heartofalioness: (Bonding)
Princess Allura ([personal profile] heartofalioness) wrote2017-11-26 08:19 pm
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January 2018 Canon Update

Player: LoneWolfPrincess
Character: Princess Allura
Current Canon Point: Season 2, Episode 13
Updated Canon Point: Season 4, Episode 6

Updated Background: Since defeating Zarkon and Shiro disappearing, Team Voltron’s been busy freeing more planets and building the Voltron Coalition, with Allura handling the diplomatic side of things by holding talks to form new alliances. Unfortunately, everyone’s confidence is a bit shaky since, well, Voltron can’t be formed anymore. The leaders of the planets being courted for the coalition are especially hesitant, no matter how tempting Hunk’s pizza rolls are. After a LOT of intense discussion and arguing, everyone agrees that they should find a new paladin for the Black Lion and start the search from within. Keith is chosen by the Black Lion (much to his upset), and there’s JUST barely enough time for Allura to be rejected by the Red Lion (which stings not just because of her distress at others risking their lives for the war, but because it was King Alfor’s Lion) before Voltron gets a distress call from one of the newly freed planets. Keith, Hunk, and Pidge fly off into a trap set by new acting emperor Prince Lotor to analyze the Lions and their pilots, while Lance struggles to convince Blue to let him in after she suddenly puts up her particle barrier. Allura goes down to the hangar to help him out, and it turns out it’s because the Red Lion has chosen him now. After a quick pep talk from the princess, Lance rushes off to join the others in Red... and then the Blue Lion lowers the barrier for Allura. She takes control and joins the others and the sight “scares” Lotor and his forces away. Allura becomes the new Blue Paladin, donning new pink armor and Lance passing the blue bayard onto her.

During the fight, Keith had placed a tracker on Lotor’s ship, and orders the guys to get to their Lions right away so they can follow him. Buuut in a shocking turn of events, it turns out chasing after an enemy with only two pilots knowing how their Lions work- none of which are the leader- is not the best idea. Allura especially struggles to control Blue and keep up during chases, getting frustrated that the Lion won’t respond to her exactly how she wants like the Castle would. Even worse, Lotor was counting on the inexperience and leads them to a planet with a highly combustible atmosphere AND a magnetic field crazy enough to render their navigation and coms useless. The team ends up separated and lost on the planet’s surface, and not only does Allura have to deal with being alone and not communicating well with her Lion, but with being pursued by Lotor. In a moment of frustration, she admits that no matter how hard she tries and how much depends on her, she can’t control everything and that she needs Blue’s help. It’s this admission that allows Blue to truly open up to her and their bond to properly form, just in time to turn the tables back on Lotor. Hope you like frozen wings, purple Loki! (Okay, she didn’t actually say that, Lance still needs to teach her to trash talk.) She finds the other paladins, leads them off the planet, and- with a team rallying speech from Keith- they’re FINALLY able to form Voltron again. (Allura’s a leg now!)

A little while after this, the Castle picks up a distress signal... from an Altean ship. Hopeful for survivors, Allura immediately sets course for the signal and find an Altean exploration ship stuck halfway through a strange, glowing portal. The team investigates the ship and goes through the portal with Voltron. The team finds themselves in a whole other reality, where Altea was able to defeat the Galra Empire during the initial onslaught under “Empress” Allura’s command, and Slav and Sven (aka 80s dub!Shiro) are enemies of Altea. Altean Commander Hira allows them to analyze a comet with the same reality-phasing molecular structure as Voltron the abandoned ship had found, and persuades Allura to bring the ship fully to the Alteans’ side of the portal so they can take the comet and help spread peace throughout every reality. Unfortunately, this method of “spreading peace” is turning races they deem violent into mind-controlled slaves, and once this comes to light, Allura refuses to help Hira further. With Sven and Slav’s help, the paladins escape the ship and take the comet back to their reality, out of Hira’s reach. Unfortunately, this was all yet ANOTHER of Lotor’s plans, and he literally yanks the comet out of Voltron’s hands before flying off, leaving Allura kicking herself for letting her attachment to Altea blind her.

After this, though, miracle of miracles, they find Shiro! While he recovers from his time in Galra captivity and escape, Allura does her best to improve as a paladin in her Lion and in ground fights, although it does make Lance and Keith wonder how they’re going to fit six paladins in five lions. Eventually Shiro is well enough to participate again, and the team finds Lotor raiding a Galra outpost for a lost lens from the giant teludav from Season Two. Despite Keith sitting out so Shiro can pilot the Black Lion again, it won’t respond to him and Keith still has to fly it. Unfortunately, even on the bridge Shiro’s commands to Keith and the rest of the team clash with and undermine Keith’s leadership, with Voltron barely able to keep the lens out of Lotor's hands, but letting Lotor escape in a new, comet-built ship before they can take it out.

During the next month after this (but not before a backstory drop from Coran), Keith begins distancing himself from the team and their efforts to build the Voltron Coalition, instead spending more time with the Blade of Marmora. Allura tries to tell Keith that the team can’t survive without him, but the words seem to fall on stony ground. Eventually this creates a situation in which Keith is absent when the team receives a distress call, leaving only four Lions and no way to form Voltron while under very heavy fire. This leads to Shiro reconnecting with the Black Lion, but the team is still sore at Keith for not being there when they needed their leader. Keith takes the moment to officially step down as a paladin to work with the Blades on a long-term mission. Everyone is sad to see him go, but they give him their blessing (and a group hug, which Allura actually joins for once!).

