Galra Empire issue and the problematic "evil civilization" trope
A evil intergalactic empire is a popular trope of the space opera genre. And how the fantasy dialogue with the ordinary world, those empires were usually portrayed with European elements, with the caracters using European names (usually german) and a militar culture similar of the totalitarianism regime. This characterization reflects the period when the space opera, sci-fi and spacial adventures become popular in western (pos World War), and gradually take part in pop-culture.
But the thing is: nowadays, in a time that supposed value the respect for diversity and with a better notion the social complexity of morality, is it valide show a hole society as "evil"?
The problem in Voltron case is in answer of the follow question:
What means be a galra?
When this question implicit appears it focus in a style of life. Galras are strong, violent and proud creatures that were raise to conquer and explore other civilizations. But in Daibazaal's times seems to be a galra wasnt so barbaric. Pre- quintessence Zarkon was perfect diplomatic and friendly in his alliance with alteans rulers.
He even got marry with a altean. So galras didn't have prejudices with other races since they were totally okay with let a foreign be their Empress and introduce a altean blood in the royal bloodline.
So we can conclude there was a time when galras knew soft feelings. What is distinguishes them from the zentraedi from Macross ( a civilization that never ever experience another thing than violence). The example of Macross is relevant, cause this anime play well the problem of communication between two civilizations completely different. The whole conflict start because a disastrous encounter with miscommunication that start a war and it end with the help of the music affecting emotionally the cold zentraedi people. It seems silly but a with careful look the resolution make sense, the conflict is solved with an alternative way that the enemy couldn't prevent or emulate. The power of emotions.
Poor antagonist is confusing/disgusting because of this demonstration of affection, this gesture and caring in general doesn't exist in his planet.
But modern galras and current enemies of Voltron are presenting as rude people and, unfortunately, the audience just see the military force.
They have a serie of codes that translate their brutal and warrior way of life like "Victory or Death". What shows they dont value the life in general and prefer die to surrender.
BoM seems to appear as the only resistance force that prove not all galras are adepts of "Victory or Death" style of life. But, unfortunately BoM was used in the narrative more to comfort Keith and show that he belongs and come from the "good galras" than to portray, at least, a little of complexity in be part of a oppressive culture where values are distorted and the collectivity guilty seems a very problematic issue.
Lotor and his generals could have been a good element to the debate, since they were excluded thanks their mix genes but the whole discussion die where the narrative tried to channel this institutional hate in a single person. Axca and Zentrad blamed Lotor for all wrong they did, while no one of them seems to feel Lotor himself suffered with galra prejudice.
And then we have Lotor parents blame his genetic (again)
So...be a galra is bad cause it is like... a disguise? Is it acceptable, even in a alien context, say someone race is a problem? What part of this isn't problematic?
But then we think, it is a villain discourse. They gonna be called out of this. But no. Actually, even heroes repeat this reasoning. It was completely out of the place put Allura to have prejudice against galras "but they destroyed Altea!" Wrong! It was Zarkon! And who started all the catastrophe was a altean named Hoverna. Altean wasnt colonized by galras to her picture all galras are oppressors or it is galra nature destroy things. The way they wrote her behavior just reflect how the writers are ignorants about serious issues as racism, genocide and PSTD. They should have make her have issue with Zarkon only not galras at all.
And then we have Keith and Allura issue, that could have be better written (just like it was with Judy and Nick in Zootopia). But no. They had to make Allura be wrong cause, you know, they dont care for her. Even so, Allura learned her lesson: galras aren't bad. Or at least not all galras are bad. However, what make me sad is the narrative never care in ask "why the galras are bad?" No one asked it. Worse, they make mixed race characters feel angry, upset and ashamed for their own race. I am not saying they should be proud, galras were real destroyers, but shame someone because of their blood is sick! And it is even more repulsive hear from the own creators there is a good and a bad representation of mixed race. And it is intriguing how in the ending it is more about luck than atitute, Keith had luck for be kid of Krolia instead Zarkon and had a nice parental figure in Shiro and had human appereance.
They were all in the training room. Coran and Shiro (the real Shiro this time) watching from the sidelines as the paladins fought with twice as many robots as they were.
They were slaying it, as Lance would say later. They had been fighting together for so long now, they were almost in sync. Almost. Of course it wasn't perfect, but they were a good team.
