#fake voltron leaks | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

darkspellmaster · 6 years

Text

Update and Edit and Master Post to the Fokker Conspiracy: A Guide to this whole mess.

Firstly a special thanks to several people that have helped me with this. I couldn’t have done this without more than my eyes.

Secondly: To those that are determined to believe these leaks, I’m going to say this right now. I am not going to judge you, I’m not here to be spiteful and say you’re wrong, I have no horse in this race. So if you want to believe in the leaks, then do so, I’m not going to harass or bug you about it or tell you you’re wrong.

Third: This post is designed to be informative as possible, and if anyone needs to correct something, please shoot it in the notes below so that I can go in and correct them. I want people to have enough info to make their own call on this, and all I’m doing is laying out the facts.

So without further ado, all details and information is below the cut here.

Adding in updates and edits as I go...Edit: 2.0.2

Edit: (I’m going to be polite as I got a note from tumblr in regard to BTI Studio, which makes me think that it’s the name and they are doing blanket purges as their name is being used by this. I am trying to find a way to contact the person that copyrighted me, a Mr. Rachel, who works as part of the IT Manger at BTI Studios. Which makes me think that this is more on the use of the name than the pictures themselves.

Anyone know if he’s on Twitter? I got this on the 24th, it is now the 29th and I did not receive any further notices. As I’m not on linked in and don’t have access to email him directly. This makes me think it’s the name as if it was all of NBC Universal all other forms of these images including VSI would be asked to be taken down. As was the Pidge and Lance image that was made to be a fake to show how easy it is to make one. This doesn’t mean that the leaks are real, only that the name, like all company names, should not be used without the consent of the copyright holder.)

Edit: According to Anon, the Plance photo which was a fake used to show how anyone can make this sort of thing was also copyright struck. Meaning that regardless of just fan art, or not, real or fake, you could be hit by a notice to remove the work. This is what is considered a kind of blanket purge meant to just clean everything up, even if it’s not even a leak. As long as there’s some bit of what is considered Intellectual property connected to the peice (character, name of studio, logo, even something as simple as “Property of X” it can be copyright struck.)

So let’s start with the Real Leaks that happened from both France and the US and Mir.

So let’s go with Kimiko’s leaks. For those that don’t know, these are real leaks from the Voice actress of Ezor, who was working in New York at the time for Broadway and was dubbing over lines that they either changed or didn’t get a strong enough take for her.

This photo was taken way back on April 18th 2017, since the date on the image dates the day of the photo taken.

So Several things you need to note about these picture.

1. The photo has the timer on the top and the side showing the take, we have a transparent property of DreamWorks, and the full locked and updated note with date and time on the bottom to denote that voice recording was locked in and updated at that point in time. There are also codes that give editors information.

2. The name of the studio is real, and they have their water mark in a way that doesn’t distract from the actors recording as well as it being transparent enough for them to do the recording as the water mark is put over as another layer on the screen for various legal reasons. Hyperbolic Audio is a dub studio in New York that works with several clients.

3. This photo was taken down within a few hours of it being put up by DreamWorks and basically the studio put out an announcement that requested the leak be taken down, as did the actors and other people working for the company. Word got out really fast and this image was removed and did later show up in the show.

Then there was the leak from Stuido Mir. This one I don’t have pictures of since most were taken down or deleted.

1. Confirmation of the photos were made by Mir itself.

2. The original poster of the pictures took them down and then requested that others take down the leaked images.

3. Someone tried to blackmail the studio holding the artwork, which lead to them being basically forced to take down the images.

4. This all within a few hours and days of the leaks coming to light.

Now this one is important because this one plays a role in everything that we’re going to discuss below.

So from my understanding the French actor of Keith Lionel (hope I’m spelling that right) took a photo of himself and others in the recording studio during the earlier seasons.

(This was removed more recently by him because people found it.)

So several important things to note here.

1. The photo again was taken by someone directly connected to the show and within hours of it coming out it came down. As dated by the discord server, this was done way back in 2017.

2. As you can see the program is very unique and that’s because it is a one of a kind program that was built for the dubbing studio.

3. As you can see here, the picture spreads over the screen and stops short of where the table is on the left.

4. You can see the text on screen is far smaller and transparent so you can see the words.

4 a. According to Anon, this may be the work of DreamWorks themselves. As the water marks would have to be done by them directly. Again I have never seen this sort of water marking on anything before, and no other studio has done this, and they have never done this to any of their other shows as far as I’ve seen. We’ll have to wait and see if they do this with She-ra as it’s another 2D show vs. 3D which is harder to do a lot of edits for.

5. The setup shows the words below, etc.

6. The words do not go over into the dark area of the screen and never cross over the table on the right side of the screen.

7. The photo was taken down within a few hours of it being put up and the studios were fast to take it down and tell the actors to tell their fans to make sure it’s not distribute the image. Same as with Kimiko’s leak.

With all this in mind. Let’s take a look at the latest leaks and try to clear this all up.

Recent leak with the French Dub team.

So let’s go over this piece by piece.

1. The fact is that this is a real photo of the cast of Voltron from France, that is not the issue. The issue is the screen behind them.

2. The bottom screen where the words are…

Okay so I did some digging on this studio. You can find information regarding them in the links below.

So Chinkel S.A. has a very unique program for dubbing created by Cappella systems. This was built just for them and there is no other studio that owns this sort of set up. This is really important to note because all of the leaks have had an altered version of their watermarks.

The important things here…

1. The words would not stretch across the whole screen like this. As the cut of the projected image would be set directly before the text boxes as you see in the studio image.

2. The words are too big, and are not opaque, and are too few. As the original real leak shows the “Do not copy” has 8 lines, the fake one here only has 5.

3. Yellow words are wrong and should be a way lighter color. As the color is yellow in the fake leaks and the real ones are transparent and name Chinkel S.A. not VSI which is wrong.

4. The image that is being used is that of a cropped shot of the previous leak as they cut off the other mouse, which you would not do as we see in the original real leak shows that the image stretches across the screen.

