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spanishskulduggery · 3 years

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Hi! I'm very curious about something regarding the Spanish language. I'm currently studying A2 Spanish but I had this question and my teacher did not seem too willing to discuss it. Here it goes:

I know that Spanish has, something my Spanish teacher says, linguistic gender. I was wondering how do the people who don't align themselves with the gender binary (masculine and feminine) speak/write in it? I have read this article about Spanish speaking people from US adding "x" Or "@" and people from Argentina using "e" to make the words gender neutral.

Thank you so much for responding, whenever you get to it. Also love your blog. ❤

Short answer, in general speaking terms people are tending towards the -e now because the other two are very hard to actually speak, and because Spanish-speakers feel the -e is more authentic

What you're most likely to see in Spanish is masculine plural as the default, or in written things you might see todos y todas or like un/una alumno/a "a student", or like se busca empleado/a "employees wanted" / "looking for an employee"

If it's something official or academic you typically include both [todas y todas] or you go masculine plural [todos] unless it's specifically feminine plural

Related, linguistic gender applies to all things, not just people. Why is la mesa "table" feminine, but el libro "book" masculine? Just linguistic gender. I can tell you that most loanwords (that aren't people) in Spanish are masculine, and that there are certain words that come from Greek are masculine, and that -ista words are unisex most of the time... And I can tell you there are some words like testigo or modelo that are unisex and don't change for gender. Aside from that, speaking about nouns and grammatical gender... those particular things are harder to parse for regular people, but if you go into the field of linguistics you can explore that more deeply. Some of it is source language (i.e. "it came from Latin this way") or things like that. And in general when talking about nouns it's unimportant and not considered sexist, that's just how it is.

There is such a thing where it gets a little too far the other way and people will say "history? what about herstory" which is a nice thought but the etymology has nothing to do with gender there

When it comes to people - and when it comes to gendered attitudes - that's where it gets more confusing and more complicated.

I believe there was an experiment where people had French and Spanish speakers [I believe it was Spanish] try to identify how a "fork" would sound. French people gave it a more feminine voice because "fork" is feminine in French, while Spanish speakers gave it a more masculine voice because it's masculine in Spanish.

Whether we like it or not, certain gendered things do influence our thoughts and feelings and reactions. A similar thing in English exists where the old joke was something like "There was a car accident; a boy is rushed to the ER and the surgeon but the father was killed. When they got to the ER the doctor said 'I can't operate on him, he's my son!'" and it's like "well who could the doctor be?" ...and the doctor is his mother. We associate "doctor" as masculine and "nurse" as feminine.

There's a gender bias in our language thought patterns, even though the language changes. And that does exist in Spanish too, to different extents.

There are certain cultural and gendered stereotypes or connotations attached to certain words, many tend to be more despective or pejorative when it's women.

For example - and I know this has changed in many places or it isn't as prevalent - el jinete "horseman/rider", while the female form is la amazona "horsewoman/rider". Because la jinete or la jineta was sometimes "promiscuous woman".

There were also debates about things like la presidente vs. la presidenta or what the female version of juez should be, whether it should be la juez or la jueza

Most languages with gendered language have varying degrees of this, and all languages I'm aware of have gendered stereotypes related to professions or cultural attitudes in some way, and not just for women, and not all in the same way with some of them being very culturally based

The longer answer involves a bit of history, and I'll be honest, some of it is contested or considered a little controversial in Spanish-speaking countries particularly in the conservative parts (which honestly should come as no surprise)

The first symbol that I know of that came about was the X

First piece of contested history: As far as I know, it was the trans/queer and drag communities in Latin America who started the trend of X. When there were signs or bulletins that had the gendered endings - specifically masculine plural as the default plural - people would write a big X through the O. This was a way of being inclusive and also a very smash the patriarchy move.

Some people attribute this to women's rights activists which may also be true, but a good portion of the things I read from people say it was the trans/queer/drag communities in Latin America doing this.

I've also read it originated in Brazil with Portuguese; still Latin America, but not a Spanish-speaking country.

Where it's most contested is that some people will say that this trend started in the Hispanic communities of the United States. And - not without reason - people are upset that this is perceived as a very gringo movement.