And Lance was rocking the new sword. Of course he's had to get accustomed to having a gun and a sword now. All his other Bayard forms had been long range guns. Not that he had that many, just the rifle and the original gun he didn't know what to call.
However, Allura seemed thoroughly impressed by him getting a sword now. He'd thought it was weird too, given that he hadn't had as much experience with swords as he had with guns (he practiced with those in the Garrison a lot). But Keith said he was improving pretty well so the team took that as a win. Didn't stop Lance from complaining to Red for making him learn a whole new form of fighting. She knew it was all in good fun and he was greatful. He liked being able to fight short range as well as long range. She wanted him to protect himself as well as he could.
Didn't mean the others didn't have different Bayard forms either. Lance was eternally proud of his buddy, his best friend, the love of his life Hunk getting another enormous bulky gun the Cuban didn't know the name for. And Pidge, his child his lil gremlin, said many times she didn't want another form. That her knife/grappling hook thingy was enough to kick aliens ass, but Lance knew she was jealous. And Keith just had to be extra and get a knife along with his sword. And Allura, the most gorgeous, the queen, had a whip and sword.
All in all they had enough firepower to wipe out entire ranks.
Didn't mean Lance had to keep it at one weapon per attack. He made it a point to constantly change Bayard, which annoyed and confused Keith a lot but impressed Allura. So win win.
Pidge shocked a robot enough time for Lance to pierce it with his sword. Without missing a beat he switched to sniper rifle and shot a few sentries who were getting two close. Dammit, should've used the other gun.
He heard a distant purr that he knew was Blue. She was always encouraging him. He smiled at her praises. Red wouldn't have it and growled, making Lance laugh. He was filled with joyous ecstasy. The kind he always got when fighting with Red. Like electricity flowing through him. A passion. Being with his space family just increased that feeling.
Hunk leaned over him to shoot at a few sentries and Lance rolled from under him, shooting at a few that he'd seen preventing Keith from doing his special spiny swordy move he liked doing.
He grinned. They were almost done when more robots dropped from the ceiling. Somewhere he barely heard Coran shouting praises and announcing round four.
Lance saw the sentries falling and he grinned. He jumped up while changing his Bayard form and swung it to slice the robots in half before they even touched the ground. But he gave a sound of surprise when not a sword appeared in his line of vision, but a long glowing whip.
It wrapped around three sentries gathering them up and slicing to their wiring. Lance was so shocked he didn't realize he was falling until he hit the ground. He yelped as he hit the ground and looked up just in time to see Hunk slap away a robot that was about to hit him.
Pidge also stopped in surprise. "Whoa!"
"End training sequence," Shiro yelled out with panic. He ignored Coran's defeated cry of "Noooooooooooooo" as he ran forwards. "Lance. What happened."
They huddled around Lance who was still lying on the ground, staring at the long string in his hand. "Wtf?"
"You never cease to amaze me, Lonce," Allura said with stars in her eyes. "A whip. He has a whip, Coran!"
"Nice." Lance grinned and stood up. He stretched his sore back. "Ah. I hope that fall didn't leave any lasting damage." He turned to Hunk. "My butt isn't flat now, is it?"
Hunk looked pensive. Thankfully, he shook his head. "Nope. Still as round and squishy as ever."
"I'm sorry but can we talk about how Lance now has a whip?" Pidge interrupted. "You have the biggest diversity of weapons I have seen yet."
Lance scoffed. "Like you have much to compare it to. There are like. Only five bayards that you've seen ever."
"Pidge is right," Coran stroked his mustache as he looked Lance's new accessory over. "You have a very different types. You're unlocking quite the weaponry."
Lance hummed and stared at his whip. He could feel Red sending him satisfied vibes. "Guess I'll have to learn how to use this one too." He winked at Allura. "And we'll have more bonding time. If you will teach me."
Allura smiled. "Of course I will. I suppose we can pause the team training and work on our individual strengths and weaknesses now. We'll regroup in the dining room in half a varga for a small meal."
Shiro clapped Lance on the shoulder. "Nice work, everyone." He smiled at Lance before looking at the others. "Keep up with your training. I will go take a nap."
He left with a laugh as a chorus of complaints and jests followed him out.
So Lance had a new form to work with. He was pretty excited with all the different techniques he could come up with. Like throwing the opponents up into the air with his whip just to shoot them with his gun into fireworks. (His teammates always complained of the falling debris but they just couldn't appreciate art). Or sticking his knife in a robot and turning it into his original gun with extra fire power. He just generally liked to make things explode. His teammates had learned to keep their shields up permanently.
