#that person does not care about gay rep at all they just want shiro to kiss his brother lol | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gejnialnie · 4 years

Text

im thinking about sp/op season 5 again and how i feel similar to when i watched season 6 of vol//tron, in a sesne that i really do not care about canon or what creators say is or isnt canon, for me it just. exists on the same level as fanon.

(im putting my reasons “why” under the cut bcos its long and im just basically rambling to myself):

i mean. its not AS BAD as v*ltron.

and yes, i am thankful that we got gay kisses and gay relationships confirmed on screen, (netossa saying “my wife” on screen? very good) its really important and all that stuff but you know what, id love if they actually put effort into their endgame relationship that (supposedly) is a “heart of she-ra” (and didnt make a stereotypical villian out of their only (very alien like looking) nb rep from whom they made a big deal out of to just use them in one episode for comedy and then delete their existence until 5 second finale cameo (no im not still salty about dt what r u talkin abt)) i think we should expect more from show on streaming platform, especially from dreamworks that was met with outrage after their queetbaiting with v*ltron.

i know i may sound like priviliged bicz but i expected catr///adora kiss in one way or another, at very least in the background. i didnt expect for them to say “i love you” and to make a dope utena ass scene though. and i did like this scene, it was a little bit cheesy but i like cheese... i didnt really enjoy the journey to the shop to get that cheese though.

the line “you never gave up on me” makes me go “... :\ “ because... adora litterally did give up on her. remember how season 3 ended? remember the look adora gave catra? remember her punch? remember that catra almost destroyed reality and actually killed angella? remember that scorpia left catra because she couldnt bear catras abuse? and then forgave her after seconds without full apology? the redemption showed in season 5 works only if we forget about seasons 2-4, because. man. was that rushed and unrealistic. i believe there was too much focus on catr/////adora and too little on catra herself. like. i believe catra would benefit if she spend more time away from adora, maybe if she escaped from prime on her own or smth idk, maybe she would discover something about herself outside of “im in love with adora” maybe she could get redemption arc ala zuko or some szit. catra deserved to be her own person and not just “the girl that loves adora”. her whole being revolves around adora, its honestly not healthy (i mean she almost destroyed reality out of spite, if this doesnt say something about her relationship with adora idk what does). like, is this really a romantic story we all wanted? for me its very unsatisfying.

and i still think people forgave/trusted catra too quickly, and yes i think that about perfuma too. i honestly think it would be really good messege if at least one person didnt forgive catra and for catra to heal despite that, because! when u used to be a szitty person of course not everybody will forgive u! but u still can try to heal! u cant and shoudlnt aspire for all people to forgive you and writers had an oppurtinity to show that with catra but i guess not.

adora got a little more space to be her own person but it still feels like she didnt live up to her own potential and in the end her whole being ended up being revolved around catra anyway, even tho season 3 finale stated otherwise.

this cartoon could be a great show about forgivness and redemption but... its just not. just because it has gay kiss in it it doesnt make it automatically great, you know? there was a massive decrease in quality in the last season.

same with vol*ron, there was a massive decrease in quality in last seasons but just because they confirmed shiro to be gay and there was gay kiss at the end it doesnt make it automatically great. thats why these two shows feel familiar to me (and in its style kinda, also in advertising themselves with “diversity” (v*ltron saying “we have a queer character!” and then sidelining him, and shera saying “we have a nonbinary character!” and then sidelining them) but for some reason people seem to forgive shera for its shortcomings, maybe bcos it wasnt as tragic, and we got actual representation but my point still stands.

(also i see some people say that “shera will open doors for lgbt+ creators” and im just here looking at legend of korra and su like--- hey, doors are already open, shera may open them a little wider or make sure they wont close but this show isnt some gay cartoon jegus.... did we all forget that we got gay wedding and gay kiss on national television for kids, these cartoons did so much for lgbt+ creators and people seem to ignore it just because they prefer shera/dont like su anymore. i truly believe we wouldnt get such great catra////dora kiss without rub///pphire wedding)

#in conclusion even tho i liked season 5 it was really bad #i liked it in a sense its a good no brainer #but when you actually start to think about implications and realism (i mean as realistic as a cartoon about magical princesses can get)#then it starts to feel.... :\#i mean i geeet it its fairy tail! but this show tried to tackle more serious issues like ab//use! and it was doing it pretty well!#i mean till season 4 #idk what happened with season 5 #still liked it but in my eyes? this is not canon #i really need to know. was 5 seasons planned from the beggining? or did they plan more seasons but they got cancelled?#because it feels like they planned to do more #or did they pack too much stuff into these 4 season and then looked at 5th and were like: '....whoops'#bcos its killing me #also thats how i cope wits stress i ramble about cartoons #spop #personalne gadanie

2 notes · View notes

spiftynifty · 5 years

Text

On Let’s Voltron, the showrunners, and fandom

On Thursday an interview came out on Let’s Voltron, the ostensibly final interview with the showrunners of this now-completed show. Within an hour a few tweet threads appeared and incited a new wave of hatred and anger towards the showrunners, mostly by people relying on these tweet threads rather than listening to the interview themselves.

I don’t like secondhand info that sparks outrage; and having watched both AB interviews and seen how outraged people got over them, without having seen either, I strongly suspected that this interview was nowhere near as incendiary as the tweet threads suggested.

And lo and behold, I was right. Much of what was reported in tweets was misconstrued, or lacking the additional information that listening to someone’s tone provides. I didn’t hear two snarky showrunners smugly enjoying the chaos that their truly lacklustre season provided. I heard two people who were exhausted and beaten down by both the expectations of the fandom and the limitations placed on them by people with more money and power. They didn’t call Shiro “boring”, they referred to their initial vision of him as boring. They didn’t say he was repetitive, they said his backstory was repetitive of other characters’ in the series and was cut. There was one salty comment from JDS about how Voltron and Atlas merging was cool but everyone was too bummed about s8 to appreciate it, but there’s a dark humor to it that reads to me like a man struggling to joke about something neutral and positive in a season that was poorly received by fans and many critics alike. The vast majority of the interview is not much we haven’t already heard, though there is a very telling segment that lasts about 5-10 minutes where they discuss the heavy limitations on representation in cartoons. Ezor and Zethrid were allowed to exist, they say, because they were secondary characters. And female. The words “main heroes” with an S, are repeated several times by LM when describing who was and was not allowed to be LGBT. She explicitly states that wlw is one thing, but mlm is a whole other battle.

As disappointed as I am in the mistakes JDS and LM made, I find myself feeling very defensive of them as I see the people who once defended them from ants now begin to exhibit ant-like behavior themselves. “They should never be allowed to work in animation again” says one tweet. “They never gave a shit about this show” says another. “S8 was their explicit revenge on fans.”

It makes me unbelievably sad to read this. JDS and LM made mistakes. S8 was objectively terrible. Their attempt to shoehorn in “bonus” representation backfired terribly. They’ve been upfront about Voltron never having been planned with a happy ending in mind, and buckle down hard when confronted with the notion that killing Allura was a bad move.

But as they’ve said many, many times, this show was a labor of love for them. They worked their asses off to pitch something grand to Dreamworks because they were fans of the original and wanted to do it justice. But then they got the show and proceeded to get buffeted around for 4 yrs by dreamworks and the rules of a pre-existing IP and half the story ideas they come up with get shot down by execs for any number of reasons. People have latched onto the fact that the last third of the series wasn’t properly planned from the beginning, but I’d like to remind people that the plan they had for s3-6 was completely upended by one (1) executive call. The showrunners have said that they purposefully left things out of the bible to make it harder for execs to say NO to something well in advance. They were, as my director frequently calls it, “playing the game”, the careful balance of trying to tell a good story while also pleasing the client demands for a robot toy show. It’s a fight. Part of playing the game is leaving decisions so late that it becomes far too late to be changed by executives. But the downside of this is sometimes running out of time to do the things you want to do.

I’d like to point out too that in the interview at one point they actually say, “we knew who our audience was. They [the marketing people and higher ups] didn't.” So for 4 yrs they struggled to make the story they wanted to tell, they lost directors and writers, because the demands were way too high and people were burning out and leaving in an industry where being overworked is so par for the course that burnout is just a constant state of being. In other words, it takes extreme amounts of stress for people to burn out, and there is a certain mentality in this industry of burning out being a sign of weakness. When 2/3 directors left (one of them without the safety net of another offer) they put a bit of their reputation on the line-- and left anyway. And through it all JDS and LM, like any creators, were just trying to tell the story they wanted to see, scrambling to manage executive demands, working on multiple episodes at once and trying to maintain the storyline through them, losing people to burnout, having to rewrite entire scenes when voice actors weren’t available, and fighting for the show to be better than it was.

I'm not absolving the showrunners of guilt, I'm just feeling bad that this is where they ended up because at the end of the day they genuinely were coming from a place of good intentions and a desire to tell, from their perspective a good story. And they did fight for rep, to the point that when initially Shiro was not allowed to be gay, they considered getting up and walking away and ending the project but they stayed because of the crew who would have been summarily put out of work. They weighed the importance of having that representation vs the jobs of 100s of people. That’s how important it was to them.

Obvious, they didn't stick the landing, and it’s fair to say they outright screwed it up in a massive way that’s going to be remembered for a very long time. On the Shiro front they didn't have time to, in a way that would have felt genuine and agreeable for everyone. Keith was never ever going to be allowed. Maybe if Shiro and Keith had both been women, it would have been, which is a sad thought on the state of this industry and the kind of gendered homophobia that still exists in media both animation and otherwise. JDS and LM didn’t think far enough ahead on this, didn’t think outside of their pool of internal knowledge as non-LGBT people. As terrible as it is, it’s important to note they did this not out of a place of malice or vengeance, but an earnest, if misguided attempt to try and diversify the landscape. It did a lot of damage and they should not be rewarded for this move; but they also shouldn’t be being painted as the mustache-twirling villains so much of the fandom tries to make them out to be.

I hope this has been a huge lesson for them on the importance of stepping outside of your own situation when creating minority characters and properly discussing these characters with multiple people in real life who fall into those categories. No one LGBT person can or should speak for the entire community, as we’ve well seen with certain crewmembers.

Killing Allura is a much harder act to forgive because that was something they had time to think about and plan for and it should have been the more obvious lesson. There was ROOM to ask someone outside of themselves, “does this work”. There was room to be educated on why this was a terrible move both socially and narratively. There is room and time now, and dozens of articles about this very issue, that both showrunners should be reading and absorbing especially as their next projects involve a host of diverse characters. Their insistence to buckle down on the Allura Issue to me reads as; they haven’t learned anything from this, or taken the time to understand people’s pain about it. This is something that desperately needs to change especially as they continue to make movies and presumably TV shows. I do hope it’s something that will.

All this to say, please listen to the interview yourself before adding to the hate mob. If you’re still angry after listening to the interview yourself, that is your prerogative but I encourage you not to transform that anger into venomous hatred against the showrunners. The show is over; as fans we can transform this space into whatever we want it to be since Voltron is effectively ours now. Is attacking the showrunners, as ant1s have famously done for years, the image we really want to hold onto going forward?

#voltron #salt #sorta??#i just want people to be mad while also maintaining compassion towards other humans #the animation industry is a brutal one #especially for creatives #vld

108 notes · View notes

breeeliss · 6 years

Text

On Shiro and Adam...

So in light of the mixed reception of Season 7, I wanted to make a longer post about Shiro and Adam -- specifically what kind of role Adam played in Shiro’s life both as his partner and after his death. I think people are understandably hurt at the news of Adam dying, and I think that’s leading to a lot of misplaced anger and hatred. At its extreme, I’m seeing a lot of accusations about queerbaiting and perpetuating the “Bury Your Gays” trope. I want to speak on all of this, but as a quick prologue to this post, I want to say this:

Queer representation does not always equal having a queer relationship on screen. Sometimes the best queer representation can be seeing yourself in a single character and connecting not just to their sexuality, but also to their journey as a queer character. This is what Shiro is for us. Our queer rep -- our gay, asian, disabled, mentally ill representation that overcame all of the trials he suffered and thrived as a character this season.