That's why Latinx is considered a very American-Hispanic experience

The arroba (@) is relatively new. I remember seeing it in the 2000s. I don't know if it existed earlier for gender inclusivity.

People used it because it looks like a combination of O and A, so it was meant to be cut down on saying things like todos y todas or niños y niñas in informal written speech

I remember quite a few (informal) emails starting like hola tod@s or muy buenas a tod@s or things like that

I think of it more as convenience especially in the information age where you never knew who you were talking to and it's easier than including both words, especially when masculine plural might be clumsy or insensitive

Still, it's practically impossible to use the @ in spoken Spanish, so it's better for writing casually. You also likely won't be allowed to use the @ in anything academic, but in chatrooms, blogs, or forums it's an option

I love the E ending. And the gender neutral form in singular is elle... so it's él "he", ella "she", and elle "they (singular)"

The -e ending is I think became more common within the past 10 years though it might have existed longer than that. These sorts of changes tend to come from the queer or trans communities and tend to be more insular before becoming more of an outside thing that then the general population finds out about

It came about because there are some adjectives in Spanish that end in -e that are unisex. It's not an A, it's not an O, but it's something grammatically neutral for Spanish

It's not as awkward as X, and E exists very firmly in Spanish so it's not perceived as some outside (typically gringo) influence

The good news is, it's pretty widespread on the internet. Not so much in person (yet), but especially in Spain and Argentina at least from what I've seen, particularly in the queer communities and online culture.

The only issues with it are that for non-native speakers, you have to get used to any spelling changes. Like amigo and amiga, but to use the E ending you have to add a U... so it's amigue.

That's because there are certain words where you have to do spelling changes to preserve the sound; gue has a hard G sound like -go does [like guerra]... but ge has the equivalent of an English H sound [gelatina for example]. Another one is cómico/a "funny" which would go to cómique. Again, because co has a hard C/K sound, while ce is a soft sound more like an S or in some contexts TH/Z sound; like centro is a soft sound, while cola is a hard sound

Unless you make it to the preterite forms where you come across like pagué, alcancé, practiqué with those types of endings... or subjunctive forms, pague, alcance, practique ... Basically you'd have to be exposed to those spelling rules or you'd be really confused if you were a total beginner.

It all makes sense when you speak it, but spelling might be harder before you learn those rules

The other drawback is that the E endings are sometimes not applicable. Like in damas y caballeros "ladies and gentlemen" there's not really a gender neutral variation on that, it's all binary there. And while la caballero "female knight" does exist, you'd never see a male variation on dama; the closest I've ever seen is calling a guy a damisela en apuros "damsel in distress" in some contexts where the man needs rescuing, and it's feminine una/la damisela, and it's very tongue-in-cheek

There are also some contexts like jefe vs jefa where I guess you would say jefe for "boss" if you were going the neutral route, but it's a bit weird because it's also the masculine option.

I can't speak for how people might feel about those if they're non-binary or agender because every so often you kind of get forced into the binary whether you like it or not

I totally support the E, I just recognize there are some limitations there and it's quirks of the Spanish language itself

Important Note: Just to reiterate, E endings are the ones most Spanish-speakers prefer because it's easiest to speak and doesn't have the American connotation that X does in some circles

Where it gets very "Facebook comment section" is that you'll see many Latin Americans traditionalists and conservatives claim that "this is just the gringos colonizing our language" and "grammatical gender doesn't matter in Spanish". They'll say that the "gender movement" is an American feminist movement and that it's a gringo thing and doesn't reflect actual Latin Americans or Spanish-speakers

Which on the one hand, yes, English does have a lot of undue influence on other languages because of colonization, and American influence and meddling in Latin American politics is a big important issue

But as far as I'm aware of the X (and especially the E) were created by Latin Americans

The other issue I personally have is that any time this conversation comes up, someone will say something like somos latinOs and claim that masculine plural is gender neutral

To that I say, first of all, "masculine plural" is inherently gendered. Additionally, there is a gender neutral in Spanish but it's lo or ello and it's only used with "it" so it sounds very unfriendly to use on an actual person... and in plural it looks like masculine plural and everything applies like masculine plural

Second, the reason masculine plural is default is because of machismo. It's more important that we don't possibly misgender a man, so it has to be masculine plural. It's changed in some places, but growing up when I was learning Spanish, if it was 99 women and 1 man you still had to put masculine plural

I'm not opposed to there being a default, and I understand why it's easier to use masculine plural, but some people get very upset at the idea of inclusive language

...