It was two weeks later when Lance got a new upgrade. It was around the same time as Pidge, who'd begrudgingly admitted that she loved the new staff like weapon her Bayard could turn into.
Lance got the same thing, but with tiny knifes at the end.
"I swear it's like you're just copying us by now," Pidge had grumbled.
They practiced together a lot. No one else knew much about this type of weapon so Coran had found them videos (yes they could record stuff on Altea) of fighters who used the staff and Pidge and Lance could be seen spending hours just swinging their sticks around and staring intently at the holographic video.
By Lance's sixth Bayard upgrade nobody stopped the training session they were in. Lance had been in the middle of smacking his knife on a stick on two droids when there was a flash and a fucking maze absolutely pulverized the robots.
The Cuban blinked for a second before grinning widely. "Hey Hunk! I just got an aMAZEing upgrade! It's SPIKEctacular!"
"What?" Hunk was confused until he turned slightly to look at his friend and his eyes widened. "Oh. Huh. That's weird."
"Really?" Keith scoffed after glancing back for a second to see what this was about and then continuing to cut the sentries to pieces. "Why is Lance getting a new weapon surprising anymore?"
"I think it's exciting." Allura squealed and kept side-eyeing the Bayard Lance was swinging around with little difficulty. He had great upper strength after all.
Hunk continued. "No, I meant: A maze isn't really a Lance weapon, you know. He's more light and fast and accuracy. A maze isn't any of those things."
Lance hummed in curious agreement as he kicked a few in the torso before shooting them off with his rifle. He did enjoy guns the best. But it was satisfying to be able to smash away once in a while.
Pidge snickered. "Maybe his Bayard is running out of ideas."
"You know what would be awesome," Lance gasped. "If I got a lance."
Pidge's eyes widened. "Oh fuck yes."
Lance held his weapon close and whispered. "Please make it happen."
He didn't get a lance. Not in his next upgrade anyways.
Keith and Pidge were coming in, each with tired demeanors and sleepy eyes. They sat by the kitchen next to Shiro and Allura, who were talking animatedly about something Allura had done as a child that was apparently funny. Coran was going through his space I-pad thingy, probably preparing some type of training session. And Hunk was talking as Lance made their lunch.
Lance looked up for a second at the two newcomers. "You look like you've been ninja fighting all morning. You guys do know we still have a lot of work to do right? You won't have the energy to do a movie night like this."
Keith grumbled. "Ninjas use way different swords than mine. And there's no such thing as" he yawned, "too much training. Besides, I always fall asleep within the first five minutes of movie night anyways."
Lance just grumbled quietly to himself. After a moment he spoke up again. "You know, I've asked Red about the whole Bayard thing and she just says things like: Good for pup. Or pup can do all. Or something like that." He turned and pointed a glowing knife at Keith. "Am I the pup or are you still her pup?"
Hunk laughed. "Pretty sure we're all pups. Yellow calls me whelp though."
Keith was staring cross-eyed at the knife. "Where'd you get that knife?"
Lance looked down at it and smiled like he'd just remembered. "Oh it's my new knife upgrade!"
Allura froze in her talking and swirled around. "And you're using it to cook?"
"Yep."
Hunk smiled. "It's very sharp."
"And look at this." Lance turned to look at the dart board they'd handmade with hard cushions and threw his knife. It embedded itself on the left side of the circle and he smiled apologetically. "Eh I'm still working on that aim."
Keith huffed. "First my sword. Now it's a knife. Geez why did you even need a knife for?"
"Knives are a basic weapon, Keith," Lance rolled his eyes like it was obvious as he went to dislodge the weapon. "Of course I need one."
Lance's favorite thing (apart from spa days and Hunk) was now infiltrating Galra ships. His teammates always let him go wild with his weaponry and he more than took up the offer. He loved being creative with his upgrades and Red only revelled in his happiness.
The Blue Paladin peeked around the corner and then jumped out with two small guns in his hands, pointing them at every spot in the hallway as if this was an exciting James Bond movie. He ran down the hall and stopped by locked doors.
"I am in need of assistance," he said into the comms.
"On it." Pidge opened the doors through her hacking and Lance slipped through.
