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lgcyunhyeong · 4 years

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hey there!! this is my first time in lgc and i’m super excited to be here! i’ve been eyeing this place for a while and i’m glad i finally mustered up the nerve to join. this is cho yunhyeong, 21, works part time at his local gs25. he’s been a trainee for little over a year and is hoping to eventually debut in a band! he plays the bass and sings a little bit, and he also wants to get into songwriting and composition eventually. he’s generally kind of a weird kid--super spacey, often distracted, your local space nerd--but he’s a good egg in spite of that. compared to some of the other trainees, he’s pretty aimless and chill, but he does genuinely love music and performing, so...!

you can find some more info about him on his about and background pages but they’re kind of messy so i’ll drop some quick facts about yunhyeong under the cut, along with some connection/plot ideas to hopefully kickstart things! if you’d like to plot, please hit like on this post and i’ll hop into your ims! i also have a discord if you prefer to plot there - just ask me for my username ♡

quick facts:

born and brought up in seoul - very local, most comfortable in his neighbourhood, the most exciting vacation he ever took was to busan (and it was #lit). his parents own the best hot pot restaurant in seoul, and yeah he’s biased but that doesn’t mean it’s not true!

has an older brother currently in law school and their relationship is best described as ‘i tolerate you’. they’re complete opposites - his brother is super driven and loud and outgoing while yunhyeong is not so they’ve never really clicked beyond the fact that they are siblings and therefore are obligated to love each other

was the quiet kid growing up, had a very chill and subdued personality. didn’t really speak unless spoken too, didn’t play much with others. most of the time he kept to himself and focused on his hyperfixations - first, it was dinosaurs, and then space! and he’s been stuck with space ever since

his mom put him in music lessons when he was younger in hopes that a relatable hobby might help him make friends?? also that it’d work as a conversation starter but it didn’t because yunhyeong remained as weird and solitary as ever! he did fall in love with music as a result though

in high school he decided to branch out and make friends by starting a band - new age sexy aliens or NASA for short. his recruitment process was like: whoever shows up to join is part of the band! it worked out for the best since he and the band members got really close

they started off playing covers but then branched out into their own original music (yunhyeong helped write some of their lyrics). most of their songs used heavy space imagery and they were really pretty but also low key about aliens

yunhyeong loves aliens

nasa had a pretty dedicated fanbase both online and in their school! did well, were thriving, living their best lives and playing hella gigs, and then their lead singer got scouted by an entertainment company. it was the beginning of the end for them; the rest of the members went their own ways as well and the band officially disbanded in 2018 rip

yunhyeong started to busk on/off since he wasn’t attending university and didn’t really know what the heck else he wanted to do with his life outside of the band, and that’s where he got scouted by legacy! joined the company because like... well... why would he not...

wants to debut in a band if he can... and focus on songwriting and music composition as a secondary career path. he isn’t like... super motivated though? has always had issues with setting goals and being ambitious... he’s more like, eh, i’m just gonna go where life takes me!

personality wise, he’s still a pretty quiet kid unless you get him talking about one of his interests, in which case he will never shut up EVER. he gets distracted easily and will sometimes zone out when you’re talking to him but has a good memory of like, the most random shit you wouldn’t expect him to recall

easygoing as hell, rarely gets riled up over anything. on the flip side, he doesn’t really come across as sincere (even though he almost always is!) in his emotions because people are like... hm... just feels fake. tries to stay as positive as he can and doesn’t dwell on stuff that might upset him. sometimes people think he’s shallow! but he has #deepthoughts. he just doesn’t share them

unmotivated when it comes to most things! has no goals, no ambition, doesn’t care much for academia or being forced to like, conform to things. his mom calls him a free spirit but she’s probably just making excuses for him. it’s more like he’s stuck in some sort of limbo?? scared of growing up but scared of being left behind. it’s complicated

he’s really a sweet guy though. a little odd - he’s not the best at showing affection and sometimes he can be really... strange? offbeat? you never know what the fuck is going on in his head. but he’s a Human Being Just Like You (sadly) and simply trying his best to live every day

connection/plot ideas:

he didn’t really have many friends growing up, but still - childhood friends! maybe you were the exception. maybe you didn’t mind that he was awkward and quiet and a little weird! maybe you tripped and fell on the playground and he gave you a star-patterned purple band aid and you decided you would die for him. who knows!

friends in general who understand him and look @ him with fond exasperation... must be able to tolerate his antics. liking aliens is a bonus. jk, but he’s a sweet guy who loves his friends! please be kind to him

fans of his former band, nasa (or antis?). he was the bassist and a sub vocal and didn’t stand out too much compared to some of the other guys, but he always did the intros and he’ll happily talk about nasa all day! discuss the symbolism of their songs with him

exes? i genuinely cannot think of a single reason why anyone would want to date him but i feel like he’s had at least (1) relationship before... maybe you took a chance and after you started dating you were like, god, i’m running away

crushes, whether one-sided on his part or your part or reciprocated but you don’t know it yet?? he’s holding out for his alien bae but maybe you don’t know that and just think he’s like, this quiet mysterious pretty boy. maybe he thinks you’re cool for a human!