Adam was a part of Shiro’s past, and their relationship helped define Shiro’s experiences in the present. Adam’s death is a huge blow, but to call it a “Bury Your Gays” trope suggests that his death was a useless, pointless plot point that accomplished nothing other than to make Shiro miserable.

I don’t think that could be further from the truth. Adam’s death held purpose, and I also believe Adam’s death served as a sobering moment for Shiro that allowed him to reflect on their time together and come through with a greater understanding of what love and family truly means.

(wc: 2.0k words)

The Significance of a Failing Relationship

I think it’s important to remember that Adam and Shiro’s relationship was one that was doomed to fail -- Adam and Shiro had conflicting priorities that led to more than just the one fight we were privy to in Shiro’s flashback. The reason we got a look at their relationship wasn’t just to show us that Shiro was gay and in a relationship. It was to give us a look at Shiro’s motivations and shortcomings, something that we never really had a clear sense of before this moment.

It’s alluded that Shiro has some sort of chronic degenerative disease that is causing his muscles to atrophy and is set to severely shorten his life. Going out into space, which puts a strain on the body even if you’re a healthy person, is a definite death sentence for Shiro -- at the very least, it’s going to cut short the good years that Shiro has left. The good years that Adam was hoping to spend with Shiro.

Adam very clearly wants to take advantage of Shiro’s healthy years and spend it with the man that he loves. Shiro would rather risk his health and his life going into space and doing what he loves rather than spend it on Earth with Adam. Both very valid perspectives, just ones that aren’t compatible. Shiro cared more about being a pilot and exploring space than maintaining his relationship. It was more worth it to die in the line of duty rather than play it safe.

Shiro’s disease gave him a very one-track state of mind -- you have a limited amount of time left, so you better haul ass and accomplish everything you wanted to before that end comes. Everything else comes second, including your relationships. It might even mean your death. It might mean you’ll never see the people you care about again. But it’s worth the risk.

Adam told Shiro that things were over if Shiro went on that Kerberos mission, and he went anyway. He ended a very good, very long relationship because he cared more about accomplishing his personal goals over maintaining that. It’s not a bad or a wrong decision, Shiro has a right to live his life the way he wants to. But the ramifications of this decision end up coming back full circle when Shiro comes home and realizes that it was Adam who died in the line of duty and left his partner too soon.

What Adam’s Death Meant

Never forget: Adam was a soldier. He was a fighter pilot. Part of being a fighter pilot was accepting that his job was inherently dangerous. Going on missions always left the possibility of death and Adam knew this. He decided to devote his life to training to become a fighter pilot anyway.

Adam didn’t believe in dying uselessly. Shiro risking his life on the Kerberos mission was upsetting to Adam because it was entirely preventable. But Adam isn’t a stranger to risking his life for a cause that matters. And that’s essentially how Adam died -- fighting for a very clear purpose, one that he accepted the moment he enlisted in the Garrison. He doesn’t even hesitate when he’s told to go in for the attack, and neither do any of his teammates. It’s an immediate acceptance of duty.

His death is hard to watch. We as the viewers know that they’re not going to make it. Their weapons aren’t strong enough and there are too many Galra. It was a bad call made by his CO, but Adam was part of the first wave of Garrison fighters not just because he was one of the best. It’s because he was willing to risk his life for a greater cause. In this case, it was protecting his planet. He died nobly and he died heroically along with hundreds of other brave Garrison soldiers.

The battle that took place on Earth created innumerable casualties. So many people aside from Adam died fighting -- queer soldiers, soldiers of color, disabled soldiers, mentally ill soldiers, so many demographics of people that didn’t and never deserve to die. But that was a large theme in this season: sacrifice and loss. Even though Earth lost a lot of good soldiers during this face off, their sacrifices weren’t meaningless. They all contributed towards Earth’s liberation. Adam was a part of that.

The “Bury Your Gays” trope is based on the useless, pointless deaths of LGBTQ+ characters in order to meaninglessly deprive queer characters of happy endings. Adam’s death wasn’t torture porn. It was tragic, but it was meaningful. He died for a purpose, a purpose that he understood and fully accepted. Nothing about that is meaningless. In fact, part of the point of the last few episodes of the season was to understand that everyone who lost their life died for a reason and would continue to live on in the hearts of those who continue to endure.

And, lo and behold, Shiro is the one who delivers a speech saying exactly that.

The Story of Shiro’s Endurance

There are a lot of people who are frustrated that, as the one gay man in our main cast, Shiro is the character who has suffered the most. I don’t mean to take validity away from that complaint. But I do think the fact that Shiro being queer and enduring in spite of this suffering is very meaningful.

As queer folks, we are often forced to survive in spite of outside forces that continuously attempt to oppress us and threaten our lives. We endure through impossibly bleak situations -- oppression, ignorance, prejudice, and violence. Many of us lose our lives because of this suffering. Many more of us depend on the strength we find in ourselves and the support of those around us to live in spite of all of that. Shiro represents that survival.

Shiro was abducted, imprisoned, controlled, killed, cloned, scarred, and tortured all throughout these seven seasons. But he’s still here! He’s alive! As of this season, he’s no longer dying of a degenerative disease, he has control over his body, he got a new arm, and he was the Captain of the man made ship that battled the Galra and saved Earth. He’s come such a long way in spite of his struggles. Part of that was because of his own strength and his own perseverance, but he also needed those he loved and cared for in order to succeed. Without the support of Keith and the rest of the paladins, Shiro would’ve succumbed to his circumstances.

I think Shiro learned something very valuable over the course of the series. Teamwork is important, but it’s also important to hold those you care about close. Value those you love and those you care about. Don’t let them go. Don’t forget them. You need them in your weakest moments. These are the people who will help you go on. Voltron’s emphasis on found families, on love, and on support are all things that we as queer people depend on in order to survive. That’s not a coincidence especially because it’s these same forces that keep Shiro alive.

Adam’s death was a very sobering moment for Shiro. Because suddenly, he was the one that had to feel the pain of losing someone he loved too soon without getting the chance to say goodbye. Shiro was the one who had to say, “I wish we could’ve had more time.” I don’t think Shiro regrets his choices, but I do think he regrets the way he left things with Adam. I think he regrets making Adam think that he cared more about himself than his relationship with Adam. I think Shiro from this moment on is never going to forget how important his found family and friends are.

That’s why it’s so poetic that Shiro was the one who delivered the eulogy at the end of the season.

“Today is a solemn day. Today we look back at the lives that have been lost, and the sacrifices that have been made here on Earth and across the universe. There isn’t one of us here today who hasn’t experienced the tragedy of losing someone close. It truly feels like a light has gone out in our lives, and the sun itself couldn’t reignite it. But that light, that fire, has not gone out completely. It is fueled within each of us by the memories and the love of those we lost. And now we most move forward in their names and shine that light onto a new path for future generations. Today is a solemn day, but it is also a day of hope. Earth is now stronger than ever, and it stands as a beacon of light to help guide those fighting against tyranny and oppression. From here we will spread peace, and together we will hold strong as the defenders of the universe.”

The fact that a queer, mentally ill, disabled person of color who has suffered immensely gave that speech to a crowd full of people who have also suffered and experienced loss is so inspiring. Because Shiro, by all calculations, shouldn’t have survived this long. He had so many cards stacked against him. But he’s alive. And he’s a beacon of hope for so many. Despite his loss, he’s here and he’s going to continue surviving.

Adam didn’t die for no reason. Adam was one of those brave soldiers whose brave sacrifice has served as a beacon of light to keep everyone going. Adam’s death inspires Shiro to keep enduring. In the macro sense, Shiro is an inspiration to all queer folk watching this show and tells us all that despite our struggles, despite our circumstances, and despite our loss and suffering, we have the ability to solider on.

What Shiro and Adam Mean As Queer Representation

I want everyone to know that it’s okay to be upset that Shiro suffered. It’s okay to be upset that Adam died. But I also want everyone to know that this doesn’t make Voltron a homophobic or problematic show. I think the narrative they created around Shiro’s character -- his past, his struggles, his relationships, his loss -- is a truly beautiful message to send to everyone who is queer and seeing themselves in Shiro.

Voltron doesn’t shy away from dark themes like death, war, and suffering. Voltron understands that these are unfortunate realities in all of our lives, even in the lives of the dorky, fun-loving paladins we have followed up until now. These same paladins understand sacrifice -- they understand the value of their lives and are willing to sacrifice them for a noble cause. They understand danger, accept death, and continue to soldier on anyway. That’s the lesson we are meant to walk away with, and that’s the lesson we are meant to draw strength from.

Adam was a beautiful gay character who understood the value of life and nobly sacrificed it for the sake of saving millions of lives. Shiro is also a beautifully constructed character and a wonderful example of a gay man who is able to inspire hope in the hearts of all the other queer fans of this show who hold him in such high regard.

None of this is useless or pointless. None of this is malicious. Everything about this is meant to send us a positive message. This is the result of impeccable writing and storytelling and I think that both of these men are able to serve as inspirations for all of us. Voltron did a wonderful job with them. Their story is one to be remembered.

#voltron #vld spoilers #vld s7 spoilers #takashi shirogane #shiro #shadam #adashi #adam #meta #vld

1K notes · View notes

langst-wins · 5 years

Text

the last thing i'm gonna say about voltron, unintentional queerbaiting, and major s8 plotholes, and then imma shut up and let y'all be free from my long bitch ass s8 posts so we can get back to regularly scheduled klance fanfics & fanarts

yes, they queerbaited us with shiro as rep. not in the sense that he wasn't queer but in the sense that they hyped us up for his relationship with adam, made us think we were gonna see an adashi reunion, and we ended up getting like 90 seconds top of LGBT content over the entire series.

no, I highly doubt they did it intentionally. yes, they did admit they fucked up and apologized several times. yes, I appreciate the apology and I understand that they're human beings and people make mistakes and overlook things sometimes. like they said, they never meant to make anyone feel baited. they really thought they were going to get a good response. lauren called voltron a "learning experience" in the open letter to the fandom after s7. I think she meant learning experience in general ofc but I think she also meant they've learned how to and how not to do LGBT rep in a show.

but I will absolutely be taking any promises of LGBT rep from lm and jds with a grain of salt. i will absolutely be watching their future works from afar and not getting myself too invested until the series ends and I can watch it as a whole while knowing what to expect.

