#also more el gee bee tee happenings

[see-arcane]

Alright, I thought this wouldn’t bug me as much this time around, but I was wrong.

I love this book. For all its faults, for all the author’s faults, I love this book. So much. But the one thing that has always nettled me most in terms of the plot itself? 

This novel is two entirely different books. Seriously.

The first half is pure horror. Even if we took out the supernatural medical mystery of Lucy’s nightmare, Jonathan’s time in the castle is its own prime gothic novella. It’s mad and macabre and magnificent in the dread it instills.

Then the second half turns into a ‘slay the dragon’ chase adventure with a ‘save the maiden!’ undertone. Obviously there’s a horror element still at play—Mina is very much in danger of far worse than death, Jonathan is ready to damn himself for her, the Suitors Three and Van Helsing are sticking their necks out for the good of all, Dracula is Dracula…

Except not.

The menacing, nigh omnipotent self-made demon and manipulative mastermind Count Dracula we knew in the first half of the book no longer exists by this point.

What we have now is a cowardly cartoon villain running home rather than actually sticking around to, you know, Do Some Violence and Vengeance as Advertised. Much as I believe Stoker fully intended this as an example of conquering a monstrous threat via teamwork, foreknowledge, preparation, love, and Incredible Lawyerly Violence, it just does not gel for me. It never has. 

Because really, much as it’s fun to point and laugh at this bastard getting his ass handed to him by our heroes as he goes crying back to Transylvania in his straw hat and sad little dirt box, it does not do the villain or his impending defeat any justice. If anything, it looks like Dracula left half his brain back in Romania (and that Stoker was maybe fudging the build to the climax).

Think about it. If this guy really was a Satanic Scholomance-taught sorcerer, monster, boyar, and centuries-old genius and planner, etc, etc, along with being Vlad the Impaler, is it seriously in-character to have him just ditch at the first sign of a Cross and some holy crackers? England is covered in churches. So is Europe. So is, you know, Romania. You can’t throw a stone without hitting a holy house. And those same locals who tried to arm Jonathan against bloodsuckers with the Exact Same wards Van Helsing had to do research to gather up, were still terrified. Dracula still snatched two kids out of their homes—homes we can assume were well-armed with crucifixes and fearful folklore shields.

If all it took was a few strapping youths and a Dutch grandpa armed with Christly accoutrement and some sharp wood to take this guy out, wouldn’t he have been slain ages ago?

And yet now! Now he’s afraid! Now he runs away rather than, say, drumming up some undead soldiers outside of their heroic circle. Or calling a storm down to lightning them the second they leave their home. Or using his legion’s worth of strength to chuck a carriage at their heads. Or going full-blown medieval on his enemies and sharpening his own tall pikes to make an impaled example of them…or some poor innocent schmucks to plant outside the asylum some night as a warning. Or setting fire to the asylum. Or abusing his enemies’ good hearts and take a hostage until they shed their holy tools. Or at least doing more than taking a petty parting shot by turning Mina and using her as a (foolish) two-way spying vehicle.

Something, Vlad. Something with a little more bite to it.

As it stands, I am glad for the heroes’ sake that they have the bogeyman on the run. But for the story’s sake, and for the threat’s sake, I wish there had been more menace in play. More of a hazard to conquer than a Dracula who turns so suddenly lackluster and lazy as to retreat after one sour confrontation. Give the heroes some real stakes (ha ha) beyond ‘Oh no! Girl 2 is in peril! Oh no! Other future damsels will be in peril! But at least we have the dastardly fiend on the run!’

If it makes any sense, I wish the heroes were a little more afraid than just incensed and righteous. Jonathan is afraid, of course, but he also has the excuse of being enraged and in love enough to overpower his background of trauma and terror at Dracula’s hands. Mina is mentally locking herself down against the unthinkable, period. The others get to ride the high of knowing Van Helsing’s intel and their sacred armory have given them the advantage. They’re worried, but confident, full of adrenaline, it’s all so harrowing..!

And that’s just not horror anymore.  