In general, my biggest issues with these comments come when people act like non-binary/queer/trans people don't exist in Spanish-speaking countries, like English invented them somehow. So it's nice to see linguistic self-determination and seeing native speakers using the E endings.

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amaya-chwan · 3 years

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Therapy Game Restart Discussion: Who is Onodera?

Hello everyone! Hope you are all well~ ❤️💛💜 I've had a headscratcher of an ask/message regarding Onodera, so I figured I'll make it into one big post!

Before I begin this Q&A/discussion post (feel free to comment below if you have any thoughts), I have looked through past chapters to gather the information I will put into this post to support my predictions. Not all chapters are readily available for everyone at the moment as only one volume of TGR is out right now, so I shall put the chapter numbers for your future reference! ⚠️ Also, just a note! These opinions are my personal thoughts, conjectures, and opinions, so please don't think I am saying one idea or speculation is wrong--this is just how I see it, and of course I could very well be wrong! And I also am not fluent in Japanese, so I may have some translation errors!

⚠️ Also, a warning, this will be a long post! Keep reading if you're interested and please let me know your own thoughts!

First, in an earlier ask, I was directed to a translation group that said Onodera is a man. With the help of Google and Google Translate (because I don't understand/speak Spanish), I found that post (dated April this year) and the origin of the picture they used in that post. The image is from Hinohara-sensei's 13th August 2020 tweet here and is also below for reference:

Now, all I can remember from first seeing that image is "Woow, so pretty! A female character? A love rival? A threat? OH it's the infamous director they're all talking about???"

This image was released around the time chapter 8 was released, i.e. the first chapter we see Onodera in full.

Looking at the image again, I can see how Onodera could be seen as a female or a male. Onodera has long hair, yet no visible breasts. There is no evidence of an Adam's apple, but that could just be because of the turtleneck as part of their outfit. Furthermore, in chapter 13, we see a view of Onodera from behind. There are no "womanly curves" visible in this view of Onodera.

After searching some Japanese blogs, some fans also had the same thoughts: no breasts = possible male, the shape of the face etc. Here are the blogs I found: [1] [2] [3] but most of these are from around chapter 8.

Just about the breast argument: there are a lot of different shapes for breasts. I learnt that when working at a department store selling bras during university. It is possible that Onodera is really flat chested or just has very little breast tissue. Not sure if that's getting too technical now, ahah, but what I want to say is that the lack of breasts isn't a definite yes to Onodera being a man.

Hinohara-sensei also has not explicitly stated throughout TGR so far (ch1-13) that Onodera is male or female.

From chapters 8-12, Onodera is always referred to as 院長 (director) by Shizuma and the nurses at the clinic. No gender-specific pronouns have been used in the story nor by any characters to refer to Onodera when speaking so far (that I have read). So confirming Onodera's gender is just misleading at the present moment.

We do find out in chapter 9 that Onodera's first name is 昌 akira. Akira is a gender neutral name in Japan. It is often given to males, but it is not uncommon for females to have this name. Which, I think, is genius on Sensei's part. It leaves us all thinking!

Q: So Amaya-chwan, what do you think Onodera's gender is?

Just for me as I've been reading TGR the past 1.5 years, I see Onodera as a woman as I have been "encouraged" to see Onodera as one by the little subtleties in the story, and Minato sees Onodera as a female, so I probably am viewing Onodera in Minato's POV.

(Please keep reading on for more insights and answers to questions! Really, this post is long! 😅)

In chapter 9, Onodera's older brother, who is also Shizuma's university professor (and his last name is not Onodera), makes small talk with Shizuma regarding the staff at his placement:

Shizuma's professor says: By the way, Shizuma-kun, how've you been!? You haven't been bullied, have you!? // The female team here is scary, right~ You know, Nakajou-kun and I were in the same grade...

So here, I'm made to think Onodera's clinic is pretty much all female, including Onodera too.

