As The Lion Loves The Lamb is a Voltron: Legendary Defender horror, psychological fanfic by Demenior which portrays the lions in an eerie light, considering they are ancient and powerful beings who are hungry and their relationship with their paladins who often have short lives.
Tropes include:
- Ambiguous Ending: The Paladins are still alive at the end of the story but their attempts to rid Kuron and the Lions has failed in vain and it is unknown what will occur next.
- Ambiguously Evil: The Lions lean heavily on this because while they are still defenders of the universe. Their relations with their paladins border on possessiveness and horror inducing.
- Blatant Lies: Coran and Allura claim to the Paladins that Voltron is purely mechanical. Knowing full well of the Lions true nature.
- Body Horror: Whatever happened to Shiro is this to the other Paladins. Upon his return, he hasn't needed to sleep or eat and has been trying to encourage the other Paladins to go deeper in the Lions. Which the others know is a bad idea.
- Broken Masquerade: Coran and Allura try and reinforce a Masquerade that the Lions are purely mechanical for the Paladins own sanity and theirs because they still need to pilot the lions. However, over time, the Paladins begin to understand the true nature of the Lions. Even more so than Allura who denies their true nature. The Paladins acknowledge they are "fresh meat" for the Lions.
- Cosmic Horror Story: The entire fic is this especially as the focus is on the lions
- Cosmic Plaything: What most of the Paladins think why the Lions choose them.
- Eaten Alive: The real Shiro's possible fate.
- Happiness Is Mandatory: While not completely this. Shiro's attitude with the Lions after his brief disappearance is offputting as he encourages to others to expand their bond and claiming he was happy he was chosen.
- Horror Hunger: An unusual example of this, but the true horror comes from what the Lions hunger for the Paladins which threatens the Paladins mental and physical well-being. But also played straight with Lance having the inexplicable urge to eat and eat and eat. Yet it never being enough.
- Honor Before Reason: How Allura interprets the Blue Lion choosing her. Choosing the ignore true danger in favour of believing it was an honour to be chosen as a Paladin.
- Human Sacrifice: What the Paladins are essentially to the Lions. It's a constant theme in the story.
- Lured into a Trap: What the Lions are trying to do the Paladins. Shiro is the bait who encourages them to expand their bond against their own better judgement
- Nothing Is Scarier: The entire fic and at times when the Paladins ponderings in the wider universe. Like why does a Weblum need to defend itself when it is massive and can destroy planets. The Lions themselves and their true intentions for their paladins is also this. Not to mention what happened to Shiro.
- Offerings to the Gods: One way to interpret the Paladins relation with the Lions is this.
- Properly Paranoid: The rest of the Paladins after a while are fully aware of the true nature of the Lions and know they are essentially prey and try to limit their interactions with them. To no avail.
- Resistance Is Futile: Played for Drama: Hunk doesn't believe they can ever escape the Lions grasp. Even if they do escape and go back to Earth Hunk believes the Lions will just find them again. Considering the Lions survived being flung into a supermassive black hole that destroyed the Castle of Lions. It's hard to see where Hunk is wrong.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: What Shiro believes Alfor and Zarkon were attempting to do when building the lions.
- Sleep Walking: Shiro starts doing this. And ends up walking up in the Black Lion's cockpit. With the Lion Swap, Keith starts doing it too.
- The Needs of the Many: The justification for the Paladins essentially being unwitting human sacrifices to the Lions is this. Even the Paladins understand this duty to the universe of their own needs at time.
- Yandere: Lance says that the Blue Lion says she loves him repeatedly because he is "hers." When Shiro asks Allura the possibility of her piloting a lion. She mentions she doesn't want to take the paladins away from them. Black also reiterates this type of love to both Shiro and Keith.