#gripe gripe whine whine #honestly a lot of this could just be my callused horror-glutton heart complaining #Mr. Stoker get back here and make your novel more fucked up please #honestly this is half the reason I'm writing the Barking Harker thing #I want more horror in my horror #also more el gee bee tee happenings #and more monsters #and more Fucked Uppery in general #anyway #horror #dracula #dracula daily #vlad the impaler #bram stoker

[theonlyadawong]

me: it's completely unrealistic for people to develop intense romantic feelings with each other during these outbreaks, and that's why most re ships fall flat for me. these people don't even know each other.

also me: there was something yuri-licious going on between rain and alice in the less than 3 hours they knew each other

#speakerphone! #its differenr with them i swearrrrrr #you just gotta trust meeeeeee #believe me believe me believe me #i mean. i most certainly dont believe they were in love. #and both are quite desperate to finish the job with their lives #but if they had more time... i know... i know something el gee bee tee would have happened between them. #ik rain comes back in the next one but im really putting that one off. #its also the ada movie and. idk they can butcher anyone else and i wont care... but ada? nay...

[colemckenzies]

hi sorry to bother you but do you have any advice on how to make friends in your 20s? seeing you happy and enjoying your friendship group is so good and wholesome and everything i kind of want out of my life lol <3 any advice appreciated!

aw this is so nice!!!

i mean the biggest impetus for me was moving to a new city where i knew literally not a single person and then living alone in said city, so i had no choice but to go out and meet people like there was nothing else i could do. and i will say it has been really hard, particularly as i work full-time and study part-time, and have been recovering from some Stuff that happened in 2020, and even now it's sometimes A Lot because it does take me a solid 5 years of knowing someone before I'm like Yes Okay We Are For Real Friends And I Can Be Myself With You lol. but it has also been really gratifying and i do always recommend getting out there and connecting w people irl!!!

i obviously don't know what you're situation is or how much it aligns w my experience but with that said here are my Top Tips:

apps. when i first moved i met most people my age through Bumble BFF which is a bit cringe and awkward but it was a great starting point, it basically kick-started my entire social life bc you know that the people on it are ALSO actively looking for friends (literally the first person i met was so invested that they threw loads of networking events for everyone they had met and started a groupchat and i met a lot of people that way). also tinder lmao the two people i talk to/hang out with most are both people i met on tinder it's a great way to specifically roll with the el gee bee tees

clubs/societies. personally i find clubs really hard to commit to (see the work/uni time commitment lol i just get too tired) but the thing to remember is you don't have to do them forever. i joined all sorts of groups for a few months, and then when there were people there i really liked (who i knew shared an interest in whatever thing it was) i just stayed in contact with them. and then obviously if you really like a group you can keep doing it (i still do theatre and LOVE literally everyone there). these groups are good as well because they really cultivate Local Community investment in particular and i think it's important to interact w people from different backgrounds/age groups you wouldn't necessarily be Friends with but like they ARE your local community

community centres/local businesses. like that tiktok that says about Just Show Up Somewhere Regularly, like this could be going to your favourite coffee shop/community space and then just keeping an eye out for who else is always there at the same time as you, but ALSO could be more active than that. most of my main friend group are big contributors to the local queer arts scene and organise events w the local arts centre/pubs/etc so don't be afraid to ask your local institutions what's going on or if you can volunteer. again i think actively investing in local community is really key here and provides you a wide net to rely on and full of more individuals you can meet one-on-one

group chats are your friend. i love a groupchat these days i used to hate friendship groups in school bc it was so cliquey and required so much maintenance and ive always preferred hanging out with people one-on-one (still do) but now im in sooo many groupchats and it's nice if i have a free evening and feel like doing something and i can just post 'hey is anyone free' and then people r free and sometimes they will bring people THEY know and then i meet more people.

reddit. was not expecting this to be a thing and i only had an account for a very short while but my city's subreddit was SO useful when i first moved for finding out about events/clubs that weren't advertised elsewhere and getting local insider info. i personally didn't meet anyone this way but i know they did organise meet-ups and have a CITY DISCORD SERVER so that may work for u if your city has something like that lmao

be open to making friends. with the above said as ways to meet people u have to be willing to actually make friends with people!! in my town instagram seems to be the main way to low-committal connect w people so i made a public account and now whenever i meet the vaguest stranger at an event who seems cool im like oh yeah let's follow each other lol. say yes when people invite you places and be willing to invite other people to hang out if you think you would be friends! a good way to bridge the gap between Acquaintances and Friends is to tell the acquaintance abt something you're doing anyway so then it's no pressure. like if you're part of a local group (see point 2) or going to an event (see point 3) just be like 'oh I'll be at this thing maybe see you there!' and then if they are there you can talk to them more and if you do this enough times you are now friends. or just in general be willing to (casually) do nice things for people even if it might seem a bit weird like when I got new neighbours i put my phone number through their letterbox in case they needed anything i got someone i didn't know That well a gift just because it was something specific they'd been talking about i thought they would like i saw someone on instagram say they loved handwritten letters so i asked if they minded sharing their address - as long as you're polite and not pushy about it and don't mind if people just ignore it then it's nice!