fellow trainees who can play instruments... yunhyeong needs someone to #jam with because playing the bass alone is kind of lonely (and since he’d like to eventually get on the band track, making some connections would be cool)

fellow trainees in general, especially ones in his training group!! he’s not as hungry for debut or as ambitious as some which means he’s a) non-threatening and b) chill to hang with. you could be into that or it could absolutely infuriate you since he doesn’t seem to be taking things seriously! maybe you think he doesn’t deserve to be here

met online on an alien enthusiast forum and you talk almost every single day about various theories and moves and all that kind of stuff but you’ve never met irl! and yunhyeong really wants to meet you in person!

idk bully him

you’re buying a bunch of weird shit from the convenience store where yunhyeong works at like 2 am and he has so many questions and won’t let you pay and leave until you answer them

alternatively, you find him sleeping on the job and you want to wake him up but the moment you touch his arm, he makes this high pitched screeching noise and you fall over and take an entire shelf of candy down with you

you invite yunhyeong out for drinks but he took one sip of soju and he’s a mess... you didn’t sign up to take care of a giant drunken baby but guess what! you will be! if he tries to kiss you, dodge him

you always bum free meals from yunhyeong’s parents’ restaurant because his parents think you’re his best friend. tbh you actually don’t really like him but he doesn’t realize it so he never bothers correcting his parents either!

you didn’t realize yunhyeong was allergic to cats and dogs and you brought your cat/dog near him and oh my god he is having the UGLIEST allergic reaction

yunhyeong can’t swim. you push him into a pool as a joke. chaos ensues

you play various video games together and yunhyeong is really good but he’s more interested in stardew valley than in league of legends and you keep pestering him to play with you dammit i need you on my team

you slipped a love letter under his door for one of his roommates but yunhyeong thought it was for him and now he keeps (kindly) rejecting you whenever you see him and you don’t even know how to react

Oh No We Are Trapped In This Room And The Power Went Out And I Am Scared Of The Dark Please Hold My Hand For Science

yunhyeong loves smoothies and one day you catch him trying to blend a slice of pepperoni pizza into a smoothie because he is, and i quote, “tired of chewing”

IDK ALL THESE IDEAS ARE BAD BUT PLEASE PLOT WITH ME ANYWAY

#lgc:intro #( * out of ufos ! )#( why did i write so much )#( this post is long and ugly )#( ummmm i'm sorry but i'm excited to be here!! )#( pls plot with my weird dumb baby )

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alluratron · 5 years

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What’s wrong with VLD?

PART 1

This is a continuation of a long post discussing everything I feel went wrong with Voltron: Legendary Defender. If you haven't read part 1, I would suggest doing that before coming back to this one.

(once again, apologies to those on mobile.)

Pidge never fucking learned a single solitary damn thing. In the first season she supposedly learned to value her new team and recognise that they need her. But going forward, she still prioritised her blood family over everything, yelling at everyone and just generally being a brat when they were discussing how to negotiate exchanging Lotor for Sam (Blood Duel, S5E2). I mean seriously, nobody ever said they wouldn’t get Sam back?? They were just saying they needed to be smart because Zarkon could pull the rug out from under them (which he did). But Pidge acts like a brat that must get her way. And that’s fine because she’s 15, but can the narrative acknowledge her brattiness? Can she grow from that? Nope. They go right back to genius Pidge who is always right about everything and can never be wrong on even the smallest of things because they will combust and die. Even something as stupid as the double modulation argument (Kral Zera, S5E4). They couldn’t just let Hunk win that one argument? Nope. Pidge has to be a know it all and come out on top. I initially loved Pidge because, as a woman in STEM, I related to her strongly. But she quickly grew boring and stale for me.

In fact, all of the Holts grew boring and stale to me. There was so much time and focus dedicated to this basic white family when, for 5 seasons, we didn’t even know Lance’s family’s names despite him supposedly being terribly homesick. And nothing for Hunk! For a long time all we knew was that Hunk had a mom (now we know he also has a dad, an aunt and a niece and nephew but still no names). But the Holts were all perfect. Somehow, both Matt and Sam survived the Galra more or less unscathed. And, though we were told that Sam, Matt and Shiro were like family as a crew, we never see any familial overtures from them towards him and Shiro continues to not have any loved ones.

Seriously, why is Shiro so isolated? Where is his family? Does he just not have one? Did he crawl out of a rock fully formed and ready to mentor Keith? The one episode we have to explore Shiro’s pre-Kerberos past (I really don’t know season 7 names, S7E1) focuses almost entirely on Keith and not Shiro himself. The episode, where Shiro’s quintessence struggles to merge with the clone’s body (more YIKES on that later) would’ve been a perfect opportunity to delve into Shiro’s childhood, show us his family (if he had any or if he was an orphan), show us the onset of his disease, show us what drove him to join the Garrison, show us him meeting and getting together with Adam (or just meeting and befriending if they were really limited), show us him taking Keith under his wing, show us the decline of Shiro and Adam’s relationship and eventual breakup, and then show us how he never gave up on Keith and why Keith will never give up on him. This would’ve given us so much more insight into Shiro’s character, but the episode was never about Shiro, not really anyway. It was about Keith.

