I have a lot of thoughts on the Krolia and Acxa angle which I’ve yet to organize them well but I’m just going to say this: Acxa is NOT Krolia’s sister. She’s no where near old enough to be Krolia’s age. For comparison this is Acxa
and this is Krolia
Acxa’s face is round with large eyes. in contrast to Krolia’s sharp angular features. While vld is typically pretty bad with “aging” characters, one definite way they show age is by sharp features. For comparison, look at Shiro in comparison to Keith’s dad. Both have a wide chin, but Keith’s dad’s features are more angular and sunken, showing his age over Shiro.
If anything, Acxa resembles more her father than she does Krolia in a significant way that suggest the two share parents. Exhibit A
Acxa has the same eye color, nose, chin, and while they’re more galra-like her ears are more reminiscent of Dad Kogane’s than they are similar to Krolia. And even with the same jawline, Acxa’s babyfaced. She’s younger than Krolia by a large margin and if she were her sister Acxa wouldn’tresemble Krolia’s husband by any means.
And their personalities couldn’t be more distinct across age barriers. Acxa is without a doubt a bratty teenager, and I mean it in the most loving of ways. Yes, she is serious, but her seriousness comes from a sense of defiant, petulant attitude. When she saves Keith in ep4 instead of giving him a simple glare of “don’t get me wrong, we’re not friends” it’s this defiant, pointed look that she doesn’t even drop when she turns to leave.
Interacting with Keith’s before in s2ep9 shows how she’s willing to take advantage of Keith’s kindness and protection, and not care to give equal parts return. The scene highlighted in the gif, shows that while Acxa has character enough to payback Keith for what happened in the weblum, she’s clearly too obsinate to give him more than a fraction back of what he did back then. Yeah, she can payback, but frankly she’s not willing to do it and makes it clear that she’s doing it out of obligation, not appreciation for what he did before. Such obvious presentation is evidence of immaturity in her part. And to further add to it
this is not a line said by an adult in their 40s/50s. It’s dramatic and frankly kind of edgy. And notice how she postures herself in this scene with her legs up like that, it’s such a young person thing to do, and I can’t imagine someone who’s had a sister old enough to have a 20 year old child would do. It’s very much teenage sulkiness. And finally, her interactions with her fellow generals betray how very much they’re in the same age group. While they’re willing to listen to Acxa when it comes to the heat in battle, outside of that they wave away her grumpy, stick-in-the-mud attitude to go tease the lower ranked soldiers. If Acxa were older, her word in that exchange and attitude would carry more weight than it does.
Contrast this with Krolia’s attitude with Keith, who’s not only his mom but also his superior officer. While Acxa is willing to shell out all her insolent bratty attitude at Keith, Krolia, while curt, is serious and calm. She never lets her emotions define her actions. It’s only when her son’s life is on the line that she compromises the mission. When she silences Keith later on it’s absolute and carries the same weight as someone who’s a long-time seasoned soldier in the army would have it. The same happens when she addresses Trugg.
And to end this, Acxa is not some distant much younger sister to Krolia. For one, Acxa’s paralleled to Keith. Keith meets her first in s2ep9 and they from the start and have a bratty fight-lanced shaky partnership. And later on they clash weapons with neither gaining an inch to the matter. The show has made it clear that Acxa is a mirror to Keith – it wouldn’t make sense to go and say she’s this older relative position. And as such, they read more like fighting, rival siblings moreso than an aunt and nephew dynamic. If Acxa was Krolia’s sister she’ll more likely to have this rivalry with her own sister, not her nephew. And going back to Krolia
Krolia’s uses Acxa’s weapon type and fighting style. If rival siblings Krolia and Acxa were to be a thing, this overlap would not exist at all. Rivals, and especially siblings, never overlap like this, especially when you consider how Krolia too uses her son’s weapon type and fighting style. If Acxa and Krolia were sisters, this overlap would make the dynamic much more disjointed. Acxa and Keith inheriting branches of Krolia’s fighting style makes much more for a smoother, cleaner narrative foils than the other option does.
So to conclude, Acxa’s not intended to be Krolia’s sister, but her daughter. It’s apparent not only in appearance but also in personality and interactions with Keith. Heck, one could even argue Acxa is younger than Keith based on the bratty attitude and disregard she gives him. And ultimately it makes for better foiling, as Acxa and Keith represent the rivaling sibling foils to Matt and Pidge, the siblings that get along more.
i find it fascinating that we’ve twice seen Shiro stare down a blade to the face and not even blink. and it reminds me of a discussion i had with @equineporcupine about Shiro, and an important aspect of his character: Shiro does not fear death.
i don’t mean “Shiro wants to die” because i don’t think he does – someone who actively wanted to die wouldn’t survive a year in the gladiator pits. i mean that Shiro isn’t afraid to die.
death is inevitable for all of us – there’s no way to avoid it – but most people don’t like to think about it too much because it makes us uncomfortable. we’d rather joke about it or avoid it. but Shiro… he spent a year in an alien prison with no realistic hope of rescue or release. thinking about his own mortality was inescapable.
there must have been multiple times in the arena or the labs when he thought “this is it. this is how i die”. there must have been multiple times when he sat alone in his prison cell and thought about the inevitability of his own demise, and wondered which particular alien evil would finally kill him. there must have been multiple times when he faced monsters and thought “there’s no way i’ll survive this”
but he did.
Shiro was forced to acknowledge, time and time again, that he might die at any moment – maybe this moment, maybe the next – maybe today, or tomorrow. he faced his own death so many times he stopped being afraid of it.
and now he doesn’t fear death anymore.
and it makes him incredibly powerful.
he’s powerful because he has accepted, on a bone-deep level, that at some point he’ll die (because we all will) and that he probably can’t control when or how that will be (because most of us can’t). but his reaction to that is to try and live the best life he can in the time he’s given. which is why he was still fighting back against his captors after a year in the Galra prisons, and why he fought so hard to survive in the arena, and why he never gave up.
and it’s why he can stare down a blade to the face and not blink. because if this is the blade that kills him – if this is how he dies – then that’s okay. he’ll die fighting, and protecting his friends, and he’ll die with his soul intact, and that’s all he can ask for.
Shiro just… he looks death in the eye, and winks, and says: “not today”
saratogaroad 