This is one of my more popular posts, so revisiting it with some food for thought: Blue didn’t just connect to Lance, she arguably connected to the entire team when the barrier drops- everyone sees that vision of Voltron. But this doesn’t make sense, because Lance and only Lance is Blue’s bonded paladin, and all of Blue’s behavior before and after obviously favors Lance.
This makes me wonder if the scene where Allura seems to be assigning the Lions isn’t actually what’s happening- after all, Allura makes it clear nobody can force those connections and she barely knows these people. Unless Allura has an incredible capacity to read people on short notice that we haven’t really seen otherwise in play, it would seem odd that she’d be so certain about it-
But, explicitly, Coran opens this scene by stating that Allura’s connected to the Lions.
The Lions are also connected to each other.
My thinking? The Lions didn’t look through Allura and choose their paladins then. They chose them before, in Blue’s cavern. Blue found these people, found one that she liked- but found paladins for the others, as well. Which would suggest Blue basically scouted the team out for the other Lions. So what Allura is demonstrating in the scene where she identifies them by name is how in tune she is with the Lions, and able to communicate with all of them without being bonded to a single one. Red’s cold response to Keith was thus pretty clearly trying to test him, because she had chosen him before he was anywhere near Sendak’s ship.
But it also suggests there’s a particular amount of trust in Blue- that all of the other Lions trusted Blue that when she basically telepathically ran up to them like “you’ve got to check this out, look at these guys, they’re exactly what we need” they all obliged- including Black who at that point was trying to walk off an incredible traumatic experience with her last bonded paladin.
And the whole idea that Blue scouted the team gets even more interesting if we consider the only person who knew all the other members of the team?
Was Blue’s paladin. Lance.
Hunk doesn’t seem familiar with Shiro and only knows Keith secondhand through Lance. Pidge doesn’t have any idea who Keith is and vice versa. Shiro doesn’t seem to have had personal experience with any member of the Garrison Trio except possibly Pidge to a degree via his familiarity with the Holts in general.
Lance knew Hunk, because Hunk was his friend. He knew Keith because he specifically wanted to compete with Keith. He knew Pidge because they were paired with the simulator and he wanted to know what Pidge’s deal was. He knew Shiro, because Shiro was his personal hero.
The idea that Blue sort of scouted the entire team is interesting because to a degree, so did Lance, and it would suggest Lance and Blue are alike in both their fascination for, and being a quick study of, other people.