Black Lion (Legendary Defender)

This article is about the lion as it appears in Voltron: Legendary Defender-related interpretations. For a list of other meanings, see Black Lion (disambiguation).

Guardian Spirit of the Sky
Pilot	Keith (current) Shiro (formerly) Zarkon (formerly)
Elemental affiliation	Air
Weapons	Tail laser Mouth cannon Jaw blade Ephemeral Wings

The Black Lion is one of the components of Voltron, serving as the torso and head of the giant robot, whose current Paladin is Keith. The Black Lion is the largest of the 5 Robot Lions, and can only be piloted by a person who is a natural leader, calm and collected in the face of danger.

Weapons

The Black Lion has lasers that eject from its mouth. If aimed correctly, then the lasers have the ability to blow clean through a Galra ship.

Shiro, if he chooses to do so can create a jaw blade for the Black Lion. This makes close - range combat or the destruction of a full Galra commander ship easy, especially when the Black Lion is large and able to take hits.

The Black Lion would show Shiro a vision with one of its hidden abilities, its wings could expand to have several energy-bladed feathers that could destroy many ships in one pass or drastically increase the speed of travel, in Keith's case. Later, during a climatic fight against a suit of giant Robeast armor piloted by Zarkon, Shiro unlocked this weapon himself to save the others. It was also revealed that in this state the Black Lion can be enveloped in purple energy, giving the Lion a massive speed boost and seemingly the power to mystically phase through solid objects. This also allowed Shiro to take the black bayard from Zarkon who was in his armor through teleportation, and Keith to save his comrades.

While it is unknown if the bayard can grant a unique weapon by itself, when activated with the sword formed the sword was covered in a blazing aura that greatly increased the damage it dealt. When again used at the same time as the red bayard, Voltron's wings grow in size and gain booster rockets which allows the machine to fly at incredible speeds.

Finally, the wings of the Black Lion can be used as a shield when used with Voltron. This is used for defense against attacks from other ships. It was especially useful against the robot gladiator Myzax.

Ultimately, the most astonishing capability that the Black Lion possesses is not in any energy blasts, phasing powers, or superluminal space flight. Rather, Black's most mysterious and remarkable trait is its ability to preserve the consciousness of a dead or dying being within its own mind. This was done to Shiro following his death in the final strike during the Paladins' battle against Zarkon and his mech suit. Shiro's consciousness was later transferred into the body of a clone, achieved by Allura.

Trivia

• Despite being the Black Lion, the light it emits is actually purple due to black being an absence of light and purple being a very dark color. This separates it from the other four lions who emit their own signature color when powering up.
• The Black Lion’s cockpit and contrail coloration is likely a clever twist on the overall scheme of each lion having a matching color; in this case, the Black Lion emits black light, aka ultraviolet, which in the human visual range appears as a deep purple.
• Zarkon refers to the Black Lion as ‘him’ several times during the season two episode ‘Best Laid Plans’, though he may also be referring to Shiro as its pilot.
• Unlike the other lions, the Black Lion has nothing resembling ears, and instead has a golden crest resembling horns or a crown, although some may argue that the 'horns' are the Black Lion's ears.
• The Black Lion is the only one with a red nose.
• The Black Lion is also the only one with wings, and is also the only lion with anything resembling 'eyebrows' as it has two lights above its eyes. It can also be said that it has the only thing resembling whiskers, referencing the three light lines on its cheeks.
• Although the Black Lion has yellow, black and red, it has no green or blue on its design with the exception of the bright teal lights on its face, chest, and wings.
• All pilots of the Black Lion have, in someway been affiliated with the Galra species,(Ex: Zarkon was the former Emperor of the Galra Empire, Shiro was captured by the Galra and had his right arm replaced with Cybernetics and Keith has a Galra mother and Human father).