes the controls of the Black Lion, everything lights up instantly. When Keith becomes the new Black Paladin, it takes the Lion a couple of seconds to boot up for him. After Shiro returns and pilots the Lion it takes longer than a few seconds to turn on, with the screens flickering hesitantly. This may hint that the Shiro who returned isn't the real Shiro.
• "The Legend Begins" explains a few things about Voltron and the Paladins' relationship to the Lions:
  • Why was Zarkon so convinced that Black Lion would only accept the strongest as its Paladin? Because he was the only Paladin it had before Shiro so he assumed it was because he (and he correctly assumed Shiro) was the best at military command and tactics in his team.
  • Voltron's Lion head hands and feet design is explained in this series as its transformation being an unforeseen adaptation to fight the Eldritch Abomination that came out of the rift. If Alfor had known the Lions could do that, he probably would have added hands and feet though Voltron is adaptive enough that it really doesn't need them to use its weapons.
  • Voltron's title as "Defender of the Universe" is extremely apt as not only do the Paladins act as Space Police, but its first transformation was to literally defend the universe from a threat from another reality.
• Also from "The Legend Begins," the "Paladin Training" Coran and Allura put the team through makes a lot more sense now. Voltron had only had one set of Paladins before, and they'd already been bonded as a team through adversity and friendship. Coran and Allura were basically making up the team-building exercises on the spot, possibly drawing from how the previous Paladins trained themselves, and passed it off as "time-honored ancient tradition."

Season 4

• Fridge Sadness: Keith having trouble with leadership in Season 3 and his decision to leave the team in Season 4 actually make sense in retrospect. He doesn't get much support from Lance, Pidge or Hunk (Allura doesn't openly complain too much). Pidge was often openly condescending of Keith even before the change, using terms like "Emo" or "the Loner" to describe him. While Hunk wasn't overtly rude to Keith, he did fail to offer him much in the way of useful advice or support. Lance at least tried to be supportive of Keith's leadership, even if he was still rude to him sometimes.
• How was Haggar able to turn Naxzela into a bomb powerful enough to wipe out several solar systems so quickly? At first it seems like Contrived Coincidence, since it would’ve taken long before Voltron returned to even being preparing it. But there are a couple of factors people have been overlooking that could potentially make the timeframe much shorter.
  • First off, Allura offhandedly mentions that Naxzela was once an Altean terraforming plant. Given the technology Altea had 10,000 years ago (around the time Naxzela was likely in use) it’s entirely possible that Haggar, being an Altean herself, reprogramed the terraforming tech to alter the soil composition of Naxzela into heximite.
  • Second, Voltron and the Coalition didn’t get a proper map of the Galra Empire until after Matt gave them his data. Haggar likely realized long before Shiro about the strategic importance of Naxzela and began plans as soon as she did. Remember Season 4 starts off several months after Season 3 ended, and other than helping Zarkon recover she didn’t really do much that we could see.