Fun fact: His professor uses the suffix -kun for Nakajou-sensei, yet Nakajou-sensei is a female and -kun is commonly used for males these days. But, it is also used for females in very specific situations. I'm not too sure what the situations are, but I have heard them used for females before.

In the same chapter (9), while Shizuma is changing out of his scrubs in the men's locker (?) room, Onodera walks in. He is slightly flustered, and kindly reminds her that she's walked into the men's locker room. Her reaction is "Huh? Ahh..." So here, again, I am made to believe Onodera is female.

While no gender-specific pronouns have been used to address Onodera, Minato and Itsuki have referred to Onodera as a female in chapter 13.

The kanji for "female/woman" is 女. In these two images, Minato refers to Onodera as 上司の女 female superior, and from Minato's story, Itsuki hence calls her 職場の女の人 female from (Shizuma's) workplace. This is the only time Onodera has been referred to as a female.

⚠️ Just a note going forward in this discussion, I will now call Onodera "she/her" as that is what I believe Onodera's gender is at the present moment!

Now, I did get a second ask from an Anon! Here they are below with my responses:

This one is about what's behind Onodera. I think she's a pretty interesting character. I actually think she's a trans woman or a non-binary trans woman. Sensei has been dropping so many hints to that... The name her brother calls her might be her dead name. He complains about her hair and what their father would say. She's designed to have flat breasts, perhaps she's not under hormone therapy, perhaps her "trips" and "days off" have something to do with reassignment surgeries...

She most definitely is an interesting character. I wouldn't say Onodera being transgender is out of the realm of possibility because the story is still ongoing. But regarding her name, I don't know if I'd call it a dead name since it is gender neutral already. Perhaps the kanji for a male Akira name would be different to a female one though?

About the hair comment (ch10), I just thought it was unruly? I honestly didn't think too much of it! What I will add is that the kanji for hair (髪) is used, but the reading is あたま head. Not sure why just yet, so I'll just leave that here as some extra information for the moment.

Not sure what I really think about a) her flat-chestedness and b) her insanely long business trips yet! I figured a) might be a character design, and b) she really is a top-notch veterinarian so she's probably in high demand. But I could be completely off the mark!

Also, I don't know where to add this random bit in from the story, but in chapter 12, we find out that Onodera has been calling one of the staff the wrong name for more than 10 years now. Not sure if this new piece of info affects anything?

But again, that is a very interesting prediction/thought you have about Onodera, and I wouldn't say it's not possible!

She's kind of a female Minato, psychologicallly and in appearance, which brings some challenges. And one more thing that I think hints to that: "I'll make it so your body can never be satisfied by any woman", Minato says to Shizuma. As the last chapter leaves it at that, we don't know exactly what he is talking about. [spoiler?] I haven't seen the Japanese text yet to be sure if he's clear about topping Shizuma.

That was exactly my thought when she was first introduced! That's part of the reason why I think Minato sees her as a threat, especially when he saw her for the first time and was told she is a 美人beautiful person (both in chapter 12). She and Minato definitely share some characteristics, but I find she's a bit more socially-awkward than Minato given her background (Chapter 9 & 10).

For the dialogue, the Japanese lines and the most literal translations I can give are:

今から　静真くんを抱く From now, (I'll) hold/embrace you, Shizuma-kun.

どんな女に出会っても　絶対満足できない体にしてあげる No matter the women you encounter, I will make it so your body definitely cannot be satisfied (by any of them).

Hopefully we'll find out what Minato means by that exactly in the next chapter, which I hope comes to me this week!

But if that's what he's talking about, it's 1. poor Minato being transphobic (besides being biphobic towards his own boyfriend)* 2. poor Minato probably foreshadowing his own fall. If Onodera happens to be a woman with a d**k, she can do whatever Minato thinks a cis man only can do. That's not what will make Shizuma stay by his side. Shizuma will stay by his side because he loves Minato. And that's that. Debunks biphobic myths, debunks transphobic myths. *He's not a bad person, he's got issues

Okay, this is probably as straight-forward as I can say this, but I just want to say that I don't know enough about the issues faced by the LGBTQI+ community. My friends have kindly answered all my questions so far as I don't want to be ignorant or rude when learning more about my friends and the community. I don't want to give off the air that I'm assuming anything since I don't want any misunderstandings. And I am fully aware that I need to educate myself more regarding this!