I dont think they MEANT harm but y'all...they fucked up. they know it, and they apologized. it shows maturity that they apologized in that open letter after s7 and at the final nycc panel, and again, I appreciate that.

but I would rather they have not said anything about LGBT rep, ever, and just let gay shiro be a nice surprise. then, the minimal rep we received would have been wonderful and a nice warm surprise instead of a huge disappointment. it was only a disappointment because it didn't live up to the hype they made for it. and I know the hype was partially due to marketing they had no control over, but it was absolutely partially them, too.

they didn't promise LGBT content in LoK and canon korrassami ended up being a nice surprise even though it was minimal. that was how they SHOULD have done shiro's sexuality if they knew it was going to be a small thing. I would rather they have kept their lips zipped about LGBT, not announced gay shiro ahead of time, and just it be what it was when seasons 7 and 8 came out.

again, I dont think the bait was intentional, but it was bait all the same.

you are not crazy or too sensitive if your feelings are hurt/you feel baited by this show. you are not a shitty person if you just dont trust them right now. dont let people tell you otherwise. it's okay to take a step back from their work and wait to see how their next show plays out before you get involved.

i really do love voltron, even though s8 was confusing af, seasons 1-7 were LIT. I enjoy bits and pieces of s8 but mostly it was a let down. not only because of rep, just because a lot of things didn't make sense to me and a lot of the problem solving just felt way too convenient.

like I feel like every conflict in the plot was resolved way too easily and/or in ways that didnt make sense. and I feel like most of the characters' futures in the credits didnt really match up to those characters personalities. specifically lance, hunk, and keith.

lance staying on earth with his family, spreading allura's message to carry on her legacy? makes perfect sense, valid af. lance becoming a farmer? not so much. I feel like he would have been better suited as teaching classes as a pilot instructor at the garrison or smth similar. altean lance still gave me whiplash and left me confused af but he looks so damn 👌👌👀👀🙌🙌😭 with his cute ass altean marks that I'm just gonna let that one go for the sake of aesthetic.

hunk becoming a chef? not ooc necessarily but I feel like he would have been better suited as a diplomat. y'know. ambassador to earth sort of thing.

keith aiding in recovery efforts and being a humanitarian (...alien-itarian...? idk). okay let's be real we all knew this edgy boi has a soft ass heart. I think hes just mature enough now to let his walls come down and not be afraid of caring ig. which is sweet and nice and all. but I feel like he wouldnt...JUST be doing that. like he would still want the battle and the adrenaline and the badass mf fight sequences. that's kinda his Thing.

shiro marrying a rando? I would have preferred adam to not die and them end up getting back together once shiro returned to earth. i just feel like there was no reason to kill off adam? shiro has already suffered so much, what was the point? but i'm not gonna hate on curtis bc we dont know jackshit about him and for all we know he could be a bombass dude. shiro looked happy tho and it's better than him being forever alone so I can hesitantly accept that ig. but on one condition and one condition only: their ship name must be shirts. if their ship name is not shirts then I dont want it

allura's death was pointless. i havent seen anyone disagree with this one so far. her life was full of suffering and then she died. like can we all just agree she was done dirty and it was entirely unnecessary.

dont come @ me with "you just dont like s8 bc your ship wasnt canon"

that's not it at all.

they could have made this season so amazing and still not have made klance canon. they could have left me disappointed in no klance but still happy because the finale made my heart go dynamite BOOM. I could have ended the last episode with no canon klance and still been smiling because the plot was bitchin' and the characters were all alive and happy.

but they didnt, so I wasnt. it just...wasnt a good season. it had good aspects, yes, but as a whole? meh.

season 8 was poorly handled. it really was. it had so much potential to end with EVERY character having a positive ending and still have an actual satisfying conclusion to the war. I know they wanted to show how heavy and serious and heartbreaking the war actually was, but you can make an emotional, heavy finale without killing off a main character and leaving her main character love interest lonely and grieving. like im sorry killing allura and leaving lance sad and lonely was not necessary at all to the plot it just flat out wasnt. they did those characters dirty and they did allurance shippers even dirtier.

allurancers cheered seeing their ship canon then had it ripped out from under them and my heart honestly grieves worse for my allurance and allura stan fam than my klance fam. they did y'all so wrong and i'm sorry it had to go down like that.

sheith shippers got fucked over when all that development and relationship and growth culminated into basically nothing in the final season. like as a broganes stan even i was taken aback by the sudden radio silence between them so I cant imagine how let down actual sheith shippers feel.

us adashi shippers? obvious. adam's death was not necessary. and dont tell me it was to show the heaviness and realness of death in war because vld does NOT have a track record of dead characters staying dead. they could have at least gave us some mild development with shirts (lmfao im so sorry but shirts) and let us see more of curtis as a character. like...literally just two 60 second scenes would have been nice. they could have easily fit that in.

us klancers got fucked over by unnecessary parallels to canon ships. they could have made it a cute platonic friendship in s8 and let us enjoy it and proceed to enjoy fanon klance without all those blatant parallels to shay/hunk that just left us confused. and the parallels in earlier seasons. like why did you have to make so many parallels to romantic moments and romantic tropes if it was platonic. why did you have to go and do that. what was the point.

s8 could have ended in such a way that shippers of every ship in the fandom were satisfied with the finale because their faves were treated right and the plot was fire. it had so much potential in the first half and could have been so damn good.

it wasnt though. the entire thing was so confusing and nothing about it felt like vld. It feels like a spin off or a reboot. I dont like s8 as a whole and I doubt I ever will. it might grow on me in time but I'll never fully like it, y'know. everything about it felt so tilted and off and just wrong.

but it really just be like that sometimes ig.

#i wont be responding to comments on this #feel free to send an ask w your thoughts #but no promise i'll answer it #klance #voltron #sheith #allurance #adashi #vld

77 notes · View notes

charred-ground · 5 years

Note

Hey, the post you reblogged "Was Season 8 of Voltron changed?" got deleted. Is there any chance to find it somewhere else or sth? I really would like to see that post and compare my opinions and suspicions about vld to others'.

Huh, I’m gonna say that it’s gone now. :( But I do believe it’s probably for the best at this point. The whole account appears to be deactivated. I’ve done a lot of my own research and I’ve found that a lot of what people are saying are based off falsified rumors.

I can’t say what went on behind the scenes, but there’s not factual evidence for what was stated. Anyone can say “We have a person.” or “we know a person”. But I do believe the story was got is not the original story the creators wanted to tell however it is the story they were allowed to share.

People seem to not understand how animation works and how far in advance shows are animated. I know some people have said this is an excuse, but if you look at logic and ignore the ‘tea’ someone is pouring from unknown sources you’ll find your own thoughts and ideas. Fact one: The tea is exaggerated and falsified and spread by angry fans. Where there might be a hint of truth, it got exaggerated and then blown up to a point where the truth no longer exists.

Fact two: Rep was WANTED since the start of Voltron. The door for such rep was closed VERY tightly until statistics proved where the real fanbase was. The permission for rep was granted VERY VERY late in the game. So in a rush to add what they wanted they made a few mistakes. (Adam) Josh Keaton and Adam’s voice actor even said they recorded SEVERAL different lines for that scene. The concept being so last minute Netflix didn’t even get the right subtitles in their formatting.

Fact Three: Klance was NEVER the plan. The fans own that concept and the fans created the awareness. Klance was given a last-ditch effort of possibility.

Fact Four: Sheith was never in the cards either. Keith and Shiro were close. Shiro was a mentour and a brother/father figure to Keith. The showrunners didn’t know they’d have a chance for rep when they laid out the groundwork on this relationship. And Shiro was meant to die after season 2 and Keith was meant to kill the clone in season 6.

Personal take: Shiro and Keith’s relationship was to foreshadow the concept of found family. Shiro never had romantic designs for Keith. Keith never had romantic designs for Shiro. Shiro was a friend. The first person who trusted him. The only person who cared about him after his father died. Keith, whatever his sexuality is, doesn’t HAVE to have romantic feelings for a guy just because he’s gay. And gay men are capable of having platonic relationships with other men and other gay men. The gay men I’ve watched this show with adore Shiro but felt better about a platonic Sheith relationship because “A gay guy AND a regular??guy can have a close relationship without wanting to screw each other's brains out. It’s like saying a csi guy and girl can’t be friends.” So seeing Keith(sexually ambiguous) and Shiro in a close nonromantic relationship sends a message that everyone keeps forgetting. “People are people. No matter their race, color, gender, or sexuality. Everyone deserves love. Everyone deserves to have important people in their lives.” For all we know Keith was Shiro’s number one ally. “You mean this guy and that gay guy can be friends!?” “Yes Tommy… it’s okay for your straight ass to be friends with a gay guy.”

Fact five: After getting the ‘okay’ for rep, the creators RUSHED to show what they wanted to show. Yes they tripped up along the way and yes it was a rush job. But they wanted to throw that in there because they were given the go ahead very late in the game. So the question is… Which would have made people happier? Ignorance is bliss and just have Shiro be Adam’s roommate? Or be the rep they wished he could have been? Imagine what the creators could have done if Dreamworks felt about Voltron the way they currently feel about She-ra (Someone learned a lesson down the way).

Fact Six: Put the blame where the blame actually belongs. The Ships like all ships are created by the fans. We saw something and we wanted it SOOOO BAD we created theories and metas and had a whole lot of fun doing it. But remember not EVERY thing actually means something. Sometimes a tree is just a damn tree and doesn’t mean anything.

Enjoy your ships, enjoy your metas. But for goddsakes, it’s time to move on. Create the worlds you wish to create. Draw them write them but leave the people involved with Voltron alone. Klancers and Sheithers(Oh yes… it’s been mostly them this time) have been threatening the cast and crew at their HOMES people… this is disgusting. There is no conspiracy. This isn’t a Dan Brown novel. The tea is tabloid level fabrications made by angry fans

I might get some or a lot hate for this… but honestly, I’m getting so tired of seeing the hate and the blame and grrrrr on a show that brought me happiness. The ending hurt. Sure, but it’s all a matter of perspective. Did Allura die? NO she didn’t die. She’s not DEAD she’s a frick’in goddess. I don’t know why people keep saying she’s dead. She cradles the universe. She’s the creator of all realities. The hero.

Lance is the one the heart aches for, but it’s a matter of perspective how he moves about his life. If you want to wallow in the pessimistic mush, then yes he lives out his life in virginal mourning of Allura (uuuugh why would you Head Cannon that!?). OR he moves on with his life, cherishes the memories he has but finds a way to heal and a new love somewhere else because Allura would have wanted that for him, and being the goddess she is probably set a few things in motion (head cannon Keith hopping over to the farm and a slow love builds)

Shiro is happy now. Happily married to Curtis. If the story creator says HE IS HAPPY then he’s happy. If he’s miserable in your head cannon it’s because you imagine him that way…

Oh yeah, JDS and LM did not get fired from Dreamworks… so yeah… Unfollowing does not translate to “You’re fired.”

ANYWAY This got longer than meant… so um yeah.. no I don’t know where that post is! Sorry!!! This is NOT an attack on the asker at all! I adore questions. I just got off on a rant. If I use ‘you’ its the royal ‘you’.

#voltron #voltron season 8 #vld spoilers #i'm an adult and fed up #there is no tea only ducky #asks

25 notes · View notes

hi-i-love-u-bitch · 5 years

Text

Okay, let’s real talk about Voltron S8...

This is probably gunna be a long SPOILER FILLED rant so I’ll just leave it under the cut. But before I do that let me just throw out one truth bomb...

Y’ALL MOSTLY HATE S8 BECAUSE YOUR SHIPS WEREN’T CANNON!!!!

Though I know that’s not ALL that you hate about it, I’ll get to that later, but it’s the main that’s made this fandom so infamous. Look, I’m gunna be real here, I knew (we all knew) since the beginning that Allurance (Allura x Lance) was going to be end game. There was literally no other option (*cough*yes there was *cough*) other then for them to get together, it’s a very common and basic formula used for all romantic tropes in cartoons. When two people from the opposite sex so much as glance at each other in a semi-romantic way (even if it’s only just one of them) they WILL most likely get together. It’s just cartoon logic. This formula has been used time and time again so I wasn’t very surprised when Lance and Allura got together. Even when she still had that thing with Lotor I KNEW her and Lance were still gunna end up together, some how.

Now I have nothing against Allurance, I think it’s a cute ship and the moments they had together during S8 were nice but I just don’t like HOW they got together. This was obviously a rebound relationship for Allura because she was emotional and heartbroken and needed someone who loved her unconditionally. That being said I’m pretty sure Lance also knew this was a rebound relationship, they’re in the middle of war, emotions are high, and he was so in love with Allura that he was desperate to take what he can.

So does that make them bad people by forming a relationship in the midst of a war just to gain a little emotional support? No. In fact, it could of been a very interesting concept to play around with and help both characters grow. Lance could have seen that he didn’t need someone to feel whole and accomplished in life, while Allura could have healed from the heartbreak and come out a much stronger person. HER AND LANCE COULD HAVE EVEN BECOME CLOSER AS FRIENDS WITH MAYBE A HINT OF A RELATIONSHIP SHOWN IN THE FUTURE IF YOU’RE REALLY TRULY DESPERATE FOR THAT SHIP!!! But the way they got together was so...sloppy and rushed and forced. Nothing was natural about it because since the beginning the only one who has shown interest in a relationship was Lance. If Allura had also shown interest in wanting to be with Lance earlier on (even if it was during s3 or s4) they could of had time to develop into a more believable romance.

