Player: Callie Character: Kolivan Current Canon Point: Season 4, Episode 1 Updated Canon Point: Season 7, Episode 5
Updated Background: The vast majority of what Kolivan gets up to happens offscreen, on account of his being so stealthy a ninja he's not even in the show most of the time the Blade doing most of its work in the background. At Kolivan's current canonpoint, Keith had just abdicated leadership of Voltron to Cloney McShiroson and gone off with Kolivan and the Blade to focus on tracking a source of weird, potent quintessence that was floating about. Kolivan appears several episodes later when Voltron and their rebel allies, Blade included, launch an attack on a planet called Naxzela, but the focus there is on Keith as he nearly splatters himself all over a cruiser shield in an attempt to break it; Kolivan is just there. The Blade is present some while later when Prince Lotor moves to seize the throne at the Kral Zera, by which we also mean Keith, but Kolivan is not. However, the arrival of Shiro and the Black Lion at the Kral Zera is a total shock to Keith, when in the past the Blade and Voltron seemed pretty in tune with one another's movements -- a sign that Cloney is starting to get slowly brainwashier, and relevant to Kolivan's interests.
Kolivan next appears at the beginning of season 5, episode 5. In the midst of the power vacuum left by Lotor taking the throne, Kolivan sends Keith on a mission to extract one of his agents from her undercover post in a warlord's base. He lectures Keith before he leaves that Emotions Are Bad and he should not give in to his feelsy impulses as he has in the past. The reason for this becomes clear later when it turns out the agent Keith is extracting is his own mother, Krolia, who Keith has been known to drop everything just for a single answer about in previous seasons. There is no way Koli did not know exactly what he was doing when he orchestrated this. Thanks, dude.
After this Kolivan drops off the radar for some time, though he remains in communication with the paladins offscreen, and it's mentioned towards the end of season 6/beginning of season 7 that after Keith and Krolia discover Lotor's little secret Altean farm he passes the coordinates along to Kolivan; later they say that Kolivan sent the Blade to investigate and found it abandoned. More importantly, after Voltron emerges from its fight against Lotor in the quintessence rift, they discover that it's been three years since they disappeared into it, thanks to bullshit space wibbly wobbly timey wimey. Kolivan would have spent those three years scrambling to hold the Blade together in Voltron's absence. Sure enough, season 7 episode 5 arrives, and Team Voltron, on their way to Earth, pick up a distress signal that Keith's mother recognizes as a code known only to senior members of the Blade. They follow it, finding a post apocalyptic planet that shows incredible signs of destruction, including marks that Krolia is able to identify as left behind by Marmora swords.
On this planet they meet a skeevy fellow named Macidus who claims that he and the people of this planet had allied with Kolivan and the Blades, who were scrambling for safety in the aftermath of Voltron's disappearance -- because the original arrival of Voltron had thrust the Blade out into the open, its agents were sitting ducks when Haggar's Druids decided to make it a point to wipe them all out. Kolivan had used the planet as a last stand to attempt to regroup, Macidus says, but they were attacked, and the bulk of them wiped out. Krolia locates a wall in Macidus's cave with several Marmora knives embedded into it, which he claims he has built to honor the Blades, and sadly notes that she recognizes most of them and trained many of them herself. Each Marmora knife is unique and tuned to its Blade's life force, she notes, pulling Kolivan's dim sword out of the wall and declaring that it is his.
The sword flickers, indicating that Kolivan is -- barely -- still alive.
After this it comes out that Macidus himself is one of Haggar's druids and one who Keith had fought previously, and after feigning an alliance with Kolivan and getting the distress code from him, he has been using it to draw in the remaining Blade and pick them all off one by one. A fight ensues, and Keith discovers Kolivan in very poor shape, suspended from the ceiling elsewhere in Macidus's cave. After Macidus is defeated, the Voltrons get Kolivan down and check over his injuries, and Kolivan apologizes that they were drawn into the mess. After he explains the situation and notes that he has no idea how many Blades are left or where they may be hiding, Krolia pledges to go with him to gather whoever is left and rebuild the Blade. Some episodes later we find that they are successful, but the moment I am taking Kolivan from is the moment when Keith and the others finally get him down from the ceiling.