So about Minato, I'm not completely sure what you mean by number 2. But he definitely has his share of trauma, insecurities, and fears regarding his relationship with Shizuma. Having Onodera as a threat in this story really helps drive Minato's growth. The story is titled Therapy Game Restart, so what I gather from the title is that Minato is going to face another fear/insecurity he has, something deeply-rooted in him, and it's going to get really heavy and complicated, but he will eventually get through it and it will help him heal and grow as a character, and hopefully strengthen his faith in his relationship with Shizuma.

So far, I believe this "fear" is carrying on from +Play More, that Shizuma can be whisked away by a female at any moment.

But yes, Minato has to realise for himself that his and Shizuma's love, relationship, and bond is strong enough for him to not worry about Shizuma leaving him so abruptly. He has to learn to trust in Shizuma more, and TGR is slowly revealing that, especially in chapter 13.

I'll stop here. I have already written long analyses on this series and I think about making them public at some point. But it would be nice to hear from you! Maybe I'm completely wrong in my interpretations! I'm really sorry for being so annoying and maybe using inappropriate language. I really didn't mean to bother you. But I never see anyone making these points. I just want to know if I'm thinking unreasonably...

I love reading different analyses, opinions, story predictions, the whole lot!! So please feel free to ask me or post your own ideas. It's always a welcome thing for me to discuss stories and learn new things! Don't be sorry that you're being a bother or annoying, because it's not a bother at all!

We're all allowed to have our own ideas and opinions about stories, and these ideas will change once something is canon in the story, and ultimately is something we will have to accept too.

So yeah, just my two cents. Thank you for being so patient with my response, dear Anon!

To anyone reading at this point, thank you for reading this far! ❤️💛💜

I shall see you in our next set of takeaways~ As always, stay safe and take care of yourselves and your loved ones! 💜

(2021-05-17: Speedy proofreading is done ahah! And yes, my brain is still so full of 山河令/Word of Honor right now, so I have been VERY distracted! Highly recommend this drama, guys! It's up for free on the official Youku Youtube page! Totally not an endorsement, but I love this drama! AHHHHH!! Gong Jun [Simon] be living on my mind rent free~)

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nomadicism · 6 years

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With that Hazar and Lotor post, I'm wondering, what are some other characters from modern VLD that may've borrowed some elements from other ones from previous versions?

OH IS THERE EVER!!! (thank you for asking!)

This will be long. Forgive me. Also, I’m not certain of what you have and haven’t seen, so this answer is written with the VLD fan who hasn’t seen much of the other continuities in mind.

Given the length, I’ve structured this answer into sections that focus on pre-existing characters with borrowed elements, as most of the new characters haven’t had enough screen time to give me anymore than some common archetypes to go from. Though there are a few that I have suspicions about but I’m still thinking them over in order to do a more thorough post like the Lotor and Hazar one. I’m also including some larger concepts in this answer because they relate to character elements.

Using a Read More cut due to length and containing spoilers for the DDP comics, Robotech/Voltron crossover. In addition to those, this answer includes Golion, and DotU Vehicle Voltron. Leaving out Fleet of Doom for sake of length.

From Golion:

Elements from Golion should be its own post, and I think that most of them are pretty well explored throughout Tumblr by others.

Gladiator combat survivors/champions made into living weapons.

There are different kinds of Galra with different designs and most of the different kinds have a name.

Sadak/Sendak’s name.

1. Gladiator combat survivors/champions made into living weapons: DotU cuts this out, but in Golion (and this relates to #2), the gladiator combat is used to weed out the strong by having them fight Half-Beastmen. Those that survive are taken by Honerva who uses her magic to transform them into Death Black Beastmen (who don’t look like other Galra).

In VLD, Shiro is a survivor/champion of gladiator combat and was made into a living weapon by Haggar and is an important element to his character. This doesn’t happen in any other continuity to any other character (other than nameless Galra in Golion).

While there is no special name (like Death Black Beastmen) for it (and Shiro is not Galra), we can see that there are other “Galra who don’t look like other Galra”, such as Sendak who also has a quintessence-powered weaponized-prosthetic given to him by Haggar. Shiro isn’t the only gladiator combat survivor to be made into a weapon, Myzax is made into one as well, just of the Robeast variety (called “Mecha Beastmen” in Golion).