The reason people gravitate more towards Klance (Keith x Lance) was because it had believable chemistry that we liked. Be it platonic or other wise, Keith and Lance help were very important to each other for their growth throughout the series. It was a natural growth that was interesting to watch which is why people latched on to it even though we knew, deep down, it was never going to be nothing more. I know there’s this whole thing about “queer baiting” but let’s be realistic here, this is a cartoon show made for kids, run by a company who only confirmed Gobber (from How to Train Your Dragon) was gay in one interview and nothing else, and killed off Adam (Shiro’s supposed fiance) without even confirming in show that him and Shiro were even together. It was never gunna happen and we should all just get over it. The moments we got with them were only there to either move the story along or appease us and nothing more.

Okay so moving on, story wise it was alright, nothing spectacular but I found it interesting. Granted they diverged from their original story in S1 a whole hell of a lot but it was sort of interesting to watch. Sometimes seasons were very inconsistent with what has already been established but the overall plot was somewhat engaging. This season I thought was pretty decent enough, but the ending just...wasn’t as grand as I was hoping it to be. I mean the whole battle scene with Honerva was amazing but the ending after was just very...meh.

ALLURA SERIOUSLY DID NOT NEED TO DIE!!!

I’m just putting it out there now! There could have been a million different ways to execute this if really did want her to die but this just felt half assed! You know why? BECAUSE SHE DIDN’T NEED TO DIE!!! You’re just gunna put a character through all that suffering and NOT give her the happy ending she deserves? You know who SHOULD have died?

HONERVA! HONERVA SHOULD HAVE DIED! I DON’T CARE IF ALLURA OR THE PALADINS WERE BEING THE “BIGGER PERSON” ABOUT IT, SHE SHOULD HAVE DIED! SHE WAS GOING TO DESTROY ALL OF REALITY AND EXISTENCE! ALL BECAUSE SHE COULDN’T LET GO OF THE PAST AND GET WHAT SHE WANTED!!!

I have no sympathy for her, I have no sympathy for Zarkon, and I have no sympathy for Lotor! I don’t care that they have tragic, misunderstood backstories THAT STILL DOESN’T GIVE THEM THE RIGHT TO DO THE THINGS THEY DID!!!

Don’t get me wrong, villain redemption arcs are totally valid in any other context but sympathy or pity for genocidal maniacs IS JUST SO MANY SHADES OF FUCKED UP!!! (ex. THE FUCKING DIAMONDS FROM STEVEN UNIVERSE).

So yeah, Honerva should of died, Allura should of lived, and many more things before this season could of been planed better. Also that ending scene with Shiro getting married I thought was pretty cute. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not really a TRUE form of lgbtq+ rep, it was rushed and probably a sloppy form of an apology for killing off Adam but I don’t think we should hate on it. It’ll only discourage other creatures in the future from truly making representation we deserve. Plus, I’m glad that Shiro was able to find happiness after all the shit he’s gone through! I thought all the little glimpses in to the future end cards were very fitting and nice. Well, all except foR LANCE!!!

SERIOUSLY?! SERIOUSLY, YOU GUNNA DO MY BOY LIKE THAT?!

Like, I’m glad he stayed with his family on Earth (I know a lot of people think he left to settle in Altea but checked back and am here to confirm that is NOT true) but did they seriously had to make him a farmer?!?! Yes, I wanted him to be with his family and stay on Earth BUT there is so much more they could of done with him! Pidge stayed on Earth with her family and made huge technological advances and you’re telling me Lance couldn’t have done something similar? I mean, I get that after all of it he’d want to spend time with his family and get away from the war and adventure of it all but there was still so much that needed to be done! Coran, Keith, Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge were all still trying to bring together a broken universe because, as anybody could tell you, just because the war is over doesn’t me everything is fixed. And like HELL would Lance just take a seat while his friends were out there rebuilding! It is like a MAJOR disrespect to Allura’s memory! One that Lance has made very clear that he want’s to HONOR in the best way possible and the writers thought that him having a FARM was be best thing to do that?!

NOT A FUCKING CHANCE!!!

Okay, so after breathing for a moment, I have to say that I actually did enjoy this season. Sure, then ending of it was lack luster and the whole Allurance thing was cute but poorly done but other then that I really, really liked it. Could it have had a better send off? Yes. But the one that it got WASN’T the worst thing in the world and I would gladly watch Voltron all over again. In fact I’m going to because I like the show and it’s characters and even the shitty fandom it has. Sure, it’s flawed but so is everything else in life so there’s no use in crying over something that is over.

Either enjoy Voltron for what it is or just put it out of your life if it’s causing you that much misery. At the end of it all it’s just a show.

27 notes · View notes

darlingsdream · 6 years

Text

My Story With Voltron and Season Seven Thoughts

So, this is the first time I’ll be posting something personal on here about my story with Voltron and how I feel about it. It’s going to be long, and yeah, trigger warning.

A year ago, I was in a very, very bad place mentally. I was learning a lot about who I was personally and dealing with a lot of losses and emotional baggage. As a very young child, I was very into the original Voltron. I loved that stuff, however, when I grew older I didn’t stick to it and didn’t hear about the new reboot of it. Last year, one of the biggest things I was dealing with was my sexuality. Hi, I’ve recognized I’m BISEXUAL! And I’m very proud! But, I found it very hard to accept that about myself last year, seeing as my family did not approve of that stuff. I always lost myself in LGBT members in TV shows because I felt like I could relate to the characters and they helped me get through my emotional stuff. I would hyperfocus on them to drown out the very, very bad stuff I was going through.

One day while scrolling through YouTube, I came across a Klance edit. I did not know what show they were from, and genuinely believed they were a cannon gay couple. I fell in love with them instantly and began watching more video of them on YouTube. After my spree, I looked it up and figured out they were from the new Voltron reboot! I was like, woah! A voltron reboot? A gay couple, in a child’s cartoon? I was DEAD SET IN LOVE with the show right off the bat. I watched all four seasons that were out at the time and yeah, realized Klance wasn’t a cannon ship. I fell in love with the plot, characters, ships, and fandom though.

Voltron gave me something to take my mind off how bad of a situation I was in. It gave me something to hyperfocus on and fall in love with. I’ve met so many nice and friendly people through the fandom, people that understand me! The fandom is so amazing with great content? Like, the fics? Amazing! Art? Stunning! I loved the VA’s immediately and even recognized them from shows I used to watch! I became so involved with Voltron and progressively found myself getting happier and happier as I met new people, found myself, found relatable content and happy spaces to put myself into. Long story short, Voltron saved me from a shit filled situation. I’ve loved Voltron so, so much.

For the past three seasons, I’ve stayed up just to watch them immediately. I’ve worked on many fan fictions and read AMAZING ones by BEAUTIFUL writers!

You could only imagine my SHOCK when I heard there would be LGBT rep! Something I personally struggle with, even now! I cried when I found out Shiro had a male fiancé when he was on Earth! It made me so, so happy!

So, here is where my issues start...

You can tell I’ve loved Voltron whole heartedly for a very long time. Yeah?

This season, season 7, hurt me in more ways than one. It was written poorly compared to the other seasons in my opinion. The episodes where a bit everywhere and the villains were out there! The time warps were confusing, and having twenty new characters thrown at you at once is confusing! Especially when the show is close to ending. Don’t get me wrong, there was a lot of good things in this season! An amazing and well deserved Hunk arc, Lance’s strong and smart sister! The Paladins all being with their families! Shiro getting a new arm! Major Paladin and Lion bonding! Keith loves his mom!

But, there was just as much bad things as good things... I’ll start with the plot, so people won’t think I’m shitting on a show I’ve adored for MONTHS because “MY SHIP DIDNT BECOME CANNON”. Because that’s not it.

The plot was, for this season, confusing! The space stuff happening was weird. And, as someone who has an 8 YEAR OLD SISTER who watches this show, she was startled by the hostility Keith began showing the fellow Paladins during their “space madness”. The game show episode, while supposed to be a tension breaker, was useless in the long run and more of an aggravating spit run than anything else. Like, it was nice seeing Zarkon, Haggar, and Lotor! As a family! But odd, we never got an explanation as to how. Then we have everyone bashing on Lance, poor lance, for being an idiot, which he is not. As well, Voltron is captured TWICE this season... never had that happened and the way they always get out of the trouble seemed very OP.

Now, I’ll go into characters. Shiro: a supposed LGBT member, handicap, suffers from PTSD, and is of a different race, gets put through the RINGER in EVERY SEASON. They have done this character dirty, I’m not even going to lie. It’s not “character development” to throw your character around like that and kill it a hundred times but allow it to still live. Poor Shiro has barely had ANY good luck through out this show! Then, they go and say, he’s an LGBT character... They kill off his ex fiancé? They said there would be a major plot with Adam and Shiro, and I feel like they did both characters dirty. No, Adam’s death was far from heroic. It was a flash death, not even sudden, and people were left confused to it. I’m pretty sure they even referred to Adam as PERSON 1 in the subtitles. Shiro’s grieving of his old partner is so rushed too. We got an entire clip of Pidge sobbing her heart out over her brother, but see barely a flinch as Shiro looks at his ex fiancés grave. You wouldnt even be able to tell they used to be a couple if the producers didn’t say something. I’m sorry, but personally, I can’t count this as LGBT rep when it’s so concealed like this... it hurts, because they hyped the rep up so much and I was so excited, and then shit hit the fan.

Then there is Lance, who we were promised would get development. The only development for him has been on his crush for Allura and it’s painfully obvious. He is used as a joke. The other characters mistreat him... and it’s very hard to watch. This, as a kids show, just shows that it’s okay to be rude and make fun of other people. My younger sister even picked up on this and said the way Lance is treated by everyone, especially his sister, is bad! The whole gameshow episodes they kept calling the poor teen Dumb and Stupid. Like, jeez, that’s kind of damaging? They even showed that Lance has many insecurities and yet, they don’t go any further about it. He cries? No one comforts him. He’s worried? People shoot him down. He tries to help others? He gets yelled at that he can’t do things right or disregarded. It goes to show as a regular trope kids are taught today, it’s bad for boys to have emotions! It’s like it doesn’t even matter! It agitates me so much...

Then, Keith. Keith is my favorite character, he’s gotten SO MUCH development. More than anyone else... which, I kind of dislike.. but, his personality was totally screwed over this season! They changed him completely, and it’s sad to see! Sure, he grew up, but there is literally NOTHING left of his old character!

Now, I guess it’s time for the major controversial ship talk.... this, is a fucking WRECK. The producers of Voltron said that romance wasn’t going to be a big thing in the show. In my honest opinion, they shouldn’t have done ANY romance, no Adam and Shiro, no Allura and Lance, no nothing. They’ve gone about it all wrong, and it’s just disappointing and UNCOMFORTABLE!!!

I’ll start with Allurance. I, originally, liked Allurance. But now, it’s so over done, it’s so awkward, forced, and uncomfortable! The past six seasons, we’ve seen Lance have a meaningless crush on her. I don’t see what’s so great about her to him? He said she makes him want to be a better person, but, anyone on team Voltron makes him try harder, honestly! It just seems so stupid! And now, that lotor is out of the way, Allura all of a sudden shows interest in him? No build up? No back story? Just random blushing and caring? It sounds like a rebound! I mean, yes, I understand peoples feelings can change, but this? They’ve gone about it ALL WRONG! As well? They have said Allura doesn’t get an endgame, but Lance does? This makes no sense. They have also said for Lance’s endgame: he ends up with someone he NEEDS, not WANTS, the person he ends up chose him as a first choice! This doesn’t sound like Allura, yet, they keep pushing it on their interviews and it’s just awkward! This ISNT slowburn!!!!

