History Fanfic / VoltronDuality

* [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/8811013 Someplace Like Home]]: The second "season", focusing on the team as they adjust to [[spoiler: having multiple people chosen as Paladins at the same time]]

* [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/11106234 Stars Burn Out]]: An ElsewhereFic depicting how [[spoiler: Nyma and Val got from Earth to the Castle of Lions.]]

* [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/11632725 Kiss, Fake it Better]]: Another backstory fic focused on [[spoiler: Meri's time on Earth babysitting Lance and preparing him for the possibility of becoming the Blue Paladin one day.]]
* [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/12130050 Dungeons And Dwarf Stars ]]: An ongoing CurtainFic in which Team Voltron sits down to play a game of {{TabletopGame/Paranoia}}
* [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/12231306 Shadows of Stars]]: The third "season", focusing on [[spoiler: the aftermath of the Paladins' return to Earth, the Paladins' families becoming more invovled in the war, and the team splitting up to accompish separate goals.]]

* AdaptationExpansion: These fanfics expand on many things not covered in the show (at the time of being posted) such as the history of Altea, the minutia of Zarkon's army, and what's happening back on Earth while the Paladins are in space.
** In addition, Thace's role as a spy in Zarkon's ranks is given more focus than in the show, providing us with more backstory, including the fact that [[spoiler: he's Keith's uncle.]]
** Earth plays a more significant role in the story than in canon.
** ''Shadows of Stars'' provides a great deal of background on the history and culture of Olkarion.
* AdaptationOriginConnection: [[spoiler: Thace is Keith's uncle]].
* AdaptationalIntelligence: While on the show the lions' level of sentience is unclear, in this universe they're fully sentient.
* AlienSky: Because of the destruction brought about by an enemy attack that pulled planet Daibazaal out of its natural orbit, sunlight is so dim that it doesn't seem natural and debris orbiting the planet causes lights in the night sky that are too big to be stars and too small to be moons.
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Coran had an unrequited crush on Alfor in their younger days.
* AmbiguouslyGay: ''One Week to Say Goodbye'' reveals that Coran had an unrequited crush on King Alfor, but it's unclear whether or not he's exclusively attracted to men.
* AmbiguousSyntax: Thace and Nadezda talk about Keith's dead mother without ever specificly mentioning using death-related words. [[spoiler: It turns out her death was faked when her cover was blown]].
* AnArmAndALeg: Besides the canonical loss of his right arm, Shiro loses his Galra arm in ''Someplace Like Home'' when [[spoiler: Matt cuts it off in order to break Haggar's hold over him]].
* AngerBornOfWorry: Karen Holt is furious at the fact that her children are fighting in an intergalactic war, particularly Pidge, but it's because she's terrified for their safety.
* ArcVillain:

** Commander Vanda and [[spoiler: the Galaxy Garrison]] in ''Someplace Like Home''.
* ArtificialLimbs: [[spoiler: Aside from the robot arm Haggar gave him, Shiro gets a second one in ''Someplace Like Home'', built by Matt. Unlike his first one, this one doesn't come equipped with a weapon and isn't surgically grafted onto his body.]]
* AscendedExtra:
** Nyma, Shay, and Ryner end up joining the team full time.

* BadassAndChildDuo: Lance and [[spoiler: the Altean child he rescues from Haggar's flagship in ''Someplace Like Home'']].
* BadassInDistress: [[spoiler: Shiro is captured by Haggar halfway through ''Someplace Like Home'']]. [[spoiler: And then Allura is captured when they try to rescue him]].
** [[spoiler: Rolo is captured in the last half of ''Someplace Like Home'' and is being taken to one of the labs for Project: Robeast]].
* BeAllMySinsRemembered: Shiro has a habit of blaming himself for the things he did to maintain his cover in ''Another Word for Never'' [[spoiler: Even more so while he and Allura are under Haggar's control in ''Someplace Like Home'']].
* BetaCouple: Nyma and [[spoiler: Val]].
** Also Allura and [[spoiler: Meri]].
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The reason Keith is willing to commit treason and help Shiro is because Shiro's compassion and refusal to kill when he can get away with it spits in the face of the Galra ideals and yet he continues to beat everyone who fights him in the arena.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Keith and Lance combine this with regular UST.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Zarkon and Haggar, with Haggar being the most direct threat Team Voltron faces on a semi-regular basis, while Zarkon serves as a GreaterScopeVillain.
* BigDamnKiss: Shiro and Matt's reunion on Berlou in ''Another Word for Never''.