In fact, Shiro is rarely allowed to have something for himself. His relationship with the black lion? Apparently he was just a seat warmer until Keith was ready to take up the mantle. Even his confrontation with Sendak was set up to make Keith look cooler. In their first confrontation (Fall of the Castle Of Lions, S1E4) Shiro fights Sendak to a standstill. He only loses because Haxus threatens Lance’s unconscious body. Then when Sendak is in the holding pod, he taunts Shiro and asks him “do you really think a monster like you could be a paladin of voltron?” causing Shiro to panic and eject Sendak from the Castle. Aside from the fact that the show answers that question with a decisive “NO” by not allowing Shiro to return to the black lion (even though he did everything right but okay!), they also don’t even let him win the confrontation with Sendak. As they fight a rematch (pls forgive me I have no episode name or number season 7 really was a nightmare for me and I blacked it out mostly) Shiro takes hit after hit after hit, barely landing any himself. By far the worst moment, in my opinion, comes when Shiro lands a hit squarely on Sendak’s jaw with his human hand and yet it does nothing! Sendak doesn’t even flinch, he just laughs and sends Shiro flying. What kind of awful implication is that? It very strongly implies that Shiro’s humanness is WEAK and inferior. That’s extremely fucked up. On top of this, Shiro was able to fight Sendak to a standstill with a galra prosthetic, but not with the one Allura made for him, powered by her crown jewel. Remember when Sendak said Shiro’s galra arm was the strongest part of him? Yeah, this just confirmed that. Not only is Galra tech is superior to Altean, but Shiro is weak without it.

Finally, when Shiro is battered and bruised, on the ground just waiting for death, Keith jumps out of the black lion and kills Sendak in one slice, holding dramatic pose for effect, despite having no emotional stake with Sendak. Why this needed to happen, I will never understand. Why could the writers not bear to allow Shiro win his battle? Why couldn’t he have his victory? Why Keith and nobody else? Because Shiro’s character is treated as an accessory to Keith. He was never meant to be a main character in his own right. He was always just intended as a mentor and prop for Keith. He’s hardly allowed to bond with the other paladins. For example, despite the focus placed on his handshake with Lance the pilot, their relationship never grows. They barely talk at all, with Lance probably being closer to the clone than the original. Also of note is how Shiro never thanks Allura when she saves his life (Defenders Of All Universes, S6E7; that episode in season 7 where she puts the jewel in his arm). In both cases, Keith appears in front of her, taking up Shiro’s vision despite Allura actually being the one solving the problem. I don’t even think Shiro and Hunk have a single one-on-one interaction, clone or original.

Despite Shiro’s. Well. Everything. Being given to Keith, the latter still suffers dreadful writing. He is stagnant for 5 seasons, relearning the same lesson of relying on your team over and over again, until he meets his mother and in the space of two minutes, a montage on the back of a space whale in S6E2 solves all of his problems by ageing him up two years. Seriously. He spends two years on a whale with his mom and his dog and suddenly he’s ok now. At least that’s what the story wants us to believe, except he really doesn’t change at all. He comes back and promptly goes off on his own again, this time chasing Clone Shiro. He’s still snappy and impatient. The only thing that changes is that he doesn’t hate the prospect of flying the black lion anymore. And he has longer hair. Seriously, that’s it. He even still shows ambivalence to Allura’s safety. Which brings me to my next point:

Why is Keith so ambivalent to Allura’s safety??? Seriously, throughout the entire show he just really does not care for her and it shows. When she sacrifices herself to save Shiro and they are all brainstorming ideas to rescue her (The Black Paladin, S1E11) Keith suggests they don’t rescue her at all. He’s called out on this by the others and I’m willing to let this one slide because I thought he was just overly pragmatic and would eventually grow to love his team so much that he would never consider leaving anyone behind. The next time this happens is when Keith is piloting the black lion and chasing after Lotor (The Hunted, S3E3). Allura is struggling with flying the blue lion and takes a hit (due to low visibility in the gas planet that Keith rushed them into) and Hunk declares that he is going back for her. Keith actually gets annoyed by this! They can barely communicate with each other and can’t detect each other outside of view so the only way they’re going to find Allura is if they go after her immediately, but Keith is angry that Hunk does this??? Would he prefer they just leave her to die??? His disregard for her safety comes up again in when she’s in the quintessence field with Lotor and Keith returns. Pidge informs him that Lotor is in the quintessence field with Allura, to which Keith responds “can’t we fly in there and attack?” He is willing to attack Lotor even with Allura there. Once is excusable. Twice may be coincidence. But 3 times? That’s a pattern emerging.

It’s worse still because Keith isn’t ambivalent to other people’s safety. We know he saves Shiro time and time again, but he also saves Acxa in BotW and Lotor at the Kral Zera, despite only just meeting Acxa at the time and not even interacting with Lotor at all. So what sense does it make that he will happily save random Galra that he comes across, but not his own teammate? Really not selling me on the found family aspect.