Finally, Klance. Yeah, I’m upset... very upset actually. They make Lance like Allura violently and now Axca is randomly showing up and now Keith is HET? Yeah... I don’t get it. I don’t get why they made all those unnecessary Klance moments now. Bonding moment? Elevator scene? Comforting? The soft looks? The concern? The colors in the backgrounds? The built up from rivals to friends to co-leading? They were getting along so well, it was so nice! I really thought that they were the slowburn relationship the cast was so excited and quiet about! It seemed so right! But then, Keith left for the blade, and in the shipping panel they said Keith and Lance were soulmates and they wished they could have seen that earlier. I was hurt. Beyond hurt. When Keith came back, I was disappointed. They changed Keith’s personality so much... he was rude and snapping at Lance, I was like, woah? And then when Keith was rude to Allura and Lance told him he should have just stayed away? That hurt! During the game show when Lance and Keith picked each other to leave, I felt so happy! I was like, wow, they care so much for each other! Lance was so earnest with his response! He made such a soft expression and said Keith was like the future! But then Keith ruined the entire moment and said he just picked Lance because he didnt want to spend an eternity with him! Like, what? What happened to the Keith that hung onto their bonding moment? Why was he so snappy? I am so confused why they built up a nice friendship and then we get THAT from them! It seems so.. wrong now! I am hurt over it, like, genuinely. I don’t even care if they weren’t going to be in a relationship! They could have been AMAZING friends, but they ruined that! They made their friendship seem so toxic!

After this season, I’ve honestly lost my passion and fire for Voltron... I’m so disappointed and sad. Not just because of ships, but plot as well.

I also would like to say as a side note: it’s okay for people to watch a show just for ships. That’s their interest, let them do what they want and don’t attack them... we all have our personal reasons for stuff!!!

40 notes · View notes

sketchkrsh · 6 years

Text

Okay, here’s the thing about voltron that’s been really bugging me:

I’ve shipped Klance and other lgbt ships but despite all the digging people did - NEVER outright EXPECTED it to be canon. Never expected bi Lance or gay Keith or whatever. That’s fanon Stuff, headcanons, things the fandom likes but yknow, in the end it’s all THEORY. Never CONFIRMED. And if you hype something too much without REAL proof, you’re gonna be disappointed. And tbh? The main gay ships are waaaaay overhyped. So I’m not surprised that people are upset, yeah. But is that queerbaiting? I think it’s more people seeing what they want to see.

But here’s the thing. Adam and Shiro are a different story. When you say a character is gay, or has a significant other, when you say that the fandom will be “happy with the lgbt rep” knowing what this hellscape of a fandom expects out of a gay relationship - that’s canon, confirmed things. I understand it’s a kids show and the targeted audience is not the 15-late 20s people who get up in arms about there not being enough lgbt rep, but there ARE ways to work it in subtlely. Steven Universe is a show MUCH more obvious with its lgbt rep, but still does a good job and reaches a wide audience. My 12-y/old brother’s fav characters are pearl and garnet, the arguably two gayest characters in the freaking show. It can be done, is the thing. I guess that’s why I’m bummed?

Everyone was so excited for Shiro and Adam, and ofc saying you’ll get to meet shiro’s significant other leaves a whole lot of room for what way you’ll meet him and how long and the details of it but... when you have literally no mention or even reminant of their relationship or feelings to each other, and then go and kill Adam without really showing them as rep - that is burying your gays. And people have a right to be upset about it, especially with what the people who worked on the show have said.

I go back and forth on discourse a lot. At first when I saw all this stuff I was mostly just exhausted by how much of the critical posts about the season was about Klance. That’s not what Voltron is about, and has never been what voltron is about. It’s never been about the romantic stuff, really, and they’ve never given us concrete answers about those things EXCEPT SHIRO. I’ll be honest, at first I was like “oh my god, stop it, voltron isn’t just about ships! We got Hunk content and their families and they’re back on earth and there’s so much good in this season I’m sure!” But then I remember I’m an lgbt person. I’m pansexual and I’m dating a nonbinary person and I have a LOT of lgbt friends. This shit is important.

Rep is important because it normalizes things for younger kids. I originally didn’t really care that the “rep” went south, but then I spent more than like 3 seconds thinking about it. If you have someone like shiro - the leader, arguably the other big main core character to the show besides Keith (I say that bc he’s gotten the most development and personal moments), and finally the one who everyone looks up to. Shiro the Hero. Say he’s gay, and obvious enough that kids UNDERSTAND.

There you have just given an incredible gay role model for kids. In a lot of cases, you might be helping kids understand what they’re feeling and go “oh! This is an okay thing bc my fav character who’s also a hero and really awesome also feels! Liking the same gender!” Besides that, it also makes it more normalized. More accessible. Kids won’t think it’s weird to be gay. They understand at a younger age, and yknow? When I think about how much agony and fear and uncertainty and struggle me and my lgbt friends have gone through to even have a semblance of comfortableness with who we are, I think about all the people around us who called it weird because they didn’t understand. And if we had more representation? Maybe they would understand. Voltron is a popular show - there was a BIG opportunity there.

So anyway. There were a lot of missed opportunities and this is my Hot Take. I understand that the showeumners and voice actors don’t have complete control over everything, I totally get that. In a lot of cases, they probably really want the same things the fandom does. So please, do not attack them. You have every right to be upset about the way they handled Shiro and Adam (which is backed up with CONFIRMATION, might I add) but don’t throw it all in Lauren or Jeremey’s face, yknow? I’m sure they tried their best.

But you know, it’s okay to calmly and reasonably express why this sucks. Why it hurts you. Because really? It does suck. It’s not good “rep” if you can even call it that. Hey, though. There’s still season 8. If they can force Axca and Keith, they can force Shiro to get a new boyfriend, right?

Edit: in the words of my datemate “It’s not a show about romance, but the fact that the ONE canon ship they had aside from Lotura was LGBT and they RIP IT FROM OUR FUCKING HANDS?? Not cool.” And basically yea that’s the point of this.

#voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #voltron season seven #voltron spoilers #shiro #takashi shirogane #adam #shadam #adashi #voltron critical #klance #discourse #long post

37 notes · View notes

pan-xichen · 6 years

Text

Okay so I've seen a lot on Shiro and Adam and honestly my thoughts are kinda all over the place but here are some things that I think make sense:

First off I did not see the first episode and am basing everything on spoilers so sorry if I get something wrong. Just wanted to say that before I get into it.

1. Some people are angry at Adam for breaking up with Shiro. I am also angry that he broke up with Shiro but I don't know the entire story yet so I'm trying very hard not to pass too much judgement. They supposedly had a beautiful relationship so Shiro just wanting to go to kerberos couldn't possibly have been the sole reason Adam dumped him. I think it was likely the stress that Shiro's illness progressively getting worse put on both of them causing tension between them, combined with Adam feeling like Shiro is "leaving" him by going to kerberos. Realistically he knew there was a chance for him to never come home and he wanted to avoid the heartbreak. That doesn't excuse what he did by any means, but I'm trying to at least rationalize I guess why anyone would actually dump Shiro without a really good reason (that was not a good one).

2. I'm sure their relationship was wonderful before it started going south and I don't see a problem with them as a ship before the breakup. However, people wanting them to get back together rubs me the wrong way entirely, and it's definitely not because I ship sheith. I don't like it because Adam literally made Shiro choose between going on one last mission; doing something he loves, and staying together. Whatever his motives for doing that, he wasn't willing to support Shiro in what he wanted to do before he died. I'm sure there's more to it because if their relationship was as healthy as Lauren implied then that would've come completely out of left field, but the fact remains that as of right now Adam was in the wrong in what he did. It was a selfish decision, to force Shiro to choose between pursuing his dream and their relationship. That doesn't change. Shiro's decision to leave might have been selfish from his perspective, sure, but Shiro was dying. He told Keith he only had three or four years left. Three or four years before he wouldn't be able to go on missions anymore. Three or four years left to live, essentially. Of course he wants to go. He knows it's probably the last time he'll get to fly like that. Adam should've been more understanding of his perspective and supportive of him.

This doesn't mean I'm going to hate anyone for shipping them; you do you. It's just not my cup of tea at all and never will be, especially when you've got the contrast between Keith never giving up on Shiro and Adam essentially giving up on him. I can't see them getting back together after their breakup. It's very likely that Adam has moved on (he told Shiro he wouldn't wait after all) and we've already been told they won't be back together. They're done. Headcanon whatever you want, have fun, but don't insist something will happen and use it as ammo against people who ship Shiro with Keith or other characters. That's not cool.

3. I would actually like to see Adam redeem himself a little bit. I would like to see him apologize for forcing Shiro to choose and acknowledge that what he did was wrong. I would like to see a conversation between them that clears the air, basically. Not getting back together or Shiro forgiving him immediately or anything, just Adam being a reasonable guy. I had this idea that if he and Keith actually talk at all he might tell him not to make the same mistake he did with Shiro; realize that what he did was shitty and Shiro deserved better, but not feel like Shiro should accept his apology by any means.

4. Shiro definitely isn't the type of person to be bitter towards someone he loved, regardless of how they might have treated him, but the fact that not once did he ever think about Adam until the flashbacks in s7 is pretty telling of how he feels about him. He doesn't really miss him or feel like he made the wrong decision going to kerberos. That's not just the narrative waiting until s7 to reveal his sexual orientation. They could've hinted at him missing a SO back home, man, woman or otherwise, but they chose not to. Shiro didn't think much about Earth at all, as far as we saw. He didn't even show interest in wanting to go home to someone in s2 when the team is talking about the universe not needing voltron anymore. He's possibly still a bit hurt given he does remember him while in the healing pod but at this point he's definitely moved on and it wouldn't make sense for Shiro to sudddenly want to go back to him.

5. I've seen talk of antis using Shiro's past relationship with Adam as ammo against sheith and honestly that's fucking nasty. Stop that. You literally don't even care about lgbt+ rep if you are just shipping Shiro with his ex to get him "out of the way" or shut down sheith. The important thing, regardless of ships, is that we have a canon mlm main character in a kids action show. That's huge. To have it actually addressed in canon and not word of god at a panel is absolutely wonderful. For Shiro to be the mlm character is amazing. He's this strong, capable talented leader and most importantly unlike a lot of poor rep his sexuality isn't all that he is. He's multidimensional and very well written and I'm so thankful we have gay Shiro. That's what matters here. Shiro is good, positive representation of a gay man in media that definitely risks homophobic parents refusing to let their kids keep watching the show and buy his action figure and they Did that anyway.

I want to wrap this up by saying that I really don't care if you ship them. It's the same attitude I have towards k/l, really. I don't really see why, in current canon, people would ship them, and I definitely don't see either ship being canon ever, but I'm cool with whatever people wanna ship as long as they're respectful to each other. I'll just block the tag and keep to myself.