Season 5

• When Haggar looks deeper into her memories, we're shown a scene of her after being revived from the rift, heavily pregnant. In Season 3, we never get a full view of her stomach, since she was usually shown with her upper torso, or her robes covered up any noticeable bulge to indicate her pregnancy, or she was even angled in odd ways to conceal her stomach. This could explain how Lotor has lived this long and has the quintessence purple skin, yellow eyes and white hair; he was exposed to so much quintessence when Haggar was experimenting with the substance that it not only affected her, but also her growing child.
  • This could be why Zarkon was so desperate to save Honerva. He wasn't only trying to save his wife, he was trying to save their unborn child. Even after being revived, he asks the doctors whether or not they could save the child, and they admitted that it would be difficult, possibly due to the heavy exposure Haggar put herself through.
• Why didn't Keith recognize his own mother? She looked just like him! Well, Keith didn't know where his Galra side came from at first, just that he was Galra. This implies that Krolia left him when he was a baby and he didn't get a chance to really get to know her. It would be hard to recognize your mother if you didn't know what they looked like at all. As for why he didn't recognize her in the episode, it makes perfect sense that he didn't say anything because he was so focused on the mission, and wouldn't know why this person would be saying such personal things like "I left you once. I'll never leave you again". Besides, he just met her several minutes earlier. And since it's sometimes hard for kids to recognize their birth parents, this is a case of Truth in Television.
  • And at first Krolia seems a bit contradictory. She abandoned Keith on Earth only to be willing to risk failing a mission to ensure his survival. But remember, she was an alien on a primitive planet. And with Keith as a baby, they probably had to live close enough to people to get to town quickly if they needed something. So they were probably people living closely enough to drop by and visit. And whenever that happened, Krolia would have to hide or sneak out until they're gone. And what about when Keith was older and going to school? Could a young child be trusted to not tell people that his mommy was purple or why he couldn't have friends over? Krolia staying may have caused all sorts of difficulties she and his father decided he was better off without. And her actions and words show that she deeply regrets leaving him behind in the first place.
    • Even more. Krolia's very occupation as a Blade of Marmora agent is a hazardous one. Probably the real reasons why she left her mate and firstborn were A) her aforementioned occupation and the fact that she had a duty as a Blade of Marmora, and B) that at this point she might've been already a mole in the Galra military, so her leaving Earth was the most logical choice to not endanger her family. And don't get me started with the Galaxy Garrison. It's probable that the Garrison was another reason why Krolia left. Considering what they tried to do to Shiro in the pilot episode, and how shady they are, we can expect that if they caught her somehow, then Krolia wouldn't be the only one to end up as a research subject.
  • On another note, raise your hand if you don't think Kolivan didn't send Keith on purpose to retrieve Krolia. Kolivan's warning to not let Keith's emotion get the best of him practically gives away his intentions from the start. On the off chance that Keith figures things out along the way, him flying off the handle is the last thing they all need. Keith's retrieval mission was Kolivan's Secret Test of Character all along.
• Another note is why Krolia even appeared on Earth. Was it a freak accident that caused her to appear there or was it a part of some sort of mission? Because the latter would be more appropriate for a purple-skinned alien ninja babe to appear on a low-tech planet that has a race of beings that don't know if they are alone in the galaxy or not. Also how did she even get into a relationship with Keith's father in the first place?
  • All of this is explained in Season 6. She was in fact there on a mission, which, as mentioned, could be reasonably assumed earlier as one of the most logical choices. As to how Krolia met Keith's dad, it turns out he rescued her when her ship crashed.
• There seems to be a number of half-Galra among the Blade of Marmora, from what we can gather half-Galra are looked down upon in the empire, so it's quite likely the Blade of Marmora is more accepting of hybrids so many end up joining.
  • To say nothing of how it makes sense for mixed Galra to want to fight back against the empire in general. The Fantastic Racism and Half-Breed Discrimination is one of the things they want to change! Either that's one of the Blade's official goals, or they're simply pragmatic enough to allow mixed Galra to join if that keeps them motivated.
  • There's also the… delicate issue of where a good number of these hybrids likely come from, that may contribute to an overall displeasure with the current state of the Empire.
• At first, it seems odd that other than the Blade of Marmora, the Coalition is largely Out of Focus for most of Seasons 5 and 6. But consider this: going by Allura's comments in "The Prisoner," it's been less than a day since the battle in the Season 4 finale, and the entire season appears to take place in the course of a week, or slightly longer. Add in the fact that "Postmortem" shows a rogue Galra commander attacking Olkarion to consolidate their power, and it makes sense why we haven't seen much of the Coalition while Voltron is off with Lotor. The Coalition needs to consolidate their hold over the planets they just liberated and defend them from retaliatory attacks by the empire before they can start liberating more planets.