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler: Shiro and Allura midway through ''Someplace Like Home'']].
** [[spoiler: Sam Holt in the final arc of ''Shadows of Stars'' as the Dark Green Paladin]].

*** Shiro and Keith are their own separete group in the first "season" before being folded into Team Voltron in the final chapters.

* CerebusRetcon: [[spoiler: In this fic, the Galaxy Garrison already knew about the Galra, and had offered up the Kerberos crew as a sacrifice]].
* ChekHovsGun:

** In ''Shadows of Stars'', [[spoiler: Keith's mother gives him a secret mission that the audience thus far is not privy to. The only things known are that hearing the details sends Matt into TranquilFury, and the idea that his mother thinks he can do it causes Keith to question whether or not he's a good person]]. Finally fired in Chapter 15, where the audience learns that Keith's mission [[spoiler: is to lead a team of Accords agents to the Galra homeworld and incite a rebellion against Zarkon with the intended goal of the Accords installing him as emperor]].
** When the Empire's knowledge of their battle plans on Olkarion indicates that there is a spy board their ship, Shiro brings up the possibility that [[spoiler: Haggar is watching through Wyn in a manner similar to how she tracked the team through his arm back in ''Someplace Like Home'']].
* ChekhovsGunman:

** [[spoiler: Wyn, the Altean child thrown into the arena with Shiro during his time in captivity and was presumed to have been executed when Shiro refused to fight him, turns up alive as one of Haggar's test subjects for Project Robeast]].

** Vit, one of Keith's classmates during training, returns in the third act of ''Shadows of Stars'' after [[spoiler: Keith, Lance, and Thace return to Daibazaal following Hunk and Shay's Unity]].
* ChekhovMIA:
** [[spoiler: Keith's not-really-deceased mother Keena returns]].
** Sam Holt has been missing since being taken by the Galra [[spoiler: and then he appears as Rolo's cellmate in the Project Robeast labs in the final chapter of ''Someplace Like Home''. ''Shadows of Stars'' gives him several scenes focusing on his efforts to sabotage the labs and free the other prisoners]].

** While the Paladins' ages are never addressed in the actual show, here, the fact that Shiro and Matt are the only adult humans in the group [[spoiler: until Val becomes a Paladin]], is a source of tension with everyone's families back on Earth in ''Shadows of Stars''.
** Pidge is the biggest example of this trope among all the human paladins, because while Lance and Hunk both turn 18 over the course of the first three seasons, Pidge is still 14 in "Shadows of Stars".
** Keith is another big example, as he tells Lance the children of Galra officers like himself and Zuza start training at the age of 8.

* TheChosenMany: [[spoiler: At the climax of ''Another Word for Never'', the Lions start picking up multiple Paladins]]. [[spoiler: ''Someplace Like Home'' reveals that this is because no single Paladin is physically capable of taking their lion to its full potential on their own, so the lions have decided on multiple paladins as a way to maximize Voltron's power]].

* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Keith's dad died shortly before he first met Shiro. [[spoiler: His mom faked her death and fled to New Altea when her cover was blown]].

** ''Another Word for Never'' has the Battle of Beroul, where Voltron makes it's official debut in the war against the Galra and [[spoiler: turns a doomed last stand into an outright victory for resistance forces]].
** ''Someplace Like Home'' ends with a climactic battle to defend Earth against Zarkon's main fleet, [[spoiler: completely destroying everything related to Project Balmera]].
* DrivenToVillainy: ''Shadows of Stars"''Chapter 29 reveals that [[spoiler: Zarkon, his Princes, and the Galra Empire as a whole started out as this. After a [[EldritchAbomination Vkullor]] attack devastated Daibazaal, the Galra were facing extinction, as their planet could no longer sustain the population. With King Alfor being an ObstructiveBureaucrat and repeatedly blocking their attempts to colonize uninhabited worlds, they were left with no other way to preserve their species but conquest]].
* DefrostingIceQueen: Nyma begins to lose her cynicism after [[spoiler: she becomes a Blue Paladin]].
* EndangeredSpecies: The Balmera are dying off one by one from Zarkon's constant mining efforts.
* FacialHorror: [[spoiler: Matt develops crystal scars on his face after he's blasted with Quintessence by a brainwashed Shiro in ''Someplace Like Home'']].
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Keith's mother is still alive as the leader of The Accords]].
* FightingYourFriend: [[spoiler: The team is forced to fight a mind-controlled Shiro a total of three times in the first two stories. Along with Allura twice]].
** In ''Shadows of Stars'', [[spoiler: Sam discovers that he, Rolo, and Rax are slated to be turned into Robeasts for this exact purpose]].
* FromBadToWorse: [[spoiler: The team rushes in with guns blazing to rescue Shiro in ''Someplace Like Home''. The mission ends with Allura captured and brainwashed as well, along with Keith and Matt in critical condition]].