#dont get me wrong i really really dont like the ship of shiro/adam #like... really dont #just based on what happened between them #im just trying to be amicable and respectful lmao #idc if you ship it thats fine i wont try to stop you #just dont expect content for the ship here fellas #mullet speaks #vld s7 spoilers

44 notes · View notes

wildzinkyu · 6 years

Photo

(long post, VLD season 7 spoilers, I'm on mobile so I can't really do a page break I'm sorry about that guy's!) (art is mine btw) I'm honestly getting really tired of hearing how Adam dying in season 7 is a bury your gays trope, and condemning VLD as this aweful thing for allowing it. Yes, Adam was mlm, and yes, he did die. And maybe yeah, they could have chosen to kill someone else, but in the end, it isn't going to change the narrative to do so. Adam's death was included to show how high the stakes were in the war against the Galra. He was used because he was a familiar face, so we would connect with what was happening. Adam's character wasn't all that important in the larger narrative of the show, either. He was included for several reasons. First, to show in an organic was that Shiro, a main character, was mlm. Second, to contrast his relationship specifically with Keith- almost all of Adam's lines are directly echoed by Keith, Adam saying he won't stay with Shiro if he leaves for Kerberos, vs Keith saying he refuses to give up on Shiro no matter what. And third, as already mentioned, to give us a familiar face in the first assault against the Galra to show how high the stakes were. Adam isn't the only character to die, he dies with his entire squad, and showed JUST how underprepared Earth was for the Galra. On top of this, so much focus on a character who got less than a minute of screen time, starts to overshadow why Adam was even thought of as a character in the first place: to show Shiro was mlm. Shiro, who is a MAIN character in an action adventure series. They did not have to make Shiro gay. And let's really talk about Shiro, OK? Shiro is not only one of the main characters. He's a character who has gone through so much, and keeps going. He's Asian, disabled, mentally ill (ptsd) and mlm, and he's also strong, a leader, someone who cares about and supports his friends, a talented leader, and he keeps going. He's literally DIED, and been dragged back to a living body by the love of another member of his team (Keith). Shiro is a gay man who belongs to an Earth military organization and allowed to be out and gay (this is so important considering don't ask don't tell). Shiro is amazing. Shiro is so wonderful as lgbt+ rep, and it makes me so sad and so tired to see him overshadowed by Adam. And to say that Adam's death means that Shiro now has no one to come home to on earth... Well, Adam LEFT Shiro before Shiro left on the Kerberos mission, prior to the start of the show. Even if Adam were alive, they weren't going to get together again. The showrunners have been very clear about that. Adam being alive wasn't going to give Shiro a 'happy ending'. Shiro's 'happy ending' doesn't have to hing on him being in a relationship. Right now, he already has the start of his happy ending- he's been shown to have achieved his goals and more, and now has a found family in the Voltron team around him who love and support him. I am certain that season 8 is going to be good for Shiro! And we know the VLD showrunners had to fight to make Shiro gay. They've told us they wanted the flashbacks in S7 to happen back in S2, but weren't allowed to. We know that DW made them record alternate lines for the flashback with Adam, casting him as a roommate best friend, and not as a romantic partner. Knowing they had to do that, fight and convince their executives that yes, they should make Shiro gay, really does make a difference, and shows how much they do care about their fan base. And yes, it would be awesome to see Shiro end up with someone in S8. But this is an action adventure show, where romance is NOT the focus. And as a fan and as a queer person, I appreciate that Shiro is allowed to just BE gay, that it's just one part of him. And if Adam was alive, I don't think I'd want to see him get back together- not only did they break up prior to the series start, but Adam is someone we know next to nothing about. If Shiro DOES end up with someone, I could only hope that it's someone we already know in the series, and that we've been allowed to see have development with Shiro. But even if Shiro remains single... Shiro is still amazing rep. Again, he's disabled, mentally ill, Asian, and gay, and still strong, still GOING... Him being gay doesn't doesn't hinge on him being WITH someone. And all of this outrage over Adam, who again, had less than a minute of screen time, is really starting g to overshadow the fact that we now have a gay main character, and that the showrunners had to fight for that. I'm glad they did. I love Shiro. I love that HE'S our lgbt+ rep. And I want to thank the VLD staff for doing that. I want to add as well that, I'm not saying people can't be upset about Adam, but just that I hope people consider everything involved, and that they just be aware that this seems to be getting more traction than the fact that we now have a main character in an action adventure series who is gay and who isn't cast as some kind of stereotype. Who is strong, a leader, and surrounded by a found family who genuinely care for him.

#Vld #Voltron #Adam discourse #takashi shirogane #Shiro #Pls I am so tired and about as salty as Shiro looks in my art up there

23 notes · View notes

aeternamantes · 6 years

Text

Voltron did us Dirty: The Facts

I know that I don’t have many followers and that many people probably won’t see this but I really want to get what I have to say out there.

It is, of course, completely valid to have enjoyed the season. Shiro being back for real, Hunk getting the attention he deserved, the family reunions we have waited seven suspensful seasons for, the new team dynamic and the solidness behind it, Shiro being the White Lion Paladin (which admitedly I don’t believe they presented very clearly but it was there so), humanity defending itself, Sam Holt in general, and more. However. Adam’s death as well as Zethrid and Ezor’s deaths were absolutely horrid. Zethrid and Ezor were attempting to survive, and after presenting them in a lesbian context (which was never actually directly mentioned to be anything) decided to disregard whatever motives they may have had to make them absolute villains and then kill them off. If you don’t believe Adashi to be queerbaiting, this certainly is. It is also, burying potential gays so they do not have to develop or confirm anything later.

I honestly haven’t seen much attention paid to the fact that Zethrid and Ezor were killed, and to be completely honest I didn’t register it when it happened. While it is valid that maybe it was because they were playing a villain role, Acxa used to be a villain to. This was not the only option, and it took out two dynamic characters that were with Lotor because they wanted to make a difference in the galra empire. Is it a coincidence that they died after they were presented to potentially be a couple? It could be. I am not the crew, i do not know why they do the things they do. However, knowing the sort of fanbase they have, I feel as if they would have known how we would see it. This is the only visible representation in the entirety of season 7, and it is shown on the face of the villains who are then killed by the heros by the end of the episode.

I understand that many people would contest that Zethrid and Ezor were the only visible rep, not that it was confirmed to be rep, given Adashi. However, whatever the crew may have said, there is no visible representation in the season between them at all. If I had not had the prior knowledge that they were engaged then i wouldn’t have known. It is deliberately skirted around, and Adam was deliberately taken out so there would be no having to deal with it. You can say that Adam was a representation of his past and his death was symbolic, but everything in this television show is a deliberate decision made by the crew that is making it. What the crew says means jack shit at the end of the day if it isn’t shown in the show. J.K Rowling saying Dumbledore is gay at then end of the day has only outraged the Harry Potter fandom at the end of the day because she did nothing to lay down even a shred of ground work at the end of the day and has continued to remain inactive in portraying that in Fantastic Beasts. This is the situation that we have found ourselves in with season 7. The cast and crew hyped its audience for something that they knew we wouldn’t be able to see. They told us we would have representation, and they didn’t give it to us. Voltron is a children’s show, no matter how many of us there are that are no longer small children. Children are not paying attention to what the crew is saying, and while representation is important for us as well... what I wouldn’t have given to see blatant representation like two strong gay men in a cartoon i watched as a child. They have given us no indication inside of the show that Shiro is gay. He could be any sexuality from straight to pan and we wouldn’t be any the wiser because they refuse to address it. You cannot promise your audience representation and then only have it matter outside of the show. Saying relationships aren’t relevant to the story is valid, it’s okay to not have that be an extremely big part of your show, however if you’re going to have representation be part of your show then you need to address it in the show. Claiming to have representation where it is not is a disservice to the fans that they know exist. To anyone who doesn’t follow the crew, Shiro’s sexuality still has not been addressed. To any child growing up watching this show, Shiro’s sexuality has not been addressed. The representation simply doesn’t exist, regardless of what the crew says.

People have a right to be upset, and i implore you to stop critisizing people that have been hurt by the lies, and the burying of the gays. Adam didn’t have to be a part of that team, they put him there and made him the last to die on purpose. They have deeply wounded the trust placed in them, and it has dug deep inside the hearts of lgbt fans that cannot find the positive representation in the show. The fans have a right to be upset, even if you are not. If this is something that, after all I have said, still does not upset you, that is okay. It’s alright to not care about this, but understand that many people do and it goes beyond being invested in a show. It is about identity and trust, it is about representation and importance, and that is at the heart of many people who watch the show.

I will, of course, still be watching Season 8. It is the last season and I am not going to ditch the show without seeing its conclusion. There was a lot of good aspects to season 7, even if I personally don’t believe they were put together that well. That is not the discussion I have set out to have. It is okay to be optimistic for season 8, but setting aside the hurt that has been delt out just because maybe the representation will be fixed in the next season is not necessary. What they have presented this community with as of season 7 is completely understandable to be upset at, it is not childish and it is not immature. Representation matters in this community, just as it matters in many other communities, and being lied to about its prominence is a deep cut. Don’t let anyone tell you that your being upset isn’t valid it is your perception of the show, and as long as you don’t personally attack the cast or crew and you conduct yourself in a respectful matter then you are completely valid.

Here’s to hoping for season 8!

19 notes · View notes

bottomdiluc · 6 years

Note

omg there's a video where joshua hamilton says all the writers saw shiro as a gay man from the start. shiro is a gay man in canon, not bi or pan or whatever. the showrunners were letting the fandom interpret it however because they were afraid of shiro het shippers and shiro doesn't "identify" with any label because they think in the future nobody does that anymore.

i wouldn’t say the staff fears any kind of fan reaction enough to let it influence them. they had this planned for a long time, all the way back when s2 aired, so regardless of fan reaction, it was going to happen. people tend to give loud parts of fanbases more power than they actually have as they can influence other fans, but they can’t influence the writers no matter how hard they think they’re trying.

people who now think they can share their hot ass, messy takes cause they’re upset that shiro doesn’t want his dick in some dry ass pussy–they can stay mad and die mad about it, it isn’t gonna change the fact that you thinking a character being gay, not bi, not pan, but only attracted to men, is ruining your het fantasies and het ships is homophobic as fuck and no amount of words in an essay is gonna justify you feeling like that is valid.

i will say the staff has always wanted people to feel represented so they made a choice to let people feel how they want about him, but in canon, by the writers themselves, shiro is a gay man. it doesn’t matter how you frame it, none of the, “but the writers said he could be–” no, you’re actively taking away a gay character and taking the rep away from them. just cause you desire rep doesn’t allow or justify you to take it from someone else and repackage it for your own. i don’t care if you think you’re okay when you say he could be bi or pan–you’re wrong and i will not hear your excuses on it. as a pan person myself, i recognize that pansexuality deserves and needs rep, but i’m not about to steal it from another marginalized group in the lgbt+ community for my own. it’s a dick move and y’all know it.

but also, it would be a good idea to drop that link for me cause it seems as though people are clinging to that one interview despite a lot of interviews coming out (ha) that explicitly states shiro is a gay man. it’s time to let it go, there is nothing you can do to change it and you prioritizing your hurt feelings and your ruined fantasies over actual positive rep for a marginalized group, you really need to rethink your priorities.

but yeah, a link to that video would be really good.

#askbox for ts #vld spoilers #homophobia cw #i've seen some shippers try really hard to justify keeping him paired with women #and some het women try to justify why they're hurt over shiro being gay #go somewhere else with that garbage #Anonymous

23 notes · View notes

dent-de-leon · 7 years

Note

Wait, i just... I need to ask you 'cause i'm really confused. You think sheith will be canon? Please don't take it as an attack, you can of course ship it in fanon but i really don't see how it could ever happen in canon? It's been mentioned multiple times that Shiro is a mentor/brother figure to Keith (and even said by Keith in the show) and hinted that there's this big age gap, and we actually saw Keith in his student uniform while Shiro's wearing his teacher one in the flashback so?? pls tell

Alright, so–the fact of the matter is, I just don’t see how Shiro or Keith could end up with anyone besides each other in canon. All of their major character development coincides with one another, they’re each integral to each other’s story arcs. They care for one another first and foremost, are closer to each other than anyone else. Keith in canon has this desperate desire to see Shiro–in his trial, Kolivan says as much. Keith’s constant fear of losing Shiro and this sense of longing for him–you don’t see that in a platonic, brotherly relationship. Keith’s fear of Shiro walking away and abandoning him is far more characteristic of unrequited love.

Shiro and Keith’s dynamic is built up like a romantic relationship rather than a brotherly one. It’s written with clear parallels to zaggar,

and the dynamic is noticeably different from Matt and Pidge–two actual sibling characters. This isn’t an accident, it’s very much apart of the narrative. Compare the way Matt looks at Pidge to how Shiro looks at Keith. There’s an obvious difference:

Keith’s overarching quest to save Shiro “as many times as it takes,” is also incredibly romantic. The way Keith mourned Shiro like his grief was the only pain that mattered, like no one else could’ve possibly cared about Shiro the way he did, like he’ll keep carrying a torch even when everyone tells him Shiro would want him to move on, that reads far more like someone grieving a lost lover than a brother. And you could see it in how differently Pidge reacts to losing Matt.