Season 6

• Many wondered why Lotor has a British accent when most of the empire doesn't, and thought it was due to his Altean heritage. However, we find out that his governess Dayak speaks in that same accent.
  • Also, when fighting Throk, Lotor's fighting style is all about dodging attacks and finding your opponents weakness, compared to Throk's more aggressive Galra style. If Hunk's lesson with her has showed us anything, Dayak was probably the one who also taught Lotor how to fight.
• The reason why Keith had clothes that fit Shiro at his shack is because Keith's father wore those same clothes, and he was about Shiro's size.
  • Where did Keith get the explosives in the first episode? It's possible that those were leftovers of what Krolia and his dad didn't use.
• How can you tell that Coran's character in "Monsters and Mana" is the Big Bad the whole time? The monster that Allura shoots down when she first appears has a mustache.
• Lance's character "Pike" is another word for a lance.
• Shiro's consciousness becoming part of the Black Lion actually explains several scenes in seasons 3 and 4; when the Black Lion doesn't accept "Shiro"/Kuron upon his return in Season 3, it's possible that it was actually Shiro himself keeping the clone from flying it. Likewise, this keeps up in Season 4 until "Shiro"/Kuron appeals to Shiro's hero complex by telling him that people are dying, thus forcing Shiro to allow him to pilot the Lion in order to save his friends.
• Keith's odd connection to the Blue Lion in the series premiere makes sense once it's revealed that his parents found it first. It's highly possible Blue could sense Keith was nearby after he left the Garrison and could tell he had potential as a Paladin (though not its Paladin). This also explains the "energy" that "told" him to come back to his old home to search for it. Not to mention the Lion's scanner's probably picked up Shiro's Galra escape pod as it approached Earth. Blue likely sent Keith a telepathic message that "something" important was coming that night.
• At first it seems like aging Keith up in Year Inside, Hour Outside situation doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would they do that? Then we see the montage of Keith and Krolia spending time together. It's not that they aged him up; it's that he could finally have the mother/son bonding he never had as a child.
  • It also gives him some time to mature a little bit. Keith is still on the reckless side, as seen when he charges after Kuron, but he seems a lot more rational and organized when he gets back into Black and tries to lead Voltron. Giving him two years to spend time with Krolia not only gives him time to have another positive parental figure in his life, but also provides him with more time to talk about his issues and maybe deal with a few things.
• A clearer look at the quintessence dimension reveals that it's mostly white, but has black strands in it. Pretty much a good summary of the alluring but corrupting nature of its power.
• Acxa being a Fake Defector explains several things about her behavior in Seasons 4 and 5.
  • Why she seemed to suddenly turn from "trust Lotor" to shooting him "for Narti" in "Begin the Blitz".
  • Her lack of resistance when Lotor knocks her down with the Black Bayard in "Blood Duel."
  • Her insistence that "No one is replacing Lotor" in "White Lion."
• Some have referred to Lotor's sudden desire to destroy the Galra as Out of Character, but looking at how he ran the empire, both before and after being officially crowned emperor, it makes sense. In Seasons 3 and 4, he was content to do his own thing while the Coalition was liberating planets and chipping away at the empire's territory. And then when he took the throne in Season 5, he prioritized pursuing his agenda with Oriande and the Sincline ships over actually ruling. If the Galra empire is busy fighting rebellious generals and Coalition forces, it would make it that much easier for Lotor to wipe out whatever's left by the time he'd be ready to make his move.
• Shiro's request for Keith to lead Voltron and then the Black Lion choosing Keith no longer have such a mystical connection. Now that we know Shiro was literally inside the Black Lion the whole time, he was literally making sure his orders were followed from beyond the grave.
• A subtle and possibly unintentional example, but it could easily be argued that Lotor is the White Lion, and thus an intrinsic part of Altea and the Voltron Paladins (just like his father, the "Black Lion"). His "good deeds" (the white hole) blinds everybody to his true nature, and he shuts everybody out. He's destroyed by his own actions and crippled by his upbringing, just like Lotor himself attacks the Guardian. Honerva gains power over him by cheating and manipulation. The only one he lets in is…Allura. He opens the way to Oriande for her. She defeats him in the quintessence realm (a white void) by opening her heart and losing herself , the same way she gained the Guardian's respect. Season 8 has Honerva destroy the White Lion, shortly before Lotor’s confirmed death (which was indirectly her fault).