* GemTissue: The test subjects of Project Balmera start growing crystals on their insides like Balmeras. Keeping the crystal growth in check requires specialized healing from Balmerans like Shay.
** [[spoiler: Matt Holt]] and [[spoiler: Lance's cousin Val]] are both victims of these experiments.
* GenerationXerox: Played for drama in Chapter 15 of ''Shadows of Stars'', where Keith notes that despite his career as a Paladin and his obvious distaste for the Galran military, [[spoiler: his mother still sees him as a Galra Prince like his father]].
* GirlsNightOutEpisode: ''Blue Arrow'' is about [[spoiler: Meri]]'s first time going out for a Girl's Night Out with [[spoiler: Rosario]]. Little do either of them know that [[spoiler: alcohol is toxic to aliens]].

-->'''Shay:''' [[TranquilFury "No. I will not let them do to your people what they have done to mine.]][[BewareTheNiceOnes We are going to stop this. Today."]]

* [[spoiler: GroundhogDayLoop]]: [[spoiler: Oriande experiences the same day over and over again. However, unlike most examples, everyone remembers what happened in previous loops]].
* HandicappedBadass: Matt becomes one once [[spoiler: the crystals start growing inside him]].
* HeKnowsTooMuch: In Chapter 26 of ''Someplace Like Home'', [[spoiler: Iverson finally decides to send a hit squad after Karen Holt, Eli Kahale, and Akira Shirogane when they finally become too big of a thorn in his side for him to handle without risk of Galra intervention]].

* HumansAreSpecial: [[spoiler: PlayedForDrama, as the very thing that makes humans special, their ability to produce significantly more Quintessence than they need to survive, is the reason the Galra Empire wants to turn Earth into a PeopleFarm]].
* HumanPopsicle: [[spoiler: Meri takes a cyropod from Altea as she leaves, stores it in the Blue Lion's cockpit, and puts herself in it after she lands on Earth. She reamins in cyrosleep for the vast majority of 10,000 years, only waking up for good 12-13 years before canon when Blue finds her new Paladin.]]
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: Keith runs Sendak through with his mother's sword in ''Another Word for Never'']].

** Coran forms one with [[spoiler: the Galra refugees from Revinor.]] He also develops one with [[spoiler: Wyn, the young Altean child Lance rescues from Haggar's clutches]].
** ''Kiss, Fake it Better'' gives us one between Lance's mother Rosario and [[spoiler: Meri, the previous Blue Paladin]].

** [[spoiler: Sendak is killed off midway through ''Another Word for Never'']].
** [[spoiler: Commander Iverson dies in Chapter 27 of ''Someplace Like Home'']].
** [[spoiler: Mir, Shay's grandmother, is KilledOffscreen in Chapter 19 of ''Shadows of Stars'']].
** [[spoiler: Ryner is killed in Chapter 45 of ''Shadows of Stars'']].
* LaResistance: The Accords
* LesCollaborateurs: [[spoiler: Iverson and most of the senior officers of Galaxy Garrison are willingly collaberating with the Galra in Project Balmera]].

* LivingBattery: Project Balmera [[spoiler: is an attempt to harvest humans and turn them into organic crystal production facilities to provide easier access to fuel for the empire. Matt was their first human test subject]].
* LockedIntoStrangeness: Besides Shiro's skunk stripe, Matt [[spoiler: ends up with crystaline scars on the side of his face and one of his eyes turns electric blue]].
* ManchurianAgent: [[spoiler: Shiro's arm has a function that allows Haggar to control him directly. She uses it once in the battle of Berlou in ''Another Word for Never'' and fails]]. [[spoiler: Then she does it successfully for a large portion of ''Someplace Like Home''.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: The team's attempt to rescue Shiro from Haggar in ''Someplace Like Home'' results in Allura getting captured, Keith and Lance in critical condition, and the Black Lion captured by Zarkon]].
** Happens again in ''Shadows of Stars'': [[spoiler: After receiving a warning that an invasion of New Altea is underway, Team Voltron travels by wormhole directly to New Altea, destroying the defensive zone that kept it hidden from the Galra empire, and paving the way for the real invasion to begin]].

