I think the entire team should have had more contempt for the Galra.
Shiro, their gentle, patient, steadfast leader, is a living, breathing testament to the sheer cruelty that species is capable of. The members of Team Voltron live with him and have to see the shock of white in his hair and scar slashed into the center of his face, and hear the mechanical whirring of the prosthetic that was forcibly grafted onto his body, every time he flexes his hand.
The Galra abducted and enslaved Pidge's father, and he was haggard, hardened, and emaciated from being forced to work in one of their labor camps when the team was finally able to rescue him.
Hunk and Coran saw firsthand the effects that years upon years of enslavement had on the Balmera and its people; the planet left ravaged and dying and the Balmerans forced so far underground, they had never seen the sky, and Shay had absolutely no concept of what it is to be free.
The Olkari were also enslaved, the Taujeerians' ark meant to safely ferry them to a new planet as their home planet became uninhabitable was purposefully damaged in order to kill them, and Slav was subjected to agonizing electro-shock torture.
Pidge should have despised the Galra and cried and cursed them when it was late at night and she was homesick and wanted her brother's companionship and her father's comforting words of wisdom.
Hunk and Lance should have been more motivated to take out every general, commander, and foot soldier they ever crossed paths with.
Coran, who watched his dearest friend head off to die in a final stand against someone Alfor once considered family, should have been every bit as bitter and furious and grief-stricken as Allura, but better at hiding it behind a cheery, eccentric facade.
Keith should have been horrified at the revelation that he has Galra blood in his veins, and, instead of embracing that side of himself, wanted nothing to do with it, distrusting Kolivan and the Blades of Marmora and only begrudgingly working with them to take down a common enemy.
Shiro is practically a saint, and compartmentalizes like his life depends on it. As a direct victim of Galra savagery, he made the call to trust Ulaz, as was his right, and forge an alliance with the Blades, because he prioritized overthrowing an evil empire and restoring peace and freedom to the universe over his own feelings about what had been done to him. This speaks volumes about his inherent selfless and self-sacrificing nature, and warrants a free pass for him not outwardly loathing that entire species with every fibre of his being. (The executive producers also just didn't care about his trauma, because they meant for him to die.)
That it is only Allura who expresses suspicion and any measure of distaste for Galra as a whole proves just how racist and ignorant Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery were-- choosing to portray a teenaged survivor of genocide (who just so happens to be the sole brown-skinned female main hero)'s reactions to the species that betrayed her father and eradicated her home world and everyone on it and continues to terrorize the universe as angry, irrational, and vindictive instead of one-thousand percent justified. While the white man who resents her and is totally fine with completely disregarding her safety is meant to be the ultimate arbiter of morality and embodiment of the Galras' innate "superiority".
Alteans, victims of a mass genocide, were cannon fodder exploited and killed off for shock value, and rather than Allura being allowed to reconnect with her people after grieving them the entire series, she's made to martyr herself for them.
The Galra, perpetrators of a genocide, were "victims" driven by a "misguided sense of self-preservation". And, rather than celebrate his humanity and choose the bonds with his majority Persons of Color human teammates, "MonSantos"'s Creators' Pet half-alien colonizer white savior declares himself a citizen of the Galra empire and pledges to rebuild it. While mispronouncing Allura's name and being broadcasted on multiple screens bathed in sinister purple lighting like a spokesperson hired by the empire to spout propaganda.
Brown-skinned humanoid aliens, even average civilians and children, were left largely unnamed, characterized as gullible and resentful, and treated as expendable. Purple conquerors, sadists, and species supremacists, all adults in armor with not a child in sight, were given names and sold to the audience as "not all bad", innately superior to every other species, and deserving of redemption.
In a show helmed by competent executive producers whose creative decisions weren't fueled by spite, malice, and bloodlust, this never would have been the case. The Galra in the original anime were all one-dimensional sadistic monsters who took pleasure slaves and feasted on the remains of the species they slaughtered and conquered, and were rightly reviled for it. It is only this iteration of the franchise that attempts to humanize them, and still fails to do so, as even the "good" Galra are xenophobic species supremacists who value the success of the mission over the lives of their own comrades and live and die by the credo, "Knowledge or Death".
Our team of heroes should have worked with these "good Galra" out of reluctance, disagreed with their ways, and parted with them on bitter though not openly hostile terms when war was won. And, Allura and her Paladins should have been the spearheads of a humanitarian relief effort across the universe, working alongside the survivors of the Galra Empire's tyranny to decolonize the planets Zarkon conquered.
What we were given, instead- Keith being favored as a candidate for the new leader of the Galra Empire, taking over the Blades, and, in a move that is completely out of character, given that he has always prioritized annihilating evil over sticking around to help victims of it recover in the aftermath, transforming the Blades into a humanitarian organization that hands out aid and supplies to those in need, alongside a pair of gleeful half-Galra sadists, while Allura dies and the rest of the human Persons of Color team retire to lead bland, unfulfilling lives- is nothing short of a disgrace.