Season 7

• Although this is more a blink and you'll miss it moment, back in "The Journey", when Shiro was hanging upside down unconscious, he mouths someone's name in what appears to be forming, "A-dam". We find out in this season that Adam is Shiro's ex-boyfriend.
• Even though Kosmo has the ability to teleport at will, he doesn't use it when Allura puts him in the back of the Lion. Kosmo seems to have a high level of intelligence, and probably wanted Allura to let him in as Keith says, and not force his way into the cockpit with her if she wasn't comfortable with him.
• On meta level, having Ezor and Zethrid as the first major Galra enemies the team face helps sell the shocking reveal of the Time Skip. Both the team and the viewers are led to expect that the events are happening just after the end of last season since the former are facing enemies from last season.
• During "The Feud", people calling Lance "the dumb one" could be a tactic to throw him off his game, causing him to try and prove he was not dumb instead of focusing on trying to win the game going on.
• The Altean mecha may seem like a Diabolus ex Nihilo, and the Paldins certainly treat it as such, but the clues to where it came from and who sent it have been there for the audience ever since The Ruins. Haggar, who built the Komar and has access to the secrets of Oriande, hasn't been seen in three years, and the Altean colony, which Haggar knows about via her spying through Shiro's clone, was abandoned by the time the Blade of Marmora found it.
• Having Pidge be the one who's used in a "I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure" scenario makes perfect sense. She's clearly the smallest and frailest and probably the youngest from an outsider's perspective and who better to threaten than the person who would logically trigger everyone's protective instincts since that would logically mean they'd do what you wanted?
  • Which is exactly what happens; everyone looks angry about it, but Lance in particular immediately tries to charge at Ezor and Zethrid when they do this.
• In "The Blade of Marmora" in Season 2, Shiro appearing torn over whether or not to support Keith's insistance that his knife wasn't stolen makes a lot more sense when we learn that Keith stole his car the first time they met.

Season 8

• A very dark version. Lotor dying trapped, alone, and likely in horrible pain (possibly from radiation poisoning or quintessence overdose) could be seen as poetic justice for the thousands of Alteans he killed in a similar manner. Just to drive it in, we're shown his decaying corpse, just like the grotesque bodies of the harvested Alteans.
• The "lightning bolts" in the background of Honerva's mindscape were likely firing neurons.
• Allura unlocks an upgrade for her Bayard, allowing her to change its form from a whip into a spear, or, a lance.
• The color scheme of Lotor's armor is the same as Kova, who was once his mother's and later his cat.

Fridge Horror:

Season 1

• In "Crystal Venom," most of the castle ship's attempts to harm the Paladins are only really focused on Keith and Lance, while Shiro is crippled by Sendak's Break Them by Talking and Pidge and Hunk got attacked by food goo and then left to float helplessly in zero g. In Pidge's comics, she said that Lance is the best at teaming up with others and his ranged skills made him her primary target. The castle could have seen Lance as one of the bigger threats of the group, which lead to Lance having some of the more deadly run-in's on the ship like being frozen in the cryopod and being nearly shot out the airlock. Keith is one of the most adept fighters next to Shiro, so the ship would also want to get rid of him as soon as possible, hence having the level four gladiator fighting him.
• The last Black Lion pilot was Zarkon. Knowing this, it's not difficult to imagine what happened to the other previous Lion pilots. This is doubly horrifying when one considers what a big role the bond between teammates plays in forming Voltron. It's quite probable that the other pilots saw Zarkon as a friend and leader before he betrayed them. He even tells the Paladins, "You should have fled like your predecessors!"
• Going off the above, Allura has a flashback at one point where she begs Alfor to use Voltron against Zarkon. However, since Zarkon was the last Black Paladin, they can't form Voltron unless they pulled up a new Black Paladin, and fast. They could use Alfor, but it's implied he was the last Red Paladin, so either way they'd need at least one new Paladin on short notice (and that's best case scenario, since as the above troper stated, it's quite plausible that Zarkon killed the others). And Black and Red are the two pickiest Lions, meaning forming Voltron during Zarkon's initial rampage was even more hopeless.
• Zarkon has been alive and active for 10,000 years. This is a ruthless dictator that has a reputation of destroying and/or enslaving entire planets. This means that Zarkon is responsible for the destruction of hundreds of thousands of cultures and billions of lives. It's to the point where an entire alien race don't know what it's like to be free.