There’s also the fact that Shiro always gets these very personal, tender goodbyes with Keith, something you’d expect from a love interest. Not to mention how Shiro is the only one Keith will prioritize over the mission. And even Shiro and Keith’s first scene would’ve established them as clear love interests if Shiro were a girl. The longing gazes Shiro and Keith share certainly aren’t brotherly either. And so many sheith scenes are very purposefully given a mood, framing, and intimacy of romance. Consider how Keith reunites with Shiro in the first episode compared to him seeing the other paladins. The closeups, softness, and tender way Keith reaches out to turn Shiro’s head closer. Or how they both hug after the BOM like they’re the only two people in the world, with Allura staring on and then quickly turning away guiltily–as if she’s intruding on something very private and intimate.

Or how the reunion between Keith and Kuron was exclusively for them and no one else. No team, no loud excitement or group celebration. Just two people longing gazing out at one another as they slowly drifted into each other’s orbit. Or look at any scene where Shiro and Keith are having a tender heart to heart. They’re usually either under a sunset or lowlight. The bedroom scene is especially telling, particularly when you compare it to Keith’s talk with Lance afterwards.

One shows Keith and Shiro in the dark and vulnerable, there’s a heavy atmosphere and gravity to the scene that you didn’t get with the lightheartedness from Lance. The way Keith and Shiro are so close yet so far, closer to one another than they’ve ever been with anyone else, but still backing away and holding their distance–that’s not brotherly. It seems more like two people who are trying to suppress their feelings and are afraid to make that breach. And there’s always that sense of gravity that draws them together anyway

There is the “Shiro, you’re like a brother to me,” line. But curiously, I’ve never seen anyone say kl/ance was impossible because Hunk throws his arms around Keith and Lance and says, “We’re brothers.” I’ve never seen people say ka/llura or all/urance or sha/llura is impossible because Allura says “I’ve grown to consider you and the paladins my new family.”

I’ve never seen people say you couldn’t ship Keith with anyone on Team Voltron because, prior to the brother BOM line, holo Shiro says, “We’re all the family you need.” We as in, everyone on team Voltron is seen as Keith’s found family. Keith singling out Shiro with his brother line response is interesting though, because–yes, he does see all of Team Voltron as family.

But he only focuses on his bond with Shiro, because it runs much deeper than what he feels for everyone else. Focusing on one line out of context as if Keith and Shiro is the only instance of found family is really transparent to me. If you’re going to discount sheith for that, every other ship between Team Voltron is out too. All of them.

And as a bi guy, I’ll tell you that I’ve pulled the “you’re like a brother/sister to me” card before because I was scared of admitting my feelings for someone and it was a way to backpedal out of the situation without worrying that the other person would leave me for it. And we do know Keith’s worst fear is feelings, know that Josh said “[Keith’s] constantly scared he’s gonna say or do something wrong and he’s gonna lose Shiro.” It makes sense for Keith to hide his feelings. Plenty of people who’ve felt romantic attraction have done something similar. Also–Harry and Ginny, Ed and Winry, Aang and Katara–why is it that thinking of someone as just being like a brother or sister and then having it evolve into something more is seen as a natural progression if you’re straight, but somehow doesn’t apply if you’re gay?

We already know that age isn’t a problem in canon because Matt flirted with Allura. He did that. That was fine. Allura has been said to be about the same age as Keith (who started at 18 and now is either 19 or turning 19) and we know Matt is the same age as Shiro. They were in the same class, and they graduated together. One wears the cadet uniform though and one wears an officer uniform. This is because, despite age, they have different ranks. Shiro has never been referred to as a teacher and has only been acknowledged as a past student at the garrison by staff. And we also know that Shiro graduated only a few years prior to Kerberos. You also don’t go up to your teacher and say you think of them as a brother. That’s not how it works and they’re not student and teacher. And if Shiro mentored Keith a bit in piloting, I don’t see a problem. Katara mentored Aang in water bending, but they still got married.

Staff have repeatedly supported Shiro and Keith in a romantic context, and have done so since the very beginning. To the point where Shiro’s VA came up with the ship name for it and one of the episode Directors drew fanart of it. Doesn’t sound to me like they were trying to push the whole “brotherly” idea very much.

And we’ve been told that the show runners are fighting for lgbt representation, and that it’s something they’ve been working towards since the very beginning, that the start of that has been there since the first season:

Lauren (after being asked about the lgbt rep in korrasami and whether Voltron would ever “take that step”): “We have those first 13 episodes and if we ever went beyond that, we would like to push the envelope.” (source here)

Will we be seeing any lgbt representation?

Lauren: “It’s super important to us.”

Joaquim: “Just know that from our prospective, we’re fighting to create as open and broad a spectrum of characters as we can.”

Lauren: “We can’t give you any definite answers, but just know that–”

Joaquim: “We’re fighting for as broad and open representation as we can.”

The only possible relationship I can think of that could’ve grown between two characters since season 1, that the writers have been steadily growing and still supporting, that has even a fraction of a chance of happening and would be worth fighting for in how prominent and well written it would be–is sheith. I know people like kl/ance too, but the writers have already said point black it isn’t happening and have only used female pronounce to describe Lance’s future love interest:

Interviewer: “I feel like there was a little tease? It seems shippers want to ship Lance and Keith together, so are there gonna be any hints of that at all? Or is it just more like–okay, they’re friends, they’re starting to become friends.”

Lauren: “I think we had a very natural arc in mind for those two. Which is, they start out at odds, but then they grow to kind of respect each other. And if that leads into people being like–they’re spending time together! Then that’s a ‘thing,’ but…We’re not trying to cater to or bait anyone into anything, we’re just trying to do what’s right for the story.”

Joaquim: “We also try not to be overtly affected by what popular opinion might be.”

Lauren: “And we’re working in animation. Our schedule is so far in advance for that–even if people shipped Keith and Lance, we couldn’t go back and just change the story–to be like and now they’re in love!”

Joaquim: “There’s just no way. We’re already years past that storyline, you know?” (source)

Interviewer: What would Lance look for in a future Mr. or Mrs. Blue Lion? I’m gonna guess she meant Red Lion now. I think she’s trying to fill out her space Tindr profile. But yea, what is Lance’s–And I like this, because Lance is kind of all over the place. He hits on anything that moves and is pretty, which all the aliens are pretty. But what would he look for, really, in a partner or a soulmate?

Lauren: I don’t know if Lance knows what he needs. I know what he might look for, but what he might look for is not necessarily what he needs. I think he needs someone who is self-assured and knows herself, so that he can kind of become that same person and know himself. (source)

So if there’s going to be any lgbt relationship, I’m certain it’s sheith. Recently, Lauren has also talked about fans pointing out the sheith cameo at the garrison, and excitedly said, “I put that shit in there!” And added that, “Shiro was still his guiding light. It was good.” I honestly think part of why she got so enthusiastic over it was because they’re coming closer and closer to revealing a relationship they’ve worked very long on and fought hard for and have kept under wraps. This was also teased when Jeremy said, “Hey, backstory guys. There’s more of it.” And Joaquim added, “It exists!” So there is a big story there, and we’re definitely getting it. (source)

Unlike Matt and Pidge, any inkling of Shiro and Keith’s backstory prekerberos is something the narrative’s always very secretive about it. Why keep that hidden unless it was going to reveal something monumental about their relationship? Like say, Keith harboring feelings for Shiro? Even just throwing in this little cameo like that, people might say it’s nothing. But we saw a similar background cameo with Zarkon and Honerva in the Black Lion’s flashback–and that leads to a whole love story. It honestly makes sense to me if they were planning something similar with Shiro and Keith.

#voltron spoilers #voltron #sheith #shiro #keith

2K notes · View notes

alastheatlas · 6 years

Text

Why Klance/Laith Will Probably Go Down - Masterlist

I know how season 7 broke many of us. We had a lot of expectations and this season, while beautiful and otherwise good, certainly failed at some points.

However it isn’t the end yet. Hopefully season 8 will resolve at least some of our disappointments. But when it comes to klance/laith, I’m pretty sure we’re going to see something happen. Nothing has to happen however. But I’m just saying, based on all of the things listed, it just simply makes sense that it would.

This is just a show so whatever happens happens. But I'm just saying I'll have faith in laith until if the very last second of the show tells us any different. And here’s why.

Are you ready? [CONTAINS SEASON 7 SPOILERS!!]

-----------------------------------------------------

but first some lecturing lololol

WHATEVER HAPPENS AND WHICHEVER SHIP BLOWS OUT THE BIG CANON IN THE END IS FINE. IT'S JUST A SHOW. A SHOW THAT DOESN'T EVEN REVOLVE AROUND ROMANCE. If you can't handle that then you can go bite ass. Oh and also, Don’t spread around hate or threats or any shit like that. You should know better. Just enjoy the show as it is. And yes, this applies to if your ship becomes canon and if it doesn’t. Spreading hate and threats are never okay. Accept whatever the outcome of the show will be, and let people ship what they want. This isn’t your story and you shouldn’t become sour just because it doesn’t go the way you want it to go, and if it does go the way you want it to go, don’t rub it in the faces of those who wanted something different.

Just be mature and decent guys, it really ain’t that hard.

-----------------------------------------------------

ANYWAY here's my half-assed list of why I believe klance/laith will be endgame by the end of the series:

[I REPEAT THIS CONTAINS SOME S7 SPOILERS]

Let’s begin with some random stuff:

Lance’s one-sided rivalry with Keith seems to... have something a little extra about it.

The blue and the red star in the astral plane?? Do they hold a deeper meaning??

The bonding moment. It could be seen as platonic, but... The colours and the lightning y'all... Interesting choice. (Also... that a//urance parallel in season 6... Coincidence I think the heck not, purposeful I think the heck yes)

Keith being seemingly really impatient for Lance to come out of the healing pod after the bonding moment, and then appearing to actually sulk for having to wait just a small moment.

In one of the comic books Keith says that he’ll be training and suggests that maybe Lance should too, maybe or maybe not wanting to hang out with Lance and trying to create an opportunity, and then seems to become upset/disappointed when Lance rejects the idea.

Lance talking to the mice about his crush on Allura could honestly pass as him talking about Keith as well.

Honestly though was Lance flirting/trying to impress Keith as pointed out here x?

They really pulled the stuck in the elevator trope lmao.

This doesn’t actually have to do with anything but I still find it a funny parallel with Lance rejecting Keith by denying the bonding moment and Keith rejecting Lance and denying him a proper greeting and hug after returning. Are they even now? fuhidsdfu top 10 anime betrayals

The Feud episode (here are the s7 spoilers!!)

Lance chose Keith (read more here x). Look, listen. This was pretty gay. To put it briefly, Lance’s reasoning was kinda weak and he could’ve honestly as well have chosen Allura here. But... he didn’t. And then he seriously says that Keith is the future which is like honest foreshadowing (especially considering how unnecessary it was for him to say that part, at the very least in that way). And then to deliver the final blow he drops that soft smile (a la bonding moment) on us. I don’t care what happens in season 8, this moment was gay af. If I’m stretching a little bit this scene could be viewed a little bit like Lance choosing between Keith and Allura (looking to the side and then the other, pondering, choosing Keith).

Keith chose Lance (same read more link x). Again to put it briefly. We know Keith seems kinda grumpy here. You know what we also know? Keith doesn’t dislike Lance, and he cares about the fate of the universe, therefore invalidating his answer. His body language and expression alone said it all; he closed himself off. He wasn’t comfortable sharing the real reason why he chose Lance. Keith no doubt knows what Lance is capable of. He trusts Lance. Keith chose Lance for a reason (or several reasons), and him ‘not wanting to be stuck for eternity with him’ is definitely not the reason why Keith voted for Lance to escape. Worthy mention of Keith being the quickest here to choose and to finish.

Bii. Boh. Bi. Y’all. This shit. Call it a funny coincidence but the answer was “bi” and the Bii-Boh-Bi kept gesturing towards Lance basically during the entire thing. Call it a stretch if you want, but I have no regrets reaching for this cup. And call it a crack theory at this point but Bob tells the Bii-Boh-Bi “Maybe you could help this dum-dum out”, so this drink tastes like whatever-this-episode-even-was wanted to give Lance a shake. The name game wasn’t even valid. You can be bad at names and bad at remembering faces and still be incredibly smart. None of the games showed Lance actually being unintelligent. And Lance actually did very well in the last game, and I can tell you that game was confusing af so I’m impressed. With this in mind my arm has personally elongated so far that maybe Bob calling Lance ‘dumb’ here wasn’t a jab at his intelligence. Ok hi my ankle is broken but it was worth it.