cast a wide net. as u may have noted from the above points lol i think it mostly comes down to meeting EVERYONE and being open to EVERYTHING and not putting too much pressure on anything or anyone in particular so that you will just organically get closer with the people you're supposed to get close with and nothing is forced. its great to find your Platonic Soulmate or w/e but you do also just need a certain base level of socialisation and u gotta work with what you have. if you just assume that most human beings you interact with on a day to day basis are kind people with good intentions not only does life feel a lot easier but it's easier to remember that you are just Someone Who Lives In A Place and so are they and it's all fine.

think about people you already know. obviously it's great when you really Click with someone and meeting new people is refreshing and interesting but is there anyone you already know nearby who you've never been Friends friends with but you get on and could see yourself being friends if you actually invested time in it? reach out!! i think this is esp good bc as much as personality is a factor in friends never underestimate the power of just Knowing Their Name For A Long Time lmao. shared reference points in your history are huge even if you didn't actually talk to them at the time those reference points happened.

still take time for yourself. obviously the above takes a lot of time and energy and emotional effort and it's taken me over a year to get to the point that im at. sometimes it's really hard because i will have plans literally every day of the week and ive met so many people i COULD be friends with and then i feel guilty bc i haven't seen X person for three months lol. but i think it's nice to know that you COULD meet up with someone and invest in any one of those friendships you have but instead you are going to Choose to spend the weekend by yourself bc you are an individual WITHIN this large web of interconnected people and u still exist the whole time. like at the end of the day i am still in fact an introvert and when im with people i don't know that well i still mask a lot so i do need to take time to be by myself sometimes! and everyone is fine w that !

#i hope this is like. readable. sorry for block text. #idk if this makes sense or is applicable but this has been my experience! #sorry its long if u have any more qs just ask!!

[imaketheladiesmcswoon]

i am going to tell you about my melissa tgwdlm hcs now because i want to

me rn:

alrighty let’s start w the el gee bee tees

i hc melissa as an ace lesbian and a trans girl (she/her for now)

also i hc her and ted as being quite close friends coz they just like to gossip about everyone at ccrp

trans woman/trans man solidarity 😌

yes i hc ted spankoffski as a trans man but i think you already knew that *glances at icon*

also i made this oc, a person called lotte who works at beanies and in my hc melissa has a crush on herrr

ooo wait lemme make a picrew of her

lotte - they/she - transfem nonbinary ace grayro sapphic (im thinking probably lesbian but i’m not sure yet)

melissa and lotte t4t ace4ace girlfriends <33

also the hc is that they’re one of zoeys theatre friends

as well i hc melissa as being mixed (half white half latina (mexican to be more specific)) and she knows some spanish but isn’t fully fluent

ik most of these hcs are so ooc and random but idc <3

also hc that melissa has a lil lesbian flag on her clipboard and one day ted saw it (before ted and melissa became friends, this was like their first interaction probs like within a week of melissa joining ccrp) and was like “fuck yeah women am i right“ and melissa was so scared but was like “yeah women are great“

about trans melissa i have this hc that melissa had to take time off work to go get her top surgery and when mr davidson asked why she had to take time off she was like “u um t top surgery” and mr davidson was like okay cool

coz melissa was scared he would be like that’s not a valid reason to take a day off

the days she was off everyone was like where’s melissa and mr davidson was like oh she’s having top surgery and everyone immediately texted her like WOOO YOU GET THOSE TITTIES GIRL

lets just say she was very concerned checking her phone after the surgery

i have a hc that the Exact same thing happened with paul when he got his top surgery and that’s why they all immediately knew to text melissa congratulating her

also crack hc that ted sent her a card in the post that had congratulations on your anniversary on but he crossed out anniversary and wrote titties

she magnet-ed the card up on her fridge

also angst time hc that melissas parents cut contact w her when she came out as trans lol

like she was 18 so they didnt legally have to provide for her anymore so they were like bye bye <3

also i hc that melissa has a bunch of siblings that are all cishet but super overly supportive

omg hc that they’re all brothers and they’re all like yeahhh we like women too B)

omg hc that like melissa has no one to celebrate christmas with and ted also has no one coz his parents are transphobic too and he’s joking like “lol what if we celebrated christmas together haha slash jay” and she’s like “haha no but what if slash serious,,,”