In fact the found family completely breaks down. Pidge’s entire motivation is her blood family and she remains closer to them than her team. Keith never actually bonds with the team and all his problems are solved when he reconnects with his birth mother. Hunk and Pidge spend seasons 3 to 7 taking cheap shots at Lance’s intelligence and mocking his feelings for Allura (they don’t do this in season 8 but that’s more because Lance barely talks to anyone that isn’t Allura in season 8). Shiro isn’t allowed to talk to people that aren’t Keith. Keith insults Allura’s DEAD FATHER (lost in space? is that what it’s called? idk please I really don’t know anything about s7) and is rude to Lance even when the latter is trying to be sweet (The Feud, S7E4). Coran is usually forgotten. Nothing about this team feels even remotely familial. Pidge and Hunk are best friends. Allura and Lance are dating. Shiro and Keith have history. Allura has a decent enough rapport with everyone that isn’t Keith but that’s about it. Keith himself questions whether they’re even friends (lost in space episode again idk the number) and the truth is they’re not! They’re co-workers that occasionally have a laugh together but they are not a group of friends by a long shot. Their relationships are superficial and, when push comes to shove, they don’t look out for each other.

This brings me to the clone arc. God, I mean. Where to even start. The entire arc was a hot mess and only existed because they were forced to bring Shiro back earlier, but they didn’t want Shiro back so they made him a clone. There are several theories and meta out there discussing how Shiro was pasted over Keith and the personality mismatch handwaved as “he’s a clone” so I’m not gonna go into all that here. Believe them if you want, or don’t. What I will point out, is how shoddily the arc was handled. First of all, there was no real need for it. Haggar didn’t do anything with the clone that she couldn’t have done with Shiro. After all, she did tamper with his mind for a whole year so she could easily mind control him somehow. She didn’t need a Narti clone to see through her eyes, so why would she need a Shiro clone to do the same? Moreover, Shiro’s arm had been a blatant fucking Chekhov’s Gun for seasons so we absolutely could’ve had Haggar controlling the real Shiro through his arm, just as she did with the clone. The only reason I think a clone would be of ANY use to the story, is to give Shiro some family by having this clone become VLD’s version of Shiro’s historical twin brother, Ryou. But they didn’t do that. They didn’t do anything with the clone except torture him and kill him. And this is my biggest gripe with the arc.

POOR KURON!!!! What the hell was all that???? They introduced Kuron with a whole episode showing us how desperate he was to get back to his team and, in what were almost his final moments, his thoughts were on all the moments he (believed that he) shared with his teammates (The Journey, S3E5). Throughout his entire period with the team, he suffered from chronic headaches and is more short tempered than the Shiro we’re used to, but he ultimately has the best intentions. He apologises for losing his temper (Post Mortem, S5E3) and reaches out to Lance for help when he begins to suspect that something isn’t right with him (White Lion, S5E6). He plays monsters and mana with his teammates and has a grand old time with them (Monsters and Mana, S6E3). He convinces the black lion (and, let’s not forget, original Shiro whose quintessence is in the lion at this point) to allow him fly black because his friends are in danger and he can’t stand not helping (Code of Honor, S4E1). He cares deeply for this team. And yet, when push comes to shove, they don’t care for him.

As soon as Haggar activates the final stage, the paladins all give up on him (except for Keith, but Keith doesn’t even really count because he doesn’t go after Kuron for Kuron, he does it because of the history he shares with original Shiro. He has no relationship with Kuron) with Hunk stating “but Shiro’s not Shiro anymore”. Hunk - and implicitly the rest of the team save Keith - is willing to give up on him in a heartbeat, despite the moments they’ve shared since he stepped onto the bridge all freshened up (Tailing a Comet, S3E6). Even the original Shiro - who must have known Kuron only ever had good intentions for him (and black) to have allowed Kuron pilot black at all - calls Kuron a “thing” with disgust (All Good Things, S6E6) and an “evil clone” (you know the season 7 drill by now).

When Kuron is revealed to have been a clone, even Keith ceases to care for the person inside, referring to him as “this body” (Defender of All Universes, S6E7) instead of treating him as a person. The team of supposed heroes all watch as Allura takes Shiro’s quintessence from the black lion and superimposes it over Kuron’s existence. And it’s not like Kuron was dead. Keith says the body is “barely living” so he was definitely alive. But this was of no consequence to our heroes and they kill him without remorse. EPs tried to remedy this a little by saying in an interview that Kuron and Shiro were merged into one person, with Shiro absorbing all of Kuron’s memories. But extra-canonical explanations already hold little weight (on account of not being deemed relevant enough to be included in canon) and that little is reduced to nothing when canon directly contradicts it. If Shiro had truly absorbed Kuron’s memories, he would have seen how tortured Kuron was by Haggar’s control, how confused and afraid and in pain he was, and how he only ever wanted to do the right thing. If Shiro has absorbed Kuron’s memories - including those of delighting in playing M&M or reaching out to Lance for help - there is no way he would still call Kuron evil. It makes no sense at all.

In the end, Kuron was brought into existence to suffer and die unceremoniously at the hands of the people he called friends. Charming.

