#alfor was a mess

New headcanon:

So in the VR Chronicles, Coran says, “If you see a button, try pushing it! That’s always been my motto!”

You can imagine the problems this caused.

Alfor, while honestly about the same, learns very quickly not to let Coran near anything with buttons and switches, probably after the first five times something blows up because Coran started pressing random buttons. Coran thinks Alfor is being incredibly hypocritical (he is), and everyone else carefully Alfor-and-Coran-proofs everything (hence the rise of Galra-activated Galra tech).

New headcanon:

As a child, Alfor went through a very extensive Why? Phase… and never quite grew out of it. Even as a full grown adult he would end up asking a constant stream of “But why?” until he was satisfied with the answer. Trigel thought it was good and would answer him patiently, both Coran and Blaytz would just start asking “Why?” back, Gyrgan would humour him for a bit before passing him off to someone else, and Zarkon…

Zarkon eventually resorted to, “Because I said so!”

New headcanons:

Each of the paladins had their own way of fighting with or without their lions.

Zarkon is an excellent warrior. He’s well-trained and tactical; he’s good at neutralising his opponents (and by neutralise I actually mean kill) and winning quickly. He sees no need in drawing out a battle. With Black, he’s just as effective, but he also does a lot of instructing the rest of the team on what to do. They usually listen (except for Alfor and Blaytz, who 99% of the time listen to literally no one) and things work out because Zarkon is good at this leading thing.

Before joining the alliance, Alfor was not a fighter. He was a giant nerd who spent most of his time in his lab blowing stuff up (note that the explosions were typically accidental but not always). He had a bit of training, but he wasn’t very good. His strategy in actual fights relies on pure luck and magic (or as he would argue, “Not magic! Alchemy! There’s a difference!”) weapons. He’s super reckless and likes to just rush in, especially if he can potentially save someone. He surprisingly does a lot of saving their tails, but they do a lot more of saving his (and yelling at him afterwards).

Blaytz, like Zarkon, learned to fight from an early age. He is less about the cool and calculating side of fighting and more about the beating people up side. He’s skilled, and has good instincts for fighting, but most of it was trained into him. He has a lot of good battle-cries, and isn’t afraid to use them. He’s not as reckless as Alfor but he’s a close second.

Trigel is also an excellent warrior, but primarily, she’s a smart warrior. She absolutely will not rush into things ever. She’s cool-headed and logical even in the heat of battle, and spends a lot of time making sure her teammates don’t get themselves killed (because, let’s be honest, they’d be dead without Trigel). She’s also low-key ruthless and could win a fight in .2 seconds.

Gyrgan, in all actuality, would rather hug it out? But when he’s fighting, he’s more like, you know, SPINNING HEADSPIN! and other such loud and eager attacks. He’s pretty intimidating until you get to know him (at which point he’s a teddy bear), so most of his enemies are already worried at the sight of him. He finds this rather hilarious, and is quick to take advantage of it.

New headcanon:

Since we now know that Alfor was indeed a major nerd and liked to collect random stuff from random planets, we must consider this habit and the reactions it gained.

Most people are just rather amused. It’s like, oh, look, the red paladin has a jar of dirt. At one point Trigel calls his collection of stuff garbage and he wouldn’t talk to her for like a whole Spicolian movement. Zarkon makes the same mistake, but also doesn’t apologise, and Alfor pouts about it for like a phoeb.

Usually it’s fine but they end up on one planet at one point, and Alfor starts collecting rocks, and, oops, turns out those were sacred rocks. It takes literally all of Trigel’s diplomatic skill to stop the planet from declaring war on Altea and Voltron.

You think this would have taught Alfor to be more careful, but no, he does it several other times. Plus the inevitable times he or someone else is allergic to something he grabbed, or it’s just plain poisonous. Or alive. That was always a disaster.

As always, Alfor kept the rest of the old paladins on their toes at all times.

New headcanon:

If something went wrong, it was usually Alfor, Blaytz, or Zarkon’s fault, or some combination of the three. It typically wasn’t purposeful (though the potential for intergalactic wars started by an insulted Zarkon was always there) and it typically needed Trigel and Gyrgan to do a whole lot of damage control.

The time they scared an entire solar system into thinking the apocalypse was being heralded by the arrival of Voltron was blamed totally on Alfor - they were his lions, and Trigel had to explain that they weren’t ancient deities there to punish them while Alfor almost just went with it. The war Blaytz nearly started with his flirting got him banned from the planet not by the leaders but by an annoyed and exasperated Gyrgan. Zarkon had to be physically held back from challenging people to duels almost regularly.

It all came with the paladin gig.

New headcanon:

Trigel was super curious about Altean alchemy. She asks Alfor all sorts of questions about it whenever she gets the chance. He’s happy to answer her questions- even the really weird ones that he doesn’t quite understand himself. Half the time he only confuses her more, because, honestly, while the man has a knack for the alchemy thing he also doesn’t understand half the things he’s made (case in point: the lions of Voltron). 

Trigel almost finds this more frustrating and baffling than the prospect of Altean alchemy itself.

New headcanon:

Alfor and Coran are the best team. The two of them can do just about anything they set their mind to. Is this always a good thing? They would argue yes. Most everyone else would argue a resounding no. Does this ever stop them? No. No, it does not.