Pidge finally tracks down and reunites with her brother space Brock Matt, and after bringing him back to the Castle, the Holt siblings and Hunk create a real-time tracking system for the entire Galra empire and stumble upon a secret Galra frequency... and through it Team Voltron learns that a. Zarkon is still alive, and b. he’s hunting down Lotor for what they assume is a power struggle. Yay? Oh, and Allura and Coran learn where cow’s milk comes from!

And then The Voltron Show! happens, which can be summarized thusly!

With the help of the tracking system, the team realizes that there’s only one planet in a line of freed ones that’s still under Galra control, and if they liberate that one they can cut off a third of the Empire from central command, making them much easier targets. Shiro lays down a plan to take control of two powerful cannons and distract the remaining forces while Voltron takes control of Naxzela. Voltron’s attack goes well despite a hiccup here and there, when suddenly pillars rise from Naxzela’s core to generate a planet-wide force field. The gravitational forces become much, MUCH stronger, with Voltron not powerful enough to fly them out. (But somehow it doesn’t squish the paladins from the inside out, yay sci-fi physics!) They find out that Haggar is powering Naxzela’s defense systems from afar with her magic, and the increasing pressure combined with Naxzela’s explosive soil makes the whole planet a bomb large enough to destroy several solar systems and take out all of the Voltron coalition. Voltron tries to escape again but the gravity is too strong... until Lance tells Allura that she might be able to help them escape. With his encouragement, Allura uses her energy and her connection to Voltron to create a shielding blue aura around it, allowing them to fly out and burst through Naxzela’s force field. The hope, trust, and relief she feels in that moment of success are so strong that they bring Allura back to Empatheias.

Updated Personality: While a lot of her core personality remains the same, becoming the blue paladin brought forth a LOT of emotional growth for Allura in her world. One of the Blue Lion’s first and most important lessons for Allura has been to let go and to not shoulder everything herself. Even before Allura was chosen, she needed to let go of her desire to be the red paladin. Just like Lance had to let go of the idea of being Voltron’s leader for glory, Allura had to let go of the idea of following in her father’s footsteps and “risking her life.” Trusting Lance with an honor that means a LOT to her is what allowed her to be chosen by Blue and to follow her own path. And while being pursued by Lotor, it’s only when she stops trying to control Blue and admits to needing help and guidance too, to this being an equal partnership, that their bond reaches its full strength and Blue allows her access the full extent of its power. While she's still very dedicated to their fight and can still be stubborn at times, being flexible and trusting others are new forms of strength that she’s more willing to tap into now.

That new willingness to trust others, as well as simply being a full part of the team instead of mission control and a self-set pillar of strength, also allows Allura to develop deeper bonds with the other paladins, being more willing to spend time with them even outside of missions and training. (Not nearly as much as her development in Empatheias, but baby steps in the middle of a war are still better than nothing.) She shows a more direct concern for the paladins’ emotional well-being, asking Keith if he’s alright after losing a fellow Blade during an intelligence mission, and even allows herself to show a little more emotion around them instead of trying to be a calm, strong, supportive leader all the time. This has especially strengthened her relationship with Lance. Before, their interactions outside of the simple princess/paladin professional relationship mostly consisted of Lance flirting with her and Allura rebuffing him. Now they have a respect and even friendship with each other through their connection to the Blue Lion, supporting each other through moments of doubt and Lance even serving as a sort of mentor for blue paladin-hood.

Updated Abilities: Along with keeping her previous abilities, as the new Blue Paladin Allura now has a bond with the Blue Lion of Voltron. This allows her to pilot and communicate more deeply with Blue, activate its freeze ray and sonic cannon abilities, and form the right leg of Voltron when in sync with the other four Lions and their paladins. She now wields the blue bayard, a weapon that can change forms depending on the user and their thoughts, with Allura’s preferred mode being that of an energy chainsword/whip. The bayards can also be used to unlock hidden abilities within Voltron, but so far neither Lance nor Allura have been able to use the blue bayard in this manner so it's unknown what, if any, of those hidden abilities are yet. (And it's unlikely that Voltron will be formed in game anyway.) Her time as a paladin has also honed her ability to fight alongside a team and improved her physical stamina, able to fight on the ground for long periods of time and no longer collapsing after using large amounts of her energy to power things.

(Also, since I brought it up when I first apped her, apparently playing around too much with quintessence directly is like the equivalent of bloodbending/the Dark Side in that it’s very powerful but also addictive and mentally and physically changes a person, and it’s what made Haggar jump off the deep end and take Zarkon with her. And we STILL don’t know how quintessence magic actually WORKS, darnit! Sooo yeah looks like there’s an IC reason Allura hasn’t used it during her time in Empatheias after all.)

Other: Allura will be arriving in full paladin armor, and with the blue bayard in her... little hammerspace holster thingy.

Questions: Since Allura’s mice are here as well, would they be disappearing to update with her, staying behind, or is it up to me?

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