Season 2

• Just the fact that Zarkon used to be a Paladin fighting for justice and to protect the innocent. Since most people don't wake up one morning and decide to take over the universe for kicks, it begs the question. What exactly causes one to go from that mindset to an interstellar conqueror!?
  • Here's an idea: Ulaz suggested that at least some of the Galra believed that expanding their empire would be for the greater good. Who's to say that Zarkon didn't legitimately believe that himself at one point before going off the deep end eventually?
    • Given what we see in the Season 3 finale, having recently had their home planet destroyed and their emperor and his queen declared "dead" could have helped motivate many a Galra soldier at the time to help build a better place for their people. Avenging their losses could also be a strong motivation, and Zarkon himself probably saw the destruction of the planet as a personal betrayal by Alfor.
• Whoever that Galra was whom Keith met when attempting to collect transport crystals is aware that he has Galra blood because of Hunk's offhand, "What, do you all know each other?" joke.
  • What makes the situation worse, in Season 3, it's revealed that the Weblum Galra is one of Lotor's top generals. Lotor has been shown to be sympathetic towards half-breeds like himself, so he may take a special interest towards Keith knowing he is a half-Galra.
  • Also, their ship was inside the Weblum for long enough that it fused into its body. One can only hope that they were "only" there long enough that they had just recently gotten stuck.
• It's obvious that the most practical use of Shiro's mechanical arm is for fighting; it's basically stated as being "the strongest part of him". It has the ability to cut through metal and sentries with ease when activated, and can still easily crush a robot's head in when not. However, when the details of Shiro's flight from prison in "Shiro's Escape" are revealed, it's shown that he never uses the hand to fight, even when presented with opportunities when he could use it. It begs the question; what if Shiro wasn't given the arm for fighting purposes as the Galra's champion? And if so, why exactly did they take his arm in the first place?
• In 1x05, the Kerberos mission failure was reported by the Galaxy Garrison on Earth to have been caused by pilot error. That means there's a strong possibility that Pidge's mother (and before her investigation, maybe even Pidge herself) blames Shiro for the "deaths" of her husband and son. It gets even worse when you remember that Shiro is a family friend of the Holts and probably knew all of them pretty well, including Mrs. Holt.
  • And if Mrs. Holt suspects that she's being lied to by Galaxy Garrison, that could make it worse since no remains were apparently recovered. That means that something much worse than a crash could have happened and with Pidge's disappearance, she's the knowing victim of a government cover-up.
• In the first episode, Mr. Holt says meeting aliens would make his life's work complete. Now that he's in space and no one knowing where he or his son are, Mr. Holt must be interested in the aliens, but mostly scared that he'll never see his family again.
  • Also, while we eventually learn that Matt's okay, we still have no idea what happened to Sam. Before, he and Matt were likely together (or at least knew where the other was), but now they're probably separated. And that's at best.
    • Thankfully averted when he is rescued alive in Season 5, and he returns to Earth as an ambassador for the Coalition to warn the Galaxy Garrison about what's going on out in space.
• In the Season 1 finale, Haggar turned into a dark version of Shiro in an attempt to kill him. One can brush this off as magic, but in the finale of Season 2 Haggar is revealed to be Altean, meaning she was using her Altean shape-shifting ability.
• The reason why the Galra were in the possession of the Red Lion at the beginning of the series? Alfor was the original Red Paladin, and in Season 3, a flashback shows that he had a duel with Zarkon and ultimately dies in the fight.