2. Different kinds of Galra: We can see this visually in VLD, but they are not named as they are in Golion. Merits its own post with tons of images to compare. This was also in DotU, but glossed over, while Golion gave more detail about it.

3. Naming: Yurak from DotU returns in VLD as Sendak, which name-wise relates more to Sadak in Golion. This is another tell regarding #1.

Voltron Third Dimension and Voltron Force:

Since I strongly dislike both of these Continuities Which Must Not Be Named, I never bothered to watch more than a few episodes of either, so I didn’t pick up much subtext to meta from. There are other folks on Tumblr who have heroically watched these series and can speak to any borrowed elements from them. If two annoying twin girls claiming to be Lotor’s nieces ever show up in VLD, you’ll have Voltron Force to blame. Still, credit to Voltron Force for giving us Haggarium.

Dynamite and Devil’s Due Publishing comics:

I couldn’t get into the Dynamite Voltron comics, but I enjoyed the DDP Voltron comics. I admit having a bias towards DDP since they included Vehicle Voltron (in an interesting plot-appropriate way), so I highly recommend reading them. The DDP comics also included Merla so other than the made-for-the-US episodes of DotU, this is the only other continuity that includes her (so far…).

What both these series (mostly DDP) gives us are a gold mine of elements/concepts that pertain to the Lions, Allura, Lotor, Haggar, the creation of Voltron, and the search for Voltron. All of which VLD appears to have iterated upon and expanded/updated even further (especially with Allura and Haggar). This is one of the things I love about the Voltron continuities, this idea that you can look at any of them and say “hey that’s a good concept, what if we use and tweak it to fit into this new context?”.

A backstory for the creation of Voltron that involves Zarkon and a scientist friend (Dynamite)

The Lions are sentient and can form mind connections with their pilots (DDP)

Allura being the mystical key to Voltron (DDP)

Voltron having a mystical-not-exactly-technological source of power (DDP)

Lotor having a legit code of honor that he abides by (DDP)

Kogane becoming Keith’s surname going forward in subsequent continuities (DDP) (edit: true of Voltron Force but not confirmed for VLD as of S4)

Allura and Lotor having known each other when they were adolescents (DDP)

An explicit quest to go looking for Voltron as opposed to just happening upon it by accident as in DotU (DDP)

Conceptualizing Haggar’s magic as part of an ancient cabal (DDP)

Haggar’s magic/role allows her to sense the return of Voltron/Allura’s mystical connection (DDP)

A Voltron pilot being rejected by a lion (DDP)

#1-6 are self-explanatory: VLD takes concepts 1-5 in different (and IMO better) directions, but these comics are the first iteration of those concepts. I really like that for #1, VLD swapped out Zarkon’s “scientist friend” for Alfor and made Alfor a scientist as well as a king.

#7 Allura and Lotor childhood/adolescent/teen relationship: is (as of S4) up-in-the-air for VLD, but this concept is related to a concept found in the Robotech/Voltron crossover that exists in VLD.

Something to watch out for in S5 is whether or not (if this exists in VLD) the childhood/adolescent/teen relationship was reciprocal friendship on both their parts, or if—as in the DDP comics—Lotor was placed on Arus to gather information and create the illusion of being the perfect gentlemen (e.g. diplomatic relationship).

#8 Quest/Mission for Voltron (directly impacts character development):

In the DDP comics, Colonel Hawkins (Commander Hawkins from Vehicle Voltron) sends Keith, Sven, Pidge, Lance, and Hunk on a mission to go look for the mythical/legendary Voltron in order to defend Earth against the invading Drule Supremacy. Here, Hawkins is risking his career because the Galaxy Garrison didn’t believe that Voltron existed, so the brass didn’t support his mission (this might be relevant).

In VLD, the Galaxy Garrison connection (that we know of so far) exists through Keith/Pidge/Lance/Hunk having been trained there and through Shiro’s return—but rather than a mission—our paladins-to-be go looking for Voltron based on combining Keith’s findings of a power source with what Shiro tells them about Voltron upon his return to Earth, hence they go looking for Voltron via the Blue Lion, rather than lucking out and stumbling upon Voltron as in DotU.