Want to know a flop of a character? Romelle. I mean, really now. She was only relevant for one episode! Her entire purpose was exposition on what Lotor was really doing and then she never again did anything of consequence but hung around for two full seasons after. More character flops include ALL of the MFE pilots. Seriously, why did we need them at all? The most relevant of them is James LastNameICantRemember (and of course in a perfect parallel to team voltron, the white boy is the leader) yet he even is a waste of a character. We first see him in a flashback in the black paladins as the kid Keith got in a fight with. All well and good. Now why, pray tell, did we need any more information about this kid? All we ever needed to know was that Keith clashed with his classmates, period. He suddenly becomes Keith’s rival except not really? Because they aren’t really competing. Keith is of course a far superior pilot to the rest of his class so he’s rather untouchable and he knows it. He’s a show off and gets all his classmates (including Lance and Hunk) in trouble for it. James makes a nasty comment about Keith’s parents and the fight is on. Given all of this, I still fail to see why James requires any fleshing out or recurrence in the show. Hell, I fail to see why he even requires a last name!

It also bothers me that we see this whole rivalry with a brand spanking new character yet we never see when or why Lance decided to see Keith as his rival. But that would require acknowledging Lance’s insecurities - that never actually get addressed - and recognising him as a character whose purpose isn’t solely to be in love with Allura, so I can see why they skimped on that. Lance is also the only main character (save Coran) that doesn’t get a flashback during which they are the focus. Pidge gets all the Holt stuff and sneaking into the Garrison, Allura gets the first recollection to Zarkon’s final attack when she is put in stasis, Hunk gets the scenes with his family when they’re taken hostage, Keith gets the events leading up to his birth and the whole background on why he never gives up in Shiro. Even Shiro at least gets his breakup with Adam where he’s the focus. But Lance? Lance is always a side character in someone else’s story.

The entire Earth arc was stupid and boring to be frank. Voltron has never required more than a single episode to save one planet. In fact, it only took them 2 episodes to liberate a third of the Galra’s conquered territory (Begin the Blitz, S4E5; A New Defender, S4E6) so why do we spend so much time planning for an attack on Earth? It feels like wasted time to me. All those episodes of military nonsense could have been spent on developing characters and relationships further. In fact, the atlas needn’t even have been built by the time voltron arrived (it doesn’t even make sense that it was conveniently built anyway because why was Sam making that monster of a ship???). They could’ve have reached earth, found it colonised by some fringe general, freed it and then spent some time building a replacement castle, but word of voltron’s arrival on earth eventually reaches Sendak and that’s why he comes and attacks with his full fleet. With some time spent on Earth not doing military stuff, we could’ve met Hunk and Lance’s families properly in s7. We could’ve seen Shiro and the Holts interact.

Allura’s alchemy (lbr it’s just magic) is also just so wishy washy. We are never told what exactly she can or cannot do and sometimes she saves the day by hubsfjz. Sometimes she can’t save the day by hubsfjz. When she can and can’t? Who knows! That’s up to plot. Once we get to Oriande I have zero clue what is even going on with her alchemy anymore. What are sacred alteans anyway? Are they connected to the mark of the chosen? And what does she even gain from Oriande that she didn’t have before? By the time we get to the season 6 finale there is no tension at all because sure, there are several rips in the fabric of reality, but can’t Allura just fix it? No? She can’t? She doesn’t possess this level of alchemic knowledge? Then what the fresh hell was the point of going to Oriande! I thought Oriande was supposed to be the source of all alchemic knowledge!

Everything about Lotor made no sense. Until this day, I still have no idea why he did anything he did. He wanted to get quintessence from the quintessence field, but for what? For the empire? He never seemed to actually care for the empire so that’s unlikely. What was his motivation for anything? And why was he treated as worse than Zarkon and Honerva? I mean, I personally always saw him as a villain and expected him and team voltron’s alliance to fall apart because he was never actually redeemed from his position in s3 and s4. In HitS he expressly states that if the paladins never return from the other reality then it's a win for him, and he kills Narti with no hesitation (Black Site, S4E3) so he was very much meant to be a villainous character, but surely not worse than his parents? All of Zarkon’s misdeeds were wiped away as quintessence poisoning (or dark entity possession, the show is never quite sure what it’s doing here) but by that logic, shouldn’t Lotor’s be as well? He was literally born of the rift, so wouldn’t he also be somewhat possessed? And Honerva tried to destroy all realities just because she couldn’t have her happy ending (I mean, relatable. I didn’t want any endgame ships because it became clear I wasn’t getting any of mine bc yeah I’m that petty when I’m upset, but still) and she did this in her right mind, clear of all influence yet she was still redeemed in a second. And yet Lotor received none of this grace, despite actually being the most sympathetic of the three.