4a. Edit: Thank you anon for pointing out the mouse. My mistake here as the image I saw on my home computer makes the image look far more blurred then on the bigger one at work. You are right that it does have the mouse there, and the non studio shot that I have with the BTIStudio logo on it doesn’t have Pidges shoulder in it. I mixed those two up. I do personally though find it odd that the mouse is in the same position as the first shot.

5. The bottom line of the text doesn’t bend properly.

As shown by @huntypastellance post, the bending of the light of the projector is way off on the bottom of the shot.

Normally a projector would be bending and curving around the actors’ body and in this case they are not fully being wrapped around. Which is, as @aquaburst07 and @ladynoctern told me, as both are graphic designers, not at all how this is supposed to work in a legit picture.

Also something of importance that I must call to mind. The words on the bottom of the screen. They are not on the bodies of the actors. If this is a real projection then the light and worlds should be bending and shaping around the actors and this is not behaving in the way that it should. Also the word would not be cut off like that, even if you pause the scene, and you would never pause in a scene like this to take a photo.

Ask any VA, they would tell you that you would not waste time in this way. You’re costing time that you need to record. So if you take photos like this, it’s done before or after the recording session starts.

Additionally the light is off in regard to how a dubbing room would be used.

There is also the very blunt issue of the table on the right being way wrong, as you would not have a scene in there and have it read carton. As you see with the studio image it would have a list of the different recording aspects in there.

In the photo that was leaked there is none of that. And also there is no red lines near the end to be used to mark for audio recording purposes.

In another photo from the Chinkel S.A. website through the VSI website when translated they show their font on screen. It’s not very hard using Adobe products to create fonts and part of Graphic design is learning to do that. There is no words over the actors like there should be since this “scene” comes before the “wedding scene”.

Another small factor that’s been bugging me about the order of these scenes, the art story makes no sense. As a narration due to the time it reads like this.

First you have the older picture scene of them as a group, since the timer reads 22:09, then you have Keith’s scene at 22:30, and then you have the wedding, at 22:42. Here’s the reason this is bothering me. In normal structure you would have the picture of the younger group, then the moment of Keith, then the older group, and then end it on the wedding.

So if you notice that the show is doing the Final Fantasy XV way of making a character look older by giving them scruff on their chin. If Shiro’s wedding happens before the picture, where is his husband? If the wedding is taking place after the second group photo where is the scruff on their chins.

Also if you’re doing a sort of nostalgic moment you end on the group shot, you don’t star on it, that’s doing things in a backwards style and no storyboard writers group would do that. You want your story to flow.

Example: A- First shot with the statue in the back.

B -Keith shot

C -Wedding

D- Time skip shot with the group in color.

As I said in my large anon asks, the point of sepia is to make the tone of the scene feel nostalgic or memory like.

(I’m simplifying a lot of this because there’s so much here from a graphic design angle that a lot of people will be confused here)

6. The water mark on the screen is off, and the wrong type. Chinkel uses it’s name as the water mark and not the studios owner VSI.

7. Also the fact that the picture is too clean and sharp vs all the other aspects of the photo which are pixelated and blurred.

So onto the others. Let’s start with the Wedding and move our way down…

(Using Cinderella III because the stance is similar to the leaked image)

(For those wondering why I keep calling the character Roy, it makes it easier for me than calling him “That one dude that looks like a famous character from Macross that is supposed to be a homage to him, and clearly isn’t him.” )

8. This image was cropped at the top.

8 a. As Anon pointed out to me in inbox, the characters in the back are static and not moving. This would not be normal and, as I said in my post that got deleted, the characters were probably redrawn from either a posed picture, or some sort of promotional art and then traced over. Newtype magazine does a lot of illustrations that have moments that are not in the shows and weddings are sometimes used for their articles when they want to push a couple.

9. It’s been layered. The fact is that only Chinkel has the software to do this, so this was created by duplicating the layers and then taking and cutting and stamping and a lot of things in photo shop.

10. As per the Chinkel real leak, the property of DreamWorks on the bottom is not in stroke.

11. We have the fact that this guy looks way to much like Roy Fokker to be legally allowed. If this is supposed to be Adam then there’s something way off with him.

12. As I detailed before you can’t use images or look a likes of Roy Fokker due to Studio Nue and Harmony gold and Tatsunoko’s huge legal fight, and he wouldn’t be accessible until after 2021. So no…no Roy would be allowed even if he is Adam or just meant to be a look alike.

12 a. As @rsasai points out in this post using Roy would cause massive issues in Japan alone. http://rsasai.tumblr.com/post/179513598638/reminder

13. Also pidge’s eyebrows are off slightly and in the kiss scene you can see that Roy’s hand and arm vanishes

13a. Cleaner image shows that the arm is there, it’s just very hard to see, which again is why normally you don’t use the sepia tones there.

Link to image here

Since the Image has the BTIstudios name on it, and seems to be the reasons for the take downs, I’m linking it.

The interesting thing though is, again, I’m talking here from the perspective of framing a scene.

Closest one that I could find with the same or similar arm movements.

As you can see the more natural grip would be on the upper arm, it might be that Shiro’s arm can’t do that anymore? It seems like an odd place to put his arm.

Similarly here’s a shot that is a lot like the leaked one. Again the arms placement would naturally fall on the chest or arm of the other person as they are being pulled into the kiss, so you’d rest your arm where it feels natural.

13 b. Anon also pointed out that Shiro’s hand is resting on a location that would be more suited for a shorter character in place of Roy. Also his line of sight in the other pictures doesn’t match up, as he is looking down possibly at someone shorter than him, and also the art could allow for rotation on the head, as it’s easier to do that in profile than in person.

14. As per Malaysian posters, the wording on this is wrong and would not read that.

15. NBCU would not have it’s name on this period. You don’t have a stroke around a water mark.

16. BTI studios doesn’t have this program and would not just go by BTI studios.

17. Water marks do not work like that. You wouldn’t have a pause thing either.

18. And there is a lot of issues of where the words are being put because you can’t and shouldn’t have it hard for the voice actors to see the lip flaps.

19. Pause would not look like this and not be placing like this at all. Also the image of the kiss may be modeled on artwork from Macross do you remember love.