Additionally, Keith’s father (who looks suspiciously like Commander Hawkins) was looking for something—in the manner in which one would look if one’s search wasn’t supported by anything official—which (as far as we know) was the power source that turned out to be the Blue Lion. (I have a separate post planned for our idealistically-alien-friendly-man-of-peace Commander Hawkins.)

#9-10 Haggar’s ancient cabal and sensing return of Voltron:

In the DDP comics, Haggar is the last in the line of the Daughters of Wyvern, an ancient cabal/what-have-you of sorceresses. Through her magic and being the last of the line, she is alerted to the return of Voltron (e.g. Allura’s mystical power).

In VLD, we see that Haggar is also shown with a cabal, but unlike DDP, she leads druids who serve her, and—as in the DDP comics—it is Haggar that is first alerted to the return of Voltron due to sensing Allura’s mystical power/connection to it.

#11 Lion rejects a pilot!

In the DDP comics Sven is rejected by the Blue Lion (revealed later to be due to a defect in his brain); while in VLD, Shiro is briefly rejected by the Black Lion due to…??? Well…Shiro did come back from the Galra with a headache…so…yeah…unleash that meta fam.

Aside: due to the number of elements/concepts from the DDP comics that also show up in VLD, my answer to your question about what I thought VLD Merla would be like, comes from her character in the DDP comics.

The Robotech/Voltron crossover from 2015 provides a few big elements and concepts that appear in VLD. Considering there’s that Roy Fokker easter egg in s1e1 (I’m not the only one who suspects that Rick Hunter, Miriya Parina, Max Sterling also appear in that episode), someone over there at Dreamworks or Studio Mir loves Robotech. I recommend reading the crossover, if only for a few panels of Rick Hunter piloting an actual White Lion mecha.

Comets That Do Stuff. Specifically of the “crossing between realities universes” variety!

Alfor being more than just a king and sharing an element with Haggar.

Lotor’s mother being shown-and-named. Even in the prior five continuities, this never happened (Golion doesn’t count here).

Lotor’s mother having a connection to Alfor and a bitter story behind that connection.

Our heroes crossing between realities universes.

#1 and #5 comets and crossing between realities universes: While these are not character elements, these concepts have direct impact on characters (one could argue that the trans-reality comets in VLD are characters, Voltron certainly is). There’s a lot here: “Lotor and Comets That Do Stuff”. Spoilers abound.

#2 Alfor not just a king, and shares a character element with Haggar:

In the crossover, Alfor wields magic like Haggar does in addition to being king (Aflor = good magic, Haggar = bad magic). In VLD, Alfor is a scientist and paladin in addition to being king, while Honerva/Haggar is a scientist in addition to being a queen (through marriage to Zarkon). VLD expands this by showing both Alfor and Honerva as scientists studying the same thing with divergent outcomes. Alfor = good scientist, Honerva/Haggar = bad scientist.

This leads us to #3 and #4 where Lotor’s mother is not only shown-and-named, but that she has a connection to Alfor.

Her name in the crossover (Lora) is irrelevant, but the subtext that she is related to Alfor, and that her relationship with Alfor soured and they are no longer close is very relevant to VLD.

In the crossover, the soured relationship is due to her political marriage to Zarkon which Alfor didn’t approve of (revealed in Alfor’s snarky comment to her: “So Lora how does it feel to be a pawn?”), and she’s related/family to Alfor (it’s subtle and the podcast with the writer confirms that was the intention).

These concepts return in VLD where the relationship between Lotor’s mother and Alfor also soured, but their connection is through being scientists rather than family (at least as of S4).

The difference in VLD is that Lotor’s mother and Haggar are fused together in the character of Honerva.

Finally, Vehicle Voltron:

Vehicle Voltron concepts require a lot of stepping back and examining subtext because both the pacing of the series and the awkward narrative create inconsistencies in the canon (not a dig at the writers they had a hard job to do). We have to look at what concepts are repeated/hammered home, and that appear in multiple episodes in such a way that they construct a clear story arc while discarding “filler episodes.” The destruction of the Drule home world is a great example of that.