Season 3

• When Shiro is allowed to escape in The Journey, the Galra commander says that "Project Kuron, stage three is underway." Kuron is the Japanese word for clone. Is the Shiro we see in Season 3 the real one, or are we going to have another Red Arrow situation? And if so, is the original Shiro even still alive?
  • This may explain the Black Lion's behavior. It detected Shiro's energy, which would match perfectly if it was indeed a clone. But upon closer inspection, it could tell that something is off. Clone or original, the Galra have done something that may result in bad things happening the next time Shiro and Black fly together. Thus it won't let Shiro back in the pilot seat until the issue is uncovered and addressed.
  • Not to mention, the way "Kuron" is pronounced, with a long "o" and more emphasis on the second syllable, makes it sound almost identical to "clone." Then there's the fact that we still don't know how Shiro disappeared from the Black Lion or how the Galra might have gotten their hands on his body. Even if the Shiro currently with the group is the real one, there is something very disturbing involving him going on with the Galra.
  • In the Season 4 trailer, Shiro uses "Paladins" to describe him and his group. In Seasons 1 and 2, Shiro uses "team". Adding on to this, the Galra also call the members of Voltron as Paladins.
  • Season 5 has Haggar demanding the scientists activate stage four of Project Kuron, which allows her to use Shiro's eyes to spy on the Paladins and Lotor.
• When Remdax and Varkala accuse Shiro of being a spy for the Galra Empire, Shiro at first attempts to deny this, but then cuts himself off once he realizes the two of them were part of the rebellion. While this was just played as the two being suspicious of Shiro's circumstances and him trying to convince them that he wasn't a spy, in Season 5 Haggar uses Shiro's eyes to spy on Team Voltron.
• So there are two options for Lotor's parentage. Either he's A) the child of two Quintessence-fueled undead or B) his parents had him before their death-rebirths, so he grew up with his parents suddenly being obsessive zombies and with his mother not even able to remember she had a child. Not to Woobify a villain, but those are both nightmare scenarios.
  • If it's option B, that begs the question of how Lotor is still alive after 10,000 years. He doesn't seem to be suffering any sort of quintessence over-dosage like his parents… But as far as his actual childhood goes, it's not uncommon for the children of royal families to be raised by servants, attendants, and nursemaids while their parents are busy doing the day-to-day affairs of running an empire or kingdom. Lotor's direct upbringing was likely done by Galra in similar social positions.
    • Season 5 seems to indicate Option A, with Haggar experiencing a flashback of herself heavily pregnant post-revival. This indicates that Honerva was pregnant when she became Haggar, explaining Lotor's age and coloration.
• Coran's narration of the flashback portion of The Legend Begins raises some very tragic questions about how much longer after Allura was put in the pod did he go into cryosleep. Given the fact that someone had to pilot and land the castle on Arus, this raises the very real possibility that Coran not only bore witness to Altea's destruction, but that he may even have watched Alfor die.
  • What's worse is that while Trygel is supporting Blaytz in one scene, Gyrgen is nowhere to be seen leaving his demise as ambiguous. However, if you look closely at the scene with Trygel and Blaytz, Zarkon can be seen standing ominously holding a blade in his hand while his troops surround his former comrades.

Season 4

• While Allura being a Paladin has really helped her character grow and bond more with the team, there's still one problem, with only Coran in the castle, they can't open wormholes whenever they want now. In "A New Defender", Coran even tells the group that it would take him a while to get to Naxzela. They got lucky that Lotor showed up and helped, but what about the next time they run into that situation? If Allura continues to stay with the Paladins to form Voltron, they're going to lose one of their biggest assets, wormholes and the castle.
  • In Season 5, Coran opens a wormhole for Voltron to enter the white hole with. Also recall that in the finale of Season 1, the system had enough of Allura's energy to make one wormhole jump into Zarkon's territory, but not enough to wormhole back out without Allura. They can still use the teludav as long as she charges the system first. Coran will just have to be very careful about making jumps while Allura is flying her Lion.
• No further details were given, but according to Word of God, the incident that got Keith expelled from the Garrison resulted in Commander Iverson's left eye being permanently closed.
  • Making this idea worse, in Season 6, we do see a flashback to Keith's early days at the Garrison… He looks like he's covered in bruises. While it looks like it's a bit too early for the Iverson incident, was getting into fistfights a common thing with Keith?