So with the second set of leaks we see changes.

20. Lance and Allura are possibly a redraw of Allura and Lotor.

21. Again BTISudios do not have the same type of equipment as Chinkel so this text over the screen should not be in there.

22. Allura’s crying is in the wrong spot. As I showed with the superman reign shot

23. One thing that I need to point out is the extra strand of hair for Allura, which she should not have.

24. Again this has been cropped and you wouldn’t have it in this tone as Voltron for past memories has shown it uses a white filter.

See with how Romelle and Bandor’s memory scene is framed in a light white edge to it, so show that it’s in the past. If the scene with these two are happening in the past then both should be in a white light not a sepia tone.

Jumping ahead to Keith’s leak.

25. Again wrong colors, we know that BTI Studios do not have this type of software.

26. Keith would still be with Voltron, and why is Zethrid wearing a BOM uniform while Ezor has a patch over her eyes. This is all very wrong.

27. Keith’s scar is not quiet right either.

The last one has a lot wrong with the group shot and more to the point the one on the top is far worse.

28. Pidge’s eyebrows are cut wrong, her hair is based more on Lotor’s bangs then her own.

29. Pidge’s nose was half cut off by the altered glasses placed on her.

30. Keith’s fingers look weird and his hand is off, and if it’s lance’s it still a bit weird.

31. You wouldn’t have the image cut like that, and have the “Do not copy” would not flow off the screen in the way it does.

32. Coran hasn’t changed at all, and his ears are off.

33. Shiro looks more like an older version of Yu Narukami than himself.

33 a. Edit: As per @leavesandroses “Studio Mir also does statues in 3D, not drawn animation” And they are right. If you look at artwork from Legend of Korra and at Aang’s statue because that’s some of the best shots, you can see how it’s done via CG rather than via traditional hand drawn.

Even Lotor’s statue is similar in design and uses the same type of rendering only with a filter over it as it’s a memory.

Allura’s statue doesn’t have this same affect where you can tell it’s CG as you should in the shot.

Thanks to @rsasai , who did some testing, you can see the art work doesn’t over lap right.

As you can see if these are all the same product they should line up…they don’t. No matter what way you try to overlap the screens will not match up.

Then there’s the added fact of the weird words that would not be on screen in this way.

34. Screens are all fucked up, you wouldn’t have the water marks cutting into the Property of DreamWorks

34 a. You would also not have the “One year later” on top like that.

35. Also no studio would do it in this way. No one would be this dumb. This is way too close to how they would do some weird stuff in the 1990s, which would never be done here in the states now.

36. There’s also the bad translation which would not be allowed.

On top of all of this and several other things that others have pointed out over and over again, you would not have three leaks of this magnitude and not have this pulled fast off the net. As I said with the original real leaks both were removed very fast by DreamWorks.

All three studios would have been pulled from the Netflix list and most definitely in the case of VSI and Chinkel SA they would have their preferred vendor award taken away. "Netflix Preferred Vendor of the Year - Timed Text (High Volume) for 2018.”

Not only would the actors from the shows be blacklisted for their willingness to participate in what would be seen as a very big Legal copyright issue, but also Netflix, WEP, DreamWorks and NBCUniversal would probably, along with other companies, never want to work with them again.

Then there’s the fact that romelle-against-the-antis got a confession from the first leaker saying that they faked the leaks.

With all this being said…and I’m sure others can add onto this with their own information, you can make your own call if this is fake or real. I’m not going to tell anyone what to believe, but for me there’s enough proof that make me believe that this whole thing is an elaborate hoax set up to drive the fans into extreme case of worry.

So please guys…. Forget about this, just wait till the season comes out and let the chips fall where they may. Go outside, find another show to watch for the time, enjoy the fact that Halloween is only a few days away, get ready to go shopping for the holidays, make something! I just hope the Voltron Fandom will relax.

Links here to all the stuff:

https://huntypastellance.tumblr.com/post/179486029100/leaks-discourse-update

https://www.vsi-paris.tv/nos-services/voice-over

https://www.vsi-paris.tv/en/dubbing

https://www.vsi.tv/news/netflix-preferred-vendor-year

https://www.vsi.tv/facilities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSI_Group

http://romelle-against-antis.tumblr.com/day/2018/10/23/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Gold_USA#Legal_issues_regarding_Macross_copyright

Thank you’s go here.

@aquaburst07

@rsasai

@springofviolets

@ladynoctern

@romelle-against-antis against antis

@huntypastellance

And a whole lot of Anons. With this being said, this will be my last update until something major comes out.

Side note So this..

is a actual photo from the screening of the actual end of the show with JDM and LM. It’s from JDS’s twitter account. Actors and crew and whoever came to see it signed an NDA and I expect that anyone claming to be leaking from this would be taken down and probably fired or fined for leaking anything from that screening.

Honestly with the clues here I”m betting that Matt and his girlfriend will be the ones having the wedding, or someone there previous screening that they already decorated and left that stuff up there from that event. Either way, everyone take a deep breath and relax until December...then you can freak out.

#voltron #voltron legendary defender #voltron leaks #fake voltron leaks #false leaks #real leaks #real photos of Jds and Lm #staff has seen the ending and have signed NDAs #meaning that if there are legit leaks you better believe someone will be fired.#master list of voltron leaks info with pictures #hope this helps

216 notes · View notes

neven-ebrez · 5 years

Text

"Leaps of Faith, Falling, and Learning How to Fly"

The narrative structure of Keith and Shiro in Voltron: Legendary Defender.

(X)

First, an introduction. Hello, I’m Zerbe and this is my first time writing meta for the Voltron fandom. Be that as it may, this is not, however, my first time writing structural meta. I've written extensively on narrative structure specifically in relation to character development for the fandom of Supernatural for going on seven years. Comparing the two shows, we are looking at wildly different storytelling mediums that come from two very different social climates (the Old Gods of live action broadcast television versus the New Gods of streaming animation). As different as the two shows are in conception, execution, and awareness, together they utilize a similar structure as far as character development goes. It is what I like to refer to as “overarching character development endgame structure” (or simply “endgame”). This character driven (rather than plot driven) structure is by far the driving force of the architecture of Voltron's storytelling: a narrative designed to specifically develop its main characters to a certain endgame point as (usually) colored by trauma caused by the Galra Empire.