* OocIsSeriousBusiness: Coran is absolutely terrified when he learns that there was [[spoiler: a viable Vkullor egg buried beneath Earth's surface]].

** Meri, a close friend of Allura's who became the Blue Paladin temporarily after the death of Allura's mother. [[spoiler: And has been living in hiding as Lance's babysitter and CoolAunt]].

* ParentalAbandonment: [[spoiler: When her cover as a spy for the Accords was blown, Keith's mom left him with his father, a die-hard Zarkon loyalist, faked her death, and fled to New Altea]].

* PartyScattering: The ambush on Vel-17 results in Lance, Allura, and Matt being wormholed across the galaxy, with no way to contact the others, or for the others to know if they're still alive. [[spoiler: They reunite at the battle of Berlou at the end of the first fic]].
* PeopleFarm: [[spoiler: What the Galra empire ultimately plans for Earth]].
* PlayingWithFire: [[spoiler: Matt's newfound ability to manipulate Quintessence manifests as fire powers]].
* PostPeakOil: A sci-fi version. Balmerans across the universe have become an endangered species thanks to Galra mining efforts, and Zarkon needs to find a new source of crystals to keep his war machine going. [[spoiler: Project Balmera is an attempt to remedy this by harvesting humans as living crystal farms]].

** [[spoiler: The crystals created by Project Balmera are grown and harvested from unwilling human hosts.]]
** [[spoiler: An integral part of robeasts are aliens and humans, forced to fight as war machines.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: [[spoiler: The people of New Altea are hesitant to get directly involved in the war, but they have valid arguments for their position]].

* Really700YearsOld:

** Meri, the previous blue Paladin, was 140 when Altea fell. [[spoiler: And now she's 2-3 years older than Allura after the time she's spent on Earth, becoming part of Lance's family and infiltrating the Garrison]].

** [[spoiler: Matt and Shiro in the climax of ''Another Word for Never'']].
** [[spoiler: Keith and Lance in Chapter 15 of ''Shadows of Stars'']].

* RescueRomance: [[spoiler: Nyma and Val hook up a few days after the latter is rescued from Commander Vanda's prison ship]].

** [[spoiler: The Galra have been to Earth before the abduction of the Kerberos crew]].
** [[spoiler: Haggar's override and tracking functions in Shiro's arm aren't physical chips, because the arm itself is an ad hoc Bayard.]]
** [[spoiler: Matt's arrival on Earth at the beginning of the fic wasn't because he escaped. The Galaxy Garrison was willingly collaborating with the Galra, and they needed to extract the crystals growing inside him for Project: Balmera.]]
** [[spoiler: Keith's mother is alive and serving as the leader of The Accords.]]
** The mission Keith was given by [[spoiler: his mother? overthrow Zarkon and become emperor]].
** [[spoiler: Keturah is alive, and she is Haggar]].
* ReviveKillsZombie: [[spoiler: The crystals growing inside Matt grow when exposed to the Quintessance of the Castle's healing pods]].

* ShellShockedVeteran: Shiro and Matt both have PTSD from their time in captivity. [[spoiler: The Red and Black lions have this as well]].

** In ''Kiss, Fake it Better'', [[spoiler: Meri]] learns English by watching ''Film/IntoTheWoods''.

* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler: In ''Rowan'', Wyn is revealed to have Dissociative Identity Disorder. His other personalities, Rowan, Eran, and Wyrda, have been around since Wyn's childhood on New Altea. A new one, Leth, appeared when Wyn was being experimented on by Haggar. Rowan acts as a [[BigBrotherInstinct protective sibling]] towards the Wyn while acting as a mediator between the others]].
* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Keith and Lance in the first half of ''Someplace Like Home'', before they evolve into VitriolicBestBuds [[spoiler: and then an OfficialCouple]].
* TheStationsOfTheCanon: ''Another Word for Never'' covers the dramatic crash on Earth (albeit with Matt rather than Shiro), the hunt for the lions, the training excerises, fighting the Robeast to protect the Arusian village, Sendak capturing the castle of lions, liberating the Balmera, and Nyma stealing the Blue Lion. However because of the ForWantOfANail nature of the fic, several of these events are combined and overlapped to show the divergences from canon:
** Keith's shack on Earth doesn't exist in this fic, so Lance and Hunk find the Blue Lion on their own while exploring the caves after rescuing Matt from the Garrison.