Voltron itself became so useless. As in the robot. All the power ups that were crammed into the final two seasons (especially season 7) and yet the robot never won a fight on its own. They always needed some interference to save their asses. How did voltron remain the most powerful weapon in the universe for TEN THOUSAND YEARS without being used, and yet the paladins disappear for just three years and suddenly technology has moved past them completely??? Doesn’t add up. And yet Keith is still telling us (to Shiro’s face haha YIKES) that voltron is more powerful than ever when it’s really not. Voltron gets its ass kicked on the daily. More still, the power ups were so much more impactful in the first two seasons because they were earned. They were spaced out and actually effective and were an obvious result of earned bonding between paladin and lion. The entire second arc has very little lion-Paladin bonding (mainly just Allura and blue in season 3) and then suddenly a bunch of them are rushed in the final arc. It doesn’t feel natural. And each paladin should have gotten a bayard weapon in voltron but they don’t. Keith forms the sword, Hunk forms the cannon with multiple target ability, Pidge forms the rocket thing(?) but Lance never forms anything. Neither do Shiro or Allura (they both form the blazing sword I suppose, but that’s only in conjunction with Keith as neither of them actually form the sword). All the weapons we see formed with multiple bayards are also very random. Look at Steven Universe, where the fusions form weapons that are combinations of the individuals’ gem weapons. Does voltron make that much sense? No! Lance and Pidge form dual swords, despite neither of them actually forming the single sword! Keith and Lance form...big wings I guess, despite Keith’s weapon being the sword and Lance not having a weapon at all. Allura and Hunk forming rocket blasters at least somewhat makes sense because Hunk’s single weapon is the multiple target cannon, but seeing as Pidge forms rockets shouldn’t it be Pidge and Hunk?

Keith and Lance’s relationship was set up to be an important one (I don’t mean romantic, but important). In a show about found family, characters within the team that are at odds are always going to have receive focus on their relationship growth until they reach an understanding (this is why Keith and Allura were also set up to have one of the most important dynamics). This focus is always going to happen with “rivals”. That doesn’t mean they end up dating (although sometimes they do) but it means their dynamic has to develop and change and improve a lot more than others. Like I said before, conflict begets growth and Keith and Lance had conflict in spades. They initially bickered incessantly but worked well together (Return to the Balmera, S1E7; Eye of the Storm, S2E5). In season 3, Lance supports Keith early in his tenure as pilot of the black lion, and Keith attempts to reassure Lance of his place on the team in TAC. They have each other’s backs, although Keith is still unaware as to why Lance pinned him as a rival in the first place. And then Keith leaves and their friendship never picks up again. They never discuss the origin of the rivalry and can hardly be considered friends until season 8, where they randomly have two Deep Meaningful Conversations (Launch Date, S8E1; the one where Allura is in a coma) despite doing none of the work to get to the stage where they have such conversations. It’s not convincing at all. And the reason any positive development between them was scrapped after season 3 is most likely to discourage shippers, which is frankly a terrible reason to mess with your characters and relationships.

The sheer number of dropped plots and threads. What a waste of story time. Team Sincline being a perfect mirror of team Voltron? Nothing happened with that because we never even get to see them form Sincline together (Narti is dead before the final ship is even built so uhh). Keith having future vision or quintessence detecting or whatever? Who knows why or what that is. It’s certainly never explained. It existed entirely to make him cool and spicy. Lance’s altean broadsword? Even Jeremy Shada wasn’t aware if he ever used it because it only shows up for like two seconds and was obviously used as an afterthought. Alternate reality alteans? HA! They were only there to make us ever so thankful that our reality altea was destroyed because look, they’re even worse than the galra, at least the galra left people with their free will. And Zarkon was only as bad as he was because of the rift (he’s suddenly a good guy in Honerva’s mind in s8), whereas empress Allura did all this rift-free. Why was Acxa in the weblum? Who knows, who cares. Why did she and Keith keep saving each other? Who knows who cares! Even the lion goddess stuff never makes a return.

The entirety of the eighth season made no sense. Allura’s death was pointless. Seriously. We don’t even know how she fixed anything. She just walked towards the light and died and somehow? Everything is okay now? No, that doesn’t make any sense. Was it her quintessence? Her hair? What exactly fixed all realities? And how did Altea and Daibazaal return? They were both destroyed by being blown up, they weren’t eaten by the rift of anything. So how did they come back? And did they come back with all the people or just as ghost planets? Did all the other planets that were destroyed during the war (like the one Lotor colonised but in a ~friendly~ way that made Zarkon angry enough to blow it up) also reappear? Voltron doesn’t care to say.

So this is all I can remember for now. There’s probably a ton more things that are either problematic or senseless but I’m all vented out so I’ll leave it here for now. Peace out.

#BIG SIGH #i really needed to write this #shit show #taken to the extreme #vld critical #a pinch of salt #whats wrong with vld #vld #voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron legendary disaster #voltron legendary disappointment #long post #if anything else comes to me ill make a part 3 lol

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rotzaprachim · 5 years

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What are some things you want to see in KoS 2?

SPOILERS

Ohhh this is a great question, I don’t really know if I have a list yet so more a list of overarching themes:

- Some exploration of Zoya’s biracial identity is very, very important to me. It’s really only mentioned in a single line, but I’d love it to be explored more. [Is Nazyalensky a Suli surname, or one that she chose for herself? It might be mentioned, but I don’t quite know.] Suli culture in general is something I’d love to see the books dive into, not as a periphery thing but front and center? And where and how Zoya fits into it, that’s very complicated stuff.