also hc that melissa is the ace stereotype of just confused by allosexual ppl

like whenever charlotte or ted are like yeah i have sex she’s just like ew why /hj

omg imagine if one day there’s like an office party or smth and some ppl bring their partners and paul sees melissa with lotte and melissa sees paul with emma and they’re both like YOURE DATING A BARISTA FROM BEANIES AS WELL

paul and melissa are like omg how did we not know that the other was dating a beanies barista too while emma and lotte are like oh hey bestie

imagine charlotte brings sam and lotte is like hey isn’t zoey dating that guy- and melissas like HAHA SHUT UP BABE <3

thats all for now folks B)

#hcs #joey says stuff

[alenoah]

Gen 1 LGBT Headcanons

Alright I’m on desktop mode so I can put a Read More on this so I can go in-depth where I want to. Not including the entire cast, just the contestants that I think are El Gee Bee Tee. So don’t ask where X person is bc I think they're cishet :|

Alejandro: pan and a trans man.

Courtney: bisexual and primarily attracted to men.

Cody: I diagnose you with transgender

DJ: Biromantic Asexual :) he has so much love in his heart and I think growing up in a loving household with his two mommas helped him learn who he is very early in life.

Duncan: gonna get hash tag cancelled for this one but he’s agender and doesn’t know how that relates to his sexuality. give me the agender internalized transphobia Duncan angst. give it to me. give me-

Izzy: genderflux and honestly she doesn’t even use a label for her sexuality because there’s so much to unpack. give me Izzy and Duncan bonding over gender and sexual identity label confusion and frustration. give it to me.

Harold: is trans and heterosexual

Heather: not open At All about how she feels because she thought she was a lesbian but then Alejandro happened and it’s. A whole ordeal.

Owen: bi canonically :)

Lindsay: once she learned that she could be glittergender there was no stopping her.

Trent: nonbinary and bi

Tyler: he’s also bi but he’s way too stupid to realize it. I love him so much for it

Noah: little fruit basket lol

Leshawna: in the house. no but fr she’s a big lesbian

Eva: lesbian as well.

Ezekiel: “what’s gender, eh?”

#total drama #tdi

[greenmantle]

mister impossible live thoughts!!!!

my journey of reading this book lasted from sunday afternoon through monday evening with a sleep and work shift in between. notes taken on my phone are under the read more, these are silly and hold very little context and even less intentional analysis. no thoughts head empty, truly

so they really are zeds because of zzzzzz

alf was right bryde has just been called dad so he is unfortunately in the category of dilf. devastating

hennessy calling bryde a dandy and ronan not liking the word

(also wow who is bryde supposed to be, morally ambiguous gansey?)

BURRITO THE CAR?

i am stunned by ronan’s anxiety manifesting as “imagining dying before adam who then falls in love with someone else so that in heaven (if adam goes to heaven, in question only because adam is agnostic) adam has to split his time between ronan and his hypothetical second love” like. dude. also him thinking of this adam as a widower, as if ronan was a 35 year old and married instead of the 19 year old in their first relationship that he actually is

“balls,” ronan hissed, annoyed to have been startled. “tits,” added hennessy. THEM.

please don’t say masturbatory, bryde. i already don’t trust you i don’t need to see you as gross

i will not add to the hennessy enthusiastic clone fucker debate.

every time i read one of these books i’m reminded how charming i find maggie’s writing to be. “the haystack has not produced a needle thus far.”

jordan stole declan’s volvo. everyone say it with me: girl. boss.

holy shit!!!!!!! the painting the “dependents” the line “the rules of the game had changed”!!!!!!!

“the dream creatures seemed to have somehow divined that declan was the person least likely to enjoy them and therefore the most desirable to woo” scream!!

ronan being uneasy about something bryde so willingly creates and uses smells like foreshadowing

“your balls really are nifty things,” hennessy said. “love to get my hands on them.” girl.