Updated Personality: Nothing new to report, Kolivan is old as balls and thus eternal. Three major points of interest that I'm working in to what I had when I apped: first, at Naxzela, Kolivan at one point questioned whether a Galra cruiser ceasing fire indicated that it was retreating, and it was Keith who pointed out that the Galra are suicidal when it comes to achieving victories. This had already happened when I apped in, but later seasons show that the Galra were significantly less bloodthirsty before Zarkon turned evil, so I am taking this as confirmation that Kolivan really is from that far back and his question is a sign of his continued laid back nature, inspired by a culture separate from what the Galra have become.
Second, the fact that it's Keith of all people that Kolivan sends alone to retrieve Krolia is a display of incredible cunning and understanding on Kolivan's part. We have learned that the Blade totally knew the Blue Lion was on Earth, because Krolia went there and freaking found it. When Shiro and Keith turned up in the Lions later to form an alliance with the Blade and Keith whipped out Krolia's knife -- and we now know each knife is individually attuned to its owners -- Kolivan had to know whose knife it was, and when Keith underwent his trials and managed to wake the thing up into a sword, he thus had to know whose son Keith was. He proceeded to keep Krolia's identity and whereabouts to himself for several seasons, training Keith personally in many scenes and sending him off to fetch Krolia with the one warning he needed most, knowing that they'd figure it out and their desire to protect one another would ensure that both of them would make it off that planet alive. Given that he trusts Krolia enough to agree to her help later and she turns up later with a sash over her uniform that marks her as Blade Boss 2 and his new second in command, this sure is some huge long-term emotional manipulation...and, perhaps, an acknowledgement that if Keith and Krolia were unable to reunite now, they may never get another chance.
The third and most heart-wrenching thing: Kolivan is long established as having one (1) fear and it's losing his agents; it cuts him deeply whenever a Blade is killed. When the Voltrons find him in Macidus's cave and get him down, he has just fought one of the hardest battles of his very long life, and has spent who knows how long watching his agents killed in front of him one by one after he had done his damnedest to find them a safe sanctuary. As he is rescued, he doesn't express relief. He doesn't act shocked to see them, given that they'd been missing for three solid years and their absence is what threw the universe into this turmoil. Instead, the first thing Kolivan says is, "I am sorry that my code led you here," an acknowledgement of his regret that they were nearly killed by Macidus too. Kolivan prioritizes the lives of his Blades above all else, always.
Yes, I am doing this right before Selenium on purpose.
Updated Abilities: None. He doesn't smile for the first time onscreen until some episodes later. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
no subject
Character: Kolivan
Current Canon Point: Season 4, Episode 1
Updated Canon Point: Season 7, Episode 5
Updated Background: The vast majority of what Kolivan gets up to happens offscreen, on account of
his being so stealthy a ninja he's not even in the show most of the timethe Blade doing most of its work in the background. At Kolivan's current canonpoint, Keith had just abdicated leadership of Voltron to Cloney McShiroson and gone off with Kolivan and the Blade to focus on tracking a source of weird, potent quintessence that was floating about. Kolivan appears several episodes later when Voltron and their rebel allies, Blade included, launch an attack on a planet called Naxzela, but the focus there is on Keith as he nearly splatters himself all over a cruiser shield in an attempt to break it; Kolivan is just there. The Blade is present some while later when Prince Lotor moves to seize the throne at the Kral Zera, by which we also mean Keith, but Kolivan is not. However, the arrival of Shiro and the Black Lion at the Kral Zera is a total shock to Keith, when in the past the Blade and Voltron seemed pretty in tune with one another's movements -- a sign that Cloney is starting to get slowly brainwashier, and relevant to Kolivan's interests.Kolivan next appears at the beginning of season 5, episode 5. In the midst of the power vacuum left by Lotor taking the throne, Kolivan sends Keith on a mission to extract one of his agents from her undercover post in a warlord's base. He lectures Keith before he leaves that Emotions Are Bad and he should not give in to his feelsy impulses as he has in the past. The reason for this becomes clear later when it turns out the agent Keith is extracting is his own mother, Krolia, who Keith has been known to drop everything just for a single answer about in previous seasons. There is no way Koli did not know exactly what he was doing when he orchestrated this. Thanks, dude.
After this Kolivan drops off the radar for some time, though he remains in communication with the paladins offscreen, and it's mentioned towards the end of season 6/beginning of season 7 that after Keith and Krolia discover Lotor's little secret Altean farm he passes the coordinates along to Kolivan; later they say that Kolivan sent the Blade to investigate and found it abandoned. More importantly, after Voltron emerges from its fight against Lotor in the quintessence rift, they discover that it's been three years since they disappeared into it, thanks to bullshit space wibbly wobbly timey wimey. Kolivan would have spent those three years scrambling to hold the Blade together in Voltron's absence. Sure enough, season 7 episode 5 arrives, and Team Voltron, on their way to Earth, pick up a distress signal that Keith's mother recognizes as a code known only to senior members of the Blade. They follow it, finding a post apocalyptic planet that shows incredible signs of destruction, including marks that Krolia is able to identify as left behind by Marmora swords.