Season 5

• While Lotor always proclaims that he's nothing like his father, the fact that when he uses the Black Bayard and it looks exactly like the weapons Zarkon uses, he's very much like his father no matter how many times he denies it.
  • Kind of related. Rather than smooth crescents like Allura and Coran's, Lotor's Altean markings are elongated and angled slightly downwards, like lightning bolts. In other words, they're shorter versions of Haggar's.
• A reason Zarkon was so desperate to save his wife? She was carrying their unborn child, which carried on even after they were revived. This could explain why Lotor not only looks so different form his father, but also why he's lived so long. He's been exposed to quintessence even before he was born.
  • This large amount of exposure could be what lead to Haggar having a difficult pregnancy, as the doctors admitted to Zarkon that they may have some difficulty in saving the child.
• Sam deciding to go back to earth in order to warn the Garrison and get ready should the war reach them. The only problem is, the last time someone returned from space, the Garrison had squirreled him away and tried to sedate him.
  • The logical course of action would be to give Sam a way to contact Voltron in the event of an emergency, along with being aware that Earth's officials may need... convincing. Or it could be that Sam is supposed to check in with them regularly, and if he doesn't do so, they'll send Voltron to check on him.
• Haggar is now spying on the Paladins, but the way she sees them seems to be coming from Shiro's point of view.
  • This is confirmed to be the case in Season 6.
• The way the Garrison Trio lean over the reprogrammed droid looks eerily similar to how Shiro woke up in "The Journey".
• Could the new shipment of quintessence that the Blade's discovered be the one that Ranveig seized and experimented on creating his "super weapon"?
  • Krolia confirms this in Season 6.

Season 6

• In Season 2, after the gravity generator loses power, Slav declares that now there was no reality where they all get out alive, and guess who died at the end of that season? Shiro.
• Shiro's insistence on always being a Paladin during Monsters and Mana become Harsher in Hindsight when he turns out to be a clone, and Haggar begins to use him to harm his friends.
• Imagine how different Romelle's life could have been if she had been one of the chosen Alteans, and not her brother Bandor.
• Back in Season 3 after giving a Rousing Speech to gain the support of the Galra in Central Command, Lotor comments that "the masses are easily manipulated." Given the Broken Base reactions to the reveals about Lotor in Season 6, it sounded like he wasn't just talking about the Galra Empire, but the audience as well.
• This season confirms the theory that Shiro is a clone, as well as answering what happened to the "real" Shiro at the end of Season 2. However, considering the latter reveal, it still raises the question of how the Galra got their hands on that much Shiro DNA. His original body did get destroyed, remember—so the two most logical explanations would be cloning him via some kind of signal from his arm, or the Galra somehow getting their hands on Shiro's body and destroying it themselves.
  • It's more likely that they got Shiro's DNA when he was still a Galra prisoner. The reason for that might be just as horrifying; since Shiro was most likely an inspiring figure among the other gladiators, they saw what a whole]] army of Shiro clones could do.
    • The obvious answer, given that there are too many Shiro clones for the project to have only been in existence since Season 2, is that they acquired his DNA when they amputated his right arm to attach the prosthetic and have been churning out Shiro clones ever since.
    • Another unpleasant thing to consider is that Word of God has confirmed that all those Shiro clones are failed batches. If Haggar had to clone Shiro that many times just to get the process right, how many of those clones were alive to begin with?
• Another unpleasant implication about the Shiro clone. At first it seems impossible for Haggar to have a copy of Shiro's memories to download into a clone. Until one remembers that Haggar once sifted though Zarkon's mind. It's possible she used her abilities to extract his memories at some point.
• Now that Lotor is stuck in the quintessence rift there is another power vacuum left amongst the Galra Empire. If Sendak's brief appearance in this season and his past threat to go to Earth to see if the inhabitants are as sturdy as the Paladins, Team Voltron's trip back to Earth isn't going to last long.
  • Also, the only reason Voltron has had some support from the Empire itself is because Lotor was the one backing them up as the emperor. If the Galra who were on Voltron's side find out Voltron was the reason they no longer have an emperor again, there's a high chance they will defect to Sendak's side, since he seems to be the next best candidate.
  • Even worse, Romelle's colony aren't going to instantly rejoice at Voltron's arrival if they reveal that they're the reason they no longer have their messiah. What's worse? Haggar knows about the hidden Altean colony because she still had control over Shiro during that episode, so she may go there for her brethren, and use them just as her son did; take their quintessence and use it for herself.
  • Another problem, with Lotor gone there's a new power vacuum in the Galra Empire. There will likely be a massive civil war. And considering the Galra still occupy at least half of the known universe, many innocent people will likely be caught in the middle.
• Given that Lotor hates the Galra and plans to eradicate them, what were his plans for Dayak, his childhood governess, and what happened to her after the episode Omega Shield?

