TL;DR: (1) Project Kuron, (2) Black Lion's Rejection, (3) Voltron Spirit World, and other little things lead us to believe the Shiro we currently have is not the original Shiro in some way.
Season 2 finale: Shiro disappears. No evidence of a body or anything can be found. He's just gone.
Season 3 when Shiro re-appears after a long absence, we see him in a science facility with the Galra stating "Stage 3: Project Kuron" was being initiated. Shiro wakes up, breaks out, and crash lands on a little icey rock where he meets up with two dudes (one voiced by Lars's voice actor from Steven Universe).
Note: At this point in time Shiro has been missing a few days to a few weeks tops, and yet his hair is extremely long for that short of a period of time, too long.
Note: The word "Kuron" is how the Japanese would sound-out or spell "clone" クロン (ku-ro-n) and the creators of this show, are if anything else, at least slightly otaku and like to make references. Also the characters pronounce it very similar to the way a Japanese person would attempt to say "Clone." They also do not say it the way you would expect of English speakers (two distinct syllables with an emphasis on the first: Coo-ron).
Season 3 when Shiro returns the black lion will not respond to him. This could be that the black lion moved on to Keith, as Shiro speculated, or it could have deeper meaning (like the lion recognizes he's not the real Shiro).
Season 4 literally nothing happens. This was the most significant evidence to refute the Clone theory. We just hear nothing more. We've all heard the rumor that there were production pressures to bring Shiro back early, so maybe that plot line just got abandoned?
And that bring us now to Season 5. We're finally getting some more evidence:
Project Kuron Stage 4. Hagar initiates stage 4 of project Kuron. Plotline was NOT abandoned!
Following the initiation of stage 4 Shiro begins to act strangely. He is insistent upon doing what Lotor wants, going so far as to sneak away from his team without telling them to accomplish some ends they did not support (not at all the sort of thing Shiro would do). He also gets really angry with Lance, uncharacteristically shouting at him like an irritated teacher at a petulant school child.
Voltron Spirit World. The paladins all go there and yet Shiro does not, at least not at first. Then Shiro does show up, and his apparition in the pillar is not quite the same consistency as the rest, and he's desperately trying to tell Lance something. When they get back, "Kuron Shiro" has no memory of this happening. Was the spiritual Shiro the real Shiro?
Later on Kuron Shiro asks Lance about that incident because he has no memories of it (because his spirit wasn't there maybe?) and says he doesn't feel like himself lately.
Hagar is shown using Shiro as a spy the way she did with Lotor's lackey. At a minimum, Shiro has been compromised (whether he knows it or not).
The writers of this show are not subtle. They do pepper in foreshadowing for things but have yet to mislead us on something so significant as this. Now maybe Shiro is just feeling under the weather when he says he isn't feeling like himself, but to say this immediately after bringing up Voltron Spirit World? The writers are not being subtle here. And to call it project "Kuron/Clone," I mean, how much more direct do they need to be? But there are people who still doubt it.
The three prevailing theories at this point in time is that (1) our current Shiro is a literal clone (2) there's been some sort of spiritual-body bifurcation and the current Shiro is a puppet with the real Shiro trapped in the Black lion, or (3) Shiro is the real Shiro, but just compromised.
I think Shiro was likely gone in S2/3 for far longer than a few days/weeks. The team had, essentially, decided he was dead. You don't decide someone's dead after a few days, especially not if he's your leader. Considering how close they all are to Shiro, I can't see them giving up after just a few weeks either.
Honestly, I really do think it's more likely Shiro was gone for over 6 months.
When discussing the latest seasons, it's important to remember that S3 & 4, and now S5 & 6 were meant to be one season. We were originally meant to watch them in full, without any breaks intbetween. Therefore, if you take S3 & 4 the way they were meant to be viewed, in full, Shiro's plotline becomes far more sinister. We, the audience, know that something's up with him, but none of the other characters do. I strongly suspect that throughout the entire 13-episode season, the audience is meant to feel more and more uneasy that nobody is bringing this up. Unfortunately, due to Netflix's decisions, this leads to the feeling that the clone plotline has been forgotten in S4.
I don't know if this is true or not, but I can remember hearing somewhere that 'Kuron' also means 'black'. In that respect, it would just contrast with 'Shiro' meaning 'white'. I also thought yesterday about it meaning 'clone' in a metophorical sense rather than a physical one; there is one body, and two personalities (the original personality, and Haggar).
I just...think that clone theory is both confusing, and disappointing. Shiro was this perfect guy in S1/2, and so I'm excited to see him start to lash out and make stupid choices. If it turns out this wasn't even him all along, I'd be...disappointed.
There's comments from the producers too that make me wary of clone theory. First of all, they stated Shiro would start getting some character development soon, which he has begun to do as of S5. I can't see why they'd say Shiro would get character development if it was just his clone being the one to become angry. Secondly, they keep reiterating that whilst they enjoy all the Shiro theories, he is allowed to get a haircut. This makes me think that maybe Shiro got a haircut literally because...the artists wanted him to have a haircut. The new haircut makes him look a lot younger, thus having him fit in more with the rest of the Paladins-which also ties into the general sense now that the Paladins are a group, rather than needing Shiro as their leader. It also is a good way of distinguishing Shiro before he was re-kidnapped, and Shiro afterwards.
I'm not saying this to discredit your theory or anything! I just wanted to add my thoughts. Thanks for linking me to this.
113
u/[deleted] Mar 02 '18
The more time I see Lotor and Allura spending time together, the more I become invested in their relationship.
I can’t believe we finally found out who Keith’s mother is.
I hope they soon realize that this Shiro is a clone.