Unlike with Supernatural (a show that utilizes a highly reductive two lead structure and has struggled with its exploration and expression of trauma many times in the past), Voltron utilizes a full ensemble cast (with all core characters appearing in most episodes) and takes the time to explore each character's development and trauma at a decidedly steady pace and without the continuous “sacrifice” of other characters as simple narrative mirrors (also sometimes called "narrative folds"), to this ultimate purpose. I feel, however, I’m perhaps giving Voltron too much credit here, as effectively Allura and Keith function as the series’ two structural leads more often than not. Also unlike Supernatural, Voltron writes itself into its final season knowing well ahead that it's reached the end of its road, hopefully leaving no stroke of storytelling wasted.

And while Voltron sets each of its characters on specific developmental paths, it doesn't, however, spend an equal amount of time on each to accomplish this narrative task (hence my description of Keith and Allura as the series’ respective structural leads since their final developmental arcs represent the essential end of the series). Pidge's development, for example, is already effectively over when she is reunited with her family in the S7 finale. There’s nowhere else to go with her beyond emphasizing or revisiting what matters to her. This unequal time dedicated to structure for some characters becomes especially evident later on, once certain characters reach certain developmental milestones that others simply can not due to the nature of what (or rather, who) is involved in their ultimate developmental endgame.

In general, the first season focuses on establishing the basics of the Voltron Universe, including, but not limited to: the past and continuing threat of the Galran Empire, the magic and mechanics involved in the operation of Voltron, and other more general world building. The first season also quickly establishes its ultimate character goals in episode two (simplified easily into S1E2 for discussion purposes), and though the details and road maps to development for each are unveiled at significantly different paces, each are definitively and firmly cemented in the past with an aim towards the future.

⦁ Shiro: wanting a way to be remembered before he dies, but choosing to seek this through historical accomplishments, rather than in his bonds to others

⦁ Keith: plagued by a life full of unanswered questions that permeate the walls of an empty shack in the middle of the desert where everyone who has loved him has left, a house that isn't a home

⦁ Lance: struggles to distinguish himself among a big family and is often overshadowed by others, his rivalry with Keith and pursuit of Allura explore this in different ways

⦁ Hunk: pure of heart, brave in the face of fear, and plagued by a stomach that both values and rejects food according to his nerves

⦁ Pidge: driven to find out what really happened to her father and brother, she strives to reunite her family, with this mattering more, sometimes, than any mission

⦁ Allura: while the Princess does not get the early group visual that the other five do, her shackles to the past and the trauma of the Galra manifest visuallly, compoundedly and symbolically within the confines of the Castle of Lions, from losing her father a second time to events well past the Castle's destruction. The tragedy of what happened to her home world keeps her shackled to the past.

Allura, Coran and the five Paladins function as the various core baselines of the show's narrative structure, (and as mentioned before) with Keith and Allura each serving as cornerstones for the series at greatest length, each sharing in the trauma of the Galra most profoundly and both effectively mirroring each other towards similar and interwoven leadership endgames. With this structural developmental overview of the series briefly touched upon, this meta will now focus on Keith and Shiro together through a thematic lens of taking a leap of faith and learning what it means to truly be able to fly.

The Keith/Shiro relationship is the inarguable lynchpin of the series, with several episodes which highlight it or are otherwise mostly dedicated to it. The first episode to explore the “leap of faith” theme between them fully is S2E1, where Keith must get to an injured Shiro and save him from some creatures that are hunting him down after the team has been separated through a wormhole and blasted to different parts of the galaxy without their lions working. It is in this episode where we finally see the intent the creators have with the two, that Shiro wants Keith to lead the team if anything happens to him. This is typical of a mentor/pupil relationship: the pupil learns, the mentor dies, the pupil becomes the master. It is as predictable a narrative as it is old. It is a significant part of Keith’s development arc. Visually, Shiro and Keith are separated by a huge rift, and it is Keith who must make the journey to Shiro by taking his teachings and applying them.

Keith uses the water pressure that simmers beneath the rock to launch him across the chasm. It is not enough, however. When the rock falls away Keith begins to fall. In order to reach Shiro, he must fly. This is only possible, however, because of Shiro mentoring him to begin with. Keith was patient and looked at what it would take to cross the chasm before he simply jumped. Shiro maybe doesn’t really look at it this way, but the reality is that he is only able to be saved here because he forged a bond with Keith and helped him develop a certain outlook. And while this is the first striking visual to their relationship being defined through leaps of faith, it won’t be the last.

The strongest and most thematically relevant to the "leap of faith" visual (retroactively established in the pilot and elaborated on for its link between the two characters later in what most closely resembles a chiastic ring structure) as centered in this analysis is S6E5 (so this is where my focus will now mostly be). It is an episode titled "The Black Paladins", which basically is an episode titled "Keith and Shiro", the two Paladins that can fly the Black Lion on near equal footing. Anytime episodes are titled by characters or relationships this usually represents or leads to a death of some sort, or in the case of Keith and Shiro, Keith deciding to not jump, but fall. Here, the past dies.

From S3 onward we see Keith and Allura's previously mentioned dual lead development structure in greatest evidence as both characters must ultimately face deceit from mentors they have bonded closely to: Lotor for Allura, and Shiro (or rather, Kuron, Shiro's controlled clone) for Keith. The show also frequently compares the protective relationships of others: Lance and Allura, Keith and Krolia, Allura and Alfor, as well as Zarkon and Haggar, among others, to Keith and Shiro’s own for the purposes of establishing the blur between how a relationship is coded (platonic, familial, or romantic) in relation towards mentoring and teaching, as well as protecting.