Interesting scenery colours and rainbows:

There are several cases of these, but they’re mostly subtle. I’ll leave some examples.

That one episode in season one (is it 06? or 07? you know the one) that is literally the bi flag. We have a lot of Lance in this ep.

In this ep we are also accompanied by at least two rainbows, one when Lance and Nyma fly across the water and another at the end when Keith teases Lance. (Honorable mention of Keith arguably checking Rolo out in this episode lol, we see u Keith x)

That episode when Lotor plays around with the paladins on that planet with the explosive gas, and when the team has split and Keith nears Lance with his lion and no kidding that's the bi flag as a background right there (upside down).

The very obvious, big ass, very not subtle rainbow that's seriously plastered on Keith in the season 7 trailer.

Random rainbow over Keith here as well

The scene where the paladins are in some galra place or something and Lance is sharpshooting and looking down at the others. Background + Lance’s suit + his gun = bi flag colours.

Funnily enough in this scene when Keith shows up and starts fighting the galra robots (or whatever those things are) and Lance goes ‘I had that guy!’ he looks wayy too long at Keith. Like. Way too long.

Ogling/gloating and jealousy?:

“I’d recognize that mullet anywhere” I’m sorry but if that doesn’t sound like someone has been ogling then I don’t know what.

Again I’m sorry but Lance’s reaction to Keith when he returned wasn’t of the straightest caliber.

Still, when Lance keeps looking at Keith fighting for several solid seconds when he’s supposed to be shooting down galra robots. Parallels a//urance in a way a little bit too when Lance looks at Allura fighting and goes ‘that was awesome!’

But Keith isn’t all that better, apparently

Keith. Out of all people. Stops mid-battle to smile at Lance when Lance shoots away a knife heading towards Keith. Not noticing Axca coming up behind him and then almost getting his ass kicked by Ezor.

After the bonding moment Keith arguably seems like he's jealous when Lance starts flirting.

(Here’s some more hehe x)

How Lance being jealous when Keith is involved could actually be interpreted as ambiguous. It is never actually clarified who he’s jealous over. why not both

Really though the "Jealousy, thy name is Keith" from the comic could possibly be more true than it lets on (though not as you think, Lance).

Honestly I’ll never get over these danking looks:

Lance you’re excused but Keith?? What?? Is that face?? The boy flirted with a girl and ran off and got his lion stolen and you had to get it back for him and you make THIS face?? (Also I think this is the same face 80′s voltron Keith did at Allura at one point?)

Lance you’re no longer excused. He seriously looks like he's daydreaming of prince charming coming and sweeping him off his feet. (Also remember the face he made when talking about Mrs. Blue Lion x?)

KEITH. HONESTLY. WHAT.

Legit there are no excuses for any of these expressions.

Now for some parallels, some weaker some stronger:

[x] (Krolia/Texas and l0tura parallels, with a dash of Zarkon/Honerva)

[x] (a//urance and l0tura parallels)

[x] (s7 spoiler!), Might and might not be a reach but a//urance parallel (same energy lol))

[x] This entire scene (they make a great/good team). Let’s not forget the little hand glasp Lance does.

[x] (tlok parallel)

[x] (atla parallel)

[x] (atla and tlok parallel) Insert Lance in this context lol

[x] (tlok parallel)

[x] (a//urance parallel)

There are so many parallels tbh I can’t

Allura honestly parallels Keith so much and she LITERALLY plays Keith in the coalition shows

[x] Lance talking about Mrs. Blue Lion vs talking about Keith

[x] (l0tura parallel)

A//lurance and klance/laith paralleling with how both Keith and Allura lectures Lance about the coalition shows not being about the show but about the people

Some romantic mood parallels:

The previous blue paladin with a (blushing) male galra

Now lets move on to some interesting stuff from interviews and the cast and producers (no sources or direct quotes because I’M LAZY:

We all know about the art Lauren drew with Lance and Shiro holding up the lgbt sign and the theory that goes with it.

Bex pretty much confirming that there'll be lgbtq rep in voltron through a sinister laugh in that vid (we know now this to be true bc of Shiro, but there might be more to come?.. or unfold hehe if you catch my drift). Voltron having lgbtq rep has also been brought up before at interviews. I THINK there’s been hinted that there’ll be a little something something between two characters? Not sure tho

Bex also either confirming or shooting down klance/laith during another vid BUT most probably confirming. You know that vid. Reasons to believe: 1. It was dubious, since we don't know which of the questions she shaked her head to. 2. High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco was playing in the background. 3. I don't think she would actually openly deny a ship when she could have just ignored the question, much less making it so dubious.

Kimberly: "Friendship" (may or may not actually imply something within the future of the show, or if it just was @ the thorsty klancers)

We know that Lance will have an endgame (and Keith happens to check all the points of what’s been said about that endgame)

Lance will end up somewhere different than he thought at the start (he wanted Allura at the start, and Keith certainly would be someone different than he'd thought).

What he wants isn't necessarily what he needs(/gets?? I don't remember lol) (and we know he wanted Allura. plus the lion exchange becomes a pretty interesting topic here, as further talked about here x).

What he needs/wants is someone who’s self-assured and who knows who they are (I think it was) and hey look Keith is back! (who just happens to fit these criterias more than ever).

The plain fact of how Keith and Lance's arcs actually just seem to intertwine so well.

Also adding that klance/laith interview lol. With the "natural progression" thing and that. And also when Lauren said the only incompatible thing about Lance and Keith is the shipname 'klance'.

Lance’s milkshake bringing everybody to the yard.

It’s been said that Lance remembers the bonding moment but wasn’t ‘emotionally ready’ for it, whatever that could possibly mean 👀

And apparently there’s more story to unfold...

Which may or may not be related but sure makes this a hella lot more interesting (I find this cup worth reaching for ok)

(lmao if you seriously think the folding thing was an accident)

I’m not saying that the pic necessarily implies klance/laith but it certainly implies something with them. Which will be. Interesting.

Some interesting theories:

[x] Regarding the “Red lion” and the “Blue lion”

[x] Keith’s vlog and some interesting tagging

[x] Some possible, interesting foreshadowing?

Highkey Lowkey scared this is actually foreshadowing (from a comic, Keith is the one saying ‘isn’t that love’, and Lance is the other one)

Also some reaches because we love long arms:

[x] Rivals to friends to lovers foreshadowing lol

[x] Interesting... Funny coincidence?

[x] I know I know but honestly you can’t deny his face here

[x] I’ll also add this while I’m at it because I can

(s7 spoiler ahead) Look this is just an interesting concept ok, but in episode 2 in s7 when they’re splitting up in that tunnel, Allura goes one way and Keith goes the other. We see Lance going last, slowing up and almost seeming to take a little time to choose, before going the way Keith went.

So uhh yeah here’s my grand, half-assed take on it. Season 7 can come bite my ass if it doesn’t happen, I’ll be on the lookout until the very last episode of season 8. Klance/laith may or may not happen. But I strongly believe it will and honestly that’s just what makes the most sense to me.

But yeah reminder that ships doesn’t have to be canon for you to ship them, and if your ship becomes canon you should not harass others about it and you shouldn’t harass others if your ship doesn’t become canon either. All in all NO HARASSING. NO HATE. NO SHADE. JUST. BE DECENT. This includes to the creators and other people in the fandom both.

Always be prepared for voltron to sock you in the stomach. Season 7 might very well do so. Season 8 might very well do so. Be prepared for your expectations and hopes and wishes to go completely out the window. But no matter how it goes, let’s just sit back and relax and enjoy the show as much as we can beyond our internal screaming.

In the end this is an intriguing story with aliens about family and being a team and it’s beautiful. So let’s just enjoy it, no matter what.

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL DAY

2 notes · View notes

patronstofswitchbladefights · 6 years

Text

I don’t normally make original text posts but I keep seeing people say things like “if you actually cared about lgbt representation and not just your ship you wouldn’t care who the rep is.” And while I do whole heartedly agree with that notion I also have to say, why does there always have to be only one (1) character to represent lgbt people?

The bait argument aside, because a lot of people have some pretty strong opinions on that, I think it’s just unrealistic to get your one token gay and check off your lgbt representation box and call it quits. Simply because as a queer person myself I don’t....just hang out with a bunch of cishets...? Like in my experience people on the lgbt spectrum tend to flock to each other. I don’t think I know a single lgbt person who has exclusively cisgender heterosexual friends. I know I certainly don’t, I mean don’t get me wrong, I do have cishet friends but I can count them on one hand, where as my lgbt buddies gets into the double digits.

I mean your representation doesn’t always have to be your one gay character and that’s it. Creators can do more if they really want to, I mean just look at Steven Universe.

I understand where a lot of people are upset over Voltron for certain reasons. I myself am a tad perturbed over the way they handled Shiro. I love that he’s gay. I was so excited when I found out and never had I been more over joyed that one of my favorite characters in a show is lgbt. But damn, is he ever the tragic gay. They put this poor man through the ringer and he’s suffered more than most any other character in the series....I can understand why some people would be upset over that. Shiro being gay isn’t an issue but I think the way they handled him in a lot of ways was.

I’m nervous for these new seasons just because I am tired of seeing Shiro suffer and I want this man to be happy with the man he loves. I want to see him talk about his old relationship with Adam, maybe get to open up about his ptsd and the disease he had before all that shit happened to him. This dude has been a rock for every other character in the show and I’d really would just love to see him get something in return. He’s so unbelievably strong, stable, and brave and after all he’s endured I think he deserves to go home to a man who’s going to welcome him back with open arms and work with him to heal together.

It’s common for creators to put their lgbt character through hell just not to get a happy ending at the end of it all. Lgbt viewers don’t want to see that, it’s heartbreaking for us and it’s also just bad writing imho. No one wants to see someone suffer throughout a series just to be alone/continue to suffer in the end.

I can understand where lgbt viewers are upset over Klance not being canon because when you have a tragic gay character, having more representation tends to soften that blow. It makes it so the only lgbt rep isn’t a giant trope that we’re use to seeing where the lgbt character gets tortured/murdered/abused/feelings not reciprocated/etc you name it. I’ll cite Steven Universe again with Pearl and Garnet/Ruby & Sapphire. Pearl throughout the entire series has a very sad back story, (granted I am very happy with how she’s healed in the more recent episodes and she’s finding her happiness and self worth. On top of that I don’t think she’s gone through the same kind of mental, physical, and emotional trauma that Shiro has been subjected to.) but while Garnet exists and has an extremely healthy and stable relationship, lgbt viewers feel like more of our experiences are being played out. We feel like we have more positivity to balance out the nitty gritty character that’s been through hell and back. I think that having a bisexual Lance arc and gay Keith coming to terms with their attraction to another and forming a relationship would help to balance the nitty gritty dark story out. Not to mention I think the more lgbt representation the better (I also think it’d be amazing if they explored the sexualities and gender of other main characters too). That will always be my opinion on any form of media though.

I get that there are ship wars and all that nonsense, but just as an lgbt viewer and creator myself I always tend to think creators should be doing more. I don’t think it’s really super groundbreaking to make your one token gay character and call it quits. I could go on about other issues with this, (like how Shiro being gay didn’t necessarily have to be a big secret up until the second to last season and Adam could have been talked about before hand) but I won’t cause this post is already long and it’s really just me expressing my thoughts on the matter.

I’ll end it with saying I by no means think any of the creators owe us anything more, I’m just peacefully stating my thoughts and opinions on the matter as an lgbt viewer and fan of the show. I think it’s important to still be critical of these kinds of things, especially when you’re an lgbt fan of something, because representation is important and as lgbt viewers we sort of have to be critical of the media we take in.

#voltron #vld #adashi #klance #shadam #voltron: legendary defender

1 note · View note