His eyes widened and he smirked. "I have a visual on possible target."
Hunk snickered as Pidge answered. "Proceed with caution."
Keith scoffed. "Y'all with this again?"
"Just roll with it," Hunk snorted.
Lance held his two pistols close and rolled across the width of the hallway and against the wall. He peered at the side of the wall to see a long range of cells. He smirked.
"Lance, please tell me you didn't just literally roll."
Lance didn't acknowledge Keith. Instead he announced his mission update. "Target spotted. Requesting permission to engage."
"Hold, soldier," Pidge typed away as she made sure he had time to complete his part of the mission. "Hunk, how are things at your end?"
"Me and Allura are holding them back. I'm pretty sure most people aboard are focused on us."
Keith nodded from his spot as he sliced the last druid and turned back to Pidge, who didn't look up from the control panel she was locked on.
"Go. I will download the map back to the Lions to your visor."
Lance ran forward and didn't stop until he'd come by an occupied cell. The prisoners inside scrambled back and stared at him with wide eyes. Lance held a hand on the bars. "Greetings. We come in peace." He smiled at them, hoping they could understand. Keith snorted in the background.
Thankfully, one of them talked. The translator in his headset recorded it and took a quick search of what language it was.
"Quien eres?" Lance heard, bringing a smile on his face. He'd been eternally happy they could install their own personal language to translate. Of course it had taken hours to download the language in the mainframe but it was so worth it to hear his mother tongue.
He responded quickly. "Venimos en paz. Somos paladines de Voltron. Venimos a sacarlos de aquí. Si les abro la puerta, me seguirán a los leones?"
The prisoners eyes widened at hearing they were paladins and here to save them. Some quickly nodded, ready to get out of here, and rushed forward with what Lance could only guess were grins on their alien faces.
The paladin formed his Bayard, pausing so they could see it, and then turned it into a knife. He carefully cut through the locks and opened it wide. He smiled when a map was visualized in his visor. "Vamos. Hay que apurarnos." He turned to the next cell.
Soon enough Lance and a horde of prisoners were running through the halls, when Pidge warned them. "Incoming."
Lance formed his gun and motioned for the aliens to stop right as guards streamed in.
"Are you in need of assistance?" Allura offered.
"No. I can take these." He hummed in response to Shiro's voice saying: "Be careful."
He picked off all he could with his sniper gun, turned a bit sideways to shoot off one that had gotten too close to a prisoner with his handgun. Then he made a whip and swept the attacking aliens back in one sweep. Once they'd started shooting too he had his shield out and was blocking the shots with his whip.
A few prisoners rushed forward, ignoring Lance's yelp, and jumped on a few droids. He swiped at a few with his sword and looked up. He mentally sweeped over the aliens he was supposed to be protecting. "Stand back!"
Only few listened to him. Others wanted to get revenge for their mistreating. Lance cursed. They didn't have time for this. They had to get going before more came. He growled as Hunk and Allura announced that some of the aliens they'd been fighting had left.
Lance turned to the prisoners that had stood still. "Wait! Quédense aquí y corran cuando de la orden." They nodded and stayed back. He jumped forward towards the approaching guards and pulled his sword back, ready to turn it into his gun.
What he got instead made him so shocked he gasped and stumbled a bit. A bow and arrow formed around the length of his arm. The arm he had pulled back suddenly held a glowing arrow. He realeased in surprise. The arrow missed what he had been aiming but got another guard in the arm. "Holy shit!" He grinned widely and pulled back again. It took a bit of straining. The bow reached down to his thigh and over his head. But it was manageable. Another glowing blue arrow appeared and he released. This. Was. Exhilarating.
Soon enough, he'd gotten most of them and twirled around to the huddling prisoners with a mad grin. "Vamos!"
They followed him down the hallways with awed looks and grinning faces.
"Guys, you will not believe."
"What happened?"
"Are you ok?"
"I'm absolutely perfect!" Ok that hadn't come out that well in English as he'd imagined it.
Hunk, the angel, didn't miss a beat. "As always."
Lance faltered a bit in his step. "Hunk, you are too good for this world. But anyways! I'm Legolas!"
Keith furrowed his eyebrows as he helped Pidge put away her tech. "Wasn't Lotor Legolas?"
"Loro's a snake," Allura grumbled.
"No. I am." Lance continued. "Am Legolas, I mean. I got a bow and arrow!"
