My aro Pidge manifesto:
Pidge is the only one of the main paladins that never shows either implied or explicit sexual/romantic feelings. Shiro canonically had a fiancé (refuse to acknowledge that endcard), Keith is teased romantically with Acxa in the later seasons, and he has several scenes with Lance throughout the latter half of season 1 and in seasons 2-3, that can be very easily interpreted as romantic. Lance is canonically attracted to women. He enters a romantic relationship with Allura (though that was horribly done) and has several scenes with Keith that can be read romantically in the first three seasons. Allura canonically enters a romantic relationship with Lance, and shows clear romantic feelings for Lotor throughout seasons five and six. Hunk canonically has feelings for and enters a romantic relationship with Shay. Pidge never brings up romance, and seems disgusted the only time it is ever brought up in their presence. (Sam mentions meeting Pidge’s mom over a modulating argument in Season 6(?))
Pidge is the Paladin of the Green Lion, the Guardian Spirit of Nature. They have an entire episode devoted to their relationship with plants and the Green Lion. (The season 2 episode Greening the Cube) Plants reproduce asexually, and have no concept of ‘mating’ or ‘romance’, unlike most animals. Aro/ace spec people often use plant motifs to represent them, as in most animals there’s the idea of ‘base instincts’ or whatever that’s always about sex.
Pidge is also continually associated with the colors green, white, gray, and black, which are the colors of the aromantic flag. Green is, of course, the color of their Lion, white is featured prominently on both their lion, armor, and casual clothes. Grey is the color of all of Pidge’s self-made tech, (notably distinct from white Altean tech) and they wear gray shorts in their non-paladin outfit. Pidge has a black cloak that they occasionally wear (the ONLY paladin to have any additional non-uniform clothes until the last seasons) and their Lion has a black shield on its back. No other lions have anything similar outside of when they form Voltron.
Pidge is the resident computer genius of Voltron, who understands robots, coding, and technology. They create machines and algorithms throughout the show, and they never seem to consider robots as less than organic beings. These are character traits that, in sci-fi, are almost always associated with robot or ai characters. Said characters are some of the only consistent examples of aromantic/asexual representation available.
Pidge’s arc also exists entirely outside romance, and is allowed to have friendships with male characters without it every being colored as romantic or sexual in nature, something exceedingly rare for a female or assumed-female character that is textually alloromantic/sexual. (One reason I dislike people who ship Pidge with other characters). When Pidge’s arc with finding their family is resolved, romance is still never presented as an option.
Pidge very much looks like “the typical ace/aro” in that they are teenage, were assigned female at birth, skinny, and White. This is a stereotype, obviously, but Voltron was never above using those.
Finally, this is purely me, but Pidge is the most androgynous-presenting of all the main Voltron characters, and I’ve noticed that a lot of aro spec people often tend towards gnc or androgynous presentation.
On their own, most of these things could be waved off, but it’s very weird when you put them all together. For a show with as many romantic jokes, subplots, and relationships as Voltron, Pidge being entirely left out feels intentional.