And while Allura's bond and relationship with Lotor isn't as long established as Keith's is with Shiro, Lotor and Shiro are both consistently framed as mentors of sorts for the two, key in unlocking important future potential in both characters. Lotor teaches Allura to believe in herself and she then develops romantic feelings for him, to the point where they share a kiss. We will see this sentiment echoed from Shiro to Keith in the final scene of the episode. In S6E5 Keith fights Shiro's clone, who attacks with not only physical attacks, but emotional ones, designed specifically to target Keith's previous insecurities about his unknown past. This devastating emotional barrage would have, perhaps, ultimately worked had Keith not just made peace with his mom in an isolated two year time skip where he saw (or rather, practically experienced) first hand the events that lead up to her leaving Earth to protect Keith (and not specifically the Blue Lion, as Keith thought). Keith is shown two distinct relationships: one romantic between his mom and dad and one familial between him and his parents. Both involve protection and teach that motivation personally matters, but sometimes can not be easily quantified.

Either way, the narrative lesson to Keith is given as such: protecting who you love is more important than any single mission. Defending himself, Keith confesses his love for Shiro, declaring him a brother against the decidedly more romantic textual portrayal of Lotor and Allura. Keith previously uses “like a brother to me” in S2E8. The sentiment, I feel, is what matters most here and that sentiment from Keith to Shiro is as follows: “You are the person most important to me, the one I love most.” Everything that follows is Keith deciding what that truly means, a story we must now wait for.

Worth noting is that Shiro does not outwardly react to Keith’s declaration of brotherhood, but rather the one of unquantifiable love is the one that causes Shiro to react. This is easily comparable to Shiro’s previous jabs to Keith which he showed no reaction to. This line, “I love you” is the one thing, the only thing, that one of them reacts to visibly. It says without a single word, “There’s something here to this that affects Shiro, something he hasn’t made peace with.”

Keith being completely at peace with himself is then symbolically structured as being instrumental to saving Shiro in the present, and into the future. We get this pretty explicitly in S2E8 when Keith is at war with himself over learning his past (what the knife he has symbolically means), versus him fighting to live in the future. For the flashback Keith sees Shiro, then his dad: the two defining older male mentors in his life. Keith pleads to Shiro how much learning about his past means to him.

Keith: “I’ve made my choice.”

Shiro: “Then you’ve chosen to be alone.”

If Keith clings to the past, he’ll lose the bonds he has forged, specifically with Shiro. He’ll end up alone. The show says “we’re all the family you need”, but it is decidedly Shiro (and not the team) that Keith associates his decision to cling to the unknown past with, as none of the other paladins appear even though Keith’s suit has the ability to show them. When given the ultimatum, Keith chooses Shiro and the future. This is important because later we see Shiro facing the same ultimatum in the past, between his goals and his boyfriend, Adam, yet back then Shiro chooses differently than the Keith of the present. The two events between past and future (goals vs people) are therefore significant in terms of character structure between the two characters. While Keith’s father tries to convince Keith to stay and learn the truth, the Red Lion is shown lifeless and immobile on a cliff. Only when Keith makes the decision not to wait around anymore does the Red Lion take flight to come save him. It’s a mirror to S2E1 visually in many ways. At the same time Shiro comes to Keith’s aid, the Blade of Mamora insists Keith give them back the blade and Keith does, in favor of going with Shiro.

Keith:” It doesn’t matter where I come from. I know who I am.”

With this declaration and being bodily supported by Shiro, Keith awakens the blade and walks into the future. The truth the show has only hinted at is finally revealed: Keith can only awaken the blade if he has Galran blood running through his veins. One answer only leads to more questions as forever the future marches on.

Back to S6E5 we get this symbolic visual of Keith further accepting his past and embracing his future with him receiving a scar from Shiro (Keith is also scarred in S2E8 but his suit covers it) with this scar not altogether unlike the Galran marks his mom bares on her face (and in a battle where we see flashes of Keith’s Galran lineage), all the while Keith, in turn, severs the visual of Shiro's trauma by the Galra, his Galran arm.

Keith blocks Shiro’s attack with his mom’s blade (the past), but severs Shiro’s arm with the black bayard (the future). In one moment, one fell swoop, the past finally symbolically, and completely, gives way to the future.

It is here that the chiastic structure of Sheith approaches its end, though we must wait a few episodes for Shiro’s POV to fill in the rest of their shared past, a past our pilot episode has only hinted at. As the science station that houses countless Shiro clones crumbles around them, Keith holds fast to the one he just fought and falls. It is a leap of faith, though not the first. It is, perhaps, the most important one thus far though, because it is the one the two finally take together and it is the one in which Keith refuses to let go. Keith is not jumping, he is falling. And he is not falling alone, no. Keith is falling with Shiro. Wherever the future takes them, they fall into it together.

Keith: “I’m not leaving here without you.”

Shiro: “I will never give up on you.”

These are, at their core, wedding vows. When you get married the usual promise is that you will love someone in sickness and in health, til death separates you. But Keith and Shiro... they go beyond this, are not bound by it. They transcend.

And if I had to say what the series was about, both emotionally and structurally, I'd have to say plainly, the show is about Keith and Shiro’s love and commitment to one another against a war torn universe, with the show developing Keith to a point where his faith, love, and dedication to being able to save Shiro is what finally actually, *truly* saves Shiro, and Shiro, after learning it’s people you love that matter most, finally lets this course happen. They are student and teacher, up until... they are not, up until... they fall together into the unknown. At this point and in the time I am writing this, with less than two months before the final season is released, Keith can physically save Shiro and truthfully does so again and again right up until the S7 finale fight with Sendak. This is not what Shiro needs (as a character) though, is not how Shiro is structurally designed to be ultimately developed. Shiro needs to be saved in an altogether different way and everything that follows S6E5 brings this narrative structure design starkly to light.

In S6E6, an episode titled, "All Good Things", a reference to the proverb, "All good things come to those who wait", which is a virtue on the payoff of being patient, as the phrase, "Patience yields focus" is a recurring cornerstone phrase in Shiro's mentoring of Keith, the Black Lion (complete with symbolically injured wing) saves both Shiro and Keith and the truth of the past four seasons is revealed: Shiro died back when he fought Zarkon at the end of Season 2 and his consciousness has been residing within the Black Lion ever since. Keith’s worst fear is realized, the person he cares about most has left him just like everyone else. When left to fight in a mission alone, to ultimately shoulder responsibility meant to be shared, Shiro is destined to die.