HENNESSY SAID I WAS A SINNER FINDING PLEASURE IN WINE, WOMEN, SONG. GIRL?

el gee bee tee

if she was referencing something don’t tell me i don’t want to know

hennessy i am obsessed with you. she said is adam one of those soft boys who hide in the firm pecs of their scary partners

i do not like bryde so much. bad vibes you weirdo saying ronan, a 19 year old orphan, is “looking in the rearview mirror” for wanting to be in contact with his family

ronan “mimicking his old friend gansey’s southern accent” it’s missing the gangsey hours

bryde get ready to fight me in a cage match

oh i love the brothers lynch

hennessy is so funny. she’s right pennsylvania sucks

oh reference to ronan’s discomfort with old people. think that gem is from...tdt?

rhiannon just called ronan darling 🥺

“this was the strangest part of the oldest liliana—she remembered a lot of what she’d already lived through, and a lot of that seemed to involve farooq-lane.” LESBIANS

WE’RE THE VILLAINS, FAROOQ-LANE THOUGHT. i had to COVER MY FACE. my GIRL. PLEASE. YEAH.

my god that was a good chapter

ADAM TAROT READINGS STOP. LOVE

“ronan felt hennessy shiver. he leaned his skull against her skull, and without pause or snark, she leaned back.” oh i love them.

are the dreamers three about to nosedive into eco terrorism

ronan thinking “she was going to leave them” is so. gansey. i miss gansey.

carmen and liliana i love you. el gee bee tee

what year is this set in? early 2013? 2014? i’m pretty sure trk was the 2011-2012 school year or the next. anyways, hennessy just referenced tiktok, an app that certainly does not exist yet in their world

i am not capable of sussing out what bryde is or what his goal is here. someone tell me

adam. oh adam. please call gansey you need an outlet for all of...that. all the hacking into government databases to access information gathered about the boyfriend you haven’t talked to in months. please call your friends

title mention page 234

man the whole three secrets thing in tdt feels a lot less fun now that we’re getting insight to a toddler ronan being told by his mother that he had to keep his dreams a secret forever :/

GRUMPY LUST, DECLAN’S BEDROOM

matthew said are you going to marry my brother 😩

DECLAN SAID BY THE TIME WE’RE MARRIED THE LYNCH BOYS ARE OUT OF THEIR MINDS

ashley ashleigh ashlee

what does “neat, civilized facial hair” look like on declan. floored by this

declan said ronan idolized gansey in high school :( he’s right but i miss gansey

WE ALL FINALLY FOUND EACH OTHER. OKAY GIRL BOSSES

(el gee bee tee)

i hate you chapter 33. very sad about this book.

is it ironic that i, tumblr user greenmantle, am upset about bryde being manipulative and harming ronan in ways that ronan cannot recognize. probably. that’s fine though

received these series of texts from my best friend while i was working:

 lots of things i’m already loving about chapter 34, like the recognition that i cannot imagine a young woman feeling less comfortable in any situation than with ronan and his new hero, and the fact that during hennessy’s pov she thinks about carmen and liliana: “it was also clear they had crushes on each other.” i love when adults use the word crush i find it endearing

“they were muttering to themselves: make way, make way, make way.” I MISS GANSEY. make way for the raven king

i know that this book insisted again that opal is more creature than she is human but like. she’s still at least a little human. does nobody but me care about how she’s been doing all alone at the barns for however long ronan has been on the road?

MOTHER. FUCKER.

i’m sooooo mad i’m so mad. “i know when you dreamt me” fuck off! i hate you.

he’s a liar right this is nuts even for these books. this is some grade a gaslighting

oh nooooo

gun taped to the bottom of the kitchen table. oh declan

hm.

well. that’s the book. truly have no idea what happened those last few chapters. no clue. nada. hated those chapters. i’m gonna go back to living in chapters one through thirty-two i think

#mi spoilers #mister impossible #mister impossible spoilers #trc #spoilers spoilers i am so sorry if i spoil this for anyone!!!

[fandomshatelgbtqpeople]

im sorry but i’m an exclus and i stumbled upon your dan post- its very insensitive of you to assume that just bc he aligns more w the inclus we’re going to attack him using baseless accusations. the way he talked abt reclaiming q was really delicately said and painted as a personal choice. kinda nasty to accuse us of harrassing him in the future based on nothing when we’re just as proud of him for his CO. the enemy is not within the community and we seem to be the only ones not harrassing anyone

I know mod K’s the one who made that post, but I wholeheartedly stand by the points they’ve made, and as an Ace who’s been seeing the vile accusations, smearing-campaigns and the heartless attacks from exclusionists to inclu-aligned “actual LGBT” content creators, let me just say that you’ve got to be the densest person ever to deny how this is something within “exclusionists culture” every now and again when someone shows support of Ace/Aro people and/or the label Queer. 

