voltronheadcanons:

Okay, but one of the things that I noticed right off the bat the first time I watched the Balmera arc is the design of Shay’s people.

I didn’t immediately connect Shay’s voice to her on-screen character because I was expecting a very feminine design to match a female voice actress; in almost every story about an alien or fantasy race, you immediately know who’s female in the bunch because they look exactly like human women, as compared to the males who can pretty much look like anything.

Case in point:

So when I didn’t see a stereotypical female design for the Balmerans, it threw me for a minute. Because Shay and her grandmother look very similar to Rax and the other male Balmerans. They have thick, knobby skin and sharp claws rather than slender arms and graceful fingers. Maybe their earring-things differentiate between genders (who’s to say Balmerans are only male/female?) but I’m seeing a distinct lack of boobs, makeup (long eyelashes, lipstick) and long hair that usually identify an alien woman.

Nope, still not seeing it.

It’s a super small thing and not very important to the overall story of Voltron, but this is one of the first times I’ve ever seen alien women designed like this and I think it’s so cool.