All in all, Allura thought she and Coran really couldn't be doing any better under the circumstances.

After all, waking up after a 10,000 year cryosleep only to find that most of the universe has been taken over by your father's mortal enemy wasn't something that most Altean princesses had had to deal with. As a result there wasn't exactly a precedence for what to do in the aftermath.

Having one of said mortal enemies battleships heading in your direction whilst you and the only other surviving member of your species was trapped in a grounded spaceship did help to narrow the options though. Allura was sure that if any of her ancestors had been in her position they would have done the same thing she had done. Or at least she hoped they would have.

Choosing a paladin of Voltron had always been a long-winded and selective process. There were usually trials and tests to help narrow it down. Even after a potentially suitable lifeform (the lions weren't entirely picky when it came to the number of limbs or the texture of flesh) had been chosen there was still months of training to endure. Maybe even years depending on the experience of the person.

And after all of that hard work there was always a chance that the lion in question would still reject the chosen paladin (the lions were picky about minor idiosyncrasies as it turned out) and the search would have to start all over again. The process was only sped up or skipped entirely when a pressing matter of importance presented itself.

Considering they faced immediate destruction, the universe being left in the hands of an intergalactic dictator, and the chance of the lions to fall into the wrong hands; Princess Allura of Altea had decided that she was in the midst of a very pressing matter.

And things had worked out far better than she had hoped.

In all honesty, when she and Coran had been awakened from their sleep by five creatures of undefinable origin Allura had been more than a little… perturbed. As a result she had been a bit more impatient than she normally would have been.

They hadn't seemed hostile, so that had been a point in their favor almost immediately.

They were reasonably intelligent, though clearly out of their element.

They were clearly NOT residents of the planet the castle had landed on given their nervousness about, well, everything.

And they had some of the most hideous ears she had ever seen. Allura had seriously believed for a quick moment that the tips of their ears must have been clipped off or something, but apparently this wasn't the case. What evolutionary benefit there was in rounded ears, she couldn't tell but they had been so out of the norm for the princess that it took Zarcon's fleet attacking to get her to stop staring at them.

And these five aliens of undefinable origin, that weren't really all that hostile, were reasonably intelligent (though sometimes Allura had her doubts), and with absolutely ugly ears were the new paladins of Voltron.

Her ancestors were probably rolling in their graves.

It wasn't that Shiro, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, or Keith were BAD paladins per say.

Inexperienced and clearly out of their element? Yes.

But they learned and adapted quickly. And it had been surprising how easily each had been accepted by their respective lions. The lions had rejected far more experienced candidates for paladins in the past, so this was a notable accomplishment.

Allura was sure that the situation they found themselves in may have played a part in the lions willingness, and besides that her father had taught her what to look for in a paladin on the off chance she would have to appoint one some day. So she hadn't walked into the situation COMPLETELY blind.

Still even after the five had succeeded in forming Voltron and beating back Sendak's forces temporarily, there were many questions that needed answering.

How had the five found the blue lion? What were they doing looking for it in the first place? How long had it taken them to reach Arus and awaken her and Coran from their cryo-sleep?

The group had been more than happy to answer all of these questions for her, and Allura was thankful to have gotten a fuller picture of the kind of people she was dealing with.

But there were other questions. Ones Allura feared the five might find somewhat offensive.

Like, how peaceful was their planet? Was it under Zarkon's control? How advanced were their technology? Did everyone on their homeworld have such hideously rounded ears? (She had gotten used to them eventually but, seriously?!)

Not all people on all planets appreciated being placed under a microscope and inspected for any potential faults. And Allura could see why. Being looked at by another race of creatures you knew very little about and judged as though you were some strange exhibit to point and find fault in likely wasn't a very good feeling. Especially when you likely found the one doing the judging very strange looking yourself.

So instead, Allura had fallen back on the data the castle had extracted from the five. Their bodies general makeup, their DNA, anything. All In an attempt to get some kind of species classification.

And she found nothing.

It hadn't been surprising really. From what she could understand earthlings, or humans as they called themselves, hadn't managed to attain the technological ability to perform even the simplest form of space travel until very recently in their history. And they hadn't gotten very far with what they did have.

There was no chance the castle of lions, nor any Altean spacecraft for that matter, could manage to pick up any signal from the planet for the simple reason that there was nothing to pick up. She had only managed to pinpoint the planet's potential location on their navigation system by extracting data from both the castles initial scan as well as from the blue lion. And even then it was only a general point in a far off galaxy.

But it was enough to answer a few of her more pressing questions.

Earth was NOT under Zarkon's control. It was placed a little distance out of the empires domain. The five had seemed pretty insistent about it but Allura had wanted to be sure. For one it was possible the planet had been taken over after they had left. And for another it was possible they were lying.

Doubting them had been shameful. But she had been confused and even a little scared. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility that Zarkon would set her up with a group of fake paladins and play out some kind of emergency situation as a way to get his hands on Voltron.

Thankfully any chance of that seemed nonexistent.

Chances were Zarkon's empire had only been interested in earth for one reason. And that was the blue lion. With it now gone and in the paladins hands, Zarkon's focus would be shifted away from the paladins home planet. At least for the time being.

Which was good. From what Allura could understand earth was still a fledgling planet in terms of intergalactic politics. They had never contacted, or been contacted by, another planet. They hadn't managed to move even beyond their own solar system, and their basic weaponry wasn't nearly on the intergalactic scale.

Against Zarkon's forces earth wouldn't stand a chance.

Thankfully the new paladins understood this all too well, and the fact seemed to be enough to silently push the five forward.

It pushed Allura forward too.

The universe she knew when she was young, with its seemingly endless possibilities and cultures, was gone.

In it's place, Zarkon had created a universe ruled by fear and cruelty. Where the weak were enslaved and the strong brandished a whip.

Earth was part of a quickly shrinking minority. Perhaps one of the few remaining worlds in the whole of the universe left untouched by Zarkon's iron fist.

In a strange way that little out of the way planet represented a dim hope.

Even after 10,000 years there still remained dim vestiges of freedom among the cosmos. Those far removed planets populated by dim civilizations of people, not yet far enough in their development to traverse farther than their solar system, proved that the galra empire hadn't won yet. Zarkon didn't truly rule the universe. Not yet.

And the new paladins of Voltron came from one of those planets. Where the last flickering flames of hope still silently burned. Their world had not yet forgotten things like justice and bravery.

Allura supposed that in a way, that made the five more qualified than anyone in the universe.

They had the capability to instill that feeling into others. To drive them forward.

Just as they had down with her.

So, really, Allura and Coran could not have hoped for better circumstances or a better set of paladins.

Even if their ears were ugly.