- Related to the point above, Inej. The two haven’t really interacted, but considering their pasts as well there’s such rich stuff to dig into. They are both, though in contrasting ways, utterly dedicated to the liberation of others and of women, and there’s the shared imagery of storms.

- For Novyi Zem to be developed a HELL of a lot more

- I’d like to see a bit more fleshing out of ethnic/linguistic/cultural/religious diversity within Ravka itself, if it’s anything like IRL Russia.

- A character to have an alive mother figure

- One thing I really liked about this book is how dedicated they show Nikolai to be to reforming Ravka and bringing its citizens into a new age, and that’s something I’d like to see more of? He has the inevitable contradiction of requiring power to enact the changes he wants, while needing to reduce the king’s power to have that kind of change. So, political modernisation- the realisation that, deep down, he or his children will be Ravka’s last royalty, but he can make it a peaceful transition. One of the things Leigh does best is making her worlds feel “lived in” beyond the typical High Fantasy stuff, that definitely applies here.

The cogs and gears of modernisation, which while necesary (and extreme- she’s done a great job at showing the incredible technical and cultural divides between Kerch and Ravka), aren’t always easy. How do they industrialise quickly while protecting the environment? How to they stop the net flow of educated individuals into Kerch, and get a functional university system set up? How do they make sure laws protecting women and ethnic minorities like the Suli are actually enacted upon? There’s the personal, high stakes drama, but the pulsing heart of KOS that made it very different to SOC, I think, is Nikolai’s biggest struggle being pulling a country that’s slowly sinking into a new age while still relatively inexperienced.

- IDK Leigh’s official stance on writing sex scenes, but I’m expecting very classy and fade-to-black with Zoyalai

- I ADORED the tone of this book, it was mystical and otherworldly and a fairytale but still had a brush of a Great Russian Novel in the interpersonal stuff and focus on a person’s inner demons and all. Would like more of that tone.

- Minimal d@rkling. In the book, on my dash, in my life. Th@nks.

- Side thing: one of my favorite headcanons for Jesper is that (after he becomes a very distinguished professor of law) he’s a big activist in creating like a pan-Grisha non-aligned movement type shebang? Like forming a group that recognises Grisha exist in all peoples, all states, and their identity goes beyond Ravka.

- One of the financial backers to one of Nikolai’s hair brained schemes is Wylan.

- Ummm if in like a 5 years in the future flashforward thing the great Zoyalai heir is a Grisha toddler girl rescued from one of Fjerda’s Gilead things. (Although if Nikolai transitions Ravka to a parliamentary democracy like the Bae he is maybe not quite so pressing an issue, but it still seemed like Ravka was, very understandably, worried about the whole heir situation.)

#king of scars #king of scars spoilers #kos #kos spoilers #zoyalai #zoya nazyalensky #nikolai lantsov

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shes-a-rebelll · 5 years

Text

this might just be ~another~ manic mood swing but..

i really hope it is the one that goes through. i’ve literally spent so much time wanting to fight against what my parents want for me and what society wants. i just have such a tendency to want to resist any authority or control over me. if someone tells me to do something; it is immediately the last thing i want to do. it’s just an immature emotional response probably stemming from mental illness. and that’s why i’ve been basically demonizing a higher education for the past two years..... because my parents and most of society tells me i will only be successful if i do it.... anyways.

our society is so harmful. the lifestyle that i worship is so harmful. every since i was as young as 11 or 12, an extremely toxic lifestyle was impressed into my brain. handed to me by my false idols.

this lifestyle is one shoved in the faces of many of us in our daily lives. on the cover of every magazine, in the glory of every rock show, in the stories of famous billionaires.

it’s this “rebel against everything and do it your way fuck school it’s all or nothing i’m going to be famous!” ideal. it’s so fucking stupid. but listen. i IDOLIZED people who this WORKED for. i met them. they’re very real.

they got lucky.

the reality they live in is not the reality ANY of us face or can relate to.

the music industry, businesses, corporations, fashion, film, are all well-oiled machines. they need stars, but only a limited amount. famous people are picked and chosen through a selective process. they are chosen for how pretty they are, they are chosen for how charismatic they are, they happen to be doing or writing something that is favorable to the general population. they are talented, but i’m telling you, for every famous person, there is absolutely HUNDREDS of people more talented than them simply milling around in society next to you.

famous people don’t tell you this, or they don’t know it. they will tell you to drop out of school and join a rock band, to never have a traditional job, they will say fuck college because it worked for THEM. because they got LUCKY.

well honey, it will not work for me. and it will not work for you.

i am forever thankful for billie joe armstrong with his guyliner, red tie and spiky black hair, commanding the stage and stealing my little preteen heart, and filling me with hope when i was young. i will always be thankful that i picked up a guitar because of him, that i started writing my first poems and songs because of green day. they led to me finding yet another wonderful outlet for expression and creation.