On this planet they meet a skeevy fellow named Macidus who claims that he and the people of this planet had allied with Kolivan and the Blades, who were scrambling for safety in the aftermath of Voltron's disappearance -- because the original arrival of Voltron had thrust the Blade out into the open, its agents were sitting ducks when Haggar's Druids decided to make it a point to wipe them all out. Kolivan had used the planet as a last stand to attempt to regroup, Macidus says, but they were attacked, and the bulk of them wiped out. Krolia locates a wall in Macidus's cave with several Marmora knives embedded into it, which he claims he has built to honor the Blades, and sadly notes that she recognizes most of them and trained many of them herself. Each Marmora knife is unique and tuned to its Blade's life force, she notes, pulling Kolivan's dim sword out of the wall and declaring that it is his.
The sword flickers, indicating that Kolivan is -- barely -- still alive.
After this it comes out that Macidus himself is one of Haggar's druids and one who Keith had fought previously, and after feigning an alliance with Kolivan and getting the distress code from him, he has been using it to draw in the remaining Blade and pick them all off one by one. A fight ensues, and Keith discovers Kolivan in very poor shape, suspended from the ceiling elsewhere in Macidus's cave. After Macidus is defeated, the Voltrons get Kolivan down and check over his injuries, and Kolivan apologizes that they were drawn into the mess. After he explains the situation and notes that he has no idea how many Blades are left or where they may be hiding, Krolia pledges to go with him to gather whoever is left and rebuild the Blade. Some episodes later we find that they are successful, but the moment I am taking Kolivan from is the moment when Keith and the others finally get him down from the ceiling.
Updated Personality: Nothing new to report, Kolivan is old as balls and thus eternal. Three major points of interest that I'm working in to what I had when I apped: first, at Naxzela, Kolivan at one point questioned whether a Galra cruiser ceasing fire indicated that it was retreating, and it was Keith who pointed out that the Galra are suicidal when it comes to achieving victories. This had already happened when I apped in, but later seasons show that the Galra were significantly less bloodthirsty before Zarkon turned evil, so I am taking this as confirmation that Kolivan really is from that far back and his question is a sign of his continued laid back nature, inspired by a culture separate from what the Galra have become.
Second, the fact that it's Keith of all people that Kolivan sends alone to retrieve Krolia is a display of incredible cunning and understanding on Kolivan's part. We have learned that the Blade totally knew the Blue Lion was on Earth, because Krolia went there and freaking found it. When Shiro and Keith turned up in the Lions later to form an alliance with the Blade and Keith whipped out Krolia's knife -- and we now know each knife is individually attuned to its owners -- Kolivan had to know whose knife it was, and when Keith underwent his trials and managed to wake the thing up into a sword, he thus had to know whose son Keith was. He proceeded to keep Krolia's identity and whereabouts to himself for several seasons, training Keith personally in many scenes and sending him off to fetch Krolia with the one warning he needed most, knowing that they'd figure it out and their desire to protect one another would ensure that both of them would make it off that planet alive. Given that he trusts Krolia enough to agree to her help later and she turns up later with a sash over her uniform that marks her as Blade Boss 2 and his new second in command, this sure is some huge long-term emotional manipulation...and, perhaps, an acknowledgement that if Keith and Krolia were unable to reunite now, they may never get another chance.
The third and most heart-wrenching thing: Kolivan is long established as having one (1) fear and it's losing his agents; it cuts him deeply whenever a Blade is killed. When the Voltrons find him in Macidus's cave and get him down, he has just fought one of the hardest battles of his very long life, and has spent who knows how long watching his agents killed in front of him one by one after he had done his damnedest to find them a safe sanctuary. As he is rescued, he doesn't express relief. He doesn't act shocked to see them, given that they'd been missing for three solid years and their absence is what threw the universe into this turmoil. Instead, the first thing Kolivan says is, "I am sorry that my code led you here," an acknowledgement of his regret that they were nearly killed by Macidus too. Kolivan prioritizes the lives of his Blades above all else, always.
Yes, I am doing this right before Selenium on purpose.
Updated Abilities: None. He doesn't smile for the first time onscreen until some episodes later. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