Keith’s whole Blade of Mamora retreat arc, in which Shiro takes back control of the Black Lion to lead Voltron, is essentially Keith being afraid of replacing Shiro. He thinks (and I must make some guesses here as there’s no clear text for why Keith runs from leading Voltron) that if he never again leads Voltron, then Shiro can never be replaced, can never die. If Keith leaves Shiro, then Shiro can never leave him. It is an act of protection born out of fear. The one death Keith can never bear is Shiro’s. Sound familiar? This is exactly what Zarkon felt towards Honerva, and what she, in turn, can not bear herself. We even get a scene where Honerva remembers their past and brings Zarkon back from the brink of death in a coma. That’s not now though for Shiro and Keith (and I’m honestly trying to stay linear here), but it follows into the opening of Season 7.

Everything Keith does is to protect Shiro. All the while the Blades try to impart on him the wisdom that a mission of protecting the masses is what matters, moreso than any individual ever matters. It is not until Keith meets his mom and learns the truth (that she left to protect Keith above all) that all this reductive development is wiped clean and Keith comes full circle.

Keith calls Allura and informs her of what's happened to Shiro. Keith, very far away, must now find his way back to help the team fight Lotor, as this episode is both the Allura/Lotor fold to the previous episode's fight between Keith and Shiro, and the next unveiling in the future shape of Shiro's ultimate development arc as defined by Keith. Keith calls upon Shiro for help getting to where he needs to go and once again, there’s a cliff, a leap of faith and Shiro shows Keith once more how to fly. When Keith calls out, Shiro will always answer.

In another striking symbolic visual, Keith unlocks the Black Lion's ultimate wings and he makes it to the team, retaking his place as leader, truly, and helping them win the fight. From here, there is nothing more Shiro can teach Keith. The mentoring part of their relationship is effectively over. Wherever they journey from here, it is a walk they take side by side, as equals. After Lotor is left in the Quintessence Field and the Castle of Lions is crushed into a crystal, Allura is left with one final link to her past, Voltron itself (and, well, her tiara, which she sacrifices to power Shiro’s arm in S7). With Allura's newfound abilities unlocked, she pulls Shiro's consciousness out of the Black Lion and into herself. Allura then transplants Shiro's consciousness into the defeated soulless clone, his hair turning completely gray from trauma. Shiro awakens with a cough and falls into Keith, telling him, "You found me." Looking at all they've lost, all they've sacrificed, the team decides there's only one place they can go to move forward in their fight against the Galra: home.

Season 7 then opens with Shiro dreaming of Keith, a narrative reflection of everything that lead him to where he is now, in a fight for his life inside a body that isn't truly his own. Somewhere on the other side of life after death. This will be the final fill in the blank for the past chiastic structure of Shiro and Keith’s mentoring relationship. And I feel this must be said... The creators didn't have to do this. Like... at all. This situation, designed to show how irrevocably the characters’ fates are tied together, was otherwise an utter and completely avoidable narrative problem. They seriously could have just had what Allura did in the S6 finale be the end of it, Shiro saved. But no. The creators decided instead to show us Shiro coming into this season, to be dying AGAIN so that he can then decide to live for one reason and one reason alone: for Keith, specifically because Keith tells him that he can’t go through the thought of losing Shiro again. This ties their futures together. Irrevocably.

The creators spend a whole episode on where Keith and Shiro have been, to show us where they need, as characters, eventually, to go; specifically, where Shiro needs them to go so that his future isn’t full of regret, the way his past is. This matters more than anything structurally the show has done between them previously. This is the future. But first we go, by typical chiastic ring structure design, all the way back to our first episode... in a leap of faith to rescue Shiro. We see the first time Keith and Shiro meet, in Keith's school as Shiro is sent to find recruits for the Garrison. Keith, among his peers, stands out in ability, but his anger at being unable to know of his past clouds his future. Here, he is standing narratively still. Keith steals Shiro's car and is sent to a juvenile detention facility. Shiro gets him out and offers him a future at the Garrison school. From this point, they begin their journey towards the future. "You can't imagine all he's done for me." Keith tells Allura when she tries to reassure him that Shiro is going to be okay.

The flashback dream begins again. Shiro brings Keith to a hanger where a shuttle is, and not just any shuttle; it's the shuttle that flew the mission that made Shiro want to be a pilot. Shiro speaks of braving the unknown and how great things can be accomplished with time... and effort. Time and effort. This is very important for what comes later in the episode. Also interlaced with this episode is the search by the rest of the team to locate Faunatonium, a substance that will help them more quickly recharge their Lions so they can all begin heading home. While Keith, his mom, and Allura decide to stay with Shiro, the rest of the group decides to leave and perform the search. On the surface level, this narrative detour (or rather, plot attachment) seems rather silly, and is, indeed, relatively coded as such being lead by Corran. There's some very thematically relevant parts though. Faunatonium can not be found by simply searching. It can only be found by getting something else, a Yalmor (and in fact, usually many working together), to find it instead. While this ongoing theme: relying on others, folds into the general theme of accomplishing the impossible through teamwork (that is ever present in the series), it is particularly relevant to Shiro and Keith's respective arcs. If one is to find what one needs to be able to fly, it can only be done by looking to others. Also visually relevant, the others are shrunk during the course of the episode (complimenting the visually smaller Keith), and must find a way to “grow up” in order to move on in their journey. Again, this is done... through a leap of faith into the Faunatonium.

We then return to Shiro's dreamscape. Keith and some more cadets are training in the simulator, learning to fly in formation. Keith is bored and starts to goes off command, ignoring Shiro's instructions. The group is punished and one cadet in particular takes great offense, picking a fight with Keith over his attitude and dragging his past into it. Keith takes a swing and we see the scene that Keith was reflecting on when he and Shiro were falling to their deaths after their fight in Season 6. It is a pivotal point, with the show showcasing both characters reflecting on the exchange. It functions as a cornerstone to their entire relationship. Shiro is never going to give up on Keith and that it is important that Keith, in turn, not give up on himself. Two equal and important parts to the same coin, finding a way to ultimately “save Shiro”. Keith is floored by this kind of dedication. "You don't even know me," he tells Shiro and Shiro responds in kind, "You're right, I don't, but sometimes, we all need a hand." Shiro is telling Keith that he is taking a leap of faith. He doesn't know how this relationship will work out for either of them, but he wants to find out. Shiro offers Keith his hand, and Keith takes it.