i am not grateful that they idealized becoming homeless, doing drugs, and leaving school for your art. because they are one of the hundreds of bands that played at gilman in the 90s. and what are many of those bands who played besides them doing now? i am sure plenty of those kids had equal amounts of passion, of drive, of dedication and want to be the starts green day are. they all didn’t get it.

because hoping for that kind of future is simply not reality. and i am sick of living in delusion.

my entire childhood, i practiced so hard, i fought so hard, but it felt like i was fighting against a strong current. some good came out of this fight: a persistence to create, and a lot of practice on the instrument. but a lot of bad shit came out of it.

writer’s block for YEARS because i compared myself so savagely to ALL other writer’s and artists, because i “wasn’t good enough”. constantly worrying about “making it”, “getting lucky” and the odds. feeling like i was never practicing enough no matter how much i practiced because my idols said they practiced for 8 hours a day, why cant i do that why cant i do that how come i cant just focus and do that???? music never being able to take my full focus when in reality i am a well rounded person with so many interests and passions that included a passion for learning and academic skill.

and the whole time feeling so.... sad. sad that i wasn’t ever able to get in a band.

but i was hopeful because i kept thinking that, well it will all come together magically at some point before i’m an adult!

and of course, it didn’t. haha, any young adult has gone through something similar like this at some point. reality’s tough, it’s true! i’m a pisces, i don’t spend enough time in it as it is...

well, these past few years have been my worst. it has been college dropouts, quitting jobs, suicide attempts, running away from home, ruining my credit, falling into deep debt, costing my family thousands of dollars that went to waste while they were trying to clean up after my mistakes and keep me from going homeless, developing drug dependency to try to cope with my worsening mental health (just making it 10x worse), and falling apart again and again and again. and hitting lower points than i ever have before, as in, FEELING more hopeless and suicidal than ever. these past few months have been particularly hard on me.

i couldn’t handle the fact that this wasn’t the future i fantasized about. as unrealistic as it was, i couldn’t handle the fact that i am an adult and still nowhere NEAR where i need to be if i wanted to make any sort of career as a musician. hitting dead end after dead end and nothing feeling right.

some of my closest friends are almost opposed to school, literally telling me it’s bad for me because it didn’t work out for them. well, i don’t believe it is too late for them to turn their lives around either, that is their decision to make. but i know i’m not giving into this bullshit anymore.

you’re not rebelling. you’re working for barely above minimum wage doing low skill work that numbs your skull. you hate it, you talk about hating it constantly. a ton of people live this way. i’ve never been able to live like this. i thought my ‘way out’ of it was trying to be a famous rockstar. even if nothing came from this fantasy, it didn’t stop it from being at the front of my mind at all times.

i have let go of it at many different points, in different ways. the thing is i have bpd which gives me intense mood swings that alter my entire life views and personality almost on a day to day basis.... as i write this i am literally worried that i will feel completely different tomorrow, because once again i feel this decision would be right for me. but i am letting go. i am letting go of these people i idolize, of this life i idolize. maybe it helped me in my teenage years but it is nothing but harmful to me now.

i want to create because i love to create. i want to write because i love to write. not for fame or fortune or even recognition. no worrying about where it will get me and if i’m good enough. just creating for the love of creating.

i recently was thrown into a depressive episode because i forgot to register for classes on time and couldn’t take the two community college classes i wanted to take. i just gave up instantly. i’m not giving up. i fucking want this. i’m calling, i’m emailing, i’m going in and even speaking to them if i have to. i am pursuing an education in recording arts and i am so excited and it might become something more and god damnit i actually like this and i’m going to do it!!!

i have also been needing therapy so badly these past few months but NEVER wanting to put an effort into actually getting one for myself. i literally had my mom call some for me but they didn’t even call back. it is very hard to find a good therapist and i have had many that haven’t helped me at all, but two who have been very helpful to me. my best friend told me about dbt therapy for bpd (which she has also) and her therapist was able to find one for me that’s covered by my insurance!! the important thing is that i actually CALLED THE OFFICE and SENT PAPERWORK. with my level of motivation, it’s like..., a huge accomplishment!!

so idk. i just hope i’m moving in the right track now. i have felt completely empty and devoid of life for so long, with no purpose or direction. and i feel like i am finally doing the Healthy Thing and i really hope to break out of my unhealthy habits soon!

i also plan on leaving tumblr in 2019 to better my mental health. as i talked about my problems with idolization (aka obsession, something i legitimately SUFFER WITH through mental illness, seriously guys stop normalizing intense obsession it actually has many harmful effects), it’s best for me to leave a website where i do nothing but reblog pictures of band members i idealize from like 10 years ago. on this site i am orbiting around people who don’t know about my existence or give a single shit about me... and that’s just plain insanity. that, my friends, is why most adults leave fandom at some point. maybe it’s not harmful for everyone, but this behavior is sure as HELL harmful to me. i want to focus on my life and the people in it. i want to focus on reality.

probably no one read this but yeah i really had to go off

#just wrote like an entire essay jfc #it's just like everything i'm going through rn but it's positive so :D #as in a positive epiphany and i'm hoping to make a positive change..#and theres a lot of typos but i rlly dont wanna proofread

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