So - I’m seeing some activity on my dash that seems to indicate that Shiro isn’t the Black paladin anymore and I - don’t get where that’s coming from? I mean, I suppose if I squint I could see it but overall I just got a ‘finally set right’ feel for the end of the season. And what made me feel that way?
well - this.
That’s the lions all roaring once Shiro was back amoung them. The OG Shiro. Its a full-throated, full-hearted concert of affirmation and not just from Black but all the lions, all together at once, in unison.
And you know the last time they did that?
Also for Shiro and him taking his place as the rightful paladin of the Black lion, way back in season one, episode one.
They’d done that for no one else - and they’ve done it for Shiro twice now. Only for Shiro. And its not as if other paladins haven’t been lost and then found again (see: Keith)
but - Keith flew Black? Yes. And? That doesn’t make him the Black paladin any more than it makes my little sister me when she borrows my jeep. Keith has been Black’s pilot three times now. To save Shiro from the lizard monsters on pancake planet. To take over because Shiro wasn’t there. And to save Shiro from clone planet. There - might be a pattern there. Yes, I know, Keith was Black Paladin in all other incarnations and he might be End Game. But he might not. I still hold that the writers spent a lot of time bonding paladins and original lions in the first two seasons and Black even went so far as to save her own paladin from death and protect his soul for three seasons. I’m not seeing that Shiro isn’t still Black’s current paladin and I’m not even ready to do that on Shiro being End Game Black Paladin yet. Sure, its possible and oh yes, it’ll break my heart right in two if the writers end on a different note - but they haven’t yet and I’m not going to borrow heartache that might be unnecessary before its time.
but - Shiro doesn’t have an arm! He can’t fly without two arms.
Are you sure? Are you really really sure. So sure those sticks in the floor the paladins all use randomly and without any kind of actual purpose (because we’ve seen utterly no pattern to the way they use them and what happens at all) beyond its dramatic and they seem to need to use them mentally - are necessary to fly a lion? That the paladin that lived inside his lion for so long couldn’t mentally connect enough to fly it, ‘see through its eyes’ and become one with it in flight? You don’t need two arms to be a hero or a leader or a powerful force in life. But - that’s not very dramatic looking for a visual story, so sure - let’s say we want to give Shiro two arms to fly.
Have we seen Shiro use the Black Bayard yet? Even the clone only threw it - it never changed shape for him. We’ve never seen OG Shiro use the bayard beyond its key slot action. So - what would we give the guy on a team with pretty much every other kind of weapon already accounted for to use as a Black gifted, spiritually bonded weapon? Something that he could use easily, without difficulty? Something that suits him and seems to fit his fighting style? Something that could become a part of him? (something that matches leaked pictures?) Hmmm. Let’s see. Whatever could we give the Black Paladin, the Black Lion’s chosen representative, the one whose lion loves him enough to save his life and protect him, that would represent the way being a paladin makes him feel whole?