The narrative then switches over to the rest of Voltron, small, who discover that communication with Keith and the others is impossible because of their size. The episode's title, "A Little Adventure" specifically references size as well. This is the "little" adventure of Keith and the "little" adventure of the others, both searching for something you can’t get on your own. And... back to Shiro's dreamscape again.

Shiro and Keith are racing on hoverbikes through the desert. "Come on, catch up!" Shiro tells Keith, who is trailing behind him. Keith passes him, but can't keep the lead. Shiro heads back in front. The two reach a cliff and Shiro dives, leaving Keith behind on the ledge.

Keith is amazed at Shiro's leap, asking him how he did it. "It's all about timing," Shiro tells Keith. "Pull up too soon, you won't have the momentum needed to create lift. Too late, there won't be enough lift to avoid the crash." It's all about patience, all good things coming to those that wait. Keith admits that he's not ready to be on the same level as Shiro just yet. As he is, he can not make the jump. This is the jump Keith makes in the pilot episode to save Shiro, then again in S2E1, and it is something Shiro taught him. Everything in the pilot between Keith and Shiro is instantly given more weight because of this. Shiro taught Keith how to fall, and then, how to fly and this, in turn, saves Shiro in the future. And it is absolutely a metaphor for how falling in love with someone who makes you want to be a better person feels like.

Here, at the dying of the day with a rainbow framing them, Shiro asks about how Keith grew up in the desert. Keith's dad is revealed to have died in a fire, having run back into a burning building to save others because you couldn't tell him to not try to save someone. For as much as Keith is revealed to be like his mother, he is just as much like his father. He even runs recklessly into a fire to save strangers in S1E4.

Here, small and in the past, he does not yet realize this, much less is he at peace with it. This, ultimately, is why he can not make the symbolic leap of faith not even alongside Shiro. A beep sounds from Shiro's wrists and we see a medical device that he must wear because of his muscles. However serious his illness is, the show does not make it very explicit. If I had to guess though, and unfortunately the show makes it so that I must, it's that Shiro's unnamed illness was going to cause him to die young (or maybe is going to, though I doubt it will now, given what I've heard about the creators originally planning to kill off Shiro after season 2 and being unable to for whatever reason, involving something on the production level). Being that Shiro is about to be revealed to be a gay man, this functions as an AIDS visual in many ways, but the show makes it distinctly not for whatever reasons. Shiro, operating his life under a young death sentence is, in my opinion, the best explanation for everything that follows. Remember the wedding vows I mentioned? In sickness and in health? This further promotes the concept.

Keith overhears Admiral Sanda telling Pidge's father that Shiro shouldn't be going on any more missions in his current physical state. Shiro looks defeated as he returns home. In a frame on the shelf, among various trophies and aircraft models, we see a picture of Shiro and another guy about his age. As Shiro throws his bag on the couch, the living version of the picture is drinking at the island in the kitchen. He asks Shiro about his day and Shiro explains what just happened. The guy sides with the Admiral, saying the mission is not worth it. Shiro gets angry and tells the guy that he knows what the mission means to him, and that it is worth the risk.

"Takashi, how important am I to you?"

And... this is a couple's fight. Shiro is called by his proper first name for the first time by a character and the guy basically rips into Shiro, telling him that he's always been there for him, but that now Shiro's unfairly asking him to just be okay with the decision to do the mission, knowing he's possibly (and probably) flying to his death. "Don't start that again, Adam. You don't need to protect me." This is not only a couple's fight, but it is an old fight, definitely not the first if Shiro’s exasperated tone is anything to go by. Shiro doesn't want someone who wants to protect him. He wants glory, a mission. He tells Adam that he must do this for himself. Shiro is being selfish. Adam tells him that there's nothing left for him to prove, no more records to break. Adam is talking about the things Shiro has done to put his name in the history books, to be remembered when he is gone. In his decision to go into space one final time, Shiro values his name written in a history book more than he values being cherished and protected by the person that loves him most. To Shiro, and against what Krolia ultimately teaches Keith, the mission is more important to Shiro than love. As of right now, taking a leap of faith and flying means only one thing to Shiro. And it is the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. Adam tells Shiro that he can't stop him from leaving, but that this time he won't be here waiting if Shiro makes it back.

Adam... is completely and utterly giving up on Shiro.

No matter what he does, Adam can not save him.

And... here's where I talk about what the showrunners have come out and said once this season was released. This scene, as given, was apparently as explicit as the show was told they could be regarding this relationship and in specific regards to Shiro's sexuality. To children, the show's proclaimed aimed, core demographic, the ones the toys are aimed at, this whole thing... is essentially nothing definitive. Children, with no frame of experience for reference, don't understand that what just happened is a conversation that could only be had by lovers, ones that have been having a specific argument for a very long time. Adam, however, isn't labeled explicitly as lover by the text. Any adult with half a brain cell and not bound by a dense fog of heteronormativity viewing this whole exchange recognizes it for exactly what it is though, what it can only be. So by sheer design, this is the show admitting it writes for two audiences and is caught between them. This is where animation, in the ongoing fight for representation and inclusion, often falls short and struggles the most out of every available storytelling medium. And in a show aim towards young boys, involving a creative entanglement of toy production of all things, it is quite simply the toughest fight there is. And the creative team has certainly tried, based on everything I’ve come across of them discussing their limitations.