Caveat: I’d be very surprised if the writers or creators of VLD sat through all of Vehicle Voltron, or even watched more than a few episodes of it (it’s a very different genre from Lion Voltron). So, some tropes/concepts just write themselves and are a coincidence. I try not to read too much into what I’ve noticed regarding Vehicle Voltron and VLD, but I do have a separate post planned for Vehicle Voltron/VLD coincidences.

Galaxy Garrison

Pidge has a brother

Throk the Elitist Proxy for the Methods and Beliefs of the Empire

Quasi-Byronic Antagonist Exiled From the Empire (e.g. Hazar)

Destruction of Drule home world and destruction of Daibazaal (has multiple elements wrapped up here)

#1 and #2 (I think everyone already knows this):

Galaxy Garrison comes from Vehicle Voltron where it is the Earth portion of the Galaxy Alliance. It remains to be seen if Earth will be part of any kind of Galaxy Alliance in VLD. I’m waiting for someone to look at the Voltron Coalition and say “It’s like a Galaxy Alliance!”.

Pidge’s brother in Vehicle Voltron is Chip, and in addition to changing his name in VLD, he’s 100000% better and amazing. He’s still a tech nerd/genius, and can fly a combat vehicle. Chip’s characterization in Vehicle Voltron was mostly about: he’s smart, he’s short, and he deeply misses his brother and home world of Balto. VLD has dropped the shortness and Balto, made Pidge female, and their nature of their separation in space is similar but as we know, has very different causes.

#3-4 Throk and Quasi-Byronic Antagonists: are touched on in my post about Lotor and Hazar, I’ve got a separate post planned for Throk. Suffice to say, the writers have had ample opportunity to name-drop or reference non-main characters from prior continuities and—with the exception of Sven and Throk—have not done so. They’ve created new characters, which is great because there is no need to retread what came before. To me, this means that when they do a name-drop or reference, then we should pay attention to it.

#5. Destruction of the Drule home world and the destruction of Daibazaal.

While not about character elements, this relates to several characters and their actions leading-up-to and during the self-destruction of their respective planets. It’s also entirely possible that this is an example of “some tropes/concepts just write themselves” and the parallel between the destruction of the Drule home world and Daibazaal was never intentional.

This is also a hard one because of narrative confusion from filler episodes in Vehicle Voltron. Following the secondary story arc (which is Hazar’s arc), the Drule home world is self-destructing due to the burial of materials used by the Drule to create their “solar weapons”. What those weapons and materials are is a little vague, but irrelevant.

Stepping back for a zoomed-out view, the concept connection with VLD is:

World self-destructing-and-unstable due to something within its surface that shouldn’t be there.In VLD it’s the rift, in Vehicle Voltron it’s the buried hazardous solar weapon materials.

Leaders ignore the warning signs and continue on as if nothing is happening even though the catastrophe is imminent.Zarkon and Honerva are obsessed with power and research; while Zeppo and Throk cling to their political power. Both are unconcerned with how this affects their people (Zarkon/Honerva indirectly; Zeppo/Throk directly and explicitly).

Aside: In VLD, Zarkon is concerned at first, but over time, he no longer shows concern.

Wise older men with beards take matters into their own hands.Alfor does so with warnings before the point-of-no-return and then with direct action after the point-of-no-return, while Senator Mozak does so indirectly through his children—Hazar and Dorma—before the point-of-no-return (kicking off Hazar’s “oh shit I need to make peace with these explorers before my people are doomed” arc).

The planet has to be evacuated and the people of the empire no longer have a home.Alfor evacuates the Galra, while the Galaxy Alliance evacuates the Drule.

Voltron is involved prior to the destruction.In VLD, Voltron widening the rift is the point of no return for Daibazaal; while in Vehicle Voltron, Voltron’s final battle with the Drule occurs while the planet is shaking apart.

The emperor survives to one day return and rebuild the empire.Zarkon—despite dying—survives and returns immediately to begin his conquest of the universe; while Zeppo is whisked away to another planet and the stated intent by Throk, is that he may one day try to rebuild the empire (also referenced in Fleet of Doom).

#highfives #aquaburst07 #voltron meta #voltron: legendary defender #vehicle voltron #voltron: defender of the universe #golion #robotech voltron #ask me anything #here there be meta

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