Remember when Thomas Sanders: a non-Aspec gay Viner/Youtuber, who makes child-friendly and Queer-inclusive contents, became accused of being a p*do in a situation that’s not even his fault (which he’s also apologized for anyways and nothing like that has ever happened since)??? On top of being deemed the ultimate “cringe culture” and used as a mean to make fun of young Queer people who enjoys his work??? Also remember how people attacked Jeffrey Marsh, and tried to “cancel” them because they explicitly stated that Aces/Aros are LGBTQ+??? Good times, good times /s

Those two are just the most popular cases around, I’m not even gonna touch on the other attacks on smaller content creators who’re inclusive, both Aspec and non-Aspec alike. If you’re an exclusionist who doesn’t pull this crap??? Good for you ig, but don’t act like the loudest exclusies aren’t running around constantly tearing down those who shows Ace/Aros a lick of positivity, even when they’re considered “real El Gee Bee Tees” by whatever standards you guys have nowadays, so EXCUSE US for being just a wee bit defensive.

You’re REALLY deep in denial that you don’t see how the rampant exclusion is a part of the enemy. This is overlooking something so blatantly obvious too so don’t even try me with the whole “your experience is not universal” BS because it’s the goddamn forefront of this discourse that YOU created and you know it.

 Also “the only ones not harrassing anyone”………. Oh my lord. OOOHHH MY LOORRDDDD

~Mod (this is SO cursed I) H(ate it)

#ask #asks #replies #anonymous #mod h #this is an inclusionist space so exclusies PLEASE leave

[blue-likethebird]

Vee El Dee: The Good The Bad and The Ugly

If you’ve ever been on this hellsite, you’ve probably heard of Voltron: Legendary Defender. You’ll find the characters and the ships (and the discourse. Dear God the discourse) in tag after tag and on blog after blog. Now that the show has officially come to an end, I’m reviewing the whole damn thing. Talking about what I think worked, what didn’t, and what exactly the show did to make even the fans look at it so harshly now. (Just a warning “The Ugly” section discusses racism, and homophobia so if any of that triggers you I’d suggest you skip it)

Review under the cut

The Good

The Character Potential:

   Voltron’s characters had so much potential at the beginning. Their motivations, potential subplots, and clues to their arcs the first crew left us were actually interesting. How did Coran know Allura before they were frozen? What happened that caused Shiro to lose his arm? Is Lance going to reunite with his family? The show didn’t answer all of these questions mind you, but at the time they were introduced, those questions felt like they were worth sticking around to hear the answers.

The First Season:

   The first season is the only season that genuinely sticks out for me, way back in ye olden days when Voltron was a character driven show as opposed to plot focused. In season one, the plot took a backseat and the characters were what held up the show, and it’s probably not a coincidence that most of the character development and more emotional/memorable scenes occurred in season one, when there was time for the characters to develop. Likewise, the character focus allowed for everyone to get their day in the limelight -not just the characters who were valuable to the plot at the moment-.

The Balmera and The Return to The Balmera:

     I am never gonna be shy about my opinion that the Balmera arc is one of the strongest arcs that Voltron has had. Allura using the story of her people to inspire others and using Altea’s ancient connection to the Balmera to save an entire damn civilization! The goddamn adorable chemistry between Hunk and Shay! Believable suspense! Unlocking Lion Powers! The Balmera arc had it all and I was fed. Plus, Balmera gave us the introduction of the most blessed couple in Voltron history, hunay.

The Bad:

The Timeskips:

In theory, there’s nothing wrong with a timeskip. But you’ve gotta be able to show that the characters and show’s universe changed in some way during that timeskip and you can’t use them just to avoid actual story and character development. Take season six (? Or was it five? I don’t remember and I don’t wanna) when Keith and Krolia take a two year camping trip on a space whale while Voltron is off doing God knows what. Presumably during that time they developed some sort of mother-son relationship but we don’t get to see that development happening, or how that new relationship changed them, or really any proof that the timeskip happened at all besides Keith getting Galra marks and a teleporting space wolf. That particular time jump felt more like a cop-out to avoid writing Keith bonding with his mom.