Apparently this was always the reveal that the showrunners wanted, to present Shiro as the hero who just happened to be gay. From what I understand, this reveal was originally planned to be worked into season 2 right before they killed Shiro off (or otherwise had him gone for an extensive period of time), but then that plan got axed for reasons, with the creators seemingly only reflecting on how they avoided the Bury Your Gays trope in retrospect. The creators cared enough to be thoughtful in regards to wanting to be as inclusive as possible, but perhaps operated without fully understanding (and from everything I’ve read I’d argue, yes, without malice) the delicacies of trying to present a narrative based in equality. to a consumer, who ultimately doesn’t live in such a world themselves. Quite simply, if there were more lead queer characters among the media landscape at large then Bury Your Gays would not even be a thing. This, however, is not the world we live in and the role of the mentor usually ends in death anyway, so the protagonist can advance.

I should say here that I’m pointedly not going to discuss the accusations of queerbaiting in this analysis, which have been thoroughly discussed already and commented on by the creative team. The purpose of this analysis is for me to give my opinion of intent as derived from looking at a specific themes and examining both dialogue and narrative mirror structure towards this end. That’s my “thing” as a meta writer. As I’ve said, the fight for same sex romantic text (and therefore, representation) for this medium and with this specific core audience (young boys) is simply the fucking toughest fight there is. And the creative team has fought hard for what we’ve gotten so far. Their hands are also tied with explaining this clearly and teasing plots in general. All I can truly say is the whole situation is understandable (the team wanted everyone to know exactly what Adam and Shiro were), and also... unfortunate.

Adam, we are told by the showrunners, was killed off in the Sendak invasion to drive home the severity of the situation. But, oh, this is not something children would even properly understand, remember? Without the real life experience to understand that Shiro and Adam were having a lover’s spat, this whole assertion loses itself. The show could have easily killed Iverson, or any other number of familiar faces the show’s younger audience would better understand in context instead of Shiro's textually undeclared boyfriend we only just met and only then for about a minute as a reflection of the past. So we, as a thoughtful adult audience, must ask ourselves... why exactly were these narrative decisions made? And for who, exactly? To what ultimate end do they serve?

Why did avoiding Bury Your Gays matter one time, but ultimately not the other? And if the goal was to make Shiro, and therefore the audience (again, which one?), feel loss as keenly as possible, then why have them be broken up already? That certainly doesn't pack as much as an emotional punch, if, indeed, that was the focus goal, which I honestly don't doubt played some kind of part... Just not the most important structural part, given everything that has come before and has been tied into Shiro’s development post S2. No, it was more important to the creative team to establish Shiro as a man who had previously dealt with (and specifically *chose* to deal with) sacrificing a lover, than it was to establish him as a man who never carried that pain throughout the series, but must now without choice.

“However, when times change, so does decision-making. “I think when real tragedy strikes it kind of snaps things into sharp focus,” Montgomery added. “And you start to realize how much [Shiro] may have taken Adam for granted and how much he didn’t appreciate him when he could have.”

-Showrunner interview in PolyGon

Shiro’s choice is the key. Just like Keith’s choice in S2E8. This, ultimately, reveals what the showrunners have yet to come out and plainly say.

Shiro/Adam, as a cornerstone of Shiro’s past decision to put “the mission” above love, was therefore specifically introduced as a narrative focus towards Shiro learning from this character flaw in the near future through and because of his “leap of faith” relationship with Keith, wherein Keith has specifically learned and understood this narrative lesson and has effectively been crafted to, in turn, teach it to Shiro.

This is what I personally see when I look at everything that’s been given. Beyond this, and to a certain point... I think I understand. These creators were obviously told they couldn't depict an ongoing same sex relationship for Shiro, and that obviously ended up factoring into everything that follows, but the exact way this was all done... I mean. Specifically. In the long game endgame development sense. In my opinion, it speaks to creators that knew what they were up against and tried to plan ahead. Adam giving up on Shiro... in a multi episode sequence that deals specifically with leaps of faith, Keith needing to grow into that position, and both Shiro and Keith vowing to never give up on one another, never to leave one another behind... I can’t help but see the greater design here, what Adam’s introduction became a vital part of. Let me put it plainly. As a follow artist and designer... you simply do not arrive to the point Voltron has arrived at in specific regards to the relationship progression between Shiro and Keith without purpose or somehow by grand accident. It is honestly impossible. No, these were creative choices on behalf of a writing team that knew exactly what they were doing and reasonably, the limitations involved therein.

Where Adam gave up, Keith never will.

Forged by the shared trauma of the Galra, and standing together on a cliff high above the edge of everything they’ve ever known, the past gives way to the future. It’s not a jump. It’s a fall.

And I don't know. Maybe I’m completely wrong. Or maybe the showrunners are actually more clever than they themselves can ever admit, will ever admit. Maybe they’ve played the long game even better than the show’s narrative structure itself. They are, after all, fighting the toughest battle there is in the war for representation, trying to push the boundaries here as much as they can. Maybe they knew exactly what they were doing and going into their last season they used this extensive public critique to help plead their case, their need for text to the people that are ultimately holding their leash. Or maybe not. I don't know. Maybe none of us will ever know. Was it awful to use Adam as nothing more than a prelude to something between Keith and Shiro? I guess that’s up to the individual watching. I personally have mixed feelings. All I do know is that there was, is, a lot of effort here and... a lot of sacrifice. We are talking about the thematic backbone of this entire show: leaps of faith, falling, and learning what it takes to finally fly.

And I honestly write this analysis in good faith, hoping for the best, but expecting the usual. I don’t write this to make anyone believe anything, nor hope for anything in particular. It is an analysis of pattern, theme, and unknowable intent. I can only write what I see and how I feel about it. I want to believe most creators currently crafting stories in this social environment are doing their best to push the well established boundaries into the future. These particular showrunners have talked about this in various articles where I can tell there’s a lot being held back. I do wonder, however, how much the creative team is aware of how much their entire show functions as a metaphor for this exact fight: the battle for representation against an Empire that has ruled for far too long. Like with Shiro and Keith we are patient and we wait. We go to the edge of the cliff and we fall, hoping to see if we have what it takes to fly.

It's a leap of faith.

#narrative structure #Voltron meta #sheith #sheith meta #voltron themes #a leap of faith #falling in love #i've been writing this for weeks in between engraving things #VLD #ring composition #sorry not proofread y'all #and no don't talk to me about the S8 voltron leaks #i'm very sure they were all FAKE AF lol

32 notes · View notes