* ThirdLineSomeWaiting: With [[spoiler: Shiro and Keith now permanent members of Team Voltron]], ''Someplace Like Home'' adds two new plotlines: one detailing what the human paladins' family members are doing back on Earth, and another focusing on Thace's missions for The Accords.

* TwoAliasesOneCharacter: The Spymaster, the leader of the Accords [[spoiler: is Keith's mother, Keena]].
* TwoLinesNoWaiting: ''Another Word for Never'' has one story-line focused on the new Paladins in the beginning of their fight against the Galra, and another focused on Shiro and Keith trying to sabotage the imperial war machine from within. The two plot-lines intersect when Sendak captures the Castle of Lions [[spoiler: and again at the climax on Berlou when Shiro and Keith deliberately request Voltron's aid in fighting back against the Galra.]]
* VicariouslyAmbitious: Debatable, but an argument can be made that [[spoiler: Keith's mother is this, considering her big plan in ''Shadows of Stars'' is to install her son as emperor]].

* WartimeWedding: [[spoiler: Hunk and Shay declare Unity in ''Shadows of Stars'', which, while not exact, is the closest analog to marriage in Balmeran culture]].
* WellIntentionedExtremist: Commander Iverson is doing what he feels is necessary to defend Earth. [[spoiler: This includes offering up Shiro and the Holt men as sacrifices to Zarkon and covertly disappearing people in order to provide Commander Vanda with lab rats for Project Balmera.]]
* WhamLine:

* HasTwoMommies: Hunk has two mothers.

From there, the story explores TheButterflyEffect of how these changes affect the story, providing a DarkerAndEdgier take on the fight against Zarkon that fleshes out several of the characters who have not had much screen time in the series.

* AdultFear: The parents of all the Paladins are all worried for their childrens' safety as soon as they all figure out they're alive.

* Hunk has GAD and Lance has ADHD, while Pidge and Keith are both Autistc.

* MismatchedEyes: Matt ends up with this after [[spoiler: being overloaded with Quintessence after the failed attempt to rescue Shiro]].

* {{Transgender}}: Pidge is non-binary, and Akira is also transgender.

** ''Shadows of Stars'' provides a great deal of background on the history and culture of Olkarion.

* ReverseMole: Despite pledging allegiance to Zarkon's army, Shiro does what he can to undermine the Galran war machine with Keith's help.

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Keith and Lance in the first half of ''Someplace Like Home'', before they evolve into VitriolicBestBuds [[spoiler: and then an OfficalCouple]].

* BadassGay: Nyma, Shiro, and Matt.

** Nyma and Val watch Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast in ''Shadows of Stars'' Chapter 8.

* BiTheWay: Allura, Val, and Lance.

Voltron: Duality is a AlternateUniverseFic of ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender''. The series page can be found [[http://archiveofourown.org/series/572659 here]] on Archive of Our Own.

* [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701059/chapters/44352637 Beyond the Breaking]]: The fourth "season", at four chapters and ongoing as of May 30th, 2019.

** Meri, the previous blue Paladin, was 140 when Altean fell. [[spoiler: And now she's 5 years older than Allura after the time she's spent on Earth, becoming part of Lance's family and infiltrating the Garrison]].

* HumanPopsicle: [[Spoiler: Meri takes a cyropod from Altea as she leaves, stores it in the Blue Lion's cockpit, and puts herself in it after she lands on Earth. She reamins in cyrosleep for the vast majority of 10,000 years, only waking up for good 12-13 years before canon when Blue finds her new Paladin.]]

** Rolo, Thace, and Pidge and Matt's mother also feature as important characters.

** While the Paladins' ages are never addressed in the actual show, here, the fact that Shiro and Matt are the only adult humans in the group [[spoiler: until Val becomes a Paladin at least]], is a source of tension with everyone's families back on Earth in ''Shadows of Stars''.
** Pidge is the biggest example of this trope among all the human paladins, because while Lance and Hunk both turn 18 over the course of the first three seasons, Pidge is still 14 in "Shadows of Stars". Karen Holt is <i>not</i> pleased with them being a solider.