Season 7

• If the Altean Mecha that attacked Earth in the season finale of Season 7 was powered by an Altean, and indeed, an Altean from the colony that Lotor set up, that could mean that numerous more powerful mecha are on the horizon for the team to fight.
• The Altean mech carries heavy implications when one considers that both Haggar and the Altean colony have vanished. If the colony, who have seen Lotor as a savior for 10,000 years, were told that Voltron killed him, then the last Alteans alive are probably working with Haggar to avenge the fallen prince and wipe out the last of King Alfor's legacy forever.
  • What's more likely is Haggar is using the idea of "taking the worthy to the new colony" to harvest Alteans to power more mecha, similar to Lotor harvesting Alteans for their quintessence.
• As a lot of people have pointed out, regardless of your shipping preferences, everyone on the team is fond of Pidge and because of her position as "team little sister", it's terrifying to imagine what would have happen if Coran hadn't gotten there in time. Even if Pidge survived the torture, whatever it would have been, it likely would have been a severe Break the Cutie for her (especially since she was openly frightened when the decision was made) and a team-wide My Greatest Failure.
  • Additional horror has come up with what the Fanon decision seems to have been for at least the beginning of Pidge's torture: snapping or otherwise injuring her fingers, one at a time. Considering how much, even outside of using her Lion, Pidge needs her hands, that might fall under a Fate Worse than Death, especially since healing pods aren't as much of an option anymore.

Season 8

• You'd better hope that Lotor died immediately after the Paladin's attack, otherwise he died slowly and alone of either starvation or radiation poisoning. Though the fact that he was apparently still in his pilot's chair suggests he was killed instantly, albeit still in horrible pain.
• Given that the dark rift entities attack Zarkon and Honerva in the Season 3 finale, it's very possible that one's been possessing Lotor since before he was born. If that's true, it would certainly explain some of his more erratic behavior, as well as how he was able to contact Allura (assuming that was actually his spirit).
• Assuming it was actually Lotor's spirit that contacted Allura, he was probably able to do so because he was trapped within Sincline, the same way Shiro's consciousness was trapped within the Black Lion. If that's the case, he was probably attempting to convince her to release the rift entity and take down Honerva because Honerva's exploitation of Sincline was keeping him from passing into the afterlife.
• Why does Pidge seem to have so much more animosity with her mother compared to her father? Pidge may have been more of a Daddy's Girl since Sam seemed more lenient with her and let her do what she wanted. Whereas Colleen was a bit more strict and definitely gave Pidge some tough love. This is showcased more during Clear Day when Sam easily gives into Pidge's doe eyes when she begs for more tokens, but Colleen wouldn't hand them over without a price.

Fridge Logic:

On the headscratchers page.

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