Pacing:

To put it plainly, the pace is way too fast for anything to stick. The writing cycles from one season's worth of plot twists and WTF? moments to the next at the speed of light, leaving no time to address how the previous events affected the characters involved or not the show’s universe as a whole. So Lotor was actually evil all along and was using Allura to achieve his goals? Well there’s no time to mention how Allura feels about that, we’ve got three more surprise twists and a magic robot to shove into the plot! On the flip side however, the pacing is slower than a geriatric snail during fight scenes. The giant robot fights are usually the most exciting part of anything, but in Voltron, the fights are so formulaic that they just kinda… blur together into a boring fog. Lemme know if you can name this Voltron fight scene: the team’s fighting some random baddie, there’s a lot of yelling, someone gets a power up just big enough to defeat the current baddies when a bigger, eviler baddie appears who’s more powerful than the power up they just got, new baddie whoops Voltron’s ass, the support team watches in horror, someone else gets a power up that’s powerful enough to defeat the new bad guy, Voltron reins triumphant. What fight scene was that?

The Filler Episodes:

The fast pacing also means that they need to set aside breather episodes just to allow characters to interact besides in battle. That’s all well and good and there’s nothing wrong with filler episodes, if done right they can be some of the most memorable episodes a show can have (The Tales of Ba Sing Se anyone?) that is, if done right. But Voltron filler episodes don’t have that going for them. Filler episodes in vee el dee are an oasis of mud in the desert that is canon, they’re a generally unhelpful standstill point amidst a constantly changing series. I’ll admit that they can be funny at times but for the most part filler episodes are bizarre, unnecessary, and more often than not, poorly timed. If we just heard about a millenniums old empire folding in on itself and we’re just about to see a major character attempt suicide do we really need to see Coran go batshit while planning a space Disney On Ice?

The Ugly:

Racism:

#justiceforallura

I must confess that I am whiter than a polar bear in a snowstorm, but even I know that killing off a black girl (or black coded as the case may be), constantly torturing the Japanese guy, reducing the Samoan guy to food and fat jokes, and having the latino guy flirt with everyone before turning him into a farmer isn’t the best way to handle writing characters of colour. Denying said characters of colour arcs and screen time in favour of giving your white characters the same story in a different hat over and over again is also not the best treatment you can offer your poc characters. That’s not even mentioning other horrible treatment and stereotypes you’ll see the Voltron characters of colour experience. Let us also recall #notallgalra, the “what if the genocide victim was actually the bad guy” au mess in s3, all those “lol lance is stupid” jokes, the black character Kinkade speaking mainly in grunts, Allura dying to redeem the two genocidal dudes responsible for most of her trauma, and Hunk’s (half black half Samoan) family being enslaved at a fucking concentration camp like goddamn what the hell were you thinking Voltron that’s like hetalia levels of fucked up when we remember what kind of genuinely awful shit this show’s done to it’s minority characters.

Homophobia:

If you’re reading my review in the Voltron tag, and you watched the whole series, then there’s no way in hell that you haven’t heard about Adam dying and the backlash against Voltron for it. If you are somehow the .000001% of people who don’t know, Adam (a gay moc) was Shiro’s (another gay moc) fiancé who got a grand total of forty five seconds of screen time before dying when the Galra invaded earth. Meanwhile, L*tor and Allura’s relationship got almost triple that despite being abusive as fuck. But Shiro got married at the end of season 8! In a credits scene, to a guy in the background of a couple of scenes Shiro was also in. When lgbt fans expressed outrage at their rep being hyped up despite having no bearing on the plot or even Shiro as a character outside of one scene, instead of owning up to their mistakes, the crew of Vee El Dee said (or implied) that it was the fault of lgbt fans for hyping ourselves up. Yeah okay. Except after that we got confirmation that Ezor and Zethrid were a couple! Yay! Clearly a win for us El Gee Bee Tees right? Well… not really considering that both of them were depicted as psychotic torturers who also died a couple minutes later. Gotta love those crazy dead lesbians amirite?

Klance:

But why is klance in the “ugly” section!? You cry, I thought you were a klanti! I am an anti and I did ship klance but that’s not what I wanna talk about right now. When I put klance under ugly I wanted to discuss two things, the crew and the shippers. First let’s talk the crew; several folks on the Voltron staff have at the very least, not reacted negatively to the omnipresent ship that is Keith and Lance. I’m sure you’ll also remember that Lance’s VA Jeremy Shada was considered a KICK icon before that went south. The crew was also purposefully misleading when they talked about possible romances for Keith and Lance, the language they used was ambiguous enough that shippers interpreted it as proof that klance would become canon. When it inevitably didn’t and shit hit the fan, the staff backpedaled again. Stating that klance was never meant to be interpreted as romantic and we were all fools for thinking otherwise. That’s happened in the past so it’s a reasonable defence, except for the fact that scenes with Keith and Lance tended to contain unnecessary parallels to canonically romantic relationships, (the bonding moment paralleling an allurance scene in season six and their talk at the start of season eight paralleling two scenes, hunay in season one and l*tura in season five). So it’s not unreasonable to be a little suspicious there. Klance was huge on the internet, it’s impossible for the crew to have been completely unaware of what they were doing.

Next I wanna talk shippers. I’m not saying that being disappointed that a ship didn’t become canon is a bad thing. But when you act like that’s the worst thing Voltron did amidst the sea of ableism, racism and homophobia it gets a little tiring. The fact that so many klancers rushed to demonize Allura after season seven and eight and add on that I saw more people complaining about klance not becoming canon king than Allura dying a completely unnecessary death to redeem L*tor of all people was the final straw. I washed my hands of klance and Voltron as a whole.

———————————————

So that’s my review of V*ltron. I was gonna do a separate review of season eight but I didn’t even finish s8 and to be honest it probably wouldn’t have been any more than the words “Fuck Vee El Dee, Allura Deserved Better” in big pink letters. And I know I probably made someone angry with this review but if you actually managed to stick around my ramblings all the way to the end then I salute you regardless of whether or not you agree with me.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #v*ltron #v slur #klance #anti klance #(kinda?) #allura deserved better #justiceforallura

[zippers]

cw: discussion of q slur and transphobia under the cut

lol throwback to three hours ago when i said i was glad our school didn’t call our gss program “qu**r studies” and my friend, a gss major (who said she has only taken one gss class so far lol), proceeded say stuff in a mocking/taunting voice like “oh, you don’t like the word qu**r? does the word qu**r make you uncomfortable? I’ll have you know that qu**r studies has been used in academia by actual good qu**r academics for decades. i wish our school called it qu**r studies. you’re offended by the word qu**r? too bad, because only some qu**r people are offended by the word qu**r. Most qu**r people actually prefer the word qu**r because it’s inclusive of all qu**r people, not just el gee bee tee”

and whenever i tried to interject something about how ??? i have a lot of trauma associated with the word as i encountered a lot of homophobia growing up in Texas so would you like, intentionally rubbing the word in my face as though there’s something wrong with me for flinching whenever i hear that word? i have friends who identify as qu**r and i’m fine with it as long as they understand that not everyone can view the word in a positive light. also it’s not as though “gender and sexuality studies” isn’t also inclusive????? it’s literally ????????????? the most inclusive way to say that???????????? so why was she getting so defensive???

especially since the way she was saying it was in the exact same tone (i.e. mocking/taunting/teasing me with the word) as i’d hear people using the word as a slur would use?????? like I was having flashbacks to that as i was sitting there because of her???????

and i was literally shaking and i just said “i’m not having this conversation with you, i don’t want to argue about this, can you please stop saying that,” etc. and i just said “i dont want to offend you with my opinion” and she said “oh don’t worry, you won’t hurt me,” and i just said, straight to her face, “well, i can’t say the opposite is true.” also there was (another lesbian) sitting with us and she just looked so uncomfortable with how my other friend was acting. (i am the mutual friend between them and i invited the rude one.)

also she literally said, to my face, that she can pass as a guy/not a woman better than me. i was like ???? i’m literally not a woman ????? and she was like “ive been asked if i was a guy or a girl before. i would pass as a guy. you wouldn’t” and she mentions how she’s got short hair while i have long hair, and how she looks more androgynous in general. then she says that she was also considering to “pretend she was a guy” (an idea which i gave her when we first had a conversation over text about the dress code.) and what the fuck. you’re a woman and i’m not. i wouldn’t be “pretending to be a guy,” i wouldn’t be pretending anything at all. i would just be.... being myself, which is not a woman! a cis girl should not be saying this to a nb person. the context was that i was opening up to the two of them about how i was super upset that women are required to wear a skirt or a dress to enter certain religious places on our greece trip and how that was going to be super dysphoric for me, and how i was thinking about just dressing up really fancy in dress clothes and a tie.

As a side note... after the qu**r thing happened, I said that archaeology (we’re in a greek archaeology class) was rooted in racism, imperialism, and orientalism & she was like “wow you’re just attacking everything i love!” like okay... you love racist things then lol i wonder what that says about you

like wow this year my friends really are showing their true colors????

#q slur // #homophobia // #transphobia // #it's personal #i just................. hate people who do this. you're not cool or edgy you're offensive. #it's not punk to be an asshole !! #long post #